Simone2 in 2020

There we go again! My name is Barbara, I’ve been around for a few years and use this thread to keep track of my reading during the year by writing short reviews. I love reading what other members have read and make my TBR grow always faster than I can read my books.

I live in The Netherlands, have a husband and two kids and work fulltime in my own communication and design agency in Amsterdam.

JANUARY - MARCH

JANUARY
1 - Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol: 2,5*
2 - Modern Lovers by Emma Straub: 3,5*
3 - Saudade by Suneeta Peres da Costa: 3,5*
4 - Case Histories by Kate Atkinson: 3,5*
5 - Before the Coffee gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi: 4*
6 - Professor Martens’ Departure by Jaan Kross: 2*
7 - Kaddish.com by Nathan Englander: 3*
8 - A House and its Head by Ivy Compton-Burnett: 3,5*
9 - Overthrow by Caleb Crain: DNF
10 - Ways to Hide in Winter by Sarah St Vincent: 5*
11 - Golden State by Ben H Winters: 4*
12 - The Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf: 2,5*
13 - Oval by Elvia Wilk: 3,5*
14 - An Armenian Sketchbook by Vasily Grossman: 3,5*
15 - Your House Will Pay by Steph Cha: 3*

FEBRUARY
16 - Trust Exercise by Susan Choi: 3,5*
17 - American Spy by Laura Wilkinson: 4*
18 - Mary Toft or The Rabbit Queen by Dexter Palmer: 4*
19 - On the Edge of Reason by Miroslav Krleza: 3*
20 - Optic Nerve by María Gainza: 2,5*
21 - The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson: 1,5*
22- Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk: 4,5*
23 - Soviet Milk by Nora Ikstena: 4,5*
24 - The Rehearsal by Eleanor Carton: 3,5*
25 - All This Could be Yours by Jami Attenberg: 3*
26 - Into the Fire by Sonia Orchard: 4*
27 - Fox 8 by George Saunders: 4*
28 - A Woman is no Man by Etaf Rum: 4*
29 - Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë: 3,5*
30 - I Am I Am I Am by Maggie O’Farrell: 3,5*
31 - Salvation of a Saint by Keigo Higashino: 4*

MARCH
32 - The War of the Worlds by HG Wells: 1*
33 - The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim: 4*
34 - The Testaments by Margareth Atwood: 2*
35 - Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson: 4*
36 - Erewhon by Samuel Butler: 2,5*
37 - Made for Love by Alissa Nutting: 3,5*
38 - Leon & Juliette by Annejet van der Zijl: 3,5*
39 - The Iron Heel by Jack London
40 - The Only Plane in the Sky by Garrett M Graff: 4*
41 - The Bridges by Tarjei Vesaas: 4*
42 - Woman no. 17 by Edan Lepucki: 3,5*
43 - The Discomfort of Evening by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld: 3*
44 - The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna by Juliet Grames: DNF
45 - Iza’s Ballad by Magda Szabó: 4,5

APRIL - JUNE

APRIL
46 - State of Wonder by Ann Patchett: 3,5*
47 - The Slaves of Solitude by Patrick Hamilton: 3,5*
48 - Late in the Day by Tessa Hadley: 3,5*
49 - My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell: 4*
50 - Crudo by Olivia Laing: 2*
51 - Snowblind by Ragnar Jónasson: 3*
52 - Nada by Carmen Laforet: 3*
53 - The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel: 4*
54 - The Western Wind by Samantha Harvey: 3*
55 - Inheritance by Dani Shapiro: 3*
56 - The Enchanted by Rene Denfeld: 4,5*
57 - Lady Susan by Jane Austen: 3,5*
58 - A Game of Hide and Seek by Elizabeth Taylor: 3,5*
59 - Time Regained by Marcel Proust: 4*
60 - The Holdout by Graham Moore: 4*
61 - Weather by Jenny Offill: 3,5*
62 - Open Mic Night in Moscow by Audrey Murray: 4*

MAY
63 - Unraveling Oliver by Liz Nugent: 3*
64 - The Party by Elizabeth Day: 2,5*
65 - Self-Portrait with Boy by Rachel Lyon: 4,5*
66 - The Pisces by Melissa Broder: 3,5*
67 - Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell: 4,5*
68 - Tell the Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt: 4*
69 - Albanian Spring by Ismail Kadare: 3*
70 - Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon: 3*
71 - The Invisibility Cloak by Ge Fei: 4*
72 - Our Kind of Cruelty by Araminta Hall: 4*
73 - Dark Matter by Blake Crouch: 3,5*
74 - Babette’s Feast and other Stories by Karen Blixen: 3*
75 - The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy: 3*
76 - In a Lonely Place by Dorothy B Hughes: 4,5*
77 - Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi: 3*
78 - The City We Became by NK Jemisin: DNF
78 - A Good Enough Mother by Bev Thomas: 3*
79 - Very Nice by Marcy Dermansky: 4,5*

JUNE
80- Dear Fang with Love by Rufi Thorpe: 3*
81 - Sharks in the Time of Saviours by Kawai Strong Washburn: 3,5*
82 - Tim and Pete by James Robert Barker: 4*
83 - Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford: 4*
84 - 10:04 by Ben Lerner: 3,5*
85 - Apartment by Teddy Wayne: 4.5*
86 - America for Beginners by Leah Franqui: 3*
87 - A Way of Life, Like Any Other by Darcy O’Brien: 3,5*
88 - The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson: 2,5*
89 - Closely Watched Trains by Bohumil Hrabal: 3*
90 - Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane: 3,5*
91 - Cleanness by Garth Greenwell: 3,5*
92 - Valentine by Elizabeth Westmore: 3*
93 - Sister Carrie by Theodor Dreiser: 3*
94 - The Bridge on the Drina by Ivo Andric: DNF

JULY - SEPTEMBER

JULY
95 - Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer: 2*
96 - The Free by Willy Vlautin: 4*
97 - The Shepherd’s Hut by Tim Winton: 2.5*
98 - Loner by Teddy Wayne: 4*
99 - Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid: 3,5*
100 - Cocaine Nights by JG Ballard: 3,5*
101 - The Red Car by Marcy Dermansky: 4*
102 - Into the Beautiful North by Luis Alberto Urrea: 3,5*
103 - The Post-Office Girl by Stefan Zweig: 3*
104 - The Chestnut Man by Søren Sveistrup: 4,5*
105 - My Cat Yugoslavia by Pajtim Statovci: 3*
106 - The Changeling by Victor LaValle: 3*
107 - The Vanishing Half by Britt Bennett: 3,5*
108 - Three Summers by Margarita Liberaki: 3,5*
109 - Writers & Lovers by Lily King: 4*
110 - The Rabbit Back Literature Society by Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen: DNF
111 - The Memory Police by Yõko Ogawa: 4,5*

AUGUST
112 - The Alienist by Caleb Carr: 4*
113 - Slow Days, Fast Company by Eve Babitz: 3,5*
114 - The Last Hundred Days by Patrick McGuinness:3,5*
115 - Bunny by Mona Awad: 3,5*
116 - The Ice Princess by Camilla Läckberg: 3*
117 - Een tragedie in New York by Maurice Seleky (Dutch) 4*
118 - Somebody I Used to Know by Wendy Mitchell: 4*
119 - The Evening of the Holiday by Shirley Hazzard: 4*
120 - Het Smelt by Lize Spit (Dutch): 4*
121 - Miller’s Valley by Anna Quindlen: 3,5*
122 - Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue: 3,5*

SEPTEMBER
123 - Banana Peels on the Tracks by Jason Lockwood: 3*
124 - The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa: 4,5*
125 - Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo: 4*
126 - The Queen of Bloody Everything by Joanna Nadin: 4*
127 - Sisters by Daisy Johnson: 4,5*
128 - The Eighth Life (for Brilka) by Nino Haratischwili: 3,5*
129 - The Invisible Life of Ivan Isaenko by Scott Stambach: 3,5*
130 - Misery by Stephen King: 3,5*
131 - 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World by Elif Shafak 2,5*
132 - Despised and Rejected by Rose Allatini: 4*
133 - Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi: 4*
134 - The Pilgrim Hawk by Glenway Wescott: 3,5*
135 - The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht: 4*
136 - The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri: 3,5*
137 - Revenge by Yoko Ogawa: 3,5*

OCTOBER - DECEMBER

OCTOBER
138 - Chernobyl’s Prayer by Svetlana Alexievich: 4*
139 - The Murderess by Alexandria Papadiamantis: 3*
140 - The Expats by Chris Pavone: 4*
141 - The Blank Wall by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding: 4,5*
142 - The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead: 3*
143 - The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg: 2*
144 - Ali and Nino by Kurban Said: 4,5*
145 - Apeirogon by Colum McCann: 4*
146 - The Vet’s Daughter by Barbara Comyns: 3*
147 - The House of the Mosque by Kader Abholah: 4,5*
148 - A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra: 4*
149 - The North Water by Ian McGuire: 3.5*
150 - The Black Spider by Jeremias Gotthelf: 3.5*
151 - Death in her Hands by Ottessa Moshfegh: 4.5*
152 - Malice by Keigo Higashino: 4*

NOVEMBER
153 - The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy: DNF
154 - Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo: 3.5*
155 - Swing Time by Sadie Smith: DNF
156 - Beautiful Bad by Annie Ward: 4*
157 - Rules of Cilivity by Amor Towles: 4*
158 - Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam: 3*
159 - Het land achter Gods rug by A. den Doolaard (Dutch): 3*
160 - Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb: 4.5*
161 - The Gunners by Rebecca Kauffman: 4*
162 - Alamut by Vladimir Bartol: 3.5*
163 —Americanah by Chinamandi Ngozi Adichie: 5*
164 - Billiards at Half Past Nine by Heinrich Böll: 3*
165 - Sea Wife by Amity Gaige: 4.5*

DECEMBER
166 - The Door by Magda Szabó: 4*
167 - Mr Loverman by Bernardine Evaristo: 3*
168 - Bessarabian Nights by Stela Brinzeanu: 3*
169 - De boodschapper by Kader Abdolah (Dutch): 3.5*
170 - Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams: 4*
171 - The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree by Shokoofeh Azar: 3*
172 - The Altruists by Andrew Ridker: 3*
173 -Still Missing by Beth Gutcheon: 4*
174 - Luck by Gert Hofmann: 4*
175 - Telephone by Percival Everett: 4*
176 - Three Weeks with my Brother by Nicolas Sparks: 2*
177 - Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu: 4.5*
178 - The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa: 2*
179 - The Sun Down Motel by Simone St James: 4*
180 - Piranesi by Susanna Clarke: 4*
181 - Tangerine by Christine Mangan: 2.5*
182 - Luster by Raven Leilani: 3*
183 - Christmas Days by Jeanette Winterson: 3*

1 - Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol

Chichikov is a man, travelling Russia to buy “dead souls" from landowners. He uses these souls as collateral in obtaining loans. He is a fraudster but not much more than the people he encounters while travelling. The novel
is a satirical charge against Russia I suppose. Too bad Gogol died before finishing the book.

I didn’t enjoy the book much but I think it is because I listened to it. I am not much of an audio book listener and maybe my English is not good enough to understand all.

2,5*

I liked Dead Souls and found parts really amusing, but I also felt a little bewildered. Being a satire on Russia, I didn't feel I knew enough to begin with about Russian culture to understand all of the satire.

>7 japaul22: It started off strong imo but then I lost it a bit, also because I don’t know enough about Russian culture either.

2 - Modern Lovers by Emma Straub

Two couples, who have been friends since college, are trying to sort out their relationships now that they are approaching turning fifty. In the mean time their teenage kids are making the same mistakes they did when they were young.

Despite its ridiculous ugly cover and though it is at times irritating prudish, it was an amusing read to kick-off the year

3,5*

Three books already? Happy New Year, Barbara. I’ll follow here and on Litsy. Interesting first choice, although Gogol sounds tough on audio.

>6 Simone2:

That's one of those books which relies on understanding the Russian culture and depending on the translator and the reader, chances are that things were changed to make sense outside of it - thus losing half of the meaning. Technically it is a complete novel (it is a continuation that was destroyed) -- even if it finishes a bit weirdly. Anyway - if that was your first Gogol, I hope it had not made you drop the author completely.

Here you are! I much prefer Gogol's short stories.

>11 AnnieMod: thanks for explaining a bit more. I won’t bail on Gogol since I did enjoy The Nose.

>12 ELiz_M: I think I do too!

