Shelf Control: I Was the President's Mistress!! by Miguel Syjuco

 Shelf Control is a feature where bloggers pick an unread book from our shelves and talk  about it a little. It's supposed to be a Wednesday thing but I seem to like to post on Fridays. Shelf Control is hosted at BookshelfFantasies.com.

 

This week's pick is I Was the President's Mistress!! by Miguel Syjuco. 

The publisher's website says:

From Miguel Syjuco, the winner of the Man Asian Literary Prize for Ilustrado, I Was the President's Mistress!! is an unflinching satire about power, corruption, sex, and all the other topics you were told never to discuss in polite company.

First came the Sexy-Sexygate scandal. Then an impeachment trial. Finally, a battle royale for the presidency. At the center of this political typhoon is Vita Nova, the most famous movie star in the Philippines and a former paramour of the country’s most powerful man. Now, for the first time ever, she bares herself completely in a tell-all memoir that puts the sensational in sensationalistic.

How and when I got it:

I first saw it at a Barnes & Noble nearby and I eventually bought it at another Barnes & Noble, at their big end-of-year hardcover half-off sale.

Why I Want to Read It

That description, right? I've been dipping a toe in Filipino books and this looked like fun. Like, a lot of fun. I'll probably read it next.

Shelf Control: Kepler's Witch, by James A. Connor

  Shelf Control is a feature where bloggers pick an unread book from our shelves and talk  about it a little. It's supposed to be a Wednesday thing but I have French Movie Mercredi on Wednesdays already, so. Shelf Control is hosted at BookshelfFantasies.com.

Today's pick is Kepler's Witch, by James A. Connor. The full title is Kepler's Witch: An Astronomer's Discovery of Cosmic Order Amid Religious War, Political Intrigue, and the Heresy Trial of His Mother.

 I mean that already sounds pretty great, right?

How and when I got it:

I asked for it for Christmas a couple of years ago. I think it was in the pile for Christmas 2021. It entered my LibraryThing account in January 2022 so that makes sense. My husband buys my Christmas books from Powell's, the independent behemoth in Oregon.

Why I Want to Read It

First, why wouldn't I want to read that? But also in the year before I read Rivka Galchen's really good novel about Kepler's mother, Everyone Knows Your Mother is a Witch, which was her story from her point of view. Then I found this title by James A. O'Connor, a former priest who now teaches right here in sunny New Jersey. So I thought it would be fun to read about the story behind the story.

Shelf Control: A Cat At the End of the World, by Robert Perišić

 Shelf Control is a feature where bloggers pick an unread book from our shelves and talk  about it a little. It's supposed to be a Wednesday thing but I have French Movie Mercredi on Wednesdays already, so. Shelf Control is hosted at BookshelfFantasies.com

 Today's pick is A Cat At the End of the World, by Robert Perišić. It came out in 2022 from Sandorf Passage, a publisher based in Maine, and was translated from the Croatian by Vesna Maric.

The blurb says:

"Delivered like a fable, A Cat At the End of the World shifts perspectives between a runaway slave and the Scatterwind, a bodiless spirit that moves effortlessly through time and space, from the days of ancient Syracuse to our contemporary era. At the center of their stories is Miu, an Egyptian cat- one of the earliest to be domesticated- through whom Robert Perišić channels a deeply profound and beautiful understanding of animal and human behaviors as seen through the results of language, warfare, colonization, trade, and the building of a society."

How and when I got it:

I bought it last fall as a Christmas present for my husband. He's a big SFF reader and this sounded like something that was fantasy-adjacent enough to pique his interest.

Why I Want to Read It

He loved it, and it just sounds really neat, right? I think once you leave the confines of genre-driven American publishing you can find a lot of great literature that really defies genre with the potential to appeal to a wide audience of smart readers.

