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 August 2011.
The description of the March girls and their lives is just fabulous. You feel like you’ve almost been there with them, shared with them in their problems and dreams.
Bryson, Bill "The Lost Continent" - 1989
What can be more fun than going on a trip through the USA with America’s most hilarious travel writer. Especially when he sees it after having lived abroad for several years, so with almost foreign eyes.
Massaquoi, Hans J. "Destined to Witness" - 1999
A very interesting autobiography written by a German/Liberian boy who grew up in Nazi Germany. He describes his childhood and youth in Hamburg during a time where everyone had to have blond hair and blue eyes. With his story, he has probably told us more about the thoughts and wishes of an ordinary German as any other account about this time.
Naipaul, V.S. "A Bend in the River" - 1979
Salim, an African of Indian descent, settles in an unnamed town at the bend in the river as a shopkeeper. With his "foreign" eyes we see part of Africa’s history after the colonists left, the changes both in politics and the community, the problems with the economy, the war-like situations.
Tolan, Sandy "The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East" - 2006
A Palestinian boy travels back to the house in 1967 his family had to leave behind nineteen years earlier. He meets the present family who had to flee Europe at that time. This is the beginning of a friendship that is probably unique but gives so much hope.
Read my original reviews, for the links click on the titles.
I need to read that Bill Bryson book. His writing always makes me laugh.
ReplyDeleteI have loved every single book of his, Lark. Funny or not funny. So, I heartily recommend you read it. Enjoy.
DeleteI can't even count the number of copies of Little Women I own. I was obsessed. As for Bryson, we definitely have a love/hate relationship. Adore some of his stuff and DNF-ed others.
ReplyDeleteI totally understand that, Sarah, the number of copies. For me, that's Jane Austen, I have several editions of her novels and even several books that include all of them. As to Bill Bryson, I have read all his books and loved them all. Which ones were the ones you didn't like? I have a friend who finds him disrispectful but I find that's his humour. Maybe it's his kind of humour you don't like, either.
DeleteI liked his book on Shakespeare and also the one about the English language. His childhood memoir was okay. Honestly I think it just could be his writing style. I don't think he's a particularly good writer, he's decent but nothing that really catches my attention. And he comes across to me as super condescending sometimes.
DeleteI think the one about his childhood is my least favourite, it was too American, I guess. ;)
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