Groff, Lauren "Matrix"

Groff, Lauren "Matrix" - 2021

A member of our book club tried to convince us that this would be the best novel for our next book choice. But some members were not really convinced that they wanted to read it. So I "took pity" (LOL) and volunteered to be a guinea pig.

I love reading historical novels, especially about women and their fights against the prejudices of their times. So, I expected something really interesting. Many girls were sent to nunneries against their wishes and a few were quite successful in that world.

I tried to read more about the protagonist and found that the book is not really based on anything known from reality. It is what it says: pure fiction.

I thought I could learn more about the history of a person that was important in her lifetime. Unfortunately, I didn't. If you are looking for a novel without being interested in the background or whether that person existed, you might like this better. I was disappointed.

Overall, the novel was too superficial for me.

There are no footnotes or links to research pages that might support at least some of the stories.

From the back cover:

"Seventeen-year-old Marie, too wild for courtly life, is thrown to the dogs one winter morning, expelled from the royal court to become the prioress of an abbey. Marie is strange - tall, a giantess, her elbows and knees stick out, ungainly.

At first taken aback by life at the abbey, Marie finds purpose and passion among her mercurial sisters. Yet she deeply misses her secret lover Cecily and queen Eleanor.

Born last in a long line of women warriors and crusaders, women who flew across the countryside with their sword fighting and dagger work, Marie decides to chart a bold new course for the women she now leads and protects. She will bring herself, and her sisters, out of the darkness, into riches and power.

MATRIX is a bold vision of female love, devotion and desire from one of the most adventurous writers at work today."

Six in Six 2025

 
From The Book Jotter

I found this through one of my blogger friends, Emma @ Words and Peace who was made aware of it though Jo @ The Book Jotter. Jo started this in 2012, so congratulations on doing it that long and providing us with a great way to reminisce about our books of the year so far. Unfortunately, she has stopped blogging in the meantime.
She has given us 52 categories from which we can choose six and mention six books that belong into those categories. (But one book can be in several lists, see her ruleshere).

I have tried to stick to books that I liked but didn't succeed in every category.

Six new authors to me

Bergmann, Michel "Mr. Klee and Mr. Feld" (GE:Herr Klee und Herr Feld) - 2013
Campbell, Jen "Weird Things Customers say in Bookshops" - 2012 
Capote, Truman "Breakfast at Tiffany's" - 1958
Durgun, Tahsim "Mum, please learn German" (GE: Mama, bitte lern Deutsch: Unser Eingliederungsversuch in eine geschlossene Gesellschaft) - 2025
Takahashi, Yuta "The Chibineko Kitchen" (J: 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) - 2020
Worsley, Lucy "Jane Austen at Home" - 2017

Six authors I am looking forward to reading more of

Brooks, Geraldine "Year of Wonders" - 2001

Hansen, Dörte "At Sea" (GE: Zur See) - 2022

Hislop, Victoria "The Figurine" - 2023

Schami, Rafik "The first ride through the eye of the needle" (GE: Der erste Ritt durchs Nadelöhr) - 1988

Stelter, Bernd "Fashion, murder, and the sound of the sea. Camping crime thriller" (GE: Mode, Mord und Meeresrauschen. Camping-Krimi) - 2024

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

Six books that took me by the hand and led me into the past

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

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

Cornwell, Bernard "The Last Kingdom" (The Saxon Stories #1) - 2004

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

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

Weir, Alison "Six Tudor Queens. Katharine Parr. The Sixth Wife" - 2021

Six From the Non-Fiction Shelf

Campbell, Jen "Weird Things Customers say in Bookshops" - 2012 

Kaminer, Wladimir; Hyun, Martin "Instructions for neighbours" - (GE: Gebrauchsanweisung für Nachbarn) - 2024  

Mak, Geert "The Dream of Europe. Travels in a Troubled Continent" (NL: Grote verwachtingen. In Europa 1999-2019) - 2019

