The Classics Club: The Classics Spin #45

 

"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 16^th August 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 4^th October 2026 to read it.

This time, I only read the one book from my old list (Classics Spin #44) (The Hive). 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. Zweig, Stefan "The Royal Game/Chess" (Schachnovelle) - 1942
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. Zweig, Stefan "The Royal Game/Chess" (Schachnovelle) - 1942
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.

Spell the Month in Books ~ August 2026

Reviews from the Stacks

I found this on one of the blogs I follow, Books are the New Black who found it at One Book More. It was originally created by Reviews from the Stacks, and the idea is to spell the month using the first letter of book titles.

August: Foreign Books

We can choose our own topics now. I was trying to get some inspiration and since I often read books by foreign authors (either in their language, or in mine, or in English), this was my idea. I use the first letter in the original title. And I was happy when I found six different languages.

AUGUST

A

Nietzsche, Friedrich "Thus spoke Zarathustra. A Book for All and None" (GE: Also sprach Zarathustra. Ein Buch für Alle und Keinen) - 1883/85

Nietzsche was a German philosopher of the late 19th century. So this is a philosophical book. The title itself is mere poetry. Even for non-German speakers, it sounds magical, or at least it should.

U

Petterson, Per "Out Stealing Horses" (NO: Ut og stjæle hester) - 2003
 A man reflects on his life. After his wife dies, a man goes back to a place he spent a summer in his youth. He is coming to terms with so many events in his life. Death, divorce, tragedies, growing up, growing old.

G

Toptaş, Hasan Ali "The Shadowless" (TR: Gölgesizler) - 1995

On the back of my book the author is described as an oriental Kafka enriched with Islamic mystic. I don't remember liking Kafka much when I had to read him in school but I do agree with the description and like the author anyway.

I would describe this novel as a mixture between fantasy and the historical description of life in Turkey. 

U

Murakami, Haruki "Kafka on the Shore" (J: 海辺のカフカ Umibe no Kafuka) - 2004
I had no idea this book was kind of a fantasy or at least magic realism story. The protagonist runs away from home in order to get away from everything and starts a new life in a library. A weird book but quite enjoyable.

S

Abdolah, Kader "My Father’s Notebook" (NL: Spijkerschrift) - 2000

The author manages to transport us to the country of his birth, not just in place but also in time. He tells us about the changes during the decades that he lived there.

T

Andersson, Per J. "From the Swede who took the train and saw the world with different eyes" (aka Take the train: on the track through history, present and future) (SW: Ta tåget: på spåret genom historien, samtiden och framtiden) - 2019

It thought this was a description of the author's travels. And it is, in a way. But it was more a description of his time on the train in order to get to the places rather than about the places itself.

It starts by the author travelling by train with his parents as a little child. It includes a description of his grandparents who worked for the train company in Sweden. Then he goes on how he travelled as a teenager by interrail and later with his children when they reached that age. 

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Happy Reading!

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#ThrowbackThursday. August 2026

These are my ThrowbackThursday reviews from August 2016. 

Alexievich, Svetlana "Second Hand Time. The Last of the Sovjets" (Russian: Время секонд хэнд = Vremja sekond khend) - 2013

The author wrote down her interviews with former citizens of the Soviet Union, people who liked the new system, people who disliked it, people who loved it, people who hated it. She wrote down their life stories and you can understand every single one of them. This is what makes politics so hard, trying to please everyone is not possible, there is always someone who disagrees with a certain decision.

Brownstein, Carrie "Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl" - 2015

I never heard of Carrie Brownstein or Sleater-Kinney in my life. It was a brilliant read. I loved her voice, her capability of bringing over the story. 

Weir, Andy "Project Hail Mary" - 2021

Weir, Andy "Project Hail Mary" - 2021

I learned with this book that there is such a thing as hard science fiction. *) I am not a sci-fi fan but I do like this kind of description. And it is true, this one definitely falls under that category. All his descriptions are logical. The author even manages to describe physical explanations in a way that I understand it. Physics was not my favourite subject at school and I have not expanded the knowledge I gained there, so I learned a lot from this book.

But even if you're not into those explanations at all, you can just enjoy the story as it is.

And enjoy I did it. 

I had loved The Martian and therefore bought this novel a while ago. But with my large TBR pile, it took me a while to tackle this. I had talked to my son about The Martian and given my copy to him. He liked it and then mentioned that he would like this one for his upcoming birthday. Since I already had it, I told him not to worry, I'd read this one and then he would get my copy.

I am glad I did. I thoroughly enjoyed the excursion, the attempt to save the Earth. But this book is also full of humour and compassion. 

I can't tell too much about the content because it would involve too many spoilers but ask me, if you have any questions.

*) Hard science fiction is a category of science fiction characterized by concern for scientific accuracy and logic. (Wikipedia)

Book Description:

"Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish.

Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.

All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.

His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery—and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.

And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he’s got to do it all alone.

Or does he?"

Anonymous Comments

Created by WordArt 

Dear Blogging Friends,

I am sorry I had to revert not to allow various comments anymore.

