October (fourth week) 2017 Reads

Story: East of the Web's story of the day on the day I draw this card. Phase in Space by Paul O'Neill
This turned out to be very short, jokey, and fun.




card: 4 (or any other) club: by Carlson Choo





from my shelves...




Tristana  by Benito Pérez Galdós; translated from the Spanish by Margaret Jull Costa; Introduction by Jeremy Treglown 
Wonderful classic about a confined woman who breaks free--or does she? Most of the story puts forth ideas of gender equality which is interesting in a novel written and set in Spain in the 1890s. But in the end reality sets in.
 





Guadalajara  by Quim Monzó; translated from the Catalan by Peter Bush
Superb short stories. Can't pick a favorite because I liked them all.
Contents:  Family life -- Outside the gates of Troy -- Helvetian freedoms -- Gregor -- A hunger and thirst for justice -- A day like any other -- Life is so short -- The power of words -- Literature -- Centripetal force --  Strategies --The lives of prophets -- During the war -- Books.


  


from the library...



Havana: A Subtropical Delirium by Mark Kurlansky
An honest, realistic appreciation of a city that is often over-romanticized in both fiction and non-fiction. 

October (third week) 2017 Reads

It's time to begin a new slow read project: Introducing Mercè Rodoreda [Two Month Review]  by Chad W. Post. Actually, I've already read the Selected Stories but it's been a while and I look forward to reading them again and hearing the podcast discussions from Chad & Co.

Meanwhile this past week's reads....

Story: Learn to Love the One Who Eats Your Porridge by Kristīne Ulberge: translated from the Latvian by Margita Gailitis (pages 108-119 in Best European Fiction 2015)
A patient in a mental hospital tells her story.




Card: Ten of Spades. This seems to go with the story, which features a young girl and a crow. It also seems appropriate that it comes from an artist that calls herself  psychobitchua.
(She also identifies as Lena from Kiev, Ukraine who says,  "I’m a rare combination of a bad temper and a good sense of humor. And I like merging photoshop layers."






from my shelves...
Red Dust and Dancing Horses: And Other Stories by Beth Cato
Loved these si-fi/fantasy/steampunk/apocalyptic stories and poems. Cato is a good writer who made me like things I wasn't sure I would like: Steampunk horses? They were great! Toilet gnomes? What fun! There are even five "Culinary Magic" stories for foodies.
One of my favorites in this collection, Roots, Shallow and Deep, is set in Hanford, California during the same period as a novel I've been struggling with for a couple of months --The Octopus: A Story of California by Frank Norris.  The amazing cover is by Kuzuhiko Nakamura.
Free advance reader copy via Goodreads giveway.
 

Gray areas : a short story collection by Carmen Burcea-Haber (Kindle edition)
Stories with a twist--some predictable and some with delightful surprises. The title is perfect with the "gray area"being what is between right and wrong, moral and immoral, the ordinary and the macabre.

 Contents:  Belleview hotel -- Earth like chocolate -- Afternoon tea -- The camera -- Headaches -- Hedda the wise -- Here kitty -- Roberta -- Driving home -- Lilac in blossom -- Rainy evening -- The party -- Lydia -- Grand finale -- The island -- The cavern -- The dinner date -- The dress in the window -- Welcome to the neighborhood -- Mood swings -- The coastal trail.



 


Blood of the Dawn by Claudia Salazar Jiménez; translated from the Spanish by Elizabeth Bryer
This short novel about the lives of three women during the "time of fear" in  1980s  Peru was a very hard read both because of the subject matter and the rather disjointed style. Difficult but worth reading.





 


The Tell-Tale Heart by Jill Dawson  by Jill Dawson
The stories of a heart transplant recipient and his donor.  Set in The Fens near Ely, UK. An OK read divided into several parts that didn't quite fit together.







from the library...
 

The Red-Haired Woman by Orhan Pamuk; translated from the Turkish by Ekin Oklap
Another good one from one of my favorite authors.

October (second week) 2017 Reads

Not much time for  blogging this week. Story from Project Gutenberg again...

“Deal Me In 2017!”

Story: The Red-headed Windego (in Old Man Savarin and Other Stories, by Edward William Thomson, published in 1895)
A team surveying in the Upper Ottawa encounter mysterious tracks in the snow. Is it the legendary Windigo?





