Books Bought, Books Read: April 2022

Books Purchased April 2022

Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the siege of Leningrad. by M. T. Anderson. (audible audiobook). 3 April.

The Complete Poems of Anna Akhmatova. (paper). from Amazon. 1 April.

Alton Brown’s Gear for Your Kitchen. (hardcover). from Amazon. 15 April.

 

Books Read April 2022

Leningrad by Anna Reid. (kindle and audible audiobook). 513 pgs. 513 running pgs. 1 April.

Not for the faint of heart. Reid's book is definitely a book about human suffering. Along with the battle for Stalingrad, the siege of Leningrad was among the most brutal of events in Europe in the second world war. I first came across this title from the five books website where experts recommend five books on a topic. The other four books they recommend are: Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman, Ian Kershaw's biography of Adolph Hitler, A Woman in Berlin by Anonymous, and Bloodlands by Timothy Snyder.

Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the siege of Leningrad by M. T. Anderson. (library paperback and audible audiobook). 464 pgs. 977 running pgs. 3 April.

Anderson's book is written for (brave and advanced reading) teenagers. It covers both the siege of Leningrad and the life and work of Shostakovich. Shostakovich was one of the most important composers of the Soviet era, along with Khatchaturian and Prokofiev. But he had a very complex relationship with the state being greatly heralded at times and being exactly the opposite at other times. I find Shostakovich to be one of the most fascinating intellectuals of the twentieth century; his life and work raise profound questions about the nature of art and music, the relationship of art to the state, censorship, political repression, and what the line might be between propaganda and other uses of art.

Thank You, Mr. Nixon: Stories by Gish Jen. (library hardcover). 272 pgs. 1249 running pgs. 6 April.

First, let me draw your attention to the cover -- it really is an extraordinary image of a possible postcard. Jen's collection of stories is mostly about the experiences of Chinese people who no longer live in China. My favorite story was about the strange lengths a mother in Hong Kong goes to push her daughter in New York to talk to her.

Disorientation by Elaine Hsieh Chou. (library hardcover). 416 pgs. 1665 running pgs. 10 April.

I knew nothing about this first novel by a Taiwanese American when I saw it on the new books shelf at the public library, but I am glad I decided to take a chance on it. Like the last book on my list, Disorientation has a cover very much worth contemplating. Among the themes this novel covers are the challenges of surviving graduate school and dissertation research and writing and the nature of authenticity.

Slam Volume 1 by Pamela Ribon. (ComiXology ebook). 114 pgs. 1779 running pgs. 12 April.

A female centered comic book. I liked the book, but the narrative focused on too many characters for me to really enjoy the story.

First Person Singular: Stories by Haruki Murakami. (library hardcover). 245 pgs. 2024 running pgs. 13 April.

Another book with a fantastic cover. Murakami is best in longer novels, but these stories are very much worth reading.

The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami. (kindle). 607 pgs. 2631 running pgs. 23 April.

Murakami has been described as melancholy and surreal. I agree. This book is generally considered to be his best book. I also agree with that sentiment.

The Poetry of Strangers: What I learned traveling America with a typewriter by Brian Sonia-Wallace. (Kindle and Libby Audiobook). 304 pgs. 2935 running pgs. 26 April.

Sonia-Wallace's breezy book is more of a travel narrative book than it is a book about poetry or poetics. The author freely admits to knowing almost nothing about poetry before he finds a typewriter and starts charging people who ask for poems. There are certain professions: poet, artist, children's book author, where people seem to think that there is a minimum of intellectual work or professionalism associated with them. This problem does not occur with cardiology or dentistry. No one would sit in a chair after their dentist said, "You know, I've never done a root canal before but I did read about how to do one on a couple websites and I think I should be able to do this."

The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka. (kindle and Libby audiobook). 144 pgs. 3079 running pgs. 27 April.

A book with a small number of pages can sometimes be a book very much worth reading. I enjoyed Otsuka's previous book The Buddha in the Attic very much as well. The story starts with a somewhat surreal story about swimmers obsessed by swimming and a crack that appears at the bottom of their pool. The story turns into a story about the nature of ageing, memory, and what happens when the human brain begins to decline.