Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada

Again a book club read. I am not one to pick up a book with Berlin in title. I didnt read any reviews, didnt read the summary or blurb. Just went in blindly. I was expecting it to be the story of the Frau Rosenthal and how she survives the holocaust staying alone in her apartment. Something on the lines of Anne Frank. But in the very next chapter, she is dead. So at that point wasnt sure where this was going. We have two 'good for nothing' characters Eno Fluge and Brokenhaus, who seem to occupy many many pages of this story. An old German couple, angry with the Nazis start writing postcards as a form of protest and leaving them in different locations. Did these postcards cause a silent revolution, was there a civil disobedience movement because of this? Or is this a cat and mouse thriller. Noose closing in on the old couple. Its not both. Its about futility of protest in a totilatarian regime. Still protesting because as a decent human, you cant live with it. The torture at the end is a bit of torture, it seemed to go on and on. I didnt realise untill the very end this book was written right after the second World War. It did read quite modern to me, something like a period drama written in recent times looking at the life in Berlin during Nazi regime. Also, it seemed like a very tiny world. Like Eno getting arrested or how Brokenhaus' son gets adopted. Too many coincidences

The Alamanack of Naval Ravikant

I like to run away from non-fiction as fast as possible. I may have given reseans for it before. Maybe I have not. This book was not my first choice, for that matter even my choice. It was the book club read for March. If you dont want to do something, you will always find reason not to do it. My reasons were, this book is not in my local library, I couldnt find it on openlibrary. I dont want to spend money on a book, I dont know if I will like. So many more. But a free e-book on the authors site and comittment to try something new once in a while. I started reading. I would say reluctant reader. Chapter headings were good enough, was there need for saying things over and over again. I do agree with the author on several things. That for a non-fiction you read a few chapters and then skim past and get the gist. Also agree read any book. Just love reading, you will get to somewhere eventually. Also agree on having a good understanding of basic maths, logic, science and economics. Overall interesting, its really good when the authour confirms your world view. I would say even better when the author challenges your worldview where in we get a new perspective. Wasnt challenged that way, but wouldnt write it off totally. Good read.

Still Reading, just not blogging about it...

Word for the week 'sycophant' - a person who acts obsequiously towards someone important in order to gain advantage.

The City of Blood- Review & Giveaway

My Thoughts 

Art is subjective. While there are some art that maybe loved universally, there are many that are loved by some and are controversial and questionable to others. When Artists yearn for immortality and being displayed in Galleries is never going to be enough. Once they reach the heights of fame in their artistic career, immortality through their art is something they court with. How to be remembered beyond your time? We bury time capsules for posterity. Why not bury an entire banquet in one of the important landmarks in Paris? That's what artist Samuel Cassian did in the eighties in the 'City of Blood', former slaughterhouse area in Paris in this instalment of Paris Homicide novels. Now decades later it is time to dig up the past and find out what remains of the banquet. And what did they dig up? Remains, alright but, remains of a dead person who seemed to be buried along with the banquet. Who was he/she? How did that person end up buried in this banquet? What is that person's connection to the Banquet? Samuel Cassian yearned for immortality and here is the kind of macabre immortality that people would remember for years. Well when you bury something in the City of Blood, you would expect to see some bones, wouldn't you? 

Nico Sirsky is in-charge of the case. Will he find the answers? Nico's mother is hospitalised and Nico makes a pact with himself, that his mother would survive the crisis if he find the truth about the remains in the buried banquet. Will he keep his end of the promise and his mother survive? 

The City of Blood is a short and interesting police procedural that could be read in a few hours. Like the earlier novel in the series 'Crossing the Line', this novel also has an interesting setting 'The city of blood', formerly abattoir of the City, and invokes the place with interesting information. 

 I do like my twists and turns and the final surprise that authors spring on us. While the police procedural is interesting, after a point finding the killer is straightforward, I was hoping there would be a final surprise. Having said that, Nico is an interesting character and I wouldn't mind getting further acquainted with him. Flesh and Bones in the City of Blood! 

Author Frédérique Molay

on Tour

January 15 – February 3

with

The City of Blood

[police procedural / thriller]

(translated by Jeffrey Zuckerman)

Release date: January 20, 2015
at Le French Book

212 pages

ISBN: 978-1939474186


Website | Goodreads

***

SYNOPSIS

When a major Parisian modern art event gets unexpected attention on live TV, Chief of Police Nico Sirsky and his team of elite crime fighters rush to La Villette park and museum complex. There, renowned artist Samuel Cassian is inaugurating the first archeological dig of modern art, twenty-seven years after burying the leftovers of a banquet. In front of reporters from around the world, excavators uncover a skeleton. Could it be the artist’s own son? And does that death have anything to do with the current string of nightclub murders by the “Paris Butcher”? On the site of the French capital’s former slaughterhouses, the investigation takes Nico and France’s top criminal investigation division from artists’ studios to autopsy theaters and nightclubs in hopes of tracking down the murderer who has turned this Paris park into a city of blood. [provided by the publisher]

