Tomb of Sand was the winner of the International Booker Prize in 2022 and despite the intimidating length, it was one I knew I wanted to get to. Translated by Daisy Rockwell, reading this novel, especially the first third or so, is quite the undertaking. It’s filled with meandering prose, lyrical and playful language and a stream of consciousness style that left me at times, unsure where exactly the writer was taking us. Saying that, (and because of the sheer uniqueness of what I was reading), I was a willing passenger for the ride. ⁣ ⁣ It’s hard to describe what this book is about, purely for the reasons I’ve mentioned above. It follows an octogenarian mother whom when the story begins, is lying in bed with her back turned to her family, grieving for her husband and refusing to engage with anyone. At one point, she takes her precious Buddha statue and leaves the house, causing much worry but eventually returning and deciding to move in with her notoriously modern-living daughter, Beti. ⁣ ⁣ Striking up a relationship with Rosie, a hjira (trans) woman and instigating a trip back to Pakistan, the reader is taken to the real meat of the story, where we hear about her life under Partition and the travesties that occurred for those forced to leave their homes. ⁣ ⁣ I’m so glad I read this with the lovely @sandladysbooks because it felt like I got even more out of it than I might have done reading it alone. The first part was incredibly tricky as I’ve mentioned but when you power through, it’s easy to see why Tomb Of Sand has had as much critical acclaim as it has. It’s one of the most interesting books I think I’ve ever read. Did I always understand it? Sometimes I didn’t. Yet something in the stunning, flowing nature of what I was reading was captivating and made me want to keep on reading. It’s certainly not an easy novel to read but it’s a rewarding one and I’m already looking forward to experiencing it again on a re-read. ⁣ ⁣ Four solid stars 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 ⁣ ⁣ #bookstagramuk #bookreviewersofig #internationalbooker2022 #translatedliteraryfiction #tiltedaxisbooks #tombofsand #geetanjalishree #daisyrockwell #readingtranslatedliterature #buddyreadswithcath https://www.instagram.com/p/CmOPVrHr6oF/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

I bought this book for my darling @teguhafandi a while back. For some reason I keep the book with me in Bangkok and unable to send it (along with other books) to Indonesia. I've been living in Thailand long enough without even making it home it's not funny! Anyway, this book mentions about Duras and Cho Lon - a Chinese district several times. I guess Saigon is somewhat identical with them. As I happen to be in Saigon at the moment, I managed to have a small reminiscence of Duras's past. I visited the school where she used to study and of course the Cho Lon district where Leo - her Chinese lover owned a "bachelor room" there. I think I told you many times that Marguerite Duras is one of my first love in literature especially erotic literature. I guess we - at least - should take a pic of the book and the place where the story set, right @tiltedaxisbooks / @tiltedaxispress ? PS: I walked around Cho Lon until my feet hurt just to wonder where the bachelor room was and I still couldn't find it. Too bad... I guess everything has already changed since then. Des ✨ (at Chợ Lớn - chợ Bình Tây) https://www.instagram.com/p/ClsWp2NSaF-/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Against Healing - Translated and edited from Korean by Emily Jungmin Yoon Tilted Axis Press - Translating Feminisms collection @tiltedaxispress @tiltedaxisbooks #tiltedaxispress #translatingfeminisms #translatingfeminism #feminism #feminismo #book #books #livro #livros #againsthealing #emilyjungminyoon https://www.instagram.com/rodrigoortiz/p/Bwb92_AA-kh/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1smwx6mfcq879

