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

Joanna’s comments from the Reading with Style group.

Does the Group Read Restoration qualify here?

Great question. Also, Paul Auster won one of the awards linked in 10.5 (the Princess of Asturias Awards).

I'm really excited about this task. Someone sent me a copy of Beauty Salon a while back and I've been wanting to get to it. This is also a perfect excuse to read more poetry by Octavio Paz, which I first read in a previous season and have wanted to read more.

This is a great selection this time. I'm interested in almost all of these that I haven't read yet.

10.5 Dr. Salk

The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee

Review:

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I read about half in hard copy, then listened to the second half as an audiobook. I think the book was better read in print, but I finished the last audiobook for the season a few days early and decided I needed another. This book has a lot of technical and scientific information packed in, but I didn't find that the reading bogged down with the technical details. I loved hearing about the history of research and the debates within the scientific and medical community. I received this book originally from a swap at my bookclub and I think I'll be bringing it back to try to get the book on the bookclub reading list.

+10 Task
+10 Review
+10 Not a novel
+5 Jumbo

Task total: 35
Grand total: 1030

That's it for this season!

20.1 - 19th Century

A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen

Review:
I really enjoyed this full cast recording from Librivox of this classic play. It had been so long since I've read this play that all I could remember was the ending with the shutting (or, depending on staging, slamming) door. I'd totally forgotten what the underlying crisis was that caused Nora (the wife) to rethink her role. I'd also forgotten just how rigid Torvald (the husband) was. Maybe the actor here just really hammed up the diminutive references (Skylark, especially). In any event, I'm quite glad that so many other people read this book this season, which encouraged me to revisit this play. It holds up well even all these years later. And bravo to Librivox for producing these public domain recordings.

+20 Task: on realism list of authors
+15 Combo: 10.3, 10.7, 20.4
+10 Review
+10 Not a Novel (Play)
+10 Oldies (1879)

Task Total: 65
Grand total: 995

20.9 War Babies

In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination by Margaret Atwood

Review:
I listened to this book which is read partly by Atwood herself and partly by a reader because Atwood says her voice would not hold out for the whole reading. Count me as an Atwood fan girl. This book discusses The Handmaid's Tale, Oryx and Crake, The Year of the FloodThe Year of the Flood, and a little of The Blind Assassin, all of which I enjoyed. The essays here also focus on the societal, mythological, literary, and historical routes of science fiction. Hearing the critical essays made me think I should read more literary criticism and reviews. I loved hearing Atwood's take on the definition of genres and the stories that we tell. Highly recommended to Atwood fans. Those who aren't already fans should probably read her speculative fiction first rather than starting by listening to her essays.

+20 Task
+10 Review
+10 Not a novel (essays/short stories)
+15 Combo (10.4, 10.9, 20.6)

Task total: 55
Grand total: 930

I'm thinking of reading A New System of Domestic Cookery by Maria Eliza Ketelby Rundell.

Will this be treated as a cookbook? Does that matter for the 10/20 point tasks? I know cookbooks aren't allowed in the subchallenge, but I can't remember if they're also prohibited in the RwS tasks. Anyway, I'm not sure at this point this really counts as a cookbook. Check it out here: http://digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/c...

When do the polls close?

Also, in the statistics, I'd love to see the most often completed and least often completed tasks.

I love the planning stage of getting ready for the next challenge.

10.5 Dr. Salk

My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey by Jill Bolte Taylor

Review:
I listened to the author read this memoir. The first half of the book is a five-star read. She describes some of the science behind brain functioning and describes in detail the feelings that she felt on the morning of her stroke. She also describes the process of relearning everything after the stroke. About halfway through, the book veers off into a self-help/spirituality memoir about positive feeling, rejecting negativity, and feeling at one with the universe. Ms. Taylor tries to relate these feelings to the science of brain chemistry, but this part of the book felt like a prolonged anecdote mixed with a bit of positive psychology. I think the spirituality part of the book may resonate with some readers, but it left me cold. Still, highly recommended for the description of the stroke.

+10 Task
+10 Not-a-novel (nonfiction)
+10 Review
+5 Combo (10.4 - scientist's)

Task total: 35
Grand total: 770

+100 RwS Finish
Grand total: 870

My current plan:

Annabel by Kathleen Winter
Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets by Sudhir Venkatesh
Happenstance by Carol Shields
Immortal in Death by J.D. Robb
Jesus Swept by James Protzman
The Long Fall by Walter Mosley
Mara and Dann by Doris Lessing
Planet of the Blind by Stephen Kuusisto
The Tattoo Artist by Jill Ciment
The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi

Title letters: A, G, H, I, J, L, M, P, T, W
Author letters: W, V, S, R, P, M, L, K, C, B

20.4 Realism

On Green Dolphin Street by Sebastian Faulks

Review:
An honest, and therefore heart-wrenching, portrayal of infidelity, family responsibility, morality, and individuality. The characters are placed in a slow-paced novel chock-a-block with references to the Nixon vs. Kennedy campaign season and other scenes of life in New York, Washington, London, and (briefly) Moscow at the time. The characterizations in the book were wonderful--I definitely came to know and feel for these characters. And most of the time the writing was good. But the book moved slowly and the characters rarely were able to get out of their own heads long enough to think about what they were doing. The smoke-filled, alcohol-drenched parties were both fun to read and mind-dullingly boring. I wanted to love this book, and instead found it more like comfort food--enjoyable, but leaves one feeling heavy and dull afterward.

