Tuesday, 17 March 2026

What's in a Name 2026 Reading Challenge

I have been participating in "What's in a Name?" ages ago (2014 and 2020) but then the person who did it finished and I somehow lost touch.

Now I found this on Margaret's page BooksPlease and decided to join again. This is currently hosted by Andrea at Carolina Book Nook. It was started by Annie, who was ten or eleven at the time, on her blog Words by Annie. First Beth @ Beth Fish Reads and then Charlie @ The Worm Hole took over hosting before handing it over to Andrea.

So, this is a ‘must‘ challenge for me!

The words we need to find this year are:

Six/6:
Titles for this category need to include the word "six" or number "6" somewhere in the title, even if they are part of another word or number.

Cold weather:
Your title for this category should include a word that describes cold weather such as "snow," "ice," "blizzard," "frozen," etc.

Peace:
Titles for this category need to include a word that describes peace: "peace," "serenity," "still," "calm," etc, even if it doesn’t directly mean "peace."

Pathways:
Titles for this category need to include a words that are types of paths: "trail," "road," "avenue," "sidewalk," etc.

Terrain:
Titles for this category need to include a word for a type of topographic terrain or the name of a particular part of terrain.
Lanschot, Reinier van "We are Europe" (NL: Wij zijn Europa: een nieuw Europees verhaal) - 2024

Flower:
Titles for this category need to include a type of flower or the word "flower."

I don't know whether I will manage to fill all the challenges but, as you say, have already done one.

Monday, 16 March 2026

Oates, Joyce Carol "Daddy Love"

Oates, Joyce Carol "Daddy Love" - 2013

I have always loved books by Joyce Carol Oates and often said, she should receive the Nobel Prize for Literature.

I have read many of her books but she has written so many that I won't get to all of them soon.

When one of my blogger friends (Lisa @ Captivated Reader) talked about a buddy read she had started with another reader, I was very keen to join in. They had already started and I still had to get the book, so I joined in a little too late. It was still interesting to have someone to talk to directly.

Lisa already warned everyone that this is the darkest novel she read by JCO and that is something to say because her books usually are pretty dark. And she is right. It's about child abduction and abuse, lots of psychological problems that come along with it.

The author has a great way of describing the trauma of the abduction by describing it five times from different angles. As always, the author uses fantastic ways to let us into the story.

I would love to write more but don't want to say too much. 

If you are interested in the buddy read, here is the discussion I had with Lisa. But there are spoilers!

 

And here is Lisa's post.

From the back cover: 

"Have they found him?
Have they found Robbie?
They waited.
Each hour of the day they waited.
No one told her, the latest news, for the latest news was usually no news.
A day, a night, two days, several days, a week and finally twelve days - and then, fifteen days:
no news.
"

Book Description:

"Daddy Love, aka Reverend Chester Cash, has for years abducted, tortured, and raped young boys. His latest victim is Robbie, now renamed 'Gideon,' and brainwashed into believing that he is Daddy Love's real son. Any time the boy resists or rebels he is met with punishment beyond his wildest nightmares. As Robbie grows older he begins to realize that the longer he is locked in the shackles of this demon, the greater chance he'll end up like Daddy Love's other 'sons' who were never heard from again. Somewhere within this tortured boy lies a spark of rebellion... and soon he will see just what lengths he must go to in order to have any chance at survival."

There are tons of quotes but I just leave it at this one:
"After all these years, Joyce Carol Oates can still give me the creeps." Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review

Wednesday, 11 March 2026

Turgenev, Ivan "Fathers and Sons"

Turgenev, Ivan "Fathers and Sons" (Russian: Отцы и дети/Otzy i deti) - 1862
I love Russian authors, as all my friends know. But I had never read a book by Turgenjew. So, I was happy that #2 was chosen for our classic spin this term.

Was it as good as most of the other Russian authors I read? Yes, it was. I loved reading about life in Russia in the middle of the nineteenth century, when times started to change, farmers got more freedom, serfdom started to be abolished and the whole order of society was questioned.

