The new #indiespensable box is here!!!! #indiebuddyreads #powells

Yes, it's here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! #subutex #frenchlit

Why do people believe in God? That's the central question of Kwon's debut novel which centers on two college students in emotional turmoil. Not without flaws, but very well done.

It's a scandal that none of Heinz Strunk's books has been translated into English yet - this guy went from being the darling of the Hamburg underground to winning major literary awards, and no one walks the line between tragedy and comedy like him. His new short story collection "The Little Tea Man" is just wonderful.

I GOT THE NEW BOOK BY SJÓN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so excited - I love Iceland, and I love Sjón's wild imagination. #iceland #favorite #sjon

How can a book about a misfit amateur wrestler in North Dakota be so compelling and fascinating? Seriously, how??? Gabe Habash, what a talent - and this is only his debut novel!

Did Olivia Laing just invent the "biographical pastiche"? In #Crudo, she cross-fades her bio with that of punk poet and feminist icon #KathyAcker, thus offering an equally innovative and disturbing look at our current state of affairs. This might well get nominated for the next #Goldsmiths or #WomensPrize.

German newspaper #DieZeit celebrates #RonanFarrow's #WarOnPeace as "brilliant" - and it is! #dogsoflitsy #politics

Ondaatje's Warlight is everywhere these days! #hype #manbooker2018 #mbp2018 #finestfiction #indiebuddyreads

This book is not included in the Litsy database yet - it's the brand new Lucia Berlin short story collection with 22 additional texts, out in November. Funny and sad, authentic and imagined - I wish the author was still alive to witness her success! #LuciaBerlin #EveningInParadise #Netgalley #arc #fsgbooks

Audiobook narrators usually don't get the praise that they deserve, so let me say that Cassandra Campbell does a terrific job reading this one. I listened to the book because people keep comparing it to #TheMarsRoom, but while I command Kerman for her activism regarding prison reform, I have to say that this book is not particularly well-written. #RachelKushner plays in another league! #indiebuddyreads

This book will win this year's Booker prize - cutting-edge fiction, fresh, poetic and current. Gunaratne talks about the sources of and connections between hate and fear, and while the story is set in modern-day London, its wisdom expands way beyond the city limits . #manbooker2018 #mbp2018 #finestfiction #indiebuddyreads

What a beautiful, atmospheric book! A soldier returns from WWII and tries to build a life for himself in LA. Although he finds new meaning in his work as a reporter, often covering social justice issues, his trauma and his disappointment with American society threaten to destroy him. The writing is highly poetic and pays tribute to film noir and jazz. #manbooker2018 #mbp2018 #indiebuddyreads #finestfiction

Native American author Sherman Alexie writes about the tragic destiny of his mother and the hard life of his parents on the Spokane Indian rez in Washington. Everybody should read Alexie, #TommyOrange and #LouiseErdrich.

This book clearly has its strengths, especially when the author talks about how The ﹰTroubles in Northern Ireland have disrupted communities, but the excessive ruminations of the protagonist really tested my patience. #manbooker2018 #finestfiction #indiebuddyreads #mbp2018 #indiebuddyreads

Of course you can slap the label "feminist dystopia" on a book to sell it, it doesn't make the book a feminist dystopia though. In fact I'm wondering what it is about this book that is supposed to be feminist, or whether it has any merit beyond the actual story it tells. #indiebuddyreads #dogsoflitsy #dogs #manbooker2018 #finestfiction #indiebuddyreads #mbp2018

I just love the beautiful, vibrant and contradictory place that is #Brazil! Over a whopping 800 Pages, the authors of this impressive non-fiction book give a broad overview of historical and societal developments that have shaped their country - and they prove that social science can be both objective and passionate. #netgalley #arc #BrazilABiography #fsg

Donal Ryan writes about three very different men, about their losses and regrets - and woooow, this author really shows some deep understanding of the human soul. There are beautiful, interesting and pristine sentences aplenty. Another year with outstanding Irish contributions to the Booker list, it seems. #manbooker2018 #finestfiction #indiebuddyreads #mbp2018 #indiebuddyreads

