Random Things Tours: The Pain Tourist by Paul Cleave

I don´t remember right now to have read any other crime thriller author from New Zealand but Paul Cleave. The Quiet People was a very pleasant surprise that stayed with me for a long time after reading, both in terms of plot and writing construction. His latest, The Pain Tourist, it only gets better...and better.

James Garrett was only 11 when he assisted to the murdering of his parents. Severly injured during the incident, he slept in a coma for 9 years, dreaming his own life. When he woke up from this long sleep, at 20, there is a life he left behind but his re-birth is about to be cut shortly as the criminal seems to be targeting him, as the other survivor of the tragedy, alongside his sister Hazel. Detective Rebecca Kent took over the case that have not been solved by the now retired detective Theodor Tate. Meanwhile, Kent is caught in another investigation of crimes that may or may not lead to the other crime she investigates.

Cleave controls perfectly the plot, playing funnily with our hungry minds for clarity. I don´t know how many times I naively believed in what it looks like the shortcut to a solution, when I was eons far away from the final verdict. The journey through the comatose world of Garrett is a trip through the brain and adds more depth to the story, a dreamworld layer.

The story is fast-paced, installed through short-chapters. The reader is took to a ride with unexpected end, seasoned with sarcasm and humour. I couldn´t resist to stop reading until the very end, but I wish this book is turned into a movie too, so I can also visualise everything I´ve read breathless at least one more time.

Rating: 4.5 stars

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

Book Review: Summerwater by Sarah Moss

I was really entinced by Ghost Wall, particularly the sharpness of setting up a highly meaningful topic within an everyday life encounter. And it is rightly so, as (bad) habits and (mis)interpretations rarely took place at a larger scale in a neutral, ´academic´ environment. Rather, ideas took out of the context are spreading with the speed of light through the simple daily interactions and communication.

Her other novel I had the chance to read, Summerwater, which has a scent of lockdown feeling although finished way before the Covid epidemics is set within one day, during the summer holidays, in the Scottish Trossack. The residents of the wooden holiday cabins do have secrets, long for privacy for all the good and wrong reasons, are undecided or just confused. But all do have a big or small issue with the residents of one of the cabins - some loud Romanians/ Bulgarians/Ukrainians/etc. Instead of regarding them as just another holidaying family in Scotland, they are judged and labelled and definitely rejected as members of the summer collective. Until all the tensions will burst out. 

I just mentioned in another post I´ve written today about my fascination with beautiful nature writing. The nature intermezzo in Moss´ book are perfect such depictions, atmospheric and emotionally detailed. Except that the comparison between humans and animals is not always working. But in sounds fairy-tale-like and therefore acceptable.

An interesting aspect explored in the book has to do with cohabitation. Either in the family or in the community, sharing your space with other human being doesn´t come easy and involves a tremendous constant effort of negotiation and reconsideration. 

Summerwater do echoes some lines of thought from Ghost Wall but it goes deeper into the human closets of the brain and humanity in general. It does not fully resonate with my mindset or approach but nevertheless it shares a writing philosophy and set of values.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Amina Cain on Writing

 

Writing is one of the most complex creative human experience,  By words only, one should convene feelings and sounds and images. Just like this, by knitting words together and melting them into the pot of imagination. 

Literary diaries written by authors themselves may enlightens us, the readers, about the sparkle that is added to the sometimes long and mentally demanding writing process. This is what Amina Cain´s A Horse at Night, On Writing it is mostly about. 

I didn´t have the chance yet to read other books by her, but I can´t wait to check by myself how she put into practice the art of writing in images and landscapes. I am always mesmerized about the strength of words to convene images and trying to trace the intellectual exercise leading to it is both inspiring and motivating - particularly if you are stuck with your ´other´ writing for years already. 

But writing means not only building up with words. It also means sharing one´s identity challenges and changes, in the vein of Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi or essentializing the written expression for a meaningful wording reality, like in the works of Lydia Davis, both authors an inspiration for Cain. And I definitely share the interest in artistic insertions into the writing stories, with paintings being another meta level of creativity worth to consider.

A Horse at Night is an important source for both writers and translators, looking to expand their writing skills and emotional outreach. And I can´t wait to read her Indelicacy, already on my ´emergency´ TBR, together with other hundreds of books. 

Rating: 5 stars 

Random Things Tours: The Vicious Circle by Katherine St. John

 

I am very interested in understanding how and especially why our minds are so blindly following cultish movements and particularly their leaders, either for political or so-called ´wellness´ and ´self-help´ reasons. The nonfictional accounts are usually helpful in understading the factual realities, but the fictional support offers always an incentive to imagination. Because cults, in general, are based less on realities, but on irrealities sold as a steady future.

For the lovers of such creative investigations into the cultish mind, but also for the thriller fans, The Vicious Circle by Katherine St. John offers a captivating read. Sveta is a socialite, with a career in modelling, engaged with a rich and successful man. As her uncle Paul dies suddenly, it seems that she is the inheritor of a wellness empire in the heart of the Mexican jungle. But on the way to paying respect to her uncle, bizarre occurences and coincidences are becoming more worrisome than the chance of being assigned such a fantastic business opportunity. A poisonous present? A conspiracy playing with her assumed innocence. 

Both the action of the book and the characters are blood tingling. There are brutal and greedy characters, manipulative and double-faced. The secrets they hide add other layers of darkness. Sveta is caught into a labyrinth of lies with no escape in sight.

The Vicious Circle is an action packed thriller book, with insights into the dark sides of the brains and equally brainy explorations of the cultish movements, their followers and instigators.

