The year in books. September

Another month has passed (how can it be October already???) and as I always I'm a little late with my list of books to link up with Laura. I've gotten through a lot of books again. I'm currently reading the 47th book this year, so I'm definitely going to make my goodreads reading challenge of 50 books in 2015. I'm pretty certain that I will top it and read more than 50 books. I really need more money and more shelf space for my ever growing reading habit, it's getting slightly out of hand.
Anyway: Here are my books.

Dolores Schmidinger - Im Bett mit dem Teufel
An Austrian comedian who wrote her first crime novel. I'm always falling for crime fiction as it's perfect reading material for train journeys to and from work. I was positively surprised. The book has two timelines: one in the 80s and one in the present. It tells the love story of a woman who falls in love with a man who is a member of a catholic cult group and the second timeline tells the story of her daughter who, after 20 years, gets in contact with said man. It was funny and thrilling and although you knew, who the murderer was, right from the beginning, it was interesting to read until the last page.

picture from google

T.C. Boyle - Wassermusik (Water Music)
I bought this book on a flea market when I was still back at university. I totally fell for it (as I fall for all books of T.C. Boyle) and then I forgot it on the train went I went to visit my parents. On the next flea market, I bought it again and this time I finished it. Boyle tells the story of an 18th century explorer who travels to Africa to explore the Niger. He fails on the first exploration but it never lets him go and so he travels again. I love the style of T.C. Boyle. As I read the first half of the book now three times but the end just twice, I forgot some things that happened at the second half of the book so it was still fresh and interesting. If you love looong books and perfectly detailed drawn characters - Boyle is the perfect author for you.

picture from google

Davig Lagercrantz - Verschwörung (The girl in the spiders web)
Did you read the Millenium trilogy from Stieg Larsson? I absolutely adored it. Even my husband, who barely ever reads, didn't stop reading those books until he finished them in absolutely short time. Unfortunately, Stieg Larsson died after the third book and wasn't able to finish the fourth. After a long struggle with Larssons wife and his family, David Lagercrantz published the girl in the spiders web, which is kind of a continuation of the Millenium trilogy. Of course I was very curios and couldn't wait for that book to come out. I made the mistake to read a lot of article and reviews before I read the book myself. Not a good idea, as my mind was heavy with a lot of different opinions which of course, affected my own. Let's just say this: If you loved Stieg Larsson, you will like David Lagercrantz. Just try to ignore the fact that someone else is writing the book and you won't really notice a difference.

T.C. Boyle - San Miguel
I think I made it clear, how much I love T.C. Boyle. I already read San Miguel, but as I forbade myself to buy new books until the Christmas Holidays, I have to read books again. San Miguel tells the life of two different families who try to live on San Miguel Island, a little Island off the West Coast of North America. When the book first came out, critics said, that nothing happened, that the book is boring, that it only tells of the ordinary, everyday life that people lived on the island. Duh. Of course it only tells that. There are four people, living on an island, away from the main land, in the 19th century. What did they think will happen there? But things happen. And as always, Boyle describes the protagonists so well, that you feel, that you really know the people in the books. You know about their past, you get inside their head to know what they think, feel, smell, talk, you know, what they dream of and if they're disappointed or happy or sad. And that's what I love about Boyles books - his characters.

Robert Schneider - Schlafes Bruder (Brother of sleep)
An Austrian classic. Again a book that I've read before, though it's been some years since I first had a go at it. It's about a boy, who grows up in a little village in the Austrian alps. He's a little strange, doesn't look normal and has an enormous musical talent! He falls in love with his neighbour and thinks, that no one can really love, when he's sleeping. True love never sleeps because when you sleep, you don't think about the woman you love, you can't spend time with her, you can't make her happy. Thus, he stops sleeping.
Rather creepy and disturbing story but it left me thinking about it for some days after finishing it and that's what a good book should do to you - stay in your mind, even if it's back on the shelf!

picture from google

Jo Nesbo - Kakerlaken (Cockroaches)
I've written about my love for Jo Nesbo and his Harry Hole series a few times now. Again a gripping thriller, the definition of a pageturner. The Swedish embassador is found dead in a Motel Room in Bangkok and Harry Hole is send to Thailand to investigate in the case. I won't tell more, Nesbos thrillers are awesome and everyone should read them.

picture from google

Now that Autumn has definitely arrived, I tend to read even more as I love to curl up under a warm blanket, with a cup of hot chocolate in one and a good book in the other hand. We'll see what October has to offer, book-wise.

Happy reading, everyone!

The Year in Books - July and August

I missed last months year in books. As I said in my holiday post - Austria has suffered (and I mean this word here literally!) from an incredible heatwave. Though I did some reading I really didn't get in the mood to type up a post about it. So here follows an extra long reading post - I try to keep my babbling about the books a little shorter this time. As always I'm linking up with Laura from Circle of Pine Trees.

