Joanna’s
Comments
(group member since Nov 17, 2010)
Joanna’s
comments
from the Reading with Style group.
Showing 1,921-1,940 of 2,307
10.7 Ex-Pat ExperienceA Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
Review:
Gossipy and intimate, this posthumously published memoir/fictionalized reminiscence was a great way to visit Paris in a time machine. Ah, for the heady days of Paris in the twenties. To be hanging around with "Hem" and his besties--Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ford Maddox Ford, etc. To hear a brilliant writer reflect on the hard work of writing, the uncertainty. Either you like this sort of gossip and navel-gazing or you find it totally pointless. There's probably not much middle ground here. The reader for the audiobook version did a fine, but unmemorable, job reading this. I'm glad I happened upon it at my library, but wouldn't waste an audible credit--better to read it in print.
+10 Task (Hemingway, an American, in Paris)
+10 Combo (10.6, 20.2 [1899-1961])
+10 Review
Task Total: 30
Grand total: 455
10.4 Prize WorthyFicciones by Jorge Luis Borges
Review:
I think I needed a book of commentary to read alongside these stories to appreciate them. I enjoyed the work as stories, but never felt the amazement that I was expecting given the tremendous aura and buildup surrounding Borges. I was anticipating pondering these stories for weeks after reading them and instead I'm having a hard time remembering any specific story well enough to continue pondering. Still, I could tell that if I read these with a literature class or even a book club, I might have understood them at a deeper level and thus appreciated them more fully. I'd be interested in revisiting this collection to see if a second read through brings these stories to life for me.
+10 Task
+15 Combo (10.2 - Ficciones includes The Library of Babel, which is #116 on the book lover's list; 10.6, 20.2)
+10 Canon
+10 Review
+10 Nonwestern
Task total: 55
Grand total: 425
20.1 Swann's WayBarks and Purrs by Colette
Review:
Demonstrating that feelings about cats and dogs have been consistent for the past 100 years, this 1904 book reads as if it were written last week for the Barnes and Noble gift table. Well, actually, it reads much better than that because Colette really captures the attitude and tone of a standoffish cat and a rambunctious bulldog. The book is really a collection of seven short episodes plus a prologue and mostly involves the two pets talking to each other. The readers for the public domain librivox edition did a fabulous job bringing this to life. This was just the right bit of amusing fluff to lighten a very dark mood today.
+20 Task
+10 Review
+25 Combo (10.3 "and"; 10.6/20.2 [auth: 1873-1954]; 10.9 [single name - Colette]; 20.8 [mostly a dialogue between cat and dog])
Task total: 55
Grand total: 370
10.10 Group ReadsThe Guide by R.K. Narayan
Review:
I'm glad this book was selected as a Group Read because I don't think I ever would have picked it up otherwise. The story moved along simply enough, with the protagonist remembering earlier episodes from his life and recounting bits to others. I enjoyed the rise and fall of the main character as he moved from a poor person scraping together a life as a tour guide at a railway station to a rich and influential person to a prisoner to, finally, a Swami. I never felt wholly connected to the main character and never fully believed in his motivations and transitions, but I quite enjoyed the story anyway and am glad to have read a bit of Indian literature that is neither depressingly bleak nor overly mystical.
+10 Task
+15 Combo (10.5, 10.6, 20.2)
+10 Nonwestern
+10 Canon
+10 Review
Task total: 55
Grand total: 315
20.9 WWII FictionThe Tin Drum by Günter Grass
Review:
The Peter Pan of Nazi-occupied Poland, Oskar is a drum playing midget capable of shattering glass with perfect precision with his singing voice. The novel has all the elements of a fantastical and bizarre story and maintains a narrative voice so compelling that I looked for more errands and chores to allow more listening time for the audiobook version of this. The narrator did a fabulous job with the strange narrative structure of the book and managed to make even some of the more annoying repeating scenes reasonable to listen to.
This book fits into the universe of strange tales like A Prayer for Owen Meany and Geek Love and Mendel's Dwarf. Yet it also has the magical realism elements of something more like One Hundred Years of Solitude. And the epic nature of a family tale like Middlesex. Ultimately though, this book stands alone as a strange and wonderful masterwork.
I've never read anything else by Grass but I certainly would be interested in doing so after finishing this one.
+20 Task (#24)
+5 Combo (20.6 - see help thread)
+10 Canon
+10 Review
+5 Jumbo (MPE = 567 pgs.)
Task total: 50
Grand total: 260
What about Michel Houellebecq? He was born in Réunion, a French island. Does it have to be France proper?
