Persönliche Lese- tipps
Robert Renk empfiehlt:
Serpentinen von Bjerg Bov
Bov Bjerg „Serpentinen“
Eine verschlungene, ebenso traurige wie witzige Geschichte. Serpentine für Serpentine fährt einer zurück in die Vergangenheit seiner Familie. „Urgroßvater, Großvater, Vater. Ertränkt, erschossen, erhängt. Zu Wasser, zu Lande und in der Luft.“ Es gibt Familientraditionen, die dem Leben eine Schwere mitgeben, grandios, wie Bov Bjerg diese Autofahrt mit Leichtigkeit, mit sprachlicher Brillanz füllt, ohne die Figuren auf ihrer ernsthaften Suche im Stich zu lassen.
Maria Leitner empfiehlt:
Serpentinen von Bjerg Bov
William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Mean Girls
The title says it all – William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Mean Girls is a Shakespearean retelling of Tina Fey’s beloved comedy Mean Girls. By that I mean that it’s actually the entire movie, but it’s written in the form of a 5-act play in iambic pentameter.
As a fan of both the movie and the old bard, how could I not have picked this up? Come on, “On Wednesdays we array ourselves in pink!”, how amazing is this? While I did enjoy the play, I have to admit I was a tad disappointed with the Shakespearean translation in a few places.
I was really looking forward to the most hilarious and iconic lines from the movie, but some of them were a bit of a let-down. My old favourite “Four for you Glenn Coco, you go Glenn Coco” kind of lost its magic when it became “Glenn Coco, four for thee! Thou art well lik’d”. But this slight disappointment with a few lines might just stem from my huuuuuge expectations and I still had a lot of fun reading this weird little parody.
All in all, this book was a lot of fun and I really hope that someone somewhere is trying to get this thing on stage. Forget about the Mean Girls Musical, I want to see Much Ado About Mean Girls the play!!
Maria Leitner empfiehlt:
The Queen of Nothing von Black Holly
The Queen of Nothing
As this is the final book in a trilogy, I don’t really want to give away too much of the plot in case someone who reads this review hasn’t read books one and two yet. But suffice it to say that Jude, a human girl who grew up in Faerieland, has to clean up a huge political mess in order to finally win her place within Faerie society.
All in all, The Queen of Nothing was a satisfying conclusion to Holly Black’s The Cruel Prince series. As always, the politics of the Faerie Courts and particularly the political schemes the main character has to navigate were fascinating. But while the ending was satisfactory, it happened a tad fast for my taste. The Queen of Nothing really could have used about 100 pages more in my opinion because everything was resolved rather quickly, but apart from that, it was a very satisfactory conclusion to the series.
Maria Leitner empfiehlt:
Der Vogelschorsch von Hannes Wirlinger
Der Vogelschorsch
Der Vogelschorsch ist anders als die anderen. Er geht nicht auf dieselbe Schule, er zieht sich komisch an und er weiß mehr über Vögel als Lena und ihre Freunde zusammen. Doch obwohl sie so komplett anders sind, freundet sich Lena mit ihm an und bekommt bald mit, wie schwer der Vogelschorsch es zu Hause hat.
Als seine Mutter von einem Tag auf den anderen verschwindet, gerät sein Leben komplett aus den Fugen.
Es ist sehr schwer, dieses Buch zu beschreiben, ohne zu viel vorwegzunehmen, also werde ich mich kurfassen: Der Vogelschorsch ist ein wirklich einzigartiges Buch, das mich komplett in seinen Bann gezogen hat. Die Geschichte tröpfelt vor allem anfangs eher langsam vor sich hin, was aber sehr gut zu ihrer beinahe mystischen Stimmung passt. Selbst die Illustrationen an den Kapitelanfängen spiegeln diese Stimmung wider. Was mich besonders fasziniert hat, war die Sprache – während dem Lesen sind mir immer wieder Ausdrücke aufgefallen, die für mich typisch Österreichisch waren. Es ist seltsam (und irgendwie traurig), aber ich kann mich nicht daran erinnern, je zuvor ein Jugendbuch mit österreichischen Ausdrücken gelesen zu haben, weshalb mir dieses Buch umso mehr gefiel.
Maria Leitner empfiehlt:
City of Ghosts - Die Geister, die mich riefen von Victoria Schwab
City of Ghosts - Die Geister, die mich riefen
Seit sie beinahe ertrunken wäre, kann Cassidy Blake Geister sehen. Zuhause in Amerika ist das nicht sonderlich problematisch, denn dort gibt es bis auf ihren besten Freund Jacob nicht so viele Geister auf einmal. Doch als Cassidy mit ihren Eltern nach Edinburgh reist, lernt sie ein ganz neues Level von Spuk kennen.
Geister aus allen Epochen treiben sich dort herum, einer gruseliger als der andere. Cassidy muss schnell mehr über ihre Verbindung zur anderen Seite herausfinden!
