Top 5 Tuesday ~ Books I want to reread

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 I want to reread in 2025. "Are you planning to reread some favourites in 2025? Maybe that classic you read back in school. Or maybe there’s a new book coming out in a series, and you want to remind yourself what happened in the last book. Whatever it is, let’s share all of our reread plans!!"

I hardly ever plan on re-reading a special book but this year it's different. It's Jane Austen Year, she would have been 250 years old on the 16^th of December. So, the  the Classics Club has started a #ReadingAusten project here. We already started, and the first book was Sense & Sensibility. As I have read them several times already, there are also a few different reviews.

Austen, Jane "Emma" - 1816 (The Motherhood and Jane Austen)
- "Mansfield Park" - 1814 (The Motherhood and Jane Austen)
- "Northanger Abbey" - 1818 (The Motherhood and Jane Austen) 
- "Persuasion" - 1817 (The Motherhood and Jane Austen)
- "Pride & Prejudice" - 1813 (The Motherhood and Jane Austen) 

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

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✍Happy Reading!✍

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Takahashi, Yuta "The Chibineko Kitchen"

Takahashi, Yuta "The Chibineko Kitchen" (Japanese: ちびねこ亭の思い出ごはん 黒猫と初恋サンドイッチ/Chibinekoteino omoidegohan kuronekoto hatsukoisandoitchi) (Meals to Remember at the Chibineko Kitchen #1) - 2020

This is an interesting story. I am sure we all have wanted to have one last conversation with a deceased loved one. Now, the Chibineko Kitchen makes this possible. You go there and order a Remembrance Meal. Then, when it is served, the person in question appears and you can have one very last talk with them until the food gets cold.

Sounds desirable, right? The story is heartwarming, it might even help some of us to get over the loss of a loved one.

And there are quite a few nice Japanese recipies in the book.

From the back cover:

"Follow the bank of the Koitogawa river until you reach the beach. From there a path of white seashells will lead you to the Chibineko Kitchen. Step inside, they'll be expecting you.

These are the directions Kotoko has been given. She arrives at the tiny restaurant, perched right by the water, early in the morning. Still reeling from the sudden death of her brother, she's been promised that the food served there will bring him back to her, for one last time.

Taking a seat in the small, wood-panelled room, she waits as Kai, the restaurant's young chef, brings out steaming bowls of simmered fish, rice and miso soup. Though she hadn't ordered anything, Kai had somehow known the exact dish her brother always used to cook for her. And as she takes her first delicious bite, the gulls outside fall silent and the air grows hazy . . .

Soul-nourishing and comforting, The Chibineko Kitchen will help you remember what matters most in life."

#ThrowbackThursday. May 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 May 2012.

Dickens, Charles "Great Expectations" - 1861

Dickens' way of creating suspense is incredible. I have often heard this was his greatest novel, and, even though I don't entirely agree (I love "David Copperfield"), I can very well understand that. The characters are described so vividly, their thoughts and actions, superb. 

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

Carol Drinkwater has a busy life as an actress but that did not seem enough. She married Michel, a French TV producer and together they bought an olive farm in the Provence. This is a beautiful story where the author talks about her love to her husband and their love to the olive farm, the work such an adventure encounters and the benefits. 

Gavalda, Anna "95 pounds of hope" (F: 35 kilos d’espoir) - 2002
35 kilograms or 95 pounds, that's exactly how much Gregory Dubosc weighs at the age of 13. Everything goes wrong in his little life. 

Schami, Rafik "The Calligrapher’s Secret" (GE: Das Geheimnis des Kalligraphen) - 2008

There is a lot of history of calligraphy both in the story and the annex. And that was highly interesting. The author liked to build anticipation by giving away a little beforehand.

Smiley, Jane "13 Ways of Looking at the Novel" - 2005

I didn't read this in a couple of days or even a couple of weeks, I read it in bits and pieces. I learned a lot about novels, reading novels and writing novels, the history of a novel, all sorts of interesting facts, quite fantastic.

