MissWatson hatches a cunning plan (C) ...

... which is to have no plan. This is my first year in retirement, and I have no idea where it will be taking me. So I'll just list my reading on a monthly basis, following the CATs and KITs as my fancy takes me.

To brighten things up, I am using the birthstone for each month to illustrate the thread. It will feature a book from my library which relates in some way to the jewel.

Oh, and I almost forgot to introduce myself: I'm Birgit and I live on the shore of the Baltic sea.


The gentleman in this picture is named Corrado, one of my faithful travelling companions.

January+February: 6,857 pages
March: 3,464 pages
April: 3,663 pages
May: 4,372 pages
June: 4,769
July: 3,741
August: 4,947 pages
September: 4,732 pages
October: 3,605 pages
November: 4,193 pages

January: Garnet


The name of the heroine is Garnet, and like me she was born in January, hence her name. One of my first historical fiction reads.

Unter Katzenfreunden by Axel Scheffler and Frantz Wittkamp
Carlo und Cleopatra : erste Begegnung by Victoria and Zaeri Mehrdad
Alles ganz wunderbar weihnachtlich by Kirsten Boie AlphaKIT
Shakespeare Katzen by Susan Herbert
Eisvögel by Karel Nový RandomKIT
Den Titel hab ich leider vergessen ... aber es ist blau by Monika Reitprecht
Die weiße Iris by Fabcaro and Didier Conrad
Yukon Ho! by Bill Watterson AlphaKIT
Little Novels by Wilkie Collins CalendarCAT, Bingo: personal name in the title
Flash for Freedom! by George MacDonald Fraser CalendarCAT, Bingo: three-word title
Atemschaukel by Herta Müller PrizeCAT, AlphaKIT, Lists
Sommerfreuden by Herman Bang CalendarCAT
After dark by Wilkie Collins CalendarCAT, AlphaKIT, Bingo: paper-based item
Flashman and the Redskins by George M. Fraser HistoryCAT, Historical Fiction, Bingo: read a CAT
Miss Marple – The Complete Short Stories by Agatha Christie AlphaKIT, MysteryKIT, Bingo: short story collection
Eldest by Christopher Paolini SFF KIT, Bingo: mercenaries or warriors
Der große Ausverkauf by Vicki Baum CalendarCAT, AlphaKIT, Bingo: fewer than 100 copies on LT, lists
Stalking the angel by Robert Crais AlphaKIT, Bingo: set in a city

February: Amethyst



The ancients apparently believed that the stone could protect against drunkenness, hence its name. While this particular myth is not referred to in this book, this was my introduction to the ancient Greeks when I was a kid: Die schönsten Sagen des klassischen Altertums. I loved the complicated names!

The woman in white by Wilkie Collins HistoryCAT, RandomKIT
Nina Balatka by Anthony Trollope CalendarCAT
Geschichte Tschechiens by Joachim Bahlcke
Das Feuerschiff by Siegfried Lenz RandomKIT, AlphaKIT, Bingo: features water
Die Purpurlinie by Wolfram Fleischhauer AlphaKIT, MysteryKIT
Katzenberge by Sabrina Janesch PrizeCAT, RandomKIT
Emil und die drei Zwillinge by Erich Kästner CalendarCat, AlphaKIT, Bingo: about friendship
Der kleine Mann by Erich Kästner CalendarCAT, AlphaKit, Bingo: the word little in the title
Meisternovellen by Stefan Zweig CalendarCAT, AlphaKIT
La femme de trente ans by Honoré de Balzac AlphaKIT

March: Aquamarine



Aquamarine is Latin for seawater, and seafaring tales are among my favourites. Nevertheless, I've chosen something else because it has a lovely picture of the Mediterranean on the cover.

Die rätselhaften Honjin-Morde by Seishi Yokomizo AlphaKIT, Bingo: current bestseller
After the ice by Steven Mithen HistoryCAT
Goethes Leichen by Paul Kohl DNF
Die Reise unserer Gene by Johannes Krause and Thomas Trappe HistoryCAT, AlphaKIT
Schönbrunner Finale by Gerhard Loibelsberger MysteryKIT, historical fiction
Watership Down by Richard Adams CalendarCAT, PrizeCAT, RandomKIT, AlphaKIT
Am Weg by Herman Bang AlphaKIT
Guy Mannering by Walter Scott February HistoryCAT
Die Henkerstochter by Oliver Pötzsch

April: Diamond



The title translates as "Diamond girl" and it's still on my TBR.

My Lady's Money by Wilkie Collins
Le rêve by Émile Zola CalendarCAT
La disparue du Père-Lachaise by Claude Izner MysteryKIT
L. A. Requiem by Robert Crais MysteryKIT
Watery Grave by Bruce Alexander CalendarCAT, HistoryCAT, MysteryKIT, Historical FictionKIT
Der letzte Satz by Robert Seethaler Bingo: similar library
Post Captain by Patrick O'Brian AlphaKIT, Historical FictionKIT, Bingo: re-read a favourite
L'ombre du Vétéran by Jean Failler AlphaKIT, Historical FictionKIT
Rapscallion by James McGee MysteryKIT, HistoryCAT, Historical Fiction: favourite period
Les adieux à la Reine by Chantal Thomas HistoryCAT, PrizeCAT, Historical Fiction: real event
Undine und andere Erzählungen by Friedrich de La Motte-Fouqué AlphaKIT
Der grüne Fürst by Heinz Ohff AlphaKIT, RandomKIT
The two destinies by Wilkie Collins DNF

May: Emerald



The heroine in Hugo's classic Notre Dame de Paris is named Esmeralda, which is Spanish for emerald.

Merlin's Keep by Madeleine Brent Historical Fiction: has a speculative element, Bingo: set in multiple countries
La place des bonnes by Anne Martin-Fugier CalendarCAT, AlphaKIT
Mörder mögen keine Matjes by Krischan Koch CalendarCAT, Bingo: food or cooking
Louis by Tom Lichtenheld
Johanna im Zug by Kathrin Schärer RandomKIT
Das Duell der Großmütter by Hannes Wirlinger
Die Erlebnisse des Polizeiagenten Schipow bei der Verfolgung des Schriftstellers Tolstoj by Bulat Okudschawa CalendarCAT, Bingo: epistolary
Mord in der Josefstadt by Milos Urban DNF
Les empires normands d'Orient by Pierre Aubé HistoryCAT, AlphaKIT
Murder Underground by Mavis Doriel Hay MysteryKIT
The curios incident of the dog in the night-time by Mark Haddon PrizeCAT, AlphaKIT, lists
Wolfszeit by Harald Jähner CalendarCAT
A practical guide to conquering the world by KJ Parker AlphaKIT
L'énigme des Blancs-Manteaux by Jean-François Parot AlphaKIT, Historical Fiction
Aller Tage Abend by Jenny Erpenbeck PrizeCAT
Versailles Château de la France et orgueil des rois by Claire Constans RandomKIT
32335444::Amrum by Hark Bohm and Philipp Winkler CalendarCAT, Bingo: author older than 65
Die Zauberin von Ravenna by Klaus Herrmann DNF

June: Pearl



The name Margaret/Marguerite is said to mean "pearl", so this month features the most famous book of Marguerite Yourcenar.

Das Geheimnis der Porzellanmalerin by Birgit Jasmund AlphaKIT, RandomKIT, Historical fiction: my own country
Babel by Kenah Cusanit HistoryCAT, AlphaKIT, Bingo: specific knowledge
Im Lande Ur by Hans Baumann HistoryCAT, AlphaKIT
Das Geheimnis von Salem by Birgit Rückert AlphaKIT, RandomKIT, MysteryKIT, historical fiction: a real person
Kaisergestalten des Mittelalters May HistoryCAT
Der arme Awrosimow by Bulat Okudschawa AlphaKIT, RandomKIT, Bingo: ugly cover, HF: a period you know little about
Meurtre dans le boudoir by Frédéric Lenormand AlphaKIT, MysteryKIT
The handmaid's tale by Margaret Atwood PrizeCAT
Von Gibbon zu Rostovtzeff by Karl Christ HistoryCAT, Bingo: only title and author on the cover
Verwandlung am Bodensee by Alberta Rommel AlphaKIT
Der Zwölfte by Gertrud von Brockdorff CalendarCAT, AlphaKIT, RandomKIT
Das Haus am Gordon Place by Karina Urbach HistoryCAT, Bingo: published in -24
Das Buch Alice by Karina Urbach HistoryCAT, AlphaKIT
In tiefen Schluchten by Anne Chaplet MysteryKIT
Alexander in Babylon by Jakob Wassermann AlphaKIT, Historical fiction: a real person

July: Ruby



"Karfunkel" is an ancient name for red jewels, from the time when people couldn't distinguish clearly between rubies, garnets and spinells. Die Frau mit den Karfunkelsteinen is a nicely trashy 19th century romance.

