Nickelini @ clubread 2019

Reading in 2019


It's March, so time for a fresh picture. Every day I snapchat and text with my daughter in Switzerland, who lives here, close to Lake Lucerne

December

40. The Rise and Fall of the House of Medici, Christopher Hibbert
39. The Revenge of the Cat: Swiss Myths, Katja Alves

November

38. Moominvalley in November
37. History of Lucca, John Jones

October

36. Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari
35. The Black Spider, Jeremias Gotthelf
34. Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine, Gail Honeyman

September

33. When the Night, Cristina Comencini
32. Autumn, Ali Smith
31. Italian Neighbours, Tim Parks

August

30. 300 Days of Sun, Deborah Lawrenson
29. Evil: the Science Behind Humanity's Dark Side, Julia Shaw
28. Imagined Lives: Portraits of Unknown People, Tarnya Cooper

July

27. Portofino, Frank Schaeffer
26. Innocence, Penelope Fitzgerald
25. I Am Mahlala, Malala Yousafzai
24. Why Do the Swiss Have Such Great Sex?, Ashley Curtis

June

23. Medea, Euripides
22. When Will There Be Good News?, Kate Atkinson
21. Amazing Disgrace, James Hamilton-Paterson

May

20. The Finishing School, Joanna Goodman

April

19. Heidi, Johanna Spyri
18. Margherita Dolce Vita, Stefano Benni
17. The Ring, Elisabeth Horem
16. The Naked Swiss: the Nation Behind 10 Myths, Clare O'Dea
15. When Life Gives You Lululemons, Lauren Weisberger

March

14. Adele, Leila Slimani
13. Born a Crime, Trevor Noah
12. 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl, Mona Awad
11. The Gilded Chalet: Off-piste in Literary Switzerland, Padraig Rooney
10. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, John le Carre

February

9. Sweet Days of Discipline, Fleur Jaeggy
8. The Girl Who Was Saturday Night, Heather O'Neill
7. English Country Houses, Vita Sackville-West
6. How to Change Your Mind, Michael Pollan
5. Educated, Tara Westover

January

4. The Royal Physician's Visit, Per Olov Enquist
3. Switzerland: Culture Smart!, Kendall Hunter *this isn't counting in LT stats*
2. The Bulgari Connection, Fay Weldon
1. The Surface Breaks, Louise O'Neill

Previous 2019 pics:

1. Early 2019:

Winter in Switzerland: a fairytale

2019 Reading Stats : Updated monthly

Nationality or author's origins

Ireland - 3
United Kingdom - 13
Canada - 5
Sweden - 1
Switzerland - 6
United States - 4
South Africa - 1
France - 1
Italy - 2
Ancient Greece - 1
Pakistan - 1
Israel - 1
Finland - 1

Male, female, or other

female: 24
male: 15
mixed: 1

Year published

431 BC
1842
1880
1941
1971
1974 x 2
1986
1991
1992 x 2
1994
2000 x 2
2001
2006 x 2
2008
2011 x 2
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016 x 5
2017
2018 x 6
2019 x 3

Language

English: 28
Swedish - 2
Italian - 3
French - 2
German - 3
Ancient Greek - 1
Hebrew - 1

Fiction--Non-fiction

Fiction: 26
Non-fiction: 14

Travelling through books (where my reading takes me)

Fairyland & Ireland, 2018 / London, 2000 / Switzerland, 2016 / Denmark, 1770s / Idaho, 1990s- 2016 / Psychedelic trips & science labs / English country houses, 1940 / Montreal, 1995 / Appenzall, Switzerland, 1950s / London, 1973 / Switzerland, 1700s - 2000s / Ontario & Western USA, 1990s & 2000s / South Africa, 1980s - 2000s / Paris, 2011 / Greenwich, CT, 2018 / Switzerland, 2016 / Tahas, 1990s / Somewhere in Italy, 2005 / Graubunden, Switzerland, 1880 / Lusanne, Switzerland, 1990s & 2016 / Tuscany & London, 2006 / Edinburgh, 2008 / Ancient Corinth / Switzerland, 2018 / Pakistan, 2000 - 2013 / Tuscany, 1950s / Portofino, Italy, 1960s / Portugal, 2014 & 1941 / Veneto, Italy, 1992 / England, 2016 / Italian Alps, 1997 & 2012 / Glasgow, 2016 / Emmenthal Valley, Switzerland, 1200- 1840 / Planet Earth, 70,000 yrs ago to the future / Lucca, Italy 2000 BC to WWII / Moominvalley /Switzerland, the foggy past / Florence, 1400 - 1743

White Writers and Writers Who Aren't White

I admit, I read a lot of books written by white people, for several reasons. I have several areas of interest that are written about by mainly white authors, but I like to expand and hear other voices too, much in the way I like to read books written in other languages. Looking at my TBR pile, these are the possibilities. I realize I have not recognized every non-white group in the world. I will adjust as I read. Also, I use what I call the Barak Obama version of non-white (Obama is half-white, but everyone calls him black).

White or assumed white: 36
African: 1
First Nations:
Latin American:
Pacific Islands:
South Asian: 1
East Asian:
North African or Middle-eastern: 2

Reading Plans

I'll be travelling to the Swiss and Italian Alps in May, so will be reading around that topic (any suggestions welcome). Other than that, I just want some compelling, interesting books. Shortest reading plan yet.

LAST YEAR in REVIEW - 2018

Total read: a sad and paltry 29

Fiction: 72% (21 books)
Non-fiction: 28% (8 books)
This is a fairly typical split between the two.

Female authors: 48% (14 books)
Male authors: 48% (14 books)
mixed/unknown: 4% (1 book)
This is a change, as I usually read from 55%-65% female writers.
~~
Nationality of authors:
UK: 44% (13 books)
Italy: 10% (3 books)
Germany: 10% (3 books)
Canada: 7% (2 books)
Australia: 7% (2 books)

1 book each (3%) for:
Netherlands
Palestine
France
Chile
Sweden
Mixed
I usually read mostly UK books, so that's usual, but then the next 2 highest percentages are Canadian and US, and then Ireland. In 2018 I read only 2 Canadian authors, and no USA or Ireland authors. (My first read in 2019 is Irish, so fear not)

~~

New to me authors (writers who I've never read before--let's explore fresh voices!): 25/29 (86%)
Different authors - 100% (I didn't read the same author over and over again)

Most Memorable Reads

At the end of the year, I like to look at the books that stuck in my mind. Maybe I gave them a so-so review, but I remember them vividly. And then there are the books I don't remember so well, other than a nice memory of reading them. So the usual star rating system is ignored here.

Looking back over my reading year, I would recommend the vast majority of what I read. Because my reading time is so limited, if a book is not working for me I move on quickly. Therefore, I read very few I don't recommend. But if there is one book that stands out this year, it should be A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz, because it took 6 months out of the year. But it's not-- for some reason, the most outstanding book when I think back over the year was The Battle of the Villa Fiorita by Rumer Godden, which I generously gave 4 stars because despite everything, I liked it. And somehow, my semi-hate reading it is my best memory of 2018, but obviously there was something there.

----------------------------------------------

2018 Reading Stats (from last year's thread)

Nationality OR origins of author:

Netherlands
Italy - 3
Germany - 3
United Kingdom - 11
Australia - 2
Palestine
Canada - 2
Serbia
France
Chile
Sweden
Mixed or Unknown

Author's gender:

Female - 14
Male - 14
Mixed or Unknown - 1

Year published:

1940
1963
1975
1982
1986
1990
1991
1994
2003
2005
2006
2007 x 2
2008
2009
2010 x 4
2011
2012 x 2
2015 X 2
2017 x 2
2018 x 2

Original language:

Dutch
Italian - 3
German - 2
English - 19
Arabic
French
Spanish
Swedish

Travelling with Books (where the book takes me)

Wales & Rotterdam 2010 / Sicily 1994 / Forests of Central Europe & North America / Warwickshire, 1947 / Australia & Canada, 1990 / Palestine / London 2000s / Paris 2016 / England, Switzerland, Italy Romantic era / Naples, 1950s /Village in England, 2016 / Leicestershire, England, 1981-1982 / The Alps, 2014 /India, 1923 & 1974 / Florence, 1939 /Lake Garda, Italy, 1962 / Italian Lakes, 2018 / Italy, 1980s / Scotland, Bonn, & Berlin, 1979 / London, Scotland, & Yemen, 2007 / Ontario, 1960s & 70s / Australia 1960s-2000 / France 1700s / Haiti & New Orleans 1700s / Italy 2003 / Uppsala, Sweden 2003 / Siberia 1988-2002

1. The Surface Breaks: a Reimagining of "The Little Mermaid", Louise O'Neill, 2018


cover comments: I've heard from many people that they love this cover, some saying that they bought the book for the cover alone. Hmmm. It's fine, I guess. I think as mermaid books go, it's fairly typical and not particularly original or arty. Underneath the dust jacket, however, the book itself is the perfect shade of navy blue, and it has silver scales printed across it. The end papers inside the covers are luxurious paper in Bermuda blue. Delightful.

Why I Read This Now: This was a Christmas gift from my 18-yr old daughter. When I opened this she said "It might not be very good, but it looks sort of interesting, and it's about mermaids in Ireland" (she went to Ireland on a school trip so has a soft spot there). I read the cover and saw that it was a retelling of a fairytale, and I like those (which she knows). Seemed like the perfect book to start off the new year.

Comments: Woot woot! Look at me, Ms Hardly-Reads Anymore has started and finished a book already this year (and no, I wasn't off on holidays--just working like the worker-bee I am).

The Surface Breaks is a retelling of Hans Christian Anderson's "The Little Mermaid," set in current times off the coast of Ireland. The novel started out with some fairly 'meh' YA writing and storytelling, but happily picked up right at the Pearl Rule point. Whew! I enjoyed this for the most part and was always sad when I had to put it down.

Fifteen-year old Gaia is the youngest of the six mermaid daughters of the Sea King who live in a intensely patriarchal Mer-society. She has no memories of her mother, who she is told, had an obsession with the surface and the human world, and was killed by humans when Gaia was a year old. Now Gaia too is fascinated by the surface. On her first trip she in enamoured by a handsome young man and the story follows the original tale quite closely (not the Disney rewrite), in a modern setting. With her tongue cut out and feet spurting blood whenever she took a step, and with discovering that the handsome man she'd sacrificed everything for was actually quite a bastard, I kept reading to find out how the author would conclude this conundrum. And she did wrap it up. I'm not entirely pleased with this conclusion, but I think the structure of the original tale writes an author into a corner with few options.

One outstanding character was the Sea Wtch ("that's not my name!" she tells us), who deserves a novel of her own.

On the cover flap, it says: "...world-famous fairy tale is reimagined through a searing feminist lens by one of our most talented writers. ... This is a book with the darkest of undercurrents, full of rage and rallyng cries: storytelling at its most spellbinding." Oh my, prepared to be bludgeoned by feminist tropes, I thought. And some reader-reviewers felt that. I didn't, although I get why they do. I was slightly bothered that all the male characters were one-dimensional and BAD; but then I remembered that this is a fairytale, and fairytales work with archetypes so, okay. (If I wrote it, I would have rounded out some of the males a bit more and included a guy that wasn't a jerk).

I had fun reading this. Yeah, there's things I could pick apart (eg: a naked young woman washes up ashore at your estate and can't walk due to intense pain and can't speak. She opens her mouth to show that her tongue has been cut out. You take her in and give her a room and a maid. Hey, how about call an ambulance? Medical attention? Police, maybe? But it's a fairytale, so you just have to roll with it). Others have criticized that all the feminist bits come at the end, but I think they miss that feminists aren't always born -- sometimes they're made, and we have to live life for a while before we realize what's going on.

Recommended for: Readers who like retellings, mermaid fans.

My cover has a sticker on the back that says "contains adult themes and may be unsuitable for younger readers." Not a good choice if you're looking for a nice little story about mermaids for a 10 year old. There's a question on GoodReads if this is okay for a 13 year old, to which most replies were "heaven mercy no! Give me my smelling salts at the thought!" I was reading adult books at 13, so I say "sure, but depending on the reader." When I read it I figured the objection would have been to the sexual longing expressed by Gaia and her discovering the area between her new legs -- but based on comments on GoodReads, it's more to do with the scenes where males make unwanted sexual advances on Gaia. Not sure why 13 year olds can't read about that--it's certainly a fact of life they will probably deal with soon if they haven't already.

And interesting review, especially about your reaction/response to the expected "searing feminist lens." I see a lot of that language in the promotional stuff for forthcoming books. Glad you had some fun reading it. I haven't read much YA, certainly nothing very current, but I loved Australian author Margo Lanagan's Tender Morsels, (based on Grimms' Snow White & Rose Red; it won lots of awards 10 years back) and all of her short story collections. Her Brides of Rollrock Island about selkies was reasonably good, also.

Censoring from tweens because of unwanted sexual advances in a purportedly feminist book based on a very pre-feminist fairy tale? Sometimes I think my brain’s out of focus. Enjoyed your comments.

Sounds like an interesting retelling. I'll keep an eye out for it.

>6 avaland: Tender Morsels has been in my TBR pile for eons. One of these days . . .

>7 dchaikin: You're too funny

>8 janeajones: Give it a try if you come across it

2. The Bulgari Connection, Fay Weldon, 2000


Cover comments: I'm not much of a fan of this style of art; that doesn't mean this is bad though. I guess it's just not for me? It does work with the novel.

Comments: Look at me! Only January 11th and I've finished two books this year. For years that would have been a huge yawn, but my last two years of reading have been tough, so this feels like my old self again. Anyway,

I bought this when my favourite used book store (call out for Russel Books in Victoria, BC!) didn't have Fay Weldon's Booker-nominated Praxis, but this caught my eye. It opens with:

Doris Dubois is twenty-three years younger than I am. She is slimmer than I am, and more clever. She has a degree in economics, and hosts a TV arts programme. She lives in a big house with a swimming pool at the end of a country lane. It used to be mine...I tried to kill her once, but failed.

And from there we're off on a satirical, fast-paced romp through wealthy London circa 2000. Grace has survived having her world yanked out from under her feet and a stint in prison, but maybe now the winds will blow her way. In her mid-fifties (and poorer than she expected to be at this age) she's not about to get riled by her ex-husband's new wife, "Britain's sweetheart," who is gunning for her. A younger man is smitten with Grace, and their relationship gives him the mature gravitas he craves, and Grace shocks everyone with her increasing youthfulness. In the meantime, despite all their efforts, things aren't going so well for the Ex- and his new Mrs.

This story is undoubtedly slanted in Grace's favour, but the author makes interesting shifts in points of view, and sometimes in unexpected places. Sort of like when you're watching a movie and the camera quickly catches a secondary-character's reaction to something that the main character might not see. It was odd, but it worked.

The other thing that was odd was the names: Doris Dubois (she pulled this surname out of her butt*, it's actually something Eastern European) and the young lover-artist Walter Wells -- these two are around 30, which means they are slightly younger than me (in 2000), and "Doris" and "Walter" read much older. It turns out there was a literary reason for Doris, and I guess the Walter character just really wanted to be older. It took some adjusting from me though. And then there was a secondary character in the same age range named "Ethel." All very odd. The weirdest name, by far, was the ex-husband. Barley Salt. I first read it as "Bailey," but then realized, no, it's Barley. Okay, never heard that given name. And the surname Salt is not exactly common**. Now put them together. They are both things we eat. Oats Pepper. Rice Nutmeg. Like I said, odd.

*sorry, I know the idiom is "pulled it out of her ass" and I'm not a prude--I just don't like the word ass when it's used for the buttocks area. Just a quirk of mine. I'm not shy with vulgar language.

**Maybe the only time I've heard this surname is Veruca Salt from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Is Barley her son?

Rating: A fun read without being vacuous. 4.5 stars.

Why I Read This Now: I've been wanting to read this author for years even though I don't know much about her. She's been a judge for the Booker prize, so I figured I'd take a gamble.

Recommended for: People who like social satire. Readers who don't like to read about rich people will hate this.

Enjoying your reviews, as usual, Joyce. Always good for a chuckle or two. I may actually try The Bulgari Connection. Your 4.5 stars and review have me intrigued.

Great opening line! Regarding the names, I'm always entertained by place names (neighborhoods, streets) that just stick two random nouns together, but don't see it often with people. I kind of like the name Barley Salt.

