Capote, Truman "Breakfast at Tiffany's" - 1958

Capote, Truman "Breakfast at Tiffany's" - 1958

We read this in our international online book club in March 2025.

I saw the film many, many years ago. I always wanted to read the book, but somehow I never got around to it. Of course, too many books, too little time. Now we have read it in our international online book club.

It really is an excellent book, but unfortunately much too short.

The description of the characters, especially Holly Golightly and the nameless narrator, is excellent. You can feel the relationship between the people, the problems that people had back then. Would the book be written like this today, would the characters still live like this today? Certainly not, but that makes the story even more interesting.

From the back cover:

"It's New York in the 1940s, where the martinis flow from cocktail hour till breakfast at Tiffany's. And nice girls don't, except, of course, Holly Golightly. Pursued by Mafia gangsters and playboy millionaires, Holly is a fragile eyeful of tawny hair and turned-up nose, a heart-breaker, a perplexer, a traveller, a tease. She is irresponsibly 'top banana in the shock department', and one of the shining flowers of American fiction."

#ThrowbackThursday. January 2013

I've been doing ThrowbackThursdays for a while but I noticed that I wrote a lot of reviews in a short time when I first started. So, I post more than one Throwback every week. These are my reviews from January 2013.

Bradbury, Ray "Fahrenheit 451" - 1953
This novel was written in the fifties, in the United States, at the height of the McCarthy era, when the fear of the communists during the Cold War was leading to almost witch-huntlike attacks on citizens.

Faulks, Sebastian "Birdsong. A Novel of Love and War" - 1993

The author has successfully tried to describe something unsurpassable, something so astonishingly unimaginable. Today wars are fought differently. But if you read this novel, you will see that the tragedies of losing friends and loved ones in a war cannot be changed, it will remain the same, no matter how they get killed.

Hill, Richard "We Europeans" - 1992
A very interesting book about the different nations of  Europe, their likes and dislikes, their similarities and their differences. 

Mo, Yan "Red Sorghum. A Novel of China" (Chinese: 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 during that time.

Xu, Ruiyan "The Lost and Forgotten Languages of Shanghai" - 2010
Quite a different book about China, it's actually a story that could take place anywhere in the world. After an accident, a man loses part of his brain and can only speak the language he grew up with but does not reign that of his wife and child.

Yerby, Frank "Speak now" - 1969
A love story between a white woman and a black musician in Paris.

Yerby, Frank "Griffin's Way" - 1962
A good novel about the story of the Ku Klux Klan in the Southern part of the United States after the Civil War.

Alphabet Authors ~ N is for Naipaul

I found this idea on Simon's blog @ Stuck in a Book. He picks an author for each letter of the alphabet, sharing which of their books he's read, which I ones he owns, how he came across them etc. I might not do it exactly as he does but I will try to get to all the letters of the alphabet over time.

There are letters where you have a huge choice of authors and then there are others where you don't find even one. Well, there is at least one great author that begins with N, even though I have only read three of his books. But they were all fantastic and he totally deserved the Nobel Prize for Literature. V.S. Naipaul. And here are his books:

- "In a Free State" - 1971
- "A Bend in the River" - 1979
- "Half A Life" - 2001
- "A House for Mr. Biswas" - 1961

Facts about V.S. Naipaul:
Born    17 August 1932 in Trinidad and Tobago
Died    11 August 2018 in London, United Kingdom
He won several literature prizes, i.a. the Nobel Prize, the Jerusalem Prize, the Booker Prize. 

He was awarded the Trinity Cross, Trinidad and Tobago's highest national honour and received a knighthood in Britain.

V.S. Naipaul received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2001 "for having united perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny in works that compel us to see the presence of suppressed histories".

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

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This is part of an ongoing series where I will write about a different author for each letter of the alphabet. You can see them all here.

Top 5 Tuesday ~ America

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 Books set in America. I have read a lot of books from the USA and Canada. But America is so much larger, so I thought I take a look at South America and some of the countries that hardly ever get mentioned. So, here is my list.