Hello everyone, it’s finally Friday! 😅 Hope your weeks have all gone well. It’s time for another book haul. Lesser Known Monsters has been on my wishlist for quite some time and I finally succumbed to its call 😂 Described as twelve unforgettable tales, the strange is made familiar and the familiar made strange. A girl growing wings on her legs feels like an ordinary rite of passage, while a bug-infested house becomes becomes an impossible, Kafkaesque nightmare. This collection blurs the boundaries of the real and fantastic, offering intricate and surprising insights into human nature. Abandon is my latest @tiltedaxisbooks buy in my quest to acquire them all. Translated by Arunava Sinha, this is a powerful novel about a woman who runs away from home, seeking to free herself from the shackles of society and familial attachments, and instead devote her attentions to writing a novel. When she realises her five year old son has followed her, she struggles with her identity and responsibilities as a mother versus the guilty knowledge that she cannot want her own child when his existence required her to suppress her own dreams. Finally, look at that cover of The Melting! Translated by Kristen Gehrman, this book asks the question “what if you could take revenge on an entire village?” That’s all I need to know! I’d love to know your thoughts on any of these books or authors. Let’s have a chat in the comments! #bookstagram #scottishbookstagrammer #ohlookmorebooks #anotherbookhaul #lesserknownmonstersofthe21stcentury #kimfu #abandon #tiltedaxisbooks #readingbooksintranslation #sangeetabandyopadhyay #arunavasinha #themelting #lizespit #kristengehrman #bookobsesseď https://www.instagram.com/p/ClrUzP5Ld2F/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Hello everyone and TGIF! On this wet, wild and blustery evening in my part of the UK 🇬🇧 it really feels like Autumn is here and announcing itself in full and proud voice! 🤣 Here’s three paperbacks I picked up recently. The Icepick Surgeon is nonfiction from the author of books including The Disappearing Spoon, The Violinists Thumb and one of my favourites - The Tale Of The Duelling Neurosurgeons. Sam Kean tells the true story of what happens when unfettered ambition pushes otherwise rational men and women to cross the line in the name of science, trampling ethical boundaries and often committing crimes in the process. Next up, Indigenous Species from one of my favourite presses @tiltedaxisbooks I’m slowly collecting all the books I’m translation that they’ve published. The author addresses issues of pollution, consumerism and habitat destruction with a poets sensibility and her frenetic neon artwork. This is also a bold and necessary experiment in making a sight impaired accessible art book. Finally, I bought Astray in my quest to own everything Emma Donoghue has ever written 😍 With the turn of each page, the characters that roam across these pages go astray. They are emigrants, runaways, drifters, gold miners, counterfeiters, attorneys and slaves. They cross borders of races, love, sex and sanity. They travel for love or money, under duress or incognito. A sequence of fourteen fact inspired fictions about travels to, in and from North America, Astray offers a past in scattered pieces, a surprising and moving history for restless times. I’d love to know your thoughts on any of these books or authors. Let’s have a chat in the comments! #bookstagram #bookhaul #bookhoarder #newbooksplease #scottishbookstagrammer #theicepicksurgeon #samkean #indigenousspecies #khairanibarokka #tiltedaxisbooks #booksintranslation #astray #emmadonoghue #cantstopwontstopbuyingbooks #addictedtobooks https://www.instagram.com/p/CjJDccrrHrQ/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Hello everyone and welcome to my first book haul of 2023! If you’ve followed me for a little while, you might know that I like to read outside the box and not necessarily books that you see all the time here on the ‘gram. These are three such books and form part of three separate collections that I’m acquiring like a little book Gollum 😂 The first is Doorway To Dilemma: Bewildering Tales Of Dark Fantasy, part of the British Library Tales Of The Weird. Described as a book where “the weird prevails and accounts of unanswerable dilemma find their home.” Yep. #Sounds good enough for me! Secondly, I really enjoyed collecting @tiltedaxisbooks in 2022. So Distant From My Life is translated by Yarri Kamara and written by Burkinabé author Monique Ilboudo. It offers a “compelling and complex portrait of migration, one of the defining global concerns of the twenty-first century and a sharp critique of both the NGO-isation of African countries and the currents of shame that divide communities and families.” Finally, I’m either very late or super early to the party with Stories For Christmas and the festive season. 😂 This is part of the British Library Women Writers collection and the stories are “plucked from different decades of the twentieth century and penned by both familiar and forgotten authors for both books and popular magazines. From the delightful consequences of decorating the tree by Stella Gibbons, to an interesting encounter at 30,000 feet on a Christmas Day flight by Muriel Spark and a pantomime with a twist by Margery Sharpe, these stories are sure to fortify you over the Christmas period.” Erm…..maybe Christmas 2023?! 