Picture from my bookshelves
edited with Pixlr
#Fridayfinds

I’m presenting here the books we shared
at our last block Book Club meeting
– it’s a potluck book club,
meaning each member shares about his/her latest good read.
Awesome for diversity in books, lively conversations,
and your TBR getting suddenly taller!
(synopsis taken from Goodreads.com)

So here are the 8 books we talked about for our January 2022 meeting.

The Brothers Karamazov is a murder mystery, a courtroom drama, and an exploration of erotic rivalry in a series of triangular love affairs involving the “wicked and sentimental” Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov and his three sons―the impulsive and sensual Dmitri; the coldly rational Ivan; and the healthy, red-cheeked young novice Alyosha. Through the gripping events of their story, Dostoevsky portrays the whole of Russian life, is social and spiritual striving, in what was both the golden age and a tragic turning point in Russian culture.

From my review:
My post has also an awesome list of Q&A on the book.
I dived into it without reading any presentation, and had no idea what kind of water to expect. Wow, what a swim it was! I actually wanted to read over and over again the first chapter, hauntingly beautiful. I even wanted to paint it – it may actually happen one day!
I loved the descriptions of the landscapes, of the house, the sea, the people and their characters, the ambiance, definitely gothic! I felt magnetized by the book and the depth of its characters.At the beginning, the heroin seems rather shallow, too immature and almost two dimensional, but little by little, her character grows and makes for a loving and courageous person.
And the plot was not what I expected. When I finished the book, I re-read right away the first chapters, looking for the clues I had missed. It was an interesting experience.
If you have not read yet this classic, you have to give it a try.

With her disarming, intimate, completely accessible voice, and dry sense of humor, Nora Ephron shares with us her ups and downs in I Feel Bad About My Neck, a candid, hilarious look at women who are getting older and dealing with the tribulations of maintenance, menopause, empty nests, and life itself.

Nora Ephron returns with her first book since the astounding success of I Feel Bad About My Neck, taking a cool, hard, hilarious look at the past, the present, and the future, bemoaning the vicissitudes of modern life, and recalling with her signature clarity and wisdom everything she hasn’t (yet) forgotten.

The noted singer and actress Kitty Carlisle Hart recounts her eventful life from her childhood in Europe, through Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s, to her life today, offering revealing insights into the many celebrities she has known

In this searing memoir, Congressman Jamie Raskin tells the story of the forty-five days at the start of 2021 that permanently changed his life–and his family’s–as he confronted the painful loss of his son to suicide, lived through the violent insurrection in our nation’s Capitol, and led the impeachment effort to hold President Trump accountable for inciting the political violence.

100,000 years ago, at least six human species inhabited the earth. Today there is just one. Us. Homo sapiens.
How did our species succeed in the battle for dominance? Why did our foraging ancestors come together to create cities and kingdoms? How did we come to believe in gods, nations and human rights; to trust money, books and laws; and to be enslaved by bureaucracy, timetables and consumerism? And what will our world be like in the millennia to come?
In Sapiens, Dr Yuval Noah Harari spans the whole of human history, from the very first humans to walk the earth to the radical – and sometimes devastating – breakthroughs of the Cognitive, Agricultural and Scientific Revolutions. Drawing on insights from biology, anthropology, paleontology and economics, he explores how the currents of history have shaped our human societies, the animals and plants around us, and even our personalities. Have we become happier as history has unfolded? Can we ever free our behaviour from the heritage of our ancestors? And what, if anything, can we do to influence the course of the centuries to come?
Bold, wide-ranging and provocative, Sapiens challenges everything we thought we knew about being human: our thoughts, our actions, our power… and our future.

After listening to all of Hercule Poirot short stories and novels, I decided to conclude my experience with Agatha Christie Poirot:
The Greatest Detective in the World.
It’s a very interesting volume.
The writing is sometimes a bit dry (hence 4 and not 5 Eiffel towers), but the content is fascinating.
The author recaps all about Hercule Poirot, in each decade.
VERDICT: An essential book for Agatha Christie’s fans.
Click on the cover to read my full review

 HAVE YOU READ ANY OF THOSE?
WHICH ONE IS YOUR FAVORITE?