Liz M - NYC and me

I moved to Brooklyn in August 2001, so this year will be my 20th in NYC. 2020 was a tough year for the city and I am hoping with a new government and maybe a vaccine, I will once again be able to go out and enjoy the place that I call home.

While I love reading and list-making, I do not enjoy writing and am perpetually behind on reviewing. I hope the excitement of adding a book to a category will encourage me to write at least a brief review.

For many, many years I have been reading primarily from he 1001-Books-to-Read-Before-You-Die list, Other reads are dictated by my real-life book club (which alternates contemporary literary fiction with non-fiction) and, now and again, a new novel found on LT or on my now favorite social media version of LT, Litsy (https://www.litsy.com/web/user/Liz_M).

Aside from reading, my weekdays are spent working for a large performing arts organization and my weekends are for eating take-out Brunch, walking around my Brooklyn neighborhood/Prospect Park, visiting museums (if possible), cooking vegetarian meals for myself and/or baking cookies.

ETA: I will treat the first six categories as mutually exclusive - a book can only be listed in one of them. However, I will try to fit each book into as many of the challenges as I can!

The Empire State Building, for a period of about 40 years was the world's tallest building. It is one of the most iconic sights in NYC and in my first two years in the city I visited (with guests) 4 or 5 times.

This category is for books from the 1001 Books-to-Read-Before-You-Die List:
1) Time's Arrow by Martin Amis
2) Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
3) The Drowned World by J. G. Ballard
4) She by H. Rider Haggard
5) Leaden Wings by Jie Zhang
6) Wise Children by Angela Carter
7) Chocky by John Wyndham
8) The Unknown Soldier by Väinö Linna
9) Under the Yoke by Ivan Vazov
10) The Garden Where the Brass Band Played by Simon Vestdijk
11) The Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton
12) The Artamonov Business by Maxim Gorky
13) Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
14) Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
15)
16)
17)
18)
19)
20)
21)

Possibilities: H(a)ppy, The Story of the Lost Child, H is for Hawk, A Girl is a Half-formed Thing, The Red Queen, The Colour, In the Forest, Schooling, Blonde, Everything You Need, Another World, Infinite Jest, The Unconsoled, The Triple Mirror of the Self, Black Water, Time's Arrow, Wise Children, Stone Junction, The Radiant Way, The Passion, The Diary of Jane Somers, Lanark, The Passion of New Eve, Humboldt's Gift, The Diviners, Gravity's Rainbow, Ada or Ardor, The Nice and the Good, The Birds Fall Down, August is a Wicked Month, Sometimes a Great Notion, V., Naked Lunch, Memento Mori, The Tree of Man, A World of Love, The Trusting and the Maimed, Between the Acts, At Swim-Two-Birds, The Years, All About H. Hatterr, The Glass Bead Game, The House in Paris, Testament of Youth, The Last September, Harriet Hume, Quartet, The Making of Americans, Jacob's Room, The Glimpses of the Moon, Women in Love, Night and Day, Tarr, Bunner Sisters, Tarzan of the Apes, Three Lives, Hadrian the Seventh, The Wings of the Dove, New Grub Street, She, Hard Times, Shirley, Mary Barton, Agnes Grey, Ormond, The Pilgrim's Progress

.

Second to only the Library of Congress, the New York Public Library is one of the largest systems in the US. As a resident of Brooklyn (separate library system), I was thrilled to discover that I could also hold an NYPL card. And once I started working in Manhattan with occasional late hours, I fell in love the the branch location kitty-corner to one pictured above, mostly because it was open until 11 pm. But I do love those lions!

This category is for books published by the New York Review of Books, read with Litsy's nyrbBookClub:
Jan: The True Deceiver by Tove Jansson
Feb: A Month in the Country by J. L. Carr
Mar: The Hearing Trumpet by Leonora Carrington
Apr:
May: During the Reign of the Queen of Persia by Joan Chase
Jun:
Jul:
Aug:
Sep:
Oct:
Nov:
Dec:

One of the best views of the Statue of Liberty can be had from a free ride on the Staten Island Ferry. It was my favorite excursion with guests until one December day, since I insisted on the trip, my friend insisted we stay outside for the entire ferry ride.

This category is for books translated into English:
1) With My Dog Eyes by Hilda Hilst
2) The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree by Shokoofeh Azar
3) Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin
4) Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi
5) Memories of a Pure Spring by Dương Thu Hương
6) Snow and Shadow by Dorothy Tse
7) Khirbet Khizeh by S. Yizhar
8) The Hole by Hiroko Oyamada
9) Revenge by Yoko Ogawa
10) Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo
11) The Eighth Life (for Brilka) by Nino Haratischwili
12)

Possibilities: 2666, A Void, The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll, Amerika, Baltasar and Blimunda, Bartleby & Co., The Cancer Ward, The Castle, Celestial Harmonies, The Child of Pleasure, The Daughter, The Death of Virgil, The Discovery of Heaven, Dog Years, The Engineer of Human Souls, Fado Alexandrino, The Idiot, In Search of Klingsor, Insatiability, Larva: Midsummer Night's Babel, The Last Temptation of Christ, The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr, Life: A User's Manual, Locus Solus, Lost Illusions, Memoirs of My Nervous Illness, Nadja, Nana, Obabakoak, The Third Wedding Wreath, The Time of Indifference, The Unknown Soldier, Wilhelm Meister, The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis

. . .

Union Square is a background of ordinary city life. In normal times I go through it two or three times a month and it is always a bustle of activity, whether from the greenmarket or whatever issue is provoking demonstrations and protest.

This category is for nonfiction books about Social Justice & Antiracism:
1) Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge
2) The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
3) I'm Still Here by Austin Channing Brown
4) Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)
11)
12)

Possibilities: An African-American and Latinx History of the United States, America’s Original Sin, Biased, Blindspot, Caste, The Color of Law, Dying of Whiteness, The Fire Next Time, Have Black Lives Ever Mattered?, How Does It Feel to Be a Problem?, How to Be Less Stupid About Race, I'm Still Here, An Indigenous People’s History of the United States, Just Mercy, Me and White Supremacy, Mindful of Race, Minor Feelings, The New Jim Crow, So You Want to Talk About Race, Stamped from the Beginning, Tears We Cannot Stop, Uprooting Racism, The Ways of Whitefolks, When They Call You A Terrorist, Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?

The subway underpins the existence of the city. It goes most anyplace one needs to go and is used by most residents and tourists. In a culturally and ethnically diverse city, a city where nearly 800 different languages are spoken, the likeliest place to encounter dozens of individuals with backgrounds completely dissimilar to each other's is in the subway.

This category is for books written by authors from minority populations in their countries:
1) Half-blood Blues by Esi Edugyan
2) The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill
3) An Equal Music by Vikram Seth
4) Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
5) What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi
6) Heart Berries by Terese Marie Mailhot
7) That Deadman Dance by Kim Scott
8)
9)
10)
11)
12)

Possibilities: Girl Woman Other, Sharks in the Time of Saviors, Interior Chinatown, The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, Dominicana, Black Leopard Red Wolf, In the Dream House, The Yellow House, Washington Black, A Lucky Man, Men We Reaped, Home Fire, The Book of Harlan, What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours, The Sellout, The Sympathizer, Everything I Never Told You, Oreo, Exit West, The Ungrateful Refugee, Bless Me Ultima, The Mixquiahuala Letters, The power of horses and other stories, Heart Berries: A Memoir, Winter in the Blood, Talking Indian: Reflections on Survival and Writing,

The very first time I ever visited NYC, I was working in a summerstock theater company in CT and our day off was Sunday. So on the last Sunday in June we got on a train and headed into the city. Exiting Grand Central Station we walked over to Fifth Avenue and were startled by the crowds and noise; it was the Gay Pride Parade. It was so fun and every place we went in the city was over taken by celebrations. It was a magical day.

This category is for books written by LGBTQIA+ authors:
1) The Nice and the Good by Iris Murdoch
2) On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
3) In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
4) Spring by Ali Smith
5) Summer by Ali Smith
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)
11)
12)

Cantoras, Confessions of a Mask, Frankissstein, Heartbreak Tango, Lolly Willowes, Naked Lunch, The Passion, Three Lives, The Tree of Man, The Passion of New Eve, You Exist Too Much

Although I live a block from Prospect Park, in these social-distancing times I find myself more often walking over to Greenwood Cemetery for outdoor excursions. Many, many fewer live people there.

This category is for miscellaneous books (likely to mostly be dead white men):

1) Confessions of an English Opium-Eater by Thomas De Quincey
2) Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope
3) Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz
4) A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe
5) All Systems Red by Martha Wells
6) These Women by Ivy Pochoda
7) Shit, Actually by Lindy West

One of the apartments I lived in for a few years didn't have A/C. Fortunately, it was a few blocks from the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens and I had gotten a free one-year membership. My favorite reading seat was a covered wooden bench tucked away in the Japanese garden.

This is for my #ReadingAsia2021 challenge (12 books):

Afghanistan - Earth and Ashes
Bahrein
Bangladesh - Sultana's Dream
Bhutan
Brunei
Cambodia
China - Leaden Wings, The Three Kingdoms
Hong Kong - Snow and Shadow
India - English, August, An Obedient Father
Indonesia - Letters of a Javanese Princess, Beauty Is a Wound
Iran - The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree
Iraq - Frankenstein in Baghdad
Israel - The Confessions of Noa Weber
Japan - Breasts and Eggs, Revenge, Strange Weather in Tokyo, The Factory, The Hole
Jordan
Kuwait
Kyrgyzstan
Laos
Lebanon - Yalo
Malaysia - The Garden of Evening Mists
Maldives
Mongolia
Myanmar - Burmese Looking Glass
Nepal
North Korea
Oman - Celestial Bodies
Pakistan - Triple Mirror of the Self , Cracking India , Kartography
Palestine, State of - I Saw Ramallah, Men in the Sun, Minor Detail
Philippines - Awaiting Trespass, Dogeaters
Qatar
Saudi Arabia
Singapore - Or Else, The Lightning God
South Korea - Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982, Please Look After Mom, The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly
Sri Lanka
Syria - In Praise of Hatred, Death Is Hard Work
Taiwan - Notes of a Crocodile
Tajikistan
Thailand
Tibet
Timor-Leste
Turkmenistan
United Arab Emirates
Uzbekistan
Vietnam - Memories of a Pure Spring On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, The Sorrow of War, The Best We Could Do
Yemen

. . . . . .

