Joanna’s
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(group member since Nov 17, 2010)
Joanna’s
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from the Reading with Style group.
Showing 941-960 of 2,307
10.7 Genre RichHis Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik
+10 Task (Historical & Science Fiction)
Task total: 10
Grand total: 25
10.4 VocationThe Girl Who Reads on the Métro by Christine Féret-Fleury
+10 Task (the primary setting is a sort of bookstore/library where they give away books)
+5 Combo (10.6 - TIME)
Task total: 15
Grand total: 15
I've been out for a while. I got buried with work this summer and fell into a reading slump of reading nothing but trashy romances. I'm finally finding my way back to enjoying real books again. For the end of this season, I'll just post the things that happen to fit. I'm looking forward to joining again in Spring.
20.4 Riding the MetroTwenty Fragments of a Ravenous Youth by Xiaolu Guo
Set in Beijing
Country: China
Continent: Asia
I read this entire book on the plane on the way to start my first post-Covid lockdown vacation. Hooray for vaccines! I loved the format of this book--it's told in "fragments" of the life of Fenfang. This young woman has moved from a rural village to Beijing to seek out a new life--she's working as an extra as well as in other odd jobs trying to figure out the big city and to figure out herself.
There's a very interesting author's note at the back of the edition I read where she talks about rewriting this book as it was translated into English ten years after it was first published and finding that she wanted to change some of the work that she'd written, wanted to give the young character more perspective--perhaps the perspective the author herself has gained over the intervening decade.
Highly recommended.
+20 Task
+5 Review
Task total: 25
Grand total: 225
15.2 TDoSExit Strategy by Martha Wells
Katy & Chinook
I have loved all of the Murderbot books. The narrator for the audiobooks does a great job capturing the unique voice of Murderbot and makes a convincing humanistic robot. These books must be read in order to have any understanding of what's happening, so if you're here at book 4, you either already like Murderbot or you belong back at All Systems Red.
+20 Task
+5 Review
Task total: 25
Grand total: 200
10.8 Page CountImpostors by Scott Westerfeld
407pp
I always enjoy Scott Westerfeld and remember thinking the Uglies series was just so cool. I didn't realize he'd written a whole new trilogy in the same universe as the Uglies books until I was browsing in a bookstore and came across this one.
These books are set after the fall of the Uglies world, so there are some references to that world as recent past history for these books, but I think these can stand alone without having read the others (but, really, the Uglies books are great, so you should go read those instead of picking up with this set). This book is full of action, teen heroes saving the world, and cool gadgets and tech.
Westerfeld always has the pulse of coolness and is able to capture salient points. Here, there's a bit of a sendup of social media and celebrity, some winks toward fashion and coolness, and lots of fighting and chase scenes. Really, it's everything you want from one of his books.
+10 Task
+5 Review
Task total: 15
Grand total: 175
10.6 Page CountReptile: The 2009 Manual Of The Plantiff's Revolution by David A. Ball
337pp
An important book for plaintiff's side trial attorneys. These concepts were considered revolutionary when they were first published in 2009. Now they're more commonly known and have been refined for different types of cases, but it's important to understand the beginning of the "Reptile" theory of case presentation. I enjoyed the war stories from veteran trial attorney David Ball and it's great to have bits of real transcripts. The chapter on preparing witnesses for deposition is also fantastic and worth the price of the book just for that.
+10 Task
+5 Review
Task total: 15
Grand total: 160
10.3 Page CountThe Keenan Law Firm Policy & Procedure Manual Focus Group by Andrew Gold
160pp
This is a how to book on running focus groups for civil legal cases. It focuses primarily on medical malpractice and personal injury, but has enough information for me to adapt it for my civil rights practice. I read the book, then ran our first set of focus groups the next day. I'm impressed with how much we were able to learn at relatively low cost and short time investment. I'm definitely planning to run more focus groups for future cases, and I'm glad to have this resource to help me with the details of how to make it work.
I need to read more on facilitation of these groups--this book is really just an introduction.
+10 Task
+5 Review
Task total: 15
Grand total: 145
10.1 Page CountBeauty Salon by Mario Bellatin
63 pages
A short, creepy short story/novella about a beauty salon that turns into "The Terminal" where men come to die. It's never specified what they're dying of--some sort of plague? a version of HIV/AIDS? The owner of the salon wants the Terminal to be a place where people die with dignity, but yet sets rules against visitors, and provides little comfort to the dying.
