2013 women challenge

[qimissung]

Oh dear, it appears I'm spreading misinformation. She isn't Canadian. I was only saying I'd like to read more female authors as well. I highly recommend her work though. She is one of my favourite authors.

No worries, islandclimber; you have corrected the error, and thanks to Google (and Fifth ) it's easy to find out her country of origin.

I don't know how many I'll read, but at the very least I'd like to add a couple of women writer's to my list of books to read.

[TheFifthElement]

Wasted Morning: A Novel ~ Gabriela Adamesteanu
The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie: Three Novels ~ Ágota Kristóf (Looking forward to this one most)
Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book ~ Maxine Hong Kingston
NP ~ Banana Yoshimoto
The Funeral Party ~ Lyudmila Ulitskaya
The Slynx ~ Tatyana Tolstaya
Nights at the Circus ~ Angela Carter
Heroes and Villains ~ Angela Carter
Like ~ Ali Smith
Netsuke ~ Rikki Ducornet
Phosphor in Dreamland ~ Rikki Ducornet
The Life and Adventures of Trobadora Beatrice as Chronicled by Her Minstrel Laura: A Novel in Thirteen Books and Seven Intermezzos ~ Irmtraud Morgner
The Piano Teacher ~ Elfriede Jelinek
The Wall ~ Marlen Haushofer
They is Us ~ Tama Janowitz
The Male Cross-Dresser Support Group ~ Tama Janowitz
Nightwood ~ Djuna Barnes
Grotesque ~ Natsuo Kirino
Geek Love ~ Katherine Dunn

Looks like an excellent list. I've read NP by Banana Yoshimoto and it's pretty good. If you like Japanese writers, and want to read more female writers, I can recommend Yoko Ogawa. I read The Housekeeper and the Professor last year and it is quite a wonderful book. Heroes and Villains is an excellent book too.

I finished my first book which was The Purple Shroud by Stella Duffy. It was an enjoyable read, but not anywhere near as good as Theodora or State of Happiness (which is about as sad as book as you can read). A little disappointing, and repetitive in places. But overall a good read.

Next on the list for me is The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt. I'm very much looking forward to this one.

[TheFifthElement]

* Update *

1. The Purple Shroud by Stella Duffy - 3.75/5
2. The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt - 10/5

The Last Samurai: witty, intelligent, mad and brilliant. The absolute best book I've read in ages.

[Annamariah]

Most books I read are already written by female authors, so perhaps I should rather try a male author challenge for a while? I'm not consciously picking up only books written by females, but I guess the topics that interest me most are usually written about by women. The last book I read (finished it today) was The Shadow Wife by Diane Chamberlain. It was the third book by her I've read so far (the two previous ones being Breaking the Silence and The Midwife's Confession), and even though she's not one of my favourite writers, I like her well enough and probably will read more of her books if I happen to come across them at the library.

Another book by a female author I've read this year was Captain Wentworth's Persuasion by Regina Jeffers. It is a re-telling of Jane Austen's Persuasion, but it is written from Captain Wentworth's point of view and continues the story longer than Austen's original. I'd already read Darcy's Passions by the same author before, which is a re-telling of Pride and Prejudice through Mr Darcy's eyes. I'm a huge Jane Austen fan, and I enjoyed both books immensely

[TheFifthElement]

*Update*

1. The Purple Shroud by Stella Duffy 3.75/5
2. The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt 10/5
3. Chérie by Colette 3.75/5

[islandclimber]

*Update*

1. The Purple Shroud by Stella Duffy 3.75/5
2. The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt 10/5
3. Chérie by Colette 3.75/5

10/5... So I'm assuming this was a wild and crazy experience full of recklessly beautiful dreams?

[TheFifthElement]

10/5... So I'm assuming this was a wild and crazy experience full of recklessly beautiful dreams?

It was exactly that also very intriguing and clever and funny. I even learned a little Greek. Can't recommend it enough.

[TheFifthElement]

*Update*

1. The Purple Shroud by Stella Duffy 3.75/5
2. The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt 10/5
3. Chérie by Colette 3.75/5
4. A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan - 4.5/5

[Scheherazade]

1. Marina Lewycka ~ A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian 7/10

2. Joanne Harris ~ Gentlemen and Players 7/10

[TheFifthElement]

*Update*

1. The Purple Shroud by Stella Duffy 3.75/5
2. The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt 10/5
3. Chérie by Colette 3.75/5
4. A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan - 4.5/5
5. Almost Innocent by Sheila Bosworth 4.5/5

[Scheherazade]

4. A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan - 4.5/5

Read this one last year and did not care much about it. I liked how she structured the story but thought there wasn't much of a story in the first place.

Probably gave it a (generous) 3.

What did you like about it, Fifth?

[islandclimber]

1. Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book ~ Maxine Hong Kingston 4.25/5
2. The Slynx ~ Tatyana Tolstaya 5/5
3. Grotesque ~ Natsuo Kirino 4/5
4. Phosphor in Dreamland ~ Rikki Ducornet 4/5
5. Wasted Morning ~ Gabriela Adamesteanu 4.5/5

[qimissung]

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan.

I liked it! No, Scher, there wasn't a conventional narrative per se. They were more a series of vignettes, each focusing on a character from the last one, more or less. I find people interesting, and I loved the way she moved around, backward and forward in their various lives, finding out, as it said in the blurb, about the group of high school students, who made it and who didn't. I was glad to see that Sasha fare well.

[TheFifthElement]

Read this one last year and did not care much about it. I liked how she structured the story but thought there wasn't much of a story in the first place.

Probably gave it a (generous) 3.

What did you like about it, Fifth?

My comments would be similar to Qimi's (below). I enjoyed the interweaving of the narratives, and the way you could see how each character's life had been impacted by the circle of others, how they'd woven their own histories into each other. Missed opportunities, too. And I felt it ended on a strangely positive note, in spite of the experiences that they'd all had. I'd like to read it again, as I think it would improve on a second reading. What didn't you like about it?

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan.

I liked it! No, Scher, there wasn't a conventional narrative per se. They were more a series of vignettes, each focusing on a character from the last one, more or less. I find people interesting, and I loved the way she moved around, backward and forward in their various lives, finding out, as it said in the blurb, about the group of high school students, who made it and who didn't. I was glad to see that Sasha fare well.

*Update*

1. The Purple Shroud by Stella Duffy 3.75/5
2. The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt 10/5
3. Chérie by Colette 3.75/5
4. A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan - 4.5/5
5. Almost Innocent by Sheila Bosworth 4.5/5
6. Gorillas in the Mist - Dian Fossey - 4.75/5

Gorillas in the Mist was also my first success in my non-fiction challenge. An excellent book. Would have given it 5/5 except that it got a little repetitive in the end as Fossey related stories she had already told in earlier chapters. Otherwise brilliant.

[Dark Muse]

1. Mrs. Dalloway by Vrigina Woolf 3.75/5

It was interesting, though I did not enjoy it as much as To The Lighthouse. I had trouble with the scream of conscious style of writing. It was not easy to follow what was going on and my attention would flag in and out. There were moments I found quite interest, and others a bit more tedious .