FAH Reading Challenge discussion
Nathalie's progress
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Nathalie
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Mar 01, 2024 03:08AM
Please, go to my read books, and then check my books under the tag "fahreadingchallenge2024" . That is my correct list. (I'll read also some books which I won't be able to classify under this challenge.)
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Books read in February for the Fahreadingchallenge (I read other poetry collections but I don't catalogue them here): - De bewaker - Peter Terrin: a book with the colour red on the cover, read in Dutch
- Zabriskie - Peter Verhelst: a book about travelling (poetry, and in a poetical metaphor)
Nathalie wrote: "Books read in February for the Fahreadingchallenge ..."Thanks for sharing your reads. I should read more poetry; maybe Seamus Heaney would be a good one for the challenge.
FAHReadingchallenge March so far: - So late in the day - Claire Keegan, A short story set in Dublin, from an Irish writer, and the main character's name is Cathal. Four stars. I just love Claire Keegan!
For a book with a character's name, beginning with a 'c'
- Klein verhaal over liefde - Marit Törnqvist, a children's picture book by a Dutch writer (Dutch-Swedish in fact. Four stars.
For a book with a room of a house on the cover
I've read some other children's picture books, poetry and a non-fiction 'self help' thing already this month, but not ranked under the FAHreadingchallenge.
Busy with 2 novels in Dutch, one by a Flemish writer and one by a Dutch writer.
Tip of the day: short stories, novellas and children's books are quicker to read! ;-)
Mod
read in April: - Iokasta - Rose Gronon: a Flemish old classic from a nearly forgotten female Flemish writer. The name refers to Oedipus' mother and tells the story of a deeply shattered family with a terrible aunt Stephanie (Fanny) who is very authoritarian and very hard for the readers to get by with. Not as funny as granny or aunty Gerarthy either.
I read this book for my upcoming local book club in April.
So, it's certainly a book with a family in it.
- Lazarus, the complete book and lyrics: a rock musical written by David Bowie himself and the award-winning Irish playwright Enda Walsh.
The story is based on the sci-fi novel The man who fell to earth by the American writer Walter Tevis from 1963. The novel was made into a film in 1976 in which Bowie starred as one of the characters, and in a drama series in 2022 (for younger ones). Tevis was also the writer of the book 'A Queen's Gambit'.
This was an off-Broadway rock musical back in 2016 and I must admit I largely got to know it because of the Belgian Flemish director, Ivo Van Hove, who directed the musical both in New York and in Amsterdam.
I would recommend this to musical lover Arms. Would he love David Bowie's music too? I am not into musicals myself, only accidentally the more alternative ones. ;-)
Nathalie - I enjoyed your descriptions!
Those sound fascinating! Thank you for the descriptions!
Nice to read. Thanks guys, or girls!
This week, I finished 'Minor detail' by the Palestinian (female) writer Adania Shibli. It was a tough story to crack, but also a very strong and still thin book about the history of Palestine (and Israel) from this writer who also lives in Berlin and got cancelled from her own prize ceremony at the Frankfurter Buchmesse in 2023 because of the crisis in the Gaza strip! But weren't it for this scandal, I wouldn't probably have heard from her either... :-( (She won the German LiBeraturPreis by the way for last year.) I read a Dutch translation from this book. It's not a relaxing book, but it is an engaged and a very relevant read right now. The writer uses a personal story as an illustration for the history of the Palestinian territory during the time (which got smaller and smaller of course). It is definitely a recommendation.
Still on my list about this region are Men in the sun by Ghassan Kanafani and Apeirogon by Colum McCann.
For the category 'a book set in a country mentioned in the Brexit Song'.
Mod
Interesting book - thank you Nathalie
This weekend, I finished "Voornamelijk vrouwen" (literally translated as "Mainly women"), an essay collection by one of the biggest Dutch female writers, Connie Palmen. In these essays, she writes about 10 female artists (9 writers, and 1 actress, namely Marilyn Monroe) and 1 male writer, and how these people served as examples for her and always pushed during their lives the borders of what was at that time expected of these women and accepted within the norms of their lives.
She talks about these women and the fact they played more or less their persona as a writer/actress while they had to hide their true self, and discusses the troubles they had with regard to them being an author, which of course she had to bear herself too in all these years.
