This novel might be the prettiest book of the year (looks really nice inside too). The mythology lesson at the beginning is quite interesting as well. Sadly, I‘ve got nothing more positive to say. The writing is supposed to be poetical, but it‘s just sentence after sentence shredded through a thesaurus. The FMC is annoying and overuses the word “c*ck” a lot. Romance goes from Enemies to Lovers in 5 pages.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️/5
#romantasy

In the last two to three years, my local bookstores have really stepped up their game for #Pride month! 🏳️‍🌈

#LGBT #bookstore

Finally, a 5 star novel!! I already loved her debut novel “22 Bahnen”, but I enjoyed this even more. The author has a very distinct voice and reading her novels is just so much fun, even when the content is very emotional.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

#GermanNovel

If you loved the series adaption of #OneDay by David Nicholls as much as I did, you will definitely recognize these stairs in Edinburgh 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿! It‘s called The Vennel and is right next to the famous Grassmarket. When you climb up these stairs, you get a wonderful look of the castle 🏰!

Another #Waterstones, this time in Edinburgh 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿!
During my holiday, I also spent some time with a few of my favourite novels:

A Song of Achilles
Circe
The One Hundred Years of Lenni & Margot: not very well-known, but it‘s a complete tearjerker and extremely lovable characters. If you like Ove & Anxious People, you‘ll love this one too.

#Holiday

4th & last stop: a sunny day in #Edinburgh 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 (Victoria Street)

The Future Future: great cover, very weird concept and terrible execution. Zero stars. I just flipped through the second half and it got weirder and weirder.

#holiday #scotland

🗺️ Kirkwall, Orkney-Islands (Home of sheep, cows and some puffins)

We went on a biking 🚴‍♀️ tour and had some time in the biggest city, Kirkwall. It was sunny ☀️ and the Scots were very warm & welcoming.

#TheBeeSting didn‘t convince me. The ending was a terrible punch to the gut. #PaulMurray

#holiday #sightseeing #scotland

Inverness, Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

New Adult Romance is a very popular genre on the German book market right now and especially the Lyx Verlag novels are sold very well. I finished the tagged trilogy in ~2 days. It‘s no masterpiece but still quite enjoyable.

2nd stop: Inverness & Loch Ness in Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿☀️

How could I not buy this novel with this gorgeous cover? It‘s a modern Persephone retelling which focuses more on the mother‘s (Demeter) frantic search for her daughter than on Hades. Over all though, it was a bit of a letdown.
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

We are back from our holiday and we really had fantastic weather! I managed to read 11 books 📚 in 7 days.

These are the bridges over the River Tyne in Newcastle.

“This is how you remember it” has great writing and really fits our times. The pages flew by and the ending was very satisfying.
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Newcastle Upon Tyne in the far north of England is neither that exciting nor beautiful, but it does have this lovely #Waterstones. We went on a walk along the river amidst its many bridges, visited the Cathedral and climbed the many steps of the small castle.

#holiday #England

I hope I‘m packing enough books for my one week journey through Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🫣 📖. I really need a #holiday.

Der dritte und leider auch der schwächste Teil der Reihe ?. Das Buch war leider nicht so intensiv wie die anderen und die Probleme wurden alle sehr schnell gelöst. Teil 1 & 2 waren da dramatischer und emotionaler.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️,5/5

I was really in the mood for Sci-Fi these last two weeks after seeing Dune, Arrival, Interstellar and The Martian 👽. However, #ProjectHailMary didn‘t blow me away. It‘s pretty good and humorous, but the ending was a bit disappointing.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

#AndyWeir

This novel would have helped me so much when I was a young and anxious teen. I‘m so happy and grateful that we have these lovely novels today. I‘m definitely gonna get the rest of the series as well.
The Liebe ist… trilogy is about a female soccer club at a school in North Germany. Every book features queer characters & relationships. It‘s cute and very age-appropriate.

