MissBrangwen's first category challenge!

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MissBrangwen's first category challenge!

1MissBrangwen
Editado: Ene 1, 2021, 4:42 pm



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.

~~~

2MissBrangwen
Editado: Feb 18, 2021, 7:15 am



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
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 coffee table books or reference books).

3MissBrangwen
Editado: Feb 18, 2021, 7:16 am



BingoDOG

1. Nature or Environment: The Blackhouse by Peter May
2. Title Describes You:
3. Contains a Love Story: The Warden by Anthony Trollope
4. You Heartily Recommend:
5. Impulse Read!: Aunt Bessie Assumes by Diana Xarissa
6. Suggested by Another Generation:
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:
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:
22. History or Alternate History:
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

4MissBrangwen
Editado: Feb 18, 2021, 11:29 am



GenreCAT

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

February: Memoirs/biography

March: Action & Adventure (Military/spy/war/Westerns/thrillers etc.)

April: Literary Fiction

May: Short stories/essays

June: Historical fiction

July: Romance

August: Poetry/drama/graphic novels

September: YA/children

October: Horror/supernatural

November: SFF

December: Mysteries (inc. thrillers/suspense)



Other CATs and KITs I will dabble in sometimes:

HistoryCAT
January (Middle Ages): "Altenglisches Elementarbuch" by Martin Lehnert
February (Modern): "The Warden" by Anthony Trollope

RandomCAT
January (LOL): "Stardust" by Neil Gaiman
February (Fruits & Veggies): "Birnbäume blühen weiß" by Gerbrand Bakker

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
"Third Girl" by Agatha Christie
"The Warden" by Anthony Trollope

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

GeoKIT
Africa
"Ein Mundvoll Erde" by Stefanie Zweig

Europe
"Birnbäume blühen weiß" by Gerbrand Bakker

North America
"The Constitution of the United States" (Penguin Little Black Classics)

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

5Helenliz
Dic 17, 2020, 3:56 pm

Welcome on board! Liking your set up. I'm also thinking of trying genre cat to stretch my reading a bit.
Good luck and I look forward to following what you get up to.

6Jackie_K
Dic 17, 2020, 4:04 pm

Welcome to the group!

7dudes22
Dic 17, 2020, 4:17 pm

Welcome! Hope you enjoy our group.

8NinieB
Dic 17, 2020, 4:26 pm

Yes, it's a lovely group! Welcome!

9rabbitprincess
Dic 17, 2020, 7:04 pm

Welcome aboard and enjoy the challenge!

10MissBrangwen
Dic 18, 2020, 3:04 am

Thank you for the friendly welcome!

11MissWatson
Dic 18, 2020, 6:01 am

Welcome! I hope you enjoy your reading year. The Bingo is great fun!

12majkia
Dic 18, 2020, 12:20 pm

Welcome Mirjam! Hope the year's reading is just what you want it to be.

13Tess_W
Dic 18, 2020, 2:01 pm

Good luck with your 2021 reading!

14thornton37814
Dic 18, 2020, 7:22 pm

Welcome to the challenge and good luck with your reading!

15markon
Dic 18, 2020, 11:42 pm

Welcome, hope you have fun with your challenges.

16MissBrangwen
Editado: Dic 19, 2020, 6:47 am

Thank you all for this wonderful welcome! I can't believe that I've found such a nice group after so many years on LibraryThing!

And I must say that I haven't been this motivated to read for a very long time. With the exception of a few weeks, 2020 has been one big reading slump for me for various reasons, and the years before were mostly similar, but I have a feeling that 2021 is going to be different! The challenges make me dig out long forgotten books. It really helps with my indecision of what to read next and the desire to find the book that is absolutely perfect for my current mood. I can't wait for 2020 to be over and to start a new reading year!

17scaifea
Dic 19, 2020, 8:54 am

Hi, Mirjam, and welcome to the group!

>16 MissBrangwen: So many of us readers have been surprised that we have actually read a lot less this year than normal, thinking at the start that lockdowns and such would have the tiny silver lining of giving us *more* reading time. But mentally and emotionally we've just not been in the right place. I'm definitely with you in being ready to have 2020 done and dusted!

18DeltaQueen50
Dic 19, 2020, 3:20 pm

Welcome to the Category Challenge, Mirjam! I can't wait to finish with 2020 and start anew with 2021. Hopefully we will all have a better year, and lots of great books!

19Chrischi_HH
Dic 19, 2020, 5:15 pm

Welcome to the group, Mirjam! It is indeed a place with lovely people who will give you fresh motivation whenever you need it. And I'm happy to see another reader from the north of Germany! :)

20MissBrangwen
Dic 19, 2020, 5:44 pm

>17 scaifea: This is exactly what happened to me! I watched lots of series and films, but I found it hard to pick up a book and stick to it. I'm glad to read that others felt the same.

>18 DeltaQueen50: Yes, I hope so, too! Thank you for welcoming me!

>19 Chrischi_HH: Thank you! And greetings from Bremen :-)

21pamelad
Dic 21, 2020, 5:42 pm

Happy varied reading in 2021, Mirjam. Plenty of scope on those virtual shelves!

22MissBrangwen
Dic 22, 2020, 11:53 am

>21 pamelad: Thank you, Pam!

23spiralsheep
Dic 22, 2020, 11:59 am

Hi, 2021 is also my first year of Category Challenges. Good luck with your reading!

24MissBrangwen
Dic 22, 2020, 2:42 pm

Thank you, great to meet someone else who is new here, too!

26MissBrangwen
Editado: Ene 23, 2021, 9:55 am

As I said before, I wanted to start my challenge on Christmas Eve, just because Christmas is so different this year and because I couldn't wait to get started with my first category challenge!
So on Christmas Eve and on Christmas Day I read Murder at the Old Vicarage by Jill McGown. I read a German translation, "Mord im alten Pfarrhaus". This is one of the rare occasions that I read an English book translated to German, but I bought this book on a whim two years ago when I saw it in a bookshop in my home city, simply because the cover looked so festive and cute!
Apparently, this book was originally published as "Redemption", but later as Murder at the Old Vicarage. It's part two of the Lloyd & Hill series, which I didn't know when I bought it (usually I like to read the first book first).



Book No 1

"Mord im alten Pfarrhaus" by Jill McGown
Series: Lloyd & Hill (2)
Original Title: Redemption/Murder at the Old Vicarage
Dumont Buchverlag
Hardcover, 314pp.
Rating: 4 stars - ****

Virtual Shelf ticked off: Crime
Cats&Kits: AlphaKIT - M-P
BingoDOG: New-to-you author

I really enjoyed this novel! I expected a traditional cozy crime, but was surprised because while it kept many elements of that genre, and a few Agatha Christie references, it was much more like a police procedural and the characterization was much deeper than I anticipated. The story kept me on the edge of my seat most of the time. The back story concerning the two police persons was a bit irritating towards the end, otherwise this would have been five stars. I will definitely look out for the first book of this series, and continue with Lloyd & Hill, because this was a very good read.

27Jackie_K
Dic 26, 2020, 6:16 am

Looks like your challenge is off to a good start!

28scaifea
Dic 26, 2020, 8:39 am

Congrats on getting off to a good start! I do love a good cozy mystery, especially if it has some unexpected parts, so I'll add this one to my list.

29LittleTaiko
Dic 26, 2020, 9:29 am

Welcome to the challenge! You picked an excellent book to start with. That is such a good series. Hope you have a great reading year.

30rabbitprincess
Dic 26, 2020, 10:18 am

Hurray, off to a great start!

31MissBrangwen
Editado: Dic 26, 2020, 1:32 pm

>27 Jackie_K: >30 rabbitprincess: Thank you!

>28 scaifea: That's great! I really liked it and hope you do, too!

>29 LittleTaiko: Nice to hear that it's a good series!

32MissBrangwen
Editado: Ene 23, 2021, 9:57 am

I already finished my second read - I'm home alone with hubby and we just have so much time right now!
Although this read may be a little bit cheating because it's a short story, but as it was published on its own I'll count it!
It's part 4 1/2 of the Ruth Galloway series. I simply love that series! I read the first book in October 2019 and since then have devoured books 2, 3 and 4. It was perfect to read 4.5 this Christmas, since it's obviously a Christmas story.
I read this on my husband's iPad, and it was a rare experience because I hardly ever read ebooks - only if I can't help it because the text I want to read wasn't published on paper.



Book No 2

"Ruth's First Christmas Tree" by Elly Griffiths
Series: Ruth Galloway (4.5)
Quercus
E-Book, 24pp.
Rating: 4 stars - ****

BingoDOG: Character You'd Be Friends With

I enjoyed this short Christmas story a lot. In the beginning there is a lot of explanation about Ruth and her circumstances, so I was a little bit annoyed - I could have done without this because I'm a reader of the series and the explanations seemed a bit forced into the story. When the story really starts, I think it's wonderful: The most important characters are there, there is a little bit of mystery and archaeology, and although Ruth doesn't particularly like Christmas, there is a Christmas atmosphere and a festive spirit. This is only a short story, but it's a nice addition to the series and apart from the beginning I liked this snippet of Ruth's world a lot. I think it really captured the atmosphere of the novels and her character.

I've also picked this for BingoDOG's "Character You'd Be Friends With' because I firmly believe that if Ruth Galloway had worked at my uni and we would have crossed paths, we would have been friends. While there are a lot of differences between her and me (for one, I love Christmas ;-) ), there are also many similarities, which is one aspect why I love that series so much.

33Helenliz
Dic 26, 2020, 2:01 pm

>32 MissBrangwen: So glad you've read Ruth for that Bingo Square, I am pretty sure I'm going to use the same series for that square as well. I'm with you on the fact that there are differences between me and Ruth, but there are enough similarities that I'm sure we'd have enough in common to bond over. >:-D

34MissBrangwen
Editado: Dic 26, 2020, 2:05 pm

>33 Helenliz: That's so lovely to hear! Glad you feel the same! I really love reading a series with a female protagonist that I can relate to.

35PaulCranswick
Dic 26, 2020, 7:31 pm

>1 MissBrangwen: Happy new thread and challenge, Mirjam, and it looks like you have made a flying start.

We shall be rookies here together as I normally hang out in the 75 Book Challenge but will split my time this year. Look forward to cheering you on. x

36markon
Editado: Dic 27, 2020, 9:55 am

>35 PaulCranswick: Welcome Paul! I've moved here from the 75rs. Hope you enjoy your visits this year!

>32 MissBrangwen: Thanks for posting about this story. I'm a fan of the Ruth Galloway series & hadn't heard about this one.

Welcome to Club Read!

37MissBrangwen
Dic 28, 2020, 4:24 am

>35 PaulCranswick: Thank you for welcoming me! Yes, due to the lockdown in Germany I‘ve got so much time right now (all Christmas trips cancelled), so I‘ve got more reading time than I‘ve had in a very long while! Great to have you on board!

>36 markon: Great to meet another Ruth Galloway fan! As far as I know the story is available for free on kindle! I discovered it through the series feature on LibraryThing, otherwise I would have missed it, too. Hope you enjoy!

38PaulCranswick
Dic 28, 2020, 6:26 am

>36 markon: Ardene, another friendly face! I'll go and find your thread too. x

39This-n-That
Dic 28, 2020, 11:13 am

Mirjam, wishing you the best of luck with your first reading challenge here. As you can tell, this is a fun and encouraging group of readers. :-)

I am so glad you liked Ruth's First Christmas Tree, as I have the kindle version but just haven't read it yet. It will surely come in handy for a BingoDOG square.

40This-n-That
Dic 28, 2020, 11:18 am

Oh, I forgot to add that I'm so glad you are getting past a 2020 reading slump. That gives me hope! Keep up the good reading in 2021 and (most importantly) have fun. :-)

41MissBrangwen
Dic 28, 2020, 11:49 am

>39 This-n-That: Thank you so much for your kind words! I'm so happy that I decided to join this group!
And I hope you have fun when you decide to read Ruth's First Christmas Tree!

I am sure your slump will pass, they all do eventually, don't they?! Just as this terrible year will pass!!!

42MissBrangwen
Editado: Ene 23, 2021, 9:58 am

I finished another read today - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling. Although I have a whole virtual shelf devoted to the Wizarding World, I must admit that I've never read past the first two books and Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them. I love the first two books and I've read them several times, but - I was always waiting for the perfect moment to go on with the series. It is what often happens when I really love an author or a series, if something I read really touches me: I don't go on reading because I want to wait for the perfect timing. I don't want to spoil it.
Anyway, one of this month's letters for the AlphaKIT is P, so suddenly I thought: This is perfect. It's Christmas, I've got more time for reading than I've had in years (our Christmas trips were cancelled because of the lockdown), the challenge fits so well, so what am I waiting for?



Book No 3

"Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" by J.K. Rowling
Series: Harry Potter (3)
Bloomsbury
Paperback, 468pp.
Rating: 5 stars - *****

Virtual Shelf ticked off: Wizarding World
Cats&Kits: AlphaKIT - M-P
BingoDOG: Made You Laugh

What can I say? This book was so good I am lost for words. Of course I knew a few spoilers because if you are sort of in the fandom you cannot avoid them, but I had still managed to escape the details, so there were many surprises awaiting me. This story moved me to tears three or four times, and it made me laugh out loud quite often. Although it is such a sinister story, there are many lighthearted moments and many shenanigans, which is why I'll also use it for this Bingo square (I wanted to use it for the magic one, but I'm sure I'll read another fantasy novel involving magic in the months to come).
I can see why people say that while the three friends are growing up, the stories do, too. And this added depth moves me even more. And the best thing is: I still have four books to go!

43Helenliz
Dic 29, 2020, 4:18 am

>42 MissBrangwen: Another good read to start the year, you're on a roll.
I read the 7 Harry Potter books in series a year or so ago. Realised that while we owned 6, I;d never read it and then had to go and buy 7. I agree with you that they grow as the children do. Hope you enjoy the rest of them as well.

44scaifea
Dic 29, 2020, 8:05 am

>42 MissBrangwen: Oh, what a treat to be reading this one for the first time! #4 is, I think, my favorite, so I'm excited that it's next for you!

45rabbitprincess
Dic 29, 2020, 10:05 am

>42 MissBrangwen: #3 was my favourite of the series (both book and movie), so I'm glad you enjoyed it too!

46MissBrangwen
Dic 29, 2020, 11:49 am

>43 Helenliz: It's good to hear that there's someone else who just recently read these books - sometimes I feel like I'm the only one who hasn't ;-)

>44 scaifea: I think now I'm looking forward to the next one even more!!!

>45 rabbitprincess: So many people told me that No 3 is their favourite, so I think that's why I wanted to be able to really make time for it and enjoy it. I'm happy I had the chance to do that now! And we are going to watch the movie tonight!

47spiralsheep
Dic 29, 2020, 12:20 pm

>26 MissBrangwen: Good to see I'm not the only one tempted into beginning early! :-)

48JayneCM
Dic 30, 2020, 6:13 am

Welcome! Glad to see you are off to a fine start!

49hailelib
Dic 30, 2020, 9:56 am

The Harry Potter books are a lot of fun.

