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

Joanna’s comments from the Reading with Style group.

I would like to move a book.

In post 845, I posted Stuck in Neutral by Terry Trueman for 10.1.

I would like to move this to

15.8, Pick n Mix – B2, published in 2000.

Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 920-20+30 = 930

I need to stay motivated to read books relevant to my work as a trial attorney. To that end,

Continue/complete Trying Cases to Win.

15.7 Pick n Mix – F5, translated from Spanish

Kiss of the Spider Woman by Manuel Puig

+20 Task

Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 920

10.1 Square Peg

Stuck in Neutral by Terry Trueman
Lexile: 820

Review:
This book was a creepy jumbled up mix of fantasy and disturbing, horrific musing. The author is the father of a disabled son who has made a name for himself based on writing a poem about his disabled son. Here, the narrator of this book is a disabled boy with a father who has become famous for writing a poem about his disabled son. On the one hand, the book is playing out the fantasy that behind the disabled façade is a genius boy who sees, hears, and understands everything and remembers everything he’s heard. On the other hand, the book is musing about whether it’s an act of love for a parent to kill a disabled child. Similarly, the book fantasizes that the boy’s seizures are not, as they may appear to an outside observer, tremendously painful, but instead are wondrously pleasurable experiences that allow an out of body projection and an escape from his disabled body. I’m not sorry to have read this book, but I won’t be seeking out the sequel.

+10 Task
+10 Review

Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 900

15.6 – A3, set in Europe

The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud


+20 Task (Lexile 800)

Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 880

Here is my current plan:

Canada: MaddAddam - Margaret Atwood (A & B)
US: Kicked, Bitten, and Scratched: Life and Lessons at the World's Premier School for Exotic Animal Trainers - Amy Sutherland (A, B, & C)
Mexico: Swift as Desire - Laura Esquivel (A & B)
Nicaragua: Death of Somoza - Claribel Alegría (A & B)
New Zealand: The Bone People - Keri Hulme (A, B, & C)
Australia: The Slap - Christos Tsiolkas (A, B, & C)
Cambodia: In the Shadow of the Banyan - Vaddey Ratner (A & C)
China: Twenty Fragments of a Ravenous Youth - Xiaolu Guo (A & C)
Japan: Shipwrecks - Akira Yoshimura (A & B)
Russia We - Yevgeny Zamyatin (A & B)

Please speak up if you see any trouble in the journey.

Here is my plan:

Canada
US
Mexico
Nicaragua
New Zealand
Australia
Cambodia
China
Japan
Russia

15.5 – D3, male author 40 to 60

Rules of Civility by Amor Towles

Author born 1964, book published 2011.

+20 Task

Task Total: 20
Grand Total: 860

10.3 Conjunction Junction

Trying Cases to Win: Voir Dire and Opening Argument by Herbert Jay Stern

Review:
Tremendously interesting perspective on the methods and goals of opening statements and voir dire. Although there is a tinge of "look what a great lawyer I am, by reading my transcript from a case when I was only 31 years old," the accompanying commentary and review of the transcript is totally worthwhile. And, the author is duly proud of having achieved conviction as a junior level prosecutor up against some of the best defense attorneys of the day. I can see why this series continues to be recommended even though it was published nearly 20 years ago. I will definitely be continuing through the other volumes of the series. Highly recommended to all trial lawyers and trial lawyer wannabes.

+10 Task
+10 Review
+10 Jumbo (MPE has 704 pages)

Task Total: 30
Grand Total: 840

10.2 Stories for Book Lovers

The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde

Review:
I enjoyed listening to this 3rd installment in the Thursday Next series. The narrator for the audiobook version does a nice job of creating different voices for different characters, though I continue to find the voice for "the cat formerly known as Cheshire" rather annoying.

