NancyElin.blog

#Breaking News !!

#GermanLitMonth XIII Hans Keilson

• Author: Hans Keilson
  
• Title: Death of the Adversary
• Der Tod des Widersachers (232 pg)  1959
  
• Reading:  book in Dutch
  
• Genre:  Historical fiction
• German Literature Month XIII
• Lizzy’s Literary Life –  @LizzySiddal
• #GermanLitMonth

Trivia:

In 1936 Dr. Keilson  (1909-2011) emigrated to the Netherlands with his future wife, Gertrud Manz. He began a new novel but he put the manuscript of this book  aside after the German occupation of the Netherlands in 1940 forced him to live in hiding in Delft. Death of the Adversary was published in 1959. The novelist Francine Prose, in The New York Times Book Review, declared it a  masterpiece and its  author a genius. 

Good news: Every reader has their reading preferences…mine is not historical fiction. I’d rather read the ‘raw’ history, but Han Keilson has changed all that. This story is about the narrator (no name) and his strong feelings of hate for his adversary B. This is not a spoiler but reading the book in the context of 1930s Germany one can only guess that B. is Hitler and his rise to power. So keep that in mind.

Good news: The strongest point is the use of the first person point of view that takes the reader inside the narrator’s mind…not unlike Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment. From the first pages the book took hold of me and never let go! Although the narrator hates and fears B. he tries to put himself in the other’s shoes. The chapter when he finally sees B. in real life is full of emotions.

Personal:
Some books just leave me speechless….this is one of them. Death of the Adversary is stunning. The book was interesting on a personal level. Both Keilson and I have adopted The Netherlands as our home.

The discussions with the narrator and his father were the best part of the book. The fathers fills his backpack (“zijn wereldbol”) with essentials secretly in case he and his wife are taken by the police. He tells his son to pack a suitcase not a backpack, buy a ticket and leave. You have a goal…..a future to travel to. (pg 194) Try to find it in the library…Death of the Adversary is a lost classic of modern fiction.

#NovNov23 Finalist: Prix Interallié 2023

• Author: Régis Franc (1948)
  
• Title: Je vais bien (160 pg)  2023
• Genre: novella
• Finalist: Prix Interallié 2023 is an annual French literary award,
• awarded for a novel written by a journalist. 
• Shortlist: 09 November 2023
• Winner:   22 November 2023

Good news: 

1. Just a lovely short book to  get me back into reading French.
2. Finalist for Prix Interaillé…book written by a journalist.
3. Hook  is very good.  In the first few pages, narrator tellls us  that
4. he sees his father in the reflection of a shop window.
5. Comment j’ai fini par ressembler à mon père.
6. How did I ended up resembling my father?

Bad news:

1. It has taken me a few days get accustomed to reading French after
2. so many months.
3. My mind wants to read books in English…but I cannot
4. do that until I finish this book.
5. Hopefully my reading speed will increase
6. …by the end of the week!

Personal:

1. The book is about Roger (1914-2014)
2. …the author’s father who dies. (pg 22)
   
3. But Régis Franc has  made me empathize so much
   
4. with the father and son  in  just those few pages.
5. The structure of the book is “bookended” by beginning
6. …and ending  with saying good-bye.

1. “Il ne chantera plus de mélodies simplettes et la rivière
2. continuera de couler san lui…..”
3. This description of a father who is dying
4. ...just took my breath away.
5. He no longer sings the simple melodies and the
6. river continues to flow without him…

1. How do father and son finally reestablish a close relationship?
2. …when the father likes to brawl and fight and
3. …the son prefers to dodge and evade.
4. What an ending…
5. You think you are so different from your father…but
6. Régis Franc must accept reality:
7. Comment j’ai fini par ressembler à mon père?

