Michell, Tom "The Penguin Lessons"

Michell, Tom "The Penguin Lessons: What I Learned from a Remarkable Bird" - 2015

I discussed this with my German book club in August 2025.

I'm not an animal person. I don't mean to say I'm totally against animals, but they don't particularly interest me.

The book was quite nicely written. I also found the accounts of the school where the author taught and his travels through South America very interesting. But the relationship with the penguin, well, okay. As I said, I'm probably the wrong person to describe this book. It just wasn't really my cup of tea.

The only thing that was interesting to me was the description of the people the author met, the anthropological aspect.

The other members, however, found the book very readable. Here are a few quotes:

• I learned a lot about a species of animal I didn't really know much about.
• I found the description of how he travels through the countries with youthful carefreeness and enthusiasm, and even saves the penguin, refreshing.
• The parts where he describes how the school outcast can show off his talent were touching.
• I particularly liked the scene in the swimming pool.
• Mir hat das Buch gut gefallen. Interessant und klug geschrieben und oft sehr berührend, aber ohne Pathos.
• I liked the book. It's interestingly and cleverly written, and often very touching, but without pathos.

From the back cover:

"'I was hoping against hope that the penguin would survive because as of that instant he had a name, and with his name came the beginning of a bond which would last a life-time.'

Set against Argentina's turbulent years following the collapse of the corrupt Peronist regime, this is the story of Juan Salvador the penguin, rescued by English schoolteacher Tom Michell from an oil slick in Uruguay just days before a new term. When the bird refuses to leave Tom's side, the young teacher has no choice but to take it with him and look after it. This is their story."

Six Degrees of Separation ~ Ghost Cities

Siang Lu
"Ghost Cities" - 2024
 
#6Degrees of Separation:
from Ghost Cities (Goodreads) to Syria's Secret Library 

#6Degrees is a monthly link-up hosted by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. I love the idea. Thank you, Kate. See more about this challenge, its history, further books and how I found this here.

The starter book this month is "Ghost Cities" by Siang Lu. Again, I have not read the starter book. This is the description of the novel:

"Ghost Cities – inspired by the vacant, uninhabited megacities of China – follows multiple narratives, including one in which a young man named Xiang is fired from his job as a translator at Sydney's Chinese Consulate after it is discovered he doesn' t speak a word of Chinese and has been relying entirely on Google Translate for his work. How is his relocation to one such ghost city connected to a parallel odyssey in which an ancient Emperor creates a thousand doubles of Himself? Or where a horny mountain gains sentience? Where a chess-playing automaton hides a deadly secret? Or a tale in which every book in the known Empire is destroyed – then re-created, page by page and book by book, all in the name of love and art? Allegorical and imaginative, Ghost Cities will appeal to readers of Haruki Murakami and Italo Calvino."

Other than many of the books from this challenge, I might quite like this one. But there is no way I can get it within a month for a reasonable price.

The name or title doesn't do much for me, either. I only have two books with the word Ghost in the title. Of course, there would have been a few with City in it. But they didn't inspire me to go further, either. And I have only read one other book that was awarded the Miles Franklin Award, Oscar and Lucinda. However, there are a few on my wishlist.

In the end, I went with the title. I have read another book that takes place in China and is all about languages, and that's how I started:

Xu, Ruiyan "The Lost and Forgotten Languages of Shanghai" - 2010
After an accident, a man loses part of his brain and can only speak the language he grew up with but does not reign that of his wife and child. A problem that is rare but can happen.

Sanders, Ella Frances "Lost in Translation. An Illustrated Compendium of Untranslatable Words from Around the World" - 2014
A linguaphile is a person who loves language and words. They can be interested in many different things such as learning to speak several different languages or simply nerding out about words in general. The author has put together many interesting words and illustrated them with her beautiful drawings. A great book for any language nerd.

Croker, Charlie "Løst in Tränšlatioπ. Misadventures in English Abroad" - 2006
This is one of those humorous books about language and how it can be understood and expressed quite differently in different countries. This edition collects all those funny little signs and descriptions we find all over the world - not without telling us that we shouldn’t judge-

Fox, Kate "Watching the English: the hidden rules of English behaviour" - 2004
An anthropology about a nation dear to my heart - the English. This book is quite funny at times and I am sure all the English people will love it and just nod their heads all the time - well, most of the others will do the same. 

Piercy, Joseph "The Story of English: How an Obscure Dialect became the World's Most-Spoken Language" - 2012
This book reads like a novel about some people who inhabited a small island, were invaded and then started to invade others, as well. 

