The Book Thread 2024

[Blip]

1. Julia by Sandra Newman
2. The Ghost Theatre by Mat Osman
3. Lord Jim at Home by Dinah Brooke
4. The Comfort of Strangers by Ian McEwan
5. The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan
6. The Whale Tattoo by Jon Ransom
7. A Heart Full of Headstones by Ian Rankin
8. Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo translated by Douglas J. Weatherford
9. Wild Houses by Colin Barrett
10. The Little Black Book of Artificial Intelligence by Kyle Taylor
11. Loot by Tania James
12. The Vulnerables by Sigrid Nunez
13. House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday
14. The Shadow Child by Rachel Hancox
15. And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
16. The Long Hangover: Putin's New Russia and the Ghosts of the Past by Shaun Walker
17. Fourteen Days edited by Margaret Atwood and Douglas Preston
18. The Nix by Nathan Hill
19. One Day by David Nicholls
20. Big Sky by Kate Atkinson
21. Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively
22. Redhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler
23. The Weekend by Charlotte Wood
24. That Old Ace in the Hole by Annie Proulx
25. Barkskins by Annie Proulx
26. The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton
27. The House at the Edge of the Woods by Rachel Hancox
28. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
29. Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh
30. Satantango by László Krasznahorkai translated by George Szirtes with new passages translated by Ottilie Mulzet
31. The Details by Ia Genberg translated by Kira Josefsson
32. The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker
33. Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
34. Mayflies by Andrew O'Hagan
35. The Pact by Sharon Bolton
36. The Fake Wife by Sharon Bolton
37. Be Near Me by Andrew O'Hagan
38. Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
39. Go Went Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck translated by Susan Bernofsky
40. Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck translated by Michael Hofmann
41. Long Island by Colm Tóibín
42. The Spoiled Heart by Sunjeev Sahota
43. Ours are the Streets by Sunjeev Sahota
44. Mater 2-10 by Hwang Sok-yong translated by Sora Kim-Russell and Youngjae Josephine Bae
45. The End of Drum-Time by Hanna Pylväinen
46. Pyre by Perumal Murugan translated by Aniruddhan Vasudevan

Human prejudice, superstition and depravity presented without sentimentality in an excellent, if disturbing, novel. It's set in a particular location, rural Sri Lanka, but has universal resonance.

[NamelessFaceless]

1. The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things - "J.T. LeRoy"
2. The Pepsi-Cola Addict - June-Allison Gibbons
3. 1776 - David McCullough
4. Amazon Stories (1. Scheme, 2. There's a Bear in the House!, 3. Her Second Death, 4. Same Time Next Year) - Various Authors (Audiobook)
5. Amazon Stories (1. If The Fates Allow, 2. The Marriage Test, 3. Two Women Walk Into a Bar, 4. How to Accidentally Settle Down With Your Highschool Boyfriend) - Various Authors (Audiobook)
6. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
7. The Improbable Meet-Cute Collection (1. Royal Valentine; 2. With Any Luck; 3. Drop, cover, and Hold On; 4. Rosie and the Dreamboat; 5. Worst Wingman Ever; 6. The Exception to the Rule) - Various Authors (Audiobook)

Can't believe how far behind I am!

8. Blaze Collection (1. Amelia's Shadow; 2. The June Paintings; 3. The Forgotten Chapter; 4. Fires to Come; 5. Tune in Tomrorow; 6. Fallen Grace; 7. Barriers to Entry) - Various Authors (Audiobook)
9. Never Tell Collection (1. Everywhere You Look; 2. The Ghost Writer; 3. The Other Side of the Road; 4. Scorpions; 5. Jackrabbit Skin; 6. The Bad Friend) - Various Authors (Audiobook)
10. House of Crows - Lisa Unger (Audiobook)
11. The Havana Run - Ace Atkins (Audiobook)
12. Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson (Audiobook) (this is a re-read)
13. Cuba: An American History - Ada Ferer (Audiobook)
14. The Best American Mystery Stories of 2005 - Various Authors
15. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy (I did it! I finally finished War and Peace!)
16. The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket - Edgar Allan Poe

[Blip]

