An end of week fortnight recap
“Starting a novel is opening a door on a misty landscape; you can still see very little but you can smell the earth and feel the wind blowing.”
– Iris Murdoch
Sadly, I didn’t make it to Oban (as announced in WUTW #467) because my wife’s mother was taken ill. Since I hadn’t expected to be home, there was no wind up scheduled for last weekend, so I turned my attention to various other book and blog‑related tasks instead.
Okay people, grab your broomsticks and wands – it’s International Harry Potter Day, a perfect excuse to revisit the books. Tomorrow, meanwhile, belongs to book bloggers: it’s Write a Review Day (you know what to do). And, just to keep the festivities going, it also happens to be Wordsmith Day, World Press Freedom Day and World Laughter Day. Quite the combination!
Among today’s bookish birthdays are German novelist, poet and polymath Novalis (1772), English writer and humourist Jerome K Jerome (1859), Lithuanian Symbolist poet and translator Jurgis Baltrusaitis (1873), German writer and physician Gottfried Benn (1886), American science fiction writer and ‘father of space opera’ E. E. Smith (1890), American writer of detective fiction Martha Grimes (1931) and British novelist Esther Freud (1963). Then tomorrow, we can put candles on a cake for Italian diplomat, author, philosopher and historian Niccolò Machiavelli (1469), English novelist and playwright Dodie Smith (1896), Argentine poet Juan Gelman (1930), Belgian-American novelist, poet and memoirist May Sarton (1912) and Israeli poet and author Yehuda Amichai (1924).
As ever, this is a post in which I summarise books read, reviewed and currently on the 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 opinions and 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.
* Finland’s Forgotten War *
This week, I share a Tove Trove exploration of Olivier Norek’s The Winter Warriors, tracing the 1939–1940 Winter War that shaped Tove Jansson’s early world and deepened my ongoing journey around her constellation. >> See Reading Around Tove: The Winter Warriors >>
Also, a brief reminder that there is now a dedicated index page for everything Tove, making it easier to find all the relevant posts. You can access it from the main menu at the top of every Book Jotter page. >> Tove Trove Main Index >>. There will be lots more happening with this project over the coming months!
* Let’s Fall into ‘49 *
As the hugely successful 1961 Club juddered to a halt, it was immediately revealed that the next literary trip down memory lane with Karen and Simon will take place in the year Australian citizenship came into being, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific first opened on Broadway, the Federal Republic of Germany was established and Japanese author Haruki Murakami was born. Yes, the 1949 Club looks very tasty indeed and, as Karen has already discovered, there are “an incredible selection of books to choose from”. In that year, stacks of new titles came tumbling off the press from a diverse range of authors, poets and playwrights, among them George Orwell, Shirley Jackson, Nevil Shute, Nancy Mitford, Nelson Algren, Simone de Beauvoir, H. P. Lovecraft, Astrid Lindgren, Italo Calvino, Ana María Matute, Graham Greene and an abundance of others. So, without further ado, please clear your diaries from the 12th to 18th October and start scanning your bookshelves for titles from ‘49.
* When Irish Books Are Beaming (Into Your Inbox) *
An exciting announcement from Cathy Brown of 746 Books – an Arts Programmer at Seamus Heaney HomePlace in Bellaghy and our very own doyen of books and authors of Éire. On Tuesday she unveiled the first edition of Irish Literary News, a monthly round‑up that does exactly what it says on the tin: highlights “new releases, awards, events, and all sorts of bookish happenings across the island” of Ireland. She hopes to “keep readers in the loop with what’s been going on in the Irish literary world” – and in the April bulletin you will find information about “literary giants” appearing in the 1926 Ireland Census, lots of up‑and‑coming book happenings and plenty more besides. Be sure to subscribe to Cathy’s blog so you don’t miss out.
* Blogs from the Basement *
We take a five‑month journey back in our time machine to November 2025, when Helen, the popular historical‑fiction connoisseur behind She Reads Novels, shares her thoughts on Joseph Piercy’s 100 Books to Live By, a “guide to books [the author] believes can help with various problems and difficult situations.” Many of the recommendations “are classics from the 19th and 20th centuries” – although “Piercy does also include some contemporary titles and translated works to add variety and diversity.” It’s a “quick, fun read”, she says. Discover why you’re likely to “end up with a long list of titles you can’t wait to explore” in Helen’s review, 100 Books to Live By: Literary Remedies for Any Occasion by Joseph Piercy.
