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Post by ozziegiraffe on Nov 1, 2018 5:34:34 GMT -5
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Post by Liiisa on Nov 1, 2018 8:24:25 GMT -5
Thank you ozzie!
I’m currently about a quarter of the way through the new Sarah Perry, “Melmoth”! Creepy Eastern European gothic novel; gripping!
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Post by Liiisa on Nov 2, 2018 19:09:02 GMT -5
55. Sarah Perry, Melmoth
And then I finished it, because it was impossible to put down. I liked The Essex Serpent, but I loved this - it feels like a Gothic novel, but the evil is very real, and in all of us... and Melmoth is witnessing it, and reaching out her hand to us...
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Post by scrubb on Nov 2, 2018 21:12:01 GMT -5
Adding that to my list, Liiiiisa.
I'm a little more than half way through a Louise Erdich (The Last Report of the Miracles at Little No HOrse) which I'm liking a lot, but not absolutely loving, which is weird because it's the kind of book I would normally love; and a little less than half way through a Jhumpa Lahiri (The Namesake) which I'm also liking a lot.
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Post by scrubb on Nov 4, 2018 22:26:38 GMT -5
Finished The Last Report of the Miracles at Little No Horse, by Louise Erdich. I started to like it more and more the further I got into it. It's the story of a woman who goes through many very distinct changes in her life, from nun to farm wife to priest. She lives most of her life on an Ojibwe reserve in North Dakota and incorporates native spirituality into her strong Catholicism, or perhaps it's more like she sees where they connect.
It's got some touches of magical realism and lots of humour. I really enjoyed it.
The only criticisms I have are that some of the "chapters" were a bit choppy and a few of the characters weren't drawn as fully as I think she intended them to be. I didn't always remember who someone was when they re-emerged after an absence from the story.
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Post by sophie on Nov 4, 2018 23:52:08 GMT -5
Flights by Olga Tokarczuk, translation by Jennifer Croft. This was the winner of the Man Booker International prize. The writing is amazing, translucent, magical. I didn’t get some parts of the stories interwoven between her musings, takes and autobiographical bits but I still enjoyed reading them just because her writing is so beautifully done. Did I mention I like her writing?
And as an aside, since we have talked about translation previously, this job must have been Herculean. I think she did an excellent job. I read it in English but I may try to find it in Polish to see how I like it.
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Post by HalcyonDaze on Nov 4, 2018 23:58:25 GMT -5
Have been having a reading slump lately. Hoping it is over soon.
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Post by lillielangtry on Nov 5, 2018 2:16:27 GMT -5
Liiisa - I loved The Essex Serpent so Melmoth is definitely on my list, but I'm also a bit of a wimp so slightly worried it might be too creepy/depressing?! sophie - glad you enjoyed Flights, I really did too. I agree that it was an amazing Translation Job. (Speaking of which, this year I listed to the audiobook of Svetlana Alexievich's Second Hand Time, translated by Bela Shayevich. Oh, how about 700+ pages of a Nobel prize-winner as your first book-length Translation?! I can't imagine how daunting that must have been! I thought it was well done though). Hm, what have I been reading? I reread The Power as mentioned and also David Mitchell's Slade House at the end of October, because it's set on 27 October of various different years! Then I read a Montalbano case by Andrea Camilleri - I enjoy these (in German) as occasional Relaxation. The crime is detailed enough to be interesting without being overly gory, and at the end there's always a glossary of the Sicilian Food mentioned! Alia Trabucco Zerán, The Remainder (translated by Sophie Hughes) I think this is the first book of this Chilean writer to be translated into English. I really enjoyed it, although I note some criticism on Goodreads that the average English-speaking Reader would have benefited from a foreword or a translator's note. Certainly I often think there are aspects of Latin American novels that I can grasp immediately, which I can't with African or Asian ones. For example, this book opens in 1988 at a Party in which they seem to be waiting for voting results. I knew rightaway, as would Chileans, that this must be the Referendum which led to Pinochet stepping down and the return to Democracy. Whether or not it matters that you know that - I'm not sure. Anyway, there are two narrators in this book. I much preferred one of them, but I thought the translator did a great Job in reflecting their distinct voices. It focuses on three main characters, all of them Young People dealing in different ways with their parents' involvement in the dictatorship era. Really, really good - but I am the target audience for this book!
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Post by Queen on Nov 5, 2018 2:46:14 GMT -5
Reading some work stuff... and I'm supposed to review it. Meh.
