Random Things Tours: Little Mo and the Great Snow Monster by Michael Foreman

 

An adorable preschool children book written and ilustrated by Michael Foreman, Little Mo and the Great Snow Monster is funny, optimistic and encouraging the smaller among us to be brave and creative even when facing the scarriest monsters.

Left alone during a quiet winter day, just after he discovered and tasted the snow for the first time, while his parents are out looking for food, little Mo is receiving the unexpected visit of a gang of greenish monsters, keen to take over his family cave. However, Mo is not afraid even when being in danger of becoming a snack for the nasty prehistoric creatures. And he will prevail against them, with a little help from the forces of nature.

I loved the illustrations and the unexpected twists of the story. Little Mo was my hero, innocent and genuine, nevertheless very much decided to defeat the bad guys. The pastel-dominated illustrations are soothing the eyes, and a perfect companion to the story. There is a good harmony between the text and the illustrations, which often applies when the author is drawing the images as well. 

I appreciated the very short introduction note at the end, which explains to the little preschool readers about the prehistorical times and periods. A recommended read for curious kids about to enter the real life of school and learning.

Foreman is a well known, multi-awarded prolific author and illustrator, who published over 300 titles for children.

Rating: 4 stars

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

Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar

 ´It´s so exactly what I´ve been wanting to write about, how to make a death useful´.

Kaveh Akbar writes beautiful poetry. The kind of beauty that hurts because it is revealing all those unspoken words of life. 

Martyr! is his first novel, where he includes some poetry intermezzo as well, attributed to his main character. Cyrus Sham. Born in Iran, he lost his mother during the 1988 downing of a commercial Iranian airline by the US Navy. He moved to the States with his father, who worked his whole life in a chicken farm, and died shortly after he entered college. In and out of addiction, Cyrus is trying to write a book about death. About how death can be meaningful, either through the act itself, or the society scenery - arts, religious renditions. And by an accident of fate, he got to meet Orkideh, a dying artist, also from Iran, doing a life - and death - show in Brooklyn, spending her last days as a happening.

Filled with ancient and recent historical and cultural references, and moving into a precise cultural realm, this book is also a finely written prose. It pushes the limit of thinking outside of our mental comfort zone while imagining worlds we ignore they exist. 

Existential as it tries to re-enact life and death, Martyr! is writing about the brutality of life as writers rarely write those days. With passion and taking the risk of deeply thinking about death in itself.

Rating: 5 stars

Florence in Ecstasy by Jessie Chaffee

 ´I forgot to eat´.

Just another lost girl, this time in Florence, I said to myself at the beginning of Florence in Ecstasy, the debut novel of Jessie Chaffee. If was one of those choices I made during the day, when trying to find some pleasant reading companion while waiting in between appointments or who knows what house-based chores. 

However, soon I was completely concentrated in the story, unable to think too much about any other random obligations I had on my to-do-list. Because this book was calling so much home. My body home.

Hannah, the main character and storytelling voice of the story suffers of eating disorder. She went to Florence first to travel, succeeded to find a job and tried to melt into the surrounding society. A rowing club - an activity hard for the body - some lavish meals, starts a relationship with a local guy from the club. And she´s convinced that this time is over. Until someone from the past she met randomly put into motion the trigger. The obsessive dismissal of the body. While working at the library, she has access to various memoirs of women saints, forcing to disconnect from their bodies: fasting, body mutilations. The body is the appearance, the soul is somewhere else, it is more important and eventually eternal, they said. For days and weeks afterwards, she is torturing her body, but this is just the reflection of a tortured soul. 

I don´t remember to have ever read such precise descriptions of feelings experienced during bouts of eating disorder. Deep traumatic dreams of food, days organised around eating or avoiding it completely. Forgetting to eat, because ´busy´. So many many more. I suffered for most of my teenage years of eating disorder. Inherited trauma, induced by the social environment I used to live at the time. It was all there and even if now I am healed, I know it can come back any time. Florence in Ecstasy is describing moments and thoughts that I rarely expressed myself into too many words.

But this book is more than a therapy report or medical account of a widespread condition. What I really liked about the book is that it actually builds a story, and the mental disease per se is inserted into the narrative, without being the exclusive topic of the narrative. It relates about Florence, its beauty and people, their family relationships and spontaneity.

