BSchultz19
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Posts posted by BSchultz19
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On 6/28/2018 at 6:48 AM, Athena said:
I read Jodi Picoult - Small Great Things and its prequel companion short story Shine.
I had forgot about Shine actually, until I was already reading Small Great Things. So when I was around page ~150-ish, I put down Small Great Things and read Shine. I liked Shine, but I don't think it stands well on its own. If you don't plan on reading Small Great Things, I don't think just reading Shine, well you could, but you'd definitely get less out of the experience if that makes sense. It's most certainly not necessary to read Shine to enjoy Small Great Things though, as that book completely stands on its own. Shine just gives some back story to Ruth's childhood and what it was like. I enjoyed having that bit of extra story, so I liked it, but other people who just read Shine and not Small Great Things, were not so taken with it on GoodReads.
I found Small Great Things really interesting. It made me think a lot. I had no idea about the prevalence of racism in the United States.
The book is about Ruth, a labour and delivery nurse at a hospital in Connecticut. The synopsis of the back of my book says:
"When a newborn baby dies after a routine hospital procedure, there is no doubt about who will be held responsible: the nurse who had been banned from looking after him by his father.
What the nurse, her lawyer and the father of the child cannot know is how this death will irrevocably change all of their lives, in ways both expected and not.
Small Great Things is about prejudice and power; it is about that which divides us and unites us.
It is about opening your eyes."
I've read most of Jodi Picoult's books and have really liked most of them. I personally thought it was a great read (though I can't speak about the African-American representation, because I'm not African-American nor do I live in the United States), and it opened my eyes to some of the things I was unaware of of going on in another country. Rather, I did know about some of the things going on, but I had no idea of the prevalence.
As an American well aware of the racial issues in the country, I'm interested by this book. I read quite a bit of Picoult, but I've never heard of this one. Is it a newer release?
Also, I love love love your charts and graphs because I am a nerd and they are beautiful.
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On 7/4/2018 at 3:44 AM, Athena said:
Hi BSchultz, nice to see you again
. I'm glad you're liking The Handmaid's Tale (it's on my TBR). How have you been?
I have been good! I am working in a research lab this summer, which has been keeping me very busy. But I like being busy so all is well. It's also nice to have a more money to spend on books
7 hours ago, ~Andrea~ said:I really enjoyed the Handmaid's Tale. I'm going to add The Great Gatsby to my wish list based on your review.
I'm so glad to hear that you enjoyed Handmaid's Tale and that you enjoyed my review of Gatsby! It's such a classic book, and I'm glad that I was able to read and fully appreciate it.
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I may post reviews of the three books I have read in the time since my last post, but I have not decided yet.
This summer I am trying to get more into nonfiction books, especially history and/or politics related ones. I anticipate that this will mean I read fewer books, but I expect them to be even more meaningful than my typical reads. I will still, however, be mixing in some light fiction reads to spice things up. Very excited to get my summer reading going into full gear. I'm about halfway through The Handmaid's Tale right now and loving it.
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I really liked your review of The Handmaids Tale. I haven't seen the tv show, but I've heard such good things about the book and the show that I bought the book. I haven not gotten to reading it yet, but your review has me wanting to do it sooner rather than later.
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The Hate U Give sounds interesting because the plot is intriguing, but mostly because it has such political and social relevance right now. I'm glad you thought it was good, because now I definitely want to add it to my list of books to read this year.
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Finding the proper alternative to amazon probably depends heavily on what machine you would be reading on. If you have iphone/ipad/macbook, then I would recommend iBooks. Same goes for if you're using an android device, use the google play store to find books.
If you mean that you don't know which device you should look into, I'm not sure there's a better reading only EBook reader than some of the basic kindles. Someone else may know, but the only alternative I know to a kindle is some sort of tablet, which would obviously cost a little bit more money than a simple e-reader. I suppose Barnes & Noble (if you're in the states) has the Nook, but I've never used one before so I can't say that it's much better or different than a kindle.
