Ipsoivan's 75

Counting from the beginning of January:

January
The Children's Book
The Bookshop
Human Voices
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

February
Son of a Witch
A Lion Among Men
Out of Oz
Tarabas
Cat and Mouse

March
A Question of Upbringing
A Buyer's Market
A Mapmaker's Dream
Quicksilver

April
The Confusion
The System of the World
The Thirteenth Tale
Being Dead

May
According to Queeney
Providence
Look at Me
The Nine Tailors
The Old Boys
Smut
Never Let Me Go
Flaubert's Parrot
White Noise

June
Still Life
The Sixteen Pleasures
The Bat
The Troubled Man
Kennedy's Brain
Grave Goods
A Time to Keep Silence

July
A Murderous Procession
Weight
Invisible Cities
The Shape of Water
The Terracotta Dog
The Snack Thief
The Voice of the Violin
The Lions of Al-Rassan

August
The Miernik Dossier
Red Shift
The Pilgrim Hawk
Turtle Diary
A Month in the Country
Hotel du Lac

September
Latecomers
A Star Called Henry
People of the Book
At Freddie's

October
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
Offshore
Aiding and Abetting
No Fond Return of Love
The Keeper of Lost Causes
The Absent One
A Time of Gifts

November
The Way by Swann's
Wheat Belly
Don't Go Back to School: A Guide to Learning Anything
Gilgamesh
Father and Son
The Year 1000: What Life was Like at the Turn of the First Millennium
Chess Story
Heart of a Dog
The Missing Bureaucrat
Bel Ami

December
An Unsuitable Job for a Woman
Can You Forgive Her
Pig Earth
The Commitments
The Children of Dynmouth
Lighthousekeeping
Mapping Manhattan:A Love (and Sometimes Hate) Story in Maps by 75 New Yorkers
Every Day is Mother's Day
Vacant Possession

Looks good!

Finally! Adding another, The Confusion

At long last, I've finished the Baroque Cycle. 3000 pages gives readers a lot of time to see its strengths and weaknesses, and I must say by the final book, I really saw more weaknesses than strengths. Only one solid character, Daniel Waterhouse, several very long set pieces held together with lots of short scenes that move the characters into place for the big scenes but don't do much else, hundreds of pages of descriptive passages that described and described and described ad nauseum, and a wholly extraneous bit of fluffiness about the lost gold of Solomon introduced somewhere in the second book and developed in the final book that is supposed to provide motivation for some of the characters that just felt ... dumb. Maybe I'm being hard on Stephenson: these books are surely not meant to be read back-to-back. What kind of fool venture was that?

I am SO relieved to be starting a new book. I started The Thirteenth Tale last night.

Wow, The Baroque Cycle in one go sounds like quite a challenge, akin to a back-to-back reading of Proust's In Search of Lost Time or the Robert Jordan Wheel of Time series. Well done.
Come to think of it, it can't be by accident that they have 'time' in the title, of which they require a major investment of!

I agree that particularly large and ambitious multi-volume works can definitely suffer from cohesiveness, consistency and plot relevance. (I lost patience with the Jordan books after book three, though I would look like to someday give Proust a go).

I'm certainly game at some point to try again to get through all of Proust, but maybe I'll do it with a few other books interspersed. I've done the 'full set' read twice already this year, and maybe it's time to give up on being this kind of idiot perfectionist.

I don't think I've tried Jordan. I'll take a look and think about adding him to my list, but with a reminder to read the series in parts!

>6 ipsoivan: edited to add-- that is to say I haven't tried Proust twice this year. Maguire's Oz books and the Baroque Cycle.

There are much better fantasy series' out there than Jordan. I wouldn't recommend him, but maybe that's just me!

I recently had Guy Gavriel Kay recommended to me. I might try some in June. I am on a book-buying ban until then. Have you read him, and if so, is there a particular one you would recommend?

Just finished The Thirteenth Tale. Wonderful.

Yes, actually I have read Guy Gavriel Kay. I think he is very good. His approach is to take almost recognisable historical situations and derive inspiration and elements from them to then develop his fantasy worlds and their stories.

