Henrik_Madsen reading and ROOTing his way out

I had another great year ROOTing in 2020. The pandemic meant nowhere to go - including the library - for much of the year, so why not read some books from the shelves? There was definitely no shortage of those. There still isn't.

As I have done in previous years I will count everything owned as ROOTs. The really tough ones (acquired before 2014) will be labelled DROOTs (Deep roots).

This year my goal will be 50 books. Happy ROOTing everyone!



So I have decided to add a second ticker: New acquisitions. The goal is to buy / get fewer new books than I manage to ROOT throughout the year. I will slowly increase the number to "reach" as the ROOTing gets going. We'll se how it goes.



ROOTs
1. Lewis Wallace: Ben Hur
2. Henry Sørensen: Grænseland
3. Puk Damsgård: Arabica
4. Enheduana: Dronning over verdens magter
5. Derib: Buddy Longway - Den samlede saga 1
6. Victor Hugo: Sidste dag for en dødsdømt
7. Jane Austen: Persuasion
8. E.L. Doctorow: Ragtime
9. Lee Bolman og Terrence Deal: Reframing Organizations
10. Sylvia Plath: Glasklokken
11. Hugo Pratt: Den caribiske suite
12. Marina Lewycka: En kort gennemgang af traktorens historie på ukrainsk
13. Jiro Taniguchi: Senseis mappe
14. Charlier og Coutelis: Dødens engle
15. Hans Kirk: Djævelens penge
16. John McGahern: That They May Face the Rising Sun
17. David Grossman: Da Nina vidste
18. Karoline Stjernfelt: I morgen bliver bedre
19. Marianne Larsen: Gæt hvem der elsker dig
20. Caroline Albertine Minor: Velsignelser
21. Herman Bang: Stuk
22. Helle Helle: Bob
23. Kornerups rådhus i Vordingborg
24. Freddy Milton: Drømmen om Vagn
25. Yoko Tawada: En isbjørns erindringer
26. Ulla Loge: Da wird sich nie was ändern!
27. Audur Ava Olafsdottir: Ar
28. Georges-Arthur Goldschmidt: Der versperrte Weg
29. Alexander Solsjenitsyn: En dag i Ivan Denisovitjs liv
30. Ray Bradbury: The Martian Chronicles
31. Kazuo Ishiguro: Klara og solen
32. Joseph Roth: Job
33. Erling Jepsen: Den sønderjyske farm
34. Jens Genehr: Valentin
35. William Trevor: The Story of Lucy Gault
36. Vladimir Nabokov: Pnin

DROOTs
1. Felipe Fernández-Armesto: Sandhed
2. J.G. Ballard: Skabelsens dag
3. Kazou Koike: Ensom ulv og hvalp nr 5
4. Walter Scott: Ivanhoe
5. Tarjei Vesaas: Fuglene
6. Jens Smærup Sørensen: Mærkedage
7. D.H. Lawrence: Når kvinder elsker
8. Peter Seeberg: Ved havet
9. George Orwell: Burmese Days
10. Henrik Pontoppidan: Lykke-Per
11. Stefanie Zweig: Nirgendwo in Afrika

I have decided to do an alphabet challenge - but I'm not yet sure if I'll go only by the author's surname or also include first names to give a bit more wiggle room. Maybe even titles...

A. Austen, Jane: Persuasion
B. Ballard, J.G.: Skabelsens dag
C. Charlier og Coutelis: Dødens engle
D. Damsgård, Puk: Arabica
E. Enheduana: Dronning over verdens magter
F. Fernández-Armesto, Felipe: Sandhed
G. Grossman, David: Da Nina vidste
H. Hugo, Victor: Sidste dag for en dødsdømt
I. Ishiguro, Kazuo: Klara og solen
J. Jepsen, Erling: Den sønderjyske farm
K. Koike, Kazou: Ensom ulv og hvalp nr 5
L. Lewycka, Marina: En kort gennemgang af traktorens historie på ukrainsk
M. McGahern, John: That They May Face the Rising Sun
N. Nabokov, Vladimir: Pnin
O. Olafsdottir, Audur Ava Ar
P. Plath, Sylvia: Glasklokken
Q.
R. Roth, Joseph: Job
S. Sørensen, Henry: Grænseland
T. Taniguchi, Jiro: Senseis mappe
U.
V. Vesaas, Tarjei: Fuglene
W. Wallace, Lewis: Ben Hur
X.
Y.
Z. Zweig, Stefanie: Nirgendwo in Afrika
Æ.
Ø.
Å.

Happy ROOTing, Henrik!

Welcome back, Henrik! We're in another lockdown at the moment and while the library is still open, it's open only for curbside pickup, so I suspended all of my holds. Hoping that will mean a fruitful ROOT month in January!

>3 connie53: Thanks Connie!

>4 rabbitprincess: Thanks. We are also on lockdown again. It started mid-december and has just been extended till the middle of January. Everybody expects further extensions because the level of infections, hospitalizations and deaths are the higher than last spring. (Thankfully we have again avoided a curfew, but we'll see.)

>5 Henrik_Madsen: Ours started on Boxing Day, after some rumblings that it would start on Christmas Eve. The entire province of Ontario is under lockdown until January 7, then the lockdown continues for another two weeks after that for the southern (and more populated) part of the province. But there isn't any enforcement keeping people in one area or out of another, so I am not sure how effective the lockdown actually is. I hope you and yours are staying safe and healthy!

We are back in lockdown again too. Up until January 19. Then the government will decide to ease the measurements or not.

Welcome back, Henrik! We're also in lockdown here in Scotland (since Boxing Day) - the Christmas school holiday has been extended by a few days, and then at least the first week back will be online learning. Our experience of home school in the last lockdown earlier this year wasn't great - so I'm hoping that it isn't extended too much longer!

>8 Jackie_K: Thanks Jackie

Lockdown does seem to be the thing right now. At least there are vaccines out there, the light will start to come back and we have books. Things are grim right now, but I feel certain they will be better soon!

>9 Henrik_Madsen: Yes, I agree. As a health care worker I had the first dose of the vaccine yesterday. I know we've still got a long way to go, but I choose to feel hopeful that we will see an end to this cycle of lockdowns and easing and increased infections.

Glad to see you again! Happy 2021 Reading!

Happy ROOTing and DROOTing. I live on the west coast of the US and our stay-at-home orders were just extended. I feel the extention is necessary but realize some people aren't being compliant and I wonder how much enforcement is being done.

Happy New Year, Henrik, and good luck with the ROOTing and DROOTing!

>10 Jackie_K: It's good to hear that vaccination is getting to the health care workers. They are essential, both because they risk infection themselves and because they risk infecting the vulnerable people they are helping. We are a few weeks behind in Denmark due to waiting for the EU approval process, but the proces has begun and now it's just a matter of time before everybody will be offered a vaccine.

>11 cyderry: Thanks - and thanks for setting the group up again!

