breath of words

The Female Persuasion – Meg Wolitzer

1. September 2019 Keine Kommentare

She sometimes said “I don’t know,“ even when she did know. What she meant was that it was more comfortable to stay in vagueness than to leave it.
The Female Persuasion, Meg Wolitzer, p. 19

Bold as its strikingly colorful cover suggests, The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer is an ode to being a woman, to purpose, dedication and passion. It tells a story about how life often leads ambitious young people ways they certainly would not have chosen for themselves in the beginning.

The Story

Young and rather shy Greer Kadetsky is a freshman at a College she does not want to be at when she meets the charismatic and fascinating feminist Faith Frank. At age sixty-three, Faith has been part of the US women’s movement for years. Greer, who is one of plenty of girls who have recently been harassed by a fellow student, is instantly drawn toward the elegant woman and seeks her advice. Though deeply in love with her high school boyfriend Cory, hearing Faith speak inspires Greer to search for a different kind of purpose and fulfillment.

books

Legendary – Stephanie Garber

30. Juli 2019 Keine Kommentare

Includes spoilers for Caraval. None for Legendary.

I picked up Legendary by Stephanie Garber because I loved its prequel, Caraval. Dense and colourful with bright and dark magic, enchantment and people who are not what they pretend to be, the game Caraval provides a world characters as well as readers can escape to, get lost and loose a bit of themselves in.

Nevertheless, I was a little skeptical in view of Legendary at first. Though Caraval ended with enough of a cliffhanger to make me want to read on about the sisters Scarlett and Donatella Dragna’s adventures, I could not get to like the idea of the series‘ main character changing. Because, while cautious and guarded Scarlett had been Caraval’s protagonist, this was about to change in Legendary. Here, her sister Donatella would have her turn.

photography

A Game of Chess

19. Mai 2019 Keine Kommentare

a coffee cup in black and white. Eine Kaffeetasse in schwarz-weiß. Rebekka Wölky Fotografie. Photography by Rebekka Wölky.

books

Hold Still – Nina LaCour

3. April 2019 Keine Kommentare

Hold Still by Nina LaCour tells a story about loss, grief, the feeling of having terribly failed someone, about friendship, remembering and new beginnings, as the blurb indicates. But it also is about Photography and The Cure, which alone would have been enough for me to like it. However, if my feelings for this book stopped at just liking it, I would not be sitting on a balcony in the sun, writing this blogpost and listening to „Lovesong“ and „Just Like Heaven“ repeatedly right now. So, in the following, let me tell you which other feelings reading Hold Still evoked in me.

„Though it’s about a tragedy, hope and resilience are its heart.“
LaCour, Nina. Hold Still (S.243). Penguin Young Readers Group. Kindle-Version.

books

Naokos Lächeln – Haruki Murakami

9. März 2019 Keine Kommentare

Naokos Lächeln — Nur eine Liebesgeschichte ist ein weiteres schönes Buch von Haruki Murakami. Die Formulierung „schönes Buch“ mag platt klingen und so, als hätte ich einfach das erste Adjektiv verwendet, das mir als ein positives in den Kopf gekommen ist. Aber ich benutze diese Formulierung eigentlich ganz bewusst und meine sie genauso, wie ich sie schreibe, weil es tatsächlich ein Buch von großer Schönheit ist. Wie schon „Die Pilgerjahre des farblosen Herrn Tazaki“ und auch Murakamis Autobiografie.

Die Liebesgeschichte, von der im Titel des Buches die Rede ist, spielt im Tokyo der späten 1960er Jahre. Der junge Student Toru Watanabe zieht seines Studiums wegen in die Stadt. Er studiert Theaterwissenschaften, lebt in einem Studentenwohnheim, arbeitet mehrere Abende die Woche in einem Plattenladen und wird Zeuge der Studentenbewegung der 60er Jahre. Toru ist ein Einzelgänger und leidet noch unter dem unerwarteten Selbstmord seines besten Freundes Kizuki vor nicht allzu langer Zeit.

books

We Are Okay – Nina LaCour

26. Dezember 2018 Keine Kommentare

“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)

books

Die Pilgerjahre des Farblosen Herrn Tazaki – Haruki Murakami

21. November 2018 Keine Kommentare

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

books

Wink Poppy Midnight – April Genevieve Tucholke

11. April 2018 Keine Kommentare

“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)

books

The Night Circus – Erin Morgenstern

6. Februar 2018 2 Kommentare

„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.

own stories

Das unsichtbare Orchester

22. Januar 2018 Keine Kommentare

Er dirigierte ein ganzes Orchester. Mit geradem Rücken sitzend, die Augen geschlossen, ließ er die Musik anschwellen, seine Gedanken durchdringen, umfließen, sie fortspülen, bis nichts blieb außer den Höhen und Tiefen der Klänge in seinem Kopf. Und als er ganz und gar in ihnen verloren war, hob er langsam, ganz vorsichtig, die Hände und begann, im Takt auf seine Oberschenkel zu trommeln. Zuerst leise und vorsichtig, während er sich mit den Tönen vertraut machte, dann immer energischer, lauter. Die ersten Fahrgäste drehten sich zu ihm um, reckten neugierig die Hälse oder blickten verwirrt von den Seiten der Bücher auf, mit denen sie sich die Fahrtzeit zu vertreiben versuchten, durch das rhythmische Klopfen seiner Hände aus ihren Fantasiewelten gerissen.