June 2021

I wasn't planning on listing my non-reading, used to be routine, activities but getting my hair professionally cut for the first time in sixteen months was a really Big Deal! I cut it myself three times (with in between trims on the bangs) during quarantine: the first time I did a really good job but who could see it? the second time was so-so but it looked OK for a medical visit; the third time was a real mess and by the time I was fully vaccinated it looked terrible! 

Another biggie! I resumed my water exercise class. Ahh, did it feel good to be back in the pool! 

As for the reading...some surprises, a couple of disappointments, but mostly good reading.

Fiction:

 Abide with Me by Strout, Elizabeth
  Always reliable Ms Strout

The Lost Book of Adana Moreau by Zapata, Michael

 I loved this!

Summer : a novel by Wharton, Edith 

  One of my "Twenty Books of Summer 2021"

  Unusual Wharton - it's not about the gilded privileged set.

Checkmate to Murder: A Second World War Mystery by Lorac, E.C.R.
 So enjoyable to read the classic mysteries from the British Library/Poisoned Pen Press. Ah the world without smartphones!

Maids by Skelly, Katie
  A graphic interpretation of a real crime (murder) that took place in France in 1933. Grisly but good. 

They Were Found Wanting - They Were Divided (The Writing on the Wall: The Transylvania Trilogy #2-3) by Bánffy, Miklós; translated from the Hungarian by Thursfield, Patrick and Bánffy-Jelen, Kathy
   The Trilogy has been on my to-read list for ages, I'm glad I finally got to it.

 

Turbulence by Szalay, David 

 Linked short stories. One of my favorite reads this month.

A Passage North  by Arudpragasam, Anuk
  I really liked the author's The Story of a Brief Marriage so I was looking forward to this. I received an electronic review copy from the publisher and it was a real struggle to read in that formatI think I need to get a print copy and read it again.

The Charmed Wife by Grushin, Olga  

 I enjoyed this modern day look at the aftermath of the Cinderella story, but I liked Grushin's Forty Rooms more.

Migrations by McConaghy, Charlotte  

 An Irish/Australian woman breaks her parole to follow the migration of arctic terns from Greenland to Antarctica. 

How Beautiful We Were by Mbue, Imbolo 

 An African village vs American Oil interests. This one fell flat for me.

Christmas at The Mysterious Bookshop edited by Penzler, Otto

 Seventeen short mystery stories, each by a different author, set in and around Penzler's Manhattan bookshop.  A fun "summer" read.

 Authors:  Charles Ardai, Lisa Atkinson, George Baxt, Lawrence Block, Mary Higgins Clark, Thomas H. Cook, Ron Goulart, Jeremiah Healy, Edward D. Hoch, Rupert Holmes, Andrew Klavan, Michael Malone, Ed McBain, Anne Perry, S. J. Rozan, Jonathan Santlofer, Donald E. Westlake.

 

Juvenile fiction:

A Tale of the Summer Holidays by Mockler, Geraldine

  One of my "Twenty Books of Summer 2021"

  I was surprised. This was written in the 1890s. I expected tame and sedate. I got a contest the resembled the grass-bomb wars we had defending our "forts" in 1940s rural California.  Good fun.

 

Poetry:

Mortal Summer by Van Doren, Mark

 One of my "Twenty Books of Summer 2021"

 What a mishmash! Greek deities and Christian archangels journey to America and mess with rural (hillbilly?) society. Why? Not Van Doren's best effort.  It made little sense.

Nonfiction:
Footnotes: The Black Artists Who Rewrote the Rules of the Great White Way by Gaines, Caseen

 A learning experience.

 

The Battle of Versailles: The Night American Fashion Stumbled into the Spotlight and Made History by Givhan, Robin 

  High fashion never made much sense to me. Still doesn't.

 

Letters to Camondo by Waal, Edmund de 

  Well worth the read..

 

Free the Beaches: The Story of Ned Coll and the Battle for America’s Most Exclusive Shoreline by Kahrl, Andrew W.

