Mid-August Comments

So far in August I've followed my usual trend to wander over the map: Vietnam, Korea, Haiti, Japan, and the USA.

I have read something for Women in Translation Month - The Stars, The Earth, The River: Short Stories by Le Minh Khue (translated by Bac Hoai Tran and Dana Sach). These stories, set mostly in the north of Vietnam during and just after the war, give an interesting look at the conflict and its aftermath from an author who participated for the North.

Back in February I purchased ten volumes in  The Library of Korean Literature from The Dalkey Archive. I finally started reading them with My Son's Girlfriend, a book of short stories by Jung Mi Kyung, (Yu Young-Nan,Translator) which is also for WIT month. I've read the first two stories and I'm liking it so far.

Not in translation, but from a woman, is Drifting by Katia D. Ulysse. This concerns Haitians both in Haiti and as immigrants in the USA. I received this from the publisher, Akashic Books, via a LibraryThing giveaway.  I'm starting to be very impressed with Akashic. They published two of my favorite recent reads: Mr. Loverman (also won through LibraryThing) and Bedrock Faith (from my local library). I want to try some from their Noir Series.

As I predicted in my last post, I did get the new Murakami from the library. I hesitate to say it meets the Japanese Lit Challenge because I read it in less than five hours and it was not particularly challenging. I kinda shrugged my shoulders when I was done. Ah well...

For something completely different, how about  After I'm Gone by Laura Lippman, a cold case mystery set in Baltimore. A good read set in a place I've actually been. (I don't count changing planes in Narita Airport as having been to Japan.)

Now...back to reading