Howling Frog Books

 A Backpack, a Bear, and Eight Crates of Vodka: A Memoir, by Lev Golinkin Here's my last Russian title for 2020!  It paired very well with the book I read earlier this year, When They Come For Us, We'll Be Gone , which was about the effort to get persecuted Soviet Jews out of the USSR.  Lev Golinkin was a persecuted Soviet Jew who wanted desperately to get out, though he was only a child. So: back in the 1980s, as the USSR was teetering on the brink of collapse -- though no one realized it -- the Golinkin family lived in Kharkov, in the eastern end of Ukraine (it's now known as Kharkiv).  They were Jewish, and that meant that they were publicly despised: the USSR proclaimed the brotherhood of all men, but they still required that your ID card state your ethnicity, and having "Jewish" on that line meant that you were subject to random quota limits and routine persecution.  Lina, the elder daughter, wanted to get into medical school, but the most stellar achieveme...

 I really like Erica's Broken Spine blog, and this year she ran a Reading Classic Books challenge that was fun to do.  I got all 12 done, and here they are: 1) Read a classic over 500 pages: The Fortunes of Richard Mahony, by Henry Handel Richardson (Ethel) 2) Read a classic by a POC and/or with a POC as the main character: The Dark Child, by Camara Laye 3) Read a classic that takes place in a country other than where you live: Virgin Soil, by Ivan Turgenev 4) Read a classic in translation: A Tempest, by Aime Cesaire 5) Read a classic by a new to you author: Subtly Worded, by Teffi 6) Read a book of poetry: Four Quartets, by T. S. Eliot (didn't get a post done on this one) 7) Read a classic written between 1800-1860: The Uncommercial Traveller, by Charles Dickens 8) Read a classic written by an LGBT author and/or with an LGBT main character: Passing, by Nella Larsen 9) Read a classic written by a woman: The Mysteries of Udolpho, by Ann Radcliffe 10) Read a classic ...

 The Great Impersonation , by E. Phillips Oppenheim I have no idea how this wound up in my e-reader, but what a fun adventure tale this was!  It reminded me forcibly of The Riddle of the Sands (1903), in the way that you can see WWI coming over the horizon and what everybody is concerned about, but since it was published in 1920, after the war, it's really quite different.  1913, somewhere in German East Africa: Everard Dominey, a drunken, broken-down wreck of a disgraced English earl, meets up with an old schoolmate: Baron Leopold von Ragastein, a German who had an English education.  The two have always looked very alike, and they reminisce over drinks and tell their stories. Months later, Everard Dominey comes home, telling everyone he's turned over a new leaf.  He makes up with his wife, who has teetered on the edge of sanity for years, ever since Dominey fought with her stalker/suitor and came home covered in blood.  He's nice to his relatives, which ...

The Apocalypse of Abraham and Ascension of Isaiah Some time ago, I happened to be reading about ancient scripture and the author mentioned "The Apocalypse of Abraham," which sounded intriguing.  With the magic of the internet, which has made so many old and difficult-to-obtain texts available to anybody willing to look for them, I found this Victorian translation of the Apocalypse and, as a bonus, "The Ascension of Isaiah."  Both of these are ancient texts that originally existed in Hebrew, but the only versions that survived into the present day were in Old Slavonic -- perhaps translated directly from the Hebrew, or perhaps mediated through Greek texts. "The Apocalypse of Abraham" is an apocryphal text that tells the wonderful story of young Abraham (in the first person), his realization that his father's idolatry is wrong, and a vision/conversation with God.  It comes in three parts: This is really pretty delightful.  Abraham's father, Terah, is ...

 The early part of the year seems so long ago and far away now that it is actually difficult to realize that I read some of these books this year.   Keely at A Common Reader ran a Russian Literature Challenge.   I read some great stuff, but this was also one of the challenges that really suffered during my slump.  I read eight books in total, which isn't bad, but boy howdy, I still have a lot of Russian literature on my shelf: Subtly Worded: stories by Teffi  Red Cavalry, by Isaac Babel The Unwomanly Face of War, by Svetlana Alexievich Virgin Soil, by Ivan Turgenev There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor's Baby, by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya White Guard, by Mikhail Bulgakov Resurrection, by Lev Tolstoy Rachel at Hibernator's Library hosted a History Non-fiction Reading Challenge, which I really liked.  I read 20 titles, of which 8 had something to do with Russia/the USSR.  I still have plenty of Russian history to read, but I did mak...

 This fun little game has been making the rounds, so here's my version: In high school I was: the Scapegoat People might be surprised by: the Twilight of Democracy I will never be: [one of the] Last Ones Left Alive  (I'd get killed for sure, might as well wear a red shirt) My life in lockdown was like:  Nothing is True and Everything is Possible My fantasy job is: The Uncommercial Traveller -- or maybe a Mudlark! At the end of a long day I need: The Bookshop of Yesterdays I hate being: in the Forest of a Thousand Daemons Wish I had:  The Forest of Enchantments My family reunions are:  Tales of the Marvelous and News of the Strange At a party you’d find me with:  Robin Hood: Green Lord of the Wildwood I’ve never been to:  The Inland Sea A happy day includes: The Golden Thread  (I like to sew!)  Motto I live by:  Footsteps (that is, go for walks often!) On my bucket list is:  [Beside] The Ocean of Time In my next ...

Once again, I'm planning to participate in Bev's TBR challenges, of which there are two: the usual Mount TBR for books you own, and the Virtual Mount TBR, for library and other borrowed books. I'll be going for my usual Mont Blanc/Mount Crumpit goal of 24 books in each one.   Since I haven't been able to go to work or sort donated books for the past 9 months, I have done very well at both of these challenges; I haven't gotten nearly as many unexpected and new books (though I've still managed to add to my TBR bookshelf!).  I therefore read, respectively, 46 and 30 titles : Bill, the Galactic Hero, by Harry Harrison The Metal Monster, by A. Merritt  Siege Perilous, by Lester Del Rey The Case Against Tomorrow, by Poul Anderson Prisoners of Geography, by Tim Marshall Passing, by Nella Larsen Akenfield, by Ronald Blythe The Cuckoo's Calling, by Robert Galbraith The Spy Who Came In From the Cold, by John le Carre When They Come for Us, We'll Be Gone, by Gal ...