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Post by Liiisa on Nov 5, 2018 6:01:05 GMT -5
lillielangtry - Melmoth is a little creepy, but not too much so. Much of it is told obliquely, not directly (which is part of the suspense, like what is she referring to here?). I'm going to keep an eye out for that Chilean novel.
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Post by lillielangtry on Nov 5, 2018 6:56:45 GMT -5
lillielangtry - Melmoth is a little creepy, but not too much so. Much of it is told obliquely, not directly (which is part of the suspense, like what is she referring to here?). I'm going to keep an eye out for that Chilean novel. The British Publisher is And Other Stories, it's due out in the US by Coffee House Press, but not until next year. |
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Nov 6, 2018 4:34:01 GMT -5
I managed to finish 3 books over the last 3 days while travelling to Sydney. An ebook novella, read on the short plane trip, an audiobook, started on my previous road trip, and finished on the edge of town, and the thick paperback I’ve been reading for weeks. The second and third are both definitely recommended.
83. A Christmas Howl, Laurien Berenson. This novella is probably best read by fans of Lauren Berenson’s dog stories, as it provides background to the family in them. It’s action takes place some years earlier, so should probably be numbered 0.5 in the series, rather than 18.5. Quite good for a quick read, but probably not as a stand alone story.
84. A Fatal Grace, Louise Penny. A beautifully written book, with a sad and engrossing mystery a gorgeous setting and wonderful characters. As you read the mystery grows and deepens, but is never dark, due to the wonderfully written characters. I’m looking forward to more of Inspector Gamache.
85. Truly Madly Guilty, Liane Moriarty. I always love well written books set in familiar places, and this is one of them. I can see the characters in their settings. This book is a little reminiscent of “The Slap”, but diverges considerably in some ways. I wasn’t sure at first about chapters alternating between the present and the recent past, but as I read, and the story and characters developed, this grew on me. The characters and their stories are engrossing.
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Post by Liiisa on Nov 6, 2018 6:11:03 GMT -5
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Post by lillielangtry on Nov 6, 2018 7:00:04 GMT -5
I did, thanks! We get The Economist here in the Office.
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Post by scrubb on Nov 6, 2018 20:51:22 GMT -5
Finished Jhumpa Lahiri's "The Namesake" today - story of a couple from Calcutta who move to Boston, and their adjustment to living away from their home and family. And their children, who grow up trying to bridge family and every day life in the US. It focuses on the father first, and then his son (Gogal, or "the namesake" in the book title).
It's good. Not great, but very good.
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Post by Liiisa on Nov 10, 2018 6:51:09 GMT -5
56. Gretel Ehrlich, The Solace of Open Spaces
I've had a copy of this little book for a while, but hadn't gotten around to reading it. But it's on the reading list for a writing class I'm starting with next week, so the time came to pick it up.
Ehrlich is a journalist who'd gone to Wyoming with her partner to write a story, but then the partner died, and in her grief she stayed in Wyoming and worked on ranches. The book is a story of life in rural Wyoming, richly detailed with the landscapes and people there. I thought it was wonderful.
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Post by Liiisa on Nov 11, 2018 7:31:15 GMT -5
57. Margaret Atwood, Wilderness Tips
Short stories. I clearly remember having read one of them, "Hairball," in the New Yorker at the time, because it was in a publishing workplace setting and the characters' names were the same as two people I worked with at the time. So that's amusing. Anyway, I didn't find any of them really strongly affecting, but it was a good read nonetheless.
(I was reading the one I posted about yesterday simultaneously.)
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Post by sprite on Nov 11, 2018 9:21:54 GMT -5
Also love the Montalbano series, mainly for the food. If i ever get to Sicily, i'll do a binge reread and make notes of my favourites.
Just finished 'The Power' and really enjoyed it. I like the set up, of a student/writer exchanging letters with a mentor and asking for feedback on a manuscript. there were little notes on the 'artifacts' archeologists had found that took me a few minutes to work out, but i enjoyed those.
the last line was perfect.
i've often thought that women have every capacity for brutality, that it's not limited to men--rather women have fewer opportunities to express it.
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Post by scrubb on Nov 11, 2018 12:20:15 GMT -5
I barely remember Wilderness Tips - didn't think it was one of Atwoods' better efforts. I've said this before - she's a rarity among authors for me, in that I really, really love some of her work, and I really, really dislike some of her work. Usually I love everything an author writes, or I don't. With her, I never know what to expect.
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Post by scrubb on Nov 11, 2018 16:34:52 GMT -5
THis afternoon I finished "The Love Letters" by Madeleine l'Engel. Overall, I prefer her children's books. This one had some really good bits - it takes an old book of love letters written by a Portugese nun to her French lover, and builds a story around them. The story from the past was very good.
