MissWatson keeps a record of her reading, vol. Two

Hello and welcome! I am Birgit, I am in my third year of retirement, and I still enjoy the leisure it gives me. I spend it reading, mostly, and the Category Challenge helps me picking my books. I didn’t have a bright idea for a theme this time, and to be honest, my main goal these days is to read what I have on my shelves. But I like to keep track of my reading, and I have decided to sort it by years only. I am trying to catch up on the classics and hope to put my focus there. The goal is to read 20 books for each of these categories.

The word „classic“ always puts me in mind of music. Thus I have chosen three well-known concert halls to illustrate my main categories.

Here I keep track of the number of pages read every month. I am aiming for 3,500.

January: 4,692 pages
February: 4,279 pages
March: 5,199 pages
April: 3,518 pages
May: 4,439 pages
June: 3,161 pages

Classics


The Wiener Musikverein is the home of the Vienna Philharmonics, and their New Year’s Concert has been a staple of my TV schedule for ages. The Golden Hall looks much smaller in reality than on TV! I found the etching on Wikipedia, and it is in the public domain.

This means books written before 1900. My favourite literary period is the 19th century, and I expect it will make up the bulk of my reading.

March
12. Eline Vere by Louis Couperus

April
13. Une page d’amour by Émile Zola

May
14. Garman & Worse by Alexander L. Kielland
15. Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime by Oscar Wilde
16. The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde

June
17. Le ventre de Paris by Émile Zola
18. Deutschland. Ein Wintermärchen by Heinrich Heine

Modern Classics


The Rudolf-Oetker-Halle is in Bielefeld, it was inaugurated in 1930 and still has most of its original fittings. Wonderful acoustics, too. The image is on the website of the arts department of Bielefeld City and was taken by Nina Österreich.

That’s the period from 1901 til 1975. I have never been drawn much to authors from this time, but as I grow older and mellower, I find them attractive. I’m hoping to catch up here.

March
9. Die Festung by Ismail Kadaré
10. Chronik in Stein by Ismail Kadaré

April
11. Wälsungenblut by Thomas Mann
12. The story of a panic by E.M. Forster

May
13. Collected Short Stories by E.M. Forster
14. L’œuvre au noir by Marguerite Yourcenar
15. Der Weihnachtskarpfen by Vicki Baum

June
16. Requiem for a Wren by Nevil Shute

Contemporary


The Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg was a much-debated project with the usual problems of cost overruns, but has gone from strength to strength since it was opened in 2017. I took that picture myself.

These are books written and published since 1976. There’s a reason for choosing 1976 as a cutoff point: that’s when I came of age and finished high school. Counting as a proper grown-up from then.

March
3. Die Maske by Siegfried Lenz

April
4. The noise of time by Julian Barnes
5. Cézembre by Hélène Gestern
6. The sense of an ending by Julian Barnes
7. Unter dem Sternbild der Trauer by Juri Rytchëu

June
8. Tigerman by Nick Harkaway

Non-fiction


The title page of the digitised Encyclopédie from the days of the Enlightenment. It’s in the public domain, according to Wikipedia.

My favourite non-fiction subject has always been history, and I have hoarded loads and loads of fat volumes. Once again, I will try to make some inroads into that mountain, but won’t set a numerical goal. I get distracted too easily! It is a good thing therefore that we are having a Non-FictionCAT this year, that should help.

March
Die Kultur Japans by Florian Coulmas
Geschichte des Osmanischen Reiches by Suraiya Faroqhi
Escape from Rome by Walter Scheidel

April
Erebus by Michael Palin

May
Come, tell me how you live by Agatha Christie
Mörder Mode Mitgiftjäger by Susanne Buck
Löwentor und Labyrinth by Hans Baumann
Die römische Stadt by Paul Zanker

June
Benelux by Ute Schürings

CATs and KITs


My sister’s cat Tilda sitting in her garden.

There are far too many CATs and KITs to follow them all, but when and if a topic attracts me, I’ll try to participate. I like to go hunting for a suitable book on my shelves, but don’t plan in advance. These are spontaneous reads.

Hosting duties:
August: RTT
September: RandomKIT, DecadeCAT
November: MysteryKIT

April
49. The last voice you hear by Mick Herron (DcadesCAT, ColourKIT, MysteryKIT)
50. Une page d’amour by Émile Zola (AlphaKIT)
51. The story of a panic by E.M. Forster
52. The noise of time by Julian Barnes (AlphaKIT)
53. Erebus by Michael Palin (Non-fictionCAT, AlphaKIT, RandomKIT)
54. The British Museum is falling down by David Lodge (ArtsCAT)
55. The sense of an ending by Julian Barnes (AlphaKIT)
56. Peril at End House by Agatha Christie (ColourCAT, AlphaKIT, MysteryKIT)
57. Unter dem Sternbild der Trauer by Juri Rytchëu

