While we are taking stock of the year 2024 and the art that got us through it; let’s talk about the books we read and loved and why we loved them.
And I don’t necessarily mean books published for the first time in 2024; I want to know what you enjoyed regardless of when it was written. Novels, non-fiction, poetry, childrens books, your granny’s old diaries – let us know about all of the books that most lightened your heart this year!
I’ll mull it over myself and put my answer in the comments…
I’m mulling too. I shall compile lists as I lack the confidence to critique or review, I leave that kind of thing to folk who are more adroit than I.
Good idea Lo. I’m looking forward to reading what books others have been enjoying or loathing.
Looking forward to your list – I’m always looking for recommendations!
I’ll post tomorrow after a good night’s rest.
The first half or more of 2024 was spent almost exclusively reading one single author – my Swedish favourite P C Jersild – in chronological order as a project (in the hope of saving money, as I already owned all of his 38 books, mostly novels but a few non-fiction as well).
I like having a reading project every year, but this was by far my most ambitious. Thankfully I’m a huge fan of Jersild, so it was a joyful task reviewing and ranking them all.
Eventually I did start buying new books again, of course (who was I kidding?) and among my best reading experiences were:
Alia Trabucco Zerán – Clean
A Chilean novel narrated by Estela, from a jail cell. Her life story comes pouring out, a life of hard work and loneliness, and three losses that completes her tragedy. A beautifully written and quietly devastating novel that stays with you a long time.
Barbara Kingsolver – The Poisonwood Bible
This modern classic was even better than I’d imagined it would be – having previously owned and lost my copy of this book before I could read it, I finally got around to it this year, thankfully. This was my best read of 2024, and I can’t remember the last time – if ever – that I’ve underlined so much text in a novel before. Gorgeous, gorgeous writing, a gripping story told by the five women in a family brought on a mission in then Belgian Congo by their husband/father. Pure brilliance, directly into my Top Ten novels of all time.
Rachel Ingalls – Mrs Caliban
A very short novel, but perfect in every way. About an unhappy housewife, grieveing her dead child, suddenly meeting and falling in love with, well, a fish monster…and there’s nothing silly about it, parts of it is very funny, but it’s also the saddest story you’ll ever read about a certain kind of loneliness. Again; so well written, a tiny stylistic masterpiece.
Daniel Mason – North Woods
A wonderfully entertaining novel told by the many different inhabitants of a New England property through the centuries, some of which are ghosts. Readers who doesn’t like short stories usually dislike this kind of narrative, but it’s a favourite style for me (see also Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi).
Neneh Cherry – A Thousand Threads
One of the best autobiographies by a musician IMO. No need to be a big fan, her story is interesting enough to grip any reader.
Patrik Svensson – Den lodande människan
No, unless you know Swedish you can’t read this yet, but I believe it’s on its way to be published in English soon, so I’ll give you a heads-up!
Perhaps you’ve read or heard of the recent surprise non-fiction hit The Gospel of the Eels – well, this is the same author writing essays about curiosity, the oceans and their inhabitants and conquerors through history, and the author’s own experiences and thoughts on these subjects – and it’s wonderful in every way. Best non-fiction of 2024.
(Another not yet translated novel to look out for is Olga Ravn’s “Vaxbarnet”, about a group of women accused of witchcraft – gorgeous poetic prose and an intense story.)
I have the Kingsolver and the Mason in my TBR pile. I’ll get around to them in 2025 now you’ve given them both a nudge. You mention you like the narrative style of North Woods, I’m currently reading The Overstory by Richard Powers and I think you would find it just the ticket. I’m thoroughly engrossed in it. It’s a bit special.
Interesting – a couple of the “BookTubers” I follow really disliked that book, so I never investigated, but I trust your judgement more, especially if it has that kind of narrative!
Will see if I can find it, thanks!
I will add a slight note of caution Lo. I haven’t finished this yet so it’s possible he may lose me at some future point but so far he has me hooked.
Glad you enjoyed the Kingsolver Locust. I haven’t read a bad book by her but that one is her masterpiece I think – absolutely compelling.
I’ve only read Demon Copperhead besides TPB – what novel of hers should I go to next, in your opinion?
I haven’t read her earlier books but have read them all since Poisonwood Bible. I enjoyed them all but Flight Behaviour and Prodigal Summer especially – I’d go to either of those next.
