Joanna’s
Comments
(group member since Nov 17, 2010)
Joanna’s
comments
from the Reading with Style group.
Showing 1,421-1,440 of 2,307
10.8 PTSDThe Adventures of Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey
Low lexile
+10 Task
Task total: 10
Grand total: 280
20.3 PoetsDepartmental Ditties & Barrack Room Ballads by Rudyard Kipling
A surprisingly fun collection of poems, many about the foils of bureaucracy. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, though agree with the GR description that suggests that a modern reader benefits from some notes and explanations. I wish someone would read this for librivox. The collection would be most excellent read aloud in a proper British or Scottish accent. In any event, I'm glad to have been pushed to read some poetry from this era by a group here because I'd never have picked this up on my own. I read these in small spurts during lunch hours and hold times on phone calls and other such moments. I don't think I would have wanted to sit down and read this from cover to cover as it might have gotten overly repetitive that way.
+20 Task
+10 Oldies
+10 Review
+20 Combo (10.6, 10.8, 20.1, 20.6)
Task total: 60
Grand total: 270
10.9 SeriesCharlie Bone and the Hidden King by Jenny Nimmo
low lexile
+10 Task
Task total: 10
Grand total: 210
10.7 Sharing ObscurityThe Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
Using Sarah's shelf
This book tells the first person account of geeky (and autistic) scientist meets quirky girl. The book is light romantic comedy, not deep drama, but there is heart to the story and characters that radiate out of the book.
This was a perfect choice as an audiobook. The narrator captures the first person inner monologue of the main character, Don, and listening to the book helped me be in Don's head. I very much enjoyed hearing about the coping mechanisms that he developed to deal with what he calls his difficulty in reading social situations, emotions, facial expressions, and generally dealing with others. I have no idea whether this is an accurate portrayal of the inner monologue of a real person on the autism spectrum, but the character is enjoyable whether as a true portrayal or just a quirky character.
I'll definitely look for the sequel to this one.
+10 Task
+10 Review
Task total: 20
Grand total: 200
10.10 Group ReadsAll the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Narration:
The narrator for the audiobook did an excellent job keeping the structurally complicated story from getting lost in the audio format. This book shouldn't work as an audiobook since it has not only shifting viewpoints but also shifting time frames. I can see why this won the Audies Award for Fiction in 2015. Totally deserved.
Book:
Unfortunately, despite elegant writing and some beautiful scenes, the book sometimes drifted into the overly sentimental. The overall plot felt unsatisfying. Clearly the separate stories were going to cross paths eventually, but I was hoping for more interest and excitement when they did.
Still, I liked these characters. I wanted to know what was going to happen next. The story of the model cities created to help a blind girl navigate was fantastical and wonderful. While some readers disliked the layer of myth/fantasy involved in the storyline about the diamond, I enjoyed that aspect of the plot.
Ending:
The author couldn't bear to finish this book. So there was an ending. Then another one. Then a completely unnecessary scene of additional violence. Then an epilogue. And another one. For an author with the ability to write human and compelling characters, I was surprised by the clunkiness of the final chapters.
Overall: enjoyable and worth the time, but not as great as I'd hoped it would be after all the rave reviews and awards.
+10 Task
+10 Review
+5 Jumbo
+5 Combo (20.6)
Task total: 30
Grand total: 180
I'm aiming to finish the subchallege and maybe one or two more books, but definitely not going to be mega this time. This is my busy season at work plus I work for an elected official, so there will be turnover in my office come January.
10.9 SeriesCharlie Bone and the Castle of Mirrors by Jenny Nimmo
low lexile
Task total: 10
Grand total: 150
20.4 Evelyn WaughBring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel
Review:
I liked this much more than Wolf Hall and I think that's because they changed narrators. Simon Vance is an excellent narrator and it was the fact that he was narrating this that led me to choose the audio over the print edition even though my recommendation after listening to Wolf Hall was that one should probably go with print. Simon Vance has quickly risen to the ranks of Scott Brick and Davina Porter as a narrator whose name I look for when choosing books to listen to. Seriously, if you like audios, you can't go wrong with these readers.
This part of the story is familiar to me. I've read this story from Anne's perspective in the much fluffier The Other Boleyn Girl and I've read some of this in a much more boring history. I loved having the story told from Cromwell's point of view and the humanizing of this character is quite impressive.
I'm looking forward to the third book in this trilogy.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+10 Combo (10.5, 10.9)
Task total: 40
Grand total: 140
15.8 HaHThe Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail - But Some Don't by Nate Silver
Task total: 15
Grand total: 100
15.6 HaHMales N-Z; no duplicates
Letters used: O, P
Snow by Orhan Pamuk
+15 Task
Task total: 15
Grand total: 25
10.9 Next?Charlie Bone and the Invisible Boy by Jenny Nimmo
Low lexile, no styles
+10 Task
Task total: 10
Grand total: 10
Luis Alberto Urreasee http://www.luisurrea.com/about-luis
"After serving as a relief worker in Tijuana and a film extra and columnist-editor-cartoonist for several publications, Urrea moved to Boston "
Enough to qualify?
Does To Say Nothing of the Dog fit this task?When I click on the series link on the book page, it takes me to "Oxford Time Travel," which has a .5, 1, and 2 as well as two other books that look like they might actually be a different series ("All Clear").
Anthony Doerr: Doerr also writes a column on science books for the Boston Globe and is a contributor to The Morning News, an online magazine. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antho...
10.7 OlympicsCharlie and the Great Glass Elevator by Roald Dahl
Task total: 10
Grand total: 1550
And that's it for the season! This was my best season ever. Bingo really inspired me to read the books from my list!
