My Russian spring (gimme some reading tips!)

[sealwhiskers]

Lately I've been trying to read some Russian/Slavic writers, since my Russian is barely existent and I am too slow a reader in Polish, I read them translated into those languages I am a completely fluent reader in, so that I can do it somewhat swiftly

Comments

[squirrel_monkey]

Marina Chepurina, if you can find any translations. On less fantastical side -- Dina Rubina, Lyudmila Ulitskaya.

[sealwhiskers]

I *so* wanted to find at least Marina Chepurina in English (or Swedish) because her books looked so interesting in the Russian editions, but I only found her and Rubina in Russian and French editions (my French is way too weak as well), which makes me a bit angry. I read somewhere that something with the Russian copyrights mucks up certain translation projects, but I wonder if that's true. At least I found plenty of Ulitskaya translated, so I'm going to check her out. Thanks for some Russian tips, give me more whenever you come to think of anything!

[alecto23]

I've been reading the Hunger Games trilogy. A friend lent them to me, and I thought I'd see what all the fuss is about. Apart from that, there's been a lot of rereading the later Wimsey novels (Dorothy L Sayers) lately, and also the first Jill Paton Walsh/Sayers co-authored book, Thrones and Dominations. I should have left that one because I was so irritated that Paton Walsh utterly failed to capture Sayers. I'd read it before, but not immediately after re-reading Sayers herself. So although it's an ok book in its own right, compared to Sayers, it's just... *sigh*. Anyway, I have another one of those to read and also another Nicola Upson (have you read any of hers? They feature Josephine Tey, which is the pen name Elizabeth Mackintosh used to write mysteries - so Upson's using an alter ego/invented identity of a real person to investigate fictional crimes. But she does seem to work in details from Mackintosh's life as well, as much as she can since there's not a lot of biographical material to work with. Anyway, since you like Laurie

[sealwhiskers]

Nicola Upton sounds like a good match, not only to me, but to several mystery loving family members who are into LRK. So Bradshaw is American, and can more easily be found here in bookstores than in Australia?
I've probably read everything by Lindqvist, and read Let the Right one In long before it was translated or even became a movie. He's a great writer, and is as far as I've seen (I've bought several of his books for the Geek to read in English) decently translated.
I recently re-read many of the Brust Books, but I want to re read more DWJ, since she sadly died last year.

[alecto23]

Yeah, Upson's worth a read. She works in a lot of queer stuff, and has Josephine Tey completely ok with alternative sexualities. No idea if the real Elizabeth Mackintosh was. My only quibble is that the books can be kind of... dark? gory? unkind? Not sure quite how to describe it. Tey's actual books (which are really really really good; I cannot recommend them highly enough; also Dorothy L Sayers) have an underlying kindness or sense that despite the horrible nasty things that people do to each other, there's also an innate goodness. Upson's books don't share that. People are just horrible and nasty. Not everyone, but they're weighted towards the nasty.

And yes, Bradshaw is American. I'd forgotten that. She lives in Britain now. Anyway, if you can't find them in bookstores, they're on Book Depository and Amazon and such.

Just realised there's a Lindqvist in translation that I haven't yet read - Little Star. Yay

[abomvubuso]

I've been mostly listening books lately, rather than reading. Yep, I'm lazy like that! :)

[sealwhiskers]

Listening in the car when you're on the move going somewhere, eh?
That's at least what a lot of parents I know do. :)

[abomvubuso]

Nah, lying on my back under an oak shade, watching the clouds and imagining being far, far away in the land of Westeros (for example). :)

But damn, you now gave me a good idea!

[sealwhiskers]

Heh. Them GRRM books are like crack. I sure hope he doesn't have another 5 years of writer's block...

[pachamama]

Are you familiar with The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov? Well worth a read.

I'm currently reading (and transcribing) my great great great Grandmother's memoirs, and they are a scream! She lived 1835-1932 and her memoir was written in 1911. She was a covered wagon pioneer and lived through the Mexican-American War, the Gold Rush, attended Lincoln's second inaugural ball, lived through the Civil War and reconstruction, wrangled cattle through Montana and Wyoming smoking peace pipes with Native Americans along the way, and was a weird combination of racist and classist, yet with an authentic sympathy for the plight of Native American and remarkably clear analysis of the destruction of American Indian culture by white expansion. Plus a lot of fun descriptions of clothes and furniture and day-to-day life. It finishes with some genealogies which are very funny (apparently I can trace my lineage back to Charlemagne -- yeah right).

[stefan11]

"The Master and Margarita" -- yes, fabulous!
One of my favorite books, ever.

[sealwhiskers]

Mine too!

[sealwhiskers]

I named a black kitten my cat had, who ended up with one of my closest friends "Azazello" (it would have been cooler with "Begemot" but Azazello was a better cat's name), that's how much I love that book.

Wow Melanie, you are living an archivist's dream, reading those memoirs, how fascinating!

[coffeesvp]

I recently finished The Mapmaker's Wife, which recounts the French expedition in 1735-39 to measure the length of a degree of latitude at the equator in order to determine the shape of the earth. At least one of the expedition members died and another never returned to France. Two young Spanish military men assigned to accompany the expedition became internationally famous for their writings and contributions to science. The title refers to Isabel Godin des Odonais, a Peruvian woman who married cartographer Jean Godin. Jean and Isabel were separated for twenty years when Jean attempted to reach France by traveling down the Amazon alone. He was unable to return for Isabel or reach France and for twenty years Isabel was uncertain of his fate. When she learned that he was alive on the South American coast she organized a group of forty-two and began a voyage down the Amazon. She was the only survivor of the trip, but she was reunited with Jean and they returned to France.

[sealwhiskers]

Sounds like an amazing story, did you like how it was written?

[coffeesvp]

It was well written. For me the strongest part was the description of the hardships they endured in making the measurements and the weakest part, ironically, was the story of the survival of Isabel, which is deferred until the end of the book. The Battle of Cartagena de Indias in 1741 was the greatest invasion until D-Day and was fought within the time covered by the book. The battle illustrates the hazards of travel at that time and the political tensions that dogged Godin and the expedition and ultimately resulted in his separation from his wife and the murder of the group’s doctor.