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

Alphabet Authors ~ F is for Follett

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.

It was difficult to choose some of the authors for certain letters but this one was totally clear, I thought of Ken Follett right away. However, there are Ildefonso Falcones, Charles Frazier and Marianne Fredriksson whose books I also heartily recommend.

Let's start with his most popular series, the Kingsbridge stories:

- "The Evening and the Morning" (Kingsbridge #0.5) - 2020

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

- "World Without End" (Kingsbridge #2) - 2007

- "A Column of Fire" (Kingsbridge #3) - 2017

- "The Armour of Light" (Kingsbridge #4) - 2023

The first two books have been turned into mini series.

The first book in the series (The Pillars of the Earth) is a novel about building a cathedral in a small English town in the 12^th century, the other novels pick up the theme in different centuries with a story about the beginnings of the village in "The Evening and the Morning".

And then there is the Century trilogy.

- "Fall of Giants" (Century Trilogy #1) - 2010

- "Winter of the World"(Century Trilogy #2) - 2012
- "Edge of Eternity" (Century Trilogy #3) - 2014

Five interrelated families from the United States, Germany, Russia, England and Wales live through the 20^th century.

Facts about Ken Follett:
born 5 June 1949 as Kenneth Martin Follett in Cardiff, Wales
He is married to Barbara Hubbard, a British politician. They have two children.

He is mostly known for his crime novels and spy thrillers.
He has also written books under the names Bernard L. Ross, Zachary Stone, and Martin Martinsen. Thanks to CyberKitten @ Seeking a Little Truth for making me aware of this. I quite like it when authors do that, publish different genres under different names, but Ken Follett has also written a lot of his other genres under his real name.

There is a statue of him in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Basque Country, Spain.

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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.

The Classics Club: The Classics Spin #40

"Words and Peace" is a blog I've been following for a couple of years and I have always found some interesting new (or old) books there, especially French ones.

On her page, I found the posts by "The Classics Club" asking us to create a post, this time before next Sunday 16^th February 2025, and list our choice of any twenty books that remain "to be read" on our Classics Club list. They'll then post a number from 1 through 20 and we have time until Sunday 11^th of April 2025 to read it.

This time, I read only the one book from my old list (Classics Spin #39) ("Nicholas Nickleby. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby"). I do want to concentrate on a couple of books in the near future, so I have listed only ten books and repeated them. The books are all in chronological order.

1. Aristophanes "Lysistrata and Other Plays" (Lysistrata) - 411BC
2. Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von "Urfaust. Faust Fragment. Faust I" (Faust) - 1772-1808
3. Dumas, Alexandre fils "Camille: The Lady of the Camellias" (La Dame aux Camélias) - 1848
4. Flaubert, Gustave "Madame Bovary" (Madame Bovary) - 1857
5. Turgenjew, Iwan Sergejewitsch "Fathers and Sons" (Отцы и дети/Otzy i deti) - 1862
6. Conrad, Joseph "Victory: An Island Tale" - 1915
7. Hamilton, Cicely "William - an Englishman" - 1920
8. Hesse, Hermann "Wir nehmen die Welt nur zu ernst" [We just take the world too seriously] - 1928
9. Faulkner, William "The Sound and the Fury" - 1929
10. Hemingway, Ernest "A Farewell to Arms" - 1929
11. Aristophanes "Lysistrata and Other Plays" (Lysistrata) - 411BC
12. Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von "Urfaust. Faust Fragment. Faust I" (Faust) - 1772-1808
13. Dumas, Alexandre fils "Camille: The Lady of the Camellias" (La Dame aux Camélias) - 1848
14. Flaubert, Gustave "Madame Bovary" (Madame Bovary) - 1857
15. Turgenjew, Iwan Sergejewitsch "Fathers and Sons" (Отцы и дети/Otzy i deti) - 1862
16. Conrad, Joseph "Victory: An Island Tale" - 1915
17. Hamilton, Cicely "William - an Englishman" - 1920
18. Hesse, Hermann "Wir nehmen die Welt nur zu ernst" [We just take the world too seriously] - 1928
19. Faulkner, William "The Sound and the Fury" - 1929
20. Hemingway, Ernest "A Farewell to Arms" - 1929

This is a great idea for all of us who want to read more classics. Go ahead, get your own list. I can't wait to see what I get to read this time.

