Ken Smith chronicles his 40 years living off the grid first in Canada&Alaska then in Scotland where he worked as a gillie&built his own wood cabin on his employer‘s land.Will Millard wrote the memoir but it‘s based on Ken‘s diary&conversations with Ken,often excerpts of the diary are interspersed.Millard deftly captures Ken‘s voice.He comes across as a man of the highest integrity,kind&brave&most of all with a deep love of the wild&wildlife.

1901-1902:Ada is an unmarried woman in her late 20s.She starts teaching in a small remote town after she was removed from her previous school because of an incident.The first half is about Ada settling in&finding a friend/love interest in Agatha.There‘s some back story-her sister,her father,the incident-before things start to get weird.This is marketed as feminist horror.I‘m not sure what it is&what to think which is why I rated it so-so:it‘s gory

Levine writes about working class people as in My Brother, Antonio, the baker,remembers family members as in Yenkl or a dead friend in Storms. But he also writes about the lyrical I in nature as in Gospel which to me is an outstanding poem.Its rhythm,the pauses,the clear,transparent diction.”I didn‘t come for answers to a place like this, I came to walk”-love the line.Not all poems were emotionally resonant,but overall a great collection.

I knew only Tabula rasa by Pärt when I came across this graphic novel at the library and knew nothing about his life. The black and white drawings, lines and notes capture the sound of his minimalist techniques. I enjoyed learning about Pärt‘s background, beliefs and dissent and the composers and music that influenced his later compositions. It makes me want to listen to more music he wrote.

We are f-d sums up what I think after reading personal accounts of believers or members of the movement and their families.According to those who have let themselves get sucked into QAnon madness, Trump is waging war against pedophile elite Satan worshippers(guess who they are)&while he might not have started the movement he also did nothing to stop it-au contraire.I have NO empathy for believers, it‘s like saying fascists and Nazis

“You are here” could have been saccharine or cliched but it isn‘t.I loved Michael and Marnie,their flirty banter,jokes&conversations about love,life &death.So many passages were laugh out loud funny, especially the “Twisted Nights” orgy novel she copy-edits during the trip. It felt like reading Jane Austen or E.M. Forster if they decided to write romance& lived and wrote today. Loved the ending too.I hope they turn the novel into a Netflix series.

Set during Nazi occupation,a young Dutch couple,Wim and Marie,hide a Jewish man who calls himself Nico in their house.When Nico dies from natural causes & Marie makes a mistake,the couple fully understand what Nico experienced living like a prisoner waiting for the world to change.The novella focuses on the daily routines&inner lives of its 3 protagonists&despite not going into much depth¬ telling a thrilling story,it affects the reader bc it‘s

Set amidst the Covid pandemic, the narrator experiences sharp pain but waits 5 days to seek medical attention.He ends up hospitalised while the doctors are trying to figure out what caused the tear in his aorta.In less able hands this could have turned into a dull disaster but Greenwell is a poet, wonderful writer and his insights, memories, poetry analyses and observations are a pleasure to read. I didn‘t love all of it but it is a pick for me.

There are no words. 😢

Part 2: I bail. Too much backstory, too slow for me. I no longer care what happened, who did it and why. Moving on to another book.

While the main focus is on how to draw animals, plants and landscapes (step by step instructions), the first 100 pages introduce the reader to writing about nature. The goal of nature journaling is to see, to remember and to stimulate curiosity, to move through the world with joy. Pay attention not only to the happenings in the natural world, but also to the happenings within you. Write with the goal of knowing yourself and the world better. 🥰

Brilliant,cleverly written. But I‘m sure this is not for everyone. Especially the first story Other people‘s lives with its despicable characters and long conversations either amuses or annoys the reader or does both. All stories are heavily Jewish themed in particular Jews of NYC in the 1960s and 1970s. I enjoyed the stories, don‘t have a favourite. I do want to read more of what Kaplan wrote, I think she's best known for her novel…

I bought a Flame Tree journal and now am ready for journaling. Any journaling prompt site recommendations?

