dchaikin part 4 - post-Booker ... and back to neglected plans
This is a continuation of the topic dchaikin part 3 - in which I begin in Booker Prize anticipation....
Talk Club Read 2025
Join LibraryThing to post.
1dchaikin
As I start this thread, I've finished The Booker Prize lists for 2025. The prize will be/was November 10. (My favorite is Audition by Katie Kitamura). So, what's next? How badly have a I neglected my 2025 plans? Some Wharton, Updike and Faulkner may show up here. Updike will be new to me. Not sure I will ever finish Malory.
Currently Reading
Currently Listening to
Currently Reading
Currently Listening to
2dchaikin
My themes through the years
2012 - old testament
2013 - old testament and Toni Morrison
2014 - old testament
2015 - old testament, Toni Morrison & Cormac McCarthy
2016 - Homer, Greek mythology, Greek drama, & Thomas Pynchon
2017 - Virgil, Ovid & Thomas Pynchon
2018 - Apocrypha, New Testament & Gabriel García Márquez
2019 - Rome to the Renaissance & James Baldwin & Willa Cather and Shakespeare
2020 – Dante, Nabokov, Willa Cather, Shakespeare
2021 - Petrarch, Nabokov, Willa Cather, Shakespeare, the Booker longlists - added Edith Wharton
2022 – Boccaccio, Robert Musil, Wharton, Shakespeare, Anniversaries, the Booker longlists
2023 – Chaucer, Richard Wright, Wharton, Booker longlists, Naturalisty
2024 – Chaucer and medieval stuff, Faulkner, Wharton, Booker longlists
2025 – Spenser*, Faulkner, Wharton, Booker
*Spenser didn't happen. He's been temporarily usurped by Piers Plowman and Thomas Mallory.
links to all my old threads:
2009 Part 1, 2009 Part 2, 2010 Part 1, 2010 Part 2, 2011 Part 1, 2011 Part 2, 2012 Part 1, 2012 Part 2, 2013 Part 1, 2013 Part 2, 2013 Part 3, 2014 Part 1, 2014 Part 2, 2014 Part 3, 2015 Part 1, 2015 Part 2, 2015 Part 3, 2016 Part 1, 2016 Part 2, 2016 Part 3, 2017 Part 1, 2017 Part 2, 2018 part 1, 2018 part 2, 2019 part 1, 2019 part 2, 2019 part 3, 2020 part 1, 2020 part 2, 2020 part 3, 2021 part 1, 2021 part 2, 2021 part 3, 2022 part 1, 2022 part 2, 2022 part 3, 2022 part 4, 2023 part 1, 2023 part 2, 2023 part 3, 2023 part 4, 2024 part 1, 2024 part 2, 2024 part 3, 2024 part 4, 2024 part 5, 2025 part 1, 2025 part 2, 2025 part 3
2012 - old testament
2013 - old testament and Toni Morrison
2014 - old testament
2015 - old testament, Toni Morrison & Cormac McCarthy
2016 - Homer, Greek mythology, Greek drama, & Thomas Pynchon
2017 - Virgil, Ovid & Thomas Pynchon
2018 - Apocrypha, New Testament & Gabriel García Márquez
2019 - Rome to the Renaissance & James Baldwin & Willa Cather and Shakespeare
2020 – Dante, Nabokov, Willa Cather, Shakespeare
2021 - Petrarch, Nabokov, Willa Cather, Shakespeare, the Booker longlists - added Edith Wharton
2022 – Boccaccio, Robert Musil, Wharton, Shakespeare, Anniversaries, the Booker longlists
2023 – Chaucer, Richard Wright, Wharton, Booker longlists, Naturalisty
2024 – Chaucer and medieval stuff, Faulkner, Wharton, Booker longlists
2025 – Spenser*, Faulkner, Wharton, Booker
*Spenser didn't happen. He's been temporarily usurped by Piers Plowman and Thomas Mallory.
links to all my old threads:
2009 Part 1, 2009 Part 2, 2010 Part 1, 2010 Part 2, 2011 Part 1, 2011 Part 2, 2012 Part 1, 2012 Part 2, 2013 Part 1, 2013 Part 2, 2013 Part 3, 2014 Part 1, 2014 Part 2, 2014 Part 3, 2015 Part 1, 2015 Part 2, 2015 Part 3, 2016 Part 1, 2016 Part 2, 2016 Part 3, 2017 Part 1, 2017 Part 2, 2018 part 1, 2018 part 2, 2019 part 1, 2019 part 2, 2019 part 3, 2020 part 1, 2020 part 2, 2020 part 3, 2021 part 1, 2021 part 2, 2021 part 3, 2022 part 1, 2022 part 2, 2022 part 3, 2022 part 4, 2023 part 1, 2023 part 2, 2023 part 3, 2023 part 4, 2024 part 1, 2024 part 2, 2024 part 3, 2024 part 4, 2024 part 5, 2025 part 1, 2025 part 2, 2025 part 3
3dchaikin
Books read in 2025
This first set of links go to the review post on my part 1 page.
1. ****½ A Month in the Country by J. L. Carr (read Jan 16-19)
2. ***** The Children's Book by A. S. Byatt (read Dec 24, 2024 – Jan 25, 2025)
3. ***½ Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst, read by Prasanna Puwanarajah (listened Dec 27, 2024 – Jan 29, 2025)
4. **** Things I Don't Want to Know: On Writing by Deborah Levy, read by Henrietta Meire (listened Jan 30 – Feb 6)
5. *** The Wild Palms {If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem} by William Faulkner (read Jan 29 – Feb 8)
6. ***** To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf (read Feb 1-13)
7. *** The Buccaneers by Edith Wharton (read Jan 25 – Feb 14)
8. ***** Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein (re-read Feb 17-23)
This set of links go to the review post on my part 2 page.
9. ***** The Beginning of Spring by Penelope Fitzgerald (read Feb 24 – Mar 4)
10. **** On the Calculation of Volume (Book I) by Solvej Balle (read Mar 1-7)
11. **** Eurotrash by Christian Kracht (read Mar 8-11)
12: **** The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science by Richard Holmes, read by Gildart Jackson (listened Feb 9 – Mar 14)
13. **** Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami (read Mar 11-16)
14. ***** Horace, The Odes: New Translations by Contemporary Poets edited by J. D. McClatchy (read Jan 13 – Mar 18)
15. ***½ Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life by Lulu Miller, read by the author (listened Mar 14-20)
16. ***½ The Book of Disappearance by Ibtisam Azem, translated from Arabic by Sinan Antoon (read Mar 16-22)
17. ***** Harping On: Poems, 1985-1995 by Carolyn Kizer (read Mar 19 – Apr 8)
18. ****½ The Eagle and the Hart: The Tragedy of Richard II and Henry IV by Helen Castor (listened Mar 20 – Apr 14)
19. **** Solenoid by Mircea Cărtărescu (Read Mar 22 – Apr 19)
20. *** Piers Plowman by William Langland: A Norton Critical Edition (read Nov 4, 2024 – Apr 19, 2025)
21. ***** Postscripts by Daryl Hine (read Apr 9-19)
22. **** Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa (read Apr 20)
23. **** On A Woman's Madness by Astrid Roemer (read Apr 20-25)
24. *** Private Revolutions: Four Women Face China's New Social Order by Yuan Yang, read by a cast (listened Apr 14-30)
25. ***** Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee (read Apr 25-30)
26. ***½ Reservoir Bitches by Dahlia de la Cerda (read May 1-4)
27. **** William Blake vs the World by John Higgs (listened May 1-15)
28. **** Heart Lamp: Selected Stories by Banu Mushtaq (read May 4-16)
29. **** Small Boat by Vincent Delecroix (read May 17-22)
30. *** Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico (read May 23-30)
31. ***** Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie (read May 10 – Jun 5)
32. **** The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton (read Jun 3-22)
33. ****½ A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts by Andrew Chaikin, read by Bronson Pinchot (listened May 16 – Jun 23)
34. **** There's a Monster Behind the Door by Gaëlle Bélem (read Jun 22-26)
35. **** Leopard-Skin Hat by Anne Serre (read June 26-30)
This set of links go to the review post on my part 3 page.
36. ***** The Story of a Heart: Two Families, One Heart, and a Medical Miracle that Saved a Child's Life by Rachel Clarke, read by the author (listened Jun 23 – Jul 12)
37. ***** Go Down, Moses by William Faulkner (read Jun 30 – Jul 13)
38. **** Intruder in the Dust by William Faulkner (read Jul 13-18)
39. **** Bunner Sisters by Edith Wharton (read Jul 19-25)
40. ****½ Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (read July 19-28)
41. **** Endling by Maria Reva (read Jul 29 – Aug 3)
42. **** Flesh by David Szalay (read Aug 3-6)
42. **** Misinterpretation by Ledia Xhoga (read Aug 6-11)
44. ***** Audition by Katie Kitamura (read Aug 12-14)
45. **** Love Forms by Claire Adam (read Aug 15-18)
46. *** Flashlight by Susan Choi, read by Eunice Wong (listened Jul 29 – Aug 22)
47. *** The South by Tash Aw (read Aug 18-23)
48. ***½ Universality by Natasha Brown (read Aug 23-25)
49. **** The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller (read Aug 25 – Sep 1)
50. **** The Rest of Our Lives by Benjamin Markovits (read Sep 1-4)
51. ****½ Seascraper by Benjamin Wood (read Sep 4-7)
52. **** One Boat by Jonathan Buckley (read Sep 7-10)
53. **** Restless Genius: The Story of Virginia Woolf (World Writers) by Virginia Brackett (read Sep 13-15)
54. **** Jane Austen's Bookshelf: A Rare Book Collector's Quest to Find the Women Writers Who Shaped a Legend by Rebecca Romney, read by the author (listened Aug 23 – Sep 16)
55. **** Clear by Carys Davies (read Sep 12,18-21)
56. ***** Hotel Du Lac by Anita Brookner (read Sep 21-28)
57. **** The Secret of Life: Rosalind Franklin, James Watson, Francis Crick, and the Discovery of DNA's Double Helix by Howard Markel, read by Donald Corren (listened Sep 17 – Oct 7)
The links below go to the review post on this page.
58. *** Will There Ever Be Another You by Patricia Lockwood (read Oct 5-9)
59. *** Fast and Loose by Edith Wharton (read Oct 12-17)
60. ***½ Summer of Fire and Blood: The German Peasants' War by Lyndal Roper, read by Rose Akroyd (listened Oct 7-24)
61. **** The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai (read Sep 28 – Oct 27)
62. ***½ Chasing Homer : Good luck, and nothing else : Odysseus's Cave by László Krasznahorkai, with art by Max Neumann, and music by Szilveszter Miklós (read Oct 18, 28-30)
63. **** Collected Stories of William Faulkner (read Sep 11 – Nov 8)
64. ****½ East of Eden by John Steinbeck, read by Richard Poe (listened Oct 27 – Nov 17)
65. **** Rabbit, Run by John Updike (read Nov 8-17)
66. ***** Antigone by Sophocles (read Nov 21-22)
67. **** Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie (read Nov 22-28)
68. *** Pale Sister by Colm Tóibín, performed by Lisa Dwan (listened Dec 1)
69. ***** A Backward Glance: An Autobiography by Edith Wharton (read Nov 18 – Dec 8)
70. *** Theft by Abdulrazak Gurnah (read Nov 29 – Dec 10)
71. **** The Ballad of Peckham Rye by Muriel Spark (read Dec 11-15)
72. ***** Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson (read Dec 15-19)
73. ****½ The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood (read Dec 19-27)
74. **** Gone to the Forest by Katie Kitamura (read Dec 28-31)
This first set of links go to the review post on my part 1 page.
