November, as always, was entirely devoted to German Literature Month, and while I 
didn’t quite manage to get to as many books as I would have liked, what I did read was excellent on the whole. In addition to the standard reviews, I also managed to go on the now traditional end-of-event tour, this time taking in Florence in the company of a G-Lit legend 🙂 Thanks are due once more to Lizzy and Caroline for motivating me (and many others) to try some German-language authors – I’m already pencilling in ideas for 2017…
But let’s look at some specific information on how the month went 🙂
*****
Total Books Read: 10
Year-to-Date: 166
New: 10
Rereads: 0
From the Shelves: 6
Review Copies: 3
From the Library: 0
On the Kindle: 1 (0 review copies)
Novels: 4
Novellas: 0
Short Stories: 1
Non-Fiction: 4
Plays: 1
Non-English Language: 10 (7 German, Spanish, Bulgarian, Japanese)
In Original Language: 7 (7 German)
*****
Books Reviewed in November were:
1) Invasionen des Privaten (Invasions of the Private) by Anna Kim
2) Lettipark by Judith Hermann
3) Wittgensteins Neffe (Wittgenstein’s Nephew) by Thomas Bernhard
4) Blitzeis (Black Ice) by Peter Stamm
5) Schwindel. Gefühle. (Vertigo) by W.G. Sebald
6) Die Verwirrungen des Zöglings Törleß (The Confusions of Young Törleß)
by Robert Musil
7) Katzen haben sieben Leben (Cats Have Seven Lives) &
Schmutzige Nacht (Dirty Night) by Jenny Erpenbeck
8) Der geteilte Himmel (They Divided the Sky) by Christa Wolf
9) Italienische Reise (Italian Journey) by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Tony’s Turkey for November is: Judith Hermann’s Lettipark
Judith Hermann’s latest book, a collection of shortish stories, was a bit of a let down, so I’m going to be brutal – time for some stuffing…
Tony’s Recommendation for November is:
Robert Musil’s The Confusions of Young Törleß
There are some months where it’s almost easier to toss a coin between two books than make a decision based on my thoughts. Both Musil’s and Sebald’s books are excellent, and worthy of vying for the book of the year title, but my monthly challenges are like Thunderdome – two books enter, one book leaves. This month, unfortunately, Vertigo is the one left inside the cage 😉
*****
December is my time to relax, but there’s still a lot of reading to do before the end of the year, with review copies having piled up while I was on my Germanic reading holiday. Despite that, I’m still hoping to fit in a Christmassy read somewhere along the way – stay tuned to find out what it is 🙂
Tony's Reading List 
Looks like a fine month of German reading to me – very impressive! 🙂
LikeLike
Kaggsy – Thanks, but there were years where this would have been a disappointment 😉 Sadly, November is one of my busiest work months now 😦
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for participating, Tony. I never reviewed Lettipark in the end – I just linked to your review. You said what I thought. Some stories were nice enough and I might reread them – ossibly not though. There’s just too much else around. It’s a bit sad that she’s one of those who gets automatically translated because there are so many much better authors writing in German.
LikeLike
Caroline – In fairness, this is the first one I’ve been really disappointed by. I wasn’t too keen on ‘Nichts als Gespenster’ first time around, but I enjoyed it a lot more on a second read. Somehow, I don’t think that’s likely to happen here…
LikeLike
I loved her first three books. The last one was already a bit of a dud but this one? Like you, I don’t think I’d like it more should I decide to reread it. I also found her use of tenses super annoying. Everything sounds like someone is speaking. Someone who isn’t too eloquent at that. 😦
LikeLike
Caroline – It’s been a while, so I’d have to go back to check that out – and that’s not going to happen any time soon 😉
LikeLike