Wilde, Oscar "Only Dull People Are Brilliant at Breakfast"

Wilde, Oscar "Only Dull People Are Brilliant at Breakfast" - 1946

This is only a short book of 52 pages. Easy to take along on short trips.

And what a lovely title. I suppose Oscar Wilde considered himself a very boring person at breakfast.

While this sounds like another one of his not-so-well-known writings, it is really a collection of his aphorisms, quotes, anecdotes, witticisms. A delight to read. Again and again.

After reading this, I would have wished to be friends with him. I'm sure we would have really liked each other.

One of my favourite quotes, still as relevant today as it was a hundred years ago, especially with regard to certain politics:
"Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live."

From the back cover:

"Wilde's celebrated witticisms on the dangers of sincerity, duplicitous biographers, the stupidity of the English - and his own genius.

'It would be unfair to expect other people to be as remarkable as oneself'. Oscar Wilde"

This is a "Penguin Little Black Classics" edition and it looks like there are lots of other authors who 

There is even a box set with the following description:

"A stunning collection of all 80 exquisite Little Black Classics from Penguin

This spectacular box set of the 80 books in the Little Black Classics series showcases the many wonderful and varied writers in Penguin Black Classics. From India to Greece, Denmark to Iran, the United States to Britain, this assortment of books will transport readers back in time to the furthest corners of the globe. With a choice of fiction, poetry, essays and maxims, by the likes of Chekhov, Balzac, Ovid, Austen, Sappho and Dante, it won't be difficult to find a book to suit your mood. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of the Penguin Classics list - from drama to poetry, from fiction to history, with books taken from around the world and across numerous centuries."

It would be worth getting.

#Throwback Thursday ~ September

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 September 2012.

Grass, Günter "Crabwalk" (German: Im Krebsgang) - 2002
A tough read, like anything by this author, but definitely worth it, also like everything he ever wrote.

Hartnett, Sonya "Thursday’s Child" - 2002
A book about the Great Depression in Australia, a novel about a family who struggles like any other family during the time, a story about a boy who is different, ...

Rasputin, Valentin (Распутин, Валентин Григорьевич) "Farewell to Matyora" (Russian: Прощание с Матёрой/Proschanie s Materoj) - 1976

A wonderful account of what development and progression can do to people. Matyora is a village in Siberia, a village like there are millions in this world. Or, in this case, it has been. The government decides to build a dam and float the whole area.

Spyri, Johanna "Heidi" (German: "Heidis Lehr- und Wanderjahre" and "Heidi kann brauchen, was es gelernt hat") - 1880-1881
The first book I ever owned. Heidi grows up with her grandfather in the Swiss Alps.

Tsypkin, Leonid Borissowitsch (Леонид Борисович Цыпкин) "Summer in Baden-Baden" (Russian: Ljubit Dostojewskowo - лджубит достоджэвсково) - 1981

A biographical novel about Dostoevsky's travels in Germany with this wife.

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

Top 5 Tuesday ~ Books with a Place in the Title

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 a Place in the Title. "Any location or place in a title is fine — just share your top five with us." I found quite a few towns, cities or other kind of locations but in the end, I opted for countries and a continent. The only one of those places that I have visited is Greece, though I've only been to Crete, not the mainland.

Dinesen, Isak/Blixen, Karen "Out of Africa" - 1937

Hislop, Victoria "Cartes Postales from Greece" - 2016

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

Shakib, Siba "Afghanistan, Where God Only Comes to Weep" (GE: Nach Afghanistan kommt Gott nur noch zum Weinen) - 2002 

Thomson, Mike "Syria's Secret Library: The True Story of How a Besieged Syrian Town Found Hope" - 2018

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🌍Happy Reading!🌍

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Top Ten Tuesday ~ Expats

     

"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 that Include/Feature [insert your favorite theme or plot device here] (for example: unreliable narrators, coming of age, darkness vs. light, time travel, metafiction, a specific romantic trope, good vs. evil. cliffhangers, flashbacks, plot twists, red herrings, loose ends, stories within stories, meet cutes, symbolism, etc.) Since I lived half of my life abroad, I picked books about expats.