1. ****½ A Month in the Country by J. L. Carr (read Jan 16-19)
2. ***** The Children's Book by A. S. Byatt (read Dec 24, 2024 – Jan 25, 2025)
3. ***½ Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst, read by Prasanna Puwanarajah (listened Dec 27, 2024 – Jan 29, 2025)
4. **** Things I Don't Want to Know: On Writing by Deborah Levy, read by Henrietta Meire (listened Jan 30 – Feb 6)
5. *** The Wild Palms {If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem} by William Faulkner (read Jan 29 – Feb 8)
6. ***** To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf (read Feb 1-13)
7. *** The Buccaneers by Edith Wharton (read Jan 25 – Feb 14)
8. ***** Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein (re-read Feb 17-23)
This set of links go to the review post on my part 2 page.
9. ***** The Beginning of Spring by Penelope Fitzgerald (read Feb 24 – Mar 4)
10. **** On the Calculation of Volume (Book I) by Solvej Balle (read Mar 1-7)
11. **** Eurotrash by Christian Kracht (read Mar 8-11)
12: **** The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science by Richard Holmes, read by Gildart Jackson (listened Feb 9 – Mar 14)
13. **** Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami (read Mar 11-16)
14. ***** Horace, The Odes: New Translations by Contemporary Poets edited by J. D. McClatchy (read Jan 13 – Mar 18)
15. ***½ Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life by Lulu Miller, read by the author (listened Mar 14-20)
16. ***½ The Book of Disappearance by Ibtisam Azem, translated from Arabic by Sinan Antoon (read Mar 16-22)
17. ***** Harping On: Poems, 1985-1995 by Carolyn Kizer (read Mar 19 – Apr 8)
18. ****½ The Eagle and the Hart: The Tragedy of Richard II and Henry IV by Helen Castor (listened Mar 20 – Apr 14)
19. **** Solenoid by Mircea Cărtărescu (Read Mar 22 – Apr 19)
20. *** Piers Plowman by William Langland: A Norton Critical Edition (read Nov 4, 2024 – Apr 19, 2025)
21. ***** Postscripts by Daryl Hine (read Apr 9-19)
22. **** Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa (read Apr 20)
23. **** On A Woman's Madness by Astrid Roemer (read Apr 20-25)
24. *** Private Revolutions: Four Women Face China's New Social Order by Yuan Yang, read by a cast (listened Apr 14-30)
25. ***** Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee (read Apr 25-30)
26. ***½ Reservoir Bitches by Dahlia de la Cerda (read May 1-4)
27. **** William Blake vs the World by John Higgs (listened May 1-15)
28. **** Heart Lamp: Selected Stories by Banu Mushtaq (read May 4-16)
29. **** Small Boat by Vincent Delecroix (read May 17-22)
30. *** Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico (read May 23-30)
31. ***** Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie (read May 10 – Jun 5)
32. **** The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton (read Jun 3-22)
33. ****½ A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts by Andrew Chaikin, read by Bronson Pinchot (listened May 16 – Jun 23)
34. **** There's a Monster Behind the Door by Gaëlle Bélem (read Jun 22-26)
35. **** Leopard-Skin Hat by Anne Serre (read June 26-30)
This set of links go to the review post on my part 3 page.
36. ***** The Story of a Heart: Two Families, One Heart, and a Medical Miracle that Saved a Child's Life by Rachel Clarke, read by the author (listened Jun 23 – Jul 12)
37. ***** Go Down, Moses by William Faulkner (read Jun 30 – Jul 13)
38. **** Intruder in the Dust by William Faulkner (read Jul 13-18)
39. **** Bunner Sisters by Edith Wharton (read Jul 19-25)
40. ****½ Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (read July 19-28)
41. **** Endling by Maria Reva (read Jul 29 – Aug 3)
42. **** Flesh by David Szalay (read Aug 3-6)
42. **** Misinterpretation by Ledia Xhoga (read Aug 6-11)
44. ***** Audition by Katie Kitamura (read Aug 12-14)
45. **** Love Forms by Claire Adam (read Aug 15-18)
46. *** Flashlight by Susan Choi, read by Eunice Wong (listened Jul 29 – Aug 22)
47. *** The South by Tash Aw (read Aug 18-23)
48. ***½ Universality by Natasha Brown (read Aug 23-25)
49. **** The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller (read Aug 25 – Sep 1)
50. **** The Rest of Our Lives by Benjamin Markovits (read Sep 1-4)
51. ****½ Seascraper by Benjamin Wood (read Sep 4-7)
52. **** One Boat by Jonathan Buckley (read Sep 7-10)
53. **** Restless Genius: The Story of Virginia Woolf (World Writers) by Virginia Brackett (read Sep 13-15)
54. **** Jane Austen's Bookshelf: A Rare Book Collector's Quest to Find the Women Writers Who Shaped a Legend by Rebecca Romney, read by the author (listened Aug 23 – Sep 16)
55. **** Clear by Carys Davies (read Sep 12,18-21)
56. ***** Hotel Du Lac by Anita Brookner (read Sep 21-28)
57. **** The Secret of Life: Rosalind Franklin, James Watson, Francis Crick, and the Discovery of DNA's Double Helix by Howard Markel, read by Donald Corren (listened Sep 17 – Oct 7)
The links below go to the review post on this page.
58. *** Will There Ever Be Another You by Patricia Lockwood (read Oct 5-9)
59. *** Fast and Loose by Edith Wharton (read Oct 12-17)
60. ***½ Summer of Fire and Blood: The German Peasants' War by Lyndal Roper, read by Rose Akroyd (listened Oct 7-24)
61. **** The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai (read Sep 28 – Oct 27)
62. ***½ Chasing Homer : Good luck, and nothing else : Odysseus's Cave by László Krasznahorkai, with art by Max Neumann, and music by Szilveszter Miklós (read Oct 18, 28-30)
63. **** Collected Stories of William Faulkner (read Sep 11 – Nov 8)
64. ****½ East of Eden by John Steinbeck, read by Richard Poe (listened Oct 27 – Nov 17)
65. **** Rabbit, Run by John Updike (read Nov 8-17)
66. ***** Antigone by Sophocles (read Nov 21-22)
67. **** Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie (read Nov 22-28)
68. *** Pale Sister by Colm Tóibín, performed by Lisa Dwan (listened Dec 1)
69. ***** A Backward Glance: An Autobiography by Edith Wharton (read Nov 18 – Dec 8)
70. *** Theft by Abdulrazak Gurnah (read Nov 29 – Dec 10)
71. **** The Ballad of Peckham Rye by Muriel Spark (read Dec 11-15)
72. ***** Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson (read Dec 15-19)
73. ****½ The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood (read Dec 19-27)
74. **** Gone to the Forest by Katie Kitamura (read Dec 28-31)
6dchaikin
Books read, sorted by original publication date part 1 of 2
~440 BCE Antigone by Sophocles
8 BCE Horace, The Odes: New Translations by Contemporary Poets edited by J. D. McClatchy (translation 2002)
~1388 Piers Plowman by William Langland
1877 Fast and Loose by Edith Wharton
1892 Bunner Sisters by Edith Wharton (written 1892, pub 1916)
1927 To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
1934 A Backward Glance: An Autobiography by Edith Wharton
1937 The Buccaneers by Edith Wharton
1939 The Wild Palms (If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem) by William Faulkner
1942 Go Down, Moses by William Faulkner
1948 Intruder in the Dust by William Faulkner
1950 Collected Stories of William Faulkner
1952 East of Eden by John Steinbeck
1960
Rabbit, Run by John Updike
The Ballad of Peckham Rye by Muriel Spark
1969 The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood
1980
A Month in the Country by J. L. Carr
Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
1981 Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
1982 On A Woman's Madness by Astrid Roemer
1984 Hotel Du Lac by Anita Brookner
1988 The Beginning of Spring by Penelope Fitzgerald
1991 Postscripts by Daryl Hine
1994 A Man on the Moon : The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts by Andrew Chaikin
1996 Harping On: Poems, 1985-1995 by Carolyn Kizer
1999 Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee
2004 Restless Genius: The Story of Virginia Woolf by Virginia Brackett
2005 Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
2008
The Age of Wonder by Richard Holmes
A Leopard-Skin Hat by Anne Serre
2009 The Children's Book by A. S. Byatt
2012 Gone to the Forest by Katie Kitamura
2013
Things I Don't Want to Know: On Writing by Deborah Levy
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
2014 The Book of Disappearance by Ibtisam Azem
2015 Solenoid by Mircea Cărtărescu
2016 Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami
2017 Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie
2019
Chasing Homer : Good luck, and nothing else : Odysseus's Cave by László Krasznahorkai
Pale Sister by Colm Tóibín
2020
On the Calculation of Volume (Book I) by Solvej Balle
Why Fish Don't Exist by Lulu Miller
There's a Monster Behind the Door by Gaëlle Bélem
~440 BCE Antigone by Sophocles
8 BCE Horace, The Odes: New Translations by Contemporary Poets edited by J. D. McClatchy (translation 2002)
~1388 Piers Plowman by William Langland
1877 Fast and Loose by Edith Wharton
1892 Bunner Sisters by Edith Wharton (written 1892, pub 1916)
1927 To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
1934 A Backward Glance: An Autobiography by Edith Wharton
1937 The Buccaneers by Edith Wharton
1939 The Wild Palms (If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem) by William Faulkner
1942 Go Down, Moses by William Faulkner
1948 Intruder in the Dust by William Faulkner
1950 Collected Stories of William Faulkner
1952 East of Eden by John Steinbeck
1960
Rabbit, Run by John Updike
The Ballad of Peckham Rye by Muriel Spark
1969 The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood
1980
A Month in the Country by J. L. Carr
Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
1981 Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
1982 On A Woman's Madness by Astrid Roemer
1984 Hotel Du Lac by Anita Brookner
1988 The Beginning of Spring by Penelope Fitzgerald
1991 Postscripts by Daryl Hine
1994 A Man on the Moon : The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts by Andrew Chaikin
1996 Harping On: Poems, 1985-1995 by Carolyn Kizer
1999 Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee
2004 Restless Genius: The Story of Virginia Woolf by Virginia Brackett
2005 Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
2008
The Age of Wonder by Richard Holmes
A Leopard-Skin Hat by Anne Serre
2009 The Children's Book by A. S. Byatt
2012 Gone to the Forest by Katie Kitamura
2013
Things I Don't Want to Know: On Writing by Deborah Levy
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
2014 The Book of Disappearance by Ibtisam Azem
2015 Solenoid by Mircea Cărtărescu
2016 Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami
2017 Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie
2019
Chasing Homer : Good luck, and nothing else : Odysseus's Cave by László Krasznahorkai
Pale Sister by Colm Tóibín
2020
On the Calculation of Volume (Book I) by Solvej Balle
Why Fish Don't Exist by Lulu Miller
There's a Monster Behind the Door by Gaëlle Bélem
7dchaikin
Books read, sorted by original publication date part 2 of 2
2021
Eurotrash by Christian Kracht
William Blake vs the World by John Higgs
The Secret of Life: Rosalind Franklin, James Watson, Francis Crick, and the Discovery of DNA's Double Helix by Howard Markel
2022
Reservoir Bitches by Dahlia de la Cerda
Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico
2023
Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein
Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa
Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq
Small Boat by Vincent Delecroix
2024
Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst
The Eagle and the Hart: The Tragedy of Richard II and Henry IV by Helen Castor
Private Revolutions: Four Women Face China's New Social Order by Yuan Yang
The Story of a Heart: Two Families, One Heart, and a Medical Miracle that Saved a Child's Life by Rachel Clarke
