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celiabowens · 4 years

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Book recommendations, Literary Fiction edition(?)

A companion to this post (which should be updated, at some point lol)

Short Story Collections:

Salt Slow by Julia Armfield: grotesque and disquieting collection about women and their experience in society, how they view and perceive their own body and desires. Pretty strong mythic, magical realism, body horror elements in here.

The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks: fascinating collection in which Sacks reminishes some particularly odd stories of patients who had to cope with bizarre neurological disorders.

Home Remedies by Xuan Juliana Wang: a collection focused on the Chinese millennial experience. Stories about love and loss, family, immigration and the uncertainty of the future. (also there’s an extremely beautiful short story about a pair of Chinese divers that broke me forever!!!)

Bestiary: The Selected Stories by Julio Cortázar: unforgettable selection of short stories that mix surreal elements to everyday life and apparently ordinary events. Would also recommend All Fires the Fire by the same author.

Novels:

How Much of These Hills is Gold by C. Pam Zhang: one of the biggest debuts of 2020, it follows two recently orphaned children through the gold rush era. An adventurous historical fiction piece that focuses on themes like gender, identity and immigration, this is one of my favorites 2020 reads so yeah, I’d really push it in anyone’s hands to be honest.

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent: historical fiction inspired by the last days of a young woman accused of murder in Iceland in the 1820s. A quite bleak, but beautiful novel (the prose is stunning).

The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave: historical fiction novel set in Norway in the 17th century, following the lives of a group of women in a village that recently (barely) survived a storm that killed all of the island’s men.

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead: the 2020 winner of the Pulitzer Prize. The book follows the lives of two boys sentenced to a reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida. A bleak, but important book, with a shocking final twist (side note, I’ve been recommended The Underground Railroad by Whitehead as well, but I haven’t gotten to it yet. If you’re looking for something quite peculiar, if a bit less refined when compared to The Nickel Boys, The Intuitionist is a quite odd pulpy noir set in an alternate NY about...elevator inspectors *and racism*).

The Leavers by Lisa Ko: haunting book about identity and immigration as the main character is apparently abandoned by his own mother (an undocumented Chinese immigrant) during his childhood. Mainly a story about living in between places and constantly feeling out of place.

The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa: when everyone would probably recommend Murakami (not much against Murakami besides his descriptions of women and their boobs), I suggest checking out some of Ogawa’s books. The recently translated The Memory Police, published in Japan in the mid 90s, is an orwellian dystopian novel set on an unnamed Island where memories slowly disappear. Would also really recommend The Housekeeper and The Professor, a really short novel about a housekeeper hired to clean and cook for a math professor who suffered an injury that causes him to remember new things for only 80 minutes.

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong: Ocean Vuong’s debut novel, following a son writing a letter to his illiterate mother. The book seems quite polarising due to Vuong’s writing style (his poetry background is really quite clear and the book doesn’t really follow a regular narrative, rather than portrays events and memories in brief flashes), but I loved it and I’d really just recommend going into it without knowing much? It’s a beautiful exploration of language, family history, trauma, sexuality and more.

Exist West by Mohsin Hamid: this book was fairly popular when it came out (in 2017 I believe) and was often incorrectly marketed as magical realism. Hamid’s book is a brief and quietly brutal journey with a few fantastical elements, following a couple trying to escape their city in the middle of war, as they hear about peculiar doors that can whisk people far away. The doors are, of course, a quite effective metaphor for the immigrant experience and the book does a great job at portraying the main characters’ relationship.

Family Trust by Kathy Wang: this has a really low rating on goodreads which...wow i hate that. Family Trust is a literary family saga/drama about a Chinese-American family residing in the Silicon Valley. It’s often been compared to Crazy Rich Asians, but I believe it to be more on the literary side and definitely less lighthearted.

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee: historical family saga (one of my favorites tbh, I’m absolutely biased, but this book deserved more hype) set in Korea and Japan throughout the 20th century, following four generations of a Korean family. While I wasn’t the biggest fan of the prose, the book has really great characterisation and absolutely fascinating characters. (I’d suggest checking out eventual TW first, in this case).

The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker: another recent read, The Silence of the Girls, while not faultless, is a pretty good retelling of The Iliad, narrated through Briseis’ perspective. The prose can feel a bit too modern at times, but it provides the reader with some really strong quotes and descriptions.

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng: and also Little Fires Everywhere by the same author, to be honest. If you’re looking for really really good family dramas, with great explorations of rather complex and nuanced relationships? You should just check out her stuff. Vibrant characters, good writing, and some superb portrayal of longing here.

