First book of the New Year

[LindaJ^]

I finished The Things We've Seen this morning, so it is my first book of 2022. It was brilliant! I had hoped to finish on December 31, 2021 and would have anointed it my favorite of the year, but the book would not be hurried. The two books I'm starting 2022 with reading are science fiction so I'll not put them in this thread. After I finish them, I think I will dig into the Laird Hunt books I've collected since reading (and loving) Zorrie.

[David]

Linda, I don’t think Hugh has closed the rankings so there’s still time to vote for it! It’s in my top 5 and I should be finishing it today.

[Lark]

LindaJ^ wrote: "After I finish them, I think I will dig into the Laird Hunt books I've collected since reading (and loving) Zorrie. ..."

I'll be interested to hear what you think of them! In the House in the Dark of the Woods is the book that hooked me on Laird Hunt but his novels are as different as Percival Everett's novels.

[Sam]

I figured I would not start a 2022 book till late January/February. One book I started yesterday sent me into a rabbit's hole of internet reading. The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story edited by Nikole Hannah-Jones has been a hot topic in news stories due to seemingly politically motivated criticism.
I found reading about the furor more interesting than the book so far, since I only read the introduction. But in the introduction, Hannah-Jones responds to her critics, naming among them Allen C. Guelzo, a renowned historian, author, and professor. I link an editorial of his attacking Hannah-Jones book. It might even be fun for our British friends to read because it seems to imply that slavery was less an Ameican problem than a British legacy.

https://www.city-journal.org/1619-pro...

I'll update when I have read more of the book.

[Paul]

That's an interesting article - basic premise seems to be that all the faults of America are Britain's doing, and the founding father's would have overcome them all if only it wasn't for the Industrial Revolution (which was also Britain's fault)!

[Sam]

Paul wrote: "That's an interesting article - basic premise seems to be that all the faults of America are Britain's doing, and the founding father's would have overcome them all if only it wasn't for the Indust..."

Well. I think the intent of the essay is to attack and discedit Hannah-Jones. The article depends more on an emotional than a logical argument. I think the blame the Brits approach is collateral damage, the author expecting no pride-filled American patriot would challenge the absurdity of the claim. What troubled me about Guelzo is that his attack is so venomous, so personal, and that his target was a colleague. The topic of revisionist Black history is being discussed as critical race theory and it is fascininating. The story has many facets. Another part of the story was University of North Carolina denying Pulitzer Prize winning Hannah-Jones tenure. Also several states attempted to ban the book and U.S. congressman tried to prohibit funding for the book were it taught in schools. Hannah-Jones is bearing the brunt of the political criticism and when she makes a gaff, like most recently claiming she didn't understand the idea that parents should decide what is being taught in the classroom," she pays dearly for it from the press of her opposition.

[WndyJW]

What’s happening in the US is truly frightening. A year ago we barely survived an violent attempt to overturn an election, since then the Republicans have passed dozens of laws restricting access to voting in poor and black areas, congressional district lines have been redrawn assuring Republican victories, and election boards in states have removed Democrats and replaced them with Republicans. They are purging books and threatening to fine teachers who discuss race in classroom.
The mother of a 17 year old high school senior demanded that Beloved be removed from Kentucky schools because her son was upset by the story. 17! You can’t tell me this delicate child hasn’t been playing Call of Duty since he was 10 yrs old, but he has to be protected from the history of slavery in the US.

We won’t be a democracy for long, although arguably we have been more of a plutocracy than a Democracy since Citizens United decided that money was speech and corporations are people.

I listened to the 1619 podcast, the stories were fascinating.

[Marcus]

I started the New Year with 100 Days by Gabriel Josipovici.
Over the 100 days of lockdown in the UK he considers the news and also writes a small piece every day about something that interests him. Lots of memories of Egypt, Paris, London and Oxford. Lots of thoughts about music literature and art, as you would expect, all in short chunks.
Very enjoyable, as all his books always are.

[WndyJW]

It looks like more Josipovici fans to read and rate this book, it only has 2.5 stars!

[Marcus]

I’d give it four stars just on the basis of a chapter about the increasing use of adjectives in three versions of Grimm’s fairytales.

[WndyJW]

I’ll look for it. I haven’t read a pandemic novel. I don’t think I have..

[WndyJW]

I’m going to make this my year of the long book and read all the long books I’ve put off because my TBR was so long that I chose two average length novels over one long novel each week.

