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

Deedee’s comments from the Reading with Style group.

I am reading The Princess Priscilla's Fortnight by Elizabeth von Arnim From Goodreads description: It tells the story of Priscilla, a hugely popular German princess, who grows tired of her lavish and pampered life.

She and her trusty tutor leave her court and travel to England, to live the simple life. Would this qualify for 20.6? The humor includes differences between how Princess Priscilla expects middle class life to be vs. how middle class life actually is.

I thought it might combo with #20.7 but there doesn't seem to be enough travelling to qualify. If it doesn't fit this task, I'm thinking it is a candidate for #10.1.

What was the best book you read in 2018?
Top 5 in 2018 – Here they are, in author alphabetical order:


Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden

The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty

In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History by Mitch Landrieu

Hero of the Empire: The Boer War, a Daring Escape, and the Making of Winston Churchill by Candice Millard

All Systems Red by Martha Wells

What was the worst book you read in 2018?

A Guide to the Birds of East Africa by Nicholas Drayson

Which author(s) did you fall in love with, or rediscover, in 2018?

Martha Wells -- I had read one of her books years ago and forgot about her and then I rediscovered her with All Systems Red

What are your reading plans for 2019?
Read more books 400+pages; read sequels, specifically, the sequels of The City of Brass and of All Systems Red; and, read more translated authors; plus at least one of Charles Dickens!

Which author(s) or book(s) are you most looking forward to reading in 2019?

Fire & Blood by George R.R. Martin
The Golden Tresses of the Dead by Alan Bradley (pub. January 2019)
Famous Men Who Never Lived by K Chess (pub. March 2019)

What else do you want to say about what you read in 2018?

I read more books that have been on my reading radar for a long time – including
Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen
Butchers Hill by Laura Lippman
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
A Severed Head by Iris Murdoch
All of which were 3 or 4 star reads.

I also read fewer books due to Real Life in 2018. Hopefully life will settle down some in 2019 and I'll read more.

Task 10.6 MLK

Coming of Age in Mississippi: The Classic Autobiography of a Young Black Girl in the Rural South (1968) by Anne Moody (Paperback, 424 pages) [921/Biography]

+10 Task
+10 Combo (#10.3 pub. 1968, #10.9 MA=Massachusetts)
+10 Aged (age 75+)

Task Total: 10 + 10 + 10 = 30

Grand Total: 140 + 30 = 170

Task 10.8 New Authors

Frankenstein in Baghdad (2013) by Ahmed Saadawi; translated by Jonathan Wright; (Paperback, 281 pages)
International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) (2014)

+10 Task
+05 Prizeworthy

Task Total: 10 + 05 = 15

Grand Total: 125 + 15 = 140

Also: *Man Booker International Prize shortlist 2018*
And: Science Fiction!!!! It is an example of “literary” science fiction

Task 10.4 New Year's Day
Read an author's debut novel.

An Absolutely Remarkable Thing (An Absolutely Remarkable Thing #1) (2018) by Hank Green (Goodreads Author) (Hardcover, 1st US edition, 343 pages)

+10 Task
+10 Combo (#10.2 Goodreads Author, #10.8)

Task Total: 10 + 10 = 20

Grand Total: 105 + 20 = 125

Task 10.8 New Authors

Always Look on the Bright Side of Life: A Sortabiography (2018) by Eric Idle (Hardcover, 290 pages)

+10 Task
+10 Aged (age 75+)

Task Total: 10 + 10 = 20

Grand Total: 85 + 20 = 105

Task 20.10 Over and Under
Read any book with an average rating over 3.74 AND under 1001 ratings. (3.75/1000)

Doctor Who: The Good Doctor (Doctor Who: New Series Adventures #67) (2018) by Juno Dawson (Hardcover, 230 pages)

Task Total: 20

Grand Total: 65 + 20 = 85

Task 10.8 New Authors

My Sister, the Serial Killer (2018) by Oyinkan Braithwaite

+10 Task
+05 Combo (#10.2(goodreads author))

Task Total: 10 + 05 = 15

Grand Total: 50 + 15 = 65

Task 20.3

Lost Cities and Vanished Civilizations (1962) by Robert Silverberg (Hardcover, 177 pages) [930.1]
Born
in Brooklyn, New York, The United States
January 15, 1935
1935 + 75 = 2010 and he’s still alive

+20 Task
+20 Combo (#10.3(pub.1962), #10.7(“and”), #20.1(winter BD), #20.10(ratings)
+10 Aged (age 75+)

Total: 20 + 20 + 10 = 50

Grand Total: 00 + 50 = 50

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Megan wrote: "Does My Sister, the Serial Killer qualify for this task? The copyright page in my edition says that it was previously published in a shorter version as an ebook in Nig..."

Oyinkan Braithwaite seems to count for 10.8 so there's still a place for My Sister, the Serial Killer (which I'm reading right now)

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Deedee wrote: "Re: Amélie Nothomb
According to goodreads, she was born in Etterbeek, Belgium. RWS database has her born in Japan. Apparently she likes to tell people that she was bor..."

:) Thanks for checking. I might start in Belgium then instead of Germany.

This sub-challenge is cleaning up the author database!

Re: Amélie Nothomb
According to goodreads, she was born in Etterbeek, Belgium. RWS database has her born in Japan. Apparently she likes to tell people that she was born in Japan to Belgian parents, but she in fact was born in Belgium.

