An end of week recap
“Maybe my passion is nothing special, but at least it’s mine.”
– Tove Jansson (born 9th August 1914)
Happy Moomin Day everybody!
Tove Jansson was born on this day one-hundred-and-eleven years ago, which means it is officially Moomin Day (also known in her homeland as Finnish Art Day), offering yet more opportunities to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the first book in the series: The Moomins and the Great Flood (published 1st January 1945).
You will likely come across a plethora of Tovian links secreted amongst the usual literary prattle in this post. Moreover, because I like to think of August as being all about Moomins from beginning to end, I will (if possible) continue to highlight moominmatters of all flavours throughout the rest of the month.
Among those sharing Tove’s birthday today are: Australian-born British writer, P. L. Travers (1899), English poet, novelist, and librarian, Philip Larkin (1922), American science fiction and fantasy writer, Daniel Keyes (1927), Canadian novelist and late partner of Margaret Atwood, Graeme Gibson (1934) and American suspense novelist and psychologist, Jonathan Kellerman (1949).
I would also like to wish you, one and all, a wonderful National Book Lovers Day, which despite its title isn’t officially tied to any one country, but has found an affectionate home in book-loving cultures across the globe. What more excuse do we need to set up a cozy reading nook and settle there to read our favourite Moomin adventure?
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.
* Stormy Seas and Small Islands for Big Kids *
As part of my ongoing Tove Trove project, I shared a few thoughts on The Listener, Tove Jansson’s first adult short story collection and her first book following the final title in the original Moomin series, published in 1971 when she was 55 years old. >> Read: A Word in Your Shell-Like… >>
* Almost Overlooked *
Earlier this year (May, for fellow pedants), “native Southern Californian […,] lifelong science fiction, fantasy, and mystery fan”, Thomas Parker of Black Gate, homed-in on Middle-earth and a few of the incredible illustrations inspired by ‘Lord of the Rings’ over the years – including “alternate visions […] from unexpected places”. In particular, Tove Jansson’s pen-and-ink drawings for “a 1962 Swedish edition” of The Hobbit (Hobitti, eli, Sinne ja takaisin). Jansson’s drawings, he says, were unlike any he had seen before and “in comparing these wonderful pictures with more current ones, [it was possible to] glimpse an older tradition, one that has its roots in the ‘North’ that Tolkien loved”. Thomas “loved” Tove’s work, describing it as “bold, expressionist […,] weird […,] whimsical” and “humorous”. The “perfect match for Tolkien and his world.” To read more of his reflections and see many of Jansson’s wonderful black and white creations for this novel, please head to The Old-Fashioned Way: Tove Jansson’s Hobbit Illustrations.
* Lit Crit Blogflash *
I am going to share with you two of my favourite posts from around the blogosphere. There are a great many talented writers producing high-quality book features and reviews, which made it difficult to pick only a couple – both added in recent weeks:
‘Fascinating’ / Tove Jansson’s Moomins notes to be published for first time – Colombian writer and specialist in translation, the mysteriously titled Ficciones of DRAGON, has posted a piece about the 80th-anniversary edition of The Moomins and the Great Flood, which, he says, contains newly discovered notes about the Moomin characters by Tove Jansson – believed to “have been created to guide directors because the descriptions extend to the voices of each character.” Made up of “eighty-nine handwritten pages”, which were “rediscovered among hundreds of thousands of items in her sprawling archive”, Jansson depicted everyone from Moomintroll to Little My, outlining their individual traits and quirky personalities. Be sure to read the whole of Ficciones’ feature to learn about an arts festival and the charities Tove supported during her life.
Book review – 20 Books of Summer – Clive Oppenheimer – “The Secret Lives of Volcanoes” – Since Moomins know all about volcanoes – especially the underwater variety (just think Moominsummer Madness) – it seems like the ideal opportunity to highlight Liz Dexter’s review of Mountains of Fire, Clive Oppenheimer’s “fascinating” non-fiction book on this subject. First erupting on to the scene in 2023, its British volcanologist author “looks not only at volcanoes, but at the intersections between volcanoes and society,” taking in everything from “forecasting eruptions and keeping people safe” to “the spiritual practices that grow up around them”. Having studied volcanoes in different parts of the world throughout his career, Oppenheimer is able to share stories about his interactions with these incredible fiery mountains, and he is “keen to display the cooperative nature of studying” them. Liz’s informative post is well worth reading if you are considering purchasing this title – and as she points out, its “beautiful cover” is a temptation in itself.
