That was August 2024

September 1, 2024 ~ winstonsdad ~ 3 Comments

I had a quieter August than expected. I have been off work with some problems and only returned this week. I just haven’t been focusing as much as I should. Anyway, I still reviewed 8 books. We started with a girl that just starting eating after a stray comment from her Father a quirky tale. Then, the final part of the Eva Baltasar trilogy shows a young woman heading to the country and trying to have a baby. Then a quirky novella about a teacher that makes uo a folktale that is made up but then fantasy and reality spilll over. A clever collection of vignettes based around the drinks people order and the first book on this blog from Cyprus. Then we have the dying Samuel Beckett in A Paris nursing home. Looking back on his life. Then, another old man in the German summer of 1077 looks back at the post-war years. Then a nanny is stuck in a room we see how she end up there. Finally, we have France’s leading rabbi, looking back at several funeral services she had been involved with. I visited seven countries this month and had one new publisher with Foundry edtions.

Book of the month

I loved the idea behind this book using drinks and mix a history of the drink and the place all set in a hotel in Cyprus. It was my first book from Cyprus. It covered the years after the country divide and the effect on the hotel the locals, and also the guests that come to the hotel and order the drinks.

Non book events

Well, I tried keeping track on Letterbox of what I have watched this month. I started with the Star Trek films; I also watched some seventies B movies, like Death Cruise, a murder mystery about insurance claims. I finished with Frances Ha, which I hadn’t seen before. This last week, we started watching Michael Keatoin in the series Dopesick, about a medication that got America addicted. It is compelling and eye-opening how easily it happened. I probably mention this next month. Amanda and I are halfway through it. The other series we watched was Two Stephen King One The Stand, which I had seen years ago but was interesting. It was the first version. Then we watched The Mist, which was creepy and had a few interesting twists that I didn’t see coming.

Next month

I have five books read for women in translation month to review, and then I will try and read a few chunkier books . I have noticed that most of my reading has been books under 300 pages. I keep buying larger books for quite a while and never get to them. So, I need to start throwing a few in the mix.What are your plans for next month ?

That was the month that was July 2024 plus Spanish Portuguese litl

August 1, 2024 ~ winstonsdad ~ 3 Comments

It was Spanish and Portuguese lit month, so if you want to put any post in the comment for this post, that would be great. My journey started in Mexico with a man in his last days in a Mexican town. Then, a man tries to get by with his highly routine life as his home town has been invaded. Then, a man paints rich businessmen whilst having an affair with his secretary simultaneously. Then, a woman moves to a rural village in the hinterland.of spain . In order to escape her past. But She struggles to fit in, and things get darker when the house has problems. Then a pair of conjoined twins, and the father makes a deal with the devil. Then, a woman returns to Barcelona years after she left as the Franco years are ending. Then a man scared by war as he tells a woman about his time in Angola.I visited three countries Mexico, Spain and Portugal

Book of the month

It was, again, hard, but I just think Antunes is a special writer whose books are unique in style and voice. This book follows the horrors of the Portuguese involvement in the war in Angola. As a doctor, he saw the worst of the conflict and its impact on the young soldiers and those having to treat them, drawing from his own time in Angola, a Portuguese Vietnam. I have a number of more of his books but I ration them as he is one of my alltiime favourite writers and I don’t want to have none left to read , Have you any writers like that you feel about?

Non book events

Amanda and I had are holiday this month I did a post of this. I maybe taken time post holiday to get back to the blog but I am now back in the groove . We haven’t really got into many television series this month. But I have been trying to keep my letterbox app up to date I do my goodreads and storygraph . SO I have tried to get consistent with Lettebox for the films I’ve been seeing so there was a few films I Loved this month the fun Mrs Harris goes to Paris is a film about a cleaner want to by a Dior dress a comedy of class and being true to yourself . Then Iron claw is wrestling film of a group of brothers that wrestled but then died one by one sad and a24 at its best. The I have Jacqui from the blog Jacquiwine to thanks for watching The witch’s mirror a sort Flipped version of the film Rebecca from Mexico. I also was watching the later stages of the European championship I actually watched more matches for this championship than I ever had such a shame England fell at the last post but we had a large chunk of luck to get that far and we now await a post southgate England team.

Next month.

