There is a reason why I can’t stand sci-fi novels and “Parable of the Sower” ended up being the perfect example to once again prove that point. What sounded like an interesting premise, a novel that was published in 1993, written about the future between the years of 2024 and 2027, ended up being a…
Category: FEMALE authors
Within this category you can find all the books written by female authors that I have reviewed.
Convenience Store Woman – Sayaka Murata
Sayaka Murata’s “Convenience Store Woman” has become the book that has finally gotten me out of the book reviewing rut. Maybe because I got the chance to dive deeper into it during two different book club discussions, one in Paris and one in Barcelona, presenting me with the opportunity to hunt for hidden treasures beyond…
Yellowface – Rebecca F. Kuang
Coincidentally having stumbled into reading this book turned out to be such a positive surprise! Despite having previously judged it by its cover that screamed “pop culture” and “latest booktok suggestion”, I ended up really enjoying it. It was a witty, funny, fast-paced and enjoyable novel. Yes, the tone and the style were light and…
The Death of a Soldier Told by His Sister – Olesya Khromeychuk
Another book touching upon the topic of the war in Ukraine and another recommendation from my side! “The Death of a Soldier Told by His Sister“, as the title already suggests it, tells the story of how the author lived through her reality of losing her brother due to him being killed on the Ukrainian…
Motherhood – Sheila Heti
I went into this book with a feeling of apprehension since I have previously read reviews about it which didn’t necessarily make me want to bump it up on my “to read” list. In the end, I felt quite torn about how to rate it. There were quite a few parts that sounded interesting to…
Mars Room – Rachel Kushner
This book was a struggle to get through from the beginning until the very end… It took me almost an entire month to finish reading it because I simply was never motivated to pick it up. To me, it had the worst of all worlds combined. I wasn’t interested or involved in the plot, I…
Our Others – Olesya Yaremchuk
“Our Others” was the ninth book in the series of my personal quest to learn more about my native country, Ukraine. Previous ones that I have read ranged from fiction to non-fiction, written in English, German, Ukrainian and Russian: “Diary of an Invasion“, “Sommer in Odesa“, “You Don’t Know What War Is“, “A Ukrainian Christmas“,…
My Year of Rest and Relaxation – Ottessa Moshfegh
The harmlessly sounding title of the novel actually ended up being a story that isn’t for the faint of heart. As a disclaimer straight away, I’d only suggest this book to readers who feel to be in a stable state of mind. Reading up on trigger warnings would be a good idea as well since…
Erste Hilfe – Mariana Leky
Mariana Leky schafft es durch ihre Bücher für ihre Leser eine ganz besondere Atmosphäre zu schaffen. Ich greife zu einer ihrer Geschichten, wenn ich auf der Suche nach gleichzeitig etwas leichtem, jedoch auch tiefsinnigem bin. Ihre Romane eignen sich am besten für Momente, wenn man sich in eine gemütliche Stimmung versetzt fühlen möchte. So als…
The Woman in Me – Britney Spears
The reason why I read celebrity memoirs is because every once in a while I stumble across some really good ones. I generally enjoy reading stories about people learning life lessons and if these are actually based on real life experiences, I manage to take away even more from them. I’ve had quite a lucky streak…
The Marriage Portrait – Maggie O’Farrell
This book was another prime example of why I love book clubs! I’m generally not a fan of historical fiction and I probably would have never voluntarily chosen to read a book set in the 1560s but I was really glad to have given this one a chance!! I was captivated from the first pages…
Sprache und Sein – Kübra Gümüşay
“Sprache und Sein” zählt zu einem der Bücher, bei dem es mir schwer fiel, es nach dem Lesen zu bewerten oder zusammenzufassen. Zwar habe ich mir viele Stellen markiert, wo mir interessante Ideen oder Gedankengänge aufgefallen sind, nichtsdestotrotz fehlte mir ein klarer roter Faden, der einen durch die einzelnen Geschichten führen würde. Es ging um…
Happening – Annie Ernaux
I have first come across Annie Ernaux’s writing through her book “The Years“ which has been picked to be read by the “Barcelona Women’s Book Club” in September of 2023. Once I got through that one, I was instantly looking forward to get to some more books of the author’s soon. Luckily, “Happening” was chosen…
Elena Knows – Claudia Piñeiro
This book had everything I could have wished for from a piece of fiction and more, so this was a strong 5/5 ★ read for me! It had beautiful style, a captivating story, well developed characters (especially considering over how few pages the story stretched) and some really important themes that have been tackled. You…