It is disappointing, but not surprising, that other than the Statue of Liberty, I could not think of a iconic tourist attraction or important building celebrating women. I thought about Washington Square Park and connecting it to Jane Jacobs or MoMA, which was founded by three wealthy women. But then I was reminded of a podcast about Audrey Munson, otherwise known as "Miss Manhattan", a woman who for a time was the most famous model in America and whose likeness was used for hundreds of statues erected in parks and public squares and for sculptures adorning NYC buildings and installed in museums (photos above).

This is for my #ReadingWomen2021 challenge (12 books):

_____________ 1) A Book Longlisted for the JCB Prize
_____________ 2) An Author from Eastern Europe: Abigail, Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
The New Jim Crow - 3) A Book About Incarceration
_____________ 4) A Cookbook by a Woman of Color
_____________ 5) A Book with a Protagonist Older than 50:
Momento Mori, Baba Yaga Laid an Egg, Frangipani House, Tirra Lirra by the River, Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont

With My Dog Eyes - 6) A Book by a South American Author in Translation
_____________ 7) Reread a Favorite Book
Heart Berries - 8) A Memoir by an Indigenous, First Nations, Native, or Aboriginal Woman: Halfbreed

The Hearing Trumpet - 9) A Book by a Neurodivergent Author
_____________ 10) A Crime Novel or Thriller in Translation:
The Hole, The Good Son

_____________ 11) A Book About the Natural World
_____________ 12) A Young Adult Novel by a Latinx Author
_____________ 13) A Poetry Collection by a Black Woman
Half Blood Blues - 14) A Book with a Biracial Protagonist:
The Icarus Girl, Everything I Never Told You, Oreo, Half Blood Blues

_____________ 15) A Muslim Middle Grade Novel
_____________ 16) A Book Featuring a Queer Love Story
_____________ 17) About a Woman in Politics
Fever Dream - 18) A Book with a Rural Setting:
The Colour, Everything You Need, Between the Acts

The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree - 19) A Book with a Cover Designed by a Woman
Celestial Bodies - 20) A Book by an Arab Author in Translation
_____________ 21) A Book by a Trans Author
_____________ 22) A Fantasy Novel by an Asian Author
Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race - 23) A Nonfiction Book Focused on Social Justice
_____________ 24) A Short Story Collection by a Caribbean Author

BONUS
25) A Book by Alexis Wright
26) A Book by Tsitsi Dangarembga
27) A Book by Leila Aboulela
28) A Book by Yoko Ogawa

According to wiki, The Met Museum's "permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments." It is a huge building, impossible to see in one visit or even in dozens and dozens of visits. Several years ago I decided that I would try to visit every single room. To make it more enjoyable I chose rooms randomly or invent a treasure hunt (all the representations of women reading books was a fantastic way to visit a dozen rooms in a single day!).

This is for my Around the Year in 52 ~26 books challenge:

January
1. A book related to “In the Beginning...”: Time's Arrow
2. A book by an author whose name doesn't contain the letters A, T or Y: Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race
3. A book related to the lyrics for the song "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music: The True Deceiver
4. A book with a monochromatic cover: With My Dog Eyes

February
5. A book by an author on USA Today's list of 100 Black Novelists You Should Read
Cane, Girl Woman Other*, Friday Black*, The Sellout*, Black Leopard Red Wolf*, The Book of Harlan*, What is Not Yours is Not Yours*, Sharks in the Time of Saviors*, The Mothers, Sweet Summer, Queenie, Patsy, The Death of Vivek Oji, Telephone, The Ways of White Folks, The Fisherman, We Cast a Shadow, Real Life, Lot

6. A love story The Nice and the Good
7. A book that fits a prompt suggestion that didn't make the final list:
Book published before you were born: The Drowned World
8. A book set in a state, province, or country you have never visited Memories of a Pure Spring

March
9. A book you associate with a specific season or time of year
10. A book with a female villain or criminal She
11. A book to celebrate The Grand Egyptian Museum
12. A book eligible for the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation Snow and Shadow
13. A book written by an author of one of your best reads of 2020

April
14. A book set in a made-up place Mexican Gothic
15. A book that features siblings as the main characters Wise Children
16. A book with a building in the title
17. A book with a Muslim character or author

May
18. book related to "Past, Present, Future" That Deadman Dance
19. book related to "Past, Present, Future" Frankenstein in Baghdad
20. book related to "Past, Present, Future"
21. A book whose title and author both contain the letter "u" The Three Kingdoms, Volume 1: The Sacred Oath
22. A book posted in one of the ATY Best Book of the Month threads

June
23. A cross genre novel
24. A book about racism or race relations
25. A book set on an island
26. A short book (less than 210 pages) by a new-to-you author

July
27. A book with a character who can be found in a deck of cards
28. A book connected to ice
29. A book that you consider comfort reading
30. A long book

August
31. A book by an author whose career spanned more than 21 years
32. A book whose cover shows more than 2 people
33. A collection of short stories, essays, or poetry
34. A book with a travel theme
35. A book set in a country on or below the Tropic of Cancer

September
36. A book with six or more words in the title
37. A book from the Are You Well Read in World Literature list
38. A book related to a word given by a random word generator
39. A book involving an immigrant

October
40. A book with flowers or greenery on the cover
41. A book by a new-to-you BIPOC author
42. A mystery or thriller
43. A book with elements of magic

November
44. A book whose title contains a negative
45. A book related to a codeword from the NATO Phonetic Alphabet
46. A winner or nominee from the 2020 Goodreads Choice Awards
47. A non-fiction book other than biography, autobiography or memoir
48. A book that might cause someone to react “You read what?!?”

December
49. A book with an ensemble cast
50. A book published in 2021
51. A book whose title refers to person(s) without giving their name
52. A book related to "the end"

First Quarter Reading Ideas:

January:
Real-life book club: No Rules Rules
nyrb-Litsy: The True Deceiver
LT 1001 Book: Martin Chuzzelwit
BookSpin: With My Dog Eyes, The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree*
#FoodandLit - Brazil: With My Dog Eyes
RT Buddy Read: Infinite Jest*

February:
Real-life book club: The City We Became
nyrb-Litsy: A Month in the Country*
LT 1001 Book: The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas
BookSpin: Confessions of an English Opium Eater, The Drowned World
#FoodandLit - Vietnam: The Sorrow of War, The Best We Could Do, Memories of a Pure Spring

March:
Real-life book club: How Not to be Wrong
nyrb-Litsy: The Hearing Trumpet
LT 1001 Book: The Book of Evidence
BookSpin: On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, In the Dream House
#FoodandLit - Ethiopia:

-----------------------

Key:
strike through book linked - A book I read this year
strike through - A book I have read before and don't plan to reread
book linked - A book I am thinking of reading for the relevant group/challenge/theme
book title - A book that I haven't read and currently don't plan to read
* - A book I own (paper copy)

Second Quarter Reading Ideas:

April:
Real-life book club: New York Stories / The Age of Innocence
nyrb-Litsy: Skylark
LT 1001 Book: Heartbreak Tango
BookSpin:
#FoodandLit - Israel:

May:
Real-life book club: Caste
nyrb-Litsy: During the Reign of the Queen of Persia
LT 1001 Book: Hideous Kinky
BookSpin: By the Open Sea, Three Lives
#FoodandLit - Norway:

June:
Real-life book club: Deacon King Kong
nyrb-Litsy: Lolly Willows
LT 1001 Book: The Glimpses of the Moon
BookSpin: The Glimpses of the Moon, Hadrian the Seventh
#FoodandLit - Russia: The Artamonov Business

-----------------------

Key:
strike through book linked - A book I read this year
strike through - A book I have read before and don't plan to reread
book linked - A book I am thinking of reading for the relevant group/challenge/theme
book title - A book that I haven't read and currently don't plan to read
* - A book I own (paper copy)

Third Quarter Reading Ideas:

July:
Real-life book club: Sin in the Second City
nyrb-Litsy: The Go-Between
LT 1001 Book: Blaming
BookSpin: Bartleby & Co, Vipers' Tangle
#FoodandLit - Morocco:

August:
Real-life book club:
nyrb-Litsy: Free Day
LT 1001 Book:
BookSpin:
#FoodandLit - Pakistan: Basti

September:
Real-life book club:
nyrb-Litsy:
LT 1001 Book:
BookSpin:
#FoodandLit - Guatemala:

-----------------------

Key:
strike through book linked - A book I read this year
strike through - A book I have read before and don't plan to reread
book linked - A book I am thinking of reading for the relevant group/challenge/theme
book title - A book that I haven't read and currently don't plan to read
* - A book I own (paper copy)

Fourth Quarter Reading Ideas:

October:
Real-life book club:
nyrb-Litsy:
LT 1001 Book:
BookSpin:
#FoodandLit - Zambia:

November:
Real-life book club:
nyrb-Litsy:
LT 1001 Book:
BookSpin:
#FoodandLit - Mexico:

December:
Real-life book club:
nyrb-Litsy:
LT 1001 Book:
BookSpin:
#FoodandLit - Philippines:

-----------------------

Key:
strike through book linked - A book I read this year
strike through - A book I have read before and don't plan to reread
book linked - A book I am thinking of reading for the relevant group/challenge/theme
book title - A book that I haven't read and currently don't plan to read
* - A book I own (paper copy)

And another spare.

If you were trying to hide from me next year, Liz, you failed! Bwahahahaha!

Dropping a star. I'm thinking of having a thread over here, too.

Great to see you set up here, I look forward to following all your reading and getting lots of book bullets, especially for the 1,001 list.

>17 katiekrug: Yay, my first visitor is Katie!

>18 DeltaQueen50: I would say I am happy to follow you in this group, but your thread is the one with all those devilish, tempting chocolates ;)

And now my thread is more or less set-up. That is until I find six more challenges I want to include...

I have been told by several relatives that I need to visit NYC. Glad to be able to visit it virtually through your thread! Have a great reading year :)

I love your NYC photos and connections to your plans. The Wayne and I were just talking about how much we miss going into the city. *sigh*

(I am also a fan of the free SI Ferry crossing as a way to show visitors water views.)

(I am *aghast* that you referred to Grand Central as a Station and not a Terminal ;-) )

(I have made a ridiculously long spreadsheet of possible books to read for the Around the Year challenge... I think I enjoy the list-making more than the reading sometimes.)

>20 rabbitprincess: Shockingly, I've don't think I've ever been told that I need to visit Ottawa. Quebec City, yes, and Toronto as well (I've been to Montreal). But never Ottawa.