Shelf Control: Play the Red Queen, by Juris Jurjevics

 Shelf Control is a feature where bloggers pick an unread book from our shelves and talk  about it a little. It's supposed to be a Wednesday thing but I have French Movie Mercredi on Wednesdays already, so. Shelf Control is hosted at BookshelfFantasies.com

Today's selection is Play the Red Queen, by Juris Jurjevics. Jurjevics, who passed away in 2018, was the publisher and co-founder of Soho Press, which publishes a lot of really great crime and thrillers, among other things. They are a press I watch and follow for their international crime in particular. This book is a thriller set in Viet Nam in 1963, about an assassin who's being tracked by two American Army officers.

How and when I got it:

The book was published in 2020 and I received a galley in November of 2019. I remember it was a big deal book at the time and probably got buried in bookstores during the Covid lockdown. I don't remember if Soho sent it to me or if I picked it up at work. My Greenlight coworkers were not big crime readers so I would have had no problem snagging it but I think maybe Soho sent it to me.

Why I Want to Read It

It just looks like a lot of fun! For the crime reader anyway. I love books set in Asia and I love crime and thrillers, so what could possibly go wrong?

Shelf Control: The Story of a New Name, by Elena Ferrante

Shelf Control is a feature where bloggers pick an unread book from our shelves and talk  about it a little. It's supposed to be a Wednesday thing but I have French Movie Mercredi on Wednesdays already, so. Shelf Control is hosted at BookshelfFantasies.com

Today's pick is The Story of a New Name, book two of Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Quartet. It is the sequel to My Brilliant Friend, the only one of the series I've actually read. It is the continuation of the story of two young women, Elena and Lila, and their lives and loves as they take different paths in life. At the end of the first book Lila just got married and Elena witnessed her new husband's stunning betrayal of Lila at the wedding.

How and when I got it:

I got the book in 2013. I don't remember if I bought it or if Europa sent it to me. Back in the day I was a regular recipient of galleys and reading copies from them.

Why I Want to Read It

I've been watching and loving the HBO series based on the books, which is named after the first, My Brilliant Friend. I'm re-watching the first three seasons now in anticipation of season four coming out at some point soon. I want to re-immerse myself in their world and I've persuaded my husband to watch, too. So it's made me feel bad about not reading the books and I'm so curious about the choices made in the adaptations. And since I haven't read anything past book one, I don't know!

Shelf Control: A True Novel by Minae Mizumura

 

Shelf Control is a feature where bloggers pick an unread book from our shelves and talk  about it a little. It's supposed to be a Wednesday thing but I have French Movie Mercredi on Wednesdays already, so. Shelf Control is hosted at BookshelfFantasies.com

 

Today's pick is A True Novel, by Minae Mizumura.

A True Novel is a two-part series sold as a single boxed set, a retelling of Wuthering Heights in 20th century Japan. It was published in 2013 by Other Press.

How and when I got it:

I bought my copy at Porter Square Books in Cambridge, my old workplace.

Why I Want to Read It

I love Japanese literature and this just looked so neat and cool. My copy is still shrinkwrapped! I should at least take off the shrinkwrap. The premise struck me as interesting even though I really hated Wuthering Heights. I want to see what this writer does with it, and the book won the Yomiuri Literature Prize. It's described as a nineteenth-century style immersive epic. That's just my style.

 

Shelf Control: The American Girl, by Monika Fagerholm

 

Shelf Control is a feature where bloggers pick an unread book from our shelves and talk  about it a little. It's supposed to be a Wednesday thing but I have French Movie Mercredi on Wednesdays already, so. Shelf Control is hosted at BookshelfFantasies.com

 

Since I'm actively weeding galleys right now I thought it would be fun to highlight one that I've decided to keep- The American Girl, by Monika Fagerholm. It came out in 2009 from Other Press. 

It's a murder mystery set in 1970s Finland and later, about a woman who is killed when she comes to Finland from Coney Island, and how her murder resonates with a pair of girls in the future. The book was translated from Finnish and there is a handwritten sticky note on my copy; I don't remember who wrote it but it says "VERY literary, hypnotic and strange. Totally my kind of thing. If it's yours too, highly recommended! (There's a good sequel too!)" Around this time I had pals who worked at Other Press in editorial, marketing and publicity, and anyone there could have written this note to me. 

