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

Apple’s comments from the Reading with Style group.

15.4 Celebration of Styles
Not A Novel

Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis

Post Total = 15
Season Total = 220

10.6
15.1; 15.2; 15.3; 15.4;
20.1; ... ; ...; ...; 20.5; ....; ....; ....; ....; 20.10 (x2)

15.3 Celebration of Styles

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
Non Western - Toshikazu Kawaguchi is Japanese

Post Total = 15
Season Total = 205

10.6
15.1; 15.2; 15.3
20.1; ... ; ...; ...; 20.5; ....; ....; ....; ....; 20.10 (x2)

20.10 Letters (Owlette's Task)

84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff

Technically, this never says that the letters from the first section of this book are written, but I am going to fairly certainly presume that Nora, wife of Frank Doel (the recipient of majority of Hanff's correspondence) would not likely have access to a typewriter, if not all of the letters are handrwritten.

Also, this volume is two texts in one, as it includes The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street, the sequel, which is Hanff's diary entries from her eventually visit to the UK to promote the book.

Hanff makes me laugh, and I could not ever imagine sending off the kind of letters she does to Frank, demanding books that he has not yet sourced for her. They are, however in jest, as she is regularly revealed to be very generous to the people associated with the bookshop at 84 Charing Cross Rd, and makes such a difference in their lives and brings them as much joy as she receives from the books they are able to find her (in the most part!).

For the joy of reading someone who loves reading, for the relationships this connection builds, mostly based upon letters and without ever meeting, this was a pleasure to read.

+20 task
+10 review
+5 oldies
+5 multiple

Post Total = 40
Season Total = 190

10.6
15.1; 15.2;
20.1; ... ; ...; ...; 20.5; ....; ....; ....; ....; 20.10 (x2)

20.5 Scandinavian Noir

The Katharina Code by Jørn Lier Horst

I read my first book in the Wisting series last season, When It Grows Dark, and enjoyed it. It was short, and enjoyable, so I was glad to see this task pop up and give me an excuse to read more.

This is the 12th book in the Norwegian Wisting series, but the first in the Cold Case series, and the next book after When It Grows Dark, but both of these reads happen at opposite ends of Wisting's career. In "Dark" he is what is essentially a beat cop, doing patrols and investigating the calls that come in, but hoping to move into the detective arena, even though it will mean a pay cut. He is a young father with twin babies, and is juggling his career and family commitment.

In The Katharina Code, he is head of the department, and has been for some time. The case of the disappearance of Katherina happened 24 years before, but now with new evidence he has been asked to investigate this, and the case of another missing teenager from 25 years before. A case that his now adult daughter, with her own baby, is investigating in her role as journalist.

I probably don't read many police type mysteries, but Wisting is a very human character. He doesn't want to deceive anyone, but he wants to get the cases solved. He is considerate and considered in what he does, and he has a fairly good read on people, most of the time.

It is probably the characters in this that have drawn me back to this series, and I already had a couple of other books in this series on order, if my delivery ever turns up (THAT is a whole other story!).

+20 task
+10 review

Post Total = 30
Season Total = 150

10.6
15.1; 15.2;
20.1; ... ; ...; ...; 20.5; ....; ....; ....; ....; 20.10

20.1 Author! Author!:

The Medusa Frequency by Russell Hoban

I will preface this by saying that I first read Russell Hoban in a class called Myth and Fantasy at university. The book was The Mouse and His Child, and whilst I didn't think too much of it at the time, the book stuck with me and I thought about it often after.

This was my third novel by Hoban, and I have to say, that as with Riddley Walker, I still have no idea what it was I just read.

Various characters are connected by their interest in the Orpheus myth, all creative types. The head of Orpheus appears as various inanimate objects. There are lost loves, and new loves, and shared loves, and very bad art in all its forms. I am however, still completely clueless as to what I was supposed to take away from this.

The use of nonsensical "words" further distracted from any of sense of meaning I was supposed to derive.

Maybe someone else out there "gets" Russell Hoban, but that person is not me.

+20 task
+10 review
+5 oldies

Post Total = 35
Season Total = 120

10.6
15.1; 15.2;
20.1; ... ; ...; ...; ....; ....; ....; ....; ....; 20.10

15.2 Celebration of Styles

Earthlings by Sayaka Murata
Young, Sayaka Murata was born in 1979

+15 task

Post Total = 15
Season Total = 85

10.6
15.1; 15.2;
20.10

On my phone so can’t fo links (why IS that? So annoying!), but just finished reading 84, Charing Cross Road, which includes the later Duchess of Bloomsbury Street. In the later, Helene Hanff is having her portrait painted in Russell Square.