Alvarez, Julia "In the Time of the Butterflies" - 1994
Dominican Republic

Azevedo, Francisco "Once Upon a Time in Rio" (PO: O Arroz de Palma) - 2008
Brazil

Betancourt, Íngrid "Even Silence Has an End" (F: Même le silence a une fin) - 2010
Colombia

McLeod, Cynthia "The Cost of Sugar" (NL: Hoe duur was de suiker?) - 1987
Suriname

Osorio, Elsa "My Name is Light" (E: A veinte años, Luz) - 1998
Argentina

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🌎 Happy Reading! 🌎

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Flaubert, Gustave "Madame Bovary"

Flaubert, Gustave "Madame Bovary" (French: Madame Bovary) - 1857

For the Classics Spin #40, we received #4 and this was my novel.

I have a love-hate relationship with French books. I love the French language. I absolutely love the books by Albert Camus, there are a few others I don't exactly dislike but, in general, they are not for me.

I had hoped that this one would be for me like my beloved English classics by Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, the Brontës, etc. etc. But it was not to be.

What did I dislike about the novel? Not the story itself, it was quite interesting to follow the story of Emma, a young girl who marries a doctor but finds her life beside him completely boring so looks for excitement in other men. Or maybe it was the story. It was as boring as the life of the protagonist. So, maybe that's exactly what he was trying to show. Then he succeded. But not with me.

From the back cover:

"Madame Bovary is the debut novel of French writer Gustave Flaubert, published in 1856. The character lives beyond her means in order to escape the banalities and emptiness of provincial life. When the novel was first serialized in La Revue de Paris between 1 October 1856 and 15 December 1856, public prosecutors attacked the novel for obscenity. The resulting trial in January 1857 made the story notorious. After Flaubert's acquittal on 7 February 1857, Madame Bovary became a bestseller in April 1857 when it was published in two volumes. A seminal work of literary realism, the novel is now considered Flaubert's masterpiece, and one of the most influential literary works in history."

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.

Six Degrees of Separation ~ Knife

Salman Rushdie
"Knife" - 2023

#6Degrees of Separation: 
from Knife (Goodreads) to Murder in Amsterdam

#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 "Knife" by Salman Rushdie. This is one of the books I would love to read but haven't gotten so far, because it's not available in paperback, yet. But I know about the book and it is therefore a little easier to find a  link to further novels.

And this is the description of this novel:

"From internationally renowned writer and Booker Prize winner Salman Rushdie, a searing, deeply personal account of enduring—and surviving—an attempt on his life thirty years after the fatwa that was ordered against him

On the morning of August 12, 2022, Salman Rushdie was standing onstage at the Chautauqua Institution, preparing to give a lecture on the importance of keeping writers safe from harm, when a man in black—black clothes, black mask—rushed down the aisle toward him, wielding a knife. His first thought: So it’s you. Here you are.

What followed was a horrific act of violence that shook the literary world and beyond. Now, for the first time, and in unforgettable detail, Rushdie relives the traumatic events of that day and its aftermath, as well as his journey toward physical recovery and the healing that was made possible by the love and support of his wife, Eliza, his family, his army of doctors and physical therapists, and his community of readers worldwide.

Knife is Rushdie at the peak of his powers, writing with urgency, with gravity, with unflinching honesty. It is also a deeply moving reminder of literature’s capacity to make sense of the unthinkable, an intimate and life-affirming meditation on life, loss, love, art—and finding the strength to stand up again."

I will concentrate on books with murder in the title and in the book, some of them are non-fiction, others fiction. And not all of them end with a dead person.

I start with one of the best crime stories ever written.

Christie, Agatha "Murder on the Orient Express" (Hercule Poirot #10) - 1934
We all know the brilliant author and if we haven't read the book, we will have seen one of the numerous films they made about it. It's all about revenge, and I think in this case, we can all understand the killers.

Johnson, Maureen; Cooper, Jay "Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village" - 2021
If, like me, you like to watch the British crime series "Midsomer Murders", the title jumps right into your eyes.

Osman, Richard "The Thursday Murder Club" - 2020

Even though I'm not much into murder mystery, I just love Richard Osman's wit. 

