Wed Reading Meme...
Jan. 27th, 2016 10:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat1). What I just finished reading?
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood - who is a brilliant literary stylist, and her narrative structure is a work of beauty, tailor-made for academics and frustrated English Lit majors to scrutinize. Didn't much like her story or characters though. Although she does say quite a few poignant things about aging, the time period, and the craft of writing, not to mention the drive. Many of which I've posted within this journal.
Full review, with vague spoilers, is below:
Finally finished this book. It only took me three years. Why three years? Well, the book is structured in such a way that you can read it in snippets. There are self-contained chapters that are no more than two - ten pages. It meanders in time and place, and perspective, with newspaper entries throughout. Also, it is an incredibly depressing book - what is it with literary writers and depressing material? I know their lives aren't depressing - they get to do what they love and are driven to do, for money, no less, often lots of it. Also, they appear to have happy family lives. But their novels are bleak, and the characters, somewhat whiny, rich and entitled. What's up with that?
That said, Atwood is a brilliant stylist. Her technique is flawless. And she is an expert wordsmith. Amongst the best that I've read. Her prose is poetic, and she says some poignant things about old age, writing, loneliness, and human relations. She doesn't seem to like men very much and falls, regrettably, into the trap of gender stereotyping. Her women are rather passive aggressive and her men - bullies, except for one, who seems to lurk on the edges of the page, and is barely noticeable.
I found many of her characters, in particular the male characters, to be one-dimensional and uninteresting - which is an issue that I have with all her works, not just this one.
But, it is still a beautifully written book. And in it, Atwood does an adept job of examining the post WWI-WWII era in Canada in terms of how women were treated. Also, the structure of the narrative is notable and most likely the reason this book received so many honors.
It's a story within a story, within story, told by an unreliable narrator, who spends most of the novel hiding from the intended reader, who turns out to be her granddaughter. Iris Griffin, nearing the age of 83, writes the story of her life and her sister, Laura's, for her estranged granddaughter, Sabrina's perusal. Within the story, she darts around uncomfortable issues such as rape, molestation, and her own inadvertent assistance with both, and guilt. Although, it is clear through the narrative that she, like her sister, Laura, were merely the toys of the men who dominated their lives -- neither having the gumption to break entirely free of those bonds until it is too late.
The Blind Assassin is the novel within the novel, that we're told is written by Laura Griffin. Within that novel, is a short story about The Blind Assassin, which is told by Laura and Iris lover, Alex, a political dissident and sci-fi pulp magazine writer. This story is horribly sexist and discusses how men abuse women for their own gain -- touching on the sexist and misogyny of the sci-fi pulp novels of the time, along with the genre as a whole. Alex, himself, doesn't seem to like women all that much -- and just meets the protagonist of The Blind Assassin for sex, and bedtime talk. He's as much a user and bully, as industrialist Richard Griffin, whom Iris is forced into marrying by her somewhat mad and flailing father. She's a mere eighteen at the time, while he is fifteen years her senior. Laura acts out, rebels, but in the end falls on her sword, metaphorically speaking, for both men. Sacrificing herself to the one in order to save the other - and accomplishing nothing. Her lover dies anyhow, and besides he's not been all that faithful.
The part of the story that is interesting is the relationship between the two sisters, which is fractured by the men in the lives, as women's relationships with each other often can be. Iris, unlike Laura, is a survivor. But not a particularly likable one. None of the characters in this novel are likable or all that interesting.
What saves the book is the style and the structure of the narrative...which resonates long after you finish it. There are isolated quotes in this book that I wanted to write down and post on my wall. Making me wonder, not for the first time, if Atwood would have made a much better essayist or memoirist than fiction novelist.
Note - Atwood is not the sort of writer you read to escape, quickly, on your commute to work or on an airplane. She requires your attention and concentration. Each sentence. Each word. Must be savored.
Like fine fermented wine. Not the cheap stuff that comes in a box. Books are a bit like wine, there's the cheap stuff that you slurp down, get mildly or grossly drunk on, might have a hangover, but forget later. And the fine stuff that you savor, tastes amazing, and you enjoy with chocolates.
