Author: whatcathyreadnext

#TopTenTuesday Most Anticipated Releases of the Second Half of 2021

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Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl.

The rules are simple:

Each Tuesday, Jana assigns a new topic. Create your own Top Ten list that fits that topic – putting your unique spin on it if you want. Everyone is welcome to join but please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own Top Ten Tuesday post. Add your name to the Linky widget on that day’s post so that everyone can check out other bloggers’ lists. Or if you don’t have a blog, just post your answers as a comment.

This week’s topic is Most Anticipated Releases of the Second Half of 2021. Here’s my list – and this is just the ones in my TBR pile, physical or digital! Links from the titles will take you to the full book description on Goodreads.

July

Songbirds by Christy Lefteri – From the bestselling author of The Beekeeper of Aleppo, a powerful story about love, loss, hope and courage, set in the lush forests of Cyprus.
Cecily by Annie Garthwaite – Told through the eyes of its greatest unseen protagonist, this astonishing debut plunges you into the blood and exhilaration of the first days of the Wars of the Roses, a war as women fight it.

August

The Fair Botanists by Sara Sheridan – 1822, Edinburgh is abuzz with rumours of King George IV’s impending visit. In botanical circles, however, a different kind of excitement has gripped the city. In the newly-installed Botanic Garden, the Agave Americana plant looks set to flower – an event which only occurs once in several decades.
A Line To Kill by Anthony Horowitz – the third literary whodunit featuring intrepid detectives Hawthorne and Horowitz
A Corruption of Blood by Ambrose Parry – the third in the historical crime series set in 19th century Edinburgh 

September

The Hidden Child by Louise Fein – Inspired by the author’s personal experience, The Hidden Child illuminates the moral and ethical issues of an era shaped by xenophobia, prejudice, fear, and well-intentioned yet flawed science
The Late Train to Gipsy Hill by Alan Johnson – Each day, Gary watches as a woman on the train applies her make up in a ritual he now knows by heart. Then one evening, on the late train to Gipsy Hill, the woman invites him to take the empty seat beside her, holds up her mirror and Gary reads the words ‘HELP ME’ scrawled in sticky black letters on the glass.
Snow Country by Sebastian Faulks – Sweeping across Europe as it recovers from one war and hides its face from the coming of another, Snow Country is a landmark novel of exquisite yearnings, dreams of youth and the sanctity of hope. 

October

A Woman Made of Snow by Elisabeth Gifford – A gorgeous, haunting and captivating novel of a century-long family mystery in the wilds of Scotland, and one woman’s hunt for the truth.
Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout – The Pulitzer Prize-winning, Booker-longlisted, bestselling author returns to her beloved heroine Lucy Barton in a luminous novel about love, loss, and the family secrets that can erupt and bewilder us at any point in life

What forthcoming books are you eagerly anticipating?

#BookReview The Penguin Book of Spanish Short Stories edited by Margaret Jull Costa @PenguinUKBooks

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The Penguin Book of Spanish Short StoriesAbout the Book

This exciting new collection celebrates the Spanish short story, from its modern origins in the nineteenth century to the remarkable work being written today. Featuring over fifty stories selected by revered translator Margaret Jull Costa, it blends hidden gems and old favourites, surprising new voices and giants of Spain’s literary culture, from Emilia Pardo Bazán and Leopoldo Alas, through Mercè Rodoreda and Manuel Rivas, to Javier Marías. Brimming with romance, horror, history and farce, and showcasing alluring hairdressers, war defectors, vampiric mothers, and talismanic mandrake roots, the daring and entertaining assortment of tales in The Penguin Book of Spanish Short Stories will be a treasure trove for readers.

Format: Hardcover (416 pages)    Publisher: Penguin Classics
Publication date: 24th June 2021 Genre: Short Stories, Literature in Translation

Find The Penguin Book of Spanish Short Stories on Goodreads

Purchase links
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My Review

I cannot recall having read much literature by Spanish writers and, to be completely honest,  all the authors whose stories are included in this collection were previously unknown to me. I also learned it’s too simplistic to say the stories are translated from Spanish because, as the book’s editor Margaret Jull Costa explains in her introduction, they were originally written in one of Spain’s four languages – Basque (euskara), Castilian Spanish (castellano), Catalan (català) and Galician (gallego). Each story is accompanied by a brief biographical note about the author.

The stories are arranged in chronological order of the author’s birth, the earliest being 1843. I was struck by how much of an impact the Spanish Civil War had, either on the lives of the authors themselves – many of whom were forced into exile – or on the subject matter of the stories, especially in the case of the authors featured in the first half of the book.

In her introduction, Costa offers the advice not to read one story after the other but to treat the collection like a box of Belgian chocolates, savouring and pondering the stories ‘one or, at most, two at a time’. I did my best to follow this advice even if it meant showing considerably more restraint than I would if presented with an actual box of Belgian chocolates!

Margaret Jull Costa argues that a short story is not a truncated novel but is more akin to poetry and that ‘the best short stories create a world in just a few pages’. Indeed, many of the stories in the book are very short, just a few pages in length. As is often the case with short story collections, I enjoyed some more than others. Quite a few in the collection had a fantasy or supernatural element which is not really to my reading taste, although I can see them appealing to other readers. I’ve picked out some below that I particularly enjoyed.

The Novel on the Tram by Benito Pérez Galdós – one for anyone who’s ever eavesdropped on others’ conversations while travelling by train or bus, or wondered about the lives of their fellow passengers

The Talisman by Emilia Pardo Bazán – reminiscent of M. R. James’ story ‘Casting The Runes’

Duet for Two Coughs by Leopoldo Alas/Clarín– the imaginings of two strangers sharing the same malady

The Reverse Side of the Tapestry by Azorín– in which a poet weaves a story whilst at the same Fate is weaving his

The Boy by Ramón J. Sender– the brutality and senseless nature of war captured in just a few pages

Come Twelve o’ Clock by Ignacio Aldecoa – a mother’s warning to her son turned on its head

Summer Orchestra by Esther Tusquets – a poignant story of a young girl’s growing awareness of the complexities of the adult world

The Fullness of Summer by Quim Monzó – I read this after returning from a family lunch out but we couldn’t compete on the kissing and photographs front, although the author’s characters did have the advantage of being pre-pandemic

The Butterfly’s Tongue by Manuel Rivas – the story of an inspirational teacher that has a sting in its tail

And Shortly After That, There Was Now by Eider Rodríguez – the tale of a journey into the past that has an elegiac quality

My thanks to Matt Hutchinson at Penguin Books for my advance reading copy.

In three words: Imaginative, varied, insightful

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About the Editor

Margaret Jull Costa has translated the works of many Spanish and Portuguese writers, among them novelists: Javier Marías, José Saramago and Eça de Queiroz, and poets: Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen, Mário de Sá-Carneiro and Ana Luísa Amaral. Her work has brought her numerous prizes, most recently, the 2018 Premio Valle-Inclán for On the Edge by Rafael Chirbes. In 2014, she was awarded an OBE for services to literature.