Nathalie's (Deern's) Reading in 2018 Part 2

Welcome to my 2nd thread in 2018! Very slowly spring is approaching Merano, time for a new thread and hopefully this time I'll add some pics as well.

Books read in January and February:

Books read in 2018:

January:
1. Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh (1001, BAC, ROOTs, TIOLI) - 3 stars
2. My Brother's Husband by Gengoroh Tagame - 4 stars
3. Why I'm no longer to white people about race by Reni Eddo-Lodge -5 stars
4. The Country Girls by Edna O'Brien (1001, IAC) - 3.8 stars
5. Darm mit Charme by Giulia Enders - 4.5 stars
6. We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - 4.5 stars
7. An Italian Education by Tim Parks (ROOTs) - 3.5 stars
8. Untenrum Frei by Margarete Stokowski -4.3 stars
9. The Valley of Fear by Arthur Conan Doyle - 3 stars
10. La Tregua by Primo Levi (ROOTs) - 5 stars

February:
11. Jenseits von Schuld und Sühne by Jean Améry - 4.3 stars
12. Hold your Own by Kate Tempest - 5 stars
13. I sommersi e i salvati by Primo Levi (ROOTs, 1001) - 5 stars
14. Fleischmarkt by Laurie Penny - 4.5 stars
15. Ma le donne NO by Caterina Soffici - 4.8 stars
16. His Last Bow by Arthur Conan Doyle - 4 stars
17. Felicia's Journey by William Trevor (IAC, 1001) - 2.8 stars
18. The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle - 4 stars
19. The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne - 2.8 stars
20. Qualityland by Marc-Uwe Kling - 3.8 stars

Books read in March and April:

March:
21. Cause for Alarm by Eric Ambler (BAC, 1,001) - 4 stars
22. La luna e i falo by Cesare Pavese (1,001) - 3.8 starsf
23. Time Present and Time Past by Deirdre Madden (IAC) - 4 stars
24. A Season with Verona by Tim Parks - 3.5 stars
25. The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson - 4.5 Stars
26. Underworld by Don de Lillo (ROOTs, 1001) - 4 stars
27. Blindness of the Heart by Julia Franck (1001) - 3.5 stars
28. On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder - 5 stars
29. 2001 Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke (1001) - 3.7 stars
30. Metamorphosen by Ovid (1001) - no rating

April:
31. Beowulf translated by Seamus Heaney - 5 stars
32. Even Vegans Die by Carol J. Adams - 4.8 stars
33. Molloy by Samuel Beckett (IAC, 1001) - 4 stars
34. Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett (IAC, ROOTs) - 4.5 stars
35. Remembering Babylon by David Malouf (1001) - 3.5 stars
36. The Hounds of Spring by Lucy Andrews Cummin - 5 stars
37. The White Book by Han Kang - 4.5 stars
38. In the Woods by Tana French (IAC) - 3.5 stars
39. Judgement Detox by Gabrielle Bernstein - 4.5 stars
40. Cristo si è fermato a Eboli by Carlo Levi (1001) - 4 stars

May:
41. Nicht direkt perfekt by Nicole Jäger - 3.5 stars
42. Die Fettlöserin by Nicole Jäger - 3.5 stars
43. Death Comes To Pemberley by P.D. James - 2 stars
44. Marx for Beginners by Ruis - 3.5 stars
45. Abstinence by O.A. - 3.5 stars
46. Estate senza uomini by Siri Hustvedt - 4.5 stars
47. Drift: The Unmooring of American Miltary Power by Rachel Maddow - 4.5 stars

June/ July
48. The Gathering by Anne Enright - 3.5 stars
49. The Art of not falling apart by Christine Patterson
50. Calypso by David Sedaris
51. The Violent Bear it away by Flannery O'Connor (1001)
52. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
53. Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis (BAC, 1001)
54. Room to Dream by David Lynch
55. "Recovery" by Russell Brand
56. A Chef's Christmas by Anthony Bourdsin
57. Sabrina by Nick Drnaso (Booker 2018 LL) 3.5 stars
58. The Master by Tolm Coibin (IAC, 1001) 4.5 stars
59. Under The Net by Iris Murdoch (1001) 3.5 stars
60. Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain 3.5 stars

August:
61. The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham (BAC, 1001), 3.5 stars
62. In Our Mad and Furious City by Guy Gunaratne (Booker LL 2018) 4 stars
63. Snap by Belina Bauer (Booker LL 2018) 3.5 stars
64. The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner (Booker LL 2018), 3.8 stars
65. Treasure Hunt by Molly Keane (IAC 2018) - 3.8 stars
66. Unmentionable: The Victorian Lady's Guide to Sex, Marriage and Manners by Therese Oneill - 3.8 stars
67. From a Low and Quiet Sea by Donal Ryan (Booker LL 2018) - 3.8 stars

CHALLENGES 2018:

IAC:
- The Country Girls by Edna O'Brien (January: EOB)
- Felicia's Journey by William Trevor (February: WT)
- Time Present and Time Past by Deirdre Madden (March: DM)
- Molloy by Samuel Beckett (April: SB)
- Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett (April: SB)
- In the Woods by Tana French (May: Crime/Mystery)
- The Gathering by Anne Enright (June: AE)
- The Master by Colm Toibin (July: TC)
- Treasure Hunt by Molly Keane (August: Molly Keane)

BAC:
- Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh (January: debuts)
- G. a novel by John Berger (February: the 70s)
- Cause for Alarm by Eric Ambler (March: classic thrillers)
- Beowulf translated by Seamus Heaney (April: Fables)
- Death Comes To Pemberley by P.D. James (May: Queens of Crime)
- (Travel lit)
- Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis (June: Angry Young Men)
- The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham (July: British Sci-fi)

ROOTs:
1. - Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh
2. - An Italian Education by Tim Parks
3. - La Tregua by Primo Levi
4. - I Sommersi E I Salvati by Primo Levi
5. - The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne
6. - Underworld by Don DeLillo
7. - Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
8. - Estate senza uomini by Siri Hustvedt
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.

Bookers:
- The Gathering by Anne Enright (winner 2008)

LL 2018:
- Sabrina by Nick Drnaso
- Snap by Belina Bauer
- In Our Mad and Furious City by Guy Gunaratne
- the Mars Room by Rachel Kushner
- From a Low and Quiet Sea by Donal Ryan

11 Books to celebrate my 10th Thingaversary
1. The Woman that never evolved by Sarah Blaffer Hrdy (BB from Lucy)
2. Se Questo È Un Uomo by Primo Levi (had read it as library book only and wanted it on my Kindle)
3. "L'Italia delle Donne" by Alida Ardemagni (bought at the Merano Museum delle Donne, a book about famous Italian women in RL and mythology)
4. On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder
5. No is not enough by Naomi Klein

CURRENTLY READING:
- The Great Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux (audio, 30%)
- Never too late to go vegan by Carol J. Adams (10%)
- Gehen Ging Gegangen by Jenny Erpenbeck (ROOTs)
- A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush by Eric Newby

Happy new thread, Nathalie! I hope you are open for business :0)

>6 Carmenere: Thank you Lynda! :)
Yes, thread's open, but I'll mainly be visiting other threads this week, catching up after 10 days absence.

Happy new thread, Nathalie. Sorry to read about your mum's mood. I hop your dad loves the new place.

Happy new thread, Nathalie!

Happy new thread!

Hey Nathalie, happy new thread :-)

Happy new thread!

Happy new thread, Nathalie.

I was glad to see that you enjoyed Time Present and Time Past - I liked it too.

Here you are, Nathalie! Glad to see you moving along and reading again. I look forward to what you'll have to say about your books.
I'm reading mostly fun stuff at the moment, but I do have Thunderstruck on my current list. I hope that it's even half as satisfying as *Devil/City*. It combines Marconi and Crippen. How can it lose??

Just pulling up a chair for the shiny new thread :)

Yay, visitors! :D

>8 Ameise1: Thanks Barbara! My dad loves the place. He has developped a depressive streak as well in the last years, I hope he can escape it. He used to be very outgoing and to make friends quickly.

>9 Crazymamie:, >10 drneutron:, >11 charl08:, >12 thornton37814: Thank you Mamie, Jim, Charlotte and Lori!

>13 PaulCranswick: Thank you Paul! Yes, it was a pleasant read. I really like this year's challenges and hope I'll be able to participate in most of them.

>14 LizzieD: Oh, that sounds like another tempting book. I'm looking forward to reading your comments. I'll review my latest Parks in my next post, but it'll be a while until I finish anything else. Maybe next weekend.

>15 BekkaJo: Welcome Bekka, please make yourself comfortable!

It's suddenly spring outside! It looks like all the green has already been hiding somewhere, just waiting to come out as soon as the rains stop. There are flowers as well and the temps go way up after 10am. Had a dermatologist appointment (skin cancer screening - all clear, but I should come every 9 months now) at 9am when it was still icy cold and I needed a shawl and a cap. When I left an hour later the sun was up and it was almost too warm for a jacket. That's the difference to Germany - we have no real transition period here.

24. A Season with Verona by Tim Parks

Another entertaining book on Italian life, another one with a strong start, a much weaker middle part (where I invariably put his books down for weeks) and a great finish. During his years in and around Verona, Parks has become an ardent fan of one of their soccer clubs, Hellas Verona. With his oldest son Michele he visits most of the home games, and after a successful season 1999/2000 in the Serie A (premier league) he decides to watch every single game live in the following season and to write a book about it.

It starts out adventurously with an away game in Bari. He books a seat on a fan bus and travels overnight far South with a bunch of mostly drugged and drunk hardcore fans. Later away games become more comfortable – he gets there by train (though often in the fan carriages), by car, at one point is even allowed to accompany the team and to interview players and managers.

Verona isn’t an easy club to follow like Juventus Turin or the clubs of Milan or Rome. They belong to the group of clubs you find in every country that keep themselves in the premier league for 2-3 years, then go down when their best players are sold and might even get into the much lower regional leagues before bouncing back up. The season Parks chose is a very emotional one with a hair-raising finish, and the great thing is that it isn’t fiction – it was just coincidence he chose that year. In the last games he clearly loses his writer’s distance to the events, and I was on the edge of my seat, totally nervous for the outcome of a match 17 years ago (I could have googled, but it was more fun this way).

It would have been interesting to read his take on later events in Italian soccer, especially – because he complains a lot about corruption and “sold matches” – how much satisfaction the 2006 scandal Calciopoli must have given him.

The fan world he describes is almost exclusively male (the hardcore fans of the “curva sud”) and very Italian. There’s alcohol and violence, but it sounds different from what you read about Northern hooligans. Here the police force is an important element, often it seems to cause more harm in an attempt to prevent fan violence than being of assistance. It was also interesting to read about the relationships between clubs – there are the deadly enemies (usually the other clubs from the same region as Vicenza or Brescia) and the friends (Florence). In one case (Inter) a friendship is mutually ended during the away game in Milan.

An entertaining read with the usual lengths. I got the next Parks book on the start.

Rating: 3.8 stars

Anecdote: I started watching "L'eredità", a quiz show on RAI1 that's based on wordplay. Usually I'm totally lost and can only answer the most simple questions. But recently, in one of those fast pressure rounds (with easier questions) they asked a guy "what is done from the 11m line" and I had just that day learned "rigore"/ penalty from the Parks book! And the Italian man couldn't answer it!! Clearly a blackout, but I screamed at the screen "È rigore! R I G O R E!!!".
Oh - and recently in the final round, when they give you 5 expressions and you have to find the word that connects them all, for the first time ever, I guessed it. Because one of the hints was "una notte d'inverno" (a winter's night) and it was of course "viaggatore"/ traveller - and the candidate didn't know it. I was SO proud! So yes, reading makes you at least quiz-smarter! :)

Oh, lucky you to have nice spring temps. Here we are back to snow and chilly temps.

>17 Deern: Congrats on the quiz results Nathalie, sounds good.

You make me want to reread the Verona book - forgive me for mentioning this again, but I used to read his articles (which became the book) in the newspaper weekly on my commute, so I really get that sense of wanting to know just what happens next! I loved the account of travelling with the fans - real fish out of water stuff.

Question - what was the Calciopoli ? The fan rivalry thing is big here. If you hear someone listening to Manchester united playing anyone else, you can almost guarantee they are rooting for the opposition!

>18 Ameise1: Sending some sun your way! :)
Here it is always like a light switch. It has been cold and raining (and snowing in the mountains) until yesterday morning, and we'll have much more rain as always in March and April. But once the temps are up, there are only minor interruptions, it's like a boost. The green has exploded since Sunday, you can watch it. It's beautiful, but even in my 9th spring here I'm not used to the cold/hot switch.

>19 charl08: the Calciopoli was the scandal when it was found out that managers of several teams had agreements on certain matches that also included referees. There were telephone protocols found. Juve(ntus Turin) as the main culprit was sent into the second league, lost 2 earlier titles, other teams like Fiorentina started the seasons with high negative point scores, were banned from the European cups for a year and had to pay high fees. Managers and referees were banned for years or even lifetime and one or two were sent to prison.

Back in Germany I was very anti-Bayern. One of the funniest moments I remember was that CL finale against Manchester when they lost in the 90th minute. My then boyfriend, a Bayern fan, looked like he'd kill me. I was down on the floor, laughing hysterically. The next morning in the office, my boss, a Bayern fan, told all the English programers "one word, one grin and you're fired" (not seriously).

Now I don't really care. I like Juve who are now quite clean and fair again, and I once saw them in their new stadium. They play on Sunday afternoons, there were many families and it was all so much nicer than the matches I'd seen in Germany.

I was sure I had left a message on you new thread, Nathalie, but I either forgot or it disappeared.

>17 Deern: Nece review of the Hellas Verona book, I have it on my shelves. Maybe I can find a TIOLI Challenge in the next months that would fit.

I was just catching up on your last thread, about *the move*.
I have to echo what LizzieD said- about how others would have severed all ties with their parents by now. It is a hard road you walk, and all I can suggest is many rest stops along the way. I know I take my parents unconditional support of me for granted, it is a real safety net that helps my in so many intangible ways.

Unexpectedly finished The Devil in the White City last night - footnotes and references started at 75% of my Kindle edition. Loved it, review to follow.

>21 FAMeulstee: Hi Anita, I hope you'll enjoy it! :)

>22 LovingLit: Hi Megan, it is complicated emotionally. It's not a loveless releationship. It's just that my parents are both very egocentric people in different ways and that their issues complement each other, something they absolutely refuse to see. It's much easier for me now than it was in my youth when I felt forced to taking sides all the time and couldn't deal with it when they suddenly unexpectedly united against me (they are of one firm opinion when it comes to books). They certainly think they're supporting me unconditionally, but they never did because they don't grasp what "unconditional" means. They do love me (as much as they can, because this is also something you have to learn). My dad has become much milder with age, my mum however is getting harder and more bitter by the day. I feel sorry for them, but notice more and more that I cannot help them. I can just watch and learn. Both of their tendencies were once very strong in me, and I'd say I've quite successfully worked against the self-destructive "mum part" in recent years, now I'd like to get rid of the guilt that comes from my dad's side.
I can't really imagine what it would be like growing up just being loved and left free to chose your path in life, but I'm happy for everyone who has/ had that experience and, I know that sounds strange, it's a relief to me that it exists and is even normality.

Just catching up! A medal or two or three for your loving patience with your parents. I'm glad the move is completed. Happy for you that the drive is only three hours! That is going to be very helpful for all of you I think. Easier to come and go.

Parks' on soccer -- that must be more recent book. He does have the ability to make just about anything appealing and interesting.

I clicked on the Maddow book up top - and it sent me to the wrong touchstone. Always happening and I like it when people tell me.

>24 sibylline: Ooops, and what a nice book that was! :)
It's the copying/pasting of lists when opening a new thread, fixed touchstones become unfixed again. I admit I rarely control them when I copy older lists. I'll try to be better.

Yes, it's more recent, but also at least 15 years old. Seems they moved away from the village and into the town of Verona in the meantime, and Michele is already 12/13 years old.

25. The Devil and the White City by Eric Larson What an unexpected fun read, thank you Peggy for the BB!

Call me ignorant, but I never heard about the big Chicago world fair before or that the first Ferris wheel was running there (NEVER would I have got into one of those carts in 1893!). I knew there was Paris with the Eiffel Tower and every London Museum mentions Chrystal Palace. So while I wasn’t really interested in Chicago’s White City at first, the mix with a serial killer story was tempting, and it was so well done! In alternating chapters I read about the architects of the expo and all the obstacles they had to overcome, and about H.H. Holmes who used the occasion to kill at least 27 but presumably many more people without being suspected. His victims were mainly young women who came to Chicago for the fair and checked into the hotel he’d purposely built and that among other features had gas chambers, an airtight vault, even a crematorium. Larson is a great storyteller, I learned the genre is called historical “non-fiction”. The mix worked perfectly: without the Holmes chapters the architecture story might have become boring. Holmes alone would have been too much for me. But also the architecture part is entertaining, I especially remember the selection of ideas for the "great attraction" that should out-shine the Eiffel Tower and then later the many anecdotes from the fair once it was opened. And what tragic events unfolded after a storm and how sadly it all ended. I read that Leo DiCaprio bought the movie rights already in 2010, I can't believe this hasn't been filmed yet!
Great book, much recommended!

Rating: 4.5 stars

Lovely review, Nathalie - thumb from me if you posted that.

>27 Crazymamie: Thank you Mamie! I don't know why, but I don't like posting reviews. I bare my soul in this 75group thread (well, not all of it of course), but everything outside is the scary-for-me social media and something in me says "nonono!". I should really start posting them occasionally, it happens so often that I want to reread my thoughts about a book and have to browse endlessly in my old threads, though that is interesting as well. :)

********
Carefully starting to plan April. Testreading a Samuel Beckett collection of three books, all 1,001s, for the IAC. Over in the 1,001 group there's the GR for Remembering Babylon. Considering ROOTing Jenny Erpenbeck's Gehen Ging Gegangen which is also a candidate for the Booker International and Primo Levi's Il Sistema Periodico. Got Julia Franck's Die Mittagsfrau, another 1,001 book, from the library.

