Hey!! Let's get some action going! What are we reading?

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I think it's only available direct from NESFA

https://www.nesfa.org/book/dreamweavers-dilemma-2-2-2/

$9.95, and I paid full price.

Thanks, I'd have never found that, and I'm sure I'll quite enjoy it.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

So now I am going to read City of Blades!

Which was great. On to City of Miracles

[issybird]

I read The Artificial Silk Girl by Irmgard Keum, a contemporaneous novel set in Berlin at the end of the Weimar republic, it's the purported diary of a young woman just barely above the street level. It's funny and penetrating but marred by what is obviously a poor translation.

Moved on the The Oppermanns by Lion Feuchtwanger, another contemporaneous novel set in Berlin at the end of Weimar, this time about an affluent Jewish family.

I'm obviously on something of a roll; this makes three novels in a row from 1930s Berlin. I'm taking suggestions! And I will cast my net a little wider, to central European countries in the German sphere of influence and to take in the 1920s as well.

[Tarana]

Since I last posted, I finished In The Heat Of The Moment and In Harm's Way by Viveca Sten. These are books 5 and 6 of Sandhamn Murder Mysteries. A very excellent series that I recommend if you like murder mysteries. Taking a breather from the series to read Greenthieves by Alan Dean Foster. So far, its a running commentary by an annoyed robot.

For listening, I have finished Orbs II and Orbs III and currently on the final of the series Orbs IV by Nicholas Sansbury Smith and Anthony Melchiorri. Action adventure scifi. I thought the 1st 3 books were good, not great, action adventure. I'm just slogging book 4 so far. I honestly don't like dystopian fiction and this is just downright depressing so far.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by issybird

I'm obviously on something of a roll; this makes three novels in a row from 1930s Berlin. I'm taking suggestions! And I will cast my net a little wider, to central European countries in the German sphere of influence and to take in the 1920s as well.

Berlin Alexanderplatz by Alfred Döblin has been on my radar for awhile; I need to bump it up the list.

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

Currently:

• Kobo: Cakes and Ale by W. Somerset Maugham
• Paper - A Little History of Philosophy by Nigel Warburton
• Paper - Papyrus: The Invention of Books in the Ancient World by Irene Vallejo translated by Charlotte Whittle
• Audio - The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett (re-listen while I wait for the third volume in October)
• Other - Dracula by Bram Stoker via Dracula Daily

My list hasn't changed much, though I should finish the Maugham today. I'm doing a re-listen now of Ann Leckie's Radch series before I read the new title Radiant Star. I'm a bit past halfway through Papyrus. I'm planning to read Chanda Prescod-Weinstein's The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred when I finish Papyrus up. I have in mind to do science and science fiction this summer. I'm tackling the Wilson translation of The Odyssey in October when I have a time-earned sabbatical from work.

[Wiggo]

Originally Posted by issybird

I'm obviously on something of a roll; this makes three novels in a row from 1930s Berlin. I'm taking suggestions! And I will cast my net a little wider, to central European countries in the German sphere of influence and to take in the 1920s as well.

Zeitromane from the 1920s and 1930s, or can they also be written later by authors from that era? And in English, I suppose?

[Renate]

"Cakes and Ale" should be PD now but it hasn't hit Project Gutenberg yet.

I liked "Berlin Alexanderplatz", Alfred Döblin.

I've wanted to read "The Artificial Silk Girl" ("Das kunstseidene Mädchen") but the library here has it only in dead trees.

I did read "Gilgi, eine von uns", Irmgard Keun.
Factoid: Wikipedia says that she was encouraged to write by Alfred Döblin.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Renate

"Cakes and Ale" should be PD now but it hasn't hit Project Gutenberg yet.

Standard Ebooks has it.

.https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/w-.../cakes-and-ale

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Wiggo

Zeitromane from the 1920s and 1930s, or can they also be written later by authors from that era? And in English, I suppose?

My boundaries are very elastic! My top criterion is good books that at least roughly fit these parameters, that is, set in the time/geographical frame or pretty close. So lay any recommendation on me, please!

Unfortunately, my one set bound is that it's got to be in English, whether in translation or originally.

[drofgnal]

I finished my again reread of War and Peace, having stopped to read the Correspondent. In a nod to Cherryh, I bought Downbelow Station and I'm starting that today.

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by issybird

Standard Ebooks has it.

.https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/w-.../cakes-and-ale

I am reading this version. They released it on Public Domain Day as part of a slate of titles they had prepped.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

I am reading this version. They released it on Public Domain Day as part of a slate of titles they had prepped.

That was a terrific curated list to kick off the new public domain year. I was charmed that it included the first four Nancy Drew books.

[Wiggo]

Originally Posted by issybird

My boundaries are very elastic! My top criterion is good books that at least roughly fit these parameters, that is, set in the time/geographical frame or pretty close. So lay any recommendation on me, please!

Unfortunately, my one set bound is that it's got to be in English, whether in translation or originally.

I’ve read all of the books myself, although in most cases that was 20–30 years ago. To be honest, I can usually only remember the general plot by now, but I still remember very well if I liked them or not.

Don’t expect any hidden gems though, I simply worked my way through the well-known classics.

Oskar Maria Graf

• Das Leben meiner Mutter (The Life of My Mother). It doesn’t quite fit, as it covers the period from mid 18th cent to the early 1930s (in Bavaria), but the 1930s didn’t just come out of nowhere. One of my favourite books

• Wir sind Gefangene (We Are Prisoners). His life from birth to Munich Soviet Republic in the 1920s.

• Unruhe um einen Friedfertigen (Didn't find an english translation). End of 1918 - 1933 (of course in Bavaria )

Joseph Roth

• Die Kapuzinergruft (The Emperor's Tomb). Roughly Austria WWI - Anschluss. Basically, it’s the sequel to Radetzky March, something you should definitely read too.

• Reisen in die Ukraine und nach Russland (Journeys in Ukraine and Russia?). Travel stories from the 1920s to Ukraine and Russia. Not Central Europe but very interesting

Ödön von Horvath

• Der ewige Spiesser (The Eternal Philistine). Munich, great depression.

• Jugend ohne Gott (The Age of the Fish). 1930s - Loss of morality in an authoritarian society.

Erich Maria Remarque

• Der schwarze Obelisk (The Black Obelisk). Great Depression

Hans Fallada

• Bauern, Bonzen und Bomben (A Small Circus). Economic hardship, riots and corruption in the 1920s.

• Kleiner Mann – was nun? (Little Man, What Now?). Great Depression

Victor Klemperer

• LTI - Lingua Tertii Imperii (same in English). An Analysis of the language of Nazism.

• Ich will Zeugnis ablegen bis zum letzten: Tagebücher 1933-1945 (I Will Bear Witness: A Diary of the Nazi Years 1933–1945).

Patrick Leigh Fermor

• A Time of Gifts & Between the Woods and the Water & The Broken Road. Travel book from the 1930s through Central and Eastern Europe. German sphere by k. und k.

That's all I can remember at the moment.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Wiggo

I’ve read all of the books myself, although in most cases that was 20–30 years ago. To be honest, I can usually only remember the general plot by now, but I still remember very well if I liked them or not.

Thank you! Terrific input. Especially since, and I'll comment on two of your suggestions, The Radetzky March made my ten best list for the year when I read it three years ago; wonderful book. Emperor's Tomb not quite as good, but that was a high bar. As for PLF, I've read everything of his; A Time of Gifts is probably my favorite travel narrative of all time.

So our tastes seem quite congruent and I'll see what I can track down of your other recommendations. Thanks again!