An end of week recap

“Learn what is to be taken seriously and laugh at the rest.”
– Herman Hesse

I thank you for your cheerful forbearance while I gallivanted off to York to meet my half-sister and her wife for the first time ever. Our get-together went wonderfully (thank you so much to those who wished me well), and I return to you with these varied collectanea of literary goings-on.

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.

* Almost Overlooked *

I have three overdue items to pass on to you this week, all of which are worth investigating if you haven’t already done so. (1) It wasn’t so much jingle bells as a ‘hell’s bells and little fishes’ moment when it occurred to me, I had missed announcing the annual 20 Books of Christmas Reading Challenge. The event commenced on 1^st September – precisely the date my mind was aswirl with wedding and Moomin matters – so, many apologies to official host Jodie from That Happy Reader for such laxity on my part. Happily, it is still possible to board this book-filled sleigh since it will continue to circle until 31^st December. Please hurry over to 20 Books of Christmas 2024 Challenge #20BooksOfChristmas if a festive readathon is at the top of your list for you-know-who. (2) Over two months ago, Naomi MacKinnon of Consumed by Ink posted a review of Canadian naturalist Holly Hogan’s Message in a Bottle: Ocean Dispatches from a Seabird Biologist, a fascinating study of “the important role the ocean plays in our lives, in the lives of wildlife and ecosystems, and how we are destroying it.” Naomi learned “many cool things” from reading about the author’s “sea outings and adventures”, finding every page “soaked in […] passion and enthusiasm”. You can read the complete critique at Message in a Bottle by Holly Hogan. (3) Australian author Jessica Au’s Cold Enough for Snow is a “gently flowing story of the tenuous relationship between an adult daughter, the narrator, and her ageing mother during a tourist trip to Japan”, writes Gretchen Bernet-Ward in her late-July piece for Thoughts Become Words: Review ‘Cold Enough For Snow’ Novella by Jessica Au. The narrative, she says, exposed her “to thoughts” which landed like “gentle and seemingly never-ending raindrops,” carrying her “through galleries, museums, shopping, rural landscapes and train stations”, allowing enjoyment of its “calm, methodical pace”. Yet, after reading the final page, Gretchen sensed the womens’ “journey [was] not quite over”.

* It’s a Fact! Nonfiction November is Back *

“There’s a chilly wind blowing”, observes Liz Dexter, and the time is almost here for “cosy cardies, delectable candles and pumpkin drinks at the café”, which can mean only one thing: Nonfiction November is close enough to illume our drab autumn days. We can thank the current hosts for saving this esteemed annual event “from the brink of extinction in 2023” and it returns in ’24 quite simply because Liz, Frances, Heather, Rebekah and Deb “love the book blogging community and the books [… they] get to share.” This band of well-read women who know a thing or two about non-fiction narratives, will be on hand to guide participants through five weeks of prompts, potential topics and the latest reviews. Please proceed forthwith to Coming soon – Nonfiction November is back!! to celebrate the season in books.

* NovNov is HereHere Again *

This year marks the fifth anniversary of Cathy Brown and Rebecca Foster’s Novellas in November, a “month-long blogger/social media challenge celebrating the art of the short book”. The hosts will be “keeping things simple this year with one Buddy Read”, namely Orbital by Samantha Harvey. Apart from that, there won’t be “any official themes or prompts,” but a “pinned post” will appear on Rebecca’s site “from which you can join the link-up.” To take part, please select a book of 200 pages or less in length and head over to Get Ready for Novellas in November 2024! to scrutinize the specifics.

