A Book Blog
I have a movie/book hangover. Is that still a thing? With so few titles really impressing me lately, both on screen and on page, I am happy to be miserable and heart-broken by Call Me By Your Name. (Not because of the story, but because it is over.) The book, the movie, and the soundtrack …
Continue reading "Call Me By Your Name – Everything Review"
Nothings stops me in my tracks as often as a gorgeous photo of a book beside a steaming cup of coffee. Kudos to all the patient souls who not only take a brief snap of their cozy moment, but take time to set it up in a lavishly bookish way. You have all been an …
Happy New Year, fellow book nerds and stray literati! May it bring you subtle meanings, clever turns of phrase and a rainbow of exhilarating character arcs! One of my favourite things to do on the 1st of January (after strolling around a silent hangover-battling city and listening to the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra New Year's Concert …
Tom Hanks also writes and very well at that. I was aware of his love for typewriters, after I had come across an app he had sponsored (or something), which aimed to make writing on an iPhone resemble typing on a typewriter. To the extent that is possible, which is not great. When I saw …
The Birth Of Venus is Sarah Dunant's first historical novel (not her debut though, as I had wrongly gathered from my pre-reading research on the book). It is set again during the Renaissance, for which Dunant seems to have developed a certain panache, and tells the story of Alessandra - a young Florentine woman and …
Apparently the Borgias have become one of my reading obsessions and I cannot be more happy about it. It is a rare and lovely thing for a reader to become so invested in a historic period, or a figure or a city. This way you are guaranteed to have an unknown number of enjoyable books …
Continue reading "Book Review: Blood and Beauty: The Borgias"
The latest by Kate Quinn is a departure from Roman intrigue, be it during Antiquity or Renaissance, but not from her masterful gripping storytelling. The Alice Network is a wartime novel about daring female spies, a determined American socialite on a rescue mission and a lot of damaged souls on a quest for redemption. Two …
A determining factor for the story and tone in every book is the POV, or point of view. This is certainly no news to any reader. When you read like a writer, though, the POV can help you predict how the story will develop and with what pace. Being aware of the pros and cons of the different …
Continue reading "Reading Like a Writer – Different Points of View (POV)"
As the world bustled in preparation for the warm conviviality of Christmas Eve, I quite literally headed into a bout of migraine. Before the familiar dizziness, pain and nausea managed to settle in, I had enough time to obsess and panic over my ruined plans. It's not fair, is it - planning for months a …
The premise of The Ship of Brides did not instantly strike the right chord with me. I had settled for a guilty-pleasure read to take my mind off a mind-boggling book. After all, it had all the appearance of an ordinary war romance story, and I have always been a sucker for those. Mind you, it …
