The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky – I’m reading this along with the Hardcore Literature Book Club (HLBC) over a two month period.
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins – I’m following the original serialisation schedule on this one.
Bleak House by Charles Dickens – This is From The Front Porch’s Conquer a Classic for 2023 and we are reading around five to seven chapters per month.
Richard III by William Shakespeare – Continuing the HLBC Shakespeare Project, I’ve a ticket to see this play towards the end of April.
Venus and Adonis by William Shakespeare – Also part of the HLBC Shakespeare Project.
Sonnets – by William Shakespeare – Ditto!
Crónica de una Muerte Anunciada by Gabriel García Márquez – In order to brush up my Spanish, I’m reading this in its original and listening alongside. I also have the English translation to help.
Normal People by Sally Rooney – I enjoyed the TV series but felt lacking in information about the characters’ motivations, which I’m hoping will be illuminated in the novel.
The Late Mattia Pascal by Luigi Pirandello – I’ve been wanting to read this one for a while.
Parable of the Sower by Octavia E Butler – I recently took out an annual subscription with The Beautiful Book Company and this is the first novel they’ve sent.
Humankind by Rutger Bregman – I’ve decided to have a non-fiction book permanently on the go and this is my first choice, which hopefully will restore my faith in the human race!
Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield – I’ve had the audio on hold from Libby and it’s just come through.
Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen – Play of the Season for the HLBC.
I’m definitely a polygamous reader now and I’m finding it works extremely well to have several books on the go at once as there’s always one that I feel like picking up.
Here are the books I read in March. As usual, the one asterisked is a 5-star read. Coming shortly will be my reading plans for April, which I’m giving careful consideration to.
How High We Go in the Dark – Sequoia Nagamatsu (a deadly plague has a devastating effect in this sci-fi novel)
All the Lovers in the Night – Mieko Kawakami (an exploration of loneliness)
*Foster – Claire Keegan (a girl is sent to stay with foster parents in this uplifting novella)
Our Souls at Night – Kent Haruf (a beautiful tale of finding companionship in later life)
The Readers’ Room – Antoine Laurain (a mystery in which events in the real world imitate those in a novel)
Antarctica – Claire Keegan (a collection of short stories)
Assembly – Natasha Brown (a black British woman reflects on her identify)
Love and Friendship – Alison Lurie (debut novel of an affair on campus)
Henry VI Part I – William Shakespeare (first in a trilogy of the War of the Roses)
A Town Called Solace – Mary Lawson (young Clara struggles when her sister goes missing and a stranger moves into the house next door – recommended by my local indie bookshop, Word on the Street, who have the author visiting them in April)
The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde (a simultaneously witty and serious exploration of selling one’s soul to the devil)
Women Talking – Miriam Toews (women in a Mennonite community discuss what to do after waking up in pain and with bruises)
The Wife – Meg Wolitzer (Joan decides to divorce her husband and reflects on what brought her to this point)
Snap – Belinda Bauer (a mother disappears, leaving her three children waiting in the car)
War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy (concluded a three-month read of this epic masterpiece, undertaken in conjunction with the Hardcore Literature Book Club)
All-in-all, this was quite a varied and interesting month of reading.
My reading changed considerably in 2022 as it took on new directions: reading the classics, reading multiple books simultaneously, listening to audiobooks. With this in mind, here are my reading intentions for 2023.
Read fewer books
Although I slowed down my reading this year, the fact that I scheduled more time to read meant I got through more books. However, I’m often drawn to shorter novels and novellas, which obviously increases the quantity. I have started to pick up some longer works (Anna Karenina, Ulysses, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell are amongst these) and this is something I plan to continue in 2023. Naturally, this means that the number of novels I read will decrease, but that really does not matter. Reading is not about quantity but about the quality of the experience.
Curate quarterly/monthly reading lists
With a view to becoming more intentional about the novels I pick up, I will create quarterly and monthly reading lists. I belong to the Hardcore Literature Book Club and we have a somewhat ambitious list of works that are scheduled for the year (it includes the complete works of Shakespeare as well as some weighty tomes such as War and Peace). I don’t want to feel pressurised in any way but instead relax and enjoy the experience so I will plan my reading with plenty of room for flexibility. However, these quarterly and monthly lists will just be a guide, acting as a memory aid, and can be changed or discarded as circumstances require.
