An end of week recap
“When people run out of probable things to do, they do improbable things.”
– Joseph Hansen (born 19th July 1923)
Among those whose births we celebrate today are German author, Heinrich Christian Boie (1744), American poet, journalist and political activist, Alice Dunbar Nelson (1875), Scottish physician and novelist, A.J. Cronin (1896), American playwright, journalist, novelist, poet and screenwriter, Thulani Davis (1949), Australian kidlit and fantasy writer, Garth Nix (1963) and British author, Lisa Jewell (1968).
Also, it was on this day in 1932 that the English novelist, biographer and playwright, Daphne du Maurier married Major Frederick ‘Boy’ Browning. The marriage produced three children and endured for almost 33-years, until his death in 1965.
As ever, this is a post in which I summarise books read, reviewed and currently on my TBR shelf. In addition to a variety of literary titbits, I look ahead to forthcoming publications, see what folk have on their nightstands and keep readers abreast of various book-related happenings.
CHATTERBOOKS >>
If you are planning a reading event, challenge, competition, or anything else likely to be of interest to the book blogging community and its followers, please let me know. I will happily share your news here with the fabulous array of bibliowonks who read this weekly wind up.
* Almost Overlooked *
Fellow book blogger Jacqui posted a Health Update at JacquiWine’s Journal on Sunday with some worrying news about a sudden decline of vision in her right eye, which is making it extremely difficult for her to read. I know we all wish her the very best of outcomes and hope she soon returns to the fold. As I write, the UK is experiencing its third heatwave of the year, sizzling in some of the warmest temperatures on record, so what better time to revisit Jacqui’s 2024 review of Penelope Lively’s short novel, Heat Wave? Set during a long, hot English summer and “underscored with a developing sense of tension”, fifty-something freelance editor Pauline is a mother watching her daughter repeat the mistakes of her own past. From early in the novel, “there is a sense of the past being reflected in the present”, which means you may well “guess how some aspects of this story will play out”. Exploring themes of family, betrayal and emotional resonance through the eyes of the protagonist, Lively’s evocative “descriptions of the natural world” clearly reflect the book’s “simmering tension through images of the scorched landscape withering in the blistering heat.” In what is “very much an interior, character-driven novel,” there are “several flashbacks to Pauline’s married life”, in which the author moves “seamlessly between the two timelines.” To find out why, in many ways, Heat Wave is reminiscent of an Anita Brookner novel, please look back at Jacqui’s memorable assessment of this introspective novel: Heat Wave by Penelope Lively.
* Lit Crit Blogflash *
I am going to share with you one of my favourite posts from around the blogosphere. There are a great many talented writers producing high-quality book features and reviews, which made it difficult to pick only this one – published in the last few weeks:
The latest trend in historical fiction: the 1960s – In a post for Reading the Past, long-time librarian and editor of the Historical Novels Review, Sarah Johnson, keeps us up to date with the latest novels set in the 1960s. She wonders if readers have come to terms with the fact that books “written now and set in the ’60s are [these days] considered historical fiction?” (*’Not really’, says this one-time babe in arms of that swinging, groovy, far-out decade.*) Describing the era as “tumultuous”, she suggests we read “Richard Sharp’s engaging essay The Sixties: The New Frontier for Historical Fiction” before exploring her list. Then, in a selection “zeroing in on civil rights, the counterculture movement, women’s empowerment in the workplace and at home, and the Vietnam War”, she recommends titles ranging from Laney Katz Becker’s In the Family Way and Marie Bostwick’s The Book Club for Troublesome Women to India Hayford’s The Song of the Blue Bottle Tree and many others. As Sarah quite rightly says, you will soon discover “many social issues from the ’60s are still very relevant” today.
* Irresistible Items *
Umpteen fascinating articles appeared on my bookdar last week. I generally make a point of tweeting/x-ing (not to mention tooting and bsky-ing) a few favourite finds (or adding them to my Facebook group page), but in case you missed anything, here are a selection of interesting snippets:
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The Polis Project: Eric Chacour On His Debut Novel What I Know About You – Benoit Landon talks to Canadian writer Éric Chacour, author of What I Know About You, a novel set between Cairo and Montreal, with themes including “uprootedness, following one’s own path, and homosexuality”.
