NancyElin.blog

#Max Verstappen……World Champion 2022!

Max Verstappen…he’s done it again…World Champion Formule 1 Racing 2022!

1. Verstappen has become only the third driver to have secured the championship
2. with four or more races remaining:
3. Michael Schumacher took it in 2002 with six to go
4. Nigel Mansell in 1992 with five
5. Sebastian Vettel won with four remaining 

Quick Scan:

1. Max Verstappen wins Japanese GP and secures second world title
2. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc finishes P2 on road but hit with five-second penalty after running wide at final chicane and drops to P3
3. Race ended after 28 laps of the scheduled 53 because of two-hour limit following earlier red flag
4. But full points were awarded – contrary to the expectations of most the in the F1 paddock
5. Verstappen leads Perez by 113 points – with a maximum of 112 now available.
6. Anger among many drivers after a recovery vehicle was on track while Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasly was driving at speed
7. However, Gasly has been summoned to see stewards on suspicion of driving too fast under red flag
8. Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz aquaplanes off and is out of the race, Alex Albon also retires with mechanical problem in Williams

• There will be “trolls” on social media who will still complain about Max Verstappen’s win
• Do we care?
• Hell, no! “Damn the torpedos, full speed ahead”!
• We still have 4 more races….so see you in (time: Central European Time (CET)

THE TEAM

THE DUTCH FANS AT HOME CIRCUIT @ GPZandvoort

#PrixGoncourt shortlist Le mage de Kremlin

OKTOBER

by Giuliano da Empoli

Finish date: 29 September 2022
Genre: novel (288 pg)
Rating: D
Review: Le mage de Kremlin  (ISBN: 9782072958168)

UPDATE: 05 October 2022
Le mage de Kremlin” made it to the shortlist #PrixGoncourt 2022. Please
@AcadGoncourt
tell me why THIS book is better than Sarah Jollien-Fardel’s book
@wespieser
“Sa préférée” Read both books (reviews on blog). Le mage de Kremlin …read and weep.

Bad news: If chapter one is any indication what the rest of the book will be like….I hope I can at least read 50% before I decide to toss it! Reading this book is like pulling teeth!

Bad news: Writing is cluttered, overwritten…too many adjectives and not enough ideas.
Ch 3…bored to tears…but I keep reading. Give the author a chance to redeem himself.

Good news: After 28% of the book (ch 8) the author introduces me to Berezovsky. Well known personage in Russian politics…creating the political party that would bring Putin to power. Now I feel for the first time ‘the historical fiction’ the author intended.
Unobtrusive history…..depending on a believable and reasonably accurate setting; often includes. actual historical personages.

Personal: Despite a very slow start…I did manage to learn more about Russian politics (1998-2005). That is the beauty of historical fiction….it breathes life into some important personages (…in this case Berezovsky). My initial optimism for this book after 8 chapters… has been quashed. Interesting concept…a narrator is the  “fly-on-the-wall” aide to Putin…but all that happens have been in the news and written about in many books. So nothing new here….

Examples: explosion apt buildings to trigger invasion of Chechnya
Boris Berezovsky’s attempt to ruin Putin’s imago. (when officials misled and manipulated the public and news media about Kursk submarine disaster (Aug 2000) and refused help from other countries’ ships nearby. President Vladimir Putin initially continued his vacation at a seaside resort in Sochi “Why should I go there, they are all ready dead”)

• No, this is not a prize winning book (longlist Prix Goncourt 2022).
• #disappointed #deçu

#RIPXVII Mexican Gothic

OCTOBER

by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Finish date: 01 October 2022
Genre: novel
Rating: A
Review: Mexican Gothic (ISBN: 978-1529402681)

1. It’s time once again for National Hispanic Heritage Month,
2. which runs annually from September 15 through October 15.
3. #HispanicHeritageMonth

Quick scan: Set in 1950-1952, Noemi lives in Mexico City, enjoying the parties, games and the flirting with handsome heirs to vast companies. When her cousin Catalina sends a telegram saying her new husband is trying to poison her, Noemi sets off to investigate her cousin’s strange claim

Good news: Mexican Gothic contains some excellent “gothic” characteristics: environment of fear, discovery of obscured family ties and nightmares, dreams or frightening visions.