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The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald General summary: The story is told from the perspective of Nick Carraway, who moves East and settles into a house next to Jay Gatsby's mansion. Gatsby has been smitten with Daisy for five years despite not seeing her for that long and knowing that she is married. Nick's connection to Daisy allows Gatsby to sneak back into her life. As one could imagine, things go down hill from there for everyone involved.
My thoughts: This is not your average love story, and that is what makes it such a great one. I absolutely love the way that Fitzgerald writes. It flows and it's absolutely beautiful. What I think people, myself included, appreciate most about his writing is how authentic the writing is. It's a love story, but it's not frilly and it certainly isn't necessarily going to end with sunshines and rainbows. It's real and I assume that it accurately portrayed relationships and general life during that time period even better than it (still somewhat accurately) portrays current relationships and life. This novel didn't have the profound impact on me that it has on others who love it, but it was definitely a good book that I could find myself re-reading later on in life. It was short, well-written, and contained an interesting plot.
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Why not Me? by Mindy Kahling
General summary: This book was a collection of essays by Mindy Kahling. The topics of the essays varied from female body image to work to dealing with relationships, both platonic and romantic.
My thoughts: This book is funny. Genuinely, genuinely funny. I can't remember a single book that made me laugh actually out loud as much as this one, or even at all. What made it even more enjoyable of a read was the fast pace. The book is separated into chapters, subchapters, and occasionally different essays within each subchapter. Despite the different subgroups, it all tied together and flowed from start to finish. The beginning of the book was definitely more light-hearted, but I enjoyed it all the way through. There was humor, truth, and inspiration. Definitely a book I would read again and again and recommend to everyone.
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Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult
General summary: Jenna is a teenage girl whose mother disappeared when she was three years old after an accident in an elephant sanctuary. Now that she sees herself as old enough to be taken somewhat seriously, she's on a mission to find her mom. She doesn't know whether she is alive or dead, but she has a hunch that her mother is alive somewhere. With the help of a psychic and a grumpy ex-policeman she does her best to track down where her mom could be as well as finding out exactly what happened the night of the accident when her mom disappeared.
My thoughts: I picked this book up because it was on my shelf, and I assumed that starting with a Picoult would get my reading skills going again. I expected it to be a quick read (it was) where I pretty much knew where the book was going (I didn't). Through the first 200-250 pages I thought I had it all figured out. It was seemingly way too predictable, but I kept reading along to see how the characters would find out what I thought I already knew. In some ways, my predictions were right. But as far as the overall plot goes, I was completely blown away when I reached the end. If this doesn't make any sense to you, all I can say is that you should give it a read. I'm prone to recency bias and thinking each new book I read is the best one, but I definitely think this is one of Picoult's better books.
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Another update:
As I combed back through my read books on this book thread, I realized that I hadn't put down that I read Coyote in Provence nor had I created a review. Unfortunately, I don't have a strong enough recollection to write a review now because I had actually started the third book, Cornered Coyote, when I ran out of time (both for reading and on my kindle unlimited trial
). Because I started the third one, I'm a little blurred on which parts of the plot happened in which book. I do remember that I didn't like it as much as the first one as it sort of felt like a filler to get to the climax of the series in the third book (which I never reached).
In the spirit of getting back into reading, I made a trip to the bookstore yesterday. I went in not even looking for anything in particular and came out with a couple of books, a journal, and a planner.
The two books I bought are:
Hidden Figures - Margot Lee Shetterly
Why not Me? - Mindy Kahling
I had already planned on reading Why not me because I love Kahling as a tv writer, book writer, and actress as well as part of the popsugar 2018 challenge. It was a hardcover that was bargain priced for $7, so I couldn't pass up that opportunity. I think it's what I'll read next.
