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Fiction- What are you reading? Part 2
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Giovanni is definitely the one that drew me most as well - he has an almost innocent purity of purpose in the way he sees things. Poor David is such a mess, understandably so given the era and his background/experiences. I feel sorry for David too in that he is helpless to control the psychology that traps him, but Giovanni has a sweetness that is hard not to love.
Greg wrote: "Alice wrote: "Chrissie wrote: "Alice wrote: "I'm reading Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin for a buddy read in another group. This is a book to be savored slowly - I'm lo..."Greg, I fell in love with Giovanni as soon as I finished Part One! It's his sweet sincerity that is so adorable.
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I completely agree Alice!
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LauraT wrote: "You've convinced me Gregt and Alice! I'll give it a look!"Laura, I gave Giovanni's Room five whopping stars.
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I've found it, and now I'll have to stik it into my infinite reading list!!!!
LauraT, do you have a means of prioritizing certain books?
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I choose, on the pure "feeling" basis...
Laura, that is really not what I was asking. I will try and be more clear. Do you sort your books by means of GR shelves? Do you put those books you want to read VERY soon on one shelf and those to be put off until later on a different shelf? Sorry for being unclear.
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Ahh now I see what you mean. It was not you who were not clear, but my English that is not so good as I boast!!!!
No I don't do that; in here I only upload books I'm reading or I've read; nothing more!
All other things I keep recorded in the old way: lists on paper!!!!
LauraT wrote: "Chrissie wrote: "Laura, that is really not what I was asking. I will try and be more clear. Do you sort your books by means of GR shelves? Do you put those books you want to read VERY soon on one s..."OK, now I understand perfectly. English is is not your mother language and you are doing great.
Chrissie - Since you asked the question, do you do something like that (prioritize your TBR list)? Mine has gotten totally blown up and is not meaningful any more. I also keep a shelf called Try-To-Find for books I think sound really interesting, I want to read soon, and/or I think will be harder to find at the library (e.g., translations, new releases). It’s not working for me the way I hoped, though! It’s still better than a 2000+ TBR search. I’ve thought about creating a TBR shelf for a given year to cover books I plan to read for challenges. Anyone do this or have other ideas for prioritization? Great question Chrissie!
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It is not the best of methods, but I take a screenshot of books on my phone that I want to read very soon, and I delete the pictures when they are read. I don't know why I do that rather than creating another list? Maybe so that even when I have no internet connection I can just pull up the pictures quickly on my phone? Maybe it's just a habit. Either way I do that. I will only have a few pictures at a time of "very soon" reads.
Pam, yes I do. The books I plan to read soon I put on a wishlist, and I have three of them--one for fiction, one for non-fiction and one for biographies (b/c I read lots of biographies). On my 'to-read shelf' I have tons and tons of books that all look interesting. I have a 'maybe shelf' too--here I put books that I am hesitant toward reading. I have a 'not-for-me' shelf where I put books that I have thoroughly investigated and am pretty darn sure these will not fit me. I also have a shelf for those books which I have purchased and are still unread--I read those before I buy others unless there is a special deal. Books bought I read within a month. All of these shelves are categorized as exclusive--meaning you can only put a book on one of the shelves. I do often move a book around between these exclusive shelves, as a result of new information and my mood.That is how I prioritize books.
I have many other non+exclusive shelves. These indicate where the book takes place, if they have humor, if the have love elements, if they are for kids-- my non-exclusive shelves indicate a book's content.and character. If I feel for a book set in Japan, then I can browse my Japan shelf.
Not all of my books are properly registered though. I have added new non-exclusive shelves; books already registered maybe should be on them but aren't.
Phew, that took a while. I hope I am clear.
I forgot to say--I do not remove books that I do not want to read b/c I forget which ones they are.
Thank you Chrissie for taking the time to explain your methodology! I feel like I want to do something similar to be more organized. Thanks for the ideas!Greg- That’s a good idea, too, for short term. I’d have to set up a folder for book pics. It might be a good reminder to see the cover and think Oh yeah, I still want to read that!
