~ April Wrap-up ~ In April I mostly read prize longlists, 10 books total, mostly audio books (the perfect gardening companions). I think I read my favourite book of the year and Booker favourite, Kairos. What a book! International Booker Prize: 📘 What I'd Rather Not Think About by Jente Posthuma ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 📔 Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 🎧 Lost on Me by Veronica Raimo ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 🎧 The Silver Bone by Andrey Kurkov ⭐️⭐️⭐️ The Women's Prize: 🎧 The Maiden by Kate Foster ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 🎧 Restless Dolly Maunder by Kate Grenville ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 🎧 Thunderclap by Laura Cumming ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Other: 🎧 Acts of Service by Lillian Fishman ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 🎧 Julia by Sandra Newman ⭐️⭐️ 🎧 Clear by Carys Davies ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Have you read any of these? Do you have any April favourites? ~ ~ ~ #aprilwrapup #womensprize #womensprizeforfiction #bookstagramreadsthewomensprize #bookerprize #internationalbooker #bookstagramreadsthebooker #books #booksofinstagram #bookstagram #bookawards #bookphotography #goodreads #instareads #transtaledfiction #internationalbooker2024 #kairos #whatidrathernotthinkabout #restlessdollymaunder #thunderclap #nonfiction #tulips
Well that was a bit of a slog! I think there’s an important, interesting and well-written story in here but it’s bogged down by so much information! I like to learn while reading, but this was just info dumping at points. It does make me want to read an actual novel that centers on the workers in Korea … not this textbook/novel hybrid! In saying that, there’s a lot to admire in this novel. 3 (slightly painful) ⭐️ #mater210 #bookstagrammer #translatedfiction #bookstagramreadsthebooker #koreanliterature
*currently reading* Look at this new color coordinated bunch that I will be reading this week 💚 📱𝘒𝘢𝘪𝘳𝘰𝘴 by Jenny Erpenbeck (translated by Michael Hofmann I am finally going to pick up this International Booker longlisted, Bookstagram darling. Can’t wait to see what I find! 📖 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘝𝘶𝘭𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘴 by Sigrid Nunez So I haven’t even opened this one, because I didn’t have much time to read last week and the time that I had was either audiobook time or focused on Tommy Orange’s Wandering Stars. We have a week off work and school this week, so hopefully I will get to pick this one up! 🎧 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘞𝘳𝘦𝘯, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘞𝘳𝘦𝘯 by Anne Enright (narrated by the author, Aoife Duffin, Owen Roe and Liza Ross) Anne Enright has been on my radar for forever, but I never read any of her books yet. But now this one made the Women’s prize shortlist and it gave me the final nudge I needed to get started a few days ago and already made quite the dent! It’s good so far. What will you be reading? 📚📖💙 #literaryfiction #bookstack #booklover #thewrenthewren #anneenright #thevulnerables #sigridnunez #kairos #jennyerpenbeck #bookprizes #bookhaul #currentlyreading #litfic #readingupdate #booksbooksbooks #fortheloveofbooks #alwaysreading #bookworm #readingaddict #tbrpile #amreading #bookish #whatiread #bookblogger #bookstagramreadsthebooker #internationalbooker #thebookerprize
📚Book Review📚– Prophet Song by Paul Lynch Right, I have a big statement – I think this might be the best Booker Prize winner I have read. I sat in silence for about 30 minutes after finishing. It is an outstanding book, I can’t quite get over it, but as a warning, it’s incredibly heavy and bleak. Set in an alternate version of Ireland in which the country is under an authoritarian regime. The story follows Eilish, a mother trying to hold her family together. The secret police come for her husband and she is left to look after their children in this new grim reality. She is persecuted at work and has no idea who to trust when navigating this new world. It was so hard not to draw comparisons to what is going on in the world at the moment. The writing is exceptional. Lynch does not use paragraphs and speech marks and so the narrative is very oppressive. I personally didn’t find this confusing and for me, it added to the consistent tension throughout the book! He uses such vivid imagery and it completely makes you feel the dread and terror of this world. The characters are all incredible and the relationships in the book feel so real. I love how he captures the feelings and psychological effects of this new world for teenagers, kids, parents and grandparents. This book is dystopian but it doesn’t feel like it! Lynch shows how any person at any time can become a refugee whether we want to face that reality or not. This is a book that will stay with me for years. I have barely been able to stop thinking about it since I finished it. It is such a worthy winner of the Booker Prize. Have you read this? What were your thoughts? ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 #prophetsong #paullynch #bookreview #bookreviewer #goodreads #booksofinstagram #bookoftheday #alwaysreading #bibliophile #bookworm #booknerd #bookaddict #booksbooksandmorebooks #booklover #ilovebooks #fiction #idratherbereading #fivestarread #5starreads #5starbooks #bookerprize #bookerprize2023 #bookerprizelonglist #bookstagramreadsthebooker #bookershortlist #bookerwinner2024 #bookerwinner
The Details by Ia Genberg, translated by Kira Josefsson 📖 "In exhilarating, provocative prose, Ia Genberg reveals an intimate and powerful celebration of what it means to be human. [...] Who is the real subject of a portrait, the person being painted or the one holding the brush?" This is how the Booker judges describe The Details by Ia Genberg which I was so excited to read. A book about things forgotten and things one cannot forget, a book about someone who flips through pages of her past. This sounded so great, but, unfortunately, it didn't live up to my expectations. It's not a bad book, but it's also not a brilliant one, and I'd definitely expected more from one that's shortlisted for the international booker. Have you read this? What did you think? Let me know in the comments 🤍 #iagenberg #thedetails #internationalbooker #internationalbookerprize #bookstagramreadsthebooker #translatedfiction #swedishliterature #bookreview
Lost on Me lost me towards the end (pun intended), but it started with a lot of promise and indeed deserves to be on the International Booker Prize Longlist. Lost on Me by Veronica Raimo is like stepping into the hilarious chaos of Veronica Raimo’s life. Expertly translated from Italian by Leah Janeczko, it’s a rollercoaster of quirky family tales that had me laughing one moment and nodding thoughtfully the next. Veronica doesn’t hold back—she spills all the tea about her oddball family and her own quirks with refreshing honesty. Her mom’s anxiety and overprotectiveness, her dad’s cleanliness obsession, her brother’s political ambitions—it’s all here, served with a side of Veronica’s unique humor. A dysfunctional family served authentically on a plate. The story jumps around, unfolding in a non-linear fashion, from Veronica’s childhood shenanigans to her adult life as a writer. It felt like peeking into someone’s diary, with all the messy bits left in. The story is a bit scattered, and that’s where I found it difficult to fully immerse myself after the halfway mark. The thing is, the story is ‘auto-fiction’, a concept which didn’t sit well with me this time. I enjoyed the spontaneity, but the line between fictional and true events was blurred so much that it stopped me from fully appraising it. It might not be everyone’s cup of tea, especially if you’re into tight plots. However, if you’re into messy characters and dysfunctional families, you may find it a delightful read. As I reflect on my journey through Veronica’s world, I realize that while I may not always see eye to eye with her, her story left me intrigued till the end. Lost on Me may not be a contender for the International Booker Prize win, but it’s definitely worth a read if you’re in the mood for something funny, candid, and a little offbeat. Q. Are you reading anything from the International Booker prize shortlist/longlist? #lostonme #veronicaraimo #internationalbookerprize #allthatissim
Urszula Honek, Białe noce (White Nights) #internationalbooker2024 long list Written in an extraordinary language, snapshots of life of villagers from Beskid Niski. It proofs what I’ve always felt: that among mountains, away from crowds and cities’ rush, there’s somehow closer to touch mystery (or misery) of life and death. In other words: pain of the soul mixed with everyday problems of provinces and with memory of violent crimes committed in the region in not so remote past (search “Operation Vistula” and “Lemkos ethnic cleansing”) . The interconnected stories are told in a poetic language, which reaches for regional songs and kids rhymes. I listened to an interview with the author and she seems to be an amazing person, attached to her family village, giving new life to the stories heard from her neighbours and reimagining the stories characters. My background photos are taken far from Beskidy, as I didn’t have an opportunity to visit recently (I love coming back there). However, I thought that another mountain range, inhabited by another Slavic people would do: meet Rakitnica Canyon, and the village of Lukomir, which is situated at the very edge of the canyon , on the edge of a 800 meters deep abyss. Beskid Niski landscapes are not so dramatic, but also beautiful. #urszulahonek #białenoce #whitenights #internationalbooker #bookerprize #bookstagramreadsthebooker
My second IBP shortlist read. It is a short 100 page novella written in distinct style. Translator’s note says that language of the original is heavy in dialect words and slang and is colloquial - the inspirations were William Faulkner and Flannery O’Connor among others. I really like the choices Annie McDermott made in translation - while slang and dialect are not as pronounced, short precise sentences convey the colloquiality. What a difference in style from Ia Genberg! Since this prize is judged heavily on the quality of translation, I’d say it has a real chance. The story itself follows two older friends and the young boy, a son of their drowned friend, going to the island to fish. The locals on the island get upset with the newcomers and the danger soon lurks around culminating in some violence. Flash backs and flash forwards examine what happened with boys father and what will happen with some of the locals. In short: nothing good. #selvalamada #notariver #bookstagramreadsthebooker #internationalbooker2024 #internationalbookerprize2024 #internationalbooker
I really enjoyed this examination of colonialism - it went beyond the obvious and as well as examining colonialism of land and people collectively, it also looked at the colonialism of bodies individually. I found it to be really engaging and thought-provoking. I stopped about halfway through to read a bit about the author/ some interviews, and I think this really helped me to put some of the narrative choices in perspective. 4.5 ⭐️ #undiscovered #internationalbooker2024 #bookstagram #bookstagramreadsthebooker
