Random Things Tours: The Hand That Feeds You by Mercedes Rosende, translated by Tim Gutteridge

 

Set in Montevideo, The Hand that Feeds You by Mercedes Rosende, translated from Uruguayan Spanish by Tim Gutteridge, is a reminder of the precious literary resources lying outside the English-speaking realm. Especially in terms of crime stories and writing, there is an immense bibliography of authors that unfortunately are brought to the attention of the wider public only through translations.

Rosende is however well known in Germany, with her Crocodile Tears being praised and awarded. The Hand That Feeds You is a sequel to this book, but it can be read and understood without necessarily being familiar with the first one. However, after the reading experience of The Hand...one may immediately want to read it and even learn some Spanish to read in original the books not translated yet by this author.

From the very first line, my interest was awaken and I could not separate from the book until the end. A story of a bank heist going wrong, shared through pieces of story puzzled shared by different protagonists, mostly women, it is chaotic with a completely irregular timeline and too fast to catch up sometimes, nevertheless the best thriller race I run in my mind in a while. 

The Hand That Feeds You captivates the reader both through the story and the style. Now, I only wish I can discover more and more interesting Latin American crime writers, including from Uruguay. My Spanish skills can´t wait to expand.

Rating: 5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own

Halina Filipina, a Graphic Novel about Filipino Identity

 

When Halina Mitchell is visiting The Philippines, the country of her mother, for the first time from New York, she was expecting to connect with her relatives and with a culture she haven´t had the chance to get to know before. But life offers her a surprise and she is also getting to know Cris, a local film critic, with a cynical yet deep knowlege of the everyday life, including its kitsch.

Halina Filipina, a graphic novel by Filipino artist Arnold Arre was my first ever encounter with this unjustly less known culture and its people. A country with a diverse mosaique of language, pristine natural resources and over 113 million people, proud of their Pinoy identity and over 10 million people diaspora spread all over the world, but hardly known outside the South-Eastern Asian realm.

Definitely, an identity story can be very boring and repetitive, with a frame repeated from a culture to the other. After all, most of the non-´Western´ cultures are precariously known outside their own borders. However, in Halina Filipina there is the story that enfolds following its own rules, taking over the aim of educating and sharing authentic pieces of knowledge. 

The identity is created through the connection between Halina and Cris, his funny way of introducing her to words in tagalog and to hilarious kitsch shows. In graphic terms, it mixes the first and second plans, focusing for a long amount of time on visual details, like the movement of the characters, their facial features or surroundings. I will definitely check more works by this artist as he is both talented in terms of storytelling board and creating visual stories.

For anyone interested to get more interested in Filipino identity, but also in exploring how graphic novels can be used in the process, Halina Filipina is a very resourceful start. 

Rating: 5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered by the publisher in exchange for an honest review

50 Ways to Leave Your Husband

 ´In einer Welt, wo Frauen mehr Macht hätten, wären die Männer netter zu uns´.

I don´t remember to have ever read such a sharp, sad and realistic account of the state-of-arts of being a single woman - Alleinerziehende - in Germany. 50 Ways to Leave your Ehemann by Jacinta Nandi is the story of the author´s navigating a world full of unreliable men, written with an immense sense of humor, the perfect antidote to a grim horrible reality.

From outside, German society is praised for its generous Elternzeit and Kindergeld, but do you know that such benefits may be included as part of the revenue and therefore taxed? Did you ever heard about what happens to a single mother whose ex is literally hiding his sources of revenue refusing to pay anything to his beloved child - whose co-parenting rights will not give up at any price, even if he is visiting his child maybe few times the year, if ever? And so on. Until you are not there, you may hardly notice how hard it is to deal with all the hussle, and pressure and bureaucracy and the humiliation of turning into second class citizen as far as you decide to leave your husband - or lover. Thus, if you ever think about accusing a woman refusing to leave an abusive relationship, think in terms of taxes and money. It may give you some hints.

What I really appreciated is how Nandi, who is British by birth and single mother of two living in Berlin, is trying to understand, going beyond her experience and therefore gathering many diverse experiences and thoughts about the topic. Thus, it brings a lot of nuances into the problem which is an open wound of the German society. In fact, it may reveal that a society who mistreats its single mothers, may have a long-term tolerance and acceptance issue and until the perception and treatment of single women stay the same, the situation will never change.

