May 2021

Now that I'm vaccinated I probably can stop logging all these little errands and such. So here's the activities list for what I hope is the last time:

5/3  Verizon store for new Smartphone

5/4   Mah Jongg

5/11 Mah Jongg; Mazzicato Bakery (Middletown): Library

5/18 Mah Jongg; brief walk downtown.

5/25 Picnic; Library

Weather has been cold and rainy so I haven't been out and about as much as I'd like but I've had plenty of time to read some really good books this month. (Nice to be able to browse in the library again!)

Fiction:

They Were Counted (The Writing on the Wall: The Transylvania Trilogy #1) by Bánffy, Miklós; translated from the Hungarian by Thursfield, Patrick and Bánffy-Jelen, Kathy; foreward by Fermor, Patrick Leigh 

Abigail by Szabó, Magda; translated from the Hingarian by Rix, Len

Silence Is a Sense by AlAmmar, Layla 

Oraefi: The Wasteland by Sigurðsson, Ófeigur; translated from the Icelandic by Smith, Lytton 

Miss Mole by Young, E. H. (Emily Hilda) 

Send for Me by Fox, Lauren

Gonzalez and Daughter Trucking Co.: A Road Novel with Literary License by Escandón, María Amparo 

Aviary by McNamer, Deirdre

The Sicilian Method   (Commissario Montalbano #26) by Camilleri, Andrea; translated from the Italian by Sartarelli, Stephen 

The Children's Blizzard by Benjamin, Melanie 

The Performance by Thomas, Claire 

Amy and Isabelle by Strout, Elizabeth

Improvement by Silber, Joan

 

Verse:

More About Teddy B. and Teddy G. The Roosevelt Bears by Seymour Eaton (Paul Piper)

 Audio recordings of this and other Roosevelt Bear books can be found at LibriVox

  

Nonfiction:  

American Covenant: National Parks, Their Promise, and Our Nation's Future by Soukup, Michael A Book Arts of Isfahan: Diversity and Identity in Seventeenth-Century Persia by Taylor, Alice 

Cult Writers: 50 Nonconformist Novelists You Need to Know by Smith, Ian Haydn

 Short (one page) bios, very basic 

Life of James Mars, a Slave Born and Sold in Connecticut by James Mars; first published in the 1860s.

Online:

A Glance at the Life and Times of Miklos Banffy some background material on the author and setting of   The Transylvanian Trilogy which I started this month

Highway of Darkness: A Mystery Reader’s Road Trip Up California’s Highway 99 by Jane Rosenthal

Read in April

No real duds for April and some excellent:

Fiction (in most liked to least liked order):

These two got 5 stars:

Everything Under by Johnson, Daisy

Murmur by Eaves, Will

Four stars for these:
Waiting for Bojangles by Bourdeaut, Olivier; translated from the French by Kramer, Regan
Arturo's Island: A Novel by Morante, Elsa; translated from the Italian by Goldstein, Ann
Little Faith by Butler, Nickolas
Virgil Wander by Enger, Leif

Three+ stars for these:
The Winter Soldier by Mason, Daniel
The Shape of the Ruins by Vásquez, Juan Gabriel; translated from the Spanish by McLean, Anne

Three stars for this:
The Betel Nut Tree Mystery (Crown Colony #2)by Yu, Ovidia
 OK, but not a series I want to follow

Nonfiction so diverse that they can't be listed by preference. I am glad I read them:
Zora and Langston: A Story of Friendship and Betrayal by Taylor, Yuval   
Nature's Mutiny: How the Little Ice Age of the Long Seventeenth Century Transformed the West and Shaped the Present by Blom, Philipp
Save Me the Plums: My Gourmet Memoir by Reichl, Ruth


And from my online reading:

A gender fight over an Italian dish by Stefania D'Ignoti

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.

April (third week) 2018 Reads

Slow reading week...juggling several books...

This week the "Deal Me In" card is the Five of Hearts; the story is Malaria by Michael Byers (in The Best American Short Stories, 2013)
So so story..

Gutenberg finds... 

Patroon Van Volkenberg : A Tale of Old Manhattan in the Year Sixteen Hundred & Ninety-nine. by Henry Thew Stephenson; Illustrated by C. M. Reylea

"I turned on my heel to look at the town in which I intended to lodge for the night. It was now late and fully dark, and one or two dim lights were all that I could see in Gravesoon by way of welcome. At that moment a feeling of loneliness took such 2strong hold of me that I cast my eyes once more upon the open sea for the meagre companionship of the pirate crew that was gliding away into the dark. But the ship was already so far from shore that the sounds that always accompany getting under way could no longer reach me, though I strained hard to hear them. In ten minutes even the vague outline of the vessel against the sky had completely blended with the darkness. Then I realized for the first time that I was all alone in a strange land. My only companions were the heavy sorrow in my heart and a strong hope that this sorrow would soon be turned to joy by virtue of the errand that was now bringing me to New York.'

Don't know if I'll finish this...am on Chapter three...

