An end of week fortnight recap
“At no other time does the earth let itself be inhaled in one smell, the ripe earth; in a smell that is in no way inferior to the smell of the sea, bitter where it borders on taste, and more honeysweet where you feel it touching the first sounds. Containing depth within itself, darkness, something of the grave almost.”
– Rainer Maria Rilke
Before we continue, you may first like to catch up with the birthdays today of a few literary folk – many still living. This weekend’s batch includes (but is certainly not limited to): English poet, novelist, playwright, theologian and literary critic, Charles Williams (1886), English poet and novelist, Stevie Smith (1902), American author of historical romances, Jude Deveraux (1947) and American fantasy author, television writer and producer, George R.R. Martin (1948). Tomorrow, we can do the same for prolific, multi-genre English writer, H. G. Wells (1866), American horror novelist, Stephen King (1947) and Irish fantasy novelist, Sarah Rees Brennan (1983).
Should you be seeking further reason to celebrate, Read A New Book Month may be just the thing. Observed every September, especially in the United States and online literary circles, it encourages people to discover new books and renew their love for reading, not merely emphasising the discovery of new literature but also inspiring readers to share books, join book clubs and donate to others, highlighting the ways in which books contribute to our knowledge and togetherness.
Other fun occasions that may lead to an outbreak of merrymaking are National Punch Day in the USA and the Festival of the Sea, which is enjoyed in several coastal communities around the world (especially Grimsby).
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.
* We Three Things *
* No sun—no moon! No morn—no noon—no(vellas)—no way! *
* Lit Crit Blogflash *
I am going to share with you three of my favourite pieces 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 these – posted in the last week or two:
* 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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A Narrative Of Their Own: Writing Rituals of Ursula K Le Guin – Kate Jones presents a series vis-à-vis the “what, where and why of literary women”. This week, she explores the known writing habits of the iconic American author of science fiction, fantasy and literary fiction, Ursula K Le Guin.
The Observer: Tove Ditlevsen’s beguiling autofiction – “Fifty years after its publication, the Danish author’s strange but playful final book, Vilhelm’s Room, receives a spirited English translation”, says Ellen Peirson-Hagger.
The Markaz Review: Reading The Orchards of Basra – Jacob Wirtschafter writes: “Mansoura Ez-Eldin’s new novel [The Orchards of Basra (translated by Paul Starkey)] delves into the consequences of erased history. By weaving together elements of dreams, memory, and forgotten philosophy, it tells the story of a Cairo bookseller who is haunted by the ghost of a Muʿtazilite thinker. In a region where the act of remembering is often political, this book insists that some stories cannot be silenced.”
The Metropolitan Review: Against Literature – Argentinian writer and academic, Manuel M. Novillo shares his thoughts on Adolfo Bioy Casares’ newly republished diaristic portrait of a friendship with Jorge Luis Borges: Borges (from NYRB Classics).
Open Book: A Grieving Mother Tries to Undo Death with Her Words and Stories in Susanna Crossman’s THE ORANGE NOTEBOOKS – In her latest novel The Orange Notebooks, Susanna Crossman’s story is told through a mother’s journals written in a series of orange notebooks while she is interned in a French psychiatric ward.
University of London: On the Right Track: Some railways in literature 🚂 – “In 2025, the world celebrates the 200th anniversary of the railway. Senate House Library has a huge number of items relating to railway travel, as Dr Karen Attar explains.”
Murder at the Manse: Murder in Miniature – In recent months, Wales-based pastor Adam Thomas has been leisurely reading Murder in Miniature, a short story collection by Leo Bruce (aka Rupert Croft-Cooke), “spanning the years 1950-1956.” He declares it a book of “pleasing puzzles and satisfying twists”.
The Conversation: A ‘thoroughly white’ novel of national mythmaking: Peter Carey’s True History of the Kelly Gang at 25 – Written in Kelly’s vernacular, Peter Carey’s Booker-winning True History of the Kelly Gang “is a masterclass in mimicry.” However, as the novel reaches its quarter century, Maggie Nolan suggests that “in exploring injustice, there are telling erasures.”
The Culturist: The Essentials of Russian Literature – “In much of the Western world, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky dominate discussions of Russian literature [but], of course, [there are richer and more diverse choices than merely these] two towering names” – as you will see here.
Inside Story: Certain ideas of France – In her piece about Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife, Anne Freadman tells us that Stein’s “latest biographer [Francesca Wade] continues the debate about her wartime activities”.
