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Showing posts with the label Hamnet

Blogging Anniversary - 10 years

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A while ago I checked when I did my first blog post, in order to celebrate with an anniversary post. Well, that day came and went without any reaction from me. Better late than never, so here a reminder of my very first blog post from 24 October 2012.  The book was New Finnish Grammar  by Diego Marani. Marani is an Italian novelist, translator and newspaper columnist. While working as a translator for the European Union he invented a language ‘Europanto’ which is a mixture of languages and based on the common practice of word-borrowing usage of many EU languages. It was a suitable book to start with, being a book about letters, languages and memories. With a beautiful prose, the novel went directly to my heart.  "One night at Trieste in September 1943 a seriously wounded soldier is found on the quay. The doctor, of a newly arrived German hospital ship, Pietri Friari gives the unconscious soldier medical assistance. His new patient has no documents or anything that can ide...
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Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell

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Maggie O'Farrell is a favourite author of mine. I recently read two of her books; Hamnet and My Lover's Lover .  The latter book is one rather typical for O'Farrell. Her psychological insight into our minds, our actions and our feelings. Her much appraised novel Hamnet has got very good reviews and it has been on my shelves for some months. I read it for a book club and we had a very interesting discussion. " On a summer's day in 1596, a young girl in Stratford-upon-Avon takes to her bed with a sudden fever. Her twin brother, Hamnet, searches everywhere for help. Why is nobody at home? Their mother, Agnes, is over a mile away, in the garden where she grows medicinal herbs. Their father is working in London.  Neither parent know that Hamnet will not survive the week. Hamnet is a novel inspired by the son of a famous playwright: a boy whose life has been all but forgotten, but whose name was given to one of the most celebrated plays ever written." The good revie...
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New purchases

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Yes, I know, I should not buy any new books, but lately I have had this urge to read new books. Probably because I read your reviews of them. The problem with a huge TBR pile is that we feel obliged to read from it. As time goes by(!) they tend to be older and older. A mixture of new and old would be a good recipe I have decided and here we go. My last ' New purchases ' is from mid-October and since then I have bought 7 books.  Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr Ever since read All The Light We Cannot See  Anthony Doerr has been a favourite author. I have also read  About Grace. Therefore eager to start reading this one.  "Thirteen-year-old Anna, an orphan, lives inside the formidable walls of Constantinople in a house of women who make their living embroidering the robes of priests. Restless, insatiably curious, Anna learns to read, and in this ancient city, famous for its libraries, she finds a book, the story of Aethon, who longs to be turned into a bird so that h...
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