You are off to a great start with your challenge.

50MissBrangwen
Dic 30, 2020, 10:01 am

>47 spiralsheep: Definitely not! I was just so motivated to read that I just started!

>48 JayneCM: >49 hailelib: Thank you! I'm so happy because I haven't read this much for a long time and it feels so good!

51spiralsheep
Dic 30, 2020, 10:40 am

>50 MissBrangwen: It's good to feel motivated. Then you can feel more relaxed later.

52MissBrangwen
Editado: Ene 23, 2021, 10:02 am

I picked my next read because I had wanted to read one of the British Library Crime Classics for some time, but I could never decide which one - given that MysteryKIT's topic for January is "water", I knew at once that now I would read Mystery in the Channel by Freeman Wills Crofts. This was the first ever British Library Crime Classic I bought, on a weekend in London in 2016. I have a small collection right now but I would like to collect many more!



Book No 4

"Mystery in the Channel" by Freeman Wills Crofts
Series: Inspector French (7)
British Library
Paperback, 284pp.
Rating: 3 1/2 stars - ***°

Cats&Kits: AlphaKIT - M-P, MysteryKIT - water
BingoDOG: Read a CAT or KIT

I enjoyed this novel, but it's not my favorite in the world. It was written in 1931 and it has a very "vintage" feel about it, which I do love. I adored the atmosphere, as it mainly takes place in small harbour towns on the English and the French side of the Channel, plus a short stint in Swansea in Wales. It's all very maritime with lots of nautical terms, ferries, boats, fishermen and Scotland Yard's nautical expert, and I do love all of this. On the other hand, the story is very "masculine" (or what would traditionally be considered masculine): Men deduct the crime, they meet in the evenings having cigars and whisky, they are the experts, and human emotions play only a minor role in the story. There are a few women, but they usually make dinner and leave. I appreciated seeing the methods of the policemen at work because that was very interesting, but there was something lacking to make it more engaging.
I think I would still read more volumes of the series, but rather as an in-between read when I need a quick palate-cleanser.

53PaulCranswick
Editado: Ene 3, 2021, 12:17 pm



And keep up with my friends here, Mirjam. Have a great 2021.

54clue
Ene 1, 2021, 11:25 am

Hi, welcome to our group! I've been in the Challenge for several years and one of the things I like best is the indiviuality in our reading plans. It's so interesting to see what everyone is reading and working towards. I hope you enjoy your 2021 plan!

55lkernagh
Ene 1, 2021, 3:57 pm

Happy New Year, Mirjam and welcome to the Category Challenge! You are off to a great start with your challenge. I am looking forward to following your 2021 reading.

56MissBrangwen
Ene 1, 2021, 4:33 pm

>53 PaulCranswick: That's a wonderful resolution and one I agree with 100%. I hope you have a great 2021!

>54 clue: Thank you for the friendly welcome! And I agree, it's amazing to see what everyone plans and chooses. So inspirational!
Have a wonderful reading year!

>55 lkernagh: Thank you so much! This group really has helped me find my reading flow again and I hope it continues. Happy New Year!

57MissBrangwen
Editado: Ene 23, 2021, 10:00 am

I finished my first nonfiction read of the year (I won't count it for nonfiction, though, because I want to use another one for that). This month's HistoryCAT is the Middle Ages, so this was my chance to finally pick up one of my Medieval Studies books.
I read Altenglisches Elementarbuch by Martin Lehnert which I bought from my favourite used book online store for a very cheap price. It's an introduction to Old English which I sadly never studied at uni. As I lack the time and energy (and simply the ambition) to really learn it thoroughly, I am content reading about it and gaining a little bit of passive knowledge. Because of its introductory chapters, this book promised to be handy for that.



Book No 5

"Altenglisches Elementarbuch" by Martin Lehnert
de Gruyter
Paperback, 179pp.
Rating: 3 1/2 stars - ***°

Virtual shelf ticked off: Medieval Studies | Faerie | Mythology
Cats&Kits: HistoryCAT - Middle Ages

The first part of this book is an introduction to the historical background of Old English and I found this very interesting. It's very concise, but it covered many things that interested me - Old English texts/manuscripts preserved until today and where they are kept, the history of Great Britain in the period of time this language was used, the influences and developments of it (Celts, Romans, Vikings, Normans), the role of Alfred the Great etc. The second part is a grammar part that I just skipped through (as I said I am not intent on actually learning the language thoroughly), followed by some excerpts from Beowulf and other texts in Old English and German translation. The last part is a short dictionary.
I found the introduction very interesting and easy to understand. It included many aspects and I underlined a lot of it because it put together many pieces of the puzzle, that is, many things I had heard about before or had a vague knowledge of. It was a bit too concise for my liking, though.
The grammar part was, even if I had wanted to learn Old English, much, much too confusing and too high standard for a beginner.

A note on the author: My edition just says ‘10th edition from 1990’ but the academic style seemed quite ancient to me, so I wanted to check when this book was first published. I was shocked to see that the first edition is from 1939. I then spent a couple of hours doing research on Martin Lehnert and it seems that he is a respected scholar and his books are still in print (I even own a Beowulf translation by him from widely used publishers Reclam, which I just noticed when I checked him on LT). However, he started his academic career under the Nazi regime. He managed to be “cleared” during denazification because he proved that he had acted in an antifascist manner. In the beginning of the 1960s he apparently saved the field of English Studies in the GDR when it was about to be wiped out, by declaring the importance of it in an open and rather brave statement.
It seems that he managed to be quite unpolitical during the times working under the Nazis and the Communists, although there is still ongoing research on the role of academics like him in the Third Reich. Today, there is an academic prize named after him that is given to students contributing to Shakespearean studies in Germany (apparently Lehnert is most famous for his work on Shakespeare).
Thus, I decided to keep the book, but it was quite a shock when I first found out about the date and I would never have bought it had I known this.

58katiekrug
Ene 2, 2021, 8:38 am

Hi Mirjam - just dropping by to return your visit to my thread :) You've gotten a good start on your challenge. I am thinking of using the new Ruth Galloway novel, to be released here in a few months, for the "Character you'd be friends with" Bingo square, too. Ruth is such a wonderful character.

Happy new year!

59MissBrangwen
Ene 2, 2021, 8:41 am

>58 katiekrug: That's so great because after >33 Helenliz: you're the second person to say that! It seems like we would be a really great group of friends with Ruth included :-) And great to hear that there will be another new novel! I have so many of them still to read, that's a wonderful feeling!

60hailelib
Ene 2, 2021, 9:12 am

>57 MissBrangwen:

Some interesting information on the author of your book.

61spiralsheep
Ene 2, 2021, 10:05 am

>57 MissBrangwen: You made me think about national literatures. Old English literature doesn't seem to be politicised much in England. Nationalists tend to reach for Shakespeare, who wrote a lot about politics in modern English. To get to Beowulf, which is fantasy fiction anyway, they'd have to go back through anti-authoritarian William Langland (and Chaucer) whom they don't want to acknowledge. And then there's the fact that most Old English literature is Catholic mysticism, or instructional texts, or word-games, not heroic sagas, lol. I bet many more anglophone Brits have read Tolkien than Beowulf.

Lehnert sounds like a man who lived through difficult times.

62LoisB
Ene 2, 2021, 10:25 am

Hi all! I haven't been doing any of the challenges (other than the 75 Books) recently, but decided to jump in again. I'm going to start with the Genre CAT and see where I go from there.

63MissBrangwen
Ene 2, 2021, 11:32 am

>62 LoisB: Hi and welcome! I am doing GenreCAT, too, and I think it's a great way to start.
You might want to create your own thread so we can follow your reading there!

64pammab
Ene 3, 2021, 11:49 am

Welcome to the challenge!! Interesting notes on Lehnert and I too loved Prisoner of Azkaban. You're rocking this challenge!

65Crazymamie
Ene 3, 2021, 12:13 pm

You are off to a most excellent start! I am also a fan of both Harry Potter and Ruth Galloway.

66This-n-That
Ene 3, 2021, 10:58 pm

Great start to your BingoDOG board and it looks like you might be getting well past that reading slump now! : )

67MissBrangwen
Editado: Ene 4, 2021, 4:29 pm

>60 hailelib: I wondered for a while if I should write about it here or not, so I am glad to read that you found it interesting!

>61 spiralsheep: I didn't really know that Shakespeare is sometimes seen in that context, as Shakespeare is absolutely not my expertise (something I need to remedy).
In summer 2020 I visited the Nibelung Museum in Worms and of course one of the focal points was how the Nibelung myth was abused by the Nazis. I don't know about today - my impression is that today's Nazis are far too dumb to mingle in anything like this, but I may be wrong.
I read in Lehnert's book that Beowulf is the only heroic saga in Old English and I was really surprised, but when I thought about it, it was true - I hadn't heard about any other.
And your post made me realize that for similar reasons to what you said about Chaucer/Langland, the Nazis only used the Nibelungs - most of the other German epics are much too international, idealizing King Arthur and the round table, and being heavily intertextual and connected to English and French texts!

>64 pammab: Thank you! Yay for Prisoner of Azkaban! :-) I had a real bookish hangover after that and couldn't start anything else the next day.

>65 Crazymamie: Great to meet another Ruth Galloway fan! Can't wait to read the next one!

>66 This-n-That: I definitely think so! Tomorrow I need to start working again, so I will see how it does effect my reading, but I'm positive that I will continue!

68MissBrangwen
Ene 5, 2021, 11:18 am

I haven't finished a book in a while, but I'm alternating between three of them, so it's taking me longer to finish one.

The Art of the Hobbit is a wonderful book on Tolkien's illustrations of his book. I got this as a Christmas present from my husband.
Stardust by Neil Gaiman is something I read in a slow pace because I think it can't be rushed.
Wilde Rosen - Meine Emancipation is a very interesting collection of texts by Louise Aston, a woman politically active in 19th century Germany. I haven't heard about her before, but I'm fascinated because she had such an exciting (yet sometimes miserable) life. I'm reading this because I have to teach it this year.

69MissBrangwen
Editado: Ene 9, 2021, 12:53 pm

It was a bit hard for me to read during the last days - I was glued to the news because of what was happening in the US and also to hear what will happen at school when Christmas break is over and lessons start on Monday. The wait was quite stressful, but right now I'm just happy that I could finally use today to actually start working again because now I know what's coming.

Despite of this I made some reading progress on the three works mentioned in my previous post, but I still can't read any of them for too long because I find the reading experience so intense. This is why I have added another one to the rotation: The Truths We Hold by Kamala Harris. I read the first two chapters or so in November 2020 but paused it because I was dealing with US politics and history a lot in my lessons and I simply needed something else to read at home to relax. But now I'm in for this book again and really got into the reading flow yesterday.

70katiekrug
Ene 9, 2021, 1:19 pm

I read the Kamala Harris book last month. I was already a fan of hers, but found even more to like in the book.

71spiralsheep
Ene 9, 2021, 3:04 pm

>69 MissBrangwen: I'm also reading the web rather than books, and then trying to read more than one book.

Good luck with work next week, whatever form it takes.

72pammab
Ene 10, 2021, 1:03 am

I hadn't realized that Kamala Harris wrote a book, and pleased that Katie liked it. Very interested to see your thoughts too!

Good luck this upcoming week.

73charl08
Ene 10, 2021, 12:26 pm

I'm just new to the category challenge, I do like the range of books you are reading, I suspect this thread will be dangerous for picking up more books that I want to read!

>57 MissBrangwen: Fascinating insight into the life of this academic. I can't imagine being put in that position. I visited a Quaker centre in Manchester a couple of years ago and they had an exhibition about a group set up in the 1930s to help academics forced to run away from oppressive regimes (which had had links with that building/ centre). It was amazing to me how many they were able to help (although I'm sure just a drop in the ocean, sadly).

I've not heard of Louise Aston - sounds like someone worth teaching about though. Hope the book is a good read.

74MissBrangwen
Ene 12, 2021, 3:01 pm

>70 katiekrug: I'm half way through now, and totally agree!

>72 pammab: So far, I think it's a very good book, and still not too hard to read.

>71 spiralsheep: >72 pammab: Thanks! It has all been mayhem, but it's slowly getting better! This week we're teaching online and waiting for instructions for next week.

>73 charl08: This is my first time doing this challenge, too, but so far I find that it really helps me to stick to reading and not abandon books so easily.
I don't know a lot about the Quakers but that sounds very interesting. Manchester is a great city (I've been twice and love it, I think it's so underrated by tourists)!
Of course Germany has a very sad history concerning writers who were prosecuted and had to flee abroad or were killed.

75MissBrangwen
Editado: Ene 23, 2021, 10:07 am

I finally finished my next read! After all the chaos of last week I found my reading flow again on Sunday (by deliberately staying away from the news and my electronic devices) and yesterday I finished Stardust by Neil Gaiman. I must admit that I've always been a little reluctant to read Neil Gaiman simply because of the huge, huge hype. I first learned about him when I was an active member of the bookish instagram community (I'm not anymore) and everyone raved about him, but I just wasn't drawn to his books and the hype turned me away.
A little more than two years ago my husband and I began our relationship and one of the first things I learned when we talked about books and films was that he liked Neil Gaiman and that Stardust was one of his favorite books, and also films. So this was one of the first films we ever watched together, and I really liked it, but I still felt reluctant towards the book. However, RandomCAT gave me the final push because I don't have many humorous books and I thought this one might fit.





Book No 6

"Stardust" by Neil Gaiman
Morrow
Paperback, 271pp. + 3pp.
Rating: 4 stars - ****

Virtual Shelf ticked off: Fantasy
Cats&Kits: RandomCAT - LOL
BingoDOG: About or Contains Magic