So, the number has been picked and it is #4. That means for me:
Flaubert, Gustave "Madame Bovary" (Madame Bovary) - 1857

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.

#ThrowbackThursday. April 2012 Part 2

I've been doing Throwback Thursdays for a while but I noticed that I wrote a lot of reviews in a short time when I first started. One of my blogger friends always posts the reviews of one month but that would be too much. So, these are my reviews for the second part of April 2012.

James, Henry "The American" - 1875
1875, towards the end of the 19th century, society thinks it has become more modern. But has it really? There are still a lot of class differences.

Moyle, Franny "Constance: The Tragic and Scandalous Life of Mrs. Oscar Wilde" - 2011
Franny Moyle describes Constance Wilde's life from the beginning to the end, her youth in poverty, her ascent into society after marrying Oscar and the inevitable fall after his secret life was unveiled. How much power a woman has when it comes to the task to prevent her loved ones from disaster. 

Smucker, Barbara "Underground to Canada" - 1977
The novel tells the story of two slave girls who escape from a plantation in Mississippi, and steal toward Canada on the Underground Railroad.

Vonnegut, Kurt "Breakfast of Champions" - 1973

The author is playing with words just for the sake of it. This book is hilarious, it gives you a good laugh. But it is also very critical. I loved it.

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

Alphabet Authors ~ E is for Ephron

 

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 had to choose between Ephron or Eliot and it was a hard decision but in the end, I had to go with Nora Ephron.

Doidge, Kristin Marguerite "Nora Ephron: A Biography" (Goodreads)

- "Heartburn" - 1983

- "I Feel Bad About My Neck And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman" - 2006 (short stories)

- "I Remember Nothing. And Other Reflections" - 2010 (short stories)

- "The Most of Nora Ephron" - 2014 (short stories)

- "When Harry Met Sally ..." - 1990

Facts about Nora Ephron:

Born    May 19, 1941 New York City, U.S.

Died    June 26, 2012 New York City, U.S. (aged 71)

Nora Ephron was married three times, her second husband was the journalist Carl Bernstein who investigated the Watergate Scandal and is the co-author of "All the President's Men". She based her novel "Heartburn" on her marriage and divorce. It was later made into a film with Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson.

The characters Harry and Sally from the film (portrayed by Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan) are based on director Rob Reiner and herself. I once saw an interview with Nora Ephron where she told this story that she was on an airplane and explained precisely what she wanted to eat and how she wanted it. The flight attendant asked her whether she'd ever seen the movie When Harry Met Sally. Nora Ephron showed her sense of humour by laughing about it still years later.

The Tribeca Film Festival has awarded a Nora Ephron Prize for a female writer or filmmaker "with a distinctive voice" since 2013. 

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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.

Spell the Month in Books ~ February

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.

February: Valentine’s Day/something sweet on the cover 

I don't read many romance novels, so I have taken some books that have some sort of indication of love in the title.

FEBRUARY

F

Chapman, Gary "The Five Love Languages of Teenagers" - 2008

E

Wells, Benedict "The End of Loneliness" (GE: Vom Ende der Einsamkeit) - 2016

B

Morrison, Toni "Beloved" - 1987

R

Keller, Gottfried "Novellas" (A Village Romeo and Juliet and others) (GE: Novellen - Romeo und Julia auf dem Dorfe u.a.) - 1855/56

U

Whitehead, Colson "Underground Railroad" - 2016

A

Abulhawa, Susan "Against the Loveless World" - 2020

R

Shakespeare, William "Romeo and Juliet" - 1597

Y

Scott, Mary "Yours to oblige" - 1954

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Happy Reading!