Thanks!
Another agreement on the Neneh Cherry book from me @locust. I have about 30 pages left of this & am loath to finish it as I am enjoying it so much.
Definitely one of the better musician autobiographies, it is wonderfully written
I read all the 2023 Booker shortlist this year – first time I’ve read the whole list for a while. A mixed bag as ever. The winner, Paul Lynch’s Prophet Song was good but I would have given it to Paul Murray’s The Bee Sting, a big baggy family saga set in Ireland in the 1980s during the economic crash. It stayed long in the mind. I also enjoyed Paul Harding’s This Other Eden and Jonathan Escoffery’s If I Survive You.
I read Claire Keegan for the first time- Foster and Quiet Things Like These. Both are beautiful and devastating (and led to very good film adaptations).
And finally I dipped a toe into Karl Ove Knausgaard’s world and read the first volume of his My Struggle series. Very good in some parts, slow and irritating in others. There’s enough there to make me feel I might move onto the next volume but I’m in no hurry.
I have Prophet Song in my pile of possible next reads, but in these times a dystopian story is a hard sell, so I keep skipping it (also: my copy has small font, which adds to the resistance).
William Boyd – The Romantic
Paul Murray – The Bee Sting
Chris Brookmyre- The Cut
Meg Shaffer – The Wishing Game
Callum McSorley – Squeaky Clean
Paul Lynch – Prophet Song
Far be it for me to review or rate books, though I shall……I just like books. There were many more earlier in the year but I can’t remember them….certainly not the authors. I enjoyed them all for different reasons but none enough to give 4 stars. All would easily get 3 though.
I’m about half way through Robert Hilburn’s new bio of Randy Newman. Enjoying it very much. I have all the cds(not the movie soundtracks though)and it made me get them out again and listen to them in order. Some I haven’t heard for ever it seemed. It got me wondering why I used to love some of the tracks on the records and didn’t understand the others(or just though that they were crap). It’s because the other songs were written for movies or some other type of musical theatre etc. Makes sense now. Nothing really personal in it I’m afraid…..got married…..had a baby….stuff like that, but Randy lived a normal life, rather than that of a rock star…..’Mama Told Me Not To Come’ is probably autobiographical.
And we’re back…
I read on average one hundred books a year. Every year contains a few that don’t work for me for one reason or another but I have a stubborn tendency to finish them anyway. Very occasionally I read a book I find genuinely annoying, this is one of those years where that has occurred, It’ll appear later in this post in a category all of it’s own. Happily though the majority of my reading has been most enjoyable for a variety of reasons. The lists that follow are those books I think deserve a mention. There were others from authors such as James Lee Burke that I have omitted not because they lack merit but more on a whim.
In no particular order.
Fiction.
Mongrel – Hanako Footman
Caledonian Road – Andrew O’ Hagan
Old God’s Time – Sebastian Barry
Road Ends – Mary Lawson
Lonely Castle in the Mirror – Mizuki Tsujimura
The Night Watchman – Louise Erdrich
Saltblood – Francesca De Tores
Gabriel’s Moon – William Boyd
Orbital – Samantha Harvey
This is Happiness – Niall Williams
Leonard and Hungry Paul – Ronan Hession
James – Percival Everett
Martyr! – Kaveh Akbar
Creation Lake – Rachel Kushner
10 minutes 38 seconds in this Strange World – Elif Shafak
The God of Small Things – Arundhati Roy
Crime and Crime Adjacent.
The God of the Woods – Liz Moore
Wild Houses – Colin Barrett
All the Colors of the Dark – Chris Whitaker
The Chamber – Will Dean
Other Women – Emma Flint
Night Watching – Tracy Sierra
Short Fiction. Short stories.
The Earth Wire – Joel Lane
So Late in the Day – Claire Keegan
Antarctica – Claire Keegan
Walk the Blue Fields – Claire Keegan
Non-fiction
All the Beauty in the World : The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me – Patrick Bringley
A Flat Place : Moving Through Empty Landscapes, NamingComplex Trauma – Noreen Masud
Thunderclap : A Memoir of Art and Life and Sudden Death – Laure Cumming
The Great Sea : A Human History of the Mediterranean – David Abulafia
Shadow Lines : Searching for the Book Beyond the Shelf – Nicolas Royle
Children of Ash and Elm : A History of the Vikings – Neil Price
Jazzlife : A Journey for Jazz Across America in 1960 – Joachim-Ernst Berendt & William Claxton
The Vanishing Man : In Persuit of Velazquez – Laura Cumming
All That She Carried : The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake – Tiya Miles
Question 7 – Richard Flanagan
Doppelganger- Naomi Klein
Only one Dickens read this year Bleak House which I enjoyed but it exhausted me so I decided to leave reading more until 2025.
