MissWatson climbs the Ziggurat of Babel (aka Mount TBR)

Welcome! Willkommen! Bienvenue! Bienvenido! Привет!



I'm Birgit and this is my sixth category challenge. This year's CATs should be very helpful in the everlasting quest to whittle down Mount TBR, so I will concentrate on these. I also hope to reactivate my neglected foreign languages. Last year's attempt to restrain my book-buying habit failed miserably, so I will just keep track of the pages read and the books that will go on to a new home.

The ticker. The goal is to read 2019 pages per month.



January page count: 4482
February page count: 3327
March page count: 3959
April page count: 2495
May page count: 3432
June page count: 3273

The language challenge



Last year I finished a surprising (to me) number of books in French, and the more I read, the easier it got. I'm hoping to repeat this with Spanish and Russian, but in the spirit of being realistic I'm staggering the numbers to keep it achievable. The goal here is 75.
I'm still not entirely sure what Ferro's phrase means, but I love the sound of it. Aliens is one of my top ten movies. (Picture snagged from imdb)

Russian 5
Spanish 10
French 15
German 20
English 25

English
1. Paper and iron by Niall Ferguson
2. Maggie : a girl of the streets by Stephen Crane
3. European and Islamic Trade in the Early Ottoman State : The Merchants of Genoa and Turkey by Kate Fleet
4. The Kellys and the O'Kellys by Anthony Trollope
5. These were the Sioux by Mari Sandoz
6. Empire of grass by Tad Williams
7. Mastering the market by Judith A. Miller
8. Grain markets in Europe, 1500–1900 by Karl Gunnar Persson
9. The new Magdalen by Wilkie Collins

German
1. Das Känguru-Manifest by Marc-Uwe Kling
2. Märchen und Sagen by Ludwig Bechstein
3. Ritterburgen by Joachim Zeune
4. Der Geldkomplex by Franziska Gräfin zu Reventlow
5. Die roten Tücher von Cholet by Michel Ragon
6. Italienreise – Liebe inbegriffen by Barbara Noack
7. Mord und Brand by Gerhard Loibelsberger
8. Als ich ein kleiner Junge war by Erich Kästner
9. Die Känguru-Apokryphen by Marc-Uwe Kling
10. Die englischen Könige im Mittelalter
11. Geschichte Dänemarks by Carsten Jahnke
12. Alan Turing by Rolf Hochhuth

French
1. Son Excellence Eugène Rougon by Émile Zola
2. Le bal de Sceaux by Honoré de Balzac
3. Les soirées de Médan by Émile Zola et.al.
4. Joseph Balsamo by Alexandre Dumas

Spanish
1. Réquiem por un campesino español by Ramón J. Sender

The CATs



Starring my sister's cat, Porthos. I hope to read at least one book for each, but won't stress myself if it doesn't happen. Overlap with the language challenge is allowed if the book has more than 600 pages (otherwise it would be too easy).

Calendar CAT

(hosting June)
January
1. The empire of ashes by Anthony Ryan

February
1. Mensch und Maschine by Thomas Ramge
2. Der Vater eines Mörders by Alfred Andersch
3. Marie Antoinette by Stefan Zweig

March
1. Joseph Balsamo by Alexandre Dumas

April
1. Das Parfum by Patrick Süskind

May
1. Le joli mois de mai by Émilie de Turckheim

June
1. Bretonische Flut by Jean-Luc Bannalec

RandomCAT

(hosting May)

January: Your name in print
Ein Hund für viele Katzen by Michael Foreman
Die Eisprinzessin schläft by Camilla Läckberg
Ich freue mich, dass ich geboren bin by Birgit Vanderbeke

February: We need a break
Der kleine Vampir verreist by Angelika Sommer-Bodenburg

March: Brexit Madness
Joseph Balsamo by Alexandre Dumas

April: Easter greetings from the Rooster
Arthur & George by Julian Barnes

May: I could have danced all night
Todeswalzer by Gerhard Loibelsberger
Lizzis letzter Tango by Anja Marschall

June: Pick a card, any card
Das hündische Herz by Michail Bulgakow

SeriesCAT

(hosting June)

January: series in translation
Die Eisprinzessin schläft by Camilla Läckberg
Die siebte Leiche by Vlastimil Vondruška

February: children's series
Der kleine Vampir verreist by Angelika Sommer-Bodenburg
Goth Girl and the fete worse than death by Chris Riddell

March: favourite authors
Joseph Balsamo by Alexandre Dumas

April: a series you've meant to get back to
Un Noël de Maigret by Georges Simenon
Bretonische Brandung by Jean-Luc Bannalec

May: newest book in a favourite series
Bretonischer Stolz by Jean-Luc Bannalec
Record of a spaceborn few by Becky Chambers
Empire of grass by Tad Williams

June: a series that is definitely complete
Le fantôme de la rue Royale by Jean-François Parot

TBRCAT

(hosting November)

January: First in, last out
Der letzte Rebell by Lee Hoffman
The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton

February: a borrowed book
Sire by Jean Raspail

March: acquired on/for a special occasion or trip
Joseph Balsamo by Alexandre Dumas

April: originally bought for a challenge or group read
Der Tod so kalt by Luca D'Andrea

May: Book you keep looking at but never manage to open
Die Brücke am Kwai by Pierre Boulle

June: Book bullet
The king's hounds by Martin Jensen

The KITs

This is optional. Time may not always be sufficient.

SFFKIT
January
The empire of ashes by Anthony Ryan
February
Artemis by Andy Weir
March
Death Masks by Jim Butcher

ScaredyKIT
January
The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton
February
Der kleine Vampir verreist by Angelika Sommer-Bodenburg
Goth Girl and the fete worse than death by Chris Riddell
March
Der goldene Handschuh by Heinz Strunk
April
Der Tod so kalt by Luca D'Andrea

BingoDOG

This year there will be no overlaps with the CATs (except for the CAT square, obviously), overlaps with the language challenge are allowed if the book has more than 600 pages (just adding a little handicap here).
Thanks to the makers of this lovely card, christina_reads, LittleTaiko and LShelby!



2: 1793 by Niklas Natt och Dag
4: Der satanarchäolügenialkohöllische Wunschpunsch by Michael Ende
5: Tales of the Alhambra by Washington Irving
7: Die Känguru-Offenbarung by Marc-Uwe Kling
8: Tod am Zollhaus by Petra Oelker
9: Das Calderon Imperium by Léa Cohen
10: Serafinas Geheimnis – 3x schwarzer Kater by Sabine Ludwig
12: Son Excellence Eugène Rougon by Émile Zola
13: The empire of ashes by Anthony Ryan
14: Archipel by Inger-Maria Mahlke
17: Grete Minde by Theodor Fontane
18: Das Waldhäuschen und seine Bewohner by Ludwig Bechstein
21: City of thieves by David Benioff
22: Das Halsband der Königin by Antal Szerb
23: Kochbuch für die kleine alte Frau by Sybil Gräfin Schönfeldt
25: A tale of two cities by Charles Dickens