I will be doing books for women in Translation month. I have a few in mind I would do a pic of them but I know what I am like as the month goes on I will shift from here to there but it will all be female writers in Translation. I have finished a couple of books one a quirky tale of the last days of Samuel Beckett will be my first review for the month. WHat are your plans ?

That was the month of June 2024

July 1, 2024June 30, 2024 ~ winstonsdad ~ 5 Comments

I managed to review nine books this month. Our journey started with an engraver injured for his love of a woman and the aftermath of that. Then a missing girl comes back, or does she? Then, two souls meet and connect on a train eastbound to Siberia. Each has their reason for wanting to escape where they are at that moment. Then there is a massacre told piece by piece by those killed on the evening it happened; then, a man is slowly losing his mind as dementia takes hold. Then a man goes to Spain to find out what really happened to his dad and what is the truth about the past. Then a woman may have seen a murder writes a story around her fellow occupants in the apartment building she lives in. Then we see a pair of truck drivers as the only link to a Jewish family in Belgrade as a relative imagines these two drivers’ day-to-day working. Then I finish with a great pair of Italian novellas from a great Italian writer.

Book of the month

To be honest, this was the hardest month in a long time. There wasn’t a bad book this month, reading-wise. But this lost gem—well, I say lost—is considered one of the best Dutch novels of all time. I think this book deserves a reissue. It captures how someone’s mind falls away from them due to Dementia.

Non book events .

Well, I have been watching the new Star Wars series. It’s not the best series, but it could get better as it goes on. Music wise I brought three albums this month

I brought two albums at my local shop as part of an offer they have the first is this John Grant Album I have two other albums by him and a couple of CDs so I was pleased to add another to the collection.

Then, a live album by Joy Division strangely ties into yesterday when I went with Amanda to where my mum’s ashes are scattered, and in the same graveyard is the stone that is the memorial to Ian Curtis, who was from Macclesfield. I didn’t visit the stone, but I know where it is. I find the pilgrimage there bizarre, but each to their own. I knew his connection to Macclesfield and my own connection, so this was a live set I hadn’t heard before.

Then we went to Bakewell the other day it is a nice place for a coffee and there is a record shop and I had decided to complete all the Nick Cave albums on VInyl I have all the older albums on cd and have brought a number of of already this was one of the few I hadn’t got and captured the rockier darker Nick Cave when he was younger and living in Berlin

Next month

Thigs will all be Spanish or Portuguese in Nature as it is Spanish and Portuguese lit month 2024. I did make badges for all those who want to join in

The three badges look forward to your reviews. Thanks in advance for joining this month again or for the first time . I look forward to all the upcoming reviews.

What are your plans?

How was your reading month ?

May’s reading Journal

June 2, 2024June 2, 2024 ~ winstonsdad ~ 3 Comments

I had wanted to do a book a day in May, but I didn’t; this challenge pushed me to 15 reviews this month and made me see I could fit more reviews in here and there. We started with a memoir about a daughter’s quest to connect her loss of her parents to Aids, and her mother’s love of crime drama and computer viruses make up this memoir in vignettes. Then, a man opens a dog home on the orders of his ex-father-in-law in Venezuela. Then we are in Rual Poland with a series of interconnecting stories. Then we have a sister coping with a disabled sibling. Then, a woman seeks justice for a sexual attack. We move to Paris, and a woman discovers Proust as a writer.Then, we have a female captain who lets her saviour swim in the sea, and the book takes a strange turn. In the letters over twenty years, Emma Reyes recounts her poor childhood. Then we have a son recalling the conversations and life of his truck-driving father in the later part of the 20th century as Brazil changed and had a dictatorship rule. Then a pair of dubliners discuss the days news over a pint Then a trio of stories in Mallo’s new novel. A young woman next in Argentina struggles to hide a pregnancy and how she became pregnant. Then, a man turns fifty as he sits and writes. A man then awakes in Lisbon and falls asleep in Amsterdam. Is he alive? Finally, a pair of novellas see Turks heading to the Kurdish part of Turkey and having their eyes open. I covered 13 countries this month. One new publisher is MTO, publisher of the White Nights.

Book of the month

This was a hard choice, so many great books this month, but the one scene in this book where the narrator of the first book has a dream of an old man fishing and fishing up dead bodies of women and children in his net is a haunting image.

