Némirovsky, Irène "All Our Wordly Goods"

Némirovsky, Irène "All Our Wordly Goods" (French: Les Biens de ce monde) - 1941

The Classicics Spin chose #18 from our list this month. This was my book.

I have read two books by Irène Némirovsky before (Suite Française and The Prey) which I both quite liked. So, I was looking forward to this one.

And I was not disappointed. "All Our Wordly Goods" was even better than the two others, probably because she finished it before she was killed.

The story starts in WWI and lasts until 1940. We live through two words, well, at least the beginning of the second one. But we see them as the ordinary people had to live them, not the soldiers. Yes, the men get taken away to fight at the front but their stories are only secondary. We see what the old people, the women and children have to go through.

A fascinating, captivating story. The characters are all very vivid.

From the back cover:

"In haunting ways, this gorgeous novel prefigures Irène Némirovsky’s masterpiece Suite Française.

Set in France between 1910 and 1940 and first published in France in 1947, five years after the author’s death, All Our Worldly Goods is a gripping story of war, family life and star-crossed lovers. Pierre and Agnes marry for love against the wishes of his parents and his grandfather, the tyrannical family patriarch. Their marriage provokes a family feud that cascades down the generations. This brilliant novel is full of drama, heartbreak, and the telling observations that have made Némirovsky’s work so beloved and admired."

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.

Frankel, Laurie "Family Family"

Frankel, Laurie "Family Family" - 2024

The other members:
Becky from Sydney of Aidanvale
Kate from Melbourne of booksaremyfavoriteandbest - Family Family 
Naomi from Canada of Consumed By Ink
Rebecca from Maryland, USA of Bookish Beck - Family Family 
Kay from Washington State, USA of What? Me Read? - Family Family 

The first I read with the online group "literary Wives" that we re-named "The Marriage Plot"  since not all the books we plan to read are about wives.

As in this case. The topic is adoption.

I was wondering about the title at first. But then I got it. You have families that are just a family on paper. Then you have family that are even not an official family but the people there belong together. And that is a family family. And I think that is a good description. You certainly know families who hardly get on, who don't see each other anymore once the children moved out, but even before, they don't relate to the others. That is not a family family, that's just a bunch of people who seem to live in the same house and (sometimes) carry the same name).

In this case we have a really weird family. A woman who gets two children without being married and gives them up for adoption, to two different kind of parents, a single mother and a gay married couple. But she also adopts two kids who have been abandoned by their mother. So, we have all sorts of relationships.

The woman is an actress and plays in a film about adoption. She claims that not all adoptions are sad and that the film is not a good one. That leads to a big scandal and her adopted kids try to get the whole family together.

I think this is a good book about showing a different side of adoption, one you don't read about that often. And I know families where it worked perfectly.

There are so many different kind of characters in this book, starting with the ten year old adopted daughter up to the grandmother. Every person is so different, as they should be. And they all have a point.

You can tell that the author has experienced this in her own family. A good quote by her (in the Seattle Times):

"Adoption is always offered as this last-resort, second-best thing that you have settled for, ... there are lots of ways to make good families and lots of ways to make crappy ones ... and they are not necessarily dictated by blood and genetics." So true.

From the back cover:

''Not all stories of adoption are stories of pain and regret. Not even most of them. Why don’t we ever get that movie?'

India Allwood grew up wanting to be an actor. Armed with a stack of index cards (for research/line memorization/make-shift confetti), she goes from awkward sixteen-year-old to Broadway ingenue to TV superhero.

Her new movie is a prestige picture about adoption, but its spin is the same old tired story of tragedy. India is an adoptive mom in real life though. She wants everyone to know there’s more to her family than pain and regret. So she does something you should never do—she tells a journalist the truth: it’s a bad movie.

Soon she’s at the center of a media storm, battling accusations from the press and the paparazzi, from protesters on the right and advocates on the left. Her twin ten-year-olds know they need help–and who better to call than family? But that’s where it gets really messy because India’s not just an adoptive mother…

The one thing she knows for sure is what makes a family isn’t blood. And it isn’t love. No matter how they’re formed, the truth about family is this: it's complicated."