My first Ann Cleeves mystery. I liked the remote island and the storm as backdrop for the story. I didn‘t guess who did it but found the ending of who and why a bit far-fetched. Overall, it works as a crime novel,especially now that fall is here -island,storm,rain- and I really liked the detective, Matthew Venn. It‘s definitely an entertaining story and great main character.

What can I say that hasn‘t been said already?It‘s a book of unspeakable pain dealing with exile,life under and after dictatorship, inter generational trauma and torture. It‘s infuriating how little is also known about Italy‘s oppression and Mussolini‘s atrocities committed in Libya. The fact that Tony Blair shook hands with Gaddafi and his as well as Britain‘s ‘relations‘ with the regime went even further is just inconceivable…

I tried but I don‘t like Gonzalo, I don‘t like Carla and I don‘t like the humour. Some parts are funny others just feel forced and silly. Zambra can write, especially steamy scenes but this book or maybe even this author is just not for me.

The narrator is Maurice,an old Irish farmer.We sit with him at the bar where he toasts to 5 dead people he loves&who shaped his life.We learn about his family,childhood,wife& son,Kevin, who now lives in the US.Kevin is the one Maurice imagines talking to. Funny, sweet,sad.I highly recommend audio.I switched to print at one point& missed Niall Buggy so much I went back to relisten to what I‘d read.He does a wonderful job bringing Maurice to life.

My grandparents were peasants but sadly spoke little about their lives.I‘ve always been drawn to agriculture:I worked a season as grape picker in France&on a mountain hut in Austria milking cows but I always had a romanticized view of peasant life.I loved this book,which gets quite philosophical at times.Although I didn‘t learn about my own ancestors I have an idea what my grandparents lives could have been like& there‘s nothing romantic about it.

How do you go on living if the worst thing happens to you?Fuller writes with passion and intensity about the death of her son Fi. Deeply moving but also witty, it is her grief journey she shares with us - it‘s not always doom& gloom. ♥️

I don‘t think this has ever happened to me but I didn‘t enjoy any of the stories or perhaps I didn‘t get what kind of stories Swift wants to tell?England is the one I liked the most bc of its premise:a coast guard in Exmoor on his way to work in the early morning hours stops to help a driver gone off road because of a deer but how the story evolves&the ending were dissatisfying as I just don‘t understand what it‘s about.Well written but not for me

I‘m halfway through&could hang in there to the end but I don‘t have the patience anymore.The reason why I bail is: I wish Junger had written more as the person who experienced it&less as the journalist. Also there are pages that read as if taken straight from a text book for medical students. True there are a lot of personal moments but Junger lost me once he got into medical history. It‘s time to move on to another book.

I loved the first 100 pages&then it was too much.A drug addicted mom fails at mugging tourists,a jewelry heist,the murder of a family,an attempted suicide-the guy has blood all over him but doesn‘t talk-,back flashes to many other cases already solved.It all comes somehow together at the end but Kerrigan lost me along the way. I didn‘t care about the characters or the detectives… just too much going on for a crime novel.

The Peace Institute in the Middle East collected contributions by Israeli & Palestinian teachers & historians into a history of Israel & Palestine since the establishment of the State of Israel that you can read side by side. The book ends with the second Intifada. It provides the reader with context & helped me understand the conflict. Sadly, it also makes it clear that there will never be peace.

Ireland 1990s in the year before divorce was legalized.The story of 3 women:Colette is a poet who left her husband&sons to live a free life but returns disillusioned to the small town where she desperately tries to reconnect with her children.Izzy is unhappily married to a man who pursues his career but controls her pushing her into a life confined to their home.And then there‘s Dolores married to Donal,a cruel predatory man.👇

This is a “because of me not the book” bail. I‘m just not in the right mindset to get into the story and time it is set in.