 Some Connecticut history. Wish it had been better organized because it's an important story.

 

Bounty from the Box: The CSA Farm Cookbook by Lipe, Mi Ae 

 Great book but its 4.1 pound weight overwhelmed me even more then the overabundance of collards, chard, lettuce & other greens in our very own CSA box!

My Summer in a Garden, and Calvin: A Study of Character by Warner, Charles Dudley 

  One of my "Twenty Books of Summer 2021"

  Warner was a neighbor of Stowe and Twain in the Nook Farm area of Hartford. Similar writing style to Twain. Fun to read. Gardening is not easy in these parts which is why I don't do it.

Online:

Enough with Copenhagen! It is Time for U.S. Cities to Learn From Models Closer to Home by Juan Miró 

Six Degrees of Wikipedia: Find the shortest path between any two Wikipedia pages

 

Several short pieces at New World Writing (published on June 11):

 

   Mary Grimm ~ Her Sketchbook, Found Among Her Things
   Maria Robinson ~ The Requirement
   Mike Itaya ~ Rasthole Flats
   Laurie Blauner ~ Four Pieces
   Daniel Adler ~ The Lion Tamer

 

The Filing Cabinet by Craig Robertson "The filing cabinet was critical to the information infrastructure of the 20th-century. Like most infrastructure, it was usually overlooked."

 

20 Best Zucchini Recipes We signed up for a CSA subscription and expect the zucchini will soon be filling the box. I do know lots of zucchini dishes but more is more. In addition to the recipes, this site has tips for handling (including freezing) the squash.

Mary Grimm ~ Her Sketchbook, Found Among Her Things

Maria Robinson ~ The Requirement 

Mike Itaya ~ Rasthole Flats

Laurie Blauner ~ Four Pieces

Daniel Adler ~ The Lion Tamer

High Voltage

Mary Grimm ~ Her Sketchbook, Found Among Her Things

Maria Robinson ~ The Requirement 

Mike Itaya ~ Rasthole Flats

Laurie Blauner ~ Four Pieces

Daniel Adler ~ The Lion Tamer

January 2021

Another month of quarantine but maybe there's a little light coming--I got my first (of two) jab of the Pfizer  Covid vaccine. So here is the total of my outside contacts. Not impressive. 

Errands  etc.

1/2 Library to pick up holds.

1/8 Library returns; Lyman Orchards for produce & bread. 

1/12 ditto of 1/8

1/21 cvs

1/21-??? phone problem

1/25 covid vaccine dose 1

1/26 land phone repair (a stranger had to enter our house!)

Most of the  reading this month was good. A mixed bunch. Five from my shelves (first group), two Advance review copies (second group), and eleven from public libraries (third group plus the nonfiction). Of the fiction, Polar Vortex was the only one I didn't like at all. The Smiley, Moore, and Osman books were fun light reading. I needed that!

 

In nonfiction, The Dan Rather book was the weakest. I just didn't learn anything from it at all, certainly not what the title suggests.

 

Finally, I spent a lot more of my online time reading stuff other than the news. Still, it was such a pleasure to see competence that I became addicted to White House Press Briefings on CSPN.

 

Fiction
The Regal Lemon Tree by Saer, Juan José
That We May Live by Si'an, Chen and others, various translators (Short Chinese speculative fiction.)
Joseph Walser's Machine by Tavares, Gonçalo M.
Harmada by Noll, João Gilberto
Life Went On Anyway: Stories by Sentsov, Oleg

 

Here Lies a Father by Cassidy, Mckenzie (ARC via LibraryThing. Coming of age--surprised I liked it.)

Polar Vortex by Mootoo, Shani (ARC via LibraryThing. I didn't like it at all.)

