Category: #translationeveryday

Some recent buys

~ winstonsdad ~ 9 Comments

A break from all things booker today. I’ll do a round-up of some books I got on two recent days out. First, as many of you know, My Mum’s ashes are spread in Macclesfield, and as it was recently Mother’s Day here in the UK, I went to take some flowers, and we had a couple of hours in Macclesfield. They have a small Waterstones. I always get a nature book from there as my mum loved Nature, and this time, I chose another from the Little Toller classic series.

This was an earlier work from the Children writer Michael Morpurgo about a farm he ran in the countryside for Farms for city kids at his farm in North Devon. I was torn between this and another in the series. I hope it will be there next time I go back. There is also a OXFAM small again but it has not often had any good books but this time I hit a nice selection of books.

First up the title of this book Kafka was the rage a memoir written by a former leading book critic for the New York Times book critic about his time in Greenwich Village when it was there hip place to be,

One that has been on my radar for a few years is the first part of four of Dorothy Richardson’s Modernist masterpieces, the Pilgrimage. I will watch over time for the other three parts of this series. dealing with the life of Miriam Henderson

Next up is another on the series of short story collection from Oxford university press this collection is set in Barcelona compiled by Peter Bush who also translated them all they range from Cervantes through Josep Pla and Juan Marse to Quim Monzo as one of the modern writers involved in this vibrant city. I have other books from this series.

Ever since I had seen this had come out from And other stories in a new edition, I was reminded I wanted to read more from Hines, best well-known for Kes, and the script for Threads, which I recently watched a terrifylng look at how a nuclear war would end up shocking as it was set in Sheffield. So I was pleased to see this old film tie on of the Gamekeeper on the shelf.

Amanda and I also had a nice day in Sheffield where they have a large waterstonmes. BNut as I had literally three days earlier brought most of the booker longlist as I need most lof the books I limited myself to three books from there this time.

First off was Butter by Asako Yuzuki. I have seen this posted a lot. It has a very eye-catching cover, a story of a female serial killer who cooked  for and then killed her men. She is interviewed by another woman as the two talk. The woman is interviewing and starts to see the world like the serial killer, an interesting-sounding book. I need a few new Japanese books as I read a lot of the ones I had at the start of the year

Then, another from Japan, a woman pretends to be pregnant for nine months. How will she get away with it and why? I liked the sound of this, and it has been on a lot of other blogs, so I wait and it will be reviewed next January, I think. A little forward planning from me. I also love the cover of this book.

Then this was the main book I had gone for as I am a huge fan of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I have reviewed six other books from him at the time of the blog. I was excited when I heard that his last novel had survived. He wanted it bin, but his sons kept a copy, and we have this story of a faithful wife who goes away on holiday every August and has an affair whilst she is on Holiday. It is strange as he mostly had male lead characters in his books. But illicit love is something he always tackled in his books.

What new or second hand has hit your shelves recently. Are you looking forward to the Marquez as well? It is a writer’s last book he wanted to be destroyed. Was it worth saving just to have it ?

A century of books, A century in translation

~ winstonsdad ~ 8 Comments

I spoke with Simon from Stuck in the books on Twitter. He had mentioned he was thinking of doing another century of books. This is something he has done a couple of times over the time I have known of his blog. In fact last time he did it I did think about doing something similar but held off well. This time I am going to review books in trnalstion for each year between 1924 – 2023. The year will be the year the book was published in there original language. I had in mind to try for 100 countries, but I feel that it may be asking too much. But I will try to read as widely as possible so I can cover as many countries as I can. I am not putting a time frame on this at the moment. So far, I have looked at the first two years, 1924 and 1925. I have one book on my shelf for 1924 I read a number of years ago and failed to review and that is Skylark by Dezső Kosztolányi it is an NYRB book and was widely reviewed when it appeared a few years ago I think that is why I didn’t review it. It is the tale of a spinster and her parents as she is sent away. I’m looking forward to reading this one again. Then, in 1925, one book jumped out at me on the list of books from that year. It was Chaka by Thomas Mofolo, one of the earliest African writers to be published. He wrote in the 20s, and this book came out in 1925. and he had spent some years working on this book, which follows the rise and fall of a Zulu warrior King. There is an online number of this book available, so I will make this my 1925 book. I think after that, I will move from decade to decade, doing a couple of years at a time rather than going year by year. I think 1960 may be the next stop and for that I have Pornografia by Witold Gombrowicz which came out last year in a new translation I think I may have the old translation as well to compare. Anyway, that is part of the journey. This is going to be fun project I loved it when I saw how Simon did it for his taste in books. I’m hoping to find as many books around the world as I can to make this a journey of discovery. Here is a link to Simon’s 2018 Century of Books a few books I have read on his list.

Winstonsdads books of the year a dozen or so

~ winstonsdad ~ 15 Comments

I have picked 13 books I loved from the last 12 months. I am putting them down in no particular order. These are the cream of what I read in the last 12 months. All but one are books in translation. I avoid the Booker international books as they have had lots of attention due to being on the. longlist and shortlist, etc, and it gave me a chance to shine the spotlight on books that maybe others haven’t mentioned in the last year.

