#ThrowbackThursday. July 2025

I've been doing ThrowbackThursdays for a while but I noticed that I wrote a lot of reviews in a short time when I first started. So, I post more than one Throwback every week. These are my reviews from July 2015. 

Azevedo, Francisco "Once Upon a Time in Rio" (Portuguese: O Arroz de Palma) - 2008

A beautiful story of an immigrating family, a Portuguese couple that settles in Brazil, has their children and their work. Their son tells the story over a whole century. How his aunt collected the rice thrown at his parents' wedding and passed it on as a lucky charm.

Dickens, Charles "Little Dorrit" - 1857

Dickens' father spent some years in the Marshalsea prison which he used as the main setting for this novel. I think this fact and that he was forced to work for the family at a very young age, has made a huge impact on the author.

Eliade, Mircea "Marriage in Heaven" (Romanian: Nuntă în cer) - 1938

An interesting novel. Quite philosophical. Two men reminisce about their lives and their encounter with a special woman, both have different kind of fantasies, different kind of attitudes but both are unlucky in love and pour out their hearts to each other. 

The author was a Romanian historian of religion, philosopher, and fiction writer. His background certainly had an influence on his writing.

Lahiri, Jhumpa "Interpreter of Maladies" - 1999

This is a lovely collection of short stories, some of them even interlink, so it doesn't seem like there are a hundred small stories that you forget right away. Jhumpa Lahiri has created some wonderful characters that you won't forget that easily.

Oates, Joyce Carol "The Sacrifice" - 2015

A meticulous rendering of a crime, almost reads like a non-fiction account, you have to remember the whole time that this is fiction. Mind you, I was sure events like this have happened and then I read that this is a retelling of a story that has happened in 1987 to a 14 year old girl called Tawana Brawley. A book about racism and prejudice, terror and violence, poverty and exploitation, the role of religion and state.

Sendker, Jan-Philipp "Whispering Shadows" (German: Das Flüstern der Schatten) - 2007

This novel is so much more than a crime story, it gives an insight into today's China of which we still know far too little. The author reports about the grief of a man who has lost his son. And he talks about the slow healing after a heavy blow. The book is both philosophic and informative.

Eccleshare, Julia "1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up"

Eccleshare, Julia "1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up" - 2009

While reviewing a children's book, I found this list on Wikipedia: 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up. And discovered, that there is a book with all the descriptions.

I wish this would have existed when my kids were little but I think we still did quite well. I have listed all the books I can remember reading with my boys thoug I have not reviewe all of them. I also sorted them in chronological order rather than by age as on the list. This means, if you are looking for a book for a certain age-group, you better consult the original list. Some of those books are not for 3-year-olds. Or - even better, get the book.

Defoe, Daniel "Robinson Crusoe" - 1719

Defoe, Daniel "Gulliver's Travels" - 1726

Bürger, Gottfried August "The Adventures of Baron Münchhausen" (GE: Wunderbare Reisen zu Wasser und zu Lande – Feldzüge und lustige Abenteuer des Freiherrn von Münchhausen) - 1786

Lamb, Charles and Mary "Tales from Shakespeare" - 1807

Grimm, Jacob und Wilhelm "Grimm's Fairy Tales" - 1812
(Jorinda and Joringel. Eight Fairy Tales/GE: Jorinde und Joringel. Acht Märchen der Brüder Grimm) - 1812

Hawthorne, Nathaniel "The Scarlet Letter" - 1815

Moore, Clement Clarke "A Visit from St. Nicholas" ('Twas the Night Before Christmas) - 1822

Andersen, Hans Christian "Fairy Tales" - 1837

Dickens, Charles "A Christmas Carol" - 1843 

Dumas, Alexandre "The Three Musketeers" (F: Les Trois Mousquetaires) - 1844

Hoffmann, Heinrich "Struwwelpeter" (GE: Der Struwwelpeter) - 1845

Busch, Wilhelm "Max and Moritz" (GE: Max und Moritz) - 1865

Carroll, Lewis "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" - 1865

Alcott, Louisa May "Little Women Series" - 1868-86

Twain, Mark "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" - 1876

Spyri, Johanna "Heidi" (GE: Heidis Lehr- und Wanderjahre + Heidi kann brauchen, was es gelernt hat) - 1880/81

