dchaikin 2026 part 3: Woolf, Ariosto, and maybe finally Rabelais

Currently Reading


Currently Listening to

this year's reading

(these links go to the review in my part 1 thread)

1. ***** Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (read Jan 1-10)
2. ****½ Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts by Margaret Atwood, read by the author (listened Nov 17, 2025 - Jan 17, 2026)
3. **** The Mind-Reader by Richard Wilbur (read Apr 20-26, 2025, and Jan 19-24, 2026)
4. **** Surfacing by Margaret Atwood, read by Kim Handysides (listened Jan 17-30)
5. **** The Moor's Last Sigh by Salman Rushdie (read Jan 10-31)

(these links go to the review in my part 2 thread)

6. **** I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman (read Feb 1-4)
7. *** The Life of Violet: Three Early Stories by Virginia Woolf (read Feb 5-10)
8. **** Women Without Men by Shahrnush Parsipur (read Feb 28)
9. ***** Edith Wharton by Hermione Lee (read Jan 18 – Mar 6)
10. ****½ The Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf (read Feb 11 – Mar 7)
11. ***** America, América: A New History of the New World by Greg Grandin, read by Holter Graham (listened Jan 21 – Mar 8)
12. ***½ The Deserters by Mathias Énard (read Mar 7-11)
13. *** The Wax Child by Olga Ravn (read Mar 11-13)
14. **** On Earth As It Is Beneath by Ana Paula Maia (read Mar 13-15)
15. **** We Are Green and Trembling by Gabriela Cabezon Camara (read Mar 15-20
16. ***** The Sea, the Sea by Iris Murdoch, read by Simon Vance (listened Feb 3 – Mar 24)
17. ****½ The Director by Daniel Kehlmann (read Mar 21-26)
18. ***** Le Morte Darthur by Thomas Malory; A Norton Critical Edition
19. **** Small Comfort by Ia Genberg (read Mar 27 – Apr 3)
20. **** Night and Day by Virginia Woolf (read Apr 4-19)
21. **** The Remembered Soldier by Anjet Daanje, read by Jonathan Todd Ross (listened Mar 25 – Apr 21)

(these links go to the review in this thread)

22. **** The Duke by Matteo Melchiorre (read Apr 20-30)
23. **** Monday or Tuesday by Virginia Woolf (May 1-3)
24. **** Free: A Child and a Country at the End of History by Lea Ypi, read by Rachel Babbage (listened Apr 22 – May 5)
25. **** Taiwan Travelogue by Yang Shuang-Zi (read May 3-9)
26. **** The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran by Shida Bazyar (read May 10-16)
27. **** The Witch by Marie NDiaye (read May 16)
28. **** She Who Remains by Rene Karabash (read May 17)
29. **** Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy, read by the author (listened May 5-21)
30. **** TonyInterruptor by Nicola Barker (read May 17-22)
31. **** Master Georgie by Beryl Bainbridge (read May 22-25)
32. **** Until August by Gabriel García Márquez (read May 25-26)
33. **** The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers (read May 26 – Jun 6)
34. *** Countée Cullen's Harlem Renaissance: A Personal History by Kevin Brown (read Jun 5-13)
35. **** Orlando Furioso by Lodovico Ariosto (translated from Italian by Guido Waldman) (read Apr 1 - Jun 13)
36. ***** Transcription by Ben Lerner (read Jun 14)
37. ***½ The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy, read by the author (listened May 24 – Jun 18)
38. ****½ Jacob's Room by Virginia Woolf (read Jun 14-24)
39. **** A World Appears: A Journey into Consciousness by Michael Pollan, read by the author (listened Jun 20-24)
40. **** Evelina by Fanny Burney (read Jun 7 – Jul 2)
41. **** I Am Sovereign by Nicola Barker (read Jul 3-4)
42. ***** Mr. Bennet and Mrs. Brown by Virginia Woolf (read Jul 4)
43. **** Whistler by Ann Patchett (read by the author) (listened Jun 25 – Jul 10)
44. *** The Common Reader by Virginia Woolf (read Jul 4-11)

this year's reading sorted by date published - part 1 of 2
1470 Le Morte Darthur by Thomas Malory (pub 1485)
1532 Orlando Furioso by Lodovico Ariosto (transl: Guido Waldman 1974)
1778 Evelina by Fanny Burney
1908 The Life of Violet: Three Early Stories by Virginia Woolf (pub 2025)
1915 The Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf
1919 Night and Day by Virginia Woolf
1921 Monday or Tuesday by Virginia Woolf
1922 Jacob's Room by Virginia Woolf
1924 Mr. Bennet and Mrs. Brown by Virginia Woolf
1925 Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
1925 The Common Reader by Virginia Woolf
1940 The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
1972 Surfacing by Margaret Atwood
1976 The Mind-Reader by Richard Wilbur
1978 The Sea, the Sea by Iris Murdoch
1989 Women Without Men by Shahrnush Parsipur (written in the 1970's)
1995 The Moor's Last Sigh by Salman Rushdie
1995 I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
1996 The Witch by Marie NDiaye
1998 Master Georgie by Beryl Bainbridge

this year's reading sorted by date published - part 2 of 2
2007 Edith Wharton by Hermione Lee
2016
The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran by Shida Bazyar
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy
2017 On Earth As It Is Beneath by Ana Paula Maia
2018
Small Comfort by Ia Genberg
She Who Remains by Rene Karabash
2019
The Remembered Soldier by Anjet Daanje
I Am Sovereign by Nicola Barker
2020 Taiwan Travelogue by Yang Shuang-Zi
2021 Free: A Child and a Country at the End of History by Lea Ypi
2022 The Duke by Matteo Melchiorre
2023
The Deserters by Mathias Énard
The Wax Child by Olga Ravn
We Are Green and Trembling by Gabriela Cabezon Camara
The Director by Daniel Kehlmann
2024
Until August by Gabriel García Márquez (left incomplete 2014)
Countée Cullen's Harlem Renaissance: A Personal History by Kevin Brown
2025
Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts by Margaret Atwood
America, América: A New History of the New World by Greg Grandin
Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy
TonyInterruptor: or blue cheese amphetamines by Nicola Barker
2026
Transcription by Ben Lerner
A World Appears: A Journey into Consciousness by Michael Pollan
Whistler by Ann Patchett

this year's canvas


Audiobook canvas

Some stats:

2026
Books read: 44
Pages: 9637 ( 434 hrs )
Audio time: 160 hrs
Formats: paperback 18; audio 10; ebook 10; hardcover 6;
Subjects in brief: Novels 30; Booker Prize listed 17; Classic 12; Non-fiction 6; On Literature and Books 4; Memoirs 3; Essays 3; Short Stories 2; Arthurian Romance 2; Poetry 1; Science Fiction 1; Philosophy 1; Biography 1; History 1; Science 1; Journalism 1;
Nationalities: England 15; United States 6; India 3; Canada 2; Germany 2; France 2; Italy 2; Belgium1; Iran 1; Denmark 1; Argentina 1; Ireland 1; Sweden 1; Netherlands 1; Albania 1; Taiwan 1; Bulgaria 1; Colombia 1;
Books in translation: 16
Genders, m/f: 12/32
Owner: books I own 37; library books 6; borrowed 1;
Re-reads: 0
Year Published: 2020’s 17; 2010’s 6; 2000’s 1; 1990’s 4; 1980’s 1; 1970’s 3; 1940’s 1; 1920’s 5; 1910’s 2; 1900’s 1; 1700’s 1; 1500’s 1; 1400’s 1;
TBR numbers: +6 (acquired 40, read from tbr 34)

