willoyd
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Four books completed since the weekend: Christmas Stories by George Mackay Brown, commented on above, with little change in my thoughts from the post above, 4 stars. Then Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata, my book for Japan in reading around the world - a book I struggled with in spite of its slimness, and which left me decidely indifferent in spite of the widespread approbation; 2 stars. I think it's me and Japanese writing. Following on, read over the past few days in parallel with other books, but just finished today, was Cottongrass Summer by Roy Dennis, a collection of essays based around the conservation work that has been his life's work: clearly and elegantly written, beautifully constructed, straight into 6-star category. And finally, More About Paddington by Michael Bond. A very quick reread that, as ever, was laugh out loud funny with much to say on the quiet about dealing with life and people, even if slightly dated; remains a solid 6-star read.
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Cottongrass Summer by Roy Dennis ******
A collection of short essays (many only 2-3 pages) on aspects of conservation work that the author, one of the most experienced in his field, has worked on. The book may be slim (just over 160 pages), but it's stuffed with content . He is a passionate promoter of ecological restoration (rewilding), having been involved with Osprey, red kite, sea eagle, and other reintroduction projects. Amongst much else, makes a strong argument for the same for the lynx in Scotland. He equally argues for the need to reverse the desertification of highland Scotland. However, he's very clear eyed about the need for balance in nature and is pragmatic on issues such as the need for humans to carry out the predation that went missing with the extinction of top level predators, thus controlling deer and mid-level (largely generalist) predators. He writes directly and to the point with elegant simplicity, the essays beautifully constructed. I wanted to take my time over this, but in the end found it pretty unputdownable and galloped through the second half. A book that needs to be returned to (there is also a sequel, Mistletoe Winter, that beckons!).
More About Paddington by Michael Bond ******
Classic Paddington Bear - read as a children's book set at Christmas (partly) for the Forum's Christmas challenge. A quick reread - but I like to read at least one Paddington book at Christmas anyway as he's such a delight, one who I've grown up with (the first Paddington book was publised the same month I was born). There are very few children's books that I have any desire to return to, but he's one of them!
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16 minutes ago, lunababymoonchild said:
This could simply be the translator......
Thank you for those thoughts - I hadn't thought of that. It's certainly been an issue in the past. For instance, I've discovered that I find the translations of Russian novels by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky to be almost unreadable, and positively avoid them now in spite of all the plaudits. And as for Julie Rose's translation of Les Miserables....! Etc etc.
However, as you say, there's only the one translation available here, and it's received good reviews, so I have to take it pretty much at face value. I think, though, that the real problem for me lies with the genre: I have tried various Japanese writers at various times, and I can't recall a single book I've enjoyed (can't abide Murakami!), in spite of their obvious popularity (and quality). I don't think it's a coincidence either that the only other 2 star book amongst those I've tackled on this project so far (I'm only 16 books in on a 200 book project though!) is Han Kang's The Vegetarian from near neighbour, South Korea. In other words, I think there may be a wee bit of a culture clash here. I don't know - if that is the case, it's the only one I've come across so far, as I'm otherwise really starting to enjoy reaching out beyond my normal reading comfort zone. But I think I ought to mention the possibility as I don't want others to be put off because of my own personal perspective (or prejudices!).
I'll check out the Study Guide in the New Year, as that could indeed help. I'm currently working my way through one for TS Eliot's The Waste Land, which completely flummoxed me, and have the Cliff's Notes on As I Lay Dying arriving in the next day or so as follow up to reading that (an astonishingly good book IMO).
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Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabati **
If ever a book made me feel inadequate....! Acclaimed as a classic, regarded by many as the masterpiece of a Nobel laureate, I failed at pretty much every level to engage with this slim (thank goodness!) novel. As much as anything, I think this must be something of a culture clash, as I can't recall a single Japanese novel that I've enjoyed (I've not read many, but have tried a few now) - at least one reviewer has commented that one needs to understand at least something of the way the geisha system works (I admittedly don't). Even trying to allow for that, whilst I found some of the description of the landscape evocative, I never really felt there was much point to what I was reading, with 2 characters bumbling along going nowhere, either as people or on any form of narrative arc, and revealing about the same. I stumbled my way through this in a fog of incomprehension and bewilderment, but, unlike some difficult poetry, with no real 'hook' to movitate me to try and work it all out: I found the style of writing almost abrupt, too staccato and fractured, with dialogue where it was all too often difficult to identify who was speaking. I'm just relieved to be able to move on, although I will probably, once given a chance to draw breath, start to wonder what that was all about.
The sixteenth book in my Read Around the World, this one for Japan.
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Book #16: Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata for Japan **
If ever a book made me feel inadequate....! Acclaimed as a classic, regarded by many as the masterpiece of a Nobel laureate, I failed at pretty much every level to engage with this slim (thank goodness!) novel. As much as anything, I think this must be something of a culture clash, as I can't recall a single Japanese novel that I've enjoyed (I've not read many, but have tried a few now) - at least one reviewer has commented that one needs to understand at least something of the way the geisha system works (I admittedly don't). Even trying to allow for that, whilst I found some of the description of the landscape evocative, I never really felt there was much point to what I was reading, with 2 characters bumbling along going nowhere, either as people or on any form of narrative arc, and revealing about the same. I stumbled my way through this in a fog of incomprehension and bewilderment, but, unlike some difficult poetry, with no real 'hook' to movitate me to try and work it all out: I found the style of writing almost abrupt, too staccato and fractured, with dialogue where it was all too often difficult to identify who was speaking. I'm just relieved to be able to move on, although I will probably, once given a chance to draw breath, start to wonder what that was all about.