* Lit Crit Blogflash *
This is where I share my favourite pieces of writing from around the blogosphere. There are a great many talented people producing high-quality book features and reviews, which makes it difficult to pick only this one – posted in the last couple of weeks:
REVIEW: If This Be Magic: The Unlikely Art of Shakespeare in Translation by Daniel Hahn – Over at Dear Author, “long time reader” Jayne investigates by what means “Shakespeare remain[s] Shakespeare when every word is changed”, as revealed in British writer and translator Daniel Hahn’s If This Be Magic: The Unlikely Art of Shakespeare in Translation. Having never fully considered “all the complexities [of] translating from one language to another”, she relishes the chance to explore “what goes into translating a book/play” – particularly the challenges faced when “coaxing the Bard’s immortal works into [a variety of] languages.” The work, she notes, demands “research, research, research to [fully] understand […] what [the many] archaic words and references mean.” Certain “languages will constrain a translator while others will hand them wonderful opportunities”, she observes, and she wonders why they “put themselves through this?” For fun? Because of masochistic tendencies? She suggests you read the book to discover the answers to these and many other questions.
* 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 Armenian Mirror-Spectator: Nadine Takvorian’s Armaveni: Not Just Another Story About The Genocide – “Nadine Takvorian’s debut autobiographical graphic novel Armaveni: A Graphic Novel of the Armenian Genocide […] is a brilliant exploration of what it means to be an Armenian adolescent growing up in America, thousands of miles away from where her grandmother, the eponymous Armaveni, was born”, writes Arpi Sarafian.
Karina Jakubowicz: The Mystery of Ma Cartwright – Who was the diligent yet curiously elusive woman who managed the Hogarth Press between 1925 and 1930 – a figure scarcely acknowledged by the Woolfs and remembered only as “Ma Cartwright” or, more vaguely, “the widow”? Karina goes in search of clues.
The Sunday Times (via Archive Today): 🏆 The 25 best non-fiction books of the 21st century – A team of “literary experts” from The Sunday Times selected “the top factual British and Irish works since 2000”. Their list includes a wide range of works by authors such as Martin Amis, Helen Joyce, Salman Rushdie, Claire Tomalin, Richard Dawkins, Peter Ackroyd and Rachel Cusk.
New Voices Down Under:🦘 When the world seems mad, these April books are an injection of hope, love and connection – “However dark the night, there is always a dawn,” is how Meredith Jaffe sums up her reading last month. Here she explores books that “celebrate resilience, love and hope.”
Financial Times (via Archive Today): 🐉 The story behind an almost forgotten 1950s feminist fantasy classic – A rediscovered 1952 fantasy classic about a girl cast out as a baby and raised among dragons and legends has been republished by Virago Press, complete with a special new introduction by Samantha Shannon. In his piece, Duncan Fyfe explores why Scottish novelist Naomi Mitchison’s Travel Light “gets better with distance.”
Caught by the River: Book of the Month – An extract from Zakia Sewell’s Finding Albion: Myth, Folklore and the Quest for a Hidden Britain, the story of Albion, Britain’s oldest origin story.
The Seaboard Review of Books: 🍁 Interview with Naomi MacKinnon, an Independent Bookstore Owner – Our fellow blogger at Consumed by Ink and owner of The Happy Duck Bookshop & Readery in Truro, Nova Scotia, Naomi MacKinnon, spoke with James M. Fisher about opening her bookstore, the readers who wander through the doors and the ongoing life of her blog.
EL PAÍS: Louise Erdrich, Native American writer: ‘No one is illegal; we all have the same right to exist’ – “One of America’s most admired novelists, she owns a bookstore in the heart of the Minneapolis protests against Trump. In 2024, she published The Mighty Red”.
Scroll.in: What shapes the design of book covers in India? – “The visual language has to perform a balancing act between Western templates, Indian audiences, local aesthetics and market demands”, observes Bhavna Bhasin.
Independent: The Tale of KAHO: Haruki Murakami announces release date for first novel in three years – “The Tale of KAHO marks [the] Japanese author’s first full-length work with a woman as the sole protagonist”, reveals Shahana Yasmin. You can read a little more about it in Alina Joan Ito’s Haruki Murakami To Feature First Female Protagonist in Upcoming Novel over at the Tokyo Weekender, in which she asks: “Will [it] redefine Murakami’s challenged portrayal of women?”
Edmonton Journal: 🍁 A return to home for Edmonton-born author Jane Park in Inheritance – Justin Bell finds Jane Park has set Inheritance, “her Korean diaspora novel in [Edmonton,] the city she once called home”. While over at 49th Shelf, Park shares an assortment of recently published Asian-Canadian titles in Golden Age: Great Canadian AAPI Books. She is also interviewed by Tiffany Yo in The Rumpus: On Sacrifice, Siblings, and Familial Scripts: A Conversation with Jane Park.