Timeline:

1. 2014 – we meet son and his father who is  now in a retirement home.
2. His father called it the “chenil”….the kennel. (ch 1-4)
3. 1939 – Roger is drafted, captured by the Germans,
4. …escapes and flees to his home in Carcassonne. (ch 5-9)
5. 1941 – Roger marries, starts a family and finds work.
6. He is 4o yr and life is good. (ch 10-12)
7. 1954 – Car accident  (ch 13)
8. 1960 – Mother dies…father remarries and son leaves for Paris.
9. 1974:   Roger decides to write a book! (1974)  (ch 11-16)
10. 1984 – Simone, (sister) (1951) makes unexpeced visit
11. to see her brother Régis …then suddenly she is gone forever. (ch 17-18)
12. 1958 – Backstory about his youth that explains the title “Je vais bien”.
13. 1994 – Roger’s second wife dies. (ch 20)
14. 1996 – Road trip to London, father and son (21)
15. 2014 – The final walks and long talks with his father (ch 21)

Régis Franc (1947)

Notes:

1. If your are thinking of learning a language by reading books
2. I would recommend choosing your books based on your learning goals.
3. I made the mistake of starting with Mme Bovary by G. Flaubert.
4. I had to look up just about every other word
5. …and it took me 3 months to read!
6. Try to find a book that is suited to your  comprehension level.
7. If you had some high-school French
8. …you could try one of my 3 “starter” favorites.
9. All the books are also  available in English
   
10. …if you want to read the book before starting on the French version.

1. David Foenkinos –  Charlotte  (256 pg) –  2016
2. Gaël Faye – Petit Pays  (Small Country) (224 pg)  – 2016
3. Philippe Grimbert  – Un Secret  (Memory) (176 pg) novella  – 2004

#Walkley Shortlist 2023 NF reading tips!

1. It turns out I have a busy few weeks ahead of me!
2. Here are the shortlisted books for the Walkley Book Award 2023.
3. I’ve only read 2:
   
4. Ghosts of the Orphanage – Christine Kenneally
   
5. The Palestine Laboratory  – Antony Loewenstein– REVIEW
6. Crossing the line  – REVIEW
   

1. Flawed Hero is about the same subject as Crossing the Line
   
2. …but by the another investigative  journalist Chris Masters.
3. The book is 700+ pages ….whew!
4. I’don’t think I can manage that book in November.

TRIVIA

1. I made my  short list predictions on 13.09.2023.
   
2. …that the short list will be:

1. Ghosts of the Orphanage – Christine Kenneally – shortlist
   
2. The Palestine Laboratory – Anthony Loewenstien – shortlist
   
3. Flawed Hero – Chris Masters
   
4. Am I right?
5. I got 2 out of 3…so that’s good!
6. The jury selected Crossing the line – shortlist

The nine books longlisted for the 2023 Walkley Book Award

• Jackie Dent, The Great Dead Body Teachers
• Christine Kenneally, Ghosts of the Orphanage
• Antony Loewenstein, The Palestine Laboratory
• Chris Masters, Flawed Hero: Truth Lies and War Crimes
• Nick McKenzie, Crossing the Line
• Ben Schneiders, Hard Labour: Wage Theft in the Age of Inequality
• Tracey Spicer, Man-Made: How the Bias of the Past is Being Built into the Future
• Chris Wallace, Political Lives, NewSouth Publishing
• Brendan Watkins, Tell No One, Allen & Unwin

• The winner of the Walkley Book Award
• will be announced on November 23.

#NovNov week 1 My year in novellas

1. Week 1 (starts Wednesday 1 November): My Year in Novellas
2. Hosted by   746 Books  and Bookish Beck .
3. During this partial week, tell us about any novellas you have read since last NovNov.
4. Well, this will be a very short post of my 2023 novellas!
5. I only read 4…and they were all by French authors.

Moderato Cantabile – M. Duras (150 pg)  English paperback, Amazon

1. Moderato Cantabile is a musical term.
2. It means means being within reasonable limits
3. …and Cantabile means songlike.
4. Unfortunately for Ann Desbaresdes alcohol amplified
5. her song and moved her actions beyond reasonable limits.
6. Duras’s adult life was also marked by personal challenges,
7. including a recurring struggle with alcoholism.
8. What I did enjoy was the vivd and depressing description
9. of a woman struggling with alcohol?
10. Ms Duras writes what she knows….
11. She dramatically represented the character’s
12. by speech, actions and gestures.