*currently reading* There’s only one new book in this week’s lineup, because there was not a lot of reading time this week. A lot of drinking and dancing at a work conference, but not reading. 🤭 Anyway! Here’s what I will be reading this week! 📱𝘞𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘴 by Tommy Orange I am about a hundred pages into Wandering Stars and I am recognizing Orange’s impassioned writing from his gorgeous debut There There and I am excited to continue reading this week. Thank you @prhinternational and @netgalley for the eARC! 📖 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘝𝘶𝘭𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘴 by Sigrid Nunez After finishing 𝘞𝘩𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘕𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴 yesterday evening I grabbed this from the TBR pile on my nightstand. I felt like maybe this would be something lighter after the pretty dark stories I found in the International Booker longlister. It will be my first Nunez so I am eager to see whether I will like it. 🎧 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘌𝘹𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘐𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘢 𝘙𝘦𝘺 by Jennifer Croft (narrated by Esther Wane) Getting further into this one (now about 70% in) and it’s getting quite thrilling 😅 I am curious to see where it’s all going and how Croft will wrap it up! So I think I will be having fun with these this week! What do you think? 📚📖💙 #literaryfiction #bookstack #booklover #wanderingstars #tommyorange #thevulnerables #sigridnunez #whitenights #urszulahonek #katewebster #theextinctionofirenarey #jennifercroft #bookprizes #bookhaul #currentlyreading #litfic #readingupdate #booksbooksbooks #fortheloveofbooks #alwaysreading #bookworm #readingaddict #tbrpile #amreading #bookish #whatiread #bookblogger #bookstagramreadsthebooker #internationalbooker #thebookerprize
Finally started on the IBP shortlist! Swedish writer Ia Genberg published her first book late, at 45, but instantly became one of the most admired Swedish writers. It is her fourth novel I believe, and the first in English. Essentially it is a character study of four people in the narrator’s life, an old girlfriend, a consuming friend, another man, and another woman. I don’t want to reveal much, but there is also not much to reveal. However, discovering the characters through her writing is what this novel is about. No introduction is needed - just enjoy her sentences (that apparently were even longer in Swedish!). I think this is a great translation and has a chance of winning. #iagenberg #thedetails #bookstagramreadsthebooker #internationalbookerprize #internationalbookerprize2024
I really thought I was going to like this book but it just really didn’t gel with me at all. There were sections I actively disliked and if it wasn’t shortlisted for the International Booker I wouldn’t have finished. I kinda get why there were sections about the Twin Towers and Nazi experiments on twins, but they were easily my least favourite part about this - felt like they were shoehorned in for a reaction rather than being a thoughtful inclusion. 2 ⭐️ #notforme #whatidrathernotthinkabout #internationalbooker2024 #bookstagramreadsthebooker #translatedfiction
hey, friends! check out this stack of books. can you guess what they all have in common? yea, i figured you could! they’re backlist books by this year’s international booker prize longlisted authors. noooo, i did not buy all of these in the past month and a half since the longlist announcement (only the bottom three). the judges just knew that i was interested in reading these authors so they longlisted their newest works. and now that i’ve read and enjoyed most of the longlist, i’m able to turn to these books for more (naturally, i’ve only read one of the books in this stack—BRICKMAKERS—despite having owned most for several years). ⠀ so, while i’m genuinely excited to read all of the books in this stack, the ones i’m most excited for are VISITATION, GO WENT GONE, THE WIND THAT LAYS WASTE, THE GIRL AT THE DOOR, and SACRIFICES. this is based on a combination of my experience with these authors’ longlisted titles and the simple fact that i find their synopses most interesting. have you read any of the books in this stack? which do you recommend? where would you start if you were me? ⠀ @thebookerprizes #InternationalBooker2024 ⠀ ⠀ the featured books: ⠀ by jenny erpenbeck ⠀ GO, WENT, GONE (tr. by susan bernofsky) VISITATION (tr. by susan bernofsky) ⠀ by hwang sok-yong ⠀ AT DUSK (tr. by sora kim-russell) ⠀ by selva almada ⠀ DEAD GIRLS (tr. by annie mcdermott) BRICKMAKERS (tr. by annie mcdermott) THE WIND THAT LAYS WASTE (tr. by chris andrews) ⠀ by andrey kurkov ⠀ GREY BEES (tr. by boris dralyuk) JIMI HENDRIX LIVE IN LVIV (tr. by reuben woolley) ⠀ by domenico starnone ⠀ TRUST (tr. by jhumpa lahiri) TRICK (tr. by jhumpa lahiri) TIES (tr. by jhumpa lahiri) ⠀ by veronica raimo ⠀ THE GIRL AT THE DOOR (tr. by stash luczkiw) ⠀ by rodrigo blanco calderón ⠀ THE NIGHT THE NIGHT (tr. by noel hernández gonzález and daniel hahn) SACRIFICES (tr. by thomas bunstead)
🥀Bookstore Pics🥀 Pretending to read #ACOMAF cuz I didn’t know what else to do🤷♀️🥲 No I didn’t buy anything (mom did) cuz I’ve been on a book buying ban for a while (I still got 2 books) and I’ve been in a slump thanks to JKP😀👀 I’ll start reading (hopefully) once my exams are done 🫦 . . . . . . . #books #bookrecs #bookstore #bookrecommendations #bookrecommendation #bookloversday #bookreaders #bookstagram #bookstagramrecs #bookstagramreadsthebooker #kindlereads #bookbuyingban #readingslump #readingslumps #bookslump #booktokrecs #urdunovels #urdunovellovers #urdunovellover #nemrahahmed #sarahjmaasbooks #fantasybooks #fantasybooktok #romancebookstagram #youngadultbooks #youngadultbooksgram
My Booker dozen. I'm a big fan of the Booker Prize, I've read the entire longlist for the last few years and about three years ago I decided to work my way through all the winners I hadn't read. These thirteen are all that remain for me to read. So I'm setting myself a challenge - to read them all before this year's longlist is announced in July. 📚 Thirteen books, three months (ish), it should be doable. I just need to decide which one to read first! 📚 #bookstagram #book #bookish #bookstack #bookpile #bibliophile #booklover #booklove #bookaholic #bookaddict #booksofinstagram #bookworm #booksbooksbooks #read #readstagram #igreads #readersofinstagram #reading #lovebooks #booknerd #bookstagrammer #bookerprize #bookstagramreadsthebooker #joolzreadsthebookerwinners
✨ Reseña ✨ 𝑳𝒂 𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒅𝒂𝒅 𝒔𝒐𝒃𝒓𝒆 𝒆𝒍 𝒄𝒂𝒔𝒐 𝑯𝒂𝒓𝒓𝒚 𝑸𝒖𝒆𝒃𝒆𝒓𝒕 - @joeldicker 📖 𝐄𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥: 𝐀𝐥𝐟𝐚𝐠𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐚 Este libro tan famosísimo y tan conocidísimo llevaba en mi estantería aproximadamente más de dos años. Sí, era uno de esos eternos pendientes que quería leer este 2024 ❤️ 𝑳𝒂 𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒅𝒂𝒅 𝒔𝒐𝒃𝒓𝒆 𝒆𝒍 𝒄𝒂𝒔𝒐 𝑯𝒂𝒓𝒓𝒚 𝑸𝒖𝒆𝒃𝒆𝒓𝒕 ha sido la lectura del mes de marzo del @clublecturaunapaginamas y jolín, qué acierto haber propuesto esta historia. 𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐎𝐏𝐒𝐈𝐒 Todo comienza con Marcus, un autor muy famoso y que tras el éxito de su última novela, está recibiendo presión por parte de su editorial para que publique otro libro. Sin embargo, Marcus se encuentra inmerso en el 𝐬𝐢́𝐧𝐝𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐝𝐞 𝐥𝐚 𝐩𝐚́𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐚 𝐞𝐧 𝐛𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐨; no sabe qué escribir para tener el mismo éxito que con su anterior libro. Es por esto por lo que Marcus decide visitar al escritor y antiguo profesor de Universidad, 𝑯𝒂𝒓𝒓𝒚 𝑸𝒖𝒆𝒃𝒆𝒓𝒕, que tras el éxito de su libro "Los orígenes del mal" se encuentra disfrutando de su soledad en New Hampshire. El cuerpo de Nola Kellergan, una niña de 15 años que falleció hace 33 años aparece en el jardín de Harry, y es aquí donde comienza nuestra historia; cuando Marcus decide demostrar la inocencia de su amigo escribiendo un libro sobre el caso para que la verdad salga a la luz. 𝐎𝐏𝐈𝐍𝐈𝐎́𝐍 ⚠️ AVISO: PERSONAJES ODIOSOS. A pesar de ello... Fácil de leer, con buen ritmo, capítulos cortos y 𝒎𝒖𝒚 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒐 𝒒𝒖𝒆 𝒎𝒖𝒚 𝒃𝒖𝒆𝒏𝒂 𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒎𝒂. Ha sido un no querer parar con esta historia, porque os aseguro que una vez que lo empecéis no vais a querer parar hasta acabarlo. A pesar de su grosor (790 páginas), es un libro imprescindible si te gusta tanto como a mí la novela negra, y si estás buscando una historia que te mantenga en vilo durante todas sus páginas, este es tu libro 😬 . . . #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #booksbooksbooks📚 #bookstagramespaña #bookstagramreadsthebooker #joeldicker
International Booker Longlist Book 10 White Nights by Urszula Honek X Kate Webster 🇵🇱 "Around here, people don't just disappear - it's rare someone opts for a beam and a rope, more often it's a gradual demise. They're not consumed by sorrow in a single moment, but throughout their lives, little by little, until suddenly they have nothing to breathe, they collapse." Life in the Beskid Niski region in southern Poland, is one of suffering, grief and emptiness. White Nights displays Urszula Honek's crafty connected short stories with poetic prose and alarming darkness and bleakness at every turn in every corner of these characters' minds. The stories reminded me of the hopelessness of Krasznahorkai's Satantango, and the sadness of Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio. If you can picture the melding of these two books, then you have somewhat of an idea of what you're getting into. White Nights is a realistic view of life and mostly death. It is the one certainty we all share, and some decide to take these matters into their own hands and others are a victim of circumstance or fate. Be warned that this book is a buzz kill if you're in a good mood. But if you're reading this kind of book then you probably already perversely enjoy these kinds of misery books. Urszula Honek has crafted something special in form and content filled with mysterious vibes. In a year where most books on the longlist were fairly conventional, Honek has written a memorable tale about a subject as old as time. Personal and universal all at once, there's a little bit of all of us in these stories. #ibpreadingchallenge #internationalbookerprize #internationalbooker2024 #contemporaryfiction #literature #literaryfiction #literatureintranslation #womenintranslation #translatedgems #translatedfiction #translatedliterature #books2024 #bookstagramreadsthebooker #bookstagram #mtopress #urszulahonek
I thoroughly enjoyed this International Booker shortlisted novel, and it’s one, along with Not A River, that I could see as being a deserving winner. This was an interesting look at a side of Brazil I don’t know much about - and with some fascinating characters. I loved the three sections and magic realism edge to the novel. 4.25 ⭐️ #crookedplow #internationalbooker2024 #internationalbookerprize #bookstagram #bookstagramreadsthebooker #translatedfiction #brazilianliterature
🤍color stack challenge🤍 Such a fun way to start the week! Thank you @its_beautifully_bookish for the tag🤍🤍🤍 Had more white books than I realized😂 also had to sneak my second edition Gray’s Anatomy in because it’s the oldest (and coolest) book I think I own! Now it’s your turn!🫶🏻 ❤️ @dianas_booksta 🧡 @jessie.j_reads 💛 @lmk_writes 💚 @bookishduet 💙 @emsbookworms 💜 @booktalkwithbeanie 🖤 @sofiyaslibrary 🤍 @libraryofjaidyn Books shown: Kingdom of Flesh and Fire by Jennifer L. Armentrout The Cruel Prince/ The Stolen Heir by Holly Black King of Wrath/ King of Pride/ Twisted Lies by Ana Huang The Atlas Paradox by Olivie Blake The Legacies by Jessica Goodman Turtles all The Way Down by John Green - - - - #bookstack #bookstackchallenge #booksbooksbooks #bookstagramreadsthebooker #instagramfriends