Misinterpretation by Ledia Xhoga
The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller
Clear by Carys Davies
2025
Endling by Maria Reva
Flesh by David Szalay
Audition by Katie Kitamura
Love Forms by Claire Adam
Flashlight by Susan Choi
The South by Tash Aw
Universality by Natasha Brown
The Rest of Our Lives by Benjamin Markovits
Seascraper by Benjamin Wood
One Boat by Jonathan Buckley
Jane Austen's Bookshelf: A Rare Book Collector's Quest to Find the Women Writers Who Shaped a Legend by Rebecca Romney
Will There Ever Be Another You by Patricia Lockwood
Summer of Fire and Blood: The German Peasants' War by Lyndal Roper
The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai
Theft by Abdulrazak Gurnah
2021
Eurotrash by Christian Kracht
William Blake vs the World by John Higgs
The Secret of Life: Rosalind Franklin, James Watson, Francis Crick, and the Discovery of DNA's Double Helix by Howard Markel
2022
Reservoir Bitches by Dahlia de la Cerda
Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico
2023
Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein
Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa
Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq
Small Boat by Vincent Delecroix
2024
Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst
The Eagle and the Hart: The Tragedy of Richard II and Henry IV by Helen Castor
Private Revolutions: Four Women Face China's New Social Order by Yuan Yang
The Story of a Heart: Two Families, One Heart, and a Medical Miracle that Saved a Child's Life by Rachel Clarke
Misinterpretation by Ledia Xhoga
The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller
Clear by Carys Davies
2025
Endling by Maria Reva
Flesh by David Szalay
Audition by Katie Kitamura
Love Forms by Claire Adam
Flashlight by Susan Choi
The South by Tash Aw
Universality by Natasha Brown
The Rest of Our Lives by Benjamin Markovits
Seascraper by Benjamin Wood
One Boat by Jonathan Buckley
Jane Austen's Bookshelf: A Rare Book Collector's Quest to Find the Women Writers Who Shaped a Legend by Rebecca Romney
Will There Ever Be Another You by Patricia Lockwood
Summer of Fire and Blood: The German Peasants' War by Lyndal Roper
The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai
Theft by Abdulrazak Gurnah
8dchaikin
Some stats:
2025
Books read: 74
Pages: 15969 ( 617 hrs )
Audio time: 202 hrs
Formats: paperback 22; hardcover 19; ebook 18; audio 15;
Subjects in brief: Novels 53; Booker Books 36; Classic 14; Non-Fiction 12; Biography 7; History 6; Science 5; Poetry 4; Journalism 4; Short Stories 4; On Literature and Books 3; Juvenile 2; Ancient 2; Drama 2; Memoir 2; Speculative Fiction 1; Religion/Mythology/Philosophy 1; Mystery 1; Art 1; Nature 1;
Nationalities: United States 21; England 18; Canada 4; France 3; Japan 2; India 2; Denmark 1; Switzerland 1; Roman Empire 1; Israel 1; Romania 1; Suriname 1; China 1; South Africa 1; Mexico 1; Italy 1; New Zealand 1; Ukrainian-Canadian 1; Albania 1; Trinidad and Tobago 1; Malaysia 1; Wales 1; Australia 1; Hungary 1; Greece 1; Pakistan 1; Ireland 1; Tanzania 1; Scotland 1;
Books in translation: 17
Genders, m/f: 31/42, mixed 1;
Owner: books I own 64; Library 6; free on audible 3;
Re-reads: 2
Year Published: 2020’s 34; 2010s 9; 2000’s 5; 1990’s 4; 1980’s 6; 1960’s 3; 1950’s 2; 1940’s 2; 1930’s 3; 1920’s 1; 1800’s 2; 1300’s 1; BCE 2;
TBR numbers: +20 (acquired 82, read from tbr 62)
All stats - since I started keeping track in December of 1990
Books read: 1480
Formats: Paperback 732; Hardcover 318; Audio 244; ebooks 149; Lit magazines 38
Subjects in brief: Non-fiction 543; Novels 542, Biographies/Memoirs 245; Classics 243; History 207; Booker Prize listed 165; Religion/Mythology/Philosophy 142; Poetry 114; Journalism 104; Science 103; On Literature and Books 79; Ancient 77; Speculative Fiction 71; Nature 71; Essay Collections 58; Short Story Collections 55; Drama 50; Anthologies 48; Graphic 46; Juvenile/YA 37; Visual Arts 29; Mystery/Thriller 18; Interviews 16
Nationalities: US 795; Other English-language countries: 357; Other: 321
Books in translation: 261
Genders, m/f: 888/487
Owner: Books I owned 1089 Library books 305; Books I borrowed 76; Online 10;
Re-reads: 30
Year Published: 2020’s 136; 2010's 294; 2000's 300; 1990's 191; 1980's 133; 1970's 62; 1960's 59; 1950's 38; 1900-1949 109; 19th century 25; 16th-18th centuries 38; 13th-15th centuries 18; 0-1199 21; BCE 57
TBR: 674
Recent milestones: 300 books from the decade of the 2000’s, the most from any decade.
2025
Books read: 74
Pages: 15969 ( 617 hrs )
Audio time: 202 hrs
Formats: paperback 22; hardcover 19; ebook 18; audio 15;
Subjects in brief: Novels 53; Booker Books 36; Classic 14; Non-Fiction 12; Biography 7; History 6; Science 5; Poetry 4; Journalism 4; Short Stories 4; On Literature and Books 3; Juvenile 2; Ancient 2; Drama 2; Memoir 2; Speculative Fiction 1; Religion/Mythology/Philosophy 1; Mystery 1; Art 1; Nature 1;
Nationalities: United States 21; England 18; Canada 4; France 3; Japan 2; India 2; Denmark 1; Switzerland 1; Roman Empire 1; Israel 1; Romania 1; Suriname 1; China 1; South Africa 1; Mexico 1; Italy 1; New Zealand 1; Ukrainian-Canadian 1; Albania 1; Trinidad and Tobago 1; Malaysia 1; Wales 1; Australia 1; Hungary 1; Greece 1; Pakistan 1; Ireland 1; Tanzania 1; Scotland 1;
Books in translation: 17
Genders, m/f: 31/42, mixed 1;
Owner: books I own 64; Library 6; free on audible 3;
Re-reads: 2
Year Published: 2020’s 34; 2010s 9; 2000’s 5; 1990’s 4; 1980’s 6; 1960’s 3; 1950’s 2; 1940’s 2; 1930’s 3; 1920’s 1; 1800’s 2; 1300’s 1; BCE 2;
TBR numbers: +20 (acquired 82, read from tbr 62)
All stats - since I started keeping track in December of 1990
Books read: 1480
Formats: Paperback 732; Hardcover 318; Audio 244; ebooks 149; Lit magazines 38
Subjects in brief: Non-fiction 543; Novels 542, Biographies/Memoirs 245; Classics 243; History 207; Booker Prize listed 165; Religion/Mythology/Philosophy 142; Poetry 114; Journalism 104; Science 103; On Literature and Books 79; Ancient 77; Speculative Fiction 71; Nature 71; Essay Collections 58; Short Story Collections 55; Drama 50; Anthologies 48; Graphic 46; Juvenile/YA 37; Visual Arts 29; Mystery/Thriller 18; Interviews 16
Nationalities: US 795; Other English-language countries: 357; Other: 321
Books in translation: 261
Genders, m/f: 888/487
Owner: Books I owned 1089 Library books 305; Books I borrowed 76; Online 10;
Re-reads: 30
Year Published: 2020’s 136; 2010's 294; 2000's 300; 1990's 191; 1980's 133; 1970's 62; 1960's 59; 1950's 38; 1900-1949 109; 19th century 25; 16th-18th centuries 38; 13th-15th centuries 18; 0-1199 21; BCE 57
TBR: 674
Recent milestones: 300 books from the decade of the 2000’s, the most from any decade.
9dchaikin
58. Will There Ever Be Another You by Patricia Lockwood
OPD: 2025
format: 183-page Bookshop.org ebook
acquired: October 5 read: Oct 5-9 time reading: 8:16, 2.8 mpp
rating: 3
genre/style: stream of conscious novel theme: none
locations: post-Covid Ohio
about the author: An American poet, novelist, essayist and notable Twitter personality. She was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana (1982). Her father converted to Catholicism and became a priest. So she grew up in a Catholic rectory in St. Louis, Missouri and Cincinnati, Ohio. She did not attend college.
OPD: 2025
format: 183-page Bookshop.org ebook
acquired: October 5 read: Oct 5-9 time reading: 8:16, 2.8 mpp
rating: 3
genre/style: stream of conscious novel theme: none
locations: post-Covid Ohio
about the author: An American poet, novelist, essayist and notable Twitter personality. She was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana (1982). Her father converted to Catholicism and became a priest. So she grew up in a Catholic rectory in St. Louis, Missouri and Cincinnati, Ohio. She did not attend college.
10dchaikin
59. Fast and Loose by Edith Wharton
written: 1877, published posthumously
format: part of The Complete Works of Edith Wharton. Illustrated: The Age of Innocence, The House of Mirth, Ethan Frome and others, an unpaged Kindle ebook. I estimated 153 pages.
acquired: Sep 25 read: Oct 12-17 time reading: 4:01, 1.6 mpp
rating: 3
genre/style: juvenile novella theme: Wharton
locations: England and Italy
about the author: 1862-1937. Born Edith Newbold Jones on West 23rd Street, New York City. Relocated permanently to France after 1911.
written: 1877, published posthumously
format: part of The Complete Works of Edith Wharton. Illustrated: The Age of Innocence, The House of Mirth, Ethan Frome and others, an unpaged Kindle ebook. I estimated 153 pages.
acquired: Sep 25 read: Oct 12-17 time reading: 4:01, 1.6 mpp
rating: 3
genre/style: juvenile novella theme: Wharton
locations: England and Italy
about the author: 1862-1937. Born Edith Newbold Jones on West 23rd Street, New York City. Relocated permanently to France after 1911.
11RidgewayGirl
>9 dchaikin: Have you read Priestdaddy? It's her most accessible book and certainly her most successful.
12dchaikin
>11 RidgewayGirl: no. Well, not yet. I want to
13rasdhar
Happy New Thread! I enjoyed your review of Will There Ever Be Another You. I've read some of Lockwood's short stories, and I think that dreamlike, vignett-ish quality worked well with the tighter format. I'm sorry to hear it didn't work out as well for the memoir.
15dchaikin
I recently listened to The Secret of Life: Rosalind Franklin, James Watson, Francis Crick, and the Discovery of DNA's Double Helix by Howard Markel. James Watson passed away today. He was 97.
https://www.npr.org/2025/11/07/nx-s1-5144654/james-watson-dna-double-helix-dies
https://www.npr.org/2025/11/07/nx-s1-5144654/james-watson-dna-double-helix-dies
16qebo
>15 dchaikin: Thanks for posting this. I saw the news yesterday evening, but the NPR article is especially thorough.
18dchaikin
60. Summer of Fire and Blood: The German Peasants' War by Lyndal Roper
reader: Rose Akroyd
OPD: 2025
format: 13:09 audible audiobook (393 pages)
acquired: October 7 listened: Oct 7-24
rating: 3 ½
genre/style: history theme: random audio
locations: 1524/25 southern Germany and surrounding areas
about the author: An Australian historian and academic focused on German history of the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, who has written a biography of Martin Luther. She was born in Melbourne, Australia, 1956. She is currently an Honorary Fellow at Oxford.
reader: Rose Akroyd
OPD: 2025
format: 13:09 audible audiobook (393 pages)
acquired: October 7 listened: Oct 7-24
rating: 3 ½
genre/style: history theme: random audio
locations: 1524/25 southern Germany and surrounding areas
about the author: An Australian historian and academic focused on German history of the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, who has written a biography of Martin Luther. She was born in Melbourne, Australia, 1956. She is currently an Honorary Fellow at Oxford.
19baswood
>18 dchaikin: Interesting review Dan. I read a review recently in the LRB and thought the book sounded interesting especially as I know nothing about the German Peasant's revolt.
20kjuliff
>18 dchaikin: from my reading of the Reformation, I thought that Luther distanced himself from the peasants aligned himself with a princess in order to be successful. Is this touched upon in the book?
21dchaikin
>20 kjuliff: he had no interest in the peasants or their issues, and did intentionally align himself with the princes. That’s part of why he encouraged massacres, to distance himself from the revolt and strengthen his power relationships. Roper previously wrote a book on Luther, interestingly enough
22dchaikin
>19 baswood: it’s a fascinating event! And Roper’s book is full of details about it
23thorold
>18 dchaikin: etc. Fun!
