Category: Currently Reading
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Speedboat by Renata Adler
I saw praise for this one once it was republished by NYRB. I found what I just now realize is a first edition at Half Price a couple months ago and it’s been sitting on my bookshelf since. Well, Literary Hub just posted a really nice list of summer books, and lo, Speedboat was on…
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In Progress: Farewell, Ghosts
Continuing my trend of absolutely gorgeous, morose Italian novels that take place in the summertime. I should make a book list. Farewell, Ghosts by Nadia Terranova, translated by Ann Goldstein (whose translation of this book is single-handedly making me want to read Ferrante!) From the publisher: Ida is a married woman in her late thirties,…
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In Progress: A Summer Goal and A Queer Reckoning
Obviously feeling very perky and lighthearted in my reading tastes right now. I thought it might be fun to read Proust this summer. I’ve never read Swann’s Way before, and am about 20% of the way through In Search of Lost Time. I quite like it, though realized I’m reading the oldest Moncrieff translation and…
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In Progress: The Four Humors
The Four Humors, by Mina Seçkin A young woman goes back to Turkey the year after the Gezi Park protests to visit her father’s grave, care for her grandmother, and mourn her family. She brings her American boyfriend, with whom she hopes to study medicine over the summer. She has a weeks-long headache and is…
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Book Conference Reading
A comfort read and something found in the galley room… Swing Time by Zadie Smith Two brown girls dream of being dancers—but only one, Tracey, has talent. The other has ideas: about rhythm and time, about black bodies and black music, what constitutes a tribe, or makes a person truly free. It’s a close but…
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Two Books in Progress
Not a very full month of reading (February and March are emotionally and intellectually tiring every year). But what I am reading is great. The Dark Room by Junnosuke Yoshiyuki The story of a man who was safe – or so he thought. A man to be envied: the comfortable income, above all, the women…
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In Progress: Cassandra at the Wedding
Someone recommended this, a long time ago. So long ago that I texted my mom to ask if she’d loved it. Still wondering who that recommender might’ve been. I am about a third of the way through and really loving this one. It’s a bit slow to read, and I’m challenging myself to take it…
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Two Books in Progress
Halfway through two books. One, eerie and pastoral; the other, eerie and interior (like, super interior… like, ear canals). Weirdly, these are both from Astra House, a publisher I’m not sure how to feel about. I’m not quite sure of their publishing identity yet. They’ve come out with quite a few books at this point,…
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The Red Book of Farewells by Pirkko Saisio
I was gifted this one by the publisher, Two Lines Press. The Red Book of Farewells is about a Finnish woman thinking back on her life — discovery of her sexuality, theater, school, her relationship to communism/politics at large, having a baby… In the publisher’s words: Pirkko Saisio’s autofictional novel, in Mia Spangenberg’s tender translation,…
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October Books in Progress
October was a slow month for reading. I was only home for 14 days of the month, and travel was fairly taxing. Family, work, obligations to friends… All of it had a tinge of vacation. I went to two cities I’ve never been to before, attended a wedding, and made a good dog friend. But…