Nutshell by Ian McEwan: i’m starting with this one only to grab your attention (if you’ve even reached this part lol, congrats), but McEwan’s one of my favorite authors and I’d recommend almost everything I’ve read by him? Nutshell, specifically, is a really odd and fun retelling of Hamlet...told from the pov of an unborn baby. But really, I’d also recommend Atonement (of course), The Children Act, Amsterdam? All good stuff.

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles: I’ve read this book this summer and, while I’m still unsatisfied with the ending, I’d thoroughly recommend this? The novel follows Count Alexander Rostov, who, in 1922, is sentenced to a lifetime of house arrest in the Metropol, a luxurious hotel in the center of Moscow. A singular novel, funny and heartbreaking at once, following a vibrant cast of characters as they come and go from Rostov’s secluded life.

Human Acts by Han Kang: from the bestselling author of The Vegetarian (which honestly, I thoroughly despised lol), Human Acts focuses on the South Korean Gwangju uprising. It’s a really odd (and at times grotesque) experimental novel (one chapter is narrated from the pov of one of the bodies if I remember correctly), so one really has to be in the mood for it, but it’s a really unique experience, worth a chance.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon: sort of a really chunky historical adventure novel following two artists in 1940s/1950s NY, who create a superhero and use him to wage a one man war on the Nazis. A bit slow in places (the pace can be uneven at times and the book is quite long), but an enjoyable novel that does a pretty good job when it comes to exploring rather classic themes of American contemporary fiction: the American dream and the figure of the artist (I think there’s a particularly interesting focus on how the artists navigates the corporate world and its rules) and their creative process.

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel: this is a pretty classic rec, the book really got a lot of hype when it came out? It’s a dystopian-ish novel set after civilisation’s collapse, following a post-apocalyptic troupe (of Shakespearean actors). It’s a really odd, but surprisingly quiet book. Not sure if a pandemic is exactly the right time to read it, but I thoroughly recommend it.

The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng: I feel like this book is extremely complex to summarise to be honest. In short, it’s a book set in Malaya at the end of the 1940s, following a woman who, after surviving Japanese wartime camps, spends her life prosecuting war criminals. But truthfully this book is about conflicts and contradictions and in particular about remembering and forgetting. Lovely prose.

The Secret History by Donna Tartt: and also The Goldfinch. I’m sure no one really needs me to introduce Donna Tartt?

The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton: quite cerebral mystery set in New Zealand in 1866. Honestly you have to be a patient reader who enjoys novels with a pretty complex structure to like this, but if you’re into this sort of challenging read...go for it? It’s a book of interlocking stories (with 10+ pov and main characters) with a really fascinating structure based on astrological charts, which provide insight to the main characters’ traits and personality as the mystery unfolds.

The Hours by Michael Cunningham: ok...do not watch the movie first. The Hours is an incredibly difficult novel to describe to be honest: it begins by recalling the last moments of Virginia Woolf’s life, as she’s writing Mrs. Dalloway. The book focuses on three separate narratives, each one following a specific character throughout a single day of their own life. Goes without saying that I’d suggest being familiar with Mrs. Dalloway itself first though.

An Artists of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro: not one of Ishiguro’s most famous works (most start reading his work with Never Let Me Go or The Remains of the Day), but probably my favorite out of those I’ve read so far. The novel follows Masuji Ono, an artist who put his work in service of imperialist propaganda throughout WWII. Basically a reflection and an account of the artist’s life as he deals with the culpability of his previous actions.

Stoner by John Williams: I feel like this is an odd book to recommend, because I don’t think someone can truly get the hype unless they read it themselves. Stoner is a pretty straight-forward book, following the ordinary life of an even more ordinary man. And yet it’s so compelling and never dull in its exploration of the characters’ lives and personalities. Also, I’ve just finished Augustus by the same author, which is an epistolary historical fiction novel narrating some of the main events of Augustus’ reign through letters from/by his closest friends and enemies. Really liked it.

Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien: back to integenerational family sagas (because I love those, in case it wasn’t clear lol), Do Not Say We Have Nothing follows a young woman who suddenly rediscovers her family’s fractured past. The novel focuses on two successive generations of a Chinese family through China’s 20th century history. While not every character got the type of development they deserved, the author does a good job when it comes to gradually recreating the family’s complex and nuanced history.

There’s probably more but I doubt anyone’s going to reach the end or anything so. There’s that lol.