Perestroika in Paris by Smiley, Jane
Facing the Bridge by Tawada, Yōko
Igifu by Mukasonga, Scholastique
Missing Person by Modiano, Patrick
The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng
Hamnet by O'Farrell, Maggie
Shakespeare for Squirrels by Moore, Christopher
The Thursday Murder Club by Osman, Richard

Nonfiction

Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs by Townsend, Camilla
City Squares: Eighteen Writers on the Spirit and Significance of Squares Around the World edited by Marron, Catie
What Unites Us: Reflections on Patriotism by Rather, Dan
      

Online

Gamey Meat: Here’s the Deal by Hank Shaw

Shaw's blog -- Hunter-Angler-Gardner-Cook -- is always a good read even if one isn't into game meat, foraging, etc. 

 

The History of Esculent Fish By Roger North. 

Includes descriptions of several edible fish and an essay on the breeding of fish and construction of fishponds. There are notes on what the fish eat, where to find them and how to catch them, but nothing about preparation and cooking. The plates, drawn and engraved by Eleazar Albin are what made me want to keep going back to this. Here is his Haddock:

The Smoky Valley  by Birger Sandzén

 I found this on Gutenberg and it was a nice introduction to an artist I'd never heard of. However the works are all in black and white so it was nice to find a resource that has them in color.

Birger Sandzén Memorial Gallery 

October 2020

 Another exciting (ha) month of quarantine....but some really good reading

Activities:

10/1 Library curbside drop off/pick up; JC farms for produce.

10/3 Furnace guy

10/5 Doctor 

10/6 Furnace guy

10/9 Library curbside drop off/pick up; JC farms for produce; Durham Market for cold cuts; mailed ballot

10/15/ local foliage drive; short walk at Miller's Pond 

10/23 Library curbside drop off/pickup; JC farms

10/27 Drive to Old Saybrook

10/29 JC Farms Closed!; Lyman Orchads

Reading:

Fiction:

 A Million Aunties by McKenzie, Alecia

   A novel told from several points of view making it read like very closely linked short stories

 How to Pronounce Knife by Thammavongsa, Souvankham 

   short stories

 That Time of Year by NDiaye, Marie; translated from the French by Stump, Jordan

 The End of the Day by Clegg, Bill
 Here We Are by Swift, Graham

 Verena in the Midst by Lucas, E.V. (on Project Gutenberg) 

 The Gathering by Enright, Anne

 The Perfect Nine: The Epic of Gĩkũyũ and Mũmbi by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o; translated from the Gĩkũyũ by the author 

 The Silence by DeLillo, Don

Poetry:

 Home: New Arabic Poems by Hawwash, Samer Abu and others; various translators

Nonfiction:
 This Tilting World by Fellous, Colette; translated from the French by Lewis, Sophie
 James Monroe: A Life by McGrath, Tim

 Wandering in Strange Lands: A Daughter of the Great Migration Reclaims Her Roots by Jerkins, Morgan

 Having and Being Had by Biss, Eula

Online:

Marmalade: A Very British Obsession by Olivia Potts

September 2020

Still staying home...

Activities outside the house:

9/2 Library curbside; JC Farms; Lyman Orchards; Lino's Deli

9/11 Lib returns; JC Farms; Lyman Orchards

9/18 JC Farms

9/22 library curbside; Gardener finally came and cleaned up tree debris from Isaias

9/24 bank (atm); gas (full serve); car maintenance  

Books Read (ratings don't seem to reflect much so I won't put them in. These are listed in reverse of order read. All were good but the Clapsaddle was my least favorite. Best is a tossup between Makumbi and NDiaye):

A Girl Is a Body of Water by Makumbi, Jennifer Nansubuga
Even As We Breathe by Clapsaddle, Annette Saunooke
The Cheffe: A Cook's Novel by NDiaye, Marie; translated from the French by Stump, Jordan
Bluebeard's First Wife by Ha Seong-nan; translated from the Korean by Hong, Janet
Time After Time by Grunwald, Lisa
Summer (Seasonal, #4) by Smith, Ali
Beethoven: Variations on a Life by Bonds, Mark Evan

 

Online:

Portuguese Landscapes: 12 Projects Exploring the Relationship Between Natural and Built 

 OK, this just makes me want to go back to Portugal and go for a walk.

