I‘m a bit disappointed.
It started very interesting but at about page 160-170 the helplessness and boringness Johann feels is mirrored in the book and/or the story line.

I started to lose interest. Don‘t exactly know why.
It was confusing that many people had the same name. And, sorry, not sorry, I missed “explanations”.

Maybe a good book but not what I hoped it would be. My fault.

But: Great cover‼️😍

I treated myself with a new book. A real new book. Look, there‘s still folio around it.

My last about 6 weeks were very strenuous and I am recovering only slowly. Very slowly.

That was why I placed an order for this book I wanted to read for long when we were looking for presents.

Jan Philipp Reemtsma‘s son Johann wrote a fictional book about his father‘s kidnapping.

Finished this 1-2 weeks ago and still tend to rate it between a “So-So” and a “Pan”. Mostly because I obviously don‘t learn how much I have outgrown this genre. 🤷🏽‍♀️

I loved that Marin was raised by her grandfather but the details very quickly became implausible for me. I felt that that‘s not how “people” live. And the end showed me that I was right because most story line decisions were only made for “the effect”.

But: I fell for the cover.

I borrowed this because I liked the idea of organising my every day life sloth-like.

But this tiny book was a complete disappointment. It presented all the basics about mindfulness and living in the here and now in such a clumsy way.

I couldn‘t find it humorous or lovely.
In contrary, it seems to me that it‘s hastily written to join the hype train and make money. 🤷🏽‍♀️

My advice: Skip it.

I discovered this book because a dear friend of mine put it on her list of birthday wishes. I read the summary and was hooked. I read it today, almost in one setting.

But: I don‘t know.
Maybe I am not the type for essays.
Yes, it has its moments where I really connected with the text but mostly it couldn‘t reveal something new for me. It kind of just offered an intellectual basis for many of the things I found out by myself. 🤷🏽‍♀️

„In every moment there is, besides what is considered normal ... all those things about which society keeps silent and so condemning those who feel these things but cannot name them to loneliness and unhappiness. One day the silence is broken, suddenly or gradually. gradually, at last the feelings are given a name, At last they are recognised, while underneath silence emerges.”

⬆️⬆️⬆️ Okay, Littens, I think, I need to read Annie Erneaux. 😊

Of course, before I listened to part two of this, I “re-listened” to this first part and was left very puzzled because I felt there were things in it I didn‘t hear when I listened to it the first time – about two years ago. And it turned out, this impression was true, I first listened to the audio play and not to this unabridged version.

In a way, I liked this even more than the audio play because you learn more about the Trisolarians.

In the end, I loved this one as much as I did love the first one. I am no frequent reader of this kind of sci-fi literature (I guess, @Jari-chan called it “western sci-fi”) but I loved all the ideas, twists and turns Lui put in his story. 😃 I admit, I sometimes had difficulties keeping the characters apart but that only has to do with me being unfamiliar with Asian names.

I immediately started listening to the third, and sadly, last part.

If you find other books by Noah Gordon, go for them instead of for this.
The story dragged in parts and during the first 30 % I had problems keeping the doctors apart. Additionally I found it old-fashioned and full of clichés. Maybe a book that didn‘t age well. The German translation was sometimes also horrible.

What made me finish it, was that I considered the routine in a hospital to be told realistically. That was what I was interested in.

“My wife is allergic to penicillin”, he had said, in case she forgot to mention it. He repeated it twice [...]. Later, they discovered that the doctor who took care of her knew almost no English. […] The only word that had come through clearly to him apparently was "penicillin", and dutifully he had given her 400,000 units.
[…] Frances had gone into anaphylactic shock and and died almost immediately. (p. 81)

⬆️⬆️⬆️ What a cheap trick … ⬇️⬇️⬇️

As you might remember, I‘m no big fan of narrow line spacing but I like that quote:

“The streets were old and sad, lined with tenements with broken steps and overflowing dustbins, poor people's neighbourhoods where would be a hospital, where the benches of its ambulance would be occupied every morning by the sick and maimed, who
had fallen into society's self-made traps.‘ (p. 33)

⬆️⬆️⬆️ “Society‘s self-made traps” – sad but so apt.

i'm looking forward to the book because i liked my last Noah Gordon quite a lot, and i also know that this is an older edition, one from from 1999.