How and when I got it:

My copy is a galley and it probably came to me in a box from someone at Other Press.

Why I Want to Read It

I love crime fiction; the premise is really intriguing and it's just stuck with me through a bunch of moves and a bunch of years. So I feel like I need to get to it sooner or later!

Shelf Control: Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott

 Shelf Control is a feature where bloggers pick an unread book from our shelves and talk  about it a little. It's supposed to be a Wednesday thing but I have French Movie Mercredi on Wednesdays already, so. Shelf Control is hosted at BookshelfFantasies.com

 

Today's feature is Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, by Anne Lamott.

How and when I got it:

I bought it a week or so ago at the independent bookstore in town, Little City Books.

Why I Want to Read It

 It's a classic on the craft of writing and I'm trying to do that again, so.

Shelf Control: The Golem and the Jinni

Shelf Control is a feature where bloggers pick an unread book from our shelves and talk  about it a little. It's supposed to be a Wednesday thing but I have French Movie Mercredi on Wednesdays already, so. Shelf Control is hosted at BookshelfFantasies.com

Today's selection is  

The Hidden Palace, by Helene Wecker. This is the sequel to her 2013 hit The Golem and the Jinni, about a pair of magical creatures in early 20th century New York City. Think of it as an immigrant novel crossed with fantasy. The Hidden Palace came out in 2021.

How and when I got it:

My copy is a galley and I either picked it up at work or had it sent to me. I don't remember at this point. When I read it and review it I will treat it as something I got for review.

Why I Want to Read It

Because it's the sequel to a book I really enjoyed and I wanted to spend more time with these characters and their adventures. My husband read The Golem and The Jinni too and I may have to fight him for it when the time comes.

Shelf Control: Skippy Dies, by Paul Murray

Shelf Control is a feature where bloggers pick an unread book from our shelves and talk  about it a little. It's supposed to be a Wednesday thing but I have French Movie Mercredi on Wednesdays already, so. Shelf Control is hosted at BookshelfFantasies.com

 Today's selection is Skippy Dies, by Paul Murray.

Skippy Dies was a big deal book when it came out, a Booker-longlisted story set in a Dublin boarding school. I had it in galley but never got around to it. I saw author Paul Murray do a reading in Brookline which was pretty memorable due to a confrontation with a fan of the book who was incredibly obsequious while taking issue with the way the adolescent Irish boys were depicted. So my curiosity was piqued but apparently not enough to actually get around to reading it.

How and when I got it:

I picked it up at the bookstore in town where I am an off-and-on volunteer.

Why I Want to Read It

It's set in Ireland. It's Irish. It's about Irish people. Also I love Ireland. So much it hurts. So there.

Shelf Control: Nazi Literature in the Americas, by Roberto Bolaño

Shelf Control is a feature where bloggers pick an unread book from our shelves and talk  about it a little. It's supposed to be a Wednesday thing but I have French Movie Mercredi on Wednesdays already, so. Shelf Control is hosted at BookshelfFantasies.com

 

This week's selection is Nazi Literature in the Americas by Roberto Bolaño, translated from the Spanish by Chris Andrews (who also translates my boyfriend César Aira) published by the great New Directions.

It's a fake encyclopedia of right-wing writers from across the Americas; Bolaño is well known for his opus 2666 and crime novel Savage Detectives; I tried to read 2666 and failed, but I loved his shorter book Distant Star, which I read for a crime novel class several years ago.

How and when I got it:

I got it for Christmas this year. Santa shops at Bookshop.org.

Why I Want to Read It

It's another shorter book by Bolaño and I think it just sounds really interesting. I loved Distant Star so much, it was so crazy good and compelling and I'm hoping to have another experience like that. Honestly some day I may even give 2666 another try.