#book recs #book rec #litblr #2020 reads #all the typos are my own LOL #also i didnt put here philip roth or auster #but tbh #i dont think anyone needs me to rec them???

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worldremark4 · 6 years

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Top 3 Most Beautiful Countries in Europe

Top 3 Most Beautiful Countries in Europe. : Wherever we go, we are looking for a beautiful place, where we can relax and enjoy the natural atmosphere, there are many places and countries also in Europe, about which we are going to talk about this article. So let us talk about the beautiful countries of Europe. There is no other place like Europe where the beauty of Europe is like the world. Kaleidoscope is found in European forests and cultures in Europe. Which are not visible in other countries.Let's start Top 3 Most Beautiful Countries in Europe article.

Top 3 Most Beautiful Countries in Europe.

3. Norway.

'Top 3 Most Beautiful Countries in Europe' Third Number Countries is Norway. Norway is one of the most unique incredible rugged countries in the whole world I'm home in New York making this article about my favorite place in the Norway and it starts raining the rain is actually very fitting for making a video on Norway because Norway is one of the wettest countries in the whole world I'm Eric Conover and this is a video Journal of my travels in life here in New York recently I just got back from a week-long trip to Norway with Paul and sharp they're an Italian quilting company and I was filming a campaign testing out their 777 jacket over 7 days and 7 activities in Norway in this article. I made a list of the most incredible locations in Norway that I saw while testing out this jacket before I get started into this video if you liked it make sure to give it a thumbs up share this article with your travel friends and if you're new to the channel make sure to subscribe and turn on post notifications so you can be notified whenever I shared who travel content on my channel without further ado these are the most incredible places in Norway you have to see to believe you the first location is the knee guards breeding glacier this glacier lives about 19 miles north of the village guap the knee guards Green glacier is actually an arm of the largest glacier in continental Europe called the jaw style Verena glacier to get to the glacier a small boats will transport you to the face with you across the palest most turquoise blue glacier water you have ever seen in your whole life from the forests to the base of the glacier you have about a 30 minute hike once you get to the base of the glacier you're kitted out with crampons and ice pick and a harness. It is impossible to climb ice without crampons and they actually come with the guide and I'll have all that information down below once you start climbing it's about eight hours in total from the top to the bottom of this glacier hike was one of if not the most defining travel experience I've had in my whole life it's one thing to see it but to actually hear the pieces of ice the size of buildings moving and breaking and it felt like a living of things its massive massive living things if. you want to climb this glacier you have to act fast because in a matter of a few short years this glacier won't even be here where was it before how much farther out 2001 that all the way to the angular bitches like how much longer will this be here for 20 years 20 years yeah you heard that 20 years at the fact that these aren't gonna be around in 20 years you know when I'm a middle-aged guy this might not be here if you want to ever climb a glacier do it don't wait get out here climb the glacier we're halfway up now and be at the top the next location is the land false and follows which translates to long at waterfall this waterfall is less of an activity and more of just an attraction I mean you're driving down the highway out of nowhere you hear this noise this rumbling noise then you see the mist you turn the corner and you see the largest most menacing waterfall on earth this waterfall is over 2,000 feet high the world waterfall database declared this waterfall to be one of the best in the world that's got to tell you something. I drove past this waterfall on my ways - boss swear I did some whitewater river kayaking Laing folson is the perfect place if you're on a long road trip in Norway - just pull over to the side of the road have some food enjoy the beauty and just kind of take it in because it is quite good sight the next location pause the video try to pronounce this word yeah there's very very long the region word translates to Atlantic Ocean Road now it is known as the world's most dangerous road just because during the wintertime there's very strong storms that go through this area when I did this drive was actually a beautiful sunny day. so I think it to experience it in the storm and the craziness but still I could imagine it can be pretty menacing in the storm it is eight total bridges long and eight thousand two hundred and seventy-four meters and this is the biggest tip of this video if you are going to Norway you make videos and you make photos invest in the drone the drone is not one way to really really see this country which brings us to our next location deep in the mountains of western Norway life strolled stiva road trophy diem translates directly to trolls latter troll spigen is a visual Beast I have never seen a place that was so won a major stomach drop about to break down that steep its bite course in the whole world this is one of those life moments where you feel so alive but at the same time you're like should I be doing this like that just because of how steep the road is if you're going down that road on a bike in you're at the edge and you make a wrong turn you're going over the edge and you're falling thousands of feet down to the ground it is a straight cliff drop down to the valley this road.

