1. Mr Bowling buys a Newspaper by Donald Henderson
2. My Annihilation by Fuminori Nakamura
3. Library for the War Wounded by Monika Helfer
4. Killing the Nerve by Anna Pazos
5. Novelist as a Vocation by Haruki Murakami
6. The Coffee House by Naguib Mahfouz
7. The Christmas Clue by Nicola Upson
8. Vaim by Jon Fosse
9. Mysterious setting by Kazushige Abe
10. wedding worries by Stig Dagermann 
11. Brian by Jeremy Cooper
12. Marshlands by Otohiko Kaga
13. The old man and his sons by Heoin Bru
14. The lights on the hill by Gareth st Omer

Well, I had intended to get on top of what books I have read and reviewed this month. I have nearly cleared a backlog of some books from last year and reviewed a mix of what I had unreviewed from the back end of last year. So we had a couple of English crime novels: one from World War I and a modern book looking back on the making of a famous game. Then four Japanese books, two epic crime novels, a modern retelling of a classic story, and a work of non-fiction by Murakami were my contributions to the various Japanese challenges this time of year. Then a couple of books from Fotzcarraldo, the latest Fose, and BRIAN WHICH I had on my Radar for a while. Then two modern classic writers, Mahfouz and Dagerman, reminded me how woefully under-read I am as a reader. Which is why I often moan at creators who position themselves as well-read and aren’t, in the broader sense, readers.  Finally, two new countries for the blog, the Faroe Islands, well, it’s not a country, but a Danish island miles from anywhere,e and then to StLucia in the Caribbean. One of the best months on this blog in recent times.  Also, a new two new publishers in the Caribbean writers list and the Verba Mundi series as well

Book of the month

It has been a tough choice, but this book is one I will want to reread over the years. The book’s passion for cinema reminded me of the films I have yet to see. I know there is another book coming out that focuses more on classical music, which I hope will spark a little more interest in it in my life.

Non Book events

I am one for trying to spend less time on my phone these days, so Amanda and I caught the series Girl Taken with Alfie Allen, about a teacher who kidnaps and rapes and makes a twin live in a cellar, a twin from his school, he wanted the other sister, but had kidnapped the wrong one. The series was well-paced. The only thing I hated was the film in Spain in the Basque Country, and it is so obviously not the UK, but they make it out to be, which lets it down for me. I mentioned Brian. I was trying to watch a few more films. One I really enjoyed last month was Genius, which was about the writer Tomas Wolfe and his editor, who was the man who had found F. Scott Fitzgerald. Wolfe was a writer who was one of a kind, it seemed, and was one who lived fast and died young. This book captured his life. It also made me want to read Wolfe later this year if anyone else is interested in reading him alongside me? Music-wise, it has been a quiet start to the year. I only picked up Dry Cleaning’s third album, their debut, and this one appealed to me, and I also got Sleaford Mods. This group has a unique sound and is very political in its lyrics, which capture the underbelly of England. They are maybe the heirs to Mark E. Smith’s The Fall for the modern age. I will also point to the songs from Bruce Springsteen and Billy Bragg after the horror of people getting shot by gun-happy so-called law enforcement officers, as America seems to be descending into a fascist state along the lines of the early years of Hitler, where the state starts to wipe out the opposition to their voice. Horrific scenes and a leader that seems more interested in grabbing resources around the world than actual diplomacy, anyway, I have held back saying anything about this situation too long. If reading world literature teaches you anything, suffering and terror are the same and have the same roots, and the same sort of people run these regimes, no matter where and when, the outcome is always scary.

Next Month

Back to Books, and it is Hungarian lit month. I have a couple of books to read and will get to them later this week. Other than that, we see the Booker International Longlist on the last day of this month, and yes, there will be another year of shadowing the prize for me. Now, I think it is more about being with the same group of people for so many years. The community we have every year for this prize is actually a highlight in my blogging year. I will also say that I welcome people to join us. I think there will be a post about it in a couple of weeks, as we see Ten years of the International Booker, and this will be the 15th year of shadowing, as we did the old IFFP prize before its current incarnation as the International Booker. It means that every year there are 12 or 13 books. We are getting near 200 books, and we will have reviewed for the shadow jury, with at least 5 or 6 reviews of each book, which means the shadow jury will have put out over 1000 reviews in its time!