I just tripped across this, from Wikipedia:

The Bulgari Connection is a 2001 novel by Fay Weldon that became notorious for its commercial tie-in: in exchange for an undisclosed fee from the Italian jewellery company Bulgari, Weldon was required to mention the name of the jeweler at least 12 times - which was more than exceeded by the author. The 34 mentions appear in sentences such as "'A Bulgari necklace in the hand is worth two in the bush', said Doris" or "They snuggled together happily for a bit, all passion spent; and she met him at Bulgari that lunchtime".12 Such heavy use of product placement was not only a novelty in literature but also unprecedented for a published, established author (The Bulgari Connection was her 23rd novel), and a front-page article was published about it in the New York Times, quoting such writers as Rick Moody, J. G. Ballard, Michael Chabon, and Jeanette Winterson.

Will be following your thread again this year, Joyce. Sounds like a great reading start to the year.

>2 Nickelini: Yay Russell Books!

Sounds like a great fun book and great to see you reading again. Maybe if I read it, it will get me going too?

re DuBois - there was that literary immortal Blanche DuBois (A Streetcar Named Desire)

Great opening lines for the book, but for some reason it called to mind Sarah Dunant when she was on BBC late nights, but being a non-fan, I quickly dismissed that image.

LT not linking this properly so tags aren't connecting

3. Switzerland - Culture Smart!: The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture, by Kendall Hunter (2016)
Switzerland - Culture Smart!


cover comments: Red + a clock = Switzerland. Okay.

Comments: This is a small guide book -- 168 pages long, but can fit in the palm of your hand. Part of the extensive Culture Smart! series, Switzerland - Culture Smart!: The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture tells you everything you need to know if you're considering a move to Switzerland or planning to spend a lot of time there. Along with Canada, the Nordic countries and Australia, Switzerland is one of those countries that regularly tops the lists of best places to live and high quality of life. But, as I'm learning, it's very different from all of those, and different from the countries around it.

Kendal Hunter, a Canadian who has lived in Zurich for 10 years, goes over the basics of Swiss life, geared for a UK or US business traveller or new resident. Being heavily fact-based, with minimal personal commentary, it wasn't exactly a scintillating read. More useful than fun.

Why I Read This Now: My daughter recently moved there and I'm trying to get a better picture of what she's dealing with so we aren't completely in the dark about some of the unusual things she says. Also, after our trip there last winter, I'm pretty fascinated by the country.

Rating: 4 stars

Recommended for: read this if you're new to Switzerland and are going to spend a chunk of time there.

Create Your Own Visited Countries Map

Just throwing this in here for my own reference. Not related to my reading, really.

4. The Royal Physician's Visit, Per Olov Enquist, translated from Swedish by Tiina Nunnally 2001


cover comments: detail of the Rokeby Venus by Diego Rodriguez, 1648, which you can see at the National Gallery (London). Used on the cover, it works with this story.

Comments: In 2003 I inherited my copy of this book in a box of books that I mostly passed along to a charity. This one sat on my "one day" shelf but it took 16 years for that day to come. And then I thought "why didn't I read this sooner?"

Going in, I knew nothing about Danish royalty of the late 1700s. Teenage King Christian VII has become the monarch after the death of his 40-something alcoholic father, and the Danish court is known as "a madhouse." This isn't helped by Christian, who had some serious mental health problems (historians think he may have been schizophrenic, but to me his behaviour sounds like he was high on the autism scale). He was just one of several mentally-ill royals in this novel but the others all have minor roles--I mention this because I'm a bit fascinated with in-breeding genealogy that has been blamed for some of the royal madness. I think in Christian VII's case, whatever was going on with him organically wasn't helped by his messed up guidance and being treated as a divine ruler.

Christian is married off to 15 yr old Caroline Mathilde, who is the youngest sister of England's George III. Along the way, King Christian is attended to by a German physician, Friedrich Struensee, who becomes his closest advisor. And then becomes Queen Caroline's lover. Struensee is a follower of the Enlightenment philosophers, including Voltaire and Rousseau, and slips enlightenment ideas into the laws of Denmark.

This is not a spoiler, as it's mentioned in the first sentence of the novel, and it's history: his radical changes don't go over well with the Danish nobility, and he is executed. The period where he was active is called the Danish Revolution, and the nobility never clawed back their complete control.

Rating: Hmmmm, so close to 4.5 stars . . . I was really intrigued by the first 3/4, but then the end dragged a bit because I knew what was coming thanks to the first sentence.

Also, on the meta-data page the disclaimer "This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the suthor's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental." Typical boiler-plate, but I'm not sure I've noticed this in historical fiction before. It made me do some Googling on these people and events and "entirely coincidental" is actually a bold-faced lie. Anyway, the ending could have wrapped up a bit quicker.

I love to learn when I read, and The Royal Physician's Visit had a lot of new trivia to fill my brain. For example, I didn't know that the non-noble Danish people in 1770 were serfs --basically slaves to the nobility. Also, Queen Caroline's second (and youngest) child is widely believed to be Struensee's. This daughter married into some other royal family, and she--and the commoner Struensee--now have descendants in all the royal families of Europe (the genealogy geek coming out again and I'm thinking in particular that they should be grateful for his fresh bloodlines).

Recommended for: historical fiction fans. It also won some Swedish literary awards, and I was impressed by the writing. Not all readers were -- Enquist has this odd style of repeating simple phrases, but I'm one of the readers who liked that.

Why I Read This Now: Being deep winter, I was in the mood to read a book set in the north.

>18 Nickelini: It's also a film worth watching in deep winter A Royal Affair.

What's that about "deep winter"? Last night the National was showing images of daffodils blooming out there!

Seriously though, I do know what you mean. Winter is a season of the mind.

A disclaimer like that on historical fiction from a few hundred years ago is really weird, but fun review, great trivia, poor Struensee. Never easy to change to world, I guess.

>19 SassyLassy:
Yes, we do have daffodils in bloom; however, they're recently planted after being pushed along in a greenhouse -- they aren't bulbs planted in the ground in autumn. So a bit of a cheat. That said, our south-facing back lawn was so unruly that today my husband cut the lawn. January 29 does break the record for first lawn cutting of the year.

Even though we don't have the cold that you have, it's still dark for so many hours everyday. I come home from work and start thinking about going to be by 5:30 PM.

>20 dchaikin: -- LOL

>19 SassyLassy: I also saw the film- it was very good!

5. Educated, Tara Westover, 2018


cover comments: it's okay, the obvious symbolism is clearly obvious. But the mountain is a photo of the actual Bucks Peak where Westover grew up.

Rating: 4.5 stars -- the most engaging book I've read since I can't remember when (at least a year). Why not 5 stars? Read on....

Comments: This was the hot read of late 2018 (it was on Obama and Bill Gate's recommended lists), so I'm not going to get too far into a description of the book. Educated is the enthralling and chilling memoir of Tara Westover's life growing up in a large survivalist family in backwoods Idaho through her escape to education and achieving a PhD from Cambridge.

As long as Westover could remember, her father was preparing the family for the imminent day when the government would storm their land, guns a'blazin'. Westover was born sometime in September 1986 (her anti-government parents didn't register her home birth, nor did they write down the day), and the Ruby Ridge siege happened in 1992, so it was inevitable that they were next. Tara was the youngest of 7, and by the time she came around, her parents had decided that there was no point in homeschooling, other than learning to read. At least she had that. After a day of physical chores, sometimes she read the old textbooks left over from the feeble attempt to school her older siblings.

Westover's education was helping her mother prepare tinctures for herbal medicine (the family strictly forbade all forms of scientific or evidence-based medicine, and actual doctors, as gov't control and from the devil) and helping her dad and older brothers haul and sort scrap.

Horrible event after horrible event occurs, every single one of them preventable with normal safety precautions. The book includes two horrific car accidents, worsened by her father cutting the seat belts out of the car (socialism, or something). And then there are many scrapyard accidents that easily could have resulted in death. All injuries were treated with a mixture of denial, herbs, and suck it up. Several members of this family were severely concussed. In a previous job where I settled insurance claims for people with concussions, two things I learned that relate to this book were that 1) concussions can cause people to become irrationally angry, and withdrawn, and often both and 2) subsequent concussions after healing are often worse than the original -- they build (hence the problem with boxers and football players). She didn't address this here and I think it had a part to play but anyway....

On top of all that, she lived through some intensely toxic masculinity, dysfunctional family situations, parental mental illness, child abuse, religious fundamentalism, and extreme bullying from an older brother.

In her late teens, encouraged by an older brother, she jumps some hoops and is admitted to Brigham Young University. Yada yada yada, PhD from Cambridge. I say "yada yada yada" because I felt she glossed over this too much. She includes some of the gaps in her knowledge (not knowing what the Holocaust was is the most cited example). I would have liked a lot more of this, and less of her "and then I went home for Christmas." The cycle of her returning to her family was incredibly frustrating, but like a battered woman, she kept thinking that it would be all right and somehow she could meld the crazy stuff she's been raised to believe with the rational that she was finally learning. This frustration has caused some readers to rate this book 3 stars, but I can't fault a book because the author's real life situation doesn't match my desire for her to tell her family to F-off in no uncertain terms.

Interesting note: Her family has become very successful with their herbal-woo business, and their lawyer issued a disclaimer statement about this book. Evidently, this lawyer knows nothing about effective PR.

Interesting note #2: this family is easy to find on Facebook. They haven't made their accounts or friends list private. I looked only because I want to see what the father looks like, especially since he had 3rd degree burns to his face. Haven't found him yet, but I only had 5 min to look. I'll come back and update this if I look again and find him. Also, the nice brother Tyler still looks a bit .... oddly fundamentalist. He seemed so normal in the book.

Why I Read This Now: Book club. I'm really looking forward to the discussion later this month, although I imagine there won't be much disagreement. I wasn't at our meeting when we picked the books for the year, and when I saw this one I thought it looked like the best of the lot. I can't imagine we will do better.

Recommended for: I think everyone should read this. However, the abuse in Educated is extreme, so if you're not in a place to read about that, put this one on the shelf for now. I'd love to hear some physicians weigh in on some of the injuries. No one believes the herbs saved any lives.

One other thing I need to add: Over the last 15 years, I've spent hundreds and hundreds, maybe thousands, of hours reading websites and blogs, and listening to podcasts and documentaries of (mostly) women who have escaped fundamentalist religious upbringings*. My initial thought when I learned about Educated was "right up my alley" and then I immediately thought, "but I'm heard everything by now." I was wrong because Westover had actually worked through this more --what I'm used to reading and hearing is briefer --this was the same abuse and toxic family and toxic beliefs, but MORE. And then because of her education, and writing a book rather than a blog post, Westover was able to take it to a higher level of cognitive processing.

* why would I spend so much time on this? Because I escaped fundamentalism too, and although my experience is very different from what I've read and heard, there are enough similarities to make my blood run cold and to think "that could have been me." And then some of it is just so whacked as to be fascinating. Educated is way over in the extreme side of whacked and far out of my past experience, and for that I'm incredibly grateful.

I thought Educated was a remarkable book too. Thank you for your brave and personal review.

>23 Nickelini: oh my - what a great review. You gave me a shiver down my spine when I got to the last bit and learnt you'd grown up experiencing fundamentalism too. It's a title on my 'must get around to reading that soon' list. You've definitely bumped it up.

Terrific review, Joyce. One of those books I see and think, I’ve already read about that kind of story (forgetting that I liked Glass Castle and Liar’s Club and so on). Your comments got my attention.

>23 Nickelini: Great review. I agree, the book glosses a bit over her immersion into hardcore higher ed—which is challenging enough for folks with traditional upbringings. But I figure hey, it's her story and she did a really good job of making it pop, so she can choose to put her focus wherever she likes.

>27 lisapeet: But I figure hey, it's her story and she did a really good job of making it pop, so she can choose to put her focus wherever she likes.

Ha! Note taken. You caught me--there I was saying I would have liked a lot more of this, and less of her "and then I went home for Christmas." The cycle of her returning to her family was incredibly frustrating, but like a battered woman, she kept thinking that it would be all right and somehow she could meld the crazy stuff she's been raised to believe with the rational that she was finally learning. This frustration has caused some readers to rate this book 3 stars, but I can't fault a book because the author's real life situation doesn't match my desire for her to tell her family to F-off in no uncertain terms. . And yet, there I was criticizing for something else I didn't like along the same vein. Good catch -- I'm always trying to be on top of the critical angle when I review, so yeah, I did the same thing, didn't I?

>27 lisapeet:, >24 mdoris:, >25 AlisonY:, >26 dchaikin: Thanks for reading through my long rambling review.

>28 Nickelini: Oh, I wasn't trying to catch you out on anything or crit your review! More like explaining why I felt so forgiving toward her when I think in a lesser account—less brave, less honest, less striking—I would have harped on it. Because I did note the same thing you did.

>29 lisapeet:
Oh, I know. I couldn't think of another way to say it at the time. I really do appreciate seeing holes in my thinking-- always trying to improve. Yeah, I think there are a bunch of us who wanted to hear more about that aspect.

6. How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciusness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence, by Michael Pollan, 2018


cover comments: for a book on psychedelics, this cover is uninspired and ho-hum; however, it does fit the scientific rather than "woo woo" approach that this book follows.

Why I Read This Now: a few weeks ago I found out Michael Pollan, an author I adore, is coming to Vancouver. I thought it would be best if I read his latest book before the event. Yay, me, I finished it today and see him tomorrow night.

Comments: When I read Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma years ago, it changed my life. This book could be life changing for many people too. It is a detailed look at using guided psychedelic therapy to treat a wide-range of mental health issues, including but not limited to the fears of the terminally ill, addiction, and treatment-resistant depression. Clearly the mental health field needs to find some different solutions, because what we have now isn't working.

How to Change Your Mind is a highly readable and interesting account of the history, present use, and future possibilities of LSD, psilocybin (a word I never remember how to say or spell) and a few other more obscure drugs.

Like me, Michael Pollan eschews pseudo-science and new age flakiness, and thus he takes an evidence-based, factual approach to this topic.

I look forward to a future when I can visit a guided psychedelic therapy spa, although I'm not holding my breath. Maybe in Europe . . .

Recommended for: Everyone. The people who should read it most--those who think psychedelics are horrible, dangerous substances, won't be open to it though. Otherwise, anyone interested in mental healthy, philosophy, psychology, alternative ways of looking at the world . . .

Rating: Because this isn't a topic that is particularly pertinent to my life at this time, and because I didn't need over 400 pages on this topic . . . 4 stars.

7. English Country Houses, Vita Sackville-West, 1941


cover comments: delightful and perfect for this little book. Love the greyed-periwinkle colour.

Comments: The front flap of my edition says "Written during the Blitz by one of England's most celebrated writers, this text was undoubtedly a morale booster for a British people laid siege to during a time of war . . . " Undoubtedly, or maybe not. She never mentions the war, but does say several times that there really have never been any wars on English soil -- the English like to go elsewhere to fight. Far away places like France, Scotland, and Ireland. And she reiterates that the English people like peace and quiet. Hmmm, okay ....

Anyway! This 92 page book is mostly about the grand English country houses that I love to read about, watch in films, and visit if possible. It reminded me of a similar book that I read years ago and thought was a riot -- Some Country Houses and Their Owners by James Lees-Milne. That one was perhaps more fun because it talked about the eccentric home owners. With English Country Houses, Sackville-West sticks mainly to the buildings themselves for the most part.

At times, the author can be quite amusing. For example: "The English are a rural-minded people on the whole, which perhaps explains why our rural domestic architecture is so much better than our urban. Our cities, generally speaking, are deplorable. There is a lack of design which must make the French smile. When the French hint delicately at this we are apt to murmur 'Bath' and then come to a full stop."

However, far too much of the time she throws out one historical or architectural detail, and then give a long list of the houses that exemplify it. At one point she says, "....and, again restricting myself to the tantalising system of giving a mere list . . . " Yeah, no, not such a tantalizing system, more tiresome.

I wonder who the target audience was who she had in mind --I'm doubting it was the average Brit who was getting targeted by the falling bombs. Did her reader have a familiarity of the places she listed and described? Because I didn't, and would have been completely lost if I didn't google almost every property she mentioned. And I was happy to do that, because that's the sort of thing I call "fun." But it does make the reader work. This book deserves to have colour photos and maps to make it a really great reading experience. There were a handful of line drawings, and they were very nice, but this needs more.

Looking up these places on the internet was interesting to see what's changed with some of them since WWII. A few had links to British tabloids, with articles of people or events that would fall into the category of "misbehaviour of the rich and famous." Others had become museums or hotels, but most seemed to be high-end venues to rent for your dream wedding.

And now I've written a review almost as long as the book. Just one more thing:

Fun fact I learned: Berkeley Castle, in Gloucestershire, has been lived in by the same family for almost 900 years. It seems this family has always been good at having sons that live until at least they can begot more sons. New addition to my future travel list.

Why I Read This Now: it looked like a quick interesting read

Rating: 4 stars

Recommended for Anglophiles, English history geeks, armchair architects.