The Kiss of the Leper – F. Mauriac (137 pg)  English Kindle, Amazon

1. This is a great book to read if you are doing a challenge “Reading the Nobels”
2. Mauriac won the Nobel Prize in 1952.
3. Bad news: The book was too short
4. …novella just 137 pages.
5. I could have read it as a novel!
6. Mauriac wields a scalpel to construct his sentences.
7. This book is timeless….it feels just like a Jane Austen book.
8. The theme is  that mutual attraction is the most important thing of a marriage.
9. One who betrays his or her heart will never own true love.
   
10. It is much more important than money and social position.

The Stranger – A. Camus (144 pg)   English Kindle/paperback, Amazon

1. Bad news: I was expecting a masterpiece. Pas de tout!
   I didn’t like the style of writing (short sentences, repetative )
   I wonder why this book is part of classic French literature.
2. Good news: The quickest “French” read in my book case!
   French was so simple.
3. Personal: If you want to read an Albert Camus book.
4. …it must be
5. La Peste (1947) (The Plague, 256 pg)…that was excellent!

The Vice-Consul – M. Duras (169 pg)  English paperback, Amazon

1. Good news: I finished it…by pure determination.
2. I will  NOT be defeated by the first book of the year!
3. Bad news: This is a very strange book…
4. I felt like I was in a maze…no direction
5. …no real plot…where is this going?
6. This book is about absolutely nothing.   (Seinfeld-esque!)
7. No, it was not a waste of my time because
8. …I did increase my French vocabulary.
9. Book in 5 words: Confusing. Boring. Unfocused. Rambling. Slapdash.
10. #AvoidAtAllCosts

#NonFicNov 2023 Week 1

Meet your hosts!

1. Liz – Adventures in reading, running and working from home
2. Frances – Volatile Rune
3. Heather –  Based on a True Story
4. Rebekah –  She Seeks Nonfiction
5. Lisa – Hopewell’s Public Library of Life

How it works

Week 1 (10/30-11/3) Your Year in Nonfiction: Celebrate your year of nonfiction. What books have you read? What were your favorites?  (Heather –  Based on a True Story)

Week 2 (11/6-11/10) Choosing Nonfiction: What are you looking for when you pick up a nonfiction book? Do you have a particular topic you’re attracted to?  (Frances – Volatile Rune)

Week 3 (11/13-11/17) Book Pairings: This week, pair up a nonfiction book with a fiction title. Maybe it’s a historical novel and the real history in a nonfiction version.  (Liz – Adventures in reading, running and working from home)

Week 4 (11/20-11/24) Worldview Shapers: What nonfiction book or books have impacted the way you see the world in a powerful way? Is there one book that made you rethink everything? Do you think there is a book that should be required reading for everyone? (Rebekah –  She Seeks Nonfiction)

Week 5 (11/27-12/1) New To My TBR:  Which books  have made it onto your TBR? Be sure to link back to the original blogger who posted about that book! (Lisa – Hopewell’s Public Library of Life)

Non-Fiction: 2023   

BEST NON FICTION 2023    The Drowned and the Saved – Primo Levi

(TOP FIVE)

1. Why We Sleep  NF – M. Walker  – REVIEW
2. A Very Easy Death – S. de Beauvoir – memoir – REVIEW
3. A Line in the World: A Year on the North Sea Coast – Dorthe Nors – REVIEW
4. La panthère des neiges – S. Tesson  NF (French) – REVIEW
5. Hong Kong and  Macao – J. Kessel  – REVIEW
6. My Fourth Time, We Drowned – Sally Hayden – REVIEW
7. De Doorsons – Roline Redmond (Dutch book)  – REVIEW
8. Love Songs W.E. Du Bois – Honorée  F. Jeffers – REVIEW
9. Punch Me Up to the Gods (memoir) – Brian Broome – REVIEW
10. Halfway Home –  R.J. Miller  – REVIEW
    