50 Ways to Leave your Ehemann is a sad revelation of a condition inflicted to women - single or not - but offers nevertheless the key of understanding of why there are so many dysfunctional pathways in our brave ´generous´ German society. 

Rating: 5 stars

The Epistolary World of Marguerite Yourcenar

 

A selection of letters sent to editors, friends and other people directly involved in her literary realm, D'Hadrien à Zénon by Marguerite Yourcenar is first and foremost a testimony of old times letter writing skills. Old times, before the Internet launched the race against time to communicate as much as possible, as fast as possible, but not necessarily as consistent as possible.

Although she published before, Mémoires d'Hadrien, that saw the publishing light as she was 48, consecrated her as a writer. The first woman to be elected in the Académie Française, Yourcenar had to overcome a contract-related issue for publishing her book, and the exchange of letters with Grasset and Gallimard, France´s main publishing institutions, are an example of intellectual elegance in approaching even the most mundane everyday life issues with the sharpness of the written word.

Equally interesting are her research interests and tracing the sources of literary research. Entering the world of a writer´s inner rooms may be as interesting as getting to know their books. 

The letters cover a wide range of topics, including corrections and words of appreciations she sent to her reviewers. Her style and approach belongs to a civility I may deeply regret but I know that on my side, it´s almost impossible to achieve. I am living under completely different time and emotional pressures, therefore, the direct - even rude - way may be sometimes the easiest way to achieve your aims, including in the literary field.

For those interested in getting to know more about Yourcenar and the French-speaking publishing world, this massive collection of letters may help make an idea about the timeless art of letter writing.

Rating: 3.5 

Random Things Tours: The Forcing by Paul E. Hardisty

An eco-dystopia, placed in a possibly near future, The Forcing by Paul E Hardisty, published last week by Orenda Books is simply terrifying. I usually don´t read science fiction and I don´t have a very vast bibliography of books on similar topics, but I should. The coming climate disaster may not be stopped by reading books, but at least books can raise awareness where political leaders and decision makers failed.

As the new young leadership of Canada and North America - now made it into one - decides to send to the wasteland of the South USA those responsible for the climate change, based on age. Those responsible of the collapsing of civilisation may be sent in the middle of the crisis they created. Caught in this resettlement process, David - aka ´The Teacher´ - and May are send in the new times ´gulag´, experiencing food shortages and freedom restrictions.

 Written in a surgically precise way, with no scenes or word wasted, The Forcing is an essay in the end of times as we know it. The action articulates around social and psychological topics, summoned to explore and expand the environmental issues. The whole Planet is turned into a crime scene and the criminals are among us...

I liked the emergency of the topic, but also the writing flow. The inner exploration of brutality is chilling and nightmarish, leaving the reader with vivid memories and overwhelming worries.

As a non sci-fi/dystopian reader, it was a challenge, but fully worth taking it. Maybe such books can do more where political responsibility fails. 

Rating: 4 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own

Random Things Tours: In the Meantime by Alex Fragnière

 An emotional debut novel, In the Meantime by Alex Fragnière is a beautiful story of human resilience and connectedness, taking the reader around the world, from Northern England to Trinidad, war-torn Syria and Poland, among others. 

Human fragility is treated gently through the individual meaningful stories of the characters. They are human, oh so human still incredibly empathic. Although featuring disparate and unique stories, it shows what really brings us together, as humans, no matter our background, traumas and memories. 

I´ve read this book as a journey through the infinite mosaique of humanity. Life can bring together unexpectedly so many people together and the deep humanity of all of us reveals sometimes in the courage of displaying our fragility and trusting other humans. 

In the Meantime is not only beautifully written, but it does share a fine sense of humour and empathy. I also liked how the author handled with so much care the intricated international biographies of the characters, well-researched and taking into account complex situations and diversity challenges.

A book worth reading by anyone interested in solid diverse plots perfectly integrated into a beautiful story.

