
#weeklyforecast 23/23
I am reading some classics after a lot of contemporary fiction. I am in the midst of both the Murdoch and the DuMaurier and they are great! After these, it‘s time to start reading for #CampToB. Looking forward to it!
#weeklyforecast 23/23
I am reading some classics after a lot of contemporary fiction. I am in the midst of both the Murdoch and the DuMaurier and they are great! After these, it‘s time to start reading for #CampToB. Looking forward to it!
Hi campers, we are so happy to kick off #camplitsy23 with all of you. Let‘s discuss the first half of Bandit Queens. We‘ll discuss all of the book next week so please avoid spoiling the ending!
We have three questions today, three next week. Let‘s do this!!
#BookReport 22/23
Nacropolis was a difficult read, both others were fun and entertaining. So I had a good week!
This is a difficult book it‘s about opium dens in Bombay and sometimes I felt like the author was writing this book while visiting one. I had a hard time keeping up with him and was not sure if I had to follow the main characters or just let it come over me, this portrait of Bombay. I‘m still not sure about what I read, but I appreciate what the author did. Not necessarily recommended though. #booker
#MayStats
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Boulder
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
We all want impossible things
Standing heavy
The last
⭐️⭐️⭐️✨
The hiding place
Small pleasures
Whale
The bandit queens
The regrets
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Time shelter
Miss Ranskill comes home
We are not like them
⭐️⭐️✨
The Mandibles
And the sea will tell
⭐️⭐️
The gospel according to the new world
DNF
Didn‘t nobody give a shit what happened to Carlotta
I managed to finish my #GuiltyPleasure book for #TitlesAndTunes before the month even started… 🤦🏻♀️
I guess it says a lot about the book, which was indeed unputdownable. After a nuclear war 20 people in an isolated Swiss hotel have survived and try to find a way to deal with a new reality and with the people they didn‘t knew before. Meanwhile strange things happen in the hotel.
Dystopia, thriller and a bit of horror: such indulgence 🩶
The miracle happened! The mail arrived! Thank you so much @Cinfhen for keep trying sending me packages. I am extremely happy this one reached me! The lovely bookmark, the sweet note and above all the book! A favorite author or mine and if you think I‘ll love this, I am sure I will! 💕🩷💕
#WeeklyForecast 22/23
I have already started my #GuiltyPleasure read for #TitlesAndTunes… couldn‘t wait any longer! Next will be Narcopolis and The Scapegoat for #Roll100!
#TitlesAndTunes
My go to #GuiltyPleasure reading are dystopian and thrillers, so the book I chose is a no brainer: a dystopian thriller! The last people on earth after a nuclear war are busy Staying Alive 😉
I know, this song!!! But I love playing it while driving and to sing and dance along!
It was a hard choice though, between The BeeGees and Eminem, whose Without Me I know by heart and rap along like I‘m a Detroit rapper 🤣🤣
Thomas dies but has to span half a year before he can enter the real deaths. There are rules though, one of which is to not fall in love or have sex. That would be something to regret. However, then he meets Rachel.
Their story is delightful and sad and it makes for a lovely beach read during my stay in France!
Thanks for sending me this one Karen! 💕
#Pop23 #mythicalcreatures
(Pic: Cancales, France)
#BookReport 21/23
A good reading week. This week‘s favorite must be The Bandit Queens!
I finished my first #CampLitsy23 read and I really liked it. It was much darker than I thought. I especially enjoyed the Indian setting, such as Phoolan Devi‘s story and the parts about the Dalits. I also liked the dynamics between the women, their conversations and wittiness. Plenty to discuss next week!
(Pic: Cancale, Brittany, France)
These books I‘ve read for the second quarter of #Booked2023:
🔸Wrongly incarcerated main character: Didn‘t nobody give a shit what happened to Carlotta
🔸New in 2023: Birnam Wood
🔸Modern take on a classic: A head full
of ghosts
🔸Short story collection: Nobody gets out alive
🔸Set in two time periods: Familiar
🔸Title begins with V: The violin conspiracy
Favorite? Birnam Wood 🤍
Two friends, one black one white, explore the complexities of their friendship and social injustice after a black boy was killed by the police. Written by a black and a white author I was very interested in how they would tackle these subjects. The result fell short to me, to be honest. The book checked off all the points of a “how not to be racist” list but it lacked depth and authenticity. Their friendship felt a bit unreal and immature. ⬇️
Well🤷🏻♀️ of course the winner of the #internationalbookerprize is one of my least favorites again but I have to admit the premise of this one is fantastic. A man creates spaces completely similar to how they were in a certain year for people with dementia. I loved being in those rooms and recognized much but the book got a bit out of control in my opinion.
Hi Campers, here is a friendly reminder that #CampLitsy23 is about to start 🥳
Meg, Helen and I can‘t wait to hang out with you all and discuss the tagged book, our first summer read.
