Postby kanewai » Tue Oct 20, 2020 10:08 pm
I finally finished some of the books that I've been reading for months. Others I just quit.
I went back and tracked how many days I had actually studied on Memrise, Kwiziq, Speakly, etc. this past month. It wasn't much. There'd be days where I'd do a lot of all of them, and then days when I did nothing. I'm going to try a new approach, and just focus on one at a time, and rotate every week or so. And so last practiced with Kwiziq Spanish each night, and this week I'll work on Italian with Speakly. At least initially this feels more sustainable than my scatter-shot approach, and I feel like I actually made a bit of progress on Spanish. A bit, but progress nonetheless.
I finished a bunch of books, some of which I have been trying to finish for months. And for the first time in ages I don't have any ready to pick up.
Le Clézio, Désert (1980)
A one-dimensional story set in Morroco about a young girl who loves the desert. I suspect that it's anti-colonial perspective might have felt more innovative back in 1980, which would explain all the prizes it won. The writing itself was beautiful, but the story itself lacked depth or insight beyond "the desert is beautiful, the city is bad."
Le Bureau des légendes (Season 5)
The show was excellent right up until the last two episodes. There was a new director for the finale, and it felt like he gave every character a new personality, and changed the show into a generic spy caper with surprise twists that made absolutely no sense. It wasn't as bad as the Game of Thrones finale, but it was still a horrible way to end a great series.
Elena Ferrante, La vita bugiarda degli adulti (2019)
This is chick-lit with a dark side. As a guy, you feel like you’re reading something private that really wasn’t meant for you. And yet, maybe you keep reading it.
We’re back in Naples, like with Ferrante’s other books, but in an upper middle class family in the hills this time. One day the young Giovanna overhears her father say that she is becoming ‘brutta,’ ugly, just like his estranged sister Vittoria. Giovanni becomes obsessed with this mean (per her father) and ugly (ditto) aunt.
To say any more would spoil the ride. This isn’t as tight or as epic as the Neapolitan quartet, but it’s still a very intense look into one girl’s coming-of-age.
Mario Vargas Llosa, Tiempos Recios (2019)
At the beginning of the cold war, the United Fruit Company hires a New York public relations firm to fight against democratic and agrarian reforms in Guatemala. The firm invents a communist conspiracy that didn't exist - "una mentira que pasó por verdad" - the Eisenhower regime reacts by supporting a 'liberation army' to invade, and Central America and the Caribbean descends into bloody chaos for generations.
Politically, it's a fascinating story. As a novel, it was rough at first. There were too many characters to follow, and it was hard to get a grip on the events. The second half of the book, that follows a few characters who become victims of the very violence that they helped initiate, is much more effective.
7 x
Super Challenge - 50 books
Italian: Spanish: French: