Oates, Joyce Carol "The Accursed"

Oates, Joyce Carol "The Accursed" - 2013

As already announced in my Hello September post, and my Buddy Read post, Lisa @Capitvated Reader and myself are hosting a buddy read this month. I will add Lisa's link to my post as soon as she has published hers.

Spoiler alert:

A buddy read like this cannot be as vague as many of my other reviews. On the other hand, I can't hide everything, so I will have to talk about this book as if I were in a book club and we all read the book.

Therefore, I will be quite open in the next couple of weeks but will, at the end, write a description of the whole book in the way you are all used to. So, if you haven't read the book but still would like to, be patient, I'll get there.

I am not a big fan of fantasy or fantastic, mythical figures. I probably wouldn't have even looked at the book were it not by one of my favourite authors and for a dear blogger friend who invited me to join her buddy read.

Week 1 (Oct 1–Oct 8)

• Author's Note & Prologue: Sets up the faux-historical framing in Princeton, New Jersey, during 1905–1906.

• Part One: Demon Bridegroom: Focuses on the bizarre seduction and abduction of a young bride at her wedding.

The beginning of the novel is quite interesting. There are well-known historical figures but what about the others? Do they exist? E.g. the Slade family?

I don't believe in ghosts, so this doesn't frighten me in any way. So, I can't really believe in a "curse". I do hope this leads people who believe in it to change their habits. Why do they think there is a curse on the town. They must be convinced that they did something wrong.

To dig deeper into the story, I used some discussion questions from LitLovers.

I believe, JCO uses a lot of her fantastic psychology to describe this and the conflict members of the town encounter.

The fictional narrator, M.W. van Dyck, always has his own opinions that he likes to add, even though he calls himself a historian and should therefore be more neutral. However, he also guides us to many questions of this "history". And we might learn from them, if we don't agree with him already.

A great quote from this part of the book:

"But we don't suffer nearly as much as most people", Meta said, hesitantly, "like Negroes, and the poorest immigrants. And We can read ... there is always the prospect of escape."

"Books are not a means of 'escape', Meta. Books are a means of knowledge, and of learning how to cope with the future."

This is a discussion between Upton Sinclair and his wife Meta. Do we agree with Upton or with Meta? I totally like the way of learning how to cope with the future. However, I also like books as a way of escape. Sometimes, this world is too hard on us and we need some distractions. Of course, we can get both from a lot of books. 

In the prologue, the questions gets asked whether the curse really exists or whether the narrator is inadvertently describing an outbreak of collective hysteria and moral decay. I believe in the latter.

One more question from the LitLovers list:

The Accursed asks us to ponder the nature of evil? What is "evil" in the scope of the novel?

That is an important question. And one that we should consider very heavily. Some people consider socialism an "evil", others the opposite of it. What is really evil, in my eyes, is selfishness, not caring about your neighbour (as the bible teaches us and those who claim they are "good Christians" like to preach but not live by).

Lisa said, it feels quite different than other books we've read by JCO.

I must agree but she is such a great author that I am sure we get the most of it.

There are plenty of real life people /and their relatives) in this book:
presidents: Woodrow Wilson, Grover Cleveland, Teddy Roosevelt
authors: Upton Sinclair, Jack London, Mark Twain
others: Andrew Fleming West

Book Description:

"This eerie tale of psychological horror sees the real inhabitants of turn-of-the-century Princeton fall under the influence of a supernatural power. New Jersey, 1905: soon-to-be commander-in-chief Woodrow Wilson is president of Princeton University. On a nearby farm, Socialist author Upton Sinclair, enjoying the success of his novel 'The Jungle', has taken up residence with his family. This is a quiet, bookish community - elite, intellectual and indisputably privileged. But when a savage lynching in a nearby town is hushed up, a horrifying chain of events is initiated - until it becomes apparent that the families of Princeton have been beset by a powerful curse. The Devil has come to this little town and not a soul will be spared. 'The Accursed' marks new territory for the masterful Joyce Carol Oates - narrated with her unmistakable psychological insight, it combines beautifully transporting historical detail with chilling fantastical elements to stunning effect."

#ThrowbackThursday. October 2016

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 2015.

If you are looking for more bloggers who participate here, there is always a post on The Chocolate Lady's website where you can also add yours.

Maalouf, Amin "Samarkand" (French: Samarcande) - 1988

This novel takes us from the life of poet, mathematician and astronomer Omar Khayyám and his poetry collection Rubaiyat in Samarkand of the 11th century to the voyage of the fictional character Benjamin O. Lesage on the Titanic in 1912. I was happy to learn not just about his poetry but especially about his life and that of his contemporaries in an area that is as unknown to me and most people in Europe in that time as it is today.

