Play Book Tag discussion
June 2024: Europe
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Announcing the June Tag
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Sounds good! A few recommendations
A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II by Sonia Purcell - NF
The Reading List
Rebecca
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine
The Reader
The Scarlet Pimpernel
The Pillars of the Earth
The Rose Code
Wide Sargasso Sea - lit fic
All the Devils Are Here by Louise Penny - set in Paris. This is later in the series, but I think this one can stand alone or be read out of order. It helps if you’ve read a few books in the series already.
Also
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
Touch
On my possibilities list: The Postcard
Orlando by Virginia Wollf
My Name Is Red
One Italian Summer
The Paris Library
The Red Notebook
Red Address Book
Also
The Extinction of Irena Rey by Jennnifer Croft
Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle
The End of the World is a Cul de Sac by Louise Kennedy
I have an absurd number of books on my TBR that are tagged Europe. I'm on the waiting list for the following from the library. We'll see what comes through first. I'm also a little tempted by Middlemarch, but it's so long. I feel like I'd need a friend to read it with to get it done in a month.
So more likely, I'll read one of the following
Swimming in the Dark
Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice
Childhood / Youth / Dependency aka The Copenhagen Trilogy (anyone here read this?)
Leonardo da Vinci
In terms of recommendations - - most of what I have read I feel many of you have also read, but a few that perhaps are less consumed (and were 5 stars for me):
Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland
Girl, Woman, Other
The Imperfectionists
Pope Joan
The Signature of All Things
Anita wrote: "In terms of recommendations - - most of what I have read I feel many of you have also read, but a few that perhaps are less consumed (and were 5 stars for me):Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland
Girl, Woman, Other
The Imperfectionists
Pope Joan
The Signature of All Things."
I've read four of these, Anita, and completely agree with your recommendations. The only one I haven't read - yet - is The Imperfectionists
I'm nearly finished with this one for my F2F book club - 
Canary Girls Set in WW 1 ... when British women worked in munitions factories while the men fought in the trenches. Those who worked packing the TNT into shells got severe jaundice from exposure to "the yellow powder" ... and their yellow coloring caused others to call them "canary girls." Fascinating historical fiction.
Reminds me of The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women (nonfiction, set in USA), which I think a number of PBT members have also read.
I probably have some recommendations but I have been out of power for 2 days after a storm with no expected time of repair. Then leaving on a trip on Monday, gone all week with limited time online. So I hope to review my book lists at the beginning of June. I have read a lot of books set in France. Also, many books set in England and Ireland are tagged Europe, though I automatically thought only of the continent.
I am pleased that Europe won because we can find quite a diverse selection of books.For some quick recommendations from Italy:
Return to Valetto
The Marriage Portrait
Mercury Pictures Presents
A Family Farm in Tuscany: Recipes and Stories from Fattoria Poggio Alloro (cookbook/memoir) Joanne and Theresa this has your names on it.
Love That Moves the Sun: Vittoria Colonna and Michaelangelo Buonarroti
Blood & Beauty: The Borgias
I Will Have Vengeance: The Winter of Commissario Ricciardi (If anybody can read another mystery/crime novel)
The Way Back to Florence
The Sixteen Pleasures
Under the Tuscan Sun: At Home in Italy & Every Day in Tuscany: Seasons of an Italian Life - Frances Mayes
A Thread of Grace
The Secret of Santa Vittoria
Travel
Sprinting Through No Man's Land: Endurance, Tragedy, and Rebirth in the 1919 Tour de France
Outlandish: Walking Europe’s Unlikely Landscapes
Butterflies in November(fiction-Iceland)
Cotswolds Memoir: Discovering a Beautiful Region of Britain on a Quest to Buy a 17th Century Cottage
The Narrowboat Summer
Windswept: Walking the Paths of Trailblazing Women
Dark, Salt, Clear: Life in a Cornish Fishing Town
The Salt Path
The Passenger: How a Travel Writer Learned to Love Cruises & Other Lies from a Sinking Ship
A Pilgrimage to Eternity: From Canterbury to Rome in Search of a Faith
Tents and Tent Stability: A Month-Long Camping Adventure In Germany - In a Rather Dodgy Tent!
and I can't forget The Wisdom of Donkeys: Finding Tranquility in a Chaotic World
Anita wrote: "I have an absurd number of books on my TBR that are tagged Europe. I'm on the waiting list for the following from the library. We'll see what comes through first. I'm also a little tempted by [bo..."
Swimming in the Dark is on my tbr too. Red Notice sounds good for the true crime tag. I started the Copenhagen Trilogy, but it didn’t work for me.
