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

Joanna’s comments from the Reading with Style group.

This was the clearest explanation of the difference that I could find:

https://www.google.com/search?q=pronu...

I like audio books when there are other somewhat boring tasks that need my visual attention, like doing laundry and other household chores, driving, and during certain crafts if I ever have time for craft projects.

I really got started on audiobooks when I used to commute about 45 minutes each way to work. Now my commute is more like 5 minutes, but I still listen to some audiobooks in the car when I have a drive long enough to justify it.

I think my pronunciation of wh and w are pretty close for most words -- definitely which and witch are the same when I say them.

Whit and wit sound different to me as do when and wen.

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Moderator feedback:

I really like the tasks in the Bingo grid. I'm doing only 9 of them (repeating one), but honestly, this could have been a whole season. It's not a whole season because, well, y..."

Thanks! I'm really enjoying this season, though I have another trial in November, so I'm sure I won't get to everything on my plan.

I'm also doing only 9 of the bingo tasks, but I realized last night that I'd misread B2, forgetting that the book needed to be in the capital city, not just any city outside the specified countries. This led to a whole flurry of rearranging and re-rearranging some plans and I still haven't decided what to put in for B2.

Post 158:
Joanna wrote: "10.8 Bookshop or Library

The Book Censor's Library by Bothayna Al-Essa

This book finds itself in clever conversation with dystopian literature, particularly wit..."

+5 Combo 10.6 - pub. 2019

15.4 SSB
*15.3 was posted out of order at Post 223

O5 - book with an alliterative title

Feel Free: Essays by Zadie Smith

+15 Task

Task total: 15
Grand total: 230

15.2 SSB

I2 - A book set more than 200 years before publication date

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

+15 Task

Task total: 15
Grand total: 215

20.4 Uncommon Letter

Heart Lamp: Selected Stories by Banu Mushtaq

A lovely collection of stories about women living in Karnataka, in southern India. The author obviously is rooted in the community enough to understand the traditions and the interactions between these characters.

I'd recommend reading the translator's note first. The translator explains the decision not to contextualize these stories for Western audiences. There are no italics to offset use of foreign words, no footnotes to explain things, and certain decisions made to emphasize the way speech is used that read as foreign to an English speaker. Because of these decisions, as a reader, I felt really deeply the cultural context for these stories. At the same time, it required some additional work from me to go look up certain things I was not familiar with.

Thanks to andotherstories for amplifying this book and putting it on my radar screen even before it won the International Booker Prize.

+20 Task
+10 Review
+5 Prize-worthy
+10 Female

Task total: 45
Grand total: 200

I'm going to move a book.

Post 86: North Woods by Daniel Mason posted to 15.2 - B3.

I'm moving it to
10.4 - Elmore Leonard

I enjoyed this book, but I think I would have liked it more in print. The audiobook made it harder to appreciate the prose, which I think was lovely. To be fair, I was listening to a lot of this book while sitting at the hospital emergency department with my mother awaiting diagnosis and admission to the ICU. So, I might have been a tad distracted...

This book was selected as the "one read" for my local library, so both of my bookclubs read it. Unfortunately, I missed both meetings, so didn't get to hear what others thought of the book.

The structure of the book was really clever--focusing on a place and examining that place through time and different inhabitants. I think this was just a case of me reading a good book at the wrong time.

-15 (SSB task)
+10 (10.4 - DM)
+10 Combo (10.2, 20.8)
+10 Review

Task total: 30 - 15 = 15
Grand total: 155

15.3 SSB

B5 - 1 and 6 in publication year

Rocked by Livia Grant

+15 Task (pub. 2016)

Task total: 15
Grand total: 140

Kathleen (itpdx) wrote: "I can’t quite figure out my score.
I have two posts post 166 For 50. Joanna found +5 for a prize I missed
And post 183 for 40.
I come up with
+50
+5
+40
For a total of 95 rather than 80."

Looks like two style points were left off--one for female and one for review. it'll be fixed in the next update. Thanks for checking!

Post 167:
Connie wrote: "20.5 Elizabeth's Comfort Zone

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

Catherine Morland is the seventeen-year-old protagonist in this delightful coming-of-age novel. She comes ..."

