#WeeklyFavorites

A slow reading week and although I don‘t expect the tagged one to be my favorite of the month I had a good time with it this week!

#EuropaCollective

I have mixed feelings about this book. I loved reading it because it is so well written and I was intrigued by the main characters and the way they chose to live their lives. However, there‘s been written a lot about the art scene in Paris; parts of the book felt to me like I‘d read them before.
I‘d wanted to read more about Gabriele and Francis themselves instead of them crossing all over Europe and NYC ⬇️

I didn‘t like this book as much as everyone else. Maybe because I know little of the Ted Bundy case and how it must have held America in its grip.
Best part to me was the law suit in which Pamela described how much of a myth the man had become despite being a serial killer. The female take on the story is good and original. And welcome.

#WeeklyForecast 23/25

I just started Gabriele for #EuropaCollective and I think I am going to like it. I am also reading Bright Young Women bug that‘s a slow read for me. Next will be the tagged - I‘d have preferred the American cover but this edition was much cheaper 🤷🏻‍♀️

Sayaka Murata has written a novel around the concept of a world in which sex doesn‘t longer exist and children are more or less fabricated and raised by all. Which means the end of families too.

It is an interesting starting point but the story around it fell a bit short, as if it was just a necessary vehicle to execute that concept.
Then again, the ending made up for a lot of that. A light pick.

#14Books14Weeks book 2

#MayStats

4.5⭐️
Air

4.25⭐️
Time of the flies

4⭐️
A room full of killers
Tiny beautiful things

3.75⭐️
My Documents
Beladen huis (Dutch)

3.5⭐️
The book of disappearance
Nine Lives
Theory & Practice
The Tokyo Suite
Death of the Author

3.25⭐️
On the calculation of volume II
Audition
The Devil‘s Larder

3⭐️
The Yellow House

DNF
The Bass Rock
On a woman‘s madness

#WeeklyFavorites

This was quite a unique read. I could relate to some stories and they made me tear up, while others felt so far away from me. But that‘s what makes these columns special. I think everyone can relate one way or another

The good news is there will be a summer edition of the ToB, the setback is that the longlist is the same as that for #ToB25 minus the ones that were shortlisted. This means I‘ve already read most of the books that were appealing to me. However, there will be good discussions and voting is possible now and here: https://www.tournamentofbooks.com/welcome-to-the-summer-bracket?ref=themorningne...

Starting June 27!

I liked Zelu‘s story much more than the book-in-the-book, the SF novel. And I didn‘t get the ending of that SF novel. But it doesn‘t matter, this book is quite an experience and a perfect book to discuss around the fire during #CampLitsy25 in July!

#ReadTheWorld2025 book 18 #Nigeria

Everyone needs a Dear Sugar in their life. I didn‘t know these columns in which she answers questions about love, life, sex and other complicated matters. But she can write and she‘s so honest and I loved reading her advice. Some made me tear up too. A book to return to. Thank you Meg, for sending me this one ❤️❤️

#roll100
Photo: my adult son aka my baby 👵🏼

After the death of her husband, a woman understands that their house has become overgrown with stuff and melancholy. As she cleans up the rooms, space slowly emerges in her feelings for him again. She wants to find out how he once was, how she once was and understand why their life together went the way it did.

A thought provoking read.

#WeeklyForecast 22/25

I started Death of the Author, it‘s very promising! Next will be the tagged book and in between I am hoping to read Cheryl Strayed‘s columns.

@Billypar ‘s review made me pick this one up and I wasn‘t disappointed. Short stories about food are totally my thing! It‘s short and delicious and it‘s not about caviar 😉

A nanny kidnaps the little girl she takes care of. It takes a while before their disappearance is noticed because the girl‘s mother has a career and much going on. In this story the intertwined stories of mother and nanny highlight the societal expectations placed on women and the consequences. A very surprising read! Thanks for the rec @Lesliereadsalot

#ReadTheWorld2025 book 17 #Brazil

? Last pic from the weekend in San Sebastián, Spain

It took me forever to read and finish this short book. I wanted to understand what‘s happening and maybe I did, a bit, but mostly I didn‘t, probably ??‍♀️

I love Kitamura‘s style but I am not sure at all what to think of this book. It‘s perfect for a #CampLitsy25 discussion though, that‘ll be so enlightening. And I might make a pick from this so-so afterwards!
#14books14weeks book 1

? Last weekend in San Sebastián, Spain

Tomorrow the winner of the #InternationalBooker prize will be announced. I managed to read 5 out of 6 of them (I didn‘t read Heart Lamp yet).

I have especially enjoyed Perfection, Under the Eye of the Big Bird and On the Calculation of Volume I but my absolute favorite is Small Boat. I hope it‘ll win the prize tomorrow.