I would strongly recommend The Lions of Al-Rassan, which is reminiscent in its setting of the major religions, cultures and politics of the Iberian Peninsular during the age of Al-Andaluz and the Reconquista. That does not make it a thinly veiled retelling of that period nor a historical novel set at that time. It is a unique and true fantasy story.

I have seen his work criticised on this basis because some have deemed it too derivative, but I actually think his work opens up new scenarios rather than remaining locked into what we might call the 'Middle Earth' model.

Let's face it, while the thematic and stylistic vocabulary of fantasy writing has expanded and morphed greatly since the days of Tolkien and Robert E. Howard, if we are honest we will admit that most fantasy stories have always taken as their un-mentioned inspiration a grander version of the history and mythology of the European and near east Medieval period, not to mention the historical epics and tales of chivalry which preceded them; and if not directly then through the fantasy authors they are emulating or have been influenced by. By contrast, Gavriel Kay's approach makes for a refreshing change. And he really is quite good at it, with interesting plots, compelling characters and pretty good writing for the genre.

So in a word, yes check him out! I'm sure you won't be disappointed. : )

Cheers,
Charles

Charles--thanks for your thoughtful response. I'll read The Lions when my buying ban is over. For now, it is sitting on my wish list. I look forward to trying it!

Oh, Being Dead by Jim Crace--wonderful. The descriptions of decay are, oddly, very beautiful, and the couple's relationship, that seems at first so frayed by time, turns out to be far more enduring than you might expect. All of this is done with no flash, just quietly poetic prose and some subtle character development. The daughter is a bit of late magic.

Just finished According to Queeney by Beryl Bainbridge. An odd book, and quite wonderful. Queeney is the daughter of the Thrales, Dr. Johnson's friends and patrons, with whom he lived for many years. In letters written later in life to the daughter of another of Johnson's circle, Queeney recounts her version of Johnson's relationship to her parents and their friends, and his friendship with her. These letters are woven into a third person omniscient narrative and serve as its counterpoint, offering us the perspective of an insider, but of an insider whose memory is coloured, in particular, by her damaged relationship with her mother, with whom Johnson was in love.

Bainbridge reminds me of Penelope Fitzgerald in her ability to create characters that are clearly of another era, not merely contemporary people projected into an earlier time. This gives the book much of its strangeness, as the situations, and the characters' responses to them, are not completely accessible to us.
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I've just read 2 Anita Brookners back-to-back. I'm gratified to learn that she has been so prolific, as I enjoyed both immensely. Somehow I always thought she would be twee-- far from it! The one I finished last night, Look at Me, had me biting my nails. Creepy and suspenseful, but in the way of an ordinary life. The timeframe was hard to pin down, which contributed to the doubt that you have about the narrator's version of events.

Just finished William Trevor The Old Boys. Ahhhh. Such an amazing stylist, great characters, funny/horrifying situation. I have more of his early works on the shelf that would make perfect ROOTS right now.

What is The Old Boys about? I haven't heard about it or the author but I'm already tempted from your immediate response to reading it. : )

Well, several elderly men who were together at an Eton-like school serve on the Old Boys committee, and one is hoping to be made the new President. A lot of the plot centres on his home life--with the most wonderful sparring between him and his wife. Another man on the committee, who was the brunt of the would-be President's bullying as a boy, is determined to prevent his election. Two other members live together in a rooming house and get up to various schemes to keep themselves occupied, and another slips into dementia. This sounds really depressing, but Trevor's very weird dialogue and comic sensibility kept me reading.

Okay, now I'm definitely hooked! Thanks for the run-down. : )

On a side note, while looking up The Old Boys to add to my LT wishlist I discovered that title is also shared by a book from one of my favourite spy writers, Charles McCarry!

No problem. have you read Trevor?

I've never heard of McCarry. I'll have to look him up. Any particular title you can recommend?

No, I haven't read any Trevor but I will be looking to do so now. : )

A good McCarry in my opinion is The Miernik Dossier. Of course, It depends on whether you like Cold War spy thrillers in the first place!

