Revolutionary

I had to defend my opinion against teachers or friends, that animals do have emotions (-more complex like jealousy and holding a grudge), before. I am very glad for this Yale University video. For me that means next time I just refer to the Yale studies, which also makes me sound more educated and scientifically grounded.^^

I like especially the part where the monkey starts crying out of gratitude. It made me also almost cry. ;-)
But I knew all this before deep in my heart. I just have to look at my little Frenchy (he screamed out in protest once when I pet another dog...)

I also like the heartily way of the presentation. Just take it with a pinch of salt!

The Autobahn

I just got home from Hamburg to Munich -which is about 800 km distance. (North-South longitudial section..) Since I travel the Autobahn for years right across Germany, I just felt like sharing my driving experience. I did travel from New Jersey to Canada once and got so frustrated with the speed limit situation, that I can understand why some people want to  try out a car for once. I really wonder what people do with their sports cars in other countries.. Or do they actually build in a speed-limit-ex-factory?

The Autobahn A7 is (approximately 90% - okay, say 40 or 60%) a construction zone! The renewal of the coating happens too regularly. The traffic signs are a joke (I mean far too many of them -useless signs!) And some of them I can´t even remember the meaning. But it has a system, which probably extrapolates to people grown up in a nation of law and bureaucrazy^^*, only.. (I do like my country nevertheless! Not least for the no-speed-limit)

This is an inside view of an experienced Autobahn driver. You will learn new information as well as deepen one or two things you already might have known:

Chanel June Nail Colour 539 (Technique on how to make it look stunning)

Tart Deco, June, Distraction

Chanel´s June was released in Spring 2012.

I´m not sure weather it is LE or just new in the range. 

My counters do still have it...

A Summer of Drowning by John Burnside (my favourite book ever!)

The Scottish author John Burnside utilizes a northern Scandinavian setting for this novel. It was first published this year 2012.

18 year old "Liv" lives with her mother on an island in the north of Norway. (The climate there: all summer long "daylight" and all winter long "night" -not quite, but almost - so I think.) She tells the story 10 years after it occurred. Her  mother is a successful painter who chose the life of a recluse.

Liv doesn´t want to do or be what society´s expectations on a young adult are. All she wants to do is being alone, walk along the shore and look at picture books. That is the life which makes her the happiest.

She wants to have nothing to do with other people and the world.

The plot is not overly suspenceful and not very much is happening. But it never gets boring! The story wreathes around Liv´s  personality. I have to read it again to say more, I feel quite speechless in astonishment!

Liv likes to visit the old man which is a neighbour who tells her fairy tales. He has a tendency to explain anything with fantasy characters. Trolls or Alice in Wonderland are mentioned which just widen the interpretation spectrum further. She drifts of into her dream world and describes how she sees reindeer or exotic flowers and white lights. Her life seems dreamy and magical and she sees the world through an illusionary fairy tale view.

(Spoilers are in blue)

It doesn´t seem blurry, rather crystal clear -to me at least, how Liv lives her own life and sees the world the way she chooses to. But the author´s intentions leave a good amount of room for  interpretation! You could construe it however you like. It is not certain if some people are real or if they are a product of Liv´s imagination! Because she imagines a lot and sometimes even wonders if she just dreamed what happened. The neighbour for example, she describes him as somebody- no one knows how old he is, and who has lived here for centuries. He is the only company she basically ever wishes, and she hangs out at his place a lot to drink coffee and listen to his tales. "The "Huldra" (a Norwegian beautiful fairy which brings death to men) took them" is Liv´s explanation for things. The Huldra vanishes from one moment to the next.

But even her mother is described with Huldra-like attributes. Say she gives Saturday morning tea parties to a group of men which absolutely adore her, but she never reciprocates their feelings.

Tomorrow in the battle think on me by Javier Marias (or how it looks like if one has fallen in love with a book)

Like you would let your thoughts slide while being in an extremely relaxed moment. That´s exactly how it feels to me to read Marias book! That´s how this writing style feels to me. I read "A heart so white" (review here) and was impressed enough to read another one of Marias books.

Imperium von Christian Kracht

Late 18th or early 19th Century, the vegetarian escapist "Engelhardt" starts his new life on a coconut island in the south pacific.

The vegan nudist decides to leave civilisation behind and  harvest coconuts for living. (How funny! :D) He leaves his hometown Nürnberg and buys an island to fulfill his dream of living on coconuts. (Sounds like a historical adventure novel.. we´ll see)

Germany was not big on building colonial empires. But this book takes part in one of them. (It is a new German book and I don´t know about translated issues yet)  I heard that Engelhardt´s character is based on a real person? Fascinating! (Apparently he was the first "Hippie")

Could include Spoilers (but not really, if you don´t want to read more about the plot, skip to the next blue line):

 

Young Engelhardt dreams about his own Utopian colony on a pacific island which would exist on coconut consumption alone. He attributes spiritual powers to the "hole fruit". He feels violated by the political situation in Germany. That fastens his decision for the exodus.

Engelhardt is very naive and dreamy. So he gets mousetrapped by a crook, who didn´t need the slightest effort to rob him. Fearless and strong headed, he sticks to his plan of coconut farming. The story starts on the ship (I did really like the slow "melting" atmosphere in that short first part) . Brief meetings with the hotel and the estate agent follow....

