Deern’s (Nathalie’s) thread 2025

Hello and welcome to my 2025 thread, I wish you all a Happy New Reading Year.

I’ll try to get reacquainted with all the technical stuff during the next days and hope I’ll soon be able to post lists, links and pictures again.
I’ll block the next couple of posts for those.

I’m still coming to terms with the reasons for my sudden disappearance in I believe it was 2020 during the first lockdown in Italy. Only recently I came to understand some of the true underlying motives, and they weren’t pretty or grown up at all. I’ve been missing LT and my friends here a lot during the years since and yet was completely unable to write, and I am very sorry for that.

To my reading: what started before 2020 has continued: I quite lost my keenness to delve into “real” literature, to participate in readathons, to read long or short lists for book prizes, to catch up with the classics. I’m most probably still somehow getting to 75 or so books a year, but one part are comfort (re-) reads, the other part non-fiction, most of it from the self-help corner, though not the trivial stuff - there were some really long and difficult books. As my eyes are ageing, I’m more and more listening to audio books, still mainly in English. I won’t write long reviews (as I once did) for all those, but I’ll list them.

I probably won’t be able to follow the fast moving threads of my friends through all details and there will be days and maybe weeks when I’m not posting, but I’ll do my best to keep up my thread through the year and hopefully into 2026.

Books read in 2025:

1. Nemesis by Agatha Christie, audiobook, 3.5 stars
2. A Caribbean Mystery by Agatha Christie, audiobook, 3.5 stars
3. The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie, audiobook, 4 stars
4. A Murder is announced by Agatha Christie, audiobook, 3.5 stars
5. The Labours of Hercules by Agatha Christie, audiobook, 3 stars
6. Poirot investigates by Agatha Christie, audiobook, 3 stars
7. Zarter Schmelz: Eine Lucky Luke Hommage by Ralf König, graphic novel on Kindle, 4.5 stars
8. Murder in the mews by Agatha Christie, audiobook, 3.5 stars
9. Elftausend Jungfrauen by Ralf König, graphic novel on Kindle, 4.5 stars
10.Stehaufmännchen by Ralf König, graphic novel on Kindle, 4 stars
11. Poirot’s Early Cases by Agatha Christie, audio book, 3.5 stars
12. Evil under the Sun by Agatha Christie, audiobook, 4.5 stars
13. Agatha Christie’s Poirot: the greatest detective in the world by Mark Aldridge, Kindle, 3.5 stars
14. The Underdog and other stories by Agatha Christie, audiobook, 3 stars
15. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie, audiobook, 5 stars
16. Have Pride! by Stella Caldwell, hardcover in German, 4.5 stars
17. Sieg der Blödigkeit by Oliver Kalkofe, hardcover in German, 4.5 stars
18. Die Tagesordnung / The Order of the Day by Eric Vouillard, Kindle and theater reading in German, 4.5 stars
19. Nexus by Yuval Harari, audiobook in German, 5 stars
20. The Women in Black by Madeleine St. John, Kindle, 3.5 stars
21. Lucky Luke 102: Letzte Runde für die Daltons by Achde, Kindle, 3 stars
22. Tu was! by Ruprecht Polenz, German paperback, 4 stars
23. Gebt mir etwas Zeit by Hape Kerkeling, German audiobook, 4 stars
24. Ich bin dann mal weg by Hape Kerkeling, German audiobook, 5 stars
25. Breaking Up With Sugar by Molly Carmel, audiobook, 3 stars
26. Courage is calling by Ryan Holiday, audiobook, 4 stars
27. The Women‘s Orchestra of Auschwitz by Anne Sebba, Kindle, 5 stars
28. Ich bin da nochmal hin by Anne Butterfield, German Kindle, 4.3 stars
29. Doppelganger: a trip into the mirror world by Naomi Klein, audiobook, 5 stars
30. Die Wut, die bleibt by Mareike Fallwickl, German library book, 4.25 stars
31. Liebe Jorinde by Mareike Fallwickl, German audiobook, 4.5 stars
32. No Prblem by Veit Linday, German paperback, 3.5 stars
33. Enemy Feminisms by Sophie Lewis, audiobook, 4 stars
34. Exit Racism by Tupoka Ogette, German audiobook, 4.5 stars
35. Bellies by Nicola Dinan, Kindle, 4.25 stars
36. Chiamami col tuo nome by Andre Aciman, audiobook, 4 stars
37. Pfoten vom Tisch by Hape Kerkeling, German audio, 4 stars
38. Camere separate by Vittorio Tondelli, Italian audiobook and Kindle, 4.75 stars
39. Stutenkerle by Ralf Koenig, German comicbook, 4 stars
40. Lysistrate by Ralf Koenig, German GN, 4.5 stars
41. Suck my Duck by Ralf Koenig, German comicbook, 4 stars

Currently reading:

- Die Verlockung des Autoritären/ Twilight of Democracy by Anne Applebaum, German paperback
- Integrale Lebenspraxis by Ken Wilber (eternal reread), paperback
- The Glucose Goddess Method by Jessie Inchauspe, German paperback
- Freiheitsschock by Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk, German hardcover
- Cercami by Andre Aciman, Italian audiobook

Some life updates since 2019/2020, trying to keep it short

Okay, still living in Merano, Italy, in the house I moved into 2016.

Single again since late 2021, but now really in peace with it. We started out great (I posted about it on my last thread in 2020), but already after the first lockdown it became clear we’d moved to different worlds. He couldn’t work during that time, became anxious and fell into the rabbit hole and never since left it. We stayed together through the pandemic, but grew further and further apart. We’re still meeting occasionally for an aperitivo or a pizza, but that’s it.

Still a vegetarian with vegan phases, still what I call now a “shape shifter”, gaining/ losing 2 stone, but trying to be less neurotic about it.

After a bout of flu in late 2022, I suffered from severe hair loss, so I had it cut short and stopped dyeing it. After about 6 months there wasn’t a brown hair left. It was quite a change and I think my parents are still in shock, but I feel quite liberated with my short “salt and pepper” hair as they call it here.

I’m still working at the dairy, no longer doing IT but mainly controlling. Much has changed there. Both the people with the rage issues left, we have an all new management and for once I’m even sometimes on a Sunday looking forward to my work week. My new manager found out that in 2022/2023 I had accumulated so many extra hours that now I got Friday off for many months which gives me time for the next point.

Started an online training as life coach a year ago which will end in late May this year. Not to coach others, but to finally get a better grasp on my own life. So far I can say it was one of the best decisions in my life, it also gave me the courage to come back to LT.

Update on parents in post >23 Deern:

Oh my goodness!!!!

What a wonderful surprise Nathalie.

Happy new year and I am so happy you came back to the group.

Welcome back Natalie. It is wonderful to see your post. There are many things I like about this group, one of them is that no one keeps track of the number of books a member reads. We are simply happy to have members participate, and now, including you! I remember you and posting on your thread, and it is great to have you back with us.

Another thing I like about this group is the fluidity of being a part of the group or not, when life circumstances allow.

I look forward to seeing what you read, and continuing to welcome you back.

It is wonderful to see you back, Nathalie!

Welcome back, Nathalie.

So nice to see you back Nathalie!

Thank you for the visits and welcoming words, Paul, Linda, Stasia, Laura and Ella!

I just saw on Paul’s thread a mention of Anita and that she passed away last year and looked up her last 2024 thread and the one where Frank had posted. I am very saddened by this. Anita was one of the two LT friends I ever met in RL, she and Frank visited me in Merano a couple of years ago. We spent two lovely days together, sightseeing, walking, talking non-stop, sharing delicious meals and laughing a lot. She was the one who took my still active profile picture, of me reading, at a mountain inn where we had lunch. Thinking of her and Frank today with love.

>10 Deern: Yes, I miss her a lot too, especially at this time of year when she was always so welcoming to everybody. The suddenness of her passing was a great shock as well.

Found you and dropped a 🌟.
I am very happy that you have reappeared. I also enjoy listening to audiobooks.
I can't wait to hear what you're going to read. 😘💖

Welcome back, Nathalie!

Nathalie! It is so good to see you posting once again. 2020 was Annus horribilis for me too. It took me awhile to get back into reading and posting again. It is a healing process.
Post when you can, I'll be looking for you!

Welcome back, Nathalie! It's so great to see you here and again. I was not here last year and sporadic for several years before that because life got crazy. This group is so great with meeting you where you are at. Looking forward to seeing you here whenever you stop in.

Welcome back, Nathalie!!!!! We've missed you and couldn't be happier that you are back among us. Come as you please. Stay away as you please. Read what you want and say what you want about it.

We miss Anita. We're delighted not to be forced to miss you!

I'm glad to see you back, Nathalie!

So happy to see you back in the group and Happy Birthday. I'm fairly sure we shared a common day for our birthdays back at the start of the month.

Welcome back! May you have a wonderful 2025

>11 PaulCranswick: So many fond memories… Also of Frank calling Merano “too pretty, a bit like Disneyland”. I’m often reminded of that, he was quite right

>12 Ameise1: Hi Barbara, in the end your message reminded me that I was ready (I hope so) to come back, thank you again :)

>13 drneutron: Thank you Jim, it feels good to be back

>14 Carmenere: Hi Lynda, how lovely to see you. Just starred your thread

>15 Crazymamie: Hi Mamie, thank you, I’ll be visiting your thread soon

>16 LizzieD: ((((Peggy)))) thank you!

>17 vancouverdeb: Thank you Deborah :)

>18 avatiakh: Thank you Kerry and belated Happy Birthday to you as well! :))

I’m having an all-day online class today (lunch break right now). I’ll check on all your threads tomorrow and might list all those Marple and Poirot comfort re-listens I did in the last days. Happy Saturday :)

Updated my reading list - and relearned to refer to posts and books, yay!

It has become a habit in the last couple of years to listen to as many Agatha Christie books as possible through the holidays. This season it started (in December 2024) with The Mirror crack’d from side to side which was followed by 3 audiobooks of all Miss Marple short stories. I always preferred Poirot, but this was a Miss Marple season, as I’d forgotten most plots and culprits. I also got a Kindle edition of the short stories in German and read some to my Mum. She doesn’t read much, but loves being read to. Sadly, she sees real audiobooks as a waste of time. My dad enjoyed them for a while, but then he says she always interrupted him, asking if he hadn’t anything better to do. They still have the same dynamics, those 2.. :D
The last one in 2024 was At Bertram’s Hotel.

No reviews for books 1-5 2025 above, you know them all anyway. They aren’t high literature, but most beloved comfort reads I can listen to all day long. I notice that as a narrator I prefer Hugh Fraser over David Suchet.

Agatha Christie always works, whether reading or listening.
Am I remembering correctly that your parents now also live in Merano?
Enjoy your well-deserved Sunday after a long day of further education yesterday.

>22 Ameise1: Hi Barbara, well here’s the long update on my parents… the most important information:they are alive and well considering their age (both 79), though my mum would disagree re. health.

I just had to consult some old photos to get the years right. My parents sold their house in 2017 and moved to Bavaria, 3 hours from Merano. My mother wasn’t happy there, and I think it was in 2019 they considered moving to Merano. They’d found the perfect place, were accepted as renters and came to sign the contract, and backed off in the last moment, because my mother again had concerns… I spent Christmas 2019 with them in Bavaria, at that point the owner of their house had put it up for sale. The people buying it wanted to move in, so in spring 2020 my parents were now forced to look for a new place. During the Covid lockdowns we realized that only 3 hrs distance don’t help when borders are closed, and so they moved back to the region they came from and where they still had friends and all relatives, to Limburg an der Lahn.
They still live there, but have again been looking for a new place for almost 2 years, because - again - my mum hates it. I quite like it, but the appartment is way too big and too expensive.
They have been looking everywhere, but they tend to go North this time. And you won’t believe it: they fell in love with a place in autumn 2024, drove up, signed the contract - and then realized there’s basically no infrastructure around except for a supermarket. I had told them to check all that well in advance, but… They were very lucky the landlord annulled the contract and they hadn’t given notice yet for the place in Limburg.
They are now determined to find a place in 2025, preferably a “Seniorenresidenz”, but somewhere North, either Ostfriesland or near Cuxhaven. That means for me that even by plane it will be very difficult to get there in one day… Merano is no option anymore. If anything happened to me first, they’d be “abandoned” in Italy where everything is so much more complicated, and prices here are so crazy, they wouldn’t even find anything. My mum’s list of requirements is excessive (2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, modern building, extra room for washing machine - impossible to find in Italy, we all have it in the bathroom or kitchen -, if possible no kids in the house, no penthouse, no ground floor, no street noise, the list goes ooooon, and all that for max 1100 a month).

I’ve learned (I hope) not to get as emotionally invested anymore in their eternal search for happiness in a new place. Their dynamics are as toxic as ever, but this last Christmas I managed to stay out of it and have a good time with them.

Hooray for Agatha Christie! She is one I also return to again and again. Birdy and I love listening to them on audio, and have been making our way through the Poirot ones. I read most of these in my teens and it is very fun revisiting them with her.

Sorry about the toxic dynamics with your parents, Nathalie. I am hoping that they can find a place where they can both be happy this year. Trying not to be emotionally invested sounds like a very good plan - wishing you the best of luck with that.

Add me to the list of people who are happy to have you back in the fold, Nathalie. I get sad when people "disappear" but I do understand that everyone has other things going on in their lives.

It was interesting to read about your parents. My goal as an older person (77) is not to cause any of my three children grief. My daughter is the one who worries about us in this big house and who is constantly urging us to either move or hire help. I keep telling her living on three levels is what keeps me active and healthy. I don't have to pay a gym membership to stay healthy!

All I can say, Nathalie, is that I'm glad that you've found a way to enjoy being with your parents without feeling responsible for their relationship or decisions. I certainly wish them well in their house hunt.

I haven't reread dear Agatha C. in years, nut I could. I love the way I forget the intricacies of the plot as soon as I put a book back on the shelf. I went from Nancy Drew straight to Murder on the Links and never looked back. I do remember being so pleased with myself for finally figuring out that "links" meant "golf course," although I had no idea at the time where the term came from. Those were the days!

A little update: Last weekend I had an online class and this week a 3 day workshop at the office, so not much free time for anything. Today I‘m home, will later work from here for a couple of hours, but first drive to a local furniture store to order a new couch. Nothing’s planned for the weekend, so I should have time to browse LT a bit and visit threads.

Continuing my Agatha Christie phase well into January, this morning I finished listening to Murder in the mews. The short stories go down particularly well right now as I‘m mainly reading in short bits during lunchbreak walk and in the eraly morning and in the evening to fall asleep. Much easier to follow than the long cases. Just downloaded Poirot‘s early cases and The Under Dog and other stories. After that I feel I might enter a phase of rereading all my Ralf König comic books, I do this about once every two years. In the background a couple of books for the classes are queuing, those will be slow reads.

>24 Crazymamie: Hi Mamie, I belive it was on your thread where I found a book all about Poirot. Reading and loving it. I‘m wondering if I‘ll stop for this year once I‘m through the short stories or if I‘ll continue with the long cases I don’t remember well…

>25 Donna828: Hello and welcome Donna, I‘ll visit and star your thread later
Great that your stairs are your gym! :D
My mother had knee surgery a couple of years ago which „went wrong“. Doing the „“ because we all, except for the dorctors, knew it would. The knee became stiff and unfortunately she can’t do stairs anymore alone. And she‘s anorexic (which she doesn’t ever admit but is obvious), catches every cold virus and then always suffers from bronchitis for months. She‘s also so dependent on others for everything, can’t even fill in a bank transfer on paper, let alone online. I‘m glad my parents finally started looking for a residence where she can get all the help, should anything happen to my father.

>26 LizzieD: Hi Peggy :)
I‘ve reread most of the longer Poirot stories so often that I usually remember the murderer, but it’s been a while since I read the Marples and the Poirot short stories, so there were some surprises. Sky Italy has the Marple TV series, I think the ItV one. I rewatched some episodes along with reading the books and got quite irritated when already in the first one, The Body in the library, they‘d switched one of the murderers.

Lovely to read your updates and I have to say that your mother sounds like quite a character. I have my apartment in the very centre of Kuala Lumpur and I have to say that I love it to bit. Four room plus a maid's room (we use it as a store), four bathrooms + 2 powder rooms (typical for Malaysia) a dry and a "wet" kitchen and generous living room space. Most importantly I have room for my books!

Have a great weekend.

>28 PaulCranswick: yes I remember you’re living in that great place with so much book space and all those wonderful hauls… sigh.. :)
I ordered the small couch yesterday which will allow me (once the old one has been sold) to add just one more Billy shelf to the living room, so the existing books which are now triple stacked can get some breathing space and I have a chance to find them..

Finished books 7 and 8. 8 was Murder in the mews as audio, read by David Suchet and Hugh Fraser. Rated it with 3.5 stars. This is a good rating in my world for the short stories which are nice side-listens, but not exciting. I rated most of the longer novels higher, some if I remember correctly with 5 stars.

Now #7 was a bit of a special one. Zarter Schmelz: eine Lucky Luke Hommage by Ralf Koenig. It’s also been published in English, but met with mixed reviews here, and I wouldn’t recommend starting with this one.
I basically love all his comics that are based on RL and am divided about the takes on epic drama, history or religion, they often are too over-the-top for me. I avoided this one for two years and now finally read and loved it (4.5 stars). I think I only ever read 1 or 2 real Lucky Luke comic books, so the homage stuff is no issue for me. It might be with Asterix.
RK made “gaycomix” popular in the German speaking countries. The first books were crudely drawn and the handwriting was difficult to read, they often were extremely explicit.The newer ones are much tamer (sometimes sadly so, but he often publishes on FB first), often in color and more inclusive. Here he has Lucky Luke helping two cowboys finding true love, and of course the Daltons make an appearance as well. Lucky himself is not involved in any trysts, he’s just nice and there are some closeups on his beautiful neck. No explicit scenes in this book. Lots of inside jokes referring to German/Swiss/ Austrian culture and word play with the names. People here criticize the depiction of the 2 natives, but his style is just as blunt when he draws typical German families. I still prefer the “Konrad und Paul” saga, and might reread all their adventures soon.

>23 Deern: Oh dear, it's difficult to find a flat with all these requirements. Your description was like déjà vue, I immediately remembered what you wrote earlier. It's good that you can distance yourself, it helps your personal morale.

>29 Deern: Congratulations on your new sofa purchase. I love reading on my sofa, so it's an important piece of furniture for me.