May
58. Garman & Worse by Alexander L. Kielland (AlphaKIT)
59. Come, tell me how you live by Agatha Christie (DecadeCAT, Non-fictionCAT, AlphaKIT)
60. Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime by Oscar Wilde (AlphaKIT)
61. Löwentor und Labyrinth by Hans Baumann (NF CAT)
62. Die römische Stadt by Paul Zanker (NF CAT, AlphaKIT)
63. Mörderischer Mistral by Cay Rademacher (ColourCAT, MysteryKIT)
64. Sörensen hat Angst by Sven Stricker (AlphaKIT)
65. The Dain Curse by Dashiell Hammett (MysteryKIT)
66. The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde (AlphaKIT)
67. Eine brillante Masche by Jan Zweyer (AlphaKIT)
68. Die Legende der Adlerkrieger by Jin Yong (AlphaKIT)

June
69. Tigerman by Nick Harkaway (AlphaKIT)
70. Verpfändetes Leben by Vicki Baum (ArtsCAT)
71. Marazan by Nevil Shute (DecadesCAT)
72. Le ventre de Paris by Émile Zola (AlphaKIT)
73. Hatchet by Gary Paulsen (AlphaKIT)
74. Scientific progress goes "Boink" by Bill Watterson (RandomKIT)
75. Requiem for a Wren by Nevil Shute (RandomKIT)
76. Deutschland. Ein Wintermärchen by Heinrich Heine (AlphaKIT)
77. The Plymouth Express by Agatha Christie (DecadesCAT)
78. The Adventure of the Western Star by Agatha Christie (DecadesCAT)
79. The gods of Gotham by Lyndsay Faye (AlphaKIT, MysteryKIT)

July
80. Unter Wölfen by Alex Beer (AlphaKIT, RandomKIT)

BingoDOG

My favourite challenge. Last year I managed to fill two cards, a feat I hope to repeat this year. As always, my heartfelt gratitude to Christina and LShelby for the magnificent cards.



1: Die Legende der Adlerkrieger by Jin Yong
2: Sörensen hat Angst by Sven Stricker
3: Deutschland. Ein Wintermärchen by Heinrich Heine
4: Frau Helbing und der verschollene Kapitän by Eberhard Michaely
5: Menschen im Hotel by Vicki Baum
6: Das Geheimnis der Ordensfrau by Monika Küble/Henry Gerlach
7: Hell House by Richard Matheson
8: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (LL of Carson McCullers)
9: Olaf Braren by Mia Munier-Wroblewski
10: The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood
11: Keep the aspidistra flying by George Orwell
12: Der Weihnachtskarpfen by Vicki Baum
13: Down Cemetery Road by Mick Herron
14: Flashman and the Mountain of Light by George M. Fraser
15: Frau Helbing und die tödlichen Weihnachtsplätzchen by Eberhard Michaely
16: Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye
17: Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
18: Scientific progress goes "Boink" by Bill Watterson
19: Shadows on the Rock by Willa Cather
20: Erebus : The story of a ship by Michael Palin
21: Krokodilwächter by Katrine Engberg
22: Unter dem Sternbild der Trauer by Juri Rytchëu
23: Dodger by Terry Pratchett
24: Out on the Rim by Ross Thomas
25: Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann

Everything else

I knew I would need an overflow category!

April
Der erste Frühling by Klaus Kordon

May
Die Känguru-Rebellion by Marc-Uwe Kling
Die englische Episode by Petra Oelker

June
Le fantôme de la Rue Royale by Jean-François Parot

Welcome to my second thread!
Only a few days left in the month, and since I’ll be away next weekend, it seemed as good a time as any to make a new start. The sun is shining and luring me outside...

ETA: corrected all the touchstones. I have decided not to include the reading records for the first months because it slows up loading the thread.

Hi and happy new thread! I enjoy keeping up with your reading. It’s fun to have friends all over the world.

Thanks, Cheryl! I love to see what everyone else is reading, too. So many tempting books!

Everything else

I found Der erste Frühling at the open-air fleamarket two weeks ago and picked it because it fits the RTT challenge of "spring". The first spring of the title is May 1945, the Russians take Berlin, and we see events through the eyes of a twelve-year-old girl who has never known a spring without war. The book is aimed at the age group of the protagonist, hence a need for lots of in-line explanation which frequently slows down the narrative. Things speed up when the various members of the family return, whom Anne meets for the first time.
This is the third book in a trilogy covering the first half of the 20th century as lived by a working-class family in Berlin, and it is quite powerful. I’ll be keeping an eye out for the first two.

Happy new thread, Birgit, and enjoy your travels!

Happy New Thread, Birgit!

Happy New Thread

>14 christina_reads: Thanks, Christina. We’ll go and visit a garden fair which is always fun.
>15 MissBrangwen: Thanks, Mirjam!
>16 lowelibrary: Thanks, April!

Happy new thread! I love seeing different architecture when I travel, nice to see your photos again.

>13 MissWatson: A flea market bookstall sounds wonderful. Is it a regular place you visit or was it a one off?

