Random Things Tours: Promise Me by Jill Mansell

 

Lou had a beautiful life and a well paid job until everything ended up. It happens to many those years and it used to happen before our generation as well. As usual, there are victims and survivors, and moments when one realises what really matters in life, and especially who. In Lou´s case, she is a fighter that is brought by fate in a little quaint village in the Cotswolds where she is longing for a better life and maybe a new romance too.

Jill Mansell´s latest Promise Me, branded as ´the heart warming novel of 2023´ is fully in sync with the expectations. Complex interactions between characters, heartwarming characters and situations, good hearts at work, overall an empathic ambiance embracing the reader to enjoy and feel good and see life in a kinder way. 

What I really loved in this book, that I devoured during one long weekend read, are the good hearted characters. They naturally behave as good humans and this angle makes for me ´feelgood fiction´ a refuge and source of solace when there is too much - equally human - negativity in humans and situations.

Promise Me promises a story that may be predictable still unpredictably kind packed with beautiful stories. Worth reading it when feeling down or just looking for a good read, with a quiet touch of the Cotswolds and heartwarming romance.

Rating: 4 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own

Rêvoir

 

In the days following the lockdown in France, Europe and elsewhere, Hélène Cixous, one of those writers I am still trying to understand what creative waters do they drink to write like this, is re-visiting - Rêvoir - the world of the past tenses through the emergency of present. 

How can someone DO NOT try to stop the world through words during such traumatic events. Being witnesses of such times it is a priviledge and an obligation for the writer. The memories of the present past to the far away fragments of her personal memories are knitted together in a personal account where dreams and their recurrence - Rêvoir, again - amplify the echoes of the memories. 

Her mother, Eva Klein, a presence of all the books by her I´ve read before, is returning either in the story or in the dream, and so is his father, that died as she was 10, in Algeria. Maybe after all, our present can be read through the rememberance of the time past, sometimes through our dreams and nightmares.

I have another books by Cixous to finish over the weekend as I wanted to keep staying in the ambiance of her writing. Inviting the reader into a private, personal realm, is more than an act of literary hospitality, but a gentle intellectual invitation to share intimate experiences. Reading her, it´s a priviledge and honour.

Rating: 5 stars

Random Things Tours: The Wife Next Door by Amanda Brooke

 

I am fascinated about thriller books based on relationships between neighbours, as they reveal how a relatively mundane situation can be explored in a creative thrilling way. Although I used to move a lot and therefore, change a lot of neighbours, I haven´t been blessed with any inspiring neighbours. Rather - with one exception, a very old guy obsessed with conspiracy theories - the average bookish type, with whom the relationships haven´t been more than customary polite exchanges.

Amanda Brooke, the author of The Wife Next Door, whose work I just got to know, transposed a fragment of a personal encounter: the experience of seeing a beloved tree being cut down. In the book though, a similar event takes the reader to an unexpected journey of revealing the rotten truth behind beautiful curtains.

It took me some time to enter the mood of the book, but once the ambiance was settled, I couldn´t put it down. The plot is built in the smallest details, with the characters being played skillfully on a chessboard. Although in the end it makes you suspect even the friendlier and happier neighbours, The Wife Next Door may give you some terrifying thoughts, but nevertheless I can easily forget about what my vision on life and humanity is, busy following the fate of the characters. A journey worth taking it.

Rating: 4 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own

Rachel´s Random Resources: Mrs. Bambi Knows by Chris Mason

 

In a small town in Oregon, almost everyone can´t wait to see what are the next gossips and relationships drama as adviced and solved by Mrs. Bambi, a local anonymous columnist. She seems to be everywhere, or at least where the best gossips are cooked. Everyone can´t wait to get to know her, but when it happens, they are more than surprised.

Mrs. Bambi is in fact a Mr., a curious widower with a young daughter who is about to fall in love again with a successful and attractive realtor. He cannot give up his writing, and in addition to that, there are some secrets he maybe is not yet ready to share. 

Full of humour and local flavour, Mrs. Bambi Knows is not only a perfect cosy read, but also raises questions about responsibility in the media, with insights into local everyday life and priorities, romance and love after love. The style makes the book even more enjoyable, bringing the characters closer to the reader, in a very friendly, intimate way. Once the story evolves, it makes you think about what exactly you would have done in their place and if you maybe are about to be too harsh in judging their decisions - especially those of ´Mrs. Bambi´.

