Book Club 2018-2019 : The List
It’s that time of the year again.
Our Book Club has picked up 12 books for the next twelvemonth. We changed our ways this year and we picked countries and then tried to find one book per country. I’m happy with this new list as it will allow us to travel a bit around the world. We’re missing a book from Africa, though. Next year we’ll have to rectify that.
Here’s the list:
| Month | English title | French title | Writer | # pages | Country | Year of publication |
| August | The Secret River | Sarah Thornhill | Kate Grenville | 310 | Australia | 2007 |
| September | Not found in English | Son Royaume | Han Han | 250 | China | 2015 |
| October | The Ice Princess | La princesse des glaces | Camilla Läckberg | 381 | Sweden | 2004 |
| November | Not found in English | Canicule | Jean Vautrin | 331 | France | 1982 |
| December | Deal Souls | Les âmes mortes | Gogol | 477 | Russia | 1842 |
| January | Not found in English | Le poids des secrets | Aki Shimazaki | 500 | Japan | 2010 |
| February | Pavane for a Dead Princess | Pavane pour une infante défunte | Min-kyu Park | 325 | Korea | 2014 |
| March | Excellent Women | Des femmes remarquables | Barbara Pym | 252 | Great Britain | 1952 |
| April | Geek Love | Un amour de monstres | Katherine Dunn | 442 | USA | 1989 |
| May | The Tapestries | Le brodeur de Huê | Kien Nguyen | 383 | Vietnam | 2001 |
| June | House of Splendid Isolation | La maison du splendide isolement | Edna O’Brien | 284 | Irlande | 1994 |
| July | A World for Julius | Un monde pour Julius | Alfredo Bryce Echenique | 497 | Peru | 1970 |
The book that opens the new season is The Secret River by Kate Grenville.
I find the Gogol a bit daunting, so if you’ve read it, please tell me how it was. I need a bit of reassurance. I’m looking forward to reading my first Barbara Pym. I’ve heard a lot of good things about her from other bloggers. Edna O’Brien has been on my mental TBR for a while, it’s an opportunity to finally read something by her. I’ve already read Tarzan’s Tonsillitis by Alfredo Bryce-Echenique and I’m glad to read another book by him.
We have two crime fiction books, one by Camilla Läckberg and one by Jean Vautrin. Let’s hope that the Läckberg is better than the Indridason I’ve read. I’m a bit wary of too-famous-for-their-own-good Nordic crime fiction writers. I couldn’t find an English translation of the Vautrin, let me know if there’s one.
And the books for Vietnam, Korea, China and the USA are new-to-me writers. I don’t know what to expect.
As usual, if anyone wants to join us and read one of these books along with us, feel free to do so. There’s no rule, just post your review the right month and let me know about it. And if you’ve read any of those books, what did you think about them?
Book Around the Corner 
I’d been meaning to read Dead Souls for years and finally read it this year; I found it a treat to read—it’s fun, in a quirky Russian way. I also read Excellent Women which I’m sure you’ll enjoy. Geek Love was a favourite of mine from years ago but may well split opinion amongst your group.
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Thanks for the pep talk regarding Dead Souls.
I’m sure I’ll like Barbara Pym and we’ll see about Geek Love. At least it’s a good book.
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I’m a big fan of Barbara Pym. Excellent Woman was my first, and I haven’t looked back since. It probably has a bit more depth than some of her other early novels, so I’m sure it will give you some interesting things to discuss – especially when it comes to prospects for women in the 1950s. Happy reading.
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She seems to be an engaging writer. Witty and dealing with society’s issues with apparently mundane stories. That’s how I imagine her books.
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Dead Souls: greatest novel of the first half of the 19th century. Or something close to that. So much fun. Hugely inventive. Not a good source of daunt – short, light, playful, even goofy.
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Wow, that’s a great compliment coming from you with all the 19thC books you’ve read.
I’ve wanted to read it for a long time, Gogol was one of Gary’s favorite writers. Lucky him, he could read him in the original.
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Yes, I liked Dead Souls too, a clever satire!
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Thanks. Up to three very positive comments about it and none of you says it’s great but a difficult read.
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Can’t give you any insights re Gogol since I’ve yet to tackle him (I find the prospect a little daunting). Edna O’Brien is wonderful though. I read The Secret River earlier this summer and thoroughly enjoyed it…
your book club has hit on a great idea with choosing books for each country.
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Dead Souls is funny and epic and wonderful and one of my favourite books! I hope you love it as much as I do! :)))))
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Thanks. There are lots of positive responses to this choice. I read about the different translations, apparently there’s a modern one which is quite good.
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The version I read most recently was translated by Robert Maguire and I thought it was excellent. I think it’s fairly recent.
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Thanks but I’m going to read it in a French translation. I’d rather read translations in my mother tongue.
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Good point….😂😂
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Enjoyed Ice Princess and disliked The Secret River. Grenville was caught up in a huge argument in Australia about historical revisionism. (‘Huge’ in literary circles, I think it’s quite popular generally and in schools).
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Good to know about Ice Princess.
I’ll read the Grenville soon, we’ll see. I’m not sure I’ll be able to see the historical inacurracies in her book, though.
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Interesting collection of books! I can add another thumbs-up for Dead Souls, Emma. As others have said, it’s funnier than you’d think 🙂
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Good news about Dead Souls. I think we picked an interesting list, I’m looking forward to all of them.
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