3 - Saudade by Suneeta Peres da Costa

In short chapters a girl tells in a lyrical way about growing up in Angola while it still is a Portugese colony. The tension grows while she comes of age like any other girl; the Angolan population wants independence, her father is pro Portugal, her boyfriend a community. In between all of this and them she feels saudade, “a lostness, a feeling of not having a place in the world.”

3,5*

Nice review of Saudade, Barbara. I just purchased the Kindle edition of it, as I want to read more Portuguese literature in advance of my possible retirement to Lisbon.

I didn't know that Nikolai Gogol died before he finished Dead Souls. Hopefully I can get to this novel in the next year or two.

Happy New Year!

Happy new year, Barbara! And you're three books down already! I've got to request that my family stop being so demanding of my time :)

4 - Case Histories by Kate Atkinson

So this was an enjoyable read but I am not sure what to think of it to be honest. Was it a thriller? Or the personal drama of a detective, with some ‘case histories’ to spice up the story?
Or doesn’t it matter what it is? Doesn’t it matter that I guessed all outcomes long before they were explained, except for the one that came out of nowhere?

I’ve never been a fan of Atkinson’s and thought this book would be the one to change my opinion. And yet I still hesitate.

3,5*

>15 kidzdoc: Thanks! Are you going to read it in Portugese? That would be so impressive. It is a novella but very lyrical written. I hope you’ll like it. Happy new year!

>16 AlisonY: My kids are bigger than yours I think. That makes life so much easier ;)

>18 Simone2: No, I'll read Saudade in English. I plan to take a four week course in Intensive Portuguese at a university in Lisbon in June, as recommended by @akeela, who lives just across the Rio Tejo from Lisbon, but I suspect it will be a few years before I'm able to read literature in Portuguese. I think it will be easier for me to read literature in Spanish, as I'm comfortably conversant in that language. Roughly 1/4 to 1/3 of the families whose children are hospitalized on our service are Latino, and nearly all of the time I'm able to speak to them in Spanish with little or no difficulty.

I loved Kate Atkinson's other books, but Case Histories was not for me. I felt the same confusion that you did. I didn't continue with the series.

>19 kidzdoc: I think too that Portugese is real different from Spanish, especially in pronunciation. I speak Spanish too but I can understand hardly anything when I hear Portugese (Italian for example is much more similar to Spanish). But I admire you that you are going to learn it. Why do you want to go to Portugal after retirement, if I may ask?

>20 japaul22: I don’t think I will either. I guess Atkinson is just not for me. I always end up a bit confused after finishing her books.

5 - Before the Coffee gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

I love this typical Japanese way of writing, the sparce words, the need to read between the lines. This one was another gem for me. It’s about a cafe where people can travel in time but when they come back, the present is unchanged. So what is the point of visiting the past? Somehow it makes sense. Very touching.

4*

>21 Simone2: I agree, Barbara. I also find Brasilian Portuguese to be much more understandable in conversation than Portuguese spoken in Portugal is. There is a small Brasilian community in metro Atlanta, and once every year or two I care for a patient in the hospital whose parents speak Brasilian Portuguese, and between my Spanish and their Portuguese we can communicate just fine without the assistance of a translator, as I understand roughly 2/3 of the words they speak. When I went to Lisbon for the first time in 2018 I couldn't understand anything for the first week or so, and then I started to pick up a small number of basic words and phrases and could understand it better.

Retiring in Portugal would be much cheaper than doing so in the US, and I absolutely fell in love with Lisboa, and to a lesser degree, Porto, during the three weeks I spent there two years ago. I was invited by longtime LT member @deebee1, who used to be active in Club Read, IIRC. She found out that I was seriously considering retiring to Spain several years ago, said that I should take a close look at Portugal before I made that decision, and promised that she would show me around Lisboa when I visited the city, which she did (she lives on the other side of the Rio Tejo from Lisboa). I like the Portuguese people much better than Spaniards, many of whom I find cold, unfriendly and judgmental, although being able to comfortably converse in Spanish and being from the United States rather than from a poor African country is a big plus (I gather that they don't like Africans at all). I've made a number of close friends through LT that live in the UK and the Netherlands, and it would be much easier to visit them from Lisboa than from Atlanta and Philadelphia, and vice versa. One of my closest LT friends told me two years ago that "you may be American, but you have the soul of a European", which was confirmed by several other of my dearest British friends, and I think she's absolutely right. I feel far more comfortable in Europe than I do in my own country, especially being African American in an increasingly intolerant United States, as race relations here are the worst in my nearly 60 years of living in America, and seem to be getting worse by the day. I'll return at least a couple of times a year to visit friends and family, but I think I could easily live in a major Western European city in Portugal, England, Scotland, or the Netherlands.

>23 kidzdoc: Thank you for explaining. I know that you’ve travelled a lot through Europe in the past years, but I didn’t know you considered living here. If you feel like you describe, I can imagine your wish to be among soulmates and friends. I agree with you on Portuguese people, they are so friendly, as is the atmosphere in the country (which I love too, Lisbon as well as Evora and it’s surroundings).

I studies Spanish in college and travelled a lot in Latin America afterwards. I was pretty much fluent in Spanish until I visited Spain, I felt like I had to start all over again!

I envy your passion and determination and I wish your dream will soon come true - although I’m sure you will be missed by your patients and their parents.

6 - Professor Martens’ Departure by Jaan Kross

Professor Martens was a member of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the second half of the 19th century. During a train journey from his home town of Pärnu in Estonia to Russia recalls many events of his life and meetings with important people.

Martens did actually exist but I didn’t know him before, nor his important friends. And to be honest, I didn’t care.

2*

"And to be honest, I didn't care," is probably one of my favorite reviews ever.

I was just saying to my partner that Portugal looks like an amazing place to retire.

Disappointed that Professor Martens' Departure wasn't a better read, as it's been on my life. Good to have another review of it though.

7 - Kaddish.com by Nathan Englander

Jewish law requires the Kaddish prayer to be recited at three services daily, for the 11 months following a parent’s death, in order to elevate the deceased’s soul. That’s a problem for Larry, a believer in neither prayer nor the soul. Fortunately there is Kaddish.com, where you can hire someone else to perform Kaddish for you. Years later, Larry ( now Reb Shuli) travels to Israel to meet the man who did Kaddish for him.

The book started out as a typical Englander novel (I read and loved all his book so far) but the second part can’t live up to the premise and is in fact very predictable.

3*

cute plot, too bad. I read Englander's first major published book, a short story collection, when it came out years ago. And didn't like it. Maybe I should give him a break try others...just not this one.

8 - A House and its Head by Ivy Compton-Burnett

Sometimes it seemed as if I was reading a Shakespeare play. The story largely consists of (often very funny and sarcastic) drawing room dialogues, in which a chorus of supporting roles (the women from church) comment on the events happening within the Edgeworth family.
And so much is happening in this family, where no one is what he appears to be. Except maybe for the father, who in his role first arouses repugnance and eventually pity. Well done, but a hundred or so pages too long for me.

3,5*

9 - Overthrow by Caleb Crain

I bailed. I am really not in the mood for this struggle from page to page.
It is just not the right book at the right moment. I did like the writing style but found myself not interested at all in the plot.
Most of all I liked the cover, because I love the painter Felix Valloton 💜. This is however one of his lesser works - I think. You should check him out, he has painted many reading women in a fantastic way.

Sounds like reading-wise you're January has been a bit mediocre. Although I've not read as much as you this month yet, my choices so far have also been a bit disappointing. Hopefully we'll both get some gems soon!

>32 AlisonY: Yes you are right, but I just finished a really good one. I hope you’ll have a good one too soon!

10 - Ways to Hide in Winter by Sarah St. Vincent

This book made me hold my breath from the first til the last page. I felt like I was there, in snowy Pennsylvania, with the two wounded people who are the main characters in this book. Because of what they both went through they are able to not judge but to listen to one another and give eachother space.
A beautiful and sad book, highly recommended.

5*

>34 Simone2: Yay! Noting that one - sounds great.

>34 Simone2: That was one of my first books of last year. I really liked the moody wintryness of it, and the story line was not what I expected (in a good way).

>36 lisapeet: I really loved it and find myself still thinking about it.
>35 AlisonY: I hope you'll get to it one day!

11 - Golden State by Ben H Winters

Although the ending felt a bit rushed I still enjoyed this book a lot. It’s about a dystopian world where lying is the ultimate crime and a whole society is build on protecting the truth. Beside dystopian the book is a thriller in which two detectives (‘speculators’) are hunting for the ultimate truth to protect their golden state.

The question is: what is true? I loved this premise and its execution despite it feeling a bit rushed in the end.

4*

12 - The Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf

This stream-of-consciousness novel started out good, with the young Rachel on a boat to South America with her aunt and uncle. She meets many people (among whom Mrs. Dalloway!!) and has interesting conversations. When they arrive on a fictional South American island a new crew of people makes its entrance and with them more conversations and relations. A bit messy this novel, Woolf’s first one, but with the promise of what was yet to come.

2,5*

>39 Simone2: cool

13 - Oval by Elvia Wilk

This is a disaster story waiting to happen. Set in Berlin in a very near future (scary!), where people live their life and are suffering of fomo, where companies pretend to be sustainable and all focussed on an eco- friendly world. Where artists are consultants, where the streets are filled with the homeless. The Oval pill is just another innovation, another drug, another nothing. This is the story of Anja and it’s a good one.

3,5*

14 - An Armenian Sketchbook by Vasili Grossman

And now I want to visit Armenia...! I found myself googling all the time when reading this ‘Armenian Sketchbook’ which it really is. Vasily Grossman travels through the country and shares little details with us. About Armenian people, their culture, their food and their country, filled with stones and beauty. Fascinating.

3,5*

15 - Your House Will Pay by Steph Cha

The subject of this book (the LA riots in the 90s and the damaging of Korean shops in its aftermath) is interesting and promising. The main characters in the story however felt a bit too flat, and the plot lacks depth. I think Cha could have done better. I am interested to see though what she writes next.

3*

16 - Trust Exercise by Susan Choi

This is such a difficult book. I don’t know what to think of it.
The first part is an adolescent love story with lots of drama, the second part is a metafictional commentary on the first. The main character regards the first part as a bad novel.

That’s quite a risk Choi has taken: writing a bad first half to be able to write the second part. I admire that but to hear yet again about those unlikable characters makes that I just didn’t care anymore. And then there’s Claire? And #metoo.

An book that leaves me a bit frustrated, with many questions. But that may be exactly what Choi wants with this book.

3,5*

17 - American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson

I have been really digging this one. I was born during the Cold War and became in university very much interested in US politics regarding communist leaders or groups in Latin America. I didn’t know much about US politics in Africa so I learned (and recognized) a lot. Plus Wilkinson writes a gripping story!

The main character is Marie, a black American woman who as a spy in the 80s got close to Burkina Faso’s leader Thomas Sankara. He brought the country much good but he was a communist and the US wanted him gone. The consequences of her time as a spy have a big impact on Marie’s life today. Especially the part of the book regarding her past were very interesting and well written.

4*

>31 Simone2: The consensus over in the goodreads ToB group is that Overthrow is both terrible and too long. One person put out a short paragraph summary, saying that all you need to do is read the summary and the final chapter. I tend to be a completist when it comes to the ToB (half the fun, after all, is specifying why a given book was bad) but I'm going to leave Overthrow to read last and then I'll certainly be willing to abandon it.

Saudade and Oval are up next for me. I'm looking forward to them.

Have been lurking this last while. Enjoying your reviews - another few BBs have come my way.

>46 RidgewayGirl: I have to check out that summary! I enjoyed both Saudade and Oval. I love this year’s choices!

>47 AlisonY: Thank you, I love the lurking on your thread too!

18 - Mary Toft; or, The Rabbit Queen by Dexter Palmer

A book like this is why I love the ToB much. I never would have read it if it weren’t for the tournament. And how glad I am I did. The tale of Mary, giving birth to rabbits, is storytelling at its best. I enjoyed every page of it. It’s mostly about (the ego’s of) the surgeons and their apprentices surrounding her but in the end the story becomes hers.

4*

19 - On the Edge of Reason by Miroslav Krleza

This book takes place in an anonymousCroatian provincial town during the interbellum period. The main character belonged to the upper class for years as a legal adviser. When he makes a “morally insane” at a party, it becomes clear to him how petty and horrible that elite really is. This discovery means the start of a lonely resistance. Despite suspicions, gossip and a general boycott, he does not take back his statement. This path leads ultimately and inevitably to his downfall.

3*

20 - Optic Nerve by Maria Gainza

This one didn’t really work for me even though I am a sucker for books about art. Most of the stories felt a bit aloof to me. The stories I did like were the ones that felt more personal: Separate Ways, Lightning at Sea and the one about Rothko and the prostitute in the hospital. Those made me lose myself googling the artists and their works. I love it when that happens.

