#ThrowbackThursday. December 2011 Part 3

   

I've been doing ThrowbackThursdays for a while but I noticed that I wrote a lot of reviews in a short time when I first started. One of my blogger friends always posts the reviews of one month but that would be too much. So, these are my reviews from the third part of December 2011.

Croker, Charlie "Løst in Tränšlatioπ. Misadventures in English Abroad" - 2006
One of those humorous books about language and how it can be understood and expressed quite differently in different countries. This edition collects all those funny little signs and descriptions we find all over the world.

Frisch, Max "Homo Faber" (GE: Homo Faber) - 1957
So many issues in this book. Max Faber is Swiss and works around the world as an engineer. His colleagues call him Homo Faber as in the man who makes things, a direct translation from Latin.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von (Goethe German) "The Sorrows of Young Werther" (GE: Die Leiden des Jungen Werther) - 1774
A classic! This epistolary novel is also slightly autobiographical. Goethe has always been a very important German author.
Young Werther is a young artist, very sensitive. He corresponds with his friend whom he tells about all his troubles and sufferings, his unrequited love to a girl.

McMahon, Katharine "The Rose of Sebastopol" - 2007
It is the time of Florence Nightingale, the Crimean War in 1854. How can an intelligent girl not want to follow in her footsteps?

Roberts, Karen "The Flower Boy" - 2001
A story about Ceylon, as it was called then, in the 1930s. A story about a friendship, about Europeans in Asia, about masters and servants.

Read my original reviews, for the links click on the titles.

Tevis, Walter "The Queen's Gambit"

Tevis, Walter "The Queen's Gambit" - 1983

We read this in our international online book club in November 2024.

I knew there was a TV series with that title and I thought this might be interesting.

Well, it wasn't. I know how to play chess but this was too professional for me. Someone who doesn't play chess at all might get bored even quickly. There was too much talk about the game, too many details.

And while I felt sorry for the little orphan, I didn't like the person she grew into, a selfish, addicted girl, too many drugs, too much sex, just not my thing. And none of the other characters were lovable, either, except for maybe the caretaker who teaches chess to Beth.

Comments by other members:

• I started listening to the audiobook, I even tried two different narrators but couldn't really get into the story. I will try reading it at some point, but right now I have too much else going on.
• I ended up hearing it as audiobook and it was an excellent listening experience. The different themes like addiction, family traumas and relationships were very lightly touched, but made for an easy entertaining experience. I got quite into the different chess-drama and main characters internal monologue about the games despite knowing nothing much about chess. Would recommend and considering giving the TV series a chance based on how much I enjoyed the book.
• At first I did feel some frustration that the book only skimmed, for example; the relationship with the children's home staff, adoptive parents, and her relationships with other chess players and eventually the issue about addiction and how to deal with it... I do not believe having a not-that-close old friend take you to the gym, to in any way solve the issue. Other subjects: Giftedness in children and adults, and gender equality in life and sports, religion, etc. But then I thought, if the book had gone deeper into these issues then it wouldn't have been a book about chess at all. And not that kind of easy read about chess at all, and learning and competing and winning.
• I started listening to the audiobook, I even tried two different narrators but couldn't really get into the story. I will try reading it at some point, but right now I have too much else going on.

From the back cover:

"When she is sent to an orphanage at the age of eight, Beth Harmon soon discovers two ways to escape her surroundings, albeit fleetingly: playing chess and taking the little green pills given to her and the other children to keep them subdued. Before long, it becomes apparent that hers is a prodigious talent, and as she progresses to the top of the US chess rankings she is able to forge a new life for herself. But she can never quite overcome her urge to self-destruct. For Beth, there’s more at stake than merely winning and losing."

#ThrowbackThursday. December 2011 Part 2

  

I've been doing ThrowbackThursdays  for a while but I noticed that I wrote a lot of reviews in a short time when I first started. One of my blogger friends always posts the reviews of one month but that would be too much. So, these are my reviews from the second part of December 2011.

Bacon, Charlotte "Lost Geography" - 2000

This is a story about migration, a Canadian-Scottish family with their daughters, one of whom lives in France with her Turkish-English husband. The book teaches us that what keeps us alive isn't so much our ability to understand the details of our past as having the luck and courage to survive the assaults of both the present and history.

This is what the story is all about, how do people with a different background relate to each other, what are the consequences of migration, inter-racial marriages.

Dinesen, Isak/Blixen, Karen "Out of Africa" - 1937
Isak Dinesen, aka Karen Blixen, moves to Africa where she marries a good friend and wants to start a dairy farm with him. Nothing happens as planned but we get to know a smart and wonderful woman with a big heart.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von "Iphigenia in Tauris" (German: Iphigenie auf Tauris) - 1787

Iphigenia is the daughter of Agamemnon who offers her to the goddess Artemis. Even though the goddess rescues Iphigenia and takes her to the island of Tauris, a lot of things happen as a consequence.