Returning to traumatic life episodes, even only through the way of fiction, is a risky journey, but Florence in Ecstasy provided me with a lot of understanding about myself. That understanding that one needs to come at pace with oneself.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Rachel´s Random Resources: A French Adventure by Jennifer Bohnet

Adventure sounds always better in French, and French beautiful landscape a perfect location for new beginnings. Beginnings of books or of a new life. Or both.

For Vivienne Wilson, the main character of A French Adventure by bestselling author Jennifer Bohnet, her destiny was rewritten during a writer´s retreat in the Antibes. She is not only healing the wounds of a failed marriage, but she is also able to discover life in its burgeoning beauty, for the sake of every moment of it.

I personally resonate with the message of the book and I am definitely convinced that nothing compares with the rewriting every day as a beautiful adventure. As much as it can be done independently of the ugliness life can display sometimes. Definitely, under the French Riviera sun, the good thoughts and the hope for new beginnings sounds much better than anywhere else.

The women characters are relatable and their unique stories of resilience are soothing and inspiring. I also loved that the main character is a writer and how she is able to use her super writer power to get over a failed marriage.

A French Adventure is a soothing reading for a broken heart and new beginnings. It has a scent of summer that I cannot wait to smell in real life too. 

Rating: 3.5 stars

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

Random Things Tours: Queer Villains of Myth and Legend by Dan Jones

Queer stories, especially belonging to the nonfiction category, are pretty hard to find those days. Although in the last decade, queer characters are a familiar presence in literature, the nonfiction genre needs to do a lot more in this respect. Hence, the importance of books like Queer Villains of Myth and Legend. A Revelry of Queer Rogues and Outlaws through the Ages by Dan Jones. 

What is really important in this book is the very niche approach of the book. By featuring villains, it already opens up towards an area that until now, to my knowledge, was completely tabu. Think about how many book characters, queer ones, can be inspired by such throughout research? 

For me, as a historian and a lover of biographies, this book was a revelation. I was largely unaware of the stories of most of the people featured but from now on I will be, for sure, very interested in researching more about them. From mythological figures to contemporary names, the author is featuring a big and very colourful cast of 50 characters. 

Jones, a freelance journalist based in Brooklyn, wrote other books on the same topics - but also covered fashion and cocktails, among others - , and hopefully will keep doing it, because there is so much to explore in this area. The style is very approachable, therefore useful for both a specialized audience, or just curious to learn more about such topics. What is very important is the details of each case, their histories and the legends surrounding them. 

Fascinating stories that are writing queer histories in the making.

Rating: 4.5 stars

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

Valley Verified by Kyla Zhao

 ´Since her teens she had made working in fashion her goal in life. Who was she outside of that?´

Zoe Zeng is an ambitious fashion writer working in New York for a small fashion publication. She enjoys doing it, has some good friends there, but financially she is far from paying that student debt. When she is offered a top position in marketing at a Silicon Valley fashion startup by a complete stranger she met and impressed at a fashion show, she is accepting the position, but she is completely far, far away from her comfort zone. She is clumsy in everything that has to do with tech, from the terminology to the practicalities.

Surviving in a relatively hostile and new working environment, Zoe is finding her way, growing up both professionally and personally, getting to know and sometimes trust new people, while adapting her wardrobe to the new circumstances, becoming self aware enough to fight against a sexually abusive boss, creating alliances with other women.

I personally liked Zoe Zeng a lot, as she resonates with some parts of me: the journalist and the fashionista. The word of tech and startups with its stereotypes, hilarious titles - ´chief dream evangelist´ - and obsessions is pretty well described, particularly from the perspective of women employees and their limitations. I really wanted her to succeed as a tribute to all women in tech and fashion marginalized for unprofessional reasons.

Very often I felt though that the story could have been better developped and the characters more involved into the story. Almost half of the story, the second part to be more precise, has a #metoo vibe which I appreciated but would have expect a bit more story context and some background stories too - for instance, Zoe´s and other people´s family background and past are largely absent from the story.

However, I would be very curious to explore more writing by Kyla Zhao and as I am writing this, took a break to oder her other book, The Fraud Squad. Because I really enjoy her humorous writing and witty women characters.

Rating: 3 stars 

 

Random Things Tours: Point Zero by Seichō Matsumoto translated by Louise Heal Kawai

 

I love mysteries and books set and about Japan, but the meeting between those two interests of mine, rarely happens. Thus, my infinite pleasure of getting to know Seichō Matsumoto, a multi-awarded journalist and thriller author. Seichō Matsumoto. 

