MissBrangwen's first category challenge! - II

Hi,

my name is Mirjam and I have been a LibraryThing member for more than eight years, but this is the first time I'm doing the category challenge!

I'm a teacher living in the north of Germany with my husband. Our home rather looks like a library and reading and books have always been such an important part of my life. However, usually I don't read as much as I would like - my job tends to get very stressful, and there are times during the year when I stop reading altogether for many weeks. Then there are times when I read, but I tend to pick up the same genres and styles again and again simply for convenience (these days it's certain crime series). There is nothing wrong with that of course, but before I started working, I read many more genres and I would like to do that again, so joining this group has two goals: Reading more and preventing me from dropping out too easily, and picking up various genres and getting out of my immediate comfort zone again. Plus of course meeting other readers here :-)

What I liked when I found this group is that it looks like a lot of fun and no pressure/hard competition as I have experienced on other websites or social media! I like that you can set your own challenges and that you can even change them if they don't work or your goals change!

For 2021, I have set myself three challenges:

- Read a book from every one of my virtual LibraryThing shelves (this means I'll read more genres because my shelves roughly correspond to genres and topics)
- Complete the BingoDOG (simply because it looks like a lot of fun)
- Take part in the genreCAT (because I think it will help me decide on genres)

Books are eligible to count for multiple challenges, so I am allowed to tick all three (and several CATs and KITs) with one read if a book fits all categories. I cannot tick off more than one virtual shelf with one book, though.

EDIT 02/20/21: I decided to add more CATs&KITs because so far I'm quite successful doing them and feel like they help me decide on books. My indecision on what to read was an obstacle to my reading flow in 2020 and the challenges make it much easier by just pushing me towards certain books. This is why I decided to revamp my new thread a little.

~~~

My virtual shelves:

J.R.R. Tolkien
Wizarding World
Jane Austen
Bronte Sisters
Goethe
Anglo-Celtic Isles
Australia
Classics – German
Classics – English
Contemporary Literature - German
Contemporary Literature - English
International Literature
Crime
Historical Fiction
Fantasy
SciFi | Distopy
General Fiction
Children’s lit
Autobiography
Biography
Medieval Studies | Faerie | Mythology
History
Politics | Sociology | Critical Theory
Religion
Arts | Music
Architecture | Interiors
Bibliophily
Health
Animals | Nature
Travel
Europe
Africa
Asia
Americas
Oceania
Polar Regions

I’ll leave out shelves that consist mostly of books that you typically don’t read through (such as reference books).

BingoDOG

1. Nature or Environment: The Blackhouse by Peter May
2. Title Describes You: A Perfect Match by Jill McGown
3. Contains a Love Story: The Warden by Anthony Trollope
4. You Heartily Recommend: An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
5. Impulse Read!: Aunt Bessie Assumes by Diana Xarissa
6. Suggested by Another Generation: Forsberg und das verschwundene Mädchen by Ben Tomasson
7. About Time or Time Word in Title:
8. By or About a Marginalized Group: Birnbäume blühen weiß by Gerbrand Bakker
9. 20 or Fewer LT Members: On A Rising Tide by Charlie Phillips
10. Classical Element in Title: Ein Mundvoll Erde by Stefanie Zweig
11. Set Somewhere You'd Like to Visit: Miss Smilla's Feeling For Snow by Peter Høeg
12. Dark or Light Word in Title: Warlight by Michael Ondaatje
13. READ A CAT OR KIT: Mystery in the Channel by Freeman Wills Crofts
14. New-To-You Author: Murder at the Old Vicarage by Jill McGown
15. Arts & Recreation: The Art of The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull
16. Senior Citizen Protagonist: Third Girl by Agatha Christie
17. Type of Building in Title: Peril at End House by Agatha Christie
18. Less Than 200 Pages: Kein Ort. Nirgends by Christa Wolf
19. 2 or More Authors: Never Never by James Patterson and Candice Fox
20. Character You'd Be Friends With: Ruth's First Christmas Tree by Elly Griffiths
21. One-Word Title: Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson
22. History or Alternate History: The Truths We Hold by Kamala Harris
23. Made You Laugh: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
24. Southern Hemisphere:
25. About or Contains Magic: Stardust by Neil Gaiman

GenreCAT

January: Non-Fiction
"The Constitution of the United States" (Penguin Little Black Classics)
"On A Rising Tide" by Charlie Phillips

February: Memoirs/Biography
"The Truths We Hold" by Kamala Harris
"Heinrich von Kleist - Ein preußisches Schicksal" by Heinz Ohff

March: Action/Adventure
"The Titanic Secret" by Clive Cussler & Jack du Brul
"Kidnapped" by Robert Louis Stevenson

April: Literary Fiction
"Exit West" by Mohsin Hamid
"Warlight" by Michael Ondaatje

May: Short Stories & Essays
"No One Is Too Small To Make A Difference" by Greta Thunberg

HistoryCAT

January (Middle Ages): "Altenglisches Elementarbuch" by Martin Lehnert

February (Modern): "The Warden" by Anthony Trollope

March (Early Modern): "Kidnapped" by Robert Louis Stevenson

April (Ancient): "The Last Legion" by Valerio Massimo Manfredi

RandomCAT

January (LOL): "Stardust" by Neil Gaiman

February (Fruits & Veggies): "Birnbäume blühen weiß" by Gerbrand Bakker

March (Surprise): "The Titanic Secret" by Clive Cussler & Jack du Brul

April (Let's Go To The Library): "Exit West" by Mohsin Hamid

May (Let's Play Monopoly!): "Die Inszenierung" by Martin Walser

AlphaKIT

January: M - P
"Murder at the Old Vicarage" by Jill McGown
"Mystery in the Channel" by Freeman Wills Crofts
"Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" by J.K. Rowling
"Peril at End House" by Agatha Christie
"On A Rising Tide" by Charlie Phillips
"The Blackhouse" by Peter May

February: K - T
"Kein Ort. Nirgends" by Christa Wolf
"The Truths We Hold" by Kamala Harris
"Heinrich von Kleist - Ein preußisches Schicksal" by Heinz Ohff
"Third Girl" by Agatha Christie
"The Warden" by Anthony Trollope
"An Ember in the Ashes" by Sabaa Tahir

March: R - U
"Romantic English Homes" by Robert O'Byrne and Simon Brown
"The Murder of Roger Ackroyd" by Agatha Christie
"Kidnapped" by Robert Louis Stevenson
"Uncommon Type" by Tom Hanks
"Und alles ohne Liebe" by Burkhard Spinnen
"Under Milk Wood" by Dylan Thomas

April: A - W
"The ABC Murders" by Agatha Christie
"The Body in the Library" by Agatha Christie
"Abenteuer Seidenstraße" by Bruno Baumann
"Der Preis der Leichtigkeit" by Andreas Altmann
"Short Stories" by W. Somerset Maugham (ed. Herbert Müller)
"Much Ado About Nothing" by William Shakespeare
"Wenn die Haut zu dünn ist" by Rolf Sellin
"Warlight" by Michael Ondaatje

May: I - N
"Die Inszenierung" by Martin Walser
"Irgendwo in Deutschland" by Stefanie Zweig
"Let It Bleed" by Ian Rankin
"Die natürliche Tochter" by Johann Wolfgang Goethe
"No One Is Too Small To Make A Difference" by Greta Thunberg

Yearlong: X - Z
"Aunt Bessie Assumes" by Diana Xarissa
"Aunt Bessie Believes" by Diana Xarissa
"Ein Mundvoll Erde" by Stefanie Zweig

GeoKIT

Africa
"Ein Mundvoll Erde" by Stefanie Zweig

Asia
"Abenteuer Seidenstraße" by Bruno Baumann
"Der Preis der Leichtigkeit" by Andreas Altmann

Europe
"Birnbäume blühen weiß" by Gerbrand Bakker
"Maigret auf Reisen" by Georges Simenon
"The Last Legion" by Valerio Massimo Manfredi
"Forsberg und das verschwundene Mädchen" by Ben Tomasson

North America
"The Constitution of the United States" (Penguin Little Black Classics)
"The Truths We Hold" by Kamala Harris

Oceania
"Never Never" by James Patterson and Candice Fox

Polar
"Miss Smilla's Feeling For Snow" by Peter Høeg

MysteryKIT

January (water):
"Mystery in the Channel" by Freeman Wills Crofts
"Aunt Bessie Assumes" by Diana Xarissa
"The Blackhouse" by Peter May

March (locked room mystery):
"Death in the Clouds" by Agatha Christie
"The Murder of Roger Ackroyd" by Agatha Christie
"Maigret auf Reisen" by Georges Simenon

April (senior citizen detective):
"The ABC Murders" by Agatha Christie
"The Body in the Library" by Agatha Christie
"Aunt Bessie Believes" by Diana Xarissa

May (European mysteries):
"Forsberg und das verschwundene Mädchen" by Ben Tomasson

January

1. Murder at the Old Vicarage by Jill McGown
2. Ruth's First Christmas Tree by Elly Griffiths
3. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
4. Mystery in the Channel by Freeman Wills Crofts
5. Altenglisches Elementarbuch by Martin Lehnert
6. Stardust by Neil Gaiman
7. Wilde Rosen - Meine Emancipation by Louise Aston
8. Peril at End House by Agatha Christie
9. Aunt Bessie Assumes by Diana Xarissa
10. Deutschland. Ein Wintermärchen by Heinrich Heine
11. The Art of The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull
12. The Blackhouse by Peter May
13. The Constitution of the United States (Penguin Little Black Classics)
14. Ein Mundvoll Erde by Stefanie Zweig
15. On A Rising Tide by Charlie Phillips

(I started my challenge on Christmas Eve, but I count the books for January!)

February

1. Third Girl by Agatha Christie
2. Kein Ort. Nirgends by Christa Wolf
3. The Warden by Anthony Trollope
4. Never Never by James Patterson and Candice Fox
5. Birnbäume blühen weiß by Gerbrand Bakker
6. Fräulein Smillas Gespür für Schnee by Peter Høeg
7. A Perfect Match by Jill McGown
8. The Truths We Hold by Kamala Harris
9. Heinrich von Kleist - Ein preußisches Schicksal by Heinz Ohff
10. An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
11. Mortal Causes by Ian Rankin

March

1. Death in the Clouds by Agatha Christie
2. The Titanic Secret by Clive Cussler and Jack du Brul
3. Bilbo's Last Song by J.R.R. Tolkien and Pauline Baynes
4. Romantic English Homes by Robert O'Byrne and Simon Brown
5. Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks
6. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
7. Maigret auf Reisen by Georges Simenon
8. Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson
9. Und alles ohne Liebe by Burkhard Spinnen
10. Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas

April

1. Short Stories by W. Somerset Maugham (ed. Herbert Müller)
2. Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
3. Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare
4. The Last Legion by Valerio Massimo Manfredi
5. The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie
6. Shakespeare auf 100 Seiten by Stefana Sabin
7. Abenteuer Seidenstraße by Bruno Baumann
8. Wenn die Haut zu dünn ist by Rolf Sellin
9. Aunt Bessie Believes by Diana Xarissa
10. The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie
11. Warlight by Michael Ondaatje
12. Der Preis der Leichtigkeit by Andreas Altmann

May

1. Forsberg und das verschwundene Mädchen by Ben Tomasson
2. Die Inszenierung by Martin Walser
3. Die natürliche Tochter by Johann Wolfgang Goethe
4. No One Is Too Small To Make A Difference by Greta Thunberg
5. Irgendwo in Deutschland by Stefanie Zweig
6. Let It Bleed by Ian Rankin

Welcome to my new thread :-)

Happy new thread! :)

A Perfect Match by Jill McGown was a spontaneous read because my reading was a bit off during the last couple of days and I felt like I needed a quick palate cleanser.
This is the first book in the Lloyd & Hill mystery series. I read the second one, Murder at the Old Vicarage, last Christmas - it was the first book I ever read for the Category Challenge! Because I liked it a lot, I decided to read the whole series and bought books 1 and 3 earlier this month.



Book No 22

"A Perfect Match" by Jill McGown
Series: Lloyd & Hill (1)
Pan MacMillan
Paperback, 177pp.
Rating: 3 1/2 stars - ***°

BingoDOG: Title Describes You

I didn't enjoy this as much as the second book of the series, but I still liked it well enough. The case was really interesting: A rich, young widow is murdered in a lakeside boathouse, the lake belongs to her large inheritance. The man who gave her a lift there flees into the woods, but it's clear that he considers himself innocent - yet no one else was there and the man was seen driving back from the boathouse alone. In addition, there's a local couple related to the widow who have their own secrets, and two police offers who once were a couple...
This is definitely not for readers who dislike reading about the private lives of the detectives, but apart from that it's a very solid mystery, obviously influenced by Agatha Christie but of course in a modern setting and written in a contemporary style. People smoke a lot in this one and of course the technology is aged, but apart from that I didn't notice that it was written in the 1980s and not very recently.
I think the chemistry between Lloyd and Hill wasn't as good in this one as in the second book, and the case got a bit slow in the second half of the story, but excluding that it was a satisfying read and I'm looking forward to the third installment.

>23 Jackie_K: Thank you! :-)

Hurray, happy new thread! Glad that the challenges are helping you keep the reading flow going! And you're doing great on the bingo :)

Happy new thread! >22 MissBrangwen: Where's that bookshop? I want to go there. Now.

>26 rabbitprincess: Thank you! I'm surprised myself at how quickly the Bingo card fills up! I didn't expect that at all!

>27 MissWatson: It's Armchair Books in Edinburgh. The picture in >2 MissBrangwen: was taken there, too. And thank you!

Happy New Thread! Great success on your Bingo card so far.

>24 MissBrangwen: - I always start at the beginning of a series because - a. that's the way I am, and b. the writing usually does get better. I might try this series keeping your comments in mind for the first one.

>28 MissBrangwen: Thanks. I've always wanted to revisit Edinburgh, that's one more reason to do it. As soon as we may.

>30 MissWatson: Same here! I can't wait to go back.
Armchair Books is located in the West Port and there are a few more wonderful bookshops in that street, so it's definitely worth planning half the day or so for an excursion there!

>28 MissBrangwen: Oh hey, we went to Armchair Books as well on our last trip to Edinburgh! I found two Nigel Tranters there, and they were on a high shelf so I had to ask my dad to get them down for me. Good thing they actually sounded interesting -- I wouldn't have wanted to try putting them back, haha.

>32 rabbitprincess: Great! It's definitely one of my favourite bookshops in the world. I still haven't read any Nigel Tranter!

>29 dudes22: I usually start with the first one, too! But this time the second installment was an impulse buy because of it's beautiful Christmassy cover. It didn't even indicate that it was part of a series. I still think it would have been better to read book 1 first!
I'm looking forward to reading about your thoughts on this series should you decide to pick it up!

Happy new thread, Mirjam, you are doing really well with the Cats and the Bingo. As I have trouble deciding on my next read, I also use the various challenges to help me pick out the books that I will be reading for that month.

>35 DeltaQueen50: Thank you! It's good to hear that you use the challenges in the same way, that's very encouraging to me!

Yesterday I finished The Truths We Hold, a political memoir written by Kamala Harris. I first came to admire Kamala Harris when I saw her questioning Brett Kavanaugh and since then I've rooted for her.
I know we're not supposed to write about politics here, so I'll leave it at that.
This book was a birthday present by my in-laws from my wishlist.



Book No 23

"The Truths We Hold" by Kamala Harris
Bodley Head
Hardcover, 286pp.
Rating: 4 1/2 stars - ****°

Virtual Shelf ticked off: Autobiography
Cats&Kits: GenreCAT - Memoir/Biography, AlphaKIT - K-T, GeoKIT - North America
BingoDOG: History Or Alternate History

This book is not structured like a traditional memoir or autobiography, but each chapter revolves around a specific topic or issue, such as civil rights, criminality, health, housing etc. Harris explains how this topic or issue touches her work or how she dealt with it in the past, as an attorney. This is usually illustrated by anecdotes and stories about people she met, but also by studies and research. Each chapter also concentrates on an aspect from the writer's life and she connects these aspects. For example, the chapter that deals with civil rights, and specifically LGTBQ rights and gay marriage, also tells us about how she got to know her husband Doug and their courtship and marriage, to make a point that love is love. The chapter on health care also includes her mother's battle against cancer. I enjoyed the variation this structure provided, although in the end it became a bit forceful and it seemed like she started ticking off boxes of topics that needed to be included. This is the only point of criticism I have, though.
I think Kamala Harris succeeds in explaining the core of her work and what she stands for. If one has followed the media, this is nothing really new: The story of her immigrant parents, her growing up amidst the Civil Rights Movement, her childhood as a Black child, and the many, many firsts she did - the glass ceilings she shattered.
I still found it very interesting to read about this and to learn more about her viewpoints. While many paragraphs resonate with her speeches, the book provides more insight into how she came to believe in her principles and how her experiences in her previous jobs and offices as well as the people she met along the way have shaped her.

However, I need to get a bit more personal here because otherwise I feel like I'm not doing the book justice. I'm a teacher working in one of Germany's poorest cities, and I mainly teach girls and young women, many from "underprivileged" backgrounds, many immigrants and refugees - and empowerment is what keeps me going and why I do what I do. I found strength and inspiration in Kamala Harris's words and I read so many quotes that had me nodding in agreement.

Here are two from her mother:
"Fight systems in a way that causes them to be fairer, and don't be limited by what has always been" (p. 18).
"Don't let anybody tell you who you are. You tell them who you are" (p. 25).

It feels fitting to end this review with these quotes because throughout the book, Shyamala Gopalan Harris is shown as the biggest influence on Kamala's life and beliefs, the person who taught her to fight and to stand up and not be intimidated - and I think that was what impressed me so much when I first saw her on TV in September 2018.

>37 MissBrangwen: It'd good to have people who inspire you (where "you" = both Mirjam and Kamala).

>38 spiralsheep: It definitely is!

Today I finished Heinrich von Kleist - Ein preußisches Schicksal by Heinz Ohff in two sittings. It's a biography about German author Heinrich von Kleist who was a contemporary of the Romantic movement but didn't quite belong to it.
My interest in this book was kindled because I read Kein Ort. Nirgends by Christa Wolf earlier this month, in which Heinrich von Kleist is one of the two protagonists. RidgewayGirl also, in this group, wrote about the novel Red Pill by Hari Kunzru which takes place at the location where Kleist took his life in 1811 and she posted a picture of a monument erected there.
I bought this book in March 2017 when I was preparing a course I had to teach in the following terms. It was a course on the depiction of heroes in literature and Kleist's Michael Kohlhaas was one of the compulsory texts. I must admit that I'm not a major fan of that work - neither am I of the other Kleist texts I have read so far - and I didn't get around reading the biography then. But I kept the book to read at a later date and now was the perfect time.



Book No 24

"Heinrich von Kleist - Ein preußisches Schicksal" by Heinz Ohff
Piper
Paperback, 206pp.
Rating: 3 1/2 stars - ***°

Virtual Shelf ticked off: Biography
Cats&Kits: GenreCAT - Memoir/Biography, AlphaKIT - K-T

This biography was a very quick and easy read. It's not an academic work and its intended audience is not a professional one, and that was what I was looking for: A book containing the most important facts and aspects, not a lengthy and extensive work.
However, I do feel that this was a little too superficial and somehow missed its mark. After reading it, I still feel that I missed something, that I don't know why Kleist is such an important German writer or what makes his works so special.
The story of his life is told in an interesting way: The many failures as a writer, as an employee of the Prussian state and a publisher, his private hardships which meant that he lost his fiancée to another man and was rejected by his family. He was burdened by unnamed illnesses (probably depression), tried to start a new life many times, and in the end took is life to flee from the pressure and the disappointment and keep his independence.
Kleist's works are frequently mentioned, but as I said, this book fails to make clear (or even to mention) just what makes them so special and why Kleist is one of the lone wolves of German literature who can never be really included in one movement or literary epoch. And even throughout the story of his life I feel that I am missing the real man behind the whining and the sadness - why did he really want to write and what drove him to sit in a room for months and work on the same manuscript? Although this book was a pleasant read and an easy introduction, I guess I'll need to read another Kleist biography to find out.

>40 MissBrangwen: While I have no intention on learning more about Kleist (there are quite a few other German luminaries I'd rather learn more about), I enjoyed reading your comments.

>41 RidgewayGirl: Thank you!
I don't think I would have bought the book if it hadn't been for the course, so I understand! I think I'll read another biography, but only if I come across a good one!

It's my ninth thingaversary on March 15 and I have started purchasing some of my thingaversary books!

Here is my list so far:

The Yield by Tara June Winch
In The Woods by Tana French
United by Cory Booker
The Lost Tide Warriors by Catherine Doyle
The Gown by Jennifer Robson
Harry Potter - A History of Magic (British Library)
My Life in Middlemarch by Rebecca Mead

I've decided to buy some books that I have wished for for a long time and some that have been recent additions to the wishlist, some of them BBs from this group!
I also ordered all of these as brand new copies as opposed to my usual buying habits (buying secondhand).

>43 MissBrangwen: Happy Thingaversary! Looks like a great haul!

Happy Thingaversary! Your choices look interesting.

What fun! You've chosen a good variety of books. I am already planning on which books I am going to buy for my 13th Thingaversary in June. I like to spread the purchases out over a few months.

My reading this week has been quite slow. It started great but then I was stopped by yet more migraines (this time due to the sudden rise in temperature - from -10°C to +20°C within three days!). Then we had a few lovely sunny days when I suddenly felt so active and we enjoyed some short walks and doing things around the apartment.
But today I really feel like reading again, and I do need the escapism this weekend. Times are still crazy and I really need to charge my batteries.

I hope to finish The Ember in the Ashes tomorrow and squeeze in another mystery after that!

>44 Tess_W: >45 dudes22: Thank you!

>46 DeltaQueen50: Happy planning! I started ordering mine just a bit earlier than intended and I'm glad I did because books from the UK do indeed arrive a bit more slowly than they used to because they need to go through customs now.

>47 MissBrangwen: Wow, that is a wild temperature fluctuation! Hope you have a great weekend reading. Happy early Thingaversary, too!

>48 rabbitprincess: Thank you! Yes, it was absolutely crazy. Now it has gone down again, about 8°C. I hope you have a great reading weekend, too!

I bought An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir in May 2019 through my usual online platform because I had seen so many people raving about it. On the other hand, I'm often a little skeptical when a book is hyped too much, as I'm afraid that I'll be disappointed, so I hadn't got around reading it yet. But now the timing was perfect: I was looking for an escapist read, it fitted AlphaKIT, and I hadn't read a new fantasy book for quite some time.
I'm happy to say that this book was a great surprise and I enjoyed it much more than I had expected!



Book No 25

"An Ember in the Ashes" by Sabaa Tahir
Series: Ember Quartet (1)
HarperVoyager
Paperback, 450pp.
Rating: 4 1/2 stars - ****°

Cats&Kits: AlphaKit - K-T
BingoDOG: You Heartily Recommend

The story takes place in a fantasy world that is loosely based upon Ancient Rome. There are two main characters and the chapters alternate between their perspectives. Because I liked both characters a lot and found both plot lines equally exciting, this worked very well for me.
On the one hand there is Laia, whose family is murdered by the henchmen of the Empire during a raid and who wants to save her brother who is taken away. She embarks on a dangerous mission to do so. On the other hand there is Elias Venturius, who is a student at an elite academy, shortly before graduation. Although he is a model student and has spent almost his whole life at the school, he secretly despises the Empire.
From chapter 1, the novel is very fast-paced and had me on the edge of my seat throughout. To my mind, the characters are very well written, not only Elias and Laia, but also the supporting and minor characters. I became totally immersed in their world, thinking about the story throughout the day until I could finally continue reading.
There were only two aspects that I have to criticize: There was a little too much violence in the story, especially in the beginning of the book. And I didn't understand that while in the beginning, Blackcliff Academy is shown as a place where no step is unwatched and there is no chance to do anything without being seen and punished, towards the end of the novel Laia and her friends walk around all the time, looking for secret tunnels and even sabotaging the most important event that has ever taken place there. This was not credible to me and lacked continuation. It's not a very big point, but I must take away half a star for that.

As said above, this story totally captured me and gave me a huge bookish hangover. I'm still rooting for Elias and Laia in my mind and I cannot wait to read the second book, although I might wait a little longer just to savor the anticipation.

I only really started reading mysteries and crime novels four years ago, and the Inspector Rebus novels by Ian Rankin were among the first I read. Today I finished Mortal Causes, the sixth installment of the series, which I found particularly good. I bought this book just recently because I had run out of police procedurals and wanted to read one, as they have become a sort of comfort reading to me.



Book No 26

"Mortal Causes" by Ian Rankin
Series: Inspector Rebus (6)
Orion Books
Paperback, 324pp.
Rating: 4 stars - ****

No Cats, Kits or Dogs - I just really felt like reading this!

I think that this is my favorite Rebus novel to date because the case was very thrilling and I also enjoyed how the characters were written. There were some parts about Rebus's private life, but they were not as chaotic or drawn out as in the previous novels, and I liked that much better.
The case - a body found in Mary King's Close during the Edinburgh festival - has a deep and dark background, and it leads to the Troubles in Northern Ireland. It was a very gripping reading experience for me and I enjoyed the Edinburgh setting but was also very interested in the background story connected to Belfast and Sectarianism. I'm looking forward to the next book and don't think I will wait too long until I get to it.

>51 MissBrangwen: Was about to say "ooh, I should read this one!" then realized I'd already read it in 2018! I haven't been reading the series in order so am not always certain of which ones I've read.

>52 rabbitprincess: Although I have read the first six in order, I still have trouble to tell them apart and remember which was which - they are so alike in parts!

February Recap

1. Agatha Christie: Third Girl - *°
2. Christa Wolf: Kein Ort. Nirgends - *****
3. Anthony Trollope: The Warden - ***°
4. James Patterson & Candice Fox: Never Never - **
5. Gerbrand Bakker: Birnbäume blühen weiß - ***°
6. Peter Høeg: Fräulein Smillas Gespür für Schnee - ****
7. Jill McGown: A Perfect Match - ***°
8. Kamala Harris: The Truths We Hold - ****°
9. Heinz Ohff: Heinrich von Kleist - Ein preußisches Schicksal - ***°
10. Sabaa Tahir: An Ember in the Ashes - ****°
11. Ian Rankin: Mortal Causes - ****

Best fiction: Kein Ort. Nirgends, although An Ember in the Ashes will stay with me even more.
Best nonfiction: The Truths We Hold
Stinkers: Third Girl and Never Never - both were disappointments.

Four books read in German, seven in English.
Seven books by a female author, five by a male author.
Two BIPOC authors.
Five new authors.

Two of these books were bought this month and one in January, the others were from the shelf, Fräulein Smillas Gespür für Schnee being the oldest book. I already owned it as a teenager. It was the only reread this month.
Three books were part of a series I'm reading, and I started two new series (plus one that I won't continue).
9 prose texts and 2 nonfiction (a memoir and a biography).
The prose texts: 5 mysteries, 1 fantasy novel, 2 works of literary fiction, 1 classic.

Again, I read more than 3000 pages, and while there were a few rather slim books, most had 300+ pages, so I'm quite proud of that!

