Club read 2017: Lunarreader in 2017

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Club read 2017: Lunarreader in 2017

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1Lunarreader
Jan 1, 2017, 4:37 pm

Let's go for this year. As announced in the presentation topic: some fatties of my tbr list to be attacked this year, so probably less books on the list but i do hope equal fun. :)

2Lunarreader
Modifié : Déc 28, 2017, 6:04 am

List of books read in 2017, updated at every completed book:
1. Wachten op Bojangles by Olivier Bourdeaut - Jan, 6th - ****
2. Vreemder dan je je kunt voorstellen by John Higgs - Jan, 29th - ****
3. Het Complot Tegen Amerika by Philip Roth - Feb, 18th - ***
4. Het Smelt by Lize Spit - Mar, 4th - ***
5. De goede oude man en het mooie jonge meisje by Italo Svevo - Mar, 6th - **'
6. Paardenschaduw Op Zee by Antonio Lobo Antunes - April, 14th - ***
7. De Zevende Functie Van Taal by Laurent Binet - May, 28th - ***
8. Waterland by Graham Swift - June - ***
9. Inham by Cynan Jones - July, 22nd - ****
10. True North by Tore Hagman - July 31st - **'
11. Wandelen by Frédéric Gros - August, 1st - ****
12. Theorieën over rechtvaardigheid by Dirk Verhofstadt - August, 7th, ****
13. Gustav & Anton by Rose Tremain - August, 15th - ***'
14. De Verrader by Paul Beatty - September, 14th - ***
15. Alleman by Philip Roth - September, 22nd - ***'
16. Het Museum Van Oorlog by Claudio Magris - October, 22nd - ***
17. De Mooie Zomer by Cesare Pavese - November, 5th - ***
18. De Oude Wegen by Robert Macfarlane - December, 3rd, ****
19. Vijf grotesken by Paul Van Ostaijen - December, 7th, ***
20. De Acht Bergen by Paolo Cognetti - December, 8th, ****
21. Laat Het Stil Zijn by Femke Brockhus - December, 23rd, ****'
22. De Heilige Rita by Tommy Wieringa - December, 27th, ****

3The_Hibernator
Jan 1, 2017, 9:10 pm

4Lunarreader
Jan 2, 2017, 4:51 pm

>3 The_Hibernator:. Same to you Hibernator ! :)

5arubabookwoman
Jan 2, 2017, 7:20 pm

Looking forward to hearing about your "fatties" this year. I was mostly a lurker last year, but hope to participate more this year.

6Lunarreader
Jan 3, 2017, 5:35 am

>5 arubabookwoman: what an impressive library you have, you're surely not a "lurker" :)
Happy readings to you in 2017.

7Trifolia
Modifié : Jan 3, 2017, 2:15 pm

I'm curious to see what books you will come up with. Enjoy reading the fatties!

8Lunarreader
Jan 5, 2017, 2:01 pm

>7 Trifolia: Thanks. I'll try. :)

9Lunarreader
Modifié : Jan 6, 2017, 5:04 pm

And we have lift off.... Number 1, and a star to start with: Wachten op Bojangles by Olivier Bourdeaut:
Who said that watching French movies / reading French books is more annoying then watching paint dry? Well, .... Here's an exception, and what an exception. The author surprises us with a double viewpoint on a fantastic hilarious woman. The son and the husband reflect on their life as son and as husband to what is a most entertaining, most intriguing life led by the mother / wife but sadly largely due to mental illness.
Whilst the books makes you laugh and you start to imagine a large part of it, especially the parties that never seem to end, it turns slightly into more dark moments still surrounded by the hilarious moments. To then surprise you back at the end with a climax..... immediately followed by the end.
Warning: you will get wet eyes. You do. Or you gave your heart and imagination away a long time ago.
And somewhat later you will hesitate to review this book because it leaves you with a lot of feelings. Very mixed feelings that is.
An incredible debut. Thank you Olivier.

My daughter made me read this one. It's not a fattie, but she said: Dad, read this now! So i could not make her wait. :)
i guess i have to thank her too. Thanks Laura, from dad.

10Trifolia
Jan 7, 2017, 3:49 pm

>9 Lunarreader: - Okay, because of your review, I've downloaded this book and read the first chapter already. Loving it!! I could use a book like that after my Wolf Hall-fiasco. What a relief.
Btw, thank Laura from me, will you? She's saved my day :-)

11Lunarreader
Jan 8, 2017, 8:01 am

>10 Trifolia: I will. She will be delighted. Enjoy the rest of the book.