>31 Nickelini: I don't know of a guided Psychedelic therapy spa in France, but perhaps Mark does in the Netherlands.

>31 Nickelini: that review was so interesting. I didn't even know that psychedelic therapy was a thing - you inspired me to go on a fascinating Google jaunt around this topic. Very interesting to learn that the UK government drug advisor got sacked 10 years ago for suggesting that LSD and ecstasy are less harmful than alcohol (indeed, he put in his paper that alcohol was the 5th most lethal drug after heroin, cocaine, barbiturates and methadone). LSD was 14th on his list.

Amsterdam seems to have the therapy spas. I've never tried hallucinogenics - I don't think I'd be brave enough to give it a go.

It may not be your thing, but I enjoyed this account of the Beatles LSD journey - https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/beatles-acid-test-how-lsd-opened-t...

>32 Nickelini: also interested in this review, as I've wanted to read something by Sackville-West for a while. Perhaps not this one as I get your point on lists of houses not being that scintillating , but good to see evidence of the humour I'd expect from her writing. I think it's The Edwardians that I have on my reading wish list, and also the biography of her by Matthew Dennison (Behind the Mask: The Life of Vita Sackville-West).

>33 baswood: & >34 AlisonY:

I don't know of a guided Psychedelic therapy spa in France, but perhaps Mark does in the Netherlands. , and

Amsterdam seems to have the therapy spas.

Well, if I ever need this service, it looks like the Netherlands is the place to go.

...you inspired me to go on a fascinating Google jaunt around this topic. Well I hope that's a good thing and you had fun.

Very interesting to learn that the UK government drug advisor got sacked 10 years ago for suggesting that LSD and ecstasy are less harmful than alcohol (indeed, he put in his paper that alcohol was the 5th most lethal drug after heroin, cocaine, barbiturates and methadone). LSD was 14th on his list.

That's pretty ridiculous seeing how incredibly destructive alcohol can me to the body and to society (and I'm not anti-alcohol, or a non-drinker), and also seeing that you can't OD on LSD, and you can't get addicted to it. I'm surprised it was as high as 14 since it's not lethal. Now I'm off on an internet search!

English Country Houses probably isn't the best start for Sackville-West. I think the only thing I've read by her before this was The Edwardians and I loved it -- more fun and less stuffy than I expected. And I had a literary crush on the main male character, which is rare for me.

>31 Nickelini: I too found Omnivore's Dilemma changed my life. I think it was a fantastic book! I have had How to Change Your Mind on the MUST READ NEXT pile but it has languished there for some time. Thank you for your great review. It has nudged the book to the top of the pile. We just picked up A Place of My Own The Architecture of Daydreams at Munro's in Victoria and husband just finished it and thought it was very good. Have you ever read Botany of Desire? I thought it was wonderful too and his book about gardening.

>31 Nickelini: happy to see this show up on someone’s reading - How to Change Your Mind was a wow read for me last year, and I feel bad I can’t follow it up (well, unless I go to the Netherlands, maybe... and make arrangements to be out for a day without anyone to worry about. )

And I agree with you on the cover. I don’t like it. Good conceptually, forgettable visually.

>37 dchaikin:

One of the audience questions at the Michael Pollan event was "where can I do this?". Apparently he has info at his website -- not actual directions and names, but leads to follow for those so inclined. I have not looked, so don't know if it's cryptic or not.

>31 Nickelini: I'm really interested in the whole concept of guided trips and microdosing—not necessarily for myself, although I have to say I had great experiences with psychedelics in my teens and early 20s, but because I think the field is fascinating and breaking interesting new ground. And I'm not averse to it on a personal basis, but my interest would be much more recreational than therapeutic, and I'm not sure if that's the point of what he's talking about. I suppose I could always, you know, read the book and find out. And I'm sure I will at some point.

>36 mdoris: Have you ever read Botany of Desire? I thought it was wonderful too

I had to check because I didn't remember. I own it but haven't read it yet. It got tossed into a dark corner of my shelves due to other priorities, but I will make sure I do get to it someday.

>39 lisapeet:

Actually, he does mention the recreational side of this and thinks it's an inevitable outcome. That's why I mentioned the psychedelic spas in Europe, because I think that's the most likely version of it. He does touch on the subject of micro-dosing too, and it came up when I saw him (no scientific proof that it does anything at all and it might be a placebo but more study is needed. Also, he finds it ironic that the drug that is pretty much the anathema of capitalism is being used to increase productivity)

>40 Nickelini: Botany of Desire might have been the first Pollan book that I read. I was very taken with it as he approaches things from a different angle, different point of view and I found that very refreshing. I have lots of books tossed into a dark corner that i must get to as well!

8. The Girl Who Was Saturday Night, Heather O'Neill, 2014


cover comments: zillions of worse covers out there, but this one took about 2 minutes to put together. Although hands are deceivingly difficult to draw, so 5 minutes.

Comments: Heather O'Neill is undoubtedly one of my favourite writers, and unfortunately she only publishes books every once in a while.

The Girl Who Was Saturday Night is the meandering story of 19 year old Nouschka Tremblay, who along with her twin brother Nicolas, has grown up in Montreal in the shadow of her father, a famous Quebecois folk singer. Who had also ended up in jail a few times. The twins have never known their mother, who Etienne impregnated at age 14. Like Baby in Lullabies for Little Criminals and several of the characters in the stories in Daydreams of Angels, Nouschka & Nicolas have pretty much raised themselves and so are a little on the feral side.

I adore O'Neill's writing. I challenge you to name a writer who rocks the simile like she does. As I read, I folded down corners of bits I wanted to revisit, and then copied the best into my reading journal. By the end I had copied out 36 different passages. Eight journal pages.

(yes, I fold down corners in books -- books are tools to take me places. They're not sacred objects to put on a mantel.)

Rating: I didn't like this one as much as Lullabies for Little Criminals, which I rated 5 stars plus, or Daydreams of Angels, which was 4.75. At times, this was a bit of a challenge, because Nouschka makes some bad choices, and she's not 12 like the protagonist in Lullabies. And there were parts that were extremely seedy . . . I already get enough seedy in other areas of my life, so I could stand a bit less in characters I'm trying to cheer for . . . still, in the end, O'Neill just has a way of describing life that no other writer does, and that I love seeing the world through her eyes, so .... 4.75 stars.

Why I Read This Now: I started this a couple of weeks ago when here in Vancouver we had an unexpected and offensive cold snap, and I thought, well! if we're going to have freezing temperatures, I'm going to read a book set in Montreal (where they really know how to do cold). And our cold keeps coming .... I've finished the book, so time for the cold to finish too. But no, more snow expected tomorrow . . . time to find a book set in the tropics I guess.

Recommended for: After 3 books, Heather O'Neill had firmly become one of my top living writers, so I encourage everyone to read her. She writes GritLit, so prissy people won't like her, nor will those with no sense of humour.

>43 Nickelini: Yes- she is also one of my favourite writers

>43 Nickelini: great review. I think it was possibly you who put me on to Lullabies for Little Criminals and I absolutely loved it.

Will keep an eye out for this one. I have to say I hate the cover - it doesn't suit the grittiness of her writing.

>43 Nickelini: I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw that you liked The Girl Who Was Saturday Night, which let me know how much I love Heather O'Neill's writing - I've become protective of it. I do agree that Daydreams of Angels is extraordinary. I think she shines best in short stories, but of course those don't sell as well as novels.

Enjoyed your review. I’ll try to keep O’Neill in mind.

>47 dchaikin: I suggest you start with Lullabies for Little Criminals.

>46 RidgewayGirl: Isn't it funny how we get protective of things like that? I know exactly what you mean tho.

9. Sweet Days of Discipline, Fleur Jaeggy, 1989, translated from Italian by Tim Parks 1991


cover comments: oddly, fits the book rather well

Comments: This 101 page novel is made up of the reflections of a woman looking back on growing up in Swiss boarding schools after WWII. The main focus is when she was 14 at a school in the northeast of Switzerland, where she became infatuated with the reserved and perfect Frederique, and then later, the cheerful Micheline, and had great disdain for all the other girls, including her little German roommate. There's a lot going on here, and a lot unspoken, but it's dark, dark, dark.

I'm not sure what to think of this. There was a strong theme of death woven through the book, but also loneliness, passion and self-control, and madness. With it's short length, it's likely that I'll reread it, because there was something intriguing here -- I'm just not sure what.

Rating: Not sure. 4 stars? Reader reviews of this tend to be very high -- lots of 5 star reviews, few that are much lower. I'm not sure there was enough here for me to give it that level of praise, but I'm happy to reread sometime and reevaluate.

Recommended for: readers who like dark stories set at boarding schools (apparently that's an actual thing). It's a book that can be (probably should be) read in one sitting. People who need action and a linear plot won't like this one.

Why I Read This Now: Still looking for Swiss literature, and everything I can find is written by old white men years ago, which is not what I'm interested in at all. This was more current, although not exactly 21st century, and at least it wasn't androcentric, so it checked off some of the boxes.

With a relatively small, affluent and wel--educated population, the Netherlands is a country with a long history of tolerance and open-mindedness, and perhaps due to it's limited geographical expanse forever seeking new frontiers in experience and ideas rather than hunting bisons. For several decades, the Netherlands has been at the forefront in developing new policies, and constructive ways of dealing with issues, such as homosexuality and gay marriage, prostitution, drug usage and euthenasia, etc. The idea that not all drugs are necessarily evil or harmful, and ways to deal with them have gradually influenced policy makers in other countries.

Psychedelic drugs were first experimented with by western people in the 1950s/ 60s, with very well-known writers dedicating books to them such as The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell by Aldous Huxley, The psychedelic experience by Timothy Leary and The Yage letters by William S. Burroughs. But it seems their optimism never caught on, and the emphasis throughout the 70s-80s has mainly been on drug abuse and the devastating effects of drugs on people's lives.

Michael Pollans' essays on marijuana, the longest essay of the four essays that make up his book The botany of desire. A plant's-eye view of the world is profoundly interesting, which already betrayed Pollan's early personal interest in this topic.

My personal idea about various types of alkaloids is that we should look at history to learn how to use them. Coffee, tea and alcohol have been widely used by humans for many centuries. Within a hundredandfifty years, tobacco has proved to be lethal and will eventually be forbidden. Psychedelic drugs have mainly been used on a very limited scale by sjamans who were very well aware of what they were doing.

I would probably enjoy reading Sackville-West's book about English Country Houses.

>51 edwinbcn: - Re: the wonderful Netherlands -- and don't forget their effective, fact-based, common sense way to teach sex education to school students. My ancestors on both sides were Dutch, and I think it's a fabulous country. Been too long since I've visited.

>52 edwinbcn: -- it's a super quick read. If you like that sort of thing, also look for Some Country Houses and Their Owners by James Lees-Milne.

Have you seen this book yet? Penguin Classics Book by Eliot. My copy arrived today and I immediately thought of you as it shows penguin book covers through history. There is also Classic Penguin: Cover to Cover by Buckley.

Good to know about The Girl Who Was Saturday Night. I loved Lullabies for Little Criminals.

>54 Yells:
I DID NOT KNOW ABOUT THOSE!!!!!! Thank you, I'll be placing my order shortly. I appreciate you thinking of me. :-)

10. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, John le Carre, 1974


cover comments: quite sharp, although I'm not sure this event actually happened in the book

Rating: Ugh! This is considered one of the best spy novels ever written, but I give it barely 2 stars.

Why I Read This Now: Le Carre is mentioned in the non-fiction book I'm reading, and that reminded me I've been meaning to tackle this in my interest to read a spy novel. and it's on the 1001 & Guardian 1000 lists.

Comments: This 379 page novel did have glimmers of brilliance--maybe even a complete paragraph here and there, but for me, this was beyond terrible. On the surface, it doesn't seem like something I'd like, but sometimes books like this can surprise me so I like to try. And I made myself read the whole thing. Excruciating. I know lovely, intelligent people who love Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy or le Carre's other books. I also know lovely, intelligent people who feel like this about my beloved Jane Austen--it's all even, I guess.

So no one reading this cares what it's about -- Cold War, spies in Britain in the 70s, the decline of Britain as a world power, British class commentary, relationships between spies, blah blah blah.

After about 20 pages, I thought "What am I even reading?" and looked at reader reviews -- everyone said "whoa, super confusing at the beginning but then about half way I really got into it and it was brilliant!!!" I listened to not one but two podcasts discussing the book. Kept waiting for it to click. Nope. Bored until the end. There's a 1-star review on GoodReads by "LeeAnn" who says what I feel, but does it better, so go read her review. Basically, it's slow paced (and if you look at my library you can see I'm not exactly and action plot reader), but this was just a guy reading about stuff that happened in the past with some other guys doing things in between. Everything is said in a weird vague manner (and no, it wasn't too "British" for me--again, look at my library). As LeeAnne from GoodReads says, it's "purposely convoluted and obscure." Characters and places pop in and out without introduction. This is written to build mystery, but the result for me is to think "why should I care about this?"

Through the whole book, I thought: "I understand all these words, but not the sentence." or "I understand this sentence, but why is it here? What is it trying to tell me?"

Fail, fail, fail.

But every once in a while there was a short bit that I thought was amazing. So I can see why some people might like this. Maybe the rest wasn't as much of a muddle for them. One telling thing I noticed in reader reviews is that this book grows on repeated readings. Which I think by definition takes it right out of the "thriller" category (my cover quotes The Spectator: "A great thriller . . . ")

Recommended for: obviously I'm in the minority, but I think this is unreadable, and I'd recommend it to no one.

>57 Nickelini: I'm with you. Here's what I wrote at the time I read it:

I read 80 pages of the book and initially gave up. I had no idea what "Circus" was, what "Control" was, etc., etc., let alone all the lingo. Then I read all these glowing reviews, printed out Wikipedia which described all the characters and defined some of the spy lingo, started all over, and I was able to muddle through. I only kept reading to find out who the "mole" was, but I probably understood about 50% of the book, and cared about even less of it--it was just too complicated. I kept checking the page number to see how many more tedious pages I had left to read. Some of the characters were interesting, but the women were flat. I tried--I really did--but at the end of the book, I was relieved it was over. The best parts were the ones in the boys' school.

>58 kac522:

Nice! I agree that the best parts are at the boy's school. I also like the scene where the caught the mole only because I know exactly where that is in London and I've wondered who lives in that row of houses.

Have you read anything by Ben Macintyre? His book Agent Zigzag is non-fiction, but reads like a spy novel. It’s almost hard to believe it’s real. He has a few other books in which you might be interested.

>60 NanaCC:

Not familiar with that name. I'll have to check it out -- thanks!

11. The Gilded Chalet: Off-piste in Literary Switzerland, Padraig Rooney, 2015


Cover comments: I'm a fan of the vintage travel poster, so this is nothing but great in my books. Apparently this is a reproduction of the poster for the Grand Hotel Belvedere in Davos, 1905, by Hans Eggimann

Comments: Padraig Rooney, an Irish guy (in case you didn't notice his name), fell in love with Switzerland while hitchhiking through it during his gap year in 1973. He's now lived there for a long time, teaching at a private school (of which he occasionally makes the requisite self-deprecating remarks). The Gilded Chalet is his personal tour through the literature that has come out of, and been inspired by, Switzerland. Well, certainly not all of it, but a big chunk of it. It's interesting how writers from elsewhere are drawn to Switzerland (often at the end of their successful careers--like successful film and music stars. Switzerland seems like a great escape for rich people who want to drop out of sight but still be close enough to jump back into the limelight). And conversely, the Swiss authors mentioned in this book tended to leave Switzerland. I have to say I was a bit disappointed that he didn't discuss Swiss writers more, but then it's a country with a small population, and he was looking only at writing translated into English. I was surprised at how many writers he discussed that I didn't know had a connection to Switzerland -- James Joyce, Nabokov, & Patricia Highsmith especially. Others, I knew I would meet (looking at you, Mary Shelley).

One thing I appreciated about this that he did a decent job of spreading himself geographically around the country, and linguistically he covered all the official languages, and 3 of the 4 national languages (not sure why he didn't read the acclaimed Arno Camenisch so he could tick the Romansch box).

If you go to www.padraigrooney.com > The Gilded Chalet, you'll find a map of Switzerland, with all the pertinent places tagged with a literary explanation. I just discovered this, but it looks like a time-sink for tomorrow afternoon. http://www.padraigrooney.com/home_blog/?page_id=92

Why I Read This Now: if you read my threads, you'll know I'm focusing my reading on anything Switzerland ever since my daughter did her university semester abroad there in 2017 (and is now back living there). I'm having a bit of a struggle finding Swiss literature that isn't written by old white men, so when I saw that this book existed, I ordered it right away in hopes that it will open reading horizons.

