Books read - September 2007 through August 2008

Submitted by burneyfan on Mon, 09/03/2007 - 02:03
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  1. Deadwood -- Pete Dexter, 1986 (9/2/07)
  2. Liza of Lambeth -- W. Somerset Maugham, 1897 (9/2/07)
  3. Gentlemen and Players -- Joanne Harris, 2006 (9/3/07)
  4. Revolutionary Road -- Richard Yates, 1961 (9/5/07)
  5. Fatelessness (a.k.a. Fateless ) -- Imre Kertész, 1975 (9/6/07)
  6. Sweet and Sour Milk -- Nuruddin Farah, 1979 (9/8/07)
  7. Life and Fate -- Vasily Grossman, 1959 (pub. 1980) (9/17/07)
  8. Song of Lawino & Song of Ocol -- Okot p'Bitek, 1966-1967 (9/17/07)
  9. The Secret Agent -- Joseph Conrad, 1907 (9/17/07)
  10. That Alluring Land: Slovak Stories -- Timrava (Božena Slancíková-Timrava), 1896-1918 (trans. and pub. by Norma L. Rudinsky 1992) (9/20/07)
  11. Being Dead -- Jim Crace, 1999 (9/22/07)
  12. The Orchid House -- Phyllis Shand Allfrey, 1953 (9/22/07)
  13. Palace Walk -- Naguib Mahfouz, 1956 (9/25/07)
  14. Palace of Desire -- Naguib Mahfouz, 1957 (9/30/07)
  15. Black Dogs -- Ian McEwan, 1992 (10/1/07)
  16. The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint -- Brady Udall, 2001 (10/4/07)
  17. Captain Blood -- Rafael Sabatini, 1922 (10/17/07)
  18. Auntie Mame -- Patrick Dennis, 1955 (10/21/07)
  19. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle -- Haruki Murakami, 1994 (1997 trans.). (11/4/07)
  20. The Asking Price -- Henry Cecil, 1966 (11/12/07)
  21. Border State -- Tõnu Õnnepalu, 1993 (2000 trans.) (11/12/07)
  22. Nisanit -- Fadia Faqir, 1987 (11/13/07)
  23. The Good Cripple -- Rodrigo Rey Rosa, 1996 (trans. 2004) (11/13/07)
  24. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists -- Robert Tressell, 1914 (12/4/07)
  25. Life and Death of Harriett Frean -- May Sinclair, 1922 (12/4/07)
  26. The Count of Monte Cristo -- Alexandre Dumas, 1844 (12/21/07)
  27. Sugar Street -- Naguib Mahfouz, 1957 (12/24/07)
  28. Kate: The Woman Who Was Hepburn -- William J. Mann, 2006 (12/27/07)
  29. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows -- J. K. Rowling, 2007 (1/6/08)
  30. Independent People -- Halldór Laxness, 1934-35 (Eng. pub. 1946) (1/10/08)
  31. Cynthia's Revels; or, the Fountain of Self-Love -- Ben Jonson, 1600-01 (1/11/08)
  32. A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland -- Samuel Johnson, 1775 (1/12/08)
  33. The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas -- Gertrude Stein, 1933 (1/13/08)
  34. Mr. White's Confession -- Robert Clark, 1998 (1/14/08)
  35. Love Medicine -- Louise Erdrich, 1984 (1/17/08)
  36. His Majesty's Dragon -- Naomi Novik, 2006 (1/19/08)
  37. Who the Hell's in It: Conversations with Hollywood's Legendary Actors -- Peter Bogdanovich, 2005 (1/19/08)
  38. A Prayer for Owen Meany -- John Irving, 1989 (1/21/08)
  39. Woody Allen: Interviews -- Ed. Robert E. Kapsis and Kathie Coblentz, 2006 (1/22/08)