Black box by Shiori Ito translator Alison Markin Powell

A powerful work of nonfiction from an up-and-coming tv journalist that was sexual assault by an older renowned presenter, a powerful look at how sex attacks in the workplace are dealt with and how rape around the world is dealt with. After I read this, the writer finally saw justice for what had happened to her.

Balkan Bombshells various writers and translators

a collection of female writing from the Balkans showing the wide range of voices, from a woman with all she owned in a single blue bag to a woman in Belgrade and the leader died. Then elsewhere. There were creepy supernatural tales, an insight into Eastern European writing at its best.

The most secret memory of men by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr translator Lara Vergnaud

I haven’t shut up about this since I a wonderful mix of being an African writer then and now a novel that was withdrawn that parallels a real-life event and then a writer falling down a rabbit hole to find the lost writer of that book and find out what really happened makes it part road trip fiction as well.

My rivers by Faruk Šehić. translator S D Curtis

I think this will be the first time I have featured poetry in my end-of-year books, but in this cycle of poems, three of them are set around the great rivers of Europe from Berlin, then back to the Balkans and beyond. In the last cycle, he sees a man escaping the horrors of war and looking for peace and hope.

Black foam by Haji Jabir translators – Sawad Hussain and Marcia Lynx Qualey

this is a twist on the other stories IO have read of people trying to find a new life on the migrant trail it follows a man called various names Dawood, David among them a man trying to reach Israeli as a Falasha Jew but is he it shows you how fluid nationality can be and how we can change it to get by and survive.

All devils are here by David Seabrook

I blame an old Backlisted episode they replayed over the summer that just grabbed me with the description of the book, a series of essays around Rochester, the late home of Dickens, but also the artist Richard Dadd. Who was a killer in his time.  Did he inspire Dickens? This is a look at the darker side of those old seaside towns.

Karios by Jenny Erpenbeck translator Michael Hoffmann

I am on the fence with hr as a writer I am not as much of a fan as some of my fellow bloggers have been over the years but this story of a relationship that had failed was interesting enough and used some clever tricks in the book.

Wound by Oksana Vasyakina

This mixes a personal journey of a daughter taking her mother’s ashes to her home village in Siberia, but also a look at her own relationship as a lesbian in modern Russia. This is one of the first openly lesbian novels written in Russia. It is a powerful look at love, loss and memories.

Rombo by Esther Kinsky translator – Caroline Schimdt

It was a toss-up between this or the Kluge I read this year, but this collection of recollections of an earthquake in a small Italian village and how it affected seven people who were kids at the time and how it looked then and now, I love her books and this is another gem from this writer.

The Rider Tim Krabbe translator -Sam Garrett

Now if push came to show my book of the year would be this book. I loved the way he managed to get on the page about what it is like to cycle, the way you think the way he races in those big races the tactics he captured it so well no wonder he is a chess-playing cyclist and in some ways, the two share a certain amount in some cycle racing is a game of chess for the riders. one move can change the day the same as chess.

The missing word by Concita De Gregorio translator Clarissa Botsford

There is no word for a parent that have lost there children we have orphan and widower but there ins’t a word for a parent whose children have gone this follows a case where the husband takes the kids and then he is found but there is never a trace of the children he took and he won’t say hat happened to them powerful work.

Tranquillity by Attila Bartis translator – Irme Goldstein

I had this on my shelves for years and then decided to read it. I loved it, a tale of a mother and son living together as his sister got away from their mother, and he is stuck in a very Thomas Bernhard-like world. I just hope I can get his next book which came out this year but seems to have sold out and that is what spurred me to read this book.

Mothers don’t by Katixa Agirre translator – Kristin Addis

I finish with a powerful tale of two mothers one how killed her twins and the other a journalist who realises she knew this woman when they were at university together. another gem from Three Times Rebel Press.

So here are a few stats

I read 125 books this year, the longest being The End of August by Yu Muri. I just finished today. A total of 27,544 pages. I reviewed 98 books. I read 8 Japanese books this year the most from any country. I read books from 34 countries this year. I have posted 123 posts 100,000 words at an average of 812 words per a post.

How was your year ?

 

Looking Forward 2024 reading plans

~ winstonsdad ~ 17 Comments

This is the first time I can think of in all the time I have been Blogging I have done a post about the year ahead and thought that far ahead in Blogging terms. But I feel like I have been reading Water for many years, happy with the figures I get, and just doing the same year in year out about 120 posts about 90-100 reviews in a year. Well, I think next year I need to shake things up and raise the bar. I will again pass 100,000 words for the year this year. The fact is, I could easily carry on and do the same next year, but I feel the need to plan the year a little more and have firmly in my mind what I am doing throughout the year.

I have been buying lots of Japanese books for January in Japan. That is always a fun meme to join and always a good start to the year. Then I am planning to read 28 translations in February; I tried something similar last year, spurred on by Simon in Suck in the Books, that have done a few years with Novellas, where he reads one a day for a month. I loved trying to do it last year it meant I got to raid the Library for choices to read. Then we head into Booker International season. I will be reading the Longlist as I have for the last 12 years before it was the Booker International and was the old IFFP. I will then be looking at reading a few long books, getting ready for summer, and bringing back Spanish lit month in its original form, just Spanish Language literature. I’ve several books from Charco Press and other presses I want to read this month. I miss Richard, who started this with me many years ago. But I will do it Binnually with Czech lit month returning in 2025.  Then I will be doing Simon and Karen years in April. They take us back to 1937 , and what I love about this is the deep dive into the year. The books came out, finding those lost gems for every year they chose. Then we have German lit month which I didnt’ plan for this year and intend to have plans in place for next year. The hope is to increase the number of reviews to be similar to what I actually read in a year with 120 books. I said I have hit 100,0oo words in the last few years, so I aim to write 125,000 words. I will try to engage a little more on social media like I did when I first started this blog. I need to chat more; I miss the chat out there. I miss that. Well, there has been a whole lot of I, but it is me behind the blog, and it is time to step up and stop being so comfortable with the blog as we need to move on to winstonsdad the middle-age years. What are your plans for next year with your blog or just with your reading?

