An end of week recap

“One of the signs of passing youth is the birth of a sense of fellowship with other human beings as we take our place among them.”
– Virginia Woolf

I will be celebrating my birthday on Tuesday and my partner is filling our home to bursting with a variety of friends and relatives along with their bags and doggy chums. Not that our house could conceivably be described as spacious since we downsized two years ago – but such additions will inevitably contribute to its general clutteredness (yes, I do know that isn’t an actual word, but it felt apt).

Anyhow, such circumstances may or may not be detrimental to next week’s wind up. Much depends on whether I have access to my office and if so, will I then be able to pick my way through slumbering bodies on put-up beds? You, like me, will know the answer to this next Saturday!

As ever, 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.

* 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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Chicago Review of Books: Buried Secrets and Fragile Masks in “Little Rot” – Gianni Washington declares Akwaeke Emezi’s Little Rot – her new thriller set in the “underbelly of the fictional city of New Lagos” – to be “fast-paced and devourable in one or two sittings.”

The Irish Times: Irish author Edna O’Brien has died aged 93 – Tributes poured in for Irish novelist Edna O’Brien after her agent announced her death.

NPR: ‘Liars’ is an autopsy of a bitterly disappointing marriage – Heller McAlpin describes Liars, Sarah Manguso’s latest novel about “the challenges of not losing one’s autonomy when hitching one’s wagon to another person,” as “a tour de force.”

The Paris Review: Anthe: On Translating Kannada – “One delightful side effect of all the language cultures we live with in India is how often we toggle between two or three languages when conversing,” says Deepa Bhasthi – a writer and critic who translates Kannada-language literature.

The Smart Set: 1984 in 2024 – Matt Hanson believes “George Orwell’s life and work offer insights into modern social and political issues.”

ABC Arts: The best new books released in July, as selected by avid readers and critics – On the list are the latest novel from a Miles Franklin-winning author, a celebration of the nurses on the frontline of the AIDS crisis and a laugh-out-loud foray into lesbian pulp fiction.

Slate: How Diaries Evolved From Lists to Personal Histories – “Roland Allen’s new book, The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper explores the history of journals and why we need them.”

CBC Books: CBC Books’ writers to watch: 30 Canadian writers making their mark in 2024 – “CBC Books has announced this year’s writers to watch list! Here are 30 Canadian writers on the rise in 2024.”

The New Arab: Namesake: Imagining a world where Islam’s female warrior guides today’s Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian women – Yousra Samir Imran reviews Namesake, a collection of essays exploring “the legacy of Nusaybah bint Ka’ab, remembered today as Islam’s Woman Warrior…”

BBC Culture: ‘Human stories are always about one thing – death’: Why the shadow of death and WW1 hang over The Lord of the Rings – “In a 1968 interview, the BBC spoke to author JRR Tolkien about his experiences during World War One, how they had a profound effect and influenced his epic fantasy novel, Lord of the Rings.”

The Chatner: Blurb Hype and the Good-Enough Novel – Daniel M. Lavery, author of Women’s Hotel, a novel about the residents of a women’s hotel in 1960s New York City, makes the case for book jackets that curb the blurb.

The Japan News: Breathing New Life into Bookstores; Public and Private Sectors Working to Save Ailing Industry – Bookstores in Japan are closing in large numbers. The government are being asked to consider implementing urgent support measures.

The Walrus: What Cruising Taught Me about Love – In this essay, Montreal surrealist Peter Dubé, whose latest poetry collection The Headless Man addresses LGB issues, says cruising revealed to him “connection in hidden trails, the flicker of cigarette ends, and fleeting encounters.”

The Moscow Times: Tamizdat: The New World of Russian Publishing – Marina Lif on the history and present of the tradition of publishing Russian books abroad.

Penguin: ‘His true genius lies in the universality of his observations’: Reflections on James Baldwin’s legacy – “Authors, editors and scholars share their thoughts on the trailblazing author on the centenary of his birth” with Rachel Deeley.

Caught by the River: Rare Singles – “A story of unlikely friendships, second chances, and the magic of soul music, Benjamin Myers’ Rare Singles is published today by Bloomsbury. Wendy Erskine reviews.”

Hoopoe: Author interview with Helen Scales: What the Wild Sea Can Be – The acclaimed marine biologist and author, Helen Scales, talks about What the Wild Sea Can Be, her latest book examining the existential threats faced by the world’s oceans in the coming decades, which also offers cautious optimism for much of the abundant life contained within them.

ArtsHub: Is romantasy killing Australian literature? – “An explosion in the romantasy genre, led by authors such as Sarah J Maas and the influence of TikTok, is threatening to leave some Aussie authors behind,” argues David Burton.

Grist: How Octavia Butler’s 1993 book ‘Parable of the Sower’ predicted our climate reality – “Set in 2024, [Parable of the Sower] the sci-fi classic shows an America ravaged by climate change. Here’s what the book got right — and what we can learn from it.”

