Book Talk – August & September 2024

Did you realize that there was no book review for August yet? Probably not. It is ok. You get a double one today. August wasn’t the greatest reading month for me. Only three books were logged. September was a better one though with five books. Let’s dive into our book talk, shall we?

The Creative Act by Rick Rubin | ★★★★★

Goodreads says: The Creative Act is a beautiful and generous course of study that illuminates the path of the artist as a road we all can follow. It distills the wisdom gleaned from a lifetime’s work into a luminous reading experience that puts the power to create moments–and lifetimes–of exhilaration and transcendence within closer reach for all of us.
From the legendary music producer, a master at helping people connect with the wellsprings of their creativity, comes a beautifully crafted book many years in the making that offers that same deep wisdom to all of us.
What I thought: This was such an inspiring piece of work. I did listen to it on audiobook and am sure it would have been more impactful to read. I put it on my wishlist so maybe someone gifts it to me. The advice is not really all new and deep but Rubin has a wonderful way of saying this things that are inspiring. That makes you stop in your tracks and consider, do shift and to focus in your creative work. I think this is a wonderful coffee table book for anyone living a creative life. It is motivating, uplifting and I bet the hardcover is also wonderfully designed. Even though you can tell he comes from a music background the advice is compatible to all creative genres.
Medium: audiobook through library
Original Language and Title: English
Publications: German title “Kreativ. Die Kunst zu sein”
Recommend to: Anyone with a creative spirit, who loves inspiring writing or loves the arts.
Author’s Origin: born in Long Beach, NY, The United States | March 10, 1963

The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo | ★★★★☆

Goodreads says: Captivating and lushly written, The Night Tiger explores the rich world of servants and masters, ancient superstition and modern ambition, sibling rivalry and unexpected love. Woven through with Chinese folklore and a tantalizing mystery, this novel is a page-turner of the highest order.
What I thought: I am a sucker for asian folklore lately so this one did not disappoint. It was told from multiple points of view and we jumped back and forth with these characters when in the end all those threads came together. I admit at first I thought we were also in different timelines but no. I also learned a little bit about British colonialism in Malaysia.
Characters: Ren – 11 year old houseboy, Ji Lin – an apprentice dressmaker,
Setting: Malaysian country, two villages, the hospital, the doctors house, the dance hall
Medium: eBook
Original Language and Title: English
Publications: German title “Nachttiger”
Recommend to: Everyone in love with Asian folklore and the magic realism genre.
Author’s Origin: born in Malaysia
Read Around the World: Logged for Malaysia

Schrei im Eis by Bernadette Calonego | ★★★★☆

Goodreads says: A remote coastal village in Newfoundland. A brutal attack in broad daylight. Young snowmobilers chasing a polar bear find a woman beaten bloody in the snow. Calista Gates is faced with a mystery. Why does no one in the fishermen’s houses claim to have seen anything?
Two days later, Calista discovers the body of a local agitator who was hostile to her. Bullets are lodged between his ribs.
Events come thick and fast. Calista’s lover Gerald Hynes is missing in the freezing north of Labrador. He was last seen at a mysterious crater lake. Calista is beside herself with worry and remembers an unsolved case. Eight years ago, four trekking women disappeared without a trace in the same area. Does Gerald have anything to do with it? Are all these events connected?
Calista is under massive pressure and realizes too late that someone is committing a betrayal that could cost her her life
What I thought: As you know I rarely read thrillers but I read everything Beradette Calonego writes. This was another fun story, some crime to solve while traveling through the landscape of Canada. I specifically love that Calonego always includes local population. Here we learned more about the natives, their stories and how they protect landmarks.
Characters: Calista Gates – detective and her small crew of 3 officers + a dog
Setting: New Foundland, Crater Lake
Medium: eBook through Kindle unlimited, library | audiobook through library | paperback | hardcover
Original Language and Title: German title “Schrei im Eis”
Publications: will be translated to English as the previous books in the series
Recommend to: Everyone who loves mystery crime with local color and has read the previous books.
Author’s Origin: born in Stans, Switzerland
Additional note: book #5 in the Calista Gates series

All Adults Here by Emma Straub | ★★★✶☆

Goodreads says: When Astrid Strick witnesses a school bus accident in the center of town, it jostles loose a repressed memory from her young parenting days decades earlier. Suddenly, Astrid realizes she was not quite the parent she thought she’d been to her three, now-grown children. But to what consequence?
Astrid’s youngest son is drifting and unfocused, making parenting mistakes of his own. Her daughter is intentionally pregnant yet struggling to give up her own adolescence. And her eldest seems to measure his adult life according to standards no one else shares. But who gets to decide, so many years later, which long-ago lapses were the ones that mattered? Who decides which apologies really count? It might be that only Astrid’s thirteen-year-old granddaughter and her new friend really understand the courage it takes to tell the truth to the people you love the most.
What I thought: this was my second book by Straub and I enjoyed it more than “This Time Tomorrow.” I specifically like how Straub has painted the different struggles each person has and how very differently they handle it. I like the reflective nature from Astrid that she questioning her parenting at the same time knows she did what she was capable at the moment. I like the divers characters. One could say it’s a bit forced to comply to all but it was well done compared to other books.
Characters:The Strick Family, August and Robin, Barbara – dead neighbor
Setting: Small town somewhere
Medium:audiobook through library
Original Language and Title: English
Publications: German title “Die Launen des Lebens” – what an utterly stupid translation
Recommend to: Everyone loving a solid romance that is a bit deeper than the swoon over someone novels.
Author’s Origin: born in New York City, United States | 1979/1980

