Greetings from a sunny day in the hinterland. Himself and I took the dogs for a long walk and youngest is out for a run. Rain is in the forecast but for now I am enjoying the sunshine. It turns out that last Wednesday was World Read Aloud Day which brings back many memories of reading aloud and being read to as a child. Himself and I were just talking the other day about Tock, the watchdog in The Phantom Tollbooth, a book that I read out loud to the boys when they were small on one of our many car trips to my mom’s house. Tollbooth is particularly suited for reading out loud and it remains one of eldest’s favorite books after all these years.
Eva from A Striped Armchair is back from a short absence with her unique perspective – I really trust her opinion, even more so after her recommendation of Purge. This week she reviews Fire on the Mountain by Anita Desai (published in 1977) and set in the foothills of the Himalayas. Nanda Kaul is an elderly woman who wants nothing more than to live in isolation and rest after caring for her family for so many years. And then her great-granddaughter comes to stay with her, a girl who is equally in need of isolation. At 160 pages, this seems like it might be the perfect small bite.
The Boston Bibliophile mentions a newly published work by French author Herve Tellier – set in modern-day Paris, Enough about Love is about two women and set of interlocking love stories amidst the intellectuals of Paris. Reading the reviews of this book I am tempted to call it a comedic, literary beach read. Marie describes it using food (one of my favorite ways of looking at books), “Read it if you want a love story as buttery and flaky as a croissant and as rich as that cocoa.”
John Self of Asylum mentions a non-fiction book that look really interesting. My grandmother collected murder ballads and even wrote a book called American Murder Ballads and their Stories, and my parents raised me (in the 1960’s) on folk music so reading about Dorian Lynskey’s 33 Revolutions Per Minute: The History of Protest Songs brought back memories of the student protests against the Viet Nam War in Santa Barbara where we lived. Lynskey book covers far more than the ’60’s and looks really interesting. This might be a good Christmas present for someone out there.
My niece has been reading fiction from or set in the middle-east and her doing so has prompted me to read The Map of Love by Ahdaf Soueif, a family saga set in Egypt. Winstonsdad reviews a book of short stories by Saudi Arabian author abdullah al-Nasser called The Tree and Other Stories. Winstonsdad writes, “… these stories do what great Arabic short fiction does and that is show life, like a fly caught in amber catching a unique moment or series of events perfectly.” I really enjoyed In Other Rooms, Other Wonders, the short stories of Daniyal Mueenuddin which are set in Pakistan so The Tree may have to go on the to read list.
After reading The Girl who Fell From the Sky I did some searching for other books about being biracial. Somehow I missed Walking on Dry Land by Denis Kehoe, but Kim of Reading Matters has brought it to my attention. Ana is a woman in her 30’s, raised in Portugal and working on her PhD in Film Studies in Dublin. When her mother dies, she finds out that her real mother was black and from Angola. Ana wants to find out the whats and whys and her story is alternated with the story of her Portuguese parents. The two stories eventually connect. I don’t know if the novel explores bi-racial identity but I love a good tale of family secrets so I will watch for this one.
Finally, Dani from A Work in Progress reports on her reading of Joseph O’Connor’s novel Ghost Light (which is also reviewed this week in The Los Angeles Times). Ghost light is based on a love affair between Irish playwright John Millington Synge and actress Molly Allgood and starts several years after the affair with an elderly Molly contemplating her first drink of the day (at 6:30 am). O’Connor has Molly look back over her life and then switches into the third person to describe Synge and Allgood and their relationship.