Sunday, May 1, 2022

Books Read April 2022: 49-73

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!


49. A Dead Djinn in Cairo by P. Djeli Clark   ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
50. Below Zero by Ali Hazelwood, read by Savannah Peachwood ⭐️⭐️⭐️
51. Time is a Mother by Ocean Vuong, read by Ocean Vuong ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
52. The Genius Under the Table by Eugene Yelchin   ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
53. The Angel of Khan el-Khalili by P. Djeli Clark   ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
54. Pandora's Star by Peter F. Hamilton   ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
55. The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djeli Clark, read by Julian Thomas ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
56. Woman, Eat Me Whole by Ama Asantewa Diaka   ⭐️⭐️⭐️
57. I Will Die in a Foreign Land by Kalani Pickhart   ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
58. By Any Other Name by Lauren Kate   ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
59. Thresh & Hold by Marlanda Dekine   ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
60. Wildcat by Ameila Morris   ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
61. Whatever Happened to Interracial Love? by Kathleen Collins, performed by Nina Collins, Cherise Boothe, Adenrele Ojo, Paula J. Parker, Desean Terry, and Dan Woren ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
62. Lord of the Flies by William Golding   ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
63. The Path to Kindness by James Crews (ed.)   ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
64. The Black Agenda by Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman (ed.)⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
65. End of the World House by Adrienne Celt   ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
66. The Memory Librarian and Other Stories of Dirty Computer by Janelle Monae et al   ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
67. A Sister's Story by Donatella di Pietrantonio, translated by Ann Goldstein ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
68. Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky   ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
69. Heartstopper by Alice Oseman   ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
70. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, read by Miranda Raison ⭐️⭐️⭐️
71. Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad by M.T. Anderson, read by M.T. Anderson ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
72. A Master of Djinn by  P. Djeli Clark   ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
73. Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine by Anne Applebaum   ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
74. The Stone Collection by Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm   ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 

Books read: 26

Audiobook: 6
Ebook: 11
Print: 9

Library: 6
TBR: 1
Purchased 2022: 5
Review copy: 11
Subscription: 1

1954- Club: 1
Around the World: 11
Booker International Prize: 0
Indigenous Reading Circle: 1
Indigenous Reads otherwise: 0
Melanated Reader's 20 Books by Black Women: 4
Mid-Century Women: 0
Reading Envy Russia: 5
Sword and Laser: 5
Tournament of Books: 0
Women's Prize: 0

Review: Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine

Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine by Anne Applebaum
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a feat of research and writing about Ukraine in the 1930s, and how Stalin's policies intentionally targeted Ukrainians, resulting in widespread famine and what many consider genocide. From collectivization to dekulakization, the author shows how Ukraine was stripped of its resources and culture and then punished further for not being able to provide more. I was shocked this time period is still highly debated/contested - largely by the Russian government - well shocked might be too strong of a word, after all Putin borrows from Stalin in categorizing Ukrainians as Nazis in order to justify his decisions.

For my tastes, there are so many names and so many details that the reading was sometimes a slog. However I don't know how the author could have written it without those details since she has done so well pulling them all together. I just don't read a lot of history.

This is one of the books I selected for the non-fiction quarter of Reading Envy Russia (#readingenvyrussia) - April was month 1 so you can still join in with 2 more months of non-fiction reading to go.

View all my reviews

Friday, April 29, 2022

Review: Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad

Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad by M.T. Anderson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

If you're like me and struggle to read history, make it a cultural history like this one, where the history is told sideways through the life and work of an artist, in this case the composer Dmitri Shostakovich and his hometown of Leningrad, up until and during the Siege itself. The publisher is also YA and while this book is considered YA, I didn't find it overly simplified in its discussion of the music or the history. The author does a fantastic job narrating his own work, bringing a vibrance to the political and musical worlds of Shostakovich.

One of my goals this year was to better understand how Russia moved from WWI into the 1950s and still remain a powerhouse despite - or as I'm learning on top of - the devastation to the country and its people. The background of this story displays many of the missteps made by the Soviet government - really mostly Stalin - on the German front in particular, but also in dealing with their own citizens. One somewhat sordid argument this author uncovers is that it was Stalin's history of food deprivation that may have trained the citizens of Leningrad to survive what should have been an impossible solution. I don't want to give him that much credit, but it was an interesting tangent.

And who will now go on a Shostakovich listening spree? It's me!


View all my reviews

Tuesday, April 26, 2022

Reading Envy 246: Unsettling Endings with Yanira

Yanira shares why she deleted Goodreads and how it's improved her reading life, and we talk about rereading books before we dig into books we've read and liked lately.