Thanks for the recommendation. I must have first come across Trevor's short stories in the New Yorker. His Collected Stories is lovely.

I finished Alan Bennett's Smut today. The first story is very funny and quite effective, the second less so. Still, weak Bennett is very good.

Emrayfo, I just read the review of The Miernik Dossier. I'll see if the local library has it! Expect the opposite from Trevor, never much action.

Oh good! I remember when I first read it how different it seemed to other spy novels I had read. I'll be interested to hear your thoughts. : )

You're on. I'm in the middle of Never Let Me Go, but I'll see if it's in the library tomorrow!

Just finished Never Let Me Go. What a wonderful book.

Flaubert's Parrot. Interesting, but not a real favourite. I've just started White Noise by Don DeLillo, which I'm enjoying much more.

>21 Emrayfo: Charles, I still have not found McCarry's book at the 2 libraries I've checked, nor the used bookstore I like. I do, however, enjoy the hunt, so it will continue.

Fight the good fight! McCarry probably hasn't been subject to much re-printing I guess. Have you looked online? Try www.betterworldbooks.com for The Miernik Dossier. All their books are second hand and they have free shipping.

Also, I have to say I've found it difficult to take a shine to Julian Barnes.

The good fight will continue, Charles, but until June 10, no books will be bought by me! I actually can't believe it's been 6 mos, as it's been quite painless. I may make a few small purchases like the McCarry, then try going without shopping for another 6 months and continue with my ROOTS reading. I've read 25 books that have been languishing on my shelves for years.

As to JB, I did enjoy most of History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters, but have not read much else. I have some on the shelf that may be more promising than Flaubert's Parrot -- could it have been his showing-off youth?

White Noise by Don DeLillo. Loved it.

Still Life by Louise Penny loaned by a friend. We both thought only so-so. Her word 'hokey' and mine 'meh'. i did very much like the descriptions of the art, but thought the rest really uneven. Does the series improve?

The Sixteen Pleasures dragged on in the middle, but with a concerted effort, I finished it today. Not a cohesive book.

I've been plugging away at some longer, serious stuff lately, so I decided to take a break with some murder mysteries. In the last 2 days, I've read The Bat and The Troubled Man. Mankell is so great, Nesbo not so much, although maybe he improves in subsequent books.

Ok, I'm now at 31 read. I finished Kennedy's Brain. I'm a bit behind where I need to be, so I'll likely lay aside some longer things I'm reading and get some shorter ones done.

Now at 32 with another library murder mystery, Grave Goods. Thoroughly enjoyed it, and I'll look for the next in the series.

#33 was A Time to Keep Silence by Patrick Leigh Fermor, a lovely book.

#34 A Murderous Procession, the last of the Ariana Franklin series, The Mistress of the Art of Death. Highly recommended for those who like a good mystery (although I had the villain figured out instantly) with some excellent historical context. Read 'n Learn.

One more to go and I'm half way.

#35 Weight by Jeanette Winterson. Beautiful book.

#36 Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino. Definitely one to reread, possibly several more times.

#37 The Shape of Water by Andrea Camilleri, my first by him.

#38 The Terracotta Dog, number 2 in the series.

#39 and 40, 2 more Andrea Camilleri, The Snack Thief and The Voice of the Violin. I'm taking a break from him for now, as I have some other library books to read and return, as well as finishing By Way of Swann's.

#41 The Lions of Al-Rassan, recommended by Charles, and much enjoyed. I'm now reading and loving another of C's recommendations, The Miernik Dossier.

#42 The Miernik Dossier. Thanks go to Charles for the recommendation. This is a spy novel, originally published in 1973, reissued in 2005, that has not, as far as I know, received near enough attention.

Presented as an exemplary file that is meant to show a typical operation, The Miernik Dossier traces the activities of a man who may or may not be a Russian spy. The central action is a wild trip of a group of friends, who work for rival agencies, that takes them from Geneva to the Sudan. It is told through their various perspectives --British, American, Polish and Sudanese--but the reader must, in the end, draw his or her own conclusions by sifting the evidence and considering the opinions expressed by the spies involved and some of their handlers.

It's a book to mull over for some time.