The Yellow Wall-Paper – Charlotte Perkins Gilman
I only came across this book because it was picked for the “difficult women book club” in Barcelona and I didn’t expect much going into it. Knowing that I was in for three short stories that were written in 1892, 1893 and 1911, I wouldn’t have guessed that I would actually enjoy them! Each of…
I Feel Bad About My Neck – Nora Ephron
Having picked this book to read more about the topic of aging, how women deal with it and how they experience it, I can’t say that I ended up being a fan of it… It started with an intro by Dolly Alderton that went on and on without adding any value and it went over…
You Don’t Know What War Is – Yeva Skalietska
Even before going into this book I had some doubts about it and unfortunately they only got confirmed. I only pushed my way through it because I already had it standing on my bookshelf at home and I unfortunately haven’t checked its reviews before buying it. I’m rating this book with 1/5 ★ because I…
The Woman Destroyed – Simone de Beauvoir
I have previously shied away from books by Simone de Beauvoir, thinking that they would be too complicated or too philosophical for me, so it was only thanks to a book club in Barcelona that I got my hands on a novel by the author. Three short stories make up the entirety of the book,…
Drive your Plow over the Bones of the Dead – Olga Tokarczuk
After having previously read Olga Tokarczuk’s book “Flights” with a book club in Paris and having rated it with 2/5 ★ I didn’t think that I would read anything else by the author after it. But here we are again, a book club in Barcelona having chosen “Drive your Plow over the Bones of the…
Outline – Rachel Cusk
You know how you sometimes come across the right book at the right time? Well this was the case for me with “Outline“. Even though it might sound crazy but I’m adding Rachel Cusk to my list of all time favorite authors upon reading just this one book of hers. I instantly fell in love…
The Years – Annie Ernaux
This book will probably be one of those that I will pick up again and again throughout the years. The sheer amount of passages that I highlighted speaks for itself (as you can see on the photo in the bottom of the post). From stylistically beautiful phrases, to clever observations or reflections on life as…
The Beekeeper of Aleppo – Christy Lefteri
As a disclaimer in advance of the review, the reading experience of this book has been highly influenced by my personal relation to the war in Ukraine. I feel like if I would have read it about two and half years ago, I might have perceived it in a different way. With the current situation…
Greek Lessons – Han Kang
This was the second book that I read by Han Kang, after previously reading “The Vegetarian” in 2019, which I rated with 4/5 ★. Even though I still have the author’s two other books, “The White Book” and “Human Acts” on my “to-read” list, I’m starting to think that the author might just not be…
Anfang des Krieges – Yevgenia Belorusets
Durch Bücher wie dieses schaffe ich es, bestimmte Emotionen in Worte gefasst zu lesen, die ich selber schwer zum Ausdruck bringen kann. Im “Anfang des Krieges” verarbeitet die Autorin die Eindrücke der Geschehnisse der russischen Invasion in der Ukraine seit dem 24 Februar 2022 in der Form von Tagebucheinträgen. Darin beschreibt sie die neue Realität,…
Love, Pamela – Pamela Anderson
This was a book that took me completely by surprise! Even though I’m a sucker for celebrity memoirs, I have never been interested enough in Pamela Anderson in order to be curious to read about her life in a book. I came across her documentary on Netflix, “Pamela, a Love Story“, through which I discovered…
Nastjas Tränen – Natascha Wodin
Dieses Buch war ein absoluter Glücksfund. Auf die Autorin bin ich gestoßen, als ich jene gesucht habe, die entweder Ukrainer sind oder ukrainische Wurzeln haben. Letzteres hat mich auf Natascha Wodin gebracht. Ihr Roman ist stark mit ihren persönlichen Hintergründen verwoben, in dem sie über das Schicksal und das Leben einer ukrainischen Frau erzählt, die…
Jägerin und Sammlerin – Lana Lux
Die Leseerfahrung von diesem Buch war eine ganz besondere. Die 304 Seiten habe ich in knapp drei Tagen verschlungen, aber wenn ich während diesen Tagen mehr Zeit gehabt hätte, hätte ich es auch an einem einzigen Tag auslesen können. Sobald man sich nach den ersten 10-15 Seiten an den Schreibstil und die Dialoge gewöhnt hat,…
Real Estate – Deborah Levy
With this book the author’s “Living Autobiography” series has been completed. I do highly suggest you to read the first two books making it up first, “Things I Don’t Want to Know” and “The Cost of Living“. “Real Estate” once again steadily delivered the author’s remarkable signature style, anecdotes from her life, as well as…
