Cousins, Dave "Waiting for Gonzo"

Cousins, Dave "Waiting for Gonzo" - 2013

A friend lent me two books by this author. This one and "15 Days without a Head". 

Since the other one is older, I read that one first. There, I wrote:

"This is another one that I probably would never have picked up, it looks too un-adult to me. But: It is a brilliant book."

And I can say the same for this one. After a slow start where I thought this is not going to be the same, I really got into it after a couple of chapters. Oz is a boy, as much as you can imagine any boy, he is very typical. (I can judge, I have three younger brothers and two sons.) He steps from one Fettnäpfchen (no English word like that available but it means gaffe/social blunder) into the next, nothing seems to go right for him. But he has his heart in the right place and is as loveable as most boys are.

It tells us all about friendship and about the special bond siblings have, even if they seem to fight all the time.

Definitely a great book to read.

From the back cover:

"Things could be going better for Oz. He's just moved miles from all his friends. A prank at his new school puts him in the crosshairs of 'Psycho' Isobel Skinner, a bully who also happens to be his mum's new best friend. And he's driven off the only other kid who will have anything to do with him: a Tolkien-obsessed boy in desperate need of a decent playlist.

With his life careening out of control, Oz sets about making things right. But when he stumbles on his sister's game-changing secret, Oz is left wondering if he can ever get his old life back ... or if he's stuck forever in this craziness.

Comic and heartwarming, Waiting for Gonzo is about discovering when to play the cards you're dealt and when to shuffle the deck and deal your own hand."

Cousins, Dave "15 Days without a Head"

Cousins, Dave "15 Days without a Head" - 2012

Another book lent by a friend. This is another one that I probably would never have picked up, it looks too un-adult to me. But: It is a brilliant book. Heart-wrenching but beautiful. An alcoholic mother is so depressed that she leaves her teenage son and his six year old brother alone. No address, nobody who would look after them, no money, nothing.

I am not sure whether I could like the mother or the little brother. Laurence, the poor guy, first has to take care of an alcoholic mother as well as a little brother who is anything but easy. When the mother disappears, he doesn't want them to end up in different care facilities, so he pretends everything is alright in the family.

As I said, people like the mother make me mad! She has two children but doesn't look after them (already while she's there). No matter what an excuse you have, no matter how depressed you are, you don't leave your children. What if Laurence had been one of those kids who can't take any responsibility, either? Quite believable with a mother like that. Luckily he isn't. I do feel sorry for him and all those kids in similar situations. The mother doesn't deserve them. That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it.

There were quite a few funny scenes in the book which made it bearable at times. Just as an example, the diary gives the days of the week as follows:

Tuesday, Whensday, Blursday, Lieday, Thataway, Someday, Meanday, Duesday, Endsday, Thisday, Frightday, Tattersday, Slumday, Noneday, Doomsday, Madnesday, Today

Book Description:

"Fifteen-year-old Laurence Roach just wants a normal life, but it's not easy when your mum is a depressed alcoholic, and your six-year-old brother thinks he's a dog.

When Mum fails to come home one night, Laurence tells nobody, terrified he and his brother will be taken into care if anyone finds out. Instead, he attempts to keep up the pretence that Mum is still around: dressing up in her clothes to trick the neighbours and spinning an increasingly complicated tangle of lies. After two weeks on their own, running out of food and money, and with suspicious adults closing in, Laurence finally discovers what happened to his mother. And that's when the trouble really starts . . .

A compelling thriller filled with some hilarious and surreal moments. Fifteen Days Without a Head is a tender, honest story about family, forgiveness and hope."

Herrndorf, Wolfgang "Why We Took the Car"

Herrndorf, Wolfgang "Why We Took the Car" (German: tschick) - 2010

My book club recommended this book to me; they had read it some time ago.

Two boys from different backgrounds but with a similar fate. And both outsiders.

I found the novel very entertaining, but also very compassionate. You could both laugh and cry at the experiences of the two.

What can I say, it was really a great reading experience.

From the back cover:

"A beautifully written, darkly funny coming-of-age story from an award-winning, bestselling German author

Mike Klingenberg isn’t exactly one of the cool kids at his school. For one, he doesn’t have many friends. (Okay, zero friends.) And everyone laughs when he has to read his essays out loud in class. And he’s never, ever invited to parties — especially not the party of the year, thrown by the gorgeous Tatiana.

