Wulf's Book Reviews

Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann My rating: 5 of 5 stars Except for some periods, I have always read a lot and very mixed across all genres. So it's inevitable that there was pretty much everything from almost unbearable rubbish to average reading experiences. However, I rarely experienced something like literary "awakening moments". Thomas Mann's "Buddenbrooks" was one such moment. Published in 1901 when Mann was only 26 years old, "Buddenbrooks" established his world fame and earned him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1929, because the work "over the years has gained an increasingly firm recognition as a classic work of contemporary literature." At least for me, that has not changed, because although "Buddenbrooks" portrays the decline of a specific family in 19th century Lübeck, it has lost nothing of its fundamental topicality and truthfulness. Mann tells the story of four generations of the Hanseatic merchant fami...

Buddenbrooks von Thomas Mann Meine Bewertung: 5 von 5 stars Mit Ausnahme einiger Phasen habe ich immer viel und sehr gemischt durch alle Genres gelesen. Da bleibt es nicht aus, daß von nahezu unerträglichem Mist über Durchschnitts-”Kost” so ziemlich alles dabei war. Ganz selten jedoch hatte ich so etwas wie literarische “Erweckungsmomente”. Thomas Manns “Buddenbrooks” war ein solches. Erschienen 1901 als Mann gerade einmal 26 Jahre alt war, hat “Buddenbrooks” seinen Weltruhm begründet und ihm 1929 den Nobelpreis für Literatur eingebracht, weil das Werk "im Lauf der Jahre eine immer mehr sich festigende Anerkennung als ein klassisches Werk der zeitgenössichen Literatur gewonnen hat.” Daran hat sich zumindest für mich auch nichts geändert, denn obschon “Buddenbrooks” den Niedergang einer spezifischen Familie im Lübeck des 19. Jahrhunderts schildert, so hat es doch in seinen Grundlagen nichts an Aktualität und Wahrhaftigkeit eingebüßt. Mann erzählt die Geschichte von vi...

Oder “Bullshit-Bingo mit Jussi” Oder “Alle Probleme dieser Welt - in einem Buch!” My rating: 1 of 5 stars “ Erst da begriff Carl, dass Assad gerade auf der Kippe stand – der Kippe zwischen Mensch und Killermaschine. ” Meine Güte, Adler-Olsen, was tun Sie da eigentlich?! Sie haben unglaublich sympathische Protagonisten: Carl Mørk, behäbiger Ermittler, der gern mal an seinem Schreibtisch schläft und seine Fälle eher widerwillig, aber beharrlich löst. Assad, sein Kollege mit scharfem Verstand, viel Empathie und arabischem Migrationshintergrund, der immer wieder für amüsante Sprichwort-Verwechslungen sorgt, aber auch ein dunkles (?) Geheimnis mit sich herumträgt, das ihn schwer belastet. Diese beiden eigentlich grundverschiedenen Menschen raufen sich Buch für Buch zusammen und lösen mit Verständnis, großer Humanität und Einfühlungsvermögen schwierige “Cold Cases”, die häufig auf Themen der Zeitgeschichte bezug nehmen. In bisher sieben Büchern habe ich Carl und Assad “begleit...

The October Man by Ben Aaronovitch My rating: 4 of 5 stars “ The October Man ” served as a quick escape from another book I simply didn’t want to keep reading right now. For that, a quick escape, this book is great. It’s nothing really special, though, and feels like it was written to fill the gap between full-length novels. If you remember the previous book (and especially its ending!) in the series, this probably makes sense. This book won’t work as an introduction to the series but nobody will expect that, I hope, from an instalment that’s listed as “7.5”. For the fans, though, it’s a nice, quick read and you’ll feel right at home. This time, we follow Tobias Winter, a German police officer and magic practitioner who – with the help of Vanessa Sommer, a colleague – investigates the murder of two members of a drinking club. Amusingly, Tobias originates from Ludwigshafen (am Rhein) which is located about 9 km northwest of where I’ve been living for half my life n...

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid My rating: 4 of 5 stars Oh, well, another difficult review to write… I really did like this book and while writing this very sentence I’m still unsure what my final verdict will be. Evelyn Hugo, fictional Hollywood icon, is - to me - an immensely likeable person: Starting her career in the 1950s she works her way up to become a legend. That alone would already have made for an interesting read because I grew up on films from the Golden Age of Old Hollywood. When I first read the title I immediately thought of Elizabeth Taylor (eight marriages, seven husbands…) whose work in the film industry has indeed inspired Reid (as I just found out). Just like fictional Evelyn Taylor has been a staunch ally of the LGBTQ* community and an early HIV/AIDS activist. More than that, how could I not like a bisexual woman who lives through eight tumultous marriages? In a time, more than 20 years into the 21st century, during which sti...

