- Stay with me by Hanne Ørstavik
- A simple intervention by Yael Inakai
- Your Little Matter by Maria Grazia Calandrone
- Night of the Crow by Abel Tomé
- Count Julian by Juan Goytisolo
- The dead Mountaineer’s inn by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky
- Last summer in the city by Gianfranco Calligarich
- The Lime Works by Thomas Bernhard
- Eden,Eden,Eden by Pierre Guyotat
- The Use of Photography by Annie Ernaux and Marc Marie
I managed 10 reviews last month. I said a week or so ago that I may ease off a bit, but let’s see. This month I went from A danish novel set in Italy. Then, a Swiss novella is set in a creepy hospital doing a miracle op on a woman, which we see from one of the nurses’ points of view as she falls for a fellow nurse. Then, a woman traced her mother, who abandoned her, one of the most influential books I have read in recent years. Then a detective goes to solve a crime with his team on an island stuck in the past with two families running it. Then we stepped back for a collection of books first published in 1970. Count Julian sees a man look back on his beloved Spain with a bitter eye from North Africa. Then, a detective heads to a remote inn set in the mountains for nothing, it seems, but then something happens overnight. Then, a young man gets his heart broken in Rome. A man buys a lime factory and tries to write a great opus but never entirely does. Then kills his wife. Thedr a endless stream of sex and violence in a book banned in France. To end the month an affair in photographs from Nobel winner Anne Ernaux.
Book of the month
Your Little Matter is one of those books I read in translation for those gems worldwide. It is a tale of an abandoned child tracing her mother to work out why she was abandoned and to know a Woman she never fully knew ! A new publisher is the third book from Foundry Editions, which is a publisher worth trying.
Non book matter
Here is where I chatted about non-bookish things over the last month. There was a few rec0rds I got. I visited the local record fair and it was National albmu day. So I had an Idlewild and Prefab sprout album from the National Album Day selections. I got albums from the record fair over the month by Songs Ohio, Destroyer, Dead Can Dance. The Until the End of the World soundtrack (I had this on tape years ago and also a CD, but it is one of the best film soundtracks ) , Simon Raymonde’s Solo works and Mercury prize-winning English teacher. I also brought a new Paul Heaton Album and book for Amanda and me to see him next year in Sheffield. Then I also got the Wolfgang Press new album (More 4AD bands ) and then to be a bit with the hip kids Geordie Creeps’ debut solo album, the former Black Midi lead singer. A rather lot of records, more than normal, but I hit one record fair on a good day and brought more than usual. Series wise Amanda and I watch Queens Gambit both loved this not sure why it took us to now to watch it and are working through Maid on Netflix a series based on a new york times best seller of how hard it is to get by in the US with no money. We had a nice day in York, although it may have given me a cold looking at the ghost, and just two days ago, My wonderful Wife passed her driving test for the first time. I am so pleased for her, and it also means I haven’t to drive her to work and pick her up, which means I will have a chance to lie in and thus should be able to blog with the time and not get up early every day. How was your month outside books?
Next month
Well, it is German Lit Month, but there is also the New Month from Bellezza, Norway in November. I hope to review a couple of books. For each, I have read one book already. Let’s see what else I can find to read. I hope to read Robert Walser at some point, a writer missing from the writers I have read. I also have a great Book from a prize-winning writer, their latest novel, I’m reading, AND a Yiddish novel to read. What plans have you for next month ?























