I’ll be back in 1929

I’m going to take a few weeks away from blogging and also Twitter. I’m just ready for a break from social media and the blog so I decide to return 3 weeks today, yes I’m missing the Nobel I may be around but think I won’t be posting on Twitter I’m looking forward to 1929 club so all effort while away will be to read for that week. There is nothing up I just want a break from my social media and blog. My  mental health is fair at moment  I just fancy a break from and maybe the headspace will be good for me and the blog.

 

That was the month that was August 2022

1. Mona by Pola Oloixarac
2. Thread ripper by Amalie Smith
3. Chinatown by Thuan
4. Moderato Cantabile by Marguerite Duras
5. The woman in the purple skirt by Natsuko Imamura
6. scattered all over the world by Yoko Tawada 
7. Dry heart by Natalia Ginzburg

I reviewed seven books this month and have reviewed 62 books so far I hope get to 100 reviews this year am a little behind at the mo but my journey this month has taken me to first Argentina and a writer going to maybe win a prize. Then a book that defies pigeonholing a danish novel with computers and tapestry at its heart and woman involved in them both. Then in  Chinatown In Vietnam. we met a woman who married a Chinese man and the man she married and what happened. Then a woman revisited the place the murder happened. Meets a man that works for her husband as she does. Then another woman is followed in her purple skirt a woman in a jumper watches her and sees her as more than she is in a creepy novel. Then a group of people set off to reunite two of the last people that can speak Japanese after the country disappeared and the people were scattered all over the world. Then marriage is told from the wife who married a man that wasn’t in love with him. It was of course won in translation month and every book this month fell into that category as we went from Latin America to Denmark and then Vietnam, France a couple stops in Japan and end up in Italy.

Book of the month

I chose this as it was an experimental novel that uses real people and a lot of threads to talk about woman’s rules in computers as a woman in the present uses her computer to work out her tapestry this is one of those books that remind me why I love books in translation and that is to be challenged as a reader and also to discover books that break the mould of what novels and fiction are and this ticks every box.

Non-book matters

Well I have struggled this month I just run out of steam in the general middle of the month a few family health issues worrying me, the rising cost of living (which we all have issues with), and a loss of confidence at work hit me hard and of course a heatwave again. But in the last week or so I have felt more myself and have started to talk more with those closest to me. I am pleased to have gotten through this and we are looking forward to some great things in the next 12 months in our life. Back to more interesting things I loved a couple of films I saw this month the first still life starred Eddie Marsan ( he was recently in the thief, his wife and the canoe on tv here) a wonderful character actor here he is a council work that deals with people that had died with no families he tries to find them ion not he has services for them a touching story of a man at odds with the new boss. Then a coming of age story jellyfish a young woman looks after her siblings as her mother struggles to get out of bed in Margate one of those faded seaside towns hard-hitting as she discovers her voice as a stand-up comedian. Finally, 5 days at memorial a series on Apple sees the aftermath of Katarina on New Orleans throughout those trapped in a hospital as the levee broke and floods cut them off and meant no water, power or food as they struggle to keep the patients alive based on the bestselling book by Sheri Fink (which had been on my list to get at some point since I heard about it on the New York Times book podcast).

The month ahead

I am off from next week for most of September. So I hope to review a few more books next month I have a book I have just started from a new country to the blog which is always an event these days for me. As I have a couple of weeks of work. we are having a few days in Northumberland which is our only plan. But apart from that we will be at home and the nights are drawing in I tend to read more in the evenings so looking forward to working down a few review books and TBR books. I have a huge book from Japan Well I have two books and one of those is two vols long due to arrival that I am looking forward to getting into at some point.

What have you enjoyed this month and what are your plans for September?

