books & reviews

We Are Okay – Nina LaCour

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“It wasn‘t the ghosts. It was the hauntings that mattered.“

We Are Okay (Nina LaCour)

Marin is in her first year of college in New York and does not want to think back. She does not want to remember what has been lost to her and what she has left behind when she fled from her Californian hometown months ago. But while Marin does not feel able to reconnect with her past yet and certain important things and people have undoubtedly been lost forever, her best friend, Mabel, won’t give up on her. Even after countless unanswered calls and messages, Mabel keeps trying to reach out to Marin.

So, when Marin is about to spend Christmas and winter break all alone at college in New York, as far away from the Pacific Ocean as she can get, Mabel comes to visit. And Marin has to look back, whether she wants to or not. In doing so, she also has to begin to heal. And to realize that in life good things and things that hurt can rarely be separated. Instead, they often mix up in one and the same person.

“The trouble with denial is that when the truth comes, you aren‘t ready.“

We Are Okay (Nina LaCour)
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books & reviews

Die Pilgerjahre des Farblosen Herrn Tazaki – Haruki Murakami

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Es gibt Bücher, die zufrieden machen. Die den Kopf, die Gedanken, mit Wärme erfüllen, sie in ruhigen, gleichmäßigen Bahnen laufen lassen und die Hektik der Welt aussperren. Von dem Moment an, in dem man sie aufschlägt. „Die Pilgerjahre des farblosen Herrn Tazaki“ ist eines dieser besonderen Bücher. Die Sprache, in der es geschrieben ist, macht zufrieden. Der Weg der Hauptfigur macht zufrieden und die Botschaften, die das Buch sendet, auch. Dass die Figuren keine einfachen Wege gehen, dass sie im Leben auch mit Schwierigkeiten zu kämpfen haben, allen voran der farblose Tsukuru Tazaki selbst, macht ebenfalls zufrieden. Denn dadurch werden seine Pilgerjahre zu einer Erlaubnis, nicht perfekt und nicht stark, sondern sogar ausdrücklich schwach zu sein. Eine solche Erlaubnis macht in der Welt, in der wir leben, glücklich, weil sie es Menschen gestattet, anders zu funktionieren als die, die „Großes“ von ihnen erwarten. Das große Wettrennen um den schönsten Schein nicht mitzulaufen, stattdessen sie selbst zu sein und damit wiederum anderen Menschen die Möglichkeit geben, Schwächen einzugestehen und offen mit ihnen umzugehen.

Außerdem handelt Tsukuru Tazakis Geschichte von Freundschaft. Von einer in ihrer besonderen Intensität

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books & reviews

Wink Poppy Midnight – April Genevieve Tucholke

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“All the strangest things are true.“ (April Genevieve Tucholke, Wink Poppy Midnight)

Some books stay in mind for a long time. I picked this particular one up at Barnes & Noble on Broadway in New York City when I visited NYC with my best friend, Victoria, in June 2017.  The story is still in my head, I remember it, I think about it. It still won’t leave, which is proof that I really enjoyed reading it. I bought Wink Poppy Midnight while waiting for Vici getting ready at the hairdresser. She had decided that she was in need of new Highlights. What else could there possibly be worth doing than getting blonde highlights in NYC…

Anyways, while Vici got her hair dyed, I strolled around the near bookstore and found this book. It took me only a few days to read it, though I still was in the most exciting city I’ve ever been to, partly because my flight back home got cancelled and I had to spend ten hours at JFK, alone and bored, because Vici would stay in the US for another two months. I was quite happy to have Wink Poppy Midnight with me because it was a gripping read, which surprised me a bit. Somehow, though it is YA, the story definitely is not mainstream. It is strange, dark and confusing in parts. And Wink Poppy Midnight is one of those books of which I will always know where and when I bought and read them.

“Revenge. Justice. Love. They are the three stories that all other stories are made up of.“ (April Genevieve Tucholke, Wink Poppy Midnight)

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books & reviews

The Night Circus – Erin Morgenstern

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„People see what they wish to see. And in most cases, what they are told that they see.“ (Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus)

This book is best read at night, when everybody else is asleep and flickering candlelight surrounds you. It is best read during nights when you’re just awake enough to stay up reading and just tired enough to get swept away to a world made of dreams, some of which keep balancing on the threatening edge of turning into nightmares.

Le Cirque des Rêves

The Night Circus is about love, friendship, time and magic. But most of all it is about dreams. Dreams that pass by nearly unnoticed as well as dreams that are followed until the edge of the world and the edge of time. It is about people who lead strange, dreamy lives, constantly chasing something that can never be caught.

And the book tells the story of Celia and Marco, two young magicians who are caught in a competition they themselves did not start, who are bound to each other since they have been but children and who are not able to tare this magical bond apart.

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