Annecdotal blog - annethology

Mental health and the tyranny of positivity

24/9/2022

I’ve shed more tears than usual in the past few months. Shall I tell you what helped me most? It wasn’t reminders of the many good things in my life. It wasn’t unfounded assurances things would turn out fine. What helped most was a straightforward acknowledgement of my feelings and that I had every right to grieve.

Feel free to judge my new book by its cover

15/9/2022

As mentioned in my previous post, things aren’t going swimmingly with my first novella and first book-length self-publishing project, my forthcoming novella, Stolen Summers, the prequel to Matilda Windsor Is Coming Home. But I still expect to be able to publish at the beginning of next month. So where else would I go with this week’s flash fiction challenge to write a 99-word story about balloons on a bumper?

Swimming through Stolen Summers

10/9/2022

When the prompt arrived for this week’s 99-word story, I immediately thought of my character Matty. Not only because I’ve been reading and rereading and scrutinising a part of her history I want to publish next month, but because swimmingly is exactly the kind of word she’d use (although I don’t think she ever has).

Reading Women in Translation Sept 2021 to Aug 2022 #WITMonth #amreading

30/8/2022

August is women in translation month, a time when readers prioritise books by women in translation – yes, it does what it says on the tin! – and I share the qualifying books I’ve read over the last twelve months. This year’s dozen represents 7 languages (one up from last year): Arabic, Danish, French, German, Italian, Polish and Spanish, with almost half the books being translated from the French. The books come from 8 different publishers: Europa editions, Granta books, Heinemann, Maclehose Press, Peirene Press, Quercus, V&Q Books, Zed Books.

Feminist crime: Woman at Point Zero & After the Silence

25/8/2022

Here are two novels in which issues of female disempowerment are explored within a murder narrative. The first is a modern classic, translated from Arabic, set in a culture where women have no custody over their own bodies. The second is a contemporary Irish crime novel, set in a society where men have learnt ways of controlling their partners without leaving a physical mark.

Fostered: Lily & Careless

19/8/2022

I’ve recently read a historical novel and a contemporary YA novel featuring fostered girls. In the first, it’s idyllic, especially in contrast to the institution she’s sent to at the age of six. In the second, it’s more problematic with a foster mother who can’t put her own needs aside to support the child in her care.

Nine mini reviews

11/8/2022

It's not often I showcase a bunch of exclusively male authors, although there's no reason why not. This includes two translations, a short story collection and a crime novel in addition to my usual literary novels. Of the latter, two prioritise illustrating 20th-century sociopolitical changes in England over story. The other three take us to Punjab, Yemen and and fantasy library midway between life and death. Read on to see what I thought of them.

I’m mourning my lost identity as physically healthy

25/7/2022

I pulled out of a leading one walk through Jane Eyre territory when Mr A remarked I was breathless just getting from a hospital bed to the bathroom. I pulled out of the second (scheduled for tomorrow) when, although much improved, I realised I couldn’t walk, talk and carry a backpack simultaneously, especially not uphill. Now even the dog walkers have noticed I’m tramping the fields uncharacteristically slowly. How to explain to acquaintances that’s not the real me?

The startling story of Nellie Bly: Madwoman by Louisa Treger

21/7/2022

Her closeness to her lawyer father has given her a respect for facts. The tales heard at her mother’s knee have fired her passion for story. So, after her father’s sudden death and her mother’s ill-advised marriage to a violent drunkard means the teenager must earn a living, a career as a reporter seems a logical step.

At the end of the nineteenth century, respectable women weren’t expected to work, and especially not in a male-dominated environment like a newspaper office. So Nellie Bly – her pen name – must fight prejudice to be taken on by the Pittsburgh Dispatch. But she soon outgrows the provincial newspaper and takes her passion and her ambitions to New York.

Aftermath: The Tin Nose Shop & The Wilderness

12/7/2022

These two novels are about the consequences of untimely deaths on those left behind. The first is set during the First World War when a grieving soldier is set to work making masks to hide the horrific facial injuries of those wounded in the trenches. The second is about two orphaned sisters and an anthropologist with unconventional ideas about mourning rituals.

Meadows for butterflies

1/7/2022

The English garden is in constant flux at this time of year. Plants shed their flowers as new ones begin to bloom. Fruit ripens and beanstalks snake up bamboo poles. Shrubs double or triple in size and greenery colonises every inch of bare soil.

A certain kind of freedom: Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont & The Men

25/6/2022

I’ve linked these two very different novels via the theme of compromised freedom, partly because that’s how I feel myself right now. In the first, an elderly widow frees herself from pity by casting a stranger as her grandson but fears being found out. In the second, women are magically freed from misogyny at a cost of losing the men and boys they love.