Obama, Barack "The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream" - 2006
The author gives an account of his first steps as a politician. I found it very interesting to look behind the scenes with someone who has been a Senator, who knows all the ins and outs and the pros and cons of politics. Very interesting.

Pye, Michael "The Edge of the World: How the North Sea Made Us Who We Are" - 2014

An exciting book. A look at how we became what we are. What has the North Sea done, how has it contributed to our history?

It looks like it has done a lot, it sent out fishermen and pirates, businessmen and adventurers. We didn't just find the American Continent by those first people who wanted to find new waterways, a lot of our system and how we live today started there. Our way of living, doing business, organizing, politics, law, science, insurance, money, art, everything comes from those explorations and how people first started to settle and find their way in this world. 

16 years of blogging

16^th Blogiversary

On Tuesday, Tuesday, 5 October 2010, I started this blog.

In the meantime, I have had 6572575 views, 87 followers, 3089 posts and 16400 comments.

My very first post was about my favourite author, Jane Austen, of course: Which Austen Heroine are You? At the time, I thought I might be Anne Elliot but it turned out I was Elinor Dashwood which I am convinced now is the more correct choice.

My lastest post from Saturday, Six Degrees of Separation ~ Life of M, has had 38 views so far.

And because not all of my reader friends speak English, I started a second blog on 30 October 2012: Mariannes Bücherecke/Der Bücherwurm (Marianne's Book Corner/The Book Worm). And though I didn't start all blogging all my books there immediately, I have had 1473 posts in the meantime and 353865 views.

I have always enjoyed sharing the books I read with fellow readers and I hope to do so for a long, long time.

Thank you to everyone who shares this passion with me and who contributes to my blog.

You can find more information under Statistics.

Six Degrees of Separation ~ Life of M

Rachel Cusk
"Life of M" - 2026

#6Degrees of Separation:
from Life of M (Goodreads) to One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch 

#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 "Life of M" by Rachel Cusk. As so often, I haven't read the starter book. But I recently read a book with an actress and I rather read books about normal people, about the girl or the guy next door.

This is the description of the novel:

"From the critically-acclaimed author of the Outline trilogy, an irresistible novel of fame, power, beauty and truth -- and a blazing renovation of the form

A little while ago, I told the actor M that I was thinking of writing her autobiography. She liked the idea. She's a good sport. Would you just make it up? she said.

M is a film star, and one of the most recognisable faces of our time.

With such fame, her life has the appearance of freedom: people are instantly obliging, spaces are altered to accommodate her, time can be rearranged. For her, it seems, the rules of reality have melted away.

Now M has agreed to let a stranger write her biography. Their project will sprawl and expand: to the olive groves and holiday beaches where M spends her days; across hotel rooms, bourgeois facades, film sets; through endless modern cities. It is hard not to feel ugly next to M, hard not to feel insignificant. But what truths - about the very experience of living - might this proximity allow the writer to briefly capture? And what in the end will M make of their work?

In Life of M, Rachel Cusk has again fashioned a new kind of literature. A novel stripped of artifice, it takes our emptiness and fills it with grace."

The last three months I found there was a word in the title which is repeated in quite a few books. I had Year, Land and Island. This was another title that I could use in this way, so we will go with Life this time.

Brecht, Bertolt "Life of Galileo" (German: Das Leben des Galilei) - 1938

An epic play about the life of Galileo Galilei, his discoveries, his conflicts with the Catholic Church, his conflicts with himself and the rest of the world. 

Bryson, Bill "The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid" - 2006

I don't know what I love most about Bill Bryson, his humour certainly is a big contender for number one. But it's not just that, he is a brilliant writer, I think even if he would write a cook book or a technical instruction, it would sound great.

Anyway, in this book we go back to his roots, meet his family, meet little William - or Billy - Bryson, his friends, his foes, his adventures as a young boy, his adventures as an older boy.

Clarke, Marcus "For the Term of His Natural Life" - 1870-72

This novel was recommended to me by one of my Australian friends, it describes the life of a convict from when he first gets condemned through the voyage to the new continent and the rest of his life. The story is very gripping and the author has a great way of describing the life of these poor creatures.

I am still looking for a book I read ages ago about someone who belonged to the first convicts who were released and settled on the land while the aborigines were not in the area and then had to face them when they returned. If anyone has a suggestion as to the title of that one, I’d be very grateful.

Naipaul, V.S. "Half A Life" - 2001

This novel takes place in a lot of different parts of this world, India, Africa, Europe.

A privileged son leaves his home and goes abroad to live a poor life. An interesting take on life in different settings. 

Pamuk, Orhan "The New Life" (Turkish: Yeni Hyat) - 1994

In this novel, the protagonist reads a book. Sounds familiar?

Now, even reading a brilliant book doesn't mean it will change your entire life. But in this case, it does. Osman is a student in Istanbul. He gives up his studies, leaves his family and friend behind and goes on a long journey through Turkey with no destiny or motive.

Solschenizyn, Alexander "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" (Russian: Оди́н день Ива́на Дени́совича Odin den' Ivana Denisovicha) - 1962

We always hear about the Gulag, the prisoners who sent to Siberia and have to work there etc. But we never really know what is going on there, what the work is like, how the prisoners are kept.

Unless we read about the one day in the life of Ivan Denisovich Shukhov, starting the instant he opens his eyes in the morning until he closes them again in the evening.

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So, what's the connection between the starter book and the last one except for the word "life" in the title? In both cases the life is very different from ours (and from each other), like in all the others. No life is the same.

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Spell the Month in Books ~ October 2026

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.

October: First Names – First Names of Authors

Since we choose our own topics at the moment, it is always a little harder. I did get this inspiration from some other bloggers last month. I believe we all copy from each other.

I am happy to have found quite a few foreign authors and hope I can inspire some of my blog friends to read them.

OCTOBER

O

Pamuk, Orhan "The Red-Haired Woman" (Turkish: Kırmızı Saçlı Kadın) - 2016

This author always finds a new way to portray his country, the people who live there, the uniqueness of a place between East and West.

But he also combines history and present. He explains what is going on in present day Turkey in his own way. And he uses a lot of symbolism that is easy to understand. Just brilliant.

And then there is always a way where he brings us closer to Eastern culture.

C

Ruiz Zafón, Carlos "The Labyrinth of the Spirits" (Spanish: El laberinto de los espíritus) - 2016

The fourth book in the series of the Cemetery of Forgotten books. It was just as exciting as the first three that had originally been called a trilogy but - luckily - the author decided to turn it into a tetralogy. 
We have learned a lot about the family Sempere and the authors they read, their friends and their lives, esp. the lives of the people in Catalonia during the Franco regime.

T

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

This author is a very famous German Nobel Laureate and he has written a lot of books worth reading. Even the title of this one 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.

A very philosophical novel. 

O

Grjasnowa, Olga "All Russians Love Birch Trees" (German: Der Russe ist einer, der Birken liebt) - 2012 

The protagonist is a young woman not unlike the author. She grew up in Azerbaijan and speaks several languages. So does Masha, our main character. She lives in Frankfurt with her boyfriend. After a tragedy, she goes to Israel where she tries to settle. Her home could be everywhere, yet, she finds it is nowhere.

B

Bryson, Bill "A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail" - 1998

Same as in all his other travel books, the author writes one of the funniest accounts of a mega-hike. The story itself is hilarious, Bill Bryson manages to describe everything in such a funny way that you cannot avoid laughing.

E

Forster, E. M. (Edward Morgan) "A Passage to India" - 1924

This novel takes us both to a different time and a different area, India in die 1920s. Of course, the protagonists are British who live in the time of the Indian independence movement but the main character is a young Indian who gets into trouble just through the carelessness of the English. The book talks about friendship, colonialism, the wish of all human beings to be independent.

R

Schami, Rafik "The Dark Side of Love" (German: Die dunkle Seite der Liebe) - 2004

The author once said you cannot understand the history and present of the Arabs without the prohibition of love. And with this book he has shown us a great example and hopefully helps us to understand each other better.

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Happy Reading!

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Happy October!

Happy October to all my Friends and Readers

New Calendar picture with this
beautiful watercolour painting by Frank Koebsch
"Bryggen in Bergen im Herbst"
"Bryggen in Bergen im Herbst"

Frank says to this picture:

"Zum Herbst gehören auch Regentage und so haben wir für den Oktober ein Aquarell aus der regenreichsten Stadt Europas Bergen ausgesucht. "

"Rainy days also belong to autumn, so for October we have chosen a watercolour of Europe's rainiest city Bergen." 

Absolutely beautiful. and so Scandinavian. I have never been to Norway but we have been to Sweden several times. So I thought, I share another picture of a beautiful Swedish city: Göteborg.

Read more on their website here. *

* * *

September was calmer than the months before with more friendly events like birthday parties, concerts, and a theatre play.

* * * 

My favourite book last month was "All Our Wordly Goods" (Les Biens de ce monde) by Irène Némirovsky, written in 1942.

* * *

German proverb this month:
Den Teufel an die Wand malen

Literal translation: to paint the devil onto the wall.

Meaning: pessimistic. Fearing the worst, portraying a situation in an overly pessimistic light, or conjuring up a disaster through negative thoughts.

We often say: Mal den Teufel nicht an die Wand! Don't paint the devil onto the wall! if we want to tell people not to see things too negatively. Don't predict anything bad, it might happen.

* * *

* 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. 

🍁 I wish you all a very Happy October! 🍁

Ghosh, Amitav "The Hungry Tide"

Ghosh, Amitav "The Hungry Tide" - 2004

I have read a few books by Amitav Ghosh (see here) and loved them all. So, I was looking forward to this one. It is also great, just not as great as the others.

Maybe there was too much biology in the book to my liking. 

I did like the history of the settlers in the Bay of Bengals and all the problems they encountered. And of the hospital that was started by an immigrant. I could have done without the whole dolpin story.

But that won't keep me from reading another book by Amitav Ghosh. If you have a favourite, please, let me know.

I also loved that they had a map in the book. However, it only shows the real life places, I would have loved an indication as to where the fictitious ones were.

From the back cover:

"From the author of the international bestseller The Glass Palace, The Hungry Tide is a novel of adventure and romance set in the exotic Sundarbans -- treacherous islands in the Bay of Bengal where isolated inhabitants live in fear of drowning tides and man-eating tigers. A headstrong young American arrives in this lush landscape to study a rare species of river dolphin. She enlists the aid of a local fisherman and a translator, and soon their fates on the waterways will be determined by the forces of nature and human folly."

The 1949 Club

This book challenge takes place twice a year and concentrates on one year and one year only. I call it "Read the Year Club". This time, 1949 was picked. For more information, see Simon @ Stuck in a Book and Kaggsy @ Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings (here is Karen's invite with more suggestions, and here is Simon's). If you are looking for inspiration, there are a few books from that year that I read already:

Böll, Heinrich "The Silent Angel" (GE: Der Engel schwieg) - 1949/50

Buck, Pearl S. "Kinfolk" - 1949

Camus, Albert "The Just Assassins" (aka The Just) (F: Les Justes) - 1949

Kästner, Erich "Lisa and Lottie" (aka The Parent Trap) (GE: Das doppelte Lottchen) - 1949

Miller, Arthur "Death of a Salesman" - 1949

Orwell, George "Nineteen Eighty Four" - 1949

If you need more ideas, there are other books that I found but have not read:

Beauvoir, Simone de "The Second Sex" (Le Deuxième Sexe)

Blyton, Enid "The Secret Seven" and "Five Get into Trouble"

Christie, Agatha "Crooked House"

Mahfouz, Naguib "The Beginning and the End" (داية ونهاية/Bidaya wa Nihaya)

Miller, Henry "Sexus"

Moberg, Vilhelm "The Emigrates" (Utvandrarna)

This challenge takes place from 12 to 18 October 2026.

I have chosen the book by Naguib Mahfouz.

See my other reads for this challenge here.

Buddy read ~ The Accursed

As already announced in my Hello September post, Lisa @Capitvated Reader and myself are planning a buddy read for October:

Oates, Joyce Carol "The Accursed" - 2013.

Here is Lisa's detailed description including questions:

And this is the book description:

"This eerie tale of psychological horror sees the real inhabitants of turn-of-the-century Princeton fall under the influence of a supernatural power. New Jersey, 1905: soon-to-be commander-in-chief Woodrow Wilson is president of Princeton University. On a nearby farm, Socialist author Upton Sinclair, enjoying the success of his novel 'The Jungle', has taken up residence with his family. This is a quiet, bookish community - elite, intellectual and indisputably privileged. But when a savage lynching in a nearby town is hushed up, a horrifying chain of events is initiated - until it becomes apparent that the families of Princeton have been beset by a powerful curse. The Devil has come to this little town and not a soul will be spared. 'The Accursed' marks new territory for the masterful Joyce Carol Oates - narrated with her unmistakable psychological insight, it combines beautifully transporting historical detail with chilling fantastical elements to stunning effect."

Our schedule is as follows (more details in Lisa's post).

Week 1 (Oct 1–Oct 8)  Author's note, Prologue, + Part 1 The curse descends on the Slade    wedding; Woodrow Wilson's strain
Week 2 (Oct 9–Oct 16) Part 2 Historical cameos; the eerie Bog Kingdom; social satire
Week 3 (Oct 17–Oct 24) Part 3 Hysteria spreads; moral decay of the Princeton elite
Week 4 (Oct 25–Oct 31) Part 4 to End Climax, resolution, and unpacking the narrator’s reliability

And this is for the audio book:
Week 1 (Oct 1–Oct 8) Book 1 (Chapters 1–4)
Week 2 (Oct 9–Oct 16) Book 2 & Book 3
Week 3 (Oct 17–Oct 24) Book 4 & Book 5
Week 4 (Oct 25–Oct 31) Book 6 to End

We also will write  a new post every Friday in October (Oct 9, 16, 23, and 30) with discussion prompts, character trackers, and space to share your thoughts.

