Friday 31 March 2017

Book Quotes of the Week



"Books are the most loyal and trusted friends you can ever have." Birgitta Hassel

"Though all the winds of doctrine were let loose to play upon the earth, so Truth be in the field, we do injuriously, by licensing and prohibiting, to misdoubt her strength. Let her and Falsehood grapple; who ever knew Truth put to the worse, in a free and open encounter?" John Milton

"To be successful in life what you need is education, not literacy and degrees." Munshi Premchand

"When I cannot read, when I cannot think, when I cannot even pray, I can trust." J. Hudson Taylor

"Books are the answer. What was the question?" N.N.

[If anyone can tell me the originator of this quote, I'd be very thankful and would happily include the name.]

Find more book quotes here.

Wednesday 29 March 2017

Lamb, Wally "I'll Take You There"


Lamb, Wally "I'll Take You There" - 2016

If you have followed my blog during the years, you will have learned that I really love Wally Lamb. His stories are always different and always interesting.

Well, this one is certainly different. But it really lacks the quality of his former novels. I liked the idea, a guy can see his life in a movie, every single scene if he likes, but I was distracted by all the "name-dropping", movies I had never heard of, probably because I didn't grow up in the same country as the author, not all the famous movies he mentioned made it abroad, but I doubt the younger US generation has seen all those movies that are mentioned or knows of all the actors he praises. There are far too many in the book, I don't like to read lists and lists of names and titles, especially if they don't mean anything to me.

You can still tell that the author is a great one, his language is fantastic but overall, this book is too short, it lacks the in-depth description of the characters, I missed getting to know them, or even the narrator through those films. It didn't happen.

Even though this is certainly my least favourite book by Wally Lamb, I will still give him the chance the next time he publishes a book. Compared to many others, this is a good novel.

From the back cover:
"Behind every good man is a great woman - or three
Every Monday evening, Felix Funicello sets up a new film at an old vaudeville theatre for his weekly movie club. But one night, as this sixty-year-old scholar prepares the projectionist booth, he is confronted by an unanticipated guest: the ghost of Lois Weber.
Once a trailblazing motion picture director from Hollywood’s silent film era, Lois invites Felix to sit back and watch a new feature on the big screen – scenes from Felix’s life.
Though unnerved by these ethereal apparitions, Felix comes to look forward to his encounters with Lois. And as these magical movies play before him, he begins to reflect on the trio of unforgettable women who have profoundly impacted his life: his troublesome yet loving sister; his Generation Y daughter; and Verna, a fiery would-be beauty queen from the 1950s.
An evocative and kaleidoscopic convergence of Hollywood, feminism and family secrets, I’ll Take You There is a radiant homage to a single life and to the resiliency, strength and power of women."

Tuesday 28 March 2017

Reading Challenge - Chunky Books 2017


I can't believe I've taken part in this reading challenge since 2013. It is still the most interesting challenge to me. I signed up for the highest of the four levels "Mor-book-ly Obese" which meant eight or more chunksters (books over 450 pages) of which three must be 750 pages or more.

I have carried on with that challenge without setting goals, I love big books and I will always read some. And I am more than willing to tell my friends about them.


If you are interested in the challenge, check out this link. I don't think they even do one this year, so I just use the link for 2015.


They also give you suggestions by page number, in case you can't find any chunksters yourself. ;-)


Or you can check out my lists from the previous years (below), maybe you are interested in a couple of them.


I read in
2013: 38 chunky books, 13 of them chunksters
2014: 37 chunky books, 15 of them chunksters
2015: 26 chunky books, 8 of them chunksters
2016: 28 chunky books, 3 of them chunksters

I will be posting the books I have read here:

