Wednesday 19 February 2020

Stories & Shout Outs #28


I Am Reading:
  • Moby-Dick | Herman Melville | #slowread
  • War and Peace | Leo Tolstoy | chapter-a-day
  • The Rotters' Club | Jonathan Coe
  • Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat | Samin Nosrat
  • The Gravity of Us | Phil Stamper | my YA lunch time read.

New to the Pile:
  • Here Until August | Josephine Rowe | Stella Prize longlist 2020
  • The Eighth Life | Nino Haratischvili
  • Fire Country | Victor Steffensen
  • The Dictionary of Lost Words | Pip Williams | ARC | April release | Affirm Press
  • The Animals in that Country | Laura Jean McKay | ARC | April release | Scribe Publications

On My Radar:
  • One Hundred Years of Solitude readalong with Silvia & Ruth starts on 6th March.
    • This will be a reread for me.
    • I first read it in 1996.
    • My Penguin edition is translated by Gregory Rabassa.
    • Silvia has written a fabulous introductory post, complete with schedule & notes on the names, symbolism and magic realism.
  • Paula @Book Jotter hosts the marvellous Dewithon every March. 
    • It's a great chance to read books set in Wales or by Welsh authors.
    • I'm planning to read Under Milkwood by Dylan Thomas if I can find where Mr Books has 'shelved' it.
Cover Lover:
  • When trying to find my Penguin cover for the upcoming One Hundred Years of Solitude Read Along, I discovered an array of gorgeous cover choices.
  • Which one do you prefer?
  • I'm rather partial to the lush green garden, but the moustache on that skeleton also amuses me.


Keeping An Eye On:
  • The Stella Prize 2020 Longlist
    • My money is on The Yield | Tara June Winch
    • I've also read There Was Still Love | Favel Parrett
    • I hope to read the Josephine Rowe (see above), Song Spirals & The House of Youssef.
  • The Women's Prize longlist will be announced on the 3rd March.
  • I've now read 14 of the International Dublin Literary Award 2020 VERY LONG longlist.
    • I will read at least one more | Where the Crawdads Sing | my March book group book.
    • Curious to see which ones will get shortlisted on the 2nd April.
  • Waiting with baited breath to see who will appear on this year's Sydney Writer's Festival program.

10 comments:

  1. Have you seen Under Milkwood with Richard Burton - stunning! Hope you are enjoying W&P, Russia's Pride & Prejudice (with guns).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have not yet seen that production Bill. Mr Books studied the book at school and watched that production back then too (& loved it) , but together we saw a live production a few years ago at the Opera House with Bruce Spence, Sandy Gore and Jack Thompson. It was pretty incredible, although a little confusing for someone who had never studied it!

      I'm loving my reread of W&P. The translation I read 20 yrs ago was lacklustre & abridged. The Briggs translation is far superior and brings out the humour.

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  2. Wow. What a rich list.

    About the covers. I do like the ones you do. They represent the book well imo. The ones with real photos are too real, the other ones, the art of the covers doesn't seem to 'match' what I feel and think of this book. :)

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    Replies
    1. My memory of the book is too long ago, but those two covers seemed to call to mind some details that I vaguely remembered! My cover is the one with the clouds and floating figure, which at least is quite serene and peaceful to look at as I read :-)

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  3. I plan on doing the 100 Years of Solitude read-a-long too! it's on my list for my classics challenge too. I like the bottom cover with the tree!

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    Replies
    1. Lovely to have you along Sherry :-)
      I'm really looking forward to this reread for a more in-depth reading experience.

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  4. What a great combo in your list! How are you finding the chapter/day readalong format works for you? It always sounds great, in theory, to me, but in reality I end up missing days and then squishing together to "make up" and then it's all complicated! My copy of the Marquez is the lush green one - I just love it. Maybe it's time for me to reread as well. Hmmm, March is busy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I hope you can find the time to join us. The reading schedule for it seems very do-able.

      I love the chapter-a-day approach, and yes, I do have times when I fall behind. The worst I've had to do was catch up 3 weeks when I had big changes at work one time. But then another time, I read ahead 4 weeks when I was going away on holidays. Swings and roundabouts :-)

      My Moby-Dick, 4-5 chapters a week schedule probably worked better for me though. Some weeks I simply read them one at a time over the week, then other weeks, I would read all 4 or 5 together one evening. I suspect this is what will happen with me and 100 Years.

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  5. Delighted to hear you're joining in with Dewithon. Don't worry if you can't find your copy of Under Milkwood - its far better to listen to it than read it. Audible has a version but there seems to be something on You Tube also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJtzOD3KbLM

    Karen

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Karen, I'll check out the link. It might be rather nice to read along to the audio with Richard Burton :-)

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