* 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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New Scientist: Fascinating artistic depictions of sea life over millennia – “Marine biologist Helen Scales’s latest book, Ocean Art: From the shore to the deep, celebrates humans’ enduring obsession with creatures that live beneath the waves” says Matthew Sparkes.
Smithsonian Magazine: A Bold Finnish Artist Brought These Precious Little Hippopotamus-Like Trolls to the World 80 Years Ago 🎩👜 – “Tove Jansson was a trailblazing illustrator and author—and the inventor of the beloved Moomins, the central characters of her whimsical children’s books”, writes Patrick Sauer.
The Marginalian: The Paradox of Knowing Who You Are and What You Want: Cristina Campo on Fairy Tales, Time, and the Meaning of Maturity – Maria Popova discusses the Italian writer Cristina Campo’s thoughts on fairy tales from her “excellent posthumous essay collection”, The Unforgivable: And Other Writings (translated by Alex Andriesse).
Murder at the Manse: Letters from Dorothy – Adam Thomas on the correspondence of English crime writer Dorothy L. Sayers.
The Conversation: Jane Austen was a satirist – why isn’t she treated like one? – “Although many women writers were critiquing society in the 18th century, hardly any of them were considered satirists”, writes Adam J Smith, Associate Professor in 18th-century Literature at York St John University.
Hyperallergic: How the Moomins Showed Us a More Compassionate World – 🎩👜 “At the Brooklyn Public Library, an exhibition on Finnish artist Tove Jansson’s beloved characters reminds visitors of all ages that justice and joy are within our grasp”, says Lakshmi Rivera Amin.
Publishers Weekly: Arundhati Roy’s Rebel Yell – “In her first memoir [Mother Mary Comes to Me], Booker Prize winner Arundhati Roy discusses her relationship with her volatile mother and living life on her own terms.”
Columbia University Press: Celebrate Book Lovers Day 2025 with Storytelling Across Cultures – “This Book Lovers Day, immerse yourself in storytelling from around the world by exploring books that celebrate diversity, bring attention to social justice, and remind us of beloved classics. From powerful narratives to lyrical poetry to literature in translation to works that delve into the relationship between language and the formation of the self, our collections offer something for every reader.”
Caught by the River: The Parallel Path: Jenn Ashworth, interviewed – “Recently published by Sceptre, Jenn Ashworth’s The Parallel Path: Love, Grit and Walking the North is Book of the Month for August. Here, the author speaks to Karen Lloyd about anti-heroics, tethered beetles, and walking with Wainwright and Wordsworth breathing down her neck.”
The Chicago Blog: A Collection of Books Celebrating the Lives and Works of Beloved Writers – “From stories of famous authors and their feline companions to how one writer’s impact can spawn an aesthetic that stands the test of time, [here] is a grouping of books that celebrate writers, their lives, and their work.
The New York Times (via DNYUZ): Moomins Enter the Cuteness Pantheon, With Help From Gen Z – 🎩👜 “Like Snoopy and Miffy, these adorable creatures have been rediscovered by members of a younger generation”, reports Adrienne Raphel.
Africa Is a Country: Fictions of freedom – Kim M. Reynolds writes: “K. Sello Duiker’s The Quiet Violence of Dreams still haunts Cape Town, a city whose beauty masks its brutal exclusions. Two decades later, in the shadow of Amazon’s new development, its truths are more urgent than ever.”
A Narrative Of Their Own: Writing Rituals of Louisa May Alcott – This essay forms part of a series by Kate Jones “around the writing rituals of inspirational literary women.” In this post she focuses on the American novelist, short story writer and poet, Louisa May Alcott.
The Korea Herald: Cheon Seon-ran’s vampire novel ‘The Midnight Shift’ set for UK release by Bloomsbury – “South Korean novelist Cheon Seon-ran’s dark fantasy The Midnight Shift is set to be released in the UK [this] month in a translation by Gene Png”, reports Hwang Dong-hee.
Aftermath: With A Boat And Some Help, You Can Read Moby Dick In A Day – “As far as [Riley MacLeod] can tell, the Moby Dick marathon is a thing simply for being a thing” and he’s “a sucker for anything that requires endurance.”