~~~

Since I started the challenge, I have read 26 books in total, and that is close to the number I read in all of 2020. I'm still amazed at what wonders this group does to my reading and how it motivates me!
This month, my reading flow wasn't as good as in January, not for lack of motivation, but for lack of health. I hope that March will be better in that regard. I must say that when I looked at my list today I was positively surprised that I still managed to read so much! It didn't feel like that, and it makes me happy to think that I was able to read so much although I felt under the weather. It's safe to say that without the challenge, I would have resumed my old pattern of dropping reads all the time, but the categories helped me to stay focussed and to pick up my current reads even after some days had passed and I had lost my momentum a bit. This was a very good thing indeed.

My reading plans for March:
I am really excited for March because I have already done my reading list and there are so many books on it that I'm looking forward to and can't wait to read! March has so many great categories and I'm just enthusiastic about the books I've picked! I'm determined to continue reading like I did in the last two months!

>54 MissBrangwen: I'm so glad you're feeling motivated. Onwards! :D

>55 spiralsheep: Yes, onwards! Thank you :-)

Yay, a great reading month!

>57 rabbitprincess: Thank you! It was!

My reading hasn't gone well at all this week. I started Death in the Clouds by Agatha Christie on Monday and loved it, but after that my mojo left me. March is a very busy month regarding work for me and I'm really tired and work late in the evenings, so it's hard to pick up a book. The handling of the pandemic as it happens in Germany right now confuses me and this tears my energy down.
The good news is that my mom (who is 70 and still works in mobile home care) and my cousin (who is young but also works in mobile home care) were vaccinated on Monday (first shot).

I'm determined to resume my reading tonight because I feel that I really need to, like an automatism my mental health started to get worse when I stopped reading books and started doom scrolling and going down online rabbit holes! I felt so much better when I ignored all of that and spent my online time here, concentrating on my books and reading goals.

I'm looking forward to catching up and reading all of your threads!

As a starter, we watched the ITV Poirot adaptation of Peril at End House yesterday and enjoyed it a lot. It is one of the early ones (from 1990) and the slow pace, the costumes and the acting style are so pleasant.

>59 MissBrangwen: If you can't stop scrolling then maybe google a lovely image and scroll. I've been enjoying "sunken cities".

Good luck with your relaxation! :-)

>59 MissBrangwen: Here's to getting your mojo back!

Wishing you good reading mojo! March is busy at my work too, so I am right there with you. Went down a YouTube rabbit hole last night. Hoping to get back into the books today.

And yes the early Poirots are great!

>60 spiralsheep: That's a very good idea, thanks!

>61 Tess_W: Thank you!

>62 rabbitprincess: Good to know I'm not alone in this! And I hope you were able to read yesterday.

I finally finished my first read of this month! I read Death in the Clouds by Agatha Christie for MysteryKIT. I ordered it second hand in January especially for this KIT because I want to read all the Agatha Christie novels and this one was missing from my collection but was perfect for the challenge.



Book No 27

"Death in the Clouds" by Agatha Christie
Series: Poirot (11)
Fontana
Paperback, 223pp.
Rating: 4 1/2 stars - ****°

Cats&Kits: MysteryKIT - locked room mystery

This is a very classic Poirot, and it's safe to say that I enjoy those the most. The locked room is an airplane going from Paris to London and Poirot is a passenger. One of the other passengers is murdered and of course everyone on the plane is a suspect - including Poirot himself! It's a very methodical novel and Poirot at its best. While I guessed a small part of the solution, I did not guess the culprit and I loved the solving of the case.
It was also very interesting to read about air travel in the 1930s, which made me enjoy the novel even more. I'm happy that after the disappointment of Third Girl, I was rewarded with a great read once more (although there still is racism and also sexism in this text and it's not ok).

>64 MissBrangwen: Glad you enjoyed your Poirot adventure.

It’s been long enough since I read Death in the Clouds that your description makes me think it would be a good book to reread soon.

>65 thornton37814: I did! :-)

>66 hailelib: I think it's absolutely one that can be read more than once!

>64 MissBrangwen: I'm glad you enjoyed Death in the Clouds! It's one of my favorite Agatha Christies, and I have read it several times. Even knowing the solution to the mystery, I still enjoy the ride! :)

>68 christina_reads: I can very well imagine rereading this myself in a few years! I agree that it's one of the best!

I can't believe that over a week has passed since I last wrote something here!

The last days have not been the best because I had so much work to do, and the Covid situation is getting crazier and crazier, so I just couldn't read after most of those long and strenuous days. As expected, that made things even worse because it meant that I didn't really take any time off mentally.

We managed to watch the ITV adaptation of Death in the Clouds, though, and once again I think it was very well done. The changes to the story are not too drastic and I liked the actors, although in my mind I had imagined most of the characters very differently.

I also did manage a little bit of reading and hope to resume reading this weekend. The good thing is that I have only five days of work to go - then it's Easter break and we will turn our apartment into a fortress of tea, books, cookies and blankets!!!

>70 MissBrangwen: Yay, fortress of books! :-)

>70 MissBrangwen: Oooh a fortress of tea and books and cookies and blankets sounds divine! Sending you strength to push through those next few days of work :)

My teacher friends are also counting down to Easter. Even though there are very few Covid cases here at the moment, they're always worried, and rightly so. It must be so much worse for you. Enjoy your well-deserved break. How long do you get?

>71 spiralsheep: :-))

>72 rabbitprincess: Doesn't it? Thank you for your kind words!

>73 pamelad: Thank you for your kind comment! We get two weeks, hurray! There is still work to do (grading papers etc.) but I will take as many days off as I can because I really need it!

I bought The Titanic Secret by Clive Cussler and Jack du Brul on our honeymoon last October. The day after the wedding I was so tired that I couldn't decide which books to pack, so the next day we drove to the train station and just bought the books that caught our interest. This one did because of the title and the Titanic illustration on the cover. I started reading the book that evening, but stopped after the prologue and picked it up now because it was perfect for GenreCAT.



Book No 28

"The Titanic Secret" by Clive Cussler and Jack du Brul
Series: Isaac Bell (11)
Penguin Books
Paperback, 423pp.
Rating: 2 1/2 stars - **°

Virtual Shelf ticked off: Historical Fiction
Cats&Kits: GenreCAT - Action/Adventure, RandomCAT - surprise

From the title, cover and blurb I expected a rather serious crime story or thriller that included the building or the voyage of the Titanic. I had never heard of the author or the series, and therefore I was rather shocked by the prologue. It involves Dirk Pitt, the hero of another series by Clive Cussler, who discovered an 18th-century submarine in New York that is about to be raised. When there are complications, he risks his life and jumps into the submarine. Because he is such a good hero, he succeeds in operating this 250 year old machine and there is a hunt along the Hudson River. Phew!
I understand that this might be a lot of fun and that many people will enjoy this kind of Indiana Jones story, but it was simply not what I had expected or what I like to read. And definitely not on my honeymoon!
So I ditched the book and decided to read it one day when I was in the mood.

