Labfs39 wanders the world of words in 2022 (pt. 2)

Currently reading:



Gaza Mom by Laila El-Haddad

Books read in 2022:

January
1. Dare to Disappoint: Growing Up in Turkey by Özge Samancı (GNF, 4.5*)
2. Miyazaki's Spirited Away by Hayao Miyazaki, translated from the Japanese (TGN, 3.5*)
3. Snow by Orhan Pamuk, translated from the Turkish by Maureen Freely (TF, 3*)
4. I have Lived a Thousand Years by Livia Bitton-Jackson (NF, 4.5*)
5. The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak (F, 3.5*)
6. A Killer in King's Cove by Iona Whishaw (F, 2.5*)
7. Hyperbole and a half : unfortunate situations, flawed coping mechanisms, mayhem, and other things that happened by Allie Brosh (GN, 4*)
8. Twenty Stories by Turkish Women Writers translated by Nilüfer Mizanoğlu Reddy (TF, 3.5*)
9. In. by Will McPhail (GN, 4*)

February
10. The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh (F, 4*)
11. Maus: A Survivor's Tale by Art Spiegelman (GN, 4.5*)
12. Second Generation: Things I Didn't Tell My Father by Michel Kichka, translated from the French by Montana Kane (TGN, 4.5*)
13. I Will Never See the World Again by Ahmet Altan, translated from the Turkish by Yasemin Çongar (TNF, 5*)
14. Jerusalem: A Family Portrait by Boaz Yakin and Nick Bertozzi (GN, 3.5*)
15. The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan (F, 3*)
16. Palestine by Joe Sacco (GNF, 4*)

March
17. The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A Very Short Introduction by Martin Bunton (NF, T16, 4*)
18. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (F, T9, 4.5*)
19. A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle (F, T12, 3*)
20. The Property by Rutu Modan, translated from the Hebrew by Jessica Cohen (TGN, T3, 4*)
21. A Dangerous Place by Jacqueline Winspear (F, T11, 4*)
22. An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine (F, T17, 4.5*)
23. American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang (GN, T16, 4*)
24. Santa Claus in Baghdad and Other Stories about Teens in the Arab World by Elsa Marston (YA, T6, 3.5*)

April
25. Passport by Sophia Glock (GN, T10, 3.5*)
26. In this Grave Hour by Jacqueline Winspear (F, T1, 3*)
27. Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi (NF, T14, 3.5*)
28. The Colonel by Mahmoud Dowlatabadi, translated from the Persian by Tom Patterdale (TF, T17, 4.5*)
29. They Called Us Enemy: the Expanded Edition by George Takei (GN, T15, 4*)
30. My grandmother's braid by Alina Bronsky, translated from the German by Tim Mohr (TF, T3, 4*)
__ The Caiman by by María Eugenia Manrique, illustrated by Ramón París, and translated by Amy Brill (Kids, T11, 3.5*)

Reading Globally

Books I've read in 2022 by nationality of author (a tricky business):

American: 7
Belgian (Israeli): 1
Canadian: 2
Chinese American: 1
English: 3
German (Russian): 1
Indian: 1
Iranian: 2
Israeli: 2
Japanese: 1
Japanese American: 1
Lebanese: 1
Scottish (English): 1
Slovakian: 1
Turkish: 5



Check out my Global Challenge thread, labfs39 reads around the world, for a look at a cumulative list since around 2010.

And I've broken out the US by state in my Labfs39 tackles the states thread.

Asian Book Challenge

January: Turkey
1. Dare to Disappoint: Growing Up in Turkey by Özge Samancı
2. Snow by Orhan Pamuk
3. The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak
4. Twenty Stories by Turkish Women Writers
5. I Will Never See the World Again by Ahmet Altan

February: Israel & Palestine
1. Jerusalem: A Family Portrait by Boaz Yakin
2. The Property by Rutu Modan

Also: Palestine by Joe Sacco
The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict by Martin Bunton

March: Lebanon, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq, Oman, Kuwait
1. An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine (Lebanon)

Also: Santa Claus in Baghdad and Other Stories about Teens in the Arab World by Elsa Marston (Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon)

April: Iran
1. Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
2. The Colonel by Mahmoud Dowlatabadi

May: the Stans

June: India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh
1. The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh (India)

July: China

August: Japan

September: Korea

October: Mongolia, Nepal, Burma, Bhutan, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand

November: Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia

December: The Asian Diaspora

Graphic Novels

1. Dare to Disappoint: Growing Up in Turkey by Özge Samancı
2. Miyazaki's Spirited Away by Hayao Miyazaki
3. Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh
4. In. by Will McPhail
5. Maus: A Survivor's Tale by Art Spiegelman
6. Second Generation: Things I Didn't Tell My Father by Michel Kichka
7. Jerusalem: A Family Portrait by Boaz Yakin and Nick Bertozzi
8. Palestine by Joe Sacco
9. The Property by Rutu Modan
10. American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
11. Passport by Sophia Glock
12. They Called Us Enemy by George Takei

Theme Reads

Jan - March 2022: Around the Indian Ocean
1. The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh (the Sundarbans, India/Bangladesh)

April - June: Outcasts and Castaways
1. My grandmother's braid by Alina Bronsky (immigrants from Russia to Germany)

July - Sept: "When alphabets collide" - books written in the Slavic languages

Oct - Dec: Prize winners in their own language

Remembering Rebeccanyc

Monica (Trifolia) has set up a thread challenging us to honor Rebecca/Sybil by collectively reading the books she had on her "Hope to Read Soon" list when she passed. It is a robust list of over 600 books. Of these I have read

8. Agus, Milena. From the Land of the Moon
13. Akpan, Uwem. Say You're One of Them
44. Beevor, Antony. Stalingrad
63. Bronsky, Alina. The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine
97. Chekhov, Anton. Sakhalin Island
138. Dennys, Joyce. Henrietta's War: News from the Home Front 1939-1942
144. Dickens, Charles. A Tale of Two Cities
179. Ferrante, Elena. My Brilliant Friend
186. Flaubert, Gustave. Madame Bovary
216. Gogol, Nikolai. The Collected Tales of Nikolai Gogol
234. Gruša, Jiří. The Questionnaire, or Prayer for a Town & a Friend
235. Grushin, Olga. The Dream Life of Sukhanov
238. Gurnah, Abdulrazak. Paradise
245. Hašek, Jaroslav. The Good Soldier Švejk: and his fortunes in the world war
255. Hrabal, Bohumil. Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age
256. Hrabal, Bohumil. I Served the King of England
286. Khoury, Elias. White Masks
296. Knausgård, Karl Ove. My Struggle: Book 1: A Death in the Family
347. Marai, Sandor. Embers
364. Mendelsund, Peter. What We See When We Read: A Phenomenology
375. Mo Yan. The Garlic Ballads
420. Poulin, Jacques. Mister Blue
433. Redniss, Lauren. Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout
436. Remarque, Erich Maria. All Quiet on the Western Front
469. Sansal, Boualem. The German Mujahid
483. Schulz, Bruno. The Street of Crocodiles and Other Stories (The Complete Fiction of Bruno Schultz
485. Schwarz-Bart, André. The Last of the Just
506. Singer, Isaac Bashevis. Love and Exile: An Autobiographical Trilogy
508. Skloot, Rebecca. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
516. Solzhenitsyn, Alexander. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
518. Soskice, Janet Martin. The Sisters of Sinai: How Two Lady Adventurers Discovered the Hidden Gospels
587. Vaculík, Ludvík. The Guinea Pigs
612. Wharton, Edith. The Age of Innocence
613. Wharton, Edith. The House of Mirth
621. Willis, Connie. Blackout

I have the following ones on my physical shelves:

79. Camus, Albert. The Stranger
190. Foster, Thomas C. How To Read Literature Like a Professor
215. Gogol, Nikolai. Taras Bulba
373. Miłosz, Czesław. The Captive Mind
388. Myśliwski, Wiesław. Stone upon Stone
409. Pavić, Milorad. Dictionary of the Khazars
455. Rufin, Jean-Christophe. The Abyssinian
462. Rytkhėu, Yuri. The Chukchi Bible
472. Saramago, José. The Stone Raft
493. Serge, Victor. Memoirs of a Revolutionary
553. Teffi. Memories: From Moscow to the Black Sea
576. Tsypkin, Leonid. Summer in Baden-Baden
577. Tuchman, Barbara W. A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century

I will also track books I read that I have marked as recommendations from rebeccanyc, i.e. books she had already read and reviewed. There are 36 of them.

1. The Colonel by Mahmoud Dowlatabadi

Book stats for 2022:

I am trying to promote diversity in my reading and, for the lack of a more refined method, am tracking the following:

books total: 30

13 countries
8 (27%) translations

19 (63%) fiction
11 (37%) nonfiction

14 (47%) by women
16 (53%) by men

15 (50%) nonwhite and/or non-European/North American

January was a crazy month in Club Read, and my first thread filled up quickly. So I'm started the new month with a new thread. Happy February, everyone!

Just wanted to let you know that I have been reading your thread, Lisa, even if not commenting. I just can't keep up with you! I'll try harder in February, but you have been one active person! I keep being drawn back to Rebecca's list. I was reading an older thread earlier today to which she had contributed. I still miss her presence on LT.

>10 Linda92007: Hi Linda, Thanks for letting me know you stopped by. I think things will calm down on the threads now that the initial furor is over. It was fun but exhausting at the beginning of the year. Still lots of good discussions happening though, which is what CR is all about.

Rebecca had such a large and lasting presence in the lives of so many LTers (never mind her philanthropic work). Sometimes I think my life will have been a success if, at the end of it, I can claim to have positively impacted even a few people the way Rebecca did me. So far, I can chalk up one person: my little niece! I have hopes that she will be a great reader one day. :-)

>11 labfs39: What's she reading?

>12 qebo: Something from Nothing, a retelling of a Jewish folktale, by Phoebe Gilman. To be fair, she's not actually reading (at 23 months, that would be something), but she's clearly got the idea down. She spent several minutes studying every page, and when she finished she closed the book and said, that was a good story!

Wow. Just finished reading The Hungry Tide. I read the last third of the book barely lifting my eyes from the page. Fascinating geography, unknown-to-me history, adventure. Started off a bit slow, but quite the tale. Review to follow, hopefully tomorrow.

As a precursor, I'll cross-post the remarks I made on the Indian Ocean Theme Read thread when I started the book:

It takes place in the Sundarbans, the island archipelago at the delta of the Ganges River.

In the early pages of the novel, the myth of the Ganges is told: how the goddess Ganga descended from heaven and Lord Shiva bound her flow to his hair, forming a heavenly braid which is the river's path. But there is a point at which his braid unravels and spreads, and the tangled mass is the Sundarbans.

The modern place name Sundarban ("beautiful forest") comes from the name of a species of mangrove called the sundari. But the Mughal emperors named the region bhatir desh ("tide country") and specifically the outgoing tide or bhata. At high tide many of the thousands of islands are underwater, and it is only with the outgoing tide that everything is visible. (from the first chapter)

The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh
Published 2005, 333 p.

Piya is a young American woman of Indian descent who is in the Sundarbans to study the the Irrawaddy dolphin (Orcaella). Kanai is an Indian translator and playboy visiting his aunt. The two meet on the train, and Kanai extends an invitation to Piya to visit Lusibari, the island where his aunt lives. He is visiting there under duress, having only been there once before as a boy, but his aunt says he's been left a packet of papers by his deceased uncle, and she wants him to retrieve them in person. He thinks Piya would be a welcome distraction. Piya, however, is eager to get started with her survey and sets off on a hired boat with a government keeper. Before long, she realizes she is in trouble, and ends up with a fisherman and his son instead. Despite the language barrier, she feels instant empathy with Fokir, and they make significant progress in her project. After several days they head for Lusibari, where Kanai and Fokir's wife wait.

The chapters alternate between Piya's and Kanai's stories, and then with the diary of Kanai's uncle as well. Piya's research with the dolphins is discussed in some detail, as is the ecology and history of the Sundarbans. The diary of Kanai's uncle is concerned mainly with the Marichjhapi massacre, the forced removal of refugees from a government protected forest reserve in 1979. But it's not dry reading, for all of this is the backdrop for an adventure story complete with man-eating tigers and a cyclone.

The first half of the book is a bit slow with a lot of background on the islands, but I found it interesting as I knew nothing about the area. The second half of the book speeds up for a page-turning climax. It was the perfect book for the Indian Ocean theme read in Reading Globally.

By now I'm sure you are all aware of that a school board in Tennessee banned the teaching of Maus to eighth graders. I am rereading the first volume now, and have reached the infamous "nude" scenes. There are two frames one on page 100 and one on page 103, both in the standalone comic that was originally published separately called "Prisoner on the Hell Planet." It deals exclusively with the author's mother's suicide. Here is the more daring of the two:



It also includes the word "bitch." It and two "shits" are the curse words I've seen so far (and one "God damn" toward the end of the book).

ETA: the entire frame is roughly 2" high

Just catching up, Lisa. I haven’t been on for a few days, and it is so hard to keep up. When Maus was banned, I went to Amazon to buy it, although my grandchildren already have their own copies. They, of course, were sold out, but I put my order in anyway. There is nothing like banning a book to increase sales. There was a post on Twitter showing a book burning that took place last night. This is frightening.

>14 labfs39:, >15 labfs39: Nice review of The Hungry Tide, also a nice revisit for me! I read it when it came out in '05 before I joined LT, but I gave it 5 stars when I entered it in '06.

I'm quite glad you've started a new thread, because I missed so much of the last one I didn't know where to start. I'm jumping in here instead.

I remember being captivated by The Hungry Tide when I read it a few years ago.

The Maus thing is very disturbing. Thanks for posting the, er, "nude" scene. Just this morning I was looking through my daughter's school books, and I checked her English book. They get a list of spellings every week, and there's a space where they can illustrate the spellings if they like. One of this week's words was "stomach", and she had drawn two parallel lines with a little circle in the middle towards the bottom, which could have been anything...except that it was clearly a stomach and the belly button, because for context she had added a pair of bare breasts and nipples! I'm sure it will make her teacher smile, but that will be all, thank goodness.

>15 labfs39: Your review reminded me that I have this book on my shelves, unread. I might pull it from there for the Indian months for the Asia challenge, if I'm up for a book in English.

>18 avaland: I've heard about this debate first here in LT actually. It's really strange how our society (or a part of it) wants to over-protect children from everything, while they have access to far more controversial things through social medias. Not a great balance (and not the best way to give them the tools to understand the world around them).