2. What I'm reading now?
Almost done with accomplished Italian playwright and screenwriter, Dario Fo's first attempt at novel writing. Let's just say you can tell he's a playwright. Actually, it reminds me a great deal of Machiavelli's The Prince, except haphazardly turned into a play, with the Borgia family in the key roles.
I can't quite decide if the problem is in the translation, and if this would be much better in the original Italian. I'd need someone to read it in both and tell me. Since I can't read Italian. (I can barely read elementary French. Learning Italian isn't going to happen any time soon.)
It's a book club book. Otherwise I would have given up on it by now. I'm 91% of the way through or on page 221 out 247 pages. And it has pictures, lots of pictures, so more like 180 of 200 pages.
The book is a history of Lucrezia Borgia -- making me want to stream the Showtime Series "The Borgias" on Showtime via my streaming device. I'm thinking that would be more entertaining, if less historically accurate. (Speaking of Streaming, Better Call Saul is coming to netflix in Feb, which means I can stream it, a much better way of watching. No dumb commercials.) You'd think a book about the Borgias wouldn't be quite so dull. Particularly one by an accomplished Italian comedian and playwright. Well, you'd be wrong. It's duller than dirt, as they say. I'm bored. It's putting me to sleep. Which is why I gave up reading it on my commute and just read it before bed. Well that and because, I'm having troubles reading paperback books without my reading glasses - which are difficult to manage on the subway.
This is a problem with style, not substance. The story has great potential. There's no twistier soap opera material than The Borgias. I mean the story more or less tells itself. Plus he says it's a fictionalized account, the book is described as a novel, so I'm not sure why he feels the need to be boringly accurate. Non-fiction biographies about less twisty families are more interesting.
The humor is there - it's wry and quite dry in places, so it's gotten a smile out of me. Sardonic.
Making fun of the time period, the players, and the story. And he has some interesting images - one is of all the players being engaged in a kind of circus or danse macabra, which I think would have worked better on film or on the stage than briefly summarized here. He writes the novel like he would a play or screenplay - with dialogue, then a summarization of the setting or action, then dialogue. Very little description. Screenplays and plays don't have description. And if they do, it's scant.
The amount they have is to either set the scene or show the people moving from one place to another.
This book reads like that.
Also reminds me, as previously noted, of Machiavelli's The Prince. Someone at a social justice gathering, once turned to me in righteous anger and stated : "And I believe Machiavelli was a real person." Fortunately, I could not respond, because it was one of those circle things, where you could only talk if called on. So there I am, biting my tongue, being polite, while looking rather puzzled.
I wanted to retort: "Uhm, actually, Machiavelli was a real person, he was a monk during the Renaissance and wrote The Prince. I thought everyone knew that?" (I read and analyzed Machiavelli's The Prince in an American Government class in high school.) Anyhow this book reads a lot like it in narrative descriptive style - the humor is also somewhat similar. I could never quite decide while reading Machiavelli, if he was serious or satirical. The Prince reads like a satirical take on Italian politics, which for some reason everyone took seriously. This book similarly reads like a satirical take on Italian and Catholic politics, and the writer even references Machiavelli - stating that Machiavelli was in fact talking about what the Borgia's were doing in The Prince. So it may well have been deliberate. Or the writer accidently read Machiavelli first and inadvertently mimicked the style? It happens. That's why you need to be careful about what you read, while writing a book. Particularly if you haven't yet formed your own distinct style. Not that Fo hasn't. But this is his first attempt at a novel - completely different medium from a play.
Side note on translations -- it's really hard to critique a novel that you've only read a translation of. I'm beginning to understand why my English Lit professors wouldn't let me do my thesis on Gabriel Garcia Marquez's A Hundred Years of Solitude - I didn't read it in the original language. Also, what you thought of it -- may have a lot to do with the translation that you read. Not all translations are equal. (As a compromise I did James Joyce's Ulysses instead, which a lot of people don't believe was written in English either...and also depended on which translation or edited version you read.)
