August 2014 Wrap-Up - Women in Translation Month

August saw the first edition of what will hopefully become an annual event, Women in Translation Month.  Hosted by Meytal of the Biblibio blog (who revealed her name during the month!), the event focused on the paucity of work by female writers in translation and attempted to turn a little more of the spotlight onto these authors.

It's hard to know how much of a success it was in the wider world, but it certainly generated a lot of interest in some quarters.  It was nice to see some publishers getting involved too (special mentions go to And Other Stories for their Tumblr series - here and here - and MacLehose Press for some suggestions on their site - here and here).  And, of course, every review on my blog in August (starting, in fact, on the 31st of July) was for the event :)

So, stats first - then my dozen reviews for Women in Translation Month :)

*****
Total Books Read: 11
Year-to-Date: 86

New: 11

Rereads: 0

From the Shelves: 3
Review Copies: 6

From the Library: 2

On the Kindle: 2 (2 review copies)

Novels: 7

Novellas: 2
Short Stories: 1
Non-Fiction: 1 

Non-English Language: 10 (3 Spanish, 2 Italian, Korean, French, Japanese, Norwegian, German)

In Original Language: 2 (French and German)

Aussie Author Challenge: 1 (1/3)
Japanese Literature Challenge 8: 1 (4/1)

*****
Books reviewed in August were:

0) Faces in the Crowd by Valeria Luiselli
1) My Son's Girlfriend by Jung Mi-kyung
2) The Pillow Book by Sei Shōnagon
3) The Life of Rebecca Jones by Angharad Price
4) The Blue Room by Hanne Ørstavik
5) Spirit on the Wind (and other Stories) by O Chong-hui
6) Sworn Virgin by Elvira Dones
7) Numéro Six by Véronique Olmi
8) There a Petal Silently Falls by Ch'oe Yun
9) Aller Tage Abend (The End of Days) by Jenny Erpenbeck
10) Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante
11) Sidewalks by Valeria Luiselli

Tony's Turkey for August is: Nothing

Christmas is looking very bare this year - looks like I'll be having toast instead of turkey ;)

Tony's Recommendation for August is:
Ch'oe Yun's There a Petal Silently Falls

Some great reads here, and it was a very close-run race.  The gallant runners-up this month were definitely Hanne Ørstavik's great story of psychological repression and Jenny Erpenbeck's time-twisting tale.  However, my choice goes to Ch'oe Yun's excellent selection of three long stories, a wonderful set of different writing styles and topics :)

*****
With Women in Translation Month duties over for now, September will (hopefully) be a little more relaxing.  Then again, I do have a very big pile of ARCs looking over my shoulder...