Instagram story viewer> @gilioncdumas> Tagged

Gilion C. Dumas

@gilioncdumas

4K

followers

1267

following

Book lover. Lawyer. Portlander. Tabby mother. Rose City Reader blogger. Home of the #tbr26in26 challenge & the #europeanreadingchallenge.

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

Week 12 of sharing some of my authors on my shelves, this week beginning with L, as part of a #10onmytbr challenge from @gilioncdumas

We have:
📚 The Favourite by Fran LITTLEWOOD
📚 A Killer in the Family by Gytha LODGE
📚 Not a Happy Family by Shari LAPENA
📚 The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy LEFTERI
📚 Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke by Eric LAROCCA
📚 Small Island by Andrea LEVY
📚 Rosemary’s Baby by Ira LEVIN
📚 Moon Road by Sarah LEIPCIGER
📚 Finding Dorothy by Elizabeth LETTS
📚 Outside by Charlotte LEVIN

Finding Dorothy wins the prize for having being on my TBR the longest - since March 2019.

⁉️ How has your weekend been? What books are you starting the week with?
We’ve had a lovely weekend celebrating my step-daughters 21st birthday with cake, many drinks and a delicious Chinese meal last night.
I’m reading Milkteeth by Caitlin Starling - I’m hoping to read more some this afternoon once I’ve been to the gym...🏋‍♂️

#tenonmytbr #alphabettbrchallenge

46

5

Who wants to play a game?
🤔
I spy with my little eye, something beginning with B...
🧐
Can you do your best Miss Marple or Poirot impression and work out what 'B' I've spotted on the cover of one of these Agatha Christie books? You might need to zoom in and use your best powers of deduction.
🕵🏼‍♀️
Pop your guess in the comments! And I'll let you know if you're right!

3

71

I got tagged for the #tenonmytbr challenge by the lovely Gilion ( @gilioncdumas ), who is one of the most fun bookstagrammers I follow! I’ve added tonnes of books to my TBR lists, from her posts and her challenges are truly great to streamline one’s reading! I thought of doing this alphabetically too, because I’m genuinely curious about what is lurking on my TBR bookshelves. These are my TBR books with authors whose names start with “A”. I truly thought this would be easy but it wasn’t! Anyway, here’s my list!
“Ashoka” & “Coromandel” by Charles Allen, who is one of the finest Indian historical non-fiction writers. I have lost the book cover of Coromandel, but it was beautiful, and I have actually finished 30% of it long, long, long ago and I mean to apply myself one of these days and finish it!

“Lucknow” by Nasima Aziz, another non-fiction work on Lucknow, the city of Nawabs, where my maternal family belonged to, originally.

“Like a Sword Wound” by Ahmet Altan published by @europaeditions who are one of my favourite translated fiction publishers. At this point, I buy most of their novels, blindly!

“The Death of Achilles” and “Murder on the Leviathan”, by Boris Akunin, aka Grigory Chkhartishvili, who writes historical mysteries set in Imperial Russia, amongst other genres. Akunin is a Georgian and Russian writer, living in the UK. I will read these v soon. I actually have more of his novels, but I wanted to include more writers!

“The Goodbye Cat” and “The Travelling Cat Chronicles” by Hiro Arikawa. I will eventually get around to reading these.

“Madonna in a Fur Coat” by Sabahattin Ali, a Turkish writer. This is a classic love story, AFAIK.

“Winesburg Ohio” by Sherwood Anderson, a collection of short stories, which are considered one of the most influential portraits of pre-industrial small-town life in the USA.

I’m definitely pushing Boris Akunin and Coromandel ahead in my TBR plans!

Have you read any of these books/ authors?

I can’t wait to see my “B” stack!

#bookstagramchallenge #TBR #alphabetchallenge

23

2

No, it's not the 31st yet. This Trick or Treat is the latest challenge from @oldskoolchallengeclub that @hook.me.a.book tagged me in.

The challenge:
Show a book that you unexpectedly loved - TREAT
Show a book that failed to meet expectations - TRICK

The TWIST is to show both the good and bad and the challenge can be STRETCHED by using the same author for both books.

