Another tardy bookpost, this one accompanied with photos of bookstores and booksellers I saw in Belgrade. . .
Once again, the different pace of travelling has me squishing two months’ reading into one book post, and my entries for each book are mostly limited to basic bibliographic information. I hope that I’ll get back to my regular practice in the new year, perhaps even finish out these last few weeks of December by writing fuller entries in my paper Reading Journal.
Right now, that seems dubious, but last night I got my second or third night of decent sleep, an indication that “normal life” will resume. Still, my recent reading for December — which I will do my best to tell you more about in the new year — is representative of the juggling and jiggling my neurons have had to do over the last weeks of our trip and my first week home. I’d been reading another of Antonio Manzini’s Rocco Schiavone novels while in Rome, wanting to keep my Italian powered up, but then put it aside, mystery unsolved, about a third of the pages still unread, in favour of a French novel when we headed for French-speaking Marrakech.
I dipped back into the Manzini for a couple of chapters on returning to Rome, but then picked up a big juicy French novel (Valérie Perrin’s Tata) for the train ride to Nice, then on to Paris. I was still reading that on the plane home, and sank gratefully into my comfortable couch here with it — while also continuing to absorb a chapter at a time of Gabor Maté’s important book, The Myth of Normal. Back to Manzini’s Pulvis et Umbra once I finished Tata, wanting to ramp up my Italian again before going back to my Saturday morning classes in the new year (cannot believe that new year is just around the corner! Again!).
I’ve just finished Pulvis et Umbra, and after these months of moving between three languages (often at the expense of comprehension and clear articulation of my thoughts!), I’m ready to dive into a mystery or two, written in English. An armchair palate cleanser to clear out the year . . . A different kind of book than Italo Calvino gave us in If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller — his wonderfully readerly masterpiece of metafiction — but just what this reading traveller wants for the upcoming winter’s nights ahead. (I wrote about Calvino’s book, which I read in the original Italian but is readily available in English translation, in this post. Scroll down for #91, Se una notte d’inverno un viaggatore — my comments on the book are in English, of course!).
Yes, it’s true. After taxing my brain with reading in other languages, I want to relax into lighter — but still satisfyingly engaging — fare in English. So if you too are looking for something to relax with after all the shopping, cleaning, decorating, giftwrapping, baking, party-ing, etc. . . . you’ll find something here as well.
The usual proviso applies:
I say this every book post now, for those who are new here and as a reminder to regular readers: As usual, the numbering comes from my annual handwritten reading journal, and the italicized text below is directly transcribed from that journal’s pages (once upon a time, I simply included photographs of those pages, but too many of you found my handwriting tough to decipher, especially in the photographed format). Notes to myself, that is, so that I can remember a book and remember my response to it, rather than any attempt at a more polished, edited review.
I’ve used regular font for any additions to my journal notes and included references to any posts from my Instagram Reading account.
October Reading
69. The Last Word. Elly Griffiths. Mystery novel; Harbinder Kaur, detective; LGBTQ characters; Senior/elderly detective; set in Sussex, England.
The book I got free in the Buy Two, Get a Third Free at that WH Smith in Paddington Station months and countries ago. A standalone novel, but features characters we’ve met in Harbinder Kaur series, characters who began as amateur detectives investigating the suspicious death of an elderly friend — these characters having now formed a detective agency of their own. As in The Postscript Murders, Edwin and Natalka are once again suspicious of a writer’s death . . . and their suspicions are followed by more deaths and more writerly skullduggery. . .
70. The Paris Novel. Ruth Reichl. Romance; Coming-of-Age; Food; Fashion/Style; Paris; Young Female Protagonist.
Being able to download and read, while faraway, an e-book I’ve had on hold forever, such a magical connection to my home library. I’d been gradually working my way through Antonio Manzini’s Ah l’ amore, l’amore, another Rocco Schiavone book, and much as I was enjoying that, I was charmed to get ready for my end-of-trip days in Paris via food critic Ruth Reichl’s delightful foray into fiction. (I wrote about her memoir Save Me the Plums in this post).
You can listen to NPR’s Scott Simon interview Ruth Reichl about this book (or read the transcript of that interview by clicking on this link
71. Ah, l’amore, l’amore. Antonio Manzini. Mystery/Crime; Giallo; Police procedural; Rocco Schiavone series; set in Valle d’Aosta, Italy.
