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

Connie ’s comments from the Reading with Style group.

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

20.6 Temptest (one day)

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

+20 task
+10 oldie (pub 1925)
+15 combo (10.4-# 383 on list; 10.5-on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category... list; 10.6-# 13 on list)
+ 5 editing to add combo 20.1 (author lived 1882-1941)

Task total: 50
Grand total: 95

15.1 Pub 1993, International IMPAC Dublin Lit Award 1996

Remembering Babylon by David Malouf

+15 task
+10 multi-awards Commonwealth Writers Prize SE Asia and South Pacific Regional Award 1994

Task total: 25
Grand total: 60

Total edited to 45 per message 148

10.5 Twelfth Night

The Ballad of the Sad Café and Other Stories by Carson McCullers

Carson McCullers is on Wikipedia's list of bisexual writers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category...

+10 task
+ 5 oldie (pub 1951)
+10 not a novel (short stories & novella)

Task total: 25
Grand total: 35

10.1 Square Peg

The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin

+10 task

Task total: 10
Grand total: 10

20.5 Othello

Lipstick Jihad: A Memoir of Growing up Iranian in America and American in Iran by Azadeh Moaveni

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

Task total: 30
Grand total: 30

Thank you to the moderators for all your hard work during the winter challenge.

Kate S wrote: "From Post 1033

Connie wrote: "20.7 Group Reads Redux

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

Stevens, an aging butler at Darlington Hall near Oxford, takes a trip thr..."

Thanks for the extra combo points, Kate.

This is my tentative plan. There are so many good books on these lists that it's hard to choose.


Pub.
1959-Nebula 1966 Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes 910 Lexile
1967-Rosenthal 1968 A Garden of Earthly Delights by Joyce Carol Oates
1988-Man Booker 1988 (also Miles Franklin 1989) Oscar and Lucinda byPeter Carey
1993-IMPAC 1996 (also Commonwealth South-East Asia and South Pacific Regional Award 1994) Remembering Babylon by David Malouf Read 3/12/14
2005-Somerset Maugham 2006 Incendiary by Chris Cleave (own)
2008-Dayton Literary Peace Prize nominee 2009 (also Pen/Open Book 2009) Say You're One of Them by Uwem Akpan (own)
2007-Scotiabank Giller 2007 Late Nights on Air by Elizabeth Hay
2008-Bailey's Orange Women's Prize 2010 (also IMPAC shortlist 2011) The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver (own)
2012-LACurrent Interest 2013(also Samuel Johnson 2013, NBA non-fiction 2012) Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo 305.569
2013-Walter Scott Award 2013 The Daughters of Mars by Thomas Keneally

Alternates:
1995-James Fenimore Cooper 1995 In the Lake of the Woods by Tim O'Brien
1993-National Book Critics Circle 1994 The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields (own)
1994-Commonwealth 1995 Captain Corelli's Mandolin byLouis de Bernières
1996-LA Times Biog 1996 (also National Book Critics 1996)Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt 929.2 (own)
2001-Hawthornden 2003 (also Samuel Johnson shortlist, Somerset Maughan 2003) The Snow Geese by William Fiennes non-fiction not listed in Brooklyn Public Library
2002-NBA 2002 Three Junes by Julia Glass (own)
2005-Printz 2006 Looking for Alaska by John Green Lexile 930
2005-Samuel Johnson 2007 The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann 918.11
2007-LA Book Prize 2007 Soldier's Heart: Reading Literature Through Peace and War at West Point by Elizabeth D. Samet 810.711

20.7 Group Reads Redux

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

Stevens, an aging butler at Darlington Hall near Oxford, takes a trip through England's West Country in 1956 to visit an old friend. He reminisces about his years serving the Lord Darlington, now deceased, who was very active politically behind the scenes following World War I. Stevens narrates the story of his life in a refined butler's way of speaking. He's such a model professional butler that he rarely lets down his reserved, polite facade. His new employer is an American, a relaxed man, that has Stevens feeling uncomfortable because of his employer's love of banter and small talk.

He thinks about what makes a great butler and comes up with "dignity" as being the most important qualification. Stevens had devoted his whole life to make things run smoothly for Lord Darlington. But now he realizes that Lord Darlington was not always wise, although he had the best of intentions, when dealing with German political figures as Hitler was coming into power.

Stevens also thinks about what he gave up by devoting his life solely to his profession. He had never revealed his feelings to the young housekeeper who had eventually left to marry another man.

"The Remains of the Day" is not only a portrait of the butler near the end of his working life. It also paints a picture of the British class system and politics. Highly recommended.

+20 task
+ 5 oldie (pub 1989)
+ 5 combo (20.6 #147 on the 20th Century list)
+10 review

Task Total: 40
Grand Total: 1465

TtPR Seafarer
15.10 Japan

Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto (A,B,C)

+ 15 task
+ 10 bonus
+100 Seafarer Well-Traveled Bonus
+200 Mega Bonus

Total This Post: 325
Grand Total: 1425

TtPR Seafarer
15.9 Cambodia

In the Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddey Ratner (A,C)

+15 task
+10 bonus

Task Total: 25
Grand Total: 1100

Thanks for your answer, Elizabeth.

I also wondered about the true story option. Can the book be classified as non-fiction as well as fiction? For instance, Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland's History-Making Race Around the World is called non-fiction, but has fictional elements to it. But another book I was considering, Under the Wide and Starry Sky, is called historical fiction.

