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.

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Reading Envy 243: Russian Novel Speed Date

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Books discussed:

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.

Review: Voices in the Evening

Voices in the Evening by Natalia Ginzburg, translated by D.M, Low
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is one of those novels where you have to get into the routine of it, to read between the lines, to really understand everything going on. It takes place in a small Italian town after World War II, with everyone dealing with losing family members, wondering who to trust, and still needing to move forward. I liked the examination of happiness in relationships vs societal expectations as well. Ginzburg comes from an Italian Jewish family and her husband was tortured to death by Nazis before the end of the war, so surely those experiences were formative to this post-war novel, even though it's not about those events per se.

This came in from my New Directions Classics Club subscription, but I picked it off my shelf to read for Western Europe and the Read the World 21 challenge in Instagram.

View all my reviews

Reading Envy 227 - Strong Words with Ed Needham

Jenny is joined by Ed Needham, who has singlehandedly been producing a literary magazine in the UK. We talk about books we've read recently!

Download or listen via this link:
Reading Envy 227: Strong Words

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Books discussed: 

Mrs. March by Virginia Feito
The Promise by Damon Galgut
Last Summer in the City by Gianfranco Calligarich, translated by Howard Curtis
Stranger Care: A Memoir of Loving What Isn't Ours by Sarah Sentilles
Nina Simone's Gum by Warren Ellis

Other mentions:

Strong Words Magazine
Gossip Girl (tv)
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Discussion of East of Eden on the Literary Disco podcast
Milkman by Anna Burns
Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
Bewilderment by Richard Powers
Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
The Great Beauty (film)
Meltdown Festival
Eliot Ness and the Mad Butcher by Max Allan Collins and A. Brad Schwartz 
Catch the Rabbit by Lana Bastasic, translated by the author

Related episodes: 

Episode 012 - Some Bookers and Some Madness
Episode 088 - Author Head Space with Sara Moore
Episode 090 - Reading Envy Readalong: East of Eden with Ellie and Jeff
Episode 112 - Reset Button with Eleanor Thoele
Episode 129 - Coming Back to Books with Nadine
Episode 130 - All the Jennifers with Fern Ronay
Episode 192 - Sly Milieu with Thomas

Stalk me online:


Jenny at Goodreads
Jenny on Twitter
Jenny is @readingenvy on Instagram and Litsy
Strong Words is @strongwordsmag on Instagram
Strong Words 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.

Reading Envy 220: Pronunciations with Scott

Scott returns from a coastal vacation and three recent reads. We also discuss group reads via BookTube, the appeal of series, and more.

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 220: Pronunciations

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Books discussed:

 
Njal's Saga by Anonymous
True Story by Kate Reed Perry
The Summer Book by Tove Jansson, translated by Thomas Teal
Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019 edited by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha Blaine
Every Dead Thing by John Connolly

Other mentions:

The King of Elfland's Daughter by Lord Dunsany
The Thrall's Tale by Judith Lindbergh
The Sagas of the Icelanders by Various
Sagalong on Youtube, episode 1
Tournament of Books - Yu
Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones
The Bully Pulpit by Doris Kearns Goodwin
How to Be An Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi
Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi
Freedom is a Constant Struggle  by Angela Y. Davis
The Galaxy and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers
Children of Ash & Elm: A History of the Vikings by Neil Price
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross
Even as we Breathe by Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle
Always Coming Home by Ursula K. Le Guin

Related episodes:

Episode 055 - Too Late for an Autopsy with Julie Davis
Episode 087 - Going Native with Bookclub Social with Amanda and Grace
Episode 088 - Author Head Space with Sara Moore
Episode 126 - Bernice Bobs her Hair with Jon Laubinger
Episode 157 - Joint Readalong of Gone with the Wind with Book Cougars
Episode 198 - Mood Reading with Robin

Stalk us online:

Scott on A Good Story is Hard to Find (podcast)
Scott on Shelf Wear (blog and podcast)
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.