1. Julia by Sandra Newman
2. The Ghost Theatre by Mat Osman
3. Lord Jim at Home by Dinah Brooke
4. The Comfort of Strangers by Ian McEwan
5. The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan
6. The Whale Tattoo by Jon Ransom
7. A Heart Full of Headstones by Ian Rankin
8. Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo translated by Douglas J. Weatherford
9. Wild Houses by Colin Barrett
10. The Little Black Book of Artificial Intelligence by Kyle Taylor
11. Loot by Tania James
12. The Vulnerables by Sigrid Nunez
13. House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday
14. The Shadow Child by Rachel Hancox
15. And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
16. The Long Hangover: Putin's New Russia and the Ghosts of the Past by Shaun Walker
17. Fourteen Days edited by Margaret Atwood and Douglas Preston
18. The Nix by Nathan Hill
19. One Day by David Nicholls
20. Big Sky by Kate Atkinson
21. Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively
22. Redhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler
23. The Weekend by Charlotte Wood
24. That Old Ace in the Hole by Annie Proulx
25. Barkskins by Annie Proulx
26. The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton
27. The House at the Edge of the Woods by Rachel Hancox
28. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
29. Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh
30. Satantango by László Krasznahorkai translated by George Szirtes with new passages translated by Ottilie Mulzet
31. The Details by Ia Genberg translated by Kira Josefsson
32. The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker
33. Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
34. Mayflies by Andrew O'Hagan
35. The Pact by Sharon Bolton
36. The Fake Wife by Sharon Bolton
37. Be Near Me by Andrew O'Hagan
38. Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
39. Go Went Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck translated by Susan Bernofsky
40. Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck translated by Michael Hofmann
41. Long Island by Colm Tóibín
42. The Spoiled Heart by Sunjeev Sahota
43. Ours are the Streets by Sunjeev Sahota
44. Mater 2-10 by Hwang Sok-yong translated by Sora Kim-Russell and Youngjae Josephine Bae
45. The End of Drum-Time by Hanna Pylväinen
46. Pyre by Perumal Murugan translated by Aniruddhan Vasudevan
47. The Orange Room by Rosie Price

Woman with unfortunate taste in men and enthusiasm for cosmetics picks two control freaks in succession. Not my cup of tea.

[Blip]

1. Julia by Sandra Newman
2. The Ghost Theatre by Mat Osman
3. Lord Jim at Home by Dinah Brooke
4. The Comfort of Strangers by Ian McEwan
5. The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan
6. The Whale Tattoo by Jon Ransom
7. A Heart Full of Headstones by Ian Rankin
8. Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo translated by Douglas J. Weatherford
9. Wild Houses by Colin Barrett
10. The Little Black Book of Artificial Intelligence by Kyle Taylor
11. Loot by Tania James
12. The Vulnerables by Sigrid Nunez
13. House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday
14. The Shadow Child by Rachel Hancox
15. And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
16. The Long Hangover: Putin's New Russia and the Ghosts of the Past by Shaun Walker
17. Fourteen Days edited by Margaret Atwood and Douglas Preston
18. The Nix by Nathan Hill
19. One Day by David Nicholls
20. Big Sky by Kate Atkinson
21. Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively
22. Redhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler
23. The Weekend by Charlotte Wood
24. That Old Ace in the Hole by Annie Proulx
25. Barkskins by Annie Proulx
26. The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton
27. The House at the Edge of the Woods by Rachel Hancox
28. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
29. Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh
30. Satantango by László Krasznahorkai translated by George Szirtes with new passages translated by Ottilie Mulzet
31. The Details by Ia Genberg translated by Kira Josefsson
32. The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker
33. Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
34. Mayflies by Andrew O'Hagan
35. The Pact by Sharon Bolton
36. The Fake Wife by Sharon Bolton
37. Be Near Me by Andrew O'Hagan
38. Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
39. Go Went Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck translated by Susan Bernofsky
40. Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck translated by Michael Hofmann
41. Long Island by Colm Tóibín
42. The Spoiled Heart by Sunjeev Sahota
43. Ours are the Streets by Sunjeev Sahota
44. Mater 2-10 by Hwang Sok-yong translated by Sora Kim-Russell and Youngjae Josephine Bae
45. The End of Drum-Time by Hanna Pylväinen
46. Pyre by Perumal Murugan translated by Aniruddhan Vasudevan
47. The Orange Room by Rosie Price
48. Rosarita by Anita Desai.

By contrast, this is wonderful. And I need to read it again straight away to understand it better. Meanwhile, there's a good review here.

