Top Ten Tuesday ~ Doors

    

 "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, our topic is Halloween Freebie

On this day, in some countries, children go from door to door. So, I thought why not find some books with doors on them. I love doors. They are there to protect you from outsiders who don't mean well but they are also there to welcome friends. These doors are in various countries, the USA and the United Kingdom, Russia and Spain, Ireland, and Syria. They lead you to all kinds of different places, and the door often shows you what might be behind them.
Would any of these welcome children who ask for a treat?

Angelou, Maya "I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings" - 1969
Baker, Jo "Longbourn" - 2013
Baxter, Charles "The Soul Thief" - 2008 
Dostoevsky, Fyodor "A Gentle Creature" (aka The Gentle Spirit) (RUS: Кроткая, Krotkaja) - 1876
Kerkeling, Hape "I'm Off Then" (GE: Ich bin dann mal weg) - 2014
Levy, Marc "London Mon Amour" (F: Mes amis mes amours) - 2006
McCarthy, Pete "McCarthy's Bar" - 2000
Schami, Rafik "The Dark Side of Love" (GE: Die dunkle Seite der Liebe) - 2004
Stevenson, Helen "Instructions for Visitors. Life and Love in a French Town" - 2001
Stewart, Sheila "Lifting the Latch" - 1987

In Germany, not many kids go from door to door on Halloween. Instead, they go with their lanterns on St. Martin and sing songs (see here).

📚 Happy Reading! 📚

Voltaire "Candide"

Voltaire "Candide, or Optimism" (French: Candide, ou l'Optimisme) - 1759

For the Classics Spin #35, we received #2 and this was my novel.

An interesting take on the Age of Enlightenment.

Candide is a young guy who lives in Germany. He falls in love with a girl but is prevented from marrying her because of her parents. He learns the philosophy "All is for the Best" and travels around the world with this belief.

He probably encounters as many troubles as Homer's Odysseus in the "Odyssey" and solves them almost with the same vigour.

The novel promises to be funny and indeed it is. I have laughed quite a few times during the reading. How can a book be funny and philosophical at the same time? I'm not surprised Voltaire is still such a renowned author even more than two centuries later. I am really happy #2 was pulled for this challenge because I really enjoyed the story.

This novel reminded me a little of Eichendorff's "Life of a Good For Nothing", although it should be the other way around since this one was written earlier. Other than the German novel, I could see more philosophy in this book.

From the back cover:

"Candide tells of the hilarious adventures of the naïve Candide, who doggedly believes that 'all is for the best' even when faced with injustice, suffering, and despair. Controversial and entertaining, Candide is a book that is vitally relevant today in our world pervaded by - as Candide would say - 'the mania for insisting that all is well when all is by no means well.'"

#ThrowbackThursday. We Can Have Peace In The Holy Land

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

This is definitely one of the most approriate Throwback Thursdays that I ever had.

You can tell Jimmy Carter has a lot of experience in this very difficult situation. His ideas are certainly worth considering. He explains the whole background about the problems in the Middle East including all his and other people's efforts to try solving the mess created decades (or even longer) ago.

If only we had listened to Jimmy Carter fifteen years ago!

Jimmy Carter received the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2002 "for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development."

I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.

Read my original review here. 

10 Year Challenge Book Tag 2023

I was not tagged but saw this challenge on Deanna's page A Novel Glimpse through Bea @ Confessions of a Pinay Bookaholic. It was created by Rincey Reads. It’s a fun tag that takes a look back at my reading 10 years ago versus today. Please check out Deanna's, Bea’s and Rincey's posts.

What was your favourite book in 2013?
Ruiz Zafón, Carlos "The Prisoner of Heaven" (E: El prisionero del cielo - El cementerio de los libros olvidados #3) - 2011
One of my favourite book series ever.

What is your favourite book of 2023 (so far)?
Brooks, Geraldine "People of the Book" - 2008
Not a difficult decision, I absolutely loved this story.

What was your least favourite book in 2013?
Gillham, David R. "City of Women" - 2012

What is a book published in 2013 that you still want to read?
Garfield, Simon "To the Letter: A Curious History of Correspondence - A Celebration of the Lost Art of Letter Writing" - 2013
I read "On the Map. Why the World Looks the Way it Does" by the same author and only just found "To the Letter".