I Capture The Castle by Dodie Smith | ★★★✶☆

Goodreads says: Through six turbulent months of 1934, 17-year-old Cassandra Mortmain keeps a journal, filling three notebooks with sharply funny yet poignant entries about her home, a ruined Suffolk castle, and her eccentric and penniless family. By the time the last diary shuts, there have been great changes in the Mortmain household, not the least of which is that Cassandra is deeply, hopelessly, in love.
What I thought: This was an enjoyable classic and I am glad I read it. It was part of the Cool Bloggers Bookclub and I probably would have otherwise never heard or read it. I liked the writing style. There was some humor. I think the characters were very well drawn out. I didnt enjoy the Simon Cassandra scene that changed it all. After that it was a bit downhill.
Characters: Cassandra – diary writer, narrator, Rose – sister to Cassandra, Simon & Neil – brothers from America,
Setting: a ruined castle in England
Medium: eBook
Original Language and Title: English
Publications: German title “Nur der Sommer zwischen uns”
Recommend to: Everyone loving a classic, wants to learn about live between the wars and love well crafted characters that have some humor to it.
Author’s Origin: born in Whitefield, Vereinigtes Königreich | 03. May 1896
Read Around the World: UK
Additional note: Read with the “Cool Bloggers Book Club”

Funny Story by Emily Henry | ★★★✶☆

Goodreads says: Daphne always loved the way her fiancé Peter told their story. How they met (on a blustery day), fell in love (over an errant hat), and moved back to his lakeside hometown to begin their life together. He really was good at telling it…right up until the moment he realized he was actually in love with his childhood best friend Petra.
Which is how Daphne begins her new story: Stranded in beautiful Waning Bay, Michigan, without friends or family but with a dream job as a children’s librarian (that barely pays the bills), and proposing to be roommates with the only person who could possibly understand her predicament: Petra’s ex, Miles Nowak.
What I thought: The setting or how the story begins is so far from being realistic that it could be indeed called a funny story. Again I consume romance as entertainment and that it was. This audiobook kept me company when cooking or running errands. It was cute. I didn’t like the “major blowup” which was just stupid. This made me drop half a star. Otherwise solid romance.
Characters: Daphne, Peter, Petra, Miles
Setting: Waning Bay, Michigan, mainly Miles apartment
Medium: audiobook through library
Original Language and Title: English
Publications: German title “Funny Story”
Recommend to: Everyone loving romance, fans to Emily Henry,
Author’s Origin: born in U.S. | 17.05.1991

A Secret at the Cottage by the Loch by Kennedy Kerr | ★★★☆☆

Goodreads says: The cottage stood alone on a rocky outcropping at the edge of the loch. Standing in the garden amongst the wildflowers, she felt the weight of the tattered envelope in her hands. Maybe there was something keeping her here in Scotland, a secret waiting to be uncovered…
Zelda Hicks has just lost her mother, and the only thing she knows about her father is that he was from Scotland. So a work trip to the Scottish village of Loch Cameron couldn’t be better timed. Maybe a break in the beautiful rolling hills of heather will help Zelda reconnect with her roots and recover from her grief.
What I thought: This is one of those stories you read, enjoy enough and then it leaves your mind. Honestly I can only remember bits and pieces even though I read it last month. But I remember the feeling when I read it and it was cozy, happy and a bit predictable. Just what I needed to shut off my brain. But it did rekindle my desire to see Scotland. It must be beautiful.
Characters: Zelda – an American with Scottish roots, Hal Cameron – a laird, Gretchen Ross – elderly Cottage owner
Setting: A castle, a cottage, a small town by a loch in Scotland’s hills
Medium: eBook freebie
Original Language and Title: English
Publications: no translations found
Recommend to: Everyone loving a romance novel set in Scotland and doesn’t need too much happing on the pages.
Author’s Origin: unknown, U.S., or U.K
Additional note: Apparently this is the first in the Loch Cameron series.

Ready to Fall by Daisy Prescott | ★★★☆☆

Goodreads says: Ready to Fall is a standalone friends-to-lovers small town romance.
Tall, dark, and handsome is an understatement when it comes to John Day. With rugged good looks, his ever present plaid shirt, and a dog named Babe, John is a modern alpha male lumberjack.
After his favorite neighbor rents out her beach cabin for the winter, John finds himself playing tour guide to Diane Watson, a beautiful brunette with her own messy past and recent battle scars.
Will he be ready to fall in love? Or will he go back to his old, flirty ways?
What I thought: I mostly loved the setting – an island somewhere around Seattle. I have seen the ears so it’s always fun to have pictures in my mind. The story itself was entertaining and cute.But as always the endings are a bit too happily ever after for me. But it was a good time while reading. And apparently this book is written from the male point of view. I have not consciously realized to be honest but it is a different approach in this genre.
Characters: Johan Day – lumberjack, Diane Watson – NY transplant
Setting: island in the Pacific Northwest, two neighboring cabins
Medium: eBook
Original Language and Title: English
Publications: no translations found
Recommend to: Everyone loving a solid romance.
Author’s Origin: born in San Diego, United States | June 1970
Additional note: book #1 in the Wingman Series

Books I couldn’t finish

Keeping track of the books that weren’t right for me. This month it was:

• Truth or Beard by Penny Reid – stopped at 21 percent. This was ridiculous and a pit toxic
• Twighlight Territory – Andrew X. Pham – mainly stopped because loan in library was expired and it didnt grab my intentions as much to continue. But not a bad book. More the wrong book at the wrong time kinda thing.

New books on the shelves

Always buying books even though I am trying to reduce my TBR pile. Here is this months purchases. Please hold me accountable and ask if I read them or just piled them up.

• Herbstküsse in der kleinen Teestube by Katie Spring – a kindle freebie
• Differently Abled by Ilya Kogan – a kindle freebie

What was a great book you read that was very inspiring or motivating? What book did you enjoy in lately? What book was a total fail? Do you have a good ghost story recommendation for October?