Project Read the World: January and February Update

I just went to look for my January update, and it turns out that I never published a January update. Which is surprising to me, but here we are. I suppose that this is for the best because I chose two super-long books to attempt to read for February. I was unsuccessful in finishing the second of those, so this update would be a little short if I weren't able to include both months.

Here are the books that I've read by international authors in the past two months.

January Books: 2

February Books: 1

Total Books: 18/195

The Books

Finland - Moomin: The Complete Tove Janesson Comic Strip, Volume 1 by Tove Janesson

For those who, like me until recently, have never heard of the Moomins, the Moomins are adorable trolls who live in Moominvalley and have a wide variety of adventures. This particular volume contains the comic strip that was published in British newspapers, but the original books are classic children's books in Finland. 

These comics are mostly warm and fuzzy (with a few random, strange plotlines thrown in). The main character's biggest desire is to "live in peace, plant potatoes and dream." So relatable. This particular book was a nice change of pace from the other books that I've been reading for this challenge, and I loved it.

I don't have kids, but if I did, I would plan on buying some of Janesson's books for them. In fact, I might just go ahead and buy them anyway.

Japan - Memoirs of a Polar Bear by Yoko Tawada

Two months after reading this book, I still have no idea what to think about it. Like the title suggests, the book is actually the memoir of a polar bear, or more correctly, the memoir of three generations of polar bears.

Yes, it was interesting to read the thoughts of three polar bears living in a human world, but I couldn't find the threads of the story. I understood what was happening (I think). I did not understand the point though.

Was there social commentary that I was missing? Maybe. 

I don't know.

Georgia - The Eighth Life by Nino Haratischwili

I saw others raving about this book on #bookstagram and neglected to realize that it was 944 pages long. Potentially because I was reading it as an ebook, so I didn't notice until I thought that I had gotten pretty far only to see that I had barely made a dent in the book.

No major complaints though. This book might have slowed down my progress in February, but it was enjoyable. I'm not picking the smallest books in order to race through all of the countries.

The Eighth Life is another epic family drama. This seems to be a recurring theme in my books for this challenge. In this particular case, I enjoyed the transitions from generation to generation. Once I began meeting the characters I couldn't stop reading. The flow from one generation to another included more tragic events that I would have liked, but I loved seeing how the younger generations reacted to the older ones and knowing more about the characters than they knew about each other.

It's a beautiful read. Even at 944 pages.

What's Next

I'm slowly making my way through A Suitable Boy as my read for India. It's another very long book, this time I have a paperback copy so I can see how little progress I am making.

I already finished The Name of the Rose as my read for Italy, so assuming that I don't space out about writing an update for March, I'll have plenty of thoughts to share. 

I don't have plans to try to add any more books than those for this challenge in March. I made a TBR for March that I am trying my best to stick to. We're already fairly far through the month, and I'm not reading as much as I had thought that I would, so we'll see what happens.

Like always, if you have suggestions for what I should read next, leave a comment below or on Instagram.

Feel free to follow along on Instagram or on Goodreads for more frequent updates. If I start to get overwhelmed with updating here, I'm more likely to still keep updating on those two sites.