When I chose to read it for GenreCAT and started where I had left it, after the prologue, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the protagonist is not Dirk Pitt, but Isaac Bell, an American detective who works for the Van Dorn Agency (modeled on Pinkerton). He is investigating a mine disaster that is connected to the discovery of a rare element (similar to Radium). All is not as it seems, and what follows is a railway hunt through Great Britain, a visit to Paris and a journey on an ice-breaker to the Arctic.
I really enjoyed the crime story aspects of this: The investigation, the combining of clues and the discovery of secrets. The pre-World War One atmosphere is depicted well and I enjoyed the elegance of the time and the description of the settings and places.
What got on my nerves was the perfection of the hero Isaac Bell - I think across the whole novel, there are only two things mentioned that he can't do, related to acoustics and to fighting fire on a ship because he lacks experience. I think a character that is so perfect regarding everything - his personal traits, fighting skills, detective qualities, appearance - is simply boring. I understand that it may come with the genre, but still.
I also think that the story is simply too long, it should have ended at about 350 pages because after that it seems endlessly prolonged with yet another detention, another fight, another complication. It was so "boys will be boys". Yawn!

And then there's the disappointing fact that the Titanic only has a very minor role to play in the story. In fact, when Isaac Bell arrives in Southampton, she's already gone. In the following chapter, he has breakfast with his wife when they hear about the tragedy and realize how lucky they were to escape. I think that scene is well-written, but it doesn't really merit the title and the cover. This seems to be connected to an earlier Dirk Pitt novel where he raises the Titanic in connection to the search of the element featured in this book, but well, I won't dive into that. This will probably be the last Clive Cussler novel I have read.

Just a note on our honeymoon because some of you may wonder what we did during the pandemic: From our pre-pandemic plan to go the Seychelles we went to a plan to go to Denmark because it seemed very safe. When Denmark became a risk area (I think in September), we changed plans and booked a hotel on the Baltic coast in Germany. Then, just two days before the wedding, our city became a risk area, too, and there was a new rule that people from risk areas weren't allowed to stay anywhere else in Germany (the irony is that we would have been allowed to go to Denmark, but by then it didn't feel reasonable). So in the end, we just stayed in the hotel in our city where we had booked the night after the wedding. We spent more than a week there and did day trips around Northern Germany (just hiking, prehistoric monuments and one visit to a large monastery where it was easy to keep your distance). The situation was still quite relaxed back then in Germany, with restaurants and shops open (wearing masks of course) and being a risk area meant having 50 new cases in relation to 100,000 people within seven days, something we now dream of (at least where I live and work). We still isolated as much as we could, traveled by car, picked up our food from restaurants and ate it in the car or in the hotel room etc.

ETA: I was pondering about what I wrote here and it feels unreal how far this time seems now. Although we knew the pandemic was serious in October, we were still so optimistic, and while not being careless, we still felt quite safe with the precautions that were taken and everybody was sure that we had the upper hand on this. Now, nearly six months later, this seems so far away and I couldn't at all imagine doing most of these things in the near future.

The movie Sahara, based on a Brad Pitt adventure, is good fun but I wouldn't read a Clive Cussler novel unless there was nothing else at all. The back of a cereal box would be better!

I hope things get better where you are soon. Maybe once enough people are vaccinated conditions will improve.

>77 hailelib: I'm pretty sure I won't read another one! And thank you!

Yesterday was Tolkien Reading Day! The 25th of March is the day of the defeat of Sauron and the fall of Barad-dûr, and it is celebrated by Tolkienists around the world and used as a day to read Tolkien's works. I chose to read Bilbo's Last Song, written by J.R.R. Tolkien himself and illustrated by Pauline Baynes.



Book No 29

"Bilbo's Last Song" by J.R.R. Tolkien, ill. by Pauline Baynes
Series: The Lord of the Rings (epilogue)
Alfred A. Knopf
Hardcover, 32pp.
Rating: 5 stars - *****

Virtual Shelf ticked off: J.R.R. Tolkien

"Bilbo's Last Song" is a poem that serves as a kind of epilogue to "The Lord of the Rings". In the end of that epic novel, Bilbo embarks on a journey to the Undying Lands. This poem is about the start of the journey from the Grey Havens, describing Bilbo's thoughts and feelings from his own point of view.
While there are a few Bilbo poems that to my mind are better than this one ("The Road Goes Ever On" or "I Sit Beside The Fire And Think"), this is still excellent in its simplicity. The words are clear and on point, and yet it is very moving and captures Bilbo's weariness and melancholy, accompanied by his hope and sense of adventure that is still lingering within him.
However, what makes this book special are actually the illustrations by Pauline Baynes. She was an illustrator favoured by Tolkien and is known for her illustrations of "The Chronicles of Narnia". She did the first illustration of the poem in 1974 when it was published as a poster.
The illustrations in this book are simply delightful! While each quartet of the poem is decorated with garlands and branches of different plants, there is a scene corresponding to it on the opposite page (for example, pictures of Bilbo in Rivendell, Bilbo and the elves riding through the forest, the ship waiting at the Grey Havens, Merry and Pippin arriving there to meet Frodo and Sam). On the bottom of each page, there is a small picture from "The Hobbit", thus showing Bilbo's first grand journey, which he might remember while he embarks on his last one.
These pictures are so lovely and full of vivid details! I think I will browse this small book time and time again just to look at them.

>70 MissBrangwen: That sounds just lovely! I was not aware of this "epilogue" and I think I'll wishlist this for when I decide to next delve into Tolkien! #BB

>80 Tanya-dogearedcopy: Yes, it's a lovely little book indeed!

I bought Romantic English Homes six years ago when I had just moved to a new apartment and was looking for some inspiration on decorating and styling the rooms. It was an impulse buy on the big A because of the beautiful cover, depicting a room I would like to just jump into. Thus, this is one of the rare cases when I read the German edition of an English book instead of the original. The German edition is called "Romantische Interieurs - echt englisch".
I had browsed the book when I bought it back then, but this month I decided to read it from start to finish.



Book No 30

"Romantische Interieurs - echt englisch" by Robert O'Byrne and Simon Brown
Original Title: Romantic English Homes
Gerstenberg
Hardcover, 176pp.
Rating: 5 stars - *****

Virtual Shelf ticked off: Architecture | Interiors
Cats&Kits: AlphaKIT - R-U

This beautiful book, written by Robert O'Byrne and featuring many photographs by Simon Brown, is definitely not a guide on how to decorate your own home, although it might inspire the reader and provide for some ideas. Instead, it introduces us to a number of different houses in various regions of England (among them Cornwall, Dorset, Northumberland and London). It presents fourteen different homes - all of them historic, some of them stately, some of them farm houses, some very eccentric, some rather solemn.
As already described, there are many photographs and the historical background is explained in detail. Very often this goes hand in hand with an explanation of the area's history, such as the influence of the dissolution of the monasteries (meaning that many religious buildings were converted to secular residences) or the ups and downs of different trades such as wool or mining. The book also shows what kind of renovations and conversions were done on the buildings and what the present owners still hope to do.
It was wonderful to dream myself away for a couple of hours a day, to revel in the marvelous pictures and to travel at least on paper for a short while.

When I visit my mom for Christmas, I traditionally buy a book at the local bookshop, and in 2018, it was Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks. Although I had read many unfavorable reviews, I was still curious and the cover appealed to me. I started right away, but it didn't really hold my interest. After two more attempts to read more stories (one later in 2019 and one in summer 2020) I had gotten as far as page 122, and I decided that with U being one of this month's letters for AlphaKIT, now or never was the time to finally finish this book.



Book No 31

"Uncommon Type" by Tom Hanks
Arrow Books
Paperback, 405pp.
Rating: 3 stars - ***

Virtual Shelf ticked off: Contemporary Literature - English
Cats&Kits: AlphaKIT - R-U

This collection consists of seventeen short texts, all taking place in the USA. While most are classic short stories, there are four newspaper columns and also one short screenplay. These didn't speak to me at all.
I liked a few of the short stories a lot, my favorites being "Christmas Eve 1953", a story about two veterans, "A Special Weekend", which is about a boy spending a weekend with his mother who left his father to start a new life, and "These are the meditations of my heart", which deals with a woman going on with her life after separating from her partner. Most of the other stories were rather mediocre, and some of them I simply didn't get and couldn't see the point in. I think that I lack a little bit of knowledge about everyday life in contemporary America to fully appreciate some of the texts (at least that is what I understood from other reviews), but apart from that, I must also admit that the tone and style of the stories came across as rather uniform, which made it hard to keep invested.
I am glad I continued reading because a few of the better stories are in the second half of the book, but I still expected more from this collection.

Great reviews, Mirjam! Glad you are enjoying Agatha Christie who will always be one of my favourites. I've added Kamala Harris's book to my watchlist. I admire her a lot.

I hope you have a relaxing Easter break with plenty of reading and cookies!

>84 VivienneR: Great! I think The Truths We Hold is totally worth a read!
And thank you - I've already finished two books, so I can report that the break has started out well! :-)

>83 MissBrangwen: - I commented on someone else's thread that although the stories were ok, I was expecting a book of stories about how he acquired his typewriters.

>86 dudes22: I remember reading your comment! Because I had read so many reviews I knew that it wasn't a book about his typewriters, but I was still expecting that they would feature more prominently in the stories! That was one reason why I liked "These are the meditations of my heart": The shop selling the typewriters was a great setting.

When locked room mystery came up for this month's MysteryKIT, I was pleased to find that The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie may count as one, since I had wanted to read it for a long time. It was one of the first Agatha Christie novels - or in fact, mystery novels - I bought, in August 2015, from my favorite second hand online bookshop. There is no real reason why I didn't read it sooner, but maybe I was a bit in awe because it is supposed to be such a masterpiece.



Book No 32

"The Murder of Roger Ackroyd" by Agatha Christie
Series: Poirot (4)
HarperCollins
Paperback, 368pp.
Rating: 5 stars - *****

Cats&Kits: MysteryKIT - locked room mystery, AlphaKIT - R-U

As I wrote above, this is often called one of Agatha Christie's masterpieces, and I must agree. I just loved reading this: The clear and concise story, the relatively small set of suspects, the atmosphere of the different homes and the village, the sympathetic narrator, and the straightforward case. It lacks all the aspects that I do not like about some Agatha Christie novels, when the cases are too jumbled up and seem too incredible. So I am very happy that once more, this was Agatha Christie at her best, and I was happy to read a story I could just dive into and forget the world around me.
I also enjoyed that we get to know Hercule Poirot through the eyes of the village people, who observe him at first without knowing who he is or what he does. These scenes are very funny and I chuckled from time to time.

My plan was to read The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins as another read for this month's MysteryKIT, but I had to realize that this was absolutely not possible in the short time left. When I browsed my shelves for another possible read, I came across Maigret voyage by George Simenon, in which the victim is found in a locked hotel room. I had wanted to read a Maigret novel for a long time and I totally felt like it, so I decided to choose this one at once!

Although this was my first time actually reading anything by Georges Simenon, I have been "acquainted" with him a little longer: I first heard about him on my first trip to Liège, his birthplace, eight years ago. Although Liège is not as famous as Brussels, Bruges or other places, it's one of my favorite Belgian cities. I read about Simenon in my travel guide and also saw his statue in the city centre. A few years later, I bought a box of German audio plays based on four of his Maigret novels and I loved listening to these, but it took me until yesterday to finally read a proper one!

This particular book is from a book swap shelf at the supermarket where I used to shop until I moved two years ago. It was a pleasant habit to browse that shelf after my grocery shopping to see if there were any new arrivals, and of course it was a great opportunity to drop my unwanted books there (usually they were gone the next time I had a look).

This edition is from the 1960s. It includes three Maigret novels translated to German. As said above, I read Maigret auf Reisen: The original title is "Maigret voyage" and there are two English versions: "Maigret Travels" and "Maigret and the Millionaires".



Book No 33

"Maigret auf Reisen" by Georges Simenon
Series: Maigret (51)
Original Title: Maigret Voyage
Lingen Verlag
Hardcover, 172pp. (512pp. including all three novels)
Rating: 4 stars - ****

Virtual Shelf ticked off: Europe
Cats&Kits: MysteryKIT - locked room mystery, GeoKIT - Europe

Maigret is called to a Parisian luxury hotel where a famous millionaire has been murdered while taking a bath in his hotel room. A few rooms further down, his lover had spent the night and is gone in the morning. Maigret starts the chase and thus we travel to Nice with him, and further on to Monte Carlo and Lausanne, exploring the world of the rich and famous where Maigret does not feel at home at all.
The contrast this setting provides is very interesting: The luxurious and pompous world of millionaires and film stars opposed to the seedier sides of Paris, Maigret's down to earth ways and his calm, no-nonsense approach to work.
The case could have been a bit more interesting and I felt like the solution was a bit too easy, but I am looking forward to reading more Maigret novels!

>89 MissBrangwen: I have not yet read a Maigret, either. I hope to do so by the end of this year.

>90 Tess_W: I can't wait to read more now that I've finally started!

Originally I had planned to read Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson for the February AlphaKIT because I had wanted to read it for a long time and never got to it. However, I realized that it was an even better fit for March and was perfect for several CATs and KITs at once.
I bought this book at Monument Books in Vientiane, Laos, in July 2017. I was a little bored in Vientiane and was happy to find that bookshop, so I did quite a haul there.



Book No 34

"Kidnapped" by Robert Louis Stevenson
Collins Classics
Paperback, 243pp.
Rating: 4 stars - ****

Cats&Kits: GenreCAT - Action/Adventure, HistoryCAT - Early Modern, AlphaKIT - R-U
BingoDOG: One Word Title

Until I read about more about this book in the thread of this month's HistoryCAT (Early Modern), I thought that this was simply an adventure story taking place at sea, maybe with some pirates thrown in. Thus, I was even happier to discover that the story is set in Scotland, after the Jacobite Rebellion. It may be a sacrilege to say this, but it actually felt like a crossover between Dickens and Outlander!
While I followed young David Balfour from the Lowlands to the Hebrides and across the Scottish glens and mountains, meeting Highlanders, wandering the moors, nearly starving, hiding from British soldiers and trying to win his rightful inheritance, I loved this character more and more - and of course also his companion. I enjoyed the descriptions of 18th century Scotland and I found myself googling and researching names and places after every sitting, delighted to find so much historical substance where I had not expected it.
I think there are some chapters that are a little too lengthy, but apart from that it was so much fun to read this and I am glad that I finally did.

This morning, I finished another short nonfiction book that took me just a few short sittings to read: Und alles ohne Liebe by Burkhard Spinnen. It is a study of the female protagonists of Theodor Fontane's novels. He is one of the most famous German 19th-century authors and one of the most important German poetic realists.
I bought this book one and a half years ago in a bookshop in nearby Oldenburg where there was a huge display on Fontane for his 200th birthday. There were so many interesting books, but I chose this one because it was reasonably slim and I fell in love with the cover illustration.



Book No 35

"Und alles ohne Liebe" by Burkhard Spinnen
Schöffling & Co
Hardcover, 110pp.
Rating: 2 1/2 stars - **°

Cats&Kits: AlphaKIT - R-U

The title of this book roughly translates as "And all of that without love" and is taken from one of Fontane's poems. It sets the scene for this little book that is concerned with Fontane's female protagonists: All of them had to lead their lives without love. Some found someone they loved but weren't able or allowed to start or keep a relationship for various reasons, others did not even find someone they truly loved. This is not the real focus of the book, though.
One after the other, the author examines the female protagonists of the novels Effi Briest, Frau Jenny Treibel, Irrungen Wirrungen, Die Poggenpuhls, L'adultera, Mathilde Möhring, Stine and Cécile. I have only read the first three novels mentioned here - Irrungen Wirrungen, available in English as "On Tangled Paths" in a new translation from 2010, was one of my favourite books read in 2020 - so I was open-minded to learn more about Fontane. The foreword was promising, as the author explained that he wanted to provide a fresh and modern view of these women, that he wanted to show that Fontane's works are timeless and haven't aged, that they can be read within a contemporary context and they stand the test of time. I very much agree with this approach, only: This fresh view never came. From page to page, the author rambled on and on without focus.
There were aspects I agreed with - the importance of living your life independently, taking chances when you can because in the end you don't want to regret that you have wasted your life, the overemphasis on keeping up appearances that takes energy away from what you really want to do with your life. However, I can't see why the author thinks that this interpretation is breathtakingly new. When I first read Effi Briest aged 18, I felt all of this and I didn't need a man to explain it to me. There is something cringeworthy about some of the passages and something feels really off: On the one hand, the author celebrates himself as someone who finally understands these Fontane women and who loves these novels because of them. On the other hand, though, there are sexist undertones when he describes young teenage girls as silly things and b*tches and blames them for what happened to them because they didn't fight it. This comes close to victim-blaming sometimes and this was when I couldn't take the author serious anymore, PhD in German literature or not. It is a pity because I do agree with some of the commentary (it's so rambling that you cannot call it an analysis), but I expected a lot more from this.

A note on the cover: It is a painting by the Danish artist Vilhelm Hammershøi. I hadn't heard of him before, but I googled his paintings and absolutely love them - so something very good has come from this book in the end!

I had never heard about Dylan Thomas until I did a guided day tour from Cardiff to the Gower Peninsula almost a decade ago. The tour included a stop at the Dylan Thomas Centre in Swansea. I found this writer very interesting and added Under Milk Wood to my wishlist. However, it took me until January 2021 to finally buy it, when I came across it at my favourite second hand online bookshop.



