avaland's 2012 thread II

Dette er en fortsættelse af tråden avaland's 2012 thread.

SnakClub Read 2012

Bliv bruger af LibraryThing, hvis du vil skrive et indlæg

avaland's 2012 thread II

Dette emne er markeret som "i hvile"—det seneste indlæg er mere end 90 dage gammel. Du kan vække emnet til live ved at poste et indlæg.

1avaland
Redigeret: mar 20, 2013, 7:14 am

My 2011 thread is here.

NOW READING:



Stars of the Long Night by Tanure Ojaide (Nigerian, 2012)



Black Dahlia and White Rose: Stories by Joyce Carol Oates (2012)

2012 Reading

Novels/Novellas

Once Upon a River by Bonnie Jo Campbell (US, 2011)
One Day the Ice Will Reveal All Its Dead by Clare Dudman (2003)
Night Dancer by Chika Unigwe (2012, Nigerian/Belgian)
Down the Rabbit Hole by Juan Pablo Villalobos (Mexican, 2012)
A Place of Execution by Val McDermid
White Heat: A Novel by M. J. McGrath (Canada/Arctic, crime novel).
----------------------------
The Polish Boxer by Eduardo Halfon (Guatemalan, 2012)
Trick of the Dark by Val McDermid
The Grave Tattoo by Val McDermid (Scotland, 2006)
The Distant Echo by Val McDermid (Scotland, 2003)
The Shadow Girls by Henning Mankell (2012, Swedish)
---------------------------------------
Money by Victoria Fredricksson (189_, Swedish)
Whispering Death by Garry Disher (2011, Australian)
On Black Sisters' Street by Chika Unigwe (2009, Nigeria/Belgium)
Memoirs of Porcupine by Alain Mabanckou (T 2012, Congo-Brazzaville)
Children in Reindeer Woods by Kristin Omasdottir (T 2012, Iceland)
Some Kind of Fairy Tale by Graham Joyce (2012, UK)
Port Vila Blues by Garry Disher (2012/1995, Australian, crime novel)
Icefields by Thomas Wharton (1995, Canadian)
Sail of Stone by Åke Edwardson (2012, T 2012, Swedish, police procedural)
Mudwoman by Joyce Carol Oates (2012, US)
--------------------------------------------------
Pure by Julianna Baggott (2012, US, dystopian)
The Flight of Gemma Hardy by Margot Livesey (2012, Scottish author)
Them by Joyce Carol Oates (1969, NBA winner 1970)
The Lowenskold Ring by Selma Lagerlof (1923, Swedish, new ed)
The Rise of Life on Earth by Joyce Carol Oates (1991, US, novella)
The Tattooed Girl by Joyce Carol Oates (2003, US)
The Robber Bridegroom by Eudora Welty (1970, US)

Short Fiction (collection/anthologies)

A Riot of Goldfish by Kanoko Okamoto (Japan, T. 2011) (1 of 2 stories read)
Now That You're Back by A. L. Kennedy (1994, Scottish)
----------------------------------------------
Heading Inland: Stories by Nicola Barker (1998, UK)
Open Secrets: Stories by Alice Munro (1995, Canadian)

Poetry

Selections from: The Dream of a Common Language Poems 1974-1977 by Adrienne Rich
----------------------------------------------
Sin: Selected Poems of Forugh Farrokhzad (2010, Iranian)
Selections from The Zoo in Winter by Polina Barskova (2011, Translated from the Russian)
Selections from: Figures in a Landscape by Gail Mazur (2011, US)

Nonfiction, General

Hit Lit:Cracking the Code of the 20th Century's Biggest Bestsellers by James W. Hall (US)
Mad Women:The Other Side of Life on Madison Avenue in the 60s and Beyond by Jane Maas (2012, memoir)
Bestsellers: A Very Short Introduction by John Sutherland (2007, UK, nonfiction)
--------------------------------------------
Selections from: The Tragic Vision of Joyce Carol Oates by Mary Kathryn Grant (literary criticism, 1974, 1978)
Selections from: (Woman Writer) Occasions and Opportunities by JCO (1988, essays)
Tragedy: A Very Short Introduction by Adrian Poole

Nonfiction, Design/Art/Quilting...etc

(I have failed to keep this list up to date...)
Symmetry by Ruth McDowell
Quilts and Quilting from Threads by the Editors
Art and Inspirations: Ruth B. McDowell by Ruth McDowell
Piecing: Expanding the Basics by Ruth McDowell
Piecing Workshop by Ruth McDowell
Design Workshop by Ruth McDowell
Pattern on Pattern by Ruth McDowell

"Selections From" or Misc. Reading

"Immoral Acts" by Juan Palbo Villalobos (WLT, Nov/Dec 2012)
"The Novel in English" from The Canadian Encyclopedia
Western Taxidermy by Barbara Howard (2012, Canadian, short stories)
Loud Sparrows: Contemporary Chinese Short-Shorts, edited (2008, China)(continuous)
"Happy Ending 2.0" by James Patrick Kelly from Fantasy and Science Fiction
Hark! A Vagrant! by Kate Beaton (2011, comics)

Abandoned Reads

The Uninvited Guests by Sadie Jones (2012, UK)
Into the Forest by Jean Hegland

2avaland
Redigeret: apr 17, 2012, 12:14 pm

I have a few book comments to do forIcefields, Mad Women and the poetry, otherwise the books were commented on in the previous thread.

I'm really tempted to pull out another JCO book, but I'm resisting the urge.

3dukedom_enough
apr 17, 2012, 12:25 pm

Used up your other thread, eh? :-)

4SassyLassy
apr 17, 2012, 12:26 pm

I've been following the discussion of immigrants, geography and books in translation in the previous thread. The difference between the US and Canada with regard to integration of newcomers has always interested me. I think it may have something to do with the idea of the US as the "melting pot" where newcomers seem to be expected to assimilate, whereas in Canada, the expectation is one of a "cultural mosaic" where in an idealized world, newcomers keep their cultural identities, while at the same time adopting Canadian social values, a complex task indeed when you may be completely taken up with learning a language and finding work!

I think another difference is that with two official languages, Canadians are used to anything and everything being translated, so books originally written in another language aren't necessarily regarded as "foreign" and so something to be approached with caution. Having said that though, I do wish there were more publishing rights for writers from other countries.

As always, I really enjoy following your reading and comments. I look forward to seeing your remarks on A L Kennedy, one of my favourite authors, even if she is truly bleak.

5avaland
Redigeret: apr 17, 2012, 1:26 pm

>4 SassyLassy: That said, I see very few Canadians here on LT reading French translations from their own country (of course, it might just be the ones I hang out with;-) I also think that Canadians only relatively recently (less than 50 years?) started to think of having a national literature of their own, and that may have played a part in what you describe.

I'm no expert, but I think the particular attitude towards assimilation (whether it be expected from the country or desired by the immigrants themselves...or a little of both) that I referred to faded out with the WWII generation. With civil rights, the women's movement...etc, ethnic identity was perhaps 'liberated' also(?) Literature has always had books about "the immigrant experience" but it is now teeming with themes of the struggle with cultural identity from about the 80s onward. For example, Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club was published in '89 and Gish Jen's first novel was published in 1991. Quote from wikipedia: "Her first novel, Typical American, attempts to redefine Americanness as a preoccupation with identity. 'As soon as you ask yourself the question, "What does it mean to be Irish-American, Iranian-American, Greek-American, you are American,' she has said.

I suspect the timing of this latter trend parallels that of the same in Canada (though it seems to have really blossomed in the last decade or so in Canada, yes?)

And, I must thank you, Sassy, for your comments, which led me to this history of the "novel in English" in Canada. A very interesting article! And more or less confirms my speculation of 'eras'.

6RidgewayGirl
apr 17, 2012, 2:51 pm

I'm eager to read your reaction to Icefields.

7Nickelini
apr 18, 2012, 12:54 am

That said, I see very few Canadians here on LT reading French translations from their own country (of course, it might just be the ones I hang out with;-)

Interesting point . . . Quebecois or Francophone literature is almost unheard of in my world. The only author I can name is Gabrielle Roy. However, French is still very prevalent in our daily lives . . . cereal boxes, every government office, airports, hockey games, etc. French Canadian lit and English Canadian lit are two totally different streams, but we are very used to each others' languages.

8avaland
apr 18, 2012, 7:23 am

>7 Nickelini: The name that pops up a lot in my Belle publisher catalog travels is Marie Claire Blais and I keep meaning to seek out one of her books and see what she's all about (she seems to be of the Atwood/Oates era).

Talon Books publishes French (Canadian) translations, and I noticed recently Breakwater Books in New Brunswick also has a couple. And I also ran across this blog that has some interesting posts on French Canadian literature.

9rebeccanyc
apr 18, 2012, 8:51 am

Interesting point about French Canadian literature. Mavis Gallant has French Canadian characters in many of her stories that take place in Montreal, but of course she writes in English, although she must speak French too, since she did go to several French-speaking schools and lived in Paris for quite a while.

10dchaikin
apr 18, 2012, 8:55 am

Just grabbing a seat in the new thread. Interesting article linked at the end of post 5.

11janeajones
apr 18, 2012, 11:46 am

Interesting article on Canadian lit. I've never heard of Marie Claire Blais before, though her author page here on LT certainly indicates that she's pretty prolific. The only other book besides The Tin Flute by a French Canadian that I've read is The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches by Gaetan Soucy.

12torontoc
apr 18, 2012, 1:49 pm

There have been some interesting French Canadian authors translated- I liked Nikolski by Nicolas Dickner.
I see more plays by French Canadian authors translated- ie. Michel Tremblay.

13avaland
apr 18, 2012, 3:46 pm

>12 torontoc: I liked that one also, torontoc. Is it the Governor General's Prize that awards both for literature in English and also in French?

>11 janeajones: Sounds like we must go exploring!

>10 dchaikin: free virtual popcorn! Dan, I can't help but think that you might like these "ice" books I'm reading...

>9 rebeccanyc: I hadn't thought much about it myself until the conversation wandered in that direction.

14kidzdoc
Redigeret: apr 18, 2012, 4:04 pm

What about Jacques Poulin? At least three of his books have been published in English by Archipelago Books. I've read the two I own, Translation Is a Love Affair and Mister Blue, which were both very good. I know of at least one LTer from Canada who has read these books, Smiler69; I think she read them in French, though.

15dchaikin
apr 18, 2012, 4:08 pm

I've noted your comments on the ice books, and they have caught my interest. At this point I haven't tried the genre yet. Some day, maybe.

16kidzdoc
apr 18, 2012, 4:13 pm

Dany Laferrière has also been widely translated into English. He was born in Haiti, but has lived in Montréal since 1976.

17lilisin
apr 18, 2012, 4:31 pm

The book I read for Belletrista was a Canadian book translated from the French, if you remember: Wildlives by Monique Proulx.