Thomson, Mike "Syria's Secret Library: The true story of how a besieged Syrian town found hope" - 2018
In the midst of one of the worst civil wars in history, some young men build a library in order to feed their souls and learn for the future "when all this is over". They are an inspiration to us all.

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So, what does the last book have to do with the starter one? Languages and Books. What better topic for a book blog.

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Spell the Month in Books ~ September 2025

Reviews from the Stacks

I found this on one of the blogs I follow, Books are the New Black who found it at One Book More. It was originally created by Reviews from the Stacks, and the idea is to spell the month using the first letter of book titles.

September: Something to savor – longer books (define as you will) OR ones that have been on your TBR for a long time

I have just been doing a Top Ten Tuesday list: High Page Count. And since I've been participating in a reading challenge called Chunky Books, I thought this might be easier than some months. However, when I did that first challenge, I didn't have to observe the letters those books started with. Unfortunately, I didn't find all books with more than a thousand pages, especially since I neede two "E"s. But at least my shortest book here are 688 pages.

SEPTEMBER

S

Seth, Vikram "A Suitable Boy" - 1993 - 1.488 pages

This story is settled in India in the fifties. Although the main focus is on the family that is looking for "a suitable boy" (to marry) for one of their daughters, the novel centres on four families with different backgrounds, both Hindus and Muslims.

E

Follett, Ken "The Evening and the Morning" - 2020 - 928 pages

Kingsbrigde 0.5. This should be your starter book. The small place called "Dreng's Ferry" is going to become a very important town called Kingsbridge and you can see over the years how England and the world grows, how lives change from one century to the next. 

This one is especially interesting since it takes place about a thousand years before us. A whole millennium. We can see how much has changed - and how much hasn't. Impressive.

P

Follett, Ken "The Pillars of the Earth" - 1989 - 1.076 pages
The building of a cathedral in 12^th century England. There is so much in this book, the history of The Anarchy, the murder of Thomas Becket, the development of architecture from Roman to Gothic, the influence of the church, life of ordinary people as well as nobility during that time-period. Follett manages to describe all this as if it had happened yesterday and he was among these people. The stories or different people are interweaving during the decades, so you get to see "good old friends" (and sometimes not so good ones) again and again.

T

Tellkamp, Uwe "Der Turm. Geschichte aus einem versunkenen Land" (The Tower) - 2008 - 1.024 pages

Uwe Tellkamp describes life in East Germany in the 1980s. I grew up in the Western part of the country and - as most of us - didn't have any contacts to the East. 

The length of the book enabled the author to go into so many details of so many different characters. 

E

George, Margaret "Elizabeth I" - 2011 - 688 pages
Historical Fiction. The story of Elizabeth I. 680 pages of it. Told by herself and her cousin Lettice, the granddaughter of her mother's sister. So we can see various sides of the Queen's life.

M

Hugo, Victor "Les Misérables" - 1862 - 1,480 pages
What a story. "Les Misérables" - those who are miserable. And miserable they are indeed. Someone steals a bread because children are hungry and has to pay for it for the rest of his life! Someone else doesn't do anything wrong, at least not at today's standards and is punished, as well. Only because she is poor.

B

Dostoevsky, Fyodor "The Brothers Karamazov" (RUS: Братья Карамазовы) - 1879-80 - 1,249 pages

The book is packed full with philosophical and religious questions, questions about human existence. The three brothers Karamazov all represent a different side, all have different answers. Then there is a fourth, illegitimate brother who is a servant in the father's house.

We discover the Russian society through these different men and their miseries. The story is spellbinding and stays with us for a long long time.

E

Steinbeck, John "East of Eden" - 1952 - 601 pages

Steinbeck talks about problems as old as mankind, he retells the story of Cain and Abel, only here they are called Caleb and Aaron (the father is still Adam, though), and they live in his native California.
An excellent report about growing up, growing in different directions, about good and evil, young and old, a very moving story, so many lives that you fear and hope with.

R

Rutherfurd, Edward "Russka. The Novel of Russia" - 1991 - 1,042 pages
The book describes the lives of four different families and their descendants, beginning in the year 180 and ending almost 2 millennia later in 1992 and thereby telling us the story of this great and vast land that has influenced world history for so long but also was influenced by it. The families include various ethnic, they belong to the serfs and the nobility, so you can have a good look into all kinds of lives. As we get to know the characters, we can get a better understanding about Russian history and politics, going from Genghis Khan over Ivan the Terrible to Peter and Catherine, both the Great, until Lenin and Stalin during the revolution in the 20th century. 

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Happy Reading!

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#ThrowbackThursday. March 2015

I've been doing ThrowbackThursdays for a while but I noticed that I wrote a lot of reviews in a short time when I first started. So, I post more than one Throwback every week. These are my reviews from March 2015. 