Review: If You Kept a Record of Sins

If You Kept a Record of Sins by Andrea Bajani
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Lorenzo's mother dies after he hasn't seen her in many years, and he travels to Romania for her funeral. He meets his mother's former partner (business and love) and others from her life. There are memorable moments and characters like the driver, the new young lover of his mother's former partner, the coffin maker, and a funeral in the middle of a church under construction, attended by the workers. The novel is written in 2nd person, as in Lorenzo addressing his internal thoughts to his dead mother.

This is an outsider view, of Romania, of his mother. One is probably better than portrayed - Romania. There are multiple characters talking about how Romanians "don't want to work" and a lot of negative stereotypes along those lines. Ceaușescu Palace looms in the background as a reminder of recent oppression, which the characters seem to feel in their bones, while at the same time trying to separate from it. Lorenzo is also an outsider to his mother, since she left him with his Dad in Italy when he was a child, and came back less and less as she took her "weight loss egg" to the world. Except I get the sense that either her business flopped or it was never a success to begin with, and she was in Romania for different reasons. He seems to know nothing about her decline and how she was living when she died.

Another side note - I know a Romanian who had to travel to that country after her mother died and it took months to work through the bureaucracy. Lorenzo must have better connections, because in under one week he has a funeral, cleans out her home, and deals with the business.

One more side note, the title is a Biblical reference, Psalm 130:3, included in many Lenten and funeral rites as well. "If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand?" A priest reads this at the mother's funeral and it leads into a confrontation between the son and former partner that felt very smart.

Thank you Archipelago Books for bringing books and authors to us through your translations and publications! I had a copy of this from the publisher through Edelweiss. It came out March 3, 2021.

View all my reviews

Reading Envy 218: Reading Gaps with Kendra

Jenny and Kendra catch up on books they've read and liked recently. Kendra also shares how the Reading Women Podcast has changed in the last two years, what her Read Appalachia project is all about, and how she organizes her books (it's unusual!)

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 218: Reading Gaps

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Books discussed: 

 

Same Sun Here by Silas House and Neela Vaswani
Gilgamesh by Joan London
F*ckface: And Other Stories by Leah Hampton
We Trade Our Night for Someone Else's Day by Ivana Bodrozic, translated by Ellen Elias-Bursac
Even as we Breathe by Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle

Other mentions:

Read Appalachia
The Prettiest Star by Carter Sickels
Southernmost by Silas House
"Dear America" books
The Stella Prize
Tracker by Alexis Wright (link goes to Google since Bookshop didn't have it yet)
All the Birds, Singing by Evie Wyld
The Bass Rock by Evie Wyld
"Lost in a (Mis)Gendered Appalachia" by Leah Hampton, in Guernica
The Unquiet Dead by Ausma Zehanet Khan
The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw
National Gingerbread House Competition at the Omni Grove Park Inn
University of Kentucky - Fireside Industries
Crystal Wilkinson, Kentucky Poet Laureate
Randall Kenan
The International Booker Prize
The Discomfort of Evening by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld, translated by Michele Hutchison
Black Bone: 25 Years of the Affrilachian Poets edited by Bianca Lynne Spriggs et al
An Inventory of Losses by Judith Schalansky, translated by Jackie Smith

Related episodes:

Episode 102 - The Reading Women Reading Envy Crossover Episode
Episode 195 - Muchness with Nadine
Episode 199 - Awkward Melancholy with Karen
Episode 212 - Subtly Fascinating with Vinny
Episode 213 - Funicular Reads with Bianca

Stalk us online:

Reading Women Podcast
Kendra on Instagram,  Twitter, Goodreads, and YouTube
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.

Review: My Heart

My Heart by Semezdin Mehmedinović
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

My Heart is a work of autobiographical fiction told in three sections - one about his heart attack, one in the form of an illustrated travel diary to his son, and one to his wife as she battles an illness. Themes include aging, PTSD from living through the siege in Sarajevo, displacement, memory, etc. It reminds me most of To Be a Man by Nicole Kraus and the Deborah Levy/ Rachel Cusk style of writing, and yes it's interesting to me that the authors he reminds me of are all female.