Pierce, Patricia "Jurassic Mary: Mary Anning and the primeval monsters" - 2006
Schnoy, Sebastian "A Little Peace: A Cheerful History of Europe in Three Revolutions and a Flash of Inspiration" (GE: Das bisschen Frieden: Eine heitere Geschichte Europas in drei Revolutionen und einem Geistesblitz) - 2019

Sonneborn, Martin "Mr. Sonneborn goes to Brussels" (GE: Herr Sonneborn geht nach Brüssel) - 2019

Six classics I have read

Austen, Jane "Mansfield Park" - 1814 (The Motherhood and Jane Austen)

Christie, Agatha "The Mousetrap" - 1952

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

Sartre, Jean-Paul "Nausea" (F: La nausée) - 1938

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

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

Six pretty book covers

Brooks, Geraldine "Year of Wonders" - 2001

Christie, Agatha "The Mousetrap" - 1952
Hislop, Victoria "The Figurine" - 2023
Nguyễn, Phan Quế Mai "Dust Child" - 2023
Takahashi, Yuta "The Chibineko Kitchen" (J: 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) - 2020

Worsley, Lucy "Jane Austen at Home" - 2017

If you like the idea as much as I do, go ahead, choose your own "Six in Six" and let Jo know.

Six in Six 2022.
Six in Six 2023.
Six in Six 2024.

Mid Year Book Freakout Tag 2025

I found this meme on Read with Stefani's page. What a great idea. Here is the original tag. This is my fifth year of participating.

Looking back at the first half of a year shows me, how many bad books I read this year, partly book club books, partly other challenges, but also partly because I chose them and thought they would be great. Well, hopefully the second half of 2025 will be better.

1. Best book you’ve read so far in 2025

Hislop, Victoria "The Figurine" - 2023
One of my favourite authors published a new book and I just loved it. And because I mention it three times in this list, I have used it as the cover picture.

2. Best sequel you’ve read so far in 2025

I haven't read any sequels this year.

3. New release you haven't read yet but want to

Brooks, Geraldine "Memorial Days: A Memoir" - 2025 (Goodreads)
Another favourite author whose next book has just been published.

4. Most anticipated release for the second half of the year

Obama, Michelle "The Look" (Goodreads)
When one of the Obamas publishes something, it is definitely worth a read.

5. Biggest disappointment

Thoreau, Henry David "Walden; or, Life in the Woods" - 1854
A book club book that was just boring.

6. Biggest surprise

Takahashi, Yuta "The Chibineko Kitchen" (J: 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) - 2020
A nice find, if you want to have one last conversation with a deceased loved one, visit the Chibineko Kitchen. 

7. Favourite new author. (Debut or new to you)

Actually, there were no new authors that I really liked and would like to read more from.

8. Newest fictional crush

I don't get crushes, I don't read the kind of books that give you crushes.

9. Newest favourite character

Helena McCloud from
Hislop, Victoria "The Figurine" - 2023

10. Book that made you cry

I grew up with three younger brothers which is probably the reason I don't cry easily but I think people would probably cry over
Hansen, Dörte "At Sea" (GE: Zur See) - 2022

However, I did read a few books that could make be cry because they were so badly written.

11. Book that made you happy

I don't read "happy" books but this is a funny one by a German journalist I really love.
Heidenreich, Elke "Dr. Moormann & I" (GE: Frau Dr. Moormann & ich) - 2023

12. Favourite Book To Movie Adaptation You Saw This Year?

I haven't watched even one new movie this year, and I haven't heard of movie adaptations of my books. 

13. Favourite Review You’ve Written This Year?

That would be the same as my favourite book so far.
Hislop, Victoria "The Figurine" - 2023

14. Most beautiful book you’ve bought so far this year (or received)

MacLeod, Janice "Paris Letters": A Travel Memoir about Art, Writing, and Finding Love in Paris" - 2014 (Goodreads)
Such a beautiful cover from one of my favourite cities.