Good news: I’m learning more about “spooky” books. Writers use the “dream scene” quite frequently to let the horror/supernatural explode in the narrative and scare the bejesus out of the reader!
1st dream – ch 5 wallpaper in bedroom
2nd dream- ch 8 intruder in the bedroom
3rd dream – ch 11 the house is really haunted!
4th dream – ch 14…very strange
5th dream – ch 18….sleepwalking

Good news: Excellent use of a cemetery to create a super suspenseful 9th chapter. Noemi is searching for something her cousin Catalina told her: “It lives in the cemetery.” Now, Ms Moreno-Garcia really has my attention.

Bad news: What is Ms Moreno-Garcoia’s biggest challenge? Try to keep supernatural (gothic) tales within the realm of the probable. Did Silvia do this?…does she let the book veer towards the absurd. Well, I must admit the book does go beyond reality…but in a good “scary” way! When you hear the expression. “the walls have ears”…well, believe it!

Good news: The house plays an important role as a setting, a symbol and a semi-character. This is one of the best part of the book…my imagination can run wild: house leaps out of the mist
…looms over them like a giant gargoyle
…the ebony porch groans and a
…silver knocker shaped like a fist dangling from a circle.
You can just see it!

Good news: Ch 6 -We learn the family at “High Place” (where Catalina is being held by her husband….) is cursed! The book just keeps getting better!

Good news: Buckle up…the last 5 chapters is a rollercoaster ride!!

Personal: This book is the epitome of the feeling and atmosphere of breathless and unexplainable dread. IMO this is the key to dark fiction…this is how you get under the reader’s skin!
“I’ve told you about the bloodline. We’re special.” ( pg 212)
If you like a good spine-chilling psychological thriller that will keep you turning the pages…this is THE book!
PS…I knew there was something spooky about those mushrooms!

#RIPXVII Romantisme Noir in Paris

The Nightmare

1. Discover  during RIPXVII  the work of the
2. …British painter of Swiss origin, Johann Heinrich Füssli (1741-1825).
3. Explore the most emblematic themes of the work of
4. …Füssli, artist of the imagination and the sublime.
5. From Shakespearean subjects to representations of
6. …dreams, nightmares and apparitions,
7. ….to mythological and biblical illustrations
8. …Füssli develops a new aesthetic that oscillates between dream and fantasy.
9. Exposition is now in Paris!
10. «Füssli, entre rêve et fantastique», au Musée Jacquemart-André
11. …jusqu’au 23 janvier 2023.
12. CLICK ON THIS LINK… and enjoy this animation of Füssli’s works
13. …created by the museum…beautiful and SPOOKY!
14. Also…browse through Füssli’s most icons paintings
15. PS: extra info via wikipedia about DARK  ROMANTICISM

#NovNov22 Novella translation French Sa préférée

by Sarah Jollien-Fardel (no photo)

Genre: novella in translation (190 pg)
Rating: A++++++
Review: Sa préférée (ISBN: 9782848054568)

Good news: Breathtakingly written…to-the-point…about Jeanne.
She manages thanks to her acceptance at a boarding school to escape an abusive household. She flees the grip of her father…but her mother and sister Emma were not that lucky.

Good news: I have difficulty with novels about abuse in general. Ms Jollien-Fardel writes in short, precise words and phrases that kept me within the limits I set for myself with these type of books. The reader enters an upsetting world. Jeanne carries a heavy burden…a family secret.

Good news: Ms Jollien-Fardel highlights the abusive childhood (25%) but manages to make the rest of this book about more than that. I shows us how Jeanne tries to rise above the trauma….and discovering how she does it is worth reading this book!

Personal: Best-seller in France at the moment…I hope this book will be translated very soon. I am so impressed by Sarah Jollien-Fardel’s first book! Winner Prix du roman Fnac 2022 prize awarded by booksellers and readers. On  pg 34….I was stunned to learn what the title referred to. You‘ll have to read the book to discover it yourself!.
Debut novella….I cannot believe how good this book is. When I finished it I was taken aback…speechless and just put my head down on the table…on my folded arms…closed my eyes and let the entire book sink in! #WOW

#RIPXVII Terry Pratchett

Rincewind the Wizzard

Quick Scan:

1. Rincewind starts out in The Colour of Magic, the first book of the series
2. He is hired as a guide for the tourist Twoflower.
3. The Rincewind series  (8 books)
4. follows the misadventures of the Rincewind.
5. These books are often used to explore the more remote and unknown parts of the Discworld.

