NancyJ’s Comments (group member since Dec 17, 2020)

NancyJ’s comments from the Around the World in 80 Books group.

I love this idea. Today I picked up a bilingual children’s book for a six year old who has a Spanish grandfather. Alicia and the Hurricane / Alicia y el huracán: A Story of Puerto Rico / Un cuento de Puerto Rico.

I don’t know enough Spanish to volunteer, but I have relatives coming to visit soon, with various levels of fluency. One of my nephews might be interested.

Adam wrote: "Awesome. Thank you Nancy!"

Nominations are open
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Try this group. They are small, but consistently active.

https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...

Women Talking by Miriam Toews


Run Towards the Danger: Confrontations with a Body of Memory by Sarah Polley, Toronto


Snow Road Station by Elizabeth Hay, Set in Ontario, near Ottawa.


Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead by Emily R. Austin, Toronto

VenCo by Cherie Dimaline

Playground by Richard Powers
Makatea French Polynesia

An ATY prompt sent me to the Mediterranean, and inspired me to take this cruise. My challenge counted any countries bordering the Mediterranean, so I’ve gone pretty far inland if that’s OK.

Spain
Briefly, A Delicious Life by Nell Steven - Mallorca/Majorka Spain.

Egypt to Greece
What Strange Paradise by Omar El Akkad

Greece
The Odyssey by Homer - Ithaca, Troy, and many other islands.
The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood
A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Shakespeare - Athens

Tunisia
The Ardent Swarm by Yamen Manai

Italy
Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon - Venice
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell - Tuscany, Florence
Julius Caesar by Shakespeare - Rome
Every Day in Tuscany: Seasons of an Italian Life by Frances Mayes

Sigh. We knew it would come to this. First I need to honestly state that I am opposed on principle, because it takes jobs away from talented people. I rely on audios, and I found that a great narrator can do wonders for a book But I will provide my honest feedback.

I'll try it...

The first couple lines sounded better than I expected actually. It wasn't monotone, and the word inflections sounded about right for expository writing. It's incredibly slow though, with excessively long pauses. It can be sped up but that often makes it choppy. It would get boring if there was no more variety in the tone, inflections and pacing as the book went on. The dialogue will be a big test, with different voices expected for different characters. Do the character's personalities come through in the dialogue or the internal thoughts? As you listen to the whole thing, ask yourself if it expresses the emotions, tension, excitement, humor, and phrasing you would expect from the characters you created.

Audio books have come a long way in the last 30 years, and the narration has gotten better and better every year. Some are absolutely phenomenal, and make all the difference in the world. (I found a few narrators that soothe me when all others aggravate a headache.) I often search audible to find other books narrated by my favorites.

I don't know how much it costs to hire a professional narrator, so I suppose if this was your only choice I understand that having an audio available opens up your potential audience. Even though I rely on audios, I wouldn't choose an AI narrator at this time. My assumption would be that no one expects the book to do well, so they aren't willing to invest money in it. (I feel the same way when I see a book cover with the exact same photo shot I've seen on many other books in the genre.)

I wish you the best of success with your book.

Ketutar wrote: "NancyJ wrote: "Ketutar wrote: "I have a question about that list.
#618 is a book about the Phantom of the Opera, including Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical, with a lot of pictures... are we supposed t..."
Yes, it's easy to mix them up, they look alike other than the author. If you loved the stage musical, both books would probably be entertaining (but different). The Leroux book explained a lot about the story that I didn't really pick up from the musical. I had the music playing in my head while I read it, which added to the drama.

Ketutar wrote: "I have a question about that list.
#618 is a book about the Phantom of the Opera, including Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical, with a lot of pictures... are we supposed to read that, or is it supposed ..."

I’m sure it has to be the original book by Gastan Leroux
The Phantom of the Opera

Not the book about the play. It look like someone goofed when posting the picture. They seemed to use a lot of covers based on movie adaptations to catch our eyes.