* Discover Norwegian Literature *

Should you fancy a spot of armchair travel to the Scandinavian Peninsula this autumn, then I suggest Meredith Smith of Dolce Bellezza is your go-to person. Norway in November (which she is hosting throughout the month) offers readers a chance to pick up “any work originally written by a Norwegian author” – she herself intends to focus on the 2023 Nobel Prize winner Jon Fosse – and later share your thoughts on your blogs. Meredith offers a couple of helpful suggestions. For instance, she recently read and enjoyed Emily Forever by Maria Navarro Skaranger and Kristin Lavransdattar Book I: The Wreath by Sigrid Undset, describing them as “outstanding books about young women”. She also says she found rereading Fosse’s Septology for the third time a “profound” experience. If this fires up your interest, please freeski over to the Norway in November Sign Up Post and leave your details using the online form. Thenceforth, as the night’s draw in and the temperatures plummet, you can cast an array of northern lights on Norsk litteratur.

* 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:

Enbury Heath by Stella Gibbons – Enbury Heath, Stella Gibbons’ 1935 “semi-autobiographical account of the years […] spent living in a cottage on Hampstead Heath with her two brothers” is, says Jacqui of JacquiWine’s Journal, “a charming, bittersweet novel about family dynamics and the challenges of growing up”. The celebrated English author, journalist and poet “writes lovingly about London” and “has some interesting things to say about the early years of adulthood”. Her “portrayals of the Garden relatives, particularly Uncle Preston, […] provide much of the book’s humour” and there is also a “set-piece” involving scattered prawns that Jacqui finds especially amusing. All told, she says, the book is “a thoroughly enjoyable comfort read […] laced with Gibbons’ sharp but engaging humour.”

* 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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The Observer: Beautiful, bruising and complex: what I’ve learned about female friendship – Rachel Cooke, editor of The Virago Book of Friendship, “reflects on two pivotal friendships of her own, as well as some notable literary ones”.

ArtsHub: Book review: Juice, Tim Winton – Australian writer Tim Winton “returns with [Juice] a new novel that marks a departure into cli-fi.”

LARB: Imagine More for Women – “Caroline Reilly discusses how Scandinavian women writers have become known for a more complex kind of crime fiction.”

Asian Review of Books: “The Real Osamu Dazai: A Life in Twenty Stories” – Christopher Corker reviews The Real Osamu Dazai: A Life in Twenty Stories, a collection of short fiction from Japanese author Osamu Dazai, which Corker describes as “a shifting mix of tragedy and humour that defies a homogeneous interpretation.”

The Common Reader: The Reader’s Quest. How literature helps us find meaning and understand the world. – “A few weeks ago [Henry Oliver] was awarded a second Emergent Ventures grant to write a book about reading great literature. [He doesn’t] know when or how this book will be published, but [he wants] to share [his] early thoughts about it here first.”

The Paris Review: The Dreams and Specters of Scholastique Mukasonga – Mukasonga’s writing is as striking for the bracing clarity and directness of her sentences as for the restlessness of its experimentations with genre,” writes Marta Figlerowicz in her piece on Cockroaches, the memoir of the French-Rwandan author born in the former Gikongoro province of Rwanda.

Scroll.in: October fiction: Five Indian books and a Nepali novel to read in this festive month – “Translations from Malayalam, Tamil and Marathi, a novel about the most isolated tribe in the world, and more.”

Public Discourse: The Bookshelf: Taking an Incomplete – “Readers, respect not the friends, critics, or even the judgments of posterity that insist on a book’s greatness,” warns Matthew J. Franck. “Enjoy what you read, and if you’re not enjoying yourself,” he suggests you “stop, close the book, and go read something else.”

Aeon: Witches around the world – Canadian anthropologist Gregory Forth is currently working on a book about witchcraft around the world from a cultural perspective. Here he discusses the reasons why “belief in witches is an almost universal feature of human societies” and asks, what it reveals “about our deepest fears?”

Hazlitt: Bathed in an Arc of Fresh Light – British novelist Deborah Levy asks the question: “What else is it we would want from love, apart from love?”

TNR: Can The Nobel Prize Save Publishing From Itself? – “The Swedish Academy’s decision to award Korean novelist Han Kang is a minor victory in a world of consolidation”, argues Mark Krotov.