Looking forward to sharing this with you.

Book Quotes

  

"Think not of the books you’ve bought as a 'to be read' pile. Instead, think of your bookcase as a wine cellar. You collect books to be read at the right time, the right place, and the right mood." Luc van Donkersgoed

I don't drink wine but I love the comparison. Nobody looks at someone who has a huge wine cellar and thinks it's useless to have them all. But buy more than two books and you have a problem.

"Nothing scares away bad dreams faster than the rustle of printed paper." Cornelia Funke

Totally true. Books can be so calming.

"The kindred joy of having discovered someone who read the same book was immediate, a friend whose mind had resided once in the same fictional world." Madeline Martin, The Secret Book Society

I think that is the secret of our blogging society. We are all readers and that's why we get on so well.

Find more book quotes here. 

Brooks, Geraldine "Memorial Days

Brooks, Geraldine "Memorial Days: A Memoir" - 2025

I love Geraldine Brooks. She writes great books, both novels and non-fiction. However, I am not sure I should have read this book now. My (younger) brother died after three years of battling a brain tumor. As soon as he was buried, his wife was diagnosed with liver cancer and she died nine weeks and a day after him. It wasn't a good time to read about someone else's grief.

Or was it? Geraldine Brooks has a great way of trying to come to terms with the sudden death of her husband and she gives a lot of tips along the way. Not necessarily all practical one though there is one toward the end. She recommends to make a list and call it "Your Life: How It Works" and write down all the little things you do without anyone noticing. Where are certain keys kept? Where do you find passwords? Insurance documents? Etc. etc. 

The book is both sad and devastating as well as comforting. At least I thought so. The author does give us hope, though.

Some books she recommends on the same topic, I have read one of them:
Alexander, Elizabeth "The Light of the World"
Didion, Joan "The Year of Magical Thinking"
Oates, Joyce Carol "A Widow's Story" - 2011

From the back cover:

"It was Memorial Day, 2019, when Geraldine Brooks received news that her husband, Tony Horwitz, had collapsed and died, far from home, in the middle of his own book tour. The complex tasks required in the face of such a sudden death left her no time to properly grieve for him.

Three years later, still feeling broken and bereft, she booked a flight to remote Flinders island off the coast of Tasmania. There, she pondered the ways other cultures deal with mourning and finally seized the time and space she needed for her own grief. Alone on a rugged stretch of coast, she revisited a 35-year marriage filled with risk, adventure, humour and love.

A spare and moving memoir that join sthe classics of the genre, Memorial Days is a portrait of a larger-than-life love affair and a reckoning with the inevitability of loss."

Blogger Problems

If you haven't received any comments from me lately, it's because Blogger has had problems for more than a week. I don't get any notifications of posts from the blogs I follow. I hope you get some about me but if not, I am very sorry. I cannot believe that Blogger cannot fix this kind of problem within a day or two. Let's hope they get on their feet soon.

Némirovsky, Irène "All Our Wordly Goods"

Némirovsky, Irène "All Our Wordly Goods" (French: Les Biens de ce monde) - 1941

The Classicics Spin chose #18 from our list this month. This was my book.

I have read two books by Irène Némirovsky before (Suite Française and The Prey) which I both quite liked. So, I was looking forward to this one.

And I was not disappointed. "All Our Wordly Goods" was even better than the two others, probably because she finished it before she was killed.

The story starts in WWI and lasts until 1940. We live through two words, well, at least the beginning of the second one. But we see them as the ordinary people had to live them, not the soldiers. Yes, the men get taken away to fight at the front but their stories are only secondary. We see what the old people, the women and children have to go through.

A fascinating, captivating story. The characters are all very vivid.

From the back cover:

"In haunting ways, this gorgeous novel prefigures Irène Némirovsky’s masterpiece Suite Française.

Set in France between 1910 and 1940 and first published in France in 1947, five years after the author’s death, All Our Worldly Goods is a gripping story of war, family life and star-crossed lovers. Pierre and Agnes marry for love against the wishes of his parents and his grandfather, the tyrannical family patriarch. Their marriage provokes a family feud that cascades down the generations. This brilliant novel is full of drama, heartbreak, and the telling observations that have made Némirovsky’s work so beloved and admired."

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.

Frankel, Laurie "Family Family"

Frankel, Laurie "Family Family" - 2024

The other members:
Becky from Sydney of Aidanvale
Kate from Melbourne of booksaremyfavoriteandbest - Family Family 
Naomi from Canada of Consumed By Ink
Rebecca from Maryland, USA of Bookish Beck - Family Family 
Kay from Washington State, USA of What? Me Read? - Family Family 

The first I read with the online group "literary Wives" that we re-named "The Marriage Plot"  since not all the books we plan to read are about wives.

