An end of week recap

“I love borders. August is the border between summer and autumn; it is the most beautiful month I know. Twilight is the border between day and night, and the shore is the border between sea and land. The border is longing: when both have fallen in love but still haven’t said anything. The border is to be on the way. It is the way that is the most important thing.”
– Tove Jansson

Moomin Week begins on Monday when those of us captivated by Tove’s trolls are encouraged to read the books, watch the TV shows, share our deepest moominthoughts with likeminded folk and generally immerse ourselves in a world of Hemulens, Fillyjonks, Mymbles and Hattifatteners. Thus, we have a distinctly moominesque flavour to this and next Saturday’s wind up posts. I wish all those taking part a Moomin marvellous time!

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.

* Join a Janeite Jamboree in ‘25 *

If you cast your minds back to early July and WUTW #383, you may recall me mentioning Brona of This Reading Life inviting others to join her year-long #ReadingAusten project in 2025. Well, it would seem from Stories & Shout Outs #74 that all systems are go with this literary challenge – indeed, she is currently “making plans” – which is excellent news for those wishing to celebrate Jane Austen’s 250^th birthday next year.

There has, subsequently, been an announcement from The Classics Club alerting booklovers of their decision to take part in Brona’s event “by hosting a sync read of Austen’s six major novels throughout 2025.” They describe a “sync read” as “not a readalong” but more of “an opportunity to join other club members who are reading the same book at the same time” and say it is an ideal activity for “readers who like to do their own research and read at their pace […] to share their reading journey with others.” I will divulge no more at this juncture but promptly direct you towards Reading Austen 2025 where you can peruse TCC’s recommendations and, should you wish, express an interest in joining (or possibly hosting) at least one of their “reading months”.

* 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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Moomin: Moomin Audio: Moominous Sounds from All Over the World – “From Moomin author Tove Jansson reading her own books to podcasts, audio drama and sound installations – the Moomin stories have inspired numerous audio formats united by one thing – a passion for the Moomins.”

Publishers Weekly: J.T. Blatty on Writing in a War Zone – Jennifer Tuero Blatty, the US Army combat veteran, photojournalist and author of the memoir Snapshots Sent Home: From Afghanistan, Iraq, Ukraine, addresses the character and complications of works written in the midst of war.

Nation Cymru: Celebrated artist famed for illustrations of Mabinogion remembered – Stephen Price reports: “Margaret Jones, the celebrated artist famed for her depictions of characters from Welsh myth and legend has passed away at the age of 105.”

JSTOR Daily: Dorothy Richardson and the Stream of Consciousness – “Though often associated with Virginia Woolf and James Joyce, ‘stream of consciousness’ novels spilled first from the pen of British modernist Dorothy Richardson,” finds Emily Zarevich.

BookBrunch: Neuromancer: the birth of an SF classic – “Author William Gibson and his editor, Malcolm Edwards, recall how [Neuromancer,] a seminal SF work came to publication.”

Literary Hub: A Kind of Arctic Madness: On Christiane Ritter’s Essential Memoir of the Far North – “Colin Dickey goes all the way to Svalbard to read A Woman in the Polar Night – a rediscovered memoir first published in 1938.

The Kathmandu Post: Icons of literary times – Abhi Subedi looks at the history of Nepali literary magazines.

Harper’s Magazine: Glimmers of Totality – Mark Greif on the now ninety-year-old American literary critic, philosopher and Marxist political theorist Fredric Jameson and his recently published work, Inventions of a Present: The Novel in Its Crisis of Globalization.”

Pop Matters: Naomi Novik’s Fantastical Feminist Worlds – “Award-winning speculative fiction writer Naomi Novik’s short stories are collected in Buried Deep, revealing the range of her fantastical feminist worlds.”

ABC News: Booktopia to begin trading again after being bought by online electronics store digiDirect – Australian publishers have welcomed the sale of Booktopia to online electronics store digiDirect after going into administration.

The Nation: A Paean to Nonhuman Life – “In Lydia Millet’s We Loved It All, she compels readers to decenter human experience in the stories we tell about the natural world,” writes Julia Case-Levine.