Pop Matters: Premee Mohamed’s Sci-Fi ‘We Speak Through the Mountain’ Is a Call for Cooperation – Edmonton-based author Premee Mohamed’s We Speak Through the Mountain “is a school story set in a future that looks startlingly close to our times, sentient fungal infections notwithstanding”, says Nate Schmidt.

The Irish Examiner: Books are my business: Writer and translator Frank Wynne – “Wynne has translated novels from every country in South America bar Venezuela, but also from Ivory Coast, Senegal, Morocco, and Lebanon”, finds Marjorie Brennan. 

Reactor: When Did SFF Get Too Big? – James Davis Nicoll wonders if it is possible to “pinpoint the moment when readers stopped being able to keep up with their favourite genres”.

AP News: Book Review: Couples mix in Paris as feminist voices rise in Lauren Elkin’s novel `Scaffolding’ – “If you’re a Francophile with an interest in psychoanalysis, Lauren Elkin’s smart and steamy debut novel, Scaffolding, may be for you”, suggests Kendal Weaver.

CrimeReads: How Patricia Highsmith, Shirley Jackson, and Leigh Brackett Defined a Strand of Midcentury American Literature – “The three women, whose work is rarely read together, approached genre writing in ways that are still influencing writers today.” An excerpt from Ashley Lawson’s On Edge: Gender and Genre in the Work of Shirley Jackson, Patricia Highsmith, and Leigh Brackett.

Big Issue: It turns out Jane Austen was a secret radical all along – Helena Kelly suggests that “a closer reading of Jane Austen’s novels reveals hidden depths”.

Pioneer Works: Sigrid Nunez Is Always Lying – “Jordan Kisner talks with the author about animals, Virginia Woolf, and how she found her voice.”

The Mainichi: What is causing people in Japan, especially youth, to turn away from books? – “Some 60% of Japanese people do not read even one book in a given month”. This article examines the reasons why.

Air Mail: Dirty Beast – “Roald Dahl’s sadistic brilliance and disturbing anti-Semitism are the centrepiece of a dazzling new play at London’s Royal Court Theatre”, reveals John Lahr.

The Millions: The Great Fall 2024 Book Preview – “With the arrival of autumn comes a deluge of great books. Here you’ll find a sampling of new and forthcoming titles that caught our eye…” says editor Sophia Stewart.

Public Books: “The Lover” @40: A Roundtable – What, almost 15 years after it was a set text on an undergraduate French literature syllabus, still drew guest editor, Alice Blackhurst to The Lover? She put this question to a group of other writers.

CUP Blog: Tiffany Troy on Translating Santiago Acosta – Tiffany Troy discusses translating Elvira Blanco’s Constellation: Latin American Voices in Translation.

Guardian Australia: ‘I didn’t want to use them’: author Nardi Simpson on knowing when a story isn’t yours to tell – “The Yuwaalaraay woman and Stiff Gins musician turned novelist has reimagined the history of Sydney.” Dee Jefferson wonders how it is possible “to tell that story without claiming ownership of it?”

The Conversation: Caine Prize for African Writing: Nadia Davids on her winning story about women and freedom – “South African playwright, academic, novelist and short story writer Nadia Davids is the winner of the 2024 Caine Prize for African Writing… She received the prize for her exquisitely written and disturbing short story Bridling.”

History Today: ‘The Scapegoat’ by Lucy Hughes-Hallett review – “The Scapegoat: The Brilliant Brief Life of the Duke of Buckingham by Lucy Hughes-Hallett picks through the fragments of George Villiers, James VI & I’s favourite mistake.” 

The Berliner: ‘Overstaying’: The uncanny tale of a host and her visitor – “Ariane Koch’s Overstaying debuts an eerie, captivating story of taking a stranger home from the train station”, finds Bryn Stole.

Prospect: Beyond Vance: the Appalachian literature that’s truer than ‘Hillbilly Elegy’ – Susie Mesure suggests some “books that challenge the vice-presidential nominee’s narrow view of a varied region—and ours”.