Currently reading:
- A Literary Tour of Italy by Tim Parks (10%)
- If This Is A Man by Primo Levi (reread)
- Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power by Rachel Maddow - audio
- Underworld by Don De Lillo (1001 GR, 65%)
- The Great Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux (audio, 30%)
- Cristo si fermo a Eboli by Carlo Levi (1,001, audio)
- Metamorphosen by Ovid (1,001, 65%)

The Parks doesn't count, it's a book about books and it can take years to get through those. I'm not really in an audio mood right now, it's time to start hiking again or some other activity I can do while listening. I'm stuck in all 3 and have 2 more not yet started. The De Lillo should get finished over the weekend. I'll somehow get through the Ovid by the end of March, although I hate my edition. I won't rate it now and read a better translation at some point.

If anyone has an idea for the BAC that's as undemanding as possible, I'd happily follow. I already read the T.H.White King Arthur series and quite disliked it except for the first one. I also read Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and The Buried Giant. Folk tales and fables set in Britain (I take from Paul's list of suggestions that this is a condition) are not really my genre, so I don't want to start another monumental work for that challenge.

The Beckett...is it Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnameable? I love Molloy! The other two are perfectly fine as well.

Glad you enjoyed The Devil in the White City! It was a favorite of mine, too.

>29 richardderus: Yes, that's the one! Molloy will be my first Beckett, and I admit that after the first pages I'm both scared and intrigued.

>26 Deern: colour me intrigued!

>31 LovingLit: I wanted it as a side-read with all the "important" challenges, but it quickly turned into main book.

>28 Deern: See, this is why I love this group. In real life if I mention my current ongoing/projected plans/massive TBR they all look at me as if I'm insane and say things like 'how can you read more than one book at a time?'.

Ha!

I'm lining up my Beckett too, but I have so much left to finish! Must clear the decks a bit - have a big April list :/

>33 BekkaJo: Yes, the same in my RL - with my parents adding in the "running away from reality". :/

I spent most of the weekend rearranging my furniture and planning new shelves, but I'll take my time with it. My place is too crammed already. Found myself with heaps of books, a book case in the middle of the room and a rolled-up rug at some point and didn't want to continue, just sit on the rug and read. :) I threw out one(!) book, Trainspotting, the others are too dear to me. *sigh*

Finished Underworld, but only by basically skim-reading the last 300 pages. Which doesn't mean I didn't like it, I should just in future read books of that length in e-format without week-long breaks that make me forget half of the characters and their relationships. Started Julia Franck's Die Mittagsfrau/Blindness of the Heart and quickly got to half-point of the 430 pages. It started promising, but has now turned into an "okay book". Except for Erpenbeck I've mostly ignored contemporary German literature, and now I see again why. This is very well written, but... I don't know how to put it into words. Yes, it's set before and during WWII and has a bit of Holocaust, of course, it won the German Book Prize, so it has to. Alternatively it would have to be set post-war in the East - which it is as well, but just for a couple of pages. It's heavy, trying not to be too heavy by adding some "20s in Berlin" scenery. Anyway, a quick read and a 1,001!

Read a bit of Molloy, but don't want to get through it before April starts. Still undecided about the BAC.

26.Underworld by Don DeLillo (1001 #374/423, ROOTs 6/20)

I finished this after a month, by skim-reading the last 300 pages. I quite liked it, but somehow didn't have the nerve to read every word and got tired of trying to remember where and when this or that character might have turned up earlier in the book.
I’ve said on the 1,001 GR thread that unfortunately I read this book after 2 long Philip Roths, two Franzens, Infinite Jest and the very long Auster last year, otherwise I might have loved it. I understand this is another take on the “Great American Novel” where so many big themes of the post WWII years come together and what remains is a feeling of both interconnectedness and non-significance, maybe resignation. There will be many of those books for our current time I guess.

Somehow in the end there was a baseball, the atomic bomb, the garbage mafia (I would have liked to read more of that), art (of that as well) and father/son relationships and how everything is important for the individual (middle-aged white man), but doesn't really matter for the rest of the world. Though maybe I should take from it that little things in our lives can have impact on others. Somehow it feels the same.

It was also a problem that the book tries to be so cleverly constructed, but then in its pride screams at you at every turn of chapter “see what else I can do” before you can notice it yourself. There’s going backwards in time, first linear, then in jumps, and that weird framework about that guy and his kid’s baseball, or how we get a bit of plot from this character who meets 100 people and then we can guess which of the 100 De Lillo has picked for the next chapter, and there's always the comedian. I was grateful for the epilogue and a return to the then present.

However, comparing it to Blindness of the Heart, the contender for this month's 1001 GR which tries to be one of the better German novels (we learned not to use “great” anymore, at least for the time being), the DeLillo was much more fun.

Rating: 4 stars

27. Die Mittagsfrau/ Blindness oft he Heart by Julia Franck (1001 #374/425) - contains spoilers!

This book started great: the prologue is written from the view of 7year old Peter. It’s 1945 in Stettin in West Pomerania, now Poland. The war has just ended, the Russians are there. School’s been bombed out, as have all the neighboring houses, lessons are held in a small milkshop. Everyone is trying to get on a train westward, and Peter and his mum have been to the station several times in vain. Peter is used to seeing atrocities, he knows nothing else. He’s seen people killed by bombs, his best friend among them while holding his hand, his mum’s been raped in their home by Russian soldiers several times. The father has left the family for another woman and moved west years ago. Peter copes okay, as long as there’s his beloved and beautiful mother who works as a nurse in a hospital all day and night and has been treating him increasingly cold and impatiently lately. He adores her, clings to her, she’s his anchor in a world he can’t fully understand. This afternoon they finally get on a train. When it ends in a small town, his mother makes Peter sit on a bench with his little suitcase to wait for her while she buys tickets for the connection. She never comes back.

This short part was great, and it sets the mood for the rest of the book which is the story of his mother Helene that finally led her to abandoning her only child. Sadly, this is also where the plot turns interchangeable, another “youth between two world wars” story - with the exception of one very strong chapter in the last part, set in a forest.

Helene and her older sister Martha grow up with emotionally disturbed parents that are unable to love them, though in a financially wealthy situation. They turn to each other for emotional support, which results in a quite incestuous relationship – but this part is a bit undecided. They grow up Protestant and only slowly understand that their agoraphobic and depressive mother is Jewish and therefore avoided by the local people (my impression was that this was caused more by her extreme behaviors than by her religion). Their father returns from WWI an invalid and dies soon, the printing press doesn’t earn them any money during the economic crisis and the mother’s situation deteriorates quickly. The girls welcome the invitation from previously unknown Jewish aunt Fanny to the Berlin of the late 1920s. Next up are parties, drugs, first love, money worries, Nazis and an early (1936) opportunity for Helene to escape all the threats.

There’s lots and lots of plot on those 428 pages, it feels compressed. Julia Franck is a very good writer and there's some beautiful language, but the plot remains lifeless - maybe it's intended. The reader turns into distant watcher again, and this distance keeps the characters from coming alive and kept me from connecting and empathizing. The Berlin nightlife scenery seems like a thin varnish to add some color, but except for one scene in a theatre, it’s like watching a silent movie. This is far from Christopher Isherwood and his Berlin stories.

It remains unclear how much of Helene’s later distance to her son can be psychologically explained by her loveless childhood and the war years (of which we don't see much) or if at least part of it is the inherited “blindness of the heart”, a mental condition that has been ascribed to her mother. Does she really love Carl for example, or is she merely feeling safe and at ease with him, is he an escape from the debauchery at her aunt’s place – of which we don’t see much either? Is it the blindness of the heart that makes her capable of being such a great nurse, caring for the most difficult cases without blinking while neglecting her child?

This is a book where I could have done with some more real insight into its main character. At the end I still don’t know whether she leaves Peter to give him a better life at his uncle’s, if she leaves him for egoistic motives to finally get the life she always wanted (which is never really explained either except for her wish of studying medicine), or is she afraid she might turn into her raging mother? She clearly is an emotionally undevelopped woman, and I would have liked reading another 200 or so pages to better understand her.

This is a good book, but it lacks something to make it a standout for me. It certainly ticks many boxes, is well written and has an unusual premise. A 1,001 it isn’t, but many others aren’t either.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Okay, reading plans lined up for the next 2-3 weeks (I need this written out as reminder):

BAC: reread of Beowulf by Seamus Heaney - this was my first ever GR here on LT if I remember well

IAC: Molloy by Samuel Beckett and maybe another one from the collection

ROOTs: Gehen Ging Gegangen by Jenny Erpenbeck and The Periodic Table by Primo Levi
Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett

1001 GR: Remembering Babylon by David Malouf

Others:
finish my 3 audios - I really have to start those office walks again:
- Drift by Rachel Maddow
- The Great Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux
- Christ stopped at Eboli by Carlo Levi

finish
- Metamorphosen by Ovid (1,001, 80%)
- 2001 Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke (1001) - I finally!!! saw the movie last weekend

New reads:
- On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder

>37 Deern: I think several of us will be reading Beowulf by Heaney. I read versions in high school and college, but they were definitely not Heaney's since it wasn't around then.

>38 thornton37814: I rememer liking it very much, but I didn't know any other versions - or the story at all. Looking forward to my reread! :)

28. On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder

A 5star BB from Richard and a very short book. Go and read it unless you already have or are already deep in pro-democracy literature. The reading time was given as less than one hour, but I interrupted my read to go and finally become a paying reader of my favorite online newspaper (at one point you’re encouraged to support journalism and to read longer in depth articles).
What I really liked about this book: usually, when one of the new rightwing governments is somehow compared to Nazi Germany everyone cries out “you can’t compare them, the Holocaust was way bigger”. However, Nazi Germany was fascism, a world war and the Holocaust. Snyder mainly looks at the fascist mechanisms that were applied early on and opened the way for everything else. He’s absolutely right – things started small; people voted in 1932 expecting to vote again soon in another democratic election; Jews, intellectuals, all opponents thought “it wouldn’t be as bad”, international business and politics happily worked with the Nazis, etc. Looking at the Holocaust and saying “we’re never getting there” is a comfy avoidance strategy of our brain, and the next time we look up, our democratic institutions we thought were safe and there for us forever are gone or have turned against us.
I have one critique point despite the 5 stars – but I’m sure there’s enough longer literature out there taking this into consideration. This book serves wonderfully as a wake-up call, but the world situation is depicted too black and white. It sounds like HRC’s take on world politics that cost her much sympathy in Europe (we still all thought Trump was worse, but at least he’d promised not to start any new conflicts).

There are current developments in other democracies that might have served as additional example to “long gone” Nazi Germany, but those aren’t mentioned much. Is it because they’re NATO partners are are/have been used for military purposes?

And no, I don’t know a single non-Russian person who trusts Putin, but HRC’s extreme anti-Russian stance and her support of “undefined groups of rebels” in Syria and other unstable countries are mainly responsible for the support Trump has in Europe and is in fact one reason for people voting for the new parties. Sanctions hurt the small suppliers while the big contracts (like the new gas pipeline) are still closed. We know by now that all the various African and Middle-Eastern “springs” were not supported by the West to bring democracy to the people. I don’t want to start guessing here who wants to de-stabilize whom for whose interests. I’m not sure I really want to know it, but I wish it’d finally stop and from all sides.

But independently from the developments outside the US this is an important book that should be widely read and it is full of practical suggestions for how to become active.

Rating: 5 stars

>39 Deern: Good review, Nathalie!
I added it mount TBR after reading Shelley's review last November.

On Putin: no I don't trust him, but the anti-Russian forces have put him willingly in a difficult position. At least he tried to help out the ordinairy Russians who were hurt badly financily after the awful shock-doctrine.

Great review of On Tyranny, Nathalie. I'll start reading it as soon as I finish my current book.

>41 kidzdoc: Hi Darryl, I hope you'll like it, and it's a really quick read

*******
Finished 2001: Space Odyssey yesterday, another 1,001, after I'd finally seen the movie last weekend. Review later today or next week.

For now - just in case I won't find the time this afternoon - I'd like to wish you all a
Happy Weekend and to those celebrating it a Happy Easter!
I'll be without internet in Bavaria until Monday night, so I'll read you again next week!

Happy Easter Nathalie - safe trip.

Hope you have a good break Nathalie. Wishing you a relaxed time.

>40 FAMeulstee: Anita, sorry for the belated reply! I actually remembered during the weekend in Bavaria that I hadn't posted the longer reply I'd written to you and then forgotten to include you in my next post - but it was impossible to post from there. I'd decided not to leave a longer Putin answer here before disappearing for days and today I'm not in the mood for it. It's all grey anyway, not as black/white as Snyder tries to put it. Among other things he claims Putin bombed Syria to flood Europe with immigrants. I've heard lots of conspiracy theories, but this one only with someone else in the role of the "flooder". Depressingly, neither side is interested in conflict-free life (or should I say "world peace"), and that's for once independent from the party that governs the US and I guess wouldn't be any different with someone else being Russian president. It's a bit like in Germany - the weapon industry is strong and wants to sell, and even the Greens play along now while the majority of the population is against it but has resigned.

>43 BekkaJo: Thank you Bekka, the driving for once was great. Almost no trucks, and the holiday traffic always in the other direction.

>44 charl08: Thank you Charlotte!

*****
Not really in the mood for writing much about the weekend. My mum is hopeless. :/
It was a bit better than last time, but the weather was terrible, so there wasn't much else to do than driving around and stop to eat.
All I found in the restaurants on Friday and Saturday was "I'll have the big salad without" (fish/chicken/scampi"). Seriously - not even a vegetarian pasta dish on any menu. Finally on Sunday night we went to the pub I liked last time, and there I found to my joy three vegetarian (though dairy-laden) dishes to chose from and had the spinach lasagne, of course with a big side salad to balance out all the cream. :)

My dad still hasn't got his wifi contract moved and the mobile phone connection was so lame that I couldn't even open the shop on my Kindle - and this usually works everywhere. I'll try and catch up on threads this week.

Finiahed 3 books:

29. 2001 A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke (1,001 # 375/426)
I’m probably be the last person who's seen the movie and read the book, so there isn’t anything new I have to say. It must have been incredible seeing this 50 years ago on a big screen. It’s a rare case of movie over book preference, as the dialogue-free visual impression can’t be translated into 300 pages of words. I know movie script and book were developed together initially and then started diverging slightly, and I wonder if the book as a standalone would have been a success. While I liked the movie better, I still enjoyed the extra time the book spends on the man apes and the last confusing part with the wormhole. I might even read the next sequel, though I have no intention to see that film as well.

Rating: 3.7 stars

30. Metamorphosen by Ovid (1,001 #375/427)
In the end I liked it more than I’d expected half way through. Either I got used to the convoluted language of my edition or I became more familiar again with the stories, which made it easier to extract the plot. I’m glad I finally read it and might try again one day with a better translation. I thought it had its strongest moments in the scenes of suffering, war and murder (I once had to put the book aside in a restaurant or I wouldn’t have been able to eat my meal – and I’m usually not sensitive with blood and gore texts). And then came, totally unexpected, the penultimate chapter with Pythagoras advocating vegetarianism, of course I loved that!

No rating for now.

31. Beowulf translated by Seamus Heaney (BAC April 2018)
This was a reread, and a quick one. I’d read it on my old Kindle some years ago, and when I downloaded it now from the cloud to the newer one, I found lots of highlights that made no sense at all. Wondering if I did them to mark my progress when I wasn’t yet used to bookmarks? Other than that, I was again surprised about the readability of this version. The plot of course isn’t complex, but entertaining and I had forgotten the pacifism in there.

Rating: 5 stars again

Sorry to hear about your trip Nathalie. Looks like you got some good reading in. I've not had much luck with Heaney, but I do love Don Paterson. (As I've probably mentioned before. Sorry!)

Happy newish thread, Nathalie. You have done some good reading. The Heaney is on my shelves. Maybe this year...

I bought two new books on plant-based eating/ living. Not so much for the veganism - I guess I'm quite well informed by now - but more as a compassionate approach to issues of ageing. After testreading I thought the author was very inclusive (not all aggressively activist at all) and I might get some inspiration for how to tackle the physical and emotional challenges in a way as differently as possible from my parents' methods. :)

32. Even Vegans Die by Carol J. Adams

After a longer break in reading and reviewing nutrition literature, I stumbled over this book after several deviations from a big Guardian article on veganism and its usual annoyingly aggressive forum. I got 2 books concentrating on veganism in circumstances that aren’t as glowing and instagrammy as what we normally see, Never Too Late To Go Vegan and this one, by the same authors. The introduction for this one is written by Dr Michael Greger whose How Not To Die I read in 2016 and which I (uselessly as usual) had given to my parents. He says while his book shows ways to reduce the risk to die of any of the top 10 diseases, this book deals with the reality that following a certain diet doesn’t mean you’ll never get sick.

It’s a big problem for health-conscious people to be confronted with illness “despite their good nutrition”, they are more likely to see themselves and their diets as a failure, and sadly the outside world often too happily chimes in. The “normal” eaters (I’m trying here not to concentrate exclusively on veganism, basically this can just as well be applied to a Paleo fan and everyone else ) will tell you that obviously your diet is useless while your diet-fellows might accuse you of cheating – “you just didn’t do it right”.

This short book that’s explicitly not only written for vegetarians and vegans deals a lot with our fear of death and how we use lifestyle choices to get the illusion of control over processes that are often unpredictable, inherited or dependent from other environmental influences. This is also a great handbook of how to deal with the (terminal or not) illness of a loved one, how to overcome your reluctance to help, to confront yourself with the reality of what is happening. Looking especially at vegans, there might be additional requirements, like caring for pets with special needs or providing special meals. Then there’s a guide for getting your own stuff together – again independently from your meat-eating status. Getting your documents in order, writing a will, donating money to important organizations during your lifetime, etc.

