The Booker Shortlist 2025 was just announced

No Seascraper, but I‘m getting used to favorites not making it to the shortlist

I‘ve read and enjoyed both Audition and Flesh

I‘ve bought Flashlight and am looking forward to getting to that.

I‘m on the waitlist at the library for the Desai, but they don‘t have it yet, so I might buy that too

I also think The Land in Winter sounds interesting

What do you think of the shortlist?

#BookReport

I finished Tombland, I‘ve even read the historical note in the back #ShardlakeBR

I read I‘m So Glad We Had This Time Together

I continued my yearlong reads on the right

I continued Emma #PemberLittens #JaneAustenThenAndNow and Brideshead Revisited #HashtagBrigade

I continued A Thousand Feasts

I‘ve started a new audio, All the Sinners Bleed

I‘m also reading Oh William!

Vellekoop is looking back on his life, coming out as gay, being accepted as such in a religious community, learning to date. And maybe more importantly realize that the most dangerous parent may not be that one that yells the highest, but the one you doesn‘t want to disappoint

It also about discovering art, Disney and reading. And I loved that the title is a character in the graphic memoir where he discovers reading

Tagging a previous book by Ambjørnsen since his latest isn‘t in the database

The last work ever published by this author, handed in to his publisher shortly before he passed. And as one reviewer said you can tell in these seven short stories that this is an author who knew he didn‘t have much time left.

They mostly center around older, lonely men looking back at their life. There‘s also talk about being watched and ghosts.

#BookReport

I continued my yearlong reads on the right

I continued Tombland #ShardlakeBR, Emma #PemberLittens #JaneAustenThenAndNow & started Brideshead Revisited #HashtagBrigade

I continued A Thousand Feasts

I finished The Healing Season of Pottery

I started Krakk, but I didn‘t get that much reading in & it was due back at the library yesterday, so I put it on hold.I‘m on the wait list again

I read Ambjørnsen‘s latest short story collection

A cozy and heartwarming book about new beginnings, new hobbies and new friends.

I‘m so happy I saw a review for this book in the paper

I listened to this on audio and I don‘t think that was the right format for me.

My attention span when I‘m listening to something is really short and there was nothing in the narration of this story that kept my attention so I constantly found myself thinking of other things

Thomas Frett scrapes for shrimp as a living, barely making enough to feed him and his ma. Sea scraping is a hard life, out with low tide and he feels way older than his 20 yrs.

Then a stranger knocks on their door, a Hollywood producer with big dreams and he wants Thomas help in navigating the beach and sea. Could their luck have changed?

#WeeklyForecast

Continue with my yearlong reads on the right

Continue with #Tombland #ShardlakeBR and Emma #PemberLittens #JaneAustenThenAndNow and start Brideshead Revisited #HashtagBrigade

Continue A Thousand Feasts

Finish The Healing Season Pottery and hopefully read the Norwegian book Krakk

#BookReport

I slow reading week for me this week. I had plans several days after work. On Monday I was at the House of Literature to hear Omar El Akkad, on Wednesday to hear Annie Ernaux and yesterday at the theatre

But I did finish Seascraper and The South

I continued with my yearlong reads on the right

I continued with the buddy reads; Tombland #ShardlakeBR and Emma #PemberLittens #JaneAustenThenAndNow

I continued A Thousand Feasts

A little later than usual, but here‘s my #BookSpinBingo card for September

My #BookSpin book is my monthly listen of classical music
My #DoubleSpin is my current read
The numbers were really on my side this month

Alba, a professor in linguistics, suddenly finds herself in a metoo situation, at the same time that she decides to something about her climate footprint.

She buys a house outside Reykjavik, and decides to plant trees. In this small town, everyone I knows everyone else and suddenly she finds herself more involved in the community

My #BoomSpin, #DoubleSpin and #BookSpinBingo list for September is ready

A mix of everything

#BookReport

I finished both No Straight Road Takes You There and The Cross #KLBR #DoorstopperKristin

I read Eden

#WeeklyForecast

Continue with my yearlong reads on the right

Continue with The South on audio

I‘ve started Seascrapper and want to finish that

Tomorrow is the beginning of a new month and therefore the beginning of some buddy reads; Emma #PemberLittens #JaneAustenThenAndNow and I‘ll pick up Tombland #ShardlakeBR again

Who knew?

I haven‘t even heard of any of these books

Any recommendations?

