My reading week: 37/52

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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 8). We’re almost back in sync and I’m looking forward to making some more progress on this challenging novel. 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 novel. This week I finished part 6 so there are only two more parts to go. It’s an incredibly satisfying read.

Honorifics by Cynthia Miller (poetry). I’m trying to read more poetry, starting with this interesting, contemporary collection.

The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen (novel and audiobook). This is my choice for the Vietnam read of the StoryGraph Reads the World challenge.

Recently Completed

This week I finished three novels, the first being Flush by Virginia Woolf, a biography of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s cocker spaniel, which I thought would be the perfect audiobook to listen to on my dog walks. It’s probably the most accessible of Woolf’s writing and is surprisingly enthralling. Not only did I enjoy this exploration of what it means to be a dog, but I also learnt a little about Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s life, of which I knew nothing. It certainly made me consider what my dog’s biography might look like – or perhaps even her autobiography!

I also read and listened to A Man by Keiichiro Hirano.

Akira Kido is a divorce attorney whose own marriage is in danger of being destroyed by emotional disconnect. With a midlife crisis looming, Kido’s life is upended by the reemergence of a former client, Rié Takemoto. She wants Kido to investigate a dead man—her recently deceased husband, Daisuké. Upon his death she discovered that he’d been living a lie. His name, his past, his entire identity belonged to someone else, a total stranger. The investigation draws Kido into two intriguing mysteries: finding out who Rié’s husband really was and discovering more about the man he pretended to be. Soon, with each new revelation, Kido will come to share the obsession with—and the lure of—erasing one life to create a new one.

Questions of identity, especially where a person takes on an entirely new life, are particularly interesting to me so this novel had a strong appeal. There was a point when I got a bit lost with the identity switches but having read a few reviews, I realised I wasn’t they only one. It was an enjoyable listen and I do have another Hirano novel on my shelves, At the End of the Matinee, which I will hopefully get round to reading soon.

My final completion was another Japanese novel, The Great Passage by Shion Miura.

Kohei Araki believes that a dictionary is a boat to carry us across the sea of words. But after thirty-seven years of creating dictionaries, it’s time for him to retire and find his replacement. He discovers a kindred spirit in Mitsuya Majime—a young, disheveled square peg with a penchant for collecting antiquarian books and a background in linguistics—whom he swipes from his company’s sales department.

Along with an energetic, if reluctant, new recruit and an elder linguistics scholar, Majime is tasked with a career-defining accomplishment: completing The Great Passage, a comprehensive 2,900-page tome of the Japanese language. On his journey, Majime discovers friendship, romance, and an incredible dedication to his work, inspired by the words that connect us all.

This was available on KindleUnlimited so I thought I’d give it a go as it’s about words and books, specifically a dictionary. Unexpectedly, I learnt a fair amount about dictionary compilation, much of which had never crossed my mind before, and I enjoyed the enthusiasm for words and language. However, I didn’t really engage with, or care about the characters, so whilst it was a pleasant enough listen, I felt a little detached from it. I’m not sure, but it could be a homage to Nasume Soseki’s Kokoro, which I’m thinking of reading. I agree with point the novel makes that: ‘The ocean of words is wide and deep’.

Reading Next

I expect I’ll read the novel that has been chosen for my October book club, the title of which I keep getting wrong! It’s Before My Actual Heart Breaks by Tish Delaney, which is set against the backdrop of the Northern Ireland troubles.

My reading week: 36/52

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 novel. This week I finished part 5. I’m enjoying it so much that I will be sad when I finish.

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 four chapters.

A Man by Keiichiro Hirano (audiobook). This is my current contemporary audiobook.

Flush by Virginia Woolf (audiobook). I thought it would be fun to listen to this biography of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s spaniel as I walk my dogs.

Honorifics by Cynthia Miller (poetry).

Recently Completed

Dubliners by James Joyce. I first read this short story collection at university and decided to revisit it as an accompaniment to my reading of Ulysses. I particularly enjoyed ‘Eveline’, ‘Araby’, ‘A Painful Case’ and ‘The Dead’.

Checkout 19 by Claire-Louise Bennett (novel). This is a unique novel with its own distinctive narrative style, exploring the influence of words and literature on a writer’s life. I found some chapters more engaging than others and am not sure it can be classified as a novel in the conventional sense, but it is certainly an interesting and challenging read. The opening two chapters made me laugh aloud!

Reading Next

I’ve only ever read one novel by Stephen King so I’m toying with the idea of reading Misery.