What is the book published (to be published) in 2023 you want to get before 2024?
Follett, Ken "The Armour of Light"

What is a genre you used to read a lot of that you don’t read as much of anymore?
I don't think there was a huge change between the genres I used to read and those that I read now. I still like classics, Nobel Prize winners, anything I can learn from ...

What is a new genre you’ve discovered since 2013?
I think I have read books from all genres and haven't really found any new ones. I know which ones I love and which ones I truly dislike. And I doubt that this will change.

What is a reading or book habit you are hoping to leave behind in this decade?
Same as last year: Buying too many books. But I doubt that will ever change.

What is a new reading goal or habit you want to create in the upcoming decade?
I think I have more than enough reading habits and don't intend to change them.

I'm not tagging anyone but invite you all to do this, if you like to participate. If you decide to do this, leave a link in the comments so I can check out your post. Thanks!

I did this already last year. See my 10 Year Challenge 2021 here and my 2022 Challenge here.

L’Engle, Madeleine "A Wrinkle in Time"

L’Engle, Madeleine "A Wrinkle in Time" - 1962

I read this for the "1962 Club".

This book challenge takes place twice a year and concentrates on one year and one year only. I call it "Read theYear Club". This time, 1962 was picked. For more information, see Simon @ Stuck in a Book.

I had already read seven books from that year (see here) and this was one we had in the house, one of my boys must have read it ages ago.

Fantasy or science-fictions are not really my genre but I find some from time to time that are still quite nice.

As was this one. I couldn't even tell what the attraction is to this book since the sci-fi is totally made up, kids are there to save the world (I usually detest both those parts in stories) but it was a nice read.

The style is certainly part of it, the way the characters are described, the interaction between them. There are many likeable people in this story.

Will I read the other books of the series? Probably not. But I am glad I read this one.

From the back cover:

"It is a dark and stormy night. Meg Murry; her small brother, Charles Wallace; and their mother are in the kitchen for a midnight snack when a most disturbing visitor arrives. 'Wild nights are my glory,' the unearthly stranger tells them. 'I just got caught in a downdraft and blown off course. Let me sit down for a moment, and then I'll be on my way. Speaking of ways, by the way, there is such a thing as a tesseract.' Meg's father had been experimenting with this fifth dimension of time travel when he mysteriously disappeared. Now the time has come for Meg, her friend Calvin, and Charles Wallace to rescue him. But can they outwit the forces of evil they will encounter on their heart-stopping journey through space?"

And here is Simon's list with all the books from 1962 other bloggers read.

#ThrowbackThursday. Stones into Schools

 

Mortenson, Greg & Bryan, Mike "Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan" - 2009

Such a wonderful story about a guy who was helped by the members of a tiny village in Pakistan and decided to build them a school (see Three Cups of Tea.: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time).

We thought this was even better than the first book, maybe because he had a different co-writer or he was getting further with his project, whatever, it was a very pleasurable read.

We discussed this in our international book club in April 2011.

Read my original review here. 

Top Ten Tuesday ~ Weather Events

 

   

 "Top Ten Tuesday" is an original feature/weekly meme created on the blog "The Broke and the Bookish". This feature was created because they are particularly fond of lists at "The Broke and the Bookish". 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, our topic is Books with Weather Events in the Title/on the Cover

Ghosh, Amitav "Flood of Fire" (Ibis Trilogy #3) - 2015 
Guterson, David "Snow Falling on Cedars" - 1994
Hamill, Pete "Snow in August" - 1998
Handke, Peter "Storm Still" (GE:  Immer noch Sturm) - 2010
Høeg, Peter "Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow" (DK: Frøken Smillas fornemmelse for sne) - 1992
1913
Ivey, Eowyn "The Snow Child" - 2012
Lennox, Judith "Before the Storm" - 2008
Pamuk, Orhan "Snow" (TR: Kar) - 2002
See, Lisa "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" - 2005

I'm not a huge fan of storms, floods or snow but I think they can help create great stories.