Deep dive and journal
This year, I’ve been diving deeper into the work I’ve read, following up references, and journaling on ideas and quotations, and this is something I want to continue in 2023. I’d also like to undertake an overall summing up of each novel, perhaps with some general thoughts on what I liked and didn’t like in the form of a bullet point list, with examples to make it more meaningful.
Explore poetry
I’ve discovered some poetry podcasts and I would like to widen my appreciation of poetry. I’m not entirely sure how I will approach this and whether I’ll focus on particular poets or specific periods. This is something that will develop as the year progresses.
Read the books on my shelf
As far as possible, I want to go to my shelf before I go to the bookshop. I don’t expect only to pick books that I already have but I do want to reduce the number of unread books that I own.
Review these intentions quarterly
The problem with setting intentions at the beginning of the year is that our circumstances, interests and desires can change over the course of twelve months. With this in mind, I plan to review these intentions quarterly and maintain, adapt or discard them depending on how they suit my reading life.
I feel quite relaxed about these intentions as I’m not viewing them as a rigid set of goals to be ticked off but more as a reminder of the direction I would like my reading to take. Instead of being restrictive, they feel liberating, and I’m excited to see how my reading experience develops over the course of the forthcoming year.
Here is a list of what I read in December. Those marked with an asterisk are 5-star reads.
Two Lives – William Trevor (this volume contains two novellas: ‘Reading Turgenev’, an exploration of a difficult marriage, and ‘My House in Umbria’, a story of survivors of a terrorist attack)
Siddhartha – Hermann Hesse (a spiritual journey of enlightenment)
As You Like It – William Shakespeare (one of his most famous comedies, which I read in preparation for a theatre trip next year)
Snow – Orhan Pamuk (some beautiful descriptions and profound ideas, but a little too heavy on political battles for me)
*The Winter Ghosts – Kate Mosse (my third reading of this appropriately seasonal and sensitive story of love, loss and grief)
Ulysses – James Joyce (finally completed this long-term project; a day in the life of Leopold Bloom, which I feel was probably more fun to write than to read, although it had its moments)
The Ice Palace – Tarjei Vesaas (a unique and atmospheric exploration of grief in the snow-covered, frozen Norwegian landscape)
The Hero With A Thousand Faces – Joseph Campbell (an interesting, but overly long, exploration of the hero’s journey in mythology)
The Turn of the Screw – Henry James (a ghostly, psychological exploration of a strange governess)
*The Death of Ivan Ilych – Leo Tolstoy (a dying man reflects on his life and death)
The Winter’s Tale – William Shakespeare (irrational jealousy has devastating consequences in this tragi-comedy)
Babel – R F Kuang (an interesting exploration of translation and colonialism, language and power in an imaginary 19th century Oxford, and a rare dip into fantasy for me)
Notes from the Underground – Fyodor Dostoevsky (the existential ravings of one of literature’s most unlikeable narrators)
This year, I made a concerted effort to read some of the classics and, looking at the list, I’m surprised at just how many are on it.
