I know I’ve been MIA lately, so here’s a quick check-in, featuring short reviews of — drumroll please — three German Krimis. I suppose that seems kind of random, but I’ve been reading a number of them lately, thanks to a class I’m taking. In this entry I’ll give a run-down of what I’ve read so … Read more
Friday night I finished reading Enchantment by Orson Scott Card — and I was caught between the pleasure of having read such a great book and the sadness of finally coming to the end of the adventure. The plot summary you can find on Amazon, but basically Enchantment is a modernized and Russianized retelling of Sleeping Beauty. It … Read more
Es ist offiziell. Ich lerne wieder Deutsch. (… !!!!!!) Over a week ago I abruptly broke off the winter fling I’d been having with Russian, and I ran falling back into the arms of German — my first love! Ach, Deutsch, die Wahrheit ist, dass ich immer in dich verliebt war! Das lässt sich nicht … Read more
Rusalka (1989) is a fantasy novel by C. J. Cherryh that reworks Russian folklore into an alternate history of the Kievan Rus’. Sasha Misurov, a young and untrained wizard, and Pyetr Kochevikov, a drinking/gambling/screwing around “scoundrel” who doesn’t believe in magic, are forced out of their hometown of Vojvoda after one of Pyetr’s illicit affairs … Read more
What is it with me and my enduring passion for all things Teutophone? I mean the enduring passion that causes me to fiercely defend the aesthetics of the German language; squeal in delight to hear German spoken in my vicinity; feel my heart race in love and wonder when I hold a German-language novel in … Read more