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The Venice Train
by Georges Simenon. Penguin Classics. Due to work commitments, Justin Calmar leaves his family’s holiday in Vence to return to Paris. On the train journey, a stranger asks a favour of him, to deliver a briefcase during his layover in Lausanne. From this point, his life turns into a series of lies, deceit and guilt, each creating further pressure in his life. This was an amazing psychological thriller that centred upon the mind of our protagonist. It starts with some uncomfortable observations about his daughter growing into a woman while waiting to depart from Venice. Then there are his observations about this stranger who is the sole companion in the…
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Crown of Cinders
Crown of Cinders by Emily R. King. 47North Althea has just learned she and her sisters are not mortals but daughters of Cronus and goddesses at the end of the first book in the series, ” Wings of Fury”. As this book opens, plans are being made to aid Zeus and their siblings in taking down their father. Althea, or Hera, her true name, must journey to seek out two more brothers, and this will eventually find her traveling through the underworld and will require great strength from her. Finally, she will use all her power and ability in order to make sure she and her siblings and allies succeed…
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The Alchemist
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. Santiago is a shepherd who is happy with his life. But he’s been having a recurring dream and when he seeks answers to its meaning, he is sent off on a life journey to discover his “Personal Legend” and this takes him to from Spain to Egypt. The story is supposed to be some sort of parable full of life lessons. This is another of those books I’ve heard about for many years and is supposed to be a modern classic. The blurb didn’t really interest me that much but I thought perhaps it would move me in some way if I read it. Unfortunately,…
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Carmilla
Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu. Pushkin Press. Teenager Laura lives with her father when a woman shows up with her daughter and asks the father to look after the daughter as she has urgent business that requires heavy travel. Apparently the daughter is not well enough to travel and so Laura’s father agrees to look after her. Not long after, Laura suffers a mysterious illness. This is not much more than a novella and it’s not bad but it’s definitely not a page-turner. My main interest is its historical value within the literature world as it’s not a book I have been aware of before now. There’s a steady narrative…
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Strange Bliss
Strange Bliss by Katherine Mansfield. Pushkin Press While perusing books to read I came across the name Katherine Mansfield. It’s a name familiar to me but I couldn’t honestly say I was familiar with her work. And so I decided Strange Bliss could be my introduction. This book is a curated collection of six short stories. Both the first and last stories are the longest ones and feature the Burnell family. They both follow a similar format of being sequences of snapshots over the course of a day. In the first, “Prelude” the family is moving into a more rural location and we see the move through the eyes of…
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Troy
Greek mythology was a part of literature in school and I did learn a bit back then. The translations tended to be rather dry so I wasn’t enthralled with it like some people are. Still, I picked up some of the basics with the regular forays into that branch of literature. I’ve revisited some of the stories more recently, having reread Homer’s “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey” a few years ago. I enjoyed that for what it was and there was a certain beauty to the writing there. But I still wasn’t terribly engaged. Perhaps what was lacking is a translation with good storytelling. In this book, we have some…
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And the Earth Will Sit on the Moon
Russian literature did not feature at all in my education, be it secondary or tertiary. It wasn’t much on my radar either. I definitely had an awareness for some of those fat novels written by some of the greats. I must admit I was well into adulthood before Gogol hit my radar and despite having a paperback of his stories on a bookshelf for many years, it was this book that finally motivated me to finally read his work. I thought short stories would surely be easier than one of those long novels but I was mistaken. It definitely wasn’t an easy read for me. Perhaps this was not helped…
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Their Eyes Were Watching God
I’ve been aware of this book for many years and finally checked it out from the library a couple of years ago. I made it through most of the book but didn’t manage to finish it before it was due and then I didn’t get back to it until now. I was going to pick up where I left off when I checked it out again but instead I read it from the beginning. I think that was a wise choice. Janie Crawford was raised by her grandmother, who worked for a white family. She grew up and played with the children in that family and never noticed a difference…