Der Thronfolger by Ludwig Winder June CalendarCAT
Geschichte der Spätantike by Alexander Demandt AlphaKIT
À bicyclette by Su Tong AlphaKIT
La conquête de Plassans by Émile Zola CalendarCAT, RandomKIT, Yearlong AlphaKIT
Das Mangobaumwunder by Leo Perutz and Paul Frank RandomKIT
Spy's Honour by Gavin Lyall CalendarCAT, AlphaKIT
Kriegsausbruch by Sönke Neitzel AlphaKIT
Wie unsere Märchen weitergehn by Frida Schanz
Wir sind Tiger by Edward van de Vendel
Ein Buch allein im Wald by Nathalie Wyss
Ich bin Flocke – Alle Hufe voll zu tun by Maren Dammann
Das doppelte Lottchen by Erich Kästner CaldendarCAT, RandomKIT, Bingo: twins
Le carrefour des Écrasés by Claude Izner CalendarCAT, RandomKIT, MysteryKIT, AlphaKIT
When we were orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro PrizeCAT, AlphaKIT, Bingo: PoC

August: Peridot/Olivin



Olivin is the name under which I first saw this stone in a shop on Tenerife, and yes, I bought a matching pendant and earring set. I also bought quite a few books in Spanish on the island over the years, and La Galatea is one of the oldest.

Mord im Auwald by Beate Maly AlphaKIT, MysteryKIT
Ich war den Hunnen untertan by Géza Gárdonyi HistoryCAT, CalendarCAT, AlphaKIT, historical fiction
Fräulein Schläpples fabelhafte Steuererklärung by Catrin Barnsteiner RandomKIT
Lost in Fuseta by Gil Ribeiro PrizeCAT, AlphaKIT
Schlechte Karten für den Barista by Marco Malvaldi MysteryKIT, AlphaKIT
Alter schützt vor Morden nicht by Helene Tursten CalendarCAT, AlphaKIT
Wiener Totenlieder by Theresa Prammer PrizeCAT
Tod in Baden by Beate Maly MysteryKIT, AlphaKIT
Tod vor dem Steffl by Albert Frank RandomKIT
84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
The Hollow Hills by Mary Stewart AlphaKIT
Toine by Guy de Maupassant CalendarCAT, AlphaKIT
Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin CalendarCAT, AlphaKIT
Die Geschichte der Normannen by Rudolf Simek AlphaKIT
Die rote Frau by Alex Beer CalendarCAT, Bingo
Mord auf der Trabrennbahn by Beate Maly MysteryKIT, AlphaKIT
Schneesterben by Anne Chaplet PrizeCAT
Nacht über dem Bodensee by Christian Schlindwein MysteryKIT
Ginger by Charlotte Voake

September: Sapphire



The dragon's name is Saphira.

Was macht die kleine Gans im Herbst? by Elli Woollard
Kurt – Ein held, Einhorn, ein Gartenzwerg by Chantal Schreiber Bingo: friendship
Drei Wasserschweine brennen durch by Matthäus Bär Bingo: published in 2024
Marianne und andere Erzählungen by Frank Wedekind
Der Morgen eines Gutsbesitzers by Leo N. Tolstoi
Ich bin Flocke : Zu viel Talent, zu wenig Möhren! by Maren Dammann
Lucy by the sea by Elizabeth Strout Bingo
Der dunkle Bote by Alex Beer MysteryKIT
Crusoe's Daughter by Jane Gardam AlphaKIT, Bingo: paper-based item
Königin Caroline Mathilde von Dänemark by Carolin Philipps AlphaKIT
Polt. by Alfred Komarek
Der Tote im Schnitzelparadies by Joe Fischler
Der Zopf meiner Großmutter by Alina Bronsky CalendarCAT, AlphaKIT
Stoffel fliegt übers Meer by Erika Mann CalendarCAT
Schlump by Hans Herbert Grimm HistoryCAT, Bingo: warriors
The Wars by Timothy Findley HistoryCAT, PrizeCAT
Last Friends by Jane Gardam Bingo: set in multiple countries
Schnee in Venedig by Nicolas Remin RandomKIT, AlphaKIT, MysteryKIT, Historical Fiction, Bingo: re-read
Le pont de la rivière Kwai by Pierre Boulle HistoryCAT
Basil by Wilkie Collins CalendarCAT, AlphaKIT, Bingo: hideous cover
Venezianische Verlobung by Nicolas Remin MysteryKIT, AlphaKIT, RandomKIT

October: Tourmaline



Tourmalines are among my favorite jewels, and they are usually bichromatic, showing dark green and pink. So for this I have chosen a bilingual book, which has a few Russian fairy tales in both Russian and German.

Steckerlfischfiasko by Rita Falk MysteryKIT
Mord in der Wiener Werkstätte by Beate Maly MysteryKIT
Die weiße Stunde by Alex Beer
Das Kongo Komplott by Ernst-Georg Richter
Carsten Curator by Theodor Storm AlphaKIT
Renate by Theodor Storm AlphaKIT
Maigret et le corps sans tête by Georges Simenon AlphaKIT, MysteryKIT
Classic Ghost Stories RandomKIT, Bingo: short story collection
Cinco días de octubre by Jordi Sierra i Fabra CalendarCAT, HistoryCAT, AlphaKIT
Das alte Rußland by Sigismund von Herberstein
Aurelia und die letzte Fahrt by Beate Maly
Ein Lied von Sein und Schein by Cees Nooteboom
Ayala’s Angel by Anthony Trollope AlphaKIT

November: Citrine



Citrines come in wonderful shades of yellow, gold and brown, and I own a ring with a citrine made by a small Italian jewelry outfit whose design was inspired by the Duomo in Florence.

Geschichten vom Hanselmann by Eleonore Berger
Bruno : Der Junge mit den grünen Haaren by Ben Becker
Der Bojenmann by Kester Schlenz and Jan Jepsen MysteryKIT
Winter, Weihrauch, Wasserleiche AlphaKIT, Bingo: three-word title
Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones PrizeCAT, AlphaKIT
The Roman Empire and the Indian Ocean by Raoul McLaughlin HistoryCAT, Bingo: featuring water
The strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde; The Merry Men and other tales by RL Stevenson CalendarCAT, AlphaKIT, RandomKIT
Moskau : Von der Siedlung im Wald zur Kapitale einer Weltmacht by Heddy-Pross-Werth AlphaKIT
Das Dorf. Suchodol by Iwan Bunin CalendarCAT
Bracelet of Bones by Kevin Crossley-Holland PrizeCAT
Meine Kinderjahre by Theodor Fontane RandomKIT, Bingo: author 65 or older
Two for the lions by Lindsey Davis HistoryCAT, RandomKIT, AlphaKIT, Bingo: specific knowledge
La parure byzantine by Elena Arseneva
Der Abituriententag by Franz Werfel AlphaKIT
Life among the Savages by Shirley Jackson AlphaKIT, RandomKIT, Bingo: similar library
Saxnot stirbt nie by Robert Gordian RandomKIT, Bingo: epistolary

December: Turquoise



Okay, this is a bit far-fetched, but turquoise proved difficult. However, Samarcande is famous for its many mosques wth bright, turquoise tiles on their walls and roofs. So there.

So late in the day by Claire Keegan PrizeCAT, AlphaKIT
Letzte Ernte by Tom Hillenbrand MysteryKIT, Bingo: twins
Der Kampf um Freiheit by Arnulf Krause AlphaKIT
Kaiser, Kraut und Kiberer by Gerhard Loibelsberger AlphaKIT, MysteryKIT, Bingo: food
Romola by George Eliot HistoryCAT, Historical fiction
Quallenplage by Susanne Bergstedt AlphaKIT
Weihnachtsgeschichten by Stijn Streuvels CalendarCAT
Die Vegetarierin by Han Kang CalendarCAT, PrizeCAT, RandomKIT, Bingo: bestseller
Snow Flower and the secret fan by Lisa See RandomKIT, Bingo: different cultural perspective
Little Lord Fauntleroy by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Bingo Dog



1: Die Vegetarierin by Han Kang
2: Letzte Ernte by Tom Hillenbrand
3: Schlump by Hans Herbert Grimm
4: Schnee in Venedig by Nicolas Remin
5: Mord auf der Trabrennbahn by Beate Maly
6: Classic Ghost Stories
7: Kaiser, Kraut und Kiberer by Gerhard Loibelsberger
8: Winter, Weihrauch, Wasserleiche
9: Two for the lions by Lindsey Davis
10: Die rote Frau by Alex Beer
12: Meine Kinderjahre by Theodor Fontane
13: The Wars by Timothy Findley
14: Lucy by the sea by Elizabeth Strout
15: Saxnot stirbt nie by Robert Gordian
16: The Roman Empire and the Indian Ocean by Raoul McLaughlin
17: Basil by Wilkie Collins
18: Little Lord Fauntleroy by Frances Hodgson Burnett
19: Snow Flower and the secret fan by Lisa See
20: Kurt – Ein Held, Einhorn, ein Gartenzwerg by Chantal Schreiber
21: Life among the Savages by Shirley Jackson
22: Last Friends by Jane Gardam
24: Drei Wasserschweine brennen durch by Matthäus Bär
25: Crusoe's Daughter by Jane Gardam

Birgit's lists

I looked at the Popsugar Challenge for 2024 and found it geared too much to younger readers and social media, which I don't follow, so I've decided to read from the various lists that I maintain on my spreadsheet. These are the notorious 1001 BYMRBYD list, another of 100 German novels compiled by Deutsche Welle, ZEIT newspaper presented a new list just in time for Christmas (they had a similar project in the 1980s), and a long time ago Rowohlt publishers also offered a list of 100 novels from the century. I'm not sure how far I'll get with this, but it's worth a try.
ETA Because some books appear on several lists, I need to rearrange mine here, or there will be too many duplicate touchstones. So now it's:

Atemschaukel by Herta Müller Deutsche welle 100
Der große Ausverkauf by Vicki Baum German authors in exile published by Querido
Der Amokläufer by Stefan Zweig 1001 BYMRBYD
Schachnovelle by Stefan Zweig 1001 B
The curious incident of the dog in the night-time by Mark Haddon 1001 B, Guardian
The handmaid's tale by Margaret Atwood 1001 B, Guardian, ZEIT 100
The Wars by Timothy Findley 1001B
Die Vegetarierin by Han Kang ZEIT 100

Just in case

If anything else pops up ... which is the bicentenary of the birth of Wilkie Collins. I think I'll do a major re-read of his works, as he is one of my favourite authors.

