Books! (November)

[Liiisa]

It's already November! Aggh. List what you're reading here.

I'm in between books right now: am carrying around Patrick Modiano's "The Black Notebook" but I've been too frenzied to actually open it yet.

Link to October's List

[ozziegiraffe]

Thank you Liiisa. It's already the first of the month!
Should finish an audiobook before the weekend. Two long road trips.

[lillielangtry]

Thanks Liisa!

I tried Modiano a couple of years ago, didn't get into the book (can't even remember the title now!) But that could have partly been because I was reading it in German.

I've been seeing on YouTube and Twitter that some people are doing "non fiction November". Although I'm not generally big on reading challenges, I do have some non fiction I've been wanting to get to, including on audiobook, so I'm tempted.

But first I'm rereading David Mitchell's The Bone Clocks, just for a treat :-)

[scrubb]

I'm in the middle of a Terry Pratchett, a Sarah Waters, and a non-fiction about a French Jewish spy during WWII.

[HalcyonDaze]

Yay. I have a book club meeting on Monday night and I haven't started the book yet. I know it is fairly light but still, I really should start.

[Liiisa]

I've decided to put off the Modiano for now because it's very thin and I'm flying up to Maine to see Spawn this weekend, so I'll need a longer book to cover both flights. So instead, I'm going to read Isherwood's The Berlin Stories, which I'd been meaning to read since forever and found at a used book store this past weekend.

[ozziegiraffe]

61. I've met my Goodreads target for the year, as one book I've read isn't listed there.
The Fry Chronicles, by Stephen Fry, his autobiography of his years from ten to thirty. Brilliant as a audiobook, read by the author. Love the insights into so many of my favourite actors, such as Hugh Laurie, Rowan Atkinson, and ever Miriam Margolyes, as well as Stephen Fry himself

[Webs]

I loved "the Fifth Season". Can't wait to read the sequel.

Am now reading "My Brilliant Friend" by Elsa Ferrante, because Hillary Clinton recommended it (and a lot of other people) and I'm that kind of a geek.

[lillielangtry]

Ozzie - I've just got the Definitive Collection of Sherlock Holmes on Audible read by Stephen Fry. It's 72 hours long. 72! (Don't worry, I'm not going to listen to just that - that would be too much of a good thing! It's going to keep me going inbetween other reads for a while).

Webs, I love that you're reading Ferrante because Hillary recommended it! I personally wasn't totally enraptured by her, but I know plenty of people who were.

[Webs]

I figured I had to try it. Then I have a nice Jean Rhys waiting in the wings.

[Liiisa]

I loved that Ferrante... haven't gotten around to the rest of the series, though.

THe Isherwood is very hard to put down!

[HalcyonDaze]

Half way through the book club choice and if I read how Islam is wonderful and all the problems associated with it are due to government laws I may scream. Also the parts about how wonderful the concessions the religion makes for women. Sure, I do get the point of what the author is saying and in part I do agree with her. But, one of the countries is a theocracy and others have had laws based on interpretations from the religion. Plus one of the wonderful concessions mentioned is that women don't have to go to the mosque whilst menstruating. Now that wasn't because Islam recognised that it could be a painful and tough time for women, it was because they were considered unclean.

Ok, rant over and generally the memoir is ok with some excellent recipes.

[Liiisa]

45. Christopher Isherwood, Berlin Stories

Addictive (yet terrifying) quasi-fictionalized autobiography about Isherwood's years in Berlin prior to WW2. Terrifying because the Nazis are lurking, and by the end they've begun their reign, and you can tell why people end up stuck in situations like that - you can't afford to move, you don't think it's going to be that bad, you're having enough trouble running your regular life, who has time to fight fascists when you can't even take them seriously yet... and then suddenly you need to take them seriously, but you don't have the experience yet of what to do.

(For those who don't know, this is the book that they based the play "I Am a Camera" on; that play was the source material for the musical "Cabaret.")