  40. Morituri -- Yasmina Khadra (Mohammed Moulessehoul), 1997 (trans. 2003) (1/22/08)
  41. Bear -- Marian Engel, 1976 (1/23/08)
  42. Platero y yo -- Juan Ramón Jiménez, 1914 (1/24/08)
  43. Under Western Eyes -- Joseph Conrad, 1911 (1/24/08)
  44. Pedro Páramo -- Juan Rulfo, 1955 (1/24/08)
  45. A Civil Action -- Jonathan Harr, 1995 (1/27/08)
  46. Saints and Strangers (a.k.a. Black Venus) -- Angela Carter, 1985 (1/27/08)
  47. Tim Burton: Interviews -- Ed. Kristian Fraga, 2005 (1/28/08)
  48. Timon of Athens -- William Shakespeare, 1623 (first pub.) (1/31/08)
  49. The Magnificent Ambersons -- Booth Tarkington, 1918 (2/6/08)
  50. Bellwether -- Connie Willis, 1996 (2/6/08)
  51. Storm Front -- Jim Butcher, 2000 (2/7/08)
  52. Chilly Scenes of Winter -- Ann Beattie, 1976 (2/12/08)
  53. Shooting at Loons -- Margaret Maron, 1994 (2/18/08)
  54. The Deep Blue Good-By -- John D. MacDonald, 1964 (2/23/08)
  55. The Lake of Darkness -- Ruth Rendell, 1980 (2/25/08)
  56. The Good Soldier Švejk -- Jaroslav Hašek, 1923 (trans. 1973) (3/12/08)
  57. The Dead Hour -- Denise Mina, 2006 (3/16/08)
  58. Shot in the Heart -- Mikal Gilmore, 1994 (3/18/08)
  59. Appointment in Samarra -- John O'Hara, 1934 (3/26/08)
  60. The Thirteenth Tale -- Diane Setterfield, 2006 (3/26/08)
  61. Throne of Jade -- Naomi Novik, 2006 (4/4/08)
  62. The Go-Between -- L.P. Hartley, 1953 (4/5/08)
  63. Xala -- Ousmane Sembène, 1974 (4/5/08)
  64. Consider Phlebas -- Iain M. Banks, 1987 (4/10/08
  65. Foundation -- Isaac Asimov, 1951 (4/12/08)
  66. Foundation and Empire -- Isaac Asimov, 1952 (4/18/08)
  67. Second Foundation -- Isaac Asimov, 1953 (4/18/08)
  68. The Year of Magical Thinking -- Joan Didion, 2006 (4/19/08)
  69. My Brilliant Career -- Miles Franklin, 1901 (4/22/08)
  70. The Quick Red Fox -- John D. MacDonald, 1964 (4/22/08)
  71. Cagney -- John McCabe, 1997 (4/27/08)
  72. Barabbas -- Pär Lagerkvist, 1950 (4/30/08)
  73. The Meaning of Night: A Confession -- Michael Cox, 2006 (5/6/08)
  74. Equal Rites -- Terry Pratchett, 1987 (5/18/08)
  75. Mort -- Terry Pratchett, 1987 (5/22/08)
  76. Wyrd Sisters -- Terry Pratchett, 1988 (5/24/08)
  77. Atonement -- Ian McEwan, 2001 (6/9/08)
  78. The Queen's Gambit -- Walter Tevis, 1983 (6/10/08)
  79. Pyramids -- Terry Pratchett, 1989 (6/15/08)
  80. The Sandcastle -- Iris Murdoch, 1957 (6/18/08)
  81. Blue Angel: The Life of Marlene Dietrich -- Donald Spoto, 1992 (6/29/08)
  82. Twilight -- Stephenie Meyer, 2005 (6/30/08) Trying to relate to a young cousin...
  83. New Moon -- Stephenie Meyer, 2006 (7/4/08)
  84. Eclipse -- Stephenie Meyer, 2007 (7/5/08)
  85. Guards! Guards! -- Terry Pratchett, 1989 (7/13/08)
  86. Skin Tight -- Carl Hiaasen, 1989 (7/17/08)
  87. Elantris -- Brandon Sanderson, 2005 (7/29/08)
  88. Exile's Return -- Malcolm Cowley, 1951 (rev. ed.) (8/2/08)
  89. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day -- Winifred Watson, 1938 (8/3/08)
Author Comments: 

