MarthaJeanne - Thoughts on books 2022 - third topic

Ready for July.

Starred!

Blood & roses

Sorry, can't follow the politics. 2**, not finished, discarded.

>3 MarthaJeanne: that was a terrible time, and I have difficulty following the political stories. The Sunne in Splendour is a really good historical novel that is mostly history.

Rollkofferterroristen is the story of an AirBnB host in Berlin - and why he gave it up. 4*

Wie eine verrückte Ameise die Welt verändern kann No! Just "No!" Tell your stories but don't make the moral more important than the story. If it's really right you shouldn't have to rub it in. Guess what. One chapter was enough.

This is good because I'm going to the library today, and this book is due with no more renewals next Monday. Now I can give it back with no regrets.

Ich esse also bin ich

This book is just weird. Bud Spencer meets with one dead philosopher or similar after another while he can't sleep because of his diet. Giving up.

The happiest man on earth All in all, well worth reading.

Horse This book is less about the horse than about people with a relationship to the horse either directly or through the skeleton and portraits. A big theme is racism. 4 1/2*

I was close on this one. It was going to disappear from my iPad in 3 hours.

>10 MarthaJeanne: Your touchstone goes to the wrong book.

>11 2wonderY: Thank you. Sorry. Fixed. The other was also a good book, but very different.

>12 MarthaJeanne: Okay! Now that one sounds like one I may explore.

When I was at my local spice and cookbook store recently. I asked what she had new and exciting in English. She couldn't find anything new, but asked if I knew The Greek Vegetarian Cookbook. I'm now reading it and just got through the salad chapter. Wow! Seeing as I'm not a vegetarian, and usually find the salad chapters of cookbooks boring and skippable, I thought this ought to be noted. Of course, with my eggplant and zucchini plants producing, all these salads based on griddled zucchini or oven roasted eggplant are welcome, and Heather Thomas seems to share my taste for goat's cheese.

Downtown on Tuesday I stopped at the Schottenstift shop for a rest. The shop sells products from their own production, and from other monastic businesses, and a few other ethically interesting firms. They also have books, both religious and other, and I have often picked up quite interesting things. This time it was volume 7 of 'Bibel 2000' that includes Tobit, Judith, Esther, and Maccabees (Tobit, Judit, Ester, Makkabäer) marked down 50%. (from €9.50) I love Tobit, anyway, and the price was right. It turns out that this large hardback includes all sorts of pictures, commentary, and so on next to the text. As you will guess from the series title, it is not the newest, but beautifully done. Amazingly, I can't find any sign that anyone else has entered anything from this series or its French original before. I probably won't create a series. Anyway, I think I got a bargain.

For the record, I also bought a book on balcony gardening. Not that I have a balcony, but various plants in containers.

The School for German Brides 4* or maybe 4 1/4.

Home or Away is just too aggressively hockey. Did not finish.

Das Walmuseum, das Sie nie besuchen werden A fun Iceland book. 4* Original is English.

>14 MarthaJeanne: Yes, yes, yes! 4 1/2*. It just got better and better the further I read. There's a chickpea and spinach dish with lemon rice that I think I'll make for myself tomorrow.

>19 MarthaJeanne: The chickpeas and spinach were fine. I would prefer less paprika in the rice.

The rainbow and the rose Shute does the dream scenes very well.

Gave up on Trust.

The Balkans. Interesting. 4*

Kopfarbeit (Head work) Wow! Peter Vajkczy is the top neurosurgeon at Charité, Berlin's top hospital. He tells the stories of how he became a neurosurgeon, and many of his most memorable successes and failures. I could not be a neurosurgeon, but I was fascinated by the way he pulls the reader into his world. If you can read German, read this now, if not, hope that it gets translated soon.
4 1/2*

Different : Gender 4* I like de Waal's books.

Mit fremden Federn has to go back to the library tomorrow. I've read enough to know that I'm not interested in finishing it.

The Flatshare
I really liked this. Tiffy is climbing out of a really abusive relationship when she agrees to share a flat and a bed with someone she nevers sees.

The unsinkable Greta James This was a good one.

Wildpflanzen essen This is a very nicely done book on edible wild plants by a Dutch author.

Sunday's Child is the fourth book in The Rockwood Chronicles. The series keeps getting even more overly dramatic. 3 1/2*

An Old Captivity Unlike most of Shute's books, this one takes place mostly in Greenland - about as far away from Australia as you can get. It's another favourite of mine.

The embassy of Cambodia 2* Well, at least it's short. Of course if it was longer the story might have gone somewhere. This would be a good first chapter of a book.

The Future is Female It's a bad sign when the German translation is given a title in English that is nothing like the original title. However, I kept trying for 100 pages. After all, in an anthology it is quite possible that the first article is really bad, but the rest are good. Even the first two or even three? And I will admit, they haven't all been as ghastly as those first few, but they aren't really good, either. I give up.