This is my first experience with this author but I understand him to be well loved across the former Yugoslavia. I will count the book for Bosnia in my Europe2021 project although all of it takes place after and away from there. It has clearly had an impact on all of them, especially in his son, who seems to have blocked memories of the war - "When I remind you of an event from the war, your memory becomes unreliable and vague. You suppress the war into oblivion."

"Books are lonelier than people."

There is a random section about the makadam (in his language), then he riffs on John Loudon McAdam, who just happens to be one of my ancestors, somewhat bizarre to encounter him here.

"Over the course of the last twenty years that I've lived here [in the USA], I've been able to monitor the way America has been closing up, screening itself from the outside world. It used not to be like this. When people heard a foreign language on the subway, at the airport, or like this, in a restaurant, it would arouse their curiosity, not aversion, certainly not fear. Twenty years is a long time, people pass on and worlds change. Foreigners are no longer welcome here."

This has recently been translated into English by Celia Hawkesworth and came out from Catapult on Tuesday, March 9th; the publisher was lovely to send me the book for my perusal.

View all my reviews

Reading Envy 212: Subtly Fascinating with Vinny

Vinny is technically a new guest, although his voice may be familiar from a readalong episode. We talk about books strange and weird, translated, and an exciting memoir few have heard of.

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 212: Subtly Fascinating.

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Books discussed: 

What You Have Heard is True: A Witness of Memoir and Resistance by Carolyn Forché
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link
Catherine the Great and the Small by Olja Knezevic, translated by Ellen Elias-Bursać and Paula Gordon
The Birds by Tarjei Vesaas; translated by Michael Barnes

Other mentions:

The Emigrants by W.G. Sebald
Claribel Alegría
The Country Between Us by Carolyn Forché
Get in Trouble by Kelly Link
The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter
St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell
Swamplandia! by Karen Russell
Vampires in the Lemon Grove by Karen Russell
Weeki Wachee State Park
Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem
Black Swan Green by David Mitchell
Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi
Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam
The Changeling by Victor Lavalle

Related episodes:

Episode 137 - Reading Envy Readalong: The Golden Notebook
Episode 198 - Mood Reading with Robin
Episode 203 - Backlist with Marion

Stalk us online:

Vinny is @billypar on Litsy
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.

Review: Earthlings

Earthlings by Sayaka Murata
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read the last ten percent of this book with my hands over my eyes - it just gets weirder and weirder. It starts with a 9 year old girl who is berated by her family, assaulted by a teacher, and she seeks comfort with her cousin, believing they are probably both aliens. As an adult she finds a spouse who will commit to an unusual relationship but things come to a head when the families start insisting they comply with social expectations.

The author is intentional about subverting expectations for women, in her own life and in her writing.

Translated into English by Ginny Tapley Takemori, I read this because it is on the Tournament of Books long but not shortlist, and counts for January in Japan.

View all my reviews

Review: Untold Night and Day

Untold Night and Day by Bae Suah
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

"Just finish it," I chided myself. "It's only 160 pages, come on!" And thus I persisted.

Halfway through, last night, I drifted off into upright couch sitting deep sleep, where I had four intense nightmarish dreams in a row, and apparently moaned throughout (not in a good way.)

And I DO blame this book, which I can't make any sense of. I can't tell what's real or what's not. I can't understand how what seems imagined or historical in one scene is real in another. I don't understand how the characters seem to switch places and identities and also move between real and imagined (they also seem lost and confused.) I don't understand what is meant to be a deep connection to The Blind Owl by Sadegh Hedayat, a short novel of similar tone I read earlier this year and also didn't understand.

The translator Deborah Smith has obviously gone deep with this author and this feverish style; apparently the author is considered an outsider in Korean lit as well. I might point you first to her translator note, which is the last few pages, before reading the novel. I give the translation efforts 5 stars.

View all my reviews

Reading Envy 207: Innocent and Ruthless with Tricia Deegan

Jenny records across the sea to talk to artist and English teacher Tricia Deegan. If you hear any words that seem stretched out, blame the internet under the ocean! I did what I could in the editing but there are a few unavoidable blips. Nothing too bad, so please enjoy this new guest to the show.

