andrewreads 75+ books in 2014

Hello!

My name is Andrew. I've been a member of this group/challenge for the past few years and I've always enjoyed it a bunch. Previously, I've generally been more of a LibraryThing lurker, but I think I'd like that to change that this year and converse a bit more with all of you fine folks. So drop by and say "hello!!!" and I'll try and do the same.

I look forward to reading with everyone this year.

Also, as a secondary goal, I would like to try and read at least 50 BOMBs this year. I own so many books that I haven't read! This is starting to stress me out a little bit, so I'd like to put a dent in this pile (which includes 254 books at last count).

Finally, I love love love Japanese literature and am always looking for new works/authors. Any suggestions/recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

January 2014

* denotes a 'book off of my bookshelf' (or BOMB)

1. Ghostwritten* by David Mitchell - finished January 1st, 436 pages
2. The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly* by Sun-Mi Hwang - finished January 2nd, 134 pages
3. Quicksand* by Jun'ichiro Tanizaki - finished January 5th, 224 pages
4. Reasons to Live* by Amy Hempel - finished January 7th, 144 pages
5. Arthur & George* by Julian Barnes - finished January 10th, 445 pages
6. Magic for Beginners* by Kelly Link - finished January 14th, 297 pages
7. A Quiet Life* by Kenzaburō Ōe - finished January 18th, 240 pages
8. Volcano* by Shūsaku Endō - finished January 21st, 176 pages
9. The Children's Hospital* by Chris Adrian - finished January 26th, 615 pages
10. Ship Fever* by Andrea Barrett - finished January 28th, 254 pages

BOMBs read in January: 10
Books purchased/received in January: 6

Miles run in January: 34.3

February 2014

* denotes a 'book off of my bookshelf' (or BOMB)

11. Obasan* by Joy Kogawa - finished February 2nd, 300 pages
12. The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman - finished February 5th, 181 pages
13. I Am a Cat* by by Sōseki Natsume - finished February 13th, 220 pages
14. The Briefcase by Hiromi Kawakami - finished February 15th, 208 pages
15. Birds of America* by Lorrie Moore - finished February 19th, 304 pages
16. Traveling Sprinkler - by Nicholson Baker - finished February 23rd, 291 pages
17. Jitterbug Perfume* by Tom Robbins - finished February 27th, 342 pages

BOMBs read in February: 4
Books purchased/received in February: 4

Miles run in February: 44.2

March 2014

* denotes a 'book off of my bookshelf' (or BOMB)

18. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit* by Jeanette Winterson - finished March 4th, 176 pages
19. Manazuru by Hiromi Kawakami - finished March 8th, 218 pages
20. Almost No Memory* by Lydia Davis - finished March 12th, 208 pages
21. The Thing About Luck* by Cynthia Kadohata - finished March 13th, 288 pages
22. Unclean Jobs for Women and Girls - by Alissa Nutting - finished March 18th, 188 pages
23. The Temple of the Golden Pavilion* - by Yukio Mishima - finished March 29th, 262 pages

BOMBs read in March: 4
Books purchased/received in March: 0!

Miles run in March: 29.7

April 2014

* denotes a 'book off of my bookshelf' (or BOMB)

24. The Daylight Gate by Jeanette Winterson - finished April 2nd, 224 pages
25. The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin - finished April 11th, 184 pages
26. A Few Seconds of Radiant Filmstrip by Kevin Brockmeier - finished April 16th, 190 pages
27. The Mirror of Her Dreams* by Stephen R. Donaldson - finished April 25th, 626 pages

BOMBs read in April: 1
Books purchased/received in April: 2

Miles run in April: 24.5

May 2014

* denotes a 'book off of my bookshelf' (or BOMB)

28. A Man Rides Through* by Stephen R. Donaldson - finished May 2nd, 627 pages
29. Pepperpot: Best New Stories from the Caribbean* by assorted authors - finished May 4th, 221 pages
30. Devotion* by Howard Norman - finished May 9th, 208 pages
31. A Box of Matches* by Nicholson Baker - finished May 12th, 192 pages
32. The Children in the Woods* by Frederick Busch - finished May 18th, 338 pages
33. Hippolyte's Island* by Barbara Hodgson - finished May 20th, 282 pages
34. The Knife Thrower and Other Stories* by Steven Millhauser - finished May 23rd, 240 pages
35. Amrita by Banana Yoshimoto - finished May 31st, 367 pages

BOMBs read in May: 7
Books purchased/received in May: 1

Miles run in May: 9.7 :-/

June 2014

* denotes a 'book off of my bookshelf' (or BOMB)

36. Charity by Mark Richard - finished June 1st, 160 pages
37. Sushi and Sourdough* by Tooru Kanazawa - finished June 5th, 255 pages
38. Invisible Beasts* by Sharona Muir - finished June 11th, 256 pages
39. At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom* by Amy Hempel - finished June 13th, 160 pages
40. The Man with the Compound Eyes by Wu Ming-Yi - finished June 19th, 304 pages
41. Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman* by Haruki Murakami - finished June 26th, 352 pages
42. Quesadillas by Juan Pablo Villalobos - finished June 27th, 192 pages
43. Can't and Won't by Lydia Davis - finished June 30th, 304 pages

BOMBs read in June: 4
Books purchased/received in June: 4

Miles run in June: 25.6

July 2014

* denotes a 'book off of my bookshelf' (or BOMB)

44. I Am A Cat II* by Sōseki Natsume - finished July 5th, 268 pages
45. Amor and Psycho by Carolyn Cooke - finished July 7th, 192 pages
46. In the House Upon the Dirt Between the Lake and the Woods by Matt Bell - finished July 13th, 312 pages
47. The Diving Pool by Yoko Ogawa - finished July 16th, 164 pages
48. Bark: Stories by Lorrie Moore - finished July 18th, 208 pages
49. The Guest Cat by Takashi Hiraide - finished July 21st, 144 pages
50. Bobcat and Other Stories by Rebecca Lee - finished July 28th, 212 pages

BOMBs read in July: 1
Books purchased/received in July: 7

Miles run in July: 16.0

August 2014

* denotes a 'book off of my bookshelf' (or BOMB)

51. Villain by Shuichi Yoshida - finished August 5th, 304 pages
52. The Eye of the World* by Robert Jordan - finished August 17th, 688 pages
53. The Great Hunt* by Robert Jordan - finished August 24th, 600 pages
54. The Box Man by Kōbō Abe - finished August 27th, 178 pages

BOMBs read in August: 2
Books purchased/received in August: 8

September 2014

* denotes a 'book off of my bookshelf' (or BOMB)

55. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone* by J. K. Rowling- finished September 2nd, 320 pages
56. The Dragon Reborn* by Robert Jordan - finished September 15th, 624 pages
57. Grass on the Wayside* by Natsume Soseki - finished September 18th, 169 pages
58. The Labrador Pact* by Matt Haig - finished September 22nd, 341 pages
59. The Remains of the Day* by Kazuo Ishiguro - finished September 27th, 258 pages
60. Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang* by Kate Wilhelm - currently reading, 254 pages

BOMBs read in September: 6
Books purchased/received in September: 9

October 2014

* denotes a 'book off of my bookshelf' (or BOMB)

61. Three Story House by Courtney Miller Santo - finished October 4th, 378 pages
62. Fantastic Women: 18 Tales of the Surreal and the Sublime* edited by Rob Spillman - finished October 11th, 262 pages
63. Hold the Dark by William Giraldi - finished October 15th, 203 pages
64. Next Life Might Be Kinder by Howard Norman - finished October 20th, 272 pages
65. Salamander and Other Stories by Masuji Ibuse - finished October 22nd, 136 pages
66. Lock In by John Scalzi - finished October 26th, 336 pages
67. The Shadow Rising* by Robert Jordan - finished October 31st, 1008 pages