 

MY reading Habits

~ winstonsdad ~ 10 Comments

I been inspired t write this by the recent Mookse and Gripes episode, where Trevor and Paul talked over their habits and other bits around them as a reader. I thought I would talk a bit about my reading life and world. I am not as organized as Trevor and Paul. I never will be. My dyspraxia mind is chaotic a lot of the time. But I do have some routines, and over the years, I have blogged how me as a reader work has constantly evolved. I still manage to read over 100 books every year I may not review them all, but since I started last year to track my reading more on Goodreads, I have seen that it is about 120 books a year I read, and I think I will move the stat keeping to Storuy graph as supposedly it can give you more detail even this is a struggle at times for some that constantly will forget to update things due to my dyspraxia one of the worst things I have is this lack of constancy with doing things like this. But over the last few years, I am getting a little better. When do I read well, I am a chunk reader I am not someone who puts bits in here and there. I read the morning I hope to get between 30-45 minutes most mornings  work or not. On my days off, I try to read for a couple of hours during the day. I tend to work 3 days one week and four days the week after. I read every evening for about an hour times more if I’m nearing the end of a book, so that means I tend to read 18-20 hours a week, which sometimes is less, sometimes more. I find I read more in the winter, more so this year, since I inherited my aunt’s serious read lamp. This lamp has a natural light, and I think will add a little more reading in the evening this winter.

Paper/e-book I do have a paperwhite kindle. But I have maybe read 10 e-books in the last ten years I just don’t get on with it. I love the idea the change of font size and font is all brilliant it is just an interaction with the kindle for me never quite works.,I love seeing my progress in a  paper book. I keep the Kindle mainly for Booker International reading as I sometimes need to spend a lot on books, and the books I have read in recent years have been for Booker International. I have tried to use Netgalley but never read the e-books I try to get. So yes I am a paper books man.

Audiobooks had you asked me this a year ago, I said no. I would always say I love book-based podcasts like The Mookse and the Gripes. But I finally decided to try Audible and have since then read and listened to four books so yes, for me yes I LIKE Audio books if they will add another few books to what I read or help me tackle longer books that be great. Book length I am someone that have always preferred books under 300 pages. I have more and more in recent years been avoiding longer books in fact, this was the one tip I did get from Trevor and Paul to spread longer books court over a long time, a chapter or section of pages at a time. I will be trying this more next year. Thanks guys.  I have posted about being a single book read I have a hybrid version of this these days where I’ll read multiple, but I will tend to read chunks of books like Base Camps on Everest. This is something I have done for the last few months, and it has meant I have read more books than I used to as I tend to switch if I feel my reading of a book slowing

MyTBR I have two yellow trolleys, one in my library and the other in our lounge. One is the current TBR books. The other will be when I have a project reading like Czech Lit Month or Club 1962 etc, where I will find all the books for the said project and put them in my library trolley. This is something I have seen Simon Savidge do and I thought it was a great idea to sort them once a month as they tend to also get overloaded with books. I love project reading the year clubs Simon and Karen do are highlights of my years, as is the booker international longlist reading Czech Lit Month, German Lit Month and, of course, Spanish and Portuguese Lit Month. As for me and my mind, the focus it brings gives me clarity, and I’m sure these periods are when I read most. Where I read well I have my sofa downstairs which is by my serious light and upstairs my old reading light is next to a chair from Ikea in my library. I like listening to instrumental music and can cope with some lyrics but more on the acoustic country vibe than some of the punk, new wave industrial goth music I like, which is too distracting to read. Notes I use a few book tabs on passages I love and take pictures of pages I think I will quote, and with longer books take a few notes on index cards this is something I am doing more and more every year. I think in the process of writing my post these days, they are longer I like meaty quotes that I usually mention in the review. Well that’s me, nothing new A chaotic reader who has more order than I did when I started this blog but will be the most planned and ordered reader, but this chaos I have in my mind is what drives the wanderlust in my reading and the driving passion for books in translation as I have a very obsessional mind which is what makes me constant look for those underlooked gems and the sheer solo drive in my mind is for books in translation and world lit which will never change. I am so passionate about this as any of you who have met me will agree with it.