#42 Red Shift by Alan Garner. I've always enjoyed intertwined stories across time, so when I read about this on LibThing, then saw it on a sale table, I knew I had to have it. In some ways it reminded me of Hawksmoor, but, I think, better done. Amazing book.

I notice that my own books always get superlatives, mysteries from the library, not so much. Lesson learned.

#43 The Pilgrim Hawk

#44 Turtle Diary

#45 A Month in the Country, another of the NYRB books. I took a little while to warm to this but soon did; there is something about characters with a tone of stiff-upper-lip that I often find off-putting, but this narrator won me over soon. In addition, I loved the descriptions of the mural the narrator is restoring, and his analysis of the painter's process.

#46 Hotel du Lac I have read a couple of books by Anita Brookner that I really enjoyed, and I guess because of the Booker for this one, I had assumed that this one would be her masterpiece. I did enjoy it very much, and found myself going slowly to savour it, especially near the end, yet ultimately I wonder if I will consider this one to be her strongest when I have read more.

#47 Latecomers by Anita Brookner. I found it a very curious book. She follows 4 interconnected characters through their lives, gradually drilling down to reveal their essence. Nothing really happens, just shifts in mood. At times I found it dull, as the moods repeat, each character having a dominant tone, but eventually, I got quite involved in it. Recommended for the patient.

#48 A Star Called Henry. WOW.

#49 People of the Book How could this go wrong? Book conservation and history all rolled into one. Oh, it is awful. Cliches and a tin ear for language. Kind of Harlequin-esque. I couldn't bear to go past a bit of the second section. I'm counting it because I dragged myself that far.

#50! Well, I was able to make up for my last disappointment by reading a wonderful book by Penelope Fitzgerald, At Freddie's.

#51 The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. Historical fiction without the weirdness of David Mitchell's novels like Cloud Atlas, which I also loved.

#52 Offshore by Penelope Fitzgerald. Bliss.

#53 I read Aiding and Abetting by Muriel Spark yesterday. Spark is having some fun at Freud's expense, with a psychologist named Wolf who is treating 2 men who claim to be Lord Lucan, the infamous nanny killer. Doubling of identities, blood, religious mania, the talking cure, uncanny glimpses in a mirror--I had a great time spotting references. Not as profound as The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie or my favourite, Memento Mori, but a very satisfying book.

#54 No Fond Return of Love by Barbara Pym

#55 The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen. I think I have LibraryThing for bringing this to my attention. I was given it for free when I bought some other books at Value Village. Good score; I really liked it, and will read others in the series.

#56 The Absent One by Jussi Adler-Olsen. A bit uneven, but overall quite good mystery. 19 books to go .

#57 A Time of Gifts by Patrick Leigh Fermor.

#58 The Way by Swann's. The first volume of the newish translation strips away the extravagance of the translation by Scott Moncrieff, while not making the work entirely accessible. I found I was not stumbling quite so much to get through the sentences as when I read this before, and I enjoyed it very much, but will continue the series with the older translation I already have on my shelf.

#59 Wheat Belly. Not my usual read, but I wanted to know about gluten intolerance. Helpful to some extent, even if the case is apparently overstated.

#60 Don't Go Back to School: A Guide to Learning Anything by Kio Stark. There is no touchstone yet for this book: too bad!

Even though I teach at a university, most of the time I really despair of higher education (or any formal education). This is a manifesto that speaks to independent learners of all stripes. Kio Stark opens the book by laying out some basic principles for how you can learn anything on your own, and argues that the work world is starting to recognize the value of those who do not have university degrees, as their ability to learn quickly on the job using well-honed learning strategies, not to mention their enthusiasm and motivation, are much sought after. She includes interviews with 23 incredibly creative and articulate people from all sorts of jobs who speak of their own paths to learning and working in their fields--almost all without a formal university education. The final section provides resources--everything from open university materials to software for effective organization of knowledge.

My copy of the book is now copiously annotated, and my notebook is bursting with ideas about how I want to use this book to motivate my own students IN university to bust out of the confines of academe and really make something of themselves. I'm also thinking about my own learning: do I want to finish a long laid-aside project, or maybe start working on filling in some educational gaps on my own? What an inspiring book!