No matter what kind of book you like to read to entertain yourself (for me, they have to be funny), this is the one. Enjoy.

Poe, Edgar Allan "The Murders in the Rue Morgue and other stories" - 1841
Dark, gruesome, abysmal, that's what I read somewhere about the writings of Edgar Allan Poe. Yeah, I couldn't agree more. This was not my kind of book but it fitted into the scheme.

Scott, Mary; West, Joyce "The Mangrove Murder" (Inspector Wright #3) - 1964
The people in this story are just as charming as everyone in Mary Scott's other books, well, except for the killer, of course. But other than that, we read about people who live in New Zealand at a time when life was still very different from today.

Buruma, Ian "Murder in Amsterdam: The Death of Theo Van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance" (NL: Dood van en gezonde roker) - 2006
Murder in Amsterdam. Not any murder. The murder of a director, a public figure. Why? He made a movie not everyone agreed with. He made a movie about the Muslim faith.

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There is quite a good connection between the first and the last degree. In both cases, a maniac tries to assassinate another human being because of their religion and political engagement. In the last book, he is even successful.

📚📚📚

Spell the Month in Books ~ April 2025

 
 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.

April: Animals on the Cover or in the Title

I'm not the biggest nature fan. Or animal lover. But there are always books that fit this description, so here we go:

APRIL

A

Brown, Marc "Arthur's Nose" - 1976
Arthur, the Aardvark

P
Davis, Lee "P.B. Bear" - 1990s
Pyjama Bear, the Bear, who helps children read
R
Bythell, Shaun "Remainders of the Day: More Diaries from The Bookshop, Wigtown" - 2022
Captain, Shaun Bythell's book shop cat
I
Numeroff, Laura "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" - 1985

... he'll ask for a glass of milk

L
Moore, Christopher "Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff" - 2002

This book has to have a lamb on the cover.

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Happy Reading!

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#ThrowbackThursday. December 2012

I've been doing ThrowbackThursdays for a while but I noticed that I wrote a lot of reviews in a short time when I first started. So, I post more than one Throwback every week. These are my reviews from December 2012.

Fitzgerald, F. Scott "Tender Is the Night" - 1934
An American in Paris, well, no, several Americans in the South of France, to be exact. Some rich expatriates live the perfect life, only, one of them is schizophrenic and marries her psychiatrist.

Hamill, Pete "Snow in August" - 1998
Brooklyn, two years after World War II. An 11 year old Irish Catholic boy whose father died in battle and who lives alone with his mother befriends a Czech Rabbi and learns about Judaism and the Holocaust. Together they face racism and violence. 

Liao, Yiwu "Testimonials or: For a Song and a Hundred Songs: A Poet's Journey Through a Chinese Prison" (Chinese: 證詞/Zheng-Ci) - 2000
It's terrifying to read what people in Chinese prisons have to go through. This is a good book to read but with horrible pictures of what they do to each other. It's hardly believable that human beings can be like that.

Oates, Joyce Carol "Mudwoman" - 2012
Meredith Ruth (M.R.) Neukirchen is an abandoned and then adopted child that grows into a very successful woman. When she is at the top, she starts struggling with her past.

Robinson, Barbara "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" (aka "The Worst Kids in the World") - 1972
You can learn in this play what Christmas is all about, what it really means.

Stowe, Harriet Beecher "Uncle Tom’s Cabin" - 1852
This is one of the most tragic stories I have ever read. As with other classic stories, I had heard about the content, I knew what was going to happen to Uncle Tom, I knew what happened to slaves, how they were sold and tortured, how they would sell spouses and children away from their families. But it's tragic every time again, especially if you put a name to the people involved, if they are described in such a way that they come alive on the paper.

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

Alphabet Authors ~ M is for Mann

I found this idea on Simon's blog @ Stuck in a Book. He picks an author for each letter of the alphabet, sharing which of their books he's read, which I ones he owns, how he came across them etc. I might not do it exactly as he does but I will try to get to all the letters of the alphabet over time.