And here is the list of all our books.

Six Degrees of Separation ~ Shutter Island

Dennis Lehane

"Shutter Island"

#6Degrees of Separation:

from Shutter Island to Treasure Island

#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. 

This month, we are supposed to start with our book group’s current selection.

Nice idea for next month. Unfortunately, we already had the book we read in my local club (The Correspondent, in April 2026) as a starter book and I cannot get the one for my online group. And the last ones were all German books. Also, the current online book is in Finnish and not translated. But, I decided to use the last online book we read that has an English edition: "Shutter Island" by Dennis Lehane.

Book Description:

"An arresting psychological thriller in which two US Marshals hunting for an escaped mental patient unveil a nightmare world of CIA drug trials, Nazi inspired eugenic work, and repressive mind control.

In the year 1954, U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels and his new partner, Chuck Aule, come to Shutter Island, home of Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane, to investigate an unexplained disappearance. Multiple murderess Rachel Solando is loose somewhere on this barren island, despite having been kept under constant surveillance in a locked, guarded cell. As a killer hurricane bears relentlessly down on the island, hints of radical experimentation and covert government machinations add darker, more sinister shades to an already bizarre case. Because nothing at Ashecliffe Hospital is remotely what it seems."

Once again, I decided to go with a word in the title, it was too good an opportunity to pass.

Allende, Isabel "Island Beneath the Sea" (E: La isla bajo el mar) - 2010

A great description of life on a plantation, first in the Caribbean, later in Louisiana, the life of the slaves and the free, lots of history, an incredibly rich account of the lives people had to lead. 

Hislop, Victoria "The Island" - 2005

An interesting book about a wonderful part of this world with a harrowing past. The island was used as a leper colony from 1903 to 1957. People who were banned there wouldn’t return into normal life until a cure was found.

This book reflects on the lives of the people on this island, how they got there, how their everyday life as, how life was for those left behind, how the people in the little village just opposite the island was. The author managed to illustrate all this through a family who was involved in the whole history. 

Lindgren, Astrid "Seacrow Island" (SW: Vi på Saltkråkan) - 1964 

There are a couple of families in Sweden with children of the same age. The Melkerson family goes on holiday on a skerry, a little rocky island in Sweden. Together with oder holiday children and children from the island, they have the most fabulous holidays. A lovely children's story.

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

The Native American girl Karana ends up on a deserted island where she spends the next eighteen years alone. The story tells about her life, her struggles to survive.

Şafak, Elif "The Island of Missing Trees" - 2021

We have the Greek Kostas and Turkish Defne live on Cyprus, the divided island. They fall in love but - as usual in such cases - their love is forbidden.

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

Not just a children's book, the story is also interesting for adults, quite some excitement going on, you need to guess what might happen next and won't succeed every time.

A lot of drama and action in the story. A true classic.   

The connection between the first and the last book? Like last month, the titles all contain the same word: ISLAND.

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Spell the Month in Books ~ September 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.

September: (Mostly) Dystopian Literature

As we are still choosing our own topics, I had a look where I could find one with three Es. Not so easy. I must say, I did cheat a little, but only just a little, as you will see.

I think dystopian novels (or "disturbian" as my husband likes to call them) are great. They show our society in a different way. What kind of fears are there, how do we imagine the world would look like if some of them came true. Or something else happened that made us give up the ways we live now.

Here are my books:

SEPTEMBER

S

Fforde, Jasper "Shades of Grey. The Road to High Saffron" - 2009

A dystopian novel about a future where colour perception rules the world. 

E

Levithan, David "Every Day" - 2012

Maybe it's dystopian but it's not a different world, at least not for most of the characters.

This is about someone who we know can't exist, either, but the idea is just too captivating not to follow it. 

P
Camus, Albert "The Plague" (F: La Peste) - 1947

North Africa, a French town in Algeria, sometime in the 1940s. The rats come first, then the plague follows. This is a description of how a whole town comes to terms with such a death sentence. I read this before Covid but Camus explained the situation precisely.

