#TBR2022RBR

Adam is asking us how we are doing so far with this challenge.
Since the August checkpoint, I have finished two books:

📚 Eventide, by Kent Haruf
Literary fiction
Published in 2004

I so enjoyed this book!
It was great meeting again the McPheron brothers, and Victoria. The brothers are two old farmers, living and working together on this isolated farm  near the very small village of Holt, Colorado.
Victoria is a young woman they sheltered in the previous book (Plainsong), when she was in trouble. She now has a young child, and she is going back to school.
I really enjoyed the slow pace, the description of the landscape, of the daily chores on the farm. And obviously the study of the relationships between people in this city. The focus is really on relationships, within different families, in different social milieus.
And Haruf is so good at dialogs, especially at evoking the accent and speech characteristics of these two old guys. I read the book, I didn’t listen to the audiobook, but still, their voice was so alive to me through Haruf’s writing!
He wrote a 3rd book in this trilogy (Benediction), but it’s not about the same characters. I’m disappointed, as Raymond is kind of turning a new page in his life (you are never too old for that), and I wanted to know more about that. I also wanted more on the young boy DJ. But alas the author has passed away, so no more adventures coming on these characters I feel like I met in real life.

📚 Ensemble, c’est tout,
by Anna Gavalda
Literary fiction
574 pages
Published in 2004

I read French Leave by Anna Gavalda in 2011. I liked it, but was not super impressed. But something (or someone??) told me to try another book, and I must have found Ensemble, c’est tout at a second-hand book sale – not easy to find these in French around Chicago!

VERDICT: Very enjoyable character-focused novel, with flowing dialogues.

Click on the cover to read my full review.

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Here is my full list for this challenge:

1. Thomas Jefferson’s Crème brûlée: How a Founding father and his slave James Hemings introduced French cuisine to America, by Thomas J. Craughwell 6/12/22
2. Le Voyage d’Octavio, by Miguel Bonnefoy 5/22/22
3. A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry 5/21/22
4. Stuart Little, by E.B. White 5/18
5. The First Men in the Moon by H.G. Wells 7/22/22
6. Eventide, by Kent Haruf 9/10/22
7. The Daughter of Time, by Josephine Tey 8/21/22
8. Ensemble, c’est tout, by Anna Gavalda 8/26/22
9. Wanderlust: A History of Walking, by Rebecca Solnit
10. Absolutely on Music: Conversations with Seiji Ozawa, by Haruki Murakami (currently reading)
11. Arvo Pärt: Out of Silence, by Peter C. Bouteneff
12. A is For Alibi, by Sue Grafton 7/13/22

Alternates:
11. Joie de Vivre: Secrets of Wining, Dining, and Romancing Like the French, by Harriett Welty Rochefort
12. The Discovery of France: A Historical Geography, by Graham Robb

HOW ARE YOU DOING SO FAR WITH YOUR CHALLENGES?