{"id":8515,"date":"2019-07-07T08:17:34","date_gmt":"2019-07-07T08:17:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/martinblack.com\/?p=8515"},"modified":"2019-07-07T08:23:00","modified_gmt":"2019-07-07T08:23:00","slug":"books-read-during-the-first-half-of-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/2019\/07\/books-read-during-the-first-half-of-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Books read during the first half of 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to Goodreads, I read 53 books during the first half of 2019.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Five star ratings<\/h2>\n

Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar – Simon Sebag Montefiore<\/h3>\n

This book by historian Simon Sebag Montefiore is a stomach-churning read. My main takeaway is the extent to which Khrushchev was nothing more than a mini-Stalin, I had always, lazily, assumed he was a ‘not-as-bad-as-the-rest’ guy but no, he was no better than Stalin, awful men, a terrible regime.\u00a0 And how dispiriting it is to see the shadow Chancellor, John McDonnell MP, standing under a banner of Stalin (and Mao) only this May.<\/p>\n

\"John<\/p>\n

Lost Time: Lectures on Proust in a Soviet Prison Camp – J\u00f3zef Czapski<\/h3>\n

Moving from the ridiculous to the sublime.\u00a0 Polish officer and artist J\u00f3zef Czapski gave a series of lectures on Marcel Proust to his fellow officers while waiting imprisonment and likely death in the Soviet gulag. A beautiful, haunting book that pays testament to the human spirit and the power of literature to sustain and impart meaning.\u00a0 The perfect counterpoint to the Stalin book.<\/p>\n

Lucky Per – Henrik Pontoppidan<\/h3>\n

I read this as part of a ‘readalong’ set-up at the Eiger Monch & Jjungfrau blog<\/a>.\u00a0 Lucky Per is a beautifully composed , powerful novel, a classic of Danish literature and well worth your time.\u00a0 Written and published in eight volumes between 1898 and 1904 the book follows the life of Per Sidenius as he struggles for self-realisation in a Denmark struggling with emergence of the industrial revolution and modernism.<\/p>\n

G\u00f6tz and Meyer – David Albahari<\/h3>\n

I read at least one Holocaust book ever year, it’s important to me to remember, to not forget.\u00a0 I came across a list of lesser known Holocaust works at the Eiger Monch & Jjungfrau blog<\/a> (again!) and picked out the novel ‘G\u00f6tz and Meyer’.<\/p>\n

Why this book and not others?\u00a0 I think the setting, Belgrade, was the reason, I know little about Serbia’s experience of WW2 and even less about the fate of the Jewish community.\u00a0 The book is narrated by a teacher uncovering the fate of his family, murdered by SS officers G\u00f6tz and Meyer in a movable gas chamber, an extermination camper van if you like.<\/p>\n

EvA, Sybille and Iris<\/h2>\n

20 of the books I read (35%) were written by women , which isn’t bad but also isn’t that great.\u00a0 The list is dominated by a triumvirate of Elizabeth von Arnim, Sybille Bedford and Iris Murdoch, together they span the entire breadth of the 20th century, it’s interesting think of the three of them meeting for lunch in Paris.<\/p>\n

Where purchased<\/h2>\n