She also explains why she still loves the writer Philip Roth and his works as a woman although he was a very brutal writer and got away with a wild life and adultery.
Connie Palmen herself is born in 1955, and has always read a lot herself up till now. She is still writing, and has a huge success in both the Netherlands and Flanders. I have only read a couple of her last books until now.
One of her novels I read is about the much troubled life of American poet and novelist Sylvia Plath (and the latter's relationship with the English poet Ted Hughes), one of her examples she also writes about in this essay collection. (others include f.i. Virginia Woolf, Joan Didion, Olivia Laing, Patricia Highsmith)
Book with a character's name starting with an 's'.
Read also: a poetry collection by Mustafa Kör, the latest 'National Poet" of Belgium: "Tot u. Vers vous. An dich." Yes, if a national poet is given a mandate, they collect the poems they have written in the framework of "their mandate", in all of our three national languages. Mustafa Kör is a poet and novelist with Turkish roots but has grown up in Flanders. He is very nice and just great, also with his poetic performances. I've already talked twice with him after his performances he has given in several places. He is succeeded in his mandate as "National poet'" by a French-speaking female (slam) poet and novelist by the name of Lisette Lombé, who is from Wallonia (the southern French-speaking part).
A book with plants on its cover. (but the cover is not on Goodreads, so if you want to use it, it's here: https://www.maelstromreevolution.org/... )
Connie Palmen sounds fascinating. Her novel about Plath and Hughes was translated into English, but I don't see a translation of "Voornamelijk vrouwen" (yet).
Oh, I didn't know that "Jij zegt het" was translated. Now, I see it as well. (Your story, my Story) I can heartily recommend the book! This essay collection is very recent. It will take a while to see if the translation rights for that one can be sold , I guess. Melissa wrote: "Connie Palmen sounds fascinating. Her novel about Plath and Hughes was translated into English, but I don't see a translation of "Voornamelijk vrouwen" (yet)."
Read for the FAHReadingChallenge AND for an occasional book club (a fancy one, organised by a young and trendy Dutch publishing house): the title is "De verworvenheden" (literally translated as: The achievements) by a fairly recent and young - in my own eyes anyway - Dutch writer, who has written one other book some years ago, and is also a journalist/reporter for some Dutch papers/magazines, named Jan van Tienen.
I didn't like the book so much but it was "okay'" The subtitle can be translated as "How to become someone who is longing to be at the island Hompelvoet", which is a real very small island in the Dutch province of Zeeland by the way.
However, this phrase is used as one big metaphor to make an autobiografical report of how to bend insecurities into achievements as a millenial. You get to read how the young man in question is developing himself. The book is made out of sometimes funny and nice anecdotes, but also kind of silly questions which he will try to tackle as a kind of detective, like who was the inventor of a certain Dr Oetker pizza or how heavy does a certain fried snack weigh.
Imho the sort of questions which wouldn't probably be asked by people who have real jobs and are not jobhopping from one journalist job to another one, or single moms for instance. :-)
However, he does give away without shame which internal insecurities and troubles he is dealing with in his head. Also the writing style is kind of weird, with a lot of repetitive words and phrases, and which gets rather jarring and stumbling for me at certain moments.
It is also about making friends as an adult sometimes. Now that sounds familiar to us, isn't it? :-)
For the category: Book with a white cover.
Link for the cover: https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.c...
Nathalie wrote: "Now that sounds familiar to us, isn't it? :-)."Thanks for sharing. I can see a couple of FAH sketch themes in your summary.
Read in May:A book with a car on the cover: Men in the sun - Ghassan Kanafani
Kanafani was a Palestinian writer who wrote the first Palestinian "resistance literature". There is a Dutch editing house that I follow and publishes specifically literature from the Arab world, and this is a new publication of this book since November last year. You may guess the reason for this decision. The book takes place in the early 1950s and is about three men of each a different generation who have the same goal: fleeing from the refugee camps where they were located, departing from Basra, Iraq to Kuwait in search of a better life.
This book was first published in 1963 in Beirut, Lebanon, where the writer engaged in the Palestinian resistance movement PFLP then lived. He was born in Acre, Palestine in 1936, then under British mandate. At the age of 36, he was assassinated with a car bomb in Beirut.
