Apple’s Comments (group member since Aug 28, 2021)

Apple’s comments from the Reading with Style group.

I should be looking at it too with my goal!

20.4 C.J. Sansom and Caleb Carr:

The Darkness by Ragnar Jónasson
Mystery and crime

+20 task
+10 combo (10.5 - 2015; 10.9)

Post Total = 30
Season Total = 275

10.3; ...; 10.5;10.6, ...; ...; 10.9; 10.10 (x2)
15.1; 15.2; 15.3; 15.4;
20.3; 20.4; 20.5; 20.6

10.5 New Year New Date:

The Accidental by Ali Smith
Published 2005

+10 task
+15 combo (10.6; 20.5; 20.8 - shortlisted 2006)

Post Total = 25
Season Total = 245

10.3; ...; 10.5;10.6, ...; ...; 10.9; 10.10 (x2)
15.1; 15.2; 15.3; 15.4;
20.3; ...; 20.5; 20.6

10.3 New Year's Resolutions
I am, slowly, trying to read my way through the 1001 list - finally hit 270, yay!

The Twins by Tessa de Loo

+10 task
+10 aged (78, born 1946)
+10 combo (10.2 - so many train rides! And a bombed train station; 20.2 - the sisters discuss their life stories, including work and war;

Post Total = 30
Season Total = 220

10.3; ...; ...;10.6, ...; ...; 10.9; 10.10 (x2)
15.1; 15.2; 15.3; 15.4;
20.3; ...; 20.5; 20.6

Here is my map that I have just created, and I am adding my reviews there as well!

toppitope.travelmap.net

And because I stayed home from work today, as I woke up dizzy and with a pain in my head (not a headache, a very different feeling), I managed to get a second book (audiobook this time) finished.

I have been enjoying Nordic Noir for awhile now, and thought I would test out a new author from a new country, which lead me to Ragnar Jónasson's The Darkness.

I don't know why this one didn't quite click for me. Detective Inspector Hulda Hermannsdóttir is of an age where she is about to retire, in fact, she is being forced to retire early, and you get the sense, perhaps mostly from her own way of thinking, that she isn't well liked or respected being a woman in what is essentially a boy's club environment.

There are different timelines, and it is hard to see where the earlier timeline might be going for awhile, and there is a later twist which reveals the reason why Hulda seems to be so isolated and alone, as well as lonely.

There is also an event that I found hard to place. It appeared to me that it was happening after Hulda's retirement, but with the events which occur at the climax of the story, and with the epilogue, that can't be right, so I am not even sure how they fit at all.

I honestly can't work out how there is a series after this, not with how this one ended, and I am not really sure I can be concerned with finding out, when I have read other series in this genre that I would prefer to spend my time finishing.

Looks like I am getting a move on with finishing books now!

Interestingly, when it comes to the US (and Canada) on my map all of the States (or Provinces) are listed, so this may be a sub challenge within the overall, because I can't spend a year reading only one book from the US with the sheer volume of books published from there!

Which brings me to my next completed book, Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill, from Massachusetts in the USA.

I have been trying to get to this book for the last 3 seasons, so I made sure I read it this time, just to get that monkey off my back.

I had picked up a copy a while ago now, but I honestly can't remember what I read about it to make me want to read it, and I am 100% sure I think I had it confused with another book ...

This is almost stream of consciousness (but with chapters, paragraphs, and punctuation), about becoming a mother and marriage. I think with the motherhood parts, we can all understand the feelings of love and frustration of being a parent, particularly a mother, whose bond is always a little bit more. And being almost stream of consciousness, the broken thoughts, we start here, jump there and go back the original thought again. it reads very much like being in someone's head.

Which I think makes the portrayal a little more honest. When the husband says to the wife (I don't remember anyone, except a student, Lia, having a name), "She's easier." , you can kind of accept that remark, having been in her head. She seems like she may not be the easiest person to live with.

This was an easy and pleasurable read, and quite short at 180 pages. I would definitely consider reading more of Offill's work.

