I have finished the third quarter of #Booked2019. Just in time. These were my six books. Now I‘m starting planning for the last quarter. Are you already thinking about #Booked2020, @4thhouseontheleft @BarbaraTheBibliophage @Cinfhen ?! 😘

I read this #GraphicNovel for #Booked2019 and because it‘s on the list of #1001books but I didn‘t fell for the genre. For me, looking at pictures is way more difficult than to just read, all those images soon dazzle me. And then it is about superheroes... in which I‘m not interested at all. However, I was intrigued and it kept me reading on. Never again though 🤪

When her girlfriend discovers Alice isn‘t dead (because she sees her on the news), Keisha starts looking for her, by driving through the US as a truck driver. So far so good. But then things start getting supernatural (first a bit but then a lot) and I lost interest. #podcast

I just now discovered this #podcast but I could not concentrate on what was happening. Too weird for me, I admit it. Unfortunately because I liked the premise so much!

#GroundsForDivorce #RedRoseSeptember

This book is so not my usual stuff, but okay, I‘ll give it a try. It works for #1001books, #Booked2019 and #ATY19.

I enjoyed Ling Ma‘s writing, her New York, her main character Candace. Shen Fever is spreading fast, everybody leaves the city or dies, but Candace stays as long as she can, because she lacks other options. When she finally leaves, there is that other storyline, which I thought was less good. It reminded me of many other dystopian novels. However, I am interested in what Ling Ma will write next.

#Booked2019 #genrebusting

Day 7 #7Days7Covers #CoverCrush

For a week I‘ll post a favorite cover each day and tag someone new to join in.

@JaclynW do you want to share your seven favorite covers? No explanation needed.

Day 6 #7Days7Covers #CoverCrush

For a week I‘ll post a favorite cover each day and tag someone new to join in.

@emmaturi do you want to share your seven favorite covers? No explanation needed.

Day 5 #7Days7Covers #CoverCrush

For a week I‘ll post a favorite cover each day and tag someone new to join in.

I couldn‘t of course let this week go by without a #Persephone edition. I hope to read this one later this month.

@thebluestocking do you want to share your seven favorite covers? No explanation needed.

Such a sparkling novel about a group of friends at a renowned school in Birmingham, England. They are the editors of the school newspaper in the turbulent seventies. Strikes and politics paralyze the country (not unlike today‘s England…), the IRA is terrorizing the city, and the boys discover pop music and love. Coe as always writes funny with a serious undertone.

It was not easy to keep focussing on the beautiful sentences among the stream of conscience memoirs of Elizabeth Hardwick. I was not really in the mood for such a read unfortunately. #NYRBBookClub

The memories of her youth took place in #Kentucky so I can use the book for #ReadingUSA2019.

(Pic: This summer I stayed in a hotel in Brooklyn with the best pillows ever. I have searched everywhere and was able to buy them online!)

Man it was hard not to throw this book in a corner. I kept wondering what was the point. People in a room, killing eachother, lots of gory details and unfinished sentences. The chapters kept repeating themselves, so did the conversations. I ended up bored and frustrated. It‘s probably me but what a waste of time. (Sorry @rajithr and @vivastory ...)

#ReadingUSA2019 #NewHampshire

This book is written by the estranged sister of Josh Powell, one of the main characters in the #podcast Cold, a chilling podcast about a case gone cold. Josh‘s wife Susan disappeared one day and although everyone was sure he murdered her, he fooled the police and was never arrested. A few years later Josh killed their kids and himself. Will ever be known what happened to Susan? #PoorMisguidedFool #RedRoseSeptember

Later today RHCP‘s bassist Flea 🌶hosts his bookclub live on Instagram. This month‘s choice was News of the World. I liked the ‘reading the news‘ subject as well as the relation between the travelling news reader and the little girl who travels with him through 19th century #Texas to be returned to her family after being kipdnapped by Kiowa indians.

#ReadingUSA2019

#auguststats #augustwrapup

Of 15 books these were my four favorites: one 5 stars, two 4,5 stars. It has been a very good month!

🍀Washington: Where‘d you go, Bernadette
🍀Idaho: Faraway Places
🍀North Dakota: Three Women
🍀Texas: News of the World (current read)

Another four books finished in August. With 35 out of 50, I am still on schedule, although it gets more difficult to find good books for those last states. #ReadingUSA2019

All the lies! I liked every bit of this legal thriller that pierced my soul at times too- all the mistakes people make by thinking, acting, saying and not saying.

