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November wrap-up : reading, blogging and going to the theatre.
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 .
It’s Bookworm Month at Book Around the Corner
In the northern hemisphere, autumn has arrived. It’s getting cold, it’s raining and we’ve switched to winter time last weekend. Blankets are back on the sofa, we’ve burnt a few logs in the woodstove and now central heating is on. In other words, it’s perfect time to cozy up at home and read.
Lucky bookworm me, November is a busy month in the book blogosphere. Several events take place this month and there are ways to combine them. Fun times buried in books and interacting with the lovely online book lover community.
First, Cathy and Rebecca invite us to read Novellas in November and leave links here. There are prompts that I won’t be able to join, I’ll stick to reading novels that have less than 200 pages.
I’ve already scoured my shelves and prepared a pile of novellas to choose from. It’s here, if you want to check it out. I know I won’t read them all but I’ve already read seven. #NovNov23
Meanwhile, Lizzy hosts the 13th season of German Lit Month. We are invited to read books originally written in German and books written by German native speakers but in another language.
I’m going to combine German Lit Month with Novellas in November and read Chess by Stefan Zweig and Reunion by Fred Uhlman. I’d love to read The Adventures of Ruben Jablonski by Edgar Hilsenrath but I don’t think I’ll have the time.
Annabel announced Reading Beryl 2023 earlier in the year to read and review books by Beryl Bainbridge. I don’t know if it’s still on. Anyway, it spurred me into reading The Dressmaker that had been sitting on the shelf for a solid decade.
The funny thing is that my French copy has 294 pages while the original in English is 152 pages long. I say that only the original length matters and that it qualifies for Novellas in November.
Marcie at Buried in Print hosts Margaret Atwood Reading Month.
I’ve never read Margaret Atwood and I don’t know why but I find her daunting. I have The Handmaid’s Tale on the shelf but I won’t have time to read it. Unfortunately.
Marcie is a great fan, so check out what she’s up to. #MARM.
Meanwhile, Liz, Frances, Heather, Rebekah and Lisa have set up NonFiction November.
That’s a challenge for me because I don’t read a lot of non-fiction. The prompt for this week is Celebrate you year of non-fiction where we share the most striking non-fiction book of our reading year.
I’ll do it here and urge you to read Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann, the book that inspired Scorsese. The TBR includes a short memoir by Philippe Claudel, Le bruit des trousseaux. (The Noise of Keys.) It’s about his experience with visiting prisons. I may get to it this month.
On top of these events, I’ll be reading Deacon King Kong by James McBride with my Book Club and Midwinter by Fiona Melrose with S, my other reading buddy.
For me, November and December are a final rush to read books from the TBR, stay away from bookstores and ensure that my TBR at the end of the year counts less books than on January 1st. It was touch-and-go a couple a months back, I’m on a better track now. This festival of blogging events will help me out. So, It’s definitely Bookworm Month at Book Around the Corner!
What about you? Will you participate to any of these events? Are there other ones I missed?
#NovNov: November in Novellas, I’m in!
Many thanks to Cathy and Rebecca who are organizing November in Novellas once again.
While I won’t have time to do the suggested prompts, I dug into the TBR to pick the novellas there. I won’t be able to read them all but I’ll start with the oldest ones on the TBR and so on.
Here’s my list and we’ll see how many of them I manage to read.
Sorry but some of them aren’t available in English. I’m happy that there are nine different countries represented in my list, it’ll make for good armchair traveling as I plan on staying put until Christmas.
What about you? Have you read any of the books on my list and will you join November in Novellas?
PS : The list as a spreadsheet, if you want to track down some of them in English. Several of the books that aren’t translated into English have been translated into other languages. (Italian, German…)
| Book title in English | Book title in French | Author | Country | Year | # pages (print) |
| Not available in English | Le Messie du Darfour | Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin | Sudan | 2016 | 204 |
| Not available in English | Tenir jusqu’à l’aube | Carole Fives | France | 2018 | 176 |
| In Love | In Love | Alfred Hayes | UK | 1953 | 169 |
| At Dusk | Au soleil couchant | Sok-yong Hwang | Korea | 2015 | 206 |
| Doruntine | Qui a ramené Doruntine ? | Ismail Kadaré | Albany | 1979 | 173 |
| My Life | Histoire de ma vie | Lao She | China | ?? | 116 |
| The Patience Stone | Syngué Sabour | Atiq Rahimi | France | 2008 | 138 |
| Not available in English | La Citadelle des Neiges | Mathieu Ricard | France | 2005 | 114 |
| The Story of Tönle | Histoire de Tönle | Mario Rigoni Stern | Italy | 1978 | 128 |
| Not available in English | Azami | Aki Shimazaki | Canada | 2014 | 130 |
| Reunion | L’ami retrouvé | Fred Uhlman | UK | 1971 | 121 |
| Not available in English | Blizzard | Marie Vingtras | France | 2021 | 190 |
| The Barracks Thief | Un voleur parmi nous | Tobias Wolff | USA | 1984 | 105 |
| The Fascination of Evil | La fascination du pire | Florent Zeller | France | 2004 | 156 |
20 Books of Summer 2023 – It’s a wrap
I can’t believe the three months of the 20 Books of Summer challenge are already over. I disclosed my list of books for the event here.
In the end, I read 26 books, 16 out of my original list and 10 other ones. There were books in translations and books I read in the original.
I didn’t have time write billets about all of them since I spent almost all of August travelling but I’ll do my best to catch up.
Here are the books I read from the original selection:
- Wait for Me in Heaven by Carlos Salem (crime fiction) – Argentina. Sorry, sorry, sorry but it’s not available in English. Maybe Corylus Books can do something for you guys.
- Savage Run by CJ Box (Crime fiction) – USA The second volume of the Joe Pickett series in Wyoming. I’m hooked.
- Gratitude by Delphine de Vigan – France Lovely.
- The Moving Target by Ross Macdonald (Crime fiction) – USA The first volume of the Lew Archer series.
- High Rising by Angela Thirkell – UK. Entertaining.
- The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger – USA
- Ballad of Dogs’ Beach by José Cardoso Pires. (Modernist crime fiction) – Portugal
- L’Autre by Andrée Chedid (Poetic Lit fiction) – France I didn’t quite understand where she wanted to go with this book.
- Letters to wilderness by Wallace Stegner (Essays) – USA
- A Rising Man by Abir Mukherjee (Crime fiction) – UK
- An Unfinished Life by Mark Spragg – USA
- Spirit of Steamboat by Craig Johnson – USA. An adventure.