All stats - since I started keeping track in December of 1990
Books read: 1524
Formats: Paperback 750; Hardcover 323; Audio 257; ebooks 155; Lit magazines 38
Subjects in brief: Novels 576; Non-fiction 550; Classics 255; Biographies/Memoirs 249; History 208; Booker Prize listed 182; Religion/Mythology/Philosophy 143; Poetry 115; Journalism 105; Science 104; On Literature and Books 83; Ancient 77; Speculative Fiction 74; Nature 71; Essay Collections 61; Short Story Collections 57; Drama 50; Anthologies 48; Graphic 46; Juvenile/YA 37; Visual Arts 29; Mystery/Thriller 18; Interviews 16
Nationalities: US 802; Other English-language countries: 378; Other: 337
Books in translation: 277
Genders, m/f: 900/519
Owner: Books I owned 1127; Library books 310; Books I borrowed 77; Online 10;
Re-reads: 30
Year Published: 2020’s 152; 2010's 301; 2000's 301; 1990's 195; 1980's 134; 1970's 65; 1960's 59; 1950's 38; 1900-1949 118; 19th century 25; 16th-18th centuries 40; 13th-15th centuries 19; 0-1199 21; BCE 57
TBR: 676

Recent milestones:
1500th book was Night and Day by Virginia Woolf
900th book by a man was A World Appears: A Journey into Consciousness by Michael Pollan
800th book by an American author and 150th book from the 2020’s was Transcription by Ben Lerner
750th paperback was I Am Sovereign by Nicola Barker
500th book by a woman was Small Comfort by Ia Genberg
300th book from the 2010’s was The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy
250th classic was The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
250th audiobook was America, América by Greg Grandin
150th ebook was The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran by Shida Bazyar.

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. I went medieval)
2026 - Woolf, early Renaissance literature, Booker longlists

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, 2025 part 4, 2026 part 1, 2026 part 2

22. The Duke by Matteo Melchiorre
translation: from Italian by Antonella Lettieri (2025)
OPD: 2022
format: 450-page Foundry Editions paperback
acquired: March read: Apr 20-30 time reading: 15:54, 2.1 mpp
rating: 4
genre/style: novel theme: Booker 2026
locations: Italian Dolomites
about the author: Italian author and historian born in 1981. He is associated with the Veneto region where he has worked as a researcher and director of the Museum Library and Historical Archive of Castelfranco Veneto

>8 dchaikin: Thank you! I was already thinking about reading this book, now it’s certain.

>9 VladysKovsky: yay! I hope you enjoy

Happy new thread!

>8 dchaikin: That's an intriguing review and book!

23. Monday or Tuesday by Virginia Woolf
OPD: 1921
format: 41-pages in Virginia Woolf: The Complete Works, kindle edition
acquired: December read: May 1-3 time reading: 2:17, 3.3 mpp
rating: 4
genre/style: classic short stories theme: Woolf
locations: England, London and elsewhere and sometimes nowhere.
about the author: 1882-1941, An English writer born into an affluent household in South Kensington, London. She later lived famously in Bloomsbury in the West End of London. She is considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors, and a pioneer of stream of consciousness narrative.

touchstone: Jacob's Room

>11 raton-liseur: hey racoon! thank you!

>12 dchaikin: @edwinbcn has a review on Monday or Tuesday from 2012. He says, "Highly recommended, but difficult to read, and therefore I would suggest to read an annotated edition such as in the Penguin Classics series, rather than a free download. An additional advantage is that the Penguin Classics edition reprints the woodcut illustrations by Woolf's sister Vanessa Bell."

Advice I might have followed had I checked. I'm certainly tempted to get the penguin edition and read these again.

Happy new thread Dan. I am following your exciting discovery of Woolf

April

It's been a good year for my reading. At 61.5 hours of reading, April was my worst month. (add to that 24.5 hours of audiobook listening). April was beginning Ariosto (1532 - Italian renaissance epic poetry), and hacking away at Virginia Woolf's slow-slow second novel Night and Day. I also finished three from the International Booker longlist: Small Comfort, The Duke (which was a bit of chunkster at 450 pages), and, on audio, the 24.5-hour beautiful trek on memory and identity, The Remembered Soldier, which I had started in March.

May plans

More Ariosto. The tiniest Woolf, Monday or Tuesday, and a sprint to finish the International Booker longlist: Taiwan Travelogue by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ, The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran by Shida Bazyar, The Witch by Marie Ndiaye, and She Who Remains by Rene Karabash. The winner will be announced Tuesday, May 19. These aren't long books, but I think I'll still be reading them then.

>15 kjuliff: I'm always thinking of you as I'm reading Booker books! (reading them, for better or worse). Have you read any, or much Woolf?

>17 dchaikin: I’ve only read Mrs Dalloway and Night and Day, but you are inspiring me to read more of Virginia Woolf.

I’ve read just two of the Booker’s this year. The Nights are Quiet in Tehran - read before the current war. And The Director which I loved. I do hope it wins. I tried the Taiwan one but it doesn’t work in audio given that the two main characters have similar sounding names. I did try it but it became a DNF.

24. Free: A Child and a Country at the End of History by Lea Ypi
reader: Rachel Babbage
OPD: 2021
format: 9:08 audible audiobook (274 pages)
acquired: April 22 listened: Apr 22 – May 5
rating: 4
genre/style: memoir theme: none
locations: Tirana, Albania 1980’s & 1990’s
about the author: Albanian academic author who teaches at the London School of Economics. She was born in Tirana, Albania in 1979

>18 kjuliff: I didn't like the audible audio sample of Taiwan Travelogue. The reader overacted, as the main character is out there. It felt wrong to me. I'm sorry it was so difficult. For what it's worth, the book starts out as information overload, then fades a bit as the we finally think more about the characters and yet they don't do anything interesting for a long time. Halfway through the book opens up. It's an excellent novel. I'll start The Nights are Quiet in Tehran tonight.

And, I'm really happy that you might read more Woolf. I might re-read Mrs. Dalloway this summer. Not sure yet.

>19 dchaikin: P.S on Free, a google note: "The end of history" apparently means liberal democracy is the perfect state. !! I didn't know that. (The person who coined this weird idea has something to answer to today). This subtitle is not brought up in the book, but the implicated irony is.

Happy new thread, Dan. >5 dchaikin: This reminds me I want to read Atwood's memoir.

>22 BLBera: Atwood's memoir was super rewarding

>21 dchaikin: It’s usually linked to a 1992 book by Francis Fukuyama The end of history and the last man.

25. Taiwan Travelogue by Yang Shuang-Zi
translation: from Mandarin Chinese by Lin King (2024)
OPD: 2020
format: 304-page ebook
acquired: May 3 read: May 3-9 time reading: 10:36, 2.1 mpp
rating: 4
genre/style: contemporary novel theme: Booker 2026
locations: 1938 Taiwan
about the author: Taiwanese author from Taichung, born in 1984

>24 thorold: yes! Thanks. That's it. I wonder if he has updated his take. Looks like his latest book is from 2014, predating maga.

>25 dchaikin: I imagine if I just waited a week or two, this review could have been much shorter. I just have a lot on my mind.

>20 dchaikin: Have you read Michael Cunningham’s The Hours? I think you’d enjoy it. It’s very good and clever. I might re-read Mrs Dalloway too.

Back to the Booker. I am interested in what you will think of The Nights are Quiet in Tehran.

Happy new thread, Dan. Lots of good reviews here.

>19 dchaikin: Glad this book worked for you too. It was a really interesting book, and a fascinating study of political socialization in the school setting. I read it last October, but it was the first book read after stopping reviewing, so I never did get anything down on it. I always meant to get back to the reviews, and did with Misinterpretation, a fictional Albanian woman read in November, and thought the pairing worked really well.