There are several great authors whose name start with M: Naguib Mahfouz, Pascal Mercier, or Toni Morrison spring to mind but in the end, it had to be one of my favourite German authors ever: Thomas Mann. And here are the books I read by him, there are still more to come which I will add whenever I have read it.

- "Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family" (GE: Buddenbrooks) - 1901 

- "Tristan" (GE: Tristan) - 1901

- "Tonio Kröger" (GE: Tonio Kröger) - 1903

- "Death in Venice" (GE: Der Tod in Venedig) - 1912
- "A Man and His Dog" (GE: Herr und Hund. Ein Idyll) - 1918 
- "The Magic Mountain" (GE: Der Zauberberg) - 1924
- "Joseph and his Brothers" (GE: Josef und seine Brüder) - 1933/34
- "Doctor Faustus" (GE: Doktor Faustus) - 1943-47
- "Confessions of Felix Krull" (GE: Bekenntnisse des Hochstaplers Felix Krull) - 1954

Buddenbrooks also happens to be one of my favourite books. Ever.

Facts about Thomas Mann:
Born    Paul Thomas Mann 6 June 1875 in Lübeck
Died    12 August 1955 (aged 80) in Zürich, Switzerland 
During the Nazi regime, the Mann family had to go into exile. Thomas first fled to Switzerland, than to the USA.

He received several honorary doctorates from all over the world.

There is a 30 Pfennig postages stamp which was issued in his memory on the first anniversay of this death.

There are also memorial plaques in Lübeck, Weimar and Nida (Lithuania) and many artists have made paintings or statues from him.

Also have a look at my report about our visit to the Buddenbrook house in Lübeck.

Thomas Mann received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1929 "principally for his great novel, 'Buddenbrooks', which has won steadily increased recognition as one of the classic works of contemporary literature".

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

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This is part of an ongoing series where I will write about a different author for each letter of the alphabet. You can see them all here.

Happy April!

 Happy April to all my Friends and Readers

New Calendar picture with this
beautiful watercolour painting by Frank Koebsch

"Osterküken"

"Easter Chicks"

Frank says to this picture:

"Osterküken gehören wie die Hasen und die Lämmer zu den beliebtesten Symbolen für das Osterfest. Einmal sind sie seit vielen Jahrhunderten Symbole des Frühlings und Fruchtbarkeit."

"Like bunnies and lambs, Easter chicks are among the most popular symbols of Easter. They have been symbols of spring and fertility for many centuries."

Definitely a good picture for Easter. My parents used to raise chickens and I loved it when we had new chicks. They were so soft and fluffy. Good memories.

Read more on their website here. *

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Spring definitely has sprung in our part of the world. Far too early. But it gave us the chance to visit our youngest son in Brussels. The town was so beautiful at this time of year. 

We had the chance to visit the European Parliament. And here is a picture from the outside.

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My favourite book of the month was "The Figurine" by Victoria Hislop. I have only just finished it and will review it soon. Only so much, if you like Victoria Hislop, this is one of her greatest books, for sure. And if you don't know her, it's time you did.

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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 April ☔

Top Ten Tuesday ~ Books You'd be a Fool not to Read

"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 Books You’d be a Fool Not to Read (Happy April Fool’s Day! In honor of this silly holiday, share the books you think people must read for whatever reason. They could be your favorites, books you deem classics, books that you learned something important from, books you wish you’d read sooner, etc. You could even narrow it down to a specific genre and share the must-reads for that genre. Get creative!)

This is such a nice topic. And even though we've had similar subjects before, I'm not going to bore you with the list I published before but mention some of my all-time favourites by some of the best authors ever and also some more recent reads.

Brooks, Geraldine "People of the Book" - 2008

Chevalier, Tracy "Girl with a Pearl Earring" - 1999

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

Haig, Matt "The Midnight Library" - 2020

Hislop, Victoria "The Island" - 2005

Kingsolver, Barbara "The Poisonwood Bible" - 1998

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

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

Rutherfurd, Edward "Sarum: the Novel of England" - 1987

Şafak, Elif "The Island of Missing Trees" - 2021

All of the authors that have a link to their name are some of my favourites. For some of them, I mentioned the first book I read by them, others the first one they wrote, even others the last one they wrote so far. And as you can see, some belong to a series. And I can recommend them all.