>21 katiekrug: I think of Grand Central as a subway station first and only rarely as a train terminal. :P

Well, ok...

>22 ELiz_M: Then I will tell you to visit Ottawa ;) But I agree, you do need to visit Quebec City, which is gorgeous. And Toronto is fun especially during the film festival.

Welcome. It's always fun to follow what others are reading - although somewhat dangerous.

>24 rabbitprincess: I agree with RP, you need to visit Ottawa and Quebec City. One of my favorite vacations of the last several years was a driving tour to both with Montreal as stop 3.

And welcome! Looking forward to your reviews!

Oh, the Metropolitan was the highlight of my visit to NYC, a long time ago...I'll be watching your Around the Year challenge closely.

>24 rabbitprincess:, >26 NinieB: Someday, if we're ever allowed to travel....

>25 dudes22: Thanks!

>27 MissWatson: It is fantastic, isn't it? :)

Great pics! Good luck with your 2021 reading.

Wonderful theme! I love that the lion is wearing a mask.

I adore your theme! NYC is my favorite place to visit and we try to go there at least once a year. One of my favorite memories is when we were walking through Central Park in March in the snow while the St. Patrick's Day parade was happening. Also, when we were at the Met and stumbled across the room that had all the art that wasn't on the wall. Amazing to be able to stroll through there and see painting after painting.

Will definitely be following you next year.

A great challenge and great pictures. Have fun with your 2021 reading.

What a fun theme to your challenge! Happy reading.

>29 Tess_W:, >32 hailelib:, >33 thornton37814: Thanks!

>30 VivienneR: Patience and/or Fortitude (I forget which lion is which) are very good examples for us all! I took that photo myself last week. :)

>31 LittleTaiko: :) Hmm, Central Park....I might need to add a miscellaneous category so I can include it!

Almost done with the holiday cookies. Half the packages are in the mail; the rest need to get boxed and taken to the post office.

>35 ELiz_M: - So do I PM you my address or..... ?

;-)

>36 katiekrug: - Exactly what I was thinking!

>36 katiekrug: There are two boxes on their way to Jersey, should you choose to intercept them.
>37 LittleTaiko: :P You are out of luck as the one box heading to CA probably won't go near Texas.

The Reading Women challenge was announced a few days ago and post >10 ELiz_M: is now updated with challenge prompts

>39 ELiz_M: Thank you for the comment pointing to the reading women challenge. I read 66% women authors anyway, according to LT, but it's fun to see if meeting challenges helps add diversity within that group.

>39 ELiz_M: I don't need another challenge. I don't... *peeking at post 10*. Oh yes. Trapped again.

>10 ELiz_M: Oh that does look good. I'm at 2/3rd female authors this year, and will complete my bingo card just using female authors. That is an interesting set of prompts... Although some of them strike me as having been written with a book in mind! As someone who doesn't read fantasy, how many Asian women writers are there in that genre?

>41 MissWatson: Happy to help! ;)

>42 Helenliz: I've often thought that as well - prompts are written for specific books and don't have enough options to fulfill them. It's also why I rarely bother to attempt a whole challenge. If I complete half the prompts, I'm satisfied.

ETA: oops edited out the all-important negative in the first sentence ~facepalm~

>42 Helenliz: >43 ELiz_M: I tend to ignore the prompts geared to social media, as I am not at all active there. But I do like the way these challenges make me think about how to leave the comfort zone.

>42 Helenliz: The only female Asian fantasy writer I can think of off the top of my head is Zen Cho, who lives in the UK but is Malaysian by birth. If it helps, I really liked her Sorcerer to the Crown, which is set in a magical version of 19th-century England!

>42 Helenliz:, >45 christina_reads: If/When I get to it, I will likely use the LT tagmash for ideas.

I hope your holidays are happier and less ridiculous-looking than Bert in his Christmas sweater.

Oh poor Bert! He is quite handsome even with the sweater. Happy Holidays!!

A cat that handsome could never look ridiculous!

>47 ELiz_M: I wonder if the word you're looking for is distainful, that's a very superior look. Bert is very handsome.

Reminds me of a cat that used to sit on a corner wall as I walked to school. As we went to school he'd be at the right end of the wall, be stroked all the way along the wall and then go back to find the next group of kids. And in the evening, he'd be waiting for us all going the other way. >:-) No idea what his name was, we all called him Smokey.

>48 LittleTaiko:, >49 katiekrug:, >50 Helenliz: He is a very pretty boy. His sweater made his body slim-looking and then his head appeared enormous. I giggled every time I saw him slink around a corner. It was definitely more of a look of disgust than disdain. :D

My modest Christmas book haul. My family never gives me books -- they know I will use birthmas money to purchase what I want from the indie store(s) I want to support.

So, one book from mum, one book from santathing, and two books from a Litsy exchange.

I'm hoping to finally get to the Evaristo in the new year...

Happy New Year, Liz. I love your New York-themed challenge. What a wonderful tour of some of the sights of your great city! Thank you for sharing. Wishing you a wonderful year of reading.

>53 katiekrug:, >54 lkernagh: Thanks for stopping by! I get overwhelmed by all the new year posting, but hope to get around to most people's threads over the next few weeks.

My goals for 2021 are basically the same, except with my Social Justice category, I will up the non-fiction goal to 12 books.

>56 ELiz_M: - It looks like you did really well on your goals. Me? Not so much. I don't even remember if I had goals... ;-)

>56 ELiz_M: I think you did very well with your goals!

Happy New Year, Liz. I look forward to following your reading. You have some great plans. Good luck!

And keep up with my friends here, Liz. Have a great 2021.

>57 katiekrug: See, that is the problem with social media -- your past self and ambitions are there for all of posterity!

>58 Tess_W:, >59 BLBera: Thank you! And thanks for stopping by; it's so nice to have visitors.

>60 PaulCranswick: Excellent, a cheat sheet for New Years resolutions so I don't have to think of my own. :) Although, I will be replacing the tea with (far too much) coffee.

Thanks to my family for birthmas money, I made the rounds to four of my favorite bookstores yesterday. A nice start to the new year!

Nice!

Nice haul!

Oh, you've picked up some very interesting books - looking forward to reading your thoughts on them.

>62 ELiz_M: Yay the Emily Wilson translation of The Odyssey! I had hoped to read it last year, but didn't get around to it. It looks great though.

>63 katiekrug:, >64 Tess_W: :)
>65 DeltaQueen50: With 353 owned-tbr, it might be a few years.....

>66 rabbitprincess: The Iliad and The Odyssey are both newish translations done by women. Purchase was inspired by December's read of The silence of the Girls

.

January Litsy Book Spin Bingo card. Bookspin = N2 With My Dog Eyes and DoubleSpin = I3 The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree

With My Dog Eyes by Hilda Hilst, pub. 1986
Finished 3-Jan-2021
Statue of Liberty - translated books

This is one of those books where the author/backstory is better than the work itself. Hilda Hilst was a contemporary of the more well-known Brazilian author Clarice Lispector. From a very wealthy family with a history of schizophrenia and dementia, she gave up pursuit of a law career and a socialite lifestyle to build a home on remote lands owned by her family, allowing her to live life as she saw fit (dozens of dogs, many lovers, and supplicant literary apprentices). She read widely and eclectically, influenced by Bertrand Russell, Elias Canetti, Allan Kardec, and Ernest Becker. She considered herself to be Beckett's successor.

This avant-garde novella depicts mathematician Amos Keres’ decent into incoherent madness. Told completely from his perspective, the interiority of a man that has lost the plot, the the only glimpse of the world is from his slight awareness of how people react to him. It is a most unusual book, mixing fragments of thoughts, shards of memory from childhood as well as recent, and poetry (it includes a fabulous poem about geometric shapes). While it might be a perfect book for the year that was 2020, I certainly did not learn much about Brazil (I read it for a Brazil reading challenge prompt) and I am not sure I'd recommend it.

Did I miss how your BookSpin Bingo works? How do you pick which books go in the rotation?

>70 katiekrug: Ooops, I completely forgot to post an explanation, since it took so darned long to create the image. It's a Litsy challenge. You create a list of 20-25 books and the organizer picks two numbers (from 1-20) for the BookSpin and the DoubleSpin. The organizer then picks numbers 1-25 to create the bingo board (so, a minimum of 20 books and then up to 5 free spaces if you've only listed 20 books). :)

>71 ELiz_M: - Fun! I started a conversation on my thread (75ers, not CC) about narrowing down TBR choices. The Litsy challenge sounds like a cool way to do it.

>71 ELiz_M: I LOVE the BookSpinBingo! This month I discovered that it is especially useful for reminding me to read library ebooks ;)

>67 ELiz_M: Ooh, adding that Iliad translation to my to-buy list then! Confirming: is it the Caroline Alexander translation?

>72 katiekrug: It is! Since I am reading I4 for bookclub and I3 was chosen, I am going to attempt to read all the books in the "I "column.

>73 rabbitprincess: Yes, it is the CA trans. for the Iliad. I "had to" stop by a fourth bookstore to find it in stock. ;)

>62 ELiz_M: Nice haul.

The book spin bingo looks like fun, but may be beyond my technological ability. :)

>76 BLBera: I added the low-tech version of BookSpin Bingo to >68 ELiz_M: ;)

Random technical query: why does LT not like image files added to junk drawer?
.

The image on the left was uploaded to a goodreads group. The image on the right is the exact same image file added to my LT junk drawer. Both are added to the post with the html code (Img src="...) and right-clicking on the image file to "copy image location" to get the url.

The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree by Shokoofeh Azar, pub. 2017
Finished 8-Jan-2021
Statue of Liberty - translated books

Magical realism set during the years following the 1979 Iranian revolution. Bahar, a young ghost, narrates the story of her family, the village to which they fled, and the country at large. Weaving in myths and fairy-tales into her family’s experiences, with very real world events thrusting forward causing moments of crises. It’s a story told out-of-order, adding layers of imagery and emotions, building to the last 100 pages when it becomes mesmerizing.

>78 ELiz_M: - I have no clue.

>79 ELiz_M: - Sounds good!

Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin, pub. 2014
Finished 10-Jan-2021, 11-Jan-2021
Statue of Liberty - translated books

An apt title. It starts near the end with David, a young boy, precociously guiding Amanda through the events that led her to be in a hospital bed, dying, asking for her daughter Nina. But this is only the framework, the actual text is inexplicable. There are two story lines, both of which are frightening, both of which are told by unreliable narrators, both of which are nonlinear, and neither is logical. Immediately on finishing, I started over. And was left with even more questions. A day later I can barely remember the stories or the questions, just the sense of growing dread.