>32 MarthaJeanne: Hmmm. I would have picked it up to check it out. Thanks for the warning.

I'm getting very tired of Pulp Christian! It very carefully picks out the worst texts in the Bible without any context (historical or other).

I'm deleting it.

It happened one summer was fun, just not very believable and a bit heavy on the sex details. It can have 3 1/2*

Stephen Morris Getting to the end of the Shute now. On the Beach seems to be missing. That was the first of his I ever read, not one of my favourites, but it would seem weird to leave it out. I'll order a new copy tomorrow.

23 in July.

Sie herrschten über ein Weltreich : die spanischen Habsburger

This is a series of quite good essays on various aspects of the Spanish Habsburgs. While each essay in itself is quite interesting, they overlap, and skip about so that the whole is less than its parts would lead you to expect. 3 1/2*

Butterfly (Mardini) If this didn't need to go back, I might try a bit longer, but after 100 pages, I've really had enough. My 2* will really pull the ratings down.

Material girls I enjoyed this. 4 1/2*

I picked up the German translation of The Double X economy at the library today.I couldn't find it, but the librarian managed to figure out where it was hiding. It's currently being discussed in Feminist Theory.

How strange a season 3 1/2

Resteliebe Jeans She gets 3 1/2* because the basic idea is good, and the projects are probably well suited for her main audience.

However, in spite of saying in the introduction that you can vary things to make them individual, there is little sign of that in the directions. 'Use an iron-on glitter star.' With a large photo of just the star. Adding 'or your preferred motive' would have been better. Even better a second example with different design choices.

Some of the directions are unclear. I certainly am left wondering how the slipper soles are supposed to work. No seam allowances are mentioned for the jeans pieces, and when you slip in the cardboard and batting, which belongs where?

The pictures seem to have been chosen to look good, but not to making the sewing clearer.

This was a good book to borrow from the library, but I'm glad I didn't buy it.

ETA, and if you fill your door stopper with rice, Do NOT let it get wet! But perhaps Ms. Leva-Dehm is not a fan of the Hornblower books.

>43 MarthaJeanne: Have I not gotten to that book yet? Hornblower, I mean.

In one of the books he is taking a prize (ship) in, and is a bit surprised that there is no water in the bilge. The ship is filled with loose rice, and is leaking, but the rice is absorbing all the water. Eventually the swelling rice breaks the ship apart. I'm too lazy to check which book, but it would be in one of the early books in the story line.

Checkout 19 To quote a well known review: No!

I actually read a page or two of this drivel. No!

Pastoral Getting to the end of Shute. On the Beach is waiting for me at the bookstore. I also have Slide rule.

Atoms and ashes can hardly be called a pleasant read, but it was well-written.

BTW, He talks at the end of the book that new nuclear power plants can't be built fast enough to help with climate change. Now I read that Germany is running its plants at reduced capacity because of lack of cooling water due to the hot weather.

Fatty O'Leary's dinner party Fun! 4*

Had to read about the pale green pants. Sneetches (see https://www.librarything.com/topic/340123#7900432)

Under one roof 3 1/2*

This is funny. I am reading Headscarves and Hymens. The author tells a story of a Tunisian journalist (female, not veiled) who tried to ask a politician a question. He refused to answer because, 'I don't talk to naked women.' She started to undress. 'What are you doing?'

'I'm going to show you what a naked woman looks like.' He begged her to stop, and answered her questions.

On the Beach I think this moved me as much this time as it did over 50 years ago.

>53 MarthaJeanne: It’s very memorable.

Spoiler Alert 2 1/2* Fanfic really isn't my scene, and too much unrealistically amazing explicit sex.

Reading the reviews, apparently, part of my 'problem' is not being familiar with Game of Thrones.

Das Weibliche Kapital This is a very frustrating book, as it does a very job of pointing out how women are systematically disadvantaged. But the solutions proposed are on the basis that this will grow the economy, without ever questioning the assumption that the economy should and can grow ever bigger.

Empire of Pain 4 1/2* Very glad to finish this.

Ma and Me Will not finish.

After Sappho Sorry, Don't get it at all.

Äpfel When someone ends his introduction with, "What my family doesn't know about the apple isn't worth knowing," I start wondering how much he really knows. Well, not all that much as it turns out. The recipes did not convince me. He seems to think he is the first one to use stick celery in Waldorf Salad 'in stead of celeriac". Actually, I was convinced that the original used stick celery. His recipe for American Apple pie uses a weird crust including eggs. I'm not saying you can't do it, but it is not normal pie crust. Most of the baked goods include way too much sugar - sometimes twice as much sugar as flour, making me doubt the sense in trying to adjust them. I'll be generous: 2*

Oh yes, his directions for using puff pastry are extremely wasteful. Take two packages. Roll them out to the same size. cut the outer inch off one of them and set it on top of the other one. Save the rest of the first piece for another recipe.

