Such a beautiful satire! I appreciated the dark humour, the honesty, the realism, the reflections and inner life of this narcissistic heroine, and most of all, the artistic connotations of an act of rebirth and renaissance through sleep.

So many names of drugs I've never heard of and hopefully never will again, and I'm still not convinced a human being can survive after mixing these pills and these doses :))

Sleep felt productive. Something was getting sorted out. I knew in my heart - this was, perhaps, the only thing my heart knew back then - that when I'd slept enough, I'd be okay. I'd be renewed, reborn. I would be a whole new person, every one of my cells regenerated enough times that the old cells were just distant, foggy memories. My past life would be but a dream, and I could start over without regrets.

I loved this collection of 15 short stories where the city of Tokyo itself and a cat are characters alongside the inhabitants populating this lively capital. Fragments of their life are beautifully and originally illustrated. They are just humans in a vibrant city, experimenting love, loss, addiction, grief, regrets, failure, healing. The stories have in common some of the characters but also possibly the legendary shapeshifting cat.

Some notable ideas in this one, but it is definitely more useful if read during teenage years.

I'm catching up on the classics with this collection of short stories by the master of the detective, mystery and macabre genres. The virtue of classic and must-read authors resides in that their work remains captivating and meaningful even almost 200 years later.

"Yes, there was a war. Yes, we came from its epicenter. In that war, a woman gifted herself a new name-Lan-in that naming claimed herself beautiful, then made that beauty into something worth keeping. All this time I told myself we were born from war-but I was wrong, Ma. We were born from beauty."

A heart-breaking, raw and grief-stricken confession written in a beautiful poetic prose. The story itself reminded me of "Transcendent Kingdom"...

A powerful, disturbing and tragic story inspired by real events. The conversation between these abused women is wonderfully used as a means of illustrating all major philosophical themes and a feminine universe where fragility and vulnerability coexist with strength, wisdom and love.

Two communities live on the shores of a river in Africa; one has adhered to christianity, while the other still abides by the old traditions and rituals but has embraced school and education, both hoping that their way is the one which will provide for a better faith and life in general. While their conflict grows deeper, an innocent young couple of lovers, who try to reconcile the visions, falls victim to this rift of doubt and hate.

This is not just short prose with an open ending but also with an unpredictable plot which invites the reader's imagination to creatively contribute to expand the stories.

This is not for a reader seeking action in a book, but for one interested in the writing style and the fine sense of observation which sheds a particularly distinctive light on common events in people's lives.

I'm well aware this is a masterpiece of its time (1934), but it simply didn't resonate with me.

The novel depicts 16 years of famous Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh's life between the time he worked for Goupil Gallery in London and his suicide at the age of 37.

On a separate note, I absolutely love Van Gogh's work as an artist.

I received this book as a gift. It's a beautiful dialogue between a radio journalist and a Christian orthodox priest about the meaning of life. I haven't imagined I would enjoy this as much as I did.

I know I'm so late to this party but it was a fantastic one. This is my second novel by Backman and I enjoyed it even more than the first, totally worth all the hype.
Bank robbery turned into failed hostage and apartment's open house situation. I laughed out loud, then used some tissues to wipe out heavy tears, then laughed again, briefly, so representative for Backman's style!

Short but quite shocking pseudo-autobiographical novel. A young girl travels around the world with her family of circus performers after they fled communist Romania in the 1960s and tells her disillusioning story in fresh, cruel and violent images. Her childhood is haunted by her fear of not losing her mother whose number is to dangle from her hair and by her mother's fear for her daughter not to be abused in a world of poverty and struggle.

"In each new town I dig a hole in the earth in front of our wagon, I thrust my hand in it, then my head and I hear God breathing and chewing underneath. Sometimes I wish I sank, despite my fear, in there, to let myself bitten by him. God is always very hungry."

"My family broke abroad like glass breaks."

"I let my skin drop on the floor."

"I dream that my mom dies. She leaves me a box with her heart's beats."

This wonderful collection of essays walked me through all possible emotions. I'm so grateful to Litsy for discovering this book. ?

"That's what I got from these books, the ability to walk through the door where everything I thought had been lost was in fact waiting for me. All of it. The trick was being brave enough to look. The books had given me that bravery, which is another way of saying the ability to believe."

This memoir is a little treasure for book lovers; chapters in the author's life are entangled with references to books that have educated, shaped, amazed, supported and uplifted her in tremendous ways in good and in bad times.

"Every book holds a memory. When you hold a book in your hand, you access not only the contents of that book but fragments of the previous selves that you were when you read it."

