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Post by mei on May 21, 2022 5:31:06 GMT -5
quite unfocused in my reading these weeks, picking up one book and then something else before moving on to something else - but I finally finished something! A short and easy read, "Practivism" by Eva Rovers (#8, I think), about how to take practical steps on societal issues that you are concerned/worried/frustrated/upset about to result in effective action. It's a few years old but very relevant, with a lot of interesting examples and a lot of relatable advice. Short but motivating read.
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Post by Oweena on May 21, 2022 11:51:41 GMT -5
No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood
Lockwood's first novel, after her memoir Priestdaddy, which I really liked. It's an interesting book, which received all sorts of accolades. I wasn't blown away by it, but I get what she's trying to do with how the internet has become such a force in our lives.
The storyline is autofiction, and it's divided in two distinct parts. The first is focused on her time spent online, which she calls the Portal. It's written stream of consciousness, in short paragraph format, and focused on her online interactions.
The 2nd part takes a 180, focusing on her newborn niece who suffers from a terminal condition (Proteus Syndrome) and which forces the narrator to abandon the Portal for real life. Her descriptions of the time with the baby are heartbreaking in detail.
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Post by lillielangtry on May 22, 2022 7:36:39 GMT -5
Abdulrazak Gurnah, Paradise
My second book by the latest Nobel prize winner and, again, I loved his style. His books are quite slow-moving so if you like a nice pacy plot, they're probably not for you. But if you're looking for something that explores the history of eastern Africa, a region not featured in loads of bestsellers, and has some sensitive character studies, give him a go. I think there is one more of his I'd like to read in the near future.
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Post by Liiisa on May 22, 2022 10:01:03 GMT -5
quite unfocused in my reading these weeks, picking up one book and then something else before moving on to something else - but I finally finished something! A short and easy read, "Practivism" by Eva Rovers (#8, I think), about how to take practical steps on societal issues that you are concerned/worried/frustrated/upset about to result in effective action. It's a few years old but very relevant, with a lot of interesting examples and a lot of relatable advice. Short but motivating read. That book sounds useful! I've been feeling a massive sense of futility lately, like so many things are so bad that I'm just going to hide under the bed and hope that the house doesn't catch fire while I'm under there. So maybe that book could coax me back out. |
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Post by Liiisa on May 23, 2022 20:47:18 GMT -5
15) Barry Cunliffe, Europe Between the Oceans, 9000 BC - AD 1000
This history book was mentioned in the book I read earlier in the year about the origins of inequality, so I put it on my list. It's a well-written description of what was going on in Europe during that period - I enjoyed it and learned quite a bit.
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Post by sophie on May 23, 2022 23:41:50 GMT -5
Dandelion by Jamie Chai Yun Liew. A first novel by a writer who works as an immigration lawyer, this book is fantastic. It examines the concept of identity and citizenship and how the lack of either of those two affect a person. It is in two parts. The first is where the main character is young (about 11) and living in a small town in the mountains of British Columbia where her father works for a mine. This section ends when the mother, who had been very homesick for her homeland of Brunei, disappears. The second section is where the same character, now married, has just given birth and is wishing she could talk with her mother about motherhood. She end up trying to find her mother. I loved this book. Maybe because the topics and themes covered are close to my heart or maybe because the author did such a good job of portraying the issues immigrants face. Highly recommended.
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Post by mei on May 24, 2022 7:11:14 GMT -5
quite unfocused in my reading these weeks, picking up one book and then something else before moving on to something else - but I finally finished something! A short and easy read, "Practivism" by Eva Rovers (#8, I think), about how to take practical steps on societal issues that you are concerned/worried/frustrated/upset about to result in effective action. It's a few years old but very relevant, with a lot of interesting examples and a lot of relatable advice. Short but motivating read. That book sounds useful! I've been feeling a massive sense of futility lately, like so many things are so bad that I'm just going to hide under the bed and hope that the house doesn't catch fire while I'm under there. So maybe that book could coax me back out. it's only in Dutch I expect, but yes, it's been useful. For me, finding ways to contribute to something better helps with the feeling of futility (which is also there). |
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Post by Oweena on May 24, 2022 18:02:05 GMT -5
Innovation: the History of England Volume VI by Peter Ackroyd
Finally finished the last book in this series. This volume takes you up to the year 2000 even though it was published just last year.
While the series was heavy, heavy on the political machinations of Parliament and the different political parties, I found the chapters on culture, everyday life, and the economy the most interesting. I don't' think I need to read any more English history for a bit, but I'm glad I made it through every volume.
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Post by scrubb on May 24, 2022 23:08:16 GMT -5
A Dangerous Woman, by Mary McGarry Morris
Well written, but I'm not sure that it was worth spending all that time inside the head of a mentally ill/challenged woman. Plus, the ending didn't feel realistic.
Martha Horgan is "off". No diagnosis but obviously not like other people, unable to regulate her emotions, unable to see nuance, always full of tics and on the edge of an outburst. Unfortunately, there's just about no one likeable in the entire book, except maybe one side character - and Martha herself is not likeable. She has always been treated badly because of how weird she is and the reader starts out feeling sorry for her, and despising everyone else who treats her badly. But it's soon obvious how unpleasant she herself is, and how hard to be around. Although she keeps insisting that she is just looking for love, and that all her problems stem from not being loved, she rejects (unkindly) the one person who actually seems to like her.
that was my second try of this author's books, and although it was better than the first one, I think I'm just not a fan.
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Post by lillielangtry on May 27, 2022 4:12:29 GMT -5
David Mitchell, Ghostwritten
I reread Mitchell's books sometimes because he is not writing new ones fast enough. This is his first book, and unfortunately it doesn't stand up to a reread as much as the others. It is a strong debut and it has moments of genius, but all in all I didn't enjoy it as much the second time. Still, it is Mitchell so I'm complaining about a still very good book here.