Marianne: The lesson of Rudyard Kipling’s “The Man Who Would Be King”: the sovereign cannot disappoint with impunity – “In his novel The Man Who Would Be King, adapted for the big screen by John Huston in 1975, Rudyard Kipling tells the story of Dravot, an adventurer from British India who managed to impose himself at the head of Kafiristan” – a work Bruno Fuligni describes as a “timeless message, intended for all the sovereigns in their ivory towers.”

Orion: Our Good Ghosts: A Conversation with Idra Novey – Alina Stefanescu and Idra Novey talk “poetry, translation, and loss”.

The Dial: The U.S. Election Abroad – “Twelve writers tell us what the race between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris looks like where they live.”

Southwest Review: A Unique Example of Flat-Out Genius – Federico Perelmuter reviews Quincas Borba, a new translation of the 1891 novel by Machado de Assis – a man once hailed as Brazil’s greatest writer.

The Critic: “Nice” people need to read this book – Victoria Smith shares a few thoughts on Hounded, Jenny Lindsay’s debut non-fiction book on “how women have been hounded throughout the gender wars”.

UnHerd: Wuthering Heights isn’t a love story – “Heathcliff is a sado-masochistic wretch”, says English literary theorist Terry Eagleton. 

Aeon: Make it awkward! – “Rather than being a cringey personal failing, awkwardness is a collective rupture – and a chance to rewrite the social script,” says Alexandra Plakias, author of Awkwardness: A Theory.

Literary Review of Canada: Paw Print – “Tammy Armstrong blurs fact and fiction” in Pearly Everlasting, her fantasy/historical novel set in an enchanted New Brunswick woodland during the Great Depression.

Attention Economy: 20,000 readers of literary fiction…? – It has been claimed, says Leigh Stein, that there are only 20,000 reliable readers of literary fiction in America. But where did she pick up this ‘fact’? She’s darned if she can recall!

Compact: The Faith of Michel Houellebecq – Trevor Merrill examines Michel Houellebecq’s political thriller, Annihilation – first published in French in 2022. He describes the work as a “family melodrama” that “evokes the pathos of fragile human lives touched by unhoped-for happiness only to be crushed by despair and death.”

The Michigan Daily: To read or not to read: Does COVID-19 belong in our books? – “Up until recently, reading about COVID-19 frustrated [Logan Brown] for both the lack of escapism it provided as well as the wilful misrepresentation of a reality we all experienced — now, however, [she’s] more willing to read about this topic so long as it’s given a fair focus.”

AP News: Lore Segal, esteemed Austrian American writer who fled the Nazis as a child, dies at 96 – Austrian-American novelist, translator, teacher, short story writer and author of children’s books, Lore Segal, died in her Manhattan Upper West Side apartment on Monday following a “brief illness”.

Caught by the River: Pretty Ugly – “Dan Richards wades into the deep dark prickly woods of Kirsty Gunn’s latest short story collection [Pretty Ugly]: a compulsive compilation of delicious, delicate, dreadful dwams.”

Beyond the Bookshelf: Dark Frontiers – Matthew Long on “the apocalyptic landscape of Cormac McCarthy”.

The Walrus: What’s the Point of Epigraphs Anyway? – “Writers and readers alike love to argue about the quotations in the opening pages of their favourite books”, says Tajja Isen. 

The Guardian: Brontë sisters finally get their dots as names corrected at Westminster Abbey – Mark Brown reports on the “amended memorial to the writers unveiled at Poets’ Corner 85 years after misspelled plaque first installed”.

Vox: Why do we say “like,” like, all the time? – Jonquilyn Hill writes in defence of “the supremely useful and unfairly maligned word.”

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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: Uncategorised

Tags: 20 Books of Christmas Reading Challenge, Alexandra Plakias, Book Reviews, Elvira Blanco, Herman Hesse, Holly Hogan, Jessica Au, Jon Fosse, Norway in November, Novellas in November, Premee Mohamed, Rachel Cooke, Samantha Harvey, Stella Gibbons, Virago Press