Connie ’s
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(group member since Nov 11, 2013)
Connie ’s
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from the Reading with Style group.
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Thanks to the moderators for all their work this season. I'm looking forward to the great group of tasks in the Spring challenge.
Could I get My Train to Freedom: A Jewish Boy's Journey from Nazi Europe to a Life of Activism approved? It's listed as biography on WorldCat.https://www.worldcat.org/title/my-tra...
15.3 DominoesCircling the Sun by Paula McLain
Published in 2015, the same decade as 15.2.
Task total: 15
Grand total: 875
15.1 DominoesMiss Hazel and the Rosa Parks League by Jonathan Odell (author born in USA)
Task total: 15
Grand total: 845
Amanda wrote: "And it looks like there will be no 1001 books on this list ( unless someone wants to research it for me whilst I am stuck in the hell that is my work! )."The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco is on the 1001 list. It's a chunkster.
Found another one! Possession . Also Northanger Abbey and The Hours.
20.6 Svetlana AlexievichLeningrad: Siege and Symphony: The Story of the Great City Terrorized by Stalin, Starved by Hitler, Immortalized by Shostakovich by Brian Moynahan
Review:
When the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, they quickly headed for Leningrad and cut off the supply routes into the city. The only way food and other supplies could be brought into Leningrad was to use boats to cross Lake Ladoga. When the weather turned frigid, they switched to trucking supplies across the ice, hoping the ice would hold. People were eating tree bark, sawdust, leather, cats, dogs, rats, and some even resorted to cannibalism during the long winter.
The Russian people also had to contend with the NKVD, the secret police, who arrested, tortured, and killed people on trumped up charges. Stalin was so paranoid that he had his most experienced officers shot by the NKVD which made the military position even more precarious against the more experienced Germans. Stalin, who came from a humble background, was especially harsh on the more cultured citizens of Leningrad. The composer Dmitri Shostakovich was always very nervous that he would be brought in for questioning by the NKVD if Stalin disapproved of his music.
Shostakovich and his family were evacuated from Leningrad in the autumn of 1941, and he finished his Seventh Symphony, dedicating it to the city of Leningrad. Although it was performed in several other cities first, the performance in Leningrad on August 9, 1942 was the most unforgettable. Since most of the musicians in the city had been either evacuated or died from hunger, it was difficult to put together an orchestra of over 100 musicians to play the 80 minute symphony. The brass and the woodwinds were too weak to blow their instruments without fainting, and the strings were exhausted from holding their violins. Extra food rations were given to them so the skeletal musicians managed to play. The Seventh Symphony announced to the world that Leningrad would endure. It also showed what joy and hope that music can bring under the most tragic of circumstances.
The book also tells of the difficult winter faced by the soldiers of both sides since they had inadequate food, clothes, fuel, and supplies. In January 1943 the siege of Leningrad was broken, although the city was not entirely liberated until 1944.
The author includes an enormous amount of detail as he covers the time from June 1941 to August 1942. This gave a good sense of what the people of Leningrad and the soldiers had to endure. It probably could have been edited down a bit since some of the stories were repetitious. The strength of this moving account of the siege of Leningrad is that the history is approached from many different angles.
+20 task
+10 combo (10.8 Winter Solstice, 10.9 Realistic Rating of 3.92)
+10 review
Task total: 40
Grand total: 830
I wanted to check out some author's names to be sure they worked for the task:Daphne du Maurier
Edmund de Waal
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Mario Vargas Llosa
Frans de Waal
Elizabeth von Arnim
Coralie wrote: "I have often joked about books jumping off the shelf but it really happened to me in a bookshop in Christchurch yesterday."Maybe the bookshop was haunted. Did you buy the book?