[Blip]

1. Julia by Sandra Newman
2. The Ghost Theatre by Mat Osman
3. Lord Jim at Home by Dinah Brooke
4. The Comfort of Strangers by Ian McEwan
5. The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan
6. The Whale Tattoo by Jon Ransom
7. A Heart Full of Headstones by Ian Rankin
8. Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo translated by Douglas J. Weatherford
9. Wild Houses by Colin Barrett
10. The Little Black Book of Artificial Intelligence by Kyle Taylor
11. Loot by Tania James
12. The Vulnerables by Sigrid Nunez
13. House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday
14. The Shadow Child by Rachel Hancox
15. And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
16. The Long Hangover: Putin's New Russia and the Ghosts of the Past by Shaun Walker
17. Fourteen Days edited by Margaret Atwood and Douglas Preston
18. The Nix by Nathan Hill
19. One Day by David Nicholls
20. Big Sky by Kate Atkinson
21. Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively
22. Redhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler
23. The Weekend by Charlotte Wood
24. That Old Ace in the Hole by Annie Proulx
25. Barkskins by Annie Proulx
26. The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton
27. The House at the Edge of the Woods by Rachel Hancox
28. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
29. Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh
30. Satantango by László Krasznahorkai translated by George Szirtes with new passages translated by Ottilie Mulzet
31. The Details by Ia Genberg translated by Kira Josefsson
32. The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker
33. Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
34. Mayflies by Andrew O'Hagan
35. The Pact by Sharon Bolton
36. The Fake Wife by Sharon Bolton
37. Be Near Me by Andrew O'Hagan
38. Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
39. Go Went Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck translated by Susan Bernofsky
40. Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck translated by Michael Hofmann
41. Long Island by Colm Tóibín
42. The Spoiled Heart by Sunjeev Sahota
43. Ours are the Streets by Sunjeev Sahota
44. Mater 2-10 by Hwang Sok-yong translated by Sora Kim-Russell and Youngjae Josephine Bae
45. The End of Drum-Time by Hanna Pylväinen
46. Pyre by Perumal Murugan translated by Aniruddhan Vasudevan
47. The Orange Room by Rosie Price
48. Rosarita by Anita Desai (twice!)
49. The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan

Shocking crimes in a rural Irish community recounted through the viewpoints of various local residents. Original, and good.

[don't get me started]

1. The Seven Day Circle: The History and Meaning of the Week - Eviatar Zerubavel 206. pp.
2. A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster - Rebecca Solint 368. pp.
3. The Language Game: How Improvisation Cteated Language and Changed the World -Morten H. Christiansen and Nick Chater 349 pp.
4. One Day - David Nichols 480 pp.
5. The Greatest Invention: A history of the World in Nine Mysterious Scripts - Silvia Ferarra (Translated by Todd Portnowitz) 289.pp
6. Book Parts - Dennis Duncan & Adam Smyth (Eds.) 320. pp.
7. Language and Time: A Cognitive Linguistics Approach - Vyvyan Evans 266. pp.
8. The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical World - Catherine Nixey - 305. pp.
9. Existential Sentences: Their structure and meaning -Michael Lumsden 256. pp.
10. Memory's Legion - James S.A. Corey 422. pp
11. The English Language - by Charles Barber, Joan Beal and Philip Shaw 320. pp.
12. Wanderlust: A History of Walking - Rebecca Solnit 326. pp
13. The Handbook of Intercultural Discourse and Communication - Christina Bratt Paulston , Scott F. Kiesling , Elizabeth S. Rangel (Eds.), 552. pp.
14. Structures of Social Action: Studies in Conversation Analysis. J.M. Atkinson & J. Heritage (Eds.) 446. pp
15. Index, a history of - Dennis Duncan 339. pp
16. The Rise of Discourse Markers - Bernd Heine, Gunther Kaltenböck, Tania Kuteva and Haiping Long. 308 pp.

17. Adjectives and Comparison in English - Jan Rusiecki 206. pp

I've been working on a paper concerning adjectives in English and Japanese (and some other languages) and have been doing a lot of reading of journal articles and book chapters. This book featured in a number of bibliographies so I thought I'd give it a go, even though it is quite old now. At the heart of the study is the idea that adjectives are kind of slippery customers in linguistic/semantic terms. (It should be noted here that Dixon's famous essay 'Where have all the adjectives gone?' revealed that not all languages even have adjectives and describe adjectival predicates with more verby or nouny words 'The man talls' or 'The man has tallness'.) Anyway, this book looks a ways in which A is taller than B/ B is less tall than A/ B is not as tall as A would be seen in a system of formal logic as being synonymous, but in natural language they are not the same. There were many interesting examples of sub-classes of adjectives, non-symetric antonymic pairs, gradable and non-gradable adjectives and so on. I'll finish with a quote that sums up the author's findings (and also it is at hand when I want to quote this in future papers! )

" Formal logic was born of reflection on natural languages. It was then developed into a coherent, self-contained system– or, rather, a number of interlocking systems. These were, in turn, applied to the analysis of natural languages, and natural languages were found to be irregular, opaque and untidy – in other words, relatively unsystematic in comparison with the systems of logic. In view of this, there are two courses of action open to the student of language. He can either treat the language of formal logic as superior to natural languages and try to force the description of the latter into the mould of the former; or he can recognize the primacy and sovereignty of natural languages, and treat formal systems as tools in their description – valuable tools, but no more than tools – with due respect to observationally statable facts." (Rusiecki, 1985, pp. 191–192.)

