The Professor's House

By Willa Cather

This book was surprisingly a slower read than expected for a Cather book. It took me much longer to get into than I expected. Perhaps the reading circumstances are to blame (I was away from home when I started it). Nevertheless, it was still an enjoyable read, with all the underlying themes and criticisms. It's interesting how she combined two story lines, that of Tom Outland, which she wrote first, and the that of the professor's, which envelopes that of Outland's. [258 pp.]

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The Redeemed

By Tim Pears

The third and final book of the West Country Trilogy. Like the other two, this book was a pleasure to read, for the most part. And like the first two, it also included some gruesome descriptions which were not pleasant to read at all, mostly during the Great War. Leo is now a diver in the Royal Navy, and what happens to him during the war was inspired by the writer's grandfather's experiences. After leaving the Navy, he joins a historic person by the name of Ernest Cox, who ran a salvage operation of German ships that were deliberately sunk after the war. Meanwhile, Lottie becomes the estate's veterinarian, though without the whole official training (though she is one of two female vet students who are allowed to participate in some courses for 6 months). Finally, toward the end **spoiler alert** we can finally relax and enjoy the reunion of Leo and Lottie. [400 pp.]

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Houses

By Borislav Pekic

It took me a long time to finish this book. Firstly, because it has no chapters. It's one long stream-of-consciousness thing told by an old confused guy who jumps from memory to real time without much announcing. While I was reading I thought that it was just me who has trouble understanding what's going on, but reading the introduction at the end (as I found is the logical thing to do), I realized it wasn't me -- it was the book. Anyway, I'm glad I finished it. There were some interesting things. But it did take me 9 weeks (not including 2.5 weeks in the middle when I read another book) to finish only 212 pages.

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The Atomic Weight of Love

By Elizabeth J. Church

This is another one of those books I picked up based on the cover. It was covered with birds, so really, I had no choice. I was a little disappointed with how the story went. It seemed like for the longest time nothing really happened in terms of character development, and it all sort of ended up coming up at the end. But I do have to say, it seemed very realistic. Like the author got the story from an actual person who had lived this life. I also couldn't help but identify somewhat with the protagonist, Meridian, who started out as a biologist (animal behavior, no less!) and later picked up art and poetry. The book highlights the prevalent notions at the time (1940s - 1970s) and changing views regarding gender equality. Now that I think about it, this might have been the whole point of delaying Meridian's development. Or maybe I'm over analyzing. [352 pp.]


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Unsheltered

By Barbara Kingsolver

Two characters, separated by 150 years, but share the same space, are the heroes of this book. One of them interacts with an actual historic figure, Mary Treat, and the other learns about her through her attempts to save her home. As with many of her books, there's a lot of complexities and discussion of social issues. One thing that bothered me a little was her discussion on corsets, which seemed a bit misinformed, which is very uncharacteristic of her. [462 pp.]

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War and Turpentine

By Stefan Hertmans

A powerful story of war and love. Love between a child and his grandfather; a son and his parents; a man and a woman who dies too young. Love for painting. This is based on the life of the grandfather of the author, and part of the book is some sort of relay of the stories written by the grandfather of his life during WWI. This part was hard for me to read. I felt relieved to finish that section. I love the way the author writes about his discovery of his grandfather's life. We often think we know people, but when they're from a different generation, we don't always know what their lives have been before we were born, and we might discover things about them that really surprise us. Reading this book felt like that. A journey of discovery of a man we know nothing about (unlike the author), and grow to love.

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This story actually inspired me to paint something based on a scene in the grandfather's story. At the beginning of the war he sees a German zeppelin in the sky, and likens it to a weirdly-shaped fish.

I'm Still Here (Je Suis La)

By Clelie Avit

A love story between a man feeling lost after his brother accidentally kills 2 14-year old girls, having driven drunk, and a woman mountain climber who got into a coma after an avalanche-related fall. This absurd situation is made very nicely believable at the hands of the author. But I did have a bit of beef with the translator and editor. First, there's the very literal translation of chez toi/chez vous and chez moi. Basically, they translated it as at yours and at mine, respectively. This sounds very awkward. Why didn't they use your/my place? And I checked. This edition was published by a US-based publisher. They should know better. Secondly, there's the use of lay vs. lie. To their credit, they did not use lay when they meant lie. BUT, they also used lie when they should have used lay, and not just once. Again, editors, where were you??? I know this kind of thing doesn't bother most people. What can I say? This is why it was my dream to learn as many languages as possible, so I could read a book in its author's language.
Anyway, it's a very readable book otherwise. And very touching, too. [247 pp.]

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