Worst book of the year
The Shards – Bret Easton Ellis.
Page after page devoted to the ego of Bret Easton Ellis. If it was reduced to just a cover it would be too long.
Great list, @pencilsqueezer, some I’ve read, some I’ve heard good things about (and noted down on my list of possible reads) and some I’ve never heard of but want to investigate.
I’ve never felt the need to read BEE, and now less than ever!
Thanks Lo. I hope you find something that keeps you entertained and yes your life will not be reduced by avoiding Bret Easton Ellis. He is an egotistical blow hard.
I’ve had a copy of “Leonard and Hungry Paul” by Rónán Hession sitting on my overflowing “to be read” shelf for the past two years. I must get around to reading it!
You really should. It’s completely charming and in these trying and troubling times it proved to be a most welcome respite.
I’m a slow reader and have found my ability to get absorbed and lost in a good book has worsened as I’ve got older. I really can’t be bothered to read a lot of fiction any more, and much prefer reading history (particularly 20th century), biography and books about music. Having said that I reread Graham Greene’s Brighton Rock this year and found it just as good as I remembered. I also discovered R.C. Sherriff, who is probably best known for his play Journey’s End. His A Week in September is a beautifully written novel in which virtually nothing significant happens. It’s my fiction read of the year.
Of the music bios I’ve read this year I most enjoyed the following –
Mark Blake – Dreams: The Many Lives of Fleetwood Mac
Paul McCartney – Lyrics
Paul Zollo – Conversations with Tom Petty
David Hepworth – Hope I Die Before I Get Old
Peter Ames Carlin – The Name of This Band is REM
I’ve also just started Talkin’ Greenwich Village by David Browne, a fairly comprehensive overview of the Greenwich Village folk scene of the 50s and 60s. It’s shaping up well.
As for history I would recommend Beyond the Wall by Katia Hoyer, an excellent short history of East Germany from 1945 until the fall of the Berlin Wall, and Stasiland by Anna Funder, a book of interviews with and reminiscences of those subjected to Stasi surveillance.
I second Stasiland it’s a fine read.
A Week in September is just lovely!
I’ve been meaning to read that R.C. Sherriff novel for years, but … erm … isn’t it called “The Fortnight in September” rather than “A Week in September”?
It was re-published with extra chapters…
Yes, you’re right of course. Mea culpa. It’s still a great read, even in the abridged version that I invented.
I used to read like the devil as a child, voraciously and precociously, losing the touch once I left home. “Recreation” took over, once I hit London, with the job then eating daylight, and much the night, until I retired. Returning to reading was my retirement goal, but I find the wretched phone still eats the available, as I traverse the wretched scroll of doom betwixt the news and social meejah, including here. The wife is agin hard product and has diverted me to kindle, which is sort of counterintuitive: I used to buy a stack of books once year, even if waiting to be read. Here’s hoping next year might mend my ways, and I am currently loving Demon Copperhead. On fecking kindle.
Kindles are fine. I wouldn’t be without mine despite loving paper & Ink books. Audiobooks are also fine and some of the narrators available are fabulous making the listening experience memorable. It’s all ok. Don’t listen to the reductive attitudes of some that will insist that there is only one pure way to read. That’s complete and utter b*ll*cks. Why deny oneself the pleasure of taking advantage of all of the available resources.
See also. Those who suggest there is only one superior way to listen to music and decry those that don’t conform to their narrow dictatorial attitudes. Screw all that crap.
I must confess that I’m now intrigued: what is the ‘one superior way to listen to music’, as espoused by these narrow dictators?
It’s whatever way an individual of that particular mindset decrees it to be, Vinyl, CD, Streaming etc. I just want to hear the music the format is of secondary importance. I get the impression from some that it’s the other way around for them. You must have come across this kind of attitude. They are intrinsically silly people.
Well said that man. It’s akin to hifi purists whose attuned ears can discern the minutest difference in sonic balance between various bits of high end equipment, and can bore the pants off us lesser mortals in so doing, rather than immersing themselves in the music.