Non book things this month

After Record Store Day, I only picked a couple of records up. This was one of them: Beth Gibbons’s new album. I have loved her voice since she was in Portishead many years ago, and she has done a few collaborations since then, but this is her first new work in a long time. On the TV front, we watched last night a light thriller about oil getting infected with a virus and the chaos that would follow that. The series The responder we have started watching the series The Veil but haven’t finished yet.

The month ahead

I am currently reading the first Hungarian book from Istros Books, and I will then move on to a mix of review books and books I have brought or borrowed from the library. I will also be reviewing the latest Arab lit quarterly, which is around Gaza and has several writings from inside Gaza.

How was your month ?

April 2024 what happened on the blog

April 30, 2024 ~ winstonsdad ~ 2 Comments

Well, this month, I managed to review 9 books, this month I was surprised at as I also did 16 posts for the global literature in libraries initiative I posted 16 posts for them. On here my reading journey , I went from Italy and a young woman in her growing years. Then the twins cut their tongues one talks the over is mute after that.Then we had club 1937. We started with a novel from Azerbaijan about a couple one Western and the other more Eastern about how they get together. Then a marriage just begin as they honeymoon in Italy and eventually end up going there own ways when the husband misses a train and takes the wrong train. Then a solide becomes a goverment offical as his wife wanders and his life falls apart. Then two poets go to pre war Iceland and writer a number of poems and prose pieces. Then back to italy and an overbearing father that wants to be a well known painter. Then a look at what made a wife drown her two sons and what effect has it one those involved in the events thirty years later.

Book of the month

A young woman moves in with a family friend as her mother has gone away to China to Teach not quite sure her daughter is old enough to live fully alone she sends her to live with an elderley relative in Tokyo with there cats. It is a tale of being new and alone in a big city

Non book events last month

Its been a month of watching tv shows form Amanda dn I we started with RED eye a slightly over the top tale of a doctor caught up with spies as he flies back to China people start dying. Then we moved onto Baby r reinderr a dark drama about a manthat ends up with a stalker based on the writers own experience. Funny and dark in places you were left with a thinking of who were the people really. Then we have just finished the second series of Them set in the ninties it follows a hunt for a serial killer and becomes supernatrual in places as the officer sees the killer target her family.Then we had record store day this years gems were

Fleet foxes live A Collection of the best known songs.

Chris Isaak a collection of recording he did at sun city of classic rock and roll songs

Scott walker Tilt a remaster of one of his best albums

Talking heads live in 77 therm live just as they were starting off as a group.

This year record store list hadn’t an absloute must record get like other years but all these are bands and artist I hvae records from . But I maybe getting a little old for waiting from early morning I may get a chair next year as I was sore a couple days after being stood three hours in the cold waiting.

Next month

Well I m in the last third of the first of three from the EBRD finalist I hope to finish the other two by the end monht other than that I have the new book from Elfriede Jelinek the children of the dead . I also have Kafka diares to work through. and the last of the booker international books to be reviewed. I hope to make use of the fact I blogged a lot more last month doing my blog and another blog and hopefully get back on track to get to my target of 100 reviews this year. How has your month been ?

February 2024 what did I read and do

February 29, 2024 ~ winstonsdad ~ Leave a comment

I started with a Swiss book about an uncle who is looked after by his relatives. Then we have an epic prose poem about the Sai people through a few people. We trace the history of this indigenous tribe through the 20th century. Two half-sisters discover they may have a half-brother as they live with their father. Then we have a writer who becomes a star, writing a book in a ghetto style, and how he copes with his newfound fame, which is now the film American Fiction. Then, a father is shocked when his son is drawn into the right wing in North Eastern France; then we have three summers as we follow three sisters in Greece in the inter-war years. Then a woman returns after twenty years to return to her old life and discover what happened to those she had left behind. So i read books from 7 different countries from seven publishers. Not a bad month

Book of the month

I chose About Uncle. I loved this and it remind me of what i have loved about Peirene. Then they got the right book that hit the spot, and this was one of those short books about an uncle, a veteran who has mishaps like trying to escape down the toilet. This book has humour and sadness, family love and hate in equal measure.