18SassyLassy
Redigeret: apr 18, 2012, 4:44 pm

>7 Nickelini: to >14 kidzdoc:

I think one of the difficulties for Canadians who read in English is actually getting information about French translations. Unless you live in Montreal, the major English language newspapers do not as a rule review books from Quebec, presumably because it's easier to interview more local authors and the novels are not always available outside Quebec. Also, book fairs outside Quebec do not feature much work from that province. This means a trip to bookstores in Montreal is well worth it, as there are all kinds of authors available who are hard to find outside Quebec, the above mentioned Jacques Poulin being one. I am not sure why distribution is such a problem. It kind of forces readers to use online ordering when they could be supporting real bookstores instead, but that's a discussion for another day!

Another factor is that some authors who are translated from French prefer to go with non Canadian publishers, Archipelago Books being an example. You then have to hope for a Canadian distributor, since if I order online from Archipelago, (wonderful site, kidzdoc), it will cost me as much in postage as the book.

I didn't know that Breakwater was publishing French translations, but that makes sense as New Brunswick is officially bilingual.

The Governor General's awards are given for work in both English and French, from any region of the country. There are also awards for translation. Sheila Fischman is an excellent translator. I see from the post on translation awards, that Dany Laferriere, a Quebec writer, has a book nominated.

Of some of the authors mentioned above, Marie Claire Blais is very dark reading. Michel Tremblay also writes novels, as well as plays.

Other well known writers who might be of interest are Antonine Maillet, the first non French citizen to win the Prix Goncourt, Jacques Ferron, Yves Beauchemin (quite funny). Anne Hebert is of more historic interest. Unfortunately, most of my Canadian French reading has been from libraries, as the books are at least available there, but that means I don't have copies.

I enjoyed both the links in >5 avaland: and >8 avaland:. Canadian literature to me though seems to be a collection of regional literatures, rather than one national literature. I suppose most countries are like that.

Edit: changed posts (error in language) to links in second last line.

19Nickelini
apr 18, 2012, 5:24 pm

11, 12 - I said I only remembered Gabrielle Roy, but now that you mention it, I've read Gaetan Soucy too. I didn't know Nicolas Dickner and Michel Tremblay were French writers.

20rebeccanyc
apr 18, 2012, 7:40 pm

Thanks for the reminder of Jacques Poulin, Darryl, and for the other reading ideas, everybody!

21Cait86
apr 18, 2012, 7:49 pm

Awesome Can Lit discussion!

>18 SassyLassy: - Re: national vs. regional literature - I tend to agree with you in that there are certainly regional pockets of authors (Prairies, Maritimes, etc.), but I think there are still certain themes that run throughout the country. Preoccupation with nature for example, and the immigrant experience, and a focus on memory. I've seen these themes in novels, and more recently in the short stories I've been reading this month.

22Cait86
apr 18, 2012, 7:50 pm

Lois, I noticed that you abandoned The Uninvited Guests. Were you not enjoying it, or was it just a case of the wrong book at the wrong time?

23avaland
Redigeret: apr 19, 2012, 7:34 am

>22 Cait86: I did 30 pages and found it too light for my tastes (and I was generally disappointed that this was being called a "breakout" book for Sadie Jones). There were also some anachronisms in the prose that drove me a bit nuts. But I look forward to your review!

>21 Cait86: Themes in Canadian literature, and whether they are uniquely Canadian, has been a topic of discussion since Margaret Atwood's Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature (1972). For the benefit of those who aren't familiar:

Published in 1972, Margaret Atwood's Survival helped to change the face of Canadian literature. Atwood, already an award-winning poet and an acclaimed novelist, here redefined what made the country's literature unique in a landscape dominated by its British and American counterparts. At the heart of Survival is the question, "Is there really something that can be called Canadian literature?"

At the time of its publication, Survival was both an enormous financial success, selling over 30,000 copies in its first year in print, and enormously controversial, fuelling debates about CanLit that have since become central to Canadian studies. It is a passionate and decidedly nationalistic look at what Atwood perceived as the struggle of the country's writers to survive the dominance of literatures from elsewhere. She argues that there is indeed a distinct Canadian literature, with its own preoccupations, themes, and ideas specific to its history, geopolitics, and landscape. Long after its publication, Survival makes for insightful and provocative reading.


Back in the late 90s, I was sitting through a panel discussion of 8 or so Canadian SF authors, who were asked if there were any particularly Canadian themes in their SF. It was an interesting discussion but I think there was no definitive answer. Most of the themes they posited were not unique to Can SF. (I seem to remember one suggestion was the "frontier") and I think Atwood's book may have come up briefly also.

I'm of the mind that themes themselves are universal, but applied differently or with different emphasis in different places. The immigration/cultural identity theme, for example, is yes, very big in both Canadian and US lit right now, but it also prevalent in UK and European countries (Moroccans in Spain; Algerians in France, Africans and Indian/Pakistanis in the UK, Southeast Asians in Iceland, Somalis in the Netherlands...just some of my past reading as example).

I just want to say here that I am not an expert in CanLit, but a fan of Atwood can hardly avoid the topic, and I do read a lot about literature and run into the topic from time to time.

On another note, Cait, I am intrigued by your "focus on memory" theme, would you care to elaborate?

24edwinbcn
apr 21, 2012, 12:02 am

Another francophone Canadian author, whose work is available in English is Michel Tremblay. Last year, I bought a play by this author: The impromptu of Outremont.

25labfs39
apr 21, 2012, 12:05 am

#18 This means a trip to bookstores in Montreal is well worth it, as there are all kinds of authors available who are hard to find outside Quebec, the above mentioned Jacques Poulin being one. I was so disappointed to take a trip up to Munro Books in Victoria, BC and not find a single Poulin book. The manager said that they used to carry his books. Do you think something has changed nationwide, or has it also been difficult to find French Canadian titles outside Quebec?

26avaland
apr 21, 2012, 10:56 am

>25 labfs39: Talon Books claims to publish more translations from Quebec than any other Canadian publisher... http://talonbooks.com/about-us/ I always find some interesting books and plays here for Belletrista.

27Nickelini
apr 21, 2012, 3:21 pm

I was so disappointed to take a trip up to Munro Books in Victoria, BC and not find a single Poulin book. The manager said that they used to carry his books. Do you think something has changed nationwide, or has it also been difficult to find French Canadian titles outside Quebec?

I've never looked for Quebecois literature, but I don't remember ever running across it, either, even at Munro's. Maybe a university bookstore would have a better selection. We used to have a foreign language bookstore in downtown Vancouver (Sophie's) and they had a huge French section, but they closed in the last few years.

28rachbxl
apr 22, 2012, 8:04 am

I have nothing to add but am enjoying this discussion about French Canadian lit...please carry on!

29Cait86
apr 22, 2012, 12:19 pm

>23 avaland: - Sure! I've found that a lot of the Canadian texts I've read have a focus on memory. Characters are telling their stories, reaching into the past and looking for answers. There is often an understanding that memory is shaky, and that what a person chooses to remember is much different from what actually happened. For example, Atwood's Cat's Eye, where the narrator has repressed parts of her childhood, or Ondaatje's novels, most recently The Cat's Table, where the narrator reconstructs his past for a certain purpose. Poets like Charles G. D. Roberts and P. K. Page asked questions about the difference between memory and experience as well. I think this tension between memory and actual occurrences makes a lot of narrators unreliable, and that's something I see a lot in Canadian Literature as well.

30Cait86
apr 22, 2012, 12:22 pm

Too bad about The Uninvited Guests, Lois. I think I was just so swept up in the dark drama of it all, that I stopped noticing if things seemed far-fetched, though I recognize that the character development was far less than in Jones' other two books. But then, I don't think it was supposed to be about the characters, as much as it was about the time period, and the house... it reminded me of Sarah Waters' The Little Stranger, in that way, though a tongue-in-cheek version.

31janemarieprice
apr 22, 2012, 4:14 pm

Great discussion going on here. I especially appreciate the French Canadian recommendations. I'll be on the lookout for some of these.

32SassyLassy
apr 22, 2012, 5:22 pm

I agree about the preoccupation with nature and the immigrant experience. Outside of a very few Canadian cities, nature is a huge force and still one to be reckoned with! I once took some people from Italy to see the McMichael Collection of Canadian Art and they said "But it's all about landscape!"... a criticism on their part, but I thought it summed up the Canadian experience beautifully.

Cait, do you think that the focus on memory could be because of the lack of a shared national memory in a country so new, with people from so many different countries? I was interested in your remark on Charles G D Roberts, (whom I haven't read, but have heard read) as he wrote before the huge nationalism debates, which sparked so much CanLit.

labfs39, outside Quebec, even in Toronto, it is difficult to find new French language Canadian fiction, in French or English. They seem to just have the old standbys. I think what may have changed is care for the bottom line.

This whole discussion has induced me to go back to my TBR pile in search of inspiration and I am now reading Juliette by Yves Beauchemin. I had been having trouble settling down with anything and this seems to have done the trick

33avaland
apr 26, 2012, 9:33 am

As always, I have fallen behind and have some catching up to do...



Mad Women: The Other Side of Life on Madison Avenue in the ‘60s and Beyond by Jane Maas (2012, memoir, US).

For fans of the AMC television series, “Mad Men,” (It is said of the show that it is about: “the conflicting desires of men and those who suffer because of them” —a paraphrase) Jane Maas’s memoir of working in the advertising biz in NYC during that time is more than a little interesting. She deliberately gives us the woman’s point of view to the 1960s advertising culture as presented by the show. Generally, I think she confirms that the show gets most things right, but cautions that not every agency behaved the same. She writes with wit and honesty (she notes that most memoirs of advertising done in the past have been efforts on the authors’ parts to advertise themselves and their companies), and begins her story with her college years at Smith and then Bucknell (she is great pals with Philip Roth – they did drama together and have been lifelong friends), explaining the culture that someone like the show’s Betty Draper came out of. She began in advertising as a copywriter in 1964 and rose to become the creative director and agency officer (Don Draper’s position). Eventually she would become president of another agency.

Maas, through her own experiences and those of others women she has talked with, discusses sex in the office, the three-martini lunch and other vices, the creative revolution, money, and being a working mother during those years…etc One of my favorite chapters—“Get the Money Before They Screw You”—discusses the treatment of women in the workplace, the lack of respect, the disparate salaries (women were considered a ‘bargain’ to hire, even into the feminist era), and the fact that women weren’t even taken seriously as consumers.

“Ask any woman who worked at an advertising agency in the Mad Men era. Of course we didn’t make the same salary as a man with the same title, even if we knew we were doing a better job. We didn’t even have equal space—the guys got offices with windows; we got cubicles. The problem was we simply submitted to the situation. Women’s lib had not yet flowered, and our consciousness had definitely not be raised.”

