1. To Live
— Yu Hua
An epic tale wonderfully told — and my book of the month. Immediately ordered three more by this author: The Seventh Day, Chronicles of a Blood Merchant, and City of Fiction.
2. Dead Man’s Walk
— Larry McMurtry
The first installment in Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove tetralogy. I’m reading them in order of their internal chronology, rather than publication order. Great storytelling. A very easy read.
3. Comanche Moon
— Larry McMurtry
Like Dead Man’s Walk, this sequel is well-paced with good dialogue, character development and short chapters — I love short chapters. However, most novels longer than 500 pages are at least 1 page too long. Comanche Moon would have been even better with a more ruthless editor, or, say, if pages 400 to 500 were replaced by a 100-page précis of pages 500 to 700. Next in the series is Lonesome Dove, generally considered McMurtry’s best work (almost 900 pages, so we shall see!).
4. Sweet Thursday
— John Steinbeck
A tender sequel of sorts to Cannery Row. Steinbeck is still one of the best, and he set such a high bar with books like East of Eden.
5. A Fire Upon the Deep
— Vernor Vinge
Interesting aliens, good world-building but a little too long and with some unnecessary subplots. Would be a great novel at half the length.
Books on my December TBR include The Seventh Day by Yu Hua, The Last Wolf by László Krasznahorkai, The Other Americans by Laila Lalami, The Awakening by Kate Chopin, and perhaps, if I’m up for a 900-page novel, Larry McMurtry’s acclaimed Lonesome Dove.
Remarkable Renaissance Books
My new book Remarkable Renaissance Books has now been published in the Europe. Elsewhere, you can pre-order it from Amazon or ask your local bookstore to get you a copy.
