What did you read last month?

[flip]

i've read four (all more than a decade ago), including christie malry, and i'd recommend three of them -- albert angelo combines the humour and experimentalism of christie malry, and it's the one i remember liking best, though it does use some postmodern devices that feel overdone by now (that's also how i felt revisiting christie malry). a good fraction of aren't you rather young to be writing your memoirs? is brilliant, but it's an anthology, and there's some dreck in there too. and i really couldn't understand what he was trying to accomplish with the unfortunates, his book-in-a-box (where you throw the pages in the air and assemble them in whatever order they fall), not because of the conceit, but because of the writing.

and bs johnson by the pernice brothers is one of the catchiest two minutes of indie rock i know of.

[Roscoe]

A PERFECT SPY by John le Carre, re-read after a viewing of Errol Morris' film of le Carre's autobiographical THE PIGEON TUNNEL. I remember being impressed with the book of THE PIGEON TUNNEL, which struck me as being better than the same factual material fictionalized into A PERFECT SPY, which left me rather cold on a first reading -- about all I could think about it was that I was glad he'd gotten all that about his Dad out of his system. I still think A PERFECT SPY is overlong, but it worked better on a second reading.

[wba]

November 2023

Alye parusa “Das Purpursegel. Eine Feerie“ [translated by L. Klementinowskaja] (Alexander Grin / 1923 / Soviet Union / Russian / German) ♥
L’autre “Der Andere“ [translated by Gerhard Heller] (Julien Green / 1971 / France / French / German)
Odin den' Ivana Denisoviča “Ein Tag des Iwan Denissowitsch” [translated by Christoph Meng] (Alexander Issajewitsch Solschenizyn / 1962 / Soviet Union / Russian / German) ♥
Brzezina “Das Birkenwäldchen“ [translated by Klaus Staemmler] (Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz / 1933 / Poland / Polish / German)
Das andere Leben (Olaf Möller / 2019 / Germany / German / German)

[wba]

December 2023

Die Ballade des letzten Gastes (Peter Handke / 2023 / Germany / German / German) ♥
Gentleman Overboard (Herbert Clyde Lewis / 1937 / USA / English / English)
Zapisano v puščavi (Marcel Štefančič, jr. / 2023 / Slovenia / Slovene / Slovene) ♥

[wba]

January 2024

Meine Reise zu Chaplin (Patrick Roth / 1997 / Germany / German / German)
Dore Brandt (Alice Berend / 1909 / Germany / German / German)
Franz Pfinz (Oskar Loerke / 1909 / Germany / German / German)
Godekes Knecht (Hans Leip / 1925 / Germany / German / German) ♥

[nrh]

December 2023
The Queen's Necklace, Antal Szerb
The Psychology of the Rich Aunt, Erich Musam
The Famous Magician, Cesar Aira
The Perfidious Parrot, Janwillem de Wettering
Twice Lost, Phyllis Paul
Artificial Respiration, Ricardo Piglia

Comics
Talk to My Back, Yamada Murasaki
Procaryote Season, Leo Fox
Flippy, Nate Garcia

January 2024
Lands of Memory, Felisberto Hernandez
Zama, Antonio di Benedetto
Bird in a Cage, Frederic Dard
The Silentiary, Antonio di Benedetto

Comics -
City Hunter, C.F.
Bacchus Omnibus vol. 1, Eddie Campbell

[rischka]

i finished gravity's rainbow after putting it down a bunch of times. there are some nice passages but man was it tough to get through

he's doing melville wrong imo

[brian d]

23,000 (vladimir sorokin) ** - maybe moderately better than ice and slightly worse than bro, done with the trilogy
sartor resartus (thomas carlyle) [reread - liked it better the first time] ****
lust (collection of stories by roald dahl) * - plenty of misogynistic bullshit and rape apologism
the vulture (gil scott-heron) ****

some from previous months that i don't remember posting:
the death ship (b traven) ***
essays from tula (leo tolstoy) ****
the beginning place (ursula k le guin) ***
the color line (igiaba scego) ****
selected writings of elisée reclus ****

also just finished the catwings books, by le guin, reading them to my daughter. she loved them, but it's hard for me to rate things written for a young child. but they were fun.

tried one pynchon and decided i didn't need him in my life.