September 23 Round Czech Lit month 23

~ winstonsdad ~ 4 Comments
  1. Case Closed by Patrik Ourdeník
  2. The Golden Age by Michal Ajvaz
  3. The living and the rest by José Eduardo Agualusa 
  4. Summer of Caprice by Vladislav Vančura
  5. Valentino by Natalia Ginzburg 
  6. The questionnaire by Jiri Grusa

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 the month that Was May 23

~ winstonsdad ~ 7 Comments
  1. 533 A Book of Days by Cees Nooteboom
  2. I’ll do anything you want by Iolanda Batallé
  3. I served the king of England by Bohumil Hrabal 
  4. Liminal by Roland Schimmelpfennig
  5. Balkan Bombshells Female writing from Serbia and Montenegro 
  6. The Most Precious of Cargoes by Jean-Claude Grumberg 
  7. All the devils are Here by David Seabrook

Well, the month started with a series of vignettes from the Dutch writer Cees Nooteboom. Then we headed to Spain, and a woman’s a sexual awakening as she discovered her sexual side. Then a waiter climbs the ladder in the inter-war years but the dark shadows of world war two are already there. Then a failed detective finds out why a dead woman in a wedding dress drifts past some clubbers. Then Istros book has collected together the cream of Balkan female voices in a new collection. Then a fable-like tale of a child saved from the horrors of the Holocaust and finally the dark side of the some Kent seaside town. I read books from seven countries this month. There is no new publishers this month.

Book of the month

I had to pick Balakn Bombshells. This is a month that has been strong on the blog I can’t remember a month with so many great books reviewed. But this captures the voices of the top writers in Serbia. The dark years of the break of Yugoslavia are there, but also a sense of writers breaking free of that of women writing about being woman female issues/

Non-book events

I had a post around my favourite podcast this month, which I have been listening podcast a lot more recently.I think this will show as I aim to head into the world of Marias a bit more. I also caught Peter Davison Campion again, which I had not seen for years, and I had mistaken a crime journalist that had worn a Campion tie thinking it was a Kames Joyce tie many years ago at a crime writing meal I got invited to. Amanda and I have watched a couple of series; ten pound poms followed a group of people that followed the Aussie dream for various reasons, a sort of call the midwife in the Sun, almost that Sunday night sort of show, but it was fun. We are now halfway through Small Light which uses Mieps Gies the woman that helps hide the Franks during world war two it is a new take on the story that shows their world of being Dutch and under Nazis rules the different attitudes to the events. Music wise I’ve been on a retro kick a lot of Fury in the Slaughterhouse, Pet shop boys, Depeche Mode, and the month finished off with a new album from Califone, a band that I have loved for years, and this is maybe their best album.

Next month Book wise

I have a backlog of 16 books to review, as I have just read the 50th book of the year and have reviewed 34 this year. This includes the last of the bookers to review. We announced the Shadow winner this month. I also have a couple of classics. Then a couple of new books. Mostly from Europe, but I need to catch up, so I hope to do so this month. I’m of the mind to read a couple of really long books this month. I fancy Shira by SY Agnon, and maybe another to help catch up on the review backlog, and summer nights are great for reading longer books. What are your plans for the next month?

Weekend away and some books brought

~ winstonsdad ~ 8 Comments

Amanda and I have just had a weekend away. We do this every year with Amanda’s parents, sister and Aunt and Uncle. This year we chose a country hotel between Ashbourne and Leek on the edge of the peak district. We arrived Friday and wandered around Ashbourne, but as it was late, things were closing, but we had something to eat and planned to visit in the morning. We headed out in the morning, had coffee in Ashbourne, and then headed to the Oxfam bookshop. I had been a few years ago and often find Oxfam bookshops about the best charity shops to look around for books, and this was the case again.I found three books in there. We had a look around the antique shops. I am searching for a Victorian writing slope for my library come office to finish it off but to no avail. Anyway, here are the books.

The three books are Beckett’s essay on Proust and three dialogues. I don’t know a lot about this, but I Have enjoyed the Beckett I have read over the years. Then from Joesph Roth’s The String of Pearls, another book a Writer i have read but hadn’t heard the title of before, I have reviewed two other books from him over the years of the blog. The last is a former Prix Goncourt winner, Fields of Glory; I have in my head either a run-through former Goncourt winner or Nobel winner as a long-term project or both not quite decided yet. It is something I have been thinking over for a couple of years to do.

We then headed to Leek, a town I had often driven through as it is on the way back from my childhood home of Congleton to Chesterfield, but on all those trips through, I had rarely stopped, and we were surprised it was bigger than I remember it had a flea come antique market. I was nearly tempted as there were two writing slopes, but one had no lock, although I could replace it with the other lock, and the other was a tad too large, and neither had a secret compartment a must in my eyes the search will carry on. We visited the Oxfam in Leek, just a shop, and I found two books.

Murakami’s Birthday Stories a collection of short stories he chose a number of years ago with one of his own stories. I looked at this over the years and felt I should get it. Then Shakespeare by Anthony Burgess. I am a huge Burgess fan, and having all bar one of his novels, I am now on to the non-fiction titles, and this cover matches in part the copy of Dead Man in Deptford by Burgess I have. Then as is the case, I felt the need for a coffee and some cake. We stopped at a cafe called Kiek just off the marketplace, and it was the best Dairy free Brownie I have ever eaten. So tasty. Then we headed to the bookshop in Leek on two levels, which reminded me of Scriveners in Buxton. I brought some more books there

First of all, is Nature writing by Little Toller called Snow, One of my favourite books of all time is Encyclopedia of Snow by Sarah Emily Miano (A book worthy of being on the Backlisted podcast, a real lost gem, a book that is more Sebald than Sebald!) anyway this is another book around snow. Then there is Jean Cocteau’s debut novel, a short book from Zola, a nice weekend, and some unusual books that are less well-known by great writers. Have you had a good weekend?