BOMBs read this year: 41
Books purchased/received this year: 41

Miles run this year: 183.9

November 2014

* denotes a 'book off of my bookshelf' (or BOMB)

68. Wolf in White Van by John Darnielle - finished November 3rd, 224 pages
69. Teach A Woman to Fish* by Ritu Sharma - finished November 7th, 268 pages
70. Love in Infant Monkeys by Lydia Millet - finished November 10th, 177 pages
71. Room Temperature* by Nicholson Baker - finished November 22nd, 128 pages
72. Lighthousekeeping* by Jeanette Winterson - finished November 30th, 240 pages

December 2014

* denotes a 'book off of my bookshelf' (or BOMB)

73. Further Out Than You Thought* by Michaela Carter - finished December 7th, 320 pages
74. Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer - finished December 10th, 195 pages
75. Authority by Jeff VanderMeer - finished December 15th, 341 pages
76. The Fires of Heaven* by Robert Jordan - finished December 24th, 704 pages
77. The Business of Naming Things* - by Michael Coffey - finished December 31st, 224 pages

Welcome! I saw on your profile you're working in organic photovoltaics. Fascinating stuff. I'd love to hear about it sometime.

>15 drneutron:: Oh, that *does* sound interesting (and likely *way* over my head)!

I'd also love to hear some of your favorite reads from Japanese lit - a category that I don't know much about but would love to know more.

Hello Andrew--I love Japanese literature too, so I'll be following your reading. One of my favorite Japanese authors is Akira Yoshimura. Have you read him?
I see you are a grad student in Seattle. Are you at UW? My daughter graduated there with a degree in Biochemistry, and is currently working on a PhD. in genetics.

15/16: It IS pretty neat. If anyone is actually interested (and not just being friendly) I'd be happy to talk about it a bit. :-)

16: So far I think I've mostly stuck to the "big names" of Japanese literature. I love Kawabata and Soseki and Tanizaki. You should absolutely check those guys out if you haven't. I also really enjoy Dazai and the short fiction of Okamoto - two authors who are a bit less famous but are also excellent.

17: Hello! I've read Shipwrecks, which I really enjoyed (even though it's SO bleak and creepy), but I haven't read anything else by Yoshimura. And yeah, I was at UW. I should probably mention that I graduated with my PhD back in August. I know several people in the genome sciences graduate department... is your daughter pursuing her PhD at UW, too?

I finished Ghostwritten yesterday; I actually started it in mid-December but I finished it in 2014 so I'm putting it on this list. It's not cheating!

Anyway, what a crazy, crazy book. Mitchell is absurdly inventive in weaving together so many disparate stories into one (generally) fluid novel. The storyboard for this thing must've looked like something Russell Crowe put together in A Beautiful Mind. This book is not easy to read because 1) it's very complexly written, 2) it has a non-linear plot, 3) the same characters keep popping up over and over but sometimes you'll just meet them in passing so it's a bit hard to keep everything straight, and 4) it's fairly heavy/depressing. That being said, I would absolutely recommend it. And I imagine it'll make an excellent re-read later on.

4.5 stars!

You got me with nonlinear plot... I'm a sucker for those.

>18 andrewreads:: Many thanks for the list of authors - I'll hopefully get round to some of them soon!

I just finished The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly. It's a short, simple story/fable that details the hardships of being an egg-laying hen who can no longer lay eggs. The story touches on some pretty serious themes like loneliness, abandonment, and self-sacrifice but it does so with exceedingly simple prose.

Maybe I'm a little jaded, but after looking at some of the reviews/blurbs for this book (which were all quite good) I thought it was going to be extraordinary, but it was just... okay. Nice, but not particularly moving. Also, it should be noted that there are some lovely sketches/illustrations scattered throughout the text; these were probably my favorite part of the book.

3 stars!

21: You're welcome!

I always feel kinda silly "recommending" famous authors... Kawabata is a Nobel laureate and Soseki was on the ¥1000 note in Japan for 20 years! My recommendation feels so flimsy in comparison. But I suppose that everyone has to hear about everything from somewhere/someone.

If you haven't read anything else by David Mitchell two of his other books, Number 9 Dream and Cloud Atlas are written in a similar way--nonlinear and playing games with the reader. I'd recommend both. His other books are more traditional, and from reading an interview with him, that seems to be the way he intends to go in the future.

My daughter is no longer at UW. After she graduated she worked a couple of years in a lab at the UW (where she had worked through-out her undergraduate years) Her research there involved heart aneurysms. She hated killing the mice, though, and in her graduate work, she is studying genetics in a yeast lab. She is at Stanford.

24: Wow. Your daughter has quite the academic pedigree. It sounds like she's a smartypants.

And I have read almost all of Mitchell's stuff (except for Black Swan Green, which I just haven't gotten around to yet). I've enjoyed both his crazy layered storytelling as well as his more traditional work. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet was probably my favorite; that book is just nuts.

Thanks for the recommendation, though. It was spot on. :-)

>23 andrewreads:: Your recommendations aren't flimsy in the least - as you say, everyone must hear about authors in some way, and I'd not known about the authors you listed until you, well, listed them! I feel that one should never be shy about spreading the book love/author love.

I just finished reading Quicksand. Similar to much of Tanizaki's other work, the major themes of this novel revolved around sexuality and obsession and how these feelings can interact with one another to impact (doom) relationships. Of particular note is the the writing style of this book; it records just one side of a conversation between a woman and her friend/confidant/psychologist with "author's notes" interspersed for clarity. I tend to enjoy non-traditional writing styles and this was one that I had not really encountered before. However, while interesting to read, this was not among my favorites of Tanizaki's work.

3.5 stars!

Oh, I love the idea behind the writing style for that one. I'm fascinated by literature written in the form of letters, and this sounds similar to that. I think I need to add this one to the wish list (another un-flimsy reccomendation...).

I just finished Reasons to Live. I should begin by saying that I love short stories. In my opinion, they are absolutely one of the most underrated forms of art/literature/self expression (along with graphic novels). Well written short stories can be so beautiful and powerful - but they're so compact - so every word matters so much. They're truly marvelous.

Anyway, I've read a very diverse mix of short stories but for some reason I'd never read Hempel until just now... I was duly impressed. Her writing is so simple, lacking any/all of the pretension that does seem to seep into the short stories of her peers occasionally, but at the same time it's 100% moving and memorable and wonderful. "Nashville Gone to Ashes"; "Beg, Sl Tog, Inc, Cont, Rep"; and "The Man in Bogotá" were probably my favorites, but each story has at least one line that is truly remarkable. This was her first collection of shorts, but she has three more. I'm very excited to read the rest of her work in the (near) future. Hooray!

4.5 stars!

>28 scaifea:: Yeah! I love when an author mixes up their story-telling method (assuming it's not too hokey or contrived) and tries something a bit different. You might wanna check out Ella Minnow Pea if you haven't already... it's a quick, fun read with an interesting twist on the whole "novel in the form of letters" genre.

Hi! I didn't think to look for your thread on your profile, I checked the Threadbook wiki page and scanned the threads briefly. Anyway, I have you starred now. Maybe this year I'll actually read stuff you read!

>31 kgodey:: Maybe! I mean, I do have super-duper-impeccably-stupendous taste, so it probably wouldn't be a bad thing if we ended up reading some of the same books...

#32: indeed. I'm doing the category challenge too this year, so I need to read non SFF! Maybe I should have another category called "Books Andrew Reads"

*waves*

Huh. Looks like I missed getting this thread into the Threadbook! Sorry about that - it's in now!