From post 1012Thanks, Kate. I'm sure you're correct. It's a good thing I use a calculator for my checkbook :-)
Still a work in progress, but getting down some possibilities.A=born, B=nationality, C=location
Adriatic Sea: The Inferno by Dante Alighieri 1304, 672 pg, A,B Italy
Pacific Ocean: The Garden Party and Other Stories by Katherine Mansfield 1922, 255 pg A,B New Zealand
South China Sea: The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng 2007, 447 pg, A, C Malaysia
Baltic Sea: Visitation 2008, 151pg, or The End of Days 2012, 239 pg by Jenny Erpenbeck A, B Germany
Yellow Sea: Waiting by Ha Jin 2000, 310 pg, A, C China
North Sea: Bad Blood by Lorna Sage 2000, 304 pg, A,B,C United Kingdom
or The Acceptance World by Anthony Powell 1955, 320 pg A,B,C United Kingdom
Rhine River Basin: Thérèse Desqueyroux by François Mauriac, 1927, 144 pg, A,B,C France
or The People in the Photo by Hélène Gestern 2011, 270 pg, A,B,C France
or A Very Long Engagement by Sébastien Japrisot 1991, 327 pg, A,B,C France
Mediterranean Sea: Suddenly, Love by Aharon Appelfeld, 2014, 225 pg, B,C Israel
or The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón 2001, 487 pg, A,B,C Spain
Indian Ocean: Island of a Thousand Mirrors by Nayomi Munaweera, 2014, 242 pg A, C Sri Lanka
or The Sand Fish: A Novel from Dubai by Maha Gargash 1999, 368 pg A,B,C United Arab Emirates
Black Sea: Bliss by Zülfü Livaneli 2002, 304 pg, A,B,C Turkey
Nile River Basin: Beneath the Lion's Gaze by Maaza Mengiste, 2010, 308 pg A,C Ethiopia
Atlantic Ocean: In Wilderness by Diane Thomas 2015, 336pg, First Read, A,B,C United States
or Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 2006m 435 pg A,B,C Nigeria
Sea of Japan: After the Quake by Haruki Murakami, 2000, 181 pg, A,B,C Japan
20.9 Winnie-the-PoohA Buyer's Market by Anthony Powell
Review:
"A Buyer's Market" takes the narrator, Nick Jenkins, to London in the late 1920s. Much of the novel is set at either upscale parties, or with a group of bohemians that revolve around the artist Mr Deacon.
The title of the book suggests that the parties are a kind of marketplace. People attend the parties to meet marriage prospects and sexual partners. The parties are also an opportunity to make business contacts, the 1920s version of networking. It was important to climb the social ladder by mingling with people of a high social class.
"A Buyer's Market" introduces the reader to new characters and revisits Jenkins' friends from school. Jenkins is also spending time with artists and writers. Kenneth Winmerpool resurfaces and seems to be especially determined to be successful in business. He tells Jenkins, "No woman who takes my mind off my work is ever to play a part in my life in the future." The book left me wondering what's to come in the third book of the series, "The Acceptance World".
+20 task
+ 5 combo (10.9 Realistic Rating of 3.87)
+ 5 oldie (pub 1952)
+10 review
+10 series (second book in this series read this winter)
Task total: 50
Grand total: 745
20.7 FeminismThe Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
Lexile 920
+20 task
+15 combo (20.3, 20.1, 10.9 Realistic Rating of 3.97)
+ 5 oldie (pub 1970)
Task total: 40
Grand total: 695
10.7 Cozy HolidaysAunt Dimity's Death by Nancy Atherton
Review:
When Lori was a child, her mother told her bedtime stories about Aunt Dimity. Lori thought she was a fictional character until she received notice that she had received an inheritance from Aunt Dimity. Accompanied by the younger lawyer in the firm Willis & Willis, Lori journeys to Aunt Dimity's cottage in the Cotswolds. This is a cute story with a cozy mystery, a light romance, some improbable events, and a friendly ghost (no, not Casper). It was a nice change of pace after reading some heavy books lately. So brew a pot of tea and enjoy a trip to the English countryside.
+10 task (118 users called it a cozy mystery)
+10 combo (10.2 Noel, Noel, 10.9 Realistic Rating of 3.93)
+ 5 series (#1 of series)
+10 review
Task total: 35
Grand total: 655
20.9 Winnie-the-PoohGoodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood
Review:
Christopher Isherwood lived in Berlin in the early 1930s, recorded his experiences in his diaries, and later created the fictional "Goodbye to Berlin". Although Isherwood was raised in an upper middle class home in England, he had a more frugal life in Berlin as an English tutor. To stretch his money, he lived in boarding houses where he met some memorable characters. This book is composed of six chapters (or interconnected short stories) that should be read in order.
