Joanna’s Comments (group member since Nov 17, 2010)

Joanna’s comments from the Reading with Style group.

I tried to send a message by clicking on your profile and it said you weren't accepting messages. I went back to my messages and replied to an old thread and that seemed like it went through, but please let me know if you didn't get it.

I'm having a hard time identifying non-fiction series.

I've found this one: https://www.goodreads.com/series/2883...

and this one: https://www.goodreads.com/series/3312...

But I only found those by randomly clicking around on nonfiction authors. Anyone have a list or want to share some other thoughts?

20.10 Mystery

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

I'm not sure why it took me ten years to get to this once wildly popular thriller. The pacing of this book is nearly perfect. At just the point when the reader is feeling like the story makes sense, it takes a turn. I really liked the examination of the psychological side of these characters and the depth of their crazy was explored. Overall, the book is pretty far-fetched, but it was impossible to put down and I listened to the whole book over the course of two days.

The narrators for the audiobook are good, but the portions that are from a diary might have worked slightly better in print.

Now I want to watch the movie.

+20 Task
+10 Review
+10 Combo (10.4, 20.7)

Task total: 40
Grand total: 1375

10.10 Group Reads

The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich

I don't always like authors as narrators, but Erdich does a great job with this audiobook. She managed to differentiate the characters and give them authentic voices.

Erdich is one of those prolific American writers that I feel like I should have read but somehow had not. I'm pretty sure I have one of her books on my shelves waiting to be picked up, but just never quite got to anything of hers. I'm so glad to have finally read one of her novels.

I enjoyed the historical fiction here telling the story of legal shenanigans in the 1950s to try to take back land that had been given to Native Americans in North Dakota. I'd love to read more about the real history of this story. It's hard to know how much of what appeared in this novel was fictionalized to build these characters.

I would definitely read more by this author.

+10 Task
+10 Review
+10 Combo (10.8, 10.9)

Task total: 30
Grand total: 1335

10.10 Group Reads

Swimming in the Dark by Tomasz Jedrowski

I'm so glad that someone recommended this book to me as I'd never heard of the book or the author. I switched back and forth between the text and the audio for this one, which worked nicely.

The story is a coming of age/first love story, the story of identity, and repression, and politics. I really enjoyed the intersections with Giovanni's Room, which I just read recently so had fresh in my memory. I don't always like stories that are framed as remembrances, but the author managed it quite well here and the structure allowed for much deeper reflection on the narrator's part than would have worked in a present-tense story.

A wonderful novel and a good listen as well.

+10 Task
+10 Review

Task Total: 20

+50 halfway finish 10pt tasks
+200 megafinish

Post total: 270
Grand total: 1305

20.1 Birthdays

The Pure and the Impure by Colette

I have adored several of Colette's novels, but this musing on love was a struggle. I could barely bring myself to read it and only finished it because it is really short. Perhaps I'm just in the wrong mood, but I found the sentences overly long, the sentiments sometimes infuriating and often confusing, and the whole thing surprisingly boring for a book that's supposed to be reflecting on sexuality. Maybe it's better in the original French. And a lot of people seem to really like this book and to be recommending it as insightful and powerful. So, probably, don't listen to me. But also, go read some of Colette's delightful novels instead.

+20 Task (pub. 1932)
+10 Review
+10 Aged
+5 Combo (20.3)

Task total: 45

+50 Halfway finish 20 pt tasks

Post total: 95
Grand total: 1035

I'm not sure when you reorganized the archives, but I just noticed it and it's great. I love being able to look back at all the old tasks in one centralized place. Thanks!

Move a task---

In post 114, I posted Trust by Hernan Diaz for 10.4.

Could I please move that to 20.10?

Post total: +10
Grand total: 940

20.5 Books

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

I listened to the absolutely wonderful audio production with my 11-year-old daughter. We both loved this book and were both in tears at the end. Scott Brick is always a favorite narrator, but he really does a fabulous job with this one. Definitely a good one to listen to.

This is about the bookiest book about books that there is. The story is set in a bookstore, there are book references throughout, and each chapter is introduced with a little note about a book or short story. I got many but not all of the references. My daughter got few or none of them. That didn't stop her from enjoying this story enough to find excuses to listen to the book. She even wanted to go with me to run errands so we could put the story on in the car.

There was a constant danger that this would become too cute, but it narrowly avoided that fate. Highly recommended.