 

A 16th-Century Portuguese Plan of a Moroccan Palace by Jonathan Bloom

 and this makes me want to read Bloom's book Architecture of the Islamic West: North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula, 700-1800. (Yale UP, 2020)

100 Essential Books by Iranian Writers: An Introduction & Nonfiction, by Niloufar Talebi

 Introduction to a five part series which includes "Poetry, Hybrid Works, Anthologies"; "Graphic Novels, Culinary Books, & Children’s Literature"; "Classics in Translation", and "Fiction."

I've read a few of these, mostly in the fiction category. A good resource from Asian American Writers' Workshop.

October 2019 Reading

A nice mix this month. Yesterday I hurt my hand carrying an especially heavy bag (of books, of course,  what else is there?). So I couldn't do anything but read, hence I read One Day in one day.

 

Fiction:

The Women’s Courtyard by Khadija Mastoor; translated from the Urdu by Rockwell, Daisy (5 stars) The Shadow King by Mengiste, Maaza  (5 stars)

Frontier by Xue, Can; translated from the Chinese by Gernant and Chen Zeping  (5 stars)

Girl, Woman, Other by Evaristo, Bernardine  (5 stars) 

We, the Survivors by Aw, Tash  (4+ stars)

The Memory Police by Ogawa, Yōko; translated from the Japanese by Snyder, Stephen  (4+ stars) Hollywood North: A Novel in Six Reels by Libling, Michael (3+ stars) 

Grand Union: Stories by Smith, Zadie (2 stars--so disappointing because I liked Swing Time so much)

Women Within by Parrish, Anne Leigh (2- stars--the rather abrupt ending really bothered me)

Nonfiction:
Read My Pins: Stories from a Diplomat's Jewel Box by Albright, Madeleine K. (4+ stars)
Saving Jemima: Life and Love with a Hard-Luck Jay by Zickefoose, Julie (4 stars)
One Day: The Extraordinary Story of an Ordinary 24 Hours in America by Weingarten, Gene 4 stars)
Year of the Monkey by Patti Smith (4 stars)
Plagued by Fire: The Dreams and Furies of Frank Lloyd Wright by Hendrickson, Paul  (3+ stars)
Scholars of Mayhem: My Father's Secret War in Nazi-Occupied France by Guiet, Daniel C. and Smith, Timothy K (3+ stars)
To Feel the Music: A Songwriter's Mission to Save High-Quality Audio by Young, Neil  (3 stars)

Reading notes:   

I love it when stuff like this happens.

While I was reading The Shadow King by Maaza Mengiste, a novel set during Mussolini’s 1935 invasion of Ethiopia:
   Abiy Ahmed Ali, the current prime minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, won the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize.
   and A new Ethiopian restaurant opened in my town

Then, while I was reading the Frank Lloyd Wright bio, I serendipitously stumbled on this cool map from Home Advisor: A map of Frank Lloyd Wright homes in (nearly) every state.

All Over the Map

Six books in the second fourteen days of the year. Excellent reading and mapping them was fun. Last year's World of Reading map has no markers in Africa and the 2019 map already has three!

All of these were from my "owned-but-unread" shelf. The last two on the list were Christmas presents. 🎁

Sydney Noir edited by John Dale
This is one of the Akashic Noir Series so there is a map showing the fourteen sections of Sydney where the crimes are committed. Review Copy through LibraryThing giveaway

Adua by Igiaba Scego; translated from the Italian by Jamie Richards
This story of a Somalian emigrant takes place in Rome with flashbacks set in Somalia and Ethiopia.
   
Gesell Dome by Guillermo Saccomanno; Translated from the Spanish by Andrea G. Labinger
Only one place in this one--a small, corrupt, Argentine resort town.
   
The Elusive Moth by Ingrid Winterbach; Translated from the Afrikaans by Iris Gouws
Set in the Free State Province of South Africa

🎁The Flying Mountain by Christoph Ransmayr; Translated from the German by Simon Pare
The author is Austrian, the story is set in Ireland and Tibet.
   