The Cost of Living – Deborah Levy
This book simply ended up being another example of how Deborah Levy is climbing the ladder of my all-time favourite writers, one book at a time. Having devoured “The Cost of Living” in a bit more than a day, it left me hooked on the author’s craft and longing for more of her stories. I…
Things I Don’t Want to Know – Deborah Levy
There’s something mesmerising about Deborah Levy’s writing. Once you get your hands on one of her books, you simply don’t want to stop reading. You can feel how deliberate each chosen word and phrase is, whereas the reading experience still feels light and airy. I have only read one of the author’s novels until today,…
Sommer in Odessa – Irina Kilimnik
Auf meiner Mission mehr ukrainische Autoren zu lesen, bin ich auf das Buch “Sommer in Odessa” gestoßen, das Anfang von 2023 veröffentlicht wurde. Mich überraschte es, das Datum zu sehen, an dem das Buch erschienen ist, da es von der Erzählung und von der Stimmung her am besten als Sommerlektüre passt. Spannend fand ich es…
The Dutch House – Ann Patchett
This book ended up being disappointing in the sense that it simply didn’t manage to live up to the hype around it for me. I’ve been seeing its cover pop up everywhere around its publication date in 2019 and 2020, whereas I finally only got to it about 3 years later myself. Having read it…
Alte Weisse Männer – Sophie Passmann
“Alte Weisse Männer” haben einen Platz in meinem Bücherregal gefunden, weil ich mich in 2020 von der Trendwelle habe mitreißen lassen, als das Buch als ein Spiegel Bestseller beworben wurde. Zum Lesen davon bin ich erst drei Jahre später gekommen und wenn ich damals schon gewusst hätte, dass das Buch nur aus fünfzehn Interviews mit…
Quiet – Susan Cain
I first picked this book up in its audio version but after just a couple of minutes of listening to it, I knew that I needed to get its physical copy. I didn’t want to miss any valuable information since it sounded like there was so much to take away from it. My first impression…
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow – Gabrielle Zevin
Here comes the review I have been dreading writing ever since I finished reading the book over 3 months ago. I don’t think that I would have read “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow” if it wasn’t for the “20- and 30-Somethings Book Club” in Paris that chose it as their book of the month. My…
The Culture Map – Erin Meyer
First things first, I thought that this book is an absolute must-read for people working together with colleagues from a country and a culture different from one’s own! While it’s strongly business focused, I also think that you can take along some valuable insights for personal relations as well. “The Culture Map” had the perfect…
White Fragility – Robin Diangelo
“White Fragility” has been sitting on my bookshelf for a while. I bought it back when I finally decided to get to all the racism/anti-racism books on my “want to read” virtual bookshelf during the start of the Black Lives Matter movement. Having read a few other books on the topic in the meantime, I’ve…
Invisible Women – Caroline Criado Perez
This book has definitely won my personal award of having the highest amount of highlighted passages in a book I’ve ever read in my life. While making my way through it page by page, I went through such a wide range of emotions, going from anger, frustration, disappointment to defeat and hopelessness but most of…
Kummer Aller Art – Mariana Leky
Mit diesem Buch hätte ich am liebsten das Jahr 2023 begonnen gehabt! Obwohl ich bisher nur ein Buch von Mariana Leky gelesen habe, “Was Man Von Hier Aus Sehen Kann“, hat mir der Stil der Autorin so gut gefallen, dass ich mir sofort das neu veröffentlichte Buch von ihr geholt habe. In dem Fall von…
From Scratch – Tembi Locke
Having received “From Scratch” as a suggestion from a friend who watched and loved the Netflix series, I decided to go ahead with reading the book first. This was the best choice I could have made since I really enjoyed the book and wish I could unsee the series. It was made in a completely…
Heaven – Mieko Kawakami
Having read this book for a book club in Barcelona, getting through it was a bit of a struggle. It simply didn’t draw me in to continue reading it, which might have been linked to the distant way it was written. What it did do though, was open up an intensely emotional world for the…
Americanah – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
While writing the review almost a year after I have started reading the book, I’m relying on the passages that I highlighted since I didn’t take notes back when reading it. The only phrase I noted down when I was reading “Americanah” in 2022 was, “It has soul, heart, depth, you don’t want it to…