1. Little Novels
2. After dark
3. My Lady's Money
4. The two destinies DNF
5. Basil

Welcome to my new digs! I can't believe it's August half gone already, but it has been an enjoyable year so far. I probably won't read many books during my vacation, but it will be autumn when we get back. Short days, long nights, many books... Which is why I'll be trying my hand at a second Bingo card. Fool that I am.

CalendarCAT / Bingo: set in a city

I returned to one of my favourite cities, Vienna, with Die rote Frau, second of the mysteries featuring Inspector August Emmerich. It's March 1920, and the city is still suffering from the war's aftermath. It is bleak and dark, and as such forms an interesting contrast with the Ernestine Kirsch series. Those books are set a few years later, and there is much brightness and hope for the future in them. The main characters walk the same streets, but they see them very differently.

ETA: The August Emmerich series will also work for next month's MysteryKIT. Emmerich is very much from the bottom of the social ladder, a foundling orphan. His assistant is an aristocrat recently stripped of his title by a law of the new Austrian Republic. So I'm saving the next one in the series for September.

I went book-browsing yesterday, and it seems that Golden Age mystery authors aren't the only ones attracting new readers. They had the top ten current bestseller list for mysteries on display, and the number one slot is taken by a brand new translation of The fools in town are on our side. Well, that takes me back quite a few decades!
Not to mention Eric Ambler, there were some in new edition by Penguin with very stylish covers. I feel sorely tempted to replace my tattered secondhands, and re-read them. After the holiday.

Happy new thread! I hope you have a wonderful holiday, Birgit.

Enjoy your holiday, Birgit and good luck with your second Bingo card.

I did two bingo cards for a couple of years--have fun with the second one! And have a great vacation.

Happy new thread, Birgit! And have a wonderful vacation.

Hi there, happy new thread and happy vacation!

Happy new thread. Good luck on the new bingo card!

Happy new thread.

>21 Jackie_K: >22 DeltaQueen50: >23 NinieB: >24 VivienneR: >25 LadyoftheLodge: >26 hailelib: >27 lowelibrary: Thank you, ladies! The suitcase is packed, tickets are ready, house is cleaned. I am ready to go as soon as I have posted my last reads.

MysteryKIT: amateurs / AlphaKIT: M / Bingo: less than 100 copies on LT

To calm my nerves, I went for a quick and easy read: Mord auf der Trabrennbahn is the next adventure of retired teacher Ernestine Kirsch. She and her landlord meet a suspect from the last case in a garden café and he offers them tickets for the harness racing track, and when they attend, one of the jockeys has an accident and all races are cancelled. Maybe it wasn't an accident?
The private life of Ernestine, her friend and landlord, and his family evolve as the years go by, so reading them in chronological order is helpful. This time we learn about the harrowing fate of unmarried mothers during the monarchy, which is important for the motive, and the book isn't as cosy as the previous instalments.

PrizeCAT: genre prizes

Schneesterben by Anne Chaplet won the German Mystery Award (Deutscher Krimipreis) in 2004. I don't follow that, I was just looking at the book in consideration for next month's AlphaKIT, and when I noticed the prize was mentioned on the cover, I started it. And finished it in one sitting.
We are in a small village in Hesse, near Frankfurt, and see village life through the eyes of an outsider, Paul Bremer. He's been living there quite some time now, but still doesn't really count as one of them. The women are in uproar, because one of them has lost her son to an unexpected allergic reaction during a small operation, and everyone blames the doctor, whose wife has a holiday home in the village. And then, when the heavy snows melt, a male body is found nearby in the woods and the doctor's wife admits she ran him over with her car. During the trial, the doctor says he killed him...
This is a very slow burning case, as the author gradually unfolds what has happened. The roots of the crime go far back into the past, and the district attorney for the case takes a long time to track it down in the files. She's a friend of Bremer, and sometimes their paths cross again, but they do not actively cooperate in this. In that respect it is very realistic, and the depiction of life in a close-knit community is anything but sentimental.

Well, and that's probably my last book in August. A good one, one to think about. It's been a murderous month, but with half my mind on travelling I didn't have the concentration for serious stuff.
I'll be offline for two weeks, see you all again in September. Enjoy what's left of summer!

Have a great time!

Happy New Thread! Have a good trip!

>17 MissWatson: I'm hoping to get to No Name before the end of the year...how did you like it?

Have a lovely holiday!

>32 rabbitprincess: >34 dudes22: Thank you, we had lots of fun!
>37 kac522: Thanks, Kathy. I liked No Name, but it was a long time ago and my memory has dulled. It's due for a re-read...

August MysteryKIT: amateurs

I am back, safe and sound, and to my surprise I even managed to read a book during my holiday! I found Nacht über dem Bodensee at a newsagent's, second-hand, and picked it up because it is set in Überlingen, a town we usually visit during our Lake Constance holidays (there's a great bookshop!). And it was actually quite good, well-written and fun to read, about a young woman who moves to Überlingen to take the job as head archivist of the municipal archives. Her predecessor is still on the job to teach her the ropes, and when gruesome murders happen, they track down a manuscript from the the 17th century that seems to deal with similar deaths. Lots of local history, and I could walk around the city looking at the houses mentioned in the book.

And we also went to Lindau, my sister went shopping for fabrics, and in the bookshop next door I read a picture book: Ginger, with lovely illustrations.

Welcome back!

>40 MissBrangwen: Thanks, Mirjam! The journey back was no fun, Deutsche Bahn provided another catastrophe in the form of a huge fire near Elmshorn, and I had to return to Kiel via Lübeck...

>41 MissWatson: Oh no!!! The most crazy things have been happening in our area, too, especially this week. I am glad you're back now.

Bingo

I bought more books than is healthy during my vacation, and spent a few days at my sister's place on return, where I managed to read a few books she acquired for her library. Plus two short volumes from her shelves.
Was macht die kleine Gans im Herbst? is a lovely picture book about life in the woods. Kurt – Ein Held, Einhorn, ein Gartenzwerg is next in a series about a unicorn who is a very unwilling magical unicorn. In this one he is reunited with his parents. Friendship plays an important role in these books, so I am using it for the Bingo square. Drei Wasserschweine brennen durch is about three capybaras who live in a zoo and wonder what the world looks like beyond the fence of their enclosure. This was brandnew, and therefore also fills a Bingo square.
Marianne und andere Erzählungen is a collection of short stories by Frank Wedekind, almost all in a rural setting. I didn't really know that he wrote prose, I only knew him as an author of plays, but on the strength of this I'll be looking for more.
Der Morgen eines Gutsbesitzers is a fragment of a novel which Tolstoi never finished, and it confirms me again in my belief that he is not an author for me. The translator provides an afterword which says that this is very much autobiographical, and it explains a lot to me.

ETA: I forgot to list the book I read on the day I returned home: Ich bin Flocke: Zu viel Talent, zu wenig Möhren!. A children's book about a Shetland pony who is anything but shy and retiring. The illustrations are the best thing about it.

Bingo: a person's name in the title

Lucy by the sea was a gift from a colleague when I retired. We both had read positive reviews, but I find it didn't wow me as much as I thought it would.

MysteryKIT: upstairs, downstairs

Der dunkle Bote is August Emmerich's third case in 1920s Vienna. He's very much a proletarian, his junior partner an impoverished aristocrat, and the case is dark. Some gruesome murders are committed, and we learn much about the desperate lives of ordinary people starving in post-War Vienna.

LT was acting up every time I tried to update my lists, but now I have finally recorded everything and visited the threads. And the heatwave has broken! Which is a very welcome thing. We had six successive days of more than 30°C days, in September, which is not normal. Lots of hot weather on Lake Constance, too, but there, and in August, you expect it.
We did got to the exhibition about Reichenau Abbey, and it was sumptuous. We spent most of our time in favourite places (Meersburg! Lindau!), but we also explored some new sites. The most impressive was Weingarten, which has a huge Baroque church. Of course, like almost everything else, it's under repair.

>46 MissWatson: Your visits sound wonderful!

>46 MissWatson: It sounds like you had a great trip! I had not heard of Weingarten and googled it, the church looks spectacular! I hope you were able to see something of it despite the repairs.

