Book Quotes of the Week

     

"Just the fact of a printed book is something that I don't think I'll ever get over." Marlon James

Yes, we are so blessed.

"I spent my life folded between the pages of books. In the absence of human relationships I formed bonds with paper characters. I lived love and loss through stories threaded in history; I experienced adolescence by association. My world is one interwoven web of words, stringing limb to limb, bone to sinew, thoughts and images all together. I am a being comprised of letters, a character created by sentences, a figment of imagination formed through fiction." Tahereh Mafi, Shatter Me

I think this is definitely a quote from one of the author's characters. I can see how you can live with books and form relationships with characters but it must be quite a lonely life, as well. I am glad to have a great family and many good friends so that I can have the best of both worlds.

"Wasn’t that the point of the book? For women to realize, We are just two people. Not that much separates us. Not nearly as much as I’d thought." Kathryn Stockett, The Help

She definitely achieved this with her story. And they even made a very good film from it, something that rarely happens.

Find more book quotes here. 

#ThrowbackThursday. The Memory Keeper's Daughter

 

Edwards, Kim "The Memory Keeper's Daughter" - 2005

An easy read with a deep message. What to do with children born with disabilities? Lots of thought-provoking issues.

The book also shows us how one decision can change the rest of somebody's life and it taught us to be grateful for the things you have.

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

Read more on my original post here.

Agus, Milena "From the Land of the Moon"

Agus, Milena "From the Land of the Moon" or: The House in Via Manno (Italian: Mal di pietre) - 2006

An interesting tale about the life of a woman who cannot break out of the prescribed path. One would like to leave immediately for Sardinia. Or at least to Milan. Definitely to Italy. 

This is a short but very powerful story about family history, told by the granddaughter of the woman in question.

The original title is "Kidney Stones". The unnamed married woman is sent away to treat her kidney stones and then she meets the love of her life. They even turned it into a film in the meantime, see here.

From the back cover:

"But what do we really know about other people? In this international bestselling novel, a young unnamed Sardinian woman explores the life of her grandmother, a romantic, bewitching, eccentric figure, and a memorable literary creation. Her life has been characterized by honor and fierce passion, and above all by an abiding search for perfect love that has spanned much of the twentieth century. Ever in the background of this remarkable woman's story is the stunning Sardinian landscape, the deep blues of the Mediterranean, the rugged mountains of the Sardinian back-country dotted with charming villages lost in time.

With warmth, great humor, and deep insight Milena Agus writes about the customs and the beauty of her native Sardinia, about love, family, immigration, war, and peace. From the Land of the Moon is the moving English debut of one of Italy s most important new literary talents."

Top Ten Tuesday ~ One-Word Reviews

            

"Top Ten Tuesday" is an original feature/weekly meme created on the blog "The Broke and the Bookish". This feature was created because they are particularly fond of lists at "The Broke and the Bookish". 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 One-Word Reviews for the Last Ten Books I Read

That's a tough one. I used to write articles for our local newspaper and the biggest problem was always that they were too long. And i guess the same goes for my blogpost. Still, I tried and I found some. Might not be the best one-word reviews anyone can think about but they are MY best one-word reviews. Some might encourage you to read the long version. 😉

Ilf, Ilya; Petrov, Yevgeny "The Twelve Chairs" (RUS: Двенадцать стульев/Dvenadtsat stulyev) - 1928 
Disappointing

Bythell, Shaun "Confessions of a Bookseller" - 2019
Hilarious

Shaw, Karl "Royal Babylon: The Alarming History of European Royalty" - 1999
Revealing

Flanagan, Kitty "488 Rules for Life: The Thankless Art of Being Correct" - 2019
Irksome

Robinson, Marilynne "Gilead" - 2004
Tedious

Conrad, François "Why German Barks and French Purrs" (GE: Warum Deutsch bellt und Französisch schnurrt" - 2021
Informative

Eliot, George "Silas Marner" - 1861
Gripping

Sonneborn, Martin & seine politische Beraterin: Latour, Claudia "99 Ideas to Revive the Political Utopia. The Communist Manifesto" (GE: 99 Ideen zur Wiederbelebung der politischen Utopie. Das kommunistische Manifest" - 2021
Helpful

Weiler, Jan "Nick's Hodgepodge" (GE: Nicks Sammelsurium) (Pubertiere #0,5) - 2016 
Priceless

Boschwitz, Ulrich Alexander "The Passenger" aka "The Fugitive" (GE: Der Reisende") - 1939
Unforgettable

This was tougher than writing the original reviews, believe you me! I admire anyone who can do this regularly, like some of my blogger friends.

And if you have read any of the books, it would be great to hear your one word description.

📚 Happy Reading! 📚

Ilf, Ilya; Petrov, Yevgeny "The Twelve Chairs"

Ilf, Ilya; Petrov, Yevgeny "The Twelve Chairs" (Russian: Двенадцать стульев/Dvenadtsat stulyev) - 1928

This was our international online book club novel for March 2022.