Ich nannte ihn Krawatte – Milena Michiko Flašar
Auf das Buch bin ich Dank einer Empfehlung der österreichischen Unternehmerin und Autorin Madeleine Alizadeh, aka @dariadaria, auf ihrer Instagram-Seite aufmerksam geworden, da sie es erwähnte hatte, dass es ihr gut gefallen hat. Bei mir hinterließ es leider keinen bleibenden Eindruck, zwar war es ein netter Zeitvertrieb, als ich es gelesen habe, jedoch würde ich…
Conversations with Friends – Sally Rooney
If you have some holidays planned this year and don’t know which book(s) to bring along with you yet, I’d strongly suggest you to pack a copy of “Conversations with Friends”! This is the author’s second book that I’ve read after having been a bit disappointed by her “Normal People“, which I rated with 3/5…
Untold Day and Night – Bae Suah
My choice of this book has been influenced by “bookstagram”, having first seen it there and having been intrigued by the cover. In this case the judgement by the cover was successful! During this short read when I got through the 150 pages in just a couple of days, I was mesmerised by the writing….
Don’t Touch My Hair – Emma Dabiri
Reni Eddo-Lodge’s book “Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race Anymore” having touched upon the topic of Black hair, its particularities and what it’s like to stand out with it, while living in a predominantly white society made me curious about Emma Dabiri’s book that is mainly dedicated to the topic of…
To Paradise – Hanya Yanagihara
For the fans of the author’s “A Little Life” (I sure was one of them 🙋🏻♀️) the waiting finally had an end on the 11th of January 2022, when a new long awaited book of hers was released – “To Paradise”. I instantly started reading it once I picked up a copy at my local…
My Body – Emily Ratajkowski
This book has taken me by surprise. I somehow ended up pre-ordering it without planning to, simply because I was curious about Emily’s writing after having read her article “Buying Myself Back” (Ratajkowski, 2020) on The Cut website. And luckily, I wasn’t disappointed! 239 pages long, comprised of 12 essays, this was quite a short…
Der Klang der Wälder – Natsu Miyashita
Natsu Miyashitas Buch schafft vor allem eines hervorragend – eine besondere Stimmung zu zaubern. Im Vergleich zum raschen und gestressten Alltag bietet einem die Geschichte in “Der Klang der Wälder” eine Oasis der Ruhe und des Rückzugs. Ich habe mich jedes Mal aufs Neue darauf gefreut, in das Buch einzutauchen, was auch durch die wunderschöne…
Bonjour Tristesse – Françoise Sagan
Upon finishing reading this book, I felt quite conflicted… The main character was extremely vain, superficial, privileged and spoilt. The voice it was written in took the mindless state of existence during teenagerhood to its perfection. It was full of sexist remarks, uttered by both men and women. If you take it as a snapshot…
Schreibtisch mit Aussicht – Ilka Piepgras
Dieses Buch, das zu meinem zuerst gelesenen im Jahr 2021 wurde, ist vor allem eines – wahnsinnig vielseitig! Die größten Unterschiede bestehen in der Länge der insgesamt 23 Essays, die zwischen drei und dreißig Seiten lang sind, und deren Qualität. Man liest sowohl originale, für dieses Sammelwerk geschriebene Erzählungen auf deutsch, als auch Übersetzungen von…
The Book Collectors of Daraya – Delphine Minoui
Within this book, the reporter Delphine Minoui tells the story of an underground library that has been created within the Syrian town of Daraya, despite the constant bombings and a state of terror the inhabitants were surrounded by, day in, day out. The focus is placed upon both the founders of this library, as well…
If I Had Your Face – Frances Cha
This book was the first one that I read that gave an insight into South Korean life and its culture. By the time I was done with it though, it has left me longing for more. More depth, to be more stylistically impressive and to be able to see more development of the characters. It…
Intimations – Zadie Smith
I was completely disappointed by this tiny piece of writing made up of 6 essays by Zadie Smith. Maybe it was because I’ve been meaning and wanting to read something by the author for such a long time, having built up too high expectations. Maybe because this isn’t the right book to start with if…
The God of Small Things – Arundhati Roy
It’s quite difficult to put the reading experience of “The God of Small Things” in words because it was marked by so many ups and downs for me. To start with the positive parts first, I would describe reading “The God of Small Things” with the sensation of stepping into a mystic maze. A place…
Know My Name – Chanel Miller