This book is the epitomy of Ondaatje's style: Polished and controlled, the language flows nicely, evenly, perfectly. This author is undoubtedly a master of his craft and there is also no doubt that his meditations on how the past continues to influence us have tremendous merit; still, this is not for me: I like my stories wilder and weirder. #manbooker2018 #finestfiction #indiebuddyreads #mbp2018

Ta-da: The first #GraphicNovel ever to be nominated for the #Booker! #Sabrina talks about loneliness, conspiracy theories, the news cycle and the destructive power of the media - a very interesting addition to this year's longlist. #manbooker2018 #finestfiction #indiebuddyreads

This is the reworking of a Greek tragedy, a horror/ghost story, and a family drama - Daisy Johnson knows how to write exciting experimental fiction, and this is a worthy Booker nominee! #manbooker2018 #mbp2018 #finestfiction #indiebuddyreads

In #WashingtonBlack, Edugyan writes about slavery, race, and identity, but in the form of an adventure novel. A very accessible read for a #Booker nominee, but also intelligent story with some depth. #mbp2018 #manbooker2018 #finestfiction #indiebuddyreads #netgalley #arc

It's not a bad book for what it is, but this should never have made the #Booker longlist. The world is going nuts and there are tons of books out there telling relevant stories about our times, with urgent narrative voices and interesting aesthetic concepts - and the Booker judges nominate escapist entertainment with kitsch elements instead of #TimWinton or #TommyOrange. Very upsetting. #indiebuddyreads #manbooker2018 #mbp2018 #finestfiction

Tommy Orange portrays the lives of several Native Americans in modern-day #California, thus shining a light on the Native experience today. If you don't read this, it's clearly your loss - the book is fantastic. #indiebuddyreads #indiespensable #oakland #nativeamerican #firstnations

Kushner tackles mass incaceration and the prison-industrial complex by telling the stories of several inmates in a women's prison - what a great book!! #dogsoflitsy

#Booker season is here!!!! And this is the infamous #indiebuddyreads longlist prediction! #finestfiction #BookerPrize

@mklong @Redheadrambles @Redwritinghood @Neale @AceOnRoam @Marchpane @ns510reads

...this book starts out with a quote by Brecht?! Interesting! #StoriesUnite #BertiBrecht

Yes, that's his extra scary Stephen-King-has-a-new-novel-face!!! Cool, right? :-) #dogsoflitsy #KingIsKing #StephenKing #suspense #finderskeepers4

Guys, Kracht's "Die Toten" was just published in translation as "The Dead". This author means so much to me, I hope many people will read this as well as his other translated works!! #SwissLit #ChristianKracht #favorites

#Yanagihara is such a brilliant, brilliant writer! Norton, a gifted scientist, discovers a turtle that might hold the secret to eternal life - he wins the Nobel for that, but the consequences for the turtle's habitat in Micronesia are devastating: Companies exploit nature, the indigenous culture dies. Then Norton goes to prison for sexually abusing native children. How could all of that happen? A thought-provoking read, highly recommended.

Certainly not the most subtle book ever written, but I was fascinated how #Bradbury depicted the aspect of human complacency: In this #dystopia, society is in favor of abolishing books, because they might contain challenging ideas as well as unpleasant truths and provoke negative emotions like sadness. The consequence: A dehumanized society. The people of Litsy certainly won't let that happen!! :-)

Yay, my #indiespensable box has arrived!!! #indiebuddyreads @AceOnRoam @Redwritinghood @Redheadrambles @Neale @Marchpane @ns510reads @ClairesReads @mklong

In "Destroy All Monsters: The Last Rock Novel", Jackson discusses mass shootings in concert venues and what they might say about our state of affairs, and he does it in a narrative which feels like an explosion that produces fragments over fragments- good idea, but the execution is lacking. (No, my dog does not really drink canned beer, no worries! :-)) #music #arc #netgalley #dogsoflitsy #dogs

Today, Cusk's new book got a huge article in one of Germany's major newspapers, Die Zeit - and rightly so! Its protagonist Faye, a writer and divorced mother of two, takes us into Europe's literary circles, and the whole story is told from Cusk's trademark "annihilated perspective". Will #Kudos convince the #Booker judges? It certainly made the #indiebuddyreads prediction list!