🎃
This Trick or Treat could be turned into a bookish Halloween game-show.
Welcome to TRICK OR READ😀🎃📘

Our contestant is Italo Calvino.

He's brought two books.

If On A Winter's Night A Traveller. A literary fiction where many stories are started and not finished, the reader is the star, and multiple genres are employed.
Could have been a struggle but I loved it. Humorous, inventive, entertaining. A five out of five. What a TREAT. Well done Calvino. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

The Castle of Crossed Destinies. Another literary puzzle. Multiple stories told with Tarot cards in a medieval setting.
What a premise. Sounds exciting.
It's not.
Not exciting at all.
Absolutely tedious.
Should have stayed as an idea and not been written.
One and half stars, and that's mainly for the illustrations.
What a TRICK.
Honestly, Calvino, what were you thinking?

🎃

That's a Trick and a Treat from Calvino.
Thanks for playing.

Join us in the next episode where we look at whether (insert author name here) has brought us a TRICK OR TREAT.

Which author are you inserting in that sentence?

🎃

#HereForTheFunNotTheNumbers
#trickortreat
#oldskoolchallengeclub
#spookyseason

I'll tag a few. No pressure to join in.

56

32

Jente Posthuma’s, “What I’d Rather Not Think About”, translated from Dutch by Sarah Timmer Harvey, is one of the best novels I read in 2026. I had bought this in 2025, after reading an article in the NYT, along with her other novel, which I loved. Before leaving for our other home in Ranchi, I collected a stack of novels from my TBR shelves, of authors whose novels I had loved, and read this over two days while attending a super boring Indian wedding (I’m in a minority of probably one, in hating attending huge Indian weddings, and by huge I mean with over 1000 guests). I could not stop reading it.

The novel is about a pair of fraternal twins, and explores the deep grief felt by the sister after her twin brother commits suicide in his 30s. You may think the novel is brooding, depressing and melancholy, but it is anything but. Posthuma’s writing is sparse, dryly funny and understated, but beautiful and every sentence is loaded with wit, emotion, sibling complexities, a hidden story and underlying grief. The novel is not really chronological, but as you read through it, you can sketch the coming of age of the twins, the codependency and the annoyance about it felt by the brother. Despite leading up to the suicide of the brother, one still is reassured about how to deal with life despite losing one’s loved ones. The narrator’s dry observations on dealing with adulthood, made me chuckle and the siblings’ growing up pains were presented not as pathos, but with almost satirical humour. This novel, IMO is a masterpiece, and has managed to be more compelling in 200 pages than any other coming of age, novel I have read. Honestly, I cannot recommend this enough. It is an experience that no one will regret and Posthuma imo, is a grossly underrated novelist of our time. This novel was shortlisted for the international Booker prize in 2024, and I wonder why it did not win? I will be reading everything Posthuma writes, and I hope it gets translated post haste! Recommended to everyone!
Rating: 5/5
21/26 of my #tbr26in26 @gilioncdumas

#whatidrathernotthinkabout #jenteposthuma #sarahtimmerharvey #bookreview

18

9

Week 11 of sharing some of my authors on my shelves, this week beginning with K, as part of a #10onmytbr challenge from @gilioncdumas
I thought K would be one of the trickier letters but I had tons!

We have:
📚 All My Lies are True by Dorothy KOOMSON
📚 The Lamplighter by Jackie KAY
📚 Antarctica by Claire KEEGAN
📚 Love Story by Lindsey KELK
📚 A Different Drummer by William Melvin KELLEY
📚 The Grapevine by Kate KEMP
📚 The Good People by Hannah KENT
📚 Himself by Jess KIDD
📚 Salem’s Lot by Stephen KING
📚 The House in the Cerulean Sea by T J KLUNE

A Different Drummer wins the prize for having being on my TBR the longest - since September 2018.

⁉️ How has your weekend been? What books are you starting the week with?

The highlight of my week was seeing the wonderful Mamma Mia in London with my sons on Thursday. Such a brilliant, feel-good show.
I’m reading Good Joy, Bad Joy by Mikki Brammer, desperately trying to finish before @bookandpuddingclub.worthing tomorrow. Luckily I am really enjoying it.