The Observer: What our obsession with Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life says about us – Anthony Cummins would like to know how exactly Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life, a 730-page novel “concerned with horrific abuse”, went on to “become the book of our times?”
Tampere: Moomin 80 – The Grand Birthday Celebration on 9 August – 🎩👜 “Tampere – the home of the world’s only Moomin Museum – will celebrate Moomin 80 – The Grand Birthday Celebration and Tove Jansson’s birthday at Tampere Hall on Saturday 9 August 2025.”
The Hedgehog Review: A Question of Purpose: On Translating Russian Literature – “One must translate the work, not the words on the page. They are not the same”, argues Gary Saul Morson.
The British Columbia Review: The museum’s relationship with Oceania – Robin Fisher reviews Sea of Islands: Exploring Objects, Stories and Memories from Oceania, in which Carol E. Mayer brings together all those involved with the “long standing and large collection of art and artifacts from Oceania” in The Museum of Anthropology in British Columbia.
The Asahi Shimbun: VOX POPULI: Snufkin shows the freedom found in solitude and simplicity – 🎩👜 ‘Tove Jansson and the Moomins’ is “an exhibition currently on view in Tokyo celebrating the artistic world of the Finnish creator behind the beloved literary family”.
The Kyiv Independent: Ukrainian author-turned-soldier takes aim at Westerners’ ‘abstract pacifism’ – “From the first days of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Western leftists have invoked ‘peace’ as a slogan — as if peace were not already at the heart of every Ukrainian’s daily prayer”, says Kate Tsurkan in this piece about reporter and novelist Artem Chapeye and his war memoir, Ordinary People Don’t Carry Machine Guns.
Asterism: A Month of Poetry: Sealey Challenge 2025 – “In case you haven’t heard, The Sealey Challenge is [an] annual deep dive into poetry, poetry, and more poetry!” Here, Asterism has some “diverse” recommendations to assist you in reading “a new book each day”.
The Global Women’s Library: 10 Books to read for Women In Translation Month 2025 – In no particular order, Anwen Hayward shares her recommendations for ten of the best books to broaden your literary horizons during this year’s Women in Translation Month.
Publishers Weekly: Boundless Shutters After Failing to Rescue Unbound – “After months of financial uncertainty, Boundless Publishing has ceased operations, following in the footsteps of its predecessor, crowdfunding publisher Unbound, and leaving hundreds of unpaid authors, agents, customers, and creditors in the lurch.”
Clarkesworld: The Rebellion is Real: 1984 and The Handmaid’s Tale in 2025 – “Rebellious speculative fiction gives us works that provide a compelling combination of striking imagery and broad reach that become real-life tools for protestors today”, says Carrie Sessarego, who examines here two classic novels that “explore strategies of oppression as well as resistance that [continue to be] relevant”.
History Today: ‘José Martí Reader: Writings on the Americas’ review – “José Martí Reader: Writings on the Americas, edited by Deborah Shnookal and Mirta Muñiz, collects the works of Cuba’s ‘Apostle of Independence’”, finds Daniel Rey.
Radio Prague International: “We need to be willing to play, and to be curious” – “Award-winning author Bára Dočkalová on writing Czech and teaching English”.
Chicago Review of Books: Love’s Undead Gaze in “One Yellow Eye” – In Leigh Radford’s “genre-bending”, dystopian debut novel, One Yellow Eye, a scientist desperately searches for a cure after a devastating epidemic in a “catastrophic risk vs. potential world-changing scientific breakthrough” storyline, says Devi Bhaduri.
Morrison: The Summer Book, by Tove Jansson – 🎩👜 “I came away thinking about the ways we take care of each other and of the natural world”, says poet and writer Barbara Morrison in her short review of Tove Jansson’s much-loved novel, The Summer Book.
The Arts Desk: Natalia Ginzburg: The City and the House review – a dying art – Translator, Dick Davis, “renders this analogue love-letter in polyphonic English” says Hugh Barnes in his review of Natalia Ginzburg’s newly republished Italian classic, The City and the House.
Asian Review of Books: “Blowfish” by Kyung-Ran Jo – Goodreads describes Korean novel Blowfish as “an atmospheric, melancholic novel about a successful sculptor who decides to commit suicide by artfully preparing and deliberately eating a lethal dish of blowfish” – it is apparently ideal for “readers of Han Kang and Sheila Heti”. Reviewed here by Mahika Dhar.
