July Reading

This is a strange little book I picked at random. It's classed as horror but I wouldn't say horror. Gruesome thriller maybe? I don't know. Almost modern day folk tale? I really enjoyed it. It was fun and surprising in that it starts in one genre and moves to another. It's translated from Icelandic so I don't know if that's what gives it that different feel? It also had this brilliant line on internal criticism (I forget on looks or weight or work?)  'The patriarchy speaks with my mother's voice'. Doesn't take long, if you want something different, it's a fun book. I loved it. (I borrowed it from the library and listened to it on Libby)

I didn't love this book, I've read quite a bit about the Vietnam war, from all sides, and the French occupation. It had some interesting parts about the way women were treated on  their return to the states and the beginning of PTSD becoming a recognised disorder but I found some of the way the story was told treated the reader like an idiot, that they didn't know basic history or that they might have forgotten what happened earlier in the book (it is too long, I thought). That said, it seems pretty popular so most people are loving it.

I stumbled on this by accident, and as I hadn't read any Shirley Jackson, I figured I'd check it out (of the library, on Libby). In the opening paragraphs I realised the timing was perfect, given the mushroom case here. I really enjoyed working out what was going on...it was alluded to from the start but you need to put the pieces together. That's part of the fun of the book. I found this delightfully kooky and a really crazy gem for the reader. 

As you may remember, I've discovered Ryu Murakami and been reading his books all year. This one is quite different to the other two, semi autobiographical, very funny and much more palatable than the other two (In the Miso Soup and Piercing). I found it quite charming (though the main character is not exactly what you would call charming in the traditional sense). It's written from the view point of a teen boy at a time of war and protest, the year 1969 - but on the sidelines, in Japan. I really enjoyed it.

This is a cute idea, rejigging fairy tales but it's aimed at younger readers. I'd say 7-12 or for those with an interest in fairy tales. This collection had Ninja-rella, Zombie Hansel & Gretel, and superhero Billy Goats Gruff and Red Riding Hood. 

(I borrowed it from the library and read it on Hoopla, it only takes an hour, if that)

Finally, Careless People, about working at Facebook and the tech industry in general. It's horrifying, from the gross arrogance of the people there to the disregard of damage while chasing profit and the incredibly obnoxious attitude to other countries (and the ignorance of basic laws and customs in other countries. It's one unbelievable saga after another. Not a must read but definitely fascinating.

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June Reading

Witness for the Prosecution - This came up on a few blogs so I thought I'd track it down. I have read it and seen the play so I just listened to it. It's a short 1 hour story. I really liked it, though it sort of came back to me as it went along. I think Agatha Christie was really ahead of her time in her thinking. And she was on point with this one. I also discovered Agatha Christie surfed. She was an early adopter, thought to be the first British woman to surf standing up (not 100% sure this can be proved). She tried prone surfing (lying down) in 1922 in South Africa but in Hawaii she learnt to stand up surf. She also visited Australia and New Zealand in her 'British Empire Mission', visiting Melbourne and Tasmania.

Taboo - I really enjoyed this. So much to think about. Very measured I thought, but aware of how and why things are the way they are. And what we need to work on to change. Great book.

Calypso - I normally love David Sedaris but this one felt a bit mean. Just before the end I discovered I was listening to it at .8 normal speed. The drawn out drawl disappeared and the timing and intonation was quite different, more the Sedaris I know. So I think the flippant remarks and jokes took on a nasty tone when said in this slow twang. I feel I had the wrong reaction to much of the book, though a lot is about hard ageing and suicide and very difficult dynamics, so it is also more difficult topics than his usual books. The thing I will take away is the Bulgarian saying 'May you build a house from your kidney stones.'

Beloved - I was sure I'd read this but couldn't remember it so I read it again. Bits seemed very familiar but also not familiar so I've really no idea if I read it or it's just heard it talked about so much that I knew the names and events. It's very sad and at times confronting, but I will admit also at times I drifted off and wanted it to end. But that may have been me at the time rather than a reflection of this multi-award winning book. It's very tough going. What a terrible insight into the lack of humanity in that history.