>12 This-n-That: I read that the west coast is particularly hard hit at the moment. It is so frustrating that not all abide by the rules, especially now when the end of restrictions is approaching with the vaccine on the way. Hopefully enough is doing their part to halt the spreading.

>13 floremolla: Thanks and happy new year to you too! Good luck with your ROOTing

>1 Henrik_Madsen: Oh, I really like the acquisitions ticker! Maybe I should do one of those next year.

>15 bragan: I'm somewhat terrified by it, to be honest. How will the balance be? Will I still enjoy buying / getting new books? Will I still want to make a splash in a secondhand shop or at a library sale?

Well, it can always be deleted...

>2 Henrik_Madsen: I love an extra challenge. Good luck with your ROOTs and DROOTs!

Welcome back, Henrik. I hope the acquisitions ticker doesn't spiral out of control!

>18 MissWatson: Thanks! And we'll see...

1. Lewis Wallace: Ben Hur

Acquired: I bought the book last year at a flea market in Maribo where I work.

This is partly a retelling of the story of Christ - mostly his worship by the three wise men and his eventual entry to Jerusalem and crucifixion - partly the dramatic story of the young Jew Judah Ben Hur. Hur is an ancient Jewish family, and the young man Judah is heir to a large fortune. He is wrongfully acused of murder and send to the galleys as a slave. Luckily the ship sinks - luckily because Ben Hur can save the captain and begin af new life as a free man. Eventually he gets a chance to get even with his old rival Massalla and return to Jerusalem.

I liked the parts about Ben Hur. There are a lot of chlichés but it is well-written and just plain entertaining. I was less happy about the retelling of the life of Jesus and the religious motives which were just to missionary for me.

3 stars

A few notes about my copy. I only bought it last year, but it is actually quite an old volume published in 1927. Interestingly it contains pictures from the 1926 adaption which is asilent movie classic in its own right and not just a predecessor to the Charlton Hesten movie. These days editions with movie-themed covers are quite normal, but it is the earliest example I have seen of a tie-in between book and film.

And as I was reading it, I discovered two plants in the middle of the book, put there to be pressed and preserved. I have no idea, how long they have been there, but it is funny to think they may have been there for almost a hundred years.

That's a really old edition. And how curious you found plants in the book. Any idea which plants?

>20 Henrik_Madsen: That's an amazing coincidence – my sister once gave me a copy in German which also had stills from that early movie. Ramon Novarro was much more convincing as Judah.

>21 connie53: Sadly botany has never been one of my strengths, so I have no idea. They just looked like small-scale weed to me!

>22 MissWatson: That is a funny conincidence. The movies must have been meant quite a boost to the sale of a book which was already old at that point.

A final fun fact about the movies: May McAvoy played Esther in the 1925 movie but never had the same succes in the sound-movie era. She still had lots of small parts and her last one was as a woman in the crowd in the 1959 movie. She wasn’t credited but I still like the gesture of tying the two adaptions like that.

2. Henry Sørensen: Grænseland (Borderland)

Acquired: I ordered a couple of graphic novels for my son for Christmas. To disguise this (or so I told my self) I added this short book ot the package. I didn't know it, but it was cheap and I liked the title.

Hyde is a mystic character who moves disillusioned round a hopeless landscape. It's not necessarily laid to waste by war - though there are some explosions and attacks - but everything is gloomy and depressing. The illustrations are black and white, but there's definitely more black on the pages!

I like a bleak story as much as the next person, but here the amount of dark drawings and confusing narrative tricks was a bit too much.

2½ stars

>2 Henrik_Madsen: Enjoy your Alphabet Challenge. I did a similar personal challenge in 2019, using book titles. It was a challenging to complete but also fun.

>25 This-n-That: Thanks. I think I will enjoy it, too. It might be difficult to fulfil some of the obscure letters, but it is a great reason walk along the shelves and taking in, what is actually on them.

Hi Henrik! A Belated Happy New Year. This is my first time visiting your thread, and I’m happy to have another ROOTer to follow along with.

>5 Henrik_Madsen: I wish we were on official lock down. My state, North Carolina, directs people to not go out except for essential services and even says that if you’re 65 or older to not go out at all by using delivery and curbside services. However, there don’t seem to be any enforcement or punitive actions spelled out. It all gets back to our lack of federal response here.

>20 Henrik_Madsen: Love these old books! Interesting about the early movie-tie-in. And the pressed plants! Wonderful.

>24 Henrik_Madsen: I’m sorry that your second read of the year was only 2.5 stars.

>27 karenmarie: Thanks for visiting and for your thoughtful comments

We are not really on a lockdown in the Chinese or even Italian sense either. Government has closed down a lot of activites to reduce contact-points. At the same time there are limits to the number of people allowed to meet in public (50 last fall, 10 over Christmas, now it's 5) and recommendations for keeping distance etc. When there are rules there must obivously be some policing, but it's mostly enforced by people themselves.

So far it's been enough, but right now we have trouble getting the number of infections down and the new British mutation, which is wreaking havoc in the UK hospitals, is spreading. I'm stille fairly optimistic, but until vaccines are widespread and/or weather is bette it will be tight.

About >24 Henrik_Madsen: There are great and less great books. This was, at least, a quick read.

>27 karenmarie:,>28 Henrik_Madsen:

Here the Prime Minister and other members of the government had a meeting with members of the OMT (outbreak management team). There will be a press conference on Tuesday, but of course the facts leaked out, as always. So we now 'know' that there will be no relaxation of measurements, perhaps there will be even more restrictions. The effects of New Year's Eve still can make contamination numbers go up. They did lower a bit for the last few days. But people went skiing or to Curacao despite the advice to stay at home and not go anywhere.

I just read on the site of the Dutch Television Compagnie the measurements will be extended by 3 weeks. And perhaps the number of people that can visit you at home will be reduced from 3 to 2 people above 14 years old.

3. Felipe Fernández-Armesto: Sandhed (Truth - a precise translation of the English title)

Acquired: I read another book by the author in a class in university and thought this one looked interesting. Then roughly fifteen years passed and a finally decided to read it!

Fernández-Armesto is deeply troubled by postmodernism, relativism, poststructuralism and other isms which critisize academic traditions and refuse their claim to objectivity and truth. Indeed, he fears for the future of civilization - and considering the onslaught of fake news he might not be wrong to worry - and promises help for the confused. So he sets out on a quest to write the history of the four ways of knowing what's true (feeling it, being told it, understanding it, and sensing it) but unfortunately he only confirms the many reasons to doubt the possibility of finding an objective truth with a capital T.

This is no surprise to people who have studied scientific theory in any depth, but it makes his anger at critics like Foucault look like hyperbole. So, in the end the book is less satisfactory, but he should be commended for his global view and his ability to draw on other traditons than just the Western.