I hope to get to Ypi's book Indignity: A Life Reimagined this year.

>30 SassyLassy: I enjoyed Misinterpretation too. I can see they would make a good pairing. Hope you begin to post more about what you’re reading. I’m interested.

Catching up on threads and definitely taking a book bullet on the Lea Ypi memoir! Also more reminders I need to read some more Woolf.

>32 mabith: let me know how Ypi goes!

I've now finished the longlist. Reviews coming



26. The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran by Shida Bazyar
translation: from German by Ruth Martin (2025)
OPD: 2016
format: 265-page paperback
acquired: March read: May 10-16time reading: 8:55, 2.0 mpp
rating: 4
genre/style: contemporary novel theme: Booker 2026
locations: Iran and Germany 1979, 1989, 1999 & 2009
about the author: Iranian-German author born in 1988 in Hermeskeil, Germany to Iranian parents who were communist and fled Iran in 1987

>34 dchaikin: I gave this book only 3 1/2 stars. I read it before the outbreak of the current hostilities. I enjoyed it as I spent some pleasant months in Tehran before the Islamic revolution there. Tehran was described back then as the Paris of the Middle East. And back then I could see why.

The book didn’t do a lot for me. There was nothing special about it, except that it ended in the future. To me it was just an ordinary and enjoyable read.

I appreciated your review which came at the book from a difference stance.

>35 kjuliff: i think i gave every book on the longlist 4 stars. So not very meaningful. I actually felt this book was flat. But i didn’t want to overstate that in my review as i know it’s a not fair assessment. That i’m not perfect reader. And that different readers will find the life in it.

>36 dchaikin: While none of us are perfect readers, I find it helpful to know what YOU thought about a book, not what you think the perfect reader would think. To know that you felt the book was flat is much more helpful to me as a fellow reader than to give it a possibly inflated rating because you think someone out there would think it is good. But that's just me :)

>37 labfs39: thanks Lisa. I do try to be fair. Especially after reading Taiwan Travelogue which effectively questions our privilege to judge. 🙂

One character tells the narrator, Aoyama: “What I disapprove of is…. Aoyama-sensei’s tendency to judge things as you please according to your subjective and arbitrary criteria” and later, “…to claim that your personal preferences are proof…” … (this seems to me) “a sign of intellectual arrogance.”

Aoyama was having fun traveling through Taiwan and writing about it under Japanese rule. She hadn’t thought about this aspect. I was slightly humbled by that, myself.

>37 labfs39: I agree with you completely Lisa. Reading a book review for me is hopefully to get a feel of what that reviewer thought about the book. I find some reviews more on my wave-length than others. Sometimes I’ve taken that to extreme. For example, if the Los Angeles Times recommended a book, I wouldn’t read it. But on LT, I get to know the members who like the sorts of books I like, and I take that into an account when reading reviews. I don’t think writing a review is about “being fair”.

>39 kjuliff: I always prefer the review from you or someone whose reading i know than from a stranger, no matter how good a critic. Because our relationship provides us a context that we can’t get otherwise.

>40 dchaikin: Absolutely. There are people I know here that I trust to pick books for me, far more than lists or published reviews.

27. The Witch by Marie NDiaye
translation: from French by Jordan Stump (2026)
OPD: 1996
format: 131-page kindle ebook
acquired: May 16 read: May 16 time reading: 3:39, 1.7 mpp
rating: 4
genre/style: novel theme: Booker 2026
locations: central France
about the author: a French novelist, playwright and screenwriter born in 1967 in Pithiviers, France, to a French mother and a Senegalese father

still in the glow of thinking about this book, having just written this review, optimism high, I look on the book page to see a review telling us, "It is the pathetic ramblings of a woman who sticks like superglue to her banal existence." 🙂

28. She Who Remains by Rene Karabash
translation: from Bulgarian by Izidora Angel (2026)
OPD: 2018
format: 152-page kindle ebook
acquired: May 16 read: May 17 time reading: 2:58, 1.2 mpp
rating: 4
genre/style: contemporary novel theme: Booker 2026
locations: contemporary Albania and Sofia, Bulgaria
about the author: A Bulgarian writer and actor, born Irena Hristova Ivanova in 1989 in the village of Aleksandrovo, in the Lovech Municipality, Bulgaria.

>43 dchaikin: I read that in the review by @amanda4242 - who gave the book only half a star. This completely turned me off reading the book. There was only one other review of the book at the time, and that was written in Greek, but seemed much more complementary.

I enjoyed your review and will borrow the book if possible. I’m impressed that you you read all the Booker longlist this year! Such an accomplishment.

Dan, thank you for reviewing the entire list! These reviews will help me choose which ones I should eventually read

>38 dchaikin: Unlike you, being "fair" in an LT review is far down on my list of priorities. First, I want to tell enough of the plot to be a memory prompt for myself. Second, I want to share my personal impressions of the book so that my fellow LTers will either be enticed to read it or know why they shouldn't bother. I feel very little loyalty to the author to sell their books for them. Two exceptions are with debut authors (I tend to be a little gentler in the criticism) and reviews I used to publish with Belletrista (because they were reaching a wider audience than LT I felt more responsibility for my words). On LT I share my honest and direct opinions and let the chips fall where they may. :-)

I understand why people feel the need to write their reviews as balanced literary criticism and respect that, I just find those reviews less interesting for my purposes here on LT.

>47 labfs39: i like that about you. And i think here reviews tend to be honest. Where i get tied up is where I’m not sure I got the book correctly, or got the right mindset. I don’t want to be overconfident, or pretend to be more confident than i feel. But it fudges reviews. Certainly is cleaner but not always the right way. So, in that way there is a sort of honesty or integrity in my wavering… or, at least I hope so. Having said that, and having forced out my last three reviews to beat the prize announcement, my Tehran review feels less honest in hindsight.

Don’t tell the judges… my longlist order.

Tier one. I would be happy with any of these winning. Although only three have a chance
- The Director
- Women Without Men
- The Witch
- Taiwan Travelogue

Tier two. I liked these a lot but have some criticisms
- On Earth As It Is Beneath
- The Remembered Soldier
- The Duke by Matteo Melchiorre

Tier three. I appreciated more than liked these
- We Are Green and Trembling
- The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran
- She Who Remains

Tier four. I didn’t enjoy these and don’t like them for specific reasons.
- The Deserters
- The Wax Child

——-

Award is announced 10:05 GMT, 3:05 US EST.

>48 dchaikin: I am interested in your comment my Tehran review feels less honest in hindsight. In what way?

Regarding honesty in reviews, I also believe in honesty but my reviews reflect my own feelings and I’m more with Lisa on this. If I really don’t like a book and would not recommend it, I tend to not review it at all. So my reviews and my thoughts on the books, are much like Lisa’s approach. I only mention the plots in enough detail for my own use so that I remember what the book is about later.

I gave The Night is Quiet in Tehran a mediocre review and rated it only 3.5 stars. I rated The Director 5. I gave up on the Taiwanese book because it didn’t work well in audio. The Witch didn’t sound like my cup of tea. so I’m hoping that The Director wins. Other Bookers were not available for me.

>50 kjuliff: Taiwan Travelogue on audio does a weird thing I really don’t like. The book has its own introduction, a fictional one. And it sets up the main book tension. The audio apparently skips this introduction.

As far as The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran, i’m just not comfortable with what I wrote. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to say. I forced a couple things. Decided it was time to let it go, be done, move on.