Frontline: Eagerness to be near books still drives my love of reading: Junot Díaz – “The Pulitzer-winning Dominican-American author [talks to Majid Maqbool about] his lifelong love of books, immigrant identity, and writers who moulded his creative consciousness.”
The Seaboard Review of Books: Island: The Collected Stories, 1968-2014 by Alistair MacLeod – “Alice Munro and Mavis Gallant have long overshadowed Alistair MacLeod,” says Michael Greenstein, “yet the resonance and aura of his short stories affirm him as a master of the genre.” Here, in Island: The Collected Stories, 1968-2014, the acclaimed Canadian novelist and short fiction writer “demonstrates that mastery over several decades.”
CEU Review of Books: A definitive history of the Soviet dissident movement – “Lucy Jeffery’s in-depth review of Benjamin Nathans’ Pulitzer Prize-winning book, To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement (Princeton University Press, 2024), highlights not only the treasure trove of information on the legal texts, court proceedings, and correspondence concerning samizdat writers and smugglers, but also notes that the parallels with Russia today will not be lost on contemporary readers.”
Firstpost: China probes what China does: Plagiarism scandal shakes Beijing’s state-backed literary scene – “A plagiarism scandal is rocking China’s literary world, exposing widespread copying and undermining trust in the state-backed publishing establishment.”
ABC Books: Century-old water tower in Wodonga transformed into unique bookshop – “Victoria’s newest bookshop has opened in a century-old water tower in Wodonga,” reports Philippe Perez.
The Standard: To the Sea by Train: The Golden Age of Railway Travel is a trip down the tracks of time to the great British seaside – Lucy Lethbridge finds To the Sea by Train is a delightful journey though Britain’s cherished pastime, written with humour by ‘railway wizard’ Andrew Martin.
What’s On Stage: New Moomin musical to open in London this autumn – 🎩👜 “A new musical adaptation of Tove Jansson’s final Moomin story, Moominvalley in November, will run at Upstairs at the Gatehouse from October,” reveals Alex Wood.
The Telegraph (via Yahoo!): At 60 JK Rowling is a national hero. What have her spineless critics achieved? – “The mega-selling author possesses something that makes her unique in the current cultural landscape… guts”, says Michael Deacon.
AP: Indian authorities in Kashmir ban books by eminent writers and scholars – “Indian authorities have banned 25 books in Kashmir that they say propagate ‘false narratives’ and ‘secessionism’ in the disputed region, where strict controls on the media have escalated in recent years.”
BBC England: Home clearance unearths rare copy of The Hobbit – Clara Bullock reports: “A first edition of The Hobbit is set to sell for thousands at auction – after being discovered during a routine house clearance.”
Science Alert: Reading Hits Differently to Listening For Your Brain, Science Says – “You’ll still find books today, even in a world filled with podcasts. Why is that? If we can listen to almost anything, why does reading still matter?” asks Stephanie N. Del Tufo.
Middle East Monitor: Agatha Christie’s historic Baghdad house in danger of collapsing – “The historic house on the banks of the Tigris River in Iraq’s capital Baghdad, where classic British crime writer Agatha Christie lived for many years, is rich in history, but badly in need of repair, Anadolu reports.”
License Global: HarperCollins Children’s Books Celebrates 75 Years of C. S. Lewis’s ‘The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe’ – “To commemorate the 75th anniversary, HarperCollins worldwide will be celebrating with new publishing.”
Helsinki Times: Moomin character pulled from New York exhibit over racism concern – 🎩👜 “The Brooklyn Public Library in New York has removed an image of the Moomin character Stinky, known in Finnish as Haisuli, from a Tove Jansson exhibition after a donor found the character potentially racist.”
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FINALLY >>
If there is something you would particularly like to see in 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: Tove Jansson, Winding Up the Week
From time to time the internet erupts with a squabble over audio books v reading, usually with the listeners attacking the readers for being elitist or acting superior or that they don’t care about people with print disabilities or that oral cultures are just as good as cultures that recorded knowledge and stories in print. I’ve always said that the two are different because they involve different brain processes and that comprehension is better with reading. Now I see from that article you’ve shared, that the science says so too.
I’m a retired primary school teacher, I spent my career teaching children to read, and it grieves me to see some parents saying that it doesn’t matter if their kids can’t read because they can always listen to audio books. Some of them are too quick to say their kids is dyslexic so therefore they can’t learn to read. It does matter, and teachers and parents should try absolutely everything to help kids master — and hopefully learn to enjoy — reading print.