Goodreads Around the year Challenge
1. A book that was nominated for or won an award in a genre you enjoy
2. A book with one of the 5 W's in the title (Who, What, Where, When, Why)
3. A book where the author’s name contains A, T, and Y
4. A book with a criminal character (i.e. assassin, pirate, thief, robber, scoundrel etc) Das Parfum by Patrick Süskind
5. A book by Shakespeare or inspired by Shakespeare
6. A book with a dual timeline
7. 2 books related to the same topic, genre, or theme: Book #1
8. 2 books related to the same topic, genre, or theme: Book #2
9. A book from one of the top 5 money making genres (romance/erotica, crime/mystery, religious/inspirational, science fiction/fantasy or horror) Record of a spaceborn few by Becky Chambers
10. A book featuring an historical figure Arthur & George by Julian Barnes
11. A book related to one of the 12 Zodiac Chinese Animals (title, cover, subject)
12. A book about reading, books or an author/writer
13. A book that is included on a New York Public Library Staff Picks list
14. A book with a title, subtitle or cover relating to an astronomical term
15. A book by an author from a Mediterranean country or set in a Mediterranean country
16. A book told from multiple perspectives Empire of grass by Tad Williams
17. A speculative fiction (i.e. fantasy, scifi, horror, dystopia)
18. A book related to one of the elements on the periodic table of elements
19. A book by an author who has more than one book on your TBR Le fantôme de la rue Royale by Jean-François Parot
20. A book featuring indigenous people of a country
21. A book from one of the polarizing or close call votes
22. A book with a number in the title or on the cover
23. 4 books inspired by the wedding rhyme: Book #1 Something Old
24. 4 books inspired by the wedding rhyme: Book #2 Something New
25. 4 books inspired by the wedding rhyme: Book #3 Something Borrowed
26. 4 books inspired by the wedding rhyme: Book #4 Something Blue
27. A book off of the 1001 books to read before you die list
28. A book related to something cold (i.e. theme, title, author, cover, etc.) So kalt der Tod by Luca D'Andrea
29. A book published before 1950
30. A book featuring an elderly character Kochbuch für die kleine alte Frau by Sybil Gräfin Schönfeldt
31. A children’s classic you’ve never read
32. A book with more than 500 pages
33. A book you have owned for at least a year, but have not read yet The king's hounds by Martin Jensen
34. A book with a person's name in the title Alan Turing
35. A psychological thriller
36. A book featured on an NPR Best Books of the Year list
37. A book set in a school or university
38. A book not written in traditional novel format (poetry, essay, epistolary, graphic novel, etc)
39. A book with a strong sense of place or where the author brings the location/setting to life Archipel by Inger-Maria Mahlke
40. A book you stumbled upon Le joli mois de mai by Émilie de Turckheim
41. A book from the 2018 GR Choice Awards
42. A book with a monster or "monstrous" character Das hündische Herz by Michail Bulgakow
43. A book related to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) (fiction or nonfiction)
44. A book related in some way to a tv show/series or movie you enjoyed (same topic, same era, book appeared in the show/movie, etc.) Tales of the Alhambra by Washington Irving
45. A multi-generational saga
46. A book with a (mostly) black cover
47. A book related to food (i.e. title, cover, plot, etc.)
48. A book that was a finalist or winner for the National Book Award for any year
49. A book written by a Far East Asian author or set in a Far East Asian country
50. A book that includes a journey (physical, health, or spiritual)
51. A book published in 2019
52. A book with a weird or intriguing title

Because I am, obviously, utterly insane. Overlap with the CATs/KITs is allowed. Must come from my own shelves.

Mount TBR erosion

I realised rather late that anything that doesn't count for the CATs, KITs or Bingo can go into the language pile, so there's no need for an overflow category. Instead I'll track my TBR in the vain hope that it will go down, especially since the CATs this year are focused on books I already own. The January bargain bins have thrown me off track already...

The TBR, as of
January 8, 2019: 1,314. Ouch.
January 31: 1,342. It's Hugendubel's fault. They put up these boxes with "3 for 10€" signs. How could I walk by without even looking?
February 28: 1,355. Okay, now that Thingaversary is out of the way, no more book-buying. Or at least only at a 2for1 rate...
March 31: 1,375. I need to get a grip on myself.
April 30: 1,386. Sigh.
May 31: 1,403. No comment.

Come in! Hereinspaziert! Entrez! Entrad! Bходите!

Just a second while I get the coffeee...

Great setup! Bonne lecture multilingue :)

Wow, Birgit! I'm impressed that you can read in 5 languages. As the students at school say: You are the bomb.com!

I'm impressed too, especially at the planned numbers. I can read (up to a point) in a couple of other languages, but very very slowly and it really takes it out of me, so I would struggle to do more than 1 or 2 a year.

Looking forward to following along, Birgit.

>12 rabbitprincess: Merci beaucoup!
>13 Tess_W: Thanks, Tess. I neglected Russian because I haven't really found modern authors that appeal to me and I hope I haven't gone totally rusty!
>14 Jackie_K: I'm very curious to see how long I will need to finish a real book in Russian, as opposed to a novella or short story. Classics are probably easiest because there's no baffling slang, and most of the time the plots are familiar.
>15 DeltaQueen50: Thanks!

Aliens also makes my top ten movie list, so you've drawn me in for sure! I look forward to following along.

>2 MissWatson: five by five means loud and clear (1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest) and in the pipe is a very old saying that today is said "in the pipeline" meaning in the process of or coming along nicely.

>2 MissWatson: >18 Tess_W: I didn't know that either! Thanks Tess for continuing my lifelong education! :)

>17 LisaMorr: Nice to see you here!
>18 Tess_W: Thanks, Tess!
>19 Jackie_K: That's what I love about LT!

Love the languages/CATs approach to your attack on mount TBR!

>21 lkernagh: Thanks Lori.

Great challenge themes. Maybe Porthos will help keep you on track with your CATs goals. :-)

>23 This-n-That: Thanks. I'm afraid he will be too busy eating.

Five languages, that's impressive! I'm trying to keep up with three every year (German, English, Danish), and maybe I could manage some French, but a fifth one seems impossible. Good luck and have fun!

>25 Chrischi_HH: I once tried my hand (tongue?) at Danish, but the pronunciation threw me. It looks a lot easier in print, so maybe I'll give it another go one of these days. But the most important thing is practice, practice, oractice. My Russian is terribly rusty, I'm really curious to see how this works out.

I'll be following along with envy and admiration - five languages, wow!

Good luck on all your challenges! Happy New Year!

>28 The_Hibernator: >29 thornton37814: >30 Tess_W: Thank you so much, and a Happy New Year full of lovely books to you!

After some deliberation, I have decided to count my holiday season's reading towards the 2019 challenge. So my first books are:

Ein Hund für viele Katzen by Michael Foreman, a lovely picture book for the RandomCAT
Der satanarchäolügenialkohöllische Wunschpunsch by Michael Ende for the Bingo (this was a BB from ChrischiHH)
Serafinas Geheimnis – 3x schwarzer Kater by Sabine Ludwig for the Bingo (a children's book)
Das Känguru-Manifest by Marc-Uwe Kling for the German section
Die Eisprinzessin schläft by Camilla Läckberg for the Random and SeriesCAT

edited for touchstones

Porthos is a lovely guy! I remember how much our cats loved those marble windowsills set over radiators when we lived in Germany. Warm and with a view.

>33 RidgewayGirl: Thanks, Kay! He loves to warm his paws there after a stroll on the balcony. But his favourite sleeping place is our legs.

>32 MissWatson: I'm sensing a cat theme here!
I should brush up on my German skills too. I have gone from reading novels when studying it to now doubting I could hold a conversation! I am borrowing a conversational German set of CDs from my library, but picture books is a great way to get back into my reading.

>35 JayneCM: I found that getting back to reading French was easy, but actively speaking it is hard work. Contemporary children's books are a great way to get back into the language. Our Russian teacher always recommended fairy tales, but I'm currently reading Bechstein's fairy tales and I don't think you could use the vocabulary in an everyday conversation. It is too old-fashioned.

>36 MissWatson: I'm currently working on Spanish conversational practice lessons that use a translation of The Wizard of Oz - El Mago de Oz. The narrator tells the story in small doses and then asks the listener questions that are to be answered in Spanish. So you are essentially getting an audio book but are also getting practice in speaking. The fairy tale is part of the mix that keeps it simple and effective.

>37 bkinetic: That sounds like a good interactive approach!

language / Bingo: a fairy tale

Whenever I look at my sister's shelves during the holidays something jumps out at me where I think I own a copy myself, but cannot remember reading it. This year, it is a collection of fairy tales and local legends collected by Ludwig Bechstein. Märchen und Sagen. I bought this for the illustrations, because I'm a completionist and wanted all the books Ruth Koser-Michaels worked on. Most of the fairy tales are variations on familiar themes, as the author himself acknowledges several times.
My choice for the Bingo square is Das Waldhäuschen und seine Bewohner, where an old couple share a solitary house in the woods with a cat and a snake and they tell each other several fairy tales, about snakes and cats.

Oh, you read the Wunschpunsch! I hope you enjoyed it. :)

>32 MissWatson: I loved that Michael Ende book when I read it (in English) a few years back.

>40 Chrischi_HH: I enjoyed it very much, Chrischi, thank you so much for bringing it to my attention. Somehow I missed it when it was first published.
>41 avatiakh: What I like about Ende is his brilliant wordplay that adults will enjoy even more than children, I think. And I wondered all the time how you could translate this. Some day I'll have to check the English version.

