You know what happens when you kiss this face?

You get a pretty nasty cold. Not without warm fuzzies though 😉

Anyhow, here are some of the books I’ve read in the last little while…

War and Peace
It took me well over a year, but I finished it. The media that won out was the audio book. Though the Croatian translation published in several volumes I borrowed from the Cres library was my favourite by far, I am now a big subscriber to audio books. Overall I liked War and Peace though I must admit to enjoying the fiction sections more than the discourses on the various historical and philosophical topics.

Gone Girl
My resourceful neighbors have started a book club. What fun! Gone Girl was the first book we’ve read. It’s a thriller about the spoiled New Yorker who one day disappears. Where did she go? Why? Suspense!

Complicated Kindness
This was a Canada Reads winner from a few years ago so it was a re-read for me. Strangely enough this book seemed much darker than the first time I’ve read it.

Night Circus
A story of dueling magicians in a magical travelling circus. I hope someone makes a silent movie out of this book. It reminded me very much of “The Artist” and “Blancanieves” films in atmosphere.

Calculating God and The Diamond Age
I put these two Sci-fi novels together because I find them to be kind of the antitheses of each other. They are very much like Star Trek and Star Wars. One takes a philosophical concept, or in this case examines problems with current scientific understanding of particular topic and suggests a fictional resolution and the other one creates a fantastical world with compelling protagonists in an unrelenting bildungsroman.

We have not decided on the next novel yet but I am sure it will be fun!

Kalendar maja
Each year I try to read at least one contemporary Croatian novel. It is a bit more difficult to do in the year I don’t go there. Fortunately, last time I was in Cres the librarian recommended a book but was not able to lend it on the account that it was out and there was a waiting list for it. Nevermind, I wrote down the name and the author and bought it before going back to Canada. I did not read it until this summer because, well, I only read Croatian books in the summer. Kalendar maja is one of the best written Croatian novels I’ve read in a long time. It is somewhat r-rated so I would not just flagrantly recommend it, but it is very good. At 600 pages of small tightly spaced text it is quite substantial but I could not put it down. The novel opens with recently retired Zagrebian gynecologist drinking coffee on a Gornji Grad patio and spying a glimpse of what he thinks might be his ex girlfriend. He decides to orchestrate a reprisal of his graduating class cruise. As he and his septuagenarian comrades slowly float down the Adriatic he recounts his youth from the late forties into the mid seventies.

A Curious Incident of a Dog in the Nighttime
An autistic boy puts on a detective hat in order to figure out who killed the neighbour’s dog. This novel contains the most interesting take on commuting by train.

That’s it for now. I am reading the latest issue of Bicycle Quarterly and First Class Tips for Suzuki Parents while waiting for the next Book Club choice to be announced.