⭐️ “I will make piles of my most treasured books and read through them, taking comfort not only in each book itself but also in the reassuring knowledge that there are many more to come.“

⭐️ “When the bite of real life is too brutal, I retreat into made-up worlds and tread well-worn paths.“

⭐️ “Reading built me and always has the power to put me back together again.“

A beautiful tribute to the women of her soul and to the women in her life. A delicate collection of thoughts about her mission, about women's condition, about ageing as a woman, her manifesto for a better world.

“The patriarchy is stony. Feminism, like the ocean, is fluid, powerful, deep and encompasses the infinite complexity of life; it moves in waves, current, tides and sometimes in storms. Like the ocean, feminism never stays quiet.”

My first novel by Vonnegut. I enjoyed this original and surprising satire!

"Thanks to their decreased brainpower, people aren't diverted from the main business of life by the hobgoblins of opinion anymore"

This book is the sleep bible, the science explaining the "what", the "how" and the "why" of sleep.
I've always loved a good night's sleep and knew quality sleep was crucial to health, well-being, work productivity and creativity, and now I am also aware why, as the saying goes: "Sleep is the best medicine."

"I waited in a still, nut-brown hall, pleasant with late flowers and warmed with a delicious wood fire - a place of good influence and great peace. Men and women may sometimes, after great effort, achieve a creditable lie; but the house, which is their temple, cannot say anything save the truth of those who have lived in it."

A tribute to the OuLiPo manifesto. I loved all the philosophy disguised under this smart thriller.
A plane with over 200 passengers onboard coming out of a terrible storm lands safely 106 days after a perfectly identical copy of it had landed. While the theory explaining the event sounds quite spectacular, the more shocking and thought-provoking is the question: what would you do if you met yourself and had to live in parallel with your double?

This memoir was such a pleasant weekend read. A beautiful meditation on women's condition and the relation with their emotional baggage and material possessions. Wisely chosen literary references and meaningful geographical locations added depth and relevance to the message.

"There were spectres in the shadow of my own life too: childhood, Africa, love, loneliness, ageing, my mother, all the unreal estate in my property portfolio."

I know just some basic chess moves and still found it very entertaining, I imagine it must be fascinating for chess lovers!♟️♟️♟️
I binge watched the TV show right after I finished the book.

Happy World Book Day and International Writers' Day! 📚

"Taken together, all of these studies suggest that the path to a life of meaning and significance isn't to "live in the moment" as so many spiritual gurus have advised. It is to integrate our perspectives on time into a coherent whole, one that helps us comprehend who we are and why we're here."

Some useful and practical ideas in this book. Knowing WHEN to do something is just as important as knowing how to.

A man on a quest to uncover his inheritance and understand his identity; a very special family novel, slow, heavy and painfully realistic in the first half, with quite a steep shift to a more alert and captivating storyline in the second, flirting with magical realism, myths and allegory.

I understand the TV series is coming up soon!

The writing is so elegant, the setting so atmospheric. In 1922 Count Rostov is sentenced to house arrest in Metropol, the most luxurious hotel of Moscow, where he lived. We witness 32 years of Russia‘s tumultuous, painful and tremendous history experienced by a man who refused to let himself defeated by harsh and inevitable changes, and whose education and humanity proved to be priceless in any era.

"By their very nature, human beings are so capricious, so complex, so delightfully contradictory, that they deserve not only our consideration, but our reconsideration—and our unwavering determination to withhold our opinion until we have engaged with them in every possible setting at every possible hour."

This one was a sweet detective story and comedy, the 3rd installment in a series written by a local author. The main characters are an adorable 63-year old lady who was arrested for being involved in art thefts, has been mistaken with someone else and taken out of prison by a group of gangsters, her black tom cat and a police inspector who has the bad luck of being assigned to find her.

I am not familiar with the entire social and political background, but still I am in awe of the author's brilliance in delivering such a complex drama encompassing so much individual and collective trauma under the format of a very believable stand-up comedy show. The constant back and forth between tragedy and comedy, soft jokes and more subtle, deep matters is terrific. I'm part of that audience that stuck with the show till the end.

'We covered birthdays, which as you know are a day of reckoning, of soul-searching, at least for those who have a soul, and I'll tell you that personally, in my state, I just don't have the resources to maintain one. Seriously, souls demand non-stop upkeep, don't they? It never ends! Every single day, all day long, you gotta haul it in for servicing. Am I right or I am right?'

I tapped more into psychogenealogy and transgenerational trauma. The family tree seems to be a living organism which influences our life in all major areas with almost mathematical precision. The moment of our conception, of birth, our name, all have a meaning and a purpose. We can heal our family tree if our ancestors' destiny is negatively impacting our life and free ourselves from repeating mistakes and lessons not learnt by our predecessors.

