I read this book in preparation of a roadtrip through the US later this year. I admit I only read the parts set in the states we‘re planning to visit. That may be the reason why I was not captured by the book. It read more like a diary then an edited book.

Two men are travelling the Oregon Trail in the traditional way: in a covered wagon with mules. They cross many states of course of which I choose #Wyoming for my #ReadUSA2019 challenge.

Are you ready for discussing Cassandra? Everyone is welcome to join the first #NYRB discussion on Saturday May 25 at 2 PM EST.

I have the feeling we all love Cassandra but there‘s still a lot to talk about!

@vivastory and I have come up with some questions and hope to share them with all of you! Please tune in here at 2 PM!

#NYRBBookClub

Alina lives in Romania under the communist regime of Ceaucescu. The secret service is everywhere, privacy a thing of the past. Alina and her husband make plans to leave the country. This little, flash fiction book mixes harsh reality with magical realism. The result is... unexpected, to say the least!

Great read, thanks for sending me this one Jessie 💕

I can‘t imagine the effect this book must have had on readers in the 19th century when there was so much less diversion than today and when it was published in episodes in the newspaper. How readers must have looked forward to the next installment.

In the 21th century this book still is the ultimate revenge novel, the revenge of Edmond Dantès who, after having innocently spent years in a dungeon, returns as the Count of Monte Cristo. #1001books

The Mississippi Delta right after WWII. A way of life like it has been for ages: white farmers, black tenants, separated lives. For both a white and a black soldier who fought and were received as heroes in Europe it is strange to go back to a place where nothing changed. Where all is about race.

A disturbing and emotional read with very real characters. Highly recommended.

#ReadUSA2019 #Mississippi

The lyrics of #WhenTheLeveeBreaks make me think of the power of nature, which is also so perfectly descibed in this great quote by Florence, a colored woman in my current read. I‘m loving it so far.

#MayMovieMagic

Two families own two houses on a deserted beach in Alabama. There is a third house, almost completely covered by sand. Everyone is scared of that one because it has been haunted for years. Yet both families keep coming back to Beldame.
The horror didn‘t scare me at all, yet in combination with great characters it made for a highly enjoyable read.

Thanks for sending me your copy Cindy, as always so well chosen!💜😘

#ReadingUSA2019 #Alabama

It does work for the Netherlands too, @Litsy @TimSpalding and it‘s a great feature! We can now add locations of bookstores!
Here is my favorite one in Amsterdam 💜

The character building in this book is so good! Although the plot fell a bit flat in the middle, I was captured completely by the story of Taylor and her adopted daughter Turtle, a Cherokee. A Cherokee lawyer fights the adoption and states that Turtle should be raised by her own community. Taylor of course can‘t let her go and fights back in the only way she knows.

#ReadingUSA2019 OK
#ATY2019 book about indigenous people
#SaveMe #MayMovieMagic

A daughter tries to make sense of the death of her mother who, aged 61, committed suicide. The result is a beautiful yet painful portrait of a French bohemian family in the 20th century. They seem so light-hearted and carefree but below the surface much has happened and it‘s a tough journey for the daughter, discovering her mother‘s past, and reliving her own youth with a mentally ill mother.

#Booked2019 #NightOrientedTitle

Thank you so much Jessie, for sending me this book, that I have been eyeing since the many intriguing reviews it get. It was such a surprise, nothing is better than unexpected bookmail. Thank you again, I am very grateful for your friendship from across the world ❤️😘

Post 2 of 2 (see below)

@Megabooks @Cinfhen

I was scrolling through my LIbraryThing tag ‘dystopia‘ because of Meg‘s post about The Handmaid‘s Tale and found so many good ones. Thought I‘d share them with you (post 1 of 2).

Somehow I love dystopian novels even though I‘m no fan of SF, fantasy or YA. Recommendations are welcome - as always 💕

A book about the empty nester: Eve, a divorcee, needs to reinvent herself and her life after her only son leaves for college. Her first escape is the internet, where she Googles the word MILF and discovers a whole new, porn-based world. Luckily there‘s more to the book than that.
I liked the way Perrotta handles some of today‘s taboos but he should have made Eve a man - I really couldn‘t connect to her as a woman.

#Booked2019 #SocialMediaFocus

I was sure I would love this book. Hollinghurst is such a good writer and I love his English-ness and his plots. At least I did in In the Line of Beauty and The Swimming Pool Library.
So I didn‘t want to give up but halfway through this one I had to admit I wasn‘t in the least interested in the parade of characters that came and went. It is more a portrait of England in the 20th century than a novel I think. For me that didn‘t work. #manbooker

So have you seen this yet? The announcement of Camp ToB 2019. We have until May 13 to vote for the six Summer reads. The selection is unconventional of course, I‘ve read none except for Daisy Jones! What books are you voting for? #camptob2019

https://themorningnews.org/article/announcing-camp-tob-2019

Just one more quote from this incredible book! ❤️💔#NYRBBookClub

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ All the love for Cassandra! Her character is one of the most intense I‘ve ever met and I hung on her for every worth. Cassandra is dark, smart, infuriating and captivating. The way she manipulates her twin sister and tries to sabotage her marriage is incredible, as is the fact that as a reader you still love her. 👇👇 Continued below

#NYRBBookClub

Great idea Scott, to post about our favorite #NYRB book for the #NYRBBookClub. I don‘t have many yet (I‘m sure that will change soon!) I haven‘t read The Door but of the others I liked Transit best.