The book tells the story about three different generations of Palestinians, the Nakba (the expulsion of the Palestinians from their homelands in 1947- '49) and the refugee question, which is now more relevant than ever. I could enjoy it despite the harsh story because of the very nice writing, and the metaphors used.
At the moment, I would like to recommend this book and a lot of other Palestinian stories to US president Biden and the whole US congress. But that's by the by by. You will certainly notice which themes are keeping me busy on the titles i read, nowadays.
On the picture, there's actually a big van (with a water tank), but I extend this to being a car for this challenge.
Read a book set in a place named in the sketch “City syndrome”:
Een ander leven (literally: Another life) - Bart Moeyaert
Bart Moeyaert has been a favourite writer of mine since I was an early teen (I am in my 40s now...). Last year, he celebrated 40 years of writership and has already a big oeuvre of children's books, novels, poetry, plays, etc. He is one of the most popular writers in Flanders and the Netherlands right now.
This year, he turns 60, and he treats his readers and fans (like me) with a personal memoir book about the story of his mother and himself in a special edition with a Dutch publication house who specialises in personal/private memoirs of big Dutch speaking writers for years now. (Privé-Domein or literally translated as "Private Domain/Area")
This book has been so beautiful. His mum turning 70, Bart treats his mother for a three day trip to Paris in 1996. The writer writes an intimate portrait about his mom who had the care of seven sons (of which he was the youngest) and her husband. He also finds out that Paris has been more important for him than he could imagine because he stayed there so often, and also when he followed his heart, to be with someone, and that at the same time he didn't tell his parents about that at all. He couldn't at that time be honest to his parents, especially his father, about his homosexuality because that would have been too difficult in that time.
Based on diary excerpts, letters, memories, and pictures, he delves into his past and he tells openly about his rather late coming-of-age, and the searching period when he debuted early as a writer (at 19 years old). He tries to find answers to the questions he never asked his mother when they were together in Paris, without the six other sons and the father. It is a very touching but also mild and humorous book of a writer I've known for most of my life. It makes you feel all kinds of emotions the whole time.
In 2019, Bart won the biggest prize for children's literature, namely the ALMA or the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. His books, not only for children but also adults who enjoy this, have been translated to several languages, esp in German, and also in Italian, French and English a bit. I can recommend for instance "Brothers" (Broere) and "Sorry" in French (Tegenwoordig heet iedereen sorry.)
Oh yeah, I usually refer to him with his first name, because I've already been at several book presentations, lectures and interviews with him, and I'm like probably one of these fans he already knows a bit. (although he still asks me whether to add an 'h' to my name or not when he autographs his books for me... 😉 )
If you want more info in English about him, this is his bio in English: https://www.bartmoeyaert.com/wp-conte... . Okay, now I'm going to end promoting this writer here. 😄
Nathalie - Thank you for sharing. I read Bart Moeyaert's biography (from the link you shared). He sounds so interesting.
Ghassan Kanafani's work also sounds very interesting and intense.
Read a book from a Canadian author: The handmaid's tale from Margaret Atwood. In English. About 6 years ago, I already read this book. I've now read it again because my local book club will discuss this book next Saturday.
The book is still as relevant and even more today with so many elections coming up and threats to our democracy - the democratic countries, our freedoms and our right to self-determination worldwide.
We have an election here for three levels (EU parliament also) on the 9th of June.
I can't determine yet which novel to read next. I have a couple of poetry collections that I am reading also at the moment.
I want to read the follow-up book, The testaments still too, which I already have in my bookcase for quite a long time.
The book is still as relevant and even more today with so many elections coming up and threats to our democracy - the democratic countries, our freedoms and our right to self-determination worldwide. -Same in the U.S. and very scary. Margaret Atwood is phenomenal! I read The Handmaid's Tale several years ago too.
PS: @ Lisa: I read The Handmaid's Tale as an ebook. I haven't a preferred cover to be used in your monthly overview. ;-)
I think I am going to re-read it as well, for Canadian author... the first time, my guts were like on knots *sigh* somehow, I think this time it will be even worse
Mod
thank you Nathalie
Book by an American author: Notes on grief - Chimamanda Ngozi AdichieI wanted to know how others experience grief.