😅 I’d love to know your thoughts on any of these books or authors. Let’s have a chat in the comments! Hope you’ve all had a peaceful and restful holiday period. I’m back to work tomorrow but looking forward to sharing more bookish content with you this year! Have a great week everyone 🤗😘 #bookstagramuk #scottishbookstagrammer #bookhaulofawesomeness #britishlibrarytalesoftheweird #doorwaytodilemma #tiltedaxispress #readingtranslatedliterature #sodistantfrommylife #moniqueilboudo #yarrikamara #storiesforchristmasandthefestiveseason https://www.instagram.com/p/Cm7ECDYL8nN/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Hello everyone, it’s Christmas week! Happy holidays to you all. The book hauls keep coming and I’m nowhere near caught up just yet 😬🤷🏼‍♀️ Oh well! 🤣 Stranger Things Happen is the first collection of short stories by Kelly Link. It takes fairy tales and cautionary tales, dictators and extraterrestrials, amnesiacs and honeymooners, revenants and readers alike, on a voyage into new, strange and wonderful territory. For example, a librarian falls in love with a girl whose father collects artificial noses and a dead man posts letters home to his estranged wife. Sounds good to me! This stunning cover of Beasts Of A Little Land totally caught my eye. It’s described as an epic story of love, war and redemption set against the backdrop of the Korean independence movement. It follows the intertwined fates of a young girl sold to a courtesan school and the penniless son of a hunter in 1917 deep in the snowy mountains of occupied Korea. Finally, The Sad Part Was is the latest acquisition in my @tiltedaxisbooks collection. Translated by Mui Poopoksakul, this is a collection of witty, postmodern stories offering an oblique reflection of contemporary Bangkok life, exploring the bewildering disjunct and oft-hilarious contradictions of a modernity that is at odds with many traditional Thai ideas on relationships, family, school and work. I’d love to know your thoughts on any of these books or authors. Have I tempted you to pick any up? Let’s have a chat in the comments! Have a lovely week everyone 🤗😘 #bookstagramuk #scottishbookstagrammer #morebooksplease📚 #shortstorycollection📝 #strangerthingshappen #kellylink #beastsofalittleland #juheakim #thesadpartwas #prabdayoon #muipoopoksakul #readingtranslatedliterature #booksimexcitedabout https://www.instagram.com/p/CmXEdY6Lipi/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Hi everyone, welcome to the end of the week and another book haul! These three paperbacks are all quite different from each other and I’m excited to read them. Objects Of Desire is a short story collection that charts the success of wanting and having, hope and resignation, youth and adulthood through a series of subtly unfolding crises. Crawling Horror, Creeping Tales Of The Insect Weird looks like my worst nightmare but I was determined to add it to my #britishlibrarytalesoftheweird collection. The insect family have finally come to seek retribution for humankind’s negligence. This collection allows readers to be a fly on the wall to some of the creepiest and crawliest accounts of insectoid horror from the likes of Edgar Allan Poe, E.F. Benson and Jane G. Austin. Finally, another addition to my @tiltedaxisbooks collection, Unexpected Vanilla is a book of poetry and a sensual, surrealist collection by a young, feminist poet in an equally sensuous and sensitive queer translation. Poetry scares me a little 😅 but I’m determined to give it a try. What do you think of my latest haul? See any there that take your fancy? Let’s have a chat in the comments! #bookstagramuk #scottishbookstagrammer #bookhaulofshame #objectsofdesire #shortstorycollections2022 #crawlinghorror #daisybutcher #janetteleaf #unexpectedvanilla #leehyemi #readingtranslatedliterature #soje #morebooksplease📚 #alwaysbuyingmorebooks https://www.instagram.com/p/Cl9M1jCI05t/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Hello everyone, happiest of Mondays to you and hope your week has started off well. I’m meeting bestie Janel @keeperofpages tomorrow for lunch (and probably book shopping, let’s be honest! 