When you see the title you would think you’re in for a thriller/horror type of story, but you couldn’t be more wrong. It’s a very gripping but disturbing story about five teenage sisters who commit suicide. Heavy stuff? Not really. The way the story is told is very open and factual, even funny at times,…
A new governess is hired to care for the two children, Flora and Miles, living at Bly. She takes up a friendship with Mrs. Grose who has been there much longer. Everything goes well with the governess and dear sweet Flora until her brother Miles comes home, expelled from school. The governess is puzzled by…
A very moving story in which a young girl tries to make sense of her world in the 1930s in a small fictional town called Maycomb (Alabama). Together with her brother Jem and her vacation friend Dill she explores her surroundings and figures out the people living in it. All is good and kind of…
I’m not in the habit of rereading books—with two exceptions: the Asterix comics and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice is a classic that is detailed observations of early 19th-century society all written with depth and a lot of humor. The book follows Elizabeth Bennet, the second oldest daughter of five, as…
If you want to be swept away and read and read and read, pick up this book with believable characters in a profound story.Just a magnificent book. Sort of Catcher in the Rye, but then ten times better. Conrad Jarrett is an 18-year-old man, who lost his brother a year before and doesn’t know how…
Colin is heartbroken. His, what he thought, girlfriend Vera is marrying somebody else and he got the invitation to the wedding to prove it. In this state of mind, he travels to America and gets off the bus in New Cardiff. The reason? He liked the memorial statue. In the first minutes he is there…
Guy Montag is a fireman; not a fireman that extinguishes fires, but one that ignites them. He lives in a time (somewhere in the future) when having books is illegal. When the people who own them are found out, the fire brigade is called to burn down the house together with the books. Guy is…
Dr. Montague is an occult scholar and he wants some solid evidence about the phenomenon called haunting. He sets his eyes on Hill House, a big mansion up in the hills, to conduct his study. The house is said to be haunted and anybody who tried living there moved out after only three or four…
When her best friend Cynthia commits suicide and leaves a message in which she states a big part of her reason was her husband Gil, Annie knows she wants to get even with him. Together with her two friends, Brenda and Elise, she begins the First Wives Club. They want to take all their first…
If you are not a big fan of non-fiction — like me — don’t be alarmed by the genre description. It reads like fiction: thriller, drama, wit, you’ll get all and at very high quality at that. You will read like there is no tomorrow. It is a great book! A New York journalist is staying…
Read More “Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil — John Berendt” »
Two main stories are being told in this impressive book. The first is the relationship between Evelyn and Mrs. Threadgoode in the 1980s. The second one is the story about two women running a cafe in Whistle Stop in the 1930s and all the people around them. Through different perspectives and lifetimes the reader gets…
Read More “Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe — Fannie Flagg” »
Vianne Rocher and her daughter Anouk come to a little town in France. Vianne opens a chocolate store opposite the church. Vianne is seen as a danger to many people in the village, especially Father Reynaud, but there are some more open-minded people as well that embrace her and her very special sweets. With Vianne…
Just before planet Earth is being destroyed alien Ford Prefect, who has lived on earth for fifteen years as an out-of-work-actor, saves human Arthur Dent, who already is having a bad day because his house is scheduled to be demolished that morning. Reason for destruction: the planet has to give way for an intergalactic freeway….
Read More “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy — Douglas Adams” »
“Phew, I survived the first Hunger Games.”(Together with someone else; not supposed to happen.)“Phew, I survived the second Hunger Games.”(Not supposed to happen.)“I saved the world, but nearly everybody I care about is dead.”(Nightmares aside, she lives happily ever after.) (about The Hunger Games trilogy)
“He’s guilty.” (x11)“No, he’s not.” (x1)“Convince us then.”“Okay.”(A very long and hot while later…)“He’s not guilty.” (x12) (about Twelve Angry Men and the official text)
“Ah—ah—ah—ow—ow—ow—oo! I want to talk proper English.”“It’s a bet! I can do that within eight months! (But you will be my slave while I teach you.)”“Ah—ah—ah—ow—ow—ow—oo! It’s a deal.” (After eight months she speaks like a real lady and is emancipated: good for her, not good for him.) (about Pygmalion and the official text at…
“I hope I’m not going to end up as mad as my dad.” (about Proof and/or watch the play)
“Our husbands left us, the bastards.”“Let’s retaliate and give them hell.”(They did.) (about The First Wives Club)