Tokarczuk, Olga "Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead" - 2009

Tokarczuk, Olga "Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead" (Polish: Prowadź swój pług przez kości umarłych) - 2009

I have read one book by Olga Tokarczuk (Primeval and Other Times) when she received her Nobel Prize for Literature. And I wanted to read more by her since then. A bookclub member lent me one now and I read it in more or less one go, it is so exciting. Janina Duszejko is such an interesting character. And the story is starting so quietly, you don't even notice at the beginning that it is a crime story which are not my favourites.

Even though she is the protagonist of the novel, you don't see her as such at the beginning. Janina is a middle-aged, slightly weird woman living in the middle of nowhere in the mountains at the Polish-Czech border where she looks after the summer houses of some rich people. She works with astrology and translates poems by William Blake. She loves animals and she is a conservationist. A remarquable woman.

Where this story leads to, I don't know. But I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in great literature.

From the back cover:

"One of Poland's most imaginative and lyrical writers, Olga Tokarczuk presents us with a detective story with a twist in DRIVE YOUR PLOW OVER THE BONES OF THE DEAD. After her two dogs go missing and members of the local hunting club are found murdered, teacher and animal rights activist Janina Duszejko becomes involved in the ensuing investigation. Part magic realism, part detective story, DRIVE YOUR PLOW OVER THE BONES OF THE DEAD is suspenseful and entertaining reimagining of the genre interwoven with poignant and insightful commentaries on our perceptions of madness, marginalised people and animal rights."

And why the German translation is called "Der Gesang der Fledermäuse" (The Song of the Bats) is still a mystery to me.

Olka Tokarczuk received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2018 "for her narrative imagination that with encyclopedic passion represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life".

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

Gaiman, Neil "Coraline"

Gaiman, Neil "Coraline" - 2002

Coraline is only a short novella. It was an alright read though nothing spectacular. I probably would have enjoyed reading it with my boys.

I have never been a fan of books where children are heroes and this falls into this category. But I can see the attraction.

I loved the pictures by Chris Riddell. He is a wonderful illustrator and makes every book better, even the great ones.

And I liked these quotes:
"Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten."
"When you're scared but you still do it anyway, that's brave."

Luckily, there are always several people in a book club who have a different opinion, so here goes:
•    I absolutely loved Coraline. I listened to it as an audiobook that was narrated by Neil Gaiman himself. His narration was perfect for the story.
•    The story had everything I want from a book: it was mysterious, a little spooky, thrilling, had thought provoking layers and interesting vivid details. Not to mention a lovely protagonist, very interesting different side characters, especially the CAT, and a really interesting antagonist.
•    Nice plot twists with playing games with the other mother and everything turning out alright at the end again.
•    I rather not think about what this says about me and my brain, but this was the most brain stimulating and heartwarming story I read/heard all year. ♥

We read this in our international online book club in December 2023.

From the back cover:

"Sometimes, a door is closed for a very good reason…

There is something strange about Coraline’s new home. It’s not the mist, or the cat that always seems to be watching her, nor the signs of danger that Miss Spink and Miss Forcible, her new neighbours, read in the tea leaves. It’s the other house - the one behind the old door in the drawing room. Another mother and father with black button eyes and papery skin are waiting for Coraline to join them there. And they want her to stay with them. For ever. She knows that if she ventures through that door, she may never come back…"

Poe, Edgar Allan "The Murders in the Rue Morgue"

Poe, Edgar Allan "The Murders in the Rue Morgue and other stories" - 1841

Our international online book club read in August 2023.

Dark, gruesome, abysmal, that's what I read somewhere about the writings of Edgar Allan Poe. Yeah, I couldn't agree more. I know people who love this sort of writing but I don't. I was afraid I wouldn't like it but tried my best to discover something that might tempt me to read more by this author. Alas, that was not to be. This time, it was a good thing that the book wasn't that thick. Or maybe that added to my disenjoyment.

My biggest problem with stories like these, there is nothing to learn from them. Absolutely nothing. And that is my main reason for reading.

