Read my original review here.
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.
I am lactose intolerant. If you've been sick from anything containing lactose, you don't really like neither the smell nor the tast of it, so I have never liked cheese. And I don't like cheesy stories, either. However, I came up with a few books that fit the description.
Hyde, Catherine Ryan "When I found you" - 2009
A member of my book club mentioned she really liked the books by Catherine Ryan Hyde. I had never heard of her before, so she lent me one of her titles.
It looks like Mrs. Hyde is a very diligent writer because she has published 24 books sind 1997, this being her eleventh.
A lot of topics are touched in this book. Not that it makes it superficial or anything, the whole story is very touching and the different topics float into each other perfectly. Abandonment, foster care, professional sports, early love, late love, poverty. You would think with all those subjects, it is more a chick lit type of book but it was not. I quite liked it.
From the back cover:
"When Nathan McCann discovers a newborn baby boy half buried in the woods, he assumes he's found a tiny dead body. But then the baby moves and in one remarkable moment, Nathan's life is changed forever.
The baby is sent to grow up with his grandmother, but Nathan can't forget him and is compelled to pay her a visit. He asks for one simple promise - that one day she will introduce the boy to Nathan and tell him, 'This is the man who found you in the woods.'
Years pass and Nathan assumes that the old lady has not kept her promise, until one day an angry, troubled boy arrives on his doorstep with a suitcase . . ."
From the back cover:
"In the 1930s, commissioned by a left-wing book club, Orwell went to the industrial areas of northern England to investigate and record the real situation of the working class. Orwell did more than just investigate; he went down to the deepest part of the mine, lived in dilapidated and filthy workers' houses, and used the tip of his pen to vividly reveal every aspect of the coal miners' lives. Reading today, 80 years later, Still shockingly true. The despair and poverty conveyed by this picture have a terrifying power that transcends time and national boundaries. At the same time, the Road to Wigan Pier is also Orwell's road to socialism as he examines his own inner self. Born in the British middle class, he recalled how he gradually began to doubt and then hate the strict class barriers that divided British society at that time. Because in his mind, socialism ultimately means only one concept: 'justice and freedom.'"
"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 21st April 2024, 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 2nd of June 2024 to read it.
This time, I read three books from my old list (Classics Spin #36). 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. Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von "Urfaust. Faust Fragment. Faust I" (Faust) - 1772-1808
3. Dickens, Charles "Nicholas Nickleby. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby" - 1838/39
4. Dumas, Alexandre fils "Camille: The Lady of the Camellias" (La Dame aux Camélias" - 1848
5. Flaubert, Gustave "Madame Bovary" (Madame Bovary/ Madame Bovary) - 1857
6. Turgenjew, Iwan Sergejewitsch "Fathers and Sons" (Отцы и дети/Otzy i deti) - 1862
7. Conrad, Joseph "Victory: An Island Tale" - 1915
8. Hamsun, Knut " Growth of the Soil" (Markens Grøde/Segen der Erde) - 1917
9. Hamilton, Cicely "William - an Englishman" - 1920
10. Hesse, Hermann "Wir nehmen die Welt nur zu ernst" [We just take the world too seriously] - 1928
11. Faulkner, William "The Sound and the Fury" - 1929
12. Hemingway, Ernest "A Farewell to Arms" - 1929
13. Meigs, Cornelia "Invincible Louisa" - 1933
14. Du Maurier, Daphne "Rebecca" - 1938
15. Krleža, Miroslav "On the Edge of Reason" (Na rubu pameti) - 1938
16. Némirovsky, Irène "Les biens de ce monde" (All Our Wordly Goods) - 1941
17. Cela, Camilo José "The Family of Pascal Duarte" (La Familia Duarte) - 1942
18. Zweig, Stefan "Schachnovelle" (The Royal Game/Chess) - 1942
19. Wilde, Oscar "Only Dull People Are Brilliant at Breakfast" - 1946
20. Huxley, Aldous "Ape and Essence" - 1948
This is a great idea for all of us who want to read more classics. Go ahead, get your own list. I can't wait to see what I get to read this time.
This time, it's #8, so my novel is:
Hamsun, Knut " Growth of the Soil" (Markens Grøde) - 1917
"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 Characters I’d Like to go on Vacation With - (Pretend you’re going on vacation and can bring 10 of your closest friends with you. Pick your vacation spot and tell us who you’d like to bring! Bonus point if you tell us why. Or maybe you like the idea of traveling in small groups, so plan 10 trips or 5 trips!)
