Recently finished books?

[Daniel del Real]

By the way, how has the Spanish translator resolved the "problem" of the Spanish character who in the original speaks a "Spanitalian"? Is he still Spanish?

I can't quite remember but I'll try to look for my edition and will let you know.

Have you read it in Spanish?
I cannot get Herztier as its not translated yet.

I haven't read Herztier, but yes it's already translated to Spanish. You can read it in English.

You could read the English translation The Land of Green Plums. I am curious myself to have a look at an English translation of one of her books, to see how they translated certain passages and terms.

I hope it's better than how they translate titles. I mean The Land of Green Plums? Not a great translation for Herztier. In Spanish they did a good job making it closer to the original: La Bestia del Corazón.
Not the case with Atemschaukel as they only translated the English translation title to Spanish, Everything I Own I Carry with Me.

[nightwood]

I hope it's better than how they translate titles. I mean The Land of Green Plums? Not a great translation for Herztier.

I have seen the English translation in a bookshop and was browsing through it out of curiousity. Herztier is named in the text as Heart-beast* but the English title definitly does have a justification also... but to tell you why would be a spoiler

*Tier = animal, beast .. so that fits even I would say "beast" is more a wild animal than just a "normal" one lol

[sirena]

A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

[Loki]

I can't quite remember but I'll try to look for my edition and will let you know.

Thanks Daniel.

Giorgio Faletti- Niente di vero tranne gli occhi -

Although the Wiki page of the book asserts that in this second novel of Faletti's the author's style is better, on the whole I enjoyed his first novel more: Io uccido (I Kill). This is a good thriller at the end of the day, but too much useless description of the past of the characters. Also the writing was rather disappointing: nowadays these thrillers, well, those I've read at least, seem all books by the same author: I thought I was reading a novel by Patricia Cornwell. Except for the plot around the mystery, there's nothing new under the sun.

[JTolle]

The Hour of the Star (1977) - Clarice Lispector (trans. Giovanni Pontiero)
Thoughtfully I Read the Smoke: Selected Poems (1980) - Imants Ziedonis (trans. Dorian Rottenberg)

[Clarissa]

Great House - Nicole Krauss

Our Kind of Traitor - John le Carré

The Other - Ryszard Kapuscinski

[Flower]

I haven't read Herztier, but yes it's already translated to Spanish. You can read it in English.

Well Ive started to read Frau Müller in Danish and to me I hear her words in Danish which is somewhat close to German, so it would be weird reading her in English now.

[nightwood]

@ Nightwood,

May be a thread of its own at the European Literature Thread , if it is not too much to ask...

Done see here : http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/...6390#post96390

Primeval And Other Times by Olga Tokarczuk

[Loki]

Graham Swift- Waterland +

At the beginning it was a difficult novel to read, not just because of its going back and forth in time, but also for those chapters which one could almost call essays, in which we are explained how the water is drained from the Fens using technical vocabulary difficult to understand. But I haven't minded the other essays: one on the Great Ouse, one on how the eels reproduce...
Anyway, at the end it has been a rewarding read, a curious novel with many narrative layers, covering centuries of local history and decades of the protagonist, a history teacher telling his pupils his story (as man, the narrator and main character says, is "the story-telling animal").

[kpjayan]

Miguel Angel Asturias - The President : Is this the first of the 20th Century Latin American Dictator Novels ? Written in 1946, I am sure it preceded most of the other known books. Structurally, it may not be as great as "I the Supreme" or "Feast of the Goat". Shorter and simpler narrative, but very very good, especially the 3rd part.

[Daniel del Real]

Amin Maalouf, The Gardens of Light +

Personally, I consider Maalouf one of the best five narrators alive. He's very solid in each one of his books and he sets a bridge between Western and Arab world in all of his texts. He should win the Nobel soon.

[Loki]

Elsa Morante- L'isola di Arturo -

[Loki]

G. K. Chesterton- The Innocence of Father Brown +

I had read a couple of the stories in this collection (The invisible Man and The Blue Cross), so I knew that Father Brown was a great sleuth and that it was very different from other great detectives like Holmes or Poirot. Anyway, although most of the stories taken singularly are fascinating, on the whole I can't say I prefer Brown to Holmes.
Also, sometimes it gets too long to get to the mystery or to get to see Father Brown.
The Sign of the Broken Sword was the poorest story of the collection, while the best ones were The Blue Cross (maybe the best of all), The Eye of Apollo, The Hammer of God, The Three Tools of Death and The Wrong Shape.

