Katy’s Comments (group member since Aug 04, 2010)

Katy’s comments from the Reading with Style group.

20.9 War Babies

Ripper by Isabel Allende

I’m not sure what to think about Isabel Allende’s foray into crime writing. I have enjoyed a lot of Allende’s writing over the years and I also typically enjoy crime writing, so I was eager to give book a try. I enjoyed it but also found some areas lacking, as other reviewers have noted. The characterization is excellent, and Allende captures the feel of the setting beautifully. The plot kept me interested but when I got to the end I was left with a sense of something missing in the explanation behind a lot of the actions and decisions characters made.

+20 task (Isabel Allende was born in 1942 according to this link)
+10 review

Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 325

10.1 Square Peg

A Hope in the Unseen: An American Odyssey from the Inner City to the Ivy League by Ron Suskind


This is a book that has been on my “to read” list for years but never actually made it to the pile. I’m happy I did end up reading it. The book recounts the last year of high school and first year of college of a talented student from a very troubled Washington D.C. neighborhood who is admitted to Brown University. I initially grew interested in this book because as an educator, specifically an educator in high-needs schools, I always wondered about the challenges my students faced when they left the (hopefully) safe cocoon of my classroom. Having read the book, I’m impressed that Ron Suskind manages to tell Cedric’s story in a compelling and thoughtful way, raising a number of thorny issues about education and society, without leading readers to a pre-digested conclusion.

+10 task
+10 not-a-novel (nonfiction)
+10 review

Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 295

10.4 -- 9, 10, 11

Conversion by Katherine Howe
(YA, no lexile)

Interesting book, made me think - didn't love the ending though!

+10 task

Task Total: 10
Grand Total: 265

10.8 Comfort Read

Skeletons at the Feast by Chris Bohjalian

I am always impressed by Chris Bohjalian’s range as a writer. I’ve read a few books of his now, and each one seems to have a slightly different feel to it. This one in particular was interesting – it’s set at the very end of World War 2, as the Germans are being pressed toward defeat from all sides. The book tells a few stories – a French woman in a concentration camp, a German girl evacuating from her Prussian farm, a Jewish man who escaped from a Nazi roundup and subsequently made his way through the war by playing various roles and doing whatever needs to be done. Along the way we also meet a Scottish POW, any number of deluded Germans, and various other characters both heroic and vile. The book is interesting both because it’s not a time period I’d ever thought much about, and because Bohjalian does a wonderful job creating sympathetic characters from all these flawed people.

+10 task (I previously rated Light in the Ruins 5 stars)
+5 combo (10.4 - skeletons)
+10 review

Task Total: 25
Grand Total: 255

10.10 Group Reads

Tenth of December by George Saunders

This was the first book I had read by George Saunders -- in fact, he wasn't even on my radar until this book turned up as a group read -- and it was a pleasant surprise. The reviews of the book often raved: best book of the year, amazing, wondrous, etc., and I didn't find it quite as wonderful as all that, although I enjoyed the stories quite a bit. They sort of washed over me, though, and for the most part I wasn't left thinking about them after I read them. "The Semplica Girls Diaries" was an exception -- so, so strange, but really compelling and left me turning it over and over in my mind. And "Escape from the Spiderhead", too, stuck with me. In both cases, my level of discomfort (moral, intriguing discomfort) was high and I was left wanting to know and think more. But in some of the other stories, the spare prose and strange voice left me enjoying but not mulling over the writing.

+10 task
+10 not a novel (stories)
+10 review

Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 230

20.10 Higher Education
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures by Anne Fadiman

This was a fascinating book. I had read good reviews of it before, which is why I picked it up despite not having any special interest in medicine or in Hmong culture. The book dives deeply into the case of Lia Lee, a young Hmong girl in California who develops a severe seizure disorder. With almost zero background information, I still found it engaging and thought-provoking. Some big questions raised included how can medical professionals best take patients' cultural beliefs into account in their treatment? What responsibility do they have to do so? When beliefs come into conflict, how do you decide whose beliefs win out? The only thing I didn't like as much about the book was the interspersed chapters explaining the history of the Hmong people. Although a lot of the history was helpful in understanding the main thrust of the book, the writing in these sections dragged a bit for me.

+20 task (UPenn List)
+10 combos (10.4 - 9 letter word collision, 10.5 - #16 on list)
+10 review
+10 not-a-novel

Task Total: 50
Grand Total: 200

10.5 Dr. Salk

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

This is one of those books for me that has floated around in reviews around me for years -- it's always been vaguely "on the list" but never moved high enough to beat out other options. However, on a recent work trip I met someone who recommended it, and, facing a 6 hour plane trip, downloaded it, and promptly ignored it until a colleague mentioned it, in a conversation about the recent Scottish vote. The book deals with time travel (though the actual time travel mechanics are not the focus of the book at all) to the Scottish highlands in the Jacobite time period. It's really a historical romance, which isn't what I normally tend to read, but I found it more compelling than I expected. I couldn't wait to start commuting each day so I could read more. I did wish that I knew more, or that the book gave a bit more backstory about, the Jacobite history -- I was doing a lot of side Googling.

