Sunday Post #23 – 2/2/2020

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Sunday Post

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by
Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer.
It’s a chance to share news.
A post to recap the past week on your blog,
showcase books and things we have received.
Share news about what is coming up
on your blog for the week ahead.
See rules here: Sunday Post Meme

*** 

This post also counts for

Sunday Salon    Stacking the Shelves  Mailbox Monday2

 It's Monday! What Are You Reading2  IMWAYR  WWW Wednesdays 2

#SundayPost #SundaySalon
#StackingTheShelves #MailboxMonday
#itsmonday #IMWAYR
#WWWWednesday #WWWWednesdays

Click on the logos to join the memes,
and on the book covers to access synopsis or review

JUST READ

     The Gate

📚 The Gate
Last book in the trilogy after Sanshiro and And Then.
Read for Japanese Literature Challenge 13 and The Classics Club.

Planning to publish my review on 2/4.

CURRENTLY READING/LISTENING TO

Theological Territories Norwegian Wood

📚 Theological Territories: A David Bentley Hart Digest
Received for review through Edelweiss
Release date April 15
A collection of 26 essays related to Orthodoxy.
I’m publishing notes on it as I read it.

📚 Norwegian Wood
Reading for Japanese Literature Challenge 13 and with the Murakami online book club – see explanation in my Book Journal here below.

Audio book

Complot

📚  Complot:
I really enjoyed book 1 in this series. 
A mysterious plot involving the Norwegian Prime Minister.

BOOK UP NEXT

Second Sister

📚 Second Sister
Received for review through Edelweiss
Release date: February 18
“An up-to-the-minute tale of a Darwinian digital city where everyone from tech entrepreneurs to teenagers is struggling for the top.
A schoolgirl—Siu-Man—has committed suicide, leaping from her twenty-second floor window to the pavement below. Siu-Man is an orphan and the librarian older sister who’s been raising her refuses to believe there was no foul play—nothing seemed amiss. She contacts a man known only as N.—a hacker, and an expert in cybersecurity and manipulating human behavior. But can Nga-Yee interest him sufficiently to take her case, and can she afford it if he says yes?

LAST 2 BOOKS ADDED TO MY GOODREADS TBR

The Godwulf Manuscript     The Scarlet Pimpernel

📚 The Godwulf Manuscript
Published in 1973
This sounds like an intriguing mystery.
“The first in the series featuring private detective Spenser, sees Spenser hired to return a rare stolen fourteenth-century manuscript to its rightful owners, a Boston university who has hired him.
Spenser earned his degree in the school of hard knocks so he is hardly surprised that his only clue is a radical student with four bullets in his chest. The investigation soon leads him into a complex web of murder, radical politics, adultery, drugs and organised crime.
The cops are ready to throw the book at the pretty blond coed whose prints are all over the murder weapon but Spenser knows there are no easy answers. He tackles some very heavy homework and knows that if he doesn’t finish his assignment soon, he could end up marked “D” — for dead.”

📚 The Scarlet Pimpernel
1905
A classic set in France I had not heard about!
“Armed with only his wits and his cunning, one man recklessly defies the French revolutionaries and rescues scores of innocent men, women, and children from the deadly guillotine. His friends and foes know him only as the Scarlet Pimpernel. But the ruthless French agent Chauvelin is sworn to discover his identity and to hunt him down.”

BOOKS RECEIVED THIS PAST WEEK

I actually haven’t received anything this week, at least at the time I’m preparing this post, but here are 2 books I checked out at my library:

     Selected poems The Book of Ichigo Ichie

📚 Selected Poems, by Masaoka Shiki
Translation by Burton Watson
As you know, I’m into a Japanese mood. I found reference to this book in Natsume Soseki’s books.
Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902) is credited with modernizing Japan’s two traditional verse forms, haiku and tanka.

📚 The Book of Ichigo Ichie: The Art of Making the Most of Every Moment, the Japanese Way
Release day 12/31/2019
Another Japanese book, by the author of the great Ikigai

BOOK JOURNAL

1/26
📚 Ok, looks like 2020 is going to be Japanese madness. As you know by now, I’m doing the Japanese Literature Challenge from January-March. And I have already read 3 books by Natsume Soseki for this.
Now, Bryan from Still An Unfinished Person, had the good idea to leave a comment today on my Sunday Salon #22, and he mentioned he was in an online book club on Murakami! How do you want me to resist this?
Plus this book club is using Discord, that I just joined to participate in the #Pondathon. So now I have 7 chapters of Norwegian Wood to read before next Sunday to catch up.
So I’ll be reading this before continuing with The Gate. Did I write madness?
I am not sure, but I don’t think I ever read Norwegian Wood. Anyway, even if I did, that would have been over 10 years ago, so it won’t hurt.
So tonight, I have read already 28% of the book, that is chapters 1-4 that were discussed on Sunday in the book club.
I think I will integrate my notes in my final review review of the book.
My plan is to try to finish The Gate, then read Norwegian Wood chapters 5-7 before Sunday, as these will be discussed on 2/2.

1/27
📚 I I listened to a bit over an our of Complot, the sequel of Le Cri, by Nicolas Beuglet. This French author is fantastic. I feel I’m there on this super cold Norwegian island. I love the characters, and I wonder the impact this new case (the gruesome and mysterious murder of the Prime Minister!) will have on Inspector Sarah.
📚 The Gate: So far, I don’t enjoy as much as the 2 previous books. There’s actually more happening that I expected or wanted!

1/28
📚 Complot: getting totally strange, as the police keeps repeating. There was this crazy suspenseful scene when Sarah was getting over the icy water to recover something. And now, the whole question is, who was really this Norwegian Prime Minister? Was she leading a double life? What was going on in her secret lab??
📚 The Gate: Ah! Tonight, I read beautiful passages on the life of this quiet couple. I will have lots of quotations to share in my review!!