Lots of things in Germany seem to draw in references to the Bauernkrieg, but I’ve never known more that vaguely what or when it was. I think I had it mixed up in my mind with Kleist’s Michael Koolhaas, which was actually set a decade or so later.
There’s a Deutschlandfunk feature on “500 years of Bauernkrieg” here, including a snippet of interview with prof. Roper (in German): https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/deutschland-geschichte-bauernkrieg-reformat...
They stress the Twelve Articles as the “first human rights declaration since Magna Carta” (possibly a bit of a stretch) and talk about the importance of printing in distributing them. Also about Luther’s initial support and subsequent distancing of himself from the cause. And the way modern farmers’ protests still cite the Bauernkrieg as a precedent.
Lots of things in Germany seem to draw in references to the Bauernkrieg, but I’ve never known more that vaguely what or when it was. I think I had it mixed up in my mind with Kleist’s Michael Koolhaas, which was actually set a decade or so later.
There’s a Deutschlandfunk feature on “500 years of Bauernkrieg” here, including a snippet of interview with prof. Roper (in German): https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/deutschland-geschichte-bauernkrieg-reformat...
They stress the Twelve Articles as the “first human rights declaration since Magna Carta” (possibly a bit of a stretch) and talk about the importance of printing in distributing them. Also about Luther’s initial support and subsequent distancing of himself from the cause. And the way modern farmers’ protests still cite the Bauernkrieg as a precedent.
24dchaikin
>23 thorold: so interesting and yet it was entirely new to me. And, yeah, I guess it was exactly 500 years ago! The twelve articles were mentioned a lot, but I couldn't follow the details, only their symbolic significance. There was a kind of backhanded call for human rights, but it was coded in religious evangelism. When a city tried to negotiate or surrender, it began with - you must agree to these 12 articles.
25kjuliff
>21 dchaikin: I will look out for the Luther book.
26dchaikin
>25 kjuliff: did I mention to you that Roper is Australian?
27dchaikin
61. The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai
OPD: 2025
format: 670-page hardcover
acquired: September 26 read: Sep 28 – Oct 27 time reading: 25:33, 2.3 mpp
rating: 4
genre/style: Novel theme: Booker 2025
locations: Allahabad, New Delhi, Goa and elsewhere in India, Vermont, New York City and Mexico
about the author: India author and professor of humanities at MIT in Boston. She is the daughter of author Anita Desai, and was born in New Delhi, India, 1971.
The Booker Prize is announced tomorrow. This book completed the longlist for me and is a potential winner.
OPD: 2025
format: 670-page hardcover
acquired: September 26 read: Sep 28 – Oct 27 time reading: 25:33, 2.3 mpp
rating: 4
genre/style: Novel theme: Booker 2025
locations: Allahabad, New Delhi, Goa and elsewhere in India, Vermont, New York City and Mexico
about the author: India author and professor of humanities at MIT in Boston. She is the daughter of author Anita Desai, and was born in New Delhi, India, 1971.
The Booker Prize is announced tomorrow. This book completed the longlist for me and is a potential winner.
28kjuliff
>26 dchaikin: no you didn’t mention it. I checked her out and I see not only if she is Australian but she’s from my hometown of Melbourne. Melbourne is the cultural center of Australia. It’s similar in many ways to New York whereas city is more like LA.
As a well known Melburnian writers are Germaine Greer, Helen Garner, Christos Tsiolkas, Tony Birch, Peter Carey, Sonya Hartnett, and Geraldine Brooks, they said we’re born in rural Victoria - Melbourne being this state capital.
As a well known Melburnian writers are Germaine Greer, Helen Garner, Christos Tsiolkas, Tony Birch, Peter Carey, Sonya Hartnett, and Geraldine Brooks, they said we’re born in rural Victoria - Melbourne being this state capital.
29kjuliff
>27 dchaikin: I liked everything about this novel except reading it
Talk about damming with faint praise. It certainly put me off the book.
Talk about damming with faint praise. It certainly put me off the book.
30dchaikin
>29 kjuliff: i know. Self-critical too, i hope. It’s just my response - the most significant thing i have to say about my 25 hours with it. When i see gawking about it, i feel like a bad reader. 🙂
31kjuliff
>30 dchaikin: I had already decided not to read it seeing as it was so long. But I found your sentence so funny that I just had to quote it.
33dchaikin
Flesh is a nice winner. A kind of bold skeletal novel about the un-self-explored life Hungarian-born Istan. He is a veteran with a prison record who marries into a lot of English money. It reads fast, is somehow fun, and hangs around.
Here’s what i said in August:
“Sparse prose and a character who rarely says more than, "ok", somehow create a vast swarm of subtext.
…
But, more to the point, the book hasn't left me. There is so much going on under the surface, that it leaves the reader as under-processed as István is of himself. And like many readers, I can't let it go at that.
…
it's raging underneath”
Here’s what i said in August:
“Sparse prose and a character who rarely says more than, "ok", somehow create a vast swarm of subtext.
…
But, more to the point, the book hasn't left me. There is so much going on under the surface, that it leaves the reader as under-processed as István is of himself. And like many readers, I can't let it go at that.
…
it's raging underneath”
34kjuliff
>33 dchaikin: In reading year’s Booker long and short lists Flesh and Audition were my top choices for winning the prize. The only other shortlisted book I was able to read was Flashlight which I did not expect to win.
Flesh was the last book I was able to review before my last spell of illness. So I’m both glad that it won and glad that I managed to review it. You can read my review here.
Flesh was the last book I was able to review before my last spell of illness. So I’m both glad that it won and glad that I managed to review it. You can read my review here.
35Willoyd
>34 kjuliff: >33 dchaikin:
I also reckoned it was between Flesh and Audition, but only because they were the two I most disliked, and it was obvious that I was completely out of synch with the judges this year. I found Flesh nigh on unreadable, and gave up after around 100 pages, the first time I can recall doing so with a shortlister (not that I read them all!). I ought to add that I've only fully read 4, having just dipped into the Miller and Desai in an attempt to get a feel for them beforehand as unable to fit them all in in the time. That's left me looking forward to reading them.
Not sure if I'll try to read the full shortlist again. This is the third year I've tried and whilst last year was very enjoyable, the other two have had too high a proportion where I've wondered why I've bothered. Perhaps not cut out for 'high' lit, but I've found other lists including the International Booker more rewarding.
Watched the livestream. What a shambles.
I also reckoned it was between Flesh and Audition, but only because they were the two I most disliked, and it was obvious that I was completely out of synch with the judges this year. I found Flesh nigh on unreadable, and gave up after around 100 pages, the first time I can recall doing so with a shortlister (not that I read them all!). I ought to add that I've only fully read 4, having just dipped into the Miller and Desai in an attempt to get a feel for them beforehand as unable to fit them all in in the time. That's left me looking forward to reading them.
Not sure if I'll try to read the full shortlist again. This is the third year I've tried and whilst last year was very enjoyable, the other two have had too high a proportion where I've wondered why I've bothered. Perhaps not cut out for 'high' lit, but I've found other lists including the International Booker more rewarding.
Watched the livestream. What a shambles.
36baswood
Excellent review of The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny and you were right in thinking it would not win. Some time ago I read her The Inheritance of loss which I admired but didn't like I thought it lacked a heart.
You can relax now the Booker prize is over - until next year?
You can relax now the Booker prize is over - until next year?
37dchaikin
>34 kjuliff: i enjoyed your review of flesh. And glad one of your top two won. I had kind of decided I wanted Audition, but would be otherwise equally happy with any of the other five. I really enjoyed Flesh
>35 Willoyd: Sorry, but that’s really funny criteria. I read the longlist because usually i find gems there that didn’t make the shortlist. The book one judge really liked that I love too. As for the livestream - it was catastrophically bad. A mess. I’m embarrassed for them. I’m kind of surprised _that_ wasn’t news
>35 Willoyd: Sorry, but that’s really funny criteria. I read the longlist because usually i find gems there that didn’t make the shortlist. The book one judge really liked that I love too. As for the livestream - it was catastrophically bad. A mess. I’m embarrassed for them. I’m kind of surprised _that_ wasn’t news
39dchaikin
>36 baswood: yes. Till the international Booker longlist in February. Trying to decide how much Faulkner i want to keep reading. I feel emotionally done, but haven’t read either Pulitzer Prize winner yet. Interesting about The Inherent of Loss.
The 1951 National Book Award went to Faulkner’s Collected Stories. 900 exhausting pages. But it was published in 1950. So you’re off the hook.
On the Facebook Booker group one person who i assume is Indian complained that Desai writes from a (spoiled?) rich Indian perspective. 🙂 It was one of those kind of silly but not wrong comments
The 1951 National Book Award went to Faulkner’s Collected Stories. 900 exhausting pages. But it was published in 1950. So you’re off the hook.
On the Facebook Booker group one person who i assume is Indian complained that Desai writes from a (spoiled?) rich Indian perspective. 🙂 It was one of those kind of silly but not wrong comments
40dchaikin
>38 japaul22: it was broken up, with awkward transitions, a sudden rushed prize announcement, and a goofy livestream host who asked Szalay dumb questions. It was also ten minutes late and they didn’t cover Penelope Lively’s speech. Just skipped it. And last year’s winner didn’t hand Szalay the prize, which is a nice tradition. Very shoddy. (Also Szalay was awkward. But that was kind of charming. He had so mentally prepared himself to lose he was completely unprepared to win)
41Willoyd
>37 dchaikin:
Sorry, don't understand: what's really funny criteria?
On reading the short/long list, I think you might have the right solution starting when the long list is announced. It gives more time, so that when the short list is announced, one is likely to have read at least one or two, so more likely to have time to read the rest of the short list, and spread a bit amongst other reading. Part of my problem this year was probably having read three books on the trot that I didn't really rate. And, perhaps more importantly, as you say, more likely to have included some gems that don't make it (there are at least a couple I've got on my TBR and wish I'd at least had a go at before now).
BTW, so glad you enjoyed Flesh - and have loved reading your reviews even where my experience was different, or perhaps I've enjoyed them most when my experience has been different - provides real insight (and I admire your stamina!).
Sorry, don't understand: what's really funny criteria?
On reading the short/long list, I think you might have the right solution starting when the long list is announced. It gives more time, so that when the short list is announced, one is likely to have read at least one or two, so more likely to have time to read the rest of the short list, and spread a bit amongst other reading. Part of my problem this year was probably having read three books on the trot that I didn't really rate. And, perhaps more importantly, as you say, more likely to have included some gems that don't make it (there are at least a couple I've got on my TBR and wish I'd at least had a go at before now).
BTW, so glad you enjoyed Flesh - and have loved reading your reviews even where my experience was different, or perhaps I've enjoyed them most when my experience has been different - provides real insight (and I admire your stamina!).
42japaul22
>40 dchaikin: interesting! I wonder what happened - i.e. who planned it this year.
43dchaikin
>43 dchaikin: thank you. That’s a nice thing to say. You know, for five years I gave myself all year to read the longlist - one per month plus two thinnies in July. I really didn’t like the shortlist or the winner because I never agreed. But now i snarf them all down at once…then my brain wanders around a little stunned.
I took this as your criteria: “I also reckoned it was between Flesh and Audition, but only because they were the two I most disliked”
>42 japaul22: me too. I imagine the stage director got lost in a coat closet as they went live.
I took this as your criteria: “I also reckoned it was between Flesh and Audition, but only because they were the two I most disliked”
>42 japaul22: me too. I imagine the stage director got lost in a coat closet as they went live.
44Willoyd
>43 dchaikin:
Ah, I see! What I meant by that, was that I've felt so out of synch with the judges this year, that I reckoned that the one of the ones on the list I least liked would land up the winner (Flesh is one of only two Booker shortlisters ever that I've DNF'd on). My own personal choices for winner would (but it's only based on dipping, not a full read yet) have been between Andrew Miller and Kiran Desai. Last year it was the other way round: with my personal top two being James and Orbital. Good that you've got a winner you agree with this year (and I know how much you've enjoyed the list as a whole).