On 3 June we will discuss the first half of the book, until chapter 16. On 10 June we‘ll discuss the second half.
So we hope you‘ve got your copy along with some sunscreen and your bathing suits 👙🏕️📖
Okay #unpopularopinion. You all loved it but I am halfway through and calling it quits. It probably is the language. I have to read out loud to make sense of what I‘m reading. It‘s been taking me forever that way and it leaves no room to enjoy the story. So it‘s me, not the book but I just lost patience and want to read something I actually like to read 🤷🏻♀️
#Booked2023 #wronglyincarnated
#WeeklyForecast 21/23
I have started the tagged book, and I have a hard time getting used to the language and style. I have heard so many good things about it though, that I‘m not giving up. Next it is time to start The Bandit Queens for #CampLitsy23, excited about it. If there‘s time I also like to start The Regrets!
Tomorrow the winner of the #InternationalBooker Prize will be announced. I am wrong about the outcome no doubt, but this is the shortlist in the order I liked them best!
Number 1 to 4 I really liked, number 5 started out strong but didn‘t hold up, number 6 was not for me.
#BookReport 20/23
Four completely different books and all were so different from what I expected. The #persephone was disappointing, the three others very entertaining with the tagged one being this week‘s favorite!
Geumbok is an ambitious woman with a business instinct in South Korea, Chunhui is her mute and neglected daughter. This is their story and that of a parade of other people and animals coming and going. It‘s brutal, sometimes magical, you may like it or not but it certainly is superb storytelling. Reminded me a bit of García Márquez.
With this book I finished the #InternationalBooker shortlist ?
This book is waaaayyy too long. And the author is so smug. Yes he is a famous lawyer and this is a famous and in itself super interesting true crime case but man, was it annoying. I wish it was 300 pages less and written by an objective author.
#52bookclub23 #sentmedownarabbithole
I‘m pretty hyped about this year‘s #CampToB23 reads 💃💃 after last year‘s choices. I‘ve read Big Swiss, I have a copy of #InternationalBooker longlisted The Birthday Party and I‘ve been wanting to read the LaValle and the Urrea anyhow! The other two books I haven‘t heard of but I can‘t wait to find out.
It‘s almost as good as #CampLitsy23 🤪
This was such a pleasant surprise. Each short chapter is about a thing or situation from which you can derive pleasure. It is about time spent alone, taking the time to think of the bigger picture, but also about enjoying and appreciating ordinary things you do or buy or eat. Very mindful and a very good one to start a four day weekend with! Thank you Helen for this special gift 🤍
Standing heavy, that‘s what they do, the many security guards in Paris. Standing heavy in stores or near monuments. They are from all parts of former French Africa and they watch.
GauZ sketches a spot-on observation of modern Paris, seen through the eyes of three generations of men from Côte d‘Ivoire trying their luck in the French Capital. It is witty and poignant and it taught me a lot.
#BookerInternational
I don‘t think I ever rated a #Persephone a so-so before, but this one just brought a bit too little.
It‘s a sweet enough story (a spinster falls overboard a cruise ship, strands on a desert island, is saved four years later and returns to England in the midst of WWII) but it just fell a bit flat.
#52bookclub23 #AuthorWithTheSameNameAsMe #192025 #1946 #UKRoadtrip #Devon
My Mother‘s Day presents. Kids know me so well 💕 I am super excited about the tagged one, that @batsy and @merelybookish wrote such fabulous reviews about! And I loved another book by Ben Winters and am eager to discover a new one!
#WeeklyForecast 20/23
I am having the tagged book in progress and am enjoying it. I also hope to finish the #InternationalBooker shortlist before the prize will be announced on the 23th. So Standing Heavy and Whale will be next. In between I can‘t wait to read Small Pleasures, a lovely gift by the sweet @squirrelbrain 🤍
#BookReport 19/23
Boulder made my week. What a book. So much said in so few pages. The Hiding Place was slow pick, Time Shelter and The Mandibles were both a bit disappointing for me.
A night all by myself, at a bar in the city I grew up in. Feeling nostalgic and blown away by this book.
In only 105 pages Eva Baltasar writes about love in a way that resonates with me. Love for another woman, love for a child, love for ordinary things like cooking food and working and traveling.
This may sound sappy but the book isn‘t. On the contrary, it‘s dark and beautiful.
My favorite of the #internationalbooker shortlist so far.
#CampToB23 has been announced and it‘s different again. This summer we need to vote on which vibes we prefer. Each month will be based on theme. Could be interesting. You can read all about it and vote here:
https://www.tournamentofbooks.com/camp-tob-2023/announcing-camp-tob-2023
I appreciate what Shriver wants with this book: it describes the downfall of the US in a near future: the dollar becomes worthless, the economy collapses, etc. What follows is an exploration of possible outcomes of this downfall. The family Mandible is just a tool necessary to discuss the situation. But it didn‘t work in my opinion. Dystopian fiction is not the best choice, an essay would have been better although I probable wouldn‘t have read it
This book has been on my shelves for ages but I am glad I finally read it, it is a well told story.