It's a bit hard to write this review because on the hand I adored it. But on the other hand there were aspects I didn't enjoy at all, so they sort of interrupted my reading pleasure. These were the use of modern language in specific situations, the sex scenes (I have nothing against sex scenes, but to me they didn't quite fit the story), and also some of the things that I suppose should be funny but that to me weren't in tune with the overall style. I should explain that I love high fantasy and I'm not drawn to "funny fantasy" (I have no intention to ever read Terry Pratchett, although so many people tell me I must do so). I love a realistic style in fantasy, the feeling that there could be a world just like that - which is why J.R.R. Tolkien is my most favourite writer.
Gaiman's language is too artificial for my liking, and I had a hard time getting into the story and to let myself fall into this weird world of Faerie behind the wall.

But here's the thing: Despite of these aspects that I didn't like, I really, really loved the story. There was a moment when I held my breath and thought: "This is Faerie!" - in Tolkien's sense of Faerie, the Faerie of Smith of Wootton Major, the place we all need to be healthy and to stay sane. And sure enough, on the next page it was mentioned for the first time: Behind the wall there is Faerie, and if you go there, you will not be the same when you come back. So throughout this story, Faerie weaves its wonderful web and catches you - and I think no novel ever gave me such a Tolkienesque feeling, although on the other hand the style is so far away from Tolkien.

My edition contains two afterwords and the first chapter of a novel that was Gaiman's first idea about Wall, but that hasn't been written so far. My husband's edition (I bought my own shortly after he told me about the book, when I didn't know that we would move in together just six months later - and of course we've kept both!) contains an interview with Gaiman where he mentions Tolkien (referring, no doubt, to his lecture "On Faerie Stories", published in several different editions such as The Tolkien Reader or Perilous Realms) and explains that according to him, fairytales are not only for children, but for adults, too. It's an interesting interview about the history of fairytales, although I wish that it would have been longer, because I am curious to know more about Gaiman's influences. In the first afterword, he also mentions Tolkien's fellow inkling C.S. Lewis - and I am absolutely sure that if Gaiman had lived a few decades earlier, he would absolutely have been an inkling, too, and I think that's the highest honor I can give to any fantasy author!

76spiralsheep
Editado: Ene 12, 2021, 3:34 pm

>75 MissBrangwen: I recall reading Stardust in the early 2000s and iirc Gaiman was claiming Lord Dunsany and Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirlees as influences. I don't think Dunsany would be to your taste. I think you'd probably enjoy the world building in Lud-in-the-Mist but perhaps not the choice of storytelling style. You could ask your husband if he's read them and what he thinks?

ETA: The King of Elfland's Daughter

77MissBrangwen
Ene 12, 2021, 4:24 pm

>76 spiralsheep: Yes, Lord Dunsany and Hope Mirlees are mentioned in the afterword, too! As well as Charles Perrault, the Brothers Grimm and James Branch Cabell.

I will ask my husband, and I will check out The King of Elfland's Daughter. Thank you!

I am not totally against other styles - the Narnia books were my introduction to fantasy as a child and I still love them. It's just that I don't like books that try to be "humorous" in general (there are a few exceptions when it comes to travel writing), even more so in the fantasy genre. But from now on I will try to be more open-minded!

78spiralsheep
Ene 12, 2021, 4:31 pm

>77 MissBrangwen: I checked and it seems I was wrong about Dunsany's work being out of copyright (?), but I bet there are short stories of his online anyway.

I love anything that makes me laugh, and I laugh frequently! :D

79MissBrangwen
Editado: Ene 12, 2021, 4:43 pm

>78 spiralsheep: I will check, or maybe I can find a cheap secondhand edition!

Me too, I definitely like jokes and humor and think it's so important not to take things too seriously. It's also something my students appreciate because we always find something to laugh about in a lesson.
But somehow I prefer more serious books, or at least books that don't advertise being "funny" - maybe it's prejudice because quite often I don't find those funny at all but laugh more when reading other books that are not marketed as "hilarious".

80rabbitprincess
Ene 12, 2021, 7:26 pm

>79 MissBrangwen: In a similar vein, I dislike when thrillers are marketed with taglines such as "a gripping thriller with a shocking twist!" I'll be the judge of putdownability and shockingness, thank you ;)

81MissBrangwen
Ene 13, 2021, 10:31 am

>80 rabbitprincess: I see what you mean!

82MissBrangwen
Editado: Ene 23, 2021, 10:09 am

Yesterday I finished another short read: Wilde Rosen - Meine Emancipation von Louise Aston. This was a required read because I have to teach it in the upcoming term. I had never heard of Louise Aston but I must say that I am glad I got to know her writings and that she was included in this course (a course on Vormärz literature).
The story behind this is that German teachers (and student associations) in the State of Bremen (including me) have complained for several years that there are not enough woman writers on the curriculum for the university entrance certificate (Abitur). The German courses change every three years (there's one new course every year while two others stay, then a new one the next year and the "oldest" one is off, and so on), but one thing they all have in common is that the writing is not very diverse. So I think the inclusion of Louise Aston, a writer who is not at all famous, but female, is an answer to these protests.



Book No 7

"Wilde Rosen - Meine Emancipation" by Louise Aston
Hofenberg
Paperback, 57pp.
Rating: 4 stars - ****

I'm not using this for any categories because it was required reading.

As I said above, I had never heard of Louise Aston and that is astounding, because she was a German early feminist, a 19th century poet, and she lived in Bremen for several years. I consider myself a feminist, I have an M.A. in German literature, and I have lived in the State of Bremen for five and a half years (two of these in the city itself), but yet, I have never ever heard of her. And I think that is so, so outrageous. I'm pretty sure that if she had been English (or American?) she would have been quite famous and I'm pondering the reasons why this is not the case in Germany. I once read an article on the way how German suffragettes were treated and how they are seen (or rather not seen) today, and I really need to dig that out and learn more about the topic. Of course she was not a suffragette because she lived a few decades too early for that, but her mindset was quite similar.
She was born Louise Hoche in 1814 and was married to Samuel Aston, a factory owner from England who lived in Germany (hence the English surname). It was not a happy marriage and they got a divorce. She moved to Berlin in 1844 where she was part of intellectual circles and literary clubs. Moreover, she wore men's clothes, smoked in the streets and did not go to church. The scandal!!!
Because of this behavior and the "bad influence" she was said to have on other women, she was banned from Berlin. After pleading and trying to persuade the authorities and even the King of Prussia to let her stay, she wrote a polemic that contained an explanation of her circumstances, her biography and how she was treated by Berlin's authorities. She shows how women were dealt with at the time and how little her options to lead the life she wished for were.
The book consists of this polemic ("Meine Emancipation") and also of 24 poems. Twelve of them were published in a book the same year she fought for her right to stay in Berlin, the other twelve were published in a magazine she edited during the German revolution of 1848. Both poetry collections contain poems on love (Aston's vision of free love that is not bound by marriage, conventions or force), poems on Germany's political situation (fighting for democracy and free speech) and poems on the situation of women. The one that touched me the most is written from a female weaver's point of view who is very poor, lost her father and her sweetheart, needs to take care of her sick mother and sister and fears for her salvation when her boss wants to give her a piece of gold for a three nights stay in his bed. It reminded me of Elizabeth Gaskell's novel "Ruth" and I can only admire Louise Aston's bravery and strength to publish a poem like that in the 1840s.
The poems are not the most beautiful to read and to me they have a sort of wooden and rigid feeling that many German classics have. But there are a few gems (including one dedicated to George Sand!) and their voice and relevance is so important. So yes, Louise Aston should definitely be on the curriculum and I will go on teaching her even when that course is long gone!

83markon
Ene 13, 2021, 12:07 pm

>82 MissBrangwen: Congrtulations on this find. She sounds like an intersting character to get to know.

84pammab
Ene 13, 2021, 12:55 pm

>82 MissBrangwen: Very interesting background and story of Louise Aston! (Do the other states have more diverse Abiture?)

85Helenliz
Ene 13, 2021, 1:04 pm

>82 MissBrangwen: excellent discovery. She sounds like a character, right enough.

86spiralsheep
Editado: Ene 13, 2021, 2:08 pm

>82 MissBrangwen: It always amazes me that so many European women could wear "men's" clothes to attend semi-public events without too much trouble (some needed permits) but as soon as they dared to open their mouths they were harassed. Looked at as objects but not listened to as subjects. Seen but not heard.

87charl08
Ene 15, 2021, 12:36 am

>82 MissBrangwen: She does sound well worth a place on the syllabus. Do you think the widening of the canon for your students will continue? (I wondered what the response has been from other teachers.)

88MissBrangwen
Ene 16, 2021, 8:11 am

>83 markon: >85 Helenliz: Yes, she definitely is!

>84 pammab: I don't really think so. I don't know for sure because the only other state I actually worked in is Northrhine-Westphalia, but it certainly wasn't the case there, and in most things Bremen is the most progressive of Germany's states.

>86 spiralsheep: Yes, right? Louise Aston even writes something along that line in her text - that the accusations against her actions (clothes etc.) are just pretense because in truth the authorities don't like her words.

>87 charl08: I sure hope so. I am quite sure that the text was received well by my colleagues (I don't know for sure because I am the only one teaching this course at my college and there haven't been other meetings or trainings because of Covid). And as said above, Bremen is very progressive in general, and with students actively campaigning for this, I hope that in the future there will be more diverse texts!

I should add that the canon is much broader when it comes to English. For example, this year's topics are Canada (where one aspect is First Nations perspectives) and African-American experiences in the US, and we read An American Marriage in class. English is mandatory for everyone (just like German), so I was very happy about that!

My reading towards the end of this week hasn't gone well at all, though. I don't want to vent because I know that many people are in a much more difficult situation, but I'm just exhausted, and angry about many things concerning my job right now and how teachers (and students!) are dealt with in the current crisis.
But I miss reading and I definitely want to read this evening and tomorrow.

89spiralsheep
Ene 16, 2021, 8:16 am

>88 MissBrangwen: Venting is named after a safety procedure. Sometimes we need to let things out before we can take more in. :-)

90scaifea
Ene 16, 2021, 10:29 am

Vent away! I agree with >89 spiralsheep: We all need to do so sometimes, and it's tempting to feel guilty about it when you know others have it worse, but it's also good to remember, I think, that that doesn't make your troubles less real or important.

91Tess_W
Ene 16, 2021, 10:54 am

>88 MissBrangwen: I'm in full agreement with you! I retired in August 2020 due to how teachers and students have been mishandled during Covid. I was going to work one more year, but the lack of common sense by the administration was more than I could tolerate, so I retired! To make a long story short: I'm so glad I did! And venting is not a bad thing...........

92MissBrangwen
Editado: Ene 17, 2021, 5:56 am

>89 spiralsheep: >90 scaifea: >91 Tess_W:
Thank you so much for your kind words! It really helps.

>91 Tess_W: Wow, I didn't know that was the reason you retired earlier. "Lack of common sense by the administration" is exactly what it is!

One more note on my reading: I continued reading The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling which I had started last year but dropped. I had liked the beginning a lot, but on Thursday, I decided not to continue. I was a hundred pages in and absolutely bored. Too many characters, too many uninteresting story lines, although there were a few I liked. I think the novel should have less characters and be 200 pages shorter, but like this, it's all too much.
Moreover, the setting reminded me too much of my own work place (I work in the poorest suburb of one of the poorest cities in Germany), so this was not at all relaxing or enlightening for me, but all too familiar.
I rarely DNF a book, but I just couldn't go on with this one.

I'm now spending my Sunday with a Poirot novel, which is always a safe bet for me :-)

93spiralsheep
Ene 17, 2021, 7:28 am

>92 MissBrangwen: I hope you slept well, and are enjoying Poirot.

94MissBrangwen
Editado: Ene 23, 2021, 10:10 am

I did enjoy Poirot very much, as always! As I still have so many to choose from, I just took Peril at End House to use it for AlphaKIT, and just later realized that it can also count for BingoDOG! Ha!



Book No 8

"Peril at End House" by Agatha Christie
Series: Poirot (7)
Harper
Paperback, 287pp.
Rating: 4 stars - ****

Cats&Kits: AlphaKIT - M-P
BingoDOG: Type of building in the title

This is not the very best Poirot novel there is, but definitely one I enjoyed more than some others. I liked the setting very much - a hotel and an old country house in Cornwall - on the one hand because it's such a classic setting, and on the other hand because right now, what could be better than a seaside holiday in a place as beautiful as Cornwall.
The story intrigued me from the beginning and although I guessed a few parts of the solution, I did not guess the culprit. I feel like the characters are a little flat in this one, and Poirot was boasting about himself a little too much, but the story and the case captivated me and it was just the kind of comfort read I was looking for.

95justchris
Ene 19, 2021, 1:37 am

>94 MissBrangwen: I read a lot of Agatha Christie mysteries in my youth and was sure I had read them all. I think I just read all of those available in my local library, leaving much to explore yet. Case in point, that Poirot mystery does not sound familiar at all.

>88 MissBrangwen: Sorry to hear that work is so difficult due to "leadership."

>82 MissBrangwen: Thanks for spreading the word about Louise Alston. Not surprisingly, I've never heard of her either, but as an American, I haven't learned much German lit in the course of my education. Hell, I'm learning something about German intellectual traditions via an overview in The History of White People, specifically chapter 6 "Johannes Friedrich Blumenbach names white people 'Caucasian' " and chapter 7 "Germain de Staël's German lessons" and chapter 10 "the education of Ralph Waldo Emerson."

96MissBrangwen
Ene 20, 2021, 3:32 pm

>95 justchris: There are so many Agatha Christie novels, it's easy to miss one! I started keeping a list to not lose track!
I must admit that although I've heard the names of the people you mentioned, I don't know a lot about them. The book certainly sounds interesting, though!