#YA #GermanNovels #Queer

The two things I enjoyed most is that it‘s set in London and that it focuses on a bookstore and its employees. The story is pretty wild.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

My parents and I visited my sisters family in Dresden over the #Easter weekend. I bought Happily Never After, my fourth Painter book, at the big Thalia store close to the Old Town. Unfortunately, I really prefer her YA novels. The younger characters just fit her writing better.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

After 3 years, we are finally getting a new Sally Rooney novel! I really hope it will reach the heights of Normal People. It‘s coming out September 24.

#SallyRooney #NormalPeople #newreleases

I think I‘m done with college students entering inappropriate relationships for a while 😵‍💫.

My Last Innocent Year: ⭐️⭐️⭐️,75/5
Sirens & Muses: ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Not sure if there is anything left to say about this spectacular novel. I don‘t know what #KristinHannah puts into her writing, but it‘s always so entertaining and you just cannot put it down. However, I did like Great Alone & Four Winds a bit more than #TheWomen. She included the same twist twice, and I could have lived without the men drama.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

I noticed the #JanuaryinJapan reading challenge on Instagram, and it motivated me to read more translations! This month, I‘ve read Sweet Bean Paste, All the Lovers in the Night, The Kamogawa Food Detectives & Before the Coffee gets Cold.

Any suggestions for my 1st #HarukiMurakami novel? I‘ve heard his work is VERY misogynistic.

Look who‘s done with her (first?) #AuldLangSpine novel! @Karisa recommended #DearEdward to me. I really liked the writing and the author captured the young boy really well. I wish the Plotline with the letters started early, since the story dragged a bit in the middle.
Rating: 3,75⭐️
Looking forward to the Apple TV 📺 adaption.

Gotta say I‘m pretty proud of myself! I‘ve read 24 more books than in 2022, although I really think 200 books a year will be my limit. Especially since I don‘t know what changes 2024 will bring.

#GoodreadsChallenge #myyearinbooks

I finally had time to choose my novel for #AuldLangSyne 2024! It‘s the Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi, which I conveniently already have downloaded on my kindle. To make myself more ambitious, I also added #DearEdward, which I vaguely remember reading about when it was released. Looking forward to the discussion ☺️ @Karisa

My family and I enjoyed a lovely time between Christmas Eve and New Year‘s Eve. On Thursday, we went to the Caspar David Friedrich Exhibition in Hamburg, to celebrate his 250th birthday next year. The Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer is arguably his most famous painting and also one of the most important art objects in the Romantic Era.

#museum #art

I found my old #kindle, I got it for my birthday soon after Amazon started selling them! It‘s quite heavy, but it still totally works. With this one, I could access & download #eBooks without WLAN, which was really useful.

After the emotional heavy Volume 04, this one was a lot more lighthearted. To be honest, this might be the rare case where I prefer the adaptation, since we get to see more of the lovely side characters in the series than in the novels.
#Heartstopper #GraphicNovel

The author is a bit too negative & grumpy, and most of his co-workers behaved infuriating.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

I have read a lot of stories about the Holocaust, both Fiction and lots of Non-Fiction. #Maus offers a completely new perspective, both from the survivors themselves and the next generation. It depicts trauma in a very harrowing way. A must-read, for older teens as well.

My #Christmas presents 🎁🎄⭐️ from my family! My friends got me some personal & wonderful art for my room, which is lovely. Looking forward to read my new books, wear my first ever ring 💍 and listen to film music & Taylor Swift with my HomePod.

Merry Christmas to all your kind Littens!

Looks like a great list, thank you @Karisa
Now I just have to choose which ones I will pick. I‘ve already read Hamnet, Telegraph Club, Demon Copperhead and Babel. Not sure if I will have time today to decide, since Christmas is in full swing here ⭐️🎄🎁.