It is partly because of the tennis crowd I gave up my membership for BBL - all the sports are in the once precinct, so traffic and parking are an absolute nightmare (that said, they have actually changed our start and finish dates, so it is a little less of a crossover). We also have our football/soccer season, so it is absolute madness. Much easier to watch from my lounge room.

Growing up I watched the tennis, Yannick Noah was my favourite, but since being married, and more since being a mum, it has been cricket all the way.

I have finally posted my first review in my world journey (one more week of our BBL cricket competition - our Melbourne Stars somehow made the finals!), and you can see it here if interested:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Well, it has taken me awhile, but I finally finished a book!

One of my ongoing projects is the 1001 list, which I will take much inspiration from when seeking world literature, and my other pet focus is reading women.

I have been able to start this project with The Twins by Tessa de Loo, who is a Dutch author.

Full disclosure, I listened to the audiobook, but I think this is well enough paced, even though the two lead characters are twins of 74, that it would be an easy and pleasurable read. And whilst the telling of the tale is the recent past (it's the 1990's, which is in my lifetime, so recent past :P), the story is takes place mostly in the 1930's until the end of World War II.

Lotte and Anna are twin German girls who are separated once they are orphaned, Lotte being sent to the Netherlands side of the family as she has shown signs of tuberculosis and the situation for her to recover would be better there, whilst Anna is sent to the paternal family country farm.

When the paths diverge, so does every detail of their upbringing and life, and it is in this chance meeting at a spa resort that they are reunited (not for the first time) and tell each other their story, with the hope (on one side only it would appear) for reconciliation.

Once you get passed the minuscule probability of this chance meeting occurring, this is a good story. Whilst not quite both sides of the battle lines, you do get a very good sense of what different lives and situations were like on different sides of the border during the War.

The characters are well developed, and thoroughly detailed, Both are portrayed in such a way that you are understanding and sympathetic to both sides, and see them both for their faults also.

Do I think it is worthy of 1001 ranking? Perhaps not, but it is not the worst read I have had from this list, and I would recommend this to someone if asked.

Apologies for appearing to be MIA, I have been in a reading slump and have really struggled even picking up a book :(

I am back at work as of yesterday, so back to a regular routine, and should be around a bit more :)

Thanks everyone, I am checking briefly here and there but have been tied up rearranging my room to make it a more organised and goal friendly space.

I have a map of the world waiting to be coloured in once I start reading.

Does anyone else here use Libib? I just found it and know that a part of my holiday is going to be spent scanning all my books into it 😁

10.9 Scandinavia (Norma's Task):

I'm Traveling Alone by Samuel Bjørk
Set in Norway

+10 task
+5 combo (20.4)

Post Total = 15
Season Total = 190

10.6, ...; ...; 10.9; 10.10 (x2)
15.1; 15.2; 15.3; 15.4;
20.3; ...; 20.5; 20.6

15.4 - BBR

I. Read a book originally written in a different language than the one your BBR was originally written in.

Chosen book Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy

Read Book Hospital by Sanya Rushdi
Whilst this is set in Australia, the text was originally written in Bengali, Rushdi's native language

+15 task

Post Total = 15
Season Total = 175

10.6, ...; ...; ...; 10.10 (x2)
15.1; 15.2; 15.3; 15.4;
20.3; ...; 20.5; 20.6

Oh yay! I am glad you enjoyed it!

I used to be anti graphic novels, but I have tried hard to be broad in my reading of them. The first one I liked was a biography of Patricia Highsmith, so I came to understand that they can be a lot more than what I had thought they were

And with the winter challenge!

Hope everyone has had/is having a wonderful Christmas. 8 new books on my shelves, going to have to give up my affair with the library for awhile!

I personally read it as only “a “ singular, but Anika might confirm?

10.10 Group Reads:

Absolution by Jeff VanderMeer

+10 task

Post Total = 10
Season Total = 160

10.6, ...; ...; ...; 10.10 (x2)
15.1; 15.2; 15.3;
20.3; ...; 20.5; 20.6