[rischka]

i knew i shouldve stuck with brian's favorite books list

[brian d]

haha, if you need a palate cleanser just pick up a lispector or a le guin and you'll be all better.

[Monsieur Arkadin]

i finished gravity's rainbow after putting it down a bunch of times. there are some nice passages but man was it tough to get through

he's doing melville wrong imo

I sort of felt that way about Against the Day but GR really worked for me in almost every way. One of my favorite books. I loved how as the book disintegrates, somehow the less I literally understand, the more I feel it.

Also the internet Rumors are swirling that PTA is currently shooting (a potentially modernized) adaptation of Vineland at the moment.

[Monsieur Arkadin]

Cranking through Pramoedya Ananta Toer's Buru Quartet. Just finished the third one, Footsteps, which is really where the whole thing starts to come together.

I think he gets compared to Mahfouz and the Cairo Trilogy a lot, but I don't think that comparison does him any favors. The writing is so much more utilitarian in Pramoedya. Mahfouz is pretty sumptuous in terms of mood, and location, and all his characters are multifaceted. Pramoedya is exclusively interested in the intellectual developments of colonized people. This book is where you start to see the details of dutch colonization take effect in the character's mind and develop into a leading anti-colonial figure, and that aspect is done very well.

[wba]

February 2024

Winesburg, Ohio (Sherwood Anderson / 1919 / USA / English / English) ♥
The Grass Harp (Truman Capote / 1951 / USA / English / English)

[wba]

March 2024

Eine gefährliche Begegnung (Ernst Jünger / 1985 / West Germany / German / German)
Dein Sohn lässt grüssen (Ulrich Schamoni / 1962 / West Germany / German / German)
Das Wallmüllerhaus (Hermann Wolfgang Zahn / 1930 / Germany / German / German)
Alf (Bruno Vogel / 1929 / Germany / German / German)
Das Flügelhaus (Kurt Kluge / 1937 / Germany / German / German)
Reclam. Die Kunst der Verbreitung (Various [publisher: Reclam Verlag] / 2006 / Germany / German / German)
Tendres stocks “Amouren“ [translated by Bettina Wiengarn] (Paul Morand / 1921 / France / French / German) ♥

[nrh]

february 2024
nest in the bones, antonio di benedetto
my last sigh, luis bunuel (with, or really by, jean-claude carriere)
jaguar's tomb, angelica gorodischer
objects of desire: conversations with luis bunuel, jose de la colina & tomas perez torrent

comics -
tokyo these days vol. 1, taiyo matsumoto
everything together, sammy harkham
parallel lives, olivier schrauwen
the little man, chester brown
what awaits them, liam cobb
bacchus omnibus vol. 2, eddie campbell

march 2024
prodigies, angelica gorodischer
land of smoke, sara gallardo
the colour of magic, terry pratchett
fulgentius, cesar aira
the light fantastic, terry pratchett

comics -
dog biscuits, alex graham
the complete works of fante bukowski, noah van sciver
mere, c.f.

[nrh]

april 2024
the last of the wine, mary renault
soldier of the mist, gene wolfe
soldier of arete, gene wolfe
soldier of sidon, gene wolfe

comics
monica, daniel clowes
time under tension, m.s. harkness
my name is shingo vol. 1, kazuo umezzo
hercules: adventures of the man god, sam glanzman/joe gill/denny o'neil
the family man, jerome charyn & joe staton

[brian d]

fields, factories, and workshops (peter kropotkin) **** - mostly for the final chapter on intellectual and manual labor
a wizard of earthsea (ursula k le guin) [reread] ****
autonomy, solidarity, possibility (colin ward) ****
the philosophy of poverty (pierre-joseph proudhon) **

[rischka]

i loved the left hand of darkness ♥♥♥ maybe i'll try the earthsea books too

now i'm reading the mountain lion by jean stafford

edit: this was magnificent. i felt like i was there

[brian d]

i've been wanting to read the mountain lion for a while, but haven't gotten to it yet. i'm interested to hear what you think. the earthsea books are definitely more young adult than the hainish books, but they read quickly as a result and are definitely enjoyable.