#tenonmytbr #alphabettbrchallenge #sundaystack

84

17

Trying out @gilioncdumas ‘s unique #tenonmytbr challenge, I came across books on my shelf I had forgotten about. 😃 The challenge is to find ten books on your shelves that you haven’t read yet—with a catch. All the authors’ names must begin with the same letter! In my case, since I’m just starting, the letter A. 🙂

Here’s what I found:

The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri

Kicking in the Wall by Barbara Abercrombie

Confessions by St. Augustine

The Iron Ring by Lloyd Alexander

The Bounty: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty by Caroline Alexander

The Story of the Country House by Clive Aslet

The Half-Crown House by Helen Ashton

Undaunted Courage by Stephen E. Ambrose

Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths by Karen Armstrong

The Watchers: A Secret History of the Reign of Elizabeth I by Stephen Alford

Do you have any opinions about any of these? 🤔

I love how a challenge like this helps you see your own books in a new way. 🙂🎁

#bookstagramchallenge #bookstagramchallenges #bookstagrammer
#bookstagram

21

8

The past few months just whooshed by, and I took a mini break from my IG accounts just so I had breathing space. I’ve finally decided to pay attention to this account and catch up with my #tbr26in26 reading!
Fumio Yamamoto’s “The Dilemmas of Working Women”, translated by Brian Bergstrom, is a collection of 5 short stories, based on working women in Japan. “Naked” is about a divorced woman, who is living in a bubble of aimlessness after her divorce, and is reluctant to change anything about her life. One starts feeling sorry for Izumi, until one realises, she may have caused the divorce by being an insensitive workaholic. “Planarian” is based on a young woman who undergoes mastectomy when she gets breast cancer in her early twenties. Haruka isn’t a particularly nice person, and doesn’t seem to realise how supportive her parents and boyfriend have been about her situation, but decided to keep reminding the universe of her suffering, as a coping mechanism. “Here, which is nowhere” is based on a middle aged housewife working the night shift due to the downturn of the Japanese economy and her husband getting demoted/ restructured. It captured the moment of parents with teens leaving home, and having to face the fact that their children don’t need them anymore, very subtly and sensitively. “The Dilemmas of Working Women”, is about the logjam, 25 year old Mito feels about her PhD scholar boyfriend who is pressuring her about marriage, but she is undecided and has been sleeping with co-workers. On one hand, the boyfriend is a safe bet, but on the other hand, Mito isn’t particularly in love with him, their sex life is non existent and unexciting and to top it off, he seems to be a trust fund baby. The last story, “A Tomorrow Full of Love”, was very interesting. An Izakaya owner has a non conventional arrangement with one of his patrons Sumie, who reads palms in his bar. Sumie offers love freely, but isn’t eager to be tied down, and is happy with the situationship as it is, but it’s complicated. A very interesting read, and recommended to all Japanophiles and readers interested in gender perspectives.
Rating: 4.85/5
20/26 of my #tbr26in26 @gilioncdumas

25

8

I did it!! 26 books off my TBR list - and, this doesn’t include the new books I purchased and read or all the library books I’ve read this year. It’s been a great year and I still have 2+ months to go!

Seems like there are a lot of books about libraries that have a magical component. In this one - the first in a 3 book series, Irene works for The Library. She’s a bit of a spy or undercover librarian who travels to different universes to gather rare books to bring back to the Library.

On this assignment, she is given a young man as her apprentice and they meet a detective who helps them (reluctantly) with their task, to retrieve a stolen book and bring it back to the Library.

It took me a bit to get into this book, but I did enjoy the strong, independent character of Irene. She’s the one who figures things out and puts her life on the line. She’s not the typical damsel in distress. I enjoyed the ending and how it set up the next book.

I’ve already put the next two on my library list. I wouldn’t say it was my favorite magical book, but it was an enjoyable read with likable characters I’d like to read about again.