Ephron, Nora "The Most of Nora Ephron" - 2014 - 571 pages
Bohjalian, Chris "Midwives" - 1997 - 480 pages
Witzel, Frank "Die Erfindung der Roten Armee Fraktion durch einen manisch-depressiven Teenager im Sommer 1969" (German) (The Invention of the Red Army Faction by a Manic Depressive Teenager in the Summer of 1969) - 2015 - 803 pages
Falcones, Ildefonso "The Barefoot Queen" (E: La Reina Descalza) - 2013- 752 pages
Pinkola Estés, Clarissa "Women Who Run With the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype" - 1992 - 608 pages
Weir, Alison "Six Tudor Queens. Katherine of Aragon. The True Queen" - 2015 - 640 pages
Laker, Rosalind "The Golden Tulip" - 1989 - 668 page
Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi "Half of a Yellow Sun" - 2006 - 560 pages
Schrobsdorff, Angelika "Du bist nicht so wie andre Mütter" (German) (You Are Not Like Other Mothers) - 1992 - 557 pages
Murakami, Haruki "Kafka on the Shore" (J: 海辺のカフカ Umibe no Kafuka) - 2004 - 891 pages
Machfus, Nagib/Mahfouz, Naguib "Palace Walk" (Arab: بين القصرين/Bayn al-qasrayn) - 1956 - 687 pages
Weir Alison "The Six Wives of Henry VIII" - 1991 - 694 pages
Lenz, Siegfried "Deutschstunde" (German) (The German Lesson) - 1968 - 576 pages
Machfus, Nagib/Mahfouz, Naguib "Palace of Desire" (arab: قصر الشوق/Qasr el-Shōq) - 1957 - 631 pages
Tsao Hsueh-Chin/Cao, Xueqin "Dream of the Red Chamber" (Chin: 红楼/Hung lou meng/aka The Story of the Stone) - ca. 1717-1763 (18th century) - 574 pages
Herbert, Xavier "Capricornia" - 1938 - 649 pages

Hemingway, Ernest "For Whom the Bell Tolls" - 1940 - 505 pages
Dickens, Charles "Bleak House" - 1852/53 - 1,088 pages

Ali, Monica "In the Kitchen" (Hotel Imperial) - 2009 - 560 pages
Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi "Americanah" (Americanah) - 2013 - 560 pages 
Wroblewski, David "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle" (Die Geschichte von Edgar Sawtelle) - 2008 - 611 pages
Schweizer, Gerhard "Islam verstehen. Geschichte, Kultur und Politik" (Understanding Islam. History, Culture and Politics) - 2016 - 610 pages
Atwood, Margaret "The Blind Assassin" (Der blinde Mörder) - 2000 - 656 pages
Bunyan, John "The Pilgrim's Progress from This World to That Which Is to Come" (Pilgerreise zur seligen Ewigkeit) - 1678 - 452 pages 

Zaimoglu, Feridun "Siebentürmeviertel" [Seven Towers Quarter] - 2015 - 800 pages
Weigand, Sabine "Ich, Eleonore, Königin zweier Reiche" [I, Eleonore, Queen of Two Realms] - 2015 - 592 pages
Cogman, Genevieve "The Invisible Library" (The Invisible Library #1 - Die unsichtbare Bibliothek) - 2015 - 465 pages
Pamuk, Orhan "Diese Fremdheit in mir" (A Strangeness in my Mind/TR: Kafamda Bir Tuhaflık) - 2014 - 592 pages
Hahn, Ulla "Spiel der Zeit" [Game of Time] - 2014 - 608 pages
Preisendörfer, Bruno "Als Deutschland noch nicht Deutschland war. Reise in die Goethezeit" [When Germany wasn't Germany, yet. A travel to Goethe's Time] - 2015 - 518 pages
Dickens, Charles "Oliver Twist" (Oliver Twist) - 1838 - 560 pages

Taylor, Andrew "The Ashes of London" - 2016 - 496 pages
Ivey, Eowyn "To The Bright Edge of the World" (Das Leuchten am Rand der Welt) - 2016 - 496 pages
Tolstoy, Leo "Gesammelte Werke. Die Erzählungen" [Collected Works. The Stories] - 1853-1904 - 864 pages
Hamann, Brigitte "Elisabeth, Kaiserin wider Willen" (The Reluctant Empress) - 1981 - 672 pages


I read 35 chunky books in 2017/18 of which 6 are considered a chunkster.


Happy Reading!

Monday 27 March 2017

Bohjalian, Chris "Midwives"

Bohjalian, Chris "Midwives" - 1997

This book has been on my TBR pile for quite a while and I am glad I finally read it. A well-written novel about a midwife in trouble, her daughter who lives through it all and an old question, is it better to be born at home or in hospital? I was born at home, and quite a few things went wrong so that my mother had my younger siblings in the hospital. So did I.

I don't want to judge anyone who opts for a home birth, I think it is a great idea when mother and baby are healthy. I was happy that I could leave the hospital on the same day after the birth of my second son in England as opposed to staying in for a whole week in Germany where my oldest was born.