Recommended for: I think this is written for a very specific audience, and I can only recommend it to someone who loves books and is really interested in Switzerland. Reader reviews on it though are really high, so if this is an area of interest, you'll probably love it. It went off on tangents, and I find that a lot of fun.

Rating: 4.5 stars

>57 Nickelini: I'm sorry that you had such a miserable time with this book but I *love* your review. So much that I'm almost tempted to read the book for myself just to see how terrible it is!

>63 rhian_of_oz: -- please! Go read it and come back and let me know how it went. Be warned that a lot of people love this book and you might too.

12. 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl, Mona Awad, 2016


cover comments: I like it -- the attempt to erase the word "fat" is a nice touch

Rating: 3 stars.

Recommended for: For a 2-star read, this was actually well written. It's just that most of the time I was reading, I thought, "Ugh! I hate this book. I hate this character" Also, that sounds EXACTLY like something the main character says throughout the book.

Comments: Having gone though some pretty intense eating disorders many, many years ago, I'm still interested in fictional takes on body image, so when I learned about 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl through the Giller Prize short list (and then Dublin International award or whatever it's called), I immediately wanted to read this.

While I think this is technically a well-written book, and also a quick read, I was definitely disappointed in this. It reminded me of some other CanLit that I absolutely loved --- deeply personal, and squirmingly uncomfortable, but with humour --- I'm talking about anything by the goddess-author Heather O'Neill, or the lesser-known Jenn Farrell, or even Fruit by Brian Francis. But it just didn't measure up to any of those.

13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl is purported to be 13 short stories that tell a story of Elizabeth (who changes names to different variations --Lizzie, Beth, etc -- through the stories). I like this technique a lot, but am not sure how strong any one of these would be on their own. That part works very well for me. Like I said, the writing is definitely solid.

I just don't like what she has to say. The only character you get to know is Elizabeth, and she's not likeable, and grows only a smidgen by the end (although physically she shrinks from a chubby, cranky teenager in the first story to a miserable skinny bitch through the last part).

The problem I had with this overall feel was that it felt mean-spirited. A secondary complaint was that moments were intensely depressing--but not like toddlers traumatized by war depressing, more like people working minimum wages jobs with no other hope (and Wendy's for dinner every night) depressing. And I've read super depressing novels about average people that were wonderful (Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont, ah hmm), but not that either. Mostly though, I found it just to be mean. Lizzie in the first story hates everyone, does nothing except focus on her body image, and at the end still hates her body and everyone else and their body.

Why I Read This Now: after the slogging, male Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, I thought this looked like a female-centric read I could relate to (see my first sentence about eating disorders)

>65 Nickelini: Even if characters in a book are deeply flawed, for me they have to have something about them that makes me take them to my heart at some level. If a book is dominated by an unlikeable character or characters I can't gel with it, so I totally get where you're coming from on this one.

>66 AlisonY:
Normally I'm good with unpleasant characters, but I think I just found this one too mean.

However, few days later, I'm raising my rating from 2 to 3. In retrospect it doesn't feel like a 2 star read anymore. If you and I were browsing in a bookshop, and you pulled it off the shelf and asked me, I wouldn't gag and say "No!". I'd say "Meh, it' not for everyone."

13. Born a Crime, Trevor Noah, 2016


cover comments: I love this cover -- the painting on the wall captures the character in the book, but instead of just having a great portrait, there's the layer of it being painted on a wall, and then the woman in South Africa strolling past. Absolutely fabulous.

Rating: it's been years, 2016 I think, since I rated a book 5 stars. This earned a full, shiny 5 twinkling stars. I've now sent my copy off to my daughter living in Europe, but I feel like I should buy a stack of these just to hand out to friends and family.

Recommended for: everyone! As long as they are mature enough to read about some tough subjects. So maybe not your clever 10 yr old. But absolutely for everyone else this is a must-read. You don't need to like Trevor Noah, or even know who is he, to enjoy this book.

Comments: Born a Crime is the memoir of Trevor Noah's childhood, about being born into apartheid in South Africa, and growing up in post-apartheid South Africa. His mother was Xhosa and his father was Swiss German, and that made him illegal, hence the title "Born a Crime". His mom's black family looked at him as white, and his parents couldn't be seen in public together with him. By appearances, he was "coloured," but had little in common with the coloured community in Johannesburg. Through all this, he learned to speak English, Xhosa, Zulu, and a little Afrikaans, which along with his obvious high intelligence, helped him negotiate his very difficult place in his world.

Although this is the story of Noah's first 20-odd years, in many ways, it's a love letter to his mother, who was key to making him the success he is today. And interestingly, at the end of the book, I had learned nothing more about how Noah went from his early years in a Soweto slum to landing on Time magazine's "2018 - 100 Most Influential People in the World" list. This truly is about a naughty, full-of-life, intelligent boy growing up in a complicated and sometimes dangerous world.

For a book written by a comedian, I didn't find it all that funny, although there were definite laugh out loud moments. And there weren't a lot of quotations to copy into my reading journal -- so more than great bits, this was just a great story, told well. Compared to other beloved books where I was amazed with phrases and sentences, in Born a Crime I was amazed at the storytelling. (And also, amazed at the crap he lived through.)

But the best thing about Born a Crime was the strong heart running throughout.

Why I Read This Now: I needed a book to read on my break at work, so looked to the small rack at the drugstore on our ground floor of our building. I had found a mystery or something that I figured would be decent, and then Born a Crime jumped out at me and I remember that I had been meaning to read this someday.

Note: The audiobook is read by the author, and I hear it's even better. I imagined his voice while I read, but actually hearing it would be even better.

One of my favourite bookstores, Munro Books in Victoria, BC, just posted on Facebook a farewell to a retiring staff member, and I love this picture so much:



Actually, that could be me, just shopping there. (hair and outfit match)

I loved Born a Crime too. And that is such a great picture that Munro's posted. Recently in Victoria that was a place of the top 3 that I HAD to visit. (others were the Irish shop for amazing wool sweaters -just a snoop and the Bateman Gallery).

14. Adele, Leila Slimani, 2014, translated from French by Sam Taylor, 2019


Cover comments: yawn

Rating: 4 stars

Comments: I enjoyed this novel, but I'm not sure why. Adele is a troubled, ill woman who does terrible things and is not likeable. Her esteemed husband is boring, and controlling, and not likeable either. Both of them, however, are believable. The writing wasn't amazing, but there's something about it that I found mesmerizing and almost soothing, even though the events the author is describing are the opposite.

Adele is a 30-someting Parisian woman, married to a successful surgeon, with a young son and beautiful apartment, and works as a journalist. Sometimes. She also is also consumed by self-abuse -- anorexic, chain-smoking, heavy drinking, drugs, and most prominently--sex with random men, which she thinks: the nastier, the better. (I guess writing that out, I see how that sounds like an interesting character to me).

While I understood some of her, she really is a monster, and that's part of what I'm confused about what this novel is saying*. At one point, Adele says she wants to be "a doll in a ogre's garden," and the original title in French is Dans le jardin de l'Ogre, and throughout her driving motivation seems to be needing men to mistreat her (note here that Slimani is known as an outspoken feminist in France--obviously this novel is more complex than what I'm trying to capture in my quick comments).

Dans le jardin de l'Ogre is a much stronger title than Adele, although at first glance it's a bit strange, and maybe wouldn't grab the right readers. But Adele says "this is a book about Adele," while the original is intriguing. When I finished the book, I asked: who is the ogre? As the character says, is Adele the victim of the ogre? Or is she the ogre? Or, after the twist, is the ogre her husband? It's up to the reader. But "Adele" -- that's just wilted in comparison. Funny, I had an opposite reaction to Slimani's only other novel -- in North America it was published as The Perfect Nanny, while in the UK and in Europe, the title was some version of Lullaby. "The Perfect Nanny" jumped off the shelf at me (obviously not perfect, what did the nanny do?). I wouldn't have looked twice at "Lullaby."

Recommended for: honestly, with my real life book loving friends, I don't know who I'd recommend this to, so I was surprised at the high ratings here and at GoodReads. I think if you liked The Perfect Nanny, you might like this too (although they're rather different in story, the author and translator are the same). It also reminded me of Hausfrau.

Why I Read This Now: Not exactly sure why NOW. I'm into novels from the European continent that are current and written by women, and after I read The Perfect Nanny last year, it stuck with me. So when I sawAdele, I thought it needed me to read it.

* Yes, I know the author comments on a political sex scandal in France and flipping it. However, this English Literature major completely rejects that much-quoted interpretation.

>71 Nickelini: I liked both The Perfect Nanny and Hausfrau, so I'm definitely going to read this.

I just started Born a Crime on audio a few days ago. I've heard nothing but rave reviews, so I'm looking forward to it!

>68 Nickelini: I had noticed Born a Crime a while back, but I hadn't jumped on it; you've reminded me that I want to read it soon.

re: Switzerland. I have adored works by author Alex Capus who I believe is French-Swiss, writing in German. I don't know what you classify as old but he seems to have been born in '61. I think I've read 6 of 7 that have been translated. I also read a few books by Peter Stamm (white, born in '63) and have on the TBR a dystopia by Dorothee Elmiger (hmmm. I wonder where that is...).

>71 Nickelini: for what it’s worth, your review intrigues me. I think when I keep it mind, it will the French title I think about.

>68 Nickelini: I really like TN and would like to listen to this. But whenever I look at it on audible I think to myself - I can’t spend a credit on something that short. Someday I’ll break down and read it or find another way.

>71 Nickelini: I keep forgetting that The Perfect Nanny is called Lullaby in the UK, but I knew the title was familiar from somewhere. I bought that a couple of weeks ago, so looking forward to trying this author for the first time. Adele sounds interesting too - thankfully the same title over here.

In my second post, I keep track of my reading stats. I find this helps me from staying out of ruts, and also, I just like to track reading stats. I just added a new category: white authors and authors who aren't white.

Which reminds me, I read something online a few years ago where a woman set out one year to not read any books by white people for a whole year and blog about it. She got nasty hate mail. I can't even imagine.

>75 avaland:
Thanks, Lois! Love your input. I actually crawled through Belletrista looking for Swiss books and found a Dorothee Elmiger and ordered it from the Book Depository. It's coming, but their shipping to Canada right now is 25 - 35 days (5-8 for the US so not sure why they hate us). :-(

I've read one Peter Stamm years ago. It's was pretty good, but not set in Switzerland.

Adding Alex Capus to my list -- it's seems I've looked at one of his books. Will look further.

By "not old" I mean I'd prefer to read something set in the last decade or so. It appears that's a big ask.

>72 RidgewayGirl: & >74 Jim53: -- Do it!!

>73 japaul22: -- Looking forward to your comments

>76 dchaikin: -- I'm looking for an audiobook copy to buy, but I don't do Audible. I'll let you know if I find something.

>79 Nickelini: Oh, that's a terrible shipping time! In the most recent Peter Stamm novel, a man gets up and walks away from his family after they all return from a lovely family vacation. He just disappears without telling anyone he's leaving (keeps walking and walking). My initial response was WTF!! Who does that??!?! But I kept reading.... I half-heartedly wondered if it might be some Swiss thing.... (unsatisfied with happily ever after?)

I'd have to think through all of the Capus books, but A Price to Pay, Almost Like Spring and the most recent, Life is Good are set in or are related to Switzerland. I would recommend the first two of those before the third.

15. When Life Gives You Lululemons, Lauren Weisberger, 2018


cover comments: I don't mind the style of this, but it's a bit of a yawn, and there is no scene in the book that this matches. So over all, a bit of a fail. It also reminds me of the art on the cover of China Rich Girlfriend I read a few years ago , so I guess this is just the go-to look for chick lit?



Why I Read This Now: my daughter bought me this for Christmas, and I think she wants to read it, so I read it so I can bring it to her next month.

Comments: This was a fun read. I took it to work to read on my breaks (which requires something that can be read in short bursts) but then I got into it one day and brought it home and finished it in a few days.

When Life Gives You Lululemons picks up with Emily, Miranda Priestly's assistant from the Devil Wears Prada, who is now in her mid-30s and has moved on to a career as a PR-fixer for celebrities. Except suddenly her career isn't going so well. She ends up at her friend Miriam's house. Miriam was a high--powered attorney (why are all attorneys in fiction always "high powered"?) in NYC who has recently moved to Greenwich, Connecticut with her husband and 3 young children. She's having a bit of a struggle trying to fit in with the stay-at-home-lululemon-clad mommies in the new social circle. The third character is Miriam's friend Katolina, and former model who is currently married to a senator who has plans for the presidency.

The novels circulates between the three women, their problems, and how they support each other to reach a happy conclusion at the end. In terms of the Bechdel test, this book passes easily. The friendship between these three was this book's strength. Of the three stories, I found Karolina's, with her bastard of a husband who blindsided her out of nowhere, to be by far the most interesting and the one I was most emotionally involved in.

Readers who dislike this point out the body shaming that is common in these types of books and how reading these lifestyles of the rich and famous books make them feel crappy about themselves. They're not wrong but I don't take these too seriously and I just take them for the fun they can be. Sure, if you look too closely, things don't necessarily makes sense, but it's entertaining and not at all awful.

Recommended for: someone looking for a beach or airplane read.

Rating: 4 stars.

>82 Nickelini: I’m making note of this one, Joyce, for when I need something light and fun.

16. The Naked Swiss: A Nation Behind 10 Myths: 2nd Edition, Clare O'Dea (2018)


cover comments: sure, this works -- very contemporary Swiss styling

Comments: My 2nd edition of The Naked Swiss had a bonus 11th myth. Here's the list:

1. The Swiss Are Swiss
2. The Swiss Are Rich
3. The Swiss Are Xenophobic
4. The Swiss Are Brilliant
5. The Swiss Are Sexist
6. The Swiss Are Neutral
7. The Swiss Helped the Nazis
8. The Swiss Are Boring
9. The Swiss Are Crooked Bankers
10. The Swiss Have the World's Best Democracy
11. The Swiss Are European

Clare O'Dea is an Irish woman who has lived in Switzerland for over a decade, and has a Swiss husband and Irish-Swiss kids. She was a journalist for swissinfo.ch, the international service of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation. With each of the points she explores, there is the truth behind the myth, and also examples of the exact opposite of what the myth purports.

When I was young and learning about the countries of the world in children's books, Switzerland was one of famous countries of Europe, symbolized by its snow-capped mountains. It belonged to that select club with France and the Eiffel Tower, Holland (not the Netherlands) with wooden shoes and windmills, England with Big Ben and a red double-decker bus, and if the book was exotic, Italy with the Leaning Tower of Pisa. That was all of Europe. But as I got older, Switzerland faded into the background of my mind, in part because it had a reputation for being an expensive place to visit (true). But now that my daughter is living and working there, and I'm getting ready for my 2nd trip in 16 months, it's back to top of mind. And, as The Naked Swiss shows, Switzerland is unlike any other country in the world. Not only is it unique, the things that make it unique are very interesting and cool. And really, all countries could improve by taking some lessons from the Swiss.

Recommended for: Anyone who has a interest in Switzerland beyond what a tourist needs to know for a week in the Alps.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Why I Read This Now: Switzerland in 19 days!

Enjoy planning and thinking about your upcoming trip to Switzerland!

>84 Nickelini: sounds interesting. I like these sorts of books which go under the hood of a country. I loved The Almost Nearly Perfect People about the ins and outs of being Scandinavian, so I think I would enjoy this.

In my very first job I was a buyer for Ford Motor Company, I had the joy of being responsible for a supplier based in the mountains in La Chaux de Fonds. My first ever work-related travel was a trip there, which spoilt me forever on work travel expectations!

Will the snow still be hanging around in May? We'll be in Switzerland in July, but really just passing through as we fly to Geneva to get to Chamonix in the French Alps. We flew there last year too, so it was nice to see a little of Geneva, but I'm really hoping we manage to somehow bypass it this year, as driving through it was seriously stressful, especially when my husband ended up in the tram lane....

Have you come across the book Swiss Watching? Might be too similar to the book you've just read, but perhaps worth checking out.

>16 Nickelini: 12 myth The Swiss are always on time.

>84 Nickelini:. Hope you have a fabulous trip to Switzerland. Interesting selection of Swiss books. I think the only Swiss book I have read is Heidi.

>86 AlisonY: Got hit with a BB for The Almost Nearly Perfect People and it's available in my library system. With thanks! I loved THe Nordic Theory of Everything and this may be a good compliment.

>86 AlisonY: I like these sorts of books which go under the hood of a country. I loved The Almost Nearly Perfect People about the ins and outs of being Scandinavian, so I think I would enjoy this.

>89 mdoris: I loved THe Nordic Theory of Everything and this may be a good compliment.

