Nathalie's (Deern's) books in 2011 - Part 2

Welcome to my 2nd thread!



Taken in the Botanical Gardens of Merano, "The Gardens of Castle Trautmannsdorf"

Here’s what I’ve read so far this year, the reviews can be found on
my first 2011 thread :

1. The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare
2. The Complete Sonnets by William Shakespeare
3. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
4. Beowulf (Seamus Heany translation)
5. Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford
6. Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
7. At Large and At Small by Anne Fadiman
8. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen (Reread)
9. A Sentimental Journey by Laurence Sterne
10.Germania by Simon Winder
11.Untrodden Peaks and Unfrequented Valleys by Amelia B. Edwards
12.Candide by Voltaire
13.La Pancia Degli Italiani by Beppe Severgnini
14.A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute
15.Michael Kohlhaas by Heinrich von Kleist
16.If this is a Man by Primo Levi
17.Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
18.King Henry VI Part I by William Shakespeare
19.Facebook Fan Pages
20.Flawed Dogs: The Novel by Berkeley Breathed
21.Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
22.Mustn’t Grumble by Joe Bennett
23.Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson
24.Matilda by Roald Dahl
25.Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
26.Thank You, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
27.Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
28.Dissolution by C.J. Sansom
29.Dark Fire by C.J. Sansom
30.War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
31.Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
32.Der Duft des Kaffees by Gerhard J. Rekel
33.Effi Briest by Theodor Fontane
34.Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
35.The Seas: A Novel by Samantha Hunt
36.Dinge, die verschwinden by Jenny Erpenbeck
37.Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L. Sayers

This thread:
38. The Path to the Spiders' Nests by Italo Calvino
39. Bel Ami by Guy de Maupassant
40. Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers
41. Le Ventre de Paris by Émile Zola
42. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
43. Die Walsche by Joseph Zoderer
44. Topographien by Waltraud Mittich
45. Heimsuchung by Jenny Erpenbeck
46. Pierre et Jean by Guy de Maupassant
47. The Water Babies by Charles Kingsley
48. Che pasticcio, Bridget Jones! by Helen Fielding
49. The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
50. Stufen by Hermann Hesse (poetry)
51. Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne
52. Manuale di resistenza al lunedì by resistenzaumana.it
53. Zeitoun by David Eggers
54. Der Himmel über Meran by Joseph Zoederer
55. Italians by Beppe Severgnini
56. The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
57. A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
58. Hospital Sketches by Louisa M. Alcott
59. Kindertransport by Olga Drucker
60. The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
61. Charlotte's Web by E.B. White - my first real audiobook!!
62. Das Klingsor Paradox by Jorge Volpi
63. Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer
64. La Fortune des Rougon by Émile Zola
65. Daisy Miller by Henry James
66. Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut
67. Professor Unrat oder Das Ende eines Tyrannen by Heinrich Mann
68. The Awakening by Kate Chopin
69. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
70. The Pigeon by Patrick Sueskind

Finished, but not yet reviewed:
71. Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh
72. La Curée by Émile Zola
73. Wer bin ich - und wenn ja, wie viele? by Richard David Precht for TIOLI and 11 in 11
74. Watership Down for group read
75. A Moveable Feast: Restored Edition by Ernest Hemingway
76. Die Stadt der träumenden Bücher by Walter Moers
77. Cat's Cradle/Ghiaccio-nove by Kurt Vonnegut
78. Suite francaise by Irene Nemirovsky
79. The Gallery of Regrettable Food by James Lileks
80. Destins de Chiens by Sebastien Perez and Benjamon Lacombe

Currently reading:
A Dream of Red Mansions by Cao Xueqin for 1001 (page 1002 of 2550)
Narziss und Goldmund by Hermann Hesse
Everything that Rises Must Converge by Flannery O'Connor for 1001 (short story books take me forever)

On hold:
One, No One and One Hundred Thousand by Luigi Pirandello for 1001 (have to finish my library books first)

tbr soon:
Radetzkymarsch by Joseph Roth for 1001
Anständig Essen by Karen Duve

Wow, I'm first, hi! Glad you are enjoying the Sayers books. I came across them at some point in the 1980's, I think when they were on tv in the UK maybe, and I decided to seek them all out (well, the Peter Wimsey ones), second hand, then read them in order. It was a great quest, and some really good reads.

I'm second! Hey, it's the W&P gang!!

Found you again, Nathalie!

Hi Janet, Cushla, Stasia! :-)

I was planning to post my reviews for Bel Ami and The Path to the Spiders' Nests today, but I feel incapable to form a coherent sentence, even in my own language (do you know those days?). That's quite annoying. I'm glad the phone was quiet today.

Anyway, "The Path" was a good 3,5 star read, Bel Ami was better with 4 stars.

I have plenty of days when I can barely put two words together, in any language (well, that would mostly be limited to French and English)

I'm so glad you're enjoying Le ventre de Paris in French. So worth it for Zola's excellent prose. I haven't read Guy de Maupassant since my high school days, but did add him to the wishlist again. Can't remember if I read Bel Ami, but regardless, I'll pick it up eventually. I do remember reading Le Horla which was very scary to me at the time.

I've been meaning to get to Dorothy L. Sayers books since I heard about her a couple of months ago for the first time. Only thing is, I have so many crime fiction books at home that I can't wait to get to—The Kill Artist by Daniel Silva, among many—that it doesn't feel right to start a new series. I'm pretty determined to start with the first, Whose Body?, though Murder Must Advertise sounds like it's right up my alley, especially since I worked in advertising early on in my career (though I realize that probably doesn't mean anything.)

I've been meaning to start a thread over on the 1001 Books group too, just haven't had a chance to. Hard enough keeping up with all the threads here!

#6: Yesterday I had a moment of thinking "Okay, I get it - Les Halles are great - now please let's get on with the story! " (chapter IV), and right then Zola gave me a little action again and everything was fine. I just loaded Le Horla on my Kindle and realized it's a collection of short stories. Which is the scary one?

I don't read that much crime fiction, I've had too much of it in my twenties, but I like the style of the Sayers books. I finished Whose Body? last night, which was okay, but quite obviously a first or early book, compared to MMA.

Should you decide to start a thread in the 1001 group don't worry- there are not many active threads left, it's quite easy to follow them.

I had a similar kind of moment reading Le ventre de Paris, and if I had the book with me now (got it from the library) I'd be curious to see if it was at the same place as you. As for Le Horla, I couldn't quite say, since I read it over 25 years ago now... I seem to recall they were all scary, but I think the title story itself was quite spooky. That being said, I doubt I would find them scary now since I've gotten quite jaded in that sense over the years. I should have mentioned they were short stories, sorry about that.

I guess the main reason to start a 1001 thread would be mostly for my own satisfaction anyway. It's just going to be a lot of work to set up, which is why I'm in no big hurry with that.

Happy new thread to you, Nathalie! More good stuff to investigate!

I really am going to have to get to Bel Ami. I wonder if I can find a free version for the Nook since I know my local library does not have it. . .

#9: thanks Peggy!

#10: Hi Stasia, I read it as a free Kindle version, it should also be available for the Nook.
I still haven't got to the review, but I have to give you a little warning: from the moral point of view there is not a single 'good' character. This might be a bit disappointing. But the story is so timeless, nowadays you'd call a guy like 'Bel Ami' a pick-up artist and he'd be just as successful.
They are making a new movie with Robert Pattinson and Uma Thurman (could be good), but it's going to be a historical version. This story could well be adapted to a very modern setting. I'd love to see that.

#8: It was that bit about Marjolin and Cadine, I wondered where the main plot had suddenly gone. I finished the book last night and I loved the ending. Thanks for recommending it!

Yes, I believe that was it. Glad you enjoyed it. I'll be reading La Conquête de Plassans next and will of course give my impressions on it when I'm done.

#13: Btw I read the title story of Le Horla yesterday. Enjoyed it, but didn't find it spooky. But I know I would have - had I read it as a child/teen. I remember that at that age I read some stories by Poe that gave me nightmares. I reread those stories 2 years ago and then found them quite harmless.

I restarted A Dream of Red Mansions: New Approaches of Learning Chinese yesterday and found it more accessible than on my first try when I started it in parallel with W&P. It's divided into 4 books of 600-700 pages each, so it will take a while.

38. The Path to the Spiders' Nests/ Il Sentiero dei Nidi di Ragno by Italo Calvino

This is Calvino's first novel, originally published in 1947, re-edited in 1964. I liked it much better than the very experimental If on a Winter's Night a Traveler which I read last year, but he'll probably never become one of my favorite authors. There are 2 more Calvino books on the 1001 list, and after reading this one here I am at least willing to give them a try one day.

The plot is about the partisan fight in Italy during WWII. The main character is Pin, a young boy who grows up in a small village with his sister (a prostitute who sells her body to everyone, including Italian fascists and Germans). Pin is uneducated and foul-mouthed, trying to act like a grown-up in a world without real morals. On the order of a local partisan boss he steals a pistol from one of his sister's 'clients', a German soldier, and hides it in a place 'where the spiders have their nests'. He is thrown into prison, escapes and joins a group of partisans.

This is the point in the plot where I think heavy re-editing was done, because suddenly we leave the action part and get on a more philosophical level. Calvino takes a look at the partisans and their motives for fighting. Those motives are all individual and only rarely have their source in an aversion against fascism. This part is not bad, but it had too many lenghts for my liking and it didn't fit with the first half of the book.

The writing is good and the last chapter was remarkably strong and reconciled me with the book.

Rating: 3,5 stars

39. Bel Ami by Guy de Maupassant

This was a surprisingly amusing read, didn't feel like a classic at all, because the story could be transferred into any other setting without problems.

Georges Duroy starts out as a handsome (this is mentioned throughout the book), but extremely shy office worker who doesn't know how to pay for a beer in the evening. He meets an old friend, Charles Forestier, who has made a career at a big newspaper and through whose contacts Georges is able to attain a job there as well. He begins an affair with a married woman and slowly but steadily his ambitions are growing - he wants a career and he wants influential women. And the more he gets the more he wants, and at some point he is fully convinced of his rightful entitlement to all the good things life has to offer.

I'd say this is a deeply amoral story and there wasn't a single 'good' and likeable character and yet I enjoyed the reading. Half of the time I was thinking "I've met this guy!". As I wrote a few posts earlier I'd love to see a very modern movie version of this book. Our world is full of Georges Duroys and full of just-too-willing 'victims'.

Rating: 4 stars

40. Whose Body by Dorothy L. Sayers

The first book of the Lord Peter Wimsey series is certainly not the best, but as a starter it's okay.

A naked body is found in the bathtub of an appartment in Battersea and a Jewish financier goes missing. Together with Parker (forgot his title) from Scotland Yard, hobby-detective Lord Peter Wimsey tries to resolve the two cases and in the end does so successfully.

Compared to Murder Must Advertise there were several points I didn't like: the language was often too sloppy (in this 1920s aristocrat way) which made the dialogues (for me) often hard to follow. I was not fully convinced by the resolution and the motives. And I had a problem with the not-so-hidden antisemitism. Or I should say that today we'd call it antisemitism, but pre WWII, pre-Holocaust this was obviously how upper-class people were talking about their Jewish acquaintances. Clearly a book that has to be read respecting the context of its time.
And my Kindle edition had some epilogue filled with spoilers about the private lives of Lord Wimsey and Parker (later cases, marriages) which I'd rather not read.

Rating: 3 stars, recommended as starter of the series

#15: Well, my local library does not have that one, so I will not be getting to it any time soon. I could not make it through If On a Winter's Night either, but am willing to give Calvino another shot.

#16: I already have that one in the BlackHole.

#17: Read that one already (and probably am going to re-read it in the near future with Peggy.)

41. Le Ventre de Paris / The Belly of Paris by Émile Zola

I started reading this book more than 20 years ago when I was still learning French, but didn't get through the first chapter. One reason was the French, but the second reason was the endless description of food, mainly vegetables. I was young and needed more action in a story.
Now at 40 it seems I am finally able to appreciate what Zola has been doing here. I read Germinal and La Bete Humaine last year and I am more than impressed by his ability to conjure all those images before my inner eyes. No matter if it's the trains, the mines or now Les Halles with all their food - it's the seemingly 'dead' things that he brings to life. He gives them a heart and a soul, and the human characters become merely side actors. Les Halles are an organic being and all the many people working there are part of this enormous living and breathing body. There are some beautiful scenes where the people and the food 'interact' and they are among the most perfect bits of prose I've read so far.

Sure there is a plot in this book, but that could be condensed into 10-20 pages and the outcome is obvious from the very beginning. Florent, a young man, has been found guilty of political agitation and deported to Cayenne. He escapes and returns to Paris where he moves in with his brother who owns a successful butchershop/delikatessen at the new market halls. He is viewed with suspicion by his sister-in-law, Lisa, who is a corpulent person (like almost everyone in this story) and who generally mistrusts thin people. Florent tries to adapt to this new life, but feels more and more repelled and sickened by the omnipresent abundance of food and the sated contentedness of everyone. He does not fit in with Les Halles, he is like a bone that cannot be digested or incorporated and from the beginning I waited for him to be spat out again.

This is not a happy book, but it's colorful and compared to the other two Zolas I read there's almost no violence at all.

Rating: 4,5 stars

I am going to slowly make my way through Zola if it kills me :) Thus far, the only one I have read is Germinal, which I thought was terrific. I am now reading his The Fortune of the Rougons.

Hi nathalie, late to the party but j
here none the less. I so wish I could read in another language. I could try Spanish but I think it would just give me a headache

#20: Hi Stasia, that's the first one, isn't it? From now on I'll also read them in order, but I'll take my time with them

#21: Hi Lynda, I could try if my new understanding of Roman languages also affects Spanish... No, I won't. Years ago when I was already speaking a little Italian (for travelling) I tried to learn Spanish as well, but gave it up quickly, it was just too similar. I am still confusing the few words I know in both languages.

#22: Yes, The Fortune of the Rougons is the first book in the series.

What wonderful reading you're doing, Nathalie! My proportion of fluff and fun to solid and meaty is the exact opposite of yours, I'm sorry to say. I'm also sorry to say that I've never read Zola at all. My inclination though, if I ever get back to and through *W&P*, is to read more Balzac. Talk about oceans of opportunity!
I'm looking forward to comparing the antisemitism of Whose Body? to that of the Mitford sisters in their correspondence. I find the very cool, casualness of it extremely creepy and off-putting. And then, I'm just looking forward to rereading the Wimsey stories anyway. I reread the Harriet Vane ones regularly every 3 years or so, but it will have been a long time since I read the whole series.

42. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

This was a great recommendation from Stasia (thanks!!), and I finally found the time to read it.

Foer's Everything is Illuminated was one of my best reads in 2010. This book here is his second one (am I right here?), and it's both different and not so different from his first. In the main plot there's Oscar, a boy who lost his father in 9/11 and who is unable to cope with the loss. He wanders the streets of New York, searching for the solution of a secret he thinks his father has left for him. And then there's the story of Oscar's grandparents who survived the air raids of Dresden during WWII. And again it is about loss and the inability of people to let go of the past.

But the book is also about so many other things, and like in EiI Foer (or is he Safran Foer?) fearlessly experiments with language and typefaces, adds fotographs or almost empty pages... There are people in the story who keep scrapbooks of some kind and this book is basically a scrapbook as well.

How did I like it? I didn't see the story so much as a 'story' or Oscar as a child. In some reviews reader are discussing why a small child is allowed to walk through NY at night, but for me Oscar is no child. He is something that's hidden in all of us, and Foer appeals to this something especially in the first and last chapters when the feeling of loss and desperation gets so strong that I thought I couldn't finish the book.

In the second storyline I especially liked what he did with the language. I know this is all not new, I've been through Tristram Shandy and through Ulysses, but this here is much more accessible and it just works.

As great as both of his books have been, I think it was a wise decision that he wrote that non-fiction book next to avoid becoming too repetitive. I am looking forward to future novels and new ideas.

I was at some point asking myself if Samantha Hunt, whose The Seas: A Novel I read this year, has been influenced by this book. There are many similarities and even a smiliar overall feeling in her book and in the chapters about the grandparents.

Rating 4,5 stars

#25: Thank you, Peggy, but when I look at your thread I don't see much (if any?) fluff. :-)

Almost 20 years of my life were spent with easy reading. The boxes in the attic at my parents' are full with chick-lit and crime fiction. I think it was a certain stress level at work in combination with a little mid-life-crisis of the 'I am wasting my life' sort that brought me back to 'serious' literature. Not to forget that very fluff(!) Harry Potter fan-fiction page that led me to LT.

And I haven't read a single Balzac yet - I missed it all! *panic*

Oh Oh! Have read till Bel Ami and have been promising myself to get off the computer for the past couple of hours now, so will be back—lots of good stuff here! :-)

#26: I am so glad you liked Extremely Loud, Nathalie!

>26 Deern:: I've tried to read both of these Foer books but didn't get very far. I'm not sure why, perhaps because they were crowded out by other library books. Maybe I'll just buy a copy of one of them. Those are the books I stick with. I know many people who have loved both books...and I want to share in that love. ;-)

I spent decades reading "fluff" when I was raising my 3 kids. I'm trying to make up for lost time now. I need to get back to my 1001 book list. Time's running out!