 

Solo Booker international but I’d welcome some company

~ winstonsdad ~ 6 Comments

I am due to move House at the end of March. I have opted to go solo on this year’s Man Booker International, thus not being pressured to read for the shadow jury. So if I haven’t time to get them to read before the prize is won, I can do my own winner. I will be doing a guessing post, but these days, I feel Iam not at the crest of the wave with books in translation like I was maybe ten years ago. But life in recent years has crept in, and also maybe I am less after the new than I once was. I have spoken to another blogger about doing something on a superficial level around the booker longlist or shortlist. in fact, if any old shadows like to do something like split the longlist or shortlist get in contact or anyone that is interested in something. So after a slow trip and reading a few of the books, let me know if we can do something. I may also vlog some of this years content I have a set-up that I brought last year to start vlogging, and I may do a post around this prize. I’m after a nice read of the longlist and chat around the books nothing more this year if it appeals let me know. I shall do my guessing post in a few weeks and a reaction post to the longlist.

Winstonsdads Dozen of 2023

~ winstonsdad ~ 7 Comments
  1. A tomb of sand by Geetanjali Shree
  2. Canzone Di Guerra by Dasa Drndic
  3. Necropolis by Boris Pahor
  4. The book of Mother by Violaine Husiman
  5. Among the Almond trees by Hussein Barghouthi
  6. Goshawk Summer by James Aldred
  7. Thread ripper by Amalie Smith
  8. The critical case of a man called K BY Aziz Mohamed
  9. Something Strange like Hunger by Malika Mostadraf
  10. Pyre by Perumal Murgan
  11. school for girls by Arianne Lessard
  12. Dead Lands by Nuria Bendicho

Here is my dozen books I have picked books I reviewed on the blog I managed to read 122 books well that is as I write this on the 29th.My books of the year start in India with the Man booker international winner about an older woman getting over her husband’s passing and suddenly aspiring in her life all that wonderful use of language that had been brought Wonderfull to life into English. Then we are in the Balkans and Canada as we see how we cope with being an immigrant and trying to keep alive our own identity and heritage this book goes back to the war and has so much more by the late Dasa a writer that should be better known. Then we are still in the Balkans and Pahors account of his life in the concentration camps as he helped a doctor and saw the horrors a testament to surviving the horrors of the camps, Then a daughter tells of her chaotic childhood with her mother that had mental health issues as some that have struggled this year with stress and my mental health books around mental health are important. Then a man returns home to Palenstine and his past and present mixes as he wanders his childhood haunts as he faces death a powerful book. Then I read lots of nature books but Goshawk summer was the best as it captured that moment when the lockdown was there and nature crept back as the world felt silent and the world slowed for a short time. Then a gem of a book that has interlink stories thread ripper is one of those books that has a loose theme of computers women and computers and tapestry it is just a book that lingers long after you have finished the book. Then we meet a man undergoing Cancer treatment in Saudi Arabia this book nods to Kafka as our lead character gets lost in the world of medicine and what his family expects. Then we have the stories of a feminist Moroccan writer that died too soon this collection captures Morocco at the time from the female point of view but also what it was like living there from a woman chatting on the internet to being on a bus. Then we shoot in India and a story about castes set in a village as a son brings a wife back from the wrong cast what will happen especially when he has to go back to the city where they first meet.It is that class of cultures a son returns after seeing the city and its world back to the small minds of the village. Then a chorus of girls from a school in the middle of the country tell their tale and that of their teachers this is a creepy collection of voices. Then lastly is my book of the year Dead lands the story of a son that has been killed and shot in the back in his small Catalan village. The book takes the form of 13 stories from family members and those involved with the death of a priest to a carer, later on, caring for one of his siblings this is a Faulkneresque style but has a strong voice that captures that world of a small village and the secrets that lie under neither.So that is my dozen for this year. I will be back in the new year.

2023 Plans Waugh ,clubs, backlist and just being me

~ winstonsdad ~ 9 Comments

I’ve been thinking about what to do reading-wise next year. I am not a planner as u might have gathered and I always view my reading as adrift on the sea of books but for me this last year I have read more but reviewed less I am on the verge of completing the 120 total I had set myself this year so I will add five on next year. But the main plan for next year firstly is to try and read through all of Evelyn Waugh’s novels I have most if not all of them I couldn’t find my Brideshead when I took this pic. So I am not setting an order or reading them in chronological order but more as I feel and have time. Then I want to read more from my TBR pile,  my huge backlist pile of books I am always buying but never quite getting to I love the backlist podcast and Simon and Karen club years and feel I have so many great lost books on my shelves that need to be put out there I often get to caught up in the riptide of new books don’t we all well its time to move that tiler of my reading boat.I am still toying with Vlogging a little bit. Hopefully, I will build up the nerve. Another idea I’m wanting to try and knock a few longer books off the shelf. As ever the focus will be translated literature with a few nature books chucked in for good measure.I just need to get back to regular reviewing that said so far this year is the 3rd most words I have written in a year the most words per post. I always find the turn of the year brings a spurt to my blogging its like the New Year is a gust of wind in my sail. So what are your plans for the next year where is it going to take you reading wise?

