#20booksofsummer2024 -part two

Co przeczytalam / I’ve read:

A Book to Kill For : A Bookish Cafe Mystery – Harper Lin

White Nights and Other Stories – Fyodor Dostoyevsky

The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories – Leo Tolstoy

A Haunted House – Virginia Woolf

Essays on Taste – John Gilbert Cooper, John Armstrong

Snowfall in Virginia – Jim Davidson

My Ántonia – Willa Cather

The Way Life Should Be – William Dameron

The Fires – Sigríður Hagalín Björnsdóttir

Dystopia: A Collection of Poetry – Avianna Lemonier

Writers and Their Notebooks – Diana M. Raab

In Arthur’s Nature: The Novel of a Philosopher Pushed to the Edge and the Woman He Pushed over It – J. T. Frederick

The Fallen Stones: Chasing Butterflies, Discovering Mayan Secrets, and Looking for Hope Along the Way – Diana Marcum

The Last Man – Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Scotland Yard’s First Cases – Joan Lock

West with Giraffes – Lynda Rutledge

Winston Churchill: The Era and The Man – Virginia Cowles

Botticelli’s Muse – Dorah Blume

Stone Song: A Novel of the Life of Crazy Horse – Win Blevins

The Ambitious Madame Bonaparte – Ruth Hull Chatlien

Dodatkowo/Extra

Remarkably Bright Creatures – Shelby Van Pelt

Kafka’s Last Trial: The Case of a Literary Legacy – Benjamin Balint

#20booksofsummer2024

Biale noce to piekna opowiesc o krotkotrwalej znajomosci. Mlody marzyciel otwiera sie w towarzystwie mlodej kobiety i w ciągu czterech nocy obie strony znajduja niezbedne pocieszenie w drugiej osobie. Marzyciel, ktory nie jest przyzwyczajony do nawiazywania jakichkolwiek kontaktow z kimkolwiek, czuje sie troche lepiej.
Historia opowiadana jest przez anonimowego narratora, ktory codziennie wychodzi na spacer i zna wszystkich z widzenia, ale nigdy nie rozmawial z zadna z tych osob. Jest zbyt niesmialy, aby miec jakikolwiek kontakt z ludzmi, wiec po prostu marzy o tym. Niespodziewanie poznaje Nastenke, samotna mloda dziewczyne z bolesna historia, i po raz pierwszy bohater ma kogos, z kim moze spedzic czas i porozmawiac o czymkolwiek. To opowiesc o samotnosci, izolacji i tesknocie za towarzystwem. Dostojewski mistrzowsko uchwycil melancholijne piekno bialych nocy, nasycajac narracje poczuciem nieziemskosci i surrealizmu, ktore odzwierciedlaja wewnetrzne rozterki protagonisty.

White Nights is a beautiful story about a short-lived acquaintance. A young dreamer opens up and finds comfort in a young woman over the course of four nights. During this time the dreamer, who is not used to establishing any contact with anyone, feels a little better.

This story is told by an anonymous narrator who goes for a walk every day and knows everyone by sight, but has never spoken to any of these people. He is too shy to have any contact with people, so he simply dreams about it. He unexpectedly meets Nastenka, a lonely girl with a sorrowful past, and for the first time the hero had someone to spend time with and talk about anything. It is a story about loneliness, isolation and longing for company. Dostoevsky masterfully captures the melancholic beauty of white nights, infusing the narrative with a sense of surrealism that reflect the inner turmoil of the protagonist.

Ciekawie jest cofnac sie w przeszlosc i poznac jak dawniej rozwiazywano sprawy. Scotland Yard zaczynal od dosc skromnych poczatkow, aby stac sie bardziej znanym niz FBI. Autorka zamiescila liczne cytaty z oryginalnych raportow policyjnych, artykulow prasowych i relacji z okresu. To bardzo zwiezla historia z mnostwem przykladow, czesto makabrycznych.

It’s interesting to go back into the past and learn how crimes were solved. Scotland Yard started from rather humble beginnings to become more famous than the FBI. The author included numerous quotes from original police reports, press articles and accounts from the period. It’s a very concise story with lots of examples, often gruesome ones.

Chwycilam za ta ksiazke po przeczytaniu zachecajacych recenzji i okazalo sie, ze wlasnie taki typ ksiazki byl mi potrzebny w tym momencie.
Postacie Tovy, Camerona, Ethana i Avery sa przekonujace, latwe do polubienia; historia jest zarowno zabawna jak i smutna. Autorka doskonale radzi sobie z trudnymi tematami, takimi jak smierc, strata i zaloba, a takze bardziej pozytywnymi kwestiami przyjazni i wzajemnych powiazan. Marcellus, gigantyczna osmiornica pacyficzna, jest artysta nocnych ucieczek ze swojego zbiornika (niewoli) w Aquarium. Madrzejsza od ludzi, pomaga bohaterom dojrzec oczywiste, czego sami nie widza.

I picked up this book after reading encouraging reviews and it turned out that this was exactly the type of book I needed at that moment.
The characters of Tova, Cameron, Ethan and Avery are compelling, easy to like, and the story is both funny and sad. The author does an excellent job of dealing with difficult topics such as death, loss and mourning, as well as more positive issues of friendship and interconnections. Marcellus, the giant Pacific octopus, is a nocturnal escape artist from his tank (captivity) at the Aquarium. Wiser than people, he helps them see the obvious, what they cannot see for themselves.

B. Balint opowiada dwie historie rownolegle. Pierwsza dotyczaca rekopisow Kafki uratowanych przez Maksa Broda i pozniejszego procesu, ktory wybucha, kiedy spadkobierczyni Broda chce je sprzedac. Niemcy i Izrael zaczynaja wtedy walczyc sadowo o to, czyj jest Kafka. Druga historia, ktora Balint przeplata z pierwsza, to biograficzna opowiesc o Kafce i Brodzie, z ktorej dowiadujemy sie jak wygladaly poczatki tworczosci Kafki i jak budowala sie przyjazn miedzy nimi. Ksiazka traktuje o dziedzictwie i dosc trudnym pytaniu: do kogo nalezy Kafka? Byl czeskim Zydem piszacym po niemiecku i choc nigdy nie utozsamial sie zbytnio ze swoim judaizmem, wielu uwaza, ze ​​jest pisarzem zydowskim, ktorego pisma naleza do Izraela. To dosc wciagajaca, nieco frustrujaca ksiazka, podobnie jak walka o jego dokumenty i dziedzictwo.

B. Balint tells two stories in parallel. The first concerns Kafka’s manuscripts saved by Max Brod and the subsequent trial that erupts when Brod’s heiress wants to sell them. Germany and Israel begin to fight in court over Kafka’s manuscripts. The second story that Balint intertwines with the first is a biographical story about Kafka and Brod, from which we learn about the beginnings of Kafka’s work and how the friendship between them was built. The book deals with Kafka’s legacy and a rather difficult question: who owns Kafka? He was a Czech Jew writing in German, and although he never identified much with his Judaism, many believe that he is a Jewish writer whose writings belong to Israel. It’s quite a gripping, somewhat frustrating book, as is the fight over his papers and legacy.