Hello lovely girls,
I have a map card for you this Tuesday and as Elizabeth and Bluebeard are having a T-Party, I want to secure my invite with a few drinks. And if I feel like it, I will do some book reviews. I have read 16 books this summer, (19 if May counts as 'summer') so I will probably do just two or three at a time.
Are you sitting comfortably? Then I will begin:
I received this map card recently. It was sent to me through Postcrossing by Andreas who is a biologist in Chemnitz in Germany.
Wikipedia writes:
Chemnitz, known as Karl-Marx-Stadt from 1953 to 1990, is the third-largest city in the German state of Saxony after Leipzig and Dresden, and the fourth-largest city in the area of the former East Germany after (East) Berlin, Leipzig, and Dresden.
Below the statue of Karl Marx:
Chemnitz had an opera theatre and was the European Capital of Culture of 2025.
Below the old and the new town hall:
The stamps are colourful.
The middle stamp is from a series of popular holiday destinations.
It features mountains and marmots.
The other two are from the series 'World of Letters'. The series which began December 2021, replaced definitive series “Flowers” after a 16-year run.
Folded paper is the theme that runs through the series. On the left there is a paper fish and on the right a 'message in a bottle'.
What can I tell you about me? When I was traveling home on the bus not long ago, my rucksack fell off the luggage rack and my tablet now has a cracked screen. Thank goodness it still works, but I will take it to a repair shop to see if I can get a new screen.
(My face is just about visible in the screen as I take the picture.)
As today Elizabeth and Bluebeard are hosting the T-Party, I need some drinks:
Here I'm enjoying some salmon with wild rice and peas. My drink is a lovely rosé called Peñascal.
This is last night's salad, with air fried chicken breast and fresh lettuce, cucumber and tomato. Very simple really. All that washed down with the same rosé. (Peñascal)
These are air fried cod fillets with roasted tomatoes and brown rice. Again with some Peñascal. I'm using a can as I forgot to put a new bottle in the fridge. Rosé needs to be cold.
Let me tell you what I have been reading this summer. I have counted 19 books (if May counts as summer).
I will mention three books today. Two of these I picked up reluctantly because the subject matter didn't quite 'float my boat'. But I'm so glad I did read them!
First one:
Robert Goddard is my favourite author and I have read nearly all his books, but I hadn't read this one as it is about WWI which didn't attract me. But it came up as a special offer on Audible, so I got it.
The book starts with this sentence: ’This is the day and this the place where a dream turns a corner and a secret is told.’ Well, I couldn't resist that and I had to read it.
Goodreads describes it like this:
Six months after her husband's sudden death, Leonora Galloway sets off for a holiday in Paris with her daughter Penelope. At last the time has come when secrets can be shared and explanations begin... Their journey starts with an unscheduled stop at the imposing Thiepval Memorial to the dead of the Battle of the Somme near Amiens. Amongst those commemorated is Leonora's father. The date of his death is recorded as April, 30th, 1916. But Leonora wasn't born until March 14th, 1917. Penelope at once supposes a simple wartime illegitimacy as the clue to her mother's unhappy childhood and the family's sundered connections with her aristocratic heritage, about which she has always known so little. But nothing could have prepared her, or the reader, for the extraordinary story that is about to unfold.
It is indeed a beautifully told, tragic story set in WWI. It's a love story (in the broadest sense) and a murder mystery, about the battle on the Somme and about PTSD. It spans four generations so it keeps you on your toes. And towards the end of the story, I wasn't quite sure which was courage and which was cowardice, or indeed the difference between right and wrong which in a war is often so vague. It really made me think.
It was one of those stories that drew you in and kept you there, feeling almost part of the family and like Penelope, made you desperately wanting to know the truth.
In spite of my reservations, I loved it and gave it my (maximum) of 5 stars.
Isaac and the Egg was the most beautiful and surprising book I have read in a very long time. It's about grief and loss and that doesn't sound like an attractive subject for a book. I have spent the last 20 years of my working life professionally dealing with death and dying so I was hesitant to pick this up.
Well, I'm glad I did, as it was delightful! Isaac the protagonist has lost his wife and is not coping at all. At the start of the book he is about to jump off a bridge. He has had enough. Then he sees something shimmering in the grass. Upon inspection it seems to be a large pulsating egg. Eventually he takes this egg home.
The egg turns out to be 'salient' and as Isaac descends into mental desperation and in the end has a breakdown, the egg is a comfort to him somehow. He talks to the egg and can get suff off his mind.
Slowly the reader discovers what has happened .
It is a feel-good book that at times is laugh-out-loud funny but there are moments you need a tissue. It is sad but at the same time filled with hope and love.
I listened to this book on Audible and the narrator is excellent (Johnny Flynn). I believe he brought the book to life. I don't think I would have enjoyed it so much if I had just read it as a book.Again I gave it 5 stars.
Last but not least:
This book was recommended to me by my friend Keren. We have the same taste in books so I immediately got this (on Audible as well) and enjoyed it very much.
The story is set in two time lines. One in 'today' and one in WWII Paris.
Paris was becoming a dangerous place and the bookshop owner sends his wife away to relatives in the country for her own safety. He stays in Nazi-occupied Paris and keeps the book shop, now also frequented by Germans. He tries to help local people where he can. I'm not saying anymore as I don't want to spoil it.
The story line in modern times involves a young American woman, Juliette, who is visiting Paris where her grandmother was born. She has inherited a painting from her grandma which shows a little square in an old part of Paris. Of course she finds where this square is and the story unfolds.
The book is very moving at times and sometimes sad.
I know from my parents what suffering the Nazis caused, so what happened to the bookshop owner comes as no surprise.
There is a quote in the book which could also refer to our present times:
“What havoc could be inflicted on the world by one man with a lust for power!”
I gave it 4,5 stars.
That is all from me today.
Happy T-Day all,
Lisca
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