Winding Up the Week #405

An end of week recap

“The year is done. I spread the past three hundred sixty-five days before me on the living room carpet… I fold the good days up and place them in my back pocket for safekeeping. Draw the match. Cremate the unnecessary. The light of the fire warms my toes. I pour myself a glass of warm water to cleanse myself for January. Here I go. Stronger and wiser into the new.”
– Rupi Kaur

Since this is my final bookish roundup of 2024, I must take the opportunity to thank everyone – new arrivals and long-standing followers alike – for your support and thereness (yes, it really is a word and rather a good one at that). I wish you everything you wish for yourselves in 2025, plus a ready supply of top-notch reading materials. Happy New Year!

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 publications, see what folk have on their nightstands 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 two agreeably diverse, if somewhat overdue book critiques to share with you this week. (1) Writing for The Books Page last March, Beryl Eichenberger reviewed Under the Tamarind Tree, Nigar Alam’s “rich, graceful” historical novel “highlighting the tragedies of partition, patriarchy and personal loss.” Traversing over half a century, the Karachi-born author’s fictional debut follows four friends whose buried secrets result in a “night that changed their lives.” By “dropping subtle clues that slowly, gently unwind into this rich and beautifully constructed novel,” Alam “shows us that, in that time, tradition still rises above all else” and “doing the right thing by your family can mean not following your heart or your talents.” Beryl describes this “memorable story” in her post, Stand-out debut novel about the heartbreak of partition in India, recommending that from here on in we should keep the author under careful observation. (2) First published in 1949, Tomato Cain and Other Stories, a one-off collection of short fiction by British screenwriter Nigel Kneale, won the author a Somerset Maugham Award in 1950 but had for many years been out of print. Earlier this year, Jan Hicks of What I Think About When I Think About Reading obtained a copy reissued by “Manchester’s independent publisher Comma Press” to mark the centenary of the author’s birth. The 31 stories (including two extras not found in the original), which have a distinctly “otherworldly feel to them,” are a mixture of “morality tales that fix on human weakness, stories that are science fiction in their fascination with engineering and strange technologies, and yarns that play on a sense of dread wrapped up in the peculiarity of a situation.” Describing it as “a remarkable collection […] with rarely a dip in quality,” Jan says she “enjoyed” every tale in the book. For further thought-provoking insights into this work, please head over to her in-depth review at Tomato Cain and Other Stories, where you will discover why she feels the then 27-year-old Kneale’s “understanding of human nature and his ability to get under the skin of characters […] suggests a maturity of imagination beyond his own years.”

* 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 earlier in the week:

Bitter stuff – Thirteen-year-old Noboru – a member of “a semi-feral gang” who philosophise “on the illusory nature of the world” and reject adult beliefs – “lives with his mother in postwar Yokohama.” Yukio Mishima’s The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea is, says Chris Lovegrove in his thoughtful piece for Calmgrove Books, “composed of two parts, Summer and Winter,” which contain the tale of his widowed mother’s romance with a sailor whom the boy (already “obsessed with seagoing craft and their specifications”) comes to idolize. When, after a period at sea, the man returns and moves the relationship “onto a different level,” the question is, “will Noboru’s capacity for hero-worshipping survive?” This 62-year-old novella reminds Chris “strongly of William Golding’s 1954 […] The Lord of the Flies” for the “depths” to which the charismatic gang leader is prepared to sink “to lead his ciphers.” It also makes him “aware of the strange marriage of Western and Japanese cultural values.” Impressed with “Mishima’s skill as a writer,” he admires “his ability to subtly shift our point of view from son to mother and on to lover before going around again,” and is especially struck by his “powers of description in conveying impressions of weather, the sea [and] the urban landscape.”

* 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, here are a selection of interesting snippets: 

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The Paris Review: The Best Books of 2024, According to Friends of the Review: Part Two – Recommendations from five Paris Review fiction writers, three translators and four editors. Follow this link for Part One. 

The Cut: Publishing-Office Holiday Parties Used To Be Decadent and Wild – Back in the “’80s and ’90s and even the early aughts, the year-end celebrations that publishing houses threw were somewhat legendary,” recalls novelist and critic Emily Gould.

Asymptote: The It Girl in Her Own Words: Helen O’Horan on Translating Izumi Suzuki – “In her first novel [Set My Heart on Fire,] to be published in English, the counterculture icon Izumi Suzuki draws from her real-life experiences to craft a musical, vulnerable portrait of nonconformism during a tumultuous era in Japan,” writes Bella Creel.