Overall, this installment does a lot of world building and not a lot of plot development. That said, I enjoy the cleverness and literary references even if there is a tinge of self-satisfied look-how-clever-I-am to the whole book. For me, Fforde pulls it off well enough that I find it endearing rather than annoying, but I can certainly see how some readers would find it merely tedious. Unlike in previous books which switched back and forth between the fantasy version of real-world London and the book world, this book is set almost entirely in the book world were Thursday Next has retreated. This shift put the literary references and cameo appearances by book characters at the forefront of the story rather than as amusing sketches in the sidelines.

I'm looking forward to continuing the series. I do not recommend this as a stand-alone book and would instead recommend that new readers to the series start at the beginning.

+10 Task (#39)
+10 Review
+5 Combo (20.8 – various nonhuman book world characters, including generics, a Minotaur, and Humpty Dumpty)

Task Total: 25
Grand Total: 810

20.2 In Search of Lost Time

Retreat from Love by Colette

Review:
Continuing on my Colette binge, I picked this one because Harold Bloom includes it in his Western Canon. This was actually my least favorite of the the 5 Colette books that I've read in quick succession (the others were Dialogues de bêtes, Cheri & The Last of Cheri, and The Vagabond). Fundamentally, I never believed the central love story between Claudine, the narrator, and the absent Renaud. Perhaps I would of liked the story better if I had read the 4 previous Claudine novels. I quite enjoyed reading about Annie, even without the back story that I would have had from the previous novels. Though Annie was describing salacious events from her life, the modern reader will not find the descriptions overly sexy or embarrassing.

Colette is a master of language and manages to capture emotions, natural beauty, and the antics of her dog and cat perfectly. I'll continue to look for more by this author.

+20 Task (1873-1954)
+10 Review
+10 Canon
+20 Combo (10.6, 10.9 [single name], 20.1, 20.6)

Task Total: 60
Grand Total: 785

15.4 E5 Pick N' Mix

E5 - nonfiction, call number 391.62

The Obsession: Reflections on the Tyranny of Slenderness by Kim Chernin

Task Total: 15
Grand Total: 725

I need to move a book:

In post number 440 (and corrected in post 486), I put The Last of Cheri by Colette into Task 20.2.

I would like to move this to Task 20.3.

This shouldn't change any of the points.

10.6 All Saints Day

The Vagabond by Colette

Review:
I didn't like this book quite as much as Cheri & The Last of Cheri, but I still really enjoyed it. I loved the descriptions of stage performances and theater travel and I liked the musings on the competition between romantic relationships and professional freedom. But here, I found Renée somewhat tiresome in her overall distrust of passionate feelings. I wanted more exuberance from her about her theatrical work and her professional career. I was never sure that I entirely understood the love affair between Renée and Maxime. Was it only her own fear that made him seem controlling and jealous or was there something in his character? As with the other books by Colette that I've read, I was surprised by how fresh and modern this novel felt –– it's hard to believe that these books were published more than a hundred years ago.

The reader for the audiobook version was excellent, though the sound quality was not that great. I think they converted a cassette recording to a downloadable audiobook and there were places with the sound seemed to skip a little. I loved the British accent of the reader and felt that it took me more completely to the European travel scenes.

+10 Task (1873-1954)
+10 Review
+25 Combo (10.5, 10.9 [single name author], 20.1, 20.2, 20.6)

Task Total: 45
Grand Total: 710

20.4 Roman a clef

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

Review:
I feel inadequate to review this amazing book. First, the narrator was fantastic and managed to bring the stories absolutely to life. These linked stories worked on so many different levels: the characters in the stories were entertaining their own right; taken together, the stories are a powerful reflection on the personal losses associated with war. The blending of fact and fiction, and the blurring of the lines between the two, serves to highlight the absurdity of war, at least from an individual perspective. I've been meaning to read this for quite some time, and I'm really glad to picked it up. Highly recommended.

