Winding Up the Week #393

An end of week recap

“Every secret of a writer’s soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind, is written large in his works.”
– Virginia Woolf

We will be heading off on a slightly delayed honeymoon, or honeymoomin as our waggish doggy-sitter (pun intended) insists on calling it, on 1^st October for four days – only as far as York, but it will, I’m afraid, scupper next Saturday’s wind up. We hadn’t originally intended going anywhere after the wedding as we already have numerous holidays and short breaks planned, but my Canadian half sister and her wife are in the city visiting the latter’s family. Since we have never met each other, it seems like an unmissable opportunity. Consequently, WUTW #394 will be a tad late – but at least when it does appear, it will be aburst with fresh lit-chat.

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.

* Stick it in the Moominfamily Album *

Since it could be up to six weeks before our official photographs are ready, and as I had promised to post pictures of our Moomin-themed wedding this week, here is a small clutch snapped by friends and family on the day. >> Wedding in Moominland (Part One) >>

* Almost Overlooked *

I have two items to share with you this week. (1) Unfortunately, I failed to alert you in a timely fashion to Brandy Harrison’s “special series for Fall 2024”, The Dostoevsky Readathon. Taking place at Russophile Reads and including some of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky’s “most famous works”, the event started on 2^nd September but will continue until 13^th January 2025 – so it isn’t too late to get involved. Please check out Special Series Announcement: The Dostoevsky Readathon 2024 for all the details. (2) Way back at the beginning of August, Lizzy Siddal shared her thoughts on Columba’s Bones, “David Greig’s debut novel and 4th in [the] Darkland Tales series” in a post entitled Columba’s Bones – David Greig. Though it reminded her somewhat of Hägar the Horrible, since the story’s protagonist, “is an out-of-condition ageing Viking, who, sick of the raping and pillaging […], secretly longs to hang up his axe”, she clearly relished this often comic “collision between Christianity and paganism” with a “magnificent ending”. I must say, it sounds very much like my horn of ale!

* The Winterfylleth Book Club Doth Loom *

It seems like only yesterday Karen Langley and Simon Thomas returned from their previous Club outing and announced the next – but time has flown since 1937, and we are once again on the threshold of another riveting reading year. This time it is 1970 – a hectic twelve-months during which Richard Nixon toured Europe, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn received the Nobel Prize in Literature, Melania Trump was born, Vera Brittain died and Dana’s ‘All Kinds of Everything’ won the Eurovision Song Contest. There were plenty of newly published books, too, from a diverse assortment of writers such as Roald Dahl, Anne Hébert, Ernest Hemingway, Susan Hill, Nuruddin Farah, Hannah Arendt, Patrick White, Helene Hanff, Yukio Mishima, Joan Didion, Halldór Laxness and Judy Blume. And so, from 14^th to 20^th October, you will be encouraged to focus your attention on books first published in the 70th year of the 20th century. Please keep an eye out for the hosts’ official announcements.

* Chill With Spooky Stories This Autumn *

Imyril of There’s Always Room for One More has a frenzied few weeks ahead. In last week’s wind up I drew your attention to SciFiMonth 2024 (1^st–30^th November). This week I can reveal her latest mini reading challenge is Spooktastic Reads – which returns for “13 days and nights of fantastical thrills” from 19^th October until Hallowe’en. This seasonal happening is apparently “super casual” with “no schedule, and no read-alongs – although [there is] a prompt challenge for anyone who is looking for posting inspiration.” To steady your nerves and get into the spirit of the event before taking a phantasmagorical plunge, I suggest you apparate over to Spooktastic Reads is on the way, where you will discover the favourite literary haunts of those who have a taste for “tales featuring witches and vampires, unsettling folklore, […] cosy werewolf fic [and] full throttle fantastical gore.” Your presence would be welcome.

* Fall For Atwood in November *

One of my favourite literary challenges of the year is due to kick off in November. Margaret Atwood Reading Month will once again be hosted by Toronto-dweller Marcie McCauley from Buried in Print – who in a recent post shared a few possible reading plans. She is currently “torn as to whether to reread an earlier or later novel”. Revisiting Lady Oracle or The Blind Assassin are two possibilities but whatever she decides, she “can hardly wait to hear which books will land in readers’ stacks this year.” Please take a shufty at MARM Countdown, How Long ‘til November? and prepare for some intense MARMing!