The New York Times (via Archive Today): New Historical Fiction, Lush and Lavishly Detailed – Columnist Alida Becker, writing “on [last] month’s best new books”, includes Vicente Luis Mora’s extraordinary historical novel Centroeuropa (translated by Rahul Bery). The story follows a newly widowed man in early‑19th‑century Prussia who buys a plot of land on which to bury his wife, only to discover the perfectly. preserved, frozen corpse of a soldier. Soon he uncovers others – bodies from earlier conflicts – and the unsettling pattern continues. Also, if you hop over to Counter Craft and scroll down the page at, I Loved this Novel About Digging Up Frozen Soldiers in 19th-Century Prussia and You Might Too, you can read Lincoln Michel’s review of this book.
Reactor: 🛸 Read an Excerpt From: The Language of Liars by S.L. Huang – “Speak another people’s language. Know them. Become them. And discover you’ve destroyed them.” Read an excerpt from S.L. Huang’s new science fiction novella The Language of Liars. You can also see a review of this title on the Heritage Diner’s website: Linguistics as a Weapon: An Analysis of The Language of Liars by S. L. Huang.
amy catriona: ✍️ a simple book journaling challenge for 2026 – A lovely, simple piece from Amy Catriona about book journalling in which she issues “an invitation to sit with what you read a little longer”.
Times Literary Supplement (via Archive Today): Being fair to Fowles – James Campbell writes in praise of the English novelist John Fowles – critically positioned between modernism and postmodernism, who died in 2005 and whose centenary fell on 31st March – describing him here as “a neglected novelist”.
Afrocritik: Love in a Time of Terror: A Review of Donica Merhazion’s “Born at the End of the World” – Azubuike Obi writes: “Inasmuch as Born at the End of the World is about love, it is also about language, the politics of language and the implications of these politics. Merhazion seeks to understand who we are behind our tongues, what ties bind and divide men on the basis of language.”
Female Small Business Owner: 🕰 ️The Unsettling Timelines of Solvej Balle – We have reached book IV of Solvej Balle’s heptalogy On the Calculation of Volume – described by critics variously as “one of the greatest works of 21st century literature so far”, “quietly genius” and “scrupulously realistic and intriguingly speculative”. The series is discussed here in some detail in a fascinating piece by Grace Byron. Then, over at This Reading Life, Brona turns a forensic eye on the latest novel in her review, On the Calculation of Volume IV | Solvej Balle. She has also been doing some super sleuthing. Please don’t miss On the Calculation of Volume, Proust & Serendipity.
Independent (via Archive Today): An extraordinary book about the Nuremberg women casts new light on history’s darkest crimes – The Nuremberg Women: At the Trial that Brought the Nazis to Justice, “Natalie Livingstone’s study of the trial that brought the Nazis to justice puts valiant women at the forefront of the story for the first time, writes Geordie Greig. The vital part that women played in this final reckoning can no longer be forgotten”.
The Barents Observer: 🕵️ Meet Max Seeck, the bestselling Finnish crime writer – “In Norway, almost everyone loves crime stories and whodunnits – so it was only natural that one of the guests at the Finnlitt festival was Max Seeck, the bestselling Finnish author of detective fiction, crime, horror and mystery”, says Susanna Sjöstedt.
The Observer (via Archive Today): 🫣 Femme Feral is a sly werewolf horror about the menopause – South African author Sam Beckbessinger’s debut horror novel, Femme Feral, “channels feminine rage to produce a cathartic satire with real bite”, says Hephzibah Anderson.
Australian Arts Review: 🦘 Once We Were Wildlife: Stories – “Melancholic and joyful, masterful and inspiring, [Once We Were Wildlife: Stories] is contemporary [short] fiction at its finest by Australia’s foremost writer of the natural world, Inga Simpson.”
Harper’s Bazaar: ✍️ Writing Through It – Margaret Atwood, Ottessa Moshfegh, Jhumpa Lahiri, Joyce Carol Oates and Jesmyn Ward talk to Kaitlyn Greenidge about “what it takes to write something true”.
Women of Letters: “I think whole is always better than good”: Savala Nolan on her career as an essayist and professor – In her conversation with Savala Nolan, author most recently of the essay collection Good Woman: A Reckoning, Jana M. Perkins discovers the one book she thinks everyone should read, […] how volunteering for Obama’s 2007 campaign unexpectedly changed her career, […] why expectations around gender roles harmed both her and her ex‑husband during their marriage, […] how she makes time for writing” and much more.