Card: Two of diamonds. Nope these are not Windigos, they look nothing like the one in the story--they are much cuter.
From An Ace in the Pack by Lesley Barnes, an animator/illustrator from Scotland.







from my shelves... 
Tómas Jónsson, Bestseller by Guðbergur Bergsson,: translated from the Iclandic by Lytton Smith   
Finished the slow read.  See:
Two Month Review #2.10: 17, composition book (Tómas Jónsson, Bestseller, Pages 361-411)

Two Lines 27  by CJ Evans (Editor)
Another great issue.

 Malacqua: Four Days of Rain in the City of Naples, Waiting for the Occurrence of an Extraordinary Event by Nicola Pugliese: translated from the Italian by Shaun Whiteside.
Excellent!

October (first week) 2017 Reads

Finished an Indonesian novel and continued with an Icelandic one. The reading for this week from Tómas Jónsson, Bestseller, was especially challenging.


Another Project Gutenberg find for this week's story.

“Deal Me In 2017!”

Story: The Hermit and the Wild Woman (in The Hermit and the Wild Woman and Other Stories, by   Edith Wharton)
As much as I like Wharton's writing this is not at all my kind of story. I can do without asceticism.




Card: Five of diamonds

The card had to be as plain as possible to go with the story.



 
from my shelves...




Home by Leila S. Chudori; translated from the Indonesian by John H. McGlynn 
Novel of late twentieth Century Indonesian history, set in Jakarta and the exile community in Paris. Another fine book from my Deep Vellum subscription.






and a film...
Tickets [videorecording] / produced for Fandango, Medusa Produziona, and Sixteen Films Ltd. ; written by Abbas Kiarostami, Paul Laverty, and Ermanno Olmi ; directed by Abbas Kiarostami, Ken Loach, and Ermanno Olmi.
A life-changing trip on an Italian train. Three stories, three directors.
from the library

September (fifth week) 2017 Reads

A day late, but .... well... I...er...didn't read the story of the week until this morning. It's a good one.

Story:  The Piazza (in The Piazza Tales by Herman Melville) on Project Gutenberg

“Deal Me In 2017!”

He moves to an old house in the country. It's perfect and perfectly situated but: "it had no piazza—a deficiency the more regretted, because not only did I like piazzas, as somehow combining the coziness of in-doors with the freedom of out-doors, and it is so pleasant to inspect your thermometer there, but the country round about was such a picture, that in berry time no boy climbs hill or crosses vale without coming upon easels planted in every nook, and sun-burnt painters painting there. A very paradise of painters. The circle of the stars cut by the circle of the mountains."
So he has a piazza built and from it he views the magnificent surroundings, filling them with classical allusions, fairies,  and other fanciful notions.
A charming story that makes one want to read the others in the collection: Bartleby; Benito Cereno; The Lightning-Rod Man; The Encantadas; and The Bell-Tower.



Card: The nine of diamonds (pentacles): there are many Tarot interpretations for this card and not all are happy ones. What I like about all this confusion is that I can pick and choose. (I really can't take all this Tarot stuff too seriously.) So here is what Biddy Tarot says in part: "The Nine of Pentacles indicates that you have reached a point in your life where you are feeling self-confident, self-sufficient, independent and free. By acting on your own accord, you have attained well-deserved success and may now enjoy money, leisure time, pleasure, material comfort and rest." 
This perfectly describes the man in the story (although the card depicts a woman). But upside down the card (according to Biddy) takes on a less optimistic meaning.




from my shelves...



Before  by Carmen Boullosa, Translated from the Spanish by Peter Bush 
Sort of a coming of age story.  One that sticks with you. Amanda Paustian's review on Goodreads caught my feeling almost exactly. It seems a bit of a cop out to link to another review and not write my own but if some says it better than I can, why not? 



 

The Best American Sports Writing 2017  edited by Glenn Stout  
I don't read a lot of sports stuff. I sort of follow women's basketball and occasionally watch tennis, golf, baseball, and men's basketball. So I don't know what an avid fan would think of this anthology which is often oriented toward the political and social issues reflected in sports rather than "pure sports" (whatever that is). Topics covered include the refugee crisis, human rights, exploitation of college athletes, gender identity, crime, family issues, etc.  Given the current state of the world (sports world included) this sort of expository journalism is necessary. These essays come from a broad variety of sources (online and print) and are excellent, informative reads.

Advance reader copy via Goodreads
 

Songs from the Violet Café by Fiona Kidman 

I really enjoyed this story of Violet, her café, and the young people who worked for her. A slice of New Zealand life set mostly in 1963 with back stories in the 1940's and a brief peek to the future.

 

Free copy from blog win at Words and Peace (as part of  Bout of Books 20)

online...

11 Reasons Everyone Should Celebrate Translation
By Savannah Whiting