I don‘t get the hype about this book. I feel like I‘ve read it a thousand times before or seen it it real life. And I feel like Taddeo wanted to point out how all women in the end turned out to be victims, which maybe these three are, but it‘a not as if that‘s always the case when women are having sex with other people then their husband or without being married. So the book annoyed me more than I enjoyed it.

#ReadingUSA2019 #NorthDakota

I seem to be the first to not like this book but I really didn‘t. Although the storyline set in the present (two men waiting in a Spanish harbour for the girl Dilly to arrive) had some potential, the storyline set in the past (about the two men doing drugs and things - a subject I mostly find annoying) didn‘t work for me. This author has been compared to Beckett. That may be a compliment but I‘m no fan of Beckett either. Not at all. #bookerprize

A farmboy in Idaho in the 1950s becomes aware of injustice and bigotry; over the course of a long hot summer he witnesses a cruel murder and the false accusation of a black man. It is time for the boy to make up his mind and trust what he sees and believes in. He grows up fast. I enjoyed his voice and the atmosphere in this rural drama.

#ReadingUSA2019 #Idaho

What a delightful witty book! Exactly what I was in the mood for. Bernadette is the most unconventional type of mother, surrounded by mothers who are judging her because she‘s not as active at the school of their kids as they are. So recognizable, it made me laugh out loud. A combination of events (all rather hilarious) lead to Bernadette‘s disappearance. Daughter Bee and her father set out to find her. Recommended!

#ReadingUSA2019 #Washington

Tim Sunblade, an escaped convict, has planned a heist that will set him up for life. But the partner who helped him plan didn‘t survive the prison escape, so he has to find someone else. After all, it‘s a two-person job. Then he meets Virginia. Their cat-and-mouse relationship is memorable 💕
The story is noir crime fiction at its best, with great dialogue, a quickly moving plot and a startling ending.

Great choice, Katie! #NYRBBookClub

This is one of the most beautiful lovestories I‘ve ever read. Liat and Hilmi meet in NYC and fall in love but they know it won‘t last. Because she is Israelian and he Palestinian. A wall and animosity seperate their two countries, which are so similar in a way. Yet love like theirs give hope that these barriers could be broken down one day. Because they talk and fight and make up and are willing to try again.
#Booked2019 A gift - thanks Cindy 😘

Four sisters move to the jungle of the Congo with their parents. The father is a fanatic missionary. All deal differently with this new reality that has an impact on the rest of their lives.
What I enjoyed about this book was all I learned about Congo‘s history. It felt so real that the country grew on me a bit as well. Also the characters are great (Rachel is hilarious)! For me the book could have had a 100 pages less though. #1001books #ATY2019

I am home again. After 32 amazing days across the US it‘s hard to go back to reality now. But things immediately look better since I opened these two bookish parcels. You‘re both so thoughtful, Carolyn and Katja, and I am really touched by your words and the books. Your recommendation of them means a lot! Thank you so much ❤️😘

And the last stop of my vacation: Washington DC. I know everybody loves this book and I‘m sure I will too but so far I have a hard time getting into it.
@JessNevertheless tonight we‘ll check out some of your restaurant suggestions! Thanks again for the excel-sheet 😘.

I ❤️ Flea and love to join this book club. I just wonder, is this book good? Should I read it? #instagram #flea333 #rhcp

Based on @Cinfhen ‘s review I bought this one and she was right, it is very good! Losely connected stories, all based on people travelling by plane to go home, visit friends, family, escape the turbulence of their own life etc.
Just like in Szalay‘s other book, All That Man Is, his characters and plots are so interesting that I would like to read (much) more about all of them.

(Pic: Our AirBnB in The Hamptons, New York)

How far would you go to protect your loved ones? That‘s what keeps her parents going when Stella is arrested for murder. The story is told from the pov of al 3 members of this far from #perfect family. You feel you have to take side with one of them. As if they all stand trial - which in a way they do. I chose Stella because I could identify even less with the parents (esp the father). Interesting. #AyUpAugust

(Pic: Southampton beach, New York)

A truly wonderful book that many many people should read. Beside the incredible well written plot of a marriage falling apart and the children noticing, it describes the reality of our current world, in which our leaders refuse child refugees at our borders, and leave them by themselves in the most inhumanly way. Must read and must win the #Bookerprize

(Pic: Southampton, New York)

Great idea Megan, to share our #20booksby2020! These are some of my choices of books to read before the end of the year. They are #bookerprize nominated books, books from the #1001books list, one to be read for the #nyrbbookclub and books for this year‘s various challenges (#booked2019, #ATY2019, #pop2019 and #ReadingUSA2019).

