Review: Toufah: The Woman Who Inspired an African #Metoo Movement

Toufah: The Woman Who Inspired an African #Metoo Movement by Toufah Jallow
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Toufah Jallow won a scholarship contest in her country that was supposed to be her pathway to an education and a better life. The President/Dictator of The Gambia took an interest in her and when she rejected his advances, raped and humiliated her. As a teenager she fled the country, and in just a few years transformed herself into an activist for women's rights in her country and beyond.

She gets referred to as inspiring "West Africa's #metoo movement," but I think the truth is more startling because of the lack of conversation and understanding in The Gambia. Toufah explains how there are no words in three languages foe.the act. There were no support services for victims/survivors of sexual assault, and previous victims of the President/Dictator risked their lives and the lives and livelihoods of their families if they spoke up. The conservative community from which she came also had a pretty firm unspoken agreement that such topics are not discussed, and demonstrate in other ways (arranged marriage etc) that women do not have bodily autonomy.

In 2008, the UN started redefining rape as an act of war, and you can see that rhetoric here, but she also points out how courts are still demanding higher forms of proof when accusing someone of rape than of other war crimes (a section on the word "alleged" is quite powerful.)

I also didn't know of the political turmoil in The Gambia in the last five years, despite having read two novels set there during that time. Toufah's story probably could only have happened during this particular upheaval, although I believe she would have fought for women even if she couldn't have returned home.

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Reading Envy 236: Best Reads of 2021

Jenny asked previous podcast guests to chat about their top reads of the year, whether or not they were published in 2021. Jenny also chimes in with her own obscure categories. Please enjoy hearing from Tina, Tom, Lindy, Trish, Andrew, Kim, Jeff, Elizabeth, Audrey, Scott, Robin, Mina, Emily, Chris, Nadine, and Ross.

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Reading Envy 236: Best Reads of 2021

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Books discussed:

(duplicates removed)

Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019 edited by Ibram x. Kendo and Keisha N. Blaine
Broken Horses written and read by Brandi Carlile
Several People are Typing by Calvin Kasulke
When the Light of the World was Subdued edited by Joy Harjo
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
The Murderbot Diaries series by Martha Wells
Xeni by Rebekah Weatherspoon
Act Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert
The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
American Dreamer by Adriana Herrera, narrated by Sean Christen
Fight Night by Miriam Toews
Nervous Conditions trilogy by Tsitsi Dangarembga
The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deeshaw Philyaw, read by Janina Edwards
Exhalation: Stories by Ted Chiang
Seasonal Quartet by Ali Smith
How to Be Both by Ali Smith
MaddAddam trilogy by Margaret Atwood
Barkskins by Annie Proulx
Signs for Lost Children by Sarah Moss
Tidal Zone by Sarah Moss
Ladivine by Marie Ndiaye
To Cook a Bear by Mikael Niemi
Kindred by Octavia Butler
The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
Mexican Gothic by Sylvia Moreno-Garcia
Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo 

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
Hidden Wyndham: Life, Love, Letters by Amy Binns
Chasing New Horizons: Inside the Epic First Mission to Pluto by Alan Stern and David Grinspoon
Dune by Frank Herbert
One Long River of Song by Bryan Doyle
Ink Knows No Borders: Poems of the Immigrant and Refugee Experience edited by Patrice Vecchione and Alyssa Raymond
Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby
Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Cosby
Sparrow Envy by J. Drew Lanham
Home is not a Country by Safia Elhillo
Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
Wretchedness by Andrzej Tichy
The Twilight Zone by Nona Fernandez
Peach Blossom Paradise by Ge Fei
The Love Songs of W.E.B. DuBois by Honoree Jeffers
Summer Brother by Jaap Robben; translateld by David Doherty
Njal’s Saga by Anonymous
Brood by Jackie Pollen
Nobody Ever Talks About Anything But the End: A Memoir by Lizi Levine
Nancy by Bruno Lloret; translated by Ellen Jones
Shadow King by Maaza Mengiste
Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
The Overstory by Richard Powers
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty
The Actual Star by Monica Byrne
Bewilderment by Richard Powers
The Galaxy and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers
A Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers  
O Beautiful by Jung Yun
While Justice Sleeps by Stacey Abrams, narrated by Adenrele Ojo
Shelter by Jung Yun
My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell
Love and Saffron
 by Kim Fay
Shadow Life by Hiromi Goto and Ann Xu
Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts by Rebecca Hall and Hugo Martinez
The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo
The Seed Keeper by Diane Wilson
Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson
Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead
Telephone by Percival Everett
When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamín Labatut; translated by Adrian West; read by Adam Barr
To Calais in Ordinary Time by James Meek
The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of an Empire by William Dalrymple
A Spare Life by Lidija Dimkovska, translated by Christina E. Kramer
Mud Sweeter than Honey: Voices of Communist Albania by Margo Rejmer, translated by Antonio Lloyd-Jones
Sovietistan: Travels in Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan by Erika Flatland, translated by Kari Dickson

Related episodes: 

Episode 046 - Books for Your Kitty Party (The Best of 2015) with Libby Young and many other guests
Episode 075 - After the Year We've Had (Best of 2016)
Episode 105 - Best Reads of 2017
Episode 139 - Stocking Stuffer (Best Reads of 2018)
Episode 176 - Best of 2019
Episode 209 - Best Reads of 2020
Episode 210 - Reading Goals 2021

Stalk me online:

Jenny at Goodreads
Jenny on Twitter
Jenny is @readingenvy on Instagram and Litsy


All links to books are through Bookshop.org, where I am an affiliate. I wanted more money to go to the actual publishers and authors. I link to Amazon when a book is not listed with Bookshop.