If you are longing for a cosy humorous read for this weekend, this book may be a good start.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own 

Multicultural Children´s Book Day 2023: 123 Who Comes Next by Amy Matsushita-Beal

 

As someone growing up in a multicultural family and environment, who have created a multicultural little family, finding sources of inspiration for my everyday reading life is very important. After currently taking over tasks pertaining to multicultural education, having access to sources of information able to educate multicultural children is equally of high importance. Therefore, my participation of this year - 10 year anniversary edition - of Multicultural Children´s Book Day, an event I previously celebrated on my blog was an honor and an opportunity to feature interesting titles useful both for educators and children.

For this time edition, I am happy to introduce to a picture book, aimed at toddlers and preschool childrne, illustrated by graphic artist Amy Matsushita-Beal: 123 Who Comes Next? to be soon published by Starbright Books, a multicultural edition house.

The book is an excellent tool to be used for both learning to count and to explain diversity of unique human beings, and diversity in general - at a certain point the children are joined by some veggie too. The simple yet suggestive illustration for this age can be creatively used by parents and educators to illustrate various diverse contexts based on almost everything: from gender to languages and everything in-between. 

An excellent resource that should add value and creativity to any diversity-focused curriculum.

Rating: 4 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the international event but the opinions are, as usual, my own  

Book Review: Courir by Jean Echenoz

Successful sportmen and -women are always draught into the narrative of ideological nationalism. All dictatorships - left, right, religious fundamentalism like in the case of nowadays Iran - they all need sport to crown their ideological efforts. The syllogism is pretty easy: they, the champions do have the support of the masses; by including them as part of the identity narrative, they political establishment is taking advantage and projecting on oneself the popularity of the sport players. Although there are plenty of examples in the media about such situations, I haven´t read until Courir - Running, in my translation - by Jean Echenoz - a literary transposition of the tensions implicit in such an image abuse by the dictatorships. 

I may confess that I haven´t paid too much attention to Echenoz, a prix Goncourt laureate. Maybe because I haven´t got any specific references until now, but in any case, although shortly over 100 pages,s is a masterpiece in storifying the never ending mendling of politics into sports.

The example is took from the confrontations during the Cold War, not all of them necessarily connected to arms race and nuclear dreams. The main character of the book, whose story is told by the storyteller, without necessarily giving him the right to speak by himself, as it usually happens when politics are taking over the individual voices, is an outstanding athlete, beating easily all the world records, but unhappily being born in the then Czechoslovakia who just started its history under the influence of the Soviet Union. His career starts shortly at the end of the WWII and his destiny follows shortly the political enslavement of his own country. He is used as a political symbol, only to end up being misused and manipulated. And he will end up voiceless, despite a short moment of awareness, during the short-lived Prague Spring, at the end of the 1968, when the promises of freedom and democracy were cut short by the Soviet tanks. 

The destiny of the athlete can be replicated by many other stories of other champions, in practicall all fields of the sport. All over the former Communist Block, soccer clubs, for instance, used to be another playground for different political entities and ´intelligence´ agencies for displaying their pride and rivalities. 

Courir is a reminder of all this, said in a story which may bring more clarity to historical events as reflected into individual life, than thousand of pages of academic articles.

Recommended to anyone looking for good literature with a powerful political subtext.

Rating: 5 stars

Book Review: The Resort by Sarah Goodwin

Partially set in the Bavarian Alps, The Resort is a thriller of husband betrayal and sisters´ competition. 

On the way to Jess, Mila´s sister wedding, somewhere in Bavaria, Mila and Ethan are getting lost in a no man´s land. Then, her husband dissapears and for days in a row Mila is roaming around an empty village, where she discovers corpses and human remains. As she is looking for a way out, she feels permanently watched and a fire destroys most of the cabins, implicitly the traces of murdered bodies too.

But Mila is escaping, thanks to some tourists that found her and is joining her sister where her disappeared husband was apparently looking for her. Shortly upon returning home though, there is a personal tragedy waiting for her, following a dramatic revelation that may jeopardize her life as she knew it.