This quite nicely sums up my view on the formalism that has been prevalent in linguistics since the late 1960's. (Naming no names...er Chomsky.)

In sum, a very interesting book that I'll be referring to in my future work.

[don't get me started]

1
15. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy (I did it! I finally finished War and Peace!)

Congratulations on this feat NamelessFaceless. I did this in my early twenties and remember it being a bit of a slog, especally when old Leo got too deep into his historical philosophizing. I don't have a very positive view of all things Russian at the moment- for, you know, reasons. But that is temporary and I'll still go back to my favorite Russian works from time to time.

[NamelessFaceless]

38. Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

As I've mentioned before, Ms Flynn writes a mean whodunnit. Great stuff if you're in the mood for that sort of thing.

Agreed. Definitely 'can't put it down' material.

[NamelessFaceless]

1
15. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy (I did it! I finally finished War and Peace!)

Congratulations on this feat NamelessFaceless. I did this in my early twenties and remember it being a bit of a slog, especally when old Leo got too deep into his historical philosophizing. I don't have a very positive view of all things Russian at the moment- for, you know, reasons. But that is temporary and I'll still go back to my favorite Russian works from time to time.

Thanks!

And I agree with your assessment. The book was good but a lot of wordiness. I thought Anna Karenina was much better.

[Blip]

1
15. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy (I did it! I finally finished War and Peace!)

Congratulations on this feat NamelessFaceless. I did this in my early twenties and remember it being a bit of a slog, especally when old Leo got too deep into his historical philosophizing. I don't have a very positive view of all things Russian at the moment- for, you know, reasons. But that is temporary and I'll still go back to my favorite Russian works from time to time.

Thanks!

And I agree with your assessment. The book was good but a lot of wordiness. I thought Anna Karenina was much better.

I started to read W & P in my teens, but only made it to page 71. I did manage to get through Ulysses a few years ago .

[Blip]

1. Julia by Sandra Newman
2. The Ghost Theatre by Mat Osman
3. Lord Jim at Home by Dinah Brooke
4. The Comfort of Strangers by Ian McEwan
5. The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan
6. The Whale Tattoo by Jon Ransom
7. A Heart Full of Headstones by Ian Rankin
8. Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo translated by Douglas J. Weatherford
9. Wild Houses by Colin Barrett
10. The Little Black Book of Artificial Intelligence by Kyle Taylor
11. Loot by Tania James
12. The Vulnerables by Sigrid Nunez
13. House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday
14. The Shadow Child by Rachel Hancox
15. And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
16. The Long Hangover: Putin's New Russia and the Ghosts of the Past by Shaun Walker
17. Fourteen Days edited by Margaret Atwood and Douglas Preston
18. The Nix by Nathan Hill
19. One Day by David Nicholls
20. Big Sky by Kate Atkinson
21. Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively
22. Redhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler
23. The Weekend by Charlotte Wood
24. That Old Ace in the Hole by Annie Proulx
25. Barkskins by Annie Proulx
26. The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton
27. The House at the Edge of the Woods by Rachel Hancox
28. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
29. Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh
30. Satantango by László Krasznahorkai translated by George Szirtes with new passages translated by Ottilie Mulzet
31. The Details by Ia Genberg translated by Kira Josefsson
32. The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker
33. Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
34. Mayflies by Andrew O'Hagan
35. The Pact by Sharon Bolton
36. The Fake Wife by Sharon Bolton
37. Be Near Me by Andrew O'Hagan
38. Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
39. Go Went Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck translated by Susan Bernofsky
40. Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck translated by Michael Hofmann
41. Long Island by Colm Tóibín
42. The Spoiled Heart by Sunjeev Sahota
43. Ours are the Streets by Sunjeev Sahota
44. Mater 2-10 by Hwang Sok-yong translated by Sora Kim-Russell and Youngjae Josephine Bae
45. The End of Drum-Time by Hanna Pylväinen
46. Pyre by Perumal Murugan translated by Aniruddhan Vasudevan
47. The Orange Room by Rosie Price
48. Rosarita by Anita Desai (twice!)
49. The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan
50. The Little Black Book of the Populist Right by Jon Bloomfield and David Edgar
51. Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange

#50 is the latest in the Byline Books series, and timely too.

#51 marks the start of this year's 'read the Booker longlist' project, although I'd already read a couple. I so wanted to love Wandering Stars, which is about the lives of Native Americans, but although I think its message deserves a wide audience, I cannot say it engaged me as much as I'd hoped. The fault may be mine.