Grief is losing, grief is losing love, friendship, support.
Grief is having fear, grief is having anger.
Grief is having a deep hole in your chest.
You want to be alone, but at the same time you want to have someone around you. It depends from time to time.
Nothing can prepare you of grieving yourself. Grief is different for everyone.
Nevertheless, grieving can be shared with others who are also going through it.
I loved how Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie describes her beloved father and the relation she had with her father in this short memoir.
"Never again. It feels as if I wake up only to sink and sink. In those moments, I am sure I do not ever want to face the world again."
I know her from her TED talks about The Danger of A Single Story, and her talk and her book We Should All Be Feminists, and her essay Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions. She is a great speaker and writer. Americanah and her other books are still on my 'wish to read' list.
That's a powerful passage, accurate and sad. I am not familiar with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's writing or TED talks. Although, I think Americanah may have been on my children's school reading list.
I appreciate your write ups.
Read in June: A 2024 newly published poetry collection "Ik heb een afgehakte hand voor je meegenomen" (literal translation: I 've taken with me a cut-off hand for you) by the Swedish-Syrian-Palestinian poet Ghayath Almadhoun. This collection contains testimonies of war from Syria and Palesttine in the poetic format. There is also love poetry written in war metaphors which express sadness, loss, fear of loss, and the search for love and tenderness at the same time, to soothe a war-torn soul, which has lost too many family members and friends.
What it means to live/have been living in a world of war, is known by this Swedish-Syrian-Palestinian poet, who lives half of his time in Stockholm and the other half in Berlin. And he knows how to write about it also.
He does never shun away to describe hard scenes. He writes about his ambiguous attitude towards the European colonizing powers, of which he knows the classical authors and refers to them, in combination with his knowledge of Arab and Asian poetry.
He writes about his discomfort and unease towards the coldness of Sweden, both literally in temperature and figuratively towards its population which is usually not very open. But at the same time, he feels safe there and has the luxury of living in peace and safe there, for which he feels guilt towards the country (Syria) he has fled from.
This is a meaningful but discomforting poetry collection. I have already read two other poetry collections by him, one of which written together with the Dutch female poet Anne Vegter. A couple of years ago, I have seen him reading and being interviewed in Antwerp. He always makes me feel breathless and like having a black hole in my chest.
He wants to shock people about what he has been through and finds the words to describe things wonderfully, movingly and has had my fascination for quite a while now.
Category: Read a book set in a country named in the sketch “The world is f**ked”.
"He always makes me feel breathless and like having a black hole in my chest.He wants to shock people about what he has been through and finds the words to describe things wonderfully, movingly and has had my fascination for quite a while now."
Again, you have written an amazing summary that makes me want to read the book. I don't think there is an English translation though.
No sorry Melissa there's no one to one English translation I think. There are English publications of his work though, or videos on YouTube. I think that his poetry is also collected in different ways in other languages under different titles.
Those poems sound amazing - the title alone was fascinating. It's always impressive how poetry can convey so much emotion.
Thanks for your reaction, 'Drama'. :-)
Read in June and counted for the Challenge:1) Het gouden ei (1984) - The Vanishing (English edition) - Tim Krabbé: a great short thriller story. Also made into a movie in the Netherlands (Spoorloos) and an American remake titled "The Vanishing", like the English book. Tim Krabbé is a Dutch writer. The book features often on the reading lists of Dutch schools.
I have seen the "restauration" of the Dutch movie from 1988 last week. The head actor is a popular Flemish actor who got the role back then, and who was present at the avant-premiere which I was at, to watch the movie. Stephen King liked the book, is being said. The American remake is not as good, film experts here are saying. ;-)
Category: a book featuring a baddie
Cover: https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.c...
2) De brandstichter (1935) - Egon Hostovský (Czechoslovakia, now Czechia, 1908 - 1973)
Also a crime story, set in an East Bohemian village, then Czechoslovakia.
The book has recently been published in Dutch.
English editon: The arsonist. This Czechian author also lived in the US after having fled there for the Second World War. He was probably an American too.
Cover: https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.c...
I received this book for a review by the Flemish distributor. My review is on here, but in Dutch. Certainly a recommendation!
