Joanna’s
Comments
(group member since Nov 17, 2010)
Joanna’s
comments
from the Reading with Style group.
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Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Joanna wrote: "It's told in alternating chapters switching POV between the male and the female main characters about half and half. I don't know if that's enough to count for 20.3?."Yes, it is. H..."
Hooray! Thanks. I have others in this series, so I'll count it for those when I finish them.
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Joanna wrote: "10.2 NameFollow by J.A. Huss
From the description, this appears to be a novel written from a male POV and J.A. Huss is a woman, so that it qualifies for 20.3. Let us know if that is not the case."
It's told in alternating chapters switching POV between the male and the female main characters about half and half. I don't know if that's enough to count for 20.3?
10.10 Group ReadsTranscendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
+10 Task
+10 Non-western
+10 Combo (10.9 - amaretto, 20.10)
Task total: 30
Grand total: 85
10.9 Pub TriviaThe Black Friend: On Being a Better White Person by Frederick Joseph
+10 Task (cabernet)
Task total: 10
Grand total: 40
10.3 Naughty NinetiesParable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
+10 Task (1993)
+5 Oldies
Task total: 15
Grand total: 15
20.8 TravelGhosts of Spain: Travels Through Spain and its Silent Past by Giles Tremlett
This year of pandemic isolation has been quite difficult. One of the ways that I've made it through is by planning exciting vacations for the distant future and hoping that by then I'll be released from my house. Around December, we bought plane tickets to travel to Madrid and Lisbon in late June. I'm still hoping that trip will be possible. As part of fantasizing about being in Madrid instead of Missouri, especially in the coldest, darkest Februariest of Februarys, I picked up this book on Spain and Spanish history.
Through the beginning chapters, I was absorbed by the writer's experience as a British man married to a Spanish woman living in Spain and viewing the culture and history as a semi-outsider. The discussion of the continued trauma of Franco and the still not reconciled history was fascinating. But as the book wore on, I started to doubt the author's authority. He started generalizing about all of Spain based on a couple of strip clubs and a study about attitudes to prostitution.
By the end of the book, I had to force myself to trudge through. But still, it's served its purpose of helping me imagine myself not snowed in and social distancing and instead think of eating dinner on a warm late night while listening to flamenco singers.
+20 Task
+10 Review
Task total: 30
Grand total: 1110
+100 RWS finish
+200 Mega finish
Grand total: 1410
20.3 Post-ModernThe Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
I recently read Jesus Land: A Memoir, which is a memoir telling the story of a religious reform school in the Dominican Republic where the author and her brother were sent by their parents. That story strongly parallels the story told here of the Dozier School, though this one is state-run and only for boys, and perhaps even worse than the school described in Jesus Land.
Colson Whitehead has written a devastating and masterful story to tell the stories of these students and the horrible experience of this school. He pulls the threads of history to examine the generations of abuse and the way that the culture of the school and it's "discipline" is handed down from father to son. He then pulls back to examine the lasting effects that the school has on it's students--the ways that their lives are permanently damaged, and the ways that some persevere anyway, finding life.
I loved The Underground Railroad, but I think this book outpaces it to be my favorite book by Whitehead.
The narrator for the audiobook is excellent and the book works well in audio format.
Thanks for picking this as a Group Read this season. Seeing everyone reading it encouraged me to pick it up despite it's dark subject.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+15 Prizeworthy
+10 Combo (10.10, 10.6)
Task total: 55
Grand total: 1080
20.6 CaribbeanTelex from Cuba by Rachel Kushner
Ultimately, I wanted to like this book more than I actually liked it. The book tells the story of Americans in Cuba in the 1950s living their high-imperialism life just as the Cuban revolution begins. There's a lot of interesting stuff happening here about colonialism, imperialism, privilege, and whiteness. And this is the part that I liked and wanted to feel.
But the characters were held at a distance that made it hard to connect with them. The story was told mostly in the past tense, which contributed to the distance. And told from the perspective of the adult looking back/commenting on his own childhood rather than as a lived present. This allowed for more reflection on what he did and didn't realize as a child, but also meant that the reader was in a lot of tell and not as much vivid show.
There were also side stories here that didn't seem to move the narrative forward and were instead used only as vehicles to put in more information about the politics than the main narrators knew about. This felt disjointed and jumbled to me, especially the story of the ex-Nazi and the dancer.
The narrator for the audiobook didn't help the situation. His narration was even and easy on the ears, but not at all exciting and made little effort to differentiate characters or voices.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+5 Prizeworthy
Task total: 35
Grand total: 1025
20.1 Black History MonthHalf of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
This book took me two months to read because the reading experience was so intense that I could only manage it in small chunks. The book tells the story of the Biafra-Nigeria war, a conflict about which I know little. The book is beautifully written and presents several very different characters with robust personalities, perspectives, backstories, and paths. I loved the way that the different characters brought their thoughts and histories to their perspective on the war and the politics.
There is also a scene with American journalists coming to cover the war that is beautifully handled and shows the way that foreign media can be so completely ill-informed even when trying to be helpful.
This is probably my favorite of the three books I've read by this author (the others were Purple Hibiscus and Americanah).
+20 Task
+10 Review
+15 Prize worthy
+15 Combo (10.4, 10.5 - one of three main characters is a writer, 20.5)
Task total: 60
Grand total: 990
First ideas:20.1 - An American Marriage by Tayari Jones or Home by Marilynne Robinson
20.2 - Dragonquest by Anne McCaffrey or Provenance by Ann Leckie
20.3 - Started Early, Took My Dog by Kate Atkinson
20.4 - Seduction in Death by J.D. Robb
20.5 - The Exiled by Kati Hiekkapelto
20.6 - Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman
20.7 - Everything Sad Is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri or The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory
How about Everything Sad Is Untrue? I think it's the author's own story, but it's set up as fiction/fictionalized rather than a memoir.
First draft:I-W The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks
G-T Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay OR The Tooth Fairy by Graham Joyce
D-O Dr. Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation by Olivia Judson
C-Q Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams
E-R Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline
B-S The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins
F-Y You're Never Weird on the Internet by Felicia Day
Revised Draft:
I-W The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks
G-T Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay OR The Tooth Fairy by Graham Joyce
D-O Dr. Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation by Olivia Judson
C-Q Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams
E-R Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline
B-S The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins
F-Y You're Never Weird on the Internet by Felicia Day
M-N The Ministry of Special Cases by Nathan Englander
A-X A Lover's Discourse by Xiaolu Guo
L-U or J-P or K-V:
-->Like No Other by Una LaMarche
-->The Privileges by Jonathan Dee
-->Vivian Apple at the End of the World by Katie Coyle
10.7 La NinaHard Rain by Irma Venter
I can't think of any other book I've read that was originally written in Afrikaans, and I can't help but wonder if something was lost in translation with this one. The plot was suspenseful and the unreliable narrator setup was interesting, but somehow the book never quite came together. Things would be moving in one direction, then would abruptly switch narrators or locations or the character would make a decision that just seemed random.
I enjoyed the setting in Tanzania and the background of the flooding rains. And I liked the mystery being more complicated than just a dead guy and a suspect.
The book ends in an inconclusive way, leaving room for the next in the series. I’m intrigued enough with these characters that I’d read another book by this author.
The narrators for the audiobook did a great job and it was a good choice to have different narrators for the different characters.
+10 Task
+10 Review
+10 Lost in Translation
+5 Combo (10.4)
Task total: 35
Grand total: 930
10.2 ChristmasFrom Russia With Love by Ian Fleming
This is the first James Bond book that I’ve read, though of course I’m familiar with the character from the movies. First, Bond doesn’t show up in the book until nearly halfway through. The first half is all Russian plotting. Second, I hadn’t expected this book to be quite as ridiculous as it was. The plot here is that the Russians send a beautiful girl to convince Bond that she’s fallen in love with his picture and that she’s so in love with him that she’ll steal an important machine and give it to him if he takes her away with him. Bond totally buys this—obviously he’s so awesome that anyone would love him just from his picture. And he can totally judge her sincerity by looking into her eyes and sleeping with her and boom—he’s sure she can’t be a spy.
Still, despite the ridiculousness, and the moments of laughable sexism (e.g., where the girl says maybe she’ll eat so much and get so fat Bond won’t like her any more, and asks if he’ll beat her and he says of course he will), I still enjoyed the story. There was tension in the chase and great scenery.
The narrator for the audiobook was great and I enjoyed his voice. This is a fine choice for a long drive or travel where you might be distracted occasionally. You don’t have to hear every word to follow this thickly plotted book.
+10 Task
+10 Review
Task total: 20
Grand total: 895
10.9 The Fifth SeasonThe Broken Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin
I'm enjoying this trilogy, though not quite as much as the author's Broken Earth trilogy. If you've already read The Fifth Season and the other books in that trilogy, continue on. If you haven't read those yet, go read those, then come back to this Inheritance trilogy.
Jemisin is a masterful world-builder. Her universes are interesting and fantastical and full of lore reinvented and turned upside down. In this trilogy, we find gods and godlings and demons (children of a god and a mortal) interacting with a complicated political system. The heroine here is a blind artist who, despite blindness, is able to see certain magic. I loved the heroine, even during moments where I wanted her to take action already instead of waiting for someone to save her.
For all her strength in world-building, and in writing cool heroines, Jemisin falls flat on her romantic encounters. The heroine here is supposed to have had a relationship with one godling, then develops a relationship with another god. These are supposed to be powerful feelings. There's a sex scene describing just how amazing this all is. But I never felt the emotional connection at all.
I'll definitely read the third book in this trilogy. Soon, so I don't forget the details of all these characters.
Note on narration: the narrator for the audiobook did a fine job, though this is not the easiest book to adapt to audio format because there are so many characters and so much strange world-building. I'd recommend reading the print version of this instead.
+10 Task
+10 Review
+5 Prize worthy
Task total: 25
Grand total: 900
10.1 Square PegThe Queen's Gambit by Walter Tevis
I had already watched the Netflix series, which very closely tracks the book. Since I let my children watch the series, I also let them listen to the audiobook with me. Note to parents: this is not children's literature--there is drug use, sex, and some bad decision-making. But my son loves chess and he really wanted to watch the series.
I loved the book. Even if you don't understand the details of the chess (which I mostly don't), the tension of the tournaments prickles with electricity. The story of genius, addiction, competition plus the brilliant setting of changing society in the 1950s and 1960s is just fantastic.
The narrator for the audiobook managed a perfect tone for the book.
+10 Task
+10 Review
Task total: 20
Grand total: 875
20.10 Grand MasterKnown to Evil by Walter Mosley
Walter Mosley can really write. This character, in all his flawed glory, pops off the page. This is the second installment in the Leonid McGill series, which follows a mid-50ish private detective in New York City. He has a rolodex to beat all rolodexes (though, this is modern, so it's not a real rolodex). He has disguises and plans, a checkered past, and hot running emotions. There's a noir feel to this, but it's modern and brimming with details.
The plot of this book left something to be desired. There were many characters floating in and out with little backstory and the overall mystery/puzzle never fully engaged me. It just shows how strong the characters and writing are that I'm willing to forgive plot in a mystery/detective novel, which really should be plot driven.
The narrator for the audiobook did an excellent job. He isn't a narrator that I'm familiar with, but I'll watch for his name in other work.
I'll definitely read the next book in this series at some point.
+20 Task
+10 Review
Task total: 30
Grand total: 855
