Kim’s Comments (group member since Nov 20, 2020)

Kim’s comments from the Reading with Style group.

20.7 Christie In honor of Agatha Christie, whose writing career spanned more than 50 years, read any book - fiction or nonfiction - whose events cover more than 50 years.

Mrs. Everything by Jennifer Weiner

This book starts in the 1950s, when Bethie and Josette (Jo) were children, and ends in 2015, after Jo's death. It is historical fiction, covering many of the events that shaped the lives of these two sisters, with the focus on how life has changed (or not changed) for women over the course of the book.

I'm on the fence about this book. I didn't hate it, but at times I had to force myself to go on. Other times, the pages turned themselves. I think my biggest complaint was that it tried too hard to be too many things, and cover too many issues.

+20 Task
+10 Review
Task Total 30
Season Total 90

20.2.; 20.7; 20.10

20.2 War Read any book that has an MPG of War and Historical Fiction. This has both MPGs.

Canary Girls by Jennifer Chiaverini

I've read this author from the time she was writing the Elm Creek Quilters series, before she branched out to more general Historical Fiction. One thing you can count on from her books is that they will feature strong women characters, who care about each other, and often face down adversity together.

This book is set during World War I, and takes place in England. The title refers to the women who worked in munitions plants directly handling the TNT that went into bombs. The exposure to this chemical turned their skin and eyes yellow, their hair orange. It caused respiratory problems, but fortunately the symptoms receded when the exposure was ended. That is not to say that deaths did not result, but munitions work was dangerous in and of itself, with factory explosions happening more than the government wanted to tell.

This was an interesting book, but a slog at times.

+20 Task
+10 Review
Task Total 30
Season Total 60

20.2.; 20.10

20.10 Letters

A Parchment of Leaves by Silas House

This was a new author to me, but I will look for more of his books, as I truly enjoyed this story of a Cherokee woman who marries a white man, and leaves her beloved family behind. She makes a life for herself on the mountain, but never forgets her roots. When a developer forces her family off their land, they move move to Georgia where Vine writes to her mother.

+20 Task
+10 Review
Task Total 30
Season Total 30

We'll be taking off to spend the holiday with my son and his family in Hawai'i in the next few days, so I wanted to wish everyone a great Thanksgiving and end of challenge. It's been a lot of fun, and I'll see you in the Winter.

20.2 King

Genealogy 101: Never Assume Murder. Carol Grieshop

3.5 rounded to 4 stars - I loved the subject matter - a genealogist who walks you through the research process while telling a good tale. Even more, I loved the fact that it was based in nearby Rugby, TN, a Victorian utopian village about an hour north of my home. We visited last year and learned some of the history of the village, and the book does a wonderful job of bringing it to life.
This was obviously the author's debut novel, and self-published. There were a few errors that a good editor would have caught (punctuation, one run-on sentence), and a little too much food/clothing descriptions, but overall a nice book that I enjoyed reading and shared with my sister afterwards. Also, for me, there's the bonus that this is a very local (she lives in my town!) author.

Task Total: 20
Review: 10
Combo: 20 ( 20.10 - 2022, 20.8 - serves soup to company, 20.9, 10.9 - set in TN )
Total: 50
Season Total: 1705

10.1; 10.2(x2); 10.3; 10.4; 10.5; 10.6; 10.7; 10.8; 10.9;10.10
15.1; 15.2; 15.3; 15.4; 15.5; 15.6; 15.7; 15.8; 15.9; 15.10; 15.11
20.1(x3); 20.2(x2); 20.3; 20.4; 20.5; 20.6; 20.7; 20.8; 20.9(x2); 20.10(x2);

10.2 Octoberfest

Games of the Heart. Kristen Ashley

Maybe this book was better than I gave it credit for, being that it was not my genre at all. Plot-wise, two people who knew each other from high school, one who had a secret crush on the other, grow up, have a separate life from each other, and eventually come together because of a tragedy. If it was 50% shorter, it would have been 100% better, but too much of the book had little to do with plot and more to do with gratuitous sex.

