I wish I was reclining on the beach somewhere, parasol in one hand and book in the other. But, alas, I am not. But it's nice to think about.
Middle of a busy week humdrum and all the energy I can drum up is to share some bookish links and a few reading bits and bobs. Tomorrow I hope to sort through my weaving photos and share my progress finally. I am at a new point in my learning--have finished two projects and my class is technically done, but I hope to continue learning. But more about that tomorrow.
The shortlist for the Man Booker Prize has been announced. Surprisingly the one book I am reading from the list is actually on the list--I have been reading Eileen by Otessa Moshfegh.
Canada's Scotiabank Giller Prize longlist was announced last week and as Madeleine Thien's Do Not Say We Have Nothing is on not just one but both short and longlist's I might give it a try. I eyed it when it crossed my desk at the library and now I have an excuse to check it out. Not that I need one, of course. It sounds epic in the telling: "Master storyteller Madeleine Thien takes us inside an extended family in China, showing us the lives of two successive generations―those who lived through Mao’s Cultural Revolution and their children, who became the students protesting in Tiananmen Square."
I wish I could say I was an enthusiastic poetry reader, but maybe someday. Perhaps you are, however. So I pass along the longlist for the National Book Award in Poetry. Lithub gave a little rundown of interesting events.
As an enthusiastic mystery and crime reader this is much more up my alley and I wish I could be here later this week!
Speaking of crime novels, over the weekend I picked up the summer issue of Bookforum (I used to subscribe and am thinking of doing so again) and read an interesting article about Ross Macdonald. Now I want to read his whole oeuvre of mysteries from first to last. I plan on digging out my copy of The Moving Target which introduces private detective Lew Archer. The more I think about it the more I feel in the mood to binge on mysteries (or pick up those in progress mysteries gracing my night stand . . . and there are several sitting there neglected).
I loved this Guardian article on Agatha Christie and how crime fiction is going "cosy" again (though cozies are really not always that cozy and can be quite dark in their own way)! I especially liked this quote from Tilly Bagshawe who is writing a cozy mystery novel to be published next year:
"Bagshawe, whose new series about amateur sleuth and portrait painter Iris Grey was inspired by Christie, agrees. “I came up with the idea for this series because a whole bunch of publishers were asking me to write a sexy psychological thriller and I practically passed out with boredom,' she says. 'Soon after that I re-read Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple short stories and was really struck by how beautifully drawn the character is. It’s a wonderful character study of a woman who is constantly underestimated because of her age and her gender.”
She was keen to differentiate her heroine from all the troubled 'Girls' dominating crime fiction. 'I really wanted to write a series about a woman who was in her 40s, who didn’t have an addiction or an unhappy marriage or a messy life, who wasn’t unreliable. She’s just a woman in her 40s who’s good at noticing things. That’s her tic'.
(Hear hear on a change from what is becoming a tired trope of 'girl' thrillers (I am starting to purposefully avoid any books that are compared to Gone Girl or Girl on the Train . . .).
And then for a bit more on the domestic crime reading front, another article on Dorothy B. Hughes here.
The most recent issue of Piecework Magazine (which I love and often pick up at the bookstore) has several short articles on mystery writers/novels (cozies to be sure, including Miss Marple!) who are knitters (or needleworkers) and there are even accompanying projects. How cool is that.
Cozy Fall reading? I am all for that. Book Riot shared some goodies for just that activity. This ThumbThingy looks quite useful for reading while eating--which I do daily (not very mindful, I know, but a guilty pleasure I can't quite let myself give up). I like to collect bookmarks, and while this doesn't look like the most practical for me really, dang but isn't it just the cutest thing? He even has glasses!
Now, I am watching my mail for September's NYRB subscription book . . . I am not sure what it is. Do I go looking or try and wait and be surprised? Hmm.
Any fun bookishness (of any sort) catch your attention this week?