Neon book events

I covered a bit this month. I have brought some records. The most recent is another from the Tom Waits reissues, his Blue Valentine, still in his jazz-style era, had always been a favourite and was the first album I got on tape when I was younger in my twenties. TV-wise, we are in the middle of watching The Jury, which shows two juries viewing the same murder trial taken from an actual case and seeing how each tackles their verdicts. Again, I have been mining YouTube for old TV or movies. I am currently watching the early 70s series Doom, an environmental show about a government agency tackling things that are affecting the environment.

Next month

I am finishing the latest BorasChung as I write this I may finish it this evening or tomorrow then I will move on the Mathias Enard’s The annual banquet of the Gravediggers Guild. Then I have Out of Earth on my tbr . These three have all been mentioned as potential Booker international books, and I am yet again doing the Shadow Jury this year, which is our 12th year. Well, for the original few, it is hard to believe the shadow jury itself will be turning into a teen next time. So after March 11 it will be the books I haven’t read from the longlist which is handy as I have a few days off just after it is announced. I intend to do my own guess list soon and hope cover a few more hopefuls in the time beofre it is announced.

That was the month that was Jan 24

January 31, 2024January 31, 2024 ~ winstonsdad ~ 2 Comments

I managed 9 reviews this month. I added 5 books to January in Japan. I start with a book about a magic librarian that helps people find the exact book when needed. Then I saw a girl in Iraq who is facing her own death after losing her fiance, meaning she will be a single mother. Harrowing story. Then we have a collection of short stories on the last day of world war to in Japan I loved the tale of the lonesome whale falling for a submarine. A factory worker questions his job and what they are all doing in a mysterious factory a nod to the mega factories that the writer had worked in. Then, in a Japanese classic, a woman has two suitors and a manipulative stepmother. Next, we head to Argentina and a story of three fishermen on an earlier trip and a death on that earlier trip; then a plant collector finds plants but also an enigmatic chief daughter he falls in love with so much that his last words are her name Miram. Then a woman goes on a road trip to Nagasaki and has an affair with a younger man with Scars. Then lastly, a man recalls being a child in the middle of the Holocaust in Amsterdam and in the prison camps a book that captures a child in all the horror.

Book of the month

Such a hard month. I like every book I read this month. In fact, since finishing this book, which was my book of the month, I have taken a few days to find a new read. I loved how he captured the voice of child amongst all these horrors and kept it feeling real. I was pleased to have reviewed nine books this month. I had that post-new-year slump happen in the last two weeks of January. But I think it is passing. Does anyone else has that feeling of doing great those first few weeks of the new year, and then you hit a wall? Well, I have it most years. It is usually this time or early in February.

Non-book events

I held back on buying too many records. A couple is coming up. I would like a couple of Robert Forester reissues for the next two albums to be rereleased, which I have my eye on. then there is the vast Waterboys box set 1985 around the album This is the Sea expanded out to 6 cd worth of material from the time this is just as they found what Mike Scott called the big music sound. I love their early stuff, so pleased I’m will get to hear all these songs and the different versions of them. I may have to leave that as it is a little out of my reach at the moment, but I will hope to get it at some point. Amanda and I have nearly finished The Crown. We have 5 episodes left to watch. Then, I think we will move on to Master of the Air. We enjoyed a couple of films, particularly Edie, starring Shelia Hancock as a pensioner determined to conquer a mountain in the highlands. She makes friends with a young man as she attempts to reach the summit. I also found a great book vlogger, Shreds Tube, worth checking out. He is a very well-spoken vlogger and has some interesting books and some great scenery in his videos. I

Next month

Mookse is hosting a read-along of Savage Detectives starting on Feb 10th. I had read this just before I started blogging so I am ready for a reread. I am reading and listening to it at the same time. There is a schedule on their substack. I have a number of books awaiting review. I had promised myself to keep on top of reading and reviewing simultaneously, but over the years, I ran off reading and not reviewing everything I had read. Other than that the usual mix of old and new. I have to try to get my century of translation slowly moving.I’m in the middle of the first book for it and will order the second book in due course. I hope get over this slight slump of not getting down to anything I been pick this and that book up for more than a week b ut not getting overly gripped by any of them I hope to find that one book to kick start me again. It is hard after a run of such great books this month.

What are your plans for February?