Interesting discussion on honesty in reviews. So far I have picked a trio of titles/characters to meet - The Director, The Witch and The Duke

>51 dchaikin: The audio edition of Taiwan Travelogues I read was from NLS for the Blind, and this version had a different narrator from the Audible one. This one included the original 10 minute introduction. I still found the book confusing in audio, especially with the different pronunciations of the main characters’ names.

The NLS has a more extensive range of books than Audible and other commercial outlets. Plus there is no limit on the number of borrowed books other than in megabytes, and no holds or limits on reading time. The NLS downside is that there are relatively few books by non-English speaking writers.

At times I will pay for a commercial audio book if it’s not on NLS, or if the NLS version isn’t a good fit. I’m currently reading a book by. Fiona McFarlane and chose to read the Audible copy. It is available on NLS but with an English narrator. In Audible it’s narrated by an Australian, and I’m home sick for the Australian accent.

>49 dchaikin: Taiwan Travelogue won

>54 dchaikin: Well so Taiwan Travelogue has won. And reading this prompted me to check my notes to see what exactly confused me in the NRL audio version.

The names: Chizuko, the fictional novelist, and Ō Chizuru nicknamed "Chi-chan", her fictional interpreter. It was actually in the introduction that the names Ō Chizuru and Chi-chan were referenced constantly. As a non-Mandarin-speaking listener I was confused from the start.

To top it off, the two women share the same kanji characters in their names - Chizuko and Chi-chan I was lost.

>55 kjuliff: yes. It’s intentional in the book to do that. But it’s confusing in text too.

>38 dchaikin: oh i just got that book and eager to read it we have a family from taiwan who are members of our international dance group will be interesting to get their comments

>40 dchaikin: what you all said. i rarely look at pro reviews, the people hear are much ore interesting and are probably better read

>57 cindydavid4: I'm curious what they might think!

>58 cindydavid4: we know each other. That helps a ton.

29. Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy
reader: author
OPD: 2025
format: 11:29 audible audiobook (329 pages)
acquired: May 5 (I also have a paperback ARC that I got in October)
listened: May 5-21
rating: 4
genre/style: memoir theme: none
locations: India – mainly Kerala and Delhi
about the author: Indian author and activist, born in Shillong, in Undivided Assam (now in Meghalaya) in 1961, grew up in Kerala. She has lived as an adult mainly in Delhi.

@wandering_star has a lovely short review of Mother Mary Comes to Me here: https://www.librarything.com/work/33730986/reviews/311259760

>60 dchaikin: I’ve only read The God of Small Things by her and loved it, although it’s been so long I remember almost nothing about it. I’m not a memoir reader but I’d like to read more from her.

>60 dchaikin: >62 FlorenceArt: I am not a reader of memoirs either. But I was inspired by the reviews. I can’t remember The God of Small Things either. As an Indiaphilre Ian surprised Roy hasn’t drawn me in.

>62 FlorenceArt: I sampled The God of Small Things on audio and was overwhelmed how much was in those opening sentences. I'm not a careful audio reader. I'll need to get a text copy. I am going to try The Ministry of Utmost Happiness on audio. It seems a lot slower.

>63 kjuliff: could you make an exception? I'm just nudging you. And I'm biased as I love memoirs.

30. TonyInterruptor: or blue cheese amphetamines by Nicola Barker
OPD: 2025
format: 208-page hardcover
acquired: May 13 read: May 17-22 time reading: 5:03, 1.5 mpp
rating: 4
genre/style: contemporary fiction theme: none
locations: England?
about the author: An English novelist and short story writer born in Ely, Cambridgeshire, in 1966. She grew up in South Africa.

Enjoyed your review of Mother Mary Comes to Me especially as The God Of Small Things is one of my favourite books.

>48 dchaikin: Interesting to read your thoughts and Lisa's about the writing of reviews. I think I might like TonyInterruptor but I will never get round to reading it

>64 dchaikin: I will certainly give it a try. I did enjoy. Garner’s diaries, How to End a Story.

>66 baswood: i didn’t know that about you and Roy’s 1st novel. I must get to it now.

>67 kjuliff: i would like to read garner. Should i begin with Yellow Notebook?

>68 dchaikin: it’s a little confusing, as Garner’s diaries are published differently in different countries.

I understand The Yellow Notebook is volume one of How to End a Story: Collected Diaries 1978–1998 which won the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction. This is the book that I reviewed on LT. I haven’t seen The Yellow Notebook published separately and assume was contained in the book I read.

So my answer is yes. For a short read you might enjoy The First Stone.

>68 dchaikin: it’s a little confusing, as Garner’s diaries are published differently in different countries.

I understand The Yellow Notebook is in How to End a Story: Collected Diaries 1978–1998 which was published in England and won the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction. I read How to End a Story: Diaries 1995-1998 which I reviewed on LT. I haven’t seen The Yellow Notebook published separately, nor have I been able to get the full set as published in England. It doesn’t even come up on LT.

So the answer is yes for any of the diaries. For a short read you might be interested in her The First Stone which was published well before the Me-too movement and has been derided by third-wave feminists.

>70 kjuliff: thanks Kate. I'll need to check the subtitle dates carefully.

31. Master Georgie by Beryl Bainbridge
OPD: 1998
format: 212-page paperback
acquired: 2024 read: May 22-25 time reading: 6:31, 1.8 mpp
rating: 4
genre/style: novel theme: Booker
locations: 1846 Liverpool, 1850 Istanbul, 1854 Crimean War
about the author: 1932-2010: She was an English writer primarily known for her works of psychological fiction, often macabre tales set among the English working class. She was born in Allerton and grew up in the nearby town of Formby, both suburbs of Liverpool.

>72 dchaikin: I think that Beryl Bainbridge maybe an acquired taste.

32. Until August by Gabriel García Márquez
translation: from Spanish by Anne McLean (2024), editor: ‘Cristóbal Pera (2024)
OPD: 2024
format: 134-page hardcoer
acquired: 2024 read: May 25-26 time reading: 2:24, 1.1 mpp
rating: 4
genre/style: novella theme: Marquez
locations: Probably Caribbean coast of Colombia
about the author: (1927 –2014) A Colombian writer and journalist, considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century. He was awarded the 1972 Neustadt International Prize for Literature and the 1982 Nobel Prize in Literature. He was born and grew up in the small town of Aracataca, in the Caribbean region of Colombia.

>73 kjuliff: maybe!

>74 dchaikin: I don't think I read that one. I am not as passionate with Gabriel Garcia Marquez as you are, but this sounds interesting.

>72 dchaikin: four stars seems like a lot for a book you mostly didn't like?

>76 raton-liseur: oh, yay. I hope you read it. It’s very short.

>77 ELiz_M: I’m having some kind of star freeze lately. Everything is getting four stars. Im not sure why. But the book does some really good stuff.

>78 dchaikin: It went on my "could be nice to borrow from the library" list... :)

>79 raton-liseur: This is a very meaningful list!

>79 raton-liseur: that’s a good place for it. It could be. 🙂

>80 VladysKovsky: yeah… that tends to be an overly optimistic list of unread and therefore also unverified books … but still, a good list

>80 VladysKovsky: and >81 dchaikin: It's a small list at the moment, with 15 books, as I have started it not so long ago when I changed the way I included library visits in my reading mix. Hopefully it is not too overly optimistic, as I have already borrowed books from that list!
Anyway, it's always good to have a list to register ideas, even if they don't evolve further than wishful thinking! 😉

>82 raton-liseur: I’m sure it has ample room to grow

>83 dchaikin: The story of my / our reading life! 😆

Things we thought we might find on the moon, per Ariosto

“there is many a reputation up there which, little by little, time has consumed down here like a moth.”