The Resort has some unexpected spectacular twists that feels like wake up calls in the middle of a nap, and until the last chapter, there are new elements of the story revealed. However, I´ve felt sometimes there are so many stakes and the story is running faster than the installment of individual scenes. For instance, the days during which Mila is captive in the abandoned village, the scenes are lost into wanderings about mundane details that definitely are out of anyone´s mind when on emergency/survival mood. There are also assumptions that does not match the final results and the ambiance. Sometimes, the stakes are too high for what it is planned to happen and often, there is no sense of emergency as supposed by the situation in general.

The intermezzo focused on the relationship between the sisters does not prepare at all for the final installments and although the idea of the competition between the two is a reason enough to create tension and expectations, they end up in a lukewarm comfortable situation.

Overall, although there are many reasons to wait until the end what is happening in The Resort, it also creates expectations that are half met and therefore may leave the reader with the sour taste of non-honored promises.

Rating: 3 stars

Book Review: The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman

 

This is the most hilarious crime mystery I´ve ever read. Usually, I prefer to start getting to know an author of mysterious fame with his or her most famous, bestseller book therefore I´ve chosed from the series of Thursday Murder Club Mystery the second installment, The Man Who Died Twice, also recommended by other crime readers whose opinions I appreciate. 

Although the second book, it does not raise any difficulties in understanding the characters and their ways. Especially their ways. The members of the Club are mostly retired operatives from different intelligence agencies. Retired, they love a good crossword to keep their mind awake, but once in a while, old calls are bringing back on the field. 

This time, they are supposed to find 20-million pound worth diamonds, stolen by an old chap, Elizabeth ex-husband Douglas, from a local mafia thug. Diamonds, who are obviously for ever, may make anyone´s retirement easier, and the four septuagenarians are ruthless as never to find them and eventually change their lives for ever. Who wouldn´t? Therefore, count on an ever growing count of characters, of different colours, keen to get first the diamonds.

What is entertaining by The Man Who Died Twice is not only the humour and the hilarious characters and situations the characters are in, but also the twists. Never stays the same more than two-four lines and there are changes of all kinds that do not give your brain any single break. A very exciting adventure, unexpected to say the least. 

Another important feature of the book is the humanity and diverse faces of the old age, as contextualized in the book. The old characters play an important part of the book, solving mysteries, thinking about love and the future, and I couldn´t stop from thinking about Live a Little.

The Man Who Died Twice is an entertaining story told with humour and empathy, that will not leave indifferent a real buff of British mysteries. I can only think about getting to know other stories told by the Thursday Murder Club, hopefully soon.

Rating: 3.5 stars

The Triggers of Memory

 

It took me around one year and a half to finally finish In Memory of Memory by Russian poet and journalist Maria Stepanova - read in the German translation from Russian by Olga Radetzkaya as Nach dem Gedächtnis. 

As a historian and gatherer of stories, I am fascinated about memory. How it appears, how it is changed, how we change it or forget about it. My extremely slow reading in this case was due to the fact that, as I love to enjoy every drop of an old red wine, I also offer myself once in a while the luxury of reading slow, as slow as possible, in order to understand and savor the flavours of a book. 

Stepanova comes from a Russian Jewish family where she grew up, as she shared during an online talk on the occasion of the Toronto International Festival of Authors late in 2021, being told family stories instead of fairy tales. The story, that later will be shortlisted for the 2021 International Booker Prize, is an exercise in investigating the various memory layers. Hers, of her family, of her distant or closer relatives.

We live surrounded by memories: ours, of other people and times, of other historical moments that we inherited genetically or through the stories we were told about. Nowadays we store an impressive amount of memories through our devices and the production of photos that can surround us in our homes comes easier at hand. But as when our knowledge expands the certitudes vanish, But this also means that our inspiration to tell stories is as big as the chances to accurately rebuilt those memories.

Stepanova´s inquiry are lead by authentic curiosity and she is approaching every piece of memory - either physical or emotional - with care and highest attention. There is a flow of memories that may be spontaneous, but their setting is made following a desire to order and re-order.