I couldn't find this one's title in English.

Psychogenealogy gives a lot to think about! I will definitely read more on this topic.

To what extent do the loves, failures, revolt, despair and neurosis in our lives repeat the feelings and choices of our ancestors?

We have the chance to liberate ourselves from the transgenerational script and chase away the "ghosts" and traumatic legacies embedded in our family tree.

Oh my, this is a jarring, hard one, although not much happens. Metaphors are magnificently achieved through an incredibly original use of terrifying, disgusting sensory and visual details.

Jas lives with her siblings at an animal farm in a very religious family. She's 10 when a terrible accident occurs, her parents' relationship deteriorates and the children try to process and understand death on their own, which leads to tragic consequences.

I simply loved this one! ???
I was completely absorbed by the life of this small Armenian village isolated on top of a mountain, where everything is soaked in magic and symbolism and a late love saves the world. It reminded me of my grandparents' life and I believe this book was with good reason called "a balm for the soul".

An enjoyable novel for children. This story is not new and although I've read similar ones over time, it is always good to be reminded of the important message it conveys. I spent some very nice hours in the company of these lovely characters.

Thank you Litsy for this book which I devoured in a day!
I loved the lyrical descriptions of both the inner and outside world, the meaningful dialogue, the magnitude of human emotions and the realism of the heart-wrenching disaster of animal extinction.

'If the animals have died it will not have been quietly. It will not have been without a desperate fight. If they've died, all of them, it's because we made the world impossible for them.'

"Human life is but a series of footnotes to a vast obscure unfinished masterpiece."

"Life is just one small piece of light between two eternal darknesses."

A fabulous and scandalous classic literary work of art I am glad I finally read.

"The world‘s shrivelling beyond the windows, darkening at the edges and blackening at the centre"

I liked this gigantic, suspenseful and philosophical puzzle, its peculiar premise and particularly enjoyed the dialogue in the last chapters.

My oh so late top 21 of 21 consisting of the 20 above + The Master and Margarita

Hilarious take on political correctness and the warm mediocrity and cliches it inevitably leads to.

"Red Riding Hood screamed, not out of alarm at the wolf's apparent tendency toward cross-dressing, but because of his willful invasion of her personal space."

A good, solid thriller. I liked how chapters were organized and could be read in a different order as well and particularly enjoyed learning about narcolepsy.

Always!

"Late into the night I write and
the pages of my notebook swell
from all the words I‘ve pressed onto them.
It almost feels like
the more I bruise the page
the quicker something inside me heals."

It is incredible how this prose in verse can encompass such a fabulous avalanche of emotions, hit with giant waves of teenage frustration and passion and make the reader relive that unforgettable age that is adolescence.

"The center of the earth is not a giant crystal; it's the kitchen in every house."

Three endearing and heart-wrenching life episodes: a woman finds purpose and relief from her sad life, a man learns how to treasure his beloved wife's memory and a woman succeeds to surpass a family crisis through the incrediby healing power of cooking and marvellous recipes.

I had no idea the souffle is one of the most difficult to cook dishes!

Largely inspired by the author's personal experience, the book gives voice to so many unheard women, not only from Korea.

No wonder the novel has raised a debate in the Korean society and became a cult book, given how forthright it presents women's condition over the last 40 years. A wonderful book to read in just a couple of hours.

Such a pleasure to read beautifully entwined tender and passionate love stories in a murder mystery and romance thriller. Violette has been a cemetery keeper for 20 years, she tends to her garden, keeps a registry of burial speeches and offers confort and a hot coffee to all visitors who stop by her house on their way in and out of the graveyard. One visitor disrupts her routine and we discover her painful past of loss, love, hope and redemption.

Both volumes are wonderfully illustrated and inspiring compilations of 200 real heroine stories revealing a world of infinite possibilities

Rarely do I finish a book and feel like I don‘t need to say a word about it, in a good way, to just interiorize the narrator's confession. The emotions it triggers are simply overwhelming. It is indeed a story about the harsh reality of immigrant life, opioid addiction and depression, love and loss, about turning to science for answers, but most of all it seems to be an exploration of the extent to which faith is able to ensure transcendence.

"I had to try to understand, to extrapolate from that limited understanding in order to apply it to those of us who made up the species Homo Sapiens, the most complex animal, the only animal who believed he had transcended his Kingdom... That belief, that transcendence, was held within this organ [the brain] itself. Infinite, unknowable, soulful, perhaps even magical. I had traded the Pentecostalism of my childhood for this new religion [science]"