The Mookse and the Gripes discussion

Somebody Loves You by Mona Arshi (And Other Stories)

"And Other Stories publishes some of the best in contemporary writing, including many translations. We aim to push people’s reading limits and help them discover authors of adventurous and inspiring writing. And we want to open up publishing so that from the outside it doesn’t look like some posh freemasonry. For example, we think more of the English publishing industry should move out of London, Oxford and their environs. In 2017 we moved our main office to Sheffield and found such a warm welcome. The move also helped us discover great new writing from the North of England, including Tim Etchells’ Endland, Amy Arnold’s Slip of a Fish and Rachel Genn’s What You Could Have Won.

And Other Stories is readers, editors, writers, translators and subscribers. While our books are distributed widely through bookshops, it’s our subscribers’ support that makes the books happen. We now have about 1,500 active subscribers in over 40 countries, receiving up to 6 books a year."

As a Freeman of the City of London via the Worshipful Company of Actuaries (*) I am quite keen on things like "some posh freemasonry."


(* main perk - I am legally allowed to drive my sheep over London Bridge)

This will be the next one I read. Actually, it's the only one that I could get delivered before March.

I was impressed by this.

Ruby is a very memorable and well crafted narrator, with lines like “The day my sister tried to drag the baby fox into our house was the same day my mother had her first mental breakdown.”

Ruby’s playlist can be found here (including rather butchered version of Creep)

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1DW...

The title incidentally comes from the closing lines of Elizabeth Bishop's poem Filling Station.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem...

And on the main thread someone commented on covers. The cover of this one is stunning.

I thought this was very good also. Interestingly just like Beasts … it’s written in a series of very short vignettes.

I read this not long ago and was surprised by how much I liked it, and it was refreshing to read a coming-of-age story rooted in a British Indian community that wasn't the standard variation on contemporary kitchen-sink realism. It gave the story a much fresher feel.

This was the first I ordered. Paul, can you drive Gumble’s cows over London bridge?

Sheep only plus his (or rather his neighbour’s) are country cows.

A typical scene in the day of my life (though I am not personally on this photo)

https://keyassets.timeincuk.net/inspi...

And sad to say that is pretty typical of the age/gender/ethnicity profile of sheep driving sorts. Definitely more diversity needed.

I bet you look spiffy in your hat, robe, and holding a staff.

I haven’t got one yet. I am junior worshipful trouser leg roller at present.

Did have my first dinner the other night. Was pleased in these Covid days that the Loving Cup (a goblet passed around the entire assembly with a cursory wipe between each sip) had been temporarily suspended.

Worshipful Company of Actuaries is a real thing?! Worshipful?

I assume the hat, robe, and staff needn’t been adorned on Casual Fridays.

Yes it is definitely a thing

See eg here https://www.actuariescompany.co.uk/

Or https://democracy.cityoflondon.gov.uk...

I can see how the novel appeals to Paul:

“1. Everything worth saying can be written on your fingernail or on the seam of an unshelled almond.

2. The first thing you start doing when you start talking is editing.”

(Chapter “Speech”)

More seriously, I’m enjoying the novel so far and it does come with a gorgeous cover.

I am planning to start this one later today too.

Turns out the ebook finishes at 67%, followed by the huge list of subscribers (which takes less space in their print books where the names are in two columns I think) plus multiple pages listing their catalogue of 100+ titles. Still getting used to the barely-browsable nature of e-reading.

That list only uses 5 pages in the printed edition - smaller type and 4 columns per page.
I am really enjoying this one but will save a bit for tomorrow.

In my ebook it was 142 out of 170 pages as the novel itself (the rest the blurb, the copyright pages, table of contents etc as well as the list of subscribers).

I should really add 1 star for that.

There are probably a dozen references to pencil cases in this book. I’ve heard that term before but had to look it up. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one in person. This book has expanded my cultural horizons.

You’ve never seen a pencil case? What did you keep your pens and pencils in at school? We have dozens in our house.

You have lost me David - I would assume everyone in the U.K. has or had a pencil case. Schools require them plus anyway kids love them - I would imagine my girls have had at least 5 each during their school careers not least as (a) their tastes and sophistication of what they need changes and (b) they are popular birthday presents.

It sounds like it’s not just terminology (I thought the term pencil pouch was sometimes used there) as you say you have never seen one.

We just kept our pencils in our desks or backpacks. I’m assuming I’m the outlier and not everyone else who knows what a pencil case is.

One other difference might be that US schools have hallway lockers where pens, pencils, and everything else can be stored until needed for class.

I think we need Wendy to weigh in with a US perspective and given her new zero tolerance philosophy!!

I’m on thin ice if there is a three strike rule.
(Baseball reference.)