As I am embarking soon on a mission that was supposed already to happen last year: re-lecture of Proust´s In Search of Lost Time, the moment of finally reading the last page of Stepanova´s In Memory of Memory created a momentum that I hope to maintain in the next 2 months I dedicate to one of the books that is definitely intertwined with my own coming at terms with post-teen years, without necessarily influencing it, but just as part of my background. For bookish lives, books do also build their own memories within their living realm of the memory.

Rating: 5 stars

Random Things Tours: Our Man in Kuwait by Louise Burfitt-Dons

One of the many reasons the Middle East is so much upside down sometimes is due to the fact that, besides the colonial histories, the decades-long Cold War confrontations between the Soviet Union and the US and the allied powers on both sides. The chess of interests on both sides were often detrimental to the development of the countries used as an arena of deploying intelligence and military strategies, and abandoned as soon as a new set of interests prevailed. I will not enter too much in non-literary details of geopolitical nature, but literature can somehow remind us of causes and consequences of politicies that did not try to go further than short-term interests.

Our Man in Kuwait by Louise Burfitt-Dons enacts the very active nest of spies in Kuwait in the 1960, a reflection of the diffuse landscape of the international political alliances two decades after the end of the WWII. A possible Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, that happened in a completely different context few decades later, is endangering the unstable balance of powers in the region, but also outlines the deep fracture in the Arab unity - due to the game of powers but not only. 

Burfitt-Dons, whose well researched books I had the chance to previously review on the blog, wrote the book based on her own experiences, being born and brought in Kuwait where her father was Preventative Health Officer for the Kuwait Oil Company. Although sometimes the mindset reminded me of contemporary behaviors, the interactions between different expat couples and their dark secrets built up as a game of smoked mirrors are very captivating, in the thriller kind of way. The dialogues exhibit a sophistication and allusive language that raise even more questions about the character and intentions of the characters.

As I have a fascination and interest in both Cold War and the Middle East, Our Man in Kuwait was my read a choice for putting the topics and the region more into a larger mentalities context. 

Rating: 4 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own

´Dear Friend from My Life, I Write to You in Your Life´

A collection of writings about writing, reading and readers, and more or less consumed literary encounters with authors, Dear Friend, from MyLife I Write to You in Your Life by Yiyun Li is very much different from any kind of nonfiction books dedicated to literature and literary inspirations in general. And it has not only to do with the choice of authors.

´Any young mind has to fall in love with a book once to learn how to read´. What it really make the difference in this book is the dialogue between memory/memories and books that are directly placed into an everyday life context. Writing and life do play the existential game together and reading, obvious but not enough literarily outlined, it is not only a source of literary inspiration but also changing the perspective about the reader´s life. Indeed, the books we read may bring us to worlds outside our imagination only few pages ago. And this is not necessarily an exercise of imagination, but a life changing decision. What we read may change us dramatically.

Besides being entinced to add to my TBR new authors and titles - McGahern´s memoir being one of them - I was also impressed by the tone of the writing, inquisitive in understanding the love for letters and writing in general, without assuming, but scientifically dissecting interests, episodes from the past, memory meanderings.

I will be curious to read some of Yiyun Li´s books soon as well, but until then, I am left with the taste of a different literary love, which dedicates the mind to understand the world, through books, words and writing.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Rachel´s Random Resources: Blinded Me with Science by Tara September

 

A romantic college romance, Blinded Me with Science by Tara September may take you back to the more or less glamorous late teenage years. As someone who unfortunately did not have the chance to read such novels when in college, I may say that there is a lot to learn in order to improve your social skills from such books. 

A talented student with a love for sciences, Emerson Powers has a special to-do-list for the year which involves less academic achievements and more social and personal life improvements. The ex-bad boy Steel, her complete opposite, seems to be the perfect candidate to lead her through her secret list of college experiments and experiences. And science can be more than a scientific companion to her life goals, but equally a very useful tool.

Blinded Me with Science is a novella that keeps you entertained no matter how close you are from college experiences. Even though later in life ´opposites attract´ may not work too much, at this early stage of life, it may work very well. At least when you are looking to experience life in its diversity and complexity. Those relationships are not necessarily supposed to last therefore, why not?