When I saw Hidden Figures on the bargain shelf as well, I immediately picked it up. I was choosing between it and a history-based book, and I felt that I would enjoy this one more. I haven't seen the movie, but I understand that the underly plot of the book is female scientists that helped America in the space race and that is extremely interesting to me.
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3 hours ago, ~Andrea~ said:
It's completely understandable that you're reading slips when you're studying. There's only so much concentration the brain can take. Maybe you need to find some trashy novels to replace the trashy TV
And don't be too hard on yourself. Good luck with the studies, and the reading! I hope you have a good break.
Maybe trashy novels are the answer. I wonder what the novel version of bad reality tv is I'm going to keep trying and working to make time for myself to enjoy some reading. No reason to be hard on myself for focusing on school and doing well, but I also want to expand my learning and enjoyment beyond what I'm required to do. And that's where reading comes in.
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3 hours ago, Madeleine said:
I was the same at school too, did so much reading at school that it put me off reading for pleasure for about 5 years!
I'm studying chemical engineering, so I don't really *read* that much. But I spend a lot of time thinking and studying. So much that I hardly have time let alone the desire to read. It's sad though.
14 hours ago, Athena said:I'm sorry you haven't been able to do much reading for pleasure
. I found it hard too when I was at/in school.
For me it's easier to read an easy book rather than watch tv, but I know a lot of people find watching tv easier than reading a book.
I hope you'll be able to read a bit for pleasure soon
.
Thank you
I'm always able to get quite a bit of reading done while on my breaks, so I'm hoping this one isn't too different. Just a shame that I haven't been able to keep up the rest of the time.
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Well...
Another year, another failed attempt at reading for pleasure while in school. I told myself that this year would be different, that I would find time to read despite the exhaustion of university. And yet, it did not happen. I'm not sure exactly the reason, but I just couldn't get into reading when I arrived back at school. I'm home on break now for a week and plan to read as much as I can. However, I can't help but get disappointed by the effort I've put in so far. There's still plenty of time to change things, but I realize now how difficult it is to make time for anything during the semester.
I think the main root of my problem is that I need something that doesn't require using my brain when I do find times of relaxation. Naturally, that means I watch trashy tv rather than open a good book. This is unfortunate, but I'm not sure that my brain could take any more work than it has already been put through.
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Two by Two by Nicholas Sparks
Brief summary: Russell Green has a lovely wife and a pretty good life. Things change when his daughter, London, is born. The book follows the struggles between Russ and his wife as they coast through their lives as parents. In particular, the book follows a specific year in time when London is 5-6 years old where a dramatic number of changes happen in both their personal and professional lives.
My thoughts: The first half of this book follows Russ and his wife, Vivian, through the struggles of their marriage. I don't think I'm giving too much of the plot away when I say that it followed them up to the point of divorce. Sparks does a great job describing the thoughts, words, and actions that both experience during this time, which I found to be quite interesting and different from many of his books that I've read in the past. It did, of course, contain romance like any Sparks book does. However, the over-the-top unrealistic relationship certainly wasn't the center of the story. In fact, most of the plot was incredibly realistic even if it was somewhat predictable. I haven't read Sparks in quite some time (mostly because I blazed through all his books when I was 15 or 16 and there were none left to read in recent years), so comparing to his other novels probably isn't the best way to judge the book for me. I will say that part of what draws me to Sparks' books is that it's not real. Because who doesn't love to read some crazy romance story that, albeit utterly unrealistic, lights the fire of the romantic within us? With that said, I liked this book but it didn't have quite the same romantic pull that his others have.
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On 1/10/2018 at 2:34 AM, Athena said:
I agree, I would've been happy with that too.
It's good that the two books were pretty different so it didn't feel like repetition
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It's been a while since I read a book by Jodi Picoult, the last one I read was Harvesting the Heart in March 2017 (I admit, I looked that up as I didn't quite remember when in 2017 I read the book). So maybe in the next few months I'll read another Picoult book. I've really been looking forward to reading her newest release, Small Great Things, but my best friend (Anna Begins) wanted to read it together and I was waiting for her to be in the mood for it, which hasn't happened yet, so that's one of the reasons why I haven't read it yet. Of course I could also read another one of the unread ones I have, like Mercy.