The Book of the Feet :  A History Of Boots And  Shoes, With Illustrations Of The Fashions Of The Egyptians, Hebrews, Persians, Greeks, And Romans, And The Prevailing Style Throughout Europe, During The Middle Ages, Down To The Present Period; Also, Hints To Last-Makers, And Remedies For Corns, Etc.
B y   J.   S p a r k e s   H a l l, Patent-Elastic-Boot Maker To Her Majesty The Queen, The Queen Dowager, And The Queen Of The Belgians. From The Second London Edition, With A History Of Boots And Shoes In The United States, Biographical Sketches Of Eminent Shoemakers, And Crispin Anecdotes (American Edition, 1847)

Didn't read the entire text, but loved the illustrations.

from my shelves...

Angelica's Smile (Commissario Montalbano #17) by Andrea Camilleri; translated from the Italian bt Stephen Sartarelli
It was OK, but I think I've now read one too many in the series (and I haven't read all 17). Put in the donation pile.

December (second week) 2017 Reads

A good reading week and now snow so there will be plenty of time for more reading.




The  Deal Me In story this week is Hill Clan Cross from Crimes in Southern Indiana: Stories by Frank Bill. I liked this gritty story so much that I went ahead and read the rest of these violent stories of crimes fueled by booze, drugs, and revenge.  Really good rural noir writing.

Love the cover--it fits.





Card: Ace of Hearts. Considering the body count in these stories this card from crackmatrix at DeviantArt seems like a good choice.






from my shelves...



Ramen Is Revolutionary: A Book for Beginners and Fans by Yoshihiro Kaneda (Kindle ed)
A short and savory read. There are several delicious illustrations.






 


The Rabbit Back Literature Society by Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen; translated from the Finnish by Lola Rogers (Kindle ed)
Mystery, myth, magic, and the creative process come alive as the newest member of the Society tries to figure out what she's gotten herself into.





 


Affections by Rodrigo Hasbún; translated from the Spanish by Sophie Hughes
Outstanding novel based loosely on the family of cinematographer/explorer Hans Ertl, who resettled in Bolivia from Germany after World War 2.
Free finished copy from publisher through Goodreads giveaway.







The Italian Party by Christina Lynch
A young mixed-up couple living in Italy in 1956. They have lots of secrets from each other and from everyone else--or so they think. It's a fun diversion and pretty accurate about how things were in the 50s.
Free advance review copy through Goodreads giveaway.

Like the era appropriate cover.


 





René Magritte: Selected Writings by René Magritte: translated from the French by Jo Levy; Kathleen Rooney (Editor), Eric Plattner (Editor) 
Short pieces, notes, commentaries, interviews, etc.





 

Traces of Time by Lucio Mariani; translated from the Italian by Anthony Molino; Preface by Rosanna Warren
Sixty poems in the original Italian and the English translation, plus an essay (the English translation only).

Not a great cover but the mirror image does suggest the dual language aspect which is an important feature of the book.   




Best of Ohio Short Stories: Volume 1,  (Kindle ed) Brad Pauquette, editor; stories by David Armstrong, Mark D. Baumgartner, Joseph Downing, Ann Brimacombe Elliot, Scott Geisel, Maria Hummer, Brad Pauquette, Brooks Rexroat, Anna Scotti, S.E. White, Brad Pauquette. 

A very good anthology of stories by Ohio authors. Not all the stories are set in Ohio, but the ones that aren't still have an Ohio connection. 

November (second week) 2017 Reads

A fine week of reading which included a super novel, excellent poetry, and a fine collection of short fiction. All this whilst workmen were crashing about overhead installing plywood flooring in the attic. Then there is the story of the week...

“Deal Me In 2017!”

Story: The Vacant Lot (in The Wind in the Rose-bush and Other Stories of the Supernatural, by Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman, first published in 1903)

This story goes nicely with strange sounds in the attic. A family gives up small town life and buys a bargain house in a good Boston neighborhood. They find out why it was so cheap when strange things happen in the empty lot next door and then right in their house itself. A good ghost story, I will certainly read more in this collection. A Gutenberg gem.



Card: Four of Diamonds
I couldn't find a sufficiently creepy four of diamonds, but I did find this book on Amazon. It shows diamonds as signifying money. Money was the motive for the purchase of the house next to The Vacant Lot so I'll go with it. Looks like a fun book, if you're into that sort of thing. (It averages 4.5 stars from the 37 Amazon reviews)





from my shelves...



Kensington Gardens by Rodrigo Fresán; translated from the Spanish by Natasha Wimmer
During the slow read discussions and podcasts of Fresán's The Invented Part, I became enthralled by this author. I put Kensington Gardens on my wish list as a high priority item. And someone gave it to me for my birthday. I'm so glad this giver knows that I don't mind used books as gifts. This is a wonderful interwoven tale of J.M. Barrie/Peter Pan and a fictional author and his character (Peter Hook/Jim Yang). Fact and fiction blend smoothly and it doesn't matter what is real and what is invented. Go with the flow.

