Reading buddies 📚📖🐹

France in the 11th century:Vigdis,the Christian daughter of a nobleman,sees David Todros,the rabbi‘s son,while walking past the synagogue in Rouen.It is love at first sight for both&soon they begin to meet in secret.When rumours about the lovers begin to spread,Vigdis&David elope,fleeing to Monieux in the South of France to stay with David‘s parents.Close on their heels follow knights sent by Vigdi‘s enraged father.The couple will only have a few

A farming family in today‘s Austria:the daughter lives in Sweden,the younger son,Jakob,runs the farm,the older,Alexander,was first in seminary to become a priest,now he‘s in the military.The grandfather has come into money,no one knows how,the father squanders money on dubious investments,has to sell field after field.What sounded promising at first-faith,Austrian army,farming communities in Austria today-quickly gets bogged down in many strands

Krabat,an orphan,teenage boy,becomes one of 12 apprentices at a mysterious mill.However,their Meister teaches more than how to operate a mill-he is a sorcerer-& soon Krabat becomes versed in the art of magic. Yet it all comes at a cost- the Meister binds the boys to him with a spell, they can never leave.And before the spell can be broken other secrets have to be uncovered.A wonderful YA novel,perhaps outdated for today‘s readers but I enjoyed it

I have two reading buddies, but only Porky likes the book. Nugget is having too much fun running around the bathroom.

Paul Biga,an Australian taxi driver who picks up young women and men,then kills them is at the center of each story without ever being the main character.Yet the characters in each story are somehow affected by the murders.There‘s Eva,principal of the school Biga attended&his former neighbor,Simon whose sister is one of his victims or Grace who fought back&got away.

2 young white men burst into the home of a Muslim family looking for Bob.There is no Bob,only Omar & Billal,so they kidnap the elderly father&demand to be paid 2 million pounds in exchange for Aamir.The family insist they don‘t have that kind of money as Aamir only owns a corner store or do they?I most enjoyed the character Aamir,born in Uganda,& his backstory. I also enjoyed the writing but the case was far fetched&the love story ridiculous.

Lucrezia de Medici is 15 when she marries Alfonso Duke of Este who is much older. A gifted painter & free spirit, Lucrezia does not want to submit to her fate&Alfonso‘s cruelty but is trapped in a time &place where women were at their husband‘s mercy. I really liked how O‘Farrell transports the reader into the world of an Italian Renaissance court, the story has some weaknesses but overall is engaging & well crafted, especially images &metaphors.

Fee is 12 when he joins the choir lead by Big Eric who soon starts sexually abusing him and other boys. The first half was beautiful. I loved the writing, the metaphors, depths&the way Chee handled the horror of sexual abuse. I also loved Korean folklore interspersed in the story because of Fee‘s heritage. I didn‘t care much for the college years. I thought they lacked the strength of the first half. Overall, a sad but beautiful book.

Kitty is raised to become a shallow woman whose only goal in life is to find a husband who is a ‘good catch‘. She marries Walter, a bacteriologist, because she can‘t find a better eligible match and follows him to Hong Kong. Never in love with Walter she soon starts an affair with an older, married man. When Walter finds out he takes a position in a town struck with cholera and forces Kitty to come with him. Left alone and despised by her husband

I expected more of a travel rather than a political book but perhaps it is impossible to write about Israel without focusing on politics. It‘s shocking how current To Jerusalem and back is: left wing antisemitism was the same 50 years ago, so was the accusation that Israelis are colonialists, also Israel was and still is held to a higher moral standard than any other country and no other nation‘s right to exist is questioned. The book is outdated

The concise history of the GDR covers the time leading up to the building of the Wall and ending in 1990. Hoyer aims to show the reader what life in the GDR was like - including welfare state, home and family, popular culture and foreign relations -while also focusing on key figures such as Walter Ulbricht, Erich Honecker and head of Stasi, Erich Mielke. When it comes to women‘s equality, the GDR was one step ahead of the west: women were working

The slow horses are MI 5‘s losers. They “work” in a rundown office building separated from MI 5‘s glamorous headquarters. Herron deftly created a cast of antiheroes, the plot is full of twists I didn‘t see coming. There‘s humour and action. Slow horses is a well written, clever spy novel. I already borrowed book 2 in the series.