Apologies for absence

18/6/2022

I’m behind with my reviews: indeed, I haven’t opened a book for a month. I’ve flunked three consecutive flash fiction challenges and missed two meetings with my critique group. I’ve dropped out of a book stall and a choral workshop, and my Jane Eyre walk – scheduled for tomorrow – is cancelled. Still, it’s a joy to walk to the end of my garden as strawberries begin to ripen. And to sleep in my own bed.

Of course, it’s all material but, right now, mine’s a tangle of tatty threads. But I didn’t want to be one of those bloggers who suddenly disappears from social media, leaving virtual friends to wonder if they’ve found a more rewarding creative outlet or they’re dead.

Micro fiction and 9 micro reviews

18/5/2022

This latest batch of micro reviews – the first of this year – features a Nigerian classic novel; a non-fiction book about Britain’s black communities during the First World War; a novella about the bond between a woman and her granddaughter; a psychological thriller set in a care home; a memoir about psychiatric abuse; a novel about love against the odds; a classic novel about a young woman’s breakdown; a whimsical fantasy and an Indian retelling of King Lear.

Sidelined women: The Dance Tree & Lacuna

12/5/2022

Allow me to introduce two novels about the marginalisation of women’s experience: the first set in sixteenth century Strasbourg where the church rules hearts and minds; the second in contemporary a South Africa grappling with its colonial past. Both include a scene of arson, but that is not the worst of the violence.

Therapy for characters in under sixty seconds

5/5/2022

There's nothing about TikTok in my 2022 reading and writing plans. Why would there be? I'm far too serious for that kind of stuff. Yet a couple of weeks after I posted those plans I'd signed up for an account. Now I'm addicted.

Why? Because I've sold a few books, although not as many as I'd like to. But mostly because it's a fun place to be.

If you read only one of my reviews, make it this: Patience by Toby Litt

29/4/2022

A reader does need to be patient with this novel initially but the rewards are great take it from one who generally finds textual quirks an irritant you quickly accommodate to unpunctuated paragraphs that perfectly encapsulate the narrator’s voice not voice as in audible speech he Elliott barely able to move due to cerebral palsy is using some kind of device to relate the great adventure of his childhood when in the late seventies without communication aids he made a new friend.

If you’re daft enough, you can watch me unwrapping this book on TikTok.

No two people will read the exact same story

20/4/2022

Although many of us read for relaxation, our brains are far from passive as we do so. We actively process the words on page or screen through the filter of our own experience. Because everyone is different, we won’t find identical meanings in the same text.

Mourning a marriage: The Chosen & So Long a Letter

15/4/2022

These two novels depict a character’s reflections on their life following the sudden death of their spouse. Both the male writer in the first novel and the female teacher in the second are mourning not only the loss of a partner but of the promise of their original romance.

The Return of Faraz Ali by Aamina Ahmad

3/4/2022

A page-turning debut about power, patriarchy and politics; separation and secrets; set in late 1960s Pakistan.

Supernatural identities: Woman, Eating & Witches

31/3/2022

Two novels about women whose identities stem from the supernatural: the first, a vampire who moves to London to work in a gallery; the second, a traditional healer in rural Mexico and the journalist who wants to write her story.

Ready to change? Peach Blossom Spring & Voting Day

24/3/2022

Two fabulous fiction books about ordinary people in historically significant times. The first is a family saga set in China, Taiwan and America across six decades of the twentieth century. The second is a snapshot of Swiss history on a single day in 1959 when the male half of the populace denied their mothers, sisters and wives the right to vote.

The burning issues of our times: The Forests & The Bones of Barry Knight

15/3/2022

Although fire has a significant role in both of these novels, I intended this post’s title metaphorically: along with the pandemic, the climate crisis and the (sometimes related) refugee emergency are the defining themes of the 2020s. If you like to explore our times through fiction, as I do, see if you think you’d enjoy The Forests, a translated cli-fi novel and/or The Bones of Barry Knight, a poignant portrayal of people literally or figuratively estranged from their homes.

Kinds of caring: Marzahn, Mon Amour & Here Again Now

8/3/2022

Here are two books featuring different kinds of caring: the first a translated memoir about a healthcare professional who looks after people’s minds along with their feet; the second a novel about an actor who opens his home to his struggling father and to his childhood friend.

Moral compromise: Mouth to Mouth & Booth

28/2/2022

These two recent reads feature characters who find themselves in morally compromised situations, partly of their own making. The first, set in the contemporary US art world, is about a young man’s relationship with a middle-aged man he saves from drowning. The second, set during a turbulent time in American history, focuses on a family of thespians, drinkers and dreamers.