12Lunarreader
Jan 29, 2017, 1:27 pm

2 : Vreemder dan je je kunt voorstellen by John Higgs. One of the more original history books you can read. Not the classic tale on the 20th century going from WWI to WWII and all the way to the crisis of the 80's but from Einstein over cubism, individuality, nihilims, popart, Super Mario and the network we are all part of today, like here on Librarything.
Higgs is an artist, one that has done a lot of research, but still an artist in my opinion. The way he composes the book, the links between chapters that look unlinked at the start, the very educational (without becoming preachy) style in situating the origin of a phenomenon, explaining it and then giving the effects of the phenomenon provide real insight.
Sometimes easy to recognise, sometimes you need a second look, but always clear, always part of the composition that this book is. It is not 15 stand alone chapters on 15 different things, by coincidence all happening in the 20th century. It is a piece of art, a cubistic one, that gives you the time to reflect on yourself, on the world, on society's past and future.
And it has a positive end. Brace yourself.
Thank you for this wonderful book, Mr. Higgs.

13Lunarreader
Modifié : Fév 19, 2017, 11:38 am

3: Het Complot Tegen Amerika by Philip Roth. An impressive novel in many ways, most of all in my opinion for the author taking himself as the main protagonist ... at the age of 9 years. You really get the feeling of that 9 year old boy looking at the adults world, beginning to understand what the "adult" troubles are but sometimes looking at them with a totally different focus.
The US get a drastic turnover when Roosevelt is not elected president in 1940 but Lindbergh is. This could have happened history is the other protagonist in the book. Father, mother and brother Roth all look differently at the political and societal evolutions, troubling the 9 year old Philip more and more.
The downside of the book is the length of it. Multiple events are first told about in a kind of stream of events, and then repeated with the 9 year old Philip wondering what just happened or reviving them from within his perspective.
This one was a tip of LT member .Monkey., it's a good read but not as powerful as Verontwaardiging.

14Lunarreader
Modifié : Déc 9, 2017, 4:29 pm

4: Het Smelt by Lize Spit. An author, debutant, from Flanders, Belgium. So this book is written in Flemish (variant of Dutch). This book is a huge success, a little bit over the top, and so i will publish my review not only in Dutch, but also in English as the book will probably be translated in a lot of languages in the near future.

Dutch:
Wat een hype! En waarom? Zoals LT lid Scotandthefox hier opmerkt is het ook voor mij soms ongeloofwaardig. De schokkende scène met het drama dat alles zal blijken te bepalen, de timing zelfs, het klopt niet helemaal. Ook de vele lezers die verklaren dat ze zich in de personages kunnen inleven zijn een beetje bizar. Ik hoop voor hen dat hun leven niet zo'n over the top drama's gekend heeft. Het boek had inderdaad half zo dik gekund of zoals LT lid philippe1965 opmerkt had het op de 480 blz veel complexer mogen zijn.
Soit, hier en daar beschrijft het goed het kleinburgerlijke Vlaanderen, maar wie zat daar (nogmaals) op te wachten. Het lijkt bij veel Vlaamse schrijvers een soort verplichting: schrijven over het kneuterige, het kleine. Alsof er in Vlaanderen geen andere mentaliteit bestaat.
Het verhaal had dus veel complexer gekund en de elementen daarvoor zitten echt wel in het boek. Dat is een verdienste van de auteur, maar tegelijk laat ze een gedroomde kans liggen naar mijn bescheiden mening: de familiale situatie wordt nauwelijks gelinkt aan het drama, de hele of halve dramatische situaties van de andere kinderen blijven ook onderbelicht. Heel bizar. Blijkbaar was de drang om uitvoerig, en in de meeste gevallen zeer platvloers, over de sexuele aspecten te schrijven veel groter.
De schrijfstijl vind ik niet bijzonder, er zijn mooie vondsten maar nooit een superzin die je wil inlijsten en soms zijn er echte gedrochten van zinnen met 3 opeenvolgende werkwoorden. Brrr.
Als debuut is het voor een jonge auteur zeker verdienstelijk, de eerste climax is nog redelijk verrassend maar draait dan zeer onwaarschijnlijk uit, het einde is (gewild?) voorspelbaar. Geen slecht boek maar onbegrijpelijke hype. De verkoopcijfers spreken mij misschien tegen maar het lijkt me zo'n boek dat iedereen begint te lezen omdat er zo'n hype over is, ook velen die anders weinig of geen boeken lezen. Nieuwe of hernieuwde lezers aantrekken is natuurlijk dik OK. ;)

