The Mookse and the Gripes discussion

Seeing as we had one of these for last year...

New releases, or older books you've enjoyed and/or been impressed by.

For me in older books:
The Street of Crocodiles By Bruno Schulz, which I'd already read parts of & knew I'd love when I finished it.
The Sandman Omnibus, Vol. 1. We don't discuss comics & graphic novels much in this group, but I felt that this 1000pp collected volume gradually builds up to have the heft of many playful postmodern novels.

Tessa Hadley - Bad Dreams. Thus far...

The Count of Monte Cristo.........Alexandre Dumas
The End of the Affair.........Graham Greene
The Riddle of the Sands.......Erskine Childers
Chess Story........Stefan Zweig
The Woman in White.......Wilkie Collins

Oops ! Chess Story.......Stefan Zweig

Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively is my only 5 star rating this year. I really liked this one. Easily a top-5 Booker winner for me.

All by Daniel Kehlmann:

Ruhm
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

F
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Diese sehr ernsten Scherze
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

My best reads this year so far are

The Skin Chairs by Barbara Comyns and Efter mørkets frembrud (La Nuit tombée) by Antoine Choplin

This is best-of-the-best for me in recent reads:

War Music: An Account of Homer's Iliad by Christopher Logue

And also:

Chronicle of the Murdered House
Fever Dream
Signals: New and Selected Stories

My 5-star reads so far this year:

Chronicle of the Murdered House
How to Clone a Mammoth: The Science of de-Extinction
Black Wave

The best book I have read this year so far is: My Name Is Asher Lev.

I think my best so far is actually for this group: Earthly Powers.

@Dan, I read one of Kehlmann's books a couple of years ago (but in translation), and I loved it: Les Arpenteurs du monde

I was only able to narrow my list down to 8 of the 16 books read so far this year; it's been an enjoyable few reading months.

- Sudden Death by Álvaro Enrigue
- Astragal by Albertine Sarrazin
- The Art of the Publisher by Roberto Calasso
- Melancholy by László F. Földényi
- H Is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald
- Faces In the Crowd by Valeria Luiselli
- A Nocturnal Journey Around My Room by Xavier de Maistre
- Impossible Object by Nicholas Mosley

These two, extremely different books:

Taduno's Song by Odafe Atogun

and

Thus Bad Begins by Javier Marías.

The first is a story of a musician living in a repressive and corrupt police state. The book compresses that story into the simplicity of a folk tale and the result is really interesting.

The second is a study of the long-term effects of the Spanish Civil War on a culture, plus, a study of the long-term effects of a bad marriage on two people. Marías is very appealing to me because he manages to be both intellectual and gripping--i.e. it's a book of ideas that has a plot. So it can be done.

Hugh wrote: "I am probably a little too generous with ratings, but I have already given five stars to 8 books this year, two of them from the 1980 shortlist:
A Month in the Country by J.L. Carr
[b..."
This is the third time this week I've heard this book discussed or recommended. Someone is trying to get a message to me I think

Best for me so far this year
Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey
Dr Thorne by Anthony Trollope
Ancient Light by John Banville

It is very short and approachable, and it's lovely.

Two additional great reads :-)
Sleeping Giants & Fish Have No Feet

The best new books I've read so far this year are Shadowbahn by Steve Erickson and Version Control by Dexter Palmer.

Karen wrote: "This is the third time this week I've heard this book discussed or recommended. Someone is trying to get a message to me I think"
I am probably not the only member of this group who read it because of the 1980 shortlist project, and it exceeded my expectations, which were already very high from the discussions at the time the years were selected. It is a short book but a very powerful and moving one...

Hugh wrote: "Karen wrote: "This is the third time this week I've heard this book discussed or recommended. Someone is trying to get a message to me I think"
I am probably not the only member of this group who ..."

I first heard about it on the Unbound podcast

H Anthony wrote: "The best new books I've read so far this year are Shadowbahn by Steve Erickson and Version Control by Dexter Palmer."

Thanks, I've added the Palmer. Looks v good.

I can see Chronicle of the Murdered House being right up there...please do give it a go.

I bought it on your recommendation Lee :-)

Louise wrote: "I bought it on your recommendation Lee :-)"

Excellent! It's great and I hope you enjoy! (I'm sure you will.)

Since more than six months have passed since my earlier "best books of 2017 (so far) post, I've deleted my earlier version and entered the following updated version:
-Loving, Henry Green
-Living, Henry Green
-Caught, Henry Green
-Solar Bones, Mike McCormack
-Benjamin Myers, The Gallows Pole
-Reservoir 13, Jon McGregor
-Mohsin Hamid, Exit West
-Kim Leine, The Prophets of Eternal Fjord
The above novels are not in order of preference, although it would be difficult for me choose between Henry Green's Living, Henry Green's Caught, or Mike McCormack's Solar Bones as my favorite. The publication dates of Living and Solar Bones are separated by almost ninety years: if Living had been published this year, I think that it would be a serious contender for the Booker or the Goldsmiths.

