stefan mesch

Underdog Literature, January 2014: 15 fresh or amazing, off-the-wall titles

stefanmesch

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Here are 15 books that caught my interest lately.

Fresh, off-beat, quirky or curious titles that might deserve more attention:

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01: LEONARD COHEN, „The Favorite Game“, 248 pages, 1963.

02: JAC JEMC, „My only Wife“, 194 pages, 2012.

03: JANET HOBHOUSE, „The Furies“, 312 pages, 1992.

04: ELIZABETH FORSYTHE HAILEY, „A Woman of independent Means“, 304 pages, 1978. [Mainstream / Chic-Lit?]

05: EDUARDO GALEONO, „The Book of Embraces“, 288 pages, 1989. [Fragments; Uruguay]

06: ERNEST RAYMOND, „We, the Accused“, 509 pages, 1935. [True Crime? Journalism?]

07: ALBERTO BARRERA TYSZKA, „The Sickness“, 192 pages, 2006. [Venezuela]

08: LARA FERGUS, „My Sister Chaos“, 204 pages, 2010.

09: MERCÈ RODOREDA, „A Broken Mirror“, 226 pages, 1985. [Spain]

10: PAUL RUSSELL, „War against the Animals“, 358 pages, 2003.

11: MURIEL SPARK, „The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie“, 137 pages, 1961.

12: WILLIAM TREVOR, „Reading Turgenev“, ca. 252 pages, 1991.

13: PATRICK WHITE, „Happy Valley“, 317 pages, 1939.

14: JOHN HENRY MACKAY, „The Hustler“, 312 pages, 1926.

15: KEITH WALDROP, „Light while there is Light. An American History“, 208 pages, 1993. [Memoir]

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Here are five books that made me curious enough to buy them…?

No: I needed money for Christmas presents last month and didn’t buy any books for myself. But here are things I WANT to buy soon:

01: LEE MAYNARD, „Crum“, 170 pages, 2001.

02: JAMES SCHUYLER, „What’s for Dinner?“, 211 pages, 1978.

03: STIG SAETERBAKKEN, „Through the Night“, 150 pages, 2012. [Norway]

04: HERMANN UNGAR, „The Class“ / „Die Klasse“, 176 pages, 1927. [set in Prague, written in German]

05: GERD BRANTENBERG, „Egalia’s Dauthers. A Satire of the Sexes“, 270 pages, 1977. [Feminist Science Fiction; Norway].

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…and finally, here are three books that I read – and that were really good:

4 of 5 stars: ÉDOUARD LEVÉ, „Autoportrait“, 120 pages, 2005. [Memoir / Art Novel / post-modern literary Collage; France]

4 of 5 stars: SEBASTIAN HAFFNER, „Defying Hitler“ / „Die Geschichte eines Deutschen“, 309 pages, 1939. [Memoir; Germany]

4 of 5 stars: TERI TERRY, „Slated“, 448 pages, 2012. [competent, but not very exciting Young Adult dystopia that I read for a ZEIT article]

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