Book No 36

"Under Milk Wood" by Dylan Thomas
Phœnix
Paperback, 89pp.
Rating: 4 stars - ****

Cats&Kits: AlphaKIT - R-U

"Under Milk Wood" is a radio play and while I am used to reading plays and have also read a handful of radio/audio plays, I realized after a couple of pages that this one must definitely be listened to. My husband was sitting next to me reading his fantasy novel and I disturbed him every few minutes because I wanted to read a passage to him. These words and sentences simply beg to be read aloud, and I tried doing this in my head as well as I could, but I still think that the experience is only a fraction of what listening to it might offer. Every word carries meaning, there are so many puns and word plays, and I think that I read it far too quickly (because that is my pace even if I try to read more slowly) to even appreciate half of it.
The story is set in Wales in the small town of Llareggub (read that in reverse!) and we follow the inhabitants through their day - from their dreams during the night when we learn about their secrets, their desires and fears, until the next evening. It is funny, sad, disturbing, sometimes incomprehensible to me (I think that will get better when I listen to it), crazy and still so true to life in many aspects. There are so many characters that it is hard to keep up with them and to tell them all apart, but that is another aspect that I think will be better when one listens to it.

March Recap

1. Agatha Christie: Death in the Clouds - ****°
2. Clive Cussler & Jack du Brul: The Titanic Secret - **°
3. J.R.R. Tolkien & Pauline Baynes: Bilbo's Last Song - *****
4. Robert O'Byrne & Simon Brown: Romantic English Homes - *****
5. Tom Hanks: Uncommon Type - ***
6. Agatha Christie: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - *****
7. Georges Simenon: Maigret auf Reisen - ****
8. Robert Louis Stevenson: Kidnapped - ****
9. Burkhard Spinnen: Und alles ohne Liebe - **°
10. Dylan Thomas: Under Milk Wood - ****

Best fiction: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, and Bilbo's Last Song in a different league for its poetry and illustrations
Best nonfiction: Romantic English Homes
Stinkers: The Titanic Secret and especially Und alles ohne Liebe

Three books read in German, seven in English.
Seven books by a male author and only three by a female one (Agatha Christie being the only writer and counting Pauline Baynes as well) - this somewhat surprised me!
No BIPOC authors.
Seven new authors.

Two of these books were bought in January this year and one in February, the others were from the shelf. Romantic English Homes was the oldest, bought in 2014. I didn't do any rereads this month.
Two books were part of a series I'm reading, and I started one new series (plus one that I won't continue).
6 prose texts, 1 play, 1 poetry and 2 nonfiction.
The prose texts: 3 mysteries, 1 thriller, 1 classic adventure story, 1 short story collection.

I read about 2000 pages this month and mostly short and very short books, but I'm ok with that! I do feel like reading some longer books that I can really dive into now, though.

~~~

I won't lie: March was a very bad month because of the rise of Covid cases in our area. I was required to go to work each day and we had Covid cases in many classes (with all the stress and fears this causes) while on the other hand trying to prepare and carry out important exams that I had to grade very quickly in the evenings and on weekends because time was short due to school closures earlier this school year. I don't want to compare my plight to health care workers around the globe, but I can still say that I was exhausted throughout this month physically and emotionally.
Because of this, I only read three books until Easter break finally started, but I am so happy that once I was off work, I resumed my reading at a very quick pace! It helps me keep my mind off things and motivates me to do something I really love instead of getting devoured by the news or being consumed by fear. I am sure that without this group and the challenges it would have been difficult for me to start reading at once when I finally had the time, but like this, I had my reading list and goals and it was a great way to just switch into self-care mode again. I am so happy that in the end of this month my list looks like this because I was able to finish so many reads, even if they were shorter works!

My reading plans for April:
I definitely want to read more throughout the month and try to make time. I know that I need it! I do feel like getting in some longer reads now and I have also scheduled some comfort reads!

Hoping you have a great reading month in April to help you escape real life! I ended up escaping in computer games, which was fun but doesn't hit the same spot that reading a good book does.

>96 rabbitprincess: Thank you! Yes, computer games are not quite the same, are they? I‘ve never done any, but I feel the same after binge-watching a series.

This afternoon we watched the ITV adaptation of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. While it was (at least regarding the most important aspects) mostly true to the novel and the atmosphere was very well depicted, in my opinion, that ending scene was added unnecessarily.
Poirot, Inspector Japp and Dr Sheppard chase each other around Ackroyd's factory and I think that this wasn't true to Agatha Christie's style and didn't add anything to the story.

I like to have a collection of short stories to read when I am not feeling like my main read (novel). I had done this for some years until I got stuck in Uncommon Type for two years and never picked up another one because I was determined to finish that one first! It sounds so silly, but that was how it happened!
Now that I have finally finished, I am delighted to explore more short stories and pulled a small collection of stories by W. Somerset Maugham from the shelf. This was a very cheap find from my usual secondhand online bookshop five years ago. Old books like this can often be bought there for a few cents (plus the postage), so that is very tempting (I usually buy a handful of them to at least make it worthwhile for the seller)!



Book No 37

"Short Stories" by W. Somerset Maugham (ed. Herbert Müller)
Velhagen & Klasing
Paperback, 43pp.
Rating: 3 1/2 stars - ***°

Cats&Kits: AlphaKIT - A-W

This collection was published in 1962 in Germany for usage in schools, so apart from the 43 pages of main text it includes thirteen pages of vocabulary that I did not use, though.

It includes six stories:
- Salvatore
- Mabel
- The Happy Man
- The Poet
- The End of the Flight
- The Bum

There is also a foreword by the editor Herbert Müller and a letter of the author to a previous editor (Klaus W. Jonas) in which he explains his way of writing short stories. I found this very helpful as an introduction because I didn't know anything about W. Somerset Maugham before apart from the fact that he wrote stories set in various parts of the world.
The stories were a mixed bag for me: I loved "Salvatore" because of the emotions and the descriptions of idyllic Italian life. "The Poet" was strong because of its descriptions, too, and I think that the surprise ending is very well done. "The Bum" is a story I will think about some more because the characterization of the characters is so interesting. I do not care so much about the other three stories and could not really see their point, but on the other hand that might be my lack of understanding.
Of course there is the colonial background, the occasional racism, even prejudice towards other Europeans (in the stories set in Spain and Italy). These aspects are at least not in the centre of the stories and the plots are rather about the private and inner thoughts and problems of the characters.
I own another collection of short stories by W. Somerset Maugham and am looking forward to reading them soon and discovering what surprises and characters they will show me.

Also: What a pretty school book is that?

Today we watched the Kenneth Branagh adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing for the first time and it was so much fun! I am not a Shakespeare expert at all, but I did enjoy it.

I also finished Exit West today and I have so many thoughts in my head that I will need some time to think before I can write my review!

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid is one of those novels I had wanted to read for a long time but never did. I bought it at Waterstones in Manchester in July 2018 and decided to read it now because after reading so many mysteries I felt like I was up to something different. It was also a good choice for two CATs.



Book No 38

"Exit West" by Mohsin Hamid
Penguin Books
Paperback, 229pp.
Rating: 4 1/2 stars - ****°

Cats&Kits: GenreCAT - Literary Fiction, RandomCAT - Let's Go To The Library

Sometimes a novel has so many layers and nuances that I feel at a loss at what to write, and this is the case with this one. On the one hand, it is a novel about migration: The reasons for it, the consequences, the sacrifices people who migrate have to make in order to save other aspects of their lives or their lives at all. On the other hand, it is a novel simply about two characters, their love for each other and how they and this love change over time.
The first part of the novel follows Saeed and Nadia as they live and fall in love in an unnamed city, which could be any city in the Middle East or South Asia. Their city is threatened by militants and war breaks out. What was most impressive to me were the descriptions of daily life in this occupied and later war-torn city.
Nadia and Saeed decide to leave their city through one of the doors that pop up and lead to other parts of the world. Although this is a magical realism element, it almost doesn't feel like one because it is not dwelt on a lot.
The two lovers try to start a new life in foreign places, they move on again, and their relationship changes over time as they adapt to these places and the situations they encounter.
So yes, this novel is not only about migration as such, but about how people change, about what they expect from life, about what binds them together and what separates them, and, as the text states, there is not only migration from place to place but across time as well.
This novel made me reflect on so many things, and above all, it also made me even more aware of what many people have to go through. I thought about the people in my life who have had such experiences - some of my students, my grandparents (who were displaced when they were teenagers). And it even made me reflect on myself and the kinds of migrations I have experienced, although thankfully they were never as extreme as those of many other people.
My only criticism is that I wish that some events would have been narrated a little more detailed. The summarizing style was a bit hard to follow and so I was only able to read a few chapters a time, although the novel is not long. On the other hand, I appreciated the style a lot because it felt authentic and in tune with the message of the text as I understood it.

I'm catching up slowly so won't make long comments, but I want you to know I'm reading.

>93 MissBrangwen: I especially enjoyed this review.

>99 MissBrangwen: Yes, I also like that sort of simple but expressive late 1950s - early 1960s cover!

>101 MissBrangwen: Good review! I read his The Reluctant Fundamentalist and thought it was really good, but was put off Exit West by reviews about magical realism. But your review has made me think I should give it a try.

>102 spiralsheep: I did a small hiatus myself a week before you did and there sure is a lot of catching up to do. Thank you for taking the time to read and comment! I'm especially happy about your comment on >93 MissBrangwen: !

>103 Jackie_K: I haven't read The Reluctant Fundamentalist yet, but it's on my wishlist now! I'm not a fan of magical realism myself but can confirm that I didn't find it too disturbing in this novel. The doors are rather a means to get somewhere without the long journey and not really important themselves.

As I wrote yesterday, we have watched the Kenneth Branagh adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing and enjoyed it a lot. I must admit that I have a somewhat strained relationship with Shakespeare. I have always felt a desire to really grasp Shakespeare, to enjoy it and immerse myself in it. But I never could.
I think I studied Hamlet three times in different university classes, as well as other plays, I visited different teacher workshops led by British and German Shakespearean actors and so on... I read more than half of the plays and many sonnets from ca. 2012 to 2016 in an attempt to become more of an expert.
My understanding got better, but still I always felt like I couldn't really get my head around it and was lacking something. I didn't enjoy my reading sessions and was driven by sheer will, but of course, I abandoned my project.

This year, it dawned upon me that probably I have tried too hard and that I should do it the other way around and just do it for fun. My husband was all for it and so we watched the film yesterday. Well, it is totally stupid, but it was the first time I ever saw Shakespeare actually played. And it was a revelation!!! I understood nearly everything, I was totally drawn in and swept away and captured. So much that this morning, I grabbed my old The Complete Works of William Shakespeare and read the text, finally understanding and feeling motivated, even delighted. So from now on: I will watch a play first, read it afterwards, and then read secondary literature, commentary etc.
I can't believe it took me so many years to realize this. Even more so because in my German Literature classes I always tell my students, before we read our first play, that what we do is not natural and these kinds of text are not meant to be read. But I have never put it into practice myself.

The copy is in fact the one that I bought in Cairns, Queensland, at Angus & Robertson for a course on Renaissance Literature. I figured that it would be worthwhile because we were reading several plays as well as many sonnets.



Book No 39

"Much Ado About Nothing" by William Shakespeare
HarperCollins
Paperback, 32pp. (1436pp. on the whole)
Rating: 4 stars - ****

Cats&Kits: AlphaKIT - A-W

I still don't feel compelled to write a review here as I have too much respect, so I will just jot down a few thoughts:

- There certainly are a few plot holes/points one wonders about, such as: Why does Claudio just believe the accusations instead of investigating or talking to Hero? Why does Margaret not speak up? Why does Hero just take him back and seems happy with it? These aspect don't really disturb me, though, because I take it that they are just needed to make the story work.
- I love the banter and play between Benedick and Beatrice, and this is definitely something I didn't get when I read the text years ago. It just came to life when I saw Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson acting.
- As others have stated, the love story between these two is more interesting and much stronger than the one between Claudio and Hero.

I am interested to learn more and have ordered some works of secondary literature to dive into this!

>105 MissBrangwen: Much Ado is one of my favourite Shakespeare plays, and yes, I love that film so much! Although I'm not entirely convinced that Keanu Reeves was in the same league as the others :)

>105 MissBrangwen: I've always preferred the sonnets. And, yes, a playscript is a play not a reading, and Shakespeare's plays are very stagey and theatrical because he was an actor-writer not an intellectual author. I even managed to like Taming of the Shrew after seeing an especially good production at the Minack Theatre! And despite not being a huge Branagh fan I think his Much Ado, with all due credit to Emma Thompson, was excellent. I also thought All Is True was a better film than most people seemed to see.

>106 Jackie_K: I think Keanu Reeves played a privileged dimwit like a natural.... >;-)

>105 MissBrangwen: One of my history profs always said Shakespeare was not meant to be read, but meant to be watched!

>105 MissBrangwen: I really enjoy they way you write a little about how/why you read a particular work and then review the work itself. And watching either movie adaptations or staged productions is very helpful (but maybe not films of staged productions -- the worst of both worlds, not the high production values of movies and not the audience energy of the theater).

I recommend the Trevor Nunn version of Twelfth Night next.

>106 Jackie_K: I must say I agree about Keanu Reeves!

>107 spiralsheep: Wow, it must have been wonderful to see a production at the Minack Theatre! That is something I dream of. The Cornish seaside is one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen.
And I didn't know about All Is True! That somehow totally escaped me.

>108 Tess_W: I agree!

>109 ELiz_M: Thank you so much! I agree about films of staged productions, I only know some but they are terribly boring.

I bought The Last Legion by Valerio Massimo Manfredi at a charity shop in Llandudno, Wales, as I was on a shopping spree and I thought the Roman topic was interesting. I never read it, though, so this month's HistoryCAT was the perfect prompt to finally do so.



Book No 40

"The Last Legion" by Valerio Massimo Manfredi
Original Title: L'Ultima Legione
Pan Macmillan
Paperback, 426pp.
Rating: 2 stars - **

Cats&Kits: HistoryCAT - Ancient, GeoKIT - Europe

Although I liked some aspects of this novel, all in all it was a huge disappointment.
The author is an archaeology professor and while I cannot actually judge it, it seems to me that the novel is well researched.
I didn't know a lot about the ending of the Western Roman Empire and in the beginning, I had trouble understanding the context of the novel and the situation the characters were in, so I needed to do some quick research on the historical background. That was very interesting and I definitely learned something about that period of time, but I do think that the novel should have provided that context for the reader. Similarly, there are so many Roman place names, so I had to google a lot to find out where exactly the characters were headed and where they were journeying. Again, a simple map or reference guide/list of place names would have been so helpful.

Having said that, the first third of the text is a historical novel with a lot of background that convincingly describes the atmosphere of Italy at the fall of the Empire. Many Romans looking back in grief to what once was, many afraid of what will be. Others coming to terms with the fact that the world has changed, creating alliances with the "Barbarians", trying to make the best of the situation. I enjoyed the descriptions of the buildings and landscapes, the Latin phrases employed to create a more authentic atmosphere. There is a lot of action, sometimes too much, but the first third is a page turner.

The plot is not a difficult one: The Western Roman Empire is holding on to the shreds of its existence and the Barbarians have kidnapped Romulus, the young emperor. A group of soldiers, led by a woman with her own motives, try to free him. Romulus is still in the company of his teacher, who wants to take the boy to Britannia in order to fulfill a prophecy. It's apparent from the beginning that the novel connects the Arthurian legends to the story of the last - or the lost - legion. While that idea is not even that far-fetched (as far as I know, there is research indicating that the Arthurian legend might spring from a Roman soldier who fought against the Saxons), it seemed quite forced in this novel. From what the blurb promised, I was looking forward to a historical novel and not one with fantasy elements that feel artificial and inauthentic within the atmosphere established previously.

Well, I have written so much and have not even scratched what is most important to me and what disturbed me the most: The characterization. While I liked the first third of the novel the most and wish that it would have ended after that, it is also the part of the story where the characterization is the most superficial. Most characters are like action figurines, fighting and fighting, but the reader doesn't learn anything about them. Later, more is shown and explained, but the characterization is always artificial and inauthentic. The characters jump from one motivation to the next, they change their behavior without apparent reason or explanation. They present long monologues that don't fit the situation, and a lot of characterization is narrated instead of shown.

Moreover, the author has serious problems in creating a balanced female character. While Livia, the Venetian amazon, seems to be a strong female character, more often than not she is rather a sexual fantasy and a cardboard character. The male gaze is obvious throughout whenever female characters are present, even in situations when this is not appropriate or emphatic at all. This made me uncomfortable even just as a reader and, thankfully, not a woman in the story. An example: Romulus' mother has to stand in front of Odoacer, the "Barbarian" commander, who wants to persuade her to marry him. The author describes her proud bearing, but also her fear and her exhaustion, her disarrayed clothes - and not to forget, her perfect breasts. It is so UNNECESSARY!!!
I wanted to stop reading then, but it was like the proverbial train wreck.

And it even gets "better". There is also a Black character, the giant Batiatus. Every time he appears, his dark skin and his strength and bodily features need to be mentioned - which is highly disturbing considering the "tradition" of likening Black people to animals and reducing them to their physicality. Let's not forget that Batiatus should do the first watch in the night because he is invisible in the dark, that he should warm the freezing child emperor because he still has "the warmth of Africa" within him and that, of course, he needs horse's armor because he is too big for human armor.
I can't even.

It is sad because the novel has its merits and as described above there were aspects I enjoyed. But the characterization is a no go for me - especially in a novel not even twenty years old - and I don't see myself reading more from this author.

On a more positive note: I can't believe that I have now read 40 books since Christmas, that is one third of my envisioned goal (to read 120 books). Many of these were very short reads and I didn't read any really long novels so far, but just to continue reading like that is such an immense success for me. I haven't done this in years.

And all just because I decided to join this group! Thank you all!!!

>110 MissBrangwen: My parents went to the Minack on their honeymoon so I had to go when I was nearby.

My Shakespeare extended universe includes all adaptations of his work (yes, I like the dodgy modernisations too), Shakespeare in Love, and All is True, and nothing else! >;-)

Oh, yay for Shakespeare! I'm so happy that you've found a good way to approach his stuff. I humbly recommend the BBC's Hollow Crown series for the history plays. They're absolutely wonderfully done.

I love the Minack - many years ago I was lucky to see a production of The Pirates of Penzance there, which was fabulous, especially because Penzance is only just down the road. I'd love to go back - Cornwall is so beautiful.

Thank you for your review of Much Ado. I was a big fan of Keanu post Speed so had this on VHS! I've seen it since in the theatre, in a wonderful production in Manchester. Their theatre had been damaged in the IRA bombing, so they were performing temporarily in a tent set up inside a church. The main bit I remember (many years later) was that to hide for one of the 'overheard' conversations, the actor climbed a "tree" near our seats. It was so rickety I was convinced we were going to end up with him in our laps! I am so looking forward to going back to the theatre when this is all over.

Woo hoo at reaching 1/3 of your goal already! You're doing great!

I didn't read a lot the last few days because I fell down a travel documentary rabbit hole. I don't care though because it lifted up my spirits!
There are finally at least some good Covid news in Germany (number of vaccinations is finally rising and in my state we will get tested twice a week at school after next week, which is a relief), so I'm feeling more positive than I have for a long time.

>113 spiralsheep: I watched Shakespeare in Love several times and was very smitten when I was younger - I should rewatch it now!

>114 scaifea: Thank you! Yes, The Hollow Crown is absolutely on my list!

>115 Jackie_K: Oh yes, Cornwall is one of the most beautiful places I've ever visited! Penzance was one of the towns where I was staying.

>116 charl08: That sounds like a very special setup! And I agree, I do miss the theatre and concerts!

>117 rabbitprincess: Thank you!

>118 MissBrangwen: I'm glad to hear the vaccination and testing programs are improving where you are.

>119 spiralsheep: I'm so glad, too! I feel like finally there are some positive things indicating a way forward.

I have now ordered all my thingaversary books - finally!
My thingaversary was almost one month ago, but I was under such pressure then that I wouldn't have enjoyed picking the remaining books to buy.

So this is my final list:

The Yield by Tara June Winch
In The Woods by Tana French
United by Cory Booker
The Lost Tide Warriors by Catherine Doyle
The Gown by Jennifer Robson
Harry Potter - A History of Magic (British Library)
My Life in Middlemarch by Rebecca Mead
The Dig by John Preston
George Allen & Unwin: A Remembrancer by Rayner Unwin
Eingefroren am Nordpol by Markus Rex

I've waited for the George Allen & Unwin book for a long time, as it wasn't available anymore and there were no secondhand copies to be had (or only very, very expensive ones), so I am very happy that it has been republished now.

I'm also especially looking forward to Eingefroren am Nordpol with the pride of a somewhat local perspective: It is an account of an arctic expedition that started in September 2019 and was mostly organized and conducted out of Bremerhaven, the city I work in and used to live in for five years. The AWI institute is located there and it's the ship's home port.
I already watched a fantastic documentary about it on TV.

Here is an excerpt from wikipedia:

On 20 September 2019 Polarstern sailed from Tromsø, Norway, for a 12 to 14 month-long Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) expedition across the Arctic. She settled in an ice floe on 4 October 2019. The aim was drifting with this floe, passing the North pole and eventually reaching open water in the Fram Strait. ... After 389 days, this 2019 – 2020 arctic expedition successfully ended on 12 October 2020 when the research vessel safely returned to its home port of Bremerhaven, Germany.

>120 MissBrangwen: Congrats on your thingaversary haul! The Polar Expedition is on my wishlist, too, I have watched the documentary twice and I actually snuck a look at the blog occasionally. Such an amazing journey.

Congrats on your Thingaversary books! My Thingaversary isn't until June but I already have started to purchase books toward it. I like to spread the acquiring of books out over three months so I don't have to suddenly come up with thirteen books to buy in one month.

>122 DeltaQueen50: I must admit I don't deliberately buy Thingaversary books - I'm trying to reduce Mt TBR, and already buy plenty of books! It's my 9th Thingaversary this year (in August), and I've already bought 12 (and received another book as a gift). Maybe when Mt TBR is back down to 2 figures (hahahahaha) I'll start with the Thingaversary book buying :)

Back to Shakespeare, I would also suggest Twelfth Night to watch.

I still remember when in the second year of high school (when we studied Julius Caesar) our teacher arranged for us to see a live performance at the local community theater. The theater was small so some of the entrances were from behind us and the whole class enjoyed the play. Since then I’ve always thought that watching is so much better than reading for plays.

Nice group of books for your Thingaversary. Mine is at the beginning of Jan and I always forgot because I was so busy at the holidays. So I started following Judy's example and buying my books a few at a time in the months before.

>121 MissWatson: Thanks! The documentary was extremely fascinating, wasn't it?

>122 DeltaQueen50: >125 dudes22: That's kind of what I did, too! And your way to do it sounds very reasonable.

>123 Jackie_K: I never did it before until I read about it in this group. And I agree, I should probably reduce Mount TBR further... but I figured that this year I am spending so little money because of the situation (no travel, no restaurants, no high street shops,...) that this was something to enjoy and look forward to :-)

>124 hailelib: Thank you for seconding that recommendation! And for sharing that lovely story.

>126 MissBrangwen: Well yes, that's very true! And I guess if buying too many books is our only vice then people really can't complain, there's plenty worse things to spend our money on! :)

>127 Jackie_K: Haha, yes, I agree :-)

>120 MissBrangwen: Looks like a nice haul.

>123 Jackie_K: I mainly indulged on genealogy books. With COVID reducing access to repositories, I've purchased quite a few books of this nature in the past year so I can work on projects. All are things I really wanted for my own collection anyway. The ones I purchased will be helpful for my own research projects. I prioritized some of the ones I felt I needed. I actually went back later and made one more major purchase--an updated edition to a standard reference book. I knew there were several changes incorporated in the newer edition and felt I needed to get it.

Congrats on making so much progress toward your goal! I, for one, appreciate seeing what you're reading and your thoughts on it.

>92 MissBrangwen:
I too had thought that Kidnapped was about pirates! I have to admit, I'm very intrigued by your Dickens + Outlander description. I haven't read much (any?) Stevenson, so this might be a good place to start...

>105 MissBrangwen:
Love Shakespeare too! When I went to my first performance, I was in high school, and I remember being shocked at how bawdy it was for a school-sanctioned trip.... Not something that really came through reading aloud in a monotone in class!

Stopping by to say hello :) I'm glad to hear that things are improving again, with regards to the covid-situation but also generally. It must be so much harder for everyone involved with children, be it as parents, in daycare or at schools. I sometimes feel lucky that it's just the two of us with (home) office jobs in well-running businesses, with very limited daily contacts. That makes the mental load much easier to carry these days. I really hope that the numbers fall soon.

Keep the momentum and enjoy reading - and watching travel documentaries is never a bad idea!

>129 thornton37814: It was! And yours, too.

>130 pammab: Thank you for your kind words! I had never read Kidnapped before, either, but I think it was a good book to get a start on this author. It's also a rather short book, so it's not such a big commitment.

I'm intrigued that several of you mention that they watched or read Shakespeare in high school. In Germany it's only done in the senior grades (ages about 16 to 19 depending on the state), so I assumed that this was the case in other countries as well. Although, on the other hand, it's not a foreign language there (but still a rather old language to the students).
And I totally agree on the bawdiness! I never really got that when reading.

>131 Chrischi_HH: Thankfully I only teach Berufsschule and Gymnasiale Oberstufe, but because nearly all of my students are graduating this year, it means that I have been teaching in person every week since Christmas break. Sometimes I feel like I'm in a parallel world, and vaccination is nowhere in sight. But of course my students are able to keep their distance and keep on their masks - that's a big plus - but it's still crazy. Thank you so much for your words and stay safe, too!

>132 MissBrangwen: A Shakespeare play is set for the exams typically taken in the UK at 15-16 so it's usual to study various plays from 11 onwards, often beginning with Romeo and Juliet or MacBeth iirc.

>133 spiralsheep: Thanks for the information!

In the US school system I attended we did the Julius Caesar when we were about 14 and then Romeo and Juliet the year we were 17. Then my second year of college I chose to do a semester class on the tragedies of Shakespeare.

In my neck of the woods (Ontario, Canada), I studied one Shakespeare play in each year of high school. The curriculum had two or three plays that could be taught for each year, and either the school or the teacher would choose which one to do. I studied A Midsummer Night's Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, and Hamlet.

>135 hailelib: >136 rabbitprincess: So interesting! Thank you for commenting!

In Germany you only read Shakespeare if you do Abitur (something like A levels or university entrance exam). If English is one of your two main subjects, you read a play. If it's one of your secondary subjects, you typically read extracts and watch a film, sometimes even Shakespeare in Love. Although in my state, Shakespeare is not mandatory and in English as a secondary subject you usually don't do it (I for one don't because there are so many mandatory subjects that there is no time for extras).

>132 MissBrangwen: in my State, we usually read Romeo and Juliet in 9th grade (aged 15), Julius Caesar in 10th grade (aged 16), and Macbeth in 12th grade (aged 18). Nothing is required in a 4 year college degree, unless you choose an elective.

We did Midsummer Night's Dream at 11/12, then Romeo and Juliet at 13/14, then Henry V (15). Because I chose English Lit, then did Othello and Merchant of Venice for my exams at 18 as part of a much wider list of texts.
Just about the only thing I remember about Romeo and Juliet was the teacher being embarrassed before she showed us the Zeferelli version, as it was technically rated above our age (although I'm not really sure why, as it was very tame compared to modern blood and gore films).

>139 charl08: Well, there is that one scene where you see Romeo's bare bum. (we watched it as not-mature-enough 14-year-olds).

It's interesting that we all had somewhat differing introductions to Shakespeare.

Mine came outside of school during the summer between seventh and eighth grade. I went up in my grandparent's attic and found some old books which I then proceeded to read. There were about seven individually bound plays by Shakespeare that apparently my grandfather studied while in college indication by the inscriptions in some of them. I actually have those on my shelves now

>141 hailelib: very nice--having grandpa's copies!

My education was UK in the 1980s - we read Macbeth in 3rd year (so age 13-14), then for O'levels (which you study for in 4th and 5th year) we did The Merchant of Venice. I then did English Literature A'level, which included two Shakespeare plays - for us it was Hamlet and Coriolanus (not one of his more popular ones, I can say understandably having studied it!).

>141 hailelib: "It's interesting that we all had somewhat differing introductions to Shakespeare."

I agree! And the interesting thing to me is also that most of you read so many plays. In Germany you read several texts a year as well, but I guess the only author you would read more than once is Goethe - one play or novel or both, and a few poems. But otherwise, unless it's a coincidence because of your teacher's choices, I can't think of any author that is read as much.

>141 hailelib: And what a treasure to find something like this!

>138 Tess_W: >139 charl08: >143 Jackie_K: Thanks for contributing!

As I said, I didn't read any Shakespeare at school - I assume the reason was that during my A-levels I had very disillusioned English teachers who were friendly, but didn't really care about the lessons... This was before the university entrance exam was centralized in Germany, so they had a lot more freedom and while Shakespeare was on the curriculum, nothing happened even they didn't adhere to that.

I then read Hamlet in my first semester at uni. During my semester abroad in Australia I did a course on Renaissance literature and read Hamlet again, and also Love's Labour's Lost, Anthony and Cleopatra and Henry IV, part 1.
Then during my teacher training, I read Hamlet AGAIN!!!
At least it made me visit Helsingør Castle in Denmark when I was on a trip to Copenhagen, which of course might be a bit far-fetched in the Hamlet connection, but I bought a fun Christmas decoration and a mug ;-)

I didn't read a lot this week because work was crazy as hell with lessons starting again after Easter break. This week I have been teaching online, but next week lessons resume at school with covid testing, and the preparations needed a lot of organization and time. I hope everything will go smoothly on Monday.