15. What books do you need to read by the end of the year?

I don't have to read any books. However, I am in two book clubs and the next ones we are going to discuss are:

Ihimaera, Witi "The Whale Rider" - 1987 (Goodreads)

Kivi, Aleksis "Seven Brothers" (Seitsemän veljestä) - 1870 (Goodreads)
Schreiber, Jasmin "Marianengraben" [Mariana Trench] - 2020 (Goodreads)

16. Favourite Book Community Member

I need to mention it every year. It is just as impossible as to say which is your favourite child or which is your all-time favourite author or book. There are so many wonderful people in the blogging community.

Books read so far: 46 (last year it was 40)

Mid Year Book Freakout Tag 2024
Mid Year Book Freakout Tag 2023
Mid Year Book Freakout Tag 2022
Mid Year Book Freakout Tag 2021

* * *

I'm not going to tag anyone but I'm sure a few of you will want to do this. So, feel free to follow that idea but, please, let me know. And Stefani, I'm sure she'll like to know how many are picking up that idea.

#ThrowbackThursday. December 2013

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

Anderson, Leith "Jesus. An Intimate Portrait of the Man, His Land, and His People" - 2006

This is an interesting read both for Christians and those who know almost nothing about the New Testament.

Bourgeois, Paulette "Big Sarah's Little Boots" - 1988

A favourite book of both my boys even though the main character was a girl. It's all about growing up and how it can be both a painful and a joyous occasion.

Garfield, Simon "On the Map. Why the World Looks the Way it Does" (aka On the Map: A Mind-Expanding Exploration of the Way the World Looks) - 2012

I have always loved maps. They are beautiful, they tell tales of far away countries, exotic worlds, people I will never meet, life at different times. How can anybody not like maps. They teach us so much, yet they are also an art form to admire and enjoy.

Simon Garfield has put together a collection of stories about maps through the ages.

Pool, Daniel "What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew" - 1993

Even though this book is a non-fiction one, the first part reads like a novel. If, like me, you love your English classics, this is the book for you. It's not just about food but, as the second part of the title already suggests, about every important or not so important fact about life in the 19th century in England. 

Roth, Philip "The Ghost Writer" - 1979

Why I have not read any books by this extraordinary writer is a big mystery to me. I wondered whether this book was partly autobiographical, it certainly had tendencies that sounded like it. I liked the alternate history part, a genre I cherish a lot.

A young writer meets an older writer, his writing hero. And there he meets an interesting young girl who seems to have a fascinating past. That is the basic story. However, it's the way Philip Roth tells the story that makes it interesting, makes you want to know all about Nathan Zuckerman, the young author, and his life, makes you want to read the whole series.

Alphabet Authors

So, now I have finished my alphabet. It was fun looking at all the letters and trying to find my favourite author among them.  In the end, only Q and X are missing.

Some of them were really easy (e.g. Jane Austen), others were harder because I could have named several authors for the letter. And then there were those where I really only had read one or two by an author with that name but though I liked the books, I might not have chosen them for this challenge, had there been someone else.

Find the individual lists here:

A is for Jane Austen

B is for Pearl S. Buck

C is for Albert Camus

D is for Charles Dickens

E is for Nora Ephron

F is for Ken Follett

G is for Günter Grass

H is for Victoria Hislop

I is for Laura Ingalls Wilder

J is for James Joyce

K is for Barbara Kingsolver

L is for Wally Lamb

M is for Thomas Mann

N is for V.S. Naipaul

O is for Joyce Carol Oates

P is for Orhan Pamuk

R is for Carlos Ruiz Zafón

S is for Mary Scott

T is for Leo Tolstoy

U is for Lyudmila Ulitzkaya

V is for Mario Vargas Llosa

W is for Alice Walker

Y is for Malala Yousafzei

Z is for Stephanie Zweig

So, my authors came from France (1), Germany (3), India (1), Ireland (1), New Zealand (1), Pakistan (1), Peru (1), Russia (2), Spain (1), Turkey (1), the UK (4) and the USA (7).