>18 charl08: Nice to see you here, Charlotte! There are quite a few regulars who trade secondhand books semi-professionally, but also many people just uncluttering their attics or the kids’ rooms, and in this case someone was offloading their childhood books on going to university.

Contemporary / AlphaKIT: J

I don’t quite know what to make of The sense of an ending by Julian Barnes. The first part was slightly offputting and I wondered what the male equivalent of chick lit would be called. There was also a faint taste of the "superior male intelligence" attitude I found so annoying in David Lodge’s novel. On the other hand, his comments about the crassness and selfishness of youngsters were spot on, I did recognise my own teenage self sometimes. In the second part I was floundering just like Tony, I simply couldn’t see what Veronica thought was obvious. I guess this will stay in my mind a little longer than most books.

ColourCAT: yellow / AlphaKIT: P / MysteryKIT: private eyes

I needed something less demanding after the Barnes and picked up Peril at End House, a Poirot mystery. First published in 1932, so a classic of its kind, and there was also mention of the Blue Train mystery which I read not so long ago. Poirot’s mannerisms are not quite so obvious in the novels as in the short stories, and this one is very twisty and surprising. However: is it spoilery to say that I caught a distinct whiff of Collins’ Armadale in this? A bright red shawl and two persons sharing the same name

>20 MissWatson: I wondered what the male equivalent of chick lit would be called. I've seen "lad lit" and the ruder option of "dick lit"!

>22 christina_reads: Oh, yes! Thanks!

Contemporary / AlphaKIT: J / Bingo: indigenous author

Juri Rytchëu is a Chukchi, an indigenous tribe in North East Siberia. In Unter dem Sternbild der Trauer he tells a story that actually happened in 1934, when a group of Soviet scientists and administrators built a station on Wrangel Island. The doctor was the only one even trying to understand and communicate with the local indigenous people, everyone else exhibits the typical racist and crass attitudes of white colonialists. When the doctor dies on a trip to an outward settlement, the director of the station goes on trial in Moscow.

The German title refers to the star constellation of Ursa Minor where, according to the indigenous peoples belief, the souls of the dead go. The Russian original simply asks Who killed the doctor? The local shaman and his people know, but nobody asked them.

This was written in 1991, and it is unclear from the translation whether the author himself used the word "Eskimo" for the indigenous people on the island. I found the translation awkward in some places, but in all it gives a fascinating glimpse of life beyond the Arctic circle.

And now I am off for a long weekend with my sister. See you next week.

April roundup

I didn’t read nearly as much as I had planned, because I was busy elsewhere. I think the book I enjoyed most was Palin’s Erebus, it’s the kind of real-life story I find fascinating.

The long weekend (First of May is a public holiday) was wonderful, we went to the annual garden fair held in the grounds of the former abbey in Dalheim and the weather was gorgeous. But train travel was a real slog, again. I had packed Death is a lonely business to read. The dedication to the patron saints of noir mysteries (Chandler, Hammett, Cain and MacDonald) made me hope I had found something for the May MysteryKIT, but the writing was so annoying that I bailed after forty pages. Pretentious drivel.

In ten days I’ll go back for the music festival in Bad Arolsen, so reading-wise May will be another thin month.

I had never heard of Dalheim before, although I grew up relatively close to it! It looks really nice.

Happy new thread!

Glad you had a lovely May Day long weekend although having to quit a book was bad news. I've never had the inclination to try Bradbury.

>27 MissBrangwen: It has been restored over the years and has an active museum where they stage interesting exhibitions. Unfortunately, their summer programme has been cut down to a few concerts. There used to be amazing theatre productions, my favourite was Molière’s Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme with Lully’s music included, and only a chair on the stage.

>28 VivienneR: I probably confused him with Ray Bradbury. There have to be duds, occasionally.

Classics / AlphaKIT: W

I found Garman & Worse on my sister’s shelves and borrowed it for the train ride home, because I have read another of Kielland’s novels recently. This one is his first, a gentle portrait of smalltown life in one of its richest families. The Garmans have owned a shipping business for several generations, but the times are changing and the son wants to introduce steamships and new business methods.
The afterword is very helpful, it gives us the history of Norway until the time of the novel (1850-60s), Kielland’s CV and his oeuvre, which helps to understand the debate about the clergy.
This was printed in the GDR in the early sixties, when they still made beautiful books on good paper. I quite envy my sister...

DecadesCAT: 30s / Non-fictionCAT: archaeology / AlphaKIT

Come, tell me how you live is a memoir of sorts, about the archaeological digs where Agatha Christie joined her husband Max Mallowan. There is not much about scholarly techniques or analysis, but she paints a vivid picture of what it was like to spend months in an isolated spot in Syria with rudimentary accommodation and few comforts. The nuts and bolts of organising and living under such conditions is well described.
She spent several seasons in the 1930s there and then wrote this up during the Second World War, to remidn herself of happier days.

>31 MissWatson: Oh, this one is on my wish list! I once watched a documentary about that time in Agatha Christie's life and it was fascinating.