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Six Degrees of Separation ~ Dangerous Liaisons

Pierre Choderlos de Laclos
"Dangerous Liaisons" - 1782

#6Degrees of Separation:

from Dangerous Liaisons (Goodreads) to Corinne: Or Italy

#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 Dangerous Liaisons by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos. I had never heard of him, even though I love classics. So, I have not read the book.

Here is a description:

"Published just years before the French Revolution, Laclos's great novel of moral and emotional depravity is a disturbing and ultimately damning portrayal of a decadent society. Aristocrats and ex-lovers Marquise de Merteuil and Vicomte de Valmont embark on a sophisticated game of seduction and manipulation to bring amusement to their jaded lives. While Merteuil challenges Valmont to seduce an innocent convent girl, he is also occupied with the conquest of a virtuous married woman. Eventually their human pawns respond, and the consequences prove to be more serious—and deadly—than the players could have ever predicted."

But, as I have read many classics, I thought I'll start with the one from one of the following years and carry on like that.

Schiller, Friedrich "Intrigue and Love" (GE: Kabale und Liebe) - 1784

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von (Goethe German) "Iphigenia in Tauris" (GE: Iphigenie auf Tauris) - 1787

Austen, Jane "Lady Susan" - 1795

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von (Goethe German) "Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship" (GE: Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre) - 1795/96

Austen, Jane "The Watsons" - 1803/05

Staël, Anne-Louise-Germaine de "Corinne: Or Italy" (F: Corinne ou l'Italie) - 1807

We always try to find a connection between the first and the last degree. This time, the books are both in French.

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Happy February!

Happy February to all my Friends and Readers

New Calendar picture with this
beautiful watercolour painting by Frank Koebsch

"Schneemann bauen im Park"

"Winter Flowers"

Frank says to this picture:

"... there are fewer and fewer days on which such a winter dream really comes true. The question keeps coming up: When will it really be winter again?"

"… es gibt immer weniger Tage, an denen so ein Wintertraum wirklich in Erfüllung geht. Immer wieder stellt sich die Frage: Wann wird es wieder richtig Winter?"

Read more on their website here. *

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I remember a German song from the Seventies: "When will it be a real summer again?" And that summer was scorching hot. So, who knows what Frank's wish will bring us. Though, we haven't had a real winter here for ages.

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Which reminds me of a good joke:
What do you call a very old snowman?

Puddle

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January is supposed to be the longest month of all. I mean, we have seven months with 31 days, so December, for example, ought to be as long as January. It just seems shorter because there is so much going on and we all try to be ready for Christmas and then we feel the month is over before it has even begun.

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This month, I have two German words/expressions for you. 

"Morgenmuffel" and "bis in die Puppen".

If you stay up "until the dolls" (bis in die Puppen, i.e. you don't go to bad early), you will certainly become a "Morgenmuffel" which means you are grumpy in the morning. However, if you are like me, you can be a Morgenmuffel any day, no matter when you went to bed the night before.

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And here is a great Christmas present I received from one of my sons: Hitster. We played it several times already and love it. You have to guess songs and where they fit in the timeline. If you like music and games, check the link here.

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My favourite book of last month was 
Tartt, Donna "The Secret History" - 1992

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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 February 🌼

#ThrowbackThursday. April 2012 Part 1

I've been doing Throwback Thursdays for a while but I noticed that I wrote a lot of reviews in a short time when I first started. One of my blogger friends always posts the reviews of one month but that would be too much. So, these are my reviews for the first part of April 2012.

Danticat, Edwidge "Breath, Eyes, Memory" - 1994

The world of Sophie Caco, her world starts in Haiti with her aunt Atie while her mother lives in the United States. We follow her from the age of twelve into adulthood where she has to battle with her mother's past, her mother's ghost.

Follett, Ken "World Without End" - 2007

The follow-up to "The Pillars of the Earth" which I absolutely loved. This takes place 200 years after the first book, so our heroes have all passed away. But, they have descendants, so the drama can start again. 

