Winston state of the nation and what more to do ?

Well we are four months into 2013 a quick update of my books read page tells me I ve read 48 books with three on the go I should be at 51 in next couple of days hopefully of the books I ve read this year ,45 have been translations .I ve struggle as ever to keep up reviewing I tend to prefer reading to blogging and this year as ever a few books won’t get reviewed ,I try my best but time to blog is much short than it was the last couple of year .So far the highlights of the year have been

Train to Budapest by Dacia Maraini ,I need to know why she was mentioned a lot as a potential Nobel winner and this multi stranded story showed me why .A hidden gem more of you should be trying .

Suicide by Edouard Leve a touching and thought provoking book about a man looking back on a friends suicide ,Leve himself committed suicide just days after handing this book in .Review coming soon

Other highlights outside books

Elementary is my current favourite tv show I follow so little tv these days I have managed to watch all of this modern retelling of Sherlock Holmes with a female Watson and set in New York .

Well I’ve sign up for spotify this means I tend to spend more time listening to old favourites and records I don’t own,than new stuff these days .Our HMV shut earlier this month leaving us in Chesterfield without a record shop hence move to spotify .But the return of Bowie and the new Album Next day has been played many times on my Ipod ,Ipad and Iphone .My favourite track is the title track a classic piece of cut up lyrics by Bowie

The future

Well this is hard one I feel like I ve been treading water for a long time doing as much as I can with in my time frame to blog ,but still struck by the fact I could be doing more ,18 months ago I felt much more forward facing and just at mo ,I feel like I getting like a hamster stuck on a hamster wheel .I have the big project behind the blog now but moving forward on that is a bit early when I hit five hundred books I will be making major changes on the blog as I need to organise it to fit what I have in mind ,but outside blogging .I feel I should be doing more I still do twitter every thurs ,but one feels there is a whole world more out there I could be doing to promote world lit and also getting it to the ordinary man on the street hence a return to more pop culture references in my reviews ,I could spend hours taking a book apart comparing to all other books by the writer or region of writing with 300 plus books read and reviewed on this blog plus maybe another 700plus books read pre blogging it would be possible but I don’t want to be drawn down this path it isn’t what I intend for the image of the blog I want my reviews to be informative on the book and light with pop culture comparisons how else am I going get more people to read the books I so love !!!! by making them seem like precious stones or a rare painting to only be brought out on special days no thats not the way we need to be thinking how to make translations appeal to the widest audience not the small band that read them already ,because on the whole they know the books I read as well as me ! No I want be as my dear friend Rob calls it a book evangelist for translation so this is where I need to ask you my friends out there what more can I do ? how can we break the wall #

 

 

What can we read into the food served in the Dinner blog tour

I was asked to join the blog tour,very happy as it was one of my favourite reads last year and a book I feel people should get to know bettr ,anyway I thought a few words on some of the food served during the meal would be fun .I did review The dinner last year and Alan from words of mercury kicked of the tour yesterday any way lets look at the food .

 

The dinner menu

Starter

Crayfish with baby onions dressed in a tarragon vinaigrette

Main course

Fillet of Guinea fowl

wrapped in ultra thin german bacon

on a bed of lettuce

Desert

A parfait of home made chocolate and shaved almonds

and grated walnuts

Topped with our own Blackberries fresh from the garden

*

Starter

Well I look at the crayfish and thought two things about why it might be chosen .One that they are fish that live of clean the water around them and maybe that is a fore warning of what is about to happen in the meal .The other point is there not Lobster smaller and is the maybe a point is this about a small fish in a big world ,one of the brother is a politician and is he maybe a small fish not the big one he thinks he is .

Main course

The main course again has Guinea fowl, which like the crayfish is a smaller version of fowl that one would usually eat and why is the bacon German ? at this point the action round the table is starting to get heat up as the two brothers discuss what their they are there for I do wonder what Dave lamb would say as he saw the four people round the table discussing there sons actions .