Give unto Others - we are doing a Donna Leon for bookclub. I do really enjoy her crime. Strong sense of place, usually about topical current events and an insight into the political side of Italy. This one is no different. The funniest part of this book is that it was obviously written during or just after the lockdowns. It took me a while to work out Brunetti wasn't just weirdly obsessed with masks and lockdown. So it's set in that time where we are all out and about but it was still all in our minds. When I first started reading Leon (or when she first started writing the crime books), I had just spent 2 weeks in Venice for Carnivale. I knew all the streets she mentioned and I had a strong map in my head of the places action took place. Even the outer suburbs and islands. Now I'm just the average tourist - knowing the main sights but little more. It's funny to think I've been growing up with these characters for 30 years! This is the 31st book in the series but by no means the latest. The first one was published in 1992 and I believe there's one due soon, though her 33rd book in the series came out in 2024. So she's sort of the modern day Agatha Christie, but Venice is the locked room.

What have you been reading?

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February Reading

This month has flown! I can't believe we are moving into the next quarter of the year! Busy week to submit the BAS to the ATO. Then it's time to start all over again! But holidays on the horizon now. Yay!

 The Bee Sting - I started reading this and got very annoyed and bored with it. It's very long and the library needed it back when I was 3/4 through. I got back in the queue and it took a few months to get back. It seemed to pick up a bit so I don't know if it was me who changed or if the book was hitting it's peak so the pace was better. It's quite good by the end but just too long to carry the story in my opinion. Good story, plenty of menace but just diluted in the lengthy telling of it. 

Star Spangled Jesus - Someone on one of the blogs recommended this, and as I recognised the author of Insta, I thought I'd give it a go. It looks at the rise of Christian Nationalism in America (something that to those of us outside of the States seems very UNChristian and against most of Christian values. It's ok to be Christian and love your country but when that comes at a cost of helping the poor and the sick and persecuting people, there's something very, very wrong with it). The book gives a clear insight into how it came about but where this book differs, is she used to think all these things. A lot of her quotes and examples are her own tweets or essays (or even songs she wrote and performed). She uses her own misguided behaviour as examples, so it helps you see how it happens, and not just write it off as crazy or nasty people. I've recommended to a friend already, so I guess it's a thumbs.

The Group - Someone also recommended this. It's a strange book. Maybe translation makes it odd but I did like it. It's got a bit of a nasty edge and is a little uncomfortable at times (but that might be my age). An easy to read, and only took me a few days, so I guess that's a good sign.

The Reflections of the Queen Snow White - The concept is great but I struggled at times with the execution. Snow White was a little annoying and the sex scenes were really ick to be honest (maybe it is my age??). The idea is interesting but not a must read.

The Intruders - This is a little comic about a returned soldier with PTSD. It's very melancholy and a little surprising. I found it very sad. It's super short, I read it on the train to the city. It sort of stuck with me so I guess that's a good sign.

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Holiday Reading

Since we got back from Japan, I've stalled a bit in the reading. My bookclub title is Hanya Yanagihara's other book, and is very long (28 hours on Audible). The first 10 hours is like a slow dull retelling of Washington Square in my head, so I was about to give it away when it finally got interesting about race and Hawaii. Then the book picked up and I'm almost at the end. It's interesting but I don't feel it's worth it. When a book is this long, the story really needs to be riveting, not a long rambling yarn. I feel like we are humouring the author, rather than the author entertaining us. It has some good bits, and I guess if you love her other book, A little life, you'll like this.

This is my other bookclub title. It's a very bleak memoir but the simplicity of the writing makes very profound observations nailed down in a single sentence. Analysis of human behaviour and psychological truths are scattered throughout in a few words. The story is harsh and bleak. It's far form the comfortable middle class experience. I'm really enjoying it. I did feel almost guilty reading it on the beach - a polar opposite experience to the words and world I was immersed in. Tennessee Williams described it as "a true document of human desperation, shattering in its impact".

A few people had reviewed it around the link ups so I decided to give it a go. It's fun and it had a few clever surprises for me. I might try another in the 'series' down the track. It's an easy, old fashioned mystery with a new style update, so to speak.

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January Reading

 Given we were in Japan, my reading for the month was predominately set in Japan. I had a book set in Korea lined up as well, but I didn't get to it.

I really enjoyed Convenience Store Woman, and I will admit, it made me really see the convenience stores differently (noticing the shop lay out and offerings). I loved that the author actually worked in a convenience store for 18 years before becoming a successful author.  Easy & enjoyable book.