Mak, Geert "Jorwerd: The Death of the Village in late 20th Century" (Dutch: Hoe God verdween uit Jorwerd. Een Nederlands Dorp In De Twintigste Eeuw) - 1996

The original Dutch title is (translated) "How God disappeared from Jorwerd". The story is about a small village in Friesland and the changes it underwent in the first half of the 20th century, changing from farming to a commuting place, the influence of modern technology on a people that had lived off the land for centuries. But it is not just the story of Jorwerd, overall in Europe, the countryside changed. 

Simmonds, Jeremy "Number One in Heaven - The heroes who died for Rock 'n' Roll" - 2006

Apparently, the author worked eight years to put together all the facts on all those Rock & Pop icons that have left us far too early due to an untimely death. 

I love reference books on any subject, this is one very close to my heart and I am glad someone took the time to research all those details.

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

Alphabet Authors ~ D is for Dickens

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.

Dickens or Dostoevsky - that's the question. I had to choose Charles Dickens though it was a tough decision.

I know he wrote more books and I intend to read them all one day but these are the ones I read so far (I will add to the list whenever I read another one).

- "A Christmas Carol" - 1843
- "Barnaby Rudge" - 1841
- "Bleak House" - 1852/53
- "David Copperfield" - 1850
- "Great Expectations" - 1861
- "Hard Times" - 1854  
- "Little Dorrit" - 1857
- "Nicholas Nickleby. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby" - 1838/39
- "The Old Curiosity Shop" - 1840
- "Oliver Twist" - 1838
- "A Tale of Two Cities" - 1859
- "The Pickwick Papers" - 1836

Facts about Charles Dickens:
Born    7 February 1815 Portsmouth, England
Died    9 June 1870 Kent, England (aged 58)
Buried in Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey, London, England
There are museums and festivals in his honour and statues of him and his characters all over the world.
He was the father of ten children.

Dickens was such an important writer of his time that we even comment on this with the term "Dickensian".

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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 Ten Tuesday ~ New-to-Me Authors

     

"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 New-to-Me Authors I Discovered in 2024

There are a few authors I really liked that much that I went and bought the next book by them. (Matt Haig, Florian Knöppler, Abraham Verghese), but these others are not bad, either. I'm sorry, a lot of them are German authors, not all of them translated (the ones in italics).

Fosse, Jon "Morning and Evening" (NO: Morgon og kveld) - 2001
Haig, Matt "The Midnight Library" - 2020
Herrndorf, Wolfgang "Why We Took the Car" (GE: tschick) - 2010

Knöppler, Florian "Kronsnest [Name of Village]" (GE: Kronsnest) - 2020

Leky, Mariana "What You Can See From Here" (GE: Was man von hier aus sehen kann) - 2017

Loewe, Elke "Teufelsmoor = Devil's Bog, German region" (GE: Teufelsmoor) - 2002
Tomalin, Claire "Jane Austen - A Life" - 1997
Verghese, Abraham "The Covenant of Water" - 2023
Wahl, Caroline "22 Lanes" (GE: 22 Bahnen) - 2023
Zierl, Helmut "Follow the Sun. The Summer of my Life" (GE: Follow the Sun. Der Sommer meines Lebens) - 2020

Reading Challenge - Chunky Books 2025

I have taken part in this reading challenge since 2013. The moment I saw that post, I know this was the most interesting challenge for me. I signed up for the highest of the four levels "Mor-book-ly Obese" which meant eight or more chunksters (books over 450 pages) of which three must be 750 pages or more.

I have carried on with that challenge without setting goals, I love big books and I will always read some. And I am more than willing to tell my friends about them.

If you are interested in the challenge, check out this link. They discontinued their challenge in 2015.
You can still find suggestions by page number, in case you can't find any chunksters yourself. 😉

Or you can check out my lists from the previous years (below), maybe you are interested in a couple of them.