Helpful and thought-provoking, maybe a bit too short.

Rating: 4.8 stars

>47 charl08: It wasn't all bad, let's say life is presenting me some lessons right now, and I have the opportunity to do things differently. And an excuse to buy more books. :)

>48 BLBera: Thank you! The Heaney is a quick read, maybe 1.5 hours. I saw there's also an audio read by him, maybe next time.

Just checking in - hope your week has been okay and you have a chilled weekend planned?

>49 Deern: Sounds intriguing. I need to look into this kind of thing (document prep etc), but mostly averting my gaze at present.

>51 BekkaJo: Weekend was chilled until Sunday afternoon (see below)
>52 charl08: Yes, me too, urgently :/ If anything happened to me, my parents wouldn't have any idea about anything.

On Saturday I went to the hairdresser and had a quick lunch, then went home and started re-ordering my second room, throwing out more stuff and despairing with all that's still there. I don't really want new shelves/ drawers, I should get rid of things instead!
On Sunday I cleaned my bike and went for a short ride to Lagundo to test it as I want to use it more this year to get to the office. Back home I cooked lunch and had just settled on the terrace when I received a message from our IT manager that he'd had a bad bike accident the day before, was bedbound in the hospital, and could I please get to the office and do some checks before Monday morning?

Well, I did it of course, but now the situation is quite bad. Don't have time for the details, but like in all small businesses, the "IT guy" is the one who knows everything and hasn't much documented. We covered several systems last year, but the day-to-day stuff and the little incidents are in his hands alone. He's working from the hospital and giving me orders and so far (knocking on all the wood around me) we're dealing with it, but I'm quite anxious about the next couple of days. At least it has been a wake-up call for my boss who released me from my cost-controlling duties for now. Wish he'd done that earlier, then we might have covered a couple of more systems/ functionalities. *panic*

Which probably means that reading and LTing will take another blow with more work hours expected, also in the weekends.
One good news: my parents had a nice day trip yesterday to an island (Fraueninsel) of the nearby lake (Chiemsee), and today they went to Salzburg for shopping. They sounded really positive for once. :)

Oh no! Poor you, and poor IT guy. It's really nice to read your parents had a good time on their day trip though - hope they find more to enjoy too :-)

Forgot to write that my boss and I visited him at the hospital today and we all had a good talk. He's in quite a good mood, but in much pain as soon as the drugs wear off. He's broken some ribs, one has injured a lung (that's why they're keeping him in), some toes are broken and he has some stitches on his head now. TG he wore a helmet! His appartment is here in the office building, so at least when he gets home we can all help him by buying groceries/ bringing cooked food, and whatever else he might need.

It keeps coming at you, doesn't it, Nathalie? And you keep handling it. I hope you're in for an easier time by the end of the week.
Take care!

It sounds like your reorganizing will have to wait while the work concerns take precedence. How convenient that your injured IT person lives in the same building where you work. He might welcome frequent visitors even if they are questions about work details.

I have fond memories of reading Underworld. It's in my permanent collection, though I don't plan to revisit it anytime soon. I like the comfort of just knowing that a book I liked is close at hand. No wonder you could only part with one book in your downsizing efforts, Nathalie. I plan to do the same thing this year…if and when the mood strikes. My problem is I have plenty of space in a house that is way too big for two people. Still, I would like to get rid of some possessions that (ahem) don't bring me joy anymore.

You have tempted me to pick up my old neglected copy of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Haha, I was one of those young people who were mesmerized by Hal on the big scrren 50 years ago. What an indelible memory. I remember my husband wanting to leave because "nothing's happening" but he indulged me as we were still newlyweds when we saw it. Thanks for the trip down Memory Lane. ;-)

>53 Deern: Sorry to read your IT collegue got injured, Nathalie, I hope you can deal with the situation.
Looking forward to meet you next Saturday!

*waving my pro cycle helmet banner*

Hubby of one of my best friends had massive head trauma after being knocked off his bike. Sans helmet. Now we support many brain injury charities.

Aside that, hugs to you and the team and hoping it eases soon.

>56 LizzieD: I very much hope for an easier time by the end of the week as well, as Anita and Frank are coming to Merano (big YAY!). :D

>57 Donna828: I admit my egocentric/ egotistical part was going "Waaaaaaaaaah! My spring's gone!". But at least I caught that reaction and tried to think around it. IT guy and I are very similar in that respect with the difference that he doesn't realize it's a bad reaction and has even called my hospital stay last year a "vacation", so I only feel half-guilty in this special case. As I know him he won't welcome visitors in his 4 walls (he'll have to share his so-far single office with me from Mid-May on, that's bad enough), but he'll work a lot from home and he'll have to open the door from time to time to let us bring the food in. :)

"2001" was on German late night TV frequently in the early 80s. I tried watching it once, but fell asleep during the man-ape beginning and then woke up when Hal killed the first guy who was then drifting in space - I was so freaked out that I never tried watching it again.

I won't reread most of the books on my shelves, but just looking at them (while I foten forget plot parts and all names) makes me remember the time when I was reading them and my emotional reaction. A bit like looking at photographs. I always wonder why no-one else in my RL has more than 10 books on their shelves.

>58 FAMeulstee: Can't wait! The forecast still promises good weather. :D

>59 BekkaJo: I'm sorry about your friends husband, how is he doing?
Yep - I should get my helmet out again as well, although I'm mostly on even bike tracks on my way to the office. But just yesterday I saw a car backing out into the track and almost hitting a cyclist right in front of me. Not sure if helmets aren't obligatory in Germany by now, it has been discussed when I still lived there. All the German tourists are wearing them, the locals only for the real sport, not for the "normal" cycling in town.

This is one of my plot-free wishy-washy reviews, sorry. But how to review Beckett?

33. Molloy by Samuel Beckett (1,001 #376/427 / IAC)
34. Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett (IAC, ROOTs)

As usual I know nothing about the author and threw myself into this totally uninformed. I know that’s not the “good way”, but reading back in high school was so boring with all the preparations with the author’s biography and then later the endless interpretations, crowned by a paper and a grade. My approach nowadays to those 1,001 important world literature books is going in blindly and reading up on the author only if I really want to know more.

I looked at some reviews for Molloy and can’t say I found in the book what others are writing, especially the plot. Was there one? Incestous relationship with the mother? Where did I miss that? A very weird one it was, if that mother existed at all. For me, it was all impressions, and not happy ones. I saw a glimpse of the ever-mentioned Kafka similarities in the second part, but reading Kafka always gave me a very different feeling, and Ishiguro’s The Unconsoled comes much closer to that. There was some absurdist humor even I recognized, but I never felt like laughing.

For me, reading these two books was like watching “Twin Peaks The Return” or listening to some weird jazz or watching one of those classic clown sketches I never found funny as a kid and that made me switch channel or want to leave the circus: very uncomfortable, because my brain has to take paths it isn’t used to and it complains loudly. I didn’t grow up with any kind of modern arts (or any real arts at all) and until some years ago was never interested in catching up. The first reaction is a screeching feeling in the brain, much like one of those days when for no apparent reason you want to hide from the world under a blanket and stay warm and cozy and safe, but the world and its reality and noise have to be faced.

On those days, when I have the time, I now do my short “discomfort meditation”: I sit still, close my eyes and “walk along the pain line” which means I concentrate on the discomfort only without searching for reasons or distractions, until it becomes abstract, loses all importance and I feel peaceful again. This can happen very quickly and is really helpful (I got that from Singer btw.). Often some very abstract pictures come up, for example me walking on a rope which is why I call it a line, and I’m wondering if Beckett wrote along his personal pain line. I mean – keys suddenly dispersed in the grass and you lay on your stomach to collect them? This is the kind of stuff that comes up during meditation, a visual expression of the discomfort you feel.

Right now I rarely have the time to read more than 2-3 of pages of anything without being interrupted, so it wasn’t the perfect time for Molloy. It needed a couple of pages to get “through the screeching” to the place where the writing just washes over me. While Waiting for Godot is easier and shorter, it has the extra complication with all the stage directions. I should try and see it, if I knew where. Maybe it’s on YT. Here the parallels with those clown sketches were strong of course. Some great lines which hundreds of people highlighted and now I’m one of them.

Ratings: Molloy 4 stars (probably more on a better-times reread), 4.5 stars for WfG.

Reading updates: done with the IAC and BAC for this month. Re-planning my ROOTs reads. I love Primo Levi's books, but don't want to force me through one when it's so not calling me right now. Same for Erpenbeck. I read Waiting for Godot (on my shelf for 30 years and on my Kindle for one) instead and might read one of my paper Ferrantes next.

Started the 1,001 GR Remembering Babylon and Naomi Klein's No is not enough. Some progress finally with the Carlo Levi audio. I'm very interested in reading the new Richard Powers book which got great reviews also from Guardian readers and Deborah Levy's which both might be Booker candidates later this year, but I'll try to get other stuff off my shelves and Kindle first.

Work front: long hours, but I'm used to that. IT guy (usually very grumpy) was sent into a total euphoria by his anti-pain drugs and even able to joke about it. :)
The last scans look good, we hope he'll be sent home by the end of this week.

Weather: it's raining almost non-stop! :((( They still promise some sun for the weekend, I really hope for a blue sky and nice view of the mountains for Anita and Frank when they arrive on Satuday (yay!).

I would like to see more classic plays I think. I loved A Country Road, A Tree which made me think I should get to Beckett (but I've done nothing else about it). I enjoy reading the occasional comedy stageplay but haven't really had much luck with any others. I haven't read any Klein, and really should do, so I'll look for your comments.

Lol re the painkillers and their impact- more seriously hope things are manageable for you.

Fingers crossed for good weather for the meetup!

>62 Deern: Even with rain it will be a memorable weekend ;-)
The forcast for Saturday looks good and Sunday only a little rain is expected.

I won't be much around here after today, we will call you when we have arrived on Saturday.

You are powering through the challenge reads! Me... not so much! Must get on.

Got my sun dance on for you. And tbh for me - I think I'm starting to mould over.

>64 FAMeulstee: Safe travels!! :)

>63 charl08: I've read many Shakespeares and a couple of Schiller and Brecht back in high school. It's easier if there's a plot, with the modern plays there's so much in the expression. It half-worked with Brecht, but for Beckett much imagination was needed.

>65 BekkaJo: Haha, please don't (mould over, the sun dance is very welcome! ) :)
I fear another reading funk might come up later this year, so I'm trying to gain ground early before my brain starts demanding graphic novels and children's books again.

>66 Deern: If you're looking to plan ahead for a nice GN for the fallow period Brazen: Rebel women is very good...

>66 Deern: The last few days have made me a little more hopeful. Cassie actually got a bot sun burnt at her football club yesterday!

But seriously - we need some more sunshine. My tomato seedlings are refusing to propagate (even indoors) and I don't blame them.

>61 Deern:, >63 charl08:
You might not know it from the page, but (properly done) 'Waiting for Godot" is a very funny play, as well as thought provoking. See it with Irish actors if you ever get the chance.

>67 charl08: I have that one on my WL already. Got a similar GN in Italian on my ipad which I'd like to finish first. GNs on an e-device are a bit difficult to read though. It's high time to get to some bigger Italian city again with a good GN store as I once saw in Turin. Such a rich culture here in Italy, but my library has almost nothing.

>68 BekkaJo: We also had lots of rain this week, it seems to clear up a bit now, but there's danger it'll turn rainy again on Sunday.

>69 majleavy: I imagine it is. This time I tried to hear the voices in my head (I just realize that sounds strange, but you know what I mean :) ). Of course directions like the endless hat switching are quite useless on paper. I'll check if I find some version in the next couple of days, otherwise I'll look for a DVD. If those are still sold.

How did I fall so far behind??? Enjoy your time with Anita!

Hope your colleague feels better soon.

>46 Deern: I recall reading Beowulf -Seamus Heaney translation a few years back and, even though not entirely following the story, being carried away by the language.

>62 Deern: I have had No is not Enough on the dresser for 9 months! I haven't had the heart to start it yet.

>71 sibylline: My colleague is back home, now it's all waiting and sitting around for him. He's very sportive, goes running/ biking everyday, so he's more than a bit annoyed he'll have an exercise-free summer and to restart " from scratch" (the bones are one thing, but the lung...)
We all feel for him, knowing how important the training was for him and his wellbeing.

I met Anita and Frank for dinner last night and today we're planning to take the cable car up to a mountain inn and then later do some sightseeing in Merano. The weather was lovely yesterday, absolutely perfect. Today it should be a bit less so. we'll see.
Frank took that very happy picture I promised you, Anita will post it when she's back. :D

>72 LovingLit: I can't compare with other translations, but found it very readable.

The N book... I wish I wouldn't have to read it either, but most recent events show we're once again repeating the stupidest steps in human history.

I'm frustrated because all those books are very true, but usually they lack the alternative, or at least a list of organisations where I could become active. When I talk to people around here, everyone just shrugs and doesn't care much as long life goes on for them as ever. Where are those peace and protest marches? And in the very rare cases they do happen, some masked radicals are sent in to start trouble (very classic Italy) so people are scared to participate.

There are great political books and also comments in papers, a relatively small group of people reading them and nodding, but what can we do? She promises a bit of that in the sample I read, so let's see...

Posted some pics in the gallery, I’ll move them to the thread tomorrow. We had a lovely!!! time :D

>75 Deern: Sounds good :-)

>74 Deern: Hi Nathalie, I started No is not enough and found it very interesting and readable. But I have similar trouble, it all gets to me, emotionally, and all the issues are so big, it's hard not to feel totally discouraged. So, I still haven't finished it.

Glad the meet up went well :)

>76 charl08: It was! :)
Anita took more pics, but she had no wifi in the hotel and was using a real camera, so she'll post some when she's back home.

>77 EllaTim: Yes, all those books are true but paralyzing, as the "mountain of terrible" is so high and you're left with no idea what to do. The classical problem of the intellectuals (I'm not one, but I'm reading them), while they're discussing and analyzing, others start wars.

>78 BekkaJo: Very glad too! There was no sun yesterday, but only some raindrops, so we could go up a mountain with the cable car. It's such an incredible experience meeting LT friends in RL! Must get over that fear of flying again...

Must get over that fear of flying again... Yes! And come to the UK, please.

As I said above, Anita took more pics and she's also the better picture poster. I just wanted to post us with Lucy's book here as soon as possible, as it was such an adventure getting it here in time when amazon kept showing me the "out of stock" for days and days after April 1st.

The pictures are taken up on Hochmuth, a mountain inn at 1300m above sea level you can reach in 4 mins by cable car and from where you have an amazing view over the Adige valley and Merano. It was cool and rainy, but fortunately the clouds were high and we had the view. Anita and I took a little walk there and later all had a very rustic lunch (pics to follow, but I'll have to edit them a bit, my thumb is visible).

In the early afternoon Anita and I took another walk in Lagundo, a village near Merano where they were staying, then we sat in their garden and talked and talked and talked and quite forgot about the time. :)
Around 5pm we all returned to Merano for some mini-sightseeing and had dinner at the Forsterbräu, the restaurant of the local brewerie.

Anita reading Lucy's book:


Frank enjoying a glass of Lagrein (very nice local red):


Me reading Lucy's book:


Anita and Frank had arrived on Saturday late afternoon and we met for dinner in Lagundo. Food was delicious (sorry no pics - Anita had mixed fish, Frank had fillet of I believe Iberico, I had asparagus ravioli), and I have to repeat how amazing it was to meet people you've never seen in RL before and you're like old friends already. In the first moment it's so strange having them in front of you in life-size :))) .... but that takes just a minute or so and then we had so much to talk about.

>80 charl08: If I ever get over that anxiety again, I'll definitely come to the UK! :)

Lovely pictures Nathalie - I think you must win the prize for most scenic meet-up setting, surely?

and >82 Deern: well, if my dad can get over his fear after twenty plus years of not flying, I think there must be hope for us all.

>81 Deern: It was so good we finally could meet, Nathalie!

Thank you for giving me Lucy's book, I am very happy with it.
It is so odd to meet someone you already know, but have never seen in real life. I was a bit sad leaving you so soon, as I could easely have spend more time with you.

Oh you darlings! I love seeing my book in ITALY!!!! Beyond thrilling!!

>81 Deern: Wonderful pictures! (And you seem to be enjoying your reading)

>84 FAMeulstee: :D

>85 sibylline: and now one is in Germany on its way to the NL! :D

>86 EllaTim: Thank you, and I sure did! :D

Still can't stop to :D obviously...

>84 FAMeulstee: Anita, I just found this lovely pic of Frank on my camera, I hadn't seen it yesterday:

Of course I could have taken pics of the very nice looking meals we had for dinner, but this here was the only time I remembered it before the food was half eaten:

Frank's very rustic eggs with roast potatoes and no bacon:


Anita and I each had a small kaiserschmarrn with apple sauce. In the South Tyrolean interpretation, kaiserschmarrn is a very eggy (almost like an omelett) slightly sweet pancake that's ripped into pieces in the (iron) pan, so it gets crispy, sugared when served. One of my favorite local foods, but so butter-heavy I never dare making it at home and usually only have it after a hike. Though then not the small portion. :)
As I told Anita, I once after a looong hike sat in that very inn, and when my kaiserschmarrn was served, the two male tourists sharing my table stared at it and one said "are you really planning to eat all that?!?".

>83 charl08: Ooops, sorry Charlotte!
Scenic it is, incredibly beautiful on a sunny day like today. But also a bit "kitschy", especially the late 1800s buildings in Merano like the kurhaus with the stucco and leaf gildings and all those carefully planted flowers in full bloom now. And up on the mountain Anita was reminded of Heidi, with all the goats and their little bells around the neck.

>88 Deern: Nice picture of Frank, glad you found it :-)

>89 Deern: You know I usually ignore food pictures. The kaiserschmarrn did taste good.

>91 FAMeulstee: Yes, it strangely wasn't in the "Momente", but in the "Aufnahmen" of the iphone...?