Hey guys. *waves awkwardly, but enthusiastically* It's nice to know that I'm not just typin' at myself.

*awkward, but enthusiastic*, thats exactly how we want our fellow members to be :D

#33: I mean, I'd be happy to start a Kriti+Andrew book club if you wanted. Where I picked/recommended a couple of books for you to read this year and you picked/recommended a couple of books for me. Leslie and I used to do that every summer and I really enjoyed it because I got to (was forced to) read books a little outside of my comfort level sometimes. But that's kinda the point of reading, yeah? Finding and appreciating new stuff?

#38: That sounds great! Let's do it. Maybe we can start with two books each and depending on how we're both enjoying the experience, do more?

#39: Super! Do you want me to pick things that I like that are similar to what you like or things that I like that aren't necessarily similar to what you like...?

#40: Things that aren't necessarily similar. I'm not sure I've read anything in the past couple of years that is similar to stuff you like, so it will have to be the same for you.

I just finished Arthur and George. Going into this book I did not realize how much of it was inspired by actual events. At the end in the author's note when Barnes mentions that all of the letters/newspaper articles (except for one) used in this story were authentic and quoted verbatim I was super surprised. The narrative seemed so compelling and fantastic; it certainly came across as more of a "rip-roaring yarn" than real life. I don't doubt that Barnes spiced up all of the in between bits to make the story more readable, but still... to mash together truth and fiction as seamlessly as he did is quite an achievement.

I thought that parts of this book dragged a little and were a bit dry (e.g. some of the trial scenes), but it was very enjoyable on the whole. Also, reading this has definitely inspired me to take a deeper look into the bibliography of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. If you are drawn to stories about late-Victorian Britain then this seems like a book you'd almost certainly enjoy.

4 stars!

Oh, that one sounds amazing - wishlisted! Thanks for the review!

#42: Arthur and George sounds pretty cool. I'm also wishlisting it.

Also, when do you want to make the picks, and did you have a time limit for reading the books?

Hi Andrew!

I just had to seek out your thread because now your name has popped up as the person on LT with the third most similar books to mine. Zeitgeist says there are 1,771,234 members on LT. The first and second person are not members of the 75-ers group so they are immediately disqualified for a message from me! :)

I am going to *love* following your thread except for the number of book bullets that are going to hit me.

> 18

I haven't read anything else by Yoshimura.

For another great (but dissimilar) book by Akira Yoshimura, read One Man's Justice which was superb or even On Parole. of the two, I thought that the former was the more thought provoking, although I loved them both.

Thanks, drneutron, for finally getting Andrew on the threadbook. It helped me find his thread (now starred). This will be *the* thread for me to pick my out my book bullets!

I have to laugh, Andrew, because I see your name in the list of people with the most similar (weighted) books to mine, but the first two people don't count because they're not members of the 75-ers group! That is also considering the fact that (per Zeitgeist), LT has 1,771,234 members. You came out on top! :D

I haven't read anything else by Yoshimura.

Regarding Akira Yoshimura}, please read One Man's Justice which is so thought-provoking and On Parole. You will not be disappointed by either book. I just added this author to my "favorite authors" list today.

I'm looking forward to the Kriti+Andrew book picks! :)

#44: We can pick books whenever you want! And I don't really care about a time limit... Although, I will say that I'd prefer to have you pick books for me that aren't a part of an ongoing series, but if that proves to be too difficult that's okay. I can deal with it. :-)

#35/45/46: Oh man. I didn't even realize that the threadbook was a thing! I thought that drneutron just had a cute name for the threads that he was following in this challenge... this makes it way easier to find people.

And Madeline (Or SqueakyChu? Do you have a preference?), I promised myself that I would only read BOMBs in January, but as soon as next month rolls around I'll mosey on down to the UW library (they have a ridiculous selection of Japanese authors - it's amazing) and look for some more Yoshimura.

Madeline or SqueakyChu - your choice. No preference.

I promised myself that I would only read BOMBs in January

Sounds like a good plan. :)

Do you know about the ROOTS challenges group? It's like BOMBs*, but it's called ROOTs.

*BOMBs was too violent. :D

#50: I'm not in th ROOT challenge group, but I still refer to them as BOMBs; it seems much more exciting.

#47: okay cool. I might pick things in series' that are standalone. I was planning to do about 5 picks and let you pick two of those to read.

#50: Ah. I had seen people refer to ROOTs, (using my super-awesome powers of induction I decided that the acronym stood for "really old, obstinate tomes", which is not entirely dissimilar from the "official" meaning), but I never checked out the thread. Maybe I'll consider joining!

#51: Super! I'll think up five books, too.

I bought Ghostwritten on a whim yesterday, so it was nice to read your positive comments on it today! Mitchell's books all sound so fascinating. I've only read The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, which I really liked.

#53: Howdy! Yeah, Mitchell's stuff is all super interesting. And kind of hard to read. But in a good way. It just makes it that much more rewarding when you discover/figure out all those secret little connections. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet is actually my favorite of his, but they're all very nice. Happy readin'!

I just finished reading Magic for Beginners. This is a book of short stories. Weird, strange, sometimes creepy, generally disconcerting short stories. Some of them were really good and some of them were less good, but there certainly weren't any bad stories in this collection. My favorites were Stone Animals, Magic for Beginners, and Some Zombie Contingency Plans. Each of these probably rated between 4.5 and 5 stars.

I would definitely recommend this collection to other folks. However, if you're going to appreciate Kelly Link you should probably 1) be be okay with not fully understanding a lot of the things a lot of the time, 2) be okay with interesting/different/bizarre methods of storytelling, and 3) be okay with indeterminate endings. These aren't the easiest stories to read, but they're worth it.

4 stars!

Also, in an attempt to increase my chances of success, I've decided to share three of my New Year's Resolutions with all of you fine LTers. That way there is the potential for public shaming if I lapse. Hooray!

Anyway, here they are:

1. Continue to read boatloads of books! So far so good. (I'm not very worried about this.)

2. Eat less meat! There are so many good reasons to do this. So many. And so far I haven't eaten any meat in January! It hasn't even been too difficult, yet. I've been eating lots of meatless favorites (falafel, potato/tofu curries, and quinoa dishes) and I've also been cooking/trying new recipes more often, which is always good. Tonight I made bell peppers stuffed with tomatoes, poblanos, green onions, cilantro, cheese, and saffron rice. Yum-o.

3. Run consistently/more often! I'd like to run three times a week and go 3-5 miles per run (or ~10 miles per week). I might start increasing the mileage if I decide to sign up for a half marathon later in the year, but for now I'd like to just develop good habits. I'm also currently running at a pace of ~8.5 min/mile. It'd be nice if I got a bit faster, too. So far I haven't wimped out and missed a scheduled run. I usually run at night out in the world (the soggy streets of Seattle) but sometimes it's hard to get motivated when it's wet or cold or if I just want to eat pizza or drink beer... we'll see how this goes! I think I'll put a little mileage counter below my book total for each month to see how consistent I am.

Does anybody else have any fun/interesting ways that they're trying to be a better person this year?

Not really any interesting or unique ways - just the usual. I'm trying to eat better and less (I have a habit of eating junk and lots of it, so, yeah, that should stop). Also, I'm trying to get myself to exercise regularly. So far, not too bad, except for today (I've had about 6 cookies. And a cheeseburger. And I haven't exercised.).

It really is too bad that junk food has a tendency to 1) be really easy to prepare/obtain and 2) taste SO GOOD. In any case, more exercise and a better diet are certainly admirable goals. Good luck!