🎁The Sad Part Was by Prabda Yoon; Translated from the Thai by Mui Poopoksakul
Short stories set in modern Thailand.

December (fourth week) 2017 Reads

Once again my reading was all over the map: Libya/Italy, Sudan, New York's Chinatown, Chile, and a creepy unnamed fantasy village from a Catalan author.

Deal Me In

This week's story: The Past by Ellen Glasgow: In The Best Short Stories of 1921 originally published in Good Housekeeping, October 20, 1920. (The anthology covers the period from October 1920 through September 1921).
This is a gentle ghost story set in a Fifth Avenue mansion.





Card: Queen of Diamonds from a  promotional deck printed by B. Dondorf for Saks & Company, New York, late 1920s. Found at The World of Playing Cards.








A picture book from from Project Gutenberg...
My Book of Ten Fishes by Rosalie G. Mendel

from my shelves...

 
Morning Sea by Margaret Mazzantini; translated from the Italian by Ann Gagliardi
The stories of two mothers and their son are told in this short novel of migration between Italy and Libya. One pair are boat refugees-a mother and her young son traveling from Libya to Sicily. The other story line involves a nineteen year-old son of a woman who was born in Libya of Italian immigrant workers.


 
Death in Spring  by Mercè Rodoreda; translated from the Catalan by Martha Tennent
Weird and compelling world building. This is part of Open Letter Books Two Month Review Project.
Rodoreda is a fine writer. Actually the guided read has another week to go but I couldn't stop myself from finishing ahead of time.





  
Navidad & Matanza by Carlos Labbé; translated from the Spanish by Will Vanderhyden 
Another weird one from Open Letter, this one from Chile. Teenage brother and sister go missing, there is an odd research lab, a group writing of a story. It's all mixed up but worth figuring it out. 


 


 
Mambo in Chinatown by Jean Kwok  
Two American born Chinese sisters live with their immigrant father (a noodle maker in New York's Chinatown). The father and his brother (an herb doctor) are traditionalists. The girls must deal with living an "American" life while trying to respect the views of their elders. 

The Book of Khartoum: A City in Short Fiction by Raph Cormack (Editor), Max Shmookler (Editor); translated from the Arabic
Contents:
 The tank / Ahmed al-Malik ; translated by Adam Talib --
 In the city / Ali al-Makk ; translated by Sarah Irving --
 A boy playing with dolls / Isa al-Hilu ; translated by Marilyn Booth --
 It's not important, you're from there / Arthur Gabriel Yak ; translated by Andrew Leber --
 Next Eid / Bawadir Bashir ; Translated by Thoraya El-Rayyes --
 Passing / Rania Mamoun ; translated by Elisabeth Jaquette --
 The story of the girl whose birds flew away / Bushra al-Fadil ; translated by Max Shmookler --
 The passage / Mamoun Eltlib ; translated by Mohamed Ghalaeiny --
 The butcher's daughter / Abdel Aziz Baraka Sakin ; translated by Ralph Cormack --
 The void / Hammour Ziada ; translated by Kareem James Abu-Zeid. 
 
 

September (third week) 2017 Reads

Another week of eclectic reading...

“Deal Me In 2017!”

Story:   In Our Forties by Kojima Nobuo (in Long Belts and Thin Men)
A forty-something man can't seem to be content with his family's house. He continually renovates it in fact and in his mind but the real problem is not the house.




Card: 6 of Spades
I picked this card by C.J. Freeman because it shows a ruin--which is pretty much what the protagonist of the story ended up with.

Information about the card and the deck it comes from can be found on Bonnie Cehovet's Tarot site in her Review – Playing Card Oracles




from my shelves...

