NancyElin.blog

# NordicFINDS23 A Line in the World (Denmark)

Lynvig lighthouse Denmark coastline

JANUARY

  by Dorthe Nors

Rating: C-
Review: A Line in the World: A Year on the North Sea Coast (ISBN: 9781911668190)

Quick scan Dorthe Nors takes the reader along the coastline along the west coast of Denmark at Skagen in the northern tip of Denmark and runs to the Dutch city of Den Helder.

Good news: Writing: This is a book that reads so fluently… and yet is written in literary language and packed with complicated themes. The theme that impressed me the most was: “You carry the place where you come from inside you, but you can never go back to it…you have become a stranger.”

Good news: I used Google images. I want to know where the author is (Børglum Abbey, Lynvig lighthouse, Ringkøbing Fjord). In the beginning of the book there was a strong sense of place. Best chapters: Wadden Sea Suite – Loved learning about the Danish island Fanø and In My Distress – thrilling account of ships, sailors, storms and shipwrecks.

Bad news: 33% read and the book starts to collapse like a cold shuffle. Chapters about a large Skarra cliff…there’s not much you can say about that…and a chapter about visiting 4 churches. I hope this snooze fest is temporary.
Update: Unfortunately the snooze continues. Anecdotes about a hippie camps surfers living in vans and the unfortunate death of a toddler in the forest do not enrich my vision of the landscape.

Personal: Having read the book…I checked some items Ms Nors wrote about in Wikipedia. Many parts of the book felt like “historical fiction” …filling in the gaps with people’s emotions and conversations: example The Burchardi Flood of 1634. Ms Nors has the tendency to lapse into anecdotal narrative. This left me skimming a few pages. (ho…hum)
In short, the book title promised an interesting walk along the Danish coastline…
…but did not deliver.. No, this was not the nature book I was looking for. Perhaps others like it…I did not. If you want a engrossing “walk” I suggest Walking the Nile by Levinson Wood.

by Levison Wood (no photo)
...now that was an adventure I’ve never forgotten!

#Simone De Beauvoir Une mort très douce

JANUARY

by Simone de Beauvoir

Finish date: 09 January 2023
Genre: Autobiographie (124 pg)
Rating: A
Review: Une mort très douce (ISBN: 9782070361373)

Good news:  I was hesitant to read anything by S. de Beauvoir…not sure I could grasp her French and ideas. This book was a excellent introduction to her writing and I will try to read her biography this year. She was an amazing intellectual. In this short autobiography De Beauvoir looks back on a precise moment in her life: the last days of her mother.

Good news:  As the final farewell approaches does it produce a late drive towards love and reconciliation? Can the arm’s length adult relationship with “sa mere” change? Yes, the book ends on a bittersweet moment…mother and daughter are finally united in the shadow of death. Pg 90 “…une ancienne tendresse resssuscitait”

Personal:  Short book but is taking more reading time then I expected because I read every word…no skimming this book!
De Beauvoir raises some very existential questions in the last few chapters. Was this suspended sentence (“ce sursis”) of suffering…really worth the extra 30 days of life?
During the 1960s France was still ruled by an iron hand gloved in red velvet (Catholic Church) a “reseau de fer sous le velours de main douce.” (E. Zola, Rome) Doctors made NO concessions in cases of euthanasia or abortion “…ne transige pas: la drogue et l’avortement.” (pg 93). This book is an emotional fire hose about death, grief but especially about being loved.
The writing is pitch-perfect striking exactly the right tone. S. de Beauvoir makes the case…
is it not better to die with dignity?
#MustRead

#NordicFINDS23 The Rabbit Factor (Finland)

JANUARY

by Antti Tuomainen

Genre: Dark crime comedy
Rating: A+++
Review: The Rabbit Factor (ISBN: 9781913193850)

Quick Scan: An hilarious quirky thriller by the Finnish author about an insurance mathematician Henri Koskinen, who knows most of life’s answers because he calculates everything down to the very last decimal. Everything changes when he suddenly loses his job…and unexpectedly inherits an adventure park! It has seven quirky employees, none of whom could function for even a day in the real world. Of course, to make things interesting, the park is up to its veritable eyeballs in debt and a bunch of nasty hoodlums are demanding interest payments.

