L'Empire des loups - Jean-Christophe Grangé

Un écrivain de 'thriller' bien connu en France.  Une lecture très emballante, qui te tient au moment, mais  à la longue, cela devient évident que c'est surtout la violence extrême qui retient l'attention.  L'histoire en elle-même est pleine de trous, de coincidences improbables.  A l'examen, elle ne se tient pas debout. 

Trainspotting - Irvine Welsh

An alternate view of life and the inhabitants of Edinburgh.  The language is quite amusing, as it is written in the local vernacular - quite colourful.  You can see the influence of Scottish on Ontario language, particularly the curse words.
A funny book - not much actually happens in the sense of going anywhere with the story.  It is more a rambling portrayal of the lives of a bunch of junkies and the crazy (and disgusting) situations they put themselves in.
More a political statement and an anti-Scottish romanticism statement.

Moon of the Crusted Snow - Waubgeshig Rice

Canadian First Nations writer from northern Ontario.
Interesting story premise:  in a remote northern reserve power, supplies, media, phone, basically everything is cut off as the larger world outside falls into chaos.  What happens next?  How do they survive?  Who survives?
There is even a Wendigo figure.
Fairly well-written.  Some good lines on Native history and experience.
It also does not paint a particularly rosy picture of the inhabitants of the reserve on the whole.

A People's History of Scotland - Chris Bambery

An interesting book that takes a working person's perspective on history and changes in Scotland since the 1600s.  Some time is spent looking at the Clearances, but a lot of the book chronicles social history of urban and working class Scots through the Industrial Revolution to the post-Independence vote.
A lot of the history of Scotland since the beginning of industrialization seems to be a history of unions and social protest for better working conditions, better pay, stable jobs.  This history, particularly in the 20th century, seems to mark it off from the history of England, where social protest seems to have been less of a force (except in the Border regions, which shares similarities with Scotland economically.
Bambery manages to bring out the elements of colonialism operating in the relation between England and Scotland.
He also touches on a lot of other issues, some worth exploring further:
- blows up the myth of Scottish clans, tartans and all:  upper class English romantic invention in the late 1800s
- the general decline of England since 1900:  causes, elements
- Thatcher's goals and policies which deliberately lead to the collapse of British manufacturing, social hardship, and incidentally shifted the economy to a London/finance base
- also a source for Scottish authors, both current and historical, who stand apart from the English literary stream

Through this book you get a sense of the ugly, exploitative effects of the British/Anglo model of capitalism.

Twenty-five Lectures on Modern Balkan History - Steven W. Sowards

A series of lectures from a university course on the internet:  http://staff.lib.msu.edu/sowards/balkan/

A good general overview from a prof. at an American university - worth noting, as there is less chance of a nationalistic bias, or an underlying ethnic agenda.
Sowards begins with an attempt to find a definition for the term "Balkan" - what exactly is different about this area that sets it apart from Western Europe. 
He mentions how the mountainous terrain tends to isolate populations and make communication between areas, and with the outside world in general, more difficult. He also mentions that generally poorer soil and dryer climate which affects agricultural output, the source of wealth for much of the period in question.  He sees multi ethnicity as playing a role to a degree, and also in Turkish held areas, a tendency to identify by religious affiliation rather than linguistic or ethnic affiliation, which would otherwise form a base for the development of nationalism.
Repeated wars and suppressed revolts over two or three centuries also played a role in keeping populations low, and rural. 

Economic ideas:
Through the 18th and early 19th century (and later) land formed the basis for wealth.  Elites occupied agricultural land at the will of the Sultan, and land was not inheritable (in theory).  The Sultan worked to keep some kind of balance between rural workers and nobles in terms of taxes etc. As central authority broke down in the course of the later 18th and 19th C., local landlords became independent local centres of power, and worked to expand their land holdings.  They also increased the level of taxation in various forms on peasants working the land.  In the later 18th C, landlords began to increase wealth by selling grain, etc. directly to Western European markets, with several important effects.  First, as the West was wealthier, prices on produce rose, and this caused increased poverty in the Balkans.  Second, because the selling was direct, towns did not grow and benefit from increased commerce, so they remained small and poor, with no developing capital in a middle-class base.  Third, as well as exporting, nobles and wealthy landholders began importing cheaper mass produced goods from the West, putting local artisans and craftsmen out of business, again increasing poverty. 
As central authority collapsed further (including the Habsburgs in northern Balkans), and  revolutions against the Ottomans began to occur, like the ones in Serbia and Greece,  the only real change was who occupied the top landholder positions, changing to local strongmen instead of Ottoman officials.  The system itself remained the same.  (I am reminded here of the accounts of Patrick Leigh Fermor's hide across Central Europe in the early 30's.  You see ghosts of this old landed aristocracy still hanging on in Hungary, etc. in his book.)

Un mese con Montalbano

Collezione divertente di più di 30 racconti da Camilleri.   Vale la pena di leggerli.  Si può vedere chiaramente il carattere simpatico e sagace di Montalbano di fronte all'umanità.  Alcuni dei racconti si può vedere come filmi nella seria di Montalbano del RAI.

The Destiny of Nathalie X - William Boyd

Collection of short stories.  Many read like the works of a younger Boyd.   Some include his excellent biting sarcasm directed at a variety of targets:  Hollywood, foreign language students in France.  Some are just unusual, interesting short stories.

Transcription - Kate Atkinson

A spy novel set during WW2 and the early years of the Cold War.  Loosely built around the double agent revelations that actually occurred in MI5 during the 50s and 60s.  Better written than the other book I tried by her.  The ending comes as quite a surprise, but mostly because there seems to be almost nothing hinting at in the course of the story.

