#ThrowbackThursday. January 2012 Part 1

I've been doing Throwback Thursdays for a while but I noticed that I wrote a lot of reviews in a short time when I first started. One of my blogger friends always posts the reviews of one month but that would be too much. So, these are my reviews from the first part of January 2012.

Chang, Leslie T. "Factory Girls. Young Women on the Move in Modern China" - 2008
Leslie T. Chang is a Chinese-American journalist who travelled to and lived in China for a couple of years to get to know the country of her ancestors. She interviewed several female migrant workers and portrayed their lives between the old and the new world.

Ende, Michael "The Never Ending Story" (GE: Die unendliche Geschichte) - 1979
I think this is the only fantasy story I ever liked. Mind you, I think it is more a fairy tale and those remind me of my childhood.

Frazier, Charles "Nightwoods" - 2011
A young woman has to look after her murdered sister's twins. But - there is so much more to this story, and not just the beautiful description of Charles Frazier's beloved Appalachians. 

Kohler, Sheila "Becoming Jane Eyre" - 2009
An interesting novel based on the life of  Charlotte Brontë, especially while writing "Jane Eyre". The author transports us back into the time the book was written and shows how it grows with  Charlotte Brontë's experiences.

Levi, Primo "If Not Now, When?" (I: Se non ora, quando) - 1982
Based on a true story, about two Russian Jews who join a band of partisans behind enemy lines.

Read my original reviews, for the links click on the titles.

Tokarczuk, Olga "Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead" - 2009

Tokarczuk, Olga "Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead" (Polish: Prowadź swój pług przez kości umarłych) - 2009

I have read one book by Olga Tokarczuk (Primeval and Other Times) when she received her Nobel Prize for Literature. And I wanted to read more by her since then. A bookclub member lent me one now and I read it in more or less one go, it is so exciting. Janina Duszejko is such an interesting character. And the story is starting so quietly, you don't even notice at the beginning that it is a crime story which are not my favourites.

Even though she is the protagonist of the novel, you don't see her as such at the beginning. Janina is a middle-aged, slightly weird woman living in the middle of nowhere in the mountains at the Polish-Czech border where she looks after the summer houses of some rich people. She works with astrology and translates poems by William Blake. She loves animals and she is a conservationist. A remarquable woman.

Where this story leads to, I don't know. But I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in great literature.

From the back cover:

"One of Poland's most imaginative and lyrical writers, Olga Tokarczuk presents us with a detective story with a twist in DRIVE YOUR PLOW OVER THE BONES OF THE DEAD. After her two dogs go missing and members of the local hunting club are found murdered, teacher and animal rights activist Janina Duszejko becomes involved in the ensuing investigation. Part magic realism, part detective story, DRIVE YOUR PLOW OVER THE BONES OF THE DEAD is suspenseful and entertaining reimagining of the genre interwoven with poignant and insightful commentaries on our perceptions of madness, marginalised people and animal rights."

And why the German translation is called "Der Gesang der Fledermäuse" (The Song of the Bats) is still a mystery to me.

Olka Tokarczuk received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2018 "for her narrative imagination that with encyclopedic passion represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life".

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

Top 5 Tuesday ~ New Authors of 2024

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 New Authors. Tell us all about your favourite new authors. Either debut authors from 2024, or new-to-you this year.

Mine are all new to me, none from this year, though the German ones are debut authors. I have mentioned some of them before but they were the only new authors I really liked this year.

Fosse, Jon "Morning and Evening" (NO: Morgon og kveld) - 2001
Last year's Nobel Prize winner. A fascinating story about the life and death of a man. 

Haig, Matt "The Midnight Library" - 2020
Imagine a library on the way between life and death. And you can see what would have become of you and your life, had you taken another road somewhere.

Knöppler, Florian "Kronsnest [Name of Village]" (GE: Kronsnest) - 2020
This was a really nice book. It describes Hannes' youth in the 1920s. Shortly after the Second World War

Verghese, Abraham "The Covenant of Water" - 2023
A wonderful story about a family in India over the length of most of a century.

Wahl, Caroline "22 Lanes" (GE: 22 Bahnen) - 2023
A very touching story. Tilda lives in an apartment with her divorced mother and her little sister. She studies and works on the side. The problem is that her mother is an alcoholic and so Tilda is not only her sister's educator but also her mother's caregiver.