97MissBrangwen
Editado: Abr 25, 2021, 12:43 pm

I very spontaneously picked another comfort read, Aunt Bessie Assumes by Diana Xarissa. This was a BB from LittleTaiko who mentioned it in the AlphaKIT thread for X. As I was on the lookout for books with an X and I enjoyed the idea of reading something set on the Isle of Man, I ordered it, but without any plans of reading it anytime soon. On Sunday I just felt like another cozy read, so I just started it on a whim.



Book No 9

"Aunt Bessie Assumes" by Diana Xarissa
Series: Isle of Man Cozy Mysteries (1)
self-published
Paperback, 212pp.
Rating: 3 stars - ***

Virtual Shelf ticked off: Anglo-Celtic Isles
Cats&Kits: MysteryKIT - Water, AlphaKIT - X-Z
BingoDOG: Impulse Read!

Although I only rated it three stars, I enjoyed reading this novel a lot. Aunt Bessie is an elderly single lady living in a cottage on a beach on the Isle of Man. She spends her time reading crime novels, meeting friends and going to the bookshop. The setting is very cosy indeed, and I adored the descriptions of Aunt Bessie's life - it was soothing to read about her orderly habits, her comfortable home and the beauty of the island. In fact, this interested me much more than the actual case. This is why I enjoyed the second half, when the crime story really picks up, a little less than the first half. The case was ok, but I did not particularly care for it and the characters involved were not very interesting to me.
However, it must be said that all in all, this novel is rather like "cozy crime fanfiction", and I think an editor would have changed quite a lot of things. What really got on my nerves after some time was how utterly illogical and stupid the police persons behaved. I think crime novels should at least be a tad bit realistic.
Still, it was the perfect read for my current mood and I will definitely continue this series! One can never have too many feel good reads at hand!

98thornton37814
Editado: Ene 21, 2021, 10:27 pm

I wish I'd kept track of all my reads from childhood. I started keeping a reading journal in the 1980s and kept it for a number of years. Then I stopped. I'm not sure why. I resumed keeping track when I became active on LibraryThing. If I'd kept track, I'd know which Agatha Christie's I have read and which I've missed.

99MissBrangwen
Ene 23, 2021, 10:16 am

Yay, I finally learned how to include covers in talk posts! The issue wasn't with the coding, but using a Mac, I never knew how to save an online picture in a new window. I finally found out and I feel so accomplished now ;-)

>98 thornton37814: I started keeping track of my reading two years before I joined LT. I think I pretty much know what I read and didn't read before that, but I didn't read any authors with as many works as Agatha Christie! The sheer number of the books must make it so much harder to remember!

100MissBrangwen
Editado: Ene 23, 2021, 1:44 pm

I finally finished the other required read for the Vormärz course I'm teaching! Hurray! I read Deutschland. Ein Wintermärchen by Heinrich Heine, available in English as "Germany. A Winter's Tale". And the good thing is that I rather enjoyed it. Heinrich Heine is not really considered a Vormärz author (taking no active part in the revolution such as, for example, Georg Büchner), but his criticism of German/Prussian politics is very strong.
A note on the cover: This is an edition by Reclam Verlag, the most popular of Germany's publishers of school texts. I really wish publishers made these books a little prettier!



Book No 10

"Deutschland. Ein Wintermärchen" by Heinrich Heine
Reclam
Paperback, 75pp.
Rating: 4 1/2 stars - ****°

I'm not using this for any categories because it was required reading.

I was very positively surprised by this book. I first read it about a decade ago and didn't enjoy it at all. I think I didn't take my time then and maybe I didn't have enough background knowledge. It is an epic poem, written in rhymed verse, which might have put me off as well.
This time, I chuckled almost nonstop because I found it so funny. The depiction of German "woodenness" and people's opinions and reactions in certain situations are spot on.
In 1844, Heinrich Heine returned home to Germany after thirteen years in France. He had left Germany because of censorship and because he was against Prussian politics, and also because as someone born Jewish, he had no chance of a career in his legal profession, although he even had converted to Christianity.
In this text he describes his thoughts, feelings and observations during his trip from the French border back to Hamburg, stopping in Aix la Chapelle/Aachen, Cologne, Hannover and other towns and cities. The text is very funny and ironic, which is Heine's way to circumvent the still looming scissors of censorship. It didn't really help, though: The book was banned in Prussia almost at once, and an arrest warrant was issued for Heine, he fled back to Paris.
His publisher was able to sell another edition of the Wintermärchen which was altered and smoothed.
Of course, during the Third Reich Heine's works were totally banned and he was hated frantically, not only because of being an author of Jewish ancestry, but because of his witty criticism of German habits and culture and how he portrayed the tendencies of Germans to sleep while important incidents and developments are happening that they should be cautious about or even fight. This is also what the title is about: A fairytale, a pretty and sleepy Germany that lulls him with nice food and Gemütlichkeit, while the authorities, censorship and persecution wait under the surface.

This edition has a large commentary part with notes, additional texts and background info etc. The main text has 75 pages and this is what I read. I will read the additional info only in parts if it will be useful for my lessons.

101pammab
Ene 23, 2021, 10:39 pm

>100 MissBrangwen: I love those editions' covers! Maybe I'm more alone in that than I realized. They're so... typical, maybe? Recognizable? Homey? There's a particular word I can't think of that captures what I mean. They feel just like the orange Penguin Classic editions.

I hear you on the background knowledge making books funny that are pretty opaque without it. There's been a few I've read and reflected on how I'd have struggled to appreciate them earlier.

102mathgirl40
Ene 23, 2021, 10:52 pm

>82 MissBrangwen: Louise Aston's story sounds really interesting. Thanks for sharing this.

>94 MissBrangwen: I too love the classic country-house mysteries.

103spiralsheep
Ene 24, 2021, 4:51 am

>100 MissBrangwen: Interesting review, thank you.

104MissBrangwen
Ene 24, 2021, 5:08 am

>101 pammab: I do love the orange penguins (and also the blue ones)! They look so classic! I even have some merch of them (cup, tote bag and pencil case)! But there is just something about this Reclam cover I don't like - I think the blue and yellow don't really go together. It's good to read your perspective, though, and that you find them to be similar! Maybe I can adopt that view! :-)

>102 mathgirl40: I'm glad you found her story interesting! And yes, there's just something so intriguing about these mysteries!

>103 spiralsheep: Thank you, glad you liked it!

105spiralsheep
Ene 25, 2021, 7:06 am

You asked elsewhere about The Other Bennet Sister. I've read it. It passed my higher-than-average historical standards. It passed my fan fiction standards for respecting Jane Austen's original character and novel. I also enjoyed it, 4*.

106MissBrangwen
Ene 25, 2021, 8:48 am

Thanks for your opinion! It sounds like one of the more worthwhile ones, then.

107MissBrangwen
Editado: Ene 25, 2021, 3:00 pm

The Art of The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull was a surprise Christmas gift by my husband. I started reading on New Year's Day and finished yesterday. I read The Annotated Hobbit by Douglas A. Anderson before that and will now continue with The History of The Hobbit by John D. Rateliff, so this has become a Hobbit project - something I have wanted to do for years and now have the courage to just DO! :-)



Book No 11

"The Art of The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien" by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull
HarperCollins
Hardcover, 144pp.
Rating: 5 stars - *****

Virtual Shelf ticked off: Arts | Music
BingoDOG: Arts & Recreation

This book features all the known illustrations Tolkien has ever done of The Hobbit - from just mere scribbles and sketches to the colorful and fully developed pictures that were published in the finished work in the first British and American editions and later on. In the book, we follow the journey from Hobbiton to the Lonely Mountain and back, each chapter devoted to a place in the story and the pictures Tolkien drew and painted of that place. The last chapters are reserved for binding designs and the dust jacket, and a specific one on portraits of Bilbo. There are 106 pictures in total, many of them printed on a full page, and each and everyone is explained, details are pointed out and references to other pictures and Tolkien's sources are given. It is a wonderful guide because I surely would have missed many details or specific aspects of interest without that information. I am a bit ambivalent on Tolkien's pictures themselves - there are some I absolutely love (prints of a few of them adore my living room), but some I don't really care for because the style is not one I prefer. These are specifically the very stylized ones, probably because I first saw Alan Lee's and John Howe's pictures, and I'll always imagine Middle-earth like that. However, I am just utterly impressed by Tolkien's ability not only to be a writer and a professor of medieval literature and languages, but a painter, too. Although he always sold himself short, I think the pictures show great talent. Like his writing, they are painstakingly done, full of details and often done several times over until Tolkien was content. Thus, there are sometimes nearly a dozen pictures of the same scene or place.
Moreover, you can learn a lot about the book industry and printing in the 1930s - it is amazing to read how Tolkien had to bargain for an additional color in a painting because that was so expensive. Most pictures were just black and white, others with one or two additional colors, and just the most important had more. Very often, his artistic ideas had to be put back due to costs.
I just loved this book and savored every page - and painting - of it. I think it is a great read for everyone who loves The Hobbit and wants to know more about its history, and for people interested in illustrations or bookish history in general.
I was lucky enough to visit the Tolkien Exhibition in Oxford in 2018 and the book brought back many happy memories of those days. I can't wait to resume bookish travels again!

108This-n-That
Editado: Ene 25, 2021, 6:43 pm

>107 MissBrangwen: That sounds like an enjoyable book. Have you read Letters from Father Christmas? It is a fun book to read. I expect the illustrations were probably included in The Art of the Hobbit.

109MissBrangwen
Ene 26, 2021, 12:54 pm

>108 This-n-That: Unfortunately I haven't yet! But I have seen some of the illustrations, they are adorable, aren't they? They are not included in this book, though, because this one is really only concerned with pictures of The Hobbit.

110MissBrangwen
Ene 27, 2021, 12:50 pm

I bought The Blackhouse by Peter May a few months ago because I had picked The Lewis Man from a book swap box at my workplace without knowing that it was the second part of a series, so when I realized that, I ordered The Blackhouse. I'm not sure I would have read it this soon because I don't feel like really sinister reads right now, but my husband chose it on an impulse, read it over one weekend and urged me so hard to read it because he wanted to talk about it! Haha!
I am glad I followed his advice because I absolutely loved this book!



Book No 12

"The Blackhouse" by Peter May
Series: The Lewis Trilogy (1)
Quercus
Paperback, 477pp.
Rating: 4 1/2 stars - ****°

Cats&Kits: MysteryKIT - water, AlphaKIT - M-P
BingoDOG: Nature & Environment

Fin Macleod is a police officer living in Edinburgh who returns to the town he grew up in on the Isle of Lewis to investigate a murder that might have a connection to one of his Edinburgh cases. I expected this to be something like Inspector Rebus on Lewis and Harris, but I couldn't have been more wrong. Large parts of this novel deal with Fin Macleod's childhood - the chapters alternate between childhood memories, narrated by a first person narrator, and the solving of the case and the events on the Isle of Lewis in the present, narrated in third person. While I was drawn to the case at once, the childhood episodes are what make this book so special. Large parts of it rather are like literary fiction, while each episode uncovers more and more secrets and connections that are all a part of the mosaic and make us understand what moves these people. We learn what they lost, what they fight for, and what they hope to gain. I was totally immersed in this cast of characters and couldn't stop thinking about them all day until I could finally return to the book. The only thing that I was disappointed with is the final twist - or revelation - in the end. I think it wasn't necessary at that point to add yet another tragedy because there was already motive enough, and in my opinion, the story would have been stronger without this added backstory..
The natural world of Lewis and Harris provides a very special setting, too - very similar to Nordic Noir, it is described as bleak and unforgiving, harsh and wild, but also beautiful - and both home and means of living to a group of strong people. I have only visited these isles for two days, but I remember the landscape vividly and I think the description really fits. Wild and untamed landscapes have always touched my soul much stronger than others and this was another reason why this story totally captured me.

111katiekrug
Ene 27, 2021, 1:07 pm

>110 MissBrangwen: - Nice comments! I think I'll move it up my TBR....

112MissBrangwen
Editado: Ene 27, 2021, 4:29 pm

I was looking for another nonfiction read for GenreCAT because after all the turmoil of this month I didn't feel like tackling the book on the climate crisis that I had originally planned for that challenge... Checking my nonfiction tbr I decided to read the Penguin Little Black Classics edition of The Constitution of the United States because what time could be more fitting for this than the days after the inauguration?
I bought this little book because I collect the Little Black Classics - I didn't want to buy the whole set, but I'm picking up one or two whenever I come across them in a bookshop (alas, it has been very long now since I was able to add one to my shelf because of course I wasn't able to travel). This one is from Blackwell's in Oxford.



Book No 13

"The Constitution of the United States"
Publisher Series: Penguin Little Black Classics (127)
Penguin Classics
Paperback, 51pp.
Rating: 4 stars - ****

Virtual Shelf ticked off: Americas
Cats&Kits: GenreCAT - Nonfiction, GeoKIT - North America

How can you rate such a relevant, influential and world-famous text? I certainly don't feel up to the task, but I wanted to rate my reading experience.
The Penguin Little Black Classics edition includes the Constitution, the Preamble to the Bill of Rights, the amendments, and the Declaration of Independence. I think it was very interesting to read the whole text as opposed to just extracts and quotes, especially now at this point in history. I had no real idea what exactly the amendments were, or that the first ten amendments are the Bill of Rights (I'm sure I learned this at school years ago, but forgot about it). It was also interesting to see which amendment was added when, as it gives an overview of how politics developed (and I did a little jump when 1920 came up and women gained the right to vote!).