Do you have a book you root for?

#WeeklyForecast 21/25

I have started Audition for #CampLitsy25 and halfway through I still don‘t have a clue where the story will go. But I like it.
Next will be The Tokyo Suite and hopefully I‘ll start Bright Young Women too!

Starting my first #CampLitsy25 read at the beach in San Sebastian (Spain). Nothing more to wish for!

Oh I loved it. The perfect ending of the Elements series. Maybe not that traumatic but at least as moving. This is the story of Aaron who travels either his 14 years old son from Australia to the small Irish island where it all started. What a read 💝

📸: Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Spain (love my job ❤️)

I know myself, with #CampLitsy25 on its way and probably #CampToB25 (why hasn‘t it been announced yet?!) and the upcoming #Booker longlist I know I‘ll keep changing my reading plans. So to make it doable I chose the shortest books on my TBR shelves for #14Books14Weeks. Looking forward to reading all of these!

The story follows a young woman in 1980s Melbourne who is researching Virginia Woolf while trying to live out her feminist ideals. As she navigates relationships, academic life, and her own contradictions, the novel explores the gap between theory and real life. It‘s thoughtful, sharp book, told in a creative, unusual style.

I listened to the audiobook about nine people, all receiving a letter with nine names on it, including their own. They don‘t know each other but one after the other gets killed. Inspired by Agatha Christie‘s And Then There Were None this is a quick read and although I think you couldn‘t guess the outcome it is was entertaining enough! A light pick.

#Roll100

Another cool read by Claudia Piñeiro! This one is about feminism, flies and fumigation and I loved it even though I figured out the twist early one. I loved the characters and their dialogues. The plot is great and a real pageturner. I absolutely continue reading Piñeiro‘s backlist now!

Thanks for sending me this one Trish, you were right that I would love it ?

#FictionalTraveler #SpanishSpeaking ??

We do have our six winners for #CampLitsy25! We‘ll discuss half a book each weekend in June, July and August. Details will follow. For now Meg, Helen and I hope you are as happy with the winning books and look as much forward to go camping as we do!

If you want to be tagged or removed from the taglist, let us know!

I am adding the final two winners to the #CampLitsy25 reads. We‘ll be reading Tilt and King of Ashes in August. We are super excited about this mix of books and we hope you are too! I‘ll post an overview of all six books next so you know what books you might want to get a hold of!
Just a few weeks to get ready for 🏕️ !

#WeeklyForecast 20/25

An exciting reading week ahead! I just started Time of the Flies, which drew me in immediately. Next will be the tagged, which I can‘t wait to read either. I hope to start Theory & Practice as well, recommended by @sarahbarnes , and if there‘s time left I might even start Audition, out first #CampLitsy25 read (not on photo).

Just after @Graywacke ‘s review that should encourage me to continue, I do bail on this one. It reads like a fever dream, these memoirs of a Surinam-Dutch woman but I can‘t make head nor tail of it. #bookerinternational #ReadTheWorld2025 book 16 #Suriname

This is a hard book to read, especially considering what‘s happening now in Israel and Gaza and that it was written in 2014.
It‘s so complicated, Arabs and Jews living in and fighting for the land they feel it‘s theirs. What if all Palestinians vanished from Israel one day?
Ibtisam Azem tries to write from various pov‘s and that just shows how complicated it all is.
A poignant #InternationalBooker book.

A new Mieko Kawakami. I was super impressed by all her books I read so far but this one is a bit disappointing. A girl tries to earn her living in the Tokyo nightlife. That is interesting but 500 pages later I wasn‘t much the wiser. Not sure. Maybe it‘s the translation 🤷🏻‍♀️

For the past few days I‘ve been listening to this book but audio is clearly not the way to go here: the various Scottish dialects are very hard for me to understand and I am not that patient.
Maybe I‘ll try it in print one day because I loved The Echoes but for now it couldn‘t hold my attention.

📸 Porto, Portugal

The narrator is still living in her alternate reality of a daily returning November 18. How to spend the time when you‘re caught in that one day again and again?
It‘s a concept that I found fascinating and the author writes so well. The ending felt a bit hurried but makes me eager to read the third part!

📸 Porto, Portugal

#WeeklyForecast 19/25

I am reading the second volume of On the Calculation of Volume. Such an interesting story.
Next will be the new Mieko Kawakami (in Dutch, it isn‘t translated in English yet) and last but not least I‘ll continue my #InternationalBooker journey with The Book of Disappearance.