Point Zero, translated into English by Louise Heal Kawai, who also translated, among others, Breasts and Eggs is standing out for more than one reason. 

Set in Japan at the end of the 1950s, almost ten years after the end of the WWII where Japan was a defeated power, it reveals deep social struggles and rifts, in addition to a very interesting detective story. Teiko, the main woman character of the book, is decided to find out why her beloved husband, ten years her senior, disappeared suddently during their honeymoon. But as she is trying to put together the disparate pieces of the disappearance puzzle, there are surprising facts that she will discover about him, and his life before they met. Exactly the kind of mystery that I am very much interested in, as it connects society and history with the journey towards finding the truth.

Particularly important is the fact that in comparison with other similar novels published in Japan, the truth is investigated by a woman. A product of her world, Teiko is reclaiming her autonomy and courageously asking questions. Thus, Matsumoto breaks a tabu on allowing women both in real life and in literary fiction to act as independent characters.

A finely executed story, Point Zero is just encouraging me to pay more attention this year to Japan, a world that played an important role in my personal and professional history.

Rating: 4.5 stars

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

Random Things Tours: Mongrel by Hanako Footman

 

Three women - Mei, Yuki and Haruka. All are navigating the temptations and hardships of life, dreaming and mourning. Belonging to places they are far away from. The pathways of their lives may meet, but in the end each is left with their own past and uncertainties.

Mongrel, the debut novel by British-Japanese author and actress Hanako Footman is a lyrical story, narrated with elegance and beauty. Each of the three stories, women stories, stories of young women lost in the networks of life and modernity, develop slowly, leaving the characters enough space to breath. 

It is a captivating experience to get so close to someone else´s life, but this is how I felt most of the time while reading this book. There are three different experiences, three destinies, unique yet inter-connected. They long for love, community and mourn - at least two of them - the death of their mothers. As Asian women, they do experience the weight of their perception and sometimes the fake reflection into the eyes of the others. From London to Tokyo and Surrey, they do share the interconnectivity of our modern lives, but the ways in which they feel and position themselves as humans may be part of the eternal repertoire of humanity.

It is normal that debut novels are sometimes far from being perfect, both in terms of writing and story construction. Mongrel though does offer a refined story and a carefully styled poetic prose. Which makes me very curious to read her next writings.

A special note of appreciation for the beautiful cover, a story in (fragmented) images of the novel

Rating: 4 stars

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

Family Meal by Bryan Washington

´Sometimes the best we can do is live for each other (...) It´s enough. Even if it seems like it isn´t´.

Ever since reading Memorial, I was craving for the next Bryan Washington book. His writing convenes a genuine empathy that I often miss in both literary and everyday ´real´ life. 

Family Meal is a story told from the perspective of three characters: Kai (now a ghost), Cam - Kai´s partner - and TJ - Cam´s first old crush. It´s a story of enjoying the moment, having a lot of sex, and a lot of sex again. Because life is running fast, we rarely figure out when it goes and sometimes focusing on the moment is the best we can do. 

Through the interactions of the day, there are short fragments of old memories, like flashes from the past. Most of them they have to do with people, their reactions and interactions and how they went out of the picture. 

As in the case of Memorial, I loved the authenticity of the dialogues, reflecting the way in which we usually interact through words in the everyday life. No longue reflective sentences without end. This is how we imagine people may talk, but it´s not true.

I also loved the interposition of few pictures, black-and-white pictures, mostly of flowers in bloom, which are completing the story.

Family Meal is a queer story of friendship and community, of the strength of empathy. Such feelings are part of being an adult as well. 

Rating: 5 stars

Berlin ist mein Paris by Carmen-Francesca Banciu

Carmen-Francesca Banciu is a Romanian-born author based in Berlin. An author before moving to Berlin, at the beginning of the 1990s, she started writing in German since 1996 and she is also a creative writing coach. Her books - novels and short stories - do receive positive reviews in the specialized literary sections in German, but I am still trying to define her audience and style.

Berlin ist mein Paris is a collection of stories and stanzas with an autobiographical inspiration, an angle which I actually appreciated. She is keen to share her authentic experiences, that in fact do relate to a larger human experience: finding your way into a new country, getting to know a new language, observing human relationships from the corners of coffees in different places across Berlin. 

