Novellas in November

So I’m so very much behind on reading the books I had planned to read this year but so what. That doesn’t mean that there isn’t room for another challenge, does it? (It doesn’t but it really should!)
So when Rick from Another Book Blog decided to make November the month for reading novellas, I thought ‘that isn’t for me’. And then ignored it. Right up to the moment I decided to sign up for the thing…
So here we are. I’m going to do the thing and read some novellas in November and it’s not  because novellas are short and are going to boost my number of books read this year – or because I have been offered a review copy of three novellas by the son of John Steinbeck, Thomas Steinbeck. Well, not only because of these two reasons. It’s mostly because some of the novellas Rick mentioned sounded amazing – and then I stumbled across another novella that sounded like an absolute must-read for me – and then I got offered the review copy … and they are short … So with all these perfectly valid reasons, how could I resist?!

So here are my list of novellas that I hope to read in November:

 

• Alan Bennet: The Uncommon Reader. The Queen has lost one of her puppies and while searching for it, she finds a mobile library. She feels obliged to borrow a book and discovers the pleasures of reading. This is one of Rick’s picks and it is also one I already have on my to-read list so of course I have to put this on my list.
• Thomas Steinbeck: Cabbages and Kings and Dr. Greenlaw and the Zulu Princess. So I love John Steinbeck. And although it’s so unfair to him to compare him to his father, I am willing to give him a chance because of his father. Besides, the synopsis actually sounds interesting.
• Colm Tóibín: The Testament of Mary. So this one is another one of the ones I got inspired to by Rick. It’s the story of Mary who has a completely different view of her son than the rest of the world – and blames herself for fleeing from her son’s crucifixion to save herself. It sounds fascinating!
• Meike Ziervogel: Magda. This was on the shortlist for the Not the Booker prize (which I’m actually not sure what is). It’s about Joseph Goebbel’s wife Magda; the woman, who killed her six children. The scene where she kills her children in Der Untergang, just left me … I have no words for what I was feeling when watching that. But I so want to read this novella!

So five novellas – I don’t think I can handle any more than these five.
I really hope that I’ll make it through these because they sound great!