Finally caught up! I have Everything is Illuminated on my shelves, and like everything else, it's just a question of time before I get to it.

I tried reading Balzac when I was 16 and all the descriptions were just too boring for me, so I'll definitely have to get back to him now that I can enjoy that kind of thing more. I enjoyed your review of Le ventre de Paris, by the way. As I'm reading them in order, I'll be tackling La Conquête de Plassans next.

About fluff: I really need to keep alternating between genres/styles/density and like to mix more *serious* classic and contemporary literature with crime fiction, graphic novels, children's fiction, etc. I used to look at books in term of whether they were "smart choices" or not, but now I'm not so much concerned about that. I'm more interested in finding things that are interesting to me and fit my ever-changing moods, though I've pretty much banned chick lit after reading the three first Shopaholic books (which I rather enjoyed, I must say) when they first came out.

#30: Hi Donna - I love the 1001 list! I make my own challenges (A-Z authors, A-Z titles, all the Germans, etc), and this way I discovered some authors I would normally never have read. Right now I am reading "The Dream of Red Mansions", just because I needed an author whose name starts with X. Only when the book arrived here I realized it's one of the longest novels existing with app. 2400 pages. I am 110 pages in, a very long way to go...

I remember I had a hard time with the first chapters of Everything was Illuminated and only when I had an idea how these two very strange story threads might be linked was I able to really enjoy the book - and then I wasn't able to put it down and read through the night. I found Extremely Loud easier to access, but harder to read in an emotional sense, as it brought back all those terrible memories.

#31: Ilana, I also read the first 3 Shopaholic books. :-)
And the first I don't know how many books by Jane Green and Lisa Jewell. And I enjoyed them all. And now I am angry about the one-dimensional picture they are drawing of modern women. One of the worst examples was Jane Greene's Jemima J., which I nevertheless read at least 5 times and which I'd probably still read if I hadn't banned it to my parents' attic. I wrote some long comments for those books in my library here on LT. Chick-lit is a genre I am now really avoiding, because it is so terribly seductive.

I still love crime fiction, but more of the old-fashioned sort. Nowadays they tend to be too graphically violent. And I do love good children's books.

My weakness are books of lists, often I get one of those when I need to clear my brain. Nostalgic lists of things that disappeared, lists of books tbr, lists of places to go....

I got La Fortune des Rougon for my Kindle, but it will have to wait for a bit.

I read two short and similar books yesterday:

43. Die Walsche by Joseph Zoderer (120 pages) and
44. Topographien Topografie (56/112 pages) by Waltraud Mittich

Both written by South Tyrolean authors they deal with the identity of the German speaking minority here in Italy.

The Zoderer book is very popular and has been successfully adapted for stage. It's set in the late 60s I'd say, maybe early 70s. The protaginist is Olga, a woman who grew up in a small mountain village and was able to escape to "town" (which is Bolzano). She has an Italian partner with whom she has opened a bar in the Italian quarter. She returns to the village for her father's funeral, only to find that she is a stranger (Walsche in dialect means stranger, but also Italian) here as she is a stranger among the Italians in town. She doesn't fit in anywhere, there's always "something" that separates her from the others.

"Topographien" is bilingual with the German text on the left pages and the Italian text on the right hand pages. The author is travelling to Berlin, remembering former visits to this city, where she should feel at home as a "German", but doesn't. But she also doesn't feel at home in Italy, in Rome. She might not be happy about her German identity, but she feels it is a part of her she cannot change. "Topographien" is less linear than "Die Walsche", more modern and experimental with the language, but also not as complete.

Ratings:
"Die Walsche": 4,5 stars
"Topographien": 3,5 stars

I think I will give both of those a miss. Not that I had a prayer of finding them locally anyway.

Hi! Just found this thread today and had to go back to your first thread and read some of your reviews of the classics. Very good reviews!!!

You have done some great readings this year. Finished War & Peace last year and although it wasn't up there with Anna Karenina it was a very good read.

Will return to your review on Rebecca as I'm going to read it soon.

I haven't read all that much chick lit, mostly because I just don't have all that much interest in it. Of course I read and very much enjoyed Bridget Jones when it came out (it made me mad that I hadn't thought of publishing my own diaries first though!), and eventually got the second book, which I then couldn't be bothered to actually read... I just felt like it was not likely to feel as fresh as the first did.

I do read quite a bit of crime fiction. Both contemporary and old stuff too, though I know what you mean about the graphic violence, sometimes it's a bit much for me too. I used to feel guilty about reading so much of it, but eh, who cares really? While I'm on the topic, have you read anything by Donna Leon? She's contemporary but I find her style is like a direct descendant of the old classic crime writers.

#36: Hi Carsten, thanks for visiting my thread. I found and starred yours as well. You have already read many of the classics I have on my tbr, and I know many of the children's books you have listed. I am especially glad you liked Heidi - she was the heroine of my childhood. And also Ronja Räubertochter by Astrid Lindgren... good old times!

#37: Good Morning Ilana, yes - I read the first 6 or 7 books by Donna Leon many years ago and found them quite addictive. And she made me travel to Venice. But after a while the stories became repetitive so I switched over to Henning Mankell and his Wallander books. And then to Kathy Reichs. But some of the books by those last two authors were already too disturbing for me. I can't deal well with too much realism. I prefer the good old detective story - a body is found, the detective is called and we don't see much blood flowing.

I "quite liked" the first Bridget Jones book and hated(!) the second, with the exception of one scene which I find absolutely hilarious even today, and that's the interview with Colin Firth. I kept the book just for that scene.

#38 LOL - I think that's why we decided earlier in the year you wouldn't like the Larsson books!

Sorry, just popping in to say hi - lost you for a while with the new thread. Great reading and reviews as always :)

#39: yeah it's terrible. I can deal with unrealistic stuff (the Kill Bill movies are among my favorites), but I can't watch/read about people suffering in a situation that could be real. I can't read Room or also Lovely Bones for that reason.

45. Heimsuchung/ Visitation by Jenny Erpenbeck

Sorry for the long review, I just feel completely overwhelmed by this book. Jenny Erpenbeck found the language to concentrate the whole history of (Eastern) Germany of the 1900s into just 188 pages. The English version should be even shorter.

In the preface we get a look at the geographical development of a certain location - a lake in Brandenburg in Eastern Germany, during the ice ages. The book itself gives us the lives and fates of the people who own(ed) a piece of ground there during the 1900s. The character of "the gardener" who cultivates the ground according to the wishes of his actual 'master' and who watches the coming and going of several owners gives a frame to the different stories.

The chapters cover almost everything that this country has been through in the last century with the exception of WWI (which wasn't fought on German ground): the nazi regime, the Holocaust, the ravagings by the Red Army, the expropriations of the GDR and then the re-exproprietions by the newly united German state. We see how a house is built, inhabited by generations, each of them full of hope, and then falls into decay.

Some events are told quite drastically, as they have to be. Each chapter is moving and often I was relieved when it finally ended and I was back with another short piece about the gardener, who -regardless of the political circumstances - kept doing his work, just like time will go on and the world will continue to be, with or without us.

For me personally this book also opened the doors to many childhood memories, to specific German traditions, and it also reminded me of the special connection a German feels to the ground where he settles. Building a house, a home, on your own ground has until recently (when modern live started asking for more flexibility) meant an attachment to this place, to this soil for the rest of your life and buying that ground was as important a step as getting married or having children. For years and years now my parents have been discussing to move to a town, where the living conditions for older people are much better, but my Dad somehow can't seperate from their place and the house he himself has built there.

The German title "Heimsuchung" has been perfectly selected. It is correctly translated with "visitation" and normally used in that sense. But it also contains the words "Heim"/home and "Suchen"/ searching, a visitation is something that searches and finds you 'at home', at the safest place, and the expression "Heim" is used excessively in this book. "Heim" or "Heimat" really has a special meaning in the German soul.

Have I already mentioned how much I love this book?

Rating: 5 stars - what else?

And should there ever be a new 1001 list, maybe in 2012, "Heimsuchung" definitely deserves a place on it. They could well remove some other German books to make space.

Something strange happened to my keyboard when I was in the middle of writing a comment, the keys are suddenly English, i.e. y is z and vice versa, but it's only here on LT, not in my usual MS office applications. It just took me ages to find the '.

Edit: sometimes a reboot solves all problems - yet it was strange.

I am so glad you loved Visitation! Your review gave me some new things to think about, as I was sure it would. I, for one, can't wait to see what she writes next.

Yes, in the historical context this is a book everyone can read and understand, but she really grabbed my little German emigrant soul with this 'home' thing.

In the chapter about the Jewish family the expression 'Heim' /home(?) was used extensively, and that was really strange, because as a child, whenever I felt bad or lonely or couldn't cope with a situation, I had this word in my head and it made me feel better and more confident. Weird, isn't it? "home" is where you feel safe and sheltered. A Heimsuchung finds you in this safest place and that's what makes it so terrible - no safe place left.

Apart from that the chapter with the architect reminded me much of my childhood. And the chapter about Doris, the last paragraphs - I don't find words for it. After that bit I had an urgent need for some 'fluff' reading and for my bed and my blanket, I wanted to hide from the world (Heim?).

How can books do that??

To change the topic before I am getting obsessed with that Erpenbeck book: Over the weekend I made small dent into "A Dream of Red Mansions" - only 2300 pages left to read - yay! I'll never complain about too many characters and names in W&P again, this here is much much worse. Among hundreds of others there's Jia Zhen and Jia Shen and Jin Zhen and Jin Shen and I have already forgotten who they are. But apart from the name confusion it has been a pleasant read so far.

I am almost half through another Maupassant book: Pierre et Jean, which is also a 1001. Not as good as Bel Ami, but nice, and I got the book for free on gutenberg.

I already have Visitation in the BlackHole. I have seen nothing but good reviews for it. I am glad to see that you liked it too, Nathalie!

ETA: OK, when I typed up this message the Touchstone worked, but when I submitted it 'Touchstone error' comes up?! What is with that?

#46 I'm starting to feel that way about Wils Swans - I only pick it up from time to time which doesn't help, but the amount of names ( a lot of which are similar) def gets confusing after a while!

#47, 48: okay, I guess Stasia's touchstone error is "Visitation", but what is your's, Bekka?
Apart from the touchstone issues and some other small problems I had on LT last night, I just love the new features. Everything looks so 'tidy' (not that it has been untidy before).

Maybe I should have used 'reply' right now?

Hi Nathalie, your review of Bel-Ami makes me think I really need to get round to it soon. I was also interested to read your review of Germania on your previous thread, which was a birthday present from my husband last year and is still waiting to be read. So many books, so little time...

LOL - mine was Wild Swans.

Your review of Visitation was great--it's already on my wishlist. And your review of Bel Ami was spot-on. I read it last year and had a similar reaction.

I've read many of Zola's novels, and Fortune of the Rougons is my least favorite. If anyone reads that as their first Zola and doesn't like it, I hope they will give him another try.

Nathalie, your review of Visitation is making me want to run out and purchase it right away (ok, so I don't have to run anywhere, just have to click a few buttons, but you get the idea). But then, just now looking through the library catalogue, I see they have it in the 2009 French translation as Le bois de Klara. There—I just clicked on "reserve". :-) They also have the 2002 French translation of Geschichte vom alten Kind (L'enfant sans âge/The Old Child), have you read that one? Back to Visitation, the Guardian, in a 2010 article about the book, described Jenny Erpenbeck as "a multi-prizewinning German who is one of the finest, most exciting authors alive." I was going to say before finding that article that the description of this book immediately made me think, as says right there that "The set-up is strikingly similar to Simon Mawer's Booker-shortlisted The Glass Room" which I just ordered from BookDepository yesterday after seeing it mentioned on Darryl's (kidzdoc) thread this week.

I've also just reserved the audio for Bel-Ami (in French of course). I seem to be able to get to audiobooks quicker than those that require sitting (or in any case, the use of hands), which is the main reason I favour them at the moment, though I've already purchased one book I mean to read in text format again, and will do so for other books where the enjoyment of the prose makes one want to go back and read sections over again.

#52 Deborah, I read a few of Zola's books over the decades (mostly Nana over and over again quite honestly), but my 11 in 11 challenge this year is to read as many of the Rougon-Macquart books as possible in publishing order (doubt I'll get to them all in one year at this rate). Have to say that I rather enjoyed La fortune des Rougons against all expectation. Here's my review if ever you're curious, though it admittedly mostly outlines the story.

About strange things to do with the new design: bugs are being reported and fixed as soon as possible, but it's a good idea to report them here http://www.librarything.com/topic/116770

I have already put Visitation on my wishlist even before your wonderful review (It is!) ..... and the Touchstone seems to work perfectly. What scares me to pieces it that you are attracting me to A Dream of Red Mansions. That I don't need!!!

Ilyana--I remember reading your review, and that you liked it more than I did. I didn't dislike it, but have liked all the others more. Maybe because it felt a little scattered to me, sort of setting up the rest of the series by introducing many of the characters. (Although again I reiterate that it's not necessary to read the books in order, or to read this to understand and enjoy the others.)

Deborah, I absolutely agree that the books can be read in any order as they all stand alone very well. I just decided to read them all in publication order to be able to get the big picture and better appreciate the entire structure Zola planned before he even set the first words down.

#50: Hi Rebecca, I hope you'll enjoy both. "Germania" has a bit of a slow start, but then it was really good.

#51: Morning Bekka, I just had a look at "Wild Swans". Sounds interesting, I'll see if I am up to another Chinese saga after this one.

#52: Deborah, thanks for the feedback. La Fortune des Rougon would be my 4th Zola. But I am in no hurry to start it, as I have some not so easy 'currently reading' books already. (Why oh why did I start that Pirandello book? Why??)

#53: Ilana, I hope you'll like the book. I only read Dinge, die verschwinden, which hasn't been translated yet and which is good, but on quite a different level from Visitation. Die Geschichte vom alten Kind received good reviews on amazon, I'll have a look at that one as soon as I find it somewhere. I'll have to buy it, as my local library (which is half German, half Italian) is still completely ignoring Erpenbeck's works and the German Kindle editions cost more than the paper version. And I'll have a look at The Glass Room.

I would have missed Erpenbeck completely if it hadn't been for Janet's recommendation. German prize winners are not so automatically popular and widely read as is the case in other countries. We have that strange separation between serious literature (winning prizes, read only by a few) and best-selling literature. Books that are internationally hyped, like Franzen's "Freedom" last year have a better chance to turn up in a top10 list than most of our prize winners. My own experience with critically acclaimed German literature has not been too great either. It is often too serious and joyless and 'dry', one reason why I read so much foreign literature. This one here really was a very pleasant surprise.

#54: Peggy - don't feel tempted. So far it's nice and apart from the names comparatively easy to read, but just thinking that at 300 pages I haven't yet read 1/8 of the whole thing... I'm sure I'll lose my patience at some point. I made it through Proust, but that was divided into 7 books and I only bought the next one when the current one was almost finished, so in the beginning I never had to face all the remaining volumes. And it might have helped that my ex-boss said she didn't think I could finish it. :-)

I finished Pierre et Jean today. Nice, but not as good as Bel Ami I'd say and not an obvious 1001 book. Maybe it's on the list as an example for realism.

46. Pierre et Jean by Guy de Maupassant

After Bel-Ami I was still in Maupassant mood and found this one, which is also a 1001 book, for free on gutenberg.

As the title suggests, the main characters are Pierre and his younger brother Jean. The brothers are different, both in their looks and in their characters, Jean being the more ambitious and amiable one. They are in a constant (but friendly) competition, with Pierre even half-heartedly courting a young widow his brother is interested in. Completely unexpected, Jean inherits the fortune of an old friend of the family while Pierre receives nothing. Tormented first by mere jealousy, later by worse suspicions, Pierre becomes more and more estranged from his family.
I can't write more without spoiling the whole plot. I must say that I found the story a little too obvious, but the main issue here is Pierre's inner torment and his daily fights with his hopes and convictions.

The book has been chosen for the 1001 list, because it marks the transgression from social realism to the thought processes of the individual. I don't think it really is a must-read, but I enjoyed it and I'd recommend it to readers interested in French literature of the 1800s.

Rating: 3,5 stars

Nice review, Nathalie!

#59: thank you, Stasia.

Why do I turn up as last message when I only did an edit in the starting post?

I downloaded the free version of The Water Babies by Charles Kingsley today, another 1001 and hopefully an easy read that will distract me from that dreadful Pirandello book, One, No One and One Hundred Thousand. (and why are those touchstones not working as they used to? this last one just leads nowhere)

17 more 1001 books to read this year to reach 200. And then there are my neglected 11 in 11 challenges. And I'd love to read more of the Wimseys and of the Rougon-Macquarts...
I feel like I set myself too many goals this year.

#60: I feel like I set myself too many goals this year.

That was one of the reasons I ended up chunking mine for the year, Nathalie. I was putting too much pressure on myself to reach my 'goals' and losing sight of the fact that reading is not a job!

I made sure my 11 in 11 challenges fit into what I was likely to want to read as opposed to creating more obligations for me. Even for my goal of reading the Rougon-Macquart series, I didn't determine how many of them I meant to read or in how much time either. I'd like to have read 11 of them this year so I can finish by next year, but que sera sera.

I hope you enjoy the Water Babies more than I did - I read it last year and hated it so much! But it is short at least...