‘We live so many lives within our lives - smaller lives with people who come and go, friends who disappear, children who grow up - and I never know which of these lives is meant to serve as the frame.’ The Details by Ia Genberg, translated by Kira Josefsson 18_2024 #atasteofprizereading #bookstagramreadsthebooker
*currently reading* I finished 2 of the 3 books I was reading last week AND I decided to put the third one (that I have been struggling with for weeks… yes I thought it picked up last week, but then it didn’t again) aside for now. But what will I be reading are these color coordinated lovelies. 📱𝘞𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘴 by Tommy Orange @time4reading invited us to get to our (long overdue) ARCs and this gave me the last push to pick up the much anticipated 𝘞𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘴. I LOVED Orange’s first novel 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 and I hope this one will be as amazing. I have only read about 10 pages, but the writing is already so good again. Thank you @prhinternational and @netgalley for the eARC! 📖 𝘞𝘩𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘕𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴 by Urszula Honek (translated by Kate Webster) Even though it did not get shortlisted for the International Booker prize, you all have got me so excited about this one, that I will start this one tomorrow (I have a big presentation tomorrow at work, so not much reading has been done over The weekend 😩). 🎧 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘌𝘹𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘐𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘢 𝘙𝘦𝘺 by Jennifer Croft (narrated by Esther Wane) Both @deedireads and @bitterpurl loved this book and it got me all excited, especially when I heard about the super smart construction of the story. @deedireads warned us about the footnotes in the audiobook version and I see her point, but for now I am sticking to it and am enjoying it. Have you read any of these? Tell me what you think! 📚📖💙 @thebookerprize #literaryfiction #bookstack #booklover #wanderingstars #tommyorange #whitenights #urszulahonek #katewebster #theextinctionofirenarey #jennifercroft #bookprizes #bookhaul #currentlyreading #litfic #readingupdate #booksbooksbooks #fortheloveofbooks #alwaysreading #bookworm #readingaddict #tbrpile #amreading #bookish #whatiread #bookblogger #bookstagramreadsthebooker #internationalbooker #thebookerprize
Happy Sunday - let's do another #whatthisweek 🌷 What I've been reading 📖 This week, I finished How to Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair (absolutely spectacular) and Trust by Hernan Diaz (really good), continued (very slowly) with Cleaned Out by Annie Ernaux, and started Babysitter by Joyce Carol Oates and The Lady of the Camellias by Alexander Dumas (fils). I somehow cannot get myself to read in French right now, which is why I've paused Proust and probably why I'm so slow with Ernaux despite enjoying it. I decided to read Dumas in German because who am I kidding, and so far it feels like that has been the right call. What I've been listening to 🎧 I finished listening to Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck and The Details by Ia Genberg and have to admit that I'm very much underwhelmed by the international booker candidates so far. I've thus switched back to the Women's Prize for Non Fiction and am now listening to Code Dependent by Madhumita Murgia. What I've been watching 🎥 My screen time was so much better this week, but I started watching Grey's Anatomy again and am now tempted to just binge an entire season. Let's see how it goes 😅😂 What I've been doing ☕ This week, I celebrated my birthday by treating myself to pizza and spring rolls aka not having to cook dinner, and I spent a lovely day with so many sweet messages, I feel so happy. I also went to see La Traviata which was my first time at the opera in at least 5 years, and it was absolutely fantastic. I think I'll keep annoying my neighbors with Verdi for a few more days. I also continued with my 10k running plan which I started last Sunday and am very proud to announce that I haven't missed a single session so far, and more importantly, that it's been so fun! All in all, it's been a really great week, with a great mix of being productive and taking time for myself, lots of sunshine and time outdoors, and of course, with some amazing books. Let's hope that the new week will be just as good. Enjoy your Sunday ☀️ How was your week? What did you do and what did you read? Let me know in the comments and have a fabulous start into the new week 🤍
BP Shortlist Reaction And then there were six. One I didn’t care for, four others I found enjoyment while reading and a sixth that I have made a dent and am really stoked on the premise and format. I was hoping for The House on Via Gemito to make the shortlist though it may only be because I have finally finished the first part. As for White Nights, I am still awaiting on my copy and will be sure to read it before the winner is announced. After reading Mater 2-10 I will post a review and a final ranking of the shortlist. For now…here are some comments from the gallery. Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck X Michael Hofmann Communism and chaotic romance. Jenny Erpenbeck plays with alternating narrators and passages that are written like nobody’s business. With a slight lull in the second third but other than that, the writing is top notch. Crooked Plow by Itamar Vieira Junior X Johnny Lorenz Didn’t care for it. Mystical knives are cool. This is one of three books that I was not hoping wouldn’t make the cut. The others are When A Dictator Calls and Silver Bone. Enough said. What I’d Rather Not Think About by Jente Posthuma X Sarah Timmer Harvey Jente Posthuma walks the line between quirky and poignant, the micro with the macro, sane and insane moments in relationships to strong effect and effective pace. This is the kind of book that is accessible, topical and very well written. The Details by Ia Genberg X Kira Josefsson Haunting vibes and reflections abound in this kaleidoscopic look at self through the relations with others. I mean how else are we supposed to know who we are. I lost steam near the end but the lovely prose kept me going. Not a River by Selva Almada X Annie McDermott Selva Almada and Charco Press. I don’t need anything else than this combination that always delivers the goods. One of the first books I read this year, and still one of my favourites. Mater 2-10 by Hwang Sok-yong X Sora Kim-Russell & Youngjae Josephine Bae I am 46 pages into Yi-Jino’s family history mixing magical and historical elements, and I'm hoping for more of the same. What are your thoughts on this list or these books?
• international booker prize shortlist reaction • @thebookerprizes #InternationalBooker2024 ah! we have a shortlist! okay, okay, my initial reaction is that this list, for the most part, makes sense. congratulations to all of the listed authors, translators, and publishers. i’ve read five of the books and am a third through the sixth, and i’ve enjoyed or appreciated my time with all; i think each is a worthy contender. if you watched my prediction video, you’re probably laughing at me, because i didn’t think the judges would include both CROOKED PLOW and MATER 2-10 or both KAIROS and THE DETAILS, yet they decided to include all four 😂. go figure. of the six, my favorite is NOT A RIVER, but i could see KAIROS becoming a favorite too (it’s my current read). if i had to make an initial winner prediction, it would be one of these two. neither germany/german nor argentina/spanish have won the prize before, so that would be an added bonus if KAIROS or NOT A RIVER won. my one gripe with the judges is that they did not include WHITE NIGHTS. this choice doesn’t make any sense to me, and if i ever meet them, i will demand an explanation. 😂 (i’m being silly…or am i ?). honestly though, WHITE NIGHTS is phenomenal. please read it! okay, back to the actual shortlist: * 6 authors and 7 translators * 9 women and 4 men * 6 countries (argentina, brazil, germany, netherlands, south korea, sweden) * 6 languages (dutch, german, korean, portuguese, spanish, swedish) * 2 former longlisted authors * a lot of communism (history, ideology, politics, protest) * a lot of family (relationships, history, memory) * national histories * fragmented narratives * masculinity * female introspection * magical realism * so on and so forth alright, tell me what you think of the list! having read most of it, i can attest to these being great books and highly recommend you read them! if you’d like to join the #IBPReadingChallenge and learn more about the shortlisted books, authors, and translators be sure to check out the booker prize website. https://thebookerprizes.com/reading-challenge
Here it is! The International Booker Shortlist 2024. First of all huge congratulations to all the authors, translators and publishers. Bookstagram's own shortlist (as voted for on my stories, by you, over the weekend) #bookstagramreadsthebooker features FOUR of these books. If you did predictions how did you get on? I successfully predicted FOUR and had TWO on my Dreamlist. Are you planning to read this shortlist? (If you haven't already! I know there are a select few out there who have already read the whole longlist! 🙌 and maybe there are more now who have read the whole shortlist) How many have you read already? So far, I've read TWO. Delighted to see them both there! I'd very much like to read more. Let's see what happens! I'd love to hear how you feel about the shortlist. If there are any books that you are particularly pleased to see or, conversely, any that you are particularly disappointed that have missed out. Maybe your 2024 International Booker journey begins here! In which case there's lots to look forward to!
We’ve made it… my final post about the International Booker longlisted books (as this is the last one I’ve read… for now). The shortlist is being announced in just a few hours and I am excited to see what books have made it. On to Undisovered… written by Gabriella Weiner and translated by Julia Sanches, this was a fascinating book that really peaked my interest. A lot of this story/memoir/autofiction is based around parts of Peru’s history. Another country I don’t know a lot about. I was once again completely absorbed in learning more about a country and its people. There was a lot of Googling while reading this one. I loved this aspect of the book. I loved the look at colonialism, at the shaping of history (both our own and a country’s). I also loved Weiner’s use of place to really shape her story. However, there was another aspect to this one, completely based around the protagonists open marriage and I just didn’t care about this side of it. I found it made the book feel a bit disjointed and for me, took away the impact of some of the other things Weiner was saying through this story. Perhaps this was done on purpose, and I know others who have loved both aspects of the novel. Either way, I found this a thought provoking book and once again loved the opportunity to explore a country I knew nothing about, all thanks to the International Booker Prize and excellent translators.