I think this book is a good idea to instigate discussions about home birth versus hospital birth but in the end, I think everyone should decide for themselves. I would not want to judge over anyone like the jury in this book has to do over the midwife after one of her homebirths goes wrong.

The author has a great talent to portray both the feelings of the midwife as well as her 14 year old daughter. It's amazing for a man to be able to write like that. If I hadn't seen his picture in the front of the book, I would have sworn that Chris must be short for Christine. Certainly an author worth watching.

Like all the other books I read from Oprah's book club list, I have enjoyed this a lot.

From the back cover:

"On an icy winter night in an isolated house in rural Vermont, a seasoned midwife named Sibyl Danforth takes desperate measures to save a baby's life. She performs an emergency caesarean section on a mother she believes has died of a stroke. But what if Sibyl's patient wasn't dead - and Sibyl inadvertently killed her?

As Sibyl faces the antagonism of the law, the hostility of traditional doctors, and the accusations of her own conscience,
Midwives engages, moves, and transfixes us as only the very best novels ever do."

Friday 24 March 2017

Book Quotes of the Week



"A capacity and taste for reading gives access to whatever has already been discovered by others." Abraham Lincoln

"Even in the most stressed times there is always time for reading." Emilie and Stephanie

"A good book tells you there’s a pink house and lets you paint some of the finishing touches, maybe choose the roof style, park your own car out front." Karen Marie Moning

"I whispered the thrilling words to myself, then lifted the book to my nose and breathed the ink from its pages. The scent of possibilities." Kate Morton

"After three days without reading, talk becomes flavourless." Chinese proverb

Find more book quotes here.

Thursday 23 March 2017

Scott, Mary "First Things First"


Scott, Mary "First Things First" - 1973

Like all of Mary Scott's books, I have read this before, I managed to buy most of those that were translated into German years ago. I do remember this as being one of my favourites, probably because the protagonist is a librarian.

Also in this case, Mary Scott drew from her own life, she did take care of a village library for a while during the time one or several of her kids attended school far away from home.

Again, this book is funny from the first page to the last, always a pleasure to read novels by this great author.
Unfortunately, Mary Scott's books are out of print and only available second hand. I have heard in the meantime, that you can buy some of them as eBooks.

From the back cover (translated):
"Robert Henderson and his granddaughter move to the countryside. In an idyllic small village, the girl takes a job as a librarian. Assisted by her ardent, sometimes somewhat old-fashioned, but certainly very well-read grandfather, she supplies the not so uneducated rural community with everything her poorly equipped library provides.
But Jill does not want to read about love just in books and therefore decides to marry a farmer. But suddenly she falls in love with the busy young veterinarian ..."

Wednesday 22 March 2017

My Favourite Books 2016


Abulhawa, Susan "Mornings in Jenin" - 2010
Alexievich, Svetlana "Second Hand Time. The Last of the Sovjets" (Russian: Время секонд хэнд = Vremja sekond khend) - 2013
Bryson, Bill "The Road to Little Dribbling: more Notes from a Small Island" - 2015
Bryson, Bill "A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail" - 1998
Kulin, Ayşe "Rose of Sarajevo" (Turkish: Sevdalinka) - 1999
Mercier, Pascal "Perlmann's Silence" (German: Perlmanns Schweigen) - 1995
Mistry, Rohinton "Family Matters" - 2002
Oates, Joyce Carol "Carthage" - 2014
Oates, Joyce Carol "The Man Without a Shadow" - 2016
Perkins, Sue "Spectacles" - 2015
Schami, Rafik "A Hand Full of Stars" (German: Eine Hand voller Sterne) - 1987
Trollope, Anthony "The Way We Live Now" - 1875

I have already published my list in my statistics here and my reading challenges wrap-up here but I like to have a link with just the favourite books that I can refer to.

Tuesday 21 March 2017

Munsch, Robert "Love You Forever"


Munsch, Robert "Love You Forever" - 1986

I remember reading this book to my children when they were little and they really loved it. Such a beautiful story. It almost reads like a song.

And even though my boys are in their twenties, I keep telling me that they will always be my babies. If your kids are grown up and you want to feel a little nostalgic for their baby years - as if anyone would need a book for that! - this is the right one.

A fabulous story for little children and a great gift to young parents.