[scrubb]

Love Berlin Stories, Liiiisa. I read "Mr. Norris Changes Trains" years and years ago and knew that the rest of Berlin STories was on my list, but somehow it took me over 20 years to find and read it.

I finished "I Shall Wear Midnight" - one of the wee free men/Tiffany Aching Discworld books. It was written in 2010 and I think his Alzheimers had started to affect his writing by then. It really wasn't as finely crafted as the earlier ones. Still enjoyable and worthwhile, but just not as tight, not as gripping, not as convincing.

[sophie]

A good House by Bonnie Burnard. She is not a very well known Canadian writer who had won some major national awards.. I think she died earlier this year.. well written portrait of a small town and one family within that town post WW2 to the late 1990’s.

[ozziegiraffe]

62. Dead Angler, Victoria Houston. I would not normally have chosen a book with a fishing theme, but this one fits the clues in a Good Reads Cozy Mystery challenge, and I really enjoyed the characters.

[sophie]

The Vineyard by Maria Duenas. She wrote ‘The Time in Between ‘ and this novel continues her use of history as a backdrop for the characters and the story. Really enjoyed it, but I am on holiday and it was an excellent beach read.

[lillielangtry]

I'm behind and my numbering is out... But you'll forgive me, so:

#75 (or thereabouts) Jhumpa Lahiri, The Interpreter of Maladies
Pulitzer-prize winning short stories about Indians, Indian Americans and immigrants to the US. Beautiful.

#76 Lauren Groff, Fates and Furies
This was hyped a couple of years ago, I think. It's a novel of two halves: the story of a marriage from his perspective and then from hers. It draws you in but the language is rather flowery and a fair suspension of disbelief is necessary.

#77 Maggie O'Farrell, I Am, I Am, I Am
This is subtitled "A memoir in 17 brushes with death". When she's good, as she is on her experiences of illness and motherhood, she's very, very good. A few of the chapters were a bit thin.

#78 David Mitchell, The Bone Clocks
Reread. I love Mitchell.

#79 Valeria Luiselli, Tell me how it ends: An essay in 40 questions
A brief essay from Mexican-born author Luiselli, who volunteers as an interpreter in court cases involving child migrants to the US. On immigration, integration, the Wall... it's very good.

#80 Maryanne Wolf, Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain
This was OK but a bit of a mishmash of linguistic history, neurological theory and the science behind dyslexia.

[Liiisa]

46) Patrick Modiano, The Black Notebook

A thin, vague novel in which a man reminisces about some vaguely criminal people he knew when he was a young man in Paris. In some ways it felt like it was about Paris itself. This is the second book of his that I've read, and I've really liked both.

[scrubb]

Finished the final volume of The Sandman graphic novels - The Wake. (Neil Gaiman) It was very good.

I say final, but there is a bonus volume that is not chronological/similar in style. It has a lot more words than the others.

[ozziegiraffe]

63. A Vow of Silence, Veronica Black An interesting read, both demythologising the life of a modern nun and exposing an interesting theological conundrum, when someone with a limited theological education and an equally odd upbringing distorts the whole issue of feminism in the church. Looking forward to what Sister Joan confronts next.
64. The Skeleton Takes a Bow, Leigh Perry. The whole family Skeleton thing is pure fantasy, but I love the characters and the plots so far in this series. Some good development in the characters met in the first book occurs, and the plot, set in high school and college is realistic, apart from the skeleton's role, which adds fun to the story.
24 hours with no internet and a 700 km road trip over a long weekend is a great way to read more books. I have another nearly finished and I've started another audiobook.

[scrubb]

I did read the 10th anniversary SAndman volume, which isn't so much a graphic novel as a beautifully illustrated story. It's called "The Dream Hunters" and it was excellent.

[scrubb]

Last night I finished "Behind Enemy Lines: The True Story of a French Jewish Spy in Nazi Germany" by Marthe Cohn with Wendy Holden. Autobiographical.

