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LubicaP

LubicaP

Joined April 2016

It is neither fair nor unfair, Nobody Owens. It simply is.
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LubicaP

Kissing is a type of universal language, best interpreted by those involved in the exchange.

13 likes1 stack add
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LubicaP
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Saw this make-up bag at the Wellcome Collection today. There's an exhibition inspired by the tagged book. This model from the gift shop is called Dental Bling. I need this in my life.

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LubicaP
The Handmaid's Tale | Margaret Atwood
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Fun to see guys finding their way to The Handmaid's Tale through ... football.

squirrelbrain How funny! 6y
13 likes1 comment
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LubicaP
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Pickpick

A very dense collection but worth the effort. These stories will make you think.

Angitron I absolutely loved this book! And totally agree - a dense read, but SO beautiful! 6y
12 likes1 stack add1 comment
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LubicaP
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Germans really have it figured out

9 likes1 stack add
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LubicaP
I Have More Souls Than One | Fernando Pessoa
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The wisdom of Fernando Pessoa

batsy 💜 6y
8 likes1 comment
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LubicaP
Alif the Unseen | G. Willow Wilson
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My former colleague @doris.hc has just launched Paperflips.com , a website offering recommendations to busy book lovers. I tried the quiz and was recommended the tagged book - sounds exactly right for me! Do try it!

LauraBrook Thanks for posting about this! I just took the quiz so don‘t know my result yet, but it looks like a great site! Kudos to your friend! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 6y
9 likes1 comment
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LubicaP
Mehso-so

This may be quite elegant in the original, but the translation felt clunky. The stories would probably form a good basis for Sunday afternoon TV but none of them touched me.

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LubicaP

But this thing that almost never was still beckons, I wanted to tell him. They can never undo it, never unwrite it, never unlive it, or relive it - it's just stuck there like a vision of fireflies on a summer field toward evening that keeps saying, You could have had this instead.

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LubicaP

We belonged to each other, but had lived so far apart that we belonged to others now. Squatters, and only squatters, were the true claimants to our lives.

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LubicaP
Sex and Death: Stories | Sarah Hall, Peter Hobbs
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Pickpick

I bought this during the #londonlittens meetup. All contributors were set the challenge of combining sex and death in their short story. All of the stories are good, none have a neat conclusion and they definitely make you think. 'Evie' by Sarah Hall really stood out to me - it packs a punch.

14 likes1 stack add
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LubicaP
Invisible Library | Genevieve Cogman
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Yesterday I learned that NYPL's catalogue system is called CATNYP. How cool is that?

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LubicaP
Pickpick

A very interesting read. Covers everything from marriage, sex education to LGBT rights. I particularly like how the author explores the links between sexual and political freedoms.

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LubicaP
Sweet: Desserts from London's Ottolenghi | Yotam Ottolenghi, Helen Goh
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In which Mr Ottolenghi's chocolate cake gets a warm chestnut puree blanket :-)

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LubicaP
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Pickpick

Everything you ever wanted to know about Russian organized crime, and some things you didn't know you wanted to know! So glad this book is getting lots of attention - it's excellent. Very readable and comprehensive: it covers history, politics and also pop culture. Big thumbs up!

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LubicaP
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Pickpick

Filed under Badass Women of History. Using a broad range of sources, Jung Chang convincingly challenges the image of Cixi as a conservative standing in the way of reforms. I particularly liked the way she explains how Cixi's bad image was created by her opponents and how it took hold both in China and the West.

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LubicaP
All Grown Up | Jami Attenberg
Pickpick

While this isn't as funny as the marketing would want you to believe, it's very sharply observed. I read it one sitting and found some sections quite moving.

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LubicaP
Sweet: Desserts from London's Ottolenghi | Yotam Ottolenghi, Helen Goh
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Another one from Mr Ottolenghi's book. I prefer the chocolate cake but this one got good feedback too :-) And the mango icing is a fun touch.

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LubicaP
Women Who Blow on Knots | Ece Temelkuran
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The book is not great overall, but this is a gem. True beyond the Middle East as well 😁

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LubicaP
The Palestinian Lover | Slim Nassib
Pickpick

The love story is so-so but the historical details are fascinating. Some really nice writing as well.

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LubicaP
Women Who Blow on Knots | Ece Temelkuran
Mehso-so

The first around 80 pages were great - a road trip story focusing on four women, all of whom are from different Middle Eastern states, is a rare find. This felt very refreshing but ultimately the structure didn't work and overall the book felt like it never had a proper edit. Some lovely quotes, though.

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LubicaP
Sweet: Desserts from London's Ottolenghi | Yotam Ottolenghi, Helen Goh
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I can confirm that Mr Ottolenghi's chocolate cake recipe is amazing. I substituted chocolate frosting with a Nutella variant and added some Ferrero as tonight's dinner was on an Italian theme.

alvingregorio I want 6y
batsy Yum!! 6y
Dragon That cake looks fabulous! I bet it was yummy! 🐉 6y
LubicaP It disappeared in about 20 minutes... 6y
17 likes4 comments
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LubicaP
Letters to a Young Poet | Rainer Maria Rilke
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Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses, only waiting for the day when they will see us handsome and brave? Perhaps everything terrifying is deep down a helpless thing that needs our help.

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LubicaP
Pickpick

This is such a book-club book. Sometimes I thought the author made a bet with herself as to how many discussion topics she can raise in one book. The writing is compelling but I wished the pace would slow down in places to give the reader time to think. Very good overall, though.

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LubicaP
Pickpick

A great crime novel. Intricately plotted. The translator also deserves credit - the text flows seamlessly.