[NamelessFaceless]

1. The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things - "J.T. LeRoy"
2. The Pepsi-Cola Addict - June-Allison Gibbons
3. 1776 - David McCullough
4. Amazon Stories (1. Scheme, 2. There's a Bear in the House!, 3. Her Second Death, 4. Same Time Next Year) - Various Authors (Audiobook)
5. Amazon Stories (1. If The Fates Allow, 2. The Marriage Test, 3. Two Women Walk Into a Bar, 4. How to Accidentally Settle Down With Your Highschool Boyfriend) - Various Authors (Audiobook)
6. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
7. The Improbable Meet-Cute Collection (1. Royal Valentine; 2. With Any Luck; 3. Drop, cover, and Hold On; 4. Rosie and the Dreamboat; 5. Worst Wingman Ever; 6. The Exception to the Rule) - Various Authors (Audiobook)
8. Blaze Collection (1. Amelia's Shadow; 2. The June Paintings; 3. The Forgotten Chapter; 4. Fires to Come; 5. Tune in Tomrorow; 6. Fallen Grace; 7. Barriers to Entry) - Various Authors (Audiobook)
9. Never Tell Collection (1. Everywhere You Look; 2. The Ghost Writer; 3. The Other Side of the Road; 4. Scorpions; 5. Jackrabbit Skin; 6. The Bad Friend) - Various Authors (Audiobook)
10. House of Crows - Lisa Unger (Audiobook)
11. The Havana Run - Ace Atkins (Audiobook)
12. Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson (Audiobook) (this is a re-read)
13. Cuba: An American History - Ada Ferer (Audiobook)
14. The Best American Mystery Stories of 2005 - Various Authors
15. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy (I did it! I finally finished War and Peace!)
16. The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket - Edgar Allan Poe
17. Blonde - Joyce Carol Oates

I have always loved Oates, but this one is probably my new favorite. So beautifully written. Can't wait to see the film now.

[Blip]

1. Julia by Sandra Newman
2. The Ghost Theatre by Mat Osman
3. Lord Jim at Home by Dinah Brooke
4. The Comfort of Strangers by Ian McEwan
5. The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan
6. The Whale Tattoo by Jon Ransom
7. A Heart Full of Headstones by Ian Rankin
8. Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo translated by Douglas J. Weatherford
9. Wild Houses by Colin Barrett
10. The Little Black Book of Artificial Intelligence by Kyle Taylor
11. Loot by Tania James
12. The Vulnerables by Sigrid Nunez
13. House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday
14. The Shadow Child by Rachel Hancox
15. And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
16. The Long Hangover: Putin's New Russia and the Ghosts of the Past by Shaun Walker
17. Fourteen Days edited by Margaret Atwood and Douglas Preston
18. The Nix by Nathan Hill
19. One Day by David Nicholls
20. Big Sky by Kate Atkinson
21. Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively
22. Redhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler
23. The Weekend by Charlotte Wood
24. That Old Ace in the Hole by Annie Proulx
25. Barkskins by Annie Proulx
26. The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton
27. The House at the Edge of the Woods by Rachel Hancox
28. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
29. Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh
30. Satantango by László Krasznahorkai translated by George Szirtes with new passages translated by Ottilie Mulzet
31. The Details by Ia Genberg translated by Kira Josefsson
32. The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker
33. Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
34. Mayflies by Andrew O'Hagan
35. The Pact by Sharon Bolton
36. The Fake Wife by Sharon Bolton
37. Be Near Me by Andrew O'Hagan
38. Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
39. Go Went Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck translated by Susan Bernofsky
40. Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck translated by Michael Hofmann
41. Long Island by Colm Tóibín
42. The Spoiled Heart by Sunjeev Sahota
43. Ours are the Streets by Sunjeev Sahota
44. Mater 2-10 by Hwang Sok-yong translated by Sora Kim-Russell and Youngjae Josephine Bae
45. The End of Drum-Time by Hanna Pylväinen
46. Pyre by Perumal Murugan translated by Aniruddhan Vasudevan
47. The Orange Room by Rosie Price
48. Rosarita by Anita Desai (twice!)
49. The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan
50. The Little Black Book of the Populist Right by Jon Bloomfield and David Edgar
51. Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange
52. Held by Anne Michaels

Rather too focussed on the soul [sic] for me. Onwards!

