Bookstores Around the World: Berlin, Germany

Hello book lovers!

On the second installment of this series, I have some places in Berlin to talk about today. I’m super excited about this post, because I really love Berlin. It was the first place I ever tried a Pumpkin Spice Latte (it was okay), and went to a Banksy exposition, which I thought was so very underground, and my boyfriend chuckled in true German-Hipster style and said it was actually very mainstream. Berlin is a very interesting city: it’s both vibrant and dark. There is so much history ingrained in its buildings that it’s impossible not to have your heart broken by visiting the Wall, the Jewish memorials, and the various museums that present unflinching memories of WWII. But it’s also a place full of artistic expression, and oh my gosh, so very hipster. You can literally visit an abandoned amusement park, stay in a hotel decorated with books, go to a restaurant inspired by toilets (I didn’t go there).

It’s also quite perfect for bookish people. There are SO MANY bookstores (I live in a small city, so please forgive my wide-eyed childlike amazement). Here are the ones I went to!

Saint Georges English Bookshop

Website: http://www.saintgeorgesbookshop.com/
Google Maps: https://goo.gl/maps/Ccq7xHmXxt22

Yes, that is the bookstore from my profile picture! This place is such a treat to the eyes – books from floor to the ceiling! It does make it so very difficult to find particular books, but it’s quite wonderful to just let your eyes wander from one beautiful spine to the next and get the books that call your name. While the non-fiction section is much, much larger than the fiction one, you can surely find nice things in the fiction section.

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Mini-Review: Lying in Wait, by Liz Nugent

Rating: ★★★★★

Genres: Psychological Thriller

Goodreads / Amazon

“My husband did not mean to kill Annie Doyle, but the lying tramp deserved it.”

This is such an interesting thriller – in the very first sentences you know who’s the murderer and who’s the victim. The rest of the story is an unnerving psychological thriller, watching the murderers get away with it, the victim’s family trying and trying to get the truth, sometimes getting closer, sometimes being drifted away. The stakes get higher as the story goes on, and there is a constant tension in the air, even when things are going “okay” (it does get a bit slow sometimes, but just you WAIT). I was very impressed by this novel, and really enjoyed seeing the point of view of the murderer and his family. I must say I do like books where you get the narration from the guilty part – Lydia was so very manipulative, psychopathic and strange, it was great. Really amazing thriller!

The Sunday Snuggle Week 11 2019

Hello readers!

As you see from my picture this week, I haven’t been reading much. I did, however, listen to an audiobook while at the gym with my bookish socks WHICH I LOVE, BEST SOCKS EVER. So… I guess that’s my picture for this Sunday Snuggle. I am practicing to participating on a 5K in July and OMG I’m a potato who can’t run, but I’m stubborn enough to keep trying. Also I told a lot of people about it already (including you guys now), so I can’t back off. Nothing quite like accountability and peer pressure to motivate a person.

I’ve been very hyped lately for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, so next week I’ll be picking up one or two of the contestants! I don’t think I’ll read the whole list, since not all of them interest me, but a big chunk for sure.

This week I got a credit on Audible and I haven’t been able to listen to many books lately, so I had to choose carefully what I would get, since it will probably be the only audiobook I’ll have time to listen to the whole month *sweats profusely* . So, obviously, I decided to be very scientific about it… and asked Twitter:

I can't decide my next audiobook 😱 which one should I get?

— Naty's Bookshelf 👩‍💻📚 (@natysbookshelf) March 13, 2019

And so I got:

Thank you all for voting! 🙂 I will get the other two books at another point, as well. All three sound fascinating.

Choose a Movie or Animation and Get a Book Recommendation #1

Hello book lovers!

I’m not a big person for movies, I surely enjoy watching them but I hardly ever do. It’s difficult for me to actually love a movie, but those I do… I watch over and over. I actually have a surprising soft spot for rom coms. And an unsurprising soft spot for nostalgic Disney movies that transport me to my childhood. Apart from The Butterfly Effect, which my sister loves but I never managed to finish because it made me AGONIZE, I love the movies below and I think some of you might too!

If you like I Give It a Year…

…read:

If you loved this movie for its emotional punch and truthful take on a marriage that might or not work out, After I Do is such a great read.

Review: Transcription, by Kate Atkinson

Rating: ★★★★☆

Genres: Historical Fiction, WWII, Mystery

Goodreads / Amazon

In Transcription, Juliet Armstrong is recruited to join MI5. The year is 1940 and the war has just begun – she believes she can make a difference with her work, and finds the reality of her job alternatively boring and terrifyingly exciting. In 1950, Juliet is a different woman – she works at BBC and has a rather dull life. One day, she sees someone from her past. Little by little, all the people she used to know from her obscure work during the war seem to reappear, and something dark she thought she left behind is coming back to haunt her and make her pay.

I loved this book so much. Juliet is such a witty, funny character who constantly gets underestimated. She’s a talented liar and finds herself a quite accomplished spy as well, whether she wants to or not. Reading about her time as a typist and a spy during World War II was so interesting! The pacing of this novel is fast and it reads almost in a light-hearted way. For people who would like a historical fiction without the sobbing (especially rare for a WWII book), this is it.

The Sunday Snuggle Week 10 2019

 

Hello readers!

I am editing the format of the Sunday Snuggle a little. Since I am reading less and spending less time blogging, I often haven’t shared many links or videos, so I’m going to cut those sections out and perhaps mention a couple links in this introduction part.

