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

Connie ’s comments from the Reading with Style group.

10.10 Group Read

Orfeo by Richard Powers

Review:
Richard Powers has written an engaging story about an aging avant-garde musician on the run from the authorities. Modern science and technology combine with the soaring beauty of music and art in this remarkable book.

Peter Els calls 911 when his dog dies, and the police officers notice he has a room full of lab equipment that he bought online. Els is attempting to insert a sequence of musical patterns into the DNA of a common bacteria that thrives around water sources, Serratia marcescens. A few days later when Els returns to his house after jogging, he sees a biohazard team from the Joint Security Task Force confiscating his lab. Fearing arrest, Els drives on by and finds he's already being called a dangerous bioterrorist by the media.

The book moves forward as Els travels west visiting meaningful places, and making peace with the people he loved the most in his life (like the journey of the musical Orpheus from Greek mythology.) At the same time, flashbacks give us the story of Peter's life as a child through his adult years as a composer and a professor. The book is not divided into chapters, but the parts are separated by Tweet-length epigraphs.

Powers has written some beautiful poetic prose as he describes Els listening to pieces of music that had deep meaning in his life. Olivier Messiaen's "Quartet for the End of Time," which was written and performed for the first time in a Nazi POW camp, was especially unforgettable. His descriptions of the voices of Steve Reich's "Proverb" was absolutely gorgeous, and sent me to you.tube to listen to the music. Even the picture of Els listening to a bird chirping in a tree made me smile.

This was a moving story about the life of a man with the gift of special musical abilities. For years Els put his musical compositions ahead of his personal relationships, so his trip was a journey of redemption. "Orfeo" is especially recommended for those that love music and literary fiction.

npr review that includes mythical connection:
http://www.npr.org/2014/01/22/2624832...

Thanks to Kate for this great choice for a group read!

+10 task
+ 5 combo (10.9 mythological)
+10 review

Task total: 25
Grand total: 135

20.2 Birthplace

TransAtlantic by Colum McCann

Review:
Colum McCann has woven a story about four generations of fictional women with three actual events featuring some very admirable men from history. The characters cross the Atlantic, by ship or by plane, from Ireland to North America and back. The search for freedom, and the tragedy of war on both continents figures in their lives.

In Dublin in 1845-46, Frederick Douglas is on a lecture tour, selling his book to raise money for the abolitionist cause. The Irish are dying of hunger during a terrible famine. A poor Irish maid, Lily Duggan, is inspired by Douglas' speeches about freedom, and crosses the Atlantic by ship in search for a better life.

In Newfoundland in 1919, two aviators who had flown in World War I transformed a bomber into a plane with multiple fuel tanks. Jack Alcock and Arthur Brown headed for Ireland in the first non-stop flight across the Atlantic. Lily's daughter and granddaughter, Emily and Lottie, were a reporter and a photographer covering the event. At that time, it was very unusual for women to have occupations in the press.

In 1998, Senator George Mitchell flew from New York to Belfast to oversee the peace talks with the British and various Irish groups. He meets Lottie, who had settled in Northern Ireland, and her daughter Hannah. The family had suffered through a heartbreaking event during The Troubles. This is the slowest section of the book where the author dwells too long on everyday events like drinking cups of tea, sitting around the airport, and meeting a chauffeur.

The book goes back and forth through time, and between continents. It continues to the present day as Hannah ages in Northern Ireland. The book shows both the strength and vulnerability of the generations of Lily's family members during hardship and plenty, war and peace.

+20 task (author born in Dublin, Ireland)
+10 review

Task total: 30
Grand total: 110

10.9 Mythological

Grendel by John Gardner (Lexile 920)

Review:
"Grendel" is a retelling of the epic poem "Beowulf" from the point of view of the monster, Grendel. The poem was written in Old English sometime between the 8th and the 11th Century. The monster had been attacking the Scyldines in the mead hall of Hrothgar, the king of the Danes. The hero Beowulf, a Geat, destroys Grendel. Although the poem "Beowulf" tells of further adventures of the hero, the retelling ends with the death of Grendel.

The story was written in beautiful poetic prose. Even though Grendel committed terrible deeds, he also had a sympathetic lonely side to him and an appreciation of beauty. He was isolated and lonely with no friends to communicate with. One could see life through the eyes of the monster. The book was also nicely illustrated by Emil Antonucci with wonderful woodcut prints of Grendel's head.

+10 task
+ 5 combo (20.7)
+ 5 oldie (pub 1970)
+10 review

Task total: 30
Grand total: 80

20.6 Underrated

The Bay of Love and Sorrows by David Adams Richards

Review:
Michael Skid, the son of an affluent judge, has had a falling out with his best friend, Tom Donnerel, and no longer has the influence of Tom's good values. Michael and his new friends, Madonna and her brother Silver, are looking for some excitement during the summer of 1974 in a rural New Brunswick town. The charismatic ex-con Everette Hutch manipulates the group of young people into helping him with a big drug deal. One bad decision leads to larger unwise decisions, and eventually to some tragic consequences. It reaches the point where Michael and each of his friends cannot find their way out of the mess, and innocent people are hurt. Madonna and Silver are trapped by poverty as well as by the violent Everette. "He was the swirling centre, the black hole where all the debris, the planets and moons, like Madonna and Silver and Michael Skid, teetered and wobbled in their orbits, and were being sucked into. And this is exactly what all of them had sensed from the moment they had met him thirteen months before."