I'm reading a debut historical novel by Asian Canadian author Michael Kaan: The Water Beetles It is about the 1941 Japanese invasion of Hong Kong. I picked this as I have a personal bias - I had previously heard of atrocious stories from older relatives, and had read a couple of non-fiction, eye-witness accounts of this almost forgotten part of WWII.Incidentally, I had the pleasure of meeting Michael at the September LiterASIAN Festival in Vancouver, and he told me that his father used to live in Happy Valley (where my family and I used to live, and where my sister and brother still live!!)!
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How amazing that you came from the same place! Sounds good Alice!
Pam, I have the normal TBR shelf in Goodreads and have created another shelf called Might Read which contains books I have not really made my mind about.I used to use the book numbering system which is produced in the TBR shelf; i.e. book numbered 1 was the next book I would read and book number 896 would be the last book I read but I lost track of that ages ago. It was good while I followed it.
Alice wrote: "I'm reading a debut historical novel by Asian Canadian author Michael Kaan: The Water Beetles It is about the 1941 Japanese invasion of Hong Kong. I picked this as I have a personal..."The book sounds interesting. Yes, sadly nearly no one knows about atrocities committed by Japan during WWII. They have been even worse than Hitler and they also had their Japanese "Josef Mengele".
China is still suffering for what happened, but not only China, because the Imperial Japanese Army arrived also to Malaysia and other Asian countries. But yes, China is the one that suffered more than others.
Alice, I’m adding The Water Beetles to my list . It sounds like one I’d like . I had no idea if the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong. Thanks for bringing it to our attention.
Alice- I’ve also added The Water Beetles. Sounds interesting and disturbing! My husband has commented to me before on how the Japanese were worse than the Germans.
The author Michael Kaan based The Water Beetles on his father's memoirs.My parents and grandparents all went through the battle and the subsequent three-year long Japanese occupation. But they never talked about their experiences. I only know that my mother's mother was killed by a Japanese bomb in Guangzhou while fleeing the besieged city. I heard stories of cruelty from my uncles and aunts and and one of my primary school teachers.
If anyone is interested in the two non-fiction eye-witness account books, here they are:
Not The Slightest Chance: The Defense Of Hong Kong, 1941 by Tony Banham
The Lasting Honour The Fall Of Hong Kong, 1941 by Oliver Lindsay
Hong Kong was doomed from the start.
I also read Babel-17 but didn't like it much. I recently finished Camilla. That's two down and one to go of the three Fanny Burney books I want to read. My favourite novel, based solely on the number of times I've read it and that I always enjoy it, is by Jane Austen, and in a different one of her novels she mentions a couple of Burney novels. I don't love them, but they make interesting reading.
In relation to Japanese atrocities, repercussions last today. Chinese people have an extremely hard time forgetting the past, I am not saying that they ought be able to pull this off, but merely noting what I have observed in relation to my Chinese friends.For those of us who have read a lot about Japanese actions during the war we are influenced too. When I visited Japan I had a hard time adjusting what I had read to the kind behavior shown me. Elderly women helped me carry bags up and down stairs. When it rained, several times women unknown to me shared their umbrellas! All of this was interesting for me to note.
Chrissie wrote: "In relation to Japanese atrocities, repercussions last today. Chinese people have an extremely hard time forgetting the past, I am not saying that they ought be able to pull this off, but merely no..."I noticed this too when I hosted the Japanese guy some years ago. He cooked something Japanese and then he went with my son to bring this food also to some friends of my son. Among these friends there was also a Chinese family. Though the guy I hosted was only 13 years old (a child!), the Chinese family didn't accept the food. Maybe he also didn't understand why, because I know that all that part of history isn't in their history books. They want to forget, they don't want that people know.
I didn't like the behaviour of that Chinese mother (though I can't blame her) because it would be like hating a German 13 years old guy for what happened during WWII.
dely, also if your family has been hurt this is very hard to forget. Such passes from generation to generation. Parents views stick; some views are hard to erase.
I have started The History of Mr. Polly, a lesser known novel by H.G. Wells. It should be quite humorous. It is a group read in another group, otherwise I would never have heard of it. I'm glad of discovering lesser known works by famous authors.
Chrissie wrote: "dely, also if your family has been hurt this is very hard to forget. Such passes from generation to generation. Parents views stick; some views are hard to erase."I understand this, but if we aren't able to forgive (above all the new generations and after all those decades) there will always exist hatred among people/countries. And this never leads to something good.
dely wrote: "Chrissie wrote: "dely, also if your family has been hurt this is very hard to forget. Such passes from generation to generation. Parents views stick; some views are hard to erase."I understand th..."