📚 Happy Reading! 📚

#ThrowbackThursday. Pan

Hamsun, Knut "Pan" (Norwegian: Pan) - 1894

It’s fascinating how the author describes nature and makes it come alive. He smells the forest, paints a picture, reminds us of our youth, love, culture, nature, civilization. It’s an echo of childhood and youth, the inner soul of the human being, he loved to explore that. There is a struggle between opposites, men and women, nature and town, the love story is eminent, there are obstacles, pride, jealousy.

Lots of symbolism and metaphors, e.g. the changing seasons. Mythology also plays a big part in the novel, the division between his love of nature and with people, we were taken by his love of nature.

We discussed this in our international book club in March 2011.

Read my original review here.  

Knut Hamsun received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1920 "for his monumental work, 'Growth of the Soil'". 

I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.

The Classics Club: The Classics Spin #35

       

"Words and Peace" is a blog I've been following for a couple of years and I have always found some interesting new (or olde) 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 15^th October 2023, 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 3^rd of December 2023 to read it.

In the meantime, I read two books from my old list (Classics Spin #34). But there are always some new books that I can add to my challenge. The books are all in chronological order.

1.    Aristophanes "Lysistrata and Other Plays" (Lysistrata) - 411BC
2.    Voltaire "Candide, ou l'Optimisme" (Candide, or Optimism) - 1759
3.    Dickens, Charles "Nicholas Nickleby. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby" - 1838/39
4.    Brontë, Charlotte "The Professor" - 1857
5.    Turgenjew, Iwan Sergejewitsch "Fathers and Sons" (Отцы и дети/Otzy i deti) - 1862
6.    Conrad, Joseph "Victory: An Island Tale" - 1915
7.    Hamilton, Cicely "William - an Englishman" - 1920
8.    Hesse, Hermann "Wir nehmen die Welt nur zu ernst" [We just take the world too seriously] - 1928
9.    Faulkner, William "The Sound and the Fury" - 1929
10.   Hemingway, Ernest "A Farewell to Arms" - 1929
11.   Meigs, Cornelia "Invincible Louisa" - 1933
12.   Orwell, George "The Road to Wigan Pier" - 1937
13.   Du Maurier, Daphne "Rebecca" - 1938
14.   Krleža, Miroslav "On the Edge of Reason" (Na rubu pameti) - 1938
15.   Némirovsky, Irène "Les biens de ce monde" (All Our Wordly Goods) - 1941
16.   Cela, Camilo José "The Family of Pascal Duarte" (La Familia Duarte) - 1942
17.   Zweig, Stefan "Schachnovelle" (The Royal Game/Chess) - 1942
18.   Wilde, Oscar "Only Dull People Are Brilliant at Breakfast" - 1946
19.   Huxley, Aldous "Ape and Essence" - 1948
20.   Yates, Richard "Revolutionary Road" - 1961

If you want to take up the challenge, here is the post: The Classics Spin #35 

This time, it's #2, so my novel is:
Voltaire "Candide, ou l'Optimisme" (Candide, or Optimism) - 1759

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.

Bennett, Alan "The Clothes They Stood Up In"

Bennett, Alan "The Clothes They Stood Up in" - 2001

After reading "The Uncommon Reader" a while ago, our book club decided to read another book by Alan Bennett. I would have rather waited a little longer until reading another book by the same author, but it was decided by the majority and it wasn't very long (though that is not really a recommendation for me).

The story makes us think about the possessions we have and how important they are to us. How much do they make our lives?

But that is all. I didn't enjoy the story much, neither the writing nor the characters or the content. It was an alright story but - as so often - more would have been more. Too short for my liking. Not really as funny as announced. It might take a while until I pick up an Alan Bennett story again.

There was only one member in our group that liked the story, and her comments gave us a little more insight into it. That's always great about a book club.

From the back cover:

"The Clothes They Stood Up In is Alan Bennett's first story. Like Charles Dickens' novels which were first published in magazines, it originally appeared in the London Review of Books - which the author says 'seems to me (and not just because I occasionally contribute to it) the liveliest, most serious and also the most radical literary periodical we have'.

In the nationally bestselling novel The Clothes They Stood Up In, the Ransomes return from the opera to find their Regent’s Park flat stripped bare--right down to the toilet-paper roll. Free of all their earthly belongings, the couple faces a perplexing question: Who are they without the things they’ve spent a lifetime accumulating? Suddenly a world of unlimited, frightening possibility opens up before them."

