Tag Archives: Juan Gabriel Vásquez

Man Booker International Prize 2019 Shadow Panel shortlist

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Longlist book stack2

#MBI2019

Man Booker International Prize 2019 Shadow Panel shortlist

This year, our Shadow Panel counts 11 judges. Everyone worked really hard and most judges read most of the 13 books featured on the longlist.
Here is the shortlist our Shadow Panel came up with:

2019 shortlists

As you can see, our Shadow Panel shortlist has 5 books in common with the official shortlist – just as mine also had 5 in common with the official list, but with a different 6th title.

This is all pretty similar.
This is probably due to the fact that the longlist was rather weak this year, without too many outstanding titles.
And as most the books were very fairly short, our team of judges managed to read a lot. I’m amazed I personally managed to read 12, in so few weeks.
“Every book was read by at least 8 judges, and most by at least ten (Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead was the only one with everyone’s score).

What next?
Our winner will be announced on May 21, a few hours before the official winner is announced.
NB: the book I would pick as the winner is on the official shortlist and the Shadow Panel shortlist!

If you want more details, come this way to read our chairman’s post.

DID YOU READ THESE TITLES?
WHICH ONE WOULD BE YOUR WINNER?

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2019: March wrap-up

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MARCH WRAP-UP

I could start this recap with the exact same line as the last 3 or 4 months: it is still too cold around Chicago, and believe or not, we had a bit of snow Saturday evening and night!
But who cares when you have lots of books waiting for you to read? That has definitely been the case for me, as I’m part of the Shadow Panel for the Man Booker International 2019. The shortlist will be revealed on April 9, and I still have quite a few to read to get closer to the 1 titles…

Also, slowly but surely, I’m still reading Don Quixote, now with Lory at The Emerald City. We will take turn to post our reflections/questions on the second part of the work.

Everyday, I also read a chapter of Les Misérables in French, a read-along with one my students. We are now in volume 2.

So here is what I finished in March:

11 books:
1 in print 
=  with 2,964 pages, an average of 95 pages/day
None in audio
I have been listening to Walden, by Thoreau, but have not finished yet.

5 in literary fiction:

  1. At Dusk, by Hwang Sok-Yong – ebook, for MBI2019
  2. Four Soldiers, by Hubert Mingarelli – for MBI2019
  3. The Pine Islands, by Marion Poschmann – ebook, for MBI2019
  4. Love in the New Millennium, by Can Xue – for MBI2019
  5. The Remainder, by Alia Trabucco Zeran – for MBI2019

2 in nonfiction:

  1. Poustinia, by Catherine de Hueck Doherty
  2. The Years, by Annie Ernaux – for MBI2019

1 in historical fiction:

  1. The Shape of the Ruins, by Juan Gabriel Vasquez – for MBI2019

2 in graphic novels

  1. Orange, volume 2, by Ichigo Takano – manga
  2. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, by Scott Fitzgerald

1 in mystery:

  1. The Woman in the Window, by AJ Finn – ebook

MY FAVORITES IN MARCH

The Years The Pine Islands

READING CHALLENGES & RECAP

Classics Club: 42/50 (until end of 2020)
2019 Calendar of Crime Challenge 2/12
Where Are You Reading?: 21/50 – to be finished in ??
Total of books read in 2019 = 26/100
Number of books added to my TBR this past month= 22

MOST POPULAR BOOK REVIEW THIS PAST MONTH

At Dusk

click on the cover to access my review

MOST POPULAR POST THIS PAST MONTH
– NON BOOK REVIEW –

Born a Crime chapter 9-14:
read along at Book Bloggers International

BOOK BLOG THAT BROUGHT ME MOST TRAFFIC THIS PAST MONTH

Tony’s Reading List
please go visit

TOP COMMENTERS OF THE MONTH

Judy at Keep the Wisdom
Karen at Booker Talk
Angela at Musings of a Literary Wanderer

BLOG MILESTONES 

1,939 posts
over 4,800 subscribers
over 174,900 hits

Be sure to check the giveaway posted on my homepage!

Also, we still have one spot available
to review this wonderful book by Blondel!

*

Come back tomorrow
to see the books I plan to read in April


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How was YOUR month of March?

2019-Monthly-Wrap-Up-Round-Up_300

Nicole at Feed Your Fiction Addiction
 has created a Month In Review meme
where you can link your monthly recap posts
Thanks Nicole!

 

Book review: The Shape of the Ruins

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The Shape of the Ruins

The Shape of the Ruins
by Juan Gabriel Vásquez
Translated by
Anne McLean
Riverhead Books
9/25/2018
Originally published as La forma de las ruinas
in 2015
Genre: Literary fiction/Historical fiction
528 pages

Goodreads

This Man Booker International 2019 longlist has definitely an issue with genre. I already presented a novel that was supposed to be a historical novel but was not; an autobiography included as a novel, though it was not a novel and even received a nonfiction award last year; and today I’m presenting The Shape of the Ruins, a novel that actually offers a sweeping modern history of the Republic of Colombia, with the author himself deeply inserted within the narrative.

Click to continue reading