Connie ’s Comments (group member since Nov 11, 2013)

Connie ’s comments from the Reading with Style group.

15.3 CYOA

The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman

Eighth step in the Classics path: Read a book with a death. There are five deaths in this book.

Task total: 15
Season total: 80

15.2 CYOA

The Life Impossible by Matt Haig

Fourth step in the Classics path: Read a book set in Spain. This book is set in the Spanish island of Ibiza.

Task total: 15
Season total: 65

15.1 CYOA

To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

Second step in the Classics path: Read a book that has 100-299 pages.

Task total: 15
Season total: 50

20.8 Temple Bar Pub

Black Woods, Blue Sky by Eowyn Ivey

Pg 33: "How about you just get me a beer."

Author Eowyn Ivey has written a dark fairy tale combining magical realism with the reality of the Alaskan wilderness. Birdie, a loving but sometimes neglectful single mother, is waitressing at the Wolverine Lodge. She gets acquainted with Arthur, a scarred man who spends a great amount of time in an isolated cabin in the mountains. Birdie is tempted by the wildness and freedom of a life in the woods, and moves there with her six-year-old daughter, Emeleen. She is surprised to discover that Arthur has a secret, a second nature that might pose a danger to them.

"Black Woods, Blue Sky" is a loose retelling of the "Beauty and the Beast" tale. Ivey is a wonderful storyteller and handles the supernatural well. Emaleen is seen as a child and again as a recent college graduate going back to visit Alaska. The book explores love, fear, memory, and forgiveness. This is a book of fantasy written as lovely literary fiction with gorgeous descriptions of the natural world. I've enjoyed reading three books authored by Eowyn Ivey, and hope she'll be writing another soon.

+20 task
+ 5 combo 20.1 (retelling of Beauty and the Beast)
+10 review

Task total: 35
Season total: 35

I have a relative that works at MIT so I also enjoyed the MIT connection. I like the climate change task since I enjoy dystopian fiction and it makes me think about the world. For the other tasks we can choose books that are as light or as dark as we want. (There are some politicians that promoted peace and/or helping others like Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr, Jimmy Carter, and the Dalai Lama if you want to get away from wars or contemporary politics.)

10.5 New Year, New Date

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos

+10 task (published in 1925)
+ 5 combo 10.2 Holiday Travel (train travel on the Orient Express)
+ 5 combo 10.8 Theater (adapted into several plays per Wikipedia)
+10 aged (author died at age 93)
+10 oldie (1925)

Task total: 40
Half-way finish: 50
Season total: 595

10.4 Penguin Awareness Day

Lark Ascending by Silas House

+10 task (lark)
+ 5 combo 20.5 Tom Spanbauer (gay author per Wiki)
+ 5 combo 20.7 Best Friends Forever (a beagle, Seamus, is a major character and is Lark's companion)

Task total: 20
Season total: 505

Silas House

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silas_H...

Plan:

10.1 Member Lottery (trip on foot or horseback)
✓ The Salt Path by Raynor Winn
The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot by Robert Macfarlane

10.2 April Showers (water)
Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield
There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak
The Shape of Water by Andrea Camilleri

10.3 St Patrick's Day (Ireland)
This Must Be the Place by Maggie O'Farrell
The Distance Between Us by Maggie O'Farrell

10.4 Mother's Day (domestic fiction list)
✓ Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

10.5 Tom Robbins (MPG Humor)
✓ How to Age Disgracefully by Clare Pooley

10.6 David Lodge (college campus)
The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach or
The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz

10.7 Singing Season
Diva by Daisy Goodwin (Maria Callas, Opera)
The Great Passion by James Runcie (Bach)

10.8 Vietnam
The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli

10.9 Surgery Best Wishes (MC works in medicine)
✓ Fragile by Lisa Unger (psychologist)

10.10 Group Reads
City Boy by Herman Wouk
There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak

20.1 Adaptation and Resilience (movie, miniseries, TV, or is a retelling)
✓ The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury
✓ The Housebreaker of Shady Hill and Other Stories by John Cheever

20.2 Carbon Removal (won 2 or more prizes)
✓ The Wedding People by Alison Espach
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides or
The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides or
The History of Love by Nicole Krauss


