#Reading Journal June 2024

While I’m engrossed in a book and not watching Ben & Jerry…this happens!

1. This new habit of mine to make a daily reading list has been a success.
2. I pick and choose different books, short stories, a poem or essay to read.
3. It is the best way to keep me from being  ‘bogged down” in one book for a long time.
4. There were some great short stories by Kevin Barry, Alice Munro and found  a new writer
5. …from Canada (born in Trinadad).
6. I read André Alexis’s short story “Consultation”  in The New Yorker and as very impressed.
7. I ordered his first books: Fifteen dogs and Pastoral…fell in love with the covers!
8. Fifteen Dogs won the Giller Prize 2015.
9. The is about 15 dogs gifted by gods with human traits — was praised by
10. Giller Prize jury members as an insightful meditation on the nature of consciousness.
11. Sounds like a fun read!

NEW BOOKS: Pastoral  and Fifteen Dogs both by André Alexis and 2 of the five books in his The Quincunx Cycle is a series of novels written by Trinidadian-Canadian author André Alexis. While loosely interconnected with various characters and places recurring in various novels each novel is written as a stand alone piece and is based on one of the themes of faith, place, love, power and hatred. All take place in and around Southern Ontario with Fifteen Dogs and The Hidden Keys both set in Toronto. Alexis began the series in 2014 with Pastoral and completed it in 2021 with the publication of Ring

1. My #20BooksOfSummer24 is progressing nicely (see LINK Monthly Planning).
2. I decided to make more use of my Dutch library card.
3. A few books were added to my June list…the titles are in Dutch but reviews in English.
4. If your curious what the Dutch are writing about…have a look!
5. Also I selected an “alternative” DUTCH  #20BooksOfSummer24 list.
6. …see at the end of the  blogpost.
7. There are some current topics like the rise of Populism in Europe
8. …that I’m sure will be an eye-opener.
9. Marijn Kruk’s book Opstand was published this week.
10. With all the elections this summer…
    
11. European Union 2024 European Parliament election June 9
12. the UK  elections 4th July and
13. two rounds of elections in 30 June and 7 July France.
14. …I will be curious to see where these countries will lean
15. ….center right or shift to more “populism”.
16. How  does the bookcover relate to the story!
17. Classical conservatives, right-wing Christians, dark ethno-nationalists and
18. …all kinds of conspiracy thinkers are simmering in Europe.
    
19. The Hungarian capital Budapest serves as an intellectual breeding ground and as a model.
20. Viktor Orbán leads the battle for the ‘ owner ’ amid a modernity that erodes this.
21. Does this rebellion stand a chance of success, and if so, at what price?

Marijn Kruk (1971) studied history in Utrecht and political philosophy in Paris. He worked as a France correspondent and reported on the Arab Spring in North Africa. He was subsequently a correspondent in Istanbul and made numerous reportage trips through Europe.

MORE NEW BOOKS:

Nothing’s Mat  by Jamacian writer Erna Brodber. She received a Windham–Campbell Literature Prize in 2017. – 128 pages NOVELLA for #NovInNov 2024.

Duncan Macmillian – Every Brilliant Thing (play) – REVIEW – EXCELLENT!! 

I have a subscripton for Charco Press.…and received the collecton for 2023 and 2024.

Claire @ Word by Word blog brought this publishing house to my attention. (her review of the thriller “Cattle and Men”) Charco Press is an independent publisher based in Edinburgh that specialises in translating contemporary Latin American fiction into English. I’m anxious to start the following books…and Charco Press wins my prize for “beautiful book covers!”

DISAPPOINTMENTS:

Peter Schjeldahl  – (1942 – 2022)  They say The great New Yorker art critic writes like an angel about everyone from Vermeer to Picasso, Donatello to Andy Warhol, in beautiful, enjoyable, accessible essays but Hydorgen Jukebox (essays) was absolutely awful!! NOT wasting my time with these essays from the 1980s. Just awful! I will give Schjeldahl another chance but will find some essays in the The New Yorker archive from 2000-2020. Perhaps the art critic has mellowed in is last years at the magazine.

John Updike – (1932-2009) “The Persistance of Desire” (short story) – great writer, I have a Collection of stories (1953-1975) an I struggle to ever finish it. He writes of another era about  an elite class with questionable morals. He was one of them!

SUMMER:  This is the summer month and a  local marching band just paraded down my street. Scard the bejesus out of the cats! So, it is official the summer season in the neighborhood has started!

It is also the start of the European Soccer Championships…and my reading was put on a “back-burner” while I watched the teams play some great matches. Major upsets: Belgium lost to Slovakia; Netherlands lost to Austria; Portugal lost to Georgia. MAJOR battles: Czech Republic vs Turkey (winner)  (18 cards: 16 yellow and 2 red…the pitch it looked like a battlefield!) and Croatia (suprise elimination) vs Italy (1-1). Croatia’s Euro 2024 exit marks the end of an era – even for immortals like Luka Modric.

Good news: I still managed to read while watchting the TV and finally finshed Fintan O’Toole’s  (review) prize winning book of essays We Don’t Know Oursleves. I started it in March for #ReadingIrelandMonth24 hosted by @746CathyBooks...but 43 essays in one month was just too much! The book won the 2021 Book of the Year award at the Irish Book Awards. It was selected as one of The New York Times’s 10 Best Books of 2022.