>19 rachbxl: How shocking! ;)

>17 NanaCC: I hadn't read about the book burning in Tennessee. Truly frightening. I'm glad Maus is getting a second wind. I hope it encourages people to read more about the Holocaust in general.

>18 avaland: I didn't rate The Hungry Tide quite as high as you did, mainly because I thought the first half was a little slow in places. I learned a ton and was on the Internet reading about Orcaella, the massacre, etc. Good historical fiction.

>19 rachbxl: Hi Rachel! Yes, the first thread was hopping. Things are settling down now though.

I love the story of your daughter's drawing! I signed up for a free two-month trial of Kindle Unlimited today and started reading Second Generation: Things I didn't Tell My Father by Michel Krichka today. It makes a nice follow-up to Maus as it's also a graphic novel about a man's relationship with his Holocaust-survivor father. Krichka was born in Belgium, but is now a famous Israeli cartoonist. In a section describing how he felt solidarity with Muslims at his school because they were also circumcised, he draws a frame of naked boys in the changing room. I wonder what the Tennessee schoolboard would make of it? Would it be different because it's boys instead of a woman? Or worse because it shows teeny penises instead of just breasts? What a world we Americans live in.

>20 raton-liseur: The fight in schools between those who want to ban anything to do with nonwhite, non-Christian, non-straight topics or authors is heating up in the states. I find it very frightening given how these things have turned out in the past.

>21 labfs39: Frightening, yes. And it is not only the US, even if the way it shows in Europe is different.
I guess the consequences of the Trump era are not behind us.

Second Generation: Things I Didn't Tell My Father by Michel Kichka, translated from the French by Montana Kane
Originally published 2012, Eng. translation 2016, 105 p.

Michel Kichka is an Israeli cartoonist and illustrator who was born and raised in Belgium. His father, Henri Kichka, was a survivor of Buchenwald and a well-known and respected educator on the Holocaust. Second Generation is the story of their relationship.

Michel's childhood was defined in part by the Holocaust. He spent hours looking through his father's books on the Shoah searching for pictures of family members and fearing he would see his teenage father in the photos. His father saw Michel's good grades and achievements as a way to get back at Hitler, and Michel and his siblings felt a constant pressure to be the perfect family. Years later while talking to his sister, he thinks that it was "as if we weren't entitled to teenage angst because Hitler robbed him of his."

Michel moves to Israel, graduates from art school, marries, and has children of his own, but the Holocaust still shadows his life and family. His brother-in-law commits suicide and three months later his brother does too. The shock of losing his brother sends Michel into a tailspin, and a floodgate is opened in his father's memories. Henri writes his memoirs, Une adolescence perdue dans la nuit des camps and begins teaching about the Holocaust and leading groups to Auschwitz. Michel wonders, "I sometimes feel that his testimony has replaced his memory... His death march has been going on for 67 years. He walks on while his deceased loved ones pile up behind him."

>13 labfs39: she's clearly got the idea down
Yes, the important thing is wanting to know what's in there.

>15 labfs39: Hungry Tide
I've downloaded the e-book, which is in good company among the many unread so who knows, but the attraction for me is India + dolphins.

>16 labfs39: I'm quite removed from what's deemed appropriate for middle school these days, but in the 1970s we read Lord of the Flies and 1984 in 8th grade so Maus doesn't strike me as out of line in terms of the ostensible objections.

>17 NanaCC: There is nothing like banning a book to increase sales.
Yup. The county just west of mine banned (technically delayed approval of) a list of "diversity curriculum" books, two Little Free Library stewards took up a collection, and 7000 books were donated.

>17 NanaCC: sold out
Yeah, I had the same experience.

Found you, Lisa! You've done some great reading so far this year.

>24 qebo: I did learn a fair amount about dolphins. The Irrawaddy dolphin of Asia and a related species in Australia are Orcaellas (little orcas), which I thought interesting having spent so long in the Pacific Northwest where orcas are common sights, but so much larger. The main character, Piya, talks about surveys she had done in Southeast Asia too and about how she was treated as a female scientist. It was nice to see a strong competent female protagonist who was a scientist.

I read a few articles on the Central PA book ban. It sounds like the list was created with good intentions by the diversity committee, but that it then got swept up in the why-do-we-have-to-teach diversity backlash and banned. Most of the resources were for adult books. The kids books must have been on one of the linked lists. Good on the folks who provided the 7000+ books and protested. The ban was overturned amongst much backpedaling. I especially loved the board member who said they weren't banned, they just couldn't be used in the classroom. I hope people continue to stand up for banned books and diversity curriculums.

>11 labfs39: ❤️ that’s really cute

Catching up. Thanks for sharing the images from Second Generation. Also appreciated your posts on Maus. I have a dusty unread copy of The Hungry Tide. Your review certainly encourages me to get it off the shelf and open it up.

>25 BLBera: Thanks, Beth!

>27 dchaikin: Have you read anything else by Ghosh, Dan?

>28 labfs39: i’ve read Sea of Poppies, which is linguistically entertaining, but I had some issues. Mark recently reviewed it and liked it a lot better than me.

I finished this today, and it is one of the best books I have read in a long time. Thank you to raton-liseur for the recommendation. I was interested in reading it because it's essays/a memoir by a Turkish novelist imprisoned for his beliefs, and two of the novelists I read in January for the Asian Book Challenge (Pamuk and Shafak) were also tried for things they had written. I have read other books of this ilk (Rue du Retour, Prisoner without a name, cell without a number), but Altan's writing is particularly beautiful. If you think you might read the book and want to come at it fresh, feel free to skip the notes on each essay.



I will never see the world again : the memoir of an imprisoned writer
by Ahmet Altan, translated from the Turkish by Yasemin Çongar
Published 2019, 211 p.

Ahmet Altan is a novelist and sometimes journalist who made remarks on tv deemed to be "subliminal messages" on the eve of a failed coup in Turkey in 2016. He was sentenced to life in prison with no evidence ever produced. While incarcerated he wrote essays which were smuggled out of the prison by his lawyer. Two were published in newspapers abroad. The essays were published as this memoir while he was still incarcerated. In April 2021 he was released by the Supreme Court of Appeals. The book has not been published in Turkey.

The essays are beautifully written and reflect not only on his situation but on the nature of God, literature, and the art of writing. There are many literary references, although most are paraphrased as the author did not have access to the books and was relying on memory. There is nothing gruesome here, he was never tortured; nor is it a polemic. I highly recommend this book.

A Single Sentence
When the police arrive at dawn to arrest the author, he is prepared. Yet when he is shut into the car, he realizes the enormity of the change in his life. As he is about to devolve into panic, a policeman offers him a cigarette. Without thinking the author declines saying, "I only smoke when I am nervous." That sentence and accompanying sense of acceptance get him through the next few hours.

The First Night in the Cage
The jail cell is small, airless, hot, and reeks. As he sits sleepless, terror sets in. He wants to leap at the bars screaming. Afraid to embarrass himself in front of the others, he gets a grip on his emotions by thinking about his own death. "A person who is going to die does not need to fear the things that life presents."

The Mirror and the Doctor
The author's cellmates are mostly naval officers, denounced by a classmate, and struggling to accept that the very government they supported now suspects them. They are taken to the nearby hospital to be examined for signs of abuse.

The Teacher
A young cellmate, a teacher, struggles to remain true to himself and not give up any names to the police. The only times he talks about himself is when he describes the three years he spent in a rural, snowy village. He remembers these years of deprivation as the happiest of his life. The author imagines himself in the story and ponders the meaning of happiness.

The Cemetery of Pink Folders
The author and his brother are taken to be interrogated by the prosecutor. They had been arrested on the charge that they had give "subliminal messages" on a TV show the night before the attempted military coup (July 15, 2016). Instead, the prosecutor now says that a newspaper the author had founded (and resigned from in 2012) was tied to the putschists. No evidence is ever produced. After waiting a few more hours, they are taken before the judge who arbitrarily decides that the author will be freed and his brother sent to prison. However, that night the author is arrested and sent to the same prison as his brother.

Cheating
Arrested by four officers of the Anti-Terrorism Branch, the author decides police are incredibly naïve.

Encounter with Time
The author spends the first five days in isolation and feels the weight of undivided time.

Like Dante entering hell without Virgil at his side, I was slipping down from the circle of "dead life" to a lower circle where the punishment would be harsher.
In that circle, time, which had become heavier and slower with the death of life, was crawling toward me like a gargantuan reptile.

Voyage Around My Cell
The world outside must be forgotten in order to bear the world inside prison. Even dreams of things once thought possible must be squelched. Walking and writing are the only ways to keep longing at bay.

The Dream
Like anyone else, I am used to all kinds of dreams.
Each night the unknown quarrymen who begin their work in the depths of our minds once we fall asleep use their mallets to smash into pieces the large blocks of marble that are our thoughts and feelings quarried from life and hewn by our intellect and reason.
Thoughts, desires and fears—all unchained, impossible to fit into any kind of reasoned or intellectual framework, destroying all logical coherence—invade our souls with the weight of their rebelliousness. Like the gods, they create a world that defies all rules.
Dreams are God inside us. Or a madman.
Does this insurrection by the irrational, which is unique to gods and the insane, cater to our being's need for madness, its wish to break free of reason for a while? Or does it deprive us of our reason and keep us in the realm of madness?
I don't know, but I do wonder about the dreams of the insane.
What does a madman see in his dreams?

Serial Killer
The prison tailor asks a serial killer why he killed for pleasure.

Meryem
Ruminations on God and religion that arise from a nonbeliever (the author) sharing a cell with two devout Muslims.

The Novelist Who Wrote His Own Destiny
As the author waits to hear the verdict in his farce of a trial, he realizes that he is living the life of the protagonists from one of his own novels, a novelist living his novel. Life without parole.

The Reckoning
Faced with a life sentence, the author decides not to go quietly into that good night. "I liked fighting more than I liked consolation." And yet choosing to fight means having less time to write. Is he choosing the writer over the writing?

The Judge's Concern
In the first trial, the author is determined to be a "religious putschist" and sentenced to life in prison. Ten days later in a second trial, the same evidence is used to convict him of being a "Marxist terrorist," and he is sentenced again. The judges deliberate for only two or three minutes, afraid they'll miss the last bus.

Wood Sprites
Just as the author gives up hope of being allowed books in his cell, a copy of The Cossacks by Tolstoy falls through the slat in the door into his cell. Ruminations on literature. The great nineteenth century novels are about the characters' emotions and relationships (characters take precedence), twentieth century novels are about ideas (writer takes precedence over characters). Madame Bovary supersedes Flaubert, but Joyce supersedes Bloom. "I believe ideas should not give birth to the novel, but that the novel should give birth to ideas." The importance of ignorance and intuition in writing.

The Notice
Worrying about people on the outside, keeping things from each other that might make the other sad.

Handcuffs
The author is taken to the hospital for an x-ray. In the windowless van with him are three judges, they themselves imprisoned after imprisoning so many others. The x-ray technician, who is dressed devoutly, refuses to allow his handcuffs to be removed, although it is allowed. He returns to prison with purple bruises around his wrists, worse off than when he went to the hospital.

The Bird
The courtyard of each cell is six paces long and four wide with high walls all around and barbed wire over the top.

The Writer's Paradox
I am writing this in a prison cell.
But I am not in prison.
I am a writer.
I am neither where I am nor where I am not.*
You can imprison me but you cannot keep me here.

*Zeno's paradox

I was sure I had The Hungry Tide on my shelves, but either I lent it out or I'm thinking of Sea of Poppies, which I know I do have. You've definitely piqued my interest in it.

>19 rachbxl: Love your daughter's anatomy drawing, and >11 labfs39: it always makes me happy to see tiny kids so engrossed in a book.

All the book challenges and banning have had big reverberations in the library world—lots of political battles being fought by boards over the heads of workers and, sometimes, directors. It's exhausting to keep on top of, and makes me dismay for kids growing up as pawns in these wars that mostly don't have anything to do with them and their education.

>30 labfs39: This sounds like one I would like, Lisa. I am a sucker for essays.

>29 dchaikin: I went back and read both of our reviews of Sea of Poppies. You gave it four stars, I gave it four and a half. It's interesting how we focused on entirely different things in our reviews. You wrote "this is about the horrors of opium and poppy growing in India. Yes this is a book on India – specifically 19th century British dominated India at the brink of the 1st Chinese-English Opium War. It’s also a book about language," and I wrote "Sea of Poppies is a novel about relationships that cross boundaries, such as those of race, caste, class, religion, or crossing the line and "going native". The figurative and literary vehicle that facilitates many of these crossings is the Ibis." I think all of these things are true, as you say, it's a book with a lot going on. But perhaps I liked it more because I focused on other things?

>31 lisapeet: I thought Sea of Poppies was good too. Perhaps a smidge better than Hungry Tide? But they are very different books, so it's hard to do a straight comparison. SoP is the first in a trilogy, although I think it works just fine by itself, and I didn't care for the second installment as much, but HT is a standalone.

I am glad to be out of the library world now. These types of battles make me grind my teeth.

>32 BLBera: I loved I Will Never See the World Again, Beth. It's an odd blend of essays and memoir. The chapters are linked, in that they relate the events of his arrest, trials, and prison life chronologically, but each chapter has a theme too. It's a small book, and I spread it out over three days because I didn't want it to end. It was a library book, but when I finished I went online and bought a copy.

>30 labfs39: Terrific review, Lisa. I am going to order I Will Never See the World Again tonight. Thank you!

>30 labfs39: It is Turkey - if you do not get in trouble for what you are writing, you are not doing it right. Might be a bit of over-generalization but not by much...

Wonderful review - not sure I am in the right mood for that type of a book just now but maybe later in the year...

>34 Linda92007: I hope you enjoy it when you get to it, Linda.

>35 AnnieMod: Right? Altan's father was also a writer and spent many years in jail. Ahmet said he learned how to be ready for the dawn arrest from him. I couldn't believe he was sentenced to life without parole for "subliminal messages." Wow.

>30 labfs39: Added to my list. Prison writings are too often overlooked. Great review.

>30 labfs39: I'm so glad you liked this book! I enjoyed your review, it made me think again about what I felt during my reading. I think we had a very similar reading experience.
And I'm happy to see that some other readers here in CR might read it as well! I love it when such a great book can touch more and more readers.

>37 SassyLassy: Do you have prison memoirs that you would particularly recommend?

>38 raton-liseur: I'm so glad I took your advice and read this one. I would like to read more of his writing, but it sounds like his novels are not the place to go. You didn't like either of the ones you read, right?