I continue to make my way through this series, although I have trouble finding a clear indication of the order in which to read them. I suspect I’ve read this out of sequence, but eventually I may piece them all together 😉
In this volume, Rocco is confined to hospital after life-saving surgery, and both gratitude and boredom compel him to investigate the accusation of negligence against his surgeon. Apt, witty, observant descriptions of hospital conditions and ample humour arising from Rocco’s particular combination of impatience and unwillingness to be polite — or to follow rules, for that matter.
Also fun to track the various permutations of l’Amore, l’Amore in the plot. . .
Apparently, this volume is the basis of an episode or two in Season 5 of the Tv series (available with English subtitles, I believe, although I’ve never seen it).
72. Black Butterflies. Priscilla Morris. Historical fiction; Bosnian war; Sarajevo.
Here’s what I wrote about this book on my Instagram reading account:
Let’s see if I can get back on track with posting here. Just finished Priscilla Morris’s Black Butterflies (shortlisted for last year’s Women’s Fiction Prize. My daughter passed this on to me just after I got back from a week in Belgrade: novel about a Serbian woman, a renowned artist and teacher, caught in Sarajevo without her family (her husband and her frail elderly mother have gone to visit her daughter’s family in England for the elderly woman’s health while she has had to remain at home for work) when war broke out there in the early 90s. Especially after we’d just visited Serbia’s capital, this hit hard.
Very moving (and disturbing, alarming) account of how quickly what we take for granted can dissolve — in this case, when nationalism stirs up old enmities. There is beauty, love, and hope in the narrative, and insightful observations about the difficult choices that must be made. Despair, deep sadness, alongside something I don’t quite want to call resilience—for fear that such a noun dismisses, even erases, all that is lost.
And yes, we saw much in Belgrade to suggest that the embers of those old hatreds still flicker….
November
73. La Disparition d’Herve Snout. Olivier Bordaçarre. Mystery; Roman policier; Satire/Social Critique; Domestic Fiction; Vegetarian vs. Meat-Eating.
I wrote this on my Instagram post (in my reading account):
I downloaded this to my Kobo when we were packing for Marrakech. . . I find reading a French novel is a good way to get my brain ready for hearing and speaking the language (especially after being in Italy for three months!).
I chose the book because it was a prize-winning literary roman policier available as an ebook. As much “literary fiction” as mystery, in fact. But under the magnifying glass: bourgeois family life, adolescent alienation, horrors of the modern abattoir and our meat-focussed culture. Graphically gruesome in parts, cynical in others, it is beautifully and cleverly written — and offers some moving images of humanity’s potential, of the small communities that nurture hope.
Recommended with proviso (“graphically gruesome in parts”! Will insist you think!). Watch for this to be translated to English if you don’t read French.
74. The Last Devil to Die. Richard Osman. Mystery novel; Thursday Murder Club series.
Paul picked this one up at Fiumicino airport (we were en route to Marrakech) when he had problems connecting his ereader to his library account. It’s the fourth book in the Thursday Murder Club series, and I would have preferred not to read it until I’d finished the second and third (I wrote a bit about the first in the series in my last book post). But we had some very lazy days to fill in Marrakech, and I knew my suitcase was already full, so I read it instead of packing it, and hope I haven’t spoiled the earlier books for myself.
And it was the right book for the moment, as it turns out. There are some beautiful and insightful passages about bereavement and grief in the novel, passages that I was reading even while corresponding with a close friend about her husband’s recent death. Especially since the series takes place in a retirement home where a small group of the elderly residents have chosen for their “hobby” the solving of mysterious deaths, the books often reflect on aspects of life in our last decade or two, and illness, dementia, and bereavement. I won’t say more for fear of spoiling the plot for those who haven’t read this yet, but I highly recommend it.
And, honestly, I still wish I’d squeezed this into my suitcase — I snapped photos of a few passages I especially appreciated, but this might even be a book I’d reread.
75. The French Ingredient: Making a Life in Paris One Lesson at a Time. Jane Bertch. Memoir; Paris Ex-pat life; Bold career change; Foodie culture.
Another library hold that became available at just the right time, letting me relax into English but also beat the train (virtually, that is!) to Paris 😉 You might want to make the same trip, sitting right in your armchair at home. Well-written, entertaining memoir about the challenges of working and living in Paris without having much French to begin with — and then the newer, bolder challenge of letting go of a secure position to risk all on an audacious business idea.