>85 dchaikin: All those socks…

>86 FlorenceArt: 😂 This one is for you, from Carson McCullers

>87 dchaikin: Not a problem, I’m sure there are enough socks on the moon for millions of octopuses.

>78 dchaikin: I feel like I have four stars as my base level going in and adjust as I read, but four stars is probably my most common rating.

>85 dchaikin: Calling out gaming specifically, that's a very modern take!

>89 RidgewayGirl: the 16th-century was really terrible for online gaming

>90 dchaikin: But the MMORPGs were amazing.

>91 RidgewayGirl: so violent back then. With the illuminated graphics

So violent!

Adding The Witch and She Who Remains (I feel like I might enjoy it more than you did) to my library holds, and I'm again remembering I still haven't read anything by Marquez. Need to remedy that.

>93 RidgewayGirl: poor corruptible medieval kids. Their futures were iffy.

>94 mabith: fantastic. I’m curious on your thoughts on She That Remains.

May

I spent time with 13 books in May, reading 65 hours and listening another 16. I finished ten of those books, mostly short ones. I think my favorite was The Witch by Marie Ndiaye, at least it's the one I'm most curious to understand why I liked it so much. I also feel some real reward from the early Virginia Woolf story collection, Monday or Tuesday. Until August by Gabriel Garcia Marquez & Taiwan Travelogue by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ left their impressions. So did the audiobooks, Free: A Child and a Country at the End of History by Lea Ypi & Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy. And I want to read more Nicola Barker. So, a lot of good ones.

I put the most time into Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto (15:28). I'm 2/3 through.

June plans

My big plan in June is Evelina by Frances "Fanny" Burney, the first time I will try an 18th-century book. My Woolf is Jacob's Room, which I was scared of, but someone told me not to be. Also planned: The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers, Transcription by Ben Lerner, I am Sovereign by Nicola Barker. And I expect to finish Ariosto. Then I will begin Gargantua and Pantagruel by Rabelais. Current audio is a super-slow one, basically a rant against everything wrong with contemporary India: The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy, who reads it herself (perfectly?)

I enjoyed Evelina in its own right, but I also was so interested in all the obvious influences on Austen.

>97 japaul22: the delayed impact on me of Jane Austen’s Bookshelf 🙂

>96 dchaikin: Right now I've got Evalina sixth in queue (though four of them are pretty short), so I'll get the benefit of your review, probably, before I get to it. It will definitely be sometime in June. Thanks in advance!

>99 aprille: want to join my group of me and one other? I have an ebook link, if you want/need

The Evelina plan:

June 13 letters I-XX
June 20 letters XXI-XL
June 27 letters XLI-LX
July 4 letters LXI-LXXX
July 11 letters LXXXI-LXXXIV

>100 dchaikin: I'm in, absolutely. Looking forward to it! I've got a paper copy already, so I'm set.

>101 aprille: i’m tempted I don’t think I’ve ever read an 18th century book, but I’ll be reading an audio.

>101 aprille: >102 kjuliff: do you guys do fb messenger? (Kate is already a fb friend)

wait what is this.would love to join in synopsis

>104 cindydavid4: it’s a buddy read I’m doing with a facebook friend Victoria. I would love more people to join. I originally invited Aprille because, miraculously, she is already planning to read it this summer. But I’m happy to have more people join. You would be a terrific addition, Cindy.

The motivation for me was reading Jane Austen’s Bookshelf last year and wanting to read some of those books. But they’re long. And I want some support. 🙂

I do have 9 days to figure out a discussion medium. Victoria and I were going to meet through Facebook messenger. If more people join here, I’ll want to rethink that idea.

>103 dchaikin: >101 aprille: I do FB Messenger, but there’s a three week hold for the audio version. Usually it takes less, - there are 2 people waiting per copy at the NYPL.

>106 kjuliff: >103 dchaikin:
I let my Facebook page go dormant and uninstalled FB Messenger because I was angry at FB's privacy violations, but I'm willing to temporarily reinstall it so we can all be in the same place.

>107 aprille: hi. I would really like to stay on messenger. If you ok activating. We don't need to be fb friends, just messenger contacts. So you can probably leave your fb idle or create a new blank one. I'll pm you my messenger link. I think if you message me and tell me you're Aprille on LT, that will be what I need to add you to a conversation.

So nice to see your reading group forming! Unfortunately, I don’t think I am able to read an 18th century novel any longer. I am applauding your courage and dedication!

>109 VladysKovsky: yes, that's why I'm panning for support. 🙂

33. The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
OPD: 1940
format: 359-page trade paperback
acquired: 2024 read: May 26 – June 6 time reading: 13:49, 2.3 mpp
rating: 4
genre/style: classic novel theme: TBR
locations: unspecified southern America city that is a lot like Columbus, GA in the late 1930’s
about the author: (1917 –1967) She was an American writer from Colombus, GA whose writing focused on the Deep South.

It has taken me a few days to catch up on everything on your thread, such fabulous reviews, and I will have to scramble to keep up with you on the Booker titles. Really liked your comments on Bazyar's The Nights are Quiet in Tehran, as I felt much the same after reading it.

>112 rasdhar: hi. Thanks for stopping by and thanks for the encouragement. I’ve been feeling down on myself as a reader and even as a Club Reader since failing to enjoy Carson McCullers. So you hit me a good time when i needed it.

International Booker season is over. Booker season begins around July 31. 🙂

>113 dchaikin: I’ve been feeling down on myself as a reader and even as a Club Reader since failing to enjoy Carson McCullerd

wait a minute you so you didnt love a book many have, you feel bad about your reading? no no no. you are such an exampel to me and other readers who follow in your footsteps;i have even been jealous of the reading youve done not just how many but the reviews and comments you make' show me i will never be the reader that you are, but thats ok ive decided im going to compete against my self, not with other readers and seeing that the international books are coming out, Im so looking forward to see what you will read so I can choose please dont feel bad its just not you . ok?

>114 cindydavid4: hi. I'm fine, just down on myself, by which I mean I've been feeling a little flat. Thanks for the kind words, Cindy. I don't like competitions, although I do like following my own plans. 🙂

“…for Thomas, to listen to a story was to become involved in its composition.”

I’m enjoying Transcription by Ben Learner

>111 dchaikin: I was not enamored of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter either.

34. Countée Cullen's Harlem Renaissance: A Personal History by Kevin Brown
OPD: 2024
format: 157-page paperback
acquired: June 5 read: Jun 5-13 time reading: 7:34, 2.9 mpp
rating: 3
genre/style: essays theme: none
locations: Harlem
about the author: American author, essayist, literary translator and reviewer born in 1960, in Kansas City, Missouri, and raised in San Francisco. He lived a couple decades in Harlem, and is currently living in San Diego.

>117 japaul22: It's good to have a partner in this social crime. 🙂

>111 dchaikin:, >117 japaul22:, >119 dchaikin: Dan & Jennifer, you are not alone! Re-reading my review, I feel like I went too easy on her. I'm proud of my social crime lol.

>120 lauralkeet: “ I'm proud of my social crime lol.” 🙂

We can form team McCuller’s skeptics.

I don’t want to disrespect the book or those readers who love it or discourage readers. But i like encouraging everyone to have an open mind. Anyone reading these three different critical reviews may need to read the book and find their own response.

>121 dchaikin: "We can form team McCuller’s skeptics."

The McCuller skeptic is a lonely reader. Sorry I can't join the team, though. I loved the book, though I haven't read it since college. That's a long time ago. For example, I wrote my papers on an electric typewriter. Seriously, though, I advise against getting down on yourself for holding a minority opinion. That's my two cents and worth every penny.