A mate of mine has just invested in a top of the range bluray player. When I asked him if he had noticed any difference between his new player and his old one he said “not really, I don’t actually have any blurays”.
I’ve invested quite heavily in kit and yes it helps and it sounds wonderful but it’s not as important as the music. It’s a means to an end. All ways are equally valid.
Like one or two others here, I think you may have a foot in both camps, Mr P! And nothing wrong with that.
I do. Whether it’s music or books it’s the ends that matter not the means. There isn’t a way to enjoy them that transcends all others.
I will happily hold my hand up to being intrinsically silly. I’ve yet to meet anyone during my sixty eight years of existence who isn’t.
Paperback, Kindle, and chiselled stone (hard to read in bed)
Fiction
A Bird in Winter – Louise Dougherty
Old God’s Time – Sebastian Barry
Elizabeth Finch – Julian Barnes
The Cry of the Owl – Patricia Highsmith
Best is the Sebastian Barry
Music related:
Sound Man – Glyn Johns
Jennifer Juniper – Jenny Boyd
She’s a Rainbow, the extraordinary life of Anita Pallenberg – Simon Wells
Living the Beatles Dream, Mal Evans story – Kenneth Womack
Earth to Moon – Moon Unit
Love and Let Die – John Higgs
Access All Areas – Barbara Charone
Best is the Mal Evans book
Gave up on the Moon Unit. A sorry bunch narrated by a whiny narrator.
Should be Doughty not Dougherty
Second mention of Old Gods Time. Jesus, but it’s a great novel by a brilliant writer.
It is indeed. I enjoyed A Bird in Winter by Louise Doughty that Diddley included in his post but I read that last year otherwise it would have made my cut.
Two recommendations from people of taste and discernment – that’s enough for me. It’s on the list.
Barry have become one of my auto-buy authors.
One of the reasons I don’t contribute to end-of-year lists is that I can never remember in any detail what I’ve seen or listened to. Fortunately, my Kobo does the job for me with books. So, I enjoyed all these this year.
Fiction
Red Handler by Johan Harstad
Vine Street by Dominic Nolan
Blacktop Wasteland by S A Cosby
The Vegetarian by Han Kanh
Case Histories by Kate Atkinson
The Glass Pearls by Emeric Pressburger
Shanghai by Joseph Kanon
Ride a Cock Horse by Raymond Kennedy
S.S. Murder by Q Patrick
City of Ghosts by Ben Creed
The President’s Hat by Antoine Laurain
All Fours by Miranda July
The English Understand Wool by Helen DeWitt
Bearskin by James A McLaughlin
Blood Roses by Douglas Jackson
Ordinary Human Failings by Megan Nolan
Blaze Me a Sun by Christoffer Carlsson
Non-fiction
Astral Weeks: A Secret History of 1968 by Ryan H Walsh
My Family by David Baddiel
The Palestinian-Israel Conflict: A Very Short Introduction by Martin Bunton
Hitler’s People: The Faces of the Third Reich by Richard J Evans
I started reading the Megan Nolan novel this year, but paused it (for some reason I can’t quite recall – but nothing to do with the novel) and completely forgot about it – thanks for reminding me! Must seek out its whereabouts and start again in 2025.
I’ve heard a lot of good things about it.
Do – it’s very good, and moving.
Just spotted Nick Royle’s Shadow Lines in Pencil’s list, which reminds me I read his White Spines: Confessions of a Book Collector in actual hard copy. So should add it to my list – not least because I’m in it…
I shall look out for you Mike when I get around to reading my copy. I have a paperback edition awaiting my attention. It was Mr Royle who drew my attention to Joel Lane and I’m very glad he did so.
My highlights include:
I started the Karin Slaughter ‘Will Trent’ series, and thoroughly enjoyed it.
I started, the C J Sansom Shardlake series and finished with Tombstone. It’s a big book, but I’m not sure I could edit it down. Every page has something of value in it. I also read Dominion, which I think I raved about here. He will be much missed.
Louise Wener’s memoir of her time in Sleeper was worth every second I spent on it.
‘Louise Wener’s memoir of her time in Sleeper was worth every second I spent on it.’ I’m guessing you didn’t like it much?
I thought it was really good. Acknowledged, my phrasing was sub optimal.