Top 5 Tuesday ~ Freebie ~ Glasses

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.

* * *

This week’s topic is a Freebie. Meeghan says, "Topic of your choosing for today!"

There are always subjects that I miss when they're on and then sometimes, other bloggers use subjects as freebies where I think, I could use that one day. Like this one.  Cindy from Cindy's Book Corner had this a while ago (here) and since I wear glasses myself, I noticed that they're rarely featured on covers. But - I found a few.

Babel, Isaac Emmanuilovich (Исаак Эммануилович Бабель) "Red Cavalry" (RUS: Конармия/Konarmiya) - 1926

A witness oft he civil war when Cossack cavalry invaded Poland after WWI, Isaac Babel describes the attack on a train and the subsequent killing of nine prisoners.

Brown, Marc "Arthur's Nose" - 1976
This book about Arthur's nose was the first one in a long series about children that are different from others and it is still as relevant as in 1976. 

Frisch, Max "The Arsonists" (GE: Biedermann und die Brandstifter) - 1958

Gottlieb Biedermann is a rich person who is upset that some arsonists are in town who start living in people's houses while intending to burn them down. 

Perkins, Sue "Spectacles" - 2015
Sue Perkins is one of my favourite comedians. She is witty, she is funny, she is smart, she is kind, there is nothing about her not to love.

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 

There isn't much more to say about these books other than how wonderful they are. I mentioned before that they aren't just funny but that the language is superb. My final sentence to the first book I came across was: "A truly delightful book. Whenever you feel gloomy, read a bit of Jeeves and Wooster!"

* * *

👓🕶 Happy Reading! 🕶👓

📚 📚 📚

McCourt, Malachy "A Monk Swimming"

McCourt, Malachy "A Monk Swimming" - 1998

The name McCourt is well known in reading circles, almost everyone knows Frank McCourt and his stories about his family. And he has mentioned his siblings. Well, Malachy is one of them. 

Same as his brother, this family member talks about his family. It is interesting to compare the experiences both brothers had with an alcoholic father in a dead-poor family. And how they both turned out in later life.

This story is a lot more negative than the "Angela's Ashes"-series. But also much funnier. The author comes across as the stereptypical Irish guy who likes drinking, singing etc. But he also shows that he has a heart. And after everything he went through as a child, we know he could have been a lot different.

One funny thing I have to tell. The weird title comes from his misunderstanding of a line in the Hail Mary when he was a child: "Blessed Art Though Among Women." He thought it meant "A Monk Swimming".

From the back cover:

"Slapped with a libel suit after an appearance on a talk show, Malachy McCourt crows, 'If they could only see me now in the slums of Limerick, a big shot, sued for a million. Bejesus, isn't America a great and wonderful country?' His older brother Frank's Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir, Angela's Ashes, took its somber tone from the bleak atmosphere of those slums, while Malachy's boisterous recollections are fueled by his zestful appreciation for the opportunities and oddities of his native land.

He and Frank were born in Brooklyn, moved with their parents to Ireland as children, then returned to the States as adults. This book covers the decade 1952-63, when Malachy roistered across the U.S., Europe, and Asia, but spent most of his time in New York City. There his ready wit and quick tongue won him an acting job with the Irish Players, a semiregular stint on The Tonight Show hosted by Jack Paar, and friendships with some well-heeled, well-born types who shared his fondness for saloon life and bankrolled him in an East Side saloon that may have been the first singles bar. He chronicles those events--and many others--with back-slapping bonhomie.

Although McCourt acknowledges the personal demons that pursued him from his poverty-stricken childhood and destroyed his first marriage, this is on the whole an exuberant autobiography that pays tribute to the joys of a freewheeling life."