~~~

But: I did visit a bookshop for the first time since October!!!

And wow, I totally underestimated it. We walked in and were completely overwhelmed. I had tears in my eyes because I was overwhelmed by the smell of new books and the atmosphere of it all. There were three other customers and two staff members, and everyone was just so happy, it was as if we were embarking on a cruise to our dream island or something like that. The shop owner couldn't stop making happy remarks and you could feel his large smile under his mask.
I was so overwhelmed by the colors and the first few minutes we were lost and didn't know what to look for and where to go. It felt so unreal. It was the first time since October that we did anything else apart from groceries, medical appointments, work and one visit to the farmer's market last weekend.
(We did do outdoor walks, though).
We also bought three books, all had been on my wishlist for quite some time!

I am very tired today, so sorry for this incoherent post, but I really wanted to share!!!

I don't think I will do this often because we are isolating as much as possible because of our work, but it was wonderful to be there and it gave me so much hope and positive energy.

>145 MissBrangwen: That sounds so wonderful!

>144 MissBrangwen: Ugh, too much Hamlet! But I suppose you must be a very well-versed in the play. :-)

"And the interesting thing to me is also that most of you read so many plays. In Germany you read several texts a year as well, but I guess the only author you would read more than once is Goethe"

I'd guess many UK schoolchildren have also read more than one Jane Austen novel, especially in single-sex girls' schools.

While I have been reading the Poirot novels in no particular order for several years now - as the whim, or now the challenges, take me - I decided to read the Marple novels in order as there are not so many of them. I only started last autumn, so for this month's mysteryKIT (senior citizen detective), next up for me was The Body of the Library.
I bought the old Fontana edition in 2016 on a very cheap secondhand online haul, but I also got the new HarperCollins edition recently because I like the cover so much. I think this is one of the few books I might collect and buy the facsimile edition of the first edition one day soon, because it's so beautiful.





Book No 41

"The Body in the Library" by Agatha Christie
Series: Miss Marple (2)
Fontana
Paperback, 218pp.
Rating: 4 1/2 stars - ****°

Virtual Shelf ticked off: Bibliophily
Cats&Kits: MysteryKIT - senior citizen detective, AlphaKIT - A-W

I feel like there is not a lot to say about this book apart from that I enjoyed it a lot. It is a classic case with a suitable amount of twists and red herrings. I liked the settings alternating between a grand house, a hotel and the more modest homes of various villagers. The characters are very interesting and it was great to see Miss Marple on the case. Her characterization was a little different from the first book in that she was a more respected character, and I preferred that. I still would have liked to see a little more of her as there were long parts she didn't appear in.

After I had read Much Ado About Nothing two weeks ago, I was looking for some background reading on Shakespeare. I have a few works on my shelves and chose the smallest to make a start: Shakespeare auf 100 Seiten by Stefana Sabin. This was another cheap online buy about five years ago and had been waiting patiently for its turn!



Book No 42

"Shakespeare auf 100 Seiten" by Stefana Sabin
Reclam
Paperback, 57pp. (103pp. including summaries of all the plays)
Rating: 3 1/2 stars - ***°

No CATs & KITs

This short book sets out to shed a light on Shakespeare on 100 pages. A part of this are introductions to the comedies, the tragedies and the histories and short summaries of all of them, plus an introduction of the sonnets. I only read the introduction to the comedies and the summary of Much Ado About Nothing, but I will go back to the other texts when I continue reading Shakespeare.
The remaining fifty-one pages squeeze in a lot of content, but it's still digestible and quite easy to follow. While the first chapter deals with Shakespeare's biography and the riddles and mysteries surrounding it, the reader also learns something about the theatre of the era and what made Shakespeare's plays so popular.
The following chapters are about more specific aspects: Italy as a setting of the plays, antisemitism, and the depiction of women. The last chapter was the most interesting to me because I was able to make connections to topics I know more about: The Shakespeare mania of 19th-century Germany, the devotion of authors like Goethe and Lessing, and how Shakespeare was subsequently read and interpreted in Germany.
This book can be hardly more than an introduction, but it provides the reader with some interesting aspects and it made me want to know more and reach for more substantial and extensive volumes.

As I wrote a week ago, I have finally found a way back to travel mode again and I am so happy about it. I don't know how it happened. Since we have had to cancel our honeymoon(s), I couldn't bear the thought of traveling and have been shutting travel out of my thoughts completely because I just couldn't bear thinking about it.
But somehow this has changed and since Easter, we have been watching travel documentaries again, even making some tentative "after covid plans" (for 2022), and it has made us so happy. That's why I felt that I should finally resume my travel reading. I picked Abenteuer Seidenstraße ("Silk Road Adventure") by Austrian writer Bruno Baumann as my first book because we had watched a documentary on the Karakorum Highway and it had reminded me of how fascinated with Central Asia I used to be.

I bought this book in September 2018 at Cologne Central Station. There are always treasures to be found at the bookshop's bargain counters!