Mad Women is a quick, enjoyable read, written for perhaps the generations younger than I am, those who have no experience with the 60s. Readers from other countries may find the discussions of various American ads from the era a bit difficult to slog through, but I’m sure most of these ads can be found on the internet or YouTube these days. (I admit to reminding myself of an old Maxim coffee commercial starring actress Patricia Neal by watching one on YouTube, after Maas told how difficult her husband, children’s author Roald Dahl was to work with (to put that politely)). According to Maas’s recollections, I think we fans of the show should expect all the creative departments to be regularly smoking dope by the 1970s (which doesn’t surprise some of us at all…;-)

34avaland
Redigeret: apr 26, 2012, 10:28 am



The Dream of a Common Language by Adrienne Rich (1978, poetry, US)

One can read any number of excellent obituaries for Adrienne Rich, like this one in the New York Times, and for all of her accomplishments, I still think about her on a more personal level. Not that I knew her, I did not; but she spoke for a generation, for an era, for many things, but she also spoke at time for me. it seemed personal.

When I received the sad news of her death, I pulled down a favorite collection of hers and began to browse through it. I have notes and underlines scribbled in this edition, and I thought how amazing that some of the poems still had such power to move me. I will not share those, but I thought I might share the first poem of the collection - which is as much about the power of creativity as it is about Marie Curie. I have tried to duplicate the format of the poem.

POWER

Living in the earth-deposits of our history

Today a backhoe divulged out of a crumbling flank of earth
one bottle amber perfect a hundred-year-old
cure for fever or melancholy a tonic
for living on this earth in the winters of this climate

Today I was reading about Marie Curie:
she must have known she suffered from radiation sickness
her body bombarded for years by the element
she had purified
It seems she denied to the end
the source of the cataracts on her eyes
the cracked and suppurating skin of her finger-ends
till she could no longer hold a test-tube or a pencil

She died a famous woman denying
her wounds
denying
her wounds came from the same source as her power

1974

35dchaikin
apr 26, 2012, 11:58 pm

Very interesting, what you had to say about Maas and sixties advertising culture/lack-of-feminism. The Rich poem is beautiful. Enid Shomer touches on Marie Curie in the collection I just read This Close to the Earth with, if not the same intent, something vaguely parallel.

36baswood
apr 27, 2012, 4:39 am

Adrienne Rich - a superb poet, and it is great to see a poem of hers posted on your thread.

37avaland
apr 27, 2012, 7:21 am

>35 dchaikin: Interesting about another Marie Curie poem! I am still two collections behind in my comments...
>36 baswood: Yes, indeedy.

38avaland
maj 6, 2012, 9:54 am



ICEFIELDS by Thomas Wharton (1995, Canadian)

Icefields is a beautiful book—a beautifully written book—a literary expedition into the wondrous and the mysterious: the glassy Arcturus Glacier and the human soul.

The book begins in 1898,. The English medical doctor Edward Byrne, part of an expedition exploring the icefields, falls into a chasm and is pinned upside down. As he edges near unconsciousness he sees something in the blue ice that will forever connect him to this mountain and glacier in the Canadian Rockies of Alberta (near Jasper). Edward is rescued by the other expedition members and is brought to the cabin of the dark-skinned Sara, a “woman with stories,” to recover.

Edward is quiet and thoughtful, a man of science. His medical training provides him with the means to support himself on the frontier, while he pursues his other interests. The story follows Edward’s life while it also paints a rich portrait of the wider landscape: the settlements of the area and the interesting characters who populate it—all of which Edward is a part of.

This is an immensely satisfying story. There is an intense sense of place and Edward is the everyman connecting us to it. There is also something dreamlike, ethereal, or spiritual about it, both in tale and tone. The descriptions of the icefields have a kind of reverence or wonderment in them, and there is a great sense of history, both tangible and intangible, perhaps best expressed in the book’s epigraph: “As if everything in the world is the history of ice.” (Michael Ondaatje in Coming Through the Slaughter) But, I don’t mean to suggest the story floats off the pages, it’s wonderfully balanced, the ethereal tethered to the leathery stories of fur-trading, frontier subsistence, immerging settlements, “iron horses,” and World War I.

Above the dark slope of the valley rose the mountains. Byrne raised a hand to shade his eyes, grown accustomed to the cabin’s cave-like gloom, against their painful brilliance. For a moment he could not believe in these hard, unfathomable masses of rock. They seemed to hang suspended in the sky. A quick, cold breath might shatter them like an illusion of ice crystals and light.

Squinting, he picked out the crevasses and icefalls of Arcturus glacier. From this distance they seemed only delicate, spidery wrinkles in pale blue silk. Above them gleamed the white rim of the névé, where the glacier spilled from a gap between the flanking peaks. A slender curve of burning snow.


I chased down this book after I read Wharton’s The Logograph in 2006. I started it back then but set it aside after a few chapters, perhaps it was not the right book for the moment, or perhaps I was distracted by something else. Icefields is a very different kind of book than The Logogryph, but equally enjoyable. I’m sorry it took so long for me to get back to it.

39RidgewayGirl
maj 6, 2012, 10:19 am

I'm so glad you enjoyed Icefields. I liked it so much that I'm a little nervous every time someone else reads it.

40rebeccanyc
maj 6, 2012, 11:12 am

Sounds like something I would like, with my interest in polar exploration. Thanks, Lois.

41avaland
maj 6, 2012, 1:46 pm



Hit Lit: Cracking the Code of the Twentieth Century’s Biggest Bestsellers by James W. Hall. (2012, US, literary criticism)

In this book, Hall takes 12 American “mega-bestsellers” and, in a very accessible manner, identifies and discusses 12 features they have in common. He first discusses his choice of books, provides both a short and long synopsis of each (longer version in the back of the book), before beginning the discussion of the commonalities.

He took most of his 12 book choices from a list of top ten bestselling novels in the US from 1895 – 1975 as established by Alice Payne Hackett in her book 80 Years of Best Sellers but jettisoned a few as “mushy” or redundant, and added four more. Before naming his choices, he discusses factors such as the gender of the actor, out-of-print status, first novels, and, yes, Oprah.

So, bearing in mind his methods, here are his chosen 12:

Gone With the Wind, Margaret Mitchell (1936)
Peyton Place, Grace Metalious (1956)
To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee (1960)
Valley of the Dolls, Jacqueline Susann (1966)
The Godfather, Mario Puzo (1969)
The Exorcist, William Peter Blatty (1971)
Jaws, Peter Benchley (1974)
The Dead Zone, Stephen King (1979)
The Hunt for Red October, Tom Clancy (1984)
The Firm, John Grisham (1991)
The Bridges of Madison County, Robert James Waller (1992)
The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown (2003)

And the features:
1. Entertaining. There’s an interesting discussion of what ‘entertaining’ meants – a ‘shared connection with the character’s emotional journey, ‘ a certain element of danger or suspense, a stream-lining of narrative, and yes, the stories are movie-friendly.
2. Hot button issues. It must express some “larger, deep-seated, and unresolved conflict in the national consciousness.” Now you might wonder how a book like The Exorcist handles that, but Hall argues that The Exorcist plays out the glass between “traditional religious faith and the rising tide of secular humanism,” Eastern religious thought, and all manner of religious “kooks.”
3. “The Big Picture” Small stories set against sweeping backdrops. Characters, who are embodiments of their era, and who struggle against expansive historical or social stages.
4. Presents America-as-paradise/a new Eden/the Golden Country. It’s often a blend of place and time, some natural location, or secret idyll – “It’s a nostalgic, wistful zone, a faraway Shangri-la that pulses at the core of bestsellers.
5. They contain an abundance of facts and information (apparently we all love to learn)
6. “All twelve of these bestsellers expose the inner workings of at least one secret society.”
7. A journey motif, often in one direction or another between the countryside and the city.
8. All feature religion in some way.
9. All feature reenactments of our American myths/dream or, conversely, the ‘flip side of these stories.”
10. “The heroes or heroines of our twelve bestsellers are all rebels, loners, misfits, or mavericks.”
11. On some level these stories are all struggling with family issues. “And no matter whether the novel is populated by submarines or sharks or mobsters or southern belles, the real focus is on healing the fractures, overcoming the loss, finding a way forward through family tragedies.
12. All contain “juicy parts.” One key sexual encounter plays a “decisive role in the outcome of the plot and in the transformation of the protagonist.”

Much of what Hall is writing of has been worked out in his “Popular Fiction” classes over the years. And certainly the premise makes for interesting discussion. Hall, to his credit, to has made his thesis more accessible and digestible to a larger audience, has kept his discussions fairly free from academic jargon, and has kept discussions as succinct as one can get away with and still make the point. While I didn’t get the sense that each of the 12 stories were discussed under each of the 12 features, the discussion is still fairly dizzying as one continuously moves back and forth between books.

To be honest, I haven’t read most of these books (I’ve seen most as movies), but I don’t think it’s necessary to have read them to enjoy this book. While generally I agree with most of these commonalities, the application of a few of them to some of the stories seemed a bit of a stretch. But, generally, popular literature, so often dismissed in literary circles, critiqued in this way can be pretty interesting. All in all, it's a little taste for everyone, of what turns on some of us English majors. Be careful how much you inhale:-)

42avaland
Redigeret: maj 6, 2012, 1:54 pm

>39 RidgewayGirl: Yes, I saw your review and it is nice to come across someone who 'gets' a book in the way I do. Sometimes, I am completely puzzled by some LT reviews. I guess it's all about what one brings to a book )or not...)

>40 rebeccanyc: It's fictional, of course, Mr. Byrne is not a real historical explorer, but there's something fundamental in this story...

43SassyLassy
Redigeret: maj 6, 2012, 1:52 pm

Great review of Icefields. It's so satisfying to pick up a book you had earlier set aside and find that it is now exactly what you want to read.

I flew over the seemingly endless ice fields of Greenland last month on a beautiful sunny day and it was a wonderful demonstration of the epigraph you quote; "As if everything in the world is the history of ice".

Edited to add title as 41 and 42 popped in as I was writing

44avaland
maj 6, 2012, 2:05 pm



Rather than attempt to 'review' this collection of poetry, when I seem to be still uncovering the treasures within, I thought I would just post an excerpt of a poem that recently spoke to me. Sometimes one is struck with a deep, overarching philosophical idea in poetry, othertimes, it's blatantly personal. This poem does the latter.

POST-PASTORAL

Look, I said to myself, go sit in the woods
until something happens. Your childhood forest,
that old Eden, could be a library you've taken

for granted and forsaken. The outdoors, to me,
had always been backcloth, a given, but that day
I determined to be a novice, to read

the remaindered world as if it were the World Book.
Go rusticate, I said, the brown itch of dead
leaves is nothing to sneeze at, nor the ingenious

design of acorn caps, nor the rough bark
of scrub pine at your back. So I walked in
and made my appointment to be a student

of those trees, of the red ant nesting in mulch
and debris, and the pale waxy Indian pipe,
a phantom the Wampanoag call "ghost plant."

