Reading Books in 2021

Loved this so much. Haven’t read it in a long time, but had read it multiple times as I just loved the story.

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It’s brutal. To me it’s proper horror, despite there being no scary monsters. You can just feel and imagine you are there, the pain and fear.

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Finished Summer by Ali Smith, and now have read all four of the ‘seasons’ books. Think this was my least favourite of the group, they’re all a little ephemeral but it felt really thin, poor explanation but it didn’t grip as much as the others.

Earthlings Sayaka Murata

Really enjoy the themes of the consequences of non-conformity in Japanese society that she explores in her work, but I found this very hard to read at times due to its graphic nature. Loved its zany, leftfield approach to tackling an existential issue gripping Japanese society, and her precise and concise style of prose, but yeah, one of hardest novels I’ve read in years.

I’m currently reading A Ghost in the Throat which is fucking great but I’m still trying to get my brain to learn how to pronounce

Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill

and

Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire

I thought this site might help

but had no idea there were three distinct dialects which such different pronunciations.

Luckily I found this video

and she says ‘dubh’ more like ‘dove’ so I guess she’s from the south (and pronounces the name of the poem too)

Also I had in my head when I first read the name that ‘dh’ would have a ‘v’ sound so presumed Eibhlín would be like ‘Evelyn’ but it’s more ‘Aileen’.

Anyway, apols to Irish DiS if this is a bit “Brits at it”.

I clearly liked Death In Her Hands cause I’ve finished it in under a week. Probably the favourite thing I’ve read by Moshfegh - it takes skill to make a proper pageturner out of events that are, pretty transparently, occurring all within the protagonist’s lonely imagination. Reminded me a lot of Shirley Jackson - just seeing someone’s mind ticking over, drawn with both distanced disdain and genuine empathy

Reading Apeirogon by Colum McCann. beautifully written in parts but leans too heavily into Israel Palestine bothsidesism
got proper hammered here

Don’t worry, I can’t make head nor tail of it either, unless it’s something fairly commonplace.

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Wondering whether to wait till I can get Convenience Store Woman from the library (don’t think it’ll be open on Friday, and then I dunno when I’ll next get to that specific library), or start reading The Broom of the System again in the meantime

I’m also reading a big history of film music book I got for Christmas (in bits bc it’s big and very nicely divvied up into sections). I liked this

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Al Jazeera being anti-Israel?

You’ll be telling me next that they originate and broadcast from a country that don’t recognise Israel’s right to exist and that that country is a major financial backer of Hamas.

Back on that reading 'ting recently mostly non-fiction, read
Lenin ‘State and Revolution’
David Harvey’s ‘Engima of Capital: And The Crises of Capitalism’
and currently reading
Rebecca Solnit’s ‘Hope In The Dark’

Just finished The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. Bit late to it, but worth the wait.

Incredible book. Bleak but couldn’t put it down.

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The Violent Bear It Away’ by Flannery O’Connor

Her second novel, this is a much tougher, less action packed read than ‘Wise Blood’. There’s a terrible, but gripping, sense of foreboding that only weighs heavier as the story progresses which is then fully realised and then some. A few moments of coal black humour but nothing like the comedic elements that helped the former book tick along at a fairly brisk pace. Whilst I’d not exactly call it enjoyable, it is a beautifully written (and mercifully short) book.

I’m thinking I’ll re-read Donna Tartt’s ‘The Little Friend’ next, which I’ve not read since it came out nearly 20 years ago. Certain passages have really stuck with me over the years and I remember feeling unsatisfied with its ending (which I don’t remember now) so it’ll be interesting to see how it holds up.

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I’ve often said about her three books.

The Secret History - adore
The Little Friend - hate
Goldfinch - adore

But ‘hate’ is too strong a word really. I enjoyed it, her writing is a pleasure. But same as you, I do remember coming away and thinking HUH?! at the end. I don’t remember what it was, or wasn’t either to be honest.

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Really liked Detransition, Baby. Some of the pacing in the first third is a bit off (one of the chapters seems to be a short story added in for length, and it sticks out a little even though it’s good) BUT when the three characters finally meet up it’s 5/5 from there onwards. Lot’s to love, would like it if it was longer, looking forward to what Peters does next.

I’ve not read The Goldfinch yet, I’m sure I will at some point. Re-read a ‘A Secret History’ a couple of years ago and, for the most part, it absolutely holds up. Found the characters far less sympathetic second time around though.

If memory serves I did really enjoy ‘The Little Friend’. Great characters, plenty of intrigue, a beautifully evoked sense of place… it was literally just the end that I remember being baffled by.

finished the 2nd part of the Yukio Mishima quartet, Runaway Horses

a group of young Japanese recruits plot to assassinate high ranking corrupt politicians in a bid to restore some ‘purity’ back into the country. Mishima returns to his usual themes of power and purity, beauty and honour, sex and death.

WIlliam Carlos Williams: Selected poems

I would like to read more poetry but I often struggle to have the discipline to really decipher each line. There are some moments of clarity and brilliance in this collection, a lot of it has passed me by though. Definite focus on the local as the universal, Williams has a knack for finding beauty in the small and everyday things- shadows passing along the walls, dormant wheelbarrows, kids playing in the street, etc etc.

Considering how Mishima’s life ended, reads like a manifesto.

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it pretty much was!

Much speculation has surrounded Mishima’s suicide. At the time of his death he had just completed the final book in his Sea of Fertility tetralogy.[112]

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Just finished Mayflies by Andrew O’Hagen. Odd experience. Started off feeling like it was going to be an engaging coming of age novel, but with slightly thinly drawn characters. But it changes direction halfway through and I was crying by the end of it. Still felt a bit thinly sketched out, but it had a hefty emotional punch. Suppose it got me thinking quite hard about friendship and death.

Going to read the new Haruki Murakami short stories that came out this week next.

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