The New Statesman: The case against George Orwell – “As with DH Lawrence, Orwell’s private life has imperilled his reputation,” says Robert Colls. He wonders: “Is there a way back?”

The Conversation: My research on the politics of smell divided the internet – here’s what it’s actually about – Using a variety of examples, Amelia Louks’s study explores “how certain authors of the past century used smell in literature to indicate social hostilities, such as prejudice and exploitation.”

Le Monde: The death of Michel del Castillo, writer of “evil in Spain” and the tragedies of childhood – “The Franco-Spanish man of letters, author of the terrible Tanguy, a novel published in 1957 and which made him famous [after winning] the Renaudot Prize in 1981 for The Night of the Decree, died in Sens on December 17, at the age of 91,” reports Philippe-Jean Catinchi.

The i Paper: Gerald Durrell’s book would shock modern animal lovers – “In Myself and Other Animals, his writing is charming and hilarious,” says Moira Redmond.

Beyond the Bookshelf: Living a Curious Life – Jenn Zuko “shares her thoughts on the importance of lifelong learning” from a mainly literary perspective.

World Literature Today: Ghostroots: Stories by Pemi Aguda – “Ghostroots engages parallel worlds where one universe collapses into the other,” says Delight Ejiaka of the chilling horror collection by Nigerian writer Pemi Aguda.

Miller’s Book Review: How to Predict the Future Better than a Dolphin – Joel J Miller is: “Imagining what’s next. Reviewing The Invention of Tomorrow: A Natural History of Foresight.”

Images: Renowned author Bapsi Sidhwa passes away at 86 – “Her works, rich in historical and cultural context, have earned her a place among the most celebrated authors of her time,” writes Anwar Iqbal.

The Critic: Libyans, Parisians and London Irish – “Dry-ish, spare, clear-eyed — rare in a world of literary bloat, sentiment and overstatement” – John Self “sorts [the] sheep from [the] goats.”

Noted: The Winter Commonplace Book Club Begins January 1^st – “Something magical happens when we choose a quote, deciding to keep it, to return to it, to inscribe it in our notebooks,” writes Jillian Hess, author of How Romantics and Victorians Organized Information, by way of introduction to her latest literary challenge.

The Kyiv Independent: Looking to read Ukraine-related books? We picked the best of 2024 – “Many books about Ukraine came out in 2024” – Kate Tsurkan suggests “10 of the best.”

Arts Hub: Book review: Tomorrow There Will Be Sun: A Hope Prize Anthology, various authors – Penned mainly by writers living in Australia, “these excellent short stories [in Tomorrow There Will Be Sun] reveal both the evil and the good in humanity,” says Erich Mayer.

Air Mail: AIR MAIL’s 10 Best Mystery Books of 2024 – “Death and deceit in Ireland from Tana French and John Banville! An L.A.P.D. cold case! A wicked widow! And much more” from Lisa Henricksson.

Harper’s Magazine: Voices from the Dead Letter Office – Is letter writing as dead as a dodo? Cynthia Ozick on “the epistolary life.”

The Walrus: Are Millennials Ruining Divorce, Too? – “In a spate of new books, authors grapple with what separation means in the modern age,” says the Canadian writer of Hard to Do: The Surprising, Feminist History of Breaking Up, Kelli María Korducki.

The New Arab: The lack of Arabic literature in English translation (and why it matters) – Sarah Shaffi finds that “Arabic literature is struggling to reach English-speaking readers, with few works being translated despite a rich cultural history and growing demand.”

Persuasion: The Big Five Publishers Have Killed Literary Fiction – “Serious readers must expand their tastes to the small presses.”

Nautilus: Tame Your Climate Anxiety in 2024 – The poet Kate Schapira “invited people to share their climate fears. What she found surprised her,” says Katharine Gammon, and led to the publication of Lessons from the Climate Anxiety Counseling Booth.

The Free Press Journal: The End Of An Era: India Post Abolishes Its Book Post Service – “On December 18, 2024, India Post arbitrarily discontinued its ‘Book Post’ service, shocking book lovers and the entire book industry,” writes Manish Modi.

Vintage: Introducing the Vintage Collector’s Classics – These stunning hardback editions featuring sprayed edges, luxurious finishes and gorgeous cover art will hit the shelves in Spring 2025.

The Japan Times: Jay Rubin takes us back to Haruki Murakami’s world – “A new translation of End of the World and Hard-Boiled Wonderland brings a fan favourite closer to the original Japanese text,” reveals Kris Kosaka.