The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse by Charlie Mackesy My rating: 1 of 5 stars “My author owned lots of calendars!”, said the mole. “He cut them all up, collected all the calendar sayings and compiled them into one book.”, he added. The fox excitedly added: “He chose a font that makes the reader work to decipher it so that there’s a feeling of accomplishment!” “I did the drawings!”, the boy exclaimed. “They may not be pretty but they’re mine. They’ll make Charlie money, money, money because it’s funny!” “Wow”, said the fox, “and people actually buy that book?” “Yes, fox, they’re daft like that! Not that anything is totally wrong about these ‘pearls of wisdom’; they’re just so trite that nobody should pay money for this stuff!” The horse was neighing: “» Tears fall for a reason and they are your strength not weakness. « - they actually think that’s “profound”. Or so amazingly cute. Just because we’re anthropomorphized animals and we look good on Insta!” One star ou...

In the Dark by Loreth Anne White My rating: 3 of 5 stars Nine people are invited to stay at a luxury resort in the Canadian wilderness. One of them doesn’t even depart with the others and then there were eight… When they arrive, they find out there’s no resort but a remote derelict old lodge with no power in the middle of nowhere, there’s a storm brewing, bears and wolves around, no phone signal and a killer among them - and no way home. Sounds enticing? To me at least, that’s an irresistible premise and, indeed, for about two thirds of the novel the execution held up all my expectations: Things escalated quickly and satisfyingly for the reader (not so much for the characters…). I was already beginning to formulate a review that would praise this book as an exciting, suspenseful and thrilling work! Sadly, this wouldn’t hold up: First of all, I would have loved to read continuously about the developments in and around the lodge. After all, it’s a great setting and almost part of the ca...

Last Chance to See: In the Footsteps of Douglas Adams by Mark Carwardine My rating: 4 of 5 stars You might wipe your eyes and wonder “Haven’t I seen this title before?”; and, yes, you might have because this is a follow-up on the original book “ Last Chance to See ” by the late-and-yet-immortalised Douglas (Noël) Adams (DNA) and Mark Carwardine . I love the first book as it is testament to DNA’s manyfold interests and his engagement in several fields. Not to mention his trademark humour. This time around, Mark Carwardine, British zoologist and conservationist, is joined on a series of trips by Stephen Fry who is a worthy successor for Adams albeit not quite as funny. As in the original, the authors have done a marvellous job of blending witty humour with profound insights into the world of endangered species. Carwardine's expertise as a zoologist and conservationist, in conjunction with Fry's linguistic prowess, creates an enchanting and deeply engaging narrative throughout ...

Hemmersmoor by Stefan Kiesbye My rating: 1 of 5 stars “ Hemmersmoor ist der Eingang zur Hölle. ”, so endet der Klappentext und genau so ist mein Eindruck nach der Lektüre dieser Ansammlung von lose miteinander verwobenen Erzählungen über das fiktive Dorf Hemmersmoor und seine mehr als eigenartigen Bewohner. Leider ist die hier heraufbeschworene “Hölle” jedoch eine literarische, denn im Grunde ist das, was Kiesbye sich hier ausgedacht hat, ein obszöner, widerlicher Morast der Gewalt-Pornographie. Ein Beispiel: “ Wir waren noch immer im Stimmbruch, als wir […], […] und […] vergewaltigten. ” Damit ist dann auch schon alles wesentliche zum Inhalt gesagt; alle Geschichten drehen sich um Aberglaube… “ Käthe Grimm war dem Blick eines heulenden Hundes gefolgt, als sie siebzehn Jahre alt war, und seitdem sah sie Irrlichter und schauerliche Trauerprozessionen nach Einbruch der Nacht und verfolgte die Hochzeiten der Untoten ” … Rache… “ Ich hatte mir meine Rache so lange ausgemalt, und ich hatte...