***

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Called, “the French Michael Connelly,” Frédérique Molay graduated from France’s prestigious Science Po and began her career in politics and the French administration. She worked as chief of staff for the deputy mayor of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, and then was elected to the local government in Saône-et-Loire. Meanwhile, she spent her nights pursing a passion for writing she had nourished since she wrote her first novel at the age of eleven. The first in the Paris Homicide series, The 7th Woman, won France’s most prestigious crime fiction award and went on to become an international bestseller, allowing Molay to dedicate her life to writing and raising her three children.

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ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR

Jeffrey Zuckerman was born in the Midwest and lives in New York. He has worked as an editorial assistant, a lifeguard, and a psychology researcher. Now an editor for Music and Literature Magazine, he also freelances for several companies, ranging from the pharmaceutical industry to old-fashioned book publishing. He holds a degree in English with honors from Yale University, where he studied English literature, creative writing, and translation.

***

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Color Coded Challenge 2014 Wrap up

Here are the books read for the Color coded challenge hosted by Bev @ Myreadersblock blog. 

1. A book with "Blue" or any shade of Blue in the title. -Tail of the Blue Bird by Nii Aykwei Parkes

2. A book with "Red" or any shade of Red  in the title. Nightmare in Burgundy by Jean-Pierre Alaux

3. A book with "Yellow" or any shade of Yellow in the title.  The Yellow turban by Charlotte Jay

4. A book with "Green" or any shade of Green in the title. The Greenland Breach by Bernard Besson

5. A book with "Brown" or any shade of Brown in the title. Encyclopaedia Brown, Boy Detective by Donold J Sobol

6. A book with "Black" or any shade of Black (Jet, Ebony, Charcoal, etc) in the title- The Black Mountain by Rex Stout

7. A book with "White" or any shade of White (Ivory, Eggshell, Cream, etc) in the title. The Ivory grin by Ross Macdonald

8. A book with any other color in the title (Purple, Orange, Silver, Pink, Magneta, etc.).The case of the Black-eyed blonde by Erle Stanley Gardner

9. A book with a word that implies color (Rainbow, Polka-dot, Plaid, Paisley, Stripe, etc.).-The Zebra-Striped Hearse by Ross Macdonald

Through the Glass, darkly by Helen McCloy

Vintage Mystery Bingo Challenge 2014 Wrap uo

Happy 2015! 

Here are the books read for the Vintage Mystery Bingo Challege. I Completed the Golden card and claim two bingos in the silver card. While i read so many I reviewed only one. Maybe 2015 will be a better year for blogging!  