So, it occurs to me that I can't really rate or judge Fo's writing, only the translator's. And as you all know, or rather anyone who has ever studied a language other than their own birth language, that meaning differs in each language, and some meanings just can't be translated effectively. You sort of have to read it in the original, to get the gist.
The Passions of a Wicked Earl by Lorraine Heath - more entertaining than The Pope's Daughter, believe it or not. Although the prose is a tad less precise and far more purple. The dialogue is a bit more fun. Not fair to compare - one is pulp, one is literary. One I'll remember, one I'll forget, if I don't make sure I put on Good Reads and in this journal. Because honestly all these romance novels blend together after a bit.
My mother has discovered a writer who is similar to Georgette Heyer, but writes in a cleaner style (ie. you don't have to focus on it). Rebecca Connelly. No sex in her books. Focuses on banter and relationship - a la Heyer. I may try her next.
Heath's books are fun, for the most part. But her plots don't quite work. For instance, the hero is shot in the arm, okay, it's just a graze. And he's more worried about cleaning the blood off his estranged wife's dress. I'm sorry, he should be faint-headed, or in pain. Being grazed by a bullet is painful. Also he couldn't figure out that his brother hadn't actually slept with his wife - even though he was clearly fully clothed when he found him in bed with her.
But still fun. And a quick read. You don't have to focus that hard on it. Sort of like eating a bon-bon or drinking a light riesling as opposed to a merlot. Great commuter book - particularly on the kindle for $1.99.
3) What I'm reading next?
Most likely Euphoria by Lily King for book club. Also flirting with Cervantes' "Don Quixote" (it's a translation) for the year long, chapter a night bedside reading, because I need a book to replace The Brilliant Assassin for that category. Of course Cervantes - Don Quixote is also translated, so..same problem as above. I wish I was better at languages. Stupid genetics.
I don't know what I'm reading next.
Oh, do you want to see the list of books that I found at Barnes and Nobel to share with my book club, as potential book club selections? They've had difficulty selecting books of late and asked for new selections. So during my lunch break, I walked over to B&N on fifth and 46th Street, and wandered about picking up books and taking down the name and author of whatever looked interesting or called out to me. Came up with over 20. Went back to work and proceeded to research them via Good Reads and Amazon. Managed to scale the list down to 7 -- I cut anything that the book club had already read, anything over 400 pages (you'd be amazed how many books are over 400 pages...seriously), and anything that had a lot of negative reviews. (Depended on the negative reviews -- a negative review can entice me to read a book or watch a movie.) I also chose to stay far away from over-hyped novels or novels that got marketing blitz. (ie. Girl on the Train, Room, Revenant, etc.)
If you are at all curious, click below for the list:
1. The Moor's Account by Laila Lalami - 336 pages, In this stunning work of historical fiction, Laila Lalami brings us the imagined memoirs of the first black explorer of America—a Moroccan slave whose testimony was left out of the official record. Short listed for the Man Booker Prize. Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20262502-the-moor-s-account?from_search=true&search_version=service
2. Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo -290 pages. Non-fictional account of the slums of Mumbai. Katherine Boo spent three years among the residents of the Annawadi slum, a sprawling, cockeyed settlement of more than 300 tin-roof huts and shacks in the shadow of Mumbai's International Airport. From within this "sumpy plug of slum," Boo unearths stories both tragic and poignant--about residents' efforts to raise families, earn a living, or simply survive. These unforgettable characters all nurture far-fetched dreams of a better life. (Winner of National Book Award, also named one of the best books of the year.) (It is available in paperback at B&N.) - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11869272-behind-the-beautiful-forevers?from_search=true&search_version=service
3. Day of Atonement by David Liss - 386 pages, a historical thriller - a boy who loses his parents during the Spainish Inquisition, he grows to a man seeking vengeance on the Inquisition Priest who killed his family, but due to a twist of fate must choose between surrendering to bloodlust or serving the cause of mercy. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20342628-the-day-of-atonement?ac=1&from_search=1 (Also Amazon has a sample excerpt.)