Stevenson, Robert Louis "Treasure Island" - 1881/82  

Twain, Mark "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" - 1884

Burnett, Frances Hodgson "Little Lord Fauntleroy" - 1886

Baum, L. Frank "The Wizard of Oz" - 1900 

Potter, Beatrix "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" - 1902

Molnár, Ferenc "The Paul Street Boys" (H: A Pál-utcai Fiúk) - 1907

Montgomery, L. M. "Anne of Green Gables" - 1908

Burnett, Frances Hodgson "The Secret Garden" - 1911

Milne, AA "Winnie the Pooh" - 1926

Hergé "Tintin" (F: Tintin) - 1929

Kästner, Erich "Emil and the Detectives" (GE: Emil und die Detektive) - 1929

Ingalls Wilder, Laura "Little House Books" - 1932-71

de Brunhoff, Jean "The Story of Babar" (F: Histoire de Babar le petit éléphant) - 1934

Leaf, Munro "The Story of Ferdinand" - 1936

Streatfeild, Noel "Ballet Shoes" - 1936

Tolkien, J.R.R. "The Hobbit" - 1937

Bemelmans, Ludwig "Madeline" - 1939

Rey, H.A. "Curious George" - 1941-1966 

Blyton, Edit "Five on a Treasure Island" - 1942

Forbes, Ester "Johnny Tremain" - 1943

Estes, Eleanor "The Hundred Dresses" - 1944

White, E.B. "Stuart Little" - 1945

Smith, Dodie "I Capture the Castle" - 1948

Lewis, C.S. "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" - 1950

Schulz, Charles M. "Peanuts" - 1950
(Advent with the Peanuts"/Advent mit den Peanuts) - 1979/80

Salinger, J.D. "Catcher in the Rye" - 1951

White, E.B. "Charlotte's Web" - 1952

Bradbury, Ray "Fahrenheit 451" - 1953

Saint-Exupéry, Antoine "The Little Prince" (F: Le Petit Prince) - 1953

Golding, William "Lord of the Flies" - 1954

Jansson, Tove "Moominsummer Madness" (FIN: Vaarallinen juhannus/Farlig midsommar) - 1954 

Zion, Gene "Harry, the Dirty Dog" - 1956

Awdry, Rev. Wilbert "Thomas the Tank Engine" - 1956-2011

LeSieg, Theo (=Dr. Seuss) "The Cat in the Hat" - 1957

Ryan, John "Captain Pugwash" - 1957

Bond, Michael "A Bear Called Paddington" - 1958

Goscinny, René "Little Nicholas" (F: Le Petit Nicolas) - 1959

Goscinny, René; Uderzo, Albert "Asterix the Gaul" (F: Astérix le Gaulois) - 1959

Eastman, P.D. "Go, Dog, Go!" - 1960

Lee, Harper "To Kill a Mockingbird" - 1960 

LeSieg, Theo (=Dr. Seuss) "Green Eggs and Ham" - 1960

Dahl, Roald "James and the Giant Peach" - 1961

Juster, Norton "The Phantom Tollbooth" - 1961

Rawls, Wilson "Where the Red Fern Grows" - 1961

Berenstain, Stan and Jan "The Berenstain Bears" - 1962ff.

L’Engle, Madeleine "A Wrinkle in Time" - 1962

Preußler, Otfried "The Robber Hotzenplotz" (GE: Der Räuber Hotzenplotz) - 1962

Bridwell, Norman "Clifford" - 1963-2015

Bruna, Dick "Miffy" (NL: Nijntje) - 1963

Peyo "The Black Smurfs" (F: Les Schtroumpfs Noir) - 1963

Sendak, Maurice "Where The Wild Things Are" - 1963

Brown, Jeff "Flat Stanley" - 1964

Dahl, Roald "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" - 1964

Silverstein, Shel "The Giving Tree" - 1964

Biro, Val "Gumdrop" - 1966

Lionni, Leo "Frederick" - 1967

Freeman, Don "Corduroy" - 1968

Kerr, Judith "The Tiger Who Came to Tea" - 1968

Scarry, Richard "What Do People Do All Day" - 1968 et al.