From the back cover:
"A young woman holds her newborn son
And looks at him lovingly. Softly she sings to him:
"I'll love you forever
I'll like you for always
As long as I'm living
My baby you'll be."
So begins the story that has touched the hearts of millions worldwide. Since publication in l986, 'Love You Forever' has sold more than 15 million copies in paperback and the regular hardcover edition (as well as hundreds of thousands of copies in Spanish and French)."

Monday 20 March 2017

Hochschild, Arlie Russell "Strangers in Their Own Land"


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

I have read this book in the hope that I will understand the Republicans a little better and I truly believe that the author wrote it in order to understand them. I still don't understand. And I doubt the author does. How can you not want the government to help you when the companies pollute your environment? There are people out there who know what goes wrong but still don't want any rules for the companies who destroy their lives, their landscapes, bring cancer and other illnesses to their families and treat the few people who work for them like rubbish.

I think the difference between Democrats/Liberals and Republicans is that the former sees the government as a caring parent who will help you on your way, sending you to a good school, making sure you'll find your way in the world, taking care of you when you are sick or can't do anything and for that you help in the household. The latter see them as as Big Brother who doesn't just watch you, doesn't share their toys but takes away all yours and destroys them. Well, without a caring parent, companies will just behave like Big Brother.

I would recommend this book to anyone, especially Republicans, in order to understand where this is all going and how we hopefully can find a better way to save this planet.

From the back cover:
"In Strangers in Their Own Land, the renowned sociologist Arlie Hochschild embarks on a thought-provoking journey from her liberal hometown of Berkeley, California, deep into Louisiana bayou country--a stronghold of the conservative right. As she gets to know people who strongly oppose many of the ideas she famously champions, Hochschild nevertheless finds common ground and quickly warms to the people she meets--among them a Tea Party activist whose town has been swallowed by a sinkhole caused by a drilling accident--people whose concerns are actually ones that all Americans share: the desire for community, the embrace of family, and hopes for their children.

Strangers in Their Own Land goes beyond the commonplace liberal idea that these are people who have been duped into voting against their own interests. Instead, Hochschild finds lives ripped apart by stagnant wages, a loss of home, an elusive American dream--and political choices and views that make sense in the context of their lives. Hochschild draws on her expert knowledge of the sociology of emotion to help us understand what it feels like to live in "red" America. Along the way she finds answers to one of the crucial questions of contemporary American politics: why do the people who would seem to benefit most from "liberal" government intervention abhor the very idea?"

A friend sent me a link to an article about two books, One Way To Bridge The Political Divide: Read The Book That's Not For You.  You can find the review to the other book "Between the World and Me" by Ta-Nehisi Coates here.

Friday 17 March 2017

Book Quotes of the Week



"’Tis the good reader that makes the good book; in every book he finds passages which seem confidences or asides hidden from all else and unmistakenly meant for his ear; the profit of books is according to the sensibility of the reader; the profoundest thought or passion sleeps as in a mine, until it is discovered by an equal mind and heart." Ralph Waldo Emerson, Society and Solitude, 1870

"The greatest degree of inner tranquillity comes from the development of love and compassion. The more we care for the happiness of others, the greater is our own sense of well-being." Tenzin Gyatso (The Dailai Lama)

"Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved." Helen Keller

"Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties." John Milton

"Book lovers never go to bed alone." N.N.

Find more book quotes here.


[If anyone can tell me the originator of this quote, I'd be very thankful and would happily include the name.]

Thursday 16 March 2017

2016 Reading Challenges - Wrap-Up


I took part in four reading challenges (2016 Reading Challenge, Reading Challenge - Chunky Books 2016, The "Piggybank" Challenge 2016, and 2016 TBR Pile Reading Challenge), one new online book club (Emma's Book Club), added another list (101 Best Selling Books of All Time) and started two new lists myself (Bildungsroman and Travel the World Through Books).

Reading Challenge 2016
Interesting challenge with 40 different categories to fulfil. I managed to read at least one book from each category though many of them can be listed under several points Where I haven't fulfilled the challenge, there usually is a reason and I've explained it under that number.

Reading Challenge - Chunky Books 2016
I read 28 books with more than 450 pages, 3 of them were more than 750 pages, the reading challenge calls them "chunksters".

The "Piggybank" Challenge 2016 
This challenge goes officially from 1 March 2016 to 1 March 2017 but it's easier to wrap this up now with the rest of the challenges. This year, I read 85 books which resulted in €170 to spend on something I'd really like.