RIP: Alice Munro (1931 – 2024)

Alice Ann Munro was a Canadian short story writer who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013. Her work is said to have revolutionized the architecture of the short story, especially in its tendency to move forward and backward in time, and with integrated short fiction cycles. I bought 6 of het books this month and want to read ALL of her stories over time.  I’m reading her stories very slowly, no taking notes or underlining anything. I just want to immerse myself in her writing…in her.

READ: Start Alice Munro’s collection Too Much Happiness.

1. Dimensions (excellent) – (60 min) – Woman gazing out bus window…her tragic life passes before her eyes and …only 23 yrs old.
   
2. Fiction (excellent) – (70 min) – Joyce…and her marital relationships She used a child’s adoration to pry into his domestic life.
   
3. Wenlock Edge (excellent) –  The nding will feel strange to readers who have not discovered this clue. Read page 90…very carefully!
   
4. Deep-Holes – Slow starting short story…with an unexpected turn.  Mother and estranged son meet years later….bittersweet.
   

DUTCH READING LIST – #20BooksOfSummer24  (…or my own administration)

1. Etty Hillesum – J. Koelemeijer – (2023)  (bio and diary; killed in Auschwitz)
   
2. Ontaard land – Ineke Noordhoff –  (2023)
3. (…bureaucracy crushes people in Groningen; exploitation of that landscape to drill for gas)
   
4. Sywerts miljoenen – J.Strop,  S. Vermeulen –  (2023)
5. The Corona-mask affair is a Dutch affair in which
6. Sywert van Lienden sold masks to Dutch department of health
7. …deal was worth100 million euros.
8. At least 20 million euros ended up with Sywert’s  private company.
9. De Indische doofpot – M. Swirc –   (Cover-up war crimes) – READ
   
10. Rotterdam – Arjen van Veelen – (2023) (…everything that makes Rotterdam beautiful)
11. Bij ons in Auschwitz  – Arnon Grunberg  –  (2020) (Holocaust lit) – READ
    
12. Japan in honderd kleine stukjes  (travel)  – Paulien Cornelisse (2020)
    
13. Mijn ontelbare identiteiten (migrant memoir)  (2020) – Sinan Çankaya – READ
14. De Vastgoedfraude – V. v d Boom en G. v d Marel  (real estate fraud case)
15. Een woord een woord (essays about terrorism) – Frank Westerman – READ
16. De rekening voor Rutte  (Dutch government affair..launder drugs money) – Bas Haan – READ
17. Het recht van de snelste – T. Verkade en M. te Brömmelstroet
18. (Who owns the street?  the role of mobility in public space)
19. Het zijn net mensen (memoir Middle East journalist) – Joris van Luyendijk – READ
20. Het Drama Ahold (Dutch multinational) –  Jeroen Smit
21. XTC ( …biography of a drug)  – P. Zandstra en W. Pottjewijd 
22. Wees onzichtbaar (migrant memoir)  – Murat Isik
23. Opstand:  De populistische revolte – (2024)  (Rise op populism…)
    

READING LISTS:

READ: – I found a great list of books  #20 Book of Summer on the blog BOOK AROUND THE CORNER. I must admit this is one of the few blogs with books in English AND French…and that interests me.  I look at it reguarly! I’ll have to see which books I can read in the course of the year!

1. Crime fiction from Québec: Boundary – Andrée A. Michaud. (Bondrée)
2. French Historical crime fiction: Le bureau des affaires occultes – Eric Fouassier  – Ordered paperback
   
3. American Nature Writing: USFS 1919:
4. The Ranger, the Cook, and a Hole in the Sky by Norman McClean (Montana 1919)
5. Mystic River –  Dennis Lehane
   
6. The Scared Stiff  – Donald Westlake (Mort de trouille)
7. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café by Fannie Flagg
8. Ping-Pong by Park Min-kuy
9. Wilderness by Lance Weller – Ordered paperback
   
10. The Names of the Stars – A Life in the Wilds by Pete Fromm (Le nom des étoiles)
11. Out of the Woods – Chris Offutt (Sortis du bois)
12. The Relive Box and Other Stories – T.C. Boyle (Histoires de couples)
13. In Wyoming with Trophy Hunt-y C.J. Box (Sanglants trophées)
14. In Louisiana with The Missing – Tim Gautreaux (No disparus)
15. In North Carolina with Serena – Ron Rash
16. In Western Virginia with Razorblade Tears – S.A. Cosby (La colère)
17. Tenir jusqu’à l’aube – Carole Fives
    
18. Celle que vous croyez – Camille Laurens (Who You Think I Am)
19. Les faibles et les forts – Judith Perrignon
    
20. Troubles – J.G. Farrell (Hôtel Majestic) –  Ordered paperback
21. Empire Trilogy (Troubles, The Siege of Krishnapur and The Singapore Grip),
22. dealing with the political and human consequences of British colonial rule.
    
23. Mistouk – Gérard Bouchard, historical fiction from Québec
24. Le Messie du Darfour – Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin
25. Le Sillage de la baleine by Chilean writer Francisco Coloane.
26. Three-Day Road – Joseph Boyden (Le Chemin des âmes),
27. to Victorian England with New Grub Street – George Gissing,
28. to Albania with Doruntine –  Ismail Kadare (Qui a ramené Doruntine?)
29. to Nigeria with The Fishermen – Chigozie Obioma (Les pêcheurs)
30. NOT – Belle du Jour – Joseph Kessel
    
31. ….Reading L’Armée des ombres instead – Ordered paperback
    

Have a great July!!