* Lit Crit Blogflash *

I am going to share with you one of my favourite posts from around the blogosphere. There are so many talented writers posting high-quality book features and reviews, it was difficult to pick only this one – which was published in the last couple of weeks:

The Forgetting Room – Over at Tinted Edges, Canberran blogger Angharad Lodwick made a pleasing discovery on her bookshelves – although, she’s not at all sure how it came to be there since there were “no prices pencilled in [or] stickers” on the cover – but Nick Bantock’s The Forgetting Room is, she says, an “illustrated mystery novella about art and inheritance” that resembles a “lift-the-flap” booklet for adults. It tells the tale of “a man called Armon who inherits his artist [grandfather’s] home in Spain,” but finds when he arrives, not highly desired artworks but an invitation to take part in a “mysterious game.” Accompanied by “high quality, interactive illustrations”, we should not, warns Angharad, expect “clarity with a neat ending”– rather, “murky” and at times difficult to recall details. Nevertheless, this “compelling […] work of art lingers” and permits you, the reader, to come up with your “own interpretations”.

* 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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Open Book: The 2024 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction Finalists Have Been Announced – The non-fiction finalists for Canada’s Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction have been revealed.

Center for the Art of Translation: An exclusive interview with author Damir Karakaš – Two Lines Press Publicist Karen Gu sat down to talk with the Croatian author of historical novel Celebration, Damir Karakaš – a recent winner of the Mesa Selimovic Award for best fiction in the Balkans.

Literary Hub: How the Weimar Republic’s Hyperinflation Transformed Gender Relations in Germany – In an excerpt from Vertigo: The Rise and Fall of Weimar Germany, Harald Jähner examines “the economic, social and moral landscape of Weimar Berlin”.

The Guardian: Create ‘universal library card’ to democratise the arts, says UK thinktank – Lanre Bakare reports that the Fabian Society would like to see everyone in Britain issued with a ‘universal library card’ as well as a ‘culture pass’ for children to help break the ‘class ceiling’ in the sector”.

Plough: Paraguayans Don’t Read – “In a dictatorship, literature nurtures freedom. In a democracy, does it matter?” wonders Santiago Ramos.

The American Scholar: Writer on Board – Thomas Swick, author of the travel memoir Falling into Place, examines “the cruise story from Twain to Shteyngart.”

On the Seawall: Commentary – Olga Zilberbourg on Mothersland, a novel from Uzbekistan by Shahzoda Samarqandi, “translated from the Russian by Shelley Fairweather-Vega”.

The Adroit Journal: My Odyssey with Dickinson – Rosa Lane, author of Called Back, describes how her “journey with Emily Dickinson” began after one day discovering the poet’s “passionate writings” to another woman in Open Me Carefully: Emily Dickinson’s Intimate Letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson.

Beyond the Bookshelf: The magic in-between the ordinariness – Yashvardhan Jain explores his memories of first discovering magic realism and how this influenced him as a writer.

Open Book: Scandal at the Alphorn Factory Brings 40 Years of Magical Gary Barwin Stories Together in a Definitive Collection – Gary Barwin, described here as a “mainstay on the CanLit scene”, is interviewed about Scandal at the Alphorn Factory – New and Selected Short Fiction, 2024-1984, his newly published short story collection.

Independent: Wendy Cope: ‘When people rudely ask the secret to getting poems published? Get better at writing’ – With the publication of Collected Poems, containing Cope’s full poetic works in one volume, she shares with Jessie Thompson details about “the book that surprised her the most, the best thing a reader ever said to her, and the few films she thinks are – almost – better than the book.”

InReview: Diary of a Book Addict: South Australia’s best books of the 21st century – “With ‘best books’ lists hitting the headlines lately, [Jo Case] shares six of her favourite South Australian books of the 21st century, and asks 20 local authors, publishers, editors and other literary experts for their top Australian titles.”

Financial Times: Where I write… André Aciman’s Manhattan portal to the Mediterranean – “A postcard of a Raoul Dufy painting offers a window from the city to an imagined coast that ‘radiates a promise of bliss’” – the author of My Roman Year shares the view from the chair in his study.

3:AM Magazine: Open Source: Dino Buzzati’s The Singularity – Oscar Mardell reviews Dino Buzzati’s newly translated novella The Singularity, a pioneering work of Italian science fiction first published in 1960.

LARB: Why (Re)translation Matters – “Paul Reitter discusses the aesthetic and cultural value of ‘retranslating’ classic texts.”

World Literature Today: The Mortal and Immortal Life of the Girl from Milan by Domenico Starnone – “Lifelong repercussions of an obsessive, unrequited love mingles with lyrical ruminations on death, language, and literature in Strega Prize–winning Domenico Starnone’s slim, flawless gem, The Mortal and Immortal Life of the Girl from Milan”, writes Robert Allen Papinchak.

Radio Free Asia: China targets high-ranking officials who read banned books – “The crackdown on restricted content could upend a system that once gave senior officials a more global education”, reports Zhu Liye.

Ancillary Review of Books: The Restorative Power of Horror: Humanity and Solace in Esther Hamori’s God’s Monsters – “Esther Hamori’s God’s Monsters, [is] a non-fiction overview of monstrous beings from ancient Jewish and Christian traditions.” As a matter of fact, Frauke Uhlenbruch discovers, the Bible is practically overrun with them.