...

An excerpt from "Post-Pastoral" in Figures in a Landscape by Gail Mazur (2011, US, Univ. of Chicago Press)

45avaland
maj 6, 2012, 2:09 pm

>42 avaland: True! I might have written something different just after I finished, but after sitting on the book awhile I realized that it isn't so much the plot that stayed with me as the fundamental, sometimes spiritual, human/nature connection. (you can send me your address now and I'll send it off)

I have almost caught up (it helps to have been in a bit of a reading funk). I have the AL Day collection still to write about, but now have to find the book.

46avaland
Redigeret: maj 6, 2012, 6:15 pm



Port Vila Blues by Garry Disher (2012 US publication, 1995? Australia)

Disher turns the standard crime novel on its head with this series. It follows a clever thief named Wyatt as he works the shadowy world of crime. Wyatt is the perfect anti-hero. He's a criminal, he'll steal certainly and will kill if he has to, but otherwise we the readers admire his skill and cleverness, and make note of his strange loyalties and vulnerabilities. Instead of being the character you love to hate, he's the character you hate to love.

In this tale, Wyatt gets a job to break into the home of a politician on the take, one with a load of cash in her safe. Wyatt does the job beautifully (it's really hard not to admire such caution, organization and efficiency) and nabs a beautiful Tiffany butterfly brooch from the safe as a bonus. He learns when he tries to fence brooch that it is already stolen goods and before long some very powerful men are looking for him. It all gets quite complicated. There's a reasonably high body count but, damn, you can't help yourself but root for Wyatt to come out okay....

This is certainly not my usual literary crime fare, but it's difficult not to get drawn into this story, seduced by the job details, and pulled along by the slowly increasing suspense. In Wyatt's world it's hard to tell who the bad guys really are. Wyatt as a character is crafted well, a Disher trademark, and the story is well done. All in all, it made for an enjoyable few hours of reading. Note: I believe this is the 2nd in the Wyatt series.

47DieFledermaus
maj 6, 2012, 6:27 pm

That's a very interesting review of Hit Lit: Cracking the Code of the Twentieth Century’s Biggest Bestsellers. You mention a bit about how he chose the books to analyze - did it seem like he was cherry-picking books that fit his overall criteria?

Also, those are all books that are still well-known today. Does Hall go into the effect that the film versions had on the continued popularity of the books?

48Linda92007
maj 6, 2012, 7:18 pm

Excellent review of Icefields. Definitely one for the wish list. The Logogryph also looks intriguing.

49baswood
maj 7, 2012, 7:23 am

Some great writing about the books you have read avaland. I love the excerpt from the poem by Gail Mazur. ICEFIELDS sounds pretty cool too.

50avaland
Redigeret: maj 7, 2012, 7:50 am

>47 DieFledermaus: Yes, he does cherry pick to some extent, but is up front about it, and explains his reasons for choosing or not choosing books (for example, he didn't choose any Oprah titles). He does talk about the books being movie-friendly and the obvious fact that all have been adapted into movies or television. I'm sure he must have mentioned the point you make at that time.

And to give an example of #9 feature regarding American myths. We love a good 'rags to riches' story, but apparently we also love a good riches to rags story...

>48 Linda92007: The Logogryph is a collection of very imaginative stories that I enjoyed very much. I remember one story about some explorers discovering the library of Atlantis...

>49 baswood: Thank you. Yes, that poem is lovely, isn't it?

51dchaikin
maj 7, 2012, 9:24 am

Lots of new goodies here. I've had Logogryph on my wishlist for awhile with the comment "from avaland ages ago...maybe 2006?" I'll add Icefields too. I had two thoughts while reading the list in Hit List. One is that I kept thinking I was finding exceptions, which may just be because I hadn't thought of a book that way. The other was that some things on the list seemed to be fundamental to all literature, or at least all American literature.

11. On some level these stories are all struggling with family issues. -- on one hand, any book with characters can be described that way—but then it seemed like The Hunt for Red October was something of an exception—but then I don't remember the book or movie that well and probably have the two confused anyway.

52dchaikin
Redigeret: maj 7, 2012, 9:25 am

Oh, Icefields is already on my wishlist...(with a comment citing & quoting RidgewayGirl)

53avaland
maj 7, 2012, 9:52 am

>51 dchaikin: One of the attractions of the book is that one just has a difficult time imagining 12 things that these books might have in common. Every time he introduces another 'feature,' you think to yourself, "well, yeah, but what about this other book" And, yes, I know what you mean by the fundamentals. Many of these features can be applied to other "classics"

With regards to 'families' - I think he uses the term loosely so as to include makeshift families, such as the crew on a submarine. There was a discussion of the Clancy, perhaps a quote (?) about how they functioned as a makeshift family (just checked, yes a quote referring to the crew of the Dallas). Hall also mentioned that Clancy gives both Captains families which loosely represent their countries...

I also think that the mega-bestsellers that have been JUV or YA; such as, Harry Potter, the Twilight saga or the Hunger Games don't fit these categories quite as well, though the Hunger Games certainly makes for interesting comparison.

54dchaikin
maj 7, 2012, 10:07 am

Reading the first in Hunger Games now. 100 pages in I can easily see 10 of 12, could push for 12-of-12 with some more creative interpretation.

55kidzdoc
maj 7, 2012, 11:24 am

Loved your reviews of Icefields and Hit List along with the poem from Figures in a Landscape. Icefields is now added to my wish list.

56avaland
maj 8, 2012, 4:58 pm

>thanks, Darryl.

57The_Hibernator
maj 14, 2012, 9:57 am

Doesn't look like I've read ANY of your 2012 books. But I'll keep an eye on your reviews to see if anything catches my fancy. :)

58avaland
maj 14, 2012, 12:57 pm

>57 The_Hibernator: If I were to recommend one of the books I've read this year, based solely on what you've read this year, I would recommend Pure to you.

59The_Hibernator
maj 14, 2012, 1:02 pm

>58 avaland: Hmmm, that looks interesting. I'll have to check it out. Thanks!

60Jargoneer
maj 16, 2012, 12:02 pm

Hall's 12 "features" sounds like a reverse engineering of those books that purport to tell people how to write a best seller.

>33 avaland: - it's interesting that when Mad Men is dicussed in terms of sexual politics the deepest it seems to get is - look at Joan, reminds you of when women had real curves.

61avaland
maj 16, 2012, 1:21 pm

>60 Jargoneer: re: Hit Lit, yes, I suppose it is. He calls it literary criticism, but it's lightweight for lit crit (but then again perhaps he is keeping it as accessible as the bestsellers he writes about).

re: Do you watch Mad Men? It's, of course, a soap opera of a kind. It has a similar structure to Downton Abbey in that it follows a group of people brought together under one roof (one might be even tempted to call a corporation America's castles...) during a time of huge social changes. Both are very well-acted, with fabulous costumes, but unlike Downton, MM is a more 'serious' drama, staying away from melodrama (imo), and is not terribly predictable. It's also doing some lovely artsy things with the themes that run through each episode (i.e. reoccurring motifs...etc).

62Jargoneer
Redigeret: maj 17, 2012, 5:30 am

>61 avaland: - I do watch Mad Men (or did, to be more precise, it has moved from the BBC to PayTV). Watching it has similarities to the reading a good novel - everything is not spelled out, the viewer has to work at understanding fully what is going on. Much as I enjoy Downtown Abbey MM is on another level - half the fun of DA is the sheer OTT aspects of it. (The new Upstairs, Downstairs is just as OTT but only manages to be turgid. The new BBC Sherlock Holmes however is great fun).

About your urge to pick up another JCO - did you hear her in-depth interview on CBC Writers & Company (http://www.cbc.ca/writersandcompany/episode/2012/04/29/joyce-carol-oates-interview/)

63detailmuse
maj 17, 2012, 8:58 am

Terrific review of Hit Lit, nearly a stand-in for reading the book though I think I still will!

Do you read any of the online recaps of Mad Men episodes? I've found by far the best to be Tom and Lorenzo, who do a Monday plot analysis and a Wednesday style analysis (the link goes to posts tagged "Mad Men"; their main blog is fashion critique).

64pamelad
Redigeret: maj 17, 2012, 6:24 pm

Lois, glad you also liked Disher's Wyatt novel, even though it feels odd to sympathise with a criminal .

Enticing review of Icefields. I've put it on my inter library loan wishlist.

Barry Maitland might interest you, too. He writes police procedurals featuring Brock and Kolla. He's based in Australia these days, but comes from England, where most of his books are set.

65avaland
Redigeret: maj 18, 2012, 8:36 am

>62 Jargoneer: Agreed that MM is on another level. Not sure I have enjoyed the two latest Sherlocks as much as the first three. The first has him unnerved by lust/love? the second by fear? The jury is still out. Oh, I will have to listen to the interview when I get a spare minute...

>63 detailmuse: I don't read any online recaps, though I did catch a discussion on Slate.com recently that had some interesting bits (oh, this could be another great time suck, eh?) It's a show that lends itself well to discussion. The last show that did this for dukedom & I was the early seasons of the new Battlestar Galactica. Latest MM question for me is: Don seems to have lost his creative edge. Is this because he's now happily (?) married and monogamous? (are we supposed to infer that his rampant libido is the source of his creative energy?) OR, is he becoming a dinosaur? Times they are a-changin' and Donnie boy isn't hip anymore.

Yes, do read Hit Lit. There's more in there than I wrote. I find it much more difficult to summarize and write reviews of nonfiction.

>64 pamelad: Thanks, Pam. I was just thinking that I might need to find a new crime series... I think I only follow a half dozen or so now ...

66avaland
Redigeret: maj 22, 2012, 8:24 am



Now That You’re Back by A. L. Kennedy (short fiction collection, 1994, Scottish)

This is a collection of thirteen stories ranging from the creepy to the odd, from offbeat to funny. This is the first Kennedy title I’ve read (so highly praised by citizenkelly during my early days of LT) and I enjoyed it. She is a clever writer with a beguilingly odd, but astute view of life. Some of my favorite stories include:

--- “Perfect Possession” takes the reader subtly into the creepy as we hear from what we first think are loving, protective parents.
---A young man has an uncanny reunion with an elementary school chum in “Christine.”
---There’s some unconventional, casual sex in “Failing to Fall.”
---”Bracing Up” tells us the back story behind a puppeteer who shaves his entire body and loves the feeling of being confined in his puppet show box..
---”The Mouseboks Family Dictionary” is a funny, weird family story told in dictionary entries. Cleverly done.
---”Mixing With the Folks Back Home,” is probably my favorite of the thirteen. Delivered in a rural, folksy voice, a mother explains to her daughter why her father couldn’t be her biological father. She tells the story of Taylor Whitman, a man who was allergic to her skin, and the indispensible family friend, Bob Coons, who seems to be in town about the same time when various townspeople start showing up dead.