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 207: Innocent and Ruthless

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Books discussed:

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
Farewell, Ghosts by Nadia Terranova; translated by Ann Goldstein
Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier
Travels with a Tangerine by Tim Mackintosh-Smith
The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson

Other mentions:

Leila Slimani
Maupassant
Delpine De Vigan
The Years by Annie Ernaux
Blindness by Jose Saramago
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Elena Ferrante
Grimm's Fairy Tales
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry
Darwin
Burning Bright by Tracy Chevalier (William Blake)
The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier
Native Son by Richard Wright
Caste by Isabel Wilkerson
Becoming by Michelle Obama
These Truths by Jill LePore
Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X Kendi
Stamped! Racism, Antiracism, and You by Ibram X Kendi and Jason Reynolds
A Black Women's History of the United States by Daina Ramey Berry and Kali Nicole Gross
Kim JiYoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo, translated by Jamie Chang
City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert
The Invisible Life of Addie Larue by V.E. Schwab

Related episodes:

Episode 071 - Bad Priest, Good Priest, No Priest with Scott
Episode 098 - Just a Bunch of Stuff that Happened with Bryan Bibb

Stalk us online:

Tricia is @trishadeegan 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.

Review: Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982

Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Ever since The Vegetarian became a massive hit (for good reason,) I have read a string of novels by female writers from Korea translated into English that capture elements of the lived experience of women navigating a society that is still very male-centric. Sometimes they do this through fantasy and the weird, or in this case, with documented research accompanied by endnotes for each chapter.

The sources include data points of sexism in the workplace, of female-exclusive hiring practices, pay disparities and more, like this:

"In 2014... one in five married women in Korea quit their job because of marriage, pregnancy, childbirth and childcare, or the education of their young children."

This seems didactic, no? Until you read the article on the BBC website about the outcry to the book (and movie made from it) since the book was published in Korea in 2016. It is accused of being "highly subjective" and making "sexist generalisations against men." The author's use of facts to back up her everywoman's story provides its own defense. And maybe she felt it would have more staying power in fictionalized form (certainly it was read by many people and became a best seller) - still for my own personal tastes, this is another example of characters and plot employed solely to teach or convince the reader something, and I was left wanting more (while still supporting the ideas.)

View all my reviews

Books Read September 2020: 229-257

This was a strange reading month because I started out refocusing on my 2020 reading goals, plus reading challenges from Instagram to read your own books, read books about science, and read Latinx heritage books (which goes September 15 - October 15.) But the eARC backlog started to feel overwhelming, and you can almost see the shift in my list. I also had to give myself permission to bail on a few books I was stuck on, and that freed up my reading flow. I don't know why I can't learn that lesson better; it's one I learn over and over again. But this month I found a lot of great reads, particularly in non-fiction, which is unusual for me. I read a lot of one-word title books, which was just a strange thing I observed. I also read books from the library for the first time since March (that I hadn't already checked out or accessed electronically) - I utilized curbside pickup. I hope doing so is in support of wanting my libraries to do what they feel is safe and not putting anyone at risk There are a lot of conflicting opinions about this topic.

 