BBC Asia: The South Korean authors rising above a tide of hate to become bestsellers – “When Seen Aromi’s memoir documenting the joys of singlehood hit the shelves in early 2024, it became an instant bestseller,” reports Leehyun Choi.
The Novel Tea: There is Confusion by Jessie Redmon Fauset: The Problem of Living – In the first instalment of a new essay series, Canon in Color, which explores “classic texts from different cultures, with an emphasis on authors of color”, Neha and Shruti turn their attention to Jessie Redmon Fauset, author of the 1924 historical novel There Is Confusion and an “underrecognized figure of the Harlem Renaissance”, almost certainly “the first Black female student to study at Cornell”.
AP: 🚫 French-Algerian author Kamel Daoud says Algeria sentenced him to 3 years for award-winning novel – The French‑Algerian author Kamel Daoud says he has been sentenced to three years in prison in Algeria for his Goncourt Prize‑winning novel Houris, which mentions the country’s 1992–2002 civil war.
@ Home in the World: A few words from a so-called “predator”. Me. – 24th April 2026 marked “the 54th anniversary of the publication of an essay that changed [this woman’s] life. The reverberations of that event still echo in [her] life. The culture that produced them remains alive and well.” Joyce Maynard reflects on her relationship with J.D. Salinger.
The Atlantic (via Archive Today): Eight of the Most Fascinating Biographies to Read – “Each is animated by the author’s love—for their subject, for language, and for pushing the boundaries of what the genre can do”, says Nicholas Boggs, author of Baldwin: A Love Story.
India Today: ‘Digitising Assam 2.0’ unlocks 2.76 million pages of Assamese literature online – “Digitising Assam 2.0 has made 2.76 million pages of Assamese literature available online, preserving the state’s literary heritage. The project offers easy access to valuable resources for researchers and enthusiasts alike”, reports Silpirani Kalita.
The Middling Place: 📖 Writing the Liminal Space in the Historical Fiction Genre – Sabrina Nesbitt, ever the maestro of close reading, reflects on “how Hilary Mantel and Maggie O’Farrell use imagination to fill the gaps historians leave behind”.
The Moscow Times: Sergei Lebedev on the Defiance of Russian-Language Literature – Pushkin House reports: “Defiant Voices: Russian Short Stories from the 19th to 21st Centuries, curated by Russian author Sergei Lebedev and published by Head of Zeus, brings together 80 stories by Russian-speaking authors that evoke the theme of defiance and speak to the power of literature as resistance.”
The New York Times (via Archive Today): 🐉 4 Great New Fantasy Books to Transport You to Bold New Worlds – First “charmed” by Roald Dahl, columnist Jennifer Harlan has adored fantasy since childhood. Here she turns her attention to a handful of this season’s latest titles.
Literary Hub: 📖 What Are the Routines of So-Called Super-Readers? – “Kelsey Rexroat investigates the mindsets of people who read hundreds of books a year”.
NPR: 🛸 Before sci-fi was everywhere, this pioneering magazine championed ‘scientifiction’ – “The name didn’t stick. The fan communities did.” Chris Klimek on Amazing Stories, “the first magazine devoted exclusively to the publication of what came to be called science fiction”.
Biographers Conversations: 🦘 ‘The House’ and ‘Luna Park’ – The “award-winning journalist and author Helen Pitt chats with Dr Gabriella Kelly-Davies about her choices while crafting life stories of […] two quintessential landmarks: […] The House, about Sydney Opera House, and her newly released Luna Park: The extraordinary story of the showmen, shysters and schemers who built Sydney’s famous fun park”.
The Telegraph (via Archive Today): 📚 Why hardback books matter – In WUTW #467 we read an article entitled What’s the Point of Hardbacks?. Here, Simon Heffer argues that Britain’s preference for “tatty paperbacks” rather than “handsome, leather‑bound treasures” is “a cultural tragedy”.
3 Quarks Daily: Consciousness, Memory, and the Relational Self in Yoko Ogawa and Michael Pollan – “Yoko Ogawa’s novel The Housekeeper and the Professor has haunted [Leanne Ogasawara] since [she] first read it, but it returned with new insistence when [she] recently opened Michael Pollan’s new book, A World Appears: A Journey into Consciousness.”
Reading in the Sentimental Age: 📖 Constellations and Kaleidoscopes: Olga Tokarczuk – Hiromi Kawakami – Can Xue – Milena Billik introduces us to the “Constellation novel” as she shares a few of her fascinating notes on re‑reading Olga Tokarczuk, along with the “discoveries” she made through the writings of Hiromi Kawakami and Can Xue.