>47 Tess_W: It was, and there's also the gorgeous food...
>48 MissBrangwen: Some of the chapels were closed off, but it was still very impressive. It looks a bit oversized for such a comparatively small town, but many of the adjoining buildings are used by the university now. I was also surprised to learn that the Welfen have a burial vault there, I always associated them with Northern Germany. Need to read up on this...

AlphaKIT: C / Bingo: paper-based item in plot

When I started Crusoe's Daughter, I kept thinking how very English this book is, with its tiny heroine sent off to live in a lonely house by the sea with her two spinster aunts. Village life, a beautiful, lonely landscape, isolation.
And then it went off in a quite unexpected direction, when Polly Flint develops a passion for Robinson Crusoe, the book and mabye the man, too. The years go by, wars come and go, the country changes, and Polly is still there...such a quiet life, and yet so much in it.

>50 MissWatson: I loved the Old Filth trilogy but have never read anything else by Gardam. Thanks for the reminder, I've put her on my authors to read list for next year.

>51 clue: I have got the third book of the trilogy lined up, and I hope I can also squeeze in A long way from Verona. I really like her writing style, and her characters fascinate me.

AlphaKIT: C

Königin Caroline Mathilde von Dänemark was a short biography of the young Queen of Denmark and her notorious affair with her husband's doctor, Friedrich Struensee. Here the focus is on the young girl, married at fifteen, and Struensee comes off rather badly in this (I have read some fiction about this before, where he was treated much more indulgently). Little is known about her youth, and the letters to her family she wrote from Copenhagen are lost, but those from her retreat in Celle remain, and it seems that she was quite a remarkable woman for her time. Well read, too, with Swift, Defoe and others in her library.
The book is well researched, but unfortunately sloppily written, as if she had been running out of time. However, now I think Celle would be worth a visit...

ETC

>53 MissWatson: Something about your review sounded vaguely familiar so I went browsing my shelves, even did a bit of dusting! I came across a 50+ year old book, Caroline Matilda, Queen of Denmark by Hester Chapman. I have pulled it out and dusted it off and have tentatively promised myself to read it this calendar year. I have no idea where or when I purchased this biography. It must have been dirt cheap as it has yellowed pages. Sounds interesting!

>54 Tess_W: The author of my biography mentions the name several times and lists this as one of her sources. She also thinks Chapman didn't give the queen enough credit for her spirit and education. Maybe she didn't have all the sources at hand fifty years ago...

I stood in front of my shelves and told myself that I need to get serious about reducing the number of unread books. So I picked a few short ones, hoping for quick reads, and mysteries are a good bet for this.

As it turned out, Polt. is the final book in a five-book series, not an ideal starting position. It is set in the Austrian Weinviertel, a wine-growing region on the border to the Czech Republic, and it doesn't get more rural than that. But even here murders happen, and former policeman Simon Polt gets reluctantly involved. The writing is seductive, the pace slow and full of details about wine-growing and -making. So instead of clearing this off the shelf, I'll go looking for the first ones.

Der Tote im Schnitzelparadies, on the other hand, I will let go happily. This is the first in the series, and I think the author has read too much Wolf Haas. His own attempt at humorous writing doesn't really succeed, and poor old Arno is a bit of an idiot. My first encounter with him was in a later book where his mother played an important role, that was much funnier (and also worked better as an audiobook). There's one more on the shelves, and I'll give it a try, but don't expect much.

ETC

>56 MissWatson: I've become aware that I have a larger number of books on my shelf than I thought I did that are later books in a series. Most are from series I haven't even started and were picked up at a book sale or charity shop. I've decided the best thing to do is free up the space if I can readily get them when I need them. Understand that I haven't actually done this but I have thought about it. People that love to read tend to drink from the same cup don't we?

>57 clue: Indeed, we do. I am thinking about removing books that should be available from a public library, but these days they throw out older series when they are no longer in demand, so that's not entirely without risk.

CalendarCAT / AlphaKIT: Z

In my endeavour to clear the shelves, I took down Der Zopf meiner Großmutter in honour of my grandmothers who were both born on 23 September (several years apart, though). And neither of them was quite such a battleaxe as Margarita Ivanovna, who took her husband and small grandson from the crumbling Soviet Union to Germany. Her grandson relates growing up with her, from a small boy to a teenager, with a sharp, but understanding eye for her character. She is ferocious and prejudiced in many ways, but as Max grows older there is more understanding of the difficult family situation.
I bought this from the remainders bins as a damaged copy, so it's going into the recycling bin.

CalendarCAT

There are posters all over the city announcing special events for World Children's Day on 21 September (observed in Germany on this day), which is why I read Stoffel fliegt übers Meer by Erika (daughter of Thomas) Mann. This was a lucky find at the charity shop, a beautifully made hardcover with all the original illustrations, and it also has a very instructive afterword. Erika's first readers for this adventure story were her own younger siblings, and she carried on a tradition of her father and uncle, who also wrote books for their younger siblings.
It is a truly exciting tale, first published in 1932, about a young boy who stows away on an airship to go to America and find his rich uncle. The word Lake Constance isn't mentioned, but I was instantly reminded of it because that's where the Zeppelins were built, and still are.

>53 MissWatson: Despite your comments on the sloppy writing this intrigued me and I ordered it from Booklooker, although I don't know when I will get to it.

>61 MissBrangwen: Philipps is a very prolific writer, so maybe it was just lack of time. The Bomann Museum in Celle had an exhibition about Caroline Mathilde on her 250th birthday, and I plan to read the catalog (finally) now. Should make an interesting comparison.

HistoryCAT: WWI / Bingo: warriors

But first things first, we're in the second half of September already and I want to do some CATs and KITs first. For the HistoryCAT, I chose Schlump, a novel about the First World War. It was published in 1928, anonymously, and was vastly overshadowed by Remarque's success. The Nazis burned it, and it vanished from sight until it was unburied in 2014.
It's quite different from the hyper-realistic descriptions of the trenches, at times it has a fairy-tale quality. The middle section, where he is posted to the frontline, therefore hits much harder in comparison to the peaceful bits.
Volker Weidermann provides information about the author in an afterword, but I would have liked to know a few editorial details, too. I think it was transcribed automatically from Gothic type, because there are quite a few typos where s becomes f, which is a giveaway. There are also a few illustrations for which no creator is named.

HistoryCAT: WWI / PrizeCAT / Bingo: read a CAT / Lists: 1001 BYMRBYD

The Wars has won two Canadian awards, and that seems a good reason to use it for the Bingo square. It's an unusual setup, with the author describing the preparatory search in archives, as if he were writing the story of a real person. I found him very elusive, this Robert Ross, never quite grasping what made him tick. Beautifully written.

Bingo: set in multiple countries

Last Friends revisits the people we met in the first two books of her trilogy, and this time we learn about the childhood of Terry Veneering, among other things. The chapters jump between different times and characters, and it is sometimes confusing, but in the end it all comes together. All three – Edward Feathers, his wife Elisabeth, and Terry Veneering – spent times abroad, and so did two people who we learn more about this time, Dulcie and Fiscal-Smith.
Every time I read the name Veneering, Dickens popped into my head. And lo and behold, that's where Terry got his name from. Sort of. A wonderful read.

ETC spelling

>65 MissWatson: Dickens was my first thought when I saw Veneering as well!

RandomKIT: weather / MysteryKIT: upstairs, downstairs / AlphaKIT: V / Bingo: re-read a favourite / Historical Fiction: a real historical figure

Schnee in Venedig is one of the few fiction books where I knew weather played a role, and I was happy to see it is quite as enchanting as I remembered it. It's February 1862 in Venice, and snow is falling as Commissario Tron tries to solve the murder of two passengers on board the steamer plying the Triest-Venice route. The military authorities commanding in Venice do their worst to stop him, but the Empress Elisabeth takes an interest and lends a hand. In return she gets to attend a masqued ball at the Palazzo Tron incognito where she can dance away the night...
We learn a lot about Venice in those days, and if you have a map beside you you can follow Tron as he walks along the narrow, snow-covered streets or boats along the canals. The descriptions of the city are very atmospheric, but there's also much about the politics of the day, with Italian unification on the horizon.

>67 MissWatson: Sounds great and (not for the first time) I wish I could read in another language.

>68 charl08: I am glad I picked it up again, it was perfect weekend reading. And yes, reading in another language often adds a new perspective.

HistoryCAT: World War II

As demonstrated in Le pont de la rivière Kwai. A few years ago I read this in German translation, which is quite formal and wooden, even if it is technically correct. This has a different, more colloquial feel. And yet I can't help thinking that it is rather odd. Why did a French writer choose to write about the building of the Burma railway, with British characters? I had the same sense of alienation as with the English translation of Barbusse's Le feu and the soldiers' slang. It feels off...
That said, the story is different from what I remember about the movie, and we never really learn about the main characters. The British soldiers are mostly ignored. The Japanese soldiers and especially the Thai irregulars supporting the British commando team remain ghosts drifting around the edges. It's strangely unsatisfactory.

This morning I tested positive for Covid, and it's a real nuisance, as I had planned a visit to my sister for Friday. For now, I'm staying home and hope the thing will pass quickly. On the upside, I'm feeling well enough to read.