I’ve decided I can do what I did this week-read my long book Mon-Sat, and read a shorter novel and wrapped up a short story collection today, Sunday. I have managed to establish Silent Sundays for myself, a day on which none of my kids, my BFF, or my mother calls me so I can read uninterrupted all day.

I want to finish this incredible The Books of Jacob, then the books discussed above- Don Quixote, The Odyssey, Ulysses, but also Forbidden Line, which I’ll read after Don Quixote, The Levant Trilogy and Fortunes of War: The Balkan Trilogy by Olivia Manning, Zone, Wizard of the Crow, and The Brothers Karamazov. And part two of Mordew, comes out this year.

[David]

That sounds wonderful, Wendy.

[WndyJW]

My year of the long book or my Silent Sundays? I treasure my Silent Sundays!

[Marcus]

I like your idea of making this a year of long novels Wendy. I have been putting off a good few of those. And also some non-fiction. The Book of Jacob puts me off every time I see it on the shelf.

What did strike me is that 2022 is the centenary of a number of important works, and it might be time to revisit those. Obviously there is Ulysses, but also T S Eliot's The Waste Land, Woolf's Jacob's Room. I have had a book on my shelves for a good three years called The World Broke in Two: Virginia Woolf, T.S. Eliot, D.H. Lawrence, E.M. Forster and the Year that Changed Literature all about the year 1922 as a pivotal year in literary history. That has to be read this year.

[David]

I meant the Silent Sundays, Wendy, but both sound great!

[WndyJW]

I think Silent Sundays should be a thing, especially for busy people.

Marcus, I did not know that 2022 is an important centenary year, thank you for pointing that out. Jacob’s Room and Orlando are two books I want to get to and knowing about 1922 is a good reason to put them on my 2022 TBR.
I vow every year to read more nonfiction, but I flake out on that each year, but I shall try again with The World Broke in Two.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

A day of rest on a Sunday sounds like an inspired idea

[LindaJ^]

Sundays during the summer are the days I ride my bicycle outside starting about the time the sun comes up or just before, because that's when my route is most peaceful with great opportunities to see wildlife (deer, rabbits, and foxes) and few cars. But I stop about 13 miles at a neighborhood coffee shop for coffee and a snack and read for about a half hour. That allows me to enjoy two of my favorite activities for a Sunday.

[WndyJW]

I think the Buddha suggested a day of rest to Jesus. :)

That sounds like a perfect day, Linda, not that I couldn’t ride a bike for even a mile at this point.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

I think Jesus might possibly have taken it from the Old Testament ....

[WndyJW]

So maybe Jesus told the Buddha to stop all his running around, to try sitting quietly, and the Buddha really took that suggestion to heart.

[LindaJ^]

Hmmmm - I don't know enough about Buddha to comment but GY's right that Jesus got the idea from the OT. The God of the OT may have rested on the 7th day, but he needed that rest being worn out from all the smiting he was busy doing on the other six days!

[WndyJW]

The Buddha became enlightened by sitting silently.
I think we all recognize the value of solitude and those of us with busy lives have to carve time out for it. No one else will make our quiet time a priority so we have to do it for ourselves.

[WndyJW]

Someone on Twitter said he is going to read at least one book published in each of his 60 years. I love this idea. He didn’t say on what schedule, I’ll assume not one per year :) I’m planning one one book a month with the reasonable expectation of having time to finish this project.

[LindaJ^]

Fun.

[WndyJW]

I think so. I’m debating reading a book published each year by an author I have not yet read and something that captures the zeitgeist of the year in which it was published. Revolutionary Road was published in 1961 and it sounds like it gets to the awakening in the ‘60s that the Leave it Beaver world of the ‘50s wasn’t real.

I’m open to suggestions of novels anyone thinks is a window into the era, if not the year, it was published. 1962-2021.

[WndyJW]

What was everyone’s last book of 2022 and first book of 2023?

My last book was The Pachinko Parlor. I also finished Pollak's Arm yesterday.

The first books I’ve started are War and Peace, War and Peace, and Quartet in Autumn.

[Robert]

My last book of 2022 is also my first book of 2023 - Tomorrow x 3 by Gabrielle Zevin

[WndyJW]

I’ve seen a lot of buzz around that, Robert.

