Non-fiction November is Here

The Classics Club is an interesting website. It gives us the opportunity not only to read the classics we always wanted to read, no, though their pages we are able to talk to others and also find new classics we didn't think about. Through them I found this challenge last year.

It's Non-Fiction November again and this year, it is hosted by Liz @ Adventures in reading, running and working from home, Frances @ Volatile Rune, Heather @ Based on a True Story, Rebekah @ She Seeks Nonfiction and Lisa @ Hopewell’s Public Library of Life. They have put together a plan that looks highly interesting.

Here is the Official Schedule.

Week 1 (October 30 - November 3) Your Year in Nonfiction: Celebrate your year of nonfiction. What books have you read? What were your favorites? Have you had a favorite topic? Is there a topic you want to read about more?  What are you hoping to get out of participating in Nonfiction November? (Heather @ Based on a True Story)

Week 2 (November 6 - 10) Choosing Nonfiction: What are you looking for when you pick up a nonfiction book? Do you have a particular topic you’re attracted to? Do you have a particular writing style that works best? When you look at a nonfiction book, does the title or cover influence you? If so, share a title or cover which you find striking. (Frances @ Volatile Rune)

Week 3 (November 13-17) Book Pairings: This week, pair up a nonfiction book with a fiction title. Maybe it’s a historical novel and the real history in a nonfiction version, or a memoir and a novel, or a fiction book you’ve read and you would like recommendations for background reading. You can be as creative as you like! (Liz @ Adventures in reading, running and working from home)

Week 4 (November 20-24) Worldview Shapers: One of the greatest things about reading nonfiction is learning all kinds of things about our world which you never would have known without it. There’s the intriguing, the beautiful, the appalling, and the profound. What nonfiction book or books have impacted the way you see the world in a powerful way? Is there one book that made you rethink everything? Do you think there is a book that should be required reading for everyone? (Rebekah @ She Seeks Nonfiction)

Week 5 (November 27 - December 12) New To My TBR: It’s been a month full of amazing nonfiction books! Which ones have made it onto your TBR? Be sure to link back to the original blogger who posted about that book! (Lisa @ Hopewell’s Public Library of Life)

And then there are graphics we can use for free for our posts. You can see, I took full advantage of it already. Here is the link.

I have been taking part in this challenge since 2020 and here are my entries 2022 and before.

And these are my entries this year:
Introduction
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3 
Week 4
Week 5

This was instigated by our Classics Club reading challenge. I found them through Words and Peace. Thank you.

#ThrowbackThursday. The Map of Love

 

Soueif, Ahdaf "The Map of Love" - 1999

I have read this book a couple of times.

A story about the history of Egypt, a family saga and a couple of love stories over several decades.

This book describes British Colonialism, Egyptian nationalism and the difference between the two people both a hundred years ago and today.

Read my original review here. 

Happy November!

  Happy November to all my friends and readers

New Calendar picture with this
beautiful watercolour painting by Hanka Koebsch

"Mama, ist das die Welt?"
"Mum, is this the world?"

Hanka and Frank say to this picture:
After the beginning of autumn we chose the owl watercolour with an owl on a "sightseeing flight" for October.
Nach dem Herbstbeginn haben wir für den Oktober das Eulen Aquarell  mit einem Uhu bei einem "Rundflug" gewählt.

Another great watercolour painting by Hanka Koebsch. Enjoy!

Read more on their website here. *

Let's hope they will have a better fate than their cousin Knut who was born in Berlin in 2006. His mother rejected him at birth and he became very attached to his zookeeper who died suddenly two years later at the age of 44 as the result of a heart attack.

Both Knut and his keeper became famous (reluctantly) and there was a big controversy about the raising of a polar bear in captivity.

 

Unfortunately, also Knut died at a young age in 2011.

Read more about him here at Wikipedia.

 

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We visited a classical concert and the play Peer Gynt, both fantastic performances.

Autumn is my favorite season, including November, when the days get shorter, the leaves fall from the trees and the ground is often covered in a light fog.

 

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I know there are many problems in this world and, unfortunately, we cannot solve them all at once. But we are still always upset when we lose a loved one, even if we never met them. We mourn with the relatives and friends for Matthew Perry, who passed away at the age of 54. We were huge fans and he will always live on in our hearts. As my son put it: "Chandler Bing is responsible for about 90% of my sense of humor." His jokes are often heard in our house. We can only have entire comments with Friends quotes. Like this one:

At the beginning of the year, I read his book "Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing" in which he reveals a lot about himself and his troubles.


I write in my review: "There is a lot of Matthew in Chandler and a lot of Chandler in Matthew, as could be expected. Reading this memoir makes me love him even more. This is probably one of the saddest story I will read this year. So dark, so devastating."

 

And with his sudden passing, he made the book even sadder. It is still worth reading, so I heartily recommend it.

As many have said, we all have lost a F.R.I.E.N.D.

Goodbye, Matty, as your friends called you. Rest in Peace!
 

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* You can also have a look under my labels Artist: Frank Koebsch and Artist: Hanka Koebsch where you can find all my posts about the two artists. 

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🎃  I wish you all a happy November! 🎃 

Top Ten Tuesday ~ Doors

    

 "Top Ten Tuesday" is an original feature/weekly meme created on the blog "The Broke and the Bookish". It was created because they are particularly fond of lists. It is now hosted by Jana from That Artsy Reader Girl.

