Febuary 26 round up and a quick booker international reaction

1. The Bridges by Tarjei Vesaas
2. The Parasite by Ferenc Barnás 
3. The cut line by Carolina Pihelgas
4. Paradise of the blind by Duong Thu Huong 
5. In Farthest Seas  by Lalla Romano 
6. Captivity by Gyory Spiro
7. Rosa Mistika by Euphrase Kezilahabi
8. Temptation by Janos Szekely 

I eased a bit this month, mainly just a little tired and fed up with the weather the last month has left me feeling drained. I managed just three books for the first Hungarian Lit Month. But I will be doing it again next year for sure. I also read a Norwegian minor classic, the first English translation in the US from Vietnam. A tale of a husband passing and the years-earlier meeting him, the romance, and then a woman escaping her family in Tanzania. I managed one new country. I am trying to get at least one a month throughout this year. I recently picked up a number of Books from Around Africa. Anyway, it was a good month, just a little slow. I think we are all wishing for a number of sunny days in a row in the UK.

Book of the month

It has been a hard month to pick a great book, since they were all good reads. But I love it when you read a book and go, “That’s different.” This was that sort of book that left me wanting to read another by him, which I know Seagull have brought out. A book that captures a strange boy growing into an odder man, all around his need to be ill or to deal with people who are ill, an unusual book.

Non-Book events

Well, I started to watch the second series of Hijack with Amanda. I feel Apple make the best short series. This follows Idris Elba as he hijacks a Berlin U-Bahn train, but, as with the first series, there are a number of unseen twists and turns along the way. I then spent a lot of time watching old crime series, CSI, Monk, sort of comfort TV for the dull weather.

Then music-wise I brought two newish albums, Dry Cleaning a band that has a unique singer and style I had their first album, and I heard a couple of tracks of this new album and decided to get it. Then I got Heavy Metal, which had come back in stock, and I love Geese, who Cameron Winter is the lead singer of Geese, but this is more personal and heart-wrenching in places.

Then my Local shop had a sale on Tallbird records, which has a great selection, so I got Seasick Steve, whom I’ve been a fan of since his Jools Holland appearance years ago. I had a lot of his albums, but lent them to someone and never got them back. Anyway, nice tohear him again. Then Jason Isbell is a singer that is growing on me over time, and it’s nice to find a bargain, then I saw Pinegrove mention a few years ago, so I thought I’d give them a whirl.

Next month and Booker reaction

The International Booker longlist came out last week, and I am again part of the shadow Jury. I love doing this; it is a highlight of my year. I look forward to seeing my fellow jurors’ views on the books. My initial reaction was a little shocked; not one of the Akoya books had made the list. I felt sure Helle Helle or Liliana Colanzi, two writers whom I have featured on the blog with earlier books. SO to the longlist, I had read three books

On Earth as it is beneath by Ana Paula Maia 

Women Without Men by Shahrnush Parsipur 

The Wax Child by Olga Ravn 

Then I had on my tbr

The Duke by Matteo Melchorrie

She Who Remains by Rene Karabush

The Remembered Soldier by Anjet Daanje

The Deserters by Mathias Enard

So they would have been read by me in the meantime; I have read She who remains, and I have read them in the last few days. I hadn’t made a prediction list, but I would picked from books I won or had read, so these may have been on the list

I have brought all the other books on the list and am awaiting a few, but have another three of the rest of the books I had: Taiwan travelogue and The Director Down to be brought and read at some point. The one book I wasn’t very familiar with was The Nights are Quiet in Tehran.  Elsewhere, I have read other books by Marie Ndiaye. Overall, I am happy with the longlist; it is maybe the best in the last couple of years. It sees ten years of the Booker, and it is 15 years of Shadow Juries with us doing the old IFFP prize in a number of years before the Booker took over. I will be posting my first couple of reviews next week, and most of the month will be reading the longlist. I hope to throw in a couple of other books, but I will have to see how it goes.  What did you make of the Booker longlist ? Will you be reading the books?  Which books did you want on the list?