Download or listen via this link:
Reading Envy 246: Unsettling Endings

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


Books discussed:

Book cover images from 5 featured titles
 

Very Cold People by Sarah Manguso
End of the World House by Adrienne Celt
A Very Nice Girl by Imogen Crimp
The Memory Librarian and Other Stories of Dirty Computer by Janelle Monรกe, Yohanca Delgado, Eve L. Ewing, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Danny Lore, and Sheree Renee Thomas
Joan is Okay by Weike Wang

Other mentions: 

A House of My Own: Stories from My Life by Sandra Cisneros
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Hating Game by Sally Thorne
The Hating Game (film)
Normal People by Sally Rooney
Conversations with Friends (tv adaptation)
Bridgerton (Netflix)
Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam
The Queue by Basma Abdel Aziz, translated by Elisabeth Jaquette
The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson
Dirty Computer (album)
Dirty Computer [Emotion Picture]
Chemistry
by Weike Wang
Either/Or by Elif Batuman
The Idiot by Elif Batuman
The Possessed by Elif Batuman
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, read by Miranda Raison

Related episodes: 

Episode 070 - Words Like Weapons with Yanira Ramirez
Episode 096 - Not Without Hope with Yanira Ramirez
Episode 108 - Venn Diagram with Yanira Ramirez  
Episode 141 - Profound and Tedious Work with Yanira Ramirez
Episode 181 - An Awkward Woman with Yanira Ramirez

Stalk us 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.

Tuesday, April 19, 2022

Reading Envy 245: Looking Back at the Russian Novel

At the end of March, a handful of us gathered to discuss what we had read for the Russian novel quarter of Reading Envy Russia. We also discuss the works we abandoned, some dips into Ukrainian literature, and talked more about what makes a novel quintessentially Russian. Thanks to all who joined in during this chat, in Goodreads, and in social media!

Download or listen via this link:
Reading Envy 245: Looking Back at the Russian Novel 

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:

Some of the book covers for books discussed in this episode, in a 3x3 grid

The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People who Read Them by Elif Batuman
The Anna Karenina Fix by Viv Groskop
Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol, translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volkhonsky
A Hero of Our Time by Mikhail Lermontov, translated by Paul Foote
The Aviator by Eugene Vodolazkin, translated by Lisa C. Hayden
Laurus by Eugene Vodolazkin
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
The Mountain and the Wall by Alisa Ganieva, translated by Carol Apollonio
The Hall of the Singing Caryatids by Victor Pelevin, translated by Andrew Bromfield
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
The Kingdom of God is Within You by Leo Tolstoy
Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
Zuleikha by Guzel Yakhina, translated by Lisa C. Hayden
I Will Die in a Foreign Land by Kalani Pickhart
Brisbane by Eugene Vodolazkin, translated by Marian Schwarz
The Orphanage by Serhiy Zhadan, translated by Reilly Costigan-Humes and Isaac Stackhouse Wheeler
Lucky Breaks by Yevgenia Belorusets, translated by Eugene Ostahevsky
Life Went on Anyway: Stories by Oleg Sentsov, translated by Uilleam Blacker


Other mentions:

Ted Chiang
Ken Liu
Hanya Yanagihara
"Men Who Explain Lolita to Me" by Rebecca Solnit on LitHub
"Dead Soul" by Masha Gessen in Vanity Fair
St. Michael's bells ringing in 2013


Related episodes:

Episode 237 - Reading Goals 2022
Episode 241 - Feral Pigeons with Laurie
Episode 243 - Russian Novel Speed Date 


Stalk us online:

Reading Envy Readers on Goodreads (home of Reading Envy Russia)
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. You can see the full collection for Reading Envy Russia 2022 on Bookshop.org.

Monday, April 18, 2022

#1954Club - Lord of the Flies by William Golding

A year or so ago, I happened across the 'club' year posts from Simon (Stuck in a Book) and Karen (Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings), where they pick a random year in history and everyone who wants to reads a book (or several books) originally published in that year and posts about it. I've participated twice so far, when I read Nightwood by Djuna Barnes for 1936Club last April and Meridian by Alice Walker for 1976Club in October.

Image for 1954club, yanked from Simon and Karen's blogs, not sure of the origin

1954 is an interesting year for books, and also is the right timing for one of my reading goals for the year that I've not really done well - to read books by mid-century women. My first selection for the club this year still doesn't meet that goal since it's a male author, but perhaps I'll find another that will before the end of the week. I'd previously read The Story of O by Pauline Reage, translated by Sabine d'Estree, A Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis (probably not since I was a child,) and Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead by Barbara Comyns, in a delightful edition from Dorothy Publishing.

I have a copy of Lucky Jim on my shelves, a 1954 novel I purchased for a classics challenge to fulfill the category of a comic novel. I never read it, just went a different direction, but the academia angle is always compelling. But I went first with Lord of the Flies. A few months ago, our foster son at the time wanted to read it and I decided I should read it first, since he was 9. I wasn't sure it was age appropriate. I only knew vaguely it was about boys who need to survive on an island and turn to their animal natures, and that since the novel was published a lot of other books and TV shows have been roughly based on the premise (the most recent I saw was The Wilds, a 2020 TV show about a bunch of teenage girls that are dumped on an island for some kind of experiment for which they are uninformed.)

6 variations of book covers of Lord of the Flies


I understand some people read Lord of the Flies in school and while I had a very intensive English literature year in high school, Golding was not included for whatever reason. I found it interesting how many ways the novel is portrayed in the cover art - the bloodthirsty open mouth of the most recent, the calmer jungle type images, several pig-themed covers, a cover with glasses that is more reminiscent of Harry Potter, and a bizarre giant fly with a little boy. 

