koboldmaki

Book Title: "Die Falken-Saga"
Author: Rainer M. Schröder
Page Count: lots
First Published: 1989-1992
Summary: Four novels about Tobias, a seventeen-year-old boy from a good family, who gets thrown into an adventure with his fathers close friends Sadik and the fortune-teller Jana. Together, they travel across Europe and later the world to solve a riddle set by an old acquaintance of Tobias' father, try to escape the clutches of evil Graf von Zeppenfeld, and finally find treasure beyond their wildest imagination.
Rating: superfunk - golden - sweet - blah - superblah - blergh - goatfood

I read the first part of this "Saga" when I was fourteen or fifteen, a friend lent it to me back then, and I devoured it, but I never got around to reading the other parts. I remembered this about two years ago and started to hunt for all four, and when they were complete, I obviously left them in my shelves for another year or so. Anyway. Now I read them, and I really enjoyed them. There were some lengths, and that Sadik kept on quoting proverbs got annoying after a while, but the ending, unrealistic as it was, made up for a lot with its breathless pace.

Book Title: "Die kleine Hexe"
Author: Ottfried Preussler
Page Count: 127
First Published: 1957
Summary: The little witch is unfortunately only one hundred and twenty-seven years old, and none of the other witches take her seriously. But of she can't be a great witch, she wants to be a good one. With this decision, a big adventure begins.
Rating: superfunk - golden - sweet - blah - superblah - blergh - goatfood

Wonderful children's book that will never age, what else is there to say. I took off points for the ending, I have to admit, it was rather unsatifying for me as an adult, but as a child, I think I cheered.

Overwhelming. The language was almost bombastic, and so many things happen that I wish she had made this book into two, but I guess three is just the way to go these days. Not too many people die and it is handled very well, but the ending is a little too open for my taste. I did enjoy the development of Gemma and her friends, though. They all are far too independent to be believed, but since they have magic at their command, I can give them the benefit of the doubt that they will actually achieve their plans.
Now. Alas. Not really a secret passage, no exploding from me, but there were more than enough motives to keep me happy.

Book Title: "Ten Little Niggers"
Author: Agatha Christie
Page Count: 201
First Published: 1939
Summary: Ten people, strangers to one another, are invited to a lonely island and killed off one after another.
Rating: superfunk - golden - sweet - blah - superblah - blergh - goatfood

Interesting reading experience for me: I guessed the murderer right. I never do, I usually don't even bother to try. But the suspense was still enough to grip me for longer periods (though I suppose if you are an avid reader of crime, this one will seem rather tame).
I feel the need to read one of the newer versions now. Do they still call it "Nigger Island"? Have they changed the nursery rhyme? What about the figurines? 

(as you can see, there are a lot of entries still hidden. I have a lot to do at the moment, which is good. Still, I'll try not to let any more pile up, and revisit the ones I had to leave out at a later time. Or maybe today, my head is full of jello, work will be difficult.)

I am currently reading:
Franck, Julia: "Die Mittagsfrau" which won the German Book Prize in 2007 and I'm trying very hard to understand why, but it has lesbians and opium and WWII so maybe that's the explanation?
Colette: "Gigi and other Stories", I already read "Gigi" and skimmed the story after that (it felt more like a writing exercise not meant to be read by others), and am currently on the third of four. 
Bronte, Emily: "Wuthering Heights" and what a torture it is. 60 pages to go.
Kleypas, Lisa. "Dreaming of You" which is a quite brilliant romance, but I feel like something not so light at the moment.
Gaskell, Elizabeth: "North and South" though I put that on hold and made myself finish "Wuthering Heights" first.
Rutherfurd, Edward: "London", I'd love to finish it before my birthday but it is SO long-winded I can't get past page 30.

And still listening to "Evelina". I think as a book, I would have thrown it against the wall by now, what with all the emotional turmoil and the heroine not being able to speak for so much sensation and all the nays. But as just a narration, I can tune in and out when it gets too much, it's quite nice.

Book Title: "Oh Pioneers"
Author: Willa Cather
Read by: LibriVox
First Published: 1913
Summary: Vignettes of the life of a  Swedish pioneer family in Nebraska.
Rating: superfunk - golden - sweet - blah - superblah - blergh

My first LibriVox, certainly not my last. Once you get used to the constant interruptions ("This is a LibriVox recording"), it's simply charming to be read to by a normal person who just likes to read. The woman who did this one had a very strange, lilting way of pronouncing her sentences, but once I got used to it I enjoyed it a lot. I also enjoyed the story, of course I love everything about pioneers, and the heroine was so down to earth and sensible it was a joy.