Almost any kind of character was described in this book, diffferent ages, different social status, different education, different housholds, town and countryside, students and farmers, parents and children, women and men (which doesn't happen often in those books).

According to Wikipedia, this is considered the first modern Russian novel. I can well believe that. Changes were coming and the author managed to put that situation to paper.

In any case, I can highly recommend this book. And not just to those who love classics and/or Russian literature.

From the back cover:

"Bazarov—a gifted, impatient, and caustic young man—has journeyed from school to the home of his friend Arkady Kirsanov. But soon Bazarov’s outspoken rejection of authority and social conventions touches off quarrels, misunderstandings, and romantic entanglements that will utterly transform the Kirsanov household and reflect the changes taking place across all of nineteenth-century Russia.

Fathers and Sons enraged the old and the young, reactionaries, romantics, and radicals alike when it was first published. At the same time, Turgenev won the acclaim of Flaubert, Maupassant, and Henry James for his craftsmanship as a writer and his psychological insight. Fathers and Sons is now considered one of the greatest novels of the nineteenth century.

A timeless depiction of generational conflict during social upheaval, it vividly portrays the clash between the older Russian aristocracy and the youthful radicalism that foreshadowed the revolution to come—and offers modern-day readers much to reflect upon as they look around at their own tumultuous, ever changing world."

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.

Tuesday, 10 March 2026

Top Ten Tuesday ~ Ordinal Numbers

 

"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 Ordinal Numbers (Ordinal numbers are numbers that define an item’s place in a series. For example: first, second, third, fourth, tenth, fourteenth, thirty-third, one hundredth, etc)

I thought I had read more books with ordinal numbers but it was hard to find ten that start with an ordinal numbers. So, I had to cheat a little. But most of the books I mention fit the description.
Camus, Albert "The First Man" (F: Le premier homme) - 1994
Fo, Dario "My First Seven Years (Plus a Few More)" (I: Il Paese dei Mezaràt: I miei primi sette anni (e qualcuno in più) - 2004
Ingalls Wilder, Laura "The First Four Years" (Little House Books
- 1932-71
Alexievich, Svetlana "Second Hand Time. The Last of the Sovjets" (RUS: Время секонд хэнд/Vremja sekond khend) - 2013 
Pollock, David C., & Van Reken, Ruth "Third Culture Kids" - 2001 
Harari, Yuval Noah "21 Lessons for the 21st Century" - 2018
📚 Happy Reading 📚

Monday, 9 March 2026

Literary Wives

The wives:

Becky from Sydney of Aidanvale
Kate from Melbourne of booksaremyfavoriteandbest
Naomi from Canada of Consumed By Ink
Rebecca from Maryland, USA of Bookish Beck
Kay from What? Me Read?
and now me.

The other day, I finished a book (Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus) and was led to the Literary Wives page by one of my blogger friends who had reviewed it before. They read four books a year with regards to wives in the book. I have read a few of them already. And I have more on my list that would be great to discuss with these ladies. So, I decided to join them.

The books:
This is the list of books they read so far, and I am going to add the other books that we are going to read. But you can always find the links to all the comments on the main page: Literary Wives (the links on this one here only get you to my page).

