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January 2, 2023

12

#January 2023 Reading List

by NancyElin

  • So it is time to  finish the last drops of the champagne 
  • eat that one last croissant for breakfast
  • …then fill  the fridge with healthy food and
  • …hunker down in January.
  • I will try and read as many of these books as I can.
  • I won’t finish all of them…but I wiil do my best.

Reading list:

  1. Darkness at Noon – Arthur Koestler (Modern Library) REVIEW
  2. SeeingJosé Saramago (Nobel Prize 1998) – REVIEW
  3. Mike Nichols: A Life – Mark Harris  (Nat Book Critics Circle finalist 2021) – READING
  4. Floaters –  Martin Espada  – (Nat Book Award 2021) poetry
  5. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man – James Joyce (Modern Library) 
  6. I Know Why the Caged Bird SingsMaya Angelou  (classic #32 spin) – DNF
  7. Hong Kong Et MacaoJ. Kessel   NF (French) #WorldFromMyArmchair – READING
  8. Why We Sleep  NF – M. Walker (BookBingo science) REVIEW
  9. Moderato Cantabile – M. Duras novella (French) – REVIEW
  10. Les caves du Vatican – (Wikipedia)  André Gide –  REVIEW. (Nobel Prize 1947)
  11. Une mort très douce(Wikipedia)  S. de BeauvoirREVIEW
  12. Rome E. Zola  (Wikipedia)   REVIEW
  13. Le Vice Consul M. Duras – REVIEW
  14. La panthère des neigesS. Tesson  NF (French)  #WorldFromMyArmchair – REVIEW

 

  1. #NordicFINDS23
  2. Man Who Played with Fire: Stieg Larsson – J. Stocklassa  Sweden (NF)  – REVIEW
  3. A Line in the World: A Year on the North Sea Coast – Dorthe Nors – Denmark  (NF) – REVIEW
  4. The Rabbit Factor – Antti Tuomainen – Finland  (Dark crime, comedy)  – REVIEW
  5. Beartown – F. Backman (#NordicFINDS23 Sweden) novel – REVIEW
  6. Resin – A. Riel (#NordicFINDS23 Denmark) novel – REVIEW
  7. REVIEWS(#NordicFINDS23) – Scandinavian Movies

 

  • #DealMeIn  @bibliophilopolis (no formal hosting…)
  • I just add a comments about short story  on Twitter.
  • Rule: pack of playing cards = 52 short stories per year!
  • Jay’s challenge was one on the first I ever entered….14 years ago!

 

SHORT STORY:    #DealMeIn hosted by   @Bibliophilopoly

  1. The Other Party – M. Klam  19.12.2022   The NewYorker – READ – excellent
  2. Notions of the Sacred – A. Savas  02,09 .01.2023  The NewYorker – READ – excellent
  3. Hammer Attack – Han Ong – 16.01.2023  The NewYorker – READ – good
  4.  
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12 Comments Post a comment
  1. Jan 2 2023

    I don’t know why but I always love seeing your reading lists. Sorry the first one of the year isn’t going so great though!

    Reply
    • Jan 2 2023

      Well, there is always a “clunker” along the way….didn’t expect it from my first book and especially M. Duras. She wrote some great books but not everyone appreciates how complex she is. She uses much of her life experiences in her books (born 1914 in Saigon…1929 moves to France for her studies.) Annie Ernaux (Nobel Prize 2022)…is another “complex” writer. You have to work to read their books!

      Reply
  2. Oh no a dud first read of the year, so tricky to pick a good one, I’ve taken a risk starting with a chunkster, Three by Valérie Perrin translated, far too long to consider reading it in French.
    Bonne chance with your challenges, enjoy that last croissant 🥐 🥰

    Reply
    • Jan 2 2023

      The last croissant is meant to be savoured! I’ve never heard of V. Perrin..I’ll have to investigate. Do you have a January 2023 reading list on your blog? Would be interested to see what you have planned! Thanks for your comment and I’m still jealous you live in France and I don’t! Happy New Year.

      Reply
      • A January reading list! Oh no, you know I’m a total mood reader, I guess I have intentions, but I’d never write about them on my blog for they’re pure speculation, but I can say I’m tempted to read a couple of Japanese novels on my shelf for Bellezza’s Japanese Literature Challenge in January, I have Yoko Tsushima’s Child of Fortune and Natsume Sōseki’s Kusamakura. I definitely want to read more WIT this year, so Véronique Olmi’s Daughters Beyond Command is also a January contender as is Alice Zeniter’s The Art of Losing.

        Now you’re making me think I could make perhaps share these in a post, that’ll motivate me perhaps to follow through! Oh you’re too good an influence Nancy 🤣 I can be jealous of you too, you read far more in French than I ever will, I only have to converse in it and listen to my son correct me when I make the same simple mistakes.

        Happy New Year to you too! 🥳🥂

      • Oh and Annie Ernaux The Years is sitting here waiting for me to read too. I liked La Place and would like to read more of her works, so great her work has been recognised way beyond France in these past few years.

  3. Jan 2 2023

    Have also read ‘Why we sleep’ though I think it increased my anxiety about how little sleep I was getting!

    Reply
    • Jan 2 2023

      Sleep, one never appreciates it until you’ve been tossing and turning until 0300 AM! I tried to start the book last night but ironically I fell asleep! I haven’t stopped by your blog in a long time…will do so today! Thanks for keeping in touch!

      Reply
  4. Jan 2 2023

    Claire, so impressed with your reading suggestions/plans. After skimming many blogs etc is seems your books are always “thinking out of the mainstream blog box” Love it! Influencer? I’ve been called a lot of things but not that! Still I’d rather be a INFLU in France, ha! That is probably why I read so much in French…that is as close as I’m going to get. I read AE’s book Les années (review is on my blog dd. 06 Oct 2022) Complex does not even start to describe this author. Time for “un petit noir”!

    Reply
  5. Your book choice is always unique. I haven’t even thought about making a list this year but last year much of what I read was fairly light, although I did have a couple of largish bios. I’d like to get back into some literary classics and maybe some history. I’ve recently discovered Alison Weir and really enjoyed her ‘Six Wives of Henry VIII.’
    Happy New Year & hope you get a lot of pleasurable reading done in 2023.

    Reply
    • Jan 4 2023

      Thanks for your comment!
      Curious…which “largish bios” did you read in 2022?
      PS Happy New Year!

      Reply
      • Churchill: Walking with Destiny by Andrew Roberts
        Beatrix Potter: a Life in Nature by Linda Lear
        The Six Wives of Henry VIII (packed in a lot of information about Henry as well as his wives)
        Orthodoxy by Gilbert Keith Chesterton – not a large book per se but required a lot of my brain. 🙂

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