Our book club had chosen to read a collection of short stores. The trouble with this is always that there are different ones in different languages. These were the stories the Finnish members had:
The Tell-Tale Heart (1843)
The Imp of the Perverse (1845)
The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841)
The Mystery of Marie Rogêt (1843)
The Purloined Letter (1844)
'Thou Art the Man' (1844)

And these were the ones in the English edition:
The Oval Portrait
Ligeia
Eleonora
Morella
Berenice
The Fall of the House of Usher
The Masque of the Red Death
Hop-Frog
The Pit and the Pendulum
The Cask of Amontillado
The Gold-Bug
The Murders in the Rue Morgue
The Mystery of Marie Rogêt
The Purloined Letter

The group had some other opinions. There was a really good discussion about Poe's works and life. Some had read some of the gruesome and terrible works but most of us had read a selection of a few different kinds, some of which are really clever and intelligent, and you clearly can see how he was starting a genre to influence literature for hundreds of years to follow.

From the back cover:

"Between 1841 and 1844, Edgar Allan Poe invented the genre of detective fiction with three mesmerizing stories about a young and eccentric French private detective named C. Auguste Dupin.

Introducing to literature the concept of applying reason to solving crime, these tales brought Poe fame and fortune, although much less of the second during his lifetime. Decades later, Dorothy Sayers would describe 'The Murders in the Rue Morgue' as 'almost a complete manual of detective theory and practice.' Indeed, Poe’s short Dupin mysteries inspired the creation of countless literary sleuths, among them Sherlock Holmes. Today, the unique Dupin stories still stand out as utterly engrossing page-turners."

Sendker, Jan-Philipp "Dragon Games"

Sendker, Jan-Philipp "Dragon Games" aka "The Language of Solitude" (The Rising Dragon #2) (German: Drachenspiele) - 2009

If you liked "Whispering Shadows", you already know Paul and his family and will want to know how their story goes on. If you like books about China, expats, crime stories, you will love this series which already has a third book (The Far Side of the Night).

This is an interesting book about the life not just of foreigners in China but also about the lives of people both in urban and rural China. Paul and Christine visit her ancestor's village after receiving some disturbing news. Here they find the clash between the people in the village and the greed of a large company, the corruption of politicians. Yes, we all know those plots but Jan-Philipp Sendker has a great talent to describe it.

Like in all his other books, the author is able to tell both the story as well as describing the background. He has a wonderful way with words, you can tell he is a journalist.

I could well imagine that one day someone will make a film out of this.

I am definitely looking forward to reading his next books which will probably be the sequels to his Burma story, "The Art of Hearing Heartbeats" (German: Das Herzenhören).

From the back cover:

"Paul Leibovitz is 53, living in Hong Kong, deeply in love with the city, its culture, and most of all, Christine. When a fortune teller predicts the death of someone she loves, however, the pair are once again thrust into the murky criminal world of Hong Kong and forced to fight for their lives. We learn the details of Christine's dark family history which is mired in the horrors and iniquities of Mao's cultural revolution and now her brother and his family who are living in rural China are victims of a very modern ecological scandal that is every bit as terrifying as past atrocities."

These are the books in the Rising Dragon (China) trilogy:
"Whispering Shadows" (German: Das Flüstern der Schatten) (The Rising Dragon #1) - 2007
"Dragon Games" aka "The Language of Solitude" (German: Drachenspiele) (The Rising Dragon #2) - 2009
"The Far Side of the Night" (German: Am anderen Ende der Nacht) (The Rising Dragon #3) - 2016

Zusak, Markus "The Messenger"

Zusak, Markus "The Messenger" (US: I am the Messenger) - 2002

A couple of years ago, I read "The Book Thief" with my book club and really loved it.  Not just me, the other book club members were also full of praise. I always thought that was the author's first book but that is not the case and when I found out, I had to read at least one more of his books. And this will probably not be my last one, either. Because I loved this even more.

We get to know Ed Kennedy and his friends, all more or less "losers" who don't have a brilliant future in their lives. Ed's siblings went to university, he is a taxi driver with not formal education. His friends are in similar situations. That's when Ed becomes "The Messenger".

I loved all the messages he had to deliver, they were compassionate and showed a lot of empathy. And that's how I came to love Ed, as well. What a wonderful young man. And most of the recipients of the messages are wonderful, as well. We learn that we can help others just by being there, lending an ear, buying them an ice cream … It doesn't need much to be the hero in someone else's life and we don't always need a reward for that, either. The book itself contains a great message.

Spoiler:

I wasn't too sure about the twist at the end. But then I decided, I know someone wrote Ed, he isn't real. But I would have liked another ending, one that made me believe until the end what he existed and what this was all about. Now, I still don't really know what the reason behind those messages are.

* * *

Needless to say, I love his writing style.

