What are you reading the week of January 2, 2016?

Jorge Leal Amado de Faria (10 August 1912 – 6 August 2001) was a Brazilian writer of the modernist school. He remains the best known of modern Brazilian writers, with his work having been translated into some 49 languages and popularized in film, notably Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands in 1978. His work reflects the image of a Mestiço Brazil and is marked by religious syncretism. He depicted a cheerful and optimistic country that was beset, at the same time, with deep social and economic differences.

Amado was born on a farm near the inland city of Itabuna, in the south of the Brazilian state of Bahia. He was the eldest of four sons of João Amado de Faria and D. Eulália Leal. The farm was located in the village of Ferradas, which, though today is a district of Itabuna, was at the time administered by the coastal city of Ilhéus. For this reason he considered himself a citizen of Ilhéus. From his exposure to the large cocoa plantations of the area, Amado knew the misery and the struggles of the people working the land and living in almost slave conditions. This was to be a theme present in several of his works (for example, The Violent Land of 1944).

As a result of a smallpox epidemic, his family moved to Ilhéus when he was one year old, and he spent his childhood there.1 He attended high school in Salvador, the capital of the state. By the age of 14 Amado had begun to collaborate with several magazines and took part in literary life, as one of the founders of the Modernist "Rebels' Academy".

Amado published his first novel, The Country of Carnival, in 1931, at age 18. He married Matilde Garcia Rosa and had a daughter, Lila, in 1933. The same year he published his second novel, Cacau, which increased his popularity. He studied law at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro Faculty of Law but never became a practicing lawyer. His leftist activities made his life difficult under the dictatorial regime of Getúlio Vargas. In 1935 he was arrested for the first time, and two years later his books were publicly burned. His works were banned from Portugal, but in the rest of Europe he gained great popularity with the publication of Jubiabá in France. The book had enthusiastic reviews, including that of Nobel Prize Award winner Albert Camus.

He remarried in 1945, to the writer Zélia Gattai. In 1947 they had a son, João Jorge. The same year his party was declared illegal, and its members arrested and persecuted. Amado chose exile once again, this time in France, where he remained until he was expelled in 1950. His daughter from his first marriage, Lila, died in 1949. From 1950 to 1952 Amado and Gattai lived in Czechoslovakia, where another daughter, Paloma, was born. He also travelled to the Soviet Union, winning the Stalin Peace Prize in 1951.

On his return to Brazil in 1954, Amado abandoned active political life, leaving the Communist Party one year later. From that period on he dedicated himself solely to literature. His second creative phase began in 1958 with Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon, which was described by Jean-Paul Sartre as "the best example of a folk novel". Amado abandoned, in part, the realism and the social themes of his early works, producing a series of novels focusing mainly on feminine characters, devoted to a kind of smiling celebration of the traditions and the beauties of Bahia. In addition to Gabriela these novels included Tereza Batista: Home from the Wars and Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands. His depiction of the sexual customs of his land was scandalous to much of 1950s Brazilian society and for several years Amado could not even enter Ilhéus, where Gabriela was set, due to threats received for the alleged offense to the morality of the city's women.

Amado's popularity as a writer has never declined. His books have been translated into 49 languages in 55 countries, and adapted into films, theatrical works and TV programs. They even inspired some samba schools of the Brazilian Carnival. In 1987, the House of Jorge Amado Foundation was created, in Salvador. It promotes the protection of Amado's estate and the development of culture in Bahia. The recently renovated building on the Pelourinho in Salvador contains a small museum and wall panels with the covers of international editions of his books.

Amado died on 6 August 2001. His ashes were spread in the garden of his house four days later.

• The Country of Carnival (O País do Carnaval, 1931)


• Cacau (1933)


• Sweat (Suor, 1934)


• Jubiabá (1935)


• Sea of Death (Mar Morto, 1936)


• Captains of the Sands (Capitães da Areia, 1937)


• The Violent Land (Terras do Sem Fim, 1943)


• The Golden Harvest (São Jorge dos Ilhéus, 1944)


• Bahia de Todos-os-santos (1945)


• Red Field (Seara Vermelha, 1946)


• Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon (Gabriela, Cravo e Canela, 1958)


• The Double Death of Quincas Water-Bray (A Morte e a Morte de Quincas Berro D'agua, 1959)


• Home Is the Sailor (Os Velhos Marinheiros ou o Capitão de Longo Curso, 1961)


• Ogum's Compadre (O compadre de Ogum, 1964)


• Shepherds of the Night (Os Pastores da Noite, 1964)


• Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands (Dona Flor e Seus Dois Maridos, 1966)


• Tent of Miracles (Tenda dos Milagres, 1969)


• Tereza Batista: Home from the Wars (Teresa Batista Cansada da Guerra, 1972)


• Tieta (Tieta do Agreste, 1977)


• Pen, Sword, Camisole (Farda Fardão Camisola de Dormir, 1979)


• Showdown (Tocaia Grande, 1984)


• The War of the Saints (O Sumiço da Santa, 1988)


• Coasting (Navegação de Cabotagem, 1992)


• The Discovery of America by the Turks (A Descoberta da América pelos Turcos, 1994)

I tried to shorten that bio, but I may have done too much violence to the text. I hope it reads clearly.