ETC

Series in translation

Die siebte Leiche caught my eye in the window of my charity bookshop because of the author's name, Vlastimil Vondruška. He's Czech and apparently a very popular and prolific writer in his home country. This is a historical mystery, set in the times of king Ottokar II, and one in a series about a royal procurator who gets to travel a lot. This time he and his squire get lost in a snowstorm and find refuge in a castle where during the feast of St. Barbara several people have been killed in the years before. Our hero solves the case in less than two days...
The plot is not entirely convincing, the language and the attitudes a little too modern, but the novelty factor of the unusual setting makes up for it. I'll probably pick up the next book if I run into it.

language

I picked up Ritterburgen because Die siebte Leiche is set in a medieval castle and I wanted to check a few facts. The Beck series is similar to OUP's Very Short Introductions, and this one is a bit too short for my liking. The author also fails to explain most of his technical terms, so it's not entirely satisfactory.

Bingo: Eastern Europe

I picked up Das Calderon Imperium at my sister's library because the blurb promised an interesting tale from a country I know virtually nothing about: Bulgaria. The author is Bulgarian, too, although her name, Léa Cohen, doesn't look it. I suppose that's the version she uses living in Switzerland, and her biography shares quite a few details with the tale told in this book: about the ravages wrought by two totalitarian regimes on four families. The book is cleverly constructed in four parts, each part dedicated to one person from the four families involved, each from the same generation, and with every instalment we move closer to the mystery of the huge fortune that Jules Calderon whisked out of the country in 1943 to save it from the Nazis. After the war, the communists tried to track it down with the help of their Stasi colleagues. As the three women, Eva, Lora and Lisa, delve into the past, betrayals come to light.
This was a great read, and as the complicated plot unfolds, I had to leaf back to re-read and discover a clue I had previously overlooked. There is a wordplay on one of the characters' names that is explained towards the end, which would have been more obvious in Bulgarian and I wonder how many more were untranslatable? It is a fine translation, a little rushed towards the end, but I chuckled over some very creative concepts. As far as I know, it hasn't been translated into English which seems a pity.

>45 MissWatson: Sounds like a wonderful read. I also checked into English and found it translated into French and Spanish. Alas my language deficiency!

>45 MissWatson: That does sound good! I could probably have a go at the French, but it would take a *long* time!

>46 Tess_W: >47 Jackie_K: I often wonder how many good books we miss just because they are written in regions of the world that are off the radar of publishers.

>45 MissWatson:, >46 Tess_W:, >47 Jackie_K:, >48 MissWatson: Agreed! It does sounds like a fab read though. Fingers-crossed that it gets translated into English someday; otherwise I'll have to wait for retirement to try reading it in French!

language

And I have finished my first book in English: Paper and iron by Niall Ferguson. This is a leftover from last year, a very dry monograph of economic history. I read this during lunch breaks, and at this rate it takes a lot of time.
He looks at the German hyperinflation of 1923 within the particular context of Hamburg business and with a heavy emphasis on the Warburg family, because Max Warburg was an active player in Hamburg politics and the reparations negotiations. It's rather a slog with all the statistics and I haven't read enough about the economic arguments to be able to sum this up fairly, but I found it interesting. I won't remember any of the details, though, numbers just go into one eye and out the next.

>50 MissWatson: Interesting as I teach about German hyperinflation between the wars.

>45 MissWatson: Argh, that sounds like a great book -- too bad there's no English translation yet!

>51 Tess_W: It contains a lot of economics and his argumentation is so condensed that some of it went over my head. It's his PhD thesis, so loads of footnotes.

>52 christina_reads: Yes, and I hope she'll write another book someday.

language

I finished an ebook which I started last year: Der Geldkomplex by Fanny Reventlow, in which she writes letters to a friend from a sanatorium where she has sought refuge from her creditors. She makes friends with a few fellow bohemiens and they spend a lot of time drinking, having fun and scheming to get money. It seems this is mostly autobiographical, and at some point I'll try to read more about her.

TBR

The oldest books in my TBR date back to my university days, not always marked as such. As I fingerwalked my shelves, I came up against two sets of westerns, one by Luke Short, the other by Lee Hoffman. I have finally taken the plunge and ditched the Luke Shorts in German translation. I'm keeping the English ones, because they are very hard to find cheaply nowadays.
And I have decided to read or re-read the Lee Hoffman books, all in German, before I throw them out. They will be even more expensive to replace in English, but I may do so, for I remember that she has very unusual protagonists in her books, often from minorities, or doing jobs that do not crop up frequently in westerns. Der letzte Rebell is an interesting version of the lawless years immediately after the Civil War, we are in Missouri and a former rider with Quantrill joins an outfit that wants to get money for political influencers by robbing banks. The James brothers lurk in the background as exemplars. Not bad at all.

Your goals for the year are so impressive they make my head spin. o_0 Best of luck! :)

>56 madhatter22: Thanks for dropping in! The ususal reading languages are coming along nicely, but I'm putting off Spanish and Russian until after our big day in February. We're celebrating the centenary of the library, and it's a lot of work.

CalendarCAT, SFFKIT, Bingo

It's taken me a while, but I finally finished The Empire of Ashes, the final volume in the Draconis Memoria trilogy, so I'm using it to mark Dragon Appreciation Day for the January CAT. I bought this as soon as it appeared in my bookstore, but didn't get around to reading it last year, so it fits for this month's SFFKIT. And I'm filling in the easiest Bingo square with this.
The book is a bit of a letdown, to be honest. 560 pages of more or less relentless fighting with detailed descriptions of tactics and battles, which becomes boring after a while. Not to mention the constant development of new artillery. And the very abrupt ending.

TBRCAT, ScaredyKIT

By the looks of it, I bought The Andromeda Strain on my first or second trip to London, which makes it forty years old. Oh, oh.
This is an early example of a techno thirller, with a group of scientists called together when a space probe returns to earth and the people near the landing site all die mysteriously. Detailed descriptions of the underground secret lab, the experiments and the solution found. I couldn't quite see wherein lay the mistakes he points out, and he wrapped it up rather too neatly. No women scientists, of course, only lowly lab technicians. I think I bought this because I vividly remembered the TV movie of this...
Anyway, it was interesting enough and now it leaves the house. Not least because it is now falling apart.

ETA: I have now read at least one book for all the CATs and KITs. January goal accomplished.

>59 MissWatson: I thought I was the only one who had unread books that old!

>60 Tess_W: I went to London with my best friend and we just went crazy in the used bookstores. Everything that looked vaguely interesting and cheap enough. I still have a few lovely old hardcover Everyman editions of Walter Scott I haven't touched yet. They are patiently awaiting their turn.

RandomCAT

I came across Ich freue mich, dass ich geboren bin in the remainders bins at Hugendubel and picked it, because it's the first time I ran across an author with my first name: Birgit Vanderbeke. She's only two years older than I am, but there the similarities end. This novel is very much autobiographical., told in the first person. It centers around her seventh birthday where she finds a way to escape from the harsh realities of her life. It's an interesting look at the early days of the Wirtschaftswunder, and the little girl is a very sharp observer. Not a keeper, though.

Bingo: two human figures on the cover

City of thieves is set during the siege of Leningrad in January 1942. It seems that he took his grandfather's story and wrote it up as a novel, and he writes well. I couldn't help thinking that the story of his grandmother must have been even more amazing.

edited for touchstone

January roundup

On Friday, my library had its big day, the official ceremony for our centenary. Which means work in the week before was hectic bordering on insane, and I didn't get much reading done.

But on the whole, my January progress is respectable: at least one book for the CATs and the KITs, and six Bingo squares filled. The language challenge reflects my holiday reading, those were books from my sister's public library.
The black spot is the TBR, it grew substantially because Hugendubel bookstore had these "3 for 10€" boxes set up...

I'm on the final 100 pages of Son Excellence Eugène Rougon, so I'm starting on the French part of my ziggurat. I could fill the entire French challenge with Zola, I guess. But I've got something else lined up. And I just found out that Ramón J. Sender was born today, so my recently bought Requiém por un campesino español will be my book for the CalendarCAT.

ETC

Congratulations on your library's centenary!

>65 lkernagh: Thank you! It's been a busy time preparing all the events.

language / Bingo: part of a series

And I have finished 620 pages of Son Excellence Eugéne Rougon, including the notes, the preface and a biographical note. This was a strange book, and probably not what people expect when they read a novel: no romance, no passionate love affairs, but lots of political skullduggery. And the female protagonist is downright weird.