I read the edition with an introduction by E.M. Forster. I very brilliantly waited until finishing the novel to read his introduction, which would have spoiled practically every significant plot point besides suggesting broader themes that I'm not sure I agree with. I expected there to be memorable characters and there are - Simon, Ralph, Piggy, Roger, etc. - I don't think I expected some of the ethereal writing that I encountered. It made me wish I was reading the same author on different content!

Here is the first paragraph and a few more lines from Chapter 4:

"The first rhythm that they became used to was the slow swing from dawn to quick dusk. They accepted the pleasures of morning, the bright sun, the whelming sea and sweet air, as a time when play was good and life so full that hope was not necessary and therefore forgotten. Toward noon, as the floods of light fell more nearly to the perpendicular, the stark colors of the morning were smoothed in pearl and opalescence; and the heat - as though the impending sun's height gave it momentum - became a blow that they ducked, running to the shade and lying there, perhaps even sleeping.

Strange things happened at midday. The glittering sea rose up, moved apart in planes of blatant impossibility; the coral reef and the few stunted palms that clung to the more elevated parts would float up into the sky, would quiver, be plucked apart, run like raindrops on a wire or be repeated as in an odd succession of mirrors...."

Beautiful, dangerous, foreboding, yet somehow familiar. I know how this feeling he describes feels. I am like the kids, I identify with them, at least in some of these early moments, and then of course they do some terrible things, so of course the author wants the reader to ask what would you do? Would you try for democracy or anarchy? Fruit or meat? Mountain or beach? Survival is one of the quickest scenarios to see a person's true colors. Do we know this for sure or do we know this because of this book? It feels very much a part of the fabric of our culture, so when I realized it was one of the books on the Modern Library's 100 Best Novels list, one of those silly lists I still would like to check off eventually, it made sense to me that it would be included, even if we never talk about any of the other works by this author.

Stay tuned if I read any more books from 1954. And thanks to Karen and Simon for hosting a fun challenge.


Thursday, April 14, 2022

Review: I Will Die in a Foreign Land

I Will Die in a Foreign Land I Will Die in a Foreign Land by Kalani Pickhart
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I'm one of many people who felt drawn to reading more about Ukraine. This novel was already on my radar so I purchased it from Two Dollar Radio.

Publisher summary excerpt:
"[This novel] follows four individuals over the course of a volatile Ukrainian winter, as their lives are forever changed by the Euromaidan protests. Katya is a Ukrainian-American doctor stationed at a makeshift medical clinic in St. Michael’s Monastery; Misha is an engineer originally from Pripyat, who has lived in Kyiv since his wife’s death; Slava is a fiery young activist whose past hardships steel her determination in the face of persecution; and Aleksandr Ivanovich, a former KGB agent, climbs atop a burned-out police bus at Independence Square and plays the piano."

Set in 2013-14 but also rooted in the complexities of the past (from the mythical Rus to Cossacks to Chernobyl), alternating viewpoints include the four characters plus news articles, cassette recordings, songs, and more. It's very readable and brings the reader into the intimacy of the recent past for Ukraine. Honestly I was trying to read non-fiction about Stalin's war on Ukraine and was drawn back into fiction instead.

The author is not Ukrainian but is donating all proceeds of the book to relief orgs benefitting Ukrainian people at the time of this review.

One friend said they couldn't tell if I liked the book and my feelings are mixed - it has many techniques I like, the rotating perspectives, the various format types, the short chapters, the tidbits that send me off on research projects, for instance listening to the bells of St. Michaels in 2013 on YouTube (only the second time they were played as part of a conflict, the previous time was with the Mongols!) But it feels weird to say I liked a novel about a previous conflict when the country it's about it in such turmoil now with people dead in the street. It even took me a while to read because I struggled to return to a setting that doesn't even exist as it's described because of the Russian invasion, and the book is set only 8 years in the past. I can be quite the emotional reader sometimes.

This book has come up a few times on the Reading Envy podcast this year, and will also be mentioned on episode 245.

The author is not from Ukraine but is a bit of a subject matter expert, and also published this list of suggested books to read to learn more.

View all my reviews

Tuesday, April 5, 2022

Reading Envy 244: 2nd Quarter - Russian Non-Fiction

Lauren W. will be co-hosting this non-fiction quarter of Reading Envy Russia. We share books we have already read and freely recommend, and also chat about the piles and shelves of books we are considering. Let us know your recommendations and where you hope to start in the comments, or join the conversation in Goodreads.

Download or listen via this link:
Reading Envy 244: 2nd Quarter - Russian Non-Fiction

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 we can recommend:

Memories from Moscow to the Black Sea by Teffi
Tolstoy, Rasputin, Others, and Me: The Best of Teffi by Teffi
Secondhand Time by Svetlana Alexievich
The Unwomanly Face of War by Svetlana Alexievich
Last Witnesses by Svetlana Alexievich, translated by Pevear & Volokhonsky
Zinky Boys by Svetlana Alexievich
Voices of Chernobyl (also titled Chernobyl Prayer) by Svetlana Alexievich, translated by Keith Gessen
Other Russias by Victoria Lomasko, translated by Thomas Campbell
The Future is History by Masha Gessen
Never Remember by Masha Gessen, photography by Misha Friedman
Where the Jews Aren’t by Masha Gessen
Pushkin’s Children by Tatyana Tolstaya
The Slynx by Tatyana Tolstaya
Imperium by Ryszard Kapucinski, translated by Klara Glowczewska
A Very Dangerous Woman: The Lives, Loves and Lies of Russia’s Most Seductive Spy by Deborah McDonald and Jeremy Dronfield
Putin Country by Anne Garrels
Letters: Summer 1926 by Boris Pasternak, Marina Tsvetaeva, and Rainer Maria Rilke
Sovietistan by Erika Fatland
The Commissar Vanishes by David King
Gulag by Anne Applebaum
The Iron Curtain by Anne Applebaum
The Magical Chorus by Solomon Volkov, translated by Antonina Bouis 
Shostaskovich and Stalin by Solomon Volkov
The Tiger by John Vaillant
Owls of the Eastern Ice by Jonathan Slaght
How to Tame a Fox (and Build a Dog): Visionary Scientists and a Siberian Tale of Jump-Started Evolution by Lee Alan Dugatkin and Lyudmila Trut
Please to the Table by Anya von Bremzen
Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking by Anya von Bremzen

Books we are considering:

All Lara’s Wars by Wojchiech Jagielski, translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones
Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, translated by Eric Ericson (there is a unabridged 1800+ pg, and an author approved abridged version, 400-some pages)
Journey into the Whirlwind by Eugenia Ginzburg, translated by Paul Stevenson, Max Hayward
Kolyma Tales by Varlam Shalamov, translated by John Glad
Riot Days by Maria Alyokhina
Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov
The Life Written by Himself by Avvakum Petrov
My Childhood by Maxim Gorky
Teffi: A Life of Letters and Laughter
by Edythe Haber
Hope Against Hope by Nadezhda Mandelstam, tr. Max Hayward
The Genius Under the Table: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain by Eugene Yelchin
Putin's Russia: life in a failing democracy by Anna Politkovskaya ; translated by Arch Tait.
A Russian diary: a journalist's final account of life, corruption, and death in Putin's Russia by Anna Politkovskaya
Notes on Russian Literature by F.M. Dostoevsky
The Sinner and the Saint: Dostoevsky and the Gentleman Murderer Who Inspired a Masterpiece by Kevin Birmingham
The Most Dangerous Book: The Battle for James Joyce's Ulysses by Kevin Birmingham
Less than One: Selected Essays by Joseph Brodsky
Tolstoy Together by Yiyun Li
The Border by Erika Fatland
Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad by M.T. Anderson Red Plenty by Francis Spufford
Lenin’s Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire by David Remnick
Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin by Timothy Snyder
The Last Empire: Final Days of the Soviet Union by Serhii Plokhy
The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine by Serhii Plokhy
Chernobyl: The History of a Nuclear Catastrophe by Serhii Plokhy
Nuclear Folly: A History of the Cuban Missile Crisis by Serhii Plokhy
Man with the Poison Gun: a Cold War Spy Story by Serhii Plokhy
Babi Yar: A Document in the Form of a Novel by Anatoly Kuznetsov, tr. David Floyd
Manual for Survival: An Environmental History of the Chernobyl Disaster by Kate Brown
Plutopia: Nuclear Families, Atomic Cities, and the Great Soviet and American Plutonium Disasters by Kate Brown
A Biography of No Place: From Ethnic Borderland to Soviet Heartland by Kate Brown
October: The Story of the Russian Revolution by China Mieville
Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia by Peter Pomerantsev
Across the Ussuri Kray by Vladimir Arsenyev, translated by Slaght
An Armenian Sketchbook by Vasily Grossman, translated by Robert and Elizabeth Chandler
A Writer at War: Vasily Grossman with the Red Army by Vasily Grossman
The Road by Vasily Grossman
Stalking the Atomic City: Life Among the Decadent and Depraved of Chernobyl by Markiyan Kamysh
Midnight in Siberia: A Train Journey into the Heart of Russia by David Greene
Mamushka: Recipes from Ukraine & beyond by Olia Hercules
Red Sands by Caroline Eden
Black Sea by Caroline Eden
Tasting Georgia by Carla Capalbo
 

Other mentions:

PEN list of writers against Putin
New Yorker article about Gessen siblings
Thanksgivukkah 2013 
League of Kitchens - Uzbek lesson
League of Kitchens - Russian lesson
Masha Gessen on Ezra Klein podcast, March 2022


Related episodes:

Episode 067 - Rain and Readability with Ruth(iella)
Episode 084 - A Worthy Tangent with Bryan Alexander
Episode 138 - Shared Landscape with Lauren Weinhold
Episode 237 - Reading Goals 2022
Episode 243 - Russian Novel Speed Date 


Stalk us online:

Reading Envy Readers on Goodreads (home of Reading Envy Russia)
Lauren at Goodreads
Lauren is @end.notes on Instagram
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. You can see the full collection for Reading Envy Russia 2022 on Bookshop.org.