- Fall Back Down When I Die by Joe Wilkins – USA Wonderful.
- Children of the Bitten River by Fang Fang – China A well-deserved fame.
- The Gringo Champion by Aura Xilonen – Mexico
- Montana. La reconquête de l’Ouest by Isabelle Falconnier (Non fiction) – Belgium. An essay about Montana.
Books on the list that I didn’t read:
- Justice by Larry Watson – USA
- If Not For This by Pete Fromm – USA
- Proud Beggars by Albert Cossery – Egypt
- The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma – Nigeria
- Sputnik Sweethearts by Haruki Murakami – Japan
I didn’t read them because they are paper books and I read almost exclusively on the kindle when I was travelling. Maybe they’ll be the five books of my Indian Summer.
Books I read that weren’t on the list
- Viper’s Dream by Jake Lamar – USA
- Kukum by Michel Jean – Québec
- The Duke’s Children by Anthony Trollope – Ireland
- Winterkill by C.J. Box (Crime fiction) – USA I had to read another one after Savage Run and I also bought Throphy Hunt.
- Breaking Clean by Judy Blunt (Nonfiction) – USA A memoir about growing up in a remote ranch in north Montana. I also have Where Rivers Change Directions by Mark Spragg on the TR. It’s a memoir about growing up on a dude ranch in Wyoming.
- Hard Revolution by George Pelecanos (Crime fiction) – USA. Actually, I abandoned this one.
- The Sandhamn Murders volume 3 to 6 by Viveca Sten. (crime fiction) – Sweden (Guiltless, Tonight You’re Dead, In the Heat of the Moment and In Harm’s Way) I downloaded one on the kindle because it seemed a perfect read for the long flight to the US and I ended up reading four almost in a row. And I’m currently reading the seventh volume, In the Shadow of Power.
I’m happy with my summer reads. A bit of classics, a lot of crime fiction, a few literary fiction novels and several nonfiction books. Ten different countries but a lot of books set or related to my trip to Montana and Wyoming. Different genres, different countries, different languages, a perfect combo.
Many thanks to Cathy for hosting this event once again, it was fun and good for the TBR.
What about you? Did you participate to 20 Books of Summer? How did it go? Leave a link to your own end-of-summer post in the comments. I’m curious to see what other readers were up to.
20 Books of Summer 2023 and a joker- My list!
I was happy to see that Cathy from 746 Books hosts her 20 Books Of Summer event again this year. I know I could pick 10 or 15 books instead of 20 but I’m going to challenge myself a bit, even if reading isn’t a competition.
Picking the 20 books is already a lot of fun. This year I chose books from my TBR and according to three categories: books I’ll read as part of already set-up readalongs, books I want to read around my summer trip to Montana, Wyoming and South Dakota and other books from various countries, just for armchair travelling and making a dent in the TBR.
Books from my readalongs:
Ballad of Dogs’ Beach by José Cardoso Pires (1982) – Portugal. French title: Ballade de la plage aux chiens.
We’re in 1960 and a rebellious officer is found dead on a beach. He was killed after evading from prison with his girlfriend after an aborted coup. The novel is about his life and the investigation on his death.
L’Autre by Andrée Chedid (1969) – France. Not available in English
Andrée Chedid is a French poetess. When I browse through the book, I see it’s made of three short stories, that these stories include poems and texts with a weird layout. I’m curious about it.
The Moving Target by Ross McDonald (1949) – USA. French title: Cible mouvante.
I’ll finally read my first Lew Archer investigation! I’ve read only good reviews about this series and in France it is published by Gallmeister in a new translation by the talented Jacques Mailhos.
The Catcher in the Rye (1951) – USA. French title: L’attrape-coeurs.
I’ve read it in French when I was a teenager. This time I’ll read it in English. I wonder how I’ll respond to it now that I’m older.
Letters to wilderness by Wallace Stegner – USA. French title: Lettres pour le monde sauvage.
This is a collection of non-fiction essays by Wallace Stegner. I think these texts were put together by Gallmeister and translated by Anatole Pons-Reumaux. I’m not sure this exact collection exists in English. I’ve read Crossing to Safety and Remember Laughter and I love his prose. I’m looking forward to reading his essays.
Books for my trip to Montana and Wyoming
An Unfinished Life by Mark Spragg (2004) – USA. French title: Une vie inachevée.
I got this as a gift and I’ve seen it has been made into a film with Robert Redford, Morgan Freeman and Jennifer Lopez. Here’s a excerpt of the blurb “After escaping the last of a long string of abusive boyfriends, Jean Gilkyson and her ten-year-old daughter Griff have nowhere left to go. Nowhere except Ishawooa, Wyoming, where Jean’s estranged father-in-law, Einar, still blames her for the death of his son.”
Justice by Larry Watson (1995) – USA. French title: Justice.
I’ve already read Montana 1948 and Justice is a prequel to it.
Spirit of Steamboat by Craig Johnson (2013) – USA Not available in French.
A Christmas story with sheriff Longmire. Maybe it’ll be a little strange to read a Christmas story in the summer. I don’t know, I’ll let you know how that feels. 🙂
Fall Back Down When I Die by Joe Wilkins (2019) – USA French title: Ces montagnes à jamais.
A young ranch hand has just lost his mother, owes a lot of money for her medical bills and his son’s cousin comes in his care. It sounds like a great story of a man and a little boy who both need a lot of TLC.
Savage Run by C.J Box (2003) – USA French title: La mort au fond du canyon.
This is the second volume of the Joe Pickett series. It’s a perfect read for the 21 hours of travel from Lyon to Billings.
If Not For This by Pete Fromm (2014) – USA French title: Mon désir le plus ardent.
I’ve read his novel A Job You Mostly Won’t Know to Do and his essay, Indian Creek Chronicles and a collection of short stories, Chinook. All were outstanding. Needless to say I’m looking forward reading another book by him.
Montana. La reconquête de l’Ouest (2018) – Belgium Not available in English.
This is a collection of essays about Montana’s history. It’s only 85 pages long, a short read then.
Armchair travelling and TBR management
Proud Beggars by Albert Cossery (1955) – Egypt. French title: Mendiants et orgueilleux.
Albert Cossery (November 3, 1913 – June 22, 2008) was an Egyptian-born French writer of Greek Orthodox Syrian and Lebanese descent, born in Cairo. Proud Beggards is set in Cairo but written in French.
Children of the Bitter River by Fang Fang (1987) – China. Frencht title: Une vue splendide.