1/29-30
📚 Complot: this is getting crazy now, as this could involve some international forces. Plus looks like Sarah’s family will be in danger as well!!
📚 The Gate: Now there’s this long flashback, where we see how the two main characters met in the first place. Though what happened then remains a bit blurred. It puts the quietness of this couple’s life in a very different light!
📚 Norwegian Wood: I have now read chapters 5-7, to be ready for our Sunday online discussion. I plan to post all my notes by chapter along with my review, so I won’t give any more details here.

1/31
📚 This was our monthly book club, so I came home late and didn’t read.
This was our 8th anniversary. So for the occasion, we do a full potluck meal, everyone bringing something. Plus I organize a Jeopardy game (questions related to literature only), with 3 bags of books and goodies for the top 3 winners.
And as usual, each member presents the book he/she has enjoyed reading this past month. This is our usual format, we love it, we would never all read the same book. So much more interesting, you discover all kinds of books in many genres, but obviously, this is super dangerous for your TBRs!

THIS PAST WEEK ON
WORDS AND PEACE
and FRANCE BOOK TOURS

📚 Book of the month giveaway

COMING UP ON WORDS AND PEACE

    Japanese Literature 13

January-March: Japanese Literature Challenge 13

  • 2/3 February titles
  • 2/4 Book review: The Gate
  • 2/5 Notes on Chapters 4-5 of Theological Territories
  • And will be catching up on 2019 book reviews

HAVE YOU READ ANY OF THESE?
HOW WAS YOUR WEEK?

 

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44 thoughts on “Sunday Post #23 – 2/2/2020”

  4. I have heard of book clubs having that format – where you don’t choose one particular book but everyone just shares what they’ve read that month. I’ve wondered how that would work as far as structure goes. How do you structure the book club evening? In other words, what’s a typical book club evening like with your book club?

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    • I try to find some structure, let’s say the first person who wants to speak has a book set in another country. So then I ask if we have another country in another book. Or we go by genre. Or sometimes by themselves people will say, well what he/she presented ties perfectly with my book. After the person presents his/her book, we ask questions, about something they mentioned, or why that title? And when others have read the same book at one point (it does happen), we open the conversation to more sharing. Like on Friday one person presented A Man Called Ove. He hated the book, and we had 5 other people who had read it, some had found it boring, some loved it to pieces. So we talked a bit longer on that. We usually share for 2 hours (we are in between 8-12).
      And because people usually talk about a book they loved, they talk with passion. So it’s not unusually for another member to present that same book the following month.

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      • How interesting! I think that sounds fun! It reminds me of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (which happens to be one of my all-time favorite books by the way 🙂 ). I actually really liked A Man Called Ove. In fact, I’d like to read it again sometime. It does seem to be a book that gets a wide range of reactions from love it to don’t like it at all. Amazon Prime has the movie if you haven’t seen it. Do you serve food or appetizers, drinks, etc.?

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        • I may tease that person, and tell him one of my friend blogger loved it so much she’s going to re-read it, lol!
          Ah, Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, one of these books I wanted to read, but haven’t done yet!!
          Our book club does BYOW. We take turn bringing very simple munchies (as we meet after dinner), like crackers and cheese. BUT once a year, in January, for our anniversary (we have been meeting every month for 8 years), we set up a full meal, with everyone bringing one part of the meal. That time, we meet 30 minutes earlier. And that day, I also organize a jeopardy game on literary topics, and offer bags of books and related goodies to 3 winners. Otherwise, at our regular meetings, we take names of a hat and I giveaway books. That’s where books received from publishers end up, after I review them. No wonder my book club loves me, lol

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  6. I’ve never done a book club on discord but that sound like it will be interesting. I’m going to keep an eye on any future such group reads.

    I love the books you’re reading. I’m going to look for the books by Natsume Soseki. They sound very good!

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  8. I’ll be interested to hear what you think of The Scarlet Pimpernel.There are also a few screen adaptations out there, one of them with Richard E Grant as Sir Percy Blakeney.

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  9. I’m very curious about Theological Territories. Do you find it easy to read through it? Or is it slow and careful going?

    The Japanese Challenge is a challenge I’d love to take on. I think I’d do better if I focused on doing it for a month rather than an entire year, though.

    Just added The Book of Ichigo Ichie to my wishlist. It looks like a book I will enjoy.

    I hope you have a lovely week, Emma.

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    • I have read a lot of theology in my younger years, but even for me, this is a super tough one, especially the first essays. Some may be easier on other topics.
      This Japanese challenge is just 3 months. Though you could also just do the #JanuaryinJapan next year. Yes, I think you would love The book of Ichigo. Have you read the ikigai one? it was really good
      Enjoy your week, I forgot how long you’ll be in France

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    • One of those days, you’ll have to try a Japanese thriller. Try Newcomer, by Higashino, or Devotion of Suspect X, also by him.
      No I haven’t seen it, but I will after I read the book. Thanks for the recommendation.

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  15. I’m still very interested in Theological Territories. I’m hoping it’ll provide great discussion with my hubby. Thanks for all these shares, Emma, and thanks for linking up and participating in our kidlit community for #imwayr!

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  16. Second Sister looks very interesting. I haven’t read Robert B. Parker for a number of years. The Scarlet Pimpernel is a classic I liked.
    Have a good week and Happy Reading!

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  18. Pingback: Sunday Post #24 – 2/9/2020 | Words And Peace

  19. Pingback: Books That Caught Our Eye | Mailbox Monday

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