In order of reading.
Some I have enjoyed this year;
Politics On The Edge by Rory Stewart
The Great Post Office Scandal by Nick Wallis
Under My Thumb (Songs That Hate Women & The Women Who Love Them) by Various
Numbers: 10 Things You Should Know by Colin Stuart
Prophet Song by Paul Lynch
Space: Ten Things You Should Know by Dr. Becky Smethurst
Time: Ten Things You Should Know by Colin Stuart
Among The Trolls by Marianna Spring
Four Chancellors And A Funeral by Russell Jones
Tapestry by Loren Glass (part of the excellent 33 1/3 series)
The Tw*t Files by Dawn French
A Man With No Talents by Shiro Oyama
Strong Female Character by Fern Brady
Searching For Dexys Midnight Runners by Nige Tassell
The Man Who Was Screaming Lord Sutch by Graham Sharpe
Echoes: A Memoir Continued by Will Sergeant
To Be A Gay Man by Will Young
1984 – The Year Pop Went Queer by Ian Wade
Deep Sea: 10 Things You Should Know by Jon Copley
Dinosaurs: 10 Things You Should Know by Dean Lomax
Julia by Sandra Newman
OK Computer by Dai Griffiths (part of the excellent 33 1/3 series)
Let It Be by Steve Matteo (part of the excellent 33 1/3 series)
The Hotel Avocado by Bob Mortimer
The Country Of The Blind (A Memoir At The End Of Sight) by Andrew Leland
From Here to the Great Unknown: A Memoir by Lisa Marie Presley & Riley Keough
Connection Is A Song by Anna Doble
Some not so much;
Buzzin’ by Bez (aka Mark Berry)
The Trading Game by Gary Stevenson
Tales From The Dance Floor by Sacha Lord
Diary of an Oxygen Thief – Anonymous
Trees: 10 Things You Should Know by Carolyn Fry
Strangeways by Neil Samworth
Strength in Numbers: How Polls Work and Why We Need Them by G Elliott Morris
I am currently reading the excellent Neneh Cherry autobiography & really enjoying it as I replied on Locusts post above.
The standout reads for me were 1984 by Ian Wade which was a glorious read &The Country Of The Blind by Andrew Leland. My partner is a teacher of multi sensory impaired children so I read this book to try & understand a little more & found it to be a fascinating & excellent read.
I started the year with a target of reading 50 books and with just over a week to go I’m on book 52. Mostly hard or paperback as can’t get on with a kindle much to my wife’s dismay. Anyway below is my top 10 of which it’s mostly crime fiction.
1/ Living is a problem – Doug Johnstone
2/ A grave for a thief – Douglas Skelton
3/ A stranger in the family – Jane Casey
4/ Kill list – Nadine Matheson
5/ The last party – Clare Mackintosh
6/ All the sinners bleed – S A Crosby
7/ The devil you know – Neil Lancaster
8/ A violent heart – David Fennell
9/ Box 88 – Charles Cumming
10/ The wrong hands – Mark Billingham
I do love a list .
In Ascension by Martin MacInnes
A strange, mysterious book where we follow a microbiologist from the depths of the oceans to the outer reaches of space. It’s a book that I find hard to summarise, including as it does themes as varied as family disfunction and the possibility of extra-terrestrial life.
A month in the country by J.L. Carr
An absolutely joy of a book in which a WW1 veteran takes time to restore a mural in a local church.
Ascension by Oliver Harris
Evocatively set on the otherworldly Ascension Island this is a rattling good spy thriller, rich in international conspiracy. But it’s the missing person’s investigation that provides this one with its heart.
Miami Blues by Charles Willeford
I’ve reread this crime thriller on several occasions. For me Willeford stands comparison with the best in the genre. Here he paints a sleazy Miami, peopled with an array of believable cops, grifters and nonchalant psychopaths.
I love A Month in the Country it’s one of my favourite books. Have you read How Steeple Sinderby Wanderers Won the F.A. Cup by JL Carr? It’s another little gem.
You’re right – it’s a gem. Already looking forwards to a re-read.
I’ve not read any other work by JL Carr, so thanks for the recommendation. I shall add to my wishlist.