#63: I am now 1/4 through it and while I was mildly annoyed by the language in the first chapter (the whole being a "good obedient boy"), I am now getting a little angry during that "scientists don't know anything" rant. But you're right - at least it's short and not difficult to read.

Edit: okay, at 57% read I am far more than "a little" angry, I am quite disgusted. Even with a distance of more than 100 years (when was it first published?) this rant against everything modern, against Irish, Welsh and other people and against "the tricks of boys" is really hard to bear. I hope they removed all that **** (swear word) from the abridged versions for children.

#62: Ilana, when I set up my 11 in 11 challenges, I wanted to read all those books and now thanks to many great recommendations my focus has changed. But there are still 7 months left, plenty of time to read some more Shakespeare plays and I'm sure I'll be in the mood for some Woolf books by autumn, as usual.

Sure, but I think Stasia's comment in #61 is right on the money. Sometimes we forget what the initial idea was ("read more books") and get stuck on the goals instead. I'm very competitive with myself, so I know what that's like. Even with TIOLI; every month, I list a whole bunch of books and think "no big deal if I don't read them", but then the TIOLI meter lures me in, and then can't help but feel disappointed when I have to take them out at the end of the month. Ah well...

Uh oh. I read The Water Babies when I was a child and either loved it or the stories I went on to create for myself; I'm not sure which. I was a conservative little girl in a conservative town, so nothing seemed wrong to me. I don't think I'll try to reread it now......

#67: I think this book is a totally different experience if read as a child. It is appealing and children won't notice most of those not-too-well-hidden mean bits. Maybe yours was also an abridged version, because I could imagine children are bored to death by those long ramblings.

#61 and 66: you're both right. I took a bit of a reading break and a TIOLI break early this year, but now it feels like I have to catch up on 'lost' time. It's also about regaining control at least over a small part of my life when things go wrong elsewhere.

I have become better on the TIOLI though. This month I have 11 TIOLI books, but only because 2 of the challenges were really easy and the books I was reading anyway just fitted in.

For me at least, I think the bigger challenge is finding a balance that I can live with and not putting too much pressure on myself. Reading is supposed to be a fun pleasurable activity, not a contest or a job. I lost sight of that when I was trying to set so many goals for myself at the beginning of the year and I think that was part of the reason for the book funk in February and March.

I was absent from LT for a week, except for some statistics (updating the top post). I had quite a stressful week and as usual I compensated the stress with (too much) reading, but somehow couldn't write reviews or post or follow threads... but now I am 5 reviews behind and I will try to post them all today and to keep them "short".

47. The Water Babies by Charles Kingsley

It's more than a week now since I finished it and I am not as angry anymore as I was when I posted my last comments, but I can't change my rating.

The plot itself doesn't make much sense: a poor little boy falls into a river, doesn't drown but is "reborn" as a water baby. He travels the rivers and the ocean until he finally finds some friends (other water babies), and in the end he has to go on a quest which will make him a ... what does it make him? A man, a water man or something else?

I could imagine that a "modernized" and abridged version of this book with the original illustrations might be enjoyed by children and their parents. The full version however is not children-friendly. There are too many bits where the author is ranting on everything he doesn't like - the 'modern' school system (in the 1800s), spiritualism, doctors, the independence of Americans, the poverty of the Irish (I can't get over the fact that he wrote this shortly after the big famine in Ireland!), the foolishness of the Welsh.... not only outdated and badly prejudiced, but often also terribly boring. His views on education are equally outdated: not knowing what is right or wrong is no excuse, children learn by severe punishment, and that's just one example.

WhatI liked: in the 2nd half of the book he lets his fantasy run wild, and (as an adult) I liked the pictures he is evoking. Much of it reminded me of Michael Ende's Neverending Story and also of some surreal paintings I have seen in the past.

Anyway - this might have been a milestone in fantasy literature, but it's no must-read for today.

Rating: 2,5 stars

#71 I'm sorry you've had a stressful week, but can there be such a thing as too much reading??? It sounds like a very sensible stress-reduction technique to me. I find I read very little when stressed, but would much rather be like you!

#71 Hmmm - I read this over a year ago and I am still that angry... really really hated it!

48. Che pasticcio, Bridget Jones! by Helen Fielding

This is the Italian version of "The Edge of Reason" which I already hated the first time I read it. I am still looking for easy-to-read Italian books with everyday vocabulary. This one was unfortunately the only chick-lit book I found in the Italian half of my library and it has the advantage that it uses direct speech via the diary style, while most other Italian fiction books use that special literary past tense (like French), so from the studying point of view it was quite perfect.

No news on the rating, I still hate it, except for the Colin Firth interview.

Rating: still 1 star, zero for the Thailand part

Oooh - and I found this
http://ebooks.download800.com/771394-13-1-1001-books-you-must-read-before-you-di...

It's a link to about 500 e-books in one download - they're quite good quality. Worth a download! The first link doesn't work but the second does.

#72: yes, in my case it has now reached a critical limit where I found I tend to avoid the confrontation with important real-life stuff. On Friday I realized I had been dragging 5(!) books into my office and was reading 4 of them. On Friday night I fell asleep while listening to the audiobook of Around the World in Eighty Days and I had the e-book version open on my notebook. *sigh*
You're right, reading helps enormously during stressful times, but I have to find the right balance again.

#75: Wow - thank you!! I'll check it out right now.

49. The End of the Affair by Graham Greene

Another short 1001 book, recommended by BekkaJo. And it has a rose on the cover and qualifies for the TIOLI!

This was a wonderful, poetic read, but as expected (thanks for the warning, Bekka), quite sad. The title tells us much in advance: there was an affair, between the narrator Maurice, an author, and his friend's wife Sarah. And the affair ended - was ended by Sarah, without warning, without an explanation, two years ago. Now Maurice is suddenly confronted again with Sarah and his feelings, above all his jealousy. Will he finally get the explanation he thinks he deserves?

What I really enjoyed here was Greene's writing and I'll make sure to read more of his books in future.

Rating: 4 stars

#76 - Fair enough, but at least it's reading and not drugs and booze ;)

#74 - I bought Bridget Jones's Diary in Polish (not that I've read it yet) for the same reason - short sections, everyday language - although I had previously enjoyed it in English. Unlike many, I also liked The Edge of Reason, but thought the film version of it was terrible.

50. Stufen by Hermann Hesse

I am still short on poetry for my 11 in 11 challenge, and this is one of the few poetry books I own with less than 300 pages.

I quite enjoyed Hesse's poetry, though I prefer his prose/ novels. The book contains about one fifth of his poems, most of them early ones, but also some late works (middle years missing). I preferred the later ones, among them the probably most popular "Stufen" /"Steps".

Rating: 4 stars

#79: I hated the film version even more than I hated the book. But I keep rereading that Colin Firth interview scene and it still makes me laugh. What a pity they couldn't do that in the movie.

One more:

51. Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne

I don't really like Verne's books and that explains the rating. It's just not my genre, and I only read this one because it's both a 1001 and a shared TIOLI read (nominated for screenplay award).

I tried it as an audiobook, I found a free version in English, but that made me fall asleep, so I continued with the e-book, in German to get it finished more quickly.

Rating: 3 stars

Hi Nathalie, I've fallen behind on reading threads, too. It seems like a few days away result in hundreds of unread posts. Thank goodness we're a patient bunch of people here on LT.

As always, I enjoy your reviews even on the books I know I won't get to. I have both The Heart of the Matter and The End of the Affair that I want to read. Graham Greene is one of those authors that I've overlooked for some reason. Maybe I'll check my copy to see if I have the one with a flower on it, although I think I've committed to my limit of TIOLI books this month unless I give up sleeping!

#75: Bekka, I tried that site and my office PC blocks it, while my Mac at home refuses to do the download, maybe for technical reasons. Were you able to download it without any issues?

Hope your next books are better. I loved Bridget Jones' Diary, both the book and the movie, but really didn't like The Edge of Reason.

I still haven't read any Graham Greene, but my husband and another booky friend like him a lot, and now you, so I probably will get round to him soonish.

Hope you have a better week!

#84: Hi Donna, you're right, I can't believe how many posts I missed in just one week.
Re. TIOLI: I am trying not to over-commit anymore. I used to build TIOLI-tbr-stacks as soon as the new challenges were posted, and put them on my dining table so I could always see my remaining 'reading-work'. Too much pressure! Now the books stay on the shelves and out of the wiki until I really start reading them.

#85: Hi Cushla, I also quite liked the first BJ, but didn't find it in the library last week. The 2nd one was just too much (Thailand-"prison-diet", hole in the wall, death threat, self-help books...).
I wasn't happy with the movies, as the Bridget I had imagined didn't look a bit like Zellweger, but it was great that they cast Colin Firth and I liked Hugh Grant as Daniel.

I am now reading a book that's even worse, again for language reasons. It's a "humorous" work about "how to deal with your boss/ colleagues" and I hope to learn some office terms. But the humour is so annoying, it's all like "if it takes you longer to get a task accomplished you're lazy. If your boss needs more time he is just accurate", and it goes on like that for 200 pages.

52. Manuale di resistenza al lunedi by resistenzaumana.it

resistenzaumana.it is actually a website and it seems these 200 pages of book(?) have been directly transferred from the blog. This is a manual 'how to resist Mondays' (and how to deal with your boss, your colleagues, ugly office roomes, etc.). And it's "humorous".
It might have been humorous some time in the 80s or early 90s, but this book was published in 2009. It's basically a collection of all the old office jokes you usually receive per email and move right to the recycle bin, because you have already read them a hundred times.

I read this because it's easy language and I actually did learn some new expressions for office life. And also a lot of swear words - and that was the only bit in the book that did make me laugh, because for once it wasn't just the translation of old stuff, but something typical Italian: the fictitious memo sent by the American head office of a multinational company to their Rome branch, containing rules for the code of conduct. Those 3 pages earned the book its star.

Rating: 1 star

Ow, ow.

Wow, Nathalie, you need to find better Italian books to read. I cringe for you. :-)

#89/90: in this case at least I knew what to expect, having read the first few pages before checking it out of the library. I knew I'd get nothing useful except from a few new words. At first I didn't want to rate it at all, but having low expectations doesn't make it a better book.

It's a strange thing with humorous books. Drama/ tragedy work internationally and outlive centuries in literature, while humour seems much more to be linked to a specific culture and/or time. I can't say what is 'good' or 'bad' fun and I can laugh about really plain, stupid and vulgar stuff (like all the 'e' books by Matt Beaumont). But I have not yet developed a sense for mainstream Italian humour and also can't watch the Italian comedy shows. I think what I am mostly missing is the self-deprecating element, and that was present only once in this book, in that very memorable 'memo'.

*Waving Hello* Nathalie!

*waving back to stasia* :-)

Nathalie, wanted to tell you that I picked up the (French) audiobook of Bel Ami at the library the other day. I started listening to it yesterday, and now 5 chapters into it, I can say with assurance that I'm really enjoying it. It had been on the radar for quite some time, but I it probably would have taken me quite a bit longer to get to it without your recommendation.

#94: I am relieved... I am always scared that people might hate my recommendations. Especially in this case I am not sure if I understood the story the way it was intended. After the slow build-up, I'd say in the 2nd half, I found the story increasingly funny. I am really convinced you could "cut and paste" Georges into the 21st century and his methods would still work.

#84 Yeah - no probs at all. Sorry it's not working for you :/ One of them def doesn't work - just goes to a removed page, but the second one links to a site that you just ahve to have a bit of patience with. It takes a little while to load up but I didn't have any issues with the download.

#78: Hi Nathalie. For some reason I wasn't gripped by The End of the Affair. But I read it some years ago when my "literary sense" was a lot different than it is now so I wouldn't entirely trust my old judgement :)

I think there is a special Greene-sadness in some of his novels, I remember it from The Power and the Glory which I liked a lot - and the Don Quixote-satire Monsignor Quixote.

#97: I just got The Power and the Glory from my library some days ago and I am planning to read it next week. Story-wise I have no idea what to expect.

I was not gripped by the plot in The End of the Affair and wasn't much surprised by the outcome. I didn't even like the characters much. It was the language that surprised me and carried me through the book. I can't put my finger on it - it was just "different" from the writing I was used from his contemporaries.
Did you read Brideshead Revisited? I found the religious motives very similar.

# 98: Yes, for sure Evelyn Waugh and Graham Greene explore some of the same themes of confession, guilt and forgiveness. That comes through in the The Power and the Glory as hinted by the title :)

It's not the story as such but as you said the feeling or "spirit" of the book that graps you sometime - that was the way with The Power and the Glory for me.

Brideshead I want to read again - but next time in english - sometimes one misses a lot in translation, and I think I did with that one.

I only appreciated Wodehouse after reading him in english. How can you even begin to translate all those Wodehouse-phrases? It's the soul of his writing.

Nathalie, I just finished Bel Ami this evening and loved every minute of it. It helped that the narrator was excellent and really made the characters sound as crass as they were no doubt intended to be. It made me laugh that one of his mistresses was enthralled with his moustache! I agree it's a very contemporary story still, but the moustache wouldn't work nowadays, and it's practically a character of the story in and of itself, so I'd argue that for this reason alone, the movie MUST be in historical context. LOL. Don't remember though, did you read it in the French?

I have The Power and the Glory on my shelves, and want to read several more by Greene—have a few more on my shelves as a matter of fact, but for some reason, The End of the Affair has never appealed to me, so I don't think I'll be getting around to that one anytime soon.

Brideshead Revisited is most definitely on my radar after having read—and quite loved—Vile Bodies this year, though of course I know that it's an entirely different sort of book.

Thanks for your comment on my... touchy experience yesterday. Was much appreciated.

#99: erm... that title didn't give me any hint and there was a strange looking Mexican on the cover. :-)
I read it yesterday and I must admit that I preferred The End of the Affair. But that's just me, I recognize that the structure and the writing in The Power and the Glory are probably stronger than in "The End", but I didn't feel good at all throughout the reading, not even at the ending. For me personally the religious motive was more convincing in "The End".

I couldn't imagine what Wodehouse or Sayers would be like in a translated version. They wouldn't sound authentic.

#100: Oh yes, the moustache. They have gone for so many years now, that I fear they might make a retro comeback soon. They could give him a different feature in a modern version, maybe very full or curly blonde hair in contrast to the balding heads of the other husbands. Something that emphasizes the "handsome young man" image for the women of all ages.
Yes, I read it in French and found it actually quite easy, compared to Le Ventre des Paris. Shorter sentences, more dialogue.
You just reminded me that I should move Vile Bodies forward on my tbr.

I have so many reviews to write, but none of them is easy. Okay, let's start:

53. Zeitoun by Dave Eggers

This was a recommendation of Richard, and I found the Italian version in my library. Many of you have read it and it receives overall very positive reviews. I read it because I wanted some more information about the life in New Orleans during and after the hurricane Katrina.

I don't want to offend anybody, but I was completely appalled about Zeitoun's experiences. I knew that looters had been arrested, but I had no idea how easy it was to be declared a looter and what the conditions of detention were like. To be honest I wouldn't have thought such things possible in any modern country, but obviously I am just naive. In this respect, Zeitoun is a very important book and should be read by as many people as possible.

Now on the other hand I had a problem with the style. For my personal liking it was too fiction-like, and about a third of the text could have been spared. But I realize I might not be the intended reader for this book. What happened to Zeitoun and all the other prisoners is inexcusable no matter what their background is. Eggers made a great effort to show us what a great and honest man Zeitoun has been. But even if he had been half as honest or even if he had been a looter, he should have been treated differently. I feel this book has been written to convince people that a muslim is not necessarily a potential terrorist (as surprisingly many people seem to think according to this story) and so many pages were filled with evidence of the clean life the family had been leading up to this point.
But as I said - I am not the intended reader, I needed no convincing here.

spoiler coming
Something that troubled me was what happened to Zeitoun's 'friends'. Okay - he suffered terribly in prison for almost 3 weeks and his money was gone. And then, in a very short paragraph, we learn the others were only released after 3-8 months and one of them lost all his fortune. This is more than a scandal. Was there no way the Zeitouns could have helped them here?
end of spoiler

Rating: 4 stars for its importance

54. Der Himmel über Meran by Joseph Zoederer

Read for 11 in 11 and for the TIOLI challenge "set in your locale". 5 short stories dealing more or less with life in South Tyrole. Zoederer is a very gifted writer and I enjoyed his novel Die Walsche a lot. These short stories show his skills even better, but I felt dreadful during the reading and was glad when the book was finished.

Zoederer is able to give a voice to that strange state of emotion of the South Tyroleans. The region has had a strained past and the people have been traumatized by a series of events that started 1918 and only really ended in the 90s when they were granted their special autonomia. Looking at the past it is understandable that the older generation does not trust this 'peace' with the rest of Italy. Some of the political discussions here seem amusing for an outsider like me, but behind all that there is a constant fear that privileges could be taken away again, as happened too often in the past.

Rating: 3,5 stars

55. Italians: Il giro del mondo in 80 pizze by Beppe Severgnini

I like Severgini's books, but this here is not among my favourites. Severgnini is a journalist working for the Corriere della Sera and he started a blog for "Italians abroad" several years ago. As he is often travelling, the idea came up to connect those business travels with meet-ups with those "Italians abroad" and to have a pizza together. Between 1999 and 2008 there were 80 of those pizza meetings (almost everywhere, from NZ to Afghanistan, with several stops in the UK and US) and this book is a collection of those experiences.

