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Andy Weir, Elif Shafak, Elizabeth Bishop, Emily Dickinson, Henry James, John Keats, Nuala O'Connor
Can you believe it’s July already? I can’t. I was just getting used to June, just starting to feel like I was in the June groove, and now it’s time to move on. I am not ready. Can we turn the calendar back to June 15th please? That should be enough for me to get my fill of June and then when July 1st rolls around again I will be ready. Not going to happen you say? Where’s Marty McFly or the TARDIS when you need them?
Well, let’s barrel into July then. What will the month hold for reading? I get a 3-day holiday weekend coming up for Independence Day. Groovy, some extra reading time.
Even though I have been (mostly) good about keeping my library hold requests down to a manageable number, two books I have been looking forward to reading that have long waiting lines have, of course, both arrived for me at once. I now have to either a) rush through The Buried Giant and Get in Trouble in three weeks, or b) choose one to focus on and not worry about the other and get in line for it again if I run out of time. Choice “b” seems the most likely one I will go with which means Ishiguro’s Buried Giant will get my attention first. I am looking forward to it.
Carried over from last month, I am still reading Elif Shafak’s The Architect’s Apprentice. I am enjoying it much more than I was before even though I am making my way through it rather slowly.
In June I began reading Portrait of a Lady by Henry James and The Martian by Andy Weir. Two very different books and I am enjoying each of them quite a lot. James manages to be funny and ironic and ominous and can he ever write! I know people make fun of his long sentences but I get so involved in the reading I don’t even notice the length of the sentences. I do notice sometimes the paragraphs are very long, but that is only when I am nearing my train stop or the end of my lunch break and I am looking for a place to stop reading. And The Martian, is it ever a funny book. The book itself isn’t funny I guess, there is nothing very funny about being left for dead on Mars, the character, Mark Watney is funny; humor as survival tool. Weir, I must say, does a most excellent job of writing about complex science in such a way that is compelling and interesting and makes me feel smart.
I have a review copy of a new book called Miss Emily by Nuala O’Connor on its way to me. The Emily in question is Emily Dickinson. It’s a novel from Penguin Random House and they are kindly going to provide a second copy for a giveaway. Something to look forward to!
I will also begin reading Elizabeth Bishop this month. I’m still reading Keats letters and biography and poetry but he will get a bit less attention as I start to focus on Bishop. Much as I wanted to like Keats, it seems I like the idea of Keats more than the actuality; enjoy his letters more than his poetry. Not that his poetry isn’t very good, it is, at least some of it because there is quite a bit of mediocre stuff he wrote to/for friends that makes me wonder why I decided to read the collected rather than the selected. Hindsight and all that. But even the really good Keats poetry left me with mixed feelings. I mean, I appreciate it and sometimes I have a wow moment, but it generally doesn’t give me poetry stomach (the stomach flutters I get when I read a poem I really connect with). We’ll see how it goes with Bishop. I have her collected as well as her letters to work my way through over the coming months.
Without a doubt there will be other books that pop up through the month, there always are! The unexpected is all part of the fun.
Elizabeth Bishop is my favorite poet. Well, she’s tied with Mary Oliver. Sounds like you’ve got some good things lined up for July!
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Laila, I’ve read a few of her poems and liked them so I am really looking forward to reading more. Did you know Colm Toibin has a new book out called On Elizabeth Bishop? It’s being called an introduction to her work. I’m on the waiting list for it at the library 🙂
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Oohhh, that sounds intriguing! Thanks for the tip!
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I would be very interested to hear what you make of the ending of Portrait of a Lady and what Isabel does (that felt like the least-spoilerly way to put that).
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Christopher, a good many of James’s heroines have terrible ends so I am very worried about Isabel. I’m not quite halfway through the book so I have a bit to go yet, but it already feels like a set up!
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I too am really looking forward to reading Buried Gaints…I have heard all kinds of things about him…I still love Keats….one of the few poets that speaks to me…but with your prodding as always, I will look up Elizabeth Bishop as well 😉
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cirtnecce, I’ve read a few Ishiguro interviews and some of the things he says about the book have me very excited about it. I wanted so very much to fall in love with Keats but it just didn’t happen. You will have to love him for the both of us. Bishop though, I have read some or her work and know already that I like her so I have very high hopes.
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My July reading list has got Portrait of a Lady! Other ones include Great Expectations, She Stoops to Conquer, Fathers and Sons, Constitution of United States and Satanic Verses. Wish me luck!
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Dharmesh, what a coincidence! I love Great Expectations, it is one of my favorite books. You have an ambitious reading list for the month. Enjoy!
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Thanks!
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These are fab July choices! I’ve tried Portrait of a Lady twice now and bogged down both times, but it’s on my Classics Club list and I’m delighted to hear that it can be read on the train without too much agony. (If you’re trying to pick between the Ishiguro and Kelly Link, I’d vote for Link. I’m reading Magic For Beginners right now and it is intensely weird in a very good way, like a cross between Angela Carter [though minus the politics] and Jeff VanderMeer.)
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Elle, thanks! I can see how you can get bogged down with PoL. The first few times I encountered James I had trouble but the more I have persisted in reading him the more I have come to enjoy and admire his work. So maybe a third try for you will be the winner 🙂 I’ve read Link’s Magic for Beginners, it is delightfully weird. I like your comparison!
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I really hope so! I was subjected to his short fiction in school and actually rather liked it, but it would be great to branch out with him a bit. Just finished Magic For Beginners–good heavens, it’s odd. Its whole attitude is kind of like “fuck you, reader! And your expectations too!”, which is actually utterly charming.