Andrej Tschichatschow, aka Tschick (not even the teachers can pronounce his name), is new in school, and unpopular as well, but in a completely different way. He always looks like he’s just been in a fight, he sleeps through nearly every class, and his clothes are tragic.

But one day, out of the blue, Tschick shows up at Mike’s house. It turns out he wasn’t invited to Tatiana’s party either, and he’s ready to do something about it. Forget the popular kids — together, Mike and Tschick are heading out on a road trip across Germany. No parents, no map, no destination. Will they get hopelessly lost in the middle of nowhere? Probably. Will they make bad decisions, meet some crazy people, and get into trouble? Definitely. But will anyone ever call them boring again?

Not a chance."

Allende, Isabel "City of the Beasts"

Allende, Isabel "City of the Beasts" (Memories of the Eagle and the Jaguar #1) (Spanish: La ciudad de las bestias) (Las memorias del Águila y del Jaguar #1) - 2002

I found this book ages ago but my TBR pile is so large that it took me half a decade until I tackled this book. Not for want of interest. I love Isabel Allende.

I wasn't aware that this is supposed to be a young adult book but it definitely is also suitable for "old" adults like me. I love this story about a teenager who is taken out of his usual habitat and has to get on in a totally different world. First, he has to find an address in New York without any help but with many obstacles. But the real adventure starts when he leaves for the rainforest with his grandmother. Together with the daughter of their local guide, he explores the area. They rely on each other for their different knowledge and he grows up.

That is the beauty of this story. It's magical, they meet not just the natives but also their spirits, something totally alien to them as well as to us as readers.

There are two more books about Alex and Nadia, "Kingdom of the Golden Dragon" (El Reino del Dragón de Oro), and "Forest of the Pygmies" (El Bosque de los Pigmeos). I totally intend to read them.

From the back cover:

"An ecologial romance with a pulsing heart, equal parts Rider Haggard and Chico Buarque -- one of the world's greatest and most beloved storytellers broadens her style and reach with a Amazonian adventure story which will appeal to all ages Fifteen-year-old Alexander Cold has the chance to take the trip of a lifetime. With his mother in hospital, too ill to look after him, Alex is sent out to his grandmother Kate -- a fearless reporter with blue eyes 'as sharp as daggers' points'. Kate is about to embark on an expedition to the dangerous, remote world of the Amazon rainforest, but rather than change her plans, she simply takes Alex along with her. They set off with their team -- including a local guide and his daughter Nadia, with her wild, curly hair and skin the colour of honey -- in search of a fabled headhunting tribe and a legendary, marauding creature known to locals only as 'the Beast', only to find out much, much more about the mysteries of the jungle and its inhabitants. In a novel rich in adventure, magic and spirit, internationally-celebrated novelist Isabel Allende takes readers of all ages on a voyage of discovery and wonder, deep into the heart of the Amazon."

Oates, Joyce Carol "Little Bird of Heaven"

Oates, Joyce Carol "Little Bird of Heaven" - 2009

A very dark story, one of JCO's darkest, I would say. Kids who grow up in disrupted families, a murder, coming to terms with that crime, it all goes so well with the author's writing. She manages to build suspense up until the last page and you can never tell where it is going to end.

In one of the descriptions, this book is compared with We Were the Mulvaneys and The Gravedigger's Daughter. There is some truth in that.

While this is probably not my favourite Oates novel, I was surprised that it was rated so low by so many. I don't understand that.

From the back cover:

"When Krista Diehl learns of her father Eddy's arrest on suspicion of the murder of her classmate Aaron's mother, she is stunned. But whatever he might have done - and whoever he was with when he wasn't helping her Daddy - Krista cannot give up her trust in her father, nor her love for him.

The police soon reveal another suspect - Aaron's father, wild Delray. But Aaron knows Krista's father is guilty. And Krista knows Delray is to blame. As the truth of the matter gets murkier, Krista is forced to confront her growing obsession with the brooding, troubled Aaron, an obsession that threatens to consume her and her life. Some loves are doomed from the start. But then again - perhaps some are fated."

