What I read in August and September

Not much! The White Bear, by Henrik Pontoppidan. Two novellas in a nice little nyrb edition. I liked both of them a lot, especially the first one. I don't really know why, but I love reading about the clergy. Particularly when it's small-time, rather pathetic. Also I haven't gone wrong so far with nyrb editions. On the Calculation of Volume IV, by Solvej Balle. I think this series is suffering its own slowness. I liked the first book very much, but I've liked every book since less than the last. Cliffhangers are not the only way to advance stories, but I guess they are very tempting if you already plan on writing seven (short) books. That's a lot of cliffhangers you can allow yourself! The books are just becoming repetitive, boring, and a little ridiculous. There are many interesting questions that the (by now several dozen) characters could be asking, but they rarely do and, if they do, they are dismissed by the author in favor of very tedious and delicate descriptions of tedious and…