July 2024 Reads

Books I read in July 2024.

An especially enjoyable reading month. A lot of Rachel Cusk and a stellar book of the month.

1. The Sparrow

— Mary Doria Russell
The author later described it as ‘Jesuits in Space’. Great speculative sci-fi. Sometimes a little cheesy, but otherwise a warm-hearted, intelligent, compelling page-turner with an unexpected and brutal conclusion. My book of the month. And there’s a sequel, Children of God, which I’ve just ordered.

Book cover: I Who Have never Known Men

2. Strange Weather in Tokyo

— Hiromi Kawakami
I loved this. And a close run thing for book of the month.

3. Quicksand

— Nella Larsen
Not as good as the incredible Passing (which I read last month), but nonetheless a good read. Great cover too.

4. The Years

— Annie Ernaux
Have not read anything like this. Absolutely not your typical memoir. I enjoyed its fast pace. Imagine, in old age, looking through old photo albums, and piecing together your life’s history — that’s The Years.

5. Convenience Store Woman

— Sayaka Murata
Quirky and fun. Will read more by this author, beginning with Earthlings.

6. My Brilliant Friend

— Elena Ferrante
I’d heard so much praise for this book, I guess there was no way it was going to live up to the hype. I enjoyed it, but it wouldn’t make it onto any of my best-of lists.

7. Outline

— Rachel Cusk
The first in Cusk’s Outline trilogy. Intelligent, human, thought-provoking.

‘Reading these novels, it is easy to forget that the true power lies with Cusk, who has chosen to submit her character to such a radical experiment in passivity, and to respond to the chatty, descriptive tradition of the naturalistic English novel with deliberately wrought formalism and silence.’ – The New Yorker

8. Transit

— Rachel Cusk
The second in Cusk’s Outline trilogy. My favorite in the series, perhaps.

9. Kudos

— Rachel Cusk
The third in Cusk’s Outline trilogy.

10. Saving Agnes

— Rachel Cusk
What can I say? I like Rachel Cusk.

11. Medieval Women’s Writing

— Carolyn Dinshaw, et al (eds)
A generally good set of essays (several duds) with an emphasis on medieval English literature.

12. The Days of Abandonment

— Elena Ferrante
I preferred this to My Brilliant Friend. It reminded me of Simone de Beauvoir’s A Woman Destroyed — which I love.

13. Woman Running in the Mountains

— Yūko Tsushima
‘Set in 1970s Japan, this tender and poetic novel about a young, single mother struggling to find her place in the world.’ A slow burn. If you’re not in a hurry, you’ll enjoy this one.

14. Child of Fortune

— Yūko Tsushima
Had this been any longer (it’s only 150 pp.), I wouldn’t have finished it.

July 2024 reading stats

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