Thursday, March 31, 2022

Books Read March 2022: 33-48

Overload check: last March I read 28 books. This March, 16. Plus 680 pages of Pandora's Star. I looked at the 450 remaining pages tonight and decided there was no chance I'd finish it before April so I might as well work on my Books of March list instead! 

Not counted: Pete the Cat books, dinosaur books, and a new favorite, Swim, Swim, Sink.

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!

cover images listed below

33. Nervous System by Lina Meruane; translated by Megan McDowell ⭐️⭐️
34. Stuck with You by Ali Hazelwood; narrated by Meg Sylvan ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
35. Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery   ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
36. The Fell by Sarah Moss   ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
37. Truly, Devious by Maureen Johnson   ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
38. If You Ask Me by  Libby Hubscher   ⭐️⭐️⭐️
39. Heaven by Mieko Kawakami; translated by Sam Bett and David Boyd ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
40. Free Love by Tessa Hadley   ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
41. The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan   ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
42. Zuleikha by Guzel Yakhina; translated by Lisa Hayden ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
43. Light Years from Home by Mike Chen   ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
44. Recitatif  by Toni Morrison; narrated by Bahni Turpen; introduction by Zadie Smith ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
45. Love After the End by Joshua Whitehead, ed.   ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
46. Love Beyond Body, Space, & Time by Hope Nicholson, ed.   ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
47. The Time of Women by Elena Chizhova; translated by Simon Patterson and Nina Chordas ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
48. Good Talk by Mira Jacob   ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️


Books read: 16

Audiobook: 2
Ebook: 10
Print: 4

Library: 6
TBR: 0
Purchased 2022: 1
Review copy: 7
Subscription: 1

Around the World: 4
Booker International Prize: 1
Indigenous Reading Circle: 1
Indigenous Reads otherwise: 1
Melanated Reader's 20 Books by Black Women: 1
Mid-Century Women: 1
Reading Envy Russia: 2
Sword and Laser: 0
Tournament of Books: 1
Women's Prize: 0

Wednesday, March 30, 2022

Review: Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations

Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations by Mira Jacob
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I've had this book on my TBR forever and finally got it from the library. I didn't really even know what it was about and went in cold. Mira Jacob writes about what it is like to be brown (for her, Indian with darker skin than her other family members) in the America post 9/11 up through Trump's election win. Not only that but married to a Jewish (white) man whose parents refuse to see the harm in voting for Trump, and mother of a young mixed race boy with Questions.

What I love is her very frank tone. In all the "talks" in the book she shows how she navigates difficult situations where people want her to make them feel better about racism, often their own, and what happens when she doesn't. This includes one very difficult conversation with her husband! The art is hand-drawn people often cut out (or the appearance of being cut out) and laid over stock photos, which adds a dimension of reality to what is happening (although to Mira it's only too real.)

I'd love to see her take on our current situation, and I hope she continues writing in this form.

View all my reviews

Tuesday, March 29, 2022

Reading Envy 243: Russian Novel Speed Date

It's been a while since I've done a speed dating bonus episode, and this one is all about Russian novels for the Reading Envy Russia novel quarter. I discuss books I tried, what I think of them, and books I read previously. We might be moving on to non-fiction officially, but that doesn't mean we have to leave Russian literature behind forever.

Download or listen via this link:
Reading Envy 243: Russian Novel Speed Date

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Books discussed:

cover image excerpts from some of the titles listed below

An Evening with Claire by Gaito Gazdanov, translated by Bryan Karetnyk
The Sentence by Louise Erdrich
First Love by Ivan Turgenev, translated by Richard Freeborn
Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin, translated by Leo Tolstoy
Oblomov by Ivan Goncherov, translated by Stephen Pearl
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Zuleikha by Guzel Yakhina, translated by Lisa C. Hayden
The Time of Women by Elena Chizhova, translated by Simon Patterson and Nina Chordas
Untraceable by Sergei Lebedev, translated by Antonina W. Bouis
Oblivion by Sergei Lebedev, translated by Antonina W. Bouis
Brisbane by Eugene Vodolazkin, translated by Marian Schwartz
Laurus by Eugene Vodolazkin, translated by Lisa C. Hayden
Anna K.: A Love Story by Jenny Lee
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Constance Garrett
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, translated by David McDuff
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra
The Tsar of Love and Techno by Anthony Marra
City of Thieves by David Benioff
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
The Bookworm by Mitch Silver
A Terrible Country by Keith Gessen
Fardwor, Russia! by Oleg Kashin, translated by Will Evans

Related episodes:  

Episode 228 - Full of Secrets with Audrey
Episode 135 - Speed Dating 2018, Round 5
Episode 113 - Speed Dating 2018, round 1
Episode 117 - Speed Dating 2018, round 2
Episode 120 - Summer Reading; Speed Dating 2018, round 3   
Episode 128 - Poetry and Whale Guts (Bonus episode; Speed Dating 2018, round 4)
Episode 063 - Desolation Road (book speed dating and books on grief)
Episode 059 - Are you Inspired Yet? bonus book speed dating
Episode 047 - Sex with Elvis: Bonus Book Speed Dating Episode
Episode 035 - Speed Dating Books 

 

Stalk us 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.

