Reading Envy 178: Precarious Pile with Ruthiella

Ruth joins Jenny bright and early in January, which gives us the chance to discuss reading goals for last year and this year a little, reading classics, and what happened when a friend dared Ruth to read a book! This is the first episode of a new strategy where Jenny is bringing two books to discuss to the guest's three, so feel free to let me know what you think.

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 178: Precarious Pile with Ruthiella.

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Books discussed:



Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee
Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout
Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann
In the Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddney Ratner
Inland by Téa Obreht



Other mentions:

Ruth's Booked for LIfe blog and her 2019 Back to the Classics roundup
Ruth's Booked for LIfe blog and her pile of 21 books 
Books and Chocolate Blog - Back to the Classics 2020 challenge
Man Booker Prize 1999
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout
The Topeka School by Ben Lerner
The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht
How to Feed a Dictator by Witold Szablowski 
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
The Duke's Children by Anthony Trollope
A Woman is No Man by Etaf Rum


Related episodes:

Episode 033 - An Undulating Thrum with guests Ruth and Elizabeth
Episode 053 - The Pool I Rarely Swim In with Luke Christie
Episode 086 - The Queen of Bailing with Shawn Mooney 
Episode 067 - Rain and Readability with Ruth(iella)
Episode 134 - A Pastiche Romp with Ruth(iella)
Episode 167 - Book Pendulum with Reggie
Episode 172 - The It Book of NYC with Jon Laubinger 


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Jenny is @readingenvy on Instagram and Litsy

Review: Flags in the Dust

Flags in the Dust by William Faulkner
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I'm auditing a Faulkner class this semester to help me read and understand some of his catalog since I've always failed when I've tried on my own. Flags in the Dust, published in reduced form as Sartoris in 1929, lays the groundwork for the setting of several more novels. I say that allegedly because I haven't read them yet. This one is set immediately after World War I with characters dealing with the aftermath, and of course the impact on already tense race relations. Faulkner focuses on a handful of characters and the novel has the feeling of opening doors to observe the characters and checking back in on them to see what else has transpired. I like to think of this as lazy afternoon teatime with a few car rides in between. It's a bit of a mess but gets better as it goes. (Since I read all 400 pages in a day I think I need to reread the last quarter.)

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Review: Cleanness

Cleanness by Garth Greenwell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An early morning Instagram chat with Hardcoverheartsblog helped me solidify my feelings about this book. Much like Garth Greenwell's last novel, What Belongs to You, which I admit I never finished, the narrator feels like the author sharing stories from his time teaching English in Bulgaria. In a few he is quite young, some are during revolution, and in some he is older (but the narrator is the same.) His (very explicit and often challenging) sexual encounters, relationships, and friendships are only with first initials, shrouding all stories in a layer of secrecy that suits the plight of a gay man in Bulgaria. The limits he pushes in risk-taking behavior, violence, and so on also manage to show how perhaps Americans also aren't as free as they think they are, and how deeply we internalize homophobic narratives and more.

I had a copy of this book from the publisher through Netgalley and it came out January 14.

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Reading Envy 177: An Unnamed Middle Eastern Country (Goals 2020)

Jenny starts off the year by discussing reading goals - how did her reading goals end up for 2019, what additional goals did she end up adding, and what goals has she set for 2020? As always I love to hear about your goals for the year. As the Reading Envy Podcast rolls over into its sixth year, there are many more reading adventures to explore.

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 177: An Unnamed Middle Eastern Country (Goals 2020).

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
Listen through Spotify


Episode 140 - Woman Greets Bear (Reading Goals 2019)
Back to the Classics wrap-up post
Reading in Asia 2019 wrap-up post
Episode 157 - Joint Readalong of Gone with the Wind with Book Cougars
Book Cougars - Joint Readalong of Sapphira and the Slave Girl
Recommended Reads in Memoir (April 2019)
Recommended Reads in Poetry (April 2019)
Recommended Reads in Music (May 2019
Recommended Reads for Women in Translation Month (July 2019)
Recommended Foodie Reads (November 2019)
Episode 174 - Cozy Holiday Reads and TBR Explode 4

Middle East TBR 2020

Books under consideration for readalongs:

The Odyssey as translated by Emily Wilson (592)
Possession by A.S. Byatt (576)
Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann (1040)
Almanac of the Dead by Leslie Marmon Silko (786)

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Middle Eastern Reading 2020 TBR

This is a place I wanted to list the books I'm thinking about or know about for my focus on the Middle East in 2020. I would love more recommendations, particularly of native authors, translated into English.