[wba]

April 2024

The Waste Lands (Stephen King / 1991 / USA / English / English)
Ein Schwert zwischen uns (Horst Lange / 1952 / West Germany / German / German) ♥
Die drei ??? – Das leere Grab (André Marx / 1997 / Germany / German / German)
Storia di domani “Geschichte von morgen“ [translated by Hellmut Ludwig] (Curzio Malaparte / 1949 / Italy / Italian / German)
Als Leichtmatrose nach Kalifornien (Egon Erwin Kisch / 1930 / Germany / German / German) ♥
Arbeit mit Charlie Chaplin (Egon Erwin Kisch / 1930 / Germany / German / German)
Hollywoods Natur, Kultur und Skulptur (Egon Erwin Kisch / 1930 / Germany / German / German)
Egon Erwin Kisch. In Hollywood wächst kein Gras (Alexander Kluy [editor] / 2023 / Austria / German / German)

[wba]

May 2024

Kvitleik “A Shining“ [translated by Damion Searls] (Jon Fosse / 2023 / Norway / Norwegian / English)
Sagenhafte Welten. Der phantastische Film (Rolf Giesen / 1990 / Germany / German / German)
The Woman in White (Wilkie Collins / 1860 / UK / English / English)
Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman (Thomas Hardy / 1891 / UK / English / English)

[nrh]

may 2024
bellefleur, joyce carol oates
the feast, margaret kennedy
the girls, john bowen
the waitress was new, dominique fabre

comics
blood of the virgin, sammy harkham
witchman, tom scioli

[---]

guess who reads again (its me i do, at least for may)

fictions (jorge luis borges) - 10/10
a raisin in the sun (lorraine hansberry) - 9/10
memory for forgetfullness (mahmoud darwish) - 10/10
black friend: essays (ziwe) - 10/10
are prisons obsolete? (angela y. davis) - 10/10
waiting for godot (samuel beckett) - 10/10
the garden party (vaclav havel) - 9/10
dust tracks on a road (zora neale hurston) - 9/10
wild thorns (sahar khalifeh) - 10/10

[wba]

June 2024

Die kleine Stechardin (Gert Hofmann / 1994 / Germany / German / German) ♥
La Cavalière Elsa “Die Reiterin Elsa” [translated by Max Pulver] (Pierre Mac Orlan / 1921 / France / French / German)
Jungfer Binchen und die Junggesellen (Alice Berend / 1920 / Germany / German / German) ♥
Le bal “Der Ball” [translated by Claudia Kalscheuer] (Irène Némirovsky / 1930 / France / French / German)
Ein Winter in Wien (Petra Hartlieb / 2016 / Germany / German / German)
Wenn es Frühling wird in Wien (Petra Hartlieb / 2018 / Germany / German / German)
Traumnovelle (Arthur Schnitzler / 1926 / Germany / German / German)
Sommer in Wien (Petra Hartlieb / 2019 / Germany / German / German)
How to Hitchcock. Meine Reise durch das Hitchcock-Universum (Jens Wawrczeck / 2023 / Germany / German / German) ♥

[brian d]

finally had a good month again, and pretty sure i didn't post may, so...

