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 about this into something positive: a lecture to explain Islam and get into some 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.

(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)

During this trip I realize how big and empty (#wherehaveallthecowboysgone?) the US are. My own country is so small and packed with people and places. So I am used to having 4G internet everywhere. I hadn‘t realized that of course that wouldn‘t be the case in gorgeous empty Oregon 💜But today we‘re staying on a small camping in an even smaller town and there is WiFi! So I can catch up on Litsy and am planning to read all afternoon! #LilithJuly

This book is a poem, a lovesong, a serenade, a celebration. Of New York City and of Oliver Sacks. Every sentence in this book feels genuine and intimate. Hayes writes with so much respect about the people who make his city and about the two lovers who made him into the man who wrote this wonderful quiet book.

(Pic: Oregon‘s forests)

Yet another book about child molestation and its impact on the rest of a child‘s life. Marzano feels a connection between her own youth, that of phedophile and murderer Ricky Langley and the mother of the child he killed, which led to his conviction. She wants to understand what has driven them to be able to deal with her own past.

#ReadingUSA2019 #Louisiana
(Pic: Crater Lake, Oregon)

When a couple inherits a lake their whole life changes. Because in the Lake they discover many mussels and pearls. What to do with this sudden wealth? Is it allowed to use if for a risky medical treatment for their handicapped son? Will the money enrich them when they have been so happy without it?

(Pic: Pacific Coast, Mendocino, California)

I can cross bookstore #1 off the bucketlist ✔️
What a great place, I could have stayed there forever but unfortunately I had three people outside waiting for me! I do have two new books in my #Posession though 😍. #LilithJuly

I knew nothing about this book except that some of my peers here recommend it (looking at you @Liz_M 😀) and that I can‘t resist Persephone. Diving in unprepared is what made this highly suspenseful noir so powerful. I can‘t say too much. Just read it. And don‘t read reviews on forehand. Dorothy Hughes made me feel how the main character must have felt. Impressive!

#ReadIngUSA2019 #Arizona
(Pic: San Francisco)

Safely arrived in San Francisco. Thank you so much for all your suggestions @Jas16 and @BooksForEmpathy 😘😘. As you can see, I‘ve been listening good! Jetlagging now with Litsy and my book in our hotel in The Mission District.

This is not about religion, fundamentalist Mormonism (FLDS) is about frustrated white men abusing women and children. I knew nothing about it, LDS is no big thing in my country but I am really shocked. And upset and angry. That is, if Krakauer used a balanced hand while writing. I tend to believe all he says, but maybe I shouldn‘t? What do you think, fellow buddy readers?

#bannerbuddy #ReadingUSA2019 #Utah

#DontDreamItsOver when it‘s just about to begin! Today is about packing our bags, tomorrow we‘ll be flying to San Francisco and we‘ll have the next month to make our way to Washington DC by RV, train and car. I‘ve been so looking forward to this!! 💃💃💃

#LilithJuly

Me in my #Windowseat cruising the country with Aesop‘s Fables on audio. It‘s hard to avoid falling asleep... #LilithJuly

How cool is this? Bassist Flea of Red Hot Chili Peppers has started a book club. The first read is this one, to be discussed on July 25, at 11 AM Los Angeles time. For more information check out his Instagram, flea333 ❤️🌶

The weekend has started and with it the Banner Buddyread. Let‘s try to finish this one this week and share our thoughts with hashtag #bannerbuddy. If you wanna join us, do so!

I just read the prologue (I didn‘t know the story) and Googled Dan Lafferty. Scary man!

This was an example of the wrong book at the wrong time I think. I wasn‘t in the least grabbed by or interested in all hardship and drama Oscar and his family had to deal with in life. I felt even annoyed by how all went wrong. All. Fuku they call it in the Dominican Republic where part of the book is set. The other half is set in New Jersey so that counts for #ReadingUSA2019! #1001books

I really really liked this one. And I didn‘t for a moment expect to since I was so annoyed by The Centre of the Earth!
But this is a book about a nerdy control freak (so like myself 😉) who has a tight schedule to travel the world in 80 days. It‘s about countries and travelling in the old days and it‘s a bit of an adventure. I hope it fits the #middlegrade prompt for #Booked2019 since everyone I know read it at that age! #1001books

What a great hashtag, #top6reads. I‘ve loved seeing everyone‘s posts! Thanks for tagging me @Cinfhen and @vivastory 💜, I‘m happy to share my favorites, partly influenced by both of you, no doubt about that!

