Book Quotes

"Questions are places in your mind where answers fit. If you haven't asked the question, the answer has nowhere to go." Clay Christensen

That's a quote that gets me thinking.

"I don't think the reader should be indulged as a consumer, because he isn't one. Literature that indulges the tastes of the reader is a degraded literature. My goal is to disappoint the usual expectations and inspire new ones." Elena Ferrante

Definitely. Those are the best books.

"Reading is not a value in itself! Much more nonsense has been printed since Gutenberg than poor television has been able to broadcast in its 60 years of existence." Helmut Thoma, Austrian media manager

Also true, if you always read the same stuff, you are going nowhere.

Find more book quotes here.

#ThrowbackThursday. August-October 2014

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 August to October 2014.

Gaarder, Jostein "Sophie's World" (Norwegian: Sofies verden) - 1991

This is not a book you will want to read within a couple of days. There is a lot of information in this book. We could call it a philosophy class. 

McCulloch, Colleen "The Thorn Birds" - 1977
An epic saga. The story of the Cleary family over two generations coming from New Zealand to Australia in the early Twenties of the last century and also moves to London and Rome. But the main story is told in New Zealand, how a family settles in a strange country and goes through all the hardships you can imagine.

Montgomery, L. M. (Lucy Maud) "Anne of Green Gables" - 1908
An orphan girl is taken in by a childless couple and she really loves both her new parents as well as the school and the neighbours and everything but still gets into a lot of trouble all the time. The novel is both humorous as well as serious.

See, Lisa "Peony in Love" - 2007 

This is a magical story about a young girl called Peony who lives in the seventeenth century.

Top 5 Tuesday ~ Dinner Party

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.

And here is a list of all the topics for the rest of the year.

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This week’s topic is Characters to Invite to a Dinner Party. 

Tough question. I would love to invite all my favourite authors to a dinner party and ask them about their books. But I can only have five. Our dinner parties are usually a lot larger, so it is not a good decision for me to be made. We always invite everyone we can think of and often end up with 20+. Well, this is not a normal dinner party, so I understand.

So, I thought I'll invite those authors that have a special birthday, either themselves or their book. And I have tried to find a dinner-related clue.

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

Thomas Mann was born 6 June 1875, so he would have been 150 years in  2025. There are a lot of dinners in his book.

Pool, Daniel "What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew" - 1993
Well, I don't know Daniel Pool and this is the only book I read by him. But I guess you all know why this book is on this list. Exactly:
It's Jane Austen's 250^th birthday on 16 December (see #Reading Austen project) and just would have loved to meet her. Of course, many many dinners in her books ("at least three courses" LOL).

Scott, Mary "Dinner Doesn’t Matter" - 1957

The dinners in Mary Scott's are not great dinner parties but all of the books in her Susan & Larry series have meal in their title and since I always loved Mary, I would be delighted to have her at my dinner party.

Trollope, Anthony "The Way We Live Now" - 1875

Another birthday, this time that of the book, 150 years since it was published. And, of course, no book by Anthony Trollope without a formal dinner, either.

Woolf, Virginia "Mrs. Dalloway" - 1925

And now we come to a 100^th birthday, Mrs. Dalloway. I believe she would have thrown a huge party for that.

Unfortunately, all my authors have passed away. I mean, no wonder, with those birthdays. Maybe I should get someone to stand in for them, like Miss Sophie in "Dinner for One". I hope I found the correct link but if not, google it on YouTube, this one might be blocked in your country.

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Happy Reading! 🍲🥗🍖🥔🍨

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Top Ten Tuesday ~ Cheer you up

 

"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 Guaranteed to Put an End to Your Book Slump (Which books would you recommend to someone (it’s me, I’m someone) dealing with the dreaded book slump? No book is grabbing their attention or making them excited to sit down and read and they are suffering for it.)

Oh, interesting. And tough. It really depends on what kind of books you like. Let me think of some funny and easy reads that even I enjoyed. They should be great for a lot of people.