>78 ELiz_M: Sorry, can't help. Love your low-tech versions. :)

The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree sounds like one I would like, not sure about the Schweblin.

>80 katiekrug:, >82 BLBera: If you get to it, I hope you enjoy it!

Time's Arrow by Martin Amis, pub. 1991
Finished 16-Jan-2021
Empire State Building - 1001 Books

Few people lead lives that are remarkable from beginning to end. Especially if they have a secret, something unforgivable in their past. Then they guard that secret by being unremarkable, unnoticeable, boring. While this novel had a fabulous concept -- telling a man’s life story from end to beginning, structured in order to build towards the atrocity committed in his youth -- it does mean one has to slog through many, many boring pages with the secret long since guessed and the effect is anticlimactic.

>85 ELiz_M: Ha! Absolutely my idea of a wild night!

Catching up on your new thread and I love the pictures of the city, which make me homesick for living in a big city (mine is Munich) and all the easy access to art and people-watching. Bert is a handsome fellow.

Fever Dream is still stuck in my head, a few years after reading it and yes, mostly the sense of something being terribly wrong, but also the concept of rescue distance.

>85 ELiz_M: Oh yes, that's very true. >:-)

>85 ELiz_M: - It me.

>86 RidgewayGirl:, >87 Helenliz:, >88 katiekrug: I thought it might resonate with a few of the people here ;)

>86 RidgewayGirl: Yes he is. And when is behaving I will even tell him so. Fever Dream is certainly unique and cause strong reactions!

>85 ELiz_M: I think we can all identify with this.

>90 BLBera: Yep, we are wild and crazy group!!

My copy of the Caroline Alexander Iliad arrived today! Thanks for putting it on my radar :)

>92 rabbitprincess: You are quite welcome. I hope you enjoy it!

Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi, pub. 2010
Finished 20-Jan-2021
Statue of Liberty - translated books

Set in Oman, this novel has a story arc best described as a Spirograph. It’s centered on Abdallah, who narrates almost every other chapter, with most of the rest narrated by various women - his wife Mayya, his daughter London, Zarifa, the slave who raised him, his sisters and mother-in-law. Their reminiscences, linked by theme, swirl from present to past. Some stories are tightly focused, some circle wider, and some spin off in a different direction altogether, but all are circumscribing a culture that is transitioning from a traditional, rural way of life to a more modernized and urban one.

>94 ELiz_M: Glad you enjoyed this book. It is on my TBR pile.

Well, this is definitely the earliest I've gone off the rails in keeping my thread up-to-date. Did I mention I hate writing reviews?

------



Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge, pub. 2017
Finished 25-Jan-2021
Union Square - Social Justice

In 2014, Reni Eddo-Lodge published a blog post that went viral. The post, that she later characterized as a break-up letter to whiteness, had obviously struck a nerve, eloquently describing the difficulty in engaging with people that don’t understand “…that not everyone experiences the world in the way that they do.” and how “…they try to interrupt, itching to talk over you but not really listen, because they need to let you know that you’ve got it wrong.” The differences in worldviews and experience made communication exhausting and nearly impossible, she can no longer “…have a conversation with them about the details of a problem if they don’t even recognize that the problem exists.”

The viral blog post was followed by years of talking about race at symposiums and schools and resulted in this important book. As a journalist, Eddo-Lodge is able to lay out complicated intersecting issues in clear, concise prose. The book had six main sections, touching on difference aspects of racism: Histories, The System, What Is White Privilege?, Fear of a Black Planet, The Feminism Question, and Race and Class. Each section is grounded in stories and personal experience to contextualize the studies and statistics that confirm universality.

I found it to be an enjoyable and enlightening read - a less academic, introduction to anti-racism - possibly due to the fact that it is not the first book I’ve read on the subject this past year and also, perhaps, because it focuses on Britain rather than the US.

I gave up on reviews long ago because it was too much work. Now I just write a few comments and impressions. Yes, I am that lazy.

>96 ELiz_M:
>97 katiekrug:

I hate to write reviews, also. I just write 3-4 sentences to remind myself about what I read. Since I used to write a lot for my job, I don't like to now do it, unless I have to!

>96 ELiz_M: I tend to just brain dump and ignore if they make any sense to anyone else.
I've seen that one about, and I think I should be tempted.

Thanks, I appreciate the moral (immoral?) support, but I really should just amend >96 ELiz_M: to "I hate writing" because all of these (>97 katiekrug:, >98 Tess_W:, >99 Helenliz: ) are what I consider as writing a review. :P

Rather than spending an hour thinking about what I just read and typing it up, I just want to start reading the next book!

The True Deceiver by Tove Jansson, pub. 1982
Finished 27-Jan-2021
New York Public Library - nyrb books

Beautifully, sparsely told, it depicts the inevitable change when these two complex women with differing characteristics and ideals collide.

Katri, an accountant, is brilliant with numbers but a harsh critic of people. The only person she can love is her brother Mats, a child-like man who loves adventure novels and boats. Determined to acquire enough money to buy Mats a boat, Katri insinuates herself into the life of the town’s wealthiest inhabitant.

Anna, an artist, has led a sheltered life. Having most of her needs met without effort, she willfully maintains her equilibrium, putting unpleasantness out of sight and trusting other people to make decisions for her. A painter of the ground, she adds the bunnies required for the children’s book publisher and spends much time answering children’s letters, while ignoring the business concerns.

At first, Katri’s insinuation into Anna's life is beneficial, freeing Anna from social niceties and business concerns. But inevitably their different temperaments create an almost unbearable tension and conflict – Katri stripping away Anna’s trust in people by showing how everyone cheats her and Anna undermining the Katri’s bonds with Mats and her dog.

While this is mostly the story of Katri and Anna, Jansson uses both third & first-person narratives, refusing to allow the reader to identify with and emphasize with just one character. Further, the viewpoints of various townspeople are used to delineate other characters, showing reactions to a conversation or actions, and thus telling a fuller story without bogging it down with exposition. In the end, Jansson leaves the reader wondering who true, who is the deceiver and who is deceived?

A friend in Europe offered to look for a book on the 1001-list that might not be easily found on the US. In making a list of the books that aren't available through my libraries and not affordable in the used book market, I did, of course, also have a list of books not at libraries that were less than $10. 😁

Anticipating the arrival of a half-dozen packages made January bearable.

February Litsy Book Spin Bingo card.
Bookspin = N5 Confessions of an English Opium Eater
DoubleSpin = G3 The Drowned World

>101 ELiz_M: - Ooh, I have this one on my shelves! I'll have to take it down and put on my Read Soon cart.

>103 ELiz_M: - Not that you asked, but I HIGHLY recommend getting to A Month in the Country sooner rather than later. It's lovely.

>104 katiekrug: Will do, as it is a book club read with a discussion on Sunday.

Confessions of an English Opium-Eater by Thomas De Quincey, pub. 1821
Finished 7-Feb-2021
Greenwood Cemetery - miscellaneous books

De Quincey is informally known as the father of the drug memoir, his influence mostly notably seen in Burroughs and Ballard. But if modern drug memoirs are hard to follow, this one is made more difficult by the florid, Romantic writing style; a slim volume that takes too long to read. It is divided into several sections, the first a relatively straight-forward and enjoyable telling of his wayward youth as a runaway in Wales and London, followed by an introduction, “The Pleasures of Opium” another introduction with biographical detail followed by “The Pains of Opium”. At first I was engaged with the essay, in that I was trying to make sense of it by comparing it to what little I know of opium consumption (probably a combination of Trainspotting and the Cumberbatch Sherlock Holmes), but I quickly grew tired of the overly descriptive, convoluted style.



ETA: Also, I am annoyed that this is NOT on the 1001-list. I was so sure it was and probably would not have read it otherwise. :(

Memories of a Pure Spring by Dương Thu Hương, pub. 1996
Finished 14-Feb-2021
Statue of Liberty - translated books

Set in post-war Vietnam, this novel tells the story of Hung and Suong (and Vietnam). Beginning near the end, at a climactic moment in their relationship the past is told out-of-sequence in flashbacks and memories from several different points of view.

Hung, a composer and head of a troupe of a travelling troupe of performers hears a young Suong singing to her sibling. She joins the trope and become Hung’s wife, as well as star performer, as they travel the country singing for the troops, both gaining renown. At the end of the war, Hung is out-maneuvered and sidelined by a military man he had inadvertently insulted years ago. Despondent, dependent on Suong’s fame and talent, Hung makes a mistake and then a series of increasingly stupid decisions that almost destroy his family.

The first half, with the descriptions of the hardships of the war and early days under communism, was fascinating and a scene in a prison appalling. But this should have been a heart-breaking story. I never quite connected with the characters; after a while their inner thoughts seemed clichéd and I became bored by the increasingly terrible circumstances.

I hope your next read is not the 3rd in a trio of duds!

I like how you set up your bingo card! I haven't put together my list for March yet... I have an obscene (for me) amount of library books out and can't decide which ones to put on the list.

>108 katiekrug: It wasn't :) (I am behind on reviews)

>109 rabbitprincess: The shortest and/or quickest reads.

>110 ELiz_M: I went with "the ones that have the most people waiting for them" :D

Reviewed in my 1001-Books thread (click the picture to read the full review):



Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace, pub. 1996
Finished 21-Feb-2021
Empire State Building - 1001 Books

I do not have anything new to add to hundred of webpages, published articles, and personal reviews of this novel, but I mostly enjoyed reading it (DFW can write deeply enthralling stories as well as some rather boring and/or esoteric descriptions) and finding connections and cameos in and between the various characters and plots.

The Drowned World by J. G. Ballard, pub. 1962
Finished 23-Feb-2021
Empire State Building - 1001 Books

A sudden destabilization of the sun seems an odd choice (now) to explain a warming planet and the melting of polar ice caps, but I guess in the 1960s scientists were only just beginning to understand the greenhouse effect. In this future world, the population has been reduced to 5 million people living in the temperate Arctic and Antarctic zones. Robert Kerans is a biologist working with a team based in northern Greenland mapping the changing coastlines and evolving flora and fauna, currently stationed in what had been London. Daily temperatures average in the 140s, radiation has spurred the growth of monstrous plants and iguanas, and the rains are coming. But it is not the ever-worsening climate that has Colonel Riggs worried. The men are having dreams. Dreams that are overtaking reality.