Carle, Eric "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" - 1969

O'Dell, Scott "Island of the Blue Dolphins" - 1969

Tison, Annette; Taylor, Talus "Barbapapa" - 1970

Hargreaves, Roger "Mr. Men" - 1971ff.

Adams, Richard "Watership Down" - 1972

Briggs, Raymond "Father Christmas" - 1973

Silverstein, Shel "Where the Sidewalk Ends - 1974

dePaola, Tomie "Strega Nona" - 1975

Smucker, Barbara "Underground to Canada" - 1977

Ahlberg, Janet & Allen "Each Peach Pear Plum" - 1978

Barrett, Judi "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" - 1978

Briggs, Raymond "The Snowman" - 1978

Ende, Michael "The Never Ending Story" (GE: Die unendliche Geschichte) - 1979

Hill, Eric "Where's Spot?" - 1980

Cunliffe, John Arthur "Postman Pat" - 1981

Browne, Anthony "Gorilla" - 1983

Dodd, Lynley "Hairy Maclairy from Donaldsons's Dairy" - 1983

Holabird, Catherine/Craig, Helen "Angelina Ballerina" - 1983

Pausewang, Gudrun "The Cloud" (GE: Die Wolke) - 1987
- "The Last Children" (GE: Die letzten Kinder von Schewenborn oder … sieht so unsere Zukunft aus?) - 1983

Numeroff, Laura "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" - 1985

Ahlberg, Janet & Allan "The Jolly Postman or Other People's Letters" - 1986

Jacques, Brian "Redwall" - 1986

MacLachlan, Patricia - Sarah, Plain & Tall Series - 1986-2004

Munsch, Robert "Love You Forever" - 1986

Murphy, Jill "Peace at Last" (Five Minutes Peace) - 1986

Paulsen, Gary "Hatchet" - 1986

Ihimaera, Witi "The Whale Rider" - 1987

King-Smith, Dick "The Hodgeheg" - 1987

Waddell, Martin "Can't You Sleep, Little Bear" - 1988

McKee, David "Elmer" - 1989

Rosen, Michael "We're Going on a Bear Hunt" - 1989

Scieszka, Jon; Smith, Lane "The True Story of the Three Little Pigs" - 1989

LeSieg, Theo (=Dr. Seuss) "Oh, the Places You'll Go" - 1990

Inkpen, Mick "Kipper" - 1991

Scieszka, Jon; Smith, Lane "The Stinky Cheeseman" - 1992

Buchholz, Quint "Sleep Well, Little Bear" (GE: Schlaf gut, kleiner Bär) - 1993

Cannon, Janell "Stellaluna" - 1993

McBratney, Sam "Guess How Much I Love You" - 1994 

Pullman, Philip "Northern Lights" - 1995

Hesse, Karen "Out of the Dust" - 1997

Rowling, J.K. "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" - 1997 

Sachar, Louis "Holes" - 1998

Curtis, Christopher Paul "Bud, Not Buddy" - 1999

Donaldson, Julia "The Gruffalo" - 1999

Colver, Eoin "Artemis Fowl" - 2001

Allende, Isabel "City of the Beasts" (E: La ciudad de las bestias) - 2002

Hartnett, Sonya "Thursday’s Child" - 2002

Zusak, Markus "The Messenger" - 2002

Funke, Cornelia "Inkheart" (GE: Tintenherz) - 2003 

Haddon, Mark "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time" - 2003

Cottrell Boyce, Frank "Millions" - 2004

Boyne, John "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas" - 2006

From the back cover:

"This is the best and most authoritative guide to classic and contemporary children’s literature today. It is the latest in the best-selling 1001 series, and its informative reviews are the key to differentiating the "must-read" books from all the rest in the realm of children’s books. Whether you are a parent seeking to instill a love of reading in your child, an educator or counselor looking for inspiration, or a young reader with a voracious appetite, this guide to the best writing for children and young adults covers the spectrum of children’s literature. It is organized by age group—from board books to YA novels and all the gradiations in between. Each entry features evaluations by a team of international critics complete with beautifully reproduced artwork from the featured title. The beloved classics are here, but the guide also takes a global perspective and includes the increasingly diverse contributions from African American and Latino authors and illustrators—not to mention important books from around the world."