Rating: 5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own

On Spare

To be clear from the very beginning: as a historian relatively versed in contemporary history, I deeply understand the individual role played by monarchies from different countries in the local and European history. However, as a modern liberal human being, with a weird sense of humour, I don´t have any bit of understanding of the reason of maintaning expensive monarchies and their heirs. Why support large, noisy and sometimes fully dysfunctional ´royal´ families, only for the sake of old times legends assuming their ´holy´, God-anoited ´humble´ beginnings on Earth. A completely meaningless institution for our times, if you want my opinion.

Spare by Prince Harry is a tragi-comical memoir of coming to age in the House of Windsor. Not directly in line for the throne, a ´spare´, Harry recently separated from his London royals, nevertheless a prince although refugiated in the republican USA with his wife and their 2 children, published a book that received mixed reactions. I was simply curious to read a book many people I know were talking about therefore, I spent some hours the last week listening to it.

I´ve had access to the book in the audio format, read by the author, which is a different experience, as the voice is a smart addition to the text. If you are a fan of British accent the audiobook is a pleasure for the ears.

Some of the anecdotal stories were already largely distributed by the tabloids from all over the world and are so ridiculous that it´s not worth mentioning, even first hand. What interested me in the first place was Harry´s way of thinking. How can someone who is used to spend his ´people´ money without thinking about taking a proper job, for instance, sees life? 

It is not wrong to say that his stories are told by someone from the very priviledged top of the British society. Spare or not, he is benefiting of a network of allegiance and obligations that allowed him to be what he is now, even when he doesn´t want to belong any more. So full of himself that it took him some good amount of time and some meetings with the exceptional late Chief Rabbi Sacks - not named in the book - to realize that wearing a Nazi uniform is completely wrong - ´my brain have been shut off´, he explains in the book. The same ´innocence´ he displayed when he candidly declared that he didn´t know that ´Paki´ was a slur. Seriously, Harry?!

Calling paparazzi and by extension the media a ´chronic illness´, coming from a royal mouth or not, is again an example of lack of proper thinking before saying or doing anything. It´s understandable to accuse paparazzi for the death of his beloved mother, but he doesn´t look to read more than the yellow pages as he does not offer any counter-example that may offer different takes on everyday reality.

Rebelion may have its limits, especially after a certain age. By sharing so many anecdotical details of his life, he is reaching though to the same audience who is praised by the readers of boulevard newspapers. There is nothing noticeable in the book that may reach other audience than the one curious about the latest scandal at the Palace.  

The only beautiful part of the story is the love story between him and Megan Markle, for the candid desire of making things work and protecting her. 

Funny, ridiculous, cynical in its ignorance, Spare may tell a lot about royal habits nowadays, but also it is the story of a traumatised child who lost his mom, happy to go out of the ´fishbowl´, but lacking basic resources to really make it into the world on his own.

Rating: 2 stars 

Rachel´s Random Resources: No More Fairy Tales. Stories to Save the Planet edited by D.A.Baden

 

An anthology of 24 stories aimed to raise awareness about sustainability, No More Fairy Tales. Stories to Save our Planet, edited by D.A.Baden is an excellent example of how topics of extreme actuality can be skillfully and creativelly made part of the literary narrative.

When a topic of such high political actuality is becoming a subject of literary inspiration, this is the clearest indicator of the widespread relevance. Therefore, there is an audience interested in such topics and the diversity of approaches and stories included in this anthology is the clear example in this sense. 

The short stories cover a wide variety of styles and genres, from fantastic to romantic and dramatic, and it was interesting for me to embrace the diversity of approaches on a topic that can be smartly read in so many ways.

As I was not familiar with most of the authors, this anthology also gave me the chance to get to know new writers, in additions to the inspiration of the topic itself.

D.A.Baden is professor of sustainability at the University of Southampton and author of academic publications on this topic.

Rating: 4 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own

Book Review: Black Foam by Haji Jabir translated by Sawad Hussain and Marcia Lynx Qualey

 

Black Foam by Haji Jabir, co-translated from Arabic by award winner Sawad Hussain and Marcia Lynx Qualey the mind and heart behind ArabLit, is the tragic story of a journey through identities and worlds, but how stories and dreams may both save and kill us.