English:
What a hype? And what for? Like LT member Scotandthefox correctly remarks in his (Dutch) review is the story somewhat unrealistic and hard to believe. The shocking scene with the drama that will turn out to be the main driver behind the story, even the timing, it doesn't always fit. A lot of readers claim on social media that the characters are recognisable to them, but i think this is bizarre. I do hope for them that their personal lives didn't suffer under such truly dramatic events. The book could have been half the volume it has today, like LT member philippe1965 remarks, or it could have been a lot more complex if the 480 pages were to be maintained.
Sometimes the narrow mentality of small villages in the conservative farmers areas of Flanders are well depicted, but on the other hand, who was waiting to read this (again). It sometimes looks like mandatory for a lot of Flemish authors to write about it as if there are no other mentalities possible in my home region.
The story could have been a lot more complex and all necessary elements are present in the book. Merit to the author for that, but all the same, she leaves this open opportunity unused to my humble opinion: the family situation of the protagonist is barely linked to the main dramatic event, the complete or half dramatic situations of the other children in the family, they all remain in the shadow. Very strange. Apparently the drive to emphasise the explicit, and mostly vulgar, sexual situations was bigger.

The writing style of the author is not that special, there are small beauties and word games but never a super-sentence that you would like to reread and put in a frame. And on the other hand some sentences are really awful.
As a debute and for such a young author this book has a lot of qualities, the first climax is surprising but turns to the end again towards very unlikely, the end is predictable, probably meant to be. Not a bad book, certainly not, but the hype is not justified. The amazing numbers of copies sold tell something else but it looks to me like a book that due to the hype is being read by a lot of people that otherwise do not read (a lot). Attracting new readers is of course very OK. ;)

15Lunarreader
Mar 6, 2017, 3:58 pm

6: De goede oude man en het mooie jonge meisje by Italo Svevo. A short story on an old man, who thinks he's good for all around him, falling in love with a young girl. Morality comes around the corner when the old man gets a medical problem and he links it with his sins. Funny at first, repeating itself towards the end.

16Lunarreader
Modifié : Avr 14, 2017, 4:36 pm

7: Paardenschaduw Op Zee by Antonio Lobo Antunes. Read. And now a review. Pfff.
What to say: incredible beautiful sentences, winding and turning thoughts, interrupting the sentences, coming back, mindgames.... without end. And there's the downside: it is tiring. Exhausting even. Hence only 3 stars.
A lot of family members come together as one is dying. Each individual his thoughts on life, family, heritage, come by and .... seem to stay.
So, read it, try it, you will be bewildered of the beauty and maybe chased away by the shadow of horses by the sea ....

And a very special congratulations to the translator, what a challenge this must have been. Wow.

17Lunarreader
Modifié : Nov 6, 2017, 2:28 pm

He he, finally. Nr 8 : De Zevende Functie Van Taal by Laurent Binet. Pfew.
It took some time.... my garden .... my job .... the usual reading "stop" period i used to have in previous years except last year. It all came together.
This spring has been unusually dry and warm in Belgium so i had a lot of time to spend working in my garden, hence not much reading. But enough over my life. :)
This is a book for people who know French politics in the 80's, who have a feeling with language, with the pure narrative of linguistics, the rivalry between the French intellectuals of that period and .... willing to believe that there is a kind of complot to be in power of the "word". The word that convinces political enemies, worth killing for. The word that can spread your status above all others and worth losing some fingers fore ....
The author took a big gamble with this book. I know that in France (next to Belgium) there is this kind of intellectuel scene bewildered with the perfect language. Or what it would supposedly be.
But outside of France, this will be a very, very far from home feeling for a lot of readers.
The story has some loose ends, who the hell are the Japanese guys in the story and who did send them? How come that the protagonist ends up in a revenge story?
Lost myself in this seventh function of language? Possible.

18Lunarreader
Août 2, 2017, 12:43 pm

Very sorry but my reading time has been seriously reduced the past few months. So i will only update my list of books (see above) without adding reviews, so that at least i win that time back for actual reading activity. My "fatties" intention turned out a complete disaster. Not a good idea to start a "fattie" if you don't have time to continue reading ...

Thanks for your understanding.
Hope to be back soon with more content.

19Yells
Août 3, 2017, 6:31 pm

I think there are a few of us who are either reading less or finding it harder to fit reading into RL. I say read whatever and if it takes months to finish something, so be it. And if you can't review it, oh well. In my thread, I tend to list books with the intention of eventually going back to add a review and I never quite get there. It's all good :)

20Lunarreader
Août 8, 2017, 1:18 pm

>19 Yells: Thank you. Always nice to find some support here. You do have an impressive library.

21Yells
Août 8, 2017, 1:44 pm

Thanks! 10 years ago I married someone with more books than me and the library sort of snowballed from there. At this point, I have given up on the notion that I will one day catch up.