Friday, March 25, 2022

Review: Recitatif: A Story

Recitatif: A Story Recitatif: A Story by Toni Morrison
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I listened to the audio edition of the only short story Toni Morrison ever wrote, narrated by Bahni Turpen. If you get the audio, which is under two hours, the story doesn't start until 59:21, because the entire first half is an essay on the story by Zadie Smith. I'm of the personal opinion that one should read the work before reading commentary on said work, and continue to skip intros, prefaces, and more.

The story is "an experiment in the removal of all racial codes from a narrative about two characters of different races for whom racial identity is crucial" - so either the reader knows this going in and goes looking for clues, or doesn't know this and makes a lot of assumptions and then is forced to confront themselves with their biases.

Twyla and Roberta meet as 8 year olds at a school for orphans, and then several more times as they move through time.

View all my reviews

Wednesday, March 23, 2022

Review: Light Years From Home

Light Years From Home Light Years From Home by Mike Chen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"The Shao family had become a textbook case study in trauma. But with aliens."

I first heard of Mike Chen on the Reading Glasses podcast, as he's a friend of their show. This book is a different sort of read because it really is more about this one family than it is a more traditional science fiction novel, and even the idea of whether it is a science fiction novel depends on which character you find most trustworthy.

It's been 15 years since Jakob disappeared on a family hike at a lake, and 14 years since the father died trying to look for him. Kass, the self proclaimed responsible one, is caring for her mother who has dementia, while Evie has become the host of a show about alien abductions. Evie and Jakob are twins and she's convinced he was abducted. Kass is pretty sure he is dead or being irresponsible, probably on drugs in some foreign country. Then Jakob returns, dot dot dot.

I received a copy from the publisher through NetGalley. The book came out January 25, 2022.

View all my reviews

Tuesday, March 22, 2022

Review: Zuleikha

Zuleikha

Zuleikha by Guzel Yakhina
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This 21st century Russian novel, by a woman and about a woman, rose to the top of the novels I was considering for Reading Envy Russia - it is set in the 1930s as the Red Army is moving through rural regions of the country, removing people from land they owned and had worked while moving toward collectivism for all farming.

I had the mistaken impression that Communism was pro-peasant class but learned that landowning people, referred to as kulak, were treated as enemies. Many were killed outright, as Zuleikha's husband is, and many were sent to work camps in Siberia, as Zuleikha is. Neither of these are really spoilers although they take some time to happen. This period is referred to as the kulakization.
Other parts of interest - Zuleikha and her husband are Muslim, something I haven't seen much of in Russian literature so far. She also is in service to her mother in law, a terrible woman. The underlying premise seems to be that her life improves in Siberia. There are other memorable characters like a doctor, the commandant, a female soldier, even an artist. But the real star is Zuleikha.


View all my reviews

Reading Envy 242: Dark and Gloomy with Claire

I was happy to sit down and talk to Claire, a reader from the upcoming generation. She likes dark and gloomy books! Jenny also took the opportunity to read a few YA books she had not yet gotten to, and went dark and gloomy too.

Download or listen via this link:
Reading Envy 242: Dark and Gloomy

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


Books discussed:

book cover images from list below
 

Took by Mary Downing Hahn
Truly, Devious
by Maureen Johnson
Prisoner B-3087 by Alan Gratz
Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins


Other mentions: 

Wait Till Helen Comes by Mary Downing Hahn
Maus by Art Spiegelman
The Hunger Games series
Divergent series
Maze Runner series
Dangerous by Shannon Hale
A Map of Days by Ransom Riggs
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

Related episodes: 

Episode 010 - YA Literature: Death and Mayhem with guests Alex and Carissa
Episode 022 - Gods and Cannibals with guest Chris
Episode 173
- Expecting a Lot from a Book with Sarah Tittle
 

Stalk us 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.

Tuesday, March 8, 2022

Reading Envy 241: Feral Pigeons with Laurie

Laurie is back and we talk about book challenges, even one in French! Since she is a biologist, science comes up as a theme in multiple ways.