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🙏Happy Reading!🙏

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#ThrowbackThursday. December 2011 Part 5

I've been doing Throwback Thursdays for a while but I noticed that I wrote a lot of reviews in a short time when I first started. One of my blogger friends always posts the reviews of one month but that would be too much. So, these are my reviews from the fifth part of December 2011.

Brown, Rita Mae - The Hunsenmeir Trilogy - 1987-99
A story about two elderly ladies, the Hunsenmeir sisters, and the Lesbian daughter of one of them.

Ingalls Wilder, Laura "Little House Books" 1932-1971
Laura's father was a pioneer, so she and her sisters moved around North America from one unsettled piece of land to the next. 

Kneale, Matthew "English Passengers" - 2000
Sailors from the Isle of Man wanted to smuggle a little alcohol but end up in Tasmania. This story tells about the effect they had on the people living there already, the native Australians.

Osorio, Elsa "My Name is Light" (Spanish: A veinte años, Luz) - 1998
A highly interesting novel about something that didn't happen that long ago, yet is not so widely published. 
Luz wants to find her father, Carlos, one of the many political activists in Argentina who literally 'disappeared'.

Wilde, Oscar "The Importance of Being Earnest" - 1895
A wonderful, humorous play. A hilarious satire. 

Read my original reviews, for the links click on the titles.

Oates, Joyce Carol "Blonde"

Oates, Joyce Carol "Blonde" - 2000

I find it hard to write this review. I love books by Joyce Carol Oates, I think she deserves the Nobel Prize. I am intrigued by the figure of Marilyn Monroe, I read the book "Marilyn" (Goodreads) by Norman Mailer ages ago. I think I was expecting something along that line.

What I got was a description of a child who didn't stand a chance in the world. How she became one of the greatest icons in the film industry? That was a long and arduous way and it didn't bring her any joy.

I had to remind myself often that this was just a book based on the real life story of the film star, even though most of the facts were true.

It was a long and heavy read. Did I enjoy it as much as the other JCO books? I'm not sure but I'm glad I read it.

From the back cover:

"In 'Blonde' we are given an intimate, unsparing vision of the woman who became Marilyn Monroe like no other: the child who visits the cinema with her mother; the orphan whose mother is declared mad; the woman who changes her name to become an actress; the fated celebrity, lover, comedienne, muse and icon. Joyce Carol Oates tells an epic American story of how a fragile, gifted young woman makes and remakes her identity, surviving against crushing odds, perpetually in conflict and intensely driven. Here is the very essence of the individual hungry and needy for love: from an elusive mother; from a mysterious, distant father and from a succession of lovers and husbands. Joyce Carol Oates sympathetically explores the inner life of the woman destined to become Hollywood’s most compelling legend. 'Blonde' is a brilliant and deeply moving portrait of a culture hypnotised by its own myths and the shattering reality of the personal effects it had on the woman who became Marilyn Monroe."

Six Degrees of Separation ~ Sandwich

Catherine Newman
Newman, Catherine "Sandwich" - 2024

#6Degrees of Separation:

from Sandwich (Goodreads) to The Big Green Tent 

#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.

The starter book this month is Sandwich by Catherine Newman. 

Here is the description:

"For the past two decades, Rocky has looked forward to her family’s yearly escape to Cape Cod. Their humble beach-town rental has been the site of sweet memories, sunny days, great meals, and messes of all kinds: emotional, marital, and—thanks to the cottage’s ancient plumbing—septic too.

This year’s vacation, with Rocky sandwiched between her half-grown kids and fully aging parents, promises to be just as delightful as summers past—except, perhaps, for Rocky’s hormonal bouts of rage and melancholy. (Hello, menopause!) Her body is changing—her life is, too. And then a chain of events sends Rocky into the past, reliving both the tenderness and sorrow of a handful of long-ago summers.

It's one precious week: everything is in balance; everything is in flux. And when Rocky comes face to face with her family’s history and future, she is forced to accept that she can no longer hide her secrets from the people she loves."

This is not really my kind of literature, so I couldn't find much to link to this book. And there were no words in the title that I could use, so I went to another author with the first name Catherine.