They both would describe the "true story" element in their Goodreads main page.

Kate S wrote: "From Post 894

Connie wrote: "20.6 20th Century

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

Lexile 890

Okonkwo is a successful farmer in a Nigerian village in the late 19th Cen..."

Thanks you, Kate. The RwS challenge was fun. Now, two more books to go on the TtPR.

15.8 Malaysia TtPR Seafarer

The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng

Yun Ling has retired from the Malayan Supreme Court, and traveled back to the Cameron Highlands where she had lived during the Malayan Emergency in the 1950s. She has just been diagnosed with early aphasia, and wants to write down her memories before her mind forgets the past.

Yun Ling and her sister Yun Hong were teenage prisoners in a Japanese prison camp in the Malayan jungle during World War II. Although they had Chinese ancestry, they were admirers of Japanese gardens which they had visited with their parents. Yun Ling promised Yun Hong that they would create a garden if they lived through their ordeal at the prison. Yun Ling was the only survivor, and she decided to create a Japanese garden to honor her sister and wash away some of her survivor's guilt.

After the end of World War II, the country contended with communist terrorists during the Malayan Emergency in the 1950s. Malaya was multi-cultural and multi-ethnic, and was still under the control of the British at that time. Yun Ling was visiting a family friend who was the owner of a tea plantation. He suggested that she ask his neighbor, Aritomo Nakamura, to design her Japanese garden. Aritomo had been a gardener to the emperor in Japan in his younger years. Aritomo takes Yun Ling on as an apprentice in his own garden so she can learn the art of designing a Japanese garden. As they work together, hidden details about their lives during the war are revealed, layer by layer. Memories form an important theme in this book.

There is a contrast between the peaceful serenity and beauty of the Garden of Evening Mists, and the violence that is taking place outside its walls. The author wove together poetic descriptions of Asian art and culture with depictions of brutal atrocities to create a wonderful story.

+15 task
+10 bonus

Task Total: 25
Grand Total: 1075

20.6 20th Century

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

Lexile 890

Okonkwo is a successful farmer in a Nigerian village in the late 19th Century. He has vowed to be the opposite of his relaxed, lazy father. Okonkwo's social status in the village is important to him, and he is respected because he's a strong wrestler and a fierce warrior. But Okonkwo is unkind to his sensitive son and beats his wives because he wants to project a strong, manly image. The first half of the book shows the traditional Ibo village with its folktales, rituals honoring the ancestors, and tribal laws. The people are working together as a clan. The author does not pretend that all the indigenous traditions are perfect. For example, twin babies are brought into the wilderness to die, women are often beaten, and some people are shunned.

Then the English white settlers come into the village. The Christian missionaries convert some of the villagers, especially the meek and the outcasts that had not been well accepted by the clan. As the clan members are no longer operating under the same set of beliefs, the Ibo traditions and culture weaken. Okonkwo's friend says, "How do you think we can fight when our own brothers have turned against us? The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that hold us together and we have fallen apart."

Okonkwo is later angered by some unjust treatment by the colonial government, and he acts instinctively with violence. He does not think about what would be best for the clan in the situation.

The author had a multicultural childhood in Ogidi, a village in Nigeria, where the traditional Ibo culture was present. But Achebe was the son of a missionary, and was educated in English in good schools. As a university student he was interested in the indigenous Nigerian cultures and their oral traditions. "Things Fall Apart" was his first novel, published in 1958.

+20 task (#120 on 20th Century list)
+10 combo (20.3 post-colonial, 10.6 beg/end)
+ 5 oldie (pub 1958)
+10 review

Task total: 45
Grand total: 950

20.9 Daytona 500

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

Lexile 890

Although it was published in 1847, the classic Jane Eyre features a heroine that people can admire today. Jane spent her childhood as an orphan in the home of cruel relatives and in a charity school. But she maintained her dignity and spirit, learned from her experiences, and became a governess.

Mr Rochester, a brooding, intelligent man with a family secret, is her employer. He's tired of superficial society women, and enjoys sparring with the inexperienced Jane in a flirty battle of wits. She has to make a decision whether to stay with this passionate, but flawed, man. Jane also meets another man--ambitious but cold--who is interested in her. Jane weighs what she considers important in a marriage--honor, some independence, a meaningful life, an intellectual equal, love, and passion. She truly was a strong woman who wanted control over her own destiny.

The book has a delightfully dark Gothic atmosphere. Rochester's dark secret, strange noises in the night, unexplained fires, a gypsy telling fortunes, desperate walks in the pouring rain, and a bit of the supernatural all contribute to the Gothic mood.

This was my second time reading Jane Eyre, and I was even more impressed with how Charlotte Brontë was ahead of her time in her portrayal of a courageous woman. In addition to Jane's story, the book also showed the sharp divisions in social class. The religious figures in the book ranged from the hypocritical to the charitable. The book gave me a look into Victorian society in an engaging story.

+20 task (507 pages)
+15 oldie (Pub 1847)
+ 5 combo (10.6 first novel)
+10 review
+ 5 jumbo
Task total: 55
Grand total: 905

Kate S wrote: "From Post 846

Connie wrote: "20.10 Between the Wars

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

YA assignment, no Lexile listed

Thank you, Kate. I had seen your post about the Lexile site being down over the weekend. You're one step ahead of me!

20.10 Between the Wars

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

YA assignment, no Lexile listed

+20 task (Hesse was born in 1877)

Task total: 20
Grand total: 830