Food pics: sorry, I just thought some visitors might want to see what was eaten during a meet-up. I'm always curious. :)

Which reminds me I got the ingredient's for a vegetarian take on Mamie's rice in my fridge, must try to make it tonight - and then maybe post another pic.

Started The White Book, still haven't decided on my second ROOT for this month.

Love the pics - scenery is fabulous and you all look very happy :)

And as for visiting, you could drive up ;) Then it's an easy hour hop from St. Malo in France for a stop off in Jersey before heading on to the UK... just saying...

>93 BekkaJo: It is and we were! :))
Not such a bad idea, driving up would be a holiday in itself - also with fantastic scenery, no doubt. I need to find a travelling companion...
I'd really love to do at least a European "tour de LT" at some point.

35. Remembering Babylon by David Malouf (1,001 #377/428)

I had some issues with the writing in the beginning. There were some strangely structured sentences I had to read several times, and that was confirmed by another reader in the GR who’s a native speaker. However, once the plot is established and the narration leaves the outside view on things and “moves into the head of the characters”, the writing changes and there were many beautiful moments. The strange phrasing returned in the last part, so it’s there “before” and “after” and was probably intended.

The story is set in an early rural settlement in Queensland I’d say in the mid-1800s, where a couple of children one day meet a strange human creature. They think he is a native, but he’s in fact a young white man, thrown off a ship as a kid, saved by and grown up with a group of native people. He’s lost most of his language and European behaviors, at the same time never having been allowed into the inner circle of the group. He does not belong anywhere. He’s taken in by a Scottish family, and slowly their lives are changing.

This isn’t a continuous plot, it’s more like a series of moments and impressions mostly through the eyes of the settlers. We don’t learn much about Gemmy himself, but we see the reactions of everyone else: sometimes he’s in the center of their thinking (and fears), sometimes he’s just a side figure.

This is a book about inner change and adapting to a new situation. Gemmy is a catalyst who by his pure presence opens a door to a new perception of the country they all live in. Some turn away from the door and insist on not seeing it, others try to close it again with violence, only a few have the courage to step through.

When I visited Australia, I often wondered how “it” must have been – moving somewhere not touched by your home culture, with no safety net at all, with unknown climatic conditions, a new flora and fauna, and with this incredible vastness of a settlement-free continent in your back (this applies of course not just to Australia). The people in the book are first-generation settlers, they’re British, they’re not yet “Australian”. There’s no emotional connection yet to that new land that reacts so differently. Things are done in the old way because that feels safest, and every intrusion is reason to fear for your life. The natives are seen as a threat, and I thought Malouf conveyed everyone’s discomfort very well. I wanted to write “thought processes”, but they aren’t logical thoughts, they’re instinctive reactions we very obviously still have – unfortunately many many leading people nowadays have them.

I often criticize that characters in historical fiction think and reason in a modern liberal way which is why I avoid the genre. This isn’t the case here. Of course people in those settlements were scared and of course they were racist, so they should be written scared and racist, also the heroes. Let them learn and improve, but first give them the proper reactions of their time and environment.

While I liked this book very much, I could have done without the last chapter. I didn’t expect a real conclusion, it just felt a bit pointless with the exception of “the apple slice and the soldier”, that was great.

Rating: 3.5 stars

36. The Hounds of Spring by Lucy Andrews Cummin

Okay, am I biased because this book was written by a friend? Maybe a little tbh. But, thinking about it, I’ll also be a little positively biased when reading the next Virginia Woolf or Ali Smith from my tbr. Negatively so with a Dan Brown if I'm forced to ever read another one. This novella is extremely delightful already on its surface, especially for dog lovers, but with lots of extra meaning and wisdom if you read it slowly and between the lines and try to relate. Yes, I always make books about myself, I know it. I’m convinced that good books can help you becoming a better person for yourself and others. This book now has a place in my “inspiring reads” category, it wouldn't be there if I didn't think it was really good!

The plot is a day in the life of Poppy, a young woman living in Philadelphia (in the early 80s?) with her partner Clive and dog Spock. Her job as a dogwalker was meant as a stopgap after leaving university two years earlier without graduating, but for now it fits her quite well. She's a bit clueless about what to do with her life (marrying Clive and start a family?) and feels pressure from friends and relatives.

The story is divided into the four chapters Morning, Afternoon, Evening and Night. Morning gives us the plan: a normal day with 3 dogs to walk plus a visit to ex-client Mrs Twigg whose dog has died. In the early afternoon however there’s a critical doctor’s appointment with Clive looming, and the outcome might in any case give a new direction to Poppy’s life. As happens with plans, they don’t work out. A surprise visit by Poppy’s brother means a detour to the airport and her mother’s house, an equally surprising decision by Mrs Twigg means two more unplanned passengers on the mini road trip during Afternoon. Evening takes place in the house of Polly’s mother, and for me this was the critical chapter. I don’t want to spoil more than necessary, let’s just say it’s a reflective, almost “enchanted” chapter that sets the course for Poppy’s dealing with the events of Night.

I loved how the characters, including/ especially the dogs, were worked out. I wanted to be there, another passenger in Poppy’s big car, off to see where the day’s events would lead us. I would have got lost wandering the beautiful garden at her mother’s house. Most of all I wanted to meet the dogs, even poor spoiled forgot-his-name King Charles spaniel. Others have added quotes of the wonderful writing – I can’t as I would have had to leave marks in my copy. Yes, I am that disorganized. Finally there was something – 2 pages before the very ending in the Night chapter – that brought me close to tears.

So, bias or not, 5 stars it is, I love it!!

Now where are those Clives and Spocks - the perfect males - to be found in Merano? ;)

I finished the very short The White Book by Han Kang which is great but more "prose poetry" than fiction. The heat makes me terribly tired, we have more than 30 degrees C already in the afternoon and it was all a bit sudden. So I doubt my head can digest anything demanding right now and I decided to start into the IAC and BAC for May, which are both about crime and mystery. Started Tana French's In the Woods and might read P.D. James' Death comes to Pemberley for the BAC. I don't like rip-offs of classics, but it's popular and I hope it's easy. Donna's review makes me want to read Go Went Gone which I guess is complex, but in German, so some brain relief as well. So far my reading plans for the last days of April. I hope to get back to the political books in May when my colleague returns and I might be able to take some days off.

>97 Deern: I am glad we missed the heatwave, Nathalie. Here in München it stayed well below 30C, and we have airco on our room, so the nights are cool enough. One more day here and then we head back home on Sunday.

>97 Deern: I must say a smile was evident when I saw that both my challenges are getting advance attention, Nathalie.

Pleased to see that Beckett was enjoyed too - I am about to start one of his.

Have a great weekend.

What fun pictures of you and Anita reading Lucy's book! I have yet to read it but it is waiting for me very patiently. Aren't meet-ups the best? I think LT people are very warm and welcoming no matter which continent they live on. And, yes, you get the prize for the most scenic meet-up for sure!

I'm really regretting returning Go Went Gone unread to the library (too many books). Tempted to just get my own copy, have so enjoyed the previous two I read.

>98 FAMeulstee: Yesterday I went up the mountain above Lagundo hoping for cooler temps - nothing! But it was sooo beautiful!! (pics to follow)
I hope you got home well!

>99 PaulCranswick: Well yes, I was so happy about easy reads in May and thought "if we can postpone a challenge, why not anticipate it?". Especially when I bought the book especially for the challenge, then it's a challenge book, no matter when I read it. IAC's done, BAC almost half.

>100 Donna828: I'll add some very scenic pics later today. Anita, Frank and I agreed all that it's a bit like a RL Disney world - especially now in spring with all the extra flowers, but also later in autumn with the apples and grapes hanging everywhere. Almost ridiculously picturesque.
You're right about the meet-ups. I had one with Bianca in 2012 I think. It was nice, but we'd known each other just for a couple of weeks, it was during a busy trade show where I was working, she visited me at the booth. It was fun, but too short and not as relaxed as it should have been and I always felt sorry for it. It was lovely I had the Saturday evening and a full Sunday with Anita and Frank!

>101 charl08: I only read the first two pages yesterday. The writing seems quite different from the others I read, but I felt drawn in immediately and I guess/ hope it's far more honest than I feared. It's a very complicated issue she took on, that's sure.

37. The White Book by Han Kang

Difficult to review. The book is very short (average reading time under 1hr) and consists of many mini-chapters of about a page’s length describing “white things”, like snow, unbaked rice cakes, lace, milk. When you’ve read a couple of those you’ll realize that it’s a book about loss and mourning, but also about new “things” built on the fundament of lost “things” (towns, plants, an older sister born premature who died after two hours of whom the author carries the roots). It is a melancholy book, and I love Han Kang’s writing. The translation sounds translated, which means it’s obvious that it wasn’t written in English, but it's still beautiful. For me it almost sounded like taken from German and much of it reminded me of Jenny Erpenbeck’s writing in Visitation. It won’t win this year’s International Booker, but I’m very glad I read it and should re-read The Vegetarian soon.

Rating: 4.5 stars

I anticipated the BAC and IAC:

38. In The Woods by Tana French (IAC 2018 May read)

This is the first book of the “Dublin Murder Squad” series. It starts with a mysterious case from 1984: 3 children disappear in the woods in a small Irish town near Dublin. One of them, Adam Ryan, is found a day later, his shoes soaked in blood that is not his. He is (and remains) unable to remember what happened. Of the other two children no trace is ever found. 20 years later, Adam Ryan, now known as Rob Ryan and with a new English accent, has joined the police. With his partner and “best buddy” Cassie, the only female in the department, he takes over a new case: a young girl has been found murdered in the very town where he spent his childhood. Ryan has to return to the woods. Will the confrontation with the place finally recall those memories?

This was quite an interesting setting. The story is told from Ryan’s POV, and on the first pages, he confesses he is an unreliable narrator. Of course, this leads the reader to certain suspicions.

Spoilers following you really shouldn’t read if you want to read the book: I fell for the trap, but then I didn’t to 100%. The person behind it all gave me bad vibes and I thought s/he was involved, but clearly French wants the reader to believe Ryan is behind everything. A bit of a Roger Ackroyd move, but so obvious that it confused me. In the end, it would still have been the more interesting resolution, imo. I had two issues: a) I found the idea that Ryan was able to keep up his incognito totally unbelievable. O’Kelley in RL would have known who he really was, or don’t they do background checks? Super-honest Cassie wouldn’t have taken up the case and covered for him, knowing his past. Someone would have recognized him, at least Jamie’s mother – he didn’t have facial surgery after all. b) Ryan imo is at least a borderline psychopath and Cassie with her “super-antennae” would never have got that close to him. But she takes one look at the real “bad guy” who doesn’t even talk to her and knows?!? Ryan lies a lot, he has a sadistic streak, his empathy feels manipulative, his affection turns into coldness and hatred in an instant. He can’t deal with “her feeling hurt”. He’s paranoid and lashes out without hesitating when he feels himself in a corner. Cassie realizes in the end that something’s very wrong, but the warning lights should have been there much earlier.

Rating: 3.5 stars

39. Judgement Detox by Gabrielle Bernstein

GB’s newest one and quite short, I listened through it while hiking in the mountains, which for me is the best way to process self-help. I know it’s a business for her, but so far I haven’t regretted buying any of her books. I regretted at least 80% of the diet books I’ve bought in the last 35 years. This one deals, as the title says, with methods how to get rid of our judgements that often bar our view from the things/ people that might really enrich our lives.

She writes from RL, often using stark language, and certainly not presenting herself as a saintly know-it-all. Where Tolle and Singer are great on a higher level (must re-listen to Singer again soon!), she’s more down-to-earth, with the examples from work, family, relationship disasters. Another plus: her books are mostly based on A Course in Miracles which I’m still reading, but which is really hard to process if you don’t identify yourself as a scripture Christian. Like Tolle, she translates the teachings into religion-neutral everyday language. This was my first listen, more will follow, and I’ll do the exercises.

Rating: 4.5 stars

View walking up from Lagundo:


A little waterfall and bridge for Anita: :)


View walking down on a different trail, in autumn it should be overgrown with vines, with the grapes hanging down (yes, really!):

Oh those photographs!

And so many many thank you's for your splendid review. I am so overwhelmed by the response people have to Hounds.

I like Tana French -- somehow she's hard to stop reading, but I was incredulous while reading it -- even more with book 2, but I loved book 3.

>107 sibylline: Imagine them with extremely vivid greens my mobile phone camera can't process! Sometimes the mountains are too much for me and I need to escape to the Padana or the sea, but on days like last Sunday it's really postcard country here (I think Peggy called it so).

Won't be my last TF, especially as a certain character won't be there anymore, I hope. Nice solid contemporary mystery, not as depressing as the Scandis are and not as frustrating as the Italian ones. Maybe it's generally better reading mysteries not set in your own country, so whatever corruption is part of the story can just be shrugged off. I actually was surprised about the apparent "Italianess" of French's Ireland.

******
I'm half through Death Comes to Pemberly and find it quite frustrating. Trying my best NOT to see it as P&P related and just as a stand-alone murder mystery, but still the writing and the characters' reactions are so ... stilted? So far it's a weak 3.

Go Went Gone however steers toward a 4.5 or 5. I'm glad I waited so long! I was scared it would be too "goody two shoes" because that was part of the German critical reaction. But it's just honest and realistic. We had someone like Richard in our camp, a language professor who made such an effort with classes and trips and school projects, but at some point stayed away, frustrated and sad. I'll write more about it when I do the review, it's just that with the African (contrary to the Middle-Eastern) refugees coming via Libia, we volunteers and also most of the social helpers were not given the right ideas. We didn't know how useless it all was/ is - the refugees did, that's why they made so little effort. Why integrate and learn two new languages and work for free when it's all for nothing in 90% of the cases and you'll find yourself in the streets in the end?

Great photos, Nathalie! I'm glad that you were able to meet up with Anita & Frank, who I had the pleasure to meet in the Netherlands in 2015 and 2016 and hope to see again in September.

Nice reviews of The White Book and Go, Went, Gone.

I love looking at you and Anita and Frank having such a perfect day! Anita looks like my good friend for the 50 years she's been married to a life-long hometown friend. (Her best friend growing up across the state was my best friend in college.) (I know you all find that fascinating.)
And the pictures! Postcards every one! Promise that you'll go back down that same trail when the grapes are hanging down and make another picture!
That's such a good review of Lucy's book! I'll just say, since I don't think that it's spoilery, that I was greatly affected by the teacup in the nursery. (If that isn't a teaser, I don't know what is.)
I couldn't read *DCtoP*, and I really wanted to. And I look forward to *Go,W,G*.

>106 Deern: Thanks for the waterfall picture!
I am almost done sorting out the pictures, only 1 1/2 museum to go ;-)

I really should get to Go, went, gone soonish...

Love the pictures.

>103 Deern: I've been saying I wouldn't read this because Human Acts was pretty bleak and a book that is so clearly about loss sounded even more so - but I'm tempted by your review.

Lovely photos Nathalie and how wonderful to have met-up with Anita and Frank.

Your earlier comments about the experience of coming into contact with someone you have never met but sort of know very well is certainly my experience too. All my LT meet-ups have been positive ones and I have to say that whoever I have met in the group in RL my notion of their personality has always been accurate. It is really a great fellowship. xx

Just a drive by check in. Admired your photos the other day then seem to have not commented. Hmmm. My brain does work. Honest!

I'm officially not letting hubby look at the pics though - he'd been on the next plane over! The guy does love to hike. He's got my 10 year old in to it too - they have a 21 mile charity walk next month. Not sure she'll make it!

>108 Deern: I liked Go, went, gone a lot as well.

I've met some african refugees. One guy from Somalia who had come to Holland by way of study in Russia, speaking perfect Russian, study in Berlin, speaking perfect German, now in Holland, fluent in Dutch, still unable to find a job. I think there is something really closed-off in our society that makes for good people being unable to find real access.

Hello Nathalie! So much to catch up on here! I'm so happy to read and see pics of your meet-up with Anita and Frank! Such a lovely location!

>103 Deern: I haven't heard of that! Is it her latest (third) book? I loved The Vegetarian and have yet to read her first.

Great meet up pics :):):) I always love to see people connecting over books!

>109 kidzdoc: I actually haven't finished Go Went Gone yet, but yours and Donna's reviews finally got me to reading it. I'm half-through, hope to finish it over the weekend. It's a hardcover, so too big to take to work.

>110 LizzieD: I actually didn't tell her (but do now, indirectly) that she looks very much like my friend Susie. It's fascinating to find such similar features in people who are not at all related and living in different countries.
I thought I still had a "hanging grapes" picture from last fall from a different trail, but can't find it anymore. I'll try to remember! :)

>111 FAMeulstee: You're welcome! There were even 2 waterfalls next to each other, but the light was so strange that the pictures turned out blurry.

>112 charl08: It's about loss, but loss of something you haven't really known and that's far away. More like a coming to terms that there has been something/ someone once, before her, so it's more distant and not raging grief. And short and (imo) beautiful. :)

>113 PaulCranswick: Just sending you a bunch of (((hugs))) for this. :)

>114 BekkaJo: My brain doesn't work much this week either, it feels a bit like it's in tilt.
Hm.... how was that bit about planes to Verona? :D
21 miles?!? *gasps*

>115 EllaTim: Sadly the African refugees I met weren't well schooled or schooled at all and had no usable qualifications (I had to write several CVs and went through many folders and used every little crumb that could be turned into work experience or education). They were all young and had worked in temporary jobs (usually construction or faming) before getting on a boat in Libia.

There was also, in many cases, not much enthusiasm for learning German or Italian. By now I'm sure they knew it was quite useless anyway as African refugees have only about a 10% chance to be accepted, depending almost exclusively from their country of origin. If refused, in Italy they're on the streets with nothing and have to go begging, work illegally or try to get to a different country and start the asylum process from scratch. For Italian voters "90+% refulsal rate" sounds good, but it means 10,000s every year disappearing into dubious channels. This has been going on for decades, just in lower numbers, and the mafia has earned well with the people trafficking and the subsequent prostitution/ begging/ drug dealing/ selling of fake brands. It's etremely disgusting and embarrassing that the politicians still haven't found any solution, aren't even trying. The Italians hope they're going North, the countries in the North try to send them back South and somewhere they "disappear" from the legal records.

