Wonderful Wednesday #8 Gothic Reads

Do you like books which give you the creeps or which make you feel uneasy? Well then gothic fiction is for you! Those books are all about atmosphere and the building of suspense and a good handful mystery and madness thrown in. Today I'm going to share with you my top reads in this genre.

The Monster's of Templeton by Lauren Groff which I reviewed here. This one is a bittersweet, melancholy read. I very much fell for one of the last chapters about Flimmy, Templeton's lake monster and how it comes that it died, it was sad but beautiful.

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier which I have reviewed here. I won't give away anything. Du Maurier is a remarkable narrator and I think the best recommendation I can give is to grab the book and start reading immedietly if you havent't done so yet.

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. That's my all-time favorite book we are talking about here. I haven't reviewed the book becuase I read it prior to blogging. But still. I love the atmosphere and the epic style of Zafon's writing. The characters harbor dark secrets which are not easily revealed. Ever since I read this book I want to visit Barcelona. It must have been amazing in the 1920s.


Which are your favorte gothic books? Do you have recommendations for me? Have you read any of those I mentioned? Did you like them? Discuss.

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Wonderful Wednesday #7 Favorite Authors

Everybody has some favorite authors. Often a passion starts with an innocent crush for one specific novel. Soon one wants more and is determined to read all there is by this particular author.

Today I want to share three authors of whom I'm determined to read every book they have published or are going to throw on the market in the future.

Jeffrey Eugenides - I read The Virgin Suicides for a book project in school. I loved his writing and I was interested in the fate of the five suicidal sisters. As soon as I read the last page of this, I dashed out chasing for more. I found Middlesex, which is to date one of my most favorite books. I lost myself in this epic story about Greek siblings immigrating to the US and falling in love on the ship that brings them there. I'm looking forward to reading The Marrige Plot which was released most recently.

Banana Yoshimoto - Yoshimoto's stories are sad ones. But she uses language and style to make it easier to endure. Her protagonists are young and lusting for life as well as anxious for it. I discovered Yoshimoto early this year and have reviewed Kitchen and Goodbye Tsugumi in January. Sitting on my shelf I have Lizard and The Lake.

Margaret Atwood - I have only read one book by Margaret Atwood but I am going to go for more. I think she is a fascinating woman with an even more fascinating mind. I have reviewed Oryx and Crake this year and have The Year of the Flood as well as The Blind Assasin waiting on my to be read shelf.


Have you read any of them? Have you got recommendations?

Wonderful Wednesday is hosted by Tiny Library.

Wonderful Wednesday #6 Historical Fiction

This weeks theme is historical fiction.

As this is about spotlighting books, which we loved but may be not so well known to other readers I decided to write about The Blindness of the Heart by Julia Franck this week. The summary is partly taken from shelfari.com.

Originally published as "Die Mittagsfrau" in German, this book won the German book prize in 2007. The Blindness of the Heart is a dark and gloomy novel set in the 20th century, spanning two world wars and several generations of a German family. In the devastating opening scene in 1945, a woman named Helene and her seven-year old son find themselves at a provincial German railway station, amidst the chaos of war refugees fleeing west. Having survived the horrors of the war years, Helene now abandons her son on the station platform, getting on a train and never looking back for him.

The story now goes back to the burdens of Helene's childhood with her sister Martha in rural Germany, which abruptly comes to an end with the outbreak of WWI. Helene's father is send to the Eastern Front and her Jewish mother slips into mental confusion over the hostility her surroundings now show her. Helene and Martha are going to live with their aunt Fanny in Berlin, where they grow to become young women. Aunt Fanny is a rich and cocaine-addicted lady, who introduces the sisters to the entertaining society of the 1920s Berlin. Helene falls madly in love with the young medicine student Carl, who wants her to get to know his family but dies in a car accident. Helene is devastated.

Now we have to watch how the hard years of survival (Helene is of Jewish descendant, due to her mother) and the ill-fated love make her capable of the unforgivable.

I hear you cry out loud: "The war is over but she leaves her son behind at a crowded railway station, though she struggled hard to keep him alive during those hard war years? Why? How could she?"

This is what the book is about, the things that must happen to a woman to make such a cold-hearted decision as to abandon her only child.

Julia Franck's English language debut novel throws light on a time, revealing the breathtaking scope of its citizens' denial - the "blindness of the heart" - that survival often demanded.

What do you think? Are there explanations for such a behavior?

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