I found myself equally horrified and enthralled by this story.
I want to read more by this author.
+
The Plagiarist by Hugh Howey
57 pages
It's turtles all the way down in this strange short story about metaverses and virtual reality. I have enjoyed the Wool universe by this author, and had heard that he was also a masterful short story writer. I think this story might have benefited from a bit more depth of treatment. I understood where this was going from the beginning, but because of the short length, I wasn't particularly invested in the protagonist, so didn't feel much for him and his plight.
+10 Task
+5 Review
Task total: 15
Grand total: 130
15.1 TDoSAnxious People by Fredrik Backman
Linda & Katy
I love the quirky characters that populate Fredrik Backman's books. I didn't love this quite as much as A Man Called Ove, but I still really enjoyed this book. These characters were less likeable, but I was rooting for them anyway.
The set up for this book--a bank robbery gone sideways, where the robber takes a few hostages who were at an apartment showing--was a little forced, but not enough to ruin the book. The humor is strong enough to carry off the absurdity of the setting, and there's enough heart to make emotions feel real.
Overall a lovely book. I started with the audiobook, but ended up reading the hardcover instead. The narrator for the audiobook just didn't do it for me.
+15 Task
+5 Review
Task total: 20
Grand total: 115
OMG Ann!That Door is the coolest thing! I loved the Wayward Children books and I'm completely in love with your picture of that door. Thanks for sharing that with us.
20.3 Riding the MetroUnwanted by Kristina Ohlsson
I'm not sure how I stumbled on this Swedish mystery. I enjoyed the police characters, but found the ending quite rushed and the ultimate murderer a strange and incomplete choice. Still, I'd read another book in this series to see these characters continue to develop.
Setting - Stockholm
Country - Sweden
Continent - Europe
+20 Task
+5 Review
Task total: 25
Grand total: 95
20.2 Riding the MetroUnwound by Lorelei James
Romance novels are my current guilty pleasure books. With the world opening back up, my work is extremely busy and mentally taxing. I'm enjoying reading some books that aren't. This book is from the erotic romance genre, and the sex scenes are sometimes slightly cringe-worthy, but I liked the characters.
Setting - Denver, CO
Country - USA
Continent - N. America
+20 Task
+5 Review
Task total: 25
Grand total: 70
Ann wrote: "15.4 TDoSMe Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris."
I read that in 2007 and remember thinking it was funny at the time, but based on this review, I suspect I'd like it less today than I did then. Chalk that up to improved understanding of the world gained in the last decade...
20.1 Riding the MetroThe Black Book by Ian Rankin
Set in Edinburgh
Country: Scotland
Continent: Europe
I felt like Rebus started to come alive as a character in this book much more than in the previous four books in this long-running series. The mystery part of this book was action-packed but also had so many different pieces and different threads that the author couldn't quite keep it together. I really enjoyed the Edinburgh setting and felt like there was some authentic Scottish slang happening in the story. I'll definitely keep making my way slowly through the Rebus novels.
The narrator for the audiobook did a fine job with this one. I find mysteries often translate well to audio format, but this one wasn't the best because of the number of plot threads. I'd recommend reading this installment instead of listening.
+20 Task
+5 Review
+5 Before 1996 (pub. 1993)
Task total: 30
Grand total: 45
10.5 Page Count 250-299100 Sideways Miles by Andrew Smith
277 pp
I just love Andrew Smith. He has a way of capturing teenage boys that's gritty and real and vulnerable all at once. This book isn't as weirdly off-kilter as Grasshopper Jungle, but there's such heart here. I loved the voices of the three friends as they worked to sort themselves out into fully formed humans. I will continue to read anything Smith writes.
Fair warning: lots of f-bombs in this one and juvenile boner jokes. I was going to listen to it with my twelve-year-old, but it turned out to be a little too much.
+10 Task
+5 Review
Task total: 15
Grand total: 15
My nine- and twelve-year-old kids absolutely adore the Wimpy Kid books. I've found them pretty entertaining myself as well.
20.10 FamilyEverything Sad Is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri
+20 Task
+5 Combo (10.9 - riesling)
Task total: 25
Grand total: 1380
20.6 AchillesCall Me By Your Name by André Aciman
+20 Task
+5 Combo (10.9 - lambic)
Task total: 25
+100 RWS finish
+200 Mega finish
Grand total: 1355