#BookReport

I finished Watch Us Dance and this month‘s chapters in Tombland #ShardlakeBR

I read an essay by Ali Smith about Munich‘s paintings

I continued with my yearlong reads on the right, with No Straight Road Takes You There and on audio The South

I‘ve started the last book in the Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy, The Cross #KLBR #DoorstopperKristin

The 2nd fiction book based on Slimani‘s family

It‘s the late60s/ early 70s, all the hard work of Amine has paid of and the family now has money. Aicha returns after having studied medicine in France. As the Belhaj family is trying to navigate their lives, there‘s student rebellion in Europe, anti-Vietnam protests, the hippies are living in Morocco and there‘s unrest in Morocco.

A graphic nonfiction

Barcelona 1958. The reign of Franco and anything published needs to pass the censor. It‘s not easy being a cartoonist in that environment, at the same time the cartoonist have signed contracts giving the publisher the rights to their creations. In this climate some popular cartoonist tries to establish their own magazine

We follow Istvan from his 15 yrs, first in Hungary then later in London with a short stop in Germany. Istvan is a man that just go with the flow and doesn‘t make any decisions in his own life.

The novel also read more like a series of stories focusing on different part of his life, but missing big events like is marriage day and birth of a child.

#Booker2025

#WeeklyForecast

Continue with my yearlong reads on the right

Continue Tombland #ShardlakeBR

Continue No Straight Road Takes You There, maybe even finish

Continue The South on audio

Finish Look at Us Dance and hopefully read Tell Me Everything

#BookReport

I continued my yearlong reads on the right

I continued Tombland #ShardlakeBR

I continued The South on audio

I finished Ocean

I read A Rome above a Shop, The Clue of the Crumbling Wall #NancyDrewBR and Flesh

And I have started No Straight Road Takes You There

An amazing book about the different ocean types and their ecosystems. I learned so much from this.

But I have to admit that if I hadn‘t read What the Wild Sea Can Be from this year‘s Women‘s Prize Nonfiction Longlist, I probably never would have gotten to this.

A quiet book where nothing happens but at the same time everything happens. This book is full of scenes from the everyday life and in these scenes two men fall in love and build a life in a room above a shop that no one knows about. This is a time when this needs to be hidden

I had no idea.

I had my fist day back at work today after 3 weeks of vacation. And as I always says: “I‘m born for vacation”

The stack on the right includes my yearlong reads and buddy reads that I was finishing. For Tombland I kept up the pace

The stack on the left is was I read. When it comes to Kristin Lavransdatter, I read the 2nd book about a 1/3 of the book. I‘m still reading Ocean

I also finished The Flower Farm on audio and started The South

More, remarkably, studies have shown female krill shrinking in winter and regressing their external sexual physiology, thereby effectively returning to their juvenile life stage, when their energy needs were smaller. This downsizing enables them to use their own body protein as fuel to last them through the lean times. With the return of spring they regain their sexual characteristics and become fully mature just in time for the breeding season.

But as on many oceanic islands, today the biggest threats to Rain‘s turtles originate from far away. Higher tides caused by rising sea levels are now flooding many of their nests every year. And there is an additional and invisible danger.
While it is still in the egg, the sex of the developing turtle is determined by the temperature of the nest in which it lies. Nigh temperatures lead to the development of females, lower ones to males. In recent

The 3rd book in the trilogy about Tambudzai

While the 2 first books had quite an innocent look at the world, this one is more brutal. It starts with a sexual harassment scene of a female passenger on a bus.

Tambudzai is trying to navigate life in the city after the independence war in a world where white people still has the power.

The book also focuses on mentally breakdown, mental health and the cliches white people have of Africa

#BookReport

I‘ve finished the 2nd book in the Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy, Wife

I‘ve read Hilda and Twig Hide From the Rain, Feeding Ghosts and This Mournable Body

I‘ve also read the two Sherlock Holmes stories Shoscombe Old Place and The Retired Colourman

I‘ve continued my yearlong reads on the right

I‘ve picked up Tombland again #ShardlaleBR

I‘m also reading Ocean and on audio The South

A graphic memoir that covers Chinese history from the Communist takeover, Hong Kong history and how this impacts the life of thee generations of women, a grandmother, mother and daughter.

The grandmother works as a journalist in China and becomes an unmarried mother. The father is Swiss. Having a mixed race child is dangerous in Mia‘s China. She writes a memoir about her experiences which Hulls uses.

A memoir about how policies impacts people

Hilda and her dog, Twig, is going on an adventure when it starts to rain and they seek shelter.