Bryson, Bill "Notes from a Small Island" - 1995

Bythell, Shaun "The Diary of a Bookseller" - 2017 

Ephron, Nora "The Most of Nora Ephron" - 2014

Grisham, John "Skipping Christmas: A Novel" - 2001

Johnson, Maureen; Cooper, Jay "Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village" - 2021

Khorsandi, Shappi "A Beginner's Guide to Acting English" - 2009

Roach, Mary "My Planet. Finding Humor in the Oddest Places" - 2013

Rosendorfer, Herbert "Letters Back to Ancient China" (GE: Briefe in die chinesische Vergangenheit) - 1983

Trotter, Derek "Del Boy" (Family of John Sullivan) "He Who Dares" - 2015

Wodehouse, P.G. "The World of Jeeves" (Jeeves #2-4: The Inimitable Jeeves #2, Carry On, Jeeves #3, Very Good, Jeeves! #4) - 1923/1925/1930

📚 Happy Reading 📚

Pierce, Patricia "Jurassic Mary"

Pierce, Patricia "Jurassic Mary: Mary Anning and the primeval monsters" - 2006

Ever since I read "Remarkable Creatures" by Tracy Chevalier, I've been interested in the life of Mary Anning who lived from 1799 to 1847 and was the first person who discovered dinosaur bones.

And this was on my wishlist, so my son bought it for me. It was just as nice as I had hoped.

A thorough account of the life of a young girl who would become one of the most important figure in discovering dinosaurs. But, because she was only a woman, she didn't have a lot to say. Even though there were some men who acknowledged her, most of them only used her findings for their won. She didn't really get any recognition. What else is new?

From the back cover:

"Spinster Mary Anning, uneducated and poor, was of the wrong sex, wrong class and wrong religion, but fate decreed that she was exactly the right person in the right place and time to pioneer the emerging science of palaeontology, the study of fossils. Born in Lyme Regis in 1799, Mary learned to collect fossils with her cabinet-maker father. The unstable cliffs and stealthy sea made the task dangerous but after her father died the sale of fossils sustained her family. Mary’s fame started as an infant when she survived a lightning strike that killed the three adults around her. Then, aged twelve, she caught the public’s attention when she unearthed the skeleton of a ‘fish lizard’ or Ichthyosaurus. She later found the first Plesiosaurus giganteus, with its extraordinary long neck associated with the Loch Ness monster, and, dramatically, she unearthed the first, still rare, Dimorphodon macronyx, a frightening ‘flying dragon’ with hand claws and teeth.Yet her many discoveries were announced to the world by male geologists like the irrepressible William Buckland and Sir Henry De La Beche and they often received the credit. In Jurassic Mary Patricia Pierce redresses this imbalance, bringing to life the extraordinary, little-known story of this determined and pioneering woman."

#ThrowbackThursday. June/July 2014

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 June/July 2014.

Heller, Joseph "Catch-22" - 1961

If you love dark humour (which I do), this is a great book. I never thought I could laugh about a war book. But I did. A lot. The novel still illustrates the insanity of war, probably even more than any serious book every would. Even though there is a lot to laugh about, it's the kind of laugh you do despite the situation not because of it.

Palma, Félix J. "The Map of the Sky" (E: El mapa del cielo) - 2012  

Félix J. Palma makes a spin on an H.G. Wells novel, this time it was "The War of the Worlds".

In this novel, we have a lot of adventures to pass. We are stuck on a ship in the frozen North Sea and we have to fight alien machines who want to overtake the whole world. At that point, we arrive in a dystopian environment.

Sienkiewicz, Henryk "Quo Vadis" (PL: Quo Vadis) - 1895
This is a surprisingly easy book to read with an astonishing story and a lot of historical background. I have read other books about the early Christians in Rome and I have always been fascinated by them. 

Barbery, Muriel "Une Rose Seule"

Barbery, Muriel "A Single Rose" (French: Une Rose Seule) - 2020

I read Muriel Barbery's "The Elegance of the Hedgehog" and found it truly beautiful.

This book was recommended to me as a lovely, light French book. Well, it was light, but perhaps a bit too long-winded for me. Asian thinking is foreign to me, I'm not a yoga or Zen fan, and I can't empathize with myself as much as is often desired.

The author and her protagonist certainly succeeded in doing this, but it wasn't really comprehensible to me. The first few chapters are all about landscapes, flowers, food and drink, temples, etc. I also couldn't warm to Rose, who only thawed out a bit towards the end.

And although I normally enjoy reading philosophical books, this was a bit too much of a good thing for me, too forced.

