An end of week fortnight recap

“A good argument, like a good dialogue, is always a proof of life, but I’d much rather go and read a book.”
– Ali Smith (born 24^th August 1962)

Several literary birthdays take place on 23^rd August, including those of English poet, writer, critic and editor, William Ernest Henley (1849), American adventure and suspense novelist, Nelson DeMille (1943) and English dramatist, Willy Russell (1946). Tomorrow, we can celebrate the lives of the wonderful English critic, novelist, poet and short-story writer, A. S. Byatt (1936), Brazilian novelist, Paulo Coelho (1947) and Scottish legal scholar and author of fiction, Alexander McCall Smith (1948) – among a fair few others.

Probably worth mentioning is International Hashtag Day, which commemorates the first use of a hashtag on Twitter in 2007. The occasion recognises the role of the hashtag symbol (#) in digital communication, marketing, online connectivity and activism.

As you will see, there is still a fuzzy moominvein running through this week’s wind up, which will continue to wend its merry way through these posts until end of the month. An explanation can be found at WUTW #435.

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.

* Make it a Short Fall *

Hark back to WUW #421 and you may recall me mentioning Lisa Hill’s tentative plans for a new reading challenge. Well, following an “enthusiastic response” from all corners of the book blogging community to her “expressions of interest” post, Short Story September is now set to take place from 1^st to 30^th of next month – during which participants will be encouraged to seek out and share their thoughts on favourite narratives from “short story collections that are good to read.” If you would like to join in, please take the short route, signposted ANZ LitLovers LitBlog, leading to Announcing Short Story September 2025, where you can follow the simple instructions. Should you mention the event on any of the social media platforms, Lisa would very much appreciate you using the hashtag #ShortStorySeptember in your comments.

* Almost Overlooked * 

Over the years, Tony Malone, an Englishman now living in Melbourne where he teaches English as a second language, has “covered a fair few of Virginia Woolf’s novels on [his] blog [Tony’s Reading List], along with a couple of non-fiction works”. Last December he chose to scrutinise “something a little different”, namely: The Common Reader: First Series, Woolf’s first volume of critical essays in which she offers “her take on the classics” by authors such as Jane Austen, Anne Brontë and Fyodor Dostoyevsky, to name but three. Published in 1925 (so, celebrating its 100^th anniversary this year), Tony describes the collection as containing some of the renowned novelist’s “finest critical work” (although, “the claws come out” every so often), originally featured in “newspapers and magazines” of the period. To discover why he would “recommend” this book to those who enjoy literary essays, please read his complete critique at ‘The Common Reader: First Series’ by Virginia Woolf (Review). 

* Lit Crit Blogflash * 

I am going to share with you one 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 this one – added in the last few days:

My Reading Life: The Hounding author Xenobe Purvis admires the toughness of Jane Eyre – Over at Debutiful, Denver-dwelling book critic Adam Vitcavage introduces us to the UK-based (though, Tokyo-born) writer Xenobe Purvis, author of historical horror novel The Hounding – “billed as The Crucible meets The Virgin Suicides” – which “follows five sisters in a small village in eighteenth-century England whose neighbours are convinced they’re turning into dogs.” Adam asked Purvis to answer a set of regularly “recurring” questions for his My Reading Life Q&A, so that readers might “get to know the books that influenced her life and inspired her debut book.” You can read his brief but enlightening interview right here.

* 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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RSPB: Nature writing celebrated as 2025 Wainwright Prize shortlist announced – The shortlists for the 2025 Wainwright Prize have been revealed, and feature authors including Chloe Dalton, Helen Scales, Jason Allen-Paisant and a double-shortlisting for Robert Macfarlane. 

Bookmarks: Tove Jansson 🎩👜 – Tove Jansson is profiled in the September/October 2025 issue of Bookmarks – a digital version of the “magazine for book lovers who haven’t read everything”.

The Paris Review: Modernist Blondes – In an adapted excerpt from the introduction to the one-hundredth-anniversary edition of Anita Loos’ Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Marlowe Granados discusses her memories of this classic satirical novel.

Brave Words: This Murder Mystery Series Took Over My Life: 15 Books in 30 Days – “A deep dive into the murder mystery series [by British crime novelist Elly Griffiths] that had [Helen Redfern] hooked. What made it so moreish?”

