April Authors
The Reading Life is a multi-cultural book blog devoted to the goals of literary globalism.
Among our interests are Short Stories, Irish literature, Classics, Modern Fiction, Contemporary Literary Fiction, Yiddish literature and history, The Japanese Novel, Post Colonial Asian Fiction, The Legacy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and quality Historical Novels.
As Asian focused Xenophobia becomes commonplace in the Uk, much of Europe and most of all in the USA, we will be frequently spotlighting Asian writers.
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from The Penquin Book of Italian Short Stories- edited, introduced and translated by Jhumpa Lahari - 2018
As I was reading Jhumpa Lahari's introduction to this magnificent collection, I was struck by her remarks on the rising xenophobia in Italy she saw in 2018
"As I was nearing the completion of this project, Italy was in the process of electing a new government, with xenophobic parties gaining electoral sway. NeoFascist violence towards immigrants has been on the rise, and the government still denies birthright citizenship to Italians with foreign-born parents."
Column One
1. Yente Sendatsky - Lithuania to USA - prolific multi-genre Yiddish Language author
2. Don Simmons - USA - Hugo Award Winner. I am now reading part three of his Four novel series, The Hyperion Canto, perfect escapist read
3. Elaine Chiew - Malaysia to Singapore - author of The Heartsick Diaspora. We have featured her work 14 times and expect great things from her.
4. Mavis Gallant - Canada
5. Janet H Swinney - UK - highly talented very creative writer whose work we follow closely.
Column Two
1. Chaya Bhuvneshwar - USA - author of a highly acclaimed debut collection, White Elephants Dancing
2. Heather Fowler - USA - we have followed her since 2013, featured many times on The Reading Life. Mel highly recommends all of her four short story collections as well her debut novel Ape Girl Baby
3. Sholem Aleichem. Ukraine. Most widely read Yiddish language author
4. Alison MacLeod - Canada to UK- we have begun a read through of her work. Mel highly recommends her collection All the Beloved Ghosts
Column Three
1. Ruby Cowling - UK - author This Paradise. We look forward to reading more of her work
2. Fiona Mozley - UK - author of Elmet
3. Yente Mash - Moldova to Israel. Yiddish language writer
4. Walter Stahr - USA - author John Jay: A Biography- historian of the American Revolution
Column Four
1. Avrom Sutzkever - Belarus to Israel. Prollic Yiddish language writer.
2. Jada Jones - USA - 2019 Pen Short Story winner
3. Ivy Ngeow - Malaysia to UK. In May we will feature her novel Overboard. We plan to do a read through of her work and will follow her closely.
4. Jose Varghese - India - first featured on The Reading Life in 2012. Highly regarded writer and editor
This month we featured 12 women and five men, five authors are deceased, 12 living. Seven writers were featured for the first time, ten are old friends
Blog Stats for April
We marked a milestone for us, passing the six million page views mark.
All time pageviews - 6,011,986
Post online 3762
The five most read posts were on short stories
Home Countries of Visitors
1. USA
2. India
3. Hong Kong (first time this high)
4. The Philippines
5. UK
6. Russia
7. France
8. Germany
Readership is down by about fifty percent. Once Universities open up world wide Mel expects readership to surpass old levels
Future plans (as suggested by Mel)
I hope to finish two long novels in May, The Recognitions by William Gaddis and The Man of Unusual Qualities by Robert Musil.
I am reading less, but more intensely, partially due to being under lockdown for sixty days so far. I have been watching the free presentations from The Globe Shakespeare Theatre. I will be posting, I hope, on a wide range of short stories
We offer our thanks to Max u for the Amazon gift cards.
To my fellow book bloggers, the world's greatest readers, keep blogging and reading.
To all, stay safe, stay home with a good book if you can
Ambrosia Bousweau
Oleander Bousweau
Impressive statistics, you are really an avid reader. I enjoy your reviews.
ReplyDeleteReading is a nice way of using time. I think most of us have too little time usually. During these difficult times, we at least have more time on our hands.
Take care and stay safe!
What a wonderful month of reading. As usual, I love looking at the collage of authors' faces. That must take a lot of work but it's a lovely capsule of the month's bookshelf.
ReplyDeleteTake care, all of you, and good reading to you in May!
Can we now say,
ReplyDeleteSo many books, so much time?
Very impressive reading life!