Read for the category: Book featuring a café
3) Bechamel mucho - Dimitri Verhulst
This is a short novel by a famous Flemish writer with an already big oeuvre. He has a particular "Flemish" and dark humorous writing style, I have always loved his work and been a kind of a fan.
Cover: https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.c...
Read for the category: Book set in a hotel.
Mod
1) Het gouden ei (1984) - The Vanishing (English edition) - Tim Krabbé: a great short thriller story. Also made into a movie in the Netherlands (Spoorlo..."
thank you Nathalie
Read in July and counted for the Challenge:De Christiemoorden by Dominique Biebau: Literally translated as The Christie Murders. A witty detective story with a wink to the queen of crime from a (male) Flemish writer. In a small village called Mollendaal, too many murders happen to be believable but that's the same in the novels by Agatha Christie herself. ;-) In fact, you could call this a pastiche or humourous re-work of Agatha Christie's oeuvre. A book club of ladies specifically reading crime novels come together and try to puzzle out what is happening in their village.
Read for the category: A book with an orange cover
Cover: https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.c...
Nathalie wrote: "Read in July and counted for the Challenge:De Christiemoorden by Dominique Biebau: Literally translated as The Christie Murders. (..."
It sounds like a good read and a good choice for an orange cover.
Mod
De Christiemoorden by Dominique Biebau: Literally translated as The Christie Murders. A witty detective story with a wink to the queen of crime from a (..."
Oh, is it possible that it has been translated in English? I remember someone mentioned this book to me
Lisa: I would be surprised if it's already translated into English as it just got published in Flanders in April this year, but I'll let the author now there is an interest! ;-) It can be possible an English book came out with approximately the same title of course. A lot of writers get inspired by the queen of cirme.
News just in: Dominique Biebau works together with an American translator/writer of crime novels, and he just told me via chat that this translator translated his whole book already. Now, they are trying with some smaller American publishing houses if they might be interested. ;-)
Read in July for the Challenge:Voyeur - Naima Albdiouni
A book written in Dutch by a former colleague of mine, Antwerp born Naima Albdiouni with Moroccan roots.
With voyeuristic observations, she gives a harsh brutal image of the northern Moroccan harbour town and holiday resort Tanger.
A lot of excentric characters pass by and perspectives change a lot in several fast-paced short chapters.
The conservative risen local people, migrated from the surrounding villages, have difficulty to grasp and tolerate the rapidly launched modern changes like women's emancipation and a further democratisation for a bigger population.
Abdullah has come back after years of imprisonment in a torture prison, sees this and wants to revenge himself and bring about a big revolt.
The tension is rising, a bow that has been set up brightly and a catastrophe happens in this major Moroccan city, when in fact the latest king recently crowned after the death of his father, should be celebrated.
The writing style is rich and imaginery. This is a book that provokes and is really original. I would recommend it if you can read Dutch.
Category: Book with a name starting with an 'A' (Abdullah, one of the main characters)
Cover: https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.c...
Sneeuw, hond, voet (Snow, dog, foot or originally Neve, cane, piede in Italian) by Claudio Morandini
A short but moving novel about an older man who is wary of and wants to avoid all other humans. He is wandering through his 'own valley'. He gets snowed in together with a dog which has shown up to accompany him, during the winter. They quarrel about the available breand and wine because their stocks have depleted.
Spring brings an even more sinister discovery: a man's foot is poking out of the receding snow. Whose is it? The grip on reality of the drifting old man who is starting to show signs of dementia, is faltering and getting worse.
Adelmo Farandola, how the man is called, loosens his life line more and more and gets under your skin, or gives you goose bumps.
This is an award-winning novel from Italy and got a lot of translations.
Category: Book from an Italian writer
Cover and information: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6...?
Click on 'More editions' for the translations or the original version
Nathalie - A book written in Dutch by a former colleague of mine . . .
Very interesting to read a book by someone you know.
. . . gets under your skin, or gives you goose bumps.
Sounds too creepy for me.
About your last comment, I thought it was just an expression that means that something has really moved you. ;-)
Nathalie wrote: "About your last comment, I thought it was just an expression that means that something has really moved you. ;-)"Sorry, I misunderstood.
"Goose bumps" made me think it was scary, creepy, uncomfortable.
Hi Melissa, it wasn't like that at all! ;-)
