February 2012 Reads

I seem to be a bit more motivated than usual to post this, so here's what I read last month, less than 24 hours after said leap month ended.  33 books, a slight improvement over January, possibly due to reading while riding the exercise bike as I work to get myself back in the shape I was when I was 22-23, a long 15 years ago.  Only 3 of the 33 were re-reads, 11 were written solely by women (and in another, some female authors contributed), 3 were in Spanish and 2 in French, and in several, squirrels make an appearance.  And now, the list:

31  Forrest Gander, Core Samples from the World (reviewed on Gogol's Overcoat)

32  Aracelis Girmay, Kingdom Animalia (to be reviewed shortly on Gogol's Overcoat)

33  Saladin Ahmed, Throne of the Crescent Moon (reviewed here)

34  Laura Kasischke, Space, in Chains (to be reviewed shortly on Gogol's Overcoat)

35  Soledad Puértolas, Una enfermedad moral (Spanish; very good)

36  William Faulkner, New Orleans Sketches (reviewed on Gogol's Overcoat)

37  William Faulkner, The Marble Faun and A Green Bough (poetry; to be reviewed later)

38  Jean Ray, Les Contes du Whisky (French; re-read; to be featured later on Weird Fiction Review)

39  Jean Ray, Malpertuis (French; re-read; to be discussed later on Weird Fiction Review)

40  Ian Cameron Esslemont, Orb, Sceptre, Throne (not as good as his previous two novels)

41  Elena Garro, La Casa junto al Río (Spanish; very good)

42  Eric Basso, The Beak Doctor (re-read; to be featured next week on Weird Fiction Review)

43  Teju Cole, Open City (to be reviewed this weekend or next week at Gogol's Overcoat)

44  Antonio Machado, Antonio Machado por niños (Spanish; poetry; very good)

45  Dubravka Ugrešić, Karaoke Culture (review in near future on Gogol's Overcoat)

46  Jonathan Lethem, The Ecstasy of Influence (review in near future on Gogol's Overcoat)

47  William Faulkner, Novels 1930-1935 (omnibus of the novels reviewed on Gogol's Overcoat in January and February)

48  Jenny Boully, not merely because of the unknown that was stalking toward them (may write something here in a few weeks)

49  Alan Hollinghurst, The Stranger's Child (review next week on Gogol's Overcoat)

50  Ellen Willis, Out of the Vinyl Deeps:  Ellen Willis on Rock Music (review in near future on Gogol's Overcoat)

51  Geoff Dyer, Otherwise Known as the Human Condition:  Selected Essays and Reviews (review in near future on Gogol's Overcoat)

52  Cynthia Duncan, Unraveling the Real:  The Fantastic in Spanish-American Ficciones (might use this in a future column)

53  Jeffrey Eugenides, The Marriage Plot (review next week on Gogol's Overcoat)

54  David Bellos, Is That a Fish in Your Ear?:  Translation and the Meaning of Everything (review in near future on Gogol's Overcoat)

55  Joseph O'Connor, Ghost Light (review in next 2-3 weeks on Gogol's Overcoat)

56  Zoran Živković, The Five Wonders of the Danube (hope to review this in the near future here)

57 Michael Ondaatje, The Cat's Table (review in next 2-3 weeks on Gogol's Overcoat)

58  Victor Pelevin, The Hall of the Singing Caryatids (good short novel)

59  Anita Desai, The Artist of Disappearance (review next month on Gogol's Overcoat)

60  Jamil Ahmad, The Wandering Falcon (review next month on Gogol's Overcoat)

61  Banana Yoshimoto, The Lake (review in 2-3 weeks on Gogol's Overcoat)

62  Eduardo Jiménez Mayo and Chris N. Brown (eds.), Three Messages and a Warning:  Contemporary Mexican Short Stories of the Fantastic (disappointing anthology)

63  Kyung-sook Shin, Please Look After Mom (review in next 2-3 weeks on Gogol's Overcoat)


Yes, more and more of the actual review content will be found on Gogol's Overcoat and, to a smaller degree, on Weird Fiction Review.  If you follow me for my reviews, I suggest bookmarking those sites and checking in 2-3 times a week.  Not much will be published here in 2012 in terms of reviews.