RandomCAT / SeriesCAT / ScaredyKIT

Der kleine Vampir verreist ticks three boxes: it involves travelling, is part of a children's series and includes one of the Corporeal Undead. The series was hugely popular when my sister studied librarianship, which is how I came to know it. On re-reading this, I was surprised to find it so much shorter than I remembered it.

language

Another short novella by Balzac is finished: Le bal de Sceaux. I'm working my way through a digitised copy from 1874 which has some nice illustrations. This tale is rather short and quite moralising: haughty Émilie wants to marry a peer and loses love. Half of the story recounts the eventful career of her father who was an active member of the Vendée resistance to the Revolution. I think I need to move Les Chouans up the pile.

SeriesCAT / ScaredyKIT

Goth Girl and the fete worse than death is a fabulously illustrated book brimful of visual jokes and literary allusions that may well go over kids' heads but make this a fun read for adults. There's also a love story that ends well and a secret agent!

language

I picked up Réquiem por un campesino español because Ramon J. Sender was born in February, and then I realised that my stats are somewhat muddled by inconsistent overlaps with my language category. I may change my mind later on, but for now the language category takes precedence and overlaps are allowed only if it's a fat book (more than 600 pages).

Anyway, this is an amazing book. It is rather short, but it packs an incredible punch. Very understated, but as it goes on you realise the tragedy hiding under the simple prose. A country priest sits in his vestry, waiting for the requiem mass to begin, and while he waits he remembers the dead man's life, whom he baptised, buried and for whom he now says a mass for the dead. It is an tale repeated again and again all over Spain and it is an accusation against the lethargy and often active collaboration of the Catholic clergy with the fascists. My first five star read this year.

CalendarCAT

For Darwin Day, which celebrates critical thinking in science, I read Mensch und Maschine, which figured on a list of recommendations for Christmas presents last year in the FAZ. I was disappointed to find that it told me nothing about Artificial Intelligence that an attentive reader of a quality newspaper could not have picked up during the last few years.

Der Vater eines Mörders by Alfred Andersch was much more rewarding. A short story or novella which takes place within the short timeframe of one lesson in Ancient Greek in a Munich Gymnasium in 1928 and ends with the pupil relegated from the school. Tightly constructed and elegantly written. Andersch explains in an afterword why he uses a fictional character for an episode of his own life. Ah yes, and the murderer in question is Heinrich Himmler, whose father was the head of the school. I chose this for the CalendarCAT because Alfred Andersch was born on 4 February and died on 21 February.

TBRCAT

Sire has languished on my shelves for quite some time since I borrowed it from my sister and I am glad I finally got the push to read it.
It is surely one of the strangest books I have ever read. It was published in 1991 and is set in 1999, when a young descendant of the Bourbon dynasty sets out with a handful of companions to be anointed king of France in Reims cathedral. I couldn't figure out what makes this young man – he's eighteen – tick, his companions remain even more shadowy, and his adoring sister was simply annoying. There's also the ridiculous assertion that Philippe and Marie are monozygotic twins. I almost put it down, and then comes a chapter in which he describes the sacking of the royal tombs in 1793, with details I didn't know. It gave me an idea of how shocking the events were to the other kingdoms and why they invested so much energy into opposing the Revolution.
The rest is a mixed bag. The author has no sympathy for modern France, he extrapolates from the situation in 1991 to an even worse one in 1999, where the basilica of St Denis is under siege from the nameless and faceless crowds living in squalid conditions in tower blocks. Literally, as the gangs take nightly potshots at the windows and slowly destroy what is left of the church and its statuary. His young king choses to live apart, in secret, and the whole matter of being king is a a divine gift bestowed by a God the rest of the country no longer honours. Raspail's criticism of secularisation and consumerism strikes a chord, his view of saintly kings does not.

Today is my thingaversary, and in keeping with the tradition I bought a few books, ahem. January has been a disastrous month, acquisition-wise, but here are the eight I picked to stand in the limelight:

Balzac et la petite tailleuse chinoise by Dai Sijie
Diese Fremdheit in mir by Orhan Pamuk
Die Fünf by Vladimir Jubotinsky
Wiener Totenlieder by Theresa Prammer
Kindred by Octavia Butler
The pursuit of power by Richard J. Evans
Charakter by Ferdinand Bordewijk
Heinrich IV by Saint-René Taillandier

and, also in keeping with the tradition, one to grow on:
Salzstädte by Abdalrachman Munif

Touchstones are, hopefully, corrected now.

Happy Thingaversary! Mine was earlier this month but I haven't bought the book to grow on yet.

>75 rabbitprincess: Thanks and belated happy thingaversary to you, too!

Happy Thingaversary! And happy ongoing reading :D

Happy thingaverary! Looks like some great reading!

Happy Thingaversary, Birgit!

Happy Thingaversary!

Happy Thingaversary!

Happy Thingaversary!

>77 Jackie_K: >78 Tess_W: >79 DeltaQueen50: >80 AHS-Wolfy: >81 lkernagh: >82 hailelib: Thank you so much! The remainders bins contained some very interesting books this year, but right now I got myself sidetracked into the French Revolution...

Bingo: a homophone word in the title

The detailed description of the sacking of the royal tombs in Sire finally made me pick up A tale of two cities. I am not sure why I have avoided this for so long, because it is really a wonderful book, and I even shed a few tears for Sydney Carton at the end.

>83 MissWatson: LOL, Birgit, I had one of those French Revolution "phases" last year....lasted about 6-8 weeks and that's all I read. I'm over it now and am into western settlement for the time being.

>83 MissWatson: I'm in a French Revolution phase right now too, or am contemplating getting into one once I finish A Place of Greater Safety. I don't think one book counts as a "phase", no matter how long it is ;)

>84 Tess_W: Hi Tess, I've got Stefan Zweig's biography of Marie Antoinette lined up, but there's always a risk that I may be lured elsewhere...

>85 rabbitprincess: What did you think of it? I couldn't summon up any love for Wolf Hall and have shied consequently away from this.

>85 rabbitprincess:
>86 MissWatson:

I loved both of Mantel's books (Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies). I was unaware of of A Place of Greater Safety, but it is now on my wish list. One of the books of the French Revolution that I enjoyed was Willa Gibb's The Twelfth Physician. It is a little off the beaten path, but very good. A friend got me Madame Tussaud: A Novel of the French Revolution and the newest Tussaud book Little. I hope to get at least one of them read this year.

>87 Tess_W: Those look very interesting! Titles noted down...

>86 MissWatson: I'm still working on it, and it is definitely an endeavour! One of those books to chip away at, perhaps with breaks.

Happy Thingaversary! I'm glad you upheld tradition with the book haul.

>89 rabbitprincess: I'll keep it in my mind if the Revolutionary Fever lasts.
>90 RidgewayGirl: Buying books is never going to be a problem...if only they sold time to read them, too!

SFFFKIT: colony

I took a short break from the French Revolution with Artemis, because I have this ambition to read at least one book for alle the CATs and KITs. Well, it was a quick read, and mostly fun, but I cannot say I loved this as much as his previous effort. I found Jazz pretty insufferable. The stereotype national clichés didn't help, either, and the economic scenario did not convince me.

CalendarCAT

Marie Antoinette is an interesting biography written by Stefan Zweig who committed suicide on 23 February 1942, which is why I'm counting it for the CalendarCAT.

language

My lunchtime reading has been Les soirées de Médan, downloaded from Gallica. A collection of six stories about the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, the most famous is probably Maupassant's Boule de suif. The quality varies, La saignée being the worst, in my opinion. Except for the last, they are angry at the incompetence of the French armies and the complacency of the French bourgeoisie.

language

Another short one taken care of: Maggie : a girl of the streets may have its place in literary history because of the subject matter, but I find that I don't like Crane's style. His sentences always look awkward. Off to the charity shop it goes.

>95 MissWatson: not a Crane fan, either.

>96 Tess_W: I thought I should give him another chance, but this is it.

Well, I won't finish my current book today, so it's time to look back on February. Another good month with some outstanding books and all categories filled, yeah. The TBR on the other hand – yikes. Must try harder.