The Globe and Mail: Like all writers, Margaret Atwood is a ‘chancer’ – but she’s always optimistic – “For a Canadian writer, interviewing Margaret Atwood is a bit like interviewing Santa Claus; it doesn’t feel altogether real”, says Stephen Marche. Luckily, Canada is “a young country” and it is still possible to interview “the leading canonical figure of [its] national literature.”

Salmagundi: Mirth and Folly Were The Crop – In his review of Hilary Spurling’s Anthony Powell: Dancing to the Music of Time, Paul Delany says: “Powell will remain a polarising figure, and this biography may not change many minds about the value of his work. But Dance to the Music of Time, if read on its own terms, can be the best possible guide to what, in the past century, the English upper classes ‘were like.’”

The Conversation: Jane Austen at 250: Why we shouldn’t exaggerate her radicalism – Associate Professor of Global pre-1800 Literature at University of Winnipeg, Kerry Sinanan, argues that examining Austen as a radical genius misunderstands her art and misrepresents the imperial culture of which she was part.

Orwell News: “It all made such shockingly perfect sense.” Animal Farm at Eighty – Friends of the Orwell Foundation “recall their first encounters with George Orwell’s miniature masterpiece”, Animal Farm.

From My Bookshelf: Day in the Caucasus, Part 1 – Peter C. Meilaender with a fascinating piece about Umm-El-Banine Assadoulaeff – a French writer of Azerbaijani descent who went by the penname of Banine – and her “moving” 1945 memoir, Days in the Caucasus (translated by Anne Thompson-Ahmadova and republished this year by Pushkin Press), recalling her struggle to flee the Soviets on the eve of the Russian Revolution.

Frontline: We should not be bullied by ‘literary trends’: Sumana Roy – The Indian author of How I Became a Tree talks to Majid Maqbool about growing up with a scarcity of books” and “why writers must resist market-driven trends to stay true to their imagination.”

People: A Teenager Reunites the Living and the Dead in Japanese Hit Lost Souls Meet Under a Full Moon — Read an Excerpt! (Exclusive) – You are invited to read an excerpt from Lost Souls Meet Under a Full Moon, “the new magical realism novel from an author praised as reminiscent of ‘early Haruki Murakami’”.

Making Stuff Up: Changing forms – Charlee Dyroff on “why some paperbacks get new covers.” Plus, a fun party to celebrate the paperback release of her science fiction novel, Loneliness & Company. 

Forward: Everything’s terrible — but at least there are Moomins 🎩👜 – “Coming out of WWII, one Finnish author and illustrator created something magical,” says Talya Zax.

Ancillary Review of Books: New View on an Old Master: Review of Three Science Fiction Novellas by J.-H. Rosny aîné – Eden Kupermintz “leapt at the opportunity to review” the new collection of “three early science fiction works by J.-H. Rosny aîné”: Three Science Fiction Novellas: From Prehistory to the End of Mankind.”

Electric Literature: Modern Life Calls for a Medieval Plague in “The Dance and the Fire” – Mexican poet, essayist, novelist and author of The Dance and the Fire, Daniel Saldaña París talks “triptychs, the line between creativity and conspiracy, and how to dance like a writer”.

Pioneer Works: Garth Greenwell Is Too Much – “Jordan Kisner talks with the novelist and critic about being ruthless with your art.”

Africa is a Country: What do we want? – “In her latest novel [Dream Count], Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie examines the contradictions of women’s desires, while leaving her own narrative blind spots exposed”, says Anna S. Reumert.

1000 Libraries Magazine: Meet the Man Behind Bookshop.org on a Mission to Save Indie Bookstores – Stepping in to save independent bookstores in the age of digital convenience, Andy Hunter [of Bookshop.org] is on a mission. But how does he plan to make this happen?

Zona Motel: REVIEW: The Baudelaire Fractal by Lisa Robertson – In his review of the Canadian poet and essayist Lisa Robertson’s debut novel, The Baudelaire Fractal, Aaron Peck wonders if “a girl in a thrifted jacket [can] rewrite the patriarchal canon?”