Blogger only allows me to not permit "Anyone (including anonymous)" to comment on my blog.

I changed that for a week or two but I had some nasty comments almost every day. Someone wants me to die (always writes "Die! Die! Die!" over several pages). Probably someone doesn't like my (liberal) political views and who thinks anyone who is compassionate to refugees and people from other countries is too woke. I don't even post very political articles, just say my mind when it gets to this. 

Welcome! I love hearing from readers, but please keep the conversation respectful. 

Six Degrees of Separation ~ Land

Marrie O'Farrell 

"Land"

#6Degrees of Separation:

from Land (Goodreads) to A Promised Land

#6Degrees is a monthly link-up hosted by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. I love the idea. Thank you, Kate. See more about this challenge, its history, further books and how I found this here. 

I read "Hamnet" by Maggie O'Farrell a while ago but hadn't heard of this one. It only just appeared in paperback and I have made myself promise not to buy too many expensive books in the near future, I have too many on my TBR pile already. Which means, as so often, I have not read this book.

So, here is the description:

"'You will never understand how the land remembers, how deep the roots grow'

A spellbinding story of separation, longing, recovery and survival as a family makes a new home in the aftermath of tragedy.

On a windswept peninsula stretching out into the Atlantic, Tomás and his reluctant son, Liam, are working for the great Ordnance Survey project to map the whole of Ireland. The year is 1865, and in a country not long since ravaged and emptied by the Great Hunger, the task is not an easy one. Tomás, however, is determined that his maps will be a record of the disaster.

The British soldiers in charge are due to arrive any day, expecting the work to be completed, but Tomás is sent off course by an unsettling encounter in a copse. His life, and those of his family, will never be the same again. Liam is terrified by the sudden change in his taciturn father. What was it that caused such cracks to open in Tomás and how is Liam, aged only ten, going to finish the mapping, and get them both home?

Land is a story of buried treasure, overlapping lives, ancient woodland, persistent ghosts, a particularly loyal dog, and how, when it comes to both land and history, nothing ever goes away."

I decided to go with the title but not move to another word but look for books that I read that have the word Land in its title.

Agus, Milena "From the Land of the Moon" (IT: Mal di Pietre) - 2006

Grossman, David "To the End of the Land" (Hebr.: אשה בורחת מבשורה/Isha Nimletet Mi'Bshora) - 2008 

Pears, Tim "In a Land of Plenty" - 1977

Carter, Jimmy "We Can Have Peace In The Holy Land. A Plan That Will Work" - 2008

Hochschild, Arlie Russell "Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right" - 2016

Obama, Barack "A Promised Land" - 2020

The connection between the first and the last book? Easy again, the titles all contain the word LAND.

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Happy August!

 Happy August to all my Friends and Readers
New Calendar picture with this
beautiful watercolour painting by Hanka Koebsch
"Sommer auf Bornholm"
"Summer on Bornholm"

Hanka and Frank say to this picture:

"We discovered a beautiful Danish island: Bornholm. Just a few hours by ferry, and we find ourselves in a Scandinavian paradise. Granite cliffs, archipelago landscapes, turquoise waters, and fine sandy beaches—it has it all." 
"Wir haben eine wunderschöne dänische Insel entdeckt: Bornholm. Nur wenige Stunden mit der Fähre und wir befinden uns in einem skandinavischen Paradies. Granitfelsen, Schärenlandschaften, türkisblaues Meer und feine Sandstrände - alles ist möglich."

I really envy Hanka and Frank to be so close to Scandinavia, one of my favourite parts of this world. But as long as I can't go, I can always enjoy the pictures those two wonderful artists paint.

Read more on their website here. *

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The month started with a holiday in Dunkirk. We chose the hottest month of the year (well, so far) but it was still nice, our son had found a great place to stay just at the seaside.

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Other than that, not a good month. We buried my brother, then his wife was diagnosed with cancer, his mother-in-law had a stroke and then my other brother's mother-in-law died. I am glad this month is over. What does D:Ream say: 

"Things can only get better!"

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We still managed to see some friends, play some games and have a barbecue in between. That was some comfort.

And same as last year, we went to that Irish-Scottish folk festival near Bremen where we saw three different acts. It was lovely but also quite stressful sitting on those wooden benches for six hours. Still, lots of lovely music, different from last year, though they all played Molly Malone. ;) We meant to take my sister-in-law but she was too sick, unfortunately.

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New German expression of the month?

"Fremdschämen" (literally strange and ashamed)
The feeling of shame on someone else's behalf

I know we all know the feeling but do you have a word for that?

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I have read a few books last month (as usual) but there is only one that I might recommend to everybody: Jeeves and the Wedding Bells by Sebastian Faulks. Written in the good old P.G. Wodehouse style, a must for all his fans.

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* You can also have a look under my labels Artist: Frank Koebsch and Artist: Hanka Koebsch where you can find all my posts about the two artists. 

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🌊🌞 I wish you all a very Happy August! 🌞🌊