But honestly, it‘s a crime against the profession of graphic designers, isn't it❓

A leisurely, quiet story that is more about storytelling (and the art of winemaking) than "highfalutin" conflicts with twists and turns.

Sure, there were no big surprises either, but I liked this kind of predictability. It suits the author.

I admit I wasn‘t so much into that part of Spanish history but the main story and the action of reading both leave me satisfied. Just the kind of reading experience I obviously am needing at the moment.

„Until he came to France, he had never counted the buds on a vine; but now, when his plants came to life, he looked at them closely and saw that most of them had about 60 buds. except for the very old ones, which which were about 40. Léon Mendès had reduced his his vines to between 15 and 20 buds, and Josep now began to also reduce his oldest vines to this number of buds.” (p. 325)

⬆️⬆️⬆️ Didn‘t know that. Interesting.

I remember I bailed this one as a book. But when I was looking for an audiobook the last time, I didn‘t have patience to go through my library‘s catalogue for another 30 minutes.

I didn‘t like most of the characters and Naomi Shapiro‘s house is still disgusting. Additionally, Katharina Thalbach only fits Naomi Shapiro but not Georgie.

I like the parts when it came to Palestine-Israel-conflict but all the rest will soon be forgotten.

Can you imagine❓The book is still shrink-wrapped. And no, I didn't buy it myself, even though it's been living with me in an unread „state“ for years (2, 3 🤔).
I think I took it from my in-laws when they, again, were sorting out books because most books by Noah Gordon I read were nice entertainment that really sucked me in.

This one shall be about the art of viticulture. That's why you can see my open(ed) bottle of wine in the background, also.

Oh. I. love. it.‼️😍
There are so many layers that it‘s hard to say what it‘s about. It‘s about a girl and the story of her life. That might fit. But simultaneously it‘s about financial transactions and sea-faring. About guilt, decisions and living on the edge of society.

But it‘s never boring because the author intertwines her plot lines cleverly.

The whole art of narration reminds me a bit of Elisabeth Strout but “St.-John-Mandel-style”. 😉

Oh, I love it when there is a circle in a book that closes without you restlessly sitting on the edge of your chair as you read, waiting for this closure of the gap, because at some point you forgot that this one scene, this one sentence, is a loose end whose denouement is actually still pending and open.

“Darkness had already descended on New York, but it was only three o'clock in the afternoon in Las Vegas, where shipowner Leon Prevant, who had had the colossal misfortune to meet Alkaitis in the bar of the Hotel Caiette, was stuck in a meeting that had long outlived its natural lifespan but refused to die.” (p. 259)

⬆️⬆️⬆️ This. 😁

“Since she was seventeen she had been paying her own rent. How could she have become so dependent on another person?
The answer was depressingly simple: she had preferred dependency. She preferred dependency because dependency was easier.” (p. 201)

⬆️⬆️⬆️ That‘s true. And when you realise it, it might be guaranteed to not be a nice finding. On the one hand. On the other hand, you can't always be daring and risk-taking. 🤷🏽‍♀️

“In the kingdom of money, as she called it, there were immense periods of time to fill. immense periods of time to fill, and she had a vague fear of drifting and letting a day pass without a set routine or plan.” (p 78)

⬆️⬆️⬆️ I feel her. I felt the same when watching “Downton Abbey“. I always wondered what they are filling their time with except constantly changing for meals. If you have no job, no chores to do, what do you spend your time with❓

“I don't hate Vincent, he said silently to himself, I've only ever hated Vincent's incredible luck, being herself instead of me. I just hate that Vincent can drop out of school, move to such a ghastly neighbourhood and then somehow, miraculously, she still manages to be excellent, almost as if the laws of gravity and bad luck and misfortune don't apply to her.”

⬆️⬆️⬆️ If I were more reflected I would feel this instead of jealousy, I think. 😂

And no, I absolutely have no idea, what it‘s all about, I refused and still refuse to read the backside.

I am still a bit sad and frustrated by my last three book experiences but I decided that there must come something better. It can‘t always be flops.