Update: 03 September:

1. The Colour of Magic 
2. … it was impossible to read (first 50 pages) without doing some research
3. …via Terry Pratchett Wiki page.
4. Without this website I could not follow the story!
5. DNF after reading 25%
6. …putting this book on the back burner.
7. After a good nights sleep….
8. I will  TRY to finish the  AUDIO book!

1. Great A’Tuin is a turtle…with  four World Elephants and a disc-shaped world 
2. Ankh-Morpork is the largest city on the Disc with about a million inhabitants.
3. It is also one of the most common locations for the Discworld stories.
4. This is all difficult to digest
5. ….I need time to settle into Pratchett’s bizarre Discworld!

SEPTEMBER

by Terry Pratchett

Finish date: 22 September 2022
Genre: novel (pg 228)
Rating: D

Good news: I know there are better books to come in the Discworld series so it is now a matter of gritting my teeth and getting through this book. Paperback was not readable b/c my mind could not grasp the world-building and quirky characters that keep popping up! Switched to audio book and use the “voices” to differentiate as to who’s who!

Bad news: This is THE most difficult audio book I’ve encountered ins many years. Luckily is is just 7 hrs 58 min. Terrible narration …but that is the least of my worries. I just have to understand what’s going on!

Bad news: The narrator is definitely not my favourite. 90% of his character voices sound like a whiney 10 year old. I just had top grin and bear it!

NOTE:  27 October 2022: A scheduled publication of new audiobooks is expected…so perhaps wait until then…listen to a sample and perhaps you will like it (Audible.com)

Bad news: I have NO imagination. I struggled in the beginning to understand what Pratchett was saying! Example: Rincewind has luggage with hundreds of little legs. Prachett used our modern “carry on luggage with wheels” and turned it into something for Discworld. The luggage follows him everywhere, generally attacking anything it perceives as a threat to Rincewind.  Another example: inn-sewer-ants-polly-sea = insurance policy
If I don’t get through this…I’ll never finish this series!

Personal: Not the best book to start a series….I’m sure many people gave up as I almost did. Now that I have finally finished this book I want  to move quickly on to better books in Prachett’s imaginative world!

NOTES:

1. The  DISC Gods played games with the fates of people so they had
2. …a large temple-like game room at the top of the whole thing.
3. Here they used a large round flat game-board which was actually the Disc.
4. The game was like a board game and there was
5. …a pin in the center of the board shaped like Cori Celesti.

1. Blind Io is the Chief of the Gods.
2. He is completely blind but instead has countless eyes orbiting his head.
3.  He and the other gods play games with the lives of mortals.
4. NOTE:
5. I am in AWE the world-building
6. …the work of Pratchett’s amazing imagination!!

Sea trolls:

1. A sea troll was a species of troll. Sea trolls were made up of animated water.
2. They were not native to the Discworld and came from Bathys.
3. Sea Trolls are elemental (…all water!) unlike the native Discworld trolls.
4. NOTE:  Troll comes from another Discworld: Bathys = completely of water (see image)
5. How does Pratchett think of all this?  BATHYS = Bath = bathtub or BATH, England!

Good news:

1. This is a great series of 41 books…and so worth the time and effort to read them!
2. WHERE TO START WITH DISCWORLD?
3. The Discworld is the fictional setting of Terry Pratchett’s most iconic series.
4. All the Discworld novels take place on a flat, circular world which sits on the back of four elephants
5. …which stand on the back of a giant star turtle.
6. Although this world may look and sound completely different to our own
7. the Discworld novels explore a multitude of very human issues.
8. You’ll find all 41 Discworld novels with short synopsis
9. … in the order they were published. “HERE”
10. The Discworld novels can be read in any order!

I

#RIPXVII Best Horror Novel 2021

Beware of haunted houses….

SEPTEMBER

by Ben Pienaar (no photo)

Finish date: 05 September 2022
Genre: horror novel
Rating: C
Review: Holly and the Nobodies (ISBN:9781953905154 )

Good news: This book is a slow burner. Chapters 1-22…story feels simple and not very scary but all I can say is keep reading even if you feel your eyes glaze over. No spoilers but…once James is finally in the haunted house to rescue his girlfriend Alex….then the book  does get better.