Translated books read in 2023

January
To Live by Yu Hua, Chinese
Abigail by Magda Szabo, Hungarian

March
The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa, Japanese
The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa, Japanese
Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa, Japanese
All the Lovers in the Night by Mieko Kawakami, Japanese

April
The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa, Japanese

May
Stolen by Ann-Helén Laestadius
Translated books read in 2023 - August -

August
Too Loud a Solitude by Bohumil Hrabal

September
Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman
The Door by Magda Szabó
The Reader by Bernhard Schlink

Translated Books read in 2022

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
The Years by Annie Ernaux
The Winners by Fredrick Backman
Us Against You by Fredrick Backman
Beartown by Fredrick Backman
Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto
The Employees by Olga Ravn
Britt-Marie Was Here
My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
The Notebook by Agota Kristof
The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin
When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamin Labatut

Translated books read in 2020-2021

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie
Mouthful of Birds by Samantha Schweblin
Dark Mother Earth by Christian Novak
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk
Anxious People by Fredrik Backman
Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky

Congratulations Joy!

Updated December 1, 2022

I'm probably not going to finish all 25, but I'm going to count this a win for all the Bingo combinations I completed !

completed 23/25:
A1 A2 A3 A4 A5
B1 B2 B3 B4 B5
C1 C2 C3 C4 C5
D1 D2 D3 __ D5
E1 E2 E3 __ E5

I could use some ideas for Medieval Woman Author. Does this mean a female author who lived and wrote in the middle ages, or a female author who writes about the middle ages?

I have The Pillow Book by Sei Shōnagon on my TBR. It was discussed in another book I was reading by a Japanese author.

Updated June 10, 2022

completed:
A1 A2 __ A4 A5
B1 B2 B3 B4 B5
C1 C2 C3 C4 C5
D1 D2 D3 __ D5
E1 E2 E3 __ E5

I loved this book. Like George, the beginning gave me pause, but it also felt fresh and exciting. Translated literature doesn't follow all the conventions I'm accustomed to, so I sometimes feel a little off-kilter when I read it. That's part of what makes it exciting.

I grew to love all the little surprises and angles of the story. I really enjoy reading about older characters whose lives have unexpected dimensions. Her astrology interest at first seemed at odds with her technical career, but her knowledge of it was technical and scientific (she constructed charts using an ephemeris and angles of the planets). I was into that when I was young, and it was fun when I recognized the points she made. The way she described people was quirky and interesting, and I liked learning more about some of those characters.

I also enjoyed the setting and the imagery. Every time I think of Poland and Czechoslovakia now, I will picture the sunlight poring over Czechoslovakia the way she described it. I also listened to the audio and I think the Polish accent of the narrator was perfect.

My library just obtained The Books of Jacob and I immediately requested it without realizing it was nearly 1000 pages long. I'll have to wait to start that one.

It looks like someone thought she needed a more generic penname too:
The Books: of Jacob a Novel by Edith Evans.

✅A1 - Sci-Fi:
✔The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin
✔Sea of Tranquility - by Emily St John Mandel
✔The Employees by Olga Ravn
✔The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula leGuin
✔A Psalm for the Wild-Built

✅A2 - Bio or Autobio:
✔I Must Say: My Life as a Humble Comedy Legend
✔Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood

✅A3 - MC with disability:
✔️True Biz
✔The Overstory (a character, not the main character)

✅A4 - Caribbean author:
✔️Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevido
✔Felix Ever After
https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...

✅A5 - Nonbinary or trans author:
✔The Thirty Names of Night by Zeyn Zoukhadar
✔Felix Ever After

✅B1 - Food-themed:
✔My Year of Meats by Ruth Ozeki
✔We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast
✔Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Kingsolver

✅B2 - Publ in last 3 years:
✔Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason - 2020
✔Sea of Tranquility
✔The Lincoln Highway -By Amor Towles - 2021
✔The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak - 2021
✔The Book Woman's Daughter by Kim Richardson - 2022
✔Apples Never Fall -2021
✔The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St James

✅B3 - Set in Africa:
✔Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood

✅B4 - Nobel Laureate:
✔Sula by Toni Morrison

✅B5 - Book by Local author:
✔The People We Keep by Allison Larkin

✅C1 - Set in Canada or Canadian author:
✔Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood
✔ The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood

✅C2 - Classic Horror:
✔The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

✅C3 - Sports and/or Recreation:
✔The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics
✔Beartown by Fredrik Backman