A Japanese story, a fairy tale, or a fable, was interspersed between the chapters. I found some of them interesting, while others made me wonder what they had to do with the book.

Well, it was nice to read a French book again, and also a good read for our "Paris in July" challenge, but that was about it.

From the back cover:

"From the bestselling author of The Elegance of the Hedgehog comes a story about a woman’s journey, in which she discovers the father she never knew and a love she never thought possible.

Rose has turned forty, but has barely begun to live. When her Japanese father dies and she finds herself an orphan, she leaves France for Kyoto to hear the reading of his will. Paul, her father’s assistant, takes Rose on a mysterious pilgrimage designed by her deceased father. Her bitterness is soothed by the temples, Zen gardens and teahouses, and by her encounters with her father’s friends. As she recognises what she has lost, and as secrets are divulged, Rose learns to accept a part of herself that she has never before acknowledged.

Through her father’s itinerary, he opens his heart posthumously to his daughter, and Rose finds love where she least expects it. This stunning fifth novel from international bestseller Muriel Barbery is a mesmerising story of second chances, of beauty born out of grief."

Top 5 Tuesday ~ The Tudors

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.

And here is a list of all the topics for the rest of the year.

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This week’s topic is Books Set in a Specific Time Period. 

I just had to go with one of my favourites: The Tudors. There was just so much going on. It's always exciting. I have chosen some fiction and some non-fiction books by some of my favourite authors about history and historical fiction. If you know more that are worth reading, please, let me know.

Ackroyd, Peter "The History of England, Vol. 2 Tudors" 

- 2012 

Peter Ackroyd is a great writer, he just knows all the little details and can put them together so that you get the feeling, you have been there. All the problems the Tudor's encountered, how the Anglican church started, what the problems were etc. Whilst the author focuses a lot on the reformation in this edition, there is also a lot about Henry VIII's successors and how the island carried on after his death.

Follett, Ken "A Column of Fire" (Kingsbridge #3) - 2017
This is mostly the story of the fictional Willard family. There is a Romeo and Juliet plot, villains and heroes, Catholics and Protestants, Queens Mary I, Elizabeth I and King James I of England, Mary Queen of Scots, the history of the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre, the Spanish Armada, the Gunpowder plot and many other political events. This book has it all.

Mantel, Hilary "Wolf Hall" (The Wolf Hall Trilogy #1) - 2009

This is such a great novel about Thomas Cromwell and all the other people that played an important part in the life of probably the most interesting king among all the kings of England, Henry VIII. Hilary Mantel tries to look behind the curtain of the throne, of the court, of the royal family.

Rutherfurd, Edward "London - The Novel" - 1997
The author describes the history of this fantastic town through the lives of about half a dozen different families. He manages to let you live their lives and learn about the development, the achievements, the shortcomings of life between BC and now. But you don't just get to know the families but also their famous contemporaries. You get to meet Chaucer and Shakespeare, all the different kings and queens of England and Scotland, Sir Christopher Wren, a lot of bishops and other important clergymen. So, this is not just about the Tudors but they build an important part of the book.

Weir, Alison "The Six Wives of Henry VIII" - 1991

There is so much information here about the six ladies who were married to Henry VIII as well as a lot about the king  himself and the children. You get a complete picture of the Royal Tudor family, not just the Tudors but all their contemporaries, the European Royal families, the people and families of influence a the time.

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🤴👑👸 Happy Reading! 🤴👑👸

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Spell the Month in Books ~ August 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.

August: Favourite Authors

That was an easy one. We all have those authors that we absolutely love and that we could read again and again. So, it was not so difficult, to find enough books with the correct letter.

AUGUST

A

Bryson, Bill "At Home" - 2010

Bill Bryson travels around the world and makes everyone laugh with his books. This time, he doesn't even leave the house, he describes the history of the world (well, mainly Britain and America) while walking through the different rooms in his house.

U

Kingsolver, Barbara "Unsheltered" - 2018
Why do people work hard all their lives, do everything right, and still end up in dire straits?

G

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.

U

O'Farrell, John "An Utterly Impartial History of Britain or 2,000 Years of Upper Calls Idiots in Charge" - 2007

I haven't laughed and learned as much in one book as with this one. I read "Things can only get better" by the same author and really liked it. But this is a completely different matter. John O'Farrell makes history hilarious.