>97 MissWatson: I have given him multiple chances with The Red Badge of Courage, The Blue Hotel and The Veteran--all meh......I have read Crane's The Open Boat and I found it better than average (it's a short story). But I do not read Crane purposefully.

>98 MissWatson: I feel the same, I had some great reads in February--read the 2 CATS I belong to as well as RTT, but I fear my TBR pile feels neglected.

>99 Tess_W: I managed to read mostly from the TBR, but it keeps growing faster than I read.

SFFKIT

I found another Harry Dresden book on my shelves Death Masks and used it for this month's SFF. I liked this better than my first foray into the Dresden universe, but I still find Harry less than fascinating.

Bingo: in translation

I have finished Das Halsband der Königin by Antal Szerb, translated from the Hungarian. This is a non-fiction retelling of the infamous Necklace Affair. He relies mostly on Stefan Zweig's biography and Hippolyte Taine's history of the Ancien Régime, but has obviously widely read memoirs from the time. The only thing I didn't know was that King Gustav III of Sweden also paid a visit to Paris in those days and had a hand in getting Germaine Necker as a bride for someone on his French embassy staff, a certain Staël...it's a small world. I didn't know this when I bought it, but I think I'll move 1793 up the pile now.

>102 MissWatson: Love the Necklace Affair!

>103 Tess_W: It's such a mind-boggling tale, isn't it? I just ran across an Austrian author who wrote about it, Alexander Lernet-Holenia, and told myself firmly that I don't need this. At least, not until after I have read what Dumas made of it.

languages

I spent an inordinately long time reading European and Islamic Trade in the Early Ottoman State : The Merchants of Genoa and Turkey which is a very dry and dull tome covering the years from the 1300s to 1453. Culled from contracts in the State Archives of Genoa, it is very detailed and repetitive. I'm a glutton for punishment, apparently. But my next lunchtime book will be more fun.

Bingo: debut novel

I picked up 1793 because the year puts it into my current reading phase about the French Revolution. Plus, it was very prominently displayed, they're promoting it vigorously here, and then there's the author's unusual name.
It is his first novel, a historical mystery set in Stockholm, and it was a surprisingly good read. The translation is less than stellar, I disagreed with her grammar quite a few times, but it didn't distract too much from the story, which is told in four parts from varying POVs. The most remarkable thing about the book, for me, was how much it prompted me to look at my own time, and how little has changed. The technology is different, but that is just the surface. The huge gap between the disadvantaged and the super-rich who can get away with everything still exists.

ScaredyKIT: true crime

Der goldene Handschuh uses real-life killer Fritz Honka as its main character, but the murders happen off-stage. It is more a book about the devastating effects of alcoholism, and a social study of the underclass living in the red-light district of Hamburg. The title refers to the name of the bar where they hang out, run by an ex-boxer, hence "The golden glove". The upper class also come there to get completely drunk. Depressing.

>107 MissWatson: I read this one in 2017 and yes, "depressing" is a good word for it. I found it to be a very good book and found it interesting to dive into this bit of Hamburg's history - but it's certainly not a book to enjoy.

>108 Chrischi_HH: No, enjoyable is not a word that springs to mind. Very uncomfortable reading at times, especially the scenes from his youth, how he was mistreated by that farmer. I was also surprised to find one of the characters lived in Kiel, that's even closer to home.

And with two KITs and Bingo squares under my belt, I have now embarked on Dumas' Joseph Balsamo, four volumes with around 500 pages each. I am pleased to find that it fits for all CATs: Joe Day for the CalendarCAT, set in France for the RandomCAT, favourite author for the SeriesCAT and bought on a trip to Paris for the TBRCAT. Just as well, because this could easily take up the rest of the month.

A CAT for each volume!

>110 MissWatson: not a true fan of Dumas, so I eagerly await your review on this one!

>111 hailelib: Oh yes, that's one way of counting them!
>112 Tess_W: Well, it starts off with a secret meeting of a masonic lodge in the wilds of a German forest in a ruined castle, where they have been summoned by the Grand Cophta who plans world domination. This is not going to be reliable history, but there's lots of dialogue, so it's an easy and comparatively quick read. Right now, Marie Antoinette is paying a visit to an impoverished baron whose son gets his own book later on, Le chevalier de Maison-Rouge.

Progress report: I have finished the first volume, 512 pages. Not much has happened, so far. Madame Dubarry wants to be presented at court and has found an old countess who is in dire need of money, but balks at the last minute. Quite a few persons have been introduced and then dropped from the scene. Marie Antoinette is still en route for her wedding. Off to volume 2.
Dumas is taking a few liberties: Madame Louise, the eldest daughter of Louis XV, enters a convent and gives a last dire warning to her father concerning the fate of the dynasty. In reality she had been dead for eleven years at the time.

Just catching up with threads before I leave on a business trip to Berlin, without laptop and no tree books, so taking a short break from Balsamo. Who finally turns up again under a new name at court...I strongly suspect that Dumas is padding this out because he got paid by lines.

ETC

languages

The Kellys and the O'Kellys was a spontaneous tutored read over in the 75ers, because I like Trollope. I hadn't read any of his Irish novels before, so the setting was interesting. I found the girls a bit insipid, though.

Joseph Balsamo: I have now finished the second volume. Dumas is handling a big cast of historical figures playing political games. The fictional characters do not invite identification with them, Gilbert is truly annoying.

>117 MissWatson: I have the 5 volume series on my ebook--however, the English translation is not supposed to be very good; the critics say that the translator only skimmed the works. (However all 5 editions are about 1300 pages in length). I think I will hold off until I see more of your reviews as Dumas really isn't one of my favorites anyway, although revolutionary France is!

>118 Tess_W: So far, I cannot wholeheartedly recommend it. My favourite is the Count of Monte Cristo which is completely fictional. Here, we spend most of the time with historical characters jockeying for positions at court which is tedious. And the whole idea of Balsamo/Cagliostro masterminding the downfall of the French monarchy is preposterous. I think that the fictional character, Gilbert, is intended as the hero for whom the reader should root, but as he spends all his time obsessing about Andrée de Taverney, I find him boring. The book lacks the humour that makes the Musketeers such an entertaining yarn.
So why do I stick with it? It is almost entirely written in dialogue and I find that it is very good practice for my French. But I do hope the next book in the series offers more entertainment.

ETC

I have finished the third part of Joseph Balsamo and I keep wondering why the book is named after a character who turns up only occasionally. But now at last the reader gets a glimpse of his grand scheme for toppling the monarchy, although he fails to give a convincing reason. But then, everyone schemes in his or her own way here.

languages and all CATs

And I have finished it, yippee! All 2048 pages of it! It fits all four CATs, because it is set in France (Random), I bought it in Paris (TBR), it is by a favourite author (Series) and I'm using it for Joe Day in the CalendarCAT. Because of the enormous length, it also counts for the languages challenge.

So what's this about?

It is the first in a series of books about the time of Marie Antoinette who arrives in France at the beginning of the book. It ends with the death of Louis XV, and in between we meet an enormous number of real people, like Rousseau, La Dubarry and her clique, the duc de Richelieu, and of course Balsamo alias Cagliostro, and the fictional Taverneys. For three volumes, nothing much happens, just people scheming and playing intrigues by means of barbed conversations, and I was tempted to abandon it. Then, in the last volume, things pick up. Balsamo's plans fall apart with the death of his wife, Andrée Taverney falls victim to her father's ambition and becomes pregnant, and her adoring swain steals the child and places it with a farmer's family near Villers-Cotterets (which is Dumas' birthplace, by the way), thus setting the scene for more adventures in the next books.
This was written over two years and published as a newspaper serial, and it shows. People had more time and fewer other distractions in those days.

It has taken me three weeks to finish this brick, and now for something completely different. Most importantly: short.

Woo hoo! Excellent work!

Yeah!

>121 MissWatson: I feel like there should be a prize attached to reading a book that fits all four CATs.

>122 rabbitprincess: >123 Tess_W: >124 RidgewayGirl: Thank you, ladies! I'm still feeling a little elated about it.

Bingo: made into a movie

We've had a gorgeous, sunny day and I spent most of it on the balcony, reading Grete Minde by Theodor Fontane. A very short book, 102 pages plus copious notes and excerpts from letters detailing the writing process.

