An end of week recap

“When a person is lucky enough to live inside a story, to live inside an imaginary world, the pains of this world disappear. For as long as the story goes on, reality no longer exists.”
– Paul Auster

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.

* Passez votre été avec un bon livre *

There are several reading jollies to look forward to over the coming months, not least 20 Books of Summer 2024 (actually, make that ‘Books of Winter’ if you live in the Southern Hemisphere) presented by the marvellously self-motivated Cathy Brown of 746 Books. Apparently, it has “been a whole ten years since the first 20 Books of Summer Reading Challenge” took place, which means this year is extra special, so please “start planning” right now. As ever, you may opt to read less than twenty books (10 or 15 from your TBR piles will suffice) between 1^st June and 1^st September, ensuring you use the #20booksofsummer24 hashtag when posting relevant content to X or other social media sites. I therefore urge you to put on your sun hats and shades (you may prefer woolly hats and mittens) before sauntering over to 20 Books of Summer is Back: Post Your Links Here! where you will find all the gen on joining in the fun.

Words And Peace along with France Book Tours cordially invite you to pack your bags and embark on a cerebrally enriching trip to the French capital – a global centre for art, fashion, gastronomy and culture. Last year’s virtual visit to Paris was enormously “successful, with many participants and giveaways” (you can check out the official page to find out exactly what the participants got up to in ‘23). However, as a clue, this evènement culturel involved much “reading, watching, listening, observing, cooking, and indulging in all things French!” Once again, you are encouraged to select your books, films, podcasts and so forth for Paris in July 2024 and, if you are a published author or preparing to release a book linked to this wonderful European city, please alert the hosts as “you could have your [work] featured throughout the event.” Please dirigez-vous en direction de (‘scuse my French) Paris In July 2024 for everything you need to know about taking part.

* Irresistible Items *

Umpteen fascinating articles appeared on my bookdar last week. I generally make a point of tweeting/x-ing (sometimes 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:   

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Historia: Vampire or victim? The real Countess Báthory – “Who was Countess Erzsébet Báthory? A prototype vampire? A religious – or political – victim? Sonia Velton, author of The Nightingale’s Castle, investigates the real woman behind the myth.” 

Literary Hub: How a Multitude of Voices Can Broaden Our Understanding of the Natural World – Rebecca Kormos, author of Intertwined Women, Nature, and Climate Justice, on the changing face of nature and climate narratives.

Big Issue: Night Train to Odesa by Jen Stout review – finding defiant beauty amid devastation of war – In Night Train to Odesa: Covering the Human Cost of Russia’s War, “Jen Stout tells the stories of those affected by Russia’s invasion to give a vivid sense of life in Ukraine.” 

The Yale Review: Yellow Band – An autism “diagnosis alters a writer’s relationship to his work,” says Steve Edwards.

The Sunday Times: JK Rowling: ‘I’ve got six more books in my head’ – “From the pressure of Harry Potter to where she writes best, for the first time the bestselling author invites readers into her creative world.”

New York Journal of Books: Anita de Monte Laughs Last: A Novel – “In a way, Xochitl González’s Anita de Monte Laughs Last is almost two novels in one, both great,” says Anjanette Delgado of this historical mystery.

CrimeRead: G’day, From an Apparently Terrifying Continent – “Author Michelle Prak investigates what makes Australia such perfect terrain for thrillers.”

minor literature[s]: “I have a weird fearlessness with translation […] I don’t think they can’t speak with an accent”: An interview with Max Daniel Lawton – Cristina Politano sat down with Max Lawton, an American writer and translator of Russian literature into English to discuss “his translation of Vladimir Sorokin’s Blue Lard” and “the changing nature of literary translation as automation smooths the gap between any two languages.”

Book and Film Globe: The Worlds of Cixin Liu – Michael Washburn finds a “Chinese science fiction author with a growing fan base serves up a lively collection that mixes fiction and reportage” in A View from the Stars: Stories and Essays.

FP: Becoming Indian – Amitava Kumar, author of historical novel My Beloved Life, “considers how his sense of national identity has changed.”

LARB: Mythic Appetites: On Meta-Desires, Marriage, and Meals in the Personal Essay – Kristen Malone Poli examines the true hunger at the heart of the divorce plot.

The Critic: Murders for May – Jeremy Black with “killings in the new Japan, family feuds in India and the novel menace of AI.” 

The MIT Press Reader: In Their Own Words: Narratives of Mania and Depression – “Clinical psychologist and bestselling author Kay Redfield Jamison explores mood disorders from antiquity to the present, blending science, history, and personal memoir.”

Reactor: To Write or Not to Write (In Your Books) – “Is it ‘messing up’ a book to write in it? Or is it just making it your own?” wonders Molly Templeton.

BBC Culture: The ‘delicious irony’ of the Met Gala’s Garden of Time theme – “In JG Ballard’s dystopian story The Garden of Time – which has inspired this year’s dress code – the super-rich hide themselves in Arcadian splendour while the “great unwashed” riot. It seems an unlikely choice of theme for fashion’s event of the year,” writes Rosalind Jana.

The Conversation: Why Simenon, the creator of Maigret, remains a timeless author – We are assured by Laurent Demoulin: “The French-speaking Belgian writer Georges Simenon, author of […] 75 investigations by Inspector Maigret, is in no danger of sinking into oblivion.”

Slate: On Murder Memoirs – “I spent years preparing to write about my cousin’s murder. The story I ended up with was not what I had imagined,” says Lilly Dancyger in an excerpt from her collection of personal and critical essays on the power and complexity of female friendship, First Love: Essays on Friendship.