I read in
2013: 38 chunky books, 13 of them chunksters
2014: 37 chunky books, 15 of them chunksters
2015: 26 chunky books, 8 of which chunksters
2016: 28 chunky books, 3 of which chunksters
2017: 35 chunky books, 6 of which chunksters
2018: 29 chunky books, 6 of which chunksters
2019: 20 chunky books, 7 of which chunksters
2020: 18 chunky books, 7 of which chunksters
2021: 24 chunky books, 10 of which chunksters
2022: 11 chunky books, 3 of which chunksters
2023: 12 chunky books, 3 of which chunksters
2024: 16 chunky books, 4 of which chunksters

I will be posting the books I have read here:
(I add the German title, if available, for my German friends)
[I add my own translation of a foreign book title if it's not available in English.]

Austen, Jane "Sense & Sensibility" - 1811 (The Motherhood and Jane Austen) - 462 pages
Abel, Susanne "Stay Away from Gretchen. Eine unmögliche Liebe" [Stay Away from Gretchen] - 2021 - 544 pages
Backman, Fredrik "Britt-Marie war hier" (Britt-Marie var här/Britt-Marie was here) - 2014 - 509 pages

I read 3 chunky books in 2025 of which 0 are considered a chunkster.

If you want to do this challenge or just check at the end of the year what category you are, here is the list:

    The Chubby Chunkster - this option is for the readers who want to dabble in large tomes, but really doesn't want to commit to much more than that. FOUR Chunksters is all you need to finish this challenge.
    The Plump Primer - this option is for the slightly heavier reader who wants to commit to SIX Chunksters over the next twelve months.
    Do These Books Make my Butt Look Big? - this option is for the reader who can't resist bigger and bigger books and wants to commit to SIX Chunksters from the following categories: 2 books which are between 450 - 550 pages in length; 2 books which are 551 - 750 pages in length; 2 books which are GREATER than 750 pages in length (for ideas, please refer to the book suggestions page for some books which fit into these categories).
    Mor-book-ly Obese - This is for the truly out of control chunkster. For this level of challenge you must commit to EIGHT or more Chunksters of which three tomes MUST be 750 pages or more. You know you want to.....go on and give in to your cravings. 

Looks like I've always been "more book-ly obese". 😂

#ThrowbackThursday. March 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 March 2012.

Chang, Jung "Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China" - 1991

Jung Chang's grandmother was born at the beginning of the last century, when girls in China still had their feet bound. The mother was an active Communist. They go through all kinds of troubles in the China of Mao When Jung gets the chance to study abroad, she takes it. In England, she writes this memoir of her youth, her parents' and grandparents life.

Apparently, this is the biggest grossing non-fiction paperback in publishing history. 

Dai, Sijie "Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress" (French: Balzac et la Petite Tailleuse Chinoise) - 2002
A great story about the Chinese Cultural Revolution in its later years. Two boys from an educated family are sent to a village for re-education. Through the stories of Balzac (whose books they find and steal), they get to know a village girl who is known as the Little Seamstress.

Walker, Alice "The Temple of My Familiar" - 1989
A story of a couple of people whose lives are interwoven. Several characters from "The Color Purple" appear, you could say it is a sort of sequel to it. Or - you could say it is a story of hundreds of people during the centuries. Any kind of people turn up, any colour, any state, slaves, slaveholders, rich and poor.

Winchester, Simon "The Map that Changed the World: A Tale of Rocks, Ruin and Redemption" - 2001
One of the most interesting scientific books I ever read. William Smith, an ordinary boy in the 18th century, discovers the history of our planet. He was the first to find that the earth is arranged in layers. If you love maps and their story, this is the book for you.

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

Alphabet Authors ~ C is for Camus

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.

Albert Camus is probably going to be the only French language author I will mention in this series. He is one of my favourite writers of all time.