“I looked across the space behind the bar and saw my face in a blue mirror between two shelves of bottles. The bottles looked familiar enough, but I didn‘t immediately recognize the face, mostly, I think, because I didn‘t want to. It‘s a face that‘s given me a lot of trouble.”

Here we go! 💜 #NYRBBookClub #NYRB
(Pic: Girona, Spain)

Perfection in writing I think, the way Lucia Berlin arranged the short stories in this book. Each sentence is beautiful in its own. So much so that it at times distracted me from reading the stories as a whole.
Together they tell the lives of ordinary women who have lived the hard life.
A book to read very slowly - which I didn‘t have the patience for, so I may have to read them again one day.

#ReadingUSA2019 #NewMexico
(Pic: Girona, Spain)

#AprilWrapUp #AprilStats

It has been another good month. I read 14 books, am on track with my challenges and read some real good ones. No 5 star reads (they are sparce) but the ones above were 4 or 4,5 stars. It is notabele that three of the five are thrillers, a genre I used to like but that I found lately almost always disappointing. These three were real suspenseful though.

‘Patience. A proper girl, improperly in love‘

Patience is a devout Roman Catholic, trying to live a life without Sin. She‘s married to Edward, but then she meets Philip, falls in love and Sin becomes suddenly all she‘s ever wanted. Coates (a man!) writes tenderly and with humor of Patience‘s discovery of love and sexuality and of her losing her innocence and naivity.

#AllMyLove for this book ❤️❤️. #AnglophileApril
(Picture: Girona, Spain 🇪🇸)

‘As the door shut behind him Patience knelt down and waited to be sick. And she couldn‘t, as usual, help thinking that if Catholic women weren‘t on their knees for one reason, they were probably on them for another‘

Thanks @emilyhaldi for bringing this gem to my attention 💜

April is almost over. I managed to read another five books for the #ReadingUSA2019 challenge:

🍀 Virginia: American Fire
🍀 Florida: Gone So Long
🍀 Ohio: Everything I Never Told You
🍀 Iowa: Big Brother
🍀 Michigan: Bird Box

This makes 18 so far. Another 32 to go...!

This was really something. I didn‘t expect much but I did race through this book, I couldn‘t put it down and it was really scary without getting cheesy or cheap.

Afterwards I watched the movie with my daughter but compared to the book it‘s so much less psychological and I realize that‘s what makes the book so good.

#ReadingUSA2019 #Michigan

So we‘re having King‘s night in Holland (using our King‘s birthday as an excuse to drink and dance in the streets all night) and upon coming home (tired, I‘m way beyond eighteen 😂) I find this parcel from Cindy! You have no idea how much this means to me! The books, which I‘ve been wanting to read, the fact they are #BOTM editions (I now have four, thanks to you. In Europe I‘m sure that‘s many!) and the card. Thank you so much my friend 💜💕

Finally a psychological thriller that didn't leave me a bit disappointed after finishing. This one had lots and lots of twists, some of which I could predict, but they all led to this grande finale that I didn't see coming. A real pageturner about a seemingly normal couple who kills young women just for the kick and because it arouses them sexually. Highly recommended in its genre!

Yesterday I saw A Little Life on stage, performed by International Theater Amsterdam (ITA). It was almost as good as the book and just as heartbreaking. On a surface of 10 square meters Jude and his friends came to live again, Jude being just as vulnerable on stage as in the novel. Apparently Yanagihara saw the performance and was as impressed with the play as I was. 💔

I‘m a sucker for Japanese fiction so I was eager to discover this new to me author. I started with this book, consisting of three novellas. They are weird and horrible things happen, described with a complete lack of emotion. This may be the point of these novellas but to me it made them too flat and empty.

Ooh, such a good read. I couldn‘t stop reading, had to know what was going on with Junior and Hen since a visitor arrived at their house in a dystopian, rural and almost deserted environment. The visitor announced that Junior was longlisted for a journey to an Installation in space. You feel something isn‘t right but what is it? It takes this book to figure that out. It‘s weird and scary but man, does it deliver!

#ATY2019 Speculative fiction

A sister takes care of her morbide obese brother while neglecting her own family. Because siblings are inseperable and should take care of eachother. I don‘t know if I agree and under what conditions. I could connect with Pandora herself and her conversations with her adolescent (step)kids but the whole sibling thing left me uneasy and a bit uninterested.