I picked this up because Fontane was born 200 years ago (in December) and the FAZ had a big article about an exposition that has just opened in his city of birth, Neuruppin. And this was just the right book after Dumas' histrionics. It is based on a real case, a young woman sentenced and executed for arson in the early 17th century. Fontane gives us a very convincing portrait of a young girl, the only child from her father's second marriage and an outsider because her mother was a stranger, a Catholic from the Spanish Netherlands. Her stepbrother and her sister-in-law do not like her, and she chafes under the strictures of smalltown life, so she runs away with her admirer. Things end badly for them. This was made into a movie in 1976.

Belated March roundup: the month has been hijacked entirely by my monstrous Dumas book, but at least I have filled all categories with it. And it inspired me to keep going with the French Revolutionary theme, I am currently reading Die roten Tücher von Cholet which is set in a village in the Vendée in the aftermath of the Vendée rising, and it is shaping up to be a very good read.

languages

The translation of Die roten Tücher von Cholet is increasingly bothering me and I have decided to abandon this – in favour of the original which is on its way. But since it is a physical copy leaving the house, I'm counting it.

>128 MissWatson: sounds good! However, I don't see an English translation.

>129 Tess_W: Yes, it seems it did not make much noise outside France.

My next read of the French Revolution is The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of The Marquis de Sade, a play I hope to get to this year.

Dumas mentions in an aside a novel Marat wrote in his impressionable youth and which was published posthumously while Dumas wrote his novel. He may take liberties with the facts, but he certainly knows his stuff. I'll be interested to hear your comments on de Sade!

SeriesCAT

Spring is finally here, as evidenced by our first open air fleamarket. My sister and our best friend spent the weekend, we had lots of fun and I even bought a book: Un Noël de Maigret. It is a very short book and a very brief case, it takes place on Christmas Day and Maigret runs the entire operation from home. As always, Simenon is concise and very exact in his description of people's social behaviour.

Bingo: prize-winning book / GR Around the year: prompt 39

I had Archipel on my radar because it won the German Book Prize last year and the reviews seemed promising: a family saga set on Tenerife, so when I saw it in my charity bookshop, I snapped it up. It didn't live up to expectations, though: the device of telling the story backwards was clunky, and I didn't like the author's style, endless and breathless sentences. The story starts in 2015 in a pretty dysfunctional family. The daughter has returned from Madrid after unsuccessfully studying art, her father has chucked in his university job as a modern history professor and drinks, the mother is a junior member in the regional government and just got embroiled in a corruption scandal. They are well off and part of the local establishment, and as we move back in time we learn more about the origins of their money and their politics. The chapters set in the past were by far the most interesting and I picked up quite a few things I want to read up on. I always wondered at the strong British presence on the island, well, one of the characters is in the business of providing coal for British ships which need to refuel on their long trips towards the ends of their far-flung empire and even tried to acquire the islands as a colony.
This is actually what reconciled me with the book and made me choose it for the "A book with a strong sense of place or where the author brings the location/setting to life" prompt. The author has family on the island and spends a lot of time there, and it shows in every line. I recognised quite a few places, her description of the landscape really brought this back to me.

World Book and Copyright Day on 23 April is casting its shadow with announcements for events staged by the book trade association which is how I stumbled across Deutsche Welle radio's list of 100 German Books to read: https://www.dw.com/en/top-stories/100-must-reads/s-43415865. Do I need another challenge? Of course not. Still, quite a few interesting titles here and it would also make an excellent choice for the April CalendarCAT. Let's check the shelves...

SeriesCAT

I picked Bretonische Brandung from the shelf because the latest instalment of the TV version aired on Thursday. Reading about Brittany always makes me wanto to go back there.

TBECAT / ScaredyKIT / GR: prompt 28

I bought Der Tod so kalt last year because I thought the stark cover would fit well in the ColourCAT for white, but didn't get around to it. The title literally translates as "Death so cold" and it was published in 2016, so it also fits for the ScaredyKIT and the Around the year challenge.

This was actually an agreeable surprise, mostly because of the language. It really feels as if it belongs to the 21st century, it is a young man's voice, modern, and some of it is surely the translator's merit: she never puts a foot wrong in her idioms. This was particularly obvious in direct comparison with my previous book, because I find Bannalec's prose almost pedestrian in places. An additional point in its favour is the location: my parents used to spend holidays in the South Tyrol, and this brought back their stories.

The story was also unusual, and partially based on the author's own experiences as a TV writer and, possibly, young father. The private life takes up a lot of room in this book, but since it is his family life that keeps him more or less sane, that's okay with me. The final twist and the showdown was a little over the top, but otherwise a solid, satisfactory read.

The images from Paris set me thinking that I have never read Notre Dame de Paris, and I found a digitised version from 1837. In his preface, Hugo rails against the neglect and wanton destruction of ancient buildings, especially the medieval churches, and it is a chilling thought that we might have lost such wonders as the Sainte Chapelle if it hadn't been for people like him. And Viollet-le-Duc, of course. His work may not be to everyone's taste, but at least he saved monuments instead of tearing them down.
We'll have to wait and see what can be saved now.

>138 MissWatson: saddened when I was Notre-Dame was afire. I visited in 2005 and it is such a piece of history. My favorite, though, was the Rouen Cathedral.

>140 MissWatson: Yes, it is a sad event. At my sister's we looked up the photos she made in 2006 when it was recently cleaned and shone so wonderfully white outside. My own favourite thus far is the cathedral of Chartres, but we have seen only a handful.

languages

I borrowed a book from my sister fro the train ride home: Italienreise – Liebe inbegriffen by Barbara Noack who wrote extremely popular light romances back in the late fifties and early sixties, and this was made into a movie. She really has an ear for dialogue and sassy repartee.
Here we go on a bus trip to Italy for three weeks, our heroine is engaged to a vet who has second thoughts when he sees the very handsome tour guide and follows her in his car. Quite an interesting glimpse into early mass tourism. Her best book is still Die Zürcher Verlobung, though.

CalendarCAT / GR prompt 4

Das Parfum features on a list of 100 German books presented by Deutsche Welle, which I found browsing around for World Book and Copyright Day, so it happily fits for the Calendar CAT. And it features a criminal, so one more for the GR challenge.
This was a very good read, wonderful language and a truly weird main character.

>135 MissWatson: Thanks for the link. I have read some of the listed books already, but there are quite a few I hardly know of. Oh well, as if our reading lists were too short...

>143 Chrischi_HH: Yes, I know. I more or less avoided German literature for years and now feel like I should at least try to catch up. There have been pleasant surprises...

RandomCAT / GR: prompt 10

I wanted a book in my TBR for this challenge and found it with Arthur & George which was on the longlist in 2007. Another very good read, although I found the actual trial tough to get through. It is described in painful detail and the way the prosecution manipulates facts and witnesses to achieve a verdict make you uncomfortably aware that courts are very dangerous places. I also liked the fact that the blurb did not give away the game, you need to read a few chapters before you realise who the Arthur in the title is. I'm happy to find I can also use the book for the "historical figure" prompt.

languages

I finished These were the Sioux by Mari Sandoz, a very brief introduction to the Plains Indians as she observed them. Full of sympathy for a vanished culture.

April roundup: I managed to read at least one book for all the CATs, but with all those non-reading activities I fell a bit short of my own goal. Most of them were good reads though, so it was a very satisfying month.

Bingo: animal in title, cover or significant role

I borrowed Die Känguru-Offenbarung from my sister's library as an audiobook, because most of the fun in this satire is the author reading it himself. This is the third instalment, and some of the jokes were rather predictable, but it is still nerdy fun. It also gives me my first Bingo.
The weather isn't very nice today, so I'll be picking up another borrowed book later, trying to make up for the slow going in April.

SeriesCAT

Strictly speaking, Bretonischer Stolz is not the newest in the series, but the newest for me as I am reading them in order. The case is solved quickly, within three days, with solid policing. But I really read and love these for the setting in Southern Brittany.

SeriesCAT / GR: prompt 9

My second book for the May SeriesCAT is Record of a spaceborn few, the latest in the Wayfarers series. I really enjoy this world. We're back on board a spaceship, and this time we learn how humans arrived in the Galactic Commons and how they adapt to their new world. It is much about migration, leaving one place, and arriving in another. How much of your old way of living do you preserve?

languages

I think I need to work on filling my language challenge, so I picked Mord und Brand, a historical mystery set in Vienna in 1911. The year starts badly with a demonstration against inflation, and continues with several murders and arsons. As usual in this series, events are told from the viewpoint of the perpetrators and in parallel from the police inspector's. Much talk about food, local slang, and a very leisurely pace of investigating.

