Reading plans

3 books on my radar: Episode 19

Reading Horizons, May 2019

What I’m reading now

circe-madeline-millerCirce by Madeline Miller is the selection for our next book club meeting.

My knowledge of Greek mythological figures is at an embarrassingly low level so I hope that isn’t going to prove an issue. I have a copy of a guide to Greek and Roman myths close at hand if I need some help.

All I know about Circe is that she was a sorceress, the daughter of Helios and she features in Homer’s The Odyssey.

The first few pages are promising.  If I get on well with this I have a copy of her earlier book The Song of Achilles yet to read.

WWWWednesday is also about…..

What I just finished reading

A Whole LifeI’ve been making great progress with my list for 20booksofsummer (or in my case 15booksofsummer) which is taking me on a virtual holiday around the world.

I’ve had to make one substitute because the book I had chosen to take me to Finland, The Midwife by Katja Kettu, proved unreadable. I switched to another Nordic country, reading The Room by Jonas Karlsson. A highly amusing, quirky tale – I’ll post my thoughts on this in a few days.

Robert Seethaler’s novella A Whole Life has been the best of the 15booksofsummer I’ve read so far.  It’s an exquisite tale about a quiet man who spends most of his life in the Austrian Alps. Andreas Egger endures hardship and tragedy but survives by changing and adapting to his new situation. This is about the most beautifully understated work of fiction I’ve read in decades.

What I’ll read next

When I finish Circe I’ll probably return to my books of summer project.

I have one more book by a European author on my list – Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallader

Then it’s across the Atlantic, stopping first in New York to take Breakfast at Tiffany’s. 


This post is for WWW Wednesday hosted by Sam at Taking on a World of Words.

BookerTalk

What do you need to know about me? 1. I'm from Wales which is one of the countries in the UK and must never be confused with England. 2. My life has always revolved around the written and spoken word. I worked as a journalist for nine years then in international corporate communications 3. My tastes in books are eclectic. I love realism and hate science fiction and science fantasy. 4. I am trying to broaden my reading horizons geographically by reading more books in translation

20 thoughts on “3 books on my radar: Episode 19

  • I’ve just finished and reviewed Circe – I loved it and hop you do too. I also have A Whole Life on my TBR pile – so glad to hear you enjoyed it so much 🙂

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  • I’m reading my second 20 Books of Summer book at the moment, so don’t feel I’m doing so well there!! But I’ve got some great review books coming up, too. So next will be a book about new research on dinosaurs.

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    • The thing I love about 20 books of summer is that it’s just fun, no-one really worries if you don’t make it…..

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  • I hope you’re getting on well with Circe. I think it is a far more thoughtful book than her previous work, although I enjoyed that too. I am not getting on well with my own Summer Reading list, mainly because I’ve got so many books to get through which aren’t on it. Next year I shall have to take ‘compulsory’ reading into account and include at least some of those in the original list.

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    • You know you can swap out books on your list though if they don’t work out? I forgot to take account of my book club reading also….

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  • I’m finishing The Reunion by Guillaume Musso – and am also listening to another Musso, La fille de Brooklyn.
    Am also currently reading The Sentence is Death, by Horowitz, then will go to The Gomorrah Gambit, by Tom Chatfield.
    there’s a theme there…

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    • Horowitz is the only name I recognise from this list…

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  • I’ve read conflicting reviews of A Whole Life, so I’m interested to hear what you think! I may have to check it out… 😉

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    • No doubt there are people who say it was ‘dull’. 🙂

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  • I’ve put everything else aside to read The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See, the book cover attracted me at first and I love picking it up each time and looking again at that image of two women with their nets on the rocks and big smiles on their faces and the book itself, inspired by the fierce female divers ‘ haenyo’ of Jeju Island off the coast of South Korea.
    I finished in a day Ariana Harwicz’s ‘Feebleminded’ my first one star GR review of the year and I’m anticipating reading the Man Booker International Prize winning novel Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi.

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    • I read something earlier by Lisa See. It was interesting in part (about the experience of two sisters who are paper brides in America) but I didn’t care much for the writing style of that one

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  • Judy Krueger

    Currently reading The Blue by Nancy Bilyeau. It is excellent historical fiction. I just finished The Passage of Power by Robert A Caro, #4 in his biography of Lyndon B Johnson. I have been reading it for two months! Next I will read Dust Tracks on a Road by Zora Neale Hurston, a reread for a reading group. I hope you enjoy Circe. I loved it! https://keepthewisdom.blogspot.com/2018/06/circe.html

    Reply
  • If feels good to make progress on lists doesn’t it? No real plans for the next few weeks book-wise.

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    • It’s unusual for me to get this far with a list – normally I have great fun making up the list and then immediately lost interest in reading the actual books

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    • I wouldnt have bought it but for the fact it was chosen for the book club

      Reply

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