January 2022 Reading Roundup
I had a good reading month, including a few books from my trip to a Barbadian bookshop, plus a couple for the Japanese Literary Challenge. Here are the details.
The Joy of Bookshops
I recently visited a bookshop for the first time in ages. Browsing the shelves, picking up books at random, reading back covers and ruffling through the pages was a true joy.
Best Books I Read in 2021
In another difficult year, books once again brought me solace. Here's a roundup of my best books of 2021 (these are the best books I read this year, not the best ones that were published this year).
Crimson by Niviaq Korneliussen
Five chapters. Five narrators. Five different experiences of being young Greenlanders trying to navigate the complex territory of gender and sexual identity. That's the basic setup of Crimson by Niviaq Korneliussen, a compelling novel first written and published in Greenlandic…
The Imaginary Lives of James Poneke by Tina Makereti
Set in Aotearoa and London some time in the 19th century, Tina Makereti's excellent novel tells the story of a Maori boy who makes his way to London, where he is exhibited in an artist's show. But he soon begins…
April 2021 Reading Roundup
Spring is here: storks on the electricity poles, calves in the fields, and suddenly a million things to do around the house and garden. Full-time travel around the 50 countries of Europe was, in some ways, less consuming of time…
The Vastness of the Dark by Alistair MacLeod
The Vastness of the Dark seems to be a quite simple tale about a young man escaping from the confines of his family to find freedom, but it becomes something more complex in the last few pages.
February/March 2021 Reading Roundup
I missed my monthly reading roundup in February, so here are two months together. As you’ll see, they were dominated by one huge book: Marcel Proust’s seven-volume, 3,000-page masterpiece. But I managed to squeeze in a few more good books…
Best Books I Read in 2020
There’s a quote by Alice Walker that I love: “When I was a child, I read books for entertainment and information; I now think of books as lifeboats.” 2020 was a year when I reached for the lifeboats more often…