Nutshell - Ian McEwan

Strange book.  The narrator is a soon to be born fetus.  Unfortunately, the story didn't grab me, so I didn't finish it.  Too much navel gazing (ha ha)

La Première enquête de Maigret - George Simenon

Premier livre de Simenon et de Maigret.  Belle évocation des divers milieux de Paris du début du 20e siècle.  Un auteur qui élabore non seulement un mystère, mais qui aussi met en vue le monde social et le système de classes en opération à cette époque.
À en lire plus.

Love is Blind - William Boyd

Latest by Boyd.  A beautiful exercise in writing.  No real current issues as a focus this time.  Music plays a big role in the book.  A meander around Ireland, France, Russia and a few other spots, in the late 19th, early 20th century via pianos and music.
Beautifully written.

Glass Houses - Louise Penny

Her latest novel.  She seems to just keep getting better.  Topical foci this time:  police corruption (again) and drug smuggling.

Killing Commendatore - Haruki Murakami

Another strange book from Murakami.  Such a mix of things - traditional Japanese art crossed with opera; caves, pits and tunnels like some neolithic religious or birth ritual, a pursuit of a girl into what seems basically to be the Greek land of the dead with the River Styx and the boatman,  underground plots to assassinate Nazi officers, impregnation through dreams - really a bit of everything.
The main character is a painter, and there are some great descriptions of the creative process behind his paintings. 
As in his last book, you go the whole way round to end up back where you started - a separated couple getting back together.
A unique author.

The Noise of Time - Julian Barnes

A fictional biography of Dmitri Shostakovich - written more as an autobiography, or at least as an "omnipresent narrator" voice. 
On one side, it is an examination of the choices and pressures an artist faces in a totalitarian system, an examination of the perceived role of art in such a society vs. the artist's own vision of his path.
A portrayal of the mediocrity that such a system engenders and rewards.  The muddled thinking that grows out of a totalitarian mythology (Americans suffer from the same kind of muddled thinking due to mythology...)
Another side of the book is again about aging, and how aging changes how you perceive yourself and the world around you. Again rather depressing - the best that can be said is that you survive...

The Only Story - Julian Barnes

A story exploring a love story between a young man and a much older woman.  An exploration of the limits of love, of how life's threads become progressively more complex as you get older.  A look at how perspectives change as you age and accumulate experience.  Rather depressing in its insights.
Didn't really warm to the story, however.

The Return of the Dancing Master - Henning Mankell

Reads like an earlier novel, a not quite crystallized version of his style and characters, but still interesting.  The focal issue in this novel is latent fascism and nazism in modern Swedish society.  During WW2,  there was a strong nazi/fascist movement in Sweden, and quite a few Swedes joined the Nazis to fight in the war.  (Like Finland, part of the motivation was also fear of being swallowed up by Russia.)

One Good Turn - Kate Atkinson

A writer I heard about on the radio.  For me, the story dragged.  Too many asides to the story filled with details that I did not find interesting.  Perhaps it was the characters themselves?   Another of those stories with characters' lives crossing fortuitously.  Unfortunately,  I found it hard to be interested in their lives for some reason. 
Try one more...

All the Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr

A novel following the parallel lives of a blind French girl and a young German radio operator that finally cross in the siege of St. Malo at the end of WW2.
An enjoyable, fairly light read.  A few too many fortuitous connections and events in the course of the book.  The main characters are interesting sketches.

Amsterdam - Ian McEwan

The way of art vs. the way of  politics and engagement.  Beneath the stances of principle and ideals, the same old self-centred, petty selves.
A rather humorous ending...

Not my favourite McEwan book, though.  To my mind, not as successful at building real characters around these central ideas.

Deep River Night - Patrick Lane

Another author from B.C. writing about life in the backwoods years ago.  Very dense, heavy storyline.  He is basically contrasting two different ways of being in the world - good people whose present is shaped by, twisted by, traumatic experiences from the past (in this case, mostly war, though there is also a young native girl who has experienced the religious residential school system, and basically kidnapping by nuns.  Then there is the family, homesteaders, who live wholly in the present - and who are seen as a bit simple by many of the townspeople.
A dense read - some of the description, some of the dialogue, some of the events.  But very good.

La piramide di fango - Andrea Camilleri

Un altro buon libro da Andrea Camilleri.  In questo libro, mangia un po' meno spesso in ristoranti.  Questo libro si tratta della Mafia in Sicilia.

Black Dogs - Ian McEwan

A reread of the first book I read that turned me on to McEwan.  Still a great read.

McEwan does a brilliant job of taking an idea or conflict of ideas and giving it flesh in terms of real characters with real lives.  This book is actually a political allegory, though I see it more clearly this time than I did years ago.  The essential conflict of ideas at the heart of the book is between rationality or reason, and spiritual or religious ways of being in the world.  Interestingly enough, at the end of the book, when June confronts the black dogs of the title, it is this spiritual/religious way of being that chases them away.  At the time of the attack, rationalism is busy studying caterpillars... The author makes it very clear at the end, that the black dogs (left behind by nazis after the war) are a symbol of fascism and all it entails.  Bernard's career, first as a member of the Communist party, and then as a Liberal MP, gets short shrift in terms of significance or value. 
An author you can reread for sure.

