NancyJ’s Comments (group member since Dec 17, 2020)

NancyJ’s comments from the Around the World in 80 Books group.

✅My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante -
The Vegetarian by Han Kang TBR - maybe
Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin not for me
Human Acts by Han Kang
✅The Door by Magda Szabó -Sept 2023, 4+ stars
-Flights by Olga Tokarczuk - TBR
✅Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata 4+ stars
The Summer Book by Tove Jansson - TBR
✅The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yōko Ogawa -5 stars
✅The Years by Annie Ernaux - November 2022 - 4 stars
✅Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enríquez
Death in Spring by Mercè Rodoreda
✅Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk - 5 stars
Sphinx by Anne Garréta
Die, My Love by Ariana Harwicz
✅Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto - June 2022 - meh
Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi
Disoriental by Négar Djavadi
The Mussel Feast by Birgit Vanderbeke
✅The Notebook by Agota Kristof - 2022
The Proof, by Ágota Kristóf
The Third Lie: Three Novels by Ágota Kristóf -
Innocence; or, Murder on Steep Street by Heda Margolius Kovály
✅The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
The End of Days by Jenny Erpenbeck
A True Novel by Minae Mizumura
The Unwomanly Face of War: An Oral History of Women in World War II by Svetlana Alexievich
Eve out of Her Ruins by Ananda Devi
Trieste by Daša Drndić
Bonjour tristesse by Françoise Sagan
Love by Hanne Ørstavik
✅Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky
So Long a Letter by Mariama Bâ
The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu - maybe
✅The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery - June 2024
Tentacle by Rita Indiana
Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset
Second-Hand Time by Svetlana Alexievich- maybe 2022
Territory of Light by Yūko Tsushima
-The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector - maybe TBR
Woman at Point Zero by Nawal El Saadawi
Soviet Milk by Nora Ikstena
Notes of a Crocodile by Qiu Miaojin
La Bastarda by Trifonia Melibea Obono
Vernon Subutex 1 by Virginie Despentes
Revenge by Yōko Ogawa
Memoirs of a Polar Bear by Yōko Tawada
Nada by Carmen Laforet
Near to the Wild Heart by Clarice Lispector
- Strange Weather in Tokyo by Hiromi Kawakami - maybe
✅Go, Went, Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck 2024 - 4 stars
Seeing Red by Lina Meruane
Fish Soup by Margarita García Robayo
The Lover by Marguerite Duras - maybe
Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar
The Wall by Marlen Haushofer
Family Lexicon by Natalia Ginzburg
People in the Room by Norah Lange
- Mouthful of Birds by Samanta Schweblin dnf
Poems of Sappho by Sappho
The Faculty of Dreams by Sara Stridsberg
Thus Were Their Faces by Silvina Ocampo
The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
The True Deceiver by Tove Jansson
Faces in the Crowd by Valeria Luiselli
View with a Grain of Sand: Selected Poems by Wisława Szymborska
The Queue by Basma Abdel Aziz
Fox by Dubravka Ugrešić
- The Days of Abandonment by Elena Ferrante - tbr
History by Elsa Morante
Arturo's Island by Elsa Morante
Confessions by Kanae Minato
The Ten Thousand Things by Maria Dermoût -
My Heart Hemmed In by Marie NDiaye
The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist
The Bridge of Beyond by Simone Schwarz-Bart
Purge by Sofi Oksanen
The Story of My Teeth by Valeria Luiselli
Swallowing Mercury by Wioletta Greg
Tokyo Ueno Station by Miri Yū
The Little Girl on the Ice Floe by Adélaïde Bon
Extracting the Stone of Madness: Poems 1962 - 1972 by Alejandra Pizarnik
The Remainder by Alia Trabucco Zerán
The Seventh Cross by Anna Seghers
The Naked Woman by Armonía Somers
Waking Lions by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen
The Quest for Christa T. by Christa Wolf
A Winter's Promise by Christelle Dabos
Mirror, Shoulder, Signal by Dorthe Nors
Sweet Days of Discipline by Fleur Jaeggy
Zuleikha by Guzel Yakhina
The Hunger Angel by Herta Müller
Please Look After Mom by Shin Kyung-sook
✅Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel (This was my first translated book.)
La Femme de Gilles by Madeleine Bourdouxhe
-**The History of Bees by Maja Lunde - 🎈
The Weight of Things by Marianne Fritz
Translation as Transhumance by Mireille Gansel
- Out by Natsuo Kirino - maybe
Our Lady of the Nile by Scholastique Mukasonga
Subtly Worded by Teffi
The Letter for the King by Tonke Dragt

------------
I would also like to read:
🎈*The Copenhagen Trilogy: Childhood; Youth; Dependency by Tove Ditlevsen, translated by Tiina Nunnally, Michael Favala Goldman
✅ Abigél by Magda Szabo - 5 stars
🎈* Neopolitan novels by Elena Ferrante
✅Cantorasby Carolina De Robertis - 5stars
✅The Gods of Tango - 4 stars
Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami

For Islands I nominate The Gift of Rain set on the island of Penang, Malaysia.

Viji wrote: "Need help with the following:

Desert,Ocean or Mountains
should any of these feature on the cover or the book should be set in any/all the three of them?

Book suggestions/links (fiction) for the f..."

Nature theme -
Migrations
Lab Girl (don't be fooled by the title.)
The History of Bees
The Overstory
The Wild Trees: A Story of Passion and Daring

Thirteen Months of Sunrise translated from Arabic. Women in translation

Vietnam authors
https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...
On Earth We're briefly gorgeous - I really liked this one.

Nike wrote: "What do you mean by Retelling?"

My favorite retelling is Circe by Madeline Miller. Circe was a character in the Odyssey, and other greek mythology and art. Miller gives her a whole new life, and gives us a new perspective on other myths (such as Icarus).

There are a lot of Pride and Prejudice retellings, and updated fairytales.

Here's a list based on how people shelved the books.
https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...

Caribbean Islands
The Marriage of Opposites by Alice Hoffman. It is set on St Thomas, Virgin Islands. Historical fiction about the family of the impressionist artist Camille Pissarro.

Hi, I'm new and I'm really excited to read more world books next year. (I didn't do as well this year as I did in 2019.) I see that you are continuing the world tour theme from last year, and you have two new themes. I love the minority authors or "own voices" theme, and I added an Island book to my challenge plan with another group.

Will there be a fourth theme? If so, will you be continuing the migration theme by any chance? I'm really interested in culture, and I tend to learn a lot by reading about cross-cultural interactions. The contrasts highlight key characteristics of both cultures. I also like stories involving myths and legends.

Thanks!