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

Joanna’s comments from the Reading with Style group.

Caitlin wrote: "10.1 Square Peg

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt 3/5/2014

+10 task
+10 Jumbo points (755 pages)

task total: 20
grand total: 20"

I'm midway through this one myself. I'm awaiting the 2013 decision from the National Book Critics Award, for which it has been nominated. The announcement is mid-March. If it wins, I'll probably slot it into EotP.

Can I get a ruling on Chavisa Woods?

She appears on the Wiki list of Lesbian writers, the book I want to read Love Does Not Make Me Gentle or Kind was nominated for a Lambda award for Lesbian Debut fiction, but I haven't found anything that confirms for sure the author's personal status.

What about How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare?

Too much like the rejected How Shakespeare Changed Everything?

20.7 Group Reads Redux

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick

Review:
A compelling account of the stories of six North Koreans who defected to South Korea. The author weaves together these stories into a narrative account that provides a very personal look at the totalitarian regime and the famine of the 1990s. I knew very little of the country's history before starting this book. The narrator for the unabridged audiobook version handled the Korean names reasonably well, and made the story engaging. The book did not provide much opportunity for the narrator to demonstrate dialogue or voice differentiation. Highly recommended for anyone interested in what the lives of North Koreans have been like and the risks involved in defecting to South Korea or China.

+20 Task
+10 Review
+10 Combo (10.6, 20.4)
+10 Not a novel (nonfiction)

Task Total: 50
Grand Total: 825

Karen GHHS wrote: "I'm really excited to read this one! I just heard it book talked on Saturday along with Winger (890 Lexile) also by Smith. It doesn't change anything because I think grasshopper is just too new to have a Lexile yet and it is a YA book, but I think putting it in at BPL as juvenile is a goof that will probably be corrected. The content was recommended by the expert presenters I heard on the upper end of high school. I'm just adding this info for those of you who might want to read it.
"

Probably young adult, but definitely not juvenile. I do hope that they it at BPL so that future readers are not confused. I really enjoyed this book I will definitely be looking out for Winger.

20.6 Best Books of the 20th Century

Matilda by Roald Dahl
840 Lexile

Review:
I read this once as a kid. This time, I listened to the newly-released audiobook version with my kids. The audiobook is wonderfully read by Kate Winslet. She has a lovely British accent that was nice to listen to but not so foreign as to confuse my four-year-old. The story tells of a genius kindergartener whose parents have no patience for education or reading, but a wonderful teacher sees the girl's potential and works with her. It's full of Dahl humor and wackiness. We all especially appreciated the pure evil of the school principal, who goes about pulling hair and screaming at children. We'll have to find a copy of the movie next.

+20 Task (#177 when I checked)
+10 Review
+5 Combo (10.2 - shelved 1100+ times as fantasy)
+5 Oldies (1988)

Task total: 40
Grand total: 785

1976 Globe Horn Book Chance, Luck, & Destiny by Peter Dickinson
(+5 pre-1990; +5 nonfiction)

1988 Miles Franklin Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey
(+5 pre-1990; +10 [also Man Booker])

1998 Cornelius Ryan We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families by Philip Gourevitch
(+5 nonfic; +10 [also LA Time Curr. Int.])

2007 Dayton Brother, I'm Dying by Edwidge Danticat
(+5 nonfic; +10 [also Nat'l Book Award Nonfic.])

2012 LA Times Curr. Int. Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo
(+5 nonfic; +10 [also Samuel Johnson])

2010 Arthur C. Clarke The City and the City by China Miéville
(+10 [also World Fantasy])

2007 Independent Foreign Fiction Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson
(+10 [also IMPAC])

2011 Bailey Women's Prize The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
(+10 [also IMPAC])

2009 Walter Scott Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
(+10 [also Man Booker])

2003 Nat'l Book Award Nonfic. The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson
(+5 nonfic)

20.3 Post-Colonial

Moral Disorder: and Other Stories by Margaret Atwood

Review:
I enjoyed listening to these stories. This book reminded me of Olive Kitteridge in that it was interconnected short stories related to a central character and those around her, not in chronological order and not all focused on the central character. Atwood is such a masterful writer. I felt deeply connected to Nell, the central character here and to her life history and story. I loved reading about the sibling relationship between Nell and her sister, eleven years younger than Nell. The connected stories made this feel like more than a collection of short stories but the format allowed each vignette to stand alone. Highly recommended to Atwood fans.

+20 Task
+10 Review
+10 Not-a-novel
+5 Combo (10.5)

Task total: 45
Grand total: 745

15.7 TtPR - 7th Stop
Seafarer

Cambodia - 7th Stop

In the Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddey Ratner

+15 Task
+10 Bonus

Task total: 25
Grand total: 700

10.8 BINGO

Tequila Mockingbird: Cocktails with a Literary Twist by Tim Federle

Review:
An amusing combination of cocktail recipes and literary summaries. I had expected that the cocktails would be more directly related to the novels rather than merely named for them in a punny way, but I still ended up enjoying this little book. I've read many of the books described, which certainly contributed to my enjoyment of the summaries. I don't know that the book would seem all that funny if you haven't read most of these classics so that you can appreciate the wit. Many of the cocktail recipes are also quite tasty and there is an index in the back to help find recipes by ingredient.