Flawed Capitalism - David Coates

Subtitled:  The Anglo-American Condition and its Resolution

An in depth analysis of the current capitalist model pursued in these two countries.  He begins with an historical overview covering the evolution of the capitalist model/social contract in these two countries basically since WW1.  He spends a lot of time on statistics and research that shows the slow economic decline of both of these countries, and does a good job of laying it out.

The ideas that stood out for me are:
1) Lack of demand as one of the most significant factors in slowing economic growth and activity
2) Failure of large parts of the public's salaries to grow in any real sense depresses demand (see above!)
3) The downward pressure on salaries comes primarily from a strong shift in power relationships between capital/owners and workers, largely through the elimination and suppression of unions and union jobs, which has significantly shifted the balance of power to capital/owners.  They use this power to suppress wages.
4) This decline in demand is tied to the lack of growth in productivity which is negatively affecting American and especially British industries when compared to other countries.
5) In both England and the U.S., there has been a strong shift towards dependency on finance sectors to boost GDP etc.   This shift has been actively pursued through government policy, at the expense of investment and support for more productive economic activity, and for modernization of production.
6) One of the biggest weaknesses in trickle down economic theory is that rich people just can't spend as much money and create as much demand as a well-payed large middle-class, or a decently payed majority of the population.  This inevitably leads to economic slowdown and social failure.

At the end of the book there is a section of what to do about all of this, but the author recognizes there is a long way to go to shift the ideology and policy of ruling elites.  Cautious optimism perhaps....

The Inconvenient Indian - Thomas King

A harsh but clear-eyed story of native-white relations in North America since the beginning.  He clearly outlines the constants in the relationship, and the barely masked goals that continue to underly political and social policy in relation to native groups in both Canada and the U.S.  While he is mostly focused and events and perspectives of natives, he at the same time paints a picture of our greedy, self-centred, feckless, amoral anglo-american culture.
The whole thing is still told in King's ironic, humorous, jokey voice.
Worth a reread, as there is a lot to absorb.

Armadillo - William Boyd

A humorous story of a protagonist desperate to remove himself from his gypsy origins by fitting in and being rich and successful.  His plans are waylaid by various disasters - caught up unwittingly in a corporate insurance scandal, harassed and beaten by angry clients, mistaken identity, frustrated in love...
Some sharp satire in the cast of side characters...

Faceless Killers - Henning Mankell

A good mystery with a surprise ending.  Explores the issue of immigrants in Sweden and some of the right-wing groups opposing immigration.

The Lonely City - Olivia Laing

A book that explores loneliness as an experience in NYC, one of the most densely populated places in the world.  She explores her theme through personal recollections, but also (more interesting) through an examination of the life and works of several NYC artists, from both the 60s and the 90s - Andy Warhol, David Wojnarowicz, Henry Joseph Darger, Klaus Nomi.  Laing spends most of her time on Warhol and Wojnarowicz, who represent two distinct periods in the NYC art scene. 
An interesting read, though perhaps not for the reasons intended.
Some threads:
1)  All of these artists had difficult, traumatic early lives.  There work seems to be an attempt both to express their experience and overcome, or at least cope with, the effects these traumatic experiences had on their lives.  20th century art as coming out of deep trauma, social alienation.  Why now?  Is it because in the 20th C society (at least in the U.S.) has become so narrow, so limited in what it demands to belong?  Is it because, tradition having been devalued, we are left only with our own lives to work with, and the most traumatized is simply the most interesting?

2)  Warhol as an early discoverer of how technology serves both to engage you and yet at the same time create a distancing, a separateness, as part of the medium itself.  Think of how much technology now buffers our engagement with what passes for real.  It both connects and alienates at the same time.

3)  Through Wojnarowicz, Laing explores the sexual scene in NYC in the 90s, pre-AIDS, the fetish scene but mostly the gay scene.  She spends some time discussing the whole derelict docklands cruising scene.  Interesting that so many of the artists that came out of NYC at that time were gay, or explored the whole fetish idea in their art and concerts staging.  The 60s counterculture brought a kind of revolution to american society - blew up the suburban, nuclear family, work oriented, church on Sunday, Father Knows Best mythology (where did this myth come from?).  The 90s NYC gay art scene also seems to have had some kind of revolutionary effect on american society, but I am not sure how I would characterize that.  Pushing of boundaries?  Perhaps, the marginalized and "different" demanding to be seen, heard and accepted in society?  Through this, a further broadening of the idea of social norms?  If this is so, this revolution has definitely not completed its cycle yet.  In fact, we are in a major push-back stage right now, especially in the US.   Interesting ideas to explore more...

Facing the Hunter - David Adams Richards

Part memoir, part examination of the reality and issues around hunting.  He hits on his usual themes - the reality of a somewhat inarticulate rural underclass, the unreality of the views of urban, politically correct "intellectuals" who are so distanced from this reality - and also the historical reality of Canada until recently.  There are also some wonderful passages about moving through the woods and experiencing wild spaces, and the kinds of skills and awareness you need to be fully there.
As good as any of his fiction, with that same distinct voice, though toned down some.
An important part of his oeuvre.

An Event in Autumn - Henning Mankell

A short Wallander mystery.  One of the last I think.  Good, but for me, not one of his best.

The Black Book - Ian Rankin

A very early Rebus novel, but already with all the main characters and Rebus ticks.

The Impossible Dead - Ian Rankin

A detective story focused on Detective Fox from Complaints.  More intellectual than the Rebus books, but just as good.  Underlying theme - behind every fortune, and every successful politician lies a crime, or at least a lie.

Before the Frost - Henning Mankell

A Wallander mystery.  Wallander and his daughter Linda both figure as detectives in this book.
A good spin out of a mystery, based on religious cults.