I think it would be useful to have an introduction or an afterword, but the Little Black Classics usually don't have that kind of addition, so it's not an aspect to criticize.
Of course this was a quick read as it is just a slim volume, but it was very worthwhile.

113katiekrug
Ene 27, 2021, 4:20 pm

>112 MissBrangwen: - And now you know more than most Americans!

114spiralsheep
Ene 27, 2021, 4:27 pm

>112 MissBrangwen: I love Blackwells online. Good prices and great service. I have sooo many Blackwells freebie bookmarks that I send them to my correspondents abroad when they ask for UK ephemera souvenirs.

115MissBrangwen
Editado: Ene 28, 2021, 5:10 am

>111 katiekrug: I'll be excited to read about what you think! It seems that there are many raving reviews and a handful of people who couldn't get into it. But both of us certainly loved it and we discussed it throughout the whole of our 45 min. commute to work this morning!

>113 katiekrug: I hope not!!!

>114 spiralsheep: I've never ordered from them online, but I might try if you say it's so good! I've already ordered something online from the UK this month and I was happy that it worked just as well as before Brexit, so if I understand correctly the only thing that might happen is that I might have to pay taxes.
I don't have any bookmarks, but I have a Blackwell's mug and a tote bag :-)

ETA: I was wrong! I just had a look and I have a bookmark, too. So pretty :-)

116rabbitprincess
Ene 27, 2021, 6:58 pm

>114 spiralsheep: I ordered a book from Blackwells last year and was almost more excited about the freebie bookmark than my book, haha. Would love to go back someday. My first visit was in 2017 and it was at the tail end of a trip where we'd spent three days in Hay-on-Wye, so I didn't have a lot of room for books in my suitcase at that point, which was unfortunate! I'll have to give Blackwells its own trip ;)

117MissBrangwen
Ene 28, 2021, 2:56 am

>116 rabbitprincess: Ooh, I haven‘t been to Hay-on-Wye, it must be paradise!!! I can imagine that there wasn‘t much space in your luggage after that!

118spiralsheep
Ene 28, 2021, 8:40 am

>115 MissBrangwen: >116 rabbitprincess: My favourite is the 1939 bookmark:

There in the Broad, within whose booky house
Half England's scholars nibble books or browse.

I've never enjoyed Hay. Too much choice for this bear of little brain! I'm spoiled though, as my nearest town has five secondhand bookshops, one new retail, plus the other usual book retailers (newsagents and supermarkets) and charity shop shelves. But I admit I prefer ordering books by post from the comfort of my home, and am only a browser in libraries.

119rabbitprincess
Ene 28, 2021, 10:47 am

>117 MissBrangwen: According to my LT tags, I bought 27 books on that trip! But surprisingly I ended up having the second-lightest suitcase out of the four of us when we returned home. I credit it to having bought a lot of paperbacks.

>118 spiralsheep: I was glad that our trip did not coincide with the Hay Festival (that was deliberate on our part). That would have been way too many people to contend with and would have made shopping much less fun. I am envious of your bookshop scene! I don't have a lot of secondhand stores to browse in but we do have (or did have) a couple of great secondhand book sales in May and November that were sorely missed in 2020.

120MissBrangwen
Ene 30, 2021, 6:56 am

>119 rabbitprincess: I think buying paperbacks is the key when traveling!!! :-)

Unfortunately, we don't have any secondhand bookshops around. They are not common at all in Germany, apart maybe from the largest cities. There are antiquities with very rare and old books, but not secondhand bookshops like in the UK. That is one reason why I buy so many books on trips, because I simply love browsing secondhand bookshops.
Charity shops are not that common, as well, but we have one in the city with a small collection of books.
I still buy many more secondhand books than new books, but I order them online, there's a good German website for that and in addition, of course, there's Ebay and Amazon Marketplace.

Speaking of bookmarks - this morning I added some books to LibraryThing that I bought three and a half years ago (I'm slowly going through all of my shelves and adding the books that are missing). In one of them I found a pretty bookmark from The Bookshop - Librarie étrangère in Toulouse. Such happy memories and what bliss! It makes me sentimental and I am just waiting for days like that to be back.

121spiralsheep
Ene 30, 2021, 7:06 am

>120 MissBrangwen: Finding bookmarks or ephemera such as bus tickets in books is always a treat. I like rediscovering my old ephemera but buying a secondhand book with a postcard or flyer or train ticket tucked inside is even more fun!

122MissBrangwen
Ene 30, 2021, 7:08 am

>121 spiralsheep: You're right, of course! It's like finding a little treasure, and having a glimpse into a story that goes further than the story in the book!

123justchris
Ene 30, 2021, 1:27 pm

>121 spiralsheep: Totally agree! I've ended up with some unusual bookmarks this way! Also, when I was a child, my younger brother used to go into my room to steal whatever he considered valuable. So I used to hide my cash in my books because I knew he'd never both with them. For awhile after that, I would occasionally find a $20 or $10 jackpot when rereading some book or another that I rarely pulled from the shelf.

124MissBrangwen
Ene 30, 2021, 6:08 pm

>123 justchris: That's a funny story! :-)

125MissBrangwen
Editado: Ene 30, 2021, 7:00 pm

Last year, I reread Stefanie Zweig's Nirgendwo in Afrika ("Nowhere in Africa", also adapted to an Oscar-winning film, although as far as I know it's not very faithful to the novel - I haven't watched it so far, so cannot say). I had first read it as teenager and had not enjoyed it at all, but I think I simply wasn't ready for that kind of writing at the time. This time, I fell in love with Zweig's beautiful prose and her way of characterizing her protagonists.
Ein Mundvoll Erde is a very similar story, but written for teenagers. It was Zweig's very first novel set in Kenya, and after its success, she gained the courage to write about her experiences for an adult audience as well.



Book No 14

"Ein Mundvoll Erde" by Stefanie Zweig
dtv junior
Paperback, 157pp.
Rating: 4 1/2 stars - ****°

Virtual Shelf ticked off: Children's lit
Cats&Kits: AlphaKIT - X-Z, GeoKIT
BingoDOG: Classic element in the title (earth)

The titles translates as A mouth full of earth and relates to a pledge young Vivian performs with her Kikuyu friend Jogona: They are friends. This friendship is central to the story told in this novel - apart from that, the key elements are the same as in Nowhere in Africa: Vivian and her father, who are Jewish, have fled Nazi Germany to Kenya where they live on a farm. Vivian's father, a lawyer, works as a farm manager without having any knowledge of farming. While he is homesick, worries for the safety of his family and cannot feel at home in Kenya, missing his old life every day, Vivian has almost no memory of life in Germany and even hates the topic because it makes her father sad. She speaks Swahili and Kikuyu, loves the landscape and wilderness of the farm, and, spending most of her time with Kikuyu children and the people working on the farm, she soon speaks and thinks like them. While her father is helpless like a child, she navigates both cultures with ease and often feels much closer to the staff than to her father.
This situation, based on Stefanie Zweig's own childhood, is the same as the one in Nowhere in Africa, the only exception is the role of the mother, who is absent in Ein Mundvoll Erde.
This novel covers several years and concentrates mostly, but not exclusively, on Vivian's and Jogona's friendship over the years. In the beginning I was a bit disappointed because it was a little too fragmented, with lots of very short episodes, feeling a bit jumpy. In the second half, though, Zweig really finds her voice, the text becomes very consistent, and the language is exceptional in depicting Vivian's thoughts and feelings - thinking and feeling like an African girl who is at home on the farm and doesn't want to leave for a country that is foreign to her and that she doesn't remember. This exile in Kenya doesn't feel like an exile to her - it is all she has ever known, it's her life.
While this story is not as deep and grand as Nowhere in Africa, I'm still not sure if it would really work for teenagers, especially nowadays, forty years after it was originally published. Apart from that, it was again a story that gripped me and touched me, and made me reflect on the topic of home and what home is to different people.

126MissBrangwen
Editado: Feb 2, 2021, 3:49 am

This week my reading didn't go so well because I suffered from migraines and was generally very tired, so I ended up looking for a new read. I had lost my appetite for my intended, rather serious read and was searching for something to lift me up and brighten my mood. When I found On A Rising Tide by Charlie Phillips on my shelf, I knew at once that it was perfect for this weekend.
Charlie Phillips is a wildlife photographer who mainly photographs the dolphin population of the Moray Firth and the Cromarty Firth in Scotland. I bought this book in 2016 when I did a dolphin watching cruise out of Inverness. Unfortunately we didn't see any dolphins, but the cruise was still very informative, and I grabbed the chance to buy this book at the ticket office.



Book No 15

"On A Rising Tide" by Charlie Phillips
Ness Publishing
Hardcover, 112pp.
Rating: 4 stars - ****

Virtual Shelf ticked off: Animals | Nature
Cats&Kits: GenreCAT - nonfiction, AlphaKIT - M-P
BingoDOG: 20 or Fewer LT Members (1)

This book is a coffee table book with more than a hundred pictures, but it also has quite a lot of text compared to other books of this kind. They are organized in twenty-six chapters, each one dealing with a particular aspect concerning the dolphins or the experience of photographing dolphins. Thus, the book is a kaleidoscope of different topics and anecdotes. While I wasn't very interested in the technical details of photography - not being a photographer myself apart from quick snaps with a digicam or phone - I enjoyed some of the other stories a lot. Phillips writes about how he came to love the dolphins and how he became a wildlife photographer, he describes lots of boat trips and personal encounters with the dolphins, tells us about the people he met on such trips or through his work with TV and radio programs, etc. He is very honest and often depicts how the conditions are very harsh, his eyes stinging from salt, his equipment nearly breaking because it's so freezing and wet, but all without bragging. He really just comes across as a normal and very nice guy who happened to somehow get this dream job of spending his time with wild dolphins.
The book shows that he is foremost not a writer and the style and narration could be improved, but I didn't really care because like this, his voice comes through as very authentic and unaffected.
There is also a lot of information about the dolphins: Their social structures, hunting techniques, the areas they live in and prefer, their food sources etc. I wish there would have been even more info on that, but of course, it's not a biology book.
Towards the end of the book, when Phillips writes about the effect dolphins have on people and how they are one of the most beloved species, but on the other hand, how badly they are treated, I had tears in my eyes.
The pictures are of course just wonderful, and there is a good variety of many different shots and perspectives.
Although I wasn't lucky on that trip in Scotland, I was fortunate enough to see wild dolphins several times before that, in Australia, Ireland, and the Mekong river between Laos and Cambodia, and they radiate a magic and peace that is beyond this world. These memories came back so strong while I read this book, and in these bleak times that sometimes drain all the energy from me, this glimpse of light was what I needed.
I particularly enjoyed the descriptions of Chanonry Point on the north coast of the Moray Firth, where my husband and I went on our first Scotland trip as a couple. We only saw one dolphin quite far out, and from the book I learned that we were there in the wrong season and at the wrong time, but I cannot wait to go back one day and maybe spend a few days in the region to see the dolphins and also visit the research centers scattered along the coast. It was great to read the author's descriptions of that place and to think that we were there and stood at the exact same beach only fifteen months ago.

127rabbitprincess
Ene 31, 2021, 9:06 am

>126 MissBrangwen: Excellent review! I'm glad the book brought back happy memories :)

128Tess_W
Ene 31, 2021, 9:12 am

>125 MissBrangwen: I have this audible book on my to listen to list! I'm glad you liked it and due to your great review will probably use it for one of my African reads, also.

129Jackie_K
Ene 31, 2021, 10:34 am

>126 MissBrangwen: Great review! We had a holiday on the Moray Firth in October 2019 - sadly we didn't see dolphins either, but friends who were on the north side of the Firth the same week as us (we were south, near Culloden) saw loads. I'd love to go back there, I really liked it.

130MissBrangwen
Ene 31, 2021, 12:56 pm

>127 rabbitprincess: Thank you for your kind words :-)

>128 Tess_W: That is great! I'm looking forward to reading about your thoughts on the book and your impressions of it.

>129 Jackie_K: Amazing, that's the exact month we were there, too! We stayed in Inverness and combined Culloden Battlefield and Chanonry Point as a day trip. That span of time was much too short, though, which is why we already have plans on what to do when it's finally possible and safe to travel again. I hope you can go back soon and have more luck seeing the dolphins!

131Jackie_K
Ene 31, 2021, 1:47 pm

>130 MissBrangwen: Oh cool! What I remember very clearly from that holiday was that the autumn colours were really vivid, and made the whole area even more beautiful.

132thornton37814
Ene 31, 2021, 4:23 pm

>120 MissBrangwen: I usually keep the bookmarks I find in various library volumes. I've got a collection of them in my office, and I usually end up bringing a few home as I begin reading a book at work. (I work in the library.) I must confess though that I threw out a nasty banana peel used as a bookmark in a donated volume. I tossed the book too, I think.

133MissBrangwen
Feb 1, 2021, 5:03 am

>131 Jackie_K: Oh yes, the colors were outstanding! So, so beautiful.

>132 thornton37814: I can't believe someone used a banana peel and then donated the book like that! What an unusual story!

134MissBrangwen
Editado: Feb 11, 2021, 9:29 am

January Recap
(starting from Christmas Eve)

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

Best fiction: Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban, although The Blackhouse sticks out even more to me.
Best nonfiction: The Art of the Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien.

Four books read in German, eleven in English.
Eight books by a female author, eight by a male author (counting the constitution as written by a man) - good balance!
No BIPOC authors.
Eight new authors.

Only one book was bought this month, all the others were from the shelf, with On A Rising Tide being the oldest, bought in July 2016.
Three books were part of a series I'm reading, and I started four new series.
One reread.
9 prose texts, 2 poetry, 5 nonfiction.
The prose texts: 6 mysteries, 2 fantasy books, 2 children's books.

I read mostly quite slim books, which is why the number is so high, but all in all I read more than 3000 pages, so that's not too bad!