Martin, Catherine "The Incredible Journey" - 1923

Mistry, Rohinton "Such a Long Journey" - 1991

Tsumura, Kikuko "There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job" (Konoyoni tayasui shigoto wa na/この世にたやすい仕事はない) - 2015

Perry, Matthew "Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing" - 2022

McCall Smith, Alexander "The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party" (The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #12) - 2011

Ulitzkaya, Lyudmila "Imago" or "The Big Green Tent" (RUS: Зеленый шатер = Zelenyi shater) - 2010

I could have even swapped the two last books since the both have Big and Tent in their titles.

What do the first and the last book have in common? Well, they both take place in extremely difficult times for the protagonists.

📚📚📚

Spell the Month in Books ~ December

 
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

December: Christmas or Non-fiction

I don't have many books that are about Christmas. I might find a few but then they also have to fit the letters. So, I went with the easier option (for me): Non-fiction.

DECEMBER

D

Orwell, George "Down and Out in Paris and London" - 1933

E

Uusma, Bea "The Expedition: a Love Story: Solving the Mystery of a Polar Tragedy" (SW: Expeditionen: min kärlekshistoria) - 2013

C

Morgan Dawson, Sarah "A Confederate Girl's Diary" - 1913

E

Westover, Tara "Educated" - 2018

M

Booth, Cathleen "Mercy & Grace on the Camino de Santiago" - 2020

B

Dorling Kindersley "Brussels. Bruges, Ghent & Antwerp" - 2000

E

Wood, Levison "Eastern Horizons. Hitchhiking the Silk Road" - 2017

R

Bythell, Shaun "Remainders of the Day: More Diaries from The Bookshop, Wigtown" - 2022

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Happy Reading!

📚 📚 📚

#ThrowbackThursday. December 2011 Part 4

    

I've been doing Throwback Thursdays for a while but I noticed that I wrote a lot of reviews in a short time when I first started. One of my blogger friends always posts the reviews of one month but that would be too much. So, these are my reviews from the fourth part of December 2011.

Fontane, Theodor "Effi Briest" (GE: Effi Briest) - 1894
The story takes place in the late 19th century. Fontane managed the description of the society excellently.

Handford, Martin "Where's Wally?" (aka Where's Waldo) - 1987
I guess Wally is known worldwide because he is going everywhere. Mind you, he is also hiding everywhere, so I'm surprised anybody knows him at all.
I have spent many many happy hours with my boys trying to find Wally and a lot of other things in the strangest places. This is a wonderful book to share with your children.

Haynes, Melinda "Mother of Pearl" - 1999
The Deep South of the US in the 1950s. Joody Two Shoes is a bit of a fortune teller, someone who knows everything, she brings some mysticism into this novel that heavily verges on Magic Realism.

Hesse, Karen "Out of the Dust" - 1997
Karen Hesse has a great style to write about the problems of ordinary people throughout history. Here she describes the life during the Great Depression in the 1930s in the US.

Precht, Richard David "Who Am I and If So, How Many?" (GE: Wer bin ich und wenn ja, wie viele?) - 2007
A book about philosophy. Richard David Precht manages to make a subject as exciting as a thriller. He offers a lot of knowledge for the average citizen that you would not find otherwise in such a vivid and entertaining way.

Read my original reviews, for the links click on the titles.

Dickens, Charles "Nicholas Nickleby"

Dickens, Charles "Nicholas Nickleby. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby" - 1838/39

For the Classics Spin #39, we received #3 and this was my novel.

I have read most of the books by Charles Dickens by now but there are still a few left. So, I was happy that this number got drawn. So, here was the chance to devour one more of his fabulous books.

And fabulous it was. It had everything a Dickens novel needs: villains and virtues, rogues and good people, a helicopter mother from the Georgian era, just a caleidoscope of people from his time with lots of intrigues. Not to forget the great names he gives his characters: The Cheerybles, The Crummles, Sir Mulberry Hawk, Newman Noggs, Peg Sliderskew, Wackford Squeers, one of them funnier than the last.

Of course, this is a novel against social injustice. And while we might think that is better today, some things never change.