That was the month that was December 2023

December 29, 2023 ~ winstonsdad ~ 2 Comments

I had wanted to get to 100 reviews on the blog for the year, but it is as it is called Twixmas, that time between Christmas and New Year when the world comes almost to a stand, so I decided to do a roundup today, and on Sunday do my books of the year. Anyway, the last. Month of the year saw me start in France with a tale lawyer hired by a man she may know to defend his wife that killed their children has many a twist and turn. Then there is Faruk’s collection of poems about rivers in places he has lived after the Bosnian war and moving on beyond the war. Then, another river,, a valley,, and a tribe divide between tradition and the modern world. Then, in Japan, we. have a young girl with Autism or some similar condition is going through her teens, and no one seems to know she has this condition. Then, a collection of essays about snow and how it affects our lives. Then we move to France and the Young Annie Ernaux, her first sexual encounter, and the summer she grew up. Then, a young woman has left her homeland only to have her. Mother arrives in a gigantic parcel and causes uproar in her world. Then OI finished with a grieving woman connecting with her past after seeing. Young boy when she was an orphan and had a different name. No new publishers or countries. I finish 98 reviews for the year.

Book of the month

My Rivers is a wonderfully powerful poetry collection that mixes getting over the war identity, travel, place the spirit of place and what makes us human so well. Wonderfully translated by the publisher of Istros books herself .

Non-bookish events.

I brought a few records this month, one of the P J Harvey demos, the Dry one her first album I had this on cd the orginal album and I have most of her records on CD. A little raw at times her voice is wonderful. I had held off on these, but it was cheap at the record fair. Then I got a Tom Waits at the same record fair and another of his recently reissued albums later in the month. Finally, the second National album came out last month . We also have been watching The Crown. We did watch a couple of episodes when it start but have now watch one and half seasons since just before Christmas. Im still loving the new Slow Horses series Oldman is such a greart acrtor as his Lamb character a sort of anti Smiley spy is just a wonderfully played character. I also been watching the.Monartch series. We had a few days in York at the start of the month I like wandering the city it is a lovely city walkable the christmas market was fair , I found it hadn’t much I woud want gift wise for people. The two Highlights where a christmas walk around york where the history oif the city and christmas are mixed from roman emperors through viking logs, Dickens talking in York, mince pies and of course Choclate it was a wonderful walk around the city.

Next month

Well I had plans to rush through lots of books for January in Japam. But I am now thinking I would prefer taking time I’m letting the figures get to me again. I need avoid think it is a race its not it about the journey I take. So I watched one of my favourite You tuber Ruby Granger a young student , I loved her idea of a classic once a month and that seemed to come at about the same time as Trevor showed how he had got t6he first gfive Emila Zola novels from Rougon Macquart series which I have a number of on my shelves and I’ve had them for a number of years and reading the series on my mind. But I feel I will stat with one every two months from next month.Then the other month I will read other classic novels from around the world . I had said a few years back I felt one of the failing of this blog was a lack of classics from around the world in translation. So this is the chance to fill that void slowly. I have a few books in mind. Other than that I am not sure where the month will take me as a reader. What are your January plans ?

Well November has gone my November 23 reading etc

December 1, 2023November 30, 2023 ~ winstonsdad ~ 2 Comments

I managed seven books last month. I started with an affair in France. Through time travel in Switzerland. A family tried to make their way home during the pandemic in Croatia. Then a road trip and chase and a murde with a large dose of myths and magic realism in Lapland. Then, I will be a student at the Bauhaus during the day. Then a Jewish family in Berlin as the Nazis take over. Then, there are 48 stories in tribute to the German Jewish judge Fritz Bauer.

Book of the Month

so many great books but The Oppermanns is a lovely book as it is from Perseohone. Still, it is also a book that should be more well known as with the work from Kluge I read this is about Germany ten years before Kluge’s work and the dark clouds are just starting to go over the Jewish family as the world they live in slowly changes as the events that would become the Holocaust starts to happen.