The Wall Street Journal: ‘The Avant-Gardists’ Review: Russia’s Visual Revolutionaries – “In the years before and after the Bolshevik takeover, painters like Mikhail Larionov aimed to unite art and life in their creations,” writes Maxwell Carter in his review of The Avant-Gardists: Artists in Revolt in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union 1917-1935 by Sjeng Scheijen.

Tove Jansson: Tove Jansson’s only altarpiece turned into an opera – “Tove Jansson painted her only sacral work, the altarpiece in the Teuva church, in the middle of her frenetic creative period in the early 1950s. How did a cosmopolitan young female artist from Helsinki end up in the spring of 1953 in flooded Ostrobothnia in the middle of a construction site? This summer’s premiere of an opera, a documentary film and an exhibition touring Finland will explore the subject.”

Poetry Foundation: Arsy-versy Argy-bargy – Camille Ralphs, author of After You Were, I Am, looks at “how Chaucer remade language.”

The Paris Review: On Fogwill – “He absorbed the different strands of the Argentine tradition and produced a literature that defies classification,” says Spanish translator Will Vanderhyden in his piece about the Argentine novelist and short story writer, Rodolfo Enrique Fogwill.

Reactor: The Road Goes Ever On: When Fantasy Sends You on Your Own Journeys – “Fantasy may be a means of escape,” observes Molly Templeton, “but it is also an education in, and encouragement toward, traveling itself.”

The Guardian: ‘We all read like hell!’ How Ireland became the world’s literary powerhouse – “The small island has produced Nobel laureates and Booker winners and hosts a booming writing and publishing scene. What’s the secret to its success?” asks Kate McCusker.

Asymptote: Having Become the Sky’s Tongue: Leeladhar Jagoori on Nature Poetry in Hindi Literature – In his conversation with Alton Melvar M Dapanas, the Indian teacher, journalist and poet of Hindi literature, Leeladhar Jagoori, comments: “I consider a poet’s job to consist of three things: writing about the society, the time, and the country.”

Eurozine: Pirate AI – “Artificial intelligence developers, pillaging existing book translations to improve their products, are preying on both the past and future work of literary translators,” says Ian Giles, Chair of SELTA, (the Swedish-English Literary Translators Association).

Arab News: Saudi Arabia’s literary renaissance captivates local and international audiences – “Saudi Arabia’s literary scene is experiencing a vibrant renaissance with a new generation of writers captivating local and international audiences,” finds Waad Hussain.

Carnegie Politika: Weapons of the Weak: Fighting Literary Censorship in Contemporary Russia – Galina Yuzefovich reports that the “Kremlin’s censorship is meeting with cautious but clear resistance from Russia’s literary community. It’s not only professionals who are invited to take part, but readers too.”

Brittle Paper: Exciting News for Zulu Readers: Two Must-Read Novels Translated in IsiZulu – Happiness Books has recently released Zulu translations of these two South African Novels: The Ones with Purpose by Nozizwe Cynthia Jele and Blood, Blades and Bullets by Nathi Olifant.

Writing.ie: Black Butterflies by Priscilla Morris – Priscilla Morris, author of Black Butterflies, an historical novel set in wartime Sarajevo, talks about “the real-life inspiration” behind her book.

World Collectors Net: Moomin Books and Moomin Collectables – For collectors of Moomin memorabilia there is especial interest in the Moomin books, Moomin art, vintage Moomin items and Moomin mugs.

The Conversation: Best Australian books of the 21st century: as chosen by 50 experts – “The Conversation’s Books & Ideas team, […] asked 50 Australian literary experts to each share their favourite Australian books of this century.”

3 Quarks Daily: A Tale of Three Translators – Leanne Ogasawara writes: “Translation is […] the most intimate kind of reading and also the most rigorous form of textual analysis. I say that without any qualification—because I think it is true.”