Bad news: There are several chapters that just felt like Ben Pienaar was “stuffing” the book with useless scenes that should have been edited out because they add nothing. The chapters had NO scary element and did not push the story line an inch further! That’s when I doubted if I would finish the book….but I did.

Personal: I had to force my self through at least 50% of the book. The build up was slow (who’s who…James, Alex, Holly etc). The character development was non existent. The entire book is them reacting to things around them were.  I missed lines and moments that hint at what’s to come. I felt no sense of doom and dread...just times of jick, disgust reading pointless horror.

Holly and the Nobodies won the Aurealis Awards 2021 for Best Horror Novel Australia’s premier awards for speculative fiction Did I like the book? Let’s just say I’ve read worse!

#Hispanic Heritage Month Ms Rojas Contreras

SEPTEMBER
by Ingrid Rojas Contreras

Finish date: 17 September 2022
Genre: memoir
Rating: D
Review: The Man Who Could Move Clouds: A Memoir (ISBN: 9780385546676)

It is National Hispanic Heritage Month,
which runs annually from September 15 through October 15.
#HispanicHeritageMonth

Good news: Every book has some good qualities! I looked for
nuggets of wisdom…good quotes: “Healing came from accepting that some things that touch us change us forever.” This was the core message in the book. Ms Rojas Contreas experienced 8 weeks of
amnesia and she wants to share her story with the world.

Bad news: While the first half of the book was good…
…I felt my interest start to decline after reading 55%..
It became repetitious and tedious…with all the
dreams, nightmares, ghosts, spirits and stories about
the healers in her family history:
grandfather Nono and her mother Mami. Sometimes less is more.

Personal: I selected this book without doing any research.
It is long listed for the National Book Awards 2022 for nonfiction…so
Ms Rojas Contreras is doing something right!
Perhaps other readers may enjoy this book …it was
just not my “cup of tea.”

#Hispanic Heritage Month Javier Zamora

Sonoran desert, Mexico that 9 yr old Javier crossed alone.

SEPTEMBER

by Javier Zamora

Finish date: 02 June 2022
Genre: poems
Rating: A+++
Review: Unaccompanied (ISBN: 9781556595110)

1. In the U.S., it’s time once again for National Hispanic Heritage Month,
2. which runs annually from September 15 through October 15.
3. #HispanicHeritageMonth

Good news:
1. Zamora details his experience emigrating from El Salvador to the U.S. at age nine… a heartbreaking account of leaving behind the grandmother who raised him to join parents he barely remembered.
2. 1990 – Javier born in La Herradura El Salvador.
3. 1992 – father flees El Sal b/c of Civil war.
4. 1995 – mother follows husband to USA
5. 1995 – 1999 – granny (abuelita) raises Javier
6. 1999 – 9 yr old Javier follows a 9 week odyssey to USA….alone.

These poems in free verse are the basis for Zamora’s new memoir “Solito” forthcoming on 06 September 2022.

JZ earned BA University of Calif Berkley
JZ earned MFA at New York University
JZ received Wallace Stegner Fellow 2016-2018 at Stanford University

Good news: The book still lingers in my mind after finishing it yesterday. That is always a good sign!

Good news: Very impressed by Javier’s journey and how he has studied in USA to reach literary success! There must have been many great teachers guiding him in middle and high-school!

Bad news: The book (94 pg) is divided in four parts. Parts 1,3 and 4 are very good. But part 2 deflates like a cold soufflé. There was NO connection with these 10 poems…too cryptic . Sometimes poems in a collection are selected from various time periods in a poet’s life.
It felt that Javier Zamora was in a different place when he wrote these poems. Probably only he can tell me what they meant…I could not figure it out.

Good news: 45 short poems and I loved 31! (69%) 8 poems were EXCELLENT…and I must re-read them today.

Personal: When you read about the immigrant journey in literature (novels, poems, memoirs) you get a different perspective about people and their struggle for a better life. Cable news in USA only wants to demonize them.
Please, if you find this book in the Kindle store, paperback, library…take the time to read these poems in free verse. Just read it as a story and before you know it…3 hours of your reading time was well spent!