NIghts Below Station Street - David Adams Richards

Richards always looks at what passes as the underside of society - the marginal, the poor, the inarticulate, the forgotten.  Not much happens in the story itself, but the voice the story is told in is everything.  It is third person, but the language is the voice of the marginalized characters that are the heroes of the story - Joe Walsh and his wife.  I recognize the voice as that of some of my older relatives from Quebec, but with an edge that comes from a desperation and chaos that they did not know. 
As usual, the educated and socially pretentious get skewered....

One Step Behind - Henning Mankell

The best Mankell book I have read so far.  A Wallander mystery.  Wonderful use of settings.  Characters intriguing.  Interesting exploration of the psychotic mind.

Dogs at the Perimeter - Madeleine Thien

This novel is set in Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge period.  A very interior novel, with the main character undergoing almost a form of madness after her experiences during the regime's emptying of Phnom Pen.  It seems this is Thien's theme, regime traumas of the east Asia?  Her writing reminds me of Ondaatje - the same weaving back and forth between a traumatic past and a stable present, and an inability to find a place of peace between the two.

The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov

Well-written, clever, but I am surprised this book banned and Bulgakov was never published in  Russia during communist times.  I really don't see any back story or hints of criticism of the regime.  About the only thing you could say is that is in not really a glorification of the working class and the (imaginary) worker society of communist Russia.  Bulgakov seems more in the tradition of Russian short story writers like Gogol.

Un covo di vipere - Andrea Camilleri

Un altro buon mistero nel dialetto siciliano.

Girls at War - Chinua Achebe

A collection of short stories set in Biafra, Nigeria.  Some are centred on the Nigeria Biafra War, some simply portray the lives of people in that society.  The stories seem very light, but they raise issues around power, corruption, ignorance, superstition, and how they hold things back.  Politicians and the ruling elites come off particularly badly in many of the stories.  The narration, though, is light and very matter-of-fact, which in a way gives you a sense of how hard these things will be to change.
The sexist nature of society there is abundantly apparent. 

Incidents in the Life of Marcus Paul - David Adams Richards

The novel centres around a native reserve near the mouth of the Miramichi.  There is an unexplained death and conflict around a piece of property beside the reserve.   Markus Paul, a native from the reserve who later becomes an RCMP officer, solves the death/murder many years later, but not until an innocent man is killed and several other people's lives are ruined.
Richards explores many hard questions and issues around this storyline.  Some of the more obvious are native issues around poverty, disenfranchisement, reserve governance, relations between police and natives.  Through the story he is also harshly critical of both sides of the media and how they play to prejudice and public expectations.  As the conflict unfolds, he also exposes the uglier side of reserve politics with lying, corruption and theft hiding beside a facade of aggrieved indignity.  Politician, both at the provincial level and on the reserve, are portrayed as self-serving actors with little regard for anything except personal advantage.
In a nutshell, Richard explores how everyone's actions - politicians, journalists, individuals, business people, community leaders - is motivated by naive ideology, prejudice, personal advantage and a desire for power and action.  They all use this death of an upstanding, innocent native boy to further their own agenda. 
Richards is especially harsh on socially left media - it is the journalist's preconceived ideas of race relations and reserve politics that leads to the ugliest events of the story.  An examination of how you can be trapped in your own ideological narrative to the point where you are unable to see what is happening, and if you do, you are unable to write it, to express it.  Liberal "bleeding heart" ideology opens the journalist to being manipulated by the worst elements on the reserve.

The only sympathetic character in the book is the old chief, who is sidelined by all the other scrabblers.  He is the only fully human character in the book.  He sees, not symbols and ideas, but the real people and their real actions and tries to find a way through all these complex threads.

Worth a reread.

L'altro capo del filo - Andrea Camilleri

Ancora un romanzo nel dialetto siciliano con Ispettore Montalbano.  Un'altro occasione per godersi della cultura e del cibo della Sicilia.  Storie sempre con fine imprevisto, e investigatore che non mena affatto la sua investigazione alla sua fine finale....

The Illustrated Man - Ray Bradbury

I was curious about his other work after reading Farenheit 451.  Bradbury seems to be quite good at the craft of writing.
The premise of this books, with stories embedded in animated tatoos on a man who lives as a social outcast, is brilliant.  At the beginning of the book, Bradbury exploits it well but it deteriorates into a loose framework for binding together a collection of disparate short stories - many of which are quite short.
Some of the short stories are interestingly bizarre in themselves.  Many of them blend a bizarre mix of science fiction and 1950s American T.V. culture à la "Father Knows Best" or "Leave it to Beaver".
Entertaining reading but not gripping enough to wade through in one go.

Do Not Say We Have Nothing - Madeleine Thien

Brilliant, delicately written book set chronicling a group of intertwined Chinese families during and following the time of the Chinese Cultural Revolution.   The book takes place both in locations in China and in Vancouver. 
In part, the book offers a look at the Cultural Revolution from a human, personal point of view.  I had no idea it was a violent and destructive as it is portrayed in the book.  Thien offers a clear look at the culturally destructive power of this revolution on the arts, educational institutions and cultural traditions of China.  (Mao was unusual in that he managed to enact two horrendously destructive movements in his country - the famine that accompanied the Great Leap Forward, and then this Cultural Revolution.)  You also get a sense of how these type of movements or catastrophes are actually the shadows of struggles for power and dominance in the political elites of dictatorial or oligarchic societies.  Their seeming logic or justification is all afterthought or window dressing for power politics.
Another theme that runs through the book is the power, role and nature of art as a form of resistance and as a support for maintaining personal identity and meaning in mass societies.
Worth checking out more...

