blauracke – Page 13 – Cannonball Read 17

“May I never, I say, become that abnormal, merciless animal, that deformed monstrosity – a virtuous woman.”

I Await the Devil's Coming by Mary MacLane

June 15, 2020 by blauracke Leave a Comment

Mary MacLane wrote this diary when she was 19 years old and lived in Butte, Montana. It covers roughly the first three months of the year 1901 and describes the frustration and unhappiness that she felt as an intelligent and ambitious young woman, due to the constraints society placed on her and the lack of any cultural stimulus in a mining town like Butte. These negative emotions are not only wielded like a weapon, she also hits her readers over the head with the notion […]

Justice Is a Matter of Judgment

Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil by Hannah Arendt

June 10, 2020 by blauracke Leave a Comment

First published in 1963 as a series of articles in The New Yorker, this is philosopher Hannah Arendt’s report on the trial of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem in 1961. Eichmann admitted to being one of the major organizers of the Holocaust but denied any guilt in the criminal sense because he had only been following orders in a system that did not allow disobedience. He was sentenced to death and executed by hanging in 1962. Huge controversies broke out over this account of the trial […]

A Line of Poetry Written With a Splash of Blood

Runaway Horses (The Sea of Fertility Book 2) by Yukio Mishima

June 3, 2020 by blauracke Leave a Comment

20 years after the death of Kiyoaki, Honda, who has become a judge in Osaka and lives a quiet and uneventful life, meets the 19-year-old Isao and believes him to be the reincarnation of his old friend. When he finds out that Isao, possessed by the desire to save Japan from the ever-growing Western and capitalist influence, is on a path of self-destruction he tries to save him from suffering the same untimely fate as Kiyoaki. In the first book of the tetralogy, Japan had […]

One of Six Dead, the Five Left All Unwell

Ghana Must Go by Taiye Selasi

May 26, 2020 by blauracke Leave a Comment

This is the pinpoint on which the story rests: Kweku dies barefoot on a Sunday before sunrise, his slippers by the doorway to the bedroom like dogs. At the moment he is on the threshold between sunroom and garden considering whether to go back to get them. He won’t. It happens in a house in Ghana, to a gifted surgeon who is estranged from his ex-wife and his four grown-up children living far away in America. In three parts, the family’s past, present, and future […]

Something Was Amiss

Coming Home by Tetiana Trofusha

May 18, 2020 by blauracke Leave a Comment

Former model Ji has developed agoraphobia after a fall on a runway and cannot leave her flat. Her husband Adan, the owner of a neurotechnology company, is the only important person in her life, but he is controlling and abusive towards her. Ji begins to question their relationship and other things after some disturbing events. This is a short novella whose appeal are the many twists and turns and the uncertainty of the protagonist about the realities of her life. She feels that she is […]

“Across the gulf of space … intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us.”

The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - The Martian Menace by Eric Brown

May 17, 2020 by blauracke Leave a Comment

6 years after their failed first invasion in 1894, Martians once again arrived on Earth, but this time in a more peaceful manner. Since then, they have established a permanent presence on Earth, sharing technology and living alongside humans for the last 10 years. When the Martian ambassador asks Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson to travel to Mars in order to investigate the murder of a prominent philosopher, signs of a far-reaching conspiracy begin to emerge. It is an ambitious undertaking to take The War […]

Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

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