Shelf Control: Malacqua, by Nicola Pugliese

 

Shelf Control is a feature where bloggers pick an unread book from our shelves and talk  about it a little. It's supposed to be a Wednesday thing but I have French Movie Mercredi on Wednesdays already, so. Shelf Control is hosted at BookshelfFantasies.com

This week's pick is Nicola Pugliese's 1974 novel Malacqua, re-released in 2017 by And Other Stories. Not to be confused with the clothing chain of the same name, this is a small press based in England that specializes in translations. This was translated from the Italian by Shaun Whiteside.

I first encountered them around 2012 or 2013 when the publisher, Stefan Tobler, visited Porter Square Books in Cambridge and did a nice presentation for us booksellers. I love translations so I was really intrigued. I read a couple of titles and was hooked.

As far as Malacqua:

"The 1977 Italian cult classic mysteriously withdrawn from publication now in English for the first time," and blurbed by no less a personage than Italo Calvino. Irresistible!

The plot concerns the after-effects of a four-day flood in the city of Naples. The back of the book said that the book was withdrawn at the request of the author and did not appear again until 2012. I'm so happy it's made its way into translation.

I got it in the mail via subscription to the publisher. They offer different levels of subscriptions that gets you books mailed automatically and your name in the back of the book as a sponsor. I've been a subscriber for a number of years now and if you love small presses I highly recommend checking out their website and seeing if a subscription is right for you.

I don't mind that I don't get to pick the books;  I really like getting a bookish surprise in the mail every few months and I love what they do. Win-win!

Shelf Control: The Death of Artemio Cruz, by Carlos Fuentes

Shelf Control is a feature where bloggers pick an unread book from our shelves and talk  about it a little. It's supposed to be a Wednesday thing but I have French Movie Mercredi on Wednesdays already, so. Shelf Control is hosted at BookshelfFantasies.com

 This week's pick is The Death of Artemio Cruz, by Carlos Fuentes.

 Back cover copy:

As this novel opens, Artemio Cruz, an all-powerful newspaper magnate and land baron, lies confined to his bed, gravely ill, and in dreamlike flashes recalls the pivotal episodes of his life...The Death of Artemio Cruz is a haunting voyage into the soul of modern Mexico.

How and when I got it:

I got it in 2017 from the Barnes & Noble in Union Square in Manhattan. 

Why I Want to Read It

I first heard of Carlos Fuentes when I read César Aira's book The Literary Conference, which is about what happens when Aira's mad scientist narrator decides he wants to clone Fuentes. I kind of need to learn about the author who inspired Aira's story, and this book seemed like a good place to start, a "masterpiece" and I don't read a ton of Mexican literature. It sounds like my kind of thing anyway!

Shelf Control: All Russians Love Birch Trees

 

Shelf Control is a feature where bloggers pick an unread book from our shelves and talk  about it a little. It's supposed to be a Wednesday thing but I have French Movie Mercredi on Wednesdays already, so. Shelf Control is hosted at BookshelfFantasies.com

 This week's pick is All Russians Love Birch Trees, by Olga Grjasnowa. It was originally published in German and translated by Eva Bacon, and published in 2012.

Flap copy:

Set in Germany and Israel, All Russians Love Birch Trees follows a young immigrant named Masha. Fluent in five languages and able to get by in several others, Masha lives with her boyfriend, Elias. Her best friends are Muslims struggling to obtain residence permits and acceptance, and her parents rarely leave the house except to compare gas prices. Masha has nearly exompleted her studies to become an interpreter when suddenly Elias is hospitalized after a serious soccer injury, forcing her to question a past that has haunted her for years.

How and when I got it:

I got it in 2014 from Other Press. I've kept it through several moves and truly intend to read it!

Why I Want to Read It:

I like contemporary Russian writers and this appealed to me as a coming of age and immigrant story. Grjasnowa writes in German and reminds me of Alina Bronsky, another Russian/German writer whose books I like a lot and who seem to have some overlap with this one.

