Spending AUGUST with your nose in a book

[mei]

feeling too restless to read this weekend and can't decide what book to read. had started reading my next book club book but turns out I can't attend the meeting to discuss it, so it feels a little pointless to continue. (not totally drawn to the book yet...). we're starting a book club at work and I need to re-read Norwegian Wood. But am postponing that until I get hold of the Japanese edition from a colleague. Then.... I don't know. Loads of books are waiting to be read. Help me decide!

1) Making History - Stephen Fry (original bookclub read)
2) Norwegian Wood - while I wait for the Japanese
3) new book by Cixin Liu that I bought yesterday (amazing sci fi)
4) something non fiction on the fashion industry
5) anything else....

:-)

[scrubb]

Just finished "The Muse" by Jessie Burton. I really liked her earlier book, The Miniaturist, and I think I liked this one better. It's about a girl from Trinidad who moves to London in the 1960s, and it's also about some people in Spain in 1936. And a painting, that is surrounded by mystery. It's intriguing and good.

I think maybe it answers too many questions, though, and doesn't leave anything to the imagination. Still, it's well worth reading.

Oweena, I have a love-hate feeling towards Anne Tyler. Breathing Lessons drove me crazy, for some of the same reasons you mention, but I still liked it. I feel like she perfectly portrays all the huge difficulties of connecting - all the different things that get in the way of people understanding each other. A lot of her books are about that. People who can't seem to express themselves to each other; who want so much to connect but don't/can't. They break my heart.

[scrubb]

Sorry, mei, I'd read the Fry because I enjoy his writing, but if you're not really finding you're into it, then I dunno. Big help, huh? ;-)

[Liiisa]

mei, I vote for the Cixin Liu! But I haven’t read it yet.

On the subject of sci-fi:

46) Lionel Roberts, The Synthetic Ones

Ok... this fairly terrible novel was too baffling to put down. British sci-fi from the early 60s. I will now look for anything by him or his many pseudonyms.

[ozziegiraffe]

Another vote for Fry, as I’ve loved his audiobooks.
Second choice, Cixin Liu. What sort of science fiction? I haven’t read any for ages.

[lillielangtry]

Oweena I read Anne Tyler's A Spool of Blue Thread a few years back. I seem to remember thinking it was well-written but also found it rather dull.

#62 Convenience Store Woman, Suyaka Murata (translated from the Japanese by Ginny Tapley Takemori)
A very short novel about a Japanese woman in her 30s who is still working the part-time Job in a convenience store she started 18 years before, much to the bemusement of her friends and Family. They pressure her to marry or, at least, get some sort of career. But the store is the only place she feels she belongs. There's something of an Eleanor Oliphant vibe about this one.

[Liiisa]

I’ve never read any Anne Tyler because I thought I wouldn’t like them. I can’t pinpoint the exact reason why, though.

[Oweena]

scrubb, lillie and Liiisa:
I think I was most frustrated with Tyler as there wasn't one character in the book who seemed capable of navigating their own life or speaking what's on their mind.

I think I could handle one character like that, but a whole book of them, spread over a mere day was too much for me. It's also possible the main female character reminded me of my mother at times.

[Liiisa]

I think maybe I resisted her books because I thought they'd turn entirely on people's relationships, and I find books like that really boring unless there's something else going on too like an experimental writing style or some kind of surprising storyline context. Your review isn't dissuading me from that position, I'm afraid, Oweena.

But anyway: I just spent 11 hours on trains, so I read the entirety of the following:

47) Jennifer Wright, Get Well Soon

A book about plagues, and how society dealt with them (or didn't), recommended by Spawn. This sounds dry and possibly depressing, but Wright's style is very light. It sort of reminded me of some of the scientific voices on Twitter, who are amusing and use a modern, internet-friendly style while being firmly based in fact and ethics. The last chapter on AIDS was deeply affecting. Recommended! (There's a section at the end with pictures that I skipped, though. My first rule for reading medical literature is DON'T LOOK AT THE PICTURES.)

[lillielangtry]

Oh... I admit to a horrified fascination with medical Pictures.

#63 Amélie Nothomb, Strike your Heart (translated from the French by Alison Anderson)
I wasn't expecting to get through this in less than 24 hours, including a work day! But it is very short and I found it very gripping. I guess, roughly, it's about having a bad mother and how that affects you. There are some chillingly bad People in this - not in a violent way, but in a psychological way that is even more creepy, if anything. At first I wasn't sure what I thought about the author describing children's Feelings and perceptions in a way that is far more sophisticated than they would be able to verbalise (if that makes sense?) but actually I think it worked. Really really good, if you like that sort of Thing!

[mei]

Thanks all! Sounds like I'll have to continue with Fry at some point after all. In the meantime, I got hold of the Japanese books so wish me luck getting through those in the next 2 weeks!

[ozziegiraffe]

52. Throwim Way Leg: Tree Kangaroos, Possums and Penis Gourds. Tim Flannery. Tim was in PNG and West Papua in the 1980s and 1990s around the time I was in Solomon Islands so it is interesting to make comparisons between Melanesian countries.
For a scientist, Flannery is a brilliant writer. His accounts of his journeys in Papua New Guinea and Irian Jaya are sensitive to the environment and the people.
It was particularly interesting to compare and contrast a self-governing country with one annexed by a xenophobic neighbour. His comparisons of the mines at Ok Tedi and Freeport are shocking in their exposure of the treatment of the local indigenous peoples.

[scrubb]

Oh, I love that book ozziegiraffe! I'm glad you reminded me about it - I should re-read it now that I've been to PNG.

[snowwhite]

I've read the first two Rivers of London books (I caved and bought the 2nd, used copy natch), and should be getting the third from the library very soon (already have 4th and 5th should also be coming soon)... Very much enjoying, as may be guessed!