I am not a big fan of reading plays but this is a very interesting story that teaches a lot about Greek mythology.

Shalev, Meir "Four Meals" (Hebrew: כימים אחדים aka "As a Few Days" or "The Loves of Judith") - 1994

Three men love Judith, two farmers and a cattle dealer. Even though they all want to marry her, she doesn't marry anyone but has a son instead.

When Judith dies, all three men want to be the father of the boy and invite him to a meal to get to know him better.

Tellkamp, Uwe "The Tower" (German: Der Turm. Geschichte aus einem versunkenen Land) - 2008

Uwe Tellkamp describes life in East Germany in the 1980s. The length of the book enabled the author to go into so many details of so many different characters. 

Read my original reviews, for the links click on the titles.

Top 5 Tuesday ~ Thankful

Top Five Tuesday was originally created by Shanah @ Bionic Book Worm, but is now hosted by Meeghan @ Meeghan Reads. To participate, link your post back to Meeghan’s blog or leave a comment on her weekly post. I found this on Davida's Page @ The Chocolate Lady.

* * *

This week’s topic is a Thankful. Which books were you so glad you read, even if they weren’t the top books you read this year, but you’re super glad you read them. Or any other reason that you’re thankful for books this year!!

I am thankful for many different kind of books. I am definitely thankful, that there are so many different books from so many different countries and times. Therefore, I have chosen books from five different countries that I read this year, new and old, written by authors from India, Norway, Turkey,  the UK, the US.

Brontë, Charlotte "The Professor" - 1857
Probably one of my favourite novels by Charlotte Brontë, the reason could be that it takes place in Brussels.

Fosse, Jon "Morning and Evening" (NO: Morgon og kveld) - 2001
Last year's Nobel Prize winner. A fascinating story about the life and death of a man. 

Kingsolver, Barbara "Demon Copperhead" - 2022
David Copperfield in a modern version, written by one of the greatest contemporary writers.

Şafak, Elif "10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World" - 2019
Elif Şafak never disappoints. We follow her protagonist Leila from the minute of her birth until several minutes after her death and then her friends. 

Verghese, Abraham "The Covenant of Water" - 2023
A wonderful story about a family in India over the length of most of a century.

* * *

🙏Happy Reading!🙏

📚 📚 📚

Towles, Amor "Rules of Civility"

Towles, Amor "Rules of Civility" - 2011

After reading "A Gentleman in Moscow", I definitely wanted to read more of this author and when one of my book club members offered to lend me her copy of this one, I happily said yes.

It is not the same as the aforementioned novel but it is also a good one. A completely different area, a different situation, but you get a similar feeling. This one takes place in New York around the life of a young girl who comes to New York.

We don't hear much about the parents who immigrated from Russia but it is her background that get her into her jobs, as she is able to speak Russian.

We get to know her friends, the circles she moves in. A well-written account of life in the first half of the last century. Amor Towles is certainly an author who knows how to capture an audience.

In the epilogue we find what is probably one of the most important lines from the whole book:

"The thing of it is - 1939 may have brought the beginning of the war in Europe, but in America it brought the end of the Depression. While they were annexing and appeasing, we were stoking the steel plants, reassembling the assembly lines, and readying ourselves to meet a world-wide demand for arms and ammunition. In December 1940, with France already fallen and the Luftwaffe bombarding London, back in America Irving Berlin was observing how the treetops glistened and children listened to hear those sleigh bells in the snow. That's how far we were from the Second World War."

The title is based on George Washington's "Rules of Civility" and you can find them here.

From the back cover:

"In a New York City jazz bar on the last night of 1937, watching a quartet because she couldn't afford to see the whole ensemble, there were certain things Katey Kontent knew:

· like how to sneak into the cinema, and steal silk stockings from Bendel's

· how to type eighty words a minute, five thousand an hour, and nine million a year

· that if you can still lose yourself in a Dickens novel then everything is going to be fine

By the end of the year she'll have learned:

· how to live like a redhead and insist upon the very best

· that chance encounters can be fated, and the word 'yes' can be a poison

· that riches can turn to rags in the trip of a heartbeat ..."

Nonfiction November 2024

I have taken part in Nonfiction November for the last couple of years. I have not had the time and energy to participate every week but I want to do a little overview over my nonfiction year.

This is the schedule and the hosts for 2024:

Week 1 (10/30-11/3) 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 (11/6-11/10) 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 (11/13-11/17) 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 (11/20-11/24) 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)

Rebekah @ She Seeks Nonfiction

Week 5 (11/27-12/1) 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 

I like reading novels but I also read a lot of non-fiction, mainly biographies and history. And I'd like to draw the attention to the books I read this year, so therefore, here is my list.