Fang Fang is a Chinese writer from Huhan and I’ve never read her. Here’s the blurb of the book which “narrates a Chinese version of the Horatio Alger myth of a poor boy achieving fame and fortune. In addition to daunting poverty, the hero, Seventh Brother, must overcome the trauma of physical abuse. His story and that of his six brothers traces the history of China from the 1930s to the mid-1980s.
Ping-Pong by Park Min-kyu (2016) – Korea Not available in English
I’ve already read his Pavane for a Dead Princess but Ping-Pong seems a lot more playful. Two adolescents are bullied at school and they discover a field with a ping-pong table. It becomes their safe haven. They meet with Secrétin and strike a bet with him. The book mixes realism and science fiction.
Sputnik Sweethearts by Haruki Murakami (1999) – Japan. French title: Les amants du spoutnik.
I have it in English on the kindle, perfect for travelling. I hope I’ll like it as I’m not always fond of Murakami’s novels. We’ll see.
The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma (2015) – Nigeria. French title: Les pêcheurs.
I’m trying to read more African books and I picked this one a couple of years ago. Here’s the blurb: “In a small town in western Nigeria, four young brothers take advantage of their strict father’s absence from home to go fishing at a forbidden local river. They encounter a dangerous local madman who predicts that the oldest boy will be killed by one of his brothers. This prophecy unleashes a tragic chain of events of almost mythic proportions.”
High Rising by Angela Thirkell (1933) – UK. French title: Bienvenue à High Rising.
This is another light read for planes and airports.
Gratitude by Delphine de Vigan (2019) – France. Original French title: Les Gratitudes.
Another book that I have on the kindle. Delphine de Vigan never disappoints and I’m sure I’ll enjoy it.
A Rising Man by Abir Mukherjee (2016) – UK. French title: L’attaque du Calcutta-Darjeeling.
This is a book I bought at Quais du Polar. It’s the first instalment of the Sam Wyndham series set in colonial India.
The Gringo Champion by Aura Xilonen (2015) – Mexico. French title: Gabacho
I remember where I bought this novel. It was in an indie bookstore in Barcelonnette, in the South of France. This town has a special relationship with Mexico as a lot of people emigrated to Mexico in the 19thcentury, became successful businessmen there and came back to their hometown and built sumptuous mansions. An incredible story.
So the local bookstore carries Mexican lit and I was drawn to The Gringo Champion, the story of a young Mexican boy who emigrate illegally in the US and tells his story as a clandestine.
That’s my list for the summer. Five books are on the Gallmeister catalogue and we’ll go to Portugal, France, America, especially Montana and Wyoming, Egypt, China, Korea, Japan, Nigeria, UK and Mexico. That’s quite a tour!
Have you read any of these books? Will you be doing the 10 / 15 / 20 Books of Summer too?
20 Books of Summer: how did that go?
Before diving into September, running into Fall and ending up doing Christmas shopping thinking that time flies and that 2022 is almost over, let’s have a look at my 20 Books of Summer challenge. It’s hosted by Cathy and I shared my selection here. I wasn’t sure I could read 20 books this summer but I did it!
I took some liberties with the original list and the books read that weren’t on the list are in bold. I haven’t had time to write billets about all the books I read but I’m on it! Hopefully, I’ll catch up in September.
I’m happy with my summer reads as I had a good mix of crime fiction, literary fiction and non-fiction. I managed to read a few books related to my trip in the USA, which I love to do when visiting places.
Summer with crime fiction:
- The Survivors by Jane Harper (Australia)
- Dead at Daybreak by Deon Meyer (South Africa)
- The Cut by George Pelecanos (Washington DC)
- Adios Madrid by Pablo Ignacio Taibo II (Mexico)
- Fallout by Paul Thomas (New Zealand)
- Winter Count by David Heska Wanbli Weiden (USA)
- Hell Is Empty by Craig Johnson (USA)
Trip related books:
- A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson (Appalachians)
- Above the Waterfall by Ron Rash (North Carolina)
- The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead (Southern Region)
- Shiner by Amy Jo Burns (Appalachians)
- The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd (South Carolina)
Other books
- In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (USA)
- Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry (USA) This one counts for two and I loved it.
- Thursday Night Widows by Claudia Pineiro (Argentina)
- Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese (Canada)
- The Fire, Next Time by James Baldwin (USA)
- La véritable histoire de l’Ouest américain by Jacques Portes. (France) The most interesting thing I learnt in this one is that the film Stagecoach directed by John Ford is based on Boule de suif, a short story by Maupassant. (Translated as Dumpling or Butterball or Ball of Fat or Ball of Lard) It has also an excellent map of Native American tribes.
- A Bookshop in Algiers by Kaouther Adimi (Algeria)
Books on the list that I didn’t read:
- Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup (Louisiana)
- Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens (North Carolina)
- Serena by Ron Rash (North Carolina)
- All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren (USA)
- Days of Reading by Marcel Proust (France)
- Proust by Samuel Beckett (Ireland)
- Lie With Me by Philippe Besson (France)
- The Miracles of Life by Stefan Zweig (Austria)
I need to change of scenery and I’m not ready to read other books set in the Appalachians or the Deep South right now. I wouldn’t enjoy it as much as they deserve it.
The upcoming billets about my 20 Books of Summer are…
I’m happy I signed up for the 20 Books of Summer challenge and I’m ready to do it again next year! Many thanks to Cathy for organizing this event.
Space Between Us by Zoyâ Pirzâd – Meet Edmond and his family in the Armenian community in Iran.
Space Between Us by Zoyâ Pirzâd (1997) French title: Un jour avant Pâques. Translated from the Persian by Christophe Balaÿ.
This is my last billet about the twenty books I read this summer for Cathy’s 20 Books of Summer challenge. It’s OK, it’s Indian summer at the moment, right?
I hoped to write about Space Between Us by Zoyâ Pirzâd for WIT Month but my TBW pile was too high. The French title of the book is Un jour avant Pâques, The Day Before Easter and it seems to be the direct translation of the original title. And it makes sense.
Born in 1952, Zoyâ Pirzâd is an Iranian writer from the Armenian community in Iran. Her book Space Between Us is set in this community and covers several decades of the main character’s life, Edmond. Three chapters, each set at a key moment of Edmond’s life, all three times around Easter day.
In the first chapter, Edmond is twelve. He’s an only child and lives in a small town by the Caspian Sea. His father is the director of the local Armenian school. Edmond’s best friend is Tahereh, the concierge’s daughter. She’s Muslim but goes to the Armenian school too, since its more practical. A drama will occur in the tight-knit community, forcing Edmond to grow up.