Dawoud-David-Dawit is a storyteller by the force of things, jumping with the devotion of people having nothing to lose, from one disaster to another, from one boat of hope to another. Until there will be no hope. He is the prototype of the average, ´normal´ human who just want to settle and breath. But fate made by other humans wanted something else. From Addis Abeba to Eritrea and Israel, he switches stories and identities, hiding one past from one present, floating at the foaming level of things.

´In bed, at night, he was proud of his ability to invent elaborate lies´. A life wasted in lies not because some bad diagnosed psychological disorder as customary in our ´free world´, but because truth may lead to an absurd death. Sharing with the world who you are may force you to admit the psysical end of you. Then, better hide behind words and imagined worlds, while meeting story-hungry, yet fully ineffective and cynical international employees - ´What makes you think you deserve to be resettled in a third country?´ - to suspicious travel mates and abandoned lovers.

In addition to asking the questions asked when thinking nowadays about displacement and enstrangement and how conflicts - Eritrean-Ethiopian war - it also features the Beta Israel Jews - they are also named Falasha, but it is rather a pejorative term nowadays - from Ethiopia, a group rarely - if ever - featured in the literary realm. (On a side note, when (p.61) mentioning the main character´s journey within Israel, at a certain point it is said that in the room where he temporarily lived, there were some ´copies of the Holy Book´ - Jews do have a ´Holy´ Book in book-readable format).

The main book character and his tragic journey to a lifeless life is haunting and a reminder that destinies may be so unfair. 

The book is a pleasure to read - both in terms of characters and story construction and of the topics. Episodes of the story are replicated through musical intermezzo and ArabLit justly created a special playlist in the honour of the book launch, tracing the journey.

In a world of overnauseating ´positive thinking´ and delusional ´storyfy-ing´, Black Foam shoes the brutality of stories in a world where direction is given by the absurdity of the bullet take. No destiny written in heaven. Not at all.

Rating: 4 stars

Disclaimer: Book generously offered by Sawad Hussain but the opinions are, as usual, my own

Book Review: Want by Lynn Steger Strong

 

From a long shelf of book featuring women characters expecting nothing from the day and the tomorrow, completely driven by small or bigger desires, Want by Lynn Steger Strong is so far my favorite. 

Through the strong voice of the I story account of the woman character, randomly named towards the end of the book, the limits of language - more or less facing the ´want´ - and innately, the limits of our communication with the other and ourselves is finelly at play. ´There was a time I thought that all language might contain something of value, but most of life is flat and boring and the thing we say are too. Or maybe it´s that most of life is so much stranger than language is able to make room for, so we say the same dead things and hope maybe the who and how of what is said can make into what we mean´. 

The main character, through whose words the actions and other characters´ story are reflected is a mother, juggling with various low paid teaching jobs, whose husband left his job for following his ´wants´. They just filled for bankrupcy, but will be eventually saved by a generous loan offered by her rich parents. Sometimes she is stuck in her old teenage friendship with the depressive Sasha, whom she will meet again, but life will continue as usual for her afterwards.

Want is a swift conflict of generations and desire(s) and want(s), of talking without being heard and hearing what was left untold. Relatively short, with a story that may not lead anyway and stops as the day stops before the night, in a very casual, matter-of-factly way. 

Also, it does include a lot of bookish references, which makes the character even more relatable to me. Thus, she stays with me for even a longer amount of time.

Rating: 4 stars

Book Review: Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi

After creating the multi-layered multi-generational story of Homegoing, Yaa Gyasi´s second Transcendent Kingdom is equally a story, but with a more philosophical focus. 

Ghanaian-American Gifty, PhD candidate in neuroscience at the Standford University School of Medicine studies the ´neural circuits of reward-seeking behavior´. Her mother, a fervent believer, suffers of chronical depression after her brother died of overdose. Surrounded by her mother´s religious fervor, Gifty grew interested in ´math and science, where the rules are laid out step by step, where if you did something exactly the way it was supposed to be done, the result would be exactly as it was expected to be´. Although not a practicant any more, she used to write letters to ´Dear God´ and will keep visiting places of worship, as many people who although left organised religion cannot break completely all the bridges of the soul.

