Reading
With Easter coming up, and a predicted hard-working one too (catching up on a million-and-one things I haven’t been able to do in the first three weeks of the month), I thought I’d do an early round-up of my March reading. It felt like March was dominated by the International Booker longlist, and I did read nine out of the thirteen from that list, but I’d forgotten that I also read a lot of other, much lighter books – crime novels of course to brighten my mood, but also a Chalet School book and a fictionalised biography of two women revolutionaries Inessa Armand and Alexandra Kollontai.
Eleven foreign books out of the total sixteen, two vintage crime novels (both in preparation for the #1937Club), but which ones really stuck with me? I thought Tana French was very funny and good at depicting a closed Irish village community, quite ‘Banshee of Inisherin’, and I enjoy the late 19th century Krakow (and indomitable, snobbish Zofia) of Mrs Mohr Goes Missing. The acerbic wit and underlying sadness of Lost On Me worked well for me – a book that reminded me a little of Fleabag, while The Details was less memorable. Despite the unpleasant ‘Stockholm syndrome’ type of relationship at the heart of Kairos, I thought the book did a great job of using a toxic love affair as a metaphor for the relationship between East Germany and its citizens. And I was moved by the poetic meditation of life and death in a rural community in White Nights.
Events
It has been quite a busy month – to be all understated about it! I left the job I’d been doing for the past six and a half years, I attended London Book Fair and other events, I saw lots of films and the magnificent Sargent exhibition, I went to an extremely depressing (perhaps triggering) RADA production of Anatomy of a Suicide, and tonight I’ll be going to a short Romanian play being presented at the Romanian Cultural Institute. This level of activity is extreme, even for me and even for pre-pandemic levels. I will have to calm down and start working more on my many projects.
Projects
There is no shortage of those: from editing my first German crime novel translation, to finalising book covers and marketing strategies, applying for funding and all the usual brouhaha.
I will also be helping to host a Spring Showcase for members of the Indie Press Network and I strongly encourage you to sign up if you are interested and have time or have followed the #ReadIndies hashtag at any point. We’d heard many readers and bloggers complaining that all of the publishing events seem to either be taking place in London or demanding in-person attendance, so we decided to run joint virtual showcases, so that any readers, booksellers, bloggers, journalists, festival organisers from all around the world can see and hear what over 30 indie publishers will be bringing out this season. There will be publishers of all sizes and renown, from Bluemoose, Renard and Dead Ink, to… Corylus Books! 😉
We’ve broken down a potentially marathon event into three distinct evenings, by genre:
Non-Fiction, poetry and Children’s 11th April
OK, so we won’t have the glamorous goody bags and swag, or warm white wine and orange juice, or beautifully decorated cupcakes… but at least we’re saving you the cost of train tickets and the potential hassle of strikes!
In addition to the International Booker Shadow Panel reading (I’ll have to do a more in-depth dive of the books, even of those I’ve skimmed over because they weren’t quite to my taste, if they get shortlisted), I will stick to mainly #Club1937 reading for the whole month of April. I’ve already done some of the lighter crime novels, as you can see above, but what other treasures lie in wait?
findingtimetowrite 