May-June 2013 Reads

Been a bit of a slacker these past couple of months, both in updating this blog and in listing my monthly reads, so here are the May and June 2013 books read.

May:

133  Ildefonso Falcones, La reina descalza (Spanish; good)

134  James Kelman, Mo Said She Was Quirky (good)

135  Zoran Živković, Nađi Me (Serbian; review in the near future)

136  Zoran Živković, Find Me (review forthcoming)

137  Nathalie Sarraute, Tropismes (French; very good)

138  F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (already reviewed; re-read)

139  Juan Carlos Onetti, Cuando entonces (Spanish; very good)

140  Sjón, The Whispering Muse (very good)

141  Tommy Wieringa, Little Caesar (IMPAC Award finalist, but I liked this one the least out of the ten)

142  Javier Marías, Los enamoramientos (Spanish; re-read; excellent)

143  F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tender is the Night (already reviewed)

144  Amparo Dávila, Cuentos reunidos (Spanish; collection; very good)

145  Mike Allen (ed.), Clockwork Phoenix 1 (anthology; very good)

146  Mike Allen (ed.), Clockwork Phoenix 2 (re-read; anthology; excellent)

147  Mike Allen (ed.), Clockwork Phoenix 3 (anthology; very good)

148  Mike Allen (ed.), Clockwork Phoenix 4 (anthology; very good)

149  Bradford Morrow (ed.), Conjunctions 60:  In Absentia (anthology; very good)

150  Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Americanah (review in near future)

151  Helene Wecker, The Golem and the Jinni (excellent; listed it in my mid-year notable list)

152  W.S. Merwin, Collected Poems 1952-1993 (Library of America edition; very good)

153  Sofia Samatar, A Stranger in Olondria (uneven in places, but mostly very good)

154  John Williams, Stoner (very good)

155  Karen Joy Fowler, We are all Completely Beside Ourselves (might write a review later, but just in case I don't, it too is one of my mid-year list inclusions)


June:

156  Sjón, From the Mouth of the Whale (re-read; already reviewed)

157  Haruki Murakami, 1Q84 (re-read; already reviewed)

158  Brooks D. Simpson (ed.), The Civil War:  The Third Year Told by Those Who Lived It (non-fiction; excellent; Library of America edition)

159  Marguerite Duras, Four Novels (ranges from very good to excellent)

160  William L. Shea and Terrence J. Winschel, Vicksburg is the Key:  The Struggle for the Mississippi River (non-fiction; very good)

161  Voltaire, Romans de Voltaire (French; almost all the novels were very good, a few excellent)

162  Neil Gaiman, The Ocean at the End of the Lane (review in near future)

163  J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fall of Arthur (already reviewed)

164  Jean-Marie Blas de Robles, Là où les tigres sont chez aux (French; review of this and the English translation should be in the near future)

165  Sinan Antoon, The Corpse Washer (outstanding; review in near future)

166  José Ovejero, La invención del amor (2013 Premio Alfaguara winner; made my mid-year list; excellent)

167  Luigi Pirandello, Sei personaggi in cerca d'autore (Italian; very good)

168 Leonardo Sciascia, Il mare colore del vino (Italian; re-read; very good)

169  Manuel Abreu Adorno, Llegaron los hippies/And the Hippies Came (bilingual Spanish-English edition; excellent; might review in future)

170  J.M.G. Le Clézio, Désert (French; very good)

171  J.M.G. Le Clézio, Desert (very good)

172  José Donoso, El lugar sin límites (Spanish; good)

173  Gloria Fuertes, Obras incompletas (Spanish; poetry; very good)

174  Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, The Answer/La respuesta (bilingual; non-fiction; very good)

175  Tahar Ben Jelloun, Corruption (very good)

176  Rosario Ferré, Las puertas del placer (Spanish; non-fiction; re-read; very good)

177  Laura Restrepo, Demasiados héroes (Spanish; re-read; good)

178  Steven Erikson, This River Awakens (likely review in near future)

179  Milorad Pavić, Sedam smrtnih grehova (Serbian; re-read; very good)

180  Milorad Pavić, Siete pecados capitales (Spanish; re-read; very good)

181  [redacted] (enjoyed it quite a bit, but book hasn't yet been published in galley form)


So, with six months passed, I have made this amount of progress on my year goals:

181/366 books read (exactly 1 book/day pace so far; right on target)

64/181 books (co-)written by women (goal is at least 1/3; 35% so far, so slightly above pace)

Foreign language:  57/100 (above pace by 7)

Spanish:  27/50 (above pace by 2)


Hopefully, July will be a better reading month, as I seem to have found a bit more energy for reading the past week or so.  Won't make promises regarding activity here, but I wouldn't be surprised if there are a few more posts than there were in June.  As usual, feel free to ask questions regarding listed books or comment on the ones you've already read yourself.