The Rumpus: ✍️ Writing the Shit Out of Your Darlings: A Conversation with Ramona Ausubel – “Ramona Ausubel thinks writers have weird, gorgeous brains and hearts, and wants to help their work to be more and more itself.” Jennifer Cho Salaff talks writers block with the author of Unstuck: A Writer’s Guide. Emily Harnden does the same for Libarts in Writer’s block? Ramona Ausubel’s new craft book helps writers get ‘Unstuck’.
Asymptote: 🛸 An Interview with Hiromi Kawakami – Sarah Gear has an e‑mail conversation with Hiromi Kawakami, “one of Japan’s most celebrated contemporary authors, known for her powerful, intricate description of people’s […] lives and her ability to blend the everyday with the surreal.” Their discussion delves into her novel Under the Eye of the Big Bird, which was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize.
The Point: A History of Erasures – She “belonged to the ‘1950s generation’ of Turkish modernist writers and seen from today’s vantage point she could not have been more chic.” What Remains, her “experimental bildungsroman written in verse about a woman obsessed with Istanbul’s stones,” is widely regarded as “her most accomplished work,” and “she wrote autobiographically” – her “sexuality, her marriages [were all] fair game.” Kaya Genç reflects on “learning to write like Leylâ Erbil.” The book featured here is A Strange Woman (translated by Nermin Menemencioğlu and Amy Marie Spangler), the first novel by a Turkish woman ever to be nominated for the Nobel.
The Ink-Stained Desk: 🫣 Religious Horror: The Devine and The Dreadful – In the latest instalment of C M Reid’s The Genre Genealogy Series, she explores Religious Horror, which, she says, “weaponizes faith, ritual, and the divine” and “aims to make you question the state of your soul.”
The Telegraph (via Archive Today): 🚫 ‘I’ve given up writing children’s books after being vilified by trans activists’ – “Author Rachel Rooney made the mistake of speaking up for women and children’s rights in an industry dominated by rigid gender ideology”. George Chesterton speaks to her about My Body is Me, the book that “ended [her] career”.
Los Angeles Times: 🛸 Octavia Butler blocked reprints of her ‘lost’ novel. More than 40 years later, it’s back on shelves – Octavia E. Butler “openly criticized” her 1978 novel Survivor and refused to allow it to be republished. Her estate has now, “after much deliberation,” agreed to a new edition, due later this year.
The Visible Reader: 📖 For the Book Lovers Whose Children Do Not Love Books As Much As They Do – “If you are a parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, caregiver or educator who loves reading but feels discouraged when trying to share that love with others, this reflection is in honor of your efforts,” says the heart-warmingly positive Michelle, offering a welcome note of encouragement.
Cosmopolitan: Did We Lose the Plot at BookCon 2026? – “At a convention meant to celebrate the book community, reports of physical altercations for free books raise questions about what fans deserve”, says Tamara Fuentes.
Worcester Telegram: 🍁 Atwood offers literary insight, dire warnings at Holy Cross lecture – The author Margaret Atwood spoke about writing, censorship and her best‑known novel during an event at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts.
The Observatorial: After Aix and Colmar, the Mon Chat Pitre bookstore network wants to make Toulouse “purr” – It is reported that “the Mon Chat Pitre brand will open its third address in France [early this month] in Toulouse” and “will be managed by a mother-daughter duo [as well as] several adopted cats on its shelves, ready to lead a new life among books.” The company hopes in time to “make all the cities of France purr” with its now‑famous concept of the “purr-bookstore”.
BBC News: Fears over crumbling gate at church with Anne Lister links – “A church in York which has been described as the ‘birthplace of lesbian marriage’ [between famous diarist Anne Lister and her partner Ann Walker] has launched an appeal to save its 17th Century gate from falling down”, reports Julie Mariotti.
1000 Libraries Magazine: ✍️ 12 Fascinating Punctuation Marks You Might Try in Your Writing – “Punctuation isn’t just commas and full stops; meet the interrobang, the asterism, and more symbols that add personality to your writing”, says Millie Ramm.
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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 term, there is an excellent description on Urban Dictionary.
>> See my monthly digest at the Book Jotter Journal on Substack. >>
Categories: Winding Up the Week
I hope your mother in law is on the mend Paula.
I love that opening quote from Iris Murdoch – it’s gorgeous!
Oh no, I am sorry about your wife’s mother, I hope she is ok!
I want to add to your days, lol – totally un-book-related, but my daughter told me that I need to do Pilates today as it is World Pilates Day, random! Though maybe not as random as a Harry Potter day? lol… Pilates, Words and Spells… what could go wrong?
Thanks for sharing my review, Paula! I’ll look forward to exploring some of these other links when I have more time – it looks like a particularly interesting collection.