I am not saying it is good, merely observing what all to often happens. Neither do I think it fair to judge others until you have been in their place. Education is the way toward change.
For me personally, I have nothing against the Japanese and I do have good neighbors and friends who are Japanese. On the other hand, I also know of Chinese friends who would never buy Japanese goods or visit Japan.
Regarding atrocities- it seems a delicate balance, we don’t want to trigger prejudice and hatred, but we also don’t want to forget the atrocities- how to move forward without denying the crimes of the past?
I’m rereading The Return of the Native. I enjoyed it 40 yrs ago, in high school. I’m looking forward to it because my husband’s family are farmers in that part of England, so now I understand the setting.I’ve switched to an audiobook read by Simon Vance so I can wallow in Thomas Hardy’s descriptions of the scene.
Joan wrote: "Regarding atrocities- it seems a delicate balance, we don’t want to trigger prejudice and hatred, but we also don’t want to forget the atrocities- how to move forward without denying the crimes of ..."Exactly.
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I completely agree Joan.
In fact, I think forgiveness is most difficult in cases where a culture refuses to own up to what it has done and rather tries to justify itself disingenuously.
Such as people in the US who say the slaves were happy and well cared for and were better off in antebellum days, or that Japanese internment was for their own good, or that the massive civilian casualties lost in the atomic bomb drops were just war and saved lives. I think there are things in almost every culture to be ashamed of or that the culture averts its eyes from - perhaps the only way to get past things like that is to fully acknowledge them.
This whole topic of ancestral hatred, cultural atrocities, etc, is a major theme The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro. There are no easy answers.
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I remember liking that one a lot Joan, though it has been quite a while for me too. Hope it lives up to your memories!
Joan wrote: "Regarding atrocities- it seems a delicate balance, we don’t want to trigger prejudice and hatred, but we also don’t want to forget the atrocities- how to move forward without denying the crimes of ..."Just to be clear, I never said we have to forget, otherwise I wouldn't read so many historical books about the past. It is important to know about what happened in the past.
Oops sorry Dely, I didn’t mean to imply anyone said forget.Here in the U.S.A. we just got past Columbus Day which always seems to trigger indignation & remorse on one side about the treatment of Indigenous Peoples and backlash defensiveness & Eurocentric ethnic pride on another, no dialogue.
I thought now I would read another by Saul Bellow. This time it will be Seize the Day. I have not come far enough to have any opinion yet.
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Even if I've only recently "discovered" this author - my father who loved him made me read too early some of his books and that made me not liking hiswritings for a long spell! - I had kept this on my TBR shelf for ages.
I'm loving it!!!!
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Even if I've only recently "discovered" this author - my father who loved him made me read too early some of his..."
Glad you're reading it now as an adult Laura!
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You never have to bann someone/something for good; you never know how you'll feel about him/it later on in life!
Laura- Glad to heat you are loving East of Eden! That’s my favorite Steinbeck book! I’ve been thinking about rereading it. Chrissie- I read Seize the Day but only gave it 3 stars. It wasn’t memorable for me. I hope your experience is better!
I’m reading the Big Library Read selection- The Girl with the Red Balloon 🎈 by Katherine Locke. It’s a YA time travel story of a teenage girl who ends up in 1988 East Berlin. There is another connected story of a family in the Łódź Ghetto during the Holocaust. There’s magic and historical fiction all mixed up in it! Not a book I would usually pick up but I am enjoying it! It’s a nice break from reading about Donald Trump!
Pam, I have given Seize the Day three stars as you did--but for me three stars IS a book I like. The mix of humor an pathos worked well for me. It is so short! I am unsure which of Bellow's books to pick next.
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Chrissie- I read Seize the Day but only gave it 3 stars. It wasn’t memor..."
At the moment my favourite by him is The Grapes of Wrath, but definitly this is gorgeous! I'm now wanting to look for Elias Kazan film, that I've seen ages ago!!!!
Chrissie - 3 stars for me also means I liked it. I don’t remember what it was about so that’s why I said it wasn’t memorable for me. I probably read it too fast! I would like to read something else by him, though.
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I'm just a few pages from the finish, and I am deeply moved by the story, especially the character Giovanni.