Book Quotes

Some political quotes I picked up lately and want to share. I guess, if you are Republican I have to warn you, this could wake you up.

"Seniors voted to gut Social Security.

Men voted for their wives and daughters to die from miscarriages.

Immigrants voted for deportation raids.

Poor people voted for tax cuts for billionaires.

Women voted to have fewer rights than men.

Police voted for a convicted felon."

@asclepiasyriaca

I don't understand people like that.

"Republicans are men of narrow vision, who are afraid of the future." Jimmy Carter

Jimmy Carter was one of the few intelligent American presidents.

"When you were asked to mask to save lives - you said no, my body, my rights.

When you were asked to vaccinate to save lives - you said no, my body, my rights.

When we demand strict gun laws to save lives - you said this is the land of the free.

But you want to decide what a woman does with her body."

Dr. Mursi, MD.

See my first comment.

And don't forget:
The richest 1% own almost half of the world's wealth, while the poorest half of the world own just 0.75%.

Find more book quotes here.

#ThrowbackThursday. November 2013

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

Allende, Isabel "Maya's Notebook" (E: El Cuaderno de Maya) - 2011

If she hadn't been on the list, yet, with this book Isabel Allende would have made it onto my favourite author's list. I absolutely loved this book. Maya is a girl with a tremendous story. She has a Chilean father and a Danish mother and is brought up by her Chilean grandmother and her second husband who is African American. 

Dai, Sijie "Once on a Moonless Night" (F: Par une nuit où la lune ne s’est pas levée) - 2007
This deep and complex story revolves around a French student in China and a Chinese greengrocer. 

Fforde, Jasper "Lost in a Good Book" - 2002
But Thursday Next can enter books and move from one to the next, this is called "bookjumping". This time, she spends a lot of time in "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens but also visits other places. A device I would like to have in real life in order to visit friends on the other side of the world within a couple of hours.

Hessel, Stéphane "Time for Outrage!" (F: Indignez-vous!) - 2011

Stéphane Hessel is 93 years old and he was a member of Résistance during the war. When he published his book in France, it caused a lot of attention. The author encourages us to be outraged. 

Mann, Thomas "The Magic Mountain" (GE: Der Zauberberg) - 1924

The title sounds enchanting. Who wouldn't want to step into it, even if it means you have to go through 1,100 pages to get to the end? I think this book deserves five stars just for the brilliant title which is as magical in the original as well as the translated title.

Regener, Sven "Berlin Blues" (GE: Herr Lehmann) - 2001
This is the story about a guy who would probably be called a loser by many. Frank comes from Bremen but lives in Berlin and works in a pub. His parents think he could do better, his brother certainly thinks that. His friends call him Herr Lehmann, one girl after the other leaves him.

Scieszka, Jon; Smith, Lane "The True Story of the Three Little Pigs" - 1989
This is the true story of the "Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf" as retold by Alexander T. Wolf. Or is it "The Three Bad Pigs and the Nice Little Wolf"?

Wordless Wednesday ~ Peace

Alphabet Authors ~ Z is for Zweig

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

This is the last letter in my alphabet. I had no problem whatsoever to choose the author. Stefanie Zweig is one of my favourite authors ever, she has written so many great novels with quite some different backgrounds, all of them part of her life.