I started A Tale of Love and Darkness and am enjoying it so far. I wanted to copy out some of this section because I thought many of you would relate. I know I did!

When I was about six, there was a great day in my life: Father cleared a small space for me in one of his bookcases and let me put my own books there. To be precise, he granted me about a quarter of the length of the bottom shelf. I hugged all my books, which up till then had lain on a stool by the side of my bed, carried them in my arms to Father's bookcase, and stood them up in the proper way, with their backs turned to the world outside and their faces to the wall.

It was an initiation rite, a coming of age: anyone whose books are standing upright is no longer a child, he is a man. I was like my father now. My books were standing to attention.

I had made one terrible mistake. When Father went off to work, I was free to do whatever I wanted with my corner of the bookcase, but I had a wholly childish view about how these things were done. So it was that I arranged my books in order of height. The tallest books were the ones that by now were beneath my dignity, children's books, in rhyme, with pictures, the books that had been read to me when I was a toddler. I did it because I wanted to fill the whole length of shelf that had been allotted to me I wanted my section to be packed full, crowded, overflowing, like my father's shelves. I was still in a state of euphoria when Father came home from work, cast a shocked glance toward my bookshelf, and then, in total silence, gave me a long hard look that I shall never forget: it was a look of contempt, of bitter disappointment beyond anything that could be expressed in words, almost a look of utter genetic despair. Finally he hissed at me with pursed lips: "Have you gone completely crazy? Arranging them by height? Have you mistake your books for soldiers? Do you think they are some kind of honor guard? The firemen's band on parade?"

Then he stopped talking...

At the end of the silence Father began talking, and in the space of twenty minutes he revealed to me the facts of life. He held nothing back. H initiated me into the deepest secrets of the librarian's lore: he laid bare the main highway as well as the forest tracks, dizzying prospects of variations, nuances, fantasies, exotic avenues, daring schemes, and even eccentric whims. Books can be arranged by subject, by alphabetical order of authors' names, by series or publishers, in chronological order, by languages, by topics, by areas and fields, or even by place of publication. There are so many different ways.

And so I learned the secret of diversity..."

I love it. "and in the space of twenty minutes he revealed to me the facts of life. He held nothing back." LOL

>40 labfs39: That's an author I had not thought of in years. I used to read a lot of his before I moved (in Bulgarian -- never read him in English) and enjoyed most of what I read...

And ordering the books by heights is not such a bad idea - it makes it so much easier to stack books on top of them ;)

>40 labfs39: I remember liking Oz's A Perfect Peace very much when I read it years ago. I never got to this one, but that excerpt inclines me to look for it.

>41 AnnieMod: And yes, I do a little height stacking for just that reason. But my books aren't alphabetized anyway, more like arranged by subject or date of acquisition, so I can get away with that.

>40 labfs39: This was a book I was part way through and set aside for some major project (painting?, guests?) and I haven't yet returned. I do remember this passage really well though, cringing along with his father at the thought of arranging books by height. Time to get back to the rest of it - thanks for the reminder.

I did read Judas this past summer, which was excellent, and loved To Know a Woman, but they were both fiction (mostly).

>41 AnnieMod: I have some oversized books that have to go on certain shelves, but otherwise I have fiction alphabetized by author's last name, except a few publisher series (Europa Editions, NYRB), but it's still author order within the series. Nonfiction by subject. Bios/memoirs alpha by person. Fairly traditional :-)

>42 lisapeet: >43 SassyLassy: This is my first book by Amos Oz. A Tale of Love and Darkness is one of Darryl's favorite books, and I can see why. The writing is beautiful, and the descriptions of the Jerusalem of his childhood are poignant. The only other Oz book I have is Unto death: Crusade and Late Love. I have Scenes from Village Life on my wish list, but I think I'll pick up any of his books I stumble across as well.

Height of books: LOL. I knew this topic would resonate with folks. In my library, oversized books only fit on a few shelves, but those are the only ones that get dispensation based on size. Otherwise my fiction is alpha by author's last name, with certain publishers colocated (Europa Editions, NYRB). Nonfiction is by subject, bios/memoirs by person.

Amos Oz: A Tale of Love and Darkness is my first book by Amos Oz, and I can see why it's a favorite for many people. The writing is beautiful, and his descriptions of the Jerusalem of his childhood are delightful. It's a book to be savored. The only other book I have by him is Unto Death, which is actually two novellas ("Crusade" and "Late Love"). I have Scenes from Village Life on my wish list, but I will pick up any of his books that I run across.

>39 labfs39: The novels I read are part of the same series, so it is not surprising I had the same feeling for both. As far as I can remember, there is another novel from him translated in English, but not in French, Endgame, I would not know what this one is worth.
And unfortunately, for the moment, I don(t think there are other non-fiction books from him.

>40 labfs39: Wow, what a nice quote. I have two Amos Oz on my shelves, Judas that I have scheduled to read this month for the Asia challenge, and Elsewhere, perhaps (that I have audio-read but not actually read). Reading this, A Tale of Love and Darkness is highly likely to be the next Amos Oz that I'll acquire.

>44 labfs39: The side effect of living in a small apartment with too many people and not enough space and a Mom who loves books was that every shelf had books on top of the regularly ordered ones - so everything was always ordered by size while I was growing up. Despite my attempts to break out of the habit, I tend to default to it when I am not paying attention :)

>40 labfs39: I love that passage, Lisa. I wonder what his dad would say about people who arrange books by color...

>30 labfs39: Great review--That sounds like a must-read (even if Turkey month is over).
And I loved the quote from the Oz book. For some reason I read about half the book last year, then stalled and never got back to it. Must remedy that.

>46 raton-liseur: Endgame doesn't sound particularly appealing at the moment. Ah well, I'll pick up his novels if I run across them at a used bookstore, but for now I'll savor I Will Never See the World Again and call it good.

This is my first Oz book, and so far it is very nice, though leisurely.

>47 AnnieMod: Sounds very practical. When I lived in Seattle, I had to create some double rows because of overcrowding, but I tried to thin out before I moved, and I still have umpteen boxes of unpacked books, so for the moment my shelves aren't too bad.

>48 BLBera: Ha! I bet he would roll over in his grave. When I sold my house in Seattle, the stager had me box up 80% of my books and then organize the rest by color. It was visually interesting (or at least different), but highly impractical.

>49 arubabookwoman: I think you would like I Will Never See the World Again, Deborah. I posted it as a late edition to the Turkey thread. It was so good I wanted it to be included for those who continue to glance at the thread.

A Tale of Love and Darkness is one of Darryl's favorite books. I was surprised to see that rebeccanyc hadn't read it, as I think she would have loved it too.

>30 labfs39: such a terrific powerful review. I’m fascinated, and appreciate all your extra commentary. This goes on that list.

And it’s not a bad lead up to Oz’s chunky memoir. I loved A Tale of Love and Darkness. Oz is an author I’m hoping to work through. He’s a terrific literary line into Israel and all its contradictions.

>33 labfs39: thanks for this. I’ll come back to it when i have more time. Appreciate what you put into this little comment, I mean that there’s a lot in there.

Although I have posted these two things on two different threads, I thought I would bring them together here.

First, on February 7th Art Spiegelman, author of Maus, had a conversation with members of the McMinn County, Tennessee community where the local school board recently banned his book. He also took questions that students had submitted. Over 17,000 people from around the world watched it live. If you missed it, it is available here on Zoom or on Facebook.

Second, the Museum of Jewish Heritage had been planning an event for February 9th called "Drawing It Out: Graphic Novels, Teenagers, And The Holocaust" before the whole Maus debacle, but what prescient timing. It was very good and is now available on the event webpage.

Graphic novels have long been emerging as a way to tell difficult and often traumatic stories. Since the late 1970s, they have also been a medium for telling stories about the Holocaust. From true stories to fictional ones, graphic novels are used to tell all kinds of stories about this time. Recently, authors and illustrators have been turning to stories about teenagers during the Holocaust.

This Museum program explores the depiction of teenagers in Holocaust graphic novels with David Polonsky, illustrator of Anne Frank’s Diary: The Graphic Adaptation, Ken Krimstein, author of When I Grow Up: The Lost Autobiographies of Six Yiddish Teenagers, and R.J. Palacio, author of White Bird: A Wonder Story. The conversation is moderated by AJ Frost, Newsletter Editor and Staff Writer for the Comics Beat.

>52 labfs39: conversation with members of the McMinn County, Tennessee
Thanks. Put in a tab to watch.

@labfs39 are you a birdwatcher?

>51 dchaikin: Thanks, I tried to separate my reviews of I Will Never See the World Again from my comments, because I wanted to people to have the choice not to see too much detail if they planned to read the book. Yet at the same time, if someone wasn't going to read the book, I hoped to give them the background of Altan's case and some highlights.

No need to go back to Sea of Poppies, Dan. Been there. I think it's the hallmark of a good book though, when we can come at it from different directions and both like it.

>53 qebo: It was interesting. The interviewers were not polished, and Spiegelman is quirky (smoking an e-cigarette and saying some borderline weird things in response to some of the questions), but it was an important conversation to have. I was amazed at how may people were watching live from all over the world. In some ways I thought the content of "Drawing It Out" was even better, although Spiegelman talking about specific panels of Maus was awesome.

>54 dianeham: I see you caught my inclusion of Sibley's guide in the Avid Reader thread. I used to be quite interested in birds when I lived in Seattle. I had many feeders, baths, etc. and took local trips to birdwatch. But since I left a few years ago, I have not kept up with it. When I bought the house here in Maine, I was dissuaded from putting up feeders because of the bear problems. Are you a birdwatcher, Diane? Do you know Mark (msf59) over on the 75 Books thread? Since he retired he has been an avid birder (and photographer) and has just returned from Costa Rica. I can't wait to see his photos.

Thanks for the link to the Spiegelman talk, Lisa. I can't wait to take a look at it.

So many interesting books and points of discussion here. I added The Hungry Tide to my WL. I love dolphins and am fascinating by the research, and the story sounds interesting, too.

And of course I am shocked about the book banning and burning. I wouldn't have heard about it if not for LT, I didn't read about it anywhere else.

>55 labfs39: Sea of Poppies - I’ll revisit a little bit. It was a really nice thoughtful comment.

>33 labfs39: I loved your comparison of our reviews. We both had such different angles on the same book. Certainly I’m interested in historical context and use that as a way of trying to see what an author is trying to say. Your comment comes from more a sense of literary context. It’s certainly a book of crossovers and crossing boundaries. Seeing these comments side by side makes me stop and wonder at the extent of my mental peripheral vision. How tunneled is my thinking? Anyway enjoyed your post here.

>55 labfs39: yes, saw the Sibley. I had one in my list too. Cape May, NJ is a birding hotspot. When I was 50 I took a birding class here and went birdwatching for a few years. I was having trouble with a disk in my back and had surgery. I preferred going birding alone to birding in groups. After the surgery I got nervous about birding in remote spots by myself. I felt like the wounded wildebeest - the easy prey. Where in Maine do you live? I guess closer to the woods if you’re worried about bears. We have a breeding pair of bald eagles nearby so I get to see them. We’re 1/2 from the Delaware bay where migrating red knots come to fuel up on horseshoe crab eggs. Other than that I id butterflies that come to my yard in the summer.

>56 BLBera: I hope you find it interesting, Beth.

>57 MissBrangwen: Hi Mirjam. I went through quite a dolphin phase when I was in middle school. My parent's took me to Jackson Labs for a tour, and I dreamed of doing research on dolphin intelligence. The protagonist in The Hungry Tides studies a unique behavior of the dolphins in the Sundarbans. They are particularly sensitive to the tides evidently.

>58 dchaikin: Thanks, Dan. I like Ghosh's writing in part because there are so many different ways to approach it. He writes interesting woman characters too.

>59 dianeham: My grandmother loved birds, and, although my parents weren't birders, when I was a senior in high school I went on an expedition with the National Audubon Society for four months. Although it was an experiential education program, not just birds, it did nurture my interest. When I moved west and lived outside Seattle in the foothills, we had a lot of interesting species come to our yard, including crossbills, which I always found fascinating. One winter we took our kayak down a river and saw 50+ bald eagles feeding on the salmon. That was quite a day. Another highlight was when the trumpeter swans migrated. When I moved to Florida in 2018, I joined the Audubon Society there, hoping to meet some people and learn about the local birds. St. Marks Wildlife Refugee was a few hours away and that was a great birding spot. I haven't done much birding since I moved to Maine (an hour northwest of Portland), and haven't put feeders out (bears). The Scarborough Marsh is in my Fifty Places to Go Birding Before You Die book, and that's not far away, so I'll need to make a trip there.

A graphic novel I read for Israel and Palestine month of the Asian Book Challenge.



Jerusalem: A Family Portrait by Boaz Yakin and Nick Bertozzi
Published 2013, 385 p.

A graphic novel based on the stories and recollections of Boaz Yakin's father, Jerusalem is the story of both a family and the city itself. The book begins in April 1945 and ends in June 1948 after the second cease fire in the Arab-Israeli War, about a month after the establishment of the state of Israel. The heavy black-lined drawings amplify the mood of the book. From protests over the White Papers to sabotage of the British forces and atrocities committed by both the Jews and Arabs, the action is violent and often chaotic.

The Yakin family has been fictionized into the Halaby family. The three oldest boys all fight for different factions: Avraham is a communist and doesn't want to fight in Israel, after fighting in the Palestine Regiment under the British in WWII; David fights in Europe and helps countless Jews escape to Palestine, then joins the Palmach; Ezra fights both the British and the Arabs in the paramilitary Irgun. Young Motti is a hoodlum always in fights until he joins the theatre.

If it sounds confusing, it is, but I think that is one of the points of the book: it was a confusing time in history, with no one completely right or wrong and atrocities committed by everyone involved, including the British. No one is a winner and tragedy abounds. The book helped me better understand how those tumultuous years could divide and scar a family, as well as the city at large.

This spread is of Avraham, bloody from being beaten by the Irgun for not fighting, considering turning in his brother who has been buying arms for them on the black market. The woman is their mother.

Hi Lisa, glad to see you enjoyed Hungry Tide. I'm an Amitov Ghosh fan, though I certainly haven't read everything he wrote. I suspect one of the reasons I like him is that he's trained as an anthropologis, and I think that influences his writing.

>62 markon: I liked both The Sea of Poppies and The Hungry Tide, The River of Smoke was okay, but not as good as SoP, IMO. I have The Glass Palace, which I haven't read yet. Which are your favorites?

