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…
Tag: book club reads
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…
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…
Talk to Strangers – Matt Dahlia
The reason why this book ended up in my home library was because I have been following the “Yes Theory“ YouTube channel for years. When I first heard that one of the original co-founders would be working on a project to tell their unique story, I instantly knew that I’d like to support them by…
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…
Mayflies – Andrew O’Hagan
I came across “Mayflies” after it was picked as the December 2023 read for the Sitges Expat Book Club. The blurb sounded promising, as the story of male friendship is not a topic I usually read about. What it ended up being, was a book that I found to be underwhelming. I didn’t enjoy reading…
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…
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…
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…
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…
The Shallows – Nicholas Carr
Even though “The Shallows” was initially published in 2010, I found it to still be relevant while reading it in 2023. Not much has changed in the updated edition from 2020 except for a new introduction and an afterword, surely a lot of insights are missing linked to the usage of smartphones, apps, etc. but…
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…
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…
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat – Oliver Sacks
Oliver Sacks has been on my “to-read” list as an author for quite some time and I was especially excited when it was picked as the book of the month within one of my book clubs. It ended up being such a fascinating read and I can’t wait to discover more of the author’s works!!!…
The One Thing Worth Doing – John Pope
Having come across John Pope’s novel thanks to the Paris Anglophone Book Club, it was an extremely interesting insight into the finished product of a self-published book. Even though there were little bits and pieces of the narrative that were a bit less appealing to me, in general it was a pleasant read. There was…
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…
21 Lessons for the 21st Century – Yuval Noah Harari
This was my third Harari book that I immersed myself in, after having read “Sapiens” in 2016 and “Homo Deus” in 2018. I find myself recommending these books to people because I did find them incredibly valuable and informative (especially Sapiens!) but I still end up only giving ratings of 3/5 ★ to them. It…
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…
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…
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…
Night Boat to Tangier – Kevin Barry
This is one of those books where I actually really feel sorry about giving it a low rating… There were some parts that I found really enjoyable, the language was absolutely beautiful at times, the descriptions were almost tangible, but… It just wasn’t a story for my taste. If it wouldn’t have been for my…
Lifespan – David A. Sinclair
“Lifespan” was definitely one the most challenging books I have read this year and if it wasn’t for a book club I’ve attended, I would have never come across it! As I noted down 25 pages in, I straight away understood that it would be a bumpy ride. It’s demanding of your entire attention and…
The Fire Next Time – James Baldwin
Diving into my first James Baldwin book, I was simply blown away by how elegant and impactful his writing was. I was glad to have an introduction to his works with “The Fire Next Time” since it’s such a personal account, allowing you to get to know the author better. The way he tackles the…
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…
HOW TO: Join a Book Club
Have you always wondered about the idea of a book club, heard some friends or acquaintances talking about it or were simply curious about joining one but didn’t quite know where to start? Then this little guide is for you. If you’ve also always been hesitant about book clubs, thinking that they’re a gathering of…
The Hidden Life of Trees – Peter Wohlleben
What started off as an incredibly interesting book filled with completely new information for me, didn’t quite manage to hold that level until the very end. Nevertheless, I still considered it to be a more or less enjoyable read. I really appreciated the sense of humour of the author throughout the writing and the short…
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…
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous – Ocean Vuong
“On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous” by Ocean Vuong has instantly become my favourite book of the year out of all the 16 I have read so far in 2020. If you were wondering, that is the author’s actual name, it was changed into Ocean by his mother after she has separated from her husband, who…
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…
Talking to Strangers – Malcolm Gladwell
I have been tempted to pick up the “Talking to Strangers” book having previously liked Gladwell’s “Outliers“ (read it in 2015 and gave it a 4 out of 5 star rating back then) and also because of its title, which ended up being completely misleading. I was expecting something more psychological or something that would…
Mr. Gwyn – Alessandro Baricco
I read the German translation of “Mr. Gwyn” by Annette Kopetzki and I’ve got to say that after this first book as an intro to the author, I’m very curious about discovering other novels by Alessandro Baricco! I got through “Mr. Gwyn” in almost just a single day, one reason being that I was stuck…
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…
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…
What My Mother and I Don’t Talk About – Michele Filgate
This is the perfect example of a book to prove why I love reading so much over watching series or movies. Just like one of the authors mentions, As a child I dipped into books, and everything around me, including my body, faded away. It was a very conscious act. I am very lucky that…
Life for Sale – Yukio Mishima
I thought that this book was absolutely beautiful. Swaying back and forth between 4 and 5 out of 5 stars, I finally settled for the highest grade. It’s an extremely short and easy read, but nevertheless executed perfectly by the author. I loved the way it was structured with short chapters that made you want…
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? – Philip K. Dick
This book probably wasn’t as bad as some other 1/5 star rated ones that I have read, I still found zero enjoyment in it, so I couldn’t rate it any higher (another reasoning for the grade was that it surely didn’t measure up to Olga Tokarczuk’s “Flights”, which I read a couple of weeks ago,…
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…
Submission – Michel Houellebecq
This is definitely the worst book I have read this year (and it also comes close to probably being one of the worst books I’ve ever read in my entire life). To start off, I absolutely don’t understand the hype and the buzz around Michel Houellebecq. To me, he comes off as a completely arrogant…
The White Tiger – Aravind Adiga
From the very beginning of the book, I simply wasn’t a fan of the main character. More than that, 118 pages in, I’ve noted down that I couldn’t care less about what would happen to him. There’s no connection I’ve felt towards him whatsoever and no matter how well the story would’ve been written, it…
Stoner – John Williams
This book left a really strong impression on me, even though it is once again one of those that I wouldn’t have picked up myself. I stayed awake until 2am finishing the last 100 pages and that’s a sure sign of a well written book for me. One of the most striking things to me…
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…
Sadness is a White Bird – Moriel Rothman-Zecher
I couldn’t have been happier to come across “Sadness is a White Bird” by chance, the book having been selected for a book club that I attended. I have devoured it up in no time, staying up late until the middle of the night. The language flows beautifully and I loved the way the narrative…
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