Since I am just as fond of them as they are, I jump at the chance to share my lists with them! Have a look at their page, there are lots of other bloggers who share their lists here.

This week, our topic is Halloween Freebie

On this day, in some countries, children go from door to door. So, I thought why not find some books with doors on them. I love doors. They are there to protect you from outsiders who don't mean well but they are also there to welcome friends. These doors are in various countries, the USA and the United Kingdom, Russia and Spain, Ireland, and Syria. They lead you to all kinds of different places, and the door often shows you what might be behind them.
Would any of these welcome children who ask for a treat?

Angelou, Maya "I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings" - 1969
Baker, Jo "Longbourn" - 2013
Baxter, Charles "The Soul Thief" - 2008 
Dostoevsky, Fyodor "A Gentle Creature" (aka The Gentle Spirit) (RUS: Кроткая, Krotkaja) - 1876
Kerkeling, Hape "I'm Off Then" (GE: Ich bin dann mal weg) - 2014
Levy, Marc "London Mon Amour" (F: Mes amis mes amours) - 2006
McCarthy, Pete "McCarthy's Bar" - 2000
Schami, Rafik "The Dark Side of Love" (GE: Die dunkle Seite der Liebe) - 2004
Stevenson, Helen "Instructions for Visitors. Life and Love in a French Town" - 2001
Stewart, Sheila "Lifting the Latch" - 1987

In Germany, not many kids go from door to door on Halloween. Instead, they go with their lanterns on St. Martin and sing songs (see here).

📚 Happy Reading! 📚

Voltaire "Candide"

Voltaire "Candide, or Optimism" (French: Candide, ou l'Optimisme) - 1759

For the Classics Spin #35, we received #2 and this was my novel.

An interesting take on the Age of Enlightenment.

Candide is a young guy who lives in Germany. He falls in love with a girl but is prevented from marrying her because of her parents. He learns the philosophy "All is for the Best" and travels around the world with this belief.

He probably encounters as many troubles as Homer's Odysseus in the "Odyssey" and solves them almost with the same vigour.

The novel promises to be funny and indeed it is. I have laughed quite a few times during the reading. How can a book be funny and philosophical at the same time? I'm not surprised Voltaire is still such a renowned author even more than two centuries later. I am really happy #2 was pulled for this challenge because I really enjoyed the story.

This novel reminded me a little of Eichendorff's "Life of a Good For Nothing", although it should be the other way around since this one was written earlier. Other than the German novel, I could see more philosophy in this book.

From the back cover:

"Candide tells of the hilarious adventures of the naïve Candide, who doggedly believes that 'all is for the best' even when faced with injustice, suffering, and despair. Controversial and entertaining, Candide is a book that is vitally relevant today in our world pervaded by - as Candide would say - 'the mania for insisting that all is well when all is by no means well.'"

#ThrowbackThursday. We Can Have Peace In The Holy Land

Carter, Jimmy "We Can Have Peace In The Holy Land. A Plan That Will Work" - 2008

This is definitely one of the most approriate Throwback Thursdays that I ever had.

You can tell Jimmy Carter has a lot of experience in this very difficult situation. His ideas are certainly worth considering. He explains the whole background about the problems in the Middle East including all his and other people's efforts to try solving the mess created decades (or even longer) ago.

If only we had listened to Jimmy Carter fifteen years ago!

Jimmy Carter received the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2002 "for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development."

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

Read my original review here. 

10 Year Challenge Book Tag 2023

I was not tagged but saw this challenge on Deanna's page A Novel Glimpse through Bea @ Confessions of a Pinay Bookaholic. It was created by Rincey Reads. It’s a fun tag that takes a look back at my reading 10 years ago versus today. Please check out Deanna's, Bea’s and Rincey's posts.

What was your favourite book in 2013?
Ruiz Zafón, Carlos "The Prisoner of Heaven" (E: El prisionero del cielo - El cementerio de los libros olvidados #3) - 2011
One of my favourite book series ever.

What is your favourite book of 2023 (so far)?
Brooks, Geraldine "People of the Book" - 2008
Not a difficult decision, I absolutely loved this story.

What was your least favourite book in 2013?
Gillham, David R. "City of Women" - 2012

What is a book published in 2013 that you still want to read?
Garfield, Simon "To the Letter: A Curious History of Correspondence - A Celebration of the Lost Art of Letter Writing" - 2013
I read "On the Map. Why the World Looks the Way it Does" by the same author and only just found "To the Letter".

What is the book published (to be published) in 2023 you want to get before 2024?
Follett, Ken "The Armour of Light"

What is a genre you used to read a lot of that you don’t read as much of anymore?
I don't think there was a huge change between the genres I used to read and those that I read now. I still like classics, Nobel Prize winners, anything I can learn from ...

What is a new genre you’ve discovered since 2013?
I think I have read books from all genres and haven't really found any new ones. I know which ones I love and which ones I truly dislike. And I doubt that this will change.

What is a reading or book habit you are hoping to leave behind in this decade?
Same as last year: Buying too many books. But I doubt that will ever change.

What is a new reading goal or habit you want to create in the upcoming decade?
I think I have more than enough reading habits and don't intend to change them.

I'm not tagging anyone but invite you all to do this, if you like to participate. If you decide to do this, leave a link in the comments so I can check out your post. Thanks!

I did this already last year. See my 10 Year Challenge 2021 here and my 2022 Challenge here.