The Tsar of Love and Techno: Stories | 
pickIn this unusual work of fiction (not really short stories, not a traditional novel) interconnecting characters and stories spanning 75 years explore bonds of family and political hardships in an ever changing Russia. Marra‘s incredible writing has been compared to Tolstoy. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Constellation of Vital Phenomena
“I am an artist first, a censor second.”
Running a little late on this but I was reading it last night as well. I think it‘s about to be my first 5 star read of the year.
#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl
pickWow, yes Anthony Marra is a magician because this book is MAGIC. Marra really excels in the short form, each story here stands alone pitch perfect on a sentence level, and yet is intricately woven into a cohesive whole. Although these are very much stories about the chaotic spirals of Soviet History, they are as much stories about History generally, and about the ways our personal histories stand on the shoulders of those who have come before.
pickPlease indulge me for all the posts - I haven‘t updated in a while. 😁 It was a little difficult to keep track of the connections between stories (as others have said, it should be read as a novel), but Marra is a great writer. I must admit I didn‘t like this as much as ‘A Constellation of Vital Phenomena‘.
#ToB #ToBTournamentofFavorites
1. The Body Keeps the Score
2. Tender is the Night
3. The Tsar of Love and Techno
#weekendreads @rachelsbrittain @NataliePatalie
Currently reading. Anthony Marra is an amazing writer.
pickLinked short stories function as pieces of a jigsaw exploring the cruelty, tenderness, frailty, and strength of humanity as it fights for survival in Russia and Chechnya.
“I must have been ten, Kolya thirteen, on the afternoon We watched two men kill a third. But I‘ll come back to that. We woke in the room we shared to the dueling cries of my father and the teakettle. Kolya climbed from bed. His hair was a typographical error someone had scribbled out. He hit me, as he did most mornings, to toughen me for my own good, but it‘s difficult to muster much brotherly love while getting slapped.”
1. Apostle: Travels among the tombs of the twelve.
2. The Tsar of Love and Techno
3. Terminator
#weekendreads @rachelsbrittain
#friyayintro A day late! 🤓 @howjessreads
1. Love living in an apartment. It‘s within walking distance of a bookstore, movie theatre and pub! [and no snow to shovel]
2. The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flannigan
3. Audio books during the weekday commute and all weekend!
4. Pizza!!!
1. 😍
2. I don‘t know yet.
3. Probably yellow
4. They‘ve never told me. I only know of one of my dad‘s female name choices (Lysistrata) that my mom gave a hard pass.
5. ❤️❤️❤️
#friyayintro
1. Too hard! Or Radiance by Catherynne M. Valente
2. 375
3. It's been a good year so it's a three-way you're between my secondment, moving to a new flat and watching my little sister get married ❤️❤️
4. Watching my current work project come to fruition (I hope!)
5. @dariazeoli @Libby1 @abbsinwonderland of you haven't already played!
Thanks for the tag @Ddzmini
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️There was a moment in this book where I had to close it and take a breather because I just could not take it. The ending left me feeling simultaneously filled up and hollowed out. Anthony Marra is a genius.
Went back to Barnes and Noble with @dgingo and @DoctorMirabilis1267 but talked myself out of buying anything. Then I went across the street to Half Price Books for the 20% off sale and bought four books, notecards, a journal for the #TeamDracula, and Bellatrix.
I feel better.
pick#backpackEurope travelogue *fictional*
Country 8: I was a bit nervous traveling to Russia (some family members were under Soviet rule) but I enjoyed seeing the Faberge museum, Red Square, and the old palace in St Petersburg.
This book is lovely but sad - the short stories all link together, from the censor who paints out the ballerina whose granddaughter is an actress who...
It's like a lovely piece of music, but the censorship hurt to read about.
Leaving Finland and off to Russia. I have been wanting to read this Marra book for ages (I may also still read the Gerber book for fun). I almost chose Anna Karenina but decided against it after hearing my friend say she has tried 5 years in a row to read it and always gets bored. I apparently decided a hard route - I covered Iceland and all of the upper Nordic European countries. Too bad there are no landmarks to hit in them 😂 #backpackEurope
pickIf you want a fun, light, and quirky read about life in Russia ranging from Stalin‘s era to present, do not read this book. If you want a epically tragic understanding of mindset of Russians and how it has influenced the survival of families and interconnectedness of humanity through the 1900‘s to present, read this book.
pickA Constellation of Vital Phenomena was excellent but this is a masterpiece. The effort of piecing together the interconnected stories, unraveling the relationship simply adds to their power. They are judged to perfection, individually and as a whole. Marra's characters are painfully human and his insight, humour and compassion shine in every word. It's achingly, exquisitely beautiful. The best I've read this year and it could easily remain so.
“Then you accept?”
I said nothing, and as is often the case with men who possess more power than wisdom, he took my silence for affirmation. “Congratulations, Ruslan. You‘re head of the Grozny Tourist Bureau.” And so my future was decided, as it often is, entirely without my consent.
pickFirst off, Marra's writing is so damn good. The man can turn a phrase like nobody's business. I really liked the way he linked these stories together, through different characters and places and items, against a backdrop that changed over time but in so many disturbing ways remained the same. I think this is a great option if, like me, you're not usually a big short story fan. 4/5 ⭐️
Her hair was covered in an electric-pink headscarf that obeyed the letter of the law while exorcizing its spirit.
😆
[We] considered the ways a body betrays its soul, and wondered if growing up was its own kind of pathology. We fell in and out of love with fevered frequency. We constantly became people we would later regret having been.
You remain the hero of your own story even when you become the villain of someone else's.
I absolutely loved his debut novel, A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, so am excited to finally pick this up. Especially because it's a collection of interlinked stories, which I usually enjoy much more than ones where the stories are all totally separate. (Also damn you bookstores and your evil not-easily-peeled-off stickers.)
#nowreading
Current audiobook.....I was looking for short stories, but this seems to be longer, connected stories. I've just started and the narrator's accent is both distracting and enhancing the story (yes, I know, that makes no sense at all).
I've been working on entering reviews and quotes into my reading journal. I'm running out of space with this book. ❤️
The Tsar of Love & Techno and Good Morning, Midnight were the best books I read in 2017. Honorable mention to Eileen & Homesick for Another World by Ottessa Moshfegh. #bestof2017
so-so