 
Miami Century Fox by Legna Rodríguez Iglesias; translated from the Spanish by Eduardo Aparicio
Bilingual editions of poetry translated from languages I have some familiarity with always fascinate me. They teach me so much about what I don't know. If I were to sit down with this collection of poems,  my minimal knowledge of Spanish and a good dictionary or two I could probably decipher some meaning of the text but the result would hardly be poetic and certainly not fifty-one Petarchan sonnets. I would totally miss the point and give up early on. A collection to make one appreciate the Cuban-American experience, poetry, and the art of fine translation.
Free review copy from publisher through LibraryThing giveaway.



I Am the Brother of XX  by Fleur Jaeggy; translated from the Italian by Gini Alhadeff
These strange short stories seemed to go perfectly with the strange noises coming from the attic. I almost expected the workmen to come downstairs and tell me they had found some weird artifacts from the 178 year history of the house. No such luck so I had to be startled by the odd goings on in this Gothic collection. The cover, by the way, is deceptively calm for the the sharp, sometimes brutal, world view in the stories.

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 (second half) 2016 Reads

Continuing with the class (see my October 15, 2016 post) which is about half way through.

And I finally finished...

The Complete Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino, William Weaver (Translation), Tim Parks (Translation), Martin McLaughlin (Translation and Introduction)
This is one that has been on my bedside table for two years. I love it but it's something I wanted to take in small doses and ponder over each story.  I'll be dipping back into this often.

I love this jacket designed by Peter Mendelsund & Oliver Munday






Two Lines 25 by CJ Evans (Editor)
This issue lead off with  Sea Swell by Enrique Vila-Matas translated by Margaret Jull Costa and is chock full of other good stuff. (There is even more on the web site.)





Mexico: Stories by Josh Barkan
Interesting collection of noir stories set in various urban areas of Mexico. The most successful are first person narratives of Ex-pat American men who get involved in the underworld of the drug cartels and lesser thugs. Less convincing are ones where he speaks in he voice of a Mexican or, in I Want to Live, women's voices (one ex-pat and one Mexican). Barkan sometimes goes overboard in discussing the background and ethics of his protagonists--it could do with a little more show and less tell. Still it was a good read, but don't expect sandy beaches, umbrella-ed  drinks, and romantic guitar music. These are gritty stories.
Uncorrected proof through LibraryThing.

The Mastermind by David Unger
A strange story, based on a real 2009 event, of a Guatemalan lawyer who is drawn into planning his own assassination as a gesture of patriotism. I went back and forth on whether I liked the book and I almost didn't finish it. I did finish it and I'm glad I stayed with it. My main problem was with the depiction of the love affair--it seemed shallow and based only on sex. The death plot, however, was intricate and fascinating. Guatemala is a scary place.
Advance review copy through LibraryThing.  

Online

Eleanor Glanville 17thC Entomologist by Deborah Swift
Interesting essay with some beautiful illustrations and, if you scroll to the end of the essay,  there is a YouTube recording of a piece of music composed in Glanville's honor. There are some other interesting essays on the site  English Historical Fiction Authors.

I also read a number of things on Literary Hub ...
...and a bunch of stuff about the US presidential campaign.Will it never end???

March (first half) 2016 Reads

Started March with a trip to the library to return a batch (10) of books and pick up four waiting holds. Checked out the four plus three from browsing. Actually returned more than I checked out. 

Japan 1941: Countdown to Infamy ; Hotta, Eri
An examination Japanese history, politics, and foreign policy in the year leading to the attack on Pearl Harbor. It helped clarify a confusing period of history.
Library book.

The Yid ; Goldberg, Paul
Promos for this compared it to Catch-22 and it was a little like that, but I also thought of  The Golden Calf by Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov (translated by Konstantin Gurevich and Helen Anderson). And the disposal of the bodies reminded me of the 1955 movie The Lady Killers. Whatever it reminds one of, it's a great book all by itself. Library book.

Zoli ; McCann, Colum
Gypsy life in Czechoslovakia in the 1930s through the 1950s. An agonizing escape to the West. Told from several points of view.  I just read McCann's Dancer, which I liked very much. I also liked his TransAtlantic and Thirteen Ways of Looking so I decided to read something else by this author. I was not disappointed. The title character in this novel is "loosely inspired by Papusza" a polish poet (1910-1987) so I decided to explore that more: see Online Reading below. Library book.

The Heart ; Kerangal, Maylis de;  Sam Taylor (Translation)
This amazing novel follows a multiple organ transplant procedure including the ethical considerations, medical decisions, bureaucratic necessities, and emotional impact on all concerned. The technical aspects never overwhelm the human nature of what is happening.
(note: this the American translation; the UK/Canadian translation by Jessica Moore is titled Mend the Living and is on the 2016 Man Booker International Prize longlist. French title: Réparer les vivants)

A Dictionary of Mutual Understanding ; Copleton, Jackie
Survivors of Nagasaki seek redemption and recognition many years after the tragedy. Worth reading. Library book.

Heat and Light ; Neerven, Ellen Van
I chose this because of the reviews linked on the 2015 Wrap Up: Diversity of the Australian Women Writers Challenge. I had to order this from Book Depository since it was not available at local libraries. It as worth the effort and price. I want to read more from this resource and/or 20 reasons you should read Blak  ("Blak" is not a typo).