11. A Knock At Midnight – Brittany K. Barnett (NF)  – REVIEW
12. Short History of Irish Literature – F. O’ Connor – REVIEW     
13. L’Armée du silence – G. Pollack, 2022  (NF) – REVIEW
14. On Becoming an American Writer – J. McPherson – REVIEW
15. Do Not Disturb  – M. Wrong, 2021  – REVIEW
16. The Man with Miraculous Hands – Joseph Kessel – REVIEW
17. Georges Perec – Claude Burgelin (2023) – REVIEW
18. The Scheme – Sheldon Whitehouse – REVIEW
19. My Own Words –  Ruth Bader Ginsburg (memoir)  – REVIEW
20. Mike Nichols: A Life – Mark Harris – REVIEW  
21. The Fall: The End of Fox News – Michael Wolff  (2023) – REVIEW
22. Killing for Country – David Marr (NF) (2023) – REVIEW
23. Australia’s China Odyssey – James Curran  (2022) – REVIEW
24. The Passion of Private White – Don Watson (2022) – REVIEW 
25. Bulldozed – Niki Savva  (2022)  – REVIEW
26. Crossing the Line – N. McKenzie  (2023) – REVIEW
27. Currowan: Story of a Fire – Bronwyn Adcock  (2021) – REVIEW
28. Toxic – R. Flanagan – REVIEW
29. The Palestine Laboratory – A. Loewenstein – REVIEW

Literature:

1. Short History of Irish Literature – F. O’ Connor, 1968  Intro  – REVIEW     

Memoir:

1. A Very Easy Death – S. de Beauvoir – memoir – REVIEW
2. Punch Me Up to the Gods (memoir) – Brian Broome – REVIEW
3. A Knock At Midnight – Brittany K. Barnett (NF)  – REVIEW
4. My Own Words –  Ruth Bader Ginsburg (memoir)  – REVIEW
5. Halfway Home –  R.J. Miller  – REVIEW
6. On Becoming an American Writer – J. McPherson – REVIEW

Biography:

1. Mike Nichols: A Life – Mark Harris – REVIEW
2. Love Songs W.E. Du Bois – Honorée  F. Jeffers – REVIEW

History:

1. Do Not Disturb  – M. Wrong, 2021  – REVIEW
2. Killing for Country – David Marr (NF) (2023) – REVIEW
3. De Doorsons – Roline Redmond (Dutch book)  – REVIEW
4. My Fourth Time, We Drowned – Sally Hayden – REVIEW
5. The Man with Miraculous Hands – Joseph Kessel – REVIEW

Travel/Nature/Environment

1. A Line in the World: A Year on the North Sea Coast – Dorthe Nors – REVIEW
2. La panthère des neiges – S. Tesson  NF (French)  – REVIEW
3. Hong Kong and  Macao – J. Kessel  – REVIEW
4. Currowan: Story of a Fire – Bronwyn Adcock  (2021) – REVIEW
5. Toxic – R. Flanagan – REVIEW

Science/Health:

1. Why We Sleep  NF – M. Walker  – REVIEW

French:

1. L’Armée du silence – G. Pollack, 2022  (WW II) – REVIEW
2. Georges Perec – Claude Burgelin (2023) – REVIEW

Political:

1. Bulldozed – Niki Savva  (2022)  – REVIEW
2. The Scheme – Sheldon Whitehouse – REVIEW
3. The Fall: The End of Fox News – Michael Wolff  (NF) (2023) – REVIEW
4. Australia’s China Odyssey – James Curran  (2022) – REVIEW
5. Crossing the Line – N. McKenzie  (2023) – REVIEW
6. The Passion of Private White – Don Watson (2022) – REVIEW 
7. The Palestine Laboratory – A. Loewenstein – REVIEW

#November AusReadingMonth22

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1. #AusReadingMonth22 is here hosted by BronasBooks
2. It is one of  my favourite challenges!
3. Here are my reading lists:

2022 LONGLIST:  (shortlist announcement 03 November) – winners = 17 November

CURROWAN – WINNER!!

2021 LONGLIST:

1. Peter Hartcher, Red Zone: China’s Challenge and Australia’s Future – REVIEW
2. Stuart Rintoul, Lowitja: The authorised biography of Lowitja O’Donoghue  READ….review ready POSTED
3. Marian Wilkinson, The Carbon Club READ….review ready – not posted  in Nov…sorry Brona
4. The Lucky Laundry –  Nathan Lynch – READ….review ready POSTED
5. Indelible City – Louisa Lim – READ review ready  not posted  in Nov…sorry Brona
6. Dark as Last Night (Tony Birch) (VIC)  winner Steele Rudd Award for a Short Story Collection  2022 READ….POSTED
7. The Carbon Club – Marian Wilkinson – (QLD) shortlist Walkley Award 2021 READ….review ready  not posted  in Nov…sorry Brona
8. Soil – M. Evans – (TAS) longlist Tasmanian Literary Awards 2022 READ….review ready  not posted  in Nov…sorry Brona
9. Telling Tennant’s Story: The Strange Career of the Great Australian Silence – D. Ashenden  (NT) READ….review ready not posted  in Nov…sorry Brona