Reading Envy 235: Nature of Humanity with Paula

Paula is back for the last regular episode of the year and we talk about biography, books from the backlist, and books from countries we don't know much about.

Download or listen via this link:
Reading Envy 235: Nature of Humanity

Subscribe to the podcast via this link: Feedburner
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Books discussed:

Wrestling with the Angel by Michael King
Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson
The Owl Service by Alan Garner
Sovietistan by Erika Fatland, translated by Kari Dickson
Chronicle in Stone by Ismaeil Kedare, translated by Arshi Pipa and David Below

Other mentions:

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
An Angel at My Table by Janet Frame
Faces in the Water by Janet Frame
Normal People by Sally Rooney
Small Island by Andrea Levy
The Swing in the Summerhouse by Jane Longton
The Border by Erika Fatland
The Unwomanly Face of War by Svetlana Alexievich
Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner
A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
Embers by Sandor Marai

Related episodes: 

Episode 045 - Worlds Collide with Ross O'Brien
Episode 119 - Bread and Butter Writing with Paula
Episode 154 - Is If If with Paula
Episode 187 - Sentient Snails and Spaceships with Paula
Episode 210 - Reading Goals 2021
Episode 231 - Psychological Terrorism with Reggie
Episode 234 - Punctuation Marks with Nadine

Stalk us online:

Jenny at Goodreads
Jenny on Twitter
Jenny is @readingenvy on Instagram and Litsy
Paula is @centique on Litsy


All links to books are through Bookshop.org, where I am an affiliate. I wanted more money to go to the actual publishers and authors. I link to Amazon when a book is not listed with Bookshop.

Review: Rise the Euphrates

Rise the Euphrates by Carol Edgarian
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"The daughter assumes what is unfinished in her mother's life. The unanswered questions become her work. She spins, turning the questions upon herself. Generation after generation, it is a spiraling."
.
This is one of the books I've had on my TBR since I started reading around the world and collecting titles to read. I was glad to finally get to it!

The book starts with harrowing scenes from the Armenian Genocide as the grandmother of Seta Loon escapes the country. The story goes on to show how Seta's mother made her way still very much inside the Armenian immigrant community, and how Seta and her siblings/friends move beyond it in some ways but are bound to it by others. The novel grows increasingly focused on Seta and her small world to where it almost feels like two novels for a while, but I thought the author did a good job connecting her journey back to that of her grandmother's life.

There is heavy reliance on the Armenian storytelling phrase that has siblings in Turkish, Greek, and even Cypriot storytelling - "there was and there was not."

View all my reviews

Review: The Women's Coffee Shop

The Women's Coffee Shop by Andriana Ierodiaconou
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Angelou is a single woman in Cyprus who runs a "coffee shop" for women. The story starts with the death of her friend, Avraam Salih, a man born to a Christian and a Muslim and thus widely ostracized on the island.

I like that the author is Cypriot but the contents are better suited to a short story. Lines and scenes are repeated frequently for no apparent reason and this made it a bit of a slog to read. I appreciate that she had people along a sex and gender spectrum and navigating religious difference in different ways, and the scene where she confronts a priest is pretty great.

I think I'll end up reading 3 books set in Cyprus for my Europe 2021 challenge, but maybe only one from a native author.

View all my reviews

Books Read November 2021: 237-256

I sadly left four books partly read by the time November turned into December so this might be my briefest month yet. It's been a busy one, but it also aligned with an attempt to finish as many holiday reads as I could (see previous post) and start in on the Tournament of Books longlist. Add 3/4 weeks feeling under the weather (thank you, all the germs from all the children in public schools) and this is what you get.

A gentle reminder that all reviews can still be seen on my Goodreads profile (the review will be with the book; the format will be specified unless it's in print.) And the books with green outlines are my 5-star reads for the month!