✅C4 - Between 100 and 200 pgs:
✔A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood
✔Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
✔The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula le Guin

✅C5 - Translated woman author:
✔The Notebook by Agota Kristof

✅D1 - Debut novel:
✔The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
✔My Year of Meats by Ruth Ozeki
others

✅D2 - 19th century classic:
✔Emma by Jane Austen
✔Washington Square by Henry James

✅D3 - Historical Fiction:
✔ When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamín Labatut
✔The Marriage of Opposites
✔The Remains of the Day
✔The Bombay Prince

D4 - Translated from Korean:
Kim JeYoung born 1982 or other

✅D5 - Epistolary:
✔Lady Susan by Jane Austen

✅E1 - Country not read in 2021:
✔Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood - South Africa
✔The Marriage of Opposites St Thomas

✅E2 - Book about a journey:
✔The Lincoln Highway -By Amor Towles - 2021
✔The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
✔A Town Like Alice
✔ The Sparrow

✅E3 - Rivers, lakes, or swamps:
✔The Hobbit
✔The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics

E4 - Medieval woman author:
The Pillow Book by Sei Shōnagon

✅E5 - Set in Southern Hemisphere:
✔A Town Like Alice

MAGIC SQUARES 2022: Around the World in 80 Days
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

12/01/22: 23/25 Completed

✅A1 - Sci-Fi:
✔️The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin

✅A2 - Bio or Autobio:
✔️I Must Say: My Life as a Humble Comedy Legend

✅A3 - MC with disability:
✔️True Biz, by Sara Novic

✅A4 - Caribbean author:
✔️Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo

✅A5 - Nonbinary or trans author:
✔️The Thirty Names of Night by Zeyn Zoukhadar

✅B1 - Food-themed:
✔️My Year of Meats by Ruth Ozeki

✅B2 - Publ in last 3 years:
✔️Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason

✅B3 - Set in Africa:
✔️Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood

✅B4 - Nobel Laureate:
✔️Sula by Toni Morrison

✅B5 - Book by Local author:
✔️The People We Keep by Allison Larkin

✅C1 - Set in Canada or Canadian author:
✔️Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood

✅C2 - Classic Horror:
✔️The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

✅C3 - Sports and/or Recreation:
✔️The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics (Or river)

✅C4 - Between 100 and 200 pgs:
✔️A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

✅C5 - Translated woman author:
✔️The Notebook by Agota Kristof

✅D1 - Debut novel:
✔The Sparrow
My Year of Meats

✅D2 - 19th century classic:
✔Emma by Jane Austen

✅D3 - Historical Fiction:
✔When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamin Labatut

D4 - Translated from Korean:

✅D5 - Epistolary:
✔Lady Susan by Jane Austen

✅E1 - Country not read in 2021: Uruguay
Cantoras

✅E2 - Book about a journey:
✔The Lincoln Highway

✅E3 - Rivers, lakes, or swamps: -
✔ The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

E4 - Medieval woman author:

✅E5 - Set in Southern Hemisphere:
✔A Town Like Alice

I read these two recently from the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation.
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk
Things We Lost in the Fire byMariana Enríquez

I might update my challenge list with the 2020 and 2021 short lists:

https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/w...
Eight titles have been shortlisted for the 2021 Warwick Prize for Women in Translation:

Winner:
Judith Schalansky, An Inventory of Losses, translated from German by Jackie Smith (MacLehose Press)

Mieko Kawakami, Breasts and Eggs, translated from Japanese by David Boyd and Sam Bett (Picador)

Scholastique Mukasonga, Our Lady of the Nile, translated from French by Melanie Mauthner (Daunt Books Publishing)

Maria Stepanova, In Memory of Memory, translated from Russian by Sasha Dugdale (Fitzcarraldo Editions)

Maria Stepanova, War of the Beasts and the Animals, translated from Russian by Sasha Dugdale (Bloodaxe Books)

Małgorzata Szejnert, Ellis Island: A People's History, translated from Polish by Sean Gasper Bye (Scribe UK)

Yan Ge, Strange Beasts of China, translated from Chinese by Jeremy Tiang (Tilted Axis Press)

Alice Zeniter, The Art of Losing, translated from French by Frank Wynne (Picador