Let’s start with two books I bought just last week…
- The Vegetarian: This novel by the South Korean author Han Kang is, according to The Guardian “an extraordinary story about dark dreams, simmering tensions, and chilling violence” which is not my usual reading fare but like the protagonist I gave up eating meat more than 20 years ago.
- Goodbye Tsugumi by Banana Yoshimoto. I’ve been dipping my toe into the waters of Japanese literature with the aid of Meredith’s recommendations. This novella is about relationships between two cousins in a small Japanese seaside town.
- And now two books that are on the required reading list for my children’s literature course: Tom’s Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce – a fantasy novel based on time travel to the past that was first published in 1958. It’s now become a film.
- Mortal Engines by Philipe Reeve. I’m really not sure how I will react to this when I get to reading int since it’s set in a futuristic, steampunk version of London, which has been transformed into a giant machine that is trying to survive in a world that is running out of resources. I’m told it falls into a genre called steampunk that Wikipedia tells me is a “subgenre of science fiction or science fantasy that incorporates technology and aesthetic designs inspired by 19th-century industrial steam-powered machinery.” Oh boy, science fiction is going to challenge me….
- The Glorious Heresies by Lisa McInerney. Surely I’m the last person on the planet to read this novel about a murder that affects the lives of five misfits who exist on the fringes of Ireland’s post-crash society. Sounds dark but it’s actually a comedy. It won the Bailey’s Prize for Fiction earlier this year
- We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. It was her final novel, published three years before her death. It’s a gothic mystery that I bought thinking it would be appropriate to read on Halloween but when it came to the day I was still ploughing my way through Little Women.
- The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh. I read and enjoyed most of Ghosh’s epic saga The Glass Palace so thought I would give this a go when I saw it come through as a cut price e-version. It’s set in the Bay of Bengal where a young marine biologist finds himself caught up in political undercurrents. Unlikely I will get to actually read this any time soon – I have Sea of Poppies to read first.
- The Blue Room by Hanne Ørstavik. My little collection of Peirene Press titles is growing slowly. This one is by a Norwegian author and is about a mother-daughter relationship. Before you start getting handkerchiefs ready this is a novel which features a very creepy mother. The narrator wakes one morning to find that she has been locked into her bedroom by her mother. Her crime: she has a new boyfriend who has invited her to go with him to America for six weeks, and to meet him at the airport bus stop that morning. Sounds wonderful doesn’t it?
- Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. This won he 2012 Orange Prize for Fiction and was one of the first novels I learned about through other bloggers. I found a clean copy in a bargain bin in one of those pound shops (my American readers would call them dollar stores). I need to brush up on my knowledge of Greek heroes before even opening this since I’m sure to get lost.
- My final title is one that I acquired through the generosity of a Goodreads contact who happened to have a spare copy of the Booker shortlisted title The Sellout by Paul Beatty. Not only was he willing to give this away he took it to an event the night before the Booker award was announced, and got it signed by Beatty ( he did a lovely personalised message ).The next evening Beatty learned he had won the prize. So now I have my only signed copy of a Booker winner!
That’s my list. Of course I have added many more to my wishlist…. What have you all found to buy recently?