Book No 43

"Abenteuer Seidenstraße" by Bruno Baumann
National Geographic/Frederking & Thaler
Paperback, 288pp.
Rating: 2 1/2 stars - **°

Virtual Shelf ticked off: Asia
Cats&Kits: AlphaKIT - A-W, GeoKIT - Asia

This book is a description of a trip along the Silk Road, or rather along the several Silk Roads (as there are many diversions and different sections). The disappointing thing is that the reader hardly learns anything about the actual trip. Although the author travels through China, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, there are only two "adventurous" chapters: The first is about his various trips through the Gobi desert, one of them alone on foot that he had to break off because it was too hard. I loved that chapter because the descriptions were vivid and very interesting, and I was excited to read this account. The other one is about climbing Muztagh Ata, a mountain in China that is very close to the border to Pakistan.
Apart from this, there are a few descriptions of the places and how they look like today, but mostly, it is a history book - and not even of the Silk Road itself, but of the places along it. There are pages and pages of history of Chinese cities that the average European reader has never heard about - which could be interesting, but not if it is mostly fact upon fact upon fact, namedropping all the time, and throwing in dynasties and wars and battles. Often I couldn't really see the connection to the Silk Road at all and didn't understand why places or events were even relevant.
My wish was to read a travel account of following the Silk Road(s), not to read a detailed history of every place along it.
I admire the research that has gone into it, and someone with more knowledge of the region might enjoy it more. For me, there were some interesting descriptions, mostly of the natural world and different temples or other buildings of architectural or religious value, but that was all I took from it. No sense of adventure, and no sense of the local people - it was all so very non-emotional.

Dropping in to recommend a travel book from 1937, Ella Maillart's Forbidden Journey, an account of her 1935 journey from Peking to Kashmir. She travelled with Peter Fleming, whose News from Tartary covers the same journey, but I prefer the Maillart book, which focusses more on the countries and the peoples than Fleming's does.

I was introduced to Shakespeare in 7th grade— so I was about 12 years-old! Our teacher, Mrs. Z. tried to walk us through Hamlet, but it didn’t go very well! I came back to it in high school though, along with a couple of other plays. At one point, we trooped down to The Folger Shakespeare Theatre to see a truly remarkable performance of The Merchant of Venice. Years later, after majoring in theatre at college, I came back to Washington, DC and worked at the Folger (and that actor who played Shylock was still there!) I live in Southern Oregon now, close to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival where I catch a performance now and then, though of course it’s been dark this past year. I’m currently reading the Histories (just finished Henry IV, Part I and, this evening, I’m watching the corresponding Hollow Crown episode, starring Jeremy Irons :-)

P.S. LOL, And Hamlet is now one of my favorite plays! 🙂

>145 MissBrangwen: This is lovely to read. I've not been back to a bookshop since they closed in our area last year. I am really looking forward to having some time off so I can use public transport outside of peak times, and get to some different places!

>146 Jackie_K: It was! It still feels like an out of this world experience.

>147 spiralsheep: "But I suppose you must be a very well-versed in the play. :-)"
I don't think so LOL ;-)

>151 pamelad: Thank you for the recommendation! I usually read more recent travelogues, but this sounds very interesting and I have noted it down on my wishlist! The description/summary on the LT work page sounds very good, too!

>152 Tanya-dogearedcopy: Thanks for dropping by! Your thread was a part of the inspiration of tackling Shakespeare again (you may remember my comment, although it has been quite some time)! Although I think I might read the histories a little later as they seem more daunting.

>153 charl08: Public transport is definitely an issue! I don't drive, so I feel your situation! Luckily my husband drives and now we go everywhere together (including our workplace) so I don't need to go on public transport, but otherwise, this pandemic would have been so much harder for me and I would be stuck on crowded trains and busses every day (like I did before we got together).
I hope you can visit a bookshop soon!!!

I first read Wenn die Haut zu dünn ist by Rolf Sellin in 2012 during the first months of my teacher training. It basically changed my life back then, and after eight years, I decided to give it a second go and see how my perspective has changed and what I would gain from it now. I like to take my time with books like that, so it took me several months to read it, a few pages a time.



Book No 44

"Wenn die Haut zu dünn ist" by Ralf Sellin
Kösel
Paperback, 176pp.
Rating: 4 stars - ****

Virtual Shelf ticked off: Health
CATs & KITs: AlphaKIT - A-W

When I first read this book, it actually changed my life. This is not exaggerating at all! I had come across an article on hypersensitivity online, and when I read this book, so many things about my life fell into place. I wasn't particularly unhappy on the whole before and I didn't consider my life as problematic, but because of this book, I learned so many aspects about myself, about why certain things were as they were etc. My teacher training was very, very stressful to me and I was overwhelmed every day by my experiences. But the practical tips in this book were a game changer - within weeks I came to love my job and learned to deal with the challenges that had seemed terrible to me during the first weeks.
Knowing that I am highly sensitive and the traits, difficulties and strengths that go with that has altered my perception of myself and has made my life so much easier. But of course, there is still a lot of work to do and I like to continuously try and do the work of looking after myself and being more conscious of why things happen as they do. That is why I decided to reread this book.
It was interesting to see that after almost a decade, I knew many aspects and tips by heart. On the other hand, many passages were interesting now that I had not underlined or page marked at all when I read it first. I definitely felt that now I am at a different place in life, and different things are relevant now.

Although this is one of the most important books I have ever read, I can "only" rate it four stars. I think it should have been shorter. Towards the end, it gets immensely repetitive, and in the last chapter, the author tries to write about each and every aspect in an unstructured way. In addition, I don't agree with 100% of the things described and still do some things differently than the author recommends. However, this will always be an important book to me because it opened my eyes and started a new chapter of my life, as cheesy as it sounds.

>155 MissBrangwen: I think it's brave of you to revisit this book. I'm glad you still found it worthwhile.

I find a lot of human built environments overstimulating but at least I can turn off my personal tech and safely tune out most of my surroundings (unlike my ancestors who couldn't turn off a cave lion or other threat, I suppose).

>156 spiralsheep: "at least I can turn off my personal tech and safely tune out most of my surroundings (unlike my ancestors who couldn't turn off a cave lion or other threat, I suppose)."
If only our brains and hormones knew the difference ;-) My stress hormones definitely think that emails are cave lions!

>157 MissBrangwen: "My stress hormones definitely think that emails are cave lions!"

This is why I turn off my tech or, more usually, leave it at home. No incoming input, no problem! :-) Of course that won't stop people imagining emails, or cave lions, or monsters under the bed. :D

Yesterday we watched the 2004 adaptation of The Body in the Library and liked it well enough. I think I would have enjoyed it more if it had stayed a bit more faithful to the book, but it was a feast to the eyes!
It was also the first time I saw Jack Davenport outside of Pirates of the Caribbean, and it took me half an hour to figure out who he was!
Tara Fitzgerald was as wonderful as ever.

I can't believe this is the last weekend of April! I'm in the middle of several books and enjoying them all, and I hope to wrap them up today or during the week.

>158 spiralsheep: I'm getting better and better at that as well!

I started the Isle of Man Cozy Mystery series earlier this year because of a BB from LittleTaiko, and this weekend I decided to read the second book because it ticked all the boxes: Comfort read, two categories, and something cosy I could just dive into!



Book No 45

"Aunt Bessie Believes" by Diana Xarissa
Series: Isle of Man Cozy Mysteries (2)
self-published
Paperback, 216pp.
Rating: 3 1/2 stars - ***°

Cats&Kits: MysteryKIT - senior citizen detective, AlphaKIT - X-Z

As this is the second book, I knew what to expect: Aunt Bessie is an elderly lady living on the Isle of Man who resides in a cottage on the beach, bakes delicious treats, reads crime novels, and - as of late - helps the police solve crimes. As she is friends with most of the people in her village, knows everyone and has all the time in the world to visit people and nose around, she is the perfect source of information.
This book feels like a warm blanket and a cup of hot cocoa, and quickly I was swept into Aunt Bessie's world. While I missed the beautiful descriptions of her daily life that were a bit more prominent in the first book, I enjoyed the actual case much more in this one. It was an interesting story.
There are still several chapters where a good editor is missing, but I like this series so much, despite its flaws, that it doesn't bother me too much.
One thing I'd like to see in the future installments is the actual solving of a case. In this book, once again the murderer at one point just turns up and tells Aunt Bessie that it was him, thus saving the police from actually solving the crime. I didn't like this feature in the first book and I hope that it won't happen in each and every story! Although, if it does, I'll still read on because I just love the setting and the atmosphere.

>159 MissBrangwen: My first encounter with Jack Davenport was the British sitcom "Coupling," so it's always hilarious to me when I see him in a more dramatic role!

>161 christina_reads: Ohmygosh, yes! My husband and I *love* Coupling and are actually in the middle of a rewatch now! I haven't run into many people who have heard of it, so I'm excited!

Hi, Mirjam!

>162 scaifea: I have the whole series on DVD, and sometimes random quotes still pop into my head. "Anyone can have a dead aunt!"

>161 christina_reads: >162 scaifea: >163 christina_reads: I've never heard of that series!

>163 christina_reads: We do, too (have the dvds)! And yes to the random quotes! "To know about the giggle loop is to become part OF the giggle loop."

>164 MissBrangwen: Oh, it's so, so funny!

I haven't read a lot this week and don't think I will reach my reading goals this month, but maybe I will just cheat and finish this month's challenges this weekend!

BUT I have really good news: I will finally be vaccinated next week!
I am so, so relieved because despite wearing masks and (having started two weeks ago) rapid testing twice a week, school life is crazy and not really safe.
Now I hope that the vaccination efforts will continue strongly and the vaccine will soon be available to all the groups, not just the priority groups, and of course other countries and continents as well!

>166 MissBrangwen: I'm extremely glad to hear you're getting vaccinated! *\o/*

(You already know how I feel about reading goals ruining people's enjoyment of reading.)

>166 MissBrangwen: Oh that's great news about the vaccination! My sister lives near Munich, and hasn't heard anything yet about when she or my brother-in-law are getting theirs (or my niece either I guess - she's 18 this year).

Congratulations on the vaccination. What a relief it will be!

That's good news about the vaccine!

I'm happy to see you are enjoying Agatha Christie mysteries. Your review of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is spot on!

I enjoyed reading about everyone's Shakespeare experience. The Merchant of Venice was my introduction when I was 13. Not such a good play to start with but it didn't put me off.

And, congratulations on getting vaccinated. It will give you some peace of mind.

>166 MissBrangwen: That is really good news!

Yay for getting vaccinated! Congrats!

>166 MissBrangwen: Congrats! Who would think, just even 2 years ago, that we would be offerings congratulations for a vaccine appointment?

>166 MissBrangwen: YAY! I am so relieved to know you will be getting vaccinated soon!

>167 spiralsheep: Thank you, that's so kind! And yes, I remember our conversation :-)

>168 Jackie_K: Apart from our jobs, another factor might be that the vaccination process is organized by the states, and our state (Bremen) is among the fastest. It might help that it's the smallest state and it decided to create a huge vaccination centre very early on.

I do hope that your family will get appointments very soon, too! The long wait can be very hard! Some of my family members are still waiting as well.

>169 pamelad: Thank you! And yes, definitely!

>170 RidgewayGirl: >171 VivienneR: >172 MissWatson: >173 scaifea: Thank you all, LT friends!

>174 Tess_W: Oh yes, that's right!

>175 rabbitprincess: Thank you so much!

>171 VivienneR: I just started writing reviews when I joined this group, so your words make me happy!

The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie was another read fitting perfectly into April's challenges! I am really advancing with my own little project of reading all the Agatha Christies and I enjoy these comfort reads so much!



Book No 46

"The ABC Murders" by Agatha Christie
Series: Poirot (12)
HarperCollins
Paperback, 331pp.
Rating: 4 stars - ****

Cats&Kits: MysteryKIT - senior citizen detective, AlphaKIT - A-W

Again, this was a wonderful Agatha Christie novel to get lost in. The story is quite different from her classic plots, though: No country house setting, no bunch of suspects, no seaside hotel or village community. Instead, there is a serial killer! Thus, the dynamic is different from the other novels as well.
I especially enjoyed the dialogues of Poirot and Hastings, the clear plot and narration, and observing Poirot at work.
However, I think I still prefer the "usual story" a little. The characters are not that impressive or unique in this one, hence it's not five stars. But it still was a great read.

>99 MissBrangwen: The one I mentioned in my thread--Rain--as well as Maugham's other south seas stories, are particularly well known. Another story, The Letter, set in British Malaya, was made into a famous movie by William Wyler.

>178 NinieB: Thanks for the introduction! My collection is called Far Eastern Tales and only includes stories set in Asia. I'll check if it includes The Letter.

Warlight by Michael Ondaatje was a surprise birthday present by my mom in 2018. It was one of those novels I put off reading because I wanted to be able to fully enjoy it. This month I felt ready for it, and it fit several challenges.



Book No 47

"Warlight" by Michael Ondaatje
Alfred A. Knopf
Paperback, 290pp.
Rating: 5 stars - *****

Cats&Kits: GenreCAT - Literary Fiction, AlphaKIT - A-W
BingoDOG: Dark or Light Word in Title

"Warlight" has definitely been my best read so far this year. But, as it happens, it's often much more difficult to write a review of a wonderful book than a review of a book one finds terrible and having lots of flaws. I do struggle with finding the right words to describe my reading experience and my feelings as a reader.
The premise is explained rather quickly: Nathaniel and Rachel are two teenagers in London during the aftermath of World War II. They are abandoned by their parents who seemingly are traveling to Asia for work. The young siblings are left with a man they call The Moth and henceforth grow up with a group of strange and interesting people who leave their mark on them.
The story is told in retrospective by Nathaniel and there are many time warps and many different layers to the story.
It is essentially a story about memories and about how your past shapes you. How do you perceive those around you and how does that change over time? The narration is almost dreamlike in parts, the pace is often slow, the reader feels the story with all the senses. It took me some time to get into it, but once I had settled down into the style, I was totally drawn in and wished it to be much longer.
This novel has made me reflect a lot and I'm sure it will stay with me for years to come.

After I had finished Abenteuer Seidenstraße, I immediately started another travel book from the same publisher series: Der Preis der Leichtigkeit by Andreas Altmann. I bought this one at Cologne Central Station, too, in January 2016 when I went home after Christmas.
This book is a travelogue of a trip through Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. When I bought it, I had done my first trip to Thailand half a year earlier. In the meantime, I visited Thailand two more times and also spent two weeks in Cambodia. I did all of these trips by myself, but hope to be able to travel to South East Asia with my husband when it's possible again!
Therefore, I was looking forward to reading this very much: To compare my memories to the descriptions in the book, and to dream about the future.



Book No 48

"Der Preis der Leichtigkeit" by Andreas Altmann
National Geographic/Frederking & Thaler
Paperback, 240pp.
Rating: 4 stars - ****

Virtual Shelf ticked off: Travel
Cats&Kits: AlphaKIT - A-W, GeoKIT - Asia

In this travel book, Andreas Altmann describes his trip through Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam in 2004/2005. It is not possible to separate this work from the author. I've read another book by him and knew what to expect: He is very open and direct when condemning capitalism, mass tourism, most religions, people he considers hypocrites, and so on. I agree with him very often, but not always, and these passages can be a little annoying sometimes because he definitely comes across as a little full of himself.
Apart from that, this book was a joy to read. The writing is engaging and interesting. While there are no chapters, most passages are rather short, and it's easy to just read and read and get absorbed into the tale.
Altmann hardly visits tourist attractions, but tries to meet the local people as often as possible and writes about these encounters. Usually, he meets colorful characters such as writers, unconventional monks, taxi drivers who tell him stories, etc. Another part of the book describes how he travels to Phuket directly after the Tsunami as one of the first helpers.
There are also a lot of reflections on Buddhism (which I loved to read), as well as passages about the history of the countries, especially the Khmer Rouge and the Vietnam War. As these are always tied to the places the author visits, and the people he meets, they are always very interesting.
Most fascinating to me was to compare Altmann's descriptions of Cambodia with my own experiences of a trip that happened about twelve years later. I have no idea if it really changed so much in that time or if Altmann simply enjoyed painting such a bleak and horrid picture. Probably, the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

April Recap

1. W. Somerset Maugham: Short Stories - ***°
2. Mohsin Hamid: Exit West - ****°
3. William Shakespeare: Much Ado About Nothing - ****
4. Valerio Massimo Manfredi: The Last Legion - **
5. Agatha Christie: The Body in the Library - ****°
6. Stefana Sabin: Shakespeare auf 100 Seiten - ***°
7. Bruno Baumann: Abenteuer Seidenstraße - **°
8. Rolf Sellin: Wenn die Haut zu dünn ist - ****
9. Diana Xarissa: Aunt Bettie Believes - ***°
10. Agatha Christie: The ABC Murders - ****
11. Michael Ondaatje: Warlight - *****
12. Andreas Altmann: Der Preis der Leichtigkeit: ****

Best fiction: Warlight!!!
Best nonfiction: Der Preis der Leichtigkeit
Worst stinker: The Last Legion

Four books read in German, eight in English.
Eight books by a male author and four by a female one.
Two BIPOC authors.
Five new authors.