Book Title: "Plötzlich an jenem Abend"
Author: Daphne Du Maurier
Read by: Franziska Pigulla (is what a reviewer at amazon says. I could have sworn it was a man.)
First Published: 19?? (I can't even find the english title, so...)
Summary: I think this was the one about the man who fell in love with an usher at the cinema, and who gets a nasty surprise? 
Rating: superfunk - golden - sweet - blah - superblah - blergh

I enjoyed listening to this. With du Maurier, you never know if she just builds up tension to annoy you, or if there's actually something bad going to happen (that's not a correct sentence, is it?). I spent a lot of time speculating on the outcome and even, for just a second or so, considered that the girl might be a vampire (she did write about pirates, so don't judge me.)

Book Title: "Helden: David Bowie und Berlin"
Author: Tobias Rüther
Page Count: 221
First Published: 2008
Summary: Biography focusing on the years David Bowie spent in Berlin.
Rating: superfunk - golden - sweet - blah - superblah - blergh - goatfood

Kind of self-consciously intellectual, like a lot of German writing is, seeped in quotes from Philosophy to Pop Music, but a very agreeable writing style, and very interesting read. Rüther really has done his research, and it shows, not a sentence in there that is not interesting or just filler, and a good balance of anecdotes, facts and interpretation.
One thing that's really unfortunate is just that he sometimes describes photographs that either follow several pages later, without reference, or not at all (or I just overlooked them because I was reading something else when the picture finally showed).
Another thing that caught my eye is that in the copyright Information for the lyrics of "Heroes" the song is called "Heros". Is this something I just don't get or really, really funny considering the book is named after the song?

Author: Margaret Mitchell
Page Count: 1024
First Published: 1939
Summary: The epic love story of Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler set amidst the troubles and toils of the civil war.
Rating: superfunk - golden - sweet - blah - superblah - blergh - goatfood

I did it! I read my Everest! First time I tried to read this book: 1992! I think I was 12. Twelve! Tried reading the german version from my mother's shelf. Couldn't get past the first 100 pages. Tried again and again. Bought English version at flea market ca. 2000. Couldn't get past the first 50 pages. I started reading again in 2008, I think. I keep mentioning it on this blog as "still not read". And now I did it! I'm so - well. Let's not get over ourselves, I just read a book. It was rather brilliant, as a whole, solid prose sometimes bordering on beautiful, fantastic cast of characters, interesting history. It's just really, really long. (AND not long enough.) I loved Scarlett, she was so feisty and such a rich character and such a strong woman, quite different from the shallow bitch she is in the movie. I'm a bit overwhelmed by it all, maybe I'll come back and write something coherent later (but I never do...).

Book Title: "A Pale View of Hills"
Author: Kazuo Ishiguro
Page Count: 183
First Published: 1982
Summary: Etsuko, a Japanese woman now living alone in England, dwells on the recent suicide of her daughter, the life of her other daughter, and remembers a woman she knew in the past, the enigmatic Sachiko, with whom she shares a strange friendship in post-war Nagasaki.
Rating: superfunk - golden - sweet - blah - superblah - blergh - goatfood

Quite brilliant. Ishiguro has this knack of writing gripping plots that make me want to turn pages, and brilliant poetic language that makes me want to savour every word, so I get a bit breathless reading. I was not a fan of the ambiguity, though.

Book Title: "Harry Potter" Vol 1-7
Author: Joanne K. Rowling
Page Count: 3421
First Published: 1997 - 2007
Summary: Oh come on.
Rating: superfunk - golden - sweet - blah - superblah - blergh - goatfood

Still brilliant. Honestly, it was so much fun to dive back into the world of Hogwarts, of magic and everything, I can't believe I didn't already re-read them last year! I can't even decide on a favourite part (I always said PoA, but now I'm not so sure), though I know it's not DH. It might even be OotP, despite the Bad Thing happening. I will now not dive into the differences and likenesses and I will also not write on every single book because, blah. I just want to say I wish that there was no part seven. In my head, things will always be different. The writing will be better, the plot will make more sense, and Snape's motivation will not be STUPID. I am almost convinced that JK wrote the last volume so abysmally bad on purpose. Out of pure goodness of heart. See, she had already made more money than she could ever have hoped, right? And could hardly get any more famous. What was left for her to gain (from writing HP, I mean)? So she decided that she would let all those people who she knew loved her series to the point of devotion, and who were devastated that there would be no more new books after the seventh, off easy. She would not give them an end that made them yearn for more, but one that made them glad it was finally over.