Rating: 4 stars

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

Random Things Tours: The Bookseller´s Secret by Michelle Gable

There is a lot to be said about Nancy Mitford, a successful author and a flamboyant woman, with a life larger than life itself. Her life inspired NYT bestseller author Michelle Gable, with her being the main character of The Bookseller´s Secret. 

Mitford, a successful writer in the making, is estranged from her husband and complex family - in terms of political allegiances and not only - and is starting her life anew as a bookseller. Eight decades later, another woman, Katie Cabot, also a writer, is visiting London aiming at finding a lost manuscript. 

Connecting the two women through books and time, the book has a complex narrative structure and elaborated characters. Women are the most visible characters in the story, profiled not only through their individual, sometimes revolutionary actions, but also from the perspective of their solidarity and the empathy they may share towards each other. Some men in the book do appear as characters aimed at supporting women characters or at least encouraging their aspirations, and this is a hopeful view on things as well.

A great read for anyone interested to read novels inspired by books and literature, The Bookseller´s Secret is not only a match between historical fiction and literary history, but also a book featuring women and what connects them through ages. Add to this that there is some book mystery included as well and you have an exciting book idea to add to your TBR.

Rating: 4.5 stars

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

Random Things Tours: Tree Glee by Cheryl Rickmann

I wish I can write more blog post appreciation about trees. I spent part of my happy childhood years surrounded by nature, climbing on trees and hiding in the garden. As a teenager, my holidays were mostly spent exploring the mountains and nowadays, when I feel down or too tired, I take a long walk around some of the many forests bordering Berlin. No need of medicine or therapy or any other tricks. A simple walk in the midst of a quiet forest means everything for me. It´s my source of life.

Tree Glee. How&Why Trees Make Us Feel Better by writer, tree lover and positive psychology practitioner Cherly Rickmann is just another love letter to the trees I had the chance to read lately. Beautifully illustrated with - what else - photos of trees, the book is a guide and an inspiration for anyone looking for a healthy alternative to the daily stress. 

Trees offer comfort and escape, do have a restorative power and do influence in a positive way the mental health. Based on her own experience as a tree lover and psychology practioner, Rickmann offer a very practical pathway to a more meaningful and positive life realm, through a genuine reconnection with trees and what they mean for us, as individuals and society. 

With an increase in urbanization and a surge of time spent indoors, understand How&Why Trees Make Us Feel Better is a guide beyond borders and ages. It is a gentle call to return to our natural roots, and as the trees, grow up boldly acknowledging where our ground and source of life is.

Tree Glee is an more than a book that helps you ´feel good´, it is a support for building up a life worth living.

Rating: 5 stars

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

Random Things Tours: Belly Woman by Benjamin Black

 

Words on paper do have a fantastic power to share and eventually change. Without stories and testimonies we cannot find the truth, we are unable to grasp realities and eventually take steps towards changing.

Besides saving lives in West Africa and consulting international aid organisations, Dr. Benjamin Black shared his experiences in helping pregnant women to survive extreme epidemic conditions, particularly ebola in a working memoir, Belly Woman published by Neem Tree Press. Almost every two minutes, a woman dies as result of pregnancy-related complications. Affected are mostly women from a precarious social and economic background. 

What can a doctor do in such circumstances, lacking proper funding and medical facilities?  The testimonies of Dr. Benjamin Black are an example of human dedication and highest professional standards. However, it also demonstrates how limited is our knowledge in this field and how much we need to think in terms of various circumstances and special conditions. Sexual and reproductive health rights during epidemics is rarely discussed but a reality for the doctors trying to save lives on a daily basis.

Belly Woman is an eye opening evidence of the fragility of the woman condition and the need to change the policies, particularly at the level of international organisations in this respect. For those considering to follow a career in the medical field, this book shows why such a profession is among the most important in the world and the huge responsibility a doctor has. 

It is an inspiring and thoughful read, and an important contribution to the medical nonfiction books about countries coping with the dramatic combined effects of epidemics and social crisis.

Rating: 5 stars

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

Random Things Tours: Bloody Soil by S.Lee Manning

 

Less than ten years ago, a novel build around a neo-Nazi conspiracy aimed at taking over Germany would have been rather a subject of science fiction than of a spy novel. Nowadays, everything can be as much possible as impossible. The world we are living is becoming a turmoil of unexpected events than the result of rational interesection of well meant actors. Cold War is far away, but in terms of stability under constraint, it was a more predictable realm.

Bloody Soil by S. Lee Manning, an author I had the chance to feature almost one year ago, is set in a Germany that sounds and looks like an upgraded version of Weimar Republic; about to explode and be taken over an anti-immigration movement with clear and open neo-Nazi roots. Lisette, the daughter of a lawyer who was murdered for his involvement on behalf of immigrants, started her own search for a man with a wolf tattoo, the perpetrator of the crime against his father. She is set to do it with any price, even by infiltrating the neo-Nazi movement itself and becoming the girlfriend of the closest associate of the man who is supposed to lead Germany.

But the earthquake it is supposed to take place in Germany doesn´t leave indifferent its old or new allies, therefore, Lisette´s personal vendetta is spinned into an international web of spies, deceit and search for justice. The topic in itself require a complex plot and characters´ planning skills, but Bloody Soil does not disappoint not only because everything comes rightly into place, but also because as a spy thriller it has intelligent and surprising twists. I preferred to let myself lead by the story, without daring to imagine too much where it will lead to in the end and was not disappointed. 

Bloody Soil is a recommended read to the lovers of spy novels set in our times, anchored in contemporary events and mentalities. It also has a good depictions of German places, very atmospheric and realistic.

Rating: 5 stars

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

Book Review: The Days of Afrekete by Asali Solomon

 

Some authors do the magic of bringing on a ride even the most reluctant readers. During the lifespan of the book, you are part of a different reality, watching the events until the very end. This is what happened to me this weekend, while completely immersed in The Days of Afrekete by Asali Solomon. 