2½ stars

4. J.G. Ballard: Skabelsens dag (The Day of Creation - a precise translation of the English title)

Acquired: I bought this book in a rescue operation (other people would call it a library sale) probably ten years ago. It has not even been sitting on my shelves but has stayed in a bag from the library. It was time to do something about that pathetic state of things.

Dr. Mallory is a typical English protagonist. Middle-aged, desillusioned and still carrying an air of superiority around with him. He is stranded somewhere near Chad and Sudan, where he is working on a hopeless water drilling project as he tries to manouver between government and guerilla troops. He is almost killed, as he one day digs a hole from wich a source springs forth. It soon grows into a creak and then into a mighty river. Mallory is obsessed with the waterway, which he believes he has created and the goes up the river on an old ferry accompanied by the young girl Noon to find its source.

There is something improbable about the story (you could see the river as an example of magical realisme like The Stone Raft by Saramago, but I have no idea why it's labeled science fiction by many) and there are lots of literary references, especially to Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. The writing is very good, but in the end his obsession and the descent into hellish conditions was a little over the top.

3½ stars

5. Kazou Koike og Goseki Kojima: Ensom ulv og hvalp (Lone Wolf and Cup - literal translation og the English title)

Acquired: I have owned this volume for 30 years, I guess. In my teens I bought a lot comics and this was one of them. It sits a bit lonely on my shelves as it is one of six volumes published in Danish out a total work comprising more than 7000 pages. I have read it before but decided it was time for a quick re-read which might also help me clear some space.

Itto Ogami used to be the Shogun's executioner, but now lives as a assasin for hire. He travels through feudal Japan with his little son Daigoro, looking for revenge and fighting ninjas and other foes. In this installment he confronts the Bentenrai, three brothers escorting witnesses to the court of the shogun.

It is hard to judge a series on such a small sample, but this volume was a good read. The story is pretty simple but the drawings are beautiful. Kojima can paint expressions with a few brushes and his depictions of fighting is like watching a movie - you just understand what the characters and their bodies are doing.

3½ stars

>31 Henrik_Madsen: a rescue operation (other people would call it a library sale)
I love this re-naming.

6. Walter Scott: Ivanhoe

Acquired: I bought this paperback in the late 1990s, and I decided to read it now as part of my anniversary reading project.

The story is set in the reign of Richard 1. Lionheart. Templars and knights return from the crusades to an England beset by confrontations between Normans and Saxons, and where prince John tries to get his hands on the throne. A young knight defies him at the tournament in Ashby, where he is wounded and treated by the young Jewess Rebecca. Soon, they will need help from outlaws lead by Robin Hood and even from Richard, who is anonymously activating his followers.

I did enjoy the novel which is quite well written with an interesting plot. There are a bit more descriptive details than you would wish, but it is the continuous antisemitic sentiments which really makes part of the reading frustrating.

3½ stars

It was my birthday yesterday, and it was very quiet and low-key. My daughter visited us with her boyfriend and we had a really nice dinner. (After a long day of nearly interrupted online-meetings of course!)

But it was nice and my birthdays are normally pretty quiet anyway, since I live a couple hours away from my family and we rarely see them on the day unless it's in the weekend. This year I could just feel the urge to DO something. See some people, go to a café, hear some music, anything. The day will come, I know, but this lockdown is starting to get on my nerves.

Birthday also means presents and I got a some wonderful ones: craft beers, a little clothes and books! Olive Kitteridge, The Nickel Boys, the first volume of the collected Buddy Longway comics and some new Danish novels.

Six books! Which of course means I have now acquired more new books than I have read this year... Sigh, it's back to sofa with a nice little classic: The Birds by Tarjei Vesaas!

Happy birthday, Henrik!

Happy birthday! Beer and books sound like excellent birthday presents :) Glad you were able to see your daughter and her BF as well.

Happy birthday and happy reading!

Thanks all. Books and beer - just the comfort you need in these crazy times.

Happy Birthday, Henrik. A bit belated but very heartfelt!



I'm feeling the same about the lockdown. You probably have snow too, just like we have. I feel locked up in my house without an escape out. The snow is high here and it's freezing cold. So I'm not going for my daily walk. I really want February to be over soon.

>40 connie53: Thanks, Connie! We have snow and freezing here as well, but I quite enjoy it. Snow means lots of light and the sun has been shining for days now, and it just feels so good after months of grey weather with or without rain. That being said, spring will be very welcome in a couple of weeks.

I went out shopping on foot yesterday. Not too big a walk, maybe 1 km. I had to walk on the street were some of the snow disappeared. People are supposed to clean their sidewalk or at least clear a path for pedestrians. It was quite an adventure certainly walking back with two plastic bags with groceries, but I made it home and had my daily walk that way. I like the sun that's shining now but it's doing not much for the snow since it's still freezing -4C.

We haven't had new snow for some days, so most paths and pavements are cleared now, so getting around is easy enough. It is so cold, though, that ice is forming on the harbour and ind the lakes. Not quite ready for ice skating yet, but it should be soon.

Minus 4 sounds positively tropical compared to the current temperature at the Ottawa airport: minus 22 Celsius, windchill minus 30 :)

7. Puk Damsgård: Arabica

Acquired: A Christmas present from my mother and sister. One of my many, many reading projects is getting my presents read without too much delay so now seemed like a good time.

Puk Damsgård is a Danish journalist living in Cairo and reporting out of the Middle East the last ten years. In this books she tells the story of her life in Egypt, about a trip with a merchant ship form Genoa to Dubai, about a voyage through Yemen as the country is ravaged by war and especially about her friendship with Shifa, a young female doctor from Yemen. Shifa is an independent mind and doing her best to fence off the plans by her brother to have her married to an Egyptian she has never met.

Damsgård writes very well and all her personal stories are used to portray the modern Middle East. The kindness she meets is heartwarming and the book format enables her to write a much more nuanced story than in her shorter reports. Not all is gloom and doom, but Shifa is obviously a reminder that repression of women and other minorities is very real.

4½ stars

>44 rabbitprincess: Brrrrr!

Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, is even colder: current temperature is minus 37, and the *high* temperature for the day is minus 27! Definitely excellent weather for staying in and reading.

>44 rabbitprincess: Yes BRRRRR like in >46 Henrik_Madsen:

The nights were colder though -15 but that is nothing compared to your windchill 30! BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

8. Tarjei Vesaas: Fuglene

Acquired: Another book bought at a local library sale many years ago. There were a lot of handwritten but not particularly interesting notes in first half of the book - maybe why it was discarded in the first place - so this one is ready to move on again.

Mattis is a mentally disabled person living with his sister in a small Norwegian village. Her destiny seems tied to her brother, who cannot work or support himself, and it fills her with despair. Mattis is a thoughtful person, his mind just wanders in other directions than the "smart" people, and often he is sad and frustrated because others don't see the meaning or the greatness in the things he experiences, like birds flying over their house.