October 2013: Ahab’s Wife: or, The Star-Gazer by Sena Jeter Naslund
December 2013:  The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistress by Ariel Lawhon
February 2014: The Inquisitor’s Wife by Jeanne Kalogridis
April 2014: The Zookeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman
June 2014: The Crane Wife by Patrick Ness
August 2014: The World’s Wife by Carol Ann Duffy
October 2014: Wife 22 by Melanie Gideon
December 2014: The Shoemaker’s Wife by Adriana Trigiani
February 2015: The Last Wife of Henry VIII by Carolly Erickson
April 2015: The Bishop’s Wife by Mette Ivie Harrison
June 2015: My Father’s Wives by Mike Greenberg
August 2015: The Astronaut Wives Club by Melanie Benjamin
October 2015: The Silent Wife by A.S.A. Harrison
December 2015: The Kitchen God’s Wife by Amy Tan
February 2016: A Circle of Wives by Alice LaPlante
April 2016: The Happy Marriage by Tahar Ben Jelloun
June 2016: The Disobedient Wife by Annika Milisic-Stanley
August 2016: How to Be a Good Wife by Emma Chapman
October 2016: American Housewife by Helen Ellis
December 2016: Mrs. Hemingway by Naomi Wood
February 2017: The Wife by Meg Wolitzer
April 2017: Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Theresa Fowler
June 2017: The Awakening by Kate Chopin
August 2017: On Beauty by Zadie Smith - 2005
October 2017: Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill
December 2017: A Lady and Her Husband by Amber Reeves
February 2018: The Blazing World by Siri Hustvedt
April 2018: The Headmaster’s Wife by Thomas Christopher Green
June 2018: Stay With Me by Ayòbámi Adébáyò
August 2018: First Love by Gwendolyn Riley
October 2018: An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
December 2018: The Stars Are Fire by Anita Shreve
February 2019: They Were Sisters by Dorothy Whipple
April 2019: Wait for Me, Jack by Addison Jones
June 2019:  A Separation by Katie Kitamura
August 2019: Ties by Domenico Starnone
October 2019: Happenstance by Carol Shields
December 2019: The Home-Maker by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
March 2020: War of the Wives by Tamar Cohen
June 2020: The Dutch House by Ann Patchett - 2019
September 2020: Alternate Side by Anna Quindlen
December 2020: The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
March 2021: Every Note Played by Lisa Genova
June 2021: Monogamy by Sue Miller
September 2021: The Amateur Marriage by Anne Tyler
December 2021: The Summer Wives by Beatriz Williams
March 2022: I’m Fine and Neither Are You by Camille Pagán
June 2022: The Sentence by Louise Erdrich
September 2022: Red Island House by Andrea Lee
December 2022: State of the Union by Nick Hornsby
March 2023: His Only Wife by Peace Adzo Medie
June 2023: The Harpy by Megan Hunter
September 2023: Sea Wife by Amity Gaige
December 2023: Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell - 2020
March 2024: Mrs. March by Virginia Feito
June 2024: Recipe for a Perfect Wife by Karma Brown
September 2024: Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
December 2024: Euphoria by Elin Culhed
March 2025: Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus - 2020
June 2025: The Constant Wife by W. Somerset Maugham
September 2025: Novel about My Wife by Emily Perkins
December 2025: The Soul of Kindness by Elizabeth Taylor
March 2026: Mrs. Bridge by Evan S. Connell
June 2026: Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri - 1999
September 2026: Family Family by Laurie Frankel
December 2026: The Eden Test by Adam Sternbergh

I also read the following books with "wife" in the title:
Buck, Pearl S. "The First Wife and Other Stories" - 1933
Hay, Ashley "The Railwayman's Wife" - 2013
Joinson, Suzanne "The Photographer's Wife" - 2016
McLain, Paula "The Paris Wife" - 2012
Shalev, Zeruya "Husband and Wife" (Hebr: בעל ואישה) - 2000
I will probably add one or the other to this list later.

Saturday, 7 March 2026

Six Degrees of Separation ~ Wuthering Heights

 Emily Brontë 
"Wuthering Heights" - 1847

#6Degrees of Separation:
from Wuthering Heights 
to Villette 

#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 is an exceptional month as I have indeed read the starter book. However, it is by far not my favourite Brontë book. I love those by her sisters a lot more. Therefore, I decided to present them here this month. I'm sure most people and all readers know about Jane Eyre. But do you know all the other novels by this talented family?

