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.

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.

* * *

This week’s topic is Mysterious Houses.

As I said last week, I'm not a big fantasy reader. So, moy 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! 📖

📚 📚 📚

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."

Rawls, Wilson "Where the Red Fern Grows"

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

My youngest son read this in 3rd grade and it was his favourite book for ages.

So, when the 1961 Club read somehow went wrong for me (see here, my book was published in 1962), I decided to pick another one from that year. So this is my official book for our 1961 challenge.

I asked my son whether he could remember why he loved this book so much. We are neither American nor big animal lovers nor did we live in the middle of nowhere. He said that it's a long time since he read it (of course, it must have been more than 20 years ago) and that he just remembers it being a nice story.

I guess you have to be an eight to ten year old boy to really love that story. It was well written but I think I was a little too old for that.

But it deserves to be a classic children's book, emphasis on children.

Book Description:

"For fans of Old Yeller and Shiloh, Where the Red Fern Grows is a beloved classic that captures the powerful bond between man and man’s best friend. This special edition includes new material, including a note to readers from Newbery Medal winner and Printz Honor winner Clare Vanderpool, a letter from Wilson Rawls to aspiring writers, original jacket artwork, and more.

Billy has long dreamt of owning not one, but two dogs. So when he’s finally able to save up enough money for two pups to call his own—Old Dan and Little Ann—he’s ecstatic. It’s true that times are tough, but together they’ll roam the hills of the Ozarks.

Soon Billy and his hounds become the finest hunting team in the valley. Stories of their great achievements spread throughout the region, and the combination of Old Dan’s brawn, Little Ann’s brains, and Billy’s sheer will seems unbeatable. But tragedy awaits these determined hunters—now friends—and Billy learns that hope can grow out of despair."

See my other reads for this challenge here.

#ThrowbackThursday. May 2016

 

Here are my #ThrowbackThursday reviews from May 2016.

Aboulela, Leila "The Kindness of Enemies" - 2015
Such an interesting book. A lot about history and also a lot about current politics. A woman with a Russian mother and Sudanese father who lives in Scotland and researches the life of a 19th century Muslim leader. What's not to like?

Mercier, Pascal "Perlmann's Silence" (GE: Perlmanns Schweigen) - 1995 

The author has a special way of telling a story, a quiet, almost dreamy way. I think the author is one of the best ones German language writers at the moment.

After having lost his wife, Philipp Perlman hosts a linguistics conference in Italy. While there, he reflects on his life and notices that he has lost all his willpower to go on. We follow him in his endeavour to find a reason for getting out of his predicament.

Mitchell, David "Cloud Atlas" - 2004
An interesting book. Quite different from anything I've read before. It's almost like several short stories in one book, only they do belong to each other.

Oates, Joyce Carol "The Man Without a Shadow" - 2016   
This story captivates you from the first page and doesn't release you until the last page has been turned. We get to learn the characters all so well, their thoughts, their hopes, their ambitions, their wishes for the future. Only, that for one of them in this novel there is no real future, it always ends after seven minutes. One of the two main characters suffers from amnesia, the other one is a scientist who studies his brain in particular and thereby hopes to find more insight into the human brain in general.

Robertson, Adele Crockett "The Orchard: A Memoir" - 1995

A heartfelt memoir by a woman who was a good and kind person, who wanted the best for everybody. After her father died, she struggled to keep up his apple farm, more or less on her own. What a tough life, quite hard work, even for a man it would have been hard.