The December 2023 Reading List

 

Today is the last day of December and the time has come to list the e-books I read this month. It appears that I've settled into a book-a-week habit.
In other months I'd managed to write a bit about the book I had just finished and link to that post when I did my monthly list. I haven't done that for some time, so I'll write something about each book now.

The Last Children of Tokyo is a dystopian sci-fi novel written by Yoko Tawada. The novel was originally published in Japanese as Kentoshi. The Last Children of Tokyo is the translated title published in the U.K., with The Emissary being the title in the U.S.. I prefer the British title.

In the novel, we're told that the world has suffered a man-made, global catastrophe, although the exact nature of that catastrophe is never specified. Personally, I feel the novel suffers by this omission. There is a certain vagueness throughout the novel. I suppose that was the writer's intention, but I didn't care for it.

The English Governess at the Siamese Court is the original memoir upon which The King and I was based. In 1862, Anna Leonowens accepted a post as teacher to the children and wives of King Mongkut of Siam (Thailand). Leonowens' memoir looks at the life and customs of the people of Siam. In Margaret Landon's 1944 fictionalized retelling of Leonowens' story she concentrates more on the personal relationship between the King and Leonowens and it is Landon's version that would ultimately lead to the various films and stage productions.

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Written by Herself is the autobiography of Harriet A. Jacobs. Jacobs composed the autobiography after her escape to New York and details the added suffering that female slaves endured. 

Blood From A Stone is #14 in Donna Leon's series featuring Commissario Guido Brunetti. This series continues to remain a favorite of mine.
Here is the completed list for December -

The Last Children of Tokyo   by Yoko Tawada
The English Governess at the Siamese Court   by Anna Harriette Leonowens
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Written by Herself   by Harriet A. Jacobs
Blood From A Stone    by Donna Leon

The November 2023 Reading List

 

The reading list for November is, in many ways, similar to the reading list for this past October.- books by Donna Leon and Elizabeth George, with a different writer thrown in for a change of pace.

Comparing the two I'd have to say that I prefer Donna Leon's novels. My only complaint about George is her veering off the detective/mystery story to give us way too many details on the personal lives of the characters. I'm sure she does this to flesh out the characters, but details on the love affair between DI Thomas Lynley and Lady Helen Clyde can get a bit tedious. In For the Sake of Elena, George brings in Helen's sister into the story - her character does help move the story along, but the discussion on the lawsuit involving the artist James Whistler and art critic John Ruskin put on the brakes, as it were.

My original plan was to read through the works of Leon and George every month. I'll continue getting into Leon's novels but will read no more than one of George's works per month.

As I mentioned in earlier posts, a few of the books making my reading lists have been recommended by someone on the Commentary Magazine podcast. One of the books on this list was recommended by that podcast - Scattered All Over The Earth by Yoko Tawada. Tawada had been recommended to me earlier and I had downloaded everything I could find of her work. The first book to make it to next month's list will be Tawada's The Emissary (AKA The Last Children of Tokyo). Before reading Scattered All Over the Earth I hadn't realized that it was the first in Tawada's Border Crossing Trilogy. The 2nd and 3rd books have been written but have not, as yet, been translated into English. Had I known that, I would have put off reading this book until I could download the complete trilogy.

Now, for the list:

Willful Behaviour         by Donna Leon
Uniform Justice            by Donna Leon
Doctored Evidence       by Donna Leon
For the Sake of Elena   by Elizabeth George
Scattered All Over the Earth  by Yoko Tawada