Smith, Dodie "I Capture the Castle"

Smith, Dodie "I Capture the Castle" - 1948

Every month I participate in the challenge "Six Degrees of Separation". We always get a starter book and then go and find another book that links to it and so forth. Hardly ever have I read the starter book and often it is too late to get it or I am not interested. But this has been on my wishlist for ages, so I decided I should read it

I'm afraid I did not like it very much. The protagonist is a 17 year old girl who writes her journal. And that's exactly how it sounds, as if a 17 year old girl would have written it. And not a smart 17 year old girl who writes well, just a girl who adds one sentence after the other out of boredom.

I have no idea why so many people seem to like this. It reminded me of "Cold Comfort Farm", everyone praised the book but I just couldn't find anything in it that entertained me.

From the back cover:

"Through six turbulent months of 1934, 17-year-old Cassandra Mortmain keeps a journal, filling three notebooks with sharply funny yet poignant entries about her home, a ruined Suffolk castle, and her eccentric and penniless family. By the time the last diary shuts, there have been great changes in the Mortmain household, not the least of which is that Cassandra is deeply, hopelessly, in love."

Taha, Karosh "In the Belly of the Queen"

 

Taha, Karosh "In the Belly of the Queen" (German: Im Bauch der Königin) - 2020

An interesting book, not easy to digest, but worth reading. The author is a German-born Kurd and she tells us about life as a foreigner in Germany but also as a Kurd in the international community.

The unique thing about this book is that you can read it from two sides, no, you have to read it from two sides. Somewhere it is described as a "Wenderoman" which should be translated as a "changing/turning novel" but is really the German description for novels dealing with the political turning point after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

I decided to start at the top as the bookseller hands me the volumes and so I started with the part of Raffiq. We don't find out what part of Kurdistan he is from or if he is from Kurdistan at all but I assumed so. First and foremost, he talks about his friends Younes and Amal, teenagers like him who are about to graduate from school and are thinking about what they want to do afterwards. Raffiq also tells about their childhood and their everyday life, where Youne's mother Shahira plays a big role. She does not follow the general rules of the Kurds, and the young people's parents are not exactly enthusiastic about her.

The other half of the book is narrated by Amal. Her family comes from Iraq, her father left his wife many years ago and started a new family in his home country. Amal takes Shahira as an example and does not put up with everything that is not easy in her environment. Everyone finds it very shocking that she cuts her hair short.

You can see the book entirely as a story about growing up, the problems with parents who are larger because the parents grew up in a completely different culture. I hope my sons don't feel that way, our culture was more similar to that of our host countries.

A lot of the problems that the young people have are certainly exactly the same as those of other German and Western Europeans, and so some may learn from this that people are the same everywhere.

The way the story is told gives us two perspectives that make it seem like two totally different novels. That's what I found most fascinating.

From the back cover:

"Amal shocks the whole neighbourhood by beating up her classmate Younes. Her father defends her behaviour and encourages her to assert herself. From then on everyone avoids Amal - and then her father leaves. Searching in vain for an explanation, Amal finds unexpected refuge with Younes and his mother Shahira, both outsiders like her. Years later, when the situation comes to a head and the conflict with Raffiq’s gang escalates, Amal flees to Kurdistan to look for her father."

I found this through Karen @ kaggsysbookishramblings who in turn found it on Ali's page @ HEAVENALI.

Lawson, Mary "A Town Called Solace"

Lawson, Mary "A Town Called Solace" - 2021

I've been looking forward for this book to appear as a paperback for as long as it has been announced to be published. I have read all of Mary Lawson's books and this one was just as excellent as all her others. She has been recommended to me a long time ago by a dear Canadian friend who also was called Mary and who has passed away since. So, reading her books always reminds me of my friend (not that I need a special reminder).

I thought the story was captivating, one of the rare books where I was really tempted to read further toward the end because I wanted to know what's going to happen. But I know how much that spoils the enjoyment of a book so I never give in.

Three people tell their stories. At the beginning, they don't seem to have much in common. Seven year old Clara is Elizabeth's neighbour and looks after her cat while the elderly woman is in hospital. Liam knew Elizabeth when he was little, or rather the other way around because he doesn't seem to remember much about that time.

Life in small town "Solace" isn't as picturesque as some people want to describe life in those places. And so, all three of them have to handle their problems.

Nobody in Mary Lawson's exceptionally good novels seems to be without problems, and that makes her stories so believable. You get to know the characters so well because she has a unique way of portraying them. You can't but like Clara, Elizabeth and Liam. And dislike those a little bit who make their lives so difficult. Reading this book is almost like living there yourself.