2,5*

>49 Simone2: I absolutely agree with you. This book was odd and wonderful and is why the ToB is so addictive!

21 - The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson

A book I should read before I die? Not at all. It may have had significance for literature development in the early 20th century but it has completely lost its relevance for today’s readers.

So as long as you’re not interested in literature history, don’t bother reading this ridiculous gothic book with its hallucinatory plot and swine-things.

1,5*

22 - Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk

I loved everything about this book. Its setting in an isolated village in a bleak Polish midwinter, the plot of hunters being murdered, the concerns about nature and the impact humans have on it, and above all the narrator. Tokarczuk is a fantastic portraitist and her prose is witty as well as melancholic. Highly recommended.

4,5*

>54 Simone2: Good to see another positive review of this! It's on a short list of books that I must get to this year.

23 - Soviet Milk by Nora Ikstena

A woman was born in a country when it was still Latvia, her daughter is born there too but now it is the USSR. The mother isn’t able to build a life without freedom and becomes depressed, the daughter is optimistic and takes care of her mother. Perestrojka, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War are on their way but they don’t know that of course. A beautiful book.

4,5*

>54 Simone2: you've got me on the Tokarczuk novel. I'm only hearing good reviews about this one.

>57 AlisonY: It’s so good. If you can pick up a copy, do!

24 - The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton’s

I don’t know what to make of this book about a bunch of art students. What is acting and what is true? Who is who? What Is happening when? I guess I should read it again to understand it but I am not curious enough unfortunately.

This book is completely different from The Luminaries except for the fact that Catton’s characters are incredible realistic again. I enjoyed this one less but I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next.

3,5*

25 - All This Could be Yours by Jami Attenberg

This one started out strong and then I became kind of bored with the characters and the predictable plot. It all felt a bit flat to me. Just like with All Grown Up. I think Jami Attenberg is just not for me.

3*

26 - Into the Fire by Sonia Orchard

This book is so good. Set in Australia, the other end of the world for me, it felt incredible recognizable. Maybe because they grew up in the same time as I did, I don’t know, but the friendship between Lara and Alice hit me hard. They grow from students into adults and life turns out not to be what they dreamt of. The plot is great, I couldn’t put it down. I myself am a Lara but man, my heart goes out to Alice.

4*

27 - Fox 8 by George Saunders

I loved this wonderful short fable about a fox losing his innocence thanks to us, ‘Yumans’.

4*

28 - A Woman is no Man by Etaf Rum

“Your daughters will grow up and they will hate you for your weakness. Don’t think they’ll understand because they won’t. They’ll never see you as a victim. You’re supposed to be the one who protects them.”

This is a bleak read about a very traditional Palestinian family living in Brooklyn. The women stay inside and raise their children. They don’t stand up for themselves or eachother because ‘women must endure’. Endure life and the humiliation by their husbands. There is hardly any solidarity among them.

I learned a lot and wanted to know more about everyone of them. Because below the repetitive surface each has her own reasons and dreams. Recommended.

4*

29 - Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë

Based on her own experiences as a governess, Anne Brontë depicts in detail the isolation inherent in a governess's life, trapped between the classes
People literally fail to see Agnes: doors are shut upon her and she takes pains not to walk beside anyone on the way to church to avoid unpleasant silences. Yet she is an educated woman and great observer who gives the reader insight in the issues of Victorian times.

Oh and there is a love story...

3,5*

30 - I Am I Am I Am by Maggie O’Farrell

Maggie O’Farrell is an author I automatically go to and I expected nothing less than another great book. In this one she writes great as usual and I feel for her being close to death so often, however a whole book about those experiences (in detail) turned me off at times. So I feel a bit unsure how to rate this book. At moments I was deeply touched, at others I was skimming the pages.

Hi, Barbara, I love the variety of your reading, and I have collected a number of TBRs. I'll be lurking in your thread, and I just wanted to thank you.

>65 Simone2: I've not read any Maggie O'Farrell books as far as I'm aware. Where would you recommend starting with her?

>66 sallypursell: Well thank you, I feel flattered! On Litsy I am participating in some reading challenges, hence the variety in my reading!

>67 AlisonY: One I really liked and I think you will too is The Hand That First Held Mine.

31 - Salvation of a Saint by Keigo Higashino

For me the focus on the arsonwas a bit too narrow - too little actually happened to my taste - but still a more than decent thriller.

The Devotion of Suspect X remains my favorite but I’m eager to read another Higashino.

4*

>69 Simone2:

I was also disappointed with Salvation of a Saint. Knowing what happened and why since page 1 but still having to read the entire book while waiting for the detectives to find the actual proof for what they already knew got tedious.

>68 Simone2: thanks. Will add that to my wish list, Barbara.

>70 lilisin: Exactly! Have you read other books by him to recommend?

32 - The War of the Worlds by HG Wells

Thank god I’m done with all HG Wells’s books on the list of 1001 books to read before you die. I loathed them all, definitely not for me. Of the five books I read by him, this was probably the most annoying.

1*

>73 Simone2: That's sheer commitment to the 1001 list!

>74 AlisonY: It is, isn't it :-)?

33 - The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim

This is a lovely read about four English women who share a medieval castle in Italy for a month. They don’t know each other at first but during the month they become close and as a reader it’s a joy to be there for the ride. All four characters are great and unique and their conversations made me often laugh out loud. Last but not least love is in the air, during this 'enchanted April'.
A real feel good book!

4*

I'm with you on HG Wells, and I also loved Enchanted April.

>76 Simone2: The movie is also delightful.

34 - The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

I am really disappointed and even a bit offended by this book. What was Margaret Atwood thinking? And the jury of the Booker Prize?

I loved The Handmaid’s Tale but this sequel is just a mediocre YA novel with a very weak plot. Its importance can only be commercial.
I hope the jury of the Tournament of Books will be wist and kick it out of the tournament immediately!

2*

Also a big fan of The Enchanted April. Just makes me want to pack my bags for Italy (well, perhaps once the Coronavirus is done with it).

>80 AlisonY: Yes, let’s get it over with this virus! Travel to Italy sounds great. I read another book just like this that you may like. See my review below!

35 - Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson

After The Enchanted April this is another delightful book in the spinsterlit genre.
This one is about Miss Pettigrew, who works as a governess and has never been loved. One morning she is hired by the flamboyant Miss LeFosse and upon meeting her Miss Pettigrew feels this is gonna be the one day that she really lives. She decides to enjoy every minute. And she does. A funny and touching story.

4*

>81 Simone2:, >82 Simone2: Already read it! Miss Pettigrew's a lot of fun - a very memorable character.

36 - Erewhon by Samuel Butler

A young prospector accidentally ends up in a closed and unknown society, Erewhon. It is immediately clear that its residents have strange habits and that their reactions are incomprehensible and unpredictable.
For example, according to the Erewhonians, disease is an immoral condition, while they regard crime as a disease against which there are remedies.
The narrator learns a lot about this fictional country that he shares with us. Sometimes this is interesting, sometimes quite boring.

2,5*

37 - Made for Love by Alissa Nutting

This book is about human connection or more precise, a lack of it. The characters are attracted to things like sex dolls, dolphins, waking over the dead and technology gadgets but have no clue how to connect to eachother . This leads to a lot of funny situations with relatively normal Hazel, the MC, in the midst of them. In the end however it’s tragic-comical at the most.

3,5*

38 - Leon & Juliette by Annejet van der Zijl

1820, Charleston SC. Leon was a young Dutchman who had fled his impoverished homeland to seek his fortune in the New World. Juliette was a slave girl. He buys her, sets her free, marries her and takes her to #TheNetherlands. In the mean time he stays a successful business man in Charleston. Their biography is a 19th century love story that conquers all, even oblivion.

3,5*

>85 Simone2: Alissa Nutting seems to be as crazy as her name suggests. Sounds like this is a barmy as Tampa was (but fun!).

I love the way you're able to write such succinct yet meaningful reviews. Great thread.

>87 AlisonY: I've heard Tampa is pretty weird too. But I do like this kind of fiction at the moment, nothing to heavy sticks with me now.

>88 rocketjk: Thank you so much, I feel flattered since English isn't my first language!

39 - The Iron Heel by Jack London

I’ve been listening to this one for the last few days when walking as much as possible across my empty city - until we’re not longer allowed to.

The book is a kind of socialist essay and it is absolutely not the right book at this moment, in which it is hard to concentrate on anything. So I am bailing and start looking for an easier audiobook.

40 - The Only Plane in the Sky by Garrett M Graff

9/11 changed the world forever I think. This book is about its impact on the people who were affected by it and have to live with it ever since. Because they worked at the WTC, because someone they loved did, because they were rescuers when the towers were on fire. Their memories of that day are still heartbreaking.

4*

41 - The Bridges by Tarjei Vesaas

Another beautiful strange, unsettling novel by this #Norwegian author who has become a favorite of mine. With so much human insight Vesaas It describes the changing relationships between three adolescents - an unmarried mother who has drowned her newborn child and the girl and boy who befriend her. Their individual reactions to the tragedy and their efforts to communicate with each other form the central theme of the narrative.

4*

42 - Woman no. 17 by Edan Lepucki

I kind of liked this one. The two lying women and the boy in between. Both of the women make one stupid decision after the other and it’s frustrating to read, I wanted to tell them what to do more than once. It’s a good thing when a book does that, when it has such an effect on you. Especially these days it is good to be frustrated about something else beside our health and situation.

3,5*

43 - The Discomfort of Evening by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld

I read this book because of its nomination for the International Booker Prize and its Dutch. It's the story about a very conservative religious peasant family, affected by the death of a child. Through the eyes of the young Jas we see how each family member deals with this loss in their own way. The parents are completely paralyzed by sadness and fail to see how Jas and her siblings are derailing slowly. On each page we read about religion, sexuality and the filth of existence. It was beyond unpleasant to read, but very well written and it kept me reading on.

3*

>92 Simone2: sounds great. I enjoyed The Birds.

>61 Simone2:, >64 Simone2: I'm catching up and have caught BBs on these.

>96 rhian_of_oz: Thanks for reading my thread! Both are really enjoyable! I hope you’ll like them!

44 - The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna by Juliet Grames

I found myself utterly struggling with this book. I feel like I’ve read it (or stories like this one) countless times before. It’s so repetitive and predictable and halfway through I’ve decided to bail.
I must find a book I really can sink into now, not one that annoys me.
It’s a shame, and it’s me. And these times. I know.

45 - Iza’s Ballad by Magda Szabó

I loved this tragic book about family dynamics and the inability to reach one another. When Vince dies, Ettie (‘the old lady’) moves in with their daughter Iza in Budapest. The relationships between mother and daughter and between all other characters in this book, are revealed in heartbreaking details and by the thoughts of all involved. Nothing outspoken. Which makes it even more touching.

4,5*

>99 Simone2: oh, sounds like a book for me. Love these kinds of novels.

>99 Simone2: You finished! And hopefully are breaking your reading slump.

>99 Simone2: I saw that this was the NYRB group read on litsy but I just have too many other group reads going on right now. I was intrigued by her book The Door so I would like to read more. I'll put this on my nyrb wish list.

>45 Simone2: This is on my pile. I loved The Door and have heard really good things about everything else she's done.

46 - State of Wonder by Ann Patchett

This book about a medical research facility in the Amazon won’t make it to my all time favorites but it did the job: it kept me engaged while reading. That’s worth a lot nowadays. Marina and Annick are two interesting characters, and so is the plot.

3,5*

47 - The Slaves of Solitude by Patrick Hamilton

During WWII Miss Roach lives in a boardinghouse outside of London. She is bullied by one of the other tenants, but can handle it because she is having am American army man to drink and kiss with. She is so naive it seems, but she is strong and admirable as well, especially when the bullying increases with the arrival of a German friend in the boardinghouse. Another quiet and great NYRB classic.

3,5*

>105 Simone2: Odd title. Does it fit?

48 - Late in the Day by Tessa Hadley

This book revolves around two long-married and intertwined couples who have known each other since their twenties. When one of them dies of a heart attack, the group loses its anchor. Not knowing how to deal with this loss, they fall back into old student habits. It’s as easily imaginable as real what happens to the three of them.

3,5*

49 - My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell

This was a tough book. I tried to understand it from Vanessa point of view: how she keeps justifying all that happened and apologizing for Strane. I could understand her but at the same time got so angry at Strane, the victim, the manipulator!
With all its horrifying details this is an important book.