>30 Deern: Oh wow, you've already read eight books. Bravo. I'm on my 4/5 (physical/audio). I haven't got round to reading much since I went back to work.

Happy weekend 😃

I'm glad you've found a way to distance yourself from your mom's issues, Nathalie. I wasn't able to do so with my mom, unfortunately, and in hindsight wish I could have seen that possibility. Good luck to you!

Welcome back, Nathalie. Remember some good conversations about old classics with you some years ago. I have been reading through Lord Peter Wimsey series the last two-three years - a slow project - but have been thinking of turning also to Agatha Christie. Hope you'll have a wonderful year with reading, working, studying.

>23 Deern: That list of your mum's requirements is...telling. I'd hate to be an estate agent trying to accommodate all that!

Happy indeed to see you around and about, Nathalie. It feels more like home to see your handle popping up.

Nathalie, lovely to see you posting again!

>31 Ameise1: Hi Barbara
I‘m a bit chaotic with my furniture. I had an extendable day bed in the living room which I used as a sofa and in the first years slept on, because I liked that room better and the bedroom is facing north and therefore quite cold in winter. It takes up too much space now, so I finally bought a smaller one which is still okay for one guest or for the occasional lazy night when I want to fall asleep watching TV (no TV in the bedroom). And I need more space for my poor books :)

It‘s now almost 11 books, but all short and easy ones. For the Ralf Königs I‘ll only count the ones I haven’t previously read. I just shoved some more into my amazon basket and yesterday and this morning read two that were available on Kindle.

>32 lauralkeet: It‘s really difficult, she always finds new ways to get under my skin. This was the first holiday we didn’t get into a major argument, but next time she’ll be prepared to try new places for the needle.. :D

>33 ctpress: Hello Carsten, how lovely to see you here! :)
Unfortunately I fell off the classics even before 2020 and got more into non fiction, biographies and easier novels, but I might try again with audiobooks.

>34 richardderus: Well, she basically rejects most of the objects my dad finds online, so they haven’t been in contact with many estate agents. But I guess the ones they talked to gave up quickly.. I was also surprisingly easy for them to get out of the already signed rental contract last year, without any fees. Both owner and agent knew they’d just avoided lots of complications.

Thank you, I’m happy to be back :D

>35 SandDune: Thank you Rhian and welcome to my thread :)

Hm… I started rereading some old Ralf Koenigs and also finished two new-to-me ones. Don’t know what to do about the reviews, so here are some warnings:

They were both very explicit in language, much more explicit in pictures than the Lucky Luke one but tamer than the very early ones, both certainly non-pc and one was highly blasphemic, but almost made me fall off my chair, I was laughing so hard. Adding that he is blasphemic in all directions (just ordering his Dschinn books), he has suffered much from his catholic upbringing and was an early activist for gay rights in Germany. I doubt the two books I just finished have been translated anyway.

9. Elftausend Jungfrauen by Ralf Koenig, Kindle, 4,5 stars
An alternative story about Cologne’s Saint Ursula (Koenig lives in Cologne). The town did an exhibition of Koenig’s artwork including scenes of this book, so I guess they weren’t too offended. This one is digitalized badly and I’m considering buying the paper book, as I had real difficulties reading the handwriting as it was impossible to enlarge the pictures. It also contains longer passages of text in Cologne dialect, hard to understand.

10. Stehaufmännchen by Ralf Koenig, Kindle, 4 stars
A very short summary of the development of homo sapiens from australopitecus something and „where we took the wrong way“, a bit gay and very un-pc, and also a bit true.

Getting out of a very busy, book- and LT-free week.
Since the management change in our company there are several new demanding projects, but I mostly enjoy them. I also have a new coworker in my team and there’s so much to teach and explain.. This week we had a 2-day workshop with consultants from Austria for a strategy project. I had expected to find it very boring and it turned out to be quite entertaining. There will be another WS on Feb 3/4, this time off-site, and I’m much looking forward to it. So yes, work has improved so much!

I finished listening to Poirot’s Early Cases, I’d quite forgotten some of them. Some nice memories. I’d now really like to rewatch the David Suchet series which I found particularly strong with the short stories.

Great to hear you're enjoying work, albeit busy, busy.

I like David Suchet the best as Poirot. Somehow he's the benchmark when I look at other portrayals.

>41 Deern: What a joy to hear that your work is satisfying! That WSs are entertaining is something of a miracle.

Add me to the D. Suchet lovers for his Poirot.

Enjoy your weekend, (((((Nathalie)))))!

>41 Deern: Checking in on you again, Nathalie. I am glad to hear that your management change has worked out for you!

I love the David Suchet Poirot series. I am not sure I have watched every episode, but I am pretty close if I have not.

>1 Deern: Your journey sounds a little like mine in that I’m also returning after a long absence. And I’ve decided that I need to return to reading for fun again too. No readathons, challenges, 'classics', etc. I’ll be interested to see what you’re up to.

>42 ctpress:, >43 LizzieD:, >44 alcottacre: Good morning and happy Sunday, Carsten, Peggy and Stasia :) Yes, Suchet was the best Poirot for me overall and I loved the side characters just as well, especially Japp. And Hugh Fraser/ Hastings is such a wonderful narrator of the audiobooks, he gets both Poirot’s and Japp’s voices really well. The Ustinov movies are broadcast in Germany every Christmas and I enjoy them as well, and also that first “Orient Express” movie. I recently watched the three new ones with Kenneth Branagh and can accept them as crime movies loosely inspired by Poirot books, not so much as adaptations. The egg-symmetry thing is ridiculous and I don’t like the tragic romantic backstory.

Yes, work has changed so much for the better in comparison to the situation in 2020 and earler. I posted an overall update on my life situation in >4 Deern:. Sometimes a management change can really turn things around for the better.

>45 scvlad: Hi Steve, wow you were away even longer than me! Welcome back! I loved all those challenges so much once, I have to accept my head is in a different place now and I can’t do them anymore. Maybe again in a couple of years..

Hi Nathalie! I’ve just started listening to Agatha Christie audiobooks. Looking for something on YouTube. They are very relaxing to listen to. Excellent for sleepless nights!
Oh, needling moms. My mom used to do that as well. She died two years ago. I don’t miss how angry and upset she could make me feel, but I do miss her. Kudos for deciding to not let her get under your skin.

Hello, Nathalie! I read most of Agatha Christie's books back in my teens - Poirot was always my favorite sleuth. A few years ago, Birdy and I started listening to the books together, and that has been great fun. We are making our way through the Poirots and then we will branch out - they are all new to her. I agree with you about Hugh Fraser's narration. We also love David Suchet as a narrator, and it's fun that he has narrated several of the books. I love those Ustinov movies because that was my first experience with Poirot on screen, so they still remain my favorite even though I also love David Suchet in the part. I do not care for the ones Kenneth Branagh has done, and think loosely inspired is exactly the right way to describe them.

I am so glad that work has changed for the better for you. Management can make or break a workplace atmosphere.

Hoping that Sunday is kind to you.

Hope your Sunday has gone well, Nathalie!
This coming Friday, I have tickets to a local theatre where A Murder on the Orient Express will be performed. I read it years ago, but for someone like me who can't remember what I wore yesterday, it will all be new to me. :0)

Yay, Christie talk!

>47 EllaTim: that’s just it! when I wake up in the middle of the night and get worried about anything, I switch them on and am asleep again within minutes.
When I moved to Merano in 2009, pre-audible, I brought all then existing Suchet DVDs with me, put one in my laptop every night (remember when those had slots for discs?) and woke up 7 hrs later.

I am very sorry for your loss. I have no doubt I’ll miss mine terribly when that day comes. Had a dream about it recently and woke up in tears. She is a difficult character, but basically we made our peace and are now both able to say that we love each other.

>48 Crazymamie: How lovely for Birdy to experience them for the first time as audios and with you! My first one was “The red kimono” (Orient Express), a very damaged paperback my school library gave away. Never heard of Christie before, and I remember when I put it down I saw the world with different eyes, and was also completely spoiled for more conventional detectives. Sadly, with such an exceptional starter book, some of the later countryhouse Poirots were a bit of a disappointment and I enjoyed the psychological details only on second read. Of the Branaghs maybe I could accept the last one most, as it is a completely different mystery story with a character called Poirot and way too much rain. The romance background in Death on the Nile and all the CGI stuff annoyed me a lot, Orient Express at least had some great characters. Will there be more?

>49 Carmenere: Oh how lovely! Just read about a stage adaptation in the Aldridge book, I hope you’ll enjoy it!

******

So I moved on from the Marples via the Poirot short stories to my favorite long novels. Yes, escapism plays a role. If instead I watched the news last thing in the evening I’d never get to sleep these days. So it’s news reading earlier in the day and Agatha Christie in the evenings, mixed with The Sopranos I’m watching for the first time. I tried several times before, now I got through the first series. Doubting though I’ll make it to the end (watched the famous last episode years ago because I enjoy spoilers).
It is a great show with fantastic actors, but I can’t enjoy contemporary mob stories. Maybe it’s too close to home.

Writing about being late to TV shows, many years after you all discussed it here I finally watched all of Downton Abbey last year and absolutely loved it. Okay, most of it. Liked both Thomas and Mary, was mostly annoyed with Edith and of course loved Lady Violet.

Back to books: Listened to Evil under the Sun, an old favorite where I still vividly remember my first read. Narrated by David Suchet, I didn’t find a Hugh Fraser version. Suchet’s general narration is equally great, but in dialogues with Poirot and another character, he reads faster than Fraser and often doesn’t switch off the accent quickly enough, so sometimes I wonder who’s talking right now. Fraser reads dialogue slower and takes small pauses between voices to adjust - or so it seems to me. Now I switched to Murder on the Orient Express, again narrated by Suchet. At least I already owned this one, I spent quite a bit of money on audible in the last weeks.

Also finished Agatha Christie’s Poirot: the greatest detective in the world by Mark Aldridge, rated with 3.5 stars. Complete until 2020, but a bit lifeless. It made me consider for the first time to try the follow-ups. Did anyone of you read them, and if so, what do you think?

Yesterday I went to the mall to meet a friend for lunch, and as I was early, I stepped into the bookshop. Emerged 10 minutes later with 5 books, having spent over 100 Euro, as they‘re all hardbacks. Now I really feel I‘m back on LT! Didn’t I have a TA anyway? Do the years of absence count?

All books are non-fiction, all political and important. Started reading right away with the easiest one Sieg der Blödigkeit. It exists in German only. I always liked Oliver Kalkofe, though his writing is so over-the-top he‘s easier to read in column length. He‘s blunt and drastic and not eager to please. Usually his texts make me laugh, but here his themes are too serious. Read the chapter on how newspaper articles have shrunk during the last 20 or so years and people have lost the ability to process complex texts. I noticed this with myself, I‘m getting impatient with long articles and often scroll down to the forums directly. I’ll try to get better again with that. At least I still read books.

Edit: just checked, TA was on Monday 27th, and #17 already! This means I can still buy 12+1 books, if I remember correctly? :D

Well, if all the books are important, Nathalie, you had to buy them! What is a TA if I may ask ? Enjoy the books.

>51 Deern: It's nice if you can bridge the wait by buying good books. You mentioned one thing.
What are the others?
Happy weekend 😀

>52 vancouverdeb: TA is Thingaversary, I joined LT on Jan 27th, 2008. Not sure if I remember correctly, but for your TA you’re “officially allowed” to buy the number of books equal to your years on LT plus a bonus book. So while often a haul is accompanied by “oh dear, shouldn’t have bought so many” feelings, for the TA it’s a different thing. I used to buy “important” books for my TA, serious nonfiction or big classics.
Can’t belive it’s 17 years.. where’s that big-eyed emoji when you need it?

>53 Ameise1: I admit I felt a bit lazy. Added them all to my library, at least they’re all listed on LT already. With non-English books the touchstones are a bit tricky sometimes, and I’m currently posting only from the ipad. Here are the other 4:
- Die Verlockung des Autoritären by Anne Applebaum (Twilight of Democracy)
- Tu was! by Ruprecht Polenz about getting into activism
- Freiheitsschock by Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk (about the political situation in Eastern Germany)
- Have Pride by Stella Caldwell, same title in English, from the YA section

Hi Natalie. I read all posts on this thread, including ones regarding the toxicity of your mother and your attempts to remain distant.

Years ago, after a tough childhood with what I learned was a narcisstic woman, I had to move on with my own life after giving her so very much that went unappreciated. And, like your mother, mine found ways to get under my skin. The more I backed away, the more she became nasty and inflamatory.

After receiving a birthday card from her, which surprised me before I opened the envelope, only to find such evil ness and my realization that in sending a birthday card, she hooked me in again. Thankfully, that was the major break.

When my beloved grandmother (her mother who was so very unlike her,) died, and she tried to create trouble surrounding that occurrence. I was able to focus on the one who loved me throughout my life. My grandmother was my solid rock who loved me and my sisters so very much.

When my mother died eight years ago and I received a phone call telling me about her passing, I was free of her ability to send little trouble bombs my way.

I've learned that I can no longer waste my life remembering all the damage and wondering how such nastiness could flourish, I grew to know that even memories and thinking about them were still another way of self destructriveness. I've journaled a lot and that helped.

I have let go of a lot, go have a good life filled with friends I love.

I wish good things for you in your search to be free of her. It takes time to put toxic people behind. It sounds like you have made some tremendous progress, and I hope you can pat yourself on the back and be kind to yourself in your progressive endeavors.

Again, welcome back. As you can see from the posts, people are so very glad to have you back! Please count me as one of those who welcome you with open arms.

All good wishes! You are doing a tremendous job in reading Agatha Christie. As I type, I look on my book case to see ten books by this very voracious and wonderful author. Perhaps, I will start reading the books on my shelf i the next few months. You are quite a great influence!

Finished my relisten of Murder in the Orient Express, this will always be a 5star book for me. The Underdog and other stories however is a weak one. The other stories are okay and get it to 3 stars, but I just read them all in a different collection. The Underdog is a very early story published very late and I had difficulties finishing it. I think I’m done with the Christies for now, switching to my new books.

Started listening to Nexus: by Yuval Noah Harari, which is half-required reading for my coaching classes, but fits in perfectly with the activist books I’m planning for February. Also reading now Have Pride! which is short, so I might finish it today.

>54 Deern: I'm looking forward to hearing what you have to say about the books by Anne Applebaum and Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk. My library has copies of these books.

>55 Whisper1: Dear Linda, thank you so much for sharing this here and for welcoming me back, I am so moved by your words, I wish I could give you a RL hug!

It might sound strange after such a long absence, but it was here on LT that I learned there’s a different world out there, that communities can work and do good, despite of different backgrounds, faiths and political opinions. I’d learned always to expect the worst of people in a way, and maybe I also ran away from here because I feared the community might collapse, I’ve always been a coward. I missed you all very much, and I hope to be here now for a very long time, no matter what happens in the world.

******
Some family history in answer to >55 Whisper1:

Between 2012 and 2019 I went through years of therapy after a bout of anxiety attacs, I also posted about it. Can’t say it helped directly, but talking to someone without taboos on first a weekly, then monthly, basis, was a good thing. I once asked my therapist if I was a narcissist, and she said something like “most probably not, but you’ve grown up and lived your life in a narcissistic order”.

I’ve looked at my parents childhoods again and again, and I can just say they always did what to them seemed best. I doubt they had bad intentions, they simply repeated patterns, but the outcome wasn’t good for any of us. I am better now, but have to accept I can’t shove them towards happiness.

They were both traumatized by the aftermath of WWII and the Third Reich, as were millions and millions of others. Both originate from “simple” families of workers with small farms, one in what is now the Czech republic, one in the West. No academics, there never was any intellectual processing in both families of the events during those years, it wasn’t talked about.
Both grandfathers were normal soldiers, the one on my mother’s side not really willingly, the other one however an eager follower, he even voluntarily enlisted when he was still a minor and was sent to France. That second one never got over “the shame”. He died in the 1960s and I never met him, but he must have been a typical follower, very bitter in his later life, always envious of what others had, very hard with his children. They had to work after school before the age of 10 to help with the savings for building a house and he beat the younger ones regularly.
My mother’s father was left for dead in Russia early in the war, but he survived and the loss of an arm saved his life, they couldn’t send him back to the front. He was a loving grandfather, but my mother told me he had bouts of alcohol abuse when he was younger and didn’t go to church again, except for weddings and baptisms. He must have seen and maybe also done terrible things. He loved all his children and grandchildren very much, he died in the late 1980s.

The family narcissism comes from my father’s side, I guess my mother developed her own as a reaction to her surroundings. I had to accept that my beloved grandmother (who died last year one month short of her 100th birthday), was the narcissist in the family. She’d showered her oldest son - my dad, and consequently me - with what she thought was love as a kind of protest against her husband, and we only recently found out how she treated the younger siblings. Watching “The Sopranos” is painful for me not just for the violence and mafia theme, but because I see so much of my family dynamics, with a mother backing a patriarchal system by manipulating everyone.

My mother on the other hand was maybe the most unwanted child in the family, born 1945, just before the family had to flee West, leaving all belongings behind. She never got out of that feeling of lack/ shortage of everything, food, affection, a real home, so she married a guy who promised her the world, and now she’s still waiting for it, complaining loudly and criticizing his every step, never able to acknowledge the good life she’s been having the last 60 years. She’s now retreating into those childhood years, it’s sad to watch. My dad couldn’t fulfill his own overblown dreams and is now also disappointed in life. His narcissist streak got much milder after his cancer. They’re both quite depressed but would never seek treatment.

I am learning to distance myself from their manipulations, watching it like watching a movie and processing it by writing about it or drawing comics of particular absurd conversations. Often I can laugh about it all. I’ve done much work in the last years on the values I have in life and can accept they’re different from theirs. It’s a development others go through in their youth, but better late than never.. and I can still love and respect them through all that and will miss them terribly when they’re gone. Sometimes it’s a real challenge, especially when my mum tries a out new needle :) But then I have something new to write about.

>57 Ameise1: Both really hit me (or my eyes) when I looked at the shelf in the bookshop. They want to be read, and I’m especially curious about the one dealing with Ostdeutschland. I fear none of them will be hopeful :(

Finished book #16 Have Pride! by Stella Caldwell and rated it with 4-4.5 stars. The only other rating here on LT is 3 stars. I’m very much aware that this isn’t a comprehensive book, and maybe also far from the strongest in the YA section. It’s written in what I think is easy language, but that’s okay, it should be as accessible as possible. It’s full of colors and pictures and also has many pride testimonials from young people from different religious backgrounds. It’s an important book in such a conservative environment. I certainly learned a lot of historic facts, and I was most pleasantly surprised to find it here in Merano on the YA shelf in the local bookshop chain. I hope my purchase will make them reorder it.