Smith, Dodie "I Capture the Castle"

Smith, Dodie "I Capture the Castle" - 1948

Every month I participate in the challenge "Six Degrees of Separation". We always get a starter book and then go and find another book that links to it and so forth. Hardly ever have I read the starter book and often it is too late to get it or I am not interested. But this has been on my wishlist for ages, so I decided I should read it

I'm afraid I did not like it very much. The protagonist is a 17 year old girl who writes her journal. And that's exactly how it sounds, as if a 17 year old girl would have written it. And not a smart 17 year old girl who writes well, just a girl who adds one sentence after the other out of boredom.

I have no idea why so many people seem to like this. It reminded me of "Cold Comfort Farm", everyone praised the book but I just couldn't find anything in it that entertained me.

From the back cover:

"Through six turbulent months of 1934, 17-year-old Cassandra Mortmain keeps a journal, filling three notebooks with sharply funny yet poignant entries about her home, a ruined Suffolk castle, and her eccentric and penniless family. By the time the last diary shuts, there have been great changes in the Mortmain household, not the least of which is that Cassandra is deeply, hopelessly, in love."

Six Degrees of Separation ~ I Capture the Castle

 I Capture the Castle
"I Capture the Caste" - 1948

#6Degrees of Separation:

from I Capture the Castle to The Secret River

#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's prompt starts with I Capture the Castle.

Every month I participate in the challenge "Six Degrees of Separation. We always get a starter book and then go and find another book that links to it and so forth. Hardly ever have I read the starter book and often it is too late to get it or I am not interested. But this has been on my wishlist for ages, so I decided I should read it.

I found the chain this time again by jumping from one word in the title to the next, the first one being Castle:

Pamuk, Orhan "The White Castle" (TR: Beyaz Kale) - 1985 

 
Aicher-Scholl, Inge "The White Rose" (GE: Die weiße Rose) - 1952

Eco, Umberto "The Name of the Rose" (I: Il Nome de la Rosa) - 1980  

Pamuk, Orhan "My Name is Red" (TR: Benim Adım Kırmızı) - 1998

Tademy, Lalita "Red River" - 2007

Grenville, Kate "The Secret River" - 2005

📚📚📚

In most of those books there are changes in the lives of the people, sometimes by moving somewhere else for a while or forever. And that is exactly the link between the first and the last. The family in the first book live in an old castle, more or less on exile, whereas the family in the last book is sent from England to a completely new country forever, Australia.

I am also happy to have found four non-English books for my list. I hope some of the other readers will find a new author through that.

Spell the Month in Books ~ October

          
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.

October: Title Contains a Number or a Colour
Colours or numbers are always a nice topic. But - they have to fit into the letters of the month. Do you know a number that starts with "C", for example? Well, a good thing we could take numbers OR colours.

OCTOBER

O
Bryson, Bill "One Summer: America, 1927" - 2013

Not my favourite book by one of my absolute favourite authors. But a well researched one about the summer of 27, almost a hundred years ago. Life wasn't easy then, either.

C
Berry, Venise "Colored Sugar Water: A Spiritual Tale" - 2003

Spiritual bordering on magic realism. Too spiritual for me.

T
Lewycka, Marina "Two Caravans" (aka Strawberry Fields) - 2007

This book describes the life of Ukrainians (and Polish) seasonal/migrant workers in citizens in England (before Brexit, obviously).

O
García Márquez, Gabriel "One Hundred Years of Solitude" (E: Cien años de soledad) - 1967

 A saga of a family, seven generations, starting when the first member immigrates to Colombia, spanning almost a century of South American history during the colonial years.

(Nobel Prize winner 1982)

B
Pamuk, Orhan "The Black Book" (TR: Kara Kitap) - 1990

A man is looking for his wife who disappeared. He is roaming the streets of Istanbul in order to look back at their past. He mainly relies on the help of two columnists.

Orhan Pamuk manages to describe his home town in such a way that you really want to visit it (again), he makes it so interesting, the changing of people and cultures.

(Nobel Prize winner 2006)

E
Cognetti, Paolo "The Eight Mountains" (I: Le otto montagne) - 2016

Pietro and Bruno have been friends since childhood. Since Pietro's mother decided it was time to spend the summer in the mountains rather than in Milan and his father took him climbing there, in the Dolomites.