The Tolkien Society: New edition of The Hobbit graphic novel coming this September – A new edition of David Wenzel’s graphic novel of The Hobbit is being published by Harper Collins this September, reveals CEO of The Tolkien Society, Shaun Gunner.

Publishers Weekly: Kirsten Miller Takes on Women’s Work – “Bestselling [American] author Kirsten Miller [whose latest fantasy novel is The Women of Wild Hill,] wants to effect social change through fiction—and wake women up to their witchy powers.”

Tove Jansson: Tove Jansson’s mother – Finland’s most important stamp artist 🎩👜 – “Tove Jansson’s mother, Signe Hammarsten Jansson, was a pioneer of Finnish stamp art—billions of stamps designed by her were printed during her lifetime. The new Moomin stamps continue the Jansson family’s unique artistic heritage into the fourth generation.”

Compact: Contemporary Fiction and Men Who Talk Too Much – Reinaldo Laddaga cannot “think of a scene more stereotypical in contemporary Anglophone literature than one where an older and wealthier man talks too much in the direction of a younger and poorer woman who pretends to listen while silently laughing at him.”

The Arts Fuse: Book Review: “John Singer Sargent: The Charcoal Portraits” — Mugs Galore! – “Quibbles aside,” says Trevor Fairbrother, John Singer Sargent: The Charcoal Portraits’ “profusion of illustrations is a windfall for artists, art students, and those keen on close looking and visual culture.”

Read More Books: 3 Things I’ve Learned About Reading In the Midst of My Quest to Read Every Pulitzer Winner – Since challenging himself to read every Pulitzer-winning book (fiction and non-fiction), Jeremy Anderberg has “read some amazing books and learned some truly eye-opening things”. Here he explains why “reading from a list or well-defined project [has helped him] discover books that the crowds aren’t reading.” He describes the experience as “intellectually fulfilling” and “fun”.

Ars Technica: AI industry horrified to face largest copyright class action ever certified – “Copyright class actions could financially ruin AI industry, trade groups say.”

Australian Arts Review: Fathering: An Australian History – “The 21st-century father is expected to be actively engaged in the everyday care of his children, as epitomised by the celebrated dad of children’s cartoon Bluey, the Blue Heeler Bandit. Fathering: An Australian History explores why men often struggle to meet social and cultural expectations.”

3 Quarks Daily: Review of Muneeza Shamsie’s Definitive Anthology of Pakistani Writing in English – “With In the Last Century: One Hundred Years of Writing in English in Pakistan, Muneeza Shamsie, the time‑tested chronicler of Pakistani writing in English, presents what is arguably the definitive anthology in this genre”, writes Sauleha Kamal.

Patterns of Translation: A whale on the Danube: the Krasznahorkai show in Szentendre – In the summer edition of PoT, Andras Kisery and Péter Király share their impressions of the Hungarian novelist and screenwriter, László Krasznahorkai’s exhibition at the Ferenczy Museum complex in Szentendre.

Public Books: “I Will Write to Avenge My Race”: Baglin, Louis, and Ernaux on Class Transition – “‘When people write about the working-class world, which they rarely do, it is most often because they have left it behind,’ admits Didier Eribon, in his 2009 French memoir of class transition, Returning to Reims.”

Literary Ladies Guide: How 5 classic women writers tackled writer’s block – “Is there something you want to put on paper but can’t get started?” asks Nava Atlas, co-author and illustrator of the appealingly titled Inspired by Cats: Writers and Their Mews(es).

Independent: The enduring appeal of Moomins as cartoon celebrates its 80th birthday 🎩👜 – “Set in the whimsical Moominvalley, [the series] has been translated into more than 60 languages, sparking a global phenomenon”.

The New York Times (via DNYUZ): A Haven for English in the Most French of North American Cities – “For Quebec City’s tiny English-speaking community, a former jail turned library serves as an essential sanctuary in a metropolis where the domination of French is enshrined in law.”

Historical Novel Society: Women Convicts of the First Fleet: The Governor, His Wife and His Mistress by Sue Williams – Lee Ann Eckhardt Smith reviews “Sue Williams’ latest novel, The Governor, His Wife and His Mistress [which] explores some of the challenges facing the women convicts of the First Fleet” heading for a new life in a remote Australian penal colony.

