Top 5 Tuesday ~ Secret Societies

Top Five Tuesday was originally created by Shanah @ Bionic Book Worm, but is now hosted by Meeghan @ Meeghan Reads. To participate, link your post back to Meeghan’s blog or leave a comment on her weekly post. I found this on Davida's Page @ The Chocolate Lady.

And here is a list of all the topics for the rest of the year.

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This week’s topic is Secret Societies.

Like the last two weeks, this doesn't fit my usual genres, but I have read a few books with the word "Secret" in the title. So I'm going with that twist.
All of the books are fantastic but very different. And they span a lot of different countries and cultures, Australia, China, Syria and the USA.

Grenville, Kate "The Secret River" - 2005

Schami, Rafik "The Calligrapher’s Secret" (GE: Das Geheimnis des Kalligraphen) - 2008

See, Lisa "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" - 2005

Thomson, Mike "Syria's Secret Library: The True Story of How a Besieged Syrian Town Found Hope" - 2018

Wells, Rebecca "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood" - 1996 

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📖 Happy Reading! 📖

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Grann, David "The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder" - 2023

Grann, David "The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder" - 2023

What an interesting story. Not just because of what happened with this ship in particular but about life on a ship at the time. I have read a few books about voyages on a boat (e.g. Master and Commander) and they are always interesting. This one is about life during a war on a ship, a shipwreck, a mutiny. This is the background to many novels we read from that time where there are sailors, I think especially about stories by Jane Austen whose brothers were sailors and who included seafaring men as well as the clergy (which represented her father and a brother) in most of her books. This book adds to those stories.

So, if you want to know more about the life on those vessels, this is the book for you.

Oh, did I mention that this is based on a true story?

Book Description:

"A page-turning story of shipwreck, survival, and savagery, culminating in a court martial that reveals a shocking truth. The powerful narrative reveals the deeper meaning of the events on the Wager, showing that it was not only the captain and crew who ended up on trial, but the very idea of empire.

On January 28, 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. They were survivors of His Majesty's Ship the Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain. While the Wager had been chasing a Spanish treasure-filled galleon known as 'the prize of all the oceans,' it had wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia. The men, after being marooned for months and facing starvation, built the flimsy craft and sailed for more than a hundred days, traversing nearly 3,000 miles of storm-wracked seas. They were greeted as heroes.

But then . . . six months later, another, even more decrepit craft landed on the coast of Chile. This boat contained just three castaways, and they told a very different story. The thirty sailors who landed in Brazil were not heroes - they were mutineers. The first group responded with countercharges of their own, of a tyrannical and murderous senior officer and his henchmen. It became clear that while stranded on the island the crew had fallen into anarchy, with warring factions fighting for dominion over the barren wilderness. As accusations of treachery and murder flew, the Admiralty convened a court martial to determine who was telling the truth. The stakes were life-and-death--for whomever the court found guilty could hang.

The Wager is a grand tale of human behavior at the extremes told by one of our greatest nonfiction writers. Grann's recreation of the hidden world on a British warship rivals the work of Patrick O'Brian, his portrayal of the castaways' desperate straits stands up to the classics of survival writing such as The Endurance, and his account of the court martial has the savvy of a Scott Turow thriller. As always with Grann's work, the incredible twists of the narrative hold the reader spellbound."

Book Quotes

  

"One is taught to refrain from irony, because mankind does tend to take it literally." Zuleika Dobson

True, unfortunately, those with no intelligence often have no sence of humour or the other way around.

"Of what use is it to a person to have learned to read and write, if he leaves the thinking to others?" Ernst R. Hauschka

See the quote above. If people would read more, they could think better.

"Books: a sanctuary for my heart." Kim Michele Richardson, The Mountains We Call Home

And of mine and probably of everyone who reads this blog.

Find more book quotes here.

The Classics Club: The Classics Spin #44

"Words and Peace" is a blog I've been following for a couple of years and I have always found some interesting new (or old) books there, especially French ones.

On her page, I found the posts by "The Classics Club" asking us to create a post, this time before next Sunday 17^th May 2026, and list our choice of any twenty books that remain "to be read" on our Classics Club list. They'll then post a number from 1 through 20 and we have time until Sunday 7^th July 2026 to read it.

This time, I only read the one book from my old list (Classics Spin #43) (Fathers and Sons). I do want to concentrate on a couple of books in the near future, so I have listed only ten books and repeated them. The books are all in chronological order.

1. Dumas, Alexandre fils "Camille: The Lady of the Camellias" (La Dame aux Camélias) - 1848
2. Conrad, Joseph "Victory: An Island Tale" - 1915
3. Hamilton, Cicely "William - an Englishman" - 1920
4. Hesse, Hermann "Wir nehmen die Welt nur zu ernst" [We just take the world too seriously] - 1928
5. Hemingway, Ernest "A Farewell to Arms" - 1929
6. Meigs, Cornelia "Invincible Louisa" - 1933
7. Krleža, Miroslav "On the Edge of Reason" (Na rubu pameti) - 1938
8. Némirovsky, Irène "All Our Wordly Goods" (Les biens de ce monde) - 1941
9. Cela, Camilo José "The Hive" (La colmina) - 1951
10. Plaidy, Jean "The Sixth Wife: The Story of Katharine Parr" - 1953
11. Dumas, Alexandre fils "Camille: The Lady of the Camellias" (La Dame aux Camélias) - 1848
12. Conrad, Joseph "Victory: An Island Tale" - 1915
13. Hamilton, Cicely "William - an Englishman" - 1920
14. Hesse, Hermann "Wir nehmen die Welt nur zu ernst" [We just take the world too seriously] - 1928
15. Hemingway, Ernest "A Farewell to Arms" - 1929
16. Meigs, Cornelia "Invincible Louisa" - 1933
17. Krleža, Miroslav "On the Edge of Reason" (Na rubu pameti) - 1938
18. Némirovsky, Irène "All Our Wordly Goods" (Les biens de ce monde) - 1941
19. Cela, Camilo José "The Hive" (La colmina) - 1951
20. Plaidy, Jean "The Sixth Wife: The Story of Katharine Parr" - 1953

This is a great idea for all of us who want to read more classics. Go ahead, get your own list. I can't wait to see what I get to read this time.

