Kinna

Oh I should get that, or Additions to my Wishlist #5

I’m adding the following tens books to my ever-growing  wishlist.  These are books of interest reviewed by my fellow bloggers.

  • The Old Romantic by Louise Dean –  Tom of A Common Reader says  this book “will be one of my “best reads” for 2010”.  It’s described as a fantastic dark comedy about a man obsessed with planning his own funeral.  A comment in response to Tom’s review led to
  • This Human Season also by Louise Dean, which depicts the political and social strife of Northern Ireland in the winter of 1979.   kimbofo of Reading Matters says it is “a truly brilliant novel, intelligently told and one that shows a very human side to a war that raged for 30 years”
  • The Armies by Evelio Rosero – set in Colombia and winner of the 2009 Independent Fiction Fiction Prize.  SoulMuser at Life Wordsmith says ” Wow…Rosero, has spun a bewildering, agonizing tale of war – visceral violence that seeps through the guts of each page, but still  redeems it with the sweet blood of love”
  • The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill –  From Farm Lane Books Blog: “an epic story following the life of one woman, Aminata Diallo, as she is captured from her West African village and sold as a child slave.. .I highly recommend this book to everyone” .   It is titled  Someone Knows My Name in the US.
  • The Tricking of Freya by Christina Sunley –   This debut novel is an intricate family travelogue, based in the present of Icelandic-Canadian life and the half-mythical world of her grandparents’ Iceland.  Amy Reads says “the Icelandic language and culture is almost a character itself in the book… I loved the importance that was given in this book, and that is given in Iceland, to the language, to books, to literature”.
  • The Ministry of Pain by Dubravka Ugresic –   From Publishers Weekly: a bleak novel bears witness to the “convalescence” of exiles from the former Yugoslavia, Slavic literature professor Tanja Lucic and her students, persevering in Amsterdam in the wake of ethnic cleansing back home.  The Literary Lollipop says ” Five million stars. Bravo. Well done. Superb. I feel like everything I could possibly say about this novel wouldn’t do it any justice. This book is one of the most satisfying and insightful reads of the entire year, possibly my whole life”.
  • Remainder by Tom McCarthy – I read about this debut novel (one wonders what rock I’m living under :)) in an Asylum post on the author’s soon to be released latest novel C.  The book seems to polarize readers, I’m eager to check it out.
  • Ilustrado by Miguel Syjuco – described as an ambitious first novel and is the writer’s response to the mysterious death of the Filipino author Crispen Salvador.  I want to read more works on The Philipines so I jumped on this when it was review on By the Firelight.

And these days I find it quite difficult to compile a wishlist without including books I found on Winstondad’s blog. For this list, I limited the selection to  two books:

  • The Last Will and Testament of Senhor Da Silva Araujo by the Cape Verdi Germano Almeida –   a will that is 387 pages long and tells the story of a successful entrepreneur. Stu thought “the translation is one of these best Portuguese translation I have ever read”.
  • Four walls by Vangelis Hatizyannis – I haven’t read a book by a Greek writer in a while and this book is described by the Greek Vogue as “probably the most atmospheric Greek novel of the year”.  Stu comments that “it shines a different light on Greek island life than the one I have often seen portrayed in films and books ,it brings them in to modern world kicking and screaming.

Have you read any of these books? Do any of these books sound interesting to you?

28 comments

  2. I loved The Tricking of Freya…the author did a fabulous job with Icelandic culture and the descriptions of the landscape.

    And you’ve given me a whole bunch of new titles to check out!

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  4. They all look interesting! On my blog, I just asked for recommendations for books set in Eastern Europe– so from your list I’m going to look up “The Ministry of Pain” first.

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  6. I would highly recommend The Book of Negroes. It’s absolutely fantastic and heart-wrenching. Back in January or so, I listened to it in audio form, but I would imagine that the dead-tree version would be just as lovely.

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  7. I’m really pleased to see that you’ve added The Book of Negores to your list. I hope that you enjoy it as much as I did.

    I’m also looking forward to your thoughts on Illustrado. I hope you can shed a bit more light on it for me 🙂

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  8. You’ve got some wonderful books there – The Ministry of Pain appeals to me the most and I will seek it out. Interesting post – I always like looking at other people’s recommendations.

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    • LOL, I don’t read a lot of books per week. Most probably 2/week but I keep adding to my wishlist, esp books reviewed by other bloggers. I’ve probably filled up my reading schedule for the next 3 years!

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  11. Interesting bunch of selections. I have read “The book of Negroes/Someone knows my name”, by Lawrence Hill. It was one of the Accra Book Club reads earlier this year. Most of us enjoyed it, though it was long, and there were many sub-stories. Personally it brought to mind echoes of Manu Herbstein’s saga of slavery, “Ama”

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  12. Isn’t Stu just terrible?? He always adds too many to my wish list as well 😀 hehe

    I’m excited to see The Tricking of Freya made your list, but I’m even more excited to see The Ministry of Pain by Dubravka Ugresic! I haven’t read it, but she is one of my top 5 favorite authors based on the 2 books by her that I have read!!

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    • I’m just baffled and pleased that he comes across such interesting books. The Tricking of Freya will be the first Icelandic book that I will read. I’m excited about it!

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  13. I just recently finished Ilustrado, and after a slow star really enjoyed it. I think I picked it up for the same reason you mention–to read more about the Philippines (or rather, other countries), and I don’t regret this choice.

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    • Amanda, thanks for stopping by my blog. I just read your review and I’m more eager to read this book. I’m currently reading Dusk by F. Sionil Jose, a Filipino author. have you heard of him?

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      • And thank you for stopping by mine! I haven’t heard of him, but really, it’s only chance that I even came across Ilustrado. The world of book blogs is certainly making me aware of many more authors, especially those outside of the US. I’ll have to look F. Sionil Jose up!

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  15. Thanks for the mentions as ever Kinna ,I ve Ilustreado near to of my tbr as its from library and one I really am looking forward to ,all the best stu

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