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

Connie ’s comments from the Reading with Style group.

15.1 Time Leaper

Inside the O'Briens by Lisa Genova
Pub 2015
Born 11/22/70 per Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_Genova

+15 task

Task total: 15
Grand total: 15

10 Random Books List:

Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood
Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt
Devil's Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three by Mara Leveritt
The Illustrated History of World War I by Andrew Wiest
Truth and Beauty by Ann Patchett
The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald
Five Days Left by Julie Lawson Timmer
Home To Italy by Peter Pezzelli
The White Tower by Dorothy Johnston
Lives of Girls and Women by Alice Munro

Kindred covers 150 years, going back to the 1820s (with a 10.9 combo).

The Rose Garden is another time travel book, going back to the late 1700s.

10.6 Short Stuff

Give Me Your Heart: Tales of Mystery and Suspense by Joyce Carol Oates

Review:
"Give Me Your Heart" is a collection of ten dark short stories about people looking for love and acceptance. They are often downtrodden people who are emotionally on the edge, or teenagers who have found themselves over their heads in dangerous situations. The title story is about an older man who promised a woman student that he would love her forever--and the rejected woman is stalking him and planning her revenge years later. "Strip Poker" involves an adolescent girl getting caught up in a card game with some older male teens in an isolated cottage--and trying to outsmart them. "Vena Cava" tells the story of a soldier returning from Iraq with PTSD and terrible injuries to his head which prevent him from emotionally connecting to the civilian world.

The stories were so intense that I found I only wanted to read a couple in one sitting. A few stories had endings that went a bit overboard. But the rest were frighteningly plausible, much like the activities of real deranged people we read about in our newspapers. Joyce Carol Oates is a good storyteller, building up tension higher and higher, then ending in a twist or horrific event.

+10 task (O'Henry Award)
+ 5 combo (20.6--460 ratings)
+10 review
+10 not a novel

Task total: 35
Grand total: 610

Kate S wrote: "Connie wrote: "20.7 Make It Strange

From Post 944

Blindness by José Saramago (on page 9 of the list)

Review:
A man sits in his car, blocking traffic, while driver..."

Thanks, Kate.

20.7 Make It Strange

Blindness by José Saramago (on page 9 of the list)

Review:
A man sits in his car, blocking traffic, while drivers behind him sound their horns. When other motorists reach him, he keeps repeating, "I am blind." He was the first to experience "white blindness." When he was examined by an ophthalmologist later that day, there were no signs of disease. But everyone waiting in the ophthalmologist's office was experiencing the "white blindness" within a day. The government decides to quarantine the victims in an unused mental hospital. When the doctor is picked up, his wife pretends that she is also blind so that she can take care of him. No one knows why she is the only one immune to this blindness, but it lets the author reveal more about the situation through her eyes.

The conditions at the hospital are awful--shortages of food, filth everywhere, and armed guards shooting anyone who comes near them. A group of quarantined men with a gun gain control of the food. The starving people must give in to their demands or they will not be fed.

Soon the "white blindness" has spread through out the country. We see how interdependent people are in the modern world with food, water, electricity, and transportation soon disappearing. There is a breakdown of society, with small pockets of people who show kindness in helping others, sharing resources, and trying to maintain their dignity.

Saramago does not give his characters names, although they do have distinct personalities. They are identified by phrases such as "the doctor," "the girl with the dark glasses," and "the boy with the squint" so they could really represent any of us in society. Saramago's style is very different. He writes in multi-page paragraphs, uses no quotation marks, and separates dialogue with commas. However, it was easy to adjust to his style after a few pages. I found myself completely caught up in the story, and thinking about it days after I turned the last page.

+ 20 task
+ 5 combo (10.7 Honored Authors)
+ 10 review

Task total: 35
Grand total:565

20.10 Higher Education

I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai Lexile 1000

Review:
When Malala Yousafzai was eleven years old, she wrote a column with a BBC Urdu correspondent about life in Swat, a northern region of Pakistan near Afghanistan, which had come under the control of the Taliban. After speaking out for education for girls, she became a target of the Taliban. In 2012, fifteen-year-old Malala was shot by the Taliban with a bullet entering near her left eye, severing her facial nerve, and lodging in her scapula. She hovered near death until she was airlifted to a hospital in Birmingham, England.

The book is coauthored by Christina Lamb, a foreign correspondent, who probably researched much of the interesting historical material about Pakistan. Malala's family was also a strong focus in the book. Her father is very much her mentor, and also a strong advocate for education for all children in Pakistan. Both Malala and her father placed themselves at great personal risk when they bravely spoke against the violence in Pakistan. She also objected to the killings of civilians from American drones.

