Dark Renaissance: The Dangerous times and Fatal Genius of Shakespeare's Greatest Rival by Stephen Greenblatt

 

Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph by Jan Swafford

 

The Angel of Rome and Other Stories by Jess Walter

 

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

 

I'm late to this party, but find the novel clarifyingly beautiful...

... if long and somewhat tediously overwritten. I watched the 2007 BBC series with Ruth Wilson instead. Quite good!

Confessions of a Mask by Yukio Mishima

 

The Novelist by Jordan Castro

This was what the literary world did now, I reminded myself, they celebrated stupid novels for stupid reasons.
Not very compelling single day single consciousness pov of someone not writing.

 

Independent People by Halldór Laxness

 

Finally bearing down and reading this. It's a slog but worth it so far. Like the incident where the farmer chases down a reindeer and jumps on top of him and they ride down the river together, farmer nearly freezing to death.

And the wife killing the ewe who's been left behind as her company, then eating it.

Brutal. Only entertainment is coffee and reciting ancient poetry. My kind of people.

So Far Gone by Jess Walter

 

Good but not that exciting.

Big Sky by Kate Atkinson

 

same old Jackson Brodie story. Atkinson seems to churn them out effortlessly, but there doesn't seem to be much difference between them. Understand the Jackson Brodie TV series, CASE HISTORIES,  is interesting.

Vera, or Faith by Gary Shteyngart

 

Short, punchy, sort of modern What Maise Knew, about a privileged, neurotic, highly intelligent adoped Korean girl.