Through her stories, these characters and their town come to life. She writes thought-provoking novels. I hope she'll continue doing this for a long time.

From the back cover:

"Clara's rebellious older sister is missing. Grief-stricken and bewildered, she yearns to uncover the truth about what happened.

Liam, newly divorced and newly unemployed, moves into the house next door and within hours gets a visit from the police.

Elizabeth is thinking about a crime committed thirty years ago, one that had tragic consequences for two families. She desperately wants to make amends before she dies."

This book was longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2021. It certainly would have deserved the prize but I believe the Booker people have another way of choosing their winners as I would.

Khorsandi, Shappi "Nina is Not OK"

Khorsandi, Shappi "Nina is Not OK" - 2016

Shaparak "Shappi" Khorsandi is an Iranian-born British comedian and author. I've known her from various British panel and quiz shows and I think she is absolutely fabulous.

So, when her memoir "A Beginner's Guide to English" was published, I really wanted to read it and found it just as great as the comedian herself. Then I learned that she had also written a novel "Nina is Not OK". Without even looking at the content (which I hardly ever do), I bought the book and started reading.

At first I was disappointed. Nina, the protagonist, came across as one of those heroines from chick lit novels. Superficial and dumb. If she had been blonde, she would have been the best example for the kind of girls that are always seem to populate those novels.

But, after a little while, the novel begins to grow on you. This is not a superficial book about some stupid teenagers, this is a book that deals with many problem topics. You can tell at times that the author has a great sense of humour though this is not a funny book. But I started to like the characters very much, not all of them, of course, otherwise there would be no problems and this book would never have been written. But there are not only accusations but also trials to solve some of those problems.

Some horrible things happen in this novel and I'm sure it's too much for some readers but the scenes had to be included in order to understand what was going on. Alcoholism in a family and sexual abuse are the worst things but it's not all.

While the mother's feelings are not portrayed as much as those of Nina, I think mothers can very well understand the nightmares they all go through, not just Nina. And if you didn't think alcoholism was an illness before, you will certainly understand those people better after reading this book. And hopefully not make the same mistakes everyone around Nina made.

I don't like alcohol, so I always find it hard to understand how someone can drink so much. It's not that I judge them, I just can't follow personally. I've had to take so much medication in my life that I am always afraid I get addicted to some of them. I do think that this book helps to understand people who are afflicted with this illness.

I hope Shappi Khorsandi will write more books. This one was fabulous.

From the back cover:

"Nina does not have a drinking problem. She likes a drink, sure. But what 17-year-old doesn’t?

And if she sometimes wakes up with little memory of what happened the night before , then her friends are all too happy to fill in the blanks. Nina’s drunken exploits are the stuff of college legend.

But then one dark Sunday morning, even her friends can’t help piece together Saturday night. All Nina feels is a deep sense of shame, that something very bad has happened to her…"

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?"

Oates, Joyce Carol "Big Mouth & Ugly Girl"

Oates, Joyce Carol "Big Mouth & Ugly Girl" - 2003

I don't think that I need to mention it again that JCO is one of my favourite authors.

This is about two young people at a school where someone has to stand up for what's happening. The story belongs to one of her youth books which are just as well written and interesting as her adult ones. But this is a particular good one for the youth, there is so much to learn. That the popular kids are not always the best kids to be friends with, for example. That in the end, it doesn't matter what you look like or what others think about you, it's your personality that counts and that you should be true to yourself and to others. The two kids in this book learn this the hard way.

A journey back to our teenage years. Oh, if we had known then what we know now ...

A beautiful story that confirms the old saying: "A friend in need is a friend indeed."

From the back cover:

"Matt Donaghy has always been a Big Mouth. But its never gotten him in trouble until the day Matt is accused of threatening to blow up Rocky River High School. Ursula Riggs has always been an Ugly Girl. A loner with fierce, staring eyes, Ursula has no time for petty high school stuff like friends and dating or at least that's what she tells herself. Ursula is content with minding her own business. And she doesn't even really know Matt Donaghy. But Ursula is the only person who knows what Matt really said that day and she is the only one who can help him. In her first novel for young adults, acclaimed author Joyce Carol Oates has created a provocative and unflinching story of friendship and family, and of loyalty and betrayal."

Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi "Americanah"

Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi "Americanah" - 2013

I read "Half of a Yellow Sun" earlier this year and really liked it. This is another novel about Nigeria even though a very different one. It takes place about thirty years after the events in the first book (Biafra war). The author tells the story about a young woman from Nigeria who emigrates to the United States and comes back years later.

This was an interesting book for me not only because of all the information you can get about Nigeria but also because it resembles my life. I didn't flee from a war-torn region but I have lived abroad for almost half of my life and I always hear comments by others who haven't who have a completely different idea about that, both people from my home country as well as those from my host country. So, for me this is not just a book about Nigeria but about immigrants and their torn-apart worlds. It is not as much a love story but a story about what you do if you end up somewhere where you are not wanted. It might as well have been a story of my life, without the love story gone wrong. Same as Ifemelu, I will go back to my own country one day and I am sure it won't be the same as it was when I left.

Someone mentions in the book that "Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe was a great book but didn't help them to understand Africa but "A Bend in the River" by V.S. Naipaul did. I have not read the first book (now I have) but it's on my wishlist whereas I really can recommend the second one.

In any case, I did enjoy reading this book even though it touched a completely different side of Nigeria than "Half of a Yellow Sun" . I am looking forward to reading the author's third book, "Purple Hibiscus".

From the back cover:

"As teenagers in Lagos, Ifemelu and Obinze fall in love. Their Nigeria is under military dictatorship, and people are fleeing the country if they can. The self-assured Ifemelu departs for America. There she suffers defeats and triumphs, finds and loses relationships, all the while feeling the weight of something she never thought of back home: race. Obinze had hoped to join her, but post-9/11 America will not let him in, and he plunges into a dangerous, undocumented life in London.

Thirteen years later, Obinze is a wealthy man in a newly democratic Nigeria, while Ifemelu has achieved success as a blogger. But after so long apart and so many changes, will they find the courage to meet again, face to face?"

Mercier, Pascal "Lea"

Mercier, Pascal "Lea" (German: Lea) - 2007

This is my third book by Pascal Mercier. He is just such an excellent writer, I need to read his fourth book (Der Klavierstimmer, not translated yet), as well, and then he urgently has to write more.

Pascal Mercier's writing style is almost like poetry, even though he stays very close with his topic. You can tell he is a philosopher in his "first life", he brings a lot of expertise into the story.

In this story, we hear from a father whose daugher learns to play the violin and who is a great talent. This talent destroys everyone's life around her, including her own. Her passion is described in a way that it is easy to follow but hard to understand. You want to get inside her brain, what is she thinking, what is everyone else thinking.

The author creates a great story with fantastic figures. The storyteller is a third person, a brilliant idea to get a little distance to the main characters.

A perfect story, a perfect read.

From the back cover:

"Pascal Mercier's Night Train to Lisbon mesmerized readers around the world, and went on to become an international bestseller, establishing Mercier as a breakthrough European literary talent. Now, in Lea, he returns with a tender, impassioned, and unforgettable story of a father's love and a daughter's ambition in the wake of devastating tragedy.

It all starts with the death of Martijn van Vliet's wife. His grief-stricken young daughter, Lea, cuts herself off from the world, lost in the darkness of grief. Then she hears the unfamiliar sound of a violin playing in the hall of a train station, and she is brought back to life. Transfixed by a busker playing Bach, Lea emerges from her mourning, vowing to learn the instrument. And her father, witnessing this delicate spark, promises to do everything and anything in his power to keep her happy.

Lea grows into an extraordinary musical talent--her all-consuming passion leads her to become one of the finest players in the country--but as her fame blossoms, her relationship with her father withers. Unable to keep her close, he inadvertently pushes Lea deeper and deeper into this newfound independence and, desperate to hold on to his daughter, Martin is driven to commit an act that threatens to destroy them both.

A revelatory portrait of genius and madness, Lea delves into the demands of artistic excellence as well as the damaging power of jealousy and sacrifice. Mercier has crafted a novel of intense clarity, illuminating the poignant ways we strive to understand ourselves and our families."