~~~

The absolutely wonderful thing is that I have now read 50% of the number of books I read in 2020 - 15 books. It shows that joining this group has been the very best decision I could have made, for my reading life and in consequence for my mental health and wellbeing. I haven't been this motivated to read for years, even grabbing my book after long and tiresome days, when I felt very badly. My books were something to look forward to, and reading gave me strength and perspective. I am so happy about this, and so thankful to LT and the people here. Of course it's not really about these numbers, although they are interesting to see, but about the fact that finally I have found my joy of reading again and thus, I'm better equipped to deal with everyday life, especially now that things are everything but easy.

My reading plans for February:
I have a handful of slim novels planned that correspond to several CATs and KITs. I think these quick reads are the thing to go for me, to keep the flow up and stay motivated. On the other hand, I'm eyeing Brisingr by Christopher Paolini, which is the third installment of The Inheritance Cycle, and quite a daunting tome. I might get to it in the second half of the month. I also want to finish Kamala Harris's autobiography which I started last year and have only a few chapters left.
Yesterday, I also started The History of The Hobbit as part of my Hobbit project, but it's a really long read and I doubt that I'll get through it in February - it's rather a longterm project.

135spiralsheep
Feb 1, 2021, 6:34 am

>134 MissBrangwen: I'm so glad you're enjoying your challenge!

136majkia
Feb 1, 2021, 9:05 am

Glad to see you've settled in and are enjoying your challenge.

I read Peter May's Blackhouse and really enjoyed it as well. I confess Stardust was a disappointment. I thought the movie much better than the book, which is really unusual for me.

137christina_reads
Feb 1, 2021, 12:03 pm

I'm so glad this group has inspired you with more motivation to read!

138DeltaQueen50
Feb 1, 2021, 12:26 pm

>134 MissBrangwen: Congratulations on a successful reading January, great to hear that the Challenge is inspiring you to read more books.

139rabbitprincess
Editado: Feb 1, 2021, 4:59 pm

Yaaaay for getting your reading mojo back! :) Glad that the challenge has been able to help.

140hailelib
Feb 1, 2021, 9:35 pm

The book on dolphins sounds like a great way to round off the month. And it’s good that you are enjoying your reading.

141MissWatson
Feb 2, 2021, 4:13 am

I am glad to see that you got your joy of reading back. It has been the same for me when I joined a few years ago, and now I can't imagine life without LT.

142MissBrangwen
Feb 2, 2021, 9:06 am

>135 spiralsheep: Thank you, I really do!

>136 majkia: In the beginning, I had a lot of trouble getting into Stardust, too. I just persevered because it's one of my husband's favorites. I started enjoying it after a third or so, and then really loved it. But I definitely needed some time to adjust to the style.

>137 christina_reads: >138 DeltaQueen50: >139 rabbitprincess: Thank you! I'm so happy I joined.

>140 hailelib: It really was. Just perfect for a weekend.

>141 MissWatson: Great to hear that it has been the same for you! It seems like the encouragement and positive vibes of this group go a long way!

143markon
Feb 2, 2021, 9:10 am

So glad to hear you've recovered joy in reading! In my opinion, books make life better.

I was surprised at how many books I finished in January, including one chunkster I ripped through in 3-4 days. It was a satisfying reading month for me.

144MissBrangwen
Feb 2, 2021, 11:05 am

>143 markon: "In my opinion, books make life better" - 100% agree!
And how great that January has been a good reading month for you, too!

146MissBrangwen
Editado: Feb 2, 2021, 12:11 pm

I finished my first read of the month - and the first book of the year that I didn't like!
Yesterday I absolutely felt like reading a comfort read, so my choice once again was to read an Agatha Christie novel. I checked if there was one on the shelf for AlphaKIT and settled on Third Girl because Poirot novels usually are my favorites. This had been waiting on my shelf since 2016 when I had bought it online, second hand.



Book No 16

"Third Girl" by Agatha Christie
Series: Poirot (34)
Harper
Paperback, 261pp.
Rating: 1 1/2 stars - *°

Cats&Kits: AlphaKIT - K-T
BingoDOG: Senior citizen protagonist

As said above, I love Poirot novels, but this one has been a chore to read. I persevered because it's my goal to read all the Agatha Christie mysteries, and I still wanted to see the solution to the case, but apart from that, it was a pain. It feels weird to give such a harsh judgement because usually I give high ratings - I think I'm quite selective about what I read and what I expect, and rate accordingly - but this one just had too many aspects getting on my nerves.
- Ariadne Oliver: I know that many people do like her, but she's just not a character I enjoy reading about. Just too much of a female caricature.
- The storytelling: It was just rambling. It was dragging most of the time, it was not coherent, and every time when I thought the pace would get better and the case would finally pick up, the next chapter was about something completely different and slowing down again. Frustrating!
- Sexism: The portrayal of women in this novel made me angry. I know that there are questionable characterizations in many Agatha Christie stories, and usually I put up with them as the Zeitgeist of their time, but this was just too much. Describing every woman who does not act as is expected of her as hysterical? To write about suicide as something unavoidable if a woman leads her life in a certain way? To write lightheartedly about mental illnesses, drugs, psychological problems, and judge every single woman very severely regarding her appearance and her manner? Not ok!
And likewise, it is mentioned several times that it's not possible to distinguish young men from women anymore because they have shoulder-length hair and wear colors now. Seriously??
- The case itself: While I thought that the original premise was interesting and new - a young woman visiting Poirot because she thinks she has murdered someone, but isn't sure of it - the development of the case and the final solution just felt like a mix of previous cases, it was rather predictable after a certain point and I felt like I had seen it all before.
The case still did interest me from time to time and there were some chapters that were a little more exciting, so that is what the one and a half stars are for. But, it's safe to say that I'm not a fan of the later Poirot novels. I really prefer the classic ones, taking place in a village or a country house. This just had too much negative energy and I'm not reading these kinds of mysteries for that.
Of course I'll go on with my project of reading all the Agatha Christies, but next time I'm reading a late one, I'll know to be a bit more cautious about what to expect from it.

147MissBrangwen
Feb 2, 2021, 12:53 pm

Another Agatha Christie note: We watched the ITV Marple adaptation of "The Sittaford Mystery" yesterday because it was still so snowy outside and I thought it was perfect for the atmosphere. But I must say that I was horrified by that film.
I understand that they converted stand alone novels to Marple episodes to gain more audience, and I don't have anything against that, but the plot was changed so much and it was just such a weird film! I enjoyed the book a lot and remembered it fondly (although I read it three years ago), and it was so sad to see what had been done. Not even Carey Mulligan could save it.
Now I'm urging my husband to read the original story!

Quite often I find that a novel I did not like as much was a better film (I'm hoping that this is the case with Third Girl), but this time, it was just the other way round. A great book turned to a bad film and I don't understand why.

148justchris
Feb 2, 2021, 1:34 pm

>146 MissBrangwen: Huh. I had never even heard of that one. And yeah, it sounds pretty terrible. Good luck with further Christie reads. It's always disappointing feeling like a fave has really let you down.

149thornton37814
Feb 2, 2021, 4:00 pm

>146 MissBrangwen: One of these years, I'll begin a systematic re-read of Agatha Christie's books by series, but for now I just occasionally read one. I'm thinking when I do read them, I'll alternate a Miss Marple with a Poirot until I run out of one or the other.

150pamelad
Feb 2, 2021, 4:34 pm

>146 MissBrangwen: I re-read a lot of them a few years ago and also had problems with the later books. Much moaning about the state of the modern world from a very, very conservative perspective. Here's an article that proposes a reason why. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/apr/03/agatha-christie-alzheimers-researc...

151MissBrangwen
Feb 3, 2021, 4:52 pm

>148 justchris: I think it's not one of her most famous ones. I bought it because basically I'll buy any of them when I see one secondhand that I don't have yet. I'm sure that the next one I read will be better!

>149 thornton37814: I'm using the lists on the official Agatha Christie website to keep track of what I've read and what is missing. I think they are really helpful!
https://storage.googleapis.com/agatha-christie-assets/archive/pdfs/poirot-readin...
https://storage.googleapis.com/agatha-christie-assets/archive/pdfs/miss-marple-r...

>150 pamelad: Thank you for sharing that interesting article! I must say that I noticed a lot of repetition of phrases that the other books don't have. I think the phrase "at his elbow" (having a drink at his elbow, or a visitor, a book etc.) was repeated constantly, in one chapter with only a few sentences between the two. I just wondered why there wasn't an editor who spotted that.