Chicago Review of Books: A Line That Survives Forever: Daniela Tarazona’s “The Animal on the Rock” – Philip Janowski reviews Mexican writer Daniela Tarazona’s “story of transformation into an animal”, The Animal on the Rock (translated into English for the first time by Lizzie Davis and Kevin Gerry Dunn), a novella in which “a protagonist gives a monologue on the actions and impressions of their life”.
Fiction Matters: Reading in Public No. 83: How and why to reread a book – Sara Hildreth on “the benefit of revisiting books even when there’s so much to read”.
China Book Review: Ill Winds In Tibet – “A banned Tibetan novel, now published in English, recounts the devastation of Mao’s campaigns in the wake of the Amdo Rebellion of 1958.” Benno Weiner reviews Tsering Döndrup’s historical novel (translated by Christopher Peacock), The Red Wind Howls.
GoMag: British Lesbian Novelist, Maureen Duffy, 91, Wins New Literary Award Launched By First Black Woman To Win The Booker – Bernardine Evaristo has set up a new literary award for female writers over 60 using the £100,000 she herself won through the Women’s Prize.
Cultural Capital: The dawn of the post-literate society – Writer at The Times, James Marriott, rather disturbingly (and perhaps even worse, compellingly), welcomes us to a new “post-literate society” and “the end of civilisation.”
Feasts and Festivals: The Champions of Lady Chatterley and her detractors… (Part One) – A highly entertaining piece from Liz Gwedhan about the 1960 case “brought by the Director of Public Prosecutions against Penguin Books Ltd for the publication of obscene material” – infamously known as ‘The Lady Chatterley Trial’.
The Hoopoe: Author Q&A: Peter Fretwell and Lisa Fretwell – The Penguin book of Penguins 🐧 – Daniel Moonen talks to the husband-and-wife team behind the illustrated guide, The Penguin book of Penguins.
Guernica: In Search of Ouologuem – Novelist, Vamba Sherif’s “journey—on the surface, an attempt to trace [his] heritage—had in fact been driven all along by a deep longing to meet [Malian writer, Yambo Ouologuem] and hear his story.”
The Critic: We can’t publish this! – Jeffrey Meyers on “beloved classics that were repeatedly rejected” by publishers.
1000 Libraries: 12 Must-Visit Libraries in Japan – Discover 12 stunning libraries in Japan, from modern marvels to hidden gems, each offering a unique glimpse into the nation’s love of books.
The New York Times: 27 Novels Coming This Fall – “Check out books by Thomas Pynchon, Kiran Desai and Joe Hill, and revisit familiar worlds with Dan Brown, Mick Herron and Bolu Babalola” with Laura Thompson and Miguel Salazar.
Wolfish!: Where has the moral gravitas gone from novels? – Tash looks to Iris Murdoch for answers.
RAAM: The life of Ukrainian books and authors in wartime – “Since Russia’s full-scale invasion, the Ukrainian literary scene has seen some dramatic changes. The Ukrainian author Andrei Kurkov reflects on writing, publishing, selling and reading books in war, and how this has become an act of resistance in the face of aggression.”
The Broken Compass: Interview: Helen Castor – Mathew Lyons talks to Helen Castor, author of dual biography, The Eagle and the Hart, about the “tragic reigns of Richard II and Henry IV and the challenges of medieval history”.
BBC Culture: ‘He is such an awful man’: Why readers are wrong about Mr Darcy – “Mostly miserable and even ‘unforgivably cruel’, Jane Austen’s famous romantic hero is not what he seems, writes the author Sebastian Faulks, in an exclusive extract from the Folio Society, to mark the 250th anniversary of Austen’s birth.”
Australian Arts Review: Tyson Yunkaporta & Megan Kelleher: Snake Talk – “Shining an Indigenous light on contemporary society, Snake Talk by Tyson Yunkaporta [and] Megan Kelleher invites us to see the world through the eye of the snake.”
The Brooklyn Rail: Arthur Machen’s The Hill of Dreams – First published in 1907, the Welsh author and mystic Arthur Machen’s meditation on alienation and the lure of the fantastical, The Hill of Dreams is, says Lyle Rexer, the story of “one Lucian Taylor” and his “journey from childhood to early maturity and from the Welsh countryside to the dark heart of London”. Forthcoming from Mandylion Press, it has been newly republished and edited by Madeline Porsella and Mabel Capability Taylor.
The Atlantic: Is This the End of the Dictionary? – “Obsolete (adj.): no longer in use or no longer useful”. An adapted piece from Stefan Fatsis’s forthcoming book, Unabridged: The Thrill of (and Threat to) the Modern Dictionary.