Zweig, Stefanie "The House in Rothschild Lane" (GE: Das Haus in der Rothschildallee) (Familie Sternberg #1) - 2009 
- "The Children in Rothschild Lane" (GE: Die Kinder der Rothschildallee) (Familie Sternberg #2) - 2009
- "Coming Home to Rothschild Lane" (GE: Heimkehr in die Rothschildallee) (Familie Sternberg #3) - 2010
- "A New Start in Rothschild Lane" (GE: Neubeginn in die Rothschildallee) (Familie Sternberg #4) - 2010
- "A Mouthfull of Earth/Soil" (GE: Ein Mundvoll Erde) - 1980
- "Home was Nowhere. My Life on Two Continents" (GE: Nirgendwo war Heimat. Mein Leben auf zwei Kontinenten) - 2012
- "It started back then in Africa" (GE: Es begann damals in Afrika) - 2004
- "Nowhere in Africa" und "Somewhere in Germany" - 1995+1996 * Book Club Questions - Nowhere in Africa - Somewhere in Germany (GE: Nirgendwo in Afrika + Irgendwo in Deutschland) - 1942
- "Owuor's homecoming" (GE: Owuors Heimkehr) - 2003
- "The Dream of Paradise" (GE: Der Traum vom Paradies) - 1999
- "Reunion with Africa" (GE: Wiedersehen mit Afrika) - 2002 

Facts about Stefanie Zweig:

Born    September 19, 1932 in Leobschütz, Upper Silesia
Died    April 25, 2014 in Frankfurt/Main (aged 81)

Her Jewish family fled to Kenya in 1938 when she was five years old. After the war, her father was offered the position of a judge in Frankfurt and they "returned" to Germany. Stefanie Zweig became a journalist and wrote first children's books and later many others. A lot of her works are based on her own life as a Jew both in Africa and in Germany. Her most successful book "Nowhere in Africa" was made into a film and received an Oscar for best foreign language movie.

Find here all my German reviews.

* * *

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.

Osman, Richard "We Solve Murders"

Osman, Richard "We Solve Murders" - 2024

I absolutely loved Richard Osman's first books because I do love him as a person and also got to love him as an author, So, I was quite happy, when my son gave me this for Christmas.

If this was a movie, this would be an action thriller rather than a murder mystery. I love watching murder mysteries (though I don't read them much) but I really don't like action movies. Far too loud for me.

I must say, this was almost the same with this book. I heard people complain about his first books that there were too many characters and that you did confused. Well, if you got confused with the first lot, this one will certainly not do for you. It took me quite a while to even understand who was who and what they were up to. My book has 464 pages and I think I got into the story at around page 200. Far too late and I would have given up if it weren't for the author.

There is some humour in this book but not the humour I am used to from Richard Osman. Such a pity.

From the back cover:

"Steve Wheeler is enjoying retired life. He does the odd bit of investigation work, but he prefers his familiar habits and routines: the pub quiz, his favorite bench, his cat waiting for him when he comes home. His days of adventure are over: adrenaline is daughter-in-law Amy’s business now.

Amy Wheeler thinks adrenaline is good for the soul. As a private security officer, she doesn’t stay still long enough for habits or routines. She’s currently on a remote island keeping world-famous author Rosie D’Antonio alive. Which was meant to be an easy job...

Then a dead body, a bag of money, and a killer with their sights on Amy have her sending an SOS to the only person she trusts. A breakneck race around the world begins, but can Amy and Steve stay one step ahead of a lethal enemy?"

#ThrowbackThursday. October 2013

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

Basti, Abel & van Helsing, Jan "Hitler in Argentina" (GE: Hitler überlebte in Argentinien) - 2011
A great and interesting book, whether you believe the authors or not. According to their research, Hitler survived the end of the far and fled to Argentina.

Bernières, Louis de "Birds Without Wings" - 2004
Greece and Turkey at the beginning of the last century with a lot of information about their history, a great addition to Victoria Hislop's "The Thread" which I read earlier.

Binet, Laurent "HHhH" (F: HHhH) - 2010

German subtitle: "Himmlers Hirn heißt Heydrich". The translation: "Himmler's Brain is called Heydrich". The story is not about Hitler or Himmler but about Reinhard Heydrich, a high ranking German Nazi officer and Jozef Gabčík, a Slovak soldier, and Jan Kubiš, a Czech solider and their "Operation Anthropoid" whose goal was Heydrich's assassination.