Arthur Less, the semi-successful writer in the blue suit, is shattered: His boyfriend of 9 years who recently broke up with him is getting married, and Arthur really doesn't want to attend this event. To have an excuse, he decides to accept all the invitations to half-baked literary events that are currently in his inbox. Arthur travels around the globe in search for his lost past and unknown future - what a wonderful, kind and intelligent book!

Ha, look what I am currently reading while sitting on my balcony in Germany and trying to learn more about German author Rainer Maria #Rilke - those Aussies and Kiwis just know stuff! :-) @Neale @Redheadrambles @AceOnRoam @ClairesReads #indiebuddyreads

The real protagonists of this book are #trees - living, thinking, communicating, hard-working trees! Okay, there are also people, but they are on a quest to learn what the trees already know. Experimental #ecofiction for people who love #nature! #environment #indiebuddyreads #manbooker2018 #finestfiction

@Neale Elvis says he's sorry, but he would only fly if he was allowed in the cabin with me, plus he has this important job of cleaning up the forest - who will store away all these random pieces of wood and dig holes if he was in AUS? #dogswithjobs #thisisMYterritory #terrierpower #dogsoflitsy
Chloe is so cute!!

Vuillard received the most important Prize for French literature for his book on the rise of Hitler. By highlighting singular instances and describing little vignettes, he dissects a major catastrophe into a multitude of failures which add up to WWII and the holocaust. Still, I was a little underwhelmed, maybe because the last novel about the Nazis that won the Goncourt, Binet's "HHhH", was much more daring and intense.

This short story collection contains 18 texts by writers from Iceland, Greenland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and the Faroe Islands - and it's edited by Sjón. Sjón!!! Which of course means you have to read it. #captainobvious

How cool is my #Subutex tee?!?! I love it, and I love this book about a former record store owner who turns into a very special kind of philosopher - read it, people, now!!!!! #whoisvernonsubutex

Yan Lianke deconstructs Xi Jinping's concept of the "Chinese Dream" - turns out there's only a thin line between a dream and a nightmare...#netgalley #arc #thedaythesundied #belgium #china #travelitsy

In this book, some of the most famous German-language writers, among them Stefan Zweig and Joseph Roth, spend one last summer together in their Belgian exile before they get scattered all over the world and WWII destroys the continent (including Ostend). Many of those brilliant minds later killed themselves because they had lost faith in humanity. This is such a timely read, it makes my stomach turn. #belgium #ostend #travelitsy

Thanks for the tag, @Redwritinghood ! :-)
1. The Town Musicians of Bremen
2. Neither - no animated movies for me, please!
3. 9:34 p.m.
4. Ham
5. @batsy @Redheadrambles
#friyayintro

Jesse Ball's brother Abram who suffered from Down syndrome was only 24 years old when he passed away. Ball dedicated this book to him, and as he had planned his life assuming that he would one day become Abram's primary caretaker, this is a story about a father who has a son with trisomy 21 to better mirror the relationship they might have had in the future. The census in this book is all about human relationships - a moving and puzzling story.

Just read a neswaper article by the acclaimed historian Herfried Münkler who refers back to Joseph Nye's politics of soft power (read Nye!!), and his conclusion is grim: The more successful Trump is, the more America's soft power will dissolve, a process that cannot be reversed. The outcome, says Münkler, will be the end of "the West" that has once been created by the US. The American Century: 1917 (the US enters WWI) - 2017?

Walking towards Ostende while listening to Weidermann's "Ostende 1936"...#belgium #ostende #travelitsy #audiobook

Buying new #comics in style at "De Striep", #Bruges, #Belgium!

My current reading environment! #litsyonthego #beachreads #belgium #travel #europe

If you like Christian Kracht, you will LOVE this book! #christiankracht #dogs #bookishdog #booksndogs #swisslit #dogsoflitsy