3:AM Magazine: No Homage to Rojava – Ben Granger investigates where popular authors stood on the Spanish Civil War and explains the connection with modern-day Rojava.

African Arguments: Mkuki Bgoya: “Swahili writers should be mandatory reading in Tanzania, but there’s a deep trauma around books” – “Abdulrazak Gurnah, the Zanzibari-born 2021 Nobel Literature laureate’s grand homecoming was punctuated by the translation of his masterpiece, Paradise, into Kiswahili. His publisher, Mkuki Bgoya, speaks about its significance in the Swahili canon.”

Reactor: When It’s Time To Change Your Reading Habits – “Are you prone to reading ruts? Or do you crave a little more focus?” asks Molly Templeton. What, she would most like to know, “have you been waiting for?”

The Atlantic: How Do You Solve a Problem Like Norman Mailer? – Gal Beckerman discovers a “new documentary offers a model for reassessing the lives of monstrous men.”

The Critic: Still-sparkling gems of an annus mirabilis – John Self with “tried and tested novels overlooked in our neophilic rush to the new and wanting.”

Literary Hub: Chaos Is My Co-Pilot: In Praise of Tumultuous, Unruly Storytelling – Jen Fawkes, author of historical fantasy novel Daughters of Chaos, shares her experience of “discovering the virtues of volatility in historical fiction.”

Houston Public Media: ‘This Great Hemisphere’ tackles racism, classism, and political power struggles – “Mateo Askaripour’s sophomore novel [This Great Hemisphere] is a sprawling speculative-fiction narrative that delivers a heartwarming story about a young woman learning to navigate the world.”

Asymptote: The Languages and Literatures at Play in Hong Kong – “I love the idea of translating something that people say is not translatable, because everything is translatable,” declares Jennifer Feeley to Michelle Chan Schmidt in this piece on translating Lau Yee-Wa’s Tongueless.

KU News: New translation of Ovid’s ‘Heroides’ offers insight into ‘ancient fan fiction’ – In a new translation of Ovid’s Heroides, a collection of 15 letters written by women to the men who have left them behind, Tara Welch, a professor of classics at the University of Kansas, examines the Roman poet’s seminal work.

minor literature[s]: One Year’s Time by Angela Milne — Sarah Manvel – “The British Library Press is doing stellar work at reviving lost novels for a modern audience” – and no more so than in the recently reissued One Year’s Time for their Women Writers series. First published in 1942, it is described here as “vibrant” and “ahead of its time.”

Nature: Could crabs be conscious, can you beat hypochondria and more: top reads for summer – “Ten of Nature’s recent contributors share their current book obsessions.”

Liberation: Annie Le Brun, death of the last of the surrealists – “The poet and critic, a great specialist of Sade, remained committed all her life to exploring the most disturbing corners of the human experience.” She died on Monday 29^th July at the age of 81.

Chytomo: Ukrainians turn to history books, Serhii Plokhy tops bestseller lists – “Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began, major chain bookstores have seen a surge in Ukrainian interest in historical nonfiction literature.”

Minneapolis Star Tribune: University of Minnesota grad’s debut novel is sweeping ‘A Thousand Times Before’ – Asha Thanki’s debut novel, A Thousand Times Before, is a tale of family history and political strife, spanning from the 1947 Partition of India to the present.

The Berliner: Bedtime stories: Award-winning author Theresia Enzensberger on insomnia under capitalism – “Theresia Enzensberger is one of German literature’s most interesting young voices. Her new book, Schlafen [Sleeping], examines the deeper meaning of sleeplessness.”

Writer Beware: Evaluating Publishing Contracts: Six Ways You May Be Sabotaging Yourself – Some useful advice from Victoria Strauss for those who write with a view to publishing.

South China Morning Post: Detained Hong Kong activist mounts legal challenge against prison’s book ban – Brian Wong reports: “Chow Hang-tung’s legal team says decision to withhold four books deemed to promote ‘violent resistance’ is disproportionate restriction.”

The Deep Dive: 24 More of The Best 2024 Book Covers So Far – “Book cover design sells a book, and these covers are doing a whole lot of selling. From undies to foxes, lollypops to pixels, check ’em out,” suggests Kelly Jensen.

The Conversation: A reader’s guide to the US election: an expert recommends the best books, journals, podcasts and commentators – Professor in U.S. Politics and U.S. Foreign Relations, Brendon O’Connor, has put together a guide “to help people follow the presidential election,” in order to “better understand the social, cultural and political forces that have led to Donald Trump being viewed by millions of Americans as the answer to their political concerns.”

Verge: Wix’s AI will now write whole blog posts for you – “‘Top-notch content’ is the new SEO garbage,” says Jess Weatherbed.

Air Mail: The Truman Show – “For [Alexander Lobrano] a young assistant at Random House in the summer of 1978, Friday afternoons meant one thing: babysitting Truman Capote”.

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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: Akwaeke Emezi, Asha Thanki, Helen Scales, Jen Fawkes, N.S. Nuseibeh, Virginia Woolf