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www.thevillagenews.co.za
13 May 2020
Reading is ‘essential’ during lockdown A
warehouses begin to open again. “Now, more than ever before, our town’s local businesses, and in particular the independent bookstores, need all the support we can get,” said John.
Notwithstanding this frustrating lack of clarity and hair-splitting, both John and bookmark’s owner, Amanda de Vos are very happy to get back to business and are looking forward to receiving all the latest titles as the publishers’
I asked both him and Amanda what they’d been reading during the hard lockdown. “One of the things that people often ask is whether I’ve read such-and-such a book – well, like everyone else, I usually only get to read at the end of the day, so often my answer is, sadly, ‘not yet’. Therefore the initial lockdown came as a welcome break (I hadn’t had a holiday in nearly four years!) to read what I want, in my own time, and purely for pleasure! Nothing ‘light and humorous’
What took place in Germany between 1933 and 1945 is not a subject that lacks historical study. But if there is one element of that era that has been relatively neglected, it is, for obvious reasons, the suffering of the German people. In recent years there has been a movement among some German historians to redress the balance and, if not exactly portray the Germans as victims, show the scale of immiseration they endured in the final stages of the war. In Promise Me You’ll Shoot Yourself, Florian Huber tells the story of the mass suicides that broke out, particularly in eastern Germany, as the Soviet forces pushed towards Berlin. “The epidemic,” writes Huber, “was an extreme expression of the meaninglessness and pain people felt in the face of defeat, humiliation, loss, shame, personal suffering and rape.” – theguardian.com
The 19th century in Europe was a time of unprecedented artistic achievement. It was also the first age of cultural globalisation – an epoch when mass communications and high-speed rail travel brought Europe together, overcoming the barriers of nationalism and facilitating the development of a truly European canon of artistic, musical, and literary works. Drawing from a wealth of documents, letters, and other archival materials, acclaimed historian Orlando Figes examines the interplay of money and art that made this unification possible. At the centre of the book is a poignant love triangle: the Russian writer Ivan Turgenev; the Spanish prima donna Pauline Viardot, with whom Turgenev had an intimate relationship; and her husband Louis Viardot, an art critic, theatre manager, and republican activist. – amazon.com
Writer Hedda Mittner fter some initial doubt as to whether they would be allowed to trade during the Level 4 lockdown, which permits the sale of stationery and ‘educational books’, both The Book Cottage and bookmark have reopened to the public. “After all, aren’t all books educational?” asked John Morris, owner of The Book Cottage.
mind you – I prefer to get my teeth stuck into something serious!” said John. History being his favourite subject, he took several books home with him on relatively unknown aspects of World War II, such as Promise Me You’ll Shoot Yourself about the experiences of ordinary Germans during the last terrifying moments of the fall of Berlin in April 1945. “I also read a biography of Von Stauffenberg (the German aristocrat who led the 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler), and a book on the Allies’ bombing of Dresden in 1943.” John especially enjoyed re-reading The Europeans by Orlando Figes, which will be
For readers of Circe and The Handmaid’s Tale, Kiran Millwood Hargrave's The Mercies is a story about a love that could prove as dangerous as it is powerful. Winter, 1617. The sea around the remote Norwegian island of Vardø is thrown into a reckless storm. A young woman, Maren, watches as the men of the island, out fishing, perish in an instant. Vardø is now a place of women. Eighteen months later, a sinister figure arrives. Summoned from Scotland to take control of a place at the edge of the civilised world, Absalom Cornet knows what he needs to do to bring the women of the island to heel. With him travels his young wife, Ursa. In her new home, and in Maren, Ursa finds something she has never seen before: independent women. But Absalom sees only a place flooded with a terrible evil, one he must root out at all costs… - panmacmillan.com
out in paperback soon. “This sweeping tour de force takes readers on a glorious ride through 19th century Europe, just as the railways opened up the continent, and describes how art, literature and music flourished as a result. Describing the Spa towns, the explosion of book publishing and music, and in particular the growth of Grand Opera, The Europeans is a fascinating exploration of European culture in that remarkable time. I also really enjoyed The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave, which is based on a real-life event in the early 17th century when a storm leaves a group of women alone on an island off the coast of Norway.”
nearly as much time for reading as she would have liked to, as she used the time during lockdown to catch up on admin and finances. Still, she said “a day is not complete if I haven’t read at least a couple of chapters, and there are always books stacked on the bedside table, inviting me to spend more time with them”.
Amanda said she didn’t get
“I did finally get around to reading the charming Meet me at the Museum by Anne Youngson, followed by A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. Neither are brand-new books but came highly recommended, and they were exactly what I needed. Next up will be A Long Petal of the Sea, City
Published in 2018 and shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award, Anne Youngson's Meet Me at the Museum is a celebration of long letters, kindred spirits, and the possibility of writing a new story for yourself, at any stage of life. Tina and Kristian, each on the other side of 60, have lost a best friend and a wife, the ambitions of their youth, their hopes for a fresh start. Yearning for connection, they strike up a yearlong correspondence, brought together by a shared fascination with the Tollund Man, subject of Seamus Heaney's famous poem. In letters full of insight, humour and candour, they open up to one another about their lives – daily routines, travel, nature, beauty, work, family – and along the way these two strangers become friends and then, perhaps, something more. – bookbrowse.com
William Blake famously wrote, To see a world in a grain of sand, /And heaven in a wild flower, /Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, /and eternity in an hour. This will become Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov's daily challenge and his lifelong campaign, to see the whole world as defined by the confines of a small cramped room in the attic of the glorious and historic Hotel Metropol in Moscow, living out his days under house arrest. A gentleman in the truest sense of the world, his misfortune was to have penned a poem in the tumultuous times after the Bolshevik Revolution, leading to charges of sedition and a lifelong sentence. A gentleman in Moscow is an absolute jewel of a book and in Count Rostov, Amor Towles has created a captivating character of supreme intelligence and wit, a man of integrity and honour. – explorebooksellers.com
of Jasmine and Dear Edward. I asked Ronel (bookmark’s manager) what she’d read and she said she’d just finished Into the Fire, the fifth Orphan X novel by Gregg Andrew Hurwitz, which she described as ‘an excellent, fast-paced escapist read with loads of action’.” The Book Cottage (028 313 0834) is open Monday to Friday 09:00–17:00, Saturday 09:00–13:00 & Sunday 10:00–14:00. bookmark (028 312 2000) is open from Monday to Saturday 09:30–13:30 (closed on Sunday). Below are some of the great reads recommended by The Book Cottage and bookmark:
The New York Times bestselling Orphan X returns – facing his own uncertain future and undertaking one last mission. Taken from a group home, Evan Smoak was trained as an off-the-books government assassin: Orphan X. After breaking with the Program, he reinvented himself as The Nowhere Man, a figure shrouded in shadows who helps the truly desperate. But the government didn’t let go of him easily and sent their best to hunt him down and eliminate him. All of them failed. With his deadliest enemies behind him, Evan is contacted by Max Merriweather, whose highly successful cousin has been murdered. The Nowhere Man takes on the case and soon finds himself enmeshed in one of the most challenging missions of his life. This time he can’t survive alone and needs help as he once more heads… Into the Fire. – goodreads.com