T

Wells, H. G. "The Time Machine" - 1895

Quite a story, even if the movie took quite a few liberties … but what else is new?

E

Emcke, Carolin "Echoes of Violence: Letters from a War Reporter" (GE: Von den Kriegen. Briefe an Freunde) - 2004

Not a dystopian novel. I wish it were. The author is a journalist, covering mainly war areas and she has written e-mails to her friend every time she returned from one of her journeys. Here, she published them. She visited Afghanistan, Colombia, Iraq, Kosovo, Lebanon, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Romania and the USA (before and after September 11th), and reports about her meetings with affected people. 

M

Bradbury, Ray "The Martian Chronicles" - 1950
"The Martian Chronicles", a highly interesting novel about the human invasion on another planet. A dystopian novel that couldn't envisage anything better. Or worse.

B
Stroyar, J.N. "Becoming Them" (The Children's War #3) - 2017
As a German, having to live with the consequences of one of the most terrible wars ever, I have always asked myself what would have happened if the Nazis had won the war.
This is the final book of the trilogy that describes how it could have been, we see how everything gets together in the end, how the long and arduous underground work finally leads to the end of the Nazi party. But not without many, many difficulties first. This third book is just as fascinating, exciting and thrilling as the first two. I hope many people will be able to read it.

E

Steinbeck, John "East of Eden" - 1952
The author talks about problems as old as mankind, he retells the story of Cain and Abel, only here they are called Caleb and Aaron (the father is still Adam, though), and they live in his native California. Could be a dystopian novel.

R
McCarthy, Cormac "The Road" - 2006
There are mainly only two people in this book, a father and his son. Most of the world has been eliminated, we don't know exactly why but it doesn't matter. What's important is the way people react. Nothing grows anymore, so people have to eat what's still available. How would you react in such a situation? That's the big question and we see all sorts of different people acting in all sorts of different ways.

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Happy Reading!

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#ThrowbackThursday. September 2016

These are my ThrowbackThursday reviews from September 2016. 

García Márquez, Gabriel "The General in His Labyrinth" (Spanish: El general en su laberinto) - 1989

Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios, better known to the world as Simón Bolívar lived from 24 July 1783 to 17 December 1830. He is largely considered as THE politician who brought about South America's independence from Spain in the early 19th century. 

This book was written by one of the greatest South American authors ever. Even though it concentrates on Bolívar's last journey, the novel is full of details about his whole life and about South America at the time. 

Mantel, Hilary "Bring up the Bodies" - 2012

The sequel to "Wolf Hall", just as good.

In this novel, the author focuses on the king's wish to divorce Anne Boleyn and Thomas Cromwell's role in this.

Rushdie, Salman "Midnight's Children" - 1981

I love to read books that challenge my brain. The life of our protagonist mirrored that of the Indian nation since its independence. Even though I have read several books about India and its history, there was still a lot of information in there that I hadn't heard about. The book certainly is a very peculiar mixture of historical fiction and magic realism in a way I haven't seen this before.

A difficult book - but very gripping, it's totally worth picking up.

Happy September!

Happy September to all my Friends and Readers

New Calendar picture with this
beautiful watercolour painting by Hanka Koebsch
"Herbststrauß"
"Autumn bouquet"

Hanka says to this picture:

"A floral painting to set the mood for the approaching autumn.
Hydrangeas come in the most beautiful colors and a variety of shapes. For this autumn watercolor, I chose light-colored blossoms." 

"Ein Blumenbild zur Einstimmung auf den nahenden Herbst. 

Es gibt sie in den wunderschönsten Farben und verschiedenen Formen - die Hortensien. Für dieses Herbstaquarell habe ich mich für helle Blüten entschieden."

Next to peonies, hydrangeas are my favourite flowers.

Read more on their website here. *

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Another sad month. No, things did not get better. My sister-in-law died only nine weeks after her husband, my brother.