Happy thingaversary! Happy book buying :)

>50 Deern: Thanks Nathalie.I find myself missing her almost daily. I’m glad that you basically have made your peace with your mother. So important.

Happy thingaversary!

Happy Thingaversary! As my 17th is in October, I feel, like you, I need to pace my book buying splurge. To date, I purchased 2 this year with 15+1 to go. Oye vey!
Have a wonderful week!

>60 Deern: That book is successful in what it does: introduce an un- or under-informed reader of basic facts about QUILTBAG life in a supportive, positive way. It isn't very *exciting* to me, but I'm delighted it exists. I hope your purchase will convince the bookshop to reorder it as well!

Sending transatlantic hugs.

Happy Thingaversary, Nathalie. xx

>61 figsfromthistle:, >62 EllaTim:, >63 Carmenere:, >65 PaulCranswick: Thank you all for the TA congratulations! :)
>64 richardderus: Sending hugs back from Italy. I‘ll probably leave the book in a book crossing place, someone might be really happy to find it.

This was a wild week at work, but in a good sense.The offsite was great, I met many interesting people from Germany and Austria, and we developed some ideas for the company together. Back in the office, Wednesday and Thursday I worked very long hours and my manager told me not to turn up today (he really wants me to get rid of all those extra hours I collected in the last 3 years).

Tomorrow I‘ll have a 10hr online module about AI, it’s the last weekend class, from then on it’s only weekly 1hr videos until the end of May.

I am listening to Nexus by Yuval Noah Harari, in German for a change for the technical expressions. It‘s sickening, one of the scariest books I ever read. This morning I checked the news, read about the latest activities of Musk, then started (eye-) reading Anne Applebaum‘s Die Verlockung des Autoritären/ Twilight of Democracy, one of the books from last week’s haul. 20 pages in, I just feel desperate, but I‘ll read on.

Happy Saturday, everyone! After a very busy week I‘ll be off to a vegan cooking class in an hour and will post and visit threads later today and tomorrow. I also finished 3 books, an important one, a super-important one and a cute one.

The cute one was #20 The Women in Black by Madeleine St. John, a BB from Peggy‘s thread. It was what I needed after the other two as a short relief from the permanent anxiety, a nostalgic look back to times when the future looked bright and worries were limited. My favorite character was Magda, who in a way was able to reach out to others and create new friendships.
3.5 stars

#18 Die Tagesordnung/ The Order of the Day by Eric Vuillard imo is a fantastic book (very short) that mixes historical facts with a theatrical and often ironic/ sarcastic style. It‘s about the „Machtübernahme“, the takeover of power of Austria by the Germans in 1938, how politicians just hoped for the best until it was too late and about the role big companies played (which just continued to exist after WWII and turned into global,players). It shows the tools and manipulations very well. We can watch them live now, while reading about the events in 1938.

This might be interesting for Barbara and other German speakers: the Austrian daily newspaper I subscribed to, Der Standard, initiated an event in the Volkstheater, where 16 actors read the book in front of an audience. In the article (under Kultur) there‘s an ad-free youtube link, and that‘s how I watch-read the book. I then also bought Kindle edition. Fantastic event, right during the coalition negotiations between OEVP and FPOE, which shortly after were abandoned - for now. If they do new elections, the result will most probably be even worse. But having just read about the meeting between Hitler and the then Austrian chancellor Schuschnigg you can’t help seeing parallels.
4.5 stars

#19 to follow later

Hi Nathalie. You’re reading a book I have on my TBR, Anne Applebaum’s book. Oh my, scary times, indeed.

Yes, to reading something lighter too.

>68 EllaTim: Yes, I must continue with that one today. I couldn’t deal with it while listening to Nexus by Yuval Noah Harari.

++++

Did the Valentine‘s Day Hunt last night, it was fun! I had forgotten about those. I needed some help, but found most of them on my own and with the others at least was heading in the right direction.

++++

So, #19 Nexus: A Brief History of information networks from the Stone Age to AI by Yuval Noah Harari
This was an audiobook of 19.5 hrs, in German, because it was also required reading for the coaching training and my „training buddies“ don’t read English. In English it might be a bit shorter.

One of the scariest, if not the scariest book I read in the last couple of years, because it left me without hope (I fear the Applebaum book will do the same). In the end, we haven’t changed much, if at all, despite all the education and information available, and this is the premise of the book. Will more information provide „better people“? I can say that I feel much better informed now, but what will I make of it?

It describes how information has been collected, archived and then used in different ways. Yes, we got smarter (did we?), but the inventions that helped us spreading information and knowledge were always also abused for oppression and control. There’s the example of the printing press which made books available for ‚normal people‘, but it was also used to spread the obscure theories of a completely fanatic inquisitor, theories so crazy even the church at first didn’t give them any attention - but the book caused an early mass hysteria (because for whatever reason people like/d to read and believe crazy s**t, and in a period of multiple crisis a scapegoat is always welcome) and lead to the era of the witch hunts, the murder of at least 40,000 innocent people in Germany only, children among them, in the most cruel and sadistic ways. Harari also writes at length about stalinism. Yes, we briefly talked about that back in history class, but the focus had always been on National Socialism, and in the 80s there was much sympathy with communism among the teaching staff, so the Great Purge was only mentioned and I‘d never heard about the „kulaks“ before. There were many more examples (also about the creation of the new testament, which texts to include/exclude with all the consequences), and it ends with the situation pre-TrumpII (I belive it was published in 2022) and an outlook on the possibilities AI will give a totalitarian state. Yay. :\
Rating: (sad) 5 stars

>68 EllaTim: & >69 Deern: Nathalie you have been reading some important but rather heavy books in the last days. Something a bit lighter on the menu as a palette cleanser perhaps upcoming?

I thought Sapiens one of the best non-fiction books I have ever read but his follow up depressed me and he seems to have gone yet further along that path. Isn't it sad that he is almost certainly right?

Have a great Sunday nonetheless. xx

Nathalie, you are a braver woman than I am. Of course, you're going to be around longer than I will too, so you have more invested. I also greatly appreciated Sapiens, but I haven't changed my mind about reading Nexus. We are way far down the road as things move faster and faster toward more and more tipping points.

So. I'm glad that Women in Black was a bright spot for you as it was for me. I hope that your cooking class has been both exciting and relaxing and that you get to use what you learn a lot!

>70 PaulCranswick:, >71 LizzieD: I couldn’t get to the Applebaum book yesterday, instead I turned to a German podcast by two -for lack of a better expression - political comedians. At least it gave me some laughs. Will continue with the other books today, maybe.

The cooking class was great. We made tartar out of rice wafers (I never liked the real thing, this was surprisingly good), a lasagne with a sunflower seed bolognese (good, but I prefer lentils) and a very delicious raspberry tiramisu.

++++
I did something stupid yesterday. I woke with a headache and the 1-2 morning coffees didn’t help. Yet, for whatever reason, I decided it was the day to finally dismantle the daybed to make room for the sofa which might arrive any day now.

So after carefully reading the manual for my new electric screwdriver, I went to work. It went very well, and when it was all done and I had carried all the heavy parts down under the roof in the courtyard, I was feeling a bit proud of myself (various friends months ago had offered me to send sons or husbands to help, but then when I mentioned I had finally bought the sofa, so the day bed must go now, hadn‘t said anything anymore). Yes, I could and should have asked directly, but with me and IKEA furniture, it’s always like „I can do this without help“.

Afterwards for about 1-2 hours my head did strange things. I had very strange thoughts, like being half asleep, and when I later remembered, I saw they made no sense at all. It was very weird. The headache didn’t subside and I went to bed early, sorry I didn’t post on threads as planned. I guess I should accept that either I have to get much fitter than I am right now, or I can’t do these things anymore on my own. Well, I never should have. I remember I once assembled a small IKEA wardrobe all alone, as usual ignoring the second person in the manual, and it was with sheer luck I got it into an upright position without damaging floor, walls and myself.
Back in 2015, I’d started on that daybed alone and confident as well, just with a normal screw driver, and at some point found myself exhausted and crying in the middle of the half-assembled thing, unable to continue because those darned parts were too heavy, and fortunately my landlord was there to help (they’re in Spain currently).

I slept well and my head is much better this morning, so off to work now.
Happy new week! :D

>72 Deern: I have those sorts of days occasionally too, Nathalie, don't worry about it too much!

>72 Deern: Sorry to read you pushed yourself too hard, but congratulations on taking apart the day bed!

>67 Deern: I've put the Eric Vuillard's book on my never ending library wish list.

I'm glad that your head is better and wish you may learn to accept help even when you don't feel that you need it. Letting people who care about you give you help is actually a gift you can give to them! *grin*

I'm glad work is going well, if very busy, Nathalie. Your vegan cooking class sounds great, though I eat meat and eggs etc. Stasia here in the 75's has been vegan for some 30 or more years, so I'll bet you two could exchange recipes. I am glad you are feeling better today.

Hi all, sorry for not visiting and posting! it’s that time of the year (mid-February to mid-March) when I have to work long hours, always staring at excel tables, and in the evenings stay away from books and screens and go to bed extremely early. It’s all about the inventory valuation and preparation of the balance, and every year a new software issue turns up. It’s not as boring as it sounds, actually it‘s interesting but stressful.

Started what I hope is only a cold yesterday, after bravely resisting the viruses my colleagues brought into the office all winter and even my mom’s yearly Christmas infection. So far it’s just a throatache and a running nose.

I didn’t read anything important, but kept listening to the podcast I mentioned earlier and to have something countable, I bought and read in Kindle the newest Lucky Luke comic book.

20. Lucky Luke 102: Letzte Runde für die Daltons by Achde.
It’s actually the only real LL I ever bought and the second one I read, but as it was about the German settlers, I hoped for some easy, stereotypical fun. It was okay, there was much beer, pretzels, lederhosen and sauerkraut, but the only thing that made me laugh was the manually operated traffic light which made all the horses and carriages stop. Oh, and interestingly, this official book had a naked LL, bare back with hairs and all, while the homage book by the gaycomix author I’d read earlier was completely tame.
Rating: 3 stars (okay, but the only other and very old one I read where LL travels to Canada to catch the Daltons was so much better)

>73 PaulCranswick: I only worried for a moment, because I’d never had that kind of reaction before. Pain yes, dizziness yes, but half hallucinations never. I hope this isn’t the future now I’m in my mid 50s?

>74 elorin: Yes, I was so proud of it, also for mastering that electric screwdriver all on my own. Sounds stupid, but I’m a bit scared of those electric tools.

>75 Ameise1: I hope you’ll like it, Barbara

>76 LizzieD: Thank you, you’re so right! :)

>77 vancouverdeb: Sadly, the restaurant is closing this week. It was quite a surprise - not that they’re closing, an exclusively gluten-free vegan restaurant might never work in a small place like Merano, and when the tourist season was over, they only had a handful of lunch guests every day - but that it happens so suddenly. They were permitted last week to terminate the contract prematurely. I went there on Thursday and Friday, and they’re selling ingredients and equipment. Got my pantry stacked with lentils, interesting flours, gluten-free pasta, etc.
Yes, I’ll contact Stasia for some recipes, that’s a great idea! :)

Hi Nathalie, that is sad, your favorite restaurant closing.

I started reading Autocracy Inc. based on your thread. Reading is slow, because I need a good dose of Agatha Christie in between. But this will definitely be a five star read for me. She is connecting so many things I vaguely knew about, making me see how this all works. The connection between greed/kleptocracy and moving to autocracy I had never seen before. Sigh.

Wishing you a nice Sunday!

Hi Nathalie! Hope your Sunday is going well.
Good for you! You got the daybed disassembled and out the door. Yet, I know the feeling of thinking that I could do exactly what I did 25 years ago. The mind and the body better get in sync before we do something really crazy.
Have a restful evening.

>80 EllaTim: I hate it when a restaurant I like (and I like a lot of them!) closes. One of my friends who owns and runs a brilliant Italian restaurant in Kuala Lumpur recently invited me to the 16th anniversary celebrations of the new location of the restaurant.

Hi all, sorry for neglecting my thread yet again for a whole week.

My excuses: I finally cought a cold after a healthy winter and worked from home for 3 days. So I worked with a small screen and my eyes were extremely tired. Feeling much better again.

And then I was immersed in the election news. Well, it hasn’t come to the worst yet, but the CDU has always been guided by lobbies and they aren’t exactly an empathetic party. I‘m looking for ways to become more active. Saw an article about how social media has been flooded with pro-AfD fake news videos, many clearly AI generated and created abroad. There are so many things to consider, also the social media platforms I‘ll keep using.

No reading at all this week, but it will get better again soon.

>80 EllaTim: I‘ll get to my edition once I‘m finally done with a short one on activism. I fear I‘m not making progress because I‘m dreading the truths in the Applebaum book so much.

>81 Carmenere: So true.. :\
Taking careful baby steps towards better health and fitness once again. After my first severe bout of „back issues“ last year I even neglected yoga because I fear that was the original trigger. I might return to doyouyoga and their fantastic classes. I think you brought me there many years ago? I used that app for years, but at some point they were taken over, the app changed, there were no new classes, etc. But I recently saw that the old basics are still part of the app and others I’ve tried over the years were much worse.

Obviously the times when without warmup you just do a couple of sun salutations at 4am in the morning are over as well.

>82 PaulCranswick: It was my go-to restaurant where I knew I wouldn’t have to make any compromises with the dishes, everything was available for take-away (still an exception here), the prices were okay, it was connected to a big parking space but also close enough to walk there from my house in half an hour. I often met my best friend there for our Friday lunch.

Merano doesn’t offer much when it comes to „modern“ or healthy food that’s not a salad (I better don‘t say much about Indian-Italian pizzerias with hundreds of dishes or the combined Chinese-Thai-Sushi restaurants where the noodles are called Asian spaghetti). It’s an okay place for pizza and some Italian food (mainly southern „northernized“ with cream and butter), and then there’s Tyrolean, which is lovely for tourists and new arrivals, but is based on meat, eggs, milk and bread dumplings.
Plannning a couple of city trips by train in 2025 and looking forward very much to some new food experiences.

>83 Deern: Hani and I are looking to do some traveling in Europe later in the year and it would be wonderful if the three of us could grab a coffee in a train station full of books somewhere on the continent!

>84 PaulCranswick: OMG, tell me in time when and where! :D
Don’t even consider Bolzano station, small, dirty, newspaper stand only, maybe 10 seats in the whole station, but I‘d happily travel to Verona (day trip) or somehwere else north (weekend trip?). Munich and Vienna and maybe Krakow are also on my soon-to-be-visited list. For the first time considering Rome, I read this morning about 2 Frida Kahlo shows (one with paintings, one with photos) running from March to the end of June.

I‘m sorry for having been away for 2 weeks, but now hopefully most of the year-end work is done and there‘ll be a bit more time to read and post. At least I finished a couple of audiobooks and given the political situation, I decided to resubscribe to the NYT yesterday and can from now on also discuss Wordle with Peggy and maybe others. Got a 2 day streak, yay!

As I like excel task lists, I started checking off various to-dos now in March. Not as strict as I once was, but „trying to“ and being happy for every box checked. There‘s „taking a 40 min walk during lunch break“, „doing some situps in the evening“, „avoid sugar“, „repeat some lesson from coaching class“ and most importantly „read at least one article in each subscribed newspaper“. Added one for „visited LT“ yesterday. There’s also „had at least one good laugh“.

„My“ newspapers now are Der Standard (Austrian, ad-free and the best German language forum, spending way too much time on their website), La Repubblica (Italian, terrible ads despite subscription, hate the website, but haven’t found an alterntive yet), The Guardian (UK, great, but long neglected) and now the NYT. As I don’t watch the news, this should really be doable. Considering adding a German one, but not der Spiegel (they aren’t what they used to be), and I cancelled die Zeit a while ago, as I never read it. Die Zeit is a weekly, I might buy the print edition when something special has happened. I‘d rather avoid it all, but those times are over.

Also did some research about activist groups in this region, following two now on FB and Bluesky.

Other stuff: did a lot of vegan cooking from the small recipe book I got at the cooking class. On TV am again fascinated with „The White Lotus“, maybe the only show in recent years I really followed, „enjoyed“ wouldn’t be the correct expression, I‘m dreading each new episode, but can’t stop watching. Got through and did enjoy series 1-3 of the Sopranos earlier this year, and then my interest abruptly stopped, quite sure I‘m done with it.
My cold has gone, but now with the pollen I annoy people with my constant coughing, hope it‘ll get better soon.

21. Tu was! by Ruprecht Polenz

This was a very short book about democracy and the need to defend it. It has 4 stars because the ideas in the second half were a bit thin and /or obvious, I had hoped for some addresses, websites, etc. The first part was 5 stars. The most important insight for me was that you‘ll never find the 100% perfect-for-you party or NGO, so you should please get started anyway with one you share your basic values with. I‘m now considering a membership with the German branch of the NGO „Omas gegen Rechts“ (grannies against the far-right/ fascists), I think they now take members under 60 as well and I‘m following a feminist group here in the region.
Rating: 4 stars

22. Gebt mir etwas Zeit by Hape Kerkeling, audiobook read by the author

Hape Kerkeling is a German entertainer who started his career very young in the early 1980s and since then has always been around, first with show and comedy formats and the odd movies, since the early 2000s also as a writer. His book about the camino de Santiago (which he walked in 2001) is I think still the most successful German nonfiction book after WWII and has been translated into many languages.
Some years ago, he published the first part of an autobiography, a very honest and touching story where for the first time he deals publicly with his mother’s suicide he witnessed as a very young child.
This one is the next step, he writes about his first career steps and his first big love, a relationship with a wonderful man who within 1,5 years died of AIDS in 1989. Writing openly about all this must have been a huge step for him. His sexuality has never been a secret among family and friends, but a public outing was out of the question at that time in Germany. He was outed later, against his will, by a gay director/writer/ activist, live on TV, among with some other celebrities. He since quite made his peace with it, and I can’t remember any serious repercussions to his career at that time, but I then didn’t follow it that closely.
The part of the book that deals with his own life was a 5 star listen. However he mixes those chapters with mostly fictional stories about his ancestors. During Corona he delved deeply into his genealogy, and the findings in his case are really incredibly fascinating. I quite loved those chapters as well, but would more happily have read two seperate books. It’s obvious however that he was only able to write the RL chapters by connecting them with those about his ancestors and were it not for this structure, we wouldn’t have any book at all. I Love Hape with a big „L“ (although I didn‘t love many of his shows), I wish him infinitely well and I hope he has found longlasting love (he is married) and peace in his life. And I am looking forward to the next book.
Rating: 4.5 stars

>85 Deern: I will certainly keep you updated, Nathalie, and specifically I am sure that we will find somewhere convenient for and interesting to the three of us (you, Hani and I).