Before I go into them, here is the description to our book of the month:

"Lockwood, the new tenant of Thrushcross Grange, situated on the bleak Yorkshire moors, is forced to seek shelter one night at Wuthering Heights, the home of his landlord. There he discovers the history of the tempestuous events that took place years before; of the intense relationship between the gypsy foundling Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw; and how Catherine, forced to choose between passionate, tortured Heathcliff and gentle, well-bred Edgar Linton, surrendered to the expectations of her class. As Heathcliff's bitterness and vengeance at his betrayal is visited upon the next generation, their innocent heirs must struggle to escape the legacy of the past.

Emily Brontë's only novel, a work of tremendous and far-reaching influence, the Penguin Classics edition of Wuthering Heights is the definitive edition of the text, edited with an introduction by Pauline Nestor. In this edition, a new preface by Lucasta Miller, author of The Brontë Myth, looks at the ways in which the novel has been interpreted, from Charlotte Brontë onwards. This complements Pauline Nestor's introduction, which discusses changing critical receptions of the novel, as well as Emily Brontë's influences and background.

Emily Brontë (1818-48), along with her sisters, Charlotte and Anne, was one of the most significant literary figures of the 19th century. She wrote just one strikingly innovative novel, Wuthering Heights, but was also a gifted and intense poet."

Brontë, Anne "Agnes Grey" - 1847
Agnes Grey is partly autobiographical, Anne Brontë added a lot of her own life here.
We learn about the hard life of a governess. If parents don't really want to be involved, want to discipline their children but also don't want others to discipline them but want those others to teach their children, you are always the piggy in the middle. How is the poor governess to instill the love of learning in children who are not told to follow the teacher? I know that teachers have a similar problem nowadays with parents who think their kids are little angels and little Einsteins at the same time while at the same time … well, let's not go there.

Of all the Brontë novels, this is my favourite. It reminds me of Jane Austen, though in a different direction.
The novel is exciting from the beginning. The description of the mysterious woman moving into Wildfell Hall, the suspicious neighbours, the generous landlord ... everything is quite interesting already. Then she disappears and the mystery gets even bigger.

Brontë, Charlotte "Jane Eyre" - 1847
If you are a fan of English classics (like me), Jane Eyre is a definitive must.
Charlotte Brontë has created a wonderful, strong young woman. If she had lived today, she certainly would have gone exploring and conquering the world. But she doesn’t live now. She is an orphan in Victorian England who lives with an aunt who doesn’t like her. After attending a school, she has to work as a governess.

Brontë, Charlotte "The Professor" - 1857
I have yet to find a book by any of the Brontë sisters that I don't like at all, they are all fascinating and gripping (except for Wuthering Heights, maybe. I must admit, I might like it even more because it takes place in Brussels but it would have been just as interesting had the protagonist lived elsewhere.

Brontë, Charlotte "Shirley" - 1849
Shirley and her friend Caroline show us the situation of women in the 19th century just as well as Jane Eyre. The story might not be as dramatic but it certainly is interesting. Charlotte Brontë shows quite a bit of humour in her narrative.

Brontë, Charlotte "Villette" - 1853
This 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. But Lucy is not someone who gives up easily, who gives in to her despair. She goes abroad and hopes to find something. And she gets rewarded for her courage. Her life still isn't easy but at least she knows she will not starve. And she finds some wonderful friends who stand by her.

* * *

This one is easy, the connection between the first and the last novel (as well as all the others) is, that it was written by sisters.

📚📚📚

Friday, 6 March 2026

Spell the Month in Books ~ March 2026

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.

March: Pi Day, March Madness or Green Covers

Pi Day, mmmh, I have no idea, maybe books about maths. But then I thought, maths is also a part of science and I am more likely to find books about any kind of science in my reading list. And here I am:

MARCH
M
Bohjalian, Chris "Midwives" - 1997
A
Stone, Irving "The Agony and the Ecstasy" - 1961
R
Chevalier, Tracy "Remarkable Creatures" - 2009
C
Vonnegut, Kurt "Cat's Cradle" - 1963
H
Harari, Yuval Noah "Homo Deus. A Brief History of Tomorrow" - 2016

* * *

Happy Reading!

📚 📚 📚