My girlfriend and I just got back from doing some shoppin' at Trader Joe's (we bought SO MUCH cheese and wine because we're pretending to be a little bit fancy and throwing a party tomorrow) and Half Price Books. I'd received a few HPB gift cards for Christmas so we stopped by to see if they had anything good and I ended up getting four books. A rule that I instituted a few years ago (once my TBR pile ballooned up for ~300 books) is that I'm not allowed to buy books unless they're either really inexpensive (less than $3.00) or I find something that I know is rare/hard to find. Anyway, I bought:

1. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
(I'm always looking to improve the "classic literature" section of my collection. Especially stuff written by women authors because I feel like they're a bit unrepresented in my library. This is a perfect addition.)

2. Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates by Tom Robbins
(Sometimes books by Robbins are delightful and sometimes they're a little too crude/caustic for my tastes, but they always have at least a few beautiful passages that make the book worth reading.)

3. Twin Spica: Volume 6 by Kou Yaginuma
(I have a small, but growing, manga collection; this is one of the series that I collect. It's very cute and sweet and a little spacey and really well drawn/told. I think that graphic novels/manga are probably one of the least appreciated forms of art. If you've been hesitant to do so, I'd definitely recommend giving 'em a chance.)

4. Somersault by Kenzaburō Ōe
(I love how introspective/moving Ōe's work is. And it's not every day that you can snag a Nobel laureate's work from the clearance shelf!)

All in all, a very eclectic mini-book haul. And for less than $10! I'm very happy with what I found. :-)

Great New Year's resolutions, Andrew. Best of luck with them!

I'm keeping mine simple. I am not going to go past 500 books in my TBR shelf. It's been climbing up for years, but that has got to end. It needs to start going down from now on.

I need to cut down on red meat because my husband was recently diagnosed with gout. That's a kind of arthritis that is adversely affected by eating red meat, red wine, and other particular kinds of foods. I'm kind of a vegetarian wannabe anyway so that less meat doesn't bother me. It does bother my husband, though. I made a great French onion soup tonight, but my husband was out in front of our house and reported that he could smell that one of our neighbors was cooking meat. *sigh*

By the way, let me know when you're going to be reading Somersault because that's also one of my (current) 492 TBR books. :D

My daughter and older son are very much into manga. I had been given a collection of manga to offer at my Little Free Library of Twinbrook, but I'm not getting many takers for them. :( I'm sure I'll be able to give them away this April and May during two books festivals I'm working, though.

Enjoy the wine and cheese at your party!

Oh, dang. I miss being near Trader Joe's and HPB so much. Sigh.

I hope your party went well!

I just finished reading A Quiet Life. This novel, like many other of Oe's works, looks at the life of a young woman who must care for her mentally challenged brother. It's amazing how this same theme permeates almost all of Oe's work (undoubtedly influenced by the fact that Oe's son is mentally challenged), and yet it never feels over-written or repetitive. Each of his novels lends a different perspective/feeling regarding this theme and compliments his other writing. The way that he brings a sense of respect and understanding and appreciation to people with intellectual disabilities, in a manner that doesn't feel at all patronizing or overly simplified, is as uncommon as it is admirable. This novel felt a bit less angry and was less visceral than most of his other work; I enjoyed it, but it wasn't my favorite.

4 stars!

Madeline: Oh man. French onion soup is delicious! Hopefully your husband is able to adjust to his new/better diet without too much food-related remorse. Meat may be tasty, but I reckon it's not worth chronic pain/inflammation. And thanks so much for making me feel a lot better about the size of my TBR pile. It's almost exactly half as big as yours! Hopefully we can both take big ol' chunks out of our respective piles this year.

Amber: Yeah. It's great! But the ease with which I can spend so much money and accumulate so many books is less great...

Kriti: It was good! We bought EIGHT different kinds of cheeses and also had a boatload of wine. And since there are leftovers, I'll be making some fancy grilled cheeses all week... woo!

I just finished reading Volcano. I've known about Endō and his reputation as a wonderful novelist for quite some time, but this is actually the first book that I've read by him. Looking at his LT ratings, Volcano seems to be one of his weakest works, so maybe this wasn't the best place to start... that being said, I did enjoy this novel.

Volcano does a very good job conveying the inner turmoil a person encounters when they are forced to doubt that which they believe in the most. In this case, the protagonist has spent 20+ years monitoring a volcano in southern Japan. He has collected reams and reams of data and has come to the conclusion that the volcano has become dormant and will never erupt again. Based on his conclusions, people have started building at the base of the mountain. And then he retires. And then he starts to see (hallucinate?) signs that the volcano might not actually be dormant...

So what would you do? You could second-guess yourself and issue warnings to the builders/people near the base of the volcano, potentially saving thousands of lives. But this would mean admitting that your life's work has likely been for nothing. Ignoring/sacrificing your wife and children to pursue your research was all for nothing. You'd lose honor and credibility and bring shame to your family. Alternatively, you could say nothing. And hope and wish and cross your fingers that the mountain doesn't erupt and bury people in burning lava. Neither of these options is particularly attractive.

As someone who has done a lot of research in a laboratory setting, I can relate to the allure of ignoring data that doesn't fit your hypothesis. Being right is such a nice thing! Especially when you've staked a portion of your reputation on your findings. But that's not how science works, so...

Anyway, this book is pretty good. The pacing is nice and while the translation feels a little hokey at times, overall it's very readable. Especially for something that is so introspective. I'm happy to have read this and I look forward to reading more Endō in the future.

3.5 stars!

Volcano sounds really good (even though you think it's just so-so). it sounds as if has the pacing of some of the books I've read by Akira Yoshimura. A lot of what goes on in such novels is psychological. I love that kind of read.

I have one book on deck by Shūsaku Endō, but my TBR pile is too big to ever get to it. It's Deep River. I found it at my local use book store while browsing. it seemed too good to pass up so I bought it. I need to start passing up visits to that book store. *sigh*

Andrew, how did you get so interested in reading Japanese literature? I think I started by first reading books by Haruki Murakami and then branching out. In addition, on BookCrossing.com, there was one member from Canada who always recommended books of Japanese fiction and would mail me book those he thought were good that I didn't have. I then felt compelled to read them.

So I'm actually 1/4 Japanese. My dad's mom was Japanese, but she lived in California/Hawaii right before/during/after WWII, so she never taught her kids anything about Japanese culture. I imagine she did this in an attempt to fully "Americanize" them and shield them from harm (what with all the interning of Japanese/Japanese Americans and crazy racism). I certainly don't blame her for this, but I've always been disappointed that I never got to experience Japanese culture in a particularly authentic/intimate way. For this reason, I feel like I've always been a bit predisposed to trying harder to relate to/appreciate Japanese culture.

When I was younger I did this mostly through Japanese food and a little bit of anime/manga. It actually wasn't until semi-recently (February 2012) that I started to read a lot of Japanese literature. I happened across a copy of Osamu Dazai's No Longer Human at a used book store for 50 cents. I enjoyed that a lot, so I looked into other authors from Japan from around that same time period (Mishima, Kawabata, Tanizaki...) and I ended up loving all of 'em. I've since started to read a few contemporary Japanese authors, too (Murakami, Yoshimoto, Ogawa). I think almost half of the books I've read since the beginning of 2012 have been by Japanese authors. This is a trend I would like to continue into the future! :-)

That's so interesting about your family, Andrew. From what city was your grandmother?

My older son (age 33) is very much into anime and manga and is now saving for a trip to Japan. I have no Japanese origins in my family (my roots are Jewish: German and Austro-Hungarian), but I just love the slower pacing and the beauty of the uncomplicated English translations of Japanese novels I've read.

My daughter (age 27) was very much into manga/anime for a long time while in high school and did some exceptional fan-art which she even sold at anime conventions in the past. Then she stopped drawing...until just recently. Now she's drawing again just for fun.