Most of the guys I met were very willing to work hard in all jobs where no qualification is needed - cleaning, gardening, washing dishes, etc, and I didn't understand why the farmers for example didn't hire more of them instead of all the (non-EU) Eastern-Europeans who cost them more and also speak no Italian.

About receiving credit for qualifications from abroad: I have what's now called a "master" in economics (Diplom-Kauffrau, with thesis and everything) from a German university - but the Italians won't acknowledge it as equivalent to their laurea unless I take 2 semesters + exam in Italian law. So much about EU harmonisation. I'm always told how lucky I am I found a job without an Italian qualification. It's frustrating.

>116 Carmenere: It's a paradise for a holiday - to live here as a foreigner, even one who speaks the right languages, can have its difficulties. It's always lovely having visitors here and seeing it through their eyes again. On better days ( better than this week) I really love it here and don't want to go back! :)

>117 LovingLit: Yes it's her latest and was translated this year I believe. It's an easier read than the Vegetarian. I'll also try to get to her first one soon!

*******
Strange week, strange weather, no real reading (but some audio) and almost no LTing so far. Hoping for the weekend, actually hoping for some rain tomorrow or Sunday though not on both days. It's hot and windy and humid at the same time, how is that possible? I'm tired and very, very irritable, quite different from my usual state of mind. Doing a daily session of calming yoga, but so far it hasn't helped much.

Other news: my mum wants to move out again, because it's too loud in the new place and "too everything" . No further comment, for now.
And the old house is really already being sold again - for less after the water damage - and has hopefully now found a nice owner.

I'll try to visit all your threads over the next days, for now wishing you a Happy Weekend! :)

>118 Deern: >110 LizzieD: Good to know there are at least two lookalikes of me in this world ;-)

>120 FAMeulstee: :-)

>118 Deern: Thanks for sharing your experience Nathalie. It is saddening isn't it. I'd be all for giving people more help, to find a job, build work experience, get some qualifications. We need a different approach from the one we have now.

(((((((Nathalie)))))))
>118 Deern: You are a good, dear woman.

Just checking in - hope all is well.

I finally made my way up here. Lovely meet-up photos. I'm going to meet Paul Stalder tomorrow. He is another 75-er from Switzerland living in Basel.
Do you have a day off work today?

Hi all, I'm alive and kicking, but had an unexpectedly busy week, with more of those to come. No LT at all and hardly any serious reading - sorry!! Hoping for the weekend once again, at least they promised rain, so maybe there won't be too many distractions.

Wishing you a happy weekend for now!!

>126 Deern: Happy to see you back posting, Nathalie.

Hope you can manage some reading and "me" time today. xx

I missed something somewhere . . . Water damage in your old house?

So sorry your mother is not liking the new place, you didn't think she made the right choice as I recall. Or perhaps there was no right choice.

Hope things settle down.

Hope you have had a great weekend Nathalie.

Morning Natalie - hope you had the stunning weather! Do you get the bank holiday Monday over there?

>127 PaulCranswick: Hi Paul, just sporadic posts for now. Very busy and trying not to go online too much during my breaks. :/

>128 sibylline: The new owner put a jacuzzi on the terrace that is built on top of two basement rooms. He thought it would be a good idea to just dump the water on the grass, but of course it ran into the walls and they had big drying fans there for weeks now (and according to the agent those will be needed much longer). Poor house...
As for my mum, there is never a right choice. She doesn't take the responsibility to say "yes" to anything because then she'd have to live with it.

>129 charl08: The weekend was nice, thank you! The weather is very meh right now - sun, wind, rain, even a bit of hail - but on Sunday it was nice and I went hiking and took some pics. No time yet to post them though.

>130 BekkaJo: Sadly no both to weather and bank holiday. :) But we had one on April 25th and there are some more coming. The weather is so unstable right now that it's risky taking the bike or walking to the office. It will stay like that at least including Sunday.

Sorry for another short visit, really trying to regulate my online presence during the day for a bit, and in the evenings I'm I'm too tired to read or go online. Stupid TV it is right now. :(

Happy Wednesday Everyone!! :)
Posting some short pre-written reviews next...

Last April read:
40. Christo si è fermato a Eboli by Carlo Levi (1001 #377/428)

I finally finished this audio after having fallen asleep over it at least 50 times. No, it’s not bad at all, on the contrary. I just shouldn’t listen to audios in bed, unless I use them intentionally as sleeping pill substitute.
This is autobiographical, therefore it’s one of those “not fiction but important” books on the 1,001 list. It’s the mid-1930s, and the Jewish painter Carlo Levi is sent into exile to the far South of Italy, the region that’s now called the Basilicata and has always been among the poorest places in the country. I’ve read a book this year about just such a village at the time when fascism rose and the feudalistic/ mafia-like structures were still very active. This book is set just a couple of years later and not much has changed. Levi analyses the differences between the people in the North and the very South and finds two completely different worlds. This is a very important book for the understanding of Italy as it is today. The progress in the South has been enormous, but many of the ethics and values that have been rooted in the North for decades or centuries, depending from who occupied the various regions, are still “new” in the South, at least for the older generation who are more likely to trust old connections.
Rating: 4 stars

May:
41. Nicht direkt perfekt by Nicole Jäger and 42. Die Fettlöserin by Nicole Jäger
Following are two “comedic self-help books” that were extremely quick reads. I stumbled over the first one in a bookshop when I got a new hiking book. Bought it as Kindle to save money and then quickly bought its prequel as well. Nicole Jäger is an obese woman who claims to have already ‘halved’ herself. There is much doubt on social media about that extremely high start weight and her approach to get slimmer and healthier, but I enjoyed her two books a lot. She uses very blunt language and her stories made me laugh. No wonder, she now works as a comedian and is on her second tour. Self-help brain candy might be the category. I needed that!
Rating: 3.5 stars for both

43.Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James (BAC May 2018)
I wanted to write so much, but now I don't have the nerve for it. I'll try another P.D. James - she's popular and the reviews for this one are really bad, I should have read them before buying the book. I thought it was horribly plotted and badly written and is one of the worst cases of "modern mind in historical fiction". I should not read Austen rip-offs. Those people aren't Darcy or Lizzie. Not even Lydia. I guess Mr Bennet managed to stay in character. Did he talk at all?
Rating: 2 stars

44. Marx for Beginners by Rius
Err, yes. There was an article in the guardian about the relevance of Marx and some new works trying to translate him into modern times. As a Western German I never read him (we basically grew up pretending he never existed). Going through the comments I found a link to this online available graphic novel from the early 70s – the author of course still believing in communism spreading further, not anticipating its breakdown in most countries. Anyway, it was a fun read about the basics – who was Marx, how did he get to develop his philosophy, a quick history of philosophy and some quotes from his works. About 120 pages and probably as much “for dummies” as you can get.
Rating: 3.5 stars

45. Abstinence by O.A.
Sigh. #3 of my 4 “last weekend in April self help books”. #4, the 12 steps and 12 traditions of Overeaters Anonymous will take a while, because
a) I’m not really interested in the traditions as there are no groups anyway anywhere near here
b) I’m working on the inventory, and that’s a tough process with much writing
This book consists of members’ comments and experiences – usually a page or two. It’s obvious some are really old and come from the times when the program was terribly strict and less based on the spiritual approach. Some fit my own situation quite well and got bookmarked and highlighted. I couldn’t suppress judgement in all cases and had to remind myself that there are people who were really obese before joining OA and who will probably need that kind of handholding by sponsors and all the tools for all their lives. I prefer the later approach that says the definition of abstinence is individual, as opposed to the early days when it was more like a diet club and they gave you a fixed strict food plan and every fail put you back on point zero which I guess comes from AA. Nowadays you have the freedom to be abstinent from sugar only, or to be abstinent from unplanned snacks or from certain behaviors (I put eating out of the fridge on my list for example). A helpful book this one might be, inspiring not so much.

Rating: 3.5 stars

>132 Deern: Hi Nathalie, funny coincidence that you have read Marx for Beginners. I've been looking for some kind of easy introduction to economics, politics, Marx ea. It all seems so relevant. I have never read him too. And felt quite daunted by those subjects. So this book is a good idea for me as well.
I might even have read it long ago, I remember those books for beginners, cartoon guides to a subject doing the rounds when I was a student. There was a Freud for Beginners, and Einstein? But if so I have forgotten all of it.
For dummies is very good sometimes;-)

Good luck with all the business at work.

Hi, Nathalie. Hope work lets up soon! The weather too!
I thought I had a copy of Christ Stopped at Eboli, but I don't seem to have it catalogued here. I'll have to look for later.

>134 LizzieD: Well, about the weather - I just saw this looking out of the window and ran outside to catch a picture, small but perfect, almost like a dome over Merano:

>133 EllaTim: I downloaded his complete works as well, but they really scare me. I believe part of his theories are really relevant again, although there will be many more generations until probably a modernized eco-socialism will be the only option left. Before it comes to that, we'll without a doubt try all the other destructive ways. I was surprised how many people in the guardian forum were really anti-Marx with a total fury. Why? Whatever has been realized in communist countries was far from the ideal world he intended, so why blame him? Though the little I read in the GN about "no possessions at all" imo goes against human nature (as we've seen in those communist countries) and always will.

******

I haven't yet been able to finish Go, Went Gone. Instead, yesterday morning Siri Hustvedt's Estate Senza Uomini/The Summer Without Men (bought in 2014) suddenly "jumped" at me from the stack of possible ROOT books and, despite being in Italian, demanded to be read right now! So I didn't sleep much last night and got through 130 pages of Italian instead. Must be a new record. 30pp to go today.

I generally like my planned challenge reads, but it's always interesting when a half-forgotten book suddenly becomes visible on the shelf. Whenever that happened in the past (Kafka on the Shore, 2999), they turned out to be great and important reads.

I like it when books demand to be read - RIGHT NOW! As you say, it's normally something unplanned that you pick up on a whim... and can't put down.

Lovely rainbow pic :)

Love the rainbow - skimming past the review of Levi's book, as I have that on the 'reading currently' shelf/ pile. It was such a beautiful penguin edition I couldn't resist, and Caroline Moorehead's book at least gives me a little context for the period. Will try and remember to say something about it here when I finish it!

>136 Deern: That's my feeling as well, part of his theories. More the analysis of the situation maybe, than his proposed solution? The strong anti-sentiments, due to the situation in Eastern Europe, the lack of democracy and freedom there? And I guess the disappointment over how things ended up in Russia, that have become clearer and clearer.

>137 BekkaJo: Yes, for years when you go over your shelves they almost try to hide behind others, and then, out of the blue they decide you're ready for them. :)

>138 charl08: Looking forward to your comments! :)

>139 EllaTim: I would have thought so too, but none of them elaborated "I'm from an ex-communist country and this is my experience". It was basically just "one of the worst people in history, in a line with Hitler" or "should be off the shelves"...
So there are more Beginners books? I see myself collecting much knowledge much scratching on the surface of complicated themes in the next months... :)

******
Did I mention yet that my parents are having their 50th wedding anniversary on June 29th? Well, I might be out of my mind, but I'll go on a holiday with them! For two weeks!! In one appartment!!! I still hope it'll be great and that we'll have some fun and not argue too much. We're doing sth very simply, going to Garda lake where I found a hotel two steps from the water that has lovely big appartments, a private beach, a pool and a restaurant and is close enough to the motorway and the main train line that we can take day trips to Milano, Padua, Verona or even Venice if we feel like it. My dad and I are planning to do a round-trip on a boat which will take all day. I've only ever seen the North part or the South part so far. It's an extremely touristy place - Italians, Germans, Dutch, Swiss, Brits - , but even that can be entertaining if you're in the right mood.

>140 Deern: I'm sure that the holidays will go well, Nathalie. Spending quality time with the parents is laudable but maybe if they are stressing you, one or two of those day trips can be taken alone.

Have a lovely weekend.

GARDA!!!!! I hope that it may be even better than you hope, Nathalie. 50 years is a good, long marriage. We're approaching that point; anniversary 48 for us in December. And, as Paul says, the parents should have some alone together time when you can go off on your own to good effect.
Ooooo! That rainbow and sky are amazing!
I mostly love it when a book chooses me. I'm easy. I never say no, no matter how many I'm reading already.

>135 Deern: wow, such a shallow(?) rainbow. I am used to seeing ones with much greater height :) It is so pretty!

I was just about to write Happy Holiday then realised you said June 29th. D'oh!

But I think Paul has the right of this one - make sure you take some time for yourself as well and try not to let them get to you. Sounds like you are going to a stunning place. And ignore them if the say anything about your reading. Grrrr.

>142 LizzieD: & >144 BekkaJo: I did also add the benefits of having some quality time with our parents! Alone time is also to be cherished though!

>145 PaulCranswick: You did, you did - and I thoroughly agree. I went a bit negative there and didn't mean to - I may have been in my own head a bit this morning.

Hi Bekka, Peggy and Paul. Actually, when I was typing my post I thought I could add that if necessary I could go on a trip to Milan or Venice on my own, but then I didn't and thought you might know how to read it, and you did, so no worries here! You're wonderful! :D

I love my parents very much, but I'm a bit scared of spending two full weeks with them in one appartment. It's much better than it used to be, but after a week latest, we always start arguing. We'll see. I would have preferred going a bit further south, to the Adriatic coast or Riviera, but at Garda we have more options for all kinds of activities. I'm planning to get a bike again for the whole stay, I'll bring my yoga mat and I also already planned a trip to the nearby Ikea at Brescia.

>143 LovingLit: Yes, usually they're much higher and you see just one side or it fades out. I've never seen such a small but complete one before. I was in a bad mood and quite stressed when I looked out of the window and saw it. It made my day so much brighter. I took the picture, turned back upstairs, looked out of the window again and it was already gone.

What a gorgeous rainbow and good on you for getting your camera!

>147 Deern: isn't nature a wonderful mood-fixer! I saw a double rainbow a few years back, and me and the kids went out and stayed out for ages just looking. It was beautiful!

*sigh* You know how those things happen... you're away for a week and then pass the point where you can return and catch up. So you feel bad and guilty about that and then another week goes by... I'm really sorry for the new AWOL times. This time even without reading in between. There's much going on at work that makes me very careful with my internet activities (this is such a forbidden thing here, and through all those years I always ignored it).

Last weekend I didn't go out and instead binge-watched season 4 of Buffy and seasons 1 and 2 of The Big Bang Theory, there was a marathon on TV and the weather was bad anyway and once again my brain didn't want to process text.

I'm generally fine, maybe it's my yearly March reading funk being late or the July one being early. Or maybe, hopefully, both merged into just one for this year.

Apart from working too much and watching too much TV, I'm doing great with yoga and office walks again and experimented with some new recipes from The Thug Kitchen website and cookbooks. Great not-too-sweet vegan apple cinnamon waffles, perfect vegetable biryani, and the crispy spaghetti cake was a wonderful infantilized (in a good way) food experience, though one I'd better not serve to an Italian (they don't know what they're missing).

The weather turned from too cold and rainy to way too hot and humid and gave me a nice headache the last two days.

Wishing you a great weekend, I'll carefully start visiting threads now, but only the latest ones. {{{hugs to you all}}}

>150 Deern: It happens to all of us, Nathalie, I went a whole year away from this group.
Just makes me extra happy to see a message on your thread!

Last year we wachted many episodes of The Big Bang Theory, when one of the networks was rerunning the show.

(((hugs)))

>135 Deern: Ooooo, great rainbow pic, Nathalie! Life impinges on Lt time, for sure! We all go through that and the book funks. Reading and Lting shouldn't feel like a chore. So I hope you just pop in and out when you can.

Thanks for checking in Nathalie. No pressure at all. The sun is shining here and I have retreated indoors (with my book). Just too warm for me!

Back to speak, Nathalie! I'm so bad that I've just about given up on myself, but I think of you and the gang often and miss you.
Now I'm off to look up vegetable biryani, not a thing I'd ordinarily run into down here in the boonies.
We're looking at a week of rain as the first named tropical storm moves up from the Gulf. I just hope that it moves on and that we don't get too much.

I'm in the same boat as you -- I don't know where all the time goes these days, but it goes and is gone. Any time I have I try hard to put into my reading and reviews and as much keeping up as I can manage.

>150 Deern: yoga, TV, cooking, work (in appropriate doses) and sleep sound alright to me! The words will wait for you to be ready :)
I am swinging away from non fiction after a year of mostly NF....I guess I will just go with the flow (as they say)

Hi Anita, Lynda, Charlotte, Peggy, Lucy and Megan, thanks for not yet giving up on me!!!

Sneaking in to add one more book for May, but it's one I've been listening to since mid-February, Rachel Maddow's Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Policy. If only a third of what's in there is half-true, I fear we're doomed because Trump is just the logical result of the developments since the early 80s. One of the most sickening books I've ever read. It gave me much food for thought about the media, the public perception, how the ground was prepared for what we have today. It's not like a conspiration theory, more like a never-ending accident that started and was never stopped when the occasion was still there because no-one complained aloud. It brought back memories of my youth as a very conservative and often angry voter and I was wondering what has to happen to change a convinced mind in either direction. What was it in my case? Changing country? Going through a big personal crisis where all your old beliefs don't work anymore and deciding to be open for new ways instead of clinging to the old ones?
Okay, that leads too far, and today isn't an English day for me, really struggling for words, but I have so many thoughts and theories in my head I must somehow get in order. The Italian situation doesn't make me any happier. Or the EU reaction to the Italian situation (seriously - is there any emotional intelligence in those places or are only populists left who open their mouths?). this would have been another occasion to tell the people what's good about the EU. Instead you tell the voters they're stupid because that helped so much in the UK and elsewhere....