Also read A Symphony of Echoes which was better than the first in the series (by Jodi Taylor - Chronicles of St Mary's), but not desperately ripping through the third while waiting for Rivers of London (3). Hmmmm.

I have several others lying around I'm not picking up for some reason.

[Oweena]

In the Full Light of the Sun by Clare Clark

I enjoyed this book a lot, it's set in Germany between WWI and II, and focuses on three people.
One an older wealthy art critic, another a young woman longing to become an artist, and the third, a man wanting to break into the world of art dealers. The plot is loosely based on a German scandal in the early 1930s over possibly forged Van Gogh paintings.
The way the author describes Berlin of the 20s and 30s with it's crazy economy and free wheeling culture sucked me in.
The third and final section, written from the point of view of a Jewish attorney who handled the forgery trial was contemporary in many ways, showing the rise of the Nazi party, and the erosion of rights.

I recommend this book, and I'll look for more books by this author.

[Webs]

Update on "The Billionaire's Vinegar" - this was a lot more intriguing than I originally thought. A lot of seedy characters in the high priced world of wine. And another testament that rich people really don't care that they spend exorbitant amounts of money for something that isn't even real.

[Queen]

Sea of Lost Love
by Santa Montefiore

meh

I wanted history and humour and sunshine.

This was awful, will not read the writer again.

Major gripes with various plot points and the twists were not very twisty.

Most annoying point - the heroine (I use the term loosely) is shallow, fickle, manipulative. But she gets to Italy and turns out to be well read and into books. On page 266 this flibberty gibbert can suddenly quote Wordsworth and Proust and her favourite book is the Count of Monte Christo. She's fluent in French because her Grandfather made her read French writers in the original. I mean come on.

[Liiisa]

I'm sorry Q, but just seeing that title would make me think that book would be terrible without even opening it.

Last night I finished another book!

48) Ursula Le Guin, No Time to Spare

A collection of her blog posts! The ones about writing are all I'd hoped they'd be. There are a number about her cat, which although I like cats were probably too many... I'm a little bored by people's stories of the antics of their cats. But it was good nonetheless.

The next one I have is THICK & therefore this is the last for me for August.

[riverhorse]

Hooray! At last I may be able to join you and talk about books that I'm not reading just for school. I find it SO difficult to find decent books in English to read - my local library is pathetic, and I just can't afford to keep buying or downloading books I'll probably only read once. However, have just discovered that our school library has got in quite a few "adult" books (I mean in the non-pornographic sense!) that teachers can borrow as well. So, I was first in line to get my mitts on Michelle Obama's Becoming and will probably not budge from the sofa all weekend to read it.

(After that, I also have to read Schiller's Die Räuber to prepare for my Year 9 class, so back to old reading habits).

But still, so thrilled that I can get into proper reading again - I've really really missed it as I just refuse to read German translations of English books.

[Liiisa]

Yay river!

[HalcyonDaze]

River - do you have a kindle?
You can sign up for bookbub for cheap books.
Granted, loads are rubbish but some are really worth it.

[ozziegiraffe]

I use the free kindle app on my iPad and phone.

[Oweena]

Wyaward Lives, Beautiful Experiments:Intimate Histories of Social Upheaval by Saidiya Hartman

I liked this one.

It's a look at black women at the turn of the 20th century in New York and Philadelphia, told through pieces of stories that can be found about this often-marginalized group. The author uses court records, the studies of W.E.B.DuBois, photographs, and the files of social workers as her source material. She focuses on those women living out of wedlock, or in queer relationships. Both of which could get you thrown in jail or abused on the street.

It's equal parts interesting and heartbreaking. The subjects are the women who fought back against these societal rules, and the author makes a compelling case for them being seen as true feminist revolutionaries.

[Queen]

Aug 30, 2019 4:53:22 GMT -5 Liiisa said:

I'm sorry Q, but just seeing that title would make me think that book would be terrible without even opening it.
.

you're right of course.... but it talked about Italy and Cornwall and that was enough to seduce me. Turns out - the cliched title was a big red flag.

[Queen]

Also free books on Gutenburg in formats for all e-readers. That's how I read all of Trollope.

[lillielangtry]

Aug 30, 2019 13:29:04 GMT -5 Queen said:

Also free books on Gutenburg in formats for all e-readers. That's how I read all of Trollope.

Project Gutenberg is blocked in Germany as the result of a lawsuit by some German publishers. However, you can get some free classics from Amazon as well.

[Queen]

Interesting - found this on the Gutenberg case, it's very anti copyright but the gist of the case is there.

Nothing a day trip to Netherlands couldn't solve

[riverhorse]

Aug 30, 2019 15:21:26 GMT -5 Queen said:

Interesting - found this on the Gutenberg case, it's very anti copyright but the gist of the case is there.

Nothing a day trip to Netherlands couldn't solve

Now there's an idea, Q! We're planning a shopping trip to Venlo tomorrow...

[scrubb]

Yesterday I finished "The Optimist's Daughter" by Eudora Welty. It was very good, but not necessarily my kind of book to the point that I'd rush out to find more of her work.

Yay for finding a book source, Riverhorse!

[HalcyonDaze]

73. The Art of Inheriting Secrets - Barbara O'Neal

I've read some of her other books before - this one wasn't quite as good. Still some good food descriptions but the story was a bit weak.

74. The Monster Who Wasn't. - T C Shelley

Middle grade fiction.

A really beautiful fairy tale/quest story with a special kind of monster, made when someone's last sigh mixes with the first laugh of a baby. There are gargoyles with hearts, an angel, a beautiful banshee, a peace dove and some rather nasty ogres. The book isn't perfect but it was still a very sweet story.