I love Russian literature. So, I was quite happy when my book club chose this novel. Funnily enough, I remembered a German TV show from the seventies where they were looking for thirteen chairs and I found out that it was based on this novel. I remember that being quite funny.

And yes, this is a satirical novel with quite some funny bits but it didn't really excite me very much. The plot is nice and the writing is interesting but somehow it didn't do much for me.

So, yes, unfortunately not my favourite Russian story.

However, here is a very positive remark by one of the other book club members.

"Amazing that all these decades later the characters, situations and humour still hold charm. This book took me right out of my usual reading paths onto an enjoyable side trail. Authors Ilf and Petrov seem like a couple of fun guys."

From the back cover:

"Ostap Bender is an unemployed con artist living by his wits in postrevolutionary Soviet Russia. He joins forces with Ippolit Matveyevich Vorobyaninov, a former nobleman who has returned to his hometown to find a cache of missing jewels which were hidden in some chairs that have been appropriated by the Soviet authorities. The search for the bejeweled chairs takes these unlikely heroes from the provinces to Moscow to the wilds of Soviet Georgia and the Trans-caucasus mountains; on their quest they encounter a wide variety of characters: from opportunistic Soviet bureaucrats to aging survivors of the prerevolutionary propertied classes, each one more selfish, venal, and ineffective than the one before."

Spell the Month in Books ~ May 2022

   

I found this on one of the blogs I follow, Books are the New Black who found it at One Book More. It was originally created by Reviews from the Stacks, and the idea is to spell the month using the first letter of book titles.

MAY

May is such a short word. Unfortunately, this might be the last book that starts with a "Y" for this year which means I might have to repeat it in July. We'll see.

M
Gorky, Maxim (Максима Горького) "Mother" (RUS: Мать/Matj) - 1906/07
We learn how hard life is in a village in Russia at the turn into the 20th century and how difficult it is for the ordinary man to feed his family. They had nothing, not even hope that under this government anything would ever get better for them.
The book is mainly about the revolutionists, the underground résistance and why they fought their tsars. We can all imagine but this puts it on paper for all to follow. It's also about the love of her mother to her son and how far she would go in supporting and defending him.

A
Şafak, Elif "Araf" (aka The Saint of Incipient Insanities) - 2004
A story about foreigners living in the United States. Three roommates from Turkey, Morocco and Spain in Boston, one has  a Mexican-American, another an American girlfriend. All of them have to fit into the society they are in, they struggle in their own different ways.

Y
Scott, Mary "Yes, Darling" - 1967
Mary Scott's stories were written in the fifties/sixties and times have changed. Or at least I hope so. Because Margaret, the heroine of our story, lets herself being bullied all her life. First by her father, then her husband and in the end by her husband's daughter and nieces. I think this might actually be a good book to discuss feminism and how it shouldn't be.

I think, this time I concentrated more on the life of women in various situations. All quite interesting and definitely a good way to compare our life to those of women in different countries and times.

Happy May!

Happy May to all my friends and readers

New Calendar picture with this
beautiful watercolour painting by Frank Koebsch

"Bastorfer Leuchtturm im Raps"
"Lighthouse of Bastorf in a Rapeseed Field"

I absolutely love the sea, lighthouses, windmills, you can tell I'm from the North of our country. So, this picture reminds me of so much. Not the least our last family outing. My brother bought a boat (well, he calls it a yacht but what do I know?) and since it's tradition to christen it before you go on your first tour, that's what they did and we all went along. It was a lovely day though I can tell, I'm getting too old for this.

* * *

We recently had a conversation about different kind of relatives and our names for us. In German (as in English), we only have one word for uncle and one for aunt whereas in the Scandinavian countries, they differentiate between the brother of a mother or a sister, for example. So, for example, your father's brother would be your farbror, your mother's brother your morbror. Same with your grandparents, the mother of your mother is the mormor, the mother of your father the morfar. I absolutely love that.

But do you have something like a "Schwippschwager"?

We have that word for a "distant" sibling. Schwager is a brother-in-law, Schwippschwager a non-blood relative, for example a relative of a spouse, even over several degrees. For example, my husband is my brother's wife Schwippschwager. My brother is the Schwippschwager of my husband's sister. It all sounds a little complicated when you go furtter and it has absolutely no legal basis but we always call people that. And I believe it's fun. Does your language have anything like that?

* * *

All in all, April was a nice month for us. Not only was the weather getting lovelier, we were able to do several things because restrictions were loosened. So, we were able to visit our son in the Netherlands. That was the best part of the year so far. And apart from the family outing, we visited a classic concert and went to the theatre. Compared to the last couple of years, that was a very busy month.

* * *

Unfortunately, no good news from the Ukraine, so far. On the contrary. What else is that guy prepared to do He should know by now that the whole world is against him and that he can only lose when he goes any further.

* * *

Have a happy May with this beautiful watercolour painting by Frank Koebsch.


You can find many more wonderful pictures on their website here.

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