4. My Brilliante Friend by Elena Ferrante - 331 pages - This is the first in a trilogy of novels focusing on the friendship of two young girls in Naples, Italy. The story begins in the 1950s, in a poor but vibrant neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples. Growing up on these tough streets the two girls learn to rely on each other ahead of anyone or anything else. As they grow, as their paths repeatedly diverge and converge, Elena and Lila remain best friends whose respective destinies are reflected and refracted in the other. They are likewise the embodiments of a nation undergoing momentous change.https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13586707-my-brilliant-friend?from_search=true&search_version=service
5. The Guest Cat by Takashi Hiraide - 145 pages - A bestseller in France and winner of Japan’s Kiyama Shohei Literary Award, this is a subtly moving and exceptionally beautiful novel about the transient nature of life and idiosyncratic but deeply felt ways of living. A couple in their thirties live in a small rented cottage in a quiet part of Tokyo; they work at home, freelance copy-editing; they no longer have very much to say to one another. But one day a cat invites itself into their small kitchen. It leaves, but the next day comes again, and then again and again. Soon they are buying treats for the cat and enjoying talks about the animal and all its little ways.
6. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote - non-fiction, 368 pages - Capote combined painstaking research with a narrative feel to produce one of the most spellbinding stories ever put on the page. Two two-time losers living in a lonely house in western Kansas are out to make the heist of their life, but when things don't go as planned, the robbery turns ugly. From there, the book is a real-life look into murder, prison, and the criminal mind.
7. All the Birds, Singing by Evie Wyld- 242 pages -Jake Whyte is living on her own in an old farmhouse on a craggy British island, a place of ceaseless rain and battering wind. Her disobedient collie, Dog, and a flock of sheep are her sole companions, which is how she wants it to be. But every few nights something—or someone—picks off one of the sheep and sounds a new deep pulse of terror. There are foxes in the woods, a strange boy and a strange man, and rumors of an obscure, formidable beast. And there is also Jake’s past, hidden thousands of miles away and years ago, held in the silences about her family and the scars that stripe her back—a past that threatens to break into the present.https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18142324-all-the-birds-singing?from_search=true&search_version=service
All appear to be a bit off the beaten path.
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood - who is a brilliant literary stylist, and her narrative structure is a work of beauty, tailor-made for academics and frustrated English Lit majors to scrutinize. Didn't much like her story or characters though. Although she does say quite a few poignant things about aging, the time period, and the craft of writing, not to mention the drive. Many of which I've posted within this journal.
Full review, with vague spoilers, is below:
Finally finished this book. It only took me three years. Why three years? Well, the book is structured in such a way that you can read it in snippets. There are self-contained chapters that are no more than two - ten pages. It meanders in time and place, and perspective, with newspaper entries throughout. Also, it is an incredibly depressing book - what is it with literary writers and depressing material? I know their lives aren't depressing - they get to do what they love and are driven to do, for money, no less, often lots of it. Also, they appear to have happy family lives. But their novels are bleak, and the characters, somewhat whiny, rich and entitled. What's up with that?
That said, Atwood is a brilliant stylist. Her technique is flawless. And she is an expert wordsmith. Amongst the best that I've read. Her prose is poetic, and she says some poignant things about old age, writing, loneliness, and human relations. She doesn't seem to like men very much and falls, regrettably, into the trap of gender stereotyping. Her women are rather passive aggressive and her men - bullies, except for one, who seems to lurk on the edges of the page, and is barely noticeable.
I found many of her characters, in particular the male characters, to be one-dimensional and uninteresting - which is an issue that I have with all her works, not just this one.
But, it is still a beautifully written book. And in it, Atwood does an adept job of examining the post WWI-WWII era in Canada in terms of how women were treated. Also, the structure of the narrative is notable and most likely the reason this book received so many honors.
It's a story within a story, within story, told by an unreliable narrator, who spends most of the novel hiding from the intended reader, who turns out to be her granddaughter. Iris Griffin, nearing the age of 83, writes the story of her life and her sister, Laura's, for her estranged granddaughter, Sabrina's perusal. Within the story, she darts around uncomfortable issues such as rape, molestation, and her own inadvertent assistance with both, and guilt. Although, it is clear through the narrative that she, like her sister, Laura, were merely the toys of the men who dominated their lives -- neither having the gumption to break entirely free of those bonds until it is too late.