I didn't know he studied anthropology, but from the range of topics included in his books, he either does a ton of research, or has researchers who work for him.

>63 labfs39: which one had pink dolphins?

>64 dianeham: I don't remember pink dolphins, but I did read an interview where Ghosh was asked about his research:

I met Amitav Ghosh for a rediff interview last month in Mumbai. While the interview was about his new novel Sea of Poppies, our conversation wandered to many subjects. I have always been curious to learn how Ghosh, who is known to conduct painstaking research for his books, knew so much about the Gangetic Dolphin that he writes about in The Hungry Tide. I popped the question, and his reply was both illumining and awe-inspiring.

The Hungry Tide is set in the Sundarbans and one of its protagonists is an Indian-American scientist named Piyali Roy who arrives in the region to study the Gangetic River Dolphin. When Ghosh went about his research for the book, he wrote to a number of dolphin researchers. Only one responded - Prof. Helene Marsh of the James Cook University in Queensland, Australia. She pointed him to her student who was researching Irrawaddy river dolphins in Cambodia. With this scientist, Ghosh traveled up the Mekong and "saw the research absolutely at firsthand".

"The Irrawaddy Dolphin," Ghosh told me, "is a coastal species. "What’s special about it is that some branches of it live in freshwater, some live in brackish and some live in coastal regions. Dolphins are incredibly adaptable."

-The Green Ogre: Talking dolphins with Amitav Ghosh

I’m trying to remember which book I read. There were river dolphins. Sounds like I read The Hungry Tide. There are river dolphins in the Amazon also.

>65 labfs39: Thanks for the excerpt and the link to the interview! I will read all of it when I have a little more time.
I actually saw dolphins in the Mekong, but only from afar. I did a trip to the "1000 islands" in Laos and the main reason was to do a boat trip to see the river dolphins, but I wasn't lucky apart from one small speck from afar that was hardly recognizable as a dolphin. It was a fascinating trip nonetheless!

Oh, and how cool that Gosh got a response from a professor of JCU! That is where I did my semester abroad :-) It is such a friendly university, everyone there was so open-minded and welcoming. The direct opposite of Cologne University where I did my degree (this sounds harsh, I loved studying in Cologne, but many of the professors behaved like gods).
So it is no surprise to me that he got a response from JCU!

>60 labfs39: "I went through quite a dolphin phase when I was in middle school." As you can see, my phase never stopped, haha! But what is Jackson Labs? I googled it, but nothing comes up that makes any sense in this context.

>66 dianeham: The dolphins in The Hungry Tide are Irrawaddy dolphins, which "Although sometimes called the Irrawaddy river dolphin, it is not a true river dolphin, but an oceanic dolphin that lives in brackish water near coasts, river mouths, and estuaries. It has established subpopulations in freshwater rivers, including the Ganges and the Mekong, as well as the Irrawaddy River from which it takes its name. " -Wikipedia

It's amazing to me that they can adapt to the changes of salinity with the tides in the Sundarbans. They are grey and slate blue.

>67 MissBrangwen: It sounds like you have done some amazing travelling, Mirjam. One of the things Ghosh writes about in THT is that the spotters have to stand in the boat glued to their binoculars, moving in a 180 degree sweep back and forth for hours. Even then they might not spot one, and that's all part of the data collection. The character in the book, Piya, had a depth finder and GPS, but the spotting was all done visually. He writes about how spotters have to be able to balance and adjust to the boat movements without losing their tracking and how heavy the binoculars get.

You are right, I meant we went to Woods Hole, not Jackson Labs. That was a different phase. I trained a rat to go through a maze I built, then timed whether rats it was housed with learned faster than the ones that were housed separately (i.e. does the learned rat tell the other rats secrets to get to the cheese). LOL. I was young, so it clearly had flaws. My parents were good eggs about letting me keep hooded rats in the house for a month or so. They much preferred plant experiments!

>55 labfs39: I have birdwatching neighbors who take a trip to Costa Rica nearly every year. I haven't been following Mark's thread, but will look for photos.
>59 dianeham: And they go to Cape May (about a 3-4 hour drive from here) often. I've been there too, but I was looking for butterflies.
>65 labfs39: I've added the blog to my RSS reader.
>68 labfs39: trained a rat to go through a maze
I started with one mouse and one maze for an elementary school project, and both multiplied, with the mazes quickly outpacing the capabilities of the mice.

>69 qebo: I wish I had kept pictures of the projects, but back then kids didn't have cameras never mind phones. I was in high school when I finally got access to a camera, and I had to develop the pictures myself. The high school let me convert a janitor's closet into a darkroom, and I used to hide in there for hours when school got to be too overwhelmingly boring.

>69 qebo: did you come to Cape May in August? Did you see lots of butterflies? My nephew lived in Lancaster many years ago. He was in the Renaissance Faire.

>71 dianeham: I was there in mid October toward the end of the monarch migration.

>37 SassyLassy:, >39 labfs39: two good prison memoirs that I have read are Grass Soup by Zhang Xianliang (about the Chinese laogai - reform-through-labour - system) and Into the Whirlwind by Evgenia Ginzburg (prisons under Stalin, both normal prison and later the gulag).

>73 wandering_star: Thank you for the suggestions, I have added Grass Soup to my wish list. I read In search of my homeland : a memoir of a Chinese labor camp last year, and found it quite interesting. I know little about the Cultural Revolution and hope to read more this year. I'm more familiar with the gulags and have read Into the Whirlwind. I have been looking for Within the Whirlwind, but it's been harder to find.

I watched another Lockdown University webinar on Saturday. It was on World War I poetry. The lecturer, David Peimer, began by playing an excerpt of Bob Dylan's Nobel Prize lecture in which he discusses the three books that most influenced him, All Quiet on the Western Front being one of them. It was an interesting way to start. Peimer talked about "the aesthetics of trauma," "the groomed ignorance of democracy," grandiose nationalism, mass psychosis, the end of flowery Victorian language, and the beginning of a new modern language of poetry which was ironic, cynical, stark, gritty, and full of rage.

The first two poets he discussed were Jewish, one fought for the British, the other for the Germans: Isaac Rosenberg (1890-1918) and Franz Janowitz (1892-1917). Of course there was In Flanders Field by John McCrae, Dulce et Decorum Est and Anthem for Doomed Youth by Wilfred Owen, The Soldier by Rupert Brooke (1887-1915), and A Dead Boche by Robert Graves. He ended with this from Brecht (written in 1941, segueing us into the next world war):

This was the thing that nearly had us mastered;
Don't yet rejoice in his defeat, you men!
Although the world stood up and stopped the bastard,
The bitch that bore him is in heat again.

>62 markon: Gosh, there's a lot going on here! Having said I'm a Ghosh fan, I find I've read only four of his books - Hungry Tide, The glass palace, Sea of poppies, and River of Smoke.(I tried Flood of fire, but my dread of the way things would end overcame my desire to read.)

I think Hungry Tide may have been my favorite, with Sea of poppies a close second. The glass palace was good, but too long - I remember it dragging in places And I liked River of smoke, just not as well as Sea of poppies. I was initially disappointed RoS didn't continue with the same cast of characters, but then got into the story.

I'm thinking about trying a nonfiction collection, or possiblly his most recent novel, Gun island. But I don't know when.

The poetry seminar sounds interesting.

A couple of months ago I read a review Kay (RidgewayGirl) had written about this book and asked the librarian to get a copy when it was published. She did, and it came in this week, which meant I needed to set aside A Tale of Love and Darkness for something completely different.



The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan
Published 2022, 324 p.

Frida Liu is having a bad day. She wasn't slept for more than a few hours a night in days, her eighteen-month-old daughter has an ear infection, and she has a project due at work that could result in her losing her work from home privileges if she turns it in late. She puts her daughter in her exersaucer and runs out for a cup of coffee. Before she knows it, she is getting a call from the cops, child protective services are involved, and her ex and his perfect girlfriend take over while Frida is enrolled in a new state program, "The School for Good Mothers."

In a dystopian world not far remote from our own, bad parents are taught the right way to care for, soothe, and instruct children using the most scientific and modern ways. Those who make it through the program can regain parental rights. Otherwise, they will never see their children again.

Although Frida is not an entirely likable character, her rehabilitation is chilling. What constitutes good parenting? Or bad? Can maternal love and selfless devotion be taught? Should it be? Instead of carrying sacks of flour in baby bjorns and cooing to raw eggs cushioned in mini faux cribs, as some teen parenting classes required in the past, what modern technology could be used? Who decides what's best for our children?

Although it's an interesting concept, I didn't completely connect with the story. It's a strong debut novel, but doesn't reach the level of Ishiguro's novels, for instance. I would have enjoyed exploring some of the issues more and seeing more character development, but it was a compelling plot that kept me turning the pages. Three stars.

>75 labfs39: Very interesting reading....

I'm curious about The school for good mothers as well. Don't know if I'll get to it

>76 markon: I too only read the first two books of the Ibis trilogy and was disappointed when the same characters didn't carry through. I read Sea of Poppies a while ago, so it was hard or me to compare which I liked better, it or The Hungry Tide. Definitely a writer I want to read more of. I own Glass Palace, so that will probably be the next one I read.

>78 avaland: I don't get to watch the Lockdown University lectures often (I usually have my niece then), but the ones I've seen have been interesting. And I've been inspired to watch a few other webinars as a result. Keeps away those snowbound blues. :-)

>79 markon: I don't know that I would recommend running out and buying The School for Good Mothers tomorrow, but it was a decent debut novel.

Your thread exploded since the last time I visited. I’m all caught up, and better plan to visit more often.

>81 NanaCC: Club Read has been off to a roaring start this year. Some interesting and popular group reads and threads, and so many great conversations happening everywhere. It's been invigorating, but a bit overwhelming at times. I don't know how people in the 75 Books group cope. If I am away for a day, I am swamped with posts to catch up on. Thank you for taking the time to visit.

Two books arrived in the mail this week. After loving I Will Never See the World Again, I ordered a copy of it to have, as I know I'll want to reread it. The other book is from rebbecanyc's list. It's called Besieged : Life Under Fire on a Sarajevo Street by Barbara Demick. I loved Demick's book on North Korea, Nothing to Envy, so am looking forward to this one.

>83 labfs39: looks good

>83 labfs39: yeah, I’ve gotten hopelessly behind now. Bummer.

>77 labfs39: just reading your summary of the plot, it sounds like a first novel. Anyway, interesting themes.

>75 labfs39: And this lecture sounded terrific.

>83 labfs39: I've wanted to read Nothing to Envy for a while. I have her Eat the Buddha: Life and Death in a Tibetan Town but haven't read that yet either.

Thanks to you I broke my no-more-on-sale-ebooks rule and just picked up The Hungry Tide for $1.99. I think my next reading project needs to be ALL THE EBOOKS I BOUGHT DURING THE PANDEMIC. There are... a lot of 'em.

>83 labfs39: I remembered reading this awhile back, and I actually wrote a mini review which alas is about the extent of my memory:
https://www.librarything.com/work/12720585/reviews/87258028

>86 lisapeet: I wasn't aware of Eat the Buddha. Immediately into the cart it goes.

>84 dchaikin: Thanks for stopping by, Dan. Yes, the Lockdown University lectures that I've listened to have been interesting. I wish I had more time for them.

>86 lisapeet: Ah, well, rules are made to be broken, no? Lol. At least e-books don't take up a lot of shelf space. It was for a good cause. And do try and get to Nothing to Envy, it's an important one and very well done. Like qebo, I've added Eat the Buddha to my wish list.

>87 qebo: Evidently Besieged is an updated version of Logavina Street. Demick went back twenty years after writing LS and tried to interview the same people. I'm looking forward to reading it.

>88 labfs39: twenty years after
Ah, I didn't realize it had that extra section. Unfortunately my memory is such that I'd have to reread the entire book for it to mean anything.

I've stalled in A Tale of Love and Darkness—we're all sick with a stomach bug this week, and I can't seem to focus on it. Yesterday I read the first chapter of Besieged, put that down, and today I picked up the graphic novel Palestine by Joe Sacco. Our town librarian called to say that the library would be closed for the next 5+ days as there was another covid outbreak and could I come pick up my ILL books if she put them in the hallway. I did and was immediately drawn to the cover of Palestine:



And the introduction was by none other than Edward Said. He is a huge Joe Sacco fan and wrote about the importance of comics, not just to him personally, but to the world of literature. He starts by saying how most people equate comics/graphic novels with juvenile literature, with the exception of Maus. He goes on to say that his family and teachers (very British-minded, although he lived in Palestine) forbade him to read them, and he tries to elucidate why.

...comics provided one with a directness of approach (the attractively and literally overstated combination of pictures and words) that seemed unassailably true on the one hand, and marvelously close, impinging, familiar on the other. In ways that I still find fascinating to decode, comics in their relentless foregrounding—far more, say, than film cartoons or funnies, neither of which mattered to me—seemed to say what couldn't otherwise be said, perhaps what wasn't permitted to be said or imagined, defying the ordinary processes of thought which are policed, shaped and re-shaped by all sorts of pedagogical as well as ideological pressures. I knew nothing of this then, but I felt that comics freed me to think and imagine and see differently.

Said also praises Sacco for giving voice to people who would never make the curated New York or London-based news. Sacco basically hung out in the Occupied Territories for two months in the winter of 1991-92 as the first intifada was winding down. Said writes,

There's no obvious spin, no easily discernible line of doctrine in Joe Sacco's often ironic encounters with Palestinians under occupation, no attempt to smooth out what is for the most part a meager, anxious existence of uncertainty, collective unhappiness, and deprivation, and, especially in the Gaza comics, a life of aimless wandering within the place's inhospitable confines, wandering and mostly waiting, waiting, waiting. With the exception of one or two novelists and poets, no one has ever rendered this terrible state of affairs better than Joe Sacco.

One LT reviewer felt that this book was too one-sided, that it didn't include the Israeli perspective. I'm not sure that was the purpose of it, however. I don't get the impression that it was meant to be a commentary on or history of the conflict. Instead I think it's going to be like Barbara Demick's book on Logavina Street in Sarajevo, a picture of life in wartime. I'm looking forward to getting into it more.

I'm not sure a book called Palestine, written about spending time specifically there, should be obligated to include the Israeli perspective.

>90 labfs39: That kind of reminds me of the library board I wrote about that canceled programming about why voting rights are important because the director hadn't included a speaker from the "other side." Sigh.