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I like your idea of charming! 🙂
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I like what you say about Weir’s writing making you feel smart. This is always an essential element of satire, and he does it so well here without any element of satire, making you part of the “in” group to which all this stuff is important. Part of how he does it, of course, is showing you a few people who aren’t in the “in” group, like the management folks who won’t tell his former crewmates about him and then won’t tell them the only remaining rescue plan.
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Jeanne, heh, yeah, there are the management folks and then there are the people who actually know how to do things which seems to be a universal phenomenon. 😉 Weir is very good at explaining without it seeming like an explanation, because really, why would Mark need to record how to make water in his journal? But Weir is so smooth about it the reader doesn’t even really notice.
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I am on pins waiting for you to write a review of The Buried Giant. I found it to be very difficult to describe, or to write about. Somehow Ishiguro manages to write with such subtle gentleness…but smacks you over the head at the same time. Boom. I thought it so very good…and yet it was a difficult book to love. In some ways his writing reminds me of Flannery O’Connor, but I might just be nuts. Anyway, looking forward to a review.
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Grad, so far so good on The Buried Giant! I’m not far in but it very much has a kind of fairy tale quality to it that I am enjoying immensely.
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Sounds like a great reading month ahead! Really looking forward to your thoughts on Bishop, I’ve just got a lovely edition of her collected poems.
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shoshi, I hope it turns out as well in reality as it does in the planning! The few Bishop poems I have read before I really liked so I have high expectations!
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I love Portrait of a Lady and have done ever since it was televised here in the 60s with Richard Chamberlain in the main male role. I will be interested, however, to see how you get on with ‘The Buried Giant’. I wonder as well, if it will make the Booker Long List, which is one of the best things about having got as far through the year as July.
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Alex, ooh, so PoL has been filmed? I was wondering about that. I might have to find it after I am done reading. So far so good with The Buried Giant. I am really enjoying it. It has a kind of fairy tale quality to it.
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I know–the summer is flying by–I would be happy, too, if it would slow down just a little so I can take a break and catch up with life (wishful thinking there). I am also very much enjoying Henry James–love the witty banter of the characters. I am most interested in the Ishiguro–I want to read it, too, so am glad you are starting with it–let me know how you get on with it. Enjoy your long weekend–I know I am going to do my best, too! 😉
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Danielle, I thought I’d be able to do a little catching up over the holiday. Ha! I think I might just have to resign myself to being behind for awhile.
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How IS it already July? I mean, I’m happy that it is July, because June was a damn emotional rollercoaster and I am excited that it’s over and we can have a whole brand new month now.
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Jenny, rollercoasters tend to make things go by really fast. I hope July is a smmoth ride for you!
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I, too, feel that I have lost June. In my case, it was due to a failed tooth implant. I have spent the last two weeks in Vicodin haze, not what I had planned for my Summer at all!
Libraries have a way of doing that to me, too. The book I want is never available, I put it on hold, and then four come in at once. I reserved The Buried Giant, but could not get past the first 20 or so pages. Probably more to do with me than the novel.
I wish you a happy July, especially tomorrow: July 4! How lovely to have some extra time off for your reading. xo
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Bellezza, oh no! Poor you! I hope you get to enjoy the rest of the summer to the fullest. Too bad you and The Buried Giant didn’t get along. I began it over the weekend and am enjoying it quite a lot. I hope hope you had a wonderful 4th holiday!
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What a great variety of books to head into a new month of reading! I keep hearing such great things about The Martian. I don’t think that’s a book I would have thought twice about had it not been for reviews from friends. Hope you’ve been enjoying the extra day of reading!
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Iliana, The Martian is fun, I think you would probably like it. Hope you got to enjoy the extra day of reading too!
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I have woefully abandoned my Keats biography and failed to pick it up again. Maybe finishing things off should be my July challenge (that plus the Little, Big readalong from ahem May).
I have a collected Keats too and unlike you I didn’t bother much with the early poems. I am impressed that you did, even if they weren’t much good. I’m sure you understand his work a lot better as a result. I think it’s also nice to remember that even a great poet started somewhere. There’s a sort-of myth of Keats as this amazing genius who just irrupted into the world, blazed a trail of amazing poetry and died, but in fact he worked very hard for it.
Happy July!
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Helen, LOL, good thing I wasn’t relying on you to finish it and tell me whether I should read it! 😉 Don’t be impressed I read the early stuff, it was only because I didn’t know any better!
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I’m on the fence regarding James. First time I read Portrait I kept falling asleep because it was so so slow. Next time around (i had to do a re-read because it was a course book) I got more interested. The only other work by him I’ve read is Washington Square (enjoyed it) and Daisy Miller (so-so). Any recommendations should I decide to give him another try?
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BookerTalk, if you give him another try go for Turn of the Screw, it’s a novella and a story of psychological suspense/ghosts. Very good and creepy 🙂
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I find Henry James a little tough though I have Portrait Of A Lady on an eternal place on my ultimate TBR list. Some great short stories though ( The Jolly Corner is a wonderful “uneasy” story. I wonder how The Buried Giant reads as it has had rather mixed reviews- but then so did Never Let Me Go which is one of my favourite recent novels!
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Ian, I can assure you Portrait of a Lady is fabulous. I am almost halfway and I am very much enjoying it. As for The Buried Giant I am not quite halfway and I am enjoying that very much too. It reads rather like a fairy tale and has a very old-fashioned bareness to the narrative which suits the story well.
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Thanks for the tip. A friend keeps recommending the Ambassadors
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I’ve not read The Ambassadors, I was going to read that but when Danielle at Work in Progress asked if I’d like to read Portrait of a Lady along with her I chose that one instead. But I’ll get to it, that’s for certain 🙂 Oh, The Aspern Papers is a pretty novella by James too in case you want to add that one to your list 🙂
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