As we’ve now passed week #8 of staying at home, I haven’t really found myself reading more than I usually do. What I have been able to do is take advantage of virtual author events, though!

I’ve dropped in on a few virtual author events, but three stand out. The first one was the March LA Times Book Club event with authors Steph Cha (Your House House Will Pay, which I read last month and really enjoyed) and Joe Ide (“IQ” detective series) when they discussed LA noir. Another event was one with a Norwegian author, Jon Fosse, that I learned about after I won his book The Other Name from the publisher through a give-away on Instagram. The event was a discussion with the author and his translator Damion Searls hosted by Community Bookstore in Brooklyn, NY. Finally, I came across an online book talk on Facebook with Icelandic author Kristín Eiríksdóttir (A Fist or a Heart) and her translator Larissa Kyzer hosted by American Scandinavian Foundation in New York City (which will be followed up by an online Nordic Book Club meeting on Tuesday, May 12, for those who may be interested). It’s always interesting to hear from the writers about their writing experiences and processes, whether I’ve read the book or not.

Here are my latest reads and listens. What have you been reading lately?

The Courier by Kjell Ola Dahl
(Translated from the Norwegian by Don Bartlett)

I had previously read a book in this author’s Oslo Detective Series and wasn’t a fan, but the fact that this was a stand-alone historical crime mystery about a female resistance agent that took place in Norway and Sweden during World War II intrigued me. Also, it has won two prestigious Norwegian awards, the Brage Prize (Open Category) and the crime fiction Riverton Prize. I’m glad I took another chance on this author. The story and its characters were engaging and compelling. I liked how it jumped back and forth in time. The story opened and closed in 2015, but otherwise it moved between 1942 in Oslo and Stockholm and 1967 in Oslo with the mysteries of “who killed the mother of a young child in Oslo in 1942?” and “what is the father’s story?” at the core. The book gives a unique glimpse of what life was like for Norwegians, especially Jewish Norwegians, during wartime under German occupation. I enjoyed this book very much!

Reading Challenges:

• Scandinavian Reading Challenge — Bonus 1: A prompt from a previous year’s challenge (Historical fiction set in Scandinavia)
• Modern Mrs. Darcy Reading Challenge — A book in translation

The Murmur of Bees by Sofia Segovia
(Translated from the Spanish by Simon Bruni)

This book brought me to a new time and place in reading. It’s about an established landowning family in a small northern Mexican town in the early 1900s during the Mexican Revolution and interestingly, considering what’s going on now for us, during the influenza pandemic of 1918. It’s historical fiction with a touch of magical realism. An abandoned child covered in bees is discovered and then adopted by the family. This child, who is deformed and cannot speak and always accompanied by a swarm of bees, turns out to be a blessing for the family as they endure life in their little town with its human and natural challenges. It was a little slow to get going, but suddenly I was very absorbed in the story. I read it, but I heard the audiobook experience is fabulous.

Reading Challenges:

• Scandinavian Reading Challenge — N/A
• Modern Mrs. Darcy Reading Challenge — A book in translation

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

I had actually borrowed this book for my older teenage son to read but he wasn’t interested, so I ended up reading it instead. I had read it years ago back when I was in high school, but I had no recollection of the details in the story. What a delightful surprise – a very engaging, quick read! It’s about gang life in Oklahoma in the 1960s. In particular, it’s about a 14-year-old greaser named Ponyboy, who is raised by his older brothers because their parents died some time ago, and his friend Johnny, who lives in an abusive household. The greasers are their own family and look out for each other when trouble happens during a conflict with the rival gang. I have now put it on hold again at the library and will encourage both my boys to read it and I look forward to hearing their thoughts on it.

Reading Challenges:

• Scandinavian Reading Challenge — N/A
• Modern Mrs. Darcy Reading Challenge — A re-read

The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel
(Audiobook narrated by Dylan Moore)

I’m so glad I picked this book up when I did because I recently learned that Emily St. John Mandel is the next guest to join the (now virtual) LA Times Book Club on May 19. I really enjoyed Station Eleven and was intrigued by the author’s newest book about the collapse of a Ponzi scheme. It didn’t disappoint. Similar to Station Eleven, it jumped back and forth in time and told the story from different characters’ perspectives and the reader slowly became aware of what was going on. It took some time for the different storylines’ connections to become evident, but once that started happening, it was a compelling read, or in my case, listen.

Reading Challenges:

• Scandinavian Reading Challenge — N/A
• Modern Mrs. Darcy Reading Challenge — N/A

What have you been reading lately?

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