Being Mortal - Atul Gawande

An interesting read for anyone who is getting older.  He really shift the focus from extending life to extending quality of life for the time that you have.  From the book, you get a number of things to think about before you get to those last stages of your life.  The most important is to think about what are the things in your daily life that you want to maintain the most, and then build your life around supporting these things as much as possible.  This thinking involves planning where and in what sort of situation you will live, what your goals will be as you lose abilities or become ill.
Worth revisiting every so often.

Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury

Of all the classic dystopian books, I like this one best.  Bradbury combines the underlying authoritarianism with the bread and circuses use of technology into something that is clearly related to what we live today in the West.  He also incorporates the idea of alienation - alienation from others, alienation from the self.  Isolation and medicated depression in the midst of a society of happiness.  His characters also have a bit more substance, a bit more humanity than the other two books.
At the heart of the books society is an issue that is very much topical right now - the issue of identity and living with diversity.  The book's solution is mindless self-replicating mass identity.  (Similar idea behind the Homelands concept in "Adjustment Day".

1984 - George Orwell

1984 was a better read than Brave New World for me.  It comes a little closer to the rough authoritarianism that is on the rise in many places right now.  You can still see how Orwell was affected by his profound disillusionment with Stalinist Russia. 
It is interesting to compare the role of sex in those two books; in Brave New World it is a form of social distraction, part of the bread and circuses machine.  In 1984, it is used as a form of social revolt.
This dystopian vision probably captures the experience of the poorest elements f the west, particularly in the U.S. - the grime, the poverty, the hostile authoritarian oversight.

Capital - Rana Dasgupta

A look at the rapacious capitalism of Delhi, and the dysfunctional, inhumane society it has created.  A look at capitalism and private sector services and where they end up without government regulation with a corrupt power elite.  You can see how government and private capital work hand in hand to disenfranchise and exploit citizens for their endless greed and profit.  Book is well-structured into specific sectors - property, health care, infrastructure etc. 
Built around research and interviews with people involved in the various sectors examined. 
Kind of an examination of the pure capitalist model carried to an extreme.

Lot in there.  Worth rereading.

Men Without Women - Haruki Murakami

A collection of short stories, each one in its own way, about men without women.  Some very original approaches to the them.  One of his easier, more enjoyable books to read.  Perhaps the short story form makes him cut through some of the thick accumulation of detail that you find in his novels.

Worth a reread at some point.

Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

Reread this old classic.  I find his style a bit hard to wade through - always a tendency towards a didactic or ideological tone.  Social control instruments - sex and drugs.  Prescient in its own way when you look particularly at the U.S. and, to a lesser degree, Europe.  I would say this book is partly the result of Huxley's encounter with American culture, particularly in California and Hollywood once he moved there. (But then, dystopias are usually more about their own time than any future time...)
His view is more valid for the years preceding 2000/2010.  Right now I would say the emerging world situation is closer to the dystopias of Animal Farm, 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 - more about fear as direct social control, less about bread and circuses as social palliation. 

Kids These Days: Human Capital and the Making of Millennials - Malcolm Harris

A brilliant analysis by a Millennial of the economic and social forces at work over the past twenty years or so that created the environment which has shaped his generation's culture and outlook.
A very pointed examination of the role of corporate culture, economic individualism, and the every-man-for-himself  ethos of the ruling oligarchy of the U.S. in shaping the stressful, isolated and alienated space we now occupy.
The book is well-divided into sections on various important shaping influences, starting with the mania around homework, moving through university, changes in the work environment, decline of social support networks, identity politics, pills and so on.

Not a hopeful book.  At best 50/50 - he sees either fascism or rejection/revolution as the two alternate paths...

Worth rereading as there is a lot to absorb.

Adjustment Day - Chuck Palahniuk

This book has created quite a bit of controversy with its suggestion in the course of the story that racial groups in the U.S. should inhabit different homelands.  And in fact, the first half of the book reads like a serious, reasonable proposition put forth by a group of essentially white suprematists. 
You have to continue to the last half of the book, however, once the whites, blacks, gays and latinos have all been resettled (or shipped out in the case of the latinos).  As the distinct homelands establish themselves and develop, Palahniuk begins to bring out the essential absurdities of all the current identity politics and doctrines.  Every community becomes a ridiculous and pathetic parody of itself.  In the end, we are left with a small group of fugitives from the various homelands who want to start again in a world where they are not defined by their narrow group identity.
Great sarcasm and parody, but somehow the writing in the last part didn't hold my attention well.

Still worth a read.

La Prima Indagine di Montalbano - Andrea Camilleri

Libro e scrittore interessante - tutto scritto in dialetto siciliano.  Prende un po' di tempo ad abituarsi ama finalmente diventa più chiaro e si comprende.  Il libro comprende tre storie, due brevi e una più lunga.  Montalbano e poliziotto intelligente e furbo.  Ama molto anche mangiare, e il libro parla molto di vari piatti che mangia, sopratutto di pesce e di frutta di mare.  E un libro e carattere simpatici.

The Strange Library - Haruki Murakami

A longish short story about some strange recesses and hidden horrors in a library.  Another strange Murakami story - sometimes it almost feels as if he just writes whatever comes into his head.

The Elephant Vanishes - Haruki Murakami

A collection of short stories, all of them weird in a Murakami way.  Mixed bag - some I found interesting, some not so much.

