So for the past few months I\u2019ve been too busy to actually write the really long monthly translation previews that I\u2019ve been doing for the past year or two. I really do like writing those though, and highlighting upcoming books, but what with school starting up again, our first ever gala looming on the horizon, and all the other writing I have to do (for a semi-secretive book project you\u2019ll find out about in the next month or so), I\u2019m not sure when I\u2019ll be able to get back into the habit of writing those. <\/p>\n
Which brings me to my new idea . . .<\/p>\n
Instead of trying to come up with funny and interesting things to say about ten books every month (and which probably aren\u2019t all the funny or interesting), instead I\u2019m going to try and highlight three new and forthcoming titles every week and preface it with some sort of rant or whatever. <\/p>\n
Since I\u2019d rather just get to the books, my only \u201crant\u201d for this week is about how stupid it is to start school before Labor Day. I\u2019m sure some of you out there are still enjoying summer vacation\u2014which is your god given right as an American\u2014but my kids have been in school for two days and I taught my first class of the semester on Monday.<\/em> Yes, Monday, when it was still August.<\/em> <\/p>\n This is bullshit. It violates the cycle of life. The only standing significance of Labor Day is that it marks the end of summer. It\u2019s an extended weekend where you\u2019re allowed to reflect back on all the things you didn\u2019t accomplish when it was warm out and get ready for football. After this weekend of lamentations and awareness that everything will die and that the snows aren\u2019t that far off in the future, then you can go back to the classroom and try and learn things. It\u2019s fundamentally impossible for a brain to retain new knowledge prior to Labor Day. I\u2019m pretty certain that science will back me on that. And we wonder why our nation\u2019s public school system is in shambles. <\/p>\n The Mountain and the Wall<\/em> by Alisa Ganieva.<\/a> Translated from the Russian by Carol Apollonio (Deep Vellum)<\/b><\/p>\n This book came out back in June, but has shot up my to-read list thanks to Masha Gessen\u2019s The Brothers.<\/em> Gessen\u2019s book about the so-called Boston Bombers is most interesting when it gets into the investigation and the way Chechens, and all immigrants, are viewed and treated in this country, but the first thing that jumped out at me when I started listening to this was how the mother of the Tsarnaev brothers was from Dagestan. This is a place I\u2019ve never been, never really even thought of, and never read about. (Although I really love the way the woman reading the audio version of The Brothers<\/em> pronounces Makhachkala. Such a wonderful name for a city. Ma-katch-ka-la.) <\/p>\n But now, thanks to Deep Vellum (who\u2019s getting all the love this week), there\u2019s actually a novel available from a Dagestan author! According to the jacket copy, it\u2019s the first novel in English ever from Dagestan, which seems completely true. <\/p>\n I know next to nothing about the complicated history and situation in the Caucasus republics of Russia, but given the strife, the various conflicts with Russia, the fact that most people living there are Muslims\u2014it\u2019s a part of the world that I\u2019d like to learn more about. Starting with this novel that\u2019s set into motion by a rumor that Russia is going to build a wall to block off Dagestan from the rest of the country. Seems like a great plot point from which to launch a series of interesting observations of life in contemporary Makhachkala.<\/p>\n