Going into this book I wasn’t expecting too much besides that the personal story that the author would tell to be really impactful. A story that got a lot of media attention in the US about how a young girl got assaulted by a Stanford student on campus grounds. What I wasn’t prepared for, was…
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone – Lori Gottlieb
This book was everything I was hoping for and so much more! Just as its subtitle says – “A therapist, her therapist, and our lives revealed”, this book will give you an insight into the world of therapy while most importantly diving into the topic of therapists having their own therapists too. It’s extremely satisfying…
Dependency – Tove Ditlevsen
The third and final part of Tove Ditlevsen’s autobiography almost draws you into a dependency to it until you turn the very last page. After a less engaging middle part, “Youth”, this one has definitely left me under an impactful impression. Just as the title suggests it, this part of the story deals with the…
Youth – Tove Ditlevsen
As much as I have absolutely fallen in love with “Childhood”, Tove Ditlevsen’s first part of her autobiographical trilogy, “Youth” simply didn’t manage to measure up to its standards. The second part of her memoir circles around the author’s teenager into early adulthood years, which are narrated in a much less introspective and reflected kind…
Childhood – Tove Ditlevsen
Here is a case where judging a book by its cover has gone well for me 😉 Never having heard of the author Tove Ditlevsen before, I have discovered this trilogy, Childhood making up the first book of it, on…. Bookstagram! (aka some accounts posting book content on instagram) I was tempted to purchase this…
The Discomfort of Evening – Marieke Lucas Rijneveld
I have recently been quite spoiled by 5/5 ★ books and “The Discomfort of Evening” was a very welcome addition into that category! It was a well deserved winner of the International Booker Prize in 2020, in my point of view, and I was really glad to have come across it thanks to that award….
Was Man Von Hier Aus Sehen Kann – Mariana Leky
Wäre es nicht für “Bookstagram” (= Buchempfehlungen auf Instagram), hätte ich wahrscheinlich “Was Man Von Hier Aus Sehen Kann” niemals gelesen! Die Inhaltsangabe an sich sprach mich nicht besonders an, aber umso glücklicher war ich darüber, dank dem Hype um das Buch herum es entdeckt zu haben. Die Autorin nimmt einen auf eine emotionale Achterbahn…
Small Fry – Lisa Brennan-Jobs
Picking up this memoir that I bought almost a year ago during an event with the author at the Shakespeare & Co shop in Paris, I’ve got to say that I was a bit disappointed… I have picked up the book on 8 different days to get through it, which was proof that it simply…
Kindred – Octavia E. Butler
Going into a novel identified within the sci-fi genre written in the 1970s, I didn’t have any expectations since it’s not my typical kind of read. The last sci-fi I had to struggle my way through was Philip K. Dick’s “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” and I still feel traumatised by it to this…
Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race – Reni Eddo-Lodge
My hunt for non-American literature on the topic of (anti-)racism continued and that’s how I came across Reni Eddo-Lodge’s book. It’s very heavily centred on British history, stories and statistics, so do be aware of that when you’re going into the reading. I specifically chose it for that reason because even though all the purely…
Everything I Never Told You – Celeste Ng
Celeste Ng’s novel “Little Fires Everywhere” was the book I rated the highest during the month of June 2020, so that’s why I was curious to tackle her debut novel. With “Everything I Never Told You”, I wasn’t disappointed either and settled on a 4/5 ★ rating, just like for the other book. The first…
Was weiße Menschen nicht über Rassismus hören wollen – Alice Hasters
Sogar bevor ich Alice Hasters Buch fertiggelesen habe, war mir absolut klar – das ist ohne Zweifel ein 5/5 ★ Buch! Endlich wieder eines, nachdem mir den gesamten Monat von Juni 2020 keines über den Weg gekommen ist! Gerade mal innerhalb von drei Tagen ausgelesen, kann ich es jetzt mit felsenfester Überzeugung bestätigen – die…
Where the Crawdads Sing – Delia Owens
4 reasons why “Where the Crawdads Sing” isn’t as amazing as the huge hype around it is suggesting. Above the roar of the pounding waves, Kya called to the birds, The ocean sang bass, the gulls sang soprano. Shrieking and crying, they circled over the marsh and above the sand […]. p. 31 At late…
All We Leave Behind – Carol Off
This book has been standing around on my “to read” bookshelf at home for 9 months until I finally got to it. I’ve picked it up at the airport in Montreal but I guess the topic finally sounded a bit too intimidating to jump on reading it earlier. The story circles around the conflict in…