4*

50 - Crudo by Olivia Laing

I’m not sure about this book. Sure, I read some great sentences and references to the 80s, the 90s, and current times with Trump and Brexit. But what was the goal? I am not sure what Laing wanted with this book. And why Kathy Acker? I read her Blood and Guts in High School and maybe that should have warned me. Not for me.

2*

I appreciate how you're reading your way through my wishlist and helping me decide which books to read next. The Hadley sounds interesting, Crudo less so.

>110 RidgewayGirl: You’re doing exactly the same. So many books that you’re reading I’ve got on my wishlist! Don’t bother with Crudo indeed.

51 - Snowblind by Ragnar Jónasson

This is a decent thriller set in a desolate town in the northern part of Iceland. Of course it’s winter, heavy snowfall secludes the town even more from the rest of the country. The young policeman Ari Thor has just moved to the town when all action starts.

3*

52 - Nada by Carmen Laforet

Nada is not the unusual coming-of-age story. Although she lives in a depressing house in Barcelona with her grandmother and uncles, Andrea’s zest for life ultimately dominates. She defies poverty, hunger and hostility. Her character contrasts sharply with the dark relatives in the dilapidated house, and Carmen Laforet describes it all with schwung. You have to sympathize with her. That’s an accomplishment but the story wasn’t very engaging.

3*

>Barbara, Nada means "nothing" in Spanish. Does this apply? Or is this translated from Catalan? I wonder what it means in Catalan? Oh, "nothing" says Google.

>114 sallypursell: I have been wondering about this title too. The only reference I can think of is that the book was published in the dictatorial times of Franco and nothing refers to this whatsoever. But that is just my guess!

>115 Simone2: Interesting guess.

53 - The Glass Hotel by Emily St John amandel

I had no idea where the story was leading, who the main character was as or even what genre I was reading until the last hundred pages.
Still all 300 pages were highly enjoyable. Perfect scenery, sharp dialogues, unsettling twists: St John Mandel does it all and it’s a delight to read what she writes, no matter the genre or what the book is about!

4*

54 - The Western Wind by Samantha Harvey

A slow pacing hysterical mystery, centered around a medieval community of which one member drowns. Was it murder or accident? A dean from a nearby town comes to investigate. The local priest has to take confessions from the people to hear what they know. Interesting, but a bit too slow for my taste.

3*

55 - Inheritance by Dani Shapiro

By a DNA test Dani Shapiro finds out that her orthodox Jewish father was not her real father - she was conceived by a sperm donor. This is and honest and intimate report of how she deals with this new reality and how she reflects on her past and her upbringing with this new knowledge.

3*

56 - The Enchanted by Rene Denfeld

'Monsters aren’t born - they are created’ it states on the cover of the book - deriving from the conditions in which they grow up. This book is about life in death row, about 'monsters' waiting for their execution and about those who work there. It’s a thin line sometimes, between man and monster, as we learn by voice of 'the most horrible monster' of all, who tells his story in such a beautiful, moving way. Highly recommended.

4,5*

57 - Lady Susan by Jane Austen

One of Jane Austen’s earlier works (she was 18 when she wrote it!), this is short epistolary novel about the uber-wicked Lady Susan Vernon, a widow in her thirties who has an affair with a married man and flirts with another one. She is also a dreadful mother, bullying her 16-year-old daughter Frederica.

The letters are hilarious, yet leave little space for the development of the characters (like Frederica). It doesn’t really matter: this book is the promise of what Austen was capable of.

3,5*

58 - A Game of Hide and Seek by Elizabeth Taylor

The ending saved this book for me. I am a sucker for a good adultery novel and I know everyone loves this one, but I wasn’t gripped by the story nor the characters. I even caught myself skimming at times. The last 50 pages or so made up for the first 250 and now I feel like I should start all over again to fully appreciate it. Maybe one day. When the world is back to normal.

3,5*

59 - Time Regained | In Search of Lost Time

The last instalment of In Search of Lost Time was a real worthwhile grande finale in which all characters of the past come by again and in which the wonderful heartbreaking title of the work proves its meaning.
Marcel’s observations about aging and losing youth and your past are spot-on.

I am so very proud I’ve finished my years long project of reading Proust! It took me more than three years. That is too long, I lost count of the characters and the ‘plot’ as a result and probably didn’t give it the attention and appreciation it deserves. Often I skimmed and couldn’t be bothered by the endless pages of Marcel’s observations. However, sometimes there were scenes or sentences that are so brilliant and so significant I won’t ever forget them. And that’s worth a lot.

4*

Wow! Congratulations on having read the entire thing!

>123 Simone2: Impressive! I've wanted to try it, but been a little frightened by the scope of the work. Now, inspired, maybe I will.

>124 RidgewayGirl: >125 sallypursell: Thanks! It was quite a job but rewarding in the end!

60 - The Holdout by Graham Moore

This legal thriller may not be perfect (too much happens in the last few pages in relation to the 300 before) but I enjoyed it a lot. The story reads like Agatha Christie meets John Grisham, with lots of twists and characters that really come to life. A perfect distraction from real life!

4*

61 - Weather by Jenny Offill

There’s not much plot in this book about a woman with different roles, professionally as well as in her family. Navigating her way between all of these she shares her thoughts on small and bigger issues, and the conversations she has. This leads to little plot, many beautiful sentences, and a lot to think about. Offill is a wizard with words.

3,5*

Congrats on the Proust! 3 years sounds very reasonable to me...!

62 - Open Mic Night in Moscow by Audrey Murray

I love travelling and books about travelling. Especially now that I spend most of my time at home and am uncertain when we’ll be able to travel again, I have enjoyed this book enormously. I especially loved travelling with Audrey Murray through Central Asia, those mysterious countries! I learned so much and envy her a lot for being there (though not for being ‘taken in Turkmenistan).

4*

63 - Unraveling Oliver by Liz Nugent

An engaging read about a man who beats his wife into a coma and how it came to this. A story about his dark past. a book to be forgotten before the end of the weekend probably. But good enough in times of Corona.

3*

64 - The Party by Elizabeth Day

A lot of words, too many words to tell a rather uninteresting story. ‘Drunken university poshos’ is how the main characters are described once in this book. And that’s exactly what they are. And that’s not really interesting. Especially not when so many words are needed to come up with so little in the end.

“Brideshead Revisited meets Mr Ripley” says a blurb on the back. No way.

2,5*

65 - Self-Portrait with Boy by Rachel Lyon

This book! It needs way more attention and praise than it has been getting.
It’s the story of a broken, starting artist who accidentally takes a picture of a boy falling to his death. The picture can be her entrance into NY’s art scene but it is so controversial especially since she knows the boy’s parents.
A great plot, and breathtaking writing, whether it’s about grief, loneliness, art, or being a daughter. A fantastic debut. Read it!

4,5*

66 - The Pisces by Melissa Broder

This book as completely different from what I thought it would be. I thought it would be #fantasy but it’s just about a woman’s fantasies and her will to get our of life what she wants. Sex, foremost, and love. Quite graphic, all of it, but funny too, I chuckled through much of the book!

3,5*

>130 Simone2: Coincidentally, I recently finished a book about the former Soviet Republics and was intrigued enough to want more. Noting this one.

>131 Simone2: A year or two ago I read one of her books and thought about the same as you did. Might just have to read this one when I want a distraction.

>133 Simone2: And I'm going to trust you on this one. I've added it to my basket over on bookshop.org.

>135 RidgewayGirl: You will love Self-Portrait with Boy I guess, it was a longlisted for the ToB last year.
I shouldn’t bother with the Nugent if I were you. Open Mic Night in Moscow is really good, it’s an easy read but you learn a lot, or I did.

67 - Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell

I am left sad and breathless after finishing Hamnet. Maggie O’Farrell did it again. She nailed her characters. This book is about Shakespeare’s 11 years old son Hamnet, who dies of pestilence. It is about loss, motherhood, marriage. It is not really about Shakespeare the writer and then it is. It really is a beautiful novel and I felt like living with this family in 16th century Stratford.

4,5*

>137 Simone2: I'm so excited about this one, but it isn't released until July 21 here!

>137 Simone2: OK, bumping Hamnet up my pile of galleys. That one already sounded promising.

And congratulations on the Proust! Still on my bucket list, but it could happen.

>138 japaul22: You'll love it, I'm sure! And I hope you will too >139 lisapeet:, it really is so well written and atmospheric. Let me know if you start the Proust, you never know:-)

68 - Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt

June's beloved uncle Finn dies from AIDS but posthumously puts her in contact with his lover Toby, whose existence she didn't know about. What a beautiful book about friendship and loneliness, and how they are connected.
4*

69 - Albanian Spring by Ismail Kadare

Growing up, Communism and the Cold War were important subjects in my history classes. The USSR and its satellite states too. Except for Albania. That small Stalinist country next to tourist destination Greece remained a mystery. Even in 2014 me and my family couldn’t drive through it on our way to Greece. Insurance policies... I am glad to understand a bit more about what happened there in the 90s in this essay by Kadare.

3*

Hamnet's also on my radar, although knowing my reading habits I'll only finally get to it once everyone's long forgotten it!

>143 AlisonY: Once you read it and write one of your excellent reviews everyone will consider a reread!

70 - Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon

This book has three storylines about people dealing with identity changes in one way or another. All three kick off bizarre and wild but for me they lacked suspense later on. The fact that the storylines neatly come together in the end didn’t make up for that. An okay read by a gifted and interesting writer.

3*

71 - The Invisibility Cloak by Ge Fei

I thoroughly enjoyed this story of Cui, a middle aged man who barely scrapes by in Beijing by building high quality audio systems for wealthy customers. His social life consists of a lingering love for his unfaithful ex-wife, an erratic businessman who was his childhood friend, and the sister who demands he turn over his apartment to her and her husband. To solve his logistical problems he takes on an audio project for a risky client.

I loved to peak into modern China’s life, and I felt for Cui. This book is called a comic novel but to me it’s tragicomic at the most, with a bit of fantasy. Highly original.

4*

72 - Our Kind of Cruelty by Araminta Hall

This book! I tried to outsmart the author and thought I knew it all. The relationship between Mike and V was too intense, the narrator too inreliable. And suddenly the plot turns and it isn’t about Mike anymore, it’s not even a thriller anymore, it’s about our society today. Wow. A great ride. The only thing I can’t understand about V is why she kept wearing that necklace.

4*

73 - Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

Another great read by Crouch. I love how he is able to create an ordinary world next to a fantasy one and, despite the science part responsible for these alternate realities, I can follow along for the - crazy- ride.
Not as good as Recursion imo, but I will eagerly read what he’ll come up with next.

3,5*

74 - Babette’s Feast and Other Stories by Karen Blixen

Of these lovely short stories by Karen Blixen I especially enjoyed the story of Babette’s feast and The Tempests.

3*

75 - The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy

I listened to this podcast about George Hodel (his son claims he is the murderer of Elizabeth Short, ‘the Black Dahlia’) and that triggered me to finally read the book. Where I hoped for a book like In Cold Blood, this turned out to be a fast paced crime novel which mixes facts and fiction. I didn’t end up much wiser but it’s an okay read.

3*

>147 Simone2: I really enjoyed this one, too.

>144 Simone2: You're too kind! I'm still wading through Knausgaard's final book in the My Struggle series. It feels a little never-ending at the moment...

You're keeping up an excellent pace as usual, Barbara!

>152 AlisonY: I am sorry you feel that way. I loved the final Knausgaard. To me it fell all into place then. But maybe it’s not the right book at the right time - with so much happening in real life.

76 - In a Lonely Place by Dorothy B Hughes

I loved this book. Coincidentally it was another noir crime set in LA after the war (like The Black Dahlia, that I just read) but this one is so much better. The suspense in this one is so subtle and intelligent. The POV is the serial killer’s and that is so cool. As are the setting, the dialogues and the ending. It’s at least as good as Dorothy Hughes’s The Expendable Man. Highly recommended!

4,5*

>153 Simone2: I'm actually getting quite into it now, Barbara. The extended analysis of the Paul Celan poem made me glaze over for a time, but I'm actually enjoying the segue into Nazism, etc. The book's pulling me all over the place as a reader - I can't quite figure out yet if it's genius or madness that his editors allowed what feels like several separate books to go together in this volume!

I'm about 650 pages in - just not getting huge amounts of time to read it.

77 - Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi

Ordinary and not so ordinary people live together in the rubble-strewn streets of Baghdad in the beginning of the 21th century. Suicide killings are happening all the time, and among them people live their lives. Then Frankenstein comes to live among them. Made of body parts from the dead. A tragic yet comical story that leaves me a bit sad and thinking about life in war torn Iraq.

