A new Mieko Kawakami. I was super impressed by all her books I read so far but this one is a bit disappointing. A girl tries to earn her living in the Tokyo nightlife. That is interesting but 500 pages later I wasn‘t much the wiser. Not sure. Maybe it‘s the translation 🤷🏻‍♀️

For the past few days I‘ve been listening to this book but audio is clearly not the way to go here: the various Scottish dialects are very hard for me to understand and I am not that patient.
Maybe I‘ll try it in print one day because I loved The Echoes but for now it couldn‘t hold my attention.

📸 Porto, Portugal

The narrator is still living in her alternate reality of a daily returning November 18. How to spend the time when you‘re caught in that one day again and again?
It‘s a concept that I found fascinating and the author writes so well. The ending felt a bit hurried but makes me eager to read the third part!

📸 Porto, Portugal

#WeeklyForecast 19/25

I am reading the second volume of On the Calculation of Volume. Such an interesting story.
Next will be the new Mieko Kawakami (in Dutch, it isn‘t translated in English yet) and last but not least I‘ll continue my #InternationalBooker journey with The Book of Disappearance.

These series is getting better by the book. DCI Matilda has to deal with a group of under aged murderers, detained in Starling House, a rather unusual detention center, where one of them is murdered. As always her private life catches up with her too, and then there‘s one of the young killers who she feels needs help.
A great palette cleanser with a nice cliffhanger. I‘ll make sure to get a copy of the 4th installment.

📸 Porto, Portugal

Four months of #ISpy2025 with lots of my TBR books and a lot less actually read!
Looking forward to placing more ✅ and adding more books to the prompts and the grid @TheAromaofBooks made for us 💚

#WeeklyFavorite

Adding the final book to April‘s graphic and it was this month‘s best book as well!

After a series of terrorist attacks by Vietnamese Americans, the government sets up I#detention camps across the US for all Vietnamese Americans. The story is about life inside one of the camps and about life going on outside.

I loved the premise of this novel and I loved the writing and the first half but the book was a bit too long for me in the end and less interesting. Still a pick though.

#AprilStats

4.5⭐️
Small Boat
4.25⭐️
In Memoriam
4⭐️
Somewhere Else
Model Home
Small Rain
3.75⭐️
The Jigsaw man
On the Calculation of Volume I
Under the Eye of the Big Bird
Moon Road
The In-Between
Where the Forest Meets the River
The Mangan Inheritance
3.5⭐️
Outside Looking In
De krater (Dutch)
3.25⭐️
In het oog (Dutch)
Reservoir Bitches
3⭐️
The Unworthy
2.5⭐️
Before I Let Go

Romance, steamy sex; chicklit I‘d have loved in my teens but nowadays not really.

#ReadTheWorld2025

In March and April I‘ve read 7 books set in or written by author from places around the world: #Italy #Switzerland #Iraq #France #Iran #Denmark #Mexico #Argentina

I have the #InternationalBooker to thank for most of these books!

Okay, one more. Another gem of a quote and so true.

This book…. 😱

This #InternationalBooker novel is based on a real case where a dinghy overfilled with migrants attempts to cross the Channel and starts sinking.

Most of the book consists of thoughts by a coastguard radio operator, who‘s being interrogated by the police because of her alleged complicity in the death of 27 migrants. We are drawn into her conflicted consciousness, displaying what appears to be an almost inhumane coldness and indifference. ⬇️⬇️

I bought this because I enjoyed another one by him that we read with the #NYRB group a few years ago. Now I finally picked it up and I wasn‘t disappointed. It‘s dark and a bit gothic and very Irish (I think). Jamie Mangan is traveling to Ireland to delve into his past and to learn is he‘s a descendant of a famous 19th century Irish poet. His journey takes him to a small village with lots of remarkable people.

#WeeklyForecast 18/25

I am in the middle of The Mangan Inheritance which I am loving. Next will be the tagged title for the #InternationalBooker and I also want to read My Documents, that @TrishB nominated for #CampLitsy25 and caught my eye in the bookshop the day after!

UPDATED WITH THE RIGHT LONGLIST‼️
It's time to vote! The #CampLitsy25 longlist is looong again but it will be so hard to choose from the amazing books that you‘ve nominated. Please take your time and vote for the six books you‘d want to read together in June, July and August. Do so before May 9 please. We‘ll get back to you soon after that with the six winners!

Here‘s the longlist: http://bit.ly/42N5OCt

Here you can vote: https://bit.ly/3ENlNbz

I recently decided to stop reading dystopian novels for a while and yet I read this. I should have stuck to my decision. One can only deal with so much post apocalypse in this crazy world. So it is partly me but then again, the story is definitely not as good as Tender in the Flesh, the reason why I picked it up.
It‘s at least as gory in its details but that‘s about it. Too bad 🤷🏻‍♀️

This is the follow-up to The Road to Dalton that we read in the #EuropaCollective reading group on Litsy.

