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June's Books 2013


Talisman

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Last year I managed to get through 63 books, an enormous amount for me given that the year before (2011) I read less than half that. It would be nice of this year I managed to read a few more than that, but I don't have any specific goals for 2013 other than to enjoy those books that I do choose to read. Last year I managed to also get through 28 countries in the Around the World Reading Challenge, and it would be nice also to at least equal that, but the main thing is just to enjoy whatever books I decide to get.

http://www.bookclubf...book-challenge/

http://www.bookclubforum.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/9795-junes-books-2012/

January

How the Trouble Started: Robert Williams
Fish Change Direction in Cold Weather: Pierre Szalowski
The Granta Book of the African Short Story: Helon Habila (Angola, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guinea, Kenya, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Sudan, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda)
Thursdays in the Park: Hilary Boyd
The Unlikely Pilgraimage of Harold Fry: Rachel Joyce

Brick Lane: Monica Ali (Bangladesh)

 

February

 

Do They Hear You When You Cry: Layli Miller Bashir/Fauziya Kassinga (Togo)

Capital: John Lanchester

Origins of Love: Kishwar Desai (India)

Pig: Andrew Cowan

Black Skies: Arnaldur Indridason (Iceland)

Evening is the Whole Day: Preeta Samarasan (Malaysia)

Travels in Blood and Honey: Elizabeth Gowing (Kosovo)

Drown: Junot Diaz (Dominican Republic)

Monique and the Mango Rains: Kris Holloway (Mali)

 

March

 

The Good Father: Noah Hawley (United States)

Ways of Going Home: Alejandro Zambra (Chile)

Human Remains: Elizabeth Haynes

Viking 1: Odinn's Child: Tim Severin

Viking 2: Sworn Brother: Tim Severin

Viking 3: Kings Man: Tim Severin

Requiem: Lauren Oliver (United States)

Berlin - A Novel: Pierre Frei (Germany)

 

April

 

Narcopolis: Jeet Thayil (India)

Pago Pago Tango: John Enright (American Samoa)

Nowhere Man: Aleksandar Hemon (Bosnia)

Hope - A Tragedy: Shalom Auslander (United States)

Chavs - The Demonisation of the Working Class: Owen Jones 

The Buddha of Suburbia: Hanif Kureishi 

Pangea - An Anthology of Stories from Around the World

 

May

 

Escape from Camp 14: Elaine Harden (North Korea)

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand: Helen Simonson 

I Remember You: Yrsa Sigurdardottir (Iceland)

Dubai Dreams - Inside the Kingdom of Bling: Raymond Barrett (United Arab Emirates)

A Good and Useful Hurt - Aric Davis (United States)

Annie John - A Novel: Jamaica Kincaid (Antigua)

The Beach: Alex Garland (Thailand)

The Sea of Innocence: Kishwar Desai (India)

The Long Walk - The True Story of a Trek to Freedom: Slavomir Rawicz (Poland)

 

June

 

The Magpies - Mark Edwards

The Universe versus Alex Woods - Gavin Extence

Pynter Bender - Jacob Ross (Grenada)

Where the Earth Ends: John Harrison (Chile)

The End of Your Life Book Club: Will Schwalbe (United States)

 

July

 

The Messenger of Athens - Anne Zaroudi (Greece)

Harmattan - Gavin Weston (Niger)

The Gift of Rain - Tan Twan Eng (Malaysia)

Banana Heart Summer - Merlinda Bobis (Philippines)

Mr G: A Novel About Creation - Alan Lightman

Zift: A Noir Novel: Vladislaw Todorov (Bulgaria) 

The Rapture: Liz Jensen

Someone to Watch Over Me: Yrsa Sigurdadottir (Iceland)

Tree Girl: Ben Mikaelssen (Guatemala)

Children of the Jacaranda Tree: Sahar Delajani  (Iran)

Redemption in Indigo: Karen Lord (Senegal)

Sons for the Return Home: Albert Wendt (Samoa)

The Uninvited: Liz Jensen

 

August

 

The Old Man and His Sons: Hedin Bru (Faroe Islands)

The Ten Incarnations of Adam Avatar: Kevin Baldeosingh (Trinidad and Tobago)

The Maids of Havana: Pedro Perez Sarduy (Cuba)

And Still I Rise - Doreen Lawrence

The Xenophobes Guide to Iceland - Richard Sale

The Presidents Hat - Antoine Laurain (France)

All Dogs Are Blue - Rodrigo Souza Leao (Brazil)

 

September

 

The Rook: Daniel O'Malley

The 9th Fortress: JP Jackson

The Silence and the Roar: Nihad Sirees (Syria)

Mister Pip: Lloyd Jones (Papua New Guinea)

The Age of Miracles: Karen Thompson Walker (United States)

The Sacrificial Man: Ruth Dugdall

The Light Between Oceans: ML Stedman (Australia) 