2. Spain.

"Top 3 Most Beautiful Countries in Europe" Second Number Countries is Spain. Spain is the most beautiful country in the world, the area of adventure from the heart of the country is not the area which is the capital of the country's only magnificent home but the vast area that will surprise you with the food of nature, the boundary of it is unique culture and history within its culture. Destination and Madrid Let your heart stay with your world with cities World Heritage Status Waiting for your search to hide the comprehension of the compass between the places that witness a grand past in their walls. Let the musician have the chance to join the Nature in the abundance of the pine forest in the wonder of wonder. Our surroundings attacks the attack of a magical city in the city of Madrid, open receptions, everyone very specially finds himself in Madrid for a night in a city that makes his life The expression on the street finds that you can taste it in a delicious terrorism, has taken place in the classroom, spreading itself in a pleasant place, sophisticated and cosmopolitan for globalization A city whose artistic soul is captured, its amazing collection does not have world-renowned museum galleries, and there are also a large number of sports fans playing near the city, who are passionately passionate about you. Join in the sleeping seating room What is drinking? A way of life located on a dream is the city's Costendale Sol, in the hottest mallaga of the city's decoration, Europe has a rich history of the prevailing environment, it is one of the oldest cities in the world, which is proud for 3000 years. Pablo Picasso's rich cultural heritage is a rich monument to the city, and the city offers a wide range of 29 museums. These museums also offer visitors a wide range of tourism, their wealth of activities, leisure options, its beautiful coastline and a lifestyle that is the most common cause of pain in the Mulkani region. Negative communications network meeting conferences are exhibits and business incentives and it is an economic and technical capital known as Smart City Fostering and its own Egg Management and encouraging entrepreneurial attitude is one of the cities that are more than the experience of cities, The Mediterranean Sea is Sierra Blanca and Marlila. Her beauty is a luxuriously respected cosmopolitan property, known for its outstanding paralysis and air due to the attractions of Mumbai city with attractive picnic options for everyone, this city is the capital of this region. Beach sports can take advantage of the world, while high-end shopkeepers take advantage of the world. Class design shops and boutiques are enjoying the city's favorite favorites that discover surprising local aromas and come to Marbella. Your desires are true in Spain. Blanca Benedict Hostel is a holiday destination that offers fun and relaxation in one area. A natural beauty to hide visitors of all ages creates a stunning backdrop for the city's impressive skyline and it has five award-winning beaches. Five amusement parks in the waterbox are a vibrant holiday in the world's famous nightlife and spectacular Visastas year, Benidorm is a living holiday that will surprise everyone at all. If you do not forget about a place like any other experience, then the Spanish economy is at the fourth place in the fourth place. Big economy Spain, the Eurozone and the world's top 13 most populous country, is the seventh largest share of foreign investment, trust investor trusts, current skills and excellence infrastructure opportunities in new business opportunities on offer. The quality of place for the country's top 10 countries is the world's second largest public sector high speed rail network and the most advanced and advanced advanced European train fleet Spain is also headed for the renovation and cutting-board. As technology and world leaders we have built renewable and green energy competitive employees, it has rich training history and most international and durable companies have lease to Spain or business telecommunications. The Spanish engineering company is providing design and specialty production trains as well as worldwide maintenance services, the number one player in the Spanish market. Global context has resulted in high-speed technology and its global expansion strategy. Acclaimed products Delgo Tango is one of the main success factors to become a true international company.

1. Italy.

Overall "Top 3 Most Beautiful Countries in Europe" First Number Countries is Italy. The long Mediterranean coast is a European country, Italy is a beautiful country on cuisine and culture. Its capital, Vatican, Rome is home to ancient and landmark art. It is the fourth most populous EU member state with nearly 61 million inhabitants. Due to its shape, it is called low streetwell in Italy. Italy covers 301,338 km2 area and is mostly temperate and seasonal and has a Mediterranean climate. The heritage of the Roman Empire is widespread and it can be seen in the global distribution of civil law, Republican governments, Christian and Latin scripts. Which included attrition and celts, which lived in the middle and northeastern Italy, and spread to various Italian Italian tribes and Italian people in the Italian peninsula and insular Italy. In classical times, the ancient Phoenician, Carathagnin and Greeks have established settlements in the south of Italy; Italian tribes named Latino created the Roman Empire, which ultimately became a republic, victory, and other near cultures. The world's largest victory and the dominant cultural center of Western culture has become, eventually the Roman Empire has emerged as a powerful force in the Mediterranean, which has become a political and religious center.

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