None of the stories worked for me. I‘m perhaps not smart enough to understand “Kafka‘s idiosyncratic imagination meets some of the greatest literary minds” or perhaps I prefer reading original work by Kafka rather than others writing like or being inspired by him. I don‘t know. Didn‘t work for me.

Hmmm. Difficult book to rate. Ridgway is a writer I admire for his beautiful prose and outstanding dialogue. I really liked the first story, The Party, and the diverse set of characters, the setting (London) but I didn‘t get what the central point/theme is that connects the stories and makes them a novel because that‘s how the book is marketed. I also found myself drifting off too many times, the stories meandered too much. Still a pick, but low

I cannot understand the hype around this novel. The beginning was good, the writing ok but overall it was dreadfully saccharine. Why I read to the end? I was hoping it would get better but it didn‘t. The ending is really the icing on the cake of lame “twists”. Character decisions at times made no sense and felt contrived.

I‘m glad I finished the book because the last novella (I think we have 3 novellas here rather than a novel) brings Nevo‘s thoughts & themes to the fore and there were a few ‘a-ha now I get it‘ moments. Overall, the first & second story are a bit forced & the sex scenes range from despicable to weird. The last story‘s familial conflicts were what I could relate to most & also found most interesting. Overall, this is not a great but an ok book.

Relationships are at the center of all stories: child and parent, husband and wife. Other themes are displacement through immigration and how the generations cope differently with their longing for the other country. I love Madeleine Thien‘s writing style, the way she crafts characters and leads us into their world is masterfully done. It makes me want to read everything she ever wrote. Definitely a pick.

It‘s a very low pick, the writing is good, the stories are original but the author was trying too hard to reveal some deep meaning, yet didn‘t really succeed. Also, many stories dragged on for too long. I liked Butter Chicken but the rest wasn‘t for me.

Chick lit is not my genre but I was gifted ticket and book for the Jennifer Weiner event by a friend and I‘m so glad I got to see and listen to her talking about women, women‘s literature, her writing process, publishing, women‘s bodies, how they were and are shamed in media, motherhood and so much more. She‘s funny, intelligent, charming and generous. I had a great time! Looking forward to reading her book.

Y-Dang Troeung was a scholar& wrote this beautiful book at the end of her life.It‘s marketed as memoir but I‘m not sure that‘s the word we should use as it is a book told in vignettes or fragments containing stories of survival her parents &brothers recounted, her own thoughts on Cambodia&travels to the country but also letters to her son&her memories. It‘s a book about refugees, war, unspeakable cruelty&survival.The writing is lyrical&haunting.

Leanne Betasamosake Simpson is an author from Canada.In this book of prose fragments&poetry she explores decolonisation,resistance&healing.”You see, tragedy happened again. The details don‘t matter because details are hopeless, overwhelmed, shut down.”
The painting is by Clemence Wescoupe(Anishnaabe/Ojibwe),1975.I saw the exhibition on the Woodland Artists today.After two tough weeks&no end in sight this book&the paintings brought some solace.

Nila,the daughter of doctor refugees from Afghanistan,grows up in poverty in Berlin because both parents cannot work in their profession.she hides her identity,saying she‘s Greek or Israeli&instead of studying for college,goes to raves&techno clubs.One night she meets Marlowe&is mesmerised by the older man whose debut novel made him an Indy celebrity.lots of drugs,sex,art,books,self hate,hate for Germany&its racism,Islamophobia,oppression of women

I really enjoyed Long Bright River.It works on many levels:it‘s a mystery but it‘s also social commentary. It‘s about poverty& addiction& about people who abuse women in vulnerable positions.And then it‘s about family, grief& loss.I also loved the questions it raised about motherhood& taking responsibility for a child, really having their best interest in mind &what that means.