152MissBrangwen
Feb 6, 2021, 6:57 am

I didn't get much reading done in the past few days, as again I was suffering from migraines. I did read a little bit in The History of The Hobbit and I'm delighted to see that it is much more readable than I thought. I expected a very academic and dry volume, supposedly because it is so huge, but it's quite easy to read (at least if you are a little used to Tolkien Studies and the background of his writing) and the style has a good flow.

I hope to read more this weekend for sure, and to catch up on the threads in this group! There's supposed to be more snow (more than there has been since the 1960s!), so it should be a perfect reading weekend!

153rabbitprincess
Feb 6, 2021, 9:25 am

Snow makes for a perfect reading weekend indeed! I'm sorry you had migraines again :( Hope you're feeling better.

154spiralsheep
Feb 6, 2021, 12:21 pm

>152 MissBrangwen: I don't want to encourage anyone with migraines to read to much from a screen so I'll only say that I hope you have a relaxing weekend and manage to enjoy yourself one way or another.

155MissBrangwen
Editado: Feb 6, 2021, 1:07 pm

>153 rabbitprincess: >154 spiralsheep: Thank you for your kind words! I'm indeed feeling better, but I know it's just lurking around the corner to come back when I stress myself out too much or overdo things again, so I'm taking it easy!

156Tess_W
Feb 6, 2021, 2:37 pm

Migraines are a bummer...never had one, but my sister has. I'm glad you've recovered.

157MissBrangwen
Feb 7, 2021, 7:19 am

>156 Tess_W: Thank you! They certainly do knock you out for some time. I hope your sister has found good ways to cope.

158MissBrangwen
Editado: Feb 7, 2021, 3:34 pm

This weekend I chose a short read which nonetheless is very intense: Kein Ort. Nirgends by Christa Wolf. I love what I have read of Christa Wolf so far, and again, this work did not disappoint. I bought this one secondhand and online about one and a half years ago because it had been on my wishlist for a long time, and this slow and snowy weekend was the perfect time to savor it.
This is available in English as "No Place On Earth".



Book No 17

"Kein Ort. Nirgends" by Christa Wolf
Aufbau Verlag
Hardcover, 174pp.
Rating: 5 stars - *****

Virtual Shelf ticked off: Contemporary Literature - German
Cats&Kits: AlphaKIT - K-T
BingoDOG: Less than 200 pages

Trigger warning: Mild references to suicide

This short novel is an account of a fictional meeting between German writers Heinrich von Kleist and Karoline von Günderrode in 1804. Although it is possible that these two met, as they moved around similar circles, nothing is known about a possible meeting. The other people appearing in the story are real, though, too - among them famous writers Clemens von Brentano and Bettine von Arnim.
These writers and associates meet in a small town on the Rhine river where they drink, discuss their art and other topics, and socialize.
Kleist and Günderrode both feel like outsiders at the gathering, and the story is told alternating between each of their perspectives, while sometimes adding other paragraphs or sentences. The style is very poetic, sometimes truly like a poem, and every sentence carries meaning.
While Kleist and Günderrode first just observe each other and their interaction with the other guests, they later have a conversation during a walk outside. The conversations both at the party and during the walk touch upon many different topics: Psychology, the self, the role of art and artists, writing, expectations of life, gender, emancipation etc.
Kleist and Günderrode are connected in their despair because they cannot adjust to what is expected of them - Kleist as a man in the Prussian state who has a very different idea of life than those surrounding him, Günderrode as someone who would like to do much more than is possible for a woman of her time and who is patronized by male writers when they read her poetry. The title of the novel refers to the feeling that they cannot find any place where they can really be themselves, and there are allusions to the only way out they are able to see, which is suicide. In fact, both writers committed suicide, Günderrode in 1806 and Kleist in 1811.
Wolf was one of the most important writers of the GDR and many passages of this text can be seen in this light: The difficulties of writers living under that regime. To me, this political interpretation was not as relevant, though, and I concerned myself rather with the individual circumstances and with the feelings of the characters, and the parallels to today's society.

159MissBrangwen
Editado: Feb 18, 2021, 11:28 am

Yesterday I finished The Warden by Anthony Trollope. I bought this in summer 2016, again secondhand and online, because I recognized the name of this famous author and didn't own any book by him so far. I didn't know that this was the first volume of the Chronicles of Barsetshire, and didn't really feel like reading it until finally, the AlphaKIT challenge made me pick it up!



Book No 18

"The Warden" by Anthony Trollope
Series: The Barsetshire Chronicles (1)
Penguin Popular Classics
Paperback, 202pp.
Rating: 3 1/2 stars - ***°

Virtual Shelf ticked off: Classics - English
Cats&Kits: HistoryCAT - Modern, AlphaKIT - K-T
BingoDOG: Contains A Love Story

I love Victorian novels, but I haven't read one in quite a long time, so I thought that this comparably short one would be a good reintroduction. It was in some aspects, and in others not so much.
The title refers to Septimus Harding, who is the warden of an almshouse that is home to twelve elderly and poor men. This almshouse was donated and is still maintained due to the charitable will of one man who lived four centuries ago. A local surgeon, John Bold, who considers himself a reformer, raises the question if the warden should earn a much smaller sum of money for his tasks, and if justice is done to the will by the way the finances of the almshouse are kept. To make things more complicated, Bold is both a friend of the warden and as good as engaged to his daughter Eleanor.
While I thought the moral questions raised in the novel to be interesting, the plot and style seemed a little too constructed to me. The excursions into politics, the comments on the media and the important role the church plays in the story were a little too much for my taste. The strong presence of the narrator disturbed my reading flow. On the other hand, when the story was actually going, I quite enjoyed it, and there were a few scenes and pictures that really went to my heart. I liked the characterization of most of the characters, including the more satirical ones.
I will continue with The Barsetshire Chronicles, but will not be in a rush as long as I have so many other unread Victorian novels still on my shelves.

160thornton37814
Feb 9, 2021, 7:15 pm

I hope you are feeling better and that your migraine parted!

161RidgewayGirl
Feb 9, 2021, 8:28 pm

>159 MissBrangwen: If it's any encouragement, the Barsetshire Chronicles only kick off with the next book, Barchester Towers, which is just fantastic. The Warden is sort of a prelude.

162NinieB
Feb 9, 2021, 9:12 pm

>161 RidgewayGirl: >159 MissBrangwen: Yes, really you should just move straight on to Barchester Towers because a major reason to read The Warden is to understand the references in Barchester Towers. You'll find less church politics, more satirical characters.

163Tess_W
Feb 10, 2021, 12:04 am

I agree with the above, The Barsetshire Chronicles just get better.

164MissBrangwen
Feb 11, 2021, 7:15 am

>160 thornton37814: Thank you, I'm a lot better now! But I need to be careful.

>161 RidgewayGirl: >162 NinieB: >163 Tess_W: It's great to hear that the series gets better, I've been told that in another thread as well! Thank you for your comments and the encouragement!

165MissBrangwen
Editado: Feb 11, 2021, 8:37 am

Because I felt like reading another mystery, but wanted to try something new and didn't fancy any of my ongoing series, I chose to read Never Never by James Patterson and Candice Fox. I bought this book on a trip to London in May 2017, at one of the numerous W.H.Smith stores or at Waterstones Piccadilly, I can't remember which. It just caught my eye because it was set in Australia and because of its title referring to the outback. This really intrigued me, so I bought it on a whim, but didn't read it until now.



Book No 19

"Never Never" by James Patterson and Candice Fox
Series: Harriet Blue (1)
Arrow Books
Paperback, 338pp.
Rating: 2 stars - **

Virtual Shelf ticked off: Australia
Cats&Kits: GeoKIT - Oceania
BingoDOG: 2 or more authors

The protagonist is Harriet Blue, who is assigned a case in the outback of Western Australia because she needs to leave Sydney ASAP. Her brother is the main suspect in a rape and murder case, so she needs to be off the scene. She travels to a huge uranium mine close to Kalgoorlie with a new partner. Several people are missing on the mine and she has to find out what happened, against the backdrop of drug dealing and other criminal activities that are normal in the camps, mine managers who want to hush her, lacking trust in her new partner and her own feelings because of what is happening to her brother.
The setting of the novel was fascinating to me and I liked the premise. I once visited Kalgoorlie as a tourist and I am just enchanted by the vastness of the outback, so this was right up my alley. Apart from this, there was not much to like, though. The plot is very foreseeable and sometimes downright stupid. There were a few chapters, after the first quarter or so, when the story got a bit better - but not for long. The solution even made me angry because I found it cheap and the topic too washed out for a novel written in 2016 (Videogames!!! He became a murderer because he played video games!!!). The characters were very stereotypical, with Blue as a hardened woman who swears all the time, and I just couldn't warm to her. Moreover, the violence and brutality was just too much and felt like showing off.
I won't continue this series.

166MissBrangwen
Feb 11, 2021, 12:26 pm

In the beginning of January I reorganized my wishlist and this title caught my eye, so when I ordered some books as a New Years treat to myself, I included it. Birnbäume blühen weiß (Peartrees bloom white) by Gerbrand Bakker was originally written in Dutch. I had already decided that I would read this very soon, but when this month's RandomCAT came up as "Fruits & Veggies", the opportunity was even better.



Book No 20

"Birnbäume blühen weiß" by Gerbrand Bakker
Original Title: Perenbomen bloeien wit
Suhrkamp
Paperback, 141pp.
Rating: 3 1/2 stars - ***°

Virtual Shelf ticked off: International Literature
Cats&Kits: RandomCAT - Fruits & Veggies, GeoKIT - Europe
BingoDOG: By or About a Marginalized Group

The reviews of this book are raving, so I had high expectations. It is hard to write a review, though, because I think it has ups and downs.
The title refers to the topic of a conversation the protagonist family has while on a drive to the grandparents. There are three sons (Gerson, Kees and Klaas), their dad and a little dog. Mom left the family a few years ago. They discuss the color of the blossoms of the numerous peartrees in the area when they get into a car accident. After that, Gerson, the youngest son, is blind and the story describes how he himself and the family deal with that.
I was drawn into this family from page one. Although it is such a short novel, I felt close to the three brothers instantly, and I ached and cried with them. The language is very simple and very poignant, it feels like these young teenagers are really telling you their story. The characterization is very good, and the inclusion of the dog as a real character, relevant to the family dynamic, makes it very lively and realistic.
On the other hand, I am bothered by the way blindness is depicted in the text. Gerson is shown as nothing but a victim, his life not really worth living anymore. He is sad and angry, but nobody really tries to help him. There are no social services, no therapists, no welfare carers, no teachers. The family is completely left alone. After three months, one of the brothers carves a stick for the boy - that is about the first helping tool he gets.
His suicide in the end of the novel is depicted as almost inevitable, and I find that very problematic.
Even considering that this book is two decades old, I think - or hope! - that this is not realistic and that the situation would be different in real life. I also feel that the depiction of blindness like this is rather ableist and that it would be better to read an own voices-book about this topic. I will chew on this for quite some time!

167MissBrangwen
Editado: Feb 13, 2021, 5:14 am

Some Saturday musings and reading updates!

Yesterday evening, we watched the ITV adaptation (with David Suchet) of Third Girl, which I read in the beginning of this month. As I hoped, it was so much better than the book. I think it really was one of the best Poirot episodes, it was filmed very beautifully and the actors were very good. It changed a lot of the plot (though not its core), but apart from one aspect, I think these changes made the story better and more streamlined.

We also started watching Midsomer Murders again and just started season 7. I decided to finally try the books and will order the first three or so soon! The crazy thing is that I really have run out of mysteries to read. I still have a few of them left, but almost no police procedurals or cosy mysteries (apart from many Agatha Christies that I don't want to read all at once). The ones I have I don't want to read because they are from the middle of a series and I want to read the series in order.
So now I can go and buy some books! Which means ordering them, because bookshops are still closed in Germany and will remain closed until the 7th of March.
FYI: I don't read library books at all. It has always been this way. But I buy most of my books secondhand.

After watching Third Girl, I started reading Miss Smilla's Feeling For Snow - one of the mysteries remaining to read on my shelf - and I'm seriously enjoying every single page so far. I read this as a young teenager and didn't like it, but as I like Nordic Noir so much now, I decided to do a reread and as I expected, I love it.

168spiralsheep
Feb 13, 2021, 8:42 am

>167 MissBrangwen: I'm sure there's a reason why you don't use libraries. Is it simple enough to explain? I understand it might be too complicated to share.

I've gone through phases of not using libraries when they've been too far away, but I do love the reading power they give me.

169rabbitprincess
Feb 13, 2021, 8:54 am

Meanwhile I feel weird if I'm *not* using the library! If I go visit my parents for an extended period, I will sometimes borrow books on their library cards ;)

I read one of the Midsomer Murders books (The Killings at Badger's Drift), but haven't read the rest. I'll be interested to hear what you think of them!