What really annoyed me was the overuse of similes&the constant shift in perspective but overall, this is a well written novel about a small town,the people who are all connected in one way or another,the secrets they keep,lies they tell one another&themselves&a girl who goes missing.There‘s a lot that could‘ve been left out(e.g.‘we‘ chapters&backstory of detective‘s breakup with her girlfriend)but the ending is surprising&so are the twists&turns.

My favorite stories were Clean Teen by Francisco Gonzalez: a Latino boy raised by his grandmother is abused by his English teacher;Zikora by Chimananda Ngozi Adichie: a woman gives birth to a baby boy while remembering the child‘s father (and “their perfect relationship”) who now ghosts her; Face Time by Lorrie Moore: death and illness during the Covid pandemic.

At 17 Jill seduced her 47 year old art teacher or did she?As Jill tries to be honest after a lifetime of perhaps lying to herself I can‘t get over the fact that Arnold at the time was married&Jill was 17 which is yes! young but she wasn‘t a child either.Why did she marry him?Although I understand why it‘s important 2 her to re-examine what happened,I don‘t understand why after staying married to him until his death at 93 she now writes this?

I started Force of Nature a while back but bailed. This time I tried audio and immediately got drawn into what reminded me of Lord of the Flies but instead of boys, it‘s adult female characters (a group of coworkers getting lost during a weekend team building hike). The less you know about the novel, the better. Highly recommend audio: Stephen Shanahan does a great job narrating the story.

@Suet624

@Suet624 I think Ben Shattuck is now officially one of my new favorite authors. The little book is just lovely. Funny, thoughtful, profound. It was a joy, no, it was such a privilege and treat to accompany this fine author on his walks and listen to him describe the people he meets, share quotes from Thoreau and also what he sees, feels and draws! Yes! His sketches are interspersed in the narrative… I might have a bit of a book crush, too.

Set in the midst of the pandemic,Jay,a once promising artist,now in his 40s&homeless runs into his first love,Alice&is confronted with the life&people he left behind.I gave this novel a pick bc I was intrigued but I feel it‘s more a so-so since the story& writing don‘t always work for me: overdone,pompous. BUT there‘s real depth, too. And the concept of life as art, some sort of modern philosophical Odyssey journey kept me engaged.The ending - hm.

In this novel young Lucy &her older unmarried cousin Charlotte have just arrived in Florence when their complaint about a room with no view is overheard by 2 “ill-bred” gentlemen,Mr Emerson& his son George who offer to give them their rooms with a view.The offer is the beginning of a passionate love story with twists &turns until the lovers are-I don‘t want to spoil the ending.Lovely,funny portrayal of middle& upper class England.Awww the violets…

I loved these stories so much. The writing is engaging, elegant, the characters are complex, the storytelling ranges from historic fiction to contemporary, focusing on art, music, farming, religion, nature, love and loss … just wonderful. Highly recommend!

Ireland‘s descent into a totalitarian state hunting down its political opponents &waging war against a resistance army is told through the eyes of a family. Eilish is the mother of 4,happily married with Larry,successful in her job. First Larry is arrested, then we witness how slowly the world Eilish tries to protect &hold together falls apart.I felt the characters‘ despair, a noose tightening around their necks until the knockout ending.

Maurice&Clive meet in Cambridge & fall in love at a time when homosexuality is a criminal offense in England. Clive conforms to the norm& gets married, Maurice chooses a life without secrets, staying true to himself. Written in 1913 this is a courageous novel that made my heart stop at the injustice of condemning two adults simply for loving one another.The happy ending for Maurice is deeply satisfying.

