Book Review: When the Cranes Fly South by Lisa Ridzen (Translation by Alice Menzies)

  I saw this novel  during Women in Translation month, but it didn't become available until September, so I finished it in the month of September.  I suppose I could save the review for May- Older Americans month, but that seems a little silly. This novel won the Swedish Book Award, and was quite the best-seller! 

 This book- is so good. It is so well written, as a reader, I felt all the emotions. Oddly, EVERYONE in the book was entirely relatable. I felt like the carers, the granddaughter, the son and the father in different moments.   

I did shed a tear or two and the end of the book, even though I felt like I knew what the ending would be. Indeed, without spoilers, death comes for us all. Ridzen created this novel based on notes left between caregivers at her grandfather's home during his last months. It's told from a variety of points of view and gives an interesting view of the aging process. As a nurse, and someone with older parents, I have definitely seen the slowing of persons, and the decline of independence as people age. It's something I think on quite a bit and this novel really hit home. How can people age and continue to have agency while their body, and sometimes their minds start to fail them. It seems, even when people strongly want to respect choices and preferences, that this can be a frustrating time, especially for those who are used to being in charge, and being the authority in their lives. I'm left thinking about ways that folks can maintain their independence, or, at the very least, feel ok in their dependence. 

This book is a great read for those of us with aging relatives, it offers no solutions, but points out the universality of this period in life. This might be an interesting book for book club, but it also may stir up quite a few negative emotions, so... read at your own risk? 

    I did do the audio book because, I mean... why not?  It was perfectly read- and I felt more immersed in the narrative.  Definitely recommend!

First Published : 08/2025

Pages: 320

Available as an Audio Book :YES

Trigger Warnings: family drama, aging, death, medical situations

Not a full TW list, please read responsibly. 

Book Review: Celestial Bodies By Jokha Alharthi 3 stars

 Last month I didn't read any translated work and I was pretty disappointed in myself.  August ia Women in Translation month, so I was sure I wanted to read something in translation. 

  A quick perusal of things available from my library brought me to Celestial Bodies. It won the Man Booker Prize in 2019, so I felt pretty sure that it would be at least well written, if not enjoyable. I also was fascinated that it was written by an Omani woman, about Oman, a country that I really could not even point out on a map. I was primed for an interesting read. 

Reading the blurb I was ready to get into a generational saga that allowed me a window into how society changed over decades on both a community and personal level.

What it felt like I got- Gossip Girl, but set in Oman.

Every chapter seemed to be the reporting on the troubles in someone's relationship, the ill advised choices of another, who was doing what with whom or for whom. This was interesting but jumbled up so that if there was an overarching message, I surely missed it.

Not bad, but...also very put-down-able.

Readers follow three sisters, as they are born, mature and marry.  We are present for each sister's  decisions, and the outcome of these choices.  Each sister takes a different path and the paths taken highlights a lot of the societal changes within Oman, and the world over the decades.  I was fascinated by the decisions and options available.  

What made this a difficult read for me was that there really was not a clear set of main characters. The sisters are given about as much attention as every other character in the book, including husbands, parents, aunts, cousins and notable community personalities. As readers travel through these women's lives it is additionally not a linear journey and the story dips and weaves in and out of the past in an unpredictable and dizzying way.  I often found myself reading along about the marriage of one sister, only to be plunged with no warning back to a flashback about the death of one of the husband's parents. In the end for me, I read this almost as a series of "slice of life" moments over time. 

  I have a strong feeling that the translation is very good, but that somehow in the translation the boney structure of the novel was lost and changed into sort of a dreamy, confusing mush. 

   I do think it's fantastic to have a novel from Oman for us to read and I do feel like I understood much more about the role of women, and how it seems to have changed in that country.  What I feel like I missed was a thread that held the work together, and a conclusion that would somehow bring all the different experiences into a sharp focus.  Soooooo for me,  although this book is a lot of firsts, and has a lot of good qualities, it was a three star read. Because of it's place in literature, I might still recommend as a book in translation from a culture that isn't widely represented in literature.  I would love to discuss this one more, and if the timeline wasn't so jostled I would have loved to recommend for Book club! 

STATS

First Published : October , 2019

Pages: 256

Available as an Audio Book :YES

Trigger Warnings: Death, blood, medical situations, violence, childbirth.