3*

The City We Became by NK Jemisin

No I’m not gonna do this. Fifty pages in and I am already completely lost. New York as a human being ? I need something a bit more realistic.

So much for the first book of this year’s CampToB!

>157 Simone2: I'm a little less than 100 pages in and it's falling together, at least as far as the structure and how the five boroughs are personified. Definitely not my usual reading!

>158 RidgewayGirl: I was thinking of you and what you’d think of it. I‘l check out your review.

78 - A Good Enough Mother by Bev Thomas

I was immensely annoyed by the ‘good enough mother’ in this book and how her personal drama influenced her work as a therapist. All that psychology, a bit too much and too obvious for me. Yet I couldn’t stop reading.

3*

79 - Very Nice by Marcy Dermansky

This is a perfect book for anyone who wants to escape reality in a really good and fast paced book. A girl has a one time thing with her professor who next turns up at her mothers house to stay there with them. I had such a good time reading this and had to laugh out loud at the scene with the three purple bathing suits. And the ending is the best!

4,5*

80 - Dear Fang, With Love by Rufi Thorpe

When Vera is diagnosed with Bipolar I her father takes her on a trip to Vilnius, Lithuania. He hopes to help her dealing with this diagnosis and to learn a bit more about his own ancestors. A lot happens to both of them. I enjoyed the growing intimacy between them and the city’s history but the book as a whole felt a bit too shattered. To me Thorpe wanted to tell too much.

3*

81 - Sharks in the Time of Saviours by Kawai Strong Washburn

“Because another punch of poverty, seeing what we can’t do as a family, again and again and again.”

It’s the combination of poverty and Hawaiian magical realism that makes this family saga quite unique. The poverty hardens the siblings and the parents, everyone is looking after themself. But the magic softens them, unites them. As does the country where they belong.

3,5*

82 - Tim and Pete by James Robert Barker

Tim and Pete are ex- boyfriends who meet up again and drive through LA just after the riots. It is an evening filled with sex (thinking, talking, doing) with the threat and presence of Aids on every page. The music, the movies, the books: all are perfect references to the 90s. Even the Chili Peppers made it to this irresistible Californian speed read.

4*

83 - Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

“I am Chinese”.
This is the text on the button his father makes 12 year old Henry wear to school so his American classmates know he is not one of Seattle’s despised Japanese population. The button is at the heart of this touching book that taught me about the internment of Japanese Americans in WWII but is also a story of first love, pride, jazz, fathers and sons.

4*

Marcy Dermansky is just a wonderful writer. I loved The Red Car so much.

And I just started Sharks in the Time of Saviors.

>166 RidgewayGirl: I didn’t know she wrote Red Car. It was quite popular a while ago but I haven’t read it. I will buy it right away!

Looking forward to to your thoughts on Sharks. I saw you finished The City we Became, I am so curious to read your review but you didn’t post it yet, or did you and did I somehow miss it?

84 - 10:04 by Ben Lerner

Even though it’s a bit meta, I enjoyed this book a lot. The MC is a writer/poet, wandering the streets of Brooklyn thinking of fatherhood, a fatal disease, The Challenger, Back to the Future and writing. Especially the first half of the book is so good and I adored the concept of the 24/7 Clocks movie which I wish would be for real.

3,5*

>167 Simone2: I am behind on reviews. I hope to catch up soon.

85 - Apartment by Teddy Wayne

It’s 1996 in NYC and the narrator of this book has been subletting illegally in his aunt’s big apartment. He asks a charismatic friend without a place to live, to join him there. Both are students at writing program at Columbia. What follows is a portrait of a volatile friendship but most of all a portrait of loneliness and insecurity.

I really enjoyed it and will definitely check our Wayne’s earlier works.

4,5*

86 - America for Beginners by Leah Franqui

While I did like the bits about the culture of India and Bangladesh and the relations between both countries, I was disappointed by the plot. I don’t get what Franqui’s message is with this book. If she wants to tell about Indian people in the US she could have done so much better without this plot, which was distracting from the interesting stuff.

3*

87 - A Way of Life, Like Any Other by Darcy O’Brien

Among a bunch of asshole parents surrounded by asshole friends a kid grows up to turn into an asshole himself too. But hey, this is Hollywood and it’s all about making, taking, braking and faking.
I got the point but wasn’t blown away.

3,5*

88 The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson

The references to Nothing to See Here was the highlight of this book for me. I expected so much and the premise was good (two parents who are willing to sacrifice all for their art, even their children who are part of their performance), bu unfortunately I didn’t care for the characters nor the art nor the lives of the children as adults.

2,5*

>170 Simone2: I'm glad you also liked Apartment. I thought it was brilliant. Wayne just communicated the narrator's thought processes and awkwardness so very well.

>174 RidgewayGirl: I loved it. That awkwardness was incredible. I ordered a copy of Loner now. Have you read it?

89 - Closely Watched Trains by Bohumil Hrabal

“The more immorality and hedonism, the less cradles and the more coffins!”

Miloš Hrma is a railroad apprentice in German-occupied Czechoslovakia who after a suicide attempt flees into fantasy to face a reality filled with cruelty and grief. He thinks he may be impotent, but when his manhood is affirmed he shown himself to be man instead of a boy, able to stand up against the Nazis.

3*

>175 Simone2: No, Apartment is the only book by Teddy Wayne that I've read. I've got Loner on my wishlist.

90 - Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane

This was a very realistic portrait of two families each dealing with their own and their shared past. It was also a story of a great love and mental illness. These two subjects lingered througout each storyline, and was worked out very well. I was happy with the way it ended but don’t think it’ll stay with me for long.

3,5*

91 - Cleanness by Garth Greenwell

Cleanness is a melancholic book about an American man who works as a teacher in Bulgaria. The book consists of three parts of which the middle is about the time he spends with the love of his life, R. In the first and the third part he lives without R but all he does and thinks seems related to R in a way. That is the melancholy, even the most rough and explicit sex scenes feel like atonement, blaming, or sadness. Very well done.

3,5*

I'm very happy to catch up on your thread! We seem to have similar tastes.

>34 Simone2:. I thought Ways to Hide in Winter sounded familiar. I agree it was wonderful and also gave it 5 stars.

>38 Simone2:. I did enjoy Golden State but liked Ben H. Winters's Last Policeman trilogy better. Have you read those?

>54 Simone2:. Glad to know Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead is worth pursuing. I've been trying to get my library to buy it on Kindle. So far nada, although they're buying a lot of backlog recently, so here's hoping!

>92 Simone2:. Oh, another book by Tarjei Vesaas: (Bridges)! He's so wonderful, isn't he? I just went and requested purchase of this one from my library.

>133 Simone2:. Wow, Self-Portrait with Boy looks wonderful. I'll have to remember to recommend it on Kindle to my library when I'm next allowed a recommendation. (They have pretty stringent limits.)

>180 auntmarge64: I am not very active here I admit (since I discovered Litsy, are you on there as well?). I just post short reviews to keep track of what I read. But now I will take time to read through your thread! I love Vesaas and that you loved Ways to Hide in Winter too! I will check out Winters’ Trilogy and think you will like both Plow and Self-Portrait!

92 - Valentine by Elizabeth Wetmore

Rust, dust, poverty, church, heat, racism, and oil. That is Odessa, Texas in a nutshell. It’s the 20th century, men rule, girls get pregnant, nothing changes. But this is is the story of some strong women who stand up for themselves, against tradition and bigotry, who change things a little bit.

All the ingredients for a very good book and most people do love it but somehow it didn’t do much for me. I never felt it.

3*

>182 Simone2: I picked up a copy of that out of sheer curiosity about the setting—my husband and sister-in-law grew up near there (Lubbock). We'll see if I ever get to it, though...

>183 lisapeet: Many people love it and it’s an engaging read so it may be an excellent choice but I felt a bit disappointed in the end.

93 - Sister Carrie by Theodor Dreiser

This book, written in 1900, has been called the greatest of all American urban novels. I don’t know why. It’s about a girl that moves from the country to the city. First dependent of men she manages to live the American Dream all by herself, independently. It’s an enjoyable read and may have been great in its days, but nowadays? No...

3*

94 - The Bridge on the Drina by Ivo Andric

This is the second time I tried to read this book, but I can’t do it. It’s a story about a bridge in Bosnia that spans centuries. It’s about the role it plays in people’s life’s, wars, trade etc. The typeface is dense and once I relate to someone the story moves on in time. It’s a shame, I know. I should learn a bit more about Balkan history...

>186 Simone2:

This is one of my favorite novels - although it is more of a saga than a novel really, like The Greenlanders for example. Although it can be heavy, especially early on. In a way I was happy that it was written in 1945 and not in the 21st century - or the end would have been even more heart-breaking. I suspect part of why that beginning worked for me was because some of the "real" names were ones I knew from my own history books... I am sorry it did not work for you - I always do when it happens with books I like. :(

I grew up next to another bridge - smaller and on another river but in the same geographical vicinity - which had seen more history than a bridge has the right to. And the Balkans can be fascinating -- except when we do our best to kill each other and show the world how NOT to be good neighbors. I don't think that there any are two countries with a common border on the peninsula that had not been in a war against each other at least once and most of the territory had belonged to each of the older countries (almost in a rotation) :)

>187 AnnieMod: Thanks for your comments, I'm sorry too I couldn't get through the book. Living in Europe, I remember the Balkan wars vividly, also because lots of Bosnian refugees do live in the Netherlands since the nineties. I knew on forehand this book was about a time before but I hoped to learn a bit more of history anticipating later events. And it did, but it was too confusing and dense for me, I know that it's me.
You did grew up in Bulgaria, didn't you? Another country I know too little about even though I visited and loved Sofia once.

95 - Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer

This book reminded me of the old school adventure games I used to play as a student. Walking around in a surreal landscape, meeting weird people and asking questions to solve riddles and puzzles and get to a next level. I don‘t think I will take this series to the next level though. I liked reading it but there are so many questions and I‘m not especially eager to find out the answers.

2*

96 - The Free by Willy Vlautin

Leroy, a brain-damaged Iraq war veteran tries to kill himself. He winds up on life support and decides to retreat into a morphinated fantasy life. In the mean time Freddie, the care-home worker who witnessed Leroy's suicide attempt, and Pauline, his nurse, are engaged in their own struggles in modern America: the inequities of health care, the crush of debt, loneliness. Their kind, brave character are touching - as is the book.

4*

>188 Simone2: Yep. And visiting once is more than most people anyway :)

I had been thinking about what you said here -- it does feel like a very Balkan novel indeed and I am not sure I can put myself outside of what I know to decide if that may actually work. His stories tend to be a bit more traditional in style if you want to try something else from him.

>189 Simone2:

I've always thought that this one should have been published as a single novel and not as a trilogy. It does not split well, there is the "why bother" moment after the first and the second and none of the novels feel like novels. Oh well. :)

97- The Shepherd’s Hut by Tim Winton

A boy is on the run across the saltlands of Western Australia. He meets a disgraced priest living in a deserted shepherd’s but and stays with him for a while. They are both outsiders, both surviving, dealing with their past and trying to make sense of life and faith. Everything is raw about this book: nature, plot, landscape, language. Well done but for me personally a so-so.

2,5*

98 - Loner by Teddy Wayne

David was rather invisible in high school but is determined to do better in Harvard. Veronica is all he ever dreamed of: a cool, rich girl coming from a private school in NYC. He constructs his entire life around her. From a loner he becomes a creep. Great read. And that ending!!

4*

>193 Simone2: Having loved Apartment, I've got this on my list and you've made me more eager to get to it.

edited to add: My library system recently started a curbside pickup for holds and as Loner is in their collection, I should have my hands on a copy soon.

>193 Simone2:, >194 RidgewayGirl: So adding both of these to my wishlist! Not heard of this author before.

>194 RidgewayGirl: I bought it because I loved Apartment so much. This one is almost as good if you ask me. I am curious what you’ll think!

>195 AlisonY: I hadn’t heard of him either but he is really a gifted writer without many words. I can definitely recommend him and hope you’ll read him one day!

99 - Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid

An easy read, almost chicklit, but without the fluffiness because racism is everywhere in this book, with a lot of different truths about it. It’s hard to take sides and it made me wonder how I’d behave in the circumstances. So in the end the plot is just a tool to make you think about racial issues and character development in millennial times. Clever.