Not read as many as I have in previous years or would have liked to
Here are a few highlights:
Sufference (Charles Palliser)
White City (Dominic Nolan)
The Queen (Craig Brown)
James (Perceval Everett)
1001 Movie Posters (Alison Elangaskinge)
Escher (Mark Vedhuysen)
The Beach Boys in Their Own Words (The Beach Boys)
One Party After Another:
The Disruptive Life of Nigel Farage (Michael Crick)
Kubrick: An Odyssey (Robert P Kolkor)
Looking forward to White City. Can it possibly be as good as Vine Street?
Every bit as good if not even better
DV has gone straight to the front rank of UK crime writers with these last two.
I trust youse lot so I’ve just bought both of them. This place costs me a fortune!
Last year I started my personal (and probably quite silly) project of reading at least one book written by every author who got the Nobel Prize for Literature. And I’m proud to say I’m currently at no. 31 (more about that later…).
Many of the new books I’ve read won’t be of interest to any of you – do German books which aren’t bestsellers even get translated into English anymore? Anyway, here’s my top six – in no particular ranking or order.
Heinz Strunk ||| Zauberberg 2
A big provocation in Germany to declare your novel »a sequel« to Thomas Mann’s classic, and a typical Heinz Strunk move: he’s known for his surreal and off-kilter humorous stories, and here he ventures into the East German wastelands, including a remote clinic for stressed-out businessmen, and and a dead body in the swamps. Depressing and funny.
The Book |||
A large-format, excuisitely hard-bound coffee-table book that’s basically a Steampunk bible – a guide to rebuilding our world from scratch, shown in meticulous drawings, assembly plans and graphics. Like some Dorling Kindersley book from another time and space.
Clemens Meyer ||| Die Projektoren
The 60s movies based on the novels of Karl May (»Winnetou & Old Shatterhand«) are among the all-time most popular films in Germany, and get shown regularly on TV. They were mostly shot in Yugoslavia, in the area where the Serbian-Bosnian wars took place years later. This novel weaves an intriguing story about extras in the movies who happen to meet again on opposing sides in the war, and traces their lives back and forth with ensuing connections to America, Germany, and the enigmatic Dr. May. Fascinating stuff.
Jan Weller ||| Munk
After a cardiac arrest a 50-year old architect looks back on his life, mainly on the 13 women he was involved with. (The book includes his music playlist)
Andrew O’Hagan ||| Caledonian Road
I love big books, and this is a Flaubert-like sweep through our present times, with multiple side roads explored, from bitcoin hackers to the Queen, and from Milan fashion shows to London crime gangs.
Reinhard Kleist ||| Low
A graphic novel about Bowie in late-seventies West Berlin. Enigmatic and haunting like the titular album, with Kleist’s atmospheric drawings apparently showing exactly the mood, scenery and nightlife under the shadow of the Wall (at least according to friends who were there).
Not silly at all, a good reading project is brilliant – not least for keeping you out of reading slumps.
Unfortunately I think the answer to your question is No. They probably don’t even get translated into Swedish, which in the (now distant) past they automatically would be.
I read a lot of Swedish authors, and it can be frustrating to bring them up in Blogger Takeover when I know that nobody here is going to be able to read them anyway (usually I just end up writing “and then I read a great Swedish novel” and move on).
And here, then, are the Nobel Prize books I’ve read this year.
Anatole France ||| The Guilt Of Professor Bonnard
Now that was a bit of a chore. Monsieur France obviously likes to hear himself talk, but he lacks any sense of dynamics or getting to the point. Like the guy in the pub who tries to tell a joke, but never gets to the punchline.
Jacinto Benavente ||| Selected Plays
I found a nice illustrated edition with some of his plays, in a bookstore just down the street from my home, amazingly. Reading the script of a stage play may not be the perfect experience, but he has a susprisingly modern way of of mixing satire, drama and 1920s politics in historical theatre plays involving soldiers of fortune, beautiful maidens and mean-spirited businessmen.
William Butler Yeats ||| Selected Works
I had bought this during my highschool years – and never read it. Rather unexpectedly, one of the first poems in this book turned out to be a Donovan song – you can’t escape The Don! And reading the other poems as kind of folksong lyrics made a lot of sense: »The Wild Swans At Coole« would make a beautiful John Martyn song, and I’d like to hear Richard Thompson sing »Crazy Jane Talks With The Bishop«.
Grazia Deledda ||| Reeds In The Wind
An entertaining, but rather average novel about folks in Sardinia, with the usual ingredients of doomed destiny, despair and bad luck.