Louisa: The Extraordinary Life of Mrs. Adams ; Thomas, Louisa
Excellent biography of the wife of John Q. Adams. I enjoyed it in spite of the dreaded Adobe Digital Edition. Free from Penguin's First to Read program. 

And After Many Days ; Ile, Jowhor
Family life and politics in Nigeria. So-so read. Library book.

Ways to Disappear ; Novey, Idra
Uh, why did this get so many raves? A Brazilian novelist goes missing, her American translator goes to Brazil to search for her, stuff happens. I thought of the movie Romancing the Stone though I doubt that's what the author intended. Library book.

The Dance of the Seagull (Inspector Montalbano, #15) ; Camilleri, Andrea; Stephen Sartarelli (Translation)
Maybe I've read to many of these, or maybe this really isn't as good as the others I have read in the series. It seemed a bit tedious. My copy


Online Reading:

The Last Taco Truck in Silicon Valley by Michelle Richmond 
This is one of the first offerings from Technically Literate, CNET's (yes, CNET) new fiction "with a tech twist" site featuring Bay Area authors (and others). This story is fun with some animated illustrations. Looking forward to following this venture.

Some information on Polish poet Papusza (including some poetry in English translation) from Culture.pl - an interesting website to explore (operated by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute).

The next two are from Short Fiction, a print and online journal short stories from around the world. The online edition is free and has one or two short stories a month. Great illustrations. Archived.
Blue Limitless Emptiness by Lania Knight
Spare Room Ethics by Helen Oyeyemi (just picked up Oyeyemi's new story collection at the library today and am liking it.)

Tom Vowler on the Short Story, a guest post on The Literary Sofa Vowler is a novelist, short story writer, and editor of the literary journal Short Fiction (see entry above). I had already pledged to support his new short story collection on Unbound when I came across this post.

Febuary (second half) 2016 Reads

More great reading, lots of translations, some humor, and finally finished (for now) one that I've been working on since last Spring.

 
The Art of Flight;  Pitol, Sergio; Enrique Vila-Matas (Introduction), George Henson (Translator)

I finally finished this. I started reading it last March, but it kept leading me to other books. To follow where it took me please see Pitol Readings.






 



Caterva; Filloy, Juan; Brendan Riley (Translator)
This is a fantastic book! What a shame that so little of Filloy's work is available in English. Library book.







Dora Bruder ; Modiano, Patrick; Joanna Kilmartin (Translator)
Modiano has a number of different translators, but his distinctive voice always comes through. Amazing. My copy.

So You Don't Get Lost in the Neighborhood; Modiano, Patrick; Euan Cameron (Translator)
Another fine Modiano. This could stand alone, but I think it makes more sense if read after some of his other works. Library book.


Letter from Casablanca; Tabucchi, Antonio; Janice M. Thresher (Translator)
Somewhat puzzling short stories. Most of them deal with memories of and reactions to traumatic family tragedies. The puzzle is that the reader isn't told exactly what the tragedy was. It's left to the imagination so every reader (and every reading) can find a different answer.Library book, one I wish I owned.


This cover goes quite nicely with the title story.

 


The New Sorrows of Young W.; Plenzdorf, Ulrich; Romy Fursland (Translator)
Maybe I would have liked this more if I were younger, or if I remembered The Sorrows of Young Werther which I read a thousand years ago, or if I liked The Catcher in the Rye. It's well written, a cult classic in Europe, and I did like it but it doesn't inspire me to re-read forgotten books. Library book.

The cover fits the book nicely.






Be Frank With Me; Johnson, Julia Claiborne
Light and fun. Some strange characters--a reclusive author, her precocious ten year old son,  a "friend" who comes and goes erratically, a sensible aide (the somewhat [maybe] reliable narrator)--and some probable and improbable situations. All believable because it is set in LaLa Land. Library book.

Great cover: design by Kaitlyn Vincent; illustration by Olia Fedorovsky

There Once Lived a Mother Who Loved Her Children, Until They Moved Back In: Three Novellas About Family ; Petrushevskaya,Ludmilla; Anna Summers (Introduction and Translation)

The subtitle pretty much says it all--except these are families in the Soviet Union and their stories are dark. My copy.

Cover illustration: Sam Wolfe Connelly



 

Dancer; McCann, Colum
Dramatic fictional account of the life and career of Rudolf Nureyev. Told from several points of view: family, friends, colleagues, employees, and others. A little disjointed and it jumps around a bit, but it works.
Library book.






Some nonfiction:

Food: A Love Story; Gaffigan, Jim. An irreverent look at food, particularly American food, by a stand up comedian. Some funny stuff that must be read in small doses. Library book from the "Blind Date with a Book" display, which means it came in a plain brown wrapper. Last time I did this I also got a good book

Paradise Now: The Story of American Utopianism; Jennings, Chris 
Excellent study of five major Utopian communities in the USA. Library book.

