An end of week recap

“All opinions are not equal. Some are a very great deal more robust, sophisticated and well supported in logic and argument than others.”
– Douglas Adams

This is a 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 >> 

If you are planning a reading event, challenge, competition, or anything else likely to be of interest to the book blogging community and its followers, please let me know. I will happily share your news here with the fabulous array of bibliowonks who read this weekly wind up.

* Week Three of Reading Wales *

We are midway through the month, which means it is already week three of Dewithon. Thank you so much to all those taking part – your fabulous reviews and other features have been preserved for posterity at Reading Wales 2024.

Earlier this week, I published the first in a series of brief posts looking at literary and other cultural goings-on in Wales. In the spotlight on this occasion were Wales Book of the Year 2024, exciting news about our official title from 2022 and an introduction to the Pod of Wales series. >> DEWITHON 24: Llyfrbabble (Bookbabble) #1 >>

Should you post any content relating to this event on your blogs (or elsewhere), please do bring it to my attention.

* Lit Crit Blogflash *

I am going to share with you one of my favourite literary posts from around the blogosphere, which may well be of interest to Dewithon participants. There are so many talented writers posting high-quality book features and reviews, it was difficult to pick only this one – which was published over the last week or so:

BLOG TOUR REVIEW!!! The Future of Wales (The Futures Series) by Rhys Thomas – The subject of book blogger Amy Louise’s latest post at The Shelf of Unread Books is The Future of Wales by Pontyclun author Rhys Thomas – a writer probably best known for The Suicide Club, his 2009 YA novel about teenage disaffection. Part of The Futures Series from Melville House UK, Thomas’s “affectionate investigation of his home nation” argues that “Wales is a land filled with both contradictions and potential,” says Louise. He presents Wales here as a “modern nation with modern problems” – and “doesn’t shy away from the challenges of addressing [such] issues as “loss of cultural identity” through tourism and the problems caused by second homes – but he also does an “excellent job of showcasing just how much Wales […] has to offer.” This book, she feels, makes useful “suggestions for ways of thinking about [the country’s] development” while celebrating “so much of what makes Wales a special place.”

* Irresistible Items *

Umpteen fascinating articles appeared on my bookdar last week. I generally make a point of tweeting/x-ing (soon, perhaps tooting or bsky-ing) a few favourite finds (or adding them to my Facebook group page), but in case you missed anything, there follow a selection of interesting snippets: 

****************************

The Wire: Time, Tide and Twinkle Khanna’s Women – “It is no use pretending that [Indian author] Twinkle Khanna can be read with the same lens as any other author,” says Soumashree Sarkar, in her review of Welcome to Paradise – a collection of narratives in which “multiple dichotomies come to roost.”

JSTOR Daily: What Do Gardens and Murder Have in Common? – “Writers have long plotted murder mysteries in gardens of all sorts. What makes these fertile grounds for detective fiction?” wonders Tim Brinkhof.

BBC Dorset: Dorset centre launches Thomas Hardy archive project – “A project to unveil thousands of items [including diaries, letters, books, photographs, architectural plans, manuscript novels and poetry] from Thomas Hardy’s archive is set to launch.”

UnHerd: What is Judith Butler afraid of? – According to Kathleen Stock, columnist and a co-director of The Lesbian Project, the American “academic’s new book conjures enemies at every turn.”

LARB: So You Believe in Intergenerational Trauma? A Conversation with Katya Apekina – Sasha Vasilyuk interviews Katya Apekina about Mother Doll, her multi-generational novel about the trauma of Russian history.

Athenaeum Review: Four Sour and Stringent Proposals For The Novel; Or, The Unambitious Contemporary Novel – In the opinion of James Elkins, “valuing novels for the social information they contribute, as many literary prizes do, is like judging dogs for fetching.”

Balkan Insights: ‘As Rich as a Labyrinth’: The Untamed Poetry of Marija Cudina – “The Croatia-born poet – who had a love-hate relationship with her ‘bitch’ of a craft – was a major influence on literary giants like Danilo Kis, but” says Jovan Kalem, she “is sadly neglected today.”

People: Rebecca Makkai, C Pam Zhang Among 2024 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction Nominees — See the Longlist! – The Carol Shields Prize has announced its 15-book longlist for the 2024 prize.