I also read:
Mercier, Pascal "Perlmann's Silence" (German: Perlmanns Schweigen) - 1995
Mercier, Pascal "Night Train to Lisbon" (German: Nachtzug nach Lissabon) - 2004

Lenz, Siegfried "The German Lesson"

Lenz, Siegfried "The German Lesson" (German: Deutschstunde) - 1968

I can't believe I didn't read this until now. There are so many different ways to write about World War II, this is one aspect that probably a lot of people had to face, one member of the family (the father) definitely pro-Nazi, another one (the son) against. Must have been so hard. It reminds me of something some of my friends tell me about their families in the US and their clashes between Republicans vs. Democrats.

In any case, I read somewhere that this is not about World War II but about duty. I can only slightly agree. Of course, one has to fulfill one's duty but one should not just obey blindly, always use your brain, as well. That is my opinion.

I have read other books by Siegfried Lenz before, e.g. "Landesbühne" [Province Stage] and "Zaungast" [Spectator over the Hedge] but neither of them have been translated, so I didn't write a review. But I enjoyed them all.

A remarkable book. What does a young boy do when his broadening mind clashes with narrow-mindedness? The author certainly tries to help his generation to overcome the restrictions laid upon them by the Nazi party. He actually belonged to a group of other writers called Group 47 that was created to renew German literature after World War II as well as in giving young authors the possibility to find an audience. The group certainly was very successful if you consider that very famous German authors like Ingeborg Bachmann, Heinrich Böll, Günter Eich, Hans Magnus Enzensberger, Erich Fried, Günter Grass, Peter Handke, Uwe Johnson, Erich Kästner, Hans Werner Richter and Martin Walser (to name but a few) belonged to its members. Quite a few of them received renowned awards, two of them (Böll and Grass) even received the Nobel Prize for Literature and two the Peace Prize (Siegfried Lenz and Martin Walser). I want to believe that this group also had an influence on this book.

The novel is written in a great style, I don't know how well it translates but the original German is absolutely beautiful.

From the back cover:

"In writing this novel, one of the major works of German fiction to appear since the Second World War, Siegfried Lenz has written, 'I was trying to find out where the joys of duty could lead a people.' His exploration is a disturbing triumph. Siggi Jepsen, the protagonist, is embroiled in the conflict between the totalitarian Nazi government and a creative artist. As a young boy he watched his father, constable of the northernmost police station in Germany, doggedly carry out orders from Berlin to stop a well-known Expressionist, their neighbour, from painting and to seize all his 'degenerate' work. Soon Siggi is hiding the paintings to keep them safe from his father. Against the great brooding landscape of the Danish borderland, Siggi recounts the clash of father and son, of duty and personal loyalty in wartime Germany."

Siegfried Lenz received the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (Friedenspreis) in 1988.

Murakami, Haruki "Kafka on the Shore"

Murakami, Haruki "Kafka on the Shore" (Japanese: 海辺のカフカ Umibe no Kafuka) - 2004

I had no idea this book was kind of a fantasy or at least magic realism story. I have no idea what I thought but I certainly didn't expect this kind of story. Maybe someone reading a book by Kafka during their holidays or something.

Anyway, the protagonist calls himself Kafka. He runs away from home in order to get away from everything and starts a new life in a library. Quite interesting so far. Then there is this old guy who seems to have been involved in a weird military "accident" as a child and he can talk to cats. Also, there is a way from one life into another and back. All pretty weird. Still, an interesting read, an interesting story, you can try to analyze the different characters, all of whom have different kind of goals in their lives, well, they don't exactly have a goal but they all seem to follow their own pattern in going through life.

As I said, a weird book but quite enjoyable.

From the back cover:

"The opening pages of a Haruki Murakami novel can be like the view out an airplane window onto tarmac. But at some point between page three and fifteen - it's page thirteen in Kafka On The Shore - the deceptively placid narrative lifts off, and you find yourself breaking through clouds at a tilt, no longer certain where the plane is headed or if the laws of flight even apply. 

Joining the rich literature of runaways, Kafka On The Shore follows the solitary, self-disciplined schoolboy Kafka Tamura as he hops a bus from Tokyo to the randomly chosen town of Takamatsu, reminding himself at each step that he has to be 'the world's toughest fifteen-year-old.' He finds a secluded private library in which to spend his days - continuing his impressive self-education - and is befriended by a clerk and the mysteriously remote head librarian, Miss Saeki, whom he fantasizes may be his long-lost mother. Meanwhile, in a second, wilder narrative spiral, an elderly Tokyo man named Nakata veers from his calm routine by murdering a stranger. An unforgettable character, beautifully delineated by Murakami, Nakata can speak with cats but cannot read or write, nor explain the forces drawing him toward Takamatsu and the other characters."

