On The Same Page discussion

Somehow I missed this thread! So: here I am.

Read so far this year (it was too challenging to put into order by month--from now on I'll update more accurately)

1) Decreation: Poetry, Essays, Opera by Anne Carson: very difficult but equally rewarding; especially her discussion of Simone Weil
2) The Universal Christ: How a Forgotten Reality Can Change Everything We See, Hope For and Believe byRichard Rohr: he's a tremendous hero of mine, a Catholic priest who combines contemplation with social activism and an inclusive view of spirituality and people
3) Joan Is Okay by Weike Wang: loved this one--a somewhat autistic woman, who is a physician, first generation Chinese American (her Mom, who lives in China, comes over rather hilariously to stay with Joan's high-achieving brother
4) Ninth Street Women: Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler: Five Painters and the Movement That Changed Modern Art by Mary Gabriel: this one took me a long time-- information dense, fascinating. Loved it
5) Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing; Matthew Perry--Did not finish: I'm a huge Friends' fan and I particularly love Perry in it but I found this book almost unbearable (like I said, I could not finish it--I own it so maybe one day--I didn't even get up to when he was on Friends. Too much self-pity, self-hatred mixed with grandiosity
6) All about Me!: My Remarkable Life in Show Business by Mel Brooks: I adored this one: exuberant, full of life, funny--he reminds me of my Dad--plus the evocation of old New York City, going through the 50s & 60s which I remember (well, the 60s anyway)
7) Do I Stay Christian?: A Guide for the Doubters, the Disappointed, and the Disillusioned by Brian D. McLaren: some interesting ideas and responses; I found it helpful
8) Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid: more fun than the tv version; I loved it--even more than The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
9) The Maid by Nita Prose: took me a minute to recall this one; pretty good
10) The Ufizzi Gallery (getting ready for our trip to Italy in June)
11) Lonely Castle in the Mirror by Mizuki Tsujimura: very sweet
12) Everybody: A Book about Freedom by Olivia Laing--I like Laing a lot --loved The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone--this one not quite so much but some really interesting essays about what it means to be free in an unfree world and differing ideas of what freedom even is
13) Territory of Light by Yūko Tsushima: mother with her young daughter, newly separated from her husband--elegant, slender book, elegiac; I liked it a lot although I found it slightly depressing
14) The Nineties by Chuck Klosterman: parts of it were very interesting but I didn't care about a lot of it
15) Essence of Prayer by Ruth Burrows: I was blown away--a Carmelite nun's look at contemplative prayer
16) A Modern Heathens Guide to Norse Paganism: The Earth-Centered Religion that Empowers Us to Embrace Our Inner Viking and Take Charge of Our Fate, Quinby C. Larson: I won this book which I requested because of my son's interest in Norse mythology not because of any interest in becoming a pseudo-Norse pagan. A few interesting pieces of information. I won't be getting on a Viking ship any time soon.

More:
17) Children of the State: Stories of Survival and Hope in the Juvenile Justice System, Jeff Hobbs: well-written, compelling, at times extremely painful and frequently sad but totally worth reading
18) The Hunting Party (Lucy Foley: mystery; really enjoyed the first half--the rest was. okay--on the whole, I was glad I read it but the middle section dragged a bit for me
19) Finding Me (Viola Davis): wow!! Amazing woman, actress, writer. Intelligently written, a memoir of a fascinating woman but also an articulate discussion of race in America--and in the entertainment industry. Loved this one.
20) Funny Weather: Art in an Emergency by Olivia Laing--Excellent, intelligent, sometimes moving. Some essays of course more interesting to me than others but a worthwhile read of artists, directors, writers creative visions of how life could be lived
21) Strangers I Know: A NovelDear Stranger, I Know How You Feel (Claudia Durastanti): a terrific book--a "novel" that appears to be strongly autobiographical--the hearing child of two deaf parents, both of whom refused to learn how to sign or follow any common communication system; a complicated (but isn't it always?) mother/daughter relationship
22) Party Going (Henry Green)--reread (but it's been at least 30 or 35 years since my original read!)--shortly before the war (the second world war that is) a group of upper class British men and woman are stranded in a London railway station as they attempt to embark on a holiday in France--they're paralysis clearly symbolic of the end of British "greatness"--silly, annoying, yet somehow the book itself is neither
23) Our Father by Ruth Burrows--obviously a niche demographic! Short but very intense. Definitely not a quick read
24) What Makes You Come Alive: A Spiritual Walk with Howard Thurman (Lerita Coleman Brown): Another win: Thurman is also hero of mine (a spiritual leader who inspired much of the Civil Rights movement)--the book has some nice moments but I'd rather read his works than this work about him. Still, a pretty decent introduction to him and his writings and his work
25) Checkout 19: A Novel (Claire-Louise Bennett): I actually can't remember much about this one other than that I did like it
26) Berg by Ann Quin: annoyingly I can't find this in the "add book/author). An experimental novel about a very unlikable man looking to kill the father who abandoned him as a child--actually a kind of strange comedy--unpleasant yet compelling
27) Three also by Ann Quin (and also apparently not in the add book/author database): I liked this one a lot, experimental writing, mixing a variety of discourses (straightforward narration with poetry, tape transcription, journals)--a husband and a wife, in an outwardly successful marriage and affluent life, take in a boarder--a young woman who disrupts the status quo.
28) Good Morning, Midnight (Jean Rhys): also a reread from my youth--depressing--alcoholic young woman in Paris--I loved it--still seems romantic to me, even at my ripe old age
29) Real Estate (Deborah Levy: I love Levy's voice--here she is discovering herself as a writer at 60 years old, daughters pretty much grown and leaving, single and figuring out what kind of life she wants to create
30) The Cost of Living: A Working Autobiography by Deborah Levy--actually the volume before Real Estate--I read it out of order--here Levy has just separated from her husband of 20 years; she's disoriented and trying to figure out her new status and personal
31) The Thanksgiving Play / What Would Crazy Horse Do? by Larissa FastHorse: both brilliant but very different--Thanksgiving hilariously takes on liberal discourse around presentation and "holding space" -- as a group of well-meaning but confused creatives try to create a play for school children about Thanksgiving that honors the indigenous population; What Would Crazy Horse Do? has humorous moments but is ultimately devastating--a very powerful play
32) Incendies by Wajdi Mouawad My son had to read this for a college course and asked me to read it so we could discuss--just devastating. Mouawad is a writer from Quebec, originally from Lebanon. The book takes place in an unnamed country, torn apart by war--a mother dies, a woman who had stopped speaking 5 years earlier, and sends her surviving children, twins, on a mission to find their father and their brother.