Also read:

The High Mountains of Portugal; Martel, Yann
Three stories, linked by locale and a sort of legend. The first is somewhat interesting, the second has a strange theology, the third refers back to the other two. I suppose that I am meant to ponder the meaning of all this, but I'd rather forget it. Library book.

The Edge of Lost ; McMorris, Kristina
Irish immigrant to New York passes himself off as an Italian. Gets in trouble. Ends up in Alcatraz...An ok read. Library book.

What's Important Is Feeling: Stories ; Wilson,  Adam
I didn't like these at all. Too much trying hard not to fit in, trying to make something out of nothing. My copy.

Online:
400 Years On: Bumping Into the Bard at Every Turn
 Some things to look forward to as we observe the 400 anniversary  of the bard's death.
  
Books cooked – literally – in punning recipes based on writers' names
 Strange idea...and it would show up when I'm reading other things about Pessoa.  

The Most Precious Cargo for Lighthouses Across America was a Traveling Library 

A little library history.

The Open Refrigerator
An essay on the editor's place in publishing by Gerald Howard, vice president and executive editor of Doubleday.

What to Wear in the Arctic: Striking Photos of Traditional Footwear
Beautiful ways to warm your feet.

Video:

Lacombe Lucien [videorecording] / film de Louis Malle; scénario, Louis Malle, Patrick Modiano ; une co-production NEF-UPF, Vides-Film, Hallelujah-Film. Criterion Collection, [2006]

Really liked this. Library copy.

February (first half) 2016 Reads

Oh boy! Seventeen books in fourteen days? Not exactly--some were holdovers from last month and a couple were not very long. Also it's been less than ideal weather for going out. Brrr. And today my internet/tv/phone was out for twelve hours. So reading was the way to spend the day.

Still it was a lot of reading, most of it excellent or very good. Three were so-so, one was pretty much a dud, and one went back to the library unread.

Finished the Hašek (a holdover from January),  made some progress on The Art of Flight by Sergio Pitol, and dipped in my "owned but unread" pile for five (it didn't make much of a dent as I rec'd five more books in the mail). Also read some good new books from the library (but sent The Portable Vleban back without finishing--just not my cuppa).



The Good Soldier Švejk; Hašek, Jaroslav; Cecil Parrot (Translator), Josef Lada (Illustrations)
The absurdities of the military during wartime. A thoroughly satisfying read. The book that inspired Joseph Heller's Catch-22
Library Book

Cover art: Josef Lada




The Vegetarian; Kang, Han; Deborah Smith (Translator)
Frighteningly beautiful. A young woman's descent into madness as viewed by her husband, her brother-in-law, and her sister. I'm glad it is only 188 pages because I had a hard time putting it down. Library book

Jacket design: Christopher Brand
Jacket photo: 100 / Moment/ Getty Images

Unspeakable Things; Spivack, Kathleen
Spivack dares to speak about the terrible things people do to one another. The telling is sometimes poetic, sometimes mythic, and often uncomfortably graphic and realistic. Hard material but well worth reading. Library book.







The Swans of Fifth Avenue; Benjamin, Melanie
Gossipy, bitchy, delightful fictional account of Truman Capote, Babe Paley, and their crowd. Library book.

Jacket design: Belina Huey
Jacket photo: Lillian Bassman, 1956







The Pets; Ólafsson, Bragi; Janice Balfour (Translator)
Very funny tale about a man sort of trapped under his own bed whilst an odd group of friends, acquaintances  and strangers have a sort of party in his flat. My copy.

Cover design: Milan Bozic


 
The Age of Doubt (Commissario Montalbano #14); Camilleri, Andrea; Stephen Sartarelli (Translator)
Camilleri is fun to read. Interesting plots, limited violence, a touch of romance, and food! My, my Inspector Montalbano eats well. He also manages to tell white lies in awkward situations--reminds me of the Judi Dench role in the Britcom As Time Goes By. My own copy, picked up at a library friends' sale.

Cover design: Paul Buckley Interesting Q & A with Paul Buckley, Penguin US  at The Casual Optimist
Cover illustration: Andy Bridge





New Islands And Other Stories; Bombal, María Luisa; Richard and Lucia Cunningham (Translators)
Five short stories about women. Magical realism. My copy.






 

Baboon; Aidt, Naja Marie; Denise Newman (Translation)
Strange (but good) short stories. Most start out as normal vignettes of everyday life--but then things happen. My copy.

Cover design: Gabriele Wilson

A Meal in Winter; Mingarelli, Hubert; Sam Taylor (Translator)
Three German soldiers face a war time choice. A difficult, disturbing tale told in simple, direct language. My copy.










Dreams of Dreams and the Last Three Days of Fernando Pessoa ; Tabucchi, Antonio;  Nancy J. Peters (Translator)
My reading of  The Art of Flight by Sergio Pitol led me to Tabucchi. Pitol discusses a different Tabucchi book (Pereira Declares) but I decided to start with this one. It's delightful! Tabucchi creates dreams for twenty great minds (writers, artists, etc.).  Highly recommended.