Severgini often added some political commentary, and so this book is also a retrospect on past events. I couldn't help feeling nostalgic when reading the comments on Greece, Ireland or Portugal, written about 5-6 years ago when the economy looked much better and he expressed his hopes that Italy might follow their examples.

Then there's a pizza meetup in the US in June 2001, where the Italians are happily telling him how easy it is to get a work permit for the US - and then the next meetup 9 months later in a different US town, where they describe their new difficulties with the extension of the permits.

The book only gets 3 stars because some of the subjects become terribly repetitive throughout the book. Mostly it is the question why the brightest heads are leaving the country and not planning to return (I'd say that happens to many countries). Or the constant complaint that Italy is seen as a beautiful, but corruptive place (this last point has certainly not improved with the re-election of Berlusconi).

On the plus side: many interesting grammatical constructions which I had only seen in my grammar books before.

Rating: 3 stars

Some pictures from the "Passeggiata dei Sapori" I visited on Sunday. It's a food market taking place every year during the Pentecoste weekend, offering products from all regions in Italy. A picture of the porchetta I described on the readathon thread is posted in my gallery, I didn't want to scare the vegetarians by posting it here.



Sweets from Sicily and Tuscany, mostly very sweet and tough almond biscuits. Perfect with an espresso coffee.



Spices - surprisingly sold in the open like on a bazaar



Giant bread loafes from Sicily, great for bruschetta. I bought some.

Great reviews, and I enjoyed your photos too. You're reminding me that I've once again fallen horribly behind on my review writing too. I think it's time I just accept that I seem to only be able to write them up in big batches and stop worrying about it!

Love the photos, Nathalie!

#106,107: Thank you! I am proud I was able to resist those almond biscuits this year. They are nice, but cost a fortune (as does everything on that market).That bit of bread I bought cost about 7 USD and I doubt they'd dare to ask that price down in Sicily. But the stalls were really nice to look at.

Book update:
I am currently reading A Passage to India for the TIOLI, and I am having a surprisingly hard time with it. I was really looking forward to reading it and now it kind of repels me, I can't even say why.

I've finished 900 pages of A Dream of Red Mansions, with 1650 left to read. I am really enjoying this, though nothing much ever happens. It's almost meditative with all those beautiful descriptions of gardens and paintings, and then there are funny bits like Chinese drinking games. It's a bit like reading Proust in the sense that 'the journey is the reward'.

And I started La Fortune des Rougon as another slow read. I finished the first 2 chapters and so far I like this introduction to the family and admire the characterizations (this word looks funny).

The Dawkins book Cushla recommended might be one of my next reads, it could fit in well with the two Graham Greene books I just finished, which were all about faith and the question if God exists.

I started The Fortune of the Rougons and promptly got sidetracked. I imagine I will return to the book eventually :)

It took me a while to get into La Fortune des Rougon. It builds up slowly from a lot of seemingly unconnected bits. It's obvious that Zola was sketching out his canvas and laying down the foundation for what was to come, but I found the second half of the book immensely satisfying when I started seeing how the pieces were fitting together. The story of the two young lovers is immensely touching. One loves to hate the Rougons—the characterizations (as you say) really are very good.

# 110: I liked the two chapters I've read so far, I am just not in a hurry to finish the book. But good to know it will even get better. :-)
#109: I think it is a book where the return is quite easy, as there is not so much action happening in the beginning. One look at the family tree on wiki might be sufficient.

Yesterday I picked up A Passage to India again and read some more pages. Somehow this book makes me feel uncomfortable, and a reason might be that maybe not so much has changed. It is still terribly difficult to overcome cultural differences, even though nowadays there might be more goodwill on both sides.

Today I remembered my first 'culture clash' with India. When my old company finally gave in to having their software coded in India (as everyone else had been doing for years) they invited a small group of programmers over to Germany, to get acquainted with us and to learn about our systems. We Germans all had to take 'cultural awareness' seminars in order to behave properly and the result was that both sides were scared to get into contact, fearing we might offend the other with anything we'd do or say. We were tiptopeing around each other, until the management decided to help and organized a 'get together' - drinks, conversation and dinner in an Indian restaurant of all places. It was a terribly awkward evening. The food was too bland for our Indian guests (while many of my colleagues didn't eat anything but rice). We had to sit in 'mixed rows' which was embarrassing, because obviously some of the male Indians were not used to freely converse with Western women. One of the guys sitting next to me couldn't eat, because he wasn't used to Western cutlery. I tried to encourage him to eat like back home (hey - this is an Indian restaurant, you are the experts here, we are doing it the wrong way with our forks and knives), but it didn't really help and was probably totally offensive and made him lose face. Maybe I should have ignored it, but I felt so sorry for him and remembered my own issues with chopsticks.
Anyway, I guess we were all glad when that night was over.

Those were just the beginnings and it really became better soon. We hung up a map of India in the coffee kitchen and invited our guests to tell us more about their home country, we shared photos and family stories and organized sight-seeing trips, but those first days were very difficult, although everyone really wanted to get along.
Now when I imagine those times described in Forster's book I can only say that I am glad I haven't been there. The 'get together' in the garden of the English club (Indians were not allowed inside!) made me cringe. So many misunderstandings, even with the best of intentions.

Okay, I'll have to write a review for this one anyway, so I can as well do it now:

56. The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene

My second Greene in just one month after I have been ignoring him for 35 reading years. Hm... this was anything but a feelgood book, more of a food-for-thought book, and in this sense similar to The End of the Affair. But while I enjoyed that one, I had my problems with this one here.

Short introduction to the plot: set in an area in Mexico where the military government has banned religion. Priests had to flee or to renounce their religion and get married, the few remaining priests have been executed. Only one is left, the nameless "whisky priest", on the run from the authorities. While reason dictates him to get to the border or to a big city, to safety, he finds himself unable to dismiss people in need, even when it's obvious this might ultimately lead to his capture and death.

Now to my problems:
Stupid and superficial reason one, but I can't help it: I don't like dirt. When I read books set in some tropical country, I prefer to get the impression that baths were taken, clothes changed, etc. This is explicitly not the case here and it has to be "dirty" and rotten and smelly and everything, otherwise the story wouldn't work. I just don't like it (and this was also a problem when I was reading Crime and Punishment). But: this just gives me a bad feeling and doesn't influence my rating.

Reason two: The structure of the story was unusual, and it took me a while to get an idea which character might be important (and who was the protagonist). Once I understood the structure I was able to appreciate it. Very intelligent writing, a great composition, but not an easy read.

Reason three: I bought the religious motive in The End of the Affair and I - not being religious myself - felt strangely affected by it. This was not the case here, although the story is based on historic events. The importance of the Catholic rites didn't play such a major role in "Affair" as they did here. "Affair" was more about the basic belief (faith?). Not being Catholic it is difficult for me to understand why it is for example so absolutely necessary to confess, even if the only priest available has a terrible reputation.

It is a good book, maybe even a great one, but I liked it less than "Affair" and for this reason it gets 3,5 stars. It made me think about faith and religion once more (I have had those phases before), so now I started The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins.

Rating: 3,5 stars

Hi Nathalie, Finally caught up with your thread and I'm taking away two BB's The End of the Affair and And the Power and the Glory. I think Cushla also read The God Delusion recently and although I'd put myselft in 1 or 2 on the scale, I do have questions and willing to check out all sides. So I look forward to your thoughts on it.
The food fest looks wonderful! Thanks for sharing the pics.

I liked the story of your experience with "cultural exchange". Definitely sounds like you had many cringe-worthy moments. So much so, that it reminded me of episodes of The Office. I've mostly seen the U.S. version, where the boss tries to bring people from different backgrounds together and only ends up making everyone feel much worse than they did to begin with.

I had to laugh at your reasons for not having enjoyed The Power and the Glory (laugh at the reasons, not you). I know sometimes my personal tastes are bothered and I can't help but let it colour my appreciation of a story as a whole, but reason #1 had me thinking that it's a good thing not everyone feels that way, because we'd have even less true to life fiction than we do already.

As for reason #3, I don't know that much about Greene yet, save for the fact that he himself was Catholic and that his religion played a large part in his writing. I wasn't raised to be religious in any way, shape or form, but because I live in Quebec, which has a very devout Catholic history, and that my mother was raised by nuns in convents, I know enough about Catholicism to tell you that the reason confession is so important is because it saves them from dying with sin on their soul and being damned to the fires of hell forever and ever. Which would explain why confessing to a bad priest, even a foul one, would be better than no confession at all. That's my own, very bad explanation, but hopes it helps somewhat.

Nice review of The Power and the Glory, Natalie. Thus far, I have only read one of Greene's books, but I really need to get back to his writing. Thanks for the reminder.

# 112: Smiled a lot while reading your reasons why you didn't like The Power and the Glory. It can be the weirdest reasons that have an effect on ones reading - well, I liked this novel - as far as I remember it - because of the interesting conflict of the whiskey priest - feeling unworthy to be a priest and longing for forgiveness - yet compelled by the need he sees around him for acting as a priest and bestowing forgiveness (in the catholic understanding of the sacrament).

I think I must return to The End Of the Affair and read it again. I think I have missed a lot in that novel.

#113: I thought I was a 6 after Dawkins definition and this has been confirmed so far. I think in most cases the upbringing will give you a direction (though there are exceptions), and mine has been agnostic Lutheran Protestant (with LP in itself being as liberal and removed from the scripture as possible I'd say) and from there it is only a small step towards being a non-believer. I'll write some more in my review for that book.

#114: I bought the UK "Office" on DVD and saw the German version, but never the US show. But I can imagine that our management clearly took the US approach.

Re. Catholicism: I've read about it, and I see the people's need to follow the rites of their religion. But it's just so far away from me, I'd say it's one of those concepts you have to grow up with to believe in them.
Many years ago I was playing with the idea of becoming a Catholic, simply because I liked the feeling of a stronger community than my own Lutheran one. But then I had to accept that with the community come other things (the saints, the virgin birth, the sacrament of confession, the role of the pope,...) I could never believe and a conversion would have been a lie.

#115: thank you Stasia. I am quite sure you'd like them.

#116: Hi Carsten! I liked that Greene had made the whisky priest an unhappy person. He wants to escape and wearily gives in whenever he is called. Thinking about it, this really is a very good book and I can see that it might be better then "Affair", but "Affair" is just closer to my live and made me think more, that's why I rated it higher.

I finished 3 books yesterday:
A Passage to India which I'd now say is probably Forster's best work. But for the sensitive like me it's a terribly difficult book.
Hospital Sketches by Louisa May Alcott for the TIOLI (short work challenge)
Kindertransport by Olga Drucker, recommended by Linda (Whisper1)

Reviews will follow soon.

I look forward to your reviews, Nathalie.

I'm curious regarding what you thought of Kindertransport. If you subscribe to Netflix, you might want to watch the documentary regarding this topic.

#111 Well, things I believe have changed since the time you are talking of. Indians atleast now have more things in common with their western counterparts to make things too awkward. I remember when we had a 100 exchange students coming in to our b-school (100 of 300) and most of them were Europeans with an equal share of Scandinavians, Germans, Italian and French people and they had tonnes of misgivings as to how they would be able to fit in. After a few days of them hanging around in their own little groups, most of them realised they we weren't really that different, religion and culture aside, and we had a grand time.

One of the Danish females later told me that she was warned that Indian people would want to "touch" her blonde hair and I couldn't stop laughing at the stereotype, by then she too had realised that even in India, people don't go around touching stranger's hair, no matter how exotic they may look!

#117 The US Version of Office is way better than the UK one (personal opinion disclaimer), I could hardly watch the first season of the UK Office, while I absolutely adore the US one.

#120: Hi Piyush, I think our encounter would have been much easier from the beginning, if we hadn't been told 'be careful not to offend' a hundres times before the arrival of our guests. Those cultural awareness seminars maybe did more bad than good. After the very awkward start the whole experience became an enrichment to our work lives and many personal friendships developped.

My remark that 'nothing much has changed' applied to the early scene in the club garden I had just read when I wrote that post. That reminded me a lot of our get-together.
But in the later scenes there is so much hatred openly expressed, it really hit me hard and made reading on almost impossible. Now I am glad to say that things have indeed changed.

#119: Hi Linda, I haven't written the review yet (the very difficult one for A Passage to India is 'blocking the way'), but it was a great book. It gave me so much new information. I had never heard of that initiative before, and it is something that should at least be mentioned when the Holocaust is studied at school. But maybe they are doing it now, my school days are more than 20 years in the past.
Btw I grew up near Wiesbaden, that's where I went to school, and the fact that 'Oma' had been deported from there was a bit of a shock. It's different to see the Holocaust as a part of the history of a country/nation from being reminded that it happened right where you are/have been living.

I'd like to apologize for the length of this review. Believe it or not - for me it still feels incomplete.

57. A Passage to India by E.M. Forster

As you have seen in my earlier posts, I had some difficulties reading this book. Nonetheless, now that I have finished it, I think that it might be Forster’s best ( but I only read 3 so far, so I can’t really judge). The review contains some small spoilers in the character section.

Although I knew about the main plot (clash between British and Indian culture, a young English woman accusing an Indian doctor to have molested her while visiting the Malabar caves), I started the book with the wrong expectations. For me, Forster had been a feel-good author so far. My first contact with his work was Room with a View which I loved. I liked Howard’s End less, but still I expected all his books to show me the “good old times” of the British empire.

In German this book is called “Die Reise nach Indien” which, re-translated, would mean something like “the voyage to India” and doesn’t do justice to the double meaning of the word “passage”. (British) People travelled to India and settled there, but they didn’t succeed in building a passage to the people, this seems to be the message of the book.

We have interesting characters here, and I was surprised that none of them was really likeable, another difficulty for me. There’s Mrs Moore, a woman well in her sixties, who seems to be open and friendly when she meets Aziz, but who ends up being disillusioned and tired and who doesn’t want to be bothered when she is needed most. She seems to be beaten by the country. Then there is Miss Quested, the slightly annoying, “fresh”, young modern woman with the seemingly open mind, who completely loses her nerves in a critical moment, but in the end does the right thing. There’s the big group of polite British citizens, all full of racial prejudice. Their polite masks are falling when Miss Quested makes her accusations, and some of them express such open and hysterical hatred towards the Indian people that I thought I couldn’t continue reading. Really, it might sound exaggerated, but I felt poisoned by those outbursts of hatred.

On the other side there is Dr. Aziz, and the modern reader would expect to like him as the good and misunderstood Indian. But he doesn’t do us the favor of playing this role. In fact he makes it very difficult for us to sympathize with him, because his behavior seems so very strange and inconsequent. He is constantly mistrusting people, is easily offended, switching from total awe to disgust within seconds.

The Western reader is likely to identify with Mr Fielding, British as well, but as he says “travelling with light luggage”, not having any family or property obligations which would force him to take either side. He tries to be Aziz’ friend, but we see that even his best efforts can’t build a bridge between the cultures.

Forster shows an incredible insight into the very differently working minds of his characters and I will put Howard’s End on my to-be-reread list, as I might appreciate it more now with my new view on Forster.

The book has also some lengthy descriptions of landscapes, temples and rituals, but I needed those to calm down after yet another dose of poison.

The last sentence of the book is especially brilliant, and the best thing is that it has been contradicted by today’s reality. (I haven’t got the book with me today, I’ll quote it if I remember)

Rating: 4,5 stars

58. Hospital Sketches by Louisa M. Alcott

This is a very short book and it describes Alcott’s experiences as a nurse during the American civil war. It is really well written and entertaining, but somehow “entertaining” was not what I expected here and I felt a bit irritated by her style. On the other hand I understand why she had to write it in such easy tones, and there are some chapters or paragraphs where she allows us a short look on the harsh reality.

I am not a fan of Little Women, although I read it as a child when I should have liked it. This little book here now showed me that Alcott was a very intelligent and witty writer and I am planning to give some other works a try.

Rating: 3,5 stars

59. Kindertransport by Olga Drucker

Review contains spoilers, but it's non-fiction.
This was a recommendation by Linda/Whisper1, and now I finally found the time to read it. It is the real story of the German girl Olga who grows up near Stuttgart in the 1930s and who only slowly realizes that her wealthy family is Jewish and that this has negative consequences for her. It begins with Jewish children being banned from the use of a public swimming pool, continues with repressions at school and ends with her Dad being imprisoned in a concentration camp for several weeks. At some point her parents decide to register her for the so-called “Kindertransport”, organized by an international Jewish association, where German Jewish children were placed with families in the UK. Olga leaves her parents, believing in their promise that they’d soon join her in England. During the following years she lives with several families and spends some time in a boarding school, until in early 1945 she is finally able to join her parents in New York. Only much later she learns that the Kindertransport allowed 10,000 children to survive the Holocaust. Most of the childrens’ families were killed, and doubtlessly not many of the children would have survived those years.

I had never heard of that initiative before, and I can’t say how moved I was by Olga’s story.

Another interesting fact was the imprisonment of German Jews in England as suspected spies when war started in 1939.

One thing I admire until this day is how well the British were prepared for the impending war. It seems like they were the only people openly mistrusting Hitler. During my internship in London in 1996 I visited some museums and most of them had a section dedicated to the Blitz, informing about the provisions taken by the people, like building shelters and distributing (and explaining the use of) gas masks in schools.