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer – Mark Twain (easier to listen to than read)
Northanger Abbey – Jane Austen (a brilliant satire on the gothic novel)
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde – Robert Louis Stevenson (raising questions about the role of science and the duality of man)
Persuasion – Jane Austen (her final novel highlighting the dangers of allowing others to influence your actions)
The Seagull – Anton Chekhov (a dramatisation of romantic and artistic conflicts)
Wuthering Heights – Emily Brontë (an atmospheric tale of love and suffering)
Three Sisters – Anton Chekhov (a family live in dissatisfaction as they dream of returning to Moscow)
Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen (a satirical look at English society and its relationships)
A Sicilian Romance – Ann Radcliffe (a typical example of early gothic in all its sensationalism)
Lady Susan – Jane Austen (characters revealed through correspondence)
The Odyssey – Homer, translated by Emily Wilson (surprisingly accessible epic tale)
Much Ado About Nothing – William Shakespeare (a comedy with a dark turn)
To the Lighthouse – Virginia Woolf (a stream of consciousness meandering)
Dubliners – James Joyce (tales of Dublin’s characters)
Flush – Virginia Woolf (a charming ‘biography’ of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s spaniel)
Mrs Dalloway – Virginia Woolf (one day in the life of Clarissa as she prepares for her party and reflects on her life)
Where Angels Fear to Tread – E M Forster (the story of an unsuitable marriage)
The Years – Virginia Woolf (scenes from family life, focussing on a different day in each several years)
Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy (an absorbing masterpiece exploring the psychological complexity of its characters)
An Inspector Calls – J B Priestley (an exploration of actions, consequences, selfishness and redemption)
The Importance of Being Earnest – Oscar Wilde (as funny as ever and an absolute joy of confusion)
The Lottery – Shirley Jackson (a shocking tale of small-town life)
Dracula – Bram Stoker (epistolary tale of good versus evil)
Olivia – Dorothy Strachey (a gem of a coming-of-age novella by a member of the Bloomsbury set)
The Lost Stradivarius – John Meade Falkner (a haunting tale of possession)
Man’s Search for Meaning – Viktor E Frankl (a sobering and inspiring account of survival in the most horrific of circumstances)
Othello – William Shakespeare (jealousy with tragic consequences)
The Mystery of Edwin Drood – Charles Dickens (the unfinished and thus inconclusive final novel)
A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens (a heartwarming story of reflection and redemption)
Siddhartha – Herman Hesse (a spiritual exploration of how to live)
As You Like It – William Shakespeare (a comedy of love and identity)
Ulysses – James Joyce (a challenging and awe-inspiringly clever stream of consciousness novel charting a day in the life of Leopold Bloom)
The Turn of the Screw – Henry James (a psychological and ghostly story of a strange governess)
The Death of Ivan Ilych – Leo Tolstoy (reflections of a dying man on his life and his death)
The Winter’s Tale – William Shakespeare (senseless jealously and its consequences)
Notes from the Underground – Fyodor Dostoevsky (the existential ravings of an unpleasant narrator)
Considering that prior to 2022, I tended to avoid the classics and instead focus on contemporary fiction, I’m pleased to report that I enjoyed my journey through some of these enduring works, an exploration that I’m looking forward to continuing in 2023.
A two week summary update today as I was on holiday for part of this time.
Currently Reading
Ulysses by James Joyce (novel and audiobook). Having completed chapter 9, I’ve got a bit ahead of the Hardcore Literature Book Club lectures (currently up to chapter 5) so I’m putting this on hold until we’re back in sync. To accompany the novel and as an aid to understanding, I’m also reading The New Bloomsday Book by Harry Blamires.
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (novel). I’m doing a slow and deep dive into this and am just over halfway through and currently reading part 5.
How To Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C Foster (book). I dip in and out of this one and have read the first three chapters.
Dubliners by James Joyce (ebook and audiobook). I’ve just got the final story, ‘The Dead’, to read in this collection.
Honorifics by Cynthia Miller (poetry collection).
Checkout 19 by Claire-Louise Bennett (novel).
Recently Completed
Mrs Death Misses Death by Salena Godden (audiobook). This was the only audiobook I could access on the plane so I paid another visit to it. It is beautifully narrated by the author and is very poetical. I do possess a signed copy of the novel and want to read it at some point.
Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson (audiobook). On holiday, I tended to read in the morning and listen to an audiobook after lunch. This was a good choice. Again, it is narrated by the author, and is a story of the love between two Black British artists. I would also like to read this one in book form as there is a lot in it, which is easier to ponder over with the hard copy in front of you
Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead (novel). I read this as it was short-listed for this year’s Women’s Prize for Fiction and I’m working my way through the list. I didn’t think I’d like this almost-700 page novel (making it a risky choice for my travel bag) but it was highly captivating and I enjoyed spending an extended period of time with the protagonist, a female pilot called Marian. It has a dual timeline, which also includes the story of a disgraced Hollywood actress who agrees to play Marian in a film of her life.
My Evil Mother by Margaret Atwood (audiobook). This is a short story of one hour’s narration, free on KindleUnlimited, by one of my favourite authors. It’s entertaining, with both moments of darkness and of humour, and the mother in question might be a witch.