Nick Hornby - High Fidelity
An all-time-favourite. A book that I've read a few times by now and I absolutely adore it, as it really speaks from my heart. Although I'm married I always had commitment problems and ran away from serious relationships - until I met my man. Similar to Rob and Laura. And oh, all that goooood music...

Robert Galbraith - The Cuckoo's Calling
A re-read. I forbid myself to buy new books. Well, at least not as many as I used to buy. I only have space for two bookshelves and they are FULL. Besides, I want to spend less money. In general.
Well, back to the book...Robert Galbraith isn't a man. As some of you might now it's an alias for J.K. Rowling. She wanted to write crime fiction without it being sold just because of her name. It was soon discovered that it was really her. Whether intentional or not - we'll never know.
The book is about a young supermodel who falls to death from her balcony. Her brother hires the investigator Cormoran Strike to solve the crime as he is sure, that his sister wasn't suicidal. Cormoran Strike is the main person and an interesting non-hero.
I love every J.K. Rowling book that she has written so far and I really liked this one too, though it tends to be a liiiiittle long in between.

Robert Galbraith - The Silkworm
I re-read the second Galbraith novel straight afterwords. Again a Cormoran Strike novel. Nothing much to say here. Interesting, compelling and I didn't know who the killer was until the very end. That's how I like my crime fiction. Though I must say that I would probably be the world's worst investigator as I NEVER know who the killer is. Have you seen The Sixth Sense or Fight Club? I really need to watch movies like this until everything is uncovered because I never understand it myself.

Harper Lee - To Kill a Mockingbird
I've written about this book here. Again a re-read. I read it because I bought the new Harper Lee book and wanted to freshen up my Mockingbird-Knowledge.

Giulia Enders - Darm mit Charme
A rather unusual read for me. It's a book about intestines, bowel, guts. I don't know which one of these words is the right english medical expression. It explains how the intestines work, what they have to do with depression and why this is such an important organ in our body. Sounds rather dull but this book is number 1 on the Austrian bestseller charts for more than one year now. So I really needed to know what all the fuss was about. Very interesting and it's written in a very funny and easy way. Took me just one day to finish it.

Harper Lee - Go Set a Watchman
Here we go. The new Harper Lee book. There was a loooot of talking about this book before it was published. The way the manuscript was discovered was a scandal and the content of the book was apparently rather shocking itfself. As I really liked To Kill a Mockingbird I was of course very curious - and in the end veery dissapointed. The book is really dull. Nothing happens! And when finally something happens the situation is so easily resolved that it really made me angry to read it. It reminded me of an unfinished story. So many loose ends that weren't properly tied together.

Stephen King - Finders Keepers
I read the first part of this trilogy on my honeymoon in Mallorca, in April. When I bought Go Set A watchman, the blue umbrella on the cover caught my eye and I knew, that this must be the second book in the series. Of course I had to buy it too! (Do you see now, why I have to forbid myself to buy more books? This is getting out of control!)
I loved it as much as I loved the first one. It was a whole other story and the main protagonist from the first book didn't arrive until the second half of the book. But Stephen King sure doesn know how to write a compelling thriller. Nothing more to add here. I won't tell you anything about the story as I don't want to spoil anyone the reading. Let's just say that there's a lot of blood.

Klaus Oppitz - Auswandertag
I took this home from work where I found it lying around. It's about a dystopian Austrian future, where people flee to Turkey, because there is no future in Austria. A quick read, but I'll probably never read it again.

Judith Hermann - Aller Liebe Anfang
Again a book I took home from work - and brought it back today, because I won't read that again either. It's about a young mother who get's stalked by a young man in her neighborhood. He never talks to her or gets near her, but he rings the bell at her house everyday and puts seemingly random stuff in her mailbox. Sounds interesting, and the beginning was very good - but that book doesn't have an ending. It just stops and let's the story hang loose in midair. I hate that. The ending is the best part about the book and the author really blew that. 

Isabel Allende - Das Geisterhaus (The House of the Spirits)
Oh how I love this book. I chose "Das Geisterhaus" as my book for our tour through the West and I finished it when we got back home. I've read this book a lot of times and I'm still fascinated by the story. I really love family stories, that tell the live of the participants through decades and generations. To be honest - I've never read anything else by Isabel Allende. I probably should give it a try...

I've you've made it all the way to the end - thanks for reading all of this! Next time I'll be up to date with my reading list, I promise! 

The Year in Books: June

FINALLY I find time to contribute my June reading list. Time hasn't been really stressed or hectic in the last few days, but it was HOT and when I came home from work all I did was jump into the shower and go straight to bed. Way too warm for anything else. Austria has survived a heatwave and the next one is about to begin. I don't mint 38 degrees, as long as I'm not supposed to work. Thank got the next hot day is a Saturday. Hello lake.