😂) so I’m really excited about that. Here’s a book haul! Crazy thing about this first book, The Impossible Fairytale, is that I already HAVE an edition on my shelves 🙈 However, I am trying to collect all the @tiltedaxisbooks so I had to pick this up too. The author is a major new voice from South Korea and has written a chilling, wildly original and unpredictable story. All buzz words for me! This book promises to be a fresh and terrifying exploration of the ethics of art making and of the stinging consequences of neglect. Manhunt - just look at that cover! I was chatting with my pals in the #bitcrackbookclub and the lovely Johanna from @memydogandbooks mentioned that she had just read this. It was already on my radar but she very kindly sent it over to me! This is described as an explosive post-apocalyptic novel that follows trans women and men on a grotesque journey of survival. Apparently, it is a timely, powerful response to gender-based apocalyptic story that failed to consider the existence of trans or non-binary people, from a powerful new voice in horror! Finally, I’m a bit annoyed with myself that I didn’t get the special edition of the lovely @alex_bell86 new novel when it was in Waterstones. The Winter Garden opens at the stroke of midnight with no great fanfare - after all, this is the time when all virtuous folk should be in bed. But for the few curious souls that brave the opening of its gates, many enchantments await. I know that my sister @chrissireads has read this already and loved it so might try to squeeze it in during December for the perfect wintry read. I’d love to hear your thoughts on any of these books or authors. Let’s have a chat in the comments! Have a great week everyone 🤗😘 #bookstagram #scottishbookstagrammer #newbooksplease #ohlookmorebooks #anotherbookhaul #theimpossiblefairytale #hanyujoo #janethong #tiltedaxispress #readingtranslatedliterature #manhunt #gretchenfelkermartin #thewintergarden #alexandrabell https://www.instagram.com/p/Clg5r-cL7cG/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Hello everyone and happy Friday! Today is sadly the last day of my holiday and I’ll be back on that sleeper train home tonight 😟 (Scotland always has my soul though 😉😂) Summer Island was bought for me by my lovely sister @chrissireads in our quest to read Kristin Hannah’s back catalogue together. Sadly it left me with quite disappointed. It was incredibly predictable and I never felt connected to the characters at any point! 😬 Moving Parts was my next acquisition from one of my new favourite publishers @tiltedaxisbooks it’s described as surreal and puncturing short stories from the Thai master of the form. In a pink-walled motel, a teenage sex worker brings a grown man to tears. A love-struck young boy holds the dismembered hand of his crush, only to find himself the object of a complex ménage à trois. A naked body falls from the window of a twenty storey building, while two female officer-workers offer each other consolation in the elevator. Sounds right up my street!! Finally, I preordered Reputation as I loved Anatomy Of A Scandal by Sarah Vaughan so much! It follows a politician whose less than perfect personal life is thrust into the spotlight when a body is discovered in her home. 😳 I’d love to know your thoughts on any of these books or authors. Let’s have a chat in the comments! #bookstagram #scottishbookstagrammer #bookhaulheaven #newbooksplease #kristinhannah #summerisland #movingparts #tiltedaxispress #booksintranslation #prabdayoon #muipoopoksakul #reputation #sarahvaughan #lovenewbooks #booksimexcitedabout https://www.instagram.com/p/ClY8rACLJei/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Hello everyone! Happy Friday and welcome to the weekend. I’ve got an excellent weekend planned but am taking it easy tonight in bed with my books as it seems the week has caught up with me! Time for a book haul. Violent Phenomena is another addition to my @tiltedaxisbooks collection. I have a subscription with them and I’m always excited to find out what’s coming next. This is a book of essays in which 24 writers and translators from across the world share their ideas and practices for disrupting and decolonising translation. Coincidentally I’m about to start this second book today! I’m buddy reading this with a host of lovely bookstagrammers hosted by @pezzasclassicbooks and @celestes.bookshelf ☺️ This novel is the Pulitzer Prize winning masterpiece and a powerful, triumphant portrayal of the American West as it really was. 