[don't get me started]

. The Seven Day Circle: The History and Meaning of the Week - Eviatar Zerubavel 206. pp.
2. A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster - Rebecca Solint 368. pp.
3. The Language Game: How Improvisation Created Language and Changed the World -Morten H. Christiansen and Nick Chater 349 pp.
4. One Day - David Nichols 480 pp.
5. The Greatest Invention: A history of the World in Nine Mysterious Scripts - Silvia Ferarra (Translated by Todd Portnowitz) 289.pp
6. Book Parts - Dennis Duncan & Adam Smyth (Eds.) 320. pp.
7. Language and Time: A Cognitive Linguistics Approach - Vyvyan Evans 266. pp.
8. The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical World - Catherine Nixey - 305. pp.
9. Existential Sentences: Their structure and meaning -Michael Lumsden 256. pp.
10. Memory's Legion - James S.A. Corey 422. pp
11. The English Language - by Charles Barber, Joan Beal and Philip Shaw 320. pp.
12. Wanderlust: A History of Walking - Rebecca Solnit 326. pp
13. The Handbook of Intercultural Discourse and Communication - Christina Bratt Paulston , Scott F. Kiesling , Elizabeth S. Rangel (Eds.), 552. pp.
14. Structures of Social Action: Studies in Conversation Analysis. J.M. Atkinson & J. Heritage (Eds.) 446. pp
15. Index, a history of - Dennis Duncan 339. pp
16. The Rise of Discourse Markers - Bernd Heine, Gunther Kaltenböck, Tania Kuteva and Haiping Long. 308 pp.
17. Adjectives and Comparison in English - Jan Rusiecki 206. pp

18. Flash for Freedom! - George MacDonald Fraser 343. pp

I've been deep in journal reading for a while, working on several papers at once and chasing down articles and chapters for my references, and kind of tired myself of academic stuff. So, what's the antidote? A Flashman re-read. This one details our eponymous hero's misadventures on a slave ship and on the run in the antebellum south. Sharply observant and impeccably researched, the details of the reality of slavery are as grim as one would expect. But it is all voiced with Fraser's sardonic wit and the character of Flashman is true to form...liar, cheat, bully, scoundrel, lecher, coward, traitor and all round bad egg.

[Blip]

1. Julia by Sandra Newman
2. The Ghost Theatre by Mat Osman
3. Lord Jim at Home by Dinah Brooke
4. The Comfort of Strangers by Ian McEwan
5. The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan
6. The Whale Tattoo by Jon Ransom
7. A Heart Full of Headstones by Ian Rankin
8. Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo translated by Douglas J. Weatherford
9. Wild Houses by Colin Barrett
10. The Little Black Book of Artificial Intelligence by Kyle Taylor
11. Loot by Tania James
12. The Vulnerables by Sigrid Nunez
13. House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday
14. The Shadow Child by Rachel Hancox
15. And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
16. The Long Hangover: Putin's New Russia and the Ghosts of the Past by Shaun Walker
17. Fourteen Days edited by Margaret Atwood and Douglas Preston
18. The Nix by Nathan Hill
19. One Day by David Nicholls
20. Big Sky by Kate Atkinson
21. Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively
22. Redhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler
23. The Weekend by Charlotte Wood
24. That Old Ace in the Hole by Annie Proulx
25. Barkskins by Annie Proulx
26. The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton
27. The House at the Edge of the Woods by Rachel Hancox
28. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
29. Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh
30. Satantango by László Krasznahorkai translated by George Szirtes with new passages translated by Ottilie Mulzet
31. The Details by Ia Genberg translated by Kira Josefsson
32. The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker
33. Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
34. Mayflies by Andrew O'Hagan
35. The Pact by Sharon Bolton
36. The Fake Wife by Sharon Bolton
37. Be Near Me by Andrew O'Hagan
38. Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
39. Go Went Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck translated by Susan Bernofsky
40. Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck translated by Michael Hofmann
41. Long Island by Colm Tóibín
42. The Spoiled Heart by Sunjeev Sahota
43. Ours are the Streets by Sunjeev Sahota
44. Mater 2-10 by Hwang Sok-yong translated by Sora Kim-Russell and Youngjae Josephine Bae
45. The End of Drum-Time by Hanna Pylväinen
46. Pyre by Perumal Murugan translated by Aniruddhan Vasudevan
47. The Orange Room by Rosie Price
48. Rosarita by Anita Desai (twice!)
49. The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan
50. The Little Black Book of the Populist Right by Jon Bloomfield and David Edgar
51. Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange
52. Held by Anne Michaels
53. This Strange Eventful History by Claire Messud

This started and ended well, but for my taste there was too much in the middle. I also found it rather depressing, seeming to me to be mostly concerned with the futility of human life: I'm not entirely sure this reflects authorial intent, mind you, so the usual provisos apply.