Download or listen via this link:
Reading Envy 241: Feral Pigeons

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:

book covers from featured titles, listed below

Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
The Trees by Percival Everett
A Pocket Guide to Pigeon Watching by Rosemary Mosco
Broken Halves of a Milky Sun: Poems by Aaiรบn Nin
The Unwinding and Other Dreams by Jackie Morris

Other mentions: 

Think Again by Adam Grant
The Hall of the Singing Caryatids by Victor Pelevin, translated by Andrew Bromfield
The Possessed by Elif Batuman
Putin's Russia by Darryl Cunningham
Lilly Library - Kurt Vonnegut collection
Telephone by Percival Everett
The American Pigeon Museum
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Pigeonetics
Unbound Publisher
The Silent Unwinding by Jackie Morris
My Year of Meats by Ruth Ozeki
Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson
Great Plains by Ian Frazier
Echo by Thomas Olde Heuvelt
  by Ali Hazelwood
The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
The Three Robbers by Tomi Ungerer

Related episodes: 

Episode 065 - Creeping through the Uncanny Valley with guest Bryan Alexander 
Episode 069 - Evil Librarian/SFBRP Crossover Episode with Luke and Juliane 
Episode 201 - Wrestling with Complexity with Elizabeth and Laurie
Episode 216 - Eloquent and Elegant with Kala
Episode 231 - Psychological Terrorism with Reggie
Episode 233 - Get Into Trouble with Ruth
 

Stalk us online:

Jenny at Goodreads
Jenny on Twitter
Jenny is @readingenvy on Instagram and Litsy
Laurie on Twitter
Laurie is @dryapyapi on Instagram
Laurie 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.

Wednesday, March 2, 2022

Books Read February 2022: 15-32

This month was chaos as I tried to finish the remaining Tournament of Books shortlist (still reading the last one when March hit) and to try out a bunch of Russian novels for whoever decided to make this year of all years the year of reading Russia! 

I missed one book club discussion (Darcie Little Badger with the Book Cougars) but finally was able to attend the Indigenous Reading Circle discussion. I've heard Tournament of Books is moving to Discord so now I need to learn one more social network - or excuse me, digital discussion platform - and I'm too old! Sword and Laser has been trying to live in both Goodreads and Discord so maybe it will give me a different perspective on that group.

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!

images of books read in February, same list as below



15. The Sentence by Louise Erdrich, narrated by Louise Erdrich ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
16. The 1619 Project: Born on the Water by Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renee Watson, narrated by Nikole Hannah-Jones ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
17. Seek You: A Journey through American Loneliness by Kristen Radtke ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
18. Putin's Russia by Darryl Cunningham ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
19. In Concrete by Anne Garrรฉtta, translated by Emma Ramadan ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
20. A Snake Falls to Earth by Darcie Little Badger ⭐️⭐️⭐️
21. Islands of Decolonial Love by Leslie Betasamosake Simpson, narrated by Tantoo Cardinal ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
22. How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
23. The Employees by Olga Ravn, translated by Martin Aitken ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
24. Joan is Okay by Weike Wang, narrated by Catherine Ho ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
25. Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
26. Broken Halves of a Milky Sun: Poems by Aaiรบn Nin ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
27. The Interior Silence by Sarah Sands ⭐️⭐️⭐️
28. Must Love Books by Shauna Robinson ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
29. Quiet Girl in a Noisy World by Debbie Tung ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
30. The Trees by Percival Everett ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
31. First Love by Ivan Turgenev, translated by Constance Garnett ⭐️⭐️⭐️
32. It Would Be Night in Caracas by Karina Sainz Borgo, translated by Elizabeth Bryer ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Books read: 18

Audiobook: 4
Ebook: 11
Print: 3

Library: 5
TBR: 1
Purchased 2022: 3
Review copy: 8
Subscription: 1

Around the World: 6
Indigenous Reading Circle: 1
Melanated Reader's 20 Books by Black Women: 3
Reading Envy Russia: 2
Sword and Laser: 0
Tournament of Books: 1

Saturday, February 26, 2022

Review: It Would Be Night in Caracas

It Would Be Night in Caracas It Would Be Night in Caracas by Karina Sainz Borgo
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'm trying to read books from the last few countries in my around the world project that I've been working on since 2012, and It Would Be Night in Caracas was recommended by several people for Venezuela.

The author is a journalist from Venezuela who relocated to Madrid, and the main character of the novel follows a similar path. The novel is so focused on her life and struggles without a lot of context so I had to do a lot of reading about Venezuela - its government, the poverty, the violence - it's all there in the background but not something I knew a lot about. And the way the main character encounters it is as a woman alone - at the beginning she has to bury her mother who died because there was no health care infrastructure, without family because they were either dead or unwilling to risk traveling. It isn't long before she decides she has to flee the country, and while a lot of convenient things have to happen for that to work, it is still harrowing.

Interestingly, Venezuela has been in the news this week because they blamed the U.N. and United States for what is happening in Ukraine. That initiated another internet rabbit hole, to find Venezuela closely aligned with Russia and Cuba.

The other thing I did was to spend some time in Google Maps, looking at some of the amazing rainforest landscapes found in the south of the country, and read recent stories about an American who has been held under espionage charges for several years.

You'll see below that this took me a while to read - it's because the violence would make me put it aside for a while.

