National Public Radio is airing a series that is compellingly directive. You Must Read This airs every week or so, lasts just a few minutes, and features an author extolling the virtues of their favorite book. These are people who know how to use words, and they are very convincing. My guess is that if you go to the list of books that have been reviewed so far--some 85 titles--you won't surface for another half-hour, at best. --How do you define "engrossing"?
Christina Sunley's May 4th review of her favorite "must read" is--you guessed it--Halldór Laxness' Independent People! Her review is exceptionally good, and it brings me great pleasure to think of the vast audience that this review has reached, and the number of people who are reaching for their copy of Independent People, and are experiencing it for the first time. Laxness lovers, our ranks are growing! The You Must Read This site offers readers like you and me a chance to recommend the book being reviewed, and to comment on it. Don't hold back!
Sunley recently published a book of her own that I am looking forward to reading. Publisher's Weekly describes the book as "an intricate family travelogue, based in the present of Icelandic-Canadian life and the half-mythical world of her grandparents' Iceland." You can listen to the author reading a fourteen-minute passage from her book, The Tricking of Freya, at this KQED site. Have any of you read this book yet? Hint: my birthday is June 1, and it's on my list! Another hint: I'm a liar!
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7 comments:
Every three weeks or so, she tells me her birthday is coming up. I fall for it every time. I'm not even sure what the real date is.
So would that make you about 300 years old?
Well, the extra presents would make the advanced age worth it, wouldn't they? I'm not telling...
I'll try to find "The Tricking of Freya" this weekend in one of Reykjavik's bookstore.
Thanks for this great post! BTW, The Tricking of Freya won't be available in Iceland until the fall, when the Icelandic translation will be released.
I just finished The Tricking of Freya and it is absolutely stunning! Now I want to read Independent People!
Maesie,
I'm so glad that you're giving Iceland, and authors who write about Iceland a try! If you Independent People interesting, I'd love to post your thoughts on it--or you might choose to simply comment instead.
My copy of Tricking of Freya is on order. Yay--summer vacation--summer reading
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