Micro Review 21 (2025) / Women In Translation Month

 

When the Cranes Fly South by Lisa Ridzen, translated by Alice Menzies (Transworld Publishing).

August is Women in Translation month and my reading for this has started strongly with the Waterstones' Debut Fiction Prize shortlisted book When the Cranes Fly South,

I confess when I chose this book from the shortlist I wasn't aware that it was a translated book but I did cheer (quietly - I was in the library after all) when I saw that it was a Swedish book.

The publisher blurb for the book warns you that you're in for an emotional rollercoaster of a read:

Bo is determined to live his own life in his own way. But his son has other ideas...

Bo lives a quiet existence in his small rural village in the north of Sweden. He is elderly and his days are punctuated by visits from his care team and his son.

Fortunately, he still has his rich memories, phone calls with his best friend Ture, and his beloved dog Sixten for company.

Only now his son is insisting the dog must be taken away. The very same son that Bo is wanting to mend his relationship with before his time is up. The threat of losing Sixten stirs up a whirlwind of emotions and makes Bo determined to resist and find his voice.

The book covers a fairly short time frame and is broken up into small chapters each prefaced with the notes Bo's carers leave in his log book and between these notes and Bo's memories we get to know what has made Bo, and his son, the way they are. 

I raced through this book because I was so fully and emotionally involved with all the characters, and yes - more than once I had a lump in my throat. However while this is quite a sad book it is ultimately heart warming and an excellent read.

It would have been nice for a translated book to win the WDFP but I did really love the winner (Lucy Steed's The Artist) when I read it earlier in the year.

Thoughts on the Women's Prize for Non Fiction Longlist 2025

 

With the way the world is going right now haunting news sites early in the morning doesn't seem to be the best way to start the day, however on Weds 12th I was doing just that as I waited for the Women's Prize to announce their non fiction longlist.

As my reading round-up showed - last year 42% of my reads were non fiction.  I've looked at this list more closely I can say that 51% of these books were written by women so it was inevitable that I'd be waiting for this announcement quite closely.

There are 16 books on the long list and of these I've read just three - which shows that I probably missed a lot of good books in 2024! The ones I have read are in purple below.

Anne Applebaum – Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World – Allen Lane (PRH)

Eleanor Barraclough – Embers of the Hands: Hidden Histories of the Viking Age – (Profile Books)

Helen Castor – The Eagle and the Hart: The Tragedy of Richard II and Henry IV – Allen Lane (PRH)

Neneh Cherry – A Thousand Threads  (Fern Press (PRH))

Rachel Clarke – The Story of a Heart – (Abacus (Hachette))

Chloe Dalton – Raising Hare  (Canongate Books)

Jenni Fagan – Ootlin  (Hutchinson Heinemann, Century, (PRH))

Lulu Miller – Why Fish Don’t Exist: A Story of Loss, Love and the Hidden Order of Life  (ONE, Pushkin Press)

Clare Mulley – Agent Zo: The Untold Stories of Fearless WW2 Resistance Fighter Elżbieta Zawacka  (Weidenfeld & Nicolson (Hachette))

Rebecca Nagle – By the Fire We Carry: The Generations-Long Fight for Justice on Native Land  (William Collins (HarperCollins))

Sue Prideaux – Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin (Faber )

Helen Scales – What the Wild Sea Can Be: The Future of the World’s Ocean (Grove Press, Atlantic Books) 

Kate Summerscale – The Peepshow: The Murders at 10 Rillington Place  (Bloomsbury Circus (Bloomsbury))

Harriet Wistrich – Sister in Law: Fighting for Justice in a System Designed by Men  (Torva, Transworld, (PRH))

Alexis Wright – Tracker  (And Other Stories)

Yuan Yang – Private Revolutions: Coming of Age in a New China (Bloomsbury Circus (Bloomsbury))


Part of the reason why I have read so many non fiction books by women that aren't on this list is because I read indiscriminately - publication dates don't really matter to me, I just want to read books that appeal or that are recommended to me, so often new books do pass me by until they appear on lists like this!