>86 Deern: Book #22 reminds me of how unforgiving the world was, and is, to anyone who dares not to follow the herd.

*sigh*

Well, I'm glad he's found a way to have space for his authentic self. Glad to see you around a bit more often, Nathalie!

Hi Nathalie! I saw your post over on Peggy's thread and thought I'd stop by yours. Very impressed that you read in English, that you live in Italy and that the population speaks German there. It's the usual U.S. amazement that people speak more than one language, of course.

I've very much with you about mystery stories, the old ones, like Poirot and Miss Marple, and some of the new ones. They are my comfort and my brain candy. In between I read books for my book groups (monthly meetings, almost always fiction), and whatever else catches my eye. Stasia talked about Charles Van Doren's book The Joy of Reading and I fell into it head first.

Oh, and I'm impressed you do Wordle, as it is so English-language specific!

Nice to meet you.

Ooh a Frida Kahlo exhibition! Nathalie, if you go to Rome, I would love to see your photos. How wonderful. I hope you have plenty of interesting travels.

I got an alert this week that SNCF are offering discounts on tickets for travel over the summer, so tempting!

23. Ich bin dann mal weg by Hape Kerkeling audiobook read by the author

Published about 20 years ago, the book that dominated the bestselling lists in Germany for 2 years and was also an incredible success internationally. Also the book that probably caused part of the overtourism on the camino de Santiago, as it put Germans/ Europeans on their feet as Shirley MacLaine had done earlier, but now the internet and blogs existed, so numbers went up exponentially. I read the book shortly after its publication, even my parents read and liked it.

In 2001, Hape was stressed out from work to the point he thought he was having a heart attack. His gall bladder was removed and he needed some time away from it all. He’d grown up catholic but wasn’t really practising, however the camino seemed the right thing to do. We start right at the beginning of the camino he chose (the “French” one, 830km), in France, close to the Spanish border, on a cold, foggy and rainy day in June. The rucksack is way too heavy, Hape is overweight, untrained and feels lost. He’s picked up by a farmer driving his (carsick) sheep up the mountain and feels bad for cheating already on the first leg (to get the certificate, you “only” need to have covered the last 100 km on foot, proven by stamps you get at hostels and monasteries on the way) .

It gradually gets better from there. He decides early to stay away from the (at least then) very dirty hostels, sleeps in simple hotels and B&Bs and generally avoids the community. This is one of the main critical points for some readers. I would have done the same, everyone has a different reason to go on that pilgrimage, and experiencing the community is just one of them. And then he was a big celebrity at that point, and staying incognito for a while helped him concentrating on his spiritual journey. At no point is he sugarcoating his experience. He doesn’t enjoy the act of hiking at all: everything hurts, he’s annoyed by the dirt, smells, the often bland or outright bad food. The landscapes are often breathtakingly beautiful, but then there are many stages where the path goes parallel to roads with high traffic for hours, stages in desert-like dusty areas, stages so steep people are collapsing along the way.

He eventually makes friends (for life), exactly at the point when he has found his spiritual answers and feels free to enjoy human contact again. He hikes the last stages with a British woman (who later published her own book, available in German only) and a woman from New Zealand. He also meets some strange people on the way and is especially annoyed by what sounds like a typical German couple, but understands that his annoyance is caused by the fact he sees himself mirrored in them. There was much negative criticism about the way he describes many of his enconters with other pilgrims, but at this point: he is a comedian and it was not foreseeable that his little book, so different from his shows, would be such a success.

I know some people who did the camino. My ex partner did it several times from various directions, also starting with the Frances. With so incredibly many people, you’ll have those strange encounters, you wouldn’t have to invent them. And it’s those you’d be writing about, not the countless normal and friendly “buon camino” wishes you share.

A warning: if you love dogs, there are some hard-to-read chapters where dogs are treated very badly by their owners. Hape, being more of a cat person, is growing a spine during his journey in that respect, saves one, feeds others, but leaves one behind with his owners, where he admits he should have done more.

Rating: 5 stars. It was interesting how my perception of the spiritual part has changed. This time I really enjoyed the chapters with the German couple and the shadow theory.

>87 PaulCranswick: Yay, I‘m already looking forward to it. :)))

>88 richardderus: There’s so much I‘d like to say and can’t put it into words (in any language) right now. Completely sharing your feelings. For now, I can only send a (((((hug))))) and promise to get more active in RL.

Something completely different: I watched a (not great) movie on TV last night and in the mansion of the very rich guy there were some paintings. Thanks to you I recognized a Rothko. Okay, an obvious one. But I wouldn’t know him, had I not seen some on your threads

Dropping in to wish you a wonderful weekend!

>93 Deern: Well, well, well! That makes me feel like a million bucks, Nathalie! Thank you for saying so.

Funny about the Rothko, too.

>89 ffortsa: Hello and welcome, Judy. I also found and starred your thread, haven’t posted yet, still in the process (once again) of catching up.

I am German and moved to Alto Adige/South Tyrol in 2009. The region was Austrian before WWI and was then handed over to Italy. The Italian fascists tried to completely italianize it, but there was always resistance and in the 1970s the South Tyroleans finally reached a special autonomy status. Sadly even nowadays there’s division everywhere. Not a single bilingual school and not much private contact between the language groups outside of the towns. I never learned real Italian here, it’s a bit of a rough, Germanized version. Just trying to watch more Italian TV and read the news again snd rolling my „r“s as well as possible :)
My English has suffered much since my British friend moved away. Haven’t been speaking it for years and now have to look up the easiest words. Well, LT and more reading will help me getting better again. :)

I love classical whodunnit mysteries. I found a charming German podcast last week that celebrates old short radio mysteries from the 1950s and 1960s. Seems that familes used to assemble around the radio every week to listen to the newest case and then were given a couple of minutes to discuss and guess the murderer. That must have been fun :)

>90 charl08: Good to see you here, Charlotte (if I remember correctly?)
Couldn’t find your thread in the group, do you have one?

I‘ve been to some Italian cities over the years, but was never particularly interested in Rome, can’t say why. Too big/ too much? Well Frida might get me there this year! I‘ll ask some friends if they’re interested, and there’s a direct fast train from Bolzano. Really tempting..

>94 figsfromthistle: Thank you, the same to you :D

>97 Deern: Yes, you remember correctly! I'm over in the category challenge, but still lurking around here from time to time.

Nathalie, I love seeing you here and around - especially on my thread!

I thought you'd like to know that when you read Anniversaries years ago when you were here, I bought two American volumes. I was reluctant to start them because I know you said there were four. I didn't want to fall in love and then learn that the last two would never be available. Looking at Amazon again last night, I discovered that the dummy American publishers did the whole thing in two massive volumes, so I have it all. YAY! I hope to join Gesine next month. Thank you! The 60s were my decade, and I look forward to going back.

I wish you a happy weekend.

Stopping by to say hi, Nathalie. Election news and politics, mostly not good news no matter where you live. And yes, Charlotte has a thread in the Category Challenge Group - I think that is what it is called.

>99 charl08: Found you :)
Quite fascinated by the category challenge. My 2015 self would have jumped right in with lots of lists. My actual self remembers I failed maintaining a bookfree single thread in 2020. Slow approach for now :)

>100 LizzieD: I loved it, but it’s slow, stream of consciousness, and very very German postwar intellectual. I remember it was the first book I had to read with glasses, it was this large volume (or was it 2?) from the library with the tiniest print. I’d reread it if mount tbr wasn’t so high once again. I hope you’ll like it.

>101 vancouverdeb: Just emerging from my daily headlines from Italy, the US, UK and Germany/Austria and wish I could drown it all in cookies and make it go away :(

Hi Nathalie, I've read your interesting posts but never got round to writing to you. But now I'm here.
Interesting to hear that you would like to go travelling for the weekend. It would probably be too stressful for me to make long train journeys so that I could be in one place for just under two days.
We're not that far away from you from 8 May to 24 May, according to your distance terms (especially as the crow flies), but a detour to Merano or Bolzano is unfortunately not possible. We'll be travelling to Salzburg first, then to Graz and on to Ljubliana. We will stay three nights in each place. Then we will travel to Trieste, where we will stay for a whole week.
Ich bin dann mal weg is on my list. I'm planning to read it this year and thanks to your great review, now more than ever.
Have a good end to the week.

>104 Deern: I tried cookies last night. Didn't work.

>105 Ameise1: That sounds like a great trip! I’ve only been to Salzburg once and one day to Triest for a trade fair, so didn’t see anything of the city. It has since been on my list of places to see. Checked out trains, just for curiosity. I thought there might be direct ones from Verona, but it seems they all end in Venice/Mestre and then it goes on with regional trains. Sadly, I never made it to Zuerich while my neighbor’s mother still lived there.

This year, I’d like to go for a weekend to Munich (direct trains from Bolzano), maybe in summer to meet a friend “half-way”, so she doesn’t have to travel all the way to Merano again. Then I’d like to go to Vienna (also direct connection) with a stop-over at Krems to see the Karikaturenmuseum. Considering adding an extension to Poland to that trip.
I love train journeys if they don’t involve too many changes, those make me nervous and I hate having to run along platforms with luggage!

>106 ffortsa: Sigh… :(

I’m trying to wean myself from sugar, once again. Basically, it’s to test if it helps against joint inflammation and pain. We have arthrosis/arthritis in the family, but I was able to halt it for a while by giving up meat and most of dairy and eggs 11 years ago when it started in my fingers. Now trying to reduce wheat/gluten and sugar. When I did that cooking class last month a woman told me that after countless doctor consultations, giving up gluten significantly improved her situation, so I’m giving it another go. I’m 54, and looking at my mum’s hands and fingers, at least I want to try to avoid that future (my mum lives of bread, cake and cheese and fights everyone who tries to make her eat healthier).

Unfortunately, I’m also an emotional eater, and sweetish white breads and cakes (not overly sweet for me!) or dry cookies are like a comforting cushion, have always been.

Friday is a bit of a cheat day as I go to a restaurant for lunch, and eating something sweetish away from home is a good way to check if I still crave it. And yes, I do. So I better not buy anything or I find myself in the kitchen with the hands in the cookie jar after the first headlines of the day. Could I drown my sorrows in celery and carrot sticks? :/

I got a new rye sourdough starter last week and I’m trying to make my first bread with it this weekend. Won’t be gluten-free (as I guess it can’t be with a sourdough?), but it will have a mix of buckwheat and spelt flour. If it works out, I’ll freeze it in slices. It’s about reduction, not complete elimination, and a homemade bread is probably healthier than the heavily processed gluten-free stuff from the supermarkets. I’ll buy a book (of course!) and experience a bit with various flours. Have to get used to the long proofing times again and all those steps that have to be planned and timed well. Starting out Friday afternoon I might be able to bake on Sunday morning.
The process with this sourdough and the darker breads is also a little more complex than with my Italian spelt “pasta madre” in 2020/21. Hoping for some good results!

Reading: almost finished the audiobook Courage is calling by Ryan Holiday. Yesterday I bought and downloaded Enemy Feminisms by Sophie Lewis (BB from Richard) and Naomi Klein’s Doppelganger. There‘s a new online class waiting for me, I‘ll have to repeat two more over the weekend.. so I‘ll be busy. :)

>107 Deern: Yes, I looked it up and it takes almost five and a half hours by train from Bolzano to Trieste. When we were planning our trip, we realised that if you're travelling by train, Trieste is somehow 'at the end of the world'.
I was once in Salzburg over 40 years ago, so it will be more of a rediscovery.
I had to smile at what you wrote about changing trains. They could be my words. Changing trains once, if you have enough time, is ok. Everything else, especially with short transfer times, can be tedious. We can tell you a thing or two about that when we were travelling in Germany/Netherlands last year. I had the train app open all the time to find out which trains we could take, as the other one had already left etc.
Vienna and Munich sound good. I would love to go to Vienna again at this time of year, especially because of the theatres, cabarets etc.. I love Vienna.
I'm sure we'll find a way to meet up one day. You know 'patience brings roses'.

>109 Deern: I must get to Klein's Doppelganger soon, Nathalie.

Have a lovely weekend.

>110 Ameise1: LT has eaten my long answer :(
I‘ll try again later

>111 PaulCranswick: I looked at the German book yeaterday in a bookshop and decided I‘d prefer it as an audio.
Have a great weekend, too! :)

The bread turned out fine, I‘d forgotten how nice it is to smell freshly baked bread on a Sunday morning. It’s quite flat because I‘m baking in an iron pot that’s too large for a normal sized bread, but I don’t have space for a smaller and round iron pot in my tiny kitchen.

>110 Ameise1: I won’t rewrite my whole rant about the Deutsche Bahn, maybe it was better it didn’t get posted. Never start a German on their disappointing experiences with the DB! :D

Of course, Switzerland is on top of the world, of Europe anyway, when it comes to trains, their punctuality and cleanliness. There will be some investment into infrastructure finally finally in Germany, hopefully in a couple of years the train system will be in a better state again. Before that, always plan plenty of time between connections and hope that the train you‘re sitting in won‘t break down in some small station in nowhereland and will stop where it should (I learned even that isn’t guaranteed).

Writing about a meetup in Zuerich, my parents surprisingly told me yesterday they’re now looking at a housing project close to the Swiss border, 20mins from Zuerich. I don’t think they will end up there, but you never know. :)

>114 Deern: I totally agree with you about public transport in Switzerland. We are spoilt and blessed with our system. That is certainly one reason why many people no longer need a car and I have no mercy on those who are stuck in traffic jams.
We knew that travelling with DB can be an adventure, so we planned journeys of no more than 5 hours so that we had plenty of alternative options. As we travelled through South America for six months 36 years ago (bus, train, etc.), we're well versed in all kinds of things and nothing can shake us so easily.
I thought about where your parents are looking for a place to live with the time you gave. Of course, it also depends on whether they are travelling by car or train. Waldshut, Jestetten and Constance spontaneously came to mind. What is it now?
Hooray for homemade bread. I love the smell too. Thomas is starting sourdough again, then it will soon smell like that here too.
At the moment it's wild garlic time. We've already made and frozen several kilos of wild garlic spaetzle and wild garlic butter. Next on the list is wild garlic pesto, which we will also be making lots of jars of.

>115 Ameise1: I forgot the name of the place already, I‘ll ask them. I talked about it to my neighbor from Switzerland this weekend (when I still remembered the name) and she said it’s a small place where Swiss people come grocery shopping, something with „Hohen“ I think. She said there are nuclear power plants nearby, in view. My dad concentrated on the info that there’s winegrowing, he always sees the goodies. My mother won’t like it anyway. She finds fault with every object he suggests and complains at the same time that they haven’t moved out yet.
I love wild garlic (Bärlauch?), but like normal garlic I have problems digesting it. It brings my pulse up at night and I start sweating. I eat it occasionally on weekends when I can catch up on sleep later. It’s delicious though, especially as pesto.

Started listening to Enemy Femninisms by Sophie Lewis but put it aside after about two hours as I simply didn’t understand most of what she was saying. Seems I don’t speak high-level feminist yet. I‘m determined to read/listen and understand it however, so I thought I should first listen to the Naomi Klein book she refers to in the first chapter.

Now I had no idea what the Klein book was about when I got it. I just saw the German hardcover on a bookshop shelf on Friday and thought something like „hey, I‘ve read and liked one of her other books, and they’re always politically relevant“. So I searched for „Naomi“ on audible, it was auto-completed to Naomi Wolf, and I found The Beauty Myth which had been a very important book for me when I read it in German many years ago. I think it was the first book where I’d read the word ‚patriarchy‘ and it helped me a lot then with my body issues.

So here I thought „oh, great, she wrote that one as well“, and then wondered why I didn’t find the Doppelganger book. So I searched for the title instead and had that very moment of „Oh, there are two of them!“

Listening to the introduction, I was surprised that the Naomi confusion is a thing and I felt a bit embarrassed. Of Naomi Klein I have read This Changes Everything and it did change a lot in my political thinking years ago. I had also no idea that NW had fallen into the conspiracy rabbit hole, I haven’t read anything by her since TBM.

Best of luck trying to wean yourself off sugar, Nathalie. I don't think I could do it. I love my chocolate, among other things. I'm glad your bread turned out well. It's been a long time since I have made homemade bread. Quite time intensive.

>116 Deern: The village is called Hohentengen.
Yes, it has the Leibstadt nuclear power plant nearby in a westerly direction. A repository is planned south-west of Hohentengen. The gods know when this will happen.
Oh dear, I've heard that there are people who get flatulence after eating garlic.

>118 vancouverdeb: Well, not completely. Those all-or-nothing approaches never worked for me, and I tried them a lot. I have now eaten some cake once or twice a week, always when eating out, trying just to enjoy it, leaving some when I’ve had enough and not using it for consolation. The same basically for white bread, I‘ll still go for a pizza with friends, maybe tonight. I‘ll just try not to have the stuff in the house, because then I can’t handle it. The classical sweets, like chocolate, can last a long time in my household. The problem is baked sweets and sweetish white breads.

Yes, very happy with how the bread turned out. Tonight I‘ll feed my new starter for the first time, I hope he likes it.

>119 Ameise1: No, for me it‘s the heartrate thing. Maybe because it lowers blood pressure, and when that is already quite low the heart starts beating faster? My mother has the same issue with. In cooking I use asa foetida instead, also for onions. I can let a very fresh garlic glove simmer along in a pasta sauce and then take it out before eating. I really like the taste.

Yes, that’s the place! I better not tell them, they should just go there and see for themselves. :/

>117 Deern: Naomi confusion! That's a very good way to put it. I'm not a massive fan of either but I'm very glad I read Enemy Feminisms. It put a lot of my problems with the discourse into perspective.

Spend Wednesday well, dear Nathalie.

Hi all, I‘m not lost, just being very busy at work and during my free time concentrating on revising. I was a bit behind on my online classes and have now finally taken and passed two intermediate multiple choice tests and am now, at least when it comes to the tests, back in the timeline, but there’s so much more to revise.