One day a woodsman shows up and moves in with the sieblings. The fragile equilibrium between them is shattered. The sister, Hege, is thrilled with the new prospects but Mattis don't know what is to become of him. Things don't end well...

In enjoyed the book quite a bit. It is not easy to tell a story from the point of view of a mentally disabled person, but I think Vesaas makes it work here.

4 stars

9. Enheduana: Dronning over verdens magter (Queen of the World's Powers)

Acquired: I bought this a couple of weeks ago after reading a very good review. The publisher is a small idealistic enterprise, so it felt good to support their work by buying a copy.

Enheduana is the first writer known by name. There are older texts, but when she wrote in Sumerian 4300 years ago, she became the first author we know. She was the daughter of the king of the city of Ur, and priestess in the temple of the Lunar God Nanna. Now, Ur has been stormed, and she pleads with Nanna's daughter Inanna, who is the god of chaos and coincidence. She hails her powers, and plead with her for revenge.

The translation is very good, so the text is easily read and it is amazing to see how recognizable Enheduana's feelings are. And I really like the fact, that the first author known by name is a woman, despite the wishes of generations of male scholars.

4 stars

>50 Henrik_Madsen: I did not know that and it's a good thing to do so now, Henrik. I like that a lot!

>50 Henrik_Madsen: That's really neat! I'm glad you picked up this book and shared that information :)

>51 connie53: >52 rabbitprincess: Glad the information was useful. I don't know if there are any translations to Dutch but the text is avaiblable in English, e.g. in Jeremy Black (ed): The Literature of Ancient Sumer p. 315-20.

And the Jeremy Black goes on the to-read list! Thanks, Henrik!

This addition to the to-read list will totally confuse my mum, who creeps my Goodreads account for book ideas :D

It is always good to keep your followers on their toes and clouded in a bit of mystery...!

10. Jens Smærup Sørensen: Mærkedage

Acquired: This is a re-read of a book I bought in 2009, probably, and read the same year. It was chosen for my real-life bookclub which will have an online meeting tomorrow.

The novel is the story of a small Danish village, three generations of two families and the disapperance of the old farming culture. Once farmers ruled the land and defined the culture and social structures in the counryside, but through modernization they have now become a minority even there. The novel traces this development from the 1930s till the 2000s. It is a testament to a world that has disappeared and it is a portrait of two really interesting families and a all the people around them.

I liked the book the first time (and gave it 3½ stars) but I loved in upon rereading. It was a five-star read, and I very rarely hand out five stars.

5 stars

11. Derib: Buddy Longway - Den samlede saga 1

Acquired: This had been on my wishing lists for quite some time and I finally got it for my birthday in February. Great, because I had decided to buy it anyway, if I didn't get it!

Derib grew up fascinated by native americans, especially the tribes living on the prairie. It was only natural, that he should focus on western themes as a cartoon artist and his most significant series is probably Buddy Longway. He wants to tell the story of one man's life as he lives on the frontier, settles down, has a family and grows old.

The first volume contains four albums which is really setting the tone for the whole series. Buddy rescues the young sioux woman Chinook. They fall in love, build a cabin in the Rocky Mountains and have a son, Jeremie. This is the backstory for the albums which all contain a riveting story about the dangers of living in the middle of nature and between two cultures. What do you do, when three men with bad intentions come by, and there is no police for hundreds of miles? Or how terrifying must it be to break a leg when you are alone in the wild, days away from help in the nearest fort?

An album typically has two or three plotlines, and I absolutely love, that Derib takes his time and really brings the stunning landscape to life in beautiful drawings which don't need too much dialogue.

4½ stars

Hi Henrik, just popping in to see what you are reading. >57 Henrik_Madsen: sounds like a great book.

>58 connie53: Hi Connie. Thanks for stopping by! It is a great book, but you obviously have to like comics to really appreciate it.

That's why I did not take this BB. I am not a cartoon/comics kind of girl. ;-)

12. Victor Hugo: Sidste dag for en dødsdømt (The Last Day of a Condemned Man)

Acquired: Rembember when there were bookfestivals? You could go there, listen to authors, buy books, have fun? The last time I did this was in 2019, and one of the books I bought was this one.

The narrator is convicted for murder in the first chapter and executed in the last chapter six weeks later. That was the time reserved for appeal - no lingering on death row here - and it is a period of desperation and suffering. Hugo never pretends that the man is innocent, but the cruelty of treating a person linke this pervades every page.

It's a good book and still a strong argument against the death penalty.

3½ stars

>61 Henrik_Madsen: That was way back when, Henrik!

>62 connie53: Indeed! It seems incredibly long time ago - hopefully we will soon have normalcy and book festivals back!

>63 Henrik_Madsen: I think we have to keep to the rules for the time being. And hope we get vaccinated, at least the larger part of the population before that will happen. We have all kind of trials going on with football matches and theater productions that are going well so far. So maybe a small bookfestival will be possible in the near future.

>64 connie53: I agree: There is still some time to go. I feel fairly optimistic about restaurants in the summer and pretty much normal life in the autumn. Here the basic restriction was ruling out events with more than 500 participants, so if we could just get back to that, a small book-festival should be possible.

We are also trying things and the government has launched a mass-testing strategy. That will probably be the routine until vaccines are distributed.

Well some bad news on Astrazeneca vaccin. They stopped with vaccinating here until it's sorted out where the bad side effects come from. I think Denmark stopped too? So that will slow down all the plans we made in >65 Henrik_Madsen:.

>66 connie53: The AstraZeneca vaccine was put on hold in Denmark too, and they have decidede to prolong the pause as they do more investigations. It is obviously delaying vaccinations, but I think it is the prudent choise. People have to trust the vaccines if we are to get enough people vaccinated to really escape the virus. We'll see.

13. Jane Austen: Persuasion

Acquired: I was in my old town Odense with my daughter a couple of years ago. We walked down the shopping street and there was a booksale with some really cheap English paperbacks...

Anne Elliott once turned Captain Wentworth down because she (and her friend lady Russell) thought she could do better. Well, eight years later she is still single and when the family have to cut back expenses, the captain suddenly reappears in her life. Meeting him is awkward but it also brings fuel to a fire that has never been extinguished.

I thought the first half of the book was really good, but the second half was brilliant. I loved that Austen really upped the ante in this novel. Her critique of the hypocracy of the upper class is even more direct than usual and I especially enjoyed that Anne didn't just wait for Wentworth to show his hand. She took action herself to secure the life and the man she wanted.

5 stars

Here we start with AstraZeneca next Thursday.

14. E.L. Doctorow: Ragtime

Acquired: I took some me-time one day last summer and visited a few second-hand shops in my town. I was looking for books, of course, and I this was one of the ones I brought home.

Ragtime is placed in New York in the first decade of the twentieth century. The story is partly centered around a familiy, where the members are just called Father and Mother etc., partly tells the story of some very prominent persons of the time such as the banker Piers Morgan, the anarchist Emma Goldmann and the magician Harry Houdini. Sometimes the family and the famous people meet, sometimes we meet them separately.

