I picked up Natural Enemies of Books from the excellent independent book and magazine shop Rare Mags. I’m interested in the history of printing and typography and wanted to know more about women’s roles in a male-dominated industry. Natural Enemies of Books is a response to the 1937 publication Bookmaking on the Distaff Side, which […]| What I Think About When I Think About Reading
This is the first book I’ve read by Hanne Ørstavik. Stay With Me is her sixteenth novel. She has won multiple awards in her native Norway and her novel Love, translated into English by Martin Aitken, was a finalist in the 2018 National Book Awards for Translated Literature in the US. Aitken is the translator […]| What I Think About When I Think About Reading
In When Women Kill, translated by Sophie Hughes, Chilean author Alia Trabucco Zerán examines four true crime cases, each one a murder committed by a woman, to reveal the backgrounds of those women and the reasons they chose violence. Zerán trained as a lawyer, and this book draws on that training to dissect why some […]| What I Think About When I Think About Reading
Nina Bouraoui’s novel Satisfaction is told in the form of journal entries. The journals, seven of them, belong to Mme Akli and cover the period 1977-1978. Mme Akli is a French woman married t…| What I Think About When I Think About Reading
Frankie Miren’s novel The Service follows three women involved in the sex industry in different ways. Lori is an illegal sex worker trying to forge a better life for herself and her daughter.…| What I Think About When I Think About Reading
An academic walks into a room. He is faced by eight other people. He’s a late arrival, the meeting is almost over. A government official introduces him badly, getting his name wrong, misrepresenting his work and generally not having done his research properly. It’s an inauspicious start to his involvement in a government commission into […]| What I Think About When I Think About Reading
Keeping the House is the 2021 debut novel of North Londoner Tice Cin (pronounced Teejah Djin, for anyone like me whose English tongue wanders towards what it looks like to us). Set amongst the Turk…| What I Think About When I Think About Reading
In Manya Wilkinson’s tragicomedy Lublin, three teenage boys walk from Medritsch (Międzyrzec Podlaski) to Lublin along a road none of them have traversed before, in more ways than one. It is August 1907. Elya, Kiva and Ziv are taking brushes manufactured by Kiva’s uncle to market. Elya has made himself leader of the expedition. He […]| What I Think About When I Think About Reading
Yuri Herrera is a new author to me. Season of the Swamp is his imagining of an 18 month period between December 1853 and June 1855 when Benito Juárez was in exile in New Orleans. The novel is descr…| What I Think About When I Think About Reading
It’s officially summer and that means it’s time for the 20 Books of Summer Challenge! Emma of Words and Peace and Annabel of AnnaBookBel are leading the challenge, taking over for Cathy…| Nashville Book Worm