Little Fires Everywhere – Celeste Ng
Diving into my first Celeste Ng book, I luckily wasn’t disappointed! I devoured up “Little Fires Everywhere” in just about a day and a half and I now completely understand why Reese Witherspoon jumped on the opportunity of getting the rights to film a series based on this book. It’s all you could wish for…
Behind Closed Doors – Natalie Fiennes
This super short book of just about 150 pages really has the potential to make you question well anchored thoughts and ideas in your mind. Starting from how “virginity” is a purely heteronormative and invented term, which is still being used too often in our society, to how we’re not taught about the diversity of…
Trick Mirror – Jia Tolentino
My first reaction upon finishing the book was – what the hell did I just read??!! The 9 chapters that make up the book felt so much all over the place that it felt like I’ve read 9 short different books. The topics ranged from the author’s personal stories about her disinterest towards marriage, her…
The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree – Shokoofeh Azar
The choice in order to purchase this book and to suggest it to my local book club was a personal one. Ever since having traveled to Iran and having heard about people’s experiences living there after the Revolution, I was curious to read more about it. What I’ve been repeatedly confronted with, were the views…
Three Women – Lisa Taddeo
After reading “Normal People“, I decided to move on to the next hyped book I constantly kept hearing about – “Three Women”. Unfortunately, in this case, it didn’t turn out that well… The lesson I have learned here is to mind the upvoted ratings about the book on goodreads. Even though this book doesn’t have…
Normal People – Sally Rooney
The moment has come when I have finally given in to the hype around the book of “Normal People”, simply because I couldn’t help my curiosity anymore (also because I wanted to have a direct comparison between the book and the series). From my perception, this book is made for a target group of readers…
Unorthodox – Deborah Feldman
Having been too impatient and having watched the Netflix series of “Unorthodox” first, I was definitely in for a positive surprise with this book. After overcoming the annoying fact that I wouldn’t be able to get a copy with a different cover than the one with the actress Shira Haas on it, I finally gave…
Educated – Tara Westover
The past is beautiful because one never realises an emotion at the time. It expands later, & thus we don’t have to complete emotions about the present, only about the past. Virginia Woolf That’s the quote the book starts with and it’s definitely my favourite one out of the entire reading experience. I came across…
How to Break Up with Your Phone – Catherine Price
While this book is intended to be used as a 30 day plan in order to break up with your phone, I read it in almost one sitting and am more than happy to give it a full 5 out of 5 ★ rating straight away! This book is literally life-changing! I already see it…
After the End – Clare Mackintosh
“After the End” isn’t a book I would normally reach out to myself. Somehow the name and the cover of the book screamed out kitsch, cliché and chick flick to me. Nevertheless, I decided to give it a chance, having stumbled across it through a friend of a friend on instagram, saying that it was…
How To Do Nothing – Jenny Odell
Ever since reading “Talking to Strangers“ by Malcolm Gladwell, I have learned to not expect anything from a book by its title. This has proven to be helpful in the case of “How To Do Nothing” since the content of the book was not based on its literal meaning. It’s catchy, it sells, so I…
Vox – Christina Dalcher
This novel can unfortunately be shoved off to an imaginary list of disappointing bestsellers which apparently appeal to the masses. If you don’t want to fall into that trap, I’d suggest you to skip this book and rather read Margaret Atwood’s “Handmaid’s Tale”, if you’re looking for a dystopian feminist story. I accidentally bought the…
A Good Wife – Samra Zafar
This book and Samra’s story is such an important one portraying abusive relationships, as well as the dangers of strict (religious) traditions, such as arranged marriages. While reading it, you manage to live through that suffocating feeling of being trapped and at times, it even sounds like something out of a horror movie. The most…
The Testaments – Margaret Atwood
I was incredibly disappointed by the “The Testaments”…It didn’t read like a Margaret Atwood book at all, it felt like it has been reduced to the genre of young adult fiction in order to reach a broader public and it didn’t do the “Handmaid’s Tale” justice as a continuation of the story.Having re-read “The Handmaid’s…