From the back cover:

"protect the diamonds
survive the clubs
dig deep through the spades
feel the hearts

Ed Kennedy is an underage cabdriver without much of a future. He's pathetic at playing cards, hopelessly in love with his best friend, Audrey, and utterly devoted to his coffee-drinking dog, the Doorman. His life is one of peaceful routine and incompetence until he inadvertently stops a bank robbery.

That's when the first ace arrives in the mail.

That's when Ed becomes the messenger.

Chosen to care, he makes his way through town helping and hurting (when necessary) until only one question remains: Who's behind Ed's mission?"

Domínguez, Carlos María "The House of Paper"

Domínguez, Carlos María "The House of Paper" (Spanish: La Casa del Papel) - 2007

An interesting book about a woman who dies reading, a man who builds a house out of books and another guy who tries to find the link between them. Too short for my liking (only 96 pages), one doesn't get to meet the characters very long, you just get started and the story is over.

But it was a pleasant enough read. And as a bonus, there's a lovely map in the front of the book showing the route of the protagonist to South America. It looks like those old maps that were printed on parchment, a detail every book lover must also love. A lovely little story about people who love books.

From the back cover:

"Bluma Lennon, distinguished professor of Latin American literature at Cambridge, is hit by a car while crossing the street, immersed in a volume of Emily Dickinson's poems. Several months after her untimely demise, a package arrives for her from Argentina-a copy of a Conrad novel, encrusted in cement and inscribed with a mysterious dedication. Bluma's successor in the department (and a former lover) travels to Buenos Aires to track down the sender, one Carlos Brauer, who turns out to have disappeared.

The last thing known is that he moved to a remote stretch of the Uruguayan coastline and built himself a house out of his enormous and valuable library. How he got there, and why, is the subject of this seductive novel-part mystery, part social comedy, and part examination of all the many forms of bibliomania.

Charmingly illustrated by Peter Sís, The House of Paper is a tribute to the strange and passionate relationship between people and their books."

There are a lot of books mentioned in this novel. The main one is
"The Shadow-Line" by Joseph Conrad.

Others:
Burckhardt, Jacob "The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy" (GE: Die Cultur der Renaissance in Italien)
Cervantes, Miguel de "Don Quixote" (E: El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha)
Dickinson, Emily "Poems"
Dostoevsky, Fyodor "The Brothers Karamazov" (RUS: Братья Карамазовы/Brat'ya Karamazovy)
Faulkner, William "Absalom! Absalom!"
Hesse, Hermann "Siddhartha: An Indian Poem" (GE: Siddhartha)
García Márquez, Gabriel "One Hundred Years of Solitude" (E: Cien años de soledad)
Hemingway, Ernest "A Farewell to Arms"
Salgari, Emilio "The Tigers of Malaysia" (IT: Tigre della Malesia)

Kostova, Elizabeth "The Swan Thieves"

Kostova, Elizabeth "The Swan Thieves" - 2010

I read Elizabeth Kostava's first book "The Historian" a couple of years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. So, when I came upon this novel, I had to read it.

Even though this book was totally different from her first one, I was not disappointed. Same as in her old book, she brings history into her novel, and art. One of my favourite eras in the history of art, French Impressionism.  Béatrice de Clerval who features in the story, was not a real person but many painters mentioned were. Just listing their names feels like going through one of the great museums of Paris: Manet, Morisot, Monet, Sisley, Pissarro.

I did enjoy this novel just as much as her first one and am looking forward to her next which is announced to be published next year, "The Shadow Land".

From the back cover:
"Dr Andrew Marlowe has a perfectly ordered life, full of devotion to his work and the painting hobby he loves. This order is destroyed when renowned painter Robert Oliver attacks a canvas in the National Gallery and becomes his patient. 

As Oliver refuses to speak, Marlow's only clue is the beautiful, haunted woman Oliver paints obsessively, day after day. Who is she, and what strange hold does she have over this tormented genius? Desperate to help, Marlowe embarks on a journey that leads him into the lives of the women closest to Oliver and to a dark story at the heart of French Impressionism - a tragedy that ripples out to touch present-day lives.

Kostova's masterful new novel travels from American cities to the coast of Normandy; from the late nineteenth century to the late twentieth, from young love to last love. The Swan Thieves is a story of obsession, history's losses, and the power of art to preserve hope."

