Happy Friday! (1/21)

[ufcasey]

What have you been reading this week? Any reviews/ratings/recommendations?

QOTW:
Have you read a book that has been translated into English that you enjoyed? (question inspired by our mini-discussion of Doctor Zhivago translations)

[Gato]

I am reading The Magician by Colm Toibin. I love it so far.

Other January reads:

The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozecki *** wanted to shake the mom character awake, but loved the other quirky characters

The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne **** a fun and poignant read

The Copenhagen Trilogy by Tove Ditlevsen **1/2 this translation got a lot of press, but I found it too dated (it was originally published in 1971)

QOTW: I really love all Tolstoy, especially the Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky translations.

[charlatti]

I finished Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan, which I did not love, and just started How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu. Too soon to tell on that, but it starts in the Arctic circle, so I’m optimistic — I am weirdly obsessed with books about extremely cold places.

QOTW: I can’t think of any translated books I’ve read for pleasure. I’m pretty sure I read one or two in high school or college, but I can’t remember what.

[travella]

I finished Go Tell the Bees I Am Gone. I am currently half way through Doctor Zhivago.

QOTW: Yes, Fredrik Backman is one of my favorite authors and his books have been translated to English. I know there are others, but I cannot think of them right now.

[ufcasey]

I read:

Mistress of Rome by Kate Quinn - this is historical fiction that takes place in Rome. Much like all her books, it features characters and events that are based on true history. I really enjoyed this and will absolutely continue reading this series.

Wild Wicked Scot by Julia London - this is historical romance and nice but skippable.

The Last House on the Street by Diane Chamberlain - this is her latest book and I didn't finish it and abandoned it at 32%. The topic was good (voting rights during the civil rights era) but I really just didn't connect with this. Perhaps because it was so white-centric? I don't know.

QOTW:
I agree with basically every book written by Backman - love his works. I'd also add All Quiet on the Western Front (originally in German by Remarque)

[tacokick]

Slow week!

Find Me by Alafair Burke (not good)

Wahala by Nikki May (long but pretty good. I think they are making a miniseries out of it)

QOTW:

I’ve been trying to read more. Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata was good. Lemon by Kwon Yeo-Sun was the most recent and okay.

I’ve tried a lot that I can’t get into, I always wonder if is translation issues or what. It does seem like more books are being translated than ever before so I keep trying.

[meowmaps]

I'll more or less copy and paste what I posted in the ML thread.

I finished Huma Abedin’s memoir Both/And: A Life in Many Worlds earlier in the week. It was really interesting. She comes from a very high-achieving family and obviously, there’s a lot of coverage of her time with HRC and her marriage to Anthony Weiner. I have so much compassion for her and what she went through with that whole never-ending scandal. She’s very down-to-earth, the kind of person I’d want to be friends with.

I'm now halfway through Under the Whispering Door. I like it but while the over-sentimentality didn't bother me in The House on the Cerulean Sea, it's making me roll my eyes here.

QOTW: I've read a lot of translations, some good and some bad. I loved Anna Karenina. Like others on here, I love Fredrik Backman. I also read The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo series. I've read a lot of Japanese to English translations in the past few years. I feel like the ones I've read, generally speaking, have had a stilted quality.

[dearprudence]

Finished A Spindle Splintered and Lost in a Book. Both were fine, 3 stars, which for me are books that I liked, but didn't really add anything to the general discourse.

Currently reading The Murmur of Bees for my bookclub, and listening to Wintersong. I'm having a real hard time with Murmur of Bees because of the pandemic aspect, but it otherwise an enjoyable read and I think I'm through that part. Wintersong is wonderful though. It has elements of Labyrinth (Goblin King steals sister, our heroine must try to rescue her while dealing with magical distractions) and Germanic folklore and history.



QOTW: Have you read a book that has been translated into English that you enjoyed? (question inspired by our mini-discussion of Doctor Zhivago translations) Many. I read a lot of Russian and French "classics." The Idiot by Dostoevsky, The Little Prince, and Candide are some of my favorite books. Anything by Dumas.

[Vespasia]

Earlier this week I read Where the Drowned Girls Go by Seanan McGuire. I enjoyed it but it wasn't my favorite (or least favorite) of the series. 