>71 MissWatson: Oh no! I hope it’s mild and you have a speedy recovery!

<71 Take care, when I'm feeling poorly I'm especially grateful to be a reader.

>71 MissWatson: I hope you are feeling better soon. Be sure to get lots of rest and take care of yourself. Feeling your pain! Hubby and I had it two years ago and the fatigue was the worst part.

Take care of yourself, Birgit. Hopefully this passes quickly and you can get back to enjoying your retirement!

>72 Charon07: >73 clue: >74 LadyoftheLodge: >75 DeltaQueen50: Thank you all for your kind words and sympathy! It's not nearly as bad as when I first had it two years ago, the worst is the coughing and lack of sleep. But the cough is clearing up already, and I am hopeful it will be over next week at the latest. Not doing anything, except hold a book and a cup of tea.

How annoying. Being not so ill you can still read & drink tea is probably the best one can hope for if one has to be ill. Hope you're better soonest.

I hope it will be over quickly!
"Not doing anything, except hold a book and a cup of tea." That sounds exactly right!

I'm sorry to hear you have Covid, Birgit. I hope you can at least get some reading done. I giggled at your post above where you said you were trying to clear the shelves but read book 5 in a series and now have to get the others :-) I'm also intrigued by Crusoe's Daughter, which sounds really good.

>77 Helenliz: >78 MissBrangwen: Yes, very annoying, but at least it is clearing up rapidly. The cough is almost gone already. But I am heroically staying indoors with books and tea. It's raining, so I'm not missing much.
>79 susanj67: That happens to me more often than I like to admit, but at least these are very short books! At some time I am going to re-read The Moonstone which is the only other book I know of where Defoe's Crusoe plays such an eminent role.

CalendarCAT / AlphaKIT: C / Bingo: ugly cover

I have had Basil on my shelves for ages, and I couldn't bring myself to open it because of the hideous painting OUP chose for the cover. Everyone in it looks like a dangerous maniac. Of course, Collins was always fascinated by mental illness, but still...plus, there are no redheads in this novel. So it's a complete miss.

Ah yes, the book. It's the second novel he published and a vast improvement on the execrable Antonina. It also shows where he got his reputation as a sensationalist, and there are many of the technical aspects that make his later works such compelling reads, like the use of first-person narrative and of doubles or doppelgängers. What is sadly missing here is the understanding and compassion he brings to the female characters, the constraints imposed on their lives by Victorian morality.
The story is almost entirely told by Basil, as he tells how he fell in love with a linen-draper's daughter, married her secretly and waited one year to consummate the marriage (Margaret is only 17 when they are married) and was then cheated of his wedding night by another man whom he attacks on the spot and leaves for dead. (How's that for sensationalism?)
His Victorian contemporaries were outraged by the adultery and how he portrayed it. A modern reader is probably more annoyed with Basil and his ideas of class. There's no aristocratic title, but the family can trace their lineage back to Norman times, and his father takes an immense pride in their immaculate conduct as gentlemen. There's a scene where he takes out the illuminated family history he has commissioned, describing every member of the family, where I instantly thought of Oscar Wilde's comment on the Peerage: "it is the best thing in fiction the English have ever done". I just don't buy this holy image, but what matters here is that Basil has committed the one unforgivable sin: he has married below his station, and he is too much of a coward to confess it to his father.
The text here is the revised one Collins published in 1862, and from the notes it seems that he struck out a lot of passages denouncing Margaret's precocious sexuality. It still paints a very negative image of her, she is shown to be passionate and cruel, but Basil thinks he can tame her to the even-tempered behaviour that is expected of a lady and which his own sister personifies to perfection. That's the lasting impression that I take away from the book: the code of gentlemanly resp ladylike conduct is bad for mental health. The scenes describing the relation between Basil and his father are chilling, and the thought that the children are kept away from their parents for days or months on end when they go to school explains a lot about the emotional deficiencies that these people show. In his later books, Margaret would have been given a chance to justify herself in a diary or in letters to a friend, here she remains a blank.

I had started Vivre à Versailles after watching a documentary about the building phases in Louis XIV's time, but I am putting this on hold, because you really need a detailed map of the palace and gardens to appreciate it. As soon as I can get out and visit the library...

>80 MissWatson: Best wishes for a rapid recovery. Sorry you had to cancel your visit.

>83 pamelad: Thanks, the symptoms are mild, but I'm still positive, so train travel is off. I'm still optimistic for next week...

Today is the centenary of Czech author Jósef Škvorecký, and Jaroslav Rudiš presented his work in a big article in the FAZ last Saturday which was very interesting. I went immediately to find some of his books, but they're all out of print right now. I seriously need to get to a library soon...

>84 MissWatson: Sorry you're still positive, Birgit, but hooray for mild symptoms!

I have a hard copy of The Moonstone, which I think I will also reread. But now I'm intrigued by Basil and Antonina! One thing that annoyed me in The Woman in White was the description of Countess Fosco as "elderly" (more than once) when she was 43!

>85 MissWatson: The Engineer of Human Souls was the first of Josef Svorecky's books that I read, and I was so impressed that I sought out a lot of his others. My favourites are those narrated by Danny Smiricky, the author's alter ego. Worth the search!

>71 MissWatson: Get well soon, Birgit!

>86 susanj67: I cannot recommend Antonina, the language is preposterous. But he has created some remarkable females and unusual plots. Poor Miss Finch is another one that I didn't expect from a Victorian author. And not all of them wilted and aged so early as Countess Fosco.

>87 pamelad: Great! I think I saw that at the charity shop...

>88 Jackie_K: Thanks, Jackie. The cough can't decide if it wants to go or stay, otherwise I'm feeling pretty chirpy. And the sun is shining!

I read the dossier at the end of La fortune des Rougon and found I had forgotten so much that I considered a re-read. But as I skimmed the first chapters, most of the story came back to me, and it didn't really hold my attention, so I'm saving a re-read for a later time.
I was reminded, though, that Napoleon's coup d'état was the direct result of the 1848 uprisings, and I think I'll tackle that. After this annoying Covid episode. Right now I am reading a cosy mystery set in Venice, but even here politics rears its ugly head: Archduke Maximilian is negotiating with the Mexicans about becoming emperor of Mexico, by Napoleon's grace.

AlphaKIT: V / MysteryKIT: upstairs / RandomKIT: weather

Fog plays in important role in Venezianische Verlobung, it envelops the city and also the murder investigation that Alvise Tron has on his hand. Supporters and opponents of Maximilian's bid for an emperor's throne have gathered in Venice and play their secretive games. While back at home, the contessa wants to know when he is going to marry the super-rich principessa, so she can start renovation work on their palazzo...

ETC

>91 MissWatson: Sounds like a fascinating series--too bad it's not translated into English.

>89 MissWatson: Thanks for that recommendation, Birgit.

>90 MissWatson: There is an excellent book about that chapter in Mexican history - The Last Emperor of Mexico. I had no idea there had ever been an emperor so the whole thing amazed me.

Hooray for feeling better!

>92 NinieB: I enjoy it because I like the main character, caught between two very strong females.
>93 susanj67: I've run into this sorry chapter of Habsburg history before, but usually as rip-roaring adventure stories celebrating the plucky Juaristas. Tthat biography looks great! Thanks for the tip!

The last two tests have been negative, so I'm taking a train tomorrow and spend a few days with my sister for her birthday. All masked up, of course, better be safe than sorry.
Take care!

>95 MissWatson: Glad you are recovered! Have fun!

>95 MissWatson: Best wishes and enjoy your visit. Take care of yourself too.

Have fun with your sister.

>96 Tess_W: >97 LadyoftheLodge: >98 Helenliz: Thank you, we had such a lovely time!

MysteryKIT: Not too scary

We didn't read much while I was at my sister's, but we did listen to an audiobook while knitting: Steckerlfischfiasko. This is number 12 in a series about a village policeman in Lower Bavaria, and it wouldn't be half as much fun if you had to read it. Christian Tramitz is a perfect narrator for this, doing various local accents. It's also a bit of a guilty pleasure, because the hero, Franz Eberhofer, is such an unreconstructed male chauvinist pig. And yet...

ETC

MysteryKIT: not too scary

I just can't resist when I see the gorgeous covers for the historical mysteries written by Beate Maly. My sister had bought Mord in der Wiener Werkstätte for her library and I borrowed it for the train trip home. It's short enough to finish in that time.
As usual, her simplistic writing style irritates, and she takes the easy way out by having the murderer boast about his crime to our intrepid heroine, but the location makes up for it: Vienna in 1906. Lili lives in one of the many slums and stumbles by accident on a job as cleaning woman for an arts and crafts workshop, where women print fabrics and do other, "lesser" artistic jobs for the Wiener Werkstätte of Koloman Moser and Josef Hoffmann. One of these women is murdered, and Lili gets involved. She is a talented artist herself and usually helps out her father who earns his drinking money by drawing fake passports.

The author was inspired to write this story by an exhibition on the women artists working for the WW, and that's another topic to read up on.

I had barely unpacked my suitcase when a letter arrived, announcing the death of my father's cousin. The memorial service was to be held at pretty short notice, so I talked to my sister and returned to her place, because from there we could drive and arrive in time. He was the last living close relation of my dad, and it was nice to see what remains of his family.