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Welcome to my reading blog for 2023. This thread is now open!
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Accolades for 2022
Book of the Year
Couldn't choose between Faulkner and Wulf: each brilliant in their own way, with both Prichard and Dennis hot on their heels. An excellent year, where several 'mere' shortlisters would have won in other years.
Fiction Book of the Year
Winner: As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Runner-up: One Moonlit Night by Caradog Prichard
Shortlist:
Measuring the World by Daniel Kehlmann
Golden Hill by Francis Spufford
The Trees by Percival Everett
The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
Non-fiction Book of the Year
Winner: The Invention of Nature by Andrea Wulf
Runner-up: Cottongrass Summer by Roy Dennis
Shortlist:
The Astronomer and the Witch by Ulinka Rublack
Samuel Johnson, A Biography by Jon Wain
Michel the Giant by Tete-Michel Kpomassie
Duffer of the Year
Winner: The Department of Sensitive Crimes by Alexander McCall Smith
Shortlist
An Honest Deceit by Guy Mankowski
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
Discovery of the Year
Three of them this year, and i'm not going to split them!
1. JB Priestley - local author, totally under my radar until this year. Must read more!
2. African writing - some fantastic stuff read on my Read Around the World. Looking forward to more having barely read any previously.
3. David Fairer - another local author, barely known. Just 3 books to his credit - an historical fiction trilogy set in Queen Anne London. Found myself immersed in the first two, really looking forward to the third.
Most Disappointing of the Year
The Instant by Amy Liptrot (A complete let down after her superb first book)
Reread of the Year
A Maigret Christmas by Georges Simenon.
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Review 2022, Preview 2023
Rather than the screeds I almost posted (get rather carried away sometimes!), some bullet point stats and thoughts:
+ 66 books and just over 17000 pages read this year, the lowest since 2014, but then more than anything before 2014!
+ Pure numbers may be low, but, with 5/6 star books representing 35% of my reading, the quality/enjoyment level has never been higher. All 3 1-star and 5 of the 9 2-star books were book group choices.
+ Just 29% non-fiction, the first time below 30% since 2015 (50% last year); equally, just 34% female authors, the lowest since 2016.
+ 27% Library books, the highest to date. As last year, e-books represent c10% of my leisure reading (use it a lot more for language study etc), down from 20-25% in the four years to 2020.
+ The only one of last year's targets I achieved was to read at least 6 Tour of the USA books (I read exactly 6). I didn't read any Dickens beyond a reread of novella The Chimes, just one Zola, and none of the doorstoppers (let alone the aimed-for 4) that I intended to complete. As a result, the average page count per book was 261, well below the 300 target, but at least up from the low of 248 in 2021.
+ I did make good progress on the new project for 2023, Reading The World, with 16 books completed (and mostly enjoyed a lot!). Only another 184 to go!
+ I joined a new book group that's been set up by my local indie book shop (making 4 in total!), but have decided to take a back seat in 2 of the others where, in one, meetings have become more erratic and, in the other, the book list (dictated by the local library service) is looking increasingly tedious and uninspired. The other 2 are developing in seriously interesting ways!
+ So, overall, I feel this year has been a bit of a turning point, the two projects and my two main book groups introducing me to a far more diverse and interesting range of reading, fiction in particular. At age 64, and with probably only 1000 or so books left in me (and that if lucky!), I'm becoming more ruthless in what I read and don't read.
+ See the post below for my accolades of the year.
+ Next year? Having failed to meet pretty much every target I've set in the past few years, I'm not setting any this year, sort of! I would like to see progress on my US and World projects and focus authors, and hope that the proportion of 5/6 star books continues to grow. I wouldn't mind if the number of books read dropped further, as long as the average page rose in compensation! Not much different to last year then! One thing I do positively want to do this year is read more poetry - I've read very little in my life let alone in the past few years.
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Accolades History
For the past few years, I've finished off the year by awarding some of my own accolades to books that I've read that year. Some of those are included in the Forum's award threads. A list of some of the main awards are listed below. Titles in bold under Fiction and Non-Fiction Books of the Year were my overall winners for that year. Up to 2016, rereads were eligible for the Book of the Year lists; from 2016 onwards, a separate accolade was listed.
