Books, books and more books…

I spent ten days in Holland, came back last Sunday. This is the book-harvest of my trip:

This morning I took up my writing hours again and I enjoyed it. I try make one or two hours time each morning to write blogposts or emails. I still have a couple of reviews to write and tons of emails to answer (I am hopeless when it comes to writing emails) so those hours are usually well spent.

Russian Reading Challenge 2008

Sharon at Ex Libris came up with the perfect challenge for me: Reading at least four books by Russian authors or about Russia(ns) during 2008. The rules are simple and there is plenty of flexibility:

- Read at least four books by Russian authors or about Russia and/or Russians between January 1, 2008 and December 31, 2008.

- You can read fiction, non-fiction, poetry and short stories.

-You don’t need to have a fixed list of books you will read beforhand and you can add during the year as well.

Sharon set up a special blog for this challenge where participants will post their reviews.

I will try to read all the books on my list, but I will read at least four of them. Right now my list looks like this (but as you can see from the updates it is continually growing):

Orlando Figes – Natasha’s Dance: A Cultural History of Russia
Orlando Figes – The Whisperers
Vassily Aksyonov – Generations of Winter
Anne Applebaum – Gulag
Mary Buckley (ed.) – Post-Soviet Women: From the Baltic to Central Asia
Corine de Vries – Dansen in een strafkamp: Reportages uit Rusland en buurlanden (Dancing in a prisoner camp: Reports from Russia and its neighboring countries; Essays and reports of a Dutch journalist in Moscow)
Anna Brouwer – Land van gebroken beloftes: Dochters van Rusland (Land of Broken Promises: Daughters of Russia; A combination of travel report and the personal history of four generations of Russian women).
Simon Sebag Montefiore – Young Stalin
Lev Tolstoy – Childhood, Boyhood and Youth
Pieter Waterdrinker – Montagne Russe
Peter d’Hamecourt – Russen zien ze vliegen
These last two books are both written by Dutch journalists who have lived in Russia for many, many years. Part essays, part their experiences, part “a short history of post-Soviet Russia”.

The books that are not in English are in my native language Dutch.

These are all books on my TBR-mountain, so this challenge is a great way of cutting a dent in that pile and I will read these books for sure. But I guess that it is very likely that in time other Russia-related books will find its way on the mountain. Also, it might be a good moment to reread Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, give Bunin a reread and maybe some other 19th century writers as well. Oh, and I have Boris Akunin on my want-to-read list. I’ve never read anything by him and am getting kind of curious. Going through the lists of the other participants reminded me of so many books I have that I should reread and that fit the challenge. I might even try my hand at reading a novel in Russian again, to brush up on my novel reading skills. This is only if I feel up to it, it might just stay wishful dreaming.So chances are very good that I will add to the list over time.

I am so looking forward to New Year’s Day!

Updated on November 27 to add The Whisperers.
Updated on December 4 to add Gulag and Post-Soviet Women.
Updated on January 18 to add Young Stalin, Tolstoy, Montagne Russe and Peter d’Hamecourt.

“In their shoes” Reading Challenge

There’s another reading challenge for next year that is entirely up my alley: the “In Their Shoes” Challenge. Again, the rules are simple: You have to read biographies, autobiographies or memoirs and you pick the amount of books you want to read. The challenge starts on January 1, 2008 and ends December 31, 2008.

I have two memoirs lined up on my TBR-shelf already, so those I will read anyway. I have a couple more on my wishlist, so I will try to get hold of them during the year. The two definites on my list are:

* Black Dog of Fate by Peter Balakian. A memoir of an Armenian-American who learns about his heritage and about the genocide that happened to his ancestors at the beginning of the 20th century. Technically, this is a reread for me, as I read it this past summer. But it is so incredibly rich in content and so well written that I really want to read it again. I didn’t get around to write a review the first time, so I’ll discuss it for the first time for the challenge.

* Iran Awakening by Shirin Ebadi. She is a human rights lawyer from Iran and in 2003 won the Nobel Peace Price for her work.

I have one other book on my TBR-pile that I am not sure yet really is a memoir. I want to read it next year anyway, and if it fits, I will include it in my challenge list. The book is called “Ararat” by Dutch journalist and writer Frank Westerman (the book is in my native language Dutch). The book recounts the author’s search for what meaning the religion he grew up with has for him and what place it has in his life.