I‘ll tag @emilyhaldi @Liz_M @Rachel_nyc @Ruthiella @youneverarrived @thebluestocking , just a few of the people whose picks I stack automatically and whose top 6 I have not seen yet! 💕

No NYRB edition for me of this book. This is the Dutch edition which I read years ago because this novella is one of the #1001books to read before you die. It is a gem, you‘re in for a treat, #NYRBBookClub ♟🖤

#JuneStats #JuneWrapUp

In June I read 10 books of which the three pictured above were my favorites (four stars, no five stars this month).

#ReadingUSA2019 challenge: Halfway through the year, I‘m still on track for this challenge and enjoying it very much. In June I could add five more states:

? Hawaï: The Descendants
? Kansas: Heartland
☘️ Minnesota: Shadow Tag
? Tennessee: Mourning Dove
? New Jersey: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (current read)

28 states done, 22 more to go. Let‘s do this!

You can‘t go wrong with Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci. Her interviews were always very political and very balanced. I learned so much from her books. This one about Vietnam I can recommend to everyone who wants to know a bit more about how it was to live there in and after the war. A poignant read.
#GoodnightSaigon #WanderingJune

Camille and her brother Finley grow up together in an unstable household. They support each other but then Finley moves out and they drift apart. Although it is well written, the story rambles and goes on way too long. In the end I just wanted to be done with it.

#ReadingUSA2019 #Tennessee

“Later, she could smell him make himself a sweet pancake for his lunch. She thought this a childish thing to eat, and selfish, too. If he were a gentleman he would now come to her room and save her from the prison her foolishness had made for her. He did not come.”

A typical sentence for their relationship. Oscar & Lucinda are one of my favourite couples ever. This book is set in and written by an author from #DownUnder. #WanderingJune #1001books

Look Helen and Holly! BookDepository delivered fast! I am all set for out buddy read!

Anyone else interested in reading this nonfiction book about the origin and evolution of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), and a modern double murder committed in the name of God fundamentalist Mormons?

@Hooked_on_books @squirrelbrain and I will #buddyread this book the second week of July. You‘re welcome to join us!

It may be that for a non-native like me English books are harder to listen to than to read.
I think I understand what I hear but audiobooks don‘t often touch me as a book that I read myself can do.
This book, for example, to me felt just like listening to a lot of landscape-with-sheep descriptions, and a soap opera in which three men circle around one woman. There must and will be more to it, but I missed it. #1001books

The #Summer quarter of #Booked2019 is a real challenge for me since I never read graphic novels or middle grade but for now I have these six beauties lined up! Looking forward to all of them, although they may change of course!

Irene and Gil are married and have three children. They can‘t live with nor without eachother. Booze, art and secret diaries become weapons in a fight between them where no one can gain from, there‘s too much at stake. So much to lose.
Between a pick and a so-so.

#ReadingUSA2019 Minnesota

The game nails Irene and Gil‘s relationship. Smart title!

“We believe the one who has power. He is the one who gets to write the story. So when you study history, you must ask yourself, Whose story am I missing? Whose voice was suppressed so that this voice could come forth? Once you have figured that out, you must find that story too. From there you get a clearer, yet still imperfect, picture.”

All the love 💕 for this #AfricanLady (she was born in Ghana in 1989 and grew up in Alabama). #WanderingJune

This is the hottest book in the Netherlands at the moment. All reviews in the leading media were raving. 600 pages full of different pov‘s about oil, oil company Shell, boardrooms, Beethoven, journalism and kinky sex. It is lot. And it‘s only the first instalment. There are two more on its way. It is a so-so read for me, although I probably will read the second part once it will be published.

#ATY2019 Book inspired by something blue

🎶 I'll show you a place
High on a desert plain
Where the streets have no name 🎶

The lyrics of #WhereTheStreetsHaveNoName remind me of this family saga, set in the desert city of Segu, Mali. The book shows the chaos in 19th century Africa as a result of spirituality, religious fervor, violence, national rivalries, racism, and commerce coming together. Recommended! #WanderingJune

What a strange book. Six people in London, living a merry go round of relationships. With eachother. They are so unlikable, all of them. And stubborn and vain and stupid. Murdoch did a great job making me feel this way but in the end it‘s certainly not my favorite book by her.

