Read Women discussion

Same as last year, I will put my goal at 15 books. I have a number of WIT books that are on the top of my list, but I won't be overly strict with myself if I feel like picking up another book instead.

Adeline Dieudonne – Real Life (French)
Alia Trabucco Zeran – The Remainder (Spanish)
Olga Tokarczuk – Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead (Polish)
Han Kang - Human Acts (Korean)
√ Marjane Satrapi - The Complete Persepolis (French)
√ Maria Fernanda Ampuero - Cockfight (Spanish)
√ Adania Shibli – Minor Detail (Arabic)
√ Nathacha Appanah – Les rochers de Poudre d'Or(French)
Anna Enquist – The Masterpiece (Dutch)
√ Sayaka Murata – Earthlings (Japanese)
√ Eileen Chang – Love in a Fallen City (Chinese)
Irmgard Keun – After Midnight (German)
Isabel Allende – Daughter of Fortune (Spanish)
√ Scholastique Mukasonga – The Barefoot Woman (French)
Katarina Mazetti - Ma vie de pingouin (Swedish)
Pia Juul – The Murder of Halland (Danish)
√ Leonora Miano – Crépuscule du tourment (French)
Duanwad Pimwana – Arid Dreams (Thai)
Yoko Ogawa - Les Lectures des otages (Japanese)
√ You-Jeong Jeong - The Good Son (Korean)
√ Amelie Nothomb - Hygiene and the Assassin (French)
√ Amelie Nothomb - Loving Sabotage (French)
√ Amelie Nothomb - The Stranger Next Door (French)
√ Amelie Nothomb - Péplum (French)
√ Amelie Nothomb - Attentat (French)
√ Amelie Nothomb - Mercure (French)
Amelie Nothomb - Fear and Trembling (French)
Amelie Nothomb - The Character of Rain (French)
√ Judith Schalansky - An Inventory of Losses (German)
√ Can Xue - I Live in the Slums: Stories (Chinese)
√ Maria Stepanova - In Memory of Memory (Russian)
Nana Ekvtimishvili - The Pear Field (Georgian)
Ismat Chughtai - Lifting the Veil (Urdu)
√ Mariana Enriquez - The Dangers of Smoking in Bed: Stories (Spanish)
√ Dolores Redondo - The Invisible Guardian (Spanish)
√ Francoise Sagan - Bonjour tristesse (French)
√ Marlen Haushofer - The Wall (German)
Siri Ranva Hjelm Jacobsen - Island (Danish)
√ Mari Jungstedt - Unseen (Swedish)
√ Anne Chathrine Bomann - Agathe (Danish)
√ Djaili Amadou Amal - Les impatientes (French)

Completed the first book of my list: Scholastique Mukasonga's memoir The Barefoot Woman (my review). I really enjoyed it so it as a good start to me WiT year!

It's a great list Valerie, some I've read and really liked, others that sound fascinating. Thanks for flagging Mukasonga's book I will look out for it, I've only read Philip Gourevitch's We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families which was excellent but this sounds like a very different and important perspective.

Alwynne wrote: "It's a great list Valerie, some I've read and really liked, others that sound fascinating. Thanks for flagging Mukasonga's book I will look out for it, I've only read Philip Gourevitch's [book:We W..."

It is indeed very different from Gourevitch's book. She doesn't really address the genocide head-on in this memoir (I think her book Cockroaches does that more) and focuses more on her family's life pre-genocide. Though the threat of the genocide is always looming on the horizon in her writing, which makes the memoir even more poignant to read.

We have a lot of our lists in common this year valerie! Looking forward to hearing what you think. Do you recommend reading cockroaches before barefoot woman?

Hannah wrote: "We have a lot of our lists in common this year valerie! Looking forward to hearing what you think. Do you recommend reading cockroaches before barefoot woman?"

I haven't read cockroaches so I can't really say, but from what I gather cockroaches covers a broader time period so in that sense maybe it is a better book to start with.

Finished reading Earthlings by Sayaka Murata. It is quite a dark novel but I enjoyed it. As with Convenience Store Woman, Muraka makes a sharp critique of the social strictures within Japanese society and the alienating impact it has on individuals.

I read You-Jeong Jeong's The Good Son. It was an ok, compulsively readable thriller but nothing amazing in terms of the psychological exploration of a murderer's mind.

Finished reading Eileen Chang's collection of novellas/short stories Love in a Fallen City. They were beautifully written and subdued stories about love, that focus in on social conventions around marriage and family relationships, social status and people's inner emotional struggles. A real pleasure to read.

I wasn't keen on The Good Son either but the Eileen Chang sounds excellent will look out for it!

I finished Amelie Nothomb's Hygiène de l'assassin (Hygiene and the Assassin). It was a fun, cynical and appropriately weird story, but not one of my favourite of Nothomb's books.

I've only read (& loved) Nothomb's Stupeur et tremblements. Which others might you recommend, Valerie?

Sounds like a great read.

Story wrote: "I've only read (& loved) Nothomb's Stupeur et tremblements. Which others might you recommend, Valerie?"

Stupeur et remblements was definitely a good read. I also really enjoyed Péplum, Métaphysique des tubes and Attentat.

Book 6: Judith Schalansky - An Inventory of Losses. I am reading through the International Booker Prize longlist, which, as always, includes a number of books by women in translation. Schalansky's book is one of the longlisted novels.

