January 11-31 Reads

Books

15 David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas (this 2004 Booker Award finalist was certainly worthy of the praise it's received over the past 5-6 years. Will have to re-read before I could hope to write anything approaching a formal review, though, as I read it while waiting to see the doctor and that tends to cloud memories somewhat...)

16 Graham Greene, The Quiet American (scary how prescient Greene was about how Vietnam would affect those involved in it. Very good read.)

17 Juan Filloy, Op Oloop (Spanish; very odd story, but ultimately enjoyable)

18 Alexandre Dumas, Le Comte de Monte-Cristo II (see comments about part I)

19 David Soares, A Conspiração dos Antepassados (Portuguese; going to be writing a feature about his works in the next week or two. Very good story that involves Fernando Pessoa, Alastair Crowley, and one of the more enduring tragic myths/legends of Portuguese history)

20 George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois (eds.), Warriors (review forthcoming; very strong anthology)

21 Lisa Tuttle, My Death (re-read; very good)

22 Maureen F. McHugh, China Mountain Zhang (one of my regrets now is that I procrastinated on reading this until now. Damn fine story.)

23 Terrence Holt, In the Valley of the Kings (re-read; one of my favorite 2009 collections)

24 Rick Moody, Demonology (collection; very good)

25 Chang Hsi-Kuo, The City Trilogy (this omnibus of Chinese SF was odd to read, as certain plot developments seemed a bit unnatural for me, as one used to Western cultural expectations more or less, but the three stories, taken as a whole, were worthwhile reading ultimately)

26 Italo Calvino, Le città invisibili (re-read; Italian; classic)

27 Sergio Toppi, Sharaz-De (re-read; Italian; graphic novel; first of two volumes recasting tales from Arabian Nights. Highly recommended)

28 Sergio Toppi, Sharaz-De Volume 2 (re-read; Italian; graphic novel; see comments above)

29 J.W. Wenham, Elements of New Testament Greek (interesting overview of Koine Greek as found in the New Testament)

30 H.H. Munro, The Complete Works of Saki (review forthcoming)

31 David Soares, Lisboa Triunfante (Portuguese; feature forthcoming; enjoyed this novel almost as much as the first one of his)

32 Don DeLillo, Point Omega (had intended to have a review posted on Sunday, but reading got in my way. Perhaps in the next few days)

33 Pedro Calderón de la Barca, El médico de su honra (Spanish; classic 17th century play)

34 Chrétien de Troyes, Yvain (French; this dual Old French/Modern French translation almost kicked my ass in terms of me grasping what was transpiring. But I did get the gist of it, largely due to knowing the story from prior readings of English translations)

35 David Toscana, El último lector (re-read; Spanish; good-to-very good)

36 Catullus, Catullus (Latin; collection of Catullus' poems. First time reading all of them in Latin. Good stuff, on the whole, but the longer poems were not as appealing to me for some reason.)

37 Dino Buzzati, Poema a fumetti (re-read; Italian; graphic novel; re-telling of the Orpheus/Eurydice myth. Very, very well-done)

38 Roberto Bolaño, Tres (Spanish; poetry; re-read; Bolaño is criminally underrated as a poet)

39 Roberto Bolaño, The Romantic Dogs (bilingual; poetry; re-read; see comments above)

40 Carlos Fuentes, Gringo viejo (Fuentes is excellent when he writes historical novels from an up-close-and-personal perspective. This fictionalization of Ambrose Bierce's final days is a prime example of this) 




Fiction Magazines and Lit Journals


No comments on these, for various reasons:


4 The New Yorker, January 18, 2010

5 Fantasy & Science Fiction, January/February 2010


In Progress

Ninth Letter, Winter 2010

Fantasy & Science Fiction, December 2009