Sten
It's the first day of December! You know what that means - it's time to start #AdventOfBooks again
I did this last year, where I made a post every day 1-24 December about a book I'd read and enjoyed within the last couple of years.
You can find last year's list here: https://eupolicy.social/deck/@stenhaastrup/111506568985109497
(Well most of it - I broke the thread along the way)
Sten
#AdventOfBooks 2024 day 6: Secondhand Time by Svetlana Alexievich #Bookstodon
An oral history of the end of the Soviet Union, as told to the author
It's an chronicle of a bygone time, of a period of tumultuous change, and of a new normal afterwards, told through the words of ordinary people, of people who succeeded and failed in their lives under either system
Most of all it's the story of a sharp break, where people steeped in the old culture don't understand the new, and vice versa
Sten
#AdventOfBooks 2024 day 5: Regeneration by Pat Barker #Bookstodon
The (trueish) story of a mental institution in Scotland during WWI, where the resident psychiatrist treats PTSD soldiers, with the ultimate goal of getting them healed enough to return to the war.
The story roughly tracks (real) war poet Siegfried Sassoon's time at the hospital, after he's sent there for an anti-war protest, and chronicles his relationship with Wilfred Owen, and the genesis of Owen's *Anthem for Doomed Youth*
Sten
#AdventOfBooks 2024 day 4: Heimsuchung by Jenny Erpenbeck #Bookstodon
The story of a house, from when it was built in the 1800s, to after the fall of the Berlin wall. But the house is in Eastern Germany, so over the years it had many owners and visitors, who treated each other and the house well or badly, made changes as they saw fit, and let things decay or be repaired
It's a moving reflection on the importance of place, on history, and on what property and ownership means in times of flux
Sten
#AdventOfBooks 2024 Day 3: As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner #Bookstodon
The story of a poor family's travails as they try to honour their wife and mother's wish to be buried in her hometown in the US South.
It took me a bit of time to get into the book, but I really enjoyed the stream-of-consciousness narration and the cast of larger than life characters. I was expecting the book to be grotesque and macabre, but I wasn't expecting it to be as funny as I ended up finding it.
Sten
#AdventOfBooks 2024 Day 2: The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro #bookstodon
The story of the butler Stevens, and his life in service at Darlington Hall, told as he drives through England, remembering his time with the late Lord Darlington
What makes the book is the tension between what a cold and dignified Stevens narrates and what we infer must have happened, as well as what we can infer about Stevens' relationship with the people around him, and about the character of his employer
Sten
#AdventOfBooks 2024 day 1: The Berlin Stories by Christopher Isherwood #bookstodon
A collection of semi-autobiographical stories recounting life in jazz-age Berlin. They mix a close-up view of a compelling cast of characters with a backdrop of the Nazis' rise to power. Read them for the manic atmosphere of a city in decay.
And then afterwards, read the author's thoughts on the propriety of a foreigner coming to town, taking other people's stories, twisting them and making them his own.
Sten
Making these posts forced me to reflect on my reading, and try to understand what it was about each book that I liked, and for that reason alone it's definitely been worth doing! Connecting with other readers has just been a nice bonus.
I don't have a full plan for which books I'll pick this year, but I do have my reading diary handy. Strap in, grab a cup of coffee or tea, and let's get going
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