The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki (novel). This was the winner of the Women’s Prize this year and is another long novel (so another risky pick for my holiday), which tells the story of Benny who, after his father’s death, begins to hear voices, and his grieving, clutter-accumulating mother. It has a magical realism quality, executed in a way that reminded me of Haruki Murakami. I enjoyed it a lot, although possibly a fraction less than Great Circle, which really surprises me as it seemed more to my taste
To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf (novel/audiobook). I’ve come to the conclusion that Woolf is one of my favourite authors and so I decided to revisit this novel, which I hadn’t read for 30+ years.
Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare (play). I read this in preparation for a visit to Shakespeare’s Globe in London to see their latest production of this comedy (confession: it’s the second time I’ve been to see it there this year but I stood last time and my view was obstructed by the crowd of giants standing in front of me). I have a problem with the resolution of the play and feel it would benefit from an extra scene – I don’t want to say anymore because of spoilers. However, it’s still enjoyable and the production is excellent, as it always is at the Globe.
Reading Next
I have absolutely no idea at the moment although I want to start a very slow read of In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust (guided by the Hardcore Literature Book Club). When I say slow, I mean slow – I anticipate it taking a few years!
I’m slowly working my way through three long classics of literature: Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, Ulysses by James Joyce and its guide The New Bloomsday Book by Harry Blamires, and Homer’s The Odyssey.
Recently Completed
I finished listening to A Good Neighbourhood by Therese Anne Fowler.
In Oak Knoll, a tight-knit North Carolina neighbourhood, professor of forestry and ecology Valerie Alston-Holt is raising her bright and talented biracial son. All is well until the Whitmans move in next door – an apparently traditional family with new money, ambition, and a secretly troubled teenage daughter.
With little in common except a property line, these two very different families quickly find themselves at odds over an historic oak tree in Valerie’s yard.
But as they fight, they fail to notice that there is a romance blossoming between their two teenagers. A romance that will challenge the carefully constructed concepts of class and race in this small community. A romance that might cause everything to shatter…
This was a reread as it was chosen for my August book club. I loved it the first time round in 2020, finding it intelligent and gripping, heartbreaking and tense, and I had no idea how it was going to end. I’m so pleased to report that it well and truly stood the test of a reread and I upgraded it from 4.5 to 4.75 stars. The characters are well-drawn, varied and authentically portrayed in terms of both their more positive traits and their flaws, and it’s interesting that the ‘neighbourhood’ of Oak Knoll also takes on the role of a character in itself. I particularly enjoyed the intertextuality, which added even greater depth to the story: there are hints of Romeo and Juliet, To Kill A Mockingbird, Lolita, The Great Gatsby, and Greek tragedy, the latter in the form of a neighbourhood chorus. Although I knew the outcome this time around, this knowledge didn’t lessen the tension or detract from the novel’s emotional power; if anything, it added to it. What further praise can I endow? It’s masterfully plotted and intelligently explores the themes of prejudice, class, race, patriarchy, religion, the environment and justice. I can’t recommend this novel enough.
For a bit of light relief, I also read Beach Read by Emily Henry.
January is a hopeless romantic who narrates her life like she’s the lead in a blockbuster movie. Gus is a serious literary type who thinks true love is a fairy-tale. But January and Gus have more in common than you’d think:
They’re both broke. They’ve got crippling writer’s block. And they need to write bestsellers before summer ends.
The result? A bet to swap genres and see who gets published first. The risk? In telling each other’s stories, their worlds might be changed entirely…
This novel is incredibly popular, as are her other two, and although I was slightly wary, I thought it would be a bit of frivolous lightheartedness amongst the more heavy reading I’m currently doing. I don’t usually read traditional romance novels and, having read this, I understand why. For me, it started in a mediocre way, then captured my interest for a while as the protagonists began writing in each other’s genres – a plot line that I thought contained great promise but wasn’t developed in a meaningful way – before becoming quite tedious. The sex scenes were frankly embarrassing, as if they had been written by an inexperienced teenager, and the ending was predictable and cloying. I can only conclude that my initial instincts had been correct and I need to stay away from this kind of fiction. I much prefer a more complex romance plot, such as demonstrated in the novels of Sally Rooney, who brings in other issues to ponder over. Having said that, I can imagine that with the right treatment, it could become a very successful rom-com film, which I would enjoying watching, and I can understand why it is so popular. It’s just not my type of novel.
