The #1936Club starts tomorrow – some reading suggestions
Tomorrow starts the #1936 Club co-hosted by Karen at Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings and Simon at Stuck in a Book. It lasts a week, from April 12th to April 18th.
I’m in with two books, Cards on the Table by Agatha Christie with clever Hercule Poirot and Keep the Aspidistra Flying by George Orwell with stupid Gordon. I should be able to post my billets about these two books in the upcoming week.
Incidentally, I’ve read two other books published in 1936 in the last four months.
In December, our Book Club had chosen War With the Newts by Karel Čapek, a stunning dystopian fiction. It’s an odd book, a strange patchwork of narration, board minutes, newspaper articles and other sources. It takes us to a fictional world where a population of working newts colonizes the world. It’s a humorous but serious declaration against the pitfalls of wild capitalism. If you haven’t read it, the #1936 Club might be the perfect time to do it.
In March, for Southern Cross Crime Month hosted by Kim at Reading Matters, I read Death in Ecstasy by Nagaio Marsh, a clever and entertaining investigation by Chief Detective-Inspector Roderick Alleyn and his journalist friend Nigel Bathgate. It’s a perfect read to spend an evening with a book and forget about the world. Readers of classic crime will have a great time with it.
I also would like to draw your attention to Return to Coolami by Eleanor Dark. According to its blurb, it is an emotional novel that explores the psychological impact of four people thrown closely together during the course of a (…) two-day motor car trip from Sydney, across the Blue Mountains to the country property, Coolami. I heard of it in January, when Bill at The Australian Legend hosted his Australian Women Writer Generation 3 Week. I haven’t read it yet (I might read it in the summer when Lisa organizes her Eleanor Dark Week) but I’ve read her Lantana Lane and really enjoyed her writing.
I realize that this billet reveals one thing: how dynamic is our corner of the bookish bloggosphere. Events are numerous, varied and remain a wonderful and friendly opportunity to discover new books or eventually read ones lying on the TBR. Many thanks to all the bloggers who take the time to host such events.
Happy #1936 Club!
Book Around the Corner 
Ha, sounds like you didn’t like the protagonist of Keep the Aspidistra Flying too much, then? Agree, he is so annoying. I’ll be reviewing War with the Newts, among others, which is… wow!
LikeLike
I haven’t finished the Orwell (I’m 76% in, according to the kindle) and yes, Gordon is infuriating.
War With the Newts is brilliant. Have you finished it? (maybe it’s a re-read for you, btw)
LikeLike
No, surprisingly it’s a first-time read and I bought it especially for the 1936 Club. Loved it! (Have finished, but just need to think how to review it best)
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m looking forward to reading your review.
LikeLike
Thanks for the mention. I’m afraid my next ‘week’ is 1960-90 so it might be a while before Kaggsy’s mob catch up. I read the Orwell, Dark and Capek, but in non-review mode so not much sticks.
LikeLike
The Club years are not chronological. You never know!
How did you like this Dark compared to her others?
LikeLike
Dark seems a much more important modernist than I had realized prior to doing the groundwork for Gen 3. Over the years, I breezed through her early fiction as mildly interesting character studies while thinking more about A Timeless Land which is absolutely seminal in the study of Black-White relations in Australia. I am going to have to go back and re-read them all I think.
LikeLike
I’m curious about The Timeless Land but three volumes in English is quite a challenge for me.
LikeLike
Some nice choices there, Emma, and I’ll be interested to see your final thoughts on Stupid Gordon! 😀 And yes – we’re non-chronological, and so who knows what the next club year will be! 😀
LikeLike
I didn’t think it was possible but Gordon became even more stupid in the chapters I read after our Twitter chat. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
😀 I’ve finished now – but won’t be reviewing until the weekend. I liked book despite Gordon!
LikeLike
The book is good, the character is infuriating but we don’t have to like the character to like the book, right?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Absolutely! 🤣
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ve seen quite a few people say they’re going to read War With the Newts, which is great news. What a book. I never wrote about it.
The other great novel of 1936 is Absalom, Absalom, and nobody’s gonna read that.
LikeLike
Faulkner. Yikes. Not my cup of tea.
There’s also Mort à crédit by Céline and Journal d’un curé de campagne by Bernanos but it’s not my cup of tea either.
I would have liked to read La passante du Sans-Souci by Joseph Kessel.
And there’s also Gone With the Wind. Gallmeister has published a new translation which is apparently very good. It’s a long book, I need to be on holiday to read that, so maybe in the summer.
LikeLike
War With The Newts is so good. I’m thinking about rereading it this week, but I’ve got Novel on Yellow Paper up first. Curious to see your thoughts on the Orwell, which I don’t remember that favorably…
LikeLike
War With the Newts is excellent, indeed.
I’d never heard of Novel on Yellow Paper, so I checked it out. It sounds great too. 1936 was a very good year.
LikeLike
I was really tempted to re-read Keep the Aspidistra Flying, but opted for new reads instead. I have finished two quite different books and I’m getting close to the end of the third. 1936 was a very good year.
LikeLike
Yes it was a very good year. I’m not sure I’d like to re-read Keep the Aspidistra Flying.
I’m tempted to download La passante du Sans-Souci by Joseph Kessel. It sounds like a good opportunity to read it.
LikeLike
I’ve nearly finished Rebecca West’s The Thinking Reed. At first I thought it was a soppy novel about a Woman with Man Trouble but now I am laughing and frowning (sometimes at the same time) at the wickedness of her satire of a vacuous social circle.
This is from the first lines of chapter nine:
“SHE HAD said to Marc as they went down in the elevator, “I wish you had not had that cocktail sent up to our room, it is so necessary that you should keep your head,” and he had answered in the words which are never used by a completely sober man, “Nonsense, you know that it is impossible for me to get really drunk. I always know what I am doing.”
LikeLike
According to the quote, it sounds great! Such a manly answer by a man who’s used to getting drunk…
Looking forward to reading your review. (I hope I won’t miss it, I’ve started a new job and I’m a bit overwhelmed at the moment)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Don’t worry, it will still be there when you have time for it, it’s not like a newspaper review that gets chucked out for recycling!
LikeLike
True. I’ll have the mail in my inbox.
LikeLike
Good luck with work, it’s tough when there’s just no end in sight.
LikeLike
I’m reading Lantana Lane right now and absolutely loving it! Her writing is wonderful and dynamic, especially the “action” sequences. I’d love to hear more about her other books and it she’s brilliant across the board.
LikeLike
Lantana Lane is great, isn’t it? I’m sure Return to Coolami is worth reading too.
LikeLiked by 1 person