As in this case. The topic is adoption.

I was wondering about the title at first. But then I got it. You have families that are just a family on paper. Then you have family that are even not an official family but the people there belong together. And that is a family family. And I think that is a good description. You certainly know families who hardly get on, who don't see each other anymore once the children moved out, but even before, they don't relate to the others. That is not a family family, that's just a bunch of people who seem to live in the same house and (sometimes) carry the same name).

In this case we have a really weird family. A woman who gets two children without being married and gives them up for adoption, to two different kind of parents, a single mother and a gay married couple. But she also adopts two kids who have been abandoned by their mother. So, we have all sorts of relationships.

The woman is an actress and plays in a film about adoption. She claims that not all adoptions are sad and that the film is not a good one. That leads to a big scandal and her adopted kids try to get the whole family together.

I think this is a good book about showing a different side of adoption, one you don't read about that often. And I know families where it worked perfectly.

There are so many different kind of characters in this book, starting with the ten year old adopted daughter up to the grandmother. Every person is so different, as they should be. And they all have a point.

You can tell that the author has experienced this in her own family. A good quote by her (in the Seattle Times):

"Adoption is always offered as this last-resort, second-best thing that you have settled for, ... there are lots of ways to make good families and lots of ways to make crappy ones ... and they are not necessarily dictated by blood and genetics." So true.

From the back cover:

''Not all stories of adoption are stories of pain and regret. Not even most of them. Why don’t we ever get that movie?'

India Allwood grew up wanting to be an actor. Armed with a stack of index cards (for research/line memorization/make-shift confetti), she goes from awkward sixteen-year-old to Broadway ingenue to TV superhero.

Her new movie is a prestige picture about adoption, but its spin is the same old tired story of tragedy. India is an adoptive mom in real life though. She wants everyone to know there’s more to her family than pain and regret. So she does something you should never do—she tells a journalist the truth: it’s a bad movie.

Soon she’s at the center of a media storm, battling accusations from the press and the paparazzi, from protesters on the right and advocates on the left. Her twin ten-year-olds know they need help–and who better to call than family? But that’s where it gets really messy because India’s not just an adoptive mother…

The one thing she knows for sure is what makes a family isn’t blood. And it isn’t love. No matter how they’re formed, the truth about family is this: it's complicated."

And here is the list of all our books.

Six Degrees of Separation ~ Shutter Island

Dennis Lehane

"Shutter Island"

#6Degrees of Separation:

from Shutter Island to Treasure Island

#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. 

This month, we are supposed to start with our book group’s current selection.

Nice idea for next month. Unfortunately, we already had the book we read in my local club (The Correspondent, in April 2026) as a starter book and I cannot get the one for my online group. And the last ones were all German books. Also, the current online book is in Finnish and not translated. But, I decided to use the last online book we read that has an English edition: "Shutter Island" by Dennis Lehane.

Book Description:

"An arresting psychological thriller in which two US Marshals hunting for an escaped mental patient unveil a nightmare world of CIA drug trials, Nazi inspired eugenic work, and repressive mind control.

In the year 1954, U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels and his new partner, Chuck Aule, come to Shutter Island, home of Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane, to investigate an unexplained disappearance. Multiple murderess Rachel Solando is loose somewhere on this barren island, despite having been kept under constant surveillance in a locked, guarded cell. As a killer hurricane bears relentlessly down on the island, hints of radical experimentation and covert government machinations add darker, more sinister shades to an already bizarre case. Because nothing at Ashecliffe Hospital is remotely what it seems."

Once again, I decided to go with a word in the title, it was too good an opportunity to pass.

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. 

Hislop, Victoria "The Island" - 2005

An interesting book about a wonderful part of this world with a harrowing past. The island was used as a leper colony from 1903 to 1957. People who were banned there wouldn’t return into normal life until a cure was found.

This book reflects on the lives of the people on this island, how they got there, how their everyday life as, how life was for those left behind, how the people in the little village just opposite the island was. The author managed to illustrate all this through a family who was involved in the whole history. 

Lindgren, Astrid "Seacrow Island" (SW: Vi på Saltkråkan) - 1964 

There are a couple of families in Sweden with children of the same age. The Melkerson family goes on holiday on a skerry, a little rocky island in Sweden. Together with oder holiday children and children from the island, they have the most fabulous holidays. A lovely children's story.

O'Dell, Scott "Island of the Blue Dolphins" - 1969

The Native American girl Karana ends up on a deserted island where she spends the next eighteen years alone. The story tells about her life, her struggles to survive.

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

We have the Greek Kostas and Turkish Defne live on Cyprus, the divided island. They fall in love but - as usual in such cases - their love is forbidden.