One of these books was bought earlier this year, all the others were ROOTs. I reread one work, "Much Ado About Nothing", and this was from the oldest of the books read this month: I bought it in 2009 when I studied abroad in Cairns.
Three books were part of a series I'm reading, and I didn't start any new series this time!
7 prose texts, 1 play, and 4 nonfiction (2 of that were travel books).
The prose texts: 3 mysteries, 2 literary fiction, 1 historic fiction, 1 short story collection.

I read almost 3500 pages this month and again, mostly rather short works. While I would like to get lost in a larger tome, I think it won't happen for a while. I'm happy to be reading that much at all!

~~~

April was a very good month! Things are finally getting better with rapid testing available at school, the vaccine in sight, sunshine most days - and overall, a more hopeful atmosphere where I finally dare to look at the future.
Work was still crazy and I was exhausted most evenings, so that definitely impacted my reading. On the other hand, all the positive energy took a little from my reading time, too: We were watching travel documentaries, we talked a lot about future plans, about how to live after the pandemic etc.
Because of these circumstances, I decided to create my own rules and pretend that this weekend was still a part of April, so that I was able to read the last pages of three of my April books!
Looking at the books I read, I think that it was a very good reading month, with several 4 star books and the best novel of the year so far, "Warlight"!

My reading plans for May:
I have a long list for May, full of books that I am very excited about. I am so motivated to get started and read them!
On the other hand, May (and June) always are the busiest months of the year because I need to read through and mark lots of final exams, this year in an even shorter span of time because they were postponed due to Covid. This will definitely influence my private reading, but I'll see how it goes and I'm determined to not let work swallow my life as it usually does at this point!

>180 MissBrangwen: Good to see you liked this so much. I'll move it up my tbr list.

>180 MissBrangwen: >183 pamelad: Yes, so will I.

>183 pamelad: >184 MissWatson: I'm curious to read about your thoughts when you get to this book!

>182 MissBrangwen: A very great reading month, a multitude of 4 stars--super! (Am putting some on my wish list)

>180 MissBrangwen: I love this writer. I think he manages to create such atmospheric novels. Lovely comments about the book.

>186 Tess_W: Yes, I'm so happy that it was such a good month! Great to hear that you found something of interest!

>187 charl08: I'm glad you agree! I have only read Warlight, The English Patient and a few poems. Which novel would you recommend next?

Happy Weekend LibraryThing friends! :-)

My husband and I were vaccinated yesterday and we feel a bit tired and our arms are a little sore, but otherwise we're feeling well. We had the Pfizer vaccine.
I was so impressed by how the vaccination centre was organized and so thankful to all the people working there. Everyone was so friendly, too. And it felt a little bit like a class reunion because we saw lots of colleagues who got their vaccinations, too. We were waving at each other across the huge hall, everyone all smiles under their masks, just relieved. It brought tears to my eyes.

I am close to finishing my first book of the month (Forsberg und das verschwundene Mädchen) and want to do so today because it's getting worse with each chapter and I am keen on starting another book as soon as possible! I still want to know who the culprit is and what happened, though.

>189 MissBrangwen: Congratulations on your vaccination!

Yay for vaccinations! The atmosphere at our vaccination clinic felt the same - everyone was so friendly and helpful on one side and happy and grateful on the other. It was lovely.

>190 spiralsheep: Thank you!

>191 scaifea: Lovely indeed! :-)

I had added Forsberg und das verschwundene Mädchen (Forsberg and the missing girl) by Ben Tomasson to my wishlist last month because it was recommended by the managers of my former local bookshop (= bookshop where I used to live) in their email newsletter. I was intrigued by the description and when we visited our current local bookshop a couple of weeks ago for the very first time in ages and I saw it on the table there, it was an instant buy. It also fits several of the challenges.



Book No 49

"Forsberg und das verschwundene Mädchen" by Ben Tomasson
Series: Kommissar Forsberg (1)
Droemer
Paperback, 399pp.
Rating: 2 1/2 stars - **°

Cats&Kits: MysteryKIT - European mystery, GeoKIT - Europe
BingoDOG: Recommended by someone from another generation

As explained above, this book was recommended by the managers of one of my favourite bookshops, but I must admit that after this experience, I will trust their judgement a little less in the future. This novel was a huge disappointment.
Frederik Forsberg is a Swedish inspector who spent a long time in Germany and now works in Göteborg (Gothenburg). A young girl is missing on one of the small islands of the archipelago on Midsummer's Day while a convicted sex offender has not returned from day-release, so Forsberg and his new team are on the case at once. The reader gets to know the girl's family, everyone hiding dark secrets, as well as Forsberg's new team who are an unlikely bunch. Forsberg himself has a hidden life, too, so there are a lot of aspects to the story.
While I loved the atmospheric beginning and was drawn into the case quickly, it all became too much after some time. With each chapter, the writing got worse, until it was a Nordic Noir caricature. The team is just too much overdrawn, Forsberg's complicated and highly improbable private life adds nothing to the story or to his character. There is too little pay off for too much reading of the same things again and again, and too much telling the reader instead of showing, especially when it comes to the contrasts between the sunny, idyllic archipelago landscape and the dark and merciless events happening there. As a reader, I feel that I'm not taken seriously if the writer feels the urge to rub my nose into things again and again.
I still wanted to finish because the initial premise is a good one and I liked the first third or so. There still are some surprise moments and the plot itself - until it becomes an overdrawn caricature - is interesting.
Apparently, this is supposed to be the first in a series, but I won't read the books to come.

Glad the vaccinations went well--same symptoms for both of them for me, although I got the Moderna. I was also impressed with the efficiency of the vaccine center; wish all medical appointments went as such!

Congrats on getting the vaccine. It really feels like we are all taking steps to get back to a more normal life!

This might make you laugh. I had to report you on Bug Collectors for unauthorised time travel because your comments appeared to be from 3+ hours into the future! Is there something you're not telling us? :D

>194 Tess_W: "wish all medical appointments went as such!"
Oh yes, that would be great!

>195 DeltaQueen50: I agree! Although I feel that suddenly some things seem to go so fast that it's hard to believe!

>196 spiralsheep: I noticed that, too! I didn't report it, though, because I wasn't sure if anyone else was seeing it, too.
I wish I could time travel indeed - on Monday morning I'd travel straight through to the next weekend! :-))
Thank you for reporting the bug!

I read Martin Walser's Ein fliehendes Pferd (available in English as "Runaway Horse") in 2010 because it was on a reading list provided by the university. It was one of my favourite novels that year because it struck a cord with me at the time, due to my personal situation. In the years to come, I bought several novels by the author, but I never read another one (for no specific reason other than that my interests shifted).
When author Ruth Klüger died last year, I came across articles on her conflict with Martin Walser about anti-semitic tendencies in some of his works, and I read more about the remarks he made that can be interpreted as antisemitic and right-wing (although he was very leftist in the 1960s and 1970s, and, as far as I know, is still celebrated in Germany as one of the greatest contemporary authors).
Because of that, I was unsure if I should read anything by him, but, having some of his books on my shelf, I decided to go for Die Inszenierung (The Production, referring to the theatre) for this month's AlphaKIT.



Book No 50

"Die Inszenierung" by Martin Walser
Rowohlt
Paperback, 174pp.
Rating: 2 stars - **

Cats&Kits: RandomCAT - Monopoly, AlphaKIT - I-N

There is a lot of artistic endeavor in this novel. The protagonist is Augustus Baum, a theatre producer in his mid-fifties, who is hospitalized after a stroke. He blacked out in the theatre while rehearsing Chekhov's "The Seagull". He tries to continue working on the play from his hospital bed. His assistant, Lydia, who is also his former lover, visits him daily to report from the theatre and receive his instructions. Baum has also started a relationship with Ute, the young night nurse, who falls in love with him although she knows that he is a charmer. And then there is also his wife, a neurologist working in the same hospital, who provides him with his personal breakfast everyday, as she has done for the 29 years of their marriage.
This complicated love story mirrors the one in Chekhov's play, and there are a lot of references to it. They are explained every time, so it is easy to understand the references, although I think it might be more interesting if the reader has actual knowledge of the play.
The artistic endeavor, though, is that the novel itself is almost like a play. The whole story takes place in Baum's hospital room, and is almost exclusively told in direct speech (without inverted commas/quotation marks!). There are only a few lines by a very neutral narrator, and two long letters by an old friend of Baum, who himself is entangled in a ménage à trois with his wife and his gay lover.
Like this, the hospital room becomes a stage, and Baum wants his fellow human beings to play the roles he has assigned to them. When this doesn't work, he feels like a victim, seduced by the evil, evil women and their genitalia.
While I appreciate the idea of writing a novel that is like a play, even like a studio play set in one room with a very limited cast of characters, I fail to see the point in this. I just don't think that the world needs another novel about the sex fantasies of an aging man who feels attacked by women wearing jeans or white blouses, or even just existing. His wife tells him that he uses women like power plugs, taking their energy, and his excuse is that Goethe and Brecht did the same. The power plug is just one of many sexual references, some a bit metaphorical, some very explicit.
So what? Why should this novel even be relevant?
There are so many sexist aspects in this and when I googled it, I was surprised to find almost no negative reviews. The book was published four years before #metoo - but in the meantime, the author has published another book about yet another old man torn between two women and being helpless and despaired because they are too cruel to let him keep both of them. The poor man.
No, thanks. No more Martin Walser for me.

>196 spiralsheep: >197 MissBrangwen: It's happening again - I posted in the Bug Collectors group now, too. I wonder why it only seems to happen to me (at least in this group).

>198 MissBrangwen: Good review of an annoying book. Wish fulfilment fantasies of an unattractive man?

>198 MissBrangwen: Thanks for taking one for the team. I wasn't tempted before, but now I feel I can safely ignore Walser for the rest of my life.

>199 MissBrangwen: I wonder if it's something to do with also using or being logged into German LT. Wasn't the original bug report from someone using the German language site?

I wonder if another of our German Cat Challengers has a comment on their experience.

>198 MissBrangwen: Perhaps literary novelists are like fruit: unripe for an annoyingly long time, then briefly perfect, then mouldering slowly until they're thrown out. >;-)

>202 spiralsheep: To be honest, I am not sure which time LT uses and how much ahead we are in Germany, but right now it is acting weird. I'm seeing 6:51 am, a few minutes before it was 10:27am. I always log into the .com site.

>204 MissWatson: Another secret time traveller! :D

If you log into the .com site then that might exclude you from the time stamp bug IF it's associated with non-anglophone log-ins (all guesswork on my part with no evidence yet). Thank you for the information.

>200 pamelad: Thank you, I'm glad you like the review! Looking at Walser's private life, it seems that there are parallels.

>201 MissWatson: I just put the other novels I had bought into the trash and deleted more from my wishlist. I am absolutely sure that I don't want to read anything else by him.

>203 spiralsheep: It certainly seems to be the case with this author! Although I wonder how Runaway Horse would stand the test of time if I reread it now. I'm not inclined to try, though.

>205 spiralsheep: I'm testing this now: I'm posting this on the .com site.

It's one of my reading goals to read all major works by Johann Wolfgang Goethe, so Die natürliche Tochter was an instant buy when I saw it online for a cheap price four years ago. When I was looking for my next read yesterday, it felt like a good choice because I want to read more classics and it's perfect for AlphaKIT.



Book No 51

"Die natürliche Tochter" by Johann Wolfgang Goethe
Reclam
Paperback, 96pp.
Rating: 3 1/2 stars - ***°

Virtual Shelf ticked off: Goethe
Cats&Kits: AlphaKIT - I-N

Review contains spoilers!

"Die natürliche Tochter" (The natural daughter, meaning an illegitimate daughter) is not considered to be one of Goethe's grand plays and I started reading it without any previous knowledge. It's a classic verse drama, similar to a bourgeois tragedy, written in 1803.
The bespoke daughter is Eugenie (the only character whose name is known to the audience). Her father plans to take her to court and to present her as his official daughter following her mother's recent death, and the young woman cannot wait. The anticipation is apparent when, against her father's wishes, she opens the chest containing the luxurious dresses and jewelry she is to wear at court. But alas, of course there is a conspiracy, led by her half-brother, who is legitimate and not too pleased at the prospect of a sister and a rival. Eugenie is abducted, her father is told that she had a riding accident and was buried immediately because she was disfigured.
Her governess - still standing with Eugenie but herself powerless - takes Eugenie to a harbor, as she is commanded to do. The order is to board a ship to the islands (presumably the South Sea), which is considered close to murder because of the unknown illnesses and the climate there.
They meet an advocate who proposes to marry Eugenie to save her from the journey. At first, Eugenie refuses because she does not want to marry below her station. The simple life of an advocate's wife seems too boring after all the dreams of a life at court. However, Eugenie realizes that her most important wish is to stay in her home country, and she agrees to marry the advocate.

The play is written in a beautiful and artistic style, and Goethe's language is as soothing and precious as ever. The story itself has an interesting start, but then becomes lengthy. Even Schiller said that the play had too many words and not enough action - and who am I to disagree!
It is an enjoyable play, presenting the choice of renunciation as a possibility to lead a happy and free life.
According to Goethe, this was planned as a trilogy (sketchy notes on a second part were found, but none on a third part) on the French Revolution. While the conflict between the bourgeoisie and the court is already present in "Die natürliche Tochter", I wonder if it would have been dealt with more clearly in the other parts.

Catching up, how easily the unread threads get out of hand!

>180 MissBrangwen: Warlight is a hard book to review. Like the title indicates, it's a foggy book where memories are uncertain and not understood fully. I agree that it's a fantastic book. I found it even better the second time I read it, when it shifted less as I read.

I forgot to note that last week, we watched the David Suchet adaptation of The ABC Murders and enjoyed it so much. It was wonderful to see so many different settings: Trains, train stations, the seaside, the café,... We both thought that it was very well done, and mostly faithful to the story, too.
We want to watch the new John Malkovich adaptation, too, but couldn't get hold of it so far, and not rushing it because my expectations are not so high after what I've read about it. I think I'm mostly curious about seeing Rupert Grint as an inspector!

>208 RidgewayGirl: I'm glad you think so highly of Warlight, too! And I agree with what you wrote. I imagine that a second reading is very worthwhile!

My husband bought No One Is Too Small To Make A Difference by Greta Thunberg at South Kensington Books on our trip to London in August 2019. Fridays For Future was at its peak at the time and we were discussing the climate crisis a lot in those days, so it seemed a natural choice to him to buy this book. The months after that, I was buried in work and then Covid happened, so I never felt that I had the emotional space to engage with the topic further. Now I do, though!



Book No 52

"No One Is Too Small To Make A Difference" by Greta Thunberg
Penguin Books
Paperback, 68pp.
Rating: 3 1/2 stars - ***°

Virtual Shelf ticked off: Politics | Sociology | Critical Theory
Cats&Kits: GenreCAT - Short Stories & Essays, AlphaKIT - I-N

This very slim volume contains eleven speeches held by Greta Thunberg between September 2018 and April 2019. There is an extended version available that contains more speeches from 2019, but this is the first version.
While I agree with most of Thunberg's positions, I am still a bit disappointed with the book. As many other reviewers have noted, the speeches are very repetitive. Most of them are so alike that it's hard to distinguish them, sometimes whole sentences and even paragraphs are copied, and the arguments made are repeated again and again.
Of course, this is because these are Thunberg's main points, and as said above, I mostly agree with them. I just don't think that this merits a book. If you watch a few of the speeches online, or even just read a few online posts, you will get the same amount of information.
On the other hand, Thunberg's message is of the uttermost importance and while the language of the speeches is very simple (and thus, after several of them, gets a bit uniform), this serves the purpose of getting that message across in a poignant way. I also learned from the book that equity is relevant to Thunberg, too, which is something I didn't know before (I thought that this aspect wasn't really cared about by the Fridays For Future activists, which had put me off a little).
All in all, this was a quick read and I absolutely don't criticize Greta Thunberg as an activist, but I still think there must be other books that teach the reader more about the topic.

Last year, I read Stefanie Zweig's Nirgendwo in Afrika (Nowhere in Africa, also adapted to an Oscar-winning film). It was one of my favorite books of 2020 and the story captured me and touched me in a very special way. Of course I was eager to read the sequel, Irgendwo in Deutschland (Somewhere in Germany).



Book No 53

"Irgendwo in Deutschland" by Stefanie Zweig
Series: Familie Redlich (2)
Heyne
Paperback, 335pp.
Rating: 4 stars - ****

Cats&Kits: AlphaKIT - I-N

Review contains spoilers for both books of the series

The first book of this autobiographical duology, "Nowhere in Africa", tells the story of the Redlich family's time in Kenya. While most of the names were changed, it is very similar to the author's own life story.
The Redlich family are a Jewish family from Silesia who fled the Nazi terror to Kenya. While the parents feel lost and helpless, worry for the safety of the family members and friends who were not able to leave Germany, and cannot feel at home in Kenya, their daughter Regina has almost no memory of life in Germany. She speaks Swahili and Kikuyu, loves the landscape and wilderness of the farm, and feels at home with the Kikuyu people. Her mother, Jettel, finally gets used to their new life when she spends more time in Nairobi and makes friends, but her father, Walter, remains homesick. In the end of the novel, after the war has ended, he secures a position in Frankfurt as a judge. Although it's her biggest wish to stay in Kenya, Regina has to bid farewell.

"Irgendwo in Deutschland" starts with the family's arrival in Frankfurt. The beginning of their new life there is not as they hoped for: The city is in ruins, it is very hard to find even the smallest or simplest lodgings, they suffer from hunger and there is still antisemitism which they encounter on the streets.