Oh, and I did read something, but I needed 3 days for 11 pages. My dad started writing fiction. And while everything I ever wrote in my life was edited 1000 times and then thrown away at some point and never shown to anyone, he writes and sends it into the world, full of pride.
To my surprise the story is good and the writing (when he doesn't bring in too much of himself) isn't bad at all. It's not at all what I'd normally read.
Problem is it needs much editing of course, and he doesn't want to be edited. And he wants to make money with it, he never does anything just for fun. *sigh*

Apart from that I got through another BBT marathon last weekend (5 and 6) and through Buffy series 5 which so far I'd never rewatched. Still hate Dawn. Didn't even touch a book, and am fearing for the June challenges.

This week I had two long IT workshops where I was the only woman with 12 men, and I'm a foreigner. Seriously South-Tyrolean companies, how about some gender guidelines? But it was great making new contacts and compare our processes with those of other dairies. And be out of the office for two days, although that meant much catching up yesterday and today.

The weather is hot and humid, and then windy and cool, then there's rain and hail and 10 minutes later it's hot and humid again. Like everywhere thos year, I guess.

Have all a lovely rest of the week!!!

Just dropping in some hugs and love - hating the hot and humid and awol in book despair.

>157 Deern: I have been following the Italian elections and the what went on after that, Nathalie. It doesn't make my hopeful about the future...

Your dad writing fiction?!!
Your description of his writing reminds me of two books I have read recently. A friend of my dad started writing at a similair age and is now struggling to finish the last book of his trilogy, as he has been given up and probably has only less than a year to live . He published at a self publishing company and my dad helped with editing. The first book was published in 2009 with so many spelling and other faults, that it is almost unreadable. Early this year a new corrected edition was published, but he forgot to remove some comments from my dad :-(
Today I finished the second book, it was better, I only found 3 faults left (in 472 pages). They are very male oriented SF adventure stories. I do hope he will able to finish the last book in time. He expects it will be a succes in the future...

Hope you have a lovely and restful weekend Natalie.

Wonderful that your Dad is writing! It is, of course, the hardest thing to accept that someone can think your work is great, but still have comments on how to improve it. I've learned my lesson with Hounds -- it was commented on and I revised it endlessly over a period of years--without the help and input of all the people involved it wouldn't be what it is. It is, in fact, extremely humbling. Sometimes I feel that I hardly had anything to do with it other than having the idea and being willing to keep going over and over and over with it.

Hi, I'm wondering if I should better say something like "off until August" though things might be better when I'm on holiday. Or worse.
Thing is that
a) I've changed office and am now sharing with my IT colleague who started teaching me all the processes, and it's LOADS! At the same time I'm still doing all the controlling, so days are very long. The new controlling guy will start on July 2nd, but it will take at least a month until he starts taking things over. And of course I'll have to explain everything, so July will be worse than May/June re. work hours. When I get home I'm too tired to anything. Maybe some yoga, TV and falling asleep over an audiobook, but no reading or posting.

b) With that new European privacy law we're getting something like new terms of conduct. Actually, I'm responsible for the implementation in our office, and I just checked the new manual (which we're getting from a provider) and it clearly states very restricted internet use, and NO participation in forums. I always did most of my LTing from here, also all the reviews and uploading of pictures, and when I sign that thing next week, I should better stop or reduce to an absolute minimum. In my old job in Germany everyone was on the internet all the time, and it was tolerated if you did your projects and didn't visit any bad sites. That's seen very differently here. I'll need to buy a new notebook or something for home in the longer run, as I used to do all the private stuff (banking, bookings) from here as well, and that's explicitely forbidden in future. At home I have 2 very old laptops which I doubt are working anymore and my ipad mini that's also too old and weak now for many websites. And I hate typing on it. I'll get a business notebook, but I'd better not use that for private concerns either... I'm annoyed, it's an investment I wasn't planning on.

Apart from that, all is well. The weather is difficult this year as everywhere, too hot and humid, but still bearable. I finished my IAC, but only because it's an audio, Anne Enright's The Gathering that also won the Booker some years ago. I thought the writing and many of the insights were great, about winning the Booker - I don't know. It was a year (2008?) with more good books, I read On Chesil Beach and The Reluctant Fundamentalist from the SL, but I don't think I would have chosen any of those over hers either. All good, but not great. Read just a bit of my BAC and so far nothing of the 1,001 GR.
Got through another TBBT marathon (series 7/8), but now it's over, seems they didn't get much further yet in Italy.

>159 FAMeulstee: We're in for an interesting time here. I hope the M5S will keep the Lega in place and really will make some cuts to the salaries of politicians and reduce the number of parliament members, I believe there are more than 900. If they manage to simplify the tax system somehow and make administration more efficient, people would be happy. They're Euro critic, but the election was mostly about Italian issues none of the other parties ever touched.

I hope your dad's friend will finish the last book in time and get some closure!

>160 BekkaJo: I did too much hiking and could hardly move for three days. :)
Will repeat the experience this Sunday!

>161 sibylline: My dad is just doing many great things (taking long walks and even bike rides, making new friends...), I'm happy for him! I just wish he wouldn't immediately start talking about earning money, but that's him - a businessman through and through. It was strange to read the story as I'd always expected some family saga thing when he said he might write a book one day. Not East European truck driver crime story. I admit I'm a bit jealous he can let his fantasy run.
I'll try to remember to take Hounds with me to Garda Lake. My parent love being read to. :)

Managed to copy my Enright post from the IAC thread over here using the touchscreen (yes, many attempts...)

46. L'estate senza uomini (Summer without men) by Siri Hustvedt (ROOTs), read in May

I wanted to read this parallely with the half-abandoned Ferrante, but somehow didn't manage it. I like Hustvedt, she has a brilliant head. She is however so much head that in the end the story about her intellectual liberal protagonist (names...) who's left by her husband for a younger woman lacks substance. There are places she doesn't want to go in detail ( exactly the places where Ferrante jumps right in, the rage, the craziness, the physicality of the pain). SH tries it, but her head is in the way. She analyzes brilliantly, but in the end the book goes nowhere, the ending was disappointing. Ferrante's on contrast hits you over the head so often, there's no end to the misery, it's almost impossible for me to read. A mix would be perfect.
Rating: 3.5 stars

47. Drift by Rachel Maddow (audio, finished in May)
As I posted earlier, one of the most important and most sickening books I've read in my life. Sickening, because it turns around things I thought I knew/ experienced differently in the 80s and 90s and shows the little events that in the end paved the road for Trump and his worldwide followers. Highly recommended.
Rating: 4.5 stars

48. The Gathering by Anne Enright (IAC, Booker winner 2007) (audio) 1001 #430/378
Actually, I quite liked The Gathering, a bit more than The Green Road. The audio format might have helped, there was actual singing! I read 3 others from that year's shortlist and can't say which one I'd have chosen, all good, none of them exceptionally so. I like Enright's writing and her insights and often felt a personal connection, but I thought in the end it wasn't such a great story. I'm getting a bit weary with novels about large Irish families, convoluted sexuality and religion (guilt) and alcohol abuse. It feels like there have been so many of those on the Booker lists and the 1001 list.
For most of the book I didn't know what all the Ada stuff was about, but it served the purpose to show how wobbly and blurry memories become. What was real, what was imagination? I didn't buy the "this is the reason for Liam's misery" story, he was different from the start it seemed, and might have gone down that road anyway. Glad I got this one checked off in a month with so far no other reading.

Rating:3.75 stars

>162 Deern: If you need to be off until August, Nathalie, that is okay. I will miss you, but you need to to do what is good for YOU!
Good luck learning the IT processes and teaching the new contoller next month.
Sorry that the new law gives you trouble. Maybe you can find a 2nd hand laptop for personal use, or maybe one of the ones you own is still working?
Over here the weather has been warm for weeks, the summer has not even started and we already had our yearly average number of warm days! It looks like we have some cooler weather in the next week, that would make me much happier.
Following the Italian politics with interest. I hope they manage to lower their European debts, it is horrrible how much bankers earn on the debts of Italy (and Greece and Spain). There should be more solidairity amongst the European nations...

Dear Nathalie, I'm sorry for you and us that you won't have the LT outlet and we won't be able to keep up with you and your reading. I'll hope something turns up as Anita suggests.
One of my Five Fine Friends keeps talking about moving to Italy eventually. I look at politics here and politics there and throw up my hands.
Take care of yourself. Stay cool! Find your center and be calm! Read!
I'll miss you! ((((((Nathalie))))))

Yes, you will be missed Nathalie, but we will love to see you when you're back online.
I'd not come across this implication of GDPR - it seems like (feels like) everyone is getting worried about a completely different part of the legislation.

I think I liked The Gathering more than you did - I like novels where the messy family has a 'reason' (or at least, more information / backstory) - I think it appeals to my appreciation of a resolution in a novel!

I think your dad's novel sounds fun! Sign me up.

>162 Deern: That sucks. GDPR is a nightmare.

You take care of yourself - even if you can only pop in occasionally, we'll like to see you.

I will miss you and look forward to your return. Summer is busy for me too, very hard to make the time to get around here sociably! Take care of yourself.

Just waving Nathalie in case you are skimming the threads on your phone (or other non-work device).

Me too --- keeping your thread warm for when you return!
Hope summer is being good to you.

Hi, I'm here. Haven't been to any threads in a month, this never happened before on that scale, I'm sorry! Had a lovely holiday with my parents though living conditions turned out quite different from my plans and basically we were like glued together for 14 days minus 2 hours when they managed to drive to a cash machine on their own and I stayed in the hotel with stomach cramps. They returned to pick me up because buying gas/ petrol was too complicated. :)

I came back on July 1st and since had 12-14 hrs workdays once again. We had a couple of bigger IT issues, and now my colleague is on vacation and I'm praying it'll stay quiet. I did a little reading, some more listening, but don't even know if I can list all books. I quite decided to ignore the Booker this year (the last thing I need is reading pressure) and concentrate on what's on my shelves and books that help me deal with the world. And whatever falls at my feet and demands to be read/ listened to urgently.

Right now I feel overwhelmed by world events and am seriuosly asking myself if we're not maybe living in a simulation. Politicians cannot be that stupid. Or can they?!? Is it something in the water/ food that freezes hearts and eats brains? What's the name of that plant that grows on a pond slowly but exponentially(?) and then suddenly within a couple of days what was a small plant covers (and kills) the whole pond? That's how it feels - where do all those agitators and their followers come from?

Okay, I really need this place, and I missed you! I'll try and make a slow return and can't make any promises about posting on all the threads yet, my head is in such a strange place.

Wishing you all a lovely sunny weekend! (((((Hugs))))) from Italy!

((((((Nathalie))))))!!!!!! I'm so happy to see you back that I'm about to do a happy dance. GLAD to hear from you and wishing you an uneventful month - at least - time at work.
Duckweed? That's at least one pond killer and a scary analogy.

(((((Peggy))))) :D
I believe it's a type of nymphaea, but I don't know if it really exists or if it's just a popular question in German maths tests.

>171 Deern: Happy to see a msg from you, Nathalie!!!
Sorry the vacation with your parents turned out that way. And way too many hours at work after that.
I hope the next weeks will be quiet on the IT and on you.

My thyroid levels are way too low again, so I limit myself from the news at the moment, as it triggers anxiety.

I still haven't got my levels checked, and after reading a bit on your thread I thought I should really have that done. I feel like I can't process anything lately, and then women-stuff spoiler I fell into menopause or pre-menopause with such a speed this year that I guess it plays a role as well. Tired, anxious, irritable, I jump everytime my phone rings and fear the worst. *doing calming breaths that will help only a minute*

The vacation was lovely, but I ended up in a suite with them as my mum hated the appartment. We had a wardrobe between the two beds and just one bathroom. TG for audiobooks and earphones! :)))

>175 Deern: Tired, anxious, irritable sounds terrible familiar, Nathalie. Please let me know the results if you get your blood checked.
ETA: Could also be the first signs of burn-out.
I went into menopause at 45, before my thyroid problem was discovered.

Hope that work continues to be quiet, and sympathy re the health worries too, hope the medics can help.

So lovely to see you posting around the threads after the break!

>162 Deern: I haven't heard much good about The Gathering by Anne Enright. I have put off reading it, unfortunately, as the comments I read were not favourable.

>175 Deern: I can relate to your situation, it is a tough road. Advice? *who asked me!! ;)*
Keep deep breathing and doing exercise. I am feeling similarly lately, due to a stressful family situation, and am practicing 'yoga breathing' daily. Good luck with it!

Sorry you've been feeling down and that your vacation was lonely. Hopefully things perk up soon.

>176 FAMeulstee: I stopped watching news a long time ago, I felt more emotionally manipulated than informed. Still haven't found a "good" Italian newspaper site, and Der Spiegel has been turning all emotional click-baity as well. My parents watch the news religiously every couple of hours and talk back to the TV. It's so strange witnessing them.

>177 charl08: on Friday I typed a message to my IT colleague which then fortunately I didn't send and ultimately deleted, basically offering to leave because I felt so incapable. Ridiculous because we have loads of hand-made utilities he simply never explained to me, so no-one but him could maintain them anyway. Stupid perfectionism! :)

>178 LovingLit: Interestingly, I had to scroll up to read my remarks as I'd totally forgotten the plot already. I thought it was a good book, but obviously in no way memorable.

*sharing an extra deep yoga breath and wishing you all the best*

I feel a bit like my mind gets kidnapped by some strange entity and returned after a minute in a muddled state where eveything is exaggerated, and then it takes me a bit getting it in order again. Strange (and fascinating) what hormones can do.

>179 The_Hibernator: Hi Rachel, fortunately (in this case) you misread, it wasn't lonely, it was lovely! It's been many years since I spent two weeks in the same place without travelling much around. Time flew by and I slept and relaxed a lot, mainly because my parents aren't very active and always wanted me around "because you speak Italian" (it was an excuse -everyone in that place speaks English or even German because of the tourists).

Okay, with my muddled brain and stupid ipad touchscreen no real reviews, just trying to list what I read/listened to and how I liked it:

The Art of not Falling Apart by Christina Patterson

A Guardian BB, and while I didn't like the writing much, I thought it was a helpful book. Lots of examples of normal next-door (okay, upper middle-class, but "normal" in the sense of "things happen to everyone") people who went through real hardships and how they coped. The author is a column writer which often shines through in unnecessary ways (like "when we were chatting over a glass of Chardonnay" and lots of name-dropping). There often was a tension between the style and the content which made it a slow read for me.

Calypso by David Sedaris
One of my exes loved Sedaris which was enough reason for me never to try his books. Audible kept pressing this one on me and the cover was so cute, so I gave in and really enjoyed it. Sedaris is reading which makes it extra charming. And at night (with my parents happily snoring away), his voice from my earphones also sent me into sleep within 2 minutes. This book is a bit sadder than the one I listened to next, much about ageing and loss.

Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
Now this one really had it LOL moments! Pets in the oven, French classes, fear of the French, this was a real joy!

The Violent Bear it Away by Flannery O'Connor (1001 GR June, 1001 #431/378)
FC's writing is powerful, but I didn't like the plot and the outcome was obvious from early on, for everyone but the teacher. I prefer her short stories.

Lucky Jim by Kinglsey Amis (1001, BAC June, 1001 #432/379)
Not for me though well written. It's just not my humor and I found it quite boring and hard to get through. It's that type of seemingly self-deprecating humor that still mocks everyone else, like saying "I'm an idiot and getting into stupid situations, but others are worse, and I at least know it which makes me smarter". Maybe classic English humor and I don't get well together which confirms all prejudices. :)

Room to Dream by David Lynch
Seems I had pre-ordered this as it was suddenly on my Kindle. 2 chapters in I got the audio as well, partly read by DL. It's another biography, this one including the latest TP, but seperated between "the voices of others" (friends, colleagues, actors) and DL's own memories. So it's a chapter about his childhood as remembered by others, read by a different narrator, then a chapter by him, then Philadelphia years, etc. Not much new information, but I liked the format in audio and watched another two of his movies and some of his early art films.

55. "Recovery" by Russell Brand
Another one audible kept pressing on me, no wonder after the 12 step Kindles I read lately. I only knew RB from the gossip pages as Katie Perry's ex and had seen one (bad) movie on TV, but he was/ is fun listening to in this book and I bookmarked his website, also because it offers a free download of his version of the 12 steps. If you're wondering - I'm not at all into drugs or drinking, but there are other compulsive ways of soothing one's real or imagined pain (overeating, overworking, co-dependant relationships, etcetc), and I'm considering using his 12 step frame that uses the f-word generously. I liked this book a lot and am on my second listen now, the only issue I surprisingly had was his English. I never had to rewind that often on an audiobook in "English English" which is usually BBC-like, but not here (I wouldn't know about Scottish, Welsh, Northern Irish, they're certainly harder to understand for an untrained ear). It was an extra challenge I actually enjoyed after a while.

Hi Nathalie, I've been absent from LT for most part of this year.
Glad to hear that your family holiday went well. About European politic? Well, it's too busy in different countries. I hope they cool down after the summer heat. What I hate most is that they speak first and their thinking start afterwards. The damages are done by then.
I hope your new job will be much less stressful. Thinking of you. hugs xx

Just a drive by de-lurk. Fingers crossed things start to improve soon. X

>185 Deern: I'm glad someone else found Lucky Jim not for them.

>187 Ameise1: Hi (((((Barbara))))), thanks for the hugs! :)
I thought it was interesting when our right-wing foreign and Heimat (aaargh, who needs a Heimatministerium?!?) minister Seehofer tried pressing the right-wing Austrian and right-wing Italian government into taking refugees back. that's the issue with the nationalists - they pretend to be friends, but at one point they'll have to go against each other as seperation is their main selling point, not co-operation and compromising.

>188 BekkaJo: Thank you Bekka! :)

>189 thornton37814: Hi Lori :)
Strangely, I find the more "spiritual" I get (in " " because I don't know how else to call it, I don't like the word, it's so overfraught), the less I can deal with things like gossiping. This book was like someone permanently whispering gossip into my ear I didn't want to hear because I actually thought those people were nice enough and I felt sorry for them trusting him. I should add that I once loved to gossip, it can make you feel so sharp and brilliant and it was such fun. Quite gone. I might have liked that book much better 10 years or so ago.