I'm currently enjoying Sarah Hall's Helm - which didn't even make the longlist - and loving the breath of fresh air it's bringing post-Booker (pardon the pun!) before settling back down to The Land in Winter, which was already lined up as a Book Group read (appropriate for December we felt!).
Ah, I see! What I meant by that, was that I've felt so out of synch with the judges this year, that I reckoned that the one of the ones on the list I least liked would land up the winner (Flesh is one of only two Booker shortlisters ever that I've DNF'd on). My own personal choices for winner would (but it's only based on dipping, not a full read yet) have been between Andrew Miller and Kiran Desai. Last year it was the other way round: with my personal top two being James and Orbital. Good that you've got a winner you agree with this year (and I know how much you've enjoyed the list as a whole).
I'm currently enjoying Sarah Hall's Helm - which didn't even make the longlist - and loving the breath of fresh air it's bringing post-Booker (pardon the pun!) before settling back down to The Land in Winter, which was already lined up as a Book Group read (appropriate for December we felt!).
45dchaikin
>44 Willoyd: i’ve heard great things about Helm
46kidzdoc
BTW, tonight's episode of the PBS NewsHour concluded with a very interesting interview with David Szalay about Flesh. I didn't see a link to that interview on the NewsHour's web site, but I'm sure that will change soon.
47dchaikin
>46 kidzdoc: thanks! I’ll look for that.
48las18
Hi Dan. Following here. Well, I have been all year but never comment. Generally I'm not drawn to reading Booker nominees but I always admire your enthusiasm. Plus, you usually come up with a few off-the-beaten-path book gems that capture my attention. : )
49dchaikin
>48 las18: I’m really grateful for this. Thank you. And I apologize for the late response. I’ve been traveling. New Orleans and alcohol were… are… involved. Thanks for breaking form and commenting.
50rasdhar
>18 dchaikin: Great review, Dan, and it sounds like most of the books I read in my work. Academic writing, especially in the humanities, is a beast of its own.
>27 dchaikin: Enjoyed your review of The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny.
Hope you had fun in New Orleans!
>27 dchaikin: Enjoyed your review of The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny.
Hope you had fun in New Orleans!
51dchaikin
>50 rasdhar: I’m still on New Orleans. I adore the world that is here. Thanks for stopping by. I think Roper’s history was written for the nonacademic reader. It’s just that I struggled to make those details collect into a coherent picture.
52rasdhar
>51 dchaikin: If it was written for the non-academic reader, that's a problem! I think many people who get deep into research sometimes forget that other people aren't in the weeds with them, it takes a bit of effort to recognise that and step back so that others can see the bigger picture that they already know.
I've been to New Orleans once, it was fabulous! Enjoy your trip!
I've been to New Orleans once, it was fabulous! Enjoy your trip!
53RidgewayGirl
I hope you're having all the fun! I'm not going to tell my husband someone I know is in NOLA because he will start to pine. Doesn't help that the days are getting very short.
54dchaikin
>52 rasdhar: I certainly don’t have the right sense to make that judgement. I’m very attached to NO.
>53 RidgewayGirl: he should pine! 🙂
>53 RidgewayGirl: he should pine! 🙂
55dchaikin
62. Chasing Homer : Good luck, and nothing else : Odysseus's Cave by László Krasznahorkai
other contributors art by Max Neumann, music by Szilveszter Miklós
Translated from Hungarian by John Batki (2021)
OPD: 2019
format: 89-page illustrated hardcover
acquired: library loan read: Oct 18, 28-30 time reading: 1:57, 1.5 mpp
rating: 3½
genre/style: illustrated novel theme: none
locations: Croatia
about the author: Hungarian writer, novelist and screenwriter, and 2025 Nobel prize winner. Born in Gyula, Hungary (1954)
other contributors art by Max Neumann, music by Szilveszter Miklós
Translated from Hungarian by John Batki (2021)
OPD: 2019
format: 89-page illustrated hardcover
acquired: library loan read: Oct 18, 28-30 time reading: 1:57, 1.5 mpp
rating: 3½
genre/style: illustrated novel theme: none
locations: Croatia
about the author: Hungarian writer, novelist and screenwriter, and 2025 Nobel prize winner. Born in Gyula, Hungary (1954)
56baswood
>55 dchaikin: well that sort of sounds like fun
57dchaikin
63. Collected Stories of William Faulkner
OPD: 1950
format: 900-page paperback
acquired: from Faulkner House Books in New Orleans in 2024
read: Sep 11 – Nov 8 time reading: 34:22, 2.3 mpp
rating: 4
genre/style: Classic short stories theme: Faulkner
locations: fictional Yoknapatawpha, Mississippi, amongst other places
about the author: 1897-1962. American Noble Laureate who was born in New Albany, MS, and lived most of his life in Oxford, MS.
tags: The Unvanquished, As I lay Dying
OPD: 1950
format: 900-page paperback
acquired: from Faulkner House Books in New Orleans in 2024
read: Sep 11 – Nov 8 time reading: 34:22, 2.3 mpp
rating: 4
genre/style: Classic short stories theme: Faulkner
locations: fictional Yoknapatawpha, Mississippi, amongst other places
about the author: 1897-1962. American Noble Laureate who was born in New Albany, MS, and lived most of his life in Oxford, MS.
tags: The Unvanquished, As I lay Dying
58dchaikin
>56 baswood: sort of. It is playfully clever, in the end.
59dchaikin
64. East of Eden by John Steinbeck
reader: Richard Poe (2011)
OPD: 1952
format: 25:23 audible audiobook (602 pages)
acquired: October 27 listened: Oct 27 – Nov 17
rating: 4½
genre/style: Classic theme: random audio
locations: Salinas valley, California and Connecticut
about the author: (1902-1968) American writer and the 1962 Nobel Prize winner. He grew up in Salinas, California.
reader: Richard Poe (2011)
OPD: 1952
format: 25:23 audible audiobook (602 pages)
acquired: October 27 listened: Oct 27 – Nov 17
rating: 4½
genre/style: Classic theme: random audio
locations: Salinas valley, California and Connecticut
about the author: (1902-1968) American writer and the 1962 Nobel Prize winner. He grew up in Salinas, California.
60dchaikin
(there were a mere 460 reviews before I added mine to East of Eden. Clearly another long one, thin on analysis, was needed)
61dchaikin
65. Rabbit, Run by John Updike
OPD: 1960
format: weirdly-paged ebook (it should be 337 pages)
acquired: November 8 read: Nov 8-17 time reading: 12:07, 2.2 mpp
rating: 4
genre/style: classic novel theme: none
locations: fictional and then contemporary Brewer, Pennsylvania
about the author: 1932-2009. Updike was an American novelist, poet, short-story writer, art critic, and literary critic who won the Pulitzer Prize twice, published more than twenty novels, as well as short-story collections, poetry, art and literary criticism and children's books. He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, and grew up in a nearby small town of Shillington.
tag: The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovits
OPD: 1960
format: weirdly-paged ebook (it should be 337 pages)
acquired: November 8 read: Nov 8-17 time reading: 12:07, 2.2 mpp
rating: 4
genre/style: classic novel theme: none
locations: fictional and then contemporary Brewer, Pennsylvania
about the author: 1932-2009. Updike was an American novelist, poet, short-story writer, art critic, and literary critic who won the Pulitzer Prize twice, published more than twenty novels, as well as short-story collections, poetry, art and literary criticism and children's books. He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, and grew up in a nearby small town of Shillington.
tag: The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovits
63thorold
>61 dchaikin: I’ve got Rabbit, run on my TBR, as a piece of Americana I never really got to before — maybe I’ll get to it in the next couple of weeks. But your review reminds me of why I never got far with Updike before…
64dchaikin
>63 thorold: that’s not the response I expected to my review. interesting 🙂 I liked Updike and would happily read him again, but it would take some external motivation.
65mabith
Oh dear, I had decided I probably didn't need to read Rabbit, Run and now I want to. The danger and joy of LT!
66dchaikin
>65 mabith: that’s more like the reaction i imagined. It’s oddly disturbingly good.
67Dilara86
>55 dchaikin:
I would read more Krasznahorkai, but knowing he takes some work, I would need some motivation. I'm not yet ready to search more out.
That's where I'm at with Krasznahorkai too :-))
I would read more Krasznahorkai, but knowing he takes some work, I would need some motivation. I'm not yet ready to search more out.
That's where I'm at with Krasznahorkai too :-))
68baswood
>57 dchaikin: I have the collected stories of William Faulkner on my kindle and thought I would dip into them from time to time. They have been on my kindle for two years and I have only dipped into them once: I read the first story.
Thanks for your review which sets out how the stories are organised, this is helpful.
>61 dchaikin: I loved the rabbit quartet when I read it ages ago. I don't think I need to go back to it. I enjoyed your excellent review which brought back memories of Updike's descriptions of American suburbia.
Thanks for your review which sets out how the stories are organised, this is helpful.
>61 dchaikin: I loved the rabbit quartet when I read it ages ago. I don't think I need to go back to it. I enjoyed your excellent review which brought back memories of Updike's descriptions of American suburbia.
69Willoyd
I've got East of Eden lined up for the New Year sometime, as it's my planned book for Calfornia in my tour of the USA. I thought I might read it as the last one (43 down, 9 to go), but may get stuck in earlier. You certainly helped me look forward to it more!
70dchaikin
>67 Dilara86: we’ll have to form a Lazlo support group
>68 baswood: I thought of you and that 1951 NBA. It was published in 1950, so you have an out. 🙂 You may enjoy these Faulkner stories.
And thanks for the comment on Updike’s Rabbit
>69 Willoyd: 43 is impressive. I hope you enjoy Steinbeck. And as an American tour stop, he provides an excellent sense of place.
>68 baswood: I thought of you and that 1951 NBA. It was published in 1950, so you have an out. 🙂 You may enjoy these Faulkner stories.
And thanks for the comment on Updike’s Rabbit
>69 Willoyd: 43 is impressive. I hope you enjoy Steinbeck. And as an American tour stop, he provides an excellent sense of place.
71Dilara86
>70 dchaikin: we’ll have to form a Lazlo support group
I'm confident we'll find other members easily! :-D
In the meantime, I've started reading another Nobel laureate, from the other end of the timeline (1915): Romain Rolland.
I'm confident we'll find other members easily! :-D
In the meantime, I've started reading another Nobel laureate, from the other end of the timeline (1915): Romain Rolland.
72SassyLassy
>55 dchaikin:. I've only read one book by Krasznahorkai, Satantango, pre Nobel, but reading your review, I wonder if the anonymity and paranoia are recurring themes of his.
>61 dchaikin: Another one who hasn't read Updike, at least in a long while, due to that ambivalence others have expressed.
>61 dchaikin: Another one who hasn't read Updike, at least in a long while, due to that ambivalence others have expressed.
73kjuliff
>59 dchaikin: Interesting review Dan. i’ve read a few Steinbeck’s, but all in text, and not this one. I see that you read the audio version and that it was well narrated, so I might get it. I note it is 20 hours of read time which I find a bit long. Did you find it so? Did you read it over a period of time or concurrently with other books?
I find it hard to read longish books on audio. I get a bit frustrated. I had no problem with length when I was able to read print. Knowing what you do of my taste in fiction, do you think it’s a book for me? Tia.
I find it hard to read longish books on audio. I get a bit frustrated. I had no problem with length when I was able to read print. Knowing what you do of my taste in fiction, do you think it’s a book for me? Tia.
74dchaikin
>73 kjuliff: it helped that i had an 8 hour drive one day. I don’t mind long books on audio. And i prefer to read long books that way, if i can follow. But i listen in pieces when im driving or doing something else. So they go easier. I think you would love East of Eden.
75kjuliff
>74 dchaikin: Thanks. I’ll put it on my list.
76Willoyd
>70 dchaikin:
Its been an amazing trip so far. So many discoveries. Made me realise how Anglocentric my reading actually was. This forum has helped hugely.