I finished one book and have several started where I don’t make much progress. Can’t wait for the Easter weekend and 4 free days! I try listening to the Naomi Klein book during my lunchbreak walks, but it’s hard to digest, bringing back many memories of the Covid lockdowns. So mostly I just listen to live birdsong and enjoy all the spring colors for a bit before returning to my excel tables.

I‘ll try and post some more and visit some threads tomorrow.

>122 richardderus: Hi Richard, after hearing about the development of Wolf, I probably won’t read any more of her books. I’ve heard way too much of that stuff from my ex partner during the Covid lockdowns.
Now Klein always manages to make me feel bad for existing, learning stuff I‘d sometimes rather not known. Last time it was fracking, but this one is worse. About 5 hrs to go on that audiobook, then hopefully my vocabulary should be all set for the Enemy Feminism book.
Have a lovely weekend! :)

I can't quite catch up, Nathalie, but I'm always happy to see you here and always appreciate your thoughtfulness.

Could I drown my sorrows in celery and carrot sticks? The answer is NO, but you might beat them to death.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

>125 LizzieD: (((Peggy)))) Thank you so much for a loud laugh at 6:40 on that rainy Sunday morning! I‘ll do that later, prepared a box of carrot and zucchini sticks yesterday to be dipped in hummus later. They will suffer! :D (now I feel a bit sorry for them.. )

Wordling away, often lucky on the 6th guess when there are more options.

Also doing the strands which I love but understand they’re trivial for a native speaker who also understands the references. I‘m learning and quickly forgetting again names of reptiles, parts of cars and clocks etc.
Today I solved one with the title „orange door hinge“. I somehow found enough other words for hints to get through and the overall theme was „color rhymes“ with words like „queen“, „pilot“, „hello“.
When they are about foods, I often solve them within a couple of minutes, also thanks to the many food discussions here on LT over the years. I know the chicken parts although I don’t eat them. :)

Also love the spelling bee and once even made it to „amazing“, I like that you can leave them and add to them later for over a week. I never played scrabble or similar word games and enjoy these three very much now.

Just a stop by to wish you a lovely weekend, Nathalie

>126 Deern: Thank you Paul, the same to you :)

Puh, reviews.

25. Breaking up with sugar by Molly Carmel
I get it that for many people her approach might be helpful. I don’t regret reading this book, but I decided quickly it makes no sense for me to take this absolute road, with funeral speech to sugar, etc. I‘d just „emotionally“ eat something else.

I‘ve been eating mostly gluten-free (with the exception of my own bread), vegan and sugar-free with long breaks between meals for about 6 weeks now, to test if it helps me with the pain in my fingers and feet and also the digestion problems that get more frequent, it all seems to be connected.

So far it seems the inflammation in the fingers of my left hand is really better, but the strange seasonal arthrosis-like pain in my feet is still there. The digestive issues are slightly better, this might take a while. I haven’t lost any weight, but that’s secondary for now.

Fortunately, I really like healthy food, in fact always preferred it, as long as it’s well-prepared and seasoned. The problem is my emotional addiction to bread, mainly white.

Not to become too strange, on Fridays I take lunch in a vegetarian restaurant and eat whatever is on the menu, be it cheese, normal bread/pasta, etc., have a glass of wine with it and then often buy a slice of cake in a cafe, just to check how it feels and if I crave more. Usually I don’t. The lunchtime walks on the other days help me to realx enough not to crave a snack during the afternoon. In the mornings I eat porridge with berries, seeds, nuts and some oat cream, so it lasts longer and have a snack-free coffee break with my colleagues around 10:00.

I‘ve been there before, but always cracked when a real crisis came up, I‘ll see how it turns out this time.

3 stars for the book, and I‘m happy for everyone who succeeded with it.

26. Courage is Calling by Ryan Holiday

This was an audible recommendation „based on what I am listening“, so mainly based on the books for my classes. Much of it is interesting and also encouraging, but it was a bit too long and repetitive with all the examples from antiquity and not that many from modern times. It also felt a bit dated when it came to some now big names who no longer really serve as encouraging examples, especially some tech giants. Alltogether the book didn’t leave as much of an impact as I thought while listening to it, so I‘m lowering my as always very personal rating to 3.75 stars.

27. The Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz by Anne Sebba
I had a prepared a way too long review for this one and then decided not to post it for now. This is the third book about the orchestra I‘ve been reading, Fania Fenelon‘s was the first one in the very early 80s, my first and unaccompanied confrontation with the Holocaust that destroyed the little fake fundament of beliefs I might have built at that age.
The second one had been the book by Anita Lasker-Wallfisch who was also interviewed for this one.

It’s a collection of accounts given by survivors, some of them still alive when the book was written, the stories of others taken from earlier books or passed on by other band members.

Yes, it shows there was some discord between the members (which could be expected in any circumstance), especially between the mainly Polish political prisoners, many of whom had grown up being antisemitic, and the Jewish women who felt excluded from the few small privileges the others might have had and were in constant terror for their lives and those of their families. One of the main problem between groups seems to have been language barriers, partially also age gaps. Fenelon for example was about twice the age of the younger band members, and somehow Alma Rose managed to make this group function well enough to keep many of them „safe“ for many months and helped them to survive.

Rating of course 5 stars.

I saw a documentation last year (BBC?) where Lasker-Wallfisch meets the youngest son of the Auschwitz commander Hoess who‘d been about 5-8 years old when the family lived in the house next to the camp and of course „doesn’t remember“, like his older sister he visits later who lived in the US then and had turned into a partial denier. I‘d recommend it for watching, you can feel the confusion about loyalty to one’s parents and the resistance to accepting what they did. Lasker-Wallfisch‘s daughter paralelly moves to Berlin for a while to come to terms with her German roots, looking for a connection she never found with her mother.

28, Ich bin da nochmal hin by Anne Butterfield
And now for something lighter. Anne Butterfield is one of the two pilgrims who did the Camino di Santiago with Hape Kerkeling in 2001. She does it again in 2010, during the soccer world cup, starting out on a bike but turning to hiking after a couple of days when she realizes the bike route differs much from the hiking trail and doesn’t enjoy that lonely experience.
During the trip she is recognized surprisingly often by German pilgrims who read Hape‘s book, at one point she even gets an interview. What touched me most is her experience of visiting places where you‘ve been very happy with people who now are far away. Their shadows loom, you can almost feel them and you feel or maybe imagine a connection that takes away from what could be a new experience. I‘ve been there a lot, I cling to good memories way too much. Working on it. But it helped reading that I‘m not alone with this.

Available in German only (I think)

Rating 4.3 stars, especially for the last chapters.

Oops, almost forgot. My first officially pearl-ruled book (usually I put them aside planning to finish them later and then forget about them). Sorry for fans, I really didn’t like it, but won’t rate it either.

I tried to read my first Jackie Collins after having watched an interesting docu about Joan Collins that brought back many 80s memories, like the whole family being assembled on a Wednesday at 21:00 to see Alexis Carrington’s first scene in Dynasty (called “Der Denver Clan” in Germany, for pronounciation reasons I guess). There she was with a veiled little black hat, entering the courtroom - and fade to credits and we had to wait for another week to hear her speak (in German) and really see her face. Oh, the weeks that followed, when “das Denver-Biest” was discussed everywhere and everyone was on poor Krystle’s side.

I got Hollywood Husbands which had more positive ratings then “The Stud” and sounded like fun. Well, it was really really boring and realizing it had over 600 pages, by page 200 I skipped to the ending, was okay with it (had also guessed the killer correctly) and closed it forever.

A very happy Easter to tbose who celebrate it and a very happy weekend to everyone!

Did some baking experiments yesterday, including a modified recipe of a vegan carrot cake. I substituted spelt flour with coconut and oat flour which resulted in a super delicious dough which then wouldn’t rise in the oven, so I cut the whole loaf into small chunks and put them under a grill. I have a box full of carrot cake crumble now :D

I finished book #29. Doppelganger: a trip into the mirror world by Naomi Klein. It‘s fantastic, important, and sadly already dated as it was written pre-Trump II and pre October 7th. Everything has turned so much worse in the meantime. It is however a fascinating reflection of the mechanisms that led us here. I often doubted the doppelgänger motif, but in the end it works. It reflects so much of my own thoughts, just infinitely better structured and expressed, my own painful experiences during and after the pandemic when people I loved and had connected with over many years just disappeared behind a veil and it became impossible to comunicate with them - and I was never of the „get the vaccine or leave“ fraction. I decided for the vaccination after some consideration (because I was surrounded by anti people who told me all the things that would go wrong), fortunately before it became mandatory in Italy for people over 50 - that step created a lot of extra resistance.
I read a Klein opinion piece in the Guardian last week, and if she‘s only half right there, we‘re in for the most „interesting times“ ever.

I won’t review the book in more detail, it’s far too complex, but the review in the NYT says it all very well. Just one thing: at one point she assumes all the protest was because of a weak government in Canada. No, it was the same everywhere and the sources of misinformation were the same ones everywhere.
Rating: 5 stars

deleted because duplicate :|

deleted because triplicate :(

Interesting, your Doppelgänger post has just tripled 😉.
Happy Easter to you too, enjoy your carrot crumble 🥕.
I read on Richard's (@richardderus) thread that you are visiting Dachau in mid-June. I wasn't there yet, but I visited Auschwitz in the summer of 2018, which left a deep impression on me.

>137 Ameise1: Thank you Barbara, I just deleted the text from 2 of them.
One reason for being so rarely here on LT is that posts have been swallowed a couple of times. I guess it’s my sh**y internet. I don’t access anymore from work, just from home, and my wifi has been terribly weak lately, also problematic with my online classes. It seems LT needs full bars, and I always do the preview first and post from there. Often then it doesn’t post, and I retry a couple of times (now also copying/ pasting longer texts elsewhere first). Today I needed 3 attempts, then loaded the page again and there was just one post. No idea when the other 2 were added. But yes, maybe it means we’re all triplegangers? :D

I wanted to go to Krakow and Auschwitz, finally, this year. The problem is that no-one is interested in coming with me. I considered going on my own, but maybe it’s better having someone to share the experience with and not being alone with it. I looked for group trips, but here they do them only for students. I should probably join an international group, maybe from Vienna. How did you organize it?

I thought I’d start with Dachau, also because it was an early camp where in the beginning they sent political prisoners, something (the only thing) my paternal grandmother mentioned to me. Those camps were erected immediately, and my great-grandfather who was just a social democrate and village mayor was in danger of being sent to one. Hape Kerkeling’s grandfather spent 12 years (having been sentenced to 9) in Dachau and another camp for having spread flyers once. The nazis made sure from the first moment that people would be too scared to raise a finger against them.

>133 Deern: The reason people like those books is simple: The stories are familiar and ask nothing of one's brain. They pass before the eyes, cause small changes in the patterns of brain activity in the gemütlichkeit center, and nothing needs to change. Very satisfying for most people.

Enjoy your Bunny Day!

>138 Deern: We spent almost three weeks travelling by train in Poland in 2018. We organised this on our own. When we arrived at the hotel in Krakow, we saw at reception that they were organising guided day trips to Auschwitz. So we booked directly at the hotel.

Oh dear, I'm sorry to hear that you have a ‘wobbly’ wifi. That kind of thing is annoying.

>139 richardderus: Now THAT’S a cute bunny, thank you! :D

I read my very fair share of chick lit, mainly British, when I was in my late 20s/ early 30s (though I didn’t much like the Bridget Jones books). Loved Ralph’s party, love-hated the terrible “just get slim and glamorous and you’ll get the guy” Jemima J by Jane Green, loved her Mr Maybe with the two shallow and emotionally unavailable main characters. Oh dear, the memories… I blame those books for two bad relationships and some severe body issues. :/
So glad I then found LT!

JC’s books then belonged more to my mom’s generation and I never read any. I had expected more juiciness, basically a soap in book form, and was suprised to be so bored.

>140 Ameise1: Thanks for the info. I thought about prebooking everything, but I’’d still prefer not to do that visit all on my own.

>141 Deern: As bunnys go, that one will do.

The problem with all those books for most serious readers with lots of breadth in our reading is simply that the formula doesn't change and the stakes aren't very interesting.

I hope that you have been enjoying a happy Easter, Nathalie, with carrot cake crumbles!!!

Dachau - oh my. I have no idea how I'd handle that experience either alone or with a group. I don't think I'd want more than one or two people with me, but it's not a choice I'll ever have to make. I wish that you may be deeply moved but not overturned.

One chickie book goes a long way for a long time!!! It's good to have one around though when you need it.

Books read in 2025:

1. Nemesis by Agatha Christie, audiobook, 3.5 stars
2. A Caribbean Mystery by Agatha Christie, audiobook, 3.5 stars
3. The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie, audiobook, 4 stars
4. A Murder is announced by Agatha Christie, audiobook, 3.5 stars
5. The Labours of Hercules by Agatha Christie, audiobook, 3 stars
6. Poirot investigates by Agatha Christie, audiobook, 3 stars
7. Zarter Schmelz: Eine Lucky Luke Hommage by Ralf König, graphic novel on Kindle, 4.5 stars
8. Murder in the mews by Agatha Christie, audiobook, 3.5 stars
9. Elftausend Jungfrauen by Ralf König, graphic novel on Kindle, 4.5 stars
10.Stehaufmännchen by Ralf König, graphic novel on Kindle, 4 stars
11. Poirot’s Early Cases by Agatha Christie, audio book, 3.5 stars
12. Evil under the Sun by Agatha Christie, audiobook, 4.5 stars
13. Agatha Christie’s Poirot: the greatest detective in the world by Mark Aldridge, Kindle, 3.5 stars
14. The Underdog and other stories by Agatha Christie, audiobook, 3 stars
15. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie, audiobook, 5 stars
16. Have Pride! by Stella Caldwell, hardcover in German, 4.5 stars
17. Sieg der Blödigkeit by Oliver Kalkofe, hardcover in German, 4.5 stars
18. Die Tagesordnung / The Order of the Day by Eric Vouillard, Kindle and theater reading in German, 4.5 stars
19. Nexus by Yuval Harari, audiobook in German, 5 stars
20. The Women in Black by Madeleine St. John, Kindle, 3.5 stars
21. Lucky Luke 102: Letzte Runde für die Daltons by Achde, Kindle, 3 stars
22. Tu was! by Ruprecht Polenz, German paperback, 4 stars
23. Gebt mir etwas Zeit by Hape Kerkeling, German audiobook, 4 stars
24. Ich bin dann mal weg by Hape Kerkeling, German audiobook, 5 stars
25. Breaking Up With Sugar by Molly Carmel, audiobook, 3 stars
26. Courage is calling by Ryan Holiday, audiobook, 4 stars
27. The Women‘s Orchestra of Auschwitz by Anne Sebba, Kindle, 5 stars
28. Ich bin da nochmal hin by Anne Butterfield, German Kindle, 4.3 stars
29. Doppelganger: a trip into the mirror world by Naomi Klein, audiobook, 5 stars
30. Wie Grischa mit einer verwegenen Idee beinahe den Weltfrieden auslöste by Jakob Hein, German Kindle book, 4 stars

Wow, lots of good books you have read so far, Nathalie! I hope you enjoy your Wasgij puzzles when you get to them. I have done several. My sister really loves them. Initially I wondered how I would do them with out the picture on the box, but I sorted that out. I hope you had a good weekend.

why is the list in >145 Deern: when I edited it in >2 Deern: ?!?! I didn’t reply, didn’t copy… LT is behaving a bit strange. Started the Easter Egg hunt, found 7 so far, but only three were registered.

>144 LizzieD: The carrot cake crumble is already half eaten :D
Another rainy Easter day, yesterday at least I was able to take a walk and have an aperitivo in town. Hoping it will clear up a bit later.

I read not a chick-lit, but an intelligent palate cleanser book yesterday, a BB from Barbara.

Wie Grischa mit einer verwegenen Idee beinahe den Weltfrieden auslöste by Jakob Hein

I doubt it has been translated, but it’s generally a very German book with lots of references to the 80s. The author is my age but grew up on the East side of the Wall. It’s a quick read, a satire, that weaves in real politicians, real places and maybe also real events. It’s s set in the early 80s in East Berlin where young politbüro member Grischa has an idea to sell a special export product from Afghanistan to day tourists from West Berlin. Soon there are long queues of tourists who just pay the „entrance fee“ into the GDR (25 DM mandatory exchange) to get to the little shop and then directly return to the West. It doesn‘t take long for the Western authorities to find out, but how can they intervene when the inner-German border has never been officially acknowledged and „what is legal there is legal here“? It didn’t make me laugh, but I grinned a lot. What really touched me is how Grischa‘s family life is described, or the rituals at and after work. All the drinking (much more than was usual in the West), the jealousy of career steps, the general distrust covered by an always careful camaraderie. Sex was direct and mostly unromantic, but homosexuality officially „didn’t exist“. Those differences haven’t been overcome and I guess they still play a role in the voting behavior so many years later- although sadly the West is quickly catching up since the fake news attacks during the pandemic. It’s time I get to Freiheitsschock.
Rating: 4 stars

One critique point is the price. This is a very quick read and thanks to the Deutsche Buchpreisbindung the e-book costs almost as much as the hardcover, almost 20 Euros. This should have a paperback-like price and that’s one of the reasons I avoid German ebooks.

>146 vancouverdeb: Hi Deborah, yes they take a bit longer, but they’re quite fun. I especially love the little differences where the same people as in the original puzzle do a different gesture in the mystery one.
Have a nice Monday :)

>147 Deern: Nice to hear that you enjoyed the book. I borrowed it from the library, so I can't say anything about the price. Books are generally very expensive to buy here. I always see what the Euro price is, then you add at least 20%-30% and that would be the price we would have to pay in Switzerland. This hardback book costs us 34.50 🙈

>149 Ameise1: Dear me, they cost even more in Switzerland?
I generally don’t mind the prices for a hardcovers, if I really want a book. But the e-book should cost less, and that happens only when also the paperbacks are out.

I should start going to the library again, thanks for reminding me. Haven’t been there since covid. Although I doubt I‘d have found this one. The local library is great for nonfiction, classics, and most importantly children’s books. Contemporary fiction not so much, given the limited space and the 2 languages.

>150 Deern: The e-book is indeed cheaper.
Re library: If you like reading e-books, you could certainly take out a subscription with a foreign German-language library.