Ruby Thewes from Cold Mountain:
Frazier, Charles "Cold Mountain" - 1997
Anne von Kamcke from This House is Mine:
Hansen, Dörte "This House is Mine" (GE: Altes Land) - 2015
Ellie Thomas from Cartes Postales from Greece:
Hislop, Victoria "Cartes Postales from Greece" - 2016
Luisa from What You Can See From Here:
Leky, Mariana "What You Can See From Here" (GE: Was man von hier aus sehen kann) - 2017
Dulcie Piper from The Offing:
Myers, Benjamin "The Offing" - 2019
Susan Russell and Larry Lee (because you can't have one without the other) from Breakfast at Six:
Scott, Mary "Breakfast at Six" - 1953
Francie Nolan from A Tree Grows in Brooklyn:
Smith, Betty "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" - 1943
Zosia Król from The Children's War:
Stroyar, J.N. "The Children's War" - 2001
Sarah Agnes Prine from These is my Words
Turner, Nancy E. "These is my Words" - 1999
Regina Redlich from Nowhere in Africa
Zweig, Stefanie "Nowhere in Africa" - 1995 (GE: Nirgendwo in Afrika) - 1942
My eleven friends (see Susan and Larry) are all girls. Girls of all ages and from all eras. Girls from different countries (Germany 3, Greece 1, New Zealand 2, Poland 1, UK 1, USA 3) and different backgrounds. But they all have one thing in common. They are strong women who fight for a place in their lives.
📚 Happy Reading! 📚
Joyce, Rachel "Miss Benson's Beetle" - 2020
After reading "The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry", I decided I didn't want to read another book by this author. Then a friend lent me her copy of this book and promised it was better. Well, it was, just a little. I think I just don't like the style of writing. And I prefer book with some content where I can learn something.
I really wanted to like this book but couldn't. I neither liked the characters nor could I really make any sense of their trials and tribulations it was all a little higgledy-piggledy, reminded me a little of the illogical sequences in sci-fi stories.
Not for me. And, after not liking two of her books, I can safely say that this was my last one by this author.
From the back cover:
"It is 1950. In a devastating moment of clarity, Margery Benson abandons her dead-end job and advertises for an assistant to accompany her on an expedition. She is going to travel to the other side of the world to search for a beetle that may or may not exist.
Enid Pretty, in her unlikely pink travel suit, is not the companion Margery had in mind. And yet together they will be drawn into an adventure that will exceed every expectation. They will risk everything, break all the rules, and at the top of a red mountain, discover their best selves.
This is a story that is less about what can be found than the belief it might be found; it is an intoxicating adventure story but it is also about what it means to be a woman and a tender exploration of a friendship that defies all boundaries."
Read my original review here.
Ryan, Donal "The Thing About December" - 2013
This was our international online book club book for March 2024.
I think I expected something different from this book. Something typical for Northern Ireland, I guess. Well, this could have taken place anywhere. The story was not especially well told or exciting in any way.
A boy with some kind of mental illness is left orphaned and inherits his parents' farm. The village wants him to sell it because then they all can make a large profit. There are some bullies in the village but he also makes a friend. That's it in a nutshell. However, I couldn't get any interesting access to the story, it was way too boring for me.
Just not my thing.
From the back cover:
"While the Celtic Tiger rages, and greed becomes the norm, Johnsey Cunliffe desperately tries to hold on to the familiar, even as he loses those who all his life have protected him from a harsh world. Village bullies and scheming land-grabbers stand in his way, no matter where he turns.
Set over the course of one year of Johnsey’s life, The Thing About December breathes with his grief, bewilderment, humour and agonizing self-doubt. This is a heart-twisting tale of a lonely man struggling to make sense of a world moving faster than he is."
#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.
So, it's easy to see the connection betwen the first and the last book this month, they both take you to another country, one a little more adventurous than the other.
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.
April: Fish, Bodies of Water or Comedy
Jana suggests for this month: Poisson d’Avril – The French version of April Fool’s Day involves fish, so let’s look for books related to fish, bodies of water, or comedy
I love the sea, so I had to find some books that go with the bodies of water. I found some rivers, a lake and the sea.