Absolutely, Lisa. I couldn’t agree more. It’s vital kids are taught to read. Audio is great but it’s no replacement. What are these parents thinking of? 😠
Well, I try not to be judgemental, but sometimes I think it might be because it’s too hard, and because reading is such a high prestige accomplishment, they find it easier to believe that there’s a medical reason why the child can’t do it.
Of course being a parent is hard, and parents who are not very good at managing their child’s behaviour do find it hard to make the kid persist with anything that’s difficult. When The Ex shot through and I was short of money, I did coaching after work, and most of the children I taught only needed a firm and consistent routine of doing their homework under supervision, and I would tell their parents that they were paying me to do that instead of doing it themselves. ‘He won’t do it when I tell him’ they would say, and I would think, well if you can’t get cooperation from your kid when he’s 8 or 10 years old, goodness knows how you’ll get on when he’s a teenager!
But I do not know how anyone can undo years of letting a kid do whatever he likes.
Happy Moomin Day, Paula 🎈 💗 Also, I have a cousin who lives near Wodonga so I will check out that old water tower library conversation! G.
A very Happy Moomin Day to you too, Gretchen! That library looks fabulous. Hope you get plenty of pics. 😊👍
I’ll also be checking out the water tour next time I’m up that way!
The Helen Scales book, Ocean Art, looks lovely. As it happens, I just read a sample chapter of one of her other books (What the Wild Sea Can Be) this morning.
I love her books, Kate. They are sheer ocean porn! 😆
Happy Moomin Day Paula! How apt that it has fallen on a WUTW day too!
Happy Moomin Day, Madame B! I know, it has landed on the perfect day. 😊👍
Moomins and Cats, and books, of course–what more does one need! Happy Moomin Day 🙂
Thanks so much, Mallika! 😸👍
Of course I couldn’t resist posting a Moomin review today, for Tove’s and Moominpappa’s birthdays, Moomins80, (Inter)national Book Lovers Day, Moomins Day, and … #ToveTrove! And I loved all your links to related news items and commentaries too.
“Jane Austen was a satirist – why isn’t she treated like one?” asks one link; well, as it happens I’ve scheduled a review of Austen’s satire ‘Plan of a Novel’ in a couple or so days, along with another of a hard-hitting essay eviscerating contemporary romances by Marian Evans – before she became George Eliot! So yah boo to that online claim …
Got it! Thank you, Chris. I’ve added your excellent post to the ever-growing Tove Trove hub at bookjotter.com/2019/07/29/tove-trove-reading-the-books-of-tove-jansson/ .
Hey, your Austen feature sounds fascinating. I’m looking forward to that. 😊👍
Happy Moomin Day, Paula (and Happy Larkin Day too – I’m a huge fan of his poetry!)
A belated Happy Moomin (and Larkin) Day to you too, Kaggsy! 🥳🎈
So glad Morson is not my professor, scary fellow. He could have offered us some alternative versions from the Russian that he believes tell what the author was saying instead of just absolutely trashing everyone else’s efforts. Pleased that Constance Garnett comes out with a decent report – her own account of her first trip (on her own) by train across Russia is a great read in itself.
Should he not have said anything at all? This is his opinion piece and he merely said what the majority already knows – some P&V translation is unreadable or so I have heard many a time. And, in his article, he did offer some smoother translations of his own. Native here, and I do prefer reading Dostoyevsky in English, becomes he appears much more intelligent and complex that way than in his native Russian, which I find great and deep, but still much more straightforward than his English audience assumes 🙂
Having said that, there is Morson’s point I don’t think I agree with. He says: “When the author uses Russian idioms or commonplace constructions, the translator should use English idioms and commonplace constructions.” It is true in many cases, I suppose, but I don’t think I agree with this 100% at all. How can readers be introduced to Russian literature, culture and way of speaking if they read Austen/Dickensian English language with all the English idioms? What is the point of introducing us to Russia literature then? At times, we have to get as close as possible to the original to capture the spirit and soul of the book, to try to understand the “Russian soul”. There are footnotes available so that translators can explain something the reader may not get.
Thank you so much for featuring my review – I’m honoured!
It’s a pleasure, Liz. Thank you! 😊👍