It was my first time ´meeting´ Solomon, whose previous books were multi-awarded and received admirative reviews. In The Days of Afrekete - Afrekete is an African name to a Black mother and/or a goddess and the name Audre Lorde chose for herself later in life - Lisette is a Black Lesbian woman, who married Winn, a white middle-class man. As the book starts, she is about to organise a party for his fundraisers, although he just lost his political bid. Plus, and this only Lisette knows, FBI is tracing him for purposed mismanagement of campaign funds.

Acknowledging her ´routine deprivation´ of being Black, gay, woman, Lisette is graciously playing her assigned roles in a society extremely sensitive to social and racial layers. The complex interactions are very well reflected into the exchange of the characters and their behaviors, in a very immersive way. This is one of the many reasons I keep following the book without too many breaks, because I was interested where exactly those interactions are leading to. 

To her current career-less life as a companion of a man with political ambitions, the past story of her nervous relationships with women, especially with Selena, are completing the timeline. The gay layer of the story is equally interesting for the 

Although the story is engaging in its focus on present, many of the characters do lack a certain complexity and a place in the story, starting with the husband, Winn. Selena do have the potential of a multi-layered character too, but it looks like she is deprived of too much autonomy. The social aspects, no matter how elaborated, took over the story and block at a certain extent the events of the story to happen. 

I wished The Days of Afrekete delivers even more in terms of story, but even under the certain circumstances is eye opening for a large range of topics and interests that I am very much convinced I will follow in my next readings.

Rating: 3.5 stars 

Book Review: Bookends by Michael Chabon

My first and even second encounter with Michael Chabon were interesting from the point of view of insertion of Jewish topics into literary context. Sometimes I loved the humour too. But I was not necessarily entinced by the political stances therefore I rather skipped his last two or three releases. My reason is not necessarily because I do no accept other people may see things completely different than I do, but black and white views, sounding fancy and self-hate only because this is a certain public clapping the hands when hearing what they expect to, do literally bore me. 

Bookends, a collection of essays about his formative literary experience, looked like an encouragement to reconnect, at least through works which do lack any international politics reference. He brings on a lot of love for the ´comic strip´ and basic science fiction books. Comics are a late love of mine, and I still struggle to accept science fiction, but his love for the genre is contagious.

The Pullitzer Prize winner do also share few advices for authors. Some details about how to organise and find your subject are useful, some sound a bit cynical - like, for instance, to avoid getting an advance for writing in order to avoid being the slave of a book that in the end you might not write. Of course, when you have enough money to afford taking non-working time for writing, it may work, otherwise, not necessarily.

The short articles and essays from Bookends do help understanding the literary roots of some of his writings, both in terms of ideas and bibliography. Most importantly for me, it helps me to reconsider science fiction as genre although I am sure it will take a bit more to really dedicate some to a book belonging to this category. Nevertheless, it´s worth thinking about it once in a while. As for other books by Chabon, I am now ready to continue the literary exploration.

Rating: 3 stars

Book Review: Small Things Like This by Claire Keegan

 

I would have never encounter Claire Keegan if not for her nomination for The Booker Prize. It is a pitty that our interest for books is so limited to what kind of sources of information we have, but at least it is much better than not having any source of information at all. No matter how biased some prizes may be in terms of geography and ideological choices, rarely I had the feeling of dealing with a bad choice. Especially for the works in translation outside the priviledged English-speaking realm, I will be for ever grateful for having discovered unique authors like Bora Chung. 

But I am not necessarily a throughout follower and extensive reader of the books on the Booker Prize list, as I have (way too) many other ways to select my next reads. However, I do have an old literary interest in books with a social layer, and eventually dealing with historical abuses. Arts and particularly literature amplify the voices of the oppressed and forgotten.

This is the case with the (unfortunatelly too) short novel by Irish author Claire Keegan Small Things Like These. It is based on an episode only lately revealed in the history of the Catholic Church in Ireland, mainly the infamous case of Magdalene laundries. 

A woman is discovered in a laundry, confused, asking about her lost baby. She is found by Furlong, a working class man born without knowing his father. The women working in the laundry were all labelled ´disturbed´ and of low morals by the rest of the inhabitants. Furlong´s encounter enchains not only his own memories, but also projections of ´what ifs´ and a more sensitive observation of the world around, the first trigger of critical thinking. 

Claire Keegan´s writing is precise, with the perfect economy of words targeting directly the element matching the story. All the pieces are coming along together and I can only regret that this episode is treated only so shortly. I would have expected a novel about it, but in the end, the choice of the form belongs to the author, as well as the success of its achievements is a matter of talent and deep knowledge of wording ways.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Random Things Tours: What´s for Dessert? by Claire Saffitz

Once upon a time I stumble upon cookbooks that are so well written and inspiring that I am almost crying for my lost chances of continuing my food blogging. Because, once upon a time I used to be a food blogger (too) developping recipes and testing new ingredients and even prepared the menu for a small friendly wedding once - hope they don´t hate me for same small mishaps in some recipes...I have a complicate relationship with food, but never a bad relationship with books. Therefore, even I may be on a break from foodie experiments, my love for books is always with me. Including cookbooks. 

Multi-awarded cookbook author and chef Claire Saffitz is first and foremost a ´dessert person´. Her latest book What´s for Dessert is a testimony of her love for sweets, well done but easy to prepare. My favorite kind of sweets, especially given the very limited time I own lately.