>32 MissBrangwen: If you want, I can mail it to you. Just give me a PM with your address.

>33 MissWatson: I sent you a PM :-)

>35 MissWatson: Thanks, you are welcome.

Non-fiction

I found Mörder Mode Mitgiftjäger by Susanne Buck on my sister’s shelves, and the title proved irresistible (Murder Fashion Fortune-hunters). It is a non-fiction book about some Russian emigrés who were notorious in the 1920s and 30s. The first part is about Felix Yusupov, a member of the highest aristocracy and married to a relative of the Czar, who was involved in the murder of Rasputin. He and his wife founded a short-lived fashion house in Paris and they knew practically everyone. Famous names are dropped left, right, and centre.
The second is about a family of three brothers and two sisters who escaped from Georgia and married into Hollywood. Serge Mdivani was married (briefly) to Pola Negri, David to Mae Murray (a silent movie star), and Alexis to Barbara Hutton, among others. One of the sisters married the son of Arthur Conan Doyle, and the bit about the sad fate of his literary oeuvre was gripping: it changed hands repeatedly. Coco Chanel hovers in the background, and many other famous people appear on the sidelines. It must have been an amazing time, when it was still comparatively easy to re-invent yourself as some exotic prince or noble.
The author quotes extensively and with gusto from the gossip pages of newspapers and magazines, and it was scary to see how much innuendo, errors, fabrications, and downright lies were spread. The journos get the names wrong regularly, which makes the detective work of the author even more impressive.
I won’t remember much of this, but it was fun.

Modern classics

I have finished Collected Short Stories by E.M. Forster. Most of these will be unintelligible to people who have no knowledge of Greek mythology. There are some that can be described as science fiction, such as The Machine Stops, and quite a few where literature and writing are important. They are quiet and gentle, but also slightly mocking the sense of superiority that so many of his English tourists display.

In other news: I have found an apartment in Bielefeld that will suit me and will now be busy chasing the necessary paperwork to finalise the contract. Not to mention that I need to do a thorough decluttering of the kitchen and bookshelves. So I may not be around quite as much as usually...

Classics / AlphaKIT: W and A

I am going through my shelves in preparation for my move and ran into Oscar Wilde’s short stories. Short works look like perfect reading right now, while I am busy with so much else, so in the evening I sat down to read Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime. The conversations in this are splendid but I am not quite sure what Wilde wanted to show us?

ETA: Against my usual procedure, I decided to read the introduction, and it has been very helpful in providing context. So Wilde is writing against the conventions of a certain kind of story popular at the time, where the hero goes to great lengths to avoid the fulfilment of the prophecy. Whereas Lord Arthur heartily embraces it to get it out of the way.

>37 MissWatson: I have The Machine Stops in a single edition on my shelves, but haven't read it yet. I bought it when I saw a video of Graham McTavish reading an extract and I was interested immediately. He highly recommended it.

>38 MissWatson: Oh, that is such great news! Good luck with the decluttering!

>38 MissWatson: So it Bielefeld far from where you are currently living? Closer to sister?

>40 MissBrangwen: Quite a number of cookbooks have departed this house already. And it’s embarrassing how many novels I found on the shelves which had completely slipped my mind.

>41 Tess_W: It’s about 370 km by road. My youngest sister lives in Bielefeld, and the second sister lives an hour’s drive away, so I’ll be much closer to both. Which will be a relief, the once-normal five-hour train ride has turned into a new-normal seven to eight.

Non-fiction CAT: archaeology

I first read Löwentor und Labyrinth when I was eleven or twelve years old and I am surprised to find that I still enjoyed this. The author presents short biographies of Heinrich Schliemann and Arthur Evans and describes what they found in Troy, Mycenae, and Crete, how they found it, and who else was involved. He also tells the myths that inspired the men to go looking for long-lost cities. His explanations reflect the state of knowledge of the sixties, of course.

Non-fiction CAT: archaeology / AlphaKIT: Z

My rearrangement of the bedroom shelves (only a little culling done, I’m afraid) resulted in finding Die römische Stadt by Paul Zanker, a slim volume on Roman cities. It explains how they were laid out, the main buildings, and how this evolved over time. Lots of groundplans, drawings and photos. Very useful, I thought, so I’m keeping it.

Good luck with the packing! Hope your move goes smoothly.

I, too, hope the move goes smoothly for you, Brigit!

>38 MissWatson: Delighted to hear you will be moving closer to your sisters. Good luck with the move!

>45 charl08: I haven’t reached the packing stage yet, but I am trying to get rid of some things in preparation for it.
>46 DeltaQueen50: Thanks, Judy, it is very much on my mind.
>47 VivienneR: Thanks, Vivienne. I am looking forward to spending more time with them.

Congratulations on finding a new place, and good luck with your move!

Thanks, Christina! The paperwork for the first stage is done, and I am quite confident now that it will go smoothly.

ETA: Tomorrow I am off to spend a few days with my sister, we’ve got tickets for three concerts. If only the weather would improve! It’s the 40th anniversary of the festival, and they’re planning fireworks.