#1001books #stdb2018 #ATY2019 Book inspired by something borrowed

“It‘s not the future, but it‘s a version of a future, and it feels a lot like a version of the future that we are heading for.”

This is John Lanchester describing the tagged book, about England after an (utterly believable) apocalypse due to climate changes. It is a very good book and it fits The Clash‘s lyrics perfectly!

#LondonCalling #WanderingJune 📸: Google

It‘s #ARoadToNowhere, the lives of the people of Melbourne. They await the arrival of deadly radiation spreading towards them from the North, following a nuclear war a year previously. Each character deals with this truth differently. A heartbreaking story 💔
#WanderingJune

This was exactly what I expected of it. A well written whodunit with a good cast of characters. I figured out halfway who murdered the maid of honor on the night before the wedding but there were enough storylines to keep me reading on feverishly.

#NYRBBookClub

See what I discovered on Wikipedia: Iris Owens earned her money writing erotic novels under the pseudonym Harriet Daimler. That‘s right: Harriet! Interesting, don‘t you think?

What a surprising read. Harriet is one of the most political incorrect characters I‘ve ever met and she made me laugh out loud. I am glad I don‘t know anyone like her in real life! In the first part she is getting dumped by Claude (or the other way around as she claims). I loved that part. The after Claude part fell a bit flat for me. I am looking forward to what the #NYRBBookClub thinks of her ‘saviour‘ in the #GrandHotel.

#WanderingJune

“The term ‘poor‘ is used to represent those without money, and it also is a descriptor meaning outright badness, as in ‘poor health‘ or ‘poor results‘. In a country where personal value is supposed to create wealth, it is easy for a poor person to feel himself a bad one.”

I learned a lot about rural #Kansas and growing up in poverty. Smarsh makes such objective and intelligent observations. I admire her and her family highly.

Poverty described as a #GypsyRoad in my current read. An intense one, so far. #WanderingJune

Yes! I finished my Spring reads for #Booked2019!

🔹 Night oriented: Nothing holds back the night
🔹 Cli-Fi: The Wall
🔹 Indigenous Author: Moon of the crusted snow
🔹 Musician: Daisy Jones and the Six
🔹 Social Media: Mrs Fletcher
🔹 Food or beverage: Seating arrangements

The Summer quarter will be an out of my comfort zone one, but I am looking forward to it!

The UK has build a wall around its coastline to protect its inhabitants against the rising sea and refugees trying to enter the country after the Change. We follow some people who take turns defending the Wall.

This is a frightening and very realistic novel about migration and climate change, about survival in harsh and uncertain times. The book describes a world that is unmistakably ours, albeit irreparably damaged.

#Booked2019 Cli-Fi

#LetsGetLost

One of my all time favorite series: Lost. One of my all time favorite characters: Sawyer. Not in the least because he reads all the time. And okay, he‘s got the looks as well 😜

#WanderingJune

I chose this book only because it is set in #Hawaii and I needed that for my #ReadingUSA2019 challenge.
It was an unexpectedly good read. While she‘s dying a man discovers his wife was in love with someone else. With both his daughters (who he hardly knows because he was always working) he starts looking for this man, so he will be able to say goodbye as well. I was impressed by the main character, the way he deals with this all.

Still thinking of yesterday‘s prompt, my #ImaginaryPlaces take me to a Japanese writer as well. I love Ishiguro. This one is partly fantasy and set in a wonderful atmospheric landscape. And I love this picture by Robert Frank Hunter.

#WanderingJune

The Sea of Fertility tetralogy is #BigInJapan and quite interesting. The story describes Japan from 1912 to 1975, as experienced by Shigekuni Honda, who grows up from being a law student to a wealthy retired judge. In each installment Honda meets a reincarnation of his schoolfriend Kiyoaki Matsugae, who died young.
#WanderingJune #1001books

My #NYRBBookClub friends will understand why I couldn‘t resist another book by Dorothy Baker. I can‘t imagine the young man can live up to the expectations (after Cassandra) but I am willing to find out!

These short stories definitely hold a promise for future work by Carmen Maria Machado. In this book I loved some of the stories (The Husband Stich, Inventory, Mothers, Eight Bites, Real Women Have Bodies), while others did nothing for me (Especially Heinous, The Resident, Difficult at Parties). In general though they are very well written and sometimes hard ro read because the women in the stories are struggling with their bodies and their lives.