I did a lot of reading in June (pagewise) as my man was away a lot, spending time to tune his Harley. He dreamed of owning a Harley Davidson ever since he started riding motorcycles and so I can understand, that he wants to make it perfect now. I'm happy for him and to be honest - I enjoyed to have a few evenings for myself! ;)

So here's my list of what I've read these past weeks: (linkin up with Laura from Circle of Pine Trees

Ken Follet - Kinder der Freiheit (Edge of Eternity)

is there anything better than reading in bed?

The third and last book of the Century Trilogy. I wrote about Ken Follet books here. In this book he wrote about the racist problems in 1960's USA and the Berlin Wall. Again you met the families, whose lives you accompanied since the first book. It was great to read, lots of historical facts and lots of learning without noticing it.

Jo Nesbo - Der Fledermausmann (The Bat)
I read the 10th case of Harry Hole first and ever since I wanted to start from the beginning. So I bough the first case of Harry Hole. Like the two Jo Nesbo thrillers that I've read before,it was a very good thriller, the plot interesting, the killings disgusting and shocking and the end surprising. I want to buy them all over the next weeks, months or years.

T.C. Boyle - The Women

my much used and battered Paris second hand book find. You can still see the price tag. Just 4 euros.

I wrote about it here and my opinion about it hasn't changed. I bought it on holiday in Paris, 4 years ago and I've read it at least once a year ever since. Still fascinates me.

Paula Hawkins - Girl on the Train

After seeing and hearing about it everywhere (and getting it recommended) I gave in and bought it myself. I am commuting by train every day to work so I thought it would be interesting, to read a book about a commuting girl. I really liked the beginng. The story was fascinating and I wanted to know what happens next. In the end I just finished it because I wanted to know who the killer was. I had a clue about halfway in and that turned out to be true. Very good beginning - very weak end. I didn't like the ending at all and for me this destroys the whole book. The ending was very flat and predictable and really, really unrealistic. Sad, because it started really good. 

The Year in Books: May

Oh boy, another month has passed? How did that happen? Where did May go? What did I do in the past 30 days? 
I read a lot, that's for sure. Though this time I have "only" three books to show you. "Only" because two of these three books are more about thousand pages thick. Each. So page-wise I read a lot. Book wise...well let's get started:

(As always, linking up with Laure from Circle of Pine Trees and her wonderful idea of The Year in Books)

Ken Follet - Sturz der Titanen (Fall of the Titans)

I read this book once before I went on my big journey around the world. I always had a big interest in history. As some of you might know I studied German literature some years ago. And literature is always deeply connected with history. So whenever I learned about an epoche, a time, a genre, I also learned about the historical circumstances regarding that certain period. 
Ken Follet manages to combine fiction with historical facts. I love that kind of writing! You have these stories about people that are fictional - but you know that stories like these might have happened in the past. And while you read this page turning story about a small number of people, Follet provides you with the historical facts about the first World War. 

If you haven't heard about Ken Follet and his century trilogy here are some words about it:
Fall of the Titans tells the reader about the circumstances and the historical and political events that eventually lead to the outbreak of World War 1. The story is told via several positions: Families and protagonists in England, Germany and Russia have to deal with the oncoming crisis that eventually draaws in the whole world in one cruel and bloody war. The protagnoists always cross each other during the 1000 pages that seem to fly by rather quickly. While the people in the book are fictional, the historical circumstances are real and so you learn about history while reading an interesting novel full of love and hate and life and death.

Vea Kaiser - Makarionissi oder Die Insel der Seligen

Vea Kaiser is an Austrian author. She's my age and she also studied German in Vienna. I don't personally know her but I'm sure that we had to come across each other at the University. Anyway, Makarionissi is Vea's second book. I talked about her first one, Blasmusikpop here. I loved her first novel and so of course I was really curios about her second one!
Makarionissi tells the tale of a Greek family throughout several generations. Kaiser writes beautifully and funny about the mistake a grandmother made and how here grandchildren had to live with the consequences. I won't tell you more about it as it's a complex story which starts in Greece, switches over to Austria only to come back to Greece in the end.
It wasn't quite as good as her first one but then it's said that the second book for an author is the hardest. Blasmusikpop was such a huge success here in Austria, that Makarionissi is a really, really, really good book as it has to live up such high expectations. If I know about translations, I let you know!

Ken Follet - Winter der Welt (Winter of the World)

This is the second book of the Trilogy and it deals now with the Second World War. The main protagonists from the first book now make place for their children. Still, the maintaining connections between the countries remain and so a lot of familiar people appear here.


Now you can guess which book I'm reading right now! ;)

What did you read in the last month? Do you have any good summer book recommendations? I really need a vacation novel! :)