+10 task (#58 on list)
+5 combo (10.4 - outlander)
+10 review
+5 jumbo (627 pages)

Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 150

10.3 Leif Erikson

Silence of the Grave by Arnaldur Indriðason

+10 task (shelved 63 times as Iceland)

Task Total: 10
Grand Total: 120

10.3 Leif Erikson

I read When the Devil Holds the Candle by Karin Fossum

+10 task (shelved 20 times as Norway)

Task Total: 10
Grand Total: 110

10.8 Comfort Read

Lock In by John Scalzi

Full disclosure: I just went to see John Scalzi on his book tour for this book and loved hearing him, so my good opinion of him was definitely on the upswing! However, before I saw him I had already read a good 3/4 of the book and was enjoying it, so I think it was destined for a good review in any case. This is pretty different from other Scalzi work I've read (in genre more than style) and different from a lot of science fiction I've read, since it's pretty evenly split between being a mystery and being science fiction. Rather than being a weak version of both genres, though, Lock In manages to do both well. I found the story compelling, the dialogue clever, and the world building really fascinating. Definitely recommended. Though if you plan to read it, I'd check out the free novella prequel on Tor.com before you do. Not necessarily but definitely helps.

+10 task (I previously rated Old Man's War as 5 stars)
+10 review

Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 100

10.8 Comfort Read

Destroyer Angel by Nevada Barr

I am a big fan of Nevada Barr’s Anna Pigeon series. The books are set mostly in national parks, and I enjoy the setting descriptions and details about adventures undertaken as much as the plots. That said, I’m definitely also reading these for a good mystery. Most of the books, like this one, have the challenge of a relatively remote location and limited cast of characters, meaning that Barr has to take full advantage of characters’ inner thinking. This book is particularly like that, as it features one of the most remote settings in the series. Destroyer Angel is also intriguing because Anna is separated from her friends at the very beginning of the story and spends the rest of the book tracking them. We get the story from Anna’s perspective as well as the perspectives of her captured friends, and so we get to know these other characters a bit, which is nice. The mystery stayed quite mysterious until the very end of the book – I had no clues about why the women were kidnapped or what was going to happen. Because of that, this read to me as more of an adventure book – a fascinating one – rather than a mystery novel.

+10 Task (I previously rated Blind Descent among others as 5 stars)
+5 combo (10.4 - destroyer)
+10 review

Task Total: 25
Grand Total: 80

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Katy wrote: "What do you think about What Doctors Feel: How Emotions Affect the Practice of Medicine? It is described as a doctor's memoir but she also seems to bring in other doct..."

That makes sense! I am looking at it now for Square Peg...it seems interesting. That TBR keeps growing...:)

10.2 Halloween

The Hot Zone by Richard Preston

In college, I took a class on emerging diseases. This was not an especially challenging course; it was more “Science for People Who Like to Read Rather Than Conduct Labs.” However, I learned quite a bit about disease vectors and so on (information which I now put to good use in fueling my WebMD searches!). I may have read excerpts from The Hot Zone at some point during that class, but I had forgotten the specifics. Given the recent Ebola outbreak, I was curious how my reading of the book would connect with what I was reading in the news. Of course, it’s terrifying to realize how quickly viruses can adapt, travel, jump species, and so on. But something I didn’t expect was how Preston’s writing makes the virus feel so alive. Sometimes it’s irritating – the virus isn’t REALLY demonic and evil – but at other points it becomes so clear that viruses, like other predators, like humans, are just doing what they are designed to do.

+10 task (#48 on the 50 Scariest Books of All Time list)
+5 combo (10.5 - #8 on list)
+10 review
+10 not-a-novel (nonfiction)

Task Total: 35
Grand Total: 55

What do you think about What Doctors Feel: How Emotions Affect the Practice of Medicine? It is described as a doctor's memoir but she also seems to bring in other doctors' examples too.

Also, Elizabeth, what an amazing story!

10.8 Comfort Reads

The Bones of Paris by Laurie R. King

This book is atmospheric. That word actually was running through my mind during most of my reading of the book. It’s also an engaging mystery, but King’s writing does as much to pull you into the setting of 1929 Paris as it does to advance the plot. I love a fast-paced thriller as much as the next person, but I enjoyed this book for the setting and characterization as much as for the plot. The depictions of the wild art scene at the time were fascinating and made for a dramatic backdrop to the murder mystery. I am a big fan of Laurie R. King’s other series and I’m excited to see where this one is headed.

+10 task (previously rated a number of her books 5 stars)
+10 review

Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 20

Great tasks! I'm so excited for this season.

Would American Gods work? I haven't read it, but have heard it described as based on mythology.

20.9 Father's Day

China Dolls by Lisa See

+20 task (all but the very last chapter set in 1938-48)
+15 combo (10.3 - born in 1955; 10.4 - sEE, 10.9 - published 2014)
+5 multiple

Task Total: 40
Grand Total: 485

What a great challenge this summer! Thanks for keeping this going...I know it's a ton of work.

10.2 Highly Rated

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

+10 task (rated 5 stars by Erin and others)
+5 combo (10.7 - born in July according to this link)
+5 multiple

Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 445

15.3 AtA

Ammonite by Nicola Griffith

+20 Task

Grand Total: 425