Its been an amazing trip so far. So many discoveries. Made me realise how Anglocentric my reading actually was. This forum has helped hugely.
77FlorenceArt
I read East of Eden as a teenager, and again some years later as a young adult. I identified stringy with Caleb. I loved Lee, the few scenes I remember feature him. Well, him or Cathy. She fascinated and puzzled me. She is described entirely from the outside, without any attempt at explaining or understanding her. Years later, someone on LT commented that Steinbeck didn’t get women (that’s how I remember it at least) and I immediately thought about her. I haven’t read many Steinbeck and I don’t remember any other female character from him.
78dchaikin
>77 FlorenceArt: interesting about Steinbeck and women. I noted at one point he uses sex to explain Cathy. She didn’t enjoy it, or something like that. It was such a “guy” explanation. He never does use the term sociopath, or anything similar.
79valkyrdeath
>59 dchaikin: I always enjoy reading Steinbeck but haven't read any for years. I need to get back to him, and definitely need to read this one.
>61 dchaikin: I've never quite been able to decide whether or not I want to read Updike. Your review certainly makes it seem tempting.
>61 dchaikin: I've never quite been able to decide whether or not I want to read Updike. Your review certainly makes it seem tempting.
80lilisin
>77 FlorenceArt:, >78 dchaikin:
On the other hand I just read a book called Grotesque by Natsuo Kirino who is a female author, and wrote a character similar to Cathy who has similar relationships to sex. So I don't think Steinbeck being a man doesn't mean he can't understand women. Especially considering most women are not like Cathy I think we can say that he properly created a specific woman that could very well exist.
On the other hand I just read a book called Grotesque by Natsuo Kirino who is a female author, and wrote a character similar to Cathy who has similar relationships to sex. So I don't think Steinbeck being a man doesn't mean he can't understand women. Especially considering most women are not like Cathy I think we can say that he properly created a specific woman that could very well exist.
81rasdhar
Catching up on your thread after a long time, please forgive the scattered comments!
>55 dchaikin: I loved your review of Krasnahorkai's Chasing Homer. I think your assessment of him as a demanding, but clever, writer is spot on.
>56 baswood: It does sound like the Collected Stories are not a good entry point for Faulkner.
>59 dchaikin: East of Eden does have a broader accessibility that some fiction lacks, despite being so rooted in geographical context. I mean to say that the location and the cultural context are so specific and yet, someone completely outside it (like myself) can step right into and enjoy it. Did you feel refreshed, revisiting it after so many difficult reads?
>55 dchaikin: I loved your review of Krasnahorkai's Chasing Homer. I think your assessment of him as a demanding, but clever, writer is spot on.
>56 baswood: It does sound like the Collected Stories are not a good entry point for Faulkner.
>59 dchaikin: East of Eden does have a broader accessibility that some fiction lacks, despite being so rooted in geographical context. I mean to say that the location and the cultural context are so specific and yet, someone completely outside it (like myself) can step right into and enjoy it. Did you feel refreshed, revisiting it after so many difficult reads?
82FlorenceArt
>80 lilisin: I don’t think Steinbeck being a man means he can’t understand women. And my problem with Cathy was not her relationship to sex, it was her relationship to people. And Steinbeck’s seeming relationship to her as a character.
83dchaikin
>80 lilisin: thanks and fair point. For what it’s worth, it’s not the indifference to or lack of enjoyment of sex by itself that caught my attention, but the idea that it can be a cause of a sociopathic mindset. That seems like a loaded explanation ??
>81 rasdhar: of course, you were missed here. Glad you stopped by. Thanks for the comment on Lazlo. East of Eden was a terrific balm. Refreshing is the right word. And, yes, I encourage starting Faulkner elsewhere.
>82 FlorenceArt: hi there. Do you think being a sociopath would explain Cathy Ames?
>81 rasdhar: of course, you were missed here. Glad you stopped by. Thanks for the comment on Lazlo. East of Eden was a terrific balm. Refreshing is the right word. And, yes, I encourage starting Faulkner elsewhere.
>82 FlorenceArt: hi there. Do you think being a sociopath would explain Cathy Ames?
84FlorenceArt
>83 dchaikin: I don’t know. Maybe? Sounds more like a description than an explanation, but maybe we can’t really understand a sociopath?
85dchaikin
>85 dchaikin: well, there is that. !
86lilisin
>82 FlorenceArt:
Thanks for the further explanation, I see what you were getting at. I still think Cathy ('s? s'? s?) exist however, but I do remember now that I also felt just a little something missing from her character when I read the book myself. It wasn't humanity because she wasn't meant to have it (in a "normal" sense) but, I can't place what it was exactly, but I actually think it was when Steinbeck made her do something that almost felt out of character. But now that I type that out, being out of character once in a while as equally a human trait as any other. As we can't be like stock photos, always the same, with no opportunity to do something a smidge different. I've started talking to myself now. :)
>83 dchaikin:
I would feel like those are heavily connected actually. Although I'm not a trained psychologist of any kind so I'm just basing my opinion on personal experience and "feeling". I think we can agree she is a striking and thus, memorable character.
Thanks for the further explanation, I see what you were getting at. I still think Cathy ('s? s'? s?) exist however, but I do remember now that I also felt just a little something missing from her character when I read the book myself. It wasn't humanity because she wasn't meant to have it (in a "normal" sense) but, I can't place what it was exactly, but I actually think it was when Steinbeck made her do something that almost felt out of character. But now that I type that out, being out of character once in a while as equally a human trait as any other. As we can't be like stock photos, always the same, with no opportunity to do something a smidge different. I've started talking to myself now. :)
>83 dchaikin:
I would feel like those are heavily connected actually. Although I'm not a trained psychologist of any kind so I'm just basing my opinion on personal experience and "feeling". I think we can agree she is a striking and thus, memorable character.
87dchaikin
>86 lilisin: “I would feel like those are heavily connected actually” - just curious, maybe a lot curious, is there any information that might back that up?
88FlorenceArt
>87 dchaikin: Rereading that exchange, I would also be interested, as an asexual person who, as far as I can tell, is not a sociopath 😊
89dchaikin
>88 FlorenceArt: ha! You’re clearly not a sociopath or anything remotely like that. Hugs
90lilisin
>87 dchaikin:, >88 FlorenceArt:
I said heavily connected to mean that a person with sociopathic leanings might typically have atypical behaviors towards sex. I am however very much, in fact, definitely NOT implying that someone with atypical behaviors towards sex is a sociopath.
As for information to back that up, that is why I initially stated that I was basing my statement on "feeling" since I'm not a qualifed psychologist.
I hope that resolves any misunderstanding I've created on my part.
I said heavily connected to mean that a person with sociopathic leanings might typically have atypical behaviors towards sex. I am however very much, in fact, definitely NOT implying that someone with atypical behaviors towards sex is a sociopath.
As for information to back that up, that is why I initially stated that I was basing my statement on "feeling" since I'm not a qualifed psychologist.
I hope that resolves any misunderstanding I've created on my part.
91dchaikin
>90 lilisin: hey. Don’t forget you’re in a safe place here. No worries. You’re ok with me always. I think I understood all that. (By the way, I did a little googling. I found a lot that was disturbing and entertaining, but i came up empty on anything truly relevant)
92dchaikin
I joined some people in the facebook Booker Prize Book Club on an Antigone theme read. We have a series of reads planned on transformations, and this was the 1st one. We started with the original play - or translations of it.
66. Antigone by Sophocles
translation: from ancient Greek by Elizabeth Wyckoff (1954)
OPD: circa 440 bce
format: 47 pages within The Complete Greek Tragedies: Sophocles I
acquired: November 15 read: Nov 21-22 time reading: 1:29, 1.9 mpp
rating: 5
genre/style: Classic Greek Drama theme: random
locations: Mythically ancient Thebes
about the author: (c. 497/496 – winter 406/405 BC), one of three ancient Greek tragedians from whom at least two plays have survived in full. Sophocles wrote more than 120 plays, but only seven have survived in a complete form. He was probably born in Colonos, in Attica.
tags: Burial at Thebes by Seamus Heaney
66. Antigone by Sophocles
translation: from ancient Greek by Elizabeth Wyckoff (1954)
OPD: circa 440 bce
format: 47 pages within The Complete Greek Tragedies: Sophocles I
acquired: November 15 read: Nov 21-22 time reading: 1:29, 1.9 mpp
rating: 5
genre/style: Classic Greek Drama theme: random
locations: Mythically ancient Thebes
about the author: (c. 497/496 – winter 406/405 BC), one of three ancient Greek tragedians from whom at least two plays have survived in full. Sophocles wrote more than 120 plays, but only seven have survived in a complete form. He was probably born in Colonos, in Attica.
tags: Burial at Thebes by Seamus Heaney
93dchaikin
67. Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie
OPD: 2017
format: weirdly paged Bookshop.org ebook (286 pages)
acquired: November 22 read: Nov 22-28 time reading: 7:34, 1.6 mpp
rating: 4
genre/style: contemporary novel theme: Booker
locations: Amherst, MA, north London, and elsewhere
about the author: Pakistani and British writer who was born and raised in Karachi, Pakistan, went to school in the United States, and has lived in London since 2007. She was born in 1973.
OPD: 2017
format: weirdly paged Bookshop.org ebook (286 pages)
acquired: November 22 read: Nov 22-28 time reading: 7:34, 1.6 mpp
rating: 4
genre/style: contemporary novel theme: Booker
locations: Amherst, MA, north London, and elsewhere
about the author: Pakistani and British writer who was born and raised in Karachi, Pakistan, went to school in the United States, and has lived in London since 2007. She was born in 1973.
94dchaikin
68. Pale Sister by Colm Tóibín
reader: Lisa Dwan
OPD: 2019
format: 1:04 audible audiobook, included with membership (48 pages)
listened: Dec 1
rating: 3
genre/style: drama theme: Antigone
locations: Mythical Thebes
about the author: Irish novelist, short story writer, essayist, journalist, critic, playwright and poet, born in 1955 in Enniscorthy, County Wexford, in the southeast of Ireland.
reader: Lisa Dwan
OPD: 2019
format: 1:04 audible audiobook, included with membership (48 pages)
listened: Dec 1
rating: 3
genre/style: drama theme: Antigone
locations: Mythical Thebes
about the author: Irish novelist, short story writer, essayist, journalist, critic, playwright and poet, born in 1955 in Enniscorthy, County Wexford, in the southeast of Ireland.
95Dilara86
This theme read is fascinating! I've had Home Fire in my wishlist for years, and your review renewed my interest. Do you already know the other titles you'll be reading?
96labfs39
>95 Dilara86: As have I. I picked it up after reading and loving Burnt Shadows. I'm bumping Home Fire up the queue.
97dchaikin
>95 Dilara86: we only read these three. There is something about the French resistance during wwii. They put on Antigone, but performed it as an anti-nazi play. Nazi rulers did not realize it had that message. But i didn’t pursue that.
>96 labfs39: i think you will enjoy it!
>96 labfs39: i think you will enjoy it!
98FlorenceArt
>92 dchaikin: you make me want to read Antigone (the original one at least).
99Dilara86
>97 dchaikin: That'll be Jean Anouihl's Antigone, which I'm pretty sure I read decades ago - not that I remember the first thing about it... He liked to revisit classic plays: he also wrote Roméo et Jeannette :-D I had thought of maybe reading it again along with Sophocles's version before tackling Le quatrième mur (The Fourth Wall) by Sorj Chalandon, which is about putting on Anouihl's Antigone in Beirut during the war, but I never did.
100dchaikin
>100 dchaikin: that's the one!
101dchaikin
So November... does anyone remember that far back? Do I? It opened as a flat month for me. I spent 15 hours reading the second half of the Collected Stories of William Faulkner ... and I didn't really like them. Actually I decided to put a hold on all Faulkner. I'm setting the theme aside and on January 1st I'll open with Mrs. Dalloway, and 2026 will be the year of Virginia Woolf. I spent another 12 hours on Rabbit, Run, which was fun, but maybe enough Updike for this lifetime.