So I will now boil some water, slip under my blanket and start “The Glass Hotel”.

I very much like the front picture although I think they could have done something nicer with the lettering.

Can you believe it❓They finally decided to go and find someone to translate more of St John Mandel‘s books. I absolutely loved “Station 11” and ever since that audiobook was looking for more in every book shop I entered.

As I now needed to stock up anti-pandemic supplies I habitually looked for her books. And see what I found. Okay, it‘s a hardcover, something I usually avoid but I decided “Come on, it‘s Emily St. John Mandel!”

I like this one very much in terms of how it describes the friend- and relationship between Friedel and Wölfchen and how difficult it is for them – but then all of a sudden it very clearly falls into two parts. Part one being something like “how it all began” and then, without warning part two fast forwarding 10 or 15 years or so. And with that last part I couldn‘t connect so much.

That‘s why it‘s a solid “So-So” or a weak ”Pick”.

Until today I finished every Fitzek.
Not all of his endings convinced me but I was hooked by all of the pots to follow the whole way through.

Well, not this time. After ~20 % I felt the story was to head from one dead body to another. That bored me and there didn‘t seem to be bread crumbs for the real denouement.

The reincarnation setting was promising and in my early 20ies I would have loved it. But nowadays it doesn‘t carry a plot.

“In the mornings, it now took him almost an hour to scrub the tiredness from his face, and when he left the bathroom he felt more and more like a living sham; a polished-up piece of designer furniture whose hidden quirks only became visible when placed in the unsparing overhead light of the living room at home.” (p. 11)

Can you imagine, a Fitzek I haven‘t read yet.

Actually, I wanted to read something slim because I yesterday ordered a new book. (I am completely innocent of that, the book jumped into my shopping cart while I was looking for completely different things. 😇)

but since my stack of unread books didn‘t offer tiny volumes, I decided to take a book that‘s “half tiny” and simultaneously close an education gap.

Let‘s see if / how I like it.

Another review to clear off my virtual board of books.
I bailed on this in 2021. I really wanted to like it, and at first, I really did, but then, somewhere around the middle it again happened what seems to happen to me with Frank Schätzing often, namely, that from my point of view, he starts waffling. I became bored by Jasper‘s explanations and bailed.

Pity, I liked that most of the characters presented are based on real historical people.

This is just to clear off the board of books I am supposedly “currently” reading. It‘s a long while ago since I finished this audiobook and I therefore can‘t exactly remember my opinion in detail. I think it overall was an okay read with special passages here and there. Just like it was throughout the whole series of three volumes. But to be honest, it was nothing to remember in much detail. Okay entertainment, so a solid and positive “Pick”.

Yesterday, I thought I liked it. But today I decided I do not. The World War II setting doesn‘t catch me and in my eyes most of the characters are stereotypes.

Don‘t know, if it‘s me or the fact that the book was published in 1980. 🤷🏽‍♀️

Still, nice sleeve cover, also.

I think, I grabbed this book from a book thrift years ago because I found the blurb on the back interesting.

I‘m sure it took me too long to pick it up since then . I‘m pretty sure that my bookish interests have shifted in the meantime. 🤷🏽‍♀️ Sorry, not sorry.

I like the hard book cover. 😍 But I dislike the book. I scarcely made 100 pages and since I began reading, I kept asking myself if there finally will be something happening. It‘s just boring story telling for me. 🙄 (Insofar as I want to grant the book something like a plot, a story.)

I didn‘t like how disrespectful the men talked about Caroline, either, and found myself less and less interested in the characters and the plot.

So: Time to bail.

“A clever boy like you should know better" [...].
I had to listen to such remarks from adults all the time when I was a child. [...] They put me in a helpless, silent rage every time, because on the one hand I was desperate to live up to my reputation of being a clever boy, on the other hand it seemed very unfair to me that this intelligence I had never asked for was suddenly being used to reprimand me.” (page 10)

⬆️⬆️⬆️ I so much feel him.