S

Austen, Jane "Sense & Sensibility" - 1811 (The Motherhood and Jane Austen) 

This novel describes the life of Elinor and Marianne Dashwood, two sisters who are completely different. Elinor, the elder, is the "sense", Marianne the "sensibility. 

T

Hislop, Victoria "The Thread" - 2011
While a young man visits his grandparents in Greece, they tell him the story of their life and at the same time the story of their town and country. Thessaloniki has gone through a lot of turmoil and so have its inhabitants.

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Happy Reading!

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Six Degrees of Separation ~ The Safekeep

Yael Van Der Wouden
"The Safekeep" (De bewaring) - 2024

#6Degrees of Separation: 
from The Safekeep (Goodreads) to Demon Copperhead

#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 "The Safekeep" by Yael Van der Wouden. Again, I have not read the starter book. This is the description of the novel:

"An exhilarating, twisted tale of desire, suspicion, and obsession between two women staying in the same house in the Dutch countryside during the summer of 1961—a powerful exploration of the legacy of WWII and the darker parts of our collective past.

A house is a precious thing...

It is 1961 and the rural Dutch province of Overijssel is quiet. Bomb craters have been filled, buildings reconstructed, and the war is truly over. Living alone in her late mother’s country home, Isabel knows her life is as it should be — led by routine and discipline. But all is upended when her brother Louis brings his graceless new girlfriend Eva, leaving her at Isabel’s doorstep as a guest, to stay for the season.

Eva is Isabel’s antithesis: she sleeps late, walks loudly through the house, and touches things she shouldn’t. In response, Isabel develops a fury-fueled obsession, and when things start disappearing around the house — a spoon, a knife, a bowl — Isabel’s suspicions begin to spiral. In the sweltering peak of summer, Isabel’s paranoia gives way to infatuation—leading to a discovery that unravels all Isabel has ever known. The war might not be well and truly over after all, and neither Eva — nor the house in which they live — are what they seem.

Mysterious, sophisticated, sensual, and infused with intrigue, atmosphere, and sex, The Safekeep is a brilliantly plotted and provocative debut novel you won’t soon forget."

I'm not a fan of Booker Prize novels, I've read too many that I didn't like, so I am sure I won't read this one. Also, there is no word I can use to carry on my usual way. I like to use a word and then find a new book with the same word. That way, I have a much wider variety of books as if I stick with the theme in the book. Also, the name is not one that I can continue with, neither the first nor the surname.

Looking at the similar books on Goodreads didn't help, either, since I have not read a single one of them. So, I do guess correctly, this isn't a book for me.

I could have taken a book with the word "keep" but didn't read one that I like, so I will not go with it.

Then I thought about reading Dutch books of which I have read several and since a lot of Dutch books relate to WWII (they still live in the 1940s), I could find several that would link to the starter book. Not a huge variety there but if someone wants to read books written by Dutch authors, they can find a few here.

In the end I went for another option. This book has received the Women's Prize for Fiction and there are a few that I have read and really liked, so this is my list. Most of them were the winners, only Elif Şafak was on the short list. But I think her book is fantastic and would have deserved the prize. This time, I listed the books in chronological order when receiving the Prize.

Shriver, Lionel "We Need to Talk About Kevin" - 2003
What is going through the mind of a mass murderer? What is going through the mind of his mother? This book is trying to answer that question.

Smith, Zadie "On Beauty" - 2005
Again, I quite like the author's style, the way she portrays the different characters. Apparently, an homage to E. M. Forster's "Howards End". The fact that she manages to make this into a very modern story shows how timeless a writer she is.

Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi "Half of a Yellow Sun" - 2006
I totally can relate to the quote "The world was silent when we died." I don't think many of us knew where Biafra was. Here we can learn about it.

Kingsolver, Barbara "The Lacuna" - 2009
This story stretches from Mexico over the United States to Russia, describes the lives of Mexican painters Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo and Russian leader Trotsky, all woven together by the life of one Mexian-American guy who is thrown into their lot.

Şafak, Elif "The Island of Missing Trees" - 2021
This takes place in Cyprus and we learn about the people on this divided island. As an example we have Greek Kostas and Turkish Defne. They fall in love but - as usual in such cases - their love is forbidden.