In stories occurring over three years we are introduced to characters from all segments of society, and see the deep division between the wealthy and the poor. As the stories move on to 1933 there is an increase in unemployment, poverty, and homelessness, banks are closing, and there is an escalation in violence. People were looking for scapegoats, and someone to lead them out of desperate times. There were clashes between different political factions.
His characters are unforgettable, and often sleazy, unlikable people. Sally Bowles, a self-centered cabaret singer who was trying to sleep her way to success, was later made famous by Liza Minelli in the movie "Cabaret". Otto Nowak is an annoying adolescent, a "user" of both men and women. The wealthy Jewish Landauer family own a huge department store, and are a potential target for the Nazis. Motherly Fraulein Schroeder, his gossipy landlady, has little interest in politics and is just trying to survive in a changing world. Isherwood uses very different dialogue for each character so they seem like unique individuals.
Isherwood left Berlin in 1933 as the city became dangerous and violent. The Nazis were rising to power in Germany. It was the end of an era, and time to say "goodbye" to Berlin.
+20 task
+10 oldie (pub 1939)
+ 5 combo (10.9 realistic rating of 3.95)
+10 review
Task total: 45
Grand total: 620
20.9 Winnie-the-PoohMr Norris Changes Trains by Christopher Isherwood
Review:
Christopher Isherwood wrote the fictional "Mr Norris Changes Trains" based on his experiences in Berlin in the early 1930s. He left England to work in Berlin as an English tutor since Berlin was much more liberal toward homosexuals. The character William Bradshaw (named after Isherwood's middle names) acts as a narrator and an observer in the book.
Mr Norris, based on Isherwood's friend, Gerald Hamilton, is a charming, nervous, middle-aged man whose lifestyle is supported by conning people, selling secrets, and other criminal activities. He's a bit of a comical, prissy figure with a wig that has a tendency to sit off-center. He has regular appointments with Anni, a woman with tall boots and a whip.
William meets Mr Norris on the train to Berlin, and they become good friends. Mr Norris introduces William to a group of people who engage in drunken, sexual partying. He also involves William with the Communist party leaders in Berlin. This was a difficult economic time in Germany. The Nazis were gaining power with their efficient brutal organization. The political scene is viewed through the eyes of the young, politically naive William.
The book is engaging with its entertaining, well-drawn characters. It is also a historical look at a changing Germany as the Weimar republic was ending.
+20 task
+10 combo (10.2 Noel, Noel; 10.9 Realistic Rating of 3.78)
+10 oldie (pub 1935)
+10 review
Task total: 50
Grand total: 575
20.1 Grazia DeleddaWest with the Night by Beryl Markham
Review:
"West with the Night" is the memoir of a woman who loved adventure. Beryl Markham spent most of her childhood in British East Africa (Kenya) where her father owned a horse farm. She grew up playing with the native African children, spending her time playing games and learning to hunt with the young boys rather than making friends with the native girls. As an adult she became a horse trainer and a pilot. Beryl Markham is most famous for being the first woman to pilot a plane from east to west across the Atlantic in 1936. As both a horse trainer and a pilot, she was a woman doing work in a man's world.
Her love of Africa and her connection to nature are evident in the book. She shows the reader the sights, smells, and sounds of the continent. She admires the natives' skill in hunting, and enjoys the African culture and storytelling. Her dog and her horses are very important in her life. Although she seems to respect the jungle animals in her early life, she works as a pilot spotting elephants for the big game hunters later. As the book moved on, it shows more effects of colonialism and the buildup of defenses in northern Africa in the early 1930s.
The book is well-written, and the author knows how to build up suspense as she tells about the dangerous situations Markham finds herself in during her adventures. She has selectively written about certain areas of her life, but does not include memories of her mother, her governess, her three marriages, her son, or her numerous affairs. The reader will have to pick up another book to learn about the rest of her life.
Her third husband, Raoul Schumacher, was a professional ghost writer. There is a question of whether he actually wrote the book after he read her notes and listened to Markham's stories. At the very least, it is thought that he edited her writing. But even if we don't know the true author of the book, it is a wonderful story of a remarkable woman and of Africa in the 1920s and 1930s.
+20 task
+ 5 combo 20.9
+ 5 oldie (pub 1942)
+10 review
Task total: 40
Grand total: 525
Thanks, Elizabeth.