Shelf Control: The American Fiancée, by Eric Dupont

Shelf Control is a feature where bloggers pick an unread book from our shelves and talk  about it a little. It's supposed to be a Wednesday thing but I have French Movie Mercredi on Wednesdays already, so. Shelf Control is hosted at BookshelfFantasies.com

How and When I Got It: 

I bought The American Fiancée, by Eric Dupont (translated from the French by Peter McCambridge) at Symposia Bookstore, the used bookstore in my town, in March of this year.

Why I Want to Read It:

First of all it's a French-Canadian novel and I don't see many of those come through. Secondly it was blurbed by Patrick DeWitt and Justin Trudeau and described as "an unholy marriage of John Irving and Gary Shteyngart and Elizabeth McCracken... a big, bold, wildly ambitious novel that introduces a dynamic new voice to contemporary literature." 

Over the course of the twentieth century, three generations of the funny, touching and wholly unpredictable Lamontagne family will weather love, jealousy, revenge, death... until they finally confront the secrets of their complicated pasts.

So it's an intergenerational story, which I love, and it's French-Canadian, which is unusual, and it's a big thick chunkster that will take me a good long time to dig into, also a plus, and it's got accolades and promising comparisons to writers I love. What could possibly go wrong? Fun fact: the copy I have came with a bonus "BookBill" like a Broadway playbill that outlines the story like an opera. Adorbs!

Shelf Control: If I Had Two Lives, by Abbigail N. Rosewood

Shelf Control is a feature where bloggers pick an unread book from our shelves and talk  about it a little. It's supposed to be a Wednesday thing but I have French Movie Mercredi on Wednesdays already, so. Shelf Control is hosted at BookshelfFantasies.com

How and when I got it: 

If I Had Two Lives is a book that I "bought" twice; I received it as a review copy from Europa Editions- one of the very last, since I've now fallen off their mailing list. I hung on to it through a couple of rounds of weeding and then I forgot that I had it and picked it up at the used bookstore where I volunteer because it looked interesting.It looks like I received the galley in February of 2019 and I picked it up at the store just a few weeks ago. I've since given my galley copy to one of our local Little Free Libraries.

 

Why I Want to Read it:

It's been described as an evocative portrayal of post-war Vietnamese life and it's something I haven't read a lot about. It begins with a young girl growing up in a military camp who feels alienated from her mother and befriends another girl where she finds companionship and support. Then it picks up with the same character as an adult and examines her choices and the reasons behind them. Just kind of sounds like a good character study.

Shelf Control: Fingersmith, by Sarah Waters

Shelf Control is a feature where bloggers pick an unread book from our shelves and talk about it a little. It's supposed to be a Wednesday thing but I have French Movie Mercredi on Wednesdays already, so. Shelf Control is hosted at BookshelfFantasies.com.

 

How and when I got it:  

I bought it at Lorem Ipsum, a used bookstore in Cambridge, Mass., that's since gone out of business, in 2011. Lorem Ipsum was a favorite haunt for several years, one of those stores with a truly eclectic selection of the interesting, the odd and the unusual.  It was my go-to for selling my own used books for a while and located near a favorite restaurant.

 

Why I Want to Read It:

A crime novel set in Victorian England and described as "female and sexually aware" by one critic, it was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2002 and I am always interested in Booker winning and nominated books. Blurbs used words like "pulsating" and "astonishing" to describe it. It's a crime novel with lots of twists and turns or so I've heard, and the basis for the delicious thriller The Handmaiden; I loved that movie and ever since seeing it in the theater I've been meaning to read Fingersmith and compare the two.

Shelf Control: The Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum

Shelf Control is a feature where bloggers pick an unread book from our shelves and talk about it a little. It's supposed to be a Wednesday thing but I have French Movie Mercredi on Wednesdays already, so. Shelf Control is hosted at BookshelfFantasies.com.

 This week's book is The Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum. You know this one.