Well, this has been a very busy week! Three lovely concerts, only slightly marred by people who can’t keep their hands off their phones. Grown-ups, too, who really should know better. And they were lucky with the weather, we had clear skies and a very good view of the celebratory fireworks after the final concert.

And on Saturday we caught a view of a historical train passing through the station, with a big steam engine pulling it. Apparently there’s a society of railway enthusiasts in Kassel who organise a special train journey once a year. After watching so many Agatha Christie films lately, where they always travel by train, it was great to see one of those monsters in real life.

The most important news, however, is that I have got the apartment I have been looking at. I am really going to be busy now wit all that needs to be arranged!

Everything else

In the meantime, books. The last concert was on Saturday, so on Sunday we listened to an audiobook: Die Känguru-Rebellion by Marc-Uwe Kling. This is political satire, and we laughed a lot. The author narrates the book himself, and he started out as a comedian/cabarettist, so he does it perfectly.

On the train ride home, I finished Die englische Episode by Petra Oelker. This is a historical mystery set in 1770, and the heroine goes to London with her theatre company. The murder investigation is secondary, we learn a lot about London here, and about printing. All the detail swamps the mystery, but I liked it nonetheless. There are always real people cropping up, this time Sir Henry Fielding has a walk-on part, and she meets Johann Christian Bach at a dinner.

Congratulations on your new home! I hope the moving process isn't too stressful, and that you're very happy there and soon feel like a local!

I wish you well in your new home!

Congratulations on the new apartment and best wishes for an uneventful move. It's hard to get rid of belongings, but worth it! Good luck.

>53 Jackie_K: >54 LadyoftheLodge: >55 pamelad: Thanks for the good wishes, ladies!

>51 MissWatson: Yay for the apartment and good luck with everything!

I'm not a train enthusiast, but steam trains make me really nostalgic.

>57 MissBrangwen: Thanks, Mirjam! Those big steam engines look fantastic, but I can't help wondering about all the coal dust and soot that must be involved.

ColourCAT: purple / mysteryKIT: police procedurals

I needed a time-out from the Yourcenar book, which is very heavy going, and found Mörderischer Mistral while going through the shelves, purging. A quick read, and very enjoyable. We are in Provence; Capitaine Blanc’s life has just crashed around him, his wife has left him for another man, and he has been transferred from a special anti-corruption unit to a sleepy gendarmerie station in the middle of nowhere, probably because he stepped on somebody’s toes. And of course he immediately gets drawn into another dirty case...
The author is a journalist and can write, and he lives in the area he writes about, which shows. I am not keeping this, but will definitely read more from the series. I think my sister has it in her library...

Modern Classics

It has taken me quite some time to finish L’œuvre au noir. I remember I quite liked her Mémoires d’Hadrien, but then I was familiar with Roman history. For this book, you need to know something about alchemy, and about the Spanish Netherlands in the 16th century, otherwise you’ll be lost. As I was, frequently. The biggest problem here is that I couldn’t get invested in the fate of the main protagonist, he is so cold and unattached that he bored me.

I took a break occasionally from this, and this led me to DNF two other books: Hool by Philipp Winkler because I simply don’t want to read about toxic males right now, and Dark Angel Before the Dawn, a tie-in to a TV series from the early 2000s, which was no longer exciting.

Hello Brigit! I have been remiss keeping up with everyone's threads this year and I am so happy you have a new apartment for your current retired life near your sisters. Your reading adventures continue to brighten my LT life and I will put Erebus on my Wishlist because a) Franklin's Expedition fascinates me, and b) Michael Palin.

Best of luck with your purging and packing and getting everything ready for your move. DH and I were at a small concert last weekend and lo and behold! there was a Little Free Library! He got to share in my ongoing adventure of finding these gems and pulling some books from the back of my car to populate the shelves. I'm not sure if these places have made it to German or not, but they are great for me to go through my shelves, decide like you did >60 MissWatson: that you bought a book for a reason and now that reason has gone away, and pass the book to someone else.

Thanks for dropping by! Little Free Libraries have appeared in Germany, but their success very much depends on someone looking after them, otherwise they are easily vandalised. But the apartment I am moving to is part of a larger complex run by a cooperative, and they have one where only residents have keys, and I think that wil be a nice way to pass one books I have read or no longer wish to read. Until then, I am depositing quite a few at my charity bookshop.

AlphaKIT: A / Bingo: something living on the cover

Yesterday was a public holiday and it was way too hot outside, so I stayed indoors and culled the cookery shelves. And for relaxation afterwards, I picked a book with an eye to passing it on after reading: Sörensen hat Angst.

This is a mystery set in Northern Frisia, first in a series about a cop with an anxiety disorder. He has asked to be transferred from Hamburg to rural Katenbüll. But on his very first day a man is found shot in his horse barn...
The author was born in the region, and his portrait of the people and the landscape is spot on. But most of all his writing has the unmistakable ring of how people talk here: direct, to the point, and a very dry humour.
The cover shows a scene from the TV movie based on it, and I had the actor’s voice in my head while reading it. I am pretty sure Stricker had him in mind when he wrote the book.