The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
Re-reading this book 2 years later, in preparation for starting “The Testaments”, I still agree with the rating of 4 out of 5 stars I gave back then! Brilliantly written, with a style that goes down as smoothly as butter, “The Handmaid’s Tale” was an absolute delight to read. It’s so refreshing to finally have…
American Dirt – Jeanine Cummins
This book was selected for a book club I’ll be attending and I now completely understand all the polarising opinions about it. Even to simply support the critical voices, I would’ve liked to give it 1/5 stars, but it did have 2 positive points to it, so I decided to settle on the total of…
Flights – Olga Tokarczuk
Having picked up the book for an upcoming book club but most of all having been curious about it because of Olga Tokarczuk having received the Nobel Prize for Literature, I’ve got to say that I was underwhelmed to say the least. Personally, getting through this book was a pain… I didn’t feel motivated to…
Delta of Venus – Anaïs Nin
Finishing up this book, I’ve had a bit of mixed feelings about it. All in a all, I think I’m just generally not really into reading erotica. I’d rather do it myself than read about it 🤷🏻♀️🤭 Nevertheless, it can be said that it is written in such a way that it would be appealing…
Talking as Fast as I Can – Lauren Graham
If you have picked this book up because you are or used to be a fan of the Gilmore Girls, I’ve got 2 suggestions for you: Jokes aside, this book is simply a joke… One of the biggest reasons why I picked it up, was because I saw that it won Goodreads’ 2017 Comedy Book…
Closer – Sarah Barmak
This book ended up being one of my favourites for the entire year of 2019. I wish I would’ve come across it earlier in my life and wish that literature like this would be part of sexual education rather than the outdated program that is currently still being taught to teenagers all over the world….
Lullaby – Leïla Slimani
The story instantly whips you up into hyper awareness with the way that it starts, announcing the tragic ending on the first couple of pages. The fact that it still makes you want to read on and understand the whole story, is definitely a sign of great writing! The style was simply impeccable, simple, yet…
Bluebeard’s Egg and Other Stories – Margaret Atwood
Even though I wouldn’t have normally picked up a book of short stories, I was glad that I came across “Bluebeard’s Egg and Other Stories” for a book club. All in all, I’d straight ahead say that it was an enjoyable read, but for me it stays within the frame of a bit above an…
Suicide Club – Rachel Heng
I did want to give the book 3 out of 5 stars, just for the topic that it’s centred around, but I just couldn’t manage to warm up to like it more. There’s something very “pop-culture-like” about its style and writing, whereas nowhere as bad as 50 Shades of Grey, it somehow falls into a…
The Bookseller of Kabul – Åsne Seierstad
Having by chance stumbled across this book in a bookshop in Cuba, I couldn’t have been more glad to have come across it!! This narrative of a “not so usual” Afghan family is so eye-opening on so many levels. It was specifically for me, since I’ve never dived into the topic about the country or…
Starkes Weiches Herz – Madeleine Alizadeh
An Madeleine’s Buch habe ich mich mit einer Prise Skepsis rangemacht. Sowohl das Buchcover, als auch den Buchtitel fand ich zu kitschig und war sogar richtig enttäuscht darüber, dass diese die Endwahl für das fertige Produkt wurden. Ich schämte mich sogar ein wenig dafür, mit dem Buch in der U-Bahn gesehen zu werden, das einem…
Hot Milk – Deborah Levy
Hot Milk is one of those books that you pick up and can’t stop reading. I’ve never experienced that the reviews (which are actually just short phrases) on the cover of the book corresponded so much with the story and the way it’s narrated. Just as it is described by previous readers/raters, it does pull…
M Train – Patti Smith
Finishing up “M Train”, I still feel enveloped in a trance and dream-like state. The reading experience has been like taking a seat on Patti Smith’s train of thought, a comfortable window seat, watching passing by landscapes, cities, people. Like gently floating on waves from one image to the next, I felt transported to a…
Reading Lolita in Tehran – Azar Nafisi
This book wasn’t captivating, it had to fight for your attention. It wasn’t a page-turner and yes, its structure was quite chaotic (what I already expected from it, by skimming through other readers’ reviews). You have to create time for it, give it air to breathe, allow it to take space in your day, to…
To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