Fiction Book of the Year
2013: David Copperfield - Charles Dickens. Runner-up: The Thousand Autumns Of Jacob de Zoet - David Mitchell
2014: Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy. Runner-up: Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
2015: Middlemarch - George Eliot. Runner-up: The Aubrey/Maturin series - Patrick O'Brian (first 5 vols read this year)
2016: The Essex Serpent - Sarah Perry. Runner-up: Howards End - EM Forster
2017: To The Bright Edge Of The World - Eowyn Ivey. Runner-up: The Old Wives' Tale - Arnold Bennett
2018: A View Of The Harbour - Elizabeth Taylor. Runner-up: Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
2019: Girl, Woman, Other - Bernardine Evaristo. Runner-up: Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry
2020: Hamnet - Maggie O'Farrell. Runner-up: A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
2021: The Mermaid Of Black Conch - Monique Roffey. Runner-up: The Great Level - Stella Tillyard
2022: As I Lay Dying - William Faulkner. Runner-up: One Moonlit Night - Caradog Prichard
Non-fiction Book of the Year
2013: Letters To Alice On First Reading Jane Austen - Fay Weldon; Runner-up: The Real Jane Austen - Paula Byrne
2014: Pursuit Of Glory: Europe 1648-1815 - Tim Blanning. Runner-up: Under Another Sky: Travels Through Roman Britain - Charlotte Higgins
2015: Waterloo - Tim Clayton. Runner-up: Shackleton's Boat Journey by Frank Worsley
2016: The House By The Lake - Thomas Harding. Runner-up: The Outrun - Amy Liptrot
2017: The Seabirds' Cry - Adam Nicolson. Runner-up: Love Of Country - Madeleine Bunting
2018: East-West Street - Philippe Sands. Runner-up: Wilding - Isabella Tree
2019: Daughter Of The Desert - Georgina Howell. Runner-up: The Five - Hallie Rubenheld
2020: Island Stories - David Reynolds. Runner-up: Home - Julie Myerson
2021: The Stubborn Light Of Things - Melissa Harrison. Runner-up: Orchard - Benedict Macdonald & Nicholas Gates
2022: The Invention of Nature - Andrea Wulf. Runner-up: Cotton Grass Summer - Roy Dennis
Duffer of the Year
2013: Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn
2014: The Dinner - Herman Koch
2015: Divergent - Veronica Roth
2016: Us - David Nicholls
2017: Two Brothers - Ben Elton
2018: I Am Pilgrim - Terry Hayes
2019: I See You - Clare Mackintosh
2020: Gold - Chris Cleave
2021: Body Surfing - Anita Shreve
2022: The Department of Sensitive Crimes - Alexander McCall Smith
Most Disappointing
2017: Jacob's Room Is Full Of Books - Susan Hill
2018: I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou
2019: The Making Of The British Landscape - Nicholas Crane
2020: A God In Ruins - Kate Atkinson
2021: How To Argue With A Racist - Adam Rutherford
2022: The Instant - Amy Liptrot
Best Reread
2016: Emma - Jane Austen. Runner-up: Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
2017: Flood Warning - Paul Berna; Winter Holiday - Arthur Ransome (jointly)
2018: Coot Club - Arthur Ransome
2019: Paddington Helps Out - Michael Bond
2020: Mrs Dalloway - Virginia Woolf in combination with The Hours - Michael Cunningham
2021: Waterland - Graham Swift
2022: A Maigret Christmas - Georges Simenon
Biggest Discovery
2019: George Mackay Brown
2020: Wendell Berry
2021: Gilbert White
2022: JB Priestley; African writing; David Fairer
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Favourite authors
To qualify for this list, I have to have read at least three books by that author (amazing how many where I've just read two, especially non-fiction!), so no one-book wonders (it's the book then, not the author!). None of the books themselves need to have reached a six star rating, but they do need to have been rated consistently highly. I've only included authors of adult books - for favourite children's authors, see favourite book list, as the two lists are pretty much the same. I've also included titles of books for authors where I have particular favourites.
Fiction
Jane Austen (Sense and Sensibility, Emma, Lady Susan)
JL Carr (A Month in the Country, The Harpole Report)Willa Cather (My Antonia, O Pioneers)
Charles Dickens (Bleak House, David Copperfield)
Sarah Dunant (In The Company of the Courtesan, Hannah Wolfe trilogy)Margaret Elphinstone (The Sea Road, Voyageurs)
Thomas Hardy (Far From The Madding Crowd)
Donna Leon (Brunetti series)
Patrick O'Brian (Aubrey/Maturin series)
Georges Simenon (Maigret series)Elizabeth Taylor (A View Of The Harbour)
Virginia Woolf (Mrs Dalloway, The Lighthouse, The Years)
Non-Fiction
Tim Clayton (Waterloo)
Jan Morris (Venice, Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere)
Claire Tomalin (Pepys, Dickens, Austen, etc.)
