This post has two parts. First is the wrap-up of Week I of our German Literature Month – focussing on literature from Germany. Please do not just skip it. It’s a tribute to all our participants. We have already seen some really amazing contributions and I would like to thank all of you for this.
There have been a lot of interesting lists and contributions made during October. They are HERE. This is the wrap-up of Week I.
Here are all of this weeks’ links with my impressions:
Week I
Lizzy has made a post on how to find German books in translation and a review of a very unique sounding book by Alina Bronsky.
The Magic Mountain of German Literature
The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine by Alina Bronsky
Caroline – I have compiled a post with 14 women writers that shouldn’t be missed and reviewed Sebald’s book on the absence of the description of the destruction of German cities during WWII from German post-war literature. The book leads us to the Böll readalong on November 26.
14 Women Writers You Shouldn’t Miss
On the Natural History of Destruction – Luftkrieg und Literatur by W. G. Sebald
The Participants
Neer (A Hot Cup of Pleasure) shares her German Literature Month inspired Wishlist. That’s always a risk with events like this. You may end up with far more books than before.
Christina from Ardent Reader hopes to be able to keep up with her Reading plans.
Danielle (AWork in Progress) introduces her choices. A list with descriptions. Plans for German Literature Month
Emma (Book Around the Corner) wrote an enthusiastic review of Fame by Daniel Kehlmann that she calls a “strange exhilarating book”.
sakura (chasing bawa) is thrilled by her discovery of Dark Matter by Juli Zeh and adds (after having been tracked down by the German Literature Month Police , i.e. me) an Introduction.
Jackie (Farm Lane Books) wrote a very appealing review of the WWII novel Death of the Adversary by Hans Keilson. Not an easy read, highly literary but rewarding.
Guy Savage (His Futile Preoccupations) dethrones Goethe in his musings on On Goethe’s Elective Affinities and reestablishes him again – at least in parts – in On Goethe’s Elective Affinities Part II. The review is to follow.
Rise (in lieu of a field guide) reviewed Visitation by Jenny Erpenbeck and compares it to the passage of time chapter in Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse.
Harvey (Leben, Kochen, Bier u. Fussball) offers a list with interesting choices Introduction with choices.
Eibhlin (Mar gheall ar a léim) shares he reading plans in Eibhlin’s reading plans.
Fay (Read, Ramble) reviews Herta Müller – Land of Green Plums describing how she wanted to give up after a little while but was rewarded by her persistence.
Rikki (Rikki’s Teleidoscope) enjoyed The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine by Alina Bronsky as much as Lizzy. She captures the unusual voice of the narrator very well.
Susanna P (Susie Bookworm) has added her reading plans German Lit Month Kick off. She already read Lotte in Weimar and is about to pick something else soon.
Priya (Tabula Rasa) shares her reading plans Plans.
Alex The Children’s War wrote an in-depth review of The Oppermann’s by Lion Feuchtwanger. He writes “What makes The Oppermanns so interesting is that it has the distinction of being the first story of its kind to tell about life under the Nazis and how it affected people opposed to Hitler.”
Parrish (The Parrish Lantern) wrote a thoughtful review On The Joys of Morphinism by Fallada. Introducing first the life of the author and then writing about the book.
Mel u (The Reading Lives) announces German Literature Month and reviews a very interesting short story by Gerstacker, a lesser known author. His review is proof that it is worth looking for the lesser known. Announcing German Literature Month and Short Story by Gerstacker
Tony (Tony’s Reading List) has really liked Alois Hotschnig’s – Maybe This Time and already read it twice but he doubts that he will re-read All the Lights by Clemens Meyer. Although he didn’t mind reading it at all, he doesn’t seem to be convinced it’s all that literary.
Liz (Tortoisebook) shares he reading plans. German Literature Month Plans
Vishy (Vishy’s Blog) has reviewed a wide range of short stories and novellas. A really wide range. Both Lizzy and myself were stunned. This is pretty much an introduction to the most important German writers. A Wide Range of German Short Stories
Stu (Winstonsdad’s Blog) I was equally amazed about the wide range of books reviewed by Stu. There are some wonderful books to discover here. An early novel by the Nobel Prize winner Nadirs by Herta Müller , a novella by the author of Perfume The Pigeon by Patrick Süskind, a poetical novella Jarmila by Ernst Weiss and a novel of a Swiss writer A Perfect Waiter by Alain Claude Sulzer.
Amateur Reader (Tom) Wuthering Expectations wrote one post on the melancholic story Flagman Thiel by Gehart Hauptmann (also reveiwed by Vishy) and two posts on Hauptmann’s play Gerhart Hauptmann-Before Daybreak – Gerhart Hauptmann’s characters.
Effi Briest Readalong
Week I
The following people have posted so far, some freestyle, some answering our questions.
This and That
Yes, we were also featured on the web.
Melville House Press on What to drink when reading Heinrich Böll
The Millions announce German Literature Month
kulturplease announces German Literature Month
love german books – Kid – On German Literature Month
The Victory Stitch – Peggy If I were reading
**************
And here, finally, the winners of the Heinrich Böll giveaway courtesy of Melville House Press.
