Welcome to my weekly Saturday feature here at Erin Reads, where I highlight new books that have entered my life, what I’ve been reading, and what’s happened on Erin Reads over the past week.
New Acquisitions
Today’s vlog: all the books I picked up during my trip home for Thanksgiving!
Novels by Indian authors (I’m hoping to read more of these this year):
- The Age of Shiva by Manil Suri: A novel about a 17-year-old Indian girl.
- A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry: A story set in India in the 1970s and compared to Dickens.
- The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar: I didn’t like the first two Umrigar books I read, but people say this is their favorite, so I’m giving it a shot!
- Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese: Recommended by my sister, this was the only book I didn’t pick up from the clearance shelf.
Historical fiction:
- A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell: A young girl and her father flee to Italy in 1943 to escape the Nazis.
- Brigid of Kildare by Heather Terrell: The story of St. Brigid, this novel alternates between contemporary and historical story lines.
- The Lady Elizabeth by Alison Weir: This novel centers on Elizabeth Tudor.
Miscellaneous:
- Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison: I picked this one up for my classics project.
- Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner: This came so highly recommended by JoAnn at Lakeside Musing I couldn’t not pick it up!
- Snow by Orhan Pamuk: After struggling through The Black Book by Pamuk, I’m ready for another challenge!
- A Sonata for Miriam by Linda Olsson: I loved Astrid and Veronika, so I’m looking forward to Olsson’s newer novel.
- Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat: A novel about Haiti.
- The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen: I’m starting with this one instead of Freedom because I found it first!
Read This Week
This week was a slow week for me (again!). My sister and I tacked a visit onto the end of our trip home for Thanksgiving, so while I acquired a ton of books, I didn’t get many read. I’m about half way through both The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis and Unexpectedly, Milo by Matthew Dicks. I’m enjoying both and hope to finish them next week.
On audio, I’m still listening to Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork, which I read about on The Zen Leaf. I like it, though the reader speaks a bit slowly.
Erin Reads Recap
- In my Sunday Salon post, I looked ahead to my December reading and shared one of my favorite Christmas songs.
- On Monday I reviewed Stranger Here Below by Joyce Hinnefeld. I didn’t think I’d like the book at first, but by the end, I found myself really enjoying it.
- Tuesday I posted my fourth and final post for Trish’s The Odyssey readalong!
- I shared some of the classics I retrieved from my parents’ house over Thanksgiving in preparation for my classics project.
- On Thursday, I finally unveiled my Classics Reclamation Project (C.R.P.)! I’m quite excited for my project and am still looking for recommendations. You can see my current list here.
- Finally, yesterday, I shared my thoughts on The Black Book by Orhan Pamuk, which I read for the World Party Reading Challenge. It was challenging, but worth it!
Your Turn!
How was your reading week? Do tell!
I loved The Space Between Us; it’s the only Umrigar novel I’ve read (and that was pre-blogging), so I hope you like it! A Fine Balance is intense…I read it earlier this year, and I’m still not sure how I feel about it. 😉
That’s so interesting you included Abraham Verghese in Indian authors! I think ‘the Indian diaspora’ would be an awesome reading theme, don’t you? (Of course, I also contemplate reading themes on ‘the Chinese diaspora’ and ‘the Japanese diaspora’…I just have a thing for immigration I guess.)
I love the two Danticat books I’ve read! Haven’t gotten to Breath Eyes Memory yet, but I think I bought it at a library sale, so it’s patiently waiting for me on the shelves. 😉
I guess technically Verghese isn’t an Indian author. His parents are from the same state in India as my husband, so in my mind he’s inextricably tied to India! That would indeed be an interesting reading theme.
I have so many books patiently waiting on shelves! I really need to have a month of just reading from my shelves. Between used book sales and the library, I never get any of my own books read!
I’m sadly not in a place where I can listen to the vlog today, so sadly I have to just read the post. 🙁
I have Breath Eyes Memory on my shelf and can’t wait to get to it! It’ll be my first Danticat. There’s another by Manil Suri that I’ve wanted to read for a long time though now I can’t remember which one it is. Umrigar is on my radar too.
Have a great week!! 🙂
That’s ok, that’s why I bother to type a little info out!
Breath Eyes Memory will be my first Danticat too. I hear it’s good! I hope you have a lovely week as well 🙂
I bought yesterday a copy of “Snow” for one of my friend ! Some time ago, I read “My name is Red”, also by Orhan Pahmuk, which I found awesome !