It's the story of her and her family during WW2. They fled from the Lorraine region to the south of France early in the war, then ended up in occupied France anyway. It was very first person in that she only mentions a couple of times that her sister and one brother are in the resistance, while she talks fully about all of her own experiences. She says she tried to join the resistance but no one would take her. She finally joined the regular army early in 1945, and eventually got over the border into Germany to gather information. After VE Day she was sent to Indochina where she worked for another year or so. She was not proud to be part of an occupying army and didn't stay very long.

The spy exploits - for which she was awarded several military honours - were interesting, but the strength of the whole book is the perspective of a Jewish family going through the war. One of her sisters ended up dying at Auschwitz, along with an uncle. She lost a lot of other relatives too, but they weren't part of this book. And she lost her fiance who was executed for his action with the resistance.

[ozziegiraffe]

65. Double Fudge Brownie Murder, Joanne Fluke. The beginning of this book didn't quite segue into the rest of the story, but overall it was a good mystery, with a logical development. And at last there is some movement in the love triangle. Some good recipes too. (I must admit I have missed several in this series because of lack of developments in the love triangle.)

[sprite]

i need to read more. and get more audio books to listen to while cooking.

Webs, i loved 'my brilliant friend' and then finally got around to the second book not long ago. i felt like the storylines of the two main girls continue in a believable way. i can't help but feel that the wilder girl (can't remember names) is self-destructive, but she seems to realise that and use it against her enemies, so there's no pity for her.

[scrubb]

Just finished "2 a.m. at the Cat's Pyjamas" by Marie-Helene Bertino. Really enjoyable - follows 3 main characters through a day that finishes at 2 a.m. in a jazz club. The story has a stop & start, go back then jump ahead rhythm - like jazz. It's whimsical but not shallow. The main characters are likeable and/or interesting (one is a bit cliched, but he's a enjoyable cliche) and the many bit players are very well drawn.

I wouldn't say it's a GREAT book but I liked it a lot and recommend it.

[Liiisa]

47. Lionel Shriver, The Mandibles: A Family, 2029-2047

I have a weakness for dystopian sci-fi lit-fic, so this seemed a natural. The US economy has collapsed and so a family that all along assumed they would be inheriting a considerable amount of money now isn't going to be, and in fact they all have to withstand considerable privation. The first part stressed me out because a lot of it took place in DC, and it was hitting a little too close to home.

It was a fun read, a real page-turner, and I thought some of the characters were great. I occasionally worried that it was all a little too pro conservative economic theory, but it never got all that bad. But I have one gigantic quibble with it: how the hell can you write a novel that talks about economic disasters taking place in the first half of the 21st century without ONCE mentioning climate change? Insane! but enjoyable nonetheless.

[ozziegiraffe]

66. A Vow of Chastity, Veronica Black. I thought this was going to be formulaic, exposing another heresy affecting people living in a religious community, but the clues led to something darker. I’m enjoying this series and it’s protagonist, Sister Joan.

[sprite]

i'm reading 'the magicians' and enjoying it, but it is slightly irritating that every damn female in the book is introduced in terms of how much Quentin is attracted to her. i mean, i know he's 17-19, but really?

[scrubb]

I am very nearly done Sarah WAter's "The Paying Guests" and about to get into bed to read the last little bit, so will write about it now.

I really wanted to love it, but the setting (just after WWI in England) is the only really interesting part. The story is just a love story, albeit a lesbian one. Well, a love story that turns into a sort of horror, with a shared terrible secret that tests their love. Not that their love had been set up as one that would stand much testing anyway.

And maybe part of my not-loving it, is that their horrible secret makes them both bad people. But bad people who are relatable because doing the wrong thing would have been extremely tempting to anyone in their position. Having to acknowledge to yourself that you might have been as despicable in their situation as they were doesn't make for an endearing book.

In spite of me not loving it, it's very well written and worthwhile.