#ThrowbackThursday. October 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 October 2011.

Fox, Kate "Watching the English: the hidden rules of English behaviour" - 2004
An anthropology about a nation dear to my heart - the English. This book is quite funny at times and I am sure all the English people will love it and just nod their heads all the time - well, most of the others will do the same.

Kostova, Elizabeth "The Historian" - 2005
I'm not into fantasy and this is a little borderline but there is also quite some history involved, some travelling and the story itself is quite interesting.

Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim "Nathan the Wise" (German: Nathan der Weise) - 1779
If you are looking for a non-English classic, this is one that has survived all changes of time and is as actual today as it was in the past. A masterpiece about philosophy, about Jews, Christians, Muslims.

McCourt, Frank "Angela’s Ashes" - 1996
A wonderful autobiography, so vivid. And miserable. What a miserable life. You ask yourself how people can live like that. An alcoholic father, sick children, no job, no money, no food. But there is also hope.

Saint-Exupéry, Antoine "The Little Prince" (French: Le Petit Prince) - 1943
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
One of my favourite quotes ever. A wonderful novella about love and how we look at things.

Walls, Jeannette "The Glass Castle: A Memoir" - 2005
What would you do if your childhood was more than extraordinary, when you tried everything to escape it and finally manage to get out? Jeannette Walls tells us her story, the story of her parents, her siblings and herself.

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

Evaristo, Bernhardine "Girl, Woman, Other"

Evaristo, Bernhardine "Girl, Woman, Other" - 2019

This was recommended by a member of our book club but it wasn't chosen.

I must admit, the novel wasn't what I thought it would be. I probably didn't read the description well enough but somehow I thought this was mainly about immigrants and racism in the UK. And it was, partly. But that was not the main topic, at least it didn't look like it. The first couple of women that the author talks about, are all lesbians, later we also have non-binary people. But there are so many people. Every chapter brings new characters that might or might not turn up again in later chapters. So it feels like a collection of short stories (which I don't really like). Only toward the end you get a feeling who belongs to who, where the links are between the chapters. It was all a tad confusing.

I've said this before and will say it again, I'm not a fan of Booker Prize winners, there's always something that doesn't go well with me. And often I can't even say what it is. I definitely would have liked more about the racism topic.

From the back cover:

"This is Britain as you've never read it.

This is Britain as it has never been told.

From the top of the country to the bottom, across more than a century of change and growth and struggle and life, Girl, Woman, Other follows twelve very different characters on an entwined journey of discovery.

It is future, it is past. It is fiction, it is history.

It is a novel about who we are now."

#ThrowbackThursday. October 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 October 2011.

White, E.B. "Charlotte’s Web" - 1952
A lovely memory of the times I used to read books with my children. A great story about friendship (between a pig and a spider) and how someone is willing to do something for the good of the other even though they won't get anything back in return

Bragg, Melvyn "The Soldier’s Return" - 1999

This is the story of an ex-corporal returning home from Burma in the spring of 1946. His wife is anxiously awaiting his return and his son who was a baby when he left and is now six years old cannot really remember him. 

Bragg, Melvyn "A Son of War" - 2001

A continuation of "The Soldier's Return". Whereas the first story was all about the soldier Sam, this one tells us more about the rest of the family. It is hard for the family to get back to normal.

Austen, Jane "The Watsons" - 1803/05

This is an unfinished copy. At the end, there is a short summary of what Jane Austen told her sister how she would have wanted to finish the novel.
Emma Watson returns home after 14 years spent with a beloved aunt, whose re-marriage has caused a significant change in Emma's circumstances.

Falcones, Ildefonso "The Hand of Fatima" (Spanish: La mano de Fátima) - 2009

1564, Hernando Ruiz, an illegitimate child of a Muslim woman who was raped by a Catholic priest, incorporates both cultures but isn't accepted by either. He spends his whole life trying to bring the two religions together, sacrificing almost everything along the way. From the uprising of the Moriscos in Granada to the expulsion of all Muslims from Spain.

McCarthy, Pete "McCarthy’s Bar" - 2000

If you love Ireland, you have to love this book. The author portrays it in such a funny but nice way, it surely makes you feel you would like to go there right away - if you don't already feel this way.

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

Top 5 Tuesday ~ Villains

 

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 Villains. Meeghan says: "Those dastardly villains that are so bad they’re good is our topic for today. Who are your top 5 bad guys (or girls or folx) that make you want to scream?"

I'm not a big reader of crime stories but there is always a villain in some of the books, so no problem to find five of them.

Collins, Wilkie "The Woman in White" - 1859

Count Fosco

Dickens, Charles "David Copperfield" - 1850

Uriah Heep - I think he is my favourite villain

Follett, Ken "The Pillars of the Earth" (Kingsbridge #1) - 1989

Lord William Hamleigh, Bishop Waleran Bigod

Ruiz Zafón, Carlos "The Shadow of the Wind" (E: La sombra del viento - El cementerio de los libros olvidados #1) - 2001

Julian Carax

Shakespeare, William "Much Ado About Nothing" - 1598/99

Don John

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🦹‍♂️ Happy Reading! 🦹‍♂️

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Bythell, Shaun "Remainders of the Day"

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

I absolutely love Shaun Bythell's books about his shop and his customers, his clients and his friends. I had already read his former ones and this is just as great.

