Alwynne WIT challenge 2022

[Alwynne]

My first choice Hermynia Zur Muhlen's collection of radical fairy tales The Castle of Truth and Other Revolutionary Tales absorbing and inventive, and still all too relevant in their critique of working conditions, discrimination and xenophobia, despite dating from Germany in the 1920s.

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Alwynne]

2. is Hannah Arendt's Rahel Varnhagen: The Life of a Jewish Woman

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Alwynne]

3. Brenda Lozano's Witches the second to be translated into English from this acclaimed writer included on the Bogata 39 list of most promising young Latin American writers in 2017.

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Alwynne]

4. Solo Dance the first novel available in English translation by Taiwanese author Li Kotomi, who lives in Japan and writes in Japanese, as with her other work it focuses on aspects of lesbian life and culture, in Taiwan and Japan.

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Alwynne]

5. Cristina Rivera Garza's New and Selected Stories by Cristina Rivera Garza

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Alwynne]

This is a reissue of the first instalment of Konami Kanata's slice-of-life cat manga Sue & Tai-chan, Vol. 1 funny and charming, and already itching to read the rest.

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[oshizu]

I always enjoy seeing what you are reading!

[Alwynne]

Thanks Oshizu.
No 7 is from South Korea, Kim, Hye-jin's powerful and impressive Concerning My Daughter

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Alwynne]

8 is from Belgium, Corinne Hoex's Gentlemen Callers

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Alwynne]

9, Mieko Kawakami's All the Lovers in the Night

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Alwynne]

I finished a powerful collection of short stories by Tove Ditlevsen The Trouble with Happiness: and Other Stories

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Alwynne]

11. A collection of surreal short stories by neglected French author Barbara Molinard, now revived by The Feminist Press, Panics

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Carol]

You are reading up a storm in 2022! Here's hoping I catch the Focus Bug that is working its magic in your reading life. Congratulations on all of your 2022 reads to-date.

Also, thank you for sharing that last post and review. I'd not heard of Barbara Molinard, and am looking forward to diving into that rabbit hole after work this evening.

[Alwynne]

Part of it's a cheat, I've read a number of very short books recently! Molinard's only 120 or so pages. I'd never heard of her before either but I tend to like a lot of the titles put out by The Feminist Press so usually try what they select for their list. It's a very strange, slightly disorientating collection, and I'd love to know more about the author, some of the stories suggest she may have spent time in some rather harsh psychiatric institutions, but couldn't find anything about her online other than material related to marketing this.

[Carol]

Alwynne wrote: "Part of it's a cheat, I've read a number of very short books recently! Molinard's only 120 or so pages. I'd never heard of her before either but I tend to like a lot of the titles put out by The Fe..."

short books have my heart. it's a shame there isn't more about Molinard online; until we start seeing published journal articles on a wider variety of authors, I think we'll struggle to find much about newly re-published but dead authors. More's the pity.

[Alwynne]

Absolutely Carol.

[Alwynne]

12. a new edition of The Gossamer Years: The Diary of a Noblewoman of Heian Japan (not yet listed on GR) the diary of a tenth-century Japanese woman, intimate and affecting.

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Alwynne]

13 is the first in Yoko Tawada's planned trilogy Scattered All Over the Earth

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Alwynne]

14 was an excellent, haunting novel by Mexican author Guadalupe Nettel Still Born. Fiercely but subtly feminist, and completely gripping.

Link to my review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Alwynne]

I raced through Elisa Shua Dusapin's award-winning, second novel The Pachinko Parlour

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Alwynne]

16 is a striking collection of short stories by celebrated Spanish writer Sara Mesa Bad Handwriting an author I'm going to be exploring further.

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Alwynne]

17 is Minae Mizumura's excellent A True Novel

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Jen]

Alwynne wrote: "16 is a striking collection of short stories by celebrated Spanish writer Sara Mesa Bad Handwriting an author I'm going to be exploring further.."

What a fantastic year you are having with translated literature, my TBR thanks you! Have you read Mesa’s Four by Four? If not I recommend it. I’ll be seeking out this story collection.

[Alwynne]

Jen wrote: "Alwynne wrote: "16 is a striking collection of short stories by celebrated Spanish writer Sara Mesa Bad Handwriting an author I'm going to be exploring further.."

What a fantastic ..."

No I haven't but I liked her stories so much I'm really keen to read more of her work, sounds like this would be a good one to explore next, thanks!

[Alwynne]

18 is a gripping, thoughtful novel by Vietnamese writer Thuận, the first of her work to be translated into English, Chinatown

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Alwynne]

19 Mariana Enriquez's Our Share of Night, uneven and would definitely benefit from trimming but still quite a decent read, commercial horror that plays on the evils of Argentina's past.