[JTolle]

The Trouble With Being Born (1973) - Emil Cioran (trans. Richard Howard)
Smeur an Dochais: Dain / Bramble of Hope: Poems (1991) - Derick Thomson (self-translated from Scottish Gaelic)
Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note.... (1961) - LeRoi Jones

[sirena]

The Newcomes - William M. Thackeray

[lenz]

Why This World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector by Benjamin Moser

[JTolle]

Why This World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector by Benjamin Moser

Not a huge fan of biographies, over here, but, since I can't get enough of Lispector lately, I'm thinking I might actually give this a go. Could you briefly comment on the book's readability and integrity?

[Colonel Green]

The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

I'd already seen the movie before reading the book, so I was familiar with the contours of the story going in. The main differences are Hayes Code-enforced ones about content, mainly; and as with many mystery stories, the novel spends more time outlining the finer points of the plot. Chandler has a great prose style, and you can see how it became so influential in crime fiction.

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark

A very acclaimed book (later filmed with Maggie Smith, who, reading it, I could completely picture in the title role), but I found it pretty slow going. Despite being only about 120 pages, it took me a while to get through it, and I didn't find it especially interesting.

Double Indemnity by James M. Cain

Adapted to film by director Billy Wilder and screenwriter Raymond Chandler in 1944 (the film has made the AFI's Top 100 American films list, and currently sits at #54 on the IMDB), I guess that would make this Cain's most famous novel by association. Fairly compelling story (albeit with a setup rather similar to the first one), I can definitely see it making a great film (and Cain does Hollywood a favour by doling out appropriate comeuppances to his villain protagonists so there's no need to change things to suit the Hayes Code).

Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler

Chandler's second novel (but it managed to make it to the cinema twice, albeit renamed both times, before the first novel did). Since I hadn't seen the movie before reading it, this was a more interesting read than The Big Sleep. The first few pages I thought were a bit bewhildering, but after that it settled into a very good mystery story. Chandler introduces so many seemingly unrelated plot elements that it's gratifying to see him fit them together fairly coherently.

Captain America Omnibus v.1 by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, et al.

Read this in between chapters of Anne. I'm a big fan of Ed Brubaker's Captain America, and I've gradually been reading more stuff by past writers. This Omnibus covers the Lee/Kirby era and Steranko's brief presence (essentially, most of the 1960s), including the first few stories which I already had in a Masterworks paperback. As with all the omnibuses, it's a lovely collection. 60s comics are kind of an acquired taste, but there's a lot of goofy fun here. Most of it is hilariously over the top, but there's plenty of good ideas here, and I can identify a lot of things Brubaker used later (including, most obviously, the introductions of Sharon Carter and Dr. Faustus; there's also the debut of the perennially silly MODOK; some of the Steve/Sharon dialogue is especially stilted). However, the last three issues drawn/scripted by Jim Steranko are a revelation (made even more obvious by a Kirby-drawn fill-in in the middle); the art goes from 60s Marvel house style to Steranko's edgy layouts that still feel fresh and innovative today.

Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery

You would think this would be mandated reading in PEI schools, but it isn't. I decided to read it at last (having previously seen the musical about ten years ago; I could have sworn the Cuthberts were married), given how much it has contributed to the economy over the years (and Montgomery's place in Canadian literature is enormously significant; she was the first one to attract a large international readership, and hers is almost certainly the largest to this day). On the Island, Anne Shirley is less a fictional character than a fact of life, so a lot of people never bother to read the books. I was pleasantly surprised by how readable Montgomery's prose is, even a century after it was written (perhaps not that surprising, given its continued enormous popularity). Episodic, but effortlessly charming.

[Daniel del Real]

G. K. Chesterton- The Innocence of Father Brown +

I had read a couple of the stories in this collection (The invisible Man and The Blue Cross), so I knew that Father Brown was a great sleuth and that it was very different from other great detectives like Holmes or Poirot. Anyway, although most of the stories taken singularly are fascinating, on the whole I can't say I prefer Brown to Holmes.
Also, sometimes it gets too long to get to the mystery or to get to see Father Brown.
The Sign of the Broken Sword was the poorest story of the collection, while the best ones were The Blue Cross (maybe the best of all), The Eye of Apollo, The Hammer of God, The Three Tools of Death and The Wrong Shape.

I just took a look to my notes a my favorite tales from this volume were: The Blue Cross, The Secret Garden, The Honour of Israel Gow, The Sins of Prince Saradine & The Three Tools of Death. Apparently I liked it more than you do, but I haven't read any Sherlock stories. Which ones do you recommend?

[Loki]

I just took a look to my notes a my favorite tales from this volume were: The Blue Cross, The Secret Garden, The Honour of Israel Gow, The Sins of Prince Saradine & The Three Tools of Death. Apparently I liked it more than you do, but I haven't read any Sherlock stories. Which ones do you recommend?

Any! I've liked all the stories I've read, but I would recommend The Red-Headed League, The Speckled Bend, The Five Orange Pips. Of course also A Scandal in Bohemia. You won't be disappointed by this famous detective!