Desert

Parfait is a hard dish to make as it takes time and care to master .Strange rather like the decisions the two brothers and the wives are making round the table if one step goes wrong the outcome will be completely wrong .Blackberries from the garden maybe shows that the politician brother needs to get back to the people and maybe have something everyone would eat like Blackberries we’ve picked up ourselves .

Well sure I’m wrong but thought a quick look at the foods the brothers and wives ate during the dinner .

Do you ever wonder about the food mentioned in books you read ?

Fellow blog tour folk

 

Share your thoughts online: @atlanticbooks #thedinner.

26th April Stu Allen:

29th April Tina Hartas:

30th April – Marion McGilvary:

Pedantic Press

1st May David Hebblethwaite:

2nd May Megan Wood:

3rd May Marcia Jarnell:

 

25th April Alan Bowden:

 

tops on the blog tour .

 

My Independent foreign fiction Prize shortlist 2013 Winstons choice

Well after the longlist was announced I quickly got two of the books I ve not read from my local Library ,then brought another and finally after my birthday I had enough too afford a Kindle and a voucher to get some books and got the Last two books from the longlist which early Monday morning I finished In praise of hatred .We from the shadow jury are busy giving our views on the list and compiling a shortlist .But as shortlist is announced tomorrow I decide to pick my personnel six books and then later in the week will share our shadow Jury shortlist .

Winstons shortlist

Satantango by Laszlo Kraznahoraki

SatanTango was one of my favourite books from the last year ,I felt his prose are like wading through Treacle sticky , very tasty and tough going ,but should all books be easy ?

Traveller of the century By Andres Neuman

Set in an imagined town in medieval Germany ,Andres Neuman showed why he is so lauded in Spain and Latin america .

A death in the family by Karl Ove Knausgaard

Maybe this is hyped or maybe not but I found the way he made the everyday and family life sparkle as never before ,grim at times but hey life isn’t a bed of roses .

Trieste by Dasa Drndic

Well I felt this ahd HhHH are similar both quite stylistic books Iread both last year ,but it was this one that I still think over and am still touched by more than HhHH .

Dublinesque by Enrique Villa -Matas

A Joyce fan by Vila-Matas is writes a homage to his hero and the city he was from Dublin .Riba is also in the publishing buisness what is not to love .

In praise of hatred By Khaled Khalifa

Well I’ve yet to review but this openss Syria up although set in the past one can see the horrors people have had to endure .So much it was banned there .

So there we go ,I ve read all the books thought over ,digested and absorb and this is Winstonsdad’s view of this year longlist and my Favourites I must admit this years jugdes did a stunning job choosing this years longlist ,I Know there isn’t a bad book on the list having read them all .

 

 

 

Happy days when blogging works

I ve often moaned about my places in the blogging world  .But I was just thinking I m in a purple patch of blogging feeling on top of things and my lot in the world  .I feel as thou my interaction in the blogosphere is at its best  level since I started blogging over three years ago .Its much  easy to write a post letting steam off ,as  I am now struggling to write a positive post about my joy in blogging  .I think what I m trying to say is that after a number of years struggling to wonder where my voice and blog belonged in the grand scheme of things .I have decide maybe it belongs where I am at moment . A fair bit of content and taking part in great projects like Man Asian with Matt Lisa and Mark or my own shadow iffp with Gary Mark Lisa and Tony . Then another part is joining in thing like Lizzie and Caroline German Lit month ,Tony’s January in Japan.I think I wanted to be Fonz when I started blogging but I never was the cool kid at anything ,so I m happy being a Richie I want feel part of a family and I finally feel that I am part of the blogosphere .Anpother joy is the people I ve meet over last few years people like Mark ,Simon ,Rob my fellow bloggers ,Nikesh and the book trust folk ,Meike ,Maddy ,Henry ,Fiona and Beth from the world of publishing and of course Frank one of my favourite translators .All in All for a lad from  Chesterfield that start this as a project to do something in my own small way ,I feel I have .