So, this is certainly one of the best books I read this year. Shaun Bythell's humour is one of the greatest. I hope he will write a new book soon.

Here are some examples:

"Some people (so we're told) don't read. What unfulfilling lives they lead."
I couldn't agree more.

And his favourite from the book "Nil Desperandum, a Dictionary of Latin Tags and Phrases":
"Timeo hominem unius libri." - "I fear the man of one book!"
We definitely should!

A sixteenth century Spanish curse:
"For him that stealeth this book, let it change into a serpent in his hand and rend him."

Book description:

"After twenty years running The Bookshop in Wigtown, Scotland, Shaun Bythell's life has settled into a mostly comfortable routine; days spent roaming between the shelves, poetry nights by the fire, frequent drop-ins from friends with gossip.

But while customers come and go - whether or not they’ve paid - there’s never a quiet moment in The Bookshop. Apart from the usual stream of die-hard trainspotters, antiquarian porn collectors and toddlers looking for somewhere cosy to urinate, Shaun still must contend with his employees’ increasingly eccentric habits, the mayhem of the Wigtown Book Festival and the shock of the town’s pub changing hands.

Warm and witty, with Shaun’s iconic mix of deadpan humour and grouchy charm, Remainders of the Day is the latest in his bestselling diary series."

#ThrowbackThursday. September 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 half of September 2011.

Ackroyd, Peter "Thames. Sacred River" - 2007
I love history and I love England. So, what's better than reading a book about a part of my favourite country that is so important to its history, geography, really anything that defines this wonderful country. 

Al Aswany, Alaa "The Yacoubian Building" (arab. Imarat Ya’qubian) - 2002
This book is described as "an ironic depiction of modern Egyptian society. I don't know how ironic it is but I thought it was a very interesting account of a life I know absolutely nothing about. 

Eggels, Elle "The House of the Seven Sisters" (NL: Het huis van de zeven zusters) - 1998
An interesting book about different kind of women who try to do their best, who try to live their life in a society that has a certain idea of how women should lead their lives.

Rowlatt, Bee & Witwit, May "Talking About Jane Austen in Baghdad. The True Story of an Unlikely Friendship" - 2010 
Two very different women form a friendship via e-mail, a young British journalist, mother of three little girls and a middle-aged Iraqi woman who is desperately trying to leave her country during the war.

Wilde, Oscar "A Woman of No Importance" - 1893
Oscar Wilde has a strangely hilarious sarcastic humour, one can only admire how he handles any kind of situation in that weirdly funny way. 

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

Stedman, M L "The Light Between Oceans"

Stedman, M L "The Light Between Oceans" - 2012

I must say, I expected more from this novel. But I don't want to spoil it for anyone who still wants to read this. I really would welcome comments from those who have.

Spoiler:

As you can see from the book description, a couple who cannot have a child "finds" one and decides to keep it. Even when they know where it belongs, they don't tell the truth. An interesting topic. Is it correct to keep a baby if you think it might have been abandoned? Is it correct to keep it even if you know it isn't? I would say no in both cases. Someone who is not able to have children but would love to have them, might think different but I think about the mother whose baby is stolen. Yes, stolen. I would have killed anyone who would have done that to me.

An interesting subject but the writing has not enticed me to read anything else by this author. It was a little to "chick-litty" for me.

From the back cover:

"Tom Sherbourne, released from the horrors of the First World War, is now a lighthouse keeper, cocooned on a remote island with his young wife Izzy, who is content in everything but her failure to have a child.

One April morning, a boat washes ashore carrying a dead man - and a crying baby. Safe from the real world, Tom and Izzy break the rules and follow their hearts.

It is a decision with devastating consequences."

Six Degrees of Separation ~ After Story

 Larissa Behrendt
Behrendt, Larissa "After Story" - 2021

#6Degrees of Separation:

from After Story (Goodreads) to Girl in Hyacinth Blue

#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 After Story by Larissa Behrendt.

I have not read this one, so here is the description:

"When Indigenous lawyer Jasmine decides to take her mother Della on a tour of England's most revered literary sites, Jasmine hopes it will bring them closer together and help them reconcile the past.

Twenty-five years earlier the disappearance of Jasmine's older sister devastated their tight-knit community. This tragedy returns to haunt Jasmine and Della when another child mysteriously goes missing on Hampstead Heath. As Jasmine immerses herself in the world of her literary idols – including Jane Austen, the Brontë sisters and Virginia Woolf – Della is inspired to rediscover the wisdom of her own culture and storytelling. But sometimes the stories that are not told can become too great to bear.

Ambitious and engrossing, After Story celebrates the extraordinary power of words and the quiet spaces between. We can be ready to listen, but are we ready to hear?"

The best way to deal with books that I haven't read is usually to go by words in the title. So it was this month. The starter word is after.