Cover design: Rex Ray






35 Sonnets; Pessoa, Fernando 
Written in English, self-published by Pessoa in 1918.
In the Shakespearean style. Worth reading & studying. Read on Project Gutenberg.



 


Pereira Declares: A Testimony; Tabucchi, Antonio; Patrick Creagh (Translator)
Politics in Salazar's Portugal. Library book.










Ginny Gall; Smith, Charlie
Growing up black in Jim Crow America.  Lovely, poetic writing. Makes me want to read more by this author. Library book.








Also read:

Where My Heart Used to Beat; Faulks, Sebastian
Kinda boring with some brilliant passages. Middle age Englishman remembering his career, his war, his life...When I can set a book aside in the middle of a sentence to go get a snack, the book isn't holding my interest. Library book.

Identity (Fina Ludlow #2); Thoft, Ingrid
Fina is a private detective working for her father's law firm. The case she is working on involves a woman who wants to sue a sperm bank to learn the identity of donor who is father to her seventeen year old daughter. There are lots of complications. The basic story is good, but at times it moves a little slowly. I didn't read the first Fina book, and I probably won't read the next. Advance Review Copy.

Slave and Sister; Waldfogel, Sabra
Jewish plantation owners and their slaves in Georgia. Interesting premise, characters and situations. Drags a bit in the middle. Wavered between two and three Goodreads stars, finally gave it three. My copy from blog win.

One More Day; Simmons, Kelly
I jumped all over the place--skipping sections, reading the end after I'd read about a third of the book, annoyed because of the paranormal elements, the teases about secrets, the uneven pace, etc. I think I actually read the whole thing. Generous with my stars (two).  Library book.

November (second half) 2015 Reading

Still working my way through the books from the library. I actually managed to also read a couple of publisher donations to my TBR pile.

Some good stuff here (and a few disappointments, or was I just in a bad mood). Still, none were total duds. 

The best:

Flash Fiction International: Very Short Stories from Around the World; Editors: James Thomas, Robert Shapard , Christopher Merrill
I did seem to be in the right mood for some flash fiction. I really like short stories, but the very short, short ones sometimes annoy me because they are often not stories at all. This collection is superb, with master writers and top-notch translators. There is also a final section about flash fiction. Library book.

The Things We Don't Do; Neuman, Andrés; Nick Caistor & Lorenza García (Translation)
These stories are sharp, a delight to read. Some are rather dark, dealing with murder, maiming, and suicide. There are two clever views of psychoanalysis (Juan, Jose and Outside no birds were singing), which interestingly are in different sections of this thematically arranged collection. The final section is a special "bonus track, " a collection of  short statements about writing short stories which works well as a guide to reading, as well as writing, short stories. Book from my personal library.

Avenue of Mysteries; Irving, John
Not a disappointment, I loved everything about this novel. Library book.

All Our Worldly Goods; Némirovsky, Irène; Sandra Smith (Translation)
With so many World War 1 & 2 books being written now, it's interesting and rewarding to read one that was actually written during the period. Written during WW2, published in French in 1947, and in English translation in 2008. Library book.

Thirteen Guests: A British Library Crime Classic; Farjeon, J. Jefferson
Another reprint of a great vintage mystery (this one from 1936) from the British Library/Poisoned Pen Press. An assorted cast of characters at a country house, a hunt, murder, clever sleuths, and a touch of romance. Free advance review copy from Poisoned Pen Press, the US publisher.

The rest:
Flambé in Armagnac (Winemaker Detective Mysteries #7) ; Alaux, Jean-Pierre, Balen, Noël; Sally Pane (Translation)
Very light reading. Fun setting and they certainly eat well (and drink well too, the detective is not a policeman, he's an insurance investigator, and has no qualms about having a nip while working). This is the only book I've read in this series. It's a stand alone, and there aren't a lot of references to prior cases. I received a free review copy from the publisher through a LibraryThing giveaway.

Along the Infinite Sea; Williams, Beatriz
Love and intrigue in wartime (WW2) France and Germany carries over to the United States in the 1960s. Some characters are related to ones in other books by Williams, but this is a stand alone. I liked this one much better than The Secret Life of Violet Grant, which is the story of one of the sisters of a main character in this book. Free review copy from publisher.

A Triple Knot; Campion, Emma
This has been sitting in my TBR pile for a while. Every so often I get in the mood for one of these historical fictions about England's past royalty--this one is about Joan, the Fair Maid of Kent. Every time I finish one I think that I won't read another because they all have started sounding too much alike: the books, the heroines, the wars, the intrigues, etc. Some are better than others and this one is one of the better ones, not great, but good enough for a diversion. Free review copy from the publisher.

Numero Zero; Eco, Umberto; Richard Dixon (Translation)
Way too convoluted unless you know Italian politics and like conspiracy theories (or spoofs thereof).  Library book. 

The Japanese Lover; Allende, Isabel; Nick Caistor and Amanda Hopkinson (translators)
A bit of a disappointment. It just never seemed to get off the ground. Library book.

Twain & Stanley Enter Paradise; Hijuelos, Oscar
Beautiful writing, but I struggled at times to stay with it. Library book.