(date) = date finished reading (or abandoned + reason)

Slothrop3309/07/2007

What did you think?

burneyfan09/07/2007

It was horrifying in the very best sort of way. I want to say "I loved it," but the statement sounds way too cheerful. I added Kaddish for an Unborn Child to my Amazon list, and I may add Liquidation later, as well...have you read either of them? I'm working on Somalia now, mwah ha ha... :-)

Slothrop3309/08/2007

Damn it, I was going to guess Farrah! I have been wanting to read him for awhile now. Fatelessness is pretty great huh? What I really love is that it doesn't sensationalize the holocaust. People like Weisel make it sound like Dante's Inferno, constant hellfire and brimstone. In fact, much of the holocaust was quite boring and Kertesz really foregrounds this: the constant standing and waiting as hunger and disease eat away at you. The danger in oversensationalizing the holocaust is transforming it to something impossible and unrecognizable; we will then not be able to perceive when it is happenning again.

burneyfan09/09/2007

I'd definitely read a Farah novel again, but after some research, I'm not sure I'd recommend starting with Sweet and Sour Milk. It's one of his earliest works, and I think he was still finding his way; sometimes the prose goes from "poetic" to "downright purple as an eggplant." From what I've read, he grows quite a lot as a writer after S&SM. It's the first book in the "Variations on the Theme of an African Dictatorship" trilogy, and the second book, Sardines, sounds promising. (As far as I know, the novels in the trilogy are not connected by plot or character -- only in a general thematic sense -- so it is possible to read them in any order.)
I started Vasily Grossman this afternoon, so I'll probably be an old woman by the time I get to add Life and Fate to this list! Just kidding...it's whizzing by for such a weighty tome. ;-) Actually, the beginning of Life and Fate and the things Grossman writes about tedium and time remind me very much of Kertesz and the grinding, corrosive "boringness" that you mention. I'm thinking especially of the chapter where Grossman gives the example of the girl at the ball and the prisoner serving twenty-five years, and how neither will be able to say whether time has passed quickly or slowly, but their distorted senses of time occur for opposite reasons: her joy prolongs her sense of events while the monotony and trudging routine of his existence condenses his.

Slothrop3304/09/2008

I've been eyeing Sembene for awhile; what did you think?

burneyfan04/10/2008

I enjoyed it; I'd happily read more of his work, and I look forward to seeing the rest of his films, including Xala. (The only one I've seen so far is Black Girl, which was great.) I'm definitely glad that this was my first literary "window" into Senegal; it makes me want to return.

Slothrop3304/10/2008

Cool, I will have to read something by him. I am reading The Last King of Scotland right now by Giles Foden, speaking of Africa; I highly recommend it.

Nance08/03/2008

Was Stephenie Meyer series good? I don't know if I want to read it, I look the trailer of the movie and this look bad...

burneyfan08/04/2008

I haven't liked them at all; the heroine is whiny, silly, and always in need of a rescue; the main love interest is completely unworthy of being considered so "perfect" by the heroine (and at his age, you'd think he'd be a lot less silly than she is, but no!); the writing is unremarkable and dumbed-down. The only reason I persisted past the first volume -- and I'll probably read the last one for the same reason -- is to relate to a younger female relative who likes them. The only part I've found more interesting is that the author brings in some Quileute characters (I grew up in that region), which seems original, at least. Not enough to save the series. I didn't expect it to be fantastic, but I expected something...fairly good? It's like vampires for the Tiger Beat or Bop magazine crowd...that level of maturity.

Nance08/04/2008

Ha ha! I want to read those books because I want to know what all the fuzz around it! In Critiques Libres (a french site where I do french books reviews), all the girls put 5/5 on them and I feel like a snob... I’m not so sure I want to read those because I've been traumatized by the The Vampire Diaries series by L. J. Smith:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Vampire_Diaries