🤠 Finally, my sister @chrissireads loaned me One Of The Girls to read after we read and enjoyed The Castaways together. This is the story of six friends enjoying a Greek holiday together. One is a liar, one is a stranger, one is a cheater, who is a killer? I’d love to know your thoughts on any of these books or authors. Let’s have a chat in the comments! #bookstagram #scottishbookstagrammer #bookhaul #paperbackhaul #violentphenomena #tiltedaxispress #booksintranslation #kavitabhanot #jeremytiang #lonesomedove #larrymcmurtry #oneofthegirls #lucyclarke #newbooksplease #cantstopwontstopbuyingbooks #westernnovels #thrillernovelsallday https://www.instagram.com/p/Cik2yhGLwxy/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Hello everyone and happy Monday! I’ve got quite a colourful book haul for you today, I hope it helps to brighten your week! Orphans Of The Storm was a gift from my sister @chrissireads 😍and I’m obsessed with that cover! This story dives into the waters of the past to unearth a sweeping, epic tale of the sinking of the Titanic that radiates with humanity and hums with life. One Hundred Shadows is another addition to my @tiltedaxisbooks collection. Translated by Jung Yewon this is described as an oblique, hard-edged novel tinged with offbeat fantasy. As well as making an important contribution to working class literature, One Hundred Shadows depicts the little known underside of a society which can be viciously superficial, complicating the shiny, ultra modern face which South Korea presents to the world. Finally, Under The Rainbow, a present from my mum. 😍 This is a debut novel about a town in Kansas named the most homophobic place in America and a group of queer volunteers who move there, determined to broaden the community’s hearts and minds. I’d love to hear your thoughts on any of these books or authors. Can you see anything you fancy reading yourself? Let’s have a chat in the comments and have a good week everyone! 🤗😘 #bookstagram #scottishbookstagrammer #ohnonotanotherbooktoread #morebooksplease📚 #orphansofthestorm #celiaimrie #onehundredshadows #hwangjungeun #jungyewon #translatedfiction #southkoreanfiction #undertherainbow #celialaskey #lgbtfic #booksimexcitedabout #booksgloriousbooks📚 https://www.instagram.com/p/CiIfweoLxqd/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Hello everyone and happy Friday to you all! Hope you’ve had a good week. Today I had my stitches out and apart from feeling a little FrankenBeth, things are healing well. It’s book haul time! Chinatown is from my @tiltedaxisbooks subscription which gives me five of their newly released books over the year. As I love translated fiction, it was a no brainer! It’s a tale of exile, displacement and discrimination and their impact on a life of a Vietnamese woman. Another quest is to complete all the Outlander novels. Voyager is the third in the series and I’m halfway through the second at the moment. It follows an English woman called Claire in the 1940’s who time-travels back to the Highlands of Scotland in the 18th century. Finally, I’ve already read Sunset as a buddy read with a group of lovely bookstagrammers. It wasn’t what I expected and I’m still thinking about it. It’s about the sibling relationship between Ruth and Hannah and how this is affected when something terrible happens. Review to follow! Coming tomorrow, I’ll have a Saturday stack and I may also do an extra giveaway post depending on how I’m feeling as I reached 2.5K followers recently! Either way, the giveaway WILL come soon. Thank you all 😘 #bookstagram #scottishbookstagrammer #bookhaul #notmorebooks #booksmakeeverythingbetter #chinatown #tiltedaxispress #thuận #nguyễnanlý #outlanderseries #dianagabaldon #voyager #sunset #jessiecave #siblingstories #timetravelinfiction #bookssetinscotland #translatedfiction #cantwaittoreadit https://www.instagram.com/p/CgmvQSkLH0t/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Hello everyone, welcome to the start of the week with another paperback book haul! Again, I couldn’t resist ordering these beauties, two as pre-orders and one to add to my growing collection of translated fiction books from @tiltedaxisbooks A Town Called Solace was longlisted for the Booker prize in 2021 so that automatically made it a “must preorder.” Clara’s rebellious older sister is missing. Grief-stricken and bewildered, she yearns to uncover the truth about what happened. Secondly, my new translated fiction book, Strange Beasts Of China by Yan Ge, translated by Jeremy Tiang. In the fictional Chinese town of Yong’an, human beings live alongside spirits and monsters, some of which are almost indistinguishable from humans. Told in the form of a bestiary, each chapter of Strange Beasts introduces us to a new creature - from the Sacrificial Beasts who can’t seem to stop dying to the Besotted Beasts, an artificial beast designed by scientists to be as loveable as possible. The narrator is on a mission to track down as many breeds as possible but in the process discovers she may not be as human as she thought. Finally, The Galaxy And The Ground Within which is the fourth book in the Wayfarers series. I really need to catch up on this series 🙈 I’ve only read The Long Way To A Small Angry Planet and I have the rest of the books waiting on my shelves. The writing is absolutely terrific and gave me some comfort that perhaps I could really enjoy science fiction as a genre. I’d love to know your thoughts on any of these books or authors. Let’s have a chat in the comments and have a great week everyone! 