Non-book events

Vinyl finds l I managed to get the live version of Flaming Lips Yoshimi battles the pink robots that came out for Black Friday for record store day. I also got the 25th anniversary of the REM up album I brought it on cd 25 years ago but it is one of theirs I have grown to love over the years, so I was pleased to get it on vinyl. I signed up on a black Friday deal to the Paramount app so I watched nearly all of the Star Trek series Strange New World the first captain of the Enterprise, Pike is in the original series, and that is used here as he knows when he is due to die how. They also had Frasier I loved the first episode it has nods to both Frasier and Cheers. I also started the Apple TV show Monarch, a series from their Godzilla universe it has a great turn by Kurt Russell and his son Wyatt who plays the younger version of his father’s character a US officer and founder of the Monarch organisation that monitors these beasts like Godzilla. I love how it is unfolding with past and present mixing. I also watched The Velveteen Rabbit I loved this of drama of a classic book about a boy and his rabbit sad and a new favourite for Christmas. I love kids shows from this time of year, like Box of Delights, which I loved as a kid this is perfect for kids now.

Next months reading

I am on 90 reviews for the year and have read 112 books I hope to get ten reviews done to reach the 100 reviews mark. I am on the verge of 100,000 words on here for this year. I have a number of books I have been sent I want to finish the year out with from some of my favourite presses and all in Translation.

October 23 lets look backat the month.

November 1, 2023 ~ winstonsdad ~ 5 Comments

Well, it was a great month I managed to review 12 books, including A Murder in Rome which shocked that city. To a girl growing up and not feeling in place. Then a man is in the middle of a cycle race, describing the race and his memories of being a rider. Then the first of two Maigret’ this. Month sees a man claiming to be his friend a fake picture, and an inspector from Scotland Yard. Then a young writer from Senegal finds a lost book and a lost writer and sets out to find more about him, Then a man caught up in the revolution in Egypt. A writer goes mad slowly from drink, drugs and fame in Big Sur. Then a story from three brothers that drifts through time and place. Then we Follow John Steinbeck on his way around a bygone America. Then back to Maigret and a man sees him on a Saturday to only disappear a few days later, leaving his wife and her lover and his former employee. The month started with Jon Fosse winning the Nobel and ended with me reviewing his latest short novella, where a man gets stuck in the woods and then follows some lights in the woods. Finally, it was Halloween yesterday, and I decided to review Hound of the Baskervilles, a creepy novel with lots of Atmosphere.

Book of the month

The Most Secret Memory of Men by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr the Senegalese writer, is a rising star of Francophile writing this is his second book and won the Prix Goncourt a fictional take on the true story of a fellow sub-Saharan writer. A book that came out just before the second world war and a writer that just vanished what did he do after a scandal about his debut Novel.

Non-book events

We’ve watched a few series this month firstly Them is a creepy show set in the 50s when a couple moves to a mostly white neighbourhood and strange things start to happen both in real life and in their minds. Then a new series based around Goosebumps, which saw the children of parents who had done something in the 80s attacked by a spirit. I also found an 80s Nick Cave Vinyl, not the reissue, which was great. I think autumn is always a time I like to read more.

Next month

I plan to get a number of books I have been sent reviewed I have a collection of short stories from Iceland. poetry from Bosnia, novellas from Japan and A quirky Finnish Novel. Also, the latest from Jhumpa Lahiri which is one of the books I have most wanted this year. I had hoped to get the New Peter Nadas books but I will have p[ass them as my darling wife lost her job and we need to watch the pennies a little the next few months. How was your month and what are your plans for next month . Oh I forgot it is also German lit month so expect a couple of more books from German. Not sure which yet!

September 23 Round Czech Lit month 23

October 1, 2023September 30, 2023 ~ winstonsdad ~ 4 Comments

I managed 6 books this month but I did read four for the first Czech lit month I only review Male writers which I ran out of time and the other book I read unfortunately had a print error which is a shame as it was from a female writer. I feel I managed to get a number of the great writers of the 20th-century Czech fiction reviewed. We went from a village in the thirties to an imagined island , a novel handed around in the seventies and a detective story that isn’t a detective story. So I will do this again next year and have more female writers. I do have a couple of female writers under review already. I also read a great piece of magic realism from a writer I love and a short Italian novella that I loved. It was a great selection this month. I will hope to get a few more reviews done next month and I have a number of days off next month.

Book of the month

I chose this as I love a twisty tale and a number of the books this month have been twisting tales but this detective story isn’t a detective story I loved it I like books that fragment narrative and twist plots. I could have chosen any of the books I read this month as they were all great reads.

Non-book events.