One may get a bit nostalgic for the college years while reading this book, but it may also make you curious about how young people from different countries and generations. It is really worth giving it a try.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own

Rachel´s Random Resources: The Neighbour by Gemma Rogers

Neighbours, especially the conflict between new and old comers, is lately a common topic for crime writers, and to be honest, what can be more terrifying than entering a new community - either in a block of flats or a street - and becoming automatically entangled in a web of dark secrets. It happens in real life too, not only in books.

A slowpaced yet thrilling psychological crime story, The Neighbour by Gemma Rogers is using the topic in a very intelligent way. It introduces the reader to the habits and secrets of the small community, through the eyes of Shelly, a young single mothers who moved there with her teenage daughter Lauren, for running away from the trauma of taking care of her late mother, touched by dementia. 

The promise of peace is shattered as she is embarked on a dangerous search for the whereabouts of the former resident of the house, a local teacher who disappeared without a trace, apparently on her spontaneous journey to Egypt.

Although I am a big lover of crime stories overloaded with action and highly emotional twists, The Neighbour kept me involved by the fine construction of the story, which suggests that something serious is about to happen, but request our patience as readers to wait until all the details of the story are built up properly. Sometimes one may forget that there is something big and dramatic expecting to happen at a certain point, but the mystery and the dangers remain always in the air, threatening to take over completely the quiet life of the neighbourhood and its residents. 

Personally, I think that for a writer, turning the mundane, the customary into a source of unexpected is an important challenge, and overcoming it is an unique achievement. The Neighbour may be cosy sometimes, there are some romantic expectations and some funny dialogues and interactions but the crime mood embraces everything, keeping the readers on a high alert.

If you are looking for a cosy mystery to keep you busy for few hours, this is the right choice. Also, after reading this book, the next time you move in a new neighbourhood, you may pay attention to many more details besides those automatically related to finding a convenient and pleasant place to live.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own

Random Things Tours: Different, Not Less by Chloé Hayden

 

Although our societies are far from fully accepting neurodiverse people, the high frequency of books on this topic, particularly memoirs, is encouraging. The more testimonies and literary inclusion of neurodiverse characters, the better for building up a completely different understanding the challenges.

Australian activist and neurodiverse author Chloé Hayden is my latest addition to my neurodiverse bookshelf. Her half-memoir, half-survival guide, Different, Not Less is a passionate testimony of the struggle and the journey of living with autism and ADHD. 

´I knew from a very young age that my mind was worlds apart from those of the people surrounding me´. Most neurodivergent people are actually aware of being different, but end up being considered ´less´ but those around them, including close family, siblings and school colleagues. Hayden had the chance though of growing up in a welcoming family, who embraced her difference and actively tried to accomodate. 

In Different. Not Less she is offering a ´neurodivergent´s guide to embracing your true self and finding your happily ever after´. With references to Disney movies and fairy tales, Hayden´s story is more than a literary story or a memoir, it is an effective guide offering ideas and mindmaps for defining and understanding various situations, as well as giving support and inspiration for a dignified and successful personal and professional life. Her own example of a very active career are a good testimony in this respect.

An inspiration to anyone coping with neurodivergence and their relatives and closed ones, Hayden´s memoir is worth including in any list of practical references on this sensitive yet important topic. We all have to learn a lot from reading this book.

As a side note, the cover is adorable too, and I am in love with the colourful, rainbow-ish outlook.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own

Book Review: Hilda by Marie Ndiaye

 

Marie Ndiaye is an prolific French author, a women voice through which topics of political and social relevance resonate. Relatively unknown outside the French realm, she raises, sometimes with a diplomatic irony, questions and outlines hypocritical social trends.

I don´t remember when I last read a play, and for sure I visited a theatre long time ago, but my love for theatre is always here, deep into my heart. Hilda is a relatively easy play, without any scenery details, focused on dialogues and, probably, voice and gestures. 

The main characters are Frank, Hilda´s husband, Mme Lemarchand who is a declared ´gauchiste´ who needs a maid and ends up ´owning´ Hilda, and Corinne, Hilda´s sister. Hilda is absent, just mentioned as a passive object used either by the husband or by Mme. The children - Hilda and Frank´s and of Mme - are also only mentioned, but do not have their own entry into the story.

