The OF Blog: Squirrel-approved books

Monday, November 11, 2013

Squirrel-approved books

I've lately purchased or received several review copies of intriguing books. As I was moving books around tonight, I thought of these books in particular.  Some I have finished reading, others I am in the process of reading.  But each of these so far have merited the august honor of being "squirrel-approved" books.  Here are the books, with squirrel figurines showing their approval:



I'm currently reading in a stop-go fashion Jeff VanderMeer's recently-published illustrated writing guide.  Although I harbor virtually no ambitions of becoming a fiction writer, I do (occasionally) have to instruct students on how to write essays and while that is a bit different from writing imaginative fictions, there are enough parallels here that it may be useful for me in the classroom.  The teaching squirrel no doubt approves of this as well.



Recently read the Spanish translation of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's Night Flight, Vuelo Nocturno.  Although more of a story of his early days as an aviator, I noticed some narrative elements in common with The Little Prince, which happens to be one of this squirrel's favorite works of fiction.


The squirrels' mistress has a thing for Italian literature, so due to her urging, I've begun to read more Italian literature, both in translation and in Italian itself.  These squirrels smugly approve of me listening to her, it seems.  Elsa Morante's Arturo's Island and Dacia Maraini's Darkness are both winners of the Premio Strega award.


The Italian lessons even go so far as reading a Japanese writer in Italian translation, as is the case with Nobel Prize winner Kawabata Yasunari.  This squirrel is eager for me to read it, it seems...or rather to read it for me.


The translation-friendly squirrels are eager for me to write reviews of Leena Krohn's Datura and Jyrki Vainonen's The Explorer & Other Stories, both of which are coming out in paperback edition this week.  Hopefully, the reviews will be written by the 15th, the scheduled release date according to the press kit I received.


And finally, these two squirrels think highly enough of the Library of America edition of Mark Twain's Collected Tales, Sketches, Speeches, & Essays 1852-1890 and Music & Literature v. 2 that they look eager to pounce on them before I can finish reading either.


So yeah, these are books worth considering, even if you don't care to heed squirrely advice...

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Hi i have read many post of this blog and given very nice comment so i would like to tell and request that i would like to see this blog in many more languages so if you want any help then please reply me.

Spanish Translation | German Translation

 
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