Jolene,a 33year old office worker,is given access to the company‘s whole email&chat exchanges by mistake.A grumpy&aloof outsider,Jolene sees this as her chance to take revenge on her nemesis Kaitlyn&secure her job(which is on the line).But what she learns about her colleagues leads to changes within herself.She‘s not the only one struggling with grief&loneliness.Cliff,the new HR guy,is another reason why Jolene will perceive life differently.👇

The narrator,an award winning writer&professor,not commercially successful,moves in with his aging mother.He writes a novel,a parody,under a pseudonym, it becomes a bestseller but is racist,full of stereotypes.Erasure is a recurring theme in the book: through loss of life,mind,family,self.The novel is a satire, making fun of academia &publishing. But this is also the story of a family& how they deal with loss&loneliness.Funny & thought provoking

Sadly, too much testosterone in this one for my taste. I bail at only page 27…

After her mother‘s death,Isabel lives alone in a house her family moved to during the war.Her brother Louis is the one who will eventually inherit the house, her brother Hendrik is gay & in a relationship.When Louis leaves his new girlfriend,Eva,in the house with Isabel while he‘s away on a work assignment, the house,once an enclosed space Isabel felt trapped in,& Isabel‘s life change. Well written debut!

Bleak stories about violence &revenge but also friendship &love. Some are historical fiction (communists in America & union during McCarthy era) some contemporary. This is my first James Lee Burke& my next book is The neon rain, no1 in his Robicheaux series. Gloomy but good!

The porn masturbation scene & semen in the fish tank right before Larry discovers Kaddish.com did it for me. Nope. No. Gross. Not my kind of humour.

I‘ve recently listened to Segal read one of her stories for The New Yorker Writer‘s Voice Podcast. I love her wit&dialogues, the way she writes about senior Jewish women in New York& in particular about those who are survivors, were born somewhere else& to some extent are still rooted in the countries that betrayed them &murdered their families. My favourites are Making Good & of course Ladies‘ Lunch.

Two old women of the Gwich‘in band,one of 11 distinct Athabaskan groups in Alaska, are left behind in a particularly harsh winter to die because the People believe they are a burden&move on to find food without them.While the women rely on each other&the skills they learned when they were young,they also revive their strengths.This is a story about believing in your strength, respecting your elders¬ accepting defeat. Loved it

Naomi has become a private investigator specialised in finding missing children because she too is a missing child.We follow her working 2 different cases: Madison who vanished aged 6&a baby,the daughter of an autistic black woman called Danita.The story is also told from Madison‘s point of view who has retreated into the persona of snow girl to survive captivity&abuse.Those chapters are particularly difficult to read.Well written detective story.

Between a pick&so-so.I chose this book randomly in the Swiss second hand bookstore. The MC, a man in his 50s, travels back in time to visit his family & lover. His parents don‘t know who he is, his lover is a toddler, he has no money etc. unusual, original take on a walk down memory Lane but not really my cup of tea.

Not sure if poems in the German edition Ich selbst tanze are the same as in the English edition What Remains. I highly recommend reading her poetry in addition to her philosophical & political writing. I enjoyed it very much.

Anna Göldin was tortured&murdered by the inquisition of the Protestant church in Switzerland on June 18,1782.She was “the last witch”.Hasler‘s historical novel is based on meticulous research&original documents but most of it is made up.Born into a family of poor farmers,Anna earns her living as a servant in rich families.Simply being a woman,bad luck,broken promises& injustice lead to her demise.Beautifully written with a lot of empathy for Anna.

Weynfeldt is an art dealer in his late 50s who lives alone in Zurich.He has money&friends, some older (rich) some younger (artists&intellectuals, he supports some financially, it‘s not clear why).One night he meets a younger woman who barely gets by modelling&shoplifting&he falls for her.I didn‘t connect with the characters,the detailed descriptions of luxury clothing or expensive food aren‘t something I‘m interested in.

Elias is a musical genius born into a family of Austrian mountain farmers in the early 1800s who falls in love with his cousin,thus decides not to pursue a career in music.His love is unrequited&then there‘s her brother.Some descriptions were disgusting&cruelty to animals&violence(a woman is beaten&burned& there are many fires that destroy homes &kill children) hard to read but it‘s a well written,weird & unusual story.Did I enjoy it? Not really.