+10 Task
+10 Review
+10 Not-a-novel
+5 Combo (10.5)

Task total: 35
Grand total: 675

10.7 Keep it Short

Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned by Wells Tower

Review:
I hated almost everyone in this book. The characters and their lives were all miserable. Miserable men, for that matter. But the writing was impressive. The stories were alive and vibrant despite being miserable and seedy. From raiding Vikings to pedophiles to estranged brothers, the stories leapt about in space, focus, time, and setting. The collection wasn't united by a central theme. Most of the stories did not make any moral point (or, when they did, the morality seemed pointless or voiced by such a dislikable character that it was easily dismissed), but it didn't matter because I was enjoying the writing so much. I know this book has gotten a lot of mixed reviews, but I really enjoyed it and am glad I found the time to finally get around to reading this.

+10 Task
+10 Review
+10 Not-a-novel

Task total: 30
Grand total: 640

10.5 GR Authorized

Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith

Review:
Andrew Smith is my new hero. Seriously, this book was fantastic. It managed to talk more openly and honestly about male teen sexuality than anything I've read recently. In that respect, it reminded me of Judy Blume and other such historical greats. But this is more edgy than that.

As well as telling a brilliant coming of age story, the book also manages to tell a convincing and gripping, but also humorous, end of civilization dystopia. The book doesn't shy away from giving a specific account of what happened and how, but also doesn't get bogged down in the details.

I'm incredibly impressed with this book and will be seeking to read the rest of the books by this author.

+10 Task
+10 Review

Task total: 20
Grand total: 610

TtPR - Seafarer

15.6 (sixth stop): Australia

The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas
(A, B, and C)

+15 Task
+10 Bonus

Task total: 25
Grand total: 590

20.1 1964

Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

Review:
I enjoyed this book so much more than I expected I would. I didn't like the cover or the description that was told to me when this book was picked for my bookclub and I expected something sappy and annoying. Instead, I found the book warm but witty and sarcastic in fun ways. I have two friends who moved from the east coast to Seattle in the last few years, so I was especially enjoying the gentle fun being poked at Seattleites.

The reader for the audiobook did a fantastic job. It's not always easy to convert an epistolary novel into an audio format, especially where, as here, the book is made up of emails, reports, notes, and different non-letter items. I think I also would have enjoyed this book in print, but the audio experience was so good that I'd highly recommend it even for folks who don't listen to many books.

+20 Task (author born in 1964)
+10 Review
+5 Combo (10.5)

Task total: 35
Grand total: 565

10.3 Edgar Alan Poe

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

Review:
The conceit of the book is that Ursula continues to be reborn (Groundhog Day-style) into the same life, but slight differences change the outcomes. She has vague deja vu memories of previous incarnations, but not perfect recollection (i.e., not quite like Groundhog Day). The writing was quite lyrical and managed to both be the most evocative descriptions of the London blitz that I've read but also witty and quirky characters. I loved the way the stories fit together and the author managed to make the repetitions intriguing and mostly interesting instead of overly repetitive and boring. I'm waffling between rating this four or five stars. I gave it four today, but may come back and revise it upwards as I think about the book more.

+10 Task
+10 Review
+5 Jumbo
+10 Combo (20.9, 10.6 - most recent)

Task total: 35
Grand total: 530

20.9 Daytona 500

Debt: The First 5,000 Years by David Graeber

Review:
A compelling and fascinating review of the history of debt, but also the general history of money, of the morality of our economic system, and way that our economic underpinning changes our societal structure. I found the reader for the audiobook excellent. The writing style was accessible and the historical research was compiled into a persuasive argument. Unfortunately, the author mostly does not offer alternative solutions as much as just a description of the problems created by the current system. I want a follow-up book that does more exploration of what alternatives might be possible and how we might get there from here. The author suggests a global debt jubilee in which debts would be forgiven and a clean slate started. But he doesn't really explore this further or talk through the implications. Highly recommended reading.

+20 Task (MPE 544 pages)
+10 Review
+10 Not-a-novel (nonfiction)
+5 Jumbo

Task total: 45
Grand total: 495

TtPR - Seafarer

15.5 (5th stop): New Zealand

The Bone People by Keri Hulme
(A, B, and C)

+15 Task
+10 Bonus

Task total: 25
Grand total: 450

10.6 Beginnings/Endings

The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht

Review:
I'm closing out 2013 with a book I just didn't really like. So many people loved this debut novel, but I found it scattered and dull. The folk tales mostly distracted from the story, and the characters just meandered along. The author was able to write evocative descriptions of certain scenes, but the book as a whole never came together. Perhaps this book just didn't translate well to audio format. I found the narrators' voices fine, but not memorable and perhaps the switching around of perspectives here was too confusing in audio format. In any event, this one was a bust for me. I'd give a future book by this author another chance, but won't be recommending this one any time soon.

+10 Task
+10 Review
+10 Combo (10.4, 10.5)

Task total: 30
Grand total: 425

20.4 Travel

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson

Review:
I'm glad this book was worth a lot of points, because at least I get some reward for making it through. I hated this book. The narrator for the audiobook did the best he could with this, but the book just didn't work for me at all. Reading about someone's drug-induced paranoia is just boring. I don't understand the desire to take so many drugs that bodily functioning is lost. I didn't find reading about it interesting. I agree that Thompson is a good writer, capable of amusing descriptions and able to capture the general absurdity of his magazine assignments (a motorcycle race in the desert and a narcotics police convention). Still, I never cared about his adventure and never connected with his mission. Maybe I'm just too stodgy for this one. Ah well, can't love everything.

+20 Task
+10 Not a novel
+10 Review
+5 Oldies (1971)
+20 Combo (10.10, 20.2, 20.5, 20.6)

Task total: 65
Grand total: 395

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "No, please don't delete - we use the post numbers in scoring! We'll just change the book score on this post."

I didn't mean I'd delete the actual post...just the points. I'm still referring back to the review from the original post.