Task Total: 10 - author born in Gary, Indiana
Review: 10
Combo: 15 (10.3, 10.4, 10.5 - Purple Heart)
Jumbo: 5 (595 pages)
Total: 50
Season Total: 1655

10.1; 10.2(x2); 10.3; 10.4; 10.5; 10.6; 10.7; 10.8; 10.9;10.10
15.1; 15.2; 15.3; 15.4; 15.5; 15.6; 15.7; 15.8; 15.9; 15.10; 15.11
20.1(x3); 20.2; 20.3; 20.4; 20.5; 20.6; 20.7; 20.8; 20.9(x2); 20.10(x2);

Q-R: Queen Noor
O-E: Olivie Blake
L-Z: Leslie Budewitz

Would Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life by Queen Noor work for Q - R?

20.10 Birthday (Elizabeth (Alaska)'s Task)

The Plot and the Pendulum. Jenn McKinlay

This cozy mystery series just keeps getting better and better. Lindsay, the library director is now married to Sully, the sea captain, and they are obviously best friends as well as lovers. Lindsay's library has been gifted a collection of books, some rare and valuable, that seem to be tied to a 30 year old missing person case. Of course, the missing person "shows" up while they are there, and Lindsay and company can't resist investigating... As with all books in this series, there is a subplot of the Crafternooners, where they meet once a week to discuss a book, do a craft and share food and fun, recipes and craft instructions included.

Task Total: 20 - published in 2022
Review: 10
Combo: 35 (10.2 - US, 10.3, 10.4, 10.8 - spooky house, locked room; 10.9 - New England, 20.8 - chowder, 20.9)
Total: 65
Season Total: 1605

10.1; 10.2; 10.3; 10.4; 10.5; 10.6; 10.7; 10.8; 10.9;10.10
15.1; 15.2; 15.3; 15.4; 15.5; 15.6; 15.7; 15.8; 15.9; 15.10; 15.11
20.1(x3); 20.2; 20.3; 20.4; 20.5; 20.6; 20.7; 20.8; 20.9(x2); 20.10(x2);

20.9 ABCs (Kate S's Task)

Sing, Unburied, Sing. Jesmyn Ward

Such a powerful book, the ending gave me chills. Jojo and his toddler sister, Kayla, live with their grandparents, Mam and Pop, and the occasional presence of their drug-addicted mother, Leonie, on a farm on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. Their father, a white man named Michael, is just being released from Parchman prison, a place that is central to the story. Parchman is a place of evil, where men and women are treated less well than animals, burned alive for escaping or set on by dogs to be torn apart. Pop did a stint there as a young man, and the ghosts follow him still.
This book won many awards, most noticably: National Book Award for Fiction (2017), Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Fiction (2018), PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction Nominee (2018), Los Angeles Times Book Prize Nominee for Fiction (2017), Dayton Literary Peace Prize Nominee for Fiction (2018), National Book Critics Circle Award Nominee for Fiction (2017), Hurston/Wright Legacy Award Nominee for Fiction (2018), Women's Prize for Fiction Nominee (2018), Andrew Carnegie Medal Nominee for Fiction (2018), Kirkus Prize Nominee for Fiction (2017), and several others. It is easy to see why, even if it isn't an easy book to read.

Task Total: 20
Review: 10
Combo: 20 (10.2 - US, 10.3, 10.4, 20.1)
Total: 50
Season Total: 1540

10.1; 10.2; 10.3; 10.4; 10.5; 10.6; 10.7; 10.8; 10.9;10.10
15.1; 15.2; 15.3; 15.4; 15.5; 15.6; 15.7; 15.8; 15.9; 15.10; 15.11
20.1(x3); 20.2; 20.3; 20.4; 20.5; 20.6; 20.7; 20.8; 20.9(x2); 20.10;

20.1 Jemisin

Becoming. Michelle Obama

I had mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, it was interesting to hear about her family and the sacrifices her parents made. The part of the book that focused on family was the most interesting to me. The political part, though, exemplified everything I hate about politics, that is, one party making out the other to universally be the problem.