Jenny Uglow (The Pinecone, Nature's Engraver)
BothMelissa Harrison (The Stubborn Light of Things, Hawthorn Time)
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Favourite Books
A record of the 140 books and series to which I've given my top rating. These aren't necessarily the best literature I've read, but the books that are personal favourites, that, for whatever reason, struck a special chord in my reading. Individual books within a series are likely to have scored less, but the rating is for the series as a whole. The lists are divided into
- Fiction
- Non-fiction
- Joint fiction/non-fiction
- Children's fiction
Fiction (81)
Ackroyd, Peter: Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem
Ackroyd, Peter: Hawksmoor
Austen, Jane: Sense and Sensibility
Austen, Jane: Pride and Prejudice
Austen, Jane: Emma
Buchan, John: John Macnab
Carr JL: A Month in the Country
Carr JL: The Harpole Report
Chaucer, Geoffrey: The Canterbury Tales
Chevalier, Tracey: Falling Angels
Childers, Erskine: The Riddle of the Sands
Collins, Norman: London Belongs To Me
Cooper, Susan: The Dark is Rising
Cunningham, Michael: The Hours
Davies, Martin: The Conjuror's Bird
Dickens, Charles: A Christmas Carol
Dickens, Charles: Bleak House
Dickens, Charles: David CopperfieldDunant, Sarah: In the Company of the Courtesan
Eco, Umberto: The Name of the Rose
Eliot, George: Middlemarch
Elphinstone, Margaret: The Sea Road
Elphinstone, Margaret: VoyageursEvaristo, Bernardine: Girl, Woman, Other
Fairer, David: The Chocolate House trilogyFaulkner, William: As I Lay Dying
Fforde, Jasper: The Eyre Affair
Forester, CS: The Hornblower series
Goscinny, Rene: Asterix in Britain
Greig, Andrew: The Return of John MacnabGuareschi, Giovanni: The Don Camillo series
Haddon, Mark: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
Hardy, Thomas: Far From The Madding Crowd
Herbert, Frank: Dune
Heyer, Georgette: The Grand SophyHoeg, Peter: Miss Smilla's Feeling For Snow
Horwood, William: The Stonor Eagles
Horwood, William: Skallagrig
Hulme, Keri: The Bone PeopleIvey, Eowyn: To the Bright Edge of the World
Japrisot, Sebastian: A Very Long EngagementLe Carre, John: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Lee, Harper: To Kill A MockingbirdLeon, Donna: The Commissario Brunetti series
Mantel, Hilary: Wolf Hall
McMurtry, Larry: Lonesome Dove
Melville, Herman: Moby Dick
Miller, Andrew: PureMiller, Andrew: Now We Shall Be Entirely Free
Mitchell, David: The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
Monsarrat, Nicholas: The Cruel Sea
Moorcock, Michael: Mother London
O'Brian, Patrick: The Aubrey-Maturin seriesO'Farrell, Maggie: Hamnet
Pears, Ian: An Instance of the Fingerpost
Penney, Stef: The Tenderness of Wolves
Perry, Sarah: The Essex SerpentPrichard, Caradog: One Moonlit Night
Proulx, Annie: The Shipping News
Roffey, Monique: The Mermaid of Black Conch
Rushdie, Salman: Midnight's Children
Seth, Vikram: A Suitable Boy
Simenon, Georges: The Inspector Maigret series
Smiley, Jane: A Thousand Acres
Smith, Dodie: I Capture the Castle
Steinbeck, John: Of Mice and Men
Stephenson, Neal: Cryptonomicon
Stevenson, Robert Louis: Kidnapped
Swift, Graeme: WaterlandTaylor, Elizabeth: A View of the Harbour
Thomas, Dylan: Under Milk Wood
Thompson, Harry: This Thing of Darkness
Tolkien JRR: The Lord of the Rings
Tolstoy, Leo: War and PeaceWaugh, Evelyn: Brideshead Revisited
Willis, Connie: To Say Nothing of the Dog
Woolf, Virginia: Mrs Dalloway
Woolf, Virginia: The Years
Woolf, Virginia: To The Lighthouse
Woolfenden, Ben: The Ruins of Time
Zafon, Carlos Ruiz: The Shadow of the WindNon-fiction (49)
Beer, Amy-Jane: The Flow
Blanning, Tim: The Pursuit of Glory
Bewick, Thomas: A History of British Birds
Brown, Hamish: Hamish's Mountain Walk
Clayton, Tim: Waterloo
Cocker, Mark: Crow Country
Dennis, Roy: Cottongrass SummerFadiman, Anne: Ex Libris
Frater, Alexander: Chasing the MonsoonGogarty, Paul: The Water Road
Hanff, Helen: 84 Charing Cross Road
Harding, Thomas: The House By The LakeHarrison, Melissa: The Stubborn Light of Things
Hastings, Max: All Hell Let LooseHickham, Homer H: October Sky / Rocket Boys
Holland, James: Dam Busters
Hoskins, WG: The Making of the English LandscapeHowell, Georgina: Daughter of the Desert
Huntford, Roland: Shackleton
Jamie, Kathleen: Findings
Junger, Sebastian: The Perfect Storm
Lee, Hermione: Virginia WoolfLewis-Stempel, John: The Running Hare
Liptrot, Amy: The Outrun
Longford, Elizabeth: Wellington, The Years of the SwordMacdonald, Benedict & Nicholas Gates: Orchard
MacDonald, Helen: Vesper Flights
MacGregor, Neil: Germany, Memories of a Nation
Moore, Richard: In Search of Robert Millar
Nichols, Peter: A Voyage for MadmenNicolson, Adam: The Seabird's Cry
Pennac, Daniel: The Rights of the ReaderPeterson, Mounfort and Hollom: A Field Guide to the Birds of Britain and Europe
Pinker, Stephen: The Language Instinct
Rackham, Oliver: The History of the Countryside
de Saint-Exupery, Antoine: Wind, Sand and Stars
Salisbury, Laney and Gay: The Cruellest MilesSands, Philippe: East-West Street
Schumacher, EF: Small is Beautiful
Simpson, Joe: Touching the Void
Taylor, Stephen: Storm and Conquest
Tomalin, Claire: Pepys, The Unequalled SelfTree, Isabella: Wilding
Uglow, Jenny: The Pinecone
Unsworth, Walt: Everest
Weldon, Fay: Letters to Alice on first reading Jane Austen
Wheeler, Sara: Terra IncognitaWulf, Andrea: The Invention of Nature
Young, Gavin: Slow Boats to China
Joint fiction/non-fiction (1)Klinkenborg, Verlyn: Timothy's Book with Townsend-Warner, Sylvia: Portrait of a Tortoise
Children's Fiction (9)
Berna, Paul: Flood WarningBond, Michael: The Paddington Bear series
Kipling, Rudyard: Puck of Pook's Hill/Rewards and FairiesKipling, Rudyard: The Jungle Book
Milne, AA: Winnie-the-Pooh/House at Pooh Corner
Pullman, Philip: Northern Lights
Ransome, Arthur: The Swallows and Amazons series
Sutcliff, Rosemary: The Eagle of the Ninth
White, TH: Mistress Masham's Repose -
Non-Fiction Doorstoppers.