Because there was so much holiday traffic on the railway, I stayed until yesterday. And I did manage to read two books!
Die weiße Stunde is the latest in the August Emmerich series, after a hiatus of several years. It picks up where we left off after book 5, presents some gruesome murders, and ends on an unexpected cliffhanger. I do hope she will resolve this soon in a new book!
The other was a historical mystery set in Berlin in 1884, during the Conference on Western Africa: Das Kongo Komplott. A Belgian diplomat is shot on the first evening of the conference, and a police inspector who has only just arrived in the city is tasked with the investigation. The author describes in detail how our man gets from one location to the next, which became a little tedious. But the rest, especially about the division of the spoils, was quite interesting. I didn't know that the famous Henry Morgan Stanley was instrumental in securing King Leopold's share. Really need to read Adam Hochschild's book about all that...

ETC

AlphaKIT: T

Spending so much time away from home cuts into my reading time, and I may have to concentrate on short books to make up for it. First one is Carsten Curator. I am (very) slowly working my way through Theodor Storm’s novellas and find them hard going when he takes too long setting up his story. But they're full of local history, which compensates for the lack of excitement. Here we have a serious man getting married late in life to a flighty young woman, and the only son takes after her. Financial ruin ensues.

AlphaKIT: T

Next one up in the anthology of Storm’s novellas is Renate. It features a framing story, a device he uses far too frequently in my opinion, and the main story is set in the early 1700s. A Protestant pastor's son reminisces about his studies and his passion for a local farmer's daughter whom village rumour denounces as a witch. Not my cup of tea at all.

>101 MissWatson: This sounds like an interesting background to a mystery!

>103 MissWatson: >104 MissWatson: These are two of Storm's novellas I haven't read yet, but they are on my shelves.

All the train rides sound a bit stressful and I hope you have some time to relax and settle down now!

>105 MissBrangwen: Yes, I read those mysteries mostly for the history.
As for the Storm novellas, I find them so very forgettable that I can barely recall the titles. The only one that has left an impression was Der Schimmelreiter, and we read that in school! But he is a local author, so I try...

I am retired now, so I can afford to spend time on the train. And the connection to my sister's place is a good one, there are direct trains to Kassel, and from there it's only a small distance. We have made plans for the holiday weekend coming up.

AlphaKIT: T / MysteryKIT: not too scary

Maigret et le corps sans tête fully delivers on the not-too-scary front: a dismembered body is found in a canal in Paris, and while the technicians set to work, Maigret and his team ask questions in the neighbourhood. They stumble by accident into a café (looking for a phone booth, it's hard to imagine nowadays), and the lady behind the counter attracts Maigret's attention. Turns out the husband is missing, and so we have the slow-burning chase as he tries to find out what happened. Always a pleasure.

Sorry to hear about the death of your father's cousin. In Europe, is there such thing as a 2nd cousin or a first cousin once (or twice) removed?

Glad you have found some good reads!

>108 Tess_W: Thanks, Tess. We have second cousins in Germany, and we tried to figure out some connections while talking, because some of the family have remained in the area (or returned to it), and two small boys just started school who are descended from our common ancestor, my great-grandfather Anton. That was a nice discovery.

RandomKIT: ghosts / Bingo: short story collection

I found an anthology of Classic Ghost Stories, written mostly by Victorian and Edwardian authors, and it has proven a wonderfully gentle and mellow read. I knew only one previously, Gaskell’s The nurse's tale, and there was a wide range of different styles and themes. Henry James was a bit too wordy for me, and Mrs Oliphant too long-winded, but I really enjoyed the ones by AC Doyle, FM Crawford and ME Braddon.

ETA for touchstone

CalendarCAT / HistoryCAT: disasters / AlphaKIT: D

12 October is Spain's National Holiday, and is also one of the days mentioned in the title: Cinco días de octubre. It's 1948, we're in Barcelona, and the city hasn't recovered from the disaster of the Civil War, which of course nobody is allowed to call a war. The heavy cloud of the dictator hangs over everything, and former police officer Miquel Mascarell is coerced by one of his followers into searching for the grave of his nephew, killed in the first days of the conflict.
This was a rather chilling read of a nation torn in two intransigent halves.

ETC

I had started Rusalka for this month's SFF KIT, but after twenty pages I still didn't feel that I was in Russia. I can't quite put my finger on it why, and so I looked at my shelves for something about ancient Russia. I found Das alte Rußland, the first report from a Western traveller about Russia in the early modern age and a bestseller in its time.
The author, Herberstein, travelled to Moscow as an ambassador for Ferdinand I of Austria, twice, and he was curious about everything. This was a fascinating read, he observes and describes but doesn't judge, and he must have been amazingly tenacious in his questionings. He offers information about the country's history (it's unfortunate he never says who gave him all these details from old Russian chronicles, but he was probably trying to protect his sources), a description of the main towns and regions that is verifiably accurate, and showed particular interest in their religious life, at the behest of his king.
I'd like to follow this up, but my library book must be finished first, somebody else has requested it.

PrizeCAT: missed it by that much

I couldn't concentrate on my serious non-fiction and picked up Aurelia und die letzte Fahrt by Beate Maly which was on the shortlist for the Leo Perutz Prize.
It's much darker than her Ernestine Kirsch series and set in 1871. She took her inspiration for this from a real case which happened in 1909 and didn't even bother to change the names of murderer and victims. That was the first irritating thing about this book. The next is that she doesn't even try to give us a sense of the times, all her characters talk and act like 21st century people. And last of all, she either doesn't know anything about the Imperial Austrian Army or didn't want to bother her readers with details, but none of her officers is mentioned by rank, we get no idea what kind of military school the victioms and murderer graduated from etc. It feels sloppy and lazy. And the worst of all: introducing a character who is pedantic about spelling is a dangerous thing to do for an author who herself is careless about it. So, no, I won't be reading more in this series.

AlphaKIT: T

My sister had a long weekend because 1 November is a public holiday where she lives, so I caught a train and we spent some days together. I love retirement!
On the way down, I finished Ayala’s Angel by Anthony Trollope, an e-book. I took me three train rides to read it, it's one of his lesser efforts with a singularly insipid heroine and far too many repetitions of arguments and conversations.
Ein Lied von Sein und Schein, which was very short and which I read first, was a much more enjoyable book. It’s partly historical fiction, but mostly a reflection on writing and writers. A Dutch author discusses his craft with a much more practical colleague, and also reports on the stages of his current writing project – a love triangle set in Bulgaria in 1878. By degrees, the fictional story and the writer's life seem to mingle...
This is hard to describe, but it is full of thought-provoking ideas, and I wish there had been notes to explain the allusions to other Dutch authors. It's a funny coincidence that the Bulgarian episode was set in 1878, the same year that Trollope's book was published, and both mention the Russian-Turkish Wars.

And this concludes my October reading. I am surprised to see so many mysteries here, but they make easy reading when you're travelling a lot.

November MysteryKIT: noir

I managed to read two short children’s books at my sister’s: Geschichten vom Hanselmann was more than fifty years old and felt even more ancient. Bruno : Der Junge mit den grünen Haaren, on the other hand, was a very pleasant surprise, because it was written in perfect sentences (with subclauses!) and carefully selected words. I am always sceptical when celebrities start writing, in this case a famous actor, but Ben Becker knows his language. Most fiction for children reads like written for the mentally deficient. Not so here. Full marks.

And for the train ride home I borrowed Der Bojenmann, a mystery set in Hamburg and co-written by two authors who grew up there. The murders are gruesome enough to qualify as noir and are not for the faint of heart. Local colour is amply provided, and we have two grumpy old men and one slightly younger grumpy female whose ideas of the state of the world and the changing times resonated almost too closely with mine. The perpetrator has a narrow escape at the end, so I urgently need to read the next one as soon as possible. Must send an emergency request to my sister...

AlphaKIT: W / Bingo: three-word title

I picked up Winter, Weihrauch, Wasserleiche from the remainders bin because of the alliterative title. It's a collection of 24 mystery short stories (sort of an advent calendar) and the quality varies accordingly. None of the authors impressed me enough to seek out their regular work immediately, but one or two may be worth reading, should they come my way. The Swiss and Austrian tales were the most interesting because of their unfamiliar settings.

>112 MissWatson: That one sounds really good, Birgit! I'll have a hunt around for an English translation.

>117 susanj67: I think an edition with notes would be helpful to provide context. It was a bestseller in the 16th and 17th century, but I imagine translations from that period would be difficult to read.

PrizeCAT: children's books / AlphaKIT: W

Howl’s Moving Castle was an entertaining read, and I liked the way Sophie put up with her situation.

>114 MissWatson: I'm taking a BB for Ein Lied von Sein und Schein.

>115 MissWatson: I didn't know that Ben Becker had written a children's book!

>120 MissBrangwen: It was my first Nooteboom, but definitely not my last. And there's a second book about Bruno, too. My sister's trying to get that for her library, and I hope she will find it.

HistoryCAT: ancient history / Bingo: featuring water

I almost forgot to list this: The Roman Empire and the Indian Ocean, a non-fiction history of the international trade of the Romans with Africa, Arabia and Asia. One of the most-frequently cited sources here is a handbook telling an aspiring businessman how to get around the region by ship, and there's much about the sea, anchorages, harbours and prevailing winds.
This was full of surprising facts, and it's amazing how far they ventured in their ships.

