Wow Catherine, that’s great if you think The Buried Giant is Ishiguru’s best. I haven’t tried it but might delve into it in 2018. Who knows … you might like History of Wolves but the subject matter was a bit icky to me, though it is an affecting coming-of-age tale in a way. Hmm. And I’m glad you liked Lincoln, very creative for sure. I enjoyed the language in it.

I was interested in The History of Wolves, but you’re the third person I know who didn’t much care for it. Sometimes I think Booker takes lesser books if they have a dark theme. And good call on Lincoln! I loved it.

Hi Deepika, my dog mainly likes cold weather — so her season is coming! From Nov to April, she will like the snow, me not so much. Boo perhaps wouldn’t like snow? Boo doesn’t seem to have too much fur, but I can see where she’d shed some. I get tired of vacuuming because of my dog, but I’m used to it. Enjoy your week.

Thanks Michelle for your excellent comments on these books. Yeah I think reading “Bardo” first and then listening to it would have been best. I enjoyed all the voices and characters but would have kept them more straight if I’d read it beforehand. As for “Wolves,” your thoughts are interesting. I definitely was very angered by the neighbor’s husband; yikes.

As for Bardo, I read it in print first before listening to the audio version. It definitely helps to have done one before the other. Knowing what to expect and understanding the story’s structure allowed me to sit back and enjoy the performances, which I loved. I thoroughly enjoyed everything about Bardo and am so glad it won the Man Booker prize!

Hi Naomi, yeah I’d like to read more of the books by Saunders and Ishiguro. I think I should read Tenth of December too and I’d also like to get to An Artist of the Floating World. Now if we could only guess the Giller Prize. I guess I think Rachel Cusk will win, but maybe I’ll be wrong. Definitely look for Battle of the Sexes — it is quite entertaining.

Ishiguro seems like a good choice for the Nobel. I haven’t read anything by him yet, but there are quite a few of his that have been on my list for a while. And he seems able to write stories that sound very different from one another.

The Battle of the Sexes looks like a fun movie. I’ll be watching for it to show up on Netflix! 🙂

Hi Kate: I know I have many piles of books now to be read. I thought History of Wolves was decent for a debut novel but b/c it was shortlisted for the Booker I was expecting it to be better than I ended up liking it. Hmm. Still give it a whirl when you get a chance. Let’s see if the Bardo novel wins.

History of Wolves is on my TBR stack…second from the top right now. But first I have to get through the ginormous Stephen King book I just started!