* * *

The German expression of the month is something that I can relate to a lot right now, I would love to go far, far away from all this.

"Fernweh" (literally far hurt)
The longing to go away.

* * * 

Two books I can recommend from last month:

Weir, Andy "Project Hail Mary" - 2021

and

Oates, Joyce Carol "Cardiff by the Sea" - 2020

The latter was a buddy read and we intend to read another JCO one in October: "The Accursed" (Goodreads).

Let me know if you are interested in joining us. Here is more information.

Sorry there is not more information this month. I am just not in the mood.

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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 September! 🍂

Evans, Virginia "The Correspondent"

Evans, Virginia "The Correspondent" - 2025

This book has been on the wishlist for our German book club for ages but we first had to wait until it was published as a paperback. In August 2026, we finally managed to put it on our reading list.

I have been writing letters my whole life, I've had penfriends all over the world and when I started to learn Esperanto, it got even more. So, I expected this book to be perfect for me.

I read somewhere that It takes a little while to get settled into Sybil’s life and I totally agree. I couldn't say that the story gripped me from the first page.

However, I was never such an organized letter writer as Sybil. I don't sit down every morning, I write answers to letters I received whenever I feel like I am in the mood to respond. I think the recipient gets a better answer as if I "have to" write now and then. And I have never written to an author, maybe I should do that one day.

However, I do not neglect those people around me, I try to meet them as often as I can. Sybil seems to be more a "letters only" kind of person. What would I have to tell my friends from far away if I didn't have a "real life"?

I did enjoy the book in the end but not in the way I thought I might.

We did have a nice discussion about this novel. We are all senior citizens and thought that was probably one of the reasons why we did enjoy this book. One of our members mentioned that her daughter couldn't get into it. Maybe there is something to it.

In any case, we all agreed that we needed some time to get into all the characters. And yes, there are a lot. The German had a list at the end with all of her correspondents, a little "Who's Who?". That was not included in our English version. I wonder why? As you all know, I love lists.

I found one online though @ The Book Companion
and @ SuperSummary.

And while looking for that, I discovered that a film adaptation is planned starring Jane Fonda as Sybil Van Antwerp.

Lots and lots of books get mentioned in the novel. I will list only those that I have read myself, find the rest here on Goodreads.

Austen, Jane "Pride & Prejudice" - 1813 (The Motherhood and Jane Austen) 
Brontë, Emily "Wuthering Heights" - 1887
Du Maurier, Daphne "Rebecca" - 1938
Gabaldon, Diana "Outlander" (UK: Cross Stich) - 1991
Hanff, Helene "84 Charing Cross Road" - 1970
Ishiguro, Kazuo "The Remains of the Day" - 1989
Johnson, Adam "The Orphan Master's Son" - 2012
Joyce, James "Ulysses" - 1922
Rushdie, Salman "The Satanic Verses"  - 1988
Steinbeck, John "Travels with Charley" - 1962
Woolf, Virginia "To the Lighthouse" - 1927

So, eleven of forty books. But I might get to more in future.

And a quote that I agree with 100%:

"... I like president Obama. He's a wonderful speaker, I could listen to him read the phone book."

From the back cover:

"Sybil Van Antwerp has throughout her life used letters to make sense of the world and her place in it. Most mornings, around half past ten, Sybil sits down to write letters—to her brother, to her best friend, to the president of the university who will not allow her to audit a class she desperately wants to take, to Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry to tell them what she thinks of their latest books, and to one person to whom she writes often yet never sends the letter.

Sybil expects her world to go on as it always has—a mother, grandmother, wife, divorcee, distinguished lawyer, she has lived a very full life. But when letters from someone in her past force her to examine one of the most painful periods of her life, she realizes that the letter she has been writing over the years needs to be read and that she cannot move forward until she finds it in her heart to offer forgiveness.

The Correspondent is a gem of a novel about the power of finding solace in literature and connection with people we might never meet in person. Sybil Van Antwerp’s life of letters might be 'a very small thing,' but she also might be one of the most memorable characters you will ever read."