February 2022

Everything except Zone and the online stuff was from the public library. Only one dent in the "owned but unread" shelf. But no additions to it either!

 Most of these were really good, but the last three in the fiction list were disappointing.

 

Fiction:

Camouflage: Stories by Bail, Murray

 want to read more by Bail
Young Once by Modiano, Patrick; translated from the French by Searls, Damion

 classic Modiano
Zone by Énard, Mathias; translated from the French by Mandell, Charlotte

 Balkan fighter reviews his career in one long stream of consciousness sentence. Tedious at times, but i slogged through
Mother Daughter Widow Wife by Wasserman, Robin

 Amnesia victum and the team helping her
Refuge by Nayeri, Dina 

 Iranian father/daughter relationship

A Teaspoon of Earth and Sea by Nayeri, Dina

 Iranian twin. Caspian area

When God Was a Rabbit by Winman, Sarah

  Another good one from Winman

Red Crosses by Filipenko, Sasha; translated from the Russian by Baer, Bryan James and Vayner, Ellen

 Kindle edition

Beasts of a Little Land by Kim, Juhea 

 Korean independence movement

The Darkness Knows (Konráð #1) by Indriðason, Arnaldur; translated from the Icelandic by Cribb, Victoria

 A Nordic mystery is nice every now and then. 

The Seed Keeper by Wilson, Diane

 Native Americans.  Multiple pov & time periods.

The Family Chao by Chang, Lan Samantha

  A dysfunctional family  and someone gets slammed in the cooler.

The Love Letters: A Novel by L'Engle, Madeleine
  This was terrible.  An awful way to look at marriage, god, love, etc.  yuck! 1950's thinking (this was written in 1966) Stick to your marriage no matter what. No!
The Maid by Prose, Nita 

  Didn't care for this when I started but it kind of grew on me.
An Elderly Lady Must Not Be Crossed by Tursten, Helene 

  A disappointment - not nearly as good as the first in the series

 

Wonder Tales from Tibet by Eleanor Myers Jewett; illustrated by Maurice Day

 Love the illustrations in this 1922 book.

 

 Maurice "Jake" Day later worked for Disney where he created Bambi.

 

Poetry:

 

Puella mea by E.E. Cummings. Illustrated with drawings by Klee, Modigliani, Picasso, and  Kurt Roesch. 

Nonfiction: 

The Secret of Life: Rosalind Franklin, James Watson, Francis Crick, and the Discovery of DNA's   

 Double Helix by Markel, Howard

Hidden Figures by Shetterly, Margot Lee

January 2022

Lots of books in January! So nice to have my eyes back in full working order. Made a small dent in "owned but unread" (those with *). A nice batch of reads. Only one simi-dud--the ladies in Reno.

Posting this late because I was busy reading. A bunch of holds all showed up at the library at the same time and several were short loans. And now I've been notified that there are seven more waiting for me. Looks like February will be a library only reads month!

 

Here's January:

Fiction: 

The Man Who Died Twice (Thursday Murder Club #2) by Richard Osman 

 Good, but I liked the first one better. 

The Wife Between Us by Hendricks, Greer and Pekkanen, Sarah

  I really liked this one; recommended by housemate

*Enchanted Night: Selected Tales by Bánffy, Miklós; translated from the Hungarian by Rix, Len

  Christmas gift, Thank You!
Better Luck Next Time by Johnson, Julia Claiborne 

 Divorcees at a Reno guest ranch in the 30's. Tries too hard to be madcap or something. So, so.
*The Mighty Angel by Pilch, Jerzy translated from the Polish by Johnston, Bill

 Alcoholic haze. Supposed to tell you what it's like to be an alcholic but it goes on and on--but maybe that's the point.
The Sentence by Erdrich, Louise

 I haven't read much by Erdrich but this makes me think I should
*The Last Days of My Mother by Sigurðsson, Sölvi Björn; translated from the Icelandic by  Einarsdóttir, Helga Soffía

 Really liked this tale of a man who takes his mother to special clinic in the Netherlands for a cure or for her last days. Nicely told.
Kaya Days by Souza, Carl de; translated from the French by Zukerman, Jeffery

 Unrest in Mauritius
Things They Lost by Oduor, Okwiri

 Semi-orphan in Kenya
The Island of Missing Trees by Shafak, Elif 

  This one set in Cyprus and London

L.A. Weather by Escandón, María Amparo

  Affluent Latino family falls on hard times. Blurb calls them Mexican but the father is actually Californio (descended from early Spanish settelers); the mother is descended from European Jews who settled in Mexico City. i loved this.

Riccardino (Inspector Montalbano #28) by Camilleri, Andrea; translated from the Italian by Sarterelli, Stephen

 The last in the series, not bad. Kind of meta when the Inspector and the Author argue about plot development.
Snow (St. John Strafford, #1) by Banville, John 

April in Spain by Banville, John 

 I read this because I enjoyed Snow. This was different and I also liked it
*Target in the Night by Piglia, Ricardo; translated from the Spanish by Waisman, Sergio

 Argentine thriller
*Lord by Noll, João Gilberto; translated from the Portuguese by Garbelotto, Edgar

 Brazillian in London

 

Nonfiction: 

Pessoa: A Biography by Richard Zenith

 Excellent!

*Foucault in Warsaw by Ryziński, Remigiusz; translated fro thePolish by Bye, Sean Gaspar

 

Project Gutenberg:

A Selection from the Lyrical Poems of Robert Herrick 

  Humm, 261 poems, so if I read one a day.... 

Father Thames by Walter Higgins

 

Online:

William Doreski ~ Five Poems 

 

Croissants – a great French icon?  From one of my favorite blogs.