The Constant Gardener - John Le Carré

Typical Le Carré - compelling plot, great characters, and at the same time an exploration of a contemporary issue.  The issue this time is 3rd world development, especially in Africa, and also unscrupulous activity by big pharma, hand in hand with local and international elites.  He explores how shady business practices, bribery and complicity on the part of local and foreign governments allows shocking, at times lethal, practices to continue.  Around the edges you also sense how big corporations, large mafia and top end government and political figures always somehow manage to land on their feet with each others assistance, and the rest of us be damned.  Through one of the main characters, he also explores how indifference, keeping one's head down, and misplaced loyalty make so many lesser figures complicit in this kind of immoral and illegal activity.

The Islamic Enlightenment - Christopher de Bellaigue

An interesting look at modernizers and enlightenment figures in Muslim societies from the 1800's on.  He first looks at early figures country by country, and then in the 20th c., switches to a broader perspective as figures and movements become international in influence.  As you read about these figures, you get a sense of how the religious conservatives have fought this movement for the past two centuries.  You also get a sense of how the West's duplicity, naked pursuit of self-interest, and blatant hypocrisy in the region has played into the hands of the conservative religious leaders, discrediting ideas and movements that have any association with the West and the Enlightenment tradition.
A bit too much detail at times, but it is easy to skim over some sections.

Klingsor's Last Summer - Hermann Hesse

Inspired to reread this after stumbling on a plaque about Hesse's favourite walk in Gubbio, Italy.  One of Hesse's less intellectual works, more riotous, sensual (in an intellectual kind of way).  I like the artist character, and can trace the influence of his approach, even if it is at time a bit over-wrought.  Makes me want to reread some more after all these years.

1Q84 - Haruki Murakami

A complex storyline, but more coherent than the last book I read by Murakami.  Essentially a mystery / detective fiction on many levels.  The characters cross and are woven together in a clever way.  Incorporates some scie. fi., some ESP.  Long, but it holds your interest.  Everything is just a bit off, a bit odd - in a good way.

Firewall - Henning Mankell

Detective fiction again.  Storyline keeps you going but the writing is a bit blunt. 

In the Shadows of the American Century - Alfred W. McCoy

A well-researched catalogue of all the conditions and geopolitical shifts that are easing the U.S. out of its position of dominance.
- a brief examination of how the US become so powerful after WW II (economics in a fractured world)
- fracturing of social cohesion at home
- American loss of status and credibility through support for oppressive regimes, use of torture, covert operations harmful to the populations of other countries
- over reliance on military threat to force other countries to acquiesce the US lead / interests
- decline in economic performance (education failure, investment failure)
-decline in share of world economic activity as other countries' economic performance grows

The sections on China are very interesting.   They have a completely different approach to foreign relations.  They use their enormous reserves to build infrastructure partnerships with other countries and improve economies for both partners.   Some of the infrastructure projects are huge:  rail lines to Europe,  high speed rail lines to Europe (China to Berlin in 2 days!)  Infrastructure to link Europe, China and Africa in one large trading block. 

McCoy spends time at the beginning of the book exploring an old idea - Central Asia as the strategic key to world dominance.  If you can control or create a network linking this area with Europe, the East and Africa, then you have the dominant economy in the world.  He sees much of China's foreign policy as working towards this goal.

A book to reread, as there are many threads.

The Sympathizer - Viet Thanh Ngyen

A novel that begins in the last days of Saigon, and then continues within the expat Vietnamese community in Los Angeles.
A complex story that weaves through questions of loyalty - to national liberation, to friendship, to colonialism.  Through the main character, the book also presents some interesting social criticism of both Vietnamese and American societies, and of both political regimes.  It brings in events from the underbelly of CIA operations in Vietnam, as well as conditions in the "reeducation camps"  post war in Vietnam.
One of the best novels I have read in a while - compelling narrator, good story, some interesting references to and thoughts on history and politics.

The Accidental - Ali Smith

Another puzzle from Ali Smith.  It is always so hard to say what her books are about underneath it all.  Definitely the theme of bullying and exploitation in schools and universities - way ahead of its time in that respect:  published 2005.  Cellphones and the internet as tools for bullying.  Exploitation of power for sex in institutions like universities.  How institutions and people in power create false narratives to hide ugly realities and escape the need to act.  Also, a look at the false masks we overlay on our lives to avoid unhappiness and confrontation.  Maybe a theme of how children are oppressed and alienated in these false atmospheres were nothing is quite real? 
The funny thing is, the catalyst for the stripping away of all of this falseness, is a very free, "in the moment" kind of person, but not particularly a nice person - in fact, rather self-involved and exploitative in her own way.

The Hidden Keys - Andre Alexis

Another Alexis story set in Toronto, this time a lot of in the Queen and Lansdowne area.  It is always interesting to see his portrayals of certain neighbourhoods I know.  Not bad on this one.  And I was very gratified to see the old "Green Dolphin" as a major setting in the book.
Main character is interesting.  Storyline is a bit contrived, but holds together.  There is just something a bit "stereotyped" somehow in certain aspects of the book.

Main character's friend, Ollie, has a very interesting passage where he explains why we should all worship chance instead of god.  He, in fact, has a very interesting take on life in general - perhaps the most interesting character in the book.

An entertaining enough read, but I found the writing not at the same level as Fifteen Dogs.