 
Long Belts and Thin Men: The Postwar Stories of Kojima Nobuo by Nobuo Kojima; compiled and translated by Lawrence Rogers
I am drawn to works set in the post WW2 period of Japanese history--especially those written at the time. This excellent collection had an added bonus with three of the stories being the adventures of a Japanese man visiting in the post war USA.  

contents: The rifle -- The American school -- The smile -- Voices -- The black flame -- Buffoon in an alien land* -- The house of the hooligans*-- A certain day*-- In our forties.
*set in USA 




The Gurugu Pledge by Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel; translated from the Spanish by Jethro Soutar

A tale of people from all over Africa living in a camp in northern Morocco hoping to get to Europe. Told with warmth and compassion, this is an excellent read. 







The Long Haul: A Trucker's Tales of Life on the Road by Finn Murphy
Not high literature, but an oddly compelling read. It was fun to ride along with Finn Murphy and see how he grew and developed a professional attitude toward his craft. His stories about his colleagues and customers reveal a world most of us only see from one side. I've moved over twenty times (about two thirds of those using professional movers) and I really appreciate guys like Finn.
Advance review copy






Radio Free Vermont: A Fable of Resistance  by Bill McKibben
A rather simplistic story about a secessionist movement. Sorry, this just doesn't make it as a movement. It's a rather elitist view to think that drinking locally brewed beer, shopping at farmer's markets, and boycotting Walmart and Amazon in favor of local small business is going to make things better.
Advance review copy





from the library...

Miraculous Mysteries  by Martin Edwards (Editor)
Interesting anthology of classic British locked room mysteries.
Contents: The lost special / Arthur Conan Doyle -- The thing invisivble / William Hope Hodgson -- The case of the tragedies in the Greek room / Sax Rohmer -- The aluminum dagger / R. Austin Freeman -- The miracle of moon crescent / G.K. Chesterton -- The invisible weapon / Nicholas Olde -- The diary of death / Marten Cumberland -- The broadcast murder / Grenville Robbins -- The music-room / Sapper -- Death at 8:30 / Christopher St. John Sprigg -- Too clever by half / G.D.H. and Margaret Cole -- Locked in / E. Charles Vivian -- The haunted policeman / Dorothy L. Sayers -- The sands of thyme / Michael Innes -- Beware of the trains / Edmund Crispin -- The Villa Marie Celeste / Margery Allingham.






Goodbye, Vitamin by Rachel Khong (Kindle edition)
Very good story about a thirty-year old woman coping with her father's dementia.








online...
I found these three because of  references in  Tómas Jónsson, Bestseller (p 202) Búkolla the Magic Cow by  Nanna Árnadóttir, The Loa is here! [Lóa, but I'm not sure this is what was being referenced] and Kjölur highland route interior F35 in Iceland (Gullfoss to Varmahlíð - Blönduós)
And this because of p 204 Bladderwrack and from p. 211 Informational plaque about Jón Eiríksson

elsewhere online...
The Fortean Limes  a short story by Yoss: translated by Lawrence Schimel.

Top 10 contemporary short stories 
 "Ahead of 2017’s National short story prize, Jon McGregor reluctantly chooses ‘swoony’ work from recent years...."  Of course the Guardian asked the impossible of McGregor and everyone faced with the task would chose a different set of stories. But these all look good and there are links to where they can be read online.

Spotlight: Renzo Piano by Rory Stott
A look at the works of the Italian architect. Includes an interview.

Bout Update (5)

Bout of Books 20

I know it's called "Bout of Books" but on Friday it was hard to concentrate because they are tearing up the street in front of my house, very noisy and distracting. So it turned into a short attention span online reading day. Saturday & Sunday should be better because I don't think they work on the weekend--the street will be a mess, but a quiet mess.

Did not do challenge.

