It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

I've had a busy reading week. I'm mere pages away from finishing Ludmila Ulitskaya's short story collection Sonechka, and I finished three books for the Europa Challenge- Ian Holding's Of Beasts and Beings, set in Zimbabwe as a white teacher is preparing to leave the country, alternating with the story of an unnamed man who has been taken captive by other men and used for their ends- and Flavia Company's The Island of Last Truth, about a man who was stranded on a desert island for years and has returned. I also finished Arctic Summer, early in the week. And I decided to DNF Vestments for now. If it's sitting on my nightstand I don't want to pick it up for a week or longer, I'm probably not interested in it for now, and many other books await.

On our big NYC snow day a couple of weeks ago we ventured outside for some book shopping, and I picked up The Infinite Wait and Other Stories, a collection by one of my favorite cartoonists, Julia Wertz. I'm loving it, what can I say. I really like her sarcastic and slightly bitter take on life.

I'm still reading Bury Me Standing but I got hurt a week ago and haven't been to the gym for a while so that one's sort of on hold while I recover.

I also started The German Mujahid, by Boualem Sansal, billed as the first Arabic novel to take on the Holocaust. It tells the story of two brothers of mixed nationality- born in Algeria to an Algerian mother and German father, blond white people who live in Paris, albeit one in the Paris of the banlieue ghettos and one in the Paris of business trips and the middle class. One of the brothers commits suicide and leaves behind his diary, opening up some serious questions for the brother left behind. It's a very strong book and though it's an older title and might be hard to find, I think it's one I'm going to be recommending a lot.

And I'm looking for my next recent book to read. I have my eye on Shame and the Captives by Thomas Keneallly. We'll see!

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