Benedetti, Mario "The Truce"

Benedetti, Mario "The Truce" (Spanish: La Tregua) - 1960

Diana from Thoughts on Papyrus recommended this book to me. It's not very long, so I read it in between other things. Despite its brevity, it contains a lot, practically everything you need for a long life.

It's about a man nearing retirement. Well, much earlier than most people retire, but the situation is still realistic. He's wondering what he's going to do with the rest of his life. Then he falls in love with a co-worker, and she falls in love with him. After raising his three children alone after the untimely death of his wife, this is a new beginning for him.

In his diary, we can follow his thoughts. It also deals with religion; among other things, he says: "Frankly, I don't know if I believe in God. Sometimes I think that if God really existed, such doubts shouldn't upset him." I think this quote alone says a lot about the book, which I really enjoyed. It's a calm narrative that nevertheless has a lot to say.

From the back cover:

"'Perhaps that moment had been exceptional, but still, I felt alive. That pressure on my chest means being alive.' Forty-nine, with a kind face, no serious ailments (apart from varicose veins on his ankles), a good salary, and three moody children, widowed accountant Martín Santomé is about to retire. He assumes he'll take up gardening, or the guitar, or whatever retired people generally do. What he least expects is to fall passionately in love with his shy young employee Laura Avellaneda. As they embark upon an affair, happy and irresponsible, Martín begins to feel the weight of his quiet existence lift - until, out of nowhere, their joy is cut short. The intimate, heartbreaking diary of an ordinary man who is reborn when he falls in love one final time, this beloved Latin American novel has been translated into twenty languages and sold millions of copies worldwide."

Book Quotes

"There are things in life that we need to always have plenty of supplies, even if we will only use a small portion." Umberto Eco

Like books!!! You can never have enough books.

"I think that writing is very difficult, but so is any job carefully executed. What is a privilege, however, is to do a job to your own satisfaction." Gabriel García Márquez 

And he has always done a great job.

"I wanted to be a reader. I thought everything that needed to be written had already been written or would be. I only wrote the first book because I thought it wasn’t there, and I wanted to read it when I got through. I am a pretty good reader. I love it. It is what I do, really. So, if I can read it, that is the highest compliment I can think of." Toni Morrison 

That's as good a reason to write a book as any. I am glad she did.

Find more book quotes here.

#ThrowbackThursday. June 2015

I've been doing ThrowbackThursdays for a while but I noticed that I wrote a lot of reviews in a short time when I first started. So, I post more than one Throwback every week. These are my reviews from June 2015. 

Brontë, Charlotte "Villette" - 1853

The novel is not just about a young girl who lost her family and has to look after herself, not easy at a time where the only decent way for women to keep alive is to get married. 

The writing is very well done, the characters described perfectly. Apparently, Charlotte Brontë used a lot of material from her own life.

Brown, Eleanor "The Weird Sisters" - 2011

"The Weird Sisters" aren't called Weird at all, their last name is Andreas and their father is a professor of English literature. The title comes from the name of the three witches from Macbeth, the girls are named after different characters from different other Shakespeare plays, Rosalind (Rose) from "As you like it", Bianca (Bean) from "The Taming of the Shrew" and Cordelia (Cordy) from "King Lear". 

The girls are all as different as the plays, they all have their own ways of doing things, their own dreams, their own problems. They come together after many years apart to help their mother who suffers from cancer.

Burton, Jessie "The Miniaturist" - 2014

Fascinating story, gripping story. 

A novel about a family in the 17th century, a rich family in Amsterdam, a poor girl from the countryside who marries into the rich family.

But that is not the major part of the story, the book is full of secrets.

The author was inspired by the doll's house of a real life Petronella Oortman, a real life doll's house that can be visited in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Frisch, Max "The Arsonists" (aka "The Firebugs" or "The Fire Raisers: A Morality Without A Moral, With An Afterpiece") (German: Biedermann und die Brandstifter) - 1958

Max Frisch is a satirical, dark writer. He shows this very well in this play.

Gottlieb Biedermann is a rich person who is upset that some arsonists are in town who start living in people's houses while intending to burn them down.