In the second chapter, Edmond is older, married to Marta and they now live in Teheran. They have a grownup daughter, Alenouche who announces that she’ll marry her Muslim boyfriend. Edmond accepts it willingly but Marta is rigid about it, a Christian devout and she takes it as a personal insult.
In the last chapter, Edmond is even older, a widower now. He hasn’t seen his daughter in four years, since her fight with Marta.
Space Between Us is a lovely book. It’s very poetical in its description of childhood, of food and smells. It has a melancholic ring that matches Edmond’s temper. He’s a quiet child, Tahereh is the daring part of their duo. He’s observant too and shares his thoughts about his family and the Armenian community around him. He knows that his mother is not the traditional Armenian mother, she’s not keen on housekeeping and she had to live with a formidable mother-in-law. Edmond’s father is a quiet man too who loves his wife the way she is and never pressures her to comply to traditions but the community, though helpful, is also stifling.
Marta was thick as thieves with Edmond’s grandmother. They shared the same sense of community, a strong will to keep traditions alive and not change anything in their vision of the place of men and women in a couple, the duties children had to pay or the fact that one remained in their community.
The grandmother never liked Edmond’s friendship with Tahereh and Marta didn’t take Alenouche’s engagement well. It felt more like a will to keep the Armenian community alive, not to have it dissolved into the Iranian society than anything else. They are survivors of the Armenian genocide and they have the duty to keep their community and their traditions alive not to lose their identity and lose their history. It would mean forget about their lost country, about the genocide and their tragedy as a people.
Zoyâ Pirzâd doesn’t write a political novel. She writes about the quotidian, its little beauties and the family traditions. She takes us into Edmond’s life, full of ladybugs, friendship, painted Easter eggs and Armenian dishes. He sees family politics with his child’s eyes and, as an adult, lives through it by avoiding conflicts. The French cover of the book, a watercolor is perfect for the book.
Pirzâd’s writing reminded me of Philip Roth’s when he describes the Newark of his childhood or when Peter Balakian remembers his youth in New Jersey among his Armenian family in The Black Dog of Fate, also published in 1997. A community of immigrants in a country with other traditions.
Highly recommended, both Space Between Us and The Black Dog of Fate.
20 Books of Summer 2021 : It’s a wrap!
I’m late with the wrap-up of my 20 Books of Summer challenge. Life got in the way of blogging lately, mostly for good reasons. Holidays. Getaway weekends. Driving our daughter back to her campus. This summer, I’ve read 20 books, abandoned one, and wrote only 13 billets. *sheepish* I read seven books out of the original list.
I don’t think I’ll be able to catch up with all the billets as I’m drowning in work and I keep reading and adding to the billets pile.
I’m happy with my armchair travelling as my books took me to Egypt, Pennsylvania, Montana, Australia, Mississippi, Romania, Iran, Scotland, France, Denmark, Tennessee, New York, Colombia, Texas and Massachusetts.
As I began to compile the list of books, I noticed several recurring themes, all unintentional.
Uprooted, colonized and ostracized people
L’Arche de Noé by Khaled Al Khamissi. From story to story, the reader discovers all the reasons why people want to leave Egypt and how to emigrate to a Western country.
A Most Peculiar Act by Marie Munkara. Set in the Northern Territory in Australia, this satire explores the absurdity of the Aboriginal ordinances Act of 1918. You need to read it to believe the way Aborigines were treated by the Australian government.
The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Matthis. Mini billet upcoming. I expected to like this one better than I did.
The Man Who Saw the Flood and Down by the River Side by Richard Wright who comes back to the devastating 1921 flood in Mississippi.
Terre des affranchis by Liliana Lazar. Mini billet upcoming. Liliana Lazar is a French writer of Romanian origin. She writes in French but the story is set in her native corner of Romania. It’s not available in English.
Space Between Us by Zoyâ Pirzâd. Mini billet upcoming. I wish I had had the time and energy to write about this one for WIT Month. She’s an Iranian writer and Space Between Us is a lovely book that deserves to be read. It is set among the Armenian community in Iran.
In Search of One’s Self
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman. I wasn’t completely fine with this one, too many irritating clichés for my tastes.
Rosa Candida by Auđur Ava Ólafsdóttir. A coming-of-age novel and thoughts about fatherhood, filiation, parenting and gardening.
Keep the Change by Thomas McGuane. The story of an outsider from Montana who feels like a fraud as painter but cannot run the ranch he inherited either.
Art related books
Sundborn ou les jours de lumière by Philippe Delerm. Sundborn is about a group of Scandinavian painters and incidentally, there’s an exhibition about one of them, Kroyer at the Musée Marmottan-Monet in Paris. You enjoyed the paintings I included in my billet. Here’s one of them
Monsieur Proust’s Library by Anka MuhlsteinThis is a perfect companion read for In Search of Lost Time. It focuses on reading in Proust’s masterpiece and on his literary influences.
Vers la beauté by David Foenkinos. Antoine, an art history teacher, becomes a museum attendant at the Musée d’Orsay after his life is turned upside down. Will staring at his favorite Modigliani painting heal his wounds?
The crime fest was bigger than expected.
Vintage by Grégoire Hervier. This one took me in search of a mysterious guitar and to the origins of rock music. I ended up with a new blues and rock playlist. Plus I had fun looking up all the guitars he talks about.
The Lonely Witness by William Boyle. An excellent neo-noir book set in the atmospheric Brooklyn.
Perdre est une question de méthode by Santiago Gamboa. I enjoyed my visit to Bogota in company of Victor Silanpa, journalist extraordinaire and amateur sleuth.
Black Water Rising by Attica Locke. I loved this multilayered book as it explores the early 80s in booming Houston, its oil industry, the years after the civil rights movement and the main character’s personal struggles.
Lesser Evils by Joe Flanagan. Upcoming billet. A book I’m ready to buy to all my friends and another great find by Gallmeister.
Money Shot by Christa Faust. Upcoming billet. This is the first book with Angel Dare, former porn star. It’s a hell of a ride in the world of crime and porn industry.
Dark Island by Susanna Crossman. No billet. I bought this one at Quais du Polar and read it right away. It’s the dark tale of a group of people who are invited by Josh on an isolated island in Brittany. Josh’s personality makes people uneasy and the tensions in the group are a recipe for drama. I haven’t been able to figure out whether it’s available in English or not. The author is British, the book has been written in English and yet it seems to be only available in French translation.
Colin-Maillard à Ouessant by Françoise Le Mer. No billet. A thriller set in Ouessant, Britanny. The plot was well drawn, the duo of inspectors was an odd pair but the writing wasn’t as fine as like it in my crime books now. It’s the first of a series, it may be a bit clumsy before the series improves.