Good news: Classic structure: chapter one is the hook with an absurdly funny chase scene between narrator and a ‘bad guy” wielding a knife through a children’s park. Chapter two…flashbacks…how this whole story started. I loved the ‘shocker’ first sentences in many chapters.

Personal: Strong point is the comic effect of the main character who is lives by rigorous logical probability (mathematician)…is suddenly thrown into the chaotic aftermath of his dead brother’s shady “business deals”. Character development drips from the pages b/c the poor man must learn to act on gut feeling which he has never had! We feel so much empathy for Henri as he overcomes his fears, obstacles and make changes to survive! #Bravo Antti Toumainen

#Novella Marguerite Duras

JANUARY

by Marguerite Duras

Finish date: 02 January 2023
Genre: novella
Rating: F-
Review: Le vise-consul (ISBN: 9782070298440)

Good news: I finished it…by pure determination. I will  NOT be defeated by the first book of the year!

Bad news: This is a very strange book…I needed to read a summary of it after 2 chapters. I felt like I was in a maze…no direction…no real plot…where is this going?
Having finished the book I realised that Duras describes 2 main characters who are lost…just lost in Calcutta for different reasons. Their narratives are intertwined but Duras manages never to tell the reader why! Everything is left to “sous-entendu” (innuendo).

Bad news: The wife of ambassador of Calcutta, Anna, hates India because it’s hot. It is also about a man “Le vice-consul” of Lahore who feels that he is entitled to sleep with her… since she will sleep with anyone. She rejects him with utter contempt..he’s very upset screams his bloody head off at at embassy party and is tossed out of the building. More tears and screams ensue.

Personal: I’ve read a few books by M. Duras and was impressed. That is why I attempted this book. We read about people who look at themselves in the mirror and who dance slowly in circles. To make matters worse…pages of pointless dialog with more pages of strange noises and dark images.
This book is about absolutely nothing.  No, it was not a waste of my time because I did increase my French vocabulary.
Book in 5 words: Confusing. Boring. Unfocused. Rambling. Slapdash.

#Nonfiction Why We Sleep

JANUARY

by Matthew Walker

Finish date : 05 January 2023
Genre: NF
Rating: B+
Review: Why We Sleep

Good news: I finally learned what REALLY happen to us when we sleep. Fascinating!

Bad news: There were several chapters that were less interesting, but that is personal.
The book is structured so you can dip into any chapter and discover new things about ZZzzzz.

Personal: You won’t believe it ….but true. After reading this book I clocked in 2 solid nights of 9,5 hours of sleep! How did that happen? Well, just learning about what happens and why in our bodies during sleep was enlightening. I followed some of the author’s “golden tips” for a good night and they worked! Most important tip was: NO IPAD  or LAPTOP reading after 8PM…only print books. It is true if you use an IPAD/LAPTOP  2 hours prior to bed…it blocks 23 % of the rising levels of melatonin that helps us fall asleep.

#SweetDreams

#NordicFINDS23 Beartown (Sweden)

JANUARY

by Fredrik Backman

Genre: novel
Rating: A
Review: Beartown (ISBN: 9781405937733)

Good news: Hook is good! Chapter 1 is just 2 sentences…but, boy this reader is hooked! Former NHL-player (…and his family) comes back to his old home town in the north of Sweden and makes an immediate impact on former friends and enemies. And there is this feeling of something bad and disturbing lurking around the corner…

Good news: Good adult themes but when the chapters revolve around the younger generation (brothers, sisters and hockey players) it has a definite YA feel about it. There is plenty of conflict (rival hockey players…rival boyfriends) and adults confronted with their glory days playing hockey compared to the present. One is in a boring job (Peter)…one has become an alcoholic (Robbie) and we watch it all through the eyes of an ageing coach(Sune) who trained both boys to become star players.