#ReadingUSA2019 #Iowa

All the father wants for his daughter is to fit in. All the mother wants for her is to be exceptional. Both parents project on Lydia their own youth traumas. And then she dies.

I liked this novel by Celeste Ng, though not as much as Little Fires Everywhere. I kept wondering why the whole dysfunctional family #NeverEver talked to eachother, neither before nor after Lydia‘s death.

#AnglophileApril #ReadingUSA2019 #Ohio

“It is absurd asking me to behave myself, quite absurd. I must rattle my chains, and groan through keyholes, and walk about at night, if that is what you mean. It‘s my only reason for existing.”

This was a short read about a ghost who can‘t scare the new American tenants of his old English castle.

In the background the Champions League match between Ajax and Juventus. On to the semi finals we go ⚽️🎉!

There is Daniel, who long ago killed his wife, their daughter Susan who witnessed it all and her grandmother Lois, who raises her after her father goes to prison and makes sure they never get in touch. 40 years later Daniel is dying and wants to come to terms with his past and to once meet his daughter again. Lois wants to prevent this and Susan is confused and angry. A dense, painful story with memorable characters.

#ReadingUSA2019 #Florida

We have a winner! Even though Liz didn‘t vote yet, Cassandra can‘t be beaten anymore! So this will be our first NYRB buddy read. We‘ll read it in May and have a discussion at the end of the month.
Details about the discussion will follow, keep checking Scott‘s page. Thank you for voting, I felt lucky to be the one to nominate our first read and hope it‘ll be a good one! 💜 #NYRBBookClub

#NYRBBookClub

It has been difficult to narrow them down, but here are my three nominations for our brandnew #NYRBBookClub, to read in May! 🎉

I chose one classic from the #1001books list, one American that I had stacked already and one that has been on my shelves for way too long and that I really want to read, a Hungarian one.

I am looking forward to your votes!
All credits to the awesome Scott for organizing. Thanks so much 💕

A year ago the mayor of the city where I live, died of cancer. He left behind a wife and three young children. In his last interview he asked us to take care of our city. To make sure it would stay the tolerant, open and kind place he knew it to be (his words). In this book his wife tells of her first year without him, raising their kids in the city he loved so much. Deeply touching.

Above all this book for me was look into vanishing American rural communities. It is depressing. The hopeless situation and the couple portrayed, the arsonists who set fire to more than 60 of the 100s of abandoned houses there. Their personal situation seemed about as depressing and hopeless as that of the county they lived in. And then that Tonya.. such a manupulative #BadGirl
Thanks for sending me this one Cindy 😘

#ReadingUSA2019 VA

Home is #SoFarAway when you‘re driving with a dead refugee in the trunk of your car from Morroco to the Netherlands. And where is home actually when your parents are Morrocan but you are born and raised in the Netherlands? Neither feels like home. The eternal dilemma of the migrant and the current flow of North Africans crossing the Mediterranean form the core of this novel.

#ATY2019 Set in a Mediterranean country
#ManBookerInternationalPrize

Good not great, as @Cinfhen described it, is exactly how I feel about this book. Of course I was drawn in immediately by its style and the interview format. And I couldn‘t put it down, I wanted to know how things would end up for Camila and Billy (definitely not an #EasyLover) and of course for Daisy. I felt all electricity but think I‘ll forget about it soon too.

#Booked2019 Features a Musician #AnglophileApril

Part of my #wonderwall 😉, more specifically these are the books I read for #pop19 in the first quarter of the year. #AnglophileApril

The Anishinaabe have lived for generations isolated in Northern Ontario. When the Apocalypse puts an end to modern life they fall back on the survival skills of their ancestors
to get through the winter. Reading this novel feels like living among them.

#Booked2019 Indigenous author
#ATY2019 A book with a title related to an astronomical term

Thank you all for participating in #90sSpringFling. It was so much fun to see how we all over the world lived our lives through the 90s, listened to the same music and dressed the same way.
The Fight Club buddy read has really taken the book to new level. @Cinfhen thank you for organizing. I hope you‘ve had a great wedding party tonight. 💕

Next will be a #BelowZer00s buddy read (and party 🎉🎈), January 10-12. Details will follow! 😘❤️

#90sSpringFling

Question 7 of 7.

If you participated in #StepfordSummerParty and or #HellOween  buddy reads did you have a favorite book? How did Fight Club compare to the other two books? How did you feel about Palahniuk‘s writing compared to the others? Do you see any similarities between the three books? Would you consider Fight Club horror???

#90sSpringFling

Question 6 of 7.

#90sSpringFling

Question 5 of 7. Of course we need to make the comparison with the movie!

#90sSpringFling

Question 3 of 7

#90sSpringFling

Question 2 of 7