The Blind Assassin is the novel within the novel, that we're told is written by Laura Griffin. Within that novel, is a short story about The Blind Assassin, which is told by Laura and Iris lover, Alex, a political dissident and sci-fi pulp magazine writer. This story is horribly sexist and discusses how men abuse women for their own gain -- touching on the sexist and misogyny of the sci-fi pulp novels of the time, along with the genre as a whole. Alex, himself, doesn't seem to like women all that much -- and just meets the protagonist of The Blind Assassin for sex, and bedtime talk. He's as much a user and bully, as industrialist Richard Griffin, whom Iris is forced into marrying by her somewhat mad and flailing father. She's a mere eighteen at the time, while he is fifteen years her senior. Laura acts out, rebels, but in the end falls on her sword, metaphorically speaking, for both men. Sacrificing herself to the one in order to save the other - and accomplishing nothing. Her lover dies anyhow, and besides he's not been all that faithful.
The part of the story that is interesting is the relationship between the two sisters, which is fractured by the men in the lives, as women's relationships with each other often can be. Iris, unlike Laura, is a survivor. But not a particularly likable one. None of the characters in this novel are likable or all that interesting.
What saves the book is the style and the structure of the narrative...which resonates long after you finish it. There are isolated quotes in this book that I wanted to write down and post on my wall. Making me wonder, not for the first time, if Atwood would have made a much better essayist or memoirist than fiction novelist.
Note - Atwood is not the sort of writer you read to escape, quickly, on your commute to work or on an airplane. She requires your attention and concentration. Each sentence. Each word. Must be savored.
Like fine fermented wine. Not the cheap stuff that comes in a box. Books are a bit like wine, there's the cheap stuff that you slurp down, get mildly or grossly drunk on, might have a hangover, but forget later. And the fine stuff that you savor, tastes amazing, and you enjoy with chocolates.
2. What I'm reading now?
Almost done with accomplished Italian playwright and screenwriter, Dario Fo's first attempt at novel writing. Let's just say you can tell he's a playwright. Actually, it reminds me a great deal of Machiavelli's The Prince, except haphazardly turned into a play, with the Borgia family in the key roles.
I can't quite decide if the problem is in the translation, and if this would be much better in the original Italian. I'd need someone to read it in both and tell me. Since I can't read Italian. (I can barely read elementary French. Learning Italian isn't going to happen any time soon.)
It's a book club book. Otherwise I would have given up on it by now. I'm 91% of the way through or on page 221 out 247 pages. And it has pictures, lots of pictures, so more like 180 of 200 pages.
The book is a history of Lucrezia Borgia -- making me want to stream the Showtime Series "The Borgias" on Showtime via my streaming device. I'm thinking that would be more entertaining, if less historically accurate. (Speaking of Streaming, Better Call Saul is coming to netflix in Feb, which means I can stream it, a much better way of watching. No dumb commercials.) You'd think a book about the Borgias wouldn't be quite so dull. Particularly one by an accomplished Italian comedian and playwright. Well, you'd be wrong. It's duller than dirt, as they say. I'm bored. It's putting me to sleep. Which is why I gave up reading it on my commute and just read it before bed. Well that and because, I'm having troubles reading paperback books without my reading glasses - which are difficult to manage on the subway.
This is a problem with style, not substance. The story has great potential. There's no twistier soap opera material than The Borgias. I mean the story more or less tells itself. Plus he says it's a fictionalized account, the book is described as a novel, so I'm not sure why he feels the need to be boringly accurate. Non-fiction biographies about less twisty families are more interesting.
The humor is there - it's wry and quite dry in places, so it's gotten a smile out of me. Sardonic.
Making fun of the time period, the players, and the story. And he has some interesting images - one is of all the players being engaged in a kind of circus or danse macabra, which I think would have worked better on film or on the stage than briefly summarized here. He writes the novel like he would a play or screenplay - with dialogue, then a summarization of the setting or action, then dialogue. Very little description. Screenplays and plays don't have description. And if they do, it's scant.
