What a change of pace from Sebastian Fitzek‘s very popular thrillers! This comedic look at parenting, over-the-top teacher-parent conferences, and how two adults built a platform of ridiculous lies as a cover to escape arrest all worked out to be a really entertaining read for me!

It‘s really rare that I listen to audiobooks, but I‘d heard that this one, read/performed by Meryl Streep, was exceptional—and that was absolutely the case! Both the book itself and the reading were outstanding, and this kept my mind occupied on a long road trip last week. So so good.

I had mixed feelings about this book, but I‘m glad I read it. Definitely recommended, but with some reservations!

I enjoyed this dark mystery, which my local library‘s fiction book club chose for January. I liked it enough to make a note to read the sequel, The Family Remains.

This was an interesting read, since the protagonist is a Japanese woman with a fair amount of western attitudes. Her feelings about her family and the affair that threatens to undo it all are compelling. I‘d recommend this to readers who would appreciate an insider‘s view of modern day Japanese culture.

I loved Der Buchspazierer! It has been translated into many languages including English with the title The Door-to-Door Bookstore, but I don‘t know if the translations would completely capture the charm of the original. (Sometimes translations are spot on, but not always! I‘ve learned to appreciate that art as well.) This was the delightful book that I needed to end 2024 before turning the page to a new year.

1) Christmas concerts
2) My favorite outdoor Christmas decoration nearby
3) Remembering Christmases past as I decorated my tree
4) Spending time with new friends
5) Celebrating my 65th birthday!

#5JoysFriday @DebinHawaii

I read a lot of Anthony Trollope novels a few decades ago but had not heard of this surprisingly short (especially for AT) holiday tale! Honestly, it struck me as what the 1893 version of a comfortably predictable but charmingly written sit-com episode would be!
Delightful!

This post isn‘t book related—except that I feel like I could write a book about my muses for creativity.
One of the joys of the season is creating my yearly Christmas card. I was racing the clock today to finish this watercolor of my dog Schäfer, so that I could order cards online tonight. I‘m feeling a happy kind of tired tonight! (Card frame and white lights were a template placed over the photo of my painting.)
Happy Holiday season to you all!

To be honest, I wasn‘t thrilled that my book club selected this one for our next read, but most members wanted something light after our last challenging book. I had never read anything by this writer, so I didn‘t know what to expect, but I found that it was what my heavy heart needed! What a refreshingly humorous take on holidays, family, friends, and compulsive shopping! It won me over!

This German thriller was based on a pretty gruesome premise, but it struck me as an original idea, so I tackled this as my first book from this popular German writer. I enjoyed it for the fast-paced plot development and found the shift in following different characters for each chapter pretty engrossing. Thumbs up!

I loved this book! It was really wonderful in many ways and more inspirational than I expected. High recommendations here!

After hearing so many good things about this book, I had high hopes—and was NOT disappointed!! So many surprises and outstanding food for serious thought. Highly recommended for all who have read Huckleberry Finn. (The references are plentiful.)

I enjoyed reading this mystery for my local book club, but I don‘t really know why, since I found the main character so irritating! All in all, it was still entertaining!

“As you read a book word by word and page by page, you participate in its creation, just as a cellist playing a Bach suite participates, note by note, in the creation, the coming-to-be, the existence, of the music. And, as you read and re-read, the book of course participates in the creation of you, your thoughts and feelings, the size and temper of your soul.”
– Ursula K. Le Guin

Although it has been a few years since I read The Great Gatsby, this was a clever look at the women of that novel and their backstories and motivations.

“She held the gun the way a certain kind of careless man held his glass of whiskey.”

I love a book that means business from the first line!
I just started this book that tells the story of Gatsby from the women characters‘ perspectives.

#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl

Finally finished! These long mysteries in German are great language practice for me, but I don‘t read them quickly and often have a German-English dictionary app open when I am stumped. Even so, it was very satisfying to finish the 6th book in this mystery series. Ann Kathrin Klaasen is an engaging protagonist because of her grit tempered with humor.

I enjoyed reading this and learned a good bit about women‘s lives in England during WWI. I had never heard about the women who worked in munitions factories and certainly didn‘t know that those who worked with TNT directly suffered a yellow tint to their skin (hence the title with their nickname), damaged hair, and general danger to their health! Meanwhile they persevered—and even played soccer!

This was fun! And it‘s always a delightful surprise to find one‘s own name randomly included in a minor detail…

I enjoyed this and found myself reflecting on death and the big choices we make in our lives. Bonus: learning a good bit about Egyptology!

I really enjoyed this new novel by Ryan Byrnes!
From the book jacket: “A love story of Italian immigrants reaching from Brooklyn to Sicily to Tunisia, from the Great War to the Great Depression.”

I cannot lie. I had a hard time getting through this, because the story is so painful in many ways. I understand why it was chosen for the Pulitzer Prize, however, because the writing is absolutely phenomenal. I‘m glad I read it—and especially glad that I made it to the end, as it took some wild turns in the last 100 pages.

I thought this was well written, but I found so much of it very sad as a few of the characters made some heart-breaking choices. Watching the characters change over time was what kept me hopeful! Overall a very good book!

@DebinHawaii #5joysFriday

Just realized that I never posted my review of Rebecca! I enjoyed this so much! It was the first time I have read this classic. Thanks to @BarkingMadRead and all who contributed to the group read last month!

This was a very challenging read for me! I might have enjoyed it more if I had read Jane Eyre shortly beforehand. My murky memories of Jane Eyre from 40 years ago really didn‘t help me out. I was grateful for the detailed notes in this volume though. Even so—just not for me.

Just the kind of light-hearted fun I have needed!