From the longlist I've instantly reserved 4 books from the library, and added a couple of other ones to my 'might get round to some day' list - there are a few that just don't appeal at all but it might be that if they make the shortlist (announced in March) I am tempted to try them.

I don't think that I am even going to attempt to read the entire long (or short) list as a challenge but this is definitely a list that has added a lot of books to my TBR piles.




As an aside books published between 1st April 2024 and 31st March 2025 were eligible for the prize and here are a few of the books that I've read which fit this criteria and that I am sad didn't make the cut:

• Between Two Rivers: Ancient Mesopotamia and the Birth of History by Dr Moudhy Al-Rashid (Hodder & Stoughton)
• Broken Threads by Mishal Husain (Fourth Estate)
• Catland: Feline Enchantment and the Making of the Modern World by Katherine Hughes (Harper Collins)
• A Mudlarking Year: Finding Treasure in Every Season by Lara Maiklem (Bloomsbury)
• Poet, Mystic, Widow, Wife: The Extraordinary Lives of Medieval Women by Hetta Howes (Bloomsbury)



 

Micro review 4 (2024)

 

Safiyyah's War by Hiba Noor Khan (Andersen Press)

I read this book back last summer and really enjoyed reading it. It is  another book set in WW2 but this one had a different spin as while it was set in Paris during the Occupation it focuses on the resistance work undertaken by the Islamic community of the city and the help they provided to Jews trying to escape.

This is a book for children/young teenagers but it still packs one heck of a punch, and even with all the books I've read about WW2/Resistance/Occupation it brought a completely new dimension to this period of history.

At a time when tensions in the Middle East are once more in the news this book is a good reminder that cooperation between faiths is possible.

I'm really pleased that this book has been Shortlisted for this year's YOTO Carnegie Medal and longlisted for the Jhalak Children's and Young Adults Prize - it really deserves to reach a wide audience (and not just children).

The Wainwright Prize Shortlist

 

The shortlist for the 2021 Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing was announced on the 4th August and I did manage to read all of the long listed titles before the list revealed - just I finished my last book at 10am on the day!

The official shortlist really doesn't match my personal list, and indeed neither of my favourites made the list at all. I'll review them in separate posts over the next couple of weeks,

The short listed titles are below, with my thoughts on them in blue.

The shortlist for the 2021 Wainwright Prize for UK Nature Writing is: 

English Pastoral: An Inheritance, James Rebanks, Penguin Press - from this list I think it is my 2nd favourite, I really enjoyed the parts on how the farm was run and the talk of traditional farming as well as the parts on how Rebanks is trying to return to these (or improve on them). It did give a good feel on the pressures felt by farmers.

Featherhood, Charlie Gilmour, Orion Publishing Group - I really wasn't so keen on this one at all, for me there wasn't quite enough nature in it (and the idea of a bird flying freely in a flat along with all its habits freaked me out).

I Belong Here, Anita Sethi, Bloomsbury - This was the last book I read from the longlist and for the most part I really enjoyed it, and it was really eye opening at times but every so often the timeline/continuity felt out and I couldn't mentally follow Sethi's journey which disengaged me from the narrative somewhat.

Seed to Dust, Marc Hamer, Vintage - This was the first book I read from the longlist and while I am not a gardener in any sense of the word at all I did enjoy the gentle pace of this book, it was a restful read that flowed just as the seasons do.

The Screaming Sky, Charles Foster, Little Toller Books - I really wanted to love this book, seeing the first swifts of the year is something I look forward to annually. The chapters were interesting and the illustrations beautiful but my issue with this book was the author. There is lots of talk about what could be changing the swift's patterns and threatening them and climate change is one of the big factors here - yet the author thought nothing of taking multiple flights around the world to see his favourite bird...

The Wild Silence, Raynor Winn, Michael Joseph - I'm going to make myself very unpopular with my thoughts on this one but I really didn't like Winn's first book (The Salt Path) and although I did finish this one I can't say I enjoyed it. I'm not sure why I don't like her writing but it just really leaves me cold and uninterested

Thin Places, Kerri ni Dochartaigh, Canongate Books - This one grew on me slowly but at times moved me to tears. As well as finding the writing beautiful the weaving of the author's history, Ireland's recent history and the way nature is a constant just made for a great read - if depressing at times.