Now I am about halfway through The 22 Murders of Madison May by Max Barry. I feel like it was recommended here recently but I can't find corroboration of that! It's a fun, relatively easy read despite the title. 


QOTW: I really loved Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. It was recommended to me by a friend whose primary language is Spanish. 

[Vespasia]

Jan 21, 2022 16:42:31 GMT -5 meowmaps said:

I'm now halfway through Under the Whispering Door. I like it but while the over-sentimentality didn't bother me in The House on the Cerulean Sea, it's making me roll my eyes here.

I really disliked that about Cerulean Sea so based on this I will be skipping the other book. Thank you!  

[meowmaps]

Jan 21, 2022 17:22:40 GMT -5 Vespasia said:

Earlier this week I read Where the Drowned Girls Go by Seanan McGuire. I enjoyed it but it wasn't my favorite (or least favorite) of the series. 

Now I am about halfway through The 22 Murders of Madison May by Max Barry. I feel like it was recommended here recently but I can't find corroboration of that! It's a fun, relatively easy read despite the title. 


QOTW: I really loved Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. It was recommended to me by a friend whose primary language is Spanish. 

I forgot about the Shadow of the Wind series! Those are beautiful translations, very fluid and natural.

[mrspez07]

I’m listening to The Book of Lost Names and reading Symphony of Echos. I went to the library last night for the first time in a long time, and picked up 4 books for myself. I’m ready to move on from symphony, but it’s just interesting enough to keep reading.

QOTW: at first I couldn’t think of books, when that question comes up, I instantly think classics.
I enjoyed the Girl With The Dragon Tattoo series, it was well-translated. Many of Isabel Allende are also well-translated.

[aurora]

I just finished Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik. It was excellent! The only difficult thing is that I didn't realize at first that it was told from multiple perspectives (I was listening to the audiobook) so I was really confused until I figured that out. She's one of my new favorite authors.

[msmerymac]

About a quarter of the way through Klara and the Sun, which expires in 3 days. Then I'll start Dr. Zhivago.

QOTW: The one that comes to mind is If on a winter's night a traveler by Italo Calvino. 

[minzy]

I finished two books last week:

Waste - One Woman’s Fight Against America’s Dirty Secret by Catherine Coleman Flowers. She’s an environmental justice advocate from Alabama, and she has a fascinating life story in the civil rights arena, which she details in equal part to what she considers her life’s calling, shining a spotlight on systemic sanitation issues. I admit these issues were not really on my radar before reading the book. She details visits to many homes where septic tanks are cost-prohibitive, so the poop just festers in the yard. It is a disturbing problem without super easy solutions, due to a number of factors, which include the residents’ general lack of political power, poor infrastructure, high cost, a high water table, and non porous clay-like soil… and it’s all only likely to get worse with climate change. Eek.

The Man of My Dreams - Curtis Sittenfeld. I’ve liked a couple of her other books and just grabbed it off the shelf when I only had a few minutes in the library last week. It was a quick read. I think I can get through fiction a lot faster than my nonfiction picks, something for me to keep in mind if I want to keep my non-work reading up.

QOTW: I don’t have an answer to that question that hasn’t already been given.

[dontlook]

I finished:
Not A Happy Family by Shari Lapena. This was a decent suspense book. I really liked her other book, The Couple Next Door, but haven’t liked her other book so I was a little nervous. This book did enough to keep me guessing until the end.

QOTW:
Fredrik Backman is probably my favorite.

[Gato]

I thought of another translation favorite: the Elena Ferrante Neapolitan novels. I think the translation succeeds because the time and place are so specific, and the characters so vivid. It’s automatically fascinating. Books that depend on mood and atmosphere don’t work as well in translation, for me at least.

I really have to read Bakman, since everyone loves him, and am not sure why I haven’t yet. He’s a fellow Swede! Some great authors just slip past me for some reason.

[litskispeciality]

Last week I finished Love always and forever Lara Jean.

I started The One by John Mars, and Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins something.

QOTW: I read "The Lost Village' last year (2021), and "A Nearly Normal Family" the year before. Both have been translated from Sweden or Norway. I should read more as well.