Dickens, Charles "The Pickwick Papers" - 1836

The first novel of one of the greatest authors in history. As many novels at the time, it appeared in instalments in the newspaper. This makes the novel so easy to read, even though it has about 1,000 pages. 
Samuel Pickwick, Esquire, has three good friends, Messrs. Nathaniel Winkle, Augustus Snodgrass and Tracy Tupman with whom he starts "The Pickwick Club", a group that wants to explore the country by travelling through it and then report back to the other members. 

Lahiri, Jhumpa "The Namesake" - 2003

A very interesting book about an immigration family and their children born in their new country. The author has the same background as the protagonists and you can tell that from her writing.

Lamb, Wally "We are Water" - 2013

A highly interesting story of a family full of secrets. Old secrets and new secrets. Secrets outside of the family and secrets inside. A very intense novel that brings up all kinds of emotions and fears. 

Montagu, Ewen "The Man Who Never Was. World War II's Boldest Counterintelligence Operation" - 1953
This is what the real "James Bond" is like, this is why "intelligence" and "intelligent" have the same root. Cunning ideas mixed with a lot of imagination and some thoughtful planning. An intriguing story, fascinating read. A real story.

Tanpınar, Ahmet Hamdi "The Time Regulation Institute" (Turkish: Saatleri Ayarlama Enstitüsü) - 1961
The story is satire at its best. What do we not need? Bureaucracy. And what do we need even less than bureaucracy? An institute that is worth nothing, that does not serve any purpose and that is full of people who are related to its creator.

Top 5 Tuesday ~ Classics I ♥

Top Five Tuesday was originally created by Shanah @ Bionic Book Worm, but is now hosted by Meeghan @ Meeghan Reads. To participate, link your post back to Meeghan’s blog or leave a comment on her weekly post. I found this on Davida's Page @ The Chocolate Lady.

And here is a list of all the topics for the rest of the year.

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This week’s topic is Classics I love. 

First of all, even if I repeat myself and you find it boring over time, I have to include Jane Austen. But I also love all the other books and the other ones by those authors.

Austen, Jane "Persuasion" - 1817 (The Motherhood and Jane Austen)
Buck, Pearl S. "Peony" - 1948

Dickens, Charles "David Copperfield" - 1850
Mann, Thomas "Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family" (GE: Buddenbrooks) - 1901 

Pasternak, Boris "Doctor Zhivago" (RUS: Доктор Живаго) - 1957

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📖 Happy Reading! 📖

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Top Twelve Tuesday ~ Tinker, Tailor ... Butcher, Baker ...

"Top Ten Tuesday" is an original feature/weekly meme created on the blog "The Broke and the Bookish". It was created because they are particularly fond of lists. It is now hosted by Jana from That Artsy Reader Girl.

Since I am just as fond of them as they are, I jump at the chance to share my lists with them! Have a look at their page, there are lots of other bloggers who share their lists here.

This week's topic is Books With Occupations in the Title.

There are lots of proverbs with occupations and I thought maybe I can make a list of those but I couldn't find any in my library. But - I found lots of books, I stopped at 63 and chose those jobs among them that are closest to my heart. I don't think you are surprised about most of them.

Ahmad, Aeham "The Pianist from Syria" (aka The Pianist of Yarmouk) (GE: Und die Vögel werden singen. Ich, der Pianist aus den Trümmern) - 2017
Alejchem, Scholem "Tevye the Dairyman" (jidd: Tewje, der Milchiger טבֿיה דער מילכיקער, Jidd. und טוביה החולב,  Hebr.) - 1894-1916
Brontë, Charlotte "The Professor" - 1857 
Bythell, Shaun "The Diary of a Bookseller" - 2017
Chabon, Michael "The Yiddish Policemen's Union" - 2007
Dai, Sijie "Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress" (F: Balzac et la Petite Tailleuse Chinoise) - 2002
Dürrenmatt, Friedrich "The Judge and his Hangman" (GE: Der Richter und sein Henker) - 1950

Ingalls Wilder, Laura "Farmer Boy" - 1933
Lahiri, Jhumpa "Interpreter of Maladies" - 1999

Mason, Daniel "The Piano Tuner" - 2002

McCourt, Frank "Teacher Man. A Memoir 1949-1985" - 2005

Roth, Philip "The Ghost Writer" - 1979

📚 Happy Reading 📚

Happy September!

Happy September to all my Friends and Readers

New Calendar picture with this
beautiful watercolour painting by Hanka Koebsch
"Unter dem alten Apfelbaum"
"Under the