Kakao 3*

The Supremes sing the happy heartache blues 3 1/2. I never got all the characters straight.

Couchsurfing im alten Rom **1/2 He comes out with similar books every year or two. They seem aimed at convincing the pupils in schools with required latin that there is something worthwhile about their efforts. I doubt that they really succeed. Will not finish.

BTW I took two years of Latin in high school. My Latin teacher actually gave me a translation of Gallic Wars so that I could read the whole thing. It really helped with our homework, but i found it very boring.

Slide Rule Didn't have a rating (from me). I've now given it 4 1/2.

Meant to be Eh. 3*

The Fire Rose It has been some time since I last read The Elemental Masters Series.

Just reading a review for Am I Normal? in New Scientist. Sounds interesting. But what really hit me was reading that so much data comes from Western, educated, industrialised, rich and democratic (WIERD) societies.

Delta Worlds I mostly read the English. This is an interesting project, depicting life in four deltas as seen by the people who live there. It is bilingual German/English.

Untold Story 3* This is a weird one. The premiss is that Princess Diana 'died' of drowning off a yacht in Brazil, but that she really ran away and took up life as a normal woman in small town America. It doesn't really work. Discarded.

Mangold (Fischer) Most of the recipes are rather complicated. 3 1/2*

>72 MarthaJeanne: Can I get your opinion on it? I’ve read The Fire Rose and didn’t think I would continue.

I love almost all of Lackey's books. This is a reread of the series. Snakes and India. Of course I like it. What I like about Lackey's take on magic is that it has rules, and is fairly predictable. None of this, 'Oh, dear, I've got my character into a real jam, let's invent a new aspect of magic that I forgot to mention before.'

Batik : design, style and history 3* The writing isn't terribly interesting. The captions often point out details that cannot be seen given the small size of the image.

Doodle stitching : embroidery & beyond The previous reviewer was too kind. 1*

Qumran (Kratz) 4* This stretched me a bit, but it had been a few decades since I last read a book about what has been learned from the Dead Sea Scrolls. I learned a lot.

The Butterfly Room I don't normally read books that are this long, but Lucinda Riley holds my interest, so I'll make exceptions for her. 4* I just checked. The first book in The Seven Sisters was a lot shorter than the later ones. Which is how I got started.

You have a friend in 10A I almost ought to enter this so I can give it a single star and a review. The first few stories were fine, but the last two leave me feeling dirty. I'm not going to finish this.

28 books in August. More than July.

We do what we do in the dark did not do it for me. Did not finish.

Dattel 3*

I was able to pick up The Domestic Revolution today. (It was very aggravating to see the email after getting home from the store last week!) Really looking forward to it after knowing two other books from Goodman and hearing everyone's comments.

I cannot get interested in The Case of the Married Woman.

Der kleine Gartenversager 4 1/2* is a very funny book about having a garden in a garden settlement in East Germany. In such settlements, everybody knows everybody else and their gardens and makes sure the written and unwritten rules are all followed. He also describes his lack of luck growing radishes, getting a wonderful kind of strawberry from his father-in-law... If you garden and read German you want this one.

Entering library books, I got stuck on Vollkornbrote aus dem Brotbackautomaten. It looks like bread machines have changed a lot in the past 20 years. Maybe I need one again. If so, this would be a good book to own.

Having finished entering, and doing a bit of author research, both my female and male authors in Author gender are at least 3,000. I still have over 400 not set, so actually the males win, but as I only set them when I have entered enough female authors to keep ahead, it looks good. I did set some males today, as I borrowed a few new female authors.

Die Tucherbin 3* Historical novel, not very believable. Discarded.

I was reading two books that I want to finish, but wasn't making progress on, so I put them aside for a while. Tobit, Judit, Ester, Makkabäer looked like a good deal. Big book with the texts, pictures and extra comments. Only most of the pictures have no relationship to the texts, and many of the comments aren't much better. This worked fine while reading the three books I like. Also here a few of the pictures were actually art depicting the stories. But then we came to I Maccabees. I'm fairly sure that I haven't managed to get through more than a couple of chapters before. Good grief! They attacked us and killed us, so we attacked them and killed them. Repeat with minor variations. Anyway, when I finished the garden book and the bread book, I picked it up again, and have now finished I Maccabees. I'll take another break before tackling 2 Maccabees. But it feels like an accomplishment to have gotten through the first one.

Similar story with Turning toward Home. This is a memoir published in the 1980s. I'm finding it heavy going, but early on realized that the author and I were at Bates at the same time, even if we had very different experiences there. Quite honestly, while having great respect for the path she chose, I'm glad I took the way I did. I do still intend finishing the book after Domestic Revolution.