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

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There is a huge connection between all the books, they are all written by women. And for me, both the first and the last book were given to me by friends who though I would love them. And I did.

📚📚📚

Happy August!

Happy August to all my Friends and Readers

New Calendar picture with this
beautiful watercolour painting by Frank Koebsch
"Morgens am Leuchtturm von Warnemünde"
"Morning at the Warnemünde Lighthouse"

Frank says to this picture:

"The Warnemünde Lighthouse, with its teapot, is the most striking landmark in Warnemünde. Whether you're walking along the promenade, taking a stroll along the beach, watching ships at sunset from the piers, or even returning from a trip on the Baltic Sea, the lighthouse dominates the skyline of the Baltic Sea resort." (The "teapot" has three hyperbolic paraboloid shells as a roof.)
"Der Leuchtturm Warnemünde mit dem Teepott ist das markanteste Wahrzeichen in Warnemünde. Egal ob man auf der Promenade unterwegs ist, einen Strandspaziergang in Warnemünde macht, abends auf Molen bei Sonnenuntergang Schiffe schaut oder gar von einer Ausfahrt auf die Ostsee zurückkommt, der Leuchtturm prägt die Silhouette des Ostseebades."

I believe everyone knows in the meantime how much I love lighthouses and windmills. It was a childhood dream to live in one of these. Sometimes it's good that dreams don't come true as I can't climb stairs anymore.

Funnily enough, one of our other calendars in the house shows a picture of the same lighthouse. With the teapot.

Read more on their website here. *

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We had some meetings with friends, some restaurant visits and also two game nights. Plus a weekend visit by a lovely cousin with whom we visited the Industrial Museum in our Town (see below).

But one of the highlights of the month was the visit to an Irish-Scottish folk festival The main singer at the time was Paul Watchorn (Wikipedia), younger brother of Patsy Watchorn from the Dubliners. Paul is now with the Dublin Legends. In addition to many newer songs, which were also very good, he played a lot of well-known songs, such as Molly Malone, Rattlin' Bog, Seven Drunken Nights, Oró, Sé Do Bheatha 'Bhaile (although my favorite version is still the one by the Chieftains with Sting). The funny thing is, hubby met him at the bar and had a little chat. After his performance, he came to our table, just by coincidence. It's always great to talk to the artists.

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As it's summertime and a lot of people go to the beach, my German saying this month is

"Wie Sand am Meer" (Like Sand on the Seashore).

As you certainly can imagine, it means countless, abundant, plentiful. A lot. A lot a lot. You cannot count it.

* * * 

My Jane Austen read (see #Reading Austen project) this month was "Emma". Not one of her most popular books. Jane Austen said herself that she was "... going to take a heroine whom no-one but myself will much like." 

Another book I enjoyed was "Leave it to Psmith" by P.G. Wodehouse. This author is always a safe bet if you need a break from more serious writing.

* * *

Getting back to the Industrial Museum, as promised. Our little town has a lot of industry. It developed from making the first quills from geese feathers (that animal is also the symbol of our town) in 1801 to being one of the largest plastic processing sites today.

But I think the exhibition most interesting to young people nowadays is the school. I used to go to just such a school and we had the exact same writing slates and a crocheted cleaning cloth. When I told some American friends about it years ago, they were really astonished. I am sure all young people will be surprised nowadays.

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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 very Happy August! 🌻🌽

#ThrowbackThursday. May 2014

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 May 2014.

Christie, Agatha "Poirot Investigates" (Hercule Poirot #3) - 1924 

Monsieur Poirot is one of my favourite characters in any crime series, past or present. 

Dallaire, Roméo "They Fight Like Soldiers, They Die Like Children: The Global Quest to Eradicate the Use of Child Soldiers" - 2010
If you are interested in what is going on (mainly) in Africa and would like to know what can be done for a hopefully peaceful future, read this book. Roméo Dallaire fights a great fight and needs all the support he can get.

Fowles, John "The French Lieutenant’s Woman" - 1969
A lovely story. A love story in the Victorian era between a man and a married woman. Quite a lot to talk about. This is one of the rare occasions where I liked the movie better, maybe because of its great actors.

Lindgren, Astrid "Seacrow Island" (Translation: Vi på Saltkråkan) - 1964 
One of my favourite stories by Astrid Lindgren besides "The Six Bullerby Children". Similar as in that story, there are a couple of families in Sweden with children of the same age.

