The first book I read was Farther Away by Jonathan Franzen. Franzen tends to be a rather polemic writer and as I was reading I felt a kind of… tension within myself, from piece to piece, that was interesting (if a little off-putting). I adored the title essay, an exploration of his grief following the death of his friend David Foster Wallace – in fact, I like every time he mentions Wallace. By unpicking their relationship, and he’s unafraid of examing his own failings of personality, I got the sense of two things a) he is a very loyal friend b) he is a hard one, too. His unfliching honesty is compelling.
The shortlist of the Man Booker Prize was just released and I know there were several tweets or mentions of disappointment that The Blazing World by Siri Hustvedt was not among the titles and I can see why (note: it was longlisted). I’m halfway through and it is quite magnificent (then again, Hustvedt is magnificent. Period.).
The Secret Lives of Great Authors by Robert Schnakenberg was one of those ‘see it on the library shelf and grab it, what the hell’ finds. As the cover (and it’s cartoon captions) suggest, it is full of gossipy anecdotes and stories about literature’s greats. Most rooted in truth, I’m sure, but certainly not enough to, say, use as a source for an essay or thesis quote. But it’s fun.
These are on the ‘to read pile’. I only really know about Twenty One Nights in July because Ianto happened to be talking about this book in the Caravan Conversations session I attended at the Melbourne Writers Festival. It sounded interesting, and I’ve always wanted to know more about the Tour de France. Every year when it comes on, I feel hopelessly uneducated about it and – like many people – the first thing I think about when it comes to the tour, apart from cycling, is Lance Armstrong. There’s so much more to it than that!
The cover for Madness: A Memoir by Kate Richards recently won the 2014 ABDA Book Design Award for best designed Non-Fiction book. I’ve not started yet, but I have heard good things about it.
I’ve heard good things about The Signature of all Things by Elizabeth Gilbert, too. It’s been out for a few years now and it’s taken me this long to work up some courage to try it because I still feel ‘burned’ by Eat, Pray, Love (I didn’t connect with it at all).
What are you reading this month?
Note: aff links