Book Title: "Die Schwestern vom roten Haus"
Author: Petra Oelker
Page Count: 448
First Published: 2009
Summary: Historical crime novel set in Hamburg, 1773. The former actress Rosina is once again entangled in a case of murder - one young woman is found floating under the thawing ice of the Elbe, another body soon follows, and the murderer has to be found before he claims another victim.
Rating: superfunk - golden - sweet - blah - superblah - blergh - goatfood

Splendid read for summer days so sweltering they make your brain melt. It's the ninth in a series, so I already know the main characters (though Oelker has the annoying habit of sending about 70% abroad or making them otherwise unavailable), and don't have to learn the names, and the story was interesting, full (as always) of interesting details and suspense, with a satisfying, but not too neat ending.

Book Title: "Mr Midshipman Hornblower"
Author: C.S. Forester
Page Count: 253
First Published: 1950
Summary: (from back, because it rocks) In Mr Midshipman Hornblower you meet a quiet, gawky, strangely impressive young man, newly commissioned into Nelson's navy. You sail with him aboard H.M.S. Indefatigable to the Western Atlantic, and through a series of dramatic battles and scrapes which make him one of the most formidable junior officers in the service. And suddenly you realize just what it was like to live in the midshipmen's berth and fight a seaman's war in the last heroic age of sail.
Rating: superfunk - golden - sweet - blah - superblah - blergh

He is so cute. He gets seasick on the boat that brings him to his first ship, and he has to pad his stockings so his calves look more masculine (I now think that many a Jane Austen hero must have padded his stockings as well, which makes me bewildered.) The stories were mostly very engaging reads, though some dragged, and very vivid. It's nice to have another series of books to collect, actually. I didn't know I liked ships so much.

Book Title: "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie"
Author: Muriel Spark
Page Count: 156
First Published: 1962
Summary: A famous novel - A smash hit on Broadway - Now a devastating movie! (Sorry. It's what it says on the front.) The story of Miss Jean Brodie, a spinster teacher at an all-girls school in Scotland, who feels that life owes her great things as long a she is in her prime, and her "set", a clique of students who she gathers about her.
Rating: superfunk - golden - sweet - blah - superblah - blergh

Ah well. Miss Brodie is a product of that time between the wars, when aspirations were high, hopes soared - and crashed.- Her fiancé died in the Great War, and she goes out to life expecting, well, more. Very tragic. But the style grated a bit, with all the repetitions (just like "The God of Small Things", but this book made up for it by interesting characters and plot.)

Book Title: "Der Glaspavillon" ("The Memory Game") 
Author: Nicci French
Page Count: 378
First Published: 1997
Summary: A skeleton is found in the vast park of Stead, home of the Martello family. While everyone finally grieves for the death of daughter Natalie, Jane, the daughter-in-law and Natalies best friend, starts to remember what happened that summer, 25 years ago, when Natalie disappeared.
Rating: superfunk - golden - sweet - blah - superblah - blergh

Not as gripping as the first I read, but made up for it by a gigantic twist in the end (realistic, though).

Book Title: "Das Gold von Caxamalca"
Author: Jakob Wassermann
Page Count: 62
First Published: 1923
Summary: Novella about the last days of the last sovereign of the Inca Empire, Atahualpa, told by one of the conquistadors.
Rating: superfunk - golden - sweet - blah - superblah - blergh

I really loved the somewhat bombastic descriptions and the development of the narrator from greedy usurper to man-hating hermit. But. This novella is popularly read at school. So I tried to get into the mind of a 16-year-old again (I will not say if that was hard or not), and seriously, I would have hated this so much. Too many words, too soppy, all manly men and cruelty... and I bet there would have been a presentation on the Inca, and it would have sucked. Still. I'm not in school anymore, so I could really enjoy it.

And this is me logging off for another two weeks of vacation, how decadent.

