Well, sometimes life happens and before you realise it, far too much time has gone by since your last post. Oops. Apologies dear readers.

So, what has happened over the last year? Well, amongst other things, I’ve started three of those books on my reading list in the post Becoming A Better Writer. Even when life is busy and I’m on the go, I still find time to read. Though lately, I’ve noticed that I’m starting a lot of books, but not always finishing them. Do you find this too?

So, what was on that list?

Normal Women

Normal Women is a fascinating account of women’s history. I love that Philippa Gregory has put the historical research from her novels into this beautifully written volume. However, nine centuries of untold history turned out to be too heavy to put in my suitcase, so I’m looking forward to be picking it up again next time I’m back in the UK.

Famished Road

Famished Road was engaging. Not long after starting it, I realised that it was the sequel to Songs of Enchantment. So, I put it down with the idea of reading them in order. The problem? I couldn’t get into Songs of Enchantment. Years ago I would have persevered. These days my reading pile is too big to spend time on books I’m not enjoying. I’ll come back to it when I’m ready.

A Long Petal of the Sea

To be honest, I forgot about A Long Petal of the Sea. Although I haven’t started it yet in Spanish, I have read two novels by Spanish author Angeles Caso. It’s the first time I have read any of Caso’s books and her writing has been a discovery for me. The first one I read, Contra El Viento (Against the Wind), tells the moving story of Sao, a young women from Cape Green. Based on a true story, Sao is an intelligent child held back from studying by economic circumstances. In search of a better life, Sao emigrates to Portugal. Away from everything she knows, Caso describes the challenges Sao faces as an immigrant.

Winner of the Premio Planeta prize in 2009, this gripping story is a great choice if you are looking to read in Spanish to improve your language skills.

A Long Silence by Angeles Caso

The second one, Un largo Silence (A Long Silence) won the Novela Fernando Lara prize in 2000. It tells the story of a woman, her daughters and granddaughter as they return to their hometown after the Spanish civil war. This is a moving and insightful view into the long-lasting division brought about by civil war. As the mother and wives of supporters of the Republican army (the defeated side), the women quickly realise that their lives will never be the same. The family now face prejudice and hardship as those who are on the winning side, quickly let them know that they have no rights in the new society. Caso weaves in references to their life before the war as a comparison to the difficulties they now face under the new regime.

Mr Linh’s Granddaughter

I’ve also read a Spanish translation of Mr Linh’s Granddaughter (the original is in French) by Phillipe Claudel and started to re-read Allende’s The House of the Spirits in Spanish. I’m on a mission to read more in Spanish, but behind the re-reading of The House of the Spirits is an interest in magic realism. Having watched a video of Isabel Allende talking about her process as a creative writer, I felt compelled to read her work again. I also wondered if a touch of magic realism might be an interesting angle to research given that one of the potential narrators in my own writing could possibly be telling the story from the grave. Mmm. So many things to think about.

Mr Linh’s Granddaughter was the Book Club reading for December. It’s a beautiful story about an elderly man who is sent as a refugee to the USA when his home and family are destroyed by war. The novel explores the difficulties of loss and immigration through the friendship that Mr Linh develops with a local man who has lost his wife. Despite neither of them speaking each other’s language, they develop a relationship and meet daily in the park. If you are looking for a book to read in French or Spanish (translated from French) to practise your language skills, I would highly recommend this one.

Book Club

This month at book club, we’re reading Las Bicicletas Son Para El Verano (Bicycles are for the Summer) by Fernando Fernan-Gomez. It’s ages since I read a play and I’d forgotten how nice they can be to read. Made into a film in 1984, it starts in Madrid just before the Spanish Civil War breaks out. Through some superb dialogue, we see the family and their neighbour’s transition from every day life and worries into life under bombs and shell fire as Spain is divided in the struggle between Franco’s army and the Republicans.

Magic Realism

Back to magic realism. I’m reading 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. (I’m half way through, so only another 50 years to go.) Although, I always promised myself that I would read this book in Spanish, I picked up an English version off the book shelf at a yoga retreat I was working at. And, to be honest, it’s hard enough to keep track of what’s going on in my first language, let alone reading it in a second language.

I think it’s one of the first books I’ve read where so many characters have the same name. I guess that’s a challenge for novel writers when writing about cultures where parents’ names are passed on to their children. For example Miguel’s son, also called Miguel would become Miguelito. The suffix – ito being used in Spanish to represent something small. The coach in me wonders how the constant reminder that you are little Miguel as an adult might affect your lifestyle, but there we go. Garcia Marquez doesn’t seem to have an issue with this.

Anyway, given the difficulty of working out which character is which, the next 50 years will have to wait for a time when I can actually keep track of who is who.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links to an independent bookshop. This will not affect you in any way if you click through and buy a book, but it may give me a small commission that will go towards the cost of keeping this blog running.

Non-fiction

Amongst my non-fiction reads over the last year are Voice and Power by Mary Beard and I’ve also started The Girl With Seven Names.

Let’s face it. You can’t go wrong with Mary Beard. Voice and Power, a manifesto that is readable in one sitting, looks at misogyny and how women are talked over right back to the times of Homer’s Odyssey. And, we thought it was a modern issue.

The Girl With Seven Names is a memoir by Hyeonseo Lee, a young woman who escaped North Korea. Each time she changes country, she changes her name for safety, hence the title.

I’m really enjoying it and learning a lot about North Korea through her eyes. Normally I read in bed at the end of the day and I realised that I was having disturbing dreams after reading about her life. So, this has been relegated to day time reading. As I haven’t yet worked out how to have a full time job doing what I love, aka reading, in reality this means at the weekends when everyone else is having a siesta.

How about you? Are you a reader with many books on the go at once? Or do you prefer to read one at a time, finish it and move on to the next one? Which books are waiting on your shelf or bedside table?

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