We had a holiday and I wrote a post about that. I brought a second-hand Suede Album which I never got on cd so when it was quite cheap the B-side collection was on three vinyls. But end the month on a YouTube rabbit hole of old disaster movies some made for TV and some like City on fire from the late seventies with a great cast led by Henry Fonda. These were big films back in the day. I also started watching an Australian black snow that has been shown on BBC 4 here.

Czech Lit month

Thanks for all that took part if you’d kindly link your reviews in the comments below I d be very grateful. I will try and add comments to you all. I will be doing it all again next year.

Next month

I have a few books read to review four at least so I’ll get to them first I have a lot of new books to read so I think next month will be a mix of new and African fiction I’m aiming to add a number more books from Africa by the end of the year.

That was August 2023 on Wintsonsdad

September 1, 2023 ~ winstonsdad ~ 4 Comments

Well I started this month with a bang but the last two weeks I just hadn’t blogged I think I just finishing work and now have two weeks off the first fortnight off since this time last year. But I did review thirteen books which is the best I have done in a month this year and shows I am back in a sort of blogging routine the journey this month went from German and some Slovenian Germans and then to Russia and a mother’s ashes going back to Siberia. Then we stay in Russia for a modern classic from a French writer a couple spend time in fifties Moscow. Then a woman has a breakdown and two meet try to fix her in there own ways. Then a series of lost voices in the form of letters from a Lebanese writer tell the refugees stories. Then a number of adults recall the devastating effect of an earthquake when they were kids in Italy. Then a detective uses fairy tales to solve a crime. Then a woman talks about her ex killing her daughters. Then a woman is at her husband’s wake as she drifts back and forth in time to their lives together. Then a pair of sisters in Paris discover something about one of them. Then growing up in Greenland in the LGBT community. We meet an art critic who talks about the art she is involved with and finally, a bookshop in Algiers history is recalled. Well that is 13 books all written by women for Woman in Translation Month I had hope to do more but I maybe should have prepared a little earlier.

Book of the month

Well, I pass as there are quite a few I could think it was such a great month. The first book from Greenland was great these are all worth trying as each is a very individual book.

Non-book events

I have caught two new series Only Murders in the Buildings the third series of this comic crime series that use three characters that do. Crime Podcast this time a well-known actor is found dead and also add to this the addition of Meryl Streep is class she is always amazing in everything she does. Then there was the latest Star Wars series Ahsoka the latest Star Wars spin-off. I’m not sure what I think so far Three episodes in and it is okay but not quite grabbed me there is a feeling of milking the cash cow dry maybe. What do you think ?

Next month

It is the first Czech Lit Month I hope have a review up over the weekend to set the ball rolling and then get four or five more books read and reviewed this month. I am mid-way through a Maigret and have a couple of books from before Woman in Translation Month to be reviewed. What are your plans for next month ?

July 23 The month that was !!

July 30, 2023 ~ winstonsdad ~ 5 Comments

I reviewed 9 books this month, given that we had spent 6 days in Scotland helping my dad sort my late aunt’s house and her funeral, and a week later, we went up again to bring her car, which she had wanted me to have. To get nine books reviewed was good any way my journey started with a relationship in old east Germany looked at again then we had a powerful tale of a mother and a decision she makes. Then a novel about race, gender and place with women all called Ada through the centuries. Then a young girl growing up in the slums of Madagascar looks at the rich folk and her life, and a mix of food history in the form of recipes is a potent mix. Then a fox shows us his home that is now a Mawl, as he calls the Mall they built there!. Then a man goes mad in the Guyana heartland as several ghosts appear from the jungle. Then a cat-and-mouse interview of death in the mountains unfolds in front of us. Then madness again with a man going mad in a lighthouse, and finally we have a man looking back after his mother’s funeral at how she controlled his life really in a book that has a slice of Bernhard chucked in it. We visited 8 countries this month and had a couple of new publishers on the reviews to the Blog. I also added Guyana to the blog. A very successful month which will make it hard to choose a book of the month this month.

Book of the month

I choose Wilson Harris’s book as it is maybe the most experimental book I read this month from a writer that should be better known than he is and someone I will be reading again soon. It was hard as this month there wasn’t a single bad book, infact, any book could have been a book of the month.