Spannend, atmosphärisch und voller Liebe für die Stadt in der es spielt - ein Must-Read für Gruselfans ab 10!
Maria Leitner empfiehlt:
The Penelopiad Main. Kartoniert / Broschiert. von Atwood Margaret
The Penelopiad - The Play
Everybody knows the mythological figure Penelope - She, who waited for years on end for her husband Odysseus to finally return home. But, unlike her famous husband, she has rarely been the focus of a narrative. Atwood's play focuses on Penelope's point of view and adds a feminist spin to the classic story.
One of Atwood's goals in writing this play was not only to give Penelope a voice but to also explore the roles her maids played. With the help of her twelve faithful maids (all unnamed in the original story) Penelope manages to fool her suitors and hold out until Odysseus finally returns. The maids do anything to help Penelope, they sacrifice their bodies to keep the suitors busy and yet, in the end, they are all executed by Odysseus for fraternizing with the suitors. Nobody but Penelope knows that they only played a part for her sake, and that they did not deserve to die.
The Penelopiad is not merely the story of a faithful wife. It's the story of many women, the sacrifices they have to make in order to survive and the guilt and shame some of those sacrifices caused them. While it's definitely not a fun read, it's interesting and emotional.
Maria Leitner empfiehlt:
The Vanishing Stair Gebunden. von Johnson Maureen
The Vanishing Stair
The Ellingham mystery continues in Johnson’s fabulous second installment of the Truly Devious series.
Stevie Bell, future FBI agent and wholehearted True Crime aficionado, is knee-deep in two different investigations when she is pulled from Ellingham Academy. In order to solve the 1936 cold case and the recent murder, she has to get back up to Vermont.
To get her parents to let her return to Ellingham Academy, Stevie has to make a very shady deal with someone she despises. And to finally solve the Truly Devious mystery and the murder of one of her classmates, she has to dig even deeper into an ever-expanding mystery.
The second installment of this series is just as fun and exciting as the previous one. While the pacing is a bit on the slower side, that actually helps really set the tone for the mystery. As in book one, the atmosphere of the setting is absolutely exquisite. I honestly can’t wait to find out how everything concludes in book 3!
Maria Leitner empfiehlt:
The Hand on the Wall von Maureen Johnson
The Hand on the Wall
Establishing a mystery that keeps readers on their toes is hard enough. But what’s really difficult and what makes some mysteries so much better than others, is giving them a satisfying conclusion. The more complicated the mystery gets, the more threads have to be picked up and tied together. At the same time, writers have to make sure that they give their readers enough insight to make sure everything is believable while not giving away too much too soon.
I have to admit I was a bit worried about how Maureen Johnson would be able to weave all the different strands of mystery she devised together in book three of the Truly Devious trilogy as, throughout the series, it became more and more complex. But I’m happy to say, she did an amazing job!
As this is the final book of a trilogy, I don’t want to give too much away about the plot. What I will say is that the cases future detective Stevie Bell has to solve in this series are expertly crafted. While Stevie originally set out to solve a famous historical cold case, the abduction of heiress Alice Ellingham, she soon also had to investigate some strange deaths in the present. Finding out how the two different strands of crime fit together was an incredibly satisfying experience, which, let’s be honest, is all readers ask for in a good whodunit.
Mystery books are usually a one-time reading experience for me because once you know who the murderer is, the fun is over. But with this series, I'm 100% sure I'm going to want to reread it at some point because it was just that good. This was such a positive surprise!
Der Sprung von Simone Lappert
Der Sprung
Was in Beat-Büchern der Whiskey, ist in „Der Sprung“ Limonade. Der traumatisierte Cop, die Superheldinnen zeichnende Teenagerin, der drahtige Fahrradbote – alle laben sich an Limonade, vermutlich weil ihnen das Leben gerade unterschiedlich saure Zitronen gibt. Thalbach ist eine Wohlstandshölle.
Wenn die Schwiegermutter kein Enkelchen kriegt, gibt’s kein Sommerhaus auf Usedom. Sommerhaus später heute, denkt sich die Generationen-Romane-geschulte LeserIn und holt sich eine Limo aus dem SMEG-Kühlschrank.
Die Frau ohne Grab von Martin Pollack
Die Frau ohne Grab
Die Vergangenheit gibt nicht alles preis, doch was es über sie zu entdecken gibt, bringt Martin Pollack ans Tageslicht. Wie die Geschichte seiner Großtante Pauline, der Deutsch-Slowenin Pavla Drolc, die, ihr Leben lang unbescholten und im Gegensatz zu ihren Brüdern nicht der Nazi-Ideologie verfallen, 1945 in slowenischer Gefangenschaft im Schloss Hrastovec bei Maribor stirbt.
Ein Meisterwerk dokumentarischer Prosa, ein großes Stück Erinnerungsliteratur, das exemplarisch ein einzelnes Schicksal in den Geschichtswirren an einem Grenzort schildert.