Die Signale der Vögel would be interesting if the text were just a little bit bigger. As it is, it's just too much work.

Phoenix and Ashes

Now finished Tobit, Judit, Ester, Makkabäer. 2 Maccabees is much more like a story and less like a military history.

The Domestic Revolution 4 1/2*. Thank you, Ruth.

How to embroider almost everything This is a good one. So far I have it from the library, but it would be a good one to buy.

Ein Engel in der Hölle von Auschwitz
Harold Walser has obviously done a lot of research into the life of Maria Stromberger, and this book will be an important resource when her definitive biography is written. That biography will leave out long paragraphs about what we don't know. It will not include the whole life stories of all of her siblings. Almost half way though the book she is about to go to Auschwitz, but I have no feeling that I have even met her. I'm giving up. 2*

The half life of Valery K 4* but please only read this if you do not get nightmares.

Dein fantastischer Balkongarten 3* This isn't a bad book, and I'll probably keep it a while. On the other hand, most people who want to grow things on their balcony don't need to be told to plant rows of peas 30-45 cm apart. You aren't going to have space for multiple rows. I'm also amazed at how much space a balcony gardener is assumed to have inside for keeping plants over the winter, for starting plants from seed... In general it's all a bit overdone.

No, no space in the gardening shelves.

Turning toward home

1972 Two young women are at the same college in Maine, but moving in very different circles.

1989 One is living in a community in Washington DC, both there and around the world working for justice, and writing this memoir.

The other is raising children near Vienna, Austria

Now One is still doing all sorts of exciting things and writing books.

I still think I'd rather be me, but in a weird sort of timewarp I can see that I could have had her life if things had been a bit different.

I can't give a rating.

The Homewreckers 3 1/2* All very complicated.

La Pasticceria Italiana 4 1/2* I want, I want, I want. This includes both sweet and savoury bakes, many very interesting. Even the vegan recipes look good, at least if you were to use milk and butter in stead of rice drink and soy margarine.

Dele Weds Destiny 3* I got through it, but it just didn't do it for me.

I have two crochet books by Helga Silly from the library. I think I'll buy Filethäkeln : Alle 12 Sternzeichen und viele weitere Motive. No, not for the signs of the zodiac.

>103 MarthaJeanne: Why no rating?

I don't rate the series I read and reread. I like this series, and this is one of my favourites in the series, but I can't really rate it independently.

Empireland 4 1/2* Note the subtitle. This is not about the British Empire as such, but of how the empire has influenced modern Britain. I really enjoyed it.

Daughter of Jerusalem

I'm not going to finish this. The various characters all preach their varied sermons on various aspects of fertility or the lack thereof. If I wanted a collection of essays on the subject, that's what I would be reading.

The religious bits at the end of the chapters are, at best, in very poor taste. I find them offensive.

This one is going in the bin, and not donated to a used book sale.

ETA Maybe I'm just jealous. This woman is upset at how inconvenient periods are. Hers come always on the fourth Sunday, last four days, and she can just use a tampon without a pad as well. No PMS, no cramps. Let's just say that my experience was different.

Ute Bock superstar ****1/2

The Summer Place

To begin with, the house keeps talking, which is horribly cheesy.

There are too many people with too many complicated relationships. Some of those never get straightened out. Those that do, get even more complicated.

I only took 1/2* off for each of those leaving 3* rating.

I read the second half of this in a long session because OverDrive was going to take it back this evening.

Northerners : a history

3 1/2* Another history of the UK with a (slightly) different emphasis.

Löwenland A young German who decides to live in Botswana and do what he can to protect the wilderness and the animals has to be a little crazy. But it is fun to read about.

Beautiful World, Where Are You I started this, but wasn't enjoying it at all, so I read a few reviews. The reviews explaining why the readers didn't like the book were more interesting than the book so far.

Oh, yes, returning to OverDrive.

I kissed Shara Wheeler 3* Everyone, even gay kids at a Christian school in Alabama, deserves books about their kind if people. But some of those books I will try not to read myself.

This is the third month in a row that I have read less than a book a day average. This month will end up at 26 if I stay awake for the next twenty pages.

Sesam 3 1/2* Another little cookbook in the series. I have at least read most of them.

I entered the guitar books I bought, but two of them autocombined. No they are not the same, but I can't see how to tell which ones belong together tonight. Maybe I can sort them out tomorrow, but they have both gone through several editions, so there are lots of ISBNs.

https://www.librarything.com/work/11796195/ Note my copies are both in English and German.

The most distinguishing characteristic is that one has 50 pieces, and the other 49.

>117 MarthaJeanne: You can edit your copies to give the titles distinction on the editions page and then change them back after you separate them. I’ve used the trick before.

I can tell mine apart. It's figuring the others out that is hard.