I really loved this book, In the Miso Soup. Not the topic, which is very uncomfortable, but I read the book with urgency, almost in one day (and wanted to keep reading it when not on trains or planes). Really enjoyed it though it's a little horrifying. It was great knowing all the locations (suburbwise, not the clubs they visited!). It's not going to be for everyone - I usually share my books with my mum but this one I don't think will be for her. Graphic sex and violence warning, which while that's not usually for me, the way that it's written really hooked me into the uneasiness of the main character.

I had planned to but more Ryu Murakami because I thought In the Miso was such a great book but the first book I saw at the street library when I went to the supermarket was indeed the book I planned to buy, so I've just started this one.

This book was recommended by someone on the linkys, and as we'd been there, I thought I'd give it a read. A friend posted a facebook link about Svalbard and his friend who lived there made a comment. I pointed out I was the woman on the dog sled attacked by the polar bear and she gave me an update on the fall out, knowing immediately the story as it was such big news at the time. When I said I was reading the Ritter book, she showed me her photos of when she visited the hut. For those listening to the audio, if you google Ritter and Polar Night, you get all the photos both inside and out, and some of Ritter herself. A great description of life in the smallest of spaces in the harshest of environments in a very isolated place. 

That's been my January reading. What about you?

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Holiday Reading

This was a book club pick and I really enjoyed it. It's about relationships with mental conditions and the impacts around that. I was engaged and the narrative voice worked very well, I thought. I listened to it and it really felt like someone you knew was talking by the end of it. It was surprising and enjoyable, more for being something quite unusual in the topic and story.

I had to read this after seeing the show, because I wanted to see how the mirroring worked in the book, and the way the story threads appeared before we understood what we were following. I thought the writing (and presentation) of this tale is very interesting in the craftmanship.

I enjoyed the book, and the use of different fonts made it clearer than the tv show (where I spent a lot of the early episodes saying "That's a different narrator - who's that narrating for him?" or "What's that clicking - is it a film?"

Anyway, book is good, and tv show is really great. Wins all round.

When I saw this on a bin I was reminded of how much I loved Peanuts as a kid, so decided I would re read some. I can borrow them from the library on Hoopla so read them on my phone when I get a chance. This one is in colour and the other is in B&W.

They are still funny but there are some that seem so harsh or sad.

It's kind of strange - yet true, I guess.

I did enjoy them though, 50 years on!

This is a short story on Audible. Very funny - worth the $3 investment, I thought. Nails a lot of the weird human herd behaviour. I laughed out loud a few times in recognition.

Hope Santa brings everyone a few good books for Christmas.

Enjoy the time to relax and read.

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December Reading

I picked this book because I liked the title and the cover. It's junk crime but I really liked it. It has a slight feminist edge to it (about shame among other things, so it made it really interesting on top of the crime story). There is sex act that keeps getting referred to so it's maybe not for people who like the prim murder mysteries. It's clever in the way the narrator was black out drunk at the time so she doesn't know what happened either as we move with her in real time....I read it in two days so definitely enjoyed it. Well worth a fun read.

I didn't like this book. Not really a fault with the writing, just the subject matter. I didn't want to read it but my kid wanted it for Christmas (having watched the movie) and I thought I needed to check the content first.

I get where he was going but i just didn't feel it paid off for me - as a mother or as a female. I didn't like the male lens on it all, which I also understand why but I just didn't like it. Skilled writer but not for me.

Night before Christmas. This popped up while I was looking to borrow a different book so I borrowed it as it was only 45 minutes. It's a short story, odd little crime and Christmas themed mystery, a sort of modern Sam Spade. It is what it is. I guess good for him getting it out into libraries...

I went to see Jon Ronson, because I adore his books, as you may have noticed - given I've read and reviewed them all....) and one of his guests was Mary Turner Thomson. She's very delightful but told such an incomprehensible tale, I needed to know more. So I picked one of the books at random, though I will see out the Bigamist too and read that shortly....

This book touches on what happened to her, but more on the aftermath, and his victims that came after. She outlines psychopathic behavior, the red flags and how to interact with one.

She talks also of an aspect of child sex abuse that never seems to get mentioned and has some good attitude to both child rearing and living - making the most out of life. So there is a lot of interesting aspects to the book beyond her personal story.

Because I didn't like the Anne Tyler book last month, I decided to listen to these audio versions. I didn't like the Homesick diner (too bleak) but I did really enjoy the Ladder of Years and The Amateur Marriage. So I feel like I probably would like other Anne Tyler books if I chose the right ones.

I am going early with this month's reading as I feel I was very negative in my choices and reviews last month. 

What have you been reading?

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