#AuldLangSyne

ALL the books I bought in London, which also meant that I carried them around 3 tube stations, two airports and another train station back in Germany 😮‍💨🥱.
1st row: From Gay‘s the Word (Monday)
2nd row: Foyles & National Gallery Shop (Tuesday)
3rd row: Waterstones at Picadilly (Wednesday)

#London #Bookstore #Shopping

The Paddington Bear 🐻 Picture Book is from #Foyles and is my present for my first niece/nephew next spring. I got the cat pin today at #waterstones, the Glossier lipstick 💄 is called „Portrait“ and the rest is from The National Gallery & state Britain. Yeah! Not included are my Christmas presents from Harrods & Selfridges from my parents.

Last post from #London I‘m afraid, since I‘m already at Heathrow and on my way back home. London is always a treat, and seeing all the lights and Christmas decorations was amazing. I definitely can‘t complain that my bag is too light, phew 😮‍💨.

#Holiday #Shopping #Travel #Uk

The big #Waterstones at Picadilly Circus also has a sweet #Heartstopper display! I‘m getting the new graphic novel for Christmas.

#London #Bookstore

The beautiful Christmas decorations at #Foyles. Always worth a visit, they‘ve got a fantastic children book section, lots of different non-fiction categories, and their fiction recommendations are always worth it.

#London #Bookstore

#Yellowface by #RFKuang is getting a lot of love by #Foyles in the window display! Great novel.

#london #bookstore

The 3 books I bought today at Gay‘s the Word! The Graphic Novel is huge and extremely heavy. Let‘s hope they‘re worth it. 📕 📕 📕

#newbooks #london

Back in #London from Sunday til Wednesday to get the full Christmas experience. Today, I went to my favourite book store, Gay‘s the Word at Russel Square, and they went all out for #Heartstopper 05.

A story of a relationship post-break-up and what comes next.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️,5/5

#DollyAlderton #novel

Parable of the Sower depicts an America that deals with a water crisis, wildfires, unemployment and general collapse of society. It‘s a dystopia set in 2024 (yikes) and it actually & brutally shows what women would have to fear in such a situation, so be aware, there is a lot of sexual violence shown.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️,5/5

FINALLY, a Japanese/Korean Translation that did not give me any icky feelings due to sexism & misogyny. This book is centered around a bookstore and it‘s workers. It‘s extremely cozy and also talks about current Korean & worldwide problems. A perfect read for the Winter!

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️,5/5

In October, I read my first #StephenKing novel (IT) and then my second, third and fourth. IT still remained the best, with 11/22/63 close behind. I don‘t think his endings are as bad as many people say they are, but I have to agree that he describes his female characters terribly.
Anything else by King I should read? I‘m eyeing The Stand or The Institute.

I‘ve been MIA for a while. I am very busy with my final exams & term paper, and I traveled through Italy this September, which was lovely. The new Tintenherz book by Cornelia Funke was released today, over ten years after the last one. I‘m looking forward to reading it.

After weeks of non-stop raining ☔️, we are finally getting some sunny & warm days. I spent them at the beach, on the lake and on my bike. I also started the #DiscWorld universe with the Death series, and I‘m having fun with it.

#TerryPratchett

#TheGuest

Another entry for the Hot Girl Summer reading list.

⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

After it rained through almost all of July, August isn‘t starting much better. To get at least outside for an hour, I took my book to a cafe and tried to read. This book has a very interesting premise, but I‘m not sure how much I‘m really enjoying it.

The rest of July was filled with rainy days, seeing Barbie and Oppenheimer in cinema, and also drinking this horrible Chai Tea ☕️. I cycled for one hour through the rain ☔️ and got absolutely drenched, but I have 3 new books! I‘ve heard so much about Tomorrow… that I simply had to buy it. The Virgin Suicides has been on my TBR for ages. I‘m most excited about the YA novel though. Lesbians & the apocalypse!

I‘m in Berlin this weekend because my friend is getting married in August & we are doing her Hen Night. On my way to Berlin, our train was stopped because of a complicated police investigation, and we didn‘t move again for 4 hours, which was terrible and very exhausting.
This is the German Pride Month table at #Dussmann.

My friend created a personalized book stamp for me for my birthday 🥳😍📖. Isn‘t it gorgeous!

#stamp #bookaccessorize