12 likes2 stack adds
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LubicaP
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Pickpick

I can see why Teju Cole received an award for the art of the essay. These are beautifully written and and the breadth of the subjects covered is impressive. I particularly enjoyed the essays on photography, which Cole looks at both from the technological and the political angle. An eye-opening book.

14 likes1 stack add
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LubicaP
The Assassin from Apricot City | Witold Szab?owski
Pickpick

Fascinating articles and interviews, and I learned a lot about the connections between Turkey and Poland. Who knew Nâzım Hikmet's great-grandfather was Polish?

6 likes1 stack add
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LubicaP
Salt: A World History | Mark Kurlansky
Panpan

Focus on ancient Rome, the UK, US and France and a token chapter on China does not constitute a 'world history'. In addition, this wasn't particularly well written and I had the impression that the author's research did not go beyond easily accessible sources in English.

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LubicaP
Telegraph Avenue | Michael Chabon
Mehso-so

A loving tribute to pop culture but the plot and characters left me rather cold. Not my favourite Chabon novel.

5 likes1 stack add
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LubicaP
A Horse Walks Into a Bar | David Grossman, Jessica Cohen
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Mehso-so

An interesting narrative structure - a comedian suffering a breakdown during his stand-up comedy performance, told from the POV of his childhood friend whom he hasn't seen for years. The book is well-written in my view there wasn't enough meat to the story. The big reveal about the supposed choice was a letdown.

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LubicaP
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Foyles is all festive! Love it :-)

Lacythebookworm Lovely! 📚❤️ 6y
16 likes1 stack add1 comment
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LubicaP
Pickpick

The stories are fascinating but the writing could be smoother. It seemed the author couldn't quite decide how to structure the book - chronologically, by issue, people... The result is a little confusing in places. Also I thought the tone oscillates between dry and quite movie-style - again, as if the author couldn't decide. We'll worth a read, though.

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LubicaP
The Only Story: A novel | Julian Barnes
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Julian Barnes reading from his new book at a Vintage Showcase event yesterday. And I was lucky enough to get a proof copy!

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LubicaP
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An amazing talk by Timothy Snyder at Chatham House tonight!

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LubicaP
Pickpick

This book will make you cringe -but that's part of its appeal. It's very accurate in describing the level of stupidity humans are capable of when in love/infatuated/obsessed.

10 likes1 stack add
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LubicaP
Sweet: Desserts from London's Ottolenghi | Yotam Ottolenghi, Helen Goh
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For the record, I resisted the urge to buy this book for two weeks. A doomed effort from the start. I mean, just look at the cover...

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LubicaP

I went to Orhan Pamuk's talk at Southbank last Friday and of course I ended up buying this afterwards. His enthusiasm for building and discusding stories is infectious.

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LubicaP
Pickpick

This is quite a dense collection, I couldn't read more than 1-2 essays in one sitting. Learned a lot about sci-fi, fantasy and creative work in general. Well worth a read.

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LubicaP
Pickpick

I read this for a book club. We talked about the book for two hours and I still haven't completely processed it. This one will stay with you...

Jess_Read_This I just finished this and completely agree. I've been thinking about portions of this books for a few days now. 7y
12 likes1 comment
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LubicaP
August Heat | Andrea Camilleri
Pickpick

A very pleasant read. Good to read about summer heat when there's none to be had here in London. I found some of the plot elements implausible but the pace and dialogue were great.

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LubicaP
Norse Mythology | Neil Gaiman
Pickpick

Beautifully written! These stories are begging to be read aloud.

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LubicaP
A Wizard of Earthsea | Ursula K. Le Guin
Mehso-so

I normally like at least a small dose of realism in my fantasy reads, so this book didn't quite work for me. Perhaps I came to it too late - I would probably have loved it when I was a teenager. Some beautiful quotes, though.

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LubicaP
Pickpick

An interesting collection of legends that are not widely known in anglophone literature. They give a strong sense of how people's environment shaped their lives. Some of the poems are really beautiful.

10 likes1 stack add
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LubicaP
Total Chaos | Jean-Claude Izzo
Pickpick

I loved this! Crime novels are not my favourite genre but this is beautifully written. It paints a vivid picture of the people, noises, smells and food of Marseille. The author was also a poet and that is strongly it shows - the language flows like magic. Strongly recommended! I'm planning the pick up the next book in this trilogy soon.

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LubicaP
Pickpick

Fascinating, although it's clear throughout the book that the sources for this period are frustratingly scarce.

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LubicaP
Thinking, Fast and Slow | Daniel Kahneman
Pickpick

A really interesting book about how easy it is to influence the brain. The discussion on wheter it's possible to develop professional intuition is also useful.

7 likes1 stack add
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LubicaP
Binti | Nnedi Okorafor
Mehso-so

I know lots of people loved this but to me it felt unpolished. Some great ideas, though.

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LubicaP
The Fencing Master | Arturo Perez-Reverte
Pickpick

One of my vacation reads. A nice historical mystery that can easily be read in one sitting. I enjoyed the technical details. The characters could do with a little more depth.

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LubicaP
Uprooted | Naomi Novik
Pickpick

It's been a while since I read a story involving Baba Jaga :-) The characters could do with a little more development, but the plot twists and the beautifully intervowen East European folklore kept me interested. Thumbs up.

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LubicaP
Pickpick

A useful overview of how the medical profession has viewed autism in the past century. Silberman shows that the perception that there's an autism epidemic is inaccurate - more people are diagnosed because there's more awareness about autism. Also good history of parents' activism and cultural perceptions of autism. Best of all, it's really well written - a genuine page-turner, even though it's over 500 pages long.