Here is what I read on Friday

Approx 15 pages on comedy films from the BBC. (Hard to count pages as there are lots of pictures and lists.
The 100 greatest comedies of all time
What the critics had to say about the top 25
The full list of critics who participated – and how they voted
Why Some Like It Hot is number one
Does comedy differ from region to region?
Do men and women find different films funny?
---
Approx 8 pages (again lots of pictures, so hard to count--I'm thinking "time spent" on very bookish topics)
For Centuries, Readers Annotated Books With Tiny Drawings of Hands
17 Living Writers Currently Immortalized on Stamps 
Two Never Before Published Letters from Marcel Proust to His Neighbor translated by Lydia Davis
English Translations of Obscure Medieval Texts Go Online

---

Approx 10 pages (more pictures since this group is about art)

Ikebana – vision of transcendence 
The Divine Calligraphy
Enrique Chagoya, (Mis)Appropriation: Then and Now
Dan Woodger channels the fun of the beach for McDonald’s Japan
Geta Brătescu: Romania's remarkable avant-garde artist is more resilient than ever
---
Approx 25 pages (short stories)
Motherhoods by Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse, a Ruwandan writer; translated from French by Edward Gauvin. (4 pages)
The History of Grains by Gianni Skaragas in which Greek islanders witness the mysterious arrival of abandoned vessels. (5 pages)
Refuge By Dina Nayeri  (Excerpt from the novel, Refuge) The experience of an Iranian teenage refugee in Oklahoma. (14 pages)
---

Totals:

Monday:         80 pages

Tuesday:       116 pages
Wednesday:  156ish pages

Thursday:      257 pages

Friday:             58ish pages

July (first week) 2017 Reads

We actually had a couple of really nice weather days--nice enough on Monday to go for a drive to a library we usually don't visit, combined with an outdoor lunch at a favorite seafood place.  And on Wednesday another outdoor lunch at a place closer to home. Then on Friday it poured all day so I got some reading in.

 “Deal Me In 2017!”

The Deal Me In story this week is non-fiction
 Life in the Qandil Mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan by Linda Dorigo
A photo essay on this disputed region. Brief, but informative.

The card I found has nothing to do with the essay.  It's so silly. Yep, it's Freddy Mercury! It's part of Long Live Queen Freddie!.  This series by artist, illustrator/cartoonist, and game designer Chuck Knigge features Freddie as various other famous queens. Knigge has other fan art and some comics on the site. Fun to explore.

 




Elsewhere Online...

The Story of the Girl Whose Birds Flew Away, by Bushra al-Fadil; translated from the Arabic by Max Shmookkler. This is the winner of The Caine Prize for African Writing. There are links to both text (pdf) and sound (soundcloud) files of this and the other four shortlisted entries on the Caine Prize Shortlist website.


Home is a Cup of Tea by Candace Rose Rardon
The story of a search for the meaning of home told through words and sketches of habitations and teas. This illustration is from her first stop in England. Her travels also take her to New Zealand, India, Canada, Spain, Guatemala, Norway, and Uruguay where she now lives.






From the Library...

Varieties of Disturbance: stories by Lydia Davis
A good collection. Many are super short, there are a few longer ones.
The cover doesn't display very well, but that fly on it really bugged me. Whenever I put the book aside, I put it with the front cover down.

Loved the stories--Hated the fly...







From my Shelves...

Killing the Second Dog by Marek Hłasko; translated from the Polish by Tomasz Mirkowicz; introduction by Leslie Chamberlain

The woes of two Polish con men in Tel-Aviv. Their mark is an American tourist. Problems ensue when she turns out to have a bratty son and a (possibly) dangerous brute of an ex-husband.

My copy through New Vessel Press subscription.




 
The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao by Martha Batalha; Translated from the Portuguese by Eric M B Becker
A bored Brazilian housewife tries to find interesting ways to amuse herself but is stymied by her "no wife of mine is going to..." husband. Things get better when her run-away sister returns to the fold with a son and tales of a marriage gone bad. Not great literature but an interesting look at Brazilian life from the point of view of women. 

Advance review copy through LibraryThing giveaway.
 



The Private Lives of Trees by Alejandro Zambra; translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell
This short novel (104 pages) takes place in a single night while a Chilean man and his step-daughter wait for the mother to come home. Once the bedtime story is done and the child is asleep the man becomes increasingly anxious about his wife's lateness and begins examining the familial relationships in detail.