Civardi, Anne; Cartwright, Stephen "Things People Do" - 1986
Little kids just love the illustrations of animals and people in all sorts of jobs and activities. When they get older, they love the humour behind the names. 

Collins, Wilkie "Armadale" - 1866
Like in his other books, the author partly lets his characters tell his different characters tell the story, either through their letters or their diaries. It takes us from the deathbed of an old man in Germany to various other places in Europe but is definitely an English novel through and through.

Guterson, David "Ed King" - 2011
This is the story of Ed King as well as his parents and foster parents, a child born out of wedlock at a time where this was definitely not possible to raise a child alone without the support of anybody. You only notice to the very end that you know the story already and I am not going to reveal here what I mean but if you read any other description

Pamuk, Orhan "Silent House" (TR: Sessiz Ev) - 1983
Turkey in the late 20th century. Three siblings, a sister and two brothers, visit their grandmother who lives outside of Istanbul. Everyone seems to have their own problems. 

Alphabet Authors ~ Y is for Yousafzai

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.

Y is not a letter with many authors but I knew immediately which person I wanted on this list, even if she only wrote one book - so far.

Yousafzai, Malala

- "I am Malala. The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban" - 2013 (with Christina Lamb)

Facts about Malala Yousafzai:
Born    July 12, 1997 (age 27), Mingora, Swat, Pakistan 

Married Asser Malik 2021

In 2012, she was shot because she opposed Taliban restrictions on female education in her home country of Pakistan. She has since become an international symbol of the fight for girls' education.

She has received numerous international awards for her work.

Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi  received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 "for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education." She is the youngest laureate in history

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

Hornby, Gill "Miss Austen"

Hornby, Gill "Miss Austen" - 2020

As I mentioned before, as part of the commemoration of Jane Austen's 250th birthday, the Classics Club has started a #Reading Austen project. We are reading a book by her every other month, and I want to do read something Austen-related by her in between.

In April, I read a German book by Catherine Bell, "Jane Austen und die Kunst der Worte" [Jane Austen and the Art of Words].  I was not impressed, I probably read too much about Jane Austen before and this one could have been written by any Jane Austen fan without doing any more research. Such a pity.

Mind you, "Miss Austen" wasn't all that much better, only a little. The Miss Austen mentioned in the title is not Jane but her sister Cassandra. We hear about her last self-given task, the intention to destroy the letters her sister had written that contained something Cassandra didn't want anyone to know, that would look bad on her sister's legacy. But, since those letters were destroyed, we don't know what it contained and the author just invented them.

I don't like people writing a sequel to a book where the original author died. I never did and I doubt I ever will. So, I guess my next book about Jane Austen (in August) will be a non-fiction again.

From the back cover:

"1840 : Cassandra Austen returns to the village of Kintbury.

She knows that, in some corner of the vicarage where she is staying, there is a cache of letters written by her sister Jane.

As Cassandra recalls her youth, she pieces together buried truths about Jane's history - and her own ; secrets which should not be revealed.

And she faces a stark choice : should she act to protect Jane's reputation?

Or leave the letters unguarded to shape her legacy..."

The Classics Club: The Classics Spin #41

"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 15^th June 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 24^th August 2025 to read it.

This time, I read only the one book from my old list (Classics Spin #40) ("Madame Bovary"). 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. Dickens, Charles "Martin Chuzzlewit. The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit" (Leben und Abenteuer des Martin Chuszlewit) - 1843-44
4. Dumas, Alexandre fils "Camille: The Lady of the Camellias" (La Dame aux Camélias) - 1848
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. Dickens, Charles "Martin Chuzzlewit. The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit" (Leben und Abenteuer des Martin Chuszlewit) - 1843-44
14. Dumas, Alexandre fils "Camille: The Lady of the Camellias" (La Dame aux Camélias) - 1848
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.

This time, the number that has been picked is #11. That means for me:
Aristophanes "Lysistrata and Other Plays" (Lysistrata) - 411BC

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.