In a Maltese immigrant neighborhood in Wales, Dolores grows up with her five sisters. It‘s a hard life with a gambling, abusing father and a mother who is loving but not able to take good care of all six.
Years later the sisters reunite for a funeral and Dolores discovers that her truth is not the only one.
#booker #ukroadtrip #cardiff
March 2024 picks for the #EuropaCollective! I‘d love to read both and can‘t wait for your votes. Links to the books in the comments! Thanks for hosting Jamie!
This book has the best of premises. A man creates spaces for people with Alzheimer‘s that resemble a certain year in the past. They can hide here and feel at ease again. However more and more people want to return to the past, even without Alzheimer‘s.
There are many fragmented stories in the book, too many in my opinion, and I felt lost at times. So I loved the first half but have been skimming the second one. #internationalbooker
#WeeklyForecast 19/23
I am trying to read an #InternationalBooker shortlisted book a week and am now in the middle of Time Shelter. Afterwards I‘ll read some oldies off my TBR before I dive into my new books for #CampToB23.
The tagged one was shortlisted for the #BookerPrize years ago, a #Persephone just because and The Mandibles because I love Shriver!
#BookReport 18/23
I didn‘t enjoy Gospel much but the other three were really good. So I had a wonderful week!
What a surprise to get mail from you Helen and such a wonderful book you sent me! It‘s about all kinds of small pleasures, like a hot bad, a night alone in a hotel, the desert and figs! I can‘t wait to dive into the book - it is so true that we often exhaust ourselves in search of large things and pleasures!
I also loved your card and the bookshop you described (I googled it, it‘s perfect!)
Thank you so much for making my day 🩵
This book broke my heart but it‘s also a super loving tribute to love and friendship. Edi is dying in a hospice and her friends and family are taking care of her there. Ash is her best friend and she has such a hard time. Reminiscing, supporting, grieving, laughing. It‘s messy and beautiful and I loved the dynamics of Ash and her daughters - or her people as she calls them.
(Pic: Les Tuileries, Paris)
Hi Campers! Are you ready to start preparing for our #CampLitsy23 trip? We will read and discuss half a book each week. On Saturdays we will post some questions to discuss the part we‘ve read.
I‘ll be your camp leader in June, when we will read the books above. Meg will post our July schedule, Helen does August. You find Junes‘ schedule in the comments below!
If you want to join Camp and are not tagged yet, let me know!
Not my kind of book. A man is in search of his origins and we follow him along his journey. The book touches upon themes as colonization and race but mostly it‘s about the people he meets. Not for me.
#IslandVibe #InternationalBooker #ReadingTheAmericas ??
(Pic: Château de Versailles, Paris)
#AprilStats
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Birnam wood
Three
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨
Still born
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Notes on grief
⭐️⭐️⭐️✨
Fidelity
Ben, in the world
I‘m a fan
But you seemed so happy
Big Swiss
The Strays
⭐️⭐️⭐️
This is happiness
Into the dark
Last light
⭐️⭐️✨
Señor Vivo and the coca lord
Nobody gets out alive
The woman next door
Thank you all for voting for your favorites on the #CampLitsy23 longlist!
Helen, Meg and I are excited to share our winners!
We think it's an excellent collection of books to read while camping this summer!
Our June reads will be The Bandit Queens and Birnam Wood. We'll share a reading schedule for all months soon but for now you might want to know which books to get your hands on first.
We are looking forward to go camping with you next month!
#TitlesAndTunes
For #IslandVibe I have chosen a book by “the queen of Guadeloupe” that I am very curious of. My song is one I love and its title fits the prompt of course but be warned, it is a rather depressing one 🥹: “I need an island, somewhere to bury you” 😅You can listen to it on the playlist we‘ll create!
Do you want to join? Share your book and song with all of us. If you like you can use this template!
Please tag @Cinfhen and me 📚 🎼
I don‘t think I ever read a 500 pages book in a day before. So this book definitely pulled me in. It‘s got a scary premise: attacks in the Middle East lead to a halt in oil production worldwide, with devastating effects. Humanity disappears within days: everywhere there are riots and fights and looting. I wanted to read on and that‘s why I give it a pick but honestly, it wasn‘t that good and the ending was disappointing. #Roll100
Avant-garde artist Evan Trentham, his wife Helena and their daughters live a bohemian life in 1930s Melbourne. They start an art colony, inviting upcoming artists to live and work with them. Narrator Lily is the bff of daughter Eva and lives there too for a while. Through her eyes the story unravels as the community and the family fall apart around her. Decades later she reconnects with this past life.
Thank you for sending me this one Karen🩷