Indeed, this way of writing in a coffee, inspired by the stories heard and guessed is a great source of inspiration and Berlin is full of such stories. However, I´ve felt that the coffee places featured in those stories are relatively stereotypical in their customers variety, but everyone his or her sources of inspiration.

The stories do contain some interesting observations and do have their authentic flair as introducing new characters and sharing life stories from Berlin. Such experiences are usually subjective therefore it liking them or not it is also a purely subjective. My Berlin is definitely more dynamic and a recollection of way too many worlds although Paris for me is irreplaceable.

Rating: 3 stars

Rachel´s Random Resources: The Secret Ingredient by Sue Heath

I am a pretty good to acceptable baker and cook, except when I am faced with the terrible challenge of preparing pancakes. For years in a row, I am trying my hand every few months, always with disastrous results. There is something I am missing. Maybe a secret ingredient?

Kate Shaw, the main character of The Secret Ingredient by Sue Heath, whose beautiful cover I introduced to my readers few weeks ago, had a similar experience, with more disastrous results. A food lover, she is trying to go through the shock, but processing it may take time.

But once she is decided to get over the accident, there is another beautiful story being built in addition to the foodie search for recipes: it has to do with building a community who is tasting, enjoying and get together around the food. 

I personally love very much such stories because in addition to being a fantasy stimulent, they show ways in which community can be built and what a beautiful moment it is when it happens. Both sides of the story are beautiful and inspiring. After reading it, I had a good feeling thinking how easy it is to bring people together, as long as there is a pinch of optimism and good deeds. 

The feeling of belonging is very important for any individual, and when family and professional connections are weak or completely missing, we still have the chance of getting together, with perfect foreigners but fully accepting the simplicity of opening the soul to the other person. This is The Secret Ingredient that will make even a burnt pancake delicious.

I liked the idea of the book and the simple yet straight forward meaningful message of it. Such books are nurturing the hope of a kinder world and only for this simple reason you should read this book. The weekend is coming and maybe you need The Secret Ingredient to make it taste even better. 

Rating: 4 stars

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

Orenda Books Book Tour: Death Flight by Sarah Sultoon

 

I have a special nonfiction interest in the Argentinian Dirty War, and I´ve read many testimonies as well as history and political science books on the topic. However, a way to increase the awareness about topics relatively less represented within the non-Argentinian public opinion is through fiction. Thus, my interest in Death Flight, by Sarah Sultoon, an author I had the chance to review on my blog last year as well. The book is published by the one and only Orenda Books, a favorite edition house often featured on my blog.

Sultoon is an international journalist by background with experience in the field of war and conflict reporting and as usual in the case of good journalists, once they are switching to another professional field, for instance writing, they may keep the fine accuracy and respect for truth.

Johnny Murphy, the main character in Death Flight is in the middle of a journalistic investigation interviewing families of victims of the Dirty War. Suddenly, multilated corpses show up on the beach, and together with the equally intrepide partner in journalism, the photographer Paloma Glenn, he wants to find out more. But their journey to make justice at least for few of the over 20,000 people disappeared during those terrible times is made complicated by the devastating financial crisis that hit the country tremendously hard.

I followed breathlessly the story, as it perfectly added a fictional story within a very real chain of events. Johnny and Paloma are two individual characters with destinies that will never be the same after this Argentinian episode, due to the extraordinary weight of the events at the scale of history. 

For lovers of both journalistic stories and novels featuring journalists, Death Flight guarantees a delightful lecture, with important references to (just another) dark episode of contemporary history.

PS: The cover is an example of good publishing taste as well.

Rating: 4.5 stars

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

Le Mage du Kremlin by Giuliano da Empoli

´La seule arme qu´a un pauvre pour conserver sa dignité est d'instiller la peur´.

Political scientists are always a good reference when writing novels, particularly when trying to understand relatively fast how and why the world goes wrong. However, when a political scientist him or herself is writing a novel with a political topic, the vast theoretical knowledge may be an impediment to the fictional development.

Le Mage du Kremlin, awarded the Grand Prix of the French Academy in 2022, by Giuliano da Empoli inspired those thoughts. Set during a couple of days, during which a reclused spin doctor is sharing his story to an international student passionate about  the classical WE by Zamyatin, it reveals the hidden stories of power and influence at Putin´s Kremlin. After a long career behind the closed doors of Tsar´s life, the counsellor is now enjoying his time with his daughter, whom he describes as the only important achievement worth living for.