+5 Combo - 10.10 (Emma is a Group Read, same author)

Post 166:
Kathleen (itpdx) wrote: "20.8 A Touch of Magic

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

This book has an interesting premise—a young woman makes a deal with a dark god for her fre..."

+5 Prize-worthy

Post 182:
Claire wrote: "Sweet sixteen Bingo 15.16
I5 a book without chapter numbers


Sleuteloog
Hella S. Haasse


✔️✔️📚📚📚
✔️✔️✔️✔️✔️
✔️✔️✔️✔️📚
📚📚📚✔️📚
✔️✔️✔️📚✔️

15 points
Total points: 515..."

This book was already claimed in Post 139 for Square N4. Do you want to keep it at N4 or move it to I5?

Post 177:
Coralie wrote: "20.8 A Touch of Magic

Spirits Abroad by Zen Cho

+20 task MPG magical realism
+10 Combo (10.9 You could not make tomyam out of a block of pecorino cheese
+10 Femal..."

I'm counting this as combo with 10.9 and 20.4. If there's something else you meant, let me know.

Post 175:
Joanne wrote: "20.1 Happy Birthday Elizabeth!

Read any book with an average rating over 3.74 AND under 1001 ratings.

[book:The Secret Game: A Wartime Story of Courage, Change, and Basketball's Lost Triumph..."

+5 -- Review is +10 not +5

Post 170:
Tawallah wrote: "20.4 Uncommon Letter

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

Task 20
Combo 15(10.2- 225 tags; 10.4 - all initials; 20.6 )

Task total : 35
Season tot..."

For your own tracking, you've got an addition error in your grand total -- Post 169 = 20 + Post 170 = 35 --> Total = 50

10.8 Bookshop or Library

The Book Censor's Library by Bothayna Al-Essa

This book finds itself in clever conversation with dystopian literature, particularly with the likes of Farenheit 451, 1984, but also, rather unexpectedly, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

I adored the conversation here about book censorship and the role of imagination. The author has some things to say about the way that stories and books shape people and society. At the same time, she's doing something clever in the structure of the book and the conversation with existing stories. I'm also intrigued by the author's personal story of running a bookstore in Kuwait, where she has personally experienced book inspectors and book banning.

I don't know that this book is marketed for a teen audience, but I think it would work really well for high school readers. I'm planning to recommend it to my eighth grade daughter. If I'd realized how much I'd like this one, I would have listened to it with her, but right now she and I are busy with When the Moon Hits Your Eye.

In any event, I highly recommend this, particularly as a companion to anyone reading 1984. The audiobook was well narrated and the book works well in that format for those that like listening to books.

+10 Task
+10 Female
+10 Review
+5 Combo (20.8)

Task total: 35
Grand total: 125

20.8 Touch of Magic

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward

I've been meaning to read something by this author for a while. And this was on the NYT top 100 books of the 21st century so far. But I didn't expect to love this. I think I expected it to be good for me. Good literary read. Instead, this book grabbed me by the throat and held me through the whole audiobook. The book translates really well to audio format and I highly recommend listening to this one. There's a sort of oral history feel here that just works well.

I love uncomfortable characters. Characters who know in the moment that they are making a bad choice, yet can't find a way not to do it. When an author captures such a moment, I find it absolutely fascinating as a reader. Leonie embodies this throughout the book. She's lacking "the mothering instinct" as one character says. She's also addicted to meth. She wants to make better choices, but somehow just can't really manage. And it's gripping and heart-wrenching to read.

I'm very impressed by this book and this author. Highly recommended.

+20 Task
+10 Review
+10 Female
+15 Prize-worthy (National Book Award for Fiction (2017), Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Fiction (2018), Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award (2019))
+5 Combo (10.2)

Task total: 60
Grand total: 90

Post 110:
Claire wrote: "Sweet sixteen : Bingo

N4 A book with both a 1 and 6 in the number of pages in the MPE

Voordat hij doodt
Blake Pierce

15 points
Total: 325 points

📚📚📚📚📚
✔️✔️✔️..."

Unfortunately, this doesn't work for this task. The MPE is the most popular print edition in English of a book. Here, the paperback is the most popular and has 171 pages. See: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

15.2 SSB

Square B3 - Author's latest book

North Woods by Daniel Mason

Task total: 15
Grand total: 30

See post 225.