Setterfield, Diane "The Thirteenth Tale"

Setterfield, Diane "The Thirteenth Tale" - 2006

Margaret Lea is a non-fiction author who has written several biographies about dead personalities. Now she gets offered a job to write down the life of one of the most famous but also most secretive authors in England, Vida Winter. She has written twelve stories about her life, all of them more fictitious than any of her own stories which I probably wouldn't want to read. The titles look quite chick lit-ish but we don't have to read the stories in order to read "The Thirteenth Tale".

The author and her biographer find they have something in common, they are both twins and Margaret's mother has not coped well with the loss of the twin sister.

While Margaret listens to Vida's life story, she doesn't just get to know the twins Emmeline and Adeline and everyone else at Angelfield House, she discovers a lot about herself but also about the secret parts Vida doesn't tell. A big surprise waits at the end.

This is quite an interesting story, even though I wouldn't call it great literature. But nice to read.

As both of the protagonists love to read, especially classics, a lot of them are mentioned:
Ainsworth, William Harrison "The Spectre Bride"
Austen, Jane "Emma"
- "Sense & Sensibility"
Braddon, Mary Elizabeth "Lady Audley's Secret"
Brontë, Charlotte "Jane Eyre"
- "Shirley"
- "Villette"
Brontë, Emily "Wuthering Heights"
Collins, Wilkie "The Woman in White"
Conan Doyle, Sir Arthur "The Case-book of Sherlock Holmes"
Dickens, Charles "Hard Times"
Eliot, George "Middlemarch"
James, Henry "The Turn of the Screw"
Kingsley, Charles "The Water Babies"
Stevenson, Robert Louis "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hide"
Trollope, Anthony "The Eustace Diamonds"
Walpole, Horace "The Castle of Otranto"

Even though I have not read all of them, I'd rather read the remainder than any of the books "written" by Vida Winter (according to the cover picture):
The Puppet Show
Rules of Affliction
The Birthday Girl
(13) Tales of Change and Desperation
Hauntings
Twice is Forever
Betwixt and Between
Out of the Arc

From the back cover:

"Reclusive author Vida Winter has created several 'biographies' for herself, each one different, but now she wants to tell the truth. When she asks Margaret Lea to write her biography Margaret is reluctant - not least because of the family secrets she herself is guarding so painfully.
Margaret's research takes her to Angelfield House and into Vida's enigmatic past - and what she uncovers sheds a troubling light on her own life."

While visiting Miss Winter in her bedroom, Margaret discovers a picture they talk about. It's called "Dickens' Dream" and was painted by Robert W. Buss.
There is some information on these pages:
Dickens Picture by Robert W. Buss
"Dickens Dream"
Robert Williams Buss 

Palma, Félix J. "The Map of the Sky"

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

Fantasy and/or science fiction is not really my favourite genre, and that is putting it mildly. However, last year I came across "The Map of Time" in the chunky book group and I really liked it. Probably because it was a spin-off of "The Time Machine" which I did like as a movie (the old version, that is, never seen the new one). But maybe also because the author is a good writer. And very creative. Nothing is impossible for him.

As in his first novel, Félix J. Palma makes a spin on an H.G. Wells novel, this time it was "The War of the Worlds". But he also includes other novels like "The Time Machine", "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" and we see many famous people, first and foremost, of course, H.G. Wells himself, then Christopher Columbus, Galileo, Karl Gauss, Marco Polo, Robert Louis Stevenson, Jules Verne, to name just about the most famous ones.

In this novel, we have a lot of adventures to pass. We are stuck on a ship in the frozen North Sea and we have to fight alien machines who want to overtake the whole world. At that point, we arrive in a dystopian environment. There is hardly a genre or a subject not touched in this novel. There is something for everyone. The author even manages to slip in a love story.

Even though this is a brilliant story, I did prefer the first of these two novels but I am still looking forward to the third and last of the books in this Victorian Trilogy which apparently will work around the themes of "The Invisible Man". I think I should start reading H.G. Wells in the meantime.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2025.

From the back cover:

"A love story serves as backdrop for The Map of the Sky when New York socialite Emma Harlow agrees to marry millionaire Montgomery Gilmore, but only if he accepts her audacious challenge: to reproduce the extraterrestrial invasion featured in Wells's War of the Worlds. What follows are three brilliantly interconnected plots to create a breathtaking tale of time travel and mystery, replete with cameos by a young Edgar Allan Poe, and Captain Shackleton and Charles Winslow from The Map of Time.