Good heavens! Reading how costly y'all's books are makes me vividly aware of how extremely lucky I am. I think USD10 for an ebook is an outrage. Wowsers, the idea of a USD25 ebook not from a university press or textbook publisher makes me feel faint.

Commiserations on your expensive hobby.

Hi Nathalie.
One for the TBR, the Naomi Klein sounds interesting. You are quite right, there was an international paranoia-like thing going on. The two younger brothers of my husband were much involved. Sigh. Not back to normal yet.

>147 Deern: This book sounds like fun. Our price is the same. 20 euro’s. I could buy it, but not at this price.

Have a nice Easter. Do you have a free Easter Monday?

>139 richardderus: Hmmm. It could be easter every day here if that bunny came to visit……

>144 LizzieD: What a great list. Some authors I have not heard of before.

I really must try the Easter hunt soon before it disappears. A fun thing to do.

Hope you have a great week!

>153 EllaTim: Hi Ella, thank you, I had a nice and quiet Easter with some reading and way less LTing than planned (very wobbly wifi). We don‘t have the Friday as a holiday in catholic countries which came as a bit of a surprise to me when I moved here, but yes, we have the Monday. I always take the Friday off, it feels weird somehow to work on that day, not for religious reasons, it’s more of a nostalgic feeling. The 25th is a national holiday here, so with Easter being so late this year, I‘m having another short week, and then there‘ll be May1st the week after.

>154 figsfromthistle: Hi Anita, the hunt will be active until April 30th and they fixed the bug with the seedlings that were found but didn’t appear. I got all 12 now, I love those hunts. I hope you’ll enjoy it! :)
Have a lovely week, too!

Started Freiheitsschock yesterday and after 10 pages already feel completely pessimistic. Well, what did I expect? The voting results speak loud and clear, and it‘s no longer „only“ the Eastern part of Germany. I sometimes wish that the normal media would write more positvely about the successes of a normal „boring“ non-fascist government coalition. I get it, they have to be critical, but that‘s how more of the people who still vote for democratic parties get more and more lost and annoyed and also look for information elsewhere. Yes, there is much to criticize, but we never read why something is a success, only that „it’s a compromise“, but compromises aren’t necessarily bad and if you have a government coalition they mean there’s interaction and co-operation and thinking and work being done and (hopefully) everyone was heard.

Also started an Italian book strongly recommended by Richard, Camere separate by Vittorio Tondelli. Made it to 25% despite not having read an Italian novel in years, and it’s heartbreaking and beautifully written so far.

Wordled in 2 today, that never happens! :)
Okay, off to work now. Lovely week to everyone!

Wordled in two, Nathalie! That is excellent . I think I have about 9 of the seedlings from the hunt, I'll have to try to get the other three. I didn't realize there were some bugs, which may explain why one clue that I didn't get , but I was quite sure of , didn't work for me.

>154 figsfromthistle: He can pop outta the rabbit warren any day, eh Anita?

>157 Deern: Oh, I'm so pleased you're enjoying it, Nathalie!

I found all the seedlings too, despite not being given credit for 2 or 3 that I had successfully found. Eventually, that was fixed without my doing anything else. My other problem was that singular noun that should have been plural. Seems to me they do that at least once a game. I thought these were really easy.

I wish you a good weekend, Nathalie!

>158 vancouverdeb: Yes, the bug was resolved after the Easter weekend and suddenly all my seedlings were there. Haven’t decided yet if I prefer the easier hunts where I can at least guess the direction and google for the answers or the trickier ones where I need spoilers from the discussion thread. I love them all. anyway.

>159 richardderus: I only made it through another 25% this week, but I enjoyed these word for word. It’s really beautifully written, and I love how we get those glimpses of memory without prior explanations, just like memories work, jumping from deep thoughts about the process of writing into an abusive scene with an ex-lover, to religion, to drugs, to family and back. And he really takes you there, scene for scene.

>160 LizzieD: Hi Peggy, yes they were quite easy, which at first is great, but then it’s over too soon. :)
The one with the bird was interesting, we have a bit of a mix up with names there between Europe and the US with robins and blackbirds. Once I tried adding „American“ I found the seedling.
I was a bit surprised about the Austrian book, always assumed it was American, but I never read it nor watched the movie.

Happy Sunday everyone!

Another week gone by and almost no reading done and way too little LT. Spending much time revising and keeping half updated with the news and then need a long daily walk to get my head clear again.

My neighbor fixed my old bike this week, and yesterday my friend Karin took me for a test trip to get reacquainted with the gears, brakes, rules for bike lanes, etc. Planning another test today and hopefully I‘ll cycle to work tomorrow. Should be easy, it’s all bike lanes.

My sourdough starter, though fed every week, is getting lazy. Had to scratch a rye bread out of the tray yesterday, rebake the pieces on a plate and now can add rye croutons to last week’s carrot cake crumble in the freezer. It’s also possible that my old oven doesn’t distribute the heat anymore as it should. The breads I bake in the iron pot are always fine.

>55 Whisper1: Hi Natalie, please forgive my delay in responding to your powerful message. And, thank you for sharing on such a deep level.

You've been through a lot. I know full well how difficult it is to let it all go. In many ways, a traumatic childhood can make us stronger. But, first I had to deal with the pain and sorrow. I always wanted a "normal" set of parents. Then, I realized that many families are not functional and I raised the bar too high on my expectations of wanting perect parents.

Good luck with bike riding to work tomorrow. There is a walking/bike path near me, but because of the many spine surgeries I've had, riding bike with the chance of falling is problematic.

I send all good wishes to you!

>165 Whisper1: Dear Linda, thank you for the post. I’m quite hopelessly behind on threads once again but will try and visit yours this weekend. My bikerides to work (it’s been 3 now) were great. In the mornings I only see a handful of people, in the afternoons I have to concentrate more, still a bit insecure at the crossings with normal roads. Bikes there theoretically have right of way, but you never know, so I stop and check - and hope no other biker hits me.

2 days ago I had a conversation with a co-worker who shares similar experiences with his parents, and you hear it everywhere. He has kids and of course tries to do better with them. I have no kids, also because I feared I might not be a good parent. I might be an okay one now, but back in the years when it was possible, I’m sure I would have caused some inherited narcissistic damage. All my cousins (all younger than me) have kids and we sometimes discuss what they consciously do/did to avoid those traps and from what I see, they manage okay (they all have wonderful partners as well), and I’m so happy for them.

Happy May to everyone! Today is a holiday in most European countries (labour day), I don’t know about the US. I took the Friday off, so just started into another long weekend, the third in a row, I could get used to it.

No countable reading again, am revising a lot and that’s not going to end soon. I hope I’ll find some great comics/graphic novels in Munich to help my stats here.

Other news:
I’ve posted before that I’m doing online classes to become a “life coach”. Not planning to work as one, there are way too many coaches around, I had a great one, but clearly there are also many terrible ones around, and those can cause much harm.
I’m doing it mostly for myself and to better be able to help others around me. While the classes are online, there’s much interaction with other participants and there are fixed buddy groups of three who meet regularly, in my case online as the other two live in Germany.
A friend of mine from here parallely studies to be a coach with another institute and in presence classes. She’s going to start a practice and we often compare contents and exchange books. While her approach is more practical, I’m very happy with mine which is more integral and in-depth (there was also an extra option for more praxis training which I didn’t use).

My online classes are officially ending on May 16th, but as I booked an upgrade, I’ll have some extra lessons until October and will have to take the exam before Jan 1st 2026. In the meantime, the company will start another formation, a completely new one that takes recent world events into consideration and is more focused on co-working and integration than on single coaching. I was determined not to book, but they just restructured it, making it modular and more accessible and it will start much later.
There will be 2 modules on AI and what it means and how to cope with it (and help others coping).

I’m among the few who don’t actively or better knowingly use it at all, but there’s a chance to get into it from scratch and accompanied, so I might book that first module. It will be in my future if I live to a normal age, and I’d better know how to deal with it. I just learned that the most recent version of ChatGPT has been “encouraged” to flatter the users openly, for example for having such deep conversations, to keep them ever longer connected. Can’t say I’m looking forward to it. :/

All respect, Nathalie, for pursuing the Life Coach instruction for your very good reasons! I hope that your additional classes will be equally helpful.

I'm another one who is leery of AI, at least as it exists for the common user. No ChatGPT fo me! The only time I've really seen it at work is on Ancestry, and I haven't been impressed or persuaded with its findings. But then, I am still stuck in the 20th century and likely will remain so.

I LOVE that you're bicycling to work. I also love that you're being very careful as you get used to riding again.

Weekend coming up! Enjoy yours!! Wish it could be another long one for you!

Hi Nathalie!

Good for you for starting bicycling again. And yes to being careful, and giving yourself time to get used to the bike, and traffic, again. I’m finding it a lot scarier than it used to be, as lots of cyclists have electric bikes now, and some have those heavy bikes, they call fat-bikes here. They’re like mopeds, but then in a bike version. Fast and heavy, and a danger on the road. Do you have those as well?

Yes, I think it is best to get acquainted to AI. A bit. I have tried it, and I do think it can be helpful. But it’s weird as well. ChatGTP can help anyone write an article or stuff. And then it can help you read said stuff as well… answer questions etc. Something circular about that.

Another step forward: have been to the library for the first time since before Covid. They got an extra reading room now and new computers, I haven’t seen any improvement with collections. Almost no graphic novels and still only the one small shelf with books in English. The Italian part has always been better stocked than the German one, I see the same in bookshops. Today I got David Egger‘s The Every of which I don’t expect much. I read 2 Eggers which were okay but not great, but I wanted to take something from the English section and didn’t have much time to browse. The other book is by the Austrian author Mareike Fallwickl. My cousin recommended her „Liebe Jorinde“ which wasn’t available as ebook or library book, so I got Die Wut die bleibt.

>168 LizzieD: I hope so too, I found I really LOVE the learning process and l hope my brain will go along with it for many more years.

Btw, I now tried the big crossword puzzles. Of course I need lots of hints and have to google things and sometimes when one letter is missing just try the whole alphabet, but they’re SO creative and make me laugh! Also pretentious in a way, mostly shown in the comments on the hints page.

Not looking forward to the AI part, it takes much courage for me to comunicate with a machine, which is funny because I talk to my car, my bicycle and many of the dead things around me. But I don’t expect those to listen and use it against me at a later point (my car is old!).

>169 EllaTim: Aaargh, the ebikes! :D
Since Covid it seems all Germans own ebikes and when the season starts they „all come here“ in large groups and fill the bike lanes. Well, that’s probably jealousy speaking, I‘m not ready to spend that much on a bike. In Germany many companies offered special leasing or financing contracts to their employees, I was told. The few fancy fat bikes I see are used by locals mostly. I got a 15 year old men’s bicycle I hardly ever used which has been standing around collecting layers of dust. It’s a miracle (thank you, yoga) I still get on it. :)

>171 Deern: Nathalie, I assume these are the New York Times Crossword puzzles? You might already know this and if not it could save you some frustration: the easiest puzzles are on Monday and the most difficult on Saturday. Sundays are kind of like a larger Wednesday puzzle. They are really fun and completely different from British cryptic crosswords if you are at all familiar with those.

Happy weekend, Nathalie! Your thread has been very busy.
I’ve got to laugh, you’ve got e-bikes in your neighborhood and golf carts have taken over my neighborhood! They come out in summer and share the road with cars, bikes, walkers, baby strollers and skate boards. The thing is kids under minimum driving age drive them and sometimes it’s a scary situation. Ugh
Happy reading!

I am sure you have far more bikes in your area, Nathalie, but we too have bikes, e-bikes and quite a few e - scooter, most with two wheels , but some with just one wheel. I'm not sure how safe I think the e -scooters are, at least in traffic. My nephew has been living in Amsterdam and I understand that biking is much bigger as a commuter activity, than here, and you'd better be a fast , very skilled bike rider in Amsterdam. Canada is so spread out that not that many people commute to work.

>173 lauralkeet: Haha, I coincidentally started with a Monday crossword puzzle and felt SO smart, then looked at the Tuesday one and was all wth??? :D
I am familiar with German cryptic puzzles from Die Zeit or FAZ, loved doing those regularly when I had a subscription. They sometimes took a week to solve. With the NYT ones I‘d be lost without the hints page. I‘ll try not to get ambitious about them, they take away from my reading time. Wordle and Strands, and then back to a book - or LT :)

>174 Carmenere: Oh, I forgot about those. It’s not golf carts here, it’s mini cars that drive max 40km/h, quite a new phenomenon. Kids who are allowed to ride/drive vespas and mopeds now can drive those on the roads, while e-/bikecycles, strollers, etc should be on the bike lanes, but often enough aren’t. Not too many skaters around and less e-scooters since the minimum age went to 18 (in Italy) and they need registration and insurance.

>175 vancouverdeb: e-scooters with one wheel?!? Is that for extra danger to lose balance and fall in front of a car? :| Haven’t seen any of those yet.
There was a guy trying to seel segways years ago, but he was the only one I ever saw on one. I imagine biking in Amsterdam, but also any student town that’s not extremely hilly, must be scary for people not used to it.

>178 Deern: Riding a bike in Amsterdam was really scary when I started living there. At first I didn’t dare make a turn left on any traffic square. I had to get off the bike and cross like a pedestrian. But you get used to it.

>179 EllaTim: I do that, better safe than sorry here. Also thinking from the driver’s perspective. I‘m a careful driver and always stop for a moment in front of a bike crossing, and still twice someone turned up so quickly I almost hit them.

++++

No cycling to work this week, it has been rainy every day and temperatures dropped. Quite happy about it, I‘m dreading the heat and glad about every cool day that delays it.

++++

Parents‘ news: they decided against the easier reachable Black Forest region and went back north this week to check houses. They totally fell in love with a house in a small village, close to the coast and far from the next bigger train station. It’s 1250 km from where I live, so either 2 long drives (German motorways stopped being fun a long time ago, traffic is crazy, especially with all the trucks) or a complicated train journey that might work in one day - or not. I hate flying, but might have to if something happens (to Hamburg from I‘m not sure where + hours of train + taxi journey from Hamburg).
It’s not really about me here, but I hope they’re aware that I won’t be able to just „quickly get there“ if something happens, nor are they.

Well, I love the region as well, maybe I‘ll find my dream job somewhere in Bremen or Wilhelmshaven and move up there as well. I‘d like to be here in spring and winter when it’s cool and mainly sunny and up in the north during the hot months.

++++
Pope observations (I‘m not a catholic). I was zapping through the TV channels when I saw there had been white smoke almost an hour ago, I stayed with the Sky Italy live news to see who it would be. Sky IT imo is a terrible news channel (commentators quite ignoring the live pictures and talking about themselves on other occasions) and the commentators were much concerned whether he might be an Italian and discussing that when the first name is said out loud, you generally know who it is and then did name plays with the Italian candidates. So when the man (don’t know what his role is) said „Robert“, they were like „Robert who??“ and there was much silence even when the full name had been announced. They then quickly did a google search I guess and came up with Italian relatives, so „partially one of us“. I like the title Papa Leone in Italian, it speaks much nicer than Pope Leo or Papst Leo.

I was a bit shocked at first - wasn’t there also a very conservative US papabile supported by Trump? - but listening to his speech I thought that the cardinals might have a sense of humor, it’s clearly a message! :)
I then learned that via the blessing in Latin I was automatically absolved of all my sins (they said explicitly it was also for the people watching via electronic devices). Next thing I wondered what Fox might be saying and went searching for that until now unused channel, and it was such fun! The two commentators were quite confused, also as to why he‘d made part of his speech in Spanish and not in English („what did he want to tell us with this?“) and in a slightly fearful voice said he was also „a bit“ (as far as a pope can be) „for women and also LGBTerrr..“ then quickly stopped and swallowed the other letters, but the forbidden „T“ was said. Another commentator later also wondered aloud „if an American, why him“?
While the whole thing doesn’t concern me much and even a „progressive“ pope won’t be able to reform the church, it was all quite fascinating to watch. He looks like a person who likes to laugh, and the world needs that.

Natalie, I enjoyed your comments regarding the new pope and his presentation. I feel sad that I did not really study/know more about Pope Francis. I watched a lot after he died. I was taken by his gentleness, and the fact that he apologized after he made comments of denial regarding priests who molested those who were younger, and then the Bishops who lied and covered up about it. He said that it must have felt like a slap in the face to those who were abused when they heard his comments of denial. WOW! This took a lot of courage.

There were many other things that I liked about Pope Frances. Again, I only wish I took the time to learn more about him.

Church politics can be brutal.

I did notice that the new pope had tears in his eyes during the time when the crowds were clapping and the affirmation was genuine. The camera focused close up to the fact that he was sniffling and had tears.

>181 Whisper1: Dear Linda, I had the same reaction yesterday. I never thought much about Pope Francis/ Papa Francesco, but had heard he was generally a mild man who genuinely liked people, and I felt sad yesterday that his life’s work might be might be undone quickly by the next pope. In all his official power he was quite powerless with the ultraconservative communities. It’s easy to say „love it or leave it“ (I would, my parents did), but there are gay people, trans people, divorced people who do have the deep desire to receive a church blessing and don’t want to become protestant where it is all possible. And where I live, tractors, buildings and I heard also cows and other animals are blessed by the local priests regularly.

Yesterday I learned that the child molestation scandal was totally covered up in Italy, only here in South Tyrol is was much discussed and I believe there was an apology by the local bishop and maybe some payments, all just because the German speaking population watches German and Austrian TV - and there it all had been in the news a lot. Shockingly many people here in that small place raised their hands and told their own stories.

Yes, Leone was clearly very moved, but also the cardinals looked genuinely happy. Let’s hope for the best.

Hi Nathalie! Thanks for your story, what fun! I haven’t been following the news, but will have a look at what dutch news channels are saying.
Yes, I think it matters what the pope is saying about women, about having babies, about LGBT-rights.

Papa Leone sounds nice, it has that Ennio Morricone-sound about it.

Have a nice weekend.

I saw one of those one wheeled scooters today as I was out walking, Nathalie. I'll see if I can find a picture . The two wheeled scooters are much more common, but I do see the one wheeled one fairly often too. Not for me! Here is a link to one on amazon https://www.amazon.com/Inmotion-Electric-Unicycle-Protective-Silicone/dp/B0F2HWZ...