Obviously, a lot happens in the story, much of it is already given in the synopsis, so I wouldn't want to add to that in order not to spoil it for the first-time readers. Therefore, I finish with a quote from Oscar Wilde (in "The Importance of Being Earnest"): "The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what fiction means".

From the back cover:

"When Nicholas Nickleby is left penniless after his father's death, he appeals to his wealthy uncle to help him find work and to protect his mother and sister. But Ralph Nickleby proves both hard-hearted and unscrupulous, and Nicholas finds himself forced to make his own way in the world. His adventures gave Dickens the opportunity to portray an extraordinary gallery of rogues and eccentrics, such as Wackford Squeers, the tyrannical headmaster of Dotheboys Hall, a school for unwanted boys; the slow-witted orphan Smike, rescued by Nicholas; and the gloriously theatrical Mr. and Mrs. Crummles and their daughter, the 'infant phenomenon'. Like many of Dickens's novels, Nicholas Nickleby is characterised by his outrage at cruelty and social injustice, but it is also a flamboyantly exuberant work, revealing his comic genius at its most unerring."

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.

Happy December!

Happy December to all my Friends and Readers

New Calendar picture with this
beautiful watercolour painting by Frank Koebsch

"Wenn der Schlitten kaputt ist - Weihnachtsmann an der Ostsee"

"When the sled is broken - Santa Claus at the Baltic Sea"

Frank says to this picture:

"In the harbour of Althagen, in a landscape of snow, ice and sunshine, there was a bright red coastal fisherman's boat. When I started thinking about a motif for a Christmas watercolor, I converted the fisherman's boat into a boat for Santa Claus and that's how my watercolour came about."

"Im Hafen von Althagen lag in einer Landschaft mit Schnee, Eis und Sonnenschein ein knallrotes Boot der Küstenfischer. Als ich dann begann, über ein Motiv für ein Weihnachtsaquarell nachzudenken, funktionierte ich dann das Boot der Fischer in ein Boot für den Weihnachtsmann um und so ist mein Aquarell entstanden."

Read more on their website here. *

It's nice to think about Father Christmas coming by boat. In the Netherlands, that's exactly how the story goes, he comes by boat from Spain on St. Nicholas' Eve (though a little posher than this one). Mind you, he looks a little more like a bishop, as he did everywhere when I was little.

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We had some nice days in November but also some not so nice ones, as usual in this month. Some days were pretty grey but I like the calmness this part of autumn brings.

Probably not the highlight of the month, but certainly a great day was our annual charity week in the Industrial Museum in our town. They sell each donated book for €1, children's books for €0,50. So, I got myself a nice stash of classics and some newer ones.

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Did you know that Germany has a lot of different names in different languages?

Well, first of all, Germans call it Deutschland from the Old High German diutisc, Dutch Duitsland, Scandinavians Tyskland.

The Romanic languages call it Allemagne in French or Alemania in Spanish, from the Alamanni tribe that settled in today's Alsace, parts of Baden-Württemberg and Switzerland, and hence they were the neighbours of those regions.

In Italy it is known as Germania from the Latin Germania (where also the English word comes from), it describes fertile land for farming behind the Limes (the Roman border defence in Germany).

In Polish it is called Niemcy from the Protoslavic nemets for meaning "mute, unable to speak" but also foreigner/stranger.

In Finnish and Estonian they call it Saksa and Saksamaa respectively from the name of the Saxon tribe. 

And there's a reason, of course, why we have all these different names. Germany as one country has only existed since the 1866 when Prussia and other northern and central German states created the North German Confederation, which was the forerunner to the German Empire. Before, the neighbouring country just called the people by the state they belonged to then.

 

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We had two book club meetings this month, one at the beginning, one at the end. And we read two lovely books, the first one was a re-read for me:

Ivey, Eowyn "To The Bright Edge of the World" - 2016

 and the second one was a German book that hasn't been translated, unfortunately:
Knöppler, Florian "Kronsnest" - Kronsnest [Name of Village] - 2020

 

My favourite book last month was "Stone in a Landslide" by Maria Barbal i Farré.

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The old German words for December are
Julmond, Heilmond, Christmond, or Dustermond.

Jul is the old-Germanic celebration of the winter solstice, also known as Yule.

Heil is healing, so the healing moon who gives us time to relax.

Christ should be self-explanatory.