So thanks to all that have stuck with me in lkast few years and here is to many more

What’s happening in Translation

I often come across some great bits via twitter ,internet and sent to me via e-mail .I decide that recently there had been enough to do a post so here we go here is a tapas of translation news from around the web -

A call to arms to publishers to translate more -

The lovely ladies at Stork press have written a wonderful piece over at Publishing perspectives about people translating more to English ,but also making these books seem more accessible to the everyday reader .This is similar to my angry post the other week .Here is the piece .I feel if we all make an effort to promote books in translation demand will grow .But I will yet again point out that publishers have to try and work with readers not against them !!

A modern Ukraine classic comes to english for the first time -

Kaylna Language press is publishing the book Black Raven by the Ukraine writer Vasyl Shkliar .Set in the 1920 about an uprising against the soviets in Ukraine this book sold 100,000 copies in Ukraine .Here is an interview with the writer .A link to the publishing site .

New site for Pushkin Press

The publisher Pushkin press who recently got new owners have revamped their website it’s not quite finished but it looks rather impressive so far .I ve reviewed a number of their books so it is great to see their new site looking so good and new style looks very eye-catching .

A new publisher seeking help

Anomalous press has had a journal about translation for a while now . But is now looking to start publish books so have run a kick-start project so if you live in the us you could maybe help a publisher in translation start !!!!!

Holocaust Memorial day some suggested reading

Here in the UK it is Holocaust Memorial day .The 27th January was picked as it was the day that Auschwitz was liberated by the soviets .The day is a chance for us all to remember those who have suffered at the hands of Tyranny ,ethnic cleansing or unfair regimes .Here at winstonsdad I have read a number of books set before during and after the Holocaust both fiction and non-fiction .So thought be a good idea to suggest a few books you could try that are all about the Holocaust.

Blooms of Darkness by Aharon Appelfeld – Last years IFFP winner follows a young boy coming to manhood ,as he tries to escape the Nazis .Hidden in a house of ill repute .Aharon Appelfeld novels have mostly been set and about the Holocaust .

Treblinka A survivor’s memory by Chil Rajchman When I reviewed this I just start with the words”just read this book .I stand by that Chil takes you through his time in The Treblinka camp and the horrors he saw whilst there .

The Emperor of Lies by Steve Sem-Sandberg The story of King Chaim that was the Jewish head of the Ghetto in Lodz and how by being himself and make sure he kept in line with the germans saved many lives of people in the Ghetto .

The Patagonian Hare – Claude Lanzmann The memoir of the French editor and film maker .He made Shoah the most definitive view of the holocaust with numerous interviews people involved .We found out how he made it .

Trieste by Dasa Drndic A story of a women meeting here son that was part of the Nazis Lebensborn programme ,but also mention and has a list of all the Italian Jews that died during world war two .

The last brother by Nathacha Appanah A young boy after the Holocaust trying for a new life in the promised land and he  end up in Mauritius after  he was expelled from Palenstine .

Sarajevo Malboro by Miljenko Jergovic  A collection stories set in and around the Balkan conflict ,which show the horror of this recent war on the people of Bosnia .

That’s just a few of course there is  many other books out there  by the likes of Primo Levi ,Anne Frank ,Etty Hilesum and many others .The next book to be covered here on Holocaust will be Train to Budapest by Dacia Maaini an Italian novel about a friend trying to find out what happened to her friend after she went to a concentration camp set during fifties as she travels to Budapest .

This years theme for Holocaust memorial day is to build a bridge 

Also visit the main site for Holocaust memorial day 

Have you a favourite read about the holocaust ?