Lindgren, Astrid "The Six Bullerby Children" (Swedish: Barnen i Bullerbyn) - 1947

Next to "Seacrow Island", my favourite story by Astrid Lindgren. This is a trilogy about six children who live in the little village of Bullerby, Lisa,

Mann, Thomas "Death in Venice" (German: Der Tod in Venedig) - 1912
This book is about a dream and the hope of its fulfillment. It is a story of defeat but also of love. It is as actual as it was a hundred years ago when it was written. Maybe one of the most actual books written on the subject of homosexuality.

Nafisi, Azar "Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books" - 2003 

A beautifully written memoir about a dark time. It is not just a book about different books and a class discussing them, it is a precise account of a country turning from modern times into the past, taking away the human rights of half of their population, something that happens all over this world.

Tartt, Donna "The Goldfinch" - 2013

The book is a wonderful account of friendship and endurance. But it isn't a "happy" book, lots of difficulties occur in Theo's life. It is as much a dark book as an uplifting one.

Anonymous Comments

Top 5 Tuesday ~ Colours

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.

And here is a list of all the topics for the rest of the year.

* * *

This week’s topic is Colours. 

Now, this was an easy one. I could have found a lot more than just five books this week but I kept it with the main colours. And I think I found a large variety of very different books here.

Xueqin, Cao (Cáo Xuěqín) "Dream of the Red Chamber/The Story of the Stone" (CHN: 红楼梦/Hung lou meng) - 1717-63

Apparently, this novel is "one of the four pinnacles of classical Chinese literature." Also known as "The Story of the Stone", it is said to be the first Chinese novel of this kind and has created an entire field of study "Redology".

Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi "Half of a Yellow Sun" - 2006

I totally can relate to the quote "The world was silent when we died." I don't think many of us knew where Biafra was. Here we can learn about it.

Hajaj, Claire "Ishmael's Oranges" - 2014

A book on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Like so many other books about the people of Palestine, it can only touch the surface of what is going on. Therefore, we need to read as many books about this as possible and pass them on. 

Montgomery, L. M. "Anne of Green Gables" - 1908
An orphan girl is taken in by a childless couple and she really loves both her new parents as well as the school and the neighbours and everything but still gets into a lot of trouble all the time. The novel is both humorous as well as serious.

Vreeland, Susan "Girl in Hyacinth Blue" - 1999

The main subject of the novel is a fictitious painting by Vermeer. It describes its life, starting with the last owner. A lot of interesting stories, every important timeframe is included and the change of owner is almost every time highly dramatic.

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🌈 Happy Reading! 🌈

📚 📚 📚

Gappah, Petina "Out of Darkness, Shining Light"

Gappah, Petina "Out of Darkness, Shining Light" - 2019

Of course, we all know about David Livingstone's search for the source of the river Nile. It is also widely known that his heart was buried in Africa and his body in Europe. This is the story, told by two slaves, how the body got from the middle of Africa to the sea so that he could be transferred to Great Britain.

Two different people tell the story, a women who is employed as a cook. Her story is pretty African, she uses far too many words that the average Europen will not understand. Granted, there is a small annex with explanations but you have to use that far too often and it destroys the enjoyment of any story. Then there is a guy who wants to become a priest. He is preaching already. All the time. Almost every second sentence starts or ends with "dear Lord" or something similar. He comes across as a religious fanatic. Reading the Bible is more wordly.

Have you guessed it already? I didn't like the book.

There was only about one sentence that made me smile. When someone told the other slaves about the meeting between Henry Morton Stanley and David Livingstone, he translated the first sentence (Dr. Livingstone, I presume?) into: "It can only be that you are Bwana Daudi."

We discussed this in our international online book club in July 2025.

Comments from the members:

• The start of the book felt slow, and didn't feel pulled into it for the story so much until the murder plot unwound. It was a really nice read though in terms or history and culture. The discussion we had resulted into talking and thinking about African history, slavery, imperialist influences, death rites... The characters in the story were also really distinct. I feel a bit smarter about African history for having read it.