Da Empoli is a political scientist, SciencePo teacher and political consultant as well. The figure of the spin doctor Vadim Baranow is inspired by Vladislav Surkov. Other recognizable characters, including by name, in the book are Berezovski and Khodorkovsky. 

The book has interesting digressions about Russian political life after Eltsin and Putin´s psychology, but I bet that if I would have want to read about such topics would have use some nonfiction books and works of political science. The monologue of Baranow is taking the reader back and forth the power takeover and control during Putin´s years, but it´s hardly anything happening in terms of character construction and story as such. 

Thus, I may declare in full honesty that was greatly disappointed about the novel, as I was really interested in spending some good time reading a good political novel in French - although there were some valuable observations of political, nonfictional nature. But, again, this is not what I was looking for.

Rating: 2 stars

Rachel´s Random Resources: Last Seen in Havana by Teresa Dovalpage

 

I am always interested in reading books set in far away places with complicated recent histories. Cuba is one of them and I just started to develop an interest in novels sharing slices of realities - fictional or not - inspired by the everyday Cuban life.

Last Seen in Havana by Cuban author Teresa Dovalpage is my latest addition to a relatively modest collection of books set in this country, particularly in Havana. The book is the fourth in the ´Havana Mysteries´ series and a standalone, although hopefully soon would love to read the previous three volumes as well. 

What I really loved about this book is the good mix between mystery - which I rarely refuse myself the pleasure of discovering - and recent history. In 2019, Mercedes Spivey, recently widowed, travels from Miami to Havana, trying to reconnect with the life she left behind and take care of her ailing grandmother. More than a journey back to her roots, she wants to find out the truth about the disappearance of her mother. But as she is trying to investigate the circumstances of her mother vanishing, obsessive questions are haunting her: what if her mother is actually alive and she has the chance of her life to find her again?

Last Seen in Havana is a moderately emotional book, when we think about how our destinies may be randomly marked by political, social and historical circumstances. How many destinies are broken by such tragic events. It is however also a curious book of mystery and it´s hard not to start making suppositions and guesses, once the story advances.

I liked the idea of the mystery and the characters, as well as the historical back and forth, which adds a complex timeline to the story and allows both the characters and the story to develop. 

A recommended read for mystery and history novels lovers, with relatable women characters.

Rating: 4 stars

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

Random Things Tours: A Deadly Promise by Rachel Amphlett

 

I am happy to feature again on my blog a very inspiring woman detective: Kay Hunter, the protagonist of the dedicated series by USA Today bestselling author Rachel Amphlett. A Deadly Promise is a very fast-paced unexpected crime thriller, taking the readers into the horrible world of crime and torture.

One after the other, corpses are showing up, and detective Kay Hunter is compelled to find out what is the reason, but also how she can predict what the criminal has in mind for preventing new crimes. It is a horrible charade she is playing against all odds. I liked both the surprising twists of the story which are not allowing you to make any possible prediction until the end of the story. 

As usual in the case of crime thriller, figuring out the motivations of the crime may solve half way the case, but the more difficult the task, the better the book. Kay Hunter keeps being a humorous and intelligent character, yet dedicated to her mission. As in the case of my previous book from the series, I enjoyed trying to be part of the investigation, although in the end was pretty fair from the truth.

The book is alert, with well built situations and almost perfect crimes that for a couple of pages was almost sure that there will be no clear solution to them. 

This is the 13rd book in the series, but as in the case of A Lethal Deception it can be easily read as a stand alone. However, it would be really hard to resist not going through the other previous episodes. 

As for me, I can only hope that there will be a no. 14 and even many more books in the series. 

Rating: 5 stars

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

Asylum Road by Olivia Sudjic

 

Asylum Road is a street in Peckham, a district in South-Eastern London, where once an asylum was located. For the main character in the homonymous book by Olivia Sudjic, Anya, this is the last known address we are shared. A twenty-something, trying - not too hard - to work on her PhD, engaged to be married with Luke a young man from a conservative - pro-Brexit - family in Cornwall.

Anya survived as a child the siege of the city. A trauma that will follow her everywhere, reignited during her visit to Sarajevo where she tried to introduce Luke to her family. As they are about to ´take a break´ from their relationship shortly after, she is already desintegrating, psychologically tormented by her inner demons.