The result is a comprehensive portrait of the USA as the first phases of modernity unfolded with mass production, mass media, nationalism and inequality. Most shocking is the story about Coalhouse Walker, a black man who is treated unfairly even though he just insists on his own worth and treats white people as equals.

4 stars

15 Lee Bolman og Terrence Deal: Reframing Organizations

Acquired: I have read a lot about their approach to organization studies, so last year I decided to buy it second-hand.

Reframing organizations refers to the fact, that Bolman and Deal believes organizations can only be studied by using a multiperspective approach. Also, leaders must be able to use differente frames to comprehend what is going on around them. Basically there are for frames: Structural, Human Ressource, Political and Symbolic. The book is a thorough introduction to all four frames and som discussion on how it can be applied to leadership practice.

I really enjoyed the book - all 500 pages of it - because the approach is interesting and the book is well-written.

4 stars

16. Sylvia Plath: Glasklokken

Acquired: The novel was re-translated five years aga, which seemed like an excellent reason to make it a birthday wish.

Esther Greenwood is 19, intelligent and suffocating in the rigid society of 1950s America. She works so hard to become a good student and dreams of becoming an author but all that's expected of her is to become a wife - or a secretary and then a wife.

Esther can't have it. She is doing an internship in the New York fashion industry, when things start falling apart and she is back home with her mother when everything unravels and she is admitted to a psychiatric hospital.

The writing is great. I absolutely felt like I moved into Esther's mind and I really felt her despair and her anger.

4½ stars

I'm really on a roll of great books right now!

Hi Henrik. Nice to be on a roll! Just keep that going on in April.

Happy Easter to you and the family.

>73 connie53: Happy Easter to you too, Connie. Hope you enjoy the holidays!

17. Hugo Pratt: Den caribiske suite

Acquired: I bought this at a comic festival in Copenhagen in 2019. Those were the days!

The book contains three connected short stories about Corto Maltese. He is in Surinam and neighboring regions, where he helps a young man get hold of his inheritance, and a group of rebels defeat a repressive colonel. Also, there are voodoo priests functioning as telegraphs and lots of clues about the mysterious land of Mu.

Unfortunately Pratt seems mostly interested in the mythology of Mu and doesn't really care about the actual stories at hand, so this was only a so-so read for me.

2½ stars

18. Marina Lewycka: En kort gennemgang af traktorens historie på ukrainsk

Acquired: I bought this in 2017, when I was scanning a book sale for books from the 1001 books to read before you die - list.

Nadja is feuding with her sister Vera, but they have to join forces when their father decides to marry Valentina, who has come to England in search of a better life. Valentina is a rather nasty character, but their father is stille enchanted by her, mostly because he is still grieving and plain lonely. As the story unfolds, we learn about the dramatic backstory as the family lived in Ukraine during the famine of the 1930s and later the nazi occupation.

There is much to tell and I don't think the author really succeeds. She wants to do too much at the same time, and some of the characters - Valentina especially - are more charicature than human.

3 stars

Wow Henrik. I was wondering if anything happened to you. I missed your posts.

>76 connie53: Thanks Connie. “Busy” happened to me. I have been reading some but got behind on posting. Trying to get up to date the next few days.

19. Jiro Taniguchi: Senseis mappe

Acquired: This is a birthday gift from 2017. Now read!

Tsukiko is a young Japanese woman who lives alone. Nothing much happens in her life, until she meets her old highschool teacher (the sensei in the title) in a restaurant. Their relationship slowly evolves, but it takes her a long time realizing her feelings, and just as long for him to find out, what to do about them

Taniguchi draws realistically and he masters the art of illustrating a persons emotional life through nuanced use of pespective and small changes to their facial expressions. Nothing much happens in the book, which has a meditative feel to it, but beneath the surface a moving drame unfolds. I like it!

4 stars

20. Charlie og Coutelis: Dødens engle (Angels of Death)

Acquired: I just couldn't resist buying a loooot of books last saturday. This was one of them, which I picked up in the local second hand bookstore

Chuck Dougherty is a classic detective who gets involved in a strange case. The daughter of a republican senator in San Francisco is missing, and as he starts investigating it becomes obvious that there is more to the story. The question is if he can infiltrate the strange cult she has apparantly joined - and if he can get out of it again.

The artwork by Coutelis accompanies the story well. It was an ok mystery and and I enjoyed spending time with it, but it is nothing special.

3 stars

Hi! I'm just finding your thread again. Lot's of interesting books on your list. Thanks for the reviews.

>77 Henrik_Madsen: Busy is good! Reading is better. Glad you are back.

21. D.H. Lawrence: Når kvinder elsker (Precise translation of Women in Love)

Acquired: I bought this book in the mid-90s. It's been sitting on my shelves ever since, looking long, literary, and unread. Now it just looks long and literary.

The Brangwen sisters Ursula and Gudrun fall in love with Rupert Birkin and Gerald Crich. The women are young and independent - a teacher and an artist - and they don't really see marriage as something inevitable. They are, however, attracted to the two men who are friends and occasionally rivals. Birkin is a nihilist who likes to lecture about the meaninglessness of life and Gerald is head of a mining company looking for firm ground to stand on.

Lawrence is no romantic. The relationship between the couples are filled with mixed emotions, and they couples are alternately love and despise each other. It is not at all clear that they will all get out of it without scars.

It is a long novel (my edition was 540 pages) and at times Birkin acting as mouthpiece for the author's views is just too much, but overall I enjoyed it.

4 stars

22. Hans Kirk: Djævelens penge (The Devil's Money)

Acquired: There is nothing like a book-shopping spree in used books stores. Your wallet won't hurt, but two years later you find unread volumes on your shelves. Like this one.

The novel focuses on people collaborating with the Nazis during occupation. Grejs Klitgaard is a harworking man who has founded a building company which has grown large in the interwar period. Now he is ready to retire and hand over the reigns to his son Thomas. Unfortunately the next generation has lost its moral compass. They want to make as much money as possible, and their lack of moral is also visible in their sad marriages where they cheat and dislike eachother.

Hans Kirk was a leading communist as well as an important author. I enjoyed the story about Grejs' origins and there were good parts througout the book, but the discrepancy between Grejs and his sons was too much, and most of the persons were mostly charicatures. Obviously the communist had the greatest say in the tone of this book.

2½ stars

23. John McGahern: That They May Face the Rising Sun

Acquired: I visited Galway with my daughter a couple of years ago and was complete enchanted by Charles Byrne's Bookstore where I bought this and a couple of other 1001 books secondhand.