Mak, Geert "In Europe. Travels through the twentieth century" (Dutch: In Europa: Reizen door de twintigste eeuw) - 2004

Geert Mak is an excellent Dutch journalist who has written several non-fiction books about life in general and in particular in this part of the world.

With this work he has excelled himself. He travels through Europe (not just in the book but also in real life) and describes every decade through the country he is just visiting. Some of them he has to visit several times, of course.

Moore, Michael "Stupid White Men" - 2001

Some of the stuff in this book is so unbelievable, you wonder why people still vote for that party. And, even worse, they are the ones who write the most negative stuff about others.

This book has kept what it promised. It gives you a good view over what is (was) going on in the so-called Land of the Free, and not just what you hear from friends who like to overshare their hate for the other party on Facebook.

Ephron, Nora "Crazy Salad"

Ephron, Nora "Crazy Salad: Some Things About Women" - 1975

I absolutely love Nora Ephron. Shes was a fantastic author as well as a fantastic human being. Everything she says is close to my heart and I felt nodding along, no matter what I was reading about. If you ever felt like the odd one out, as if nothing you did would be acknowledged by others and they would always find a new excuse why, this is the book for you.

Of course, this book was written in the Seventies, at a time where we had no internet and not as much information about what was going on across the pond as it is now. I remember a game I played with some American friends  about thirty years ago where we had to guess celebrities and I had never heard of Ruth Bader Ginsberg. She just wasn't in our news until then. Neither were many of the women in Nora Ephron's book, some of them I read about in the meantime (Gloria Steinem, for example) but others I had never heard about. So, I had a lot of extra reading to do but that was alright because it gave me a larger insight into the US of A of the time.

So, whether you are American or not, if you are a fan of "When Harry Met Sally", you would want to read this.

Book Description:

"The classic Crazy Salad by screenwriting legend and novelist Nora Ephron, is an extremely funny, deceptively light look at a generation of women (and men) who helped shape the way we live now. In this distinctive, engaging, and simply hilarious view of a period of great upheaval in America, Ephron turns her keen eye and wonderful sense of humor to the media, politics, beauty products, and women's bodies. In the famous A Few Words About Breasts, for example, she tells us: 'If I had had them, I would have been a completely different person. I honestly believe that.' Ephron brings her sharp pen to bear on the notable women of the time, and to a series of events ranging from Watergate to the Pillsbury Bake-Off. When it first appeared in 1975, Crazy Salad helped to illuminate a new American era - and helped us to laugh at our times and ourselves. This new edition will delight a fresh generation of readers."

Dostoevsky, Fyodor "A Little Hero"

Dostoevsky, Fyodor "A Little Hero" (Russian: Маленький герой/Malen'kiy geroy) - 1857

Novel in Nine Letters - 1847
A Gentle Creature - 1876
A Little Hero - 1849

This booklet consists of three short stories, but I liked the "Novel in Nine Letters" the best. It's the correspondence between two men who somehow always manage to miss each other. 

Dostoevsky said of this: "When I was penniless the other day, I visited Nekrasov. While I was sitting with him, the idea came to me to write a novel in nine letters. When I returned home, I finished the novel in one night. In the morning, I brought the manuscript to Nekrasov and received 125 rubles for it."

In this story, you can tell that Pyotr Ivanych wants something from Ivan Petrovich and vice versa. One excuse for why the meeting doesn't take place follows another. Very funny.

I had already read "The Gentle One" in another collection. (see here) Also an interesting story about the beginning and end of a relationship and how it all came about.

I found the actual story, or rather the one that adorns the title, rather boring. An eleven-year-old falls in love with his cousin, and the "gentlewomen" of society make this the subject of their amusement, making fun of him, and embarrassing him. Nevertheless, it's a Dostoyevsky story and therefore worth reading in its own right.

From the back cover:

"At that time I was nearly eleven, I had been sent in July to spend the holiday in a village near Moscow with a relation of mine called T., whose house was full of guests, fifty, or perhaps more.... I don't remember, I didn't count. The house was full of noise and gaiety. It seemed as though it were a continual holiday, which would never end. It seemed as though our host had taken a vow to squander all his vast fortune as rapidly as possible, and he did indeed succeed, not long ago, in justifying this surmise, that is, in making a clean sweep of it all to the last stick."