On the Seawall: Commentary on Playing Wolf, a novel by Zuzana Říhová, translated from the Czech by Alex Zucker – Cory Oldweiler shares his thoughts on Playing Wolf, “a rural horror story exploring what happens when a middle-aged couple trades their ceramic cooktop in Prague’s ultra-hip Holešovice neighbourhood for a gas stove that must be lit by matches in a one-pub village.”
The Literary Edit: Lucy Caldwell’s Desert Island Books – This week, Lucy Pearson presents the choices of Northern Irish playwright, novelist and author of These Days, Lucy Caldwell. The selection includes “the novel that made Lucy want to be a writer, and an epic quintet of books…”
TraLaLit: “Translation is the best way to read a literary text” – In an interview with Julia Rosche, “Filipino author and translator Kristian Sendon Cordero discusses visibility, the importance of Bikol, and the art of translation, as the Philippines takes the spotlight as Guest of Honour at the 2025 Frankfurt Book Fair.”
The Print: Why hasn’t India won Nobel Prize for literature after Independence? Quality of education – Columnist and professor of political science, Shankar Sharan argues that in independent India, “state policy has increasingly aggressively, if unintentionally, harmed talents and discouraged independent thought.”
The Seaboard Review of Books: Letters from the Afterlife: The Post-Holocaust Correspondence of Chava Rosenfarb and Zenia Larsson by Goldie Morgantaler – Michael Greenstein reviews Letters from the Afterlife, a collection of “post-Holocaust correspondence between Chava Rosenfarb and Zenia Larsson [which] tells a piercingly raw and intimate story about their lives in Canada and Sweden.”
Full Stop: Nebraska – George Whitmore – The American playwright, novelist and poet, George Whitmore authored a classic gay novel in 1987, which “has fortunately been given a new life and retains all its powerful weirdness.” Nebraska, his final fictional work before dying of AIDS-related complications in 1989, “has long been out-of-print,” says Nate Lippens, but is at last being republished with an introduction by Michael Bronski.
IOL: Explore South Africa’s heritage: books that keep the nation’s story alive – In honour of Heritage Month, Lutho Pasiya highlights key literary works that capture the essence of South African culture.
Five Books: Historical Novels with Strong Female Leads – “Kate Mosse, the acclaimed novelist and nonfiction writer [most recently of The Map of Bones] explores the role of fiction in illuminating historical events […] and recommends five novels with strong female protagonists that have influenced her own work.”
Quill & Quire: Shortlist announced for 2025 Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Prize – Five Canadian writers have made the shortlist for the 2025 Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize – an annual that recognises the best novel or short story collection by a Canadian author.
The Joy of Old Books: The best Narnia book of all – And it’s not what you were (probably) thinking. Harriet introduces us to C.S. Lewis’s 1954 high fantasy novel about the adventures of a young boy on the run and his bond with a talking stallion in The Horse and His Boy.
Engelsberg Ideas: Mystery in the Moon – Katherine Harvey finds in Ayoush Lazikani’s new illustrated history, The Medieval Moon: A History of Haunting and Blessing that “across the medieval world, the Moon induced feelings of fear and fascination.”
BBC News: Ian McEwan on why humankind ‘will scrape through’ – “Ian McEwan has shared his hopes for how humankind “will scrape through” amid ongoing climate change fears”, says Paul Glynn.
The Asahi Shimbun: VOX POPULI: Writer Atsushi Nakajima’s letters to his sons exhibited – An exhibition at the Kanagawa Museum of Modern Literature in Yokohama is currently displaying the light-hearted letters and postcards the Japanese author Atsushi Nakajima (1909-1942) wrote to his sons.
Deadline: Curtis Brown To Rep J.R.R. Tolkien’s Literary Estate – Jesse Whittock reports that Curtis Brown Heritage is to represent “the literary estate of J.R.R. Tolkien going forwards.”
Vogue: A Literary Walk Through Jane Austen’s Bath—With a Few Modern Detours – “Today, Bath is the epicentre of Austen fandom, with a 10-day Jane Austen Festival each September”, says Maridel Reyes. This year, for her 250th birthday, “the city is leaning all the way in [with] exhibitions, dances, and a birthday ball.”
Stylist: “Publishing can’t keep secrets”: the mystery duo behind The Ending Writes Itself revealed in first interview – “Evelyn Clarke’s debut novel, The Ending Writes Itself, is a crime thriller and a satire on the publishing industry. But Evelyn Clarke isn’t real; it’s a pen name for two writers whose identities have been kept a secret, until now…” Sarah Best reveals the authors’ identities.
McSweeney’s: Collective Nouns for Librarians – A light-hearted list of librarian lingo from Sally Miller.
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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.