To Hold Up the Sky,
by Cixin Liu
Various translators
from the Chinese
Tor Books
10/20/2020
336 pages
Science Fiction
Goodreads
I discovered Cixin Liu a couple of years ago and was totally blown away by Supernova Era.
This time, I would like to present the latest collection of his science-fiction short stories: To Hold Up the Sky.
I don’t often read short stories, as they often feel like unfinished pieces to me, but there are a few impressive exceptions. Click to continue reading
Phew, that was actually a busy month, reading-wise and otherwise, for instance with 3 new French students. In a way, I’m glad we are back in confinement, so less opportunity for distractions! And obviously, less chances to catch the virus.
I have FINALLY restarted a Newsletter. It has a small fee, but each month 11 subscribers will receive a book based on their favorite genres!
10 will receive an ecopy and 1 a print copy (as long as Bookdepositery ships to their country). If you haven’t signed up yet, here is the November Newsletter as a sample, with the form to subscribe near the end.
November is the month about Nonfiction, and I had a great time with this event.
I also finished my 2nd list of 50 classics, and launched into my 3rd list, with 137 titles this time.
📚 Here is what I read in November.
Actually more audiobooks (with record time this month!) than printed books, I guess this has become a trend for me in 2020, maybe due to Covid-19?
11 books:
4 in print
= with 1,288 pages, a daily average of 42 pages/day
7 in audio
= 33H54, a daily average of 1H07
4 in mystery:
4 in nonfiction:
1 in historical fiction:
1 in science fiction:
1 in YA:
Actually this month both my favorites are French, and not yet translated.
Écouter le noir is a fascinating collection of thriller short stories, some actually almost horror, mostly based on the theme of deafness. A neat twist to these stories, by some authors I had never heard of. Very enjoyable collection!
As for La Chute du soleil de fer, this was really neat surprise: a YA fantasy (both genres I rarely read), by one of my favorite French authors. There was no way I was going to pass his latest novel, even if it was not in his usual mystery genre. And I am sure glad I took the plunge.
It’s set in Paris in a post-apocalyptic world, with two groups of teenagers and younger children. The adults are all gone. I loved these kids, and the settings, and how they try to make sense of what as survived form our world.
I can’t wait for next volume in the series!
Classics Club: 2/137 (from November 2020-until November 2025)
Japanese Literature Challenge: 9 books read during the challenge + 7 since.
Total of books read in 2020 = 106/110
Number of books added to my TBR this past month = 20
The open giveaways are on my homepage
And we offer a Book Box!
And monthly raffle with a Newsletter
(see sample with link to sign up)
click on the cover to access my review
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Come back tomorrow
to see the books I plan to read in December,
and some major milestone!!
How was YOUR month of November?
Nicole at Feed Your Fiction Addiction
has created a Month In Review meme
where you can link your monthly recap posts
Thanks Nicole!
After the list of my 2019 favorites, here are my statistics.
Then tomorrow you can see the fun I had with the titles I read in 2019.
As I wrote yesterday, if 2018 was my most pathetic year in the last decade, with only 77 books read, 2019 is my best year, with 118 books!
I read and listened to many more books than last year, though apparently shorter ones.
90 books reads (61 in 2018), and 28 listened to (16 in 2018) = 118, which is an average of 9.8/month (77 books in 2018, with a monthly average of 6.4).
Books read in 2019:
90. That’s an average of 7.5/month
Total of 23,033 pages (17,761 in 2018), which is an average of 63 pages/day (48 in 2018).
That’s an average of 255 pages/book (291 in 2018). So I actually read shorter books this year. It makes sense with all the mangas I read!
Books listened to in 2019:
28 [16 in 2018]. This is an average of 2.3/month (1.3 in 2018)
Total of 14,323 mn (10,405 min in 2018) with an average of 39 mn/day (28 in 2018)
That’s an average of over 8 hours/audiobook. (10 hours/audiobook in 2018, so I also listened to shorter audiobooks)
In graphs, this is what it looks like:
So many months with average over 60, compared to 2018!
Those 2 peaks over an hour are impressive!
Nonfiction actually same percentage 3 years in a row!
And I like this better balance.
I decided to include here a Graphic Novel section,
as I read 20 this year.
Otherwise, about the same,
though less ebooks and more audiobooks
Some of you are may be appalled,
but honestly, as long as a book is well written,
I really don’t care if a man or a woman wrote it
9 more countries represented than last year,
mostly due to the fact that I was part of
the Man Booker International Prize Shadow Panel
6 more languages than last year!
Neat that less than half of the books I read
were not originally published in English.
Also due to the Shadow Panel.
I actually read exactly as many books translated into English
as published originally in English (51)!