Colour- The Black Mountain by Rex Stout

Anywhere except US or Uk-The Yellow turban by Charlotte Jay 

Crime other than murder- Dorothy Dixon solves the Conway case by Dorothy Wayne

Locked room- The moving toyshop by Edmund Crispin

Academic - Through the glass, darkly by Helen McCloy

entertainment- Vintage Murder by Ngaio Marsh 

More than one title- Death in Cyprus by M M Kaye 

Number- Death in five boxes by Carter Dickson

Free Space - The Case of the Deadly Toy by Erle Stanley Gardner 

New author- The blank wall by Elizabeth Sanxay Holding

Method of murder- The African poison murders by Elspeth Huxley

Women- Laura by Vera Caspary

Spooky - Beat not the bones by Charlotte Jay

Movie- The Lady Vanishes by Ethel Lina White

Amateur detective- Death in Zanzibar by M M Kaye 

Man- The Hollow man John Dickson Carr

Country house- No wind of blame by Georgette Heyer

Mode of transport- Strangers on a train by Patricia Highsmith

Author read before- The case of the Waylaid Wolf by Erle Stanley Gardner 

Courtroom-  The Case of black eyed blonde by Erle Stanley Gardner 

Fellow challenger- A shilling for candles by Josephine Tey

Professional- The Ivory grin by Ross Macdonald

Water- Singing in the shrouds by Ngaio Marsh 

Outside comfort- A Coffin of Dimitiros by Eric Ambler

Detective team- If death ever slept by Rex Stout

Time- The clock strikes twelve by Patricia Wentworth 

Short story Collection- The labour of Hercules by Agatha Christie

Translated- Maigret in Exile by Georges Simenon

England- The Beast must die by Nicholas Blake

Borrow- A kiss before dying by Ira Levin

Animal- The Chinese Parrot by Earl Derr Biggers

Place-  Death in the wrong room by Anthony Gilbert

Size- A dram of poison by Charlotte Armstrong 

Medical- Man Missing by Mignon G Eberhart

Pseudonym-The secret of the old clock by Carolyn Keene 

U.S- Beast in view by Margret Millar

Silver

Two Bingos 

Last Horizontal line and Four Corners Bingo

entertainment: Assignment in Andorra by May Mackintosh 

Women-The skull beneath her skin by P D James

Mode of transport-The Zebra-Striped Hearse by Ross Macdonald

Outside comfort- A Case of need by Jeffery Hudson

Borrow- Dekok and the Somber Nude by A C Baantjer

U.S- The James Joyce Murder by Amanda Cross

Colour- Encyclopaedia Brown, Boy Detective by Donald J Sobol

Animal in the title - Crocodile on the sandbank by Elizabeth Peters

Crime other than murder- Encyclopaedia Brown finds the Clue by Donald J Sobol

Short storycoll-Encyclopaedia Brown and the case of the secret Pitch by Donald J Sobol

Deadly Tasting : Review & Giveaway

My Thoughts



While reading the previous instalment of the Winemaker detective series, I couldn't help wondering if all this wine tasting and drinking wine at all available moments have any effect on Benjamin Cooker's health. Maybe he is one of those, whatever they eat or drink has no adverse effect on their body. Maybe not so. In this instalment, Winemaker Detective can drink as much as he wants, all day, whenever he wants the special cabbage soup Mrs.Cooker concocted to make our Detective a few pounds lighter. Imagine having not to eat anything but cabbage soup for seven days and being called to taste wines. Wonder what he could taste but hunger. If cabbage soup diet in combination with tasting wines can make one queasy add to it the crime scene- all blood and gore, with butchered bodies.

Winemaker detective is called to taste the glasses of wine the killer has left as a calling card in the crime scenes, of victims in their late eighties and early nineties. Who would leave a full glass of wine as a calling card? Why is somebody killing off old men who would die sooner or later anyway? What is the connection between these men and the wine? Can our Winemaker Detective crack the case?

The novel is really short that could be read in a couple of hours but with a heavy dose of history of Bordeaux and its involvement during World War Two. What was the stand of the people of Bordeaux during World War Two? What happened to wine production during these tumultuous years? As usual the mystery gets solved on its own. But that does not take away the pleasure of meeting the Winemaker detective with a sparkling wit again.

***

Deadly Tasting

[cozy mystery]



Click on the banner for the rest of the tour!

Release date: October 17, 2014

at Le French Book

144 pages

ISBN: 978-1939474216

Website | Goodreads

***

SYNOPSIS

A serial killer is on the loose in Bordeaux. A local chief detective calls wine expert Benjamin Cooker to the crime scene of a brutal murder. The killer has left a strange calling card: twelve wine glasses lined up in a semi-circle with the first one filled with wine. Cooker is charged with the task of identifying the fabulous grand cru and is astonished by what he learns. A second victim is found, with two glasses filled. Is the killer intentionally leaving clues about his victims and his motives? Memories are jogged about the complicated history of Bordeaux during Nazi occupation. It was a dark time: weinfuhrers ruled the wine trade, while collaborationists and paramilitary organizations spread terror throughout the region. In present-day wine country, time is running out. Will Cooker and his young assistant Virgile solve the mystery before all twelve glasses are full? [provided by the publisher]


WATCH THE TRAILER

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRrqrT44psg


***

An episode in a long successful French mysteries series that is a hit television series now in its fourth season and attracting an audience of over 4 million. The series is a huge success in France, Belgium and Switzerland.

***

ABOUT THE AUTHORS


©David Nakache


Jean-Pierre Alaux is a magazine, radio and television journalist when he is not writing novels in southwestern France. He is a genuine wine and food lover and recently won the Antonin Carême prize.
He is the grandson of a winemaker and exhibits a real passion for wine and winemaking. For him, there is no greater common denominator than wine. He gets a sparkle in his eye when he talks about the Winemaker Detective series, which he writes with Noël Balen. It is a 22-strong series that is a hit on French television and is now being translated into English by Le French Book.


ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR

Translator Sally Pane studied French at State University of New York Oswego and the Sorbonne before receiving her Masters Degree in French Literature from the University of Colorado where she wrote Camus and the Americas: A Thematic Analysis of Three Works Based on His Journaux de Voyage. Her career includes more than twenty years of translating and teaching French and Italian at Berlitz and at Colorado University Boulder. She has worked in scientific, legal and literary translation; her literary translations include Operatic Arias; Singers Edition, and Reality and the Untheorizable by Clément Rosset. She also served as the interpreter for the government cabinet of Rwanda and translated for Dian Fossey’s Digit Fund. In addition to her passion for French, she has studied Italian at Colorado University, in Rome and in Siena. She lives in Boulder, Colorado with her husband.

***

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Tour-wide Giveaway

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Disclaimer: I received an ebook from the France Book Tours in exchange for an honest review. I was not compensated for this review and all opinions are my own.