I enjoyed your review of Countée Cullen's Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance is a fascinating period to me. I've taken a couple of Harlem history walking tours since we've been here in NYC. Harlem history is amazingly rich and even inspirational. We even had an LT meetup that Darryl took part in at a wonderful Harlem Renaissance exhibit at the Met.

>122 rocketjk: I'm totally happy you can't this team. And I agree about the Harlem Renaissance. Absolutely fascinating. I think it's getting to be time I read Jean Coomer's Cane

35. Orlando Furioso by Lodovico Ariosto
translation: from Italian by Guido Waldman (1974)
OPD: 1516/1532
format: 585-page Oxford World Classic paperback from 1983
acquired: 2021 used read: Apr 1 – Jun 13 time reading: 42:45, 4.4 mpp
rating: 4
genre/style: Classic theme: medieval/renaissance
locations: Paris and lots of France. Also Scotland, England, Spain, Tunisia, Sicily and Belgrade
about the author: 1447-1533. Italian poet born in Reggio nell'Emilia, where his father Niccolò Ariosto was commander of the citadel

touchstones: Orlando Innamorato by Matteo Maria Boiardo, Edmund Spenser, Valley of Decision, The Song of Roland, Orlando, Possession

@labfs39 - I’m reading Virginia Woolf’s Jacob’s Room and came across this lovely sentence and thought of our “impressionable” discussion 🙂 It’s described a 19 year old Jacob entering Cambridge…

”He was impressionable; but the word is contradicted by the composure with which he hollowed his hand to screen a match. ”

>125 dchaikin: where can I find this discussion? I missed it.

>126 kjuliff: uh… I don’t remember

Enjoyed your review of Orlando Furioso

>128 baswood: Thanks! I took a different tact from your very rewarding review.

FYI - to everyone who was thinking of reading The Hours by Micheal Cunningham, please check in on the thread @rhian_of_oz started here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/385020#

This comes from January when we discussed a group read for June, like now, but which everyone but Rhian forgot about. For those like me who still want to read it, we're making plans for July or August. Even if you're no longer going to join, let us know.

36. Transcription by Ben Lerner
OPD: 2026
format: 130-page hardcover
acquired: library loan read: Jun 14 time reading: 3:51 1.8 mpp
rating: 5
genre/style: contemporary novel theme: none
locations: Providence, Rhode Island in 2024
about the author: A Jewish American poet, novelist, essayist, and critic, and instructor at Brooklyn College. He was born in and raised in Topeka, KS, born 1979.

touchstone: Audition

>131 dchaikin: Impressive review. I will have to get this book now . It sounds like a book I’d really like. It’s actually already on my TBR and I was waiting to hear more about it.

>132 kjuliff: it up your alley. The kind of we’ll both find interesting. And hopefully enjoyable too!

>131 dchaikin: thanks for the review. I will look out for this one!

>134 VladysKovsky: thanks for stopping by and commenting. I would love your thoughts on it.

>131 dchaikin: I really liked Lerner's novel, The Topeka School, and I've been eyeing Transcription. Now I'll definitely read it, thanks for the excellent review.

>136 RidgewayGirl: I've been looking for feedback on The Topeka School. I'll hunt down your review.

>136 RidgewayGirl: Just to follow up, that was a really helpful review. I will hunt it down, but I'm not sure it's going to give the same rush of ideas that come out Transcription.

37. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy
reader: author
OPD: 2017
format: 16:28 audible audiobook (465 pages)
acquired: May 22 listened: May 24 – Jun 18
rating: 3½
genre/style: contemporary fiction theme: Booker
locations: India
about the author: Indian author and activist, born in Shillong, in Undivided Assam (now in Meghalaya) in 1961, grew up in Kerala. She has lived as an adult mainly in Delhi.

>139 dchaikin: Doesn't look like you enjoyed this one as much as her autobiography. The book is sitting on my shelf and her writing style is excellent. I will get to it one day.

>139 dchaikin: I think this would be a hard novel to listen to. I read it years ago and loved it...But I don't remember much beyond the topics that you mentioned.

>140 VladysKovsky: it wasn’t so much that i didn’t enjoy it. Roy can talk all day. I’ll listen. It’s just I was never really in it. But she does have a nice style. You may love it. See >141 BLBera:

>141 BLBera: Maybe audio isn’t ideal. But i liked the audio aspect. But I’m glad you gave it the love i failed to.

>131 dchaikin: I didn’t reread your review until I finished the book. I loved the way things dropped into place in such a strange way. I love the side door entrance and the stairway to heaven. I loved the dualities. I was mesmerised by this book and don’t know how I will possibly review it.

>143 kjuliff: the side door and the stairway to heaven - i didn't even think about these details like this until you brought it up here. Lerner put a lot into those few pages.

>144 dchaikin: there is so much in this book that I’m taking my time to review it. It is a difficult book to review because you don’t really get to understand it properly till the end when your mind rewinds and everything drops into place.

When I finished reading, I was reminded of the words of Leon Cohen. “It’s a cold and it’s a broken hallelujah”.

>145 kjuliff: I'm so curious where you have taken it. Those last few pages do reorient us.

38. Jacob's Room by Virginia Woolf
OPD: 1922
format: 221-page Cletham Classic paperback
acquired: 2025 read: Jun 14-24 time reading: 8:28, 2.3 mpp
rating: 4½
genre/style: classic theme: Woolf
locations: pre-WWI England (also Paris, Italy and Greece)
about the author: 1882-1941, An English writer born into an affluent household in South Kensington, London. She later lived famously in Bloomsbury in the West End of London. She is considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors, and a pioneer of stream of consciousness narrative.
touchstone: Monday or Tuesday

>146 dchaikin: I need to write a review and hopefully can explain where I went on reading Transcription. My brief notes that I made while reading a book were just words: “duality, art, technology, men, Switzerland”.

39. A World Appears: A Journey into Consciousness by Michael Pollan
reader: the author
OPD: 2026
format: 8:46 audible audiobook (320 pages)
acquired: Jun 18 listened: Jun 20-24
rating: 4
genre/style: popular science journalism theme: random audio
locations: mainly California
about the author: American journalist and Harvard professor from a Jewish family on Long Island, NY, born in 1955

Enjoyed your lovely review of Jacob's room
A world Appears sounds fascinating. I presume the author kept well away from any thoughts about God's work

Very interesting reviews Dan. I like the setup of Jacob’s Room. I will read it eventually. I will probably leave Pollan aside based on your criticism. Doesn’t look like he added much to answer the question a lot of people where asking themselves for a couple of thousand years

>150 baswood: thanks. Buddhism plays a prominent role as it has historically pursued a world consciousness, and also because meditation can mimic psychedelics and leave you with a sense of a cosmic consciousness, as if everything is conscious. (That’s a theory he talks about). But not much on any other religious concepts. No. He’s a good secular atheist jew, as far as I know.

>151 VladysKovsky: I’ll have to revisit Jacob’s Room. And yes, you’re right about Pollan… and I think science in general

More Woolf quotes from Jacob’s Room

… and when the great invention of paper flowers to swim in finger-bowls was discovered, (Clara) was one of those who marveled at the brief lives

Alas, women lie! But not Clara Durrant. A flawless mind; a candid nature; a virgin chained to a rock (somewhere off Lowndes Square) eternally pouring out tea for old men in white waistcoats, blue-eyed, looking you straight in the face, playing Bach.

- On the Acropolis in Greece:

The extreme definiteness with which they stand, now a brilliant white, again yellow, and in some lights red, imposes ideas of durability, of the emergence through the earth of some spiritual energy elsewhere dissipated in elegant trifles. But this durability exists quite independently of our admiration. Although the beauty is sufficiently humane to weaken us, to stir the deep deposit of mud—memories, abandonments, regrets, sentimental devotions—the Parthenon is separate from all that; and if you consider how it has stood out all night, for centuries, you begin to connect the blaze (at midday the glare is dazzling and the frieze almost invisible) with the idea that perhaps it is beauty alone that is immortal.