Air Mail: Ennui au Soleil – “Françoise Sagan’s debut novel, Bonjour Tristesse, caused a sensation, rocked the sleepy town of St. Tropez, and helped usher in an era of rebellious youth,” recalls Elizabeth Winder.

Faber: Independent Bookshop of the Month: Book-ish – “August’s Independent Bookshop of the Month is Book-ish in South Wales (Crickhowell and Abergavenny), winner of the 2024 British Book Award for Independent Bookshop of the Year. [Faber] spoke to owner Emma Corfield-Walters.”

The Observer: ‘It could disappear for ever’: Anger over sale of George Orwell archive – Dalya Alberge reports: “Businesses are selling off priceless documents piecemeal, after publisher gave the order to ‘get rid of’ them.”

Counter Craft: What Lasts and (Mostly) Doesn’t Last – Lincoln Michel considers “the books that are remembered, rejected, repudiated, and rediscovered.”

Global Times: Deep focus: China’s ‘small-town literature’ goes viral on social media, reflecting people’s nostalgia for hometown amid rapid urbanization – Lin Xiaoyi paints a “portrait of longing.”

Electric Literature: The International Indie Publishing Houses Shaking Up the Book World – Willem Marx introduces “publishers from around the world […] printing some of the best new literature in the English language.”

The Japan Times: ‘Goodnight Tokyo’: Late-night search for meaning becomes magical in the big city – Atsuhiro Yoshida’s novella, Goodnight Tokyo, composed of intersecting vignettes is, says Kris Kosaka, “a fitting introduction to an atmospheric, visually adept writer known for his quirky worldbuilding.” 

Caught by the River: Climbing Days – “Recently reissued by Canongate, [Climbing Days,] Dorothy Pilley’s overlooked climbing memoir of 1935 is a much-needed addition to the canon from a robust and unselfconscious pioneer,” writes Anna Fleming. 

The Common Reader: Revisiting Larkin. – Henry Oliver on Philip Larkin, Dana Gioia’s Poetry as Enchantment and the “strength and pain of being young.”

The Conversation: Playing Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley is a reminder of Tove Jansson’s environmental message – “Raw Fury, the developers of the new Moomin game Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley have pitched it as a ‘cosy’ adventure [but they] don’t always balance that cosiness with the catastrophic undertones that give the books their richness,” says Esme Miskimmin.

Verso: Anti-Woke Druids and Radical Bards – “What links Welsh 18th century romantic Druid-Bards, gathering around a circle of pebbles in North London, and the contemporary online right?” Rhys Kaminski-Jones believes he has the answer.

Cleveland Review of Books: High Fidelities: On Some Recent Translator’s Notes – Cary Stough is “hard at work in a culture more dedicated to vocational mythologizing than repairing structural supports.”

Financial Times: Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner — eco-philosophy and dirty tricks – “The lauded author’s Booker-longlisted novel [Creation Lake] follows a secret agent as she monitors green activists in deepest France.”

Harper’s Bazaar: Remembering Toni Morrison Through Her Food – “Five years after the author’s passing, [Nneka M. Okona recalls Morrison’s…] love of a good meal.”

49^th Shelf: How to Build a Villain’s Lair – Canadian novelist, Elisabeth Eaves, author of the recently released psychological thriller The Outlier, provides a lesson in creating a literary hideout.

BBC Africa: The poet who caught the eye of Mozambique’s freedom fighters – “Internationally acclaimed author and poet Mia Couto describes himself as an African, but his roots are in Europe,” says Ashley Lime.

Women’s Prize: Healing Fiction in Translation – During Women in Translation Month, Women’s Prize “teamed up” with Doubleday “to share some thoughts on one of the biggest trends in translated fiction: healing fiction.”

The Critic: The mean queens of the book world – Nina Welsch of It’s My Room argues that a “rare case of a ‘progressive’ employee facing consequences will not change the publishing industry.”

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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, #ReadingAusten, #ReadingAusten2025, Dorothy Pilley, English Novelist, Jane Austen, Moomin Week 2024, Nordic Literature, Priscilla Morris, Reading Austen 2025, Sjeng Scheijen, Tove Jansson