As much as I’ve always heard about “To Kill a Mockingbird” as an absolute must-read, I haven’t been convinced into loving it. Writing the review 2 months after having finished the book, I can’t go into as many details anymore, but I do know that I’ve waited a while, hoping that I might find some…
The Giver – Lois Lowry
I have stumbled across this book through a list of “highly rated books” on the website Goodreads.com, but I’ve got to say that its target audience is and stays young adults (if not even mainly kids). The story had an interesting idea, though it lacked in execution. It reminded me a bit of “Brave New…
Don’t Be a Tourist in Paris – Vanessa Grall
This book is an absolute must-have for any kind of Paris-fanatic: Whether you’ve been living in the city for years and want to have a new and fresh view onto it or you’re coming to visit for the very first time – there’s something within it for both types of readers! It motivates you to…
The Help – Kathryn Stockett
“The Help” was an incredibly touching, deep kind of story, for which I found that it was a pity that it ended up being one of those books that you’d need to read in as close to one sitting as possible. The way it was written is bustling with character, each chapter written by a…
The Blind Assassin – Margaret Atwood
After having read “The Handmaid’s Tale” and having absolutely adored it, I was curious to dive into another work by Margaret Atwood. Unfortunately, I can’t give as much praise for “The Blind Assassin” I found the story to be extremely slow-paced (whereas that’s something that never disturbs me in other books), so that it would…
A Little Life – Hanya Yanagihara
This is one of the best books I’ve read in the last couple of years and it has definitely made it onto my favourites list!!! Yanagihara’s style was absolutely effortless, the story flowed so easily from chapter to chapter that you didn’t even notice yourself flipping the pages. To sum it up, I guess the…
Wonder – R. J. Palacio
There are few words that can describe the impression “Wonder” left after reading it and I think you would see best by making your own opinion of it. It was sweet, enchanting, heart warming, extremely emotionally touching (leaving you laughing out loud or even getting teary-eyed at times) and besides all that, so so well…
Chernobyl Prayer – Svetlana Alexievich
“Chernobyl Prayer” was one of those books that simply took you on an emotional roller-coaster ride while reading it. The collected stories would probably be the most authentic ones you’ll get to read when trying to find the real background stories of people affected by the Chernobyl disaster. With tears of sadness, feeling touched by…
Confessions of a Sociopath – M. E. Thomas
I would have given the book a 4 out of 5 rating, but unfortunately it was too noticeable that the author absolutely isn’t a professional writer. I just started reading “Eating Animals” by Jonathan Safran Foer and the difference couldn’t have been bigger, the 2 books seem like 2 absolutely different worlds judging by the…
The Dark Road – Ma Jian
Ma Jian’s story definitely gave an absolutely different perspective on China’s “one child policy” than what you would expect. The narrative proceeded in a way that felt a bit like a roller-coaster ride, which could be perceived from both a positive and a negative side. It didn’t manage to captivate your attention completely but nevertheless…
The Girl on the Train – Paula Hawkins
I started with “The Girl on the Train” longing for a similar read to “Gone Girl” but it simply ended up being TOO similar. I even checked the publication years, whether Hawkins might have gotten some inspiration from Flynn, which might very well be possible. The way both stories developed were very much alike, the…
The Vegetarian – Han Kang
“The Vegetarian” was a short, yet an impactful read, which managed to grasp you emotionally if you opened up to the story. Regardless the name, the topic of vegetarianism, though playing a decisive role in the development of the story, was only a marginal one. It was much more of a tale of the freedom…
Influence – Mary-Kate Olsen, Ashley Olsen
As far as the format of this book – it was much better than what I’ve expected it to be. What I thought would have just be a narrative about the lives of the Olsen twins, led on by their portraits embellishing the cover, turned out to be something completely different. A gorgeous book full…
Sharp Objects – Gillian Flynn
After reading Gillian Flynn’s “Gone Girl” I couldn’t wait to get my hands on another book of hers. Unfortunately the expectations couldn’t measure up for “Sharp Objects”. Though you did finally feel a bit entertained and enveloped in the events of the book upon arriving somewhere towards the middle of the story, there were too…
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