A beautiful story.

R
Mo, Yan "Red Sorghum" (CHN: 红高粱家族 Hóng gāoliang jiāzú) - 1987

The story takes place during the second Sino-Japanese war between 1937 and 1945, so approximately the same time the whole world was at war. The narrator tells the story of his ancestors, mainly that of his father, who was a teenager at the time, and his grandfather and grandmother.

(Nobel Prize winner 2012)

So, three colours, four numbers, not bad, I think. I liked all the books, except for "Colored Sugar Water".

Happy Reading!

📚 📚 📚

The 1962 Club

 

This book challenge takes place twice a year and concentrates on one year and one year only. I call it "Read the Year Club". This time, 1962 was picked. For more information, see Simon @ Stuck in a Book (here is the invite) and Kaggsy @ Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings.

If you are looking for inspiration, there are a few books from that year that I read already:
Berenstain, Stan and Jan "The Berenstain Bears" - 1962ff.
Burgess, Anthony "A Clockwork Orange" - 1962  
Haushofer, Marlen "The Wall" (GE: Die Wand) - 1962
Lessing, Doris "The Golden Notebook" - 1962
Scott, Mary; West, Joyce "Such Nice People" (Inspector Wright #2) - 1962
Solzhenitsyn, Alexander "His Great Stories" (RUS: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich; For the Good of the Cause; Matryona's House; An Incident at Krechetovka Station) (RUS: Оди́н день Ива́на Дени́совича/Odin den' Ivana Denisovicha; Для пользы дела/ lja pol'zy dela; Матрёнин двор/Matrjonin dvor; Случай на станции Кречетовка/Sluchaj na stancii Krechetovka) - 1962/63
Yerby, Frank "Griffin's Way" - 1962

I also found some other ideas, I am sure there is a book for everyone here:

Bradbury, Ray "Something Wicked this Way Comes " - 1962 (Goodreads)
Christie, Agatha "The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side" - 1962 (Goodreads)
Dick, Philip K. THe Man in the High Castle" - 1962 (Goodreads)
Faulkner, William "The Reivers" - 1962 (Goodreads)
Huxley, Aldous "Island" - 1962 (Goodreads)
Jackson, Shirley "We Have Always Lived in the Castle" - 1962 (Goodreads)
Kesey, Ken "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" - 1962 (Goodreads)
L’Engle, Madeleine "A Wrinkle in Time" - 1962 (Goodreads)
Remarque, Erich Maria "The Night in Lisbon - 1962 (Goodreads)

This challenge takes place from 16 to 22 October 2023.

I picked:
L’Engle, Madeleine "A Wrinkle in Time" - 1962
Mainly, because it was on our bookshelf, one of the boys must have read it.

Poe, Edgar Allan "The Murders in the Rue Morgue"

Poe, Edgar Allan "The Murders in the Rue Morgue and other stories" - 1841

Our international online book club read in August 2023.

Dark, gruesome, abysmal, that's what I read somewhere about the writings of Edgar Allan Poe. Yeah, I couldn't agree more. I know people who love this sort of writing but I don't. I was afraid I wouldn't like it but tried my best to discover something that might tempt me to read more by this author. Alas, that was not to be. This time, it was a good thing that the book wasn't that thick. Or maybe that added to my disenjoyment.

My biggest problem with stories like these, there is nothing to learn from them. Absolutely nothing. And that is my main reason for reading.

Our book club had chosen to read a collection of short stores. The trouble with this is always that there are different ones in different languages. These were the stories the Finnish members had:
The Tell-Tale Heart (1843)
The Imp of the Perverse (1845)
The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841)
The Mystery of Marie Rogêt (1843)
The Purloined Letter (1844)
'Thou Art the Man' (1844)

And these were the ones in the English edition:
The Oval Portrait
Ligeia
Eleonora
Morella
Berenice
The Fall of the House of Usher
The Masque of the Red Death
Hop-Frog
The Pit and the Pendulum
The Cask of Amontillado
The Gold-Bug
The Murders in the Rue Morgue
The Mystery of Marie Rogêt
The Purloined Letter

The group had some other opinions. There was a really good discussion about Poe's works and life. Some had read some of the gruesome and terrible works but most of us had read a selection of a few different kinds, some of which are really clever and intelligent, and you clearly can see how he was starting a genre to influence literature for hundreds of years to follow.