Although there are strong echos of HG Wells and Conrad, Ballard's narrator is focused inward, and competing forces of law-and-order and a descent into anarchy are backgrounded. Instead the novel explores ideas of ancient, biologically encoded memory. Too much time spent in the Triassic-like environment is forcing man to adapt, to draw upon the ancient ways of being and compelling them South to search for the all-encompassing sun of their dreams. The descriptions of the world are amazing and more than make up for the cardboard characters populating it.

The Nice and the Good by Iris Murdoch, pub. 1968
Finished 26-Feb-2021
Gay Pride Parade - LGBTQIA+ authors

What a refreshing read after the previous two! Iris Murdoch is an excellent, erudite writer; something about her prose forces me to slow down a little. And she has the most amazing ability to make me peevishly anxious for her characters, particularly John Ducane.

John is a legal advisor to a government agency and is asked by Octavian to quietly investigate an employee's work-place suicide. The investigation into one man's death and life leads to unsavory and downright weirdness (this is Murdoch after all!). John considers himself a good man, but over the course of his investigation has to grapple with the appearance of goodness versus actually being good, both in his personal and professional lives.

This is only a part of the story, however. The rest of it revolves around Octavian, his wife Kate, and the assortment of people living at their Dorset estate. The half dozen characters they've collected around themselves are also grappling with love and goodness in one way or another and, as in any proper romantic comedy, suffer minor mishaps before sorting themselves out.

You've done some good reading lately, Liz. The Drowned World has been on my list for awhile.

I am also a Murdoch fan although I haven't read this one. I have a few of hers on my shelves that I want to read.

>115 BLBera: If you do get around to The Drowned World, I would love to hear your thoughts on it! My review above doesn't even touch upon the aspects of the novel that fascinated and confounded me (ie what was the purpose of that character/scene types of questions).

A Month in the Country by J. L. Carr, pub. 1980
Finished 27-Feb-2021
New York Public Library - nyrb books

An eccentric, wealthy villager leaves money to the local church on the condition that a religious wall painting that had been plastered over is restored and that an attempt be made to find an ancestor’s grave. Tom Birkin, recently returned from war agrees to take on the restoration commission cheaply in order to establish his professional reputation. He arranges his living quarters in the belfry and the villagers arrange for his inclusion in their society. Over the course of the summer months, Tom’s recovery keeps pace with the uncovering of the work of art.

This is a quiet, old fashioned novel. Told from the perspective on an older man looking back on an idyllic summer of work, healing and a love that could have been. While not much seems to happen, Carr subtly (and not-so subtly) comments on several themes – religion, class, art, war. He is also brilliant at conveying character in a few words and the descriptions of the painting and the countryside are just lovely.

And now that I've finally finished February's reviews, I can start posting March things!



March Litsy Book Spin Bingo card.
Bookspin = On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
DoubleSpin = In the Dream House

>117 ELiz_M: - Glad it found another fan...

>119 katiekrug: If you've recommended it, how can one not be a fan? ;)

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong, pub. 2019
Finished 2-Mar-2021
Gay Pride Parade - LGBTQIA+ authors

My most anticipated read, the one I have been waiting and waiting to be issued in paperback, perhaps suffered for it. Brought to the US as a toddler by an abusive and loving mother eventually sharing the home with his schizophrenic and knowing grandmother, the narrator lives in an unsteady world that can only be made sense of in translation as he writes himself into existence.

Masquerading as a letter to his illiterate mother, the fragments of the novel are connected thematically, an image from one memory linking to a story told by his grandmother, eventually depicting a brutal life, growing up in a housing project in Hartford, at fourteen getting work as a manual labor on a tobacco farm, falling in trouble and love with a poor white boy, addicted to opioids and reckless living. Some of the moments that are grounded in reality are stunning but raw and difficult and while the ruminations were expressed beautifully, they didn’t resonate. I have loved other novels written by poets, even ones with similar story arcs, but this one was a little too ephemeral, too flitting, too unrelatable.

>117 ELiz_M: I have a soft spot for that one as well. It's one of those nothing much happens and yet everything changes books.

>122 Helenliz: In the Litsy discussion about this being a quiet novel - I described it as tinged with regret as it's partly about what didn't happen.

She by H. Rider Haggard, pub. 1886
Finished 7-Mar-2021
Empire State Building - 1001 Books

I was really hoping this would be a more rollicking adventure story. But I had forgotten how ploddingly descriptive 19th century novels can be and H. Rider Haggard does not have the gift of making an exhaustive depiction of every moment of the journey into the interior of Africa interesting.

Also being a 19th century novel, it does mean that some of the language and characterizations are, how shall we say...?, outdated. But it could have been so much worse! The chief of the African tribe is a more humane and well-rounded character than one of the white men and the antagonist, She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed, is a light-skinned woman from what was part of the Arabic world. All in all, it wasn't not the worst thing I’ve read.

You have read some very interesting books!
I bought A Month in the Country ages ago but never found the right moment to read it. Maybe this year!

I also loved A Month in the Country, Liz. I will get to The Drowned World eventually. I always try to change the selections for my dystopian fiction class, and this would be a good candidate.

Half-blood Blues by Esi Edugyan, pub. 2011
Finished 8-Mar-2021
Subway - Minority Voices

Half Blood Blues is cleverly told in two timelines. It opens with a climactic scene in 1940s occupied Paris with the accidentally hidden narrator watching “the kid” get arrested by Nazi officers and then immediately jumps to 1992 Berlin and the events surrounding a festival to honor a famous Jazz recording, the only one ever made featuring the kid that was arrested in the first scene.

The rest of the novel alternates between these two story lines as we learn how each of these events came to pass. There is a whiff of Amadeus about this story – the narrator had been a good Jazz musician, but not as talented as his lifelong friend Chip or a genius like Hiero (the kid). And like the narrator of that play/movie, there are themes of jealousy and selfishness and small-mindedness. It is hard to see why Hiero looked up to the narrator or how he was able to have an affair with the beautiful Delilah. A good read.

>127 ELiz_M: - I was just thinking about Amadeus this morning and how I should put it on my re-watch list. Guess I should now add this book to the TBR list!

The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill, pub. 2007
Finished 10-Mar-2021
Subway - Minority Voices

This was re-titled as Someone Knows My Name for the American market. I assumed it had been the other way around, with the title switched TO The Book of Negroes to align with a TV mini-series. The American title encompasses the novel as a whole, while the Canadian title focuses on a much smaller part of the novel.

It is a relatively long book, but it also covers an extraordinary amount of story: Aminata Diallo was kidnapped in West Africa and put on a slave ship which has a failed revolt for the American colonies. She is sold to a plantation owner in South Carolina where the family just started is torn apart. She is resold to a "good" Jewish townsman and eventually travels to New York City where she flees her Master and hides just as the Revolutionary War breaks out. She assists the British and helps enter the names of Black loyalists in the Book of Negroes as they are evacuated by the British to Nova Scotia. In Nova Scotia terrible conditions stoke racial resentment and Aminata leaves with an abolitionist funded group determined to return to Africa and create a settlement there. Once in Africa, she attempts to travel to her birth village, but time and circumstances prevent it. Finally, she is persuaded to travel to London to be a poster child for the abolitionist's cause. And throughout all these events, she doesn't meet anyone that can pronounce her name correctly, except her husband, part of the African group that kidnapped her that ends up on the same slave ship, sold to the SC plantation next door, finds her in NYC, and evacuated to Novia Scotia....

I fond the novel to be almost too smoothly written. And while in the afterword, Hill explained how it was possible for one person's life to encompass all these events, it was too much for any depth; it was all surface and there are far too many coincidences moving the plot forward. After 500 pages, it still didn't feel real.

As a side note, I couldn't help but wonder if both the above novels would have been improved if written by the other author.

Snow and Shadow by Dorothy Tse, pub. 2014
Finished 12-Mar-2021
Statue of Liberty - translated books

I don’t remember where I heard of this story collection, but I was looking for a book written by a woman born in Hong Kong for a challenge prompt and happened upon it somewhere. It is a disorienting collection, each story beginning realistically and then veering off into the magical or the surreal.

Some are hauntingly beautiful, like “The Love Between Leaf and Knife” which depicts the dawning realization of a couple that their love has turned to resentment as they try to out-do each other in performative devotion. Or “A Street in the Wind” which depicts a family and how each member loses touch with reality in a different way. Or “Black Cat City” a place where the inhabitant’s memories are drifting away.

Some of the stories are absurd, such as “Head” in which a son wakes up without a head so his father gives his head to the son. Or “The Mute Door” in which a building whose apartment doors are nonsequentially numbered and appear randomly, requiring residents to camp out in the corridors until their door appears.

But in all the stories, there is a subterranean level of foreboding; these stories are not for the faint of heart, with themes of violence, sexual exploitation, and death running throughout.

An Equal Music by Vikram Seth, pub. 1999
Finished 13-Mar-2021
Subway - Minority Voices

As the author of one of my favorite books, I have been meaning to read another of Seth's novels for years. As expected, it doesn't quite live up to A Suitable Boy (but then again it is 1092 pages shorter, so....).

Michael is an unlikely musician. He grew up in an unremarkable town in Northern England where his family ran a shop. His love of classical music is instigated and developed by Mrs. Formby, the town's wealthiest citizen. While unable to study music in university, Michael is able to convince an admired musician and professor in Vienna to take him on as a student. It is in Vienna where he meets Julia and they fall in love. But Michael is increasingly at odds with his mentor, disastrously so, and he abruptly throws everything over and flees Vienna.

The present tense of the novel is set ten years later with Michael managing, barely, to make a living as a member of chamber group and by giving private lessons. While not exactly happy, he's reached an equilibrium of sorts. And then one day, he catches a glimpse of Julia from a bus window and his life is upended again.

The writing is very good and it easy to be both invested in Michael's well-being and also annoyed at the stupidity of his actions and decisions. But even as one is immersed in the story, there is a feeling of offness--Julia doesn't quite seem real, doesn't seem right and the plot points are over-dramatic. But I still enjoyed thoroughly the classical music milieu -- the discussions of which pieces to perform at concert, the sorting out of a recording contract for an extraordinary piece of music rarely performed, Michael's relationship with the violin loaned to him by his benefactor Mrs. Fromby and the fear that one day she will take it back and although the plot twist in unbelievable, it was fascinating to see how the characters handled it. All in all a good read.

In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado, pub. 2019
Finished 17-Mar-2021
Gay Pride Parade - LGBTQIA+ authors

Written as a series of vignettes, each one titled “The Dream House as….” Each episode is a different take on an aspect of an abusive relationship. A specific moment, a memory, a mood.