Seems I started one of her novels once, but I shall have to try again.

67auntmarge64
Redigeret: maj 22, 2012, 7:57 am

I loved Icefields too. Gorgeous writing. And, of course, there's all that ice, which I love to read about.

68Linda92007
Redigeret: maj 22, 2012, 8:10 am

Nice review of Now That You're Back, Lois. A. L. Kennedy seems to be an author who gets mixed reactions, but looks interesting. I think I may give her a try.

By the way, I thought of you when the schedule came out for the NYS Summer Writers Institute, held at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs. Joyce Carol Oates seems to be there every summer and this year has an evening reading slot to herself. Every other one (except William Kennedy, who was the Institute's founder) features two authors, so I'm hoping this means it will be more of a talk, not just a reading. I haven't read her in years and have a few of her books on the TBR pile. If the stars align with scheduling, I hope to attend.

A few moments later: Oh no. I just looked at my calendar and realized I will be out of town on vacation that week, so I will miss her talk.

69avaland
Redigeret: maj 22, 2012, 8:16 am



Some Kind of Fairy Tale by Graham Joyce (2012, UK)

Twenty years ago, 16 year old Tara Martin, after a fight with her boyfriend, disappeared in the “Outwoods.” As one would expect—and we all have seen this same kind of story on the news, haven’t we?—searches were made; her boyfriend repeatedly questioned, scant evidence analyzed, but Tara was never found and the family gave up hope.

Now, twenty years later, on Christmas Day, a dishevlled, young woman calling herself Tara appears at her parent’s door. She is definitely Tara, but something is not quite right, she certainly doesn’t look like a now 30-something year old woman. When she does finally talk, it is to her brother that she tells an unbelievable story that might be “magical or delusional.”

What would you do if you were in her family’s place? Question her at length, argue among themselves, take her for medical and dental tests, and yes, and take her to a psychiatrist. And so they do. And what about Richie, the musician boyfriend, who, despite a lack of evidence, has been blamed for her disappearance—how will he react?

Graham Joyce has a wonderfully comfortable storytelling voice and with it he tells the story of Tara’s reappearance, what happened twenty years before, and what happened after. Joyce places his readers firmly in the world we know—solid ground—before slipping us into another world entirely. What drives this story is its fascinating mystery: is Tara delusional or not? And like any good mystery, the evidence is gathered and weighed, much to our delight. Ultimately though, this is an irresistable story of enchantment and familial love.

-------------------
I've read nearly all of Graham Joyce's work and I've always thought it underappreciated. He has often straddled the space between 'mainstream' fiction and fantasy, and his books have been marketed either in one genre or the other, but never quite belonging to either. And I think he has suffered for it over the years. However, I think we are at a place where the lines between mainstream and fantasy has blurred enough that he might finally get the attention he deserves.

70avaland
Redigeret: maj 22, 2012, 8:24 am

>67 auntmarge64: Lots of ice books around, aren't there? I'll get back to the Claire Dudman eventually. The tone of the book is somewhat wistful (?) and it's hard to read in bed at night because of that (it sort of lulls me to sleep).

>68 Linda92007: re: Kennedy. She has a dry tone to her voice in this collection that I think that some might find unappealing.

re: JCO. oooo, I might have to look into that, it could be worth the drive (about 3 1/2 hours one way). Thank you for mentioning it.

71Linda92007
maj 22, 2012, 8:34 am

You could make a mini-vacation of it, Lois. Saratoga is a fun place to visit in the summer. The NYC Ballet is at SPAC (Saratoga Performing Arts Center) that week and it is before the race track opens, which is when it gets really crazy. And one of my favorites, Russell Banks, is on the schedule for the day before JCO. But at least I've heard him speak before.

72avaland
Redigeret: maj 24, 2012, 11:03 am



Children in Reindeer Woods by Kristín Ómarsdóttir (T. 2012, Iceland)

Set in what seems to be the contemporary, Children in Reindeer Woods captures your attention from the very beginning. In an idyllic and isolated rural area of an unknown country, there is a small farm called Reindeer Woods that houses a few urban children during the summer. It is also in a war zone. In a few short riveting pages, several soldiers arrive and kill the residents, before one soldier shoots the others and buries all the bodies. Eleven-year-old Billie, hiding under the bushes, witnesses enough activity to know what is going on, and she become the lone survivor. It is the uncertainty of her fate, and the strange relationship between her and the solitary soldier (who has decided he would rather take up farming than soldiering) that propels the reader through this fascinating book. The narration provides a lot of the story from Billie's viewpoint, though it's not strictly told in her voice. While the soldier goes about 'settling in" to the farm, Billie is compelled to help. She is frightened, but strangely compliant and curious, sometimes even bold, as she adjusts to her new situation.

The book drifts into the surreal from time to time, but it's almost to be expected in the odd situation that Billie finds herself in. There's a puppet motif that runs through the book (which you can also see echoed in the book's cover art). We see this most obviously in Billie's insistence that her father is a puppet controlled by creatures from outer space (as best I can tell her father is a lawyer or possibly a politician), but also in her playing with her various Barbie dolls, and it doesn't seem a stretch to add 'soldiering' to the puppet list, for are not solders merely puppets in a war? The motif is presented in small ways also, in certain 'hanging' imagery: a paratrooper, a hung chicken, Billie getting hung up by her belt on the roof's edge when she tried to slide off the roof.

All which makes Children in Reindeer Woods a compelling, intriguing story of—as the book's description states—the "absurdies of war." The ending is somewhat open-ended, in what I often think is European fashion. It leaves one a little lost, without definitive conclusions, which, in this case, seems poignantly appropriate. An excellent book.

The beginning of Children in Reindeer Woods can be read in Issue 17 of Belletrista HERE

In the same issue is a wonderful review by labsf39 (much better than my early morning ramblings...though I rated the book more highly than she)

73avaland
maj 22, 2012, 9:24 am

>71 Linda92007: Very tempting, but I fear my summer is already pulling me in many directions...

74avaland
maj 22, 2012, 10:11 am



Memoirs of a Porcupine by Alain Mabanckou (T 2012, Congo-Brazzaville)

In an African legend told originally to the author by his mother, human beings all have an animal double. Most are peaceful doubles, but some are not. This is the story of one animal double of the latter kind.

The porcupine of the book's title, has strangely outlived his human master (for legend has it that the double dies when the human does) and is retelling his story to an extraordinarily passive baobab tree. He rambles a bit, but recounts how his master, Kibandi, then a young boy of 11, is brought out into the night by his father and forced to drink mayamvumbi in an initiation that would unite him with himself, his harmful double. Porcupine (whose name is not revealed until the end) continues the story, describing how the boy grows up and how the man morally deteriorates and begins to have his porcupine double kill for him (his quills are deadly). Murder is referred to in the book as "eating" another. Eventually, his master is essentially 'eaten,' consumed by his own depravity and dies.

It took me a bit to get into this story, which made me think of those early exercises in writing from the perspective of something other than human (a chair, a turtle...whatever). But once settled in, I found the porcupine a well-rounded little character: smart, articulate, and perceptive, and this rather elaborate fable engaging.

I read this author's book, African Psycho late last year.

75SassyLassy
maj 22, 2012, 11:01 am

Please do try A L Kennedy again. Your description of her "beguilingly odd, but astute view of life" sums up her writing so well. You might like So I Am Glad, a novel about a woman and the reincarnation of Cyrano de Bergerac. Some of her other novels veer toward the creepy, some toward the odd, as you noted with the short stories. All deal with the outsider.

I had just reread some of the stories from Now that you're back during the short story challenge and am now tempted to reread some of her longer books.

76avaland
maj 22, 2012, 11:04 am

>75 SassyLassy: I'm sure I will. I do have some of her books around the house, collected as I found them in library sales...etc.

77StevenTX
maj 22, 2012, 11:07 am

Ditto to what SassyLassy said based on my experience reading Everything You Need. It's one of those novels that keeps coming back to mind years after I read it. I've been meaning to read more by Kennedy but just haven't gotten to it yet.

78detailmuse
maj 22, 2012, 1:04 pm

>69 avaland: I enjoyed The Silent Land last year and have been looking forward to getting to another; Some Kind of Fairy Tale sounds intriguing and maybe surprising like The Silent Land.

btw while looking at his author page, I noticed there’s now (since September, it seems) a separate page of Rating statistics which contains quite a chart of comparison data.

79dchaikin
maj 22, 2012, 1:40 pm

oooh, lots of new reviews. For some reason you've intrigued me most with Some Kind of Fairy Tale. Enjoyed these.

80baswood
maj 22, 2012, 2:26 pm

Some excellent reviews and I will join in the chorus that recommends you read more A L Kennedy.

81avaland
Redigeret: maj 22, 2012, 2:30 pm

>77 StevenTX: Good to know!
>78 detailmuse: His work has perhaps taken a little turn with The Silent Land and this new novel in that they both have an element of mystery to the narrative. I don't remember the others having this, though it's been years since I've some read them (so many books ago!).
>79 dchaikin: An easy, satisfying read. Some days I wouldn't ask for anything more.
>78 detailmuse: I'll add your recommendation to the list!

82janeajones
maj 22, 2012, 3:35 pm

Enticing reviews, Lois -- I want to read all of them!

83labfs39
maj 22, 2012, 4:07 pm

Thanks for the mention, Lois. Children in Reindeer Woods is a book that intrigues and mystifies. The more I read about the author, Kristín Ómarsdóttir, the more I think this is her modus operandi. Definitely not boring!

84avaland
Redigeret: maj 22, 2012, 4:15 pm

>83 labfs39: Lisa, I would definitely like to read more of her stuff. Herta Muller came to mind while I was reading it, but I can't really tell you why!

>82 janeajones: They were all good or great reads, though very different. Hmm. I wonder if these last few books are any reflection on the state of my brain lately. I fear so. :-)

85labfs39
maj 22, 2012, 4:17 pm

She seems very talented in many artistic/literary fields. I've been trying to see photos of her visual art pieces, but haven't been successful. According to Words without Borders, she has some new books due out in English translation:

Kristín Ómarsdóttir (1962) lives and works in Reykjavik, Iceland. Kristín writes poetry, novels, short stories, and plays and works in the field of visual arts. She has published five novels, three books of short stories, and seven books of poetry, and a number of her plays have been staged. She has been nominated for several prizes, among them the Nordic Council Literary Prize in 1999 for the novel Elskan mín ég dey (I’ll die my Love). She received the Icelandic drama award Gríman, the DV Literature prize, and the Icelandic female literature prize. In late 2011 her novel Hér (Here) will be published in the US. Her new novel, Milla, will be published in April 2012.

As far as I can tell, those works haven't appeared yet. Do you know if they will be published through Open Letter?

It does appear that one of her poems, "Closed Bridal Night", is available in the anthology, New European Poets by Wayne Miller and Kevin Prufer.