Reading Next
I’m off on holiday next week and am taking The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki and Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead from this year’s Women’s Prize for Fiction shortlist, the former having won. I’m not sure which one I’ll go for first.
My quotation this week comes from Beach Read – let’s hope it’s true!
Bad things don’t dig down through your life until the pit’s so deep that nothing good will ever be enough to make you happy again. No matter how much shit, there will always be wildflowers.
I’ve now returned from my holiday and here are the books I read whilst relaxing in the sunshine.
The first novel was Bunny by Mona Awad.
Samantha Heather Mackey is an outsider in her small, highly selective MFA program at Warren University. In fact, she is utterly repelled by the rest of her fiction writing cohort – a clique of unbearably twee rich girls who call each other ‘Bunny’.
But then the Bunnies issue her with an invitation and Samantha finds herself inexplicably drawn to their front door, across the threshold, and down their rabbit hole.
It’s hard to know where to begin with this dark academia novel. I was expecting something along the lines of The Secret History by Donna Tartt, and at the outset, it seemed as if it might head in that direction. It was engaging and the right choice to hold my attention on the flight. As the novel progressed, it took on a decidedly weird turn and at times I wasn’t sure quite what I was reading as events become increasingly bizarre. I think I ‘got it’ by the end but Awad is definitely playing with our minds.
My next choice was Ponti by Sharlene Teo.
Set in 2003 in the sweltering heat of Singapore, Sharlene Teo’s Ponti begins as sixteen-year-olds Szu and Circe develop an intense friendship. For Szu it offers an escape from Amisa, her beautiful, cruel mother – once an actress, and now the silent occupant of a rusty house. But for Circe, their friendship does the opposite, bringing her one step closer to the fascinating, unknowable Amisa.
Seventeen years later, Circe finds herself adrift and alone. And then a project comes up at work, a remake of the cult seventies horror film series ‘Ponti’, the same series that defined Amisa’s short-lived film career. Suddenly Circe is knocked off balance: by memories of the two women she once knew, by guilt, and by a lost friendship that threatens her conscience.
I struggled to connect with this novel even though I should have loved it as it had the feel of Margaret Atwood’s Lady Oracle and Cat’s Eye, set in the present but with extensive flashbacks to the past. Despite this, I felt I didn’t get to know the three main characters particularly well and didn’t connect emotionally with them. Perhaps, for me, it was the wrong book at the wrong time as it is a good novel. It’s well-written and the premise is interesting; I don’t know why we didn’t gel as I thought we would.
I also read Pachinko by Min Jin Lee.
Yeongdo, Korea 1911. In a small fishing village on the banks of the East Sea, a club-footed, cleft-lipped man marries a fifteen-year-old girl. The couple have one child, their beloved daughter Sunja. When Sunja falls pregnant by a married yakuza, the family face ruin. But then Isak, a Christian minister, offers her a chance of salvation: a new life in Japan as his wife.
Following a man she barely knows to a hostile country in which she has no friends, no home, and whose language she cannot speak, Sunja’s salvation is just the beginning of her story.
This is a family saga of around 560 pages, which I wouldn’t normally choose but I’d heard nothing but praise for it and felt it could be an ideal holiday read. I don’t usually enjoy multi-generational novels because I like to focus on one person’s story so I always feel disappointed when we move on to the next character and leave that person behind. However, this was an absorbing read and despite it covering a broad sweep of time, we lingered with each character for long enough that I got to know them. I enjoyed learning about the history of Korea and Japan, which I had no knowledge of, and was interested in the exploration of what it means to be treated as an outsider in the country you were born in. It was the perfect novel to get lost in on holiday.
The final novel I completed on holiday was Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë.
Emily Bronte’s novel of impossible desires, violence and transgression is a masterpiece of intense, unsettling power. It begins in a snowstorm, when Lockwood, the new tenant of Thrushcross Grange on the bleak Yorkshire moors, is forced to seek shelter at Wuthering Heights. There he discovers the history of the tempestuous events that took place years before: the intense passion between the foundling Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw, her betrayal of him and the bitter vengeance he now wreaks on the innocent heirs of the past.
I simultaneously read and listened to this classic novel and found it completely absorbing. The writing is captivating, the wild landscape is beautifully evoked, and the characters, with all their flaws, exquisitely drawn. It deserves to have the status that it does.