I've really struggled to settle to longer books since Covid kicked in, even though they previously constituted some of my favourite reading - nothing like a good thick book to get stuck into. This has been particularly true of non-fiction. So, to help keep prodding, this is a list of non-fiction 'doorstopper' on my shelves just waiting to be read, a list to complement the Fiction Must-Reads above.
Single volumes
Ackroyd, Peter: Dickens; London The Biography
Barker, Juliet: The Brontes
Brewer, John: The Pleasures of the Imagination
Cherry-Garrard, Apsley: The Worst Journey in the World
Davis, Wade: Into the Silence
Davies, Norman: Vanished Kingdoms
Fox, Robin Lane: The Classical World
Foreman, Amanda: A World On Fire
Gardiner, Juliet: The Thirties; Wartime Britain
Herodotus: The Histories
Johnson, Paul: The Birth of the Modern
Judt, Tony: Post-War
Kershaw, Ian: Hitler
Lawrence, TE: The Seven Pillars of Wisdom
Leuchtenberg, William: The American President
MacCulloch, Diarmid: A History of Christianity, Reformation
MacGregor, Neil: A History of the World in 100 Objects
Mikaberidze, Alexander: The Napoleonic Wars, A Global History
Montefiore, Simon Sebag: The World, A Family History
Overy, Richard: Blood and Ruins
Paine, Lincoln: The Sea and Civilization
Parker, Geoffrey: Global Crisis
Richie, Alexandra: Faust's Metropolis
Roberts, Andrew: Churchill; George III
Roberts, JM: The History of the World; Twentieth Century
Sassoon, Donald: The Culture of the Europeans
Schama, Simon: Landscape and Memory; An Embarrassment of Riches; Power of Art
Stevenson, David: 1914-1918
Tombs, Robert: The English and their History
Watson, Peter: Ideas A History; The German Genius; A Terrible Beauty
Wilson, Ben: Empire of the Deep
Wilson, Peter: Europe's Tragedy; Iron and Blood
Wooding, Lucy: Tudor England
Multi-volume sequences
Braudel, Fernand: The Identify of France (2v); The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World (3v)
Catton, Bruce: The Army of the Potomac (3v)
Fisher, HAL: A History of Europe (3v)
Foote, Shelby: The American Civil War (3v)
Evans. Richard: The Third Reich (3v)
Gibbon, Edward: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (6v)
Macauley, Thomas Babington: The History of England (5v)
Muir, Rory: Wellington (2v)
Pepys, Samuel: The Diaries (9v)
Morris, Jan: Pax Britannica (3v)
Sugden, John: Nelson (2v)
Todman, Daniel: Britain's War (2v)
Woolf, Virginia: The Essays; The Letters; The Diaries (6v each)
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Classic fiction
Three authors whose books I want to focus more on:
+ Charles Dickens
+ Thomas Hardy
+ Emile Zola's Rougon-Macquart series
Plus a list of other 'must-reads'. Highly selective and idiosyncratic, mostly big tomes that I feel a need to have tackled!