In translation: 51 [21 in 2018]:
16 in original language: in French
Out of a Total of 90 authors (60 in 2018)
53 were new to me (58%. It was 55% in 2018)
Books by the same author: 32 [22 in 2018]:
15 by Hayao Miyazaki (Mangas)
4 by Guillaume Musso
3 by Katherine Applegate
and 2 by Michel Bussi, Sarah Bailey, Candice Fox, Ichigo Takano, Clement Sederholm
Re-Reads:
Le Horla, by Guy de Maupassant (first time read, this time: listened to)
Oldest: Don Quixote, 1st part, by Cervantes (1604)
Newest: Lady Clementine, by Marie Benedict, and Dreamland, by Nancy Bilyeau, to be released at the beginning of January 2020.
A bit less books published after 2010 than last year.
I do try to go through classics and old TBRs
NB: Most books bought are part of my EStories audio subscription.
11% less books received for review than last year!
Indeed, I try to exercise more discernment on what I request or not
21 countries these books led me to (19 last year):
US (22), France (21),
Japan (18), England (12),
Russia (7), Australia (5),
3 were set in Spain, South Korea, and space,
2 were set in Germany, China, and Canada.
1 was set in Morocco, Norway, Malaysia, Switzerland, Austria, Oman, Poland, Columbia, and Czechoslovakia.
Shortest book: Bear and Wolf, by Daniel Salmieri – 44 pages (picture book)
Longest book: La vie mode d’emploi, by Georges Pérec – 580 pages.
Longest audio: The Moonstone, by Wilkie Collins – 22:28 hours
Funniest: Are We French Yet? by Keith Van Sickle = nonfiction on life of expats
Most Unique Book: Secret Agent Brainteasers: More Than 100 Codebreaking Puzzles Inspired by Britain’s Espionage Masterminds, by Sinclair McKay
Most tearjerker: The One and Only Ivan, by Katherine Applegate
Most disappointing (and totally unbearable): Valerie, by Sara Stridsberg
Creepy: Scare Me, by Richard Jay Parker
Eye-opener: Talk to Me: How Voice Computing Will Transform the Way We Live, Work, and Think, by James Vlahos
Best reading companion: Quichotte, by Salman Rushdie (as a spin off on Don Quixote, by Cervantes, that I also read this year)
Beautiful illustrations: The Secret World of Arrietty, vol. 1 by Hayao Miyazaki
Biggest discovery: Hayao Miyazaki (several books), and Liu Cixin
Favorite characters of the year: Louis and Sam (The Trumpet of the Swan), Trace (Trace), Naho & Kakeru (Orange), Colin (Sang Famille), Jayme (A Long Way Down), Azi (The Gomorrah Gambit), Arrietty (The Secret World of Arrietty), Joshua (Avalanche hôtel), Alexander (Alexander Schmorell), Satsuki and Mei (My Neighbor Totoro), Giordano Bruno (Treachery), Mrs Bunting (The Lodger), Ivan (The One and Only Ivan), Sarah & Christopher (le cri).
Classics I finally got to read:
Don Quixote, by Cervantes
On the Edge of the World, by Nikolai Leskov
The Castle of Otranto, by Horace Walpole
Tender is the Night, by Fitzgerald
Parnassus on Wheels, by Christopher Morley
Walden, by Thoreau,
Travels with Charley, by Steinbeck
Dictionnaire des idées reçues, by Flaubert
Travels with a Donkey, by Stevenson
The Lodger, by Marie Belloc Lowndes
The Moonstone, by Wilkie Collins
Le mystère de la chambre jaune, by Gaston Leroux
The Masque of the Red Death, by Edgard Allan Poe
The Mystery of the Hansom Cab, by Fergus Hume
We, by Yevgeny Zamyatin
Solaris, by Lem
Childhood’s End, by Clarke
The Trumpet of the Swan, by E. E. White
Books present for a while on my TBR that I finally got to read (other than the classics just mentioned):
Prayers by the Lake, by Nikolai Velimirovich
La vie mode d’emploi, by Georges Pérec
Earthern Vessels, by Gabriel Bunge
Poustinia, by Catherine de Hueck Doherty
If You Love Me, by Matthew the Poor
Elder Leonid of Optina, by Fr Clement Sederholm
Elder Anthony of Optina, by Fr. Clement Sederholm
Indication of the Way into the Kingdom of Heaven, by Saint Innocent of Moscow
Which authors new to me in 2019 that I now want to keep reading?
Un-Su Kim, Pat Cummings, Poschmann, Tom Chatfield, Candice Fox, Sarah Bailey, Olivier Norek, Salman Rushdie, Arthur C. Clarke, Liu Cixin, Marie Belloc Lowndes, Nicolas Beuglet
New Series I want to pursue:
Crimson Lake, Gemma Woodstock, Sarah Geringën
Best title: HHhH, by Laurent Binet
Longest book title:
Secret Agent Brainteasers: More Than 100 Codebreaking Puzzles Inspired by Britain’s Espionage Masterminds, by Sinclair McKay
Shortest book title: We, by Yevgeny Zamyatin
MORE FUN RECAP TOMORROW!
Words And Peace 