This is a trend I would like to continue into the future!

Hey! I'll continue this trend with you! :)

My grandmother's parents actually moved to Hawaii either right before or right after she was born. I thiiiink they were from the south-western part of Honshu, but that's as detailed as I know/can remember. It's a little bit of a bummer not knowing more about that part of my family; I know that it probably doesn't actually matter, but it sure feels like it does matter sometimes.

And the elegant, introspective, leave-a-bunch-of-things-unsaid style displayed in most early 20th century Japanese literature (in the translations that I've read, anyway) is something that I really appreciate, too.

Also, good for your daughter! Drawing seems like a particularly nice/rewarding hobby. As much as I like reading, reading, reading, there's certainly something special about actually creating content as opposed to just consuming it.

I just finished reading The Children's Hospital. I did not particularly enjoy it. While parts of it felt very well written, the overall pacing was pretty dreadful and the writing style was inconsistent. It was the kind of novel where you're just reading along and everything seems okay (or maybe even good), and then all of a sudden there are some sections that don't really make any sense, but they include some interesting/strange/emotive phrases, so you just go with it and trust that things will be tied into the rest of the story somehow later, but then you finish the book and look back and you're just like Why???

Maybe I just haven't thought about it enough yet to "get it", but some of those rough sections felt almost like patchwork writing exercises that were roughly inserted into the novel because they either sounded cool or encouraged a particular emotion or something. But they weren't really related to anything that was going on. So I guess maybe my issue with this book is that it didn't feel polished?

Also, something that didn't reallllly take away from the quality of the work, but was still fairly irksome, was the fact that the novel was littered with medical jargon to the point that it was distracting and encouraged skimming/skipping. The inclusion of so many ~obscure technical terms seemed like a dubious choice as this is not a novel that relies on scientific/medical accuracy for ANYTHING. I understand that the author completed a pediatric residency at Cal; I do not understand why he felt it necessary to copy so much of the vocabulary out of his medical textbooks into this story. Maybe he just wanted to lend authenticity to the hospital setting or something?

Overall, this was somewhat of a chore to read. However, it did have its nice bits, and I did read all 600+ pages in about four days, so it was at least somewhat compelling... I won't say that I regret finishing it, but I don't know that I would recommend it to anyone else.

2.5 stars!

> 70

Think I'll skip this book. It sounds dreadful! :)

I really did want to like it... I feel like if somebody read excerpts from this book they might really enjoy them/be impressed, but that's not really how novels work. :-/

I like Japanese literature a lot, too, Andrew. Though I've read several of Endo's books, I've never heard of Volcano, so I'll have to look for it.

Oe's first book, Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids, is fairly different than some of his other books, so if you haven't read that you might enjoy it.

BTW, I answered on my own thread but my son's Seattle group was MK Speed Dial. There was an article about them in the Stranger when they broke up. My son was the only one who used the F-word in the article so I couldn't share it with my mom. :) His NY group is Arc Wave, and they have a web page or you tube or something where you can hear them. His new group has a female lead singer. My son is the lead guitar and song writer.

Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids was actually the final book I read last year. I did enjoy it. And you're right; the style in it is quite dissimilar from Oe's other works. (Maybe 'cause it was his first novel?)

I went and gave a listen to the band your son is in. It actually matches up pretty well with the kind of music I like, so I enjoyed it. The vocalist has a lovely voice. And of course the guitar lines are all spot on. :-)

I just did a bad (good) thing and bought two more books... because I'm seemingly incapable of going to Trader Joe's without going into the Half Price Books next door. And I'm also incapable of going into Half Price Books without scroungin' around on the clearance shelves and finding good, inexpensive books...

Anyway, I bought:

1. Sushi and Sourdough by Tooru Kanazawa
(I really enjoy books that take place on the frontier in Alaska/Northern Canada. I also really enjoy books about Japanese immigrants coming to America. This book is both of those things in one! I'd never heard of this before, but it sounded interesting so I grabbed it.)

and

2. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
(Winterson is definitely one of my top...5? favorite authors. I've slowly been reading her bibliography over the past couple of years, pacing myself because I don't want to run out of "new" things to read by her. I haven't read/bought this yet, so it seemed imprudent not to scoop it up.)

Hooray books!

Yeah. I know the feeling. There's a friends of the Library used book store just doors away from the kosher market where I buy my meat. I need to start eating less meat, I guess!

Funny. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit is the only book by Winterson that I've read - although I've purchased more of her books (as yet unread). You know from where. Yep. That very same FOTL used book store! :D

I'm not familiar with Tooru Kanazawa. I'll be awaiting your review.

I just finished reading Ship Fever. This is a very lovely, well written group of stories. I enjoyed them a great deal. Each story in this collection shares a theme in that each gives a glimpse into the life of a scientist, focusing more on their humanity than on their scientific discoveries. Barrett's stories touch on Mendel, Wallace, Linnaeus, Darwin, and others. Most times, when we learn about the famous scientists of the past, all we are taught is an equation. Or a theory. Or a law. Maybe some dates for context. This always bothered me a little bit when I was in class. Sometimes I'd wonder about these people and the conditions that they lived in that allowed/forced them to come up with their great ideas. Barrett seems to have had similar feelings. By extensively researching these scientists and the times/surroundings that they were immersed in, and mixing in her prodigious writin' skills, she was able to produce stories that had both a very high degree of authenticity/realism and were a delight to read. These are certainly works of historical fiction, with fabricated relationships and conversations and other details, but nothing feels forced or phoney. I don't know that Barrett's primary goal was necessarily to humanize these men and women (mostly men, sadly, because sexism) and make them a bit more relatable/understandable, but that's certainly what I took away from this collection.

Also, in some of these stories, she opts to write about fictional men and women of science instead. By sharing their (made up) stories, and comparing/contrasting these more humble figures with notable scientists, Barrett strips away a lot of the fantasy that surrounds many of the historical thinkers of the past. We are reminded that these historically important figures weren't demigods... they were just people. Intelligent and charismatic, certainly, but just people. She even takes the time to remind us that just because these folks were brilliant, they were far from omniscient. For example, in one of her stories about Carl Linnaeus (the man considered to be "the father of modern taxonomy and ecology"), she highlights Linnaeus's belief that instead of migrating, migratory birds hibernated underwater during the winter months, returning to the surface once ponds and lakes thawed.

Anyway, my favorite stories in this collection are The Behavior of the Hawkweeds (which touches on the discoveries of Gregor Mendel) and the titular story/novella Ship Fever (which looks at the Typhus epidemic of 1847 on Grosse Isle, Quebec from the viewpoints of both a doctor and a patient). If you like science or scientists or historical fiction or short stories or quality writing, this collection is almost certainly something that you'd enjoy.

4.5 stars!

Funny coincidence. That book, Ship Fever, was the last book taken out of my Little Free Library. I have a copy of that book somewhere here at home. From your review, it sounds better than I thought it would be. I love reading well written short stories. If I find it, I'll give it a go.

Man. Your Little Free Library sounds like it's amazingly well-stocked. Not that I'm surprised, given your literary tastes... A TON of LFLs have popped up in Seattle over the past ~year. There are at least a dozen within two miles of my apartment... I always take a peek in them when I'm out on a walk (which is often). Unfortunately, 1) I almost always forget to bring books to contribute/share, so I'd feel a little funny taking anything and 2) the LFLs I encounter are generally chock full o' James Patterson and Nicholas Sparks and Dan Brown... these books aren't necessarily junk books (even though that's kinda how I feel about them, 'cause I'm a bit of a book snob), but the selection tends to be fairly uninspiring. No manga. No short story collections. But I'll keep checkin'!