The amount they have is to either set the scene or show the people moving from one place to another.
This book reads like that.
Also reminds me, as previously noted, of Machiavelli's The Prince. Someone at a social justice gathering, once turned to me in righteous anger and stated : "And I believe Machiavelli was a real person." Fortunately, I could not respond, because it was one of those circle things, where you could only talk if called on. So there I am, biting my tongue, being polite, while looking rather puzzled.
I wanted to retort: "Uhm, actually, Machiavelli was a real person, he was a monk during the Renaissance and wrote The Prince. I thought everyone knew that?" (I read and analyzed Machiavelli's The Prince in an American Government class in high school.) Anyhow this book reads a lot like it in narrative descriptive style - the humor is also somewhat similar. I could never quite decide while reading Machiavelli, if he was serious or satirical. The Prince reads like a satirical take on Italian politics, which for some reason everyone took seriously. This book similarly reads like a satirical take on Italian and Catholic politics, and the writer even references Machiavelli - stating that Machiavelli was in fact talking about what the Borgia's were doing in The Prince. So it may well have been deliberate. Or the writer accidently read Machiavelli first and inadvertently mimicked the style? It happens. That's why you need to be careful about what you read, while writing a book. Particularly if you haven't yet formed your own distinct style. Not that Fo hasn't. But this is his first attempt at a novel - completely different medium from a play.
Side note on translations -- it's really hard to critique a novel that you've only read a translation of. I'm beginning to understand why my English Lit professors wouldn't let me do my thesis on Gabriel Garcia Marquez's A Hundred Years of Solitude - I didn't read it in the original language. Also, what you thought of it -- may have a lot to do with the translation that you read. Not all translations are equal. (As a compromise I did James Joyce's Ulysses instead, which a lot of people don't believe was written in English either...and also depended on which translation or edited version you read.)
So, it occurs to me that I can't really rate or judge Fo's writing, only the translator's. And as you all know, or rather anyone who has ever studied a language other than their own birth language, that meaning differs in each language, and some meanings just can't be translated effectively. You sort of have to read it in the original, to get the gist.
The Passions of a Wicked Earl by Lorraine Heath - more entertaining than The Pope's Daughter, believe it or not. Although the prose is a tad less precise and far more purple. The dialogue is a bit more fun. Not fair to compare - one is pulp, one is literary. One I'll remember, one I'll forget, if I don't make sure I put on Good Reads and in this journal. Because honestly all these romance novels blend together after a bit.
My mother has discovered a writer who is similar to Georgette Heyer, but writes in a cleaner style (ie. you don't have to focus on it). Rebecca Connelly. No sex in her books. Focuses on banter and relationship - a la Heyer. I may try her next.
Heath's books are fun, for the most part. But her plots don't quite work. For instance, the hero is shot in the arm, okay, it's just a graze. And he's more worried about cleaning the blood off his estranged wife's dress. I'm sorry, he should be faint-headed, or in pain. Being grazed by a bullet is painful. Also he couldn't figure out that his brother hadn't actually slept with his wife - even though he was clearly fully clothed when he found him in bed with her.
But still fun. And a quick read. You don't have to focus that hard on it. Sort of like eating a bon-bon or drinking a light riesling as opposed to a merlot. Great commuter book - particularly on the kindle for $1.99.
3) What I'm reading next?
Most likely Euphoria by Lily King for book club. Also flirting with Cervantes' "Don Quixote" (it's a translation) for the year long, chapter a night bedside reading, because I need a book to replace The Brilliant Assassin for that category. Of course Cervantes - Don Quixote is also translated, so..same problem as above. I wish I was better at languages. Stupid genetics.
I don't know what I'm reading next.