Alexievich, Svetlana "Second Hand Time. The Last of the Sovjets" (Russian: Время секонд хэнд = Vremja sekond khend) - 2013 

Russian-Soviets abroad

Barnes, Valerie "A Foreign Affair. A Passionate Life in Four Languages" - 2004 

An Australian in Switzerland

Brontë, Charlotte "Villette" - 1853

An Brit in Belgium

Buck, Pearl S. "My several worlds: A Personal Exile" - 1954

A US American in China

Drinkwater, Carol "The Olive Series" - 2001-2010

A Brit in France

Clarke, Stephen "A Year in the Merde" - 2004

Another Brit in France

McLain, Paula "The Paris Wife" - 2012

A US American in France

Russell, Helen "The Year of Living Danishly: My Twelve Months Unearthing the Secrets of the World's Happiest Country" - 2015

A Brit in Denmark

Sendker, Jan-Philipp "Whispering Shadows" (German: Das Flüstern der Schatten) - 2007 

A US American in China (written by a German)

Zweig, Stefanie "Nowhere in Africa" (German: Nirgendwo in Afrika) - 1995

A German in Kenya

It seems like there are a lot of British people living abroad but that could also be because I just happened to read many books by Brits.

Alphabet Authors ~ J is for Joyce

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.

Sometimes, you read hundreds of books by one author, other times only a few but you still know he or she is one of the greatest authors ever. James Joyce is such an author. He has written some extraordinary works.

- "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" - 1916  
- "Dubliners" - 1905 (short stories)
- "Ulysses" - 1922

Facts about James Joyce:
Born    February 2, 1882 in Rathgar, Dublin, Ireland
Died    January 13, 1941 in Zürich, Switzerland, aged 58
Married Nora Barnacle 1931

They had two children together, Girgio born 1905, and Lucia born 1907.
They moved around a lot from Zürich to Pula in Croatia, then Trieste, Rome, Dublin again, Zürich, Trieste, Paris, London and again to Zürich. They got married in London, so his son would get an inheritance when he died.

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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.

Backman, Fredrik "Britt-Marie was here"

Backman, Fredrik "Britt-Marie was here" (Swedish: Britt-Marie var här) - 2014

This was my second book by Fredrik Backman. And my last. The first one was quite nice, funny, but I couldn't care for this one. I didn't like the protagonist, Britt-Marie because I'm not OCD even though I like order, I don't like football, so that didn't allure me, either. The story is described as "funny and moving", I couldn't find either.

This was a book club book, otherwise I might not have finished it.

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

Some comments from the other members:

"It scored pretty low by most others in the discussion.

Some commented that it felt more like a movie script than a real novel. Which makes sense as Backman's books have many of them been filmed both in Sweden and internationally. For me it was a nice light humorous read, maybe more like a fun summer read than real thought raising literature. This despite me hating the main character from the very start. I guess much of Backman's stories are like that, with quite stereotypical characters, and predictable plot and then an uplifting twist at the end. The timeline of the book felt familiar in terms of what was happening in small towns here in the Nordics in maybe 90-s or early 00s. Services being closed down and some neighbourhoods being quite poor. Not really something I believe can be saved by one determined lady and the community. But a nice thought."

From the back cover:

"Britt-Marie can’t stand mess. A disorganized cutlery drawer ranks high on her list of unforgivable sins. She is not one to judge others—no matter how ill-mannered, unkempt, or morally suspect they might be. It’s just that sometimes people interpret her helpful suggestions as criticisms, which is certainly not her intention.

But hidden inside the socially awkward, fussy busybody is a woman who has more imagination, bigger dreams, and a warmer heart that anyone around her realizes.

When Britt-Marie walks out on her cheating husband and has to fend for herself in the miserable backwater town of Borg—of which the kindest thing one can say is that it has a road going through it—she finds work as the caretaker of a soon-to-be demolished recreation center. The fastidious Britt-Marie soon finds herself being drawn into the daily doings of her fellow citizens, an odd assortment of miscreants, drunkards, layabouts. Most alarming of all, she’s given the impossible task of leading the supremely untalented children’s soccer team to victory. In this small town of misfits, can Britt-Marie find a place where she truly belongs?

