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This one is trending with all you crazy people reading the Booker Longlist. So I read it first. I quite liked it. I have no idea if it's shortlist material but I hated that one that won last year so what the heck do I know?

#BookSpinBingo @TheAromaofBooks

I haven‘t gotten ahold of many books from the Booker list yet, but I really liked this one. I loved the way it presented the tensions of culture and marriage, and the sense of unending responsibility the MC feels as an immigrant in America to other Albanian immigrants she encounters. Her American husband struggles to understand this part of her identity and experience.

The theme of literal translation/interpretation is wonderfully interwoven with a myriad of ways that we misinterpret. The novel moves from tense to calm but with an underlying sense of fear and dislocation. There is also movement between dreams/nightmares and a dislocation from reality, that leaves you wondering what is actually happening. An impressive first novel and it‘s highly engaging/unputdownable.
#firstnovel #translation #bookerprize

Hurray! Finally a #Booker25 longlist book I want to make the shortlist.

Thoughtful and relevant novel. After the last read, beyond glad that (unlike another longlisted novel I could mention) it didn't make me want to ask the narrator to Just Stop Already...

In front of us, someone was saying to their relative, 'You know who causes most of the traffic problems? Foreigners or returning immigrants like you. You stop when you're supposed to, give the other cars the right-of-way, allow crowds of pedestrians to cross the street.'

'We follow the rules, you mean?'

'Exactly. It causes confusion.'

The visiting immigrant became silent. He was finally home, he realised.

#Booker2025

#BookerLonglist #5

Very elegantly written, I became engaged in the book immediately I enjoyed following the narrator‘s struggle to live in NYC while she‘s still strongly rooted in the Albania she left behind. Het empathy for other refugees jeopardizes her mental wellbeing as well as her closest relationships. She moves between this empathy and self-preservation and there seems no closure. An impressive read.

#ReadTheWorld2025 #27 #Albania

#WeeklyForecast 36/25

I am reading a short Japanese novel (Someone to Watch Over You) ad then am ready for another #Bookerlonglist book, the tagged. I also want to read the new Sarah Moss, that I bought because of @TrishB ‘s review.

My main memory of this book is of mushroom cookies. What a wonderful trippy scene. This book is international NY, where one character can‘t learn English because everyone around him speaks Albanian. It also builds a whole lot of wonderful mysterious sexualized tension with green eyes. Then shockingly dissipates it. She hasn‘t read her Checkhov. Anyway, a really fun mysterious novel that i enjoyed. #Booker no. 3
#Booker2025

#BookerLonglist
In the beginning, I was hooked! Loved the commentary on interpreting and words, appreciated the immigrant experience and differences between the MC and her husband. But then towards the middle it was difficult for me to stay involved…was this purposeful? I lost interest instead of figuring out where Xhoga was taking us. And that ending..not sure I fully grasped that. But that cover is striking!

I‘m 1/3 through my current read. So far it‘s elegant and complex and i‘m loving it, even if i need breaks.

#booker #Booker2025

I enjoyed this unsettling book full of people making cringey choices, although I'm not sure I totally understood it. If you're not a fan of ambiguous stories, this might not be your cup of tea.

Misinterpretation, by Ledia Xhoga (2024)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Premise: An interpreter in New York‘s Albanian diaspora has her life complicated by her poor boundaries with her clients and friends.

Review: This Booker longlist title strikes a balance between being accessible and enigmatic that perfectly fits its themes. ⬇️

Drowning my jealousy over my spouse's trip to London at the garden center and then audiogardening with the tagged. We rent and only have a few containers on our patio, so audiogardening doesn't take up a lot of time, so I'll have to find something else to distract me soon.

The first of my #bookerlonglist library holds to come in and not an especially auspicious start. In the beginning I was hooked but then things went off the rails. There was too much going on and.then nothing was resolved leaving me wondering what I was going to take away from it all.

#bookerlonglist book 7

Another one that I wasn‘t overly enthusiastic about but I really liked the first part. The narrator is an Albanian translator in NYC who gets too involved with her clients, leading to misunderstandings with her husband, and even danger to herself.

I thought this would likely make my shortlist but then the final third got really confusing, with no loose ends tied up and too many unanswered questions.

A soft pick.

A multilingual Albanian woman is living in NYC, working as a translator and interpreter. Her marriage is in a rocky spot and she‘s such a passive person—she largely just lets things happen to her. There‘s a noirish plot line threaded through but otherwise not much really happens. I‘m not sure what I think of it, though I did enjoy reading it. I‘ll give it a low pick.

This really hooked me early on but my interest kind of waned toward the end. Not sure if it was the book or me that was the problem. I did still enjoy it but it wasn‘t quite the page turner that it started as.