+20 Task (on both lists)
+10 Review
+5 Combo (10.2 – #112 on the list)

Task Total: 35
Grand Total: 665

10.5 Labor Day

Small Favor by Jim Butcher

Review:
Is it really possible that I've read 10 of these now? I continue to enjoy the series even though it's not the sort of book that I normally read. I like that although Harry remains an underdog, up against forces more powerful than him, he has more help from more competent friends than in some of the previous books. Jim Butcher is extremely clever in creating an entire world of magic, disgusting creatures, complicated political players, and entertaining battles. This book would not be a good place for a new reader to the series to begin and would not really work as a stand-alone novel. I will definitely be continuing with the series and look forward to reading more of Harry's adventures.

+10 Task
+10 Review
+5 combo (20.8 – plenty of nonhuman creatures)

Task Total: 25
Grand Total: 630

10.9 Unusual or Quirky Books

Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

Review:

I really like listening to Murakami's books. With a good reader, I find myself involved in the emotional pull of the book much more quickly and easily in audio book format. The readers here were fantastic and really brought this book to life. I would still recommend that new readers of Murakami's work start with one of the more classic choices like The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle instead of jumping in here. But for Murakami fans this book absolutely delivers and is highly recommended. The story lines are just strange enough (and impossible to describe) to put you into a bizarre magical universe, but hold together well enough that, at least for me, I was able to suspend disbelief throughout.

I was particularly taken with the idea of Johnnie Walker and Col. Sanders coming to life as the embodiment chosen by a mental construct. Without reading the book of course, I'm sure this makes no sense to readers of this review. But that's the nature of reviewing Murakami.

+10 Task
+10 Review
+10 Non-Western
+5 Combo (20.8 – Johnnie Walker and Col. Sanders, talking cats, and other non-human beings are important to the story)

Task total: 35
Grand total: 605

I think this might be a stretch, but what about

The Vagabond

20.2 In Search of Lost Time

The Last of Cheri by Colette

Review:

What amazed me about this book was the way that Lea managed to dominate my feelings about the book even though she only appears in one brief chapter and is only glimpsed through the eyes of Cheri. In the first book, Colette manages to describe with pitch-perfect text the emotions of doomed lovers and a woman facing the changes in her life as she ages. Here, we see the woman transformed from stylish and sexy courtesan to decidedly frumpy but brilliantly comfortable and happy middle/old age. I couldn't stand Cheri and am glad to see the last of him here as he mopes around moaning about how he's thirty (30!) and his youth and life is over and his marriage is pointless and all the rest. But the picture of Lea was so powerfully drawn that the book came together for me. I'm totally smitten with Colette. How had I totally missed this author before now?

+20 Task (1873-1954)
+10 Review
+20 Combo (10.6, 10.9 [Colette = single name], 20.1, 20.6)

Task total: 50
Grand total: 560

20.6 In Search of Lost Time

Chéri by Colette

Review:
I've been on a Collette binge these last few weeks. I started with Barks and Purrs, and enjoyed it so much that I immediately checked out a copy of Chéri, read through it in a few days, and have immediately started The Last of Cheri. Barks and Purrs impressed me with the perfect read on dogs and cats and the way their owners imagine their inner thoughts. Cheri manages to capture, with pitch perfect accuracy, the emotions of a doomed-by-society relationship. While today, readers will not be particularly shocked by the notion of a 49-year-old woman dating a 25-year-old man, it is clear in the text that such a relationship is completely outside the bounds of upper-class French society at the time. But the emotions of doomed lovers are universalizable.

I've heard Cheri described as the consummate feminist novel, and I can see why. It explores female sexuality in a more realistic and vulnerable manner than many other novels. It's frankly hard to believe that this book was published nearly 100 years ago. That said, this book appealed to me on a direct emotional level, and not because of its politics. So glad I stumbled onto Collette's books. Highly recommended.

+20 Task
+10 Review
+25 Combo (10.9 [Colette – single name], 20.1, 10.6, 20.2 [1873-1954], 20.3 [#48 on the list])

Task Total: 55
Grand Total: 510