Not a full TW list, please read responsibly. 

It's the BEST time of year- Hugo Award time!

  As a reader, Book Awards are really always interesting to me.  Sometimes some really inexplicable choices are made and I'm left scratching my head, or thinking that I failed to see the beauty in a certain written work. 

   Over the past several years, I've become fascinated with the Hugo Awards.  Particularly the one given for best novel.  The Hugo's as a whole are pretty broad, there's a Best Series award, the Best Novel, one for Short fiction, Best Fanzine, Best Artist, Dramatic Presentation... the list goes on and on. 

One of the reasons I have focused on the Hugo is that- in recent years- the winners have all been really solid novels that I enjoyed. So, I of course, decided I'd read all the Hugo award winning novels. Sadly for me, the early ones... are just full of sexism, and reflect a strong lack of imagination about women's roles in the world.  It's kind of amazing how Science Fiction may reflect the times it was written in much more than it really looks to the future! 

That said, after the finalists were announced, I decided to check out ALL the finalists for BEST Novel. 

 I am glad that I did this, and I hope to do it every year. 

This was an interesting exercise as I would not have actually picked up many of these books if they had not been in the list of nominees. I enjoyed them all to varying degrees! One thing for certain, they were all well written, polished pieces of fiction. You can't really go wrong with one of these as a selection. 

    It's so hard to predict a winner. For me, my TOP top read of this bunch was The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett. I never even actually wrote a full review of this! I finished this one in July which was a month of oblivion for my reading. I had the road trip, an unexpected surgery, and a complicated series of job interviews which lead me to conclude that my current employment is pretty darn good. While I still was reading, I was focused on reviewing advanced copies, so my apologies to Robert Jackson Bennett. 

The Tainted Cup is a winner for me based on it firstly being the most enjoyable one of the six for me as a reading experience. The characters are likeable, and unique. The story is a mystery set in a fantasy world with sci-fi elements (lots of personal augmentations). It was easy to follow, and fun to try to figure out who did what and when! I enjoyed the blending of fantasy and sci-fi, and feel like this one really reflects the Hugo Award. 

Do I think it is going to win?

I actually do not. 

Last week, I made a TikTok Video saying I think that Wiswell's Someone You Can Build a Nest In would be the winner.  Today, as I sip my coffee and stare at this screen, I'm leaning toward Alien Clay - which I liked, but didn't love. 

So lets go from my least favorite to my most. 

Service Model  I actually gave this a 3.5 /5 stars.  I enjoyed it but I did find the "robot doesn't understand" humor to be funny but repetitive. the novel read like it was written for a young audience, but it was not marketed for a young audience. 

A Sorceress Comes To Call.   Interestingly I loved this one when I read it.  My review says it all.  Fantasy with magic. Over time, however, I have found that while it was effortless to read, it was also easy to forget. Would I still recommend it?  Yes. Is it the Best SFF novel of 2025, I don't think so. 

Alien Clay  is a book that I enjoyed, but I found the beginning to be interminably slow. There is a lot of academic chatter, that I didn't really enjoy and thus, the lower ranking. It did show a wild imagination on the part of the writer, and in some ways I think because this one is literally the ONLY NOMINEE that's set in space, maybe it will win? 

Someone You Can Build A Nest In -  Was a really interesting read for me. Like The Tainted Cup, it's set in a fantasy type world with Sci-Fi elements. As an added bonus there was an element of horror involved, which I thought added to the book. Overall, I feel this has a very strong chance to win. 

The Ministry of Time  was a "Dark Horse" read for me. I really really really did not like the cover, and it made me not want to bother. In addition, it was heavily marketed on Tik Tok and I was not so sure about that. But, I fell in love with this novel, even though the end was a little messy and confusing to me. The reason it is sitting in my number two spot is that I haven't found myself burning for a second book. I haven't looked up more by the author, so I guess I am not entirely enamored.  

As I noted before, at the top is The Tainted Cup. 

My prediction... is swaying between Wiswell and Tchaikovsky. It would help if I knew more about the people who vote on this award, but... I'm going with Wiswell as a prediction (which will likely be wrong!!!) The award is going to be presented at World Con on August 16th! 

Please comment below  who you think will win and who you'd vote for!