An end of week recap
“Don’t worry we shall have wonderful dreams, and when we wake up it’ll be spring.”
– Snufkin, Finn Family Moomintroll
I apologise for the paltry offerings in this week’s wind up. My excuse? The sun has been shining, our ‘stay at home’ restrictions have been eased, and we are now permitted to visit others in socially distanced, outdoor settings. Consequently, for the past few days I have been scurrying about the Welsh countryside catching up with friends and relations. Normal service will resume soon.
As ever, this is a weekly post in which I summarise books read, reviewed and currently on my TBR shelf. In addition to a variety of literary titbits, I look ahead to forthcoming features, see what’s on the nightstand and keep readers abreast of various book-related happenings.
CHATTERBOOKS >>
* Wales Readathon Ends *
My final offering of the event is another short post spotlighting various literary goings-on around Wales. I will no doubt revive Llyfrbabble in 2022 (or sooner if anything noteworthy should occur) as many followers seem to enjoy these newsy features. >> DEWITHON 21: Llyfrbabble (Bookbabble) Two >>
There is a dedicated page for all Dewithon-related posts. This is where we share your reviews, features, interviews etc. with the book blogging and wider bookish community. >> Wales Readathon 2021 >>
Please make a note in your diaries that Dewithon 22 will take place from the 1st to 31st March 2022, though you can be sure I will remind you nearer the time.
* Reading MCMXXXVI *
* Irresistible Items *
Umpteen fascinating articles appeared on my bookdar last week. I generally make a point of tweeting my favourite finds (or adding them to my Facebook group page), but in case you missed anything, here are a handful of interesting snippets:
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The New York Times: When Tragedy Strikes, What Does Criticism Have to Offer? – “It’s easier to find meaning in fiction than in the senseless mass killings of our reality,” says Maya Phillips, “which seem to render the critical perspective pointless, even silly, at times.”
The Guardian: Italians defend Dante from claims he was ‘light years’ behind Shakespeare – “Leaders rally in support of ‘father of Italian language’ after withering comments in German newspaper”.
The Age: As we stockpile wealth, toilet paper, novelist gives voice to a ‘hoarder’ – Emily Maguire follows up her Miles Franklin-shortlisted An Isolated Incident with a novel about the poorly understood behaviour of hoarding.
Narratively: The Royal Spy Who Became the Feminist Answer to Shakespeare – “Aphra Behn was the first English woman in history to work as a professional writer”, says Julia Métraux. “The only thing more colorful than her boundary-pushing stories was her own secretive life.”
Global Times: China Bookstore Conference launched in Beijing with focus on ‘innovative reading service’ in post-pandemic era – “A conference focusing on the development of China’s “offline” bookstores in 2021 was held in Beijing”.
The Paris Review: Walking Liberia with Graham Greene – Greene’s account of travelling through the interior of Liberia makes only passing mention of his cousin Barbara, who wrote her own book about the trip, Too Late to Turn Back.
BBC News: John le Carré: Spy novelist ‘died an Irishman’ – “He served as a British diplomat and an MI5 secret agent, but espionage writer John le Carré died an Irishman, his youngest son has said.”
JSTOR Daily: Are We Getting Shakespeare’s Rhythms All Wrong? – “Trippingly on the tongue? Yeah, right”, says an incredulous Livia Gershon.
Guernica: Hot for Epistolary Poetry – “The editors of We Want It All: An Anthology of Radical Trans Poetics on imagination, abundance, and what keep them up at night”.
The Point: No Good Has Come – Elisa Gonzalez scrutinizes “Marilynne Robinson’s testimony for the white church”.
The Baffler: Outside the Text – In the opinion of Andrew Marzoni, “Jacques Derrida resists easy canonization in a new hagiography for the Left”.
CBC: Margaret Atwood’s late partner loved birds. In the pandemic, she sees how they help people feel less alone – The new edition of The Bedside Book of Birds, by Atwood’s late partner Graeme Gibson, has been published.
Daily Beast: The Next Time You Admire a Picasso, Thank a Lesbian – Arvind Dilawar finds that Diana Souhami’s new book, No Modernism Without Lesbians, “spotlights the women who ensured history would remember artists like Picasso, Joyce, and Eliot.”
The New Criterion: On “getting” poetry – Adam Kirsch on “deriving pleasure from poetry.”
Nautilus: I Have Come to Bury Ayn Rand – David Sloan Wilson, a “prominent evolutionary biologist” and son of novelist Sloan Wilson, “slays the beast of Individualism”.
Lapham’s Quarterly: Prometheus’ Toolbox – Adrienne Mayor probes “human life as technology from Greek mythology to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.”
The Chronicle of Higher Education: The Apocalyptic New Campus Novel – Charlie Tyson finds that in The Life of the Mind, “Christine Smallwood’s story of scholarly precarity, what the academy wastes above all is human potential.”
The Creative Independent: On why honesty is more important than success – “Poet Sally Wen Mao discusses the notion of finding buoyancy in her work, the creative liberation of travel, and why she prefers to never write about love.”
The New Yorker: Bringing Keats Back to Life – “To celebrate the two-hundredth anniversary of the poet’s death, a foundation created a C.G.I. rendering that looked and spoke like he did.”
Science News: How using sheepskin for legal papers may have prevented fraud – Anushree Dave discovers “processing out the fat created a writing surface easily marred by scratched-out words”.
The New York Times: Would the Pandemic Stop Paul Theroux From Traveling? – “No. Of course not”, says Gal Beckerman.
The Royal Gazette: Hamilton retailers hit by quiet, as people hunker down during virus surge – Jessie Moniz Hardy finds a recent spike in Covid-19 cases has meant fewer customers have been purchasing from the Bermuda Book Store.
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FINALLY >>
If there is something you would particularly like to see on Winding Up the Week or if you have any suggestions, questions or comments for Book Jotter in general, please drop me a line or comment below. I would be delighted to hear from you.
Thank you for taking the time to read this post. I wish you a week bountiful in books and rich in reading.
NB In this feature, ‘winding up’ refers to the act of concluding something and should not be confused with the British expression: ‘wind-up’ – an age-old pastime of ‘winding-up’ friends and family by teasing or playing pranks on them. If you would like to know more about this expression, there is an excellent description on Urban Dictionary.