So glad to see you here, not so glad to hear you aren't feeling very well.

Yes, I suppose Amis' humor has that edge to it. Sigh, what does it say about me?

>191 sibylline: Hm... maybe I just don't get Amis' humor and so I found a moralistic reason for my not getting it? :D
I liked the writing and thought it was sharp and witty. The plot was a bit lame imo, but I really didn't like both the protagonist and the love interest (names!?!) and I guess I was supposed to side with them. I didn't like the others either, btw., but they got my pity at least. I reacted similarly to other books from the same era. *sigh*

I upped my meditation again and am feeling a bit better. My colleague came back today, so I shouldn't get overwhelmed with all those daily IT issues as much.
But I'll really have to get some medical check-ups done, I haven't had my blood tested in 10 years, except for the two hospital stays where you don't get any results.

Reading update:
Started Under the Net (1,001 GR) on Kindle and "The Master" (what's with the touchstones?) for the IAC for on audio. Listened to a mini-audio yesterday to up my stats a bit:

56. A Chef's Christmas by Anthony Bourdain
It's just an hour of audio, but if they sell it as a book, it's a book, right? Neither painful nor great, but with a happy ending as Christmas stories should be. I also got Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential on audio, but I already read that years ago as paperback. It was mainly about remembering Bourdain whose shows I'd only recently found on TV.
Rating for this one: 3 stars

Yesterday I ate something, it might have been currants - I suspect those as I never ate them until a week ago - that gave me my first allergic food reaction ever. Great. Another change to all the others. Talked to an allergic colleague this morning who can't have any nuts, berries, stone fruits since she was about my age and I really hope it won't turn out that way. I ate extremely healthily last week and managed to avoid snacking, and now I'm scared. Skin started itching, got red and sensitive and then bits of my face started swelling, especially around the eyes. Didn't go to the hospital, they would have given me a code green and let me sit there all day, so I just cooled it with ice, drank much fresh water and went to bed early. Eyes were still swollen this morning, skin is still itchy, but overall it's better and I'm on rice waffles (maybe the only carb I really don't like).

Hey Nathalie! Good to see you posting more frequently. Fingers crossed swelling continues to retreat.
Lot's of good reading and your short, to the point, reviews are much appreciated.
I too came late the Bourdain's tv show but I thoroughly enjoyed what I've seen. Such a joy to see people who enjoy eating and discussing it so passionately.

Ouch! Sorry to hear about the allergic reaction. Glad to hear you are feeling better. Or at least betterish. I recently discovered chocolate covered rice cakes which are probably negating all health benefit...

Oh dear, Oh dear Nathalie. I'm sorry about the allergic reaction. Do watch yourself! And do keep posting.

>195 charl08: Ha! I had a half pack of those yesterday! :D
Tried the normal rice cakes first, but simply can't eat them. Also had gnocchi with nothing, green salad and plain lactose-free yogurt. Very boring day.

>194 Carmenere: Hi Lynda, I promise I'll visit and post soon!
Yes, that was the thing about Bourdain, wasn't it? Real passion about food and people.

>196 LizzieD: I'll be careful, it was quite a surprise as I never reacted to any food before, except for porcini mushrooms I can't digest, but that's a different thing.

I was surprised that I felt so ill and feverish yesterday, but as my colleague explained to me, of course it's a reaction of the immune system, it gives you all the flu symptoms while fighting what it shouldn't fight. A bit swollen again today, but the itching is gone and the flu symptoms as well. Now I fear it might happen with other berries, too. I could do okay without stone fruit, but I need raspberries in my life.

>197 Deern: I'm a sucker for chocolate ones with raspberries on top. But I'm really not convinced it's any better than just eating a small bit of chocolate!

Thanks to your post (and my lack of willpower) I now have er, several, winging their way to me. Glad to see we're almost at half and half re the gender of authors on the longlist.

>198 charl08: Writing about lack of willpower.... as predicted on your thread my 3 year old Kindle nearly died on me when it downloaded 4 new books and 8 samples.
I should say "whatever gets me reading these days", but really it's a good 200 Euros every year for the LL, and I should read some more 1,001s and ROOTs.
Btw. I'm 12 % into "Unmentionable" and loving it!! Finally all those questions answered I had since childhood! :)

Here we only have the plain chocolate ones. And maybe that's a good thing, shouldn't play with raspberries right now. I sometimes eat them instead of cookies during our team coffee break, whenever I'm trying to reduce wheat. They aren't healthy, they're just gluten-free sweets.

So sorry you had an allergic reaction to berries. I do adore them. They grow wild all around about the house. And I really really love my blueberries. I should post a photo of the net we have to put around them so everyone else, including fawns, doesn't eat them up! We have one bush that is in another spot that we leave for the animals and birds.

57. Sabrina by Nick Drnaso (Booker 2018 LL) Very small spoilers only...

I try not to feel influenced by the very uncomfortable process of reading a graphic novel on my ipad mini and my smartphone or by my dislike for reading longer texts in capital letters. I read less than a handful of "adult GNs" so far in my life - except for the Ralf Koenig gaycomix which are sometimes very serious, but a different genre.
I can't say I liked this one although in the second half I finally started reacting emotionally to the story. In the first half, despite the theoretically exciting events, I just felt numb, and that's due to the very reduced graphical style with no mimics in the faces of the characters and the very bland dialogue. I'd say "it's all trauma", but we get a scene of before Sabrina's disappearance, and it's just as bland. My first reaction was that I wouldn't want to be there, not of a loving sisterly relationship between Sandra and Sabrina. Maybe if those first couple of pages had conveyed some warmth, I would have felt the contrast to the other scenes more. But even then - let the Sandra the sister and boyfriend Teddy be traumatized and numb and the army friend Calvin numb and lonely, but total numbness in the journalists - really? "um... maybe call the police?" with expression-free face? That's all?
The second half is scary, but not new. This sadly is our world. Contrary to others, I liked the ending.
I don't mind there's a GN in the Booker bunch, at least it's a quick read, and I doubt I would have liked this one better as text only.
My clueless rating is 3.5 stars for now.

I know I'm using "bland" and "numb" too often, but that's what I felt. I cancelled "dull", at least.

>200 sibylline: I love berries as well! Usually I have lots of straw-, blue-, raspberries every season from the organic farm in my street - and frozen during the rest of the year - , but this year it had rained so much they didn't have many to sell. So I thought I should try red currants once again (never liked them before), and I guess they gave me the reaction. It was the only "new" food I had for that breakfast.

How lovely to have them growing wild around the house! I used to collect wild boysenberries with my grandma who made jelly from them. She had found that hidden spot in the forest where they were growing like crazy. Loved the jelly, hated the thorns of the bushes. :)

>201 Deern: I skimmed the preview and decided I could wait for the library copy of this one. Read my first one tonight - mixed feelings - good, but not for me. (Onwards and upwards?!)

Happy Friday, Nathalie.

Thank you and Happy Friday to you, Barbara! :)

Weekend resolutions (mainly as reminder for me so I can totally throw them over and feel appropriately guilty...)
- finish The Master (audio) for the July IAC
- finish Under the Net (1,001 GR)
- get started on my Molly Keane for the August IAC, "Treasure Hunt"
- test-read 2010 to see if it'll do for the BAC (all my other sci-fis on the Kindle I'd rather read are by non-British authors)
- stay away from my 8 Booker samples/ 2 Booker books (as if...)
- not get sidetracked by any other books, not even my many started ROOTs

and still manage to leave the house at least on Sunday. And not watch too much TV. And do yoga. And eat 3 healthy meals a day, no snacks. I feel like on New Year's Eve. Oh - no fireworks, but I got a reminder on my phone to watch that moon eclipse tonight.

Carefully ate a couple of blueberries this morning in hot porridge (yum!), no reaction. I'll try some raw ones tomorrow, maybe I'm lucky and it really is currants only.

Happy weekend, (((((everyone)))))!

Happy weekend Natalie - hope the blueberries are a sign the reactions are over. I'm not sure what to wish you about the Booker ones though!

>206 Deern: Good luck leaving the house ;) I may have given up this month and gone full trash. My brain can't cope with grown up.

Fingers crossed the berries are okay.

>207 charl08: Thank you Charlotte:)
I’m planning to read all the Bookers, I just can’t handle more than 2-3 books at a time now and when I start with those samples, I’ll get lost

>208 BekkaJo: Leaving the house has become an issue during weekends lately. I need more downtime after the workweek, and of course this means I’m isolating myself...
I have my trash reading times as well, and currently I’m spending too much time watching easy TV. Not much time left for good books

*****
Weekend update: had two healthy but too large meals (I overeat on healthy foods, yes it’s possible).
Just finished The Master on audio, really enjoyed it, and I know I might have hated it as paper copy.
Spent 2 hrs staring at the sky last night, all clouds, no moon at all. Woke up some hours later, looked again, the clouds were gone, but the moon was back to normal.

Happy weekend, Nathalie. Sorry, that you weren't able to watch the moon. We saw it here in Gdansk. This morning was beautiful. Now it's raining. We're sitting in a café and wait until it stops.

>210 Ameise1: How great that you saw it! :)

I wasn't too disappointed, it's always a question of weather luck and it had been cloudy all day. Friends from Germany texted me, they also saw nothing and we agreed we must do better next time (2135?).

I finished the Murdoch by skim-reading the second half. I loved the parts I really read, the more philosophical ones, but I don't like reading slapstick and the second half was full of it.

Decided not to go for 2010 for the BAC, instead I found a book that's also a 1001, The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham, I'll get the audio. Opened the Keane, but didn't get through the introduction yet, quite a strange beginning that put me off. Might be ironic. Didn't touch any Bookers.
Instead I started listening to Kitchen Confidentials on my short walk (I left the house for two hours today!). No yoga yet, food only half-healthy (I had baguette, it's all Bourdain's fault! At least I stayed away from the shops and the unpasteurized camemberts), but overall not a bad weekend so far. Too much TV, I rewatched the whole Ocean's 11/12/13 series and several of those "rich Italian couples looking for second houses in the country" shows. Those are addictive!

I can bet those Italian tv shows are addictive!

I'll be interested in hearing about the Wyndham.

Glad the blueberries went down ok!

Oh, I'd love to see some other countries versions of the house programmes. Watching our version makes me wonder 'Who ARE these people?'

I've started the Rachel Kushner. Great opening.

>212 sibylline:, >213 charl08: Now that I'm thinking about it, I'm quite sure they're staged/scripted, like the (trashy) German version, but tastefully. In the first season they introduced the families in detail who often enough had to "sell" something (architects, consultants). Since then, there have only been brief introductions, maybe it was too obvious. During the show, they often visit certain shops/ restaurants/ cafés or take walks in town, so the local tourist board certainly pays a share. But the houses are almost all lovely! I got hooked when they did Puglia and the family (brother and sister in that case) chose an old villa with a huge wild garden that had been owned by a painter. The budgets are generally crazy, rarely below 700,000 - and then the presented houses often cost even more, but the family is so in love with the place that they pay the higher price.

I find them inspirational though. I rearranged my furniture in the living room yet again this weekend to make it all look more "beachy". I don't really like being in the Alps in summer. Another reason for staying in.

>213 charl08: They have something from the UK called "Voglio vívere in campagna" (I want to live in the country) in TV here which certainly has a totally different title in the original version. People are presented 2 houses that fit their ideas and one extra, the mystery house.
Ours is called "La seconda casa non si scorda mai", maybe it's on the net somewhere. You don't have to understand Italian, the houses speak for themselves.

58. The Master by Colm Toibin (1,001 #433/380, Booker SL 2004, IAC)
I planned not to read this one, so of course I read it. Okay I listened, which made all the difference. Great audio, and I'm not even a Henry James fan. I liked his Portrait of a Lady very much when I read it during my classics phase, liked The Turn of the Screw and The Wings of the Dove considerably less. I thought I was in for a very long and boring listen, and instead it was informative and entertaining throughout, even the bits in the middle which I’d certainly have skim-read in a paper copy. Audio forces you through the complete text, and in some cases, like here, it’s good to be forced to read/ listen to every word. Surprisingly, I’m now looking forward to the next James books and will even reread The Turn of the Screw.
Rating: audio 4.5, normal book probably 4

59. Under the Net by Iris Murdoch (1,001 # 434/381)
GR in the 1,001 group. I like Murdoch’s books a lot, and I loved the first maybe 40% of this one. Then I got stuck and only made very little progress, until I decided to skim-read the second half. Reason were the slapstick scenes. I don’t like classic slapstick in most movies, and I like it less in books. The plot was a bit like the “Angry Young Men” theme in the July BAC: a young man acts idiotically (as it seems) without any consideration and gets into the weirdest situations. What made this book better than the Kinglsey Amis (for me) was a) the philosophical part, b) the lack of class-conscious snobbery. This is a friendly, warm book. Even the social enemies are estimated and not ridiculed and have the potential to become friends at a later point.
Rating: 3.5 stars

>211 Deern: Midwich cuckoos is great. Freaky, but great :)

>215 Deern: I had The Master lined up for this month... well, this month sort of went to pot. But it's still on TBR. Only problem is I LOATHE Henry James. Darn.

>216 BekkaJo: a) Yay! And thanks, I needed some encouragement for this one. Have no idea what to expect. :)
b) I don't loathe HJ, but really quite hated WotD, when do I ever rate with 2 stars? So I really didn't want to read The Master and even said so on the BAC thread. And then I thought I might test-listen to the audio and that just fit my mood and stress level. Quite a surprise.

I can't keep up, but I will say that I'm an old H. James fan, and I've never read The Master. Bad Lizzie! Higher on Mt. Bookpile is Mrs Osmond, John Banville's extension of *Portrait*. I also like I. Murdoch a lot and should read one a year just to keep my hand in.
Cherries are the berries for me! We don't grow them here though, so I'm more than content to eat really fresh straw and blueberries as they come off.
>199 Deern: Do you mean your Touchstone of *Unmentionable* to lead to Unmentionable Vice? Actually, that one looks interesting.
>206 Deern: *Treasure Hunt* goes to a John Lescroart thriller. I'm also an old Molly Keane/M.J. Farrell fan and need to see whether I own that one..... Back in a moment. Yep, I have a copy, which is filed under M. J. Farrell: Treasure Hunt.
Glad to see you here, (((((Nathalie)))))!

>218 LizzieD: Hi (((((Peggy))))) :)
Aaargh.... I did check the touchstones of that one because of the many other dubious options, is it possible they change? Quite annoyed with them lately anyway since we got songs and movies. The lists are too long and when I scroll it on the ipad, the thread in the background moves as well. "The Master" was found automatically, but a day later the link was gone. Your post has one. Trying again...The Master. Now it shows the correct touchstone. Let's see how long it stays that way.

"Treasure Hunt" was one of those with way too many options. The intro is interesting. It says "if this is your first Molly Keane, you're in for a real treat" and on the next page "Treasure Hunt isn't among her best". Err... ?

The other book's full title is Unmentionable: The Victorian Lady's Guide to Sex, Marriage and Manners by Therese O'Neill. Okay, full title works as well with the touchstones, I see. *sigh* :)

I love fresh cherries, but generally prefer berries to stone fruit. I hardly eat any peaches/ nectarines anymore, too sticky. Eating lots of honey melons now. And tomatoes which I learned are fruit as well? Anyway, this year they're so sweet I'm eating two big bags every week. In the evenings I often cook pasta and just throw some tomatoes and rocket salad and olives on top.

60. Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain
I read this many years ago as a paper copy, I don't even remember in which language. I thought then that it started great and later became quite boring, not even sure if I finished it. The audio was great of course, really entertaining, though a bit outdated (when was it published originally? In the 1990s?). It's bursting with testosterone, actually quite sexy in a way although I wouldn't want to know any of those people or spend a single day with them, I'm not made for all the rudeness.
I especially liked the later part when he talks of a 3 star restaurant and admits that everything he told us earlier, the drugs, abuse, high stress, etc were not mandatory, that he actually attracted all those people and that behavior because that was how he was and how he wanted it. He could have taken a different road, but chose not to. Also loved the Tokio chapter. I wish I had seen more of Bourdain's shows which it seems have been taken off the network after his death.
Rating: 3.5 for the book, 4 for the audio.

>220 Deern: I think all the rudeness/ testosterone put me off also, although Obama's tribute made me think I had missed the point.

I'm not a James fan either, but I read The Master as a Toibin fan, and I think I liked it for the author rather than James (can't actually remember much about it! Oh dear).
ETA Went and looked at the book page: reminded I really liked the bits about the American civil war, and how it affected his family.

I am hoping Toibin has something that isn't linked to the classical period out soon. Not really what I read him for. I finally read his book about Argentina recently and found it quite different from his later books - not sure if my impression that it was because it was more autobiographical mixed with the unexpected setting (ie not Ireland) was right.

>221 charl08: Now you remind me, I agree: the part about the Civil War was really good.

I think Bourdain became milder with the years and the growing TV presence. I remember watching a couple of episodes of that cooking show "The Taste". Of course all 4 mentor chefs played certain stereotypical roles, but he seemed the most relaxed and took his candidates out to restaurants or street vendors for food tastings. The woman mentor (Nigella something? Can't remember her last name although I own two cookbooks - unused ones I should add) seemed terribly artificial and stiff in comparison, I had expected her to be much more fun to watch. I didn't know the other two. One played the French snob, the other one was into Creole food.
Okay, I'm addicted to certain cooking shows, house shows, Elementary, Westworld and Twin Peaks. Could be worse I guess.

>222 Deern: Nigella Lawson?

Thanks for the Victorian lady book's title, Nathalie.

>223 kidzdoc: Thank you! :)
I kept thinking Dawson and could have googled, but simply was too lazy. *using the heat as excuse for everything this week*
Yes, her. Her teams were out first, she was angry most of the time, also with her team. From her books I had expected her to be all about "having fun with the food", "hands on" and laughing.