1. Amani Haydar, The Mother Wound 
2. Kate Holden, The Winter Road (winner) 
3. Zoe Holman, Where The Water Ends
4. Louise Milligan, Witness 
5. Claire G. Coleman, Lies, Damned Lies
6. John Rasko and Carl Power, Flesh Made New

1. The Dictionary of Lost Words – Pip Williams (SA) – NOT READING
2. Richard Flanagan, Toxic: The Rotting Underbelly of the Tasmanian Salmon Industry – NOT READING
3. Backseat Drivers – Craig Cormick – (ACT) winner  non-fiction ACT Writing and Publishing Awards 2109 – NOT READING

1. Currowan – ORDERED
2. Fighting for Hakerm (Craig Foster) (NSW) ??  2022 or 2023?

University of Southern QLD Steele Rudd Award for a Short Story Collection

1. Dark as Last Night (Tony Birch) – READ
2. The Kindness of Birds (Merlinda Bobis)
3. The Burnished Sun (Mirandi Riwoe)
4. If You’re Happy (Fiona Robertson)
5. Lake Malibu and Other Stories (Su-May Tan)

TIP — NT = read a book about Ayer’s Rock/Uluru

Info: Lowitja

Learned about:

1. Oodnadatta
2. AyersRock/Uluru
3. Goyder’s Line

Story starts in Oodnadatta SA, NNW of Adelaide (1043 km)

The Aboriginal school is the biggest employer.

The Oodnadatta Aboriginal School, located in Kutaya Terrace, is a school operated by the Government of South Australia offering education from Reception to Year 12. In 2018, the school had a total enrolment of 14 students, of whom 86% were indigenous, and a teaching staff of three.

At the 2016 census, the population of Oodnadatta was 204 with Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people making up 53.3% of the population.

I’VE BEEN READING Australian books for just 1e years…and now names (Alfred Deakin)…that I recognize start appearing in my current books! I read Judith Brett’s “The Egmatic Mr. Deakin” in 2018.

The more I read about how Australian government treated the aboriginals…..the more shocked I become.

#GermanLitMonth Sign-up post

1. First time I’ve joined this challenge!
2. Usually I was reading Australian literature
3. …during November  for #AusReadingMonth.
4. That challenge was moved to October
5. ….and I have a lot of  ‘free reading time’ on my hands.
6. French is the language of romance and passion (…reading French novellas for #NovNov).
7. Italian is the language of music.
8. English is the language of business and social media.
9. …so what is the German language about?
10. I hope to learn the answer during November!
11. Visit the official announcement for all the details
12. hosted by @LizzySiddal
13. Plan: Four weeks…..4 books.

Feedback: @jinjer

I decided to join #GLM for the first time and celebrate all that is German! I read Dutch daily but it does not qualify for the challenge, too bad. The languages are so similar. I have a few books ready and one in German b/c it is not translated into English and the NL paperback costs 65 euro! I’ll manage with a short German book and a good online dicitonary. Read Buddenbrooks years ago…have fun with T. Mann .

Feedback: @lizzysiddal

Welcome to #germanlitmonth, Nancy! Just thinking out loud here, you could read Hans Keilson’s novels. A German who wrote in Dutch – he would qualify for rulebreakers week.

Feedback: @nl_burns

What a great reading tip! I found Keilson’s ” Dagboek 1944″.
Diary of the German-born writer, poet and doctor (1909-2011) who went into hiding in Delft in 1944 because of his Jewishness. Looking forward to reading all that is German in November!