TBR Pile Challenge 2016  
I finished 37 books that had been waiting for me to be read before the beginning of the year. Of course, I added others that are NOW on my TBR pile.

Beautiful Blogger Award 
I was happy to be awarded with this by one of my fellow bloggers.

I started a few new lists during the year:

101 Best Selling Books of All Time 
101 books that have been bought by more people than any others. Doesn't necessarily mean that they have been read by everyone. Still, I had only done 37 of them so far with a few more on my wishlist.

Bildungsroman  
I have already read 27 books that belong to this category, so I thought I'd start a list.

Travel the World Through Books 
I love to travel the world with my books but I have only visited 76 countries so far. Time to start a list with all the cuontries yet to be "visited". I started this challenge after I read a book about a woman who visited every country in the world (Die Ländersammlerin). My goal is to read a book about or written by someone from all every country in the world.

I have already read books from the following countries and hope to add more in the next couple of years.
Afghanistan, Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Congo (Republic of the), Cuba, Cyprus, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Egypt, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Haiti, Hungary, Iceland, India, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Lithuania, Mexico, Morocco, Myanmar, Namibia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Romania, Russian Federation, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Vietnam, Zambia

Emma's Book Club - Our shared shelf 
Emma Watson's online book club with books from women for women and about women. I read seven of the eight books.



Details to all my reading lists, those I started last year and those I started earlier.

100 Books by the BBC
Adams, Douglas "The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy" - 1979
Mitchell, David "Cloud Atlas" - 2004
Potter, Beatrix "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" - 1902
Rushdie, Salman "Midnight’s Children" - 1981

101 Best Selling Books of All Time 
Adams, Douglas "The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy" - 1979
Murakami, Haruki "Norwegian Wood" (Japanese: Noruwei no mori, ノルウェイの森) - 1987
Sendak, Maurice "Where The Wild Things Are" - 1963

"13 Ways of Looking at the Novel" by Jane Smiley
I added two more books to this list. "Only" 65 more to go!
Atkinson, Kate "Behind the Scenes at the Museum" - 1995
Lafayette, Madame de (Marie-Madeleine) "The Princess of Cleves" (French: La Princesse de Clèves) - 1678

20 Classic And Important Books 
No new books

2016 TBR Pile Reading Challenge  
My TBR (To Be Read) pile is a lot longer than it should be, therefore I loved the idea to read as many of them as possible. Would have loved to reach the 20 book mark but I knew from the beginning, that wasn't going to happen. I did manage 37. Since the total of my books was 85, that amounts to 43.5%. Not bad, even if I say so myself.

7 Books That Will Radically Shift Your Perspectives  
No new books

A Century of Books 
The goal is to read a book from every year of the 20th century.
If I only manage one book every year, I will have finished this list in 14 years. ;)
I did manage to find one this year:
Camus, Albert "The Stranger" (aka "The Outsider") (French: L'étranger) - 1942

Best European Literature 
Camus, Albert "The Stranger" (aka "The Outsider") (French: L'étranger) - 1942
Shakespeare, William "Macbeth" aka "The Scottish Play" - 1599/1606

Bildungsroman 
Anonymous "Lazarillo de Tormes" (Spanish: La vida de Lazarillo de Tormes y de sus fortunas y adversidades) - 1554
Eliot, George "The Mill on the Floss" - 1860
Joyce, James "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" - 1916
Murakami, Haruki "Norwegian Wood" (Japanese: Noruwei no mori, ノルウェイの森) - 1987
Satrapi, Marjane "Persepolis. The Story of a Childhood" (French: Persepolis) - 2000
Satrapi, Marjane "Persepolis. The Story of a Return" (French: Persepolis. Vol. 2) - 2000
Webster, Jean "Daddy Longlegs" - 1912

Children's Books
Funke, Cornelia "Inkheart" (German: Tintenherz) - 2003
Grimm, Jacob und Wilhelm "Jorinde und Joringel. Acht Märchen der Brüder Grimm" [Jorinda and Joringel. Eight Fairy Tales] - 1812
Potter, Beatrix "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" - 1902
Sendak, Maurice "Where The Wild Things Are" - 1963
Stevenson, Robert Louis "Treasure Island" - 1881/82
Webster, Jean "Daddy Longlegs" - 1912