22Lunarreader
Août 10, 2017, 6:01 am

>21 Yells: : Great! :)
Makes me think about the famous phrase: if your born poor, that's not your fault, if you marry poor it is.
But this one is with books, even better. :)

23Lunarreader
Août 22, 2017, 2:03 pm

Short message on number 13: Gustav & Anton by Rose Tremain : a well written book, easy read, but a bit of a simplier story then the first Tremain book i read: The Road Home. Although i give it the same quotation as you can clearly see in Gustav's Sonata that Tremain writes very beautiful. It looks like the beauty of the sentences take a more important place then the story which is easier, more predictable.

24Lunarreader
Sep 14, 2017, 1:27 pm

Short message on number 14: De Verrader by Paul Beatty: interesting and intrigruing story, strange style of writing, very American, very "homy". :)

25Lunarreader
Sep 22, 2017, 4:50 pm

15: Alleman by Philip Roth. A rare book, starting with a funeral, by an author that seems to develop more and more mystery to me. Every novel is so different and this one is truly special. The protagonist is dead. But you should just read it. And reflect yourself. Are we better? Are we more honest? Are we ... alive? And doing the good thing?
A rare book indeed.

26Lunarreader
Oct 22, 2017, 3:43 pm

16: a long winding story and in multiple layers turning and returning, inviting the reader to reflect, is this book Het Museum Van Oorlog by Claudio Magris not an easy read. All corners and aspects of the protagonists during and after a war, the second world war in this case, are talked about and reflected upon. It would have been great if the second story of the book, mingled in between the numbered chapters, would have been more concise. Now it's an intriguing, but also fatiguing read.

27Lunarreader
Nov 5, 2017, 3:35 pm

17: De Mooie Zomer by Cesare Pavese. Another short novel by the epic Italian author. Two girls, in love, with whom? Themselves? Boyfriends? The other girl? Sensual but a rather thin story.

28Lunarreader
Modifié : Déc 8, 2017, 4:13 pm

18: De Oude Wegen by Robert Macfarlane. Third part of the trilogy and again wonderful descriptions of old roads, paths, views and the people he meets along the way. At moments it looks all a bit far fetched but i guess Macfarlane's enthusiasm takes him to, for me, unknown spiritual hights. Very moving part on the funeral of his father.
A long overdue "to be read" and finally i managed, but now the wild bemusings about being out there make me hungry to also go out again. On a more modest scale that is. I will try to do the West Highland Way in Scotland for the second time.

29Lunarreader
Déc 8, 2017, 4:15 pm

19: Vijf Grotesken by Paul Van Ostaijen. A nice extract of the stories of this abstract - absurdistic Flemish writer. Dated, certainly, but also still sparkling. A nice read.

30Lunarreader
Modifié : Déc 8, 2017, 4:24 pm

and ... number 20: De Acht Bergen by Paolo Cognetti. An easy reading story, but a very nice story. On friendship, on growing up, on being an adult and not responding to the predefined lifepaths for adults, on supporting each other. Or .... on all other things that go completely .....
Read it, get embraced by the warmth, go along on the way of the eight mountains.

31Lunarreader
Déc 8, 2017, 4:40 pm

In a year with a lot of garden reshaping and a new challenge at work, i reached the 20th book read. Still hoping to add a few ...

32Lunarreader
Déc 23, 2017, 1:27 pm

(Nearly) going out with a bang: Laat Het Stil Zijn by Femke Brockhus. A debute. What a debute. A Dutch female author of only 28 years. And how mature the writing.
A fragmentary novel, a lot of white space on the pages, a lot of silence and .... a battle. A battle fought by every word on every page. To justify it's presence, to prove the skill of the author. Sentences that hit like bullets or that caress like feathers. Despair, hope, and relentless love for the other.
Aside the importance of the things said, there is the even bigger importance of what is unspoken, unwritten, unexistant...
This book should be translated to English, to German, to all languages, it's a beauty.

33Lunarreader
Déc 28, 2017, 6:09 am

22: De Heilige Rita by Tommy Wieringa. What a writer is Wieringa! A beautiful and easy reading story stuffed with the most beautiful and straigthforward sentences and insights in what the human being, pure and alone, is in a small society. The small society of a village in an outpost of the Netherlands maybe small but it can't hide from the turmoil of migration, of local restaurants being taken over by Chinese families, of events that bring them once in the spotlight and then .... they simply go on, and on, and on.....
Or not? Small events, words spoken out on the wrong moment, a little remark, it can set the relations upside down or just bring them to clarity. Some people want to stand up, but does their environment agrees?
Wieringa describes it as the best. A class author.