Litsy

so-so

This is a supremely frustrating book. The writing is great, but it is in desperate need of editing. It goes on and on in a way that just makes it a slog, then finally perks up in the last quarter. The only reason I stuck with it was that I was determined not to bail on two #NBAshortlist for translated lit books in a row. If you try to read it and get bogged down, I recommend skipping forward to chapter 11 and going from there.

BarbaraBB Thanks for the heads up. I want to read it too but it‘s such a chunkster. I now know what to expect. 2d

squirrelbrain Gah! I was so looking forward to this one….. 2d

dabbe 🖤🐾🖤 2d

41 likes3 comments

Maggie4483

Testament Of Youth: An Autobiographical Study Of The Years 1900-1925 | Vera Brittain

Deep sigh 😔

This was written in the 1930s - but switch out some of the words and it sounds remarkably similar to….well, you know.

Ruthiella 🙁🙁🙁 3w

Dilara 100% agree! 😔 3w

20 likes2 comments

squirrelbrain

The Remembered Soldier | Anjet Daanje

Another 4 books on the National Book Awards longlist. I had no idea the tagged book was such a chunkster until it arrived!

I also have 2 on order from eBay but they‘re not arriving for a few weeks yet.

I‘m reading The Antidote in print - it‘s too early to say what I think yet. I‘m also listening to The Sisters on audio and, goodness me, it‘s long! 😬

Hooked_on_books

AnneCecilie The Sisters is amazing and worth its length 4w

squirrelbrain I‘m quite a long way through it @annececilie and usually I don‘t mind a lot of detail but it‘s just starting to grate on me a little bit. 😬 4w

AnneCecilie @squirrelbrain I love details and have also read several of his previous novels and enjoyed them. 4w

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Hooked_on_books I‘m also listening to The Sisters on audio! I‘m at the 60% mark and so far I‘m a little underwhelmed. I really feel like the first half didn‘t know whether to center the narrator or the sisters and ended up a little disjointed. I don‘t know that I would have made it through in print. And I didn‘t know the tagged was so chunky, either! 😱 4w

squirrelbrain I‘m probably around the same point as you @Hooked_on_books - I‘m struggling with knowing / understanding the timescales as it seems to jump about all over the place. Funnily enough a blurb on the bag of the tagged book says ‘not a moment too long‘ (or wtef)! 😜 4w

BarbaraBB The Dutch one is a chunkster but she‘s such a good writer. You‘ll probably fly through it!

The Remembered Soldier

60 likes6 comments

Mattsbookaday

The Remembered Soldier | Anjet Daanje

pick

The Remembered Soldier, by Anjet Daanje (2019, transl. 2025)

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: A former soldier experiencing severe amnesia and PTSD struggles to recover his memories and life after he is brought home from an asylum by a woman who identifies him as her husband.

Review: This is a stunning, deeply moving literary love story that will reward patient readers. ⬇️

Mattsbookaday I say patient because it‘s well over 500 pages long, and it employs long, run-on sentences and paragraphs. But the pay-off is beyond worth any annoyance. This will almost certainly be among my top reads of the year.

Bookish Pair: The Housekeeper and the Professor, by Yoko Ogawa (2005, transl. 2009) 1mo

BarbaraBB Great review. I loved The Housekeeper and Daanjes other book (which hasn‘t been published in English yet) so this is a must read for me!

Song of Stork and Dromedary

(edited) 1mo

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Trace

House of War: The Struggle Between Christendom and the Caliphate | Simon Mayall

pick

Great unbiased history.

1 like

Suzie

Loyal Creatures | Morris Gleitzman

Where I talk through the love/hate of Loyal Creatures by Morris Gleitzman
https://www.suzs-space.com/loyal-creatures-morris-gleitzman/

SaraBeagle

Fear: A Novel of World War I | Gabriel Chevallier

"The horror of war resides in this gnawing anxiety. It resides in the continuation, the incessant repetition of danger. War is permanent threat. 'We know not the place or the hour.' But we know the place exists and the hour will come. It is insane to hope that we will always escape."

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Anna40

Soldiers Don't Go Mad: A Story of Brotherhood, Poetry, and Mental Illness During the First World War | Charles Glass

pick

This book about the hospital Craiglockhart & two of its most famous patients, Siegfried Sassoon & Wilfred Owen, tracks the effects of industrial warfare on soldiers & the origins of PTSD. Shell shock was seen by many commanding officers not as an illness but cowardice& thus punished. It was thanks to physicians such as Dr Rivers who treated the men with compassion that some lucky few found healing. The strongest parts of the book are the poems

Anna40 written by Sassoon & Owens. I also enjoyed learning about the pacifist movement in the UK & how the war was perceived by those not involved in combat. Overall, the men who received treatment all had very privileged backgrounds, the poor private was sent right back to the front without any compassion or treatment … 9mo

Suet624 Ugh. So sad. 9mo

CarolynM Stacked🙂 9mo

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Anna40 @suet624 yes, it is. I think many more than we think still believe PTSD in soldiers = coward or is something to be ashamed of 😢 9mo

Anna40 @CarolynM it‘s not an easy read but it really pulled me in. I‘m interested in reading Sassoon‘s and Owens poetry collections. Very powerful poems 9mo

CarolynM I‘ve got a particular interest in First World War literature with particular reference to Owen and Sassoon. Owen is a tragic figure and his poems are really moving. Sassoon was such oddbod, he is endlessly fascinating. Have you read his Sheraton trilogy? 9mo

Anna40 @CarolynM I had never heard of either of them before reading this book. Would you recommend starting off with Sheraton trilogy? 9mo

CarolynM It‘s fictionalised autobiography so it‘s a good way to get to know him. The first volume, Memoirs of a Fox Hunting Man is pre war, the other 2 during the war and cover the Craiglockart experience. Sassoon also features in Robert Graves‘s memoir Goodbye to All That. 9mo

Anna40 @CarolynM thanks! Sounds great 💕 9mo

CarolynM And for a fictional take on Owen and Sassoon at Craiglockart

Regeneration (Regeneration, #1)

9mo

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