This time, we received #9:
Cela, Camilo José "The Hive" (La colmina) - 1951

Here are all the books on my original Classics Club list.

And here is a list of all the books I read with the Classics Spin.

Top 5 Tuesday ~ on a Wednesday ~ Mysterious Houses

Top Five Tuesday was originally created by Shanah @ Bionic Book Worm, but is now hosted by Meeghan @ Meeghan Reads. To participate, link your post back to Meeghan’s blog or leave a comment on her weekly post. I found this on Davida's Page @ The Chocolate Lady.

And here is a list of all the topics for the rest of the year.

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This week’s topic is Mysterious Houses.

As I said last week, I'm not a big fantasy reader. So, my mysterious houses might not be the same as those of other bloggers. Northanger Abbey tells us of an old house and a family with (maybe) secrets. Jonathan Strange ... well, we have two magicians here. North Woods is indeed a house with a long history and lots of stories. And The Clockmaker's Daughter makes the house mysterious. The most mysterious one is maybe The Chibineko Kitchen where we can get connected to the dead.

Austen, Jane "Northanger Abbey" - 1818 (The Motherhood and Jane Austen) 

Clarke, Susanna "Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell" - 2004

Mason, Daniel "North Woods" - 2023

Morton, Kate "The Clockmaker's Daughter" - 2018

Takahashi, Yuta "The Chibineko Kitchen" (J: ちびねこ亭の思い出ごはん 黒猫と初恋サンドイッチ/Chibinekoteino omoidegohan kuronekoto hatsukoisandoitchi) - 2020

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📖 Happy Reading! 📖

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Top Ten Tuesday ~ May Flowers

"Top Ten Tuesday" is an original feature/weekly meme created on the blog "The Broke and the Bookish". It was created because they are particularly fond of lists. It is now hosted by Jana from That Artsy Reader Girl.

Since I am just as fond of them as they are, I jump at the chance to share my lists with them! Have a look at their page, there are lots of other bloggers who share their lists here.

This week's topic is May Flowers. 

I found quite a few books about tulips which shows, how long I lived in the Netherlands. And two with the name of my favourite flower, peonies, the rest of the stories feature gardens.

Dash, Mike "Tulipomania: The Story of the World's Most Coveted Flower and the Extraordinary Passions It Aroused" - 2000

Laker, Rosalind "The Golden Tulip" - 1989

Marini, Lorenzo "The Man of the Tulips" (IT: L'uomo dei tulipani) - 2002

Moggach, Deborah "Tulip Fever" - 1999 

Pavord, Anna "The Tulip" - 2004

Buck, Pearl S. "Peony" - 1948

See, Lisa "Peony in Love" - 2007

Burnett, Frances Hodgson "The Secret Garden" - 1911

Drinkwater, Carol "The Olive Farm" - 2001

Turner, Nancy E. "The Star Garden" (Sarah Agnes Prine Trilogy #3) - 2017 

📚Happy Reading 📚

McEwan, Ian "Lessons"

McEwan, Ian "Lessons" - 2022

This is the second book by Ian McEwan that I've started. I finished the first one, but I didn't like it at all. I stopped reading this one after a third of the way (150 pages); it was simply too boring, bloated, rambling, and tedious. I just can't find the right word to express how much this book bored me.

It could have been a good book in principle. But the author simply fails to engage the reader. The writing style is incredibly stiff, the whole approach utterly bland and outdated. The protagonist's life isn't just boring; you want to shake him. The eternal victim—what have others always done to me…

And this is supposed to be his masterpiece?

This will definitely be my last book by Ian McEwan. No matter what anyone else tells me, I won't touch another one. There are so many good books and outstanding writers out there.

Book Description:

"When the world is still counting the cost of the Second World War and the Iron Curtain has closed, eleven-year-old Roland Baines's life is turned upside down. 2,000 miles from his mother's protective love, stranded at an unusual boarding school, his vulnerability attracts piano teacher Miss Miriam Cornell, leaving scars as well as a memory of love that will never fade.

Now, when his wife vanishes, leaving him alone with his tiny son, Roland is forced to confront the reality of his restless existence. As the radiation from Chernobyl spreads across Europe, he begins a search for answers that looks deep into his family history and will last for the rest of his life.

From the Suez Crisis to the Cuban Missile Crisis, the fall of the Berlin Wall to the current pandemic and climate change, Roland sometimes rides with the tide of history, but more often struggles against it. Haunted by lost opportunities, he seeks solace through every possible means - music, literature, friends, sex, politics and, finally, love cut tragically short, then love ultimately redeemed. His journey raises important questions for us all. Can we take full charge of the course of our lives without damage to others? How do global events beyond our control shape our lives and our memories? And what can we really learn from the traumas of the past?

Epic, mesmerising and deeply humane, Lessons is a chronicle for our times - a powerful meditation on history and humanity through the prism of one man's lifetime."