Throughout there is a reflection on how her story is both singular and universal. While a couple of chapters were too academic, many of the rest displayed a wry humor that I loved and "The Dream House as Choose Your Own Adventure" was bleeping brilliant. This really worked for me, even more than her short story collection.

(Apparently I enjoy narrative non-fiction, as I also loved JW's non-fiction "Why Be Happy When You Can Be Normal?" more than her novel based on the same life events).

Several good books in a row! Always a nice feeling...

>133 katiekrug: Yes! It's been such an weird reading year -- I keep ending up with rather odd surrealist works for various challenges and book groups, so I have to balance those out with dependably good books.

Now to get through all the March reviews so I can finally post a quarterly round-up....

Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope, pub. 1857
Finished 24-Mar-2021
Greenwood Cemetery - miscellaneous

I am a lazy reader and although it would have been better to have some understanding of the different factions in the Church of England and the barest knowledge of the workings of parliament, decided to just go with the flow*** and glean a general understanding that the various characters didn’t like each other’s politics. Once you get past the first few chapters of boring church politics, this is really a charming love quadrangle and love tangle that gently ridicules the inhabitants of Barchester.

The Bishop has died and the newly appointed Bishop quickly upends the lives of much of the clergy. Subject to the warring forces of his wife, Mrs. Proudie, and Chaplain, Mr. Obiadah Slope, and Archdeacon Gantly, he dithers over re-appointing Mr. Harding as warden to a hospital. He calls back clergymen that had been living away from the city, most notably Dr. Stanhope who return with his three disruptive children. He hosts a party, unknowingly forcing different classes to rub elbows. Eventually, all the players are in place to hear the gossip that Mr. Harding’s widowed daughter, Eleanor Bold, is rather wealthy and they realize winning her hand would be quite beneficial.

There are some brilliant set pieces –the best being a priceless scene at the Proudie’s party and although told in third-person, the authorial voice can be amusingly opinionated, he even deliberately spoils the ending and proceeds to admonish the reader for thinking the novel could end in such a manner. More Dickens that Austen (those character names! The many pages!), it is a generally fun read.

***However, you should learn from my mistake and either procure an edition with sufficient footnotes or, even better, consult the LT tutored read

The Hearing Trumpet by Leonora Carrington, pub. 1974
Finished 27-Mar-2021
New York Public Library - nyrb books

Speaking of surrealism.... This book was chosen by the Litsy nyrb bookclub, mostly due to the author's biography. I don't think they knew what they were in for.

The novel begins almost realistically with the nearly deaf 90-something narrator, Marian Letherby, living with her son's family. A friend presents her with a hearing trumpet and with it's use Marian discovers her son's family are disgusted with her and planning to send her to an old folks home. Once Marian is dispatched to the institution, the novel is all sorts of strange. The institution is basically a cult, complete with conspiracies and murders. There is a painting of a winking or leering nun, who turns out to be Rosalinda Alvarez della Cueva, abbess of the Convent of St. Barbara of Tartarus. Naturally. There is a hunger strike and eventually an ice-age apocalypse.

Despite an off-putting, confounding weirdness it is a fascinating work. Marian is a delightful protagonist and there are some wonderfully clever moments with themes of ageism and feminism and other ways of knowing and experiencing the world.

>135 ELiz_M: - I have a life goal of reading Trollope, because my mother LOVED him. So far, I have read exactly one novel of his. And I liked it! So not sure what the hold up is...

>137 katiekrug: Maybe if you use them as weights for strength training they will become familiar and the length won't be as intimidating?

>136 ELiz_M: I loved this book, particularly the central friendship between Carmella and Miriam. Despite ending in a new Ice Age, it's remarkably optimistic and uplifting. But when I chose it for our book club I was the only one who liked it, apart from one member's mother.

>135 ELiz_M: Another favourite. Did you start with The Warden?

>139 pamelad: I understand the love for this book and I suspect if I read it at "the right time" I would have felt the same. But it wasn't the right book for me when I read it. :)

I read The Warden....back in 2016. But a friend assured me it was really more of a prologue to the rest of the series, so I didn't refresh my memory. According to the posts by the resident LT expert, the rest of the series is easier (not as much arcane church politics). I'm looking forward to them, especially since I bought these pretties:

The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander, pub. 2010
Finished 31-Mar-2021
Union Square - Social Justice

After two months of reading, I finally finished The New Jim Crow. It is an excellent read, but slow, as I spent a lot of time making arguments in my head to Fox-watching family members with all the information I had just read.

Although it was a "10th Anniversary edition" Alexander writes an introduction explaining that it is not expanded or updated, because instead an entirely different book would be needed. Weirdly, the first few chapters discuss the cycle of oppression in terms of caste. She focus so much on developing the idea, that I had to double-check that Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents was indeed written by a different author.

I am finding it impossible to summarize; it is just so full of important, detailed information and Alexander does a fabulous job of explaining the history and unstated but apparent purpose of the current system of mass incarceration and all of the knock-on effects of having "a record". Devastating.

Na d that is the first quarter done and dusted. Let's see how I did on my (unstated) goals.

1) At least 50% of books from the owned-tbr:
10 books of 23 - 43%

2) At Least 50% of 1001-books:
5 books of 23 - 22%

3) At least 33% of books by women or people of color:
16 books of 23 - 70%

4) At least 33% of books translated into English:
7 books of 23 - 30%

5) At least one non-fiction book a month:
3 books in 3 months

So, the fun thing about my goals is that #2 is weighted so heavily white-male, it contradicts goal #3. Clearly next quarter I need to read more 1001-books that I own, hopefully the ones originally written in languages other than English.

I'd say that you did a very good job in regards to your goals!

I don't usually keep track of my thingaversary, but with all the mentions in several threads here, I did notice my eighth was on Mar. 31st.

I may have gone overboard with my purchases:

Wise Children
Peach Blossom Paradise
The Factory
Real Life
The Street
Well-Read Black Girl
The Making of Americans
Barchester Towers
Doctor Thorne
Framley Parsonage
The Small House at Allington
The Last Chronicle of Barset

And finally:



April Litsy Book Spin Bingo card.
Bookspin = Spring
DoubleSpin = Khirbet Khizeh

>143 DeltaQueen50: Thank you! But I really need to keep up with my 1001 reading if I want to be done with it in two years (about 120 books to go!).

>146 ELiz_M: I didn't realize you were that close to finishing! I have years of 1,001 reading ahead of me.

>144 ELiz_M: Happy belated Thingaversary. And the Oxford Trollopes have such lovely covers! That's why I bought them, too. And I liked the stories, too.

>144 ELiz_M: Excellent over-buying. I have sent my list to the bookshop and have similarly over ordered. But then mine is joint thingaversary & birthday. And at the moment what else is one supposed to do for a birthday? Can't go on holiday, can't go out for a meal or a drink (well you can, but only if you sit outside and it's too cold for that to be enjoyable).

Hi Liz
>144 ELiz_M: Nice book haul. Congrats on your thingaversary.

I am finishing The New Jim Crow as well, and "devastating" is an excellent description.

I think you're doing pretty well with your goals as well. I started by wanting to read more from my shelves but lately have given in to the lure of new shiny library books.

>147 DeltaQueen50: Well at my current rate of one book a month, "finishing" is 10 years away :P

>148 MissWatson: Thank you and I'm glad to be in such excellent book-buying company.

>149 Helenliz: I hear this. My birthday is in December, so in these covid times I celebrated by walking to my three favorite indies stores that were allowing limited-capacity in store browsing and purchased nine books.

>150 BLBera: Thank you, but I do still I blame Litsy and a goodreads challenge from distracting me from the 1001-List. :D The first causes fear-of-missing-out so I read new books and for the second it is too difficult to shoehorn 1001-books into the very specific tasks.

>140 ELiz_M: "I read The Warden....back in 2016. But a friend assured me it was really more of a prologue to the rest of the series, so I didn't refresh my memory. According to the posts by the resident LT expert, the rest of the series is easier (not as much arcane church politics)."
I read The Warden earlier this year and this was exactly what I was told by several members of this group! So although The Warden was not my favorite, I'll give Barchester Towers a chance sooner or later.
And those editions are so beautiful!

>152 MissBrangwen: It might actually have been your thread, as well as Litsy, where I gleaned the idea. ;)

Reviewed in my 1001-Books thread (click the picture to read the full review):



Leaden Wings by Jie Zhang, pub. 1981
Finished 2-Apr-2021
Empire State Building - 1001 Books

A solidly written glimpse into a different time and place.

Spring by Ali Smith, pub. 2019
Finished 3-Apr-2021
Gay Pride Parade - LGBTQIA+ authors

Spring, for me was the least compelling of the quartet and perhaps not coincidentally didn't tie as closely to the other three.

Richard, an aging director, grieving the loss of his friend and collaborator, throws over a project for a spontaneous trip north. Brittany, a bright young woman unable to attend university, now working at an Immigration Removal Center, is compelled to accompany a fey child north. The narrative skips between the two narrators, between the climatic events in the fall and the aftermath in spring. Each section is prefaced with experimental passages which are either off-putting or brilliant.

Khirbet Khizeh by S. Yizhar, pub. 1949
Finished 8-Apr-2021
Statue of Liberty - translated books

Set during a single day in the Israeli War of Liberation and the Palestinian nabka (catastrophe), it is one soldier‘s depiction of how they just walk in and take Palestinian lands. Shooting at those spry enough to run, herding the old, the infirm, the women and babies in to trucks to be deposited elsewhere. There is no glory here, just tedium and the suppression of conscience.

According to the afterward, it would be better read in Hebrew; the phrasing echos Biblical verses that would have added a resonance that I missed.

Summer* by Ali Smith, pub. 2020
Finished 10-Apr-2021
Gay Pride Parade - LGBTQIA+ authors

Bringing together various characters from the previous novels, it begins with the very smart Sacha worried about her brilliant brother Robert. His prank fortuitously brings them in contact with Charlotte and Art (Winter), who invite the children and their mother on a trip to meet Daniel and Elizabeth (Autumn).

The various narrations deftly weave Sacha's concerns for the homeless and the environment with the evolving relationship between Charlotte and Art (and Iris), as well as Daniel's memories of his interment on the Isle of Man with his father during WWII, so that the present Immigration Removal Centers (Spring) echo the past. By using multiple narratives, Smith shows the reader how these disparate characters are ore connected than they will know and through it all accentuating how art and connection bring hope.