View all my reviews

Tuesday, February 22, 2022

Review: The Trees

The Trees The Trees by Percival Everett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

My penultimate book from the Tournament of Books shortlist, and I had to reread the end before I weighed in. This is an engaging read, about mysterious deaths in the town of Money, Mississippi, and they seem to be related to racist killings from previous generations. The white sheriff's department comes up against two Black MBI agents as they try to figure out what's happening. (MBI = Mississippi Bureau of Investigation)

There is satire in the sense that many characters have funny names and some have argued that the white people are written to the extreme but... I don't know that they are. I appreciated that the satire was there but not everything. My reason for rereading the ending was this feeling that it ended abruptly and it does, but I liked the little turn a few chapters from the end featuring Trump, basically, giving a speech about how he never uses the "n" word while frequently using it.

It should be an interesting one to discuss in the tournament!

View all my reviews

Reading Envy 240: Air Quotes with Chris Carey

Chris visits the podcast for the first time, where we discuss web comics and where they live, book clubs and book goals, book slumps and book challenges. We also manage to discuss several debut novels across a wide range of genres, but all with strong representation!

Download or listen via this link:
Reading Envy 240: Air Quotes

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Or listen through Google Podcasts


Books discussed:

Images of five books discussed plus user icons for Chris and ReadingEnvy

The Wolf at the Door by Charlie Adhara
How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun
Islands of Decolonial Love by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, performed by Tantoo Cardinal
Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo

Other mentions: 

Gotham Outsiders
Thirsty on Toon
Talking Comics
My Gentle Giant
WEBTOON
Batman: Wayne Family Adventures
Wattpad
Reading Glasses Podcast
Reading Glasses Challenge
Heaving Bosoms Podcast
Heaving Bosoms' Reading Embrace
Big Bad Wolf Series by Charlie Adhara
Gail Carriger
Nagamatsu playlist at Largehearted Boy
Stiff by Mary Roach
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty
Sunshine Cleaning (film)
The Trauma Cleaner by Sarah Krasnosteinrom
Indigenous Reading Circle in Patreon
Noopiming by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
Bojack Horseman (tv show)
Horrorstรถr by Grady Hendrix
The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix
We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix
Woman Eating by Claire Kohda
The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix
The Employees by Olga Gavn, translated by Martin Aitken


Related episodes: 

Episode 060 - A Good Era for Communists with Rose Davis
Episode 148 - Multiple Lives with Jeff
Episode 191 - Stealthy yet Sparkly with Gail Carriger
Episode 231 - Psychological Terrorism with Reggie

Stalk us online:

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


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.

Tuesday, February 15, 2022

Review: Islands of Decolonial Love: Stories & Songs

Islands of Decolonial Love: Stories & Songs Islands of Decolonial Love: Stories & Songs by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

First I read This Accident of Being Lost: Songs and Stories, pushed into my hands by someone at House of Anansi Press when I went to AWP in Tampa. Last year I read Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies.

This year, thanks to Erin and Dani's Book Club, now Indigenous Reading Circle (you can join in Patreon) - I got to read her earlier book of short stories and songs as they spend the first half of the year focusing on story collections. The stories deal with similar themes, all featuring Nishnaabeg characters close to home for Simpson (apologies if my spelling is incorrect for this form of the word, sometimes I see it starting with an A and don't know the rules. On her website, this spelling is used.)

My absolutely favorite story features two friends or lovers who have waited so long to meet in person and when they do find their suspicions correct - and it has to do with what we call "sasquatch" but they would not. (It harkens back to The Sentence which had a chapter called "Tender Sasquatch" as a joke self-pub title.)

Several reviews say the book comes with songs recorded to accompany the stories but I listed to the audio version in Hoopla and it did not have any performances included, and the one publisher site that claims to have them to listen to for free doesn't seem to. I'd welcome any guidance there as I'd love to hear them. I really enjoyed this book in audio! So much I listened to it back to back twice!

I'll attempt to discuss it a bit more on upcoming Episode 240 of the Reading Envy Podcast.

View all my reviews

Tuesday, February 8, 2022

Reading Envy 239: Gross but Subtle with Katie

Katie joins me for the first time from the far north to discuss her own reading, plus one very creative solution for reading short stories with a book club.

Download or listen via this link:
Reading Envy 239: Gross but Subtle

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:

Book cover images from books listed below

Salt Slow by Julia Armfield
The Sentence by Louise Erdrich
Sufferance
by Thomas King
Seek You: A Journey through American Loneliness by Kristen Radtke
Gutter Child by Jael Richardson

Other mentions: 

Well-Read Books
Coles Books
"The Great Awake" by Julia Armfield
Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire
Tournament of Books
Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich
The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich
Green Grass, Running Water by Thomas King
Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese
The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline
The Break by Katherena Vermette
The Strangers by Katherena Vermette (forthcoming, hopefully)
Drawing Loneliness with Kristen Radtke (video)
Whatever Happened to Interracial Love?: Stories by Kathleen Collins
Half-Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan
In Concrete by Anne Garrรฉtta, translated by Emma Ramadan

Related episodes: 

Episode 077 - No One Messes With a Wolf with Shawn Mooney
Episode 181 - An Awkward Woman with Yanira Ramirez
Episode 190 - The Good Life with Alex
Episode 202 - Jacket Flap with Chris and Emily

Stalk us online:

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


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.