Literary Hub: From Red Riding Hood to Beowulf: On the Essential Role of Literary Reimaginings – Joel H. Morris, author of All Our Yesterdays, explains why to “tell such tales again is to tell them for the first time.”

CrimeReads: 7 Modern Gothics Featuring an Intersectional Feminist Perspective – These books “serve to illustrate the dangers of misogyny while centering the power and resilience of all women,” writes Paulette Kennedy.

The Guardian: This month’s best paperbacks – “Looking for a new reading recommendation? Here are some exciting new paperbacks, from an innovative Booker shortlisted novel to a study of friendship.”

The Critic: From cholera to coronavirus – Sibyl Ruth discovers a “forgotten novel [Deerbrook by Harriet Martineau] offers insights into living with a deadly and dehumanising pandemic.”

The Week: The new ‘boom’ in Latin American fiction – “Almost a quarter of [the] International Booker Prize longlist comes from South America, a region [currently] in turmoil,” says Harriet Marsden. Could we, she suggests, be experiencing another boom latinoamericano?

The Bookseller: Indie bookshops ‘thriving’ as winners of Independent Bookshop of the Year unveiled – Heloise Wood discusses the nine regional and country bookstores in contention for the UK’s overall Independent Bookshop of the Year Award.

Big Issue: Did you know the Irish language has at least 20 words for ‘hole’? – “Manchán Magan reflects on the Irish language – and the nuances of a way of life that is disappearing” in this fascinating piece about his book celebrating Ireland’s language: Thirty-Two Words for Field: Lost Words of the Irish Landscape.

The Africa Report: Ivorian literary activist, translator lends her skills to beloved graphic novel, ‘Aya de Yopougon’ – “Edwige-Renée Dro has translated the penultimate volume of a popular illustrated series about Aya, a young woman living in Cote d’Ivoire, into English to spread its feminist message,” reports Olivia Snaije.

The Yale Review: The Common Reader: Virginia Woolf in The Yale Review – Claire Messud revisits Virginia Woolf’s almost century-old essays.

China Daily: Nobel literature laureate finds connection with Chinese readers – Abdulrazak Gurnah talked recently to livestreamer Dong Yuhui about “his hometown life and immigrant experience, his writing as an outsider and teaching as a literature professor.”

The Hollywood Reporter: BBC Acquires Viaplay Crime Drama ‘Rebus,’ Based on Ian Rankin Novels – “Set in Edinburgh, the six-episode series stars ‘Outlander’ actor Richard Rankin and ‘reimagines John Rebus as a younger Detective Sergeant drawn into a violent criminal conflict that turns personal,’” reveals Georg Szalai.

Guardian Australia: Deep Water by James Bradley review – what lies beneath – Philip Ball dives into Deep Water: The World in the Ocean, James Bradley’s “awe-inspiring [analysis of] life in our oceans – and its desperate fight for survival.”

CBC: It’s harder than ever to be a bookseller but I’m not shelving my business dreams – “From getting loans to biking through winter streets, [Canadian bookseller Annabel Townsend says she has] done all [she] can do to stay afloat.”

TLS: King of the Road – Paul Maher Jr. presents a “detailed and ‘more disgraceful’ portrait of Jack Kerouac” in Becoming Kerouac: A Writer in His Time, says James Campbell.

AP News: Book Review: Elizabeth Brooks’ Austen-esque WWII novel has romance, betrayal and a touch of macabre – “In a chance meeting in 1934, Nina invites the Nicholsons to dinner. She’s 14, trying on womanhood for the first time, and quickly becomes smitten with Guy Nicholson.” Donna Edwards reviews historical novel, The Woman in the Sable Coat by English author Elizabeth Brooks.

The Mit Press Reader: How We Sort the World: Gregory Murphy on the Psychology of Categories – “Every category is a simplification to some degree; it throws away information about the thing.” An interview with Gregory L. Murphy, author of Categories We Live By: How We Classify Everyone and Everything.

Nation: Henry Chakava’s death marks the end of an era in Kenya’s literary publishing – Chakava, a man widely regarded as the father of publishing in Kenya and Africa as a whole, got into publishing accidentally but went on to build one of the most successful publishing houses in the country.