Shortly before I found out about this challenge, I read the memoirs of Queen Noor of Jordan. I posted a review of that here. Also, over the summer I read an anthology with excerpts from memoirs and autobiographies of women. I wrote a review which I still haven’t posted for some reason. I will put that up as inspiration for other participants. The collection was wonderful and very inspirational. I added lots of the authors to my wishlist!

Updated on January 18: Additions to the list are Young Stalin by Simon Sebag Montefiore (to double for the Russian Reading Challenge), The Mitford Sisters by Mary S. Lovell (to double for the Chunkster Challenge) and Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi.

Chunkster Challenge 2008

I don’t remember exactly where, but I think it was on Eva’s blog that I found out about the Chunkster Challenge 2008, hosted by AM over at So many books, so little time. Since I am already going to read some big books for my Russian Reading Challenge and counting the same book for multiple challenges is allowed, I figured I could just as well join the Chunkster Challenge.

These are the rules:

To qualify the book must be 450 pps regular type OR 750 pps large text.

You must read FOUR chunksters, you OBVIOUSLY may read more

The Challenge will run Jan 7th, 2008 – Dec 20th, 2008. BUT any chunkster started after Jan 1 qualifies.

Sharing reviews mandatory, format still to be determined.

There is a sign-up deadline of March 1st, so tell your friends and neighbors but only until then.

You don’t have to make a set list–or you can and you can change it later–no big deal.

A large volume of compiled work (such as LOTR in one volume) TOTALLY COUNTS.

Please by all means DO cross-over with other challenges.

For my Russian Reading Challenge I have these chunksters on my list op options anyway:

Orlando Figes – Natasha’s Dance: A Cultural History of Russia
Orlando Figes – The Whisperers
Vassily Aksyonov – Generations of Winter
Anne Applebaum – Gulag

I have some other chunksters on my TBR-shelf, one of them is Don Quixote with close to 1000 pages, and others may appear there in the course of the year. So I don’t want to commit myself to a set list yet. I will see where my mood takes me.

I need to finish the two books I am reading right now first, because I have to give them back to my parents in Holland when I visit them next week, but after that I am going to start a challenge-book. I am so looking forward to 2008, because it promises to be a very good reading year judging by my TBR-pile!

Updated on January 18: The mountain of possibilitie is growing. New additions to the TBR-pile that would count towards this challenge are the three separate novels that make up Naguib Mahfouz‘ The Cairo Trilogy (Palace Walk, Palace of Desire and Sugar Street – if I counted right each of the three novels is a chunkster by itself), Rafik Schami’s De duistere kant van de liefde (The dark side of love – the original is in German, I have the Dutch translation. I don’t know if this author has ever been translated into English. This book is set in Syria), The Mitford Girls by Mary S. Lovell and at home I already had Pity the Nation by Robert Fisk (a modern history of Lebanon) which I´d forgotten to mention.

Yesterday I started reading The Whisperers, which counts towards this challenge and towards the Russian Reading Challenge. I am already enjoying the book because it is so well written.

A sign of life

I am not posting much, because I am in Holland visiting family and friends and “doing chores”. The first part is obvious, the “chores” are things like getting my passport and driver’s licence renewed, going to the dentist, having my eyes checked, buying new shoes and clothes (uh yes, for me that is a chore) and (the best of all :-p) stacking up on books. Because of lack of time and annoying internet connection, I don’t feel like posting much.

I manage to fit some reading in. I finished the Madeline Albright book in the sidebar and I am currently reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. My brother’s girlfriend gave it to me to read while I am in Holland. I started yesterday and have another 150 pages to go, so yes, I guess she was right.;-)

I’ve never been one for homesickness or missing places, but I have to admit I do miss home in Armenia: I miss my apartment, I miss my boyfriend and I miss the cats. I’ll be happy to be back home in a few days.

I’ll return to Armenia on Sunday evening, so I should be back here early next week with some reviews and a picture of all the books I’m taking back home with me. Until then, don’t expect too much from me.

Oh! I almost forgot some great news: I won Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman in Eva’s New Year’s giveaway! And the TBR-mountain keeps on growing…

Update: It’s about four hours later and I finished HP about half an hour ago.