Joe Sacco is amazing. I really want to read more by him, and I'm wondering if his work would suffer in e rather than in print (standard iPad size, not mini). One thing I love about reading graphic ebooks is the ability, on some of them at least, to enlarge parts of the page and scrutinize the details—not to mention the fact that access to ebooks is far, far easier than print for me.

>91 ursula: I understand that the Middle East is a complicated place and the Palestinian question in particular, but as I read more of the book, I do not feel as though the author were "taking a side." It's more about documenting a people in crisis.

>92 lisapeet: The current climate of presenting "both sides" is infuriating. Should churches be required to present both sides? Do not murder and go ahead and murder? Of course not. Trying to educate and raise moral awareness is not a two-sided issue.

This is the first book by Joe Sacco that I have read, although I have borrowed Footnotes in Gaza, which was published ~15 years after Palestine, to read after this. Which of his books have you read? I tried reading a graphic novel from the Comics Plus website on my laptop, and it was very difficult. The interface made it hard to see a page full frame. I could see the advantage though if the e-book was easily manipulated.

Watched another interesting lecture from the Lockdown University today. It was about the huge Hassidic neighborhood of Mea Shearim in Jerusalem. The speaker, Julian Barnett, lived just outside the walls off and on for years and had relationships with rebbes and community members of various sects. He shared dozens of photographs that he had taken over the years. It was the first in a three lecture series he is doing on the sects of Jerusalem (Jewish, Muslim, and Christian).

Julian Barnett is a teacher, traveler, collector, tour guide and writer with a specialist interest in ultra orthodoxy within the various faiths. To that end he has for the last 35 years been investigating and documenting the most extreme sects of the Christian, Jewish and Muslim worlds. These investigations have taken him to the USA, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Gaza, Afghanistan, Yemen, Egypt, Daghastan and throughout Islamic Asia and Africa. His experiences and travels were serialized in the Jerusalem Report during the years that he was resident in Jerusalem and Cairo and also broadcast on BBC Radio Four Religion. Between his full time History teaching post at Southbank International School, Portland Place, London, Julian lectures at numerous venues around the UK and beyond.

>94 labfs39: cool

>90 labfs39: This is a great post. I had thought about picking up Sacco once or twice. The artistic style and subject both made me hesitate - the subject because it’s difficult - but mainly I kind of drifted off the topic. I think if I could pick up my Israel themes again I would like to read his books.

>93 labfs39: I've read part of Sacco's Paying the Land that was excerpted in something or other... Best American Comic Art? Anyway it was enough to put me in awe of his journalistic and drawing style, and how the two complement each other. I need to get the full book.

>94 labfs39: Sounds fascinating. I'm always interested in takes on religion. I have a personal interest and was a religion major in college

I'm also intrigued by the Sacco.

Hope you're feeling better.

>95 dchaikin: Thanks, Dan. I chose to read Palestine now for Paul's Asian Book Challenge—February is Palestine and Israel—even though Sacco is not Palestinian (he is Maltese American). I also read Jerusalem by Boaz Yakin, which follows a Jewish family through the years preceding the founding of Israel. Obviously very different perspectives.

>96 lisapeet: I am definitely planning to read more of Sacco's journalism comics. I have Footnotes in Gaza checked out, but it is due back and someone else is waiting, so I may not get to it for a while. I also want to read Safe Area Gorazde about the Bosnian War.

>97 markon: I contacted Lockdown University, and they kindly sent me the first two lectures he had given that are on the city of Jerusalem and set up this three lecture series on ultra-conservative sects. I can't wait to watch them. He is an entertaining speaker, and the photos were great. They also sent links to some articles. If they look good, I've post them here.

I took a couple of religion classes in college and found them fascinating. One particularly good one was on comparative fundamentalism.

Palestine by Joe Sacco
Stories published 1993-1996, compilation published 2001; 285 p.

Joe Sacco spent two months in the Occupied Territories in the winter of 1991-92 as the first intifada was winding down. He interviewed dozens of people, sometimes with a Japanese photojournalist, sometimes alone. He eventually turned his experiences and the interviews into a series of nine documentary graphic works, which are compiled here into one volume. This is not a history of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, nor is it a discussion of all the issues. Instead it is the story of a young journalist hoping to get a scoop and the testimonies of the people he encounters: conversations with old men at tea shops, families he is introduced to, two Jewish women in Tel Aviv, random people he shares a cab with, an American who teaches in Gaza. He talks with members of Hamas, the PLO, and Fatah, and others who are unaffiliated. It's a messy, confusing situation, and Sacco offers no pat answers or solutions.

The artwork is entirely in black and white, and people are portrayed with large mouths, lips, and teeth. Faces press in giving a sense of immediacy and overcrowding; closeups of boots stomping through mud or hands thrust out authoritatively jump from the page; and grimaces of every sort convey anguish and despair. Every once in a while, however, there will be a one or two page spread of a scene that is drawn with fine detail and is quite beautiful, in contrast with the heavier, bulky style of the rest.

I found Palestine to be moving in ways I didn't expect. I had to stop every few chapters to recoup from the intensity of both words and images. The combination of journalistic reporting and graphics is very powerful. The complete nine-volume series won the 1996 American Book Award, and Edward Said wrote a very insightful introduction to the compilation.

>99 labfs39: thanks for this review. Sounds terrific!

>99 labfs39: This sounds really interesting. Unfortunately, my library does not have it, so I've requested another graphic novel by Joe Sacco about Israël and Palestine: Gaza 1956.

>100 dchaikin: It was a good one.

>101 raton-liseur: I had Footnotes in Gaza checked out too, but it was due back, and I couldn't renew it. I'll have to request it again.

Hi Lisa - Lockdown University sounds great, especially the webinar about WWI poetry. You've read some great graphic novels. I like Joe Sacco as well; I'm trying to remember whether I've read Palestine... I'll have to look back at my books.

We always struggle with this idea of two sides with our students when they are constructing arguments. There has to be evidence on both sides for it to be a valid argument. Then, of course if we shut down topics (No, there was no election fraud), we are accused of a liberal bias. Oh well.

>103 BLBera: I am enjoying the Lockdown lectures very much; I wish I had time to watch more of them. I need to start requesting links and watching them at more convenient times.

Without getting into politics too much, I do believe there are multiple points of view to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. It's an incredibly complicated situation, and I have no idea what the right "solution" is, or even if there is one. But I don't think that every author has to present every side in every book. Sacco is clear that he was interested in what life was like living under occupation during the intifada. He's not pretending there is no other points of view, even if he has sympathy for the way people were living there. In an education situation, I do think we have an obligation to teach children how to construct arguments, as well as see the shades of grey. However, arguments have to be supported by facts, and I think that is where we are going astray in this country. An argument is not valid simply because you wish it to be. There must be supporting evidence. Without it there is no "side" to argue.

In an attempt to understand both sides more fully, I am reading The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict, part of the Very Short Introduction series by Oxford University Press. I was planning to post some notes here, but I found myself taking more notes than you probably want to read. I'm learning a ton about the origins of the conflict, key players, and a better understanding of how it became such a mess. It's perfect for my level of knowledge, where I have a general understanding, but not the chronology or details. I wish I could have read it prior to reading Jerusalem, but the library had a hard time getting it.

Interesting lecture today by Yoel Finkelman, a curator at the National Library of Israel, on Jewish Magic. It's part of a celebration of Jewish Book Week, an international literary festival based in London. You can learn more about it and see events at JewishBookWeek.com.

>105 labfs39: this sounds terrific

Maybe apropos: I recently found myself trying to defend Roger Waters of Pink Floyd, arguing he was against rightwing Israeli policy and not antisemitic. Turns out I was wrong. He pushes fundamentally antisemitic stuff. I’m still really bothered by and unreconciled with this.

For another strong, disturbing, first-hand look at life in Gaza, circa 2006, have a read through Gaza Mom: Palestine, Politics, Parenting, and Everything in Between by Laila M. El-Haddad. El-Haddad is a journalist and blogger, and this book is a collection of her blog posts from Gaza during the mid-2000s. She is raising her small child mostly on her own because her husband is stuck outside of the country, not allowed in because he's considered a "security risk," evidently a very low bar. The conditions, particularly the economic and personal repression and the pervasive and often deadly cruelty of the Israeli government and soldiers, are described in detail. I'm gradually going through this book now.

Hard week with not a lot of reading, although I'm still picking away at The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict. I have several books started, but all seem depressing and with all that's going on, I haven't stuck with them. I have watched a couple of interesting lectures for Jewish Book Week.


In the Midst of Civilized Europe: The Pogroms of 1918-1921 and the Onset of the Holocaust by Jeffrey Veidlinger (2021)

and

Anna and Dr Helmy: How an Arab Doctor Saved a Jewish Girl in Hitler's Berlin by Ronen Steinke (2022)

Dr. Helmy was eventually recognized by Yad Vashem. The author also visited both families (in NYC and Cairo), and their perspectives were interesting.

>107 dchaikin: That's tough, Dan. It's hard when people we admire turn out to have nasty skeletons.

>108 rocketjk: I have seen you post about Gaza Mom elsewhere, Jerry. It looks very interesting, and you are right, I think I should look for it.

Once CR calms down mid January I tend to view LT by starred topics, but I had a quick look just now at groups and realised I'd completely missed your new thread.

Enjoyed catching up. Can't wait for your Demick review as I also loved her book on North Korea.

You sent me on a search for books on Palestine. I added The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A Very Short Introduction to my wishlist. I searched for a French language equivalent and was shocked to find that there is apparently nothing on this subject in the "Que sais-je" collection (a venerable collection of short books on just about anything you may want to know - or so I thought). I did find La Palestine expliquée à tout le monde which looks interesting. And also a 5-volume history (ending in 2001, so I suppose a 6th is forthcoming), La question de Palestine, which sounds rather unreasonable for me, given that I seem unable to read non-fiction books at the moment.

>111 AlisonY: Welcome back, Alison. You may have to wait a bit for the Demick review. I am going to switch it up and read a few lighter things, I think. Reading about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the Bosnian War, and the current news simultaneously was too much, even for me.

>112 FlorenceArt: I would find the five-volume history daunting. The very short introduction I read was dense but doable. My review is coming up shortly. There are 733 VSI books that have been written on a wide range of topics, similarly to Que said-je, I would guess. Surprisingly there was not one of a history of Turkey, or even the Ottoman Empire. Seems like a big miss.

The Palestinian-Israeli conflict : a very short introduction by Martin P. Bunton
Published 2013, 132 pages

The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is a case study of what happens when two peoples claim inalienable rights to the same piece of land. Both sides have had powerful allies, and both sides have had shameful moments when atrocities were committed. The British made a complete muddle of things with their post-World War I nation building exercise in the Middle East, and opportunities for peace have been missed repeatedly since.

The author, a professor at the University of Victoria in Canada and co-author of A History of the Modern Middle East 5th ed., writes a very clear, although dense, history of the conflict beginning with the first Zionist convention in 1897. The book is organized in twenty year chunks, covering the Ottoman Palestine (1897-1917), British Palestine (1917-37), Palestine partitioned (1937-47), Atzmaut and Nakba (1947-1967), Occupation (1967-87), The rise and fall of the peace process (1987-2007) and a bit beyond.

The Very Short Introduction series is published by Oxford University Press. So far there are 733 titles in the series. This was the first time that I had read one, and, if they are all as well-done as this one, I am a fan. This one was a mere 132 pages, with a chronology, substantial Further Reading list, and maps. The book itself is small, so perforce the type was a bit smaller than I would have liked. It would have been nice if the maps had been in color too. But overall I was impressed and will definitely seek out more. I wish that I had bought this one, as I ended up taking ten pages of notes.

>114 labfs39: Very Short Introduction series
I've read maybe a couple and have others around. In my experience they are very short but also very dense, so rather a lot to absorb if you're seeking a cursory overview. This is not at all a criticism, it just wasn't what was expecting initially.

>115 qebo: Yes, they may be short, but there's a lot packed into them. Which ones have you read?

So now for something completely different. I am eschewing all challenges and reading prompts and, while at the library today, chose something that will hopefully be fun: Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. I liked his humor in both The Martian and Artemis, although the latter was not nearly as good as the former. So even though it's about trying to save Earth from doom, I expect some laughs.

>117 labfs39: I gave Project Hail Mary to my husband a few months ago, and he's reading it now (he's almost done). So I'll probably be picking it up sometime soon.

>116 labfs39: Science, but beyond that I don't remember offhand. I've been remiss in LT data entry for some time and looking stuff up gets me into a scary place of information disorder and stacks of books.
>117 labfs39: Project Hail Mary
I enjoyed it.

I tried Project Hail Mary last year and abandoned it at 7%. I did like The Martian though.

>114 labfs39: every time I see on of these vsi titles I get interested and every time I read a review I get more interested. The idea of having complicated things broken down and minimized to a short sum, smartly, has so much appeal. And again - this sounds terrific.

Just finished Project Hail Mary. Loved it! Perfect sci fi tale of human overcoming incredible odds to save Earth. I needed an optimistic escape from the pessimism bombarding the news.

>118 LocusAmoenus: Did you husband enjoy it, Marisa?

>119 qebo: The VSI series covers a wide area of fields. Have you found them fairly consistent, or has the quality depended on the author?

Although I liked The Martian, I think I like PHM even more. Or maybe it's simply because it's fresher in my memory. At any rate, it was the perfect book for my mood this week.

>120 ursula: I could see it not working for everyone, Ursula. It was the right book at the right time for me.

>121 dchaikin: I will definitely try more of the VSI books, Dan. They are very dense though, so I think I'll space them out. I might also buy them in future, so I can highlight vs take notes. But then again, I remember things better if I take notes, so I don't know. I do want to try the Samurai one.

>122 labfs39: He loved it. He finished it yesterday, and said I should read it soon. My TBR stack is huge though!

>123 LocusAmoenus: I hope you enjoy it too, when you get to it.

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
Published 2021, 478 p.

Ryland Grace is an unlikely hero. A middle-school science teacher, Grace gave up an academic career after one of his papers on the evolution of extraterrestrial life was mocked. When the sun's energy starts to be consumed, threatening life on Earth, Grace is recruited to help save the planet.

The book opens with a robotic voice asking "What is two plus two?" and a man groggily realizing that he doesn't know. Where is he? Who is he? He slowly pieces things together as flashbacks help him recover memories. At the same time he must learn to survive in dire straits with a most unusual friend.

