An end of week recap

“Do not be angry with the rain; it simply does not know how to fall upwards.”
– Vladimir Nabokov

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.

* For One Year. And One Year Only… *

In just a few weeks, something rather special is happening. A something that promises to be exciting, inspiring and without question quite lovely.

No, I’m not speaking of my forthcoming wedding, though it is related to this rapidly approaching chapter in my busy yearbook. I allude, in fact, to an event of great moomint. One might even go so far as to describe it as moomintous. For from 26^th August to 1^st September, all literary types and their faithful Sorry-oos are invited to participate in Moomin Week with Moomin mistress of ceremonies, Mallika Ramachandran and her official Moominmate (i.e., co-host), Chris Lovegrove.

As first revealed in WUTW #339, I am to tie the knot with my partner of some 35-years at our Moomin-themed wedding on 14^th September, which is where Mallika of Literary Potpourri first spotted my announcement and immediately suggested organising a celebratory reading event involving Tove Jansson’s fabulous trolls. She was soon joined by Calmgrove’s Chris – thus, Moomin Week was born.

This means, of course, that mooning about simply won’t be trollerated – we must, every one of us, get into a mooming-mindset along with our fellow Toveites. I therefore suggest you head over to Acceptable trolls for a little background reading before selecting your preferred moominreads. Adjö and näkemiin for now. I’ll see you in that place – you know, the one hidden in an enchanted valley by the sea.

* Irresistible Items *

Umpteen fascinating articles appeared on my bookdar last week. I generally make a point of tweeting/x-ing (not to mention tooting and bsky-ing) a few favourite finds (or adding them to my Facebook group page), but in case you missed anything, there follows a selection of interesting snippets: 

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49^th Shelf: Lives, in Pieces – A recommended reading list by the Canadian poet, ethnographer, essayist, educator and recent author of The Old Moon in Her Arms.

The Sydney Morning Herald: For years, Michael Robotham was advised not to set novels in Australia – The celebrated crime writer’s new novel, Storm Child, is the fourth in a series featuring forensic psychologist Cyrus Haven.

JSTOR Daily: Birthing the Jersey Devil – “For centuries, a fork-tailed mythical creature that lurks in the pinelands of the Garden State has served as a reminder of the horrors that result when reproductive freedoms are destroyed,” says Katherine Churchill.

TNR: The Motorcycle Diaries Made Revolution a Pop Culture Product – The Motorcycle Diaries “changed Che Guevara’s image from toughened fighter to sensitive, less certain young man.”

Los Angeles Times: The 1999 novel that predicted our (traumatic, relentlessly bleak) future – Lauren LeBlanc’s “most lasting memory” of Disgrace, J. M. Coetzee’s Booker Prize winning novel set in post-apartheid South Africa, is its “stark and relentless brutality.”

The Korea Times: First century-spanning anthology of modern Korean women’s literature hits shelves – “The seven-volume Anthology of Korean Literature by Women Writers is the first encyclopaedic publication chronicling the century-spanning lineage of modern and contemporary women’s writing in Korea,” says Park Han-sol.

Prospect: People person: the greatness of Andrey Platonov – According to Robert Chandler, translator (along with his wife Elizabeth) of the recently republished Chevengur: “Platonov is one of the greatest of Russian writers—not least for the characters he brought into the world. He deserves to be more widely read.”

The Hindu: Life comes a full circle for this first-time author from Kerala whose book is selling at the same store he stole a Harry Potter book – Reese Thomas is savouring the happiness of his first book, 90s Kid, being published and on sale at the bookstore from where he stole a copy of a Harry Potter book as a kid.”

The Oxonian Review: Did the Sixties Swing For You? – “An interview with historian John Davis, author of Waterloo Sunrise: London from the Sixties to Thatcher.”