237. Strange Beasts of China by Yan Ge, translated by Jeremy Tiang  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
238. Sex Cult Nun by Faith Jones  ⭐️⭐️⭐️
239. Mistletoe Christmas by Eloisa James et al  ⭐️⭐️⭐️
240. The Legend of the Christmas Witch by Aubrey Plaza and Dan Harmon; read by Aubrey Plaza ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
241. When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamín Labatut; translated by Adrian West; read by Adam Barr  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
242. Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
243. The Naughty List by Ellie Mae MacGregor   ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
244.  Matrix by Lauren Groff; read by Adjoa Andoh  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
245.  Love, Lists, & Fancy Ships by Sarah Grunder Ruiz  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
246.  Afterparties by Anthony Veasna So  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
247.  Against Silence by Frank Bidart  ⭐️⭐️⭐️
248.  The Holiday Switch by Tif Marcelo; read by Leiana Bertrand   ⭐️⭐️⭐️
249.  Meet Me in London by George Toffolo  ⭐️⭐️⭐️
250.  Embers by Sandor Marai; translated by Carol Brown Janeway  ⭐️
251.  The FSG Poetry Anthology edited by Jonathan Galassi ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
252.  100 Boyfriends by Brontez Purnell  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
253.  Always in December by Emily Stone  ⭐️⭐️
254.  The Santa Suit by Mary Kay Andrews  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
255.  Damnation Spring by Ash Davidson   ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
256.  Beautiful World, Where Are You? by Sally Rooney  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Total Books Read: 20

audio: 4
eBook: 13
print: 3

Library: 4
TBR: 1
Purchased 2021: 1
Review copy: 14

Around the World: 2
Booker Prize Long or shortlist: 1
Europe 2021: 1
National Book Award finalist (long or short): 2
Read the World 21 (Greater China): 1
Tournament of Books: 5

Memoir: 1
Poetry: 1
Romance: 5
Sci-fi/fantasy: 1
Translated: 3
Women in Translation: 0

Holiday Reading Recommendations 2021

I read a handful of 2021 holiday releases so you don't have to, and now will share my thoughts. While I realize Hanukkah is not "Jewish Christmas," there is one Hanukkah-themed romance of note that will be included below. There is something for everyone - romance, cozy mystery, cookbooks, and writings from the past!

After the new release list, I'll include a few more recommendations!

 

Amor, Actually: A Holiday Romance Anthology
by Adriana Herrera, Alexis Daria, Diana Muñoz Stewart, Mia Sosa, Priscilla Oliveras, Sabrina Sol, Zoey Castile

This doesn't come out until December 7th, so I haven't had a chance to try it yet, but there are some authors I like on this list! 

Baking for the Holidays: 50+ Treats for a Festive Season
by Sarah Kieffer

I am so excited for this cookbook! This is my first year having kids in my home and I have a long list of treats I want to make for and with them. The full-color illustrated step-by-step instructions really make this cookbook stellar, and I like the creativity in the recipes. I look at a lot of holiday cookbooks and could still find ideas to try in this one. The Rainy Day Bites Cookbook Challenge group in Instagram has been baking through this cookbook in Instagram for November and December so you can find a lot to look at there.

Christmas Past: An Anthology of Seasonal Stories from Nineteenth-Century America edited by Thomas Ruys Smith

This is for the scholars or those interested in historical readings from the era that Christmas really became popularized in English-speaking places, the Victorian era.

The Legend of the Christmas Witch
by Aubrey Plaza and Dan Murphy, read by Aubrey Plaza

Move over Kris Kringle, his sister has her own story to tell. I loved that this is Aubrey Plaza (aka The Office) and loved to have a witchy narrative for this season!

The Matzah Ball
by Jean Meltzer

A Jewish romance writer has always had Christmas as her secret obsession, and has made a comfortable life based on the sales of her Christmas romance novels. But times are changing and her publisher wants something "more Jewish." It's SO meta in that the actual author is struggling through a lot of cultural assumptions while also making it work, and I thought it was cute, and all well intentioned. Please see aforementioned disclaimer that I now Hanukkah is not the same as Christmas.

Mistletoe Christmas
by Eloisa James, Christi Caldwell, Janna MacGregror, and Erica Ridley

These four interlocking stories all take place during the same holiday revelry, in 1815, at the Duke of Greystone's palatial home. I got a little confused because I Googled him in case he was a character in one of these four romance writers' worlds but it's Tarzan? Bizarre.

One woman has been told she's unattractive her whole life and has accepted it (but maybe her father just wanted to control her?); one woman got tired of waiting for a fiance and ended an engagement, only to reconnect during the revelry; one woman rediscovers her husband of one year; one woman is 23 and destined to be an old maid forever.

Maybe it's the time period and I'm not used to it; maybe these characters have more fleshed out stories in other books, but for me, it's not enough for a man to want to kiss me for me to believe anything! These women jump to love/belief so quickly it's amazing it's not four stories of betrayal and cons. (I suppose we especially want to believe under the mistletoe...) 

Murder Most Festive: A Cozy Christmas Mystery
by Ada Moncrieff 

If you combined my two favorite British shows - Downton Abbey and Grantchester (until James Norton left) - you would have this rompy novel about a murder at a grand house. It is set later than those shows but still had those feelings, so I'd recommend it. And it looks like there may be previous books by this author with similar tone. 