Literature Wales: Wales Book of the Year Winners 2025 – Literature Wales announced that Clear by Carys Davies is the winner of the Overall English-language Wales Book of the Year Award, whilst Camu by Iola Ynyr took home the Overall Award in the Welsh-language.
What to Read Now: Beyond the Salt Path – Non-fiction book champion Caroline Sanderson with “five other walks of recovery and redemption”. Those who enjoyed The Salt Path may also find comfort in the words of poet and novelist Frances Spurrier, i.e. the Volatile Rune, in her recent post The Salt Path has the Hallmarks of a Fundamental Truth.
The Conversation: Parting by Sebastian Haffner: the forgotten German novel of the early 1930s that’s become a bestseller – “Abschied [Parting] was written just before the Nazi takeover. It reads in the breathless, immediate manner it was conceived”, says Andrea Hammel.
The New York Times: The Book Cover Trend You’re Seeing Everywhere – “Take a genteel painting, maybe featuring a swooning woman”, says Elisabeth Egan. “Add iridescent neon type for a shock to the system. And thank (or blame) Ottessa Moshfegh for getting there early.”
The Japan Times: Between reality and fiction: A summer’s day in Karuizawa with Minae Mizumura – The author of A True Novel speaks on the Nagano Prefecture town’s unique positioning between Japan and the West, literary tradition and artificial intelligence.
Nation Cymru: Reimagining Wales: Alison Layland’s speculative novel explores identity, language and the climate emergency – “What does Welsh identity look like in the wake of environmental collapse?” asks Dr Gemma June Howell. “In her bold new novel After the Clearances, author Alison Layland casts her gaze into the near future to ask how culture, language and community survive in a fractured, post-pandemic world.”
Church Times: Book review: Life in the Georgian Parsonage: Morals, material goods and the English clergy by Jon Stobart – “Once, parsons built and improved their houses, says William Whyte” – and indeed, with so much interest in Jane Austen and the Georgian era in general this year, Life in the Georgian Parsonage with its examination of the houses, consumption and lifestyle of Church of England clergy during this period has appeared at just the right time.
Bookforum: Hegel Dust – “A little-known philosopher’s deep influence over the avant-garde, neoconservatives, and the European Union”. Ryan Ruby reviews Marco Filoni’s fresh reappraisal of the Russian-born philosopher who influenced 20th-century French philosophy with his Hegelian interpretation: The Life and Thought of Alexandre Kojève.
Arts Alive San Antonio: Book Review: “Pan” by Michael Clune – American writer and critic Michael Clune’s debut coming-of-age story is a novel in which a teenager experiencing his first panic attack hovers “between despair and dyspepsia,” says Steven G. Kellman of Pan.
The Daily Star: Imagining Africa in Bengali fiction and verse – Fakrul Alam reviews Mahruba T. Mowtushi’s “illuminating work on Bengalis who [wrote] about Africa imaginatively,” Africa in the Bengali Imagination: From Calcutta to Kampala, 1928-1973.
The Telegraph (via Yahoo! News): The Hungarian women who poisoned 101 villagers – including their husbands – “In the 1920s, twenty-eight impoverished women were prosecuted for scores of murders – which turned out to be their own desperate survival ploy.” Violet Moller reviews Hope Reese’s The Women Are Not Fine, an account of a small but murky corner of history.
Moments of Being: Jean Rhys on the Tyranny of Love – “What do you want to be free for?” says a jailed husband to his depressed, unfaithful wife. Arden Boshier shares her thoughts on Jean Rhys’s 1928 novel, Quartet.
BBC Culture: First Harry Potter image released as production begins – “Production has begun on the new TV adaptation of Harry Potter, as the first picture of the lead actor in costume was released”, reveals Steven McIntosh.
AnOther: Lina Scheynius Accounts the End of a Relationship – “Mixing diary entries and essays, the Swedish photographer’s first venture into prose maps the unravelling of a toxic relationship” in Diary of an Ending (translated by Saskia Voge).