Have you read anything by Magda Szabo? I really liked [book:The Door|497499] , set in post war Hungary, and Abigail, set in a school during the war.
The Extinction of Irena Rey sounds really interesting. It’s by the translator for Olga Tokarczuk ( Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead). It’s about a group of translators (for an author loosely based on Olga), and it sounds literary, meta, and more than a little strange. I want to give it a try. If nothing else, it will show something abou the translation process, which is apparently NOT a solitary task. Anyone interested in language might like it, Joy? Robin?
I am pleased! I felt so sure about this tag winning that I have been organizing my June reading as ifit was a fait accomplit.
I'm not surprised since I figured it would have the broadest appeal to the entire group :)Five star books I've read from the first five pages of this shelf:
All the Light We Cannot See on audiobook
Pride and Prejudice
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Les Mis, but it depends on the translator
A Gentleman in Moscow
Beartown
Heidi
The Hiding Place: The Triumphant True Story of Corrie Ten Boom
Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania on audiobook
My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry
I am going through everyone’s recs, but I think I would like to do a travel memoir. Does anyone have good travel memoir recs?
I was hoping for time travel, but I suppose that was the least likely to win. I'm sure I've got lots on the tbr for Europe, though!
Nicole R wrote: "I am going through everyone’s recs, but I think I would like to do a travel memoir. Does anyone have good travel memoir recs?"
Round Ireland with a Fridge is supposed to be quite funny and a travel memoir, but I haven't read it yet. by Tony Hawks
Nicole R wrote: "I am going through everyone’s recs, but I think I would like to do a travel memoir. Does anyone have good travel memoir recs?"
Four Seasons in Rome: On Twins, Insomnia, and the Biggest Funeral in the History of the World by Anthony Doerr
From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding Home by Tembi Locke
A Thousand Days in Venice by Marlena de Blasi
Living in a Foreign Language: A Memoir of Food, Wine, and Love in Italy by Michael Tucker
Time Was Soft There: A Paris Sojourn at Shakespeare & Co. by Jeremy Mercer
ANY of Peter Mayle's memoirs about Provence ... starting with A Year in Provence
Lunch in Paris: A Love Story, with Recipes by Elizabeth Bard
My Life in France by Julia Child
Instructions for Visitors by Helen Stevenson
A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
The Piano Shop on the Left Bank: Discovering a Forgotten Passion in a Paris Atelier by Thad Carhart
And for something completely different ...
Zarafa: A Giraffe's True Story, from Deep in Africa to the Heart of Paris by Michael Allin
Thank you, Karin and Book Concierge!! I will look into all of these. maybe I can actually get to two books this month
I absolutely endorse both The Piano Shop on the Left Bank: Discovering a Forgotten Passion in a Paris Atelier and My Life in France. Also highly recommend Provence, 1970: M.F.K. Fisher, Julia Child, James Beard, and the Reinvention of American Taste and Provençal Cooking. Many of us loved The Narrowboat Summer.
Feel free to check out my 'armchair travel' bookshelf - this is a go -to fo' read for me. It has more than memoirs on it - fiction too. Also look at my shelves 'biography memoir' and 'food and cooking". I'm a mood shelver.
Nicole R wrote: "I am going through everyone’s recs, but I think I would like to do a travel memoir. Does anyone have good travel memoir recs?"
Some of what I posted earlier you may like:
Sprinting Through No Man's Land: Endurance, Tragedy, and Rebirth in the 1919 Tour de France
Windswept: Walking the Paths of Trailblazing Women
Dark, Salt, Clear: Life in a Cornish Fishing Town
The Salt Path
A Pilgrimage to Eternity: From Canterbury to Rome in Search of a Faith
Tents and Tent Stability: A Month-Long Camping Adventure In Germany - In a Rather Dodgy Tent!
The Wisdom of Donkeys: Finding Tranquility in a Chaotic World
Driving Over Lemons: An Optimist in Andalucía
Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube: Chasing Fear and Finding Home in the Great White North
NancyJ wrote: "The Extinction of Irena Rey sounds really interesting. It’s by the translator for Olga Tokarczuk ( Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead). It’s about a group of translators (for an author loosely based on Olga), and it sounds literary, meta, and more than a little strange. I want to give it a try. If nothing else, it will show something abou the translation process, which is apparently NOT a solitary task. Anyone interested in language might like it, Joy? Robin? ..."Yes, The Extinction of Irina Rey sounds like something I would like. I put it on my TBR.
I keep forgetting to vote on these, but this sounds like a great tag that will be fun to read for!
NancyJ wrote: "Anita wrote: "I have an absurd number of books on my TBR that are tagged Europe. I'm on the waiting list for the following from the library. We'll see what comes through first. I'm also a little ..."