The Naughty List
by Ellie Mae MacGregor

I keep referring to this book as "The Santa Smut" in my head and can never find it when I search for it because of this. If you've ever wanted a sexy Santa, this is the novella for you. Only in Kindle. And technically it isn't a new release but I read it this year and only discovered the author this year.

The Santa Suit
by Mary Kay Andrews

This is a traditional romance with the storyline trope of a woman, freshly single, moving to a small (NC) town to restart her life. And as with most small town romances, there are quirky townspeople, blue-collar love interests, and a bit of holiday magic.

That's my shortlist. I read a few more romance and/or contemporary/women's fiction novels but can't really recommend them so I'll leave it here.

A few recommendations from previous years:

2 A.M. at the Cat's Pajamas by Marie-Helene Bertino
I only ever read this because of a mystery postal book swap, but it's very cute and takes place over the 24 hours of Christmas Eve to Christmas.

American Christmas and Mangos and Mistletoe by Adriana Herrera - full disclosure I haven't read either of these but I've read other novellas by this author and love her characters!

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Can't think of a better classic.

Dash and Lily series
The books and the tv series are super feel-good, YA but family-friendly, about two friends in a light romance involving bookishness and a variety of cultural backgrounds.

Home Made Christmas by Yvette van Boven
I made so many great dishes from this cookbook in 2018 and 2019!

If the Fates Allow by various
I found this collection of short stories, all very sweet and happy and featuring LGBTQ+ characters, in Hoopla. My favorites included a woman volunteering at an animal shelter and one featuring a matchmaker librarian!
 

Review: Beautiful World, Where Are You

Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When I started this book, I was so confused, I had to go back once I had a better handle on the characters. Chapters alternate between narration of events and emails about the same events, but it always takes a while to figure out which female character is writing, because, I'll say it, they sound so much the same. Probably not so much different from the author's own voice.

I liked the idea of friends staying connected with long, philosophical emails, like back in early email days or when everyone had a Livejournal. But in this case their forms of communication almost serve to isolate them from one another, to excuse their introversion, and this does lead to some pretty significant misunderstandings and hurt feelings.

There are two male characters as well, and while they are present on practically every page, they aren't the point of the novel, even if the women are always adjusting in relation to them.

I'm one of the people who loved Normal People and didn't care about all the people who hated it. Still I waited a good bit of time before reading this one so I could enjoy it in my own corner. But then I didn't really enjoy it that much. There are a lot of pieces here but not really a structured plot. Events happen but they aren't the central events of their lives, although we do get a hint of those. I also feel like Eileen reads like a variation of Marianne from Normal People. Marianne is actually more social!

Still, it's not often I find a book about friendship between people in their 30s and 40s and at least that's part of it. There is also an epilogue of sorts that places the characters during the pandemic. As with most epilogues, was that needed?

I will not speculate on how I think this will do in the Tournament or Books (it's on the long list.)

View all my reviews

Reading Envy 234: Punctuation Marks with Nadine

Jenny and Nadine reconvene to talk about reasons not to set reading goals, look back on the year, and discuss which books we've read and enjoyed lately.

Download or listen via this link:
Reading Envy 234: Punctuation Marks

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Books discussed:

Mr. Eternity by Aaron Their
Mud Sweeter than Honey: Voices of Communist Albania by Margo Rejner; translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones
History in Pieces (short story) by Beth Goder
Em by Kim Thuy
Three Apples Fell from the Sky by Narine Abgaryan, translated by Lisa C. Hayden

Other mentions:

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
The Actual Star by Monica Byrne
Svetlana Alexievich
bethgoder.com
The Punctuation Factory by Beth Goder (short story. behind paywalll)
How to Say I Love You w/ Wikipedia by Beth Goder (short story)
Ru by Kim Thuy
The Space between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson
Unfollow Me: Essays on Complicity by Jill Louise Busby
The Book of Magic by Alice Hoffman

Related episodes: 

Episode 008 - Gone Rogue with guests Steve Richardson, Libby Young, and Mike Winiski
Episode 038 - Monica Byrne Wants to Make People (Want to) Scream with guest Monica Byrne
Episode 129 - Coming Back to Books with Nadine
Episode 152 - Kill 'em and Leave with Nadine
Episode 195 - Muchness with Nadine
Episode 229 - Second Contact with Tom
Episode 232 - Barkskins Readalong

Stalk us online:

Jenny at Goodreads
Jenny on Twitter
Jenny is @readingenvy on Instagram and Litsy
Nadine at Goodreads


All links to books are through Bookshop.org, where I am an affiliate. I wanted more money to go to the actual publishers and authors. I link to Amazon when a book is not listed with Bookshop.

Review: Damnation Spring

Damnation Spring by Ash Davidson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This novel took me a long time to read..I first started it while I was reading Barkskins and the subject matter was too similar. And then the emphasis on miscarriage was a lot. I finally pushed through and felt like it was worth it, and overall it has a strong ending.