Okay, that’s it for my October and November reading — and I’ve mostly caught up with the books I read over these last four months of travel. New Year’s resolution ahead: To get back on track with my Reading Journal and my book posts.
But meanwhile, I’m also keen to hear what you’ve been reading — and, if we’ve read any of the same books, feel free to give me your perspective.
Or perhaps just answer a question or two for me, given the time of year:
What is your favourite book to give this holiday season (and feel free to qualify, as to recipient, etc.)?
What book would you love to find wrapped and beribboned underneath the tree?
Or — variation on the above — which hardbound New Release would you gift yourself (indulgently, usually you’d borrow from the library). For example, I borrow most of the mysteries from the library, occasionally buying one that’s out in paperback. But I love to sink into the latest novel by a favourite writer in a hardcover version. I’ll be picking out that book from a favourite bookstore next week in a traditional pre-Christmas outing with my husband. . . .
xo,
f
Frances, I’m not sure when you had the time to read anything! Thanks for your recommendations. Although I watch little TV, I did enjoy Rocco in Ice Cold Murders on PBS. I love Italian offerings and it comes with English subtitles. It really deepened my vocabulary of swear words!
Author
HAHAHA, yes! A Rocco piaccionno moltissimo le sue parolacce! (Rocco really likes his swear words! 😉
I didn’t know Ice Cold Murders was available on PBS — I’ve so far avoided Prime because Amazon . . . but would be happy enough to pay for PBS. Will have to check out what’s available here, thank you!
I’m so pleased you’re sleeping better. As always, your reading is varied and impressive. Your ability to read in different languages is marvellous. Many years ago I read books written in Greek but I would find it hard to do so these days, and my French and Italian are not up to the task. I loved the photos of the bookshops and kiosks – what a fascinating mixture of the familiar and unfamiliar. Serbia’s oldest bookshop is charming – the very beautiful tiled floor, the oval glass in the door, with its curves echoed picked up in the horseshoe book display – what a treat that would have been to visit.
I recently read and enjoyed The Engraver’s Secret by Lisa Medved, an Australian who divides her time between Melbourne and The Hague. It has a dual time line of contemporary and 16th century Antwerp, where Peter Paul Rubens and his engraver Lucas Vorsterman lived. There’s a mystery related to some lost Rubens drawings, and musings on the differences between art and craft, father-daughter relationships and academic competitiveness.
As always, thank you for sharing your rich list of readings, and also for your current IG series of European Christmas window displays, which brings me much pleasure every morning.
Author
As you know from having read books in Greek, it’s easier the more you read in that other language, and I also find that even in one book, I’m reading much more easily by the second half than I was in the beginning, just because I get used to the author’s rhythm and vocabulary. And I give myself permission to just gloss over words I don’t know, picking up their meaning from context, just as we did when we were learning to read English 😉
Thanks for the suggestion of The Engraver’s Secret — sounds very interesting, a mystery that teaches us something about art history!
and thanks for the kind words! much appreciated!
I am so pleased that Stu and I finally switched to reading e-books a few years ago. Mostly for the ease of having enough books to read when travelling. We always make time for reading, even when we are away. And packing books became a problem for us because we try to pack light… and considering the actual size of a book became an issue. No Hilary Mantel for us when we were on the move. Ha.
It was reading an article by Ruth Rendell that finally convinced us that we were not committing reader heresy. Rendell wrote that she loved her e-books, especially the time she’d travelled to a small island and ran out of books at midnight. I loved that.
I’m glad to hear that you are settling in at home. It’s quite an anticlimax, I find, to come home from a long trip. Especially once the euphoria of having my own teapot and being able to see friends and family wears off. 🙂
Author
I was so resistant to e-readers for so long, but eventually realized that so many of my students were reading that way that I needed to see how they were experiencing the books I assigned. And while I will always love the tactility and smell and visual comfort of a print book, I’m like you and just marvel that we could ever have brought enough books when travelling. Although we could at least trade paper books, not as easily done with the e-readers (has to be timed carefully, right?)
Imagine running out of reading material! (says someone who once lived on a very small island — and guarded carefully against such a horror!)