3,5*

100 - Cocaine Nights by JG Ballard

The Spanish Costa del Sol is a place for sleepy pensionados. So sleepy that the people don’t even leave their villas to swim or play tennis. Crime is the only stimulus they still respond to. So that’s the business model to reactivate the communities. When his brother confesses to murder, Charles travels here to investigate. But he is so fucking stupid. This book is awful, but I couldn’t stop reading. Mixed feelings.

3,5*

101 - The Red Car by Marcy Dermansky

Not as good as Very Nice but still another enjoyable easy read by Dermansky about a young woman who relives her past when she returns to San Francisco for the funeral of her former boss. I love Dermansky’s style, humor and narrators. I’d like to be friends with her 😀

4*

>101 ELiz_M: I know her a little via social media and the occasional reading, and she is, in fact, extremely nice! Did you read her Bad Marie?

>199 Simone2: Oh, she would be a blast to go out for a drink with.

>200 lisapeet: I did not? Is it good too? I’ll check it out!

>201 RidgewayGirl: I really think so! Thanks for recommending this one to me! Did you read Very Nice?

102 - Into the Beautiful North by Luis Alberto Urrea

I had been looking forward to another Urrea as I loved The House of Broken Angels. This one didn’t disappoint. It feels Mexican in each and every sentence. 19 year Nayeli and her girlfriends need men in their village to protect them from the bandidos. The plan is simple: they need to get into the US to bring the men back who left them for ‘Los Yunaites’.

3,5*

103 - The Post-Office Girl by Stefan Zweig

“Poverty was crushing all the feeling they had.”

The first quarter of the 20th century it’s all misery in Austria. The war, the financial crisis: Christine grows up a victim of her circumstances and leads a joyless life that turns into frustration once she discovers the possibilities of life under different circumstances.

3*

>202 Simone2: Yes, and I have Bad Marie on my tbr.

104 - The Chestnut Man by Soren Sveistrup

This book is the perfect whodunnit I guess. So many twists and storylines, good characters, scary from page one and with the coolness that is so typical for a Nordic thriller.
I loved this story about both a missing girl and a serial killer and had no idea who did it yet in the end it did make sense. Read it if you’re looking for some thrilling hours!

4,5*

105 - My Cat Yugoslavia by Pajtim Statovci

I am not sure about this book. I don’t think I understand what the author wants to tell. It’s the story of a mother and her son, born in Kosovo, fled to Finland, observing Kosovo and the Balkan War. What they share is her husband, his father and his impact on their lives. It’s a story about outcasts, about not belonging, about suffering and abandonment. And of course there are a cat (a racist boyfriend) and a boa constrictor as a pet. Does it sound confusing? It is!

3*

106 - The Changeling by Victor LaValle

This is an example of a book I kept postponing reading because I thought I’d love it so much. And in line with my high expectations it started off stunning. Beautiful insights into parenthood, childhood, adulthood, and friendships. A love for New York spatting off the pages. And then parenthood’s feverish early days end in an act of brutal violence. Still so good and creepy and suddenly the anxieties of fatherhood, race, money are dwarfed by otherworldly things like trolls and zombies and Norwegian sagas. And then I lost interest and I feel so sorry.

3*

107 - The Vanishing Half by Britt Bennett

I am sorry to feel this way but I did not love this book as much as everyone else. It is good but not that good. The subject (‘passing’) is intriguing but Nella Larsen covered it already with Passing. And needed less words. Bennett needed so many words. Am I the only one who thinks The Mothers is better?

3,5*

108 - Three Summers by Margarita Liberaki

The fact that I am sailing in Greece now adds a lot to this book. It’s about tasting and smelling and feeling Greece and I literally do now. I enjoyed the stories about three sisters growing up, as we learn by getting glimpses of their lives through three consecutive summers.

3,5*

109 - Writers & Lovers by Lily King

What a gorgeous book! I loved Chasey, the narrator, and all she stands for. Her grief and ambitions, her doubts and her love for books. “It is not nothing” what she’s going through as someone says to her in the end. It’s a raw feel good book if that makes sense.

4*

>211 Simone2: I'm glad you liked Writers & Lovers. It makes me nervous whenever someone whose book taste I respect reads a book I loved.

>212 RidgewayGirl: I mostly follow your recommendations blindly - I almost always love the ones you do somehow. And if not, they are certainly interesting! The ToB is a great source of finding good books too of course!

110 - The Rabbit Back Literature Society by Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläine

I certainly tried. I read half of it but I just don’t care. This book about a secret writers’ society centered around Laura Witte (a kind of JK Rowling, writing about Finnish mythological characters) keeps getting weirder and weirder - I can’t connect to the writers anymore nor The Game they play. A game that isn’t so exciting as the blurb suggests by the way. So... no.

111 - The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa

What is it that makes Japanese books so good? Their stillness? The lack of exaggeration? The respect for the plot and its characters? Their weird plots? This one is the fabulous portrait of a world where things disappear and with them, people’s memories of them. Their hearts grow empty and there seems no way out. Disturbing yet wonderful novel about a world in decay.

4,5*

112 - The Alienist by Caleb Carr

Set in NYC in the late 19th century this is fast-paced thriller. A serial killer is on the loose and Chief of Police Theodore Roosevelt (yes, that Roosevelt) assembles a special unit led by an alienist to be able to make a profile of the killer. With psychology, science and traditional police skills for the first time working together, they are getting closer to their killer - step by step.

4*

>216 Simone2: I assume this is what the TV show is based on. I've been seeing commercials for it and looks pretty good.

>216 Simone2: I remember when that book came out. It was very popular, a big seller. I read it some time around then and enjoyed it.

>217 janemarieprice: >218 rocketjk: It was first published in 1995 but I just discovered it and really liked it. I may even try the Netflix series to see if it’s as good!

113 - Slow Days, Fast Company by Eve Babitz

I don’t know who Eve Babitz is and I don’t care, but I really liked her attitude on these stories of her life. She is fearless and shameless and lives a hedonistic life. She knows exactly though how empty it is and how little it all means in the end. I especially loved the story in which she travels to Bakersfield and discovers that there is a real life behind the glamour of Hollywood - and she loves it!

3,5*

My favorite of The Alienist series is The Angel of Darkness.

>221 RidgewayGirl: I had no idea there was a series! I, too, read The Alienist when it came out, and I've read it twice since. I'd love to read other entries in a series! Thanks so much for this information.

>221 RidgewayGirl: >222 sallypursell: I didn’t know either! Thanks!!

114 - The Last Hundred Days by Patrick McGuinness

“... a system that’s on its knees in a city that’s coming down. That’s not evil out there, that dark cloud, the Securitate, the motorcade, the decoy dogs... it’s not evil. It’s failure, that’s all, failure. “

This quote about the last hundred days of Ceaucescu’s Romania, seen through the eyes of a British ex-pat, says it all. Scary times and betrayal all around.

3,5*

115 - Bunny by Mona Awad

I am glad I made it through. However, now that I’m finished I appreciate the book more than while reading. It’s clever and conceptual and touches deeply upon the theme of belonging, but it won’t end up among my favorites.

3,5*

116 - The Ice Princess by Camilla Läckberg

Set in Sweden a woman revisits her past when her childhood friend is murdered. Together with her new lover (also a childhood friend who is now a police officer) they start digging into the past. Lots of characters, scenery, snow, cooking, and plot make this a typical Nordic Noir but not the best one in the genre. Enjoyable though.

3*

I want to read everything. Where is the balm for my hurt?

Oh, well. If I just read until I die, it will be the same.

>227 sallypursell: I know exactly what you mean haha, so many books, calling my name!

117 - Een tragedie in New York (Dutch) by Maurice Seleky

This book is written by a co-worker and I was a bit skeptical (why the NYC setting and the election of Trump?) but beside these two things it is just a good book about millennials with all their chances, their FOMO and Gen Z about to take it all over - forcing them to finally grow up and take responsibility.

4*

118 - Somebody I Used to Know by Wendy Mitchell

In her fifties Wendy Mitchell is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. In this book she shares how she deals with her changing world and changing brains. She fights dementia in the best way she can, by organizing her life and sharing her experiences online and at meetings all over England. She is so incredibly courageous and positive. My heart breaks for her and for everyone with this diagnosis. I feel so sad now.

4*

119 - The Evening of the Holiday by Shirley Hazzard

I would have loved this novella more if I hadn’t read it during a sleepless night. Now that I finished it I still feel numb while it deserves all the feelings. It’s a very carefully created love story, all words well chosen, the Tuscan scenery vividly described and wonderful dialogues between two people who should be together. I am glad I read it, thanks to the mention of it in Writers & Lovers.

4*

120 - Het Smelt by Lize Spit (Dutch)

This book was hyped in the Netherlands a few years ago and now that I finally read it I have to agree. The author writes about gewoon up in a small Belgian village within a very dysfunctional family. Both her parents are alcoholic, her brother lost his twin sister, her other sister (named after the dead one) suffers from multiple compulsive disorders. Eva herself seems the strong one, playing one of the boys with friends from the village. But she ends up an unavoidable victim as well. Very depressing, impressive debut.

4*

121 - Miller’s Valley by Anna Quindlen

Mimi Miller narrates the story of her life in a place that is bound to disappear, because the government needs it as a reservoir in a water management project and slowly but surely floods it.
What is the biggest fear of most inhabitants turns out to be not that important after all, because so much has changed in the intervening years.
Mimi is a great observer of herself, her family and the community in this quietly, powerful novel.

3,5-*

122 - Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue

Jente and Neni are a young Cameroonian couple with kids living illegally in NYC. Jente works as a driver for the very wealthy Mr Edwards, a hot shot at Lehman Brothers. We all know how that ended. It is a sad and loving book about different cultures getting to know eachother but the gap is too big. And year there is a happy ending - kind of. A very enjoyable book.

3,5*

123 - Banana Peels on the Tracks by Jason Lockwood

When the Soviet Union collapses and it satellite countries are opening up to the the world, Jason Lockwood at 26 spends a year in Slovakia, teaching English. This book is about his experiences. He published it himself and it’s actually an entertaining and enjoyable read. I learned a lot about this relatively unknown country.

3*

124 - The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa

A single mother becomes the housekeeper of a mathematician who, after an accident, only has an 80 minute memory. Her son comes often with her and the professor explains mathematic problems to them. A loving and unique affection develops between them.

Ogawa places the eternity of the numbers against the transience of life. Every little twist and turn has meaning in this book, right down to the last sentence. A clever and deeply moving masterpiece.

5*

125 - Clap when you land by Elizabeth Acevedo

Two worlds colliding: that of the 16-year old girl in Dominican Republic and her half sister (also 16) in New York. They are unaware of each other’s existence until their father dies by a plane crash, on his way from New York to DR. Then they discover eachother and how much they have in common.

I am not a YA fan in general but this was definitely an exception: an emotional read, wonderfully written in poetry form.

4*

126 - The Queen of Bloody Everything by Joanna Nadin

Well this was fun and so British! Dido has a wild irresponsible mother and prefers spending time at the neighbourhoods, an - on the surface - normal family. She grows up in the 80s with the neighbor’s kids and it’s so nostalgic: the music, the atmosphere. A delightful read and a great storyline.

4*

127 - Sisters by Daisy Johnson

The almost twin sisters July and September are moving with their mother to a broken down house. The reason for their move, the family history, and the tragedy that happened are revealed in fragmentary glimpses.

The dark relationship between the sisters and their depressed, almost absent mother, create a tension that keeps building up in this powerful, quiet, gothic novel. I couldn’t stop reading, held my breath and finished it with a heavy heart. Wow.

4,5*

128 - The Eighth Life by Nino Haratischwili

Can I rate a book so well researched with only three stars, And yet... for me it dragged s bit, this family saga set in Georgia and meandering through Eastern Europe’s 20th century. So there’s Bolshevism, perestroika and the Cold War. Subjects I used to be very interested in, so that’s why it may have felt repetitive. Also I felt it lacked character development. All family members were born strong characters, almost adult from birth. A bit annoying. But that’s just me. Read it yourself, it’s worth it.

3,5*

129 - The Invisible Life of Ivan Isaenko by Scott stambach

Ivan lives in the Mazyr Hospital for Gravely Ill Children in Belarus. He is born severely disabled as a result of Chernobyl. In the hospital he meets Polina, a girl his age with cancer. They grow friends and of course there is a lot of sentimentality but also dark humor, which keeps the book from getting cheesy.

3,5*

130 - Misery by Stephen King

The book reads like a movie script and I liked it more than I expected. Annie Wilkes is a character I’ll never forget. She may be the main character’s Number One Fan (he is the author of the famous Misery-novels) and the one who abducts and nurses him after an accident, but she is so much more. She is horrible and intriguing and a psychopath and she makes this book a pageturner for sure!