Charles Dickens - Novels
01. The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club (1837) *****
02. The Adventures of Oliver Twist (1839) ******
03. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (1839) ******
04. The Old Curiosity Shop (1841) ***
05. Barnaby Rudge (1841)
06. The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit (1844)
07. Dealings with the Firm of Dombey and Son (1848)
08. The Personal History of David Copperfield (1850) ******
09. Bleak House (1853) ******
10. Hard Times (1854)
11. Little Dorrit (1857)
12. A Tale of Two Cities (1859) ******
13. Great Expectations (1861) ****
14. Our Mutual Friend (1865)
15. The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870)The Christmas Books
16. A Christmas Carol (1843) ******
17. The Chimes (1844) ***
18. The Cricket on the Hearth (1845) ***
19. The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain (1846)Thomas Hardy Novels & Short Stories
01. Desperate Remedies (1871)
02. Under the Greenwood Tree (1872)
03. A Pair of Blue Eyes (1873)
04. Far From the Madding Crowd (1874)
05. The Hand of Ethelberta (1876)
06. The Return of the Native (1878)
07. The Trumpet-Major (1880)
08. A Laodicean (1881)
09. Two on a Tower (1882)
10. The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886)
11. The Woodlanders (1887)
12. Wessex Tales (short stories, 1888)
13. Tess of the D'Urbevilles (1891)
14. A Group of Noble Dames (short stories, 1891)
15. The Well-Beloved (1892)
16. Life's Little Ironies (short stories, 1894)
17. Jude the Obscure (1897)
Emile Zola's Rougon-Macquart Series
01. La Fortune des Rougon (The Fortune of the Rougons) *****
02. Son Excellence Eugene Rougon (His Excellency Eugene Rougon) ****
03. La Curee (The Kill) *****
04. L'Argent (Money)
05. Le Reve (The Dream)
06. La Conquete de Plassans (The Conquest of Plassans)
07. Pot-Bouille (Pot Luck)
08. Au Bonheur des Dames (The Ladies' Delight/Paradise) ******
09. La Faute de L'Abbe Mouret (The Sin of Father Mouret)
10. Une Page d'amour (A Love Story)
11. Le Ventre de Paris (The Belly of Paris)
12. La Joie de vivre (The Bright Side of Life)
13. L'Assommoir (The Drinking Den)
14. L'Oeuvre (The Masterpiece)
15. La Bete humaine (The Beast Within)
16. Germinal
17. Nana
18. La Terre (The Earth)
19. La Debacle (The Debacle)
20. Le Docteur Pascal (Doctor Pascal)(English titles as used by OUP and/or Penguin, if different to the French).
Must-Reads
Cervantes, Miguel de - Don Quixote
de Beauvoir, Simone - The Mandarins
Ellmann, Lucy - Ducks, Newburyport
Faulkner, William - The Sound and Fury
Fielding, Henry - The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling
Galsworthy, John - The Forsyte Saga
Grossman, Vasily - Stalingrad / Life and Fate
Heller, Joseph - Catch-22
Hugo, Victor - Les Miserables
Joyce, James - Ulysses
Laxness, Halldor - Independent People
Mann, Thomas - Buddenbrooks
Manning, Olivia - The Balkan Trilogy
Mantel, Hilary - Wolf Hall trilogy
O'Brian, Patrick - The Aubrey-Maturin sequence
Peake, Mervyn - The Gormenghast trilogy
Perec, Georges - Life: A User's Manual
Powell, Anthony - Dance to the Music of Time
Pynchon, Thomas - Mason and Dixon
Smollett, Tobias - The Expedition of Humphry Clinker
Steinbeck, John - East of Eden
Stephenson, Neal - The Baroque Cycle
Sterne, Laurence - The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
Tocarczuk, Olga - The Books of Jacob
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A Tour of the United States
My experience of American literature being much narrower than I would have liked, I decided a few years ago to take a tour of the USA in a similar way to our own English Counties challenge: 51 books, one set in each of the states (including Washington DC). In fact, the English Counties was modelled on an American States challenge here, but in the spirit of broadening that experience, I have amended it using these rules: a. it must be fiction or narrative non-fiction; b. an author can only appear once; c. published after 1900 (what I've read has been predominantly 19th century); d. adult books; e. no rereads. Inevitably some great books and authors will have been left off, but the process itself has already helped identify those holes, and I aim to fill them in as additional reading! Blue means read, bold means read this year. Books in black are unread, and are those I've currently got lined up - but they can (and do!) change, and some alternatives are listed below the main list.
33/51The Keepers of the House - Shirley Ann Grau (Alabama) *****
To The Bright Edge of the World - Eowyn Ivey (Alaska) ******
The Monkey Wrench Gang -Edward Abbey (Arizona)The Architecture of the Arkansas Ozarks - Donald Harington (Arkansas)
East of Eden - John Steinbeck (California)
Plainsong - Kent Haruf (Colorado) *****
The Stepford Wives - Ira Levin (Connecticut) *
The Book of Unknown Americans - Christina Henriquez (Delaware)
Their Eyes Were Watching God - Zora Neale Hurst (Florida) ****
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter - Carson McCullers (Georgia) ******
The Descendants - Kaui Hart Hemmings (Hawaii)
Housekeeping - Marilynne Robinson (Idaho) ****
The Adventures of Augie March - Saul Bellow (Illinois)
The Stone Diaries - Carol Shields (Indiana) *****
The Bridges of Madison County - Robert Waller (Iowa) ****
Not Without Laughter - Langston Hughes (Kansas)
Nathan Coultar - Wendell Berry (Kentucky) ******
All the King's Men - Robert Penn Warren (Louisiana)
Empire Falls - Richard Russo (Maine)
Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant - Anne Tyler (Maryland) ***
Ethan Frome - Edith Wharton (Massachusetts) ***
Song of Solomon - Toni Morrison (Michigan) ******
Main Street - Sinclair Lewis (Minnesota) ***
As I Lay Dying - William Faulkner (Mississippi) ******
Mrs Bridge - Evan S. Connell (Missouri) *****
A River Runs Through It - Norman Maclean (Montana)