When it comes to cookbooks, no matter how extraordinary the recipes are, what appeals first is the visual form: the photographies are raising the expectations about one may have on the table if trying the recipe. Definitely it doesn´t always happen, but that´s what inspire many of us to try or not a recipe. In the case of this book, the photographies are colourful and joyous and I can believe the author´s word when describing many of the fancy looking desserts as having a ´very easy´ level of difficulty. 

What impressed me as well in this book is the precision of the directions as well as the FAQ-like approach while exploring various possible variants and possible directions and combinations - of ingredients, directions, timing etc. 

Therefore, the book is particularly recommended to time-bounded chefs in the making. Someone that needs to get some encouragement while trying some fancy looking recipes. The ingredients are affordable in most cases and one can bake within 2 hours. I would love to get back on the baking track and start my day trying one recipe or another before the noisy rest of the house is up. I am sure my days will be not only sweeter but I will also be more motivated in anything I am planning to do. 

All being said, please excuse me for being a bit offline for the coming days, but names like Salty Cashew Blondies, Morning Glorious Loaf Cake, No Bake Strawberry Ricotta Cheesecake are calling my name. 

Rating: 5 stars

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

Random Things Tours: You Don´t Know What War Is by Yeva Skalietska

At the beginning of this year, Yeva Skalietska was a Ukrainian girl in Kharkiv, trying to split her time between her many hobbies and friends. Shortly after her birtday spent at bowling, Ukraine was attacked by Russia and her dreams were shred into pieces.

You Don´t Know What War Is is her diary of her new life, while trying to make sense of a new reality around her and running for her life. ´But we do what we have to do to survive. We have to save ourselves at any cost´. Now a resident of Dublin, alongside her grandmother, she may have escape the war, but the memories of such a trauma will not leave her too early.

In different contexts and situations, I had the chance to discuss with people who experienced war as children. The trauma remains, reappearing in the most unexpected moments. The experience of running for your life is one of those experiences that reshape one´s life. Mostly for the bad.

Yeva´s diary is a first hand testimony about the beginning of war in Kharkiv, but also about the way in which young people react and experience armed conflict. The innocence of the youth makes this experience and the pictures of her used to illustrate the book are equally a proof of authenticity and innocence.

A recommended read to anyone interested in the situation in Ukraine, particularly Kharkiv, at the beginning of the war, as seen through Yeva´s eyes. An useful material for both historians and trauma psyhologists.

Rating: 4 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered by the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Random Things Tours: The Cruise by Catherine Cooper

I haven´t been on a cruise yet and I don´t have this in my travel cards for the next years, but nevertheless I feel that from the mystery thriller point of view, the claustrophobic perspective of being caught on a huge boat, in the middle of the sea, is a great choice. There could be so many things happening on a cruise and crime is one of the things that come to mind the fastest. 

Catherine Cooper´s The Cruise is using this motive in order to create a crime story which is hard to leave down before the riddle is solved. 

During a New Year´s Party on a glamorous large cruise ship in the Carribean, the dancer Lola disappears without trace. There is no corpse but no other way to find her either. The mystery is well built around this important event, and although the pace may not be very fast, it allows the unfolding of additional events as well as to focus on the cast of characters.

Who is/was Lola actually? What it is known about her ? As the main character in the book, who is weaving the rest of the story, she remains mostly mysterious. However, there is another timeline which takes shape, about a 15 years old girl named Laura, reclusely growing up with her father.

Personally, most of the twists of the story took me by surprise. As the suspicions of murder are becoming more and more real, there are other characters randomly involved in the investigation, but no matter on whom I placed my bets, I didn´t succeed to guess right, not even in percentage of 75%. Which is also perfectly fine, because surprise mystery solutions is one of the reasons I keep reading mystery thrillers anyway.

The Cruise is an eventful and unexpected story, hard to put down and captivating, a must read by any crime and thriller lover.

Rating: 4 stars

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

Des Hommes by Laurent Mauvignier

 ´Tu fais encore des cauchemars?´

Everyone who went through a trauma and a war knows that the suffering does not end once the events passed. The traumatic events do remain in our body and brains, fragments of reality are distorted to leave the traumatic memory reshape it. The smile of a woman or the fragrance of a flower are triggers for reinstating the past.

Des Hommes by Laurent Mauvignier is one of the many recent books in the French literature approaching a topic tabu for too long: the massacres of the French Army in Algeria. Years after the events, the perpetrators, young men unaware of what exactly a war meant, fuelled by stories about the French Resistance and Verdun want to leave their ´men´ trace on life. And they failed, ended up hunted for the rest of their lives.

There is no voice for the victims and no sympathy for the perpetrators either. The mechanism of memory and the ways in which it takes over the present is the ultimate punishment. The lives of the innocent young men fuelled by ideological hate - they were convinced they were doing an act of bravery, eventually defending their country who in fact was not there - was for ever damaged. Years after years they will remain in contact and will found solace in their common stained future.

Des Hommes is a book about war trauma in general, explored through the lives of simple people, soldiers for the cause of a blind war. Laurent Mauvignier prose flows as a human elegy, enfolding through the hidden corners of the mind, while keeping the proportions real. It is after all, a book about humans, everyday beings caught into the net of social obligations and ideological lies. I am delighted to have another book of him on my TBR and I am very curious where he will bring my literary imagination to.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Random Things Tours: The Imposter by Leona Deakin

 

As a series of high profile crimes are committed in London, with the criminal leaving behind only matchsticks, Dr. Bloom is starting a cat-and-mouse kind of game to catch the culprit. A refined psychopat, the criminal is planning his steps and profiling the victims. What for? And who is him or her?

For lovers of crime and psychological thrillers, The Imposter by Leona Deakin is a book hard to put down. Although it is highly packed with adventures, and the pace is mostly alert, it also offers to the reader some moments of reflection about human nature and the criminal minds. It also mixes various institutional plots, mixing the police investigation with secret police plans, which adds more unexpected layers to the plot.