My reading week: 8/52

Currently Reading

I’m reading Piranesi by Susanna Clarke and listening to The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak.

Recently Completed

Having not finished any books last week, I’ve managed to complete four this week.

The first was Mr Cadmus by Peter Ackroyd.

Two apparently harmless women reside in cottages one building apart in the idyllic English village of Little Camborne. Miss Finch and Miss Swallow, cousins, have put their pasts behind them and settled into conventional country life. But when a mysterious foreigner, Theodore Cadmus – from a Mediterranean island nobody has heard of – moves into the middle cottage, the safe monotony of their lives is shattered.

Soon, long-hidden secrets and long-held grudges threaten to surface, drawing all into a vortex of subterfuge, theft, violence, mayhem . . . and murder.

I’ve never read anything by Peter Ackroyd before and was pleasantly surprised by how enjoyable and entertaining the first two thirds to three quarters of this novel was. Then it took a decidedly bizarre turn – and not in a positive way – and I didn’t know quite what to make of it. Judging by its reviews on Goodreads, I wasn’t alone in my response!

This will fulfil prompt 11 of the 52 Book Club Reading Challenge: A book with less than 2022 Goodreads’ ratings.

I also finished listening to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, which was chosen for my March book club.

Tom Sawyer and his friends seek out adventure at every turn. Then one fateful night they witness a murder. The boys swear never to reveal the secret and run away to be pirates and search for hidden treasure. But when Tom gets trapped in a cave with the murderer, can he escape unharmed?

It’s taken me a long time to have my first encounter with this children’s classic. It was better than I expected but I felt pretty ambivalent towards it.

Prompt 39 of the Challenge: A middle-grade novel.

I also listened to Black Vodka, a collection of ten short stories by Deborah Levy.

‘Elisa said Yes and I said Yes. We said Yes in all the European languages. Yes. We said yes we said yes, yes to vague but powerful things, we said yes to hope which has to be vague, we said yes to love which is always blind, we smiled and said yes without blinking.’ (‘A Better Way to Live’) ———– How does love change us? And how do we change ourselves for love – or for lack of it? Ten stories by acclaimed author Deborah Levy explore these delicate, impossible questions. In Vienna, an icy woman seduces a broken man; in London, a bird mimics an old-fashioned telephone; in adland, a sleek copywriter becomes a kind of shaman. These are twenty-first century lives dissected with razor-sharp humour and curiosity, stories about what it means to live and love, together and alone.

I enjoy Deborah Levy’s writing (Hot Milk is one of my favourites) and these stories were interesting. I think I would have preferred to read them so I could ponder them more.

Prompt 43: An author who’s published in more than one genre.

My final completion was The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin.

No-one knows that better than seventeen-year-old Lenni. But as she is about to learn, it’s not only what you make of life that matters, but who you share it with.

Dodging doctor’s orders, she joins an art class where she bumps into fellow patient Margot, a rebel-hearted eight-three-year-old from the next ward. Their bond is instant as they realise that together they have lived an astonishing one hundred years.

To celebrate their shared century, they decide to paint their life stories: of growing old and staying young, of giving joy, of receiving kindness, of losing love, of finding the person who is everything.

Although this novel has a thread of sadness woven through it, it is an enjoyable and life-affirming read. The convergence of an unlikely selection of characters makes for an endearing story.

Prompt 8: Involving the art world.

Reading Next

I’ll probably return to At the End of the Matinee by Keiichiro Hirano.

My reading week: 7/52

I made a trip to the library this week, for the first time in over two years, and was seriously impressed at the restocking they seem to have done. I found many books that I’ve been wanting to read so it was hard to limit these to what I can read in three weeks. As a result, I now have several books on the go!

Currently Reading

I’ve temporarily set aside At the End of the Matinee by Keiichiro Hirano. This is one I’ve bought so I’ll return to it soon.

In its place I’m reading Mr Cadmus by Peter Ackroyd, which I hadn’t heard of but am enjoying and have almost finished.

I’m still listening to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, but I also borrowed a hard copy.

I’m also still reading Emotional Agility by Susan David and will spread this one over a few weeks.

Another library find was Five-Minute Watercolour: Super-quick Techniques for Amazing Paintings by Samantha Nielsen.

Recently Completed

Nothing has been finished this week.

Reading Next

Surprisingly, Piranesi by Susanna Clarke was available in the library so this might be next on the list.

My quotation this week comes from Emotional Agility and contains an important truth:

The paradox of happiness is that deliberately striving for it is fundamentally incompatible with the nature of happiness itself. Real happiness comes through activities you engage in for their own sake rather than for some extrinsic reason, even when the reason is something as seemingly benevolent as the desire to be happy.