Bahrain   
To read: The Meeting Point by Lucy Caldwell (the 1 Bahraini author translated into English has super bad reviews)

Cyprus

To read: Bitter Lemons of Cyprus

Iran

Already read: Reading Lolita in Tehran, Persepolis, The Blindfold Horse, Suvashun, The Temporary Bride
To read: The Blood of Flowers, My Uncle Napoleon, Persian Girls, Moon Brow

Iraq

Already read: Fifteen Iraqi Poets
To read: Without an Alphabet, Without a Face; The Corpse Exhibition, Nostalgia My Enemy; Frankenstein in Baghdad, The Baghdad Eucharist

Israel

Already read: Sadness is a White Bird, Some Day, The Girl Who Stole My Holocaust, Second Person Singular

Jordan

Already read: Salt Houses
To read: Inside the Night 

Kuwait

Lebanon

Already read: Pearls on a Branch, Unnecessary Woman

Oman

To read: Celestial Bodies

Palestine, Gaza Strip, West Bank

Already read: Sadness is a White Bird
To read: A Woman is No Man, A River Dies of Thirst, The Blue Between Sky and Water, Time of White Horses, Wild Thorns, Rain Inside, Inside the Night

Qatar

Saudi Arabia

Already read: Habibi, The Wrong End of the Table, A Sinner in Mecca, 

Syria

Already read: No Knives in the Kitchens of this City, A Tree Whose Name I Don’t Know
To read: The Crossing by Samar Yazbek

Turkey

Already read: so many! 

UAE

Already read: The Dog by Joseph O’Neill, Minutes from Miracle City by Omar Sabbagh
To read: Temporary People

Yemen
Already read: Black Mamba Boy by Nadifa Mohamed

Could read: Henna House by Nomi Eve

Kurdistan and all other border places

Already read: A Tree Whose Name I Don’t Know, 
To read: stuff from Red Emmas, Women from a Non-State Nation, I Stared at the Night of the City

Review: A Castle in the Clouds

A Castle in the Clouds by Kerstin Gier
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a book I requested in my flurry of trying to read as many holiday reads before the holidays as I could take. I didn't get to this one but since it's set up to New Year's Eve and a bit beyond it still works. Also this is translated YA, which I don't see all that often. (Apparently some know the author from a time travel historical romance series, this seems more contemporary.)

Overall a feel-good read set in a Swiss mountain luxury hotel, with balls and mystery cats and snowstorms and afternoon tea. Sophie is an intern who moves between roles as chambermaid, spa receptionist, childcare, and other duties as assigned. She stumbles into awkward situations like money laundering, jewel heists, kidnapping, and more.

It comes out at the end of January from Henry Holt Books - I had a copy through Edelweiss.

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Review: How to Feed a Dictator: Saddam Hussein, Idi Amin, Enver Hoxha, Fidel Castro, and Pol Pot Through the Eyes of Their Cooks

How to Feed a Dictator: Saddam Hussein, Idi Amin, Enver Hoxha, Fidel Castro, and Pol Pot Through the Eyes of Their Cooks by Witold Szabłowski
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book doesn't come out until the end of April but it hit the spot for a different sort of read (and my first read of the year) connecting the Cambodian novel I finished on New Year's Eve to my new focus on the Middle East.

"Witold Szablowski tracked down the personal chefs of five dictators known for the oppression and massacre of their own citizens: Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, Uganda’s Idi Amin, Albania’s Enver Hoxha, Cuba’s Fidel Castro, and Cambodia’s Pol Pot—and listened to their stories over sweet-and-sour soup, goat-meat pilaf, bottles of rum, and games of gin rummy."

The stories are unnerving sometimes in their details but sometimes because of the perspective of the chef (ranging from fear to mental deterioration to complicity to... love?) It's an interesting combination of politics and food. The author provides considerable context in which to understand the situations involved.

This comes out April 28, 2020 from Penguin. I had an early copy through Edelweiss.

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