I liked it.
Not as much as I liked the other books I read by her, those with Olive Kitteridge being the protagonist, but all in all it was an okay read. Maybe I wasn't so enthusiastic about this story because I already knew how it was done. Loosely linking different lives, characters and events to form a mosaic was nothing new for me.
Moreover, I was not moved by the overall arc. I would have liked to see less “flat” connecting elements.

“It seemed to him that the older he got (and he was getting really old), the more clearly he saw how little he understood this confusing argument between good and evil, and perhaps people were simply not made to understand things here on earth.” Page 17)

The protagonist‘s wife will be getting 82 soon, so I guess, he‘s about her age. But Littens, I am scarcely half her age and I‘m already feeling exactly how he does. 🤷🏽‍♀️

I only borrowed this because I didn‘t fancy any other audiobook.

But, Littens, I ❤️ it. I wasn‘t hooked at first but latest when the lawsuit began I was reluctant to stop listening. The story brought back good memories of my own time at university and I rooted for both, Sophie and Liv. I even refreshed my knowledge about stolen goods‼️

Recommend because it‘s interesting far beyond the expectable love story.

Already a while ago that I finished it.

It was an okay read. The denouement didn‘t convince me and the ending was too obvious. So nothing for today‘s adult me, but I know I would have loved it in the first half of my “-teen”-years.

Sounds like a suspenseful series for the target group that I personally will skip.

Same procedure as every year: I regularly forget about it, but, wow, 5 years‼️🤩😍

So far I alike it.

A fluent story about a teenage boy whose detective-parents die in an accident.
But: What is that man with the secret camera doing at the funeral and why does the detective agency get ravaged? And why the heck does the insurance send someone who isn‘t who he says he is. ?

Okay, there‘s cliché and exaggeration here and there (a group of 6 agents fails to catch a 13-year-old ?), but I like the setting. And grandpa Delaney. ?

Who am I fooling? I quit.

I don‘t like it. I don‘t like most of the writing style. I don‘t like the narration. I don‘t like the personnel.

I can‘t relate.

I‘m narrow-minded and spoilt. 🤷🏽‍♀️

Can you believe it❓
A big supporter cuts his financial support to zero and that‘s why all of a sudden I find myself activating my network because it might happen they close down my local library by the end of 2022. 😢

Today there‘s a meeting at the town hall to discuss possibilities to keep the library open. But I can‘t attend, I‘m still fighting the beginning of a cold.

All you Littens, keep your fingers crossed.

In between volume 2 and 3 of Kai Meyer‘s “Wellenläufer”, Thomas Hettche‘s brand new (audio)book dropped in for me. ?

Even though the scenes in “present” bogged me, I loved hearing about marionette play and how Germany‘s most famous puppet theatre came to life.

Recommendation for all fans of „Augsburger Puppenkiste“. ?

My favorite cover in this series.
There we are. The great final. With what I thought would be the showdown right after 100 minutes.

Interesting.

But still that “Mahlstrom” and it‘s motives are unclear to me. 🤷🏽‍♀️

The beginning of this audiobook really put me off. But I fought through. Then it was a typical middle book. I often didn‘t feel the weird ideas since they in my eyes often weren‘t necessary for the story (that “Jonah-and-the-Whale” thing 🙄). They only dragged things.

But then, 40 minutes before the end, I met the “Water-weaving” ladies – and there I was, hooked again.

I liked it enough to start volume 2 right away.
I was curious to hopefully understand something about the “Mahlstrom” and the “Mare Tenebrosum”.

Turns out, I feel like he‘s waffling. At first, I liked Jaspar‘s approach but now I have about 200 pages to go – and it‘s all boooring.

Haven‘t touched this for 2 weeks.

Closing time, book and balcony.

I never wanted to read this one. I think, it was his breakthrough novel but nothing draw me to it. I was more “The Swarm”-type of reader, I guess.
Then I “audiobooked” one of his criminal novels („🇩🇪 Lautlos“) – and hadn‘t quite completely finished it and was like 🎶 “Gimme more, gimme more, it was love at first sight!” 🎶 😂

Lucky me. I remembered, I had bought a copy of this one at a thrift, a few years ago.

Actually, I wanted to start my new book.
Then I stopped by at my mum‘s home.

Now it‘s 🎶 “Ebony and balcony …” 🎶 ☺️