🤗😘 #bookstagram #bookstagramuk #bookstagrammer #bookhoarder #bookhaul #bookheaven #beautifulbooks #paperbackhaul #atowncalledsolace #marylawson #strangebeastsofchina #yange #jeremytiang #thegalaxyandthegroundwithin #beckychambers #wayfarersseries #literaryfiction #sciencefiction #bookerprize2021 #booksaremylife https://www.instagram.com/p/CcOIlV4LjQg/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Hello everyone and hope your weekend has got off to a great start! I’m spending a morning in bed (reading obviously 🙄😂) after a hectic week at work. It was made all better by going to see Dylan Moran (Irish comedian) last night on his tour. I’m going to try and do a stack post later but for now, here’s a book haul! I wish I’d plumped for the beautiful hardback of Cecily 😩 but here is the next best thing, the paperback! Told through the eyes of its greatest unseen protagonist, Cecily is an astonishing debut that plunges you into the exhilaration of the first days of the Wars of the Roses, a war as women fight it. Secondly, another beautiful @tiltedaxisbooks translated fiction book, Of Strangers And Bees by Hamid Ismailov, translated by Shelley Fairweather-Vega. Described as a thrilling, multi-stranded epic this novel traces the fate of the medieval polymath Avicenna who shaped Islamic thought and science for centuries. Finally, we have King Of Rabbits. This book has been on my radar for a little while, it’s described as a brilliantly crafted story of class and race and the failure of society to catch the children who fall through the cracks. I’d love to know your thoughts on any of these books or authors. Let’s have a chat in the comments! #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookhaul #bookhoarder #booknuts #bookobsessed #paperbackhaul #cecily #anniegarthwaite #ofstrangersandbees #hamidismailov #shelleyfairweathervega #tiltedaxispress #translatedfiction #historicalfiction #thewaroftheroses #kingofrabbits #karlaneblett #literaryfiction #givemeallthebooks #booksrightnow https://www.instagram.com/p/CcIHcR1rpkJ/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Friday is here! It’s time for another book haul. Today I’ve got three paperbacks for you, one of which I’ve already read - The Things We Do For Love which I buddy read with my lovely sister @chrissireads It was a difficult read for me on one level but I really enjoyed the story and will have my review up soon. It follows a seventeen year old girl who has a difficult relationship with her mother and a woman in her 30’s who is desperate to be a mother. Little Scratch is all the fault of the gorgeous @victoria_catherine_shaw who told me I had to get my mitts on this book. It is the story of a day in the life of an unnamed woman, living in a lower-case world of demarcated fridge shelves and office politics; clock watching and What’s App notifications. The protagonist tells us how she gets through morning to night whilst processing recent sexual violence. Finally, we have another translated work from @tiltedaxisbooks which I’ve become slightly obsessed with. I’ll Go On is a story from one of South Korea’s most acclaimed young authors about two sisters, Sora and Nana. When the girls are young, they lose their father in a horrific freak accident and their mother, Aeja becomes unhealthily obsessed with the violence in life. It’s a stunning exploration of the intensity of early bonds and the traces they leave on us as we grow up. I’d love to know your thoughts on any of these books or authors. Let’s have a chat in the comments! Have a lovely weekend everyone 🤗😘 #bookstagram #bookhaul #cantstophauling #prettypaperbacks #tiltedaxispress #smallpresssupport #kristinhannah #thethingswedoforlove #littlescratch #rebeccawatson #illgoon #hwangjungeun #emilyyaewon #translatedfiction #literaryfiction #contemporaryfiction #lovingbooks #mybookcollection #onthetbr #bookhoarder #bookcollector #booksforlife #booksforever #authorsnewtome #favouriteauthors https://www.instagram.com/p/CaIUYwirXcg/?utm_medium=tumblr