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

I am fond of the three Dan Brown books I read. So my review is going to be simple: If you know The Davinci Code or Illuminati and don´t mind reading "another one of these", then you will enjoy "The lost Symbol". If you don´t know the other two but are interested in mysterious cults like the "Freimaurer" (which again appear in this book) you might like it. With the constraints: to see it just as a book (I didn´t compare it to reality nor did I ask myself if it is erroneous and odd.) And I didn´t find it to be overly literarily valuable. It is just so much fun! Once again Robert Langdon lives through another mission of thrilling excitements. (If you know one you know them all, but I like it anyway!) So many (too many?) parallels to Dan Brown´s other famous thrillers "Davinci Code" and "Illuminati" doesn´t change the fact, that I didn´t want to put the book down. But it is absolutely same difference! I don´t mind. It´s been years that I read the others. I like the importance of the sceneries. The "fighting-for-a-secret-that-would-change-the-world-completely", apparently is my favourite kind of thriller.

If it is possibly really true - that the scientific circumstances mentioned or that any cult practices - are not made up or exaggerated, but real - then it would be quite impressive. (He must have done excellent research)  I got into these kinds of things during reading.

Could include Spoilers:

Langdon gets called right into the scenery (again delivering a lecture first and disturbed in an every day activity). An extremely cranky Silas-like young man is about to destroy something as important as the planet, or rather something that would change the world we live in forever irrevocably. (Or at least something that would lead to a major paradigm change). The story takes place at the Government in Washington DC which also has an underground tunnel system apparently..

To Have or To Be by Erich Fromm

Erich Fromm did study Psychology, Philosophy and Sociology. He refers to Freud's Psychoanalysis among others. Not for nothing is it a classic that can be found in many, if not  most bookshelves: 

It´s a fluent read without alienating philosophical strays.

 It is not only the "to Have or to Be" it is quite a bit wider. Like a breakdown of human nature´s existential way in Politics, Religion or every day life.

I think most important is, that Fromm did study these three human sciences and can illustrate the content on a brother spectrum than for example Freud could (a specialisation could lead to a partial view, when it comes to a more universal topic.)

To be honest I am afraid it appears to be quite extensive to "review" this book. I am sure some people did their PhD on the subject. So I don´t even try and just more or less say: "Read it- it´s worth it" in the following: 

"Die Stadt der träumenden Bücher" von Walter Moers

It is a book actually for children. Has even pictures in it. It is meant to be highly literary valuable and exceptional in it´s plot. I knew the author only form very weird an unpleasant children cartoons -which I hated as a child. "Kaptain Blaubär" and worse which I don´t want to mention! (But I do anyway to explain: "Das kleine Arschloch"  you think it can not possibly go worse than that? How about that: "Adolf" ) I never really respected the author before because of these titles. It´s not that he might be on a political fringe group but I see it as a weakness if one has to provoke that much all the time. I never gave his work a chance because with titles like this, I am not interested in the contend...

I don´t know if there is a translated version of this book but it is a German book who´s title means: "City of  dreaming books".

So I started reading because I wanted to see what it´s all about since it rewarded a price and best critics. I will give this book to my little sister to read, because I truly believe it can help improving her accomplishments in school concerning writing and even maybe the interest for literature in general..(not that she wouldn´t read every day more than I do anyway.)

About the story:

"Hildegunst von Mythenmetz" is the first-person-narrator.. This world is about Manticore/ chimera creatures.. Hildegunst looks like a crocodile or dinosaur for instant.. Her lector bequeaths her his little house and most importantly, all his books and a letter*... This letter turns out to be extremely dangerous life changing and disturbing and a bookseller she did show it to, immediately advises her to destroy it and hide herself after he kicked her out of the bookstore for it.. But she does not listen and starts her journey into the foreign city. (which is constructed like an anthill with mostly underground mazes).

Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore

Bitterblue is the "true sequel" to "The Graceling." 

As such it does spoil some part of "The Graceling" if you read Bitterblue first! 

(in between Cashore published Fire -a related novel.. -which does not require to be read for enjoying Bitterblue. You don´t even need to read The Graceling first to understand and get into the story or Fire or Bitterblue. "Fire" however, took place before Katsa was even born.)

"Bitterblue" is the child  that Katsia rescues in the last part of "Graceling" and this book is about her. She is the queen of a realm in the dark age. Bitterblue is Leck´s daughter.

She is 18 years old and not yet established as a queen. The life is boring and full of paper work. So she starts to sneak out at night to get to know her people better. She hears stories about her dead father king Leck. She meets the thieves "Teddy and Sef". They own a printer store and become her friends, unaware that she´s the queen.

The past under Lecks regime was full of mystery and misery. He was a cruel mind controller.. (from Graceling we know this world is full of people with fictional graces, one can tell who they are by the different colour of their eyes) Bitterblue- not knowing who to trust, tries to extrapolate a past full of riddles...

Read full review

Fire by Kristin Cashore

Fire is the "sequence" to Kristin Cashore´s the dark age novel "The Graceling".

It takes place in an earlier time frame and with different characters.

(review on "The Graceling"
review on The Graceling´s sequel "Bitterblue")

It is about a young woman who is extremely beautiful (so much that it dazzles and confuses people) and has the grace to manipulate people´s minds. She can plant thoughts into peoples heads if she likes. (For example if she likes to be unseen she tells them: "you see nothing" or something like that) Her Grace works on almost everybody. She uses it responsibly and at first she had scruples  to use it at all (because her father has been such a bad example with the same "grace")

The Graceling by Kristin Cashore

A wonderful dark age novel about a young woman named Katsa, who has "super-powers".. In this world there are some (but few) children born with a special talent -the gracelings. If their grace is valuable to the king, he employs them (for killing others for example). Katsa  is a graceling fighter, means she has "the grace to kill". She can fight against 20 armed human soldiers with no effort. The king she´s working for, makes her kill or torture others. "She is his Lady Killer".

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

If you like Grisham and Dan Brown, this book might be for you.. A thriller with is constructed explicitly and works with a little bit of insight views to certain businesses.