Reading list:

1. Der Tod des Widersachers  – Hans Keilson
2. The Death of an Adversary 
3. Dutch: In de Ban van de Tegenstanders
4. 240 pg (1959)

05.11.2023

1. Herkunft – Where You Come From
2. Saša Stanišić
3. Winner German Book Prize 2019
   
4. 353 pg (2019)
   

1. Strafe – Punishment
2. Ferdinand von Schirach
3. 12 short stories
4. 224 pg. (2018)
   

1. Untern Birmbaum – (no english translation)
2. Theodor Fontane
3. Under the Pear Tree
4. 80 pg ( 1885)  novella

1. Hölle und Paradies: Amsterdam – (no english translation)
2. Bettina Baltschev
3. Hell and Paradise: Amsterdam
   
4. 168 pg.  ( 2016)
5. Well, I HAVE to read this one!

#AusReadingMonth23 The Palestine Laboratory

• Author: Antony Loewenstein (born in Melbourne, Australia)
  
• Title: The Palestine Laboratory  (320 pg)  2023
• Genre: Non-fiction
• Walkley Book Award 2023 – longlist
• 02 November shortlist to be announced
• 23 November winner Walkley Book Award 2023 to be announced.
• Australian TBR List
• #AusReadingMonth23 @ This Reading Life (Brona’s Books)

Conclusion:

1. The book goes into detail about  “occupation”
2. …the methods of control and separation of populations
3. It is a marketing tool that Israel sells to other countries!
4. This is a warning that depotism can be easily shareable with
5. …compact technology.
6. The main message in the book is to expose the
7. …past and current Israeli defense deals 
8. that you never read about in the news!
9. 2020 survey across 34 countries:
10. 44% polled were content with democracy
11. 52% …were not.
12. Israel is the ultimate model and goal for
13. …countries with the ideology of maintaining
14. groups of people with shared
15. …religious and ethnic backround (White Supremacy)
16. This book is a real eye-opener!

Last thoughts: I

1. Israel uses Palestine (Gaza, West Bank) as a laboratory
2. to test their methods of control of people!
3. The best-known Israeli lawyer  who is fighting
4. …the defense sector is Eitay Mack.
5. He reveals information uncoverd
6. when he submitted a  several freedom of information requests.
7. Israel’s role in Pinochet’s brutality is still clouded in some mystery.
8. Israel refuses to release a full accounting of its role.
9. There are rumors that the government had moved documents
10. from state to army archives.
11. The Israeli army archives are not open
12. …to freedom of information requests.
13. It appears that Israel is a major arms supplier
14. …to Chile’s Pinochet, South Sudan,
15. …Syria, Rwanda, South-Africa, US-Mexico border
16. ….the list goes on and on!
17. This was such a difficult book to read b/c it is shocking
    
18. ….especially with all that is happening in the Middle East.
19. My opinion of Israel has changed dramatically!

Last thoughts: II

1. Chapter 6 “Israeli Mass Surveillance in the Brain of Your Phone”
2. …sent chills down my spine.
3. It was not until Pegasus spyware (developed by Israel)
4. was exposed in 2022 as having
5. been used on Israeli citizens…was the Israeli public
6. outraged about the possibility of abuse of its technology.
7. The use of the Pegasus spyware is a serious violation of human rights and
8. goes  much further than Watergate and George Orwell’s 1984!
9. At the moment there is in investigation
10. …about  the use of Pegasus by European member states
11. to spy on journalists, political oppoents, human rights activists and lawyers.
12. This concerns Poland, Greece, Hungary, Spain…and The Netherlands!!
13. Read this book!
    

#RIPXVIII Shirley Jackson

• Author: Shirley Jackson
  
• Title: Dark Tales (208 pg)  2016
• Genre: Short stories ( 17 stories)
  
• #RIPXVIII @perilreaders   (Instagram)

1. I must take a break from sciene fiction, Australian non-fiction
2. and enjoy some “scary stuff” to get me into the Halloween mood!
3. This bookcover just captured my attention.
4. It shouts: “Read me!”
5. Today Tracy @Bitter Tea and Mystery posted some short story reads
6. …and I just had to join her.
7. Shirley Jackson never disappoints in my opinion
8. She always finds….something sinister in suburbia!
9. As soon as I finish these stories…I’ll add the table on contents
10. …to this post with my  impression of the ‘scary tales”.

Biography about Shirley Jackson by Ruth Franklin… is not to be missed!