How and when I got it:  

 

I bought this at Porter Square Books in Cambridge, Mass., in May 2012, soon after it came out (I think) in this luxurious Penguin Threads edition.

Why I Want to Read It:

I have always been curious about The Wizard of Oz and when this beautiful edition came out I couldn't resist. Not that I even tried.

Penguin Threads was a series Penguin did for which they commissioned special embroidery cover art. Other titles in the series were Black Beauty, Emma, Little Women, and The Secret Garden. I bought The Wizard because I hadn't read it yet; I also bought The Secret Garden, because it's a favorite of mine. One fun thing is that if you open the cover, you see the back of the work, like you're turning the fabric itself over to the "wrong side" to see all that embroidery. The covers are also lightly textured so you get that experience of touching the stitches, almost.

Shelf Control: Fight Night, by Miriam Toews

Shelf Control is a feature where bloggers pick an unread book from our shelves and talk about it a little. It's supposed to be a Wednesday thing but I have French Movie Mercredi on Wednesdays already, so. Shelf Control is hosted at BookshelfFantasies.com.

 

Today's pick is Fight Night, by Miriam Toews.

From the publisher:

From the bestselling author of Women Talking and All My Puny Sorrows, a compassionate, darkly humorous, and deeply wise novel about three generations of women.

“You're a small thing,” Grandma writes, “and you must learn to fight.” Swiv's Grandma, Elvira, has been fighting all her life. From her upbringing in a strict religious community, she has fought those who wanted to take away her joy, her independence, and her spirit. She has fought to make peace with her loved ones when they have chosen to leave her. And now, even as her health fails, Grandma is fighting for her family: for her daughter, partnerless and in the third term of a pregnancy; and for her granddaughter Swiv, a spirited nine-year-old who has been suspended from school. Cramped together in their Toronto home, on the precipice of extraordinary change, Grandma and Swiv undertake a vital new project, setting out to explain their lives in letters they will never send.

 

 

 

How and when I got it:  

I bought a signed hardcover at the Strand bookstore in New York in October, 2021.

Why I Want to Read It:

I am a big fan of Toews from her books All My Puny Sorrows and Women Talking; I'll pretty much read anything she publishes at this point. All My Puny Sorrows is a novel about a woman negotiating her relationship with her talented and unfortunately suicidal sister; it's incredibly moving. Women Talking, soon to be a movie directed by Sarah Polley, is the haunting story of a series of rapes in a Mennonite community in South America.  I had stopped blogging at the time I read both books so I never reviewed them here but they are both unforgettable. I expect nothing less from Fight Night.

Shelf Control: Embassy Wife, by Katie Crouch

Shelf Control is a feature where bloggers pick an unread book from our shelves and talk about it a little. It's supposed to be a Wednesday thing but I have French Movie Mercredi on Wednesdays already, so. Shelf Control is hosted at BookshelfFantasies.com.

This week's pick is Embassy Wife, by Katie Crouch. From the flap:

Meet Persephone Wilder, a displaced genius posing as the wife of an American diplomat in Namibia. Persephone takes her job as a representative of her country seriously, coming up with an intricate set of rules to survive the problems she encounters: how to dress in hundred-degree weather without showing too much skin, how to not look drunk at embassy functions, and how to eat roasted oryx with grace. She also suspects her husband is not actually the ambassador's legal counsel but a secret agent in the CIA. The consummate embassy wife, she takes the newest trailing spouse, Amanda Evans, under her wing...Propulsive and provocative, Embassy Wife asks what it means to be a human in this world, even as it helps us laugh in the face of our own absurd, seemingly impossible state of affairs.

 

How and when I got it:

I bought it in hardcover in September 2021 at Little City Books in Hoboken.

Why I Want to Read It:

It just seems kind of fun? I think it came recommended from Joanna Rakoff's Instagram. I could be wrong about that. But it was a recommendation from someone and it just sounded like a fun and possibly semi-deep read about womens' lives which is what I love.