Dutch and French Books 
Camus, Albert "The Stranger" (aka "The Outsider") (French: L'étranger) - 1942
Delacourt, Grégoire "The list of my desires" (My wish list/French: La liste de mes envies/(The list of my desires/My Wish List) - 2012
Ferri, Jean-Yves; Didier Conrad, Didier "Asterix and the Missing Scroll" (French: Le Papyrus de César) - 2015
Maalouf, Amin "Samarcande" - 1988
Pagnol, Marcel "Jean de Florette" (L'eau des collines #1) (French: Jean de Florette) - 1963
Satrapi, Marjane "Persepolis. The Story of a Childhood" (French: Persepolis) - 2000
Satrapi, Marjane "Persepolis. The Story of a Return" (French: Persepolis. Vol. 2) - 2000

Emma's Book Club - Our shared shelf 
Angelou, Maya "Mom & Me & Mom" - 2013
Atwood, Margaret "The Handmaid’s Tale" - 1985
Brownstein, Carrie "Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl" - 2015
Dirie, Waris "Desert Flower: The Extraordinary Journey of a Desert Nomad" - 1998
Frank, Anne "The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition" (Dutch: Het Achterhuis) - 1942-44
Hardy, Thomas "Tess of the d’Urbervilles" - 1891
Hirsi Ali, Ayaan "Infidel: My Life" (Dutch: Mijn Vrijheid) - 2006
Hooks, Bell "All About Love: New Visions" - 1999
Kristof, Nicholas D. & Wudunn, Sheryl "Half the Sky. How to Change the World" - 2009
Lee, Harper "To Kill a Mockingbird" - 1960
Moran, Caitlin "How to be a Woman" - 2011
Nafisi, Azar "Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books" - 2003
Satrapi, Marjane "Persepolis. The Story of a Childhood" (French: Persepolis. Vol 1) - 2000
Satrapi, Marjane "Persepolis. The Storay of a Return" (French: Persepolis. Vol 2) - 2000
Steinem, Gloria "My Life on the Road" - 2015
Tolstoy, Leo (Толстой, Лев Николаевич) "Anna Karenina" (Russian: Анна Каренина = Anna Karenina) - 1877
Walker, Alice "The Color Purple" - 1982
Walls, Jeannette "The Glass Castle: A Memoir" - 2005
Yousafzai, Malala; Lamb, Christina "I am Malala. The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban" - 2013

Esperanto Links 
Duoblilo 
Štimec, Spomenka "Croatian War Nocturnal" (Kroata Milita Noktlibro) - 1993

German Books - Deutsche Bücher 
Fleischhauer, Wolfram "Schule der Lügen" (aka "Die Inderin") (In a Tender Hold) - 2014
Funke, Cornelia "Inkheart" (German: Tintenherz) - 2003
Grass, Günter "Peeling the Onion" (German: Beim Häuten der Zwiebel) - 2006
Grimm, Jacob und Wilhelm "Jorinde und Joringel. Acht Märchen der Brüder Grimm" [Jorinda and Joringel. Eight Fairy Tales] - 1812
Mercier, Pascal "Perlmann's Silence" (German: Perlmanns Schweigen) - 1995
Schami, Rafik "A Hand Full of Stars" (German: Eine Hand voller Sterne) - 1987
Schwarzer, Alice "Lebenslauf" [German: My life] - 2011
Zweig, Stefanie "Somewhere in Germany" (German: Irgendwo in Deutschland) - 1996

Interesting Links 
No new links added

Le Monde - The 100 Books of the Century  
Camus, Albert "The Stranger" (aka "The Outsider") (French: L'étranger) - 1942
Goscinny, René; Uderzo, Albert "Asterix the Gaul" (French: Astérix le Gaulois) - 1959
Rushdie, Salman "Midnight's Children" - 1981

Migraine Books and Links 2011, 2014, 2016 
I started a new list in 2016. You can find all the links here.