Funny and moving, sweet and inspiring, Britt-Marie Was Here celebrates the importance of community and connection in a world that can feel isolating."

#Throwback Thursday ~ August 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. One of my blogger friends always posts the reviews of one month but that would be too much. So, these are my reviews from August 2012.

Elwell Hunt, Angela "The Tale of Three Trees" - 1989

This has been one of the best books for children about religion that I have ever seen. 

Gao, Xingjian "Soul Mountain" (Chinese: 灵山, língshān) - 1989

An extraordinary book. A biography, a search for someone's soul in a world where the individual means nothing.

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

Not a thriller. It is a comedy, and quite a hilarious one.

Rutherfurd, Edward "Dublin: Foundation (The Princes of Ireland: The Dublin Saga)" - 2004

Reaching from the fifth into the 16th century, this novel introduces us to the Ireland of the druids and the ancient Celts until the beginning of the Tudor reign.

Shute, Nevil "A Town Like Alice" (US Title: The Legacy) - 1950

A young English woman works in Malaya (now Malaysia) during World War II and becomes a prisoner of war of the Japanese.

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

Alphabet Authors ~ I is for Ingalls Wilder

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.

First I thought, I wouldn't find any author with the initial I that I could use but then I remembered Laura Ingalls Wilder. I do not remember whether I read any of her books as a child. Probably not. My first recollections of Laura Ingalls and her family is from the TV series.

Ingalls Wilder, Laura "Little House Books" 1932-1971
Little House in the Big Woods (1932) (Goodreads)
Farmer Boy (1933) (Goodreads)
Little House on the Prairie (1935) (Goodreads)
On the Banks of Plum Creek (1937) (Goodreads)
By the Shores of Silver Lake (1939) (Goodreads)
The Long Winter (1940) (Goodreads)
Little Town on the Prairie (1941) (Goodreads)
These Happy Golden Years (1943) (Goodreads)
On the Way Home (1962, published posthumously) (Goodreads)
The First Four Years (1971) (Goodreads)

And then there is the book
Rylant, Cynthia "Old Town in the Green Groves: Laura Ingalls Wilder's Lost Little House Years" - 2002
This story was based on Laura's memoirs.

Facts about Laura Ingalls Wilder:
Born    February 7, 1867 in Wisconsin
Died    February 10, 1957 in Missouri, aged 90
Married Almanzo Wilder 1885

Her life was more or less how she describe it in her books. Her parents were pioneers who moved around and settled in South Dakota. Laura first worked as a teacher until she got married and became a farmer's wife. They had two children but only her daughter Rose survived.

If you live in the United States or go there on holidays, maybe you would like to visit the Laura Ingalls Wilder House and Museum.

There is also a lovely website about her books, mainly for children.

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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 ~ Pronoun

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 a Pronoun in the Title. "Find all of your he, she, they, we or you books and then shout them from the rooftops!! Or just on your blog page." Yes, I have chosen my blog page for that, I'm getting too old for climbing rooftops. 😉 I found quite a few different ones, all great ones.

Ephron, Nora "I Remember Nothing. And Other Reflections" - 2010

Bythell, Shaun "Seven Kinds of People You Find in Bookshops" - 2020

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

Cristofano, David "The Girl She Used to Be" - 2009

Clinton, Hillary Rodham "It Takes a Village: And Other Lessons Children Teach Us" - 1996

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🔖Happy Reading!🔖

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Spell the Month in Books ~ March

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.

March: Science Fiction

Science Fiction is not my genre and I was wondering whether I would be able to fill even five letters. But, as you can see, I managed. Some are more dystopian than science which (which I really prefer) but I even managed to find five books that I like that fit the subject.

MARCH

M

Weir, Andy "The Martian" - 2011  

A
Stephenson, Neal "Anathem" - 2008
R
McCarthy, Cormac "The Road" - 2006 
C

Mitchell, David "Cloud Atlas" - 2004

H
Adams, Douglas "The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy" - 1979

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Happy Reading!

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Six Degrees of Separation ~ Prophet Song

Paul Lynch
"Prophet Song" - 2023

#6Degrees of Separation:

from Prophet Song (Goodreads) to The Discovery of Slowness

#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 "Prophet Song" by Paul Lynch, an Irish author who received the Booker Prize for this novel. The last ones I read were not to my taste, so I didn't even try to get it.