Susan David

My reading week: 6/52

Currently Reading

I’m listening to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, which has been chosen for my March book club.

I’m reading Emotional Agility: Get Unstuck, Embrace Change and Thrive in Work and Life by Susan David because who doesn’t need to do this?

Recently Completed

I finished three novels this week. The first was No One is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood.

As this urgent, genre-defying book opens, a woman who has recently been elevated to prominence for her social media posts travels around the world to meet her adoring fans. She is overwhelmed by navigating the new language and etiquette of what she terms “the portal,” where she grapples with an unshakable conviction that a vast chorus of voices is now dictating her thoughts. When existential threats–from climate change and economic precariousness to the rise of an unnamed dictator and an epidemic of loneliness–begin to loom, she posts her way deeper into the portal’s void. An avalanche of images, details, and references accumulate to form a landscape that is post-sense, post-irony, post-everything. “Are we in hell?” the people of the portal ask themselves. “Are we all just going to keep doing this until we die?”

Suddenly, two texts from her mother pierce the fray: “Something has gone wrong,” and “How soon can you get here?” As real life and its stakes collide with the increasingly absurd antics of the portal, the woman confronts a world that seems to contain both an abundance of proof that there is goodness, empathy, and justice in the universe, and a deluge of evidence to the contrary.

This novel is divided into two parts, the first of which focuses on the world of the ‘portal’, which is simultaneously humorous, absurd and hits disturbingly home. It made me question my relationship to an online life and how far I want to delve into this parallel reality. I felt slightly ambivalent to this section, recognising it contains important messages but not particularly gripped.

In stark contrast, the second part shifts to a very real event in the very real world and is hard-hitting and incredibly moving. My response to the first half was knocked sideways and this novel became a great work, in my opinion. At one point, I had tears in my eyes and I am grateful I stuck with it.

I listened to this novel but I feel it is one that I should have read.

I will use it for prompt 31 of the 52 Book Club Reading Challenge: Technology-themed.

I also read The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa.

Nana is on a road trip, but he is not sure where he is going. All that matters is that he can sit beside his beloved owner Satoru in the front seat of his silver van.

Satoru is keen to visit three old friends from his youth, though Nana doesn’t know why and Satoru won’t say. Set against the backdrop of Japan’s changing seasons and narrated with a rare gentleness and striking humour, Nana’s story explores the wonder and thrill of life’s unexpected detours.

This easy-to-read novel explores the importance of friendship, both human and feline, and the impact that we have on the lives of others. I sat back, relaxed and enjoyed the pleasant, comfortable journey, until I neared the end when it became incredibly moving and emotional.

This fits prompt 34 of the Challenge: Author’s photo on the back cover.

My final completion was Three Sisters by Heather Morris.

When they are little girls, Cibi, Magda and Livia make a promise to their father – that they will stay together, no matter what. Years later, at just 15, Livia is ordered to Auschwitz by the Nazis. Cibi, only 19 herself, remembers their promise and follows Livia, determined to protect her sister, or die with her. Together, they fight to survive through unimaginable cruelty and hardship.

Magda, only 17, stays with her mother and grandfather, hiding out in a neighbour’s attic or in the forest when the Nazi militia come to round up friends, neighbours and family. She escapes for a time, but eventually she too is captured and transported to the death camp. In Auschwitz-Birkenau the three sisters are reunited and, remembering their father, they make a new promise, this time to each other: That they will survive.

This is a fictional account of a remarkable true story by the author of The Tattooist of Auschwitz, which I haven’t read. I found I wanted to pick this up and follow the sisters on their heartbreaking and horrific journey. The account of their time in Auschwitz-Birkenau is a harrowing portrayal of the evil inflicted during this dark period in history.

I therefore feel unjust in the criticism that is to follow but for me it was about 100+ pages too long and I think it would have been better to stop writing at a certain point, omit the final part, and tell the remainder of the story as a biographical summary. I also felt that at times it slipped through the gap between fiction and biography. Having said that, it is well worth reading.

This will suit several prompts but I’m going to choose number 10: A book based on a real person.

Reading Next

This will probably be another Japanese novel, At the End of the Matinee by Keiichiro Hirano.

My thought-provoking quotation this week comes from Three Sisters:

Is that it? she thinks. They went through all that horror, and now they’re just being sent home, on a bus, as if nothing had happened? Rage spikes her body. Who is going to say sorry? Who is going to atone for their suffering, the senseless deaths?