My Antonia - Willa Cather (Nebraska) ******
The Ox-Bow Incident - Walter van Tilburg Clark (Nevada) *****
Peyton Place - Grace Metallious (New Hampshire)
The Sportswriter - Richard Ford (New Jersey) ****
Cities of the Plain - Cormac McCarthy (New Mexico)
Another Country - James Baldwin (New York) ******
Cold Mountain - Charles Frazier (North Carolina) ****
The Plague of Doves - Louise Erdrich (North Dakota) *****
Winesburg, Ohio - Sherwood Anderson (Ohio) ***
True Grit - Charles Portis (Oklahoma) *****
Trask - Don Berry (Oregon)
The Killer Angels - Michael Shaara (Pennsylvania) *****
The Witches of Eastwick - John Updike (Rhode Island) ***
The Secret Life of Bees - Sue Monk Kidd (South Carolina) ***
The Personal History of Rachel Dupree - Anne Weisberger (South Dakota)
Shiloh - Shelby Foote (Tennessee)
Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry (Texas) ******
The Big Rock Candy Mountain - Wallace Stegner (Utah)
The Secret History - Donna Tartt (Vermont)
Prodigal Summer - Barbara Kingsolver (Virginia)
Snow Falling on Cedars - David Guterson (Washington) ***
Advise and Consent - Allen Drury (Washington DC) ****
Rocket Boys - Homer H Hickam (West Virginia) ******
American Wife - Curtis Sittenfeld (Wisconsin) ****
The Virginian - Owen Wister (Wyoming) *****Alternatives for states yet to be read
Hawaii: Shark Dialogues by Kiana Davenport; Moloka'I by Alan Brennert
Illinois: The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
Kansas: The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton by Jane Smiley
Louisiana: A Kind of Freedom by Margaret Sexton;
Maine: Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Stout
Oregon: Sometimes A Great Notion by Ken Kesey; Geek Love by Katherine Dunn; Hole In The Sky by William Kittredge
South Dakota Welcome to the Hard Times by EL Doctorow
Tennessee: A Death in the Family by James Agee
Utah: The Nineteenth Wife by David Ebershoff
Virginia: The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron; The Known World by Edward P Jones
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Reading The World
A tour of the world in 200 books, made up of one from each of the 193 full members of the United Nations, the 2 UN 'observer' nations (Palestine and Vatican City), Taiwan ( the most significant country with no UN recognition), the four home nations (rather than just UK) and Antarctica (the only continent otherwise not represented). Books should be prose, preferably fiction, normally written by someone from that country, and ideally set there, but if not, as close as I can get! Books in blue are those read during the current year.Read so far: 34/200
Read this year: 18
Europe (13/48)Austria: Chess Story by Stefan Zweig *****
Bulgaria: Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov ***
Czech Republic: Closely Watched Trains by Bohumil Hrabal ****
Finland: The Year of the Hare by Arto Paasilinna ****
Germany: Measuring the World - Daniel Kehlmann *****
Iceland: History. A Mess. by Sigrun Palsdottir ****
Italy: The Leopard - Giuseppe Tomaso di Lampedusa ****
Northern Ireland: Travelling In A Strange Land by David Park ****
Norway: The Ice Palace by Tarjei Vesaas ****
San Marino: The Republic of San Marino - Giuseppe Rossi ***
Scotland: O Caledonia - Elspeth Barker ***
Ukraine: Death and the Penguin - Andrey Kurkov ***
Wales: One Moonlit Night - Caradog Prichard ******
Africa (9/54)
Angola: The Book of Chameleons - Jose Eduardo Agualusa ****
Congo, Republic of: Black Moses - Alain Mabanckou *****
Cote d'Ivoire: Standing Heavy - GauZ ******
Djibouti: In The United States of Africa - Abdourahman Waberi ****
Ghana: The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born - Ayi Kwei Armah ****
Kenya: A Grain Of Wheat by Ngugi wa Thiong'o ******
South Africa: The Promise - Damon Galgut *****
Sudan: Season of Migration to the North - Tayeb Salih ******
Togo: Michel the Giant - Tete-Michel Kpomassie ******
Asia (5/48)Malaysia: The Night Tiger - Yangsze Choo ****
Japan: Snow Country - Yasunari Kawabata **; Tokyo Express - Seicho Matsumoto ****
Pakistan: The Wandering Falcon - Jamil Ahmad *****
South Korea: The Vegetarian - Han Kang *
Turkey: 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World - Elif Shafak **
North America (3/23)Antigua and Barbuda: Annie John - Jamaica Kincaid ***
Trinidad and Tobago: Minty Alley - CLR James *****
USA: Beloved - Toni Morrison *****
South America (2/12)
Columbia: One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez *****
Uruguay: Who Among Us? - Mario Benedetti ****
Oceania and Antarctica (2/15)
Nauru: Stories from Nauru - Bam Bam Solomon et al (plus readings from Indigehous Literatures of Micronesia) ****
New Zealand: The Garden Party and Other Stories - Katherine Mansfield ******; Potiki - Patricia Grace ****
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Book List 2023
January
01. The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia by Samuel Johnson ***
02. The Diet Whisperer by Paul Barrington Chell & Monique Hope-Ross **
03. Black Moses by Alain Mabanckou W *****
04. Black England by Gretchen Gerzina ****
05. Less by Andrew Sean Greer G **
06. Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid W ****
07. The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley by Sean Lusk G ****
08. The Year of the Hare by Arto Paasilinna W ****
February
09. Captain Hazard's Game by David Fairer G ******
10. According to Queeney by Beryl Bainbridge ***
11. Summer in February by Jonathan Smith ****
12. Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan GR ***
13. The Moth and The Mountain by Ed Caesar ****
March
14. The Crowded Street by Winifred Holtby G *****
X. Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff GX *
15. The Ice Palace by Tarjei Vesaas W *****
16. Another Country by James Baldwin U ******
17. The Book of Chameleons by Jose Eduardo Agualusa W ****