Malala and her family miss the beautiful Swat valley of Pakistan. But it will probably be a very long time before it is safe for the Yousafzai family to return. Meanwhile, she still promotes education for all through the international Malala Fund. "I am Malala" is both educational and inspirational.

+20 task (Berkeley, Montana)
+ 5 combo 10.4 (Education has 9 letters)
+10 review
+10 not-a-novel (Non-fiction)

Task Total: 45
Grand Total:530

What an amazing total, Tony! Congrats!

20.5 Politics

A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence, and Power by Jimmy Carter

Review:
Former US President Jimmy Carter did not just sit back in a rocking chair when he retired in 1981. He and his wife, Rosalynn, founded the Carter Center which helps improve the situations of people around the world. As a devote Baptist and Sunday school teacher, he is frustrated by the ways male religious leaders--Christian, Jewish, and Islamic--use sacred texts to justify male dominance of women. Some of Carter's concerns are wage discrimination, sexual abuse in the military, rape, slavery and prostitution, child marriages, spousal abuse, genital mutilation, inadequate health care including prenatal care, and honor killings. In some countries, female babies are selectively aborted or killed at birth. This leads to enslaved girls being brought in from other countries to serve as prostitutes since there are not enough women to serve as mates to the increased percentage of males in the population.

Carter is also a member of The Elders, an international group of former political leaders, peace activists, and human rights advocates. Nelson Mandela formed the group to work on human rights projects, as well as concerns about health, war, and climate change.

Carter also has worked with Bill Gates Sr (who manages the foundation set up by his son) to decrease the transmission of AIDS in Africa. He has used his connections as a former president to influence political leaders around the world, and encourages women to seek political office. The international work of Jimmy Carter, who still tirelessly crusades for human rights at age 90, is truly an inspiration.

+20 task
+10 review
+10 not a novel (non-fiction)

Task total: 40
Grand total: 525

10.9 Mythological

Green Mansions by William Henry Hudson

Review:
Abel narrates a story about his mysterious past in the "green mansions" of the Venezuelan rainforest. When he was a young revolutionary, he had to go into hiding in an Indian village in the Parahuari Mountains. He went exploring in a nearby forest where the Indians refused to walk, fearing the presence of an evil spirit, the Daughter of the Didi. She was a half-wild girl named Rima who lived close to nature, hiding while singing with soft warbling sounds. "Again and again as I stood there listening it sounded, now so faint and apparently far off as to be scarcely audible; then all at once it would ring out bright and clear within a few yards of me, as if the shy little thing had suddenly grown bold; but, far or near, the vocalist remained invisible, and at length the tantalising melody ceased altogether."

This romantic fantasy show the author's love of the natural world of South America. It portrayed an allegorical ideal world where man lives in harmony with nature. Although Hudson's writing is very descriptive and flowery, the book kept my interest because of its imaginative quality. Published in 1904, some parts of the book would be considered offensive by today's standards concerning native people. It mentioned the superiority of the white man even though the native Indians provided help to Abel, and kept him from starving to death many times during the course of his adventures.

Myth of the Didi: www.bigfootencounters.com/creatures/d...

+10 task
+10 review
+10 oldie (pub 1904)

Task total: 30
Grand total: 505

10.5 Dr Salk

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach

People who donate their organs for transplant in the event that they are declared brain-dead are real heroes in the author's opinion. Mary Roach, a science journalist, also discusses what happens when people donate their bodies to science, often through a university or medical school. Most of the bodies will be used in the anatomy department for dissection, and for teaching doctors new surgical techniques. But other cadavers will be used for safety testing to determine tolerances in car accidents and airline crashes, saving thousands of lives. Some may be used by the military, such as testing the protective value of different footwear getting blown up by a land mine.

The author interviewed forensic specialists who examined the remains of passengers to determine the causes of an airline crash. She also talked to people about cremation, and other new alternatives to burial. The book was written in a conversational tone with humor which ranged from light remarks to rather juvenile humor. Some people might want to skip the chapter about cannibalism and cultures that use body parts for medicinal purposes, especially if they're reading right before dinner. The author did an impressive amount of research for this book, and presented it in an understandable manner. I found the science interesting, and definitely learned more than I ever wanted to know about human cadavers.

+10 task
+10 review
+10 not-a-novel (non-fiction)

Task total: 30
Grand total: 475

Would A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence, and Power by Jimmy Carter work for a non-fiction book about politics? I just started the book, and it is about gender inequality due to political and religious reasons all over the world. In many parts of the world religion dictates the politics, leading to abuse of women.