Naturally, as this is Olga’s own story and not some work of fiction the book is not great by literary standards. Nonetheless it is an important book that shows an aspect of the Holocaust which might be as new to many readers as it has been to me. Therefore strongly recommended.

Rating: 4 stars

I finished The God Delusion today, and although I took many notes, I don't feel capable of writing a review for it today. So it will have to wait while I go on a weekend-trip to Lugano/Switzerland where I'll meet my parents and also have a business meeting with a potential client.

I don't count on having internet access there, so I might be on a LT break from tomorrow till Sunday.

Great review of A passage to India and I will look for it when we're home (I'm sure Wellington library has several copies!). I saw the movie, but before I really understood enough about the British Empire - I think I was about 14 or 15 and it might have been the first "grown up" movie we went to as a family. I didn't really enjoy it then.

Kindertransport sounds really interesting too.

Well done on taking notes as you read The God Delusion - I didn't and it made it hard to write my review. Have a great time in Lugano, hope the weather is good. It's just started raining up here.

#126: I actually remember the Oscars when A Passage to India was nominated in several categories and they kept showing those little scenes. But somehow the movie didn't attract me.

I should have mentioned that Kindertransport is also very short, just about 110 pages.

Taking notes on The God Delusion didn't really help, on the contrary. I found out that I have in fact been clinging to some non-religious, but spiritual beliefs for a very 'lazy' reason: I don't like the idea that science will not be able to explain everything I want to know during my short lifetime and I wanted those many knowledge gaps to be filled. Knowing that explanations might eventually be found some day in the far future doesn't really satisfy me.
So now, following the information from this book and the many science books I've been reading in the past years I tried to develop "my very own thought model". And then yesterday I found out that I had kind of "re-invented Buddhism", at least some of its main ideas as it is explained on wikipedia. Without gods and without rebirth though, which makes quite a difference.

It has been raining here as well all night. But at least the forecast for Sat/Sun is good.

Natalie

Great reviews of both A Passage to Indai and Kindertransport. Sadly, of the 10,000 children rescued, only 1,000 were reunited with their parents. I very much admire the British culture that did the right thing. I also read that the US turned their back stating they did not want to cause psychological damage to children misplaced from their parents...!!! And, when Canada was asked how many children they would take, they said "none..one would be too many!"

Oy, I've already spent so much time on the threads, trying to catch up with everyone, and meanwhile told myself I'd spend less time on LT/more time actually reading today. And my groceries have been sitting there in a box on the floor for practically an hour. Like I said, oy.

I'll be back soon to read your reviews. *marks as read to here at #121*

I am back from Switzerland, but right now a bit too busy to spend much time on LT. Just a short reading update: I finished Charlotte's Web and In Search of Klingsor by Jorge Volpi which both don't fit the June TIOLI, and I started Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer.

My parents are staying with me now, so reading is limited to bedtime. My dad leaves tomorrow, but my mum might stay a little longer. She hasn't decided yet, right now the weather is a bit too hot for her.

I'll post my weekend adventures later this week. I had a stupid little accident, not with the car, I just fell, and now one arm and one leg are covered in bruises. The Volpi book cushioned my fall a bit. But it all was for a good cause - I was trying to keep a dog (not mine!) from running towards a busy street. I succeeded, my fall distracted the dog, and so he was saved (at least that's what I am telling myself, so I feel less stupid). :-)

Poor you - sending rather gentle hugs. Go have a nice soothing bath (and hopefully then get some peace to read :) )

Aw, Nathalie, sorry you got hurt, but as the animal lover that I am, I must say it was all for a good cause. My heroine! :-)

Also, glad Klingsor came in handy. I have more respect for that book now that I know it actually helped save a life! lol

#131: thank you, Bekka. I actually have to take baths now as I can't take showers with my leg bruises. But they are healing quickly. Re. reading time - my mother is now with me for at least another week and when I come home after work she is waiting to go out (she usually stays in my appartment all day), so I have to read during work or at night.

#132: I can't say the dog was very grateful, though. Klingsor got some scratches as well, but I was lucky and the guy at the library didn't notice them when I returned the book.

#128: sorry, for my late answer. To be honest, I don't know how to comment on your post. It is always difficult for a country to deal with an onrush of refugees, but those were extreme reactions, and it was concerning children! We can only hope that things have changed here.

Just a short wrap-up of my weekend at Lugano:
Friends of my parents own a house at Lugano and we all stayed there for the long weekend. It was my first time at their place and it was amazing. They have a fantastic lake view and I could have been sitting on their terrace all day with my books. But instead we did some sight-seeing which was nice as well. On Thursday night we had pizza, but not at the restaurant where both Cushla and I had been independently (Cushla, I checked that restaurant and it definitely was the same one, what a coincidence!).

On Friday we went to the other big lake, Lago Maggiore, where ex-neighbours of my parents started a small lakeside design hotel with sailing school some years ago. There I had a meeting with a guy who offers to sell my products in Spain and then we all had dinner together at the hotel's restaurant.

On Saturday we spent the day at Lugano, mainly shopping, and then decided to have dinner in a typical ticinese restaurant, a "Grotto", accessible only by boat. So we went and got a boat taxi, and at the taxi station I made the acquaintance of Bobo, a cute little dachshund. When we returned two hours later, Bobo was still there, but his owner was doing some work on a boat and Bobo's leash wasn't fixed anywhere. Then turned up a female dog, one of those Chinese fur-less dogs, in short: a n*ked lady. Bobo went all crazy and ran towards that "lady" who was on the other side of the (busy) road. I ran to Bobo, trying to get his leash and fell over a piece of wood on the boardwalk (yes, there was a piece of wood on the boardwalk for no reason at all, and in Switzerland!). That's how it happened. My white cargo pants were torn and I had to throw them away later.

Now I am back at my place with my mother and I hope my knee will allow me to take her on a short and easy hiking trip this weekend.

Edited because 'n*ked' seems to be a problem.

Sounds like you have such a great time around the lakes. Have to say I'm envious, I love being around bodies of water. I suppose that's because I'm a Cancer, a water sign.

Again, I'm sorry you got hurt, but have to say I really enjoyed your little story about Bobo and the naked lady. Hope your knee heals quickly for that hiking trip.

#135: The place where I live now is sadly lake-free, except for the mountain lakes up on 2500m. So the weekend at Lugano was a nice change.
I am a Capricorn, but always preferred the sea until I moved here. I had never expected to be happy in region with high mountains, but this is the first place that ever really felt like home.

After a break I continued reading La Fortune des Rougon today, but I switched to the English version, as I don't have much time to read right now and English is much faster. I finished chapter 3 and 4, and by now I really like Pascal Rougon. It seems like he is no important character in this book, but I hope he'll turn up again in one of the other ones.

Following Bekka's recommendation I got Breakfast for Champions by Kurt Vonnegut from my library yesterday (Italian version) and read some pages before sleeping. It seems to be even stranger than Slaughterhouse Five, but it's really fun to read. I hope I'll be able to fit it into a TIOLI challenge for this month.

I read Slaughterhouse Five in 2010 I think, but haven't read anything else by him yet. Will look forward to your comments. I'm intrigued about Cat's Cradle I must say. More for the title than anything else. ^..^

This is really funny: I couldn't for the life of me remember who Pascal Rougon was. Guess he didn't make that much of an impression on me, which I regret now, because I just googled him to refresh my memory, and to answer your question, YES, he comes back in a big way, as the very last book in the series is called Le Docteur Pascal. I doubt I'll get to that one this year, but hopefully some time in 2012. Then when I'm done with that book, I'll have to start all over again with La Fortune des Rougon and just keep going, rediscovering and noticing new things along the way... :-)

I'm sorry you were bruised. I hope you are feeling better today!

#136 & #137 Breakfast of Champions was the book I liked least amongst all his works that I have read, while Cat's Cradle remains the favourite.

Sounds like a great trip until the dog-rescue - I hope you heal up quickly. And that's so funny about the pizza restaurant from your last trip being the one we went to!!

One day I'm going to try the Rougon-Macquart books and then I'll be digging out your old threads...

#137: my library surprisingly has quite a selection of Vonnegut books in Italian, I'll have to check if Cat's Cradle is among them.
Pascal Rougon seems to be the only nice and normal guy in that family (apart from daughters who are not mentioned much). The very last book - another reason to get through the whole series, thanks for the info!

#138: yes, much better, thank you. I even could take a short walk with my mother yesterday to a nearby canyon to see the waterfalls.

#139: I am now half through BoC, I like it, it's easy to read, but I am still waiting for something to happen.

#140: yeah, it was a great trip. Those Swiss-Italian lakes are so beautiful!

As I have my mother with me now, my LT time is still limited. Yesterday we had another one of those "you are reading too much" discussions, which I find really annoying. I am also not used to having someone around me in my appartment all the time and I kept trying to escape just for a few minutes (to my room or the other side of the terrace) to get some reading done. I love to have visitors, but I am looking forward to my first "free" weekend again. It's not yet clear how much longer she will stay. The main problem is that she isn't doing anything on her own while I am working, she is just cleaning the apartment, ironing my clothes, etc., so when I come home from the office she is waiting for some 'action': aperitif, shopping, sightseeing, dinner...

Last night there was a special event here in South Tyrol, so-called 'Herz-Jesu' Sunday. Local people/ groups had been climbing the surrounding mountains during the day, carrying wood and torches. After sunset (at about 10pm) the torches were lit and there was an almost uninterrupted chain of fires on the (very high) crests. On some meadows they had built bigger fires forming hearts and crosses. An amazing sight! I tried to take a picture, but it didn't work.

Oh Nathalie, how I enjoy you and Cushla for having the opportunity to live in such a beautiful part of the world but when I read your posts I can almost feel as if I'm there. Hope the bruises are fading by now. Oh how I know what you mean when you say you want some free time. I suggest running to a secluded pasture and screaming out loud for a bit. It helps me. Good luck!

Everyone seems to be doing this meme, so I am giving it a try as well:
Favorite childhood book? “Michel aus Lönneberga” by Astrid Lindgren (in the original and probably also in many translations his name is Emil). More famous: her “Pippi Longstocking”.

What are you reading right now? “One Hundred Years of Solitude” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, which is a reread. Then “Breakfast for Champions” by Kurt Vonnegut and “The Fortune of the Rougon” by Emile Zola. I have “A Dream of Red Mansions” on very short hold, because I can’t deal with more than 3 books right now.

Bad book habit? Is there anything like a bad book habit? I read everywhere which might annoy people. As a child when I was invited to a birthday, I usually had finished the host’s birthday books before the party was over. Yes, I have always been a book nerd.

Do you have an e-reader? Yes, my Kindle. I love it and I also use the Kindle PC and Mac apps very frequently.

Do you prefer to read one book at a time or several at once? I can’t remember ever having read only one book at a time.

Have your reading habits changed since starting a blog? If my LT thread counts as a blog, then yes, clearly. I am reading more, better and faster.

Least favorite book you read this year (so far)? By far the worst book was “Der Duft des Kaffees”, but I didn’t expect anything from it. The biggest disappointment was “Freedom” by Jonathan Frantzen.

Favorite book you’ve read this year? “War and Peace” by Leo Tolstoy, “Visitation”/Heimsuchung by Jenny Erpenbeck and “Rebecca” by Daphne du Maurier. Most fun I had with “Bel-Ami” by Guy de Maupassant. And “One Hundred Years of Solitude” is another candidate, now that I am reading the English version.

How often do you read out of your comfort zone? I still avoid certain genres (fantasy, sci-fi, short stories in general)

What is your reading comfort zone? Fiction (classic, modern classic, contemporary) and often enough poetry (which I don’t review, because I usually don’t read a whole book of someone’s poetry )

Can you read on the bus? On the bus, train, plane: yes. In the car: absolutely not!

Favorite place to read? In my favorite armchair during the cold months and in summer on the table (it really is a very comfortable wooden table, better than a chair) on my smaller balcony. There are big fir trees full of birds and I love listening to their singing.

What is your policy on book lending? I have often lost books this way, so I am only lending them to very good friends now.

Do you ever dog-ear books? Yes. Most of my own books look a mess anyway, because I read everywhere. But I treat borrowed books and library books very well (except when I fall on them)!

Do you ever write in the margins of your books? Only very rarely.

What is your favorite language to read in? English, then French, then Italian and German. German (if possible) only when the author is German or when I am in a hurry to get the book finished. For me, English is the language for literature! German is also great for literature, but since Thomas Mann not many authors have been able to use it well. Modern authors mostly write too sloppy or too constructed.

What makes you love a book? This is a hard question! I like a book when I feel captivated by the story and drawn to the characters. Or when I learn something from it.
I absolutely love a book when it gives me some special, intense reading experience, when the author has a certain way with words that make me experience the book on more levels than eye/brain connection. This was the case with “The Waves” by Virginia Woolf, “Visitation” by Jenny Erpenbeck, “2666” by Roberto Bolano, is currently the case with “One Hundred Years of Solitude”. And many poems are able to do that.

What will inspire you to recommend a book? In real life this depends on the person to whom I recommend it. Then I might even recommend books I hated because I think (s)he might like it more. Here on LT I recommend everything from 4 stars up, sometimes with reservations

Favorite genre? Fiction

Genre you rarely read (but wish you did)? Non-fiction

Favorite biography? Argh… I am not sure if I ever read a biography from end to end. It’s embarrassing, but the life of the writers or other famous people often don’t interest me in detail, I just look at their work and sometimes check the wiki.

Have you ever read a self-help book? Yes, many of them, and often they really helped. Right now I am not reading them, so I must be quite happy.

Most inspirational book you’ve read this year (fiction or non-fiction)? The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, because it reawakened my interest in science and philosophy.

Favorite reading snack? I don’t ‘snack’ while reading, but I cook and eat while reading. Just my normal food, so snacks: none

How often do you agree with critics about a book? Depends on the critics, but I don’t read ‘real’ critics very often.

How do you feel about giving bad/negative reviews? When it’s ‘just some book’ I don’t mind. But if I don’t like a book which clearly has some literary (Tristram Shandy) or political (The Book Thief) merit, I try to add some positive points to my review.

If you could read in a foreign language, which language would you chose? Russian and Japanese (Murakami!). And Spanish, because it is often translated so badly (or so it feels) into German.

Most intimidating book you’ve ever read? I am currently reading one of those: “A Dream of Red Mansions”, intimidating for its sheer length. Then “Ulysses” which only towards the ending stopped being intimidating.

Most intimidating book you’re too nervous to begin? “Les Miserables”, “The Man without Qualities”, everything else by James Joyce on the 1001 list, books like “American Psycho” which wouldn’t let me sleep ever again.

Favorite Poet? Stupid standard answer, but: Shakespeare. And Goethe, as long as I don’t have to read any of his prose ever again. Hm… and maybe Hesse and Rilke. And oh – Mick Imlah!!! Why did he have to die so young?
And Tennyson, just for “Ulysses”. And all the ones I have forgotten now.

Favorite fictional character? I have a weakness for Severus Snape, who was badly misused in the last HP book. I know I would have hated him in real life, but for 6 ½ books he was my favorite character in the series. His fate in book 7 brought me here to LT.
And then obviously Atticus from “To Kill a Mocking Bird”, what a great man!
Females: Pippi Longstocking. And maybe Natasha from "War and Peace".

Favorite fictional villain? Usually I don’t like the villains. Maybe the main character in “Clockwork Orange” (my memory is a mess).

Books I’m most likely to bring on vacation? I bring books that need patience to places where I can’t escape them and where I am relaxed enough to read them. I read Moby Dick on Cuba and Lord of the Rings trilogy on the Maldives, book 2 was a real drag...

The longest I’ve gone without reading. Only before I started reading. I can’t remember any time after that.

Name a book that you could/would not finish. There are some, but not many. “L’ ultima traccia” by Charlotte Link was boring and imo badly written. But if a book is from the 1001 list or has been otherwise recommended I’ll always try to finish it.

What distracts you easily when you’re reading? Sudden noise from outside, like Vespas passing.

Favorite film adaptation of a novel? “Gone with the Wind” – just watched it again with my mother. The “Michel” movies, which are 1:1 adaptations of the children’s books by Astrid Lindgren.

Most disappointing film adaptation? I really didn’t like “The Name of the Rose” movie. And I hated “The Never-ending Story”. But in most cases I was lucky with the movie versions (or had the right instinct which ones to avoid, like “Love in the Times of Cholera” or the latest “Pride and Prejudice” ).

The most money I’ve ever spent in the bookstore at one time? Usually not more than 100 Euros back in Frankfurt. But sometimes I went there once a week.

How often do you skim a book before reading it? I don’t usually skim them, but sometimes I read the ending first (when HP 6 was published I knew who was going to die before I had reached the check-out).

Do you like to keep your books organized? Yes, but the order depends on the genre.

Do you prefer to keep books or give them away once you’ve read them? I buy to keep, unless I really hate the book.

Are there any books you’ve been avoiding? The intimidating ones. And books by authors I had to read in high school, like Brecht or Frisch.

Name a book that made you angry. There have been many books in the past which made me angry because they were so badly written yet extremely successful. Books that make me think “I could do much better, but I would feel embarrassed to send that stuff to a publishing house”. And no, it’s not envy.