I personally loved the character Dr. Bloom, for the complexities of her mind and her strategy to catch up the criminal. The book is the forth from the series featuring Dr. Augusta Bloom and I will definitely try to catch up with the rest of the installments. 

The Imposter offers one of my favorite thriller story mixtures, between psychological depth and local and international political connections. It has a relatively fast plot and a complex psychological background, but also relatable and strong characters. A must read for the fans of suspense and global political adventures.

Rating: 4.5 stars

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

Random Things Tours: When Cherry Lost Terry by Penny Phillips

 

A rhymed story about friendship and togetherness, When Cherry Lost Terry by Penny Phillips is both engaging and funny. Introducing a large cast of animal characters, beautifully drawn by Clare Mallison it is relatable and packed with action. 

The plot is relatively simple and easy to understand: Cherry lost Terry and the rest of the animals got together to find the missing friend. As it is told in verses, the story is even more interesting for the little reader. It helps not only to improve the knowledge about different animals as well as feelings, but it opens up the mind to verses and poetry in general.

A recommended book to anyone struggling to learn reading, it can also easily turn into a bedtime story hit, with the little one asking over and over again to be read the book, because they need to hear again about the adventures of the sympathetic and energetic animals.

Rating: 4.5 stars

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

German Book Review: Hund, Wolf, Schakal by Behzad Karim Khani

Funny bookish story: As I was commuting while reading the last pages from Hund, Wolf, Schakal - Dog, Wolf, Jackal - today, at one of the stations closed to Neukölln, where the action of the novel takes place, someone came and sit by me while reading the same book. It never happened to me before to be seated near someone reading at the same time the book I reading.

The real book story: I am still under the influence of the book, a very interesting debut by Tehran-born Behzad Karim Khani. Saam and Nima arrive in Berlin with their father a communist, shortly after their mother was killed by the mullahs (isn´t it delightful how the German media is - finally - using this term to design the gerontocratic religious gang who for 43 years already took control over the life of 80 million people?) due her activity in the resistance. 

With the help of friends, they move to Neukölln: the kids are going to school while the father is working as a taxi driver. They seem to not miss anything, however, Saam and later Nima are caught into the net of local clans, mostly of Lebanese origin. For a long while, the story is built around Saam´s coming of age as a local street king, then he is ending up in prison for four years. Meanwhile, Nima is a grown up, and although he does not have a real connection with his brother, he is repeating his journey, although at a lower level - just drugs.

There are many aspects that are entincing in the book, especially the ways in which the characters interact. The inner dynamic of the story and the web of actions are captivating and helped me to continue reading when I was unhappy with the cracks in the story itself.

However, from the point of view of the stroy itself, there are many gaps and absences, and the characters do not react based on their personal story. The family life, for instance, is non-existent and the characters seem to have no interactions between themselves - unless in crisis situation. The family and friends environment, so dear to the Persian culture, is missing. It looks like the focus is mostly on what they are supposed to become instead of their real presence within the time of the story. 

There may be also some factual discrepancies. For instance, there are mentioned some ´Zigeuner´- Roma people - living in Neukölln, which is a reality right now, but only since the last 2 decades or so. During the Berlin Wall, they weren´t living there, for sure. And talking about the Berlin Wall: the family arrived in Neukölln which was at the time West, but it is mentioned how they used to go to the Soviet cemetery, which was also Neukölln, but Treptow side, on the other side of the Wall. No matter how communist they were, there were some movement limits and there are no specific mentions about how the commuting took place.

Behzad Karim Khani which when he is not writing is in charge of Lugosi Bar in Kreuzberg created emotional moments and unforgettable characters. For a debut roman is nevertheless an outstanding achievement and I hope there are more novels in the making.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Random Things Tours: My Life in France by Julia Child with Alex Prud´homme

 

Julia Child is the poster child to anyone that entered late in life the world of cooking. For someone like me, who spent most of my youth avoiding food and then, miraculously, out of nowhere discovering the passion of baking or cooking complicated recipes, with equally unusual spices. Cooking may not be in our genes, but at least it can be learned with motivation and love for cooking.

The newest edition of My Life in France by Julia Child with Alex Prud´homme introduced by Olivia Potts is never outdated. Personally, I loved the graphic cover, and was pleasantly surprised to discover that even after the second reading - and the film based on the book in between - my level of interest was all time high. I rarely read a book twice, but this memoir is so intelligently and humorously written than it overpasses efortless the test of time.

One of the reasons may be that Julia Child was a personality bigger than life itself. The adventures of the 36 yo Californian that before moving to France had ´zero interest in the stove´ are an existential journey of a woman trying to follow her passion. Exactly how any influencer and blogger will describe their job nowadays.

Besides Child´s journey through life and her late love for food, My Life in France is also a testimony about the post-WWII France and the place food played in the reinvention of the country after the war, as seen through American eyes. The photos illustrating the book, from the personal archives of the Child family do add more authenticity to the stories as well as a personal touch.

Rating: 4.5 stars

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

 

Rachel´s Random Resources: David´s Bathtime Adventure

 

David is a very creative and brave child, that is bold enough to turn his bathtube into a swimming resort - something between a lake and a pool. Kindly supervised by his patient mother, he is trying to use his swimming knowledge and his imagination from treasure hunting adventures in order to have a great swimming time. 

David´s Bathtime Adventure by multi-awarded children book author and teacher Sue Wickstead offers to preschool and first grade children - 4 to 8 years - a beautiful story, with an adventurous taste and maybe some bathtime ideas too. As the mother of an equally adventurous child I was kind of jealous of the mother in the story, so patient with her son while water was overboarding the bathroom. I suppose parents should learn something from this book as well.