20.9 War Babies

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Review:
During the Stalin regime, people were sentenced to hard labor for the flimsiest reasons. I wondered why the author focused on just one single day in a grim labor camp since the prisoners usually had long imprisonments of eight to twenty years. Ivan Denisovich Shukhov is in his eighth year of a ten year sentence. Conditions are horrible with inadequate food, warm clothes, and heat in frigid conditions. But he cannot think of the future because his prison term could be extended if the authorities brought him up on another charge. Shukhov can only think about the present--how can he survive for one more day?

Shukhov is a hard-working mason and carpenter who sometimes gets an extra bread ration for his good work. He tries to savor every bite of bread and spoonful of soup since there are no other pleasures in life. To keep his feet warm he pads his boots with rags. He knows how to work the system, taking on extra little jobs, like mending clothes or holding someone's place in line, in exchange for a cigarette or a few bites of bread. With the guards, it's important to fly under the radar because an argument might land him in a freezing cell--and almost certain death from hypothermia, pneumonia, or tuberculosis. So Shukhov lives in the present.

"There were three thousand six hundred and fifty-three days like that in his stretch. From the first clang of the rail to the last clang of the rail....Three thousand six hundred and fifty-three days....The three extra days were for leap years."

The author had been imprisoned from 1945 to 1953 for criticizing Joseph Stalin in letters to friends. Solzhenitsyn based this book on his experiences at a labor camp in Karaganda in northern Kazakhstan. Premier Khrushchev, who denounced the excesses and abuses of Stalin, allowed the publication of the book in 1962. Recommended.

+20 task (born 1918)
+10 review
+ 5 oldie (pub 1962)
+10 combo (10.4-10 letters-Denisovich; 10.7)

Task total: 45
Grand total: 445

20.4 Realism

The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

Review:
Edith Wharton shows us the world of the upper class in 1870's New York. This elite group had very rigid rules of behavior, social rituals, fashion, and entertaining. There is an element of hypocrisy that existed in some of its members behind their conservative moral exterior.

Newland Archer, a wealthy young lawyer, is engaged to May, an innocent young woman who follows society's moral code. But Newland is very attracted to May's cousin, Countess Ellen Olenska, who has separated from her philandering husband. Ellen, who has spent many years in Europe, has a more artistic sensibility and shocks her staid relatives with her bohemian ways. Society, as well as these three main characters, plays a part in the resolution of this love triangle.

Very detailed descriptions are given of the homes, manners, and lifestyles of the upper class New Yorkers during the time that Wharton was a young woman herself. While this makes the book important historically, it weighed down the first half of the novel. The second half of the book picked up the pace of the plot.

Each of the two women, especially May, seemed more complex than Newland realized. He was dealing with his own feelings of being constrained by society, but also had a strong sense of duty. Society was changing by the time Newland's children were adults with many more opportunities for freedom and self-expression.

+20 task
+10 combo (10.4 innocence; 20.1 shelved 32x as 19th Cent)
+10 oldie (pub 1920)
+10 review

Task total: 50
Grand total: 400

Tony wrote: "Connie wrote: "10.2 Halloween: The Woman in Black by Susan Hill

Susan Hill was born in 1942, so this would also qualify as 20.9 War Babies. And with First Published 198..."

Thanks, Tony. I'll edit my post.

10.2 Halloween

The Woman in Black by Susan Hill

Review:
"The Woman in Black: A Ghost Story" is a classic Gothic horror story set in the early 1900s. As a young solicitor, Arthur Kipps was sent to Crythin Gifford, a small fictional town on England's marshy, northeast coast. He has to settle the estate of a woman who lived in the isolated Eel Marsh House. The secluded old home is accessible only during low tide, and visible only when the fog breaks. The story builds psychologically into terror using atmospheric descriptions, isolation, a bog with areas of quicksand, and an angry paranormal presence set on revenge.

This is a great story to get in the mood for Halloween. A few words of advice: Don't read this book right before you're planning to sleep, or the Woman in Black might haunt your dreams.

+10 task (# 35 on the Scariest Books list)
+10 review
+ 5 combo (20.9-born 1942)
+ 5 oldie (pub 1983)

Task total: 30
Grand total: 350

20.6 Underrated

The Owl In The Attic And Other Perplexities by James Thurber

Review:
In 1931, James Thurber published a group of short stories and essays, accompanied by humorous drawings. Some of his works were originally published in The New Yorker magazine. The book is divided into three distinct sections.

"Mr and Mrs Monroe" is a humorous group of stories about the Monroe's marriage. Mr Monroe always wants to feel that he's in charge of a situation, but he usually doesn't have a clue about how to solve a problem. He's a timid accountant who is great at working with numbers, but Mrs Monroe is more adept at practical things. But she loves him and leaves him with his self-image intact. In spite of their differences and squabbles, there is a sense of deep affection between them.

"Pet Department" is the second section, an advice column which answers questions about pets. Some of the drawings were cute, but I really did not find the writing very humorous in this section.