The author was very skillful at weaving a web around the characters where there is no way to escape unscathed. I admired the plotting, and felt the book gave a good sense of place in the small Canadian town. The story is very grim, with many unlikable low-life characters, so it would probably not appeal to some readers.

+20 task (book has 233 ratings)
+10 review

Task total: 30
Grand total: 50

10.1 Square Peg

Tomato Red by Daniel Woodrell

Review:
"You're no angel, you know how this stuff comes to happen: Friday is payday and it's been a gray day sogged by a slow ugly rain and you seek company in your gloom, and since you're fresh to West Table, Mo., and a new hand at the dog-food factory, your choices for company are narrow but you find some finally in a trailer court on East Main...." Sammy Barlach, a loser ex-con who had a hard start in life, is hoping to find a place where he belongs when he moves to the rural Missouri town. He gets talked into breaking into a vacant mansion by the trailer court crowd that soon abandons him. In the mansion he meets a brother and sister who have also broken in. Jamalee Merridew, a 19-year-old with tomato red hair, has ambitions to rise out of poverty and live like the high class people who own the home. She's hoping her gorgeous 17-year-old brother Jason will be her ticket out of the poor Venus Holler section of West Table. Jason's got all the rich women lusting after him, but he does not return their feelings. Jamalee and Jason have been marked as white trash since their mother is a prostitute.

Sammy, the narrator of the story, gets taken in by the Merridews, and gets entangled in their lives. There are class conflicts between the rich and the poor, and we know who has the power and the resources. Sammy seems to have low expectations, looking at life with a bit of humor, but with a hint of violence and danger under the surface. Jamalee is very angry about how people treat her, and reads etiquette books, hoping for a better life.

Both the descriptions and the dialogue are offbeat, sometimes dark and sometimes humorous, with a Ozark country flavor. Although this is a short book, Daniel Woodrell's characters will be hard to forget.

+10 task
+10 review

Task total: 20
Grand total: 20

Would Grendel by John Gardner (Lexile 920) work for this task? It's based on Beowulf, told from Grendel's point of view. (It's also on the 20.7 list.)

Rebekah wrote: "20.2 the Henrys
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra

+20 pts - task
+ 5 pts - task

Task total - 25 pts


Connie
I'm very glad I got to this book. I..."

Thanks for your nice comment, Rebekah.

Kate S wrote: "From Post 975

Connie wrote: "10.8 War of the Roses

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard

+10 task
+ 5 oldie (published 1974)

Task total: 15
Grand total: 205"

+1..."

Thank you, Kate.

10.3 Julius Caesar

This book was shelved as historical fiction 722 times.

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

+10 task
+ 5 combo (10.4--# 361 on the list)
Task total: 15
Grand total: 220

10.8 War of the Roses

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard

+10 task
+ 5 oldie (published 1974)

Task total: 15
Grand total: 205

15.3 EotP

Bailey's Women's Prize 2014 shortlist (Pub 2013)

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent

+15 task

Task total: 15
Grand total: 190

15.2 Eyes on the Prize

1967 Nebula

Flowers for Algernon byDaniel Keyes Lexile 910

+15 task
+ 5 published before 1990 (pub 1966)

Task total: 20
Grand total: 175

Kate S wrote: "Connie wrote: "10.8 War of the Roses

Foe by J.M. Coetzee

+10 task (pub 1986)
+ 5 oldie
+10 non-Western author (South African)

Task total: 25
Grand total: 165"

Sorr..."

I didn't realize he was a citizen of Australia. I'll adjust my points, Kate.

10.8 War of the Roses

Foe by J.M. Coetzee

+10 task (pub 1986)
+ 5 oldie
+10 non-Western author (South African)

Task total: 25
Grand total: 165

(Thank you, Connie, for choosing this! I absolutely LOVED it...one of the best books I've read in the past year)

Anika, I'm so glad you enjoyed it. It was one of my favorites too.

Thanks for your response, Elizabeth. I seem to be reading a lot of books for book groups and lifelong learning groups this month that don't quite fit the tasks.

Would The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar work for this task? The characters are from an upper class family, and a lower class family in India. Class/caste differences form the main theme of the book.

10.4 This book is # 177 on the list

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

YA assignment, Lexile 570.

Task total: 10
Grand total: 105

10.8 War of the Roses

This book was published in 1976. 1060 Lexile.

The Bride Price by Buchi Emecheta

+10 task
+10 non-Western (author born in Nigeria)
+ 5 oldie

Task total: 25
Grand total: 120

I edited message 182, adding combo 20.1. Virginia Woolf lived from 1882 to 1941.