Abandoned book
Call Mr Fortune by H.C. Bailey. It’s cozy crime from the 1920s, a collection of short stories with Dr Fortune as the amateur sleuth. The plots have the complexity of a Scooby Doo episode. The humor is fun but the stories weren’t catchy enough to keep my attention. And since reading hours are a rare commodity, on the Abandoned Books pile it went.
Books from the original list that I didn’t read
- Vigilance by Robert Jackson Bennett
- Above the Waterfall by Ron Rash
- Ballad of Dogs’ Beach by José Cardoso Pires
- The Wild Inside by Jamey Bradbury
- Tales From the Otherworld by Ji Yun
- On Monday Last Week and The Shivering by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
I’m still interested in reading them, of course but I read Dark Island, Lesser Evils, Space Between Us right after buying them. When I received Eleanor Oliphant through my Kube subscription, an easy read was what I needed at the time, so I dived into it. I had Black Water Rising on the shelf and a discussion with Buried in Print pushed me to finally read it. I couldn’t resist Open Press’s copy of Monsieur Proust’s Library and I now have two other books by Anka Mulhstein on the TBR. And my visit to the Musée d’Orsay led me to Antoine from Vers la beauté.
I read 14 books from the TBR but new books have joined the pile. Oh well, now I’m all set for the next reading months.
20 Books of Summer Episode ’21: I’m in!
It’s that time of year again! We’re planning for Cathy’s 20 Books of Summer. The aim is to read 20 books from June 1st to August 31st. For most of you, it’s no big deal. It’s going to be a challenge for me, especially after starting a new job a month ago. But I’ll still try and, in any case, I had fun making my list, with a constraint: pick books that are already on the TBR.
Last year I did several categories, i.e. Book Club Choices, Read-the-West-With-Sister-In-Law, Ghosts of Trips Past, Ghost of the Missed Trip, Ghost of the Upcoming Trip to France. This year, I’ve decided upon categories as well.
*Drum roll*
THE LIST
Book Club choices.
This category remains as I’m still reading a book per month with my Book Club girlfriends. We’ve already picked:
- L’Arche de Noé by Khaled Al Khamissi (Egypt) –– Not available in English
- The Twelve Tribes of Hattie By Ayana Matthis (USA)
There’s another book TBD since at the moment, I don’t know what our choice for August will be.
With-Sister-In-Law Readalong choices
I’m on a monthly readalong with my sister-in-law too and our summer books are:
- Keep the Change by Thomas McGuane (USA)
- The Lonely Witness by William Boyle (USA)
- Money Shot by Christa Faust (USA)
Upcoming bookish events
If these events are organized as usual, I plan on reading a book for Lisa’s Indigenous Lit Week in June, two for Spanish & Portuguese Lit Month.
- A Most Peculiar Act by Marie Munkara (Australia)
- Ballad of Dogs’ Beach by José Cardoso Pires (Portugal)
- Perdre est une question de méthode by Santiago Gamboa (Colombia) – Not available in English. The title means Losing Is a Question of Methodology and it intrigued me when I saw it in a bookstore.
Cut the Kube TBR
Kube is my monthly blind date with a book chosen by a libraire. So far so good, they sent books I would have bought myself and I’d heard of only one of the books they sent my way. I haven’t read two of them:
- The Wild Inside by Jamey Bradbury (USA) It’s a Gallmeister book, I should be OK.
- Rosa Candida by Auđur Ava Ólafsdóttir (Iceland) I’m curious about this one, published by Zulma, an excellent publisher.
Of course, I’ll get new ones in June, July and August.
Old TBR members
Some books have been on the TBR for a looong time. I thought it was high time to read…
- Terre des affranchis by Liliana Lazar (France/Romania) – Not available in English. Liliana Lazar was born in Romania, emigrated in France and writes in French.
- Sundborn ou les jours de lumière by Philippe Delerm (France) – Not available in English. Delerm’s book is about the community of Scandinavian painters who lived in Grez-sur-Loing in France.
Cheating with the 2€ Folio collection
The 2€ Folio collection is made of short books (around 100 pages), often short stories by well-known writers and it’s a good way to sample a writer’s style and see if it’s worth trying a longer work. These three will help me reach the 20 books count.
- Nouvelles de l’au-delà by Ji Yun (China) – Tales From the Otherworld (18th C)
- The Man Who Saw the Flood and Down by the River Side by Richard Wright (1961 & 1938), from the collection of short stories Eight Men (1961) and Uncle Tom’s Children (1938) It was published in this collection after Hurricane Katrina destroyed New Orleans.
- On Monday Last Week and The Shivering by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
Crime fest
On top of Boyle and Faust, already mentioned in my readalong picks, I love to read crime books while I’m on holiday or at home by the pool. I may switch some books later, after Quais du Polar, the crime festival in Lyon, scheduled for the first weekend of July. But at the moment, my choices are:
- Colin-Maillard à Ouessant by Françoise Le Mer (France) – Not available in English. Set in Brittany, it will be a great reminder of last year’s holidays in this beautiful region.
- Vintage by Grégoire Hervier (France) – Not available in English. This is a rock-blues thriller that should take me on a road trip to Scotland, Paris, Sydney and The Blues Highway, a trip I’ll definitely make as soon as my children are 21 and allowed in bars.
- Vigilance by Robert Jackson Bennett, USA, 2019.
Kindle Books to read while Mr Emma is driving.
I get car sick if I read a paper book but I don’t have this problem with Kindle books! 😊 So, I’ve added two books from the Kindle TBR for the long drives to our vacation spots.
- Above the Waterfall by Ron Rash (USA)
- Call Mr Fortune by H.C Bailey (UK)
And that’s it. 19 books, plus the unknown Book Club choice for August. 20 opportunities to cut into the TBR. The good news is that I’m still interested in reading the books that are on the TBR, even if some have been there for a long time.
What about you? Will you take part in 20 Books of Summer too? Have you read any book on my list?
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!
Saturday news: gloom and doom but saved by books
It’s been a while since my last Saturday News billet but I felt I needed one today to reflect on October and try to imagine what November will look like. We’re October 31st and we woke up here to what we call un temps de Toussaint, in other words All Saints’ Day weather. It’s misty, grey, rather cold and depressing, a bit like October.
The month started with bad news. Quino, the creator of the wonderful Mafalda had died.
Photo by Daniel Garcia. AFP
She’s my alias and you can read why I picked her here. It made the news everywhere in France. What can I say, we love witty cartoonists.