[Marc]

The last book I finished in 2022 was Freehand: Sketching Tips and Tricks Drawn from Art, which I completed yesterday. Last fiction was Love in the Big City. Still reading a few that have carried over into 2023: Dead Lands and A Little Life (and a handful of others… Irish fairy tales, non-fiction, etc.).

[Paul]

The Complete Short Fiction of Virginia Woolf for me - had read various of her stories in different collections, but have now read all of the pieces.

Here own New Year resolutions for 1931

To have none. Not to be tied.
To be free & kindly with myself, not goading it to parties: to sit rather privately reading in the studio.

(judging from the short fiction, she'd been to enough parties already)

[WndyJW]

I need to read Dead Lands.

[LindaJ^]

The last book I finished in 2022 was When I Sing, Mountains Dance by Irene Solà, one of the books nominated for the M&G best of 2022. It was excellent. Glad I had the trade paper edition, as one chapter has drawings.

I started an audiobook on Dec 31 as I took my last walk of 2022 (in the rain) and finished it today, so it is my first read book of 2023 -- M Train by Patti Smith. It is sort of a memoir but reminds me a lot of the autofiction novels I've read the past few years, given the number of dreams she recounts. I highly recommend it. Smith reads it herself. She is probably better known as a singer/songwriter/musician but she is an excellent writer. In this one, the number of books (from classics to current day) and authors she references shows how well-read she is. It is quite wonderful and begs to be reread.

[endrju]

The Terrible We: Thinking with Trans Maladjustment was the first one for me. And a great start of the year.

[Joy D]

1st book for me in 2023 is: 2 A.M. in Little America

[Jen]

My first book is Kibogo.

[John]

My first that I'm likely to finish today is Diaz's Trust.

[Tracy]

LindaJ^ wrote: "The last book I finished in 2022 was When I Sing, Mountains Dance by Irene Solà, one of the books nominated for the M&G best of 2022. It was excellent. Glad I had ..."

I love listening to Patti Smith read her own work. She’s brilliant and I love that accent!

[Tracy]

I finished with That Old Country Music which was okay. I’m starting stronger with My Name Is Red.

[Nadine in California]

Almost done with Dinosaurs for the Tournament of Books. I'll be starting The Abbess of Crewe tonight - Muriel Spark seems like a tart and tasty way to start the new year :)

[David]

I am starting the year with Salt Crystals. Ironic given my allergy to autofiction, but I'm enjoying it so far.

[Arun]

I’m continuing to read The Paradise of Food however my first “new” book of 2022 is The Stones Cry Out.

[David]

Arun wrote: "I’m continuing to read The Paradise of Food however my first “new” book of 2022 is The Stones Cry Out."

I am very eager to discuss the Jawed!

[Chris]

The first book that I will finish in 2023 is Jon Fosse's Septology, which I've been reading it through a good chunk of December and should complete tonight. As a palate cleanser, I'm going with The Honjin Murders by Seishi Yokomizo next.

[David]

Chris wrote: "The first book that I will finish in 2023 is Jon Fosse's Septology, which I've been reading it through a good chunk of December and should complete tonight. As a palate cleanser, I'm going with The Honjin Murders by Seishi Yokomizo next."

Let us know your thoughts on the Fosse!

[WndyJW]

I started and finished Quartet in Autumn, so that was my first book of 2023.

Now, back to River of Fire, although I want to read all the Fosse books on my shelf, I’d love to read some Muriel Spark, and The Stones Cry Out sounds very good!

[Chris]

David wrote: "Chris wrote: "The first book that I will finish in 2023 is Jon Fosse's Septology, which I've been reading it through a good chunk of December and should complete tonight. As a palate cleanser, I'm ..."

I'm going to try to write a review in the morning, but I found it an extremely rich read. I'm so glad that I read the single volume edition. It took a few pages to take hold, but once I connected to its rhythm it was hard to put down, and not just because of the lack of full stops and paragraphs!

[Hugh, Active moderator]

My last book of 2022 and first of 2023 were not chosen for any special reason. We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves (last of 2022) was a Christmas present, and Anagrams was a book I picked up on the strength of the intriguing title and because I had heard good things about Lorrie Moore's short stories from my sister.

I have a few more from the favourites of 2022 list on order from Blackwell's, and I am hoping they arrive in time to read them before the end of January, and I have plenty more on the to read shelf, not least the latest Galley Beggar book, Toby Litt's A Writer's Diary, which doesn't even exist on GoodReads yet but my copy arrived before Christmas.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

Can a librarian add A Writers Diary