>183 EllaTim: Yes, you‘re right about the Morricone sound. Okay, when you add „quattordicesimo“ it becomes more of a tongue-breaker :)

>184 vancouverdeb: I‘ve never seen anything like that :o
I‘d guess the authorities here would find 100,000 reasons not to have that on our streets, it looks quite scary! No, like everything else, it will turn up some day, but the use will be heavily regulated and there will be a tax and mandatory insurance against accidents as they did with the normal e-scooters, and also a driving permit.

>185 Deern: Oops, a real tongue twister! I can’t say it.

>184 vancouverdeb: I’ve never seen it! But yesterday I did see someone using a single wheeled bicycle. It looked more difficult to keep one’s balance, got a lot of stares as well.

Sorry, I‘m still 2 reviews short and haven’t finished anything else.

Mixed week. On Tuesday I suddenly felt very ill, like having the flu (not a cold which starts for me with aching throat). I went home a bit early and saw I really had a bit of a fever, all joints were aching. Went to bed with extra blankets and stayed at home on Wednesday to see my doctor, after doing a Corona test (negative). She couldn’t identify it either, for me it almost felt like an autoimmune reaction, like a light all-body-inflammation. It wasn’t terribly painful, but weird and a bit scary. I got 4 days of sick leave, today included, though I didn’t really want it, and a medical referral to a rheuma specialist, because my mother has all those issues.
As it might take a year to get the appointment, she told me to already register for it now and the next time I feel that bad to get blood samples, as the last ones were very okay. I‘ve been eating and living very „joint friendly“ in the last couple of months, baking my own gluten-free sourdough bread and reducing sugar (also really quite fun-free, and I do like health food). I hadn’t really expected an episode now. I‘m wondering if it might have been caused by all the pollen.

Anyway, so I stayed home and felt guilty for staying home, so I worked from home. Felt quite good again on Thursday, so that was okay. But working on my small notebook when I usually have 2 big monitors in the office for all my excel tables tired my eyes, so in the free time, I closed my eyes and listened to lessons. And I slept a lot.

+++

This morning I listened to the last online lesson, so the basic part of my classes is completed now. I had booked an upgrade and will have some more online events starting in June. Today I received the program for the all new classes in 2025-2026, and there are some advanced modules I might book. One will be held in presence in the week before Christmas, in a place that’s about 30km from where my parents might move. Quite tempting.

>187 Deern: Baking gluten-free is always challenging. The best substitute I've ever encountered is replacing the eggs in crusts and breads with 1tsp/3gr psyllium powder in 2T/30mL cold water per egg, always assuming you're making enriched yeasted doughs with flours like einkorn or rye.

FWIW of course I'm always looking for ways out of inflammation so I collect this kind of info.

Hoping for hea;thier days ahead!

>188 richardderus: I used lineseed for vegan baking to replace eggs, but I‘ll try the psyllum powder there as well, thank you! Never baked with einkorn so far. There are so many flours on the market, it’s a bit overwhelming once you turn away from wheat and farro/spelt.

I failed terribly with a pizza crust this week. Or maybe it turned out as it should and just wasn’t good. I’d rather eat another cauliflower crust. Or maybe not.

I tried all the supermarket stuff first, but it’s all highly processed and very sweet.

The bread baking works quite well, and yes I use the psyllum stuff, so I don’t need starch. Tried line seeds first, but they don’t absorb the water as well. My current go-to bread is with sourdough (base is 10g rye starter, because I don’t want to feed several starters, but then I add rice flour) and the other flours are buckwheat, gf oats and millet. It tastes like the typical German „Schrotbrot“, but I miss ciabatta and baguette.

>189 Deern: People love their sugar! You're well-launched into this subset of baking, so I'll be interested to see what you get up to in the quest.

>187 Deern: Sounds nasty.

You have to wait a year for an appointment? That’s awfully long.

Wishing you well, Nathalie.

>190 richardderus: Well, today I‘m going to fail with a (non-gf) spelt and oat bread, if I get it scratched from the basket into into the baking pot at all, it will probably turn into a pot-sized flatbread. I still had a pack of spelt flour at home and wanted to use it before stocking up more gf flours. After this one I‘d like to try some gf-free white bread. I enjoy these experiments and that the doughs behave differently every week. :)

Edit after the baking: and a pot-sized flatbread it is, but it tastes good and is quite crispy :)

>191 EllaTim: Thank you, I’m all fine again. :)
It wasn’t like that when I moved here in 2009, it was like paradise in comparison to Germany for a normal/ not private patient. Much more formal, but very efficient, and already highly digitalized. It slowly got worse and never improved again after Corona. Lots of doctors left the state system during the period of mandatory vaccination, others left later when the workload became too much, and most of them went private. It’s shocking how a good system changed in a couple of years amd how you’re quite forced into expensive private treatments now.

Saying Hi to my own thread after a demanding work week with two direct colleagues on holiday.

Well, my own 4.5 days away in mid June are in view now, I booked the trains and the hotels and the tickets for Ralf König and for the comic book fair. The hard thing will be to take as little stuff as possible in my luggage to have room for all the books. I also want to do some clothes shopping, I have a favorite brand of very colorful, sustainable clothes, and there’s a store in Munich.

Other activities this week: used the bicycle a lot, also for shopping. Still not feeling all secure, but since I started wearing a helmet I look like a German tourist (they all wear helmets, most locals don’t), so locals expect the worst, like sudden stops or turns. It’s just like it was driving a car with a foreign licence plate.

On Friday I went to my Kantanza class, it’s „free dancing“ in a group of people with or without special needs. I started this about a year ago and it‘s great fun. We‘re preparing a little show for friends and families for June 6th, and everyone is excited. We’re all going for pizza later that day, and then sadly the long summer break is starting. On that same evening I did a test class with the same teacher in something called „Rio Abierto“, which is also dancing and activating all the energy centres in the body. I‘ll book the class in autumn, it was a great experience, very emotional.

Those reviews… all 3 books are available in German only, so I keep it short.

The first two books were recommended by my cousin. She‘s 12 years younger than me, and her mother/my aunt was my closest relative, more like a sister, only 12 years older than me, so I‘m right in the middle between those two. All the three of us are very similar with the difference that I‘m the „nice one“ (with my rage always hidden away), my cousin turned her rage into activism, for a while she was a street worker in Frankfurts drug milieu and she worked nights at a shelter for drug addicts suffering from AIDS. I always admired her, but she also scared me. My aunt was a bridge between us - generally nice and considerate, but with her own little activist projects in the neighborhood. She passed away two years ago and I think of her every day. There was a highly spiritual connection, we often had significant dreams about the other. After she died, the connection to my cousin became much closer. So when she tells me to read a certain book, I‘ll get it and read it asap.

30. Die Wut, die bleibt by Mareike Fallwickl
If you look at the story soberly, it has lots of issues, but the important part is the emotion it carries. During lockdown, a woman/ wife and mother of three, suddenly gets up from the dinner table and jumps from the balcony, committing suicide. The book is about the aftermath, how her oldest daughter, her husband and her best friend from schooldays deal with the situation and their feelings. The daughter goes from the expected and accepted helplessness into full feminist rage, also very visible in her body -after an anorexic phase that brings admiration and envy, she becomes muscular and heavy and cuts her hair, so isn’t seen as a real girl anymore - the husband hides behind his work and the best friend moves in and automatically takes over the motherly role, completely suppressing her own needs. She has inner dialogues with the „ghost“ of her friend, reminiscing their youth, bad events, the dreams they shared. Of course I saw myself in the friend, my aunt in the dead mother and my cousin in the daughter. It was a very emotional read, and it did something to me. Building up some muscles now, real ones and mind muscles as well :)
Rating: 4.5 stars

The book my cousin originally recommended and which I found only in audio was this one:
31.Liebe Jorinde by Mareike Fallwickl
This is a very short book, just an essay. It‘s a letter from the author to the producer (or director?) of the stage adaptation of book #30. It‘s about the need for a new, inclusive feminism, a feminism that also includes the men, as they’re suffering from patriarchy and their expected roles just as much. It was a bit… not half-baked, but maybe 80%-baked and too short, but definitely thought-provoking.
Rating: 4 stars

32. No Prblem by Veit Lindau
Required reading for my class, a very short paperback book about a comprehensive way of dealing with „normal“ problems (the missing „o“) in the title is intended). Normal means not related to wars, catastrophes, etc., and for a spiritual book mentioning that is already a plus. I would have rated this higher two years ago, now it feels dated. The general approach is okay, but I didn’t really need those contents for my classes.
Rating: 3.5 stars

>192 Deern: Being a flatbread fancier, I don't think that entirely a bad thing. Especially when it's crispy!

>197 richardderus: My neighbors tasted it and said it is the best of my breads so far. They don’t really like my gf experiments. But they’re right, it’s really quite good! I also love flatbreads. Hm.. must see if I find a recipe for gf foccacia :)

Typing on my new ipad. The old one died on me after my earlier posts. Yay for bigger stores being open in Italy on Sundays, and for the old one leaving me during an Apple promo weekend. Still an expense I hadn’t planned for this month, but I knew it would happen soon. So dear new ipad - this is LT, I hope we’re going to spend much time here! :)

33. Enemy Feminisms by Sophie Lewis

First of all, thank you to Richard who brought this book to my attention. It was a very hard read/ listen for me, at some point I started over and still half of the time didn’t really know what I was listening to. The -ism language wasn’t easy and then where I come from, feminism has been treated differently in the media compared to the US and the UK. We are sleepy people here, there were never any awareness months in my youth or big names, and there weren’t all those different groups until recently. Or maybe they just don’t fight as publically.

So when the author takes her arguments against some of the icons of the movement, it was usually a name I never heard of and therefore her judgement didn’t shock me or offend my feelings. I feel like I’ll have to listen to it again, but maybe first learn about all these women somewhere else.

The good thing is that the book got me thinking and questioning my own views, also about the whole transphobia that’s coming up now - that has been quite a surprise for me as I‘d naively expected we’d all welcome our new sisters. Okay, not all, but most of us. (But then we have mixed bathrooms at my company and in many places in Italy and mixed textile-free saunas at least in Northern Europe and I never thought of a public bathroom as a safe zone).

Another surprise was a long part about Alice Schwarzer, the former most famous German ex-super-leftist feminist who’s now taken a sharp turn to the right. I didn’t get the feeling that part was perfectly researched, there had been a phase in the early 2000s when Schwarzer slowly left the old corner, suddenly was all over the media also in reality and cooking shows, maybe even in the jungle? Later there was a tax scandal and rumors about abusive behavior towards coworkers. I had the impression that she enjoyed being „liked“ during the TV phase and then followed the easiest path to more applause. Maybe a bit like Naomi Woolf.

Anyway, I thought if the book misses the gray shades about this person, maybe it’s the same with others. I didn’t get the feeling Lewis accepted the idea of historical context. She doesn’t have to, but the early chapters felt a bit like reading one of those modern historical novels where everyone has 21st century liberal values.

This all sounds way more negative than it should. It wasn’t an enjoyable read, but an important one.

Rating for now 4 stars.

It seems I’m always playing catch up on threads. The shame of it!
>180 Deern: I’m what is often referred to as a “cradle catholic “ so it’s a big deal when a new pope is selected. As we were waiting for the announcement, I was hoping for either the cardinal from Africa or the Philippines. Please don’t let it be an American. Well, I was shocked at the choice of a Robert. I was in a coffee shop waiting for his initial greeting and was pleasantly surprised that he spoke in Latin, Italian and Spanish not English! Grazie!
Fox News was hysterical! How they back pedaled from excitement “He’s From the US!” He’s a Republican!” Then they clammed up when it was discovered he was progressive and intended to continue Pope Francis’s progressive agenda. So funny!

Glad you’re feeling better!

Hello, new iPad! Welcome to LT you will like it here.

cancelled as double post

>198 Deern: King Arthur flour company to your rescue!
https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/tall-and-tender-gluten-free-focaccia-re...

>200 Deern: Not a pleasant read but an important one is a good summary of the experience, Nathalie.

un abraccio

>201 Carmenere: Ipad says thank you :)
Having some issues with the keyboard, producing way more typos and it’s constantly switching from English to German.. but I’ll get used to it.
I now wish I had watched on for a bit longer, but the whole Fox news experience was so surreal, I felt like I had to switch to a normal news channel or I’d lose my sanity. Why oh why did he speak Spanish and not English, what could it mean?? And then there was guy who suggested the Vatikan had real business problems so they basically hired an American to clean up. They do have a different reality, very scary!

>204 richardderus: I also found the voice (it was not narrated by the author) a bit unpleasant in the beginning, quite loud and like she was accusing me.

Thanks for the foccacia inspiration, it looks yummy! I adore the stuff, especially with sea salt and rosemary.

Grazie caro Richard, un abbraccio a te :)

>199 Deern: ha! Enjoy the new I pad. I will soon have to replace my MacBook. I am just trying to squeeze more life out of it 😆

>207 figsfromthistle: I also kept delaying replacing the ipad and made it into the new generation where at least the basic one has more RAM. Then on Sunday the battery suddenly went to zero while being on the charger, and that was it. With all the other issues like the broken glass, a repair made no sense anymore. Hoping your Macbook keeps going for a while longer, those are so much more expensive!

Yay, it’s Friday, I don’t have to work (still eating up the extra hours of earlier years), and there’s a national holiday on Monday. So many possibilities, but I’ll also have to do some revising. I got into an additional training group for the coaching, and the upgrade classes started yesterday, so that’s 3 nights in a week now planned for that (still meeting the old buddy group online) + all the reading and revising. I love it! :)

Tomorrow I’m doing something completely untypical for this alpine Italo-Austrian place: an Indian cooking class in English language! It’s a surprise that apparently enough people signed up. This will be fun! Many of my cookbooks are in English, so it should be easy, I’ll just have to check the names of some spices. This reminds me of another exotic summer class I took many years ago: danse et francais. For a week, we had a mix of French and dance lessons and in the end had to dance in public in the Bolzano city centre (that part was terrible!). The catalogue of the adult education centre is usually totally boring, but sometimes there are those little gems.

34. Exit Racism by Tupoka Ogette
My classes came with extensive reading lists, and if sometimes I fall behind on the lessons, it’s usually because (of course) I get lost in those extra books and sometimes start following the authors. This one is from the list, and while my first awakening to the fact I’m privileged happened years earlier with a book by a British author (forgot name and title), this one tells the story from a German point of view. Germany lost the few colonies after WWI and contary to the UK or France, you didn’t see many people of color in our streets in the 70s when I was a kid, just the American GIs near Wiesbaden. So Sesame Street was a revelation for the 2 or 3 years the original was running before it was replaced with a then all white German version.

The author of this book grew up in Eastern Germany as the daughter of a white local woman and a student from Tansania. Exchange students from other communist/ socialist countries were always kept seperate from the locals and sent home immediately after completing their studies, there were no exceptions made for the few couples, even when there was a child. Shortly before the fall of the borders, the family (her mother had married another German then) moved West, where Ogette met with a different kind of racism, less overt and often “well meaning”.

She tells her own story here and shares recent episodes from the lives of her own children and experiences of other families of color. Her main objective is an improvement of communication with white people who can’t deal with being confronted with their racism. It’s a bit difficult to explain, but due to our history, my generation “learned not to be racist” which lead to us often ignoring the issues which in fact are there.

This is an “active” book with lots of links to videos. Ogette used to offer worksops and there are the voices of participants as they progress through the contents and as their views are changing. My only small issue with this book is that after 10 years it might need some revising, things haven’t got better, sadly.

Rating 4.5 stars

I wanted to look up the other anti-racism book I read years ago and browsed some old threads. At least it wasn‘t hard to find with a 5 year absence and both the 2020 and 2019 threads abandoned early. So, early in 2018 I read Why I‘m no longer talking to white people about race by Reni Eddo-Lodge, followed by several feminist books I‘d all completely forgotten and there was quite an interesting discussion about how views can change, about “the shift”. I notice I moved on from there, but in baby steps, and it has been a painful process.

Other things:
My parents haven’t changed. Reading about the first move gives me the creeps. Fortunately I couldn’t help with the second move due to Covid travel restrictions, now this year there might be another one and I’m dreading it.

At one point I posted about the failure of feminism in Italy, and someone answered I should come to the US, where there’s no nepotism and bribery. Well… :/

I forgot everything about at least 2/3 of the books on that thread. But that’s okay, it has been like that since I’m on LT. So I have already read a Kling and even a Pavese.

I was very active and read A LOT! Now I don’t even remember what ROOT stands for.

My work situation has so much improved since the two rage-driven people left. One quit in anger 2-3 years ago, the other retired last year. Now I have most Fridays off to compensate at least part of all the extra hours from those years.

Back then, I used to post from the office computer, pre-writing most posts in Word and checking/ editing them a lot. Office policy is now much stricter, so please forgive the far less elaborate posts typed on the ipad screen keyboard that constantly changes language and ignores blanks.

I’m so immensely grateful you welcomed me back. I might never be that active again, but it feels good to be here and in contact with you again.

>211 Deern: *hugs*

Have a great weekend, Nathalie! Let us know how the cooking class goes and what you made. I love Indian food but find it easier to eat out than cook at home. Maybe they will share an uncomplicated one with you.

Grrr.. so South Tyrol will finally have their first Pride parade in Bolzano. 2 weeks ago new mayors were elected and - another first - Bolzano now has a far right mayor (it’s the only town with an Italian majority and there’s much Italian neo-fascism as reaction to the Austria-leaning far right parties of the German speaking group. It’s all a bit complicated). So he now withdrew the official patronage which will probably mean the organizers have to carry all the cost. It’s interesting that both the far rights hate each other, but when it comes to more rights for other minorities, they all talk about traditional values and kiss their rosaries (literally, I‘ll never forget the video of a sunburned Salvini on some Italian beach, kissing his rosary to get votes in the elections, sadly it worked).

Now that my Munich stay has been all booked, the realease of Ralf Koenig’s new book has been delayed to late July/August, and he started cancelling readings. I hope he’ll still do the Munich one, as he’ll be on the comic book festival in any case - and because I booked and already paid a shabby looking hotel next to the venue for the first night. The program for the festival is out now, and he’ll be on stage on Thursday, the day I had planned for Dachau. Might have to switch those dates. No personally signed book for me though. Still much looking forward to it, it seems it’s a huge event and there are also extra events all over town.

>212 richardderus: Thank you (((((Richard)))))

>213 Carmenere: Back from the cooking class, it was fun, and surprisingly we had cooked, eaten and cleaned everything up within a bit more than 3 hours.