Praised for lyrical storytelling and a rich attention to detail, (Library Journal, starred review), Palma again achieves the high standard set by The Map of Time."

Collins, Wilkie "Armadale"

Collins, Wilkie "Armadale" - 1866

My favourite literature are English classics. I have read the two most famous books by Wilkie Collins, "The Woman in White" and "The Moonstone", "Armadale" was written in between those two.

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.

Even though the introduction might seem a little slow, Collins builds his characters and his story meticulously, he gives us all the aspects so we can make follow the story thoroughly. I love that. His writing style is fantastic, every sentence is both exciting and descriptive, his story is sensationalist, full of deceit, betrayal and revenge. His characters are lively and memorable. The fact that there are four Allan Armadales in the story, is easily explained but adds some comic effect to a more sombre story.

Wilkie Collins has often been compared with Charles Dickens, he's supposed to be the poor man's Dickens. I read somewhere that he is "Dickens without the exaggerated characters and ridiculous names." I love that comparison though I love them both.

Definitely a book for you if you like Victorian literature. It would be good reading for a cold winter evening.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2025.

From the back cover:

"When the elderly Allan Armadale makes a terrible confession on his death-bed, he has little idea of the repercussions to come, for the secret he reveals involves the mysterious Lydia Gwilt: flame-haired temptress, bigamist, laudanum addict and husband-poisoner. Her malicious intrigues fuel the plot of this gripping melodrama: a tale of confused identities, inherited curses, romantic rivalries, espionage, money - and murder. The character of Lydia Gwilt horrified contemporary critics, with one reviewer describing her as 'One of the most hardened female villains whose devices and desires have ever blackened fiction'. She remains among the most enigmatic and fascinating women in nineteenth-century literature and the dark heart of this most sensational of Victorian 'sensation novels'."

Tucker, Helen "The Sound of Summer Voices"

Tucker, Helen "The Sound of Summer Voices" - 1969

What do you think when you are eleven years old and find out that your aunt is your mother and your mother never existed? This is the problem Patrick is facing but nobody wants to tell him the truth. So, he has to spy on his whole family in order to find out more details.

A very interesting story about growing up as well as coming to terms with a past you were not involved in. I read this novel years ago but wouldn't mind reading it again, if only I had a copy ...

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2025.
 
From the back cover:

"One summer day while sitting on the front porch and mulling over bits and pieces of information about himself and his family, eleven year old Patrick Q. Tolson concludes that one of his aunts is, in fact, his mother. This conclusion alarms him since it means that everyone in his family, his two maiden aunts, his Uncle Darius and even Mavis, the cook, has been lying to him for years. No doubt the woman they claimed had given birth to him and then died had, in fact, never existed. From this day on he uses his talents for eavesdropping to slowly but persistently search for the truth. He hides in trees and hunkers down in the back seats of cars listening and listening until his true origins become clear. When he finally learns the truth he also learns something about love, God and forgiveness."

Mayes, Frances "Swan"

Mayes, Frances "Swan" - 2002

After Frances Mayes wrote a couple of autobiographical novels about her life in Tuscany, this is her first fiction novel.

The story is set in her native Georgia and stretches over just a couple of days. The Mason family is one of the richest families in Swan but has had a lot of problems and secrets to hide. When one of them seems to have been "unearthed", the daughter has to come home from Italy and both she and her brother have to come to terms with a lot of questions buried in the past.

This book describes small town life as well as family life, interesting characters and lots of good southern food.

I didn't like the first book of her Tuscany autobiographies ("Under the Tuscan Sun"), it is one of the few books I didn't finish, but I really liked this one. Even though it deals with a lot of problem areas, I thought the feeling of this novel was quite warm and comforting.

From the back cover:

"In her celebrated memoirs of life in Tuscany, Frances Mayes writes masterfully about people in a powerful and shaping place. In Swan, her first novel, she has created an equally intimate world, rich with striking characters and intriguing twists of fate, that hearkens back to her southern roots.

The Masons are a prominent but now fragmented family who have lived for generations in Swan, an edenic, hidebound small town in Georgia. As Swan opens, a bizarre crime pulls Ginger Mason home from her life as an archeologist in Italy: The body of her mother, Catherine, a suicide nineteen years before, has been mysteriously exhumed. Reunited on new terms with her troubled, isolated brother J.J., who has never ventured far from Swan, the Mason children grapple with the profound effects of their mother's life and death on their own lives. When a new explanation for Catherine’s death emerges, and other closely guarded family secrets rise to the surface as well, Ginger and J.J. are confronted with startling truths about their family, a particular ordeal in a family and a town that wants to keep the past buried.