I have read and enjoyed both of Weir's previous novels (The Martian more than Artemis) and was delighted to find this at the library when I was looking for a distraction. Original and funny like The Martian but with smoother writing, Project Hail Mary is the perfect antidote to pessimism with world affairs (not what I would have expected from a book about the impending collapse of life on Earth). I enjoyed the structure of the book, with flashbacks slowly revealing the past to both Grace and the reader, as it builds tension and keeps the reader from knowing more than the protagonist. Highly recommended for science wonks, sci-fi lovers, and anyone looking for a fun, intelligent book.

>114 labfs39: Great comments, Lisa. It's good to know short introductions are available.

I've recently read favorable comments about Project Hail Mary on another thread. I don't tend to read much SF, but good to know this is entertaining. I did like The Martian.

A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Published 1887, 131

After watching the excellent Sherlock Holmes BBC miniseries with Benedict Cumberbatch, I was primed to try one of the books. A Study in Scarlet is the first, published in 1887, and has a nice introduction of Dr. Watson, as well as their first case together. Elements of the story were familiar from the show, but a surprise was that a good portion of the book takes place in Utah with the early Mormons. Although it was clear from his descriptions that Doyle had never been to the American West, I was inspired to Google some history. All in all it was an average read. I wonder if I would have enjoyed it more without having already seen such a great (modern) adaptation. I also wonder if the writing in the later stories improves. I'm not sure I'm motivated enough to find out.

>125 labfs39: fun, intelligent book
Wasn't it? Alas it ends and real life awaits.

>126 BLBera: If you liked The Martian, I think you would like PHM, Beth.

>128 qebo: Alas it ends and real life awaits.

I know. I'm in the doldrums now trying to find something to read. Nothing appeals.

>129 labfs39: when I am in the doldrums, I reread Pride and Prejudice

>127 labfs39: It really is a weird story, because of that second half. It feels very experimental! I recently listened to a version read by Stephen Fry, and it was quite entertaining.

>130 torontoc: That's a good suggestion, Cyrel. I haven't read it in ages, although I watch the Jennifer Ehle/Colin Firth BBC series every few years.

>131 LocusAmoenus: Have you read any of the other Holmes books? How do they compare?

I picked up my ILL at the library today and ended up reading the whole thing in one sitting. Excellent



The Property by Rutu Modan, translated from the Hebrew by Jessica Cohen
Published 2013, 222 pages

With family, you don't have to tell the whole truth and it's not considered lying.
-Michaela Modan, epigraph

Mica accompanies her grandmother to Warsaw from Israel, purportedly to recover a family apartment that was confiscated during the Holocaust. Once there, however, Mica begins to suspect that her grandmother has a different motive for the trip. The Property features strong women, humor with a touch of sarcasm, and understated motifs that are more powerful for the lack of heavy-handedness.

The illustrations in this graphic novel are at times blocky and at times finely detailed, with wonderful expressiveness. The colors are muted with lots of maroon, black, and mustard. The text is translated into block letters for Hebrew, italics for Polish, and mixed case for English. When Mica doesn't understand what people are saying, the text is just squiggles. The artwork complements the story well.

>132 labfs39: I haven't, though I've been meaning to. I have the complete collection on audio, so I'll go through them little by little.

>129 labfs39:, >130 torontoc: P&P is a good choice for doldrums. I have been known to use JCO's A Bloodsmoor Romance...I think of it as a satirical take on Little Women, but here is what the publisher says: the satirical, often surreal, and beautifully plotted Gothic romance that follows the exploits of the audacious Zinn sisters, whose nineteenth-century pursuit of adventurous lives turns a lens on contemporary American culture .

>134 LocusAmoenus: If you find later ones are better, I'll give them another go.

>135 avaland: Do you know that I still haven't read JCO, although I was given a couple of her books recently? ;-) Not this one though.

A dusting of snow has covered up the bare patches on the lawn, but the eaves are dripping and it's supposed to be in the 50s by the end of the week. Perhaps warm weather and the extended daylight will help me break free of my reading slump.

In other news, I updated my country list on The Global Challenge and added some books to the current TIOLI challenge. I also snagged a few books at the ongoing library book sale:

>137 labfs39: My book group at the library hated The Great Fire. I don’t remember why and I don’t remember reading it myself. But I was surprised by how much they all disliked it. NBA books never went over well.

I loved The Great Fire. It's one that I kept, thinking I would like to reread it one day.

>137 labfs39: A very nice selection! My own aim of reading globally has had a very slow start this year, but things are settling down a bit.

>138 dianeham: The National Book Award is much more hit or miss for me than the Booker or Orange/Women's Prize. In the last twenty years the only two NBA fiction winners I've read are The Round House and The Underground Railroad, both of which I've liked, but usually I'm not that interested in them. I do like reading historical fiction set during WWII, so we'll see if The Great Fire ends up a yay or nay.

>139 BLBera: Hmm, now I'm curious as to which way I'll fall.

>140 RidgewayGirl: I was happy to find An Unnecessary Woman as it's been on my wishlist for years, and it fits this month's Asian Book Challenge. Otherwise I wouldn't have gotten it as it's ex-libris. Kook is not my usual fare, but I like Peter Heller.

I hope you are settling into your new house, Kay. I can't wait to see more photos of the house and, soon, the garden.

In case you missed it, the LT list of the month is a Ukraine Reading List. I have only read one of them (Bulgakov's A Country Doctor's Notebook), although I have a few more on my TBR. I added the books by Snyder and Appelbaum to my wishlist.

>137 labfs39: Oooh, new books! what is that on the far right?

>127 labfs39: I'm so intrigued. I've thought of doing this, going to the first Sherlock Holmes, having never read any. Although noting it maybe wasn't all that great. Oh well.

>133 labfs39: glad you enjoyed Rutu and hope this and the new books refreshed you a little.

>143 dchaikin: Hi Dan! It's Over Rainbows and Down Rabbit Holes: The Art of Children's Books. I've been reading so many picture books with my niece that this exhibition book caught my eye.

A Study in Scarlet wasn't horrible, but it didn't sweep me off my feet either. It was a story within a story, and Conan Doyle didn't know the American West well enough to tell that part, IMO.

Your review of The Property in 2013 put the book on my wishlist, but it wasn't until other LTers began reading it this year that I remembered about it. It's a problem when my wishlist is so long that things get lost for a decade.

A week or so ago, Powell's bookstore in Portland, OR was having a promotion where a portion of the proceeds was going to Ukrainian humanitarian efforts. I wanted to support, not only Ukraine, but also businesses that were doing such things. The books arrived today:


All for Nothing by Walter Kempowski, translated by Anthea Bell (rec by SassyLassy)
Anxious People by Fredrik Backman (because I love most of his books)
My Grandmother's Braid by Alina Bronsky, translated by Tim Mohr (because I love Baba Dunja)
Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh (because Hyperbole and a Half was so good)

>145 labfs39: All for Nothing is a great but disturbing book. I'm looking forward to your review. Are you planning to read it soon?

Happy Saturday, Lisa. I hope you can join us on An Unnecessary Woman. I may dip into it today but tomorrow for sure. I am nearly finished with Project Hail Mary and it has been a complete joy.

I have never read The Great Fire. I will watch for your thoughts. All For Nothing sounds interesting.

On the GN front, I am loving Ballad for Sophie, so keep that one in mind.

>146 rocketjk: Hi Jerry. I'm not sure when I'll get to All for Nothing, simply because I am trying not to read books that are too dark at the moment. We'll see how long I can hold out.

>147 msf59: That's perfect, Mark. I finished a book last night, so I'll start on An Unnecessary Woman next. Ballad for Sophie looks interesting. I'll add it to my GN wishlist.

I thought reading one of my favorite mystery series might be a good doldrum-buster, so I picked up the latest Maisie Dobbs book from the library. I realized I had forgotten where we were in the overall arc, so I went back and reread one that I happen to own.



A Dangerous Place by Jacqueline Winspear
Published 2015, 308 p.

This is one of my favorite Maisie Dobbs books, because it deals with loss and grief in a very real way. The book opens with a series of letters that catch the reader up on some painful events that have occurred since the last book ended. Although somewhat recovered now, Maisie is not ready to return to England and debarks ship in Gibraltar. Stumbling upon an unresolved murder, Maisie uses work to try and grope her way back into life. Soon she is embroiled in a case involving Sephardic Jews, spies, arms smuggling, and the murky motivations of nations involved in the Spanish Civil War.

>145 labfs39: Oh, oh! - I really hope you like All for Nothing. I always feel responsible in some way when books I really like don't work for others.

I think it is actually a good book to read right now, sort of like reading in real time.

The Great Fire is another book that seems to take you right there. I loved Baba Dunja too. It seemed simple at the time, but it has really stuck with me over the years. I'll be interested to hear how this other Bronsky goes.

>150 SassyLassy: Don't worry, Sassy, I'll blame Jerry if I don't like the book. ;-)

Baba Dunja is a book I've read more than once. Oddly enough, given the setting, I find it a comfort read. I read Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine last year and was horrified. As opposed to Baba Dunja, the grandmother in Hottest Dishes was a truly horrible human being. I'm not ready to give up on Bronsky though, so we'll see how this one goes. It obviously also stars a grandmother.

Here are a couple of quotes from An Unnecessary Woman:

Quranic education: "forced learning and magic are congenital adversaries"

her stepfather: "when I think of him my memory's eyes have cataracts"

her impotent husband: "the listless mosquito with malfunctioning proboscis"

alluding to Palestine when her mother wants her to give up her apartment: "My mother was the young United Nations: leave your home, your brothers have suffered, you have other places you can go, they don't, get out."

>152 labfs39: enjoyed those.

>149 labfs39: I was quite annoyed with that Maisie Dobbs book. I was annoyed that 'the painful events' didn't happen for us the reader, but just happened in between books and we just got the flashback. Instead of watching Maisie deal with the aftermath, I wanted to enjoy the time as it happened. Though, to be honest I'm often annoyed with Maisie, especially all the Maurice stuff. I never liked a Maurice-centered book.

>154 raidergirl3: It was surprising to find that years and major events had passed between the two books; usually they follow one another fairly closely. In this case, I thought it worked. Trying to write a mystery while dealing in real time with those events would have been impossible. It was only in the aftermath that Maisie was able to get back to being a detective. So for me it made sense.

>153 dchaikin: Since you enjoyed the last quotes, here are a few more.

"I thought I'd be reading a new book today, but it doesn't feel right, or I don't feel like it. Some days are not new-book days."

Speaking about her older half-brother:
"Bluster and hubris, that's what he was, what he is, but that's what makes him more dangerous in some ways.
Think Bush—that indecent amalgam of banality and perdition.
How nations sink...
When Vengeance listens to the Fool's request.
An unpleasant thought.
Whenever I think of Bush, I think of an image: a shattered visage in the desert sand.
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
A more pleasant thought."

"A Diored woman sporting noteworthy high hair and wasp-stung lips"

Thanks to your thread, I've also started with An Unnecessary Woman. I like it so far. I'll be looking forward to your comments.

>157 Trifolia: Oh, good! We haven't read a book at the same time in a while. I'm on page 148.

>152 labfs39: I love the quotes you shared. Many to choose from, right?

I loved An Unnecessary Woman and Aaliyah is such a memorable character. I would love to have a beer with her and discuss books.

>158 labfs39: - I'm reading the e-version so the pages do not match, but if I set the font size so that it has the number of pages in the paper version, I'm probably on page 102 (the encounter with her mother).

>159 msf59: I'm glad you enjoyed it too, Mark. I'm finding it slow reading, because I am looking up so many interesting things. I've read about the heteronyms of Pessoa, the translation wars between Constance Garnett's fans (Hemingway, DH Lawrence) and detractors (Nabokov/Brodsky), whether Aaliya's entire list of famous philosophers were really all single, etc. Bruno Schulz really was that shy, which explains a lot, and Mahler was in the audience of Bruckner's famous flop. I'm impressed with how Alameddine can write about so many disparate authors, books, and composers, without coming across as didactic or snobby. I'm also impressed with how well he is writing a woman character. Women author write from the male perspective all the time, but rarely does a male author write an entire book from a female perspective.

>160 Trifolia: I find Aaliya unique and yet relatable. The passages dealing with life during the Lebanese Civil War are, of course, completely foreign to me, yet the passages dealing with her solitude, preference for reading, and life as a single retired woman feel familiar. I'm very glad I discovered this book (thanks to the Asian Reading Challenge).

More quotes:

If this were a novel, you would be able to figure out why my mother screamed. Alain Robbe-Grillet once wrote that the worst thing to happen to the novel was the arrival of psychology. You can assume he meant that now we all expect to understand the motivation behind each character's actions, as if that's possible, as if life works that way. I've read so many recent novels, particularly those published in the Anglo world, that are dull and trite because I'm always supposed to infer causality. For example, the reason a protagonist can't experience love is that she was physically abused, or the hero constantly searches for validation because his father paid little attention to him as a child. This, of course, ignores the fact that many others have experienced the same things but do not behave in the same manner, though that's a minor point compared to the real loss in fulfilling the desire for explanation: the loss of mystery.
Causation extraction makes Jack a dull reader.

"Mine is a face that would have trouble launching a canoe."

>161 labfs39: >162 labfs39: Thanks for your insightful comments on An Unnecessary Woman. I've been content to know it's out there without reading it. But your specifics help me understand what's in it, and also what's in it for me.

>164 weird_O: Thank you, Bill, and thanks for stopping by. I'm glad the excerpts were helpful. I finished it this morning. Here is a last quote that in some ways encapsulates the book:

"Childhood is played out in a foreign language and our memory of it is a Constance Garnett translation."

A look back on one's life, a life defined by books written in other languages, knowable yet foreign, a translator of one's own life, but not a direct translation, one through memories, and with the imprecision yet industriousness of CG.

One of the most interesting rabbit holes that I have fallen into after reading An Unnecessary Woman is that of Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935). Widely recognized as one of Portugal's best poets, Pessoa was an amalgam of more than 70 separate identities. He said he was merely an amanuensis for the others, each of whom had a biography, religion, interests, philosophies, and physical description. The three major ones were Alberto Caeiro, Álvaro de Campos (check out Campos's Wikipedia entry), and Ricardo Reis. Among the others there were brothers, a 17-year-old girl, and some who predeceased Pessoa. The alters sometimes critiqued each other or collaborated. Utterly fascinating.

>166 labfs39: Nice. This summer I plan to read the massive Pessoa: A Biography by Richard Zenith, then tackle The Book of Disquiet, Pessoa's masterpiece, which was translated by Zenith.

Just popping in to see what you are reading....all sounds good. There is a hint of spring here (finally) and I assume you have the same.