Non book events-

Firstly we were drawn into the four-part BBC drama The sixth commandment that followed the murder of Peter Farquhar by an ex-student a compelling drama of a man that was motivated by greed to kill older people well acted drama. Then I caught the Dylan Biopic” I’m Not There” which I have on DVD but it was on Mubi so I watched it again I loved the album that came with this film I like how they used each actor to reflect a different side of Bob over the years is a clever touch for a singer that has had many faces over the decades. Still, with Music, I got one reissue on vinyl the Suede debut which had a parallel with My Aunt passing as many years ago on a visit to her house I brought the debut single from Suede in a shop in Kirkcaldy in May 1992 many years ago so to listen to the Debut brought memories of that holiday and time spent with her. The other release was Blur’s new album which has a melancholy to it and echoes their earlier works with being completely new in itself

Next month –

Well, it is Woman in Translation month, and I am planning for every book next month to be from a female writer I have an ambitious idea, but as I tend to fail when I pin my flag to the pole, I wait to see how far I get with my plan for the month. before I mention too much. Anyway, there will be a number of female writers reviewed next month. What are your plans for next Month ?

That was the June 2023 lets look back

June 30, 2023June 29, 2023 ~ winstonsdad ~ 3 Comments

I felt I was back on track blogging, is I had managed 9 reviews in the last month. I started in Iceland and a political satire told by a made in the minister’s house. Then we have a group of lads growing up in post-unification Germany a thinly veiled piece of Autofiction of the writer’s years growing up. Then we have a pair of stories telling the outcome of a group of Kurdish refugees when one hits another, causing waves we have two narratives from this event. Then a dying man went to Northern Italy to stage a show. A widow lets a man into her house. What will happen when he meets her kids !! Then a man travels to visit the boarding house his grandmother lived in with fellow holocaust survivors. The ghost of the memories lingers in the air. Then four seasons of walking through the night and what you see. Then an imagined Caribbean country has issues when its sweetened rice crop begins to fail, and a couple that met years ago reconnect. When a couple wintering at the coast as UFO appears an unknown family? We went through 8 countries, a number of genres and one new publisher.

Book of the month

I had some great reads this month, but this grabbed me and was the one I had hoped would win the Booker International. It is a great coming of age for a group of hard living working class lads.

The halfway mark

A lot of you tubers have a half check-in. Well, here is mine. I have reviewed 43 books on the blog. I have read 58 books this year, Goodreads tells me. I had set 125 for the year and think I will hit that in my head. I want to review 100 books here if not a few more. I had added up and the country counts for the blog is at 116. Another plan is to get to 120 by the end of the year.

The book so far – while we were dreaming by Clemens Meyer

Discovery of the Year – all the devils are here by David Seabrook; a repeat of backlisted put me on to this gem.

A new writer to me – well not a new writer but I have read one and am finishing another by Javier Marias. I had read him before, but this year I finally got him as a writer which is great. I have a lot by him to read.

looking forward to The new Mathias Enard sound simply mad, then I have ordered the second book by Olga Ravn, and there is the two Peter Nadas books coming out.

Non-book events last month-

We finished a small light, and then we started to watch Archive 81, a horror series on Netflix from a podcast about a woman and a strange building in New York. I’ve been watching the two Denise Mina adaptions that BBC brought it a few years ago.

The month ahead

I am in Scotland for a family funeral the first week in July so I may not get to blog much that week, but I will try. I have a number of books on the go at the moment A long Hebrew classic I am midway through, a short German Satire and then Berta Isla. I have after this a plan to read a Nyrb classic and an Archipelago book not sure which I do yet I have so many on my shelves, and I plan to read one a month for the rest of the year. I am always inspired by the like of `Trevor at Mookse and the guys behind the unburied books podcast to read some more from these publishers but as ever I am a reader in the wind so plans can change just like the wind!

What has your month been like?

Category: round up

That was August 2024

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That was the month that was July 2024 plus Spanish Portuguese litl

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That was the month of June 2024

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May’s reading Journal

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April 2024 what happened on the blog

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February 2024 what did I read and do

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That was the month that was Jan 24

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That was the month that was December 2023

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Well November has gone my November 23 reading etc

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October 23 lets look backat the month.

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September 23 Round Czech Lit month 23

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That was August 2023 on Wintsonsdad

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July 23 The month that was !!

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That was the June 2023 lets look back

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