The novel is developing on different levels the question of how and why we keep longing for things that may harm us. Either the actual drug or the spiritual one - the religion - may not bring us happiness, and may either achieve the opposite of it, however our brains may long for its nurture. 

I loved how such fundamental question and topic are build as part of the story, with care and attention and fine human consideration. It may not lead to a conclusion but philosophically it request your brain to think about it. Keeping your mind busy with thinking may be also a sort of drug.

For those interested in more linguistic context, there are frequent mentions and references to Twi language - languages are my drugs of choice too. 

Yaa Gyasi is one of the best articulated storytellers of her generation and I can´t wait to read her new story.

Rating: 5 stars

Random Things Tours: Expectant by Vanda Symon

 

When an expectant mother is murdered in the relatively quiet Dunedin, in New Zealand, detective Sam Shephard, heavily pregnant too and assigned mostly office work, set herself the ultimate mission to discover the culprits. My second book by New Zealand author Vanda Symon, to be published next week by Orenda Books, is an unputdownable thriller with a special take on women safety.

Expectant is a book that stays with the reader until the end, but it also keep your mind busy thereafter. As in the case of anything involving women's topics, there are aspects that may become personal to any woman reader. Violence and insecurity of women's life is happening everywhere, even in the quiet Dunedin. Women, expectant women as well, are vulnerable and having a woman detective in charge with the case creates high expectations in the urgency of finding the criminal, but also reveals the everyday fragility.

Sam Shephard, as a (pregnant) woman detective is a great choice for solving the crime and I loved her persistance and interesting ideas. She´s the kind of woman every woman would love to have on her side to feel safer.

Highly relevant and captivating, with an important social take, Expectant develops a thriller story that goes beyond the crime riddle. The quality writing - both in terms of the storytelling and the construction of the story - takes the reader to a journey which may be violent and aggressively direct but worrisome relevant for our conflictual times.

Rating: 4 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own

Random Things Tours: Sisters by Judith Barrow

Separated by a tragedy, sisters Angie and Mandy do meet after over a decade for their mother´s funerals. A deep burried secret is about to resurface, despite the distance Mandy put between them. A traumatic event that led to the death of their baby brother shaked dramatically this beautiful happy family. As Mandy took over herself Angie´s fault, she decided to leave her family behind and start a completely new life, with a new name, in a new place.

I am personally interested in books with a family secret/trauma plot. Sisters promises and delivers a lot of suspense, but also unleached passion and emotions, and not only regarding the direct relationship between the two main protagonists. At the end of the book, it leaves you a lot of food for thought about family relationship and sisterhood, but also about what really makes a family and its web of more or less open secrets.

Sisters is an intense novel, which plays on the fire of emotions, sisterhood rivality and strong emotions. Although the emotional background is tense, the characters do define themselves other than through the reactions to extraordinary circumstances. There is a large constellation of hard topics, such as bullying, marital abuse etc., adding even more tension to the story. However, the author balances well the emotional part with the purely story-development part. 

It is a book that stayed with me long after finishing it both in terms of emotional take and topics addressed. 

Rating: 4 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own

Life with MS: Head Above Water by Dr. Shahd Alshammari

´When illness enters the picture, life has to take a different course´.

Kuwaiti-Palestinian author and academic Dr. Shahd Alshammari had to fully reshape the relationship with her body, as diagnosed with MS at a very young age. Her well-written collection of personal essays at different turns of her sickness, Head Above Water, is not only a much deserved intellectual inquiry into this chronical illness, but also a testimony about the challenges faced by a woman academic in the Middle East surviving every day with disability.

There may not be too many reliable memoirs about life with MS, and even less which integrate cultural and academic reflection on illness, in a wider ableist and exclusionary society. She tells her story with the knowledgeable reflection of someone dealing with the body challenges on a very everyday basis. But the reflection includes as well relationship, women perception on themselves and less-than-perfect-bodies, as well as academia´s unfriendliness towards, again, less-than-perfect-bodies.

Multiple Sclerosis is rarely featured outside the defined medical and scientific context, but memoirs like Head Above Water contributes, on one hand, to share an unique experience to as many - most probably non-medical - readers as possible, and on the other hand to raise awareness about additional approaches such as perception of the bodies and academic exclusion, among others.