86avaland
maj 22, 2012, 4:44 pm

I attended recent exhibit of works by members of the New York Capitol District chapter of the Embroiders' Guild of America last week. "Stitches in Time" was appropriately held at the Pruyn House, an historic home built during the early part of the 19th century. The house was filled with all manner of exquisite fine stitchery from many hands, including works by LT's MaggieO and Aulsmith. It was gratifying to see that the guild was keeping this kind of skilled hand stitchery alive and well in the computer age (when machine embroidery is also all the rage).

I offer one photo, showing two works by MaggieO, the blossoming tree (an original design) on the left, and "Thomas Hardy's Cottage" on the right, which she did based on a photo taken on her honeymoon years ago. (generally one could not take photos without permission of the creator, but since MaggieO was giving me a little tour...)

A thumbnail, click if you wish to enlarge:



87avaland
Redigeret: maj 22, 2012, 4:57 pm

>85 labfs39: Another tempting reason for me to go back to iceland! And I know just the bookstore that can help me out:-) I'll inquire of Chad at Open Letter...(eta: have inquired and will wait for his response. I imagine him quite busy)

88rebeccanyc
maj 22, 2012, 6:19 pm

Thanks for all the reviews! Strangely enough, I bought Memoirs of a Porcupine when I was in Boston this past weekend without knowing you had it/had read it. Kennedy sounds intriguing too. And, as you know, I'm planning to read Children in Reindeer Woods soon, and my copy of Icefields recently arrived. Now, I just have to find time to read them all!

89edwinbcn
maj 22, 2012, 7:37 pm

Thanks for your review of Now That You’re Back. Published in 1994, it may be one of her earlier works, and if as you said it is offbeat to funny it may actually be a bit more readable than the later work I've read. Not to say that I didn't like the later work, but it was difficult. I will be interested to have a look at Now That You’re Back.

90bragan
maj 22, 2012, 10:37 pm

Some really intriguing reviews here! I have the feeling a few of these are going to end up on my wishlist.

91avaland
maj 23, 2012, 7:13 am

>89 edwinbcn: Well, the only story in the collection I thought outright 'funny' would be the Mousebek's Family Dictionary.

>88 rebeccanyc: I did think of you while reading it, wondering whether you'd like it or not. There isn't all that much literature coming out of the Congo, so it's worth a read for that reason alone. And it's oral tradition put to paper, of course—with the author's twist.

>90 bragan: Thanks, Bragan.

92rebeccanyc
maj 23, 2012, 8:58 am

#91 I hadn't seen it yet in New York, which was one of the reasons I bought it in Boston. Other than Life and a Half by Sony Lab'Ou Tansi, I haven't read anything else from the Congo, but I have read African books that involve or refer to the oral tradition, such as Ngugi's Matigari which tells the same story in various ways over the course of the book.

93Jargoneer
maj 23, 2012, 12:48 pm

Despite her reputation for seriousness etc A. L. Kennedy decided to become a stand-up comedian a few years ago. She kept appearing on Radio Scotland programs as the 'funny' guest - the only problem was that she wasn't particularly funny. I went to see her in the Festival a couple of years ago, when she was doing a show based on her early life - it was really well constructed and performed (she did drama at uni) but again wasn't that funny.
Perhaps under the skin of every serious novelist there lurks a would-be comedian.

94avaland
maj 23, 2012, 3:14 pm

>85 labfs39: Lisa, Chad at Open Letter tells me that Milla is just published in Iceland, and Hér (Here) is the original title for Children in Reindeer Woods.

>92 rebeccanyc: I think I only hesitated because the entire story is told by the porcupine and I wasn't sure what your fabulist limits were:-) I like that we cross back and forth with each other in our African reading (and seems we have for YEARS now! btw, I've now picked up On Black Sisters' Street which was highly praised by rachbxl in Belletrista. Set in Belgium but of the African diaspora, and strangely published in the US by Ohio University Press.)

>93 Jargoneer: Interesting. Perhaps not your type of funny? I have never found Seinfeld funny... I don't know if your theory is correct, I suspect not. However, I used to dream of booking the Irish author John Connolly and American author Julia Spencer-Fleming together because they both are side-splitting hilarious. Unfortunately, despite having both of them come every year, we could never coordinate book releases or appearance dates (actually, you know, China Miéville is pretty funny too).

95avaland
maj 24, 2012, 11:09 am

We've seen a couple of good movies on DVD in the last few weeks:



"Tetro," an Argentinian film, written & directed by Francis Ford Coppola, is about the reunion of two brothers, and the volatile family history it unleashes. The family is Italian, highly artistic. I guess it's sort of noir, as it seems much is in black and white.



"Wit" starring Emma Thompson. Apparently this was also a play. It's about a Donne scholar who has stage 4 ovarian cancer. The story follows her from her diagnosis to her death. It's about suffering, and about what is important at the end of one's life. Thompson speaks directly to the camera through much of it, and there is quite a bit of John Donne quoted. Brilliantly acted, very compelling, mesmerizing at times, but also very difficult to watch.

96DieFledermaus
maj 24, 2012, 3:08 pm

Another nice set of reviews. I picked up a copy of Children in Reindeer Woods but will try to read it later - have been neglecting the back pile in favor of more recent reads lately.

I remember being interested in Graham Joyce awhile back but then he fell off my radar. What would you recommend as a good place to start with him?

Memoirs of a Porcupine sounds intriguing as well.

97avaland
maj 24, 2012, 5:36 pm

>96 DieFledermaus: Well, this latest one (due out in July the review copy says) is probably as good a place as any.

I just saw this on his blog:

Meanwhile there have been promising noises from the film world. Focus Features attached Oscar-winning director James Marsh to direct The Silent Land. I can tell you I'm very happy with that. You never know if a film project will find its way into production, but if this one does then it will have a very fine director.

Secondly, my next book Some Kind Of Fairy Tale, which is scheduled for release this coming summer has also sold to Hollywood. Paul Lister, producer of The Men Who Stare At Goats has optioned the book and I had some fascinating conversations with Paul over the summer about how the book might be rendered as a movie.

98Mr.Durick
maj 24, 2012, 11:39 pm

Wit is available for a reasonable price from BN.COM so it is now on my audio visual wishlist; that one moves very slowly, though. IMDb says that it was a tv movie; does it show any signs of that in its production?

Robert

99avaland
maj 25, 2012, 6:59 am

>98 Mr.Durick: I would not have guessed that, Robert. It's a very intimate film, I think, which is why it is both so compelling and so difficult. It's set in the US.

100dukedom_enough
maj 25, 2012, 7:24 am

Wit uses a fairly limited number of sets, and not many extras, which would have saved money as TV productions often seek to do. But Emma Thompson provides as fine a performance as I've ever seen from her. One must get the details right.

101kidzdoc
maj 26, 2012, 5:47 pm

>74 avaland: I enjoyed Broken Glass and African Psycho by Mabanckou, so I'll add Memoirs of a Porcupine to my wish list.

102avaland
Redigeret: maj 31, 2012, 10:40 am



On Black Sisters Street by Chika Unigwe (2007, T from the Dutch 2009, Belgium/Nigeria)

There have been many contemporary books written to enlighten us as to why someone would chose to leave their country and immigrate, legally or illegally, to another country. I'm sure we all could name a few of these books, I could certainly, but On Black Sisters' Street tells me a story I have not heard before.

On Black Sisters' Street introduces us to Sisi, Efe, Ama and Joyce, four African women working as prostitutes Antwerp, Belgium. Alternating between the present, when the women are emotionally brought together by a traumatic event, and their individual pasts, this story is a searing one of dreams and desperations, hopes and tragedies. As Rachbxl says in her stellar reviewof the book, written for Belletrista last year: "...I would have assumed that I myself have nothing in common with a Nigerian prostitute; I can't say that any more because this book has challenged me to question the way I see things." I can't agree more.

The book is written in an easy prose style, sometimes using a vernacular—a Nigerian English—in dialog, which some may find challenging, but it's infrequent and lends authenticity to the story. There is a fairly clear picture of what the women's lives as prostitutes are like and how they navigate and survive such a life. The backstories of the women provide both a general sense of what life is really like for many in Nigeria, and, more specifically, these women. This is a sad and tragic story, certainly a riveting one. But beyond that one cannot help but admire these strong women who struggle to be the heroes of their own lives.

Note: Strangely, in the US, this book has been recently published in paperback by Ohio University Press with rather a bland cover (published by Viking in the UK), thankfully the price is more in accordance with other literary fiction.

103kidzdoc
maj 31, 2012, 3:43 pm

Nice and, for me, timely review of On Black Sisters Street, Lois. I am planning to attend the London Literature Festival next month, and Chika Unigwe is one of the featured speakers.

104baswood
maj 31, 2012, 4:25 pm

Excellent review of On Black Sisters street, which sounds like a book that one should read. I cannot imagine how difficult it must be to survive in an alien world as these black women do.

105avaland
maj 31, 2012, 7:11 pm

>103 kidzdoc: She has a new book coming out. Rachel is going to review it as soon as I can get her a copy.

>104 baswood: Thanks. Yes, we hear human traffiking stories on the news and this book really brought that into focus.

106dchaikin
jun 3, 2012, 10:14 am

Interesting that the original language is Dutch - which also makes me curious about whether the Nigerian-English was translated from a Nigerian-Dutch. Anyway, great review, and nice tie into Belletrista.

107avaland
jun 5, 2012, 5:22 pm

>106 dchaikin: The author has a PhD from universities in Belgium, I believe, so I suspect her dutch is very good. I think she lives not too far from our own rachbxl.

-----------------

I'm currently in NYC for Book Expo 2012. I have been going to this since my bookseller days, and I suspect this will be my last (bad knee that just doesn't hold up well in these circumstances.

For those unfamiliar, Book Expo is the national tradeshow for the book industry so there is everyone here from publishers, to various country's ministries of culture, to distributors, printers, and all manner of other industries book-related (some of it pretty nominal).

I go for Belletrista, to make contact with many of the publicists I work with via email. It's nice to see a face. I have brought them lovely dark chocolate as thank-yous, and they foist more books and catalogs on me.

Then, of course, most of the larger publishers are foisting certain titles on anyone that wants a copy. Most of these you will hear about as it is almost certain that their marketing will include the LT ER program.

There were more Canadian publishers here this year (I skipped the convention last year), which I was happy to see. One of the big US distributors picked up a few of them, so you should see more Canadian books in the US (without having to wait for a US publishers to publish the title).

There seemed to be less University presses represented, and small presses like Dalkey Archive and Small Beer are not here this year.

This year's Global Marketplace focus is on the Russian Book Market, so Russia has a large exhibit area. Unfortunately, 90% of it is in Russian. However, I caught part of an discussion about the Russian literary scene / book market that featured quite a few contemporary authors or book industry professionals, and an intepreter was on hand. I'll post some pictures after I upload them. The other countries represented are interesting but, as with Russia, most of their displays are in their native language (Saudia Arabia, Morocco, Mexico, Spain, Italy...to name a few).

