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

#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

Wow, finally some time to participate today. Last time was early September…

📚 JUST READ / LISTENED TO 🎧

📚 Ficciones, by Jorge Luis Borges
Published in 1944
Read it for the Classics Club and the Books in Translation Reading Challenge

If you click on the cover, you will access my posts on it. I decided to take time to share notes on each stories. My last post with a conclusion will be posted on December 29, but here is part of it:

“I thoroughly enjoyed this book, with its various ways of considering time, history, and the universe, through for instance the images of mirrors and labyrinths. And the use of metafiction (with real and fictional books and authors) as a tool for that as well, through a diversity of possible interpretations.”

🎧  Les Mystères de Paris, volume 2, by Eugène Sue
Published between 1842-1843
Read it for the Classics Club 

I have the feeling that most of my English speaking followers have never heard of this book nor of its author. And yet, it was so popular at all levels of society at a time, that it was even the inspiration behind Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables.
The audiobook has been published in three parts. It is fabulously narrated by Loïc Richard.
It is great fun discovering what elements Hugo took and transformed. You have the same sample of population, a man trying to spread social justice, bad and good people, poor and rich, but with different combinations and evolution than in Les Misérables. And an interesting story about a man and his daughter!
It’s also a more popular book, with no real historical background, but the focus definitely on the social circumstances.
Sue is here the first author to describe the injustices and miserable situation of the people, and to openly criticize the institutions. He thus became the spokesman for the humanitarian and socialist ideals in vogue in the 1840s, with the ultimate result in the 1848 Revolution.
And his portraits of his characters are excellent.
The style may sound overly romantic to some. I actually do enjoy it a lot.
If you love Les Misérables, I highly recommend you to try it. It’s available in English as The Mysteries of Paris.

📚 CURRENTLY READING/LISTENING TO 🎧

📚 The Samurai’s Garden, by Gail Tsukiyama
Published in 1994

I bought this book at a library sale a few years ago. I chose it for my Summer reading, but am finally reading it. It is so good!
Stephen, a 20-year-old Chinese painter, is sent to his family’s summer home in a Japanese coastal village to recover from a bout with tuberculosis. There, he meets fascinating and rather secretive people, especially the leper Sachi.
I love the descriptions of the place and of the characters, and the ambiance. The author was born to a Chinese mother and a Japanese father, and she’s doing a great job here using both cultures, especially as the book is set in the 1930s, during the conflict between China and Japan.

🎧Les Mystères de Paris, volume 3, by Eugène Sue
Published between 1842-1843
Read it for the Classics Club 

See presentation above.

📚 BOOK UP NEXT 📚

📚  The Three Body Problem (Remembrance of Earth’s Past #1), by Cixin Liu
Published in 2006

Every winter, my awesome public library organizes a Winter Challenge: you answer a few questions, and the staff picks a book for you to read and review.
Lucky me, this is actually not a challenge! I have so much loved Supernova Era, that I meant to read this one. I’m glad I am urged to do it now! And I have the feeling I may tart 2022 with the rest of this trilogy.
I was reflecting recently that after enjoying a lot historical novels, then historical mysteries, then crime fiction, I’m now attracted more by classical mysteries, scifi and nonfiction. So this is a nice way of going on with this personal trend.

“Set against the backdrop of China’s Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens. An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start forming, planning to either welcome the superior beings and help them take over a world seen as corrupt, or to fight against the invasion. The result is a science fiction masterpiece of enormous scope and vision.”

📚 LAST 2 BOOKS ADDED TO MY GOODREADS TBR 📚

Did I just mentioned classical mysteries? These are the last two books I added to my Goodreads TBR shelf, just a couple of hours before preparing this post!
Have you read them? What did you think?

📚  Till Death Do Us Part (Dr. Gideon Fell #15), by John Dickson Carr
Published in 1944

“Crime author Dick Markham is in love again; his fiancée the mysterious newcomer to the village, Lesley Grant. When Grant accidentally shoots the fortune teller through the side of his tent at the local fair – following a very strange reaction to his predictions – Markham is reluctantly brought into a scheme to expose his betrothed as a suspected serial husband-poisoner.
That night the enigmatic fortune teller – and chief accuser – is found dead in an impossible locked-room setup, casting suspicion onto Grant and striking doubt into the heart of her lover. Lured by the scent of the impossible case, Dr Gideon Fell arrives from London to examine the perplexing evidence and match wits with a meticulous killer at large.
First published in 1944, Till Death Do Us Part remains a pacey and deeply satisfying impossible crime story, championed by Carr connoisseurs as one of the very best examples of his mystery writing talents.”

📚  Murder Included, by Joanna Cannan
Published in 1950

“In the prospectus for the Aston Park Guest House and stables, murder is not mentioned among the many attractions.
But when a sudden death arrives to upset the family and guests, it seems to become a full-time occupation . . .
Impoverished squire Sir Charles d’Estray brings home his second wife, Bunny, from the French Riviera.
A free-spirited and determined bohemian, Bunny commits herself to converting Sir Charles’ estate into a paying guesthouse and dragging his family out of their financial woes.
Despite the success of the guesthouse, however, the new Lady d’Estray never quite seems to fit in with the old aristocratic family.
When one of the guests, an elderly cousin of the Estrays, is found in her bed dead one morning, suspicion is concentrated on the household alone.
But while servants’ gossip, personal feuds and large sums of inheritance crop up in investigations, nothing seems to shine light on an adequate motive for murder.
It is up to Detective Inspector Price – a bourgeois townsman with a pure loathing for the effete English aristocracy — to solve the mystery. But will his prejudices and suspicions cloud his judgement?
Murder Included is an intriguing and gripping mystery tale, with superb character sketches of the Aston Park household.”

📚  LAST BOOK RECEIVED  📚

GIVEAWAYS AND BOOKS AVAILABLE FOR REVIEW

DECEMBER GIVEAWAY:
your choice between 3 books!

BOOKS AVAILABLE FOR REVIEW:
request today, review when it’s comfortable for you!
Click on the covers to know more and request

***

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