I´ve heard quite a lot about Sudjic´s books and I do have Sympathy, a book she wrote before this one, on my Kindle ready to read, continuing the literary journey with this author. However, I was not sure what to expect from her both in terms of topics and the style. I may say that I was really impressed about the well-tempered swim through the psychological waves of introspection, traumatic memories and imperceptible wounds the Anya, is going through.

At the same time, Sudjic avoids the temptation of just focusing on the psychological challenges of the character. She is developing the story on various directions, building the characters and the story with the same care for precision. 

In the last half century, there are so many traumatic events in the personal biographies of individuals from Latin America, Middle East, Balkans. The siege of Sarajevo lasted four years, enough for both a child and an adult to be marked for ever. Anya´s story can be the story of many more people we pass near on the streets. Those invisible wounds are staying for ever, for some easier to survive, for some there is an Asylum Road waiting for them.

What I felt that was missing from the book was a more extended background into the character, some more details that would have turn her trauma more knowledgeable. But maybe in the economy of the book, her role was exactly this: to say less and feel more. 

Rating: 3.5 stars

The Fallen by Carlos Manuel Álvarez translated into English by Frank Wynne

 

One one trip on my literary journey around the world, I traveled this weekend to Cuba. The Fallen by Carlos Manuel Álvarez translated into English by Frank Wynne and published by Fitzcarraldo Editions is a micro portrait of a Cuban family in a society struggling to survive, learning to manage ´the art of scarcity´ from an early age.

Survival happens to most of us, no matter the political system we are surviving to, but some political worlds make the survival harder than the other. The Cuban society where the family described in the book is living is corrupt, at the mercy of those counting then money. Those working for money cannot decide anything, not even the smallest steps of their fate. The mother has a degenerative disease, one of the sons is in the last months of the compulsory military service, another son is deeply disappointed with the enacted socialism and often thinks of the betrayal of the ideals as personified by Che Guevara, the daughter abandoned her studies to work in a hotel.

Each of the characters in the book are given, one by one, a voice. Their are our ears and eyes, describing what they experience and hear, what happens to them. The prose is succint, personal, allowing social observations - like the obsession for tourism as the only source of significant revenue on the island, or the corruption chain within various factories and societies - as a way to understand the characters, and not for the sake of the social and political criticism only.

The chapters, each of them, do fit as short stories, but we need all of them together to tell the whole story.

I liked the writing and the story, not romanticized and very direct in both social and literary terms and would be curious to explore more writings by this author, maybe in the original Spanish as well.

Rating: 4 stars

Kafka´s Son by Szilárd Borbély translated by Ottilie Mulzet

 ´(...) staying in one place, without which travel lose its meaning (...)´

I may have leaved my Central European love behind, but all those years when I was assiduously delving into languages and cultures of this intellectual realm, are always with me. Those days, I am not a regular observer of the life there, those languages that they took such long days to learn are fading and in the last five years I haven´t been eastwards farther away from Prague. However, I have my triggers, from the lángos - fake ones - sold in winter in Berlin market´s to the books hidden in my Kindle I´ve long forgot I ever had. 

This year, I promised myself to travel more around my library and improve some languages I used to love, Hungarian among them. And although I still need to find a bit of time to review some grammar and especially vocabulary, before reading something in the original language, a mental trip back to the Hungarian culture happened already.

Szilárd Borbély is one of those many authors from Central Europe ´discovered´ in the rest of Europe. Without their translation, the rest of the world would not have been able to access their works. Multi-awarded translator Ottilie Mulzet contributed tremendously in the last years to bring extraordinary Hungarian authors to the literary map of the moment. 

Szilárd Borbély published not too much prose, but a lot of poetry that still have to be discovered - Mulzet already translated Final Matters: Selected Poems 2004-2019 - and appreciated in the non-Hungarian languages. He died by suicide at the age of 50. His first novel, translated also by Mulzet, a realistic story about a poverty-ridden Jewish family in a Hungarian village in the 1960s-1970s, was a literary revelation, as he was realistically addressing a topic that was rarely approached in the post-war Hungarian literature. I still have to review the deeply lyrical In a Bucolic Land, translated by Mulzet as well. 

Kafka´s Son has a different, more univesal and intertextual take. Kafka´s writings - whose 100 years since his death are celebrated in Europe this year - resonate with a certain local sensibility, built through daily hardships and traumatic histories. It´s a destiny of fragmented identity, put on silent due to various circumstances, still struggling to manifest otherwise. The conflict with a distant father that Kafka revealed in Letter to the Father,  may be read beyond our everyday relationship with our fathers, but as a geographical and historical story of alienation as well.

