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.

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Reading Envy 134: A Pastiche Romp with Ruthiella

Ruth, often known as Ruthiella, returns to the podcast to talk about several long books she has read and enjoyed lately. Jenny joins in with surprising selections. We talk about the pull of book lists for our own reading, and books we need to give a second chance.

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 134: A Pastiche Romp with Ruthiella.

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Books Discussed:



Possession by A.S. Byatt
Florida by Lauren Groff
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh
An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears
Annie Muktuk and Other Stories by Norma Dunning


Other Discussion:

Man Booker Prize
National Book Award
Tournament of Books
Possession (film)
The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt
St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell
Arcadia by Lauren Groff
Fates & Furies by Lauren Groff
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
Charles Dickens
Wilkie Collins
Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters
Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters
The Observations by Jane Harris
Gillespie and I by Jane Harris
Kate Morton
Milkman by Anna Burns
The Idiot by Elif Batuman
Rashaman (film)
Arcadia by Iain Pears
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
Jonathan Argyll series (art history) by Iain Pears
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson
Books on the Nightstand podcast
Middlemarch by George Eliot
Books and Chocolate  blog - Back to Classics challenge
The Tin Drum by Günter Grass


Related episodes:

Episode 033 - An Undulating Thrum with guests Ruth and Elizabeth
Episode 067 - Rain and Readability with Ruth(iella) 
Episode 085 - An Acquired Taste with Thomas Otto  
Episode 105 - Best Reads of 2017 
Episode 131 - Tartan Noir and More with Claire Duffy

Stalk us online:

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

Books Read September 2018: 219 - 247

Pictured: This month's 5-star reads

219. The Wrong Heaven by Amy Bonnaffons ***** (print galley; my review)
220. Struck by Lightning by Chris Colfer *** (Hoopla audiobook; my review)
221. The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo ***** (Hoopla audiobook; my review)
222. Ohio by Stephen Markley **** (eARC; my review)
223. A Man Called Ove by Fredrick Backman *** (postal book swap; my review)
224. Secrets of a Hutterite Kitchen by Mary-Ann Kirkby **** (interlibrary loan; my review)
225. The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben **** (Hoopla eBook; my review)
226. Rodeo in Reverse by Lindsay Alexander **** (eARC; my review)
227. Dumplin' by Julie Murphy **** (Hoopla audiobook; my review)
228. Solo by Kwame Alexander *** (Hoopla audiobook; my review)
229. The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell **** (eARC; my review)
230. Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore by Elizabeth Rush ***** (Hoopla eBook; my review)
231. From a Low and Quiet Sea by Donal Ryan *** (eARC; my review)
232. Sabrina by Nick Drnaso ** (library book; my review)
233. The End of the Moment We Had by Toshiki Okada **** (eARC; my review)
234. The Best American Poetry 2018 ed. Dana Gioia **** (eARC; my review)
235. The Water Cure by Sophie Mackintosh **** (eARC and library book; my review)
236. Normal People by Sally Rooney ***** (eARC; my review)
237. A Coffin for Dimitrios by Eric Ambler **** (postal book swap; my review)
238. Baking as Biography by Diane Tye **** (interlibrary loan; my review)
239. The Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan **** (Audible audiobook; my review)
240. In Our Mad and Furious City by Guy Gunaratne **** (library book; my review)
241. Premonitions by Elizabeth Schmul **** (eARC; my review)
242. Milkman by Anna Burns ** (eARC; my review)
243. There There by Tommy Orange **** (library book; my review)
244. Our Homesick Songs by Emma Hooper ***** (library book; my review)
245. Girls and Boys by Dennis Kelly **** (Audible exclusive; my review)
246. Annie Muktuk and Other Stories by Norma Dunning ***** (personal copy; my review)
247. The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah *** (library eBook; my review)

Total books read: 29
Review copies: 12

Audio: 6
eBook: 12
Print:11

Canada/Alaska 2018: 5
Postal Book Swaps: 2
Newest Literary Fiction Group: YA Theme: 4
Science September: 2

Giller Prize Longlist: 1

Man Booker Prize Longlist: 5
Man Booker Prize Shortlist: 1

National Book Award Longlist: 2

Reading Envy 101: A Different Kind of Time Travel

Jenny was so excited to be in the same city as Karen, in October, so we planned reading dates, a meat fest (not a euphemism), and time to record an episode.