Yes, I think I might have that on my Want to Read, if not I'll add it!
Robin P wrote: "I probably have some recommendations but I have been out of power for 2 days after a storm with no expected time of repair. Then leaving on a trip on Monday, gone all week with limited time online...."Oh no on the power situation! UGH. I hope that gets restored soon.
Looks like there might be a buddy read for the red notebook!
Here are some more recommendations:Historical fiction
The Island of Missing Trees
Corelli’s Mandolin
Birdsong
The Nightingale
Life After Life
All Quiet on the Western Front
And one of my all-time favorites:
The Heart's Invisible Furies
Nice, I can continue my Bruno binge until I am done!
I’m delighted with this tag! I wish I could read all the books listed on this thread!I’m especially hoping to read:
- Pope Joan
- Leonardo da Vinci
- The Red Notebook
- The Paris Library
- Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland
I’m definitely planning to read one that I didn’t see on the thread yet:
The Princes in the Tower: Solving History's Greatest Cold Case
by Philippa Langley, the woman who found the gravesite of Richard III
(Dumb question, but are England, Ireland, Scotland, UK, etc. technically part of Europe? Since they are on islands, not geographically connected to the continent? And especially after Brexit?)
More hopefuls:- All the Light We Cannot See
- The Island of Missing Trees
- All Quiet on the Western Front (reread)
And this one’s out of date, but I’d still like to read it:
Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe
Ghost of a Rose wrote: "Iare England, Ireland, Scotland, UK, etc. technically part of Europe? Since they are on islands, not geographically connected to the continent? And especially after Brexit?)"Yes, geographically they are considered part of Europe. Even Iceland is considered part of Europe. Being in or out of the EU has nothing to do with geography. There are lots of European countries that are not in the EU.
List of countries in Europe: https://www.countries-ofthe-world.com...
(Note that 5 of those listed are considered transcontinental countries, shared between Europe and Asia).
List of countries in the EU:
https://www.countries-ofthe-world.com...
Ghost Rose - please join us for the biddy read of the Red Notebook!!! it’s sitting on my stairwell and I will open the thread on June 1. I will probably review it that day as well, because I need it for another challenge to move forward.
I understand why the British Isles are part of Europe since they are VERY close and have been connected at times, but not Iceland since that one isn't and it straddles the North American and European continental plates!It's closer to Greenland than to Europe, and Greenland is quite close to Canada, especially the part as far north as Ellesmere Island.
@joy - thanks for posting that. @Karin - I’ve always thought of Iceland as Europe, but until our last International challenge, I didn’t know about Greenland. (I only knew that Greenland was Ice, and Iceland was Green. ) I really liked Touch by Olaf Olafsson which is set in Iceland, London, and partly in Japan. I want to read another Iceland book.
Re Russia, I’ll keep it simple and limit myself to books with Europe tags.
I’ve already read a lot of British books this year, but they might be hard to avoid/resist.
@karin @Joy - are you doing the beautiful cities side challenge with ATY? I haven’t searched for more cities yet.
Karin, I recently got interested in finding out all the countries of the world and their continent, so that's why I had some of this geographical information handy. I think it has to do with tectonic plates. I don't know all the details of why Iceland is in Europe, but it is listed that way in all the extra reading I've done on the subject. Nancy, I am not doing the "beautiful cities" challenge, but it sounds like something I would enjoy.
Western Russia is part of Europe (Moscow is, for instance), but most of Russia is in Asia.
I have a "Europe" shelf - it's not completely up to date since I didn't start out tagging everything by continent, but here's the link in case it is helpful for anyone:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...
Karin wrote: "I understand why the British Isles are part of Europe since they are VERY close and have been connected at times, but not Iceland since that one isn't and it straddles the North American and Europe..."But Greenland also "belongs" to Denmark, no?
LibraryCin wrote: "Karin wrote: "I understand why the British Isles are part of Europe since they are VERY close and have been connected at times, but not Iceland since that one isn't and it straddles the North Ameri..."@LibraryCin - that has to do with exploration and colonialism, not geography. Indigenous peoples are Inuit from North America. I will be finding out more as I read This Cold Heaven: Seven Seasons in Greenland by Gretel Ehrlich. I had considered reading it for a PBT Challenge - Fly the Skies maybe? - but never got to it, only read preface and first essay. I am really excited to pull this from the TBR Tower to finally read cover to cover! It includes essays about the famous Danish-Inuit Arctic Explorer Knud Rasmassen had much to do with literally mapping Greenland, thus giving it a Europe tag or two, as well as I believe arctic, inuit, and greenland. Possibly even scandinavian given how people tag.