I've added Kim Leine's Prophets of Eternal Fjord to this list too. It's highly atmospheric and memorable, really a terrific historical novel that deserves wider readership.

A fine list, Dan, and this encourages me to get to Henry Green sooner. Solar Bones would certainly be right near the top of my list.

Below are the books I read this year so far and gave 5 stars. Each of the four lists is ordered by rank.

Younger books
Christodora
White Tears
Ashland Vine
Spill Simmer Falter Wither
The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley
The Nix
The Hike

Older books
Earthly Powers
A Month in the Country
The Body Artist
Saturday

in German
Schreckliche Gewalten
Engel des Vergessens
Carpe Vinum

in French
Mise-En-Scene
No et moi

Lee wrote: "A fine list, Dan, and this encourages me to get to Henry Green sooner. Solar Bones would certainly be right near the top of my list."
Thanks, Lee. Henry Green certainly deserves new converts, and I would welcome additional company as the NYRB continues to release its new editions. And Trevor, if you read this, please don't think that I don't already appreciate your company in reading Henry Green.

Well, I think I've given pretty much all John Burnside books I've read ***** so this is no surprise! And now I guess I need to shunt Christodora and White Tears up the least as well...

Dan wrote: "Lee wrote: "A fine list, Dan, and this encourages me to get to Henry Green sooner. Solar Bones would certainly be right near the top of my list."
Thanks, Lee. Henry Green certainly deserves new con..."

OK - I will read Green very soon.

I have only read three Henry Green novels and they were all in one paperback. Two of them were on Dan's list...

Hugh wrote: "I have only read three Henry Green novels and they were all in one paperback. Two of them were on Dan's list..."
Hugh, do you remember which two? The Vintage paperbound that I have includes Living, Loving, and Party Going. Of the three, Party Going is my least favorite, although I'm still looking forward to rereading it.

Probably the same edition - Living Loving and Party Going

(My doctorate is in theatre, so about half of my reading is contemporary play scripts, which I realize most have NO interest in, so you can skip those if desired... but I wanted to list them so I have them readily to hand :-) )

Novels:

The Nix
The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley
Midwinter Break
The Melody
Commonwealth
Days Without End
A Line Made by Walking
Sightseeing
Our Souls at Night
The Last Days of Disco, with Cocktails at Petrossian Afterward
My Tender Matador
Flesh & Blood: Stories
Sweetland (reread)
Call Me by Your Name (reread)
The Sense of an Ending (reread)

Plays:

Afterimage
Oslo
The Overwhelming: A Play
Blood and Gifts
Madagascar: A Play
White People
The Ferryman
Mosquitoes
Stop. Rewind.
Boys Will Be Boys
Lizzie Siddal
Marjorie Prime
Wakey Wakey
Bracken Moor
The Faith Machine
The Revisionist
King Charles III (reread)
Jumpers for Goalposts (reread)

The Great Comet [This is neither a novel nor play, per se, but chronicles the making of the Broadway musical, so I put it here].

I failed to keep up with Party Going, but I will not stop forever.

I have also deleted my previous post and here's an update.

Books new to me that I have really enjoyed have been:

Bricks and Mortar
Lincoln in the Bardo
Counternarratives
The Nix

But my best new experience of books so far this year has been reading David Markson's quartet

Reader’s Block
This Is Not a Novel
Vanishing Point
The Last Novel

Re-reads have included

The Blazing World
Autumn
Hot Milk
Jesus' Son

It's been a strong year for prize lists this year: for new books (at least in English):

Reservoir 13 - hopefully the Booker winner
Fever Dream- my favourite from the MBI
Sorry to Disrupt the Peace - with a memorably unpleasant narrator, the book Eileen tried to be
The Evenings - finally out in English and, as the author is dead, not MBI eligible but surely a strong BTBA contender
A Horse Walks into a Bar - a worthy MBI winner
Forbidden Line - highly inventive modern day version of Don Quixote, my favourite from the RoC Prize
Compass - another from a strong MBI list
Counternarratives - Republic of Consciousness Prize winner
My Heart Hemmed In by Ndiaye, even better than Ladivine
The Last Wolf & Herman - by Krasznahorkai, need I say more

For books I have finally read and see what all the fuss is about:
Hamlet
To the Lighthouse

Trevor wrote: "I failed to keep up with Party Going, but I will not stop forever."
Trevor, you likely have even more on your to-read pile (or, for me, bookshelves) than I do. Henry Green's reputation has survived for almost a century without us, so no rush. But, as always, I'll look forward to your insights when you do return to him.