Sorry, David, but I am familiar with pencil cases. Although I was in elementary school in the 60s. I don’t remember my kids ever asking for or using pencil cases. They might have had a pocket type zippered pouch with three holes that could go in a binder, but I think maybe one kid had one. So David is correct that pencil cases are not important or popular with kids in the US.

As David said, in elementary school when kids are in one classroom all day pencils stay in their desks and by middle and high school when kids are changing classes all day they store stuff in their lockers and carry books, notebooks, pens, pencils in bookbags, aka backpacks. (the really lucky kids have bullet proof backpacks that they can use as a shield in the likely event of a school shooting. I am not joking, there are bullet proof backpacks and new schools are designed with walls that curve out to provide cover from a shooter.)

Whew. Vindicated by Wendy.

You’re welcome.

Pencil pouches are on the required supply list at the U.S. school my kids have all attended that goes up to high school. It’s a private school though, they can require things like that. Don’t think either of my two in high school now use them.

But yes, I’m glad David can stick around…

They sell pencil cases on amazon here, so they exist. I’ve just apparently been living under a rock

I am U.S. and remember pencil cases quite well having had several as a child. To be fair, they were hand-me-downs from my father and I always thought the nicer ones as curios from time past or representative of a higher social class that could better afford them. I don't even have a pencil in my home now-- just a pen that I use at best once every two or three months to address mail. Almost all of my communication is digital.

Maybe backpacks made pencil cases unnecessary. Backpacks are a big deal now. Even younger men have backpacks because they don’t carry purses, but have phone, charger, lighter, sunglasses, wallet, weed, water bottle, etc.

WndyJW wrote: "Maybe backpacks made pencil cases unnecessary. Backpacks are a big deal now. Even younger men have backpacks because they don’t carry purses, but have phone, charger, lighter, sunglasses, wallet, w..."

To those of us who had them, pencil cases were a useful way to keep pens, pencils, rulers and other things that were needed more occasionally like pencil sharpeners, erasers, protractors, spare ink cartridges and compasses in one place, which saved a lot of time and made it easier not to forget things. Most people carried them in larger bags, often backpacks but also sports bags and briefcases.

I am genuinely a bit midblown by this transatlantic divide. I mean we have whole businesses here basically based around selling pencil cases - Tinc and Smiggle.

I'm not really liking this one. I have a hard time concentrating as nothing in the book is really appealing and these short, mostly disconnected chapters do not help. Thankfully it's not long and I'm about to be done with it.

Is it more or less mind blowing than the Atlantic divide over vegemite?

Vegemite is hated on both sides of the Atlantic Wendy - its an Australia product so I think you either mean Pacific or Marmite

That's your first strike

Oh, no. I knew I should double check if it’s Marmite in the UK. This just shows that even I make errors sometimes.

I still have a pencil case! It doubles as somewhere to stash lipstick and eye liner ;)

What’s this lipstick you speak of? We don’t have such a thing in the U.S. :)

I am quite familiar with pencil cases from my elementary school days in the late 1950's early 1960's in the US. We did not have backpacks in those days and rode the bus to school, carrying a lunchbox and a pencil case. We had to supply our own pencils and carried them in a pencil case. You could not leave it at school, as then what would you use to do your homework with?

Now as to the book -- I thought it was brilliant. And the cover is oh so beautiful. I read it on Kindle and now must find it in print. I thought the short sketches were perfect, providing enough info for one to feel what was happening in its complex layers. And the prose was, well, poetic.

David wrote: "One other difference might be that US schools have hallway lockers where pens, pencils, and everything else can be stored until needed for class."

When I lived in Canada we didn't use pencil cases either - we just kept them in our desk.

I was exposed to pencil case culture when I moved to Malta. I was also surprised to learn about the timeless Oxford geometry set.

Incidentally I still have the same pencil case I used in school - it travelled with me through to my 8 years of uni as well.

Hang on. People in North America don’t have Oxford geometry sets? No wonder they don’t have pencil cases then, nothing to put in them. But then what do you do if you are on the way home from school and an emergency arises requiring the urgent use of a protractor or set square? Bit useless if it is in the locker at school.

Paul wrote: "Hang on. People in North America don’t have Oxford geometry sets? No wonder they don’t have pencil cases then, nothing to put in them. But then what do you do if you are on the way home from school..."

The teacher will give them out and they'll be stored in the desk until their use is over. That's how our school worked anyways

As LindaJ says - how do people do homework?

Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer wrote: "As LindaJ says - how do people do homework?"

I never had homework until I moved to Malta - big culture shock .

I was thinking of taking a break from the RoC after this one, but it has restored my faith - I really liked this (the language, the structure, the themes, the narrator etc.).