I’m going back to one book at a time

The current state of my TBR pile, when we got to the new year I decided I try and read multiple books I have read two books when I have a very long book to read over the years .but mostly read one book at a time if under 500 pages I can read 200 to 300 pages a day when I’m not working.I  have a job that means I have four days off a week and when it isn’t very stressful which it has been these last few months I am actually off work at the moment. I had tried after watching a number of youtube videos on how to read more I think as readers we all like to try and read a bit more but for me, it isn’t a new system like multiple books reading the problem is I have read 21 books this year I have had a number of books on the go and yes I read 21 books but most of them I read in a single or couple of sittings I started one then put it to side then I start another and I’m not getting back to the first books I was listening to the feeling bookish podcast(a new discovery that I am loving ) and they were talking about falling into reading rabbit holes and I am as a reader like this although I jump from place to place in my reading I often have a thin thread between books in my head anyway and can as I said in my recent library loot post easily get sidetracked by sparkly new books and new plans.  so after 46 days I am going back to normal and just reading one book at a time as I have indicated I am in pursuit of being more efficient not just on here but outside blogging I am now weekly planning and working on the shopping lists and menus all this for many is a given but for me a very disorganised person a side effect of Dyspraxia as my ability at times to get my thoughts across in a coherent manner even when I talk this happens some times. but over the years I have found this so much easier as I have blogged the words come much easier than they used to be something I feel much easier doing and hence the word count on my post is climbing year after year. One advantage I have is a wonderful photograph memory for places and events I can recall small details from family events and places we have been. Anyway, there I go on a sidetrack again the problem wasn’t helped by reading multiple books no actually better time planning I started to use an app called Forest which means I avoid using the phone and just read the screen can be a real distraction at times so this means you set a time and don’t touch you phone for that time. The next move on the do list is planning more time to blog which I struggle to keep to I need to find a system to be more organized with posting but it will come I have books to review and now I am back to just one book at a time except reading the books of Jacob along side what I am read for next week or two. I will be back tomorrow and later in the week with two books for Thomas Bernhard week I have read Extinction and the voice imitator. Which of course I enjoyed it reminds me how much I loved Bernhard. what is your reading regime and what is your blogging regime? I’m always interested in other readers tips and other bloggers ideas I love finding youtube videos about productivity and other book bloggers something I am just getting into vlogs I’m sure I have said this before but the productivity ones I have watched although mainly around studying I have learnt about better reading time management  anyway I’ll go now

Finally Holiday time

I have been missing a lot the last few months as I have just been running on empty two years of Covoid has been a lot. SO I have been counting down and now tomorrow Amanda and I finally get to have a long trip away we had a weekend away with family but this is our first break for over two years we had a couple of other plans curtailed due to lockdowns and restrictions over last year or so. So tomorrow we head north a last-minute change of destination we are going to Northumberland a place close to my heart as twenty-odd years ago I lived there for a couple of Years so when our plans change at the last minute a couple of weeks ago we opted for Northumberland. I even brought a guidebook as we look to do some new things this time we went a few years ago but this time we aim to do new things barring another day in Alnwick my old home town and home to the largest second-hand book shops in the Uk.  Barter books a shop that open when I lived there and had gone from the old waiting room of the station in Alnwick to the whole building over the years. This place was maybe the acorn of what I have become as a reader it was one of the first places I chanced on my reading experiences trying then unknown to me writers things like the Beats and some of my first translated writers. This was an age before the internet so a new writer was unknown to me as a reader no quick google search. A gem of a place. So a visit there it always feels like a rejuvenating experience. I have a pile of books with me and will be taking the laptop so may write a post or two if not I will be back and hit the ground running and reviewing in a little over a week. Has covid and the restriction hit your blogging or meant you can’t have a holiday? As we now face the world opening up again a=what are your plans moving forward

A quartet from Armenia

 

I have reviewed two books from Armenia one was by Aram Pachyan which I loved. So when I saw that there was four new books from Glagoslav from Armenia.

Robinson by Aram Pachyan was his debut collection won a presidential medal 16 stories each story is a small but sharp painting of various characters. a look at loneliness in the modern world. He was meant to launch these books with a speech a London book fair here is a link to the text of that speech. called the importance of difficult steps .