I can't remember when I didn't love all things Nordic, so at one point both of those were on my TBR list, but then I forgot about them because I read a description that made it sound like the author was an American or Brit with a serious case of sour grapes. Or maybe I'm even thinking of a different book.

>86 AlisonY: In my very first job I was a buyer for Ford Motor Company, I had the joy of being responsible for a supplier based in the mountains in La Chaux de Fonds. My first ever work-related travel was a trip there, which spoilt me forever on work travel expectations!

Nice! I think my first work trip was to St Louis, Missouri. Not nearly as posh (there was a gun murder a few blocks away the night I arrived), but actually, it's doubtful I'd ever go there, and the people were extremely friendly, so all good.

>86 AlisonY: Will the snow still be hanging around in May? We'll be in Switzerland in July, but really just passing through as we fly to Geneva to get to Chamonix in the French Alps. We flew there last year too, so it was nice to see a little of Geneva, but I'm really hoping we manage to somehow bypass it this year, as driving through it was seriously stressful, especially when my husband ended up in the tram lane....

Ooops about the tram lane. I'm sure my husband has done that somewhere too, probably multiple times. We are only going to Lucerne, where my daughter lives, and Tocino (this started out as a trip to the Italian Lakes). The whole Basel-Bern-Zurich-Lucerne band seems to have very similar weather to what we have here in Vancouver, and also London. I think they had snow in Lucerne a handful of times this winter and are expecting sunny and 20 C this week, so I'm hoping for that too in early May as I would find that ideal. I know their summer started in April last year, and I'm going to be very disappointed if it's cold and rainy :-( /Especially since all of our hotels have lake view balconies. I trust Ticino (the "Mediterranean of Switzerland") will be nice, and from there we're into Italy for the rest of the trip.

>86 AlisonY: Have you come across the book Swiss Watching? Might be too similar to the book you've just read, but perhaps worth checking out.

I did read that before my 2017 trip to Switzerland and it helped me understand A LOT of things. Excellent book. The Naked Swiss was actually different -- I'm sure there's some overlap, but different enough that both are worth reading for the person who is interested. Since I read Swiss Watching, he's come out with a new edition, so OF COURSE I bought it, but I'll read it sometime after we're back. After all, who knows how long my daughter will live there? She's only 22, but this could be it (although she's sort of planning to do her masters in England).

>85 RidgewayGirl: Enjoy planning and thinking about your upcoming trip to Switzerland!

>88 janeajones: Hope you have a fabulous trip to Switzerland. Interesting selection of Swiss books. I think the only Swiss book I have read is Heidi.

Thanks! I'm really excited. After Switzerland, we're doing 3 weeks in the Italian Lakes-Dolomites-Cinque Terre-and-Lucca after Switzerland (my husband's family is from Lucca so he'd go there every year if he could).

I've taken Heidi to work to read on my breaks. I last read it about 50 yrs ago.

>87 baswood: 12 myth The Swiss are always on time.

That's hilarious. I'm tempted to contact the author in the event there's a 3rd edition. My daughter tells me that the trains are ALWAYS on time, and if they're going to be a minute late, there's an announcement.

I have to admit, I'm in awe at Swiss efficiency. And I live in Canada where things work better than most other places.

17. Ring, Elisabeth Horem, 1994, translated from French by Jane Kuntz, 2013


cover comments: This sparse cover suits this book perfectly; also, the white & red spare aesthetic is tres Swiss

Comments: On the first page of the Ring, Quentin's girlfriend announces that she's moving to America with his brother. In a classic "you can't break up with me because I'm breaking up with you" move, Quentin blurts out that that's fine, because he's moving to Tahis anyway. He had no such plan, of course, but had just that morning read an interesting job ad for a position in Tahis. With no prospects in his un-named town in Europe, he applies for and is accepted for the job in Tahis. So off he goes, three time zones east of Western Europe, in a foreign desert country. (From what I can tell, the author invented the city of Tahis. Please tell me if I'm wrong).

In Tahis, he quickly changes jobs and begins work for a consulate issuing visas. All the ex-pats live on the Ring, in the centre of town. Outside of the Ring sprawls the slums of everyone else. Ensconced in the stifling world of the Ring, Quentin is drawn to life outside of it. In short blurb on the back cover, L'Hebdo mentions the "desolation" in this book, which is fitting.

Later in this short novel, and in a bookend to his break up with his girlfriend, Quentin stomps into work with plans to quit, but before he can, he's told he's fired. You can't quit, we're firing you.

Rating: a solid 4 stars

Recommended for: Not sure. This was short, very readable, very odd.

Why I Read This Now: I'm on a hunt for Swiss literature. This was published as part of the Dalkey Archive Swiss Literature Series. I thought it sounded interesting. The Dalkey Archive doesn't make this clear to me why they included this though -- in the author blurb I learn that Elisabeth Horem was born in Bourges, France and lived in the Middle East with her husband, a Swiss diplomat. My Swiss score: 2 out of 3. -- 1) Woman writer: check. 2) New literature: Written in 1994, translated in 2013: sure, check. 3) Set in Switzerland: nope.

>90 Nickelini: Joyce I think you are correct about the criticism directed by the critic towards Nordic Theory of Everything. The author is a Finnish journalist who is now a naturalized American citizen and she can capably compare the two cultures having lived in both and done her research and we know which one comes up short and that is perhaps not kindly taken by American critics. I loved it and I thought it gave a great amount of food for thought. So sour grapes...no! Insight.....yes!

>93 Nickelini: I'm on the lookout for decent fiction set in the French Alps for my holiday, but nothing much is grabbing me. Good luck on the hunt for some genuine Swiss literature.

In case it's of any help:

https://www.myswitzerland.com/en-gb/Swiss-literature-scene.html

>94 mdoris: I'll have to keep an eye out for that one. Sounds interesting.

>95 AlisonY: Thanks for the link--lots to explore there. I'll see if I can remember any books set in the French Alps. So far I'm drawing a blank.

>92 Nickelini: We went to Switzerland last summer, and at the end of the holiday my trip to the airport involved five different trains, sometimes with quite a tight transfer time. I was stressing to my partner about this - because in the UK there is almost no chance that you could plan a journey that involved five trains that got to your destination at the planned time - and he just said - they are Swiss trains!

Enjoy your trip - sounds fantastic.

18. Margherita Dolce Vita, Stefano Benni, 2005, translated by Antony Shugar, 2006


cover comments: Europa Editions have notoriously ugly covers, so in that light, this isn't too bad. It's maybe even quite nice.

Comments: Margherita is a teenager who lives on the edge of some unnamed city in northern Italy with her off-beat family -- mother, father, two brothers, and a grandfather. Overnight, a new cube-shaped house appears in the field next to their house, and a fancy rich family moves in. A satire of consumerism and modern life follows, and then there's a super bizarre ending that has some readers upset.

There were some fabulous sentences in this book -- the author is highly talented at sharp, creative observations. But the whole thing together didn't really work for me -- the Margherita character was just too precocious. Precocious children can be great (Coraline) or beyond annoying (The Elegance of the Hedgehog). This one was sliding toward the too annoying end of the scale. And I didn't care that much about the characters or the story.

Rating: a solid okay: 3 stars

Why I Read This Now: I read a short story by the author in 2009 and was blown away and searched out anything else written by him. It's been in my TBR stacks for a few years, and I read it now before my trip to Italy.

Recommended for: reader reviews tend to be more favourable than mine. If you liked The Elegance of the Hedgehog you might like this. Both were published by Europa Editions. I hunt out Europas, but I have to say that they're really hit or miss for me. They often publish unusual slightly zany stories. An Italian book they published that was much better was Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio by Amara Lakhous.

>98 Nickelini: I always pounce on Europas too when I see them, but you're absolutely right, they are truly hit or miss. Too bad about this one.

19. Heidi, Johanna Spyri, 1880, translated from German (translator not identified)


Cover comments: well at least it's not twee

Why I Read This Now: I first read this 50 years ago--it was one of the first novels I ever read. When I was cleaning out my daughter's bookshelf, I thought I'd reread this before moving it out of the house. It was a perfect moment since I was soon off to Switzerland.

Comments: Five year old orphaned Heidi is dumped at her gruff grandfather's hut, high in the Alps above a Swiss village. She falls in love with the mountains, and her charming disposition softens her grandfather's ornery manner. A few years later she moves to Frankfurt to be a companion to an "invalid" girl and charms more people, despite her intense homesickness for the Alps.

My two surprises with this reread were how much I remembered (mostly about the parts in the Alps) and how genuinely lovely the character of Heidi was for the most part. I was afraid that my jaded adult self would find her saccharine, but I didn't at all.

Rating: 4 stars

Recommended for: this is a classic that still deserves readers. I would put Heidi in a similar category as Anne of Green Gables.

>19 SassyLassy:: I haven't read Heidi in years, but I read it at least once a year from the time I could read until I graduated from High School. Perhaps it's time for a reread.

>100 Nickelini: Oh my. You brought back such fond memories of a book I loved as a child. Thank you!

>101 janeajones: & >102 NanaCC:

I encourage you to reread it -- I don't think you'll be disappointed

>100 Nickelini: I'm not sure I ever read Heidi, but I remember watching a fabulous dubbed series of the books when I was a child. I still think of it now when I'm in the Alps and see the cows with the bells round their necks.

>100 Nickelini: I reread Heidi a few years ago just to see how the story stood up to the test of time, and like you I was happy to find it endured well. That reading and your post reminded me of my lovely aunt who gave me my first copy of the book as a Christmas gift when I was a child.

20. The Finishing School, Joanna Goodman, 2016


cover comments: Oh, the back of a woman's head, as she looks into the distance. Who would have thought of that?

Why I Read This Now: It seemed like a good book to read on the Swiss part of my vacation.

Comments: Kersti Kuusk is a published novelist living in current day Toronto. She receives and invitation to speak at the prestigious Swiss boarding school she attended as a scholarship student in the 1990s. Memories flood back about her best friend there, Cressida, who mysteriously fell from a balcony at the school. The novel switches back and forth between the time periods as Kersti tries to solve the mystery.

Other readers enjoyed this more than I did. Although it was readable and I loved the setting, there were just so many times I rolled my eyes or thought the author was going in weird directions. The entire infertility subplot didn't work for me, especially its resolution.

And here's a thing: back in the 70s I read a book on how to write mystery novels (may have been by Dean Koontz but I'm not sure), and it said that there is only one mystery that is valid for a mystery novel: murder. I was quite far into this book before I realized that Cressida survived the fall. Yes, she was in a vegetative state (or was she?), but she didn't actually die. If this had been written as a more literary book, a more gifted writer could have made that work. Not here in a mystery novel though.

A fun thing about this reading experience: while reading this, we visited the elite Swiss boarding school that my daughter's boyfriend attended for high school. It was a week day and we snuck in while classes were in progress. He of course ran into teachers he knew and the custodian who used to give him the key to areas he shouldn't have been in, which led to entertaining stories. So I had a really clear picture of what a Swiss boarding school looks like while reading The Finishing School.

Recommended for: readers who like mysteries set in boarding schools. Most readers liked this more than I did.

Rating: 3 stars: a solid "okay." I could have rated this lower, but it worked as a holiday read and I was otherwise having a spectacular time, so I'm being generous. I left this behind on the bookshelf at the VRBO were we stayed on Lake Como.

>100 Nickelini: Thanks for that little blast from the past. I also loved Heidi. I did not read Anne of Green Gables, but I would put Heidi alongside Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. Out of curiosity, I looked dates of publication and Heidi was pub. in English in 1882, Rebecca 1903, Anne 1908 and Pollyanna 1913 (Pollyanna was a huge bestseller when it came out).

>107 avaland: The publication dates are interesting. I had forgotten just how old Heidi is. It certainly aged well.

21. Amazing Disgrace, James Hamilton-Paterson, 2006


cover comments: I guess I'm getting numb to ugly Europa Editions covers because I don't find this terrible. Especially compared to Cooking with Fernet Branca. But still, pretty ugly.

Why I Read This Now: I was traveling to the same part of Italy where the main character, Gerald Samper, lives and since I enjoyed Cooking With Fernet Branca, I thought this sequel would be a fun vacation read.

Comments: In book 2, Gerald Samper is still living high in the hills above Viareggio, Italy, ghost writing autobiographies for sporting heroes and pop stars, cooking sketchy and questionable gourmet meals, and drinking copious amounts of prosecco (neighbour Marta is gone and so is the fernet branca).

Not much plot with this one--Gerry travels back and forth between England and Tuscany, and carries on as only Gerry can do. His opinions and views of the world are unique and specific, and occasionally absolutely brilliant. But in Amazing Disgrace, too often tedious. I read some of the really good bits out loud to my husband, and also told him the whole scene where Samper dearly wants to make a good impression as a dinner guest but then makes a critical error in the loo. My husband correctly identified that Gerald Samper is a bit of a douche. He can be highly entertaining, but this time around, not so much.

Rating: One-quarter of this book is a 5, but the rest of it is a solid 3 stars. Despite that, I will go on to book 3, Rancid Pansies, maybe next year when we go back to Italy.

Recommended for: if you loved Cooking With Fernet Branca, then definitely try this. If you haven't, read that book first.

>106 Nickelini:, >109 Nickelini: ok, books aside, some wonderful traveling.

Sadly all I know of Heidi is about the infamous football game (Heidi game).

>110 dchaikin:: --????

>111 janeajones: Hmm, a bad link apparently. try this:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heidi_Game

>112 ELiz_M: -- Thanks, I was clueless

>110 dchaikin: -- may I suggest you read Heidi and restore its reputation? .... and yes, some wonderful traveling indeed. Hard to get back to every day life. My job expects me to come in every day, all day. Can you imagine?

What Dan said. I remember watching that football game on NBC Television as a seven year old rabid sports fan with my father, his brother, and my cousins in 1968, as we were living in the shadow of NYC and followed the New York Jets (and Giants) closely. It looked as though the Jets were going to win the game, as NBC cut away from the coverage with one minute remaining in the fourth quarter to show Heidi at 7 pm, as the football game ran past its three hour allotted time. The Oakland Raiders managed to score two touchdowns in that last minute and beat the Jets, which we heard on the radio. My father and his brother were fuming at the network, and the following day in school there were heated arguments amongst my classmates: the boys were furious that the game was cut off, but the girls were happy that Heidi wasn't interrupted. The Heidi Game is one of the most famous and notorious ones in NFL history.

YouTube: https://youtu.be/zJAn3cTMXW8

Redemption came a few weeks later, when the Jets beat the Raiders in the AFL championship, then defeated the heavily favored Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III.

>109 Nickelini: yep, what is it with Europa and those awful covers? Is it the literary equivalent of music's Euro Pop?

Sorry about the bad link guys. I’m still not sure why it doesn’t work.

>114 kidzdoc: terrific story, Darryl. I wasn’t born yet, so only know the legend.

>113 Nickelini: I think you need to have a serious talk with your employer about that. Heidi - maybe. I should read Anne too...and a few others.

22. When Will There Be Good News?, Kate Atkinson, 2008


cover comments: Artistically I'm not a big fan, but I do like the stormy sky, and the scene pictured here actually happens early in the book, so that's unique.

Comments: The third in the Jackson Brodie series. Former soldier-cop-PI Brodie plays a smaller role here in this novel where multiple storylines eventually come together. Overall I found this a highly enjoyable and satisfying read, particularly the scenes with plucky teen Reggie Chase, who is trying to overcome a stretch of serious bad luck. I love how she endears people to herself.

Rating: 4.5 stars - on top of having some great storytelling, there is also some great writing with a quirky use of literary references throughout. I don't usually read series, but I will go on to read books 4 & 5 for sure now.

Why I Read This Now: book club

Recommended for: a wide audience

23. Medea (Hackett Classics), Euripedes, translated by Diane Arnson Svarlien


cover comments: I rather like this

Comments: Medea opens in Corinth, where Jason has recently booted his wife, Medea, and their two sons, out of his life so he could marry the princess and become part of the royal family. He tells her this is a good thing because now their sons with have royal brothers. Jason gets annoyed when Medea doesn't buy this malarkey and becomes enraged. She plots revenge and carries it out, which ends in her famously slaying both her children.

Although I usually dislike reading plays, I've wanted to read Medea ever since I studied Greek plays in university. I'm particularly interested in strong women characters who do not follow the traditional paths of motherhood and act in ways that most people find shocking. Medea is interesting because, as the introduction points out, it asks: "Do the experiences of Medea expose the oppressiveness of patriarchal Greek culture, or do they affirm every negative Greek stereotype about women?" In thinking about this, we need to remember that the Greek plays were written by men, performed by men, and for the most part viewed by men.