Dirt: Igno-fiction: The veil is thin. – In part two of a two-part series about where the next literary movement will come from, Greta Rainbow examines “the next literary genre.”

Commentary: There Are Too Many Overweight Biographies – “Whatever happened to Plutarch’s blessed brevity?” wonders Joseph Epstein.

Tap Water Sommelier: Ivan Bunin hated everyone – “Well, almost everyone”, remarks Konstantin Asimonov of the Russian writer awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1933.

Caught by the River: Beside the Ocean of Time – “After over 250 years of publishing, John Murray Press [have launched] their John Murray Classics imprint, with each new edition of these classic texts introduced by a well-known fan.” Here follows Amy Liptrot’s “brand new foreword to George Mackay Brown’s Beside the Ocean of Time”.

Slate: Actually, Goodreads Is Good – “It’s glitchy. It’s mean. It’s a mess. It’s [Angelina Mazza’s] favorite website on the internet.”

Brown University: Original manuscript of George Orwell’s ‘1984’ is a highlight of Brown’s literary archives – Nineteen Eighty-Four, the “one-of-a-kind artifact in Brown University Library’s special collections offers students and scholars insights into the novelist’s writing process.” 

Miller’s Book Review: A Dream that Will Change You – Jordan M. Poss reviews Austrian poet, playwright and novelist Alexander Lernet-Holenia’s 1936 “ghostly novella”, Baron Bagge (translated by Richard Winston and Clara Winston).

De Gruyter Brill: Introduction: Phenomenological approaches to Tove Jansson’s fiction 🎩👜 – In this introductory article from Sara Heinämaa and Joona Taipale – from a special issue of SATS: Northern European Journal of Philosophy devoted to Jansson’s oeuvre – they explain how “the philosophical depths of Tove Jansson’s fiction” is tackled.

Semafor: View / African book publishing must reclaim the word ‘local’ – “Terms like local, emerging, or underrepresented aren’t neutral. They carry the weight of history, geography, power, and capital”, says Bibi Bakare-Yusuf. 

Literary Hub: How Would Jane Austen Define an “Accomplished Woman” Today? – “Grace Aldridge on rereading Jane Austen after the end of her marriage”.

Penguin Books: A guide to speculative fiction – “What is speculative fiction? Explore the definition of the genre, its evolution, and must-read books with [Kat Brown’s] essential guide” – from Black No More by George S. Schuyler (1931) to What We Can Know by Ian McEwan (2025).

A Narrative of Their Own: Concerning My Daughter by Kim Hye-jin, Translated by Jamie Chang – Kate Jones describes Kim Hye-jinas’ novel, Concerning My Daughter, as portraying “the plight of a seventy-something Korean mother refusing to come to terms with her thirty-something [lesbian] daughter’s sexuality”.

The Atlantic: The One Book Everyone Should Read – “The Atlantic’s staffers on the books they share—again and again.” Some unexpected choices here!

The New York Times: A.I. Is Shedding Enlightenment Values – In this opinion essay, professor of history at Princeton, David A. Bell warns of the dangerous parallels between artificial intelligence and the Enlightenment.

NPR: A look at how fan fiction is changing publishing and reading – “Scott Simon talks with Washington Post reporter Rachel Kurzius about fan fiction, which is changing publishing —from books inspired by Twilight to an award-winning take on Huckleberry Finn.”

Nippon.com: Why Do Adults Read Comics in Japan? How Pioneering Weekly Magazines Transformed the Image of Manga – “Manga today are popular with readers of all ages in Japan owing to the efforts of publishers in the postwar years, who in a bid to keep the baby boom generation as fans, expanded the possibilities of what comics could do and transformed the media landscape”, says Nakano Haruyuki.

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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: Winding Up the Week

Tags: #ShortStorySeptember, Alexander Lernet-Holenia, Ali Smith, Bob Eckstein, Essay Collections, International Hashtag Day, Jason Allen-Paisant, Kirsten Miller, Literary Birthdays, Mizuki Tsujimura, Moomins, Nava Atlas, Short Story September, Tove Jansson, Virginia Woolf, Xenobe Purvis