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

Joanna’s comments from the Reading with Style group.

Thanks for sharing this with us. Reading your journey came at a perfect moment for me as one of my dear friends and coworkers has recently been diagnosed with cancer and I have been trying to be supportive of him and his wife as they go through this. Reading another's reflections is so helpful.

I need to move a book.

In post #113, I posted Visitors by Anita Brookner to 20.2, with 10.2 as a combo.

I'd like to move that to 10.2 with 20.2 as a combo.

Task total: -10
Grand total: 585

20.2 Graham Greene

John Sherman / Dhoya by W.B. Yeats

+20 Task
+10 Not a novel (short stories)
+20 Combo (20.1, 20.4, 20.5, 20.6)
+10 Oldies (1891)

Task total: 60
Grand total: 595

20.5 R.K. Narayan

The Plough and the Stars by Seán O'Casey

+20 Task (approved in help)
+5 Combo (10.7)
+10 Not-a-novel (play)
+10 Oldies (1926)

Task total: 45
Grand total: 535

20.3 Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Dreams Underfoot by Charles de Lint

+20 Task
+10 Not a novel (short stories)
+5 Combo (20.5 - approved in help)

Task total: 35
Grand total: 490

15.3 WotW

One of Our Thursdays Is Missing by Jasper Fforde

Atlantic Ocean - UK
Author born and resides/citizen

+15 Task

Task total: 15
Grand total: 455

10.6 Books About Books

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

+10 Task (122+ shelvings)
+5 Combo (10.8 - professor)
+5 Oldies (pub. 1980)
+5 Jumbo

Task total: 25
Grand total: 440

I think Umberto Eco fits here -- he was a professor at various times: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umberto... "In 1992–1993 Eco was the Norton professor at Harvard University . . . At the time of his death at the age of 84, he was a professor emeritus at the University of Bologna, a position that he had held since 2008."

What about Umberto Eco?

He wrote novels - The Name of the Rose
And nonfiction - On Literature

Does satire count for short stories: Misreadings
This is a collection of parodies by the author of The Name of the Rose and Foucault's Pendulum.

Let's talk about Seán O'Casey.

He's mostly known as a dramatist (plays). The Complete Plays Of Sean O'casey

But he also has a famous autobiography (nonfiction) Sean O'Casey - Autobiographies

But other places have also referenced poetry: Windfalls: Stories, Poems, and Plays -- says it includes 11 poems

Is that enough poetry to qualify him here?

Louis de Bernières

Novels: A Partisan's Daughter
Short Stories: Notwithstanding: Stories from an English Village
Poetry: A Walberswick Goodnight Story, Imagining Alexandria

20.9 Tournament of Books

The Story of My Teeth by Valeria Luiselli

+20 Task

Task total: 20
Grand total: 415

20.6 Bronte Sisters

Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch

+20 Task (approved in help)
+5 Combo (20.5 - approved in help)

Task total: 25
Grand total: 395

10.10 Group Reads

11/22/63 by Stephen King

+10 Task
+20 Combo (10.7 - King; 10.8, 20.5, 20.6 - all approved in help)
+15 Jumbo

Task total: 45
Grand total: 370

10.9 Back to Business

SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes And Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance by Steven D. Levitt

+10 Task
+5 Combo (10.8 - professor)
+10 Not-a-novel (nonfiction)

Task total: 25
Grand total: 325

Okay, I finished this jumbo book. I really enjoyed the take on time travel. I thought the book handled the inevitable questions about how it all fits pretty well.

What fascinated me about this book is that the characters, the time travel, and the romance were the compelling part of the book. The Oswald/Kennedy part was actually the least interesting and least interactive. Our protagonist hardly interacts with Oswald at all and the discussion of the major political events felt rushed and dry.

But the romance with Sadie -- how powerful this was. My heart broke for these characters.

Overall, very enjoyable book.

10.8 License to Write

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
Lexile: 1000

+10 Task (architect)
+5 Multiple (see post 246)

Task total: 15
Grand total: 290

10.4 Mystery

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

+10 Task (first genre after Fiction)
+5 Combo (20.9)

Task total: 15
Grand total: 275

10.8 License to Write

Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation by Dan Fagin

+10 Task (Professor)
+10 Not a novel (nonfiction)

Task total: 20
Grand total: 260

I'll note that that one was already on your list, because I'd voted for it. But I had voted for the audiobook version by accident, so I removed the audiobook and voted for the one Don added instead. As the list owner, I believe you can combine books/votes when people vote for different editions of the same book.