I wasn‘t really interested in John Wilkes Booth, who I hadn‘t heard of before. Also he and his family didn‘t really come to life for me. But I did enjoy reading about the historical context of the American civil war even though the book could have done with some editing. It felt very repetitive at times.
A light pick, definitely not worth the #BookerPrize2022

#WeeklyForecast 40/22

I hope to finish Booth this week. Still enjoying it. I also started Gravel Heart for #ReadingAfrica2022 and because I have wanted to read Gurnah ever since he won the Noble Prize. The tagged book has won major European literary prices and feels like a book I need to read. So these are my plans!

This was much more fun than I expected. I enjoyed the story in the story in the story and although I guessed the final twist early on this still was an enjoyable read about the American financial market in the fist quarter of the 20th century.

It wouldn‘t have made my #BookerPrize2022 shortlist though!

My #pop22 update for Q3. Just eight books in three months and six more to go to finish the challenge. Quote positive I‘ll manage it, I have even planned those six reads.

#BookReport 39/22

I had a great reading week. Three of these books were really excellent. The Rabbit Hutch and Africa is not a Country the favorites, followed closely by The Employees.

#SeptemberStats #SeptemberWrapUp

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨
Kokoro
The rabbit hutch
Africa is not a country

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Ik nog wel van jou (Dutch)
The lost man
The employees

⭐️⭐️⭐️✨
Let me lie
Tokyo Express
The keep
An ordinary man

⭐️⭐️⭐️
Run time
Ghosts
Notes from the blockade

⭐️⭐️
After Sappho

The 22th century. A group of people and very human-like humanoids is sent into space. They are employees on a unknown mission.
We get to know them a bit and learn what‘s happening on board by their recorded statements. Or we think we do. Nothing is clear, the book is much more about questions than answers.
Big questions, regarding themes like humanity, affection, and transience.

It‘s a tough little book and it packs a punch. I‘m very impressed.

Three more books for #ReadingAfrica2022 in September but it‘s getting more difficult each month!

🔸 Rwanda: An ordinary man
🔸 Tunisia: In extremis
🔸 Eritrea: Africa is not a country (but this book probably fits all African countries)

An intellectual in Leningrad struggles to survive during the German siege of his city from 1941 to 1944. He tries to keep sane by taking notes. Gradually, however, hunger takes over everything else. The fear of bombs, the cold, human dignity, it‘s nothing compared to the hunger, which dominates everything.

#19822022 #1988

Faloyin wants to break stereotypes of modern Africa in this book and wow, he does. I felt ashamed reading certain parts. For the colonial past in which my country participated actively, for never really listening to the lyrics of Band Aid, for museums with collections based on stolen works, etc. Like @thereflectiveflaneur says in his review, this book should be required reading for everyone.

Tagging my #ReadingAfrica2022 pals 🇪🇷

I loved this book but it‘s hard to review. Various storylines, various extremely intriguing characters. What they share is The Rabbit Hutch, a run-down apartment building in Vacca Vale, a city in decay.

There are rabbits, but there‘s so much more. There are mystics, there is this great love affair, there is a woman editing obituaries, there is a famous dying actress and her estranged son… ⬇️

#WeeklyForecast 39/22

I actually finished The Rabbit Hutch after I took this pic. Review to come up soon. I loved it!
Booth is in progress, I am enjoying that one too. I am about to start the Africa book for the challenge and have the tagged one lined up too. Ambitions!

#BookReport 38/22

Just finished these two this week, both were very engaging. Completely different though. I am having two books in progress too, so I did read a bit more than the picture implies!

Now that October is nearing, we are happy to remind you of the #FearfulFall weekend we have planned from 21-23 October 🖤🖤

We‘ll be having three days of sharing scary memories, partying to ghostly music and of course we‘ll be reading Horseman!

So add the book to your October reading plans and let‘s have some #HappyHorror times! 💃🖤📚🖤👻🖤🕺

Love @BarbaraBB & @Cinfhen

If you want to join in just tag us below ❣️

The genocide in #Rwanda in 1994 made a deep impression at the time but after reading this book I realize how much I didn‘t know or understood. 800,000 people (mostly Tutsi‘s) were literally slaughtered in 3 months time 😨.
The author of this book managed to safe more than 1,000 people by offering them refuge in the hotel he was manager of.
An impressive book that opened my eyes once again.