A book you didn’t expect to like but did? “The Hours”. I don’t even know why, I just found it uninviting. One of my best reads in 2010.

A book that you expected to like but didn’t? “Freedom” by Jonathan Frantzen, because I really loved “the Corrections”. I knew there was much hype, but to be able to form my own opinion I had only read 1 or 2 reviews in advance. But I couldn’t help it, it didn’t work for me.

Favorite guilt-free, pleasure reading? Everything by Agatha Christie, the “Adrian Mole” Diaries, the very naughty, but funny and close-to-real-life ‘gay-comix’ by German author Ralph Koenig

#142: Hello Lynda! Yes, I am really happy to be here and I am constantly worrying that I'll have to leave again if my job doesn't work out.
Screaming in a secluded pasture - that's a great idea. People might think I am just yodeling. :-)

Ooh, will have to come back to read your meme answers as my eyes are about to pop out of my (exhausted) head. But I do want to say that I completely understand your wish to get your own space back. My dad stayed with me 3 weeks under complicated circumstances and there were times when I thought I would commit a murder suicide. That is times, with an 's', as in more than once. Re: conversation about "too much reading", maybe you could tell her that it was either books or crack. She'll soon come around to suggesting book titles to you! ;-)

60. The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

After deleting two reviews which both were far more than a page in length, I am now trying to keep it really “short”:

Richard Dawkins is an atheist and he wants to convince believers to become atheists as well. And no, he is not an evil man. He uses science as argumentation against the existence of God (Christian, Muslim and Jewish God) and then he discusses the question if - independently from God’s existence – we somehow need religion in our lives, for consolation, as a basis for good behavior, and so on. In his opinion we don’t, life would be easier and happier without religion.

I am a non-believer in Dawkins’ sense. This means I don’t believe in a personal god, and I am convinced that everything has a natural reason, although science today is not able to explain much of it. But if science plays openly with the idea of parallel universes and dimensions curled up in small knots, ‘supernatural’ things might also be explainable one day.

This book basically didn’t tell me many new things, as it mainly confirmed my own opinions. I am however not so convinced that our lives would be so much better if everyone suddenly became an atheist. I fear the human race is principally not a very peaceful sort and not many people would take the time to sit down and develop their own positive philosophy on life. The world would probably be just as violent, we would have just as many wars, only for different reasons.

This book gave me much to think about and the scientific arguments re-awakened my interest in science and also philosophy. For me, it was an inspirational read. I doubt however that any firm believer will change his mind after reading this book.

Some critical remarks: chapter IV was a bit too repetitive for my liking. Either you buy the idea on the first few pages, or you won’t buy it at all.
Then I would have liked to know more about Dawkins’ views on Hinduism and Buddhism. He fully concentrates on the monotheistic religions, mainly Catholics and “American Protestants” believing in the literal truth of the scriptures (sorry for this expression, I really don't know how to call all those different directions that exist under the name "Protestant").

He calls Confucianism/ Buddhism "ethical systems or philosophies of life", which isn’t correct, and he doesn't mention Hinduism at all. I read last week that there exists a direction of Buddhism called “The Middle Way”, which has no gods and no self, but it still has karma and reincarnation (of the “non-self” which is a very interesting and science-friendly concept). It is close to Dawkins’ atheism, but it is just one of many ways, and the others have gods and religious worshipping as well.

Anyway, for me this was a very important and as inspirational read, so it gets 4,5 stars.

61. Charlotte’s Web

A book I should have read as a child. It might have spared me my arachnophobia.

You all know the story: the piglet Wilbur makes friends with the big grey hairy house spider Charlotte (*shudder*) and when he learns that his owner is planning to turn him into a Christmas roast, Charlotte decides to save his life, in a very unexpected and intelligent way.

It’s strange to read such a book as an adult, and I couldn’t help identifying some flaws in the story, things that could have been done better. But the writing is so charming, and without any doubt as a child I would have loved it dearly.

This was also my first audio book. Like a child I listened to it before sleeping - and invariably fell asleep quickly every night, so it took me quite long to get it finished. It was such a soothing experience, I should do that more often!

Rating: 4 stars

62. In Search of Klingsor/Das Klingsor Paradox by Jorge Volpi

This book was not recommended by Ilana/ Smiler69, who read and reviewed it in June, but the mixture of suspense and science triggered me despite the warning , and it’s a 1001, so I read it anyway. And I didn’t like it either, but for different reasons.

The storyline sounds interesting: Francis P. Bacon, a young and promising physicist at Princeton, is ordered to work for the US government during and after WWII on secret service missions. In the protocols of the Nuremberg trials he first learns of ‘Klingsor’, a mysterious man who had the power to decide on all science projects of the Nazis. He goes ‘in search of Klingsor’. On his quest he meets many of the most famous scientists from that period (Heisenberg, Bohr, Schroedinger, etc) and falls in love with a German woman, Irene. A German mathematician, Gustav Links, assists him on his search. Links had been involved in Stauffenberg's failed assassination attempt on Hitler in 1944 and had only escaped the death penalty by sheer luck.

By flashbacks the reader gets an interesting impression of the scientific developments in the first half of the 1900s which in the end led to the development of the first atomic bombs. I found this part quite gripping, but I’d say you should have some interest in science, otherwise it might easily become a drag.

The love stories and the suspense however were – in my opinion – not worked out well. Gustav Links is the narrator of the story, but sometimes he gives us scenes where he has not been present with such detail that I believed he must have been listening on doors all the time. Both the main love story and the background love affairs are completely unconvincing, and the characters that started out well (especially Bacon) became more and more ‘wooden’. Maybe Volpi became so immersed in the science parts that he started neglecting his character development.

Language: I read the German edition, and once again I found the translation from the original Spanish more than unsatisfactory. This happens all the time, so I think that Spanish and German don’t go well together. Another extreme example was The Shadow of the Wind, where the dialogues made it difficult for me to finish the book. Now in this case it is even worse, because the story is set in Germany, the characters should be speaking German all the time, but the translated dialogues are so far removed from real spoken German that I really wanted to put the book down several times.

Another thing that bothered me: while Links, Bacon and Irene are fictional characters, the great scientists are not. Now Volpi raises a suspicion against one of them for which I didn’t find any proof on wiki. But given that this book is so full of real history, readers might believe that this man did play the role Volpi is suggesting. It’s a bit like ‘Salieri killed Mozart’ after the Amadeus movie.

Rating: 2 stars, not recommended

63. Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer

First of all: I feel like I am a horrible person, because (against my own expectations) I didn’t like this book. I rated it with 4,5 stars because without a doubt this is a very important and well-researched book, and every meat-eater should read either this one or one of the similar books like Fastfood Nation (which was my personal eye-opener), because you should know what is on your plate and then decide for yourself.

I didn’t like it for a really stupid reason, and that’s Foer’s official motivation for writing it. Why can’t he just get interested in the issue, do his research and write the book? Okay, I am single without children, so maybe I am not the right person to judge, but what is it with those modern dads? They learn they’ll have a child and suddenly they all become terribly troubled about the state of the world. Didn’t they use to go and party with their best mates instead until a few years ago on receiving the news?
I mean I get it that you have to care about the world you are leaving to your children, but somehow here it seems pretentious to me. I fear that Foer’s son, as a typical counter-reaction, will one day become a meat-eater, just to annoy his dad. This book is full of good and even great chapters, and then it all ends again in something about ‘when I see my son’.
(In my old company in the coffee kitchen I once overheard a group of young dads, comparing the regularity of their toddlers’ bowel movements. I asked them what had happened to discussing soccer results. What is it with those guys? No wonder I am single)

And then Foer takes terrible care not to step on anyone’s toes. Every side gets their say, and I agree that it’s terribly fair and even highly interesting, but in the background I can always hear him saying ‘I don’t want to offend’ (potential readers of my future novels he surely means). You have an opinion, Mr Foer – just give it loud and clearly and stop hiding behind your son or your Judaism as you predictably did in the pork chapter!

Enough ranting – this is a good and important book and we shouldn’t close our eyes any longer to the terrible so-called lives and deaths we subject our co-creatures to, just to have some meat on our plate 7 days a week, 3 times a day.

I am in the lucky situation to live in a ridiculously idyllic rural region where it is quite easy to get ‘good’ meat. My neighbour's happy free-running chickens often cross the road to my house, so I always have to drive very carefully not to hit one of them. Factories as described in the book do not exist here (and if only for the reason that there’s not enough free space to erect them anywhere). They do exist on a smaller scale in many other places in the country however. The laws in the EU or at least most EU countries are stricter than in the US, but I doubt this makes much of a difference. Animals, especially chickens, ducks and turkeys are tortured in ways not imaginable for most of us. Pigs are not much better off and most cows will never see a meadow in their life.

I am no vegetarian, but I eat meat very rarely, maybe once a week unless I have visitors. I remember that’s how it used to be, you had meat on Sundays and maybe some remains on a weekday, and for the rest of the week you had vegetables, potatoes, dairy products and eggs. As a Slow Food member I support the preservation of the traditional breeds (here in South Tyrol we have the ‘Grauvieh’ cows which usually spend their summer on high Alpine meadows). I am not a friend of artificial food, and meat-flavored tofu products are no option for me, but when I remember my ex-colleagues queuing in the cantine when schnitzel was on the menu, I’d prefer them to have pork-flavored tofu schnitzel instead of tortured pork (which is of such a bad quality that it doesn’t have any particular taste anyway). Most of them wouldn't even notice.

So, that’s my story. I hope I didn't hurt anyone's feelings, but these are my thoughts. Now go and read the book! :-)

Rating: 4,5 stars

And I wanted to keep my reviews shorter in future... *sigh*

And I wanted to keep my reviews shorter in future... *sigh*

As long as they're interesting, then it doesn't matter how long or short they are. Your reviews were interesting, but I'm not sure I want to read any of those books though. Other than Charlotte's Web, which I read as a child and can't really remember, so thanks for refreshing my memory. I'm glad you enjoyed the audio experience with that one.

As for Richard Dawkins, I wouldn't mind reading The Selfish Gene some time. Have you read that one? Somehow, the idea of a book about the merits of life without religion just doesn't appeal to me. Questions of faith aren't something that interest me much. I was raised by two faithless parents and always had my own form spirituality, which was something we never discussed much.

I also grew up vegetarian, started eating meat again close to my teens, and then in my late teens and early twenties was vegetarian again for a while, and at that time read a bunch of literature about it. These days, I don't eat meat very often either, and usually when I do, I have to make an effort not to think that it came from a living animal (and never mind how they're treated!), because that turns me off ALL food for some time. So the last thing I need is another book telling me why I shouldn't eat meat. Sometimes I just feel my body wants it, or I get a craving for a steak once in a blue moon, but other than that, I'm practically vegetarian as it is.

Enjoyed your take on Klingsor too. Great reviews all around, as usual, and I really enjoyed your Q & A. When you mention "sudden noise from Vespas passing" that brought back the feeling of Europe in a more immediate way than many other things do. We don't have a lot of mopeds here. Some, of course, but nothing like on the continent where they are ubiquitous of course.

I've read 178 of 276 pages of Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions in Italian. I still enjoy it, although it's a bit slow going and repetitive, but I am now wondering if Hoover and Trout are ever going to meet.

It's already the 7th and I only finished 2 books - one had only 100 pages and the other one was started in June, so they don't really count. And it feels like I am making no progress on the ones I am currently reading. Looks like July will be one of my not so good reading months this year...

#151: Ilana, I didn't read the Selfish Gene, but I'll take a look at it.

I didn't like meat as a child (I was too lazy to chew it), but later I was a happy meat eater for some years. I never had a real problem with the fact that the meat had once been an animal. Growing up in a small village among the farmers' children I was often confronted with the facts of slaughtering. Later the information about factory farming came as a shock to me. Now I sometimes live vegetarian for weeks without noticing it, then again might come a phase where I have to eat meat two or three days in a row, which makes an average of about once a week. I don't eat tofu or other substitutes, so maybe my body just demands it from time to time as a protein or iron source.

#143 Hi Nathalie, I think it was reading your answers to the meme that prompted me to do it myself!

I'm glad to see you're enjoying One Hundred Years of Solitude so much. Maybe I should stop being intimidated by it... Thanks for the links to the group read. I'd noticed the Club Read thread, but I think reading anything I even perceive to be difficult straight after War and Peace is beyond me! I'll definitely consult the threads when I do get round to it though, and I hope that'll be sooner rather than later!

Interesting that you like reading in German least out of all your languages. However it's no wonder your English is so amazing if you read in English so much.

I have Die Leiden des jungen Werthers on my TBR pile - is it really that bad???

Nathalie, that's where the fact that I was raised mostly as a city child tells. At most, I saw chickens running around without their heads at Kosher butcher shops, and that was bad enough for me!

I am just catching up, Nathalie. I really need to get to the Foer book. Thanks for the reminder!

Hi Natalie

Thanks for the lovely images of the torches on the mountains.

#153: Hi Rebeki, I had to read Die Leiden des jungen Werther for school and then hated it with all my heart, but 2 years ago I bought a nice old edition and since then have it on my tbreread pile. I don't know if you have read any of Goethe's prose yet. I found it is not for me. He was a genius and an artist with words and I love his poetry, although it is really florid.
His novels however... I read three of them (this one and "Wahlverwandtschaften" and "Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre") and all of them have been rightfully called milestones of their genre. I always had my problems with his male characters. They are usually weak, and forever helplessly in love. The women in comparison are much stronger. All the men do is suffer, suffer, suffer. They suffer in a way that every modern women would turn away and leave.
But please give it a try, it's one of the shorter ones.

As for the languages: I get really happy when I find a modern German author who knows how to use the language. Jenny Erpenbeck was a revelation. Most of the German books of the later 1900s and 2000s I've read are not very well written. The authors either use sloppy language to appeal to the young readers or they try too much and then the writing is like an empty cathedral - beautifully constructed, but quite boring.

Maybe this is also the case with English, but then am not likely to notice it. For many years I have been reading chick lit and other easy stuff in English, because "trashy books seems less trashy in a foreign language". I can't bear chick lit in German.

#154: Ilana, this must have been traumatizing!

#155: Hi Stasia, a warning - as you are already vegetarian: the book gives quite graphic examples.

#156: Linda, I wish I could have taken pictures of that event

Yesterday I took the day off and went to Bolzano with my mother, for some sightseeing and shopping. We both hadn't seen Ötzi (also known as 'Frozen Fritz') yet, so we went to the archeological museum. It was much more interesting than I had expected. Due to the wonderful weather there were no queues and we could take a good look at the mummy and his well-preserved clothes and weapons. The most entertaining bit of the exhibition were letters sent by people from all over the world. Obviously there are hundreds of people believing they are a reincarnation of Ötzi. Another one claimed it was the body of his uncle who went missing 50 years ago. And then there was the letter by a woman from Pennsylvania who asked the scientists to reconsider the age of the mummy (app. 5300 years), because it contradicts the truth of the bible. There was even a woman who offered to act as a surrogate mother should the scientists ever succeed in cloning Ötzi's DNA.

#158: Thanks for the hears up about the 'graphic examples,' Nathalie.

Have you read The Man in the Ice about Otzi? I found it very interesting.

#159: I've seen that book for the first time yesterday. I must say that Oetzi never really interested me that much, but since I moved here people kept asking me why I hadn't seen him yet. And I was really surprised that I enjoyed the museum (and the look at the mummy) so much. I might now also read the book, it's available in every library here.

#160: I will be interested in seeing what you think of the book once you have read it. I wish I could go see the exhibit!

Hi Nathalie, I'm caught up with you once again. I loved your thoughtful review of A Passage to India. I read it and watched the film right afterward in 2010. Enjoyed both of them very much. I think it's too soon for a reread, but I agree with you that it is Forster's best work.

I can relate to your birthday party experiences as a child. I hated the stupid games and grabbed a book (usually my gift to the celebrant) and sat in a corner reading. I'm still bored at most parties but usually leave early rather than take out a book to read.

You've made me want to read Vonnegut, one of the authors I've sadly overlooked. I'm glad there is a group read for One Hundred Years of Solitude. I did not appreciate it enough on my first go-round so will be tackling it again this fall because my book group has chosen it for the October read. Maybe the GR comments will help motivate me. I think I got my characters confused when I read it a few years ago.

#152 When I started with Breakfast of Champions, I found it very unique and hilarious, but my liking for the book fell exponentially as I kept reading the book, so much so that by the time I reached the end, I was like "Seriously? Was that it?" Hopefully, you will have a better time with it.

I'm caught up too, Nathalie, and enjoyed your comments on books and life as I always do. I am in the minority who did not enjoy One Hundred Years of Solitude although I've liked other Garcia Marquez very much. I found the style almost a parody of himself. So sorry.
Liked Vonnegut years ago.
Wish your time with your mother were going more smoothly for both your sakes.

#163: Piyush, you summed up what I am planning to write about this book. In the end it was just too long and the originality of the humour and the style wore out after a while. After the first half I found it really hard to finish it.

#164: Peggy, I am sorry you didn't like One Hundred Years of Solitude. I don't have much other Garcia Marquez to compare: I read Love in the Time of Cholera and Chronik eines angekündigten Todes about 20 years ago, both in German. So far One Hundred Years is my favorite, but I am planning to reread the others some day in English.
And maybe it is a parody? I sometimes suspect writers to overdo to see how far they can go.