John and Kate Ruttledge have returned to Ireland after many years in London. They buy a small farm, where they raise livestock, harvest hay, and live a quiet but fulfilling life. The novel is a tribute to country life and an intimate portrait of a small community which is hastily changing: Urbanization makes children leave even though poverty doesn't force them to emigrate, but much change is for the better. It is harder to get away with abusing your wife because it's family business, and people who were raised harshly by the church find new places in society.

I really enjoyed the descriptions of everyday life and the way nature and the course of the year was integrated in to the novel. It appreciates the qualities of country life without romantizising it, and there are som really sympathetic characters. My only real complaint is with the Ruttledges, which never really emerged as full characters to me.

3½ stars

Hi Henrik! visiting as many threads as I can. I hope you and the family are doing fine.

Keep those ROOTs coming!

>85 connie53: Hi Connie! Great to see you. We are doing great - hardly any covid, great weather and I started vacation today.

Hope all is well with you as well.

24. David Grossman: Da Nina vidste

Acquired: Another book from my book club - I got it last year and when it came out in translation

Vera was sent to Goli Otok, a Jugoslavian communist internment camp, and later emigrated to Israel with her daughter Nina. There she marries Tuvia, and his son Rafael fall hopelessly in love with Nina. They have the daughter Gili, but the family is torn apart by old traumas. After Vera's 90th birthday, thing take a turn, and it is finally time to reveal what happened all thouse years ago.

Grossman has created some brilliant characters, and I found the unequivocal love between Rafael and Nina and between Vera and her first husband moving. Read it!

4½ stars

>84 Henrik_Madsen: Nice review of the McGahern novel. I read his novel, Amongst Women, a while back. I thought it was very good, though it included one or two tropes I've tired of.

>88 rocketjk: Thanks. I really did enjoy his writing a lot - I was just put off a bit by how undeveloped the main characters seemed. I had the thought that Ruttledge was really McGahern himself and he didn’t want to give him as much background and depth as the others. But I still want to read more of his work at some point.

25. Karoline Stjernfelt: I morgen bliver bedre

Acquired: I visited the local bookstore last week, bought this and decided to read it right away.

Denmark was the talk of the town in 1770s Europe. Christian VII was briefly seen as the leading enlightenment ruler when a series of liberal reforms was carried through in a couple of years. And Copenhagen was seen as a city of scandal, when it was revealed that the reforms had been masterminded by his doctor who was also having an affair with the queen Caroline Mathilde.

The story has been told many times - by Dario Fo and Per Orlov Enquist among others - but Stjernfelt's graphic novel feels fresh and interesting anyway. This volume centers on the king, who is only 17 when he is married to the prinsess of England. The young people have never met, and they are too unmature to make things work even though they are not interested in eachother. Christian is intelligent but has a fragile mind and grows increasingly frustrated when he is tricked into exiling his mistress. Meanwhile Caroline Mathilde gives birth to an heir, while Struensee awaits his chance in Altona outside Hamburg. At the end of the volume Christian decides to travel Europe - without his queen, but he obviously needs his own doctor...

I enjoyed the storytelling and the artwork, and volume two is already out in Danish, so that's nice.

4 stars

26. Peter Seeberg: Ved havet

Acquired: Sale in the local book shop should never be missed. I bought this one in a sale nine or ten years ago.

The novel is a portrait of a day at the beach. It takes place on the Danish island of Rømø in a single day as visitors swarm to the beach after the tide has turned back, they bathe and live their lifes. A total of thirty people are named in the short novel, and the book is clearly an examination of human relations in the choreographied social event that a day at the beach. There is little plot and no character is particularly important.

There are lots of sharp observations but the many characters meant it was hard to really get to know any of them. In the end it was an ok but not particularly great read for me.

3 stars

27. Marianne Larsen: Gæt hvem der elsker dig

Acquired: This year we spend our vacation in Denmark near the city of Kalundborg. Marianne Larsen was born in the area, and I bought this novel about a girl growing up in that area in the local second hand bookshop there.

Bodil is born around 1950. Her parents are well-functioning but not particularly wealthy but they do get richer as Bodil grows up. Denmark is industrialized and new opportunities open up, also for her mother Edith who starts working in a factory after Bodil have begun going to school. As the village and the small community rapidly changes, Bodil have friends, lose her grandparents and lives a pretty quiet and undramtic life. At the end of the novel she is getting ready to move to another city to go to high school.

Nothing much happens in the novel, but I really enjoyed the portrait of the girl growing up and the description of a society changing for the better.

4 stars

28. Caroline Albertine Minor: Velsignelser

Acquired: The book came out in 2017 and it was put on my wish list immediately due to raving reviews. Last year I finally got my hand on it as a combo-buy when her new novel came out.

I enjoy long short stories, where characters and themes can be fleshed out. That is the case in this collection which centers on sorrow and losing loved ones - mostly felt by young women who have to deal wíth the death of a father, the suicide of an old friend, the death of a secret love or damage done to a husband in a car accident.

The short stories are great. They explore different aspects of loss, and I enjoyed having a common theme throughout the collection.

4½ stars

29. Herman Bang: Stuk

Acquired: A birthday gift from my son this year - and a classic I have wanted to read for a long time.

The novel is set in Copenhagen in the 1880s. The country was still digesting losing a third of its land and population in the 1864 war with Prussia, and at the same time industrialization was changing everything. New companies were founded, the city grew hastily, and the capital changed from provincial town to modern city.

Herluf Berg and to companions decide to found a new theater, both to profit from the growth of the city and to contribute to its international reputation. At first everything works out, but it is soon obvious that harsh realities are undermining their dreams.

Portraying hectic city life and exploring the psychological aspects of transition is the main focus of the novel. The story is interesting and the writing is superb. It is understandably a great Danish novel which still feels fresh and interesting.

4½ stars

>94 Henrik_Madsen: This sounds interesting. The touchstone goes to the wrong book, but I have found that there is a recent translation available...

>95 MissWatson: Whoops - touchstone fixed. I was in a bit of a hurry. I definitely think it would be something for you. The themes are well-known for the second-half of the 19th Century, but the writing felt very fresh and compelling.

30. Helle Helle: Bob

Acquired: A book from my book club - and a very welcome one. I am a huge fan of Helle Helle's books and usually buy them as soon as they are available.

A young couple moves from a rural part of Denmark to Copenhagen in the 1980s. She is there to study litterature but he doesn't know what he wants. The story is told by her, but it is almost exclusively about him. She probably thrives but he is slowly losing himself. He finds a job in a hotel and he gets to know a few people, but he just gets lonelier and more miserable all the time. It cannot end well for them.

The book is very well written and quite funny at times, but the story is downright depressing.

4 stars

31. Kornerups rådhus i Vordingborg

Acquired: I picked this up at work a year or so ago.

The book was published by the Danish institution Realdania Byg, which buys and renovates important architechtural monuments in Denmark. One of those is the former city hall in Vordingborg which was originally built i 1843. It is a mixture of classicism and gothic style and a beautiful building which is now preserved for the future.