Warning: There is a bit of a spoiler for Exit West on here, but nothing you haven't learned if you've read any reviews of the book.

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 101: A Different Kind of Time Travel

Subscribe to the podcast via this link: Feedburner
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Or listen through TuneIn
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Listen via Stitcher

I am scheduling guests for 2018! If you are interested in appearing on the podcast: FAQ


Books featured:



Theft by Finding: Diaries (1977-2002) by David Sedaris
Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
The Wonder by Emma Donoghue
From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death by Caitlin Doughty
Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
Nobody Cries at Bingo by Dawn Dumont

Other mentions:

National Book Awards - winners 2017 (spoiler: not Machado)
Room by Emma Donoghue
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty
Dr. Paul Koudounaris
The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia by Mohsin Hamid
Glass Beads: Stories by Dawn Dumont
Slade House by David Mitchell
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
The Resurrection of Joan Ashby by Cherice Wolas

Related episodes:

Episode 004 - Home, Frightening and Banned with guest Karen Acosta
Episode 015 - The Time for Exclaiming Over Costumes with Jean and Karen
Episode 051 - Dreaming in Books with Karen
Episode 066 - When Time Stops with Karen


Stalk us online:

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

Reading Envy 098: Just a Bunch of Stuff that Happened

Jenny sits down to talk to Dr. Bryan Bibb, an associate professor of religion at the university where she works. We talk about horror and religion, mythology and ... baseball? Well. Jenny likes to have guests who read in genres not frequently featured on Reading Envy.

Warning: this episode is a bit longer than the average episode, and there may be triggers for sexual abuse and spiders.

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 098: Just a Bunch of Stuff that Happened


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
Listen via Stitcher

I am starting to schedule guests for 2018! If you are interested in appearing on the podcast: FAQ


Books featured:



It by Stephen King
After the People Lights Have Gone Off by Stephen Graham Jones
Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty by Charles Leerhsen
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
Judges (the book of, from The Bible)
Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman

Other mentions:

After Class Podcast
American Gods (tv series)
Insomnia by Stephen King
The Dark Tower series by Stephen King
The Stand by Stephen King
On Writing by Stephen King
Stranger Things (tv series)
Ready Player One by Ernst Cline
Master of None (tv series)
Roots by Alex Haley
Charles Leerhsen
Dead Ball Era
Detroit Tigers
Cobb (film)
Cobb by Al Stump
Ken Burns' Baseball (documentary series)
Field of Dreams (film)
Texts of Terror by Phyllis Trible
A Universal History of the Destruction of Books by Fernando Baez
The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu by Joshua Hammer
The Literary Imagination in Jewish Antiquity by Eva Mroczek

The Nomadic Text by Brennan Breed
Mythology by Edith Hamilton
Armada by Ernst Cline
Bible Nation: The United States of Hobby Lobby by Candida R. Moss and Joel S. Baden
Museum of the Bible
Everything's Eventual by Stephen King
Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
Springtime: A Ghost Story by Michelle de Kretser


Stalk us online:

Bryan at the After Class Podcast
Jenny at Goodreads
Jenny on Twitter
Jenny is @readingenvy on Instagram and Litsy

Library Books Mid-October 2016

I can't believe it's time already for the monthly library book roundup! I feel like I haven't had time to breathe in the last few weeks, much less go to the library. Good thing I work at the library or I might never go.

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
What Belongs to You by Garth Greenwell
Blackacre by Monica Youn
Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out by Susan Kufkin
Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien
The House of Small Shadows by Adam Nevill

Not pictured:
Am I Blue? Coming Out from the Silence edited by Marion Dane Bauer
Blue Laws: Selected and Uncollected Poems, 1995-2015 by Kevin Young
Jimmy's Blues and Other Poems by James Baldwin
Letters Composed During a Lull in the Fighting: Poems by Kevin Powers
Jack of Spades by Joyce Carol Oates
A Month in the Country by J.L. Carr
The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload by Daniel J. Levitin

I checked out the Jackson, Nevill, and Oates for Spook/Book/Scare-tober reading. Greenwell, Youn, and Young all came home with me because they were longlisted for the National Book Award while the Thien is shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize.

The Kufkin and Bauer were for Banned Books Week, Baldwin and Powers were library eBooks in a hunt for recent poetry, Carr was a whim after seeing it posted in Litsy, and the Levitin is a book I requested my library to order after someone referenced Levitin a bunch in a presentation I found interesting.

Phew! What do you have on your library pile?