This second installment is just as good and it‘s a pleasure to spend some more time with the inhabitants of Dalton, Maine. Five years after Bridget‘s death, her absence is still palpable in the community.

I am looking forward to what will happen next with some of the characters.

This is my #Roll100 read!

#WeeklyForecast 17/25

Back home after spending Easter at the coast. My plans are to finish Where the Forest Meets the River and the tagged book. If possible I‘d like to make a start in a #NYRB classic: The Mangan Inheritance.

The narrator is hospitalized with a rare vascular condition. For days he‘s at ICU, not really knowing what‘s happening, though he knows it‘s serious.
Each medical detail is described, as is the narrator‘s view on life, his past and future.
And it‘s 2020 and COVID is everywhere. In the hospital, in people‘s attitude, in the protests in the streets. It took me back to those days and although it frightened me I loved this about the book. Very good!

Wow this was a very touching book about the boys (so young) who went to war in 1914. Those stories about the trenches always are so devastating. 60,000 men dying in the Somme offensive… in just one day. This book covers it all - and the lovestory between two elite boarding school boys, so English. A great read.

Two middle-aged (I hate that expression) men fall in love on a date. This book is about their growing closer, each with a life and a big love behind him. It‘s a very tender book despite all graphic descriptions of smells - the author must be an expert on bodily smells 😉. Thanks for sending me this Carolyn, you were right that I‘d like it!

#FictionalTraveler #Island 🇦🇺

The book I read is not in the database but it is by the same author. It‘s a Dutch novella, one you received for free when buying books during our yearly national Dutch books promotion week.
I collect them and they are mostly decent. This one is good too, about a brother and a sister, taking their kid brother, who seems depressed and is obsessed by astronomy, to visit a place in Germany, once hit by a meteorite.

Almost twenty years ago Kathleen and Yannick have lost their daughter Una. She went missing on the other side of Canada. Their marriage stranded and they haven‘t seen each other for years. Now there‘s a body found and together they drive all across the country, covering kilometers and time lost forever.

The characters, their grief, the roadtrip: it‘s all done so well. Recommended.

📷 Knokke, Belgium

#WeeklyForecast 16/25

I don‘t want to get too crazy yet about all CampLitsy nominations that are calling my name, and stick to my plan! I‘ll read the tagged one, by a favorite author, gifted to me by the wonderful @CarolynM . Where the Forest Meets the River is my #Roll100 book and Small Rain is the last one I wanted to read from the #ToB25 longlist.

But first I have to finish Moon Road that‘s not in the photo but that I am reading now.

I‘ve seen so many books already that I‘d love to read at #CampLitsy25! Adding some more, here are my nominations (tags below)!

For many of us these are not the best of times so we are excited to offer some distraction by announcing #CampLitsy25 🏕️ 📚
Nominations for the longlist are open now. We invite you all to suggest 4 books to read this summer. The books need to be published in 2025 and by mid June so we all can procure the final choices.
Post your choices with #CampLitsy25 and tag @Megabooks, @squirrelbrain & me.
Nominations are open until 26 April ⬇️⬇️

“Every 2 hours and 25 minutes, a woman in #Mexico is strangled, raped, dismembered, burned alive, mutilated, beaten to pulp, and left with bruises and broken bones.”

Combine these gruesome facts on femicide with living the high life of drugs, money, cosmetic surgery and Instagram followers and you probably have the span of Mexican society and of this #InternationalBooker collection of short stories. A good one.

#ReadingTheWorld2025

Thank you #ToB25Longlist and @Megabooks for bringing this book to my attention.
It‘s a dark, unsettling story of childhood trauma in a haunted house.
The siblings Ezri, Eve & Emannuelle have escaped their childhood home but return when their parents go missing. Finally they uncover the truth about their home and their youth.

I had no idea where the book was heading but I loved it despite the sadness and darkness.

I am a few days in our cabin at the coast and thought I needed a break from all the longlists I‘ve been following lately. No better comfort read than a thriller and I ended up reading all day and finishing this second book in the DCI Matilda Darke series.
The plot is good but the atmosphere and the main characters really stand out.

At first I didn‘t know what to make of this book. Were it loosely connected stories, all set in a fantasy setting? YA maybe? And then I got it and I got the message. A book that packs a punch in a quite unexpected way(to me) and well deserves its place on the #InternationalBooker shortlist!

A Dutch book that‘s been nominated for some literary prize. I usually love this author but was a bit disappointed by this one. It‘s about a women who gets a bit obsessed about a neighbor and finds a way to get into his house when he‘s out. She knows a lot about him when she coincidentally comes across him on Tinder and they start dating. A light pick.

The #InternationalBooker shortlist will be announced tomorrow. So far I have read 5 books. Favorites are Perfection and Hunchback but I also liked Eurotrash and Calculation of Volume. I am now reading Under the Eye of the Big Bird and liking that one too. Oh and I have Reservoir Bitches, On a Woman‘s Madness and The Book of Disappearance to be read and I want to read Small Boat too. The shortlist is coming too soon! Any thoughts on the longlist?