Beautifully evoking the rhythms and idiosyncrasies of the deep South while telling an utterly compelling story of the complexity of family ties, Swan marks the remarkable fiction debut of one of America’s best-loved writers."

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2024.

Pamuk, Orhan "The Black Book"

Pamuk, Orhan "The Black Book" (Turkish: Kara Kitap) - 1990 

A man is looking for his wife who disappeared. He is roaming the streets of Istanbul in order to look back at their past. He mainly relies on the help of two columnists. That is about the plot of this story. But there is so much behind it, so many "meetings", present meets past, East meets West, religion meets secularism.

Orhan Pamuk manages to describe his home town in such a way that you really want to visit it (again), he makes it so interesting, the changing of people and cultures. This book is not just one novel, it's many short stories intertwined with each other, different people telling the story, part of it written by the two columnists so that you have different voices throughout the novel.

As with his other books, I really enjoyed the book of this outstanding author.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2024.

From the back cover:

"Galip is a lawyer living in Istanbul. His wife, the detective novel–loving Ruya, has disappeared. Could she have left him for her ex-husband or Celâl, a popular newspaper columnist? But Celâl, too, seems to have vanished. As Galip investigates, he finds himself assuming the enviable Celâl's identity, wearing his clothes, answering his phone calls, even writing his columns. Galip pursues every conceivable clue, but the nature of the mystery keeps changing, and when he receives a death threat, he begins to fear the worst.

With its cascade of beguiling stories about Istanbul, The Black Book is a brilliantly unconventional mystery, and a provocative meditation on identity. For Turkish literary readers it is the cherished cult novel in which Orhan Pamuk found his original voice, but it has largely been neglected by English-language readers. Now, in Maureen Freely’s beautiful new translation, they, too, may encounter all its riches."

Further fantastic readings: "My Name is Red" and "Istanbul - Memories of a City"

Orhan Pamuk "who in the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures" received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2006. 

Orhan Pamuk received the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (Friedenspreis) in 2005.

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

Collins, Wilkie "The Woman in White"

Collins, Wilkie "The Woman in White" - 1859

After having read "The Moonstone" (which I really liked), I just had to read this one. I wouldn't be able to tell which one I enjoyed more, they are both marvellous.

First, I enjoy Wilkie Collins telling the story in so many voices, having it told in an "I" version throughout and still giving us the best view of every scene. I like that about his stories. Definitely have to read another one.

Then, I also loved the story itself, the characters, they really came to life. I could just imagine the way they looked like. The description of both the characters as well as the countryside etc. was just great.

What a fabulous author!

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2024.

From the back cover:

"'In one moment, every drop of blood in my body was brought to a stop... There, as if it had that moment sprung out of the earth, stood the figure of a solitary Woman, dressed from head to foot in white'
'The Woman in White' famously opens with Walter Hartright's eerie encounter on a moonlit London road. Engaged as a drawing master to the beautiful Laura Fairlie, Walter becomes embroiled in the sinister intrigues of Sir Percival Glyde and his 'charming' friend Count Fosco, who has a taste for white mice, vanilla bonbons, and poison. Pursuing questions of identity and insanity along the paths and corridors of English country houses and the madhouse, 'The Woman in White' is the first and most influential of the Victorian genre that combined Gothic horror with pyschological realism."

I have also read "Armadale" in the meantime and thoroughly enjoyed that one, as well.

Mosse, Kate "Labyrinth"

Mosse, Kate "Labyrinth" - 2005

A story about history and architecture, a story that spans over 800 years. Historical events from the 13th century are described.

A much discussed book, some of our readers loved it, others didn't. They either couldn't get into it or they didn't like the mixture of fact and fiction or thought there was too much violence, the details too descriptive. The contrast was too big, everything was black and white.

However, the people who like it thought the author is a good storyteller, our memory of history was refreshed, the side subjects like reincarnation, genetic memory and the fact that several characters that resurfaced eight hundred years later was interesting.

Quite a few of us always loved historical novels. We thought the life of ordinary people was described very well. The plot seemed logical (though not always believable) which isn't always the case in these semi-fantasy novels. Even though some of us thought the story had a slow start, we liked the history very much, especially the characters in the past. We also thought, the turbulent times the Cathars went through, should be considered.

