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
Personal copy
Dimanche and Other Stories; Némirovsky, Irène; Bridget Patterson
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
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
Monday, May 04, 2015
Sunday, April 05, 2015
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
Personal copy
By Night the Mountain Burns; Laurel, Juan Tomás Ávila; Jethro Soutar
Personal copy
A God in Ruins; Atkinson, Kate
Free ARC from publisher
I Am Istanbul; Uzuner, Buket; Kenneth J Dakan
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
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
Personal copy
By Night the Mountain Burns; Laurel, Juan Tomás Ávila; Jethro Soutar
Personal copy
A God in Ruins; Atkinson, Kate
Free ARC from publisher
I Am Istanbul; Uzuner, Buket; Kenneth J Dakan
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
Thursday, March 12, 2015
Sunday, March 01, 2015
February 2015 Reads (weeks 3 & 4)
Catching up with myself. I fell behind on my February register, I've been reading but not writing much. Some of these will fit my challenges, but I haven't linked to them since I haven't yet written about them.
More non-fiction than usual for me, a delightful Canadian novel, two super short story collections, and a novel bordering on being an essay or short story collection.
A Fifty-Year Silence: Love, War, and a Ruined House in France by Miranda Richmond Mouillot
Library book. Memoir and family history. (French Bingo A1)
Liberty's Torch: The Great Adventure to Build the Statue of Liberty by Elizabeth Mitchell
Library book. How the Statue of Liberty came to be. This might fit somewhere on the French Bingo card. An interesting read although it seemed padded in a few places. (maybe B1)
Circus Maximus: The Economic Gamble Behind Hosting the Olympics and the World Cup by Andrew Zimbalist
Free ARC from publisher through Goodreads First Reads program. Should be read by anyone involved in making decisions about bidding to host these events: politicians at every level, promoters, citizens, fans, businessmen, athletic organizations, and athletes.
Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine
Library book. "A meditation" on racism in Twenty-first Century America. For me it opens more questions than answers, the biggest being: Will the people who ought to read and learn from this book read it?
Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hooper
Won this in Riffle giveaway. I loved this book! Eighty something woman walks halfway across Canada.
Outline by Rachel Cusk
Library book. Not exactly short stories, more like related "incidents" involving conversations. Takes place in and around Athens.
Noontide Toll: Stories by Romesh Gunesekera
Library book. Short stories of residents and tourists related by a van-for-hire driver.
Years of Red Dust: Stories of Shanghai by Qiu Xiaolong
Library book. Life in Communist China from 1949 through 2005.
More non-fiction than usual for me, a delightful Canadian novel, two super short story collections, and a novel bordering on being an essay or short story collection.
A Fifty-Year Silence: Love, War, and a Ruined House in France by Miranda Richmond Mouillot
Library book. Memoir and family history. (French Bingo A1)
Liberty's Torch: The Great Adventure to Build the Statue of Liberty by Elizabeth Mitchell
Library book. How the Statue of Liberty came to be. This might fit somewhere on the French Bingo card. An interesting read although it seemed padded in a few places. (maybe B1)
Circus Maximus: The Economic Gamble Behind Hosting the Olympics and the World Cup by Andrew Zimbalist
Free ARC from publisher through Goodreads First Reads program. Should be read by anyone involved in making decisions about bidding to host these events: politicians at every level, promoters, citizens, fans, businessmen, athletic organizations, and athletes.
Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine
Library book. "A meditation" on racism in Twenty-first Century America. For me it opens more questions than answers, the biggest being: Will the people who ought to read and learn from this book read it?
Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hooper
Won this in Riffle giveaway. I loved this book! Eighty something woman walks halfway across Canada.
Outline by Rachel Cusk
Library book. Not exactly short stories, more like related "incidents" involving conversations. Takes place in and around Athens.
Noontide Toll: Stories by Romesh Gunesekera
Library book. Short stories of residents and tourists related by a van-for-hire driver.
Years of Red Dust: Stories of Shanghai by Qiu Xiaolong
Library book. Life in Communist China from 1949 through 2005.
Tuesday, February 17, 2015
February 2015 Reads (week 2)
Skylight by José Saramago. translated by Margaret Jull Costa
Library book. An amazing first novel.
The Museum of Abandoned Secrets by Oksana Zabuzhko, Nina Shevchuk-Murray (Translator)This is a huge, sweeping novel told in straight narrative, dreams, and flashbacks. It is long (750 pages) and intense. It took me three month to read it. The amazing thing was that although it is complicated and covers a vast swath of Ukrainian history and contemporary politics, I never got lost in the many times I put it aside. Every time I picked it up I knew exactly where I had left off, even when I had set it aside for more than a week and read 4 or 5 other books in the interim.
An amazing, rewarding, and essential read.Frog by Mo Yan, Howard Goldblatt (Translation)
Free ARC from publisher through Goodreads First Reads program.
I liked this novel about a Chinese midwife who is caught up in China's population control policies. Gugu not only delivers babies, she must provide birth control information, insert IUDs, and perform abortions. The major part of the novel is told by her grand-nephew in a series of long letters. The final portion is a play based on Gugu's life. I found the play section tedious and really a slog to read.
Although the subject matter is serious and the characters struggle with difficult moral choices and tragedies, there is a warmth, humor, and sympathy in the narration. Definitely worth reading.
Online
The Wolf of Bordeaux by Richard Lange a short story set in a French prison in 1899. Published online in The Summerset Review and included in his Sweet Nothing: Stories published this week by
Mulholland Books. Lange has links to two more of the stories on his website.
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