Book Title: "In seiner Hand"/"Land of the Living"
Author: Nicci French
Page Count: 413
First Published: 2002
Summary: Thriller. Abbie Devereaux is abducted, tortured, manages to escape - and no one believes her. She tries to reconstruct what has happened in those days she lost due to a bout of amnesia, and can trust no one.
Rating: superfunk - golden - sweet - blah - superblah - blergh

I hardly ever read thrillers, you will have noticed, so when I read one, it tends to have a more thrilling effect. So I was biting my nails through this (just two, though, because I'm a strong, independent woman and I don't need to bite nails. I started watching "Friends" again...) and even though I cannot believe how stupid the otherwise very smart and savvy heroine was on the last few pages I really liked reading this.

Book Title: "Yesterday's Magic"
Author: Jane Arbor
Page Count: 186
First Published: 1977
Summary: A Mills&Boons Romance. From the back: "At twenty-eight, Rachel had for a long time taken it for granted that she was destined to remain single. She had made a quiet life for herself, living with her family and helping to run their lovely country home, and she was reasonably content. But a visitor from the past changes all that - David Winslow, bringing with him memories of her vanished, unhappy love for Jon Sandred. Soon her memory of Jon had faded and David had taken his place - but how could Rachel compete with his attraction to her pretty young sister Iris?"
Rating: superfunk - golden - sweet - blah - superblah - blergh

Pushed all the right buttons, solid writing, interesting characters, but that's not the point! This is a contemporary romance from 1977. It's basically a historical document. First of all, everyone smokes! Fascinating. Casual smoking by the pool, during guided tours in elizabethan buildings, seventeen-year-olds, spinster aunts, everyone! And everyone gets paired off neatly except for the little sister but she is only seventeen and gets a modeling career in Paris, so. And and and! The fashion. Oh, the fashion. Rachel has her make-over-princess moment in a blue/green, peacock-like dress with amber accessories, and that's just what I remember vividly. Much more fun that reading something actually contemporary, which always kind of bores me. But these I could read by the dozen.

Book Title: "First Term at Malory Towers"
Author: Enid Blyton
Page Count: 160
First Published: 1946
Summary: Boarding-school novel centered on 12-year old Darrell Rivers and the friends she meets and lessons (in life) she learns at her new school. 
Rating: superfunk - golden - sweet - blah - superblah - blergh

I wish Blyton wouldn't stereotype so much. All thin-lipped people are mean. All fat people can't enjoy the sun. Blah blah blah. But I loved the atmosphere of Malory Towers and the details. In Germany, the whole set of books was lifted into the 1970s by translation (which is quite nice as well) so it felt like reading a whole new book.

Book Title: "Carrie"
Author: Stephen King
Page Count: 222
First Published: 1974
Summary: When Carrie White, raised by and extreme Christian mother for whom everything is sin, and who was always the butt of every of her classmates jokes, is pushed too far, she discovers and ability that makes her able to pay them all back.
Rating: superfunk - golden - sweet - blah - superblah - blergh

Hm. Let me try something first.
So, every time I look at this book, that song starts to play in my head. Which makes the experience more and less scary at the same time.
Another thing that cost me a lot of enjoyment was that I had seen the movie and knew John Travolta was in it and so I saw his face while reading it and, seriously, why did anyone ever cast that face for anything? His face is just bizarre.
Other than that - I'm glad King didn't continue writing in this pastiche-like manner with newspaper articles and letters and other papers interspersed in the text. (That wasn't a good sentence... but on with it.) His tendency to explore not only supernatural evil, but the evil inside mankind and the terror of suburbia is already there, and his characters believable, if a bit rough and on the extreme side.
It was, by the way, fate that dictated I read this. I had borrowed "Carrie" from the library in a German translation that was so bad it made my teeth ache (there's a new one available now, but the library only had the old one.) So I had to return it, and on that same day my beloved used book store had "Carrie" for 50 Cents in the original English version. So I had to buy it and read it, obviously.

Book Title: "Deutsche Dichterinnen vom 16. Jahrhundert bis zur Gegenwart"
Author: Gisela Brinker-Gabler (Ed.)
Page Count: 430
First Published: 1978
Summary: Collection of important works by female German poets from the 16th century to the present, with short biographical notes and an introduction by the editor.
Rating: superfunk - golden - sweet - blah - superblah - blergh

Better than I thought it would be, not as acidly feminist as I had feared, and shorter than I had anticipated. I don't know much about German literature (yeah ...) so I don't know whether the selection is justified or not, but since the book is still in print today and seems to be the only one of its kind, it must be, right?