Bohjalian, Chris "Midwives"

Bohjalian, Chris "Midwives" - 1997

This book has been on my TBR pile for quite a while and I am glad I finally read it. A well-written novel about a midwife in trouble, her daughter who lives through it all and an old question, is it better to be born at home or in hospital? I was born at home, and quite a few things went wrong so that my mother had my younger siblings in the hospital. So did I.

I don't want to judge anyone who opts for a home birth, I think it is a great idea when mother and baby are healthy. I was happy that I could leave the hospital on the same day after the birth of my second son in England as opposed to staying in for a whole week in Germany where my oldest was born.

I think this book is a good idea to instigate discussions about home birth versus hospital birth but in the end, I think everyone should decide for themselves. I would not want to judge over anyone like the jury in this book has to do over the midwife after one of her homebirths goes wrong.

The author has a great talent to portray both the feelings of the midwife as well as her 14 year old daughter. It's amazing for a man to be able to write like that. If I hadn't seen his picture in the front of the book, I would have sworn that Chris must be short for Christine. Certainly an author worth watching.

Like all the other books I read from Oprah's book club list, I have enjoyed this a lot.

From the back cover:

"On an icy winter night in an isolated house in rural Vermont, a seasoned midwife named Sibyl Danforth takes desperate measures to save a baby's life. She performs an emergency caesarean section on a mother she believes has died of a stroke. But what if Sibyl's patient wasn't dead - and Sibyl inadvertently killed her?

As Sibyl faces the antagonism of the law, the hostility of traditional doctors, and the accusations of her own conscience, Midwives engages, moves, and transfixes us as only the very best novels ever do."

Fredriksson, Marianne "Simon and The Oaks"

Fredriksson, Marianne "Simon and The Oaks" (aka Simon's Family) (Swedish: Simon och ekarna) - 1985 

After reading "Hannah's Daughters" with two different book clubs, I always wanted to read another book by Marianne Fredriksson again. And I finally found one. I didn't regret it, a wonderful tale about a friendship that is lined with many obstacles, about a boy growing up not feeling he belongs, about a family with a secret and a country having to deal with a war that is going on all around them, just not directly in their home.

Marianne Fredriksson was a very powerful author who can tell us about a time not that long ago but still unknown to many of us. She manages to weave a plentiful story by adding a colour here and a character there, links that are not that obvious at first but get more and more certain after a while.

A lot of Scandinavian authors are known for their crime stories and I am sure they have a worthy place among the world authors of this genre. Marianne Fredriksson also deserves a place there.

From the back cover:

"Simon is an ordinary boy growing up in rural Sweden. Ordinary that is until the Second World War is declared; until he makes friends with Isak, a psychologically damaged Jewish boy who has fled with his father from Nazi Germany; and until he is told that he is adopted - that the working class couple he has assumed to be his parents are, in reality, distant relations. His biological parents had met and, with no common language, loved each other in an enchanted spot under a waterfall nine years previously.

So begins Simon's quest for self-hood: a quest which takes him through the bitter privations of the Second World War, through his military service, and through a destructive relationship with Isak's cousin recently liberated from a concentration camp. And, always in the background, his beloved step-mother watches over him, as constant as the oak trees on the cliff top that whispered their secrets to him when he was a child."

Oates, Joyce Carol "Sexy"

Oates, Joyce Carol "Sexy" - 2005

It's always a pleasure to read another book by Joyce Carol Oates, even though most of them are not happy books about happy people. They are real books about real people.

Like here. It's fascinating how she manages again and again to get into people's brains, how to explain to us how others think, what their ideas are, their conviction. Her grasp of language is just as great as her empathies.

This is a young adult novel but can be enjoyed by adults alike. Actually, I think it should be read by any adults who have a teenager in the house, there is so much to it, so much insight that your own children will not give you. Says the mother of two boys. I know a lot of teenage boys who never talk about anything personal to their own parents and this is depicted so well in this story. The confusion going on in their heads is brought to paper but in a way that we can begin to understand their confusion and how they try to deal with it.

As most of my readers know, JCO is one of my favourite authors and this story, like all her others, is fascinating.