This week, I bought two books by Laurent Gaudé, a french author. Le soleil des Scorta (the House of the Scorta), a chronicle of a southern Italian family in 19th and 20th century, and Ouragan (not translated yet in english) about the Katrina hurricane. Also bought books by Colombe Schneck. And I received a copy of “Wonder boys” by Michael Chabon for review.
And finally, I ordered Stranger Here Below, after reading your review !
What a coincidence! My sister-in-law told me “My Name is Red” is her favorite Pamuk novel, and I have a copy that I bought while I was with her. I think it’ll be my next Pamuk novel, most likely. I’m glad you enjoyed it!
Le Soleil des Scorta and Ouragan both sound fascinating! I’ve not heard of either. I’ve always meant to read Michael Chabon but haven’t gotten to him yet. It sounds like you’ve gotten some good stuff!
I really hope you enjoy Stranger Here Below!! Let me know what you think 🙂
Hurray, you got Crossing to Safety! Hope you love it as much as I did. So many other fabulous books today – A Fine Balance, Cutting For Stone, The Corrections. Just received my first Pamuk book this week, and would love to read Danticat and Umrigar, too.
Your review totally sold me! I hope I love it as much too. The way you wrote about it made me think I will. Glad to hear some of the others I picked up are good as well! I’ll be interested to hear what you think of Pamuk, whenever you get to it!
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Thanks for stopping by, Sheri. I hope you have a wonderful holiday as well 🙂
A Fine Balance sounds fascinating.
I’m also re-reading the Narnia series at the moment, and it’s certainly interesting going. I’m finding myself biting my tongue at his very old-fashioned (and very religious) perspectives!
My reading this week has involved some Salley Vickers, some YA, and some foodie reading, and next week will be largely stuff I need to review for publishers, so another YA, a mystery, and possibly a paranormal romance (if I’m in the mood for PNR, which I rarely am!)
I’ve been deliberately turning a blind eye to some of the potentially prickly parts of Narnia. I am enjoying the stories and trying not to let those themes bug me! I never read the stories as a child, but I think I would have enjoyed them.
It sounds like you have a wide variety of reading on your plate. How fun! Enjoy!
These are some great finds. “The Age of Shiva” looks really interesting and I have not read many books by Indian authors. Also “Brigid of Kildare” looks very cool too. I have always had a fascination with the female saints and I can’t wait to check this one out. Thanks for sharing your list!
I don’t know much about the female saints, so I’m looking forward to Brigid of Kildare! Thanks for stopping by.
I have read A Fine Balance, Age of Shiva and The Space Between Us and have loved them all – hope you do too.
I had a lot of difficulty with Snow and finally left it in a hotel while traveling and took that as as sign that I wasn’t meant to finish it!
have a good week!
Excellent, I’m glad to hear you loved those three! I’m really looking forward to them.
I’m hearing really mixed things about Snow. I’d say that was definitely a sign for you! Too funny! I guess I’ll see what happens to my copy once I start reading it!
Seeing all the adds for the latest Narnia movie really made me want to read the series. I started it once when I was little, but got distracted by sequels to the Little House series.
I read Invisible Man a little over two years ago, and it’s a book that I still think about today. Definitely left an impression, which is strange because I remember thinking the book was just okay when I finished it.
Alison Weir is an author I also collect. Her biographies are just fascinating. Lately, though, I’ve been buying them and not reading them. Whoops.
I think it helps me that I have all seven books bound together in one massive volume! It feels more like I’m reading one book instead of a series. I can see, though, how one could get distracted. I was surprised to find that all the books take place in Narnia without really leaving you hanging from one book to the next.
That’s happened to me with a few books–I don’t think much of them at the time, yet they unexpectedly stay with me long after I’ve read them.
I’ve yet to read Weir, though I now own two of her novels! I’ve heard her biographies are really good as well. I, too, have a bad habit of buying more than I can actually read!
A Fine Balance is one of my all time favorite books and it is just a superior read. I can’t wait to hear what you think of it. I also have read a lot of Thrity Umrigar’s work, but haven’t read this one yet. I am hoping that you like it better than the other two you’ve read! I also hope that you enjoy The Corrections. Very good book, but sort of strange at times!
Awesome, I can’t wait to get to it! I hope I like The Space Between Us, too. I’ve never heard anyone speak ill of it, so my fingers are crossed! I can handle strange, as long as it’s good strange, if you know what I mean 🙂