Shin, Kyung-sook "Please Look After Mom" (KOR: 엄마를 부탁해 Ch'angbi) - 2008

Wolfe, Thomas "Look Homeward, Angel" - 1929

Ruiz Zafón, Carlos "The Angel's Game" (E: El juego del ángel - El cementerio de los libros olvidados #2) - 2008

Collins, Suzanne "The Hunger Games" - 2008 

Brownstein, Carrie "Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl" - 2015

Vreeland, Susan "Girl in Hyacinth Blue" - 1999 

Is there a link between the starter book and the last? There seems to be a lot about literature in the first and the last is about art. Does that count? Otherwise ... they are both written by women.

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Spell the Month in Books ~ September

 
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

September: Back to School

My idea was to find as many books with the word school in the title as I can. Ha! I only found one. but I could use that as the first. All the others are either about education and/or children who still attend school, so I hope that counts.

SEPTEMBER

S

Mortenson, Greg "Stones into Schools" (with Mike Bryan) - 2009

E
Kästner, Erich "Emil and the Detectives" (GE: Emil und die Detektive) - 1929

P
Gavalda, Anna "95 Pounds of hope" (F: 35 kilos d’espoir) - 2002

T

Smith, Betty "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" - 1943

E

Smiley, Jane "Early Warning" - Last Hundred Years #2 - 2015

M

Abulhawa, Susan "Mornings in Jenin" (aka The Scar of David) - 2010

B

Mbue, Imbolo "Behold the Dreamers" - 2016

E

Westover, Tara "Educated" - 2018

R

Hirata, Andrea "The Rainbow Troops" (Indon: Lasykar Pelangi) - 2005

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Happy Reading!

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#ThrowbackThursday. September 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 half of September 2011.

Betancourt, Íngrid "Even Silence has an End: My Six Years in the Jungle" (French: Même le silence a une fin) - 2010
This book is an account of French-Colombian politician  Íngrid Betancourt, who was abducted by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in 2002 and rescued by Colombian security forces in 2008. She spent six and a half years in the jungle as a prisoner of the FARC.

Dickens, Charles "A Christmas Carol" - 1843
I love this story. It teaches you how you can change to become a better person even if you have a bad start. It teaches you that it is okay to enjoy something from time to time even if you need to work hard for the rest of the year. And that you should always have compassion for the less fortunate.

Frank, Anne "The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition" (Dutch: Het Achterhuis) - 1942-44
What is there to say about a book that everybody has read? If you haven't read this book, you should. 

García Márquez, Gabriel "One Hundred Years of Solitude" (Spanish: Cien años de soledad) - 1967
A saga of a family, one of those fantastic South American magic realism novels. Seven generations are described in this tale, starting when the first member immigrates to Colombia, spanning almost a century of South American history during the colonial years. 

Levy, Andrew "A Brain Wider Than The Sky: A Migraine Diary" - 2009
As a heavy migraine sufferer, I am always curious as to what others have to say about their problems with this disease. Fellow sufferers usually recognize each other instantly.

Logue, Mark & Conradi, Peter "The King's Speech: How One Man Saved the British Monarchy" - 2010
Lionel Logue, King George VI speech therapist, was an outstanding person and his grandson Mark wrote a wonderful account about his life. 

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

Happy September!

Happy September to all my Friends and Readers

New Calendar picture with this

beautiful watercolour painting by Frank Koebsch

"Kraniche und Rehe auf den Wiesen"

"Cranes and Deer in the Meadows"

Frank says to this picture:

"It is always exciting to be out and about with the cranes in the meadows and fields in autumn. With a little luck you can see deer and stags among the cranes, as they use the same meadows and fields in search of food."

"Es ist immer wieder spannend, im Herbst gemeinsam mit den Kranichen auf den Wiesen und Feldern unterwegs zu sein. Mit ein wenig Glück kann man Rehe und Hirsche unter den Kranichen beobachten, denn sie nutzen die gleichen Wiesen und Feldern auf der Suche nach Futter."

Read more on their website here. *

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August was almost as bad as July, it only got a little cooler towards the end, though it was still far too hot for me. I am so looking forward to autumn, my favourite season.

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Have you ever tried to improve something but then it was worse in the end. Well, we have a word for that in German:

Verschlimmbessern

which you can translate more or less into "worsenbettering".

Of course, there is an official version for it, the Cobra Effect, also a "perverse incentive" which according to Wikipedia is "an incentive that has an unintended and undesirable result that is contrary to the intentions of its designers". 

 

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 My favourite book last month was "To Look Out the Window/Pieces from the View: Life, Streets, Literature" by Orhan Pamuk.

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Due to the weather, we didn't do much last month, but on the very last day, we managed go attend a kite festival. It was not too hot but also not too windy whcih was sad for some kite flyers because theirs wouldn't take off. But we managed to see a few lovely ones. Here is a small collage.

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The old German word for September is Scheiding, Holzmond or Herbstmond. 

Herbst is the German word for autumn which explains the origin of the name. Holz means wood and people started cutting wood for the winter. Scheiding is separation and September separates summer and autumn.

 

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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 September! 🍂🍂