The Standard: The Latehomecomer by Mavis Gallant book review: Glittering tales of emotional truth – The late Canadian writer Mavis Gallant “is back in fashion”, says Robbie Smith, and she returns “in the form of this Pushkin Press Classics edition of her short stories,” The Latehomecomer, all of which were first published between the mid-1950s and early ‘90s.
Reactor: The Ambiguous Realism of Ursula K. Le Guin’s Lost Trilogy – “It’s time”, says Peter Milne Greiner, “to reconsider one of Le Guin’s most vitally important works.”
SSBCrack: Irvine Welsh discusses Trainspotting sequel “Men in Love” and the impact of modern society – Set just after the events of Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh’s latest gritty novel, Men in Love, “seeks to explore themes of love and relationships among young men, a contrast to the chaos of their previous lives.”
The Observer: The vorticists: rebel prophets of the machine age – “A century ago a movement led by Wyndham Lewis shook up the art world. Its after-effects are still being felt”, writes Stephen Smith in his review of James King’s group biography, ‘Our Little Gang’: The Lives of the Vorticists.
Open Culture: J. R. R. Tolkien Reads from The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings & Other Works – “If you wanted to hear the voice of your favorite writer in the nineteen-sixties — a time before audiobooks, let alone podcasts — you [would consult] the catalog of Caedmon Records”, says Colin Marshall.
Washington Independent Review of Books: An Interview with Susan Buttenwieser – John P. Loonam enjoys a Q&A session with author of the historical novel Junction of Earth and Sky in which she talks of “trauma, visceral settings, and the allure of the sea.”
Independent: ‘Gorky Park’ author Martin Cruz Smith dies at 82 – The American novelist, Martin Cruz Smith, author of the 1981 bestseller Gorky Park, has died at the age of 82.
Books Ireland: Tony Canavan looks at the career of Rosa Mulholland 1841-1921 – Rosa Mulholland “was a famous [Belfast] writer in the 19th century [who] fell into obscurity until the light of feminist and literary scholarship many decades later”, says Tony Canavan.
Book of Titans: An Arthuriad – Erik Rostad on “four volumes of epic poetry [to come] over the next four years” from Malcolm Guite – “starting with Galahad and the Grail in March 2026.”
That’s Life: Top Books of 2025 (so far) by Australian and New Zealand Authors – Holly Campbell wants you to “snuggle up this winter with one of the top reads of 2025, all from authors in Australia and New Zealand.”
Fine Books & Collections: Lewis Carroll: A Rare and Wondrous Rabbit Hole – In what Gabriel Sewell describes as “an act of remarkable generosity,” the Lewis Carroll scholar Jon A. Lindseth “has donated his magnificent Carroll collection to Christ Church Oxford, where the Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson […] taught mathematics from 1855 to 1881”.
Traveling in Books: Book Review: The Bewitching – Kim and the Cat review Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s latest eerie horror novel, The Bewitching, in which three women in three different eras face danger and encounter witchcraft.
The Brooklyn Rail: Lara Mimosa Montes’s The Time of the Novel – Mary Karmelek writes: “The written word is having a moment [but] some days, the sudden accumulation of writing has left literature feeling dull, less engaged. It has left me ‘wordsick,’ to borrow a term from Lara Mimosa Montes’s new book, The Time of the Novel, wanting writing to do more.”
Strange Horizons: The Afrofuturist Evolution by Ytasha L. Womack – “It’s Afrofuturism’s time in the sun (Black skin gleaming with Vaseline), and Ytasha L. Womack is its prophet”, says Jacqueline Nyathi of The Afrofuturist Evolution: Creative Paths to Self-Discovery.
Commonweal: An Advocate of the Human Spirit – Christopher Urban says of the neglected realist Danish author: “Henrik Pontoppidan leaves no section of human society—government, church, rural life, city living, commerce, romance—untouched by his critical eye.” Here he discusses his often-overlooked books of fiction, A Fortunate Man and The White Bear.