What I particularly loved it about the book - and my book lover son as well - was the story in itself, which has its own autonomy and surprised, as well as elements of fun. The beautiful colourful illustrations by Jo Anne Davies add both elements of reality and dream to this story, completing smoothly the story, with bath time graphics that can give some inspiration as well.

In addition, David´s Bathtime Adventure can be also used for both reading and English learning aims. The vocabulary is refined and rich enough to improve the reading and understanding knowledge, A recommended bedtime read, or weekend read.

Rating: 5 stars

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

Random Things Tours: My First Popsicle edited by Zosia Mamet

 

What Patti Smith, Jia Toledano, David Sedaris, Ruth Reichl or Katie Holmes have in common? For instance, that they all published a food story in a volume edited by multi-awarded actress and screenwriter Zosia Mamet. An ´Anthology of Food and Feelings´, My First Popsicle is an inspiring collection of food memories, shared by accomplished creatives. We all need to eat, isn´t it and food connect all of us in the most simple ways.

Each and every one of us has a different relationship with food, different tastes and favorite flavors. Our earliest memories on food are also different. Therefore, each food story is different in its unique relationship with food. This is why I think that food writing is one of the most creative and subjective writing genre because in order to be authentic it should rely on genuine experiences. 

This anthology is no different and although food is not necessarily the main character of the individual stories, it saves and permeates memories, it reminds of good and old times or just offers comfort after a breakup or in-between life changes and challenges. And yes, there are recipes too, well written, with careful details that will make even the clumsiest cook a Michelin-star expert. 

As someone having a very complex relationship with food, My First Popsicle inspired me to understand food in many different ways, following the many complex takes. I know I am late in the cooking realm but I still have time to catch up with sensations and tastes. And books are here, as usual, to help me build my own foodie way.

Rating: 4.5 stars

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

Rachel´s Random Resources: The Widow by Valerie Keogh

 

When her beloved husband Peter is found death, Allison is becoming overnight a widow. But shortly after she is about to start mourning, there are hidden secrets about her husband revealed. And, as a snowball, there are other secrets coming up as well as other characters that may add on unpleasant truths to the story. And Allison herself is far from being safe and beyond reproach.

Enfolding in short chapters, almost each adding a new twist to the story, The Widow by Valerie Keogh is hard to put down. I have a certain fascination with vilain characters, because how else can I discover otherwise the dark depths of the human character. This book offered me a satisfactory repertoire of human bads and darkness. Not all enjoyable, nevertheless important knowledge about human psyche and secrets. 

Alisson is by far the central element of the story, reflecting and influencing the other episodes of the narrative. Although the characters may be despicable, they are not exposed as such, but their motives and darkness is explained in a larger circumstantial context. Their attitude may be the result of their life events after all, not because they are genuinely bad.

The Widow is well written but first and foremost, displays a very elaborated story. It takes a lot of talent to coordinate and project a net of dark secrets and dislikable character features. The result is a very eventful psychological thriller with a fast pace and surprising twists. A recommended read to any psychological thriller lover. 

Rating: 4 stars

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

´In the End, it was All about Love´

In the chaos of stories reclaiming the debauche and the rush, Berlin-based British-Ugandan writer Musa Okwonga is genuinely using the city setting for a deeply personal search. A resident of Berlin since 2014, he declared in an interview somewhere that this is the city where ´people end up who didn´t feel like they fit in anywhere else´ (and at a certain extent I can relate). 

This query is set into the literary language, mixing prose and poetry, relating about living in the city in order to define their own moments. There is a curiosity and an expectation about this search, but all the doubts and questioning do melt into love. Just love. 

I´ve read the book in the German translation - Es ging Immer nur um Liebe by Marie Isabel Matthews-Schlinzig - but I usually consulted the original English version. 

Berlin may not be a friendly city, and it´s not a place to find love either, but it´s a city where one can find one´s place. A place to love oneself and come at peace with your past - in the case of the author, the circumstances of his father death, in Uganda, in an aparent airplane accident - and evade your present.

Out of the latest books about Berlin I´ve read - and not necessarily enjoying it - this is one of the most genuine rendition of this crazy cold and loveless city, where you don´t have anyone else to love but yourself.

Rating: 5 stars

Random Things Tours: Jacqueline in Paris by Ann Mah

 

Set in the post-war Paris, between 1949 and 1950, Jacqueline in Paris by food and travel writer Ann Mah is a work of historical fiction inspired by the year spent by the future Jackie Kennedy as student at Vassar College. 

Mixing biographical details with a lot of fiction, the book develops the universal fascination with Jackie, an educated stylish lady with a genuine view over the world. I remember visiting an exhibition in Washington DC a couple of years ago, of private photographies of she and JFK. With television and photography becoming an affordable tool to transmit information, the images of the young presidential couple was aimed to project a different view on statemanship. The fact that Jackie was at the intersection of feminity with intelligence, aimed at assuming an active role as the first lady, opened the doors for many of other first ladies since.

In Jacqueline in Paris though, she is a fresh student, a lady to be, with a complex family background and her dreams of her own. She may seem sometimes naive but somehow it resonates with her image reflected in some local yellow media or further representations in movies among others. But this is the kind of lovely naivety which makes her character relatable.

I also appreciated how she is presented in her time sequence, without any additional projection of what and who she will become. As for now, she is just an American in Paris - ´the best of Americans´, and I can only agree with that - a girl spending a formative year in one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Thus, it explores universal topics about loneliness, the challenges of moving abroad, building one own destiny against all family and social pressures.