Weir, Alison "Katharine Parr. The Sixth Wife"

Weir, Alison "Katharine Parr. The Sixth Wife" (Six Tudor Queens #6) - 2021

The sixth wife of Henry VIII. And the sixth book in the Tudor Queens series by Alison Weir.

I think I knew far too little about Katharine Parr. She was Henry's last wife. She survived him. She had two husbands before him. She married again when he died only to die herself in childbed. That's about all I knew.

Of course, this is a novel based on the life of the queens. However, there is a lot in it that is history and where we can learn about that time in England.

We see through the eyes of Katharine Parr that women were just a commodity, and not worth a lot for that. At her first marriage, she doesn't even know the husband. Then she has to look for another one because otherwise a woman has no means to live. When she falls in love with Thomas Seymour, she has to marry the king who also wants her. What a life!

In any case, Alison Weir has brought the Tudor queens to life in a way no history book could ever have done. For that, I thank her profoundly.

From the back cover:

"Two husbands dead; a life marred by sadness. And now Katharine is in love for the first time in her life.

The eye of an ageing and dangerous king falls upon her. She cannot refuse him. She must stifle her feelings and never betray that she wanted another.

And now she is the sixth wife. Her queenship is a holy mission yet, fearfully, she dreams of the tragic parade of women who went before her. She cherishes the secret beliefs that could send her to the fire. And still the King loves and trusts her.

Now her enemies are closing in. She must fight for her very life.

KATHARINE PARR – the last of Henry’s queens.

Alison Weir recounts the extraordinary story of a woman forced into a perilous situation and rising heroically to the challenge. Katharine is a delightful woman, a warm and kindly heroine – and yet she will be betrayed by those she loves and trusts most.

Too late, the truth will dawn on her."

Book Quotes

"From your parents you learn love and laughter and how to put one foot before the other. But when books are opened you discover that you have wings." Helen Hayes

True. Even if your parents are the smartest and most educated in the world, nobody knows everything. But we can learn so much from books that it will almost make us fly.

"If people cannot write well, they cannot think well, and if they cannot think well, others will do their thinking for them." George Orwell

Even truer. As we can always see when there have been elections.

"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something." Plato

Another true statement. Worst are those who think they know everything but really know nothing. They will shout loudest. And those who shout loudest are usually in the wrong.

Find more book quotes here.

#ThrowbackThursday. November 2012

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. So, I post more than one Throwback every week. These are my reviews from November 2012.

Bach, Richard "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" - 1970

If you are interested in everything spiritual, anything that contributes to world and inner peace, this book is just the right one. The novel is very positive yet very thought-provoking. And it's still very meaningful today. It advises us not to put people in a box, to keep an open mind.

Brumbeau, Jeff/de Marcken, Gail "The Quiltmaker’s Gift" - 2001
Larsen Line, Joanne/Loving Tubesing, Nancy "Quilts From The Quiltmaker's Gift" - 2000

A beautiful book with great illustrations about the most beautiful quilts ever and a great sewing book accompanying it.

Buck, Pearl S. "Peony" - 1948

This book is the reason why I fell in love with Pearl S. Buck. She tries to incorporate the multi-cultural theme into this one, the trial of assimilation. How far does an immigrant want to become like the people in his host nation? A wonderful account of two worlds colliding.

Dickens, Charles "A Tale of Two Cities" - 1859
Two of the most famous quotes in one book, how often do you get that? And the rest of the book is as good as the beginning and the end.

Huxley, Aldous "Brave New World" - 1931
This dystopian novel is so up-to-date, it might as well have been written yesterday. That's how great it is, you can tell good writing.

McGarry Morris, Mary "Songs in Ordinary Time" - 1995

An American town in 1960, a time I remember a little. Almost anyone in this novel is poor but that's not all. My family was poor when I grew up but there is a huge difference, we had a family. 