From the back cover:

"North Falls swim team member Darren Flynn is a guy' guy, a jock. He 'shows promise' and has integrity in the classroom - just ask his teachers. He's shy, but sexy. Just ask the girls who are drawn to him like moths to a flame.

Darren Flynn is something different to everyone he encounters, and that’s fine by him. Until something disturbing, something ambiguous happens that rocks Darren to the core, making him wonder: Who is Darren Flynn?"

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2026.

Webster, Jean "Daddy Longlegs"

Webster, Jean "Daddy Longlegs" - 1912

A favourite classic book for everyone who was lucky enough to read it at the time. I must have read this first in German because I remember reading it at a time where it was impossible to get any books in English - apart from a few classics we had to read in school.

I loved the book from the beginning and have read it again and again. A wonderful story about an orphan who gets the chance to get a higher education because a rich man is willing to pay for it. His only condition is that she writes a letter to him about her life once a month.

And so we are able to read a beautiful epistolary novel with lots of wonderful letters from Judy to her benefactor about the life of an orphan who goes to school and who grows up. She has never seen this man who pays for everything in her life, only has did she see him disappear and noticed he had very long legs, so in want of his real name, she calls him "Daddy Longlegs" henceforth.

A lovely novel for anyone who likes Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, Little Women and similar writings. Also a novel for readers from all ages.

Since the book is more than a hundred years old, it is free on Gutenberg.com. It has also been made into many different movies over the time.

From the back cover:

"Daddy-Long-Legs is a 1912 epistolary novel by the American writer Jean Webster. It follows the protagonist, a young girl named Jerusha "Judy" Abbott, through her college years. She writes the letters to her benefactor, a rich man whom she has never seen.

Jerusha Abbott was brought up at the John Grier Home, an old-fashioned orphanage. The children were wholly dependent on charity and had to wear other people's cast-off clothes. Jerusha's unusual first name was selected by the matron off a gravestone (she hates it and uses "Judy" instead), while her surname was selected out of the phone book. At the age of 15, she finished her education and is at loose ends, still working in the dormitories at the institution where she was brought up.

One day, after the asylum's trustees have made their monthly visit, Judy is informed by the asylum's dour matron that one of the trustees has offered to pay her way through college. He has spoken to her former teachers and thinks she has potential to become an excellent writer. He will pay her tuition and also give her a generous monthly allowance. Judy must write him a monthly letter, because he believes that letter-writing is important to the development of a writer. However, she will never know his identity; she must address the letters to Mr. John Smith, and he will never reply."

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2026.

Levithan, David "Every Day"

Levithan, David "Every Day" - 2012

An interesting book. Not especially my genre. I wouldn't even call it fantasy because to me that's trolls and dwarfs and giants and all those characters that are like humans only a little different and that don't really exist. I wouldn't call it science fiction, either, because that means to me future technology and aliens. 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. What if there were "beings" without a body who would go from one person to the next and live their life for one day? One such "being" is A who has lived 5994 days at the beginning of the book and 6034 at the end. Which means we accompany him/her on forty days of a very complicated life. As a boy he falls in love with this girl Rhiannon and tries to see her again. This changes quite some lives, the lives of the teenagers he or she is inhabiting on those days. We meet a lot of different people together with A and see how he gets to understand them, how  he can live in them for only a short time but really jump in as if he'd been there all the time.

As I said, interesting concept, well written, certainly deserves to be a best-seller, especially for the "young adults" it has been written for because it poses so many questions that every teenager goes through. Who am I? Who am I really? How come I am not somebody else? What if I were a boy or a girl? What if I were adopted? What if I could live in someone else's body for one day?

This book was recommended to me by someone who is a lot younger than me. She claimed it was her favourite book ever. I would not go that far but, let me say, I understand her.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2025.

From the back cover:

"I wake up.

Immediately, I have to figure out who I am. It's not just the body - opening my eyes and discovering whether the skin on my arm is light or dark, whether my hair is long or short, whether I'm fat or thin, boy or girl, scarred or smooth. The body is the easiest thing to adjust to, if you're used to waking up in a new one each morning. It's the life, the context of the body, that can be hard to grasp.

Every day I am someone else. I am myself - I know I am myself - but I am also someone else.
It has always been like this."

Apparently, there is a "sequel" to this both "Another Day" which could also be called "The Story of Rhiannon" and a "prequel" called "Six Earlier Days" which talks about, well, six earlier days of the protagonist A.