This was an interesting and original read, for sure. Starting from historical objects that have disappeared or been lost, Schalansky weaves individual stories around each of these using different narrative forms. Some read like short fiction stories, while others read like memoirs or non-fiction essays. I started reading them in the English translation but then switched to the Dutch translation - both translations were good but I personally liked the Dutch more as I felt the language was more playful.

Book 7 : Mariana Enriquez - The Dangers of Smoking in Bed: Stories

I was hesitant to pick this up as I had heard that Enriquez writing could be a bit 'gross'. However, that was not my experience at all reading this short story collection. For sure, it draws on the horror genre, fused in with the gothic, but I never felt it was over the top and I liked the moods Enriquez created in her stories. It is a mixture of the horrible, the unexpected, the otherworldly and an exploration of personal and social anxieties. I can quite see myself returning to some of these stories as I feel there is more to explore to them than what I got out of a first reading.

It sounds intriguing, I'm not good with 'gross' i.e. lots of bodily fluids etc which put me off trying these. But it sounds as if it has more going for it than I'd thought.

Alwynne wrote: "It sounds intriguing, I'm not good with 'gross' i.e. lots of bodily fluids etc which put me off trying these. But it sounds as if it has more going for it than I'd thought."

I am also not a big fan of gross descriptions but I found it was manageable in this book. There isn't too much in it and where there is it is skilfully used to create a sense of dread and eeriness rather than with the aim of provoking shock and horror.

Book 8 : Can Xue - I Live in the Slums: Stories

This short story collection was a challenge. To be honest, I think most of it went well over my head. The stories are very absurdist, experimental, diaphanous, dreamlike and with no real plot or linear narrative. Individually, I didn't 'get' any of the stories. However, there is a distinctive feel to the collection as a whole which somehow makes it work. The stories have some common themes and moods to them, such as disembodiment, selfhood, liminality and urbanity. It was an interesting book but I wouldn't say I particularly enjoyed the reading.

Book 9 : Amelie Nothomb - Loving Sabotage

Finished my second Amelie Nothomb for this year. I absolutely loved this one: 4.5 stars. Here is my review

Books 10-14: I haven't been updating my WIT readings here for a while now but over the past months I have finished a few more books on my tbr.

Marjane Satrapi - The Complete Persepolis
Worth all the accolades it has been receiving. A wonderful memoir about resilience, migration, love and a nuanced view of life in Iran since the revolution.

Dolores Redondo - The Invisible Guardian
An enjoyable and well-plotted crime fiction (with a female lead character!) set in the Spanish Basque country.

Francoise Sagan - Bonjour tristesse
Can't believe it has taken me so long to finally read this novella. I absolutely loved its portrayal of a young, naive and emotionally detached teenager, whose actions have some devastating consequences. The use of the vouvoyer between her and some of the adults read a bit strangely to me, but otherwise I liked the airiness of Sagan's writing style.

Finally, I have also reread two further Amelie Nothomb novels: The Stranger Next Door and Péplum. The Stranger Next Door was another corker!

Looks like your WiT reading year has been quite enjoyable, Valerie. Thanks for the nudge to read more by Amelie Nothomb!

Thanks for the update Valerie, really interesting and hadn't come across the Redondo before you read it so looking forward to exploring her work further.

I have Bonjour tristesse in my bedside stack - you’ve helped bump it up!

An end of year update on my progress with this challenge: I have read 5 more WIT and a 3 books in French which haven't been translated into English yet but which I think really should.

Book 15: Marie Fernanda Ampuero - Cockfight
A bleak collection of short stories which offer an unflinching and bitter look at family life and gender relations. The stories are dark, infused with pain, an outrage at toxic masculinity.

Book 16: Marlen Haushofer - The Wall
See here for my review

Book 17: Mari Jungstedt - Unseen
An entertaining nordic crime fiction

Book 18: Adania Shibli - Minor Detail
An emotionally powerful novella about living under occupation, in particular the anxieties and un-rootedness it creates and the absence/destruction of collective memory of past violence.

Book 19: Anne Cathrine Bomann - Agathe
A charming little novella about a psychologist nearing retirement who, after he reluctantly takes on a new client who has lost the will to live, refinds a connection to himself and the world around him.

Book 20: Leonora Miano - Crépuscule du tourment
One of my favourite reads of this year, and can't wait to dive into the second volume. Miano is fast becoming one of my favourite writers. Here is my review in French

Book 21: Nathacha Appanah - Les rochers de Poudre d'Or
I enjoy reading Appanah because she is such a great chronicler of Mauritius' history. This, her debut novel, wasn't as good as The Last Brother, but the topic of the novel was fascinating as it is a part of history I am aware of but do not know much about: the emigration of Indians to Mauritius in colonial times. Here is my review in French.

Book 22: Djaili Amadou Amal - Les impatientes
This novel won the Prix Orange du Livre en Afrique. It is a harrowing story about the plight of Fulani women in Cameroon, as they face forced marriage, polygamy and sexual violence. Heartbreaking read.

And finally I have read two more Amelie Nothomb books (I don't think either have been translated into English): Attentat and Mercure. Both were very much an exploration of 'sick minds'. Of the two, I enjoyed Attentat more because of its critique of how we, as individuals and society, engage with beauty and physical disfiguration. Mercure deals more with love as obsession, a theme I am seeing come back in several of Nothomb's novels but which I realise always leaves me feeling unsettled because she portrays such disturbing characters.