Modern Library 100 Best Novels of the 20th Century 
Joyce, James "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" - 1916

Movies recommending books 
Stevenson, Robert Louis "Treasure Island" - 1881/82

My favourite books ever, 2012 and 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015

I added the following books to the list "My favourite books ever":
Abulhawa, Susan "Mornings in Jenin" - 2010
Alexievich, Svetlana "Second Hand Time. The Last of the Sovjets" (Russian: Время секонд хэнд = Vremja sekond khend) - 2013
Bryson, Bill "The Road to Little Dribbling: more Notes from a Small Island" - 2015
Bryson, Bill "A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail" - 1998
Kulin, Ayşe "Rose of Sarajevo" (Turkish: Sevdalinka) - 1999
Mercier, Pascal "Perlmann's Silence" (German: Perlmanns Schweigen) - 1995
Mistry, Rohinton "Family Matters" - 2002
Oates, Joyce Carol "Carthage" - 2014
Oates, Joyce Carol "The Man Without a Shadow" - 2016
Perkins, Sue "Spectacles" - 2015
Schami, Rafik "A Hand Full of Stars" (German: Eine Hand voller Sterne) - 1987
Trollope, Anthony "The Way We Live Now" - 1875

Nobel Prize Winners and Their Books
I enjoy the books by the Nobel Prize winners a lot and every year I can't wait to hear the name of the latest recipient rush to read some new books by him or her. This year, of course, the prize was awared to a songwriter - Bob Dylan - rather than a book author but I do have his biogrphy on my list. However, I was able to add four more books written by Nobel Prize Winners to my list.

And these are the books by former Nobel Prize authors I read this year:
Alexievich, Svetlana "Second Hand Time. The Last of the Sovjets" (Russian: Время секонд хэнд = Vremja sekond khend) - 2013
Camus, Albert "The Stranger" (aka "The Outsider") (French: L'étranger) - 1942
García Márquez, Gabriel "The General in His Labyrinth" (Spanish: El general en su laberinto) - 1989
Grass, Günter "My Century" (German: Mein Jahrhundert) - 1999

Oprah’s Book Club
Since Oprah doesn't publish much new stuff, I didn't add any new books to this list.

Oscar Winning Books 
This is an old challenge, I didn't add any new books to this list.

Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (Friedenspreis)
Alexievich, Svetlana "Second Hand Time. The Last of the Sovjets" (Russian: Время секонд хэнд = Vremja sekond khend) - 2013
Grossman, David "The Zig Zag Kid" (Hebrew: יש ילדים זיגזג/Jesh Jeladim) - 1994

Suggestions from Friends 
There are always a lot of books that you hear someone mentioning. These are the books that were particularly recommended by friends for me to read. I have enjoyed them all a lot.
Landers, Brian "Empires Apart. A History of American and Russian Imperialism" - 2010
Mitchell, David "Cloud Atlas" - 2004
Rushdie, Salman "Midnight's Children" - 1981

The 10 Greatest Books Ever 
I didn't add any new books to this list.

The 100 Greatest Fiction Books as Chosen by The Guardian 
Another list where I didn't add any new books.

The Top 10 Most Difficult Books
I have only read one book in this challenge and agree that it was difficult.

Top 10 Most Read Books in the World 
I have read seven of them, I doubt I will ever read the last three.

What's in a Name 2014 Reading Challenge 
Even though this is an older challenge, I always think it's interesting to read an eponymous book, it's always something special.
Anonymous "Lazarillo de Tormes" (Spanish: La vida de Lazarillo de Tormes y de sus fortunas y adversidades)
Arnold, Catharine "Globe: Life in Shakespeare's London" - 2014
Borchert, Wolfgang "Schischyphusch oder Der Kellner meines Onkels" [Shishyphush or my uncle's waiter] - 1947/2016
Filipović, Zlata "Zlata's Diary: A Child's Life in Wartime Sarajevo" - 1993
Grimm, Jacob und Wilhelm "Jorinde und Joringel. Acht Märchen der Brüder Grimm" [Jorinde and Joringel. Eight Fairy Tales] - 1812
Mercier, Pascal "Perlmanns Schweigen" (Perlmann's Silence) - 1995
McCall Smith, Alexander "Emma. A Modern Retelling" - 2015
Pamuk, Orhan "Cevdet und seine Söhne" (Turkish: Cevdet Bey ve Oğulları/Cevdet Bey and His Sons) - 1982
Shakespeare, William "Macbeth" - 1599/1606

Colours in Book Titles: green
Ulitzkaja, Ljudmila/Ulitzkaya, Lyudmila "Das grüne Zelt" (Imago or The Big Green Tent/Zelenyi shater/Зеленый шатер)

My blog was nominated for
Liebster Award
Beautiful Blogger Award!!

Last year's Wrap-Up is here.