The Korea Times: Korean ‘healing fiction’ captures hearts of young British readers – Kwon Mee-yoo reports that “Korean literature is experiencing a surge in popularity across the United Kingdom, driven by a shift in literary preferences among a young and diverse readership.”

BBC News: Aysgarth: Ex-youth hostel filled with 120,000 books put on sale – “A former youth hostel filled with more than 120,000 books has been put up for sale.”

Esquire: Why We Love Time Travel Stories – “Time is an instrument of power, an object of faith, and an influence on our history,” argues Jonathan Russell Clark. “But in our fictions,” he says, “it’s more than just a cerebral quagmire—it gets at our unanswerable questions and our deepest longings.”

The Collector: 4 Ways that Magical Realism Rewrites History – “Magical realist authors from Latin America skilfully weave supernatural elements into their fiction, empowering marginalized and colonized voices to reclaim their stories,” writes Liana Hakobyan.

First Things: Faith and Russian Literature – “Russians take positions to the extreme,” declares Gary Saul Morson. It is therefore “no wonder,” he argues, “that Russia invented the system we have come to call totalitarianism and that its greatest writers explored totalitarianism and its antecedents.”

The Home of Agatha Christie: Christie’s Wallingford – Winterbrook House, the home of Agatha Christie and her husband Max Mallowan, is nestled away in an Oxfordshire town. In this piece written by author, historian and curator Judy Dewey we gain an insight into life in Wallingford in the 1930s. It also explores what you can find in the town today from the museum to a new statue of Christie.

Washington Independent Review of Books: Book Review: Once Upon a Prime – Once Upon a Prime, Sarah Hart’s tour of the links between mathematics and literature is “a fascinating look at what stories and sums have in common,” writes John P. Loonam.

The Indian Express: In China, ruled by men, women quietly find a powerful voice –Chinese women in cities like Shanghai are flocking to feminist bookstores that offer intelligent discussion and sisterhood.

Aeon: Do liberal arts liberate? – “In Jack London’s novel, Martin Eden personifies debates still raging over the role and purpose of education in American life.”

Shondaland: The Anti-Romance Novel Readers’ Guide to Reading Romance Novels – Shelbi Polk would like you to “challenge yourself by diving into a whole new world of literature that actually might surprise you.”

Sortir A Paris: Bernard Pivot, journalist, writer and presenter, has died – Bernard Pivot, former president of the Académie Goncourt, author and creator of the literary show ‘Apostrophes’ has died at the age of 89.

Open Book: Jess Taylor Confronts and Then Says Goodbye to the Past in her Compelling Debut Novel – Tkaronto (Toronto) writer and poet Jess Taylor discusses Play, her debut novel, which explores both the beauty and danger of imagination.

Guardian Australia: ‘My favourite book of the year so far’: the best Australian books out in May – “Guardian Australia editors and critics pick the upcoming titles they have already devoured – or can’t wait to get their hands on” this month.

The National Book Review: Q and A: Emily Raboteau Talks About How to Mother Against the Apocalypse – Lessons For Survival is “Emily Raboteau’s meditative exploration of motherhood in the modern world.” In this interview she “discusses hope and sorrow with Edith Matthias.”

Independent Book Review: STARRED Book Review: Patterns by H.L. Gaydos – In her review of Patterns: The Mystical Journey of an Ordinary Life by H.L. Gaydos, Erica Ball describes the work as “a beautiful take on how the moments that make up the story of a life can only be fully revealed with the perspective of time.”

The Guardian: ‘I can say things other people are afraid to’: Margaret Atwood on censorship, literary feuds and Trump – “At 84, The Handmaid’s Tale author is as outspoken as ever. She talks about aging, culture wars – and why “the orange guy” can’t be allowed back into the White House.”

Public Books: It’s Not Only Human Stories Worth Telling: Sigrid Nunez’s Animal Novels – Elisha Cohn explores the reasons why animals are so central to Sigrid Nunez’s thinking about the status of fiction.

Brittle Paper: 50 Years On, Lusophone African Writers Contemplate Portugal’s Carnation Revolution – “This year,” says Jethro Soutar, “Portugal celebrates the 50th anniversary of what became known as the Carnation Revolution.” Here, “a number of writers from Lusophone Africa […] share their memories of 25^th April 1974” and “reflect on the past 50 years.”

Smithsonian: How Artificial Intelligence Is Making 2,000-Year-Old Scrolls Readable Again – “The innovative ‘Vesuvius Challenge’ unlocked a mystery that had confounded archaeologists for centuries,” finds Chris Klimek.

Metropolis: Fresh Ink: Two Shorts By Osamu Dazai – Eric Margolis with the English-language debuts of short stories The Ocean and Sweltering Heat Tale” by Japanese writer Osamu Dazai.

Commonweal: Words with Friends – David Skinner on the “eccentric volunteers who helped make the OED.”

WIRED: What Happens When a Romance Writer Gets Locked Out of Google Docs – “In March, an aspiring author got a troubling message: All of her works in progress were no longer accessible. What happened next is every writer’s worst fear,” finds Madeline Ashby.

Saveur: Cookbooks Have Always Been Political—Whether Readers Knew It or Not – “For these authors, cooking isn’t just an escape,” observes Jessica Carbone, “it’s an inherently political act.”

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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.

Categories: Winding Up the Week

Tags: #20booksofsummer24, 20 Books of Summer 2024, Emily Raboteau, Isabel Allende, Nora Ephron, Paris in July 2024, Paul Auster, Sonia Velton