Task 15.4 AbBY Chronological
Moving backwards in time

1945-1949

Author was Born: 1949 (fantasticfiction.com)

That Old Cape Magic (2009) by Richard Russo


Task Total: 20

Grand Total: 525 + 20 = 545

Task 20.8 Autumn (Karin's Task)
Read any book published between 1678-1958 (Vivaldi's birth to Vaughan William's death), by an author born in and a resident of one of the countries of these composers: Italy, Germany, Austria, Russia or Great Britain.

Nevil Shute was born in and resident of Great Britain

The Far Country (1952) by Nevil Shute (Paperback, 362 pages)
Review: This novel is a love letter from Nevil Shute to the country of Australia. Many pages are dedicated to comparing and contrasting dreary, rationed, bombed out England to the Land of Opportunity (Australia), a land of plentiful food, surrounded by stunningly beautiful landscapes. The first half of the novel introduces us to various characters, both in England and in Australia. The second half of the novel focusses exclusively on two of those characters, who spend their time telling each other how superior Australia is to England. I liked the first half better because there was more story.

Nevil Shute’s goodreads bio states that he moved from England to Australia “for the last ten years of his life”. Since he died in 1960, that would mean: 1950/1951 to 1960. This novel was published in 1952. Working backwards, he was writing this novel while he was in the process of relocating to Australia. I presume that some of the details he included in the novel comes directly from his own experience.

Recommended for those who love Australia, and those who wish to read a gentle story about nice people.


+20 Task
+10 Review
+05 Oldies -25 to 75 years old: (1943-1993)

Task Total: 20 + 10 + 05 = 35

Grand Total: 490 + 35 = 525

Task 15.3 AbBY Chronological
Moving backwards in time

1950-1954

Goodreads has Birthdate for Loren D. Estleman as
September 15, 1952

Aces and Eights: The Legend of Wild Bill Hickok (1981) by Loren D. Estleman
Spur Award for Best Historical Novel (1981)


Task Total: 20

Grand Total: 470 + 20 = 490

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Deedee wrote: "Just realized that José Saramago was born in Portugal but is listed as a citizen of Spain. So if I want to use his book in this sub-challenge, I have to find one of ...He was probably one of the early entries into the database, and perhaps before I'd gotten better about checking these things. I now think he should be Portugal/Portugal and will "fix" him. Therefore, you can read him for Portugal, regardless of the setting for his books. "

Thanks for checking! :)

Just realized that José Saramago was born in Portugal but is listed as a citizen of Spain. So if I want to use his book in this sub-challenge, I have to find one of his books that is set in Portugal. The Stone Raft is described as a magical realism novel When the Iberian Peninsula breaks free of Europe and begins to drift across the North Atlantic, five people are drawn together on the newly formed island-first by surreal events and then by love.. Will The Stone Raft count as being set in Portugal? If not, I'm looking at The History of the Siege of Lisbon

Anyone have guidance about whether Seeing or All the Names are set in Portugal?

Thanks!

Land and Sea

✔ 1. Denmark We, the Drowned (2006) by Carsten Jensen; translated by Charlotte Barslund (A and B)

✔ 2. Germany Me and Kaminski (2003) by Daniel Kehlmann; translated from the German by Carol Brown Janeway (A, B and C)

✔ 3. Belgium Pétronille (2015) by Amélie Nothomb (A and B)

4. France His Excellency Eugène Rougon (Les Rougon-Macquart #6) (1876) by Émile Zola (A, B and C)

and:
Italy
Spain
Portugal
Ireland
U.K.
Iceland
Norway
Sweden
Finland
Russia
Poland

My younger son, Tom, lives 100 miles south of Paradise, California. He tells me they have smoke in the air, and that he's keeping an eye on it. Last year, Tom lived near Seoul, South Korea -- at the time Trump was saying that the deaths of Americans living in South Korea was an acceptable cost to pay to confront North Korea. I figure Tom has a better chance outrunning a fire than outrunning a missile. (Tom is studying for his Ph.D. in Linguistics)

Task 20.5 Singled Out
Read a book with a single female as the main character. The woman may be never-married, widowed, abandoned, etc, but should be the main character and obviously head of her own household.

Our heroine has never been married, lives alone, and travels a lot for her consulting business.

Criminal Confections (A Chocolate Whisperer Mystery #1) (2015) by Colette London (Mass Market Paperback, 314 pages)
Review: This is the first book in a series of cozy mysteries. Our heroine, Hayden, is a consultant to chocolate producing firms. She has been invited to a convention of such firms. When someone dies in an unusual manner, Hayden suspects foul play, and engages in amateur sleuthing.

Pros: luscious descriptions of chocolate, and the desserts that can be made from chocolate. (There are recipes in an appendix to the novel.)
Cons: Unlikeable heroine, even more unlikeable men that she interacts with, and a plot that is so implausible, it makes the TV show Murder, She Wrote seem realistic. There is also a love triangle involving Hayden, a mild mannered accountant, and a tattooed heavily muscled ‘bad boy’ type. (I list the 'love triange' as a con because: It is hard for the reader to believe that either one of the men would have any interest in Hayden!)

I’d skip this one – unless you want to read about chocolate!!

+20 Task
+10 Combo (#10.2(#1 of series), #10.9 (11 letter word: Con fec tio ns)
+10 Review

Task Total: 20 + 10 + 10 = 40

Grand Total: 430 + 40 = 470