Between Two Fires: Intimate Writings on Life, Love, Food, and Flavor; Esquivel, Laura; Stephen Lytle (Translator)
Somehow having a cockroach give instructions for one of the recipes did nothing to feed my nostalgia for preparing or eating Mexican food. (A cockroach as narrator? What a novel idea!) The book was just too folksy for me. Library book.

November 2014 Reads Part I

One surprise (Zupan), one disappointment (McCullough), one difficult to review (Hahn), some fun (Lakhous), plus some other good reading. All in all a good batch.

The Ploughmen by Kim Zupan
 Library book. I read this 272 page book in one day, I put it aside a couple of times, but picked it up again. Goodreads description says "A young sheriff and a hardened killer form an uneasy and complicated bond in this mesmerizing first novel set on the plains of Montana." That would not have sold me. I picked it up off the new book shelf, read a few paragraphs and was sold by the descriptive language--particularly of the landscape. Warning: the descriptions of murders and other deaths are graphic and gruesome, but necessary to the plot and character development. I was surprised that I liked this one.

Shorter Days by Anna Katharina Hahn; Anne Posten, translation.
 My copy (on Kindle). Am trying to write a review of this for German Lit Month. The problem is that I had so much fun reading it that the experience turned out to be so personal. Memories kept taking over.  I loved the book.

Dispute Over a Very Italian Piglet (Enzo Laganà #1) by Amara Lakhous; Ann Goldstein, translation.
 Library book. Lots of fun as reporter Enzo Laganà works on two different stories--the "feud" between Albanian and Romanian immigrants and the case of a piglet whose actions have upset the balance in Enzo's own neighborhood. Amid the humor are serious reflections on prejudice, journalistic ethics, and family.

Just a Human Being and Other Tales from Contemporary Cambodia by Teri Shaffer Yamada, editor
   My copy. As I suspected, life in Cambodia isn't easy. Many of these twelve stories concern the plight of the urban poor and such social problems as crime, access to health care, immorality, and greed.
About the translation: In the acknowledgements, Yamada points out that it was a team effort and "...are not direct translations but renditions created with the intent of maintaining the initial meaning of the text."
Worth reading.

Defiant brides : the untold story of two revolutionary-era women and the radical men they married by Nancy Rubin Stuart
 Library book. This is a very engaging piecing together of the lives of two women who are little known in United States history.

Seven Japanese Tales by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki; Howard Hibbett (Translator)
  Library book. Published by Knopf in 1963, this collection covers a wide span of Tanizaki's literary career from 1910 through 1959.  The subject matter includes relationships of obsession, bordering on the sinister and forbidden. The most haunting is "Bridge of Dreams" (1959) which is about a man's strange relationship with his stepmother. "Terror" (1913) deals with a man's phobia with train and other forms of transport.  "Aguri" (1922) and "The Tattooer" (1910) are stories of men obsessed with adorning women--one with clothes and jewelery, the other with his art. Two deal with blindness: "A Portrait of Shunkin" (1933) and the historical novelette "A Blind Man's Tale" (1931). The most straightforward tale is "The Thief" (1921) a rather predictable story and the least interesting of the seven. It is an excellent sampling that makes me want to read some of his longer works.

Bittersweet by Colleen McCullough.
 Free finished copy from publisher through the Goodreads First Reads Program. Didn't live up to my expectations. Brief review cross-posted on LibraryThing and Goodreads. 

Three Novellas; by Thomas Bernhard; Peter Jansen (Translator), Kenneth J. Northcott (Translator)
Brian Evenson (Foreword)
 See brief review on my German Lit Page
 
Online:
“Incident on the 405” by Travis Richardson.  One of 13 short crime stories in Criminal Element's e-collection, The Malfeasance Occasional's Girl Trouble issue. Reprinted here in its entirety, this is the story of a minor accident that provides an opportunity for major revenge.

Tomorrow Is Waiting By Holli Mintzer. Published online by Strange Horizons, November, 21, 2011.
 A futuristic tale of Kermit the Frog.

Also there are a couple of links to articles about Berlin on my German Lit Page.

Something To Hide

My old Kindle has a problem. I have a new Paperwhite, but the old reader has some things on it that I didn't buy from Amazon. I've been trying to figure out how to get them onto the new reader, but while doing it I became rather impatient so I went on reading in spite of the last few letters on the last few lines being hidden.

See, it's not too difficult--yet.  It's slowly growing worse. What I've started reading here is Paradises by Iosi Havilio, Beth Fowler (Translation); Open Letter Books.

So a little is hidden which is perhaps appropriate since the three books I just read with this handicap concerned people with something to hide.

They are Sworn Virgin by Elvira Dones, Clarissa Botsford (Translation); And Other Stories; The Combover by Adrián N. Bravi, Richard Dixon (Translator); Frisch & Co.; and  Happiness is Possible  by Oleg Zaionchkovsky, Олег Зайончковский, Andrew Bromfield (Translator), A.D. Miller (Introduction); And Other Stories.

