June 2015 Reading

 No comments for any of these. All good for different reasons. These past couple of months it's been all about the reading, not the writing and reviewing.

The Alphabet House; Adler-Olsen, Jussi; Steve Schein (Translation)

Free Advance review copy from publisher

The Sage of Waterloo: A Tale; Francombe, Leona

Free Advance review copy via Goodreads First Reads program

Shame and the Captives; Keneally, Thomas
Library book
Blackbird; Wright, Tom
Library book 
Alexandrian Summer; Goren, Yitzhak Gormezano; Yardenne Greenspan (Translation)
Personal copy.
The Sunken Cathedral: A Novel; Walbert, Kate
 Free  Advance review copy via Goodreads First Reads program
The Hog's Back Mystery: A British Library Crime Classic; Crofts, Freeman Wills
 Personal copy.
All That Followed; Urza, Gabriel
Free Advance review copy via LibraryThing Early Reviewers program
The Palace of Illusions: Stories; Addonizio, Kim
Library book
Ticket to Childhood: A Novel; Ánh, Nguyễn Nhật; Will Naythons (Translation)
Library book

May 2015 Reading

Once again a list with few comments. List is in reverse order of my reading

The Rocks; Nichols, Peter
Library book. Set in Mallorca. Good sense of place.

The Well; Chanter, Catherine
Library book.

Esperanza Street; Keni, Niyati
Personal copy.

Bastards: A Memoir; King, Mary Anna
Free  Advance review copy via Goodreads First Reads program

Game of Mirrors; Camilleri, Andrea; Stephen Sartarelli (Translation)
Library book. Mystery set in Sicily. Along with the mystery there is a lot of eating. I was especially intrigued by arancini,  stuffed rice balls, which I think are available from a local deli--I must try some!

The Oysters of Locmariaquer; Clark, Eleanor
Personal copy. (Kindle ed.)

Beneath the Bonfire: Stories; Butler, Nickolas
Library book. 

Ten; Longo,Andrej;  Howard Curtis (Translator)
Personal Copy (Kindle ed.) Gritty stories, set in Naples.

The Brewer of Preston; Camilleri, Andrea; Stephen Sartarelli (Translation)
Library book.Lots of fun. Liked it better than his mystery (see above). But I did pick up a couple of the mystery series at the library book sale.

Whisper Hollow; Cander, Chris
Library book. Liked this very much. Also her short stories (see below)

Marie Pontonnier: Montreal Pioneer; Cote, Carol Ann P.
Free from author via Goodreads First Reads program

The Red Notebook; Laurain, Antoine; Jane Aitken (Translation), Emily Boyce (Translation)
Library book

The Mapmaker's Children; McCoy, Sarah
Advance review copy from publisher. My least favorite of this month's reads.

Guys Like Me; Fabre, Dominique; Howard Curtis (Translation)
Personal Copy

Dream of Ding Village; Lianke, Yan; Cindy Carter (Translation)
Library book.

11 Stories; Cander, Chris
 Library book. Author's piece "The First Time I Saw A Stranger Reading My Book" on The Quivering Pen convinced me to read her books. I liked them both very much.

Once on a Moonless Night; Sijie, Dai; Adriana Hunter (Translation)
Library book

Waiting for Columbus; Trofimuk, Thomas
Library book

April 2015 Reading

All in all a good reading month--some really great short story collections, a couple of mysteries (both from series that I may read more from), a nice non-fic book, and a couple from favorite authors. No real duds this month. It was pretty diverse in geographic settings, subject matter, and genre.

The best:

Signs Preceding the End of the World; Herrera, Yuri; Lisa Dillman (Translation)
Personal copy

Dimanche and Other Stories; Némirovsky, Irène; Bridget Patterson (Translator)
Library book.

Don't Try This at Home; Readman, Angela
Personal copy

Pepperpot: Best New Stories from the Caribbean; Press, Peekash
Personal copy

The Harlem Renaissance: A Brief History with Documents; Ferguson, Jeffrey Brown
Library book.