3,5*

>242 Simone2: And wasn't Kathy Bates a fantastic Annie Wilkes in the film...

>243 AlisonY: Unforgettable!!

131 - 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World by Elif Shafak

Way too fragmented for my taste and with too many characters who never really came to life. For me it was a disappointing and incoherent story, as unfinished as Leila’s life.

2,5*

132 - Despised and Rejected by Rose Allatini

I can imagine this was a banned book at its time. The novel supports the pacifist cause in WWI and its main characters, Antoinette and Dennis, are gay. Their attempt to love eachother (because they believe it’s impossible to have the kind of love they really want) is of course doomed. And then there is the war and the sufferings of both the ones in the trenches and the conscientious objectors. A wonderful book with great dialogues.

4*

>245 Simone2: Not heard many positive reviews of the Shafak book. Sometimes you have to wonder what is in the heads of the Booker judges as they create their long and short lists.

>247 AlisonY: I agree and I also admit that I feel less encouraged to read the nominated books by the year.

133 - Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi

As a girl Antara felt neglected by her young wild mother. As an adult their relationship is still very complicated and her past keeps catching up with Antara, het art and her marriage. She wonders if maybe becoming a mother herself will clarify things to her.

This is an extremely well written book, it seems easy but I could only manage a few pages at a time.

4*

134 - The Pilgrim Hawk by Glenway Wescott

This novella breathes the 1920s in all its observations. It feels like The Great Gatsby all over again from the moment a young American opens the door and lets the Cullens in - a somewhat eccentric Irish couple of which the woman takes an hunting hawk everywhere she goes. The American - an unsuccessful writer, of course - tries to imagine their relationship during the course of an afternoon, based on how they behave towards the hawk. The hawk causes a disruption but not much more happens. Yet there is an incredible tension in all the not-happening.

3,5*

135 - The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht

This book is a mash up of mythological stories about the tiger’s wife and the deathless man and one of the Balkan today, still scarred by war. I preferred that last storyline, of Natalia growing up in Serbia during and after the war. She becomes a doctor because her generation feels they need to express themselves, to make up for the past, the war, in which they lived seemingly untouched by it. As a doctor she travels to Croatia, volunteering for a UN Clinic’s programma. There she is confronted with the past of her grandfather and former Yugoslavia.

4*

136 - The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri

When all they care for is destroyed by war, Nuri and Afra leave their home in Aleppo to travel through a broken world. With them they carry the pain of their unspeakable loss.

The novel weaves together two time lines: one is the dangerous journey through Turkey and Greece, the other from England the following year, where they are applying for asylum.

The novel leaves me with so much compassion to Nuri and Afta and all the other refugees they stand for.

3,5*

137 - Revenge by Yoko Ogawa

While our prime minister announces another set of restrictions for the coming weeks, I hide in this book.

In Revenge Ogawa treats us readers with a web of losely connected stories, all dark and macabre. I love how clever and cruel she writes in a minimalistic way.
Very amusing despite the subject.

3,5*

>253 Simone2: Sounds great, in that weird Ogawa way! Enjoying your reviews - have been lurking.

138 - Chernobyl Prayer by Svetlana Alexievich

“You’re a normal person. And then one day you’re suddenly turned into a Chernobyl person. Into an animal, something that everyone’s interested in, and that no one knows anything about.”

What can I say? The voices of Chernobyl are heartbreaking. People who still live there, people who lost all, cynical voices and hopeful ones. Googling about this nuclear nightmare makes my stomach turn. What a world we live in.

4*

139 - The Murderess by Alexandros Papadiamantis

After years of frustration of being a woman in Greece’s man’s world, Hadoula cracks and kills her grandchild to safe her from the fate of being a lifelong slave. This is so satisfying however that she can’t stay away from other baby girls afterwards.
The book reminded me of Swift’s A Modest Proposal though it’s not as good.

3*

140 - The Expats by Chris Pavone

It’s not often that I manage to finish a book in a day, especially not when it’s almost 500 pages. But the suspense in this clever thriller about an ex-pat couple in Luxembourg was perfect for a rainy Sunday.

4*

141 - The Blank Wall by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding

While her husband serves overseas during World War II, Lucia Holley is doing her best to take care of her family during wartime and provide meals for them despite rationing and shortages, as well as trying to solve their personal problems and keep them safe – while continuing to send letters to her husband assuring him that everything at home was fine.

Suddenly she finds herself in the midst of a situation involving blackmail and manslaughter. Things quickly start to spiral out of control and Lucia desperately tries to protect her loved ones and avoid a scandal.

I loved this Persephone and Lucia.

4,5*

142 - The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

In The Nickel Boys Colson Whitehead unburies another story of America’s racial history.
The story is based on the discovery of a secret graveyard that stood behind a prison reform school in Florida where the bodies were found of black boys who had been dumped there in potato sacks.
It is story that need to be told but personally I’d had preferred a non fiction version over this a bit YA story which hadn’t the effect on me it could have had.

3*

143 - The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg

Robert Wringhim is a religious fanatic: one of God’s chosen who believes he is justified in killing those he believes are already damned by God - a view in which he is encouraged by a foreigner who becomes his best friend. His most important victim is Robert’s elder brother, the one acknowledged by their father as his son.
Set in Scotland in religious Calvinistic times this classic book is now perceived as gothic horror and as crime fiction ahead of its time. I don’t know, I’m just glad I’m done.

2*

144 - Ali and Nino by Kurban Said

This is the love story between Ali (Muslim, Asian, boy from the desert) and Nino (Christian, European, girl from the city).

They live in Baku, a city on the crossing point of religions, cultures, geography and politics.

The book is set in the short period that Azerbaijan became a republic before it was occupied by the Soviet Union.

I learned so much about the fascinating history of the Caucasus. Better than The Eight Life, I think. Highly recommended!

4,5*

145- Apeirogon by Colum McCann

I was surprised that an Irish author dares to write about the Israelian-Palestinian conflict. But he does a good job, mostly because the story is based on the true lifes of Rami and Bassan who both lose a daughter in the conflict. The book touched me mostly because it tries to stay objective. I can’t judge if it succeeds completely but I read it as the story of two men who have much more they have in common than most are willing to admit. I even allowed myself to hope that there can be peace among them. That if the people want it and act upon in, governments shall follow eventually.

4*

146 - The Vet’s Daughter by Barbara Comyns

‘If she had been a dog, my father would have destroyed her’. This is Alice speaking, the vet’s daughter. While her sick mother withers away, her father has the undertaker measure her for the coffin already.
Things don’t get better after her mother dies, even when she is able to leave her father for a while. Yet Alice never seems a victim. She is uncomplaining and detached in her narration. And she has this secret power of her own.
Gothic magical realism in under 140 pages. A great premise and build-up yet I felt let down by the last chapters.

3*

147 - The House of the Mosque by Kader Abdolah

This book is Persian storytelling at its best. By following the family of a traditional imam who lives in the house of the mosque, we learn how Persia became Iran, how modern influences created the rise of the fundamentalists, how the Shah had to step aside for Khomeini, how allies Iraq and America became enemies and how opposition from all sides was oppressed. How hard life was for common muslims like the storyteller who fled to the Netherlands and wrote down this highly recommended story.

4,5*

148 - A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra

Against the background of the Chechen wars against post-Soviet Russia, there is this immensely sad story of love and loss, of friendship and trust, of grief and hope.
The lives of Akhmed, Sonja and Havaa are intertwining in many and surprising ways. Great storytelling!

4*

>263 Simone2: I remember liking this one, if only because it was sort of odd.

149 - The North Water by Ian McGuire

This is an enjoyable adventure book set on a whaling ship in Arctic Greenland. All goes wrong of course and the horrible crew is stuck with each other, their stench and horrible habits. There is of course a good guy and a bad guy and both are quite unique. I had a good time reading about the unscrupulous villain, despite all violence and gory details. It reminded me a bit of Lord of the Flies in that it shows what can become of men under duress.

3,5*

150 - The Black Spider by Jeremias Gotthelf

Somewhere in the Swiss mountains there is this idyllic village of happy and deeply religious people. It hasn’t always been that way. Centuries ago the villagers sold their soul to the devil and we all know that means trouble 😉. A black spider prepares its arrival...
A very creepy novella and a fun read.

3.5*

151 - Death in her Hands by Ottessa Moshfegh

No one writes about loneliness as Moshfegh does. This time the narrator is Vesta, an elder woman living with her dog in a secluded cabin. When she finds a mysterious note in the woods she decides to solve the mystery. While investigating, her loneliness is obvious and poignant, for example when she describes the futility of running a bath when her body now seems to her “so little, a little thing I had to keep clean, like washing a single dish one uses constantly.”

As a reader you keep hoping that Vesta is right, that she proves herself right and that her lonely life will not turn out to be a bleak, delusionary existence. Highly recommended!

4,5*

>270 Simone2: I'm reading this now and I'm loving how Moshfegh has taken the cozy trope of elderly woman investigates a murder and, well, does what she does with it.

>270 Simone2: Sounds great - haven't heard of this title or author before. Onto the list it goes.

I decided to treat myself to a few new books off Amazon yesterday. It took me an hour and a half to go through my ridiculously long wish list, yet nothing was shouting out to me. I think too many titles is sometimes a bad thing!

>271 RidgewayGirl: >272 AlisonY: It is really good and reminded me a bit of Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead which I also loved. Just to make your choices even harder Allison 💕

152 - Malice by Keigo Higashino

This is a very clever murder mystery full of twists. Nothing is what it seems and both the detective and the murderer try to mislead the reader intentionally. This is Higashino at his best and maybe even my favorite of the three books by him that I’ve read.

4*

153 - The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy

It just isn’t the right time for this book. Sally Jane makes me smile but I can keep focussed. Too many characters, a too dense font. And I am reading Rules of Civility too, which is a bit similar but better written, I think.

154 - Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982

This is a disturbing book about a young mother, driven to psychosis as a result of the misogyny in South Korean society. And this is no historical fiction, as its title states clearly: Kim Jiyoung was born in 1982. The Korean system is still not ready for women aiming for a career and even less for those women to have children and combine a career with motherhood. Mothers are supposed to stay at home while men can allow themselves opinions about and acts towards women that are unheard of any longer in my time and place. An important book.

3.5*

>276 Simone2: This sounds interesting. I'm always curious to read about women's experiences in other countries - and this would be fiction about someone roughly my age.

I have been reading lots of articles about how coronavirus is disproportionately affecting women (especially mothers) careers as they try to care for children who are no longer in school. I personally know many women who have cut back hours, taken leaves of absence, or quite altogether to make it through this. In my area, kids haven't been back in person to school at all yet, so everyone is still trying to manage everything at home. It's interesting and sad that it still most often falls to the woman to make the career changes - usually because they make less money which is it's own problem.

>277 japaul22: I think you will enjoy this one Jennifer, I learned a lot from it.

Corona is hitting hard here too but schools have been open since June fortunately. However, restaurants and cafés have been closed again, clubs have been since March. Many people working there or doing work related to it have lost their job. I think men and women are hit equally but it is so sad. Especially with no progress in sight...

155 - Swing Time by Zadie Smith

I’m calling it quits. I enjoyed Zadie Smith’s earlier works but this book is just boring. Two not so interesting girls doing nog so interesting things in a world of music and glamour. I know that the story will move on to West Africa and that might add a lot but I can’t be bothered any longer.

DNF

156 - Beautiful Bad by Annie Ward

I liked the psychological side of the book more than the whodunnit part but overall it was a very engaging thriller, perfect to keep my mind off the incoming US election results as well as the further lockdown in my own country.

4*

157 - Rules of Civility by Amor Towles

Katey Kontent is the narrator of this fun and glamourous novel about a young woman living the life in Manhattan on the brink of WWII. She is witty and charming and climbing her career steps while partying with New York’s well to do. Tinker Grey is the man who changes all for her, whether he’s around or not. Like in A Gentleman in Moscow, Amor Towles is so good in bringing his characters to life. Eve, Ann, Hank, Dickey and Wallace, they are al such interesting people but I really loved both Katey and Tinker, even though - or maybe because - they are not perfect.

4*

158 - Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam

This post-apocalypse novel started out good, with interesting characters. A family rents a house on Long Island when suddenly the owners of the house arrive: on the run for a possible blackout in NY. How each of them reacts to what was happening (what WAS happening??) was very relatable but then the book spun out of control. Way too many loose ends and no satisfying ending.