Japan 1903:Ichi,daughter of an ama&a fisherman from Iojima, is sold into prostitution. In the Shinonome brothel she is trained in the art of pleasing customers but also attends school where Tetsuko,a failed prostitute from the family of a samurai, teaches “writing to women trapped in the prison of bestial desire” and finally to read and understand their account books since the women are often charged too much for food or clothes&deliberately kept

Divorce is a difficult topic for a book& although the writing is good, it feels too much like a reality tv show where we get too close to a couple &witness something that should be private. It doesn‘t help that Bea &Niklas are both unlikeable characters.Bea “sacrificed” career for the sake of family & with divorce looming has financial worries, that feel very real for many women even today.Yet she also loves luxury items

The graphic novel written by Evie Wyld and illustrated by Joe Sumner was only ok. Evie remembers growing up in Australia where her shark obsession begins. Interspersed with shark attack stories this is really about family and loss but stays too much on the surface to be a moving, heartfelt memoir. I enjoyed Sumner‘s artwork.

Eilis returns to Ireland after 20 years for her mother‘s 80th birthday &to escape her husband‘s infidelity& the child he has with the other woman.She gets close to Jim again who is now secretly engaged to Nancy& who in turn doesn‘t tell Nancy about his feelings for E.A big mess in the States is followed by a big mess in Ireland.Frankly this is a telenovela script&although I do appreciate the questions of:can you return to an old unfulfilled love?

In 1975 Barbara vanishes from the summer camp on her family‘s property.In 1961 her brother disappeared in the same woods&was never found.Told through the eyes of several mostly female characters&jumping back&forth in time could have been confusing but is done so well that it adds to the suspense.I love that Moore wrote both an engaging story with an unexpected (sad) ending&created characters the reader can relate to.Her criticism of sexism

Laptev falls madly in love with Yulia who does not reciprocate his feelings but marries him anyway. They move to Moscow,the only thing that makes the marriage bearable for her.Both suffer. “There did not seem anything to talk about, and both had been silent since morning. From time to time he looked at her over the top of his book and thought:whether you marry for passionate love or entirely without love-isn‘t it all the same?”

In the first case of the Avraham Avraham Series, a teenage boy,Ofer, disappears without a trace.Told alternating from Ze‘ev,the boy‘s creepy& strange neighbor, &Avraham‘s perspective,Ofer always remains a mystery as neither the parents nor the few people who knew him have much to say about Ofer-except Ze‘ev.But is he a reliable witness?The story with its focus on complex characters rather than filled with action&red herrings is very Israeli.

Perhaps one of the most beautiful books I have recently read. The narrator, a woman in the middle of her life, removes herself from this world of greed&destruction. In a convent she finds time to reflect&we have the privilege to accompany her on her contemplative journey into memory,remorse &grief. There‘s so much to unpack in this book:spirituality& the meaning of religion&community, the plague &the nemesis who are also a symbol for the

Published in English under the title Neapolitan Chronicles&translated by Goldstein&McPhee, Ortese is one of the best post Ww2 Italian&perhaps most overlooked authors.The book consists of 5 chapters (3 fiction,2 journalistic accounts) that present a Naples shattered by war&corruption. Ortese‘s style is a blend of realist narrative&”almost surreal tone”.Ortese talks about her book having the effect of disorientation.

An Algerian rabbi‘s cat can speak, argues with the rabbi about theological matters, demands a bar mitzvah, is jealous when his mistress (the rabbi‘s daughter) falls in love with a young rabbi from Paris and accompanies the couple and rabbi to France to meet the in laws. Funny, clever. Thanks @Adventures_of_a_French_Reader for recommending! 🥰

I read this with my son to get him to read books with a broader vocabulary than what he encounters in the comics he reads 🙄. We both enjoyed it. It‘s a bit slow at times for the attention span of a 10 year old but I love how the author transports their readers into the past and introduces them to art while telling an entertaining story. The writing too is good. I think this could appeal to 9-11 year olds.

I think this needs to come with many warnings: kidnapping/incarceration in a bunker,suicide,murder. I wanted to bail towards the end but decided not to. It‘s a claustrophobic, heartrending story ¬ for everyone. It reminded me a bit of The Wall by Haushofer because of its focus on women,solitude & there‘s this element of “fantasy” which is the wrong word, speculation perhaps “what if” without answering questions of why,how or even when or where?