Yes, it is an anticlimax — and strange to be bumping into Christmas quite so quickly! But it’s taking a bit for the teapot euphora to wear off 😉
I started, earlier in the year, to read the first Rocco Schiavone ‘but then put it aside, mystery unsolved, about a third of the pages still unread’! I couldn’t have put that better myself. It had been so long though that I started again from the beginning and will hopefully work through the next few I have on the pile in order to get my Italian ramped up before I head back to Italian classes in Siracusa in the spring. (I wish I could italicize all your words there, but you get the drift and how it’s making me laugh.) The list with publication dates is here: https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocco_Schiavone. I have the next volumes on my ‘buy in Italy’ list, in addition to good storytelling they’re so small and light and therefore nice to haul around in a bag while travelling (and don’t shout what you’re reading at passersby).
I have been taking classes (not Italian; films) in the bookstore again and it takes all my determination to not accidentally arrive early every week and then have to browse/purchase…but I did buy a copy of a recent Donna Leon So You Shall Reap…very quiet, introspective…
Author
Siracusa in the spring! It will sound ridiculous if I say I’m envious, but . . . really loved Siracusa (our seaview room at the Hotel Gutkowski . . . )
And more envy, bookstore film classes!! Is that in McNally Robinson? Swoon.
I really enjoyed that Donna Leon, as you say “very quiet, introspective” . . .
Yes!! Our beloved McNally! 🙂
Wonderful suggestions as ever. You’ve inspired me to try reading some crime fiction in French, though perhaps not the one you’ve just read. I haven’t eaten meat since the 80s so I don’t need the reality check on how it’s produced!
I have a question. You mentioned the French Ingredient as an ex pat memoir. What do you think makes someone an ex pat as opposed to being an immigrant? Is it that their stay in a country is consciously temporary? I ask this because I’ve actually got into some heated discussions with English people who live in the south of Spain on this subject on my last visit to Malaga. They all describe themselves as ex pats and one even told me that “ the English are never immigrants we are always ex patriots”. They also all read the Daily Mail and endlessly bang on about immigrants in the UK. Now I come from an Irish immigrant family and believe that we like many other immigrant communities have enriched the UK. So I I have quite a problem with the term ex pat as it seems to only be used by white people from former or current imperialist nations.
Or am I being unreasonable?
Author
This is a great question, Maureen, and I’ve rounded up a few links for you . . . extending the question to include migrants and refugees. But basically, yes, “expatriate” tends to be a term reserved for white people from countries with an imperialist past or “settler” history. You can read more here, or here, or here.
Such an interesting question. I’d never considered it before but it does seem to imply being a temporary local…and a sense of privilege.
I miss the independent book stores which were in every town years ago. There is a small independent one just a town over where I ordered an Italian cookbook for my daughter for Christmas. I refuse to use Amazon. I usually get my books from the local library. As always noting your recommendations. On my list of books to read is Louise Penny’s latest on the Gamache series, “The Grey Wolf”. Mysteries are probably my sweet spot for settling in for a night of reading now that winter has arrived.
Author
So many good little independent bookstores, yes! I’m an Amazon refuser as well — good to have company, in that and in supporting those independents. Use ’em or lose ’em, and we wouldn’t want that! I’m Very lucky to live close to several independent bookstores AND a branch of our library.
Frances,I admire your multilingual “jumping”, from one week to another-I find it thrilling and, actually, enjoy it as well. My DIL is Bulgarian (no,I don’t speak Bulgarian,but understand a lot-there are similarities and she is quite fluent in Croatian-and a professor of German language)
Your list is wonderful ,as usual,and I’ve read only the Osman’s book,so,yay! And yes to e-books,especially when one wants to read books in different languages
And now,I’ll exploit your blog once more(I really don’t think that a semilitarate person in English- thats me,and I’m not fishing for compliments-could have a book blog),but I have some really good books to share
I’ve started with Samantha Harvey’s Orbital (2024 Booker Prize winner)- it is so beautiful,poetic,both intimate and universal,meditative and humanly uncorrupted from problems that we make on/for our Planet,the only one we have so far, and could admire it from the space more than living on it.