Duster means dark, unfriendly. There is also a word "zappenduster" which I explained in August 2022.

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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 December 🎄
🎄 and a Merry Christmas! 🎄

#ThrowbackThursday. December 2011 Part 3

   

I've been doing Throwback Thursdays for a while but I noticed that I wrote a lot of reviews in a short time when I first started. One of my blogger friends always posts the reviews of one month but that would be too much. So, these are my reviews from the third part of December 2011.

Croker, Charlie "Løst in Tränšlatioπ. Misadventures in English Abroad" - 2006
One of those humorous books about language and how it can be understood and expressed quite differently in different countries. This edition collects all those funny little signs and descriptions we find all over the world.

Frisch, Max "Homo Faber" (GE: Homo Faber) - 1957
So many issues in this book. Max Faber is Swiss and works around the world as an engineer. His colleagues call him Homo Faber as in the man who makes things, a direct translation from Latin.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von (Goethe German) "The Sorrows of Young Werther" (GE: Die Leiden des Jungen Werther) - 1774
A classic! This epistolary novel is also slightly autobiographical. Goethe has always been a very important German author.
Young Werther is a young artist, very sensitive. He corresponds with his friend whom he tells about all his troubles and sufferings, his unrequited love to a girl.

McMahon, Katharine "The Rose of Sebastopol" - 2007
It is the time of Florence Nightingale, the Crimean War in 1854. How can an intelligent girl not want to follow in her footsteps?

Roberts, Karen "The Flower Boy" - 2001
A story about Ceylon, as it was called then, in the 1930s. A story about a friendship, about Europeans in Asia, about masters and servants.

Read my original reviews, for the links click on the titles.

Tevis, Walter "The Queen's Gambit"

Tevis, Walter "The Queen's Gambit" - 1983

We read this in our international online book club in November 2024.

I knew there was a TV series with that title and I thought this might be interesting.

Well, it wasn't. I know how to play chess but this was too professional for me. Someone who doesn't play chess at all might get bored even quickly. There was too much talk about the game, too many details.

And while I felt sorry for the little orphan, I didn't like the person she grew into, a selfish, addicted girl, too many drugs, too much sex, just not my thing. And none of the other characters were lovable, either, except for maybe the caretaker who teaches chess to Beth.

Comments by other members:

• I started listening to the audiobook, I even tried two different narrators but couldn't really get into the story. I will try reading it at some point, but right now I have too much else going on.
• I ended up hearing it as audiobook and it was an excellent listening experience. The different themes like addiction, family traumas and relationships were very lightly touched, but made for an easy entertaining experience. I got quite into the different chess-drama and main characters internal monologue about the games despite knowing nothing much about chess. Would recommend and considering giving the TV series a chance based on how much I enjoyed the book.
• At first I did feel some frustration that the book only skimmed, for example; the relationship with the children's home staff, adoptive parents, and her relationships with other chess players and eventually the issue about addiction and how to deal with it... I do not believe having a not-that-close old friend take you to the gym, to in any way solve the issue. Other subjects: Giftedness in children and adults, and gender equality in life and sports, religion, etc. But then I thought, if the book had gone deeper into these issues then it wouldn't have been a book about chess at all. And not that kind of easy read about chess at all, and learning and competing and winning.

From the back cover:

"When she is sent to an orphanage at the age of eight, Beth Harmon soon discovers two ways to escape her surroundings, albeit fleetingly: playing chess and taking the little green pills given to her and the other children to keep them subdued. Before long, it becomes apparent that hers is a prodigious talent, and as she progresses to the top of the US chess rankings she is able to forge a new life for herself. But she can never quite overcome her urge to self-destruct. For Beth, there’s more at stake than merely winning and losing."

#ThrowbackThursday. December 2011 Part 2

  

I've been doing Throwback Thursdays for a while but I noticed that I wrote a lot of reviews in a short time when I first started. One of my blogger friends always posts the reviews of one month but that would be too much. So, these are my reviews from the second part of December 2011.

Bacon, Charlotte "Lost Geography" - 2000

This is a story about migration, a Canadian-Scottish family with their daughters, one of whom lives in France with her Turkish-English husband. The book teaches us that what keeps us alive isn't so much our ability to understand the details of our past as having the luck and courage to survive the assaults of both the present and history.