It takes place along the Klamath River, a river that ends at the Pacific Ocean, and the forests that were so heavily logged in the 1960s and 1970s on both sides, so southern Oregon and northern California..the novel looks at the effects of overloading and herbicides before those things were better regulated. The two central characters - Rich and Colleen - have had hard lives, but it's what they know, and they come to it through several generations.
 

Thanks to the publisher for providing access through NetGalley. I was a bit delayed in reading it, only because there are so many tree books and I didn't want them confused in my head.

View all my reviews

Reading Envy 233: Get Into Trouble with Ruth

Jenny starts off the episode by announcing a big project for 2022! Ruth teaches her a new word and we discuss a recent Tournament of Favorites, plus as always, books we've read and liked lately.

Download or listen via this link:
Reading Envy 233: Get Into Trouble

Subscribe to the podcast via this link: Feedburner
Or subscribe via Apple Podcasts by clicking: Subscribe
Or listen through TuneIn
Or listen on Google Play
Or listen via Stitcher
Or listen through Spotify 
Or listen through Google Podcasts

Books discussed: 

 

Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters
Bewilderment by Richard Powers
Dissolution by C.J. Sansom
The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

Other mentions:

Tournament of Books' Tournament of Favorites
Booker Prize
National Book Award
The Animators by Kayla Rae Whitaker
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
Version Control by Dexter Caldwell
Amelia Peabody series
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
The Overstory by Richard Powers
Orfeo by Richard Powers
Hillary Mantel
Dissolution (play)
Patricia Cornwell
The Heartbreaker by Susan Howatch
The Matzah Ball by Jean Meltzer

Related episodes: 

Episode 012 - Some Bookers and Some Madness
Episode 033 - An Undulating Thrum with guests Ruth and Elizabeth
Episode 067 - Rain and Readability with Ruth(iella)
Episode 130 - All the Jennifers with Fern Ronay
Episode 134 - A Pastiche Romp with Ruth(iella)
Episode 169 - Simulacrum with Jon Sealy
Episode 178 - Precarious Pile with Ruth(iella)

Stalk us online:

Jenny at Goodreads
Jenny on Twitter
Jenny is @readingenvy on Instagram and Litsy
Ruth at Goodreads



All links to books are through Bookshop.org, where I am an affiliate. I wanted more money to go to the actual publishers and authors. I link to Amazon when a book is not listed with Bookshop.

2022 is Russian Reading Envy

Announcing a theme with four quarters and multiple readalongs in 2022, with enough warning to get you into the spirit and maybe collect a few books. Please consider joining the Reading Envy Readers in Goodreads for the deepest dives and shared ideas for titles.

Quarter One - January-March - The Novels

In 2022, we will focus on Russia. The first quarter of the year, January-March, will focus on the novel. We will have two synchronous discussions (that will become episodes) - one will be a group read of The Possessed: Adventures With Russian Books and the People Who Read Them. Then everyone gets to pick their own Russian novel to read and we will have a low-key sharing episode.

I'm also hoping to do an episode with Kevin Birmingham who is putting out The Sinner and the Saint: Dostoevsky and the Gentleman Murderer Who Inspired a Masterpiece.

So if you picked one Russian novel that you haven't read to read, what would it be? (Or will you wait to read the Batuman to decide?)

It might be the time I finish War and Peace but...

Quarter Two - April-June - Non-Fiction

Lauren (@end.notes in Instagram) will be co-hosting this quarter. I haven't decided if we will have a shared read, but perhaps if that is desired I can pick one.

There are so many great books you could read for this quarter; one I'm hoping to finally get to is Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov in the bio/memoir category.

Another book I'm interested in is The Border: A Journey Around Russia Through North Korea, China, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Norway and the Northeast Passage by Erika Fatland.

One memoir I'd recommend is Memories: From Moscow to the Black Sea by the very entertaining Teffi.

We will have one synchronous discussion for this quarter!

Quarter Three - July-September - Short Stories

This will have a shared read - A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life by George Saunders.

Then everyone can choose a book of short stories by a single Russian author or some kind of compilation.

Quarter Four - October-December - Genre

This can be any genre, fiction or non-fiction (you could even go back to the non-fiction of quarter 2 if that is more your speed.)

Other ideas could be cookbooks or sci-fi or dystopia or poetry or whatever!!

Lauren will co-host this quarter and we will have recommendations closer to that time. 

 

Will you be participating? What are you excited to read?

Review: When We Cease to Understand the World

When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamín Labatut
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I didn't catch this book when it was on the International Booker list, but when it was named a finalist for the translated lit category of the National Book Award, I finally decided to give it a go, especially once I found the audio in Hoopla and it was under 6 hours.

At first, it feels like non-fiction, well researched information about science and math, death and destruction, the usual. It slowly morphs to include details about the characters that might be true, I guess, but would he unlikely to be known without a detailed journal or analysis records. And as it nears the end, the stories start linking and it feels more like a fictional experience.