Literary fascism and me

Well bet that got you looking at this post good .I need to clear my chest and get something of my chest that really bug me .I don’t easily get bugged but I feel something that  need to be said and some things need to be changed ! Well I ll start this followed seeing a book review that got lot people excited including myself about one book ,now I ll not name the book or the publisher that isn’t fair and to say this isn’t the first time I’ve had this feeling about books and publishers who are  at the heart of some high-end literature publishing fiction  in translation.That  there is a sort of fascism at heart of what they do and that is they don’t consider the everyday reader  clever enough  or entitled to read the cannon ,I feel this is an insult on the everyday  reader and a loss to  those writers they publish on there  behalf For them to try to say any books is beyond people is an insult to the reader  .I often think I maybe come across as stupid or not to literate as I write this blog and it has been noted before . Well let me tell you, yes my education is quite basic I grew up in a time before computers and much investment in working with people with certain problems like mine .I suffer from a disorder called dyspraxia .This made my own handwriting hard but also at times I found everyday school a nightmare as a clumsy kid with scruffy writing and also other problems like being unable to sometimes grasp grammar or misunderstand words with similar sounds ie there and their I know which is which but sometimes if I don’t note them in a piece i m writing  ,I get them the  wrong way round .So yes my post are rough and ready and this will thus set me at a disadvantage to most bloggers ,But I am them for the every day reader and try to draw people into fiction in translation .But this condition doesn’t mean I don’t understand or am unable to perceive the most complex novels or short stories because I can .I tend to write post for the Everyman like myself and I want books in translation to be for every one to choose rather than have them put on the top shelf because there is a feeling they aren’t for some people, man who do these people think they are  .I know for a fact that none of the people I have in mind will ever read this shame I don’t mind them reading it .Because they have their own ideas on what they do and boy is it wrong they are same people who will say oh I don’t like soma, big companies and what ever the liberal cause is this week ,  then go about their own work in a fascist style  make sure there books seem above the everyday reader ! As I say I m not picking one person publisher or book because I m not the type of person to do that but if you think you are one of these people hey why not try to sell some more of your books by getting them in the hands of an everyday reader .This comes to the core of what I want to do with winstonsdad  and that is to break down the wall that reader have built up round works in translation .Oh and one question probably you all ask left school at 18 after two years at college I had then found my calling and that is to work with people with learning disabilities  ,I had decided to do my job at 14 and never regretted it ,I make a difference every day to the people I look after and not many people can say that can they .

How do you view this world ?

Do you find it insulting ?

Best Music ,Tv AND Fillms 2012

I thought be fun to go through some of my music Tv and film highlights of 2012 ,I do worry as I get older having passed 40 this year .My taste are getting quite nostalgic ,this year saw a whole heap of new albums by artists I have loved for year ,so new music been harder to find ,I mean I could not by the two new Neil Young albums could I now ! any way here goes -

Best music 2012 -

I did in the middle of the year have start a music blog partly for the reason I stated my worry of becoming middle-aged and boring in my music tastes ,so here are a few albums I have enjoyed in the past twelve months .

Father John Mistry- fear fun -

The first album under a new name released by J Tilman the former drummer from fleet foxes ,This album saw a change in direction from his earlier solo efforts which where nearer fleet foxes in tone ,this album saw him move towards a more rocky , country rock feel ,also a darker tone to his lyrics .As seen in this video .

The Beachwood spark – The tarnished Gold

A band that disappeared for year but this was first time I had heard of them in this album that saw them return after eleven year ,an album of laid back california rock in fact at times you’d think it was a lost Laurel Canyon classic .As you can see in this video .

Bill Fay – Life is people

I think this is my favourite of year ,you have ask what took him so long this was his first new music in Forty years .But boy was it worth the wait a voice that has age like Cohen ,waits or the late Johnny Cash .Fay lyrics are simple affairs but you find they stick in your head all day after you’ve listened to him .As you see from video something spiritual I found in his music .

Reissue  of the year -A R Kane the singles

I couldn’t find the tapes I had of there early albums, so this reissue was welcome for a band even in there day were overlooked but in their  own way were very influential over ambient dance and shoegazing music .