I enjoyed the broad historical outline by Badeloch Noldus, but overall the publication is so focused on the particular building that it is mostly of local interest.

2½ stars

32. Freddy Milton: Drømmen om Vagn

Acquired: I visited a wonderful little shop called "Hundehuset" (The Doghouse") in a nearby town last week. It was packed with secondhand records, DVDs, pulp fiction, and comics - and I obviously had to buy something and settled on this.

Vagn is a normal Danish teenager growing up with his single mother in the 1980s. His father is in prison, but Vagn is not a dysfunctional boy. He is just obessed with vikings and imagines how his alter ego from that age would handle both girls and confrontations with friends and authorities. With a friend Vagn goes on a roadtrip, and they experience all kinds of things without ever being in real danger.

Neither story nor artwork is anything special, but it was still a cozy read on an afternoon.

3 stars

Just waving!

33. Yoko Tawada: En isbjørns erindringer

Acquired: Another book from my bookclub - I got it a couple of years ago and decided to read it on a short trip to Berlin. (Where, it must be notet, I obviously bought a lot of new books...)

Tawada tells the story of three generations of polar bears: One living in the Soviet Union and publishing a controversial autobiography, one living in Eastern Germany, going to ballet school and becoming af cirkus artist and finally Knut, abandoned child and media star in the Berlin Zoo after reunification. Two parts are told by the polar bears, but except this small detail it is quite realistic...

The novel is a unique take on European history and a quite poetic take on human society from the polar bear's perspective. I don't remember reading anything similar and I enjoyed the novel a good deal.

4 stars

Hi Henrik. Of course you bought a lot of new books in Berlin.

That must be one strange book, told by polar bears.

>102 connie53: Considering it's told by polar bears - at least the first and the last part - it's surprisingly un-strange if that is a word. I don't think I have read anything like it, but it's not a complicated read.

34. George Orwell: Burmese Days

Acquired: I bought a collection of Orwell-novels in the early 1990s, read 1984 and Animal Farm and never got much further. Until now.

John Flory is a sad representative of a timber firm and the British empire in the outskirts of Burma in the 1920s. The few Europeans rule with supreme confidence, but Flory is not happy with his life. He despises the other Europeans, enjoys local culture and considers dr. Veriswami his friend. At least until the superficial Elizabeth shows up and he falls hopelesly in love with her.

The novel is an indictment of an unjust empire which is bound to go under - as is Flory as its embodiment. The portrait of colonial life is brilliant, but the character development less so.

3 stars

35. Ulla Loge: Da wird sich nie was ändern!

Acquired: Two weeks ago we went on a short trip to Berlin. I love the city and among other things I visited Modern Comics in Kreuzberg where I bought this and a couple of other graphic novels.

The story is set in a small East German town in 1989. It seems like a pretty uneventful year. People live their lives, high school students are critical and put in their place, workers go the factories and protesters organize themselves, but nobody expects the storm that is about to come. Through this lense we see the fall of the GDR house of cards.

The illustrations are simple but telling and so is the story. I enjoyed the book that is firmly in the "good but not great" category.

3 stars

36. Henrik Pontoppidan: Lykke-Per

Acquired: This is one of the most famous Danish novels ever, so when it was on sale at the local library ten years ago, I obviously couldn't resist it. Why has it been sitting on the shelves for so long? Two volumes and 700 pages in small font may have had something to do with it.

The novel was published in 1898-1904, and it tells the story of the young man Per. He has grown up in a traditional family of priests and he cannot get away from this life fast enough. He wants to become an engineer, conquer the world and take the rural society into the modern age. As he strives to achieve this he moves forward in the world and in society but it is soon apparant, that the past is not finished with him, even though he claims he is finished with his family and what it stands for.

Lykke-Per has everything a classic novel of the late 19th Century should have: Interesting characters, discussion of the ideas of the time and personal obstacles to struggle with. I enjoyed it a lot and am very pleased with finally having read it.

4½ stars

37. Audur Ava Olafsdottir: Ar

Acquired: I got this one from my book club three years ago - it became book of the month after winning Nordic Council's Literature Prize.

Jonas Eberneser is a middleaged man who has lost his way in life. His mother is in a carehome, his wife has left him, and he is not the biological father of his daughter as he had always thought he was. In his own mind nobody needs him and depressed as he is, he decides to end his own life. He will not, however, do it where his daughter might find him, so he travels to an unnamed European country after a civil war. Since he is a practical man, he brings his toolbox along so he can fasten a rope securely. It turns out, however, that a practical man is just what is needed in Hotel Silence, and as Jonas discovers a new possible role in life, the suicide plans are postponed.

Despite the serious subject, Ar is a comedy, which is well written and funny. If it was a movie, it would be a romantic comedy about second chances - and it would be a good one.

4½ stars

>103 Henrik_Madsen: Hé I've been reading a book told by a unicorn. That's even more strange

>107 Henrik_Madsen: That sounds real nice, Henrik!

>108 connie53: There is always something more strange, isn't there!

>109 Henrik_Madsen: That's what keeps reading and live interesting, Henrik.

38. Georges-Arthur Goldschmidt: Der versperrte Weg

Acquired: We went to Berlin in August, and this was one of the books I picked up in Dussman.

The author and his older brother grew up in the Weimar republic but were forced to move in with friends in Italy after Nazi takeover. Later they fled to France where they stayed during the war. The novel focuses on the story of his brother Eric, which was definitely dramatic and interesting. He joined the resistance, took part in liberating concentration camps and later became an officer of the French army.

Problem is, the two brothers were never close, and it never feels like the author gets under Erics skin. He is too distant from the brother to truly know him, and too close to just make an interesting character up.

2½ stars

39. Alexander Solsjenitsyn: En dag i Ivan Denisovitjs liv

Acquired: I bought this book in a wonderful store full of used books and run by volunteers during our summer vacation this year.

Solsjenitsyn has written long and elaborate novels about the camp system of the Soviet Union but his debut from 1962 is something else. He focuses on a single day in a single prisoners life and the result is a short and hard to put down novel about the lack of food, endless counting and recounting of prisoners, and most of all about a system of repression that seeps into every corner of the prisoner's mind.

I tend to like relatively long novels, but this just seems like such a perfectly concentrated story of one of the most important and terrible periods in history.

5 stars

40. Ray Bradbury: The Martian Chronicles

Acquired: I fell for this book a couple of years ago when I went to Galway with my daughter.

Bradbury imagines a future when humans - more precisely Americans - colonize Mars after a plague kills off the Martians until everything breks down after atomic war breaks out on Earth. I enjoyed the book, which is imaginative and contains many original ideas about other civlizations and a stark warning against war - but it's stunning how much the vision of the future reproduces middle class American values and ideas about gender.

3½ stars

>113 Henrik_Madsen: Yes, it's strange how so many of those imaginative mid-century sci-fi stories couldn't imagine gender equality :-/

One of my favourite genres or subtypes of sci-fi is sci-fi set in a year I've already lived through, e.g. 2001. Then I feel like a time traveller comparing the lived reality with the imagined scenario.

