Read Around the World Challenge: Europe - April Update

Happy Wednesday everyone!  Today, I'm sharing my fourth update and mini reviews for the Read Around the World Challenge.  Of the 46 books for the 46 European countries on my original tbr, I managed to complete 5 in April for a total of 17 completed so far.  You can check out my profile here on the challenge website here.  Keep reading to see my thoughts on the books I read this month:

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The Man Who Spoke Snakish by Andrus Kivirakh has an intriguing premise, but this historical fantasy never quite worked for me as well as I wished I did.  I don't know but I just felt like I was missing something with this one.  I wish that the female characters could have had more to do.  Maybe I need to know more about Estonian history to really appreciate this one?

My review is also on Goodreads and The StoryGraph.

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The Encyclopedia of the Dead by Danilo Kis is a fine collection of short stories.  I just wish they felt a little bit less like essays rather than speculative fiction.

My review is also on Goodreads and The StoryGraph.

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Auto-da-Fe by Elias Canetti was just not for me.  Maybe I read a completely different book than everyone else who gave this Pulitzer Winner's novel 5 stars, or maybe I just don't understand the literary merit behind it?

My review is also on Goodreads and The StoryGraph.

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I picked Best European Fiction 2014 edited by Drago Jancar specifically for the Slovenia story "The Pool" by Vesna Lemaic which was translated from Slovenian by Spela Bibic for my Read the Around the World: Europe Challenge. I really enjoyed this 21 page short story. It's a slow build (as much as a short story can be anyway), but it's absolutely creepy and unsettling. I have questions and I want to know more. For example: what kind of pool is that, what did Martin's brother do, will anyone get away, what happens if the pool gets drained? Also, as a redhead, I've experienced quite a few bad sunburns, but I didn't know one could have a smell? Or, maybe that person was already dead and were just extra crispy?

My review is also on Goodreads and The StoryGraph.

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I picked Best European Fiction 2011 edited by Alexander Hemon for my Read Around the World Challenge - Europe specifically for the Liechtenstein story "Dust" by Stefan Sprenger which was translated from German by Dustin Lovett. I don't know if I was just not in the right frame of mind going in, too dumb to get or appreciate, or there's something going on with the translation that this 13 page short story honestly didn't compute for me overall. I'm not quite sure what I'm missing.

My review is also on Goodreads and The StoryGraph.

Have you read any of these books?  Are you participated in this challenge?  As always, thanks for visiting my blog and perhaps even commenting down below!