Kate S wrote: "Joanna wrote: "20.1 Swann's WayFire in the Blood by Irène Némirovsky
Joanna wrote: "20.1 Swann's Way
Fire in the Blood by Irène Némirovsky
Sorry, Joanna, this book does not qualify for 20.1 as Irène Némirovsky was not born in France. I have scored it as 20.2 and combos for 10.6 and 20.7. If you would like it scored a different way, please let me know. It also qualifies for Non-Western points (+10). "
Duh! I think of her so strongly as a French author that I forgot she was actually born in the Ukraine. I'd like to move this to 20.7 with combos for 20.2 and 10.6. Thanks.
New Grand Total: 210
20.1 Swann's WayFire in the Blood by Irène Némirovsky
Review:
A charming novel set in the French countryside in the 1930s. The reader for the audiobook version did an excellent job. The story is narrated by Silvio, who was originally from the village and has returned in middle age to enjoy a solitary life. But he's as deeply connected to the village secrets as everyone else in town, making him a perfect narrator. He's both detached and yet intertwined and the secrets are doled out slowly as the reader becomes more entranced with the story. Quite a lovely tale, and a perfect length for me to listen to the whole thing during one long drive.
+20 Task
+15 Combo (10.6, 20.2 [Author 1903-1942]; 20.7)
+10 Review
Task total: 45
Grand total: 205
15.3 Pick N' MixC1 - MPE 84 pgs. - She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith
Task total: 15
Grand total: 160
20.10 Poverty DayChaka by Thomas Mofolo
Review:
A fascinating telling of the tale of Chaka, Zulu king and mass murderer. At first, it seems like a history of a great leader and ambitious creator of the Zulu people. Then, the story becomes increasingly horrific as Chaka devolves from a strong and charismatic young warrior to a vengeful and evil murderer. Even as he obtains the kingships he wishes for, his bloodlust becomes more and more uncontrolled, leading him to execute broad swaths of his own people as well as waging war against all neighboring peoples. Throughout, I was compelled to keep reading to see where the story would lead even though it was clear early on that the tale could only end in tremendous violence and horror. Extremely powerful writing.
+20 Task (Author born in Lesotho)
+10 Combo (10.6, 20.2 - Author 1876-1948)
+10 Non-Western
+10 Review
Task total: 50
Grand total: 145
20.5 In Search of Lost TimeThe Moon And Sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham
Review:
The librivox recording I listened to has two readers: Chip and Barry Eads. Chip was a fantastic reader - on par with professional audiobook readers. Unfortunately, Barry Eads was a merely adequate reader. His reading was clear and enunciated, but had no passion or style. Thus, the second half of the book felt quite flat to me. As for the story, I never fully connected to the characters nor was I particularly taken with the exploration of the artist's inner passion. That said, the writing was beautiful and I probably should have either tracked down a professional recording or read the text to fully appreciate it.
+20 Task
+25 Combo (10.3 ["and"], 10.6 [d. 1965], 10.7 [British man lives mostly in France & Tahiti], 20.2 [1874-1965], 20.4 [on linked list for romans à clef])
+10 Canon
+10 Review
Task total: 65
Grand total: 95
Pick'n'Mix15.1 - F6 - translated from Swedish
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson
Task total: 15
Grand total: 15
For 10.3 - Conjunction Junction, do subtitles count?
20.3 Cy Young AwardThe Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
+20 Task (pub. 1926)
+10 Oldies
+10 Combo (10.1, 10.4)
Task total: 40
Completion Bonus: 100
Grand total: 555
20.6 MLB 32Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
900 lexile
+20 Task (MPE has 382 pages)
+15 Combo (20.5, 20.9 [b. Canada], 20.10 [San Fran.])
Task total: 35
Grand total: 415
How about Günter Grasshttp://www.nytimes.com/books/99/12/19...
Grass is the heir to a tradition that begins with the picaresque novel and ends with expressionism. He himself mentions Sterne, his German counterpart Jean Paul, E.T.A. Hoffmann, Rabelais, Joyce, Doblin and Proust. Of the Americans, Dos Passos is important to him, but his special affection is reserved for Melville.
10.9 Design Your Own TaskRead a book added to my GR shelves in 2007.
On the Bright Side, I'm Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God by Louise Rennison
+10 Task
+5 Combo (20.6 - 243 pg)*
Task total: 15
Grand total: 380
*I would consider this book YA and many of the other books in the series are so marked at BPL, but as far as I could see, this one isn't marked. If it's not in the spirit of the challenge to claim style points for this, I'm cool with that.
