Book Quotes

"The more languages you have, the more worlds you belong to." Marta Dzuirosz

So true. It goes with another quote that you get a new soul with every new language.

"Those who can read hold the key to great deeds, to undreamed-of possibilities." Aldous Huxley

Aren't we the lucky ones?

"Where do I find all the time not to read so much." Karl Kraus

I'd like the answer to that question.

Find more book quotes here.

#ThrowbackThursday. June 2013

I've been doing ThrowbackThursdays for a while but I noticed that I wrote a lot of reviews in a short time when I first started. So, I post more than one Throwback every week. These are my reviews from June 2013.

Aaronovitch, Ben "Rivers of London" (RoL 1) - 2011

- "Moon over Soho" (RoL 2) - 2011    

- "Whispers Under Ground" (RoL 3) - 2012  
- "Broken Homes" (RoL 4) - 2013
This is a police story, a crime novel mixed with fantasy elements. All genres I usually stay far away from. However, Ben Aaronovitch has such a unique and funny way to describe his characters and the story, the good guys as well as the bad guys, the living as well as the dead, the spirits, the events.

Ghosh, Amitav "Sea of Poppies" (Ibis Trilogy #1) - 2008
- "River of Smoke" (Ibis Trilogy #2) - 2011

- "Flood of Fire" (Ibis Trilogy #3) - 2015 
Amitav Ghosh manages to invite us into this world. In the first novel, he describes the fate of a ship and its passengers. In the second, other topics are introduced. One of them is morale and the difference between Hinduism and Christianity. In the third book, there is even more history of a part of the world I don't know much about.

Mahfouz, Naguib "Children of Gebelawi" (aka Children of our Alley) (Arabic: اولاد حارتنا Awlād ḥāritnā) - 1959

In this book, all our monotheistic religions are retold, the beginnings of them, at least.

There is Gabalawi (God) who first throws Idris (Satan) and then Adham (Adam) out of his house, then there is Gabal (Moses), Rifa (Jesus) and Qasim (Muhammad), all three of them wanting to bring peace to their alley (the world) and creating their own religions. At the end we have Arafa who stands for the modern world or science.

Alphabet Authors ~ T is for Tolstoy

I found this idea on Simon's blog @ Stuck in a Book. He picks an author for each letter of the alphabet, sharing which of their books he's read, which I ones he owns, how he came across them etc.

I might not do it exactly as he does but I will try to get to all the letters of the alphabet over time.

When I had to decide which author I would pick for the letter T, I had to think about Leo Tolstoy right away. He is just one of the greatest authors ever and these are the books I read:

- "Anna Karenina" (RUS: Анна Каренина = Anna Karenina) - 1877 *
- "Collected Works. The Stories" (RUS. Gesammelte Werke. Die Erzählungen) - 1886
- "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" (Смерть Ивана Ильича/Smert' Ivána Ilyichá) - Der Tod des Iwan Iljitsch - 1886
- "War and Peace" (RUS: Война и мир = Woina i mir) - 1868/69

Facts about Leo Tolstoy:
Born     9 September 1828 Yasnaya Polyana, Russian Empire

Died     20 November 1910 (aged 82) Astapovo, Russian Empire

Married 1862 to Sophie Behrs

They had 13 children of whom eight survived childhood.

He never won the Nobel Prize for Literature or Peace even though he was nominated for both several times.

He was liked and admired by many other authors, especially by Fyodor Dostoevsky whom he greatly admired likewise.

In Russia, he was regarded as a Christian anarchist and excommunicated. However, there are statues of him all over the world. However, the Russians also printed two coins with his portrait, 100 rubles (in gold) in 1991, 1 ruble in1988.

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This is part of an ongoing series where I will write about a different author for each letter of the alphabet. You can see them all here.

Top 5 Tuesday ~ Star

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.

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This week’s topic is a Books with a Star on the Cover. Meeghan says, "Time to find your fave books with a (or multiple) star(s) on the cover. And in the immortal words of Nicola Yoon: The Sun is Also a Star. (Just saying!)."

I was a lot luckier this week than last, I found five books that had a star on the cover, most of them very different ones.

Baumgart, Klaus "Laura's Star" (GE: Lauras Stern) - 1996

Guterson, David "Ed King" - 2011

Keneally, Thomas "Schindler's Ark" - 1982

Modiano, Patrick "La Place de l'Étoile" (F: La Place de l'Étoile) - 1968

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

They are not all my favourites but at least they fulfill the topic.

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⭐ Happy Reading! ⭐

📚 📚 📚

Kishon, Ephraim "So sorry we won"

Kishon, Ephraim "So sorry we won" (Pardon, wir haben gewonnen. Vom Sechstagekrieg bis zur Siegesparade ein Jahr danach) - 1967

This book was written in 1967, shortly after the Six-Day War. What would Kishon say about the situation today? Much of it is no longer understandable from today's perspective.

In any case, this is not a typical Kishon book. There's no humour. He doesn't make fun of his fellow sufferers, compatriots, family, or anyone else. He tries to see his country from the perspective of a war won. If that interests you, read this book.

From the back cover:

"This book features the satires of Ephraim Kishon and the cartoons of Kariel Gardosh (Dosh), most of which were published in Ma'ariv as comments on the Six-Day war and under its influence. They are now collected in this anthology in their original form."

Book Quotes

Quotes about the all important history:

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." George Santayana.

(1863-1952), Spanish-American philosopher.

"History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce". Karl Marx

(1818-1883) German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist.

"Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it". Winston Churchill

(1874-1965) British statesman, military officer, and writer, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

Look at those dates! They knew it already and we still haven't learned. 😱

☮️☮️☮️

Find more book quotes here.

#ThrowbackThursday. May 2013

I've been doing ThrowbackThursdays for a while but I noticed that I wrote a lot of reviews in a short time when I first started. So, I post more than one Throwback every week. These are my reviews from May 2013.

Ahlberg, Janet & Allan "The Jolly Postman or Other People's Letters" - 1986
One of the favourite activity books my boys ever had. "The Jolly Postman" is full of letters and cards, letters from fairy ale and nursery rhyme characters.

Murphy, Jill "Five Minutes Peace" - 1986
The Large family is a family like yours and mine, only they are elephants. But Mama and Papa have to go through all the troubles human parents have to go through, as well.

Shriver, Lionel "We need to talk about Kevin" - 2003
What is going through the mind of a mass murderer? What is going through the mind of his mother? This book is trying to answer that question.

Hanff, Helene "84 Charing Cross Road" - 1970 and "The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street" - 1973
Two lovely books. A writer who loves reading and orders used books from a bookstore across the sea at a time where it wasn't that easy to order anything "online". Helene Hanff orders books from this small bookshop, "Marks & Co." in London, and starts a lovely correspondence not just with one of the salespeople but with almost the whole shop.

Pamuk, Orhan "The Museum of Innocence" (Turkish: Masumiyet Müzesi) - 2008

This author has a wonderful eye for detail, he manages to describe anything in a way that you imagine having it in front of your eyes, feeling the sentiments the characters feel. You rejoice with them and mourn with them. 

In this story, shortly before marrying, a guy falls in love with another girl. He becomes totally obsessed with her, his whole life changes, he becomes one of those creepy guys who follow a girl around without ever having a chance of going out with her.

Segal, Erich "Love Story" - 1970
A beautiful story, one of the greatest love stories ever told. I teaches us that love is possible even if the circumstances don't seem to allow it. That love is without end even though the circumstances try to show us that is. That love can be beautiful, even if everything around us is ugly and terrible.