recently read: The Missing of the Somme, Geoff Dyer. 

This is my first read of the summer, and if this is any indication, this is going to be a summer of great books. The Missing of the Somme is described as “part travelogue, part meditation on remembrance” and this is certainly accurate—I would say that the “meditation on remembrance” occupies most of the first half of the book, and the travelogue aspect really kicks in at the end, mingling together with the discussion on remembrance in a really beautiful way. 

Dyer writes about the modes of memory surrounding and built up both by and because of World War I, focusing particularly on the war memorials and artistic and poetic renditions of the Great War. Anyone else’s take on this subject could be plodding or leaden; Dyer’s prose manages to handle the subject in a substantive, but never oppressive, way. There is a heaviness to what he writes, but he handles it well. 

This is a surprisingly quick read, and one that felt earnest and true. There is a quietness to Dyer’s book, in which he explores difficulties of the modern condition, but allows them to rest and simply exist, rather than beating them past recognition. This, to my mind, is the greatest success of his work. Vital, too, to his register is the way he presents his exhaustive research: it never feels burdensome.

I’m so pleased I read this, and I’m very thankful that it was suggested and lent to me. 

catching up.

1. I’ve been so busy with my thesis and whatnot that I haven’t had a chance to do anything to prep for grad school. Whomp whomp. 

2. I got my miraculous medal fixed today because its chain was broken. I hadn’t been able to wear it for almost a month, and I felt so weird without it. I feel so much better. 

3. I am so excited to read things over the summer. I’ll be posting a list of my summer reading in a few weeks. My first book will be The Missing of the Somme by Geoff Dyer followed by (big surprise)Pride and Prejudice. My life has been Austen-free for much longer than I feel comfortable with.

4. Graduating in 22 days. That’s not frightening at all.

5. All I want to eat all day long: ice cream, cheeseburgers, and pizza. I have no idea why. Usually I like fruit and things. Not recently.  

6. I’ve decided that my new phrase I will exclaim in displeasure is “pork knuckles.” Because why not?

(Source: wastelandwild, via davesoldebookshop)

penguinclassical:

Always reblog the logo gif.

(Source: duttonbooks, via booksandquills)

coffee-tea-and-sympathy:

” (13) Manor F” by Andrew Coogan

(via cor-austri)

attempted read: The Historian, Elizabeth Kostova. 

I started this book in August, expecting to read it in within a week or so. 

Then I started it.

This is a long book (650-ish pages) but, to my mind, it isn’t long out of necessity: there is a lot that could have been cut out. 

Kostova’s novel has an admittedly intriguing premise: a young girl follows her historian father on an adventure through history and literature to find Dracula. I’ve read a lot of vampire fiction (primarily because I took a vampire fiction class) so I thought I’d be all right with it and I’m all about history and literature, but this book is so convoluted, has so much going on, that I lost myself in it. 

I got up to page 450 and needed to stop. There are definitely enjoyable parts in this book, but as a whole, I think it’s overly complicated and simply longer than it should be. Who knows? Maybe the last 200 pages would have been worthwhile to read. I regret putting it down now because it feels like I wasted my time investing in this book, but sometimes it’s better to cut your losses and stop when you can go no further, ne c’est pas?

Books from Christmas.

Books I got for Christmas this year:

1. The Age of Miracles, Karen Thompson Walker. 
2. The Unconsoled, Kazuo Ishiguro.
3. The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood.
4. Possession, A.S. Byatt.
5. The Alienist, Caleb Carr.
6. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Jon Berendt.
7. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark.
8. The Brontës- Wild Genius on the Moors: The Story of a Literary Family, Juliet Barker. 
9. House of Leaves, Mark Z. Danielewski.
10. Betsy-Tacy, Maud Hart Lovelace.  

recently read: Watership Down, Richard Adams. 

Watership Down is a novel about bunnies. I vaguely knew that going into this book, but the real reason I read it was because it was suggested to me about a million times. I didn’t realize how much Watership Down is about bunnies. It’s completely about them. I feel rather stupid for not previously knowing that. It’s about a group of rabbits, led by two very different brothers, to establish a new warren to avoid tragedy. After establishing themselves in their new home, they come into conflict with a larger, warring band of rabbits led by the inimitable General Woundwort. 

A lot of people really love this book, so my opinion is most likely a very unpopular one. This was a nice book, there was nothing really wrong with it, but it just didn’t do anything for me. I didn’t actively dislike it, but I didn’t like it, either. To be completely honest, the book seemed rather pointless to me; I know it isn’t, but my reading of it seemed like it took ages and the payoff was, unfortunately, minimal.

will not be finishing: The Seventh Beggar, Pearl Abraham. 

read through: Page 11.

recently read: American Taliban, Pearl Abraham. 

