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Post by Q-pee on Nov 23, 2022 16:12:24 GMT -5
62) Junichiro Tanizaki, In Praise of Shadows A very short book - an essay, really - about Tanizaki's love of the traditional Japanese aesthetic. It was written in 1933, so it's interesting that he was already complaining about westernization there (bright electric lights, especially); I wonder what he'd make of Tokyo now (not to mention whether he was for or against the war that would begin in a few years). By 1933 Japan had already invaded Shenyang/Mukden, and established the puppet state of Manchukuo. For Japan the war had begun. |
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Post by sophie on Nov 24, 2022 0:19:03 GMT -5
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo. It won the Booker in 2019. It deserved it. Excellent novel. It examines the intersections of identity by telling the stories of a group of black British women. Loved it. Recommended as long as you aren’t a grammar nazi.. the flowing sentence structure (if you want to give it a definition of structure) will drive you crazy.
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Post by lillielangtry on Nov 24, 2022 1:17:22 GMT -5
The Watermelon Boys, Ruqaya Izzidien
THis is the first novel by an Iraqi-Welsh writer who, funnily enough, was briefly a student of mine about 15 years ago. It's a historical novel set in Mesopotamia - ie, Iraq - during and after the First World War, and that's definitely a region and era I haven't read much about. I would describe this as a debut with potential; there are quite a lot of characters, quite a lot of history to explain to the western reader, so in some places it dragged a little and in others it rushed. But glad I read it and will keep an eye out for what she does next.
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Post by Q-pee on Nov 24, 2022 5:51:46 GMT -5
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo. It won the Booker in 2019. It deserved it. Excellent novel. It examines the intersections of identity by telling the stories of a group of black British women. Loved it. Recommended as long as you aren’t a grammar nazi.. the flowing sentence structure (if you want to give it a definition of structure) will drive you crazy. I've started it three times and just can't. It was like drowning in a dictionary, the language didn't hang together. |
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Nov 24, 2022 6:27:50 GMT -5
73. In Two Minds, Gordon Parker. I bought this at the conference I attended last week, and read half of it on the train on the way home. The author, who was a speaker at the conference, is a respected psychiatrist, and it is a fictional account of what happens when someone with bipolar meets someone with borderline personality disorder, while experiencing his first manic episode.
74. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, Alan Bradley. Quirky cozy mystery set in 1950, with an eleven year old child prodigy as the sleuth. Good fun.
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Post by Liiisa on Nov 24, 2022 7:41:36 GMT -5
62) Junichiro Tanizaki, In Praise of Shadows A very short book - an essay, really - about Tanizaki's love of the traditional Japanese aesthetic. It was written in 1933, so it's interesting that he was already complaining about westernization there (bright electric lights, especially); I wonder what he'd make of Tokyo now (not to mention whether he was for or against the war that would begin in a few years). By 1933 Japan had already invaded Shenyang/Mukden, and established the puppet state of Manchukuo. For Japan the war had begun. Oh -- I thought it was 1937? I was never good with the dates part of history. And I still haven't read "Girl, Woman, Other" - thanks for the info. I'll read it when I'm in the mood for something nonlinear. |
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Post by scrubb on Nov 25, 2022 1:22:47 GMT -5
Just finished a reread of Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett. Enjoyed it again, maybe even more than the first time.
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Post by snowwhite on Nov 25, 2022 9:13:33 GMT -5
I read Coasting by Elise Downing (she ran around the coast of Britain). I enjoyed it, but not the most substantial read ever - I really want a prequel and a follow up to put it all into context.
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Post by sprite on Nov 26, 2022 12:35:16 GMT -5
Catherine Aird: The Religious body.
Murder mystery set in a convent in England, maybe in the 60s or 70s? Hard to pin down the times.
A nun is found dead inside the convent, and then discovered to be a very wealthy heiress.
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Post by sprite on Nov 26, 2022 13:40:38 GMT -5
BBC Sounds also has an audio book of Stone Blind; I really enjoyed it. seems to be geoblocked... bastards. those jerks...! |
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Post by Liiisa on Nov 27, 2022 9:17:20 GMT -5
63) Sequoia Nagamatsu, How High We Go in the Dark
An interesting novel about a future global pandemic that begins when a Siberian dig uncovers a Pleistocene-era virus. It's told as a group of interlinking stories. What I found most fascinating about it were his ideas of how a market for a bizarre array of euthanasia and burial services would grow to outstrip much of the rest of the economy. The ending is a little too tidy for me, so a little disappointing, but an interesting decision on the author's part. In the future people will say "this is definitely a book from the early 2020's."
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Post by sophie on Nov 27, 2022 22:28:30 GMT -5
The Librarian Spy by Madeline Martin. A Chick -lit book which tells of two women, one an American working in the American embassy in Lisbon and the other in the underground in Lyon, France, working to reunite a Jewish French woman and her young son with her American husband. Not great writing, jumpy changes of scene and stock supporting characters. Save your eyes, read a different book.
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Post by scrubb on Nov 28, 2022 0:50:00 GMT -5
Circe, by Madeline Miller. A retelling of Circe's story - previously I knew her only as a sorceress who turned Odysseus' crew into pigs. Here, she's an unattractive (by immortal standards) naiad, daughter of Helios, who is fascinated by mortals and unhappy in her father's palace.
I read her first book, Song of Achilles, last year and had some problems with it, but I really liked this one a lot. The style and feel is very similar, but she did a much better job of showing growth and change and character than in the Achilles book.
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Post by sprite on Nov 30, 2022 10:48:57 GMT -5
I liked both of those books, but they did feel very different. Maybe because there was definitely an ending to the stories of most people in the Trojan war, while Circe's story drops out of the myth tellings while most participants are still alive. I read Circe first.
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Post by Liiisa on Nov 30, 2022 19:50:57 GMT -5
I liked Circe much better but was ok with Song of Achilles. But I have seen that some people just HAAATE Song of Achilles - not sure why. I mean I didn't think it was a Great Work of Art, but I enjoyed it as a novel.
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Post by scrubb on Nov 30, 2022 22:53:22 GMT -5
Oh, yeah, I enjoyed Achilles too, but I was not all that enchanted with the first half, and was wondering if it was ever going to show what there was that made Patroclus attractive to Achilles. I mean, he wasn't smart, or capable, or funny, or pleasant company.
Luckily, the second half was really a lot better than the first half.
Liiisa, yeah, there are epic comment threads on goodreads trashing it. I naively posted my above opinion on one so now I get a notification every time someone chimes in on how terrible it is, but I don't bother going to read them.
And Circe was good all the way through.
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Dec 1, 2022 3:47:48 GMT -5
75. Secrets at St Bride’s, Debbie Young. Described as a school story for adults, the main characters are staff at a exclusive and secretive English girls’ boarding school. There are various mysteries, but no murder. A bit weird, in my view.
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Dec 1, 2022 3:54:23 GMT -5
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