Keli’s Comments (group member since Jun 23, 2016)

Keli’s comments from the Nothing But Reading Challenges group.

Thank you, Fiona.

Andy wrote: "just a note - finished my Eswatini (fmr. "Swaziland") book
would not have considered it, except for the challenge

it is excellent, YA so maybe shies away from some harsher reality, but great sense..."

Go random books from Eswatini! Because of the book I read for this country, my family now does a movie tag night every Sunday. We pick a film with an actor or director from the previous film. We have watched a good range. Though Joel Edgerton appears in many. That man is in a lot of films!

I had thought I made an entry for One Dark Window. I went to enter my completed info but couldn’t find it. So, genius that I am thought I would search for it and just ended up deleting my name on all books. It says I’ve read zero. Sorry. Can someone read my name to the ones I completed please? I will now addd One Dark Window.

Also, our movie club movie was a real delight and it fits with pride month. It was my husband’s pick of a film no one in our club has seen. It’s called Unicorns, it’s about a mechanic and a drag queen. I highly recommend. There are some clunky bits but overall a touching and well told story.

Enjoy your hols, Melindam!

17th seems so close! I have been such a busy bee lately. Yesterday, was so full and today was too. Movie club, book club, pt sessions, several nail client's appts, dentist, masseuse, laser, witchy nights, plus my 9-5 and hanging out with family. It’s hard to fit it all in.
The coming week is looking much the same except Tuesday and Wednesday. So I will dedicate those to reading my physical books.
I’m currently at 4 books read. And I can safely say I will meet my 8 book target.
I have 27 mins left of One Dark window. So that will be done tomorrow. I’ll carry on with What is the What. I have 20 hrs of that left, it might be finished by Wednesday.
My Palau book has to be finished by the 14th as it has to go back to the library.
Then I will start my Bosnia book, which I have in both audio and paperback. So I will have no reason not to have that knocked out for in a couple days.
If there’s any time left, I will squeeze in a shorter book. My two remaining books will have to be carried over to the next round.

Perdition might work for believe in myth or entity. One of the characters claims to be the Handmaiden of Death and her followers are fanatics who appear to believe her, sort of sacrificing themselves to her ideology.

I’ve also started With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa a non-fiction, but it won’t be complete for a few days.

I just finished Perdition. Not sure it works for any of the current tasks. I have listed some letters to add, but not sure what more I can contribute for tasks.

Melindam wrote: "Emily Henry is one of those authors I feel I should try .... eventually, but when checking out her books I have this strange feeling of disinterest. 🤷‍♀️"

Same.

pont l'évêque is delicious. I highly recommend

Andy wrote: "Moderators of NBRC wrote: "Pont l'Évêque has a yellow-y rind that smells strongly of hay and a barn and is smooth to the touch. It has a soft and creamy center, which is dotted with small pockets o..."

😂😂😂

Melindam wrote: "Keli,

could you please put your Demon Hunting book on your shelf, please?

Thank you. :))"

Done. I had to leave off work first.

Melindam wrote: "Thank you, Keli."

Of course. If it’s still available when I’m done, I’ll fill it in.

I’m about to finish Demon hunting in Dixie and GR says, “DEMON HUNTING IN DIXIE, a paranormal romance, is her debut novel.” It will be done in an hour.

I love it. Thanks to TT a lot of random country books about to be knocked off tbrs.

I’ll have perdition done by tomorrow evening. And Demon Hunting in Dixie by weds or thurs.

I hope you had a fab party celebrating your mom, Sophie.

Added Karen Rose to my tbr. I read the first in death book. I can remember it for good reasons mostly, which is always a good sign in a series for me. I just think because of how many there I feel overwhelmed looking at the thought of continuing.

I’ve just started What Is the What, the author is listed as Dave Eggers, but in the preface we’re told that the story was verbally told to Eggers who then wrote it out. It is called a fictionalised autobiography of Valentino Achek Deng. I’m not sure what rules apply to it. Will this count for South Sudan, where Deng is from? As it is the story of his fleeing the war, I’m not sure enough will actually be set in South Sudan.

I just finished Sabrina & Corina a decent collection of short stories (I would have said really good except a few of them felt interchangeable). Amongst the recommended similar books given after I finished was Return to the Enchanted Island, winner of prizes and hailed as only the 2nd book from Madagascar to be translated into English. I looked it up on GR and was shocked to see it had such a low rating. I take ratings with a grain of salt, two books I loathe (I’m against book burning but if I had to choose between saving someone, possibly even a fascist, and setting a book on fire, these would be kindling) have 4+ stars.
What I do trust are the reviews, well mostly. The consistent gripe for this book, aside from density, was narrative structure. I find this is a common complaint regarding translated literature. One reviewer even said it was a “fault” of either the translator or the author. And my thought was why not the reader? This is only the second book to be translated from a culture few westerners know anything about. Wouldn’t it be more accurate to assume that if there is a fault that it would lie with the reader. Why do we assume that everyone will write in one of our accepted narrative structures, probably all based on the Greeks? Why would someone from Madagascar not tell a story in way that conforms to their own cultural norms? I totally appreciate not liking a book, but I think it is weird to attribute blame when something doesn’t conform to one’s own conception of good storytelling. Since, many of us are reading books from other cultures, I’m curious to know your opinions.

I’m going to go back over my many reviews and see what I’ve previously said about some books. I would like to think as a trained anthropologist, I wouldn’t be so ethnocentric and even if I didn’t enjoy a book, would qualify why, other than just a poor job. Unless it is drivel. In which case, I would list all the reasons for my opinion like I did on the books I loathe.

Also, do you think it’s the responsibility of the translator to make an author’s work more palatable to the audience they’re translating for?