George Bernard Shaw ||| Saint Joan
I actually saw this in a theatre (in Lyon, of all places, ages ago). And reading it now in Shaw’s own annotated book version is like opening one of those super deluxe box sets: The author’s introduction is nearly 80 pages, and he reports all the historical facts, the various legends and fictions, and his own aim in writing this. And it really IS fascinating stuff – when they made a Hollywood movie version the leading actor almost went up in flames when they shot Joan’s dying scene. And the woman who was the model for the famous french Joan Of Arc statue did indeed die in a house fire (the firemen »forgot« to rescue her, apparently).
Ladislas-Stanislas Reymont ||| The Peasants
This is a big one – more than 1000 pages of drama describing one year in the lives of Polish peasants in the 1890s. There’s murder, heartbreak, rebellion, sex and jealousy galore, but the real beauty are the numerous descriptions of nature and the changing of the seasons. There’s a passage where Reymont over three pages writes about the smells, the light and atmosphere of an Autumn afternoon sky after a storm. Beautiful.
Sigrid Undset ||| Spring
Even more destiny and despair, this time from »modern« Norway in the 1910s. If it were a movie it would be one of those bleak Seventies BBC productions.
Henri Bergson ||| Creative Development
From time to time the Nobel Prize committee made some edgy decisions, probably to prove that they weren’t afraid of anything. In 1927 the prize went to an obscure non-fiction author, French philosopher Bergson. He has a smooth and easy way of writing, but when I had finished this book I felt as if I’d smoked too much of the wrong stuff. He meticulously examines our perception of the world, and the theory of natural selection (with the scientific knowledge of a hundred years ago), and tries to make a logical connection to the idea of religion and God. Mind-spinning stuff.
Thomas Mann ||| Buddenbrooks
I knew the various movie and TV series versions of this, but wasn’t prepared to find how dark, gloomy and nihilistic the original book is. The endless chain of bad luck and unfortunate developments make this almost gothic. I also got a newly illustrated edition of »Death In Venice« and re-reading it discovered that a century ago they already had Corona-like disputes about lockdowns…
Sinclair Lewis ||| It Can’t Happen Here
Quite spooky. US big money conspires to make a nicely naive populist guy the new President, and – apparently without anyone noticing – the country slowly turns into a fascist state with censored newspapers and »security« armies marching down the streets. This was published in 1935 when most diplomatic circles still regarded Hitler as unpleasant, but not really dangerous. And reading it now with all those Trump shenanigans going on puts an extra spin on it.
Erik Axel Karlfeldt ||| Poems
Another edgy decision from Sweden: why not give the prize to the former president of the Nobel Prize committee (who had just passed away)! I was reading his poems (in a very good German translation that preserved all his intricate rhymes and rhythms) while the new Opeth album was playing in the background, and once again it all made sense – these are all prog lyrics. His poem »Sickness« is a multi-part epic that’s just waiting for a set of time-changing instrumental sections (are you reading this, Steven Wilson?).
That’s all for this year, folks. 😉
I’ve read Buddenbrooks and Death in Venice, and other works by Shaw, Undset and France (the two latter so long ago I can’t remember the titles), and poems by Yeats and Karlfeldt.
The Lewis novel have tempted me lately, but also repelled me, for obvious reasons… Reymont, Deledda and Benavente were completely new names to me – in a quiz situation I would have been very certain that they had not won a Nobel Prize, and would have lost.
You’ve made some great progress with your project this year, and most of them seems to have been enjoyable or at least interesting reads!
The big Reymont novel is highly recommended.
The bonus in this project was that I found some beautiful German editions from the 1940s or 50s while checking the 2nd hand bookstores (there are quite a few in the area where I live) – and they mostly don’t cost more than 4 or 5 euros. Up until now I didn’t have to use the web to find any of the books i »needed«.
Here are some pictures from the edition of »Death In Venice« I got:
https://www.booklooker.de/Bücher/Thomas-Scheinberger-Mann+Mann-Thomas-Scheinberger-Felix-Illustrationen-Der-Tod-in-Venedig-Novelle/id/A02DiemU01ZZw?pid=8
My favourite read of the year was Robbie Robertson’s autobiography “ Testimony “.
Had me digging out my Band vinyl and watching “The Last Waltz “ one more time.
He certainly loved to drop quite a few names though.