That was the month that was June 2022

~ winstonsdad ~ 3 Comments
  1. To sir, with love by E R Braithwaite
  2. Among the Almond trees by Hussein Barghouthi
  3. Angel Station by Jachym Topol
  4. The blue bedspread by Raj Karmal Jha
  5. A cage in search of a Bird by Florence Noiville
  6. The young pretender by Michael Arditti
  7. The rabbit factor by Anti Tuomainen
  8. Ninth building by Zou Jingzhi
  9. Cinema stories by Alexander Kluge
  10. Copsford by Walter J. C. Murray
  11. The Military Orchid by Jocelyn Brooke 
  12. Goshawk summer by James Aldred

This month has been a good month for me reading as I have reviewed 12 books which is a total I haven’t hit for a while. The journey starts With being an immigrant in London post-war. Then return home after a lifetime away as a man dies and sees the ghosts of his past. Then 90s Prague and the flotsam and jetsam around a station lives are revealed. Then a woman meets a woman who starts to take over her life. Then a young actor and victim of grooming tries to review his career and escape his past. Then a brother inherits a fun fair and falls in love add to that a mafia angle in a great Finnish crime novel. Then growing up in Mao’s Beijing then being sent into exile to the hinterlands of China. Then Kluge wrote a number of stories about cinema and his world of films. Then a man drops out and collects herb in the first of three great nature books, then a man is obsessed with an Orchid he read about then spends his life hunting orchids and the holy grail of the Military Orchid. Then we have summer during lockdown watching goshawk nest and having a family of chicks in the New Forest. So a month that has seen me here there and everywhere. What has your path been this month through the books you have read?

Trio of the month

Among the Almond trees by Hussein Barghouthi

Hussein’s last days spent in the area of Ramallah where he grew up left and has returned to after a lifetime away he is haunted by his death and the ghost of his past. Very poetic and touching work there is another book from him coming out later this year I can’t wait for that book as this is one of the most touching books I have ever read.

The Rabbit Factor by Antti Tuomainen

A brother inherits the mess his brother has left in an amusement park full of odd characters that work there. He also falls for someone that is the polar opposite of the uptight account he is in a crime novel. But is so much more it has comedy romance and a bunch of odd characters and a damaged giant plastic rabbit.

Copsford by Walter J C Murray

A man moves to a derelict cottage and tries to live on the land as he tries to escape the life in London as he learns how to reap the herbs around Copsford. A great book about what has happened in the last few years.

Other events this month-

I  finally got to watch for the second time the series The story of Film an Odyssey. I had been given it as a present at Christmas and hadn’t got to it yet but this last month I watch the first two-discs of Mark Cousin history of cinema that encompass all of the worlds he just makes you just want to watch so many books. I watch the new series of Obi-wan on Disney which was a great series as it fills in some timeline gaps in the Star Wars story and I rewatched Only Murders in the Building ready for the second series of the comedy series is a tongue-in-cheek look at the world of true-crime podcast. I also went to the extra record store day middle of the month which had two records which I had to want but were delayed. The two I had on cd but wanted Beth Orton’s two LPs on Vinyl Central reservation and Trailer park her lo-fi acoustic sound is a great summer night sound I will love listening to them this summer.

The month ahead I am reading a little less translation for the foreseeable future I say this then go down a rabbit hole and see this and that book here I think the passion is there just a Little less over summer but it is the 10th Spanish and Portuguese lit month I will be reading the two books I had mentioned for the month plus a few extra. Plus work my way through the Wainwright longlist which I have all but three books now from the library. Amanda and I are off on Monday for a short break in Northumberland again we can’t wait as it means a visit to the wonderful Barter books which means a pile of books from our Holiday and some pictures of our trip.

What have you done last month or planned next month ?

Crime dagger Translation and the Queens jubilee read projects

~ winstonsdad ~ 8 Comments

I am best when I have an idea or  a project to make me blog.  but sometimes as it has happened with what should off been Archipelago books week which I missed. Anyway I have two personal projects I am keener on my own individual projects so when I got a email for the Crime dagger awards on the short list for the awards. Which features the Award for crime novels in Translation which had two books I had one I had read Bullet train and the other The rabbit factor.

CRIME FICTION IN TRANSLATION DAGGER

  • Hotel Cartagena, Simone Buchholz translated by Rachel Ward (Orenda Books)
  • Bullet Train, Kōtarō Isaka translated by Sam Malissa (Penguin Random House; Harvill Secker)
  • Oxygen, Sacha Naspini translated by Clarissa Botsford (Europa Editions UK Ltd; Europa Editions)
  • People Like Them, Samira Sedira translated by Lara Vergnaud (Bloomsbury Publishing; Raven Books)
  • The Rabbit Factor, Antti Tuomainen translated by David Hackston (Orenda Books)

So I order two from the net and one from the library and will read them over the next few weeks. I’m not timetabling myself it features two books from Orenda books who had sent me a lot of books in the past and have always been great promoters of crime in translation. Have you read any of the books on the list.