The one especially good thing I did in November was listen to Steinbeck's East of Eden. It's lovely book, in touch that part of California, and it was great fun to listen to. Left me revived.
Other bits were Antigone, always good but only takes 90 minutes to read, Home Fire, an excellent retelling of Antigone by Kamila Shamsie, I started Gurnah's Theft, and Edith Wharton's wonderful, if uninformative, autobiography, A Backward Glance - these last two I finished earlier this month. And on audio I've been listening to Margaret Atwood's terrific autobiography, Book of Lives.
December has been my least planned month. I've already finished that Gurnah and Wharton, and two other short novels, picked up, gasp!, on a whim. I have a buddy read planned with Atwood's The Edible Woman. Otherwise, more Thomas Malory (skipped in November), maybe some Katie Kitamura and/or a Penelope Lively novel I've been eyeing, Treasures of Time.
The one especially good thing I did in November was listen to Steinbeck's East of Eden. It's lovely book, in touch that part of California, and it was great fun to listen to. Left me revived.
Other bits were Antigone, always good but only takes 90 minutes to read, Home Fire, an excellent retelling of Antigone by Kamila Shamsie, I started Gurnah's Theft, and Edith Wharton's wonderful, if uninformative, autobiography, A Backward Glance - these last two I finished earlier this month. And on audio I've been listening to Margaret Atwood's terrific autobiography, Book of Lives.
December has been my least planned month. I've already finished that Gurnah and Wharton, and two other short novels, picked up, gasp!, on a whim. I have a buddy read planned with Atwood's The Edible Woman. Otherwise, more Thomas Malory (skipped in November), maybe some Katie Kitamura and/or a Penelope Lively novel I've been eyeing, Treasures of Time.
102Willoyd
>101 dchaikin: A year of Virginia Woolf - now there's a thought! I've got her diaries, letters and essays on my shelves but yet to read more than the odd extract. Just need to fit it all in somehow!
103japaul22
I'm so interested to hear what you'll have to say about Virginia Woolf. I've read all of her novels, but maybe you'll inspire me to read the giant Hermione Lee biography that has been on my shelf for ages. Maybe I'll do some rereads as well.
104dchaikin
>102 Willoyd: >103 japaul22: I’m really excited for Woolf. I know she will be difficult and I’ll get lost in there, but i also think her work will leave an impression.
>102 Willoyd: I’ll start with her novels. I’ve read one (To the Lighthouse), and listened to her famous essay, or maybe manifesto, A Room of Her Own (which I find in every bookstore).
>103 japaul22: i want to read that specific biography at some point. Hermione Lee’s.
>102 Willoyd: I’ll start with her novels. I’ve read one (To the Lighthouse), and listened to her famous essay, or maybe manifesto, A Room of Her Own (which I find in every bookstore).
>103 japaul22: i want to read that specific biography at some point. Hermione Lee’s.
105Willoyd
>104 dchaikin:
She's one of my favourite authors - top 3 or 4. One tip - when you come to read Mrs Dalloway, do try Michael Cunningham's The Hours as a companion piece if you haven't read before. The film is brilliant too. (If you didn't know, The Hours was Woolf's original title for Mrs Dalloway).
Just realised that 2027 is the centenary of the publication of To The Lighthouse. Good year for a Woolf-fest!
She's one of my favourite authors - top 3 or 4. One tip - when you come to read Mrs Dalloway, do try Michael Cunningham's The Hours as a companion piece if you haven't read before. The film is brilliant too. (If you didn't know, The Hours was Woolf's original title for Mrs Dalloway).
Just realised that 2027 is the centenary of the publication of To The Lighthouse. Good year for a Woolf-fest!
106dchaikin
>105 Willoyd: thanks! This sounds familiar, but I had forgotten, or maybe i never knew. 🙂 Either way, thanks for telling me this.
107baswood
I read To the lighthouse as part of my syllabus at school - I have fond memories
108dchaikin
69. A Backward Glance: An Autobiography by Edith Wharton
introduction: Louis Auchincloss (1964)
OPD: 1934
format: 394-page paperback
acquired: 2024 read: Nov 18-Dec 8 time reading: 14:37, 2.2 mpp
rating: 5
genre/style: Memoir theme: Wharton
locations: a lot of Europe, New York City, New Port, Rhode Island, and France
about the author: 1862-1937. Born Edith Newbold Jones on West 23rd Street, New York City. Relocated permanently to France after 1911.
I went long on this one. I really loved it
tags: Henry James, The House of Mirth, Ethan Frome, Summer, The Age of Innocence, A Son at the Front
introduction: Louis Auchincloss (1964)
OPD: 1934
format: 394-page paperback
acquired: 2024 read: Nov 18-Dec 8 time reading: 14:37, 2.2 mpp
rating: 5
genre/style: Memoir theme: Wharton
locations: a lot of Europe, New York City, New Port, Rhode Island, and France
about the author: 1862-1937. Born Edith Newbold Jones on West 23rd Street, New York City. Relocated permanently to France after 1911.
I went long on this one. I really loved it
tags: Henry James, The House of Mirth, Ethan Frome, Summer, The Age of Innocence, A Son at the Front
109baswood
Enjoyed your splendid review of A Backward Glance
110dchaikin
>109 baswood: thanks Bas!
111dchaikin
70. Theft by Abdulrazak Gurnah
OPD: 2025
format: 296-page hardcover
acquired: August read: Nov 29 – Dec 10 time reading: 9:39, 2.0 mpp
rating: 3
genre/style: contemporary novel theme: none
locations: Tanzania
about the author: Tanzanian novelist and academic of Yemeni origin born 1948 in the Sultanate of Zanzibar. Fled to England after the Zanzibar Revolution in 1968. Now a retired professor of English and postcolonial literature at the University of Kent. He won the Nobel Prize in 2021.
OPD: 2025
format: 296-page hardcover
acquired: August read: Nov 29 – Dec 10 time reading: 9:39, 2.0 mpp
rating: 3
genre/style: contemporary novel theme: none
locations: Tanzania
about the author: Tanzanian novelist and academic of Yemeni origin born 1948 in the Sultanate of Zanzibar. Fled to England after the Zanzibar Revolution in 1968. Now a retired professor of English and postcolonial literature at the University of Kent. He won the Nobel Prize in 2021.
112dchaikin
71. The Ballad of Peckham Rye by Muriel Spark
OPD: 1960
format: 135-page paperback (1999 edition)
acquired: October read: Dec 11-15 time reading: 4:21, 1.9 mpp
rating: 4
genre/style: novel (with wry, but maybe also Rye, humor) theme: TBR
locations: Peckham, south London
about the author: 1918-2006, Scottish novelist, short story writer, poet and essayist, born in Edinburgh
OPD: 1960
format: 135-page paperback (1999 edition)
acquired: October read: Dec 11-15 time reading: 4:21, 1.9 mpp
rating: 4
genre/style: novel (with wry, but maybe also Rye, humor) theme: TBR
locations: Peckham, south London
about the author: 1918-2006, Scottish novelist, short story writer, poet and essayist, born in Edinburgh
113dchaikin
72. Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
OPD: 1980
format: 219-page paperback (40th anniversary edition from 2020)
acquired: October read: Dec 15-19 time reading: 6:54, 1.9 mpp
rating: 5
genre/style: novel theme: TBR
locations: Idaho of unspecified year, maybe the 1950’s
about the author: An American novelist and essayist who grew up in Sandpoint, Idaho (born 1943)
OPD: 1980
format: 219-page paperback (40th anniversary edition from 2020)
acquired: October read: Dec 15-19 time reading: 6:54, 1.9 mpp
rating: 5
genre/style: novel theme: TBR
locations: Idaho of unspecified year, maybe the 1950’s
about the author: An American novelist and essayist who grew up in Sandpoint, Idaho (born 1943)
114WelshBookworm
>113 dchaikin: Great review! I read this years ago, and it remains one of my all-time favorites. No, it isn't for everyone, but the "best" books generally aren't.
115dchaikin
>114 WelshBookworm: you're right. This is true. And glad to find another fan of this. I'm a little late (my edition was a 40th Anniversary edition! from 2020)
116dchaikin
a touch of promotion - our Club Read 2026 is open!
https://www.librarything.com/ngroups/25012
If anyone here is interested in getting more involved, and in keeping your own reading diary here, freeform always, the best time to do so is in the new group within the next couple weeks.
https://www.librarything.com/ngroups/25012
If anyone here is interested in getting more involved, and in keeping your own reading diary here, freeform always, the best time to do so is in the new group within the next couple weeks.
118labfs39
>113 dchaikin: And I disliked it, lol. Glad to know we don't always see eye to eye, things would get boring!
119dchaikin
>117 RidgewayGirl: >118 labfs39: how funny! Kay, I agree. Lisa, wish you better books!
120Willoyd
>112 dchaikin: >113 dchaikin:
Two books we're in complete agreement about! Thanks for the reminder about Club Read 2026 - good grief, I'm only just getting used to 2025!
Two books we're in complete agreement about! Thanks for the reminder about Club Read 2026 - good grief, I'm only just getting used to 2025!
121cindydavid4
>118 labfs39: i allso disliked it but I loved her novels.
122markon
>96 labfs39: I liked Home Fires as well. There's also The Island, a play by Athol Fugard set in an apartheid-era prison, where two prisoners are performing a sketch based on Antigone.
123valkyrdeath
>112 dchaikin: >113 dchaikin: I've read and enjoyed both of these in the last year or two. Good reviews. The Ballad of Peckham Rye isn't my favourite Spark book, but it might be one of the funniest.
124lisapeet
>113 dchaikin: I read Housekeeping nearly six years ago while going through an extended period of losses, and it was just the perfect book in the moment. As you said, it's not going to be everyone's thing—I have a few good friends who couldn't get into it at all—but I loved it.
125dchaikin
>120 Willoyd: i’ll shut my thread here down on Thursday and move to the new year. I’m glad we’re aligned on a couple books. 🙂
>121 cindydavid4: you mean the Gilead quartet? i loved Gilead and Home. Read Gilead twice
>122 markon: ooh interesting!
>121 cindydavid4: you mean the Gilead quartet? i loved Gilead and Home. Read Gilead twice
>122 markon: ooh interesting!
126dchaikin
>123 valkyrdeath: i think you and Will and I are aligned here. (We should make a Ven diagram). I have a lot of Spark to experience yet. 🙂
>124 lisapeet: i’m glad Housekeeping brought you some comfort then. I’m also happy to find so many fans of the book. She really does a lot there. That prose…
>124 lisapeet: i’m glad Housekeeping brought you some comfort then. I’m also happy to find so many fans of the book. She really does a lot there. That prose…
127BLBera
I have been toying with a Virginia Woolf year... But I do want to continue with my Shakespeare and I hate to overplan. We'll see.
So much good reading. My book club has a Wharton month in May, I think. I want to read something I haven't read by her. I have a few on my shelf. I might pick up some short fiction. I have liked the stories I've read.
I loved Home Fire when I read it. Retellings don't always work, but Shamsie did an excellent job.
What a great year of reading you've had.
So much good reading. My book club has a Wharton month in May, I think. I want to read something I haven't read by her. I have a few on my shelf. I might pick up some short fiction. I have liked the stories I've read.
I loved Home Fire when I read it. Retellings don't always work, but Shamsie did an excellent job.
What a great year of reading you've had.
128dchaikin
>127 BLBera: Well, Shakespeare is likely a lot more fun and more resonate within contemporary lit. He's everywhere. Let me know if you take peak at Woolf. What Wharton's are you thinking about?
129dchaikin
73. The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood
OPD: 1969 (written 1964-65)
format: 320-page paperback
acquired: November read: Dec 19-27 time reading: 11:04, 2.1 mpp
rating: 4½
genre/style: Novel theme: none
locations: 1963, probably Toronto
about the author: Canadian novelist, poet, literary critic, and inventor, as well as the winner of two Booker Prizes. She was born in Ottawa in 1939.