+20 Task
+10 Review

Task total: 30
Grand total: 930

15.10 Alpha Omega
(I-O)

None of the Above by I.W. Gregorio
Lexile: 770

+30 Task

Task total: 30

+100 Completion bonus

Post total: 130
Grand total: 900

10.4 Twelve

Misbehaving by Tiffany Reisz

This is a quick little erotic retelling of Much Ado About Nothing. I love Tiffany Reisz for writing fun, sexy, sex-positive books. Her characters are always interesting and human and she doesn't shy away from having characters who just like having sex and aren't ashamed of themselves. It's a refreshing break from many of the tropes in heterosexual erotica that often seem to center around guilt/shame and blushing virgins. It was a little bit of a stretch to fit the story to the Shakespeare plotline, but it ultimately worked. This book is tamer than some of Reisz's other work.

+10 Task
+10 Review

Task total: 20
Grand total: 770

20.9 Translator

The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu

Let me start by saying that the narrator the audiobook did a fantastic job with the narration of this relatively long and complicated book. There are a lot of characters, a lot of story threads, and the narrator had a handle on all of them. Truly excellent production work.

I wish I were slightly more familiar with the actual Chinese history and lore that is in the background of this story. I'm sure better reference-catching would have enriched this reading experience. But even without that knowledge, I very much enjoyed this story. You can feel the author's prowess as a short story writer. Several of the characters have backstories told in the form of a short story. This worked remarkably well in a way that it doesn't always, which is largely attributable to the author's sense of timing for short stories.

I feel like I should read the rest of the series pretty quickly before I forget all the details here.

+20 Task
+10 Review
+5 Combo (10.7 - while this is based on Chinese history, it is actually set in a fictional country)
+5 Jumbo (~600pgs)

Task total: 40
Grand total: 750

15.9 Alpha Omega
(G-N)

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

+25 Task

Task total: 25
Grand total: 710

Also, Rohinton Mistry, 2012 winner of The Neustadt Prize (sometimes called the American Nobel): https://www.neustadtprize.org/categor...

10.1 - Candyfreak: A Journey Through the Chocolate Underbelly of America by Steve Almond
10.2 - Mother Dear by Nova Lee Maier
10.3 - The Priest by Tiffany Reisz (Original Sinners series)
10.4 - Amy and Isabelle by Elizabeth Strout
10.5 - The Child in Time by Ian McEwan
Stellarlune by Shannon Messenger
10.6 - Pigeons: The Fascinating Saga of the World's Most Revered and Reviled Bird by Andrew D. Blechman
The Pillow Book of Sei Shōnagon by Sei Shōnagon
10.7 - The Doll: The Lost Short Stories by Daphne du Maurier
10.8 - Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende
10.9 - Crows & Cards by Joseph Helgerson
10.10 - Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John MandelGenki Kawamura
If Cats Disappeared from the World by Genki Kawamura

20.1 - Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence
20.2 - The Elementary Particles by Michel Houellebecq
A Woman's Story by Annie Ernaux
20.3 - Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
20.4 - A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
20.5 - Soulless by Gail Carriger
20.6 - Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
20.7 - The Scar by China Miéville
Peeps by Scott Westerfeld
20.8 - The First Mrs. Rothschild by Sara Aharoni
20.9 - A Black Women's History of the United States by Daina Ramey Berry
The Food of a Younger Land: The WPA's Portrait of Food in Pre-World War II America by Mark Kurlansky
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom by August Wilson
20.10 - Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
The Wishbones by Tom Perrotta

Penciling in Marilynne Robinson, who won the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library...

So, it looks like Murder at the Vicarage is not shelved as YA at BPL. Is that right?

So, if the genre reads "Science Fiction Fantasy" will that count for either Science Fiction or Fantasy or is that neither one?

I can't believe Goodreads search is disabled on the day that new tasks are announced! How discourteous of GR.

Fantasy Plan:

1965 - The Cyberiad by Stanisław Lem
1970 - This Perfect Day by Ira Levin
1977 - Fluke by James Herbert
1988 - Sleeping in Flame by Jonathan Carroll
1995 - Bloodsucking Fiends by Christopher Moore
2000 - Perdido Street Station by China Miéville
2007 - All Seated on the Ground by Connie Willis OR The Last Colony by John Scalzi
2012 - Timebound by Rysa Walker OR Range of Ghosts by Elizabeth Bear OR After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall by Nancy Kress
2017 - The Murders of Molly Southbourne by Tade Thompson OR Walkaway by Cory Doctorow
2022 - Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel