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

Joanna’s comments from the Reading with Style group.

10.9 Series

Charlie Bone and the Beast by Jenny Nimmo
low lexile

Task total: 10
Grand total: 825

20.2 Roald Dahl

Ghost Stories of an Antiquary by M.R. James

Wonderful collection of eight ghost stories. These are delectably creepy, but the narration is always second or third hand by a friendly narrator. The readers for this audiobook version did an excellent job reading in a crisp British accent and allowing the supernatural bits of the story to sneak up on the listener. I listened to several of these as I was cooking for Thanksgiving and it was excellent company to kitchen work.

The author is a scholar and it shows in these stories. There are historians and professors, research into ancient texts and objects leading to encounters with ghostly undead and other ghastlies. James does enough to describe these to make them specific, but also leaves a lot to the reader's imagination and the general atmosphere set by the story.

Recommended.

+20 Task (approved in help)
+10 Review
+10 Oldies (1904)
+10 Combo (20.8, 20.9)

Task total: 50
Grand total: 815

15.10 HaH

A Happy Marriage by Rafael Yglesias

+15 Task

+25 All Male Authors this half
+25 No repeats: N, O, P, R, S, T, W, X, Y, Z

Task total: 65

+50 HaH Completion

Grand total: 765

Does the story need to be adapted to a full-length film or is a short film enough for this task?

A few of M. R. James's short stories have been made into shorts:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4915296/?...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4915296/?...

This one is an hour long:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1411886/?...

And a TV movie:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1795050/?...

All these stories are found in Ghost Stories of an Antiquary

10.5 Booker

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

My friends have given this book really mixed reviews, so I didn't know what to expect going in. My experience with Booker winners is also pretty mixed. This one, I really liked. Generally, I like unreliable narrators and people who tell their stories from their own perspective and only later realize how individual and limited that perspective is. Here, we have an older (sixty-ish?) narrator looking back on his life and reflecting on his youthful friendships and romances (well, one romance in particular).

There's not a lot of plot here, but there is pretty good thinking about how we tell our own stories and what we do and don't know about the folks around us. I think this might have worked better in print, but then I wouldn't have been able to listen to it while doing pre-Thanksgiving cooking. The narrator did a fine job, but a lot of the philosophical discussions might have been better mulled over by a reader ready to pause and think before moving to the next paragraph.

Highly recommended as a character study for people who like this sort of navel-gazing. Highly not recommended for those for whom such a book sounds boring.

+10 Task
+10 Review
+5 Combo (20.6)

Task total: 25
Grand total: 625

20.9 Edgar Alan Poe

The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde

A charming story. Imagine buying a house that comes with a resident ghost, complete with clanking chains, changing appearances, and reappearing blood stains. The reader for this audiobook version did a great job characterizing the ghost and the other characters. I loved the idea that the ghost was offended by these Americans who aren't taking him seriously. I was afraid that the story wasn't going to end at the right place, and there were several points where it could have stopped, but I was ultimately happy with the resolution. Oscar Wilde must have had a wonderful time writing this story. I think it's accessible enough that I could listen to this one with my kids, so we might try that the next time we have a long car ride.

+20 Task
+10 Review
+10 Combo (10.6, 20.2)
+10 Oldies

Task total: 50
Grand total: 600

Is one other book enough?

I'm looking at The Boy Who Fell Out of the Sky. The author also wrote Accidentally, on Purpose: The Making of a Personal Injury Underworld in America.

10.3 George Orwell

The Circle by Dave Eggers

I hated A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius then really enjoyed What Is the What, so I wasn't sure what to expect from this one. But the premise here is really interesting, and quite chilling. A social media company becoming progressively pervasive and invasive, an increasing attention to popular responses, and a sense that something isn't worth doing if it isn't broadly shared. As a person who has largely resisted even Facebook, I felt a lot of sympathy with the anti-technology characters here who made an effort to take a stand for individual privacy. I wish I'd read this with a book club because I'd love to talk about this book more, but I find it hard to describe in sufficient detail to spur the conversation with someone who hasn't read it.

Highly recommended. More people should be thinking and talking about the issues raised here. This could be the 1984 of modern times.

+10 Task
+10 Review
+5 Combo (10.6 - Vonnegut map)
+5 Jumbo

Task total: 30
Grand total: 550

15. 9 HaH

Mimosa by Zhang Xianliang
Note: Author approved in help as X,Z

Task total: 15
Grand total: 520

15.5 HaH

Letters used: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, K, L, M
All female authors

The Color Master: Stories by Aimee Bender

Task total: 15
Grand total: 430

+25 All female authors
+25 No duplicate letters
+25 First half complete

Grand total: 505

Oscar Wilde appears on Kurt Vonnegut's map.

Oscar Wilde
From Wikipedia:

As a spokesman for aestheticism, he tried his hand at various literary activities: he published a book of poems, lectured in the United States and Canada on the new "English Renaissance in Art", and then returned to London where he worked prolifically as a journalist. Known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress and glittering conversation, Wilde became one of the best-known personalities of his day.

The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde

This has been adapted many times. Here is one:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036696/

Here is a tentative plan:

15.1 High
Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin
24, 28, 34

15.2 1st Dozen
Bound by Sasha White
1, 4, 11

15.3 Black
The Hustle: One Team and Ten Lives in Black and White by Doug Merlino
15, 31, 35

15.4 Even
What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty
14, 26, 30

15.5 Red
Report from the Interior by Paul Auster
9, 25, 36

15.6 2nd Dozen
Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
13, 16, 18

15.7 Column A
The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man by James Weldon Johnson
7, 10, 22

15.8 Column B
Nemesis by Agatha Christie
8, 17, 32

15.9 Column C
In a Glass Darkly by J. Sheridan Le Fanu
3, 6, 27

15.10 Green (000)
Roxana by Daniel Defoe

Could you please check whether Nemesis by Agatha Christie is YA?

I know Christie books are frequently YA-Assignment. I'm not able to find a regular hard copy of this book in English at BPL, but I've missed things before.

Nevermind. It's 810 lexile, so it doesn't matter.

20.5 John dos Passos

The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain

Noir at its best. There's something so delicious about reading this kind of book. The audiobook is just under three hours, so can be heard in on long car ride or a couple of long walks. This book is everything I want from a book like this - passion that just appears from nowhere and derails the lives of the characters, nonchalant murder because why not knock the guy off, a detective determined to get the criminal, and a dark ending. This isn't a mystery -- the reader knows what's happening throughout, but it sure feels like a hard-boiled detective story anyway.

Wikipedia tells me that this has been made into an opera, which must be totally awesome. I'd love to see this performed with all the drama of opera attached.

The narrator for the audio version did a fabulous job. I think these books beg to be read aloud. And since this is first-person narration, it works especially well.

+20 Task
+10 Review
+20 Combo (10.4 - 1934, 20.1, 20.2, 20.6)
+10 Oldies

Task total: 60
Grand total: 415

20.6 John Buchan

Trans-Sister Radio by Chris Bohjalian

I enjoyed this story, but found the book ultimately unsatisfying. The author wanted to write about a male-to-female transition and threw in some complications to carry the story. When focused on the transition, the surgery, the feelings of the character, the book glowed. But when the focus shifted to any other characters, to more complicated feelings and relationships, the book dimmed and crumpled. Maybe this is related to the abridgment -- the only audio I could get my hands on for this one is an abridged version (boo to audible for not carrying the unabridged version, which does exist but I couldn't get at reasonable cost).

Judith Ivey has a pleasant voice, but it wasn't a great role for her reading the book. I think the fault lies with the author and not with Ms. Ivey, but she could not save the book from the above-described problems.

Also, I think the book created too much confusion about partner preferences (i.e., I'd like my partner to be male) vs. personal gender identity (i.e., I feel myself to be female). Not that I'm an expert on these topics, but I did not feel that the book handled these issues smoothly. The ending was a disappointment to me.

+20 Task
+10 Review
+5 Combo (10.4 - 1998)

Task total: 35
Grand total: 355

10.6 Literature Map

To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis

The reader for this audiobook did a nice job. He used varying voices and accents for different characters and clearly found the story entertaining.

This story is an interesting mix of fantasy/time travel and a Victorian manners comedy. The author clearly put a lot of thought into the details of how time travel might actually work in a way that doesn't involve constant shifts to the future being created by meddling travelers. This was described in ways that felt relevant rather than just a lot of exposition.

Overall, the book requires a certain enjoyment of silliness -- people accidentally mishearing directions, searching through jumble sales for random items, and P.G. Wodehouse-style British humor.

And, I love the idea of being able to go back in time and rescue items that were destroyed by fire or bombings or other historical catastrophes.

+10 Task (Arthur C. Clarke map)
+10 Review
+10 Combo (10.4 - 1998; 10.9)

Task total: 30
Grand total: 320

Kate S wrote: "ETA From post 673

Joanna wrote: "20.3 Poets

Departmental Ditties & Barrack Room Ballads by Rudyard Kipling

I don't show Kipling as a Veteran (20.1), do you have a link? ."

I don't know how that ended up on my spreadsheet. Sorry for the error!

15.4 HaH

Petty Magic: Being the Memoirs and Confessions of Miss Evelyn Harbinger, Temptress and Troublemaker by Camille DeAngelis

+15 Task

Task total: 15
Grand total: 295