There is never enough time to read for pleasure, so my to-be-read pile is getting taller.
From our local library (@yourlibraryltd) I received a copy of Soft Burial by Chinese author Fang Fang. I know of Fang’s previous work Wuhan Diary, which was widely criticised in China but whose 2020 English edition, titled “Wuhan Diary: Dispatches from a Quarantined City” and translated by Michael Berry, met with “almost unanimously positive reaction” in the West.
So, it was no surprise to discover my copy of Soft Burial was published in Traditional Chinese in Hong Kong in 2019, after the original 2016 Simplified Chinese edition was banned in China. The book’s English translation, also by Berry, was published by Columbia University Press in 2025. It was shortlisted by the prestigious Baifang Schell Book Prize in that year.
Meanwhile, my requested e-copy of The Extraordinary Florence Stoker by @karenbrooksauthor (forthcoming September 2026) arrived from @netgalley. See the awesome details of the cover design! Also see a photo of the real-life Florence Stoker (thanks Wikipedia).
Last time, it took me months to finish reading Brooks’s 2021 novel The Good Wife of Bath, and it was quite worth it. Now I look forward to starting another highly enjoyable read, particularly with my recently renewed interests in Bram Stoker’s 1897 horror novel Dracula after reading Doctor Who: Dracula! by Paul Magrs (2025).
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Voices under the Sun 陽光下的聲音 