20.3 Climate Policy (politician/political event)
✓ Mistress of the Ritz by Melanie Benjamin (Nazi occupation of Paris, WWII)
✓ The Jackal's Mistress by Chris Bohjalian (US Civil War)
Living the French Revolution and the Age of Napoleon by Suzanne M. Desan

20.4 Climate Science (climate change fiction)
Bewilderment by Richard Powers
Playground by Richard Powers
Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy (cli fi 5x)

20.5 Human Impacts (Aspen Words Literary Prize)
The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri

20.6 Reducing Emissions (each title word is shorter than the previous one)
✓ The Briar Club by Kate Quinn
✓ Cannery Row by John Steinbeck

20.7 Senior Sleuth
The Moving Finger by Agatha Christie 1943
They Do It With Mirrors by Agatha Christie 1952
A Pocket Full of Rye by Agatha Christie 1953

20.8 Temple Bar Pub (drinks beer or whiskey)
✓ Black Woods, Blue Sky by Eowyn Ivey (beer, pg 33)
The Lies I Tell by Julie Clark (whiskey, pg 77)

20.9 I Bless the Rains Down in Africa (author born or book set in Africa)
Baking Cakes in Kigali by Gaile Parkin (born Zambia, set in Rwanda)

20.10 True/False (creative or narrative nonfiction)
Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith and Love by Dava Sobel
Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand

Anika, I'm so impressed with your great CYOA! Thanks for all your effort. I love the international photos. It looks fun to plan the books we will read!

Joanna, did you design CYOA yourself? It looks so professional!

Tentative Plan:

1 Classics - American Notes for General Circulation by Charles Dickens (15.5, comment # 147)

2 100-299 pages - To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf (15.1, comment #69)

3 Wine - The Life Impossible by Matt Haig (15.3, comment #95)

4 Rioja - translated from Spanish - The Tunnel by Ernesto Sabato (15.7, Comment # 339)

5 Madrid - The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance, and Forty Years that Shook the World by Patrick Wyman (15.8, Comment #411)

6 Same Letter - The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven by Nathaniel Ian Miller (15.6, Comment #159)

7 Play - Anthony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare (15.9, Comment # 429)

8 Book with a Death - The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman (15.2 Comment #71)

9 A 9 in the Pub Year - The Promise by Chaim Potok 1969 (15.10, Comment # 472)

10 Nature, Thriller, or Historical Fiction - Still Missing by Chevy Stevens (15.4 Comment # 118)

20.3 Edna O'Brien

The Awakening by Kate Chopin

Edna and Mademoiselle Reisz talk about their passions for art and music.

+20 task
+ 5 combo 10.5 Theater (the book was adapted into a play)
+10 oldie (published in 1899)

Task total: 35
Season total: 485

10.2 Holiday Travel

The Best American Short Stories 2024 by Lauren Groff

This book had two train rides:

Two young women were traveling by train, but only one escaped the flood waters of the Johnstown Flood in "Privilege."

Death is traveling by train in "Viola in Midwinter."

Task total: 10
Season total: 450

15.3 BBR

BBR: The Women by Kristin Hannah

F: Book with a MPG of Historical Fiction

Augustus by John Williams

Task total: 15
Season total: 440

20.4 C.J. Sansom and Caleb Carr

The Couple at Number 9 by Claire Douglas

+20 task (Mystery and Crime)
+ 5 combo 20.2 Edna O'Brien (Saffy and her mother Lorna talked about motherhood and mother-daughter relationships)

Task total: 25
Season total: 425

10.9 Scandinavia

Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson

+10 task (set in Norway)
+10 aged (author born in 1952)

Task total: 20
Season total: 400

20.10 The ____ of ____

The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali

+20 task
+ 5 combo 20.2 Edna O'Brien (Badar and Homa talk about the political situation in Iran, and the Morality Police's attacks on women)

Task total: 25
Season total: 380

10.3 New Year's Resolutions

The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain by Charles Dickens

One activity on my bucket list is to read Dickens's novels, Christmas books, and other notable books.

This book was adapted to a stage performance:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hau...

+10 task
+ 5 combo 10.8 Theater
+ 5 combo 20.3 Francine Pascal and Nelson DeMille (author wrote >20 books)
+15 oldie (pub 1848)

Task total: 35
Season total: 355

10.8 Theater

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

Wikipedia lists several adaptations to stage
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sense_a...

+10 task
+ 5 combo 10.7 Verity
+15 oldie (pub 1811)

Task total: 30
Season total: 320