- "The First Man" (F: Le premier homme) - 1994
- "The Just Assassins" (aka The Just) (F: Les Justes)- 1949
- "The Plague" (F: La Peste) - 1947
- "The Stranger" (aka The Outsider) (F: L'étranger) - 1942

Facts about Albert Camus:
Born    7 November 1913 French Algeria
Died    4 January 1960 France
Algerian-born French philosopher, author, dramatist, and journalist.
He joined the Résistance in WWII.
He died in a car accident at age 46.
A French postage stamp with his image was issued in 1967.

Albert Camus received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957 "for his important literary production, which with clear-sighted earnestness illuminates the problems of the human conscience in our times".

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.

#ThrowbackThursday. February 2012 Part 2

I've been doing Throwback Thursdays for a while but I noticed that I wrote a lot of reviews in a short time when I first started. One of my blogger friends always posts the reviews of one month but that would be too much. So, these are my reviews from the second part of February 2012.

Brooks, Geraldine "March" - 2006
Who hasn't read "Little Women" and wouldn't mind reading more about the March family. Well, here's your chance.

Allende, Isabel "Island Beneath the Sea" (E: La isla bajo el mar) - 2010
A great description of life on a plantation, first in the Caribbean, later in Louisiana, the life of the slaves and the free, lots of history, an incredibly rich account of the lives people had to lead. 

Pausewang, Gudrun "The Last Children" (GE: Die letzten Kinder von Schewenborn oder … sieht so unsere Zukunft aus?) - 1983
A youth book from the early eighties. When we were in the middle of the Cold War. When our biggest fear was the nuclear bomb. This book shows the worst case scenario.

Pessl, Marisha "Special Topics in Calamity Physics" - 2006
A modern book about teenagers. Granted, not the usual ones. 

Şafak, Elif "The Forty Rules of Love: A Novel of Rumi" - 2001
Two books in one: Ella, an American woman receives a script to be edited. It is about Rumi, a Muslim poet who lived in the 13th century. His poems are world famous.

Faber, Michael "The Fire Gospel" - 2008
A scientist visits a museum in Iraq that was looted. He discovers the "fifth gospel" and finds that it is difficult to share with the modern world.

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

Alphabet Authors ~ B is for Buck

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.

I was contemplating to take Bill Bryson for this letter but he writes (or rather wrote) non-fiction books, and I decided to stick to non-fiction. But there are letters where you find many more authors and it is always going to be hard to decide for the one you like most.

Pearl S. Buck has always been a special author for me. She was probably one of the first "grown-up" authors, no, the very first "grown-up" author I ever read. And certainly the first Nobel Prize winner, maybe that's why I still like to read them.

Pearl S. Buck wrote a lot of books about China, where she grew up as the daughter of a missionary. She must have written at least a hundred but I only read a handful of them. However, I believe she was a brilliant writer and had a lot of stories to tell,

- "East Wind: West Wind" - 1930
- "The Good Earth" (House of Earth Trilogy #1) - 1931 - ILK
- "The First Wife and Other Stories" - 1933
- "Sons" (House of Earth Trilogy #2) - 1932
- "The Mother"- 1933
- "A House Divided" (House of Earth Trilogy #3) - 1935
- "The Exile" - 1936
- "The Patriot" - 1939
- "Portrait of a Marriage" - 1945
- "Pavilion of Women" - 1946
- "Peony" - 1948
- "Kinfolk" - 1949
- "Love and the Morning Calm" - 1951

She has also written a few non-fiction books:
- "My several worlds: A Personal Exile" - 1954
- "Imperial Woman" - 1956
- "A Bridge for Passing" - 1961
- "The Story Bible" - 1971

Facts about Pearl S. Buck:
Born    26 June 1892 Virginia, USA
Died    6 March 1973 (aged 80) Vermont, USA
Buried in Pennsylvania, USA
A 5¢ Great Americans series postage stamp was issued by the United States Postal Service
A statue of the author stands in front of the former residence at Nanjing University
She appears on the £10 note of the Bank of England.

Pearl S. Buck received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1938 "for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her biographical masterpieces".

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

* * *

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.