An end of week recap

“Literature speaks with everyone individually – it is personal property that stays inside our heads. And nothing speaks to us as forcefully as a book, which expects nothing in return, other than that we think and feel.”
– Herta Müller (born 17^th August 1953)

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.

* On My Moomindar *

Since the official eight-day countdown to Mallika Ramachandran’s and Chris Lovegrove’s #MoominWeek has begun, I should like to point all furry (and not so furry) snouts in the direction of two pieces of writing published about Tove Jansson and her fabulous trolls in recognition of what was her 110^th birthday on 9^th August:

At the start of the month, The Marginalian ran a short essay:Trauma, Growth, and How to Be Twice as Alive: Tove Jansson on the Worm and the Art of Self-Renewal – in which Maria Popova riffs on the frequently disparaged earthworm and its near cousins, described here as the “humblest of creatures, which Darwin regarded with absolute amazement and celebrated as the unsung sculptors of the biosphere, having tilled and fertilized the Earth as we know it.” If you have read The Summer Book, you may well pick up on the worm reference.

A post about the Moomin comic strips, which were featured in a wide variety of newspapers from 1954 to 1975, appeared in Now Read This! on Tove’s actual birthday. Moomin: The Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip volume 1 is a comprehensive review of Moomin Book One – the first volume of Drawn & Quarterly’s planned reprint of the entire strip drawn by Jansson before she handed the job over to her brother Lars in 1960. “These truly magical timeless tales for the young,” we discover, “are laced with incisive observation and mature wit that enhances and elevates only the greatest kids’ stories into classics of literature.”

* 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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Reactor: The Pros and Cons of DIY Magic: On Shaun Hamill’s The Dissonance – Tobias Carroll with a “review of Shaun Hamill’s new contemporary dark fantasy novel”, The Dissonance. 

BBC Norfolk: ‘Dream come true’ for award-winning debut novelist – Ferdia Lennon, author of historical novel Glorious Exploits, has described winning this year’s Waterstones debut fiction prize as a “dream come true.”

The Hedgehog Review: Be Mean – Matt Dinan, Canadian professor in the Great Books Program at St. Thomas University in Fredericton (New Brunswick), insists “being mean is not the same as being cruel, but meanness can become cruelty.” Here he examines “the case for truth”.

Guardian Australia: Woo Woo by Ella Baxter review – an art world satire brimming with fury and flair – Imogen Dewey declares Ella Baxter’s new novel, Woo Woo, “part Melbourne scene sketch, part stalker thriller – and a wholly unique manifesto for seizing creative power from fear.”

The Atlantic: A Marriage That Changed Literary History – According to Phyllis Rose, author of Parallel Lives: Five Victorian Marriages, “Fanny Stevenson forced her husband, Robert Louis Stevenson, to live a bigger life than he had known.”

The Irish Times: Zainab Boladale: Giving voice to black, gay people in Ireland – “The RTÉ presenter and debut novelist [of Braids Take a Day] on achieving her goals, and being black and gay in the public eye in Ireland.”

Scremes Report: .008 The OG Literary It Girls – “Hedonistic, louche, bohemian”, Shawn Cremer on “the entangled brilliance of the Bloomsbury group.”

The Drift: Reading Oneself​ – Frances Lindemann talks “auto-critics and the Sylvia Plath problem.”

Publishers Weekly: Writers to Watch: 10 Noteworthy Nonfiction Debuts, Fall 2024 – Carliann Rittman with “this season’s crop of notable first outings, [in which] authors cover the nature of life, the role of religion in American culture, Indigenous histories, and book bans.”

The Asian Age: Book Review | Lessons on how to navigate the Indian reality – “Magsaysay Award-winning social activist Aruna Roy’s memoir [The Personal Is Political] is a seismic jolt to the complacent conscience,” says Shubhda Chaudhary.

Esquire: Joy Williams Remembers the Wildest Decades of Her Life – “The legendary author reminisces about the decades she spent contributing to Esquire, from the editors who shaped her career to the boxes of outraged letters about her most infamous story.”

JSTOR Daily: The Princess Brides of the Malay Annals – “Narratives about women as gift objects in classical literature show the power dynamics of trade and diplomacy in the early modern Malay world,” writes H.M.A. Leow.