The book is well written, it builds anticipation, you hold on, you hope for something good to happen to the characters, you feel for them. 

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

Alphabet Authors ~ L is for Lamb

I found this idea on Simon's blog @ Stuck in a Book. He picks an author for each letter of the alphabet, sharing which of their books he's read, which I ones he owns, how he came across them etc.

This was a tough letter to choose from I really love Mary Lawson but I read more books by Wally Lamb. Maybe one day, Mary Lawson will write more books and I can put together a list of hers, as well.

I got to know Wally Lamb with my Dutch book club, we read "She's Come Undone" and were wondering what the German and Dutch translations were (this was before you could look up everything on the internet). Anyway, we were quite surprised to find the titles that both meant something like Music of the Whales.

- "The Hour I First Believed" - 2008 
- "I Know This Much is True" - 1998
- "I'll Take You There" - 2016
- "She's Come Undone" - 1997
- "We are Water" - 2013
- "Wishin' and Hopin': A Christmas Story" - 2009

But I just had to carry on reading his books, they are all fantastic.

Facts about Wally Lamb:
Born    October 17, 1950 in Norwich, Connecticut, US

He is married to Christine and they have three sons: Teddy, Jared and Justin

He grew up with older sisters and he claims, that's why he can write both male and female voices, which he does beautifully.

He is a University professor for English and has done a lot of prison work.

He received several prizes for his works of fiction and non-fiction.

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This is part of an ongoing series where I will write about a different author for each letter of the alphabet. You can see them all here.

Top 5 Tuesday ~ Covers with Clocks

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 Freebie. This means we get to choose our own topic. Last year, one of my blogger friends chose Covers with Clocks because she just had to change all of hers. (Thanks, Lark.) The same thing will happen to us this weekend, and I absolutely hate the change. So, I thought it would be a good idea to try and find five books with clocks. It wasn't as easy as I thought but I managed in the end.

Ansay, A. Manette "Vinegar Hill" - 1995

Gavalda, Anna "I Wish Someone Were Waiting for Me Somewhere" (F: Je voudrais quelqu’un m’attende quelque part) - 1999

Morton, Kate "The Clockmaker's Daughter" - 2018

Palma, Félix J. "The Map of Time" (E: El mapa del tiempo) - 2008

Tanpınar, Ahmet Hamdi "The Time Regulation Institute" (TR: Saatleri Ayarlama Enstitüsü) - 1961

You probably noticed that some of the titles are not in English. Well, the English edition doesn't have a clock. But all the books are available in English and the links lead you to the Englisch review.

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🕰 Happy Reading! 🕰

📚 📚 📚

Thoreau, Henry David "Walden"

Thoreau, Henry David "Walden; or, Life in the Woods" - 1854

Everyone told me I should read the book. I like to think about and speak about philosophy. But this was not for me. I saw it as the ramblings of a guy who thinks the world of himself. He reminded me of a certain president of these days ….

Yes, he had the idea to live on his own with no support from anyone. But he met people all the time, didn't live far from civilization where he could get help if he needed it. And - he didn't just live of nothing. He had a house to live in, albeit a cabin that was small and had just the bare essentials, but many, many people had to live with less than that. And still have. Not exactly the heroism he likes to portray.

I thought maybe it would get better and I could learn something in the end. I didn't.

Book Description:

"Originally published in 1854, Walden; or, Life in the Woods, is a vivid account of the time that Henry D. Thoreau lived alone in a secluded cabin at Walden Pond. It is one of the most influential and compelling books in American literature. This new paperback edition-introduced by noted American writer John Updike-celebrates the 150th anniversary of this classic work. Much of Walden's material is derived from Thoreau's journals and contains such engaging pieces as 'Reading' and 'The Pond in the Winter' 

Other famous sections involve Thoreau's visits with a Canadian woodcutter and with an Irish family, a trip to Concord, and a description of his bean field. This is the complete and authoritative text of Walden - as close to Thoreau's original intention as all available evidence allows. For the student and for the general reader, this is the ideal presentation of Thoreau's great document of social criticism and dissent."