Just started Life Class by Pat Barker, reach the third page and the character is walking towards the same Russell Square.

How often does that happen?!?

10.6 September (Valerie's Task)

Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells
According to Wikipedia, Martha Wells was born on September 1st, 1964

A possible murder on Preservation Staion? Oh, no! Can Murderbot, our rogue Sec-Unit narrator, solve the mystery without eye-rolling his eyes out of their sockets? Will Preservation Station security learn to trust him and see him as more than a dangerous weapon?

I am not going to hide the fact that I love The Murderbot Diaries. The character's sarcasm and wry observations make me laugh, and watching him learn to deal with his emerging feelings in regards to the now regular Preservation characters has been amusing. Possibly, in this period of concern regarding AI, watching a non-human character develop human emotions and learn how to control them is somewhat reassuring, but it still down with a very rationalist perspective (by Murderbot).

I actually enjoyed this one more than the last couple, perhaps because it remained in one location, and didn't introduce too many new characters (and taking place on Preservation Station makes it seem likely that some of these new characters will appear again), making it less work and more fun than the last couple had been.

+10 task
+10 review
+5 Prizeworthy (Locus Award for best Novella 2022)

Post Total = 25
Season Total = 70

10.6
15.1
20.10

20.10 Letters (Owlette's Task)

Ghost Music by An Yu

Towards the bottom, a small white envelope had slid between the flaps of a brochure. The words in it were written in small, neat handwriting. It was addressed to Miss Tien. Dear Miss Tien, first of all let me be clear, the Miss Tien I am addressing this letter to ..." (At this stage the letter writer is unknown, and unsigned).

It seems that Song Yan's life may have been fairly empty before now, but in trying, and failing, to get a long with and please her mother in law, finding that perhaps she doesn't actually know her husband, it seems that there is nothing in her life is what it had seemed.

In meeting Bai Yu, the missing world-famous pianist, it seems to awaken something in both of them. From there, she seems to find who she is and is able to look at those missing parts and find strength in herself.

I listened to the audiobook, and, like An Yu's other novel, Braised Pork, it feels like the use of language is sparse and measured. Like the woman Song Yan meets in Bai Yu's house, she uses only the words that are necessary and nothing more. This is not a bad thing, it gives the telling a poignancy without being dramatic, something I enjoy in a novel.

This is my second novel by An Yu in as many months, which would seem to me a good recommendation for her works.

+20 task
+10 review

Post Total = 30
Season Total = 45

15.1
20.10

15.1 Celebration of Styles

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
Lost in Translation

+15 task

Post Total = 15
Season Total = 15

15.1

I am on my 3rd audio, and taking too much time on my hard copy, but we are painting the kitchen and pulling out hard rubbish. And I was waiting for the last tasks to see what changes I needed to make ;)

Does anyone else ever have a book seeming to appear on EVERY list that look at, at a certain time?

I really feel that Goodreads wants me to read A Separate Peace by John Knowles, which I feel I had not heard of before 2 weeks ago, and now it seems to appear every time I search a task ....

Thank you ladies for keeping this group running!

20 Point Tasks, Round 3, All One Task
20.10 Winter 2013/14 20.5 - Disturbing: In honor of Last Exit To Brooklyn, read a book shelved at least five times as "disturbing" .

Blood Meridian, or, the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy
Shelved as disturbing 50 times

+20 task
+5 Before 1998 (1985)
+75 finishers bonus, all one task

Post Total = 100
Season Total = 1410

10.1 (x2); 10.2 (x2); 10.3 (x2); 10.4 (x2); 10.5 (x2) ; 10.6 (x2); 10.7 (x2); 10.8 (x2); 10.9 (x2); 10.10 (x2);
15.1; 15.2; 15.3; 15.4;
20.1 (x3); 20.2 (x3); 20.3 (x3); 20.4 (x3); 20.5 (x3); 20.6 (x3); 20.7 (x3); 20.8 (x3); 20.9 (x3); 20.10 (x3)

Didn't think I was going to make it! Thanks for a great season :)

20 Point Tasks, Round 3, All One Task
20.9 Winter 2013/14 20.5 - Disturbing: In honor of Last Exit To Brooklyn, read a book shelved at least five times as "disturbing" .

Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis
Shelved as disturbing 22 times

+20 task
+5 before 1998 (1985)

Post Total = 25
Season Total = 1310

10.1 (x2); 10.2 (x2); 10.3 (x2); 10.4 (x2); 10.5 (x2) ; 10.6 (x2); 10.7 (x2); 10.8 (x2); 10.9 (x2); 10.10 (x2);
15.1; 15.2; 15.3; 15.4;
20.1 (x3); 20.2 (x3); 20.3 (x3); 20.4 (x3); 20.5 (x3); 20.6 (x3); 20.7 (x3); 20.8 (x3); 20.9 (x3); 20.10 (x2)

20 Point Tasks, Round 3, All One Task
20.8 Winter 2013/14 20.5 - Disturbing: In honor of Last Exit To Brooklyn, read a book shelved at least five times as "disturbing" .

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
Shelved as disturbing 9 times

+20 task
+5 Before 1998 (1939)

Post Total = 25
Season Total = 1285

10.1 (x2); 10.2 (x2); 10.3 (x2); 10.4 (x2); 10.5 (x2) ; 10.6 (x2); 10.7 (x2); 10.8 (x2); 10.9 (x2); 10.10 (x2);
15.1; 15.2; 15.3; 15.4;
20.1 (x3); 20.2 (x3); 20.3 (x3); 20.4 (x3); 20.5 (x3); 20.6 (x3); 20.7 (x3); 20.8 (x3); 20.9 (x2); 20.10 (x2)

20 Point Tasks, Round 3, All One Task
20.7Winter 2013/14 20.5 - Disturbing: In honor of Last Exit To Brooklyn, read a book shelved at least five times as "disturbing" .

The Stranger by Albert Camus
Shelved as disturbing 23 times

+20 task
+5 Before 1998 (1942)

Post Total = 25
Season Total = 1260

10.1 (x2); 10.2 (x2); 10.3 (x2); 10.4 (x2); 10.5 (x2) ; 10.6 (x2); 10.7 (x2); 10.8 (x2); 10.9 (x2); 10.10 (x2);
15.1; 15.2; 15.3; 15.4;
20.1 (x3); 20.2 (x3); 20.3 (x3); 20.4 (x3); 20.5 (x3); 20.6 (x3); 20.7 (x3); 20.8 (x2); 20.9 (x2); 20.10 (x2)

20 Point Tasks, Round 3, All One Task
20.6 Winter 2013/14 20.5 - Disturbing: In honor of Last Exit To Brooklyn, read a book shelved at least five times as "disturbing" .

The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury
Shelved as disturbing 5 times

+20 task
+5 Before 1998 (1951)

Post Total = 25
Season Total = 1235

10.1 (x2); 10.2 (x2); 10.3 (x2); 10.4 (x2); 10.5 (x2) ; 10.6 (x2); 10.7 (x2); 10.8 (x2); 10.9 (x2); 10.10 (x2);
15.1; 15.2; 15.3; 15.4;
20.1 (x3); 20.2 (x3); 20.3 (x3); 20.4 (x3); 20.5 (x3); 20.6 (x3); 20.7 (x2); 20.8 (x2); 20.9 (x2); 20.10 (x2)

20 Point Tasks, Round 3, All One Task
20.5 Winter 2013/14 20.5 - Disturbing: In honor of Last Exit To Brooklyn, read a book shelved at least five times as "disturbing" .

The Power by Naomi Alderman
Shelved as disturbing 21 times

+20 task

Post Total = 20
Season Total =1210

10.1 (x2); 10.2 (x2); 10.3 (x2); 10.4 (x2); 10.5 (x2) ; 10.6 (x2); 10.7 (x2); 10.8 (x2); 10.9 (x2); 10.10 (x2);
15.1; 15.2; 15.3; 15.4;
20.1 (x3); 20.2 (x3); 20.3 (x3); 20.4 (x3); 20.5 (x3); 20.6 (x2); 20.7 (x2); 20.8 (x2); 20.9 (x2); 20.10 (x2)


+20 task

20 Point Tasks, Round 3, All One Task
20.4 Winter 2013/14 20.5 - Disturbing: In honor of Last Exit To Brooklyn, read a book shelved at least five times as "disturbing" .

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson
Shelved as disturbing 18 times

+20 task
+5 Big (566 pages)

Post Total = 25
Season Total = 1190

10.1 (x2); 10.2 (x2); 10.3 (x2); 10.4 (x2); 10.5 (x2) ; 10.6 (x2); 10.7 (x2); 10.8 (x2); 10.9 (x2); 10.10 (x2);
15.1; 15.2; 15.3; 15.4;
20.1 (x3); 20.2 (x3); 20.3 (x3); 20.4 (x3); 20.5 (x2); 20.6 (x2); 20.7 (x2); 20.8 (x2); 20.9 (x2); 20.10 (x2)