Book Journey hosts this weekly meme. As she says, "This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next 'must read' book will come from!"
Still sailing through A Suitable Boy, and toiling through Die Verwandlung. Loving the former because it's just so page-turningly readable; not one of its vast array of characters, families, or situations is uninteresting. Plodding through the latter because it's really above my level--but I'm not giving up!
I'm on Act III of Julius Caesar, along with my Shakespeare reading group, which sadly is going to disband after this book. I was a little intimidated to start this one, because the histories are my weak area with Shakespeare, but it's been quite interesting and even moving so far.
New on my list this week is Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin by Timothy Snyder. Not a happy subject, to wildly understate, but one which I keep coming back to. Snyder is an engaging writer with a strong moral voice. In this book he looks at the lands between Germany and Russia, where Hitler and Stalin between them deliberately caused the deaths of 14 million people, apart from battle casualties. Snyder calls his book "a history of political mass murder."
It looks like you have some very thought-provoking books on your list. Here is my Monday Report. Happy reading!
ReplyDeleteYes, none of them except A Suitable Boy could really be called "happy" reading.
DeleteI can't seem to comment on your blog for some reason, but A Bridge Across Time and The Dragon in the Sea look like they'd be right up my son's alley!
I enjoyed reading Shakespeare in high school and would like to one day reread some of those plays.
ReplyDeleteHave a great week!
Kristin @ Always With a Book
Do it! You won't regret it. It's much less intimidating than you remember. :P
DeleteA pretty serious reading list .. I hope you enjoy them
ReplyDeleteHave a great reading week!
Shelleyrae @ Book'd Out
It is awfully serious this week, isn't it? I've just finished a collection of Sherlock Holmes, which is quite a bit more lighthearted, if that helps?
DeleteBloodlands sounds like a fascinating read. I love finding really engaging non-fiction.
ReplyDeleteYes, periodically I get into a non-fiction mood. Sometimes it's a history mood, and sometimes a science mood. And if it's engagingly written, so much the better.
DeleteI was one of those strange children who liked Shakespeare in school and like him now as well. My first introduction to him was Twelfth Night and it went on from there! Thank you for visiting my blog and I hope you will come again.
ReplyDeleteI've just reread Twelfth Night. Quite the gender-bender.
DeleteThanks for the recommendation on my blog about reading Frankenstein after Dr. Moreau, I can definitely see the correlations and it would be good to go back and reread Shelley. Sounds like you have a few somber books to get through this week. Happy reading!
ReplyDeleteSomber reading can be happy reading, depending on the author, as I'm sure you'd agree. :)
DeleteI've never read Vikram Seth, but you have me interested! I'll have to look into it.
ReplyDeleteDo! And the length is deceptive; the chapters are very short, and I often fly through 6 or 8 chapters without realizing it.
DeleteA Suitable Boy was recommended to me by my colleague ( family comes from Pakistan). It is definitely on my " to read list"...but is a BIG book! Perhaps you would like this: Indian Summer by A. von Tunzelmann. Backdrop is the separation on India from the British Empire...very entertaining!
ReplyDeleteI will definitely check that out. It's of interest to me because my husband is from Pakistan; his parents emigrated from Lucknow to Karachi at the time of partition. My mother-in-law's story of that time (she was 13) is riveting.
ReplyDeleteForgot this link ..http://ipsofactodotme.wordpress.com/2012/05/15/indian-summer/
ReplyDeleteGreat, thanks!
DeleteThe lands between Germany and Russia - my ancestors are from that area. It is a subject matter that never ceases to interest me because of the personal connection but also because it so fascinating to try to understand just how and why these people could fail to uprise against either side.
ReplyDeleteI'm not very far into the book yet, but this subject is touched on a bit in the section on the famines deliberately caused by Stalin. The starving peasantry were hobbled by the vastness of the country which gave them nowhere to flee to, the ruthlessness of the officials who came and took every bit of grain and every animal, and the illiteracy and ignorance of the people, who had no knowledge of the outside world or of their government's philosophy.
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