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[re-read] Illness is all in your head which can be overcome through fresh air & mental fortitude. Fuck that shit ... Surprised it didn't trigger me on my first read (4 stars)!

downtosleep.podbean.com/e/the-secret-garden-complete-audiobook-with-rain-down-to-sleep/

[re-read] The dwarves are dead weight - it's all Bilbo and Gandalf. Gollum really gets a raw deal in the riddle game.

With his elder brothers away at war, a teenage boy attempts to fill the uncertain hole of their incommunicado absence by restoring a decrepit sailboat. In it he finds freedom and love for his surroundings. And there's a quoll and a crazy whale. A nice snapshot of mid-century northern Tasmania but I didn't really feel it.

[German below]

I especially recommend My Cat Yugoslavia if … 1. … you don’t just read light fiction but also enjoy “working” with a book. Don’t get me wrong: you can absolutely read this book “just like that.” It’s brilliantly written (and, consequently, masterfully translated) and cleverly plotted. It pulls you in quickly. It tackles heavy and familiar themes in a fresh, artful way. (See also point 2.) 2. … you can handle the following content notes (which, unfortunately, aren’t included in the book itself). It’s important to emphasize that these topics neither take center stage nor dominate the narrative. But they are present: strong sexism, misogyny, sexual violence, domestic violence, war themes, displacement, racism, toxic romantic relationships, and internalized homophobia. There’s one more I can’t mention because it’s a spoiler. The way these themes are told—often not in full, direct force—made them manageable for me. 3. … you pick it up again at the right moment and revisit key passages after your first read. Here’s the crucial part: the title refers to a cat. Cats and snakes are key motifs that carry essential themes and likely won’t be fully decoded on the first read. By going back, you’ll notice the italicized lines more consciously and can better connect and interpret them in hindsight. I discussed this book with my queer-feminist book club. We dove deep into the story, exploring different striking passages and interpretations, eventually deciphering and interpreting the two animal motifs. The fictional biographies presented remain tough, but engaging with this piece of brilliant literature in our book club made me really happy.

Das ist eine starke Buchempfehlung, an die drei „wenns“ geknüpft sind. Ich empfehle dir „Meine Katze Jugoslawien“ ganz besonders, wenn … 1. du nicht nur Unterhaltungsliteratur liest, sondern es auch magst, mal mit einem Buch zu „arbeiten“. Don‘t get me wrong: Du kannst dieses Buch durchaus „einfach so“ lesen. Es ist absolut fabelhaft geschrieben (und folglich meisterinnenlich übersetzt) und geplottet. Es zieht dich schnell rein. Es behandelt schwere und bekannte Themen auf eine neue, kunstvolle Weise. (Siehe auch Punkt 2). 2. du mit den folgenden CN umgehen kannst (die leider nicht im Buch selbst stehen), die aber, das ist mir sehr wichtig zu betonen, weder im Vordergrund stehen, noch den überwiegenden Raum einnehmen. Aber sie kommen vor: Starker Sexismus, Misogynie, sexuelle Gewalt, familiäre Gewalt, Kriegsthemen, Flucht, Rassismus, toxische Liebesbeziehungen, internalisierte Homofeindlichkeit. Eines, das mir noch einfällt, kann ich nicht nennen, weil Spoiler. Dadurch, wie diese Themen erzählt werden (meist nicht mit voller Wucht direkt), waren sie für mich gut zu handeln. 3. du nach dem ersten Lesen zu einem passenden Zeitpunkt noch mal von vorne anfängst und dir wichtige Stellen noch mal genauer anschaust. Denn hier kommen wir zum Entscheidenden: Titelgebend ist eine Katze. Katzen und Schlangen sind wichtige Motive, die wesentliche Themen transportieren und wahrscheinlich nicht beim ersten Lesen entschlüsselt werden werden. Wenn du dir die Stellen noch einmal anschaust, entdeckst du bewusster die kursiven Zeilen und kannst sie dann rückblickend zuordnen und interpretieren. Ich habe dieses Buch mit meinem queerfeministischen Lesekreis besprochen. Wir haben uns über unterschiedliche markante Stellen und Lesarten immer tiefer in das Buch förmlich rein gelegt und am Ende auch die beiden Tier-Motive dechiffriert / interpretiert. Die vorgestellten fiktionalen Biografien bleiben hart. Aber der Umgang mit diesem Stück großartiger Literatur im Lesekreis, hat mich sehr glücklich gemacht.

Interleaves the story of a young Albanian refugee in Finland, excluded & traumatised, with that of his mother's wedding & her hopes for a future filled with love. The symbolism of the cats & snakes is a bit weird but I think I finally got my head around it. Mostly interesting for its depictions of Albanian culture and Finnish xenophobia.

A shameless rip-off of Connie Willis' time travelling historian concept, but with much more chaotic excitement. A bit too much, perhaps, and not enough historic immersion. Don't think too hard, just enjoy the ride.

This book ticks all the boxes for me. It's not only about game development and unrequited / platonic love, it touches on so many things. Honestly couldn't put it down, for good reasons. I kept raving about it for days after finishing it, still think about it sometimes. Could have done without the communication issues creating unnecessary drama – they made the characters feel really frustrating at times, but those are the flaws they come with, I guess.

Delves into the many varied & amazing ways humans & animals have evolved to depend upon microbes. Most of this was familiar to me already, though told in the author's excellent clear & awed way. New was the incredible nesting of microbes within high-order animal cells, with each doing distinct jobs, such that none can survive without the others. Yong is always good for a celebration of life & its complexity.

Unlike the super-high-tech far future of her Wayfarers series, Chambers focuses on just the near-future of the human race. Seen from a team of exoplanet explorers surveying alien life, To Be Taught paints a future where governments fail in the mission to space but the human spirit leads ordinary people to crowdfund the mission instead. And when the interstellar mission outlasts human lifespans, government lifespans and even societal lifespans, Chambers leaves us with a deeply personal question, ask from both her perspective and that of the protagonist, chronologically ancient, barely human and too distant to ever return home: how much is space exploration worth?