>114 rabbitprincess: Imagining aliens with six eyes and telepathy is apparently harder than a husband doing dishes - who knew?

It is funny to read stories set in a future that is already in the past. 2001 is of course iconic, but september 1999 seems more realistic in a weird sense.

Hi Henrik. Just visiting as many threads as I can manage today. I hope you and the family are doing fine. Waving at you.

>116 connie53: Hi Connie - Waving back at you! We are doing fine, but life is a bit hectic. I try to get some reading done, but am not very much on LT these days.

Wish you and your family all the best as well.

41. Kazuo Ishiguro: Klara og solen

Acquired: A book-of-the-month from my bookclub earlier this year. I read it now because I had a hole in my alphabet challenge and because I felt like reading some more sci-fi.

What a novel. Klara is an Artificial Friend who is bought to accompany Josie. Josie has been genetically lifted, but it has not just made her smarter. It has also made her ill, and soon Klara is at the center of worying developments. As the story progresses Klara emerges as the most human of the characters. Where they lack faith, hope and empathy she has it.

Klara og solen is a brilliant and dystopian novel which explores technological tendencies and discusses the borders between human and artificial life. Read it.

5 stars

42. Joseph Roth: Job

Acquired: I bought this a couple of years ago at an online booksale and picked it up now to cover another hole in my alphabet challenge. And I'm glad I did!

Mendel Singer is a poor Jewish teacher in zarist Russia before the first world war. He is happily married and all seems to go well, when God apparantly decides to put his faith to the test. One son is born handicapped, another is taken by the army and the daughter is sought after by soldiers. An opportunity appears when the last son invites the to join him i America, but it turns out to be the start of new hardship.

Roth was born in Brody in what in what is today Ukraine and it is his psychological insight combined with his knowledge of Jewish culture which makes this such a great read.

4½ stars

43. Erling Jepsen: Den sønderjyske farm

Acquired: I read a great review when the novel came out in 2013 and bought it when it was on a sale a couple of years later. Now it could cover yet another hole in my alphabet challenge.

This is the third novel about the boy Allan Jensen who grew up in the countryside in the 1960s in a dysfunctional family. His father is neurotic but at least he can no longer abuse the older sister because she has been placed in foster care. The story focuses on the summer where Allan is 12 years old, struggling to find friends and starting up as a rabbit farmer.

Jepsen writes with humour about serious themes, but I thought this was one of his lesser works. The humour is there, but the family tragedy was revealed in the first book of the series and it doesn't really develop here.

3 stars

44. Jens Genehr: Valentin

Acquired: I really shopped when I was in Berlin in august - and one of the graphic novels I bought was Genehr's debut from 2019

Valentin is a massive construction outside Bremen. It was build 1944-45 to create a shipyard for submarines, that could withstand heavy bombing. It was build by forced labor from the camp system, and the story is told from the point of view of two people: Johann S. is a photographer hired to document the building process. He sees but don't see the prisoners, he enjoys the priviliges of the nazi state without really caring about politics. The other is the young Frenchman Raymond P. He is deported and forced to work on the project, where he almost dies from hunger before he and the rest of prisoners are send on a meaningless death march as the regime is finally falling apart.

The simple drawings are effective but doesn't really do much to elevate the story as a work of art. Overall it is an ok book about a period of time where there is an abundance of brilliant books available.

3 stars.

45. William Trevor: The Story of Lucy Gault

Acquired: The last book I bought when I visited Galway a couple of years ago.

The Gault family is English but has lived in southwestern Ireland for generations. After independence local troublemakers try to push them out, and after an accident it becomes necessary to leave. Unfortunately the parents and their daughter Lucy is separated, they think she is dead and all contact is cut off, so she has to grow up with the servants Henry and Bridgit.

It is a novel about the troubles, about guilt and suppressed feelings. It started out very well but lost momentum in the middle, and I never really believed the premise of the story, namely that the parents never har any sort of correspondence with anybody from their past lives.

3 stars

Hello Henrik!

Trying to catch up on threads again. I want to wish you

So, this year is pretty much done, both in the real world and in the world of ROOTing. My goal was 50 ROOTS and after a good start I have been hampered by an extremely busy time at work for the last couple of months.

In the end I have read 47 ROOTs, which is nice, but three short of my goal. 11 of those have been DROOTs sitting on my shelves for at least eight years, so I'm quite pleased with that part of my reading.

I also did an alphabet challenge. It made me study my shelves as I had to find books for the last letters, which was fun. In the end I missen out on some really difficult letters (Q, X, Æ, Ø and Å) because I didn't have any fitting books and U and Y because I ran out of time. I have decided on something different for 2022, but it was a good challenge and I might do it again in the future - but probably without the most impossible letters.

I finished my 47th and final ROOT today, but I still have a couple of reviews to go before wrapping up this thread and getting ready for next year.

46. Vladimir Nabokov: Pnin

Acquired: A new translation of this came out last year, and my book club had it on offer.

Timofey Pnin is a Russian in America. He fled Russia after the communist revolution and after staying almost twenty years in Europe he has emigrated across the Atlantic. Pnin is a bit of a comic character. He has trouble finding his way around in the new country, he speaks very poor English which is quite problematic for a scholar, and his personal life is a bit of a mess. Still, he is not to be pitied. He lives with pride, does good to the people around him and he is part of a strong Russian community trying to uphold the cultural heritage of their homeland.

After finding Ada or Ardor pretty agonizing it was great reading a Nabokov novel that was both funny - Pnin is an loveable but comic character, and Nabokov makes openly fun of the college world - profound, and extremely well written.

4 stars

>124 Henrik_Madsen: Great work on your challenge and for getting to some of those deeply ROOTed books! Looking forward to seeing what challenge you set for yourself next year :)

Good job, Henrik. Happy New Year!

Happy new year!

Happy new year, all. I will see you in the new group shortly!

47. Stefanie Zweig: Nirgendwo in Afrika

Acquired: This was one of the first books I bought, when I lived in Berlin in 2000. It looked intriguing but then other more study-relevant books got in the way, and it ended up sitting on my shelves for more than twenty years. Good thing the alphabet-challenge made me get to it now!

The Radlich family is Jewish and forced to emigrate from Germany to Kenya in 1938. They live there until 1947, and even though times are hard - the father is an attorney forced to work as a farmer, they are treated as "hostile aliens" during the war - they manage to survive while following with horror the destruction of Jewish communities and their family from afar.

It is an interesting book with a different perspective on the Holocaust, and it is also an interesting story about a family fighting to stick together and about a girl growing up between cultures. I look forward to the second part about the return to Germany.

3½ stars

And that's it for me when it comes to 2021. No more ROOTs to report - but there is always another ROOT to read and another group to join.