I always enjoy books that take me on a journey. The characters do not have to be on a journey, but I like the author to have a clear goal in mind even if I don't know what it is... It's one of those undefinable things that I like and is present here. I also am a sucker for books about math and mathematicians and boy did this qualify. I wish it had won the International Booker and I hope it wins the National Book Award for translation.

View all my reviews

Books Read October 2021: 215-236

Ah, October, finishing up award lists and trying to blaze through my eARC backlist, while hosting a readalong. I made some progress!

A gentle reminder that all reviews can still be seen on my Goodreads profile (the review will be with the book; the format will be specified unless it's in print.) And the books with green outlines are my 5-star reads for the month!

215. The Lighthouse Witches by C.J. Cooke ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
216. Maybe Esther by Katja Petrowskaja, translated by Shelley Frisch ⭐️⭐️⭐️
217. Bewilderment by Richard Powers, read by Edoardo Ballerini ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
218. The Sunflower by Jackie Wang ⭐️⭐️⭐️
219. Velvet was the Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, read by Gisela Chipe ⭐️⭐️⭐️
220. Paris is a Party, Paris is a Ghost by David Hoon Kim ⭐️⭐️
221. The Paris Connection by Lorraine Brown ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
222. Every Minute is a Day by Robert Meyer and Dan Koeppel ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
223. Ghosts by Dolly Alderton ⭐️⭐️⭐️
224. Barkskins by Annie Proulx ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
225. The Wild Fox of Yemen by Threa Almontaser ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
226. Meridian by Alice Walker ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
227. Red Crosses by Sasha Filipenko, translated by Elln Vayner ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
228. Intimacies by Katie Kitamura, read by Traci Kato-Kiriyama ⭐️⭐️⭐️
229. The Matzah Ball by Jean Meltzer ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
230. Em by Kim Thúy, translated by Sheila Fischman ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
231. Comfort Me with Apples by Catherynne M. Valente ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
232. Mud Sweeter than Honey by Margo Rejmer, translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
233. The Witch's Wolves by Ellie Mae MacGregor ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
234. Sovietistan by Erika Fatland, translated by Kari Dickson ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
235. Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
236. The Book of Magic by Alice Hoffman ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Total Books Read: 22

audio: 3
eBook: 15
print: 4

Library: 4
TBR: 1
Purchased 2021: 3
Review copy: 14

Around the World: 10
Booker Prize Long or shortlist: 1
Erin & Dani's Book Club: 0
Europe 2021: 2
National Book Award finalist (long or short): 3
Read the World 21 (Western Europe): 1
Tournament of Books: 0
Upstate International Book Club: 0
Work book club: 0

Graphic Novel/Comic: 0
Memoir: 2
Music: 0
Nature: 0
Poetry: 2
Romance: 3
Sci-fi/fantasy: 3
Translated: 6
Women in Translation: 4

Reading Envy 232: Barkskins Readalong

I am joined by Nadine, Vinny, Laurie, and Bryn to discuss Barkskins by Annie Proulx. We bring in some of the discussion in Goodreads as well as some fresh eyes on this text.

Download or listen via this link:
Reading Envy 232: Barkskins Readalong

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Books discussed: 

Barkskins by Annie Proulx

Other mentions:

Love Medicine series by Louise Erdrich
Sarum by Edward Rutherfurd
London by Edward Rutherfurd
The Overstory by Richard Powers
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
First Americans Museum
Thirty Nine Restaurant
Meridian by Alice Walker
Sooner or Later Everything Falls into the Sea by Sarah Pinsker
The Actual Star by Monica Byrne
Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead
The Slynx by Tatyana Tolstaya, translated by Jamey Gambrell

Related episodes: 

Episode 090 - Reading Envy Readalong: East of Eden
Episode 099 - Readalong: The Secret History
Episode 118 - Reading Envy Readalong: To the Bright Edge of the World
Episode 137 - Reading Envy Readalong: The Golden Notebook
Episode 157 - Joint Readalong of Gone with the Wind with Book Cougars
Episode 185 - The Loyal Swineherd (Odyssey readalong)
Episode 193 - And I Feel Fine (Ducks, Newburyport READALONG)
Episode 221 - Joint Poetry Readalong with the Book Cougars
Book Cougars - Joint Readalong of Sapphira and the Slave Girl
Book Cougars - Joint Readalong of Braiding Sweetgrass
Books on the Go - Ep. 121 - American Sunrise with Jenny Colvin 

Stalk us online:

Jenny at Goodreads
Jenny on Twitter
Jenny is @readingenvy on Instagram and Litsy
Reading Envy Readers in Goodreads


All links to books are through Bookshop.org, where I am an affiliate. I wanted more money to go to the actual publishers and authors. I link to Amazon when a book is not listed with Bookshop.

Review: Mud Sweeter than Honey: Voices of Communist Albania

Mud Sweeter than Honey: Voices of Communist Albania by Margo Rejmer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This upcoming translation from Restless Books is so absorbing that I could not put it down. Albania doesn't get a lot of attention and I didn't know much about it - it turns out that was intentional as the country was cut off from the rest of the world for so long. Scholars consider it the harshest Communist regime. The author conducted years of oral history interviews and used them to tell a larger story of a country under the heaviest heel. She includes a wide range of experiences, but of course interviews can only share the experience of survivors.

