I can at least blame a few of these new purchases on other bloggers this time around. Not that it's bad to take recommendations from other readers, as I do it all the time. But see how easily influenced I am by you guys?
I loved Jennifer Johnston's How Many Miles to Babylon? when I read it late last year. I had to get a copy through interlibrary loan as no local library had it on hand, but I knew that it was a book I wanted to own. Caroline gave me the perfect excuse for ordering a copy to keep handy on my shelves as it is one of the titles in her Literature and War readalong. As a matter of fact it is next on her list of books, so I have it at the ready. I've told myself that this year I am going to read more Italian authors, and conveniently Elsa Morante is also on the list. I've wanted to read History: A Novel for a number of years, so now I have the perfect excuse. "Rather than consider the powerful, wealthy and ambitious figures who drive great historical events, Morante tells the unforgettable universal drama of ordinary people struggling for life and bread during a time of war."
I have Stefanie to thank for the next two books in the pile. Lydia Davis recently translated Flaubert's Madame Bovary, which I thought was absolutely stunning. When I discovered she also writes novels and short stories I knew I had to see what her own work is like. When Stefanie listed The End of the Story as one of her planned reads this year it seemed like a good place to start. She also posted a number of times on Sappho's If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho last year. I'm not generally a poetry reader, but every time Stefanie shared a poem I thought I really need to get my hands on that book. And now I have. I'm really looking forward to this. Who's going to be next to buy it?
And I guess I have Anna Karenina and Emma Bovary to thank for the last two books on the pile. I want to read more about both books and what better person to turn to than Vladimir Nabokov and his famous lectures on literature. Lectures on Russian Literature includes discussions of Chekhov, Dostoevski, Tolstoy, Turgenev, Gorki and Gogol. Lectures on Literature includes discussions on Austen, Dickens, Flaubert, Joyce, Proust, R.L. Stevenson and Kafka. I've not yet had a chance to do more than crack open the books and flip through but I am very curious about what he'll have to say about these famous novels. I do hope he's not too erudite, but in any case I think these books will be very good for me.
So, until the next new book stack! I'm off to find homes on my shelves for these.