>167 kidzdoc: I wondered if you were a Pessoa fan, Darryl. Did you see that there is a new English translation of The Book of Disquiet by Margaret Jull Costa? It's the first to put the pieces together in chronological order. Zenith evidently put them in an order that he thought would be more accessible to the reader, thus more novelistic elements first. One of Pessoa's alters, Vicente Guedes, wrote the first part (from 1913-1920), but when Pessoa returned to the book in 1929, he attributed the writing to a different alter, Bernardo Soares. Evidently the styles are very different.

>168 avaland: Thanks, Lois. Yes, spring is starting to pop here too. I've seen some green shoots popping up in my garden beds, some through the remaining snow. Being shaded, my rock garden is still buried, but the area by the road is ready for cleanup. Sadly the snow plows this year not only took out my mailbox, but four rocks from the rock garden. I'm anxious to see if any of my bulbs come up. I planted them rather late.

My local librarian is wonderful at responding to patron's interests, and I am the lucky beneficiary of many unsolicited purchases. She has added a lot of children's books that reflect the interest's of my nieces, and she has begun buying graphic novels, such as Maus and March. The last time I was in, I picked up American Born Chinese and I'm about half way through. Very interesting mix of three plot lines: Jin Wang, a schoolboy who just wants to belong; the Monkey King; and a horrible caricature of the negative stereotype of a Chinese immigrant, Chin-kee.

You make An Unnecessary Woman sound fascinating. I love the quotes.

Hi Lisa - You make me want to pull An Unnecessary Woman from my shelves today!

An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine
Published 2013, 291 p.

Aaliya is a 72-year-old woman living alone in a Beirut apartment surrounded by books and memories. Estranged from her family, divorced from her impotent husband, and retired from her bookstore, Aaliya is friends with solitude. Every New Year's Day she begins translating a new book, and every year end, she boxes up the translation and stores it in her back room. But Aaliya isn't lonely. She has deep and rich relationships with literature and music that have been her companions throughout her life. Drily humorous and ironic, Aaliya is so well-drawn and lifelike, I feel like I could walk into a Lebanese bookstore and find her reading behind the desk.

An Unnecessary Woman is a book for readers. Almost every page has a reference to an author, book, or composer that sent me Googling down rabbit holes and adding dozens of books to my wish list. Yet, it's not at all pretentious. Aaliya isn't name dropping, she's talking about friends. Whether discussing the art of translation or her process for choosing which book to read next, Aaliya is a kindred spirit for booklovers.

The book is also a depiction of life during the decades-long Lebanese Civil War and an exploration of aging and what it means to live a meaningful life. It's a book that I could reread with pleasure because there are so many layers and the ending is perfect. I'm looking forward to reading more by Alameddine, because if this book is any indication, he could become a favorite author.

>174 labfs39: oh so glad you liked it as well as I did! And yeah I think he's become my fav 'new to me' author esp after wrong end of the telescope which I think you read. Its rare for me to find a male author who can really write female characters. Was not a wrong turn in either of these books.

>170 labfs39: I wondered if you were a Pessoa fan, Darryl.

I can't rightfully call myself a fan of Fernando Pessoa yet, but while I was in Lisbon @deebee1 and I did visit the Café a Brasileira, the famed hangout of Pessoa and other young writers in the early part of the 20th century, which features a sculpture of the novelist sitting at a table near its entrance, and the Casa Fernando Pessoa, the house in which he was living at the time of his death, which has now been converted into a museum dedicated to him. I also saw his tomb in the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos, the 15th century monastery in the Belém district. The only book of his I've read is The Education of the Stoic, which I admittedly did not like.

Did you see that there is a new English translation of The Book of Disquiet by Margaret Jull Costa? It's the first to put the pieces together in chronological order. Zenith evidently put them in an order that he thought would be more accessible to the reader, thus more novelistic elements first.

Yes! I have copies of both translations. I plan to read Zenith's biography first, then his translation of The Book of Disquiet, followed by the one by Jull Costa, who is my favorite translator.

  

>174 labfs39: Nice review of An Unnecessary Woman; I'll add it to my wish list.

>174 labfs39: Lovely and enticing review, Lisa.

>172 wandering_star: Thanks! An Unnecessary Woman is eminently quotable.

>173 BLBera: I would definitely add it to your queue, Beth.

>175 cindydavid4: This was the first book that I've read by Alameddine. I would read anything by him that I stumble across, but Wrong End of the Telescope is on my wish list. I too appreciated a male (and male Arabic) author who wrote an entire book from a female perspective (and peopled almost entirely with women) and did it well.

>176 kidzdoc: I think Pessoa is an author whose books are going to be extremely different due to his alters. The Education of the Stoic was written by Baron of Teive, a suicidal personality who destroyed all his other works. I read an article that included excerpts from four of the poets, and they were all very different in style and topic.

How fortunate to have visited so many Pessoa sites while you were in Portugal. You'll be able to picture his environs as you read. The second half of The Book of Disquiet is supposed to contain descriptions of 1920s Lisbon.

Ooh, ambitious to read both translations!

"I'm looking forward to reading more by Alameddine, because if this book is any indication, he could become a favorite author." I am with you there, Lisa. Good review. I am glad you were able to do a shared read of An Unnecessary Woman with us. Hope to do another, sometime down the road.

>180 labfs39: Ambitious, indeed. My copy of Pessoa: A Biography has 1056 pages, the Zenith translation of The Book of Disquiet is 509 pages in length, but somehow the Jull Costa translation has only 413 pages, even though the font sizes of both novels seem similar.

Shortly after I finish both books I'll read The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis by José Saramago, which is based on one of Pessoa's main heteronyms.

I did spend two weeks in Lisbon, so much of the city is familiar to me, and the Lisbon of the 1920s probably bears a great resemblance to the modern city.

>174 labfs39: Adding An Unnecessary Woman to my TBR!

>170 labfs39: Yes, spring is starting to pop here too.

Spring *was* starting to show around here, too, but now it's 22 degrees F and I am not amused. Hopefully, spring will show its face again soon.

>177 kidzdoc: I think you would like An Unnecessary Woman, Darryl.

>178 RidgewayGirl: Thanks, Kay.

>181 msf59: Thanks for being a motivator to read this now, Mark. I'm afraid your thread is moving so fast that I wasn't able to keep pace, but I will catch up soon.

>182 kidzdoc: That's one Saramago I don't own, but should pick up now that I know more about the backstory. I had read that Reis lived in Brazil. DID is such an interesting disorder.

>183 Julie_in_the_Library: but now it's 22 degrees F and I am not amused

I know, right! I still can't get the stakes I use as guides for the snowplows out of the ground, still frozen. We even had a light dusting of snow Sunday night. It's the wind chill, however, that is the worst.

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

A fantastic graphic novel about identity and the desire to belong.

Yang weaves three separate story lines together in surprising ways with an interesting intersection at the end. Jin Wang is a schoolboy who wants nothing more than to fit in with his classmates. He's willing to go to great lengths to have a bestfriend and a girlfriend. The Monkey King is snubbed at a gathering of the gods and denies his true self in an attempt to be accepted. His rebellion, punishment, and redemption are taken from the 16th-century Chinese novel, Journey to the West. Chin-kee is the embodiment of negative stereotype Americans have about the Chinese. Together these three stories explore what it means to be different.

In his afterword the author writes about the overwhelming response he has had from people.

What I've found is that the outsider's experience is nearly universal. Almost all of us have a story about not fitting in. It's so common that, ironically, it can be a way for us to understand and connect with one another. The outsider's experience can be our common ground.

I'm liking all the conversation around An Unnecessary Woman. I've seen it around for years and... I don't know, thought it was a different kind of book? Shows what I know. Now it's on my radar, and my library has it.

Well you have me interested in An Unnecessary Women too. I don’t think I heard of it before you started quoting.

>165 labfs39: "Childhood is played out in a foreign language and our memory of it is a Constance Garnett translation.” this quote is not leaving my head anytime soon.

>185 labfs39: nice. I enjoyed this too, a while ago.

Pessoa - I picked up an edition in 2020, knowing nothing about the personalities or the translator issues. I have the newer translation. I would really like to read it and also I’m terribly intimidated. Enjoyed the conversation.

>187 dchaikin: I love that quote too.

I thought American Born Chinese was quite inventive, with the interweaving of the tale of the Monkey King. I was also impressed with the author's afterward. Mark says Boxers and Saints is even better. I'd like to read it at some point.

I'm interested in Pessoa's heteronyms and would be more interested in his biography, I think. I'll look forward to your thoughts, however, if you do read The Book of Disquiet.

Santa Claus in Baghdad and Other Stories about Teens in the Arab World by Elsa Marston
Published 2008, 198 p.

An interesting collection of short stories all featuring different aspects of teen life in the Middle East. The author has lived in or visited all the countries she writes about, although she herself is American. One of the themes running through the stories is the power of art and beauty and another is that there are always multiple ways of looking at things. At the end of the book are notes on each story: about it's origins, her experiences in the country, or the political background.

Santa Claus in Baghdad (Iraq, 2000): A girl searches for the perfect gift for her teacher and ends up unknowingly buying the book her father had sold to get money for a toy for her brother.

"...she gazed at the street full of knowledge that nobody could afford any longer...here were the libraries of Baghdad…"

Faces (Syria): Suhayel's father is remarrying, and Suhayel will have to live with them since he's now thirteen and too old to stay with his mother. As a surprise, he makes dinner for his mother.

"All those faces probably hide the truth, things they don't want other people to know. I'll bet every face does. Mine too."

The Hand of Fatima (Lebanon): A fourteen-year-old maid from Syria must choose between remaining in Beirut with the possibility of further education and returning to her village to marry the man her father has chosen.

The Olive Grove (Palestine): After his brother and best friend are killed by Israeli snipers, Mujahhid is sent from Bethlehem to a village to live with his aunt. There he must choose between jihad and a different kind of resistance.

In Line (Egypt): A girl from Cairo tries to make friends with a local village family against her mother's wishes.

Scenes in a Roman Theater (Tunisia): A boy selling hats at a tourist site and a renowned artist discover they have something in common.

Honor (Jordan): A girl is at risk of being killed to atone for the slight to her father's honor when she talks with a man outside the home.

The Plan (Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon): Rami takes art lessons with fifty other boys for an hour every Thursday. Enamored with his pretty teacher, he decides to fix her up with his older brother, an engineering student reduced to peddling hardware.

>189 labfs39: I like your summaries. I would be interested in her comments at the end about the stories.

>188 labfs39: I think with Yang I felt the opposite to Mark (msf59) on these two by Yang, but I’m partial to more personal stories.

>188 labfs39: Boxer and Saints is indeed better :) Or so I thought when I read it anyway.

>174 labfs39: Excellent review of An unnecessary woman, Lisa. I'm still reading and it's going slow. Not because I don't like it but because I like it too much and I want to enjoy and let sink in each and every sentence. If it continues to be as good as it is so far, it'll end up in my list of favorites.

A few years ago I started to read Pessoa's The Book of Disquiet and I liked it a lot. But it's sooo long and somehow, I put it aside and never picked it up again. It's one of thiose books that I really intend to read when I retire (who am I kidding?).

ETA typo

>190 dchaikin: I found the comments interesting too. For instance, in the notes about Honor, the author says that there were an average of 25 honor crimes reported per year in Jordan (as of 2008) and talks about why they persist. She also talks about the variety of NGOs trying to change public perceptions around that issue. In the story, the girl is kidnapped from her parents' home, but not by the people her father and brother had arranged to do it. Instead she is "kidnapped" by a group that helps women escape and go into hiding. I guess that type of thing happened.

I agree that part of what made American Born Chinese so appealing was that it was so personal. Again, the author's afterward was touching.

>191 AnnieMod: I'll have to try Boxers and Saints too.

>192 Trifolia: I was savoring An Unnecessary Woman too, Monica, but got swept up in the ending and finished the last third more quickly. Also I was trying to finish it before the end of the month for the Asian Book Challenge. But it's the kind of book that I found myself rereading bits, as well as looking lots of things up. I'm so glad I found a copy.

I'm not sure I'm motivated to read any of Pessoa's works, but I do find his biography fascinating.

Passport by Sophia Glock
Published 2021, 305 p.

Sophia Glock is the daughter of CIA intelligence agents and grew up moving to a new country every few years. This graphic work of "creative nonfiction" is her story. She says nothing is made up, but some events and people were altered either to protect their identity or to streamline the story. She had to get permission from the CIA Publication Review Board prior to publishing.

The story takes place while she and her family were living in Central America for about a year and a half. She is having to start over once again: new high school, new friends, but same old lies. She captures the angst-ridden inner life of a teen well. Making friends (and frenemies), rebelling against her parents, first boyfriend.

This summer is going to suck.
I can just tell.
I feel so stifled
...and yet so apart.
Also, it's just boring.
It's as if a gap has opened up—
and I don't feel like closing it.

The artwork is simple with minimal color (grayscale and peach), with the exception of a red dress, which is bold in it's symbolism.

I'm 60 pages into Reading Lolita in Tehran. If you are a Nabokov fan (Dan, I'm looking at you) this book might be of interest. The author is a professor of English literature, and she discusses and quotes Nabokov extensively. Lolita and Invitation to a Beheading are the ones referred to the most so far, although others are mentioned as well. She relates to his writings about authoritarianism and control, both at the state level and individual.

>134 LocusAmoenus: I have only read one of Rabih Alameddine's books, which was I, the Divine ages ago. A very clever book but I only gave it three stars and didn't review it. Perhaps I should try him again.

>193 labfs39: - Well, I finished An unnecessary woman last night and I thought it was a memorable read. I'll try to catch up with my comments asap.

>195 labfs39: I loved Reading Lolita in Tehran, Lisa. I'm not a big Nabokov fan, but Invitation to a Beheading sounded like one I would like to read. I liked the discussion of the other authors more.

>196 avaland: I think you would like An Unnecessary Woman, Lois. Strong, intelligent female protagonist.

Can you believe spring has finally reached New England? I have one small patch of snow left, but green things are sprouting up all over, including some bulbs I planted in the fall. I am always doubtful of new plantings making it through the winter, but nature prevails. Even the columbine and lupine appears to have made it.

>197 Trifolia: I hope you found An Unnecessary Woman memorable-in-a-good-way. I'll look forward to your comments.

>198 BLBera: Reading Lolita in Tehran has been interesting. I'm through the classroom trial of The Great Gatsby. I agree that Invitation to a Beheading is the Nabokov I would read next. Nafisi's discussion of it has piqued my interest. I doubt I'll get to it this year though.