Postumously published, Kafka´s Son includes small stanzas of struggles - with faith, family patriarch, religious failures, writing destiny - where Kafka´s works made into only one of the layers of understanding and inspiration. Kafka can be any one of us, Central Europeans, and sometimes I realize that I am more belonging to this place as I ever realized. Maybe this literary journey I have ahead this year will help me - as usually happens alongside journeys - understand something more about myself as well.

PS: A side note of appreciation for the beautiful cover as well. 

Rating: 4.5 stars

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

True Crime Stories

If you are following my blog, there is no secret how much I like to read and write about crime stories. The best of them are a mirror of the society and its customs, the human weaknesses and strengths. A great crime story is inspired by real people and particularly their behavior. Human behavior, in general. Either a famous personality or just a simple human, we are all under the threat of making wrong choices, while submitting our reason to our impulses. 

Prolific fiction and non-fiction author Mitzi Szereto features in Crimes of Famous&Infamous Criminals a more or less known gallery of great artists and personalities - among which Erszébet Báthory - authoring unspeakable crimes: from fraud to murder. Crimes do not abund necessarily among the less priviledged of our societies. Rich and famous may be succumbing to the same temptations. Some may do suffer of various mental illnesses, such as bi-polar disorder. Some may fight with personal and generational trauma. 

The book is collecting stories, mostly based on media and journalistic accounts. It is written in a very easy style, packed with facts and descriptive details. At the end of the true crime tour de force, one may be left with a sour taste and disappointment, but this collection of terrible facts is also a reminder that we are all humans after all and we better keep ourselves not too close to the sun. It may burn as hell.

Rating: 3 stars

Rachel´s Random Resources: Spellbound by Gretchen Rue

 

I don´t know exactly what other not-so-bookish people do at the end of their busy days, but personally I can relax instantly, no matter how tired my schedule made me, with a nicely written, romance book. Reading stories about happy people and happy love stories do always make me feel good and forget the load of the day. But I also love crime/detective novels and sometimes I am forced to chose between the two. Not an easy choice, believe me.

However, romance and detective stories can get together well. Spellbound by Gretchen Rue is a good example in this respect. It has a well written story, with its own action and some likeable interesting characters you may want to meet sometimes in real life too. 

Phoebe Winchester is busy - busier than me sometimes - splitting her time between her tea shop, the massiverenovation of a Victorian Manor inherited from a late aunt. But she also has some secret hobby learning about magical apothecary and...well, some witchcraft comes into the story as well. Believe it or not, some people may actually love being interested in such things.

As it was not enough on her plate, there is a murder taking place which may endanger her further development plans of the manor. Thus, magic or not, she may find a solution to it. As fast as possible. But magic always happens when you expected less, and once a handsome detective shows up, the spellbound plays his own love game.

I really enjoyed the book and the characters, especially Phoebe. It has fun, suspense and...magic too. A recommended book for a pleasant end of the day ´me time´.

Rating: 3.5 stars

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

Random Things Tours: The Descent by Paul E. Hardisty

 

Dystopian books aren´t necessarily my thing. In full honesty, I rarely fancy books and stories set in the future, as I am more interested to discover stories about the ongoing times or, as a historian, from the past. However, dystopian novels, particularly those with an ecological, often apocalyptic topic, do resonate with our present. A careless present when we focus too much on now, forgetting at what extent our intentions and thoughts or lack of action can influence the next generations. 

Last year, almost 12 months ago, I had the chance to discover The Forcing, a fantastic eco-dystopian drama published by Orenda Books. Traumatic ecological catastrophies are forcing populations to run to better places, leaving behind histories and memories. It may not sound as dystopian as it may look like, as such displacements are already ongoing, although at a more moderate scale as those described in the book.

The Descent is a prequel, trying to go backwards, back to where all started. Kweku Ashworth wants to understand what happened with his mother during her journey half the world. There are topics and characters that may sound similar, however the book can be read and very good understood as an individual installment. The action and the character development are synchronised, offering both the background for action and the opportunity to get to know individual characters. 

Both the images and the flow of ideas are very powerful, and I think this book - or both of them, suit very much a visual/movie-like rendition. Hopefully, someone will have this idea soon.

Rating: 4 stars

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