Welcome to this week’s blog. Here’s a roundup of your comments and photos from last week, with writers competing for a reader’s mental space and loads on War and Peace, including bets and online resources for those of you who are attempting to read it.

VelmaNebraska has just finished reading Tom Rob Smith’s Child 44:

[It] struck me as tremendously well-written and evocative but finally just too deliberately positioned as a blockbuster. The opening chapters, moving from starvation to Stalinism, were like brutal fairytale fragments – difficult to chew through – before settling down into a relatively straightforward “on the trail of a serial killer” vibe. I won’t give away the ending, except to say that it was altogether too psychologically pat for my tastes, which was rather a shame.

Connected, in a way, was Forced Entertainment’s precise staged reading of Ágota Kristóf’s The Notebook, which I saw last night. For over two hours, with only two chairs and scripts in hand, Richard Lowdon and Robin Arthur, often speaking in dispassionate unison, embody young twins who survive the second world war by creating their own moral code and shared language. It’s been touring for a couple years now and is really quite astounding.

lljones has finished My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout:

Oh, my!

Elizabeth Strout and Ann Patchett are competing for my heart these days, mano a mano. One topples the other off the pinnacle with every latest book. Patchett will get her chance again, later this year, but for now it’s Strout! Strout! Strout! From a Guardian review:

Lucy Barton has been in hospital for three weeks with an undiagnosed illness after having her appendix removed. She is separated from her husband and two daughters, aged five and six, whom she misses desperately. Unexpectedly, her mother, from whom she has been estranged for years, arrives at her bedside.

Just a few pages in, I paused and thought “Hmmm. This is a different narrative voice than any I’ve heard from Strout before. It is simpler, restrained.” Before long, though, both the voice and the story structure take a few turns, feeling bolder and more extempore, and I realized that Strout is once again waving her magic wand at me. She has such a sure hand; always in control, never a hint of hesitation. I am in awe of her.

This book is heartbreaking (in the best way) and wise. It will haunt me for a long time.

Several TLSers are attempting to read War and Peace (and quite a few adored the recent TV adaptation):

My mum said she wanted to reread War and Peace (not recalling it too well, and having skimmed the war sections...), so I challenged her to race me through it (I’ve never read it). We both read fast anyway, so it shouldn’t result in rushing ... bet she cheats and skims the war bits again, though. –MadChinchillaLady

Reading War and Peace one chapter a day this year – it’s almost as if Tolstoy wanted this, the book consists of 365 short chapters.
I tried it twice before and failed when I got to seemingly endless battle chapters. This time, I am following the troops on google earth.
The only drawback: I have to wait watching the TV version until next year. –kakaokuchen

I’m trying to do something similar, though I hadn’t thought of a chapter a day. I was working on 10-20 pages at a time. I’ve given up before – once in my 20s, and once in my 30s – but I think I’ll manage to read through this time because I’m enjoying even the battle/war scenes. –Jenny Bhatt

Interesting links about books and reading

Since it seems to be one of the books of the month on TLS, we thought we would collect some of the great War and Peace links you have been sharing:

• Which translation of “War and Peace” should I read? “Here’s a terrific blog post by someone who’s actually read ALL 12 English translations of War and Peace. He favors the Maude translation , it seems.”–Jenny Bhatt
• “I have been enjoying reading the shmoop.com summary alongside because it’s rather funny and it’s helping me keep the characters straight.”–Jenny Bhat
• “I find this family tree helps getting my head round the endless list of characters.”–kakaokuchen
• “Also enjoyed Philip Hensher’s 10 Things You Need to Know article on the book – right here on this site.”–Jenny Bhat

And now for other literary links:

• The Dark Fiction of an Ex-Mormon Writer: Brian Evenson left the Mormon Church sixteen years ago, but he continues to look back, writing tales of the macabre that interrogate the language of religious belief.
• 10 Great Vanishings in Literature: Idra Novey, author of Ways to Disappear, lists the landmark books that revolve around a vanishing for Electric Literature.
  
• Bolaño’s Translator on the Pressure of Working with Great Male Novelists: Natasha Wimmer, one of the foremost Spanish-language literary translators working today, on why her next book will be one written by a woman. In Broadly.
• How To Write An Autobiographical Novel: A step-by-step guide to creating fiction from your own experiences, by Alexander Chee for Buzzfeed.

If you would like to share a photo of the book you are reading, or film your own book review, please do. Click the blue button on this page to share your video or image. I’ll include some of your posts in next week’s blog.

If you’re on Instagram and a book lover, chances are you’re already sharing beautiful pictures of books you are reading,“shelfies” or all kinds of still lifes with books as protagonists. Now, you can share your reads with us on the mobile photography platform – simply tag your pictures there with #GuardianBooks, and we’ll include a selection here.

And, as always, if you have any suggestions for topics you’d like to see us covering beyond TLS, do let us know.