Things started to look up on October 3rd, when I went back to the theatre for the first time since this bloody pandemic started. I’ve seen Saint-Félix. Enquête sur un hameau français, written and directed by Elise Chatauret.
Built like a journalistic investigation, we see four city people invading a little village in the French countryside and ask question about a drama. A young woman settled there and started to breed goats. She died a mysterious death and our four investigators want to find out what happened. The text is between tale and journalism. They interview the villagers and we witness small town gossip but also the end of a kind of rural life. Young people have left, the village was dying and this newcomer came and started a new farm. The production was lovely, served the text well and the actors brought this village to life.
Being in the theatre again was great but the atmosphere was subdued. We were not allowed to linger in the bright lighted hall and socialize. It was silent, as we headed to our seats with our masks on and went out in a single file, respecting safety distances. Better than nothing, that’s what I thought.
That was positively cheerful compared to what was yet to come.
Usually, I don’t comment the news here but this time, I need to. On October 16th, Samuel Paty was beheaded for teaching about the freedom of speech. He was a history teacher, he was doing his job, teaching the official syllabus from the French state. Nothing, and I mean it, nothing can justify this assassination. There’s no middle ground on this, no “he should have known better” or “these cartoons are offensive to some people, let’s not show them”. Sorry but no, a thousand times no. The same way women shouldn’t stop wearing short dresses to avoid being raped, we shall not tone down our right to mock, criticize and point out the extremists of this world. We already have a law that restricts the freedom of speech and condemns racism, antisemitism and speeches that advocate hatred and violence. That’s it.
We have fought over a century to earn the right to live in a secular republic, a democracy with freedom of speech and we won’t back down. Caricaturists, chansonniers and humorists are part of our tradition, one that goes back to the 18th century at least. And I’m not sure non-French people realize how deeply rooted in our culture secularism is. In the Third Republic, the one that established once for all freedom of speech and secularism, teachers were the armed arms of the said republic. Assassinating a teacher is stabbing the republic in the heart. So, in the name of our freedom of speech and against fanatics who want to impose their way of thinking…
More about this history when I write my billet about the fascinating book Voices for freedom. Militant writers in the 19th century by Michel Winock.
The month ended with other assassinations of Catholic worshippers in a church in Nice and with the news of a second lockdown until December 1st. Depressing. The doctors already say that Christmas is compromised and the perspective of not seeing my parents for Christmas is dreadful but worst things could happen, right? So, we’re settling for a month of homeworking with our son still going to high school. He joked about it, saying he’ll go out to work when we stay home like children. Daughter is enjoying herself as she’s doing a semester abroad.
With the new lockdown, the French literary world is in motion to protect independent bookstores from bankruptcy. There’s a debate about the question “Are bookstores indispensable businesses?”. Readers rushed to stores on Thursday and some booksellers reported that they sold as many books as on the last Saturday before Christmas. The jury of the Goncourt Prize decided to delay the announcement of the 2020 winner until independent bookstores are open again. Lobbying worked and bookstores are allowed to sell through click-and-collect and due to unfair competition, Fnacs and supermarkets have to close their book sections. Let’s hope that it will not boost Amazon’s sales. We are determined to maintain our lovely network of independent libraires.
Staying home means more reading time and luckily, November is rife with bookish events. I hope to participate to several of them.
German Lit Month is hosted by Lizzy and Caroline, AusReading Month, by Brona, Novella in November, by Rebecca at Bookish Beck and Cathy at 746Books. And there’s also Non-Fiction November.
I’ve gathered my books for the month, my pile is made of my Book Club pick, my Read The West readalong and others from the TBR that fit into November bookish events.
Femmes d’Alger dans leur appartement by Assia Djebar is our Book Club read and The Hour of Lead by Bruce Holbert is my Read the West book. Then I have The Catherine Wheel by Elizabeth Harrower for AusReading Month. The Tall Man: Death and Life on Palm Island by Chloe Hooper is Australian non-fiction. For German Lit Month, I’ve picked from the shelves The Confusion of Young Törless by Robert Musil and a novella by Thomas Bernhard, Concrete. I’m not sure I’ll have time to read them all but it’s good to have goals, right?
Regular reader of Book Around the Corner know that I’m a fan of Duane Swierczynski. I follow him on Twitter and last year, he sadly lost his teenage daughter Evie to cancer. He’s organizing Evie’s Holiday Book Drive, a book donation to the Children’s Hospital in LA. It’s from October 23 to December 4. There are details about how to donate on the poster and on this web site, The Evelyn Swierczynski Foundation. Duane Swierczynski tweets at @swierczy.
In the middle of all this, I stumbled upon an article by Nancy Huston in the Translittérature magazine, issue by the French association of literary translators. She wrote about the English version of Romain Gary’s books. (She’s a fan too) He supervised the ‘translations’ of his books, wrote some directly in English and then did a French version of them. I realized that I never investigated who translated Gary’s books in English and I went online to get as many English versions of his books as I could find. I already had White Dog, The Ski Bum and the recently published The Kites. Now I also have Lady L, The Enchanters, King Solomon, Europa and The Talent Scout.
December 2nd will be the fortieth anniversary of Gary’ death and I’m up to something…
While I was writing all this, the sun came out and our gloomy morning turned into a sunny afternoon. I hope it’ll translate into this month of November.
What about you? How is it going on in your world’s corner?
20 Books of Summer, it’s a wrap! And I’ve made it! :-)
Congratulations to me, I completed the 20 Books of Summer challenge. I’ve read 21 books from June 1st to August 31st. OK, I abandoned two of them but only after reading at least 120 pages of each. Out of the 21 books read, 17 come from the TBR, so that’s good.
I didn’t have time to write a billet about the 21 books, I’m only at billet 14 but I did seven Literary Escapades billets from June to August. I guess it makes up for the missing “book review” billets. Since September is going to be very busy at work and slow on reading, I’ll catch up and 20 Books of Summer will turn into 20 Books of Indian Summer. Is that OK with you? 😊
In my billet introducing the 20 Books of Summer challenge, I explained that I’d read books for my book club, books I’m reading along with my sister-in-law, books that represent the Ghosts of Trips Past, the Ghost of the Missed Trip –I was supposed to visit Wyoming, Montana and Colorado this summer—and the Ghost of the Backup Trip to Brittany, France.
So, here’s a wrap-up of my last reading months.
My first readalong was our Book Club’s choices.
1 – Expiration Date by Duane Swierczynski.
2 – Snow by Orhan Pamuk
3 – La Horde du Contrevent by Alain Damasio
While I had a lot of fun taking a walk on the wild timeline of Expiration Date –I think I could read anything by Duane Swierszynski— I couldn’t finish Snow or La Horde du Contrevent, the two books I abandoned. They are well-written and well-constructed books but they didn’t work for me.
