The recommendations to read this book were very strong and kind of “creepy”:

* A “must” read – it will rock your world.

* Steel yourself but hang in there until the powerful conclusion.

* Don’t plan to be doing much else while you read it as you won’t be able to stop

To top it off the librarian said (when I checked out the book)

“I couldn’t read anything else for a week after that,  I was so shaken”.

A bit scary!

I’ve just read chapter one so far and am hooked (though still not enough to have trouble stopping, yet). Will save commnets for next Saturday’s post – too early to talk about it!

I’m reading this as a sequel to “Stones from the River” by the same author. This tells about the post WW2 years in the same small village in Germany.

Turns out, though, that it isn’t a sequel. It was written before the other book and served as the inspiration for it.

I think the other is better and should be read first.

This one is good too.

Thirteen delightful ways to look at the number 13!

ENJOY!

One of those books that “hook you'” from the word “go”!

So far (I’m up to page 100) it’s on my “highly recommend” list!

A book to be read again and again (and again) !

Our local library has something special – a reader’s “gift” corner.

Any person looking for a “new home” for some of his /her books can place them in this corner, near the entrance. Sometimes the library itself adds books that they have multiple copies of but don’t seem to be leaving the shelf.

People place a wide variety of things there, ranging from old encyclopedia volumes, trashy novels, auto magazines and old textbooks. The books are in different languages.

Sometimes I find a real treasure there, like this book!

I’m enjoying it immensely! Paul Theroux travelled, in 1986 from London to China by train, and then extensively in China.  His descriptions are so vivid and he writes so nicely! He spent a lot of time talking to people (in their language!) which makes the tale particularly interesting.

There have already been several mentions of English teaching. He taught English in Singapore before this journey. In Beijing (in the book it is still Peking) he taught English at a night school for a while. In Shanghai he encounters a regular English day at a park – a grass roots “institution” where people converged to learn and practice English. This was before the arrival of the Internet…

My son pointed out that it is somewhat illogical that I began reading the “gift” book and not the other two books I brought from the library which have a due date, but who has to be logical all the time?!

*Photo by Gil Epshtein

I just finished the book and had to report:

Yes, the stories do tie in with each other and there is a resolution at the end of the book.

I didn’t find it an easy read because of the amount of people locked in their own world but the writing is compelling and I’m glad I finished it!

I’m about halfway through the book and can’t quite make up my mind about it.

I LOVED her previous book “The History of Love” and couldn’t stop talking about it for a long time. However, this book sometimes has me engrossed while at others feeling a bit depressed. There are separate stories and in each one the loneliness, the silence is sooo great that I’m unhappy. Which could be taken as a sign of how well Krauss writes since I feel drawn into the story.

I don’t know if the stories will tie in with each other yet. I don’t need books to have happy ends but I do need some sort of resolution and hope that it isn’t just a collection of stories of the silences that exist alongside a HUGE desk. The book “Between the assisinations” by Aravind Adiga was like that – tragic stories connected only by the place, no resolution at the end. That one left me with an unfinished feeling to it.

I’m still reading – we’ll see!

I’ve only read about a third of it but seems very good so far. The book presents a rich portrait of characters and aspects of life in Cairo by telling the story of one building and its inhabitants.

I must admit that I had heard about the book before and was sure the author was a woman – I was wrong!

I went to the library to look for Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the end of the World
which Tyson recommeded, but they didn’t have it. They did have this one by the same author.

It’ s a good book!  I wouldn’t call it his best but I enjoyed it.

Also just read a short story of his in the New-Yorker. He definetly uses a recurring theme of a girlfriend / wife vanishing which causes the man to reexamine his life. Saw in both the book and the story and in previous books.