The convention used to be just for booksellers, but over the years it's opened up (for a price, of course) to librarians, educators, bloggers, and even to the public (on the last day, I think).

108Linda92007
jun 5, 2012, 6:26 pm

The Book Expo sounds wonderful, Lois. I would be happy to let anyone foist their books upon me. I am particularly glad to hear about the potential availability of more Canadian published books, as I am often interested in Canadian literature, but waiting for US publication can be very frustrating.

Do you have a theory regarding the reduced attendance of University and small presses? It sounds worrisome.

109avaland
Redigeret: jun 5, 2012, 9:11 pm



Here's a photol of the Russian book market discussion mentioned earlier.

>108 Linda92007: The booklet says there are 20 university presses here, I probably saw 2/3rds of them. Still, it seems that some are not here. It would be money, of course...one would have to weigh the cost against the benefit.

110avaland
Redigeret: jun 5, 2012, 9:15 pm

Best NYC photo thus far...(so we thought this electrician working suspended above the Superman sign was intriguing)

111avaland
jun 5, 2012, 9:18 pm

Obviously, these aren't your ordinary tourist photos. We're staying in the Little Korea section of town.

112dukedom_enough
jun 6, 2012, 8:44 am

Good to see you're having fun! Wish I could have been there.

113avaland
jun 7, 2012, 7:57 am

Best picture from yesterday:



One of the decomissioned space shuttles being lifted from a barge to the flight deck of the WWII aircraft carrier Intrepid (now a museum in NYC), where it will be exhibited temporarily until more permanent quarters are built for it.

I'm done with Book Expo, having seen all the publishers on my rather longish list (at least those who were there), and having strolled around peeking at what others are offering for the fall...etc.

i have some thoughts on how the book industry is changing but I'll save them for the weekend when I am home and on a proper computer.

114dukedom_enough
jun 7, 2012, 8:31 am

To boldly go...

115rachbxl
Redigeret: jun 9, 2012, 7:57 am

Delighted to see you enjoyed On Black Sisters' Street. It's one I picked up completely by chance in a bookshop in central Brussels, and my hopes weren't particularly high but I was enthralled by the end of the first page. I found it no less good the second time I read it, for the Belletrista review.

>106 dchaikin: Dan, I can't say whether the original includes Nigerian-Dutch or not, but Unigwe herself is responsible for the English translation so I imagine it's particularly faithful.

She does indeed live not too far from me, in Turnhout in Flanders (northern Belgium). I think I read somewhere that she's the first non-native member of the local council (on top of PhD, writing novels, translating them, and being mother to 4 children - from things I've read on the internet she also seems to have quite a sense of humour. e.g. this piece on "How to be an African").

edited to make the link work!

116kidzdoc
Redigeret: jun 9, 2012, 8:12 am

>111 avaland: I never knew where Little Korea was in NYC until now. I had assumed that it was someplace in Queens! As it turns out I walked through the heart of it twice a day for several years, on my way from Penn Station to the lab I worked in at NYU Medical Center (on 1st Ave between 30-34th Sts) and back.

I look forward to your comments about BEA, and especially what books you picked up there.

ETA: BTW, I've decided to spend my upcoming two week break in San Francisco instead of London, so I won't go to the London Literature Festival after all.

117DieFledermaus
jun 11, 2012, 10:26 pm

I enjoyed reading about the Book Expo and will be interested to hear about your book haul and the state of publishing.

118avaland
jun 12, 2012, 10:11 am

>115 rachbxl: Oh, that's interesting! I'll look forward to her new book.

I'm hoping to get back to some routine, but there have been many distractions...more when I have some time...

119avaland
jun 14, 2012, 11:07 am

To finish up my NYC escapades...

I try to always make it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art when I am in NYC. Since my first visit decades ago when I attempted to see the entire museum in one visit (in vain, of course), I now go, chose several special exhibitions, and after I have done so, I then let myself wander.

I attended three small exhibitions this time around:

1. Bellini, Titian, and Lotto
North Italian Paintings from the Accademia Carrara, Bergamo

http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2012/accademia-carrara

Titian is known for his colors, but I really enjoyed getting a close-up look at some of Lotto's work. I liked this "Portrait of Lucina Brenbati, in particular (painted 1518-23)



2. I headed for a Rembrandt exhibition and though the special exhibition may have moved on, the room was full of Rembrandts, Franz Hals, Wallerant Vaillant and one painting of Rembrandy by Hendrickje Stoffels. What struck me was how detailed some of the portraits were, a few looked positively photographic. The detail around the eyes was stunning. Also the dimension given to the costume accessories. This link will take you to the page for Rembrandt's "Man in Oriental Costume (1632) where you can zoom in and look at the detail I'm talking about.

3. Contemporary Iranian Art from the Permanent Collection http://www.metmuseum.org/en/exhibitions/listings/2012/contemporary-iranian-art
This was another small exhibit with varied works, some quite striking. What wowed me was a piece done by Afruz Amigi in 2011 called "Still Garden" Here is a small photo of it:



120janeajones
jun 14, 2012, 11:09 am

Sounds like a great sojourn in the city, Lois.

121avaland
Redigeret: jun 14, 2012, 12:44 pm

re: Book Expo America.

I've been going to this convention since the late 90s, first as a bookseller, now as Belletrista's managing editor. I don't go every year, it's too expensive (meaning any trip to NYC is expensive) and too physically demanding.

If you aren't familiar with the convention, you can get an introduction from an article I wrote in 2010 for Belletrista. I won't (I hope) repeat all that here. Book Expo used to be for booksellers, but has, since I've been going, broadened to include librarians, bloggers, and apparently now, the public (on the last day). It's always been grand and glitzy marketing on a huge scale, with lots of celebrities and a fair number of book handouts (yes, freebies). As a bookseller/events/publicity person, I didn't mind so much being marketed to, but now I attend with a more skeptical attitude, and a more focused plan of attack. While I'm more than happy to look around (and yes, I do), I am looking for specific kinds of books, and am intent on touching base with a long list of publishers/publicists (if only for a few minutes). I sometimes get to a few of the staged events, but this time around the ones I wanted to attend (two with Russian authors) were scheduled at the end of the work day when I was no longer there. There's a lot of ongoing autographings, but I seldom stand in the long lines for the books mostly due to a bad arthritic knee (but also, after doing book events for nearly 10 years, I am generally immune to being starstruck with a few exceptions). However, for personal reasons I stood in three lines over the course of the week: Naomi Wolf, author of The Beauty Myth was signing Vagina: the New Biography, David Pogue was signing Switching to the Mac and Ann and Jeff Vandermeer were signing the large anthology called The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories which they edited. The last two titles were for the hubby (mostly), but I did thank Pogue for writing back when in middle school my son sent him an email. I told him my son was now 28 and a computer engineer.

There is no doubt that the internet now plays a tremendous role in how we learn about books and get recommendations. Once upon a time, and not so long ago, you might have received your recommendations from your local bookseller or librarian, or the NYTBR or another media source, but now it's just as likely you picked up your recommendation from a friend/acquaintance on some social networking site, or a blogger on the internet (or an online magazine like Belletrista!). Book Expo has naturally expanded to accommodate that. The power to market a book lies in many more hands now. This is not a bad thing, as we—as LT members—can all testify.

Also, book publishing has expanded greatly in a similar way with self and vanity publishing (you publish your book yourself through various printers or one of the many vanity 'publishers' offering to print it for you—many offer editing and other services— all for a price OR you create your own corporation and publish yourself under your own imprint)-- which is all to say that publishing is also in the hands of many more these days. That said, there seemed to be, pardon my language, a lot of crap being given out at the convention (and I'm not including the Downton Abbey pen that PBS gave me:-).

I'm pretty liberal, I think, when it comes to literature (the term used quite generally here) and my personal definition of 'crap'. I have read a broad range of stuff in my lifetime, and I think there is room for the all kinds of literature, from the educational to the purely entertaining, BUT in our time, EVERYONE has something to say and thinks they are an author, and they are encouraged to do so by the commercial machine that supports it. So here is where I stand up for publishers with a reputation behind them, who weed through the slush and publish select books (naturally, editors and publishers are often looking for different kinds of books).

OK, I'm getting off the soapbox now... (I see I have drifted...)

NOTE: I drifted, but one further thing about Book Expo. Russia put on a splendid display - with many Russian publishers, authors and other aficionados in the Russian World participating. Had I known ahead of time that their program was going to be so extensive, I would have reworked my plans. They had ongoing discussions and presentation, even refreshments. 90+% of their displays were in Russian but there was an area featuring Russian books in translation. This featured books by: GLAS publishers, Ardis Publishers (an imprint of Overlook Press), NYRB, Glagoslav (a new press out of Europe), and Russian Life Books (mostly nonfiction books from the same people who put out "Russian Life" magazine).

122avaland
Redigeret: jun 14, 2012, 12:37 pm

>120 janeajones: I think so, but I slept for 11 hours the day I came back!

I do want to mention that two books I would have personally liked to get my hands on and have a good look at were Richard Ford's Canada and Vincent Lam's new book set during the Vietnam War. Both were signing at the convention but it just didn't work out.

123labfs39
jun 14, 2012, 2:30 pm

I'll be checking out those imprints for Russian books in translation. Thanks for the description of Book Expo. I was supposed to go a couple of years ago, but was just off crutches and didn't think I could handle it without a wheelchair, which would have been impractical from what I hear.

124rebeccanyc
jun 14, 2012, 4:52 pm

Yes, interesting about the Expo and about the Russian publishers, and thanks for the art links. I found Pogue's Switching to the Mac book very helpful when I, well, switched to the Mac, and learned some nifty tricks from it. I presume this is a newer edition. I like his Times columns too.

125avaland
jun 16, 2012, 7:18 am

>123 labfs39: yeah, I don't see a wheelchair being able to get around very easily. I saw a few less abled people, but it seemed a risky adventure for them.

>124 rebeccanyc: That's good to know. Well, when he makes the move we'll no longer be mixed marriage (although he'll still have a PC squirreled away in the man cave).

126wandering_star
jun 20, 2012, 10:30 am

I was at the Met last month, and stumbled on an exhibition called "The Dawn Of Egyptian Art". I wouldn't even have said I was very interested in Egyptian art and artefacts, but it was really fascinating and full of beautiful things that made me want to know a lot more about ancient Egypt. I wish I'd seen the contemporary Iranian art one.

127avaland
jun 23, 2012, 8:37 am

>126 wandering_star: Isn't it too bad we can't see everything! Sigh.