Pictured: 5-star reads for September

229. Oranges in No Man's Land by Elizabeth Laird ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (personal copy; my review)
230. Whale Day by Billy Collins, read by Billy Collins ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (review copy audiobook; my review)
231. The Blind Owl by Sadegh Hadeyat, translated by Naveed Noori ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (personal copy; my review)
232. Blizzard: Poems by Henri Cole ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (eARC in Edelweiss; my review)
233. The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (eARC in NetGalley; my review)
234. Hurma by Ali Al-Muqri, translated by T.M. Aplin ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (personal copy; my review)
235. Earth Almanac by Ted Williams, illustrated by John Burgoyne ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (eARC in NetGalley; my review)
236. Ordinary Girls by Jaquira Díaz, narrated by Almarie Guerra ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (Hoopla audiobook; my review)
237. Glory and Its Litany of Horrors by Fernanda Torres, translated by Eric M.B. Becker ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (personal copy; my review)
238. Homesick by Nino Cipri ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (review copy; my review)
239. Before You Say I Do Clare Lydon ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (eARC from publisher; my review)
240. Eat a Peach by David Chang and Gabe Ulla, narrated by David Chang ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (review copy audiobook; my review)
241. Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (library book; my review)
242. Tides by Jonathan White ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (personal copy; my review)
243. Igifu by Scholastique Mukasonga, translated by Jordan Stump ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (eARC from Edelweiss; my review)
244. Bestiary by K-Ming Chang ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (eARC from NetGalley; my review)
245. Iwigara by Enrique Salmon ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (eARC from NetGalley; my review)
246. No Offense by Meg Cabot ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (eARC from NetGalley; my review)
247. A Highlander is Coming to Town by Laura Trentham ⭐️⭐️ (eARC from NetGalley; my review)
248. Guillotine by Eduardo C. Corral ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (eARC from publisher; my review)
249. The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix Harrow, narrated by January LaVoy ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (personal copy audiobook; my review)
250. What Are You Going Through by Sigrid Nunez ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (eARC from NetGalley; my review)
251. The Selected Works of Audre Lorde by Audre Lorde ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (print galley from publisher; my review)
252. The Writer's Library by Nancy Pearl and Jeff Schwager ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (eARC from NetGalley; my review)
253. Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (library copy; my review)
254. Our Women on the Ground by Zahra Hankir, ed. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (personal copy; my review)
255. Headscarves and Hymens by Mona Eltahawy, narrated by Mona Eltahawy ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (Hoopla audiobook; my review)
256. Farewell, Ghosts by Nadia Terranova, translated by Ann Goldstein ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (eARC from Edelweiss; my review)
257. Nine Moons by Gabriela Wiener, translated by Jessica Powell ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (personal copy; my review)

Books read: 29 

Audiobooks: 5
eBooks: 13
Print books: 11

Library: 4
Personal: 8
Review: 17

Challenges
LatinxHeritage 2
readwhatyouown 9
scienceseptember 3
readtheworld21 2

Goals
Middle East 5
Indigenous writers 3
Around the World 13

Genres
Fantasy 2
Foodie 2
Horror 2
Memoir 2
Poetry 4
Romance 2

Reading Envy 199: Awkward Melacholy with Karen

Karen returns to chat books, and we talk about how we met the Reading Envy Summer Reading challenge, the awkward melancholy of books we are drawn to in dark times, and the translated standalone graphic memoirs that seem to call to each of us.

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 199: Awkward Melancholy

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Or listen via Stitcher
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New! Listen through Google Podcasts


Books discussed:

     

Broken Harbour by Tana French
Transit by Rachel Cusk
5,000 Kilometers Per Second by Manuele Flor
Today is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life by Ulli Lust, translated by Kim Thompson
Luisa: Now & Then by Carole Maurel
The Discomfort of Evening by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld, translated by Michele Hutchison

Other mentions:

Dublin Murder Squad series by Tana French
Outline series by Rachel Cusk
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
The Last Policeman trilogy by Ben H. Winters
Broadchurch (tv show)
Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell
Fantagraphics in Hoopla
Shine, Pamela! Shine! by Kate Atkinson
Just Like You by Nick Hornby
The Searcher by Tana French
The Survivors by Jane Harper
Siete Casas Vacias by Samantha Schweblin
Little Eyes by Samantha Schweblin
Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
The Margot Affair by Sanaë Lemoine
Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

 
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 Acosta
Episode 066 - When Time Stops with Karen Acosta
Episode 101 - A Different Kind of Time Travel with Karen Acosta
Episode 114 - Raised by Wolves with Karen Acosta
Episode 146 - Complicated, Crazy, and Loud with Karen  
Episode 151 - The Stories They Tell with Karen
Episode 161 - Women in Translation Month Recommendations with Lauren
Episode 166 - On Brand with Karen
 

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Jenny is @readingenvy on Instagram and Litsy

Books Read August 2020: 194-228

 August was a busy reading month, especially because of Women in Translation Month (originally created by Meytal Radzinski.) I'll probably post separately about the reads I did for that month as I find myself reading *just a few more* in September. Not only did I read a heck of a lot of women in translation, one of my favorite novelists came out with a new book this month too. And my reading class had a book club. And my book club had a book club. Lots to read.