Jacqueline in Paris is a good example of historical fiction set in the post-war Europe. The dialogues are captivating and alternating with the ambiance descriptions. I may not have a clear opinion about Jackie, but reading it made me think a bit more about her as a woman, before being a statewoman. 

Rating: 4.5 stars

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

Random Things Tours: Suicide Thursday by Will Carver

`Endings are overrated`.

 

Every time I am reading something new by Will Carver, I have no idea what to expect. From the approach to the style, to the story, everything is completely new to me, no matter how many books by him I´ve read. His choice of topic always goes beyond the genre and surprises by a very unique mystery solution.

Suicide Thursday published by the always surprising Orenda Books follows the same unexpected pattern. It has a little bit of everything and even vaguely reminded me of some books by Paul Auster but it is well and beyond another book signed by Carver.

Meet Eli Hagin, someone who haven´t finished anything in his life. Not even the first chapter is he writing and re-writing for ages. No matter what he wants to do, there is a 100% chance he will fail. Meet - although for a short time - his friend Mike who committed suicide. He also sounds a bit chaotic, but we would know more about him once he´s dead. On a Thursday. And than there is a before and and an after and as we are approaching the funeral - on a Friday - there are even more elements - some disturbing - regarding what actually happened with Mike. Indeed, some words may easily kill.

Although Mike is the character who determines the way in which story develops, it is Eli who has an important role in offering an interpretation of the story. His foggy mind and difficulties in separating real life from fiction are keeping the reader entertained and interested until the end of the story, a guarantee that in fact, things look much more different than we have expected. Each fragment of the story is creatively matching and influencing another one, in a domino-like game that seems to never end.

Suicide Thursday is a psychological suspense that cannot be missed if you really love not only the unique style of Will Carver but also insights into a disturbed mind and psychological suspense. 

Rating: 4.5 stars

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

Random Things Tours: Thirteen Ways to Smell a Tree by David George Haskell

 `Stepping outside, we inhale the aromas of trees, whether on city streets or in woodlands`.

We associate smells and aromas with flowers and even grass, but we rarely think the trees in terms of smells and fragrances. Inspired by our furtive city experience, where trees are rather guardians of our gardens, alleys and parks, we rather prefer to see them as an element of urban decoration than as a slice of nature with its own personality. Unless we are blessed to live in a city with limetrees. Or we had once the experience of getting to know an olive tree.

Biologist and writer David George Haskell helps us to come to terms by reconsidering our relationship with trees within the local geography of a city, but also in a wider historical context. Through his nature explorations across the US, UK, Scotland, Australia, France and the Mediterranean realm, he brought 13 specific tales to educate through empathy and knowledge. Thirteen Ways to Smell a Tree explains the life science of trees, why we need them and how we can communicate with them and understand them. 

For instance,´What we humans experience as aromas, trees use to communicate and defend´. There are chemical signals through which the change of the seasons is communicated not only from one tree to another, but to the other participants to the eco-realm as well. Take, for instance, squirrels, attuned to oak aromas and able to figure out through those smells when the right time has come to start their frantic collection of winter supplies. 

But there are many others way through which the trees are filling our lives with aromas - in the most indulgent ways; take for instance the casks used to produce and mature the whisky. In the front of my bedroom I have a huge old chestnut tree. Without too much ado, this tree always let me know when the seasons are changing, especially when I am too tired to notice that spring is about to bloom or to lose its leaves. It always happens overnight, but through the years I´ve learned to pay attention to its sudden moods.

And there is a special way of nature reacting to the dramatic urban and human change in general. Haskell mentions how, after Hiroshima the ginkgo trees were the first signs of life after the blast.

In addition to going out in the nature and exploring the varying dialects of the trees language, one can have a direct way to smell the trees: through the pages of the books and papers. I may confess that I am not easily giving up at the argument books vs. ebooks in favor of the printed books based on the special smell of the pages, but nevertheless it is another way to look at things. 

The book has a musical companion, short musical pieces by Katherine Lehmann available on Soundcloud or available as part of the audiobook version. It reminds me of an open air installation by Laurie Anderson I had the chance to explore a couple of years ago in Japan, when in a park, each flower or tree was assigned a specific soundtrack. 

If you feel the winters are too long or you feel rootless in the city, look at the trees and try to get to know them. It will diminish the feeling of alienation we may have sometimes overwhelmed by the technicity and mechanicism of the big cities. Thirteen Ways to Smell a Tree is teaching us how we can actually make it through.

Rating: 5 stars

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

 

Rachel´s Random Resources: The Scam by Evie Hunter

 

Set in the world of rich, famous and beautiful, The Scam by Evie Hunter is a revenge thriller hard to put down. I´ve spent few good eventful hours this weekend caught into the web of lies and deceit of the characters whose flaws and weaknesses are revelatory for the human nature in general.

The topic of the book is very actual and relates to many women that at least once have been probably scammed at least once while looking for love and happiness. Sky Kennedy is enjoying her life in the glamorous St. Tropez, in the company of her handsome and successful partner Karim. Suddenly though, he decides to send her back to the UK and she is desperate to understand where she was wrong and if she will ever see him again. It´s a promise of a good life that is slipped through her fingers. 

On the other hand, Karim is from afar carefully observed by Ryan Callahan who is hunting him for a long time. Maybe now the right time has come to finally catch him. Is Sky a convenient trap to destroy him.

Pleasantly for my thriller mind, nothing I was thinking it will happened actually took place. The plot looks like a riddle that develops independently from the desires and ideas of the reader. The plot is the strongest part of the book, as it leads the rest of the story and shapes the characters in their everyday development. It also treats a relatively common topic those days, when women and men too can be easily get scammed in various relationships entrappement which are actually part of a well elaborated deceit aims.

