· The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy
· Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz
· Waking Lions by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen
· The Black Prince by Iris Murdoch
· Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
· So You Don't Get Lost in the Neighbourhood by Patrick Modiano
· The Redbreast by Jo Nesbø
· Instead of a Letter by Diana Athill
· Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls by David Sedaris
I am still reading Jigsaw by Sybille Bedford that was on my last reading list but I have already finished The Redbreast by the Norwegian Jo Nesbø on the new one. At some point this third book about Detective Harry Hole (the first in the Oslo series) became a page-turner and I couldn't put it down. Crime fiction isn't exactly my go-to genre but occasionally I have read everything available by a particular crime author (mainly the Nordic authors; it all started many years ago with the Icelander Arnaldur Indridason and his Detective Erlendur). Nesbø's Harry Hole is an interesting character and I intend to see what happens in Nemesis, the next book in the series.
I have started Sedaris's book but I had to stop reading it before bedtime because my son, who likes to read with me, was unable to concentrate on his book because of me laughing. This is tears-running-down-your-face laughter. I tried to stifle it but it didn't work. Sedaris is, simply put, dangerously funny and I cannot wait to pick up his Diaries. Marilynne Robinson is an author I'm revisiting; I read Home when we lived in Luxembourg. I don't understand why it has taken me so long to pick up Gilead (both books take place in the same period and town, also her work Lila). The prose of Gilead is beautiful; no wonder it brought her the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2005.
Well, I think it is important to make a plan before you write the first sentence. Some people think one should write, George woke up and knew that something terrible had happened yesterday, and then see what happens. I plan the whole thing in detail before I begin. I have a general scheme and lots of notes. Every chapter is planned. Every conversation is planned. This is, of course, a primary stage, and very frightening because you've committed yourself at this point ... [Moving on to the second stage.] The deep things that the work is about declare themselves and connect. Somehow things fly together and generate other things, and characters invent other characters, as if they were all doing it themselves. (Issue 115, Summer 1990)
What a special list you have made. I really want to try a book of Marilynne Robinson. I have never read anything of her.
Reply Deletehave a nice week, Manon
Thank you, Manon. I'm glad you like it. I highly recommend the work of Marilynne Robinson. You also may want to check out her first novel, Housekeeping, published back in 1980. It's still on my to-read list.
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