CalendarCAT / AlphaKIT: L / RandomKIT

RL Stevenson was born on 13 November, so I finished a small book with some of his short stories just in time. I must have read Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde before, but didn't remember it. Somehow the lawyer, Mr Uttenden, had completely slipped my mind. The Merry Men and Olalla are both written in the first person and thus qualify for the RandomKIT. They couldn't have been more different: one is a bleak story of shipwreck on a small Scottish island during a storm, the other a love story set in sun-drenched Spain. What they have in common is the wonderful descriptions of nature. My favourite though was The treasure of Franchard where a retired country doctor in France discovers the buried hoard of a monastery. This was full of clichés about France, but fun all the same. In all, I liked this better than his novels.

AlphaKIT

I have owned Moskau : Von der Siedlung im Wald zur Kapitale einer Weltmacht since my uni days, which is almost half a century ago. This is a brief history of the city of Moscow, and offers many passages from original sources, such as chronicles, from Herberstein's book that I read in >112 MissWatson:, and later from literature. The big events take up much room, such as the big fire of 1812, but the author also provides much information that was new to me. The most surprising was from the autobiography of Alexander Herzen, who lived through the French occupation as a baby, and made his nurse tell him the story again and again. Other stories that I want to find now is one of Giljarowskij's books – the excerpt given here tells of the criminal underworld. There's also a passage about life as a tailor's apprentice, and a description of the working and living conditions in the early factories. For these alone it's worth keeping.

CalendarCAT

Iwan Bunin died on 8 November 1953, so Das Dorf. Suchodol fits the CalendarCAT. But this is not a good read for November when it’s grey and dark outside. The first of the two stories, Das Dorf, is one of the bleakest and most depressing books I remember reading, a relentless tale of misery, poverty, dirt, ignorance and brutality in a Russian village on the steppe. The life of two brothers, descended from serfs, who have at least learned to read and write; and the elder even acquires money. But neither has a family or anything positive or happy to look back on. And in "Sukhodol" he sketches the gradual decay of a landowning aristocrat’s family until the house is empty and the graves of the family forgotten.

This was a new translation based on the original version Bunin published before the Russian Revolution; he struck out many things when he revised it for a 1930s edition. Unfortunately, the page numbering for the translator’s notes didn’t match the text and she sometimes waited until a term had appeared for the third or fourth time before explaining it.

PrizeCAT: prizes for children's literature

I didn't read Bracelet of Bones expressly for the CAT, but it turns out that it was nominated for a prize, the Yoto Carnegie medal. It's the story of young Solveig who follows her father who has left his family to join Harald Hardrada in Constantinople. She finds her way to Trondheim and a crew of traders who want to go to Kiev, along the big Russian rivers, and they actually continue to Constantinople because wars with the Pechenegs make the journey back unsafe for the traders.
It's a long journey, told rather jerkily, and as there is much left unresolved I assume we meet some of the characters again in later books. I am a bit unsure about some of the author's research. Trading furs to Russia feels like shipping coals to Newcastle, especially after I have read Herberstein's detailed discussion of Russian fur exports. Okay, that was three centuries later, but still...

ETC

RandomKIT: I told it my way / Bingo: author 65 or older

Theodor Fontane was 72 when he started writing his childhood memoirs, Meine Kinderjahre, describing the years he spent in Swinemünde where his father was the pharmacist. At the time, it was a small town on the Baltic sea, tourism to seaside resorts was in its infancy, and nothing much else was going on. It's written in his usual, anecdotal, digressive way and it seems that he got much of this from his father.
I was surprised to learn in the afterword that the town was the model for Kessin in Effi Briest.

HistoryCAT: ancient history / RandomKIT: I told it my way / AlphaKIT: L / Bingo: specific knowledge

I do not claim to be a topnotch expert on Roman amphitheatres, but I have read quite a few academic books on the topic, so that's as close as I'll get (again) to this particular square.
Two for the lions is the tenth book in the Falco series, and this time our intrepid hero hopes to earn some money as an auditor for Vespasian’s Census. Together with the Chief Spy Anacrites he checks the books of lanistas who provide wild animals and gladiators for the Games. But Falco gets sidetracked by curiosity into finding out who killed the lion intended as the executioner of a mass murderer in the arena...

We learn quite a lot about the business, and I enjoyed this very much. And I loved chapter 35, where Falco runs into a dead end and informs his readers that real-life crime-solving doesn't run smoothly along a pre-designed form. The author pokes gentle fun at the conventions of the genre – and then she spoils everything at the end by doing exactly what she bemoaned a few pages earlier. A new character pops out of the woodwork, confessions rain right and left, and the reader knows who did it long before Marcus sees the light. And that final showdown in the arena – oh dear.

By some odd coincidence I finished this book on the same day that I read the Economist review of the new Gladiator film which offers some weird similarities. It tells us that the hero goes under the alias of Hanno (check), the bad guy is a black lanista (check) and there's a woman fighting in the arena (check). So my suspicious mind tells me that the scriptwriters lifted some of their ideas here. But I'm not going to see it just to look for more. The Economist review is an adroit piece of demolition, and none of the reviews I have read has had a single good thing to say about the film. Ridley Scott should have left the original well alone.

>128 MissWatson: Glad you enjoyed it. One of my 2025 goals is to get started on that series.

>129 Tess_W: Like many series, it can get repetitive if you don't space your reading. But I learned some amazing things about the ancient Romans from her.

I bought La parure byzantine in Paris earlier this year, and then the book disappeared. Well, suddenly it turned up again and because it fits for the RTT challenge I read it. It's a historical mystery set in the Kievan Rus, in 1070, to be precise, when Prince Vladimir of Rostov marries the daughter of the Anglo-Saxon King Harold, recently killed in battle. The Emperor of Byzantium sends ambassadors and a fabulous jewelry set for the bride. When a noblewoman is murdered, and the jewels stolen, Vladimir's counsellor Artem investigates.

This was quite a decent mystery, and reminded me a little of the Cadfael books. The author holds a degree in history from a Moscow university, so I assume that the historical details are correct, although she makes some concessions to her readers. Most of them are probably totally unfamiliar with the country and the language, so she keeps names simple, repeats ranks to remind readers who these people are, and describes customs that would be familiar to her characters. She slips up occasionally (no tomatoes in 1070!), and I am not quite sure about her attitude towards Normans – who are descended from the same Vikings as her Kievan princes, after all. But these are minor quibbles. This was a nice, easy read.

AlphaKIT: W

I was looking for something short, and Der Abituriententag was perfect for this. We are in Austria, and we attend a class reunion of high school graduates after 25 years. One of the men returns home and writes down in a frenzy his memories of his last years at the school and the bullying they inflicted on one of their classmates...

There's more to it, of course, but that would be spoiling. Suffice to say that the atmosphere of the school is vividly envoked, and it must have been rather hellish. The boys – boys only in those days – are cruel, selfish, and explore pretty much everything that is forbidden. Like all teenagers, in fact, and I was sometimes reminded of Tom Sawyer with his ebullient imagination and his obstinate egotism.

AlphaKIT: L / RandomKIT: I told it my way / Bingo: similar library

I saw at the bookstore that Shirley Jackson's books are now available in translation, and the blurb for Life among the Savages made me curious. But of course I wanted to read it in English. To my great surprise it turns out the public library has it, and so I went and borrowed it there. And I finished it in one day. The language is wonderful, this is one of the best reads of the year. I loved her voice, as she describes her family life, and there is so much to recognise in the family dynamics and the little oddities of children. Simply great.
Ah yes, and LT tells me that our TessW also has it in her library.

ETA

RandomKIT: I told it my way / Bingo: epistolary

My last book in November was Saxnot stirbt nie, a short historical mystery set in the times of Charlemagne. Monk Lupus and nobleman Odo are sent to recently conquered Saxony to act as king's justices, and Lupus reports their first case to a cousin in a letter.
This was better than I expected, there are no glaring mistakes, and no forensics or reliance on physical clues. The truth comes out in talking to people and uncovering their lies.

ETA

November roundup

And suddenly we’re in December and Christmas is around the corner. Where did this year go?

The standout book of my November reading was Life among the Savages, I am so happy to have found this author. The rest was fair to middling, although RL Stevenson fell short of expectations.

I have a few books for December CATs and KITs lined up, and then I need to do some work on next year’s challenge. Urgently. Otherwise the New Year will be here and catch me without a thread. Can’t have that.

PrizeCAT: a prize of your choice / AlphaKIT: K

I also found So late in the day at the library, a short story by Claire Keegan wich is an exquisite literary gem. The author has been awarded the Siegfrioed Lenz Prize in May, and I can't wait to lay my hands on another book by her.

>133 MissWatson: In 2011 I read We Have Always Lived in the Castle and liked it so much that I read every Shirley Jackson book I could find, including Life Among the Savages. Very entertaining and quite a different tone from her eerie domestic horror stories.

>137 pamelad: I swore I wouldn't buy any more books, but I am already caving in. Or maybe I should ask for it as a Christmas present...