+20 Task
+10 Review

Task total: 30
Grand total: 735

I need to move a book.

In Post 226, I posted The Haunting of Hill House for 10.7.

I'd like to move that to 20.7 Slipstream:

+20 Task
+15 Combo (10.2, 10.7, 20.9)
+10 Review (in post 226)
+5 Oldies

Task total: 50 - 40 (post 226) = 10
Grand total: 705

10.7 Honored Authors
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll
Lexile 940 and 910

Review:
Christopher Plummer does a fantastic job bringing these classic stories to life. I'd quite forgotten just how much fun these stories are. I originally thought I'd listen to them with my five-year-old, but having previewed them, I don't think he'll enjoy them just yet. But once I started down the rabbit hole, I ended up listening to both Wonderland and Looking Glass over the course of a week's commuting. Plenty of amusing queens, beheadings, growing and shrinking, and wacky conversations. Highly enjoyable. I look forward to listening to this again when my son is a bit older and more able to follow the wordplay.

+10 Task (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Ca...)
+10 Review
+10 Oldies (published 1865)
+10 Combo (10.4 – adventures, 20.1 – shelved as 19th century 158 times)

Task total: 40
Grand total: 695

10.10 Group Reads

Tenth of December by George Saunders

Review:
The author does a really nice job reading his own stories. He reads fairly fast - for many audiobooks I use the feature on my mp3 player to speed up the sound by about 20%, but I did not use that for this recording. These stories were fun, unusual, and thought-provoking. I hadn't read anything else by this author, or even really heard of him, before this collection was selected as a Group Read for a book challenge.

"Victory Lap" was a truly creepy and compelling story of an attempted kidnapping. The shifting perspectives created such clear internal dialogue of wholly different characters without losing the impact of the story. Stylistically impressive yet also fun to read.

"Escape from Spiderhead" was also inventively creepy and well-constructed.

Highly recommended collection.

+10 Task
+10 Review
+10 Not-a-novel (short stories)

Task total: 30
Grand total: 655

10.2 Halloween

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

Review:
I enjoyed listening to this LibriVox recording. The narrator does a fine, professional job of telling this creepy story. I have always enjoyed this story. The writing is fantastic, as one would expect from Henry James, and I don't mind the ambiguity of the story. Weird kids, crazy narrator, possible ghosts--there's lots to like here. If I were to register a complaint, it would be with the endless chapter breaks. For such a short book, did it really need to be separated into 24 chapters? This really broke up the listening in particular as each section was a separate track that included header info (i.e., this is a LibriVox recording, in the public domain, etc.). I'm glad to have revisited this one.

+10 Task
+10 Review
+10 Combo (20.1, 20.4)
+10 Oldies (1898)

Task total: 40
Grand total: 625

20.5 Politics

A Fighting Chance by Elizabeth Warren

Review:
Sign me up as an Elizabeth Warren fangirl. I have a soft spot for these personal/political memoirs read by the politician. I listened to both of Obama's books while he was first campaigning and find this book to be in a similar vein. She tells of her background, her experience as a professor, then as a Washington player, and finally as a surprising Senator. I like her brand of economic populism and her strong willingness to be a voice for people. This memoir reads well and remains interesting, especially when read in her own voice with obvious passion behind the words. I'll be watching to see what her next step is.

+20 Task (memoir of U.S. Senator)
+10 Review
+10 Not a novel (nonfiction)

Task total: 40
Grand total: 585

10.4 9, 10, 11

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson

Review:
This book is indeed an epic story and and epic work. The author thoroughly researched her subject on multiple levels: the book tells the personal story of three individuals, while also delving into the academic and historical information both written contemporaneously and more recently, while also filling in the context of the larger story that this migration involved millions of people relocating across the country. The writing was largely excellent, with one minor complaint: the author repeated certain facts or bits of stories practically word for word at a few points. I wish an editor or reader had caught these moments and changed them because this is a book that really must be read from the beginning; it does not lend itself to dipping into the middle to read a single chapter. Thus, the author can and should expect that readers will remember the stories already told.

In any event, I'm thrilled that my book club picked this one for November as I might never have picked it up on my own and I'm really glad that I read it. Though a long book, I found it highly readable and easy to access.

+10 Task (migration)
+10 Review
+10 Not-a-novel (nonfiction)
+5 Jumbo

Task total: 35
Grand total: 545

20.9 War Babies

Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America by Barbara Ehrenreich

Review:
I always enjoy Ehrenreich's writing. The narrator for the audiobook perfectly captures the sarcasm and skepticism here. This was an excellent book to listen to; in print, it may have seemed too repetitive or too stretched from a magazine-length thesis to book-length. In audio format, these issues were less noticeable. The book is a critique of positive thinking, particularly the industry that promotes positive thinking as a matter of self-improvement. The first section, which deals with positive thinking promotion in the context of healthcare, and particularly cancer care, is part memoir of Ehrenreich's own diagnosis of breast cancer and part examination of the health care industry. This is the strongest part of the book, which then moves on to examine the rest of positive thinking including motivational speakers and self-help books, positive psychology, and business-based positive thinking. Highly recommended.

+20 Task (b. 1941)
+10 Review
+10 Not-a-novel (nonfiction)
+5 Combo (10.4)

Task total: 45
Grand total: 510

Yay!!

I was sad to see Bookish shutting down and glad to see a few familiar faces popping up here. Welcome!