 

October

 

Vital Conversations: Alec Grimsley

The Cry: Helen Fitzgerald (Australia)

Burial Rites: Hannah Kent (Iceland)

A Place Where the Sea Remembers: Sandra Benitez (El Salvador)

Under a Silent Moon: Elizabeth Haynes

We the Animals: Justin Torres (Puerto Rico)

Brotherhood: Dharma, Destiny and the American Dream: Deepak and Sanjiv Chopra (India/United States)

 

November

 

Iceland Defrosted: Edward Hancox (Iceland)

The Art of Hearing Heartbeats: Jan-Philipp Sandker (Burma) 

An Armenian Sketchbook: Vasily Grossman (Armenia) 

Heaven and Hell: Jon Kalman Stefansson (Iceland)

Transit - A Novel: Abdourahma A Waberi (Djibouti) 

And The Mountains Echoed: Khaled Hosseini (Afghanistan)

 

December

 

Three Years in Tristan - Kathleen Mary Barrow (Tristan de Cunha)

A Gay and Melancholy Sound - Merle Miller (United States)

The Sorrow of Angels - Jon Kalman Stefansson (Iceland) 

The Book of Night Women - Marlon James (Jamaica)

A Palace in the Old Village - Tahar Ben Jelloun (Morocco)

A Distant Shore - Caryl Phillips (St Kitts) 

 

 

Edited by Talisman
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I too started the year off with the unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry.

 

Cannot remember who recommended it but it was on my wish list for a few months now.

 

I was able to buy it in Asda for a good price as it is on Richard and Judy's Book Club List.

Edited by Nicola Booth
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It has been on my wish list for quite a while now as well, but since I am going through a phase of reading popular as opposed to my more usual literary fiction, I thought it was time I gave it a go. I am a little over halfway through and enjoying it so far, although it is a bit far fetched. I particuarly enjoyed the bit where he meets the famous actor.

Edited by Talisman
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  • 5 weeks later...

I have just updated the list for February - there have been four books read so far, and I have started the fifth (Black Skies). This is the ninth in a series of Icelandic detective novels, all, of which I have loved - it helps that I have been to Iceland five times myself and so know the country well and many of the places that are written about. This one is only out in hardback at the moment, but I couldn't be bothered to wait for the paperback in June, when no doubt the Kindle price will also come down.   

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  • 3 weeks later...

Just updated the list again, and surprised to find that although we are less than halfway through March, I have already got through 18 books - and since one of them was an anthology, another 20 countries too. The latest one was the new Elizabeth Haynes - Human Remains, like her previous two, this was a dark thriller/crime fiction novel about the lonely and suicidal. It threw up all sorts of questions about the nature of death and relationships, and the way in which we treat our loved ones. Not for the faint hearted though. I think this one is going to stay me for a while, so it will be difficult to choose my next read.

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June

Just stopped in for a quick visit . . You've done great so far --18 books this early in the year is  quite impressive . . I think I'm only up to 7 or 8.. I cant even remember my own list .  Keep up the good work .  :)

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The latest one was the new Elizabeth Haynes - Human Remains, like her previous two, this was a dark thriller/crime fiction novel about the lonely and suicidal. It threw up all sorts of questions about the nature of death and relationships, and the way in which we treat our loved ones. Not for the faint hearted though. I think this one is going to stay me for a while, so it will be difficult to choose my next read.

 

I've added this to my wishlist. I didn't know she had a new book out, and I loved Into The Darkest Corner. The synopsis sounds very interesting. I find it so sad that some people can die in their own home and not be found for weeks/months/years. So sad that they don't have a single person in their lives who cares enough to maintain contact.

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One thing I will say is that you need a pretty strong stomach to read this book. Without wishing to give too much away, the descriptions of some of the bodies are pretty stomach churning, and the character of Colin really scary - like Lee in the first book, mainly because he is just so believable. What I mean by that is that you can imagine something like this actually happening.

 

I think the book's on offer at the moment, as when I looked earlier it was definately less than what I paid for it - so it might be a good time to get it if you know that you definately want to read this. I have already pre-ordered her fourth book, which is due out, according to Amazon in October.

Edited by Talisman
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Thanks Talisman, I've just bought it for the Kindle as it's only £1.59. Thanks also for the heads up about needing a strong stomach. I found Into The Darkest Corner very scary and dark (and also believable), but that is part of what I enjoyed about it. It's not a book you can read lightly and then just forget about and move on once you have finished.

 

I didn't know she had another book on the way. She's really churning them out at quite a pace!!

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I thought I would try something a bit different (perhaps not so different for me) for my next read. I had heard of Tim Severin before, who is what some would call a fantasy writer and whose books include a Norse trilogy set partly in Iceland, so knowing my own love of Iceland (my third love after Coran and Lundy), when I saw the first book Odin's Child as the Kindle Deal of the Day a few days ago, thought I would give it a go. So far I am about 10 percent in and enjoying it.

