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The second book of our book club is Nina Stibbe’s Love, Nina. I came across it in an article asking writers to recommend a ‘positive’ book. I did not research it, I just presented the above to my other two book clubbers who both said ‘Yes’ and here I am 108 pages in.
After Stay With Me, a book, in which children are lost, Love, Nina is about children that are found – introduced into Nina’s life as she attempts to figure out what her life is. Stibbe was twenty when she moved to London to become a nanny to Mary-Kay Wilmers’, a founder and editor of London Review of Books, two sons – Sam and Will. The book covers five years in the form of Stibbe’s letters to her sister. We do not get her sister’s replies, however, we do get a lot of quotes from all the protagonists. Now, that is where the hilariousness lies. The book had me in stitches in three pages…
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I picked up the Year of Wonders from my shelf based on some sort of a gut feeling fuelled by a blankness. My mind would not focus in on a book that would resonate with my state of being and be the answer to my want of a book. I bought the book in a quaint second hand bookshop in Cañon City, Colorado called Cheryl’s Book Nook, a shop that I would visit each time I was in town and would leave with a boxful of books. Many as random as this one. I did not know Geraldine Brooks and I have no recollection of my reason behind picking it up other than wanting to support Cheryl in her endeavours.
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I wonder if everyone selects the book to read at any given moment based on a gut feeling. I look at my bookshelves, hold individual books in the eye of my mind and wait for a sensation to surge up from my abdomen. I have been struggling this week, having finished Love, Nina for the book club and not receiving the next book yet. Could Little Dorrit be it? I thought so yesterday but today I am not so sure.
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I was showing off my new bookshelves on Facebook while pointing out plenty of empty space (we bought giant bookshelves that are 2.5 metres tall) and a friend of mine recommended Ayòbámi Adébáyò’s Stay with Me to fill the gaps. As she had previously recommended Anuk Arudpragasam’s The Story of a Brief Marriage (a book I expected to be a witty love story, oh, could I have been more wrong?) and Golnaz Hashemzadeh Bonde’s What We Owe (a book that saw me sobbing uncontrollably for half an hour), I was intrigued. She also messaged me privately to say that if I do not have children as a choice, I should go and read the book; but if it is otherwise, I may want to read something else. So I put it to my two other friends with whom we are starting a very small long-distance book club and since they both said yes I opened this book on Tuesday and today I am 200 pages in.
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Last week I attended Daunt Book’s evening online discussion hosted by Alim Kheraj and introducing Brandon Taylor, author of the Booker Prize longlisted book – Real Life. I had not bought the book by that point, did not have a particular wish to do so either, as I feel somewhat inundated with the amount of new books, not knowing where to turn and how to choose. I also feel a multitude of castigating looks on my back every time I walk away from my overflowing bookshelves leaving all those unread books behind and walking back to the pile on my desk. The more I read about books and the more books I buy the more I despair. Can despair be a positive driving force?
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I have been slowly savouring this book for the past two weeks as each essay is a powerful unit in its own right and so I tend to take a break after each one to allow it to sink in.
My husband bought this book some two or three years ago while we were living in the US as immigrants. Reading it made me realise that I have been an immigrant for the past 19 years with no prospect of getting out any time soon. I went to study in Prague, Czech Republic in 2001 – 9 years after Czechoslovakia split. I was a Slovak student benefiting from the agreement between the two countries allowing its citizens the same application and admission process to their universities. The Czechs have a special word for us - ‘naplavenina’ or ‘silt’, basically, something that gets carried in by water and stays. I stayed for 15 years and still consider Prague a home.
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The Guardian: On the brink of a Booker: 2020's shortlisted authors on the stories behind their novels
As the winner of the Booker Prize 2020 is to be announced on Thursday 19 November, let us have a closer look at the finalists. I have only read one of the shortlisted books but I have another one waiting on my shelf and two more that I would like to purchase. Watching The Guardian Live Booker Prize shortlist readings (embedded in the article) I found myself quietly and distantly smiling throughout the evening spent with writers, yet again.
'It had been on my shelf for years': Guardian readers share their lockdown reads
Now that the weekly "Tips, Links and Suggestions" column has ended, I will keep looking for fellow-readers' recommendations as I often find them enticing. The first ones I came across were of the "classics" in multiple sense of the word.
"Tips, links and suggestions" by The Guardian readers, week of 26 October 2020
This was my favourite weekly column for inspiration about what to read next. I enjoy the mix of the latest bestsellers and obscure works from centuries ago, as well as, original comments by the readers.
Where to start if you want to get into black young adult fiction by Leah Cowan
I know very little, read nothing, about Young Adult fiction since I have been looking down on it for some reason. I think it is the genre name that confuses me. I have not been aware of it until I moved to the US four years ago and, thinking about it, I am sure it has its purpose but for me the only age division in books was children's and the rest. I am sure by now it is also being used on the Czech and Slovak book market but it was not something I came across growing up.
Thanks to Where to start if you want to get into black young adult fiction by Leah Cowan I will certainly be looking up some of the books mentioned. I believe the narratives of quest and overcoming obstacles might be just what we all need right now.
"Rethinking ‘Diversity’ in Publishing" Report
First, I came across an article in The Guardian: “'I stuck my foot in the door': what it is like to be black in UK publishing” and that led me to the report on diversity in publishing called “Rethinking ‘Diversity’ in Publishing”
The report then made me wonder about the books by non-white authors I have read and whether and/or to what extent they are conforming to the white, middle-class readers’ supposed perception of what a non-white author should be writing about.
Bestsellers
UK
- Richard Osman: The Thursday Murder Club
- Joe Wicks: Joe’s Family Food
- E. L. James: Freed
Week ending 18 June (Direct from trade sales)
USA
- James Patterson, Bill Clinton: The President’s Daughter
- Elin Hildebrand: Golden Girl
- Dav Pilkey: Dog Man: Mothering Heights
Through 12 June (Publishers Weekly)
Ireland
- Trisha Lewis: Trisha’s 21-Day-Reset
- Sinéad O’Connor: Rememberings
- Jane Casey: The Killing Kind
Week ending 12 June (Based on Nielsen BookScan for Irish Consumer Market)
France
- Dubu Chugong: Solo leveling
- Zep: Titeuf; la grande aventure
- Riad Sattouf: Les cahiers d’esther; histoires de mes 15 ans
Week ending 13 June (Based on Edistat)
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