Some of our members had been in that area of France and especially Carcassonne is a great place to visit but also the church Notre Dame of Chartres where the labyrinth is situated. Kate Mosse has done a lot of research, and she has done that very well.

We also discussed the "Da Vinci Code" briefly. Several of us had read this novel and since it is about a similar subject, the comparison was there. We didn't like all the fuss that was made about that book. Some didn't really get the story at all. Also, he mixes up facts to create a story. Then he mentions some facts at the beginning, and tries to convince readers that everything in his book is true.

Anyway, we liked "Labyrinth" a lot better. I think this would make a great movie.

We discussed this in our international book club in August 2006.

From the back cover:

"In this extraordinary thriller, rich in the atmosphere of medieval and contemporary France, the lives of two women born centuries apart are linked by a common destiny.

July 2005. In the Pyrenees mountains near Carcassonne, Alice Tanner, a volunteer at an archeological dig, stumbles into a cave and makes a startling discovery—two crumbling skeletons, strange writings on the walls and the pattern of a labyrinth; between the skeletons, a stone ring and a small leather bag. Too late Alice realizes that she has set in motion a terrifying sequence of events and that her destiny is inextricably tied up with the fate of those called heretics eight hundred years before.

July 1209. On the eve of a brutal crusade sent by the pope to stamp out heresy, a crusade that will rip apart southern France, seventeen-year-old Alaïs is given a ring and a mysterious book for safekeeping by her father as he leaves to fight the crusaders. The book, he says, contains the secret of the true Grail, and the ring, inscribed with a labyrinth, will identify a guardian of the Grail. As crusading armies led by Church potentates and nobles of northern France gather outside the city walls of Carcassonne, it will take great sacrifice to keep safe the secret of the labyrinth, a secret that has been guarded for thousands of years."

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2024.

Haddon, Mark "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time"

Haddon, Mark "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time" - 2003

This was one of our most discussed books - because of its contents. We all agreed that we liked the book, it was well written, the style technique was very good, you could really feel with them, understand the issue now, some shed a tear at the end. The author tries to highlight that autistic figure/feel and accomplishes it very well. The book was written very discreetly, you could notice that he worked with children.

One would have thought Mark Haddon had the syndrome himself. Someone read it twice and noticed different things as the first time.

We also admired the ability the British have to take these families and put that into perspective, make a dysfunctional family seem funny at times and so make them look "normal". The author made it easier to read about these problems with his comical side.

It was interesting to discuss this with people looking at the situation from so many different levels, members with experience or no experience with autism, social workers, nurses and members who never worked with children. One of our members studied early childhood education and could explain a lot to us.

Some of us were surprised that we liked it because we didn't anticipate that. Someone said she wasn't prepared to enjoy it. But we all did.

We agreed that every child is so unique and has different needs. It's rewarding when they trust you and so disturbing if they can't get close. If there was a solution to heal autism, should we use it? These people see the world with other eyes and can contribute a lot if we let them.

We discussed this in our international book club in May 2008.

From the back cover:

 

 "'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time' is a murder mystery novel like no other. The detective, and narrator, is Christopher Boone. Christopher is fifteen and has Asperger's Syndrome. He knows a very great deal about maths and very little about human beings. He loves lists, patterns and the truth. He hates the colours yellow and brown and being touched. He has never gone further than the end of the road on his own, but when he finds a neighbour's dog murdered he sets out on a terrifying journey which will turn his whole world upside down."

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2024.

Ishiguro, Kazuo "When We Were Orphans"

Ishiguro, Kazuo "When We Were Orphans" - 2000

A famous British detective goes on a quest to find why his parents disappeared mysteriously in Shanghai when he was still young.

I read this book with my book club and didn't like it at all. I don't normally like crime stories but this was just a weird trial of writing one, too confused and confusing.  If it hadn't been a book club read, I wouldn't have finished and I vowed never to read an Ishiguro again. Some of my friends mentioned that this was not his best book, I should try "The Remains of the Day" but as long as I have a huge TBR (To Be Read) Pile, I don't think I'll try this any time soon.

From the back cover:

"England, 1930s. Christopher Banks has become the country's most celebrated detective, his cases the talk of London society. Yet one unsolved crime has always haunted him: the mysterious disappearance of his parents, in old Shanghai, when he was a small boy. Moving between London and Shanghai of the inter-war years, 'When We Were Orphans' is a remarkable story of memory, intrigue and the need to return."