Last Night in Montreal; Mandel, Emily St. John
Library book.

The End of Days; Erpenbeck, Jenny; Susan Bernofsky (Translation)
Library book

Close to the best:

The Children's Crusade; Packer, Ann
Library book

Land of Careful Shadows (Jimmy Vega Mystery, #1); Chazin, Suzanne
Library book

False Tongues (A Callie Anson Mystery, #4); Charles, Kate
Free ARC from publisher

Orhan's Inheritance; Ohanesian, Aline
Free ARC from publisher (via LibraryThing)

The Shore; Taylor, Sara   
Free ARC from publisher. Nice debut.

A little less than the best (but good):

Us; Nicholls, David
Free ARC from publisher

The Dream Lover: A Novel of George Sand; Berg, Elizabeth
Library book

The Nightingale; Hannah, Kristin
Free ARC from publisher

March 2015 Reading

Winter just wouldn't leave Connecticut this year. It's April 5th and I still have two piles of snow slowly melting. Yesterday was the first day in months that I could actually open up the house to a couple of hours of fresh air.

I continued, but haven't yet finished The Oysters of Locmariaquer by Eleanor Clark; Pepperpot: Best New Stories from the Caribbean by Peekash Press; and The Complete Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino.

I started  The Art of Flight by Sergio Pitol (excellent); Dimanche and Other Stories by Irène Némirovsky (also excellent)

I haven't felt like doing reviews or comments, the March reads are somewhat in the order that I liked them (most liked to least liked), but there was such a variety that it's hard to rate them. The list shifts every time I look at it.  The only real dud was the Ishuguru. The Lawson was also a bit of a disappointment--I just didn't like it as much as her other books.

I Called Him Necktie; Flašar, Milena Michiko; Sheila Dickie (Translation)
Personal copy

By Night the Mountain Burns; Laurel, Juan Tomás Ávila; Jethro Soutar (Translation)
Personal copy

A God in Ruins; Atkinson, Kate
Free ARC from publisher

I Am Istanbul; Uzuner, Buket; Kenneth J Dakan (Translation)
Personal copy

The World Before Us; Hunter, Aislinn
Free ARC from publisher

The Evening Chorus: A Novel ; Humphreys, Helen
Free ARC from publisher

The Lost Treasures of R&B; George, Nelson
Free ARC from publisher

A Reunion Of Ghosts; Mitchell, Judith Claire
Free ARC from publisher

De Potter's Grand Tour: A Novel; Scott, Joanna
Free ARC from publisher

A Touch of Stardust; Alcott, Kate
Free ARC from publisher 

I Take You;  Kennedy, Eliza
Free ARC from publisher

The Other Side of the Bridge; Lawson, Mary
Library book.

The Buried Giant; Ishiguro, Kazuo
Library book


Online

Two short stories from Pithead Chapel, "a small, independent and volunteer-run literary journal and small press founded in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. We publish gutsy narratives online every month and a couple of printed chapbooks each year." These two stories are from Volume 4, Issue 3 (March 1, 2015). Earlier issues are archived and feature fiction, essays, and interesting cover art. Sight Reading by Olivia Wolfgang-Smith
Mr. Skull and the Russian by Tasha Coryell

In the January 2015 issue of Asymptote a story from a Cuban writer:
Saxo by Alberto Guerra Naranjo; Translated from the Spanish by John Washington (also available in the original Spanish). A short story told in a single sentence. Thanks to a judicious use of commas it is not difficult to read.

The Winter 2015 issue of VQR (The Virginia Quarterly Review) a short story about family purity and the mikvah :
The Fathoms By Amanda Korman

 A Vindication of Hypnosis by Sergio Pitol; Translated by George Henson

Asymptote

Asymptote

Asymptote

Asymptote

It's been a long winter--taking a break from blogging. Not taking a break from reading.