Mme Lemarchand, psychotically needs Hilda as a maid, imaginary friend and companion. She makes a ´deal´ with her husband to work for her, while paying her directly through her husband. Abandoned, Frank will replace her with her sister, but her value diminishes dramatically for her owner.

Because, in the end, control and manipulation is everything that Mme is looking for. She is persuasive, rich, psychotic - again - develops strategies to control and submiss both Hilda and her husband. It is the absurdity of control of bodies and souls, facilitated by money, social position and influence that amplifies the obsession. 

I will be very curious to watch the play based on the book. As for the author, I have already some of her other books waiting for me to read and review them.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Random Things Tours: Dirt by Sarah Sultoon

 

It is my pleasure and my honour to be on my first book tour of the year with a title from one of my favorite publishers around: Orenda Books. Last year, I had the chance of being included in several special booktours with them, organised by Anne Cater whose Random Things Tours always support the books that you should definitely read. 

Among many awesome books and authors, I had the chance to discover Sarah Sultoon, a former international journalist for CNN whose book, The Shot is an unputdownable geopolitical thriller. Sarah Sultoon is now back with her third book, Dirt set in a kibbutz in Northern Israel.

Kibbutzim are an unique successful socialist experiment - maybe the only socialist experiment ever to succeed - where education, finances and daily tasks are co-shared. Many things changed since Degania Alef, the first kibbutz war ever founded in 1910, and meanwhile many were lately ´privatised´, but for those who had the chance to be born and grow up there, there is a completely different mentality and mindset that was acquired. 

And, as the action taking place in Dirt will show, there is more to a kibbutz than the socialist enthusiasm of sharing the daily agricultural tasks. Another geopolitical element that weights on the overall ambiance of the book is the fact that it is set in Norther Israel, close to the volatile border with Lebanon, from where the terrorist Hezbollah is regularly attacking. But borders and their closeness create also a different type of mentality and not only due to the closeness to conflict. From the both sides, the conflict and people outside or victims of it, may look and feel different and this feeling may be sizeable sometimes during the reading of Dirt.

Another fact about kibbutzim is that it also attracted many international - particularly among youth - participant who took the challenge of spending more or less time here as a different ´life lesson´, learning from the exposure to a more ´alternative´ lifestyle. For people living there was far from being a distraction, but international students from Germany, Australia or UK experienced the kibbutz life as an encounter with physical work and everyday real struggles for survival. Lola, one of the main characters in Dirt found her an escape from her broken family. A distraction, a longing for a different, better world? It is hard to see what was really important, and the enfolding events do not leave too much time for thinking. 

As an Israeli Arab is found dead in the dirt of the chicken cop, the action moves slowly to the investigation itself which prompts international atttention via Johny, an journalist based miles away from the kibbutz, in Jerusalem, where he writes for International Tribune. Together with Lola, Johny will be the second important voice of the story, and the alternance between the two gives a complementary echo to the events taking place. The switch between the two points of view, as shared by two different personalities with different motivations and personal histories, is an important element in developing the story.

I´ve found myself very much captivated by the story, due to the topic itself, but also for the story. Setting a thriller story in the Middle East, particularly Israel, is a tremendous challenges, especially for non-Israeli writers, and the pure literary comparison added for me another layer of interest for this book.

Dirt by Sarah Sultoon is an invitation to a different reading of thrillers set in the Middle East and although there are situations when the action takes precedence over the character development and particularities, it is nevertheless a real feast for anyone who loves to keep an eye and a heart in this part of the world, be it only through the world of fiction.

Rating: 4 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own 

Book Review: Ritchie Girl by Andreas Pflüger

 

A writer of the popular Tatort series, Andreas Pflüger´s very well researched Ritchie Girl is a political thriller well anchoraged in the crime realm, set in the first years after the end of the WWII in Germany. 

A former German citizen, Paula Bloom trained in the famous Camp Ritchie in the US, where between 1942 and 1945 military intelligence officers that will be dispatched in Europe, particularly Germany, after the War.  In the company of famous strangers or acquintances, like Henry Kissinger or Allan Dulles, Paula is not only trying to trace war criminals but also to recreate personal puzzles, either by connecting with people from her and her father´s past or better understand contexts she was privy of. 