I imagine Jacob's Room as a film where Jacob is walking by himself in a straight line and as he walks the camera spins around him, catching snippets of conversation by those who interact with him or are involved with him, catching moments of time in his life. So as the camera spins around him, he's progressing through his life but the camera never focuses on him so we never get a clear idea of who he is.

>156 lilisin: that’s a cool visual. It works metaphorically. Much of the story is out of the line of sight of the physical Jacob, so the film techs might need to get creative. 🙂 When did you read it?

>118 dchaikin: Several years ago I was visiting Yale and in their incredibly beautiful Beinecke library they had a massive exhibition on the Harlem Renaissance, drawn from their James Weldon Johnson Archive, which is the biggest collection of papers relating to it. (As an aside, if you're in New Haven on a sunny day, definitely visit the library - it is open to the public and to me was almost a spiritual experience to be inside and see the golden sunlight on the marble panels). The exhibition was my introduction to Countee Cullen, Claude McKay and the rest and since then I've asked myself "“Is your heart as true as your arm?” (from his poem, 'To the Swimmer'). I enjoyed this thoughtful review and am adding it to my list.

I also did not finish The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, for the reasons you describe.

>157 dchaikin:
I don't think logistically it would work as a movie but the visual aided me in understanding what Woolf was doing with her writing style and the book. I read it in 2023 but I see I never reviewed it on my thread. It is still currently the first and only Woolf I've read.

>158 rasdhar: ok, I’m fascinated by your description of Beinecke (a word hammered in my head by all the references on Edith Wharton in her biography). I want to read Cane, as a follow up. And i get your Ministry frustration.

>159 lilisin: hi. My film tech comment was just humor. I agree it would be a tough movie. And i understood you meant in your imagination. But how interesting that this is your only Woolf. Did it make you want to read more? To the Lighthouse was what really got my attention. And Mrs Dalloway was so powerful. Jacob’s Room is a beautiful book. But not quite as inspiring as those two.

>160 dchaikin:
I started off with Jacob's Room because it is a shorter book and I thought it'd be a good way to test whether I could get along with her writing style as I always heard her style was different and difficult. I will read more by her but she needs a thoughtful and well-timed moment to read so it might be a long while before I read her again.

>161 lilisin: Woolf requires some time and attention. She's not a quick read. I've had to adapt to that.

My 60 hours reading in June would have made it one of best months last year, but it's my worst month so far this year. I also got in almost 23 hours of audiobook time. I finished seven books, two of which were audio. I finished Ariosto, which I had begun in April, and it was a highlight. My other favorites were Transcription by Ben Lerner, Jacob's Room by Virginia Woolf, and, on audio, A World Appears by Michael Pollan. But I put the most time into Evelina by Fanny Burney - 16 hours, and I didn't finish (until today, in July). That's my 1st book read from the 18th century.

July has an interesting plan, and it's my last free month before the Booker longlist comes out. It's released July 28. So, before that, I plan to read I Am Sovereign by Nicola Barker (a lot of readers think it's her most complex book), Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown, which is an essay (or essays) by Virginia Woolf on writing. The Female Quixote by Charlotte Lenox, from 1752, The Hours by Michael Cunningham, and hopefully Intimacies by Katie Kitamura. (Kitamura was just announced as the chair the 2027 International Booker Prize)

Oof, you're a hard guy to catch up on, Dan! I didn't read any of the Booker long- or shortlist this year—the closest I come is having The Director on my pile. So thanks for the edifying and entertaining reviews and conversation!

>164 lisapeet: go read The Witch (aren't I helpful🙂). Thanks for stopping by, Lisa.

I have to share. I just spent an hour reading an essay - Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown by Virginia Woolf - from 1924

Wow…

I’m not much an essay reader. I find literary criticism essays painfully dull. But this one - i was actually riveted. To an essay. On how to capture Mrs. Brown, an old lady and stranger on a train.

I’m going to post some quotes

Quotes from that essay:

“I believe that all novels begin with an old lady in the corner opposite.”

“There is nothing that people differ about more than the reality of characters”

“At the present moment we are suffering, not from decay, but from having no code of manners which writers and readers accept as a prelude to the more exciting intercourse of friendship.” {a hundred years ago!}

“Mr. Joyce’s indecency in Ulysses seems to me the conscious and calculated indecency of a desperate man who feels that in order to breathe he must break the windows.”

“Your part {as a reader} is to insist that writers shall come down off their plinths and pedestals, and describe beautifully if possible, truthfully at any rate, our Mrs. Brown.”

“…we are trembling on the verge of one of the great ages of English literature.”

>167 dchaikin: “There is nothing that people differ about more than the reality of characters”

I find this to be especially true when it comes to casting literary characters in tv or film roles. Wowzer, can it get heated. One would think that literary figures were real people, and that to alter them in any way is to create historical anachronisms from gross malevolence.

>168 labfs39: cinema never gets it right (in my head) 😁

>168 labfs39: I totally agree. I noticed that there’s a new film out called. “The Other Bennet Sister”. I was disgusted at the mere thought of the obvious mischaracterisation of Mary. Not that I’ve seen the film, I never would. But I find this trend of misrepresenting historical and fictional characters disturbing..

>170 kjuliff: that file does not appeal at all.

I doubt it would appeal to any admirers of Austen. The BBC is certainly not what it once was.

40. Evelina, Or, the History of a Young Lady’s Entrance into the World by Fanny Burney
OPD: 1778
format: 629-page Project Gutenberg ebook
acquired: May 25 read: Jun 7 – Jul 2 time reading: 19:26, 1.9 mpp
rating: 4
genre/style: classic novel theme: none
locations: then contemporary London, Bristol and Bath
about the author: (1752-1840) An English novelist, diarist and playwright. Know historically more as a diarist than a novelist, from posthumously published letters and journals, which include her description of her pre-anesthesia mastectomy. She was born in born in Lynn Regis, now King's Lynn, Norfolk, England.

tags: Jane Austen's Bookshelf

>170 kjuliff: - If you've not seen the series, how do you know it's a mischaracterization of Mary? I've watched half of it, and it's mildly diverting (it's based on a book that came out a few years ago, which I've not read). I like seeing Mary have her own story and come into her own 🤷‍♀️

>174 katiekrug: It is my belief that it has to be a mischaracterisation, as Jane Austen did not feature Mary in Pride and Prejudice, and we know little about Mary other than she couldn’t play the piano or sing very well. It was not Ausren’s intent to make her a major character. So she has to be a made-up character as we have no way of knowing what Austen thought of her or even if she thought of her at all.

That is not to say that the series might not be entertaining. But it is definitely not my cup of tea.

>174 katiekrug: I’m glad to hear it’s a good series

>174 katiekrug: >175 kjuliff: I'm not a TV watcher, but I read The Other Bennet Sister and I really enjoyed it. I thought it was fun to imagine what Mary's life could have been, and I thought that Hadlow kept her story to a possibility that could have been imagined by Austen if she'd chosen to make Mary a main character.
But, I also don't think it's really worth your reading time, Kate, as I don't see it being the kind of book you usually read.
Note I also really enjoyed Hadlow's nonfiction book A Royal Experiment: The Private Life of King George III.