For anyone looking for a crime thriller with unexpected twists from the very beginning of the story, The Scam reveals details that one may keep in mind for saving oneself from scams, any kind of sentimental scams.

Rating: 3.5 stars

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

Book Review: Very Cold People by Sarah Manguso

´My parents weren´t after shiny things or even beautiful things. They simply liked getting the things that stupid people threw away´.

Very Cold People by Sarah Manguso features a very normal family from Waitsfield Massachusetts through the eyes of Ruthie, a Jewish-Italian girl coming at age in ruthless times. The story unfolds with an increasing intensity from the average life account, enfolding like a diary installment, until a very violent and individual ending. Still, there is no crime committed, but a violent growing up and a counter-reaction.

As seen through a young girl eyes, the details are naturally dense and descriptive and this is the moment when the social observations are inserted. The social status and whiteness, as well as the bourgeois interactions, within the clearly assigned social and racial borders are very important as the context of the story. Therefore, Ruthie´s difference and unsuitableness are instanly sanctioned by her own parents.

The social critique is spread all over the text, in a way that does not affect the literary quality of the text.

Talking about the literary qualities of the text, it definitely has an extraordinary fluency. There is a permanent evaluation of meanings. Here is my favorite example: ´Snowfalls have unique bouquets. Snow isn´t just frozen water; it carries a remnant of the sky. A blue hailstone tastes different from a white one because they´ve taken on air at different altitudes´. 

Definitely, Manguso has a beautiful voice in the contemporary American literature that I would love to meet again soon.

Rating: 4 stars

Random Things Tours: Does Snow Turn a Person White Inside ? by Max Lobe translated by Ros Schwartz

 

Mwana, a young man from Bantuland, is caught between two worlds: the one of his parents, back home, and the other in Geneva, where he is living. As many of us, struggling to make life happening in one culture of the other, sometimes at the same time, sometimes in just one, his life is a duality of how was and how is. 

The immigrant is always comparing his old home with the new one. No matter how long you spent time in one country or another, there is always a ´before´ and ´after´, even though the before is an idealized projections of mixed memories. 

Does Snow Turn a Person White Inside ? by the multi-awarded Cameroon-born author Max Lobe, translated into English by the equally multi-awarded Ros Schwartz, is a short yet insightful story into the life and mind of someone building a pathway through this duality. From outside, people may think it is such a gift to be always on the spiritual road between countries. And, indeed, one may have to be grateful for the chance of experiencing life in other cultures, eventually enjoying the safety, financial comfort and protection of a different country. Someone experiencing this on a daily basis may find it stressful and demanding, energy demading exercise of adjusting - to the new world - and forgetting - your old habits.

Especially if one lives in Switzerland, like Mwana and the author himself, such a duality is an everyday challenge. I am glad though that new voices like Lobe´s do offer an alternative to the social and literary narrative, inserting topics about being Black and African into the local literary discourse. 

The sad yet evocative tone of the book resonates with the emotional hardships of building a new life on the moving grounds of foreign lands.

Does Snow Turn a Person White Inside ? is an excellent reminder of how much we, immigrants from all over, have in common, but also how our different cultures need us to survive in the most challenging environment. There will be always some remnants of the ´old home´ that should stay with us, because no strong tree survives without roots.

Rating: 5 stars

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

Random Things Tours: The Will by Rebecca Reid

When Cecily Mordaunt the matriarch of the family died, each of her close relatives are expecting to inherit the centuries old mansion in Norfolk countryside. Roxborough Hall is a local symbol in itself and for the future owner a substantial status upgrade.

However, Cecily had other plans and beyond death she took control over the will. The winner will be awarded through a riddle-like type of selection, whose unexpected final decision is surprising, to say the least. 

In The Will, Reid selected a relatively familiar topic in a everyday life environment - I mean the family interactions, as not every day someone can inherit a huge mansion - in order to explore natural feelings and human temptations. It is human to be greedy as it is human too to want a better life and a wealthier life, lacking any financial worries. 

The plot is very skillfully built, with attention to human details and black humour that may comfort the reader when there is too much tension in the story. I also enjoyed how each character was given an unique story, intertwinning with the historical environment of the estate. Although there are so many lights and shadows in each character, but this is how humans are in general, anyway, no matter their social status. This personal element creates a high realm of expectation for the reader and half through the book I couldn´t wait for the new revelations to be shared. 

The Will reminded me in many respects from a respectable classical mystery, and although it is not written ´crime´ all over, it has twists and some elements of shock, which only make the reading more addictive. Once started, I couldn´t leave it down and it was worth the time and the energy spent in exploring the story and the characters.

Rating: 4 stars

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

Random Things Tours: The Marmalade Diaries by Ben Aitken

For one year in 2021, author Ben Aitken spent a consistent lockdown time in the company of Winnie, a recently aristocratic widow. After spending the first lockdown in Australia, where he initially went for a wedding, Aitken found in Winnie´s house a convenient housing arrangement. He was supposed to help her while paying a very low rent.

The Marmalade Diaries. The True Story of an Odd Couple is a diary-like book covering their interactions, mostly during breakfast, accompanied by a slice of bread with marmalade. I love the idea of marmalade as a red thread through the story, bringing the disparate stories and experiences of the days together, glueing them, making sense out of them. 

The unlikely encounter between two very different people is a guaranteed source of stories. Ben and Winnie do have many stories to tell and many discoveries to do about one another. Their different backgrounds and life stories would have never meet if not the lockdown. At least there is something to be grateful for during such ungrateful experiences. 

Sweet sour, as a good marmalade is expected to be, the book is mundane - anyone skilled enough to fix a leak in the roof - empathic, full of humour, aristocratic elegance and working class boldness. An unlikely story putting together two different beings, still humans in the end.

Rating: 4 stars

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