Book of Titans: Depicting Goodness in Literature – Erik Rostad argues that “you have to be an adult to consciously, deliberately be good” – and that, he says, is “complicated .”

The Verge: How to disappear completely – “The internet is forever. But also, it isn’t. What happens to our culture when websites start to vanish at random?” s.e. smith looks at what it means to be a writer on the internet.

Atlas Obscura: The Real-Life Origins of Taboo Fairy Romance – “Long before A Court of Thorns and Roses, 17th-century Swedish courts investigated supernatural love,” finds Andrew Coletti.

Five Books: Syria – Five Books Expert Recommendations – Books about Syria (including titles covering the Civil War and Kurds) as “recommended by diplomats and academics.”

The Drift: Abolish the Categories – Yasmin Zaher, author of The Coin, describes herself as “a Palestinian writer and a citizen of Israel, [whose] mother tongue is Arabic [but who writes] in English, and [lives] in France.” Her novel simply doesn’t fit into any one category. She discusses her predicament and explains why she disagrees with “drawing borders in literature.”

The Asahi Shimbun: Bookstores are dwindling, but self-owned shops are on the rise – Independent bookstores in Japan “are continuing to crop up in spite of pressures threatening established shops to close their doors,” reports Yuri Nishida.

Aeon: Laboratories of the impossible – Joshua Roebke, author of The Invisible World: The Stories of Physics in the Twentieth Century explains: “By testing the boundaries of reality, Spanish-language authors have created a sublime counterpart to experimental physics.”

Hindustan Times: HT Reviewers pick their best reads of 2024 – This year, the HT reviewers “found themselves immersed in everything from popular novels by Japanese authors and Urdu works […] to quiet books whose protagonists [are on a] quest for self-discovery.”

The Lamp: The Guise She Wore – Edward Short shares his thoughts on Woman Much Missed: Thomas Hardy, Emma Hardy and Poetry, a book-length study of the many poems Hardy composed in the wake of the death of his first wife.

The European Review of Books: No longer at home – Tomi Onabanjo reviews Maya Binyam’s “novel of the African diaspora [and] the unheimlich,” Hangman.

The Indian Express: Literary giant ‘with his no-nonsense insistence on free speech’ – who was M T Vasudevan Nair – “He was only 25 when he won the Kerala Sahitya Akademi for Naalukettu (1959), the story of an angry young man who wants to tear down his ancestral house because of how the family treated his rebellious mother,” recalls Udbhav Seth.

The Marginalian: Favorite Books of the Year: Art, Science, Poetry, Psychology, Children’s, and More – To paraphrase: Maria Popova reads for the same reason she writes – to “fathom life” and “deepen living.” She looks back at a year of life and reading.

Publishers Weekly: Down Under with Evie Wyld – “Evie Wyld has always felt drawn to the Land Down Under, and her latest novel [The Echoes] explores a chapter of that country’s history many would rather forget,” finds Louisa Ermelino.

Skwigly: Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim Brings Tolkien Alive With Anime | Review – “There are few fantasy franchises that capture the spirit of epic adventure quite like The Lord of the Rings,” says Larry Fried. But the latest spinoff, subtitled The War of the Rohirrim, recounts “a history that long precedes the events of the original trilogy and in the style of anime, which the series has never been rendered in before.”

The Portugal News: Literary tourism – Alentejo and Ribatejo Tourism are planning to invest in a network of literary hotels.

CBC: ‘Astronomical’ hold queues on year’s top e-books frustrate readers, libraries – Ben Andrews writes: “Inflated costs, restrictive publishing practices to blame, librarians say.”

The Korea Herald: Feeling stressed? Shanna Tan translates ‘healing’ Korean books – “A wave of ‘healing’ Korean literature has gained momentum this year, with a growing number of titles winning hearts and more to come just over the horizon,” says Hwang Dong-hee.

Pedestrian: John Marsden, Beloved Author Of The ‘Tomorrow, When The War Began’ Series, Dies Age 74 – Renowned Australian author John Marsden, most widely known for the dystopian series which started with Tomorrow When the War Began, has died at the age of 74.

The Hedgehog Review: Shakespeare the Suicide? – “Shakespeare’s plays are full of suicides, some noble, others not very.” Larry Lockridge examines “a dark conjecture about [the playwright’s] final years.”

Slate: It’s the Biggest New Novel of the Year. It’s Almost Unreadably Bad. – According to Rebecca Onion, “Kristin Hannah’s The Women is like if Colleen Hoover wrote a Vietnam novel.” Overly severe or spot-on? You decide. 

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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.