>147 dchaikin: I just finished Jacob’s Room and was completely blown away. I thought the chapter 13 was magnificent. Yes, the book a bit difficult to follow at times, just as a painting by Van Gogh would be hard to see in fragments. I haven’t reviewed it yet as I can see it’s a difficult book to review. I just finished reviewing.Glyph, also difficult. But both books were well worth the effort required. Thank you Dan for inspiring me to read more of. Woolf.

>170 kjuliff: i read that. what were your concerns

>179 cindydavid4: I didn’t have any concerns with the book which I thought was delightful. But it’s a difficult book to review because of its experimental nature. I need to put more thought into what to write.

>170 kjuliff: Kate, I watched The Other Bennett Sister and loved it. I think it's true to the spirit of the character, and to the other characters. It's one of the best adaptations I've seen. But take that with a grain of salt, I do like adaptations that play with the source material in interesting ways. I even like that absolutely anachronistic Dakota Johnson version of Persuasion, mainly because it was so good at portraying how abominable the rest of her family were.

(I'm a huge Austen fan and will watch/read anything even loosely based on her novels.)

>178 kjuliff: lovely to see this post. Congrats on finding Jacob’s Room. I’m trying to remember what i thought about chapter 13….

>181 RidgewayGirl: i’m glad it was so much better than I might have feared. I’m certainly curious now.

>181 RidgewayGirl: I loved it too, and I'm not particularly a Jane Austen fan. I found the interaction between Mary and her mother especially moving at times. You could begin to see that maybe she cared about her daughters after all, even if she came across as high-handed and demanding. I'm looking forward to seeing what they do with the Christmas special.

>173 dchaikin: I always thought Evelina would be indigestible, and so didn't plan on reading it, but your review made me change my mind!

Speaking of changing one's mind, I am enjoying the convo on The Other Bennet Sister. I saw the trailer a few months back, and was both intrigued and doubtful. Now I am very curious: I'll see if I can find the novel or the series somewhere...

>185 Dilara86: Ditto on Evelina and, to a lesser extent, on the other Bennet sister. I’ve never been a fan of fanfic in principle, and Austen retelling feel too much like cashing on someone else’s fame.

I had a little book buying fun today

here's the list: 🙂

From Kaboom Books, a lovely used-book bookstore near downtown Houston
- The Female Quixote by Charlotte Lennox
- The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
- Sunday Best by Bernice Rubens
- The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty
- The Book of Intimate Grammar by David Grossman
- The War of the Saints by Jorge Amado

From Brazos Bookstore, Houston's premier bookstore, near Rice University
- Gliff by Ali Smith
- Glyph by Ali Smith
- My Year in Paris with Gertrude Stein by Deborah Levy

In my many trips to Houston, I never made it to Kaboom, but Brazos was a favorite stop, as was the Half Price Books that was nearby. I think it's closed now :(

>188 dchaikin: A fun Ali Smith combo!

Lots of interesting titles. In particular, The Book of Intimate Grammar caught my eye. This might be a book by David Grossman that I would like to read. I have had mixed experiences with his work, with one I really did not like and two incredibly great books: To the End of the Land and Falling Out of Time.

I'm curious to see what you will think about the Jorge Amado book. I don(t know this title in particular, but this author seems to be different from what you usually read.

Happy reading!

>188 dchaikin: I loved The God of Small Things, so long ago…

I keep hearing about Gliff/Glyph. I just read Kate’s review and it sounds very interesting.

>188 dchaikin: Nice haul, Dan! I don’t usually plan my reading too much in advance, but I’ve got Gliff/Glyph pretty high on that amorphous list. Maybe both in a row? I hardly ever do that, but I might make an exception for Ali Smith.

>183 dchaikin: chapter 13 in Jacob’s Room is the one where the distant rumblings of the imminent world war make their presence felt.

>193 kjuliff: i wasn’t looking for that and completely missed it. Not until the last chapter did i realize i was supposed to be looking for that… I need to reread.

>194 dchaikin: it is not the whole of that chapter but it’s there coming and going in between normal things. I think it’s the second last chapter. It’s so subtlety done but powerful. Builds up toward the end of the chapter.

>173 dchaikin: Good to read your review of Evalina and the fact that you actually enjoyed reading it.
18th century novels tend to read at their own pace and if you have trouble slowing down to meet them halfway they can become boring.

>184 WelshBookworm: another fan!

>185 Dilara86: >186 FlorenceArt: I really like seeing this on Evelina. So much literature looks difficult and not fun. So, I'm glad to take the feeling away from this book. It's a really fun book.

>189 katiekrug: Kaboom is definitely worth a stop on your next visit. Right outside downtown. Also, if you're in the Woodlands, A Good Book in the Woods equally special. Both of these used bookstores curate for better used books. Which should be normal. But most area uses bookstores are pretty generic, with lots of library discards, unwanted overstock, and, in the case of Half-Price, big sellers only. Of course, Manhattan is in reach for you...

>190 raton-liseur: The Ali Smith covers are so pretty together. I've read on Grossman novel (To the End of the Land, excellent...devestating). Never read Amado! (a rebeccanyc favorite author)

>191 FlorenceArt: Roy's memoir made A God of Small Things a must. I had kind of been avoiding it. But seeing where she was mentally and artistically at the time, I must must. I'm very happy to have more Ali Smith in the house

>196 baswood: I was worried. I saw some people struggle with Robinson Crusoe, which I thought was supposed to be fun book. That also made me worry. Nope. Burney was just having fun and I suspect if she were around today, we would have no problem chatting with her.

>195 kjuliff: I'm going to have to read that chapter again... I do remember the chapter in a general way, but my thinking was just in a very different place after the Acropolis.

>199 dchaikin: I can imagine where your thinking was.

>200 kjuliff: that too 😂

😊

>198 dchaikin: I saw some people struggle with Robinson Crusoe, which I thought was supposed to be fun book.

I had always remembered it as an adventure book. Then a few years ago, a passing interest in Alexander Selkirk * sent me back to the book for a reread. There was much of interest in terms of attitudes, especially in the relationship with Friday. However, the thing which surprised me most was how many references there were to Christian thought. Perhaps spending four years marooned on an island makes you question and reflect, and "The Book" may have been the reference Selkirk/Crusoe was most familiar with, but it was a surprise.

* https://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/usbiography/s/alexanderselkirk.html

>187 dchaikin: There is a lot to be said for a few bookstore visits on a warm day (making assumptions about Houston in the summer). I'm eager to see what you make of the Smith duo, it's on my list.

>203 SassyLassy: someday I need to look into all this. Thanks for the info on Alexander Selkirk

>204 RidgewayGirl: all well-air conditioned, of course. It being Houston.

Congratulations on your book haul!

>206 markon: 🙂

moved on the part 4. (I'm bringing my book haul with me!) https://www.librarything.com/topic/385423

>203 SassyLassy: Interesting. If Selkirk did reflect on Christianity while marooned, it didn't seem to take, given his later actions.

>209 labfs39: 😂 I haven't even looked him up yet, but still, Lisa, your comment...

>198 dchaikin: when I read The God of Small Things, I was blown away. Interesting that you Dan and I approach Roy from very different starting points. I am warming up to the memoir.

>203 SassyLassy: Didn’t know about Selkirk, yet there is another writer who touched on the theme. Coetzee has some interesting ideas in his Foe, but the book doesn’t reach as far as his Barbarians or Micheal K.

>211 VladysKovsky: Roy’s memoir is so interesting. She is a character. Glad you had such a strong reaction to The God of Small Things.

>212 VladysKovsky: Thanks for that. I'm a big Coetzee fan, but didn't know of that book, so will look for it. Usually I find them by stumbling across them in used bookstores.

>214 SassyLassy: I am happy to hear! I read nearly everything Coetzee has written. Have his essay collections on my to-read list