RandomCAT

The next book in the Nechyba series is Todeswalzer, Waltz of death, and thus provides me with a book for the RandomCAT. It is set in the summer of 1914, immediately after the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, and in the political uproar the killing of a young pimp goes almost unnoticed. We meet a lot of characters we know from previous cases, the victim desperately wanted to be an actor and hung on the fringes of the thatre world. But as usual, eating and walking around Vienna takes precedence over the investigation. At least he solves his case faster than usual. The title refers to a painting made by a young artist, only fleetingly involved with the case.

CalendarCAT / GR: prompt 40

Le joli mois de mai (The lovely month of May) is a rather strange book. Very short, told in first person narrative by the handyman of a hunting lodge whose owner has recently died. He has named five people in his testament who arrive in May to thresh out the details of sharing the legacy, and on the very first evening one of them is dead...to say more would be spoiling. Suffice to say that it is not your run-of-the-mill mystery. I have no idea why I bought this, or where I came across it, but it was a fascinating read as the story slowly unfolds. The narrator is not very educated and it took some time to get used to his unorthodox grammar.

TBRCAT

There are so many reasons why a book remains unopened: too big, not in the right mood, mentioned on one of those guilt-inspiring "you should have read" lists, it's by an author ruined for you by school, you have no idea why you ever bought this...
Die Brücke am Kwai is one of those "you've seen the movie, this can wait" items on the shelves. Nowadays I wouldn't buy a translation from a language I can read, but way back then it would have been difficult to get a French copy. and because I don't part with books unread, I finally sat down with it. Most of the reviews mention the blatant racism, and while it is present I found it entirely in keeping with the times – which is why I suspect the German translation has been bowdlerised. It is definitely shorter than the French and English paperback editions. So I am reserving final judgment on this until I have read the original.

languages

While searching for my copy of Fiasko for the SFFKit, I came across Als ich ein kleiner Junge war. It's short, so I squeezed it in. Interesting details about Kästner's childhood in Dresden and his family, with all the stylistic characteristics of his children's books, but in the end a little haphazard and anecdotal.

>154 MissWatson: I read this book probably 30 years ago. It is still on my shelf and perhaps it's time to for a reread. The pages may be so yellowed by now and the print too small to see--so may have to get a newer copy from the library. My translation is in English, of course. I don't recall any blatant "racism," but it was war and I'm sure that the hatred one has for their enemies can be considered racist when the two opposing sides are of different races. I'm sure war does bring out the worst in people. I think it is time for a reread of this book and and then a re-watching of the movie. Off to find it on my shelves!

>156 Tess_W: I have found that revisiting books that seemed inoffensive thirty years ago often make me squirm today. Comparing all Asians (who are mostly orientals here, which is another noteworthy linguistic shift) to monkeys is more than just demonising an enemy, it is the firm belief of the supremacy of the white race so ubiquitous at the time and which existed before the war. And, sadly, hasn't died out completely. Re-watching the movie is something on my to-do list now, too. I have only vague memories of it.

>157 MissWatson: I agree about the perception of 30-40 years between the original read and the re-reads. I really can't remember anything other than the story from this book--but I do know from studying WWII that the Japanese were portrayed as monkeys in war recruiting posters in the U.S. (and then of course there were the Japanese internments).

>158 Tess_W: I agree, it makes a lot of difference how many years have elapsed between the publication of a book and actually reading it. The reviews on LT are all fairly recent, so they reflect current attitudes. People who actually lived through WWII and read this when it came out in 1952 may have thought he glossed over the horrors of the forced labour.

Bingo: mentioned in another book / GR: prompt 44

Last week I watched a documentary about music inspired by the Alhambra, and I was inspired in turn to take Tales of the Alhambra from the shelf. This had been on my radar ever since I watched the BBC version of North and South, where John Thornton's slightly ditzy sister Fanny declares it to be her favourite book. The scene occurs in the novel, too, of course, but Jo Joyner's acting made it so memorable.

The book is much better than I expected it to be (blame Fanny Thornton) and put me instantly in mind of Georgette Heyer's Grand Sophy because of the young poet smitten with Spanish literature. Spain was very much in fashion at the time (early 19th century and Romantics), but Irving at least saw it with his own eyes and he writes wonderfully about the wonders of Andalusia. My copy was printed in Spain and is riddled with typos, so badly that I had to cross-check with a digitised version, but I was often surprised to find that he did use some of the odd spellings. It took me a few moments to identify cimiter as scimitar.

I should continue the Spanish theme with a book in Spanish, but my copy of Empire of grass has just arrived. See you 600-odd pages later...

edited for touchstone

>160 MissWatson: I'm a fan of Irving, but have not heard of this book. On my wish list it goes!

North and South is a fantastic miniseries and Fanny is one of its many delights.

>161 Tess_W: I think it was originally published simply as "The Alhambra" which threw me when I searched for a copy.
>162 RidgewayGirl: The BBC did a great job here, and I so wish they would give us a few of the lesser known 19th century greats instead of a new Austen every five years (at least it feels like every five years).

languages

I caught a nasty cold, sore throat, running nose, swollen eyes, and wasn't really up to reading. So I listened to an audiobook instead, Die Känguru-Apokryphen, another set of anecdotes of a Berlin stand-up comedian who lives with an anarchist cangaroo. Quite a few LOL moments, but the routine is wearing a little thin. Still, it was just perfect for a time when you're feeling indisposed. And now I can return it to my sister.
Plus, the cold was a good reason to make chicken soup. Feeling much better already.

ETC darn typos

Sorry to learn you came down with a nasty cold!

>164 MissWatson: Boo to the cold, but yay for chicken soup!

Sorry you're not feeling well!

>165 lkernagh: >166 rabbitprincess: >167 Tess_W: Thank you for the good wishes. The worst is always not getting any sleep from the coughing, but things are much improved already. My eyes are back to normal, so I can enjoy my paper book again!

Feel better soon! I'm just recovered from something similar, there's a lot of it about. I'm glad you feel up to reading again.

>169 Jackie_K: Thanks, Jackie. I think it's the weather: cold and windy one day, then sunshine and 20°C the next. But as long as there's no fever and I can see clearly, I'm good.

languages / seriesCAT / GR: prompt 16

I have finished Empire of grass by Tad Williams, fresh off the press, the second instalment in his new Oasten Ard series. Still thinking about this one.

I'm off for a long weekend at my sister's without internet. See you all next Monday. Happy reading.

ETA: I liked this better than the first book. Events are in full swing, and Morgan is shaping up to be an interesting character instead of a spoiled brat.

Have a fun weekend with your sister.

Have a good weekend!

>172 DeltaQueen50:, >173 Jackie_K: Thanks, ladies. Great weather and some wonderful concerts!

Bingo: food-related / GR: prompt 30

I didn't get much time to read, but I did finish a slim volume from my sister's shelves: Kochbuch für die kleine alte Frau which means cookbook for the little old lady, where a famous German cookery author talks about cooking for herself now that she is widowed and almost ninety, still living by herself and enjoying her food. She reminisces about the cooks in her life, friends and favourite foods, and shares quite a few recipes. Lovely.

ETC

languages

People in Joseph Balsamo mentioned several times that the king was suspected of speculating in grain, and since food riots were one of the major destabilising forces, I looked for a non-fiction book explaining how these arose. Mastering the market is a history of the French grain trade and provisioning policies from 1750 til 1860. The author concentrates on Paris and the northern region providing grain and flour to the capital, and the book is very detailed.
Too detailed to remember everything, so my main impression is how precarious life was until well into the 19th century. One bad harvest, and people go hungry. What the book did not explain to my satisfaction is how this dependence on wheat originated and how agriculture was organised that people should depend so much on bread. Paris and urban centres, yes, but why did peasants not have their own gardens to provide them with better food? This is something to explore next. And I sincerely hope the next book is not so much riddled with typos.

>176 MissWatson: very interesting question--how did people become dependent on bread? And also, what was the process that people connected crushing wheat and adding liquid would make bread? I do know the Egyptians in about 2000 BC introduced yeast into ground wheat to kill some of the toxins and wallah, no more flat bread! Good question about the peasants; but I would think that maybe it had to do with feudalism. I will be interested in what you find!

