I only get around to doing it once a month, but here is a lovely meme you might want to take part in, hosted by Sam at Taking on a World of Words. It’s open for anyone to join in and is a great way to share what you’ve been reading! All you have to do is answer three questions and share a link to your blog in the comments section of Sam’s blog.
The three Ws are:
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?
A similar meme is run by Lipsyy Lost and Found where bloggers share This Week in Books #TWiB.
Currently reading:
Negar Djavadi: Disoriental, transl. Tina Kover
A saga of 20th century Iran seen through the eyes of a young woman who came to France as a child.
… the truth of memory is strange, isn’t it? Our memories select, eliminate, exaggerate, minimize, glorify, denigrate. They create their own versions of events and serve up their own reality. Disparate, but cohesive, Imperfect yet sincere. In any case, my memory is so crammed with stories and lies and languages and illusions, and lives marked by exile and death, death and exile, that I don’t even really know how to untangle the threads anymore.
Just finished:
Olga Tokarczuk: Flights, transl. Jennifer Croft
Not quite a memoir or travel journal, more like a writer’s notebook crammed full of pithy observations, fragments of stories, snatches of ideas waiting to be developed, and beautiful phrases just made to be quoted.
Describing something is like using it – it destroys: the colours wear off, the corners lose their definition, and in the end what’s been described begins to fade, to disappear. This applies most of all to places. Enormous damage has been done by travel literature… Guidebooks have conclusively ruined the greater part of the planet… they have debilitated places, pinning them down and naming them, blurring their contours.
Next up:
Eliot Pattison: Savage Liberty
This is a book I’ve been sent on Kindle to review, a historical mystery set during the period of the American Revolutionary War. This is the fifth in a series, but I hope to be able to keep track of things. and find some good escapism along the way. The summary is as follows:
You have some interesting reading going on, Marina Sofia. I like historical mysteries if they’re done well, so the Pattison has me intrigued. The other two books sound like they offer fascinating perspectives, and that’s always interesting, too. I hope you’ve been enjoying what you’re reading.
Nice selection! I’m dipping my toe back into an Angela Carter, and it’s going rather better than my last try…
Oh, good! She is a writer to treasure, but I haven’t got on with all of her books, or have to be in the mood for them.
The Pattison book makes me think of the Outlander series. Without the time travel bit. And without Jamie. *sigh* 😉 I’ll be interested in what you make of it, Marina 🙂
Well, we’ll soon see. Will start reading it this weekend, I think.
You always seem to find books I have never heard of! ..
Maybe I do it on purpose?!
You wouldn’t be that mean would you – you know you have the condition of our bank balances to consider 🙂
Savage Liberty sounds like fun… and not at all like your usual stuff! Looking forward to hearing what you think of it.
I just finished Maile Meloy’s stories Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want IT, short stories (not my usual choice), OK. But finished Go, Went, Gone, which was quite good, but painful. Am recommending it.
Am reading Cotton Comes to Harlem, a classic by Chester Himes, a good, unsung writer. Should be better known. And I’m reading Jessmyn Ward’s latest book.
Next I don’t know, have some books listed on the Women’s Prize list almost ready at the library., as Eleanor Oliphant, and others, including Elly Griffiths’ latest book, Dark Angel. And I am going through my TBR piles to find some good stuff.
Am also awaiting Kati Hiekkapelto’s latest book, which I purchased second-hand.
A nice cornucopia of varied delights there, Kathy!
I’m with a number of commenters here, I like the sound of Savage Liberty as I’m a sucker for historical mysteries.
You read the most varied selection of books I’ve ever seen. I’m trying to broaden out, having read mostly crime fiction fr years. Have been branching out in the recent period. A family tragedy sent me to read lighter books without violence, but interesting, humorous, memoirs and general fiction.
I feel like now murderous novels are starting to call out to me, but I’m taking it slowly.
Fiction is amazing and can be the right distraction from many crises.