RandomKIT: fill a BingoDOG square / MysteryKIT: culinary mysteries / Bingo: features twins

Letzte Ernte is the third in a series about a former chef who now runs a small restaurant in Luxemburg. The twin appears late in the day and to say more would be spoiling, but unless I run across a book where twins are more prominent, this will have to do.
The mysteries about Xavier Kieffer aren’t cosy mysteries, the author always tackles a serious topic of the food industry. Here it is how three giant corporations dominate the market for international commodities trading, thus manipulating and dictating prices for food all over the world. It's also about high-frequency trading and sheer speculation, and there are some very nasty people involved. In a subplot, Xavier also runs into a former colleague who now runs a TV cooking show that is in trouble, and if I watched more of these shows I could probably identify the TV celebrities who provided inspiration for this colleague and the rest of his competitors.

I had planned to read this for the RandomKIT, but then the twins showed up and I changed my mind. I still have more of the series, so maybe next week.
ETA: silly me. The RandomKIT prompt was to fill any BingoDOG square, so it counts.

>139 MissWatson: This sounds like something I would like! Is there an English translation for this book? My German language skills are not nearly strong enough to read it in the original German.

>140 LadyoftheLodge: Unfortunately there is no English translation.

>133 MissWatson: LOL and she has not read it yet!

>141 MissWatson: LOL!

AlphaKIT: K

I saw Der Kampf um Freiheit at the library, and because the Napoleonic Wars are a favourite period of mine, I picked it up. It's a non-fiction history book about the period in Germany, and it is not so much concerned with the military aspects of Napoleon’s campaigns and the various alliances against him, but of how French occupation fired the desire for unification. There is much social and especially intellectual history here, which wasn’t really part of the curriculum back in my school days. What I found most surprising is how many writers of the Romantic period were eyewitnesses of the wars, and it sets me wondering how much the horrors of the battlefields, such as that of Leipzig, found their way into the works of writers like ETA Hoffmann.

This would have been a four or even five star read if it hadn't been for two serious faults: he cites extensively from prolific writers but gives no notes, so if you wanted to look up the context in which some of these comments have been made, you’re in for hard work. The other annoying thing are the many typos, as if there had been no editor looking over the text.

AlphaKIT: K / MysteryKIT: culinary / Bingo: food or cooking

I needed a break from Romola and George Eliot’s extremely long-winded and convoluted sentences, and I picked up a collection of short stories featuring Inspector Nechyba in Habsburg Vienna: Kaiser, Kraut und Kiberer. He loves to cook and to eat, and he is married to a cook, so there is lots of food in the books.
The short stories in the book were probably inspired by news items in historical newspapers and I found them very uneven, more so than the full-length novels which also have their issues (or I issues with them). The loveliest here is where Nechyba takes his wife on a belated honeymoon to Venice, paid for by a gratification from Emperor Franz Joseph.

In other news: I have taken the plunge and downloaded Gimp, so I can mess around a little with my photos. It has taken me a few days, but now they are done and I have set up my 2025 thread. You’re welcome there!
https://www.librarything.com/topic/366369#n8693684

HistoryCAT: religion / Historical fiction: a classic

The weather has been dreary these last days, so I had ample time to finish Romola, all 692 pages of it. Eliot read extensively for this, and she displays her knowledge to us in every other sentence which threatens to sink the story. In my humble opinion, the entire first book could have been cut without serious damage to the understanding of the plot. She spends chapters and chapters on detailed descriptions of two religious festivals in this first book which offer nothing to promote the story, and little to the development of her main character which to me is not Romola, but her husband Tito. Mainly because he gets most of the psychological analysis expended on his moral deterioration.
I was also unhappy with her chronology, she advances in stops and starts, lands us a few months ahead and then returns to what happened before, and there are too many instances where she tells us that Tito plays two sides against each other, but never how. The pacing is slow, the sentences endless, and I, for one, never got a real sense of how the political machine really worked, as we meet too few participants. Her interest seems too much focused on how a morally weak character gets trapped by his avoidance of unpleasant situations. Romola, on the other hand, was an interesting character, but she remains strangely passive. Savonarola is treated with judicious fairness, the reader is allowed to make up his own mind.

>147 MissWatson: Oh dear. Eventually I'm going to tackle this, but I am warned.

Hah!

>148 kac522: I was never tempted to quit, but it tried my patience, especially the dutiful wife doing her duty by her husband.

AlphaKIT: Q

I wanted something undemanding after that monumental classic, and Quallenplage did exactly what it was supposed to do. It is a cozy mystery set in a northern suburb of Kiel, Schilksee (where the the sailing competitions of the 1972 Olympics were held).
It stays well within the conventions of the genre, with two female friends who take up amateur sleuthing when the police declare the death of a woman found at the beach as an accident. They are rather cutely named: Telse Himmel (as in heaven) and Wanda Holle (read Hölle as in hell), and the dead woman was a good friend of Wanda. They are both widows instead of divorcees, which is rather unusual, of middle age and like their wine and cakes. Of course they get away with things that would end the career of any police officer and make the evidence uncovered this way inadmissible in court, but that’s par for the course.
The enjoyment here is in the authentic local colour (the author lives there), the relationship between the women, and the fact that the author writes rather better than is usual in this type of books. I wouldn't mind reading the next one in the series if it comes my way.
Ah yes, and the "Quallen" in the title are red jellyfish whose tentacles burn rather painfully. The body is found drifting among them, but otherwise they are not important to the plot.

ETC

CalendarCAT

I took three books to the charity bookshop and returned home with three new books. I’ll never get on top of my TBR, I’m afraid.
But at least I read one of the new books immediately, a collection of three Christmas stories by Belgian author Stijn Streuvels. The one I liked best was "Weihnachten im Niemandsland". We are three or four years after the end of WWI, and a man has returned to his farm which was completely destroyed during the fighting, as it was located in what was then No Man’s Land between the enemy trenches. He has built a cabin from the remains of dugouts and other detritus and found work in an ironworks to feed the family while they are waiting for compensation money from the Belgian state. This was a completely new aspect for me, the history lessons end with the Armistice and the treaty negotiations, but no one ever tells how you people try to build a new life in the ruins. When you drive through Belgium today you see green fields, but at the time Streuvels describes all this was still mud, dirt, and rusted iron.

CalendarCAT / PrizeCAT / RandomKIT / Bingo: bestseller / lists

Die Vegetarierin ticks quite a few boxes and could have fit for most of the Bingo squares I have left, but because her recent Nobel Prize has put her back on the bestsellers list I chose that, it’s one of the more difficult prompts for me. And on 7 December she gave her Nobel Prize lecture in Stockholm, so it also fits for the CalendarCAT. The novel also features in this year's 100 Books to Read list from German weekly Die ZEIT.

It is a strange novel, and not well suited for the dreary weather outside, I found it oddly depressing. We do not really get inside Yong-Hye’s head, and I doubt I would understand her even if I could. But I could relate to her sister’s reaction, and was sorry for her.

RandomKIT / Bingo: another cultural tradition

Snow Flower and the secret fan is historical fiction set in 19th century China and shows us life in the secluded women’s chamber. The elaborate wedding arrangements were surprising and the fact that the young wives return to their natal families until they get pregnant. I did wonder if this was particular to the Yao nationality as I hadn’t come across this custom before.

Christmas is coming up, and tomorrow I’m travelling to my sister, as usual. I don’t think I’ll finish another book before the train leaves, so it’s time for a summary. Overall I have read much more than in previous years which is a lovely thing. Now I need to curb my book-buying habit or I’ll be buried under my toppling TBR. Ah yes, the same New Year’s Resolution as every year.

Over the next weeks I’ll be reading from my sister’s library and add these books to my 2025 year thread once I return in January. I hope we’ll meet again there, with everyone safe and sound.

Happy Holidays to all my fellow LTers!

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

>155 MissWatson: Merry Christmas, safe travels, and a happy and healthy 2025. I share your resolution about book buying, but I do not manage to keep it for long.

>156 DeltaQueen50: Thank you, Judy, and all my best wishes for you to have a lovely Christmas!
>157 LadyoftheLodge: I know, I usually fail in the first weeks of January.

Bingo: little in the title

One of the staple Christmas movies on TV is Little Lord Fauntleroy with Alec Guinness as the Earl of Dorincourt. It was programmed for last night, but then it was interrupted for breaking news of a horrific attack on the Magdeburg Christmas market, so I turned off the TV and re-read the book instead, to take my mind off things. I had forgotten that it ends with Ceddie’s birthday, not a Christmas party.
I really hope there won’t be any more tragedies like this.

>159 MissWatson: I saw the news this morning, how terrible.

I hope you have a smooth and safe journey to your sister and I am looking forward to following your thread next year and seeing what you read during the holidays!

I hope you have a good trip and a nice Christmas with your sister.

>159 MissWatson: I also read about that tragic attack at the Christmas market in Magdeburg, such senseless loss. Recalling a similar incident a few years back, my spouse and I decided to forego a visit to a local Christkindlmarkt. I was sorry to make that decision, but I guess anxiety got the better of me.

>155 MissWatson: May your holiday be blessed, Birgit.

>155 MissWatson: Have a wonderful visit with your sister.