#ThrowbackThursday. October 2012

I've been doing ThrowbackThursdays for a while but I noticed that I wrote a lot of reviews in a short time when I first started. So, I post more than one Throwback every week. These are my reviews from October 2012.

Buck, Pearl S. "East Wind: West Wind" - 1930
This is history, life in Asia seen through the eyes of an American. The title already tells us about the divide between the East and the West, how people believe that they cannot be mixed. 

Ephron, Nora "I Feel Bad About My Neck And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman" - 2006
Great thoughts, great humour, a lovely memory of a wonderful woman.

Forster, E.M. "Howards End" - 1910
A great account of life within British society a century ago. The different classes and what it meant to a person born into a certain one.

Mandela, Nelson "Long Walk to Freedom" - 1994

I have always admired Nelson Mandela for how he coped with his life, for his struggle with oppression, for his fight for freedom. I mean, who wouldn't? He is one of the great heroes of our lifetime and the world would be a better place if everyone had just a little bit of Nelson Mandela in them.

The book hasn't changed my mind about him. If anything, it has enhanced my admiration.

Morrison, Toni "Home" - 2012
Frank Money has survived the Korean War, well, physically. After a more than difficult childhood, he and his sister don't continue to have an easy adulthood, you find almost any form of abuse and problem in this novel.

Murasaki, Lady Shikibu "The Tale of Genji" (J: 源氏物語 Genji Monogatari) - early 11th century

This book is often considered the first novel ever written.

How was life a millennium ago in a completely different part of this world.

Rutherfurd, Edward "Awakening: The Rebels of Ireland" - 2006

The sequel to "Dublin", this novel picks up in 1597, right after the first one finishes, we follow the descendants of the brave characters from book one carrying on the struggle of their ancestors.

One thing this book teaches us more than ever, any religious war or dispute is not really about religion but about power and money.

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

Alphabet Authors ~ K is for Kingsolver

I found this idea on Simon's blog @ Stuck in a Book. He picks an author for each letter of the alphabet, sharing which of their books he's read, which I ones he owns, how he came across them etc.

When I read my first book by Barbara Kingsolver, I knew I had found something great, an author I would love.

- "The Bean Trees" - 1988
- "Demon Copperhead" - 2022
- "Flight Behaviour" - 2012
- "The Lacuna" - 2009
- "Pigs in Heaven" - 1993
- "The Poisonwood Bible" - 1998 
- "Prodigal Summer" - 2001 
- "Unsheltered" - 2018

Ever since, I have read several of her books, as you can see, and loved every single one of them. The Poisonwood Bible, the first one, is still one of my favourites, though The Lacuna certainly is just as great.

Facts about Barbara Kingsolver:
Born    April 8, 1955 in Annapolis, Maryland, US
Married Joseph Hoffmann (1985–1992)

and Steven Lee Hopp (1994–present)

She has one daughter each by her two husbands, Camille born 1987, and Lily born 1996.
Apparently, she never wanted to be famous.

She received several prizes, The Women's Prize for Fiction for The Lacuna and Demon Copperhead and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for Demon Copperhead plus many other prizes for literature and her activism for civil liberties and humanities.

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This is part of an ongoing series where I will write about a different author for each letter of the alphabet. You can see them all here.

Top 5 Tuesday ~ Emotion

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 Top 5 books with an emotion in the title. Meeghan says to this: "Whether it’s happy or sad, anger or excitement, any emotion is fine!

(Looking at my shelves, I am absolutely going to regret this one later, but that’s fine too!)"

I think, no matter what genre we prefer, there are emotions in many titles. I chose some different ones: Pride, Hate, Sadness, Joy, Love. And, because it is the Jane Austen Year,  had to include one of her books.

Austen, Jane "Pride & Prejudice" - 1813 (The Motherhood and Jane Austen) 

Emcke, Carolin "Against Hate" (GE: Gegen den Hass) - 2016

Scott, Mary "No Sad Songs" - 1960

Tan, Amy "The Joy Luck Club" - 1989
Tung, Debbie "Book Love" - 2005

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❤ Happy Reading! ❤

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