The writing and translation are stellar, making a very readable work, apart of course from the violence that is depicted. I've been talking about it to everyone around me since I finished reading it.

I had a copy from the publisher through Edelweiss; it comes out November 2.

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Reading Envy 231: Psychological Terrorism with Reggie

Reggie is back for a horror-specific episode, just in time for the second half of October. We discuss what works for us in horror (and what doesn't) and share a few books that have gotten under our skin.

Download or listen via this link:
Reading Envy 231: Psychological Terrorism

Subscribe to the podcast via this link: Feedburner
Or subscribe via Apple Podcasts by clicking: Subscribe
Or listen through TuneIn
Or listen on Google Play
Or listen via Stitcher
Or listen through Spotify 
Or listen through Google Podcasts

Books discussed: 

Infested by Carol Gore
Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo
Sing Your Sadness Deep by Laura Mauro
The Lighthouse Witches by C.J. Cooke
The Good House by Tananarive Due

Other mentions:

The Missing by Sarah Langan
Nos4A2 by Joe Hill
Bonkers Romance Podcast
Cackle by Rachel Harrison
Smart Bitches, Trashy Books Podcast
Professional Book Nerds Podcast
Books in the Freezer Podcast
Earth Fathers are Weird by Lyn Gala
Rewind or Die Series, Unnerving Press (Reggie recommends volumes 2-6, 12-14, 16)
The Salt Line by Holly Goddard Jones
@SincerelyWinona in Litsy
The Daylight Gate by Jeanette Winterson
Kindred by Octavia Butler
The Shining by Stephen King
Under the Dome by Stephen King
North American Lake Monsters by Nathan Ballingrud
Silence for the Dead by Simone St. James
Hild by Nicola Griffith
A Stir of Echoes by Richard Matheson
The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman
Half Sick of Shadows by Laura Sebastian
Velvet was the Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Related episodes: 

Episode 041 - Grotesque Beauty with Nathan Ballingrud
Episode 045 - Worlds Collide with Ross O'Brien
Episode 070 - Words Like Weapons with Yanira Ramirez
Episode 167 - Book Pendulum with Reggie
Episode 191 - Stealthy yet Sparkly with Gail Carriger

Stalk us online:

Jenny at Goodreads
Jenny on Twitter
Jenny is @readingenvy on Instagram and Litsy
Reggie is @reggie on Litsy


All links to books are through Bookshop.org, where I am an affiliate. I wanted more money to go to the actual publishers and authors. I link to Amazon when a book is not listed with Bookshop.

#1976Club and Review: Meridian

Meridian by Alice Walker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read this for the #1976club challenge in the blogosphere hosted by Simon and Karen - this aligned with the goal to read more books by Black women, although I've read Alice Walker before, both novels and poetry.

Meridian is a woman who feels a calling to not live a normal life but to centralize her body in protest and defiance. It's the 1970s and she lives two hours from Atlanta (some of the novel is at a college in Atlanta, but the timetable of all of it is a bit chaotic) - the south is seeing the fallout of desegregation (communities taking revenge by filling in pools, firing black teachers, etc) and Meridian also spends a lot of time trying to convince people to vote. She's a pretty memorable character, in one of those in between time periods I always feel I don't know enough about.

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Review: Maybe Esther: A Family Story

Maybe Esther: A Family Story by Katja Petrowskaja
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

KATJA PETROWSKAJA was born in Kiev, Ukraine; studied literature at the University of Tartu, Estonia; and conducted her PhD research at Columbia and Stanford Universities. She completed her PhD at the Russian University for the Humanities in Moscow. Since 1999, she has lived and worked as a journalist and columnist in Berlin. Maybe Esther is her first book, which was awarded seven international prizes and translated into nineteen languages.

I enjoy a good research narrative and that's really what this is - more than a memoir, as the author is only barely present in the book, it's the story of Katja's family members, as she traces them through the historical events that forced relocation. Most of her family members were Jewish and lived in Poland, Ukraine, and Russia, with forced moves into Austria and Germany for some. The research takes her to Soviet archives, concentration camp historians, an old rabbi who knew a family member, a former student of the "deaf-mute" schools her family members were known for establishing, and even a former landlord.

There is some reflection by the author on places that do not seem to acknowledge the atrocities that occured where they are. Kiev really stood out this way, where 13k+ Jewish people were killed in two days but the statues of commemoration of that period are about local war heroes instead.

While I found the contents and approach unique, the book took a while to get through, largely due to its fragmentary nature and problematic formatting in the Kindle eBook version (which I paid for, not an ARC.)

My book club read this for September and I missed the discussion but it sounded like it had an overall positive response. I am also counting it for my Europe2021 project.

