blauracke – Page 20 – Cannonball Read 17

Like Saturn, the Revolution Devours Its Children

The Glass-Blowers by Daphne du Maurier

November 4, 2019 by blauracke Leave a Comment

With the French Revolution as the historical background, du Maurier tells the story of a family of master craftsmen who prefer to live in a world of their own, with distinct traditions and rules, but when civil war breaks out, even they must choose a side. This is apparently based on du Maurier’s own family history, and the story is told by a fictional version of one of her ancestors. This is a great piece of historical fiction, and what sets it apart from other […]

It was a dull and boring night…

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

October 29, 2019 by blauracke Leave a Comment

As a 10-year-old, Daniel Sempere visits a mysterious place called the ‘Cemetery of Forgotten Books’ and chooses a book by the unknown author Julián Carax. Over the years, he tries to find out more about him, only to discover that someone is searching for all of Carax’ books just to burn them, and that he himself may possess one of the last copies. This is supposed to be a gothic novel full of doomed romance, tragedy, and mystery, but in the end, it is mostly […]

The Longest Journey

Magellan by Stefan Zweig

October 24, 2019 by blauracke Leave a Comment

In September of 1519, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan set out to find and sail a presumed passage between the Atlantic and the South Pacific in order to find a Western route to the highly coveted Spice Islands. Although not planned as such, this journey ended up the first circumnavigation of the world which proved that the Earth is a round, rotating ball. Magellan himself did not live to see its conclusion as he died during an unnecessary battle in the Philippines, but the important events […]

At the Heart of a Monster

The Alienist by Caleb Carr

October 20, 2019 by blauracke Leave a Comment

In 1896, a serial killer targets boys who work as prostitutes in the seedy parts of New York City. A controversial psychiatrist, then called an alienist, and a reporter gather an investigative team in order to identify the killer through the usage of scientific methods like forensics and an early form of profiling. I actually thought that I’d like this more because on the surface it has all the ingredients that I usually enjoy, like a well-researched historical background, cameos by a parade of historical […]

It was not war. It was most certainly massacre and genocide, something the world must remember…

The Forty Days of Musa Dagh by Franz Werfel

October 15, 2019 by blauracke Leave a Comment

During WWI, the Young Turk government initiated the deportation, the concentration camps, and the massacre of the Ottoman Empire’s Armenian citizens. This led to the death of 1 to 1.5 million people from 1915 to 1916, which is known as the Armenian genocide. This book, which is based on true events, focuses on a community on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea near Aleppo whose members decide to flee from their villages to the near mountain Musa Dagh, and to take up a seemingly futile […]

Stars Shining Bright Above Us

Parallax: The Race to Measure the Cosmos by Alan W. Hirshfeld

October 6, 2019 by blauracke Leave a Comment

In the 3rd century BC, Aristarchus of Samos developed a heliocentric model in which the sun is at the centre, with Earth and the other planets revolving around it. This model was rejected by other scientists until Nicolaus Copernicus picked it up again 1,800 years later and initiated the Copernican Revolution. One of the reasons for the rejection of a heliocentric model was that stellar parallax, the apparent shift of position of any nearby star against the background of distant objects, could not be observed […]

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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