What I’m Reading : Episode 44, April 2022
What I just finished reading
I’ve had a run of crime fiction lately with She Who Was No More by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac for the 1954 Club followed by Pesticide, by Kim Hays, the first title in a police procedural series set in Switzerland.
What I’m reading now
It’s Zola Addiction Month hosted by Fanda@ClassicLit which has given me a much-needed nudge to return to Zola’s Rougon-Macquet series. I’ve been reading these off and on for about 20 years but haven’t got even half way through yet.
Son Excellence Eugène Rougon is the sixth book to be published in this series though the recommended reading order puts it in second place. If this had been my first experience of Zola I’m not sure I’d be in a great hurry to read much more of his work. The writing is as good as ever, aided by superb translation by Brian Nelson. But the focus on the political world made it a bit harder to get into initially.
My other current read is a complete contrast. Mrs England by Stacy Halls follows a children’s nurse who takes a job looking after the offspring of a Yorkshire mill owner and his wife. The longer she stays with the family, the more evident it becomes that something is not right about Mrs England and the relationship with her husband. There are elements of the Gothic in this story which touches on issues of control and power within a marriage. It’s an entertaining read.
What I’ll read next
One book that will definitely be on my reading list in May is Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason. This was selected as our next book club read just a couple of days before it was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction. I’m hoping it will be a significant improvement on this month’s book — The Drowned City by K J Maitland — which I had to abandon because it was stuffed with unnecessary historical information and overloaded with adjectives.
Other books in contention to be read soon are Devotion by Hannah Kent, a copy of which I collected from the library today, and The Promise by Damon Galmut, winner of the Booker Award in 2021.
That’s about the extent of my “plans” for the next few weeks.
Now tell me, What are your reading plans
What I’m reading is in support of WWW Wednesday hosted by Sam at Taking On a World of Words. WWW Wednesday is actually a weekly meme but I choose to do it just once a month.
I’ve just finished Afterlives by Abdulrazak Gurnah and I’m going to start Paradise by the same writer
I have a copy of Afterlives on my to read shelves too. think I need to wait for a family crisis to be over before I am in the mental space to read it though
Impressively serious stuff, Karen! I’m a much more light reader at the moment – I know you’re allergic to fantasy but I’ve been focusing on Tolkien and Lewis mostly this month, and May I’m afraid is likely to be more of the same, sorry! But I will be aiming for some Ukrainian works through the summer.
No apology necessary Chris; people should be reading what they love and enjoy instead of reading stuff through gritted teeth (or it it eyes) just because received wisdom says that is what they should be reading
All of these are new to me. I like it when that happens–thanks.
Hope I haven’t added too much to your wishlist…
It’s longer than I’ll ever read in the remaining years of my life! LOL who cares? I add, then subtract fro time-to-time. I’m not the kind of reader who obsesses about reading everything on my TBR.
I’ve got to the point of accepting that my TBR is unlikely to get very much smaller – there are far too many books that I still want to add. The only thing that is going to stop me is lack of space
One day I will get started with Zola….
If and when you do, don’t start with this one!
Having read Devotion, I think I know what Margaret’s hinting at and will also be interested in what you think. Currently thinking about what to take on holiday with me.
Oh now I am curious….
I’ll be interested in your thoughts on Devotion when you’ve read it. For me, I was engaged for the first part, but lost patience with it after. It would be a spoiler alert to tell you why, but you’ll know when you get there, though you may not of course agree with me.
I shall be reading this now wondering when that spoiler factor is going to kick in….
I finished reading this book titled: The Last Train to Woodstock; and this made me think of the book that you reviewed titled: She Who Was No More; the young girl in the novel hitches a ride and is later found dead in Woodstock behind some pub’s alley or such. it’s relationships gone awry afoul and the who done it is not as the chief inspector suspected from the beginning but he does solve it. Otherwise, I am not an intelligent reader.
I know the book you are referring to – it’s one of the Inspector Morse series by Colin Dexter. I’ve not read it but have seen the tv adaptation scores of times. The screen version is called Last Bus to Woodstock
Oh my, I haven’t yet read nay by Boileau-Narcejac!!
I just finished Moshi Moshi, by Banana Yoshimoto (didn’t work too well for me)
I’m currently reading The Man in the Queue by Josephine Tey and listening to L’Axe du loup (nonfiction) by Sylvain Tesson, loving both
Next: Under Lock & Skeleton Key, by Gigi Pandian
You do surprise me that you haven’t read Boileau-Narcejac; you’re so well up on the French authors.
I’ve tried a few books by Tey, some worked really well but one I couldn’t get on with at all was Bret (?) Farrar