This translation by Diane Arnson Svarlien is highly readable. Look at the clarity and modern feel of this passage for example:

Of all the living creatures with a soul
and mind, we women are the most pathetic.
First of all, we have to buy a husband:
spend vast amounts of money, just to get
a master for our body--to add insult
to injury. And the stakes could not be higher:
will you get a decent husband, or a bad one?
If a woman leaves her husband, then she loses
her virtuous reputation. To refuse him
is just not possible. When a girl leaves home
and comes to live with new ways, different rules,
she has to be a prophet to learn somehow
the art of dealing smoothly with her bedmate.
If we do well, and if our husbands bear
the yoke without discomfort or complaint,
our lives are admired. If not, it's best to die.

It's also pretty stunning that this is still the reality for women in parts of the world and there are men actively trying to bring it back in the US.

Why I Read This Now: I needed a book to read on the train that was small

Recommended for: People who want to read the best of Greek Classics, readers interested in the treatment of women in Ancient Greece.

Rating: 4 stars

>118 Nickelini: Medea does go a tiny bit over the top though doesn't she? i enjoyed reading your example from the play, I read Medea some time ago and found it fascinating.

>119 baswood:
Well, just a bit, I guess if you want to look at it that way

Been lurking, mostly...but I just want to say how much I enjoy your cover comments. They are as interesting as your reviews. And I must get to Born a Crime; it's been on my TBR list for too long now.

24. Why Do the Swiss Have Such Great Sex?: Extraordinary Answers to 66 Improbable Questions About Switzerland, Ashley Curtis, 2018


cover comments: I'm pretty neutral on this (how's that for Swiss?)

Comments: When I arrived in Switzerland in early May, I found that I had forgotten to pack my journal, so on my first day there I went to a lovely book shop in the charming city of Zug, and bought a regular Moleskine notebook at the most astronomical price. Of course I had to glance over the English book section too, and when I saw Why Do the Swiss Have Such Great Sex?, I had to buy it.

Now, I didn't know that the Swiss had such great sex, but it really didn't surprise me -- after all, look at their surrounding influences: the healthy body awareness of the Germans, the romance of the French, and the sexy swoon-worthiness of the Italians. But when I picked up my daughter at work and showed her, she just laughed and said the Swiss were famous for being prudes. Hmmm.

Anyway, Why Do the Swiss Have Such Great Sex? asks 66 questions about life in Switzerland and takes two to four pages to explore the answer. The answers seem well researched, usually have a twist to them, and are often somewhat humorous. The questions range from fascinating to 'who cares?' but I found something valuable or interesting in almost all of them.

Here are two examples:

Q. How Much Rubble Was Excavated Digging the World's Longest Tunnel? And Where Is It Now?
A. Enough to fill freight cars in a train stretching from Zurich to Kathmandu. The rubble went to make the bed of the tunnel, and to make the concrete to line it. The rest went to shore up water areas that had been damaged by flooding.

Q. Could a Tsunami Strike Switzerland?
A. I thought this was a dumb question, but actually it wasn't. Yes, tsunamis happen in Switzerland. In 563 a landslide at the east end of Lake Geneva caused a massive wave that went over the walls of Geneva, and earthquake set one off in Lake Geneva again in 1584, and Lucerne was hit in 1601 and 1681. In 1806 a tsunami killled 500 people on Lake Laurerz. Not such a dumb question, actually.

Overall, a fun read.

Why I Read This Now: I started reading it right away while we were in Switzerland, but then threw it in my suitcase when we got to Italy. I took it up again when I got home, and read a question or two a day.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Recommended for: trivia buffs, people who want to learn more about Switzerland

25. I Am Malala, Malala Yousafzai, 2013


Cover comments: lovely and appropriate for a memoir

Why I Read This Now: I bought this soon after it was published, not because I actually planned to read it, but just to support Malala and her important cause of education. I absolutely love how the Taliban tried to silence her, but instead made her an international human rights celebrity and increased her voice by untold decibels. Buying this was my little way of giving the Taliban the middle finger. Anyway, I've been enjoying memoirs this year, so pulled it off the shelf.

Comments: Everyone knows the story of Malala, the teen-aged education-rights activist who was shot in the face by the Taliban, so I'm not going to go into it. This memoir starts with the shooting incident and then goes back to her family's history and slowly to her life in 2013. Lots of bits about Pakistani history and politics makes this a disjointed read.

Rating: 3 stars

Recommended for: people who haven't already read a lot about Pakistan and its oppressed population. This book would be an excellent addition to any middle or high school library.

>122 Nickelini: Amused by your being taken in by the Swiss book :-)

>118 Nickelini: from my pass through the Greek plays a few years ago, Medea stands out. I have an (unqualified and irresponsible) impression that there is nothing like her after the Greek tragedies came to an end until maybe a hint in Shakespeare. That there are simply no strong women in the older western literary canon, these two male Greek authors, Euripides and Sophocles being the exception (and Sappho, but there is not much there). I hope that’s the wrong impression. But Medea is maybe by far the strongest character of them, despite the negative stereotype she also represents. She shocks and then you keep thinking about her and she becomes uncomfortably admirable.

Anyway, apologies for that little excursion. Enjoyed your commentary and I’m intrigued by the nature of the translation. Also I feel I should read about Malala, since both my kids have now read her, but I haven’t yet.

>124 avaland: -- Hi, Lois! Thanks for dropping by

>125 dchaikin: -- Anyway, apologies for that little excursion.

No apologies needed! That was great stuff. Medea certainly is a fascinating character and I hope to read more about her.

(And there’s Antigone and Clytemnestra, Electra, Iphigenia, Polyxena, Cassandra, Atalanta, some variations of Helen... and more. They aren’t always strong in these Greek plays, but only in the Greek tragedies are they strong. In the later ancient mythological recreations—Apollonius 🙄, Virgil, Ovid—the women are almost universally submissive. Apollonius kicked Atalanta off the Argo!! He’s not forgiven.)

>127 dchaikin:

I liked Antigone & Clytemnestra a lot too, and I have a really great version of Helen ("I sacked Troy for you!")

26. Innocence: a novel, Penelope Fitzgerald, 1986


Cover comments: I love it--feels Tuscan. It's Lunetta la Magia by Giusto van Utens, and it's in the Museo di Firenze.

Comments: What even is this? What does this all mean? Why is this a book?

It's 1955 and 18 year old Chiara Ridolfi, the youngest member of a very old aristocratic family, decides she wants to marry the 30ish doctor she met only once. Salvatore Rossi is from the poor south, is a bit of a communist, and is a "just the facts" kinda guy. Actually, I thought he was a complete pill and there is no explanation for their "romance." There are a slew of secondary characters and they're all more likeable than these two twits. The story itself makes little sense.

All was not lost, however. There were entertaining scenes here and there, and some fabulous evocative descriptions of the old villa, farm and the countryside outside of Florence. The opening of the book tells the fascinating history of the family in the 1500s when they were all little people (as in midgets, not dwarfs).

Rating: saved by the evocative bits. 3 stars.

Recommended for: not sure -- if you've read Fitzgerald before and like her, give it a try. This shouldn't be your intro though. This is my 4th Penelope Fitzgerald novel, and not my favourite.

Why I Read This Now: I have 4 Fitzgeralds in my TBR pile, so it was time to read one, and it was set in Italy so the obvious choice.

>26 dchaikin: GREAT review! Love that first paragraph (tell us how you really feel, Joyce!)

>130 avaland:

I aim to please!

27. Portofino, Frank Schaeffer, 1992


cover comments: I think in the 90s when this was published I would have liked it a lot. Now I find it a bit choppy. But the landscape of Portofino is nice, and the watermark 1960s woman is nice, so it's still nice.

Rating: 5 stars. I do have a quibble in that I found that the serious tone at the end of the book to let the wind out of the proverbial sails of fun, but overall I loved, loved, loved this one. Fabulously captured Italian beach resort plus nutty Christian fundamentalists makes this a big win for me.

Comments: This novel is set over the summers of 1962 and 1965 when Calvin Becker vacations with his family at the Italian beach town of Portofino. They are Americans, but have been living in Switzerland where his missionary parents are attempting to convert heathen Roman Catholics to their one true Christian sect. Calvin is 10 yrs old in the first section, and starting to have serious questions about big life questions, but his two older pious sisters, his fundamentalist mother, and his moody self-absorbed father are not giving him the answers he needs. So he forges new friendships with the Italian locals and Jennifer from England.

Portofino is wonderfully evocative of holiday life at a magical Italian beach resort and the sort of adventures a 10 and 14 year old boy might get himself into when he’s trying to have a fun time despite his dysfunctional family. The scenes where he attempts to distance himself from his embarrassing family, especially when he’s mortified by his mother’s attempts to evangelize, are hilarious in a cringe-worthy way.

Why I Read This Now: A few weeks ago my sister in law and I were having a lively conversation about travelling in Italy, and how we both had Portofino high on our list to visit next time. She said, “I just read a fabulous book about Portofino and it made it sound wonderful. I need to go right away.” Sounded good to me, and then she asked:

“Do you know Francis Schaeffer?” Her question seemed entirely unrelated to our conversation. “You mean the nasty and batshit crazy fundamentalist?"

“Yeah, him,” she replied, “...it’s written by his son.” Now I know both the crazy dad and Frank Schaffer, the son, who I have all sorts of time for. In fact, I have his memoir Crazy for God high on my TBR pile. “Frank Schaeffer writes novels?” Who knew?

So it turns out that Portofino is a work of fiction highly influenced by his real life, and it was years later that he reworked it and wrote the memoir. Really interesting to see that the “esteemed” theologian Francis Schaeffer, who I’ve long determined was a misanthropic, pseudo intellectual and fraud (and one of the creators of the US Religious Right), is indeed a horrible human.

Portofino is the first of the Calvin Becker trilogy. I think the other two are set in Switzerland, so even though I rarely read series, I’m actually going to find copies of the other two, now out of print, novels.

Fun fact: My later edition (1999) of Portofino says “Now a major motion picture” and on the inside back cover says it stars John Lithgow as the father and Diane Wiest as the mother. Excellent casting I think, although because I know Francis Schaeffer, I only imagined him in the role, but once I read this, in my mind, Diane Wiest was the troubled zealot mother. However, I couldn’t find any trace of this film on ImdB, so I Googled further and found out that the project collapsed and was never filmed. Too bad, I think it would have been great.

Recommended for: I recommend this widely but predict two groups won’t like it. Devotees of Francis and Edith Schaeffer of course don’t want to hear anything that makes their heroes appear to be anything less than perfect Christians; likewise, the super pious will be offended by the realistic humanity of this story (Oh no! The 14 year old drank champagne! The horror). On the flip side, if you’ve never been exposed to intense religiosity, you won’t understand why all the religious stuff is really funny and will just find it annoying.

ETA to fix touchstones

>132 Nickelini: Great review & comments! (I like the "recommended for" especially. Yeah, I know both Schaeffers. Back a million years ago (70s) I read some Christian apologetic work by the father (it might have been True Spirituality, most of it went over my head at the time—his work was approved by the powers on high and, well, anything to quench my literary thirst in a veritable desert). Later, on the outside and in the early 80s I bought and read an interesting book by Franky the son, Addicted to Mediocrity: 20th Century Christians and the Arts (part of my self-deprogramming). It was his first book. Of course, I have been fascinated to see him as a television pundit in recent years.

Joyce, I have been greatly enjoying your comments. Thanks for the breadth of your reading, which is so very different from mine that it is educational.

>133 avaland:
I think we'd have a lot to say about this if we could chat over coffee! My Francis Schaeffer was How Should We Then Live: The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture, which I bought shortly after someone tried to indoctrinate me into Schaeffer's worldview. I was interested because it seemed more erudite than most of the Christian schlock that had been pushed at me. I failed reading it twice, and then I finally made myself read it years later when I was studying Renaissance art at university. I was stunned at how awful it was overall and how twisted, shallow, and nasty his worldview was.

Yes, Frank is always worth listening to when I see him as a TV pundit. Always has something deservedly scathing to say against the right wing powers that be.

>134 sallypursell:
I'm so glad that someone other than me gets something out of it. Really, I just write for myself, but if I can amuse another, well, that's just delightful.

>132 Nickelini: Obviously, I've added Portofino to my wishlist and will look for a copy. Great review!

>135 Nickelini: How Should We Then Live very well could have been the book. I know where I was when I read the Schaeffer so it had to have been '76 which is when that was published. You get extra points for going at it twice! (another author foisted upon me was Robert B. Thieme). Yes, that would be quite a conversation.

28. Imagined Lives: Portraits of Unknown People, Tarnya Cooper editor, 2011
Published by The National Portrait Gallery


cover comments: oh yeah, this is lovely.

Comments: This is an awesome little book. The National Portrait Gallery put together a collection of 14 paintings that have been discovered to not represent the person the painting was long believed to represent -- in other words, they found out they have a pile of paintings of unknown subjects. Bring in John Banville, Tracy Chevalier, Julian Fellowes, Alexander McCall Smith, Terry Pratchett, Sarah Singleton, Joanna Trollope & Minette Walters to invent identities and stories for them.

Each story is a couple of pages long, and accompanied by a full-colour copy of the painting, plus a detail. My favourite was by Terry Pratchett and I found it quite funny (Pratchett is an author I've haven't found time to read yet but want to one day). From The Tale of Joshua Easement: "he is a man born under the wrong stars, and has never learned which ones they are." Poor Joshua.

This 95 p book is wrapped up with an essay on the science and art of identifying paintings, and then an overview of the provenance and what is known about each of the 14 portraits.

Rating: FUN! 4.5 stars

Recommended for: art history buffs

Why I Read This Now: it's a small book that was easy to tuck into my bag for work

Thanks to LT friend Cariola for recommending this back in 2013

>138 Nickelini: That sounds really fun!

29. Evil: the Science Behind Humanity's Dark Side, Julia Shaw, 2019
Published in the UK as: Making Evil


cover comments: just fine for a psychology-criminology-sociology book. I guess making it black and red with devil horns would have been too obvious?

Comments: Before I start, I have to say that this is a difficult book to comment on in the LT format (I could easily have a conversation though). For a succinct review, I steer you to Avaland's review on the book's page. Also, before I start, understand that the author, Julia Shaw, is a senior lecturer in criminology and psychology at University College London. This is not a philosophical text. Okay then . . .

(I wrote some stuff and then deleted it). I actually can't write comments on this without going into hours and hours of typing. It was fascinating. And important. Some of this I already have come across, but I think if it's the first time you've looked from this angle it can be rather shocking.

One thing that she touches on that I'd never quite thought of before is that it's not okay to define someone by their worst moment. "Bill Smith, murderer --- oh, he's evil!" Well, no, Bill Smith did a horrible thing, but he did a lot of other stuff too and some of it very nice. This is not to excuse his terrible act, but to remember that he's human. (Now, as a fraud investigator, I can tell you that some fraudsters appear to be nice people I'd rather not nail, and some are horrible, horrible people. But fraud is fraud, so there you go. I digress)

In conclusion:

The dedication for this book: "to the insatiably curious" ( yep, that's me! )

As Avaland pointed out, Shaw's list of "Ten Things Everyone Needs to Know About Evil":

1. calling people evil is lazy
2. all brains are a bit sadistic
3. we are all capable of murder
4. our creepiness radars suck
5. technology can amplify dangerousness
6. sexual deviance is pretty common
7. all monsters are human*
8. money distracts from harm
9. culture cannot excuse cruelty
10. we MUST speak of the unspeakable

Why I Read This Now: I was raised to believe that "evil" is an actual, physical force that threatens to overtake the earth, and it flows from Satan. I also heard that we are all born evil and can only escape that by being washed by the blood of Christ, whatever that means. This is not something that was hammered in to me, just something I heard. Yada, yada, I've overcome my fundie upbringing and am now fascinated to find out where almost all these ideas of "evil," "Satan," and "hell" come from -- it's not what the church taught me and I find that fascinating. Over the years, I find that I've thrown out the word "evil" as short-hand for "really heinous" and I've caught myself and reconsidered. So when LT friend Avaland read and reviewed this book a few months ago, I thought, "I have to read that ASAP!" (Also, I'm mulling over a novel that incorporates some of these ideas, so this was research*)

* "All Monsters Are Human" may be the title for this novel. It's now the working title, anyway

Recommended for: if you've made it through this and read Avaland's review, you'll know. Really, I think everyone SHOULD read it, but then no one likes to do shoulds.

Rating: 4.5

>138 Nickelini: What a wonderful idea for an anthology. I've never seen that one before, either—on the wish list it goes, thank you!

>139 wandering_star:, >141 lisapeet:

Right? If Cariola hadn't suggested this, I'd never have known about it

>140 Nickelini: That was fascinating. At the start of your review I was thinking, this is not for me. But I think you have persuaded me. Just that list of ten things has so much to think about.