I hope you enjoy your next read (by a different author)
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She is one of my go-to authors when I'm wandering the library and feeling just a bit overwhelmed by the possibilities. It's always nice to choose one thing that I know I'll enjoy. If you read Mercy, I hope you like it but it wasn't one of my favorite Picoult books. I have not looked into her recent releases as I'm trying to move through books I already own, but I might have to loan that one and some others in the near future.
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Good luck on your reading this year
! Both of the challenges you posted look really interesting and perhaps something I will consider doing this year to help push myself out of the comfort zone a little bit.
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8 hours ago, Athena said:
Wow, great review of Handle With Care! I also quite liked the book. The only thing I liked a bit less was the ending. I agree about the style, sometimes it could be confusing to who 'you' was referring to. But overall I quite liked Handle With Care. That's two Picoult books already! I usually feel I need more time in between impressive books by the same author, otherwise I easily get an author burnout.
I agree that the ending seemed unnecessary and frankly just dumb, but the rest of the book was good and I could have been happy with it ending before the final chapter.
Two in a short time from the same author is about all I can handle. I like two in a row sometimes because I don't have to adjust to style differences, but then again that always makes it harder to start the next book after two by the same author. Luckily these two books were quite different so it didn't feel like I was repeating the same plot over and over.
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I read three books during this read-a-thon, Handle with Care, Blue Coyote Motel, and Mercy. Each was about 400 pages, and I finished each at a pace of about one per day. So I did somewhere around 1200-1300 pages total over the three days and 400 pages per day. I could have done more, but I enjoyed this pace where I was more relaxed.
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1 minute ago, willoyd said:
It very much depends on the fiction you read, but I find most decent history requires more effort than most fiction: the biography I'm currently reading is 550 pages long, and it will take longer and require more concentration than the book scheduled next, which I need to read for my book group - I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes - even though the latter is getting on for 900 pages.
Yeah, this is why I thought I would rather do things concurrently. Part of it is because I'm impatient and part of it is my trying to get to as many books as I can in the small amount of time I have during my breaks from school. I always feel like a history or long biography is dragging me down in pace. But perhaps I should care less about pace.
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Handle with Care by Jodi Picoult
Brief summary: The book follows the story of the O'Keefe family, who have a daughter born with a rare bone condition called osteogenesis imperfecta that causes brittle bones due to a lack of collagen. The plot begins when that child, Willow, is five years old. She's brilliant for her age because of the extended amounts of time she spends confined to the couch where she loves to read and learn random bits of trivia. Willow has a sister, Amelia, who does not have the disease and is 12 at the start of the book, just entering the horrible stages of puberty. The story follows the O'Keefe family through a lawsuit regarding the diagnosis of Willow's disease that does its best to tear the family apart.
My thoughts: This book tackles a lot. The center of the plot is around a wrongful birth suit regarding the time when Willow was diagnosed with OI, but there are so many other issues that Picoult delicately dives into. From divorce to bulimia and cutting to friendship, she covers it all in an impressive way. Particularly I liked how different chapters were narrated by different characters. This isn't an uncommon style for Picoult, or any author for that matter, but I think it's used to perfection in this story. She perfectly conveys the way that one simple event or circumstance can be viewed so differently by each of the people involved. It shows that there is no real black and white or basic idea of right or wrong. Often our ideas of right and wrong are shaped by our biases.
The one complaint I could have, however, is that this style was confusing at times. Not only was each chapter told from a different character's perspective but it was also written as if the characters were telling the story to Willow. This got confusing when the narrater used "you" to refer to willow and used "you" soon after or before in dialogue because it occasionally had me confused about what or who the character was referring to. That said, this would not have been a good or honest story without the different perspectives provided by this style.