The novel is very dense, both in terms of interaction between characters and in historical/fictional events. Both the language and the story are captivating and I literally spent long hours delving into this book. The inner construction of the story and the complexities of the characters do match in a way that makes you want to read more. As someone interested in contemporary post-War German history, Ritchie Girl was a very interesting read because although a work of fiction it reveals facts and possible interactions that may have happened - even though not between the same persons - in the aftermath of the Second World War. 

It is a recommended read to anyone passionate about German literature - including and particularly those aiming at improving their German writing skills - and post-war stories.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Book Review: Unit 8200 by Dov Alfon

 

Unit 8200 is considered one of the most secretive units of the Israeli intelligence, in charge with code decryption and signal intelligence (SIGINT). The author of Unit 8200 - translated from English to German by Gottfried Röckelein - former editor-in-chief of Ha´aretz was himself an operative of this unit, hence the many - way too many, in my opinion - details related to institutional limitation and procedure within various units and decision-layers of Israel´s intelligence establishment.

The action takes place within a bit over 24 hours - and over 450 pages - trying to trace the whereabouts of an Israeli officer disappeared without a trace upon  hisarrival at Paris´ Charles de Gaulle airport. But it seems it was a mistake and the target was a completely different person, and the search for the true culprits and victims brings into action international crime networks from China and Russian pawns. Although I´ve felt that sometimes the discussions are too long and the pace too slow, there are a lot of interesting twists and unexpected turns, mostly due to the women characters in the book.

The book was a hit for the Israeli book charts for weeks, and the film rights were already sold. 

I may confessed I had completely different - and higher - expectations, and it took me a very long time to properly finish this book. Some books are just not mean to happen, that´s all.

Rating: 3 stars

Cheers to a Bookish 2023!

 

Source: Indian Express

Happy New Year! 2023 just landed and although I took some offline time in the last days, thus missed my ´year in review´ kind of post, it is never too late to greet the new year and make a short retrospective of the last 12 months.

After two years of pandemic, medical uncertainties and various professional challenges, 2022 was a very kind year. It was a year of embracing my shortcomings, keeping up with improving my self-love skills and from a bookish perspective, one of the best blogging years so far. I had the chance to read and review tons of good books, including in French and German. I collaborated with awesome authors through stellar blog tours. I was able to cover geographical areas and genres that I may have been unaware of only few months ago. As my everyday life - which included taking on the challenges of having a school child and the difficult transition from kindergarten to school, starting teaching languages - French and German so far, taking good care of my health - my reading evolved and despite being very reluctant to set up resolutions, I strive to be better - as a reader, parent, person and language lover.

What I expect to happen in 2023? I want to expand the pool of books in original languages I am reading. I do have some Spanish and Italian titles prepared and fighting hard to go through some Yiddish and Romanian books. I do have plenty of beautiful children books in Hebrew I will be happy to review soon. I do want to continue to improve my language teaching skills, therefore reading about teaching methods and approaches will add more interesting layers to my everyday reading. 

My plan is also to expand the coverage of literatures from areas less represented in the wide literary realm, and I do have already some books waiting to be reviewed representing remote areas like Azerbaijan, Cameroon, Ethiopia or Kuwait. In the last days I went through different lists of different ´personalities´ or newspapers featuring the favorite reads of the year and I´ve hardly spotted, if any, books representing the non-American/English realm. I may not make it to the New York Post reading list but still, featuring unjustly less represented literary voices is a duty for everyone with access to such titles. A small drop into the ocean, still something more than the average indifference writers out of the mainstream literatures are treated.

Reading more poetry was a goal relatively achieved last year, but I want to keep discovering more and more poetic voices. Modern writing, daring to differ both in form and content are part of my personal journey and can´t wait to give a chance to some new authors and works of literature. 

As for my writing, I may have some ongoing translations that hope to be published this year, and hopefully will be back on the writing market with some pitches and ideas, but I am rather trying to take my time and seize the right moment instead of putting a lot of pressure on myself to achieve fast, short-term goals. 

I wish a 2023 at least as good as 2022 but much better in terms of selfcare and professional goals. I am sure there is so much left for unexpected, surprising and extraordinary, beyond my grasp of my limited mind. 365 unwritten days just opened up. Time to write just another life story...