>140 Nickelini: I agree with wandering_star. I need to read both of the last two. I would already agree with much of the thought inspired by the list, but it leaves the conundrum unanswered: is there evil? what is it? does it matter? can we address it? can we prevent it? whose job is that?

>140 Nickelini: I put this on my wishlist when avaland reviewed it, but now I'll just write down the title one more time, for emphasis.

Also starring it on my wish list just to make sure! Sounds horribly fantastic.

Oddly, in the UK this is entitled 'Making Evil'. I wonder why the publishers decided we needed the 'making'. Is it already giving away the fact that the author believes evil is made not born?

>140 Nickelini: Sounds as if you found it as fascinating as I did (and you're welcome!). It would make a great group discussion but I suspect the average book group reader would not be up for a few of those chapters. I love books that "disturb" me...the ones that get me to think...

>144 sallypursell: but it leaves the conundrum unanswered: is there evil?

No conundrum. Evil is only found in some Stephen King novels. Otherwise it's lazy shorthand for a zillion other things, none of them evil.

>148 Nickelini: I happen to agree with you, but I believe there are many who would disagree.

30. 300 Days of Sun, Deborah Lawrenson, 2016


cover comments: love it -- has the vintage travel poster feel. When I bought this I had never heard of it but the cover pulled me in.

Comments: Jo, a journalist, needs a break from her life and goes to Portugal and enrols in a language class, where she meets Nathan. They get involved in a mystery involving child kidnapping and murder. This story is interspersed by a second story about neutral Portugal in WWII with spies, Nazi gold, and espionage.

I enjoyed this tremendously, although 300 Days of Sun isn't a great literary novel or anything. More of a solid and worthwhile vacation read. I loved the setting in Portugal. Both my daughters were travelling there while I was reading this, and it was fun reading evocative descriptions of where they were. It makes me want to go back to Portugal again. I also appreciated learning about WWII Portugal while being entertained.

I look forward to reading more by Deboarah Lawrenson.

Rating: 4 stars -- very good, but not amazing.

Recommended for: like I said above, this a great vacation read. Also, great for readers interested in Portugal.

Why I Read This Now: it's summer, and this seemed summery.

>150 Nickelini: That really is a pretty cover, Joyce. Your description has put it on my wishlist. It sounds like one I might want on hand to keep my mind entertained when I need a distraction.

31. Italian Neighbours: An Englishman in Verona, Tim Parks, 1992


cover comments: Sure! this works for this sort of book. Looks like Italy, and the white with a muted red and green evoke the Italian flag. If in sort of sullied tone . . . which is accurate.

Comments: Tim Parks is an Englishman who moved to Italy in the 80s, has translated a bunch of Italian authors ---which is where I know him from--- and had a Booker nominated novel years ago (Europa).

I liked this better than most "ex-pat in Italy/France/Whatever memoir, where the locals help the stressed out American or Brit realize that life is just better when you live in a villa watching sunsets every night while drinking prosecco. I've never lived in a villa watching sunsets and drinking prosecco, but I can tell you that I don't need to read your memoir to know it's a good thing.

Anyway, that's not Italian Neighbours. Tim Parks describes his life through the 1980s living in a village in the Veneto east of Verona, and his interactions with his neighbours. Hence, the title Italian Neighbours. He has a keen wit, and his sharp observations make this unique among the "ex-pats lives are better than we who stay behind" genre of memoir (cough - some of them need to be filed under "fantasy and science fiction". )

The vignettes in this about the bits of everyday life in Italy struck me as incredibly perspective, and when I read out loud parts to my Italian husband, he laughed in recognition.

This was published in 1992, the year I took my first trip to Europe and visited Verona, and I finished this in 2019, when I took my second trip to Verona (but 5th vacation in Italy). Verona is a lovely small city, but most of Italian Neighbours: an Englishman in Verona is set in Montecchio Maggiore, about a 30 min drive east.

Why I Read This Now I actually read almost half this book two years ago, and I was enjoying it, but then a trip came up to Switzerland, so I switched to Swiss Watching, a book about an Englishman adapting to life in a new country. Rather different approaches, but too much of the same thing. Italian Neighbours is much more intimate and personal. Anyway, back then I set it aside and recently picked it up because I always meant to finish it.

Recommended for: anyone interested in living in Italy

Rating: mostly I found this overly-long. I don't know what to cut, but 200 pages instead of >300 would have been ideal. Some readers complain about lack of thesis statement and lack of story arc. Okay. It's just sort of day-in-the-life over a year. Whatever. **** 4 stars

>152 Nickelini: sounds fun, although I would tend to agree that this type of book doesn't need to be overly long.

I’m very late to the Heidi party, but I’m really pleased to know how much you enjoyed re-reading it as an adult. It was one of my absolute favourites as a child (I remember receiving it in the post all the way from the USA, a gift from my dad’s cousin who had recently visited us; apparently I’d read to her and she’d been impressed, so she sent me Heidi when she got home because it had been her own favourite), and I recently bought it for my daughter. I can’t wait to read it again, whilst being afraid to in case it’s not as good, so your experience is reassuring. (I’ve already tried reading it to my daughter, but she’s still a bit young so I put it to one side).

Heidi was one of my favorite books when I was young, too. I remember one year I read it 53 times. I remember the number because I only allowed myself one read per week, and I broke my rule in the last week only. I read it some of my kids, and to a niece and nephew. I am looking forward to reading it to my grandkids, too.

>155 sallypursell: Oh, that made me laugh. I love it!

>152 Nickelini: Just got back from a holiday in Verona - didn't meet any ex-pats there.

I've never read Heidi! I might need to remedy that. I wonder how it would be to come to it for the first time as an adult? I doubt either of my boys would let me read it to them.

>158 japaul22: Unless you hate sentimentality you should really like it. There are great settings, fine sentiments, persistence repaid with unexpected success, bitterness changed to good fellow-feeling. There are goats, and a grandfather surprised by being charged with the care of a small girl whom he never had met before. There is great sledding. Heidi charms almost everyone with her optimism and energy. I'll bet she charms you too.

>157 baswood:
LOL! I didn't meet any Brits when I was in Verona in May either. How was your trip? I can't wait to go back to Lake Garda. We're planning on another Italy-Switzerland vacation next May again, but I don't think we'll get over that way this time.

>158 japaul22:
I think you should give it a try. I was happy to find that it wasn't saccharine (despite the way it's reflected in popular culture).

32. Autumn, Ali Smith, 2016


cover comments: Subtle and beautiful. I like the covers of this whole series -- Winter is suitably icy blue-grey, Spring is a soft green -- what will summer be, I wonder? Sooooo lovely.

Rating: Is it possible to enjoy a novel that you don't really understand? Over a lot of this novel, I really didn't know where it was going, but I was always happy to go along for the ride. 4 stars.

Comments: This is a bit difficult to describe. Set in 2016 England, just after the Brexit vote, this book jumps through time looking at the relationship of Elisabeth -- now a 30-something art history professor-- and Daniel Gluck -- now 101 and (mostly) sleeping in a care home. Their friendship started when Elisabeth was a child and they were neighbours. I found their conversations charming and it really made the book for me. I also enjoyed Elisabeth's mom when she was being zany.

I love to learn while reading fiction, and Autumn introduced me to 60s pop artist Pauline Boty. Thanks, Ali Smith!

Ever since I read and loved The Accidental years ago, I've wanted to read something else by Smith. I hope to read the next in this series, Winter, around Christmas.

Why I Read This Now: We were having an unseasonably rainy and cool September here in Vancouver, and I was thinking "autumn."

>158 japaul22:
I just noticed in my Rough Guide to Switzerland this comment on Heidi: Perhaps the most famous book ever written about Switzerland, but a hopelessly moralistic, cloying tale for all that. Spyri expertly evokes the folksiness and stolid culture of the Swiss Alpine farmers and effortlessly pulls heartstrings for her cheese-munching, milk-quaffing heroine.

Oh my. There WERE moralistic religious parts -- I just skipped over them.

>150 Nickelini: Catching up and took a bullet on this one.

>162 Nickelini: There were parts of Heidi in which the church-going folk were considered a touch better in some ways, but in other ways their rigidity and lack of acceptance of non-religious fellow farmers/herders were shown clearly. I didn't feel that this was really unbalanced. In addition, the acceptance of God, and their piety, even Heidi's love of God, were shown as naive and overly simple. This was shown as a positive, but also, I felt, acknowledged as unsophisticated. Certain townspeople's lack of God's Love was noted negatively. Although Heidi was God-loving and young, her religion was clearly about love and helping our neighbors. The moralism of the people who disapproved of the Alm-Uncle is shown up as he goes to church and is forgiven and welcomed enthusiastically by the Pastor and his old co-religionists.

In the middle of the book Heidi goes to work as a companion to Clara, a crippled girl in the city. Later, Clara is strengthened by a visit to Heidi's mountain home and learns to walk. The mountain goat-herding boy Peter has a blind grandmother who also benefits from Heidi's love and influence. The simple goodness of Heidi, and her willingness to work and sacrifice her own time for the good of others is clearly shown to be the instrument of these wonderful outcomes. There are tragedies referenced, and dealt with, and the Alm-Uncle's bitterness is clearly established as the result of his own tragedies.

Just thinking about this makes me want to read it again. I wasn't fooled by the depiction of religion as it was depicted, and I wasn't surprised that there were bitter and unhappy people who hurt others as well as cheerful and dutiful people who brought goodness. I think Heidi was instrumental in building my own values, and I'm not sorry for them. I learned acceptance when it was warranted, and that it was worth it to be cheerful in the face of difficulty and work, and persistent in the face of troubled times. It is hard to find those things regrettable.

33. When the Night, (Italian title: Quando la Notte), Cristina Comencini, 2009, English translation by Marina Harss 2012


cover comments: Sigh. Okay, I guess it's fine. But uninspired and feels like it was put together at the last moment. It does fit the book in it's bland way.

Comments: First, for a review that is much better than anything I'm going to put together here, check out LT friend JudyLou's review at Belletrista a few years ago:

http://www.belletrista.com/2012/Issue17/reviews_9.php

After reading that, if you still want to read more, here's my very quick take on this book:

This is a look at the lives of two flawed people who probably would be together if not for all their heaps of baggage. But some of that baggage explains why they both dislike and are strongly drawn to each other.

Manfred has lived his life on a mountainside in the Italian Alps. He now guides tourists up into the mountains above his village. One of his brothers runs a lodge higher up, and this is where Manfred was raised by his father after his mother ran off to the USA with a guest. This abandonment scarred Manfred deeply. At the beginning of his novel, his wife has recently taken their children and abandoned him to live in the city.

Enter Marina, a young mother with her toddler. A few years into this, she's feeling trapped into a life she hadn't planned (stepping onto my soap box here -- yes, young people. Do have a plan. And use birth control. Mmmkay? Stepping off soap box now). A bunch of family dynamics, and the pediatrician suggests a mountain holiday would be good for the always crying, never sleeping, never eating boy who she loves deeply but hasn't bonded with. Which brings her to Manfred's rental apartment.

Okay, I just have to say that I know a real life Marina. She is even Italian. My heart goes out to her, even though I watch her create her own struggles at times. Also, maybe they're working with a crap hand of cards.

Anyway, Manfred hates women and judges Marina sharply (which she's used to from everyone at home), and Marina somehow sees through Manfred's damaged and gruff facade. Things happen, and they both burrow into each other's lives. I've probably led you down some romantic path, but that's not the style of European fiction, so no, it's much more ambiguous.

Rating: 4 stars. I read this fairly quickly and enjoyed it all the way through.

Recommended for: Everything about this is a bit different, but not in an arty experimental way. When I watch European films I often think, "hmm, that was unexpected." If you know what I mean and like that, then try it. Also, Alps.

Why I Read This Now: I'm into translated European fiction right now, and this was Italian and the book's blurb said it was set in the Dolomites. I was in the Dolomites a few months ago, so I loved the idea of reading a book set there. BUT! I don't think it was set there at all, but instead somewhere else west, across northern Italy in the Aosta Valley. The second sentence sets the scene: The clouds hang low over the Dent du Geant. This is a sharp peak on Mnt Blanc, which is on the Italian-French border. The only other mention of place is later in the novel where the characters look up at "the Gigante," which when I google, is the Italian name (Dente del Gigante) for the same mountain. Further, even though I'm reading English, it's clear that everyone is speaking Italian. But the Dolomiti region of Italy is not Italian-speaking, it's German-speaking. And the culture is Tyrolian. There was nothing of this in this book.

I feel like I'm missing something, but I know many people who work in publishing and they tell me there are mistakes in books all the time, so I'm leaning toward thinking the publisher flat out made a mistake with the front flap blurb "... his home in the Dolomites...". If I've missed something, please let me know.

Which brings me to a pet peeve of contemporary Italian literature -- the authors never set their books in an actual place. The last three Italian-authored books I've read use "the city" "the town" "the seaside" "the mountains," etc. I know, it's all about the story, not the setting-- but really, I love reading a rich setting. My husband recently read a translated Italian book that did the same and he was annoyed. Personally, I'd like this trend to end.

Is it a pet peeve if you like it? I've been slowly catching up. Really really happy you liked Autumn. I'm so intrigued by that list from Evil. I read Lois's review and thought about that list (and put the book on my audible wishlist). Then I saw your review, happily read the list again, and came away with different thoughts.

>166 dchaikin:

s it a pet peeve if you like it?
I'm not sure what you're getting at. Was I confusing? In my example I'm okay with a bit of it, but overall don't like it. A pet peeve, to me, means something that bugs me but might not bug others. But you may like it?

You realize you're just going to have to read Evil: the Science Behind Humanity's Dark Side now and figure out what YOU think, don't you?

Disregard my pet peeve comment, I miss read your post. Sorry. :(

And, yes, I will need to read Evil.

>168 dchaikin:
Well yes, it makes sense when I type it, but then I re-read later and see I can be ambiguous. Thanks for clarifying. I try to write for the reader, but really, I'm getting down my thoughts and don't know if anyone is actually reading so, .... sometimes more getting down thoughts and not so much helping the reader. Sorry.

One more Heidi comment: I'm in the middle of reading it now (due in part to this thread) and am reminded of my re-read last year of Little Women, which has a similar moral/religious tone, but aimed at a slightly older reader.

I think it was expected of children's authors in the 19th century to provide moral guidance for young people, if you wanted to be published by a major firm. Spyri has less preaching and more relating of kind and good actions than Alcott, which makes it an easier read, at least for me.

>169 Nickelini: oh, I completely misread the last line as, “Personally, I like this trend”. So, when you posted your response I went right back to that line where it obviously says, “Personally, I'd like this trend to end.“ It didn’t change no matter how many times I reread it. (What the hell, brain?). Anyway...

>165 Nickelini: I think I might enjoy that one. Italians, mountains and family saga - how could it go wrong?

>170 kac522:
That's a good point -- I forgot about that, actually.

>171 dchaikin:
We've all been there!

>172 AlisonY:
Right?!

34. Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine, Gail Honeyman, 2017


cover comments: rather pleasing, maybe even completely fine.

Rating: Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine was fine. Not amazing, not awful. Definitely fine. 4 stars.

Why I Read This Now: Although I had heard of this book and was vaguely aware that it was a good read, it really wasn't on my radar at all. But it came up as a book club selection, and I thought I'd give it a try. Not sure if I'd ever had picked it up otherwise but happy I did.

Comments: I get the impression that anyone interested in this book has read it, so here's the shortest summary I can think of:

Eleanor Oliphant is almost 30 and lives a lonely but organized life in Glasgow. She's highly intelligent but socially awkward to the extreme. Things happen and she makes a friend at work and one step leads to another, and then she comes to terms with her extremely abusive and traumatic upbringing that resulted in her being a lonely, organized, socially awkward 30 year old.

Most readers love this book, a few readers don't and have some valid criticisms ("predictable" is one, "unrealistic and cartoon characters" perhaps another). I started out liking it, but then quickly stopped -- Eleanor was too unpleasant and it just wasn't clicking, but I trusted it was going to progress and around page 70 I started enjoying myself, and found myself engrossed by page 150.

The strongest trait with Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine is various illustrations of how kindness can change lives. Eleanor's relationship with her friend Raymond is especially lovely (in this book, Everybody Loves Raymond, and for good reasons). I also loved the literary references -- such as Eleanor and Marianne from Sense and Sensibility, the many Jane Eyre references, and Eleanor being the loneliest person, after the most famous lonely person Eleanor Rigby.

Recommended for: My book club met on this tonight and everyone liked this a lot. I was the only one who had anything critical to say. If you're not in a picky mood and looking for a book to dive into over a weekend, this is a good one.

>174 Nickelini: I can understand finding things to pick at this novel with. I read it on holiday, and I think it was perfect holiday reading fodder. I really enjoyed it, but I wasn't asking too much from it (if that makes sense).