• Many in the book club agreed that the language, particularly the religious tone and African dialects, made the beginning difficult to follow. However, as the story progresses, the plot becomes more engaging, especially with the focus on the African slaves who carried Livingstone’s body. Their journey is central to the book, and the contrast between their lives and Livingstone’s European legacy opens up important discussions about colonialism and the erasure of African voices in history. Some felt the religious elements were repetitive, but they were seen as integral to understanding the mindset of the time. Despite the slow start and challenging style, many found the novel’s exploration of historical and cultural themes thought-provoking.

• Overall it was a really good discussion book, because we have read some books about African history and by African authors before, it always becomes an interesting part, looking at the books we have read, and how the new books align in with those. In that sense this felt like quite a good book to add to the list.

From the back cover:

"This is the story of the body of Bwana Daudi, the Doctor, the explorer David Livingstone - and the sixty-nine men and women who carried his remains for 1,500 miles so that he could be borne across the sea and buried in his own country.

This is the story of those in the shadows of history: the  dark companions who saved a white man's bones on an epic funeral march - little knowing his corps carried the maps that sowed the seeds of their continent's colonisation and enslavement.

This is the story of how human bravery, loyalty and love can triumph over darkness - and the result is Petina Gappah's radical masterpiece."

Book Quotes

"It is foolish to think that you have to read all the books you buy, as it is foolish to criticize those who buy more books than they will ever be able to read. It would be like saying that you should use all the cutlery or glasses or screwdrivers or drill bits you bought before buying new ones." Umberto Eco 

The man is so right.

"Books have a sense of honor. Once you've lent them, they never come back." Theodor Fontane 

Does that mean we shouldn't lend books? I love discussing books with others and often, the only way to do this is to lend them mine.

"I know many books which have bored their readers, but I know of none which has done real evil." Voltaire 

Some people should be made aware of that. But those are usually the ones who don't read in the first place and don't want to get people to get ideas or be smart. (And yes, I'm referring to a certain president who is proud to be dumb.)

Find more book quotes here.

#ThrowbackThursday. April 2014

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 April 2014.

Busch, Wilhelm "Max and Moritz" (German: Max und Moritz) - 1865

A german classical children's book. The two boys are very mischievous, anything young boys would like to do they do. But in the end they get punished hardly. 

Calvino, Italo "Why Read the Classics?" (Italian: Perché leggere i classici?) 1991

If you enjoy reading classic literature, this is a great way of getting a list of worthwhile books to read and maybe getting a glimpse of what it might be.

Pamuk, Orhan "Snow" (Turkish: Kar) - 2002

Ka is a Turkish poet who lives in Germany but visits a town in Turkey called Kars. While he is there, they have a heavy snowfall and nobody can leave or enter the town. The Turkish name for snow is "kar". What a coincidence!

Seth, Vikram "Two Lives" - 2005

The author describes not just the life of his great-uncle and his Jewish wife, he describes his own life, he describes the life and death of ordinary people during the holocaust as well as the terrible fate of the Jews. But he also describes life in India pre- and post independence. Quite an undertaking.

Top 5 Tuesday ~ Directions

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 Books with Directions in the Title. 

Directions. I had to think about the compass rose and the cardinal directions immediately. So, North, South, East, West it is.

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. 

Gaskell, Elizabeth "North and South" - 1854/55
This novel tells the story of Margaret Hale whose father leaves the ministry because he has doubts about his belief. They move from the South of England to a place in the North, from a village to a town, a lot of things change for the protagonist.

Guterson, David "East of the Mountains" - 1999
What does a surgeon do who suffers from terminal illness and knows what is about to happen to him?

Remarque, Erich Maria "All Quiet on the Western Front" (GE: Im Westen nichts Neues) - 1928
One part of this book tells us about the war, the trenches, the fights, the cold, the dampness, the rats, the bad food, seeing the friends fall one after the other, worrying you might be next ... The protagonist has a home leave in between and his rendition of the visit with his family and him being in turmoil because it is a different life and he is a different person, it tells us a lot about what those soldiers went through when they survived, what soldiers still go through today. They are never the same again.
This contributed to me becoming a life-long pacifist.

Steinbeck, John "East of Eden" - 1952

The author talks about problems as old as mankind, he retells the story of Cain and Abel. An excellent report about growing up, growing in different directions, about good and evil, young and old, a very moving story.

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⬅⬇⬆➡ Happy Reading! ⬅⬇⬆➡

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