Spell the Month in Books ~ January

Reviews from the Stacks

I found this on one of the blogs I follow, Books are the New Black who found it at One Book More. It was originally created byReviews from the Stacks, and the idea is to spell the month using the first letter of book titles.

January: New (This could be new-to-you books, new additions to your TBR list, recently published books, or something else that you connect with the word "New")

January - We had this topic last year and I had chosen some books that I wanted to read this year. Did I finish them? No, not really. But I'm still working on it. So, this year, I will use some books that I read last year plus a few that I want to read next year.

JANUARY

J
Tomalin, Claire "Jane Austen - A Life" - 1997 

Jane Austen is one of my favourite authors. I have read all her novels, even the ones she didn't finish, some letters and short stories, so: a lot about her.

Claire Tomalin is a British journalist and biographer. She has a good reputation, especially for her biographies.

After reading this book, I understand why. 

A
Follett, Ken "The Armour of Light" - 2023 
After four books about Kingsbridge, their cathedral and the inhabitants, rich and poor from 997 until the 16th century, here is the follow-up for the Industrial Revolution.

N
Dickens, Charles "Nicholas Nickleby. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby" - 1838/39 

This has everything a Dickens novel needs: villains and virtues, rogues and good people, a helicopter mother from the Georgian era, just a caleidoscope of people from his time with lots of intrigues. Not to forget the great names he gives his characters.

Of course, this is a novel against social injustice. And while we might think that is better today, some things never change.

U

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von "Urfaust. Faust Fragment. Faust I" (Faust) - 1772-1808 

"Goethe's Faust is a classic of European literature. Based on the fable of the man who traded his soul for superhuman powers and knowledge, it became the life's work of Germany's greatest poet. Beginning with an intriguing wager between God and Satan, it charts the life of a deeply flawed individual, his struggle against the nihilism of his diabolical companion Mephistopheles.

Part One presents Faust's pact with the Devil and the harrowing tragedy of his love affair with the young Gretchen. Part Two shows Faust's experience in the world of public affairs, including his encounter with Helen of Troy, the emblem of classical beauty and culture. The whole is a symbolic and panoramic commentary on the human condition and on modern European history and civilisation." (Goodreads)

A
Arenz, Ewald "Alte Sorten" (Tasting Sunlight) - 2019
(I added both the German and the English title.)
"An extraordinary bond develops between an angry teenage runaway and a middle-aged woman running a large farm on her own, as they work the land and slowly heal … the sublime, achingly beautiful debut that everyone is talking about…" (Goodreads)

R
Towles, Amor "Rules of Civility" - 2011

This is not the same as "A Gentleman in Moscow" but it is also a good one. A completely different area, a different situation, but you get a similar feeling. This one takes place in New York around the life of a young girl who comes to New York.

Amor Towles is certainly an author who knows how to capture an audience.

Y

Ian Buruma "Year Zero. A History of 1945" - 2013 

"A marvelous global history of the pivotal year 1945 as a new world emerged from the ruins of World War II

Year Zero is a landmark reckoning with the great drama that ensued after war came to an end in 1945. One world had ended and a new, uncertain one was beginning. Regime change had come on a global scale: across Asia (including China, Korea, Indochina, and the Philippines, and of course Japan) and all of continental Europe. Out of the often vicious power struggles that ensued emerged the modern world as we know it." (Goodreads)

* * *

Those are three books I should be able to read next year. But - one of them is more than 1,000 pages long. So, we'll see.

Happy Reading!

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