All About Books discussion

I planned to read 55 books in 2018, 35 of them by women authors. I exceeded my goal by reading 70 books, 44 of them by women authors.

My goal for 2019 is to read 60 books, 40 of them by women authors.

1. Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively.
A wonderful book to start the new year!

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

2. The Giant's House by Elizabeth McCracken.
Disappointing.

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

3. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield.

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

4. Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff.
A well-researched biography of a fascinating woman.

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

5. Delta Wedding by Eudora Welty.
It was ok, but I much prefer her short stories.

My 3 star review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

6. What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky, a wonderful collection of short stories by Lesley Nneka Arimah.

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

7. An Orchestra of Minorities by Chigozie Obioma.

A very powerful, complex, and compelling novel. Obioma skillfully weaves Igbo cosmology throughout the narrative. It's a heartbreaking novel. I loved The Fishermen but I think this is a stronger novel. It's certainly more complex.

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

Tamara wrote: "5. Delta Wedding by Eudora Welty.
It was ok, but I much prefer her short stories. ..."

I was worried that I would feel that way, which is why I have been avoiding this book.

Leslie wrote: "I was worried that I would feel that way, which is why I have been ..."

Yes, I really wasn't that keen on it.

8. Phantastes by George MacDonald.

It's about a young man's journey in Fairy Land. There's no logic to it. You have to surrender to the experience--sort of like falling into a dream. It just wasn't for me.

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

9. The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak.

It was stronger than Shafak's Three Daughters of Eve and probably as good as her The Architect's Apprentice.

My four star review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

10. The Red Tent by Anita Diamant.
I thought the novel started off strongly but then lost focus. A bit disappointing, especially the happily-ever-after fairy tale ending.

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

11. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel.
I don't usually go for a post-apocalypse type of book, but I thought this was very well done.

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

12. Hotel Silence by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir.

A quiet, subtle, and tender book by an Icelandic author who somehow manages to capture the poignancy and poetry of life in sparse, understated writing. It's quite amazing.

My 5-star review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

13. The Orchard of Lost Souls by Nadifa Mohamed.
It is about the civil war in Somalia as experienced through the eyes of three females. It was quite good.

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

14. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd--a heart-warming, feel good book.

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

15. The Collector of Treasures and Other Botswana Village Tales by Bessie Head. She evokes the harsh reality of living in a Botswana village in a very understated manner--as if it's part of the fabric of daily existence.

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

16. What Makes Civilization? The Ancient Near East and the Future of the West by David Wengrow

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

17. The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin.

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

18. Warlight by Michael Ondaatje.

An incredible novel about 1945 post-war London. Ondaatje does a phenomenal job of evoking a haunting atmosphere where nothing is quite what it seems. He explores the process by which shards of memory are pieced together to make sense of the past.

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

19. The Adventures of Ibn Battuta: A Muslim Traveler of the Fourteenth Century by Ross E. Dunn.
It recounts the 24-year journey of a 14th Century globe trotter as he traveled to the far reaches of the Islamic world. Professor Dunn situates each location in its historical and cultural context.

My 4-star review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

20. Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya.

I had some issues with the book. It just wasn't for me, so I decided not to write a review.

21. The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman.
This is #2 in His Dark Materials Series. I didn't think it was as good as Book I.
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

22. Studies in Bible and Feminist Criticism by Tikva Frymer-Kensky. I thought parts of it were interesting, but I much preferred her In the Wake of the Goddesses: Women, Culture, and the Biblical Transformation of Pagan Myth, which I read years ago.

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

23. The Red Collar: A Novel by Jean-Christophe Rufin. A poignant novella with a simple story line and few characters about the indelible scars of war on people and animals.

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

24. What We Lose by Zinzi Clemmons.
With its unorthodox structure, it compellingly depicts a young woman's devastating sense of loss at the death of her mother. I thought it was excellent.

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

25. Broken Verses by Kamila Shamsie.
Disappointing and not nearly as good as her Home Fire.

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

26. Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield.
She's a gifted writer and it's a wonderful book.
It flooded me with a lot of personal memories of growing up in England with a tributary of the River Thames flowing at the bottom of our garden.

My 5 star review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

27. Finished Outline by Rachel Cusk.
An unusual novel consisting of a series of conversations which are akin to soliloquies or monologues with virtually no plot. Maybe not for everyone, especially if you like a lot of action in your novels, but I thought it was brilliant.

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

28. Cairo Modern by Naguib Mahfouz.
He tends to hammer the point home, but I think the theme of the novel is as relevant today as it was when he wrote it in 1945.

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

29. Nobody's Fool by Richard Russo. Brilliant characterization and very funny.

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

30. Battle Cries and Lullabies: Women in War from Prehistory to the Present by Linda Grant De Pauw.
A good overview of the roles women performed in warfare.

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

31. Praise Song for the Butterflies by Bernice L. McFadden.
It describes the practice of ritual servitude in Africa. It was good except for the ending which I thought was a little improbable.

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

32. Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement by Angela Y. Davis.
She writes with passion and conviction. Her analysis and discussion is thought-provoking.

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

33. A General Theory of Oblivion by José Eduardo Agualusa. It's about the 1970s Angolan war for independence. It has an unusual format and focuses on a woman who locks herself up in her apartment for 30 years to avoid the turmoil.

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

34. Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple. It just wasn't for me.

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

35. I finished Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli. The novel has a complex structure with several interlocking threads. The parents are archivists, the father documenting the sounds of land once inhabited by Apaches; the mother documenting the harrowing journey of migrant children. A challenging book, but worth the effort.

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

36. Akhenaten: Dweller in Truth by Naguib Mahfouz. Akhenaten is the Egyptian pharaoh credited with being the first monotheist. An easy, quick read with an interesting structure.

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

37. A Pale View of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro. This is Ishiguro's debut novel.

My 4 star review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

38. Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi.

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

39. Border Districts: A Fiction by Gerald Murnane.
An unusual novel in terms of structure, content, and theme. Highly recommended for those who enjoy reflective, digressive writing.

My 5-star review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

40. Everything Under by Daisy Johnson.
A modern retelling of the Oedipus myth set near the murky river waters in Oxford. It includes elements of fairy tales and folk tales, conjures up a haunting atmosphere, and is very well done.

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

41. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, winner of the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
My five star review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

42. So Long a Letter by Mariama Bâ, winner of the 1980 Noma Award.

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

43. A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes, a retelling of the Trojan War from an all-female perspective.

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

44. The Book of Collateral Damage by Sinan Antoon about the Iraq war and occupation.

Interspersed throughout the narrator's story are short vignettes of objects, plants, and animals speaking in the first person to describe all they have lost. The two narrative threads reinforce each other to emphasize the trauma of a nation in a powerful evocation of the collateral damage caused by a war.

My 5-star review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

45. Autumn by Ali Smith. It was a shortlisted for the 2017 Man Booker Prize. I loved it and intend to read the rest of the series.

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

46. The Egyptian by Mika Waltari, the 1940s international best seller about Sinuhe, the personal physician of Pharaoh Akhnaton. Waltari's research is impressive. He paints a compelling portrait of life in ancient Egypt at a time of political upheaval.

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

47. Bellman & Black by Diane Setterfield. It wasn't as good as her novels, The Thirteenth Tale or Once Upon a River.

My 3-star review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...