Prospect: I think she was talking about me… – “The 200-year-old Royal Society of Literature has been riven by arguments over free speech, politics and personalities. Here’s the view from [Kate Clanchy’s] front-row seat.”

Reactor: Solaris: Guilt, Grief, and the Many Human Facets of Science Fiction – Tarkovsky’s film highlights different aspects of the story than the [Stanislaw Lem] novel [Solaris] it’s based on; both use science fiction to explore deeply human experiences and emotions.

Publishers Perspectives: At London Book Fair: Writers’ Prize Names Its Winners – “At London Book Fair, the top honor from the Writers’ Prize, formerly the Rathbones, goes to Liz Berry for The Home Child,” reports Porter Anderson.

The Drift: Past Tense​ | Our Historical Fiction Hang-Ups – “The historical novel isn’t cool. Popular? Yes. Enduring? Yes. A bit, well — for nerds?” In fact, David Schurman Wallace finds the genre is currently in the ascendancy.

Library Journal: Why Suppression of Libraries Corrupts a Nation | Backtalk – “In the past two years of semi-occupation and warfare, public libraries in Ukraine have established themselves as actors in state defence. Among the first institutions to reopen after the war began, libraries continue to operate despite a shortage of funds and staff, and in the areas close to the front line, continuing shelling.”

The Sydney Morning Herald: Author’s work resonated a life with more than a fair share of tragedy – The late Marion Halligan’s advice on reading: “Read a wise book and lay its balm on your soul.” Jane Sullivan remembers “a writer of unfathomable grace and stoicism.”

Literary Hub: Thirst: Marina Yuszczuk (Trans. Heather Cleary) – Read an excerpt from Argentinian author Marina Yuszczuk’s newly translated LGB/feminist gothic fantasy, Thirst.

Vancouver Sun: Is book banning coming to Canada? Libraries, book stores, authors watching closely – “Thousands of books were banned in the U.S. last year and the Surrey school district recently removed four classics from its recommended reading curriculum,” reports Dana Gee.

Publishers Weekly: Reese’s Book Club Comes to London—and Stays at the Sheraton – “Just in time for the London Book Fair, Reese’s Book Club has set up shop in the Sheraton Grand London Park Lane, a five-star Art Deco hotel across Green Park from Buckingham Palace,” reports John Maher.

3:AM Magazine: Heil Bukowski!: The Nazi Letters That Never Were – For years, rumours circulated about American poet, novelist and short story writer Charles Bukowski’s pro-Nazi letters. Abel Debritto says that upon further examination, what they reveal, in fact, is that Bukowski was just kidding.

BBC Scotland: ‘Forgotten Scot’ who inspired Tolkien and CS Lewis – “This year marks 200 years since the birth of George MacDonald, whose fantasy writing and ideas on faith inspired literary greats including JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis.”

The Irish Times: Irish author Paul Murray scoops top prize at inaugural Nero Book Awards – “Dublin-born writer’s The Bee Sting hailed as ‘fiction of the finest calibre’ at London ceremony.”

Culture Study: Culture Study Goes Full ACOTAR – “Like calls to like,” says Anne Helen Petersen in this piece about YA fantasy series A Court of Thorns and Roses by the American author Sarah J. Maas.

Mental Floss: Barbara Newhall Follett: The Child Novelist Who Later Vanished Into Thin Air – “Praised for her fantasy novel debut at age 12, Follett went from a child prodigy to a grown woman who disappeared without explanation. Some think they know what happened,” says Jake Rossen.

Vulture: Feud’s Chloë Sevigny Wants Hollywood to Read More Books – Actress Chloë Sevigny tells Marah Eakin she would like Hollywood to think beyond adaptations and “appreciate more literary figures.”

BBC Culture: The truth about Emily Dickinson, who might be Taylor Swift’s distant cousin – “Long seen as a poet for moody teenagers, Emily Dickinson is largely associated with being a ‘patron saint of the shy’. But it’s an idea that gets the 19th-Century poet all wrong,” argues Hephzibah Anderson.

****************************

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.

Categories: Winding Up the Week

Tags: #dewithon24, #ReadingWales#24, Alice Loxton, Dewithon 2024, Douglas Adams, James Bradley, Marina Yuszczuk, Rhys Thomas, The Futures Series, Twinkle Khanna, Wales, Welsh Writers