OPD: 1969 (written 1964-65)
format: 320-page paperback
acquired: November read: Dec 19-27 time reading: 11:04, 2.1 mpp
rating: 4½
genre/style: Novel theme: none
locations: 1963, probably Toronto
about the author: Canadian novelist, poet, literary critic, and inventor, as well as the winner of two Booker Prizes. She was born in Ottawa in 1939.
130dchaikin
74. Gone to the Forest by Katie Kitamura
OPD: 2012
format: 195-page paperback (autographed to me)
acquired: October read: Dec 28-31 time reading: 5:42, 1.8 mpp
rating: 4
genre/style: novel theme: none
locations: unspecified 3rd world country very much like Bolivia, or Peru
about the author: American author of Japanese descent, born in Sacramento, CA (1979), and raised in Davis, CA. She graduated from Princeton in 1999 and earned her PhD in American literature from the London Consortium. Her thesis was titled The Aesthetics of Vulgarity and the Modern American Novel (2005)
tags: Audition
OPD: 2012
format: 195-page paperback (autographed to me)
acquired: October read: Dec 28-31 time reading: 5:42, 1.8 mpp
rating: 4
genre/style: novel theme: none
locations: unspecified 3rd world country very much like Bolivia, or Peru
about the author: American author of Japanese descent, born in Sacramento, CA (1979), and raised in Davis, CA. She graduated from Princeton in 1999 and earned her PhD in American literature from the London Consortium. Her thesis was titled The Aesthetics of Vulgarity and the Modern American Novel (2005)
tags: Audition
131dchaikin
that's a wrap, so a few year-end summaries and plans
December
Four great books read - A Backward Glance by Edith Wharton, Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson, both five stars, The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood, and finally Gone to the Forest by Katie Kitamura. Theft by Abdulrazak Gurnah, and The Ballad of Peckham Rye by Muriel Spark weren't bad either, (and are two favorite authors of mine).
I read another 14 hours and 40 minute of Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte Darthur. I've put in almost 45 hour this year, getting me a little above halfway. For the month, almost 55 hours of reading.
Audio was mostly Margaret Atwood's terrific autobiography, Book of Lives. I finish the year about halfway through.
January plans aren't set, but include Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, The Moor's Last Sigh by Salman Rushdie, and Hermione Lee's biography of Edith Wharton. Plus more Malory. I'm hoping to finish him in March.
December
Four great books read - A Backward Glance by Edith Wharton, Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson, both five stars, The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood, and finally Gone to the Forest by Katie Kitamura. Theft by Abdulrazak Gurnah, and The Ballad of Peckham Rye by Muriel Spark weren't bad either, (and are two favorite authors of mine).
I read another 14 hours and 40 minute of Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte Darthur. I've put in almost 45 hour this year, getting me a little above halfway. For the month, almost 55 hours of reading.
Audio was mostly Margaret Atwood's terrific autobiography, Book of Lives. I finish the year about halfway through.
January plans aren't set, but include Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, The Moor's Last Sigh by Salman Rushdie, and Hermione Lee's biography of Edith Wharton. Plus more Malory. I'm hoping to finish him in March.
132dchaikin
2025 in brief
74 books, 617 hours of reading, along with 202 hours of listening.
34 of these books were published in 2020 or later. Only five before 1900. Faulkner stalled a bit. But with Wharton, I read a bit from the 1930's and 1940s.
36 books were from the Booker Prize lists, including both longlists - the International Booker and regular Booker Prize (13 books each).
The TBR grew by 20 books. I added 82 books to read, and read 62 from the overall stacks
Gender: 31/42 m/f. Doesn't make up for a lifetime of bias, but a small correction
Books to highlight
Best classic: To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Favorite “modern classics” (some Booker-listed)
The Children's Book by A. S. Byatt
The Beginning of Spring by Penelope Fitzgerald
Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee
The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood
Favorite New fiction
Audition by Katie Kitamura
Seascraper by Benjamin Wood
Clear by Carys Davies
Favorite Nonfiction (the best of the best. I read or listened to a lot of good ones)
A Backward Glance: An Autobiography by Edith Wharton
The Secret of Life: Rosalind Franklin, James Watson, Francis Crick, and the Discovery of DNA's Double Helix by Howard Markel
Jane Austen's Bookshelf by Rebecca Romney
William Blake vs the World by John Higgs
Other good stuff:
2025 Booker Prize longlist personal favorites not listed above
(I read both longlists - IB and regular.)
On the Calculation of Volume (Book I) by Solvej Balle
Solenoid by Mircea Cărtărescu
Eurotrash by Christian Kracht
On A Woman's Madness by Astrid Roemer
Endling by Maria Reva
Flesh by David Szalay
Misinterpretation by Ledia Xhoga
older Booker-listed books (all terrific):
A Month in the Country by J. L. Carr
Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Hotel Du Lac by Anita Brookner
Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie
Faulkner -
Go Down, Moses
Intruder in the Dust
(I also read The Wild Palms {If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem}, his collected stories, but wasn’t a fan)
Other good or curious classics:
Piers Plowman by William Langland
Bunner Sisters by Edith Wharton
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Rabbit, Run by John Updike
Antigone by Sophocles
Other really good nonfiction:
The Age of Wonder by Richard Holmes
Why Fish Don't Exist by Lulu Miller
The Eagle and the Hart: The Tragedy of Richard II and Henry IV by Helen Castor
A Man on the Moon by Andrew Chaikin
The Story of a Heart by Rachel Clarke
74 books, 617 hours of reading, along with 202 hours of listening.
34 of these books were published in 2020 or later. Only five before 1900. Faulkner stalled a bit. But with Wharton, I read a bit from the 1930's and 1940s.
36 books were from the Booker Prize lists, including both longlists - the International Booker and regular Booker Prize (13 books each).
The TBR grew by 20 books. I added 82 books to read, and read 62 from the overall stacks
Gender: 31/42 m/f. Doesn't make up for a lifetime of bias, but a small correction
Books to highlight
Best classic: To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Favorite “modern classics” (some Booker-listed)
The Children's Book by A. S. Byatt
The Beginning of Spring by Penelope Fitzgerald
Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee
The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood
Favorite New fiction
Audition by Katie Kitamura
Seascraper by Benjamin Wood
Clear by Carys Davies
Favorite Nonfiction (the best of the best. I read or listened to a lot of good ones)
A Backward Glance: An Autobiography by Edith Wharton
The Secret of Life: Rosalind Franklin, James Watson, Francis Crick, and the Discovery of DNA's Double Helix by Howard Markel
Jane Austen's Bookshelf by Rebecca Romney
William Blake vs the World by John Higgs
Other good stuff:
2025 Booker Prize longlist personal favorites not listed above
(I read both longlists - IB and regular.)
On the Calculation of Volume (Book I) by Solvej Balle
Solenoid by Mircea Cărtărescu
Eurotrash by Christian Kracht
On A Woman's Madness by Astrid Roemer
Endling by Maria Reva
Flesh by David Szalay
Misinterpretation by Ledia Xhoga
older Booker-listed books (all terrific):
A Month in the Country by J. L. Carr
Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Hotel Du Lac by Anita Brookner
Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie
Faulkner -
Go Down, Moses
Intruder in the Dust
(I also read The Wild Palms {If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem}, his collected stories, but wasn’t a fan)
Other good or curious classics:
Piers Plowman by William Langland
Bunner Sisters by Edith Wharton
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Rabbit, Run by John Updike
Antigone by Sophocles
Other really good nonfiction:
The Age of Wonder by Richard Holmes
Why Fish Don't Exist by Lulu Miller
The Eagle and the Hart: The Tragedy of Richard II and Henry IV by Helen Castor
A Man on the Moon by Andrew Chaikin
The Story of a Heart by Rachel Clarke
133dchaikin
2026 plans
Three main themes
- Virginia Woolf
- Malory and some Renaissance works, including Ariosto, Rabelais, and maybe Thomas Wyatt
- The booker longlists
I might read some pre-Austen over the summer. And I might try to create a group read in our 2026 group. I'm thinking June and July. The ones I flagged were Evalina by Frances Burney and The Female Quixote by colonial American author Charlotte Lenox.
That, unfortunately, doesn't leave time for much else. I flagged these as possible read
The Moor's Last Sigh by Salman Rushdie
I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
Intimacies by Katie Kitamura
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
Theory and Practice by Michelle de Kretser
Chasing Bright Medusas - A Life of Willa Cather by Benjamin Taylor
Less likely ideas:
Until August by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
Treasures of Time by Penelope Lively
There but for the by Ali Smith
Sunset Limited by Cormac McCarthy
Giving Up the Ghost by Hilary Mantel
The Red Pony by John Steinbeck
The Means of Escape by Penelope Lively
Mary Shelley a biography by Muriel Spark
The Invention of Solitude by Paul Auster
Darwin's Armada by Iain McCalman
And from the Booker lists
The Bone People by Keri Hume
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
Master Georgie by Beryl Bainbridge
The Sea by John Banville
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
I'll spend time tomorrow refining these plans in a new thread in the 2026 group.
Three main themes
- Virginia Woolf
- Malory and some Renaissance works, including Ariosto, Rabelais, and maybe Thomas Wyatt
- The booker longlists
I might read some pre-Austen over the summer. And I might try to create a group read in our 2026 group. I'm thinking June and July. The ones I flagged were Evalina by Frances Burney and The Female Quixote by colonial American author Charlotte Lenox.
That, unfortunately, doesn't leave time for much else. I flagged these as possible read
The Moor's Last Sigh by Salman Rushdie
I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
Intimacies by Katie Kitamura
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
Theory and Practice by Michelle de Kretser
Chasing Bright Medusas - A Life of Willa Cather by Benjamin Taylor
Less likely ideas:
Until August by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
Treasures of Time by Penelope Lively
There but for the by Ali Smith
Sunset Limited by Cormac McCarthy
Giving Up the Ghost by Hilary Mantel
The Red Pony by John Steinbeck
The Means of Escape by Penelope Lively
Mary Shelley a biography by Muriel Spark
The Invention of Solitude by Paul Auster
Darwin's Armada by Iain McCalman
And from the Booker lists
The Bone People by Keri Hume
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
Master Georgie by Beryl Bainbridge
The Sea by John Banville
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
I'll spend time tomorrow refining these plans in a new thread in the 2026 group.
134FlorenceArt
>129 dchaikin: I must have missed a lot about The Edible Woman. I only vaguely remember that I didn’t find it very interesting. Maybe I didn’t read it after all, nothing in your description rings a bell.
ETA: oops, I gave it 4 stars on LT. still don’t remember a thing about it though.
ETA: oops, I gave it 4 stars on LT. still don’t remember a thing about it though.
135baswood
Thats a great wrap up Dan. and I loved your review of The edible women which I have not read.
136rasdhar
>92 dchaikin: I have read Burial at Thebes and it really does read beautifully, but of course Heaney is a poet and that no doubt influenced how he wrote. Enjoyed your review of Home Fire as well, and I'm really interested in this thematic reading!
What a wonderful lot of reading you've done this year. All the best for 2026!
What a wonderful lot of reading you've done this year. All the best for 2026!
137dchaikin
>134 FlorenceArt: I like the ETA oops. Wonder how much I'll remember down the road. I'm kind of hoping it defines my future Atwood reading. Instead of the author who once wrote the THT, she will the author who first wrote a fun powerful feminist swipe at the western culture.
>135 baswood: thanks Bas!
>136 rasdhar: I wish I had chosen that translation of Sophocles. My translation was a little too gentle, I think. Points get lost or toned down. And thanks!
>135 baswood: thanks Bas!
>136 rasdhar: I wish I had chosen that translation of Sophocles. My translation was a little too gentle, I think. Points get lost or toned down. And thanks!
138dchaikin
Thanks everyone who stopped by this year, quietly or with comments. I'm "closing' my thread. I've moved here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/377230