#ReadingAfrica2022 🇷🇼

So true!

#WeeklyForecast 38/22

I just started Seven Moons for the #Bookerprize2022. It looks challenging. If there‘s time I want to start the tagged book for #ReadingAfrica2022.

It‘s a rainy Sunday and the first day that feels like autumn. A perfect day to curl up with this modern gothic novel. Egan is an excellent writer. I can visualize the medieval castle where the book is set vividly. There are two storylines, coming together nicely in the end and leaving much space for interpretation, which I like.
Thank you for sending me this book Meg, I knew nothing about it before diving in and it was a wonderful surprise 🖤

#BookReport 36/22 and 37/22

I am back home. These are the books I read during my trip. I chose many pageturners which I spent a good time with, yet the two that stood out are the ones the least easy to read, the Japanese ones: the tagged one and Tokyo Express. Japanese fiction might well be my favorite genre.

Nina is in het thirties and single while almost all of her friends are getting married, have babies and move to the suburbs. While they chat about diapers and sleepless nights, Nina is having a rough time herself, with her father suffering from dementia and being ghosted in the world of online dating. A fun read; chicklit with a bit more depth.

Pic: Asakusa, Tokyo, Japan

This is an old-fashioned crime novel. The two detectives are not so much worried about who did it as with how did he do it? The main problem are the time tables of the train. As a reader you follow their detective work in 1957 Japan and it all makes for an engaging read.

Pic: Nezu Shrine, Tokyo, Japan

Japanese lunch and a Japanese book in Japan. Nothing more to wish for 🥰

I loved her other books so bought this one as soon as I heard of it, but my expectations were too high. This one about an unemployed actress asked for a role in a horror movie set in the woods of Ireland, is too far-fetched for me and in the end not that interesting.

Pic: Kanazawa, Japan

Not one English book but I loved browsing here anyway. More manga than I had ever seen before 🇯🇵

Well this is a bit of a cheat. I am going to use this one for #Tunisia only because Marie Colvin stayed in Tunis to interview Arafat. Now that I‘ve come this far I‘ve had enough of the book. So much information, so fast, so boring. #ReadingAfrica2022 🇹🇳

Pic: Zen Musuem, Kanagawa, Japan

To read this book while arriving in Japan and spending the night in a ryokan (Japanese inn) with all its traditions, certainly has added to the experience. But I loved this book about a special friendship between a student and an elder man in the early 20th century. The quietness, the simplicity of the writing style and all that it stands for, the Japanese culture and history. A real gem. #1001books

Pic: Ryokan in Kanazawa, Japan

Set in the Australian Outback this is such an atmospheric book again by Jane Harper. When one of three brothers is found dead in the middle of nowhere, it raises many questions. How did he end up there, without his car or supplies? The small community starts suspecting each other. A very good psychological mystery!

A good novel about a Dutch woman my age, married with children, living a similar kind of life in the city I live mine.
Then, unexpectedly, her husband wants to leave her. What follows are sharp and witty observations of herself, her husband and the remains of their marriage.

(Pic: Busan, South Korea: plastic surgery everywhere, just like in If I Had Your Face 😨)

Bosu Book Street, an alley in the Korean city of Busan, filled with books. I am happy to have been able to visit it before a serious typhoon will hit the city tomorrow morning 😨🤞🏽

This was not for me. It felt flat and repetitive and I skimmed the pages more than I read them 🤷🏻‍♀️

#BookerPrize2022

(Pic: Busan, South Korea)

#BookerPrize2022

I just bailed on After Sappho and I won‘t be able to finish Booth before the announcement of the shortlist so here are my favorites for that shortlist.

Note: I haven‘t read Trust, Glory, and The Seven Moons yet but out of all others these are my favorites. My ultimate vote for now would be for The Colony.

I hope the judges agree with me!

For travelling this book was fitting, it‘s the kind of thriller you want to keep on reading. Fast paced with many twists.
Anna‘s parents have both committed suicide but a year later Anna receives an anonymous note saying: “Suicide? Think twice.”
A light pick.

Pic: Seoul, South Korea

Our stats wizard Helen kept track of all your votes for the #CampLitsy longlist.

We thought that upon leaving camp we‘d surprise you with a goody bag containing the 8 titles that followed the six we read. We know now that we Littens have excellent taste so they are probably wordt reading too, if you haven‘t already.