This is what the story is all about, how do people with a different background relate to each other, what are the consequences of migration, inter-racial marriages.

Dinesen, Isak/Blixen, Karen "Out of Africa" - 1937
Isak Dinesen, aka Karen Blixen, moves to Africa where she marries a good friend and wants to start a dairy farm with him. Nothing happens as planned but we get to know a smart and wonderful woman with a big heart.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von "Iphigenia in Tauris" (German: Iphigenie auf Tauris) - 1787

Iphigenia is the daughter of Agamemnon who offers her to the goddess Artemis. Even though the goddess rescues Iphigenia and takes her to the island of Tauris, a lot of things happen as a consequence.

I am not a big fan of reading plays but this is a very interesting story that teaches a lot about Greek mythology.

Shalev, Meir "Four Meals" (Hebrew: כימים אחדים aka "As a Few Days" or "The Loves of Judith") - 1994

Three men love Judith, two farmers and a cattle dealer. Even though they all want to marry her, she doesn't marry anyone but has a son instead.

When Judith dies, all three men want to be the father of the boy and invite him to a meal to get to know him better.

Tellkamp, Uwe "The Tower" (German: Der Turm. Geschichte aus einem versunkenen Land) - 2008

Uwe Tellkamp describes life in East Germany in the 1980s. The length of the book enabled the author to go into so many details of so many different characters. 

Read my original reviews, for the links click on the titles.

Top 5 Tuesday ~ Thankful

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 Thankful. Which books were you so glad you read, even if they weren’t the top books you read this year, but you’re super glad you read them. Or any other reason that you’re thankful for books this year!!

I am thankful for many different kind of books. I am definitely thankful, that there are so many different books from so many different countries and times. Therefore, I have chosen books from five different countries that I read this year, new and old, written by authors from India, Norway, Turkey,  the UK, the US.

Brontë, Charlotte "The Professor" - 1857
Probably one of my favourite novels by Charlotte Brontë, the reason could be that it takes place in Brussels.

Fosse, Jon "Morning and Evening" (NO: Morgon og kveld) - 2001
Last year's Nobel Prize winner. A fascinating story about the life and death of a man. 

Kingsolver, Barbara "Demon Copperhead" - 2022
David Copperfield in a modern version, written by one of the greatest contemporary writers.

Şafak, Elif "10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World" - 2019
Elif Şafak never disappoints. We follow her protagonist Leila from the minute of her birth until several minutes after her death and then her friends. 

Verghese, Abraham "The Covenant of Water" - 2023
A wonderful story about a family in India over the length of most of a century.

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🙏Happy Reading!🙏

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Towles, Amor "Rules of Civility"

Towles, Amor "Rules of Civility" - 2011

After reading "A Gentleman in Moscow", I definitely wanted to read more of this author and when one of my book club members offered to lend me her copy of this one, I happily said yes.

It is not the same as the aforementioned novel but it is also a good one. A completely different area, a different situation, but you get a similar feeling. This one takes place in New York around the life of a young girl who comes to New York.

We don't hear much about the parents who immigrated from Russia but it is her background that get her into her jobs, as she is able to speak Russian.

We get to know her friends, the circles she moves in. A well-written account of life in the first half of the last century. Amor Towles is certainly an author who knows how to capture an audience.

In the epilogue we find what is probably one of the most important lines from the whole book:

"The thing of it is - 1939 may have brought the beginning of the war in Europe, but in America it brought the end of the Depression. While they were annexing and appeasing, we were stoking the steel plants, reassembling the assembly lines, and readying ourselves to meet a world-wide demand for arms and ammunition. In December 1940, with France already fallen and the Luftwaffe bombarding London, back in America Irving Berlin was observing how the treetops glistened and children listened to hear those sleigh bells in the snow. That's how far we were from the Second World War."

The title is based on George Washington's "Rules of Civility" and you can find them here.