Next: Piccolo libro sulla globalizzazione - Alessandro Baricco

Unfortunately, not translated.
Il meglio libro che ho mai letto sulla globalizzazione.  Piccolo, da vero (90 pagine), ama esamina l'essenziale del fenomeno - cos'è, problemi nel disegno nella cultura popolare, effetti postivi e negativi.  Insomma, l'autore non veda un globalizzazione 'pulita' come dica - i problemi della globalizzazione sono i problemi inerenti del capitalismo ama più profondi perché non c'è controlli legali del fatto che e transnazionale come fenomeno.
Ama piuttosto di smettere o disfare la globalizzazione pensa che dobbiamo andare a fondo - una globalizzazione che viene non solo dai banchi e dei manager, ama un gran movimento di globalizzazione dell'umanità - il sogno di un solo mondo.

Un'idea interessante - che la guerra era la globalizzazione del passato; il modo di dare più grande campo di attività ai soldi dei capitalisti.

Seeking Stillness - Olivier du Tré

A collection of stark nature photographs in black and white.  Interesting compositions.  Beautiful black and white tones.   Working in the monumental style of Ansel Adams, though some of the images have a more immediate, less daunting presence. 
Worth looking at for successes, and for details I would alter.

Endgame - Ahmet Altan

Unfortunately a trashy novel centred around a village feud in coastal Turkey.  Sex, violence, monologues with God.  Skipped many pages, just flipped through it to see who he killed in the end.
Trash pop writer.  Avoid!

Mistero in Blu - Carlo Lucarelli

Un libro di misteri del crimine.  Sfortunatamente sono ciascuno fatto dopo una stretta formula, e finalmente diventano noiosi.  Non ho finito il libro...

Slow Motion Riot - Peter Blauner

Both a gripping read and an interesting account of crack culture and police culture in the 90s in New York City.
It also explores issues around poverty and drug culture, how people end up there, what choices are made, how difficult it is to turn people and situations around,    Blauner doesn't come down on one side or other in terms of responsibilities - there is criticism of both society and its institutions, and the choices people make that lead them to crack culture and crack life.  The institutions exhibit institutional racism, the black characters are decidedly not sympathetic.  He does a good job of portraying the confused thinking (or lack of) behind some of the stupid things the characters do.  He also gives a sense of how thin or delicate the liberal view point can be, and how easy it is to slide into blame and scorn.
The conflict between political correctness and the reality of events on the ground.

Ferlinghetti's Greatest Poems

Not one to read much poetry, but tried this book for nostalgic reasons.

I found some of the poems to be quite good - clever, original creative:

"The world is a beautiful place"
"Sometime during eternity"
"Christ Climbed Down"
"I am waiting"
"Dog"
"The General Song of Humanity"
"The Lord's Last Prayer"

The Structure of Crystal - Kristof Zanussi 1969

A Polish film from the late 60s, early 70s.  Two friends from university meet after several years and size up each other's lives.  One has gone on to develop a successful career in physics, but has hurt others on the way up.  The other has retreated to a rural area where he runs a weather station and involves himself in daily life in the countryside.   Subtle.  Some beautiful black and white work.

Turkey and the West: Fault Lines in a Troubled Alliance - Kemal Kirişci

A depressing book for anyone interested in Turkey as a country and culture.

This book is basically a history of the Turkey's relationship with the Europe and the U.S. from late Ottoman times to the current Erdoğan period.
The book traces periodic shifts from deeper relations with the West to a more distant stance through the whole period.  I was mostly interested in the longer chapters dealing with the AKP, Erdoğan and policy and relations since about 2000.

The book gives a brief but clear account of how Erdoğan has moved over time to eliminate all other power bases both within the country and also within the AKP itself to leave himself holding most of the power at all levels and in all areas.  In essence, creating what is practically one man rule, or a dictatorship.  This in itself, of course, puts him at odds with the basic tenets of the EU, and introduces some hesitancy or conflict into relations with the U.S.

There is also an account of Davutoğlu's influence on foreign policy and regional ambitions.  Turns out both he and Erdoğan are big supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, and through them partly, fell into the delusion of rebuilding the Ummah and creating a pan-Islamic state covering the Middle East, Central Asia and North Africa. With Turkey at its centre, of course.  Strange dream.  D and E seem to have also fallen into some delusion concerning Turkey's true weight and importance in the region.  Turkey was well-regarded by many in other predominantly Islamic states in the area, especially by reformers, but it turns out this actually had to do with envying the closer relations Turkey was building in the early Erdoğan years with the EU and the U.S., and little to do with the AKP, Erdoğan and internal Turkish politics.  E and D's shift to a more aggressive regional approach, and a more confrontational attitude towards the EU and the U.S, and subsequent worsening of relations with these blocks, has led to a complete evaporation of whatever respect and admiration there was for Turkey in other regional countries.

Interesting fact:  most large business organizations  do not support the current AKP foreign policies.  Bad for trade with the EU, their prime trading partner.

It seems Erdoğan has painted himself into a bit of a corner with his nationalist rhetoric.  Turkey needs the EU and the U.S. for economic survival, but his base depends on his extreme nationalist posturing and rhetoric.  Makes for difficult management of relations, economic and otherwise.  (Kind of like Trump with American allies and neighbours.)

One other point of interest - the author comes down on the side of mostly blaming Europe for the failure of Turkey's EU accession talks, which have in part fuelled Erdoğan's foreign policies and rhetoric.   Culturocentrism and religiocentrism. 

The Emerald Circus - Jane Yolen

A collection of short stories.  The stories are all unusual takes on riffs on fairy tales, folk legends and local folklore of England.  Some of the stories she works with are well-known, others more local.  She provides an appendix briefly discussing the stories she works with.
Some of her takes on the old stories and characters are quite surprising.