Miranda‘s grandparents are survivors from France. Anna,a doctor, & Armand,an interpreter at the Nuremberg Trials& later the UN,separate after the war, divorce & don‘t speak to &only with hate about one another for fifty years.Miranda goes on a journey to find out why/what happened to them. As much as I wanted to get to the end, this is another book I‘m bailing on. 😢

I did make it to chapter 27 (there are 70 chapters) and I did, really did want to hang in there but I fear I‘m in a reading slump and a 700 page novel is perhaps not the best book to get me out of it.

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

I give it a pick although most stories were not for me but that‘s me not the author. The stories feature fugitives,migrants, revolutionaries or widows.The strongest story is The Man. Narrated first in 3rd person, the perspective switches back and forth from “the man” to his “pursuer”. Then it‘s narrated in first person from the perspective of a shepherd.But who is the pursuer&who the pursued? I think overall the stories were too bleak…

I‘m glad I didn‘t bail, almost did a few times.There are 5+ characters who are connected,2 timelines,the story is only told through diary entries,letters or newspaper articles. It‘s a bit boring at the beginning & Sophie&Allen‘s love declarations for one another are a bit too saccharine.I‘m also normally not a fantasy/magical realism fan but this worked for me because the “fantasy elements” were taken from

Katie Holten is an artist who collected poetry, recipes, excerpts from essays, thoughts related to trees. Some are philosophical, some scientific. Authors range from Ross Gay to Ada Limon, Robert MacFarlane, Richard Powers, Plato or Radiohead. I enjoyed reading bits and pieces but overall, I wonder: what is this? I don‘t understand what “a rewilding of literature and landscape” means and what the point of this book is. Not for me.

Adele (a broke &once successful actress),Wendy (an intellectual & once acclaimed writer)&Jude (a former restaurant manager) gather at Sylvie‘s beach home to clean out the house so that Sylvie‘s daughter can sell it. Sylvies‘s death impacts their relationship in ways none of them could have anticipated.They all deal with grief, aging & other losses differently. Wonderfully relatable, beautifully written. Switching points of view is so

We follow Kavanagh as he starts his 2 year tour of duty as Defender at the Wall.The Wall was built to keep water and the Others out of an unnamed country which has been affected less by climate change than the rest of the world,hence,the Others are trying to get in.The ones who make it are either sent back, killed or can become Help=slaves.Life at the Wall is dull,dangerous&cold.yet if you become a Breeder,I.e. start a family

Ireland in the 1950s: A man appears out of nowhere in the night claiming he lost his wife, then says that she drowned. He behaves oddly: seems more excited than distressed. Told through the eyes of different characters this is such a well written and skilfully constructed story. The ending was a bit rushed and weak but it doesn‘t matter, I couldn‘t put the book down. I absolutely loved it.

I‘m not a big fan of ghost or horror stories but for this author I make an exception. Lanchester can scare you, make you laugh and nod your head in agreement at the social commentary in his stories (cell phone addiction, social media, Trump and stupidity or reality TV). My favourite were Coffin Licker, We happy few and Reality.

Warning: contains child abuse. This started out dark& depressing but also powerful. Merry& Sam move to Sweden with their baby Connor. Sam has inherited a house in the woods. Slowly we learn that he‘s a mysoginist but Merry too is no saint. When Frank, Merry‘s best friend,comes to visit, things get worse not better. Initially I thought this was a feminist take on motherhood & marriage borrowing from Bergman films& Stepford Wives, sadly

This is a solid mystery with lots of leads that mislead. I love Vera.She‘s a fantastic character&detective. The reveal is bit disappointing & so was the tedious older-women-are-invisible, unattractive or good looking “for their age” repeated one time too many 🙄. But the strong, reliable characters and the outstanding writing make up for the shortcomings. Would love to watch the series. I wonder if the actress plays Vera as Cleeves envisions her.

I decided to bail after trying for weeks to read Rabbi Sacks‘ essays on morality. I‘m having a hard time getting over some of his conservative views on family and marriage. His essay on media (Unsocial Media) fell flat for me too. I do want to get back to this book sometime later …

I wanted to love this collection but although I did enjoy Creed or The Quiet I was disappointed with many of the stories, especially The Travelers and Wicked Fairy.