Stevenson, Robert Louis "Treasure Island" - 1881/82 

Not just a children's book, the story is also interesting for adults, quite some excitement going on, you need to guess what might happen next and won't succeed every time.

A lot of drama and action in the story. A true classic.   

The connection between the first and the last book? Like last month, the titles all contain the same word: ISLAND.

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Spell the Month in Books ~ September 2026

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.

September: (Mostly) Dystopian Literature

As we are still choosing our own topics, I had a look where I could find one with three Es. Not so easy. I must say, I did cheat a little, but only just a little, as you will see.

I think dystopian novels (or "disturbian" as my husband likes to call them) are great. They show our society in a different way. What kind of fears are there, how do we imagine the world would look like if some of them came true. Or something else happened that made us give up the ways we live now.

Here are my books:

SEPTEMBER

S

Fforde, Jasper "Shades of Grey. The Road to High Saffron" - 2009

A dystopian novel about a future where colour perception rules the world. 

E

Levithan, David "Every Day" - 2012

Maybe it's dystopian but it's not a different world, at least not for most of the characters.

This is about someone who we know can't exist, either, but the idea is just too captivating not to follow it. 

P
Camus, Albert "The Plague" (F: La Peste) - 1947

North Africa, a French town in Algeria, sometime in the 1940s. The rats come first, then the plague follows. This is a description of how a whole town comes to terms with such a death sentence. I read this before Covid but Camus explained the situation precisely.

T

Wells, H. G. "The Time Machine" - 1895

Quite a story, even if the movie took quite a few liberties … but what else is new?

E

Emcke, Carolin "Echoes of Violence: Letters from a War Reporter" (GE: Von den Kriegen. Briefe an Freunde) - 2004

Not a dystopian novel. I wish it were. The author is a journalist, covering mainly war areas and she has written e-mails to her friend every time she returned from one of her journeys. Here, she published them. She visited Afghanistan, Colombia, Iraq, Kosovo, Lebanon, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Romania and the USA (before and after September 11th), and reports about her meetings with affected people. 

M

Bradbury, Ray "The Martian Chronicles" - 1950
"The Martian Chronicles", a highly interesting novel about the human invasion on another planet. A dystopian novel that couldn't envisage anything better. Or worse.

B
Stroyar, J.N. "Becoming Them" (The Children's War #3) - 2017
As a German, having to live with the consequences of one of the most terrible wars ever, I have always asked myself what would have happened if the Nazis had won the war.
This is the final book of the trilogy that describes how it could have been, we see how everything gets together in the end, how the long and arduous underground work finally leads to the end of the Nazi party. But not without many, many difficulties first. This third book is just as fascinating, exciting and thrilling as the first two. I hope many people will be able to read it.

E

Steinbeck, John "East of Eden" - 1952
The author talks about problems as old as mankind, he retells the story of Cain and Abel, only here they are called Caleb and Aaron (the father is still Adam, though), and they live in his native California. Could be a dystopian novel.

R
McCarthy, Cormac "The Road" - 2006
There are mainly only two people in this book, a father and his son. Most of the world has been eliminated, we don't know exactly why but it doesn't matter. What's important is the way people react. Nothing grows anymore, so people have to eat what's still available. How would you react in such a situation? That's the big question and we see all sorts of different people acting in all sorts of different ways.

* * *

Happy Reading!

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#ThrowbackThursday. September 2016

These are my ThrowbackThursday reviews from September 2016. 

García Márquez, Gabriel "The General in His Labyrinth" (Spanish: El general en su laberinto) - 1989

Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios, better known to the world as Simón Bolívar lived from 24 July 1783 to 17 December 1830. He is largely considered as THE politician who brought about South America's independence from Spain in the early 19th century. 

This book was written by one of the greatest South American authors ever. Even though it concentrates on Bolívar's last journey, the novel is full of details about his whole life and about South America at the time. 

Mantel, Hilary "Bring up the Bodies" - 2012

The sequel to "Wolf Hall", just as good.

In this novel, the author focuses on the king's wish to divorce Anne Boleyn and Thomas Cromwell's role in this.

Rushdie, Salman "Midnight's Children" - 1981

I love to read books that challenge my brain. The life of our protagonist mirrored that of the Indian nation since its independence. Even though I have read several books about India and its history, there was still a lot of information in there that I hadn't heard about. The book certainly is a very peculiar mixture of historical fiction and magic realism in a way I haven't seen this before.

A difficult book - but very gripping, it's totally worth picking up.

Happy September!