Unnatural issue This one is pretty gruesome.

>117 MarthaJeanne: I finally decided that I am probably the only one who has entered the newer volume.

Mad About You 4* The only real problem with this book is that Harriet's absolutely horrible exes are much more interesting characters than the oh-so-perfect twerp she ends up with. It would be nice if he felt real. Nice, yes, good to live with, yes, of course, but not really real.

I should have given up on Laura von Arabien much earlier. The important relationships in her life seem to be 1) her falcon 2) her dog, 10) her husband.

Unlike the German male crazy about his lion, this German female in Qatar just gets more and more boring.

Eine Zeit der Stille is not interesting.

After 130 pages I dislike everyone in The Road Trip. I don't see any reason to do twice that much again to myself.

Oh, Wie schön sie ist! This is actually an exhibit catalogue, and I am still wondering whether it is worth trying to visit it in the next few weeks. The main objects are a series of reconstructions of dresses that Sisi (Empress Elizabeth of Austria, 1837-1898) wore in photographs or portraits. The book is set up as a short biography. 4*

We went to the exhibit this afternoon. The dresses are much better in real life than in the photos in the book.

>126 MarthaJeanne: Oh!! Nice!!

I don't think they were well photographed. Two in particular looked very weird in the book, but quite nice in reality. Then the modern photographs were artistically treated to fit better with the old ones - sepia and such.

I wore my cheap 'Sisi stars' earrings, which made the cheap part obvious - they had good replicas both in the exhibit, and in the gift shop. However, the price tags were totally outside of what I would pay for jewellery, even if I had the money, and I like mine.

Other thoughts: She was always in a corset that made her waist about half of mine. I've seen pictures of what that did to women's insides. Plus the layers and layers of cloth. All longer than floor length. I can't help wondering if the women weren't all deliberately dehydrated. How to cope with using toilet facilities? Some of the dresses must have been fairly heavy as well. All respect that she could still go on long hikes and ride horses (side sattle of course), and do her exercises - pull ups, and rings and such.

One True Loves Whatever else one thinks about this book, Emma is married to Jesse, and cannot marry Sam until/unless they have a divorce. Leaving that part out makes the whole book seem fake. 3*

I'm not finishing Big Red (rita) I suspect that you have to be a big fan of early Hollywood to really appreciate it.

The christmas wedding guest 3 1/2*

The Portraitist: A Novel of Adelaide Labille-Guiard 3* This is supposed to be 'Based on a true story' but most of it is very fictional.

Kindheit in Wien The only really interesting thing about this is that it was written by our Altgermanistik professor. 3*

A Country Escape 4* I like Katie Fforde

The Queen 3* While I do not regret reading this, I will certainly never read it again. It would have been greatly improved if most of the detailed descriptions of photographs had been edited out.

The Birdcatcher 1* The final line is "SCRAP THIS AND START OVER". Sounds like good advice to me.

The ebook is very poorly formatted. Luckily the whole thing is very short. Not sure how it got such rave reviews.

The party crasher 3 1/2*

Thank you, Jeeves Jeeves to the rescue, as always. 4*

Big Girl
It is probably a failure on my part, but I just cannot find much interest in an 8-year-old girl, growing up in Harlem, morbidly obese, and incapable of thinking of anything but food. Not going to finish this one.

(For what it's worth, Manhattan mamas trying to get their 2month olds onto the right preschool waiting list while they obsess about high heels with red soles and the latest colour of Lululemons don't do it for me either. You may have noticed that I do read Kinsella. But not the Shopaholic books.)

Die Geschichte von Adam und Eva

Before struggling through three chapters on Milton, I would have given this 4 1/2*. I recall trying to read Paradise Lost decades ago and never finding my way through it. He was also a horrible misogynist, and the long passages on his treatment of wives and daughters had nothing to do with the subject of the book. Whether or not I would have read the quotations in English, I certainly did not even try in German.

The rest of the book was certainly worth reading. 3 1/2* The Milton chapters were really bad.

I was trying to read The Almighty, a novel about the newspaper industry from 1982. The thing is, back then I probably would have enjoyed it, but not now.

Not a book, but bought at the book store. I saw "Baum Bingo" the last time I was there, and today succumbed to the temptation. I think I will learn a lot just going through and adding the English names of the 64 trees included. Can one play Bingo as a solitaire game?

Sure. It gives you better odds to win!

The Sum of Us 4 1/2*

The Challenge This starts out seeming rather different from most of Danielle Steel's novels, but it is definitely her writing style, and the plot gets more and more like a standard Steel as the book goes on. 3 1/2*

Fen, Bog and Swamp 4 1/2* This is painful because we have watched the wetlands around Neusiedlersee disappear over the past few years, largely due to climate change, although farmers extracting groundwater for irrigation as the weather gets hotter and dryer hasn't helped. What do the migrating birds do when the lush wetlands they depend on are dried up?