ETC

Modern Classics / Bingo: beautiful cover

KiWi republished Vicki Baum’s early books with gorgeous new covers that seduced me. I am sorry to say they also inflicted the new spelling on the texts and used rather cheap paper, so reading them is not an unmitigated joy. Still, I enjoyed Der Weihnachtskarpfen, a collection of four stories. The first three were written in the 1920s and paint a rather bleak life of a poor spinster living on the verge of hunger, and a housewife worried by the need to scrape and save. There is also a sad tale of a youngster seduced by the sumptuous display in a department store to enter it at night. The last story was written in English in 1941, originally (The Christmas Carp) and translated by someone else, and it differs remarkably in style.

Hm, the end of the month is approaching rapidly, and I haven’t found something for the Mystery and Random KITs yet. The calendar tells me Dashiell Hammett was born on this day, so maybe I’ll do a quick re-read.

>64 MissWatson: Last week I used a gift certificate and got Grand Hotel in a new nyrb edition. She is a new author to me, so I look forward to it.

>66 kac522: I hope you enjoy it. I enjoy her no-nonsense look at life in those days.

MysteryKIT: noir and hardboiled

Because it was Hammett’s birthday yesterday I pulled The Dain Curse from the shelf. I last read this in my uni days and had absolutely no memory of the plot. Maybe because it was rather Gothic than noir, with its persecuted heroine and all the nasty people telling her she is suffering from a curse, not to mention that weird pseudo-religious cult in the middle section. The story is told by the anonymous operative of the Continenal Detective Agency, who regularly reports to his boss and has quite a few colleagues assisting him: he’s more like a corporate jockey than a hardboiled private eye. Sam Spade is much more memorable!

Classics / AlphaKIT

As a break between bigger books, I read Oscar Wilde’s deliciously funny The Canterville Ghost. I think I only knew the film and TV versions until then. How did I miss this?

>69 MissWatson: That's a fun one, isn't it? I've never seen any TV or film versions--need to remedy that!

>70 kac522: It certainly is. I especially liked the twins. The one I remember most is the version with David Niven, but I see that Ian Richardson also played the ghost once. Now that I should like to see!

AlphaKIT: Z

I was looking for a short book with jewelry on the cover and ran across Eine brillante Masche by Jan Zweyer. It’s a historical mystery set in the years immediately after the Second World War and based on a true case. Johann Bos was a con artist who ripped off women whose husbands had been arrested by the Allied powers on suspicion of being active Nazis. He promised to get them free with bribery if they had any jewelry or other valuables to give him. He was involved in other criminal activities, too, but this is what he was tried for. The author reconstructs the trial from newspaper articles of the time, because the original files no longer exist (they can be destroyed legally after thirty years).
This paints an interesting picture of life in the ruins and wide boys making money, but still fell flat for me. Things went far too smoothly for our man, who doesn’t really come alive.

AlphaKIT: A / Bingo: classic from a different literary tradition

Die Legende der Adlerkrieger is a sprawling adventure yarn set in China. Lots of kung fu fighting, two youngsters destined to be sworn brothers growing up at wide apart and taught martial arts by rival schools, and some real people involved: we meet Gengis Khan before he united the Mongol tribes, and a prince of the Jin emperor. The translator provides an informative introduction and notes, and tells us that this is one of the most widely read authors in China. Quite fun, actually.

May roundup

I read far more than I expected to, but then I sat around quite a bit waiting for news about my apartment hunting, and reading was a good way to take my mind elsewhere. I did make a start on culling my shelves, and a large number of my cookery books are gone. But what’s left is still daunting...
Anyway, next week I’ll be spending a few days in Bielefeld, signing the contract and guarding my sister’s cat for a few days, and then we’ll see how much time is left for reading when the packing starts seriously.

>74 MissWatson: Glad that you got the apartment you wanted! I know packing and purging can be daunting--good luck with that. I'm not moving but cleaning out kitchen cabinets and shelves and I will be purging cooking books. I'm going to transfer the recipes I use into a self-created cookbook on my computer and donate the rest. Some of them have not been opened in 10 years--time to go!

>75 Tess_W: Thanks! The kitchen cabinets are up next, once I am done with the last book shelves. I still have some heavyweights from museum visits that I haven’t opened in thirty years...

Good luck with your packing and moving. I spent yesterday afternoon searching my kitchen cupboard for my cookie cutters. I can’t find them, but I can’t imagine I gave them away when we moved!

>77 LadyoftheLodge: I am sure they will turn up in a most unexpected place.

>76 MissWatson: Good luck clearing the museum books: those weigh so much. (And so lovely)

>79 charl08: Yeah, I can’t carry more than two at the time. All that glossy paper! I have found one where I have absolutely no memory of visiting the exhibit...