My second readalong was Read-the-West-With-Sister-In-Law. We had picked three excellent books.
4 – The Lost Get-Back Boogie by James Lee Burke. If you’ve never read anything by Burke, just add him to your TBR.
5 – Cathedral by Raymond Carver. Beautifully written short stories.
6 – Death and the Good Life by Richard Hugo. The billet is yet to come but I’m so sorry that Richard Hugo didn’t have time to write other crime fiction books. How could he die on us before writing other books? I hope he’s trout fishing with WG Tapply in the great rivers in the sky.
I enjoyed all the books from the Ghost of Trips Past
7 – Québec: Therese, Pierrette and the Little Hanging Angel by Michel Tremblay. The billet is upcoming and I loved visiting with Thérèse, Pierrette and Simone in Montreal in the 1940s. The language is a delight and Tremblay doesn’t write a classic childhood book.
8 – Sicily: Equal Danger by Leonardo Sciascia. A chilling parody that unveils the absurdity of Italian politics and the deep roots of dishonesty in public life.
9 – Spain: Nada by Carmen Laforêt. I read it along with Vishy for Spanish Lit Month and we both found it stunning. Laforêt was so young to write such a powerful and novel. Barcelona in the 1940s is trying to recover from the Civil War and it left wounds.
10 – Australia: Blood by Tony Birch. I read it for Lisa’s Indigenous Lit Week. Two children stick together to have a better life and escape from their absentee mother’s claws.
11 – Portugal: Lisbon’s Poets. This was my first introduction to Portuguese poetry and a nice souvenir to bring back from a lovely trip to Portugal.
12 – UK: Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood. Berlin in the early 1930s and how the Nazis take over the city and its inhabitants’ lives.
13 – Denmark: The Elephant Keepers’ Children by Peter Høeg. Honestly, I still can’t make up my ind about this one. I found it charming and irritating, refreshing and fake, funny and profound.
14 – Hungary: The Charmed Life of Kázmér Rezeda by Gyula Krúdy. The billet is yet to come. A true Krúdy book that I read in English because there’s no French translation. In true Krúdy fashion, it’s funny and melancholic with a scatterbrained womanizer.
15 – USA: Wait Until Spring, Bandini by John Fante. Another upcoming billet. I’ve read several Fante (and will read another soon) and I loved them all. This one belongs to the Bandini Quartet and reuniting with Arturo was as delightful as ever.
There’s the Ghost of the Missed Trip and its two books, although Death and the Good Life qualifies for this as well.
16 –The Overstory by Richard Powers. This is a book tree, powerful but a bit cold. Powers was on a mission and it’s a clever book, I thought I lacked passion for the characters.
17 – The Dark Horse by Craig Johnson. I read it during a long car drive and I was happy to go back to Wyoming and see Sheriff Longmire again. Upcoming billet about a great Beach & Public Transport book.
Ghost of the Backup Trip to Brittany, France. For this, I switched books and ended up reading books set in Brittany:
18 – Last Concert in Vannes by Hervé Huguen. I discovered a Breton publisher of crime fiction novels. I bought two and read this one. The billet will come in September and it was a decent polar.
19 – Fisherman of Iceland by Pierre Loti. A surprise and accompanied by a great literary escapade in Ploubazlanec, or how to mix literature, books and tourism.
And, last but not least, a bridge between the three Ghost Trips, between France and the USA and both in line with the news.
20 – Letter to Jimmy by Alain Mabanckou, written in 2007 for the 20th anniversary of Baldwin’s death. Upcoming billet.
21 – Slavery Explained to My Daughter by Christiane Taubira. It was very educational and I would recommend it to French readers.
On the list and not read:
- Who You Think I Am by Camille Laurens
- An Unfinished Life by Mark Spragg.
- A Job You Mostly Won’t Know How To Do by Pete Fromm
I’ll catch up on those because I still intend to read them. I’m looking forward to the Fromm, I keep hearing that he’s an outstanding novelist.
Many thanks to Cathy at 746 Books for organizing this fun event. I’ll do it again if you’re up for it next year.
And what about you? Did you take part to 20 Books of Summer challenge? If yes, please leave a link to your wrap-up post in the comments. I’ll enjoy reading what you’ve been up to.
20 Books of Summer – 20 Books Around the Corner
Cathy at 746 Books launches her yearly challenge of 20 Books of Summer. The title is self-explanatory: Read 20 books in June, July and August.
Twenty books in three months is a lot for me. I usually manage to read a book per week but I’m willing to try this year since I’m working remotely until the end of August and will save the time and fatigue of commuting to work. I might make it. Now to the fun part: book picking!
I’m already committed to reading with my Book Club and to a Read The West readalong with my sister-in-law. That’s five books. How to choose the fifteen others?
Thanks to a pesky virus, my trip to Montana and Wyoming is cancelled and I’m still grieving this missed opportunity. (Rich white girl problem, I know) So I decided that 20 Books of Summer would be a celebration of the ghosts of trips past, the ghost of the missed trip and the ghost of the upcoming trip to France. I’ll read books related to these summers. If I know where I bought the book, I’ll mention it, as a friendly hello to independent bookstores who have to survive the tempest of this worldwide lockdown.
*Drum roll*
Here are my twenty choices
Book Club choices.
- Expiration Date by Duane Swierczynski
- Snow by Orhan Pamuk
Read-the-West-With-Sister-In-Law choices
- Montana: The Lost Get-Back Boogie by James Lee Burke
- Cathedral by Raymond Carver
- Montana: Death and the Good Life by Richard Hugo
Ghost of Trips Past
- Québec: Therese, Pierrette and the Little Hanging Angel by Michel Tremblay (Québec City)
- Sicily: Equal Danger by Leonardo Sciascia
- Spain: Nada by Carmen Laforêt
- Australia: Blood by Tony Birch (Readings, Melbourne)
- Portugal: Lisbon’s Poets (Bertrand, Lisbon)
- UK: Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood (London)
- Denmark: The Elephant Keepers’ Children by Peter Høeg (Copenhagen)
- Hungary: The Charmed Life of Kázmér Rezeda by Gyula Krúdy (Budapest)
- USA: Wait Until Spring, Bandini (City Light Bookstore, San Francisco)
Ghost of the Missed Trip
- Wyoming: An Unfinished Life by Mark Spragg
- The Overstory by Richard Powers
- Wyoming: The Dark Horse by Craig Johnson
- Montana: A Job You Mostly Won’t Know How To Do by Pete Fromm
Ghost of Upcoming Trip to France
- Who You Think I Am by Camille Laurens
And, last but not least, a bridge between the three Ghost Trips, between France and the USA
- Letter to Jimmy by Alain Mabanckou, a letter to James Baldwin.
