Now that I’ve got some of you coming around to see the shelf-culling and the redecorating, I should catch you up with jottings from the handwritten Reading Journal I’ve been keeping this year. The last entry I shared from that little notebook was the one for Raynor Winn’s The Salt Path. Coincidentally, the next book I read also followed a path. I did share the notebook page for Sarah Moss’s The Ghost Path on my Instagram book account, but here it is again, opposite the entry for EDITED, November 9, 2020: Sarah Moss’s slim but intense novel is titled The Ghost Wall, not The Ghost Path. Whoops!
Mary Gabriel’s brilliant Ninth Street Women: Lee Krasner, Elaine deKooning, Garce Hartigan, Joan Mitchell and Helen Frankenthaler: Five Painters and the Movement That Changed Modern Art. . .
That entry carries on to the next page, and I’ve also posted photos of the book and of some favourite passages on my Instagram book feed, here and here and here.
Since we last chatted here, I’ve finished Denise Mina’s Alex Morrow series, and I’m hoping, hoping she will write another. Gods and Beasts is the third in the series, and it offers one truly compelling character who has had an intriguing dilemma foisted on him, who strives to act ethically in conditions that make that difficult. Alex, too. Alex continually works to discern what integrity can mean given the powerful imbrication of criminal and political and judicial systems. . . .Highly recommended.
And I’d also recommend Julian Barnes’ The Only Story. and have scrawled a few notes about it in my little journal. . . (way back in 2011, I wrote a bit here about Barnes’ Booker-winning novel, The Sense of an Ending, also with a retrospective male narrator, but quite different in many ways).
A few more words about this on my Instagram book account here and here.
In the interest of posting tonight rather than procrastinating yet again, I’m going to publish this “as is,” and see if I can move through my August reading and into September — before the end of October!
By the way, all these books were borrowed from Vancouver Public Library, so none require space on my recently culled shelves. . . .How much do you rely on your public library to supply your reading?
And have you, or might you, read any of the titles I’ve reviewed in this post? I’m almost afraid to ask what you’ve been reading lately — there’s sure to be a book that I will have to add to my To Be Read list, and oh, it’s so long. . . Still, I’m curious. What have you read or are you reading these days?
I’ve just ordered the first in The Alex Morrow series thanks to you. Haven’t bought a physical book in ages. All from the library van or occasionally on my kindle if I’m travelling. Just finished the most recent Peter Robinson. Topical as ever but I feel his writing is a little jaded these days. Possibly I’m comparing him to other writers I’ve read recently and he is falling short. I’ll enjoy checking out what everyone else is reading so that my list can expand for the long winter months. Happy reading. B x
Oh, I hope you'll enjoy the Alex Morrow series as much as I have. I'm two behind in Peter Robinson's oeuvre, apparently (I was surprised to realize he's written two since Sleeping in the Ground — and I see that when I wrote about that, I noted that I found the ending a bit flaccid. . . .hmmm.
And I agree with you — it's fun to check out what others are reading and pad our lists for winter reading.
Frances,
thanks for mentioning Julian Barnes. After having read "The Noise of Time" (my first Barnes) and beeing profoundly impressed by it I delved more into his books reading a few in a sequence. It was interesting then to note how certain threads are repeated from one book to the next; for example the sad late part of the love story described as fiction in "The Only Story" appearing as a true chain of events in "Nothing to be Afraid of"; and the recurrent motif of a wood worm (once you've read "A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters" you cannot not notice it).
On a different note: in my comment a few years ago, in response to your question about recommendable Polish writers, I mentioned Olga Tokarczuk, my favourite, who has just been named the Nober Prize winner in the literaturę. I'm overjoyed and once again recommend her books ("The Flights" came out in an English translation last year, and her major opus, "The Books of Jacob" is, I hear, being translated).
Best wishes,
Teresa
Teresa, I need to get to more of Barnes' other titles and watch for those recurrences. Interesting. . . .
I saw that in the news the other day, about Olga Tokarczuk — Hurrah! And thank you for the reminder — will put a request in at the library today.
Most of my reading material comes from the local library these days. Just finished Tracy Chevalier's A Single Thread (reminding me of Barbara Pym) and as I dropped it off at the library, Ann Patchett's The Dutch House was ready for pickup. Will start on that this evening.
It's such a boon, isn't it, having a public library to borrow from! Let me know what you think of The Dutch House, please? I very much enjoyed Bel Canto and Commonwealth. . .
The library has always been my go to source for books too. When I was young the Saturday trip to the library in town with my mother and brother was a long-standing tradition. My brother and I would each borrow our limit, read our choices and then each other's during the week and return the following Saturday for more. These days, depending on the library limits me somewhat to what's on the shelves (for some reason I've never got into the habit of requesting books) so I often read series out of order. The Alex Morrow series is a case in point, but I am enjoying it nonetheless. The second-hand bookstore is my second source and I thought of you when I picked up a book there recently, "Paris to the Moon" by Adam Gopnik. It's a series of essays about the five years he spent in Paris with his wife and infant son in the mid-nineties- fascinating, though wordy!
Frances in Sidney
I hadn't been in the habit of requesting books either, but being able to do this online has changed my reading life immeasurably — in tandem with another option offered by our public library system here, the For Later shelf. Whenever I see a review or even just a mention of a title I'd like to read, I go online and add it to my For Later shelf and/or my Hold requests — instead of making a note but forgetting about it, as I often did before.
I loved Paris to the Moon–and until last month's culling, I had a 19-year-old hardcover copy on my bookshelves. To be honest, as I write this, I've just got up to see if it might still be there, but it's gone and I'm feeling just the teeniest bit anxious about that 😉 Reminding myself that the library has a copy. . . and second-hand bookstores! (is yours hardcover or paperback?)
Will I ever find a book you haven't read!!! Mine's a paperback copy and I really enjoy just dipping into it now and again. His account of the campaign to save a neighbourhood cafe from becoming a franchise is one of my favourites.
Frances in Sidney
Frances, I was so pleased to discover Keigo Higashino's mysteries through you — and I mentioned you in this post materfamiliasreads.blogspot.com/2018/03/three-more-mysteries.html>
As for the Gopnik memoir, I don't think I would have visited the huge Bibliothèque Nationale if it weren't for him — that's a photo of me on its steps, at least 10 years ago, top right column on this page. . .
Some of my favourites child memories are connected with visiting the library…luckily, we have digital library now as well and I'm so happy about it-although I love "real books"
How could it happen that I didn't read Denise Mina?
And,although you didn't write it here,I've seen on IG that you loved two of Elisabeth Gilbert books-now I have to read them. I didn't like Comitted and didn't follow her new(er) books so far
Brava for Olga Tokarczuk!
I was impressed lately by biography of Alice Herz-Sommers,the world's oldest living (than) Holocaust survivor,A Century of Wisdom,Lessons from Life….( book by Caroline Stoessinger)-I must admitt,more with her life,than with the book per se
Dottoressa
oh, I think you're really going to like Denise Mina — I learned of her through Sue.
I haven't been keen on Gilbert's non-fiction writing, although I enjoyed some of the Italian portion of Eat Pray Love. Haven't read Committed, thought Big Magic could have been drastically condensed. So I was surprised to discover how good her fiction is.
I'll see if the library has that biography, although like you, I have already too, too long a list. . . .but life lessons from a woman who's lived that long and survived so much would be valuable and inspiring.