may:
mr fox (helen oyeyemi) ****
the ballad of peckham rye (muriel spark) ***
the singapore grip (jg farrell) ** - worst of the trilogy (best was troubles)
mexican gothic (silvia moreno-garcía) ** - first 2/3 was actually pretty good, then it loses the thread entirely

june:
the black spider (jeremias gotthelf) **
organ meats (k-ming chang) *
return from the stars (stanisłav lem) ***
lavinia (ursula k le guin) **** - tapers off toward the end, but overall very good
summer will show (sylvia townsend warner) ** - need to stop reading books about rich people
the mountain lion (jean stafford) ***
solaris (stanisłav lem) *****
rosemary's baby (ira levin) ***** - unexpectedly feminist and really enjoyable
the daughter of doctor moreau (silvia moreno-garcía) **
the scarlet pimpernel (emma orczy) * - stupid aristocrats
old babes in the wood (margaret atwood) ***
the posthumous memoirs of brás cubas (joaquim maria machado de assis) **** - lot of fun throughout, and a quick read

[rischka]

lavinia (ursula k le guin) ****

i'm (slowly) reading this now trying to make it last

[---]

juha (juhani aho) - 10/10
only in the meantime & office poems (mario benedetti) - 9/10
springtime in a broken mirror (mario benedetti) - 10/10
the sonnets (stephane mallarme) - 7/10
bestiary: or the parade of orpheus (guillaume apollinaire) - 8/10
maze of justice: diary of a country prosecutor (tawfik al-hakim) - 9/10
tales and stories for black folks (toni cade bambara et al) - 10/10
the black woman (toni cade bambara et al) - 10/10

[Lencho of the Apes]

mexican gothic (silvia moreno-garcía) **

I read one of hers, Silver Nitrate, a couple of months ago; she knew the history of the Mexican movie industry well enough to riff convincingly on it, roman-a-clef characters and making up (I assume) amusing gossip... but it wasn't strongly plotted, and she's no stylist.

[brian d]

mexican gothic (silvia moreno-garcía) **

I read one of hers, Silver Nitrate, a couple of months ago; she knew the history of the Mexican movie industry well enough to riff convincingly on it, roman-a-clef characters and making up (I assume) amusing gossip... but it wasn't strongly plotted, and she's no stylist.

yeah having read two of hers, it seems like she has interesting ideas (the way she played on mexican racial history in the two i read is intriguing enough), but i don't think she's actually that good at plotting or style. i'll take a pass on the others she's written.

[wba]

Finally had a good month again...

July 2024

Encre sympathique “Unsichtbare Tinte” [translated by Elisabeth Edl] (Patrick Modiano / 2019 / France / French / German)
The Feast (Margaret Kennedy / 1950 / UK / English / English)
Die Bergung (Hans Leip / 1939 / Germany / German / German)
Ich? (Peter Flamm / 1926 / Germany / German / German)
The Man in the High Castle (Philip K. Dick / 1962 / USA / English / English) ♥
The Dream Life of Balso Snell (Nathanael West / 1931 / USA / English / English) ♥
Fenitschka (Lou Andreas-Salomé / 1898 / Germany / German / German)
Sult “Hunger“ [translated by Ulrich Sonnenberg] (Anonymous / 1890 / Norway / Norwegian / German) ♥
Die Unbekannte (Reinhold Conrad Muschler / 1934 / Germany / German / German)
Bruges-la-Morte “Das tote Brügge” [translated by Friedrich von Oppeln-Bronikowski] (Georges Rodenbach / 1892 / France / French / German)
Nie wieder? Schon wieder! Alter und neuer Antisemitismus (Michael Wolffsohn / 2024 / Germany / German / German)
Le Château des Carpathes “Das Karpathenschloss” [translated by Hansjürgen Wille, Barbara Klau] (Jules Verne / 1892 / France / French / German)
Guards! Guards! (Terry Pratchett / 1989 / UK / English / English)
Miss Lonelyhearts (Nathanael West / 1933 / USA / English / English)
Winnetou der Rote Gentleman. 1. Band (Carl May / 1893 / Germany / German / German)