170MissBrangwen
Feb 13, 2021, 8:55 am

>168 spiralsheep: Somehow I just don‘t enjoy reading when I know that the book is not mine and I need to give it away after I read it. I think that sounds really greedy, but that‘s just how it is! Luckily, my husband is exactly the same, so he doesn‘t mind my book collecting :D

I loved the university libraries when I was a student for their impressive collection of knowledge, and I love visiting beautiful libraries as a tourist, but when I read for my private pleasure I just want to own the books I read and see them on my shelves.

171MissBrangwen
Feb 13, 2021, 8:57 am

>169 rabbitprincess: That‘s so funny! And the good thing is that although we have different ways and customs we just all love reading :-)
I‘ll certainly review the Midsomer books when I have read them!

172Tess_W
Feb 13, 2021, 9:47 am

>167 MissBrangwen: I can relate to the library. I can't enjoy my read if I am under pressure to read it in x amount of days. I did borrow 12 ebooks for the library last year, but now I'm almost sorry I did, because I have 4 "missing" Poldark's from my own library--a series I might want to read again.

173MissBrangwen
Editado: Feb 13, 2021, 10:46 am

>172 Tess_W: You're right, this kind of pressure and the availability (to read things when I want and to refer back to them or reread them at any time) are a part of it!
But I also see the merits of libraries, and think they are totally worth supporting!

174Tess_W
Feb 13, 2021, 12:13 pm

>173 MissBrangwen: I agree about totally supporting the libraries. They get any tree books that I read and don't keep (which is most of them). I attend the Friends of the Library book sales with 2-3 grandchildren in tow, and I always vote for the library levies.

175Jackie_K
Feb 13, 2021, 1:53 pm

I love to support our local library (and really wish it was open for browsing right now) - currently I'm supporting it by getting ebooks out. I tend to get choose library books that I would like to read but know I probably wouldn't buy (or reread), or books by authors I don't know that look interesting. If I absolutely love the book then I'll buy a copy for myself (or put it on my wishlist in the hope that someone else will!).

176MissBrangwen
Feb 13, 2021, 3:15 pm

>174 Tess_W: It's great that you are taking your grandchildren to the library! When I taught younger kids, I loved the days when we ventured to the city library with our classes. We also had reading competitions there. It was usually quite crazy and stressful, but lovely nonetheless.

>175 Jackie_K: That sounds like a good approach!

177Jackie_K
Feb 13, 2021, 3:22 pm

Our local libraries are great for putting on extra activities for kids - I used to take my daughter at least once a week to something. We've really missed it this past year - if we were indoors and going a bit stir-crazy, it was brilliant to just get out to the library for an hour or two for a change of scenery, but obviously we've not been able to do that recently. I think I might cry the first time I'm able to go to the library for a browse and a sit down and a chance to let my daughter explore the stacks again.

178thornton37814
Feb 13, 2021, 7:02 pm

I borrow most of my fiction from the library. When I do purchase it, it's usually because the library doesn't have that installment in a series, and I want to read it before moving to the next. The last year it may be because the library didn't have it in electronic format.

I purchase most of my non-fiction, but I do sometimes read library books there too.

179Tess_W
Feb 13, 2021, 8:23 pm

>174 Tess_W: That is the 2nd generation I've carted to the library!

180MissBrangwen
Feb 14, 2021, 3:39 am

>177 Jackie_K: I hope you can go back to the library soon!

>178 thornton37814: When I read nonfiction, usually I underline many sentences or paragraphs, take notes in the margins and put in page markers, so reading nonfiction from the library would be a bit problematic ;-)

>179 Tess_W: That‘s great!

181spiralsheep
Feb 14, 2021, 6:17 am

>180 MissBrangwen: I also note in the margins, and have loved secondhand books with marginal notes, but my victims are mostly poetry.

182markon
Editado: Feb 14, 2021, 10:32 am

I tend to reserve my buying dollars for things I will reread, or things that will take a long time to read & I don't want to worry about due dates.

But, as you say, to it's the reading that counts.

183clue
Feb 14, 2021, 11:03 am

I ran into a man I worked with many years a few weeks ago, we're both retired now. He was an occassional reader when he was working but as we talked about the things we missed due to the pandemic he said the libary was one of his most missed. He knows I read a lot and have been involved in the library in pretty much any way a volunteer can be. He and I live close to the same branch and he started telling me how much he ejoyed just going in, looking at this book then that, sitting in the big bay window where it's quiet and he can look out at the trees...and on and on. I was so surprised and happy that he had found this great place to enjoy. I appreciate curbside but also can't believe I have't been in the library almost a year...probably for the first year since I was a preschooler!

184rabbitprincess
Feb 14, 2021, 11:14 am

>182 markon: I agree, I also buy books that will take a while for me to read. Sometimes I find out which books fit that description after borrowing them from the library. Apparently I don't check page counts before putting books on hold :)

185MissBrangwen
Editado: Feb 14, 2021, 11:55 am

>181 spiralsheep: Interesting! I think I never took notes in poetry books.

>182 markon: That sounds like a very sensible approach!

>183 clue: What a moving story. It shows that libraries are so much more than just a place where you borrow something. Thank you for sharing!

>184 rabbitprincess: I can relate to checking the page counts. I buy most of my books from a German secondhand online bookshop (it's similar to Amazon Marketplace, but much nicer and gives more control to the different bookshop owners and antiquaries, and also private sellers who sell books that they don't want anymore), and very often, the page count is not shown, so I end up with a surprise when the book arrives!

186mathgirl40
Feb 14, 2021, 9:14 pm

I enjoyed reading your thoughts on Third Girl. This was one of the first Christie mysteries I'd read as a teenager in the 80's, but I barely remember it. I too had started reading/rereading all of Christie's mysteries from the beginning several years ago, but I'm only midway through the list and haven't gotten to this one yet. I too find that, these days, I'm bothered by sexist attitudes in these older books that I didn't notice at all decades ago.

187MissBrangwen
Feb 18, 2021, 7:07 am

>186 mathgirl40: I'd love to hear your thoughts on Third Girl when you get to it! Yes, I agree - it's so interesting to see how our reaction to books change over time!

188MissBrangwen
Feb 18, 2021, 7:46 am

I read Fräulein Smillas Gespür für Schnee (UK: Miss Smilla's Feeling For Snow/US: Smilla's Sense Of Snow) by Peter Høeg as a young teenager and didn't really like it. I remember that I hardly got through it and found the story very boring. I kept the copy because somehow I always felt that it was a good book nonetheless, and my mom gave it to me.
In the last couple of years I started reading Nordic Noir and enjoy it a lot, so I thought that now was the time to reread Smilla. I was sure that I would get more out of it now, and so it was.



Book No 21

"Fräulein Smillas Gespür für Schnee" by Peter Høeg
Original Title: Frøken Smillas fornemmelse for sne
Hanser
Hardcover, 480pp.
Rating: 4 stars - ****

Virtual Shelf ticked off: Polar Regions
Cats&Kits: GeoKIT - Polar
BingoDOG: Set Somewhere You'd Like To Visit

The plot of this crime novel is broad and complicated, but it starts like this: Smilla is a woman in her thirties living in an apartment complex in Copenhagen. One snowy day, the young son of one of her neighbours falls off the roof and the police quickly decides that it was an accident. Smilla, however, knows that the boy was afraid of heights and that it's not possible that he climbed up there by himself or in play. Smilla is the daughter of an Inuit hunter and grew up in Greenland, so she has a feeling for snow that goes far beyond what city dwellers can see, and thus, she also detects more things in the snow that suggest that the boy was killed. This discovery leads to a journey through Copenhagen and later onto a ship to Greenland, deep into the history of expeditions and scientists, and Smilla's own past.
I think that this crime plot is only half of it, though. Interwoven, the reader learns a lot about Greenland, both concerning science and history, and about the treatment of the Inuit in Denmark and the colonization of Greenland. All this was quite lost on me when I read it for the first time, but now I found it very interesting and eye-opening. Previously, I have not really been aware of this part of Danish/European history. When I realized that this topic was so important in the book I was a bit wary because it's written from the point of view of an indigenous woman by a non-indigenous man, but I think it was written very profoundly, and when I did some online research, I did not find any articles criticizing this aspect.
The story itself drags a little in some chapters and I think it could have been a bit shorter to hold up the interest of the reader a little more. Sometimes the background of the crime is too detailed and it gets a bit repetitive. Nevertheless, it is an unusual novel composed in poetic and strong language, with a powerful heroine and a fascinating topic.

189Tess_W
Feb 18, 2021, 11:31 am

>188 MissBrangwen: I've got that book in my library. Thank you for reminding me....now I'm off to find it and place it in the TBR pile.

190justchris
Feb 19, 2021, 12:46 am

>188 MissBrangwen: I read a positive review in Newsweek while I was in Peace Corps. I made a mental note of it and borrowed the book from the library after I returned to the United States. I vaguely recall the dragging of it, but I was too fascinated with the character's snow sense and worldview and how she pieces it together one step at a time. The two scenes that still haunt me are when she walks across the ice/water to safety, and the silent battle of culture/wills between her and her Danish father dealing with eating food at a party. I also really appreciated the exploration of marginalization (not that I had that word back when I read this story), from the starting point of the nature of the victim to Smilla's own social position, and how all of that plays a role in the unraveling of it all.

191MissBrangwen
Feb 19, 2021, 9:22 am

>189 Tess_W: I'm happy that I put it on your radar again!

>190 justchris: The ice scene is definitely haunting! I don't recall the party scene right now.
Yes, I wasn't really aware of the marginalization of Greenlanders/Inuit in Denmark. I want to do more research on this because the book is a few decades old now, so I'm curious to know about the situation today.

192charl08
Feb 19, 2021, 4:02 pm

>188 MissBrangwen: I love this book, it is one I reread every so often. For me it was new to read as a young person a novel where the protagonist has such struggles but she just carries on in the face of discrimination and her own history. I hadn't thought about the own voices angle though, and I guess this is something a new reader brings. I recently started reading Marcie Rendon and would hope to read more own voices in crime fiction.

193justchris
Editado: Feb 19, 2021, 8:28 pm

>191 MissBrangwen: It's where they're at a party or something, and her father was trying to instill social shame in her--something about not eating the last item on the tray, or to not get seconds, or to stop eating when the shame sets in, or something (I'm a little hazy on the specifics)--and she basically locks eyes with him and keeps eating the food and refuses to be shamed. It is he who is shamed.

>191 MissBrangwen: I wasn't aware of the Inuit situation in Greendland either until that book.

>192 charl08: Yes, #ownvoices has really changed our context for understanding books we read. It helped put into words the discomfort I would feel when discovering the author's identity vs the protagonist, especially when the story is lauded as so "authentic." I'm thinking here of Memoirs of a Geisha, which left me wondering how much was a western white man's Orientalist flights of imagination, and how much of it reflected real historical practices. And that's before consideration of the exploitation that's kinda undergirding it.

>180 MissBrangwen: and >181 spiralsheep: And to go back to an earlier conversation--I too totally write in the margins and underline the text and otherwise mark up nonfiction books, making it essential for me to buy them. I rarely do so in fiction except to copy edit egregious errors. Can take the editor out of the office but...

In fact, my condo association has a social justice book club, and I was shocked at how much people rely on library copies for some of the heavy reading we've been doing. Our most recent book was Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America, and I simply can't imagine how I could process it without literally physically engaging with the text.

So we haven't read Homegoing yet because the library's book club kit is much in demand. I guess I'm kinda stunned--people care enough to be in the book club but aren't willing to cough up money to support the authors who are writing these things we are reading to educate ourselves. Not willing to invest in the topics at a certain point--perhaps that's harsh of me. Now that I'm putting all of this into words, I think I might take the initiative to organize a group book buy each time. I did it for Color of Law, because again, people were finding it difficult to get library copies. Before that, I would just go out and get it on my own, or already had it on my shelves.

But in general, I totally get relying on the library for casual reading. I should do that more. And I also totally get not wanting to feel under pressure when reading for pleasure. I waffle back and forth on that myself.

194MissBrangwen
Feb 20, 2021, 6:16 am

>192 charl08: I doubt that I would have thought about this angle until a few years ago! Thank you for pointing out Marcie Rendon to me, I hadn't heard about her so far.

>193 justchris: I think I remember the scene now!
I read Memoirs of a Geisha as a teenager and felt uncomfortable as a young woman reading about that kind of story.
I have no experience with book clubs so I can't weigh in on that, but I understand your point.
"I simply can't imagine how I could process it without literally physically engaging with the text." That's how I feel. If it's a text I really want to learn from and remember things later, I just need to underline the aspects that I think are important or quotes that strike me, and I put page markers in. I browse those books later, or I reread the most important things before continuing my reading when I sit down with the book again.
When I read fiction, my approach is to put little bookmarks in when I come across a quote I love, and when I have finished the book I write down those quotes into my reading journal. That reading journal is something like my thread here on LT, but I also add the dates when I read a book and my favourite quotes. After I have finished I remove the bookmarks, though, and use them again.
Este tema fue continuado por MissBrangwen's first category challenge! - II.