Bythell, Shaun "Remainders of the Day: More Diaries from The Bookshop, Wigtown" - 2022
Life in a bookshop
Clinton, Hillary Rodham "It Takes a Village: And Other Lessons Children Teach Us" - 1996
A book dedicated to help parents raise their childen
Garfield, Simon "To the Letter: A Curious History of Correspondence - A Celebration of the Lost Art of Letter Writing" - 2013
The history of letters
Kishon, Ephraim (English books) "Kishon for all occasions. 327 useless pieces of wisdom" - Kishon für alle Fälle. 327 unbrauchbare Lebensweisheiten - 1987
A humorous book 
Orwell, George "The Road to Wigan Pier" - 1937 
Conditions under which people live in 1937
Pamuk, Orhan "To Look Out the Window/Pieces from the View: Life, Streets, Literature" (TR: Manzaradan Parçalar: Hayat, Sokaklar, Edebiyat) - Der Blick aus meinem Fenster. Betrachtungen - 2008
Many topics discussed by this Nobel Prize laureate
Tibballs, Geoff "The Good, the Bad and the Wurst. The 100 Craziest Moments from the European Song Contest" - 2016 
Eurovision
Tomalin, Claire "Jane Austen - A Life" - 1997
Biography
Uusma, Bea "The Expedition: a Love Story: Solving the Mystery of a Polar Tragedy" (SW: Expeditionen: min kärlekshistoria) - 2013
Trying to find out aobut a polar expedition gone tragic

And then some non-translated German books:
Güngör, Dilek "Pretty German. My Turkish family and I" - Ganz schön deutsch. Meine türkische Familie und ich - 2007
A girl with Turkish roos growing up in Germany
Kapitelman, Dmitrij "The smile of my invisible father" - Das Lächeln meines unsichtbaren Vaters - 2016
Ukrainian born Jews who moved to Germany trying to find their roots in Israel

Kerkeling, Hape "Paws off the table! My cats, other cats and me" - Pfoten vom Tisch! Meine Katzen, andere Katzen und ich - 2021
German comedian who writes about the cats in his life

Matzig, Gerhard "My Wife Wants a Garden. The Adventure of Building a House in the Suburbs" - Meine Frau will einen Garten. Vom Abenteuer, ein Haus am Stadtrand zu bauen - 2010
The adventure of trying to find a house in Munich and then building one on a very narrow plot of land
Orth, Stephan (English books) "Couchsurfing in Ukraine" - Couchsurfing in der Ukraine - 2024 
Schnoy, Sebastian "Smørrebrød in Napoli. A fun journey through Europe" - Smørrebrød in Napoli. Ein vergnüglicher Streifzug durch Europa - 2009
Hilarious book about Europe for supporters of the European Union, but even more so for opponents of it
Sieg, Sören; Krohn, Axel "I didn't understand you visually. Overheard German dialogues" - Ich hab dich rein optisch nicht verstanden. Deutsche Dialoge mitgehört - 2015
Lots of conversations where people mix up the meaning of words
Steinmeier, Frank-Walter "We" - Wir - 2024
A talk of our president about the world as it is
Weiler, Jan "The Book of 39 Precious Things" - Das Buch der 39 Kostbarkeiten - 2011
A selection of short stories, columns, throughts about everyday life
Zierl, Helmut "Follow the Sun. The Summer of my Life" - Follow the Sun. Der Sommer meines Lebens - 2020
A German actor who tells us about his adventurous life at 16

And here are my posts from the previous years.

#ThrowbackThursday. December 2011 Part 1

 

I've been doing ThrowbackThursdays  for a while but I noticed that I wrote a lot of reviews in a short time when I first started. One of my blogger friends always posts the reviews of one month but that would be too much. So, these are my reviews from the first part of December 2011.

Dorrestein, Renate "A Heart of Stone" (NL: Een hart van steen) - 1998

Ellen tells the story of her family, she grows up as one of five children and buys her parents' home when she is in her late thirties and pregnant herself. Through old family albums, she tries to understand the tragedy that happened to her family years ago.

Hesse, Karen "Letters From Rifka" - 1992

The story is told by Rifka, a Jewish girl who has to leave the Ukraine with her family to go to America. On the way, she gets sick and cannot go with the family but has to stay behind in Antwerp from where she writes letters to her cousin.
 

Tyler, Anne "Digging to America" - 2006

Two very different American families meet while adopting a Korean baby. One family are immigrants themselves, from Iran. The families become friends and start a tradition for both of them. 

Høeg, Peter "Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow" (DK: Frøken Smillas fornemmelse for sne) - 1992

Smilla is a native Greenlander, an Inuit who lives in Denmark. She is friends with a neighbour boy who is killed by a fall from the roof. It is declared an accident but Smilla doesn't' believe it and starts her own investigation. 

Streatfeild, Noel "Ballet Shoes" - 1936

Three adopted orphan girls take dance lessons. They all have different kind of talents and different kind of views, that makes the story interesting.

Read my original reviews, for the links click on the titles.