Contemporary / AlphaKIT: T and H

Tigerman was a book bullet from ten years ago, when I was still new to LT, and I no longer remember what sold me on the book, except that Nick Harkaway is a son of John LeCarré. So I had no preconceived notions about the story, which happens rarely enough these days, and I fell in love with the writing almost from page one. It is very hard to categorise, but I think the aspect that appealed most to me is the political thriller one. It also strikes me as very, very English, in its subtle, understated humour, the slight self-deprecating tone of the Sergeant’s reflections, and of course the machinations in Whitehall. It reads like the spy thrillers from the sixties and seventies, and it is great.
Can’t wait to get my hands on more, especially the ones where he continues the story of George Smiley.

ArtsCAT: Broadway

Verpfändetes Leben by Vicki Baum is set in New York and gives us an ambitious young woman who finds success on Broadway vicariously. It’s June, and New York suffers a heatwave. Bess Poker calls the police and tells them she has just shot her friend, the Broadway star Marylynn whom she manages. We learn in flashbacks how the two women met as girls in the boardinghouse of Bess’s mother and how they teemed up with the janitor who writes songs.
The information about the book at the back was misleading, they said it was published posthumously, which can’t be, because it was made into a movie in 1949. That also suggests that Baum wrote this in English, but there is no mention of a translator, not even in the bibliographic record of the German National Library. Some of the phrases had me wondering, they look as if they had been translated too literally.
There was not much about the workings of show biz, and we can only guess what koind of show the composer friend put up, the author left that part of the story rather vague. But the dynamics of the relationship between the women, their dependency on each other, was well done.

DecadesCAT: choose your own decade

I soent a few days at my sister’s and picked up Marazan for the train ride. Turns out this was Nevíl Shute’s first novel, published in 1926, and in honour of this centenary I am choosing the 20s for my decade.
The book, alas, has not aged well. He revised it in 1965, according to his preface, when it was republished, and cut out most of the colloquial expressions of the time, as in "ripping" and "topping". There are enough of them left to make the narrator sound somewhat puerile, and his "God is an Englishman" attitude doesn’t go down well, either. Tech nerds may enjoy the minute descriptions of his flying manoeuvres, but if you skim those, there’s little plot left. I didn’t like this at all.

Classics / AlphaKIT: Z

I am busy with the preparations for my move, so it took me longer than expected to finish Zola’s Le ventre de Paris. Those endless descriptions of the market halls and the produce may have played a role, too, I found them increasingly repetitive and boring. The commentators say he was trying to paint them with words, and they certainly made me think of what I was going to cook that day, but they are not entirely successful, I think.
There is also the fact that Zola is not very explicit about the historical events that led to Florent’s deportation (his contemporaries would have known exactly what he was about), knowing more about the Second Empire would be helpful. And then, of course, Zola is such a pessimist without any faith in human nature. Again, there is no character whom you can really root for.

AlphaKIT: H / Bingo: a "green" book

From temperatures too low for this time of year we have leapt to unusual heat in a single day, and it is sultry, too. So I mostly stayed home yesterday, planning and packing some things. I am also slowly cooking my way through the contents of the freezer and made a plain and surprisingly tasty cauliflower soup*.

And because there was nothing on TV last night, I also finished a short children’s book: Hatchet by Gary Paulsen. I saw this mentioned on somebody’s thread and when I found it at the charity shop, I gave it a chance. The cover shows a green forest, and green is the predominant colour in the descriptions of the wilderness that Brian finds himself in after a plane crash. The drama of his parents’ divorce was an unnecessary sideshow, to my mind, but the rest is competently done.

*If you’re interested: sweat a diced onion in your favourite vegetable oil with cumin, chili flakes, two allspice berries, a bayleaf and salt until it is very soft, add the cauliflower florets and a handful (or two) of cashew nuts, add water and simmer for thirty minutes. Blend to a soft puree, season with lemon juice and salt (if needed) and enjoy.

>85 MissWatson: The soup sounds really good! The temperature rise is crazy. I hope all goes well with preparing your move.

>86 MissBrangwen: And it involves little work, so it’s perfect for this heat. Thanks for the good wishes for my move. I have bought some boxes and will start packing a few precious items that I plan to store at my sister’s place for a few weeks.

Lots of bookish news in today’s paper. They started a new series of articles about the USA in books and today it was the turn of Catharine Maria Sedgwick and her New-England Tale, which sounds like a very good read. And a new novel by Szczepan Twardoch ... that’s another one for the To Read list.

Modern Classics / July RandomKIT: World War II

Requiem for a Wren by Nevil Shute is in a different league from his debut novel. A poignant story of service in the armed forces during the Second World War and how it marked people. It is based on his own experiences, and that shows.

RandomKIT: symbols / Bingo: onomatopoeia in the title

It is insufferably hot, suddenly, and I wanted something nice and easy after the serious subject of my previous book, so I re-read Scientific progress goes "Boink". Calvin and Hobbes never disappoint.

