blauracke – Page 28 – Cannonball Read 17

Life is a Multitude of Stories

Eva Luna by Isabel Allende

February 8, 2019 by blauracke Leave a Comment

The book follows the life of Eva Luna, an orphan that has to fend for herself from an early age on. Growing up she meets a cast of colourful characters and later on becomes tangled up in the political turmoil affecting her country. She is a gifted storyteller, that uses her talent to better cope with the hardships of life and to entertain people. The characters in this book are fantastic, I thought that most of them were multifaceted and exceedingly human, especially in the […]

Being a woman means being at the mercy of men.

Paradise Reclaimed by Halldór Laxness

January 29, 2019 by blauracke 1 Comment

In the late 1800s an Icelandic farmer leaves his home and family to visit the King of Denmark in Copenhagen, where a proselytizing Mormon bishop convinces him to travel to the town of Spanish Fork in the Utah Territory in order to also become a Mormon. The farmer builds himself a new life there and after several years sends for his family to join him. Well, that sounds like a nice enough story about a man looking for paradise and finding it. However, it’s really […]

You can’t choose your family

Maigret and the Old Lady by Georges Simenon

January 25, 2019 by blauracke Leave a Comment

In a picturesque seaside resort a young maid is poisoned by taking medicine intended for her elderly employer. So it stands to reason that the victim should have been the old lady… or does it? At her and her politician son’s request Inspector Maigret travels to Normandy to investigate the crime and encounters a family whose dynamics are suffused by hatred and greed. Simenon peels back the layers slowly to show us the true faces of his characters, and he contrasts it nicely with the […]

Kyoto, mon amour

The Old Capital by Yasunari Kawabata

January 22, 2019 by blauracke 1 Comment

On the surface, The Old Capital tells the story of a year in the life of a young woman in post-war Kyoto, who was adopted as a baby by a couple that owns a store for traditional Japanese clothes. By chance she meets her twin sister and through her learns about her own background. Subplots include two young men’s interest in her and also her adoptive father’s troubles with the changes progress is bringing to his world. However, underneath this simple and rather uninteresting storyline […]

It’s a terrible life.

The Green House by Mario Vargas Llosa

January 20, 2019 by blauracke Leave a Comment

Set during the first half of the 20th century both in a town near the desert and in different places all over the jungle of Northern Peru, Vargas Llosa interweaves the lives of a native woman, who was raised in a convent, a musician, who builds the brothel called the Green House, a heartless and brutal criminal, who cares only about himself, and four friends, who are always up to no good. First of all, reading this book is hard work. You have to give […]

Slow but steady wins the race… but not always?

The Discovery of Slowness by Sten Nadolny

January 13, 2019 by blauracke Leave a Comment

This book is a fictionalized account of the life of John Franklin, the famous explorer of the Arctic, who died while trying to find the legendary Northwest Passage. Nadolny seems to have researched Franklin very thoroughly and stays mostly true to the facts, except attributing one additional dominant characteristic to him, and that is “slowness”. This fictional Franklin sees the world differently than other people, because his inner clock is delayed, which means that everything happens too fast for him and he reacts too late. […]

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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