Nice Day to Read Outside

I started this post at 10:30 this morning...

It's really nice outside (73F), so I'm sitting out here reading my library books.  I ended up getting nine altogether, even though my plan was to get four.  At least 4/9 were from my to-read shelf, while the other five were random picks.

The four from my to-read shelf are...

~How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez

*DNF'd it - even added it to my DNF shelf on GoodReads, then not long after, decided to give it another chance.  I've only done this with three other novels: The Martian by Andy Weir; The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien and The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood, and I ended up giving all three 4 or 5 stars, so...

**EDIT: I stopped the Garcia Girls book for good.  I was put off by the weird birthday party kissing scene and the behavior of the youngest daughter.  Sorry, but no thanks.

~Darktown by Thomas Mullen

*Haven't started it yet.  It's a long one at over 600 pages (I got the large print edition), but I think it will be really good.  Let's hope!

~Anthem by Ayn Rand.

*Quit with only 20 pgs to go.  We tried to push through to the end, but it was getting on our last nerve. ;)

~Brighton Belle by Sara Sheridan

*My mom is reading it right now and says it's not bad.  It's a post-WWII crime/mystery novel.

The random ones I found are (and by coincidence, they're all translated)...

~Madonna in a Fur Coat by Sabahattin Ali 

*Translated from Turkish.  It was originally published in 1943.  It had been stuck in the S section at the library and I happened upon it.  I'm glad I did, because I'm liking it a lot.  I don't normally go for romances, and I guess this would maybe fall under that category...sort of...but so far it's different (in a good way.)  A couple years ago, I read a book translated from French called The Red Notebook by Antoine Laurain that had similar non-romance romance vibes - I gave that one 5 stars.

~The Hummingbird by Kati Hiekkapelto

*Translated from Finnish.  It's the first in a trilogy/series (can't remember which) that follows an immigrant detective named Anna Fekete.  It falls into the Scandinavian crime genre, and so far it's pretty gripping.  The chapters are short too, so that's a plus.

~Independent People by Halldór Laxness

*Translated from Icelandic.  Another foreign modern classic, published in 1946.  I get the feeling this one might be a little complicated, but hopefully not to the point I give up on it.  

~In the Café of Lost Youth by Patrick Modiano

*Translated from French.  This is the third Patrick Modiano book I've picked up from the library.  I read The Black Notebook a couple years ago (gave it 2 stars, if I remember right), and Suspended Sentences last year (didn't finish it.)  This one is promising.

~A Perfect Crime by A Yi

*Translated from Chinese.  On the flap it says, "...echoes Kafka's absurdism, Camus's nihilism and Dostoyevsky's depravity...," so if any of that appeals to you, this book might be up your alley.  I haven't read anything by those authors, but the plot sounds pretty messed up.

I wanted to get back to updating this blog, and plan to do so more frequently.