From the back cover:

"Between 1841 and 1844, Edgar Allan Poe invented the genre of detective fiction with three mesmerizing stories about a young and eccentric French private detective named C. Auguste Dupin.

Introducing to literature the concept of applying reason to solving crime, these tales brought Poe fame and fortune, although much less of the second during his lifetime. Decades later, Dorothy Sayers would describe 'The Murders in the Rue Morgue' as 'almost a complete manual of detective theory and practice.' Indeed, Poe’s short Dupin mysteries inspired the creation of countless literary sleuths, among them Sherlock Holmes. Today, the unique Dupin stories still stand out as utterly engrossing page-turners."

German Unity Day

 

"Top Ten Tuesday" is an original feature/weekly meme created on the blog "The Broke and the Bookish". This feature was created because they are particularly fond of lists at "The Broke and the Bookish". It is now hosted by Jana from That Artsy Reader Girl.

There is always a "Top Ten Tuesday" on the 4^th of July for the US Americans and I thought, I'll take the opportunity to create a German one on our National Holiday.

"German Unity Day (German: Tag der Deutschen Einheit) is the National Day of Germany, celebrated on 3 October as a public holiday.[1] It commemorates German reunification in 1990 when the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) joined the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany), so that for the first time since 1945 there existed a single German state." (Wikipedia)

Here are some of my favourite books by German authors or about Germany. I can recommend all of them. You might learn a little more about the country than just the usual six years that everybody knows everything about, or at least think they do.

Ahmad, Aeham "The Pianist from Syria" (aka The Pianist of Yarmouk) (GE: Und die Vögel werden singen. Ich, der Pianist aus den Trümmern) - 2017
Grass, Günter "The Box: Tales From the Darkroom" (GE: Die Box. Dunkelkammergeschichten) - 2008 (Nobel Prize winner 1999)
Grjasnowa, Olga "All Russians Love Birch Trees" (GE: Der Russe ist einer, der Birken liebt) - 2012
Hansen, Dörte "This House is Mine" (GE: Altes Land) - 2015
MacGregor, Neil "Germany. Memories of a Nation" - 2014
Pamuk, Orhan "Snow" (TR: Kar) - 2002 (Nobel Prize winner 2006)
Pausewang, Gudrun "The Last Children" (GE: Die letzten Kinder von Schewenborn oder … sieht so unsere Zukunft aus?) - 1983
Regener, Sven "Berlin Blues" (GE: Herr Lehmann) - 2001
Tellkamp, Uwe "The Tower" (GE: Der Turm) - 2008
Wolf, Christa "They Divided the Sky" (aka Divided Heaven) (GE: Der geteilte Himmel) - 1963

📚 Happy Reading! 📚

Happy October!

 Happy October to all my friends and readers

New Calendar picture with this
beautiful watercolour painting by Hanka Koebsch

"Rundflug"
"Sightseeing Flight"

Hanka and Frank say to this picture:
Rostock Zoo has offspring polar bears. The twins Kaja and Skadi quickly conquered the hearts of zoo visitors. We too were often guests of the polar bear family and observed the development of the little ones.
Der Rostocker Zoo hat Eisbärennachwuchs. Die Zwillinge Kaja und Skadi eroberten ganz schnell die Herzen der Zoo-Besucher. Auch wir waren oft bei der Eisbärenfamilie zu Gast und haben die Entwicklung der Kleinen beobachtet.

Another great watercolour painting by Hanka Koebsch. Enjoy!

Read more on their website here. *

 

 * * *

September is always one of my favourite months. Because autumn starts, the days get cooler and I can finally breathe again. We had some nice family events, a wedding, a Golden wedding anniversary, a 70th birthday, some other parties. And two concerts, one with Klezmer music (more or less Jewish wedding dances, brilliant), one classical one with works by Rossini, Haydn, Debussy and others.

 

 * * *

But the biggest event were our holidays. Malmö and Göteborg were our destinations where we met our sons. Sweden is fantastic and we will always remember the wonderful people, the beautiful landscape, the fantastic towns, just everything about this great country.

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Here is a collage:

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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 happy October! 🍁