Lock Every Door by Riley Sager My rating: 3 of 5 stars I came to this book immediately after having read Sager's “ Home Before Dark ” which I devoured breathlessly. Sadly, “Lock Every Door” didn’t live up to my expectations. It starts out interesting enough: Jules, 25, has lost her parents some years ago, now she has just lost her job and left her boyfriend because he cheated. While she tries to put her life back together, she sleeps on a friend’s couch. This is when she gets a job as an apartment sitter in the “Bartholomew”, a posh apartment building in New York City. Apart from a few weird rules (“no visitors at all”, “every night must be spent at the apartment”) everything seems fine until Jules meets another, rather peculiar, apartment sitter who then proceeds to disappear… The setting is perfect, the ideas are good but this is a book of missed opportunities because the characters and the building itself are fairly interesting but Sager doesn’t really use that: The apartment ...

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline My rating: 5 of 5 stars “ Being human totally sucks most of the time. Videogames are the only thing that make life bearable. - Anorak's Almanac, Chapter 91, Verses 1 – 2 " Actually, for me, being human doesn’t suck and yet I fully sympathise with the feeling that videogames do add to life – always provided we can agree that books count as well. This book, in fact, made me smile a lot and remember a lot of things from my childhood and youth – during the 80ties which feature more than prominently in this wonderful geeky, nerdy story. I’m three years younger than Cline but it seems we share a lot of experiences and, maybe, some notions about life: “ So now you have to live the rest of your life knowing you're going to die someday and disappear forever. "Sorry." ” This, Cline says, might be one way to summarise what life is about and how it ends. It’s certainly a very sobering way of expressing it. Nevertheless, it’s true. In 1979 ...

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah My rating: 5 of 5 stars It was " The Nightingale " by Kristin Hannah that originally introduced me to Hannah and I’ve since read everything she published . Next to her “ The Four Winds ” this remains one of the most emotionally impactful novels I have ever read. The story follows the lives of two sisters, Vianne and Isabelle, as they navigate their way through Nazi-occupied France during World War II. One of the things I loved most about this novel is how well-developed the characters are. Both Vianne and Isabelle are complex and multi-dimensional, and I found myself becoming deeply invested in their stories. Vianne is a mother and a wife who is forced to make difficult choices to protect her family, while Isabelle is a rebellious young woman who becomes a member of the French Resistance. Despite their differences, the sisters' love for each other shines through and is a constant source of strength for them both. The historical setting ...

The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak My rating: 5 of 5 stars » In the most surprising ways, the victims continued to live, because that is what nature did to death, it transformed abrupt endings into a thousand new beginnings. « I’ve absolutely no idea now “ The Island of Missing Trees ” by Elif Shafak made it on my to-be-read list but, wow, am I glad it did! I wanted to embrace it. I was, of course, aware of the conflict about the Mediterranean island of Cyprus but, like so many other conflicts, I had a basic intellectual understanding of it. What this novel added is the perspective of two young lovers: Defne is a Turkish Cypriot and Kostas a Greek Cypriot. Both grow up in the capital, Nicosia, where they meet and, ultimately, deeply fall in love with each other. » ‘I missed you,’ she said. In that moment Kostas Kazantzakis knew the island had pulled him into its orbit with a force greater than he could resist and he would not return to England any time soon, not without her b...

An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green My rating: 2 of 5 stars “ I don’t think I actually felt any of those ways, but it seemed on-brand. ” This book actually is a remarkable thing. Remarkably horrible, in fact. Or maybe it’s the generation gap – at least if we’re not talking about biological age because Green is just about four years younger than me. This “Thing” deals with the appearance of aliens in every major city on earth and a young adult woman, April May (seriously?), who becomes an Internet celebrity for dealing with the implications of this “visit”. I chose the initial quote because everything in this book is pretty much superficial and only deals very shallowly with all the possible implications of physical confirmation of the existence of intelligent life beyond Earth. (Well, intelligence is relative – as anyone reading to the end will find out when “Carl” utters a single simple word as “judgement” on mankind.) The entire book is basically Hank Green trying to buil...

The Martian by Andy Weir My rating: 5 of 5 stars I have come across many science fiction novels over the years, but none have quite captivated me like " The Martian " by Andy Weir (apart from “ Project Hail Mary ", also by Weir!). This novel tells the story of astronaut Mark Watney, who is accidentally left behind on Mars after a mission gone wrong. With no way to communicate with Earth and limited supplies, Mark must use his ingenuity and resourcefulness to survive on the harsh and unforgiving planet. Literally from the very first page, I was hooked by the book's gripping narrative and fast-paced plot. Weir's writing style is concise and straightforward, which makes the technical details and scientific explanations easy to understand without being overwhelming. As a result, the story is both entertaining and educational, providing readers with a glimpse into the world of space exploration and the challenges faced by astronauts. What I loved most about "Th...