I don‘t know if I have ever been more relieved to reach the last page of a novel! Truly, if it had not been for the dogged perseverance of @BarkingMadRead and others who offered hashtags that assured me I was not alone in this crazed wasteland of #blahblahblah, I would never—I repeat never—have finished this. Honestly, I enjoyed the last 300 pages more than the first 500–again, a sentence I hope never to write again. My expectations were high…

1) Our Town by Thornton Wilder (Plays count, right? I love this one for many reasons.)
2) Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury
3) A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Extraordinary writing justifies repeat visits!

@dabbe #TLT #ThreeListThursday

1) Get a new knee (total knee replacement) on Tuesday and do physical therapy!
2) As a child, I wanted to be an artist, because I liked to draw, AND I wanted to be a teacher, because I enjoyed some of my teachers so very much.
3) If I recover from the knee surgery quickly, I‘d love to attend a friend‘s wedding in June in Illinois.
4) Currently reading Demon Copperhead (also The Brothers Karamazov—one chapter a day!)
@Cupcake12
#MotivationalMonday

1) I just started Demon Copperhead, which is set in contemporary Appalachia (though I‘ve read that it‘s inspired by Dickens‘ David Copperfield, which was set in rural Suffolk in the 1800s).

2) I have been to Hogwarts! Okay, so it was actually Alnwick Castle in northern England, where parts of the Harry Potter movies were filmed.
@Eggs #WondrousWednesday

Extraordinary! This one is going to be on my mind and heart for some time. A brilliantly written, heart-wrenching story.

1️⃣ I have lots of favorite female characters, but today I choose Jo in Little Women.

2️⃣ Today I choose Jean Valjean in Les Misérables.

3️⃣ I just started The Nickel Boys. I expect it will be sad, but I love Colson Whitehead‘s writing.

This was on my TBR list for years, and I finally read it this week. I have mixed feelings about it, but the fact that it‘s based on a true story is absolutely remarkable. As a high school German teacher, I used to have an annual Holocaust reading project, during which students chose a book (fiction or nonfiction books in English) based on events of the Holocaust. At the end of the project we had book club style discussions in small groups…

I just finished this one for my local book club meeting on Monday. It was awfully predictable, but that‘s not always a bad thing, if you‘re in the mood for a comforting kind of read. I haven‘t read other books by this author, but she‘s apparently a big success with many other published titles.

I enjoyed Pillars of the Earth so much and was excited to read this prequel! I enjoyed the characters and plot lines, but for some reason this book didn‘t captivate me as much as Pillars did. Actually, I felt the same way about the two sequels as well. All in all, still a very enjoyable read!

What a good read this was! I enjoy Maeve Binchy‘s stories, where good people often find each other in unexpected ways at a time when kindness is most needed.

What a year of interesting reading! My life is richer for it, to be sure. Here‘s to another year of good books!

I received three books for Christmas! I had requested the books by Kingsolver and Follett, but Jesus at the Movies was a surprise gift from my brother who is a friend of the author. This title is not showing up on the Litsy list, but the author‘s earlier book Letterboxed is there and was referenced in this book. At a mere 99 pages, I was able to finish it quickly and found it to be a mini Masters class on film with some references to Christianity.

It didn‘t take me long to get into this imagined backstory of Jacob Marley, whose ghost visits Ebenezer Scrooge in Dickens‘ classic, A Christmas Carol, and to find myself fully invested in the development of the relationship of these two men. A clever and illuminating revelation as to the many reasons why Marley was doomed, as well as an elaboration on the love story between young Scrooge and Belle—and more! Recommended!

#tlt @dabbe
1: Germany ??
2: Switzerland ??
3: Austria ??
Ah—to be in German speaking countries for the holidays!
?Today I went to the Christkindlmarkt (Christmas market) in Atlanta for the first time and got a little dose of German Christmas spirit, as I was reminded of my Christmas market experience in Nürnberg, Germany many years ago!

Settling down to start Marley with a cup of tea! Will the author enhance my devotion to Dickens‘ A Christmas Carol with this book? Or will I toss this into the trash, vowing not to fall again for a retelling of a beloved story from another character‘s perspective?

I‘m really excited to start reading Wellness by Nathan Hill! Nate was a student in my German classes during his high school years in the late 1990s. His first book, The Nix, came out seven years ago and was a bestseller for some time. This time around, Oprah has selected his new book for her latest recommendation!

I read one of award-winning Tananarive Due‘s older books, The Good House, to become familiar with her writing before attending this event. It was frightful! The new book, The Reformatory, sounds amazing. It‘s nominated for best Horror Novel of 2023 on GoodReads.

In anticipation of a talk by author Tananarive Due at a nearby library soon, I ordered The Good House (copyright 2003) through inter-library loan, and it finally came in! I wanted to find out more about this author and try one of her books before going to the upcoming book talk, which actually is promoting a brand new book, The Reformatory. So far, I am 80 pages into The Good House, and it‘s quite well written and suspenseful!

I have had this on my shelf for some years, and today felt like the right time to start it! Only one chapter in, and I like it so far!

1. I had many favorites, but the first one that popped to mind is The Boxcar Children.
2. A favorite memory of my mom is learning to embroider with her. We worked on many projects together.
3. The last time I was ecstatic was when my offer on a house was accepted! I moved a short time later and have lived in that house now for almost 6 months.

This is my first read-along on Litsy, and I am glad to find that I am keeping up so far! Just finished chapters 21-22 for today. It really is helpful to keep pace and check in on comments as I go, thanks especially to @BarkingMadRead ! Thank you, @Bklover for the recommendations!

Starting this one for the fiction book club at my local library (Gwinnett County Public Library—Mountain Park in Lilburn, GA). The in-person book club, which meets monthly, has been a nice way to meet people in this community that I just moved to in April.
Several of the members especially like reading books chosen for Reese‘s Book Club, as this one was.