For a better review , see The Guardian.

[NamelessFaceless]

1. The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things - "J.T. LeRoy"
2. The Pepsi-Cola Addict - June-Allison Gibbons
3. 1776 - David McCullough
4. Amazon Stories (1. Scheme, 2. There's a Bear in the House!, 3. Her Second Death, 4. Same Time Next Year) - Various Authors (Audiobook)
5. Amazon Stories (1. If The Fates Allow, 2. The Marriage Test, 3. Two Women Walk Into a Bar, 4. How to Accidentally Settle Down With Your Highschool Boyfriend) - Various Authors (Audiobook)
6. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
7. The Improbable Meet-Cute Collection (1. Royal Valentine; 2. With Any Luck; 3. Drop, cover, and Hold On; 4. Rosie and the Dreamboat; 5. Worst Wingman Ever; 6. The Exception to the Rule) - Various Authors (Audiobook)
8. Blaze Collection (1. Amelia's Shadow; 2. The June Paintings; 3. The Forgotten Chapter; 4. Fires to Come; 5. Tune in Tomrorow; 6. Fallen Grace; 7. Barriers to Entry) - Various Authors (Audiobook)
9. Never Tell Collection (1. Everywhere You Look; 2. The Ghost Writer; 3. The Other Side of the Road; 4. Scorpions; 5. Jackrabbit Skin; 6. The Bad Friend) - Various Authors (Audiobook)
10. House of Crows - Lisa Unger (Audiobook)
11. The Havana Run - Ace Atkins (Audiobook)
12. Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson (Audiobook) (this is a re-read)
13. Cuba: An American History - Ada Ferer (Audiobook)
14. The Best American Mystery Stories of 2005 - Various Authors
15. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy (I did it! I finally finished War and Peace!)
16. The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket - Edgar Allan Poe
17. Blonde - Joyce Carol Oates
18. No One's Home - D.M. Pulley
19. What Maisie Knew - Henry James

[Blip]

1. Julia by Sandra Newman
2. The Ghost Theatre by Mat Osman
3. Lord Jim at Home by Dinah Brooke
4. The Comfort of Strangers by Ian McEwan
5. The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan
6. The Whale Tattoo by Jon Ransom
7. A Heart Full of Headstones by Ian Rankin
8. Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo translated by Douglas J. Weatherford
9. Wild Houses by Colin Barrett
10. The Little Black Book of Artificial Intelligence by Kyle Taylor
11. Loot by Tania James
12. The Vulnerables by Sigrid Nunez
13. House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday
14. The Shadow Child by Rachel Hancox
15. And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
16. The Long Hangover: Putin's New Russia and the Ghosts of the Past by Shaun Walker
17. Fourteen Days edited by Margaret Atwood and Douglas Preston
18. The Nix by Nathan Hill
19. One Day by David Nicholls
20. Big Sky by Kate Atkinson
21. Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively
22. Redhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler
23. The Weekend by Charlotte Wood
24. That Old Ace in the Hole by Annie Proulx
25. Barkskins by Annie Proulx
26. The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton
27. The House at the Edge of the Woods by Rachel Hancox
28. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
29. Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh
30. Satantango by László Krasznahorkai translated by George Szirtes with new passages translated by Ottilie Mulzet
31. The Details by Ia Genberg translated by Kira Josefsson
32. The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker
33. Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
34. Mayflies by Andrew O'Hagan
35. The Pact by Sharon Bolton
36. The Fake Wife by Sharon Bolton
37. Be Near Me by Andrew O'Hagan
38. Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
39. Go Went Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck translated by Susan Bernofsky
40. Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck translated by Michael Hofmann
41. Long Island by Colm Tóibín
42. The Spoiled Heart by Sunjeev Sahota
43. Ours are the Streets by Sunjeev Sahota
44. Mater 2-10 by Hwang Sok-yong translated by Sora Kim-Russell and Youngjae Josephine Bae
45. The End of Drum-Time by Hanna Pylväinen
46. Pyre by Perumal Murugan translated by Aniruddhan Vasudevan
47. The Orange Room by Rosie Price
48. Rosarita by Anita Desai (twice!)
49. The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan
50. The Little Black Book of the Populist Right by Jon Bloomfield and David Edgar
51. Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange
52. Held by Anne Michaels
53. This Strange Eventful History by Claire Messud
54. Enlightenment by Sarah Perry

Religionist musings on astronomy, a lonely gay protagonist, and a ghost. Not as good as I've made it sound.

