The Content Reader

Intimacies by Katie Kitamura is a wonderful book in many ways. It tells the story of an interpreter who comes to The Hague to work at the International Criminal Court. She is a woman of many languages and places, and she is looking for a place to call home. We meet her from her professional and private side. However, the professional side is lingering like a shadow over her private life.  Kitamura starts by giving an explanation what is demanded of a good interpreter. I wanted to quote it here but it is rather too long. An interpreter has to be neutral and interpret in tone and nuance how it is spoken by the witnesses.  "A sliver of unreliability introducing fractures into the testimony of the witness, those fractures would develop into cracks, which would in turn threaten the witness's entire persona. Every person who took to the stand was projecting an image of one kind or another: their testimony was heavily coached and shaped by either the defense or the prosecution, they...

A new spin for the Classics club  no. 31. See details under link. I have not read a book for the spin for some time. That means it is about time that I got my act together. Here is my spin list.  1. The Master and Margarita by Michail Bulgakov 2. Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather 3. Daisy Miller by Henry James 4. The Seahawk by Rafael Sabatini.    5. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoj 6. Women in Love by D.H. Lawrence 7. Child Harold by Lord Byron 8. House of Mirth by Edith Wharton 9. The Red and the Black by Stendhal 10. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck 11. Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak  12. The Wings of the Dove by Henry James (last spin) 13. Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence 14. Tom Jones by Henry Fielding 15. To Have and Have not by Ernest Hemingway 16. Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton 17. The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham 18. The Brothers Karamazov by Fjodor Dostoevsky 19. The House on the Strand by Daphne du Maurier 20. A Writer's Not...

Authors' books I have saved on my shelves which names start with C. Turns out to be only five books, of which four are non-fiction. My reviews under links.  Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops by Jen Campbell - a funny book with quotes from customers in bookshops. Here is an example which highlights the mix of culture today, and confusion. I would say that anything that makes someone want to buy a book is good. Although this customer, sadly, did not go for the book: "CUSTOMER:  Do you have a copy of Bella Swan's favourite book? You know, from Twilight? (Bookseller sighs and pulls a copy of Wuthering Heights off the shelf) CUSTOMER: Do you have the one with the cover that looks like Twilight? BOOKSELLER: No. This is an antiquarian bookshop, so this is an old edition of the book. CUSTOMER: But it's still the one with that girl Cathy and the dangerous guy, right? BOOKSELLER: Yes, it's still the story by Emily Brontë. CUSTOMER: Right. Do you think they'll make ...

Hello, Just a short post to inform you that I have created a newsletter. As you have noticed I only post about books on this blog.  It would be fun to write about other things sometimes. However, I feel I want to keep The Content Reader a pure book blog.   In the newsletter I will discuss books (of course) culture, history, travel or anything that catches my eyes or ears for the time being. It will be more personal, but not too much. There are possibilities to comment or send an e-mail. I would love to have comments or discussions on any topic.  It will be posted every Friday (hopefully) at 10.00 CET (Europe). It is free to subscribe (see button in the newsletter) and you can unsubscribe at any time. I hope to improve the layout, but I am trying to take a step at the time. You find the Newsletter here. https://thecontentreader. substack.com I hope to see you there.

I found a few quotes from the books I read in August. They were too long to put into the short summary, but why not give them a post of their own? I also added a few quotes from Coetzee's The Childhood of Jesus. The Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster As said, a great book. The Brooklyn Follies are full of stories, wonderful stories, stories about genuin people, about their lives, for good or for bad. Nathan Glass, the main protagonist is a wonderful character that you just can't help not loving. His attitude to life, may be because he has given up on having special dreams or demands from life, is clear cut.  "Life got in the way. two years in the army, work, marriage, family responsibilities, the need to earn more and more money, all the much that bogs us down when we don't have the balls to stand up for ourselves - but I had never lost my interest in books. Reading was my escape and my conform, my consolation, my stimulant of choice: reading for the pure pleasure of it, ...

  Out of the 12 books I read in August, five of them stood out above the others. Usually, one or two sticks out, but five out of twelve is good. Here a short review for each of them. Przewalski's Horse by Maja Lunde The third book in her climate series of four books. We find ourselves in the past, present and future where we follow different protagonists during different time lines with a common theme; the wild horses. Mikhail lives in Russian in 1881, works in a zoo and finds himself enrolled in an expedition to capture wild horses in Mongolia. It changes his life in more ways than one. Karin and her son Mathias, in 1992, are taking Przewalski horses from France to Mongolia to try to re-introduce the race into their natural habitat. Mother and son have a difficult relationship, but maybe the horses can bring them together. Eva is living with her daughter in Norway in 2064, trying to save the last species of her wild animals, including the wild horses. Her daughter wants them to le...