*Even though each novel of the quartet could be read independently, I believe these novels are better read close together as main characters in one with have a cameo in the other and the themes and events call back and forth, from one to another.

I have a vague plan to read the quartet at some point. I've never read anything by Ali Smith.

Wise Children by Angela Carter, pub. 1991
Finished 16-Apr-2021
Empire State Building - 1001 Books

This is a mostly delightful story about family -- the ones you are related to by blood and the ones you create through bonds of love.

The story is narrated by Dora Chance who, with her twin sister Nora, found a measure of fame, if not fortune, as song-and-dance girls on the Vaudeville circuit in the 1930s and 1940s. They are celebrating their 75th birthday and it turns out to be a momentous day.

It starts with a dramatic event in the present day which leads Dora to recount their past, with all the complications due to being the illegitimate daughters of the wealthy, Theater "royalty" Sir Melchior Hazard. Their lives invariably intertwine -- Chance girls with their many relationships and their father's and uncle's many marriages and children intermingling. Eventually the story returns to the present day, culminating in a Shakespearean resolution.

While it did loose some magic during the portion set in Hollywood, the characters are wonderful and zany and there is just the right amount of magical realism to paper-over what would otherwise be ridiculous plot holes. A very fun read.

Chocky by John Wyndham, pub. 1968
Finished 18-Apr-2021
Empire State Building - 1001 Books

From the description, I was under the impression that it was narrated by young Matthew. However, the story is told from the father's point of view and turns out to be as much a story of family dynamics as it is a science-fiction story.

At first, while it is a little odd, Matthew's parents are unfazed by his development of an imaginary friend; his younger sister had gone through this a few years back so it doesn't seem that unusual. But, the imaginary friend, Chocky, asks precocious questions about socially constructed units of time and the intellectual limitations of animals. Then Matthew, formerly an indifferent student, begins to over-perform in math and art and some of the conversations with Chocky grow heated...

It is a slim story, but it does develop several themes rather well, most especially the limitations of language -- whether a single unfortunate word choice or the inability to communicate the unfathomable. But it also glances at differences in parenting and gender roles and the delicate equilibrium between siblings. But most of all it was refreshing to read a story where the alien contact is benevolent, intent on nudging humanity away from it's harmful energy sources and into developing a renewable source.

I'm Still Here by Austin Channing Brown, pub. 2018
Finished 20-Apr-2021
Union Square - Social Justice

I am much better at understanding specific examples than abstract concepts, so I found this to be an excellent companion read to works such as How to Be an Antiracist and The New Jim Crow. In this collection of personal reflections, the author focuses on her experience as a black woman in a mostly white world.

The book is structured into 12 chapters, about 12-20 pages, focusing on a single topic, such as her introduction into black culture, whiteness in the workplace, and the uses of anger. Revelatory might be too grandiose a word, but the chapter in which she writes about a day's-worth of exhausting interactions really drove home the point. While a single incident might seem like no big deal, a cumulative, detailed list of several dozen interactions from the naive to the hostile to the well meaning are both exhausting and soul-crushing -- a day full of interactions that highlight how the author is different, doesn't belong and yet isn't an individual, representing her race.

Paraphrasing her much longer, better-described incidents:

8:55 am - she arrives at work (a faith-based service organization) and is asked three times if she needs help finding the outreach center. Her white colleague, arriving just after her, is not asked.

8:58 am - arriving at her desk a co-worker compliments her hair and reaches out to touch it

9:58 am - her supervisor calls her into the office because a co-worker complained the author made her uncomfortable. The author is told to be a team player

10:05 am - she responds to the supervisor and is asked to change her tone because she sounds angry and the supervisor was trying to be helpful

1:05 pm - talking to a colleague about a project, a few minutes into the conversation she is answering multiple questions about black culture

2:07 pm - she is stopped in the hallway by an woman she's never met and asked about an email just sent. The author explains the woman has confused her with someone else, but the woman insists they've met. Eventually the author figures out the women is taking abut Tina in marketing.

And so on. The relation of each of these incidents is concluded with a message/lesson learned by the author about how a black woman is expected to be in a white-dominated world.

While reading this, I highlighted many insightful observations and wonderfully written passages, but alas they all disappeared when the library took the ebook back, before I had copied them down.

Reviewed in my 1001-Books thread (click the picture to read the full review):



The Unknown Soldier by Väinö Linna, pub. 1954
Finished 21-Apr-2021
Empire State Building - 1001 Books

A decent WWII novel set on the Finnish - Russian front told from multiple viewpoints, in the present tense. There are no backstories, no flashbacks, so, unfortunately, for me all of the characters were unknown, indistinct soldiers.

>161 ELiz_M: - This sounds like one worth reading.

>13 ELiz_M: It is! And less than 200 pages, too.

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, pub. 2020
Finished 24-Apr-2021
Subway - Minority Voices

I needed some lightweight reading post-second-dose and so picked up a couple of contemporary genre novels.

I was disappointed with Mexican Gothic. I don't like scary movies and don't read horror, so I was surprised that this "horror" novel wasn't the least bit scary. It was barely suspenseful. I do appreciate the author setting the novel in the 1950s and using expected gender-roles to both further the story and comment on it, but overall it wasn't as innovative or as weird as I hoped it might be.

Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz, pub. 2016
Finished 25-Apr-2021
Greenwood Cemetery - miscellaneous

I don't know all the fine gradations in types of mysteries, but I now know that I do not enjoy whodunits. All that step-by-step plodding by the deductive sleuth that picks up on the essential clues in what to me is pages and pages of slog.

I do get the love for Magpie Murders -- it is a clever conceit, with a mystery within a mystery. However, I didn't find it suspenseful or the characters particularly engaging or well thought out. While not awful enough to set aside, I did read it with a continuous low-level resentment of reading not only two plodding whodunits, but also chapters from the novelist character's bad, pretentious literary novel.

>165 ELiz_M: - I was also disappointed in MG. I just found it really boring.

What is Not Yours is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi, pub. 2016
Finished 30-Apr-2021
Subway - Minority Voices

A unique collection of short stories. While not exactly a linked collection in a more traditional plot-based way, they do share themes and characters from one appear in another.

Most of the stories involve keys - most literal, but some are more metaphorical - and the concept of unlocking - doors, memory, emotions, worlds. Many of the stories are unlike anything I've read before. Some I found delightful and beautiful and haunting ("books and roses", "drownings" "if a book is locked there's probably a good reason for that don't you think"), others odd and unrelatable ("is your blood as red as this", "freddy barrandov checks...in?).

I was going through and adding category information to my reviews and realized that, of course, I needed a catch-all. New category is in >8 ELiz_M: above.

Ha! I love your catch-all location.

Everyone needs a miscellaneous category, it is just one of those things. >:-)

>168 ELiz_M: that does sound interesting.

>169 ELiz_M: Love it.

I plan to reread Autumn and Winter and then finish the quartet this summer.

I've been considering Mexican Gothic, but I'm not a fan of horror. I think I'll pass on that one.

>170 katiekrug: Why thank you.

>171 Helenliz: It is worth a try -- a book to dip in and out of between others, perhaps.

>172 BLBera: I hope you enjoy the quartet!

Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi, pub. 2018
Finished 3-May-2021
Statue of Liberty - translated books

I put off writing about this one, unsure what to say and almost needing to read it again because I have a lingering felling that I missed the point. Most likely the humor; it is supposed to be darkly funny and/or satirical.

it is a strange novel with a different pacing and many, sometimes conflicting, viewpoints. The basic plot is that an antiques dealer in Baghdad begins gathering body parts left in the streets after various explosions, trying to create a whole person so that it can be buried. And then the body comes to life. The creature finds a purpose in exacting revenge for the deaths of the various people that make up his form, but as he is falling apart faster than he can avenge the wrongs, new pieces are added....

But this is only a part of the story. The novel is as much about the people affected by the creature's existence -- the old woman who believes he is her son, finally returned to her, the journalist being groomed to become a media power who writes about him, the various café regulars that listen to the story of his creation. They ascribe different motivations, projecting their hopes and fears onto his actions. It is a novel cobbled together from many stories, stitched with the fantastical, and somehow creating a whole that, just barely, coheres.

>174 ELiz_M:, Thanks for taking the time to review this one--I'm going to have to look it up!

>175 whitewavedarling: Excellent! If you read it, I hope it is enjoyable.

Reviewed in my 1001-Books thread (click the picture to read the full review):



Under the Yoke by Ivan Vazov, pub. 1889
Finished 7-May-2021
Empire State Building - 1001 Books

A fictionalized telling of the Bulgarian uprising of 1876, it is frustrating in that everything goes wrong, but you are hoping that something will go right kind of way.

A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe, pub. 1821
Finished 10-May-2021
Greenwood Cemetery - miscellaneous books

I am not sure what I expected from this. Maybe something that was more like a a day-to-day journal. But this was more of a summary of a journal and rather than the personal experiences, thoughts, worries of an individual living through the time, it is more a collection of statistics and anecdotes that illustrate the progression of the plague.

Dafoe details how many deaths there are in each parish of London and the measures taken by authorities. There is much hypothesizing of how the disease is spread and whether or not the measures taken were effective. It is interesting, but at the same time nothing new.

>178 ELiz_M: I've not read it, but I saw a BBC4 documentary early on in lockdown where a medieval professor looked at past plagues and pandemics and how people responded in the documentary record. This was one of the works discussed and described as what you *think* a diary of a plague should be like, whereas someone like Pepys, who wrote a diary contemporaneously with a plague, dots it in amidst the every day trivialities of life, because life doesn't stop, even in the middle of a plague.

>179 Helenliz: I bet Pepys diaries are more in line with what I wanted to read.

Reviewed in my 1001-Books thread (click the picture to read the full review):



The Garden Where the Brass Band Played by Simon Vestdijk, pub. 1950
Finished 16-May-2021
Empire State Building - 1001 Books

It's not Proust (or Joyce or Kafka), but it is a fine coming-of-age story with many lovely discussions of music.

You seem to be motoring through the 1001 list. I really liked A Journal of the Plague Year, but it's been a while. I also liked Under the Yoke, which was mainly interesting for being about Bulgarian history, which you don't come across often.

>182 pamelad: I tend to deflate the star ratings, reserving 5 stars for something that blew my mind. So 3.5 stars (Under the Yoke) is between "I liked it' and "I loved it". :)

Heart Berries by Terese Marie Mailhot, pub. 2016
Finished 17-May-2021
Subway - Minority Voices

This is a hard book for me to review. It is a memoir written as a series of essays addressed to her husband. Mailhot started writing after she had herself committed following a breakdown. It touches on intergenerational trauma, poverty, racism, abuse. But all of these topics are under the surface of beautiful, fragmented prose.