>224 LizzieD: I read a bit yesterday, and while I was shocked at first about the make-ups with lead or arsenic and all the stuff they (important: gently!) rubbed their breasts with to give them the "perfect pineapple(!) shape", I remembered that nowadays breasts are cut open and filled with plastic and that face wrinkles are smoothed with nerve poison. So in 150 years there will be a book just as entertaining about our generations I fear. :/

I agree, that Victorian book is quite shocking. But as you say, so are some cosmetic treatments today! I've started Milkman - I think this Booker list is going to double the amount of dystopia I read this year.

>226 charl08: I took a short look at Milkman yesterday and went for The Mars Room first. I read my BAC yesterday, The Midwich Cuckoos, and was much reminded of the Victorian book in how the doctor, the vicar and the other important guy (mayor, nobility?) dealt with all the pregnancies. Don't think I read "hysteria" as often before. Quite infuriating, those weren't the 1800s...

I know I should open a new thread, maybe next week. Read a lot this weekend, it was way too hot to go outside. Finished 2 Bookers: In Our Mad and Furious City by Guy Gunaratne which is great and sad, but has a bit of a weak ending when you expect it to be really strong, and Snap by Belinda Bauer which is quite a solid thriller, not 100% logical, a fast read that imo should not go on the shortlist. Listened through my BAC, The Midwich Cuckoos. Great and at the same time infuriatingly outdated (all those smart men). Am also half through The Mars Room, my Booker #4. After this one, I'll read some other things, so I won't march straight through the Booker list.

Was felled by a bad stomach bug the night to Monday and had to stay home yesterday, spending half of the day in the bathroom, the other half sweating and feverish in bed. My lovely neighbor Karin brought me rusk(?), Coke and even a small pot of salty porridge/gruel which I took to work today. I returned to work a bit too soon, for the workload and also for the air con.

Thursday my mum is having her knee surgery in Munich, getting a new joint. Could you please cross fingers for her? It's the leg where she had the thrombosis after my birth that almost killed her (it wasn't detected until a week later). She's a critical case and will be in the intensive care unit afterwards where they'll monitor the clotting. I wanted to drive up North tomorrow after work to see her before surgery, but now decided not to, I'm scared she might catch my bug. So I'll go on Thursday or Friday and stay till Sunday, and I'll drive up often in the next couple of weeks when she's in the reha clinic. Which means August might be another very weak LT month.

Greetings, Nathalie! I will certainly keep my fingers crossed that all goes well with your mum's surgery. Hope you feel better soon so you'll be up to the trip to visit her when she is recovering.
I'm about to start Snap today. So far the two Bookers I've read are solid contenders for the SL. I'm looking forward to see what Bauer will offer.

Keeping my fingers crossed too Nathalie. Hope you feel 100% better soon. I've stalled on booker reading - been distracted by a book in translation Waiting for Robert Capa. Hopefully will get back to the longlist soon!

>228 Deern: Keeping fingers and toes crossed for your mum, Nathalie.

I am a James fan AND I liked The Master.

Also interested in your comments about Iris M. I've notice as I've worked my way through her books that she has three basic story shapes -- the ones that are, as you say, kind of slapsticky, longer ones that are rather cheerful and end well -- usually the ones with children and young people in them -- and then the gloomy difficult ones which really tackle issues of good and evil, her interest area philosophically, in depth.

My least favorite are the shorter "funny" ones. Sort of a bit like Muriel Spark but not as successful.

So sorry you've had a bug. Hope you are better now!

61.The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham (July BAC, 1,001 #435/382)

In my clueless opinion, a good sci-fi is so timeless that you find relevance in it for today’s political situation, no matter how many decades after publishing you read it. That is the case for this book when it comes to the main plot, the “strange children” and how everyone deals with them. But then there was the other element woven in to somehow carry the plot, and that was “strong responsible (British) men”. As opposed to “hysterical women”, although I admit Wyndham’s maybe strongest character here is a woman and often enough the voice of reason, so he plays a bit with the cliché, but not enough for this modern reader. In the end, the decisions and the action are taken by men. I added the “British”, because the downplaying of the situation seems so for me. The narrator for example witnesses all those worldview-turning events, then leaves town for 7 years “and forgets all about it”. Sorry if it’s a stereotype. Anyway, I found the men infuriating, and so this audiobook was on the one hand really fun (I listened through it in one day), and on the other hand annoying. Fun was stronger, and I’ll read at least the other 1001-listed Wyndham soon.
Rating: 3.5 stars

62.In Our Mad and Furious City by Guy Gunaratne (Booker 2018 LL 2/13)

Something strange happened with this book: I found it extremely strong while I read it, and then its ending which I’m sure was meant to make it only stronger (a BIG event and what you feared early on really happens) basically removed it from my focus. I was captured by the strength of the often poetic language, I loved how the two older characters Caroline and Nelson who had witnessed earlier periods of seperation and hatred in Northern Ireland and London added their voices. I loved looking at each of the three young main characters, the three boys who are really just that – boys who want some fun and play football together. Somehow I didn’t like how it all comes together in the end. A good contender for the SL in any case and with its strong intro end epilogue a real and believable declaration of love for London.
Rating: 4.2 stars

63. Snap by Belinda Bauer (Booker 2018 LL 3/13)

One of those books that were certainly not written towards a possible Booker nomination, so I won’t say much about its flaws. I don’t like thrillers, especially when they deal with women home alone hearing an intruder when I’m reading them while alone in a big house (even the company has moved out!) for the weekend. Yes, I had nightmares. Anyway, the main plot: 11 year old Jack and his 2 young sisters are left in the car by their pregnant mother on a hot and sunny day, near the motorway, when the car breaks down. She goes for the next phone to call for help and never returns. 3 years later, Jack and his siblings live alone in their house. Their father left, unable to cope with the situation (the mother’s body had been found a week after her disappearance). I didn’t want to believe that setup at first, then I remembered there’s no registration in Britain as in Germany or Italy, so maybe it’s possible that 3 children can live in house alone and no-one notices. At the same time, heavily pregnant Caroline hears an intruder in her home and finds a knife and a note, saying “I could have killed you” and decides not to call the police. Okay… People take strange decisions here all the time. Policemen are eccentric. It was a very quick and entertaining read if that includes fear. I’m okay with it for the LL, would rather not see it on the SL.
Rating: 3.5 stars

>229 Carmenere: Thank you Lynda. I'm much better already, even hungry. I hope you'll enjoy "Snap"!

>230 charl08: Thank you Charlotte! "Your" Victorian book was in my mind while reading the Wyndham (men telling women how best to get through pregnancy and birth).
I just bought that book about Gerda Taro that won this year's Strega prize in Italy, La ragazza con la Leica (The Girl with the Leica) by Helena Janczek. Hoping to get to it soon!

>231 FAMeulstee: Thank you Anita!! :)

>232 sibylline: In which category would you place The Sea, the Sea? I loved that one, it has so many levels! Especially first reading the narrators worldview and then realizing everyone else saw him completely differently. Trying to remember my second Murdoch book, "The Bell". That one has quite disappeared from my memory although I rated it with 4 stars. And according to LT I own the Italian Girl, do I really??

>236 Deern: Ooh! There's another one? (ETA: can't find an English translation. Fingers crossed it's in the works...)

Nice reviews of In Our Mad and Furious City and Snap, Nathalie. I'll attend Guy Gunaratne's talk at the Edinburgh International Book Festival on the 26th, so I'll look for his book next week after I arrive there. Several other longlisted authors are appearing at the festival, so I'll have to see if tickets are still available for their talks.

I hope that your mother does well with her upcoming surgery, and that you're completely over your GI bug.

>182 Deern: lol. Good to know I misread. Serves me right trying to read so fast. I tend to get behind on threads and skim through them all in one go, so eventually I get tired. :)

Hi all, I‘ll respond individually on Monday, just wanted to say that the surgery went well, and that my mum is doing well given the circumstances. Of course she’s in much pain, but now she’ll have to move forward towards better. Happy weekend to you from Bavaria! :)

Happy weekend to you too Nathalie. Glad to hear the surgery went well, hope your days off are relaxing.

I'm glad that your mother's surgery went well, Nathalie. I hope that you and she have a restful weekend.

>240 Deern: Happy weekend to you, Nathalie!
Glad to know your mum's surgery went well.

64. The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner (Booker 2018 LL 4/13)

Hm. Quite sure that this one’s a candidate for the SL. Not for the win, simply because I really don’t think they’ll give it to an US author yet again. I liked it and at the same time it made me very very Booker wary. I need a break!

Romy (who used to work as a stripper/ dancer in the “Mars Room”, a club in San Francisco) has been sentenced to two times life plus several years for killing her stalker. The focus of this novel is on Romy’s experiences in prison, then there are flashbacks to her life and what led her to the crime. Sometimes the narrative switches to other characters in prison – Sammy she shares a cell with in the first weeks, then London, another cell mate, then a woman on death row and her partner in crime (an ex cop) in a different prison, a teacher who gets Romy books, there’s even the viewpoint of the stalker. I thought the book had its strongest moments when it stayed in prison. I didn’t really want to know what led Romy there, if the verdict was fair or not, if she was smart or not. I didn’t need all that effort to sympathize with her. The prison and what it does to people stands very much for itself and I didn’t want to be distracted from my anger. We sure don’t have the world’s best system in Germany (and it’s worse in Italy), but what happened to Button or to Romy’s son left me speechless and very sad, and I’m glad we have a different law and prison system for minors and that the question of children is handled differently nowadays.

Rating: 4 stars, and I need some non-fiction now.

65. "Treasure Hunt" by Molly Keane (IAC 2018)

This is a play turned into novel, and it’s quite obvious – lots of set description and stage directions turned into narrative. I didn’t mind it much and thought the first part was hilarious. It’s post WWII, late 40s or early 50s. Some rich “Irish gentry guy” (forgot name and title) has died, and family and servants return from the funeral to hear the will. The older generation – the deceased’s brother, sister and crazy aunt or cousin – behave like spoiled children and are indulged by the servants. The young heir Philip and his cousin Veronica are level-headed and modest and therefore eyed with suspicion by everyone. The will is read to everyone’s satisfaction, but then it turns out there is no money left. In order to save the house, Phil and Veronica decide to ration all the luxuries for their relatives and to rent the place to paying guests, preferably from the UK. Together with the servants, their relatives plot to keep the strangers away.
What once was the first act – the introduction of the characters, the will-reading, the following discussion – were really funny, but it all turns into very silly quickly and I lost my patience with those old people I was certainly meant to find charming. A quick read though, and a fun one, and certainly not my last Molly Keane.

Rating: 3.5 stars

>237 charl08: It's all new, they might translate it soon :)

>238 kidzdoc: I'm sure that will be a great event! Must visit your thread and read up on it all.

>239 The_Hibernator: No worries, happens to me all the time (and once again I'm dreadfully behind on threads...)

>241 charl08: thank you Charlotte! It wasn't too relaxing of course, but we're all very much relieved that worst (hopefully) is over...

>242 kidzdoc: Thank you Darryl. She had a very noisy room mate, unfortunately. I hope she'll be able to relax in the reha clinic.

>243 FAMeulstee: Thank you Anita, yes we're so glad it's over.

*******
Drove to Munich very early on Thursday morning and just caught my mum before she was admitted. Took a long walk with my dad and then we sat there for hours, waiting, not getting any notice. Of course we were very worried. They had put her into intensive care for 24 hours, and around 3pm we were allowed to see her for 10 minutes. She was weak of course and in much pain. The next morning when we arrived at the hospital she was just admitted to the normal ward. We drove to Munich every day then and really saw improvement. Yesterday she was able to get into the bathroom on her own for the first time. On Wednesday she'll be transferred directly to the reha clinic which is just 10 minutes from their house, so it will be much easier for my dad to visit her.
When we were not in the hospital or in the car (it was a very busy travel weekend and we spent about 3-4 hours every day on the road), we tried to relax, take walks, sit on the balcony, etc.

Today I got up at 3am and returned to Merano and went to the office directly. My IT colleage has taken the week off, I hope it won't get too bad here.

Managed to finish two books on Thursday (reviews above) and started two non-fiction books.

66. Unmentionable: The Victorian Lady’s Guide to Sex, Marriage and Manners by Therese O’Neill

BB from Charlotte’s thread. This was a very entertaining and informative read. I know, I should probably be outraged and sorry for the women in the late 1800s instead of merely entertained. Sorry I am, but still I was mostly well entertained. The book is written in a funny, mocking way – the author pretends to be speaking to a female reader who, out of a desire for a world she knows from romance novels and movies, has been time-travelling to the Victorian era and is now a young wealthy lady, looking for a husband. We’re told how to dress correctly, how to eat, how to walk in the streets if at all, even how to menstruate correctly. Not to forget that under no circumstances we’re to suck the handle of our parasols!

I couldn’t read this without taking breaks, as the mocking voice quickly gets annoying (but feels fresh again after a couple of days). And as I said earlier, I’m sure there will be a similar book in a couple of years, dealing with our beauty industry, the return of the princess worlds for girls and other stupid stuff we’re doing nowadays.

Rating: 3.8 stars

Wow! You have a lot going on!
I'm happy to know that your mom got through her surgery so well and send wishes that her rehab may be equally as smooth. You take care of yourself!
And all that reading you're doing is mighty impressive. Hope you're feeling 100% again, that the heat has moderated and the demands of your job too.
(((((Nathalie)))))!!!!!

I'm glad you are seeing an improvement where your mom is concerned and you are able to return to your normal life.
I'm reading The Mars Room now and so far, so good.

Thinking of you and hoping your mother recovers quickly!

Plays turned into novels rarely work right I've noticed. Makes you realize how different the forms are.

>193 Deern: an hour of audio sure counts as a book!

>245 Deern: that is a tough ride! I hope your mother improves.

Not so great news first: my mum has another thrombosis, but she found it in time and insisted on thorough checks when the nurse didn't want to believe her. So they caught it early. She's getting even more heparine injections now with higher doses and will be monitored closely during reha.
Good news: she's well enough to have complained about the transport to reha, and when she arrived, her room was too small, so my dad had to pay up for a better room. When she's unsatisfied with her surroundings, she's clearly on the mend. :)

Did I mention that my dad had serious car problems last week? The motor just shut off while driving, several times, once when we were on the left lane on the motorway. He couldn't get a rental car until today, so he had to drive the small roads all the time and was quite stressed and I was worried like crazy. I'm very relieved this is over now, he lives only 5 kms from the reha place.

>247 LizzieD: (((((Peggy))))) I SO needed those hugs, thank you! :)
It's still very hot here, but at least the nights are cooler now.

>248 Carmenere: I finished From a Low and Quiet Sea last night. I liked it but "something in me" is taking a distance from contemporary fiction. I'm not getting into stories anymore, I remain outside, watching, too often not caring enough. I don't know what it is. Maybe I should take a longer break. :(

>249 sibylline: Thank you! You're right about the play-novels. This one wasn't badly done, though I'm not sure the characters would have been that exaggerated in an original novel.

>250 LovingLit: She seems to be on the mend. I just hope that she'll be following the reha program without too many complaints, and once back home won't start crazy-house-cleaning immediately. :)

67. From a Low and Quiet Sea by Donal Ryan (Booker 2018 LL 5/13)

I returned to the Booker sooner than I thought, but this book confirmed me that I’m weary with contemporary fiction. I liked Ryan’s The Spinning Heart, and this book confirmed that he’s great in writing many believable voices. But are they really important voices? The Spinning Heart which I read was called “Irish novel of the decade” and won many prizes, was a very good book, but I remember saying it could just as well have happened anywhere else. The problems weren’t particularly Irish, they were typical for a small community that depends too much on one employer, and I could have transferred those voices without difficulty to the village where I grew up.

This is also the case for young Lampy here, the second voice in this novel, I've met many Lampys in my life.
Farouk, the first voice, is from Syria and his story is as heartbreaking as you’ll fear after the first page. The third voice, John’s confession of the sins committed in his life, was somewhat ruptured and inconclusive. There are two more voices that bring it all together. This is a well written novel, that for some reason, except for Farouk’s story, failed to touch me. Many reviewers mention they were shocked when the three threads come together in the last pages. I wasn’t. Okay, sorry for Lampy and what it means for his life, but the other connections? Were they necessary, did they really add something to my understanding of the characters? I mean – we know what happened, we just didn’t know who was who until that point. And when that point is reached, is it really still important? Heartbreaking as Farouk’s story was, he felt like an add-on. Not an unwelcome one, but the story ends before we see what contribution he will really make to the story of Lampy and his family.

I am currently in my usual low summer mood (I'm a summer-depression person), thinking much about loss, mourning and what is it that makes so many of us suffer/ feeling emotional pain constantly while we're having good lives. Ryan is a very good observer of that dullness, emptiness in the average life. His characters are recognizable for me, and I believe I would rather read them without a plot that "brings it all together". Just random voices, they are his strength.

I will continue with my other books now, mainly non-fiction.

Rating: 3.8 stars

Hi Nathalie, so glad your mum pushed for the re-analysis, hope that she continues to improve and that your dad's car can be sorted out.

I still have Ryan to read. I am finding books about refugees quite hard to pick up at the moment. One of the people we volunteer with has been "professionally" assessed by a charity specialising in victims of torture and he showed me his report. I only skimmed it and still felt completely overwhelmed by it all. I'm not sure how fiction relates to this, but I find myself unwilling to even open the covers.

Wishing for you relief from your low summer mood. I admire that you recognise it so clearly.

>253 charl08: Yep, same here. Overwhelmed. Still haven't finished the Erpenbeck. Maybe it's better not to read the Ryan yet, it's hard and very sad. And just writing it I feel bad, because how hard can reading be from my safe first world seat....

Every summer I hope it won't happen, but around August, there it is, I'm extra sad and anxious, and it doesn't go away after two days. Getting through another stack of self-help books, this time on accepting and living with fears.

High time for a new thread, this one is slow although it has no pics.