Bad news: Too many subplots…they just keep on coming!   ..there are more!
The big game…must win to get sponsors money.
Rival coaches (Peter and David for the A-Team)
Old coach must leave..moved into retirement (Sune)
Complicated marriage (Peter and Kira)
Grief (P&K) for death of firstborn child
BFF – Maya and Ana undying friendship
BMF – Kevin and Benji undying friendship
Star hockey player removed from the team. Town is in uproar !

Bad news: This book (ch 1-29) felt like it was written purposely for  a contract for an HBO or NETFLIX series…a real YA – SOAP OPERA boilerplate.  And the one thing that is holding this story together is THE BIG GAME. You lose a game during the competition…but you don’t have to be a genius to know the Beartown Boys will win the finale.

Good news: Fredrick Bachman uses parallel groups (men/boys) who seek the most physical and strongest sensations (playing hockey) to avoid dealing with their feelings.
Old “hockey” friends” (Peter, David, Robbie, Tails)
Young “hockey friends”…still teens (Lyt, Benji, Kevin, Bobo)

Personal: Now, this book was one of the biggest surprises for me. I was definitely going to stop reading after 50%…I could not bear any more YA-angst. But suddenly Fredrik Backman creates the turning point (ch 30)…then the book just soared! Themes of loneliness, community, leadership and a quest for revenge. I was glued to the last chapters. This book just proves the point…don’t give up on a book too soon!

#January 2023 Reading List

• So it is time to  finish the last drops of the champagne 
• …eat that one last croissant for breakfast
• …then fill  the fridge with healthy food and
• …hunker down in January.
• I will try and read as many of these books as I can.
• I won’t finish all of them…but I wiil do my best.

Reading list:

1. Darkness at Noon – Arthur Koestler (Modern Library) REVIEW
2. Seeing – José Saramago (Nobel Prize 1998) – REVIEW
3. Mike Nichols: A Life – Mark Harris  (Nat Book Critics Circle finalist 2021) – READING
4. Floaters –  Martin Espada  – (Nat Book Award 2021) poetry
5. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man – James Joyce (Modern Library) 
6. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings – Maya Angelou  (classic #32 spin) – DNF
7. Hong Kong Et Macao – J. Kessel   NF (French) #WorldFromMyArmchair – READING
8. Why We Sleep  NF – M. Walker (BookBingo science) – REVIEW
9. Moderato Cantabile – M. Duras novella (French) – REVIEW
10. Les caves du Vatican – (Wikipedia)  André Gide –  REVIEW. (Nobel Prize 1947)
11. Une mort très douce – (Wikipedia)  S. de Beauvoir – REVIEW
12. Rome – E. Zola  (Wikipedia)   REVIEW
13. Le Vice Consul – M. Duras – REVIEW
14. La panthère des neiges – S. Tesson  NF (French)  #WorldFromMyArmchair – REVIEW

1. #NordicFINDS23
2. Man Who Played with Fire: Stieg Larsson – J. Stocklassa  Sweden (NF)  – REVIEW
3. A Line in the World: A Year on the North Sea Coast – Dorthe Nors – Denmark  (NF) – REVIEW
   
4. The Rabbit Factor – Antti Tuomainen – Finland  (Dark crime, comedy)  – REVIEW
5. Beartown – F. Backman (#NordicFINDS23 Sweden) novel – REVIEW
6. Resin – A. Riel (#NordicFINDS23 Denmark) novel – REVIEW
7. REVIEWS –(#NordicFINDS23) – Scandinavian Movies

• #DealMeIn  @bibliophilopolis (no formal hosting…)
• I just add a comments about short story  on Twitter.
• Rule: pack of playing cards = 52 short stories per year!
• Jay’s challenge was one on the first I ever entered….14 years ago!