Loung Ung, First they killed my father
Ung's autobiography of her childhood under the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. Predictably a tough read (or listen, as I had the audiobook).
I should note that this book has been heavily criticised by some other members of the Cambodian diaspora for supposed historic inaccuracies. I read the criticism and, while I agree that it's not possible that she remembered long conversations verbatim that took place when she was 5 or 6 years old, I think the reader might be expected to know that? It would be a very short book if it was ONLY her childhood perspective. For me, the whole book is clearly from a double perspective, one is her actual memories and the other is the adult author reflecting on them. She does write in the present tense to increase the immediacy for the reader... is that a deception? Would the reader somehow not understand that that is a literary device? Does everything have to have a disclaimer now?
Some of the other criticism focused on, for example, her description of her family as "middle class" when they were actually very privileged before the revolution, and even that her family sometimes got scraps of food from a powerful family during the period of starvation and therefore weren't suffering "as much" as some others. That strikes me as almost competitive about the level of trauma endured ("you were suffering from malnutrition but you got the odd chicken bone so you can't complain!".
Anyway, an interesting if not pleasant read.
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Post by Liiisa on May 27, 2022 17:20:18 GMT -5
16) Claire North, Notes from the Burning Age
Wow... this definitely makes my "best of" list for the year.
This novel is set about 500 years in the future, where society has rebuilt after massive environmental devastation, which has been prevented from recurring because the technologies of our present era are suppressed by the inquisition wing of a nature religion. The main conflict in the book is caused by a political faction that has decided that they want to defy that.
And it is so good! The characters are well done and the nature religion is really interesting and ecologically accurate (from my perspective), but presented (because of this inquisition bit) as flawed. And it's really gripping, too, because the main action is really a spy thriller, set in this interesting context. Highly recommended for all sorts of reasons.
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Post by mei on May 28, 2022 6:07:50 GMT -5
ugh, no, Liiisa, you're not supposed to list any books that are so good that I now also want to read them. My still-to-read list is too long as is already!
Lillie, interesting about that Mitchell reread.... I've also sometimes thought about picking up Ghostwritten again, because it was the first book I read by him and I wonder how it would stand up to another read now. But well, see my comment to Liiisa above.
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Post by Liiisa on May 28, 2022 11:08:29 GMT -5
Lol mei sorry!!
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Post by Oweena on May 28, 2022 16:24:44 GMT -5
The Dinner List by Rebecca Serle
This novel uses the game of name the 5 people living or dead you'd like to have dinner with as it's premise. The main character is Sabrina, working through the break up with her longtime boyfriend. Her birthday dinner with longtime best friend Jessica turns out to include the 5 people she'd chosen as her dream dinner guests. The plot goes through the demise of her relationship interspersed with what her dinner guests have to say about how she's lived her life so far.
It was a good palate cleanser for me after the dry history books I've been reading.
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Post by sophie on May 29, 2022 9:43:40 GMT -5
Sari Not Sari by Sonya Singh. Chick lit book, good for a fast read, thin on plot but some interesting Indian family twists. Okay for a first novel.
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Post by scrubb on May 29, 2022 12:11:32 GMT -5
Finished a collection of letters between Lord Nelson and Emma ummm, whatsherface. It also had a bunch between her husband and Nelson.
I have no idea if she and Nelson were involved before her husband's death or not.
The letters were only a bit interesting. A glimpse into life in the Navy around 1800, and the logistics of post, more than anything.
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Post by sophie on May 30, 2022 9:42:14 GMT -5
Have You Eaten Yet? By Cheuk Kwan. A look at the Chinese diaspora around the world by looking at (and eating at) Chinese restaurants around the world. Got this book after a local author event to celebrate Asian Heritage month. His appearance/talk was interesting and fun; the book isn’t as engaging but I found it interesting. Good questions about identity and culture, no straight answers but lots of good food.
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Post by lillielangtry on May 31, 2022 12:53:51 GMT -5
Kveta Legatova, Der Mann aus Zelary, translated from the Czech by Sophia Marzolff
This very short novel has apparently been translated into English under the title "Joe's Hannah", but it's sadly out of print, although it did also form the basis of a film called Zelary (2003).
I picked it up at a book sale. What a gem! It's about a young doctor who is active, in a peripheral way, for the Resistance during the Second World War in Czechoslavakia. When she is nearly caught, she has to go into hiding and is sent to a remote village where she is quickly married to a man she barely knows, but who was previously her patient. She is shocked by the deprivation of rural life, but gradually finds her place in the community and grows closer to her husband. But in the outside world, the war isn't over.
Such a beautiful, shocking, moving book. I loved it.
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Post by scrubb on Jun 1, 2022 13:33:02 GMT -5
Washington Square, by Henry James. It was really good - I haven't read much of his writing before, but he's very good. The very quiet story of Catharine, an ordinary young woman, courted by a handsome young man. Her father decides he's after her money and threatens to disinherit her if she doesn't break it off.
It's largely a collection of character studies - the father who underestimates his daughter, the interfering aunt, and the girl's suitor. Although, he is more obscure, intentionally so that at first the reader can't be completely sure if he's a cad or not.
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Post by sophie on Jun 4, 2022 9:44:00 GMT -5
The Liar’s Dictionary by Eley Williams. An interesting little novel linking a 19th century lexicographer and a modern day intern who is hired to digitize a quirky dictionary through mountweazels (false entries within dictionaries). Not deep but kept my interest.
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Post by lillielangtry on Jun 5, 2022 2:49:15 GMT -5
Mountweazel is such a good word.
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