Never before has it taken me that long to finish a book as it did with War and Peace. I started this work an unbelievable 8 years ago! I didn't read it during all this time, there were long breaks and several attempts to finish it. The main reason why it took me so long was that I had this huge one-volume edition which just was too big for my hands and too heavy for my handbag. But the end of last year my library finally had it as an ebook and this really helped! Now I'm just glad to finally be done!

I had watched a miniseries of War and Peace before reading the book which made reading it a lot easier: I had the character's faces on my mind and this helped remembering who was who. There really are a lot of characters!

War and Peace is an enormous work and it deserves to be read. It's just that tiny bit too long. The peace parts can be read fairly quickly, but the war parts are often very very slow going. I'm not really interested in battle descriptions or at least only up to a certain point. When they are hundreds of pages long with every detail and often repetitive that's a bit too much. He reaches the peak when he even uses mathematical equations! What I didn't like about Tolstoy's style is that whenever he uses an image or an example he explains it. It seems like he doesn't believe his readers can understand what he's saying. He's also often quite preachy which isn't my cup of tea.

I was at war with this work for a long time, now I'm finally at peace with it but only barely. After all the effort I put into reading it I just hoped that I would love it in the end. It's a good book but it will never be one of my favourites.

A Boy's Own Story is about a young boy's coming of age and his coming out in the 1950s. It is told in a very sensitive voice and the language used is very beautiful. At the beginning of the book there is a very explicit sex scene. I was quite surprised at that because I had never expected that. I've read a lot of books by John Irving who especially in his later work uses a lot of sex scenes as well but never anything like that.
I always enjoy reading coming of age stories including the ones set at boarding schools and this book was no exception. I often disliked the main character (particulary at the end) but the book was still great and I'm looking forward to reading the next volume in this trilogy.

(I received a free digital copy via Netgalley/the publisher. Thanks for the opportunity!)

Tarka the Otter is written in a very realistic way which doesn't humanize the animals. The language is beautiful and - not being a native speaker - I also learned lots of new words. Once I realized that by dogs, bitches and cubs the otters were meant and not actual dogs I also understood what was going on!
This book is often called a children's book but I surely wouldn't have liked it as a child. In spite of all the positive things mentioned above it was still all in all quite boring.

Still so true today: the subtitle "A story of the Sixties" could also be of the 70es, 80es etc.

If you felt scandalized by Fifty Shades of Grey or Wetlands you should not even consider reading this book: this is the most obscene and perverse thing I ever read. And it was published in 1928! I guess only a French writer can publish something like this and even use a style which makes the book worth reading. I can't really say I'm shocked by the book, but I'm definitely fascinated. I feel very voyeuristic right now!