The Reading Life Review - January 2024 - Works I Read - My Plans for February

The Reading Life is a 15 Year Old Book Blog committed to the values of literary globalism.

Our very international readership includes MacArthur Genius Grant Winners, researchers from the Vatican Library, faculty and staff from Universities world wide, publishing industry professionals, and teenage book lovers as was I was in the long ago.

Short Stories, Irish literature, Classics, Modern Fiction, Yiddish Literature,Contemporary Literary Fiction, The Japanese Novel, Post Colonial Asian Fiction, Jewish History, The Legacy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and quality Historical Novels are Among my Interests. I also read narrative nonfiction.

Works I read in January 2024


1. "Various Miracles" - A Short Story by Carol Shields-2013
2. The Rebbetzin’s Sense of Justice" - A Short Story by Lilly Barger -1955? - translated from the Yiddish by Ronnee Jaeger - 2020 - included with 18 Jewish Stories translated from 18 Languages-edited and introduced by Nora Gold with a forward by Josh Lambert.
3. Diaghilev's Empire: How the Ballets Russes Enthralled the World - by Rupert Christiansen - 467 Pages -2022 -narrative nonfiction
4. "The Maiden" - A short story by Jean Stafford- no post
5. Mrs. Turner Cutting the Grass" - A Short Story by Carol Shields - included in The Collected Stories of Carol Shields - 2004
5. "A Modest Proposal" - A Short Story by Jean Stafford- no post
6. Florida Founder William P. DuVal: Frontier Bon Vivant by James M.Denham- nonfiction
7. "Elijah the Prophet" a short story
by Sholem Alecheim - no post

In January of the four authors featured two are women, all were featured for the first time, one is deceased.

Blog Statistics

As of today our posts have been viewed 7,466,942 times since inception

In January we received 36,412 visits

Top Home Countries of Visitors for January were


1. USA
2. Singapore
3. Hong Kong (highest per capita)
4. India
5. Philippines
6. United Kingdom
7. Germany
8. Canada
9. Netherlands
10. Pakistan
11. Cambodia
12, Vietnam
13. China
14.Indonesia
15. Russia


The most viewed posts were all on short stories with one exception being on
Madame DuBarry a 1919 German silent film on the life of Madame Du Barry. It was directed by Ernst Lubitsch, written by Norbert Falk and Hanns Kräly with the title role taken by Pola Negri and Louis XV played by Emil Jannings. Its alternative title for United States distribution was Passion, which was the second most viewed post in January.


Reading hopes and plans for February


1. I hope to finish Bleak House by Charles Dickens
2. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
3. Memoirs of HADRIAN AND REFLECTIONS ON THE COMPOSITION OF MEMOIRS OF HADRIAN TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH BY GRACE FRICK IN COLLABORATION WITH THE AUTHOR Marguerite Yourcenar
4. Short Stories by Carol Shields, Jean Stafford, Nancy Hale, Cheva Rosenfarb, Donald Barthelme among others


In works of history I Hope to complete


1. Nazis, Islamists, and the making of the modern Middle East by Barry Rubin, Wolfgang G. Schwanitz.
2, The Queen's Throat: Opera, Homosexuality, and the Mystery of Desire by Wayne Koestenbaum
3, Hands of Time: A Watch Maker's History by Rebecca Struthers.
4. Hitler’s shadow empire : Nazi economics and the Spanish Civil War by Pierpaolo Barbieri.
5. The merchant of Prato : Francesco di Marco Datini, 1335–1410 / by Iris Origo ; introduction by Charles Nicholl.
6. Empire of brutality : enslaved people and animals in the British Atlantic world  by Michael Blakley.


Additionally I have some highly reviewed Holocaust memoirs I hope to read soon


I offer my thanks to Max u, my cousin Susan and my three wonderful daughters for their support


In part two of the January Reading Life Review I will cover movies featured last month

Mel Ulm