Kazuo Ishiguro was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2000.

We discussed this in our international book club in May 2002.

Kazuo Ishiguro "who, in novels of great emotional force, has uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world" received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2017.

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

I have read "The Remains of the Day" in the meantime. It was slightly better but Kazuo Ishiguro will not become one of my favourite authors.

Byatt, A.S. "Possession"

Byatt, A.S. "Possession" - 1990

Possession is a great book. I love it. There are two stories playing at the same time. Roland Mitchell, an American researcher at a London university, tries to find information about the fictitious Victorian poet Randolph Henry Ash. This leads him to Maud Bailey, a professor at Lincoln University who is an expert on another fictitious Victorian poet, Christabel LaMotte. While they discover a common past of the two poets and unfold a mystery, their lives begin to take on a turn parallel to that of the two poets.

The different chapters always start with a poem written by one of the two poets. When I read the book for the first time, I just left them out, I'm not a big poetry lover. However, when I read it again, I concentrated on them because they add a lot to the story.

I love classic novels and although this isn't one, it reads like one. Plus there is the time the two poets lived in that gives you the feeling of being in a classic book. Did I say I love it?

There is also a movie starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Aaron Eckhart as the contemporary and Jennifer Ehle and Jeremy Northam as the Victorian characters (see here), I am often disappointed about movies made of my favourite books but this one is just as interesting as the novel.

I have read this book about half a dozen times and my paperback is falling to pieces. So I have decided that I need another copy - something I hardly ever do.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2024.

A.S. Byatt won the Booker Prize for "Possession" in 1990.

From the back cover:

"Possession is an exhilarating novel of wit and romance, at once a literary detective novel and a triumphant love story. It is the tale of a pair of young scholars investigating the lives of two Victorian poets. Following a trail of letters, journals and poems they uncover a web of passion, deceit and tragedy, and their quest becomes a battle against time."

In the meantime, I have also read "Ragnarok. The End of the Gods" by A.S. Byatt. I did not enjoy it as much as this one.

Harris, Joanne "Five Quarters of the Orange"

Harris, Joanne "Five Quarters of the Orange" - 2001

I loved this book.

The story of the family, the history, the main character trying to come to terms with everything that happened in her past.

This book has a lot of issues, history, recipes, family tragedy, mother-daughter relationship, description of small village life, even though in France, I think this applies to anywhere in the world.

I liked this book better than "Chocolat"  though I think I just expected too much of that one because of all the praise it received at the time. I also read "Coastliners", and "Blackberry Wine".

We discussed this in our international book club in February 2003.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2023.

From the back cover:

"Returning to the small Loire village of her childhood, Framboise Dartigen is relived when no one recognizes her. Decades earlier, during the German occupation, her family was driven away because of a tragedy that still haunts the town.

Framboise has come back to run a little cafe serving the recipes her mother recorded in a scrapbook. But when her cooking receives national attention, her anonymity begins to shatter. Seeking answers, Framboise begins to see ther her mother's scrapbook is more than it seems. Hidden among the recipes for crepes and liquors are clues that will lead Framboise to the truth of long ago."

Read more about her other books here.

Lee, Harper "To Kill a Mockingbird"

Lee, Harper "To Kill a Mockingbird" - 1960

Certainly one of the best books I have read recently. A wonderful writing style, a gripping story, a subject to think about, even today. It combines important issues about race and humanity and creates a very touching story about characters we can't help but love.

A friend of mine said "This should be read by everyone. It should be near the top of a required reading list for the human race." I couldn't agree more.

It certainly belongs to the classic books that will stay on the classic list and one of my top favourite ones forever.

And then there is the fantastic film with Gregory Peck (see here).

From the back cover:

"'Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird.'

A lawyer's advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of Harper Lee's classic novel - a black man charged with the rape of a white girl. Through the young eyes of Scout and Jem Finch, Harper Lee explores with exuberant humour the irrationality of adult attitudes to race and class in the Deep South of the thirties. The conscience of a town steeped in prejudice, violence and hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina of one man's struggle for justice. But the weight of history will only tolerate so much.

To Kill a Mockingbird is a coming-of-age story, an anti-racist novel, a historical drama of the Great Depression and a sublime example of the Southern writing tradition."

We discussed this in our book club in November 2010.

And it was discussed in our international online book club in January 2018.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2021.

Harper Lee received the Pulitzer Prize for "To Kill A Mockingbird" in 1961.