I loved the illustrations and color palette

I‘ve wanted to read this novel ever since I saw the series a few years ago when it came out (I looked it up & the series was out 2008, so more than a few years)

Arthur Clennam has just returned to the UK after decades abroad. On his first night back, he visits his mother. With his mother, he find a young woman sewing. This is Little Dorrit who lives in the debt prison with her father and siblings.

A book that looks at bureaucracy and how hard

This is insane to think about

This is just amazing and unbelievable

The 4th book in the Dream Harbor series and this was another winner.

Archer has just been told that he has a daughter and has temporarily moved to Dream Harbor to take care of her since the mother has died. He decides to hire a nanny

I love all the villagers and this time they all put their energy into changes to the diner menu.

Another book read in January. I bought this back in 2014, as I had watched the series with the same name and loved it. So this book was a bit of a disappointment. I can‘t believe how they managed to get an amazing series out of these books. This is all tell and no dialogue and will tell about different aspects of the village life in separate chapters.

I‘m glad I got it off my tbr and that I read it with the #HashtagBrigade

I read this in January so it was about time I posted a review.

A look at what will happen in a society where only the facts matter.

I was hoping Sissy Jupe would have played a bigger part in the story since she was the only one standing up against this.

#WhatTheDickens

My #BookSpinBingo card is ready, a little later than usual

My #BookSpin is a graphic memoir
My #DoubleSpin is also graphic but not if it‘s a novel or a memoir

#BookReport

I finished The Whalebone Theatre, Little Dorrit #WhatTheDickens and on audio The Flower Farm

I continued with my yearlong reads on the right

I‘ve started the second book in the Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy, Wife #KLBR #DoorstopperKristin

I finally had my #BookSpin, #DoubleSpin and #BookSpinBingo list for August ready

A lot of buddy reads and library books. I‘ve maxed the number of books I can borrow and need to start reading some

1. Reread, it‘s my 4th read. I‘m not sure what‘s happening but for all the Austen novels on this reread I seem to notice all the bad characters traits

2. Favorite: Fanny. Least favorite: The Crawford siblings

3. I like the scenes where Fanny is standing up against peer pressure, like the theater and the proposal

4. Don‘t have any

5. I‘m not sure there‘s anything wrong with her, other than laziness

6. Neither

7. Mrs. Norris and the Crawford

Today‘s entry - the first mass paperback books are published

The Booker Longlist 2025 has just been announced.

I‘ve read Audition and have Flesh out from the library

Now I‘m going to investigate the other titles

Any you would recommend?

The book is not on the database

A family portrait where the author looks at four generations in her family including herself.

Her grandmother was a Palestinian that sought refuge in Lebanon. Her mother grew up in a refugee camp. Her father was a Lebanese that fought for independence. But she‘s also looking at her aunt and uncle, and how this generational trauma has impacted her mother, her and her children

#BookReport

I finished Mansfield Park #PemberLittens #JaneAustenThenAndNow and Under brosteinen, stranden!

I read TAo The Veiled Lodger #NoPlaceLikeHolmes

I continued with my yearlong reads on the right

I continued Little Dorrit #WhatTheDickens and to listen to The Flower Farm

I‘ve started The Whalebone Theatre

When one considers that Mr. Sherlock Holmes was in active practice for twenty-three years, and that during seventeen of these I was allowed to cooperate with him and to keep notes of his doings, it will be clear that I have a mass of material at my command

#FirstLineFridays

A giant in Norwegian literature has just passed away, Ingvar Ambjørnsen, at 69 years

He wrote for everyone, the rich, the poor, the young and the old.

Growing up, I read his “Pelle og Proffen” series.

Later on he wrote the books about Elling, where the second book in the series was turned into a movie. The movie was on the shortlist for Oscar for Best Foreign Movie.

#BookReport

I finished The Strawberry Patch Pancake House and this month‘s reading in Tombland #ShardlakeBR

I read The Secret in the Attic #NancyDrewBR

I continued my yearlong reads on the right

I continued Little Dorrit #WhatTheDickens and Mansfield Park #PemberLittens #JaneAustenThenAndNow

I continued listening to The Flower Farm

And I‘ve started the first book from my staycation tbr, Under brosteinen, stranden!

As of 15:50 I‘m officially on my summer vacation or staycation

Unlike last year when my tbr was quite insane, I‘m a little bit more focused this year

I hope to read these 5 chunksters. The longest is 970 pages & the shortest is 400 p (which probably doesn‘t qualify as a chunkster)

These 5 doesn‘t exclude any other books since I‘ve joined some buddy reads, I‘ve a lot out from the library that I want to read & I‘ve also bought some shorter books