The Reading Life Review- January 2021

Column One

1. Toshikazu Kanguchi - Japan- author best selling Before the Coffee Gets Cold - first RL appearance 
2. Masako Togana - Japan - novels about dark side of  Tokyo- 
3. Jack E. Davis - USA - author The Gulf: The Making of an American Sea- Pulitzer Prize winning historian - first RL appearance 
4. Yoko Ogana - Japan - Author The Memory Police, The Professor and the House Keeper - featured numerous times 

Column Two

1. Mollie Panter-Downs - UK - contributed 852 items to The New Yorker, wonderful set in England during WW Two Short Stories
2. Greg Grinder - USA - Author Fordlandia - American historian - first apperance in RL
3. Rabindranath Tagore - India

Column Three

1. John Duffy - Ireland - I have followed his work for ten years -John Duffy is from Ballina, County Mayo. He writes short fiction and poetry. John studied at NUI Galway and graduated with Master’s degree. He lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.
2. Steve Wade - Ireland - debut collection In Fields of Butterfly Dreams and other Stories. Featured numerous times - About the Author - Steve Wade’s award-winning short fiction has been widely published in literary magazines and anthologies. His work has been broadcast on national and regional radio. He has had stories short-listed for the Francis McManus Short Story Competitionand for the Hennessy Award. His stories have appeared in over fifty print publications, including Crannog, New Fables, and Aesthetica Creative Works Annual. His unpublished novel, On Hikers’ Hill was awarded First Prize in the abook2read.com competition, with Sir Tim Rice as the top judge. He has won First Prize in the Delvin Garradrimna Short Story Competition on a number of occasions. Winner of the Short Story category in the Write by the Sea writing competition 2019.
3. Aoko Matsuda - Japan - first RL appearance -Aoko Matsuda is a writer and translator. In 2013, her debut book, Stackable, was nominated for the Yukio Mishima Prize and the Noma Literary New Face Prize. Her novella, The Girl Who Is Getting Married, was published by Strangers Press in the U.K. in 2016. In 2019, her short story “The Woman Dies” was short-listed for a Shirley Jackson Award. She has translated work by Karen Russell, Amelia Gray, and Carmen Maria Machado into Japanese

Column Four

1. Silvia Moreno-Gomez - Canada - first RL apperance. Author Mexican Gothic. Best a selling novel 
2. E. M. Delafield- UK - first appearance in RL. Author The Diary of the Provincial Lady and 29 others books.  For sure I will read more of her work 
3. Farah Ahamed  - UK - featured numerous times on RL - Farah Ahamed’s short stories and essays have been published in Ploughshares, The Mechanics’ Institute Review, The Massachusetts’ Review amongst others. In 2021, Pan Macmillan will publish her non-fiction anthology on menstruation experiences in South Asia. A human rights lawyer with a Diploma in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia, Farah is currently working on a short story collection and a novel set in Lahore. She also has a complete book of Dr Patel stories. You can read more of her work here: farahahamed.com.

The Reading Life is a multicultural

book blog, committed to Literary Globalism

Among frequently covered areas are Short Stories, Irish literature, Classics, Modern Fiction, Contemporary Literary Fiction, The Japanese Novel, Post Colonial Asian Fiction, The Legacy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and quality Historical Novels.  I also try to feature at least two non-fiction works every month.

Home Countries of January Authors

1. Japan - 4
2. UK - 3
3. USA - 2
4. Ireland - 2
5. India - 1
6. Canada - 1

In January six male authors were featured and seven female,all but four authors are still living. Six were featured for the first time.

In January I read these works but did not post on them

1. Abel and Cain by Gregor Von Rezori
2. The Clear Sky - A Life of Winifred Holtby by Marion Shaw
3. The American Eden - David Husaack, Botany, and Medicine in The Garden of Early America by Victoria Johnson
4. Several Short Stories by Elizabeth Taylor
5. Hersh Dovid Nomberg - several stories translated from Yiddish, set in Warsaw around 1905

In January four novels were featured, two very good works of narrative non-fiction and nine Short Stories. An original Short Story by John Duffy was proudly published.

Blog Stats

Top Country of Origin of Visitors

1. USA
2. Sweden (first appearance in this list with over five thousand visits)
3. India
4. The Phillippines 
5. Russia 
6. Germany
7. UK
8. United Arab Emirates
9. Canada

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Short Stories by South and S.E.Asian Authors continue to be the most viewed posts.

There are currently 3874 posts on The Reading Life

Future Plans

Interested readers can get a good idea of future postings from The works pictured in our Sidebar.

I Will continue my participation in The Japanese Literature Challenge in February and March.

In March I Will Focus once again on Irish Short Stories, as i have done for The Last eleven years

Pandemic Observations.

Better times are coming, to my fellow book bloggers, the world’s greatest readers, please keep up your work.