The winner of The Train Was on Time and The Clown is
Priya from Tabula Rasa
The winner of Group Portrait with Lady and Billards at Half-Past Nine is
Guy from His Futile Preoccupations
And the winner of The Irish Journal and The Safety Net is
Stu from Winstonsdad’s Blog
Happy reading Priya, Guy and Stu!
Please send me your address via beautyisasleepingcat at gmail dot com.
The giveaway is part of German Literature Month.
The next giveaway will take place on Wednesday 9 November 2011. Remember… It’s crime week…. there are some great books to be won. And, yes, those who won already can still participate.
Beauty is a Sleeping Cat 
Congrats to the winners
You should nudge Stu… He didn’t see it. 🙂
Once again, Caroline & Lizzy thanks for putting this together. I know you’ve spent a lot of time on this, and you’ve given me the incentive to read books I’ve been staring at.
Alina Bronsky has 2 titles published in the US by Europa Press, and I’ve had a lot of luck with their titles.
Anyway, winning the books…I’m feeling lucky.
You are welcome and I hope you will like the books.
I think Alina Bronsky is worth looking at…
Bah, so I’m just going to have to put all six HBs on my wishlist, am I?
Congrats to the all winners. You lucky, lucky so-and-sos! 🙂
And, Caroline, your efficiency is scary ….. 🙂
I’m very sorry.
I’m a bit pleased with myself this week. 🙂
You have every right to be, Caroline. 🙂
Thanks, Rikki.
You should be pleased…this is awesome 🙂
You wrap this amazingly
Thanks, Novia. 🙂
What a fantastic response you and Lizzy have had to German literature month! Thank you so much for organising it. I think I’ll have added so many books to my wish list afer this month that I’ll end up having a German literature 2012 🙂
Thanks, Jackie, and I hear you. We could go on for quite some time. 🙂 I saw that my book does contain both keilson novels and all of his novellas. I’m lloking forward to it.
Thanks for the time you spend on this. I’m really happy for you too it’s such a success.
Thanks for the links, it will be an opportunity to discover new writers and new bloggers.
You are welcome and I agree, I have not only added books but new blogs will be added to the blogroll as well.
First of all…congrats to the winner 🙂
Second, wow so many people have read and post something. Too bad I can’t do it yet, I have to finish my current read before starting on the sandman.
You will be in another wrap-up. 🙂
Anyone else finding problems leaving comments on blogspot blogs. I’ve tried a couple of times and have get weird messages such as I don’t own wordpress etc.
One blog – Priya’s – had a glitch and then, , I suppose, because we have two blogs it’s trickier on some. If you can, always choose Name/URl and log out of wordpress before. If that option isn’t given, log in with swiftlytiltingplnaet. Guy savage cannot be used. It’s burdensome on mayn, I complain constantly. Mel’u’s seems to have a problem as well. need to tell him. Parrish has either fixed it or…
Great to see so many people participating! Thanks so much to both of you for organising such a wonderful event.
Thanks, Andrew. WE are very happy about the reponse. It’s been great so far.
Wow, this event has really captured the imagination of the blogosphere! And fantastic to see so many new books and bloggers to explore. Well done you, for putting all this together!
Thanks, Litlove.
I’m really glad about the interest. It’s very inspiring.
Well done everyone, but don’t get too excited yet…
…there’s still a long way to go 😉
A long way full of discoveries. 🙂
Hopefully we are not ending up with an empty wrap-up in one of the next weeks.
Congratulations to the winners!
It is wonderful to see so many participants! Thanks for hosting German Literature Month with Lizzy 🙂
I want to read all those fantastic posts now! Thanks a lot for the links!
You are welcome, Vishy. It’s very dangerous. I already bought new books. 🙂
That is wonderful! Which books did you buy?
Jarmila by Ernst Weiss and I want to get Schlink’s Homecoming. And possibly Alina Bronsky. And Danielle has a very interesting list (13 choices). I don’t have all of the books.
Nice! I saw that Stu has reviewed ‘Jarmila’. Hope you enjoy reading it. Will look forward to hearing your thoughts on it. I will check out Danielle’s list.
Hope you like ‘Homecoming’. I was at the bookstore today to buy a gift for a friend and I saw Bernhard Schlink’s two books – ‘The Reader’ and ‘Flights of Love’! I couldn’t resist getting them! I am hoping to read them soon 🙂
Yes, his review and the reactions of other who have read made me want to read it. But I’d like to read the Schlink right now as well… Not enough time.
whoop ,whoop great ,will e mail you sorry been away from laptop for a day or two ,all the best sty
I know, don’t worry… The person in charge is out-office untill Friday anyway, there is no rush.
Thanks for all the links. I will have to save them for the weekend to catch up, but I am looking forward to adding more books to my reading list! I am finding that I am concentrating more on my German Lit books this month than my other books (but that’s okay as I was expecting that to happen). I am also reading Murder Farm at the moment–very quick really and very chilling!
You are welcome, I’m bad, I already bought quite a few books. I think the one Priya reviewed today – Crime would appeal to you a lot. It’s on the page at present, I’m glad you like the German books but then you also have an affinity. I started Grand Hotel, all of a sudden it seemed a great choice and I like it very much.
Chilling is quite the word for that book. I thought it was well done.
Sorry it took so long to get my Effi Week 1 up!
http://www.1morechapter.com/2011/11/05/effi-briest-read-a-long-week-1/
That’s quite alright.