I've been preoccupied lately and I am far behind in people's threads and also haven't been able to settle into much reading. However, it hasn't stopped me from accumulating books. Latest accumulations:

Romanov Riches by Solomon Volkov (Russian, gift)
Misterioso by Sascha Feinstein (poetry, gift)
Garden Poems (gift)
Always CocaCola by Alexandra Chreiteh (Lebanon)
We Are All Equally Far From Love by Adania Shibli (Palestine)
Stars of the Long Night by Tanure Ojaide (2012, Nigerian)
In a Strange Room by Damon Galgut (South Africa)

And probably 6 or 10 used quilt books from the New England Quilt Museum's yard sale.

128avaland
jul 31, 2012, 3:14 pm

I am still alive. Family crisis still ongoing, although I'm hoping August brings a little respite. There has been no time for reading. I've picked up the same book about 4 times and manage to only read the first page each time!

PS: For those of you on FB. I know it looks like we're having fun, but one doesn't post the gnarly and less pleasant stuff on FB, and then there's the fact that I am mostly exhausted during and or because of those outings...

129lilisin
jul 31, 2012, 3:27 pm

The pictures on FB let us know that you are managing to get some great little moments of happiness despite the crisis which is wonderful to know. Hope things clear up for you soon!

130janeajones
jul 31, 2012, 8:10 pm

And the FB pictures show how you are obviously taking care of the little ones!

131Jargoneer
aug 1, 2012, 8:49 am

>128 avaland: - I'm glad to know that (that you're alive but not that there is a family crisis). I was wondering what had happened to you and beginning to fear the worst. (I can't help it, Scottish people always fear the worse, that's why even when we are ecstatically happy underneath we're actually miserable because we fear that the worst is about to happen).

132SassyLassy
aug 1, 2012, 9:11 am

New England Quilt Museum... oh dear, I've just found another website to spend hours on! I can only imagine a yard sale from there.

>131 Jargoneer: we're actually miserable because we fear that the worst is about to happen.... not just fear the worst is about to happen, know it is about to happen

133janemarieprice
aug 2, 2012, 10:04 am

Hope the family crisis settles down soon.

134dchaikin
aug 29, 2012, 12:59 pm

Wishing you well Avaland.

135avaland
Redigeret: sep 8, 2012, 6:14 am

Thanks, still treading some water, but there is light at the end of the tunnel (those are probably mixed metaphors, don't you think?).

I have read TWO books this summer. A new LOW.

The Shadow Girls by Henning Mankell. Mediocre. A self-absorbed poet gets caught up in the lives and stories of several illegal immigrant women. One can appreciate what Mankell might be trying to do here, but the semi-comedic delivery doesn't work very well. Or, perhaps I should say, the 'vehicle' in which he delivers the immigrant's stories takes power away from them. Better to read On Black Sisters' Street by Chika Unigwe, in my opinion.

The Distant Echo by Val McDermid. A splendid crime novel that follows the lives of 4 college students, who, one night in the late 1970s, drunkenly stumble over the body of a local barmaid. The book really invests in these four guys and makes you really care about what is happening to them and how this event affects them throughout their lives. As well as witnesses, they are of course also suspects, which hangs over them when the crime is not immediately solved. Set in St. Andrews, Scotland, in both the late 70s and later in the early 2000s, this is a detailed, thoughtful and satisfying crime novel. This novel is not part of any of her series.

I'm now reading A Grave Tattoo, also by McDermid.

136detailmuse
sep 7, 2012, 3:23 pm

Happy to see you able to step out of the water/tunnel :) Well wishes to you.

137labfs39
sep 7, 2012, 5:10 pm

Glad to hear things are looking up. On Black Sister's Street is on my list.

138baswood
sep 7, 2012, 5:38 pm

Yes "chin up" avaland

139dchaikin
sep 8, 2012, 4:25 pm

So nice to see a post here, Lois. Wish you well.

140kidzdoc
sep 9, 2012, 4:29 pm

Yes, it's good to see you posting again, Lois. I hope that all is well with you.

141avaland
Redigeret: sep 15, 2012, 11:09 am

Thanks, guys. I'm hoping things have sufficiently calmed down enough to return to some sense of normalcy.

The Grave Tattoo by Val McDermid.

A body with tattoos has been found in a lakes district bog. Could it be Fletcher Christian, notorious mutineer on The Bounty, who may have sneaked back home to family and told his story to his old school chum, Wordsworth? And did Wordsworth write a poem about Christian's experiences that was never published, which might still exist? Scholar Jan Gresham thinks so. And maybe some of the less scrupulous do too. Meanwhile, just as Jane goes off to her home turf to research her theory, there's trouble in her apartment block. A man is found brutally murdered in a burnt out apartment, and Jane's young friend - an urban teen with a penchant for poetry - is implicated.

The book has a slow start but after the first 100 pages, I was finally hooked. McDermid again creates interesting and complex characters worth following, all within an equally complex and detailed story. The ending was a bit less satisfying than I would have liked, not sure I completely buy into her resolution of the various storylines. One seemed to only have been created to service the main storyline, so I was a bit disappointed there. But, still, it was an enjoyable read (I liked The Distant Echo better) and I'll continue to look for more McDermid.

NOTE: It was nice that I had read Caroline Alexander's The Bounty, which is on McDermid's bibliography list. Heavily researched, Alexander purports to tell the "true story" of the mutiny and its aftermath. It's a fascinating book if you haven't read it.

142dmsteyn
sep 15, 2012, 2:25 pm

This sounds intriguing, Lois. Have you read the Penguin Classics The "Bounty" Mutiny, which contains many of the source texts?

143avaland
sep 17, 2012, 8:28 am

>142 dmsteyn: No, I haven't. It's good to know should wish to revisit the subject.

144SassyLassy
sep 19, 2012, 3:47 pm

Great books for a troubling summer. I'm with dm; The Grave Tattoo sounds intriguing.

Hope the water is still going down.

145avaland
Redigeret: okt 4, 2012, 4:01 pm



The Polish Boxer by Eduardo Halfon.

I really don't have time for a proper review, but here are some quick thoughts. I'm giving this book five stars. It is a piece of brilliant storytelling, not by way of a conventional narrative but rather a collection of "encounters" between the main character, a literature professor in Guatemala, who happens to have the same name as the author, and others. There is so much packed into this thoughtful short, self-referential book (perhaps a bit of metafiction, though I'm no expert). Its well-crafted prose in a translation that is smoother than milk chocolate serves up thoughts on art, literature, music (jazz, classical and gypsy music, in particular), love, family and inheritance.

Under normal circumstances I'd be unlikely pick up a book with the word 'boxer' in the title, but this was at the publisher's (Bellevue Literary Press) table at Book Expo in early June. BLP is the small publisher of Paul Harding's award-winning Tinkers, that I enjoyed so much (though that book and this one are very different books). They are two for two thus far with me!

Recommended for readers like rebeccanyc, kidzdoc, jargoneer....to name just a few.

146kidzdoc
okt 4, 2012, 6:12 pm

Thanks, Lois. I had heard about The Polish Boxer and was waiting for someone here to read and review it. I'll get it in the next month or two.

147dchaikin
okt 5, 2012, 8:18 am

#145 - It's finding out about books like these that make your thread so nice to visit.

148detailmuse
okt 5, 2012, 10:06 am

>145 avaland: ooh I eyed that one on the Early Reviewers list. From your review I like that it sounds vignette-ish.

149rebeccanyc
okt 5, 2012, 10:33 am

I've seen The Polish Boxer in my favorite bookstore, but didn't look at it because of the title. Now I will. Thanks.

150janeajones
okt 5, 2012, 8:21 pm

Welcome back, Lois -- interesting review of The Polish Boxer.

151deebee1
okt 8, 2012, 7:27 am

Nice to see you back, Lois. The Polich Boxer sounds good. I will look for it.

152avaland
okt 11, 2012, 3:07 pm

It's nice to be back, albeit briefly. Something else has dumped upon us and, I suspect, will keep us stressed and preoccupied for quite a while. However, one never knows. I like the idea of sneaking in here from time to time.

White Heat: A Novel by M. J. McGrath (Canada/Arctic, crime novel).

Edie Kiglatuk is only half Inuit, a woman, part-time teacher and the best hunting guide in her territory of the arctic Ellesmere Island in Canada. A series of deaths, including that of her stepson, haunts her and when no one seems to want to dig a bit deeper, she begins to investigate on her own.

Slow to germinate but eventually working up to great suspense, the mystery aspect of this novel has its share of noticeable 'coincidences', but honestly, while the crime/mystery aspect is interesting, it pales against the wonderful cultural information dump in this book. The reader is completely immersed in the Inuit culture and community through Edie and McGrath's cast of characters. This book is the best kind of fiction: that of entertainment and education. Her details do get a bit overwhelming at moments, but really, what a fascinating book (blood soup or blubber breakfast, anyone?)

I will be interested to see what she does with the second book due out here in November, because we will have had this thorough education, and I think the mystery itself will need to carry the second book.

153avaland
jan 2, 2013, 7:52 am

My 2013 thread is HERE

I hope to post some comments about the last of my 2012 reading on the new thread.

154avaland
Redigeret: jan 8, 2013, 10:04 am

I said I was going to try to comment on the last books of 2012. I'm finding it difficult to write extensive reviews these days, so I'll keep them short. I'm cross posting here and also in 2013.


Black Dahlia and White Rose: Stories by Joyce Carol Oates (2012, US)

This will not be my favorite JCO collection, but it's an interesting one nonetheless. The loose theme in this collection, as noted on the book, is one of menace or threat. While the title story deals with an obvious menace, a killer, most of the stories are about more subtle or internal threats. A young teen is taken to identify a body to determine whether it is her mother. A young man, sitting among graduates waiting to collect his diploma, contemplates revealing himself to his notable biological father, who is there on stage to receive an honorary degree (and has no clue that the son exists). A woman is called into her daughter's school because there seems to be evidence that her daughter is being abused by someone (this is told from the mother's viewpoint). A woman thinks she is seeing a spotted hyena or a man with fur lurking around her house. The taut strings under the surface of a marriage are plucked during a trip to Rome...

Oates succeeds in making us feel that sense of menace on one end or the other. We are often inside the narrator's head for these stories, along with their fears, both real and imagined. She's brilliant at that stuff.

-----


Once Upon a River by Bonnie Jo Campbell (US, 2012)

This coming-of-age novel follows a year or two in the life of teenager Margo Crane, who sets off on her own after she shoots the tip of her uncle's penis off (she's a crack shot with a rifle) and her father is mistakenly killed because of it. She is remarkably self-sufficient in a backwoods sort of way, but is terribly naive generally, and she wanders in and out of situations along the river she loves accordingly. This is a compelling story, rich with descriptive detail, and both Margo and the river are interesting characters. This novel comes out of a short story in Campbell's National Book Award nominated collection, American Salvage, and as much as I enjoyed this novel, I thought the short story packed more punch. Still, I will look forward to future writing by Campbell.