Here are my five-star reads for the month:

 

194. A Small Key Can Open a Large Door by Strangers in a Tangled Wilderness ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (personal copy; my review)
195. Redhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (library eBook; my review)
196. Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (personal copy; my review)
197. Fair Play by Tove Jansson, translated by Thomas Teal ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (library eBook; my review)
198. Chilling Effect by Valerie Valdes ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (personal copy; my review)
199. Polar Vortex by Shani Mootoo ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (review copy; my review)
200. Stephen Florida by Gabe Habash ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (Kindle eBook; my review)
201. What's Left of Me is Yours by  Stephanie Scott ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (eARC from Edelweiss; my review)
202. Elysium by Jennifer Marie Brissett; narrated by Jamye Meri Grant ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (Hoopla audiobook; my review)
203. The Memory Police by  Yoko Ogawa; translated by Stephen Snyder ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (library eBook; my review)
204. Hold Me Tight by  Jason Schneiderman ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (eARC from publisher; my review)
205. Junebat by John Elizabeth Stintzi ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (eARC from publisher; my review)
206. What Happens at Night by Peter Cameron ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (physical galley from publisher; my review)
207. Written in the Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (eARC from publisher; my review)
208. How to Fly (in Ten Thousand Easy Lessons) by Barbara Kingsolver ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (eARC from NetGalley; my review)
209. Clea by Lawrence Durrell ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (personal copy; my review)
210. The Fixed Stars by  Molly Wizenberg, narrated by Erin Mallon ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (Hoopla audiobook; my review)
211. The Piano Student by  Lea Singer, translated by Elisabeth Lauffer ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (eARC from publisher in Edelweiss; my review)
212. The Switch by Beth O'Leary ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (eARC from publisher in Edelweiss; my review)
213. Chef by Jaspreet Singh ⭐️⭐️⭐️  (personal copy; my review)
214. Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami; translated by Sam Bett and David Boyd ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (personal copy; my review)
215. Grown Ups by Emma Jane Unsworth ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (eARC from publisher in NetGalley; my review)
216. Today is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life by Ulli Lust; translated by Kim Thompson ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (Hoopla eBook; my review)
217. The Discomfort of Evening by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld; translated by Michele Hutchison ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (eARC from publisher; my review)
218. Transit by Rachel Cusk ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (personal copy; my review)
219. Vanessa Yu's Magical Paris Tea Shop by Roselle Lim ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (eARC from publisher in NetGalley; my review)
220. The Inheritance by Sahar Khalifeh; translated by Aida Bamia ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (personal copy; my review)
221. Swimmers in Winter by Faye Guenther ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (print galley from publisher; my review)
222. Home by Various, translated by Various ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (personal copy; my review)
223. Exquisite Mariposa by Fiona Alison Duncan; narrated by Natasha Soudek ⭐️⭐️ (Hoopla audiobook; my review)
224. Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (library eBook; my review)
225. A History of My Brief Body by Billy-Ray Belcourt ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (personal copy; my review)
226. Sex and Lies by Leila Slimani; translated by Sophie Lewis ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (eARC from publisher; my review)
227. Spellbound by Bishakh Kumar Som ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️  (eARC from publisher; my review)
228. The Mussel Feast by Birgit Vanderbeke, translated by Jamie Bulloch ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (personal copy Kindle eBook; my review)

Books Read: 35

5-star reads:13

Audiobook:3

eBook:17

Print:15

Library: 7

Personal: 11 (subscription: 1)

Review:17

Comics: 2

Memoir: 4

Non-fiction: 5

Poetry: 4

Sci-fi/fantasy: 3

Translated:11

Around the World: 18

Booker or International Booker: 3

Middle East 2020: 5

Read the World:1

Sword and Laser: 1

Tournament of Books: 1

Women in Translation Month: 1 at very end of July, 8.5 in August