This short story collection offers an insight into the lives of Muslim women in S. India- a group that we don't really hear about or from. 12 different stories of the struggle for equality, freedom & dignity peppered w/ comedy and tragedy. A good way to officially finish the #IBPReadingChallenge.
Book 13: Heart Lamp: Selected Stories by Banu Mushtaq. Trans. from Kannada by Deepa Bashti. #IBPReadingChallenge @thebookerprizes.bsky.social
Excited for the International Booker Prize Short List announcement. I’m just beyond halfway through the long list. Hoping to see these make the cut: Under the Eye of the Big Bird, Reservoir Bitches, the Book of Disappearances, a Leopard Skin Hat. #IBPReadingChallenge #Booksky
Well what a unique take on the repeating day genre. An exploration of displacement, belonging and time. Hopefully Solvej Balle finishes this planned septology with answers & a good ending. Very intriguing. #IBPReadingChallenge @thebookerprizes.bsky.social
Book 12: On the Calculation of Volume I by Solvej Balle. Trans from the Danish by Barbara J. Haveland. #IBPReadingChallenge @thebookerprizes.bsky.social
A confrontational & philosophical novel about guilt, conscience and the asylum seeker crisis. A fictional account of a real story in Nov 2021. An inflatable dinghy w/ migrants from France to the UK capsizes in the Channel leading to the deaths of 27. #IBPReadingChallenge
My left hand holding a book. Black and white cover art show a person walking as if behind broken glass. Title The Book of Disappearance Ibtisam Azem Translated from the Arabic by Sinan Antoon
Been working hard reading #nonfiction but with the #BookerInternational short list announcement a week away time to get to this one. #IBPReadingChallenge
Book 11: Small Boat by Vincent Delecroix Trans. from French by Helen Stevenson. #IBPReadingChallenge @thebookerprizes.bsky.social
This novella was refreshing but also not for the prudish. A story of a disabled woman exploring her sexuality & highlighting the many things that able-bodied people take for granted. Short, sharp and transgressive. #IBPReadingChallenge @thebookerprizes.bsky.social
Book #10: Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa. Trans from Japanese by Polly Barton. @thebookerprizes.bsky.social #IBPReadingChallenge
of the Palestinian plight, what they have suffered since 1948 and the displacement of these people. Very sad that this is still happening today & perpetuated by a people who suffered the same thing. Still puzzling to me. #IBPReadingChallenge @thebookerprizes.bsky.social
Book #9: The Book of Disappearance by Ibtisam Azem. Trans. from Arabic by Sinan Antoon #IBPReadingChallenge @thebookerprizes.bsky.social
TAMBTD is a coming of age novel from Reunion and deals with a female main character dealing with parental neglect, colonialism, loneliness & the determination to make a better life for herself. Witty observations abound in this short but poignant novel. #IBPReadingChallenge
Book #8: There's a Monster Behind the Door by Gaëlle Bélem Trans. from French by Karen Fleetwood & Laëtitia Saint-Loubert #IBPReadingChallenge @thebookerprizes.bsky.social
Finally finished Solenoid. What a tome. Virtually plotless, meandering and hard to pin down. Set mostly in Communist-era Romania. Nameless narrator ponders life, loneliness & existence. #IBPReadingChallenge @thebookerprizes.bsky.social
#IBPReadingChallenge update. I finished Saou Ichikawa’s Hunchback and I can’t stop thinking about the end. #Booksky
Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami
Absolutely a meditation on consciousness, self, god, technology and humanity. This is the book that demanded the most of me so far in the #IBPReadingChallenge.
Book #7: Solenoid by Mircea Cărtărescu. Trans. from Romanian by Sean Cotter. #IBPReadingChallenge @thebookerprizes.bsky.social
Reservoir Bitches was such a harrowing but entertaining read. 13 different stories of women experiencing anger, poverty, revenge & anguish. From a daughter of a narco to spinster seamstresses. All in Mexico. All just wanting to survive. Feminism at its finest. #IBPReadingChallenge
Book #6: Reservoir Bitches by Dahlia de la Cerda. Trans. from Spanish by Heather Cleary& Julia Sanches #IBPReadingChallenge
This line especially: Don’t you think there’s something strange about the way that we live just to be made and raised, and to marry, and raise children, and then die again? (2/2) #IBPReadingChallenge @thebookerprizes.bsky.social
Book #5: Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami Trans. from Japanese by Asa Yoneda. #IBPReadingChallenge @thebookerprizes.bsky.social
What a ride this novel was. Short, hilarious & at times confronting. An absurd semi-autobiographical trip down memory lane by the author & his ailing mother. Switzerland is described as beautiful but also devoid of character somehow. #IBPReadingChallenge
Book 4: Eurotrash by Christian Kracht. Trans. from German by Daniel Bowles. #IBPReadingChallenge @thebookerprizes.bsky.social
Perfection was a scathing, nihilistic view of modern life through the eyes of a digital nomad couple in Berlin. Ruled by social media & expectations for a 'good life', in a city changed by economic & social forces. Very relatable as a millennial. #IBPReadingChallenge
Book #3: Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico. Trans. from Italian by Sophie Hughes. #IBPReadingChallenge
Green book cover featuring a black and white open femme mouth and this text: RESERVOIR BITCHES by DAHLIA DE LA CERDA TRANSLATED BY Heather Cleary and Julia Sanches
Ruthless truths sharp enough to cut. Visceral, gritty, feminist AF. The collection excels in: voice, immersive sensory details. The 1st person narratives work for me. Feels like reading someone’s diary. When the stories linked it made the emotions even more expansive.
#IBPReadingChallenge
Check CW
The book On a Woman’s Madness by Astrid Roemer and translated by Lucy Scott sits on a dark grey couch. The book has a dark cover with a black and white photo of a woman’s face. She has her eyes closed and looks to be in some pain. A bookmark is sticking out of the top of the book. The text on the book is red. Next to the book is a white mug with frothed milk inside. On the mug it says “I’m library people” in black text.
“…pain cracks a dream wide open.”
– from On a Woman’s Madness by Astrid Roemer (trans. Lucy Scott) currently on the longlist for the International Booker Prize
#booksky
#ibpreadingchallenge
@thebookerprizes.bsky.social
Started my #IBPReadingChallenge
I love to get swallowed up by a great big book. I also love when a seemingly short book packs a loaded, layered wallop like #Eurotrash