If you have, recommendations are very welcome.

That‘s it. We‘re breaking up Camp for now!

#AugustStats #AugustWrapUp

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Colony

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨
Chandelier

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Nightcrawling
A Single Rose
Walking the Nile
Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies
Case Study

⭐️⭐️⭐️✨
Either/Or
Our Wives Under The Sea

⭐️⭐️⭐️
China Room

⭐️⭐️✨
Amos Ku Ta Manda
A Fish Caught in Time

⭐️✨
Treacle Walker

#CampLitsy

We have a winner. Thank you all so much for joining in this wonderful summer. It‘s been so fun, we‘ve read some great books and we‘ve loved all discussions.

@squirrelbrain @Megabooks and I hope to welcome you again in camp next year! ☀️

Another three countries for #ReadingAfrica2022 but like @Cinfhen mentioned, it‘s getting tougher to find books - and to enjoy them 🤷🏻‍♀️. My August additions:

🔸 Guinea-Bissau: Anos Ku Ta Manda
🔸 Uganda: Walking the Nile
🔸 Comores: A fish caught in time

A psychological drama, totally up my alley. A very unreliable narrator meets an anti-psychiatrist for some psychiatric sessions in which she wants to discover if he drove her sister to suicide.

I was very much engaged by this book, but not sure yet if it‘ll make my shortlist for the #BookerPrize2022

#WeeklyForecast 35/22

I am in the middle of Case Study, which I am enjoying a lot (and I LOVE the cover 💙). Next will be the tagged one for #ReadingAfrica2022. I have been meaning to read this since the author won the Noble Prize, so it‘s about time. The thriller is for during an extremely long flight to South Korea on Friday. I hope it is good and will make me escape for some hours!

With these books I finished the third quarter of #Booked2022:

13- Includes a recipe
14 - Set in a Canadian province
15 - Involves an exploration
16 - About sisters
17 - New in 2022
18 - Set in a hotel

Favorite is Subdivision, the least one is Our Country Friends.

I enjoyed this book, but I have some problems with it too. I wanted to know so much more about how Mehar and the rest of her life. She wanted so much from life, I can‘t imagine she spent it obediently. And then the approaching Partition, with all its consequences for Punjab. I‘d gladly exchange knowing more about this storyline for the one set in 2019. I didn‘t really see the point of that one...
So, a light pick!

#Booked2022 #AboutSisters

The final question, let‘s discuss this weird genre bending book and the many questions it leaves us behind with.

Tomorrow we‘ll choose our August winner and afterwards the all over #CampLitsy winner!

Our second question is about what seems to be a sideline in the story: the relationship between Miri and her mother. #camplitsy

We‘ll discuss the second part of our last book today. Let‘s start with thinking a bit more about what happened under the sea. #CampLitsy

#BookReport 34/22

The fish was okay for me but the other two I adored. I am really digging the #Bookerprize2022 longlist. The tagged one is my favorite so far - I think.

Safe travels Cindy!

I added #CoffeeQuartz #SudanBrown #Basil and #IcedCoffee for the #Pantone2022 challenge. Just two more to go!

I had never heard of the coelacanth but it‘s a fascinating story, a deep dive in prehistoric times. This book is the non fiction account about Smith and his quest to find them in the #Comores.

#ReadingAfrica2022

The cancer is back. Lia‘s dying. She must come to terms with her past, with this harsh present and she must prepare her teenage daughter for a future without her.
It‘s a heartbreaking story told in a most unusual way. Timelines interweave and the cancer‘s got its own say in the story. It‘d be funny if it weren‘t so tragic.
It took some time for the book to grow on me but when it did I cried for Lia, Harry and Iris. #BookerPrize2022

#AlphabetGame Letter W

One of the gems I discovered on the list of #1001books. This gothic novel is fantastic!

With the arrival of painter Lloyd and linguist JP on a small island off the Irish coast, everything changes for the few inhabitants. While we learn by short press notices of the ongoing Troubles on the mainland, life-changing choices and conflicts become the center of their lives. Magee‘s writing is subtle, the tone poetic, the result devastating.

My favorite of the #BookerPrize2022 longlist so far.

(Pic: Little Mermaid, Copenhagen, Denmark)

#AlphabetGame Letter V

This was really the right book at the right time: it was such a funny read and exactly what I needed when I read it, thanks to @Megabooks