There are no serious problems with my mother, she is just feeling confined to the house while I am at work because of the heat and so when I get home she wants some distraction (while I am tired and in no mood to go out or talk for hours). We are planning to go on an easy hiking tour today and next Thursday my Dad is coming to pick her up again.

#162: how funny about the birthdays, Donna. I thought I was the only one! Actually I feel relieved now.

#165 I'm sorry you felt let down by it Nathalie :( For some reason it appealed to me! It might be that I read it in fairly small chunks - the only way I really get to read anything at the mo, so it stretched out for longer, if you see what I mean?

Anyway, what's next on your list? You really are motoring this year - you'll be at 75 in no time.

#168: it was more like 'a bit too much of a good thing'. Great observations, great fun, but then it was carrying on a bit too longs for my liking. Small chunks would have been the better approach.

I need to gain some ground on the 1001 this month, as"Breakfast" has been removed from the 2008 list I am following and "One Hundred Years" is a reread.
I read Professor Unrat by Heinrich Mann yesterday, which is short and easy and it was the basis for Marlene Dietrich's first movie "The Blue Angel". I just don't know if the English translation is any good, as most of the dialogue is slang or dialect. I started The Awakening by Kate Chopin today, another very short 1001 book.
Planned for July is also a popular German non-fiction book about philosophy and then as a group read Watership Down.

I love Watership Down - still makes me cry.

64. The Fortune of the Rougons by Emile Zola

I started with the French original, but then had to switch to English due to my limited reading time.

This is the first book of Zola’s Rougon-Macquart series, and although I still find the idea of reading them all in order quite intimidating, I am glad I read this one now and I wish I had done so before the other three (La Bete Humaine, Le Ventre de Paris, Germinal), although they do work very well as stand-alone books.

Of the Zola books I read this is the first one that deals exclusively with humans. In the other books, "dead" things (the train, the mine, the market halls) had an own personality which often brutally overshadowed the human characters, but “The Fortune of the Rougon” fully concentrates on the people and their interaction.

In the first chapter, set in the small town of Plassans in 1851, we meet Silvere and his girlfriend Miette. They are terribly young, painfully in love, and they are leaving town because Silvere wants to join the republicans in their fight against the coup d’etat. In the next chapters a very long flashback brings us to the beginnings of the Rougon-Macquart family in the 1700s. We meet Adelaide Fouque (aunt Dide), who has her only legitimate child Pierre with her husband Rougon, and two illegitimate children, Ursule and Antoine, with the worker Macquart. Pierre Rougon and his wife Felicité later have three sons Eugene, Pascal and Aristide. The two daughters are only side characters in this book. Pierre is a scheming man who coaxes his mother into leaving him all her money, leaving nothing for his half-siblings.
His brother Antoine Macquart takes quite a different direction in life. He is a lazy drunkard, jealous of the Rougon family and looking for a way to get to their money. We don’t learn much about his sister Ursule, but her youngest son is the Silvere from the first chapter.
At this point in chapter we return to Silvere and Miette and to 1851. Another flashback gives us the story of their young and heartbreakingly innocent love. After my experience with the other three books I didn’t believe Zola was able to write about something as pure and beautiful as that section.

Writing about the other chapters would give the story away.
Some of the characters are drawn extremely well and make the story seem absolutely timeless. The interaction of Pierre and his wife Felicité (the true master of the intrigue in this story) is highly enjoyable and helped me through some lengths in the book.
My favorite character however was Pascal, who only plays a small side role here and seems to be one of the few family members not driven by selfishness and greediness.

Despite some lengths a great start, and I am looking forward to reading #2.

Rating: 4 stars

65. Daisy Miller by Henry James

Strongly recommended by Nickelini and very short. I got the free Gutenberg Kindle version and I am not sure if it was the “good” one (there seem to be 2 versions, original and revised). I enjoyed this short novella, especially as I had neglected Henry James after The Portrait of a Lady and had always meant to read more of his books. I found the story however a bit too short and the ending too predictable and too simple.

Frederick Winterbourne is a young American who has spent the last years in Europe, mainly in Geneva. In Vevey he meets a wealthy American family and quickly gets acquainted with the daughter Daisy, who with her somewhat loose manners and complete disregard of society rules is different from the women he usually meets in and around Geneva. He feels strongly attracted to her, but at the same time fears she is a person better to be avoided.

The writing as usual is good, but I have to say that the book didn’t leave any lasting impression on me (but I am moving the other James books up on my tbr now).

Rating: 3 stars

#170: Hi Bekka, I fear I am in for some tears. Or many of them. Just looking at the rabbit on the cover of the Kindle edition makes me sad.

I am developing into a very clumsy person. My knee has all healed up, but yesterday the next stupid thing happened which could be a candidate for a "stupidest accidents ever" contest:

I had quite a headache due to the heat. So in the afternoon I lay down on my bed in the darkness of my bedroom, but as I still wanted to do some reading, I took my notebook and turned it round to its side like an open book.
I fell asleep, let go off the notebook and it fell. On my face. It hit my nose and split my lip a bit. Nothing bad, luckily. How embarrassing it would have been having to tell the people at the emergency that 'I broke my nose because my notebook fell on it'.

I am way behind and wanted to comment more, but for now I just wanted to say OW to the notebook accident!! I hope you're ok.

My husband read the Jonathan Safran Foer book last week too! (It was in the library at the Reka village.) We eat more meat than we'd like right now, but he is keen to go vegetarian when the kids are a bit older. I'm going to look for the book too - Michael Pollan's 2 books that I've read have already made me pretty green when it comes to food...

#175: hey, you are back! I hope you had a great time.
I have successfully stayed away from the meat for almost a week now, which is very difficult with my mother being here and going out to eat every night. South Tyrol is a place where they will try to smuggle Speck (bacon) into every meal that's not a dessert or a cheese plate. When I am alone I do more cooking and then it's mainly vegetables or salads.

#171: I started that one but it has fallen by the wayside. Thanks for the reminder that I need to pick it back up again!

#174: Glad to know that your nose is not broken :)

Oh, You're reading Watership Down! That reminds me to put it on my wishlist. Thanks for the reminder! Do you have a recommendation as to whether the German version is any good? I don't mind reading the original but since I tend to lend books I think others will like to them, well, they don't read English.

#178: Sorry, but I am reading the English version, because I am joining a group read and I feared that names/ places might be 'eingedeutscht' in the translation and make the discussion difficult. But I am quite sure that this book has been translated well.

I can't believe I am 6 reviews 'short'. 2 of them are actually written, but the Vonnegut makes problems. Maybe I'll just add a placeholder for that one for now, to get at least some of the others posted.

My mother returned to Germany last Thursday and since then (as she predicted) the weather has changed. The heat has stopped, today it's actually too cold for the season, it's raining heavily, with snow on the mountains. The good thing: I had much time for reading over the weekend. I am almost through La Curée and Wer bin ich, und wenn ja, wie viele?, read almost 25% of Watership Down (because I fear I wouldn't get through 480 pages in the 2 weeks scheduled for the group read), and I started and finished two very short books:
The Pigeon by Patrick Sueskind which even in German has less than 100 pages and
Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh - what an amusing read!

On Friday night I went to an open air concert of a musician I have been wanting to see live for about 15 years. When I saw three months ago that he was coming to Merano (of all places!) I secured a ticket at once. Then on Friday evening we had such a thunderstorm that it looked like it might have to be cancelled, but just in time the weather cleared up again. The concert was just amazing! The guy is almost 60 now and he played without a break for more than 2,5 hours. You won't know him, the name is Hubert von Goisern and he is doing 'Volksmusik' , but not your typical oompah yodeling. He has spent many years travelling the world and connects the roots of the Alpine music with the influences he 'collected' during his travels, adding a bit of rock.

An addition: my library is closing for 2 weeks, so I got myself some more books for the summer:
Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh, which surprisingly was available in English!
Suite francaise by Irene Nemirovsky
Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut (Italian version "Ghiaccio-nove")
Narziss und Goldmund by Hermann Hesse
Anständig Essen by Karen Duve, the German go at Foer's "Eating Animals" experiments.

Sounds you've had a really good weekend, especially the concert. It's lovely to have visitors but it's so nice to have your place back to yourself...

I've read Perfume by Patrick Suskind and remember it being really creepy, but good too. It was for a book group otherwise I'd have stopped. And I keep looking for Vile Bodies in Bider & Tanner in their classics section, but then forgetting to order it online... {runs to Kindle to see if it is cheap!}

#181: Hi Cushla, the Kindle version isn't cheap... why do most Kindle books cost more than 10 USD? It's really annoying.
Are you allowed to order from amazon.de? I think their Kindle shop is open for people from Germany, Austria and Switzerland, but closed for this neglected German-speaking region in Italy! :-(
(which isn't a great loss for them, I suspect I am the only Kindle owner here)

Don't worry about being behind on reviews. I was SEVEN reviews behind at one point this week and fairly panicked, and then realized over half of them were "only" children's books so no big deal right? but then I end up spending just as much time on those, even if it's "just" posting images, which, since I'm fairly perfectionist, takes forever as well. Oh well. That being said, I look forward to your review of La Curée. I really enjoyed that one. But then, Nana has long been one of my favourite books too, so I guess I have an unhealthy fascination with decadence...

I'm not sure why it is that Jim set the Watership Down GR over just two weeks, but if I were you, I wouldn't worry about that. People read at their own rhythm, and from what I've seen from other group read threads so far, they often keep going long after the "official" finish date is up. I'll be listening to the audiobook version, and since I usually go through audios quickly, that's more than enough time for me I should think.

Vile Bodies is one of those books that I started enjoying a whole lot more after I finished it and as I mulled over it. There are more and more books like that for me. However, I think there's a good chance I'll read (or listen to) Vile Bodies again next year, because I really feel like revisiting it at least once more, now that I've worked out all the various seemingly disjointed bits. It's quite a wild ride, isn't it? And the narrator on the audio I have of it really does a good job of setting the fast-paced tone.

I don't have an e-reader yet, but I have been looking at Kindle book prices and find they're really overdoing it. Whenever I read large & heavy books, I find myself thinking it's just a matter of time before I get one to spare my poor wrists, but at this point I just can't justify the expense... plus the fact that I really want an iPad... but with the prices of e-books factored in... let's just say I'd have to get back to a lifestyle of much traveling to justify that.

I'm sure you must be glad to have your space back at this point, even though I'm equally sure you were glad to have your mum over. One of my cousins had this saying that I thought was just awful, but which I found out for myself was all too true. She said: "Guests are like fish. After a few days they begin to stink." LOL

Whew! I'm really verbose today. Sorry about that. ;-)

#183: Hi Ilana, I actually finished two books today, so now I am 8 (!) reviews behind. But this time I'll really keep them "short" and not post them all at once.

Vile Bodies is a book I'd love to hear on audio, with all that direct dialogue and those crazy characters. I hadn't expected this book to be so much fun!

I found the first 10% of Watership Down really slow going, so I forced myself to watch some of the youtube bits yesterday to get into the mood. It helped and I read 15% yesterday, but now I am convinced that I never want to see that movie. And the song "Bright Eyes" has now been in my head for 1 1/2 days.

I haven't read Nana yet, but I'll get to it eventually. Looking forward to reading the next one in the series (#4, too early to reread #3).

#179: The concert sounds wonderful! I am glad that the weather cleared so it could actually take place.

Oh, I think we'll talk about Watership Down until people get done with it! There's no need to worry about a deadline. :)

I definitely recommend you seek out the audio version of Vile Bodies. The version I have is narrated by Robert Hardy, who does a wonderful job of it.

As for Watership Down, I assure you I am not at all keen on seeing the movie I again. I don't remember the song though, so I'll have to go visit YouTube for that myself. Hope it picks up for your soon, though something tells me it will.

Nana is #9 in the series, so I don't know if I'll get to it this year. I was hoping to read at least 11 of them in 2011 (for my 11 in 11 challenge), but it'll be what it'll be. With all the kiddie literature I'm going through this month, I've vowed to always keep a slot open for adult novels as well and I've just finished Visitation, so I'm considering starting La faute de l'abbé Mouret tonight. It'll depend on where inspiration takes me as I have at least 20 books left in my "July" tbr which will no doubt spill into August (almost exclusively Children's & YA mind you).

About the reviews, it's funny because I get all worked up about them, and then once in a while stop myself to think "it's not like I signed a contract or am getting paid to write them, right?!" but I gave myself that as a challenge this year, I mean to review all the books I read, and that is largely as a memory aid since I so quickly forget what a book is all about, even if I've loved it to bits. I guess I've always been a love 'em & leave 'em type of gal! ;-)

#180 Cat's Cradle till this day remains my favourite Kurt Vonnegut book and I have read quite a few of them by now!

66. La Colazione dei Campioni – Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut

This was my second Vonnegut , and I have to say that I liked it less than Slaughterhouse Five. I remember I read that one during one afternoon, I found it so fascinating I couldn’t put it down.

During the first third I thought this book here was one of the strangest and most original things I ever read, but then at some point I really got tired of it. Too much of a good thing maybe?

Our protagonists are Dwayne Hoover and Kilgore Trout. Trout is an unsuccessful science fiction writer, poor and quite unable to cope with modern life. Hoover is wealthy and successful, though suffering from strange communication disorders and unable to form normal relationships. We learn very early in the book that they will meet and that this meeting will change their lives.

It takes the major part of 276 pages to get to this constantly announced event, and I must say that when it finally happened, I didn’t care much about them anymore. There was a nice little twist though late in the book regarding a 3rd person, which I don’t want to spoil here.

The writing is seemingly simple, as if the narrator was telling the story to an extraterrestrial being, using easy words (which was nice for me as I read it in Italian). Often drawings are added to better illustrate what certain things look like (the American flag, a burger, a mouse, a car, …). Certainly the foreword would have told me more about the style, but as usual I skipped that – and yes, I know I am missing important information when I do that.

The book is full of satirical or critical remarks on life in the US in the 70s: patriotism, war (Vietnam), racism, violence against women, advertising, the porn industry, death penalty, etc.. There really are many good things in this book, which might be appreciated much better if read in small bits, as Bekka did.

Rating: 3,5 stars

67. Professor Unrat (aka "The Blue Angel") by Heinrich Mann

Some years ago I saw „The Blue Angel“/ „Der Blaue Engel“, the movie that made Marlene Dietrich famous, for the first time in full length and was very impressed by its powerful atmosphere. The movie was based on this book by Heinrich Mann. It’s one of those books I had expected to be not very enjoyable, very serious and a bit boring to read. How wrong I was!

Professor Rath, nicknamed ‘Unrat’ (garbage) by all his students, is a moralistic misanthrope. He hates his students, even long after they have left the faculty, and desires their downfall. He is also sadistic, as we learn early in the book when he sets an impossible task for a literature exam. One day he finds a sketch of the singer Rosa Froehlich in the exercise book of an especially detested student. He goes to the night club where she’s singing, hoping to catch the student in flagranti and to destroy his future career. Instead he is surprisingly drawn to the singer, whose vulgarity he notices, but can’t resist. At this point the movie and the book are taking completely different paths, and I can’t say which version I liked better, they are both strong, the movie version being sadder however.

Should you be interested in this book and able to read some German I’d recommend to read the original. It’s classic German at its very best and it was pure joy for me. It contains however much dialect and slang. The professor speaks impeccable high German, the town people talk a mild form of Plattduetsch (northern German dialect) and the artists speak a very vulgar street slang.

Rating: 4 stars

68. The Awakening by Kate Chopin

I read this only because it’s short and a 1001, the only information I had beforehand was that it’s “the American version of Madame Bovary”. After reading the original (and not liking it much) and the German version called Effi Briest I was not too keen on reading just another take on the “young wife is bored of/ neglected by her husband and cheats on him with some useless casanova guy and it all ends badly”. But now I’d say it’s more of an early take on feminism and women’s liberation.

Some spoilers coming:
Here our lady is called Edna, married to Leonce (with some French last name I forgot already). They live in New Orleans and spend their summer on the Grand Isle. Here they meet 26year old beau Robert, who reportedly every season makes another married women the object of his flirtations. We learn that Creole husbands are not jealous at all, not caring when their wives are spending all of their free time with young cavaliers. Early in the story Robert is warned by one of his former “objects” to leave Edna alone, because she might take his advances seriously. As expected, Edna and Robert are more and more drawn towards each other, but nothing really happens and then he suddenly leaves for Mexico. When she returns to N.O. for the winter she notices that she has changed, she has awakened to her real self and she starts stripping off the conventions of the NO society, to everyone’s bewilderment. She takes up painting, neglects her children and husband and only lives in her desire for Robert. When her husband leaves for New York on business, she even moves into a smaller house she can pay by her own means. She starts flirting with another, more dangerous young man, but her true feelings are reserved for Robert. I don’t want to write more as it would spoil the plot completely. It is a quick read, so you should see for yourselves.

I am sure not everyone will like the book as much as I did. I have to admit that I found much of myself in Edna’s character and I understood her longing to be free from all attachments. You might think she is a superficial person, confused by her feelings for a flirtatious young man, but in reality he is only the trigger that makes her reconsider her life. At an early point she confesses to a friend that she might give her life, her body for the sake of her children, but she would never give her ‘self’ away for anyone else’s sake, an idea that’s much too modern for her time.