Between an uptick in gardening and preparing for Passover, my reading time has taken a hit. I dashed off another Maisie Dobbs novel as an anecdote to my heavier reading.



In this Grave Hour by Jacqueline Winspear
Published 2017, 333 pages

In this grave hour, perhaps the most fateful in our history...for the second time in the lives of most of us, we are at war.
-King George VI, September 3rd, 1919

The book opens with Maisie sitting with Priscilla and her family listening to the radio as war between Britain and Germany is declared. But during the months before the raids begin on London, a period of time known as the phoney war, Maisie must solve a mystery related to the last war. A former refugee from Belgium who had stayed in England is found murdered, and the enigmatic Francesca Thomas wants to know why. Back at Dower House, Maisie's father and stepmother take in some child evacuees, one of whom is unidentified.

An unnecesary woman is on my list, but I never seem to get to it. Congratulations on getting most of your snow melted! I need to get out an dig in my bed, especially since a coworker game me some oregano yesterday.

>200 labfs39: I haven't read any of these novels, but I'm confused by this - is it 1939, and why are Britain and France at war? Are these novels in a real historical setting, or is this a fictional war?

Maisie does sound intrepid!

>201 markon: I used to have a lovely herb garden at my old house. Several types of mint, oregano, thyme, rosemary... I wonder if the new owners kept it up.

>202 SassyLassy: Whoops! Thanks for alerting me. I've corrected my post. No, this series is historical fiction, nothing speculative or alternative. England had just declared war on Germany, and London is sandbagged in anticipation of the blitz.

Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
Published 2003, 356 p.

Azar Nafisi was born in Iran to a political family. Her father was the youngest mayor of Tehran, and her mother was one of the first six women elected to Parliament in 1963. Her secular upbringing and Western education (she went abroad at age thirteen) were not unusual during the last years of the Shah's reign. When the monarchy fell during the Islamic Revolution, her family fell from grace and her father was jailed for a few years. She returned to Iran from the US expecting great things from the revolution, but, like most Iranian intellectuals of all ilk, was astonished at the direction the revolution took.

As the religious fundamentalists consolidated control, life became more and more constrained, especially for women. Nafisi had been teaching English literature at the University of Tehran, but was fired for refusing to wear the veil. For several years she met weekly with a small group of female students in her home. They discussed books and for those few hours were free to express themselves authentically. Eventually, Nafisi (as well as several of her students) left Iran for the West. She became a professor at Johns Hopkins University.

This "memoir in books" is divided into four sections: Lolita, Gatsby, James, and Austen. The Lolita chapters are dedicated to descriptions of the private study group and its participants, as well as a discussion of the book and others by Nabokov, particularly Invitation to a Beheading. The Gatsby chapters begin roughly eleven years before and deal primarily with her years teaching at the University of Tehran and in particular a trial her class held of Jay Gatsby, in abstentia. The Henry James chapters pick up with her expulsion from the University of Tehran and deal with life during the eight year Iran-Iraq War and her decision to resume teaching (at the University of Allameh Tabatabai). The Jane Austen chapters return to the study group and Nafisi's decision to emigrate.

Nafisi's descriptions of life in Iran after the revolution are particularly accessible to Western readers because she was coming from a secular, US-educated perspective. What makes this memoir a bit more difficult is described by Nafisi herself:

I am too much of an academic: I have written too many papers and articles to be able to turn my experiences and ideas into narratives without pontificating. Although that is in fact my urge—to narrate, to reinvent myself along with all those others.

The integration of literary criticism into the memoir is interesting, and makes it unique, but presupposes some familiarity with the novels and authors she discusses. At times the literary framework works wells, at other times it feels a bit forced. I found the James chapters the most difficult, probably because that was the author I was least familiar with.

>204 labfs39: I've had this around forever and haven't read it. I'd be interested in the memoir aspects, but not so much the "in books" as my level of familiarity is low.

>205 qebo: The memoir part was interesting and could have stood on its own, but being a literature professor, I think she enjoyed writing about the books too. Even when she was teaching, it sounds like she tried to relate themes from books to what was happening in their lives. I particularly liked the conversations her book club had about Pride and Prejudice and marriage and how it related (or not) to their own experiences.

Thanks to Rebeccanyc and Darryl for recommending this one.



The Colonel by Mahmoud Dowlatabadi, translated from the Persian by Tom Patterdale
Published in German in 2009, English translation 2011. 247 p.

Mahmoud Dowlatabadi is a renowned Iranian author with a unique voice. He was born in a rural area and has only an elementary school education, making him very different from his Western-educated, urban counterparts. His language is rich with influences from traditional Persian poetry, and he purposefully avoids using Arab loan words. In an effort to capture this effect, Tom Patterdale avoided Latinate words in favor of the Anglo-Saxon as much as possible in his translation. Patterdale also wrote a very helpful afterword and extensive notes, because there are a lot of historical figures and cultural references which a non-Iranian might miss.

The book opens with "the colonel" sitting in his dark house waiting for the knock at the gate that he knows is coming. As he nervously smokes and watches the rain run down the window, he begins to reflect on how he ended up here, with his oldest son going mad from the torture he sustained at the hands of the Shah's police, one son dead since the early days of the revolution, another away at the Iraqi front, and his 14-year-old daughter missing. Throughout the next day, the present melts into the past, both the colonel's and his eldest son's, as well as the historical past.

In his novel, Dowlatabadi is critical of the Shah and the foreign powers that propped him up as well as the Islamic revolution. Generations are sacrificed to professed ideals that all end in corruption and death. Needless to say, the book has never been published in Iran (or in Persian), but the author remains free and is a proponent of artistic freedom in Iran. I highly recommend this difficult, but rewarding, novel to anyone interested in Iran.

>207 labfs39: This books sounds really interesting. Thanks for the review!
It seems to share some common themes with The Corpse Washer by Sinan Antoon, that I read during the Irak month of the Asian book challenge. The main characters have nothing in common, but the sacrifice of generations is there for sure, and the book could aso be qualified as a difficult but rewarding read.
I'm definitely adding The Colonel to my list of prospective reads.

>208 raton-liseur: Thanks, raton, I think you might like The Colonel. And, yes, The Corpse Washer sounds like it might have interesting parallels. In fact, several scenes in The Colonel take place in the building in the cemetery where corpses are washed. I need to catch up on your thread, I'll head over there tonight and look for your review.

They Called Us Enemy by George Takei
Published 2020, 204 p.

George Takei is an actor, activist, and author, most famous for his role as Hikaru Sulu in Star Trek. As a child he was incarcerated for the duration of World War II with his family in Japanese interment camps, first in Arkansas and then northern California. This graphic novel is the story of his years in the camps, his discussions with his father about the camps as a young adult, and his work to educate others about this shameful episode in American history and to promote tolerance and activism in the democratic process.

The artwork was done by Harmony Becker, and I liked the simple black and white drawings. There were usually 5-6 frames per page, which sometimes necessitated small type. I liked the quotes from politicians then and since, and the photos and documents reproduced at the end.

>209 labfs39: I hope you'll like The Corpse Washer if you get to it. It might be the best read I've had so far this year.

>210 labfs39: I really liked this one as well, Lisa. We don't hear enough about this part of our history.

>211 raton-liseur: I think I'll order a copy of The Corpse Washer. Thanks for the recommendation!

>212 BLBera: I had read Farewell to Manzanar, When the Emperor was Divine and the ubiquitous Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, so I had a general understanding. I liked the quotes from various politicians in this one. It's unbelievable some of the things they said. I also liked that in Takei's book, being more recent, comparisons were made to the camps along our southern border.

My grandmother's braid by Alina Bronsky, translated from the German by Tim Mohr
Published 2019, English translation 2021, 159 p.

I like Alina Bronsky's writing: stark, concise, and darkly humorous. Baba Dunja's Last Love is a favorite, and Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine is indelibly etched in my memory. In this, Bronsky's latest book, the protagonist is once again an acerbic, domineering older Russian woman dealing with dislocation, loss, and mother-child-grandchild relationships. Although not as abusive as the grandmother in Hottest Dishes, Margarita Ivanovna is not a particularly likeable character. She is manipulative, secretive, tyrannical, and sharp-tongued; yet there is something compelling in her familial loyalty and enthusiastic living of life.

Max and his grandparents have escaped the collapsing Soviet Union (another Bronsky theme) and are living in immigrant housing in Germany. His grandmother is extremely overprotective and treats Max as both stupid and sickly, neither of which is true. When his grandmother befriends a single mother, Nina, and her young daughter, their lives are irreversibly changed.

Bronsky has been described as one of the authors bringing a post-Cold War, Soviet influence to German literature. She moved to Germany from the Soviet Union in the early nineties, at the age of twelve. She writes in German and created her pseudonym to differentiate between the professional German and familial Russian sides of herself. She has said in interviews that her grandmother characters are not based on any one person, but are a composite of a type of Soviet woman. As regards the humor in her books:

“Sometimes I do readings and people can’t stop laughing, but I’m reading about pretty tragic things,” Bronsky says. “I think Soviet humor is a desperate humor, rather typical of very different nations, of Jewish people, Ukrainians, and of course Russians. It’s despair — just keep laughing, until you are dead.”

Bronsky's work is not for everyone, but if you like dark slice-of-life stories and sardonic wit, give her a try, if you haven't already.

Catching up and took a few bullets. I'm particularly interested in An Unnecessary Woman.

Very interested in Alina Bronsky - I've put Baba Dunja's Last Love on my wishlist.

>215 AlisonY: I enjoyed An Unnecessary Woman and hope you do too, when you get to it.

>216 japaul22: Baba Dunja is definitely my favorite, but I enjoyed My Grandmother's Braid too. Hottest Dishes was difficult, because the protagonist is a horrible person. I find it difficult to rate books like that. It was well done, but horrible too. She has two other books that have been translated into English. I hope to read her debut novel, Broken Glass Park, next, as it has had considerable critical acclaim.

>207 labfs39:, >210 labfs39: These both sound intriguing Lisa. I had hopes of reading The enlightenment of the greengage tree this month, but it hasn't happened.

I read one of the free e-books that I picked up from Amazon's World Book Day event. It's a picture book and was interesting enough that I thought I would review it, even though I won't count it toward any of my goals.



The Caiman by by María Eugenia Manrique, illustrated by Ramón París, and translated by Amy Brill
Published 2019, English translation 2021, 32 p.

When the author was a child and visiting family in San Fernando de Apure, Venezuela, she would visit the home of a famous local jeweler named José Faoro, who raised a river caiman from the time it was three days old. He had built it a pool in his backyard, and the children would visit and ride on "Night". This delightful story has bold illustrations and an afterward that includes photos of the author with the caiman, as well as José Faoro.

Edited to fix typo

>218 markon: Hi Ardene, I hope you are doing okay. The enlightenment of the greengage tree looks interesting. I see it has received both love and hate from the few reviewers on LT. I'll look forward to your thoughts, if you ever get a chance to pick it up. Take care.

Broken Glass Park is the one I have on my tbr. Maybe I'll get to it before you.

>218 markon: & >220 labfs39: I read The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree in October and thought it was very good.

>214 labfs39: Thanks for this review - the only thing I knew about Bronsky was the title The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine - which I linked in my mind with A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian and thought it would be a light comedy. She sounds much more interesting than that.

>221 RidgewayGirl: Broken Glass Park received quite a bit of acclaim for a debut novel. Unlike the three other novels of hers that I've read, the protagonist is a young woman, not a babushka. I'll look forward to your thoughts if you get to it before I do, Kay.

>222 rocketjk: If you liked it, Jerry, it's more likely I will too. I'll look for it. Good luck this week!

>223 wandering_star: They are both catchy titles, and both authors have ties to Germany and Ukraine and write about immigrants, so your link is valid. It's been a while since I've read Lewycka, but I remember her having a similar type of sharp humor, but Bronsky's is on steroids in comparison, and I do find Bronsky's plots more interesting.

My dad went on a business trip last week and is now sick with Covid. Unfortunately, he spent a whole day with my nieces before he realized it. So now we are dealing with lots of questions about who can do what. My sister is vaccinated and boosted (once), the five year old and my BIL are vaccinated but not boosted, and the two year old is unvaccinated. The guidelines change every time you turn around, so my sister is erring on the side of caution. Just when we thought the water was safe... Du du du

>225 labfs39: Ugh, what a mess. Erring on the side of caution seems within the spirit of any guidelines.

>226 qebo: The good news on the covid front is that my daughter and I donated platelets through the Red Cross a couple of weeks ago, and they are currently testing for antibodies to see if it can be used as convalescent plasma. Both my daughter and I had a robust crop of antibodies. So that's good. We will donate again this Saturday.

I have started reading Gaza Mom: Palestine, Politics, Parenting, and Everything in Between. I was interested after reading rocketj/Jerry's review. And since I read two books about Palestine, but nothing from a Palestinian author in February, it allows me to catchup in the Asian Book Challenge. The book is a collection of the author's blog posts and news articles (she's a journalist) from December 2004 to August 2010. I'm glad I'm reading this after having read The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict, as I would have been a bit lost otherwise. It's good, and I like the mix of politics and parenting, working moms everywhere can relate. It's also incredibly sad and frustrating at times.

A couple of quotes that I jotted down:

"you call me a terrorist, but I'm the one who's oppressed" -lyrics by a Palestinian rapper she interviewed

"...anyone who's no one can get hold of a gun."

I’m sorry about the covid revisit. Wish you all well. I’m catching up here, having somehow missed most of April. So, yes, I would really like to read Reading Lolita in Tehran. And I appreciated your review, and the other reviews here too. And Invitation to a Beheading is a work of Nabokov’s I particularly got along with. It’s a little challenging. It’s also surreal but human but very thoughtful and very sad. But mostly I liked the language (his translation to English).

>225 labfs39: Sorry to hear about the new Covid outbreak, but YAY for a bumper crop of antibodies!

>229 dchaikin: I will get to Invitation to a Beheading at some point; it sounds like something I would like.

>230 avaland: There are now three family members who have tested positive, but my daughter and I were never in contact so remain well. How are you doing? I've been busy raking and bagging leaves. My plan to compost them backfired, as some trees died due to excessive piles. I don't have the room to store all of the leaves, so I'll have to start carting them off and emptying the bags to reuse. The bulbs I planted in the fall are coming up, which is gratifying. If only it would stop dipping below freezing at night, I could plant some things I've been nurturing inside.

I hope your family is soon COVID-free, Lisa. I, too, want to read Invitation to a Beheading at some point.

>232 BLBera: Thanks, Beth.