Task Total: 20
Review: 10
Combo: 15 (10.2 - US, 10.9 - Chicago/Washington,DC, 20.9)
Total: 45
Season Total: 1490

10.1; 10.2; 10.3; 10.4; 10.5; 10.6; 10.7; 10.8; 10.9;10.10
15.1; 15.2; 15.3; 15.4; 15.5; 15.6; 15.7; 15.8; 15.9; 15.10; 15.11
20.1(x3); 20.2; 20.3; 20.4; 20.5; 20.6; 20.7; 20.8; 20.9; 20.10;

15.1 (x2) EotPR

S is for Silence. Sue Grafton

Cartier Diamond Dagger (Crime novelists) 2008 – Sue Grafton


Task Total: 15
Total: 15
Season Total: 1445

10.1; 10.2; 10.3; 10.4; 10.5; 10.6; 10.7; 10.8; 10.9;10.10
15.1; 15.2; 15.3; 15.4; 15.5; 15.6; 15.7; 15.8; 15.9; 15.10; 15.11
20.1(x2); 20.2; 20.3; 20.4; 20.5; 20.6; 20.7; 20.8; 20.9; 20.10;

I've already completed EotPR once, but just read a book by Sue Grafton, which qualifies for a prize I didn't use. Do I number it 15.11?

For those of you who finish the challenge early, do you continue to add books you read to raise your score and up your chances of getting a task for the next challenge?

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Post 565 Kim wrote: "

Mega Finish"

Congratulations! Well done!"
Thanks, Elizabeth. I have to say that I got a kick out of the fact that the hardest task for me was the one I created! This is nice because we are off to Hawai'i before the challenge ends to see family for the holiday. Now I won't have to worry about trying to record things on my phone.

15.10 EotPR

How Much of These Hills Is Gold. C Pam Zhang
California Book Award - First Fiction Gold (2020)

Task Total: 15
All awards are within a 10-year period of your choice: 50 (2016-2021)
Completing 10 Awards for EoTP Redux: 100
Mega Finish: 200
Total: 365
Season Total: 1430

10.1; 10.2; 10.3; 10.4; 10.5; 10.6; 10.7; 10.8; 10.9;10.10
15.1; 15.2; 15.3; 15.4; 15.5; 15.6; 15.7; 15.8; 15.9; 15.10
20.1(x2); 20.2; 20.3; 20.4; 20.5; 20.6; 20.7; 20.8; 20.9; 20.10;

20.4 Saramago

Alex and Eliza. Melissa de la Cruz

Book one in a trilogy about Elizabeth Schuyler and Alexander Hamilton, it takes place from 1777-1780. Eliza is the middle of three older daughters in the Schuyler family, very patriotic and supportive of the war for independence effort, and not looking to have a beau when she meets Alexander Hamilton at a ball given by her parents. Initially she wants nothing to do with him, especially since he is the messenger sent to tell her father he is being court martialed over the loss of Fort Ticonderoga. But time changes things, reveals things kept secret, and eventually the two fall in love.
My understanding is that the book was inspired by the musical Hamilton, which I have not seen, but I'm sure would be interesting.

Task Total: 20
Review: 10
Combo: 10 (10.4, 10.9)
Halfway Finish: 50
Total: 80
Season Total: 1065

10.1; 10.2; 10.3; 10.4; 10.5; 10.6; 10.7; 10.8; 10.9;10.10
15.1; 15.2; 15.3; 15.4; 15.5; 15.6; 15.7; 15.8; 15.9
20.1(x2); 20.2; 20.3; 20.4; 20.5; 20.6; 20.7; 20.8; 20.9; 20.10;