From the back cover:

"In a New York City jazz bar on the last night of 1937, watching a quartet because she couldn't afford to see the whole ensemble, there were certain things Katey Kontent knew:

· like how to sneak into the cinema, and steal silk stockings from Bendel's

· how to type eighty words a minute, five thousand an hour, and nine million a year

· that if you can still lose yourself in a Dickens novel then everything is going to be fine

By the end of the year she'll have learned:

· how to live like a redhead and insist upon the very best

· that chance encounters can be fated, and the word 'yes' can be a poison

· that riches can turn to rags in the trip of a heartbeat ..."

Nonfiction November 2024

I have taken part in Nonfiction November for the last couple of years. I have not had the time and energy to participate every week but I want to do a little overview over my nonfiction year.

This is the schedule and the hosts for 2024:

Week 1 (10/30-11/3) Your Year in Nonfiction: Celebrate your year of nonfiction. What books have you read? What were your favorites? Have you had a favorite topic? Is there a topic you want to read about more?  What are you hoping to get out of participating in Nonfiction November?
Heather @ Based on a True Story 

Week 2 (11/6-11/10) Choosing Nonfiction: What are you looking for when you pick up a nonfiction book? Do you have a particular topic you’re attracted to? Do you have a particular writing style that works best? When you look at a nonfiction book, does the title or cover influence you? If so, share a title or cover which you find striking.
Frances @ Volatile Rune

Week 3 (11/13-11/17) Book Pairings: This week, pair up a nonfiction book with a fiction title. Maybe it’s a historical novel and the real history in a nonfiction version, or a memoir and a novel, or a fiction book you’ve read and you would like recommendations for background reading. You can be as creative as you like!
Liz @ Adventures in reading, running and working from home 

Week 4 (11/20-11/24) Worldview Shapers: One of the greatest things about reading nonfiction is learning all kinds of things about our world which you never would have known without it. There’s the intriguing, the beautiful, the appalling, and the profound. What nonfiction book or books have impacted the way you see the world in a powerful way? Is there one book that made you rethink everything? Do you think there is a book that should be required reading for everyone? (Rebekah)

Rebekah @ She Seeks Nonfiction

Week 5 (11/27-12/1) New To My TBR: It’s been a month full of amazing nonfiction books! Which ones have made it onto your TBR? Be sure to link back to the original blogger who posted about that book! 
Lisa @ Hopewell’s Public Library of Life 

I like reading novels but I also read a lot of non-fiction, mainly biographies and history. And I'd like to draw the attention to the books I read this year, so therefore, here is my list.

Bythell, Shaun "Remainders of the Day: More Diaries from The Bookshop, Wigtown" - 2022
Life in a bookshop
Clinton, Hillary Rodham "It Takes a Village: And Other Lessons Children Teach Us" - 1996
A book dedicated to help parents raise their childen
Garfield, Simon "To the Letter: A Curious History of Correspondence - A Celebration of the Lost Art of Letter Writing" - 2013
The history of letters
Kishon, Ephraim (English books) "Kishon for all occasions. 327 useless pieces of wisdom" - Kishon für alle Fälle. 327 unbrauchbare Lebensweisheiten - 1987
A humorous book 
Orwell, George "The Road to Wigan Pier" - 1937 
Conditions under which people live in 1937
Pamuk, Orhan "To Look Out the Window/Pieces from the View: Life, Streets, Literature" (TR: Manzaradan Parçalar: Hayat, Sokaklar, Edebiyat) - Der Blick aus meinem Fenster. Betrachtungen - 2008
Many topics discussed by this Nobel Prize laureate
Tibballs, Geoff "The Good, the Bad and the Wurst. The 100 Craziest Moments from the European Song Contest" - 2016 
Eurovision
Tomalin, Claire "Jane Austen - A Life" - 1997
Biography
Uusma, Bea "The Expedition: a Love Story: Solving the Mystery of a Polar Tragedy" (SW: Expeditionen: min kärlekshistoria) - 2013
Trying to find out aobut a polar expedition gone tragic

And then some non-translated German books:
Güngör, Dilek "Pretty German. My Turkish family and I" - Ganz schön deutsch. Meine türkische Familie und ich - 2007
A girl with Turkish roos growing up in Germany
Kapitelman, Dmitrij "The smile of my invisible father" - Das Lächeln meines unsichtbaren Vaters - 2016
Ukrainian born Jews who moved to Germany trying to find their roots in Israel