Vox: What George Orwell’s 1984 can teach us about 2024 – “Orwell prized clear communication, so why are people misusing his name?” Sean Illing talks to Laura Beers, author of a new book called Orwell’s Ghosts: Wisdom and Warnings for the 21st Century.

Defector: Kazuo Ishiguro Is A Repetitive Genius – Owen Lewis argues that one of Ishiguro’s greatest gifts as a storyteller “is to show without telling at all costs for the majority of a novel, then tell at the end to devastating effect.”

LARB: The Glory and Freedom of Our Ukraine Has Not Yet Perished – Nick Owchar reviews Reuben Woolley’s new translation of Andrey Kurkov’s magical realism novel Jimi Hendrix Live in Lviv.

The Paris Review: “Siding with Joy”: A Conversation with Anne Serre – Jacqueline Feldman talks to French author Anne Serre about reading, writing and living alone.

ArtsHub: 2024 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards shortlists – Thuy On shares a run-down of all the shortlisted titles across six categories in the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards.

Air Mail: Mein Gang – “In an interview, British historian Richard J. Evans discusses the personalities drawn to Nazism, today’s authoritarian leaders, and his new book, Hitler’s People.”

The Washington Post: In praise of weird fiction, horror tales and stories that unsettle us – “To prepare for the Necronomicon Providence conference, I read — and re-read — great works by H.P. Lovecraft, Robert Aickman and other masters of supernatural fiction,” says Michael Dirda.”

ITV News: Community raises almost £200,000 after Spellow Lane Library destroyed by rioters – “A community has raised more than £100,000 to replace books which were destroyed when [… Spellow Lane Library Hub in Liverpool] was set on fire by ‘mindless’ rioters.”

CBC Entertainment: Think book clubs are boring? These modern versions are flipping the script – Binge-reading bestsellers in bars? Fusing food with fiction? Silently skimming sci-fi over Zoom? These aren’t your typical book clubs, but Prisca Tang finds they’re just the plot twist modern readers are looking for as they try out new formats, including pairing books with booze, food and silent reading time.

Morning Star: You don’t need it but you want it – “Andy Hedgecock admires [Adam Marek’s The Universe Delivers the Enemy You Need,] a virtuoso collection of short stories that chronicle 21st century alienation and the cruelties of consumerism.”

ABC: How Indian-English fiction became an upper-caste echo chamber — underwritten by Western universities and publishers – Rajiv Thind considers the caste prejudice inherent in much of the anglophone Indian fiction promoted by Western publishers.

Asymptote: In my dreams I reply like this – “Either way, it too is a kind of reply—to the call of literature, the call of writing” – Oonagh Stransky talks about translating Erminia Dell’Oro’s Abandonment.

Literary Review: Making a Splash – Lucy Moore immerses herself in Vicki Valosik’s Swimming Pretty: The Untold Story of Women in Water – a history of women finding power in water.

Counter Craft: Processing: How Helen Phillips Wrote Hum – “The author [of speculative fiction novel Hum] on subtle worldbuilding, artificial intelligence, and the importance of community in the face of dystopia.”

Eater: Book Bars Gain Momentum Around New York – “People are looking to ditch screen time in exchange for a low-key drink and conversation,” reports Melissa Kravitz Hoeffner.

Deadline: 30+ TV Show Book Adaptations Arriving This Year So Far – Dessi Gomez alerts readers to TV shows based on books coming out this year. 

Writer Beware: The Literary Reporter: A New Book Promo Site That’s Rather Less Than It Appears – Victoria Strauss warns of a new pay-to-play book promo site that’s not quite what it seems.

Los Angeles Times: How the ‘scandalous’ Jackie Collins and Jacqueline Susann revolutionized the publishing world – Scarlett Harris reads Scandalous Women: A Novel of Jackie Collins and Jacqueline Susann by Gill Paul.

Aftermath: Maybe It Should Be Illegal To Instantly Delete A Website’s Archives – Luke Plunkett on why online publications shouldn’t be permitted to disappear overnight.

The Korea Times: Minumsa launches latest edition of award-winning waterproof book series – Park Han-sol reports: “Minumsa Publishing Group has launched the sixth edition of its annual waterproof book series, this time spotlighting essays from its humanities magazine, titled “Han Pyeon,” which means “one volume” in Korean…”

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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, Fantasy Fiction, Herta Müller, Lyta Gold, Moomin Week 2024, Moomins, Sarah Firth, Shaun Hamill, Tove Jansson, Vicki Valosik