35. The Black Spider, Jeremias Gotthelf, 1842 - translated from German by Susan Bernofsky


cover comments: oh yes, all sorts of awesome. NYRB Classics does it again. (Image is "Allegory of Vanity" wax figure, 18th century; cover design by Katy Homans)

Why I Read This Now: Every October I go on a creepy book quest. This was one of my better results -- creepy indeed. Also, I'm currently exploring Swiss literature, and this is one of the old classics. It's written by an old, white, religious male, which is way out of my interest zone, but it's reputation as a very early horror novella got me to read it anyway.

Comments: The Black Spider opens with a baptism and feast on an idyllic May day, deep in the Emmental Valley in Switzerland. Between meals, while the men are digesting one spread and resting up for the next (and while the women clean up and start cooking again), the grandfather tells two stories about the forgotten history of the village.

The first was set 600 years earlier, when the villagers were serfs and the area was ruled by a tyrannical knight and his jerk-knight-friends. The knight demands impossible tasks from the serfs. If the serfs attempt the tasks, they are sure to fail, and the knight will kill them. Also, they won't be able to farm, and they will starve. Then they are offered a deal with the devil, and they think they can outsmart him. They also realize that God will smite them for making a deal with the devil. There was never a question of God helping them out of the impossible situation they were thrust into and powerless to change. So really, they're screwed. Anyway, the devil doesn't fool easily and seriously bad things happen involving spiders.

The second story happens 200 years later (if you do the arithmetic, that brings us to around the time of Black Death--definitely intentional). The villagers have forgotten the lessons from last time, and the evil spider force is released yet again. More super creepy spider action.

Back to the frame, with the grandfather and baptism feast. He's ruffled some feathers with his horrific stories but he says it's important people know their history and prevent such horror from happening again.

Jeremias Gotthelf was a pastor, and there is an overabundance of God's weirdness in this. If one looks at the theology a little bit, it presents Christianity in a poor light, despite the author's attempts at the opposite. As with Heidi, I just skimmed over these parts.

Rating: 4 stars. This was actually a more enjoyable read than I expected. Once I got out of the frame and into the grandfather's stories, it had a lovely fairy tale feel. As for the creep-factor, I don't creep easily, but this was one of the better ones I've read in the last decade or so.

Recommended for: fans of NYRB Classics, very early horror, Swiss literature, spiders.
Not Recommended for: arachnophobes

I'm going to skip all that "super creepy spider action," thanks for the warning. Those Calvinists, though. Not big on God caring about or for His creation.

>177 RidgewayGirl:

LOL - yep, with predestination, who cares what you do?

36. Sapiens: a Brief History of Humankind, Yuval Noah Harari, published in Hebrew 2011, published in English 2014


cover comments: yep, that's fine I guess

Comments: One educated guy's idea of the history of today's humans from 70,000 years ago to predictions into the future, all in 416 pages. Blurbs by Barak Obama and Bill Gates, amongst others. Mega best seller, so I'm not going to say much.

This started out very strong, but then faded more as it got into recorded history. I see in reader reviews that others think this too. Some of the conclusions he drew from history made me raise my eyebrows, but then he's capturing everything in fewer than 500 pages, so okay I guess. Pretty much everything he said about humanism was flat out wrong (as also noted in the review by The Guardian) but that's only a bit of the book, and he did probably get some other things perfectly right. His ideas on how humans will evolve into the future are odd but interesting, and not something I've thought a lot about.

Why I Read This Now: my husband read this a few years ago and raved about it but I've been busy with non-fiction about Switzerland where our daughter moved, and a few other more burning topics. And now I finally made time for it.

Recommended for: Parts of Sapiens reminded me of Guns, Germs and Steel, a book that I was raving about years ago. The author actually cites Guns, Germs and Steel, and the author, Jared Diamond, blurbs this. So if you liked that one, you'll love ....

Otherwise, this is an entertaining, wide-ranging overview that covers history, archaeology, anthropology, sociology, etc. that has some interesting ideas. It's a best seller for a reason.

Rating: 4 stars

>179 Nickelini: sounds like an interesting read. For some reason this title has passed me by - I must keep an eye out for it.

>179 Nickelini: This has been on my TBR pile for a few months, and I am really looking forward to it. Thank you for your review; it has whetted my appetite.

37. Storia di Lucca (History of Lucca), John Jones, 2000 - printed in both Italian and English


cover comments: sure, this is fine-- nice warm red, nice artwork that shows a definitive scene of the subject

Why I Read This Now: I'm studying Italian and this probably the oldest Italian book I own and one I've been meaning to read for ages.

I think what is most notable about this book is that it's printed in Italian on the left pages and English on the right. My Italian isn't good enough yet to read the Italian side, but it's interesting to glance over now and again to see how things are worded.

Comments: Back in 2000, my husband was the president of the Tuscany society here in Vancouver. That isn't as important and fancy as it sounds, but from a few years of holding that position, he did get a free trip to New York City and one to Florence, Italy for conferences of Toscani from around the world. As part of the contingent of Lucchesi (all his family is from Lucca), he was given this book as a gift.

If you're not familiar with Lucca, it's a charming small city in the NW of Tuscany, between Florence and Pisa. I was last there at the end of my Switzerland-Northern Italy trip last May, and after going through stunning places in the north -- four of the Italian Lakes, the Dolomiti, Verona, and then the Cinque Terre, when we got to Lucca, and I rode a bike to circle the top of the Renaissance walls, I truly felt that THIS was the real Italy for me. I feel very lucky for it to be my Italian home. Anyway, back to the book . . .

For hundreds of years, Lucca was an important city-state of Italy. If you look at historical maps, the areas all over the country change ownership and allegiances, but for the most part, Lucca remains just Lucca, in it's little corner of Tuscany. For hundreds of years, Lucca was a European banking centre and silk manufacturing centre.

Storia di Lucca is roughly divided thusly: Eight pages to get from 2000 BC with the ancient Lugurians, through the Etruscans, the Roman Empire (it was an important Roman walled city, but I guess this isn't the author's area of interest), and the Goth invasion.

These eight pages are followed by 90 pages detailing the intricacies of diplomatic negotiations of the Middle Ages and Renaissance (800 years), which went sort of like this: Lucca teamed up with Genoa against Pisa, then they went to war with Florence, until that group died and then they cut a deal with Florence against Milan and Genoa, etc and so on. Mostly Pisa is the enemy (to this day--I've sent anti-Pisa graffiti in Lucca and my husband's uncle was disgusted that we went there one day).

After that there are 45 pages to get from the 16th century to World War Two. The biggest section of this was the Napoleonic era when Napoleon's sister Elisa, as the Grand Duchess of Tuscany, built her palace in Lucca (which I think I should visit next trip).

I've been to Lucca five times, and I've often wondered what happened there besides the Medieval era, the Renaissance, and the Napoleonic decade. As I thought -- not much!

A note on the author: John Jones had a varied career in England, including being mayor of Abingdon and a bunch of other stuff that led to his being awarded the Order of the British Empire. His ties to Lucca have been close since he was an officer in the Royal Artillery that liberated Lucca in 1944. There is no translator listed in this book, so I'm guessing he wrote both the English and the Italian. Kinda funny, as sometimes the English didn't make much sense and I thought IT was the translation. Maybe he had the book ghost written.

Recommended for: Italian history lovers, anyone enchanted by the city of Lucca (or more it's past politics), a language nerd who wants to read a book in Italian and English at the same time.

The biggest fault with this was that there was a huge lack detail about everyday life, as it only focused on the negotiations of the ruling class and church. What was everyone else doing?

Rating: 3.5 stars for the writing and an extra .5 for the full-colour illustrations = 4 stars

38. Moominvalley in November, Tove Jansson, translated from Swedish by Kingsley Hart, 1971


cover comments: pretty great -- the Moomin font title is very nice with the subtle shadow in the leaf frame. However, I think the bright orange is a bit more October than November, which should be more of a muted colour

Comments: For a better commentary on this book, read any of the reviews on the book's page. People there really get this book.

This is the final Moomin book, and there are no actual Moomins in it. There isn't much plot, but there are a diverse group of creatures at the edge of the Moomin world who all feel a need to visit Moomin Valley while the Moomins are away. Set at the end of autumn and the very beginning of winter, it's a great book to cuddle up with in front of a fire and enjoying a cup of tea. It's utterly charming, with great character sketches, and full of mood and atmosphere and awesome Moomin-ness.

Recommended for: This is one of those children's books that's for all ages. It has a melancholy about it that fits November in the Northern Hemisphere well.

Why I Read This Now: As I've aged, I come to appreciate November in all it's gloom (although this year we had an unusually sunny and not-rainy November here in Vancouver). I used to detest the month, but now that the years fly by so quickly, I find even November has its charms. Moominvalley in November captures some of that. And I was ready to read a November book.

Rating: despite the lack of much plot, I really liked it, so 4.5 stars. I haven't read a Moomin book in about 45 years, and I think I might go back and reread them all from the beginning.

>38 Nickelini: I don't think I ever heard of these. How charming. I might have to try them.

I love the Moomin books deeply. I'm pretty sure they're why I'm a reader—not just the fantastical worlds and the wonderful illustrations, but that deep feeling of sweetness and melancholy that suffuses them.

>182 Nickelini: Keep up the Italian - it will come in useful for your next holiday

>184 sallypursell:
Truly sad that you didn't get a Moomin experience as a child!

>185 lisapeet:
Right? They're so lovely and odd

>186 baswood:
Thanks! I'm quite devoted -- that's why my reading has slowed down again. When I have time to read, I end up working on my Italian instead. It's amazing how much you can learn when you study every day.

>187 Nickelini: Regrettably, I never had anyone to really guide my reading, and it was my own responsibility to find reading matter for myself. That was quite painful often. And both my sister Gina and I are mad at my mother for throwing out our books from childhood and adolescence. She wanted to get rid of them because they took up too much room!

I don't think I ran into them when I worked at the library for so long, either. Odd.

>188 sallypursell:

I feel your pain. I went travelling for a year when I was 19 and when I came home all my books were gone.

>183 Nickelini: I remember loving the Moomins as a child, though I only have fuzzy memories of them. I've just started reading them with my daughter, though. On a recent trip to Helsinki I bought her a beautiful edition of The Moomins and the Great Flood (it cost me far more in Helsinki than it would have done on Amazon, of course, but I had to do it for the symbolic value), which was the first Moomin book Tove Jansson wrote, I think, though it was only translated into English in the last few years. Beautiful.

39. The Black Cat: Swiss Myths, Ktja Alves, 2019, translated from German by David Henry Wilson


cover comments: that's a pretty Swiss cover. I like it, because I tend to like Swiss things

Why I Read This Now: So when I arrived in Switzerland last year, I was shocked to find that I hadn't packed my journal. Quel dommage! (Except we were in the German speaking area, so I guess "wie schade" (according to Google translator). Anyway, my first day there, we were in the charming small city of Zug, and there was bookstore so I went in and spent an atrocious amount of money on a Moleskine journal, and had a good browse at the English language table. This was one of the books that caught my eye and I made a note of .... it was released 5 months later in North America and I ordered it right away. Fairy Tales! + Switzerland! Yes, please!

Comments:: This is a picture book sized book of 20+ folk stories from most of the 26 cantons of Switzerland, covering all four official language groups. Each story is illustrated by a different Swiss artist. The stories themselves don't have a lot of narrative satisfaction -- they are for the most part strongly didactic. Yet all was not lost . . . there was strangely compelling and ancient feel to the tales.

Recommended for: anyone interested in old folk tales, and Swiss ex-pats looking to instill some culture in their children. Because my daughter moved to Switzerland kinda outa nowhere, I've done a deep dive and immersed myself in books about Switzerland, and it's a strange, strange place (mostly amazingly nice, some of it not so much, but all of it even more unique that I already knew it was).

40. The Rise and Fall of the the House of Medici, Christopher Hibbert, 1974 **touchstones broken -- may come back and fix later


cover comments: excellent. It's a detail from the fresco 'Adoration of the Magi' by Benozzo Gozzoli, which is at the Palazzo Medici Riccardi. The dude on the horse is Lorenzo the Magnificent, apparently painted before he became magnificent but perhaps foretelling the future?

Why I Read This Now: Last month I was having dinner at my mother-in-law's, where she has Italian TV on all day. They were playing season 3 of Medici, which was just released in Italy (it hasn't been released in North America in English yet). I was enthralled and went home started watching season 1 Medici: Masters of Florence and then season 2 Medici: Lorenzo the Magnificent and was obsessed. I remember I bought The Rise and Fall of the House of Medici back in 2003 when I was studying art history, and hadn't had a chance to read it. After reading the History of Lucca I didn't expect to read another history book so soon, but that's life sometimes. Anyway, the TV series is amazing and I wanted to learn more about the Medici.

Comments: This started out strong, with clear descriptions of life in 1400s Florence. It then fell into the standard history book swamp of "they fought these people, and then someone invaded and they teamed up with those guys , etc." Occasionally it would return to some vivid passages that captured the magic of why we're interested in these people, but mostly it was a list of names and conflicts.

Despite the "rise and fall" of the title, this book doesn't actually say how they rose or fell, but just that they did. The family is known before the book starts in the 1360s, when they were bankers and cloth merchants (perhaps the name comes from the family having been doctors, as that's the translation from Italian). Rather amazing that Giovanni, who historians view as the patriarch of the family (and played by Dustin Hoffman in the series -- odd casting) was the great grandfather of Pope Leo X. His great grandson (and brother to Pope Leo X), Piero, was still just a banker, but his son Lorenzo became a duke, and Piero's granddaughter became queen of France (Catherine de Medici, wife of Henry II). That's some pretty successful upward mobility!

"What's so great about the Medici," you ask? Like wealthy people everywhere at all times, they could be a nasty, brutish, self-indulgent & greedy lot. But they also were the main patrons of the Italian Renaissance, and were instrumental in the development of not just visual arts and architecture, but also philosophy, literature and science. Not all the Medici were philomaths, but enough of them were, and they changed the western world.

So why did the Medici fall? See my line above about "nasty, brutish . . . " etc. Actually, the male lineage died out by the mid-1700s. Medici descendants live on today though through the female lines. Apparently half the existing European royalty links back to the Medici, and if my understanding of genetics is right, than a lot of other people from Europe too.

Now it's time to go rewatch Medici season 1 & 2 while I wait for Netflix to release season 3.


Richard Madden stars as Cosimo de Medici in season 1


Daniel Sharman stars as Lorenzo the Magnificent in seasons 2 & 3

The Difference Between History's Account & the Series: oh, loads. Lots of poetic license taken. But if you look at the portraits we have of the Medici, they were all pretty ugly, and everyone in the series is really fabulous looking. I suspect the actors also smell a lot nicer.

Recommended for: Even though it's written in 1974, sources tell me The Rise and Fall of the House of Medici is still one of the seminal books on this subject. So, recommended for those interested in the Renaissance.

Rating: 4 stars

Ooh, that netflix show sounds appealing. I read a book called Catherine de Medici: Renaissance Queen of France a few years ago. I don't remember much detail, but definitely a fascinating family and time period.

You have made me interested, too. I have Netflix, but I can never get my husband interested in anything but Action and Adventure stuff. This seems close to me, but I don't think he would like it. He doesn't like anything that hinges on relationships. It's odd, too, because he was a dévot of Art History in the past, and out daughter has degrees in it. He thinks anything about relationships is "like soap opera".

Yearly Wrap Up

Books I Remember Most Fondly:

The Girl Who Was Saturday Night, Heather O'Neill
Sweet Days of Discipline, Fluer Jaeggy
Portofino, Frank Schaeffer
Educated, Tara Westover
Born a Crime, Trevor Noah

Most disliked book I finished: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John le Carre

I read 40 books in 2019, which is half what I used to read, but better than the last few years.
Number of different authors: 40
New to me authors (authors I've never read before): 28
Rereads: 1 - Heidi
24 were written by female writers (60%), 15 by male (37.5%), and 1 by mixed group
13 non-fiction and 27 fiction (32.5% vs. 67.5%)

Languages:

28 English - 70%
3 German - 7%
3 Italian - 7%
2 French - 5%
2 Swedish - 3%
1 Ancient Greek - 2%
1 Hebrew - 2%

That looks like a good year! I also loved Trevor Noah's book. And I keep meaning to read something by Heather O'Neill . . .

Hmm. I might have lost track of you the last part of the year. Well, caught up now. Loved your history reviews.

>179 Nickelini: I tried Sapiens on audio. Started on the way the work, quit about 20-minutes later, before I got there. Something really bothered me about it. It was a library copy, so painlessly “returned” it the same day and looked for something else.