>177 Tess_W: Yes, that is a fascinating question: how did they invent bread? One of these days I need to read Tannahill's Food in history. I've started another book about grain in Europe, but haven't got an answer to my question yet.

CalendarCAT

I picked up Bretonische Flut at my sister's because I wanted to get ahead with the series, and it turns out that the action takes place on 22 and 23 June. How serendipitous!
Otherwise, it is a typical entry in the series. The case is solved very quickly in two days, with the cops working 18 hours a day, which I found hard to believe. Two women are found with their throat slits, one in Douarnenez, the other on the island of Sein, there's a brief sequence set on Molène, and we also pass through Le Conquet and Porspoder. We spent several holidays in this area and I found some of the times he gives for driving and travelling between these destinations unconvincing. But it is nice to see hotels and restaurants mentioned where we stayed, long before these books were written.

languages

I have given up on Grain markets in Europe, 1500–1900. Instead of a plainly written history of grain production and consumption we get lots of mathematical production and consumption functions, I am simply not in the mood for this. The first chapter on the economic theorists of the Enlightenment seemed promising, but things soon deteriorated into hypothetical problems.

SeriesCAT / GR: prompt 19

Le fantôme de la rue Royale is the third case of Nicolas Le Floch. The year is 1770, and the magistrates of Paris have promised fireworks to celebrate the marriage of the Dauphin and Marie Antoinette. There's a terrible accident and hundreds of people die in the panic. But one body is found who was strangled, not trampled or crushed in the crowd.
As usual, there is also a lot of court intrigue going on as Le Floch's chief tries to clear the name of the police from any resonsibility in the disaster, so a domestic murder provides a welcome smokescreen. This didn't work very well for me, as Nicolas runs around the city interrogating people, yet never asking pertinent questions, and a few pages later he produces a clue that we didn't see coming. And it all ends in a great assembly of suspects à la Poirot. The weirdest bit was a case of exorcism performed on a maid. It led to the discovery of the body of a newborn child, but otherwise seemed to have no connection to the case. Odd.
I still have the rest of the series on my shelves, so it fits for prompt 19 in the GR challenge.

Quite enjoyed catching up on your thread! Lots of great reading, in multiple languages - very impressive!

>182 LisaMorr: Thanks, nice to see you here!

TBRCAT / GR: prompt 33

The king's hounds was a BB taken from leslie.98 way back in 2015. This is a historical mystery set in England in 1018, King Knud (or Canute to the English) has called a meeting of the nobles in Oxford and in the midst of this gathering a Saxon noble is found murdered. Enter Winston and Halfdan who are tasked with finding the killer.
This is a solid historical mystery, the time period is unusual and therefore interesting. The story is narrated by Halfdan who is not my favourite type of male, but we have had far worse. A few things strike me as anachronisms (or just too modern phrasing in the translation?), and some of the events had me reaching for a book of Danish history. This proved unsatisfactory, and since Halfdan always means Danish settlers in England when he says Danes (the recent invaders are mostly referred to as Vikings) I'll probably fare better with a history of Anglo-Saxon England to get my facts about the times. Sidetracked again, sheesh.

ETC

>184 MissWatson: I will take that one as a BB!

>185 Tess_W: I hope you'll enjoy it. It's the first in a series and I've already noted down the titles. The author is Danish, so I think he probably has a different view of Canute than English history books.

>186 MissWatson: The other view is good! All I have ever gotten in my studies is the British/American version of almost all history. Now that I have "time" I like comparing and contrasting alternate views.

languages

I picked up Die englischen Könige im Mittelalter in order to read up on pre-conquest English history after The king's hounds. This is a book of several essays covering various stages of medieval history, starting with the Anglo-Saxons. Given the scarcity of the sources, the authors don't write full biographies, but concentrate on one aspect of their era. As an introduction to my topic it is very useful, especially because of the bibliographies. I was intrigued to find that Stenton's Anglo-Saxon England is still considered the gold standard for the period. I suppose until OUP actually commission a new one for their New English/British History series, it will remain so.
And of course I read the other chapters, too. Now I feel like revisiting Norman history. So many books, so little time.

languages

I wanted to read up on Danish history, so I went out and bought Geschichte Dänemarks in the hopes of finding it more satisfactory than Dänische Geschichte, one of the slim volumes in the Beck Wissen series.
Carsten Jahnke's book did deliver on all points, he packed a lot into 300 pages, and he even included the sort of nuggets that you remember a long time afterward. Such as the great fireworks given on the occasion of the coronation of Christian IV and the marriage festivities for his son, where they used old parchments from the archives to build the rockets, and so Danish history literally went up in smoke. I wish he had named the source for this! Which is my only complaint with the book, no footnotes or endnotes.

RandomCAT / GR: prompt 42

I drew the Ace of Hearts for the RandomCAT this month and immediately thought of Das hündische Herz by Bulgakow. Last year, I bought a gorgeous bibliophile edition of this, with notes from the translator, proper thread-stitching, lavish illustrations, careful layout, and printed in a classic font, Bodoni, one of my favourites. It is also a new translation, based on the third and final typoscript from Bulgakov's hand, with an afterword explaining the translator's choices. Which made me realise that it was a good choice to read the translation first and keep my original version for later, as that edition is based on the first surviving typoscript.
And what a strange story it is! For the mad scientists who are playing God without any clue to what they are unleashing I am also counting it for the "monstrous character" prompt of the GR challenge. This was less of a satire on Soviet Russia and much more about a Faustian pact with the devil. This particular aspect of the story resonates as strongly today as it did then, when research into hormones was all the rage.

Bingo: artistic character

Tod am Zollhaus is a historical mystery set in Hamburg in 1765 and the cast of characters include a company of travelling players hoping to perform, but whose principal is slung in jail under suspicion of murder. Very nice.

RandomCAT

Adding one more to the May RandomCAT with Lizzis letzter Tango, a surprisingly entertaining cozy mystery set in Hamburg in a genteel residence for seniors.

languages

I was looking for something completely different and picked up The new Magdalen, one of the few Wilkie Collins novels I haven't read yet. This was a Wildside edition I bought years ago. Unfortunately, from page 150 onwards typos multiplied and entire lines went missing, corrupting the text so badly that I quit. This one goes in the bin. I may look for a digitised copy later, just to know how this story of a "fallen woman" ends.

ETA: There were only a few chapters left which I read online, courtesy of the University of Adelaide. I'm happy to report that true love wins, although for modern tastes the language is far too sentimental.

>190 MissWatson: I'll take a book bullet for Bulgakov's Heart of a Dog - sounds really interesting; have you read The Master and Margarita, and if so, how would you compare them?

>194 LisaMorr: After I finished Heart of a Dog I went straight to the bookshop and bought the translator's version of The Master and Margarita. I broke off reading another translation years ago because I couldn't get my head round it. But Nitzberg's comments on the earlier work made sense to me, so I'm hoping it will be a more satisfying read, some time later this year.

>194 LisaMorr:
>195 MissWatson:

I quit reading The Master and the Margarita last year because I thought it bizarre--but then I'm not much on magical realism. I will be interested to see that you think of it!

languages / GR: prompt 34

I picked up Alan Turing because it was short and I wanted sometzhing for the Reading Through Time challenge. Well, I don't share the critical opinion that this was brilliantly written, and it didn't really tell me anything about Turing beyond what I knew from various TV documentaries. Tedious.

Half the year has gone by already, so it's time to set up a new thread. But it is also the end of Kiel Week, my best friend has spent the weekend and we did a lot of fun things together, so I'm putting this off til tomorrow.

>198 MissWatson: Made me look up Kiel week--it sounds wonderful, especially with a friend1

>199 Tess_W: Thanks Tess, we had a great time, including a short ride in a genuine Venetian gondola! The owner is a retired professor of engineering who went all the way of acquiring a proper Venetian gondoliere license (which takes two years) and had a gondola custom built. They brought it to Kiel Week for the first time and I hope they had sufficient customers to cover their costs. The local newspaper picked up the story rather late in the week. When we were in Venice we were too tight-fisted to pay for a ride, but this time we leaped at the chance. It is different from other boats.

It's the first of July and time for a new thread. Come on over!