pickThis is my least favorite of Greenwell‘s novels so far, but it‘s still a worthy book. A character study of an American teaching in Bulgaria, it meditates on the loss of home when you‘re part of an unaccepted group. There‘s graphic sex, which I don‘t like, but here I feel it does inform the character, so in that sense it works.
pickIf you had told me that I would become engrossed, entranced, in a book about the rise and fall of communism in Bulgaria, I would not have believed you. But here I am, left in that after-space of a riveting story, not sure how to go on with my day. Elizabeth Kostova has such a lovely way with storytelling, both delicate and impactful, and her characters live and breathe and demand your attention and empathy. Stoyan will stay with me for long time.
so-soAn unnamed American teaching English in Sofia, Bulgaria, has an on-again off-again affair with a local rentboy, Mitko.
It's a not completely successful expansion from a novella. The novella itself was good but the rest of it was not well-integrated, which left me, at least, uncertain about what was going on for swathes of it.
A bit of a TBR deep dive, but I have high hopes — I love this author and her engrossing way of spinning a tale. Just read a little over lunch and I am already hooked!
We are all emigrants from the homeland of our childhoods.
pickTough book to summarize in so few characters. It's formally daunting, a literal labyrinth of stories exploring themes of abandonment and melancholy using the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur as a central metaphor tying them together. There are numerous digressions - "side paths" as they're called - yet they're never tedious and the central narrative holds throughout. Better than Time Shelter IMO, and should have been what won Gospodinov an award.
#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl
I was born at the end of August 1913 as a human being of the male sex.
pickThis is one of the only history books that I truly enjoyed, Kaplan's writing style is so full of life, it makes you feel as if you know the people present in the story. A journalistic/travelling way of explaining major events is so enjoyable! Definitely a worthy read, even for people that aren't interested in history