The Toronto Book of the Dead - Adam Bunch

An intriguing project exploring some of the quirkier events and famous characters in the history of Toronto.  There is a book, but also a website, and some kind of "postcard" thing.  Some of the events are bizarre, some are tragic.  It is interesting to see who some of the older streets in Toronto are named after.  The political opinions of some of our early important figures are also interesting ie. highly anti-democratic, anti-populist.  You also get a bit of sense of how wild so much of the land was around Toronto in that early period.  Similar to another book recounting the history of the Carrying Place route.
An entertaining read.

The Door - Magda Szabo

Hungarian novel from during the communist period.  The story of the relationship between a woman writer working in the context of the regime, and her housekeeper, an older woman from a peasant background.  A bit too slow and interior oriented for me, but I still got through it.  It is partly about the conflict between urban and older, traditional peasant culture.  There could also be an implied critique of the shift in values during the communist period, compared to the earlier rural peasant values - or at least an exploration of the stark difference between these two sets of values.

The Edge of Heaven - Fatih Akin

Complex, heavy story filmed both in Germany and in Istanbul.  Crossing of paths, random death, learning to be more human, both recognizing one's cultural sources, and in a way overcoming them.  Sound track is great.  Filming and settings are stunning.  He plays wonderfully with jumping around it time, and random crossing of paths. 

Tangerines - Zaza Urushadze

A Georgian film set during the war with Abkhazia.  Beautifully filmed in a beautiful setting.  A film that looks at the futility and stupidity of war.
Well-acted.  Script excellent.
Understood a lot of words in the script, maybe because of Russian?

American Witness: Art and Life of Robert Frank - R. J. Smith

Interesting book about Frank.  A very unique character.  Seemingly no interest in fame or success, or money for most of his life.  A strange combination of visionary (maybe) and crank.  A body of work in photography that attempts to explore the inner world through images of the external world - a way to record interactions, reactions, feelings?
Hard also to know if he is focused solely on his art, or if he is just incredibly self-involved and self-centred when you read about his family life, interactions with others.  Common problem or question for a while now with many big name artists.
Still, the book offers some interesting insights into how he works, the arc of his body of work.  He does say and purse some things that I would agree with:  It's just a photograph.  I am not interested in beautiful.  How to minimize control in taking a picture - photos as a form of discovery.  Not wanting to repeat what he has already done.

The World is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner - Stephan Komanderov

A Bulgarian film about a young man who loses his memory.  His grandfather takes him on an epic journey by tandem bicycle to try and restore his memory and his sense of self.  A bit "Zorba the Greek"ish in that the theme is how to be truly alive and free. 
Ties into Bulgaria's oppressive modern history - the grandfather is a very human figure who rejects and stands up to authoritarian power exercised impersonally by those in power, whether in Germany or Bulgaria.
You also get a look at the life of refugees from the Eastern Bloc at that time, camps where they were exploited as a way to make money by those operating the camps. 
He uses the game of tavla (backgammon) as a metaphor for how you get on in life - a version of the "play the hand you're dealt" idea.

Fairly light, but well-done.  Some beautiful scenery as they make their bike journey.  (So also a bit of a road-trip movie.)

A Separation - Ashgar Farhadi

A film set in modern day Iran.  Recounts the break-up of a marriage - the conflicts bring in many of the current issues facing Iran:  religious vs. secular; poor vs. middle-class; social roles and power between men and women.  The interesting thing is everyone's life is a mess, all the characters, no matter which side of the divides they fall on.

Interesting but not outstanding - confirms my general lack of interest in films about families.

Welcome to the Poison Chalice - James K. Galbraith

A collection of essays by Galbraith on the Greek financial crisis.  He comes at the issues from the same perspective as Yannis Varoufakis.  A bit repetiive, as the is essays and articles are addressing the same issues for different publications.
The best point he makes (apart from the total economic nonsense of Bruxelles approach to the crisis) is the true concern of the leading EU and IMF politicians and leaders:  #1 political survival and career  #2 protect the banks  #3 maintenance of EU system status quo  #4 populations of countries in crisis

Worth at least dipping in to.

The First Person - Ali Smith

A collection of short stories.  She plays with the person of the narrative voice.  Some of the stories not so engaging, but the last one is excellent.

The Machine Which Makes Everything Disappear - Tinatin Gurchiani

Georgian documentary film.  Wonderful naive technique - hand-held camera, some long stationary shots around the city as people move in and out of the frame, moving shots from cars, trains and buses.  An almost random look into the lives of several people from 13 to 50, who present themselves for a screen test. Each section begins with an interview (against a wonderfully textured old wall), and then moves to some kind of sequence related to the life of the interviewed person.  From villages of old people to techno clubs of the young, from bucolic to emotionally disturbing.  Also has a wonderful, though unobtrusive, musical sound track.
Brilliant

My Happy Family - Nana Ekvtimishvili

A Georgian film set in Tbilisi.  Explores the patriarchal society and tangle of intergenerational family relations and roles in contemporary Georgian society.  Beautifully filmed with a great sound track (ambient noise, not music).  The mother, who rents an apartment by herself so she can live alone, is a great character.  The need for stillness and peace as the chaos of the world presses in from all sides.

L'homme qui souriait - Henning Mankell

Polar avec le détectif Wallander.  Wallander a beaucoup de texture comme personnage, comme les autres dèailleurs.  Intrigue compliquée et difficile à déceler.  A en lire plus.