Despite some lengths when dinner conversations are given in detail, this was an intense read for me and I liked this book very much.

Rating: 4 stars

So, now at least I 'got rid' of my two prepared reviews, still have no idea what to write about the Vonnegut book, and 5 more reviews are waiting.

#185: yes it was just wonderful, and I wish I had taken some pictures.

#186: thanks, that's good to know! I am now at 40% and really getting into it, looking forward to the discussion.

#187: I'd love to jump right into the next Zola book, but I have so many library books now I should read first. And I fear I might 'overdo' on the RM series if I don't take breaks. I started Suite Francaise by Irène Némirovsky last night to see if I can also read more modern French. Only got through the 1st chapter though, I was too tired.

#188: I hope to read it this month, it's not too long, and it would fit into the 2nd TIOLI challenge.

okay, two more, then I am done for a bit:

69. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

This was a reread for the 1001 August group. I read the book for the first time in 2003, during a holiday in Cuba, quite the perfect location for this novel. I liked it a lot, though I didn’t even know how famous it was. Now I took the occasion to read the English translation, and this was even a much better experience. I had forgotten most of the ‘plot’, but what I remembered well was that special atmosphere. Reading this book feels like walking through a tight green jungle or rainforest. The writing is so beautiful that I got lost in it whenever I picked up the book.

I can’t describe the plot and saying that it’s a ‘family saga’ doesn’t do it justice. People either
love or hate it, I loved it from the very first sentence almost to the last. I am not 100% happy with the ending, although it makes sense and everything else probably wouldn’t work.

My English edition had a family tree which helped me a lot, as the constant reuse of the names Aureliano and José Arcadio started to confuse me at some point.

I am sorry that this is no real review, but there are books that are impossible for me to describe and that have to be ‘experienced’. This is one of them.

One more thing: Should you read it, plan some time. You might lose much if you are rushing through it, looking for a story. Take your time for it.

Rating: 5 stars

70. The Pigeon by Patrick Sueskind

A short novella (less than 100 pages in German) and a 1001 book. I can’t say that I liked it, but without doubt it is well written and maybe strange (read ‘special’) enough to make it to the 1001 list.

The protagonist (Johann? Johannes? Jonathan? I am terrible with names) lives an isolated life where nothing ever changes and is happy with it. One day he finds a pigeon in front of his door, in the hallway. Not a nice pigeon, but a dirty, disturbed and probably ill animal. He is so shocked and disgusted that his whole life takes a turn. For the better?

On the first pages it is hinted that Johann’s parents were killed during the Holocaust. This and other disappointments could have lead to his anti-social and isolated life. I didn’t find this convincing though. For me it seemed he was ‘different’ from the very beginning.
I wouldn’t recommend this book unless you are looking for a quick read to be checked off the 1001 list.

Rating: 3 stars

I do need to read One Hundred Years of Solitude one of these days, I did start it last year, but lost my copy and could never get back to it. Now I do have a brand new copy waiting to be read, hopefully soon enough.

Great review of 100 years. I loved it too, but you're right, it is impossible to review in any normal way.

Great reviews Nathalie, as always. You've made me want to watch Marlene Dietrich in Blue Angel again. I watched it in my teens when I was going through a cinéphile period, but I think I was much too young to really appreciate it then. I looked up the book at the library—I WISH I could read German... I think I mentioned that on the questionnaire we were all posting recently, but no. They only carry Professor Unrat in the French translation anyway. I always assume that English is closer to German, but somehow German books are more readily available in French here. Quite annoying. It just never sounds right to me.

I have The Awakening on my shelves and Madame Bovary as well. I'm almost certain I read the latter as a teen also (yes, I was precocious), but I'm thinking now I should read the two books side by side. I'm finding I quite like exploring themes that way as it gives me different points of view to go between and in a way starts a sort of dialogue between the books, if you know what I mean.

One Hundred Years of Solitude, I've read twice. Once in 1990, when I was a student and just discovered Márquez, and also read Love in the Time of Cholera. I was absolutely in love with both books at the time. But I picked up One Hundred Years again in 2008 and somehow, it did not resonate at all with me that time. I couldn't really see past all the war and fighting, although of course the novel is about so much more than that... maybe it was my headspace, I don't know.

As for The Pigeon, I think I'll pass. I loved loved LOVED Le Parfum when I read it in the mid-90s and borrowed it from a friend to read again (when? is still undecided). But this other book with a protagonist who lives an isolated life where nothing ever changes and is happy with it sounds too much like the phase I find myself in, and which my therapist insists is a good place for me to be right now, and I don't want to even imagine how I would interpret a mangled pigeon appearing at my doorstep one day, God forbid. So that's that.

So only one book bullet from me, but plenty of comments, yes? as usual... ;-)

Nice reviews, Nathalie!

#195: I hope you'll enjoy it, when you get to it, Piyush

#196: thank you, Bekka. It is a book I am really glad I could 'just read' and don't have to analyze. To be honest, I don't even want to know what the solitude means exactly, or the time going in circles, etc. Just imagine you'd have to read it for school and then going over all the details for weeks and weeks.

#198: thank you Stasia!

#197: When Das Parfum was published it was such a huge success. Everyone read it, everyone loved it, me included. When the movie was out some years ago I read it again and I wish I hadn't. I suddenly found so many flaws in the writing. It still is a very good book though, the idea for the plot alone deserves 5 stars.

I am looking forward to your reviews for The Awakening and Madame Bovary. I must say I wouldn't reread the latter unless I am forced to, but as a direct comparison it could be interesting.

As for Professor Unrat: My 'feeling' (whatever that is) says it might even be better in the French translation. I still have to read an English or French translation of a German book, but when it comes to 'style' (structure of sentences mainly) I think French is closer to German.

Hi Nathalie, I'm almost 1/2 way through 100 years and so far it seems pretty much what I am used to from GGM, who just happens to be my favorite author. I enjoy reading him in the summer or when we travel to Mexico. Like Cuba, it just seems to be appropriate to get the right atmosphere of his books.

You've got me wanting to read Vonnegut's book simply because you HAVEN't written a review. It obviously leaves you speechless.

I'm glad to hear you say that French might be a better way to read from German translations (does this sentence even make sense? I'm not quite awake yet). It seems all German books I've read were in French, except maybe The Metamorphosis, which I really enjoyed by the way. I do have other Kafka books in French—but I tried reading Le Procès and couldn't get past the first page because I found the French so convoluted and was hoping English would be easier...

So you think I shouldn't read Perfume again either? It's always tricky with books and movies we've loved at some point. You never can tell how it's going to go the second time around.

Both The Metamorphosis and The Trial are my favourites and I so very much wanted to read some Kafka this year, but doesn't look probable, early next year I think. Wish I could read French though :(

Nathalie, I am glad to see your glowing review for 100 Years of Solitude. I almost wrote "1,000 years" because that's the way I felt about the length of it the first time I read it. What a dense read; apparently I was looking for a story! My book group is going to discuss this in a few months, and I want to read it again trying to discover why so many people love this book.

Love in the time of Cholera was one of my favorite books last year so I know I missed something when I read 100 Years.

>204 Donna828: Maybe you did, Donna, but I promise I'll never try to find out again.
Nathalie, I'm sorry about your nose. Sounds like things I have done. On the other hand, I've read your latest reviews with great interest. I believe that I need to read Perfume: The Story of a Murderer; it's certainly been on my shelf long enough!

#201: Hi Lynda, I am glad you are enjoying 100 years. Actually, when I bought it before my Cuba holiday, the cover played an important role: a very inviting illustration of a jungle in different greens with some exotic flowers. It seemed to fit to my holiday. I really have to reread my other two GGMs.
The Vonnegut is just difficult to review because the writing was so strange. And I already returned the book to the library and now I have to read other reviews, because I already forgot the names again. If you try one, then maybe better Slaughterhouse Five. I haven't started Cat's Cradle yet, but that is also widely liked.

#202: after looking up "convoluted" I can confirm that the German in The Trial is convoluted as well. I found it a difficult, slow read, an important book, but joyless.

When I read Das Parfum for the first time I was not yet 20, and it just blew me away. Since then I have read many good books and became terribly critical regarding the writing styles in German books. I am secretly convinced that with very few exceptions (like Boell and Erpenbeck) good German writing died with the Mann brothers.
The book is a great page turner and deserves its place on the 1001 list, but he wrote it in true best-seller style, very easy to read. This is not bad, but somehow it disappointed me a bit when I read it again.

#203: your post and Ilana's remind me that it's also more than 20 years now that I read The Metamorphosis. I should dedicate 2012 to rereads!

#204: I liked Love in the Time of Cholera much less when I read it (again > 20 yrs ago!). I am planning to give it a second try, then in English. I can't really say what it is I liked about "100 years", it was a similar feeling to reading poetry. The logical part of my brain was switched off and things like flying carpets suddenly made complete sense.

#205: Hi Peggy, I hope you'll enjoy Das Parfum. It is a quick read (at least it was for me).
My nose and lip are okay again, I now keep more distance to my notebook when I read in bed. :-)

#207: I now keep more distance to my notebook when I read in bed

Sounds like a wise idea, Nathalie.

Like Peggy, I need to get to Perfume too. I bought it a couple of years ago.

I've been inspired with ideas for categories for 12/12 and re-reads may very well be one I'd like to have. Also "books I've been wanting to read forever, or should have read by now".

I finished book #74: Watership Down by Richard Adams, a book I thought I'd never find the courage to read after watching - no, not the movie, only the trailers for the movie as a child. I'm glad I finally read the book and I even watched half the movie now on youtube. My impression is that the movie was more graphically violent than was necessary and even added (bad!!) events that were not in the book.

And I finished #75 this morning: A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway, the restored edition. A very worthy #75.

I'll have business visitors from Germany today and tomorrow, so the reviews will again have to wait for a bit. Happy Sunday to everyone!

Congrats! I need to get the Spoiler thread for Watership Down. :)

And done: http://www.librarything.com/topic/121024

Wow, congrats, that is indeed a great #75!

For Watership Down, I've just gotten past the point at which they decide to leave the 'questionable' warren around chapter 15...

oops, best go over to the spoiler thread I guess.

Congratulations on 75!!! (I'm envious.)

#211, 212, 214, 215: thank you all! :-)
Peggy - I read so many short ones this year with app. 100 pages, sometimes it felt like cheating. When I look at your list, you are reading some really 'heavy' stuff.

#213: thanks for the thread!

#209: You reminded me I have such a category in my 11 in 11 (2nd chances), I have to update that thread.

#208: I hope you'll enjoy "Perfume" when you get to it. It's a quick read once you are over the first chapter which is a bit... well "smelly" you could say.

Congrats - good going! I'm jealous - very far behind this year :)

Congratulations, Nathalie!

# 217, 218: thank you!! :-)

I finally added my review for Breakfast of Champions in post #188 (book #66), and now I'm stuck with the next ones - the reviews for Vile Bodies and La Curée just don't want to be written.

I finished book #76, Die Stadt der träumenden Bücher/ "The City of Dreaming Books" by Walter Moers, a very unusual book that was at times simply brilliant and then again totally average (until the next bout of brilliancy started). I rated it with 4,5 stars, but that's a real personal rating as it also contained some inspiring advice about writing. It's well possible that other readers will throw it into the next corner after a few pages.

Next up is Suite Francaise by Irène Némirovsky, another very enjoyable read so far.

Congratulations, Nathalie with the 75!
You read some very interesting books that are more or less to my taste too. Evelyn Waugh's one of my old time favourites but it's been a while since I read his books. And I can relate to your review of The Awakening. You've also persuaded me to put Die Stadt der träumenden Bücher on my wishlist. Apart from that wonderful title, anyone who is able to merge fantasy and writing-skills in one book deserves my attention.

75 already...Congrats :) Nathalie. Watership Down have been in my TBR for some time now - I hope to come to it later this year. Have to buy a clean, used copy soon.

Congratulations!!

#220: Hi and thank you!
Re. the Moers book: fantasy he surely has, much of it! And he has writing skills, but deliberately uses a very modern, almost reduced style which is sometimes in contrast with the beauty and vastness of his stories. It might feel like reading a childrens book.

#221: Thank you, Carsten! I am quite sure you'll like Watership Down.

Have to buy a clean, used copy soon ==> that's one reason why I have been avoiding libraries for many years. The books are often in a disgusting state. The copy of Vile Bodies contained the vile body of a (thankfully tiny) spider as a little extra surprise.

#222: thank you Cushla. Sorry I haven't commented yet on your thread since your return, will try and do it today.

I am sorry, but once again I am at a point where I have to apologize for neglecting LT.
My personal situation right now is really serious, it worries me constantly and I am finding that I am no longer able to distract myself with reading. I don't want to go into the boring details here - the most important thing is that physically everyone is fine, apart from the usual symptoms that come with stress. It's all about my business and there are some tough decisions to take.

I'll continue reading, though slower, and I'll post reviews as they come (I'll post the finished ones within the next days) and I'll try and visit threads, but I won't be here as often as I used to be lately.

Take care of yourself, Nathalie. Stress has a way of taking over your life. You'll be in my thoughts and prayers as you go through this tough time.

By the way, my book group will be discussing One Hundred Years of Solitude early next month. I'll be doing a reread of it this month using your advice to read it like poetry. Thanks for the hint.

Congratulation on reading 75 books!

Sending hugs your way, Nathalie. I hope whatever decisions you make work out for you.

Nathalie, I hope you're ok and this doesn't go on too long.

Here's hoping everything works out for the best Nathalie.

Thank you all for good wishes and support. I haven't been on LT for a whole week, I am hopelessly behind on all your threads and I fear I won't be able to catch up for the next few weeks. This is just a short visit tonight to add some new books and to do some updates.

My little company had its 2nd 'birthday' on Wednesday, and as I am not sure it'll have a 3rd one, I decided to celebrate by buying some books from amazon, though I don't really have the money right now. But the occasion was too good: the Italian government is just passing a new law that forbids big book sellers to put discounts of more than 15% on books (really annoying, just like in Germany) and amazon.it is reacting by giving massive discounts as long as they can.

I bought and read the following:
The Gallery of Regrettable Food by James Lileks
I don't remember on whose thread I first encountered this book, but if you need a good laugh, I'd recommend it. It's basically excerpts from American cookbooks from the 1920s to 1970s with comments added by the author. I never knew that you can throw everything that's not Jell-O into Jell-O. Hilarious!
You can have a look at examples on http://www.lileks.com/institute/gallery/index.html

Destins de Chiens by Sebastien Perez and Benjamin Lacombe
My first Lacome and by far the cheapest on offer. The other ones will have to wait for better times.
I loved the pictures, but found my French a little too limited to get all of the little poems (Ilana, could you please spoil to me what exactly happened to Virgile?).

And I bought and haven't read yet:
The Sun also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
Der Spachverführer by Thomas Steinfeld (non-fiction book about the German language in literature)

Of my library books I finished Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut (4 stars, though I feel I don't need to read another Vonnegut now for a long time) and Suite Francaise by Irène Nemirovsky (5 stars), which I had both going since July.

Nathalie, here is some more cyber-support for you. I wish that you may make the most positive decisions possible and that the results may be better than you hope. So there.
You remind me that I was eager to read Suite Francaise when I found it at a library sale, but I haven't done it. If you gave it 5 stars, it deserves my attention very soon. (SMB;SLT) (SO MANY BOOKS; SO LITTLE TIME) I've just decided that that is an acronym that I will spread all over this friendly place!

Nathalie, it's always nice hearing from you, however brief your visit. And I echo Peggy's good wishes as far as decisions go. I've been putting off making decisions for the past four years, so I should talk! LOL

I've seen The Gallery of Regrettable Food on a couple of threads now and WISH they had it at the library, but no (checks again, just in case they got it—but no). One of my favourite things about old magazines from the period the book covers is looking at the ads, which are always a hoot, and the foodstuff is always particularly unappealing. Not to mention the cigarette ads, with famous stars and even doctors saying how great they are for you!

Haven't read Destins de Chiens yet, so can't spoil anything about it at this point I'm afraid.

I've had The Sound and the Fury for a while now, along with Light in August, but have heard that Faulkner is difficult from so many sources now that I'm considering getting the audiobook for it. I've found that audios often are really great for classics (when they're quality productions, goes without saying).

It looks like we'll be having Nobel prize October, so I might just tackle Faulkner then, and then lord knows I've got plenty of other Nobel options sitting right here on my shelves... hope you can join us then, but if not, no pressure of course.

#230 Peggy, I love SMB;SLT. Will start using it on my thread to help you spread it—a good acronym should be shared with the masses!

Sorry to hear about your stressful business situation, Nathalie. Just know that you have a lot of friends worldwide who are pulling for you.

#230: thank you for the cyber-support, Peggy! I'll try and post something about SF today on my new thread, it really touched me.

#231: My mother and grandmother have some nice old German cookbooks and the pictures there are very similar (less Jell-O, more flans).
I like the 'trashy' element especially about the recipes from the 60s and 70s when Germans started eating 'exotic' food (spaghetti bolognese, but without those strange Italian spices or toast 'Hawaii' with tinned pineapple). And the decorations!

#232: thank you Stasia!

There's no way I'll ever get those 10 missing reviews posted on this thread, so I opened a new one here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/121752