18. Who Among Us? by Mario Benedetti W ****
April
19. History. A Mess. by Sigrun Palsdottir W *****
20. The Garden Party and Other Stories by Katherine Mansfield GW ******
21. Katherine Mansfield, A Secret Life by Claire Tomalin ***
22. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez GW *****
23. Tokyo Express by Seicho Matsumoto ****
May
24. Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih W ******
25. Stolen Focus by Johann Hari *****
26. Potiki by Patricia Grace GW *****
27. Ultra-Processed People by Chris van Tulleken ****
28. I'm Not Scared by Niccolo Ammaniti G ***
29. Standing Heavy by GauZ W ******
June
30. Department of Speculation by Jenny Offil *****
31. After Sappho by Selby Wynn Schwartz **
32. The Perfect Golden Circle by Benjamin Myers ****
33. The Fall of Boris Johnson by Sebastian Payne ****
34. The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante GX **
July
35. Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov GW ***
36. On Chapel Beach by Laura Cummings ****
37. Jeremy Hutchinson's Case Histories by Thomas Grant ****
38. Portable Magic by Emma Smith ***
August
39. Glucose Revolution by Jessie Inchauspie ***
40. Travelling In A Strange Land by David Park GW *****
41. Johnson At 10 by Anthony Seldon and Raymond Newell ****
42. Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver GX **
43. August Is A Wicked Month by Edna O'Brien ***
September
44 The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born by Ay Kwei Armah W ****
45. The Restless Republic by Anna Keay *****
46. The Flow by Amy-Jane Beer G ******
47. Minty Alley by CLR James W *****
48. Incomparable World by SI Martin ***
49. Stories from Nauru by Bam Bam Solomon and others W ****
October
50. See You In September by Joanne Teague X **
51. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston U ****
52. Chess Story by Stefan Zweig W *****
53. Rocket Boys/October Sky by Hiram H Hickam U ******
54. The Meaning of Geese by Neil Ascherson ****
55. Mr Weston's Good Wine by TF Powys ***
November
56. La Curee (The Kill) by Emile Zola *****
57. The Ox-Bow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark U *****
58. The Wandering Falcon by Jamil Ahmad W *****
59. The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams ******
December
60. Tall Man in a Low Country by Harry Pearson ***
61. If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery ****
62. The Dictionary People by Sarah Ogilvie ****
63. A Hero Of Our Time by Mikhail Lermontov G ***
64. The Years by Annie Ernaux *****
65. Christmas Days by Jeanette Winterson ****
66. Frostquake by Juliet Nicolson ***
G = a book group choice, R = reread, U = Tour of the United States, W = Read Around the World, X = unfinished
Ratings
* Positively disliked: almost certainly unfinished. Most of these books tend to be book group choices! LibraryThing rating 0.5 - 1
** Disappointing or not particularly liked even if recognise merits: likely to be at least skimmed, often unfinished. LT 1.5 - 2
*** Fine, a decent read, functionally useful if read for education. Books I want to finish, even if I don't feel the need to! LT 2.5 - 3
**** Good, compulsive reading that, whilst putdownable, demands to be picked up and finished LT 3.5
***** Very good, into the realms of 'unputdownable' LT 4
****** Excellent: a top notch read, even if not quite a favourite. LT 4.5
****** Favourite: books which, for whatever reason, have something special about them, even if only personal to me. For the full list of these (less than 150 of them) see post #7 below. LT 5
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Thread contents
Post number
02 Book list 2023
03 A Read Around the World04 A Tour of the United States
05 Classic fiction reading lists
06 Big Reads
07 Favourite books
08 Favourite authors
09 Accolades history
10 spare
11 spare
12 spare
13 spare
14 Review and preview
15 Accolades 2022
16 Welcome!
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I've been saving the points on my Waterstones loyalty card in anticipation of a New Year Sale. They've been pretty decent ones in recent years, at least in the sort of reading I do, and this year has fortunately been no exception. It's being run over very limited timescale this year - just 3 days - so I went into my local store today for a fairly substantial raid on the half price books. Coupled with a couple of book tokens, it meant I came out with a goodly collection and very little cash spent!
So, have now acquired the following hardback reading:
The Modern Middle East, A Personal History - Jeremy Bowen
The Reign - Matthew Engels
Land Healer - Jake Fiennes
The Story of Russia - Orlando Figes
Booth - Karen Joy Fowler
Cornerstones - Benedict Macdonald
The Lost Rainforests of Britain - Guy Shrubsole
Magnificent Rebels - Andrea Wulf
Interestingly, most of them didn't have half price stickers on, but fortunately I'd done the research into what books w ere in the sale on the Waterstones website beforehand, and the shop (as the norm) were happy to price match. Just the one book I wanted which they hadn't got in stock, but then I was glad to find the Shrubsole on sale when I thought it wasn't!
All in all, there's rather a lot of reading to do in the New Year!
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2 hours ago, Hayley said:
This is on my wish list! I’ll be interested to know why you only have it 3 stars
I've posted a review now. I'm actually inclined to go back and reread The Dark Is Rising now!
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The BCF Book Club - Part 1
in Group Reads
Posted
I'm not sure how this works. I don't know how many members/participants there will be, but if we all list half a dozen possible categories, then there'll be more categories than people to vote on them, which means could well land up with a whole bunch of categories with just one vote.