Kerkeling, Hape "Paws off the table! My cats, other cats and me" - Pfoten vom Tisch! Meine Katzen, andere Katzen und ich - 2021
German comedian who writes about the cats in his life

Matzig, Gerhard "My Wife Wants a Garden. The Adventure of Building a House in the Suburbs" - Meine Frau will einen Garten. Vom Abenteuer, ein Haus am Stadtrand zu bauen - 2010
The adventure of trying to find a house in Munich and then building one on a very narrow plot of land
Orth, Stephan (English books) "Couchsurfing in Ukraine" - Couchsurfing in der Ukraine - 2024 
Schnoy, Sebastian "Smørrebrød in Napoli. A fun journey through Europe" - Smørrebrød in Napoli. Ein vergnüglicher Streifzug durch Europa - 2009
Hilarious book about Europe for supporters of the European Union, but even more so for opponents of it
Sieg, Sören; Krohn, Axel "I didn't understand you visually. Overheard German dialogues" - Ich hab dich rein optisch nicht verstanden. Deutsche Dialoge mitgehört - 2015
Lots of conversations where people mix up the meaning of words
Steinmeier, Frank-Walter "We" - Wir - 2024
A talk of our president about the world as it is
Weiler, Jan "The Book of 39 Precious Things" - Das Buch der 39 Kostbarkeiten - 2011
A selection of short stories, columns, throughts about everyday life
Zierl, Helmut "Follow the Sun. The Summer of my Life" - Follow the Sun. Der Sommer meines Lebens - 2020
A German actor who tells us about his adventurous life at 16

And here are my posts from the previous years.

#ThrowbackThursday. December 2011 Part 1

 

I've been doing Throwback Thursdays for a while but I noticed that I wrote a lot of reviews in a short time when I first started. One of my blogger friends always posts the reviews of one month but that would be too much. So, these are my reviews from the first part of December 2011.

Dorrestein, Renate "A Heart of Stone" (NL: Een hart van steen) - 1998

Ellen tells the story of her family, she grows up as one of five children and buys her parents' home when she is in her late thirties and pregnant herself. Through old family albums, she tries to understand the tragedy that happened to her family years ago.

Hesse, Karen "Letters From Rifka" - 1992

The story is told by Rifka, a Jewish girl who has to leave the Ukraine with her family to go to America. On the way, she gets sick and cannot go with the family but has to stay behind in Antwerp from where she writes letters to her cousin.
 

Tyler, Anne "Digging to America" - 2006

Two very different American families meet while adopting a Korean baby. One family are immigrants themselves, from Iran. The families become friends and start a tradition for both of them. 

Høeg, Peter "Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow" (DK: Frøken Smillas fornemmelse for sne) - 1992

Smilla is a native Greenlander, an Inuit who lives in Denmark. She is friends with a neighbour boy who is killed by a fall from the roof. It is declared an accident but Smilla doesn't' believe it and starts her own investigation. 

Streatfeild, Noel "Ballet Shoes" - 1936

Three adopted orphan girls take dance lessons. They all have different kind of talents and different kind of views, that makes the story interesting.

Read my original reviews, for the links click on the titles.

Top Ten Tuesday ~ Destination Titles

    

"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 Destination Titles (titles with name of places in them. These places can be real or fiction!) 

I love geography, I love everything about seeing where something is and how the history of that place is, how it became what it is today. So, this is a brilliant topic for me.

Buruma, Ian "Murder in Amsterdam: The Death of Theo Van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance" (NL: Dood van en gezonde roker) - 2006

Döblin, Alfred "Berlin Alexanderplatz" (GE: Berlin Alexanderplatz) - 1929

Dorling Kindersley "Brussels. Bruges, Ghent & Antwerp" - 2000

Hislop, Victoria "Cartes Postales from Greece" - 2016

Joyce, James "Dubliners" - 1905

McLain, Paula "The Paris Wife" - 2012

Mercier, Pascal "Night Train to Lisbon" (GE: Nachtzug nach Lissabon) - 2004

Pamuk, Orhan "Istanbul" (TK: İstanbul - Hatıralar ve Şehir) - 2003

Taylor, Andrew "The Ashes of London" - 2016

Zweig, Stefanie "Somewhere in Germany" - 1996

All great places to visit.

📚 Happy Reading! 📚