This was a case of "it's not you, it's me" -- I was reading for story and wasn't in the frame of mind to do the work of reading it slowly and thinking about what is only alluded to and what is not said. Consequently, two weeks later I haven't retained any of it. I should probably reread it when I am able to pay attention to it.

That Deadman Dance by Kim Scott, pub. 2010
Finished 22-May-2021
Subway - Minority Voices

The novel plays with the timeline just enough to unsettle a little bit. While not a formal framing device, one of the early sections centers on an Aboriginal (Noonger) man enacting stories about the taming of Western Australia in his youth. The novel begins after the first few settlements are established, jumps back five years, and then moves forward.

While the novel is told from many points of view -- among others there are chapters narrated by Dr. Cross, an early settler and friend to the Noongars; Geordie Chaine, a wealthy capitalist settler; his daughter Christine; William Skelly, a convict turned laborer; Jak Tar, an escapee from a whaling ship -- the focus is undoubtedly "Bobby" Wabalanginy.

Bobby is a charismatic young boy, friends with everyone, existing in both worlds. He is taught English, reading and writing, becomes a valuable member of a whaling crew, is a brilliant dancer, an excellent mimic and storyteller, a skilled tracker and wilderness guide, and so on. And after 400 pages I became heartily annoyed with his perfection and the use of him as almost the sole representative of the Noongars.

Reviewed in my 1001-Books thread (click the picture to read the full review):



By the Open Sea by August Strindberg, pub. 1890
Finished 27-May-2021
Empire State Building - 1001 Books

An odd character study of an insufferable genius sent to a post on a remote, beautifully described island.

Hold please. (DKK)

June Litsy Book Spin Bingo card.
Bookspin = The Glimpses of the Moon
DoubleSpin = Hadrian the Seventh

I am adopting the 1900-1950 challenge many people completed in May for the month of June (and probably July).

1) Author from USA: The Glimpses of the Moon
2) Author not from USA: The Artamonov Business
3) Classic genre novel: Tarzan of the Apes
4) Not a novel: Cane
5) About WWI or WWII: The Heat of the Day

1900s: Hadrian the Seventh
1910s: Locus Solus
1920s: Quartet
1930s: The Return of Philip Latinowicz
1940s: Cannery Row

During the Reign of the Queen of Persia by Joan Chase, pub. 1983
Finished 5-Jun-2021
New York Public Library - nyrb books

A family saga, the story of a matriarchal rural Ohioan family, told through the collective “we” of four female cousins. This perspective allows a close portrayal of tragedy while simultaneously creating the distance of a less personal viewpoint (it is heart-wrenching instead of devastating). The story begins when the girls are in their teens, then moves backwards to their childhood, and finally jumps forward to the end of Gram's rule. The non-chronological structure allows all the characters -- even the minor, supporting male characters -- to be real, further deepening the portrayal of how complex family relations provide the strength that both bolsters and undercuts its members.

The Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton, pub. 1922
Finished 8-Jun-2021
Empire State Building - 1001 Books

More light-hearted than her better-known novels. I was sure it was an early work and was surprised to find it was published mid-career, just after THe Age of Innocence.

Two poor socialites decide to marry and use the wedding gifts and good wishes to stretch their honeymoon to a year of lavish living. I have to admit that I wish there was more deviousness enjoyment of others' wealth and a slower, longer build to the moral backsliding. The middle section where the two are apart and willfully miscommunicating was a bit of a drag. But I did appreciate the happy ending!

>189 ELiz_M: - I have this on my shelf - no idea what possessed me to buy it, other than that it was a NYRB. Glad to hear it was such a winner for you.

>190 ELiz_M: - I just finished The House of Mirth, which was the first of Wharton's novels I've read (I had read a couple of novellas). I think I have GotM on my shelf, too.

Just catching up on your thread!

>191 katiekrug: I keep thinking, because Lily and Sheldon are so memorable, that THoM is my favorite Wharton, but according to my ratings/reviews it was The Age of Innocence that I loved.

>193 ELiz_M: Oh good, now can you help me catch up on the dozen reviews I am behind?

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All Systems Red by Martha Wells, pub. 2017
Finished 16-Jun-2021
Greenwood Cemetery - miscellaneous books

I had been hearing SO MUCH about this series and was able to manange my library hold so that I could read it at the right time. And an 8 am flight to MN to see my mom and brother & his family, for the first time since Dec. 2019, was the right time for some fast-paced, lightweight reading that doesn't require concentration and doesn't make me cry.

This novella was delightful. It is narrated by a security robot (android? Sorry not a hard-core sci-fi fan and don't remember the correct word here) that has managed to manipulate its Governor gear, allowing it freedom from executing programming commands. The narrator uses this freedom to put in the minimal amount of time/energy in security work in order to free up as much time for watching television.

The current job seems a routine assignment to maintain security for an exploratory tie on an uninhabited planet, until there are too many software and technical glitches to be entirely a coincidence and the narrator (who calls itself Murderbot) must act independently, undectably, to save the lives of the humans to which it was assigned to protect.

Absolutely marvelous.

These Women by Ivy Pochoda, pub. 2020
Finished 16-Jun-2021
Greenwood Cemetery - miscellaneous books

Foregrounding the story of “those people” five women, each connected to a murdered prostitute, narrates part of this story. Their narratives are interspersed with brief selections from a woman who survived having her throat cut.

It has a slow start with the initial voice being one I never connected to, and the story requires the added viewpoints, the layering, to become compelling and increase the tension to the guessed-at reveal of the murderer‘s identity.

Cannery Row by John Steinbeck, pub. 1945
Finished 19-Jun-2021
Empire State Building - 1001 Books

Not so much a story as the nostalgic depiction of a particular time and place. Based on memories, it describes the characters populating a derelict depression-era street in Monterey, CA. While none of the residents are successful, they are content. One by one each is sketched, adding a piece to the overall picture. The one thing all have in common is goodwill towards Doc and the desire to do something nice for him -- host a party for him in his own home.

I have During the Reign of the Queen of Persia in my stacks, Liz. Great comments - you're pushing me to move it to the top!

I've been meaning to reread Steinbeck for years. Most of his work that I've read, I read in high school, which was a few years ago. :) I've found rereads are frequently rewarding, especially when I really liked the book the first time I read it.

>198 BLBera: I hope you enjoy DtRotQoP, if you get to it (many people in the group read decidedly did not like it).

A book with widely divergent opinions is always interesting to me, Liz.

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Revenge by Yoko Ogawa, pub. 1998
Finished 20-Jun-2021
Statue of Liberty - translated books

I consider this a short story collection, but they are quite intertwined – each is connected to several others by common characters or events. It should be read in a short period of tie - I had read several stories, put it on pause and picked it up again a week or so later. I would have enjoyed it more without an interruption.

It’s an uneven collection; some stories are fabulous (the Poe-like Lab Coats!) and others, that at first were mundanely grotesque or odd, became darker when they are referenced or expanded in another story. I loved the uncertain timeline and hints of coexisting realities and the use of unusual details to create an undercurrent of dread.

Shit, Actually by Lindy West, pub. 2020
Finished 22-Jun-2021
Greenwood Cemetery - miscellaneous books

Snarky plot synopsis of 23 movies, only a few of which I have seen, but most am generally familiar with.

The title essay is quite good (also the only movie with which I am very familiar), making some excellent points. Her social-media writing style and exclamatory humor is not quite mine, so I found this only mildly amusing. A good as a palate cleanser, between other books read.

Reviewed in my 1001-Books thread (click the picture to read the full review):



Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs, pub. 1914
Finished 23-Jun-2021
Empire State Building - 1001 Books

A book of its time, the racism, sexism, nature/nurture did challenge me and make me think -- in ways probably not intended by the author.

placeholder (MF)_

Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo, pub. 2016
Finished 25-Jun-2021
Statue of Liberty - translated books

Told as an "everyman" story of a woman‘s life in South Korea, it portrays the cumulative effects of sexism on a typical woman. The book begins by presenting the main character as undergoing some kind of dissociative disorder, with spooky overtones. However the remainder of the novel is a long flashback to the past back to the past, told in a matter-of-fact manner, that didn't end up at the beginning in convincing manner -- the intriguing start doesn't go anywhere and the tonal shift precludes an emotional response.

The Eighth Life (for Brilka) by Nino Haratischwili, pub. 2020
Finished 22-Jun-2021

Over 100 years of a Georgian family's history is narrated in unending, tragic detail. It is well-written, with the narrative voice being a third-person recounting by one of the present-day family members writing to the next generation. I loved the placing of the family stories within historical context and the touches of magical realism.

Yes the times in Georgia/USSR were tumultuous, but not a single character is able to keep their heads down and trudge through–every female is violated. It‘s tedious and frustrating that hundreds of pages of bad things happening didn't elicit emotion.

It ends ambiguously, which I read as (another) impending tragedy, but having the final book as a blank page, to be filled by the next generation, was a clever touch.

Quartet by Jean Rhys, pub. 1928
Finished 28-Jun-2021
Empire State Building - 1001 Books

Is it still SpinsterLit if the protagonist is married?

Marya has been content in Paris even with the uncertain income of her art dealer husband. When he is arrested for theft, she is thrown upon her own meager resources. There is no help from family back in England – they have no money to spare. As her money dwindles, Marya is taken in by the Heidlers, a prominent couple in the ex-pat community. Her life becomes one of quiet desperation as, dependent on their support, she is coerced to “play the game”, to play the part of respectability even while being seduced by Mr. Heidler. When Stephen is released from prison, a changed man, an untenable situation becomes even worse.

As her debut novel, this is very well constructed, but not quite the right book for me.

Reviewed in my 1001-Books thread (click the picture to read the full review):



Hadrian the Seventh by Frederick Rolfe, pub. 1904
Finished 23-Jun-2021
Empire State Building - 1001 Books

Despite the denseness and ecclesiastical minutia, a mesmerizing character study.

>208 ELiz_M: Last year I re-read three of Jean Rhys's books. They all have a similar atmosphere and the main female character is always a variation on the same person, but I like her writing very much. My favourite is Good Morning Midnight.

>210 pamelad: This was the third book I read by her and I think she is one of those writers where I can see how good the writing is, but it doesn't resonate. I did like GMM slightly better than Quartet.