I’m happy with my list: a mix of lit fiction, short-stories, poetry, non-fiction and crime. Some in English, some in French.
I’m not sure I’ll have time to read all these books but I had a lot of fun making up the list. It’s also a good way to push myself to read more from my TBR. I know I’ll buy new books anyway, we need to support our independent bookstores, and I’ve decided to reallocate to book buying all the toll money saved up with homeworking. A perfectly good excuse to indulge in a book buying spree.
Will you participate to Cathy’s challenge too?
Next reading club year is 1956: It’s heaven sent, I’m rooting for this edition
Kaggsy and Simon have announced the year they chose for the next reading club. The idea is to read books published in a specific year and write reviews about them.
It will be 1956 and it will take place from October 5 to October 11.
Can you imagine that The Roots of Heaven by Romain Gary was published on October 5th, 1956?
Now, is there any other book to read for #1956Club? It’s serendipity! 😊
The Roots of Heaven won Gary his first Prix Goncourt. Set in Africa, we follow Morel, an early environmentalist who fights against the killing of elephants. Morel is assisted in his task by two misfits, Minna and Forsythe. In Morel’s mind, the destruction of nature leads to the destruction of humanity and while saving elephants from extinction sounds futile, it’s actually symbolic. If we lose that fight, what will become of humanity?
| Est-ce que nous ne sommes vraiment plus capables de respecter la nature, la liberté vivante, sans aucun rendement, sans utilité, sans autre objet que de se laisser entrevoir de temps en temps? | Are we no longer able to respect nature— freedom in living form —, which offers no yield, no usefulness, which has no other aim than to let itself be observed from time to time? |
Can you imagine that Gary wrote this in 1956? What would he think about the environmental crisis we’re facing now? The Roots of Heaven also mentions the burgeoning fight for independence of African colonies and Gary proves to have a lot of insight when you know what will happen next.
If you want to know more about this outstanding novel, I recommend James Henderson’s review.
But there were other noteworthy books published in 1956. I’ve done a bit of research and came up with:
– Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin. This one I want to read as I’m a Baldwin fan.*
– Diamonds Are Forever by Ian Fleming. Espionage isn’t my cup of tea, I’ll skip this one.
– The Lonely Londoners by Sam Selvon. I really recommend this one and my billet about it is here.
– There’s Always a Price Tag by James Hadley Chase. I don’t know what this one’s worth.
– French Leave by PG Wodehouse. I’d like to read this one, just because of the title, especially since in French, to take the French leave is filer à l’anglaise, literally, to take the English leave. It’s all a question of perspective, right?
– Temple of the Golden Pavilion by Mishima. I guess everyone has heard of classic of Japanese literature.
– The Fall by Albert Camus. I read this one a long time ago and a re-read could be welcome.
– The Devil to Pay in the Backlands by João Guimarães Rosa. (Diadorim, in French translation) I’ve had this daunting masterpiece on the shelf for ages. Maybe it’s time to read it.
– Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz. I really recommend Mahfouz’s Cairo Trilogy. It’s wonderful and full of life.
– The Fingerprint by Patricia Wentworth (La Trace dans l’ombre, in French) I’ve read it pre-blog. I used to read a lot of easy crime fiction like Wentworth when my children were little and when juggling with toddlers, a full-time job and other obligations didn’t leave a lot of brain power to read. I have fond memories of these books.
– Nedjma by Yacine Kateb. I’ve never heard of this one but I’m tempted to read a novel by an Algerian writer published during the time of French colonization. I’d like to read more about it from the Algerian perspective.
– The Barbarous Coast by Ross Mcdonald (La côte barbare, in French) Gallmeister has started to publish new translations of Mcdonald’s books, it could be an opportunity to read one.
– In 1956, Ed McBain published three books of the 87th Precinct series, Cop Hater, The Mugger and The Pusher. Has anyone read them?
– The Diamond Bikini by Charles Williams. Does anyone know if it’s good?
– For French readers, there’s L’histoire d’une solitude by Milán Füst, a Hungarian book not translated into English.
I already know that I won’t be able to read all these books but I had a lot of fun researching them and you should have seen me internally squeal when I discovered that 1956 was the next chosen year. 1956, the year The Roots of Heaven was published!
Strangers by Yamada – Japanese Literature Challenge
Strangers by Yamada (1987) French title: Présences d’un été. Translated by Annick Laurent
I read Strangers by Yamada in January for Japanese Literature Challenge. I’m lucky that Meredith extended the reading time up to March. My late billet is still in. Phew!
Strangers is set in Tokyo, during a summer in the 1980s. Harada, a rather famous TV scriptwriter, is forty-seven, recently divorced and has moved into an apartment in an office complex. The building empties at night and he thinks he’s the only one actually living in this tower. He’s estranged from his grownup son, his parents are dead and he doesn’t have many friends. In other words, he’s lonely.
Two things happen during that summer. First, he meets Kei, an accountant who lives in the building too. He thought he was alone there after working hours but he’s not, he has a neighbor. They soon get acquainted and start an affair.
Then, feeling a bit off-kilter after his divorce, struggling a little to adapt to his newfound singlehood, Harada decides to go back to Asakusa, the Tokyo neighborhood he grew up in. He wants to see his childhood house again. When he arrives there, he meets with the new tenants, who look a lot like his long dead parents and welcome him into their home.
How will Harada’s relationship with Kei evolve? Who are the people who live in his childhood home? Harada is a middle-aged man who has to reassess his life after his divorce. His career is successful but not totally fulfilling. His marriage fell apart and he has no contact with his son. He feels adrift and tries to go back to his roots and to find comfort in Kei. I enjoyed the novel’s nostalgic tone and the blanket of melancholy that settles on Harada’s shoulders. He wants to go back to a happy place and looks for it in his childhood memories. But how destructive is it?
Telling more would spoil the novel for potential readers, so I won’t go further in its description. I’ll just say that the ending was a surprise and that it’s not the kind of books I usually read but I liked it anyway. Yamada describes Tokyo with fondness and the city becomes an important part of this atmospheric story. Harada’s visits to Asakusa, the descriptions of the area, its shops and restaurants give a good vision of the neighborhood, a foot in the past, and a foot in the present. And the story progresses towards a strange ending.
Highly recommended.
Book Around the Corner 