ᴵⁿᵗᵉʳⁿᵃᵗⁱᵒⁿᵃˡ ᴮᵒᵒᵏᵉʳ ᴸᵒⁿᵍˡⁱˢᵗ ³/¹³ ~ ᴜɴᴅɪꜱᴄᴏᴠᴇʀᴇᴅ ~ by 𝘎𝘢𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘭𝘢 𝘞𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘳 ~ A short, intense autofictional novel that deals with the author's personal and family history, with colonialism, racism, appropriation, heritage, love, desire. What a strong, harsh, unrelenting narrator. A unique style, both very personal and documentarisitic, factual, both fictional and non-fictional, autofictional. I loved the narrator's comment that autofiction is the worst possible crime an author can be accused of in the 21st century. If you ask me, the best possible choice in the 21st century, autofictional novels are the novels of the present moment. Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ~ ~ ~ #undiscovered #gabrielawiener #ibpreadingchallenge #bookerprize #internationalbooker #bookstagramreadsthebooker #books #booksofinstagram #bookstagram #sea #seaside #booksandtravel #instareads #bookawards #bookphotography #goodreads #bookreview #instareads #transtaledfiction #internationalbooker2024
There I was, thinking I’ll sneak another book in quickly before the shortlist announcement… and not only is this easily my favourite read of the 6 longlisted books so far, it’s the first I’ve read that I think would be a worthy winner. So that prob means it won’t even be shortlisted!! It’s a @charcopress book, so I knew the writing would be great, but I find parts quite exquisite. The mood and heaviness is almost tangible at times, but then the story shifts and flows and takes you somewhere else - but it’s all cleverly connected. It’s a very accomplished novel that does what it needs to and doesn’t try to pack in unnecessary things. If you like an atmospheric read, I highly recommend this book. 4.5 ⭐️ #internationalbooker2024 #internationalbookerprize #bookstagram #bookstagramreadsthebooker #translatedfiction #notariver
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 While the good people @thebookerprizes are preparing their shortlist, let me just say the only book I really, really feel very strongly about this year is Jenny Erpenbeck’s Kairos. It’s a pretty well known fact that she and Olga Tokarczuk are two authors I love but honestly, Kairos is out of this world. Let me tell you why. So you know as you grow old, there is this feeling of how’s love in my life, how did it evolve from when I was younger to how will it be when I get older? Well I at least ask myself that question a lot and Kairos gave me the best love story I have read in a very long time. Katarina and Hans are two polar opposites (age, attitude, gender, experience you name it) who meet by chance at a bus stop and there starts the love story of a lifetime. From the peaceful, almost black and white moments of seduction to the cafes and musical scenes, I love the texture of this book so much that I am like can someone make this into a film now!!! Through their relationship and the changing backdrop of East and West Germany in flux, you learn about holding on to an erudition versus giving into consumerism, being disciplined vs. being a libertarian and being open minded vs. an open soul. What I love about the two characters is they are both many things and not types. You feel their curiosity but also shudder at the conservatism of Hans or the momentary capriciousness of Katarina. Oh how lovely to be young and hungry and foolish! And then there is the politics, a grey spectre playing out in the background in Berlin. As East Berlin opens the gates and West Berlin floods in, much is gained but also much is lost. The formality, the discipline make way for an abundance that we just don’t know how to carry forward without being self destructive and perhaps that’s what happens. Vivacity gives way to a new form of boredom. Why do I love this book? It’s a book for the adults who want to believe in love. The love, the lust and the loss are inherently personal but it’s also social and political.The ability to scale up and down is what makes Erpenbeck a master of storytelling and someone who moulds the novel as a form with so much rhythm. Go read this now!
✨️The International Booker Shortlist is announced tomorrow! I imagine half the folks that follow me care and the rest are already over it.🤭 I was hoping to have read at least half of the longlist by now to make a vaguely informed shortlist prediction, but that simply didn’t happen. I’ve finished three of the books so far and am working on my fourth (The Silver Bone). So, instead, I’ll give a quick roundup of my thoughts so far. ▪︎ CROOKED PLOW by Itamar Vieira Junior, trans. by Johnny Lorenz My favorite of the bunch so far. The connection between sisters Bibiana and Belonisia and their grandmother was an impactful, if simple, story driver that sucked me in. Exploring slavery, worker’s rights, racism, and more, this felt like a beautiful folk tale. I loved the imagery and atmosphere of rural Brazil. I hope to see this shortlisted. ▪︎ LOST ON ME by Veronica Raimo, trans. by Leah Janeczko This is a small book with heavy topics and quirky family characters carried by cold humor. A selection that leaned heavily into autofiction and it worked for me here. Raimo is having a fun conversation with and about autofiction that speaks to how we all embellish stories and blur lines. While that may not be a new topic, it’s one I’m always interested in joining the conversation on. ▪︎ UNDISCOVERED by Gabriela Wiener, trans. by Julia Sanches It started so strong! Wiener opened with a reckoning of colonizers and the legacy it left for h. There was wry humor and no room for white saviors. And then it shifts into not-so-fictionlike autofiction, exploring more of her typical work examining life in her polyamorous relationship and trying to hide her cheating. I didn’t hate the direction it took, it just felt disappointing after the initial hook. #ibpreadingchallenge #bookstagramreadsthebooker
*Booker shortlist predictions* Even though I was aiming to have read at least half, I have only completed 5 of the longlist and read half of 𝘈 𝘋𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘳 𝘊𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘴 and 𝘔𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝟸-𝟷𝟶, so you understand that this prediction and wishlist is based mostly on vibe, reading all your reviews, thematic and regional distribution and my current mood😅. So there was one book (𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘪𝘭𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘉𝘰𝘯𝘦) that was easily eliminated for me because it just didn’t feel very Bookery, if you know what I mean. I don’t really get why it was longlisted actually and I also didn’t enjoy it much. The other relatively easy elimination was 𝘈 𝘋𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘳 𝘊𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘴. I have read half and though I am enjoying this one (I always like a very specific event in history as a starting point for a novel and I love learning about it through the novel), most people did not seem to vibe with it and I do see some of the problems pointed out by others (especially the repetitive nature of it). Then there are two vignette style “lighter” reads with heavy themes (𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘐’𝘥 𝘙𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘕𝘰𝘵 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘈𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 and 𝘓𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘖𝘯 𝘔𝘦) and I loved the first and have not read the second. I have read mixed reviews on both and though I wish our Dutch Posthuma will get shortlisted, I am afraid both of these won’t make it. The hardest choice for me were two books on the longlist that feature the working class struggles of two separate countries. Having read half of the one (𝘔𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝟸-𝟷𝟶) and not read the second (𝘊𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘗𝘭𝘰𝘸). I am enjoying Mater 2-10 now but it was quite dry and didactic for the first 250 pages or so and I’ve read nothing but glowing reviews for the other. I do wonder about the global variety of the shortlist when I do this, but I still think 𝘊𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘗𝘭𝘰𝘸 will take this spot. [continued in comments]
2024 International Booker Prize Shortlist Prediction 🏆 I’m going for the short stack this year! Don’t judge! It could happen, especially if the judges can’t face reading any more big books. They might be tired of reading. I know I am. 😮💨 Just kidding! I’ve been having a lot of fun reading the list. Did I love them all? No, I didn’t, but that’s part of the process for me. I enjoy figuring out what type of narrative works for me as a reader, which countries and languages I’m drawn to, and which authors I want to read next. And these six books were all books I enjoyed reading and discussing with you all. They also touch on some themes the judges have mentioned in interviews: a blend of community and interiority, myth and reality, political and personal drama, violent acts and turning points. I think they all have a decent chance of being shortlisted, but who knows? 1. Crooked Plow by Itamar Vieira Junior // Johnny Lorenz 🇧🇷 2. Not a River by Selva Almada // Annie McDermott 🇦🇷 3. Simpatía by Rodrigo Blanco Calderón // Noel Hernández González and Daniel Hahn 🇻🇪 4. White Nights by Urszula Honek // Kate Webster 🇵🇱 5. Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck // Michael Hofmann 🇩🇪 6. The Details by la Genberg // Kira Josefsson 🇸🇪 Happy reading and staring into the solar eclipse (unless, like me, you’re too far away and it’s overcast), friends! 🕶️ 🌘
Tomorrow the International Booker shortlist will be announced. Running our vote this year has definitely ramped up my excitement. In fact I think this is the first year I've attempted a prediction. I've followed the Prize for a few years now although never quite so avidly as some of the others mostly because my library just don't tend to have the books. For years I chose one from the list and never really found any gems until my game changer year 2022 when my choice was 'Tomb of Sands'. I fell in love with it, it was my book of the year and the rest, as they say, is history! Accordingly, last year, I saved my pennies and bought several. The ones I read I really enjoyed but sadly my health intervened with some of them still remaining unread (!) Ridiculous, really, I know but it is what it is. I WILL read them eventually but anyones guess as to when. So this year I bought four with the rule I was allowed no more until those were read! It's worked! So far I've read three (and really enjoyed them all). This time of year is very congested with prizes and me being me I just really, genuinely, want to read them all so inevitably my approach becomes somewhat piecemeal. In the past the IB has got somewhat left behind but this year I've made an effort to spread my reads out over the prizes at least at longlist stage. I'll probably hone in more at shortlist stage. So back to the task at hand, my lists! I've kept my dreamlist (slide 2) simple. The three I've read so far because I enjoyed them all and would be happy to see any of them shortlisted ('Lost on Me', 'The Details' and 'What I'd Rather Not Think About') and the three that I'd personally most like to read, at this moment. It'll be dangerous for me if the two I don't already own are shortlisted (I will, no doubt, take it as a sign from above, and end up buying them!). Making a prediction, as always, was harder! (Slide 3)I don't feel at all confident doing so with this list but it's just for fun so I've had a go! I haven't spent ages on it, just for once (I'm speaking comparatively here, obviously, many hours were still spent!) and I chose it before I ran our vote ( #bookstagramreadsthebooker)...CONTINUED
Am I trying to power through all my Booker thoughts before the shortlist announcement this week… yes, yes I am! Aaaanyway… Not a River by Selva Almada, translated from Spanish by Annie McDermott was another longlisted book that took me by surprise in the best possible way. Going into this one, I knew it was about a group of men that go fishing, and that was about it! Honestly, I think this is the best way to go into this book! Standing at under 100 pages, Almada manages to fit so much into this story, and manages to leave a lingering feeling long after you put the book down. Anyone who has followed me here for awhile knows I love a tiny book that can pack a punch (hello Claire Keegan) and this one really does. It leaves you guessing what is going on the entire way through. Even by the end Almada leaves a lot up to the reader to decide what they may think happened and I loved that! If you’re someone that does not like loose ends in their books, I probably wouldn’t recommend this one. If however, you’re happy to trust an author, lean into their story and see what happens then I’d definitely recommend picking up this little book! I loved it the more I sat with it and I’m really hoping to see it shortlisted in a couple of days! @hg_shelves and I read this together and there were many messages shared about what we thought was happening!