I would certainly recommend this book to fans of Picoult and similar fiction. I think what I realized that I like so much about her writing is that she isn't afraid to tackle the tough issues. I've found that this often causes people to dislike or oppose her when she doesn't get things exactly right or perhaps puts too much of her own opinion into a work about something she hasn't experienced; however, I find it incredibly impressive that she can put the reader in the shoes of those people just a little bit, if not with 100% accuracy.
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11 hours ago, Nollaig said:
Happy reading, and good luck with the rest of your course also
Thank you
!
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On 1/7/2018 at 2:13 PM, willoyd said:
Generally, I read non-fiction just as any other book, and, most of the time, I read books in sequence. Occcasionally, I will have more than one on the go, in which case it's usually one of each, as I can't cope with two stories at the same time. Sometimes, I will interrupt a big book, usually non-fiction, with another one, usually fiction, and then go back to it: as you'll see from above posts, I'm currently reading a big bio of Nelson, but I've taken a break tonight to read a Maigret (it's an evening's read), and will go back to Nelson in the next couple of days.
The very fact that you refer to the monotony of non-fiction suggests that you haven't really enjoyed the non-fiction you've read to date. For me, there's plenty of monotonous fiction and non-fiction, but there's also plenty that isn't! Last year, four out of my five favourite books were non-fiction (just the number 1 was fiction), and, the previous year, my top three books were all non-fiction. None of them could I in the remotest have described as monotonous - completely the opposite in fact!
So, it's not a commitment so much as the fact that I positively like good quality non-fiction on subjects I find interesting. Hope that helps. It may seem a silly question, but what sort of non-fiction are you reading, and is it around what you are fundamentally interested in?
I suppose it was unfair for me to say that I have only read monotonous non-fiction because I have read some autobiographical non-fiction from tv writers (one of my big interests) that I thoroughly enjoyed. However, I've recently tried to read history books. I've always had a lot of interest in history and these books come highly recommended by critics and people I know who have read them, but I just can't seem to motivate myself to really give them the same effort I would put into fiction books. Perhaps it's just my mindset at the time that I attempt to read them because all signs point to them being something I enjoy.
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So many great lists with great books
. Wishing you a good reading year in 2018
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On 1/1/2018 at 11:01 AM, willoyd said:
I used to worry about this, but then I read Naseem Nicholas Taleb's The Black Swan, and found this (it's quoted quite a lot on the internet):
The writer Umberto Eco belongs to that small class of scholars who are encyclopaedic, insightful, and non-dull. He is the owner of a large personal library (containing thirty thousand books), and separates visitors into two categories: those who react with “Wow! Signore professore dottore Eco, what a library you have! How many of these books have you read?” and the others - a very small minority - who get the point that a private library is not an ego-boosting appendage but a research tool. Read books are far less valuable than unread ones. The library should contain as much of what you do not know as your financial means, mortgage rates, and the currently tight read-estate market allows you to put there. You will accumulate more knowledge and more books as you grow older, and the growing number of unread books on the shelves will look at you menacingly. Indeed, the more you know, the larger the rows of unread books. Let us call this collection of unread books an antilibrary.
I find this rather comforting. Having said that, I would like to reduce my TBR pile (my anti-library!) to something of more manageable proportions!
I absolutely love this quote. Unfortunately my financial means only allow for an anti-library of about 30-40 books
I like how committed you are to reading nonfiction as that's a place I strive to get better at this year and in the future. Do you read a fiction and nonfiction book concurrently or do you read nonfiction as if it was any other book? I think I would have to go the concurrent method just to break up the monotony of nonfiction but perhaps that's just bad nonfiction that I'm reading.
Good luck with your reading in 2018
Read-a-thon 2018
in Group Reads
Posted
I have to work on Saturday, but I will definitely participate in this read-a-thon as much as I can. It's been quite some time since I've committed a whole weekend to reading.