The third section is called "Ladies' and Gentleman's Guide to Modern English." It's a series of humorous essays about punctuation, and grammatical problems. Although some of them seem a bit dated today, I could imagine them running in The New Yorker in the early days of the magazine. It made me smile as he described typing an exclamation point in the early days of the typewriter by "striking, successively, the period, the back-spacer, and the apostrophe." These humorous writings were written in a pseudo-intellectual manner.

The book made me feel like I was transported back to another era. I enjoyed the cute "Mr and Mrs Monroe" stories, but was not as enthusiastic about the rest of the book.

+20 task (116 ratings)
+ 5 combo 10.7 (honored authors)
+10 not a novel (short stories and essays)
+10 oldie (pub 1931)
+10 review

Task total: 55
Grand total: 320

10.4 9,10,11

Reading the Forested Landscape: A Natural History of New England by Tom Wessels

Review:
Ecologist Tom Wessels is a master sleuth who investigates the changes in the forests of New England. Fires, logging, pasturing, beavers, insects, fungus, weather, topography and substrate all leave a stamp on the forest picture. Etchings by Brian D. Cohen illustrate the forest scenes discussed. Most chapters also have "a look back" section where interesting facts about glaciers, Native Americans, colonial history, historic hurricanes, and more are featured. The last chapter tells of Wessels' concerns about the effects of global warming, and atmospheric deposition of acids, heavy metals, ozones, and pesticides. This fascinating book will help me look at the forest with new eyes. Highly recommended!

+10 task
+ 5 combo (20.6 234 ratings)
+10 not a novel (non-fiction)
+10 review

Task total: 35
Grand total:265

20.2 Birthplace

Death in Venice by Thomas Mann (1410 Lexile)

Review:
Gustav von Aschenbach is a middle-aged, successful writer who has lived a very controlled, cerebral life. He feels that a break from his scheduled life might help his writing, and travels to Venice. He sees a beautiful Polish boy named Tadzio at his hotel, and compares him to a classical Greek god. Although he never touches or speaks to Tadzio, Aschenbach becomes totally infatuated with the beautiful boy, watching him play on the beach and eventually following him through the streets of Venice. His writer's block disappears as his mind gives way to passion. Aschenbach learns that a cholera epidemic is sweeping over Venice. He has to decide if he should leave the city and warn Tadzio's family about the disease, or stay because he cannot bear the thought of being away from Tadzio.

This is a well-constructed novella with symbols of death, aging, and desire foreshadowing future events. Aschenbach imagines a discussion of beauty between Socrates and his young student, Phaedrus, to justify his own feelings. There are references to Greek mythology in describing his dreams, as his life goes from the discipline of an Apollonian existence to uncontrolled Dionysian sensuality. The novella builds from a calm start to an overwhelming obsession to a tragic conclusion. The story is semi-autobiographical based on a trip that Mann and his wife took to Venice, where Mann became intrigued with a young Polish boy visiting the resort. Mann expanded on the idea to write "Death in Venice."

+20 task (German author)
+10 combo (10.7 Honored authors, and 10.9 Mythology)
+10 oldie (Pub 1912)
+10 review

Task total: 50
Grand total: 230

10.7 Honored Authors

Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson (1050 Lexile)

Review:
"Winesburg, Ohio" is a collection of twenty-four interconnected short stories that form a novel about the people in an American small town. Although it was published in 1919, it is set in the late 19th Century at a time when people had the increased mobility of trains, but before automobiles. With a few exceptions, most of the stories feature people who are lonely and yearn for a connection with others. They are repressing their feelings, but have inner dreams and long for passion in their lives. In a small town, people feel like they are being judged by other residents since everyone knows what is going on in their neighbors' lives.

George Willard, a young newspaper reporter, is a connecting link in many of the stories. George is a non-judgmental good listener. The townspeople feel comfortable unburdening themselves to the likable young man. As the book progresses, it becomes a coming-of-age story about George, as well as a look at the people who are longing for a human connection.

In "The Teacher," Kate Swift advises George that he needs to experience life first if he is going to reach his dream of becoming a writer. "It would be better to give up the notion of writing until you are better prepared. Now it's time to be living. I don't want to frighten you, but I would like to make you understand the import of what you think of attempting. You must not become a mere peddler of words. The thing to learn is to know what people are thinking about, not what they say." In the closing short story, George is on his way to becoming an adult as he takes the big step of leaving Winesburg to see the world.

+10 task (Sherwood Anderson Foundation Award)
+ 5 combo (10.4 Winesburg-9 letters)
+10 oldies (pub 1919)
+10 not a novel (short stories)
+10 review

Task total: 45
Grand total:180