What was supposed to be a wonderful summer on a nice farm after the war, starts as a miserable stay for Tobias on the wet cliffs of a remote island with only grumpy Lothe to talk to. But there‘s a locked up room that might be the reason for her grumpiness. Can Tobias warm up Lothe‘s heart and solve the mystery? - What a beautifully illustrated book and sad, but wonderful story. I cried in the end - even if it is “only” a children‘s story.

After some very stressful weeks, I thought I was only able to read “easier” stories. I found this beautiful children‘s book in our little free library and well… it is not that shallow. 🙈

When I found another Kingfisher audiobook on Audible for free, I was thrilled. I liked A wizard‘s Guide to Defensive Baking a lot and most parts of the Saint of Steel series were okay as well. But I has to quit this one because all the unnerving things of the Saints series were quadrupled. Both main characters are so insecure I wanted to hit them, it made me physically ache. And this time the backstory wasn‘t that strong to make up for it. 🤦‍♀️

See you next year. 😊😊😊

As a German English teacher I really like reading Agatha Christie. It definitely expands my vocabulary. 💪💪💪

This has been a wonderful, very poetic book. It describes the life of two kids born in and off the desert one hundered years apart. Both face struggles and end up back where they belong - in the desert. This book is a beautiful allegory of the desert, I haven‘t been something that aesthetic in a long time.

Last days on the beach. ❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥

Audible does definitely have a good strategy: They get you hooked up with free audiobooks, but sometimes I am not able to finish them till the due date. Of corse now I will buy it. 🙈😜🙈

This is a fast-paced coming off age story of a German girl trying to cope with her alcoholic mother. It somehow reminded me of depressive version of Soloalbum, which was written in the aame form 20 years ago. I can understans why German peoplw hyped 22 Bahnen when it came out, but I am not sure if I will read it again and keep it.

I escaped the European autumn weather and went to my old home Egypt for more sun. 😊

This is a very interesting non-fictional overview over Anne‘s life. Because I only watched the different semi-ficituonal series about Henry VIII‘s life, I never realized it took Anne eight years to be married ti the king. On TV it always happens in a shorter amount of time. And in the end she was only married to hin for three years. Seems like the moment he actually had her, he lost interest.

Some background reading: Aldeidge mentions that The Big Four was thrown together shortly after Christie‘s breakdown while she wasn‘t able to write another novel. No wonder it ended up like this.

This didn‘t feel like a Poirot murder mystery at all, more like a James Bond against the world. It can be felt that some short stories were thrown in together with some linking devices to get a new full-length novel. I think I would have preferred the short stories instead.

„it has always seemed to me extraordinary that a woman should go so far in the scientific world. I should have thought a purely masculine brain was needed for such work.“ - Sometimes I do not like Hastings at all. 😡

“Without Africa, and the slave plantation agriculture of the Caribbean that derived from it, there would never have been the kind of explosion of wealth that the West enjoyed … nor such early or rapid industrialization.” And French retraces the pathways of the European countries rampaging through the African continent, meanwhile destroying already existing kingdoms. It is a devastating, but necessary overview over the slave trade.

This is an interesting overview over the different conquests Britain had to endure or was taking. I enjoyed it very much because it‘s not writen in a highly theoretical way, but more jovial. I do not know tge Horribke Histories series of this author, but after reading this one I will order them for sure.

Last days of summer… 😩😩😩

Very interesting book, but a lot of facts mentioned. I think it would have been better to read it instead of listening to it. The first few and the last frew have been the most interesting ones to me (Big Bang, Homo sapies). The ones inbetween on how first life (cells) evolved on earth seemed quite boring to me.

As already posted as a quote this longer essay is challeging the solution to The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. In total there are 16 chapters, out of which only 3-4 are interesting. Most of them are highly theoretical, e.g. using Freud‘s theories, but not always putting them into context. I liked the chapters in which Ackroyd was compared to other novels (but giving away a lot of spoilers) and of the ones in which other suspects were discussed.

🤣🤣🤣

Starting a new background check on The Murder of Roger Ackroyd… 💪💪💪

Childress definitely has some interesting insights, e.g. starting off with the water-sewage systems or metallurgy of ancient cultures. Then you keep on wondering if they had those advanced technologies, why not other ones like flying or computers as well. Of course there are a lot of artefacts worldwide that cannot be explained by now, but I am not sure if the lost culture of Atlantis can be the master key for everything because then you can‘t…

Nancy looks a little stoned on the cover of my ebook, but maybe this is how she looked after she inhaled the sleeping fu es? 🤔🤔🤔 The second time in a row I like the story because it made sense most of the times. The notion of hidden pirate ship with a tolling bell made it interesting. Unfortunately for me, the story took a different turn, I liked it anyway. 😊

Once in a while I am in time with my Nancy Drew reading. 🤪🙈🤪

I‘ve read Baudolino a few years ago when I was younger. It was nice to listen to it again. It is still not an easy read/listening, but it was nice to hear the exploits of the notorious liar Baudolino again. And this way you get a funnier view of the story of Frederick Barbarossa (who is supposed to be sleeping at the Kyffhäuser in my home region) and the crusades.