In The Combover what is being hidden is a bald spot. Our hero goes to great lengths to cover the spot without resorting to a toupee. This is a family tradition. After an agonizing expose in a classroom (he's a professor in Italy) he decides to run away to Lapland.  He gets on the wrong bus and ends up trying to be a hermit in the hills of Italy.  I was briefly reminded of a Monty Python sketch about hermits organizing themselves into bridge clubs, but this takes a different track, though one also lacking the longed for seclusion. A delightful story.

Sworn Virgin deals with a different kind of solitude. At the age of nineteen, Hana, for reasons of social necessity, becomes Mark in a rare rural ritual of the northern Albanian mountain villages.  If she stays in the village there is no returning to being Hana.  After seventeen years, when she has no family left in Albania, she goes to the United States. With the help of a cousin and her family, Hana struggles to live once again as a woman while hiding her prior male identity from all but her family. An intriguing story.

In Happiness is Possible many things are hidden, but that's the way it is when dealing with life in post Soviet Moscow, where people marry and divorce in order to obtain decent housing and/or employment. This is told with gentle humor and has stories within the main story (the protagonist is a writer). Another good read.

All three books were well worth the effort and I got so into the stories that I read right over the missing letters. I just mentally filled in the blanks.

The Kindle in trouble is a refurbished one that Amazon gave me as a replacement for my old keyboard Kindle that died last summer. It went in a way that made it impossible for me to read or save anything on it that didn't come from Amazon. Fortunately the only non-Amazon stuff was from Gutenberg so it was easy to get again.

I don't know if Amazon will replace a replacement, but I really like the Paperwhite better so I really don't care. And I've figured out how to get some of the books onto the new reader.

March 2014 Reads

This looks like a lot of reading. It was even though there are two I didn't finish (the first two on the list).

Not crazy about these three:
My Struggle: Book Two: A Man in Love; Knausgård, Karl Ove; translated by  Don Bartlett.
  I only made it to page 200 before I decided I'd had enough.
In the Night of Time; Molina, Antonio Muñoz; translated by Edith Grossman
  Just couldn't really get into this.  I think I'll try it again in a couple of months. (I might also give the Knausgård another try.)
The Islands; Gamerro, Carlos; translated by Ian Barnett
  Read on Kindle (my copy). Long passages on the development of a computer game really distracted from the story. All that techie stuff may have been fascinating a few years ago when this was first published, but now it seems dated and unnecessary.

These two were very heavy, glad I read them but they were disturbing.
Back to Back; Franck, Julia; translated by Anthea Bell       
The Dark Road; Jian, Ma; translated by Flora Drew 

Discussed these two in an earlier post (March 22, 2014)
The Golem and the Jinni; Wecker, Helene (Kindle from library) 
The Hakawati; Alameddine, Rabih

Of this next group Live Bait and Wake were the best, but all were good                    
Live Bait; Genovesi, Fabio; translated by Michael Moore (Advance electronic review copy)
 This was a fun coming of age story. Epub is my least favorite way to read an ARC.  
Wake; Hope, Anna
  Am enjoying the World War I novels currently being published. 
A Circle of Wives; LaPlante, Alice
  A mystery-who killed the bigamist trigamist?
Attachments; Rowell, Rainbow (Kindle from library)
  Chickish lit
The Moon Sisters; Walsh, Therese  (Advance review copy)
  Didn't like this at first but it kind of grew on me. 
Belle Cora; Margulies, Phillip
  Can't resist historical novels set in San Francisco- this was a good one.    
The Wind Is Not a River; Payton, Brian
  World War II in the Aleutian Islands.   
Little Bee; Cleave, Chris
  Nigerian girl in UK   

Two that were disappointing:
Bellman & Black: A Ghost Story; Setterfield, Diane
  Was so-so on her The Thirteenth Tale  and decided to give her another chance-shouldn't have bothered.
A Burnable Book; Holsinger, Bruce                                
 Interesting subject, he knows his stuff but I don't care for his writing style.

Short Stories
Three really good collections.
Bark: Stories; Moore, Lorrie Excellent review of this by Joyce Carol Oates in NRB
Last Car Over the Sagamore Bridge; Orner, Peter      
Snow in May: Stories; Melnik, Kseniya  (review copy from Library Thing) 

Non-Fiction
A Taste for Intrigue: The Multiple Lives of François Mitterrand; Short, Philip  (Advance review copy from Goodreads)
  Excellent!  I'd say it was my best read of the month, but it actually took me a couple of months to read. (Over 600 pages)
Dear Abigail: The Intimate Lives and Revolutionary Ideas of Abigail Adams and Her Two Remarkable Sisters; Jacobs, Diane
  I do like Abigail...and her sisters.  Nice to learn more about them.
Uprising: A New Age is Dawning for Every Mother's Daughter; Armstrong, Sally
 (Advance review copy from Goodreads) This was ok. It should be read by people who probably won't read it. 
George Washington's Secret Six: The Spy Ring That Saved the American Revolution; Kilmeade, Brian  (Kindle from library)
  Not very well written.

Unless otherwise noted, books were physical copies from public libraries.
 »