Pearl Abraham has previously written about Chasidic Jews and in this novel, she tackles young Muslims. American Taliban is clearly loosely based on the story of John Walker Lindh, a young man who joined the Taliban and is making headlines this week for alleging that his prayer is being restricted in American prison. In this novel, John Jude Parish is a bright eighteen-year-old surfer and skater interested in transcendental literature pre-9/11. He finds his way onto a chatroom discussing Arabic literature and Islam and becomes interested. Leaving his home in Washington DC, his girlfriend, and his surfboard behind, he moves to Brooklyn to attend an Arabic school to learn Arabic. Eventually, he travels to Pakistan and ends up joining the Taliban. 

The main problem I have with the novel is that nothing is tied up; John Jude’s relationships are left hanging. And while there are parallels with John Walker Lindh, and, indeed, the last third of the novel prominently features him, it’s slightly inconceivable how quickly and easily John Jude slips into radicalism. His parents don’t stop him. The homoeroticism Abraham adds in is clunky and unnecessary and feels slightly inauthentic. Ultimately, it’s a quick read, an interesting read, but it lacks the depth and authenticity that some of the other novels about Islam, particularly Leila Aboulela’s, which I read earlier this summer. 

recently read: The Upright Piano Player, David Abbott. 

David Abbott’s book details a few years in the life of Henry Cage, a wealthy businessman. The novel opens with the tragic death of his grandson, Hal, and then races back a few years, moving forward from there. 

Abbott writes well and the characters are interesting—the best is Henry’s fiery ex-wife, Nessa—but the main problem that I had was the opening not connecting with anything in the rest of the novel. Hal’s death is awful and I expected the novel to return to it by the end. By not coming back to it, the painful event seemed disjointed and random. 

For much of the novel, Henry is listless; he never seems to be completely invested in his own life. I found Henry boring and the people around him to be much more engaging and whole. Another thing that bothered me was how Abbott referenced things that Henry liked: whether it be a book or a musician, the allusions he made were so specific and isolated that it felt like the author was just plunking in things that he himself liked. 

All in all, it was interesting, but nothing completely special or necessary to read. 

recently read: Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Louis de Bernières. 

Captain Corelli’s Mandolin is about the goings-on during and after World War II on a small Greek island. It’s also much more than that: it details the love between a Greek girl and an Italian officer, the life of a homosexual Italian solider, the failings of a young Greek fisherman, the ethical problems of a young Nazi lieutenant, the life of a Greek doctor and father, and the chaos of war. 

If that seems like a lot, I assure you, it is. There’s a lot going on in this novel, and Bernières greatest achievement is his ability to masterfully pull it together. The narration switches constantly; Bernière writes earnestly, satirically, comically, and dramatically. One best reads this book by throwing oneself into the action. 

I’ve read reviews complaining about the pacing of the novel; the titular Captain Corelli doesn’t appear until midway through the book. I disagree. It’s a slow build to Corelli’s arrival, but once he does, the novel races. 

The novel was touching, funny, and gruesome in all the right ways. It’s certainly not for everyone, but I really loved it. 

Senior Year Reading List.

September: The Family Fang, K. Wilson
October: The Voyage Out, V. Woolf 
November: A Streetcar Named Desire, T. Williams 
December: The Book Thief, M. Zusak 
January: The Waste-Land, T.S. Eliot 
February: Old School, T. Wolff 
March: The Drunkard’s Walk, L. Mlodinow 
April: Cranford, E. Gaskell 
May: Reading Lolita in Tehran, A. Nafisi 

recently read: Lyrics Alley, Leila Aboulela. 

I read Aboulela’s stunning novel The Translator earlier this summer and while I didn’t love this novel quite as much, I can absolutely count it as one of the best books I’ve read this summer. Lyrics Alley is about a Muslim family in 1950s Sudan during a time of both new economic growth for the Sudanese and increasing agitation with the British imperialists occupying the region. The family is headed by an extraordinarily wealthy patriarch and his most promising son, Nur, is betrothed to his cousin Soraya until he has a devastating accident while vacationing in Egypt. Nur’s accident reshapes the whole family. 

One of my favorite things about Aboulela, who I am fast considering a favorite author, is how whole her characters are. They are all flawed and all feel real. The complexity of her characters makes reading about a culture with which I am not familiar a real joy. The exploration of a traditional Muslim population working alongside a more secular population which yet still working and living alongside English Christians is fascinating. 

I’m also so excited by the fresh beauty of Aboulela’s writing. There would very often be a line or two that took me by complete surprise because of how beautifully it described something or how tactile it could make a feeling. 

Aboulela’s writing is a joy to read.

recently read: A Study in Scarlet, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. 

This is the original Sherlock Holmes story, and while it was cool for that reason, I wasn’t wholly impressed by it. Much of this novella is the story of the in-fighting of Mormon settlers in Utah. Doyle’s stories are at their best when they highlight Sherlock himself, but the importance of this novel are by no means lost on me.