International Booker Reading Update and Shortlist Predictions After @cheriebooksreadthisyear online voting for the #internationalbooker2024 shortlist, and seeing a few other prediction posts I thought I'd hop on that train. I hit a bit of a reading slump/busy week and have been out of my regular reading routine. I am about a hundred pages into The House on Via Gemito by Domenico Starnone X Oonagh Stransky and will not finish before the Shortlist announcement on Tuesday. So far I am getting a kick out of the story, the writing, and the subtle humour and I hope it will make the Shortlist so I’ll be even more motivated to finish it this month. The books on the left are the nine that I have read from the longlist so far and I am progressing through Mater 2-10 and The House on Via Gemito. After seeing several solid posts about White Nights by Urszula Honek X by Kate Webster, I am anxious and waiting for my copy to arrive so I can read it ASAP. I am still not convinced that I want or need to read The Silver Bone by Andrey Kurkov X Boris Dralyuk as it doesn’t interest me and all I’ve seen are dull and indifferent reviews online. Below is the shortlist I would like to see based on my favourites both read and unread; Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck X Michael Hofmann 🇩🇪 Not a River by Selva Almada X Annie McDermott 🇦🇷 Simpatía by Rodrigo Blanco Calderon X Noel Hernández González and Daniel Hahn 🇻🇪 The House on Via Gemito by Domenico Starnone X Oonagh Stransky🇮🇹 Mater 2-10 by Hwang Sok-yong X Sora Kim-Russell & Youngjae Josephine Bae 🇰🇷 White Nights by Urszula Honek X by Kate Webster 🇵🇱 And what I think the Shortlist will look like; Undiscovered by Gabriela Wiener X Julia Sanches 🇵🇪 Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck X Michael Hofmann 🇩🇪 Crooked Plow by Itamar Vieira Junior X Johnny Lorenz 🇧🇷 Not a River by Selva Almada X Annie McDermott 🇦🇷 The Details by Ia Genberg X Kira Josefsson 🇸🇪 or What I'd Rather Not Think About by Jente Posthuma X Sarah Timmer Harvey 🇳🇱 The House on Via Gemito by Domenico Starnone X Oonagh Stransky🇮🇹 Where do you agree or disagree? Tell me your thoughts in the comments. How's your #ibpreadingchallenge?
Happy Sunday ☀️ time flies, here's already another little #whatthisweek 🌷🌸 What I've been reading 📖 I don't feel like I read much this week because I spent so much time on my phone, but looking at the numbers, it's not too bad. I mainly read How To Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair which I LOVE so far, and Trust by Hernan Diaz, which had a great start but I didn't love the second part. It's still very good though and I'm curious to see where it goes, I honestly have no idea. Proust wasn't able to catch my attention this week, and I started Cleaned Out by Annie Ernaux but didn't really commit to it either. I feel very jumpy right now, and even though I have great current reads, I cannot seem to focus on any of them but keep wanting to start other books. That's not great but I don't want to force myself, so I'm taking things as they come. Oh and of course I finished The Burning God which was just such a fun and easy read! I'm a bit sad that the series is over. What I've been listening to 🎧 I finished listening to Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck which was only okay, and started The Details by Ia Genberg. I hope I'll enjoy this one more, but let's see how it goes. What I've been watching 🎥 I don't think I watched anything this week, but my screen time was over the roof and I spent waaaaaaay too much time with reels. I definitely need to keep an eye on that next week! What I've been doing ☕ It's been a very busy week with long days and a nagging cold, but I nevertheless managed to run my first 10k - who am I ?! - and am so proud of myself. I tried to spend as much time as possible outside, I'm just so ready for sunny days and spring. I'm really happy with this week and am excited for a new one. How was your week? Tell me all about it in the comments 🤍 And have a great start into the new week tomorrow 🌸
Here it is! Our FIRST #bookstagramreadsthebooker International Booker Shortlist as voted for by you. Congratulations to all the authors and publishers. Bookstagram loves your books! Thankyou to everyone who voted. It was a huge vote! It'll be interesting to see how many we have in common with the judges when the official shortlist is announced on Tuesday at 2pm. Whatever happens, though, this is OUR shortlist from which we will choose OUR winner in May (the weekend before the official winner announcement). Tomorrow I'll post my prediction and dream lists. They are all ready to go, I did them before the vote so I wouldn't be influenced! I have two in common with our list on my dreamlist and three on my prediction. You'll have to wait until tomorrow to see which ones! I'll look forward to seeing everyone's predictions too. On Tuesday I'll post the shortlist as soon as possible after the announcement, hope to share reaction with some of you then. So far I've read one of our shortlist ('The Details'). Unfortunately I can't commit to reading the rest, on this occasion, as I'd have to buy them and the finances can't stretch to that. Apart from 'Kairos' which I did manage to get from my library. There are a couple that I'm really tempted by though so let's see what happens! Anyway thankyou, once again, for voting in huge numbers and I hope that you love OUR shortlist!
*currently reading* I finished 2 of the three books I was reading last week. One has been steadily coming along for weeks now 😊 And I found my new favorite reading spot at our new house (swipe)! 📱𝘔𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝟸-𝟷𝟶 by Hwang Sok-yong (tr. by Sora Kim-Russel & Youngjae Josephine Bae) I am now about 300 pages in and can happily report that I have finally found the flow in this one 😊 and I hope to really make a dent or even finish it this week! 📖 𝘈 𝘋𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘳 𝘊𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘴 by Ismail Kadare I started this International Booker longlister last night. I find it a very interesting premise and setup of the story. I am now halfway and am still enjoying it a lot. It has some fascinating thoughts and I am curious to see where it is going. 🎧 & 📱𝘍𝘶𝘯𝘯𝘺 𝘚𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 by Emily Henry (narrated by Julia Whelan) And then for something completely different… As you know I am not much of a romance girly but I couldn’t resist the new Emily Henry and I am having so much fun with this one. It’s funny and light and just what I was in the mood for. (Thank you @prhinternational, @prhaudio, @librofm and @edelweiss for the eARC and ALC!) I am also getting very excited about the International Booker shortlist being announced on Tuesday and I will post my predictions tomorrow! 📚📖💙 @thebookerprize #literaryfiction #bookstack #booklover #funnystory #emilyhenry #adictatorcalls #ismailkadare #mater210 #hwangsokyong #bookprizes #bookhaul #currentlyreading #litfic #readingupdate #booksbooksbooks #fortheloveofbooks #alwaysreading #bookworm #readingaddict #tbrpile #amreading #bookish #whatiread #bookblogger #bookstagramreadsthebooker #internationalbooker #thebookerprize
ᴵⁿᵗᵉʳⁿᵃᵗⁱᵒⁿᵃˡ ᴮᵒᵒᵏᵉʳ ᴸᵒⁿᵍˡⁱˢᵗ ²/¹³ ▪︎ 𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝔻𝕖𝕥𝕒𝕚𝕝𝕤 ▪︎ by 𝘐𝘢 𝘎𝘦𝘯𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘨 ▪︎ This novel is a quiet, strong, honest account of the narrator's loves, relationships, interpersonal connections, her life in details. Connections with the most important people in her life. The people that made her her, that made her life, that made her writing. Fragments of a life that make a whole - because that is exactly what life is, what writing is, the details. ❝That might be one way of describing the whole, people filing in and out of my face in no particular order. No "beginning" and no "end," no chronology, only each and every moment and what transpires therein.❞ This novel just sucks you in, enchants you, captivates you, flows delicately, makes you feel the narrator's fever haze, her emotions, insecurities and doubts, the "incomplete puzzle" that is indeed very complete and full. Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ▪︎ ▪︎ ▪︎ #iagenberg #thedetails #detalji #ibpreadingchallenge #bookerprize #internationalbookerprize #bookstagramreadsthebooker #books #booksofinstagram #bookstagram #bookawards #bookphotography #goodreads #bookreview #instareads #transtaledfiction #translatedliterature #internationalbooker2024 #bookquote #bookquotes #quotestagram #quote #translatedlit #bookflatlay #bookaesthetic #bookstaexplore
Lost on Me by Veronica Raimo, translated from Italian by Leah Janeczko was a great read to spend my time with over the Easter long weekend. Raimo is a thoroughly entertaining writer that had me giggling at some of her observations, particularly around family. For anyone who has read Booker books, it is surprising to find a book that isn’t too heavy and I really appreciated this aspect. While I absolutely loved my time with this book, I find I am now trying to think back on it and don’t have a lot to say! It was a well written, entertaining story that I was excited to pick up, but not one that has stayed with me since putting it down. I’m not sure this one is a Booker winner but it’s still a great book to read when you want something that’s easy to fly through, with lovely writing, a great cast of family characters and that will give you a good laugh. I read this with @hg_shelves and @nellreadsbooks and that is always a wonderful experience as well!
Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck 📖 In Kairos, nineteen year old Katharina meets Hans, a married, 50 year old man. They fall in love, and a very bizarre relationship begins. Their age isn't the only contrast in Kairos. Set in East Berlin in the late 80s, Katharina is a child of the East, but Hans has fled the West for a live with socialism. What he fought for, she considers given. He knows what he wants, she doesn't. It's honestly been a long time since I hated a character as much as I hated Hans. I was close to not finishing the books several times because I simply could not stand him, but at the same time, I wanted to know what would happen, so I kept listening. In the end, this book couldn't convince me. I think all that will stay with me is how Hans embodies everything I cannot stand in a person, and the fact that I could easily imagine his counterpart today, 40 years later. I so wanted to like this book since I am always trying to read more contemporary German literature. So when I saw it on the longlist for the international booker, I thought I'd give it a try, although I wasn't intrigued by the blurb. I am not saying it's a bad book, but it wasn't for me and I don't think I'd recommend it. Maybe I missed something, so if there's anything I didn't see, please let me know! To end this on a positive note, though, I mainly listened to Kairos outside, and even though the book wasn't great, the pink cherry blossoms everywhere sure were! Next, I will pick one of the candidates that actually sounds interesting to me, probably Mater 2-10, The Details, What I'd Rather Not Think About, or Lost On Me. Have you read Kairos or any of the other longlisted books? What did you think? And which one should I read next? Let me know in the comments 🤍
🍝 𝒷ℴℴ𝓀 𝓇ℯ𝓋𝒾ℯ𝓌 Lost on Me by Veronica Raimo Translated by Leah Janeczko It’s no secret I’ve a penchant for all things Italian, including, of course, books. Lost on Me (Niente di Vero) is a quirky little coming-of-age story set in Rome, filled with humour, neuroses and scathing explorations of girlhood. Our protagonist, like the author, is named Veronica and lives in Rome with her parents and older brother. The brother, Christian, is the golden child, the genius whose shadow Veronica must live under. Her parents, well, their style is maladjusted, to put it mildly: the omnipresent mother is devoted to her anxiety and self-denial through her Fioretti, and her father ruled to the extreme by hygienic and architectural obsessions. Lost on Me shows Veronica’s childhood and adulthood on full display. We are invited into her home to witness the absurd, the loving, and the traumatic. But perhaps the most overcoming emotional experience here is isolation - from not being allowed out to play with the other children as a smallie to seemingly being returned ‘home’ at every conceivable opportunity thereafter through her mother’s tracking methods and guilt-tripping mastery. Her adulthood is then spent trying to reconcile this all through her writing. Or maybe this is where the literal meaning of Niente di Vero (nothing is true) comes in, and her story blurs the lines between fantasy and reality, embellished for impact? How reliable is our narrator? As the saying goes, “They can take away everything but our memories”, but what if your memories are hazy and unreliable? Who’d be interested in them? Well, if it makes a story as compelling as Lost on Me, then many, I imagine. Lost on Me has been longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2024, and I feel it’s a strong contender. 4⭐️ Thank you to the publisher for providing an advance copy via NetGalley. As always, this is an honest review. 🇮🇹 Have you read any Italian fiction? Which is your favourite?
An interesting and well written short novel that is a collection of 4 character studies. Not what I was expecting but still enjoyable! 4 ⭐️ #internationalbooker #thedetails #translatedfiction #bookstagram #bookstagramreadsthebooker
#internationalbookerprize2024 reading update Clearly my love for short reads and fear of long reads was at work when I picked out four books to read from this year’s International Booker prize longlist. 1.Lost on me - translated from Italian 2.The details - translated from Swedish 3.A dictator calls - translated from Albanian 4.Crooked plow - translated from Portuguese A fifth, Mater 2-10 (translated from Korean), although thick, did pique my interest and was bought in the process 😊 As of now, I am done with the first three. ‘Lost on me’ and ‘The details’ are already bagging the well deserved praise and readership, and I can only say that I appreciated both the authors’ brilliance through these books. Short reads with an impact ✅ ‘A dictator calls’ was something that felt like - I hear you but I don’t enjoy your narration style 🤷🏻♀️ This book makes relevant points and comes from a very well celebrated author but I guess Kadare is not the vibe I would go looking for again. Now waiting for the shortlist announcement and the resultant impulse buys (sigh, reader problems😅) What are you reading these days? Are you planning on picking something from the shortlist this year? [translated literature, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Albanian, Korean, prize nominated books] #bookstagram #bookstagramreadsthebooker #translatedliterature #lostonme #veronicaraimo #thedetails #iagenberg #adictatorcalls #ismailkadaré #bookerprize #thebookerprizes
📚 The Details ✏️ Ia Genberg, translated from Swedish by Kira Josefsson ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 'We live so many lives within our lives - smaller lives with people who come and go, friends who disappear, children who grow up - and I never know which of these lives is meant to serve as the frame.' Told amidst that idol time when one is sick with fever, our protagonist reflects on the significant, and key, pivotal moments, with four people in her life. Each as a chapter, and told as life progressed, through young adulthood and those temporary housing arrangements, to fleeting yet profoundly life-changing relationships, to looking back now as a mother herself. The great loves, losses, incredibly memorable, significant and emotive nights, times, and minute moments. 'Everyone I've loved of 'loved' since then has had no alternative but to accept being measured against him during inescapable moments in the early stages, and I've had to loudly clear my throat to boot those thoughts, since they've been both irrational and unjust in every case, and since the outcome is never to the advantage of anybody else.' A reflective meander through a life, through the moments and relationships that make us. For fans of Cusk, Ernaux, and Levy. ✔️ Read from the #InternationalBooker longlist #BookstagramReadsTheBooker ✔️ Is my International Booker Prize longlisted book for the #ATasteOfPrizeReading reading challenge. ✔️ #LibrarySavings for 2024 - $270 Image: A book sits on a white table, surrounded with partially completed bits of a puzzle that make up plants. The book title is #TheDetails. #TranslatedLit #InternationalBooker #Bookstagram #LibraryBook
It's time for our first ever International Booker Prize vote! I've run #bookstagramreadsthebooker votes for five years now (& #bookstagramreadsthewomensprize too!) it's always an absolute highlight of my bookish year. Seeing which books you choose for OUR shortlist then in a later vote, always the weekend before the announcement itself, OUR winner. So this year, finally, I thought why not do it for the International Booker too. I can't wait to see which SIX books you choose for our very own shortlist. Simply head to my stories and vote 'YES' for up to six books. Feel free to vote for just one or two, it's up to you how many you vote for (but no more than six obviously!) The six books that receive the most 'YES' votes will become our first ever shortlist. 'NO' votes aren't counted, it's just the way the poll feature works here. The vote is open until the stories time out...so don't delay! And don't think your vote doesn't count. In every poll I run the margins are always very close, I'm always amazed at how many ties there are, especially considering how many votes are cast, with often just one or two votes being the difference between a book making our shortlist or not. Every single vote matters. The more who vote the better so all shares are appreciated! Thanks in advance to those who do. EVERYONE is welcome to vote whether you follow me or not and regardless of how many of the books you've read; if you've read a book and loved it get that vote in! I'll announce the results on Sunday night. Counting down in my stories throughout the afternoon until the announcement of OUR shortlist in the evening. Timings updated via my stories, as always. Personally, I tend to always pay more attention to what bookstagram shortlists than what the judges choose! But, of course, I'm also looking forward to the official shortlist on Tuesday (April 9th). It'll be interesting to see how many we have in common. I've already written my dream list/prediction post which will be coming on Monday (April 8th). Again, for the first time for this Prize, I'll do a 'live' reaction post just after the announcement on the day. Lots to look forward to! But, for now, I have a vote to post...
International Booker Longlist Book 9 Simpatía by Rodrigo Blanco Caldéron X Noel González Hernández & Daniel Hahn 🇻🇪 "Here, on the other hand, it does feel like there's a war, only you can't see it. And it's the displaced, it's the people themselves, who abandon their dogs. That's worse than hanging them from a post. They abandon them to announce that they're leaving this hell." What begins under an absurd state of circumstances with Ulisses' father in law leaving him a dog sanctuary instead of leaving the home for his own daughter, turns into a very human and at times, sad take on the state of Venezuela. The country has been in ruins for years, and one of the symptoms of a crumbling state is the exodus of its citizens. In doing so, Venezuela has countless dogs who have been abandoned. I mean how bad do things have to be in order for someone to just leave their dog to chance of survival? "The only thing he could picture was the scar. Ultimately, all scars are alike. Some are big and others small, some are straight and others crooked. That's all. Stripped away from the body, they are like keyholes without a door. Useless pieces that take you nowhere." Synpatía is a love letter and a tale of empathy, longing and acceptance. Through the downcast existence of being left behind and through the spiritual aspect of dogs, Blanco Calderón has written a sneaky very good book. Simpatía covers a lot of bases and one thing it doesn't miss out on is balancing the intelligent with the emotional, tugging at your heart strings. "On the day I understood that, despite all the evidence to the contrary, God might in fact exist. One day I saw my dogs and, through them, I thought I saw God, and that's when I knew. Sadly, I realized it very late." It's not easy to put my thumb on exactly what I loved about this book, but for starters the intriguing premise and the strong writing were two key elements. The story kept offering insights and twists and insights at an enjoyable pace. On a longlist with many books offering promise of intrigue, Simpatía is definitely one that fulfills its promise and I would very much like to see this book on the IBP shortlist.
~ ᴵⁿᵗᵉʳⁿᵃᵗⁱᵒⁿᵃˡ ᴮᵒᵒᵏᵉʳ ᴸᵒⁿᵍˡⁱˢᵗ ⁽¹/¹³⁾ ~ 𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙄'𝙙 𝙍𝙖𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙉𝙤𝙩 𝙏𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙠 𝘼𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 ~ by ᴊᴇɴᴛᴇ ᴘᴏꜱᴛʜᴜᴍᴀ ~ From various stories from their childhood and adulthood, told by the sister, we slowly learn about the life of two twins, brother and sister. As the novel continues, we come to understand that the brother commited suicide. The sister tries to decipher and recall all the signs, the clues, the hints all over the years that lead to her brother's suicide. Their life as it once was, different, isolated, connected, at the same time both happy and troubled. What distincts the two of them, their characters, their actions, their emotions or, at some times, nothing at all. A deep, special, unique connection that got severed abruptly and unexpectedly. This is a novel about love, communication and the realization that no matter how hard we tried, we can never make all things right, make all people feel loved and happy, make something else up for them. It shows so well the messines of life, human relationships and love. Delicate, disturbing and lovely at the same time. ❝ When someone says they love you but still ends up leaving, I can't understand it. I don't believe in that kind of love.❞ ❝ I thought about all the love we have inside us and how only a shred of that reaches the people we care about.❞ Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ~ ~ ~ #jenteposthuma #whatidrathernotthinkabout #ibpreadingchallenge #bookerprize #internationalbooker #bookstagramreadsthebooker #books #booksofinstagram #bookstagram #bookawards #bookphotography #goodreads #bookreview #instareads #transtaledfiction #internationalbooker2024 #bookquote #bookquotes #quotestagram #quote
Still Beating 💙🩵 by @author.jenniferhartmann This was my buddy read for March 🩵💙 This book has trigger warnings, so please check them before reading ⚠️ Still beating pulled me and @lifeoflouuk in from chapter one. My mouth was left open in shock 😱 Cora and Dean (Cora's sisters fiancé) get kidnapped and put in a basement together, where they are chained up. Cora and Dean have always acted like they hate each other, Cora really believes Dean doesn't like her, but there's something about Dean and how he treats her. They soon start to find comfort in each other. Cora and Dean go through unthinkable things that will break your heart. The way Dean comforts Cora made my heart burst. I love Dean's character so much. I read this as a buddy read, but I could have easily read this in one sitting 💙🩵 Have you read this book, and what are your thoughts? #stillbeating #stillbeatingjenniferhartmann #deanandcora #heartbreakingbooks #chapterone #fivestar #thisbookhasmyheart #bluecovers #bluebookcovers #booksbooksandmorebooks #read #reading #bookstagramreadsthebooker #bookstagram #bookswelove #mumsthatread #girlsthatread #bookworm
What I’d Rather Not Think About by Jente Posthuma, translated from Dutch by Sarah Timmer Harvey, was one of the Booker longlisted books I have been most surprised by. The premise of this one is based around a set of twins, we know from the get go that the brother has died by suicide and we follow the sister as she reflects on their lives and the lead up to his death and following his death. Through vignettes we are provided with the sisters reflections on the twins lives and how they were connected and apart over the years. I was worried that this one would be too heavy (particularly after picking this one up after Kairos) but the way Posthuma has written this story provided a story with heart, a sibling relationship that I loved following and some observations that made me giggle. All of this meant that I found this story did not weigh me down and I genuinely enjoyed my time with it. I am always a fan of vignettes and I found the way they were used with this story helped develop the story and helped Posthuma jump through different time periods without it becoming confusing. Overall this was a surprisingly enjoyable read for me! I’m glad I ended up picking it up and I am as always thankful to @scribepub for sending this one my way.