SHORT STORY:    #DealMeIn hosted by   @Bibliophilopoly

1. The Other Party – M. Klam  19.12.2022   The NewYorker – READ – excellent
2. Notions of the Sacred – A. Savas  02,09 .01.2023  The NewYorker – READ – excellent
3. Hammer Attack – Han Ong – 16.01.2023  The NewYorker – READ – good
4.  

#2023 French Reading Challenge

1. I know many people are NOT interested in French books
2. ..but I plan to make a TBR 2023 with at least
3. …50% of my books in French because I love this language!

Planning:  classics

1. Thérèse Raquin – E. Zola 
2. Le Vice Consul – M. Duras – READING
3. Lucien Leuwen – Stendhal
4. Bouvard et Pécuchet – G. Flaubert 
5. Le Capitaine Fracasse – T. Gautier
6. Une mort très douce – S. de Beauvoir – READING
7. L’amant – Marguerite Duras
8. La peur – Gabriel Chevallier
9. Les Caves du Vatican – A. Gide Nobel Prize
10. Les Thibault (vol. 1) – Roger Martin du Gard  Nobel Prize
11. L’étranger – A. Camus Nobel Prize
12. Dora Bruder – P. Modiano Nobel Prize
13. Les mots – Jean-Paul Sartre Nobel Prize
14. Le Baiser au lépreux – F. Mauriac Nobel Prize
15. Le Chercheur d’or – J.M.G. Le Clézoi Nobel Prize
16. Pierre et Luce – R. Rolland Nobel Prize
17. Boule de suif et autres nouvelles – G. de Maupassant
18. Sentimental Éducation sentimentale  – G. Flaubert
19. Le fauteuil hanté – G. Leroux
20. Rome – E. Zola  – REVIEW

Planning:  

1. Le Voyant d’Etampes – Abel Quentin 
2. Entre deux Mondes – Olivier Norek 
3. Le Passeur – Stephanie Coste 
4. Les Mains du Miracle  – Joseph Kessel 
5. Berlin Requiem – Xavier-Marie Bonnot 
6. La Carte Postale – Anne Berest 
7. Pêcheur d’Islande – Pierre Lote 
8. Le manuscrit inachevé – Franck Thilliez 
9. Tokyo, la nuit – N. Bradley  
10. Je suis le carnet de Dora Maar – B. Benkemoun 
11. La petite fille sur la banquise – A. Bon 
12. L’étrange Défaite – Marc Bloch 
13. Journal: (1942-1944) – Hélène Berr  REVIEW

Planning:  #WorldFromMyArmchair in French

1930: Le juif errant est arrivé  – A. Londres (France)

1884: Au soleil – G. de Maupassant (France)

1963: L’Usage du monde – Nicholas Bouvier (Switzerland) – Un très grand livre de voyage.

1957: Hong Kong et Macao – Joseph Kessel (France)

2016: Sovjetistan – Erika Fatland (Norway) – French translation

2019: La panthère des neiges – Sylvian Tesson (France)

2021: Documentary  Velvet Queen  based on Tesson’s book (Rent via AppleTV) #MustSee

César Awards, France 2022

#2023 Modern Library 100 Best Novels Challenge

1. It is time to get back some serious classic reading in 2023
2. I started the Modern Library’s List of top 100 novels  20th C
3. …way back in 2017. 
4. I’ve read a few of these books but want  to complete the list
5. I will check off each book as I progress.
6. My past reviews are on my other laptop…
7. …so I will try to link them with this post soon!
8. Here is an EXCELLENT list on the 100 novels.
9. Just click not book and a pull-down menu appears with important information
10. Scroll: HERE

UPDATE: 12.12.2022

1. There are multiple selections by Henry James and I feel that
2. …there are other great writers to highlight.
3. I am not a fan of HJ and will replace his books with some other author.
4. How in heavens name The Ginger Man by Irish author J. Donleavy ever made
5. …the list is beyond me.
6. It was smutty “gutter” fiction
7. ….just an awful read. I suppose he was just out to shock readers!
8. My reviews are on an other laptop and I  will link them 
9. …to this post as soon as possible.