But the present day story that was supposed to be the main part was pretty dissatisfying. The "heroine" had lost her child recently and she and her husband were not coping, and there was a lot of blame and anger. Which is, of course, understandable and normal, but they were vaguely enough drawn that it was impossible to feel their pain or empathize with them. That was the most dissatisfying part - the vagueness around the main character - I really didn't manage to understand her at all. And the links between her and the nun in the story set in the past were not really all that strong either, but I think they were supposed to be.
Overall, not a great book but I did think the story set in the past was a very well done examination of Catholicism and human nature and innocence.
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Post by sprite on Nov 11, 2018 17:21:03 GMT -5
Hairball!
I was beginning to think I'd imagined that story.
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Post by scrubb on Nov 11, 2018 19:03:58 GMT -5
Hairball! I was beginning to think I'd imagined that story.  ? |
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Post by lillielangtry on Nov 12, 2018 2:17:42 GMT -5
I agree that Atwood's works are a mixed bag. And I think a lot of People find that, but not always with the same ones - I read a comment recently by someone who enjoys her more realistic books, like Alias Grace, but really disliked the more dystopic Fantasy ones, like the Maddaddam trilogy - which I really loved.
I read a German book by Anne Köhler called Nichts werden macht auch viel Arbeit : Mein Leben in Nebenjobs. It's all about the many part-time and casual Jobs the author has done. It was amusingly written, but I thought she might have taken the opportunity to look more deeply at the Problem of short-term contracts, unpaid internships, exploitation in the hospitality sector, and making Ends meet in the cultural industry in general. But no, not at all, there was no critical perspective, just a series of jolly anecdotes about waitressing, etc. That was a shame.
Hannah Kent, Burial Rites
This debut novel, by an Australian author, is set in Iceland and really beautifully written. I see from my Goodreads that lots of People have read it already. It's based on real, historical People and centres on a woman waiting to be executed for murdering two men. Really good, reminded me a lot of Alias Grace.
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Post by Liiisa on Nov 12, 2018 5:43:15 GMT -5
lillielangtry That title "Burial Rites" sounded familiar, and yes, I have a copy! (When I was on a cruise with my mom last summer, we were sitting at a table with this amusing woman from Indiana who was reading that book the whole time, and when she finished it she gave it to me, and then I put it on my to-read shelf and forgot about it... I've kind of lost discipline with my alphabetical to-read shelf.) I'll move that one up in priority and then email that woman; she was really lovely.
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Post by sprite on Nov 12, 2018 7:15:08 GMT -5
Hairball! I was beginning to think I'd imagined that story. ? I read it, oh, 20 years ago? probably more, it would have been at uni. But it was as just the story, I didn't read the full book. Later, I went looking for the story but always got directed to other stories that weren't it, so i was starting to think someone else had written it, or that i was conflating two stories. it's quite gross, but i enjoyed it. i should probably look for hte book. i love how atwood can write what is pretty much high quality chick lit, and also dystopia and factual-based novels. |
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Post by Liiisa on Nov 12, 2018 15:14:37 GMT -5
sprite: I was going to donate the book to the library book sale, so I can send it to you instead if you like! It’s a creepy little story - obviously quite memorable!
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Post by Liiisa on Nov 12, 2018 20:09:06 GMT -5
58. Edward St. Aubyn, Dunbar
St. Aubyn, the writer of the snarky and rather affecting Patrick Melrose novels, here has written a version of King Lear in which Lear is a billionaire business figure a la Rupert Murdoch. It was a page turner, despite knowing the plot of Lear and therefore how it would turn out... well, it didn't track the plot of the play exactly, but it hit the same notes.
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Nov 13, 2018 8:32:45 GMT -5
86. Circle of influence, Annette Dashofy. I’m still unsure whether to look for more in this series. The mystery has darker themes than the usual cozy. I like the fact that the MC is a paramedic, something a bit different to the norm.
However, I generally look for lighter mysteries to read at bedtime.
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Post by sprite on Nov 13, 2018 12:13:03 GMT -5
sprite: I was going to donate the book to the library book sale, so I can send it to you instead if you like! It’s a creepy little story - obviously quite memorable! I'll get it from the library,now I know the name.  Thanks! |
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Post by scrubb on Nov 13, 2018 22:19:16 GMT -5
Finished John Steinbeck's "Cannery Row" today. I think I might have read it once a really long time ago but am not sure, so will think of it as a new book.
The sketches of characters were great. He really brought them to life. But the story was light and, well, forgettable.
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Thanks!