Happy September to all my Friends and Readers

New Calendar picture with this
beautiful watercolour painting by Hanka Koebsch
"Herbststrauß"
"Autumn bouquet"

Hanka says to this picture:

"A floral painting to set the mood for the approaching autumn.
Hydrangeas come in the most beautiful colors and a variety of shapes. For this autumn watercolor, I chose light-colored blossoms." 

"Ein Blumenbild zur Einstimmung auf den nahenden Herbst. 

Es gibt sie in den wunderschönsten Farben und verschiedenen Formen - die Hortensien. Für dieses Herbstaquarell habe ich mich für helle Blüten entschieden."

Next to peonies, hydrangeas are my favourite flowers.

Read more on their website here. *

* * *

Another sad month. No, things did not get better. My sister-in-law died only nine weeks after her husband, my brother.

* * *

The German expression of the month is something that I can relate to a lot right now, I would love to go far, far away from all this.

"Fernweh" (literally far hurt)
The longing to go away.

* * * 

Two books I can recommend from last month:

Weir, Andy "Project Hail Mary" - 2021

and

Oates, Joyce Carol "Cardiff by the Sea" - 2020

The latter was a buddy read and we intend to read another JCO one in October: "The Accursed" (Goodreads).

Let me know if you are interested in joining us. Here is more information.

Sorry there is not more information this month. I am just not in the mood.

* * *

* 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. 

* * *

🍂 I wish you all a very Happy September! 🍂

Evans, Virginia "The Correspondent"

Evans, Virginia "The Correspondent" - 2025

This book has been on the wishlist for our German book club for ages but we first had to wait until it was published as a paperback. In August 2026, we finally managed to put it on our reading list.

I have been writing letters my whole life, I've had penfriends all over the world and when I started to learn Esperanto, it got even more. So, I expected this book to be perfect for me.

I read somewhere that It takes a little while to get settled into Sybil’s life and I totally agree. I couldn't say that the story gripped me from the first page.

However, I was never such an organized letter writer as Sybil. I don't sit down every morning, I write answers to letters I received whenever I feel like I am in the mood to respond. I think the recipient gets a better answer as if I "have to" write now and then. And I have never written to an author, maybe I should do that one day.

However, I do not neglect those people around me, I try to meet them as often as I can. Sybil seems to be more a "letters only" kind of person. What would I have to tell my friends from far away if I didn't have a "real life"?

I did enjoy the book in the end but not in the way I thought I might.

We did have a nice discussion about this novel. We are all senior citizens and thought that was probably one of the reasons why we did enjoy this book. One of our members mentioned that her daughter couldn't get into it. Maybe there is something to it.

In any case, we all agreed that we needed some time to get into all the characters. And yes, there are a lot. The German had a list at the end with all of her correspondents, a little "Who's Who?". That was not included in our English version. I wonder why? As you all know, I love lists.

I found one online though @ The Book Companion
and @ SuperSummary.

And while looking for that, I discovered that a film adaptation is planned starring Jane Fonda as Sybil Van Antwerp.

Lots and lots of books get mentioned in the novel. I will list only those that I have read myself, find the rest here on Goodreads.

Austen, Jane "Pride & Prejudice" - 1813 (The Motherhood and Jane Austen) 
Brontë, Emily "Wuthering Heights" - 1887
Du Maurier, Daphne "Rebecca" - 1938
Gabaldon, Diana "Outlander" (UK: Cross Stich) - 1991
Hanff, Helene "84 Charing Cross Road" - 1970
Ishiguro, Kazuo "The Remains of the Day" - 1989
Johnson, Adam "The Orphan Master's Son" - 2012
Joyce, James "Ulysses" - 1922
Rushdie, Salman "The Satanic Verses"  - 1988
Steinbeck, John "Travels with Charley" - 1962
Woolf, Virginia "To the Lighthouse" - 1927

So, eleven of forty books. But I might get to more in future.

And a quote that I agree with 100%:

"... I like president Obama. He's a wonderful speaker, I could listen to him read the phone book."

From the back cover:

"Sybil Van Antwerp has throughout her life used letters to make sense of the world and her place in it. Most mornings, around half past ten, Sybil sits down to write letters—to her brother, to her best friend, to the president of the university who will not allow her to audit a class she desperately wants to take, to Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry to tell them what she thinks of their latest books, and to one person to whom she writes often yet never sends the letter.

Sybil expects her world to go on as it always has—a mother, grandmother, wife, divorcee, distinguished lawyer, she has lived a very full life. But when letters from someone in her past force her to examine one of the most painful periods of her life, she realizes that the letter she has been writing over the years needs to be read and that she cannot move forward until she finds it in her heart to offer forgiveness.

The Correspondent is a gem of a novel about the power of finding solace in literature and connection with people we might never meet in person. Sybil Van Antwerp’s life of letters might be 'a very small thing,' but she also might be one of the most memorable characters you will ever read."