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, 1937 was picked. For more information, see Simon @ Stuck in a Book and Kaggsy @ Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings (here is Karen's invite and here is Simon's).
If you are looking for inspiration, there are a few books from that year that I read already:
Bristow, Gwen "Plantation Trilogy" (Deep Summer, The Handsome Road, This Side of Glory) - 1937-40
Dinesen, Isak/Blixen, Karen "Out of Africa" - 1937
Hemingway, Ernest "To Have and Have Not" - 1937
Steinbeck, John "Of Mice and Men" - 1937
Tolkien, J.R.R. "The Hobbit" - 1937
I also found some other ideas:
Christie, Agatha "Death on the Nile"
Hergé "The Broken Ear"
Ingalls Wilder, Laura "On the Banks of Plum Creek" (Little House Books)
Kurban, Said "Ali and Nino"
Lovecraft, H.P. "The Thing on the Doorstep"
Marsh, Ngaio "Vintage Murder"
Narayan, R. K. "Malgudi Omnibus" (Trilogy: Swami and Friends, 1935; The Bachelor of Arts, 1937; The English Teacher, 1945)
Neale Hurston, Zora "Their Eyes Were Watching God"
Orwell, George "The Road to Wigan Pier"
Somerset Maugham, W. "Theatre"
Wolf, Virginia "The Years"
Zedong, Mao "On Practice and Contradiction"
There is something here for everyone, children's books, comics, crime stories, non-fiction.
This challenge takes place from 15 to 21 April 2023.
I had this on my TBR pile, therefore I picked:
Orwell, George "The Road to Wigan Pier" - 1937
"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.
I haven't done any TTT for a while. But that doesn't mean I want to give it up altogether. I will come back from time to time.
This week, our topic is April Showers - Pick your own title for this one to reflect the direction you choose to go with this prompt (books with rain on the cover/in the title, that have rainstorms in the story, or that have anything to do with rain)
I found lots and lots of books about tulips. Not so surprising, since I lived in the Netherlands and, as a member of an international book club, we would always try to read something about our host country, and often those were stories that included tulips. But I only chose some that were stories about them.
📚 Happy Reading! 📚
Happy April to all my friends and readers
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.
March is women’s history month, and 8 March is international Women’s Day (and this is pretty close), so who are your top 5 female authors?
I have a huge choice, I know some great female authors whom I love, tough to choose just five. I love classic books but I chose some contemporary authors where I hope they will write more. In every case, I went with the first book I read by that author, otherwise it would have been even harder to choose the best book they wrote. So, here we go:
Chevalier, Tracy "Girl with a Pearl Earring" - 1999
I read this book while living in the Netherlands. The main character is 16 year old Griet from Delft, a maid in the house
of the famous painter. She doesn't just become a good help, she also is
the model for his famous picture "Girl with a Pearl Earring".
Even though this is fiction and it is generally assumed that the girl in
this painting is one of Vermeer's own daughters, the story still is
very interesting.
Hislop, Victoria "The Island" - 2005
An interesting book about a wonderful part of this world with a
harrowing past. The island of Spinalonga was used as a leper colony from 1903 to 1957. People
who were banned there wouldn't return into normal life until a cure was
found.
This book reflects on the lives of the people on this island, how they
got there, how their everyday life was, how life was for those left
behind, how the people in the little village just opposite the island
were.
Kingsolver, Barbara "The Poisonwood Bible" - 1998
This story is told in diary form by the wife and four daughters of a
preacher. He takes them to Africa where all five of them have different
experiences and see the country with different perspectives. The father
is quite abusive, not what you would expect a religious man to be.
Lawson, Mary "Crow Lake" - 2002
This is the story of a girl who is raised by her two older brothers and
it describes the struggle they go through on their way to adulthood. The
book combines everything, tragedy, drama, love story, sacrifices, the
"togetherness" of a small community. The characters are well written,
and so are the episodes
Oates, Joyce Carol "We Were the Mulvaneys" - 1996
True, the Mulvaneys are a happy family, a special kind of family, they
are rich, beautiful, have a fantastic live, a wonderful home, own a huge
farm and everybody envies them. Until that event on Valentine's Day
after which the whole world changes An interesting story about how one
incident can destroy someone but how determination can bring them up
again.