Other mentions -

Neil Young - Psychedelia Pill – there first Jam album and some great guitar solo’s but maybe not his best lyrics .

Bob Dylan – Tempest – Any new dylan album is a must to me ,but must admit this one has stuck on ipod all year ,which is longer than his last few .

Best Tv programmes -

Well I don’t really get to follow series these days ,with my job shifts mean it is very rare I get a day of the week where I’m not working at some point over space of few weeks ,which makes following series quite hard but I have a couple that I have followed by catching up on line .

Elementary -

When I first heard there was going be an US version of the uk series Sherlock .So when I was Johnny Lee Miller and the casting of Lucy Liu as a female Watson ,was exciting .So I watched the first one and yes it is a bit to like other us drama’s like CSI and House ,but it has one great factor they don’t and that is the frantic Johnny Lee Miller who captures a former drug addict Sherlock so well a man with a past but also a little manic .Great see Miller in a role he is suited too an underused actor I have always thought .

Sherlock  -

the second series of Sherlock built on the first series ,I loved the new take on the hound of the Baskervilles a wonderfully clever twist on the original story .

The story of film an odyssey  -

A journey through film making .I enjoyed how Mark cousin mixed both historic and thematic tones in each episode to build a history of the cinema world-wide ,this did leave me with a list of films I need to see needless to say .

Best Films 2012

Well I don’t often go to pictures so most of the films I watch tend to be when the reach sky so my list will be films from earlier this year .

Tiny furniture -

The debut film from Lena Dunham ,ok it was out before 2012 but I got to it this year and loved her quirky and odd view of the world as a daughter returning home after college facing up to the next step in life ,whilst having parties and meeting a cast of odd characters .

Ted -

we went to cinema to watch this as Amanda and I very rarely agree on films we like but this was a wonderfully funny film about what if a ted came to life and how he deals with his kid growing up ,made me laugh all way through and any film with Sam Jones the flash Gordon from the camp classic is worth watching .

That’s it lots I want to watch when they reach tv or I get them on dvd ,moonrise kingdom and beasts of the southern wild being two .

What have been your music book and film highlights ?

Who is the greatest living Prose writer ?

 

The world cup for the greatest living Prose writer

Well as ever the backlash of the booker winner has started and it is about the comment that Peter Stothard made about Hillary Mantel being the greatest English living English prose writer (Pleased he said that because for my mind if it was world-wide she’d not be near the top ) .So the guardian have open  thread on who is the greatest English prose writer ,well I’m wanting to  go further and ask you all who is the greatest living prose writer ? I feel maybe a discussion that is less Anglo centric be interesting as I feel the best prose aren’t from english at the moment (but that may just be me so steeped in the translation ) so what are your views ? I ll throw three names in the hat to start with -

Peter Nadas – reason able to show the complexities of the human soul and sexual desire in the written word better than any one else .

Cees Nooteboom – travel writer ,prose writer ,novelist ,poet and Holland greatest living writer a jack of all trades and quite possibly a master of them all .

Goncalo Tavares – my current writer I want to read more off and champion . the Portuguese writer is push the bounds of what is fiction unlike anybody has in English for decades .

Thanks I m back slowly

I’m returning  but not fully refreshed as I had hoped ,but as many of you may know my wife has just returned home after a nine-day stay in hospital, so the time I had off from work to try to sort out  my blog and the review backlog has gone on the back-burner  .But I have learnt one thing about what is important about blogging to me  and that is the nice people I ve met via blogging  and there support over recent weeks has been wonderful via twitter and email .So I will be return this week I ve a hug backlog of books but have decide to read Proust  all in one go in December as I had planned to read him this year reading it all in one go will give me time to catch up .So  I’ve managed to read three of the booker shortlist whilst I ve been away and been making small plans for German lit month .I’ve a song that means a lot to me and Amanda here and so  What you all been up to ? I may take a while to get through all your blogs and comment please bare with me .