LibraryCin wrote: "Karin wrote: "I understand why the British Isles are part of Europe since they are VERY close and have been connected at times, but not Iceland since that one isn't and it straddles the North Ameri..."Yes, Greenland still belongs to Denmark (see below re: Iceland and Denmark.)
Joy D wrote: "Karin, I recently got interested in finding out all the countries of the world and their continent, so that's why I had some of this geographical information handy. I think it has to do with tecton..."
I suspect it's because Iceland is closer to Europe and has close ties with it. Norway took it over c. 13th Century and then Denmark ruled it from 1340 until 1874. It's only relatively recently that they learned about the continental shelves and that Iceland straddles them--who'd have thought they met so much closer to Europe? I can't even remember when they learned about continental shelves.
Linguistically, though Icelandic is surprisingly close to Norse 1000 years ago, so Icelanders are often able to understand at least some Norwegian but not vice versa. There are some very old phonemes in Icelandic as well.
Greenland is a territory of Denmark, but it is still geographically part of North America. Greenland has gradually been gaining more control over its government and resources. It was granted home rule in 1979 and self-government in 2009.
Theresa wrote: "@LibraryCin - that has to do with exploration and colonialism, not geography. Indigenous peoples are Inuit from North America. ..."Of course... that makes sense.
Joy D wrote: "Greenland is a territory of Denmark, but it is still geographically part of North America. Greenland has gradually been gaining more control over its government and resources. It was granted home r..."Oh, that is interesting!
Joy D wrote: "Greenland is a territory of Denmark, but it is still geographically part of North America. Greenland has gradually been gaining more control over its government and resources. It was granted home r..."Thanks, good to know! My mother's family all came from Iceland and one of my cousins has immigrated there (we cousins are all half-Icelandic via our mothers) so I know a lot more about Iceland than Greenland.
For those into DNA recombination--one of my daughters is 99 percent Scandinavian, meaning she got almost none of my dad's genes. It goes to show that DNA tests can't disprove all origin stories even after a just a couple of generations. Norwegian (my husband's family), Icelandic and possibly some Swedish (very common for that to happen for people from Norway) and 1 percent northern European (continental.)
What a surprise to see the new banner already! I had to double check my calendar to verify that we are still in May. Great job, Anna ... as usual!
Karin wrote: "Joy D wrote: "Greenland is a territory of Denmark, but it is still geographically part of North America. Greenland has gradually been gaining more control over its government and resources. It was ..."Wow, I didn’t know it was possible to get more than half your DNA from one parent. But in my defense, I learned about genetics from Gregor Mendel. Lol
Sorry BnB! I have a busy day tomorrow so I was a litte worried about the change over. Just decided to do it today as opposed to everyone waiting.
It was a very nice surprise, Anna!And a FABULOUS banner!
Karin wrote: "I understand why the British Isles are part of Europe since they are VERY close and have been connected at times, but not Iceland since that one isn't and it straddles the North American and Europe..."Thank you, Karin!
Joy D wrote: "Ghost of a Rose wrote: "Iare England, Ireland, Scotland, UK, etc. technically part of Europe? Since they are on islands, not geographically connected to the continent? And especially after Brexit?)..."Thank you, Joy!
Amy wrote: "Ghost Rose - please join us for the biddy read of the Red Notebook!!! it’s sitting on my stairwell and I will open the thread on June 1. I will probably review it that day as well, because I need i..."Oh, thank you for the buddy read invite! Unfortunately I didn’t see it until just now, because my iPhone died for good. I live in a very small and remote town where the nearest Verizon or Apple Stores are a very long ways away, so it was a big project to buy a new one.
I only just got it and could finally see these messages!
I still haven’t read The Red Notebook yet. As usual, I planned to read more books than I actually had time for. But I’m still planning to read it and will definitely check the thread when I do!
Play Book Tag
Books mentioned in this topic
This Cold Heaven: Seven Seasons in Greenland (other topics)Touch (other topics)
Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe (other topics)
The Princes in the Tower: How History's Greatest Cold Case Was Solved (other topics)
The Nightingale (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Gretel Ehrlich (other topics)Olaf Olafsson (other topics)
Peter Mayle (other topics)
Tony Hawks (other topics)
Olga Tokarczuk (other topics)
The tag for next month is:
Europe
Please share your reading plans and recommendations below.
Remember, for the regular monthly reads, the book can be shelved as "Europe" on Goodreads, or be a book that is not yet shelved that way but you feel should be.
One way to find books to read for this tag is to please visit:
https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...
We encourage people to link to additional lists below if they find them.
Happy Reading!!!