#InternationalBooker

This was good and frightening. A woman gets caught up in the 18th of November. Every morning she wakes up to the same day. She thinks of ways to escape and get on with her life. It is a quiet book, and somehow it felt believable. I do want to read part II!

I very much enjoyed this #WP25 longlist book. It‘s a quiet story about Rosa‘s life. Born in Poland wheee she witnesses the pogrom in which her family is killed. She somehow arrives in Scotland where she is adopted and lives her life. She goes through all the stages a woman goes, she‘s happy and sad, with friends and family or lonely. And yet in the back of her mind there‘s always her family, brutally murdered.

I added all my unread books to the #ISpy overview in Storygraph. In the bingo you see the ones that fit a March prompt of which I actually read just one 🤦🏻‍♀️ I hope and expect to tick off some more books during the year!

A decent thriller about a serial killer, his copycat and the cops chasing him. This may sound pretty standard for this kind of book, but it has a lot of suspects and twists and make sure for a few hours well spent!

Now back to the #InternationalBooker!

I am okay with this #WP25 shortlist. I didn‘t read Good Girl, all others I liked except for The Persians. I am rooting for The Safekeep to win the prize.
What are your thoughts on the shortlist?

Here is my #WP25 shortlist.
It‘s just 5 because the other 3 I read (Nesting, Persians and Dream Hotel) for me were just not good enough. I loved Strout, July and Van der Wouden but they do feel a bit “last year”, I read them that long ago.
I did enjoy Fundamentally and am now reading and liking Somewhere Else.
In general I am underwhelmed by the longlist and I am not even sure if I‘ll read the shortlist. Curious which books it will be though!

#MarchStats

5⭐️
Wild dark shore
3,75 ⭐️
Perfection
Reward system
Hunchback
3,5⭐️
Road ends
Slow dance
Fundamentally
3,25⭐️
Help wanted
Broken country
3⭐️
Eurotrash
The dream hotel
The Persians
2,5⭐️
A leopard-skin hat
Nesting
DNF
Time of the child

#ToB25 and #LitsyToB25 have taken very different roads this year (which makes it so fun!) but in the end we all agree (at least a majority does 😉) on James as the winner of both tournaments. Percival Everett finally takes away the 🐓!

Thank you all for participating in this year‘s LitsyToB and I hope to see you next year. But before that, it won‘t be long until we‘ll be back with #CampLitsy25! Meg, Helen and I hope you‘ll join us there!

#WeeklyForecast 14/25

I am about to start Somewhere Else of the #WP25 longlist. After that, I‘ll wait what books will be shortlisted and decide which ones to read. So far I am preferring the #InternationalBooker longlist over the #WP25 so I am having two more of that list lined up for this week!

Another so-so #WP25 book. What could have been an interesting story fell short imo. I learned little about Iran after the revolution and the Persian family members living in the US didn‘t really came to life. Shirin became a caricature towards the end of the story, Seema‘s role was unclear to me. Bita and Niaz could have been more interesting and I wonder why Shirin even had a son - Mo didn‘t add a thing. The longlist is a bit disappointing.

#WeeklyFavorites

The Hunchback is still lingering in my mind. That‘s why it has to be this week‘s favorite book!
March‘s favorite is Wild Dark Shore.

It was to be expected that The Book Censor‘s Library didn‘t stand a chance against The Wedding People. So we‘re left with two very popular books left in the #LitsyToB25: TWP and James (James is a finalist in #ToB25 too).

Please vote one more time for your favorite and I‘ll see you on Monday for the final match! Have a good weekend. https://forms.gle/QksJX14ZcJMmmYij7

We have our first #LitsyToB25 finalist. The History of Sound didn‘t really stand a chance against James.
I personally am disappointed, I rooted so hard for THoS 🤷🏻‍♀️
In the #ToB25 we‘ll see tomorrow if James there too advances to the finals. Today Martyr! beat Margo in the first ToB Zombie round.

Tomorrow we‘ll have the second Zombie match: The Book Censor‘s Library vs The Wedding People.

That‘s a promising first sentence! This might be exactly the kind of book I‘ve been looking for after way too much (and too realistic) dystopian novels. #WP25

This is a novella about an disabled woman who can‘t go outside the home she lives in. She connects with the world by writing erotica and tweeting obscene things.
Ichikawa describes what it means to live with a severe handicap in an in-your-face way. You can‘t look away. Extreme and graphic, so well done. Yet I am in need of an explanation of the ending. #InternationalBooker25

🧟 Here are our zombies! 🧟‍♀️

The Wedding People earned the most zombie votes ever (14) but doesn‘t need them. The History of Sound follows with 9 votes and will return as a zombie. Third is, surprisingly, The Book Censor‘s Library (6 votes)!
🚨Please vote for them today🚨: https://forms.gle/T1ZzTU9Fw5ESNUEcA