Battle Ground by Jim Butcher My rating: 2 of 5 stars Wow, this was a huge let-down for me. I’ve never been the greatest Dresden fan but with Harry being a character one can relate to, I always found something to actually really like. Not so in this book. Basically, we’re reading about a huge battle during which everyone and (sometimes literally) their dog makes an appearance - oftentimes just for the sake of appearing and showing that, yes, they still exist and Butcher hasn’t forgotten about them. Unfortunately, as pitched as the battle must be, I never really “connected” with the story. Yes, all of Chicago and its inhabitants are at risk but I was rather indifferent about that. I was even repelled by some aspects of the way the story is told, e. g. There are many places during which it gets overly gory for no reason at all. I actually tried to find a somewhat moderate part to quote here as an example but, alas, I failed. There is no example I could quote here with a clean conscience ...

The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro My rating: 2 of 5 stars “ That’s true, good lady, but then we boatmen have seen so many over the years it doesn’t take us long to see beyond deceptions. Besides, when travellers speak of their most cherished memories, it’s impossible for them to disguise the truth. A couple may claim to be bonded by love, but we boatmen may see instead resentment, anger, even hatred. Or a great barrenness. Sometimes a fear of loneliness and nothing more. Abiding love that has endured the years—that we see only rarely. When we do, we’re only too glad to ferry the couple together. Good lady, I’ve already said more than I should. ” Axl and Beatrice, an elderly couple, live in post-Roman Britain. They – like everyone – are suffering from some strange memory loss that prevents them from recalling large parts of their lives: “ Now I think of it, Axl, there may be something in what you’re always saying. It’s queer the way the world’s forgetting people and things from onl...

Forged by Benedict Jacka My rating: 5 of 5 stars In this eleventh instalment of Benedict Jacka ’s “Alex Verus” series , “ Forged ” (as aptly titled as ever!), Alex is back at fixing lots of problems. Let’s take a quick look back first, though. In “ Fallen ” we saw how Alex had to harden and tackle things differently than he used to. He ‘fell’ away from trying to be the nice guy and concentrated on what he felt had to be done. He picked himself up and re-emerges ‘forged’ by the blows he received and the hits he delivered. “Forged” picks up right there: Alex is back in force and at the height of his game. He quickly realises he currently has three major issues: The Council of (Light) Mages Richard Drakh, his former master (and his (former) entourage) (Dark) Anne, his (ex-?)lover, recently possessed by a Jinn To be able to solve them, he has to solve them separately because he can’t deal with all three at the same time. We get to know this ‘forged’ Alex a lot better in this penultimate b...

The Drowning Girls by Lisa Regan My rating: 4 of 5 stars Phew… After the disappointing book 12 I was afraid I might have had a fatal overdose of Josie Quinn. This thirteenth book in the series was firmly on-track again, though, and mostly free of the overbearing ghost of you-know-who. In fact, despite the fact this is a mass-produced series, the premise is interesting enough (notoriously good girl vanishes, her and her family’s dirty laundry comes to light, piece by piece…), the plot keeps thickening and while I did see the twist at the end coming, I enjoyed how it was handled. All in all, a very Josie Quinn’ish book and a worthy instalment in the series. Four out of five stars. View all my reviews https://turing.mailstation.de/the-drowning-girls-detective-josie-quinn-13-by-lisa-regan/?feed_id=1873&_unique_id=6403796a472c1

Beartown by Fredrik Backman My rating: 5 of 5 stars Late one evening toward the end of March, a teenager picked up a double-barreled shotgun, walked into the forest, put the gun to someone else’s forehead, and pulled the trigger. This is the story of how we got there. I love reading and I love books. I rarely take them personally, though. Mostly, I forget their contents soon after having read the final page. This is part of why I’ve started writing reviews in 2019. A few rare and precious books, though, stay with me, unforgettable. One of those is “ Beartown ” by Fredrik Backman . I read it in 2018 and while I’ve forgotten some details, I vividly remember the story which to this day, five years later, makes me tear up. There’s also a very personal aspect to this because I gave this novel as a present to my mother for her 81st birthday, joking that if she had time for one more book, she should read this one. She died three days later. So, this review, which I felt unfit to write at the...