But since this book is not written by a British or an American author, I have tried to find some other foreign authors who were awarded prizes either in their country or internationally. I succeeded for all but one.

If you are interested, here is a description of this novel:

"A fearless portrait of a society on the brink as a mother faces a terrible choice, from an internationally award-winning author

On a dark, wet evening in Dublin, scientist and mother-of-four Eilish Stack answers her front door to find the GNSB on her step. Two officers from Ireland’s newly formed secret police are here to interrogate her husband, a trade unionist.

Ireland is falling apart. The country is in the grip of a government turning towards tyranny and Eilish can only watch helplessly as the world she knew disappears. When first her husband and then her eldest son vanish, Eilish finds herself caught within the nightmare logic of a collapsing society.

How far will she go to save her family? And what – or who – is she willing to leave behind?

Exhilarating, terrifying and propulsive, Prophet Song is a work of breathtaking originality, offering a devastating vision of a country at war and a deeply human portrait of a mother’s fight to hold her family together."

I start with the word Song.

Liao, Yiwu "Testimonials or: For a Song and a Hundred Songs: A Poet's Journey Through a Chinese Prison" (CHN: Zheng-Ci) - 2000

Yiwu Liao received the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (Friedenspreis) in 2012.

García Márquez, Gabriel "One Hundred Years of Solitude" (E: Cien años de soledad) - 1967

Gabriel García Márquez received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982 "for his novels and short stories, in which the fantastic and the realistic are combined in a richly composed world of imagination, reflecting a continent's life and conflicts".

Giordano, Paolo "The Solitude of Prime Numbers" (I: La solitudine dei numeri primi) - 2008

Paolo Giordano won the Premio Strega literary award with this, his first novel.

Simmonds, Jeremy "Number One in Heaven – The Heroes Who Died For Rock 'n' Roll" - 2006
A fantastic book about all the rock stars we loved and who left us far too early.

Mulisch, Harry "The Discovery of Heaven" (NL: De ontdekking van de hemel) - 1992
Harry Mulish received several international awards, and the NRC Handelsblad readers voted this novel the greatest Dutch book ever written.

Nadolny, Sten "The Discovery of Slowness" (GE: Die Entdeckung der Langsamkeit) - 1983

Sten Nadolny received many German and Italian literature prizes, i.a. the prestigious  Ingeborg Bachmann Prize.

We always try to find a connection between the first and the last degree. I think a prophet could be very helpful in the search for slowness.

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Happy March!

 Happy March to all my Friends and Readers

New Calendar picture with this
beautiful watercolour painting by Hanka Koebsch

"Am Fluss"

"Along the River"

Hanka and Frank say to this picture:

"Für den kommenden Frühling haben wir uns für Hankas Kinder Aquarell entschieden."

"For the coming spring we have chosen Hanka's children's watercolor."

This picture by Hanka remindes me of my childhood. We had a little stream behind our house that would go all the way into the village and we children used to go there and take the way to our favourite places.

Read more on their website here. *

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In the middle of February, I heard someone saying on the radio "When will it finally be spring? And I thought, hey, it's only February. Shortly afterwards, we had two days of snow, the first this winter. And probably the last. I remember winters when we had snow from November until February at the least.

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And there was a less amusing event for all Germans. Elections. After the last coalition collapsed, Chancelor Olaf Scholz (Wikipedia) asked for a vote of confidence which is one of the prerequisites to have new elections.

Of course, the conservative party won and the ultra-right gained 20% of the elections, something most of us feared. Now we hope they won't form a new coalition, that would certainly be a catastrophe. Wish us luck.

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With the book club, we read a German book by Michel Bergmann, "Herr Klee und Herr Feld", unfortunately not translated into English or any other language. Yet, I hope.

My favourite book of the month was "Jane Austen at Home" by Lucy Worsley. As part of the commenmoration of Jane Austen's 250^th birthday, the Classics Club has started a #Reading Austen project. We are reading a book by her every other month and I have decided do read something Austen-related by her every month. This was a fabulous biography.

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And here is a picture from our two days of snow.

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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 March 💐