I am looking forward to seeing the reading plans from others 💕🤓

Wow, what did I just read? An absolute mind-bending read about science, memory and time. A book of love and loss. Although a lot went over my head, reality as Crouch creates it, feels completely plausible. I couldn‘t stop reading and will be thinking of this one for some time to come. Worth the hype!

(Pic: Williamsburg, NYC)

No idea why this fab bookstore isn‘t in the Litsy database but anyhow, I made it. And spoiled myself. Because I‘m worth it 😂😂❤️❤️

Lanny is a little boy, busy talking to trees and doing other interesting things in the rural village he recently moved to with his parents - who both still live partly in London, at least mentally.
His mother arranges for Lanny to have art lessons with Pete, a local (once famous and controversial) resident. This provides the catalyst for the plot.
Continued below ⬇️⬇️⬇️

(Pic: Niagara Falls)

I had to read this one for the #1001books list but I have to admit it bored the hell out of me. I‘m sure it‘s a masterpiece which influenced many later books but listening to all those short stories (many of which I knew already because I am old and wise 😂) just was too much. I am glad I had the lovely and beautiful landscape of upstate New York to enjoy in the mean time.

(Pic: Aurora, Finger Lakes, New York)

😂

#julystats #bestofjuly

Of the 14 books I read this month, these three were my favorites (4,5* each).

Matthew (12) doesn‘t have a simple imaginary friend, he is talking to Chocky, a supernatural invader who learns Matthew scientific stuff way beyond his years.

Starting from this simple fact, John Wyndham has written a clever and fascinating SF story, centered around the intriguing question: if there are intelligent beings from another world, how and when will they get in touch?

#1001books (Pic: Toronto, Canada)

In July I have added three more books to the #ReadingUSA2019 challenge:
🍀 Utah: Under the Banner of Heaven
🍀 Arizona: The Expendable Man
🍀 Louisiana: The Fact of a Body

My total now is 31. Just 19 left!

I have no respect for the author at all after all I learned about him in the past few months (he should write an autobiography!), but I did like this book. It‘s a solid thriller with an unreliable narrator who has agoraphobia, and it kept me reading half the night.

#Booked2019 #booktomovie

(Pic: Chicago. What an amazing city that is 😍😍)

I went in with high expectations. A man wants to live like ‘folks‘ did in prehistoric times and brings his family with him. They are submitting to his wishes even though they don‘t want to relive ancient times themselves. I liked the premise of this novella but wasn‘t that impressed in the end.

(Pic: ‘Our‘ California Zephyr train at Denver Station, Colorado)

I am travelling by train from Salt Lake City to Chicago. 36 hours through the scenery of Utah, Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa and Illinois. 36 hours to eat and sleep, read and listen to podcasts. Living the dream 😍😍

A parent‘s nightmare: their 16 years old kid was murdered. After seven months of grief and estrangement the trial against the boy who is accused of the murder starts.
A sad read but it didn‘t touch me as much as A Cupboard Full of Coats did.

(Pic: Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah)

There we go again. No longer the #manbooker but still the #bookerprize. This year‘s longlist looks really exciting I think!

You were so right, @JaclynW this bookshop is absolute fantastic! Such nice people working there! They helped my daughter choose some YA and I had a hard time buying just one book!

I flew through this one and I had a good time reading about Evelyn but I‘m pretty sure I‘ll forget about her just as soon.

(Pic: Wasatch Mountains, Utah)

Out of the blue I found this lovely bookstore in Park City, a lovely small town in the Wasatch mountains. Thanks for your suggestion @JaclynW it is so beautiful here! In the bookstore, that also sells icecream and caramel apples, I bought the tagged book because everyone is raving about it on Litsy and it is way out of my comfort zone!

After Trump‘s election the world turns against a Muslim doctor working in rural Minnesota, his family and his religion. He encounters a lot of hate and tries to turn his anger into something positive: a lecture to explain Islam and address prejudices against it (terrorism, women, sharia).
A thought provoking book about an important subject. I could say much more but will refrain from politics here.

#Booked2019 Muslim author
(Pic: Rural Idaho)

“The good thing, finally, is to lead a devoted life, even if it swings around and strikes you in the face.”

Baker strikes again with this fantastic book about a white boy who becomes obsessed with black jazz music and becomes the best horn player LA or New York has known until then. The reader feels the trip that his life becomes, drowned in alcohol, steamy as an underground jazz club.

I did like Daisy Jones, buy this book really rocks!

(Pic: The Painted Hills, Oregon)