33) The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz--wow: this was tremendous fun! Kind of a gothic/horror/mystery--a reclusive, famous, eccentric goth/horror/erotic (she presents herself with dramatic flair and is at least as interesting as her books) writer holds a retreat in her very isolated house. Five young women writers are invited to attend. Things are merely strange until one of them disappears. Then the deaths begin. I really enjoyed this one.

Currently reading:
1) Novelist as a Vocation by Haruki Murakami: I'm a huge Murakami fan but I will say that I've read a lot of this material in various interviews with him so it might be more interesting to someone less familiar with his other interviews.
2) Who We're Reading When We're Reading Murakami by David Karashima--you're probably getting the picture--I read anything by or about Murakami. This is also interesting because I'm fascinated by the topic of translating (also Lydia Davis's writing on that is compelling)
3) Essays Two: On Proust, Translation, Foreign Languages, and the City of Arles by Lydia Davis--I may never actually finish this one but I dip into it from time to time and read one or two essays--always fascinating
4) Black Vodka: Ten Stories by Deborah Levy
5) All the Lovers in the Night by Mieko Kawakami: misfit, alcoholic woman--where I am, she's maybe finding romance but I'm not holding out much hope for its success. It's not that kind of book
6) Gallows View by Peter Robinson because I love the DCI Banks series on BritBox
7) Lunch Poems by Frank O'Hara--have read these many times and love them but not for a while

Hi Ellie, so fun to see all of the books you're reading and have read this year. I have only read Kafka on the Shore and 1Q84 by Murakami. I liked them both, but haven't picked up anything else by him. What are your favorites? I've been afraid to pick up Matthew Perry's book for the same reason you didn't love it, I think I will keep waiting on that one. :-) I liked Daisy Jones but The Maid wasn't for me. You've got a lot of books on the go, I hope they are all great!

Lea wrote: "Hi Ellie, so fun to see all of the books you're reading and have read this year. I have only read Kafka on the Shore and 1Q84 by Murakami. I liked them both, but haven't..."

You're right about "a lot of books"--my goal this year is to cut down on the amount of books I'm reading at the same time!

I love the 2 Murakami you mention. I also loved The Elephant Vanishes, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World as well as The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.

Those are I think the most well-known of his work. I have a particular fondness for Norwegian Wood.

I also enjoyed his short story collections.

I'd wait to read Perry's memoir if and when he gets some serious sober time. This was just sad.

4/17/2023 Novelist as a Vocation by Haruki Murakami Very enjoyable group of essays in which Murakami discusses various aspects of his work, his career, and his philosophies about life, work, and writing. I've read everything I could find by and about Murakami so much of the information, especially in the first third was familiar but still interesting to read all in one place. And if you haven't read much about Murakami, a great introduction.

Ellie wrote: "Somehow I missed this thread! So: here I am.

Read so far this year (it was too challenging to put into order by month--from now on I'll update more accurately)..."

Better late than never, Ellie. It's only April. LOL

Kudos on your progress, though. :)

Alondra wrote: "Ellie wrote: "Somehow I missed this thread! So: here I am.

Read so far this year (it was too challenging to put into order by month--from now on I'll update more accurately)..."

Better late than ..."

Thanks--and I'm happy to join all of you!

I am feeling stunned and emotionally drained. I just finished Childhood / Youth / Dependency by Tove Ditlevsen. Everyone should read this book. I can't remember another reading experience as powerful as this one.

Race, Politics, and Irish America: A Gothic History by Mary M Burke.

Loved it. A sometimes sobering look at Irish Americans. Especially loved her discussions of Irish-American writers (her take on Eugene O'Neill sent me running back to reread him)

Social Justice for the Sensitive Soul: How to Change the World in Quiet Ways by Dorcas Cheng-Tozun: lots of interesting information; I don't know why it didn't have more impact on me as a whole but like I said a lot of useful as well as interesting info.

Monastery by Eduardo Halfon: loved it; quiet, understated auto-fiction about a Jew living in Guatemala whose family escaped from concentration camps in Poland under the Nazi's, I want to read the rest of his books (the translated ones anyway). I've ordered The Polish Boxer