I am halfway through Force of Circumstance, the 3rd volume of Simone de Beauvoir's autobiography (№ 26). The idea was to finish it before sharing a new reading list. Beauvoir's life story is interesting but this volume has its flaws: Sometimes she's too concerned with setting the record straight and often it feels as if Jean-Paul Sartre is the main subject. Obviously, their lives intertwined, but I'm interested in her story, in her writing, not the content of Sartre's political articles in Les Temps Modernes or the plot of his plays. Speaking of politics. The book has plenty, sometimes to the point of being tedious or exhausting. Depending on my mood. On a positive note, Beauvoir travels all over the world and is a keen observer of people and landscapes. Those narratives, her books, and how they were received makes this volume worth reading, so far.
Bookmarks & journal notes
Books I recently bought:
✔ Philip Roth: The Biography by Blake Bailey
✔ The Radetzky March by Joseph Roth
... added to my wish list:
✔ A Splendid Intelligence: The Life of Elizabeth Hardwick by Cathy Curtis
... added to my TBR:
✔ Hannah Arendt by Samantha Rose Hill
✔ This Little Art by Kate Briggs
✔ Endpapers: A Family Story of Books, War, Escape and Home by Alexander Wolff
... want to read again:
✔ The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
Bookish joy:
✔ Recently the 2021 International Booker Prize longlist was announced, containing the authors and translators of 13 books published in the UK or Ireland. I have yet to read any of them but was pleased to see among them In Memory of Memory by Russian poet and writer Maria Stepanova. It was translated by Sasha Dugdale. It so happens that in a recent blog entry I featured the US cover. Later in April, they announce the shortlist and in June the winner.
Recommended podcast:
▶ The 135th Backlisted episode was superb. They featured the novel The Fish Can Sing (1957) by the Icelandic writer Halldór Laxness (1902-1998), who received the 1955 Nobel Prize. Its Icelandic title is 'Brekkukotsannáll', which literally translates 'The Annals of Brekkukot [Hill cottage]'. This time the guest on the podcast was the British novelist and poet Derek Owusu. If you happen to understand Icelandic you can listen to Laxness himself reading his novel on RÚV, the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service.
✔ Philip Roth: The Biography by Blake Bailey
✔ The Radetzky March by Joseph Roth
... added to my wish list:
✔ A Splendid Intelligence: The Life of Elizabeth Hardwick by Cathy Curtis
... added to my TBR:
✔ Hannah Arendt by Samantha Rose Hill
✔ This Little Art by Kate Briggs
✔ Endpapers: A Family Story of Books, War, Escape and Home by Alexander Wolff
... want to read again:
✔ The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
Bookish joy:
✔ Recently the 2021 International Booker Prize longlist was announced, containing the authors and translators of 13 books published in the UK or Ireland. I have yet to read any of them but was pleased to see among them In Memory of Memory by Russian poet and writer Maria Stepanova. It was translated by Sasha Dugdale. It so happens that in a recent blog entry I featured the US cover. Later in April, they announce the shortlist and in June the winner.
Recommended podcast:
▶ The 135th Backlisted episode was superb. They featured the novel The Fish Can Sing (1957) by the Icelandic writer Halldór Laxness (1902-1998), who received the 1955 Nobel Prize. Its Icelandic title is 'Brekkukotsannáll', which literally translates 'The Annals of Brekkukot [Hill cottage]'. This time the guest on the podcast was the British novelist and poet Derek Owusu. If you happen to understand Icelandic you can listen to Laxness himself reading his novel on RÚV, the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service.
image by me, appeared on Instagram 19/03/21
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