The Public Domain Review: Our Mortal Waltz The Dance of Death Across Centuries – “The sight of a skeletal corpse rarely inspires a rollicking jig,” says Allison C. Meier, author of Grave (from the Object Lessons series). “Yet for more than half a millennium, the dance of death in European visual art has imagined a tango between the quick and the dead.” Here she “tracks the motif’s evolution across history, discovering [the ways in which] printmaking offered a means to both critique social ills and reflect upon new forms of human devastation.”  

LARB: Lyrical Silicone – Cristóbal Riego explores the hybrid non-fiction writings of Chilean author Pedro Lemebel – a Latin American LGB icon. 

The Common Reader: The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien – Henry Oliver describes The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien’s prelude to his Lord of the Rings trilogy as “a book to read out loud.”

Asymptote: From the Tale of Crafting a God: Afrizal Malna on the Afrizalian in Indonesian Poetry and Drama – In a recent interview, the Indonesian activist, writer of prose, poetry and theatrical texts, Afrizal Malna tells Alton Melvar M Dapanas: “In writing poetry, I experience this body-that-writes as a mutant in language; I feel a different person is present in myself.” 

ArtsHub: Booktopia is poised to collapse – what next? – “Booktopia, Australia’s largest online book retailer, went into voluntary administration last week. The industry is reeling,” says David Burton.

The Comics Journal: Fulvio Risuleo & Antonio Pronostico: A Game of Connections – Matteo Gaspari discusses Fulvio Risuleo, Antonio Pronostico and the unexpected rise of Italian graphic novels.

New Eastern Europe: “One formula. Forty-eight nations”: a review of Russian Colonialism 101: How to Occupy a Neighbor and Get Away with It – Nicole Yurcaba writes: “As Russia’s aggression against Ukraine drags on, it is important to remember the wider forces that brought about this war. Exposing a centuries-old tradition of oppression emanating from the Kremlin, Maksym Eristavi has compiled [Russian Colonialism 101] a powerful book that demands an end to such colonial tendencies.”

The Harvard Gazette: A modern approach to teaching classics – “Martin Puchner is using chatbots to bring to life Socrates, Shakespeare, and Thoreau.”

The Asian Age: Book Review | Rebirth of a classic on Indian coal town – The prose [in Rohit Manchanda’s A Speck of Coal Dust] is fluid and inviting, as it keeps the reader hooked to the seemingly ordinary life of the characters,” says Ankit Rath.

Royal Society of Literature: Announcement of 2024 Fellows and Honorary Fellows – The RSL announced the appointment of 42 new Fellows – a list which is made up of “individuals who have made a significant contribution to the advancement of literature in the UK, or who have rendered special service to the Society.”

The New Arab: Daughters of the Nile: Zahra Barri on love, activism and identity in Egypt – Yousra Samir Imran talks to Zahra Barri about Daughters of the Nile, her courageous multi-generational debut novel exploring LGB and feminist themes.

The Hopkins Review: Buoyant Dreams Clash With Grim Reality: A Review of Samuel Kọ́láwọlé’s THE ROAD TO THE SALT SEA – Okey Ndibe reviews novelist Samuel Kọ́láwọlé’s exploration of the global migration crisis as it moves from Nigeria to Libya to Italy.

The MIT Press: How George Orwell Paved Noam Chomsky’s Path to Anarchism – In this excerpt from Noam Chomsky: A Life of Dissent, Robert F. Barsky “examines the profound impact of Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia on Noam Chomsky’s early embrace of left-libertarian and anarchist ideologies.”

3:AM Magazine: Intimate City: Jean Follain’s Paris 1935 and the Parisian Diorama – Tomoé Hill reviews Paris 1935, Jean Follain’s portrait and celebration of the city in which he has lived for a decade.

Mental Floss: Why So Many Stories Begin With ‘Once Upon a Time’ – “The formulaic fairy tale opening has a long history—and serves a practical purpose,” writes Lorna Wallace.

The Irish Times: Ukrainian language as a weapon of war: ‘It’s a form of resistance’ – “Many Ukrainians grew up speaking Russian to avail of opportunities across the then Soviet Union, but Putin’s invasion has urged a new cultural and political pride in their language,” finds Daniel McLaughlin.

