Wintering
May, Katherine "Wintering" - 2020
from Wintering to Red Sorghum
#6Degrees is a monthly link-up hosted by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. I love the idea. See more about this challenge, its history, further books and how I found this here.
If on a Winter's Night a Traveller
Calvino, Italo "If on a Winter's Night a Traveller" (I: Se una notte d’inverno un viaggiatore) - 1979
One of the most weird - but also most interesting - books I ever read, a reader is trying to read a book called "If on a Winter's Night a Traveller". The book is partly about the reader's life and partly about the books he is trying to read.
An interesting concept, I never read a book like this before.
Magic Realism
One August Night
Hislop, Victoria "One August Night" - 2020
I absolutely love Victoria Hislop. This is the sequel to her first book "The Island". Her novels are reat stories with a lot of information mainly about Greece. This is about the end of the leper colony in Greece since they found a cure.
Historical Fiction
Light in August
Faulkner, William "Light in August" - 1932
This could be a follow-up tf "Gone With the Wind" seventy years later. A book about the Deep South, about country life, families, hard work, racism, crime, religion, morale, everything a story about this region and time should have.
Nobel Prize Winner
My Name is Light
Osorio, Elsa "My Name is Light" (E: A veinte años, Luz) - 1998
A deeply moving story about the struggles in Argentina not that long ago.
Amnesty International literary prize.
My Name is Red
Pamuk, Orhan "My Name is Red" (TR: Benim Adım Kırmızı) - 1998
My favourite book by one of my favourite authors. He writes in a quite unique style.
The narrator of the novel changes in every chapter which gives you an insight into the whole story that is beyond comparison. This novel doesn't just give you an insight into Islam and art, a tour around Istanbul and life 700 years ago, it is an expression of the quest for the meaning of life.
Nobel Prize Winner, Historical Fiction
Red Sorghum
Mo, Yan "Red Sorghum" (CHN: 红高粱家族 Hóng gāoliang jiāzú) - 1987
The story takes place during the second Sino-Japanese war between 1937 and 1945, the narrator tells the story of his ancestors, mainly that of his father, who was a teenager at the time, and his grandfather and grandmother. But it's not just about the war, we also get to know the way people used to live in the eastern part of China at the time.
Red Sorghum, the title of the book, means so much for the Chinese, it is not just food, it represents their country.
Nobel Prize Winner, Historical Fiction
I found some very good books this time, all of them favourites.
Look for further monthly separation posts here.
Wow! A real prize filled chain. And next month we start with another prize winner!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Davida. I think the reason is that I read a lot of prize winning books, so I always come up with quite a few. Mind you, I also try to pick books for this that I really enjoyed.
DeleteSorry, Davida, I've been trying to comment on your post The Chocolate Lady was in Ireland! but when I want to press the "post comment" box, a message comes up for half a second and I cannot login and therefore, cannot comment. Any idea what that might be?
DeleteInteresting chain! I've enjoyed some of Victoria Hislop's books and would like to read One August Night, but I haven't read The Island yet so will start with that one.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Helen. Yes, you should definitely start with "The Island" since "One August Night" is a sequel. "The Island" was my very first book by Victoria Hislop and I've read all her subsequent ones.
DeleteDid you know she was awarded honarary Greek citizenship? I believe that speaks for itself.
Lovely chain, I like how you've taken the word chain all the way through.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Mallika. I try to keep it the same, when I start with linking words, I like to end with that. And often, when I haven't read the starter book, that's the easiest way to do it, not necessarily the best one. I always enjoy how everyone else links their books.
DeleteAnother fun book chain. And you included two favorite reads of mine: My name is Red and If On a Winter's Night... :D
ReplyDeleteThey are also some of my favourite reads, Lark. Great books.
DeleteThe internet seems to be playing up. I had a message from Margaret @ Booksplease that she couldn't comment on my page and I couldn't comment on someone else's.
ReplyDeleteSo, here is her comment:
I tried to add a comment on your post – but it came up as an error! This is what I wanted to say: I really enjoyed reading your chain. I never made it to the end of “If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller”, although I loved the beginning. Maybe I should try it again. I’ve read some of Victoria Hislop’s books, but not that one – like Helen I still haven’t read The Island. As you know we both finished with a book with the word ‘red’ in the title – amazing that both our books were set in China!
Two of my favourite books are in your chain - My Name is Red and Light in August. I've also read If On A Winter's Night A Traveller.
ReplyDeleteRed Sorghum and My Name is Light sound interesting, too. However, I am very excited that there's a follow up to Hislop's The Island, which I loved, and it's available in my local library. The Island was one of my random picks from the shelves (pick a shelf at random, then a number and count that number of books along from the left, see what you get), and it surprised me how much I enjoyed it as it's not the sort of book I would normally choose.
Hello "Me". Thanks for your visit. Sorry I can't reciprocate since your link leads me nowhere.
DeleteWhat a great idea to pick a book in a libary. And I'm so happy you found Victoria Hislop through that. She is one of my favourite authors. As is Orhan Pamuk, the author of "My Name is Red". This was my first book by him and I've loved everything else I read by him (which is everything translated into German or English so far).
It's really fun seeing someone else doing their chain like I do, and seeing other titles popping up.
ReplyDeleteCalvino's is awesome. I don't think it's really magical realism. He is a member of the Oulipo (here is a simple introduction to it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oulipo), a group of authors who have been trying different ways of writing. The most recent is The Anomaly, by Le Tellier, who won the Goncourt with it in 2020.
That's interesting, Emma. Thank you for that. You are right, calling it Magic Realism might be stretching it a tad but it was the closest I have seen it described.
DeleteAnd you are right, a fantastic book.
Oh, and I like doing it that way when I haven't read the book and can't somehow find a way to go by its contents. I try to do it differently every time even though I do enjoy this way.
DeleteI encourage you to read other Oulipo novels
ReplyDeleteI will. If they all are as great as this one, I will enjoy them very much. Thanks, Emma.
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