[Blip]

1. Julia by Sandra Newman
2. The Ghost Theatre by Mat Osman
3. Lord Jim at Home by Dinah Brooke
4. The Comfort of Strangers by Ian McEwan
5. The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan
6. The Whale Tattoo by Jon Ransom
7. A Heart Full of Headstones by Ian Rankin
8. Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo translated by Douglas J. Weatherford
9. Wild Houses by Colin Barrett
10. The Little Black Book of Artificial Intelligence by Kyle Taylor
11. Loot by Tania James
12. The Vulnerables by Sigrid Nunez
13. House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday
14. The Shadow Child by Rachel Hancox
15. And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
16. The Long Hangover: Putin's New Russia and the Ghosts of the Past by Shaun Walker
17. Fourteen Days edited by Margaret Atwood and Douglas Preston
18. The Nix by Nathan Hill
19. One Day by David Nicholls
20. Big Sky by Kate Atkinson
21. Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively
22. Redhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler
23. The Weekend by Charlotte Wood
24. That Old Ace in the Hole by Annie Proulx
25. Barkskins by Annie Proulx
26. The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton
27. The House at the Edge of the Woods by Rachel Hancox
28. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
29. Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh
30. Satantango by László Krasznahorkai translated by George Szirtes with new passages translated by Ottilie Mulzet
31. The Details by Ia Genberg translated by Kira Josefsson
32. The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker
33. Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
34. Mayflies by Andrew O'Hagan
35. The Pact by Sharon Bolton
36. The Fake Wife by Sharon Bolton
37. Be Near Me by Andrew O'Hagan
38. Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
39. Go Went Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck translated by Susan Bernofsky
40. Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck translated by Michael Hofmann
41. Long Island by Colm Tóibín
42. The Spoiled Heart by Sunjeev Sahota
43. Ours are the Streets by Sunjeev Sahota
44. Mater 2-10 by Hwang Sok-yong translated by Sora Kim-Russell and Youngjae Josephine Bae
45. The End of Drum-Time by Hanna Pylväinen
46. Pyre by Perumal Murugan translated by Aniruddhan Vasudevan
47. The Orange Room by Rosie Price
48. Rosarita by Anita Desai (twice!)
49. The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan
50. The Little Black Book of the Populist Right by Jon Bloomfield and David Edgar
51. Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange
52. Held by Anne Michaels
53. This Strange Eventful History by Claire Messud
54. Enlightenment by Sarah Perry
55. James by Percival Everett

This, by contrast, is superb: an imaginative retelling of Huckleberry Finn from Jim's perspective, it confronts the evil of slavery with remarkable clarity, deftness and even humour. First class: I expect to see it on the short list.

[NamelessFaceless]

1. The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things - "J.T. LeRoy"
2. The Pepsi-Cola Addict - June-Allison Gibbons
3. 1776 - David McCullough
4. Amazon Stories (1. Scheme, 2. There's a Bear in the House!, 3. Her Second Death, 4. Same Time Next Year) - Various Authors (Audiobook)
5. Amazon Stories (1. If The Fates Allow, 2. The Marriage Test, 3. Two Women Walk Into a Bar, 4. How to Accidentally Settle Down With Your Highschool Boyfriend) - Various Authors (Audiobook)
6. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
7. The Improbable Meet-Cute Collection (1. Royal Valentine; 2. With Any Luck; 3. Drop, cover, and Hold On; 4. Rosie and the Dreamboat; 5. Worst Wingman Ever; 6. The Exception to the Rule) - Various Authors (Audiobook)
8. Blaze Collection (1. Amelia's Shadow; 2. The June Paintings; 3. The Forgotten Chapter; 4. Fires to Come; 5. Tune in Tomrorow; 6. Fallen Grace; 7. Barriers to Entry) - Various Authors (Audiobook)
9. Never Tell Collection (1. Everywhere You Look; 2. The Ghost Writer; 3. The Other Side of the Road; 4. Scorpions; 5. Jackrabbit Skin; 6. The Bad Friend) - Various Authors (Audiobook)
10. House of Crows - Lisa Unger (Audiobook)
11. The Havana Run - Ace Atkins (Audiobook)
12. Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson (Audiobook) (this is a re-read)
13. Cuba: An American History - Ada Ferer (Audiobook)
14. The Best American Mystery Stories of 2005 - Various Authors
15. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy (I did it! I finally finished War and Peace!)
16. The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket - Edgar Allan Poe
17. Blonde - Joyce Carol Oates
18. No One's Home - D.M. Pulley
19. What Maisie Knew - Henry James
20. A Gentleman in Moscow - Amor Towles

That was such a fun book to read and another that I can't wait to see the series.

[Blip]

[...]
20. A Gentleman in Moscow - Amor Towles

That was such a fun book to read and another that I can't wait to see the series.

I loved that one too!