Book Around the Corner

I knew that November would be Bookworm Month for me and indeed it was.

As usual I’m late with writing and publishing billets but this month I had deadlines coming from the various blogging events I signed up for. So, I’ve decided to write a wrap-up post for November and I’ll write better billets about the excellent books I’ve read this month.

First, let’s start with German Lit Month hosted by Lizzy. I have read four books for this event. I started with Reunion by Fred Uhlman and Chess by Stefan Zweig and my billet is here. Then I was curious to read German books set in contemporary Germany.

I ended up reading two books set in the former GDR, Love in Case of Emergency by Daniela Krien and Marzhan, mon amour by Katjia Oskamp. Daniela Krien writes about five women in their late forties. They all live in Leipzig and are related some way. It was good but a bit depressing. Katjia Oskamp changed of career from writer to chiropodist in Marzhan, a high-rise neighborhood in former East Berlin and built during GDR time. More on that one in an upcoming billet.

I’m happy I got these two books on a whim as it was refreshing to read German books that didn’t talk about WWII. As someone who was forced fed article after article about the Wiedervereinigung in German class (I still know how to say reunification in German), I realized that thirty years later, Krien and Oskamp still have Ossis vs Wessis commentaries in their books. It’s not the main topic but it pops up here and there.

Besides German Lit Month, I also signed up for Non-fiction November, hosted by Liz, Frances, Heather, Rebekah and Lisa. Reading non-fiction isn’t my strong suit, but I enjoy reading memoirs occasionally.

Sorry ladies, I didn’t have time to write a billet for each week’s theme but I would haven enjoyed that very much. I very highly recommend Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann, it’s a fascinating page-turner and is more detailed than the movie by Scorsese. The two complement each other well but reading the book is educational and suspenseful.

This month, I read The Sound of Keyrings by Philippe Claudel. It’s a short memoir about his time as a teacher in prison. Very moving. It took me a while but I also finished Where Rivers Change Directions by Mark Spragg, a memoir about his life in Wyoming. More about these ones later.

November was also Annabel’s Reading Beryl 2023 week and I read The Dressmaker. She’s not as well-known in France as in the UK and her books in French translation are hard to find. La couturière, the French version of The Dressmaker is OOP.

I thought it was a good book but similar to The Bottle Factory Outing and too creepy for my taste. I find her books disturbing.

I’m sorry I didn’t have time to participate to Marcie’s Margaret Atwood Reading Month. Check out what happened on that front here. Atwood is a writer I’d like to explore but days aren’t long enough for all the books I wish to read. Next time.

And then, I followed the Ariadne’s thread of November in Novellas during the whole month and read books that fit into two events at once with Reunion, Chess and The Dressmaker.

I posted about three Chinese novellas , Children of the Bitten River by Fang Fang, Treasury Map by Mo Yan and My Life by Lao She.

I also read The Fascination of Evil by Florent Zeller and The Patience Stone by Atiq Rahimi, two books that respond to each other in a way.

I really loved The Story of Tönle by Mario Rigoni Stern as it is the perfect example of what a fine piece of literature a novella can be. I believe that novella writers have extra-skills to say so much in so little pages.

And in an upcoming billet, I’ll tell you about Blizzard by Marie Vingtras, an excellent book set in Alaska and that will come out in English translation in March 2024.

Besides blogging events, I squeezed in my two IRL readalongs.

I loved Midwinter by Fiona Melrose a sensitive exploration of two suffering men and a magnificent description of Suffolk in winter.

Our Book Club had picked Deacon King Kong by James McBride for November and it was an absolute joy. More about it in a full billet as McBride breathes life to South Brooklyn like William Boyle does to Gravesend.

The month ended up with a theatre feast as I managed to snatch the last seat to see Gratitude, the play based upon the eponymous novella by Delphine de Vigan.

This is a novella I read during the summer and I was eager to watch it on stage. It was directed by Fabien Gorgeart with Catherine Hiegel as Michka, Laure Blatter as Marie and Pascal Sangla as Jérôme.

In Gratitude, Delphine de Vigan explores old age and the loss of words as Michka slowly loses her grip on words. It could be sad and miserable but Fabien Gorgeart had a wonderful idea to introduce the play. We were all sitting in the theatre waiting for the play to begin when Pascal Sangla played classic French songs like Une chanson douce, Le Sud, Mistral Gagnant or Champs Elysées and made the public sing along.

No lyrics were provided but we all knew these songs, right? Each time, even if we’ve heard them again and again, we could only sing a couple of verses and the chorus and then our signing petered out, as we were grappling with memories of the lyrics and had them on the tip of our tongue but couldn’t sing them.

Is there a better way to make us understand what Michka was going through with her growing aphasia? After this festive preamble that all made us happy because of the music and the communion around these songs, we were introduced to Michka, her struggles, her transitioning to a nursing home and her relationship with Marie and Jérôme, her speech doctor.

Fabien Gorgeart and the actors served Delphine de Vigan’s words very well. Catherine Hiegel is an extraordinary actress, she breathed life into Michka and was faithful to the character in the book.

It’s the best play I’ve seen in a long time and I know you won’t be able to see it but you can read Delphine de Vigan’s book.

That was my month of November. Now I *just* need to find time to write up all my billets and explore what other readers have been up to. Help me out and tell me all about your November in books in the comments below .