Irish Short Story Week

Hosted by Mel
March 12 to March 22, 2012

Reading: If you’re looking for ideas, Mel has posted some resources here.

I’m aiming for some Irish short stories by authors whose books have been too-long-neglected on my bookshelves.

First on my list is Julia O’Faolain and, right behind her, Mary Lavin.

And, finally, I have two collections of fairy tales that my grandmother gave me when I was a girl — just a little too old to think I could risk being seen reading fairy tales at that time (as if being uncompromisingly bookish without reading fairy tales wasn’t already the kiss of death, socially speaking) — that I am finally making time to read. I’m exactly the right age to be reading fairy tales (again) now. Sorry, Grandma.

Dutch Lit Month

Hosted by Iris
August 2012

Iris has shared out her spreadsheet of the books discussed as part of this event here. I was behind-the-times, but I enjoyed several books, including the read-a-long title, Hella S. Haasse’s The Tea Lords: A Novel of Java, albeit too late to contribute to the discussion. I also read Meindert DeJong’s The Almost All-White Rabbity Cat (1972) and Shadrach (1953), which I might have read as a child (I loved The Wheel on the Schoolhouse), and one of Iris’ favourites, Guus Kuijer’s The Book of Everything (2004) Trans. John Nieuwenhuizen (2006).

Since then, when browsing in bookshops, I have taken notice of several other titles which would fit nicely with the 2013 version of this event. And, well, that’s the point, right?