For all those reasons, this collection of personal insights on chronic illness is mind- and heart-opening.

Rating: 5 stars

German Audiobook Review: Propaganda by Steffen Kopetzky

 

A disillusioned former American soldier of German origin, trained in Camp Ritchie and involved in intelligence operations in the post-WWII Germany, John Glueck, the main character in Steffen Kopetzky´s Propaganda, is a witness of the end of idealism in the American politics. Terror, corruption, hidden truth after the Vietnam War destroyed his trust in Washington DC politics and politicians. 

With accents that rather remember of the hints against the US politics during "the war against terror" than in the post-WWII politics, this book was too political and less literary to really enjoy its message. It belongs, indeed, to a certain ´intellectual´ trend in German culture aimed at an intellectual revenge - at least - against the US. After all, someone whose values were so corrupted in such a short time, cannot assume a ´judge´ role in the post-WWII Germany, isn´t it?

Therefore, although the story is well built and the idea of the end of illusions pertinently assessed, using ´propaganda´- like ways to state the same truth over and over again, in an effort to convince the reader of its obvious truth is really annoying as it assumes the reader unable to have his or her opinion. 

The only reason why, despite all odds, I kept reading the book was the pleasant voice of actor Johann von Bülow. Indeed, there is always more than one reason why it is always worth to mention the reader of an audiobook, as it´s the case with the name of the translator. 

Propaganda is a book worth reading for anyone interested in ideological representation in nowadays literature, but if looking for a historical fiction taking place in the post-war period, I will graciously skip it.

Rating: 2 stars

Rachel´s Random Resources: Tilly´s Tuscan Teashop by Daisy James

Tilly´s Tuscan Teashop by Daisy James follows the usual recipe of success for feelgood fiction: a broken heart and, eventually, a professional failure, a journey out of the comfort zone, preferably in a foreign country, and a new beginning, with an extra handsome second chance for love. After her photography studio disappeared in fire and she broke up with her boyfriend, Tilly is challenging her workaholic habits with an intermezzo in Tuscany, where she is looking for a change, while helping in her sister´s teashop. 

The success of such books relies on our desire to hope that a change is possible, no matter how bad is our current situation. Especially during the pre-Corona times, when travel was easier, looking for a new life and love in Tuscany, Tokyo or a small village in the Provence was just a matter of weeks. I definitely know personally a couple of people who did it and still living the life. Those are the fairy tales of our times, with the difference that some might become true actually.

Tilly´s Tuscan Teashop encourages to take our dreams seriously and promises a treat for the brave ones, leaving everything behind and starting anew. The characters are relatable, speak the language of our times. Plus, any story set in Tuscany cannot be wrong. 

An enjoyable read while waiting for the summer or dreaming about a Tuscan teashop.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offere as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own

Book Review: Second Sister by Chan Ho-Kei translated by

Second Sister by Chan Ho-Kei translated into English by Jeremy Tiang is an impecable cyber crime novel focused on teenage bullying I ever read. Probably, one of those few books that I find flawless in construction, while raising very important contemporary topics. 

When a young teenage girl Au Siu-Man threw herself to death, cyber bullying seemed to be the reason that convinced her to take her own life. But as her older sister Au Nga-Yee, a bookish librarian without too much knowledge about the everyday life of young people nowadays, decides to track a potential source and author of bullying, the mysterious and eccentric cyber investigator N - from Nemesis, the Greek goddess of destiny - will reveal an extraordinary web of intrigues and underage sexual abuse. What Nga-Yee was thinking about her sister is also shredded to pieces, as she has to face how her sister really was in her everyday environment.

Second Sister has, besides a plot with twists that will leave the reader in wonder for over 300 pages, a subrepticious social - anarchist sometimes - message about social justice and capitalist delusion. The human complexity of the characters, whose choices and changes of attitude and mind are reflecting the ways in which human ways may operate sometimes.

It is not an easy book and the directness preparing the revenge for Siu-Man´s death, although ill directed and aborted in the end, do answer at a great extent the purely naturalistic take our simplicity-driven world may follow sometimes. 

A read hard to digest but very interesting for anyone with a curious mind aimed to learn a bit more about humanity´s challenges in the e-age.

Rating: 5 stars