Raven before Noah by Susanna Harutyunyan Harout raised and saved by an old man grew up in an abandoned village that is home that has escaped torture from Turkey set between 1915 and 1960  one of the most acclaimed writers in Armenia

The door was open by Karine Khodikyan her fiction can be described as intellectual fiction for women. These short stories with a “MYstical touch” tell stories about women – young and old, happy and sad; even when the protagonist is not a woman, the story will immerse you into the life of a woman, revealing her role in anything and everything. These sound great don’t they !!

Point Zero by Narek Malian two historical stories set during the crusades on in Syria and then about pope urban starting the crusades a third story is a love story between a french  woman and a young Arab man in 2015 in Paris

This is a great new insight I looked at the three percent database and that in the ten years on the database there was only three books from Armenia published so this is a great leap forward!

11 not out Bloganiversary 11 years of winstonsdad

Well, it was actually a few days ago this blog turned 11 it has been a long journey recently I have slowed blogging wise but still am posting reviews. I hope to do more posts after this Covoid thing has passed. As for the state of the blog I feel I am settled I love doing reviews and these days mix review and personal choices more than I used. In the last eleven years, I have seen bloggers come and go and the world of blogging changes its quieter now as people use other platforms. But for me, it is still lively with those that remain like myself after a lot of years are like old friends. I maybe have less time to comment and spend less time on twitter than I once did but still love the buzz of a good week on #translationthurs hard believe that it runs its self as a meme ten years after I first suggested it. Moving forward more of the same I love it as much as I did when I started but in a more settled way than I once did. I  like to say thanks to all those Publishers, readers, bloggers, and book folk I have met through this blog or passed comment with blog-wise this blog has given me so many things I wouldn’t have done and hopefully have many new adventures in coming years.

Hi I m back from a week from hell

Many of you are aware i just had a week from hell my Mum had been ill for a while but three weeks ago end up in Hospital intially for a few days but over time her liver was in failure due in part to a genetic condition , even then she was due to go to be assesed for a new liver in a month or so , we got a call from my aunt who had been there with my mum saying she was worse than we knew so My brother and I went a week last friday and saw how ill she was and planned to come on the weds but by sun she was in ICU which time Duncan and I went everyday a six hour return journey to see here and then on weds last week she lost her battle , even know I feel numb and books have been far from my mind i did manage to read Black mose and part of the Unseen so keeping track with Shadow Man booker duty . I hope to get my reviews done in time but this year I am taking a back seat on the prize for this year . I am thankful for all the nice messages everyone left me on facebook . I am taking it a day at a time at the mo ,still not sunk in .

Happy 6th birthday winstonsdad

Well its been a strange year for the blog my beloved Winston sadly passed away last year , I dislocated my elbow and I lost a beloved stepmopther  . Book wise i did another shadow IFFP another spanish lit month and  went to london book fair for the first time .But that said I managed to do 170 posts and 100 of those were reviews of books which isn’t bad going . looking forward after a slow and quiet blogging  wise start of 2015 my life is slipping back to its normal routine .So loooking forward I’m looking forward to Spanish lit month and then trying catch up with my backlog of books . I can’t believe I’ve manage to last six years doing this it has for me opened the doors to a different world and made me many new friends from around the world so here is to another year and a year closer to that first decade of winstonsdad .So we have 1086 posts on the blog and 542 books under review from nearly 100 countries .

Hello London , Bok london LBF here I come

I write this as I am waiting for my taxi to take me to station to get a train to bring me into London around 10 this morning . I have luckily been given the chance to go to the London book fair and meet the  writer Olja Savičević at the launch of her first book in English Farewell cowboy at the Croatian writer union stand and the publisher Istros books .I’m excited as this is the place a lot of translation deals are made so I hope to see if only at a distance how this works . Mexico is the country of note this year .I have 9 Novels from Mexico under review at winstonsdad . I may do a few short blogs today if I get chance to give the atmosphere of London book fair .

My tribute je suis Charlie winstonsdad

Still shocked by yesterday’s events for one day only I turn rather poor cartoonists with a tribute to the four cartoonists that lost their lives yesterday in Paris .I’ll be back tomorrow with books