20.9 ABCs (Kate S's Task)

The Last Tribe. Brad Manuel

Written five years pre-COVID, this book imagines a world where a virus (called the rapture?) breaks out and kills billions of people. The handful of known survivors include the Dixon family, four adult brothers and most of their children. Unfortunately, they are scattered across several states, but before all communications break down, make a plan to meet up in their childhood home in Hanover, NH. The first to arrive is Greg, a 14 year old who was at prep school when the pandemic happened. Along the way he meets up with Rebecca, a 13 year old genius, who has been living alone for several months after her parents died. They make it to Hanover and figure out a place where they can survive the winter. Eventually, two of the uncles show up from Ohio, and the rest of the group after that, stopping to gather other survivors along the way.
While most post apocalyptical novels are dystopian, this read more utopian to me. The people came together, offered their many skills (vet, pilot, surgeon, religious leader and football quarterback) for the good of the tribe. Any violence takes place off screen, the government is mentioned as having done government-type bad things, and amazingly, riots and looting happened elsewhere. And there was a happily ever after ending that I won't spoil here.
Yeah, there were several plot holes, like those I just described. But, it was a book that my husband and I listened to together, looking for excuses to hear more, and having many discussions over meals about what we would do differently, or what they did that was smart. It was a long book (23 audio hours, 720 pages) which normally is too long to keep my interest, but this one did. Perhaps some of that was the narrator, Scott Brick is my favorite 21st century reader.

Task Total: 20
Review: 10
Combo: 10 (10.9- New England, 20.8 - soup was served often)
Jumbo: 10 (720 pages)
Total: 50
Season Total: 985

10.1; 10.2; 10.3; 10.4; 10.5; 10.6; 10.7; 10.8; 10.9;10.10
15.1; 15.2; 15.3; 15.4; 15.5; 15.6; 15.7; 15.8; 15.9
20.1(x2); 20.2; 20.3; 20.5; 20.6; 20.7; 20.8; 20.9; 20.10;

10.1 TBR

Frankland. James Whorton

This book has been on my TBR for a few years. The author was a colleague of mine at the college I recently retired from, and when I found out he was leading a book club discussion on this book, I knew the time to read it had finally arrived. While a good deal of my enjoyment of the book comes from that personal connection, the fact that it is set in Tennessee and mentions many places I am familiar with, certainly adds another level of enjoyment.
The plot centers around a NYer, a would be historian who heads to Tennessee to uncover a deep secret about President Andrew Johnson (a native Tennessean), and is absurd and quirky, and reminiscent of A Confederacy of Dunces.

Task Total: 10
Review: 10
Combo: 25 (10.2- US, 10.3, 10.9, 20.8, 20.10 - 2004)
Halfway Finish: 50
Total: 95
Season Total: 935

10.1; 10.2; 10.3; 10.4; 10.5; 10.6; 10.7; 10.8; 10.9;10.10
15.1; 15.2; 15.3; 15.4; 15.5; 15.6; 15.7; 15.8; 15.9
20.1(x2); 20.2; 20.3; 20.5; 20.6; 20.7; 20.8; 20.10;

10.7 Geocaching (Kim's Task)

Outdoor Kids in an Inside World: Getting Your Family Out of the House and Radically Engaged with Nature. Steven Rinella

While the book was fine, it didn't really offer anything new to me. The author talked about the importance of raising children to be active, fit and self-sufficient, by frequently doing things as a family outdoors. Mainly these things included camping, foraging for food, hunting and fishing. It was a relatively short book, so I didn't feel like a wasted a lot of time reading it, but I don't think I would recommend to anyone.

**This officially was the hardest task for me to find a book to read, Ironic, isn't it?

Task Total: 10
Review: 10
Combo: 10 (10.2 - MI, 20.10 - 2022)
Total: 30
Season Total: 845

10.2; 10.3; 10.4; 10.5; 10.6; 10.7; 10.8; 10.9;10.10
15.1; 15.2; 15.3; 15.4; 15.5; 15.6; 15.7; 15.8; 15.9
20.1(x2); 20.2; 20.3; 20.5; 20.6; 20.7; 20.8; 20.10;