After the audiobook "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" this was my first book I read by him and what a strange experience it is to encounter his nightmarish, eery universe. Lovecraft grouped his stories as follows: "There are my 'Poe' pieces and my Dunsay pieces' and my Lovecraft pieces." Macabre stories (c. 1905–1920); Dream Cycle stories (c. 1920–1927);... Continue Reading →
Book-a-Day-Challenge Day 12
This book is filled with short intriguing chapters, each chapter focusing on an important period of history. It starts with the Middle Ages / Renaissance and ends with culture and the world right after the fall of the Berlin wall. The chapters are divided by topics/countries like “Cervante’s Spain”, “Washington Irving’s Europe” or “London in... Continue Reading →
Book-a-Day-Challenge Day 11
Just some adjectives that describe this novel, which is one of my favorites this year: Tender Raw Heartbreaking Beautiful Stunning Ocean Vuong didn't just write a book; he opened his heart and just let it bleed all over the pages. You can tell he is a poet. Reading this shattering portrait of a family cracked... Continue Reading →
Book-a-Day-Challenge Day 10
Lord of the Flies is one of the most disturbing books I've ever read. It was certainly disturbing when I read it the first time and it still is. With a group of innocent schoolboys who are stranded on an island, the author portrays very realistically human behavior in an environment where civilization no longer... Continue Reading →
Book-a-Day-Challenge Day 9
The story feels like a very reduced film script which I think is very typical of her novels. There is a subtle subdued bleakness and very little that could be described as a plot. It takes some time to find your way around the get an idea of the characters and what is really going... Continue Reading →
Book-a-Day-Challenge Day 8
I met Eliot Weinberger at the International Literature Festival in Berlin 2 or was it 3 years ago, not really knowing him then. I had wandered into a reading, waiting for some other event to start and was mesmerized by his reading of "The Ghosts of Birds". Afterwards we ended up chatting for a bit,... Continue Reading →
Book-a-Day-Challenge Day 5
"I was finally doing something that really mattered. Sleep felt productive. Something was getting sorted out. I knew in my heart—this was, perhaps, the only thing my heart knew back then—that when I’d slept enough, I’d be okay. I’d be renewed, reborn. I would be a whole new person, every one of my cells regenerated... Continue Reading →
Book-a-Day-Challenge Day 3
Jenny Erpenbeck's powerful novel "Gehen, Ging, Gegangen / Go, Went, Gone" is one of the most moving and clearsighted books I read this year. Richard a former classics professor in the east part of Berlin is getting used to his new routine as a pensioner. He has a big house with an even bigger garden... Continue Reading →
Book-a-Day-Challenge Day 2
Gerda, an old lady living in an old peoples home, is looking out at the stars. She is considering wether she had a happy life or not. While she tries to master living in her final new home, she remembers her youth in the 1960s, her excitement for astrophysics an area that was pretty much... Continue Reading →
Book-a-Day x-mas Challenge
It's this time of the year again and I'm introducing a book a day that caught my interest. You will find old and new, obscure and mainstream titles next to each other so hopefully an interesting mix. I would like to start today with a book I had picked from the shelves for the wonderful... Continue Reading →