These series is getting better by the book. DCI Matilda has to deal with a group of under aged murderers, detained in Starling House, a rather unusual detention center, where one of them is murdered. As always her private life catches up with her too, and then there‘s one of the young killers who she feels needs help.
A great palette cleanser with a nice cliffhanger. I‘ll make sure to get a copy of the 4th installment.

📸 Porto, Portugal

Four months of #ISpy2025 with lots of my TBR books and a lot less actually read!
Looking forward to placing more ✅ and adding more books to the prompts and the grid @TheAromaofBooks made for us 💚

#WeeklyFavorite

Adding the final book to April‘s graphic and it was this month‘s best book as well!

After a series of terrorist attacks by Vietnamese Americans, the government sets up I#detention camps across the US for all Vietnamese Americans. The story is about life inside one of the camps and about life going on outside.

I loved the premise of this novel and I loved the writing and the first half but the book was a bit too long for me in the end and less interesting. Still a pick though.

#AprilStats

4.5⭐️
Small Boat
4.25⭐️
In Memoriam
4⭐️
Somewhere Else
Model Home
Small Rain
3.75⭐️
The Jigsaw man
On the Calculation of Volume I
Under the Eye of the Big Bird
Moon Road
The In-Between
Where the Forest Meets the River
The Mangan Inheritance
3.5⭐️
Outside Looking In
De krater (Dutch)
3.25⭐️
In het oog (Dutch)
Reservoir Bitches
3⭐️
The Unworthy
2.5⭐️
Before I Let Go

Romance, steamy sex; chicklit I‘d have loved in my teens but nowadays not really.

#ReadTheWorld2025

In March and April I‘ve read 7 books set in or written by author from places around the world: #Italy #Switzerland #Iraq #France #Iran #Denmark #Mexico #Argentina

I have the #InternationalBooker to thank for most of these books!

Okay, one more. Another gem of a quote and so true.

This book…. 😱

This #InternationalBooker novel is based on a real case where a dinghy overfilled with migrants attempts to cross the Channel and starts sinking.

Most of the book consists of thoughts by a coastguard radio operator, who‘s being interrogated by the police because of her alleged complicity in the death of 27 migrants. We are drawn into her conflicted consciousness, displaying what appears to be an almost inhumane coldness and indifference. ⬇️⬇️

I bought this because I enjoyed another one by him that we read with the #NYRB group a few years ago. Now I finally picked it up and I wasn‘t disappointed. It‘s dark and a bit gothic and very Irish (I think). Jamie Mangan is traveling to Ireland to delve into his past and to learn is he‘s a descendant of a famous 19th century Irish poet. His journey takes him to a small village with lots of remarkable people.

#WeeklyForecast 18/25

I am in the middle of The Mangan Inheritance which I am loving. Next will be the tagged title for the #InternationalBooker and I also want to read My Documents, that @TrishB nominated for #CampLitsy25 and caught my eye in the bookshop the day after!

I recently decided to stop reading dystopian novels for a while and yet I read this. I should have stuck to my decision. One can only deal with so much post apocalypse in this crazy world. So it is partly me but then again, the story is definitely not as good as Tender in the Flesh, the reason why I picked it up.
It‘s at least as gory in its details but that‘s about it. Too bad 🤷🏻‍♀️

This is the follow-up to The Road to Dalton that we read in the #EuropaCollective reading group on Litsy.

This second installment is just as good and it‘s a pleasure to spend some more time with the inhabitants of Dalton, Maine. Five years after Bridget‘s death, her absence is still palpable in the community.

I am looking forward to what will happen next with some of the characters.

This is my #Roll100 read!

#WeeklyForecast 17/25

Back home after spending Easter at the coast. My plans are to finish Where the Forest Meets the River and the tagged book. If possible I‘d like to make a start in a #NYRB classic: The Mangan Inheritance.

The narrator is hospitalized with a rare vascular condition. For days he‘s at ICU, not really knowing what‘s happening, though he knows it‘s serious.
Each medical detail is described, as is the narrator‘s view on life, his past and future.
And it‘s 2020 and COVID is everywhere. In the hospital, in people‘s attitude, in the protests in the streets. It took me back to those days and although it frightened me I loved this about the book. Very good!

Wow this was a very touching book about the boys (so young) who went to war in 1914. Those stories about the trenches always are so devastating. 60,000 men dying in the Somme offensive… in just one day. This book covers it all - and the lovestory between two elite boarding school boys, so English. A great read.

Two middle-aged (I hate that expression) men fall in love on a date. This book is about their growing closer, each with a life and a big love behind him. It‘s a very tender book despite all graphic descriptions of smells - the author must be an expert on bodily smells 😉. Thanks for sending me this Carolyn, you were right that I‘d like it!

#FictionalTraveler #Island 🇦🇺