It follows six astronauts as they orbit Earth,16 orbits in the 24 hours
Lina Nordquist’s Hungry Heart(scandinavian author,her first and awarded novel) is an expressive description of difficult life and poverty in a beautiful but harsh nature. And some destiny twists,very sad….It reminds me of classic powerful scandinavian novels
Toni Morrison’s Sula,masterful,great novel,hands down
Alex Dahl’s psychological thriller After She’d Gone-Liv and her son are missing,journalist Selma investigates dangers of a modelling industry-how are they connected? New author, half- Norwegian,half-American ,I will continue with her books
Colleen Cambridge’s new Phyllida Bright Mystery Murder Takes the Stage-love it,Phyllida and Agatha are in London this time
I’ve had Bob Mortimer’s The Hotel Avocado on my list for some time,but thanks to you,I’ve started with The Satsuma Complex,and it was a good start
Louise Penny’s The Grey Wolf
Percifal Everett’s James-aw,I’ve loved this book,the perspective of Huckleberry Finn’s companion Jim
Barbara Pym’s An Unsuitable Attachment,liked it very much
Robert Thorogood’s The Marlowe Murder Club,lovely cozy mystery,the author’s take on Hitchock’s Straingers on a Train (the first book in series)
Peter Lovesay’s Against the Grain(my not-guilty indulgence)
Graham Norton Frankie,sweet and poignant story,my first Norton’s book,loved it
Ayşegul Savaş’ The Anthropologists,I recommend the author and the book,young couple navigating in a new city (possibly Paris),finding (or not) friends,new routines and rituals,keeping (or losing ) ties with their families in native countries-Frances,I think you’ll love it
Dottoressa
Such beautiful photos of books, books, books. I did laugh out loud a little bit at your “never read a Nora Roberts book” statement. I find that sometimes after I finish a really good piece of literature, I just need something comfortable and predictable. A Nora Roberts book or Hallmark movie… change the characters, time period, place, occupations and go… you know it’s all going to end up just fine.
Author
Let me quickly correct the impression that I think the books by Nora Roberts are not good enough for me to read. But my escape fiction generally tends to be mystery/crime novel. So many different reasons for reading, aren’t there!
Lovely photos & it doesn’t look like book reading is dying out in Belgrade anytime soon . Foreign book shops were frustrating to me as I don’t speak any languages to that standard but I did enjoy the smell . My birthday is a few days before Christmas & all I ever ask for is books . So there’s always a big pile to start in the new year . I quickly added the Valerie Perrin book to my wish list only to find it sitting in the bedroom bookcase . So I must read it . I learnt of her through your recommendation & enjoyed Fresh Water for Flowers . I also enjoyed the Richard Osman book . Some people are quite disparaging about his books . I don’t know if it’s because they are about old people or whether it’s just that they are easy to enjoy but there’s humour & pathos – quite like life I think . I won’t be reading about the abattoirs . I’ve been vegetarian for over seventy years & it’s a lot easier now to find interesting ( & healthy ) vegetarian food than it has ever been . However I’d like abattoir visiting to be compulsory for carnivores .
I’m glad the jet lag is receding & you’re getting back in sync .
I don’t remember who recommended The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters (it could have been you), but I could hardly put it down. I’ve just finished it and I don’t feel as if I’ve quite let go of it yet. Told in the first person, the characters were so real that it felt like it could have been a memoir.
Like you and Sue, I also resisted e-readers for a long time and still much prefer a “real” book, but knowing how much I love to travel, our daughter gave me one for Christmas a couple of years ago. It has made packing so much easier, especially since we usually try to travel carry-on only these days.
So glad to hear you are returning to your normal schedule, sleep wise. Jet lag seems to be worse in later years. As always, I enjoy your book posts and have found several great authors on your recommendation.
This year the books that stand out for me and that I recommend are; Tom Lake by Ann Patchett a wonderful book about love and family. The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng. A beautiful written book, that captures the time and sense of place of Penang in the early 20th Century. About love in all its forms and nationalism.
I recently read You are Here, by David Nicholas, and loved it. A modern realistic romance, with very believable characters. I am presently reading both Orbital by Samantha Harvey and All the Beautiful Things by Patrick Brinkley. So far would recommend both. All the Beautiful Things is a memoir of his time working as a guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, following the death of his older brother. It is truly a beautiful read. Musings on art, love , life family and human nature.
To add to the previous comments, yes it appears only white Brits or Americans call themselves Ex-Pats. I am an immigrant from UK (white) to Canada, but I think of myself as an immigrant, though citizen now. It appalls me the way the term immigrant is denigrated, and refugee even more so. Some where in everyone’s lost history there would be immigrants or refugees from one conflict or disaster.