My bridge reading from last year into this year is Olaf Stapledon's Last and First Men. How this man made a living as a writer is beyond me, but the masochist in me says to keep plugging along. However I regret the decision to buy several of his books before reading one of them. Yech!

I'm reading

Dearly Devoted Dexter by Jeff Lindsay
The Island at the Center of the World by Russell Shorto *audiobook*

and just getting ready to start Pacific Silicon Chips by Simon Winchester

Good job getting the year right fredbacon!

I'm reading my Early Reviewer, Ashley Bell: A Novel by Dean Koontz.

And to start the New Year right I'm also reading The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo with my husband. Wish us luck!

Happy New Year, everyone! I still have about 200 pages to go in Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T.E. Lawrence. I'm enjoying it very much, but it's not a book to race through.

Finished Tool of the Trade by Joe Haldeman. Liked it OK.

Started reread of Dragonsbane by Barbara Hambly.

75% through Bazaar of Bad Dreams by Stephen King. He introduces each story which is a blast. I love his anecdotes.

Just started The Moment by Douglas Kennedy.

Progressing through my LTER selection Georgia: A Novel of Georgia O'Keeffe by Dawn Tripp. At the half-way point and the serpent has entered the O'Keeffe-Stieglitz Eden.

I'm engrossed in Above the East China Sea by Sarah bird

Finished Mrs. Pollifax on the China Station by Dorothy Gilman and started The Gospel of Loki by Joanne M. Harris.

Just started Obasan by Joy Kogawa

I am reading The End of the Wasp Season by Denise Mina, which somebody on this board recommended. It's really enjoyable, especially as I have two cats snuggled up to me.

#13: That's the best! I only have 1 cat to snuggle up with!

I downloaded In the Unlikely Event by Judy Blume. I haven't read an adult novel of hers, but so far, so good.

Thanks, Fred.

I'm reading War and Peace (and hope to finish it this time), and Tricky Twenty-two.

Finished Above the East China Sea and l loved it!
Now reading Demelza by Winston Graham, 2nd of the Poldark novels.

I finished up the massive but highly worthwhile--to anyone interested in the subject matter--Seven Pillars of Wisdom, T.E. Lawrence's memoir about his role in encouraging and helping to lead the Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire, that also helped the Allies win World War One. You can read my more in-depth review on my 50-Book Challenge thread or on the book's work page.

I am now continuing my tradition of several year's standing of starting each calendar year with a re-read of a Joseph Conrad novel. This year is a slight deviation, only in that I am reading Chance, which is one of the few Conrad novels I haven't read yet. So it's not a re-read. But you got that. Somewhat ironically, Chance was Conrad's first major commercial success, but it is now not regarded to be one of his better works. Anyway, I love Conrad's style, and I'm looking forward to passing through a rarity for me: unexplored Conrad country!

I just started Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier. I finished The End of the Wasp Season just after lunch, and as incisive crime fiction goes, it doesn't get better. I will be reading more of Denise Mina.

Finished Jamaica Inn; it was very good and had me jumping out of my skin every time one of the cats moved.

I've just read the first chapter of The Devil in the White City; I've been looking forward to this book and hope it doesn't disappoint.

>18 ahef1963:, >19 ahef1963: You prompted me to put Jamaica Inn on my library request list straightaway. So don't tell me anything...

>18 ahef1963:, >19 ahef1963: >20 Meredy: I just double checked that I have Jamaica Inn on my Kindle. How can I resist "jumping out of my skin"?

Yesterday I finished Ru by Kim Thuy for the Canadian Author Challenge. I wholeheartedly recommend it!

Now I'm reading This is Your Life, Harriet Chance! and, so far, it's delightful.

Finished my reread of Dragonsbane by Barbara Hambly. Still a favorite.

Started NOS4A2 by Joe Hill.

I'm reading Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton. Beautiful writing but such a sad story.

Am quitting In The Unlikely Event by Judy Blume. So boring and filled with a million characters. It's written for an adult audience but written as if for teenagers. Nothing wrong with YA; I love it when done well (e.g., John Green), but this is neither interesting nor well-written.

Read most of H is for Hawk in print but I'm listening to the last few chapters, read by the author. Beatiful writing, unusual subject, surprisingly poignant. And her narration is lovely.

I finished The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson. I found it quite wonderful -- delightful, poignant, tough, true. Plus, as with so many good books, it has led me to other authors, other books. I shall be exploring more of this author's work.

Next up: Mary Rakow's This Is Why I Came

The new thread is up over here.