The Reading Life Review - August 2019 - future hopes

August Authors

Column One

1. Jerome K. Jerome - UK. Author Three Men in a Boat, among many works.
2. Ismat Chughtai- India - leading multi-genre Urdu write. Chronicler of the lives of women
3. Jane Austin - UK

Column Two

1. John Duffy - Ireland to Canada - frequently featured on my blog, I am looking forward to following his work for years.
2. Mike Davis - USA - author Late Victorian Holocaists, Planet of Slums and other important nonfiction works.
3. Mona Dash - India to Uk - award winning short stories, author A Roll of the Dice- Love, Loss and Genetics.  I anticipate featuring her work frequently

Column Three 

1. Rebecca Burns - UK - author Beyond the Bay,among numerous works, a first rate set in New Zealand in the early 1890s historical novel
2. Kadya Molodvsky - Belarus to USA- prolific Yiddish writer
3. Upton Sinclair -USA - author The Jungle, winner Pulitzer Price
4. Raajwandi Singh Bedi - India - very successful Bollywood script writer, prolific fiction writer

Column Four

1. Mavis Gallant - Canada to France
2. Sholem Asch - Poland to USA - very high status Yiddish Writer
3. Monique Truong - Vietnam to USA -author of The Book of Salt and The Sweetest Fruit. Elegant historical novels

Column Five

1. Kathleen Jones - UK - outstanding literary biographer, poet and short story writer - Author Katherine Mansfield Field The Story Teller
2. Charlotte Bronte - UK
3. Isabel Fonseca - USA - author Bury me Sfanding - The Gypsies and their Journey
4. Qurrtulain Hyder - India - leading Urdu writer

August author Birthlands

1. UK - 5
2. India - 4
3. USA - 3
4. Ireland - 1
5. Belarus - 1
6. Canada - 1
7. Poland - 1
8. Vietnam - 1

I posted on works by 11 women and 6 men in August, ten were deceased and five were featured for the first time.

Blog Stats 

The Reading Life has had 5,771,609 page views.

In August the most viewed posts include four short stories by writers from the Philippines and one from India.

Visitor home countries

USA, the Philippines, India, Germany, Ukraine, Russia, Canada and Bulgaria

Works I read in August without postings

1. Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante
2. "Los Angeles" - a short story by Emma Cline
3. "Cougar" - a short story by Maria Anderson

Both short stories were included in Best American Short Stories 2018. There are 18 other stories in the collection and I hope to read them all soon.

Plans and Hopes for the remainder of 2019

Hopefully we will soon finish our read through of Honore de Balzac's Comedie Humaine, having read so far 81 of the 91 constituents.

Soon we will begin reading the short stories of Shalom Aleichem, initially the Tevye the Dairyman stories then his Rail Road stories.

Courtesy of the University of Indiana Press, we have been given access to serious scholarship on Eastern European and late Czarist Jewish history and culture.  

I hope to read once more Ulysses.

Our read along on Mavis Gallant, on which we are behind, will continue.

This is hosted by one of our favorite book blogs, Buried in Print.

http://www.buriedinprint.com/mavis-gallants-paola-and-renata-1965/

We love short stories.  We will try to find a mixture of more works by proven writers as well as trying new to us authors.  

We will post on several literary biographies in the next two months or so.

Mel is always looking for a diverse range of quality narrative nonfiction.

Final Thoughts

We offer our thanks to all who take the time to leave comments, you help keep us going.

Max u, we thank you for your ever so welcome Amwzon Gift Cards.

To American book bloggers, We know you are repulsed by the state of your country's leadership, keep blogging and reading.  This to will end.

Ambrosia Bouswesu, European Director

Oleander Bousweau, Board member from the Bousweau Foundation