And yeah, Ship Fever is a nice collection. Quick to read and easy to enjoy.

I love to stock my LFL with books I like, but other neighbors and Bookcrossers also add many of their own. I leave the books in for a month, then take them out if they don't move.

One visitor asked for manga books, so I managed to get whole box of manga from a fellow Bookcrosser. I've noticed that no one takes those, though, even though I've put some in.

You don't necessarily need to contribute a book to a LFL - only if you want to.

What's in my LFL at any given moment might be all over the place. I often try to tell others some of the books I'm putting out via my LFL's Facebook page. Other than that, people can see some of the books which were placed (but are not necessarily still there) by going to my LFL's BookCrossing page. Any book that has been journaled is no longer on that page, though.

Dan Brown has become sort of a joke to my BookCrossing friends. We give each other that author's books simply to make everyone laugh! :)

Andrew - Enjoyed reading your reviews, especially of several of the Japanese writers I have on my shelves and still haven't made the time for.
I didn't enjoy A Quiet Life quite as much as you did although it is a good 15 years since I read it.

Have a great weekend.

Howdy, Paul.

I would heartily encourage you to abandon (or at least put on hold) all of your other book reading pursuits and tackle some Japanese literature. It's great! As for A Quiet Life, I think it was one of those scenarios where I probably would've given it a 3/3.5 star rating, but it got a bump because it was written by Ōe. Objective ratings are hard!

Watching boatloads of the Winter Olympics has cut into my reading/internet time a little bit over the last week. Normally I'm reluctant to watch much television (with the exception of the occasional football/baseball game or Jeopardy!), but I think that it's okay to make an exception for the Olympics.

That being said, I have managed to read four (relatively short) books so far in February.

     

(It really bothers me that the aspect ratios of these covers are inconsistent...)

Obasan: I enjoyed this book a lot. I thought it did a wonderful job recounting a terribly shameful period of Canada's history (the absurdly racist internment of thousands of Japanese Canadians during/after WWII) without being overly sentimental or theatrical. Kogawa mixed storytelling methods (relating much of the story through old letters, diary entries, and childhood flashbacks/recollections) to deliver a book that is poignant and readable. Because this is a period of time largely glossed over in US/Canadian history classes, I would encourage folks to give this a read. 4 stars!

The Ocean at the End of the Lane: This is the third of fourth book I've read by Gaiman. Every year or so I try and give him another chance, because so many people seem to LOVE him, but I just haven't found any of his work to be particularly engaging/inventive. This story is "neat" and not poorly written... but there's just nothing that I find special about it. 3 stars!

I Am a Cat: Man. I really wanted to like this more than I did. I usually find Soseki to be quite moving and/or humorous, but I actually found this story to be a little boring. This book focuses on a feline protagonist who observes humans and remarks upon how silly/frivolous/stupid humanity seems to be. This shtick seems like it would provide a very effective vehicle for satire/social commentary, but the conversations that the cat eavesdrops on are maybe a little too absurd/heavy-handed? It's very possible that a lot of the nuance was lost upon translation, but I don't know... This is only the first volume of a three volume series, and I intend to finish reading the other two, but my hopes aren't terribly high. 3 stars!

The Briefcase: This was a surprise. I picked it up at the library because I thought the cover was pretty and I'm a sucker for Japanese authors. Using sparse prose, Kawakami explores several different themes including the differences between contentment and happiness, the effects of prolonged nostalgia/loneliness, and the impact of large age differences on interpersonal relationships. This book was simple but not simplistic... if that makes sense? I enjoyed it. 4 stars!

Of the books you mentioned, I only read Obasan. I also thought that book interesting because I never thought about the Japanese in Canada during WWII. I've only ever learned about the shameful way Americans treated the Japanese in the U.S. Sadly that period of history had a similar parallel for people of Japanese origin in Canada.

I had to laugh about your TV remarks. Your TV habits are similar to mine. No Jeopardy, though. The football* playoffs and the Olympics. That's about it.

*I'm a (Washington) Redskins deserter and more of a (Baltimore) Ravens fan now. :)

Yeah. I was always under the impression that the US/Canadian governments "only" interned people that were born in Japan. I had no idea that folks who were as little as 1/16th Japanese could be interned. "Sorry, we know that your family has been living here for 4 generations and you've all been US/Canadian citizens, but your great-great grandparents were born in Japan so you've gotta go."

Also, I approve of your desertion of DC's football team. I have a bunch of family around Cleveland (so I've been encouraged to "hate" the Ravens), but ~recently Dan Snyder seems like he's trying to do his best to make his football team hard to root for.

I approve of your desertion of DC's football team.

Haha! I used to be a diehard Redskins fan...but that was years ago. I grew up in Baltimore...plus Joe Flacco's cute...and purple's my favorite color! :)

Dan Snyder seems like he's trying to do his best to make his football team hard to root for.

Agreed.

I haven't read The Ocean at the End of the Lane yet. I think a few years ago, I would've said I really loved Neil Gaiman, but there are lots of authors I keep up with, and he's not on that list anymore. His books are a very particular kind of weird. On the other hand, I did reread and love Stardust recently – that's probably my favourite of his books, it has a lot of heart.

Are we still going to do the book club thing?

I haven't read Stardust... And yeah! I'm certainly still up for book clubbin' if you are.

I guess that I should mention (for the sake of completeness) that I got two new books ~last week. This brings my 2014 book purchase total up to eight (so far). I grabbed Birds of America by Lorrie Moore (which I'm currently reading) and Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson.

Quick question...
Have you read any books by Japanese author Ryu Murakami (not related to Haruki Murakami). If so, how did you like them?

Apparently, Ryu Murakami is one of the only two Japanese authors The Murakami reads.

Who is the other Japanese author he reads?

>90 SqueakyChu:: I haven't! I often look at his stuff... it certainly sounds like it'd weird and interesting and crazy, but I've yet to pull the trigger.

#92 Banana Yoshimoto, I confess to having read neither of the two, yet.

Huh. That's interesting. I have read several of Yoshimoto's books. They're quirky and quick to get through. I did really enjoy a couple of them. Especially Goodbye Tsugumi.

> 94

Hmmm? Both of those Japanese authors are so well known. I was hoping I'd discover someone new by asking you! :)

#96 Well, there is this story that Murakami grew up reading only western and Russian literature, because his father was a teacher of Japanese literature and had he read Japanese literature, he would have had to discuss it with his father :)

:)

This collection is… powerful.

I don’t know that Birds of America is necessarily one of my all-time favorites (a lot of the stories seemed quite similar which makes it a bit harder for individuals stories to stand out) but I am very glad that I read it. Moore writes with strength and beauty and humor about a multitude of difficult circumstances. Most of the characters in these stories are young/middle-aged women who find themselves confronted by hardship (sickness, death, infidelity, depression) and find ways to manage/survive/resign themselves to the difficulties that they face.

Below is a rating for each story in this collection and some brief, non-spoilery words about my favorites.

5 stars:

People Like That Are the Only People Here: Canonical Babbling in Peed Onk - Oh man. This story. It is easily one of the best ten short stories I’ve ever read. I find it hard to believe that I’m saying this about something that focuses on the diagnosis/treatment of an infant with kidney cancer, but this story is just wonderful. Her ability to convey a sense of complete rage and disbelief, without dredging up massive amounts of melodrama, is beyond impressive. I can only imagine how difficult it would be to write about something like this (apparently it’s strongly based on actual events from Moore’s life), but she does such a good job. This story alone makes this collection something worth reading/having.