Eating With Africa A young German woman spent a year alternating her life in Berlin with two week periods in various countries in Africa. She met local people and asked them to let her cook with them. In Berlin she tried to work out how to make the dishes with German ingredients and equipment. This is much more a book to read than to cook from. The final country is Sierra Leone and recipes for 4-6 people include 500 ml palm oil. It seems that this is not a misprint as several recipes are similar. (The book is in German.) 4*

Home Sweet Christmas 3*

That makes 21 in October.

Gartensafari This is not a book for beginners. While I am aware that several species of bees and wasps visit our garden, I have no desire to be able to tell them apart or know the names of over a dozen species. Just not that interested.

Still, I did pick up a few interesting bits of trivia. It is welcome to go back to the library. 3*

Die Entdeckerin der Welt is an interesting historical novel about Maria Sibylla Merian? 4*

Hypochonder leben länger 4* This is a group of light essays about the author's work as a psychiatrist.

>152 MarthaJeanne: Ha. I just came across my copy of Chrysalis in the cabin; and not yet read.

>154 2wonderY: That might be interesting, but not available from my library, and €30 from Amazon, shipping from US. Not going to happen.

>155 MarthaJeanne: It’s dense. And only a handful of plates.

Gartenglück There are one or two nice cross stitch patterns in here, but not to use in their finishing ideas 2*

Theoretically a book combining garden with needlework ought to be just my thing, but I don't do my garden work in fancy embroidered aprons. Nor do I have quilts on all our outdoor furniture.

Orwell's roses 3*
In 1936, George Orwell planted rose bushes, which the author was able to visit. That is the starting point of a long rambling series of essays on various topics related (more or less) to either Orwell or roses.

From a High Tower This is a particularly nice one. (As my review from 2015 says.) By the way, I have tried to read Karl May and just do not see the attraction.

Space opera I filled in the empty slot on this book's rating table. DNF 1/2*

>160 MarthaJeanne: Hmm. I’ve intended to read more of hers at some point. I really liked her first book.

Pick it up and try to read a page or two. Lots of people really liked it. The comparison to Douglas Adams should have warned me off. The whole thing left me totally baffled. I could not make any sense of it.

The Work Wife 3* None of the three main female characters is really someone you would want to know.

One disadvantage of not entering ebooks if I don't finish them: I just realized that Love your life seemed familiar. I'll give it 2 1/2* so I don't do that again with this book.

Trust Exercise 2* Not going to finish.

I grabbed several novels at the library a few visits back. Obviously I should have checked them better before bringing them home.

Snow Bride The story keeps getting weirder and weirder. I'll probably read the final book in this series, but it is really out of hand. 3*

>166 MarthaJeanne: I’m not seeing a series. And how can it be a bestseller, according to the cover loaded by the other member who lists it, with so few readers?

This is this year's Christmas addition to The Rockwood Chronicles where I've just added it.

I found on the web "Dilly Court is a Sunday Times bestselling author of over thirty novels." That is probably what the cover refers to, the author, not the book itself. Probably big only in the UK. I have enjoyed several of her books, but this series throws in everything, including the kitchen sink.

Female Choice 2* A lot of the information in this book is interesting and useful. But her suggestions as to how we should change the world are totally unrealistic. Maybe I'm a bad mother because I often sighed with relief as I locked the toilet door giving myself a few minutes without a child grabbing at me, even if said child was still screaming on the other side of the door. I can't imagine that I would have been a better mother if I had invited the toddler in to see the natural bodily functions. Actually I can't imagine that those functions would have worked. And that's a minor example. BTW this book is in German.

Schätze aus Wald und Wiese 3* This is one of the less interesting books I have looked at about Wild Food.

A study in Sable

Crying in H Mart This was very good and easy to read, except when it got to be rather overdone. I finally decided on 3 1/2*

Will in the World 4 1/2* This is an interesting take on William Shakespeare. Based on what we actually know about him, what we know about his times, and hints found in his writings, Greenblatt has created a believable portrait of William Shakespeare as he imagines him.

Mistakes Were Made 3* Good characters, good story line, but all of that watered down with much too much lesbian porn.

Party of Two 4*

The Golden Mole 5* Read this book! Well written essays with lots of interesting trivia about various animals. It's a very short book, and hard to put down.

Finished today.

I tried to read Hysterical. Gave up very early.

Beach House Summer 4*

Fräulein Mozart und der Klang der Liebe 3* This is a bit too far fetched.

Ravenna is going to have to go back later this week. I'm only halfway through it, but someone ese is waiting for it. I'll just have to reserve it myself.

This is a bit weird. The library has two copies, both due next Monday, and each with one hold.