The complete Big Jubilee Read list

From 1952 to 1961

  • The Palm-Wine Drinkard – Amos Tutuola (1952, Nigeria)
  • The Hills Were Joyful Together – Roger Mais (1953, Jamaica)
  • In the Castle of My Skin – George Lamming (1953, Barbados)
  • My Bones and My Flute – Edgar Mittelholzer (1955, Guyana)
  • The Lonely Londoners – Sam Selvon (1956, Trinidad and Tobago/England)
  • The Guide – RK Narayan (1958, India)
  • To Sir, With Love – ER Braithwaite (1959, Guyana)
  • One Moonlit Night – Caradog Prichard (1961, Wales)
  • A House for Mr Biswas – VS Naipaul (1961, Trinidad and Tobago/England)
  • Sunlight on a Broken Column – Attia Hosain (1961, India)

From 1962 to 1971

  • A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess (1962, England)
  • The Interrogation – JMG Le Clezio (1963, France/Mauritius)
  • The Girls of Slender Means – Muriel Spark (1963, Scotland)
  • Arrow of God – Chinua Achebe (1964, Nigeria)
  • Death of a Naturalist – Seamus Heaney (1966, Northern Ireland)
  • Wide Sargasso Sea – Jean Rhys (1966, Dominica/Wales)
  • A Grain of Wheat – Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o (1967, Kenya)
  • Picnic at Hanging Rock – Joan Lindsay (1967, Australia)
  • The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born – Ayi Kwei Armah (1968, Ghana)
  • When Rain Clouds Gather – Bessie Head (1968, Botswana/South Africa)

From 1972 to 1981

  • The Nowhere Man – Kamala Markandaya (1972, India)
  • Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – John Le Carre (1974, England)
  • The Thorn Birds – Colleen McCullough (1977, Australia)
  • The Crow Eaters – Bapsi Sidhwa (1978, Pakistan)
  • The Sea, The Sea – Iris Murdoch (1978, England)
  • Who Do You think You Are? – Alice Munro (1978, Canada)
  • The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams (1979, England)
  • Tsotsi – Athol Fugard (1980, South Africa)
  • Clear Light of Day – Anita Desai (1980, India)
  • Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie (1981, England/India)

  • Schindler’s Ark – Thomas Keneally (1982, Australia)

  • Beka Lamb – Zee Edgell (1982, Belize)
  • The Bone People – Keri Hulme (1984, New Zealand)
  • The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood (1985, Canada
  • Summer Lightning – Olive Senior (1986, Jamaica)
  • The Whale Rider – Witi Ihimaera (1987, New Zealand)The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro (1989, England)
  • Omeros – Derek Walcott (1990, Saint Lucia)
  • The Adoption Papers – Jackie Kay (1991, Scotland)
  • Cloudstreet – Tim Winton (1991, Australia)

From 1992 to 2001

  • The English Patient – Michael Ondaatje (1992, Canada/Sri Lanka)
  • The Stone Diaries – Carol Shields (1993, Canada)
  • Paradise – Abdulrazak Gurnah (1994, Tanzania/England)
  • A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry (1995, India/Canada)
  • Salt – Earl Lovelace (1996, Trinidad and Tobago)
  • The God of Small Things – Arundhati Roy (1997, India)
  • The Blue Bedspread – Raj Kamal Jha (1999, India)
  • Disgrace – J M Coetzee (1999, South Africa/Australia)
  • White Teeth – Zadie Smith (2000, England)
  • Life of Pi – Yann Martel (2001, Canada)

From 2002 to 2011

  • Small Island – Andrea Levy (2004, England)
  • The Secret River – Kate Grenville (2005, Australia)
  • The Book Thief – Markus Zusak (2005, Australia)
  • Half of a Yellow Sun – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2006, Nigeria)
  • A Golden Age – Tahmima Anam (2007, Bangladesh)
  • The Boat – Nam Le (2008, Australia)
  • Wolf Hall – Hilary Mantel (2009, England)
  • The Book of Night Women – Marlon James (2009, Jamaica)
  • The Memory of Love – Aminatta Forna (2010, Sierra Leone/Scotland)
  • Chinaman – Shehan Karunatilaka (2010, Sri Lanka)

From 2012 to 2021

  • Our Lady of the Nile – Scholastique Mukasonga (2012, Rwanda)
  • The Luminaries – Eleanor Catton (2013, New Zealand)
  • Behold the Dreamers – Imbolo Mbue (2016, Cameroon)
  • The Bone Readers – Jacob Ross (2016, Grenada)
  • How We Disappeared – Jing-Jing Lee (2019, Singapore)
  • Girl, Woman, Other – Bernardine Evaristo (2019, England)
  • The Night Tiger – Yangsze Choo (2019, Malaysia)
  • Shuggie Bain – Douglas Stuart (2020, Scotland)
  • A Passage North – Anuk Arudpragasam (2021, Sri Lanka)
  • The Promise – Damon Galgut (2021, South Africa)

Then we have this list which I intend to try and read over the next 12 months it is the Queens Jubilee and this list has come out of a book a year and from around the commonwealth. It has a lot of books  that I have been reader favourites and I may have passed over the years.Now I am keen on the list as it has a few old favourites there is a few books on the list `I have reviewed over the time I have blogged which I will mark uo when I make a page for this project. . There is also six countries which I haven’t read books from so when I was in Bakewell today it was great to find two books from the list I had read disgrace pre blog times and I had a copy of stone diaries which I had but think I long since gave away. I have strarted on the list with To sire with love, but won’t be following an order as in years I’ll just jump from book to book. It will just be as I feel which books appeal over the next year. Which books I have at hand I need to get a most of the books on the list but I feel most my library will have or I can buy second hand. So I will try and read all seventy of the books from this may to next May. Anyone any favourites on this list?