4.5 stars:

Dance in America – My second favorite story in this collection. It’s short, but very moving. It also discusses the effects that a sick child can have on the adults that he comes in contact with. But it manages to avoid being overly depressive. It’s almost a little… cheerful? In a punch-you-in-the-stomach-every-once-in-a-while kind of way.

Four Calling Birds, Three French Hens – This seems like it would be a really good story for anyone who has ever lost a pet that they were particularly attached to. Even though they’re “just an animal”, losing your special buddy can alter your mood and shape your outlook on life in surprisingly dramatic ways.

Terrific Mother – Imagine that you’ve accidentally dropped and killed a baby that they you were forced to hold? How much might this tragedy shatter your whole person and change/influence everything that you feel? Is there a way to recover/move on from such an accident? It turns out that Moore does not shy away from even the darkest of topics.

4 stars:

Which is More Than I Can Say About Some People – A poignant examination about how parent:child relationships can change when the child finally sees their parent as a real, complicated person with their own problems and shortcomings.

And below are the stories that I didn’t like quite as much and don’t feel like writin’ about. I thought that these were all fine and well-written (with the exception of Beautiful Grade which I thought was just kinda boring); they just didn’t strongly resonate with me.

3.5 stars: Willing, Agnes of Iowa, What You Want to Do Fine, Real Estate

3 stars: Community Life, Charades

2.5 stars: Beautiful Grade

This is definitely a book worth checking out. Overall, based largely on the strength of People Like That Are the Only People Here, I’m gonna give this collection a rating of... 4.5 stars!

I have that book. I started it but never got through it. I must have been reading other books at the time and put it aside. When I decide to give it my time, I'll start from the beginning again (so I didn't read your reviews of the individual stories).

That being said, I like to at least note in my catalogue a line about each story in a book of short stories because I can never remember them all (or even most of them). Periodically, though, I want to go back and refer to a particular story which has a specific strength. This usually happens in relation to a discussion not at all about short stories.

Lots of people don't like to read short stories. I do. Do you have particular authors of short stories that you favor? Haruki Murakami and T.C. Boyle are two of my favorites.

I actually started to do something similar with the short stories that I read, too, taking particular care to make a note of which ones are my favorites. That list has gotten a little unwieldy over the years because I do read a lot of short story collections...

My favorite short story collections were written by Kevin Brockmeier (he has two). Other contemporary authors whose work I've enjoyed include Karen Russell, Kelly Link, Ethan Canin, Jeffrey Ford, and Lydia Davis.

And then of course there's J.G. Ballard, Alice Munro, and Eudora Welty.

I'm sure I've left out other authors, but this list already fields a bit bulky...

I haven't read anything by: Kevin Brockmeier, Karen Russell, Kelly Link, Ethan Canin, Jeffrey Ford, Lydia Davis, or Alice Munro. I'll have to check out their short stories.

J.G. Ballard short stories are such fun to read. I'm familiar with Welty's novels, but not her short stories. I'd imagine they'd be good to read as well.

>102 SqueakyChu: It's funny how sometimes the authors/works that we think of as being "famous" or whatever can actually be much less well-read than we imagine. In this case, I guess I'm a little surprised that you enjoy short stories but haven't read any by Munro or Welty... That last sentence feels like it could come across as being a little bit snarky/judgy. It's not meant to!

Anyway, do you have any short story collections/authors that you find particularly enjoyable?

I own books by Alice Munro. I just haven't gotten to them yet. :) I have Runaway and The View from Castle Rock. I'll have to look for them and read them sooner rather than later.

Here are some books of short stories I really liked:
1. Ghost of a Smile - Deborah Boliver Boehm
2. McSweeney’s Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories - Michael Chabon (editor)
3. Specimen Days - Michael Cunningham
4. Everything's Eventual - Stephen King - I love this book!
5. Sightseeing - Rattawat Lapcharoensap
6. Men & Cartoons - Jonathan Lethem - especially “Dystopianist, Thinking of His Rival, is Interrupted by a Knock on the Door”
7. Apples From the Desert - Savyon Liebrecht
8. Drinking Coffee Elsewhere - ZZ Packer - especially "Brownies"

There are too many I've really enjoyed to list...but these few (in no particular order) should get you started.

>101 andrewreads: I have not had great experiences reading short stories, but I recently read the Raymond Carver collection Where I'm Calling From and realized that maybe I just had a run of reading the wrong short stories, and that's what turned me off to them. I'm intrigued by your mention of J.G. Ballard short stories, since I've read a couple of his books and been very interested in reading more. I'll have to keep an eye out.

>104 SqueakyChu: Oooh. I do enjoy new recommendations. I've actually read Men & Cartoons (although, I think I enjoyed his other collection The Wall of the Sky, the Wall of the Eye a bit more maybe?) and Sightseeing (which I liked). And I've subscribed on and off to McSweeney's quarterly over the last several years... I've read some truly wonderful, off-the-wall stuff in that "magazine". And the formatting of the issues is always inventive. I'll have to check out those other ones, though.

>105 ursula: Writing short stories certainly seems like something that would be particularly difficult to master, what with the length/word count constraints inherent to the medium. So I guess it's not surprising that there are so many duds out there? I'm glad that you were able to soldier on and find something that you liked :-). I agree; that collection by Carver is pretty good. And if you like Ballard's novels, I think you'd probably like his short stories, too.

>106 andrewreads:

Hmmm. It seems as if I lent The Wall of the Sky, the Wall of the Eye to my daughter - although I haven't read that book yet. I'll have to see if I can get it back! :)

Short stories, Andrew. Last year I read a fair amount of anthologies and can recommend:

1 Anything at all by William Trevor
2 What we talk about when we talk about Anne Frank by Nathan Englander
3. Drifting House by Krys Lee
4. Tunneling to the Center of the Earth by Kevin Wilson
5. Stay Awake by Dan Chaon
6. Ten Sorry Tales by Mick Jackson

Ooooh! I second Stay Awake by Dan Chaon. :)

Dan Chaon is actually famous? He's a professor at Oberlin (where I went to college/live, and Andrew's family lives), so I thought he was just famous here.

>108 PaulCranswick: I want to read that Nathan Englander collection. Actually, that's a big part of the reason that I read the Raymond Carver one - so that I could finally read the story that everyone else is copying when they use the "What We Talk About When We Talk About ____" construction.

>108 PaulCranswick: Thanks for the suggestions! I've read (and appreciated) Trevor and Englander previously, so I imagine the rest of your recommendations are pretty excellent as well.

Oh no! I haven't posted anything on here for quite awhile...



Last week, I received an advanced reader’s copy of Pepperpot: Best New Stories from the Caribbean. This collection includes 13 shorts and is the first in a new series of planned yearly releases which aim to introduce Caribbean literature to a much broader audience. I really do enjoy reading short stories a lot, and anthologies like this one are a perfect way to experience a bunch of new writers without needing to invest a big chunk of time in any single author (in case you encounter someone who isn’t to your liking). This collection was doubly appealing because I really hadn’t had much/any exposure to Caribbean literature, and I was excited to try reading something different.

As I made my way through this collection, I noticed that there were a few themes that many of the stories seemed to share. 1) Warm, humid weather pervades most aspects of the characters’ lives and largely influences their habits and behaviors; 2) the idea that islands, even larger islands like Jamaica, are essentially small communities where secrets are scarce and it is difficult to distance yourself from your past; 3) the fact that a large portion of the population is highly marginalized and subsists on very little; and 4) individuals who deviate from socially accepted behavior are generally swiftly/harshly punished. These similarities between stories really helped to tie things together and made the collection feel very cohesive. I also felt like these shared themes did a wonderful job of highlighting some of the issues/conflicts that are likely central to life in the Caribbean.