READ:   62/100…I still have 38 to read!

1. Ulysses by James Joyce – READ
2. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald – READ
3. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov – READ
4.  Brave New World by Aldous Huxley – READ
5. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner – READ
6. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller – READ
7. Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence – READ
8. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck – READ
9. Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry – READ
10. The Way of All Flesh by Samuel Butler – READ
11. 1984 by George Orwell – READ
12. I, Claudius by Robert Graves – READ
13. An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser – READ 
14.  Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison – READ
15. Appointment in Samarra by John O’Hara – READ
16. Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson – READ
17. A Passage to India by E.M. Forster – READ
18. The Studs Lonigan Trilogy by James T. Farrell
19. The Good Solidier by Ford Madox Ford – READ
20. Animal Farm by George Orwell – READ
21. The Golden Bowl by Henry James – READ
22. A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh – READ
23. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner – READ
24. All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren – READ
25. The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder – READ
26. Howards End by E.M. Forster – READ
27. Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin – READ
28. The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene – READ
29. Lord of the Flies by William Golding – READ
30. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway – READ
31. The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad – READ
32. Nostromo by Joseph Conrad – READ
33. Women in Love by D.H. Lawrence – READ
34. Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth – READ
35. Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov – READ
36. Light in August by William Faulkner – READ
37. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton – READ
38. The Wapshot Chronicles by John Cheever – READ
39. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger – READ
40. Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham – READ
41. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad – READ
42. Main Street by Sinclair Lewis – READ
43. The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton – READ
44. Scoop by Evelyn Waugh – READ
45. Finnegans Wake by James Joyce
46. A Room With a View by E.M. Forster – READ
47. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh – READ
48. Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner – READ
49. A Bend in the River by V.S. Naipaul – READ
50. The Death  of the Heart by Elizabeth Bowen – READ
51. Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad – READ
52. Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow – READ
53. The Old Wives Tale by Arnold Bennett – READ
54. Loving by Henry Green – READ
55. Ironweed by William Kennedy – READ
56. Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys – READ
57. Under the Net by Iris Murdoch – READ
58. Sophie’s Choice by William Styron – READ
59. The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles – READ
60. The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain – READ
61. The Ginger Man by J.P. Donleavy – READ
62. The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington – READ

#Non-fiction Lady Justice

by Dahlia Lithwick

Finish date: December 2022
Genre: non-fiction
Rating: C
Review: Lady Justice (ISBN: 9780525561385)

Good news: Ms Dahlia Lithwick can write!
She is a senior editor at SLATE magazine and contributing editor at Newsweek magazine.

Good news: It is time to learn about how women and their struggle to survive in the judiciary. You see then often in corporate suits, confident in the courtroom…but there is an entire network of lawyers, clerks, judges that chose to look away when confronted with #MeToo issues in the workroom. I learned about a well known secret in among the legals: Judge Kozinski was a sexual predator.

Good news: The rest of the book highlights many women who are impressive lawyers: Sally Yates – Robbie Kaplan — Brigitte Amiri — Vanita Gupta – Stacey Abrams — Nina Perales.

Bad news: There were chapters that do not click with me. It was a combination of the topic (did not really interest me) or the subject matter has been in the news already. Chapters 1-2-4-7-8 were excellent. 50% of the book failed to impress me.

Personal: Ch 8: This was the best chapter.  It was Ms Lithwick’s description about what happened during Kavanaugh’s hearing to appointment him to the Supreme Court. It was a fact finding process that …actually OBSCURED the facts… just a TV show pretending to be a legal process.