Link to my review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Alwynne]

20. A classic of Italian feminism said to have inspired writers like Elena Ferrante. This novel by queer author Sibilla Aleramo was first published in 1906 novel A Woman. My link's to the current Penguin edition but I actually read the translation by Rosalind Delmar originally published by Virago in 1979.

Link to my review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Alwynne]

21, I finished Lee Geum-Yi's The Picture Bride a historical novel mainly set in early 20th-century Hawaii based on the real-life picture bride scheme which matched young Korean women with Korean men based on the island's sugar plantations. The women were often cheated, told they were going to marry young, wealthy men, but often found the reality very different. The style's a little basic, and the structure's a bit awkward but the story itself and the wealth of historical detail made it fascinating.

Link to my review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Alwynne]

22, and the first for WiT month, is a novel from Basque writer Katixa Agirre, Mothers Don’t worth reading but not as successful as I'd hoped, possibly because it's a little over-ambitious in what it's trying to cover. It's a literary piece that deals with a writer researching into a woman who killed her twin babies. I read a translation direct from the Basque, published by a new company 3TimesRebel Press which intends to focus on work by women that's been written in minority languages. There's another version available translated from the Spanish-language version by Katie Whittemore.

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Carol]

Yay for discovering new indie presses!

[Alwynne]

I know particularly ones that are bringing books by women to wider audiences.

[Alwynne]

23 is Natalia Ginzburg's memoir/novel Family Lexicon a complex account of her family and her life in fascist Italy during the 20s, 30s and 40s.

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Alwynne]

24 is the English translation of Olivia Wenzel's 1000 Coils of Fear which draws on her experiences as a Black, queer, German woman. It's not without flaws but it's a fascinating, intersectional exploration of questions around race, identity, and place as well as an indirect commentary on contemporary capitalism. But although that may sound heavy it's also very readable and direct.

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Alwynne]

25 is Dorothy Tse's inventive take on Hong Kong under Chinese rule Owlish

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Alwynne]

26 is Emi Yagi's deceptively simple, absorbing Diary of a Void

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Alwynne]

27 Unica Zürn’s unexpectedly fascinating Dark Spring

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Alwynne]

28 Rwandan-French writer Scholastique Mukasonga's Kibogo a deceptively-simple take on the forms of cultural violence imposed via the Christian Church on Rwanda at the height of its colonisation by Belgium.

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Alwynne]

29 A flawed but fascinating novel by activist and Dadaist Emmy Hennings first published in 1920 Branded: A Diary an impressive recreation of her life in pre-WW1 Germany as a sex worker and jobbing actor.

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Alwynne]

30 Rin Usami's exploration of fangirling Idol, Burning

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Alwynne]

31 is Veza Canetti's neglected novel of 1939 The Tortoises based on her experiences as an Austrian Jew after the Nazis flooded into her country.

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Alwynne]

32 Daughters Beyond Command Veronique Olmi's flawed but fascinating fictional exploration of second-wave feminism and the cultural/social changes encountered by French women coming of age in 1970s France.

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Alwynne]

33. Ann-Helen Laestadius's Stolen: A Novel a fascinating depiction of the Sami communities in northern Sweden through the eyes of a young Sami girl Elsa.

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Alwynne]

I finished Saha the latest novel from Cho Nam-Joo author of the phenomenally successful Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982. Cho ventures into the realms of dystopian fiction with her exploration of authoritarian and capitalist Town, and its impoverished underclass the Sahas.

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Alwynne]

35 Mizuki Tsujimura's Lonely Castle in the Mirror great sentiments behind this one but a little disappointing as a novel. An exploration of the impact of school bullying in Japan using fantasy.

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Alwynne]

36 Riku Onda's thriller of sorts, Fish Swimming in Dappled Sunlight loved her style not so convinced by the ideas driving this one though.

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Alwynne]

37 Hiroko Oyamada's novella Weasels in the Attic highly readable but a little slight.

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Alwynne]

I finished Hiromi Ito's The Thorn Puller an uneasy, raw, series of reflections on life as a middle-aged woman and caregiver, who's also torn between cultures and countries.

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Alwynne]

The first English translation of Astrid Roemer's queer, feminist novel On a Woman's Madness which examines issues around colonialism, patriarchy and race. Roemer is one of the writers featured in Daughters of Africa

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Alwynne]

40 is a short, early piece by Marguerite Duras The Easy Life recently translated into English for the first time.

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Alwynne]

41 a selection of Tove Jansson short stories from NYRB Classics, The Woman Who Borrowed Memories: Selected Stories

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...