There were 12 participants, 2 of them young kids, all open for spicy food and with a good level of English. The teacher was from Southern India (she had grown up in the UK and spoke British English) and confirmed that there are no restaurants with Southern Indian food anywhere near here. So it seems I have to keep doing my own cooking. The teacher is also a vegetarian, so we made a vegetable curry with lentils, fried okra/ladyfingers, saffron rice and real chai tea. The food was good, but surprisingly bland, she had been way too careful with the spices. But I learned a bit about the technique, when to add what. I had always roasted all the spices together, but some are added at the end before serving. The red lentils are cooked to real mush. The chai tea was really good and strong, I probably won’t sleep tonight. :)

>216 Deern: Ooo, fried okra! Pickled okra is my very favorite but I miss fried okra, too. Did she coat the outside with a spicy batter? Was there a sauce over, or on the side, of the okra? I'm misty-eyed with nostalgia....

>217 richardderus: Sorry to disappoint you, just marinated in spices and then pan-fried till crispy and almost black. Served with the curry, so no extra sauce. Good, but your version sounds so much better! But now I know where to get them, I’ll try some recipes. I love fried spicy foods in summer (and ice cream in winter).

>218 Deern: Try this:
https://www.thepioneerwoman.com/food-cooking/recipes/a35881049/southern-fried-ok...
...and use canola oil, or maize oil, not Olive oil as the taste of olive oil is too prominent for this dish.

Oh dear, almost four weeks not on LT and so much happening with you. I'm sorry to hear that your parents' moving plans are going in the 'wrong' direction. But what the heck, it's their life and you don't need to feel responsible. My father moved to Thailand many years ago. Since then there has been more or less radio silence between us.
Sorry to hear that Bolzano is also sliding to the right. It's simply unbelievable how 'stupid' humanity has become and it's really scary.
I hope that your stay in Munich will be successful after all.
Cooking Indian food in South Tyrol sounds exciting, but unfortunately I can't do anything with this cuisine. It just doesn't suit my taste and I've tried it many times.
I wish you a sunny long weekend.

>219 richardderus: This looks yummy! Now that my dream of travelling to the US and eating my way through Southern Fried “almost everything” won’t ever come true, maybe I should start frying foods at home.

>220 Ameise1: Hi Barbara, good news about Munich, that date has been confirmed, maybe he’ll read from older books.

In the meantime it seems this time the landlords changed their minds and never sent my parents the contract. I feel sad for them, but maybe now they’ll look for a residence again.

Indian food was love at first taste for me, but I prefer the Southern dishes, they’re lighter and spicier and often have coconut, and the few restaurants here are mostly Northern Indian or Pakistani, with lots of meat, onions and heavy sauces. Like all Asian restaurants, they’re much adapted to local tastes, and even yesterday the teacher didn’t eat with us. :)

>221 Deern: That's a great place to start, it's easy and it's quick. One HUGE pitfall is cutting the okra into chunks too soon. They get slimy inside if not cooked as soon as they're cut. Make the coating, heat the oil, slice the okra, then fry *immediately* to avoid that sliminess.

MMmmm MMMMmmmm. This year I started making the "best dal ever" recipe that I found online with red lentils and coconut milk. SO GOOD!!!!! I can't wait for local okra to start coming in at the farmers' market. I'll add some for sure. (I am a child of the South. I don't mind the slime at all, but cooking them dry is good too.)

>223 richardderus:, >224 LizzieD: okay, I really must find a place to buy okra! Wherever I’ll buy it, it won’t be very fresh, but I remember it keeps well. My ex (the ayurvedic teacher) once brought a bagfull from a market in Vienna and kept it in the fridge for almost a week before cooking it, using a recipe he’d learned in India with tomatoes and all kinds of spices. In the last couple of years several middle-eastern/asian stores opened here and I heard they’re selling it.

Re. sliminess: the Indian teacher last week had us cut them and then marinate them in the spices for more than an hour, it seems that also helped.

Yay, another long weekend!

Started with having my hair cut even shorter on Friday (since I stopped dyeing it, it grows like crazy and gets really hot in summer). Well, not 100% happy with the result, but I’ll get used to it.

In the afternoon we had our little show with the integrative dance class for friends and family, and it was great fun. For the last song everyone joined in, dancing and singing along, and there was much applause. Most of the group then took a short walk, had some ice cream and later went for a pizza. Now the usual Italian 3 months summer break begins.

Yesterday was another very humid day and I did nothing much. Prepared the dough for gluten-free rolls, it’s my first attempt with flours for white bread (rice, a bit of coconut, corn, potato). The dough has been resting in the fridge overnight and has risen nicely, I’m hoping for a good result. The last breads I made were rye, so not gf.

Stumbled over the movie of Chiamami col tuo nome on Sky and realized I’d never fully watched it as I found the Oliver actor so difficult to look at, he’s so awkward. It’s amazing how the camera look on him changes once they get together.

I remembered that back then I’d owned the book and had given it away, so I profited from the audible sale, bought it for 5 Euro and started listening to it. It’s the first time I can easily follow an Italian audiobook, it’s so well narrated. I remembered Richard’s review back then wasn’t very positive, but I can’t help really enjoying both book and movie. I was 16 in 1987, and there’s so much I can relate to. I like that they moved the film to a different part of Italy which is more similar to my home region in Germany with all the agriculture, the rivers and the woods. I can feel and smell the movie.

I also bought the sequel Cercami. The reviews weren’t very good, but in these times, sometimes I want a happy ending in my fiction books, I hope I’ll find it and none of them suddenly dies, returns to ex partners or similar

Edit after reading a bit more: okay, I don’t like the Rome chapter so far. I guess the movie did well to cut it short.

Audible sales haul:

Chiamami col tuo nome by Andre Aciman, Italian
Cercami by Andre Aciman, Italian
Pfoten vom Tisch by Hape Kerkeling, German
Camere separate by Vittorio Tondelli, Italian, because I want it read to me, and my eye reading is too slow
All Fours by Miranda July
Clear: a novel by Carys Davies
“Far and away” by A.A. Gill (pure nostalgia.. loved and collected his reviews in The Times in the mid-90s)
Reveal by Chris Heath (sorry, I just love Robbie Williams, although I stopped buying his albums many years ago. I just always hope he’ll live a happy and peaceful life)
A Line you have traced by Roisin Dunnett
Deep House: the gayest love story ever told by Jeremy Atherton Lin

I have no idea when I’ll find the time to listen to these, with all the revising going on as well, but with eye reading it would take longer.

35. Bellies by Nicola Dinan

I forgot to review this book, another BB from Richard’s thread and another “important” read in 2025, this time fiction. For the review, you better read Richard’s, I found I even highlighted the same parts he quoted. There are time jumps and narrator switches about every second chapter, but whenever I felt I had missed something important, it was intelligently woven in, by memories, conversations, even a play. The conclusion felt honest and “sad but clean” in a good way.

I was wondering if many young people nowadays are as open, welcoming and accepting as this group of very diverse friends seems to be. I haven’t met many, but I live in conservative picture postcard land. But even here, I made two transwomen friends. One of them is very young, the other one is my age. I knew the latter for many years before her transition started, and we really didn’t get along very well then. I actually complained about her a lot here and would never have suspected what was behind it all. I can’t say how much I admire her courage for now becoming her true self.

Rating for the book: 4.25 stars

36. Chiamami col tuo nome by Andre Aciman

I already wrote a bit about this book in >226 Deern:, so now just just the conclusion: this is a case for me where I liked the film better than the book. I prefer the setting in the Padana, near Crema. I prefer the present tense to the 20 year old memories in the book and I much preferred the Bergamo part to the (very long and partly pretentious) Rome part. I thought the movie’s ending with the phone call and then Elio staring into the fire with all those emotions on his face while a fly is crawling all over him was much stronger. What I enjoyed more about the book was Elio’s super restless energy, especially on “that day”. I was a bit surprised that in the book he feels strongly drawn to women even while being with Oliver, when in the film I got the impression that Marzia would be his first and last girlfriend. I liked that the intimacy between Elio and Oliver is much stronger in the book, and I don’t just mean explicit. Some of it might now also be in a movie.
I have the perfect mix of book and film in my head now, and I wonder how the sequel will work. I am very invested in those two now.

Rating: 4 stars

>226 Deern: I'm a grouch when it comes to gay media depictions, Nathalie. I'm not tolerant of TW STRAIGHT ACTORS playing gay leads in a story. It's very pretty to look at, this film, but hollow because no one in the lead is invested in his role depicting his own real feelings.

That's performative, "displaying acting range." I think that's reprehensible. I'm also not tolerant of other kinds of performative gestures at "tolerance."

Mean old man, me.

>228 Deern: Knowing what you know ow might've made you a friend...or the deadliest enemy ever. Trans people are in an ugly place when it comes to trust. I hope your former enemy can be at least aware you're now an ally.

BELLIES is a terrific book to recommend to people who have "ewww-ick" transphobia.

Sunday orisons, dear lady.

Hi! Glad as usual to catch up with you. Lots of great comments here.

Nice audible haul , Nathalie! I hope you find time to listen to them. I listen to audible books when I am jigsaw puzzling. My current book is not on audible yet, which is too bad. Oh well. I also get 15 hours of audible books for Spotify Premium. Well worth it, I think.

Hi and happy Sunday! I had a very busy week with very bad sleep (heat and a beautiful full moon kept me awake), so once again after all the excel work in the office, my eyes were too tired for reading and spending much time on threads, including my own. Instead I’ve been audio-revising while lying on my yoga mat (the floor is cool), sweating. I usually don’t do this before mid-July. My heat aversion gets worse every year.

I‘ll be on vacation next week and travel to Munich on Tuesday where in the evening I have tickets for the Ralf König reading. On Wednesday I‘m meeting my cousin and his family. Then on Thursday hopefully Dachau and on Friday the comic book festival. It’s been a couple of years since my last city trip on my own, which was Vienna in February 2022 when it was cool and sunny and tourism was still low. I hope I can deal okay with heat and crowds next week.

The one thing I followed last week were the LA protests, the preparations for No King‘s Day (or was it Kings?) and then last night I hardly slept and kept checking the live news on the NYT, I was so worried and at the same time so in awe of all those people getting out on the streets despite the countless threats. So I got the news about the Minnesota shootings very early. I was shocked and sickened, this is yet another step into a direction I wouldn’t have thought possible for the US. It’s like a worldwide brain virus eating away the part which had empathy and humanity stored.

>231 richardderus: I’m careful, not out of a general distrust, but because that specific person caused me some trouble professionally back then. I’m supportive and respectful, but wouldn’t tell her all my secrets.

>232 ffortsa: Thank you! :)
I’m far from catching up with anyone, once again. Hoping for good wifi in the hotel next week.

>233 vancouverdeb: I’m planning to get through at least two books next week when I’m travelling. There are the train rides, and then I found out my new phone contract doesn’t cover other countries, so I’ll often be offline and listen to downloaded audiobooks when I’m not within some wifi reach. So no revising next week (the lessons are all videos) and hopefully some good books instead.
I don’t have a spotify membership, I must check if the Italian one also offers audiobooks. When I did all my puzzles 2 years ago, I got through several Agatha Christies, it was a great comfy holiday combo! :)

>234 Deern: It’s like a worldwide brain virus eating away the part which had empathy and humanity stored.

Well put.

>238 ffortsa: sigh :/

I arrived in Munich yesterday with a big delay, for once totally relaxed as I didn‘t have to get a connection. The trains from Italy always stop at a platform that is so far outside the station that you have to walk what I counted were about 750 not small steps to finally arrive in the station, no shortcuts, not great for people with disabilities or big luggage. Add to this the usual delays, and that‘s why on other occasions when I’m travelling to my parents I always plan for app 2 hrs between trains.

The hotel for the first night is cute, family-run, in the middle of old Schwabing, surrounded by bars. They gave me a double room instead of the small single I’d booked, with couryard view, so I had a very quiet night, and now the birds are singing outside.

The location for the Ralf Koenig reading, the Vereinshaus, is just opposite the hotel. It is the most delightful venue I ever saw! It’s so tiny and old-fashioned, exceptional staff who were serving delicious looking food (just a couple of dishes) and drinks without ever getting stressed. It really is just an old-fashioned corner bar with a little stage, they placed a couple of chairs in front of it and everyone else sat by the bar or one of three small tables in the background. People were eating spaghetti carbonara in their chairs :)

I hadn’t known about the food and eaten somewhere else earlier. Got a good seat at the bar, so I saw everything perfectly.

Ralf turned up at 07:30 and the reading ended by 10:30 (with a short break). It’s been years since I laughed so hard, all my mascara was gone. I didn’t know a reading of comic books could be such fun. It was a mix of old classics and all new stories. The audience were all my age, in their 50s or early 60s, great atmosphere and I felt extremely happy and relaxed after a short afternoon crisis when I was walking around Schwabing and kept thinking “I don’t fit in here anymore”. 16 years abroad is a lot, and you feel it more in the bigger cities.

Now getting up, I’m meeting my cousin and his family today for brunch.

>240 Deern: Your description of your hotel makes me want to hop on a plane myself - sounds simply divine.

Have a lovely trip and safe travels.

I am happy reading about your great pleasure in your trip so far. Everything sounds magical, really. I hope your visit with your cousin's family is equally good. HOORAY for you, Nathalie!!!!

>240 Deern: Sounds perfect. Hope it continues well too.

>240 Deern: What a great way to start you trip! I'm counting getting most of your daily count of good-health steps in before really getting launched on the trip as a plus.

Keep enjoying!

It’s my last day in Munich already, and it has been SO great, after those 2 initial hours when I felt a bit like an alien. Since I walked into the Vereinsheim I’ve been feeling at home here.

On Wednesday I had a lovely brunch with my cousin and his family and their cute young dog (golden retriever/aussie shepherd mix). My cousin and I then took the dog for a long walk in the park, down to the Isar river where she went swimming. In the evening we met again to have dinner (okay, aperitivi and fries) in a pop-up rooftop bar to watch the sunset over Munich. I must relearn how to post pics, but will do that in the next thread.

Yesterday was Dachau, I’ll do an extra post for that when I’m back home.

Today I went to the comic book festival and spent many happy hours there, it’s like I found my people! :D
I have no idea how I’ll schlepp my purchases home tomorrow. I found several out of print older Ralf Königs, among them Lysistrata, bought a stack of old MAD magazines from my youth, some underground German comic magazines that look very promising and came signed and a book about feminism. Yesterday in Dachau I’d already bought a GN about the story of a homosexual German man during the Nazi years (who got no compensation for the 8 years in the camps because homosexuality stayed a crime for many more years in West Germany after the war), Rosa Winkel.
I could have bought half of what was on the shelves and have quite a list of “to be ordered” GNs now.

The best thing today was a cartoon autograph by Ralf König. I might post it (is that permitted ?) but I‘ll have to cut a bit off. I had just asked for a nice muscular guy the way he always draws them, but he also gave me Konrad and Paul, and Paul is very… indecent :D. The muscular guy says „Hi Nathalie“.

At one point I heard a brass band playing, and there was a wedding party passing through the festival halls, led by a typical Bavarian brass band in lederhosen. The party were all in comic con fancy dress, it was quite spectacular. They then moved next door to a classic beer garden for the reception.

I had early dinners today and yesterday in a vegan restaurant that specializes in Bavarian cuisine and has great ratings. They sold lots of mock ducks with dark beer sauce, potato dumplings and red cabbage, but I had the (soy) Wiener schnitzel with a very light and refreshing potato cucumber salad both times, as I can’t get anything like it where I live and it was way too hot for me to have Christmassy food.

My second hotel is perfect except (you might laugh now) for the too cold aircon and the Amercan-style overhead shower.

I finished a couple of books, I will review those as well when I’m back home (and will respond to your posts).

Happy weekend! :)

>214 Deern: I have noticed here in Austria that a lot of the smaller towns ie: less than 10000 people do not mention anything about pride parades or celebrate in general. I rarely read anything about it in the newspaper either. Quite sad really.
>234 Deern: have a great trip to Munich!

>245 Deern: The camps are moving places aren't they, Nathalie, and have a very unusual atmosphere about them?

I am old fashioned enough that I am always disappointed not to see a "nice" hotel have a lovely bathtub to wallow in.

>246 figsfromthistle: I have noticed that it is more an Anglosphere thing, Anita. Homosexuality is still illegal here and we have a Prime Minister who served Prison Time for "sodomy" and I used to worry about my Sister-in-Law a lot when she was younger.

>246 figsfromthistle: It’s the same in Germany and I doubt a town the size of Bolzano would have Pride celebrations there. It’s concentrated on the bigger cities, I went to the Frankfurt one a couple of times when I still lived there. Those are huge and attract people from all around. However, as the capital of an autonomous region (though a small one) it was time Bolzano got an own Pride “party”, I doubt there will be parade, just a small march, looking at the 2-3 other marches I went to.

Thank you, I really enjoyed it, unfortunately it’s already over, I just passed the Italian border this minute.

>247 PaulCranswick: It was my first visit to a camp, and I can’t put it in words yet. Dachau was a small camp, mainly for political prisoners and POWs. There were also Jews, but for them it was often a station on the way to a death camp. While it was a men’s camp, there were a couple of female prisoners (there was a brothel), and 4 female British secret agents were murdered there. After the war, the US military also used it as a PoW camp and later the Bavarians had refugees from the Eastern parts living there for a couple of years. This all makes for a strange atmosphere.

I also like bath tubs, but don’t miss them in hotels as I’m lucky to have one at home. Now that it gets really hot in Merano, I enjoy taking a cool bath in the evenings.

>241 PaulCranswick:
It was quite a nice hotel, but the second one cost about 15 Euros more a night and was a suite with fully equipped kitchen and a little terrace, so I‘d rather book that second one again. Okay, it was a holiday week, no trade shows, so room rates were „low“ in the business hotels.

>242 LizzieD: Thank you, it was all lovely, I‘m so glad I did that.

>243 charl08: It did, I was really lucky, even the train rides were okay (maybe because I was on Austrian trains..)

>244 richardderus: I wasn’t good with my good health steps, didn’t even look at the list.

I did involuntary intermittent fasting on the last 3 days because the heat made me feel a bit dizzy and nauseous, and I was afraid any fatty/ heavy foods and also coffee would make me sick, so I only had a pretzel and a Coke zero around noon and then nothing until early dinner. I kept hydrated, and I walked a lot anyway.

The first thing I did when I got home yesterday was ordering a very salty but cheese-free pizza with capers and olives :D