#tbt26in26
@gilioncdumas
#bouquetsandbooks
#booksandblooms

16

5

#tbr26in26 book 14

I purchased this book in 2023 and I am excited to cross it off the tbr list. I was excited to revisit Poirot and be thoroughly impressed with his use of the little grey cells and this one did not disappoint. I love that Christie gives you all the clues that you need to solve the mystery if you are only paying attention. Although, I picked up on some very important clues, I did not understand their true significance until Poirot explained everything at the end. Not only was this an interesting mystery, but you also got a glimpse of post war Britain at the same time. My only complaint was the ending -- those last few pages. If I ever reread this one , I will probably just skip the epilogue.

Swipe to see the stream right near my house. Fall is in the air.

#takenattheflood #agathachristie #herculepoirot #workingmywaythroughmychristies

39

5

Almost done with my #TBR26in26 list- this is 25! I really enjoyed some of the books I’ve found in my stacks this year. Don’t get me wrong - I’ve still purchased a ton of new books and gone to the library at least once each month. What can I say, reading calms me. Unless it’s a scary thriller.

I’m not a mom (by choice) so Zibby Owens has never been on my radar. She has edited a couple of books that start with “Moms Don’t Have Time To…” which is definitely not my genre. Her memoir caught my eye because it claims to cover “Love, Loss and Literature.”

She states up front that her first husband is not mentioned by choice out of respect for him, his family and their children. But, I found it so odd that she talks about having four children with the man and never mentions that she went out and left the kids home with…whatever his name was.

She does cover “love” as she meets someone later in life and tells@their love story which is fun.

She covers a lot of “loss” beginning with her best friend, Stacey, who was killed when her building was hit during 9/11 and she was never found. You really feel the grief and ache that must be universal for so many who lost loved ones that day (and those who died of injuries and illnesses after the fact).

Her coverage of “Literature” was not what I was expecting from someone who hosts a podcast about books “Mom’s Don’t Have Time to Read” as well as a media house and bookshop. During each event, she’ll write something like I read…with a list of books. Hmmmm. I thought she’d say how certain books were important for her or helped her through things.

At the end of the book is a complete list of books mentioned (a list, @gilioncdumas) with asterisks next to the ones that have been featured on her podcast with an author interview. You can visit the website bookendsmemoir.com for links and a printable reading list.

It wasn’t my favorite book, but it did make me want to look into her podcast and perhaps visit her bookshop next time I’m in Santa Monica.

Also pictured, one of my favorite bookends (piece of art) from White Oak Books in Vancouver, WA.

#bouquetsandbooks
#booksandblooms
#memoir

9

2

📚 What Remains – Brais Lamela
@braislamela

In the 1950s under the Franco regime the people of a Galician mountain Village, Negueira de Meniz, are forcibly resettled to make way for a hydro-electric project. They are displaced to a colony in the interior where they are trained and expected to transform into modern cattle farmers. The novel traces this experience through the eyes of our narrator, a graduate student studying this process drawing on documentary evidence and first person testimony, the voices of the past reaching into the present, a lost story gently and gradually being uncovered.

I treasured every moment I spent with this book. It was an immersive read that took me to a place of dreamlike contemplation. Moving between places and times while anchored in the present of the narrator, I loved the blurring of boundaries between place, time and genre.

I also enjoyed the discomfort and jarring effect of talking about exile and colonisation as an internal project, a disciplinary project of a right wing dictatorship on its own people, especially those who are seen as geographically marginal and political opponents.

I’ve delayed writing my thoughts because I knew whatever I said would be totally inadequate to this book and so it proves. Suffice it to say this is a hard recommend.

I’m so grateful to @bullaunpress for bringing this to us in English translation and I’m so pleased with myself for sneaking it into my basket when buying other books for family members last Christmas.

“he’s not a character Marianna. He was a professor at Columbia. All the people I write about are real. I haven’t made them up. I’m writing an academic thesis not a novel” 24

Third thesis: the trauma of exile comes not from forgetting but from remembering. All these things that were once intangible take on a weight, surface, depth.’ 34

Book No.5 of the #TBR26in26 Challenge & Book No.2 (Spain) of the European Reading Challenge both hosted by @gilioncdumas

22

3