And again, doing some background reading on the current Poirot murder mystery. I would have liked any of the displayed covers compared to the one my ebook did. 🙄

I don‘t get the covers of these cheap ebooks. Somehow I imagined Fernkurs Park to be more opulent, but perhaps I am wrong. It is funny to follow Poirot trying to be an average citizen cultivating pumpkins. For sure he wouldn‘t last long and a murder case would sneak back into his life and Poirot is taking it gratefully. And The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is definitely a good case for a come back.

„There‘s no doubt at all about what the man‘s profession has been. He‘s a retired hairdresser. Look at that moustache of his.“ 🤣🤣🤣 Imagine Poirot being a hairdresser. 🤣🤣🤣

Another case that the Homes brothers are not able to solve and only Enola‘s female insights and her wit make sure there is at least one happy ending. And finally even Mycroft is able to accept her as an equal. Again, the Enola Holmes story are definitely a nice pasttime.

Keeping up with the further reading - I am behind anyway 🙈🙈🙈 - before starting the next Poirot in line. Both books narrate Poirot‘s life as displayed throught the different novels and give background infos on how the novels were written and published.

A new case for Enola. This time a cold case with international entanglements lashes back at Enolas unknowing landlady and she has to rescue her. Along we ger to know Florence Nightingale who gives Sherlock a nice telling-off. 🫶🫶🫶

Just when I was on the verge of quitting the series, no. 22 ends up being one of the best Nancy Drew stories so far. It is only one story that actually makes sense instead of two far-fetched narratives that are weirdly linked to each other.

It‘s not a Nancy Drew story, if there isn‘t a good kidnapping!!! 🤣🤣🤣

Enola has to save her friend Lady Cecily a second time - this time from her own family and societal pressures. With some help of Sherlock she is able to do that in her particularly special fashion and approach. The books are definitely an easy and funny read.

My Icelandic library is geowing bit by bit. And this non-fiction book is definitely worth to be added to it. This was a fun read about important historical moments in time in which Iceland actually - and unknown to most - did play a role in word politics. I was laughing out loud a lot.

… but the most popular „facts“ (about Iceland) came back like zombies: two books (…) claim, respectively, that ICELANDERS LIVE UP TO 150 TO 300 YEARS - because pure climate, of course. Which I‘d say is fair reasoning: THE HUMAN BODY IS ORGANIC, AND WE ALL KNOW THAT VEGETABLES AND ORGANIC THINGS LAST LONGER IN THE FRIDGE. 🤣🤣🤣

When this book starts like this, it must be good! 😂😂😂

This was a very interesting book of the ris and fall of the Borgia dynasty, which started some time before Rodrigo and his infamous family. His uncle was already a pope, a fact which I was unaware of.

This is an interesting narration of the life of Caesar in form of the memoirs of Decimus Brutus, one of his closests friends - and conspirator against him. Decimus describes the rise of Caesar and then the reasons why why he decides to act against him. The outside point of view is fascinating. And no, Decimus is not the „You too, child?“ Brutus, but his cousin.

Using my fancy bookmark. 💕💕💕

I had massive problems following this audiobook because the narration talked about a lot of platitudes and the guiding principles were always ended with the appendix „The Kybalion“, which was quite annoying. But I liked the chapters about correspondance and polarity very much and found them very interesting. So, I‘m torn. ⚡️

Of course I expected something else, and of course it is somehow an intermezzo between two The city of the Dreaming Books and the to be expected The caste of Dreaming books (which I didn‘t know when I started it; sure the author is making the most of it), but in the end it is a beautiful and creative story about the inhabitants of Buchhaim and how they recovered after the fire Mythenmetz accidently started 200 years with the Schattenkönig. And it

I just love the accompanying drawings of Walter Moers. He is so talented.

I listened to the next one (No. 6) in the Amelia Peabody series and liked it very much. The change of the setting and storyline, which were the quite similar in the first four, definitely made No. 5 and this one more interesting. The notion of finding a society hidden from our modern day world reminded me very much of Balck Panther and Wakanda. 😊

And of course I bought the Schellen-Ursli book while spending my holiday at his village. This is a sweet Swiss children‘s story written in easy prose. Ursli (the diminutive for the typical Swiss mal first name Urs) wants to lead a dance with Schellen (Swiss name for bell). Unfortunately he gets the smallest bell and now tries to get a bigger one.

Of course I had to check out some literary place this holiday as well. We spent three nights in Guarda, the home of the Schellen-Ursli. The Schellen-Ursli is a famous children‘s story in Switzerland, it is as known as Heidi.

When you end your holiday with more books in your suitcase than you started with. ???
This is the little free library in Guarda (Canton Graubünden) in Switzerland. The language spoken here is Romansh.

Currently I‘m travelling in Switzerland and came across this nice reading bench in Davos with a view over Lake Davos. The rest of Davos was rather disappointing except for the hiking.

Dr Watson is missing! Can Enola find him? And she is the only one being able to read the first clue because she can understand the language of flowers. What does asparagis mean again? 😂 And she can add spidermonkey to her skills as well.

Somehow Enola stumbles into her cases which seem to attract hee brother Sherlock as well. 🤣 I like the idea that she as a woman is able to go her way in Victorian society using this „stigma“ as an advantage and getting inspiration of that fact. And as a left-handed person (who fortunately was not forced to wrote with the right) I found the whole topic of Lady Cecily‘s character very interesting.