3*

159 - The Land Behind God’s Back by A den Doolaard (Dutch)

‘The land behing god’s back’. That’s what Montenegro calls itself. A forgotten land filled with mountains and stones and always defending itself against foreign aggressors.
This is the story of Wolf, a mountain boy and the architect that designed and built a bridge over the river Tara to make Montenegro more accessible. A year later however, WWII started and the bridge had to be destructed to protect the country once again.

3*

160 - Maybe You Should Talk To Someone by Lori Gottlieb

Wow, what an emotional rollercoaster this book. I love how in the end I think Lori herself was the person I was least interested in. That makes her a wonderful therapist because she made Julie, John, Rita and Wendell the stars of her story. Besides I learned a lot and had my heart broken at each storyline.

4.5*

161 - The Gunners by Rebecca Kauffman

Six friends are inseparable while growing up until one of them leaves their group without an explanation. The others are at loss and all falls apart. Year’s later they are adults and reminisce about that time Looking for answers only more questions are raised.

4*

>284 Simone2: I took a BB on that one. I just looked it up on Amazon and it sounds great.

>286 AlisonY: It’s an eye opener at times. I hope you’ll like it if you get to it.

162 - Alamut by Vladimir Bartol

This was a very readable war story set in Iran in 1092. Self proclaimed leader Hasan wages a clever battle from his castle on Mount Alamut: he prepares young warriors by giving them a glimpse into paradise. Once they have tasted the afterlife, they are ready to fight and die a martyr. The similarities with the present are clear.

3.5*

163 - Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Although she has been living in America for 15 years, Ifemelu still is an outsider, observing what being black (and African) in the US means. Her observations are razor sharp and painfully recognizable at times. When she returns to Lagos she’s an outsider again. Ifemelu has became too ‘Americanah’. The best book even about race and oh, there’s a great lovestory too!

5*

164 Billiards at Half Past Nine by Heinrich Böll

Many different narrators tell what happens one day in post-war Germany when a father, his son, and their families meet. All narrators share memories of their recent past, a dark one for all. It comes together nicely in the end but nothing can be interpreted separately from WWII and its lasting effects on three generations.

3*

165 - Sea Wife by Amity Gaige

‘Everyone is hard to love, if you do it for long enough.'

Michael takes his wife Juliet and their kids on a year long sailing trip in the Caribbean. lHalf the story comes to us from Juliet (reporting afterwards), the rest comes from Michael, via the log he kept during the journey. Past and present interweave an against a backdrop of blue seas and palm trees this mainly is a pretty dark book about the depths of marriage and motherhood. It was shocking how I at times could relate to Juliett and recognise my own (sailing loving) boyfriend in Michael. Wonderfully written!

4.5*

166 - The Door by Magda Szabó

This book! Emerence is a kind of cleaning lady and caretaker of the narrator (Magda) who is a writer, and a good for nothing in her own eyes. Their relationship is the strangest, with Magda always feeling a victim while Emerence, in her rather unique way, only loves her. Nothing good can come of their ongoing mutual misunderstandings. A wonderful book, Magda Szabóis such a great writer!

4*

>292 Simone2: Isn't it a great book Such subtle emotions... and the best dog I've read in a while.

>293 lisapeet: Yes, Viola is great! Have you read Iza's Ballad? It is even better, in my opinion!

I took a bullet on the last two..... Both sound great!

>294 Simone2: I haven't, but I've got the book. So far I've heard really good things about her writing—Abigail in particular, which I don't have but my library does.

>295 AlisonY: They really are!

>296 lisapeet: That is good to know! I’ll check out Abigail! Thanks!

167 - Mr Loverman by Bernandine Evaristo

I wanted to love this one but I didn’t. I can’t exactly pinpoint why, but Barrington irritated me. And it all felt a bit too much. But to be honest I felt this way a bit too with Girl Woman Other so maybe Evaristo just isn’t for me.

3*

168 - Bessarabian Nights by Stela Brinzeanu

I wouldn’t have read this book if it weren’t for a reading challenge but it did turn out to be very informative about Moldova. Stela Brinzeanu describes a country that dealt with so many oppressors in the last centuries that it lacks its own identity. Maybe out of powerlessness alcoholism is huge, as are religion, superstition, tradition and the oppression of women. Not the best country to grow up in and many seek refuge abroad, only to be trapped in what’s even worse: trafficking. So while it’s not the best written book and the plot is weak, this book did open my eyes to this often overlooked country.

3*

169 - De boodschapper by Kader Abdolah (Dutch)

According to the author this book is ‘fiction based on facts’. It is a biography of Muhammad, Allah’s messenger, told by Zeëed, Muhammad’s chronicler and author of the first edition of the Quran. Zeëed is very dedicated to his master, yet the person he describes is all but perfect. Muhammad appears more like an illiterate womanizer than a devoted prophet. I doubt whether Muslims will agree with this point of view but it made an interesting read.

3.5*

170 - Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams

I love Queenie. She’s young and smart, attractive and funny. She’s outspoken and determined regarding Black Lives Matter. She seems so tough but she’s been through a lot and feels vulnerable and unworthy of love. Her self destructiveness and anxiety feel so real it’s hard to read on at times. I wish I could be her friend but fortunately she has some good ones. A great read. A punch in your stomach too.

4*

>301 Simone2: I've heard quite a bit of buzz about Queenie, but your review is the first to make me want to add it to my wish list.

>301 Simone2: I really liked Queenie, too.

>302 japaul22: >303 RidgewayGirl: She is a lovely character and I can’t imagine you wouldn’t like her, Jennifer. The way she is confronted with being black in her urban, millennial life is subtle at times, confronting at others. I hadn’t expected to like her that much either. Regarding this theme my favorite however remains Americanah!

171 - The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree by Shokoofeh Azar

I didn’t like this one as much as I expected to. I am always very interested in Middle Eastern contemporary history and was gripped (and shocked) by the facts about the Islamic revolution of 1978 but I felt less interested in the plot. The narrator is the ghost of a 13 years old girl but it all felt too detached for me to relate to any of the main characters even though I was interested in them.

3*

>304 Simone2: And I still need to read Americanah! I loved Half a Yellow Sun so I have no idea why I'm waiting. Maybe in 2021. I have a lot of newer releases that I haven't gotten to over the past 5 years that I still want to read.

>306 japaul22: I know what you mean. I had the same with this book but afterwards I wonder why it took me so long to pick it up. It might be my favorite of the year!

172 - The Altruists by Andrew Ridker

Its cover and the reviews were so attempting yet the book couldn’t really hold my attention. It felt like a story I read many times before. A bit of a dysfunctional family, some midlife crisis, some bullying at school... but maybe I just didn’t pay enough attention and did I miss out on the bigger picture. I’m just glad it’s done.

3*

>308 Simone2: The Altruists was fine, but nothing special or note-worthy.

>309 RidgewayGirl: I completely agree!

173 - Still Missing by Beth Gutcheon

Reading like a true crime book, this is the story about the disappearance of six-years old Alex Selky, and its effects on his mother Susan. When all are picking up the pieces and try to cope with what happened, she can’t. She becomes estranged from her friends and family. It all feels so realistic. As a mother I can relate to Susan, as a partner to her husband, as a woman to her friends. It’s painful to read and very well written. And I think, although it may not seem so at first, that the book is quite progressive, regarding that is was published in 1980.

4*

>311 Simone2: That is one of the few Persephone titles I own but haven’t read. Glad to know you liked it!

>312 japaul22: It’s an a-typical Persephone but I did enjoy it.

174 - Luck by Gert Hofmann

A little boy and his sister are used like puppets in the drama of their parents’s lives and marriage. Totally self-absorbed by trivialities the parents ignore their kids who in their innocent, funny way, keep asking questions and show their presence.

It’s a good read but now I want to move on to other books! To make progress with the ToB shortlist!

4*

Picking up some titles from your last few reads - all sound great.

175 - Telephone by Percival Everett

Part western, part campus novel, but mostly a heartbreaking novel about a father losing his daughter. Reproaching himself for not being able to safe his daughter, professor Zach Wells is determined to safe some Mexican women kept hostage in a clothing warehouse.
I am becoming a real fan of Everett and this book is my favorite of the ToB shortlist so far. Also it is interesting that Everett published three versions of the novel ( the covers vary just a little). I am eager to know the differences!

4*

>316 Simone2: I think I've read three of Everett's novels now and I loved each one. He has a talent for writing very different books and all of them excellent. I'm really looking forward to Telephone.

>316 Simone2:, >317 RidgewayGirl: I've read four of Percival Everett's novels, three of which I enjoyed (I Am Not Sidney Poitier, Erasure, A History of the African-American People (Proposed) by Strom Thurmond, as told to Percival Everett & James Kincaid), and one which was mediocre (The Water Cure). I'll get back to him next year, and since I don't own Telephone I'll add it to my wish list.

>317 RidgewayGirl: >318 kidzdoc: thank you both! I only read So Much Blue, which I loved, so I definitely will check out your recommendations!

176 - Three Weeks with my Brother by Nicholas Sparks

This is so NOT my kind of book. Sparks doesn’t write bad (although not good either, each chapter is build up similarly, which makes the book quite predictable), it’s what he writes about. He and his brother go traveling the world in the most despicable way (imo): a guided tour by private jet with a group of 80 people in 3 weeks!! The horror! And it’s about Christianity and devotion, a theme I am not that interested in either.
Anyhow I skimmed to the chapter about Malta just to be able to cross it off for my ‘Reading Europe’ challenge on Litsy.

2*

177 - Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu

Written in the form of a screenplay this book manages to touch upon heartbreaking subjects in a way that may not have succeeded were they told in a more serious way. The funny way of presenting Asian stereotypes is really devastating.
Willis Wu is born and raised in America yet he isn’t able to claim a decent position in his own life. With his modest ambitions of becoming ‘Kung Fu Guy’ he is as racist and rigidly hierarchical as the society that refuses to acknowledge him as one of them.

4.5*

>321 Simone2: This is the second excellent review of Interior Chinatown that I've seen on LT. It's definitely on my 2021 wish list.

>321 Simone2: This was such an impressive book. Both breezy and bleak.

>323 RidgewayGirl: My favorite of the ToB shortlist so far, together with Telephone. But I still have many more to read. Are you having any favorites yet?

>322 japaul22: I am almost sure it’s a book you’d love too Jennifer!

178 - The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa

While I know this is a Portugese masterpiece I weren’t able to enjoy it. The ongoing stream of consciousness of a man who describes himself as an ordinary office clerk but in the mean time judges all and everyone with a superiority that I found annoying. So much so that I couldn’t really appreciate the at times gorgeous sentences and clever thoughts.
Maybe this was not the best (time of) year to finally tackle it.

2*

179 - The Sun Down Motel by Simone St James

What a perfect book for lazy Christmas days! Set both in 1982 and 2017 we gradually learn what happened to Carly’s aunt Viv 35 years earlier. It’s a perfect mix of ghosts, feminists and murders. And I loved the setting - I am fascinated by run down hotels like the Sun Down. Great read!

180 - Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

Piranesi is the narrator's nickname - just like the famous 18th-century draftsman. He has forgotten his real name. He lives in a desolate world which consists of immense halls that seem to continue endlessly. His main companions are the birds that nest there and the countless statues that fill the halls. The only other living human to wander through its halls is the mysterious Other.

The strength of the book lies in the description of Piranesi's lonely existence in that sometimes creepy, sometimes beautiful world - and in the freaking original plot of course!

4*

181 - Tangerine by Christine Mangan

This was a huge disappointment. A totally unbelievable plot in which a girl is manipulated by another. Set in Tangier, Morocco, made it a little bit better but mostly I have been rolling my eyes about the ongoing stupidity of one of the girls while she perfectly knew what was going on. Annoying!

2,5*

182 - Luster by Raven Leilani

I feel like Leilani wanted too much with this book. The sadness throughout Edie’s story felt real, she feels worthless and invisible and lets circumstances decide her life. However, Leilami needed to bring in so much around it that I felt lost myself - in the open marriage, the racism, the adoptive daughter, the job, the art. So I am not exactly sure what was the point.

3*

183 - Christmas Days by Jeanette Winterson

I am not the audience for this book. I should have known. I never read seasonal and it’s for a reason. I am not cozy and not religious and I don’t believe in Santa.

I did like a few of the stories though, my favorite is The Mistletoe Bride (the one without the happy ending 😉).

3*

Noting the Sun Down Hotel - sounds interesting and I'd never heard of it.

I'm on the fence about trying Piranesi. I actually never read Jonathon Strange and Mr. Norrel.

I've enjoyed another year of following your reading! I hope you stick around on LT because I'm very inconsistent on Litsy!