From this list I think I'd like Thin Places or Seed to Dust to win but as I was so out of step with the books I wanted to see on the shortlist I wouldn't use my thoughts as a guideline!

Shadowing a book prize for fun

 

The Wainwright Prize for UK Nature writing

In the past I have been part of 'official' book prize shadowing projects for what was the Foreign Fiction prize and also the Women's Prize for fiction and enjoyed the process a lot, shadowing means that for a short while you don't have to worry about what you've got to read next as there's a ready made list just waiting for you!

As I've really enjoyed so many of the books that fall under the umbrella I thought that this year I'd try to read all of the books nominated for the 2021 Wainwright Prize. On exploring their website I realised that they have more than one prize so I limited myself to 'just' the 13 books on the UK Nature Writing longlist which was announced in June:

Vesper Flights, Helen Macdonald,  Vintage

The Stubborn Light of Things: A Nature Diary, Melissa Harrison, Faber

Seed to Dust, Marc Hamer, Vintage

The Screaming Sky, Charles Foster, Little Toller Books

English Pastoral: An Inheritance, James Rebanks, Penguin Press

Into The Tangled Bank, Lev Parikian, Elliott & Thompson

Thin Places, Kerri ní Dochartaigh, Canongate Books

Birdsong in a Time of Silence, Steven Lovatt, Penguin Press

I Belong Here, Anita Sethi, Bloomsbury Plc

Featherhood, Charlie Gilmour, Orion Publishing Group

The Circling Sky, Neil Ansell, Headline

The Wild Silence, Raynor Winn, Michael Joseph

Skylarks with Rosie, Stephen Moss, Saraband

My growing interest in this genre meant that I'd read two of the books before learning they were on the list and thus 11 books between June and 4th August didn't seem quite so overwhelming. I know that this statement sounds like I am mad but these books are such a soothing read at the moment that it sounds wonderful rather than stressful.

The mixed weather so far this summer has meant that sofa nature walks have often seemed more appealing than the actual activity and now that there's only three weeks until the shortlist is announced I feel that I really might get all the books finished - I've finished 8 and am about half way through number nine...

The side benefit of all this reading is that I am able to borrow so many of the books from the library either in physical or eBook editions, the ones I can't borrow are letting me continue to support independent publishers and bookshops as I acquire them!

Unlike other prizes that I've shadowed I am not at all falling out of love with the genre as I effectively binge read the subject. The books are all so varied that it is wonderful and not at all predictable I've definitely got my own favourites for ones I'd like to see on the shortlist!

Once the short list is out I'll start posting my reviews and thoughts on the books, but for now I am going to curl up on the sofa while listening to the bees on the honeysuckle that is just outside the window and making the front room smell lovely!

Nature Writing

The Wainwright Book Prize 2019

Over the past 18 months we've been spending a lot more time outside walking and nature watching. At the same time I've also really enjoyed reading a lot more nature writing and when it comes to finding new books in this genre the Wainwright has been indispensable.

The longlist was great this year and I started to pick and choose books from it to dip into, I was really pleased that many of the books I'd really enjoyed made the cut to the shortlist.

Three of the books have strong links to East Anglia but my absolute standout (so far - I have 2 still to read!) has been The Easternmost House by Juliet Blaxland.

As the title suggests this is a book about the easternmost house in England. However pleasant this sounds it comes with a huge caveat - the house is perched on a cliff that is eroding away incredibly fast.

The book is split into 12 chapters, one for each month of the year, and is a meditation on country/coastal life in the twenty-first century. Knowing the area being talked about I am sure added a lot to my reading as it became illustrated in my mind as I turned the pages.

A lovely touch to the book was the chapter end page, in this Blaxland lists all of the produce that is in season as well as charting the erosion of the coast and the position of the house in relation to the sea.

I wouldn't be upset if any of the books on the list wins the prize but I will be crossing my fingers hard that others love this book as much as I do when it comes to the final announcement tomorrow.