It was interesting and emotional for me to read about these early days after the war and the hardships the family faced. While I don't want to liken my own family's plight to them in any way, I still thought of the stories my grandparents and parents told me. One aspect of this is the hostility against the people who were displaced from the east, such as my family. The Redlich family, being Jewish and from Silesia, were thus doubly affected by discrimination and it made their lives all the more difficult.
There are a few lengthy parts in this and some events are told very extensively while other things, that would have interested me more, are only mentioned hastily. Some chapters deal heavily with Walter's job, although to me it would have been much more interesting to learn more about Regina's experiences at school. But it gets more interesting again in the second part of the novel.
While Walter finds fulfillment in his occupation and is able to help other Jewish and displaced people, it is much harder for Jettel who did not want to return to the country of the people who killed her mother and sister. Every time she encounters an antisemitic slur, all the wounds start to bleed again.
Thus, the story continues: With a lot of heartbreak, but also with hopeful and even happy moments - finding new and bigger lodgings, being able to finally buy a house, the first trips to the Harz Mountains and later to Austria and Switzerland. People turning up who they thought they would never see again. Spending evenings with old friends from Silesia and revelling in memories. Gaining a victory when finally being brave enough to stand up to a Nazi insulting them.
This is how Regina grows up, but inside her, there are the memories of Kenya, ever present and ever calling to her. Because of that, it's ultimately a novel about belonging, about what makes a home and about how you deal with the past and how it shapes your identity.
I cannot remember the last time I cried so hard over the pages of a book, but I am so thankful to Stefanie Zweig for sharing her story.

After the emotional read that was Irgendwo in Deutschland, I needed a palate cleanser to cure my bookish hangover. Inspector John Rebus was a perfect choice for that, so I read the next installment in the series that was waiting for me, Let It Bleed. This was one of the books I bought earlier this year when I had run out of police procedurals.



Book No 54

"Let It Bleed" by Ian Rankin
Series: Inspector Rebus (7)
Orion Books
Paperback, 360pp.
Rating: 3 stars - ***

Cats&Kits: AlphaKIT - I-N

Unfortunately, I liked the seventh Rebus novel a lot less than the previous ones. While the case started out in a very interesting way, it was drawn out too much and the pace was very slow.
The novel starts with a car chase on the Forth Road Bridge which leads to the death of two young men. Shortly after that, a man shoots himself in front of a local politician. Rebus has a gut feeling that the cases - which are not even considered to be "cases" by his superiors - are connected and that something is not right. He starts digging and of course leads himself into trouble.
Without giving too much away, this is a novel with a lot of political background, starring many organizations, state officials, IT/tech companies, and way too many characters. It was hard to follow everything after some time, and towards the end I just wanted the story to finish.
On the other hand, it was probably one of the most atmospheric Rebus novels I read up until now. The sense of place is very, very strong. There are constant references to public buildings and streets in Edinburgh, to the Scottish winter weather, to the different accents of the people Rebus meets and so on. This gave the novel an intense atmosphere that I enjoyed much more than the plot itself.

Stopping by to say hi and that I hope all is well!

Echoing rp!

Hi all!

After so many months I'm finally logging into LibraryThing again.

The reason I was not here for so long is that in May I nearly lost my mom who fell in her apartment and injured herself severely, and the following months were very hard because of this, trying to do my work as well, going to her town and back to Bremen as often as we could.
When things started to ease a little bit, my hometown was hit by the floodings which was another blow. After that, I just couldn't get into reading and using LibraryThing for the remainder of the year.

But things are getting better now! My husband and I have moved closer to work so we can stop commuting, and now we are doing the last step of arranging the new apartment, which is the most enjoyable and also the most important step: Filling the shelves!!! Hurray!!!

It's like meeting long lost friends and suddenly I feel the urge to read so, so much. And I loved this group before it all happened and it supported my reading so well, so now I'm back!

Thank you RP and MissWatson for checking in here when I did not post anymore!

>215 MissBrangwen: Glad to have you back! Sorry to hear about your tough year...I hope your mom is better now. I hope you're still able to read some good books this year!

>215 MissBrangwen: Sorry to hear about your Mom's fall. I hope she's doing better. Sounds like you have a new home in a better location. Welcome back!

Welcome back, and I'm so sorry it's been such a difficult year, you've had a lot on your plate! I hope that the rest of this year and 2022 are much much better for you!

Glad to hear things are looking up for you. Welcome back!

>215 MissBrangwen: Oh no! I'm so sorry that your mom had a fall. That must have been such a worry. We're glad to have you back.

You've had such a difficult year so it's great news that things are looking up and that you are back posting on LT again.

Sorry to hear about all you've been through. Hope 2022 is less eventful!

Thank you for all your kind comments! It feels so good to be back!

My mom is better and finally doing rehab now, getting out of the wheel chair and learning to use a rollator. It has been a long journey, but she is very resilient!

Welcome back. That has been a very rough year. I'm happy to hear your mom is getting up and moving again, that is always the hardest thing to do. And I hope you enjoy the holidays in your new home!

It's been a tough year. You have survived! Glad you are back on the boards and hope you can enjoy the new apartment and the upcoming holidays.

>224 MissWatson: Thank you so much, Birgit!

>225 Tess_W: Indeed I have survived! Thank you for your kind comment!

It's great to see your name! Welcome back, I'm glad life has calmed down and that you can enjoy reading and being a book lover again!

My sympathies in dealing with an aging parent. The year my mom fell and broke her hip was a rough one, but we all made it through. Glad your mother is regaining her mobility.

And yay for not having a long commute to work and getting back into reading.

That was a tough year for you then, I'm sorry to hear that. Good that everything is now calming down again. I haven't been here much either, but I always like the thought that everyone is welcome in this group - no matter if you are a regular user or absent for a longer time. It's our passion that counts. :)

>227 clue: Thank you! I'm definitely enjoying it so much.

>228 RidgewayGirl: It is always good to hear that others went through the same and made it through! I am happy you survived that difficult year. Thank you for telling me about it.

>229 Chrischi_HH: You're so right! I must say that after such a long time I did not expect such a warm welcome in this group and over in the 2022 category challenge. What extraordinary people LT members are!

I just counted how many books I read after I did not log in anymore. Seven books from the end of May until now! Definitely a sad number, but the good thing is that I enjoyed most of them and I will post about them to complete the year in this thread, although I will not assign them any categories.

Because I was utterly in need of comfort reading, they are all mysteries.

We spent the first part of the summer holidays in Cologne to be close to my mom but still have a little bit of a holiday. On the first day we visited Mayersche Buchhandlung, a huge bookshop that I had frequently visited when studying in the city. I bought The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware on a whim because her novel The Woman in Cabin 10 was one of the first thrillers I ever read and the one which really started my crime novel reading apart from the Agatha Christies. It was a good decision to buy such a page turner because it was easy to get into and kept me distracted for one whole day!



Book No 55

"The Turn of the Key" by Ruth Ware
Vintage
Paperback, 340pp.
Rating: 3 stars - ***

Rowan Caine takes on a new job as a nanny working for a wealthy couple. She takes care of their daughters and lives with them in a lonely house in the Scottish Highlands - a creepy setting which feels uncanny from the moment she arrives, and of course, terrifying things soon start to happen. But what is real and what is not, whom can Rowan trust - and does she really murder someone, as the opening of the novel suggests?
While this is a real page turner that I read straight through without really taking a break, it is not my favourite one at all. The solution - which I am not going to mention to avoid spoilers - feels too incredible and did not satisfy me. After finishing, the story feels shallow and doesn't really pay off.
Apart from that, the reading experience was very good. I could hardly put it down, the setting is interesting and the story sucked me right in because I was able to identify with the main character. I will probably read more by Ruth Ware if one of her books comes my way.

Due To A Death by Mary Kelly was another book I bought at Mayersche Buchhandlung in Cologne, simply because it is a British Library Crime Classic and I had never seen one in a German bookshop before!



Book No 56

"Due To A Death" by Mary Kelly
Series: Hedley Nicholson (2)
British Library
Paperback, 240pp.
Rating: 3 1/2 stars - ***°

When I started this novel, I was blown away at once by the writing style. I had expected a traditional Whodunnit, or at least a similar old-fashioned crime story taking place by the sea, simply because I was reading a British Library Crime Classic. But it was so different!
The style of this novel is very literary, and while it certainly has elements of a crime story, it felt foremost like a novel about the characters, their feelings and experiences. Unfortunately, I found most of them unlikeable, including the main character, and after some time the story got a bit too negative and bland for my liking. I wanted to shake them all or hit them on the head for wasting their lives like that. Hence, I had to adjust my rating a little bit, because I would have liked to see at least a little bit of another development. After some time, the story seemed to drag on and on and I just wanted it to finish. However, it still is a good novel and the description of the setting and the style are excellent. I will look out for other novels of this author.

>233 MissBrangwen: Ooh that's a great cover!

>234 rabbitprincess: Oh yes, that's why I decided to buy this one! So atmospheric!

The Sentence Is Death by Anthony Horowitz was another book I bought at Mayersche Buchhandlung to read in the summer holidays. I had read the first book, The Word Is Murder, in 2017 soon after publication, and was delighted to discover that there was a second book!



Book No 57

"The Senctence Is Death" by Anthony Horowitz
Series: Hawthorne & Horowitz (2)
Arrow Books
Paperback, 375pp.
Rating: 3 1/2 stars - ***°

Just like in the first book, Anthony Horowitz - the author himself, or a fictionalized version of himself - is the narrator of the story. He has got a contract to write another book about private investigator Daniel Hawthorne and cannot help but be drawn into the newest case, as much as he tries to keep out of things.
The case itself is intriguing for sure: A very rich divorce lawyer is killed with a bottle of expensive wine. The story features a cast of mysterious and interesting characters, and chapter after chapter reveals another secret. Horowitz is a very likable character and it's easy to identify with him, as well as to enjoy the comic relief he provides. The glimpse into his real life (such as filming Foyle's War) are nice to read about, too. However, everything still feels a little fabricated sometimes and I do think that some of the characterizations are over the top, which is why my rating is like it is.
However, I was happy to learn that there will be more books in this series!

>236 MissBrangwen: I have the first on my TBR mountain. Should I read it and like it, I will definitely look for number 2!

>237 Tess_W: I hope you‘ll enjoy it when you get to it! I like this series a lot!

After ten days in Cologne we drove to the Black Forest and stayed there for another ten days. I bought Maigret im Haus der Unruhe (La Maison d'Inquiétude) by Georges Simenon at a local bookshop in Freiburg because I felt like reading a traditional mystery and had wanted to read more Maigret stories anyway.



Book No 58

"Maigret im Haus der Unruhe" by Georges Simenon
Series: Maigret (0)
Original Title: La Maison d'Inquiétude
Atlantik Verlag
Paperback, 219pp.
Rating: 4 stars - ****

Officially, the first Maigret book is Pietr-le-Letton (Pietr the Latvian/Maigret und Pietr der Lette). However, there are several Mairget stories that were published before that. According to Daniel Kampa, who wrote the afterword to this German edition, the first three are quite trivial, and Maigret is mostly a minor figure, although he is gaining more importance with each story. Eventually, the fourth Maigret story is a proper Maigret. It was published in a periodical and although not the official first one, it should be considered to be the prototype, the blueprint, as Kampa puts it. There are many legends around how Maigret was invented and how Simenon conceived the idea of his most famous creation, but according to Kampa as well as two biographers of the author, the research points to this story being the first real Maigret - albeit a test version.

As far as I know, the novel has not been published in English, but it can be read online on this Maigret website:

La Maison D'Inquiétude in English on trussel.com

So now to my review: My Maigret experiences are only meagre so far (I have read one novel and listened to several audio plays), but I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel and do not think that it is in any way inferior to other books. The plot is interesting, if a little foreseeable towards the end. It is a little similar to Agatha Christie: A young woman seeks out Maigret late in the evening and confesses to murder. Maigret commits a rookie mistake and leaves his office for a short while - when he comes back, she is gone. Nevertheless he starts investigating and he discovers many secrets and encounters many complications.
Of course the atmosphere is a whole lot different than in an Agatha Christie, as is the setting in a big apartment building in Paris, inhabited by numerous people of different backgrounds. The writing style is as distinctive and on point as you would expect of Simenon, and the case is interesting.
I am looking forward to reading more Maigret novels and will continue to buy these new editions by Atlantik Verlag.

I bought In The Woods by Tana French earlier this year for my Thingaversary, and I must say that this group played a huge part in that. I had heard of the book before, but it only really came to my attention because of some comments I read here. I read it in September on one weekend.



Book No 59

"In The Woods" by Tana French
Series: Dublin Murder Squad (1)
Hodder
Paperback, 592pp.
Rating: 5 stars - *****

This is one of the books where I feel that anything I might write would not be able to convey my feelings as a reader or the atmosphere and depth of the story.
The premise itself sounds like a straightforward police procedural: Rob Ryan and his partner Cassie Maddox investigate the murder of a girl in a small town close to Ireland. Rob has a secret, though: As a child he lived in this very town, under another name, and was the lone survivor of an incident that left his two closest friends dead.
This is only the beginning of many events unfolding, and the creation of a net between a set of fascinating characters, each of them hiding their own flawed secrets. These characterizations and the many layers of stories, including Irish legends and local colors, is what truly makes this novel, so that it rather feels like a literary work and not solely like a crime novel. I have never read anything like it and it will stay with me for a long time.

>240 MissBrangwen: So glad you loved In the Woods! I've read the next two books in the series also, and in my opinion they just keep getting better!

In September I also read Dying Fall, the fifth book of the Ruth Galloway series by Elly Griffiths. It is one of my favorite series!



Book No 60

"Dying Fall" by Elly Griffiths
Series: Ruth Galloway (5)
Quercus
Paperback, 392pp.
Rating: 4 stars - ****

"Dying Fall" was another good entry in this series! After I had a few problems with the fourth book, this one was a lot better and I was very happy about it.
The case gripped me right from the beginning: A good friend of Ruth's dies in a house fire. The next day, Ruth receives a letter from him, sent to her shortly before the day of the fire, in which he writes to her about a new archaeological discovery he made, and also mentions that he is afraid. Of course Ruth is drawn into the story and travels to the north of England to investigate at her friend's university.
I liked the case a lot and also enjoyed meeting all the characters that I have grown to love. They are a great bunch of people and make this series into real comfort reading. My pet peeve, though, persists: Why does Ruth seek danger all the time? Even if she has been threatened and there is no reason at all, she walks right into the trap, even endangering her daughter. It happens in every book and she just doesn't learn!
This is why I cannot rate this book five stars, although I love everything else about it and have already ordered the next three!

This is the first book in a new series of historical mysteries taking place on the Northern German island of Norderney. I bought it spontaneously in a local bookshop and read it during an autumnal trip to the Harz Mountains.
Unfortunately, this is not available in English.



Book No 61

"Die Tote in der Sommerfrische" by Elsa Dix
Series: Seebad-Krimi (1)
Goldmann
Paperback, 413pp.
Rating: 3 1/2 stars - ***°

This novel was not as good as I had expected, but it was still enjoyable and something to get lost in. It takes place on Norderney in 1912, where the upper class take their holidays by the sea to enjoy a fresh breeze and beach walks while residing in luxury hotels and having all the amenities they need. The two main characters are Viktoria Berg, daughter of a rich attorney general, and Christian Hinrichs, a journalist. While Viktoria escaped to Norderney to enjoy a few happy weeks of summer before starting her job as a teacher - a very unusual choice for a woman of her social standing - it's Christian's job to write a magazine article about the summer holidays spent on Norderney by the rich and famous. The two young people meet when a body is washed up on the beach. Viktoria recognizes the dead woman because the deceased used to work in her household years before.
The police soon decide that it was suicide, but Viktoria cannot believe this and she and Christian start investigating.
A few aspects just didn't sit right with this crime novel: Viktoria is altogether too modern and too emancipated for the time she lives in, the language is not realistic, the romance is too quick and too superficial, and the story itself feels shallow at times. On the other hand, the case gets more and more exciting towards the end and all the characters are lively and described very well. What I liked most was that obviously, the author has done a ton of research. I knew next to nothing about the summer holidays on Norderney in 1912 and these past times truly came to life before my eyes. I learned a lot of things and I liked how the author includes many details as well as historic events such as the sinking of the Titanic.
Although it has its flaws it was a good escapist read and I am looking forward to reading the next book.

This was my last review for 2021!

Today was a good day to post my remaining reviews because yesterday I received my booster shot, so today I am seated on the couch and not moving a lot, and was able to take the time to write my reviews.

Like last year, I will start my 2022 challenge on Christmas Eve, so from tomorrow I will post in my new thread in the 2022 Category Challenge. I hope to see you there!

Congrats on getting the booster! I'm on a waitlist and will have to keep checking on availability.

I’m glad that after such a tough year that you are ready to read more and join the 2022 challenge.

>245 rabbitprincess: I hope you can get one soon! I know how it feels if you have to wait and wait!

>246 hailelib: Thank you for your kind words! Yes, I‘m definitely enjoying my reading again!