If you missed, it I posted a rather exciting list this week! Here it is:

Seasonal Posts: post ideas for book bloggers for all year around, month-by-month

I had lots of fun writing that one, so be sure to check it out and get some inspiration! 🙂

A week ago the Women’s Prize for Fiction long list dropped!!

And without further ado, we're thrilled to reveal the 2019 #WomensPrize longlist 🙌
Congratulations to our sixteen brilliant longlisted authors! https://t.co/kfUIk1W3wM pic.twitter.com/NSXHWtnI7F

— Women's Prize (@WomensPrize) March 4, 2019

I actually read 2 of the list already and own another 3 from that list… I will try and read at least those three before the shortlist comes up in June, and then maybe a few more? I think I can’t read all of them (neither am I interested in all of them), but surely at least a few. Do you think Milkman will snatch that prize, too??

This week was Women’s Day and my boyfriend gave me this book from the longlist (!!! thank you!)

Review: The Water Cure, by Sophie Mackintosh

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Genres: Literary Fiction

Goodreads / Amazon

This is one of the most talked about feminist dystopias of the year, and the blurb had that “toxic masculinity” was literally a toxic that made people ill, and thus this community set itself away from the rest of the world in order to survive. The story is, however, not a dystopia but rather a cult story. I picked it up because I love feminist SF, but this was not SF at all, and I think a lot of other people might be confused by that, too. So, now that this is out of the way, to the review!

The Water Cure is the story of a family that lives in an island where toxic things like emotion and desire, dangerous things to a woman in the outside world, are to be purged out of the body. Only love for each other must remain, measured and cautious.  To do that, the three sisters, their mother and father go through therapy sessions – including near-drowning, screaming and allotted crying time. As the only man in the island and therefore immune to the toxics of the outside world, the father goes to the mainland for supplies. One day when he disappears without leaving a trace, their world is shaken. And when men arrive in the island begging for sanctuary, the very emotions they have worked so hard to suppress come to surface. And that means they are all in danger.

Seasonal Posts: post ideas for book bloggers for all year around, month-by-month

Hello readers!

This is the first post I write for the Blogging Tips category (you can see other posts on the “Blogging Tips” link on the menu on the right). For this one, I’m giving some ideas of seasonal posts for book bloggers, meaning posts you can write for each month of the year, every year (if you want to! Obviously, that is not mandatory at all), to help out for when you run out of ideas (which we all do). I linked some of my blog posts to give ideas of how to do it! I’m also adding important holidays and some author’s birthdays.

I haven’t added memes and readathons to the list. This is mostly focused on holidays.

Link on the comment sections some of the seasonal posts you liked writing, or some themes I might have forgotten!

January

(2) US National Science Fiction Day

(18) US National Winnie the Pooh Day: Share your favorite childhood books

(Fourth Wednesday in January) Library Shelfie Day

(27) International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust

World War II is not that far away – lots of us have grandparents or greatgrandparents that went through those terrible times. Sharing some books that are placed in WWII can help people understand the impact of the Holocaust and how it still affects people today.

(28) Pride and Prejudice is published, 1813

Releases of the new year you’re looking forward to

Books Coming Out on 2019 I’m Looking Forward To

New year resolutions

Bookish or otherwise. Alternatively, you can post your reading challenges, or both!

My Bookish New Year’s Resolutions

Re-organizing your books

If you feel like new year, new bookshelf, you could try organizing your bookshelf in a new way to make it easier to find your favorite books! It’s very popular to organize them by color, but you can try by author surname, by genre, by size… whatever you like!

Books released last year you want to get to this year

Because we can never read everything we want in the timeframe we would like.

Uplifting reads to cheer up on Blue Monday

The Sunday Snuggle Week 9 2019

Hello readers!

How is it March already? Gosh, 2019 is going by too fast. As per last week, this was also not veery productive reading-wise but I’m glad with the results anyway. I’ve read so much this year I have reviews ready for the next month already, so I’ll be picking up thicker books and more backlist books from now on! Quite excited for that.

I bought the books below this week:

I’m giving Tangerine a second chance! I was really enjoying this book a year ago or so via Scribd on audiobook, but I was distracted all the time (and sick, so the medication made me very sleepy and unconcentrated) and I gave up reading this because my brain was not keeping up. But a historical novel with glamour and summer and mystery and hints of psychological thriller is exactly what I love to read, so I’m sure I’ll enjoy this.

On Audible, I got:

Review: Sourdough, by Robin Sloan

Rating: ★★★★★

Genres: Contemporary, Magical Realism

Goodreads / Amazon

Sourdough is such a gem of a book. It tells the story of Lois, a software engineer who just got what should be her dream job: programming robotic arms to perform tasks and earning more than both her parents combined. She made it! A big job not long after graduating! However, as the work goes on, she slowly finds herself feeling discouraged, demotivated and with stomach pains that the company restaurant food seems to aggravate. One day, she finds a menu at her doorstep, and decides to try their spicy soup and sandwich – and it’s love at first bite. Her love for the spicy food and the amazing sourdough slowly helps heal her stomach pains and anxiety, but the restaurant owner must leave and close the delivery service. Before leaving, he gives her a starter to make their famous sourdough. She must keep it alive, feed it everyday and play music for it. As she learns how to bake (at first rather disastrously), she finds a passion for it she didn’t expect at all – and her sourdough comes out with faces on the bread crust for some mysterious reason.