>90 MissWatson: Hurray for Calvin and Hobbes.

It is "only" in the twenties here, and I am already finding it awful. I imagine you are much warmer, hope it cools down soon.

>91 charl08: Hurray indeed. Calvin’s imagination is priceless.

We had over 30° on Saturday, but thankfully yesterday was better. I really don’t need this kind of heat, especially now that I am running around packing ... but at least I can take a break when needed and bury myself in a book.

Classics / AlphaKIT: H / Bingo: a book of poetry

I spent most of the weekend indoors, either packing or making a dash to fill the two remaining squares on my Bingo Card (just in time for the end of the first half of the year).
Poetry is not my kind of reading, but I do enjoy the satirical tone of Heinrich Heine, and so I tackled Deutschland. Ein Wintermärchen at last. This is a kind of travelogue of the year 1844 when he returned to visit his mother in Hamburg after an absence of 13 years, and I was very much surprised to see that his route took him through what is now North Rhine Westphalia (my soon-to-be home). There are quite a few familiar names here, as in Minden, Paderborn, Cologne, Aix-la-Chapelle, etc. Things to explore in the coming years.
In Hamburg he was devastated to see his city in ruins after the big fire of 1842.

Bingo: a myth retelling

I needed something short for this, so I could finish it before the end of the month, and came across The Penelopiad where Margaret Atwood tells the myths around Odysseus from the POV of his long-suffering wife. She also gives voice to the twelve maids killed on Odysseus’ return, and whom I had entirely forgotten.
Interesting, but not always convincing as Penelope talks to us from the present day, having spent the last two thousand years in the ancients’ version of hell, and it’s not quite clear how that was supposed to happen.

ETA: And that fills the Bingo card. I assume there will be little time for reading in the next weeks, and I won’t be around the threads much or participate in the July challenges. Ah, we’ll see how that works out.

>94 MissWatson: Congratulations on finishing your card!

>95 MissBrangwen: Thanks, Mirjam! I am contemplating a second card, once I am settled in ...

Non-fiction

I was floundering a little when I read Yourcenar’s L’oeuvre au noir and decided to learn a little more about Flanders by reading Benelux. The author, Ute Schürings, is a consultant in intercultural communications specialising in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxemburg, and her short book provides lots of useful information about the countries, their inhabitants and their relations with each other and with Germany. I will be living much closer to them soon, and I can see visits in the future.

DecadesCAT: choose your own

There is time to squeeze in some short stories between other tasks, and so I finished two more Poirot adventures first published in 1923: The Plymouth Express and The Adventure of the Western Star which seems to have been inspired by Wilkie Collins’ The Moonstone.

>97 MissWatson: I love intercultural studies! I was lucky enough to be the French representative for Canadian civil servants deployed to France and read up a tonne on the differences. To prep for the job, I also got to take a fascinating course with others from all over the world: it was so enriching with countless stories and ways in which humans behave :)

>99 Cecilturtle: It’s a fascinating subject, yes. I dipped my toe into it once at work when we were offered to participate in a workshop, to enable us to welcome new international colleagues.

Everything else

The ongoing heatwave is distracting, and I am switching between several books. But I did finish my re-read of Le fantôme de la Rue Royale which I picked up because Saturday was Parot’s 80th birthday (sadly, he didn’t live to see it). I was glad to see I remembered most of the plot, including the slightly ridiculous exorcism scene, but we are in the 18th century...

Now back to the others. Maybe I can finish one more today for June.

AlphaKIT: G / MysteryKIT: Police procedural

And I did finish my book: The gods of Gotham by Lyndsay Faye. This counts for July’s AlphaKIT and the June MysteryKIT, because the newly-founded New York City Police is still finding its feet and our intrepid new officer solves his case by unusual means.
I enjoyed Faye’s Jane Steele much more than this. The voice of Timopthy Wilde, our narrator, is hard to get to grips with, his sentences are often odd, there’s a lot of contemporary slang, and the way he sees and experiences the world is slightly off-kilter. There’s also the brutality of the 1845 metropolis, Irish immigrants are arriving in floods and are resented, children are found dead, there is child prostitution and every imaginable kind of poverty. Not to mention religious prejudice bordering on persecution. It makes for a very uncomfortable read.

AlphaKIT: U / RandomKIT: World War 2

The night was still young when I closed my book, and I wanted to take advantage of the cool air, so I picked Unter Wölfen by Alex Beer from the shelf. We are in 1942, and Issak Rubinstein and his family have just been served with a deportation order to an unknown destination. In desperation he contacts his former girlfriend who is rumoured to be involved in a resistance group, and asks her to help them find a hiding place. She promises to do so, but in return she wants him to impersonate a high-ranking Gestapo officer on his way to Nuremberg and take over the investigation of a murder that the man has been assigned to.

The idea is preposterous, yes. Contemporary authors writing about a time they have not lived in is always fraught with problems, but here the danger of trivialising a brutal, criminal regime is especially great. She doesn’t, but I am still not happy with this.