TNR: Eric Hobsbawm’s Lament for the Twentieth Century – “Where some celebrated the triumph of liberal capitalism in the 1990s, Hobsbawm saw a failed dream.” Patrick Iber reexamines The Age of Extremes, 1914-1991.

Japan Forward: Book Review | ‘Shanghai Demimondaine, From Sex Worker to Society Matron’ – “In Shanghai Demimondaine author Nick Hordern shares insights on the sunset of the imperial role in China in telling the story of Australian Lorraine Murray”, says Paul de Vries.

iNews: Richard Powers’ Playground isn’t a great American novel – it’s a magnificent one – “After reading this book, you’ll never look at the ocean the same way again”, writes Nick Duerden in his review of Playground, a science fiction, Booker-longlisted novel.

TLS: Greek tragedies from an Egyptian tomb – Bill Allan shares some interesting details on the discovery of ninety-seven new lines by Euripides, which were excavated at the ancient necropolis of Philadelphia, south of Cairo.

The New Statesman: WH Auden’s visions of England – “The poet as a young man became the ‘mouthpiece of an epoch’ by connecting his private world with the public one”, says Andrew Motion in his review of Nicholas Jenkins’ The Island: W. H. Auden and the Last of Englishness.

The Guardian: The Fertile Earth by Ruthvika Rao review – rebellion and romance in India – The “dazzling debut [The Fertile Earth] weaves a love story around class and caste, at a time of revolutionary violence and change”, enthuses Yagnishsing Dawoor.

The Point: The Dome of Heaven – Trevor Quirk looks at the American postmodern and metafictional author John Barth’s “escape from nihilism”.

Udem Nouvelles – Université de Montréal: Are algorithms and LLMs changing our conception of literature? – “UdeM literature professor Marcello Vitali-Rosati looks at how, for better or worse, computerized large language models are changing how we write – and what we think about it.”

Air Mail: Houdini of History – “Robert Harris, the master of historical fiction, discusses his Ancient Rome Trilogy, U.K. politics, and the subject of his latest novel, Prime Minister H. H. Asquith’s scandalous affair”.

ABC Books: Who was John Lang and was he the first Australian novelist? – This novel has murky origins, but it could have a momentous place in Australian history.

Language Arts: Ah, Men – Grace Byron tackles the “boys of Sally Rooney’s fiction”.

Nation Cymru: Book review: Untethered by Philippa Holloway – “Untethered is a collection of eleven short stories that shines a light through the prism of the natural world,” says Imogen Davies. 

Undark: Book Review: The Intricate Connections Between Humans and Nature – “In Peter Godfrey-Smith’s Living on Earth, humans are in no way separate from the life that surrounds us”, discovers Richard Schiffman.

Crime Reads: The Most Anticipated Crime, Horror, and Mystery Novels of Fall 2024 – “50+ titles to keep reading through the end of the year” from Molly Odintz.

Esquire: Gillian Anderson Can Tell You What Women Want – “In her new book [Want], the actress presents hundreds of women’s anonymous sex fantasies—including her own. Now she can’t stop thinking about what it will take for women to step into their power.”

ARS Technica: Fake AI “podcasters” are reviewing my book and it’s freaking me out – “NotebookLM’s ‘Audio Summaries’ show a more personable future for AI-generated content”, says Kyle Orland.

The Markaz Review: Who Decides What Makes for Authentic Middle East Fiction? – Nektaria Anastasiadou writes: “Agents, publishers and editors often have peculiar ideas about what constitutes Middle East fiction — looking for political strife, spies and warfare, they can become easily confused when those tropes are missing…”

Split Lip: Contraband Marginalia – Kasey Butcher Santana recalls prison library book marginalia. 

Jacobin: Why Karl Marx Kept Reworking Capital, Volume I – “The first edition of Capital, Volume I, was published in [September] 1867. Over the years that followed, Karl Marx and his partner Friedrich Engels continued working on the final text, showing how it remained part of a living critical project”, says Marcello Musto, author of Another Marx: An Essay in Intellectual Biography. 

Atlas Obscura: In This Beautiful Library, Bats Guard the Books – Cara Giaimo is delighted to discover that these “winged residents have been lurking in the stacks [of Portugal’s Joanine Library] since the 18th century.” 

Wales Online: The Welsh words that have been added to the Oxford English Dictionary – “The September 2024 update of the dictionary has included these 10 Welsh words.”

Psyche: A key part of creativity is picking up on what others overlook – Not specifically book-related but certainly connected – a fascinating article by Madeleine Gross on creative thinking in which she attempts to explain why the process of “constantly filter[ing] a flood of details coming in” can help “explain what gives some brains a creative edge”.

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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.