I have to say, so far this year’s International Booker longlist isn’t leaving much of an impact … though I am only dipping in and out amongst my women’s prize longlist but do plan on reading the shortlist. This was basically a kinda boring mystery - disappointing, considering the setting and the premise had promise. I fail to see what makes this one of the best translated fiction books in the past year - especially when I think of what didn’t make the list! It wasn’t bad but just barely ok … 3⭐️ #bookstagramreadsthebooker #internationalbooker #translatedfiction #ukraine #thesilverbone
Originally written in Dutch, this is one of the books longlisted for this year’s International Booker Prize. It’s an episodic novel that’s a collection of memories about the narrator’s twin brother who has killed himself, intertwined with her meandering thoughts on unrelated topics. It’s the second book from the longlist that I’ve read and it feels quite similar to the first (Lost on Me), which was also a very disjointed book about family. Clearly the International Booker judges enjoy this style of writing. It does have more structure than that book, in the sense that it’s more chronological and it’s centered on one relationship. I like books like this because they trigger all kinds of thoughts as I read them. It feels almost like you’re in someone’s head and the short chapters make them easy to read What I like less though is that at the end I don’t have much to hold onto. A feeling that I liked it, a general sense of what it was about. But I’m pretty sure that if you ask me in a couple of months all I’ll have is “it was about a grieving twin who sounded pretty bonkers herself and who stockpiled jerseys”. Whereas with a more plot based novel, you tend to remember the story. A random thought I had when reading this: If a book wins the International Booker prize, the author and translator both win £25,000. (Every shortlisted writer and translator gets £2,500). I wonder how the other translators feel about this? They did all the same work to translate the same book into French or Japanese or Swedish or whatever, but they get nothing. Do they feel cheated by this? And does it mean there’s more competition to translate books into English than the other languages? #whatidrathernotthinkabout #jenteposthuma #translatedfiction #literaryfiction #booksaboutgrief #womenintranslation #wit #internationalbooker2024 #readtheworld #bookstagramreadsthebooker #internationalbookerprize #24countriesin2024
Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck, translated from German by Michael Hofman, was my third International Booker book. I finished it a week ago and I honestly have not stopped thinking about it. Did I enjoy it? I’m still not 100% sure, this does not mean it’s a bad book though… Erpenbeck is an excellent writer. Her language is visceral, her characters are alive and the setting of Germany in the late 80s/early 90s has lived rent free in my mind. I found the setting of Germany before and soon after the fall of the Berlin Wall absolutely fascinating! You can tell Erpenbeck was alive at this time as the setting was so realistic. The small comments on things only locals would know made me feel as if I was living in Germany at the time. I loved this look and exploration of the politics. Learning even more about the stark differences between East and West Germany was fascinating. The relationship at the centre of this story though, wow!! It was a lot! This is not a picture of a healthy relationship (it’s absolutely not supposed to be either). It weighed me down so much, it was so toxic I ended up flying through the end of the book as I couldn’t stand to spend any longer with these two characters. There was a certain part of the book that went for way too long, the point was made and it just kept on going. I assume Erpenbeck did this on purpose but did kind of make me get over the book and I wish it was just that bit shorter. So I may not have 100% enjoyed my time with Kairos, but my goodness, Erpenbeck can write and I really did love the deeper look into this period of Germany’s history. I do think this is a worthy contender on the Booker longlist.
International Booker Prize I had taken this photo for an initial reaction post. Then I didn’t post for a while and suddenly it’s 3 weeks since the longlist and we are a week away from the shortlist. It’s now less reaction more this is where I am currently! There’s always mostly unknown books for me on the IB list which means I’m excited to discover them all. The list is quite European And South America heavy and it might have been nice to have more books from other parts of the world. I’ve read 7 of the list so far and hoping to have read a couple more before the shortlist is out next week. I’ve really loved the majority of the ones I have read and think it’s going to be very difficult to pick a shortlist! As I’ve read these books I’ve picked up a bit of a theme of relationships throughout the books, between people, between people and nations and governments. To have such a focus on relationships makes it feel like the books were chosen for me! I have a hunch that Crooked Plow will win - dunno why, just a feeling! Have you read any yet? What are your thoughts so far? #bookstagram #books #bookstagrammer #bookshelves #booksofinstagram #lovereading #lovereadingbooks #gaybookstagram #gaybookstagrammer #bookphotography #ilovereading #bookish #bookshelves #bookhoarder #rainbow #boysreadtoo #bookstagramreadsthebooker
New page on the calendar, new #BookerOfTheMonth! In April, the club is reading The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ We’re in the home stretch of 2023’s “Booker dozen” — a shiny new list will be here before we know it (in late July) and then we’ll be ready to start again (in August). But for now, we still have four more exciting longlisters left to go. So join me and the other friendly, welcoming Booker of the Month regulars in reading this beauty. We love new friends! The crew meets via Zoom on Monday, April 29 at 8 PM ET. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Swipe to read the synopsis, and head to my link in bio to sign up for the Zoom. 😎
March Reading Wrap Up What books did you read in March? I am very much enjoying the International Booker Longlist reading challenge and I will tell you that some favourites have emerged. I will post a ranking after I have completed reading the list. The Most Secret Memory of Men is a total standout read of the year so far and has all the qualities I love in a good book. In fact, it rightly deserved to be on the IBP Longlist if you ask me. Percival Everett. What else can I say? If you know you know and if you don’t, let James be your gateway into all that is good about this American author. The Details by Ia Genberg X Kira Josefsson 🇸🇪 What I’d Rather Not Think About by Jente Posthuma X Sarah Timmer Harvey 🇳🇱 Crooked Plow by Itamar Vieira Junior X Johnny Lorenz 🇧🇷 A Dictator Calls by Ismail Kadare X John Hodgson 🇦🇱 Simpatía by Rodrigo Blanco Calderon X Noel Hernández González and Daniel Hahn 🇻🇪 Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck X Michael Hofmann 🇩🇪 Lost on Me by Veronica Raimo X Leah Janeczko 🇮🇹 Undiscovered by Gabriela Wiener X Julia Sanches🇵🇪 James by Percival Everett The Most Secret Memory of Men by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr X Lara Vergnaud 🇸🇳 #ibpreadingchallenge #internationalbookerprize #internationalbooker2024 #contemporaryliterature #contemporaryfiction #translatedliterature #literature #literaryfiction #literatureintranslation #translatedgems #frenchliterature #bookstagramreadsthebooker #bookstagram #bookstack #books2024 #reading #readpercivaleverett #percivaleverett #latinamericanliterature
I’m not sure how it happened but we are officially in April so it’s time to post my March book stack. What a quality book stack it is! The first couple of weeks were made up of some buzzy books, a quality Australian novel and an Ernaux memoir while the rest of March was made up of the International @thebookerprizes longlist. All together an excellent month of reading! I also listened to Doppleganger by Naomi Klein and Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad both great audiobooks that I thoroughly enjoyed! March on the life front included seeing The National; seeing R F Kuang at the Opera House; a lovely hang with some other bookstagrammers; insanely busy work; a visit to emergency with the youngest (she’s fine, she’s a climber… need I say more); family hangs; wine and cheese hangs and just general life things… finishing it all off with a quality Easter long weekend. Phew, now that I think about March sure was a busy one. Let’s see what April has in store.
The Overstory by Richard Powers is our fiction pick for April 🌳🌲🌿 Here's the synopsis: 'The Overstory unfolds in concentric rings of interlocking fables that range from antebellum New York to the late twentieth-century Timber Wars of the Pacific Northwest and beyond. An Air Force loadmaster in the Vietnam War is shot out of the sky, then saved by falling into a banyan. An artist inherits a hundred years of photographic portraits, all of the same doomed American chestnut. A hard-partying undergraduate in the late 1980s electrocutes herself, dies and is sent back into life by creatures of air and light. A hearing- and speech-impaired scientist discovers that trees are communicating with one another. These four, and five other strangers - each summoned in different ways by trees - are brought together in a last and violent stand to save the continent's few remaining acres of virgin forest. There is a world alongside ours - vast, slow, interconnected, resourceful, magnificently inventive and almost invisible to us. This is the story of a handful of people who learn how to see that world and who are drawn up into its unfolding catastrophe.' Will you be reading this tale of trees with us? 🌱📚 Join the discord via the link in our bio! 📚 @hutchheinemann 📸 @oceanxbluess #RewildYourShelf #TheOverstory #RichardPowers #BookClub #Nature #Books #Bookstagram #NatureLovingBookworms #Bookworms #NatureBooks #ClimateFiction #EnvironmentalFiction #BookLovers #NatureLovers #Naturegram #BooksInNature #Trees #ExplorePage #Forests #ClassicBooks #BookstagramReadsTheBooker #TheManBookerPrize
📚 March Reading Wrap-up 📚 While I read several books in March, only two were standouts - My Friends by Hisham Matar and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon (the latter I forgot to include in my bookstack!). My Friends felt fresh and new while a re-read of Amazing Adventures confirmed that it will remain an all time favourite of mine. March is Christmas for us book lovers with the Women's Prize and International Booker longlist announcements. Sadly, I've yet to be wowed by any of the longlisted titles I've read. I've learned that I find single povs frustrating particularly when combined with a lack of plot (Soldier, Sailor and what I'd rather not think about). Kairos was more interesting for its depiction of East Germany than the affair central to the story. Other prize listed titles read were Eve (Women's Prize non-fiction) and A Better Place nominated for New Zealand's top literary prize. Clearly, #theockhams judges and I have different understandings of literary merit. I'm trying to read more short stories and so enjoyed the blending of native Hawaiian stories and beliefs in Megan Kamalei Kamamoto's collection Every Drop is a Man's Nightmare. I also buddy read The Bell Jar noting my goal to read more classic fiction this year. Stay tuned for my review of Butter this week. Are you also reading books from the Women's or International Booker longlists? What are your srandouts so far?