The AU Review: Book Review: Inconvenient Women is a deep dive into left-leaning politics of the early 1900s through the lens of women writers – “Acclaimed biographer Jacqueline Kent explores the left-wing movement through the lens of women writers in her latest biography Inconvenient Women: Australian Radical Writers 1900 – 1970”.
UnHerd: Why Gen Z goes mad for Dostoyevsky – “Young people crave an anti-capitalist prophet”, says Christopher Akers.
Pitch Your Novel: The Upmarket Fiction Formula – Karin Gillespie examines why upmarket fiction “is always in demand”.
Noah News: Julia Jones celebrates pioneering women sailors who defied gender norms at sea – Stars to Steer by Julia Jones “explores the inspiring stories of 20th-century women who challenged societal expectations to embrace sailing, highlighting their struggles, defiance, and ongoing fight for equality in a male-dominated world”, writes Aiden Captain.
The Metropolitan Review: The Banality of Evil – In her review of Samuél Lopez-Barrantes’ The Requisitions, Raina Lipsitz tells us: “The novel confronts both the horrors of fascism and the sickening flexibility of the human mind” but “in spite of its grim subject matter, [it is] strangely and luminously hopeful”, reminding us “that we possess the will not merely to survive, but to experience anew the joy and pleasure and laughter and love that make life worthwhile, even after the worst atrocities imaginable.”
The Neglected Books Page: The Longest Novel Ever Written? – “Thirteen million words. Over forty years’ work. Millions of readers. It’s been called the longest novel ever written. And you’ve never heard of it or its author.”
49th Shelf: Most Anticipated: Our 2025 Fall Fiction Preview – “All the fiction you’ll be falling in love with in the second half of 2025” from the people who know Canadian books better than most.
Publishing Perspectives: Sudan’s Leila Aboulela Wins the 2025 PEN Pinter Prize – “The newly named 2025 PEN Pinter Prize laureate Leila Aboulela will give her address on October 10 at the British Library”, reports Porter Anderson.
Largehearted Boy: Sebastian Castillo’s Book Notes music playlist for his novel Fresh, Green Life – “…given the narrator of my novel is obsessed with exercise, I thought I’d provide a fun workout playlist, songs that have raised my own blood, with a salutary benefit for your heart and spirit both.” An author playlist for Sebastian Castillo’s Fresh, Green Life.
North Sea Poets: Winners and Losers: The Death of the Poetry Critic – “Ben Wilkinson on the current state of reviewing culture”.
The Met: At Home in a Book – Lydia Aikenhead on “nineteenth-century house albums from Watson Library and the Department of Drawings and Prints Library.”
JSTOR Daily: What Is Serendipity? – “We often credit unexpected events to serendipity. But who amongst us knows The Three Princes of Serendip, the tale from which the word derives?” asks Emily Zarevich.
Book Culture: Coffee and the March sisters – “A domestic brew with national significance in Little Women”.
Paste: Generative AI is Turning Publishing Into a Swamp of Slop – Kayleigh Donaldson warns us that readers and writers throughout the world are increasingly forced to contend with the “stranglehold that AI in all its forms has over our entertainment.” It is, she says, no longer possible “to ignore how much this slop has come to dominate [our] cultural spaces.”
Literary Hub: Algorithm On Fleek: How TikTok is Transforming the English Language – In this excerpt from his book Algospeak: How Social Media Is Transforming the Future of Language, Adam Aleksic “explores the evolution of popular vernacular, from the Middle Ages to the Contemporary Era”.
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FINALLY >>
If there is something you would particularly like to see in Winding Up the Week or if you have any suggestions, questions or comments for Book Jotter in general, please drop me a line or comment below. I would be delighted to hear from you.
Thank you for taking the time to read this post. I wish you a week bountiful in books and rich in reading.
NB In this feature, ‘winding up’ refers to the act of concluding something and should not be confused with the British expression: ‘wind-up’ – an age-old pastime of ‘winding-up’ friends and family by teasing or playing pranks on them. If you would like to know more about this expression, there is an excellent description on Urban Dictionary.
Categories: Winding Up the Week