#61 Gilgamesh translated by Stephen Mitchell. I read this many years ago when I was a student--skimmed, is more like it. This time, i savoured.

#62 Father and Son by Edmund Gosse. This one has been hanging around since the late 80s, waiting for me to finally read it. It's a bit heavy going toward the end, but up to that point well worth reading.

This is the autobiography of Gosse, the son of a famous 19th century naturalist who also happened to be a member of the Pilgrim Brethren, an extreme Puritan sect who, of course, did not believe in evolution. The father's struggle of intellect vs faith is less an issue in the book than might be expected. The focus is more on the extreme innocence and lack of judgment of the father, and the son's gradual coming into his own as a thinker and, although it is not spelled out, either an atheist or agnostic. Oddly enough, it is quite funny.

#63 The Year 1000: What Life Was Like at the Turn of the First Millennium by Robert Lacey and Danny Danziger. This was quite fun, a fast history read. Written by a couple of journalists, it is interesting to see how they knit snippets of information together.

The book is structured around the monthly illustrations found in the Julius Work Calendar; these roughly link together such ideas as the fact that, although the word 'man' had to do for both genders, women certainly had rights during the period, which leads to a brief description of some powerful women, followed by the punishment of violating women (a fine had to be paid to the woman), and then a brief disquisition on the punishment for theft. The final element has nothing to do with the other topics, yet somehow they make it work.

One flaw, to my mind, was the tendency to draw on contemporary pop culture analogies, of the "so and so was the Billy Graham of his day" and the like. These are going to date really quickly--some already have, as the book was published in 2000 to capitalize on the 2nd millennium.

#64 Chess Story by Stefan Zweig. Still digesting.

#65 Heart of a Dog by Mikhail Bulgakov. I loved the first half of the book, with the dog's perspective front and centre, but when the dog becomes a man and every response to him becomes a grotesque exaggeration, I liked it less. I know, I know, it's a style, but one I just don't like much, as everyone "shrieks" and "jabbers" and "faints" and "curses". I'm also affronted by the political message--the working class is stupid and evil, and has the heart of a dog.

#66 The Missing Bureaucrat by Hans Scherfig. This is not quite the mystery that it sounds, but more a satire of Danish society in the 30s.

A man has blown himself up and another has disappeared. Are they the same man? This is a funny examination of the cautious, dull, monotonous life of a bureaucrat, his gentle, loving, horrible wife, and Danish society as a whole.

#67 I just finished Bel Ami by Guy de Maupassant. So appropriate for Movember, as his moustache is what draws the ladies. Total cad, lots of fun

#68 An Unsuitable Job for a Woman. I have a feeling I have finished some other book that did not get recorded, but I am away from home and will need to check when I get back.

#69 Can You Forgive Her by Anthony Trollope

#70 Pig Earth by John Berger. Full diclosure:i did not finish this. I loved the book when I read it 30 years ago, and it's been with me since. This time--not much. I'll be donating it or trading it, along with the others in the series.

#71 The Commitments

#72 One more done, by candlelight because of an ice storm that knocked out our power. Very satisfying way to read, if a bit chilly. The Children of Dynmouth by William Trevor.

#73 Lighthousekeeping by Jeanette Winterson, a lovely book about storytelling and love. This one will stay in my mind for a good long time.

#74 Mapping Manhattan:A Love (and Sometimes Hate) Story in Maps by 75 New Yorkers great book given to me by my sweetie for Christmas.

#75 Every Day is Mother's Day. The back made it sound so funny, but it's horrifying. I'm steeling myself now to read Vacant Possession.

And I've reached my 75!

Congrats for 75!

Thanks!

I'm working on #76, the sequel to 75. So far I'm enjoying it more. I hope to have it finished tonight, and to fit in a really short one and push for 77. Such a resonant number.

#76 Vacant Possession by Hilary Mantel, the sequel to Every Day is Mother's Day. I enjoyed this a great deal more than the first, as it really was quite funny, but, like the earlier book, it is truly disturbing.