March Wrap Up. A good solid months reading. Three from the International Booker Longlist. More on them later. Don't forget our first #bookstagramreadsthebooker International Booker shortlist vote on Friday/Saturday (5/6th April) in my stories! Looking forward to seeing which books you choose for OUR shortlist ahead of the announcement of the official shortlist on April 9th. From the Women's Prize for Fiction longlist 'Enter Ghost' and 'In Defence of the Act'. 'Defense' was the only book I managed to post about this month...I loved it! From the Women's Prize for Non-Fiction longlist 'Wifedom' which did make OUR shortlist #bookstagramknowsbest #bookstagramreadsthewomensprize But, sadly, not the Women's Prize's. As I've said before I thought it was amazing. 🤷♀️ 'Biography of X' is shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize. It's also a finalist for the Lammy award in Lesbian Fiction. This was such an impressive book. Featuring an alternative history of America as well as including real life people and photographs, I devoured it. Not an uplifting read but perceptive and thought provoking. 'This Plague of Souls' was a much anticipated read for me. This book is the second part of a planned tryptych, the first 'Solar Bones' was a book I loved. Atmospheric and well written, overall though, I'm unsure how I felt about it. Apparently the author described it as the 'dark centrepiece in portrait' of the three novels- Solar Bones being the 'first landscape side pane'. Described as a 'tense metaphysical thriller' and as Existential Noir, it was not my usual type of read at all but it has stayed with me. On Audio I ventured into Middle Earth! Andy Serkis does an amazing job of narrating the book (s). I'm currently enjoying 'The Two Towers'. 'Girl, Balancing' was a collection of thirty-four short stories narrated by three different voices. There was a wide variety of stories which I really enjoyed listening to.
Happy Easter 🐣 time for another little #whatthisweek - flower edition 🌷 What I've been reading 📖 I feel like I didn't have much time to read this week, but I started Trust by Hernan Diaz and really like it so far! I also finally joined the girls for The Burning God and am very curious to see what happens next. Besides, I continued my journey with Proust, but only managed to get a few pages in, and I read the first chapter of How to Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair. I am so excited for this one 🤩 What I've been listening to 🎧 I finished Concerning My Daughter by Kim Hye-Jin which unfortunately wasn't that great, and I started listening to Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck. It's read by the author herself and although I wasn't immediately fixed by the description, I picked it as my first read of all the international booker long listers because it's German. It's really growing on me and I find myself getting more and more curious. What I've been watching 🎥 No TV this week but a ridiculous amount of reels, I don't even want to check my screen time. But sometimes that's exactly what I need, so that's okay. What I've been doing ☕ It's been a super busy week, setting up my phone, many hours on trains, spending time with my friends and family, baking a cake, going for three runs and having a delicious Easter meal. On Wednesday, I got to attend the #bloomsburybignightin as a VIP guest and it was so much fun to get to know the authors and listen to them talk about their writing and their books! Thanks again @tandemcollectiveglobal it was such a lovely and cozy evening! Now I am happy and full of impressions but also beyond tired, so I can't wait to get home and just relax. Luckily, tomorrow is another bank holiday so I'll get a calm start into the new week. How was your week? What did you read? Tell me all about it in the comments 🤍
International Booker Longlist Book 8 Lost on Me by Veronica Raimo X Leah Janeczko 🇮🇹 "When a writer is born into a family, the family is finished, they say. Actually, the family will be just fine, as has always been the case since the dawn of time, while it's the writer who'll meet with a terrible fate in the desperate attempt to kill off mothers, fathers, siblings only once to again find them inexorably alive." What follows this opening is a coming-of-age story about Veronica's family in Italy beginning around the time of the Chernobyl disaster. Verika, as she is called by her family lives in small quarters with her overly doting helicopter mother Francesca and her wall-building obsessed father, and her brother. "No one else has ever been there to squeeze my hands as I agonize on the toilet. It's not an easy thing to ask for. I've been left only with a sense of solitude and inadequacy. Whenever I'm up against the affliction, I begin to reinterpret my whole life as follows: it's a constant battle between abandoning something and trying to take it back. The perpetual curse of the middle ground." With vivid and humorous insights into the seemingly always elusive middle ground, the fiction of families, the grieving of lost relations, all the while becoming a woman, Lost On Me is filled with some great bits of writing. Her ruminations on the absurdity of family, books, male anatomy, constipation and friendships kept me engaged for most of the book. "Most memories leave us without our even noticing; as for those that remain, we're the ones who secretly pawn them off, traffic them, become their eager pushers, door-to-door salesmen, hucksters in search of some dupe who'll buy into our story. Dirt cheap, half off. For me, all of these strong qualities petered out towards the end. Lost on Me shows Raimo as a writer to keep looking out for. However, with other pieces of autofiction on the longlist, Lost on Me doesn't quite have the consistent qualities that the others have. In final, Victoria Raimos has written a quirky Italian bildungsroman that many fans of literary fiction will enjoy, hopefully a little bit more than I did.
Long weekends are made for books 🙏 Next up on audio ~ have you read this one? #booksandcoffee #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #studyforobedience #sarahbernstein #bookstagramreadsthebooker #bookerprize #bookishreads #booksofinstagram #readersofig #bibliophile #readwomen #readingismagic #whatareyoureading #weekendreads
Oh hi! Here is my International Booker and Women’s prize longlist bookstack! Already read 3 of these and can’t wait to pick up the other two! 📚📖💙 #prettybookstack #literaryfiction #bookstack #booklovers #shelfie #bookstaversary #litfic #readingupdate #alwaysreading #bookworm #bookstagram #instareading #instabooks #bookblog #whatiread #readingaddict #fortheloveofreading #booknerd #fortheloveofbooks #bookish #allaboutthebooks #bookstagramreadsthebooker #internationalbooker #thebookerprize #womensprizeforfiction #bookstagramreadsthewomensprize
Question 9… @iamneilboss @lovebookstours AD/PR Gavin calls Marcus delirious and unreasonable, what would you have done if you were Marcus? The very same! He was so selfless and kind in that moment and I think his true character shone through. Gavin should never have introduced them ethically anyway, and I really thought he had a few quite harsh opinions for someone who had his own issues. Marcus, albeit it - left my anxiety sky high in that moment - is have done the same 🥹 Maybe It’s About a time can be purchased now on Amazon and all royalties are going to the Gingerbread charity. Linked - http://www.instagram.com/gingerbreadcharity/ #bookstagram #books #bookstagramreadsthebooker #bookstagramread #readmorebooks #readingtime📖 #bookstagram #ilovebooks #bookish #bookishpost #readalongs #maybeitsabouttime #iamnielboss #marcusandclaire #bookworm
• international booker prize longlist 1-4 • ⠀ @thebookerprizes #InternationalBooker2024 ⠀ hey, friends! i’ve made progress on this year’s international booker prize longlist and thought i’d share some thoughts. to date, i’ve completed four books: ⠀ 🇦🇷 NOT A RIVER by selva almada and translated by annie mcdermott 🇳🇱 WHAT I’D RATHER NOT THINK ABOUT by jente posthuma and translated by sarah timmer harvey 🇰🇷 MATER 2-10 by hwang sok-yong and translated by sora kim-russell and youngjae josephine bae 🇻🇪 SIMPATÍA by rodrigo blanco calderón and translated by noel hernández gonzález and daniel hahn ⠀ i really enjoyed my time with each of these and could honestly see any of them being shortlisted. they’re quite different from each other and contribute unique styles and perspectives to the longlist. NOT A RIVER is the shortest book on the list at less than 100 pages, yet it packs quite a punch with its tension and the various moving pieces that constitute its plot. it’s also super atmospheric, kind of thick and hazy, rugged even, and it does an excellent job at exploring relationships, such as those between male companions, sisters, and strangers. then there’s MATER 2-10, which is the longest book on the list, a working-class history of social protest in korea through the lens of several generations of one fictitious family. the book covers a lot of ground and is written in a matter-of-fact way, very marxist in its approach. it’s dense and takes a while to get through. i also recommend making a family tree to keep track of who everybody is as you read. WHAT I’D RATHER NOT THINK ABOUT is written as a series of vignettes and narrated by one woman who has lost her twin brother to suicide. but it’s about looking inward as much as it’s about mourning another. the most reflective of the four books, it does a good job balancing its dark themes with lighter moments of comedy and wit. (continued in comments)
International Booker Longlist Book 5 The Details by Ia Genberg X Kira Josefsson 🇸🇪 "We live so many lives within our lives - smaller lives with people who come and go, friends who disappear, children who grow up - and I never know which of these lives is meant to serve as the frame." In an episode of CYE, Larry David states that the difference between a photo and a mirror is that a photo is how others see you and a mirror is how you see yourself. Nico once sang that she'll "be your mirror, Reflect what you are, in case you don't know. I'll be the wind, the rain and the sunset, the light on your door to show that you're home." "That's all there is to the self, or the so-called 'self': traces of the people we rub up against. I loved her words and gestures and let them become part of me, intentionally or not. I suppose that is the core of every relationship, and the reason that in some sense no relationship ever ends." In The Details Ia Genberg magically entwines textured reflections while her writing soars and dips and weaves through the heart and soul of the protagonist in The Details. With many beautiful turns of phrase and passages to give thought to, I felt like I was visiting parts of my story. I like to believe that just as I carry a bit of everyone I've met, they too carry a bit of me and our time shared. Perhaps that's a bit idealist and romantic for everyone, but hey this middle-aged Pisces is still allowed to dream isn't he? "And as we walk between the stones the years pass sideways around us behind their flimsy curtains. As far as the dead are concerned, chronology has no import and all that matters are the details, the degree of density, this how and what and everything to do with who." Just yesterday I thought of a friend from over a dozen years ago that passed last year. It almost brought me to tears for no other reason than it was someone at one point I loved like a brother. I am not sure I would have been in contact with these thoughts and feelings if I hadn't read The Details. All I know is that having read this book cracked me open, and for that I'm thankful.