I'm taking Sabrina and Corina back to the library after reading half of it. It's not bad, but just doesn't resonate with me. I think it's great that the author wants to portray people like her, but their concerns aren't mine.

I'll take Ravenna back today. I'm at page 280, chapter 22. (of 468, 37+1)

Note to Self, Anna Bell All right, it can have 3*, but once you accept the premise that you know somebody's email address 17 years in advance, you have already lost touch with reality, so the other unlikely events just float past.

I was cheering for you that you had two four star reads in a row.

You win some, you lose some.

Right now I'm really pissed at Amazon. I made an order last Thursday. The first package (three books) left England for France, then bounced around Italy (three different places) and arrived in Vienna by 8:00 Wednesday morning. Thursday afternoon they announced that it was 'delayed in transit'. If it doesn't arrive today I can ask for a refund. I don't want a refund. I want my books! Have they lost them? Mangled them?

The second package (1 book) left Barcelona (???) and finally arrived in Vienna on Thursday. According to the website it was 'handed to resident'. Actually, no! The package that was handed to me was the one addressed to the neighbour. My package was left on their garbage bin.

In the meantime we had actually gotten the third package without difficulty. But that was the hygiene stuff for the humidifiers, and while it's good that we have it, It's not the same as getting the books.

For the record, the order was with Amazon.de.

Oh, yes, and based on The Gown, Amazon is recommending that I might want to order Lego packages that make racing cars.

Then, again, somehow I don't really think so.

A Life in Light, Mary Pipher If I were entering it, I would give it at most 2*. Boring!

I downloaded a Christmas romance from OverDrive without much thought or checking. These all run more or less the same, right? Nope. This had a lot of sex and not all of it hetero. Read the descriptions first! 3 1/2*

Textile question : Could someone really take two smaller corsets and sew them into a plus size corset?

>189 MarthaJeanne: Textile question : Could someone really take two smaller corsets and sew them into a plus size corset?

having never tried it- it seems feasible- with the possible exception of whalebone corsets? might involve additional taking in at certain locations. I used to have to take in most of my jeans and blouses- as I was quite a child-sized adult. sewing patterns insisted that I was a size ten- but I never was. I recall my mother carefully, putting darts all around the waist of my store bought jeans. to keep them up.

Combining two intricate garments into one larger one is a very different matter from cutting something down.

>191 MarthaJeanne: yes- just saying that after joining them- they could be cut down where needed. i'm assuming that design of corset is essentially a tube with two main seams. (though, depending upon intricacy- could be dozens of seams- but for combing- the main two is that which makes them joinable. not sure about upper accoutrements - depending upon the century of these corsets.

Years ago I was in a store of an underwear chain, and the saleswoman explained that they only sold B cup bras, but I could just buy the next size up and it would fit fine. Strangely, I haven't set foot in that company's stores since.

>194 MarthaJeanne: sounds uncomfortable

And so does your enlarged corset.

Lachen, weinen, Hoffnung schenken 4 1/2* It is always a pleasure to read more from Rabbi Eisenberg

So einfach ist sticken! can go back to the library. The explanations are not clear and the few patterns are boring. 2* I have no intention of wasting more time on this.

One Line : Zeichnen in einer Linie 3* There is a very nice butterfly in here that I could use as the basis of an embroidery. The book itself can go back to the library.

One line art : die grosse Motiv-Bibliothek 1* This one had nothing I was interested in, and the drawings are too small to be easy to copy. Rather defeats the purpose. I bought this one, but I'll discard it.

City of fortune 4*, although I considered 4 1/2. It has been interesting to compare Ravenna with Venice half a millenium later.

That makes 23 in November.

The Keeper of Stories 4 1/2* This starts off slow, but just gets better and better.

Das Mädchen mit dem Drachen 4 1/2* It doesn't seem like this is available in English yet. If it were, I would send my mother a copy.

Vanished : Stories My goodness, short stories with characters that grab you, and that feel like a complete episode, even if sometimes you want to know what happens next. I didn't think people wrote things like this any more.

>203 MarthaJeanne: Your touchstone goes to aDanielle Steele book. Is that what you meant?

>204 2wonderY: Thanks. Fixed.

Yerba Buena 4*

Monty Python at Work doesn't work for me. I think you need to be a full blown Python fan and know all the mentioned sketches.

Ich simuliere nur! 4* Niki Popper has become a familiar face on Austrian news since the COVID pandemic started, because he and his team have been modelling the pandemic from its beginnings based on their earlier work with other diseases. Well, it has been obvious that he is a weird person from seeing him on television. The book makes that even more obvious. Luckily the chapters alternate between his explanations of modelling, and Ursel Nendzig's explanations of how the company he is part of has developed. His chapters I may have understood 75% of; Hers were a lot easier to follow. I'm glad I bought this.

