McBratney, Sam "Guess How Much I Love You"

McBratney, Sam "Guess How Much I Love You" - 1994

Another beautiful book to share with the little ones that is as beautiful for them as for us. A beautiful bedtime story where the child can interact, can pretend to be Little Nutbrown Hare who loves Big Nutbrown Hare to the moon and back.

And we can love this book to the moon and beyond. The illustrations are beautiful, the language is simple but catching. Perfect.

From the back cover:

"'Guess how much I love you,' says Little Nutbrown Hare. Little Nutbrown Hare shows his daddy how much he loves him: as wide as he can reach and as far as he can hop. But Big Nutbrown Hare, who can reach farther and hop higher, loves him back just as much. Well then Little Nutbrown Hare loves him right up to the moon, but that's just halfway to Big Nutbrown Hare's love for him."

Walser, Martin "Runaway Horse"

Walser, Martin "Runaway Horse" (German: Ein fliehendes Pferd) - 1978

This is an interesting story where you can see how people who are friends when young grow into completely different kind of people. Helmut and his wife Sabine have become reclusive, they enjoy their holidays with their books and a glass of wine. Klaus has married a second time, a much younger wife, and they are a lot more active. They happen to meet again after twenty years while on holidays. Neither of them really looks like what they seem. They both try to hide who they really are. And they certainly both have a good deal of midlife crisis to deal with. Their wives also play a role in this but all their husbands want is their support.

A good story that gets us to think about how we want the world to see us and what we are prepared to sacrifice for them to believe us. A novella, far too short for my liking but I really enjoyed it. Martin Walser is a well-known German author and this was my first book by him. Certainly not my last.

From the back cover:

"The accidental reunion of two men, former schoolmates, and their wives in a lakeside resort leads to a comparison of memories, an awkward intimacy, and a moment of terrible, yet exhilarating liberation."

I read this in the original German language.

Martin Walser received the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (Friedenspreis) in 1998.

Book Quotes of the Week

"When I discovered libraries, it was like having Christmas every day." Jean Fritz

"Error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it." Thomas Jefferson

"Walking the stacks in a library, dragging your fingers across the spines - it's hard not to feel the presence of sleeping spirits". Robin Sloan

"I like liking things. It's just that there are more books to like than anyone can ever read. Which, granted, is an uptown problem, but a problem nonetheless." Sarah Vowell

Find more book quotes here.

Feuchtwanger, Lion "Jew Süss"

Feuchtwanger, Lion "Jew Süss" (German: Jud Süß) - 1925

This book is a classic about Germany in the 17th/18th century. It is based on the life of a Jewish  banker who is an important figure behind the Duke Karl Alexander of Württemberg in Stuttgart. It tells us a lot about life at court at that time. Not all good, like life on any court. Well, this is the conclusion you get if you read all those books about history.

Anyway, I might have called this book "The rise and fall of Joseph Süß and Karl Alexander of Württemberg", but it's true, the protagonist is the former guy and his life.

The Nazis based a film on the life of the same guy to make it one of the most antisemitic pieces ever. I would not necessarily say that this book is antisemitic, it shows how antisemitism was there all along and how people used it for their own advantage. In that respect, it certainly still is worth reading today.

From the back cover:

"The novel tells the story of a Jewish businessman, Joseph Süß Oppenheimer, who, because of his exceptional talent for finance & politics, becomes the top advisor for the Duke of Württemberg. Surrounded by jealous & hateful enemies, Süß helps the Duke create a corrupt state that involves them both in immense wealth & power."

Williams, Tennessee "A Streetcar named Desire"

Williams, Tennessee "A Streetcar named Desire" - 1947

I normally don't like reading plays. Having said that, this is a great story and it didn't even read as a play, the writing is so lively, you don't need the actors to make it come real. You can visualize the characters, the places, the action. A tragic story that makes us feel for the people, all of them.

A brilliant book.

From the back cover:

"Fading southern belle Blanche Dubois depends on the kindness of strangers and is adrift in the modern world. When she arrives to stay with her sister Stella in a crowded, boisterous corner of New Orleans, her delusions of grandeur bring her into conflict with Stella's crude, brutish husband Stanley. Eventually their violent collision course causes Blanche's fragile sense of identity to crumble, threatening to destroy her sanity and her one chance of happiness."

Tennessee Williams received the Pulitzer Prize for "A Streetcar Named Desire" in 1948.

Ishiguro, Kazuo "The Remains of the Day"

Ishiguro, Kazuo "The Remains of the Day" - 1989

Years ago, I read "When We Were Orphans" with my book club. I didn't like it much and thought I might not read another book by this author. But since he received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2017, I decided I should give him another chance.

"The Remains of the Day" was better, granted. However, not as great as some people told me it would be. I found the writing very lengthy and drawn-out, the sentences dwindling toward an end that has nothing to do with the beginning anymore. The story itself could he been told within five to ten pages at the most, the rest is a musing and meandering of a man who realizes that he is growing older and what could have been.

I might have been able to follow those thoughts and even sympathized with the butler but I found I couldn't. The protagonist doesn't appear to be an unlikeable character but the way he is described doesn't provoke any interest, the whole story just flows along like a small brook with no windings or curves. The book reads more like the minutes of a meeting than a novel.

Sorry, Mr. Ishiguro, I love reading the books by Nobel Prize winners (see below) but you don't belong to my favourites there.

Lessons learned. If I don't like the first book I read by an author, I am more than likely not going to like the other one, no matter how much my friends tell me that that is his or her worst novel or whether the author is highly regarded or not.

From the back cover:

"A contemporary classic, The Remains of the Day is Kazuo Ishiguro's beautiful and haunting evocation of life between the wars in a Great English House.

In the summer of 1956, Stevens, the ageing butler of Darlington Hall, embarks on a leisurely holiday that will take him deep into the countryside and into his past."

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.

Kazuo Ishiguro won the Booker Prize for "The Remains of the Day" in 1989.

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

Numeroff, Laura "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie"

Numeroff, Laura "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" - 1985

This is one of the many books that you read to your children, that they then read to themselves even though it is "only" a picture book and that you thoroughly enjoy because it reminds you so much of your own life. The mouse is like the little child that wants this and that and then something else. It teaches them about consequences.

Hilarious. Beautiful illustrations.

A happy book that I'm glad I found for my kids when they were little. A timeless classic.

From the back cover:

"If a hungry little traveler shows up at your house, you might want to give him a cookie. If you give him a cookie, he's going to ask for a glass of milk. He'll want to look in a mirror to make sure he doesn't have a milk mustache, and then he'll ask for a pair of scissors to give himself a trim....

The consequences of giving a cookie to this energetic mouse run the young host ragged, but young readers will come away smiling at the antics that tumble like dominoes through the pages of this delightful picture book."