The Point: The Imitative Impulse – Jessie Kindig on “Henry David Thoreau and the meaning of metaphor.”

NiemanLab: “Poetjournalism” slouches forth from Michigan to be born – “Institute for Poetjournalism founder Aaron Dworkin hopes a cash prize and a wire service for ‘newspoems’ will help the form take off,” says Neel Dhanesha.

The Conversation: The Gothic horror of Alice Munro: A reckoning with the darkness behind a feminist icon – An essay by Alice Munro’s daughter about childhood sexual abuse has forced a reckoning with the legacy of the feminist icon and writer acclaimed for her ability to give voice to women’s lives. Rebecca Sullivan shares her thoughts.

Reactor: The Rise of Cozy Fantasy – “Lots of books qualify as comfort reads,” says The Spellshop author Sarah Beth Durst – “but what makes cozy distinctive is that it offers sanctuary.”

Nature: How conspiracies took root in our culture – “UFO hunters and anti-vaxxers might seem like modern phenomena, but they both take inspiration from a little-known anti-science movement,” says Michael Shermer in his review of Think to New Worlds: The Cultural History of Charles Fort and His Followers by Joshua Blu Buhs.  

Literary Hub: What Working at Restaurants Can Teach Writers – Novelist Ethan Joella, author of The Same Bright Stars, talks about “wanting to open an eatery, teenage jobs, and the similarities between serving customers and readers.”

Melville House: Deal with the Devil: A DEVIL’S CONTRACT Playlist – “All of the arts have their demonic associations, but music has in particular had a bit more of the whiff of Sulphur about it,” says Ed Simon, author of Devil’s Contract: The History of the Faustian Bargain, in this introduction to a “curated playlist of the music which inspired [his] book.”

Open: Poetic Licence – Bibek Debroy argues that “what is lost in Vikram Seth’s wonderful translation of Hanuman Chalisa is bhakti.”

Interview: Meet Angela Hill, the Photographer Behind the World’s Coolest Bookshop – The fashion photographer and co-founder of IDEA Books talked to Leila Eden Sheridan about Ibiza, “Paris Texas,” starting her own publishing arm and her lifelong love of collecting.

The Jerusalem Post: ‘After Camus: A Novel’: The ghost of Camus haunts an American couple – Aaron Leibel describes Jay Neugeboren’s After Camus: A Novel, as an “interesting, though bizarre book, and a nod to the writings of Camus about the survival or death of love and friendship.”

Open Culture: “Tsundoku,” the Japanese Word for the New Books That Pile Up on Our Shelves, Should Enter the English Language – “As with other Japanese words like karaoke, tsunami, and otaku,” Jonathan Crow would very much like to see “tsundoku enter the English language.” 

RFI: French publishers embrace romance and seduce new readers – “Romance novels have long been looked down on for their undemanding language, basic story tropes and of course, sex scenes. But French publishers are taking note as a new generation of authors, inspired by English-language bestsellers, are writing for a growing audience of young women, many of whom are choosing to read books for the first time,” reveals Sarah Elzas.

Esquire: How Celebrity Book Clubs Actually Work – “Three famous readers hold immense influence over the publishing industry. Their recommendations can make or break a book—but how do they make their selections, and is their influence waning? [Sophie Vershbow takes] Esquire behind the scenes.”

Ars Technica: The telltale words that could identify generative AI text – “New paper counts ‘excess words’ that started appearing more often in the post-LLM era.”

People: Whoopi Goldberg Releases Comic Book She Wrote ‘25 Years Ago’ About Hero Who ‘Embraces’ Powers of Menopause – “The Change was co-written by Goldberg and screenwriter Jaime Paglia and illustrated by Sunkanmi Akinboye.”

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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: #MoominWeek, #ToveTrove, Diane Schoemperlen, Ethan Joella, LGB Non-Fiction, Moomin, Moomin Week 2024, Pedro Lemebel, Samuel Kọ́láwọlé, Tove Jansson, Tove Trove, Vladimir Nabokov