Unfortunately, I ended up finding parts of this collection to be fairly underwhelming. I do not mean to suggest that any of the writing was bad, but many of these stories seemed a little underdeveloped. Or overly straightforward? Depending or your tastes, this isn’t even necessarily a bad thing; sometimes a nice, simple story is what you’re in the mood for. However, I was unable to get into/connect with a lot of these stories. That being said, I did enjoy some of them a lot. Below, I’ve mentioned three of my favorites.

Waywardness by Ezekel Alan – This was easily my favorite story of the bunch. Like many of the other stories in this collection, it recounts (in graphic detail) the daily lives of people who are forced to live on the margins of society. It is not a nice story (regularly trivializing rape and equating homosexuality to sexual abuse/bestiality), but I really loved the writing style and the method of storytelling that was used. So much grit! After looking up the author, I noticed that he has written a novel as well… I think I might have to check that out.

Mango Summer by Janice Lynn Mather- Another tragic story, this recounts the disappearance of a young girl (Theresa) from the viewpoint of her older sister (Brenda). Over the course of a summer, several children in a close-knit community slowly begin to disappear. Although many of the adults are wracked with grief and worry, Brenda and Theresa remain largely untouched and naively continue with their summertime activities. And then Theresa disappears. While Brenda recognizes that her sister is almost certainly dead and gone, she prefers to think of her as away on an epic boat journey with all of the other missing girls. “It’s a shame to think of them any other way. It would waste them. And why waste little girls? They are, they can be, such nice things.” This story was very poignant, providing a strikingly sharp contrast between the innocence of childhood and the sometimes horrible harshness of reality.

All the Secret Things No One Ever Knows by Sharon Leach – “Ten years ago, I found out that I wasn’t my father’s only girlfriend.” This is the opening sentence, quickly setting the tone for a very heavy, traumatic story that details the continued sexual and psychological abuse of a daughter by her father. Again, this is an awful, terrible story (I don’t think there is a single story in this collection that is remotely happy…), but it is written in such an artful, compelling fashion. It was not easy to read, but I am glad that I read it.

I also liked Amelia at Devil’s Bridge and The Monkey Trap. If you really enjoy short story collections or are interested in checkin’ out writing from a new region/area, I don’t think you’d regret perusing these stories. This was a quick read and some of the writing is quite remarkable. However, I would not classify this collection as a “must read”. Overall, I’d give it 3.5 stars!

Hi Andrew!

I was wondering if you were still around! I'm now reading two short story collections myself. One is Blind Willow Sleeping Woman by a favorite author of mine - Haruki Murakami. I haven't read any of his works for a long time. What makes this book so noteworthy is that it's my first ever e-read! I'm reading it on a Kindle my daughter gave me. I make the font huge so I can quickly turn (the fake) pages. That gives me the (probably false) impression that I'm reading the book faster than I really am. :)

My second short story collection is my Early Reviewer's An Authentic Captain Marvel Ring & Other Stories by Alan Cheuse. I chose this book because I read and liked a novel by this same author. So far, I like his novel better then the few short stories I've read, but I still have a way to go in this book. I might yet change my mind.

Pepperpot sounds kind of depressing. I liked your review, though, because it's often hard to review a short story collection.

I'm still here! Just lazy about writing up reviews/comments.

Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman is slowly creeping near the top of my book pile, so I should be reading that soon, too! I really do love short stories. About a quarter of my unread library consists of short story collections...

As for e-readers, I have yet to take that plunge. I'm not particularly interested in buying one, but I suppose if I received one as a gift I would probably get excited about it.

And Pepperpot was totally depressing! I wouldn't have written about it if I hadn't won it through the Early Reviewer's group. I'm glad that you didn't think the review was lousy!

The funny thing about the Kindle is that I've always been so anti-e-reader. I never thought I'd own one.

Then my daughter's fiancé gave her a new Kindle, and she asked if I wanted her old one. What was I to say? Throw it away? Give it away? It's a reading device, after all. LOL!

She predicted that I'd like it much better than I thought. I think she's right. I think it's fun for short stories, but I still prefer my novels and other assorted reads to be in dead tree books. :)

What happed to the "book club" you were going to start with kgodey?! Is it in session yet?

Yes, what happened to the book club?

Oh. Well. I don't know!

I guess maybe I figured it'd take you a little while to settle in to your new job and whatnot? In any case, I'm up for whatever whenever.

Another Early Reviewers book! Invisible Beasts by Sharona Muir



I've found that it is quite difficult for me to write a review for this book. I finished it more than a week ago, and I've been thinking about it on and off since then, but I'm not sure that I quite know what to say. While marketed as a novel, Invisible Beasts certainly seems more like a collection of short stories/essays that have an ongoing theme. However, as the stories progress, the common thread that ties them all together becomes somewhat tenuous. The main idea in these stories is that the protagonist, Sophie, has the (incredibly rare, inherited) ability to see invisible animals. These critters are not particularly uncommon and she encounters them frequently in her daily life. Each chapter of this "novel" reads kind of like a journal entry written by Sophie and serves (nominally) to describe one specific invisible creature. Sometimes she discusses the habits/behaviors of these animals in detail, sometimes she just mentions them briefly as a passing detail of her life.

There are also some very strong environmental/conservationist themes hinted at in these stories. Muir takes the fact that humans are generally terrible at seeing/understanding so much about the world around us and exaggerates/expands this ignorance to include a host of invisible creatures that are equally threatened. While this might seems purely fantastical at first blush, it's not actually too far-fetched. After all, up until ~350 years ago (before the existence of microorganims were observed/confirmed with early microscopes), most bacteria/viruses/single cell organisms were essentially "invisible". One of Muir's chief points seems to be that there is so much that we're obviously missing out on; if we don't reorganize our priorities to emphasize conservation and stewardship and discovery, chances are incredibly high that we'll miss out on the opportunity to learn something critically important. Case in point, the WWF estimates that over the past 30 years as many as 275 species have been eradicated from this planet EVERY DAY. (For the sake of completeness, their lowest-end estimate claims that a species goes extinct every other day - still an incredibly high rate.) Many of those species were never studied. And never will be. These numbers are haunting.

Early in this book, Sophie claims that she's writing these entries in an attempt to help her beloved invisible animals; because they are invisible, they have no advocate. However, this self-proclaimed thesis, while admirable, is never revisited and seems largely ignored throughout the rest of the book. Instead of building towards something, the ensuing individual chapters revert to one-off vignettes that are only loosely connected to the preceding entries. While I really enjoyed a lot of the concepts in these stories, it was difficult for me to get over how disjointed the book felt from beginning to end. From chapter to chapter, the voice/style varies A TON, ranging from silly to lyrical to scientifically technical to deeply philosophical, which makes it challenging to view as a cohesive work. Add this to the fact that the overarching ideas are a little inconsistent and the momentum of the book just seems to fade as time goes on... Individually, some of the stories/essays were quite lovely (I particularly enjoyed The Riddle of Invisible Dogs and The Hypnogator) and the quality of the writing remains quite strong throughout, but it was easy to tell that several of these chapters were initially written and published as separate pieces and then stitched together.

I imagine that if I re-read Invisible Beasts and viewed each section as its own separate thing I would enjoy it a lot more... In any case, I'm certainly not unhappy that I read this, but I was hoping to enjoy it more than I did. 3.5 stars!

I think that Invisible Beasts will continue to remain invisible on my bookshelf. It does not sounds like a book I'd enjoy. :)

Meanwhile, I not yet finished the short stories in An Authentic Captain Marvel Ring & Other Stories because I got sidetracked into reading the 600+ page biography Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. What an excellent book!

Hope all is well with you and you enjoy your summer reading some good books.

I'm up for whatever, whenever too. You go first (just so that someone will).