Oh, do you want to see the list of books that I found at Barnes and Nobel to share with my book club, as potential book club selections? They've had difficulty selecting books of late and asked for new selections. So during my lunch break, I walked over to B&N on fifth and 46th Street, and wandered about picking up books and taking down the name and author of whatever looked interesting or called out to me. Came up with over 20. Went back to work and proceeded to research them via Good Reads and Amazon. Managed to scale the list down to 7 -- I cut anything that the book club had already read, anything over 400 pages (you'd be amazed how many books are over 400 pages...seriously), and anything that had a lot of negative reviews. (Depended on the negative reviews -- a negative review can entice me to read a book or watch a movie.) I also chose to stay far away from over-hyped novels or novels that got marketing blitz. (ie. Girl on the Train, Room, Revenant, etc.)
If you are at all curious, click below for the list:
1. The Moor's Account by Laila Lalami - 336 pages, In this stunning work of historical fiction, Laila Lalami brings us the imagined memoirs of the first black explorer of America—a Moroccan slave whose testimony was left out of the official record. Short listed for the Man Booker Prize. Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20262502-the-moor-s-account?from_search=true&search_version=service
2. Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo -290 pages. Non-fictional account of the slums of Mumbai. Katherine Boo spent three years among the residents of the Annawadi slum, a sprawling, cockeyed settlement of more than 300 tin-roof huts and shacks in the shadow of Mumbai's International Airport. From within this "sumpy plug of slum," Boo unearths stories both tragic and poignant--about residents' efforts to raise families, earn a living, or simply survive. These unforgettable characters all nurture far-fetched dreams of a better life. (Winner of National Book Award, also named one of the best books of the year.) (It is available in paperback at B&N.) - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11869272-behind-the-beautiful-forevers?from_search=true&search_version=service
3. Day of Atonement by David Liss - 386 pages, a historical thriller - a boy who loses his parents during the Spainish Inquisition, he grows to a man seeking vengeance on the Inquisition Priest who killed his family, but due to a twist of fate must choose between surrendering to bloodlust or serving the cause of mercy. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20342628-the-day-of-atonement?ac=1&from_search=1 (Also Amazon has a sample excerpt.)
4. My Brilliante Friend by Elena Ferrante - 331 pages - This is the first in a trilogy of novels focusing on the friendship of two young girls in Naples, Italy. The story begins in the 1950s, in a poor but vibrant neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples. Growing up on these tough streets the two girls learn to rely on each other ahead of anyone or anything else. As they grow, as their paths repeatedly diverge and converge, Elena and Lila remain best friends whose respective destinies are reflected and refracted in the other. They are likewise the embodiments of a nation undergoing momentous change.https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13586707-my-brilliant-friend?from_search=true&search_version=service
5. The Guest Cat by Takashi Hiraide - 145 pages - A bestseller in France and winner of Japan’s Kiyama Shohei Literary Award, this is a subtly moving and exceptionally beautiful novel about the transient nature of life and idiosyncratic but deeply felt ways of living. A couple in their thirties live in a small rented cottage in a quiet part of Tokyo; they work at home, freelance copy-editing; they no longer have very much to say to one another. But one day a cat invites itself into their small kitchen. It leaves, but the next day comes again, and then again and again. Soon they are buying treats for the cat and enjoying talks about the animal and all its little ways.
6. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote - non-fiction, 368 pages - Capote combined painstaking research with a narrative feel to produce one of the most spellbinding stories ever put on the page. Two two-time losers living in a lonely house in western Kansas are out to make the heist of their life, but when things don't go as planned, the robbery turns ugly. From there, the book is a real-life look into murder, prison, and the criminal mind.
7. All the Birds, Singing by Evie Wyld- 242 pages -Jake Whyte is living on her own in an old farmhouse on a craggy British island, a place of ceaseless rain and battering wind. Her disobedient collie, Dog, and a flock of sheep are her sole companions, which is how she wants it to be. But every few nights something—or someone—picks off one of the sheep and sounds a new deep pulse of terror. There are foxes in the woods, a strange boy and a strange man, and rumors of an obscure, formidable beast. And there is also Jake’s past, hidden thousands of miles away and years ago, held in the silences about her family and the scars that stripe her back—a past that threatens to break into the present.https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18142324-all-the-birds-singing?from_search=true&search_version=service
All appear to be a bit off the beaten path.