[I have deleted an earlier version of this list]

My top 25 for the year so far:
1, Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor (my review)
2, A Line Made by Walking by Sara Baume (my review)
3, Wizard of the Crow by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o (my review)
4, Autumn by Ali Smith (my review)
5, A Month In The Country by J.L. Carr (my review)
6, Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood (my review)
7, Sophie and the Sibyl: A Victorian Romance by Patricia Duncker (my review)
8, Amongst Women by John McGahern (my review)
9, My Ántonia by Willa Cather (my review)
10, Clear Light of Day by Anita Desai (my review)
11, A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson (my review)
12, Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf (my review)
13, The Echo Maker by Richard Powers (my review)
14, The Bone People by Keri Hulme (my review)
15, The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst (my review)
16, Findings by Kathleen Jamie (my review)
17, Spies by Michael Frayn (my review)
18, Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie (my review)
19, Dogs at the Perimeter by Madeleine Thien (my review)
20, Barkskins by Annie Proulx (my review)
21, Inglorious by Joanna Kavenna (my review)
22, Days Without End by Sebastian Barry (my review)
23, The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes (my review)
24, An Awfully Big Adventure by Beryl Bainbridge (my review)
25, Signs Preceding the End of the World by Yuri Herrera (my review)

* I reread NK Jemisin's The Fifth Season trilogy since the last book was released. Great as always.

* Henry Green's Loving was phenomenal.

* Magpie Murders is Agatha Christie Inception. If you like murder mysteries, this is about as much of a murder mystery as you can get.

* I read Rebecca for the first time and... whoa.

* The Vision by Tom King. These are two collected volumes of comics about Marvel's The Vision, but they are unlike any superhero works I've ever read.

* I was introduced to the works of Yoon Ha Lee and Kai Ashante Wilson and gobbled up everything by them that I could.

* John Darnielle's Universal Harvester was one of the best audiobook experiences I've ever had.

* Penelope Fitzgerald's The Gate of Angels is my favorite Fitzgerald.

* Chronicle of the Murdered House deserves its BTBA win.

* Meanwhile I'm expecting Fever Dream in the BTBA next year.

* I was very impressed by three of the books I read for the Tournament of Books: Homegoing, Version Control, and Black Wave.

I also read rebecca for this first time this year. Why did i never read du maurier??? I've heard a lot about version control

Hugh wrote: "I can't stop myself being a little too generous with ratings. I enjoyed all of these a lot"

Hugh, you've certainly had very good 2017, at least for your reading. A Month in the Country, Alias Grace, Amongst Women, The Line of Beauty, and An Awfully Big Adventure are all favorites of mine.

Sara wrote: "Henry Green's Loving was phenomenal."

Sara, in the "author chat" folder, there's a separate sub-folder devoted to Henry Green. Additional participation would always be welcomed.

I deleted my old post and added new ones. My reading year has improved and quite a few great titles came my way. In no particular order:

Jonathan Franzen - Freedom
Emma Donaghue - Room
Daphne Du Maurier - Rebecca
Yuval Noah Harari - Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Paul Kingsnorth - The Wake
Daniel Clowes - Patience
Sarah Perry - The Essex Serpent
Liz Moore - The Unseen World
Margaret Atwood - Hag-Seed
Mike McCormack - Solar Bones
Maggie O' Farrell - This Must Be the Place
Ali Smith - Autumn
Naomi Alderman - The Power
George Saunders - Lincoln in the Bardo
Kamila Shamsie - Home Fire

Neil wrote: "But my best new experience of books so far this year has been reading David Markson's quartet"

I have This Is Not a Novel, but I didn't realize it was part of a quartet. Do I need to read all four in order, or does each one stand alone?

There is definitely a progression through the four books. But as there is no plot and there are no characters, it sort of doesn't matter! Personally, I'd recommend doing them in order starting with Reader's Block.

Neil wrote: "Personally, I'd recommend doing them in order starting with Reader's Block."

Neil, you've beguiled me into rearranging my next-novels-to-read pile. First, up: finishing Volodine's Radiant Terminus; then Sebastian's For Two Thousand Years; and then Markson's Reader's Block. Thanks for the Markson suggestions: he was far from my radar until you mentioned him above.

Here are some I've loved this year--I'm going to limit my list to books that are not already mentioned so much in this thread yet:

The Eternal Zero by Naoki Hyakuta

The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao by Martha Batalha

Moving the Palace by Charif Majdalani

Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa

Taduno's Song by Odafe Atogun

White Tears by Hari Kunzru

I subscribed to Open Letter this year an have loved them all so far, especially Frontier and Radiant Terminus...but I have to say the publisher that is really knocking my socks off these days is OneWorld, which published two of the above books, as well as my favorite book of the last few years, Laurus by Evgenij Vodolazkin.

Dan, I hope you like! One thing for sure, you haven't read anything like it before.

Neil wrote: "Dan, I hope you like! One thing for sure, you haven't read anything like it before."

Neil, thanks for the great recommendation. A wonderful novel. Not for everyone, surely, but what novel is? I'm looking forward to reading the remaining three volumes.