Overall, I’m very pleased with my choice of holiday reading. Four completely different novels that generally provided good company for relaxing in the sunshine.
My contemporary read is Panenka by Ronan Hession, and the classic is Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, which I’m simultaneously listening to.
I haven’t picked up Words in Pain by Olga Jacoby for over a week and so I’m probably going to put this to one side for the time being.
Recently Completed
I brought a few books to completion this week, the first being Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller.
Twins Jeanie and Julius have always been different from other people. At 51 years old, they still live with their mother, Dot, in rural isolation and poverty. Inside the walls of their old cottage they make music, and in the garden they grow (and sometimes kill) everything they need for sustenance.
But when Dot dies suddenly, threats to their livelihood start raining down. Jeanie and Julius would do anything to preserve their small sanctuary against the perils of the outside world, even as their mother’s secrets begin to unravel, putting everything they thought they knew about their lives at stake.
I’m reading this for a buddy read but had to forge on ahead because I needed to return it to the library. I did, however, make copious notes about my thoughts at the different check-in points of the novel. I didn’t think it was quite as good as Our Endless Numbered Days and Bitter Orange but I think that’s because I didn’t find the premise as engaging.
I also finished listening to Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo.
Kim Jiyoung is a girl born to a mother whose in-laws wanted a boy. Kim Jiyoung is a sister made to share a room while her brother gets one of his own.
Kim Jiyoung is a female preyed upon by male teachers at school. Kim Jiyoung is a daughter whose father blames her when she is harassed late at night.
Kim Jiyoung is a good student who doesn’t get put forward for internships. Kim Jiyoung is a model employee but gets overlooked for promotion. Kim Jiyoung is a wife who gives up her career and independence for a life of domesticity.
Kim Jiyoung has started acting strangely.
Kim Jiyoung is depressed.
Kim Jiyoung is mad.
Kim Jiyoung is her own woman.
Kim Jiyoung is every woman.
I very much enjoyed this novel but probably should have read it instead of listening to it as I found myself wanting to underline parts of the text. I was shocked at the blatant discrimination portrayed, which the writer backed up with real-world statistics, thus giving substance to the protagonist’s experiences and communicating the gravity of the situation of women.
The classic read/listen that I finished this week was The Seagull by Anton Chekhov.
Arkadina, a famous actress, and her lover, a famous novelist, are spending the summer on her country estate, but their glamorous presence proves fatally disruptive to the lives of all those present, especially her son, Konstantin and Nina, the girl he loves.
I’m seeing this play next month so, as I’m not familiar with it and to enhance my enjoyment, I decided to read it first. It explores the typical Chekhov themes of unfulfilled dreams and unrequited love, something which I think he does particularly well. So many people have lofty ambitions but can’t take the actions necessary to achieve them, remaining in a state of paralysis and mourning what could have been. I’m looking forward to seeing how this is portrayed on the London stage, with Emilia Clarke (of Game of Thrones fame) playing Nina.
I also read a book I’ve had on my shelves for many years, By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept by Paulo Coelho.
Pilar is an independent and practical young woman who is feeling bored and frustrated by the daily grind of her university life. Looking for a deeper meaning to her existence, she happens to meet an old childhood friend, now a handsome, mesmerising spiritual teacher – and a rumoured miracle worker. As he leads her on a magical journey through the French Pyrenees, Pilar begins to realise that this chance encounter is going to transform her life forever.
I finally dusted this one off as it fulfilled the Storygraph Read Around the World challenge for a writer from Brazil. It was quick and easy to read but it wasn’t for me. Although I liked some of the inspirational ideas about following your dream and taking risks, I generally found it too overtly preachy and the characters a little, well, characterless. Overall, it wasn’t good and it wasn’t bad: it was just mediocre. There was a point in my life where I loved Coelho’s novels, but I think that time has passed.
I also did a quick re-read of At Night All Blood is Black by David Diop for the No Book No Life Book Club, which I’ve written about before. It was just as good as it was first time around. I’d highly recommend it.
Reading Next
My next read is going to be Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, which I’ve heard so many good things about. I’m not a fan of multi-generational family sagas so I hope I’m not going to be disappointed.
MARgINAlia 