The Booker international Diaries 2022

~ winstonsdad ~ 4 Comments
Edited in Prisma app with Watercolor image from booker

I decided to try and do a weekly look at the progress of my attempt to read all the booker international longlisted books. The longlist came out yesterday I was sitting as I try to be most years pressing refresh on the booker site as though it was a news feed. I love to have been around in ticker-tape times seeing the news v=come in little strips of paper. I made the mistake of thinking the list was only eight books as it had part upload on a refresh so then I went on Twitter happy I hadń so many books to get anyway after seeing it was the usual 13 books I then looked at the list.

Fernanda Melchor (Mexico) & Sophie Hughes
– Paradais (Fitzcarraldo Editions)

Mieko Kawakami (Japan), Sam Bett & David Boyd
– Heaven (Picador)

Sang Young Park (South Korea) & Anton Hur
– Love in the Big City (Tilted Axis Press)

Norman Erikson Pasaribu (Indonesia) & Tiffany Tsao
– Happy Stories, Mostly (Tilted Axis Press)

Claudia Piñeiro (Argentina) & Frances Riddle
– Elena Knows (Charco Press)

Violaine Huisman (France) & Leslie Camhi
– The Book of Mother (Virago)

David Grossman (Israel) & Jessica Cohen
– More than I Love My Life (Jonathan Cape)

Paulo Scott (Brazil) & Daniel Hahn
– Phenotypes (And Other Stories)

Jon Fosse (Norway) & Damion Searls
– A New Name: Septology VI-VII (Fitzcarraldo Editions)

Jonas Eika (Denmark) & Sherilyn Hellberg
– After the Sun (Lolli Editions)

Geetanjali Shree (India) & Daisy Rockwell
– Tomb of Sand (Tilted Axis Press)

Olga Tokarczuk (Poland) & Jennifer Croft
– The Books of Jacob (Fitzcarraldo Editions)

Bora Chung (South Korea) & Anton Hur
– Cursed Bunny (Honford Star)

We have a reaction post from our slack feed that Tony has done. I expected to read more than other years I felt the last year or two I haveń had my finger on the pulse as much as I once did. The books on the list, on the whole, I was aware of bar two and the other 11 most were mentioned by one or other of the shadow jury or on Twitter to me so I am happy to have some reading to do , I knew any list Frank be involved with would be great. I owned the tilted axis books as I have a subscription for this ear which was great. I have read Love in the big city and reviewed it but hadń reviewed Tomb of sand I am suffering a real crisis in confidence around doing reviews and this is one of the two books on the list I had read think they be on the list then I panic reviewing them and now will have to reread it which is great as it was one of my favourite books of this year. As for happy stories, mainly had partly read.   I had the Fosse but not read book two of this series and this is book three I have both so will read them I had reviewed the first part and The book of Jacob Iis the other book I had read and then sat panicking around my review I doń know why after 1100 reviews I just started to worry  I maybe need to go back and this post is maybe a way of going back in how I used to blog. The other Fitzcarraldo book Paradais isń out yet and I doń get sent many as over the year I haveń reviewed the ones I’ve been sent I have reviewed a number of their books so I may have wait until it comes out. I checked my library they had the  David Grossman which is one I would be able to borrow from my library at some point as I have reviewed three of his books on the blog and enjoyed his books I fetch that yesterday morning. They had Huisman this is one I had missed I mean I not able to remember every book I see mentioned but I tried to find it in the library but it must have been about somewhere so I ordered it to collect and will do so in the week. I then looked for the three I could get now they are Heaven that I picked up yesterday and then After the sun coming today and Phenotypes coming next week. I was sent cursed rabbit but it has hidden may be gone down a book rabbit hole Iḿ not sure if I shelved it somewhere or if it may have accidentally been thrown out in a pile of the weekend papers anyway I look again if not I’ll order it next week then it will turn up !! That’s it so I knew about an hour after the list came out that the list would be in the house by this time next week. I decided to start with Happy stories, mostly which is the second book I have read from Indonesia and I had part read it and was grabbed by the style also the interview between the translator and writer at the end of the book is very insightful. I chose this just to hit the ground running I thought I could knock off the short books and this is the case as I finished that earlier and had to start Heaven last night I hadń read Breast and eggs and I may be as yo know avoid hype books this is a quick read and shall finish that tonight. I think by this time next week or so I will have four reads and then the week after finish all the others bar the two epics. then leave time for Tomb of sand which is a large book but a quick read and then Books of Jacob. I finished it in January but will read it again. So David set up a slack group for this year and then the longlist was put in individual chats? anyway, we have started discussing each book we also have our spreadsheet that we score to get our long list to our shortlist and this year we will be having a group chat over the video, which for me was the highlight of the year it is so good to put a face and also I struggle so much with tweets these days after yet again having my grammar highlighted I know my grammar is poor its slightly better than it was but still a let down for me. So we are on our way this will be a weekly post where I talk about reading the books mention my reviews maybe other bits I just fancied trying something different and I will be back with the first review of the book Happy stories mostly.What are your thoughts on the list?