Pies and Tarts 1*
Problem 1: The print is too small for comfortable reading, never mind baking from.

Problem 2: What is this with all the fillings cooked on the stove first? Yes, I checked. This included the various apple pies.

It goes back to the library mostly unread.

I just leafed through part of the ebook of Together: Memorable Meals Made Easy 1* I should know by now that Jamie Oliver's books do not appeal. I entered it and wrote a review.

Turbulente Tage in Österreich 4* No, don't run out to read it. This is an article Mark Twain wrote for Harper's New Monthly Magazine in 1898 to explain, or at least depict the political situation in Austria at the time. The wonder is that the Hapsburg monarchy managed to survive another 20 years after the events that Twain describes. I found it fascinating. You probably wouldn't. It was somewhat disorienting to read it in German translation when Twain tried to compare things to US conditions.

The Gown At least 4 1/2* Of course that is because the embroidering is so well described. But the plot is also very good, so you might enjoy this even if you aren't as textile crazy as I am.

>213 MarthaJeanne: Book bullet direct hit. You’ve been on a good streak lately.

Jerry just got a message on Facebook that C. Philipp E. Nothaft will release Graeco-Arabic Astronomy for Twelfth-century Latin Readers before Christmas. I don't think we will be getting it, though, as the price is quite steep.

I'm rather tempted to put it in my wishlist.

Haven 3*

Coming Home, Molcho 1* Disappointing. More effort was made to make the whole thing look artistic than to make it a workable cookbook. In fact, things like orange letters on red background may look artistic, but really make for a bod book.

Ingredients are often not easy to buy. Some are totally unexplained. Amounts are unreasonable (24g sugar!)

I also looked through Tel Aviv, Molcho at the library recently. That one added in tiny print.

Actually, I think I'll discard this one. There is no point in wasting shelf space on it.

I got up to page 80 before I gave up on Happiness for Humans. 2* I do not see where all the other reviewers and raters got humour out of this. Big brother is watching you, and isn't even human, but thinks it knows what you need. Wherever you go AI can find a camera to watch you from. And can use any electronic devices to change your life.

Gautama Buddha Very readable. Buddha set in his times.

Not Here To Be Liked 2* This book was written for teenagers. It's been a long time since I was a teenager.

Entdecke die vielfältige Natur des Nordburgenlandes 3* For a book that was being handed out free, not too bad. It shows 21 hiking routes in an area we like. Positives include that the maps indicate whether a route is OK for baby buggies and wheelchairs - and thus for my walker. Negative is that many routes aren't, including many of the more interesting ones. The maps are not good enough for hiking, and the routes aren't really described.

This was published in 2018, so pre-pandemic, but also back when we still hoped that water would come back to the 'Lacken'. Well, it hasn't. It is heartbreaking to see grass and salt where there used to be water. And without the water, there are also very few of the birds we used to enjoy.

Can't Look Away 3* I did finish it. I'm not sure why.

I was downtown this noon. Things were crazy. I told the man at the bookstore that I had just checked, and had not received a notice about my books on order, but he cheerfully checked not only the shelf, but also the piles waiting to be shelved. Note: he came to me, and checked after I said that there is no email right now.

Guess what I just got! Two emails that books have arrived. Quite honestly, given the state of things in England right now I did not expect that. We've had other orders from England delayed lately.

Question: Do I go back downtown knowing that things will just be that much worse each day, or wait until next week for my books?

What I have not received is the phone call about my Christmas CD. I checked in that, too, and bought a different one.

Things I don't want to know 3*

Some of it was real 3***

I couldn't resist opening Six Seasons, since I finally have it. (see https://www.librarything.com/topic/340123#8007773) Besides, I need recipes for leeks. Oh, dear, no leeks in the table of contents. Wait, a few recipes in the index. Read two of them. Have to make both. OK. Good enough for now.

I've gotten to page 76 of The Other Half of Happiness! and can't quite face trying to get to 431. Discarding. 2*

Bauer to the People 3* Mostly because they constantly refer to blog postings that are only shown as QR codes and not as URLs.

Nope. Can't face more of This Time Tomorrow.

Jolene I think I liked this better this time than last time I read it, but I still have no intention of buying more in this series.

Marvelous Possessions 3 1/2*

I'm at 333 for the year.

>234 MarthaJeanne: Wow! It did seem you were rolling through one a day almost.

I used to, before I had COVID. December was 18. January was 32. April 34. May 26. June 29. July 24.

The Good Doctor of Warsaw 4 1/2* It is very hard to read about people in the Warsaw ghetto in 1942 hoping to survive until the end of the war. You so want a happy ending, but you know that even if a few survive, the ending cannot be both happy and believable.

This is very well written, and makes you wantto keep reading, even during the hardest bits.

Whoops! Copying to new topic.

>234 MarthaJeanne: Official final count is 334.