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Reading Envy 230: Iron Bubble with Ross O'Brien

Living in Hong Kong has given Ross a different pandemic perspective, and has shifted his reading life in ways we discuss during this episode, as well as discussing books we've read recently. I'm just a bot, though.

Download or listen via this link:
Reading Envy 230: Iron Bubble

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Or subscribe via Apple Podcasts by clicking: Subscribe
Or listen through TuneIn
Or listen on Google Play
Or listen via Stitcher
Or listen through Spotify 
Or listen through Google Podcasts

Books discussed: 

Imperial Twilight by Stephen Platt
Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
Several People are Typing by Calvin Kasulke
The Betrayals by Bridget Collins

Other mentions:

Robert Burns Night in Hong Kong
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell
Travels with a Tangerine by Tim Mackintosh-Smith
Booker Award
Camp ToB
Kazuo Ishiguro - Nobel Prize
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
Wall-E (film)
The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Glass Bead Game by Herman Hesse
The Glass Room by Simon Mawer
Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby
Maybe Esther: A Family Story by Katja Petrowskaja

Related episodes: 

Episode 028 - The Room of Requirement with David Galloway
Episode 045 - Worlds Collide with Ross O'Brien

Stalk us online:

Jenny at Goodreads
Jenny on Twitter
Jenny is @readingenvy on Instagram and Litsy
Ross on Twitter
Ross can also be heard on the Sugar My Bones podcast


All links to books are through Bookshop.org, where I am an affiliate. I wanted more money to go to the actual publishers and authors. I link to Amazon when a book is not listed with Bookshop.

Review: The Lighthouse Witches

The Lighthouse Witches by C.J. Cooke
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the second witchy book I've read recently based on a mention on another book podcast (this was on the October most anticipated books episode from Professional Book Nerds even though they had a witchy books episode two prior; I read Cackle after the mention on Smart Bitches, Trashy Books.)

The Lighthouse Witches takes place on an island off the west coast of Scotland (for some reason it's never called the Hebrides in this book.) A mother moves there to paint a mural inside a lighthouse and uproots her daughters to do so, but then they disappear. The island has a long sordid history including witchhunts and missing children, and the author has used a lot from Scottish folklore and history.

Most people know I'm a sucker for a novel set on a cold weather island and what is better for spooktober than a witchy dreary read? This comes out Tuesday, October 5, 2021.

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Books Read September 2021: 202-214

If only I could count the books I'm in the middle of! But September went quickly. I never even got to a Science September read.  Maybe next year.

A gentle reminder that all reviews can still be seen on my Goodreads profile (the review will be with the book; the format will be specified unless it's in print.) And the books with green outlines are my 5-star reads for the month!

202. The Hidden Palace by Helene Wecker ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
203. A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
204. Musical Chairs by Amy Poeppel ⭐️⭐️⭐️
205. Several People are Typing by Calvin Kasulke, performed by MacLeod Andrews, Neil Shah, Dani Martineck, Sophie Amoss, Neil Hellegers, Cary Hite, Sean Patrick Hopkins, Joshua Kane, Amy Landon, Nicole Lewis, Brittany Pressley, Jonathan Todd Ross ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
206. The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
207. Martita, I Remember You by Sandra Cisneros, et al; read by Sandra Cisneros, et al ⭐️⭐️⭐️
208. Winter in Sokcho by Elisa Shua Dusapin, translated by Aneesa Higgins ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
209. Real Estate by Deborah Levy ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
210. Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
211. Cackle by Rachel Harrison ⭐️⭐️⭐️
212. Church of Spies by Mark Riebling ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
213. Voices in the Evening by Natalia Ginzburg, translated by D.M. Low ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
214. Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

 

Total Books Read:13

Reread: 0

audio: 2
eBook: 6
print: 5

borrowed: 0
library: 3
personal copy:  1
review copy: 8
subscription: 1

Around the World: 4
Booker Prize Long or shortlist: 1
Erin & Dani's Book Club: 0
Europe 2021: 2
National Book Award finalist: 1
Read the World 21 (Western Europe): 2
Tournament of Books: 0
Upstate International Book Club: 0
Work book club: 0

Graphic Novel/Comic: 0
Memoir: 1
Music: 1
Nature: 0
Poetry: 0
Translated: 2
Women in Translation: 2

Review: Great Circle

Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This could not be renewed at the library so it was now or never. The story is 90% a female pilot in the 20th century with enough dips into other storylines to want to go back to Marian. Do I think it will win the Booker? I'd be surprised, but I enjoyed the read.

Additional thoughts after recording about it and responding to comments...

I feel like by the time the author got to the actual great circle trip, I didn't need to read it, it almost felt redundant. I was all in on the side characters during Marian's time period but didn't need the contemporary time period except for what that allows us to learn about Marian (this could have been included a different way, perhaps.

The characters are all individually contemplating their sexuality which sometimes felt forced. I'm not a prude but I'm not sure it always fit? It stood out a bit awkwardly.

I did fall into the trap of f0orgetting Marian wasn't real. I like the historical fiction approach where the place and events are real but the people are made up.

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