 

The reviews which were mixed, said that it take a while to get going, and that it is difficult to get to grips with the various characters and their relationship to each other, but having read most of the Icelandic Sagas (at least the ones that have been translated) I am finding it is not a problem for me. So far the book has read very much like a Saga, although there are some things about Icelandic history that were new even to me. He has obviously though done his research. If I like this first book, then I will probably donwload the others too.

 

My wish list is though rapidly growing, as when Coran and I went to Guildford yesterday, there were at least 6 more books there that looked interesting.

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  • 1 month later...

I have been a bit bad at keeping this list up to date of late, but have so far got through 5 /15 books for April, being currently halfway through the 6th one. The most unusual (maybe not for me) was Chavs - the Demonisation of the Working Class by Owen Jones. Owen writes for The Independent is a regular on the Sunday morning show The Big Question for anyone who watches that. Coran and I like to on my weekends off. I love though the way that he both writes and speaks, as he seems tol cut through all the bs and get straight to the nub of the problem, which is why I wanted to read his book.

 

The book is remarkably well written and researched, containing interviews from those across the class spectrum. What though is working class - this is a question that has much debated in recent months. Owen's own definition, which I am inclined to agree with is someone who has no others means of supporting themselves other than to work, he further says, and this is crucial, is that is someone who has little control over how they perform their job, or has very little autonomy - a call centre employee for example who has to read from a script, or a supermarket cashier, even a housekeeper like myself, who has to clean the rooms in a certain way. This then puts such people in a different class from say a university lecturer or a teacher, who has much more control over the way in which they do their job and can be a little more creative.       

 

The book not surprisingly made somewhat depressing reading, and it would be easy to get angry about some of the things that are mentioned, but anger has a purpose if channelled correctly, and in my case I used that anger to reassess the history of my own working life. The aim of the book was not to make people angry (no one can do that anyway, as we are responsible for our own emotions), but rather to educate and enlighten, and that is what Owen does. I have to say that most of what he says make sound and rational sense, far more than most of what our politicians say anyway. Among other things there are discussions on how the working class are treated by and portrayed by the media, the legacy of Thatcherism (no surprises there), and the rise of the far right.

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  • 1 month later...

We are almost half through the year already, and having done a quick count, I have so far read 42 books (from another 25 countries). Considering I got through 63 in the whole of last year this is not bad at all. Given the amount that I expect to read on holiday this year, I would not be surprised if I managed to hit 100.  

Edited by Talisman
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  • 2 months later...

I started my 60th book today - The Maids of Havana by Pedro Perez Sarduy. I have been looking for a Cuban book for a while, but this is the first one I was interested in that is available on Kindle. I am about 25 percent through already, and so far it has been good.

 

60 books though is for me pretty good going, considering that I read 63 books in the whole of last year. Will I be able to hit 100 - I suspect that depends on the length of the books I choose for the remainder of the year.

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  • 3 months later...
  • 1 month later...

June

 Just a note to let you know I bought a Kindle book by an author from Iceland called  House of Evidence  , by  Viktor Arnar Ingolffsson . It sounded good. Will let you know how I like it when I get to it .

 

Thanks -

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  • 2 weeks later...

I finished my last book of 2013 last night - A Distant Shore by St Kitts born author Caryl Phillips. This was for me a good book to end the year with - a relatively short read at around 300 pages which was set in 2 different places - an unnamed town in the north of England and an unnamed country in Africa.

 

This brings the total books read this year to 90, the most I have ever managed to achieve.  My reading has really exploded since I bought my Kindle 2 1/2 years ago, with so many wonderful books still waiting to be read and discovered. There are about 70 items on my wish list at present, and to read al of these would I suspect, take me well into next year. I am though in no hurry.

 

I did not set any specific goals with regard to my reading this past year other than to simply enjoy the books that I chose, and I have for the most part achieved this. Some were of course though better than others, but I cannot really say that there were any duds. I managed to get through another 43 countries for the Around the World Reading Challenge, helped by the addition of an African anthology at the beginning of the year. I am very pleased with my progress there. 

 

I would be hard pushed to choose one book as the best out of so many, but if I had to I would probably say The Rook by Daniel O'Malley. This was without a doubt the funniest. A close runner up as best book of 2013, and by far the scariest was I Remember You by Yrsa Sigurdadottir. Reading this book has inspired me to hopefully visit the deserted village of Hesteyri in the north west of Iceland next summer where the book is set. As for the most thought provoking, that has to be Do They Hear You When You Cry by Layli Miller Bashir and Fauziya Kassinga.

 

I wonder then what reading delights 2014 will have in store. So many books, so little time ....   

Edited by Talisman
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