MarianHellema

MarianHellema, 13 days ago to random Dutch

#SilentSunday

MarianHellema, 1 month ago to bookstodon Dutch

#10authors5bookseach

Nice to see all your lists. Here's mine.

Paul Auster
Anne Tyler
David Mitchell
Hilary Mantel
Kate Atkinson
Daniel Woodrell
Anita Brookner
TC Boyle
José Saramago
Gabriel García Márquez

@bookstodon

MarianHellema, 1 month ago to random Dutch

#SilentSunday

MarianHellema, 1 month ago to bookstodon Dutch

@bookstodon

Ithaca
by
Alan McMonagle

This book is about a troubled 11 year old boy, living with his slightly crazy mother. But still, it's very funny.

I think it's very hard to write convincingly about a child as the main character. It gets too childish or irritating very easily. But McMonagle's terrific writing really does it!

MarianHellema, 1 month ago to bookstodon Dutch

@bookstodon

The Fell
by
Sarah Moss

This is a wonderful small novel. It's in the Peak District during the covid lockdowns. About how strange these times were and about the impact and dilemmas in daily life.

Moss is very good at telling the story through the inner voices of the four main characters. She is a wonderful writer.

MarianHellema, 1 month ago to bookstodon Dutch

@histodons @bookstodon

The Path to Power
by
Robert A Caro

This masterpiece is part I of the biography of Lyndon B Johnson. At first I dreaded its 800 pages, but it reads like a novel. It's a highly engaging look behind the scenes, both politically and psychologically.

I was fascinated by Johnson's genius for organizing people and money. Step by step he planned his road to presidency. He succeeded by working relentlessly, by tremendous political talent and by sometimes questionable tactics.

MarianHellema, 2 months ago to histodons Dutch

@histodons

Magisteria, The Entangled History of Science and Religion
by
Nicholas Spencer

Since the 19th century we've come to think of science and religion as mutually opposed worldviews. In this book Spencer shows that their relationship is much more complex. Starting from the early Middle Ages up till now, he offers many interesting stories.

Frankly, I found the writing sometimes less than clear. But all in all I enjoyed this broad work on one of my favorite topics.

MarianHellema, 2 months ago to bookstodon Dutch

@bookstodon

Time Present and Time Past
by
Deirde Madden

This is my favorite type of novel. About an ordinary family, whose characters come to life by seemingly ordinary but terrific writing. It's told from the family's diverse perspectives.

Old photohgraphs are a recurring theme, which make you look at the past as both familiar and strange.

Favorite quote, about a placid baby: "He lay in his pram smiling and cooing, gazing into space, as if he hadn't noticed that he had been born".

MarianHellema, 2 months ago to bookstodon Dutch

@bookstodon

Maureen Fry and the Angel of the North
by
Rachel Joyce

I loved this short novel. It's about Maureen, an elderly woman driving all through England. On her way she has short encounters with other people and meanwhile she thinks about her past.

I admire how Joyce keeps it very simple. Maureen is a touching character, both nice and difficult. The story is sad but far from hopeless.

It is a sequel to the wonderful "The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry" but can be read on its own.

MarianHellema, 2 months ago to bookstodon Dutch

@bookstodon

Dead in the Water
by
Ann Granger

I really enjoyed this whodunit from the Campbell & Carter series. It has everything you want in the genre. A girl found dead in a river. A nice pair of male & female cops with bits of their personal life. A quaint Cotswold village, with the villagers all more or less odd. Unexpected developments. Wonderful, seemingly effortless writing.

Recommended to anyone who loves cozy mysteries.

MarianHellema, 2 months ago to bookstodon Dutch

@bookstodon

The Trio
by
Johanna Hedman
(translated from Swedish)

I enjoyed this book about three young people trying to find out who they are and what they are to each other. Their threesome is full of tensions, insecurities, attraction, distance and love.

Also, it made me glad I'm no longer in my twenties myself :)

MarianHellema, 2 months ago to bookstodon Dutch

@bookstodon

If I Survive You
by
Jonathan Escoffery

This is about a family from Jamaica, living in Florida. The episodes are about different family members, whose stories are interlinked.

I liked the parts where the main character is confused by the question "What are you"? He doesn't really belong to the Blacks, the Whites, the Spanish speaking Cubans, Puerto Ricans or Haitians. But people keep trying to pin it down.

I didn't like all parts equally well, but all in all I really enjoyed it.

kimlockhartga, 2 months ago to bookstodon

If we expressed how things are going using only book titles:

Greetings From Gehenna

We Are Attempting to Survive our Time

Awake in Dreams, Sleeping Death Away

Idiots, Follies, and Misadventures

My Pancreas Broke, But my Life Got Better

I Died, Too, But They Haven't Buried Me Yet

I Just Keep Talking

Other People's Comfort Keeps Me up at Night

Furiously Happy

Wild Monsters Dance About

Shame is an Ocean I Swim Across

Some of Us are Very Hungry Now

I Found a Circus Tent in the Woods Behind my House

I Done Clicked my Heels Three Times

A Season of Monstrous Conceptions

The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles

Women! In! Peril!

Gun, With Occasional Music

American Delirium

America Fantastica

I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness

Everyone in This Room Will Someday be Dead

There Was Histrionic Laughter at the Clown's Cadaver

I Hold a Wolf by the Ears

The Glassy, Burning Floor of Hell

Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket

@bookstodon

MarianHellema, 3 months ago to boeken Dutch

@boeken

"Boven is het stil" van Gerbrand Bakker.

Mooi boek over een zwijgzame boer en zijn gezin van herkomst. Ik heb genoten van de kale stijl, die erg goed past bij het stuurse karakter van de hoofdpersoon.

MarianHellema, 3 months ago to random Dutch

#SilentSunday

MarianHellema, 3 months ago to bookstodon Dutch

@bookstodon @histodons

Longitude
by
Dava Sobel

I love a good history of science and this is a small classic. About how the difficult problem of measuring longitude was solved in the 1700s. It describes why this was important for navigation at sea. It's fun to read about the sometimes absurd proposals to solve the problem.

John Harrison spent his whole life to solve it by designing an accurate clock. He tinkered for decades, against opposition.

Very readable, non-technical

MarianHellema, 3 months ago to bookstodon Dutch

@bookstodon

The Children
by
Ann Leary

I really enjoyed this book about a family in a big lakeside house in Connecticut. Slowly some cracks in their family life start to show.

I liked the characters, all of them slightly crazy. It is a very good read. Entertaining, funny at times and with a seemingly effortless style that I admire.

MarianHellema, 3 months ago to bookstodon Dutch

@bookstodon #NonFiction

Moral Politics - How Liberals and Conservatives Think
by
George Lakoff

The author is a cognitive scientist. He analyses the worldviews of conservatives and liberals. I think the approach is very interesting: looking at the language and metaphors used.

He shows how both worldviews look at politics as similar to families. Conservatives use a 'strict father' model and liberals a 'nurturing parent' one.

It is somewhat repetitive at times, but very much worth it so far.

MarianHellema, 3 months ago to bookstodon Dutch

@bookstodon

The Hero of this Book
by
Elizabeth McCracken

This is a wonderful book. A memoir (or not?) about an American writer visiting London. Meanwhile she is remembering her mother, body and soul. It's also about her own writing.

I loved its tone: slightly prickly, but also warm and funny.

Favorite sentence: someone on a psychoanalyst's couch, saying: I had a difficult childhood, especially lately.

kimlockhartga, 3 months ago to bookstodon

@bookstodon There's a reason I don't skip the intro: often they're funny and/or illuminating. Do you read/skim the intro to books?

For example, in Kieron Gillen's intro to THESE SAVAGE SHORES, by Ram V, Kumar, Astone, and Bidikar, he reveals that the original idea for the story was "A white guy seeing something and deciding that maybe if he's sneaky enough, it could be his," which morphed more specifically into "Vampires as a metaphor for colonialism."

I love hearing about the ideas which brought projects to fruition.

MarianHellema, 3 months ago to random Dutch

#SilentSunday

Likewise, 3 months ago to books

We’ve talked about not finishing books, which I have no problem doing. There are some books, that I know I will give another shot at some point. This is one such book. I’m thinking I stopped b/c something else grabbed my attention or was more pressing (ie. library book, etc-which is actually a poor excuse b/c I always have library books in).

1. Has anyone read this?
2. Do you have a book you DNF, but came back to later on?
   #books #wine #fediverse #photography @bookstodon

kimlockhartga, 4 months ago to bookstodon

@bookstodon What's your favorite book title, whether you've read it or not?

Mine is EVERYONE ON THE MOON IS ESSENTIAL PERSONNEL, by Julian K. Jarboe, which I have not yet read, followed closely by THEY DON'T MAKE PLUS SIZE SPACESUITS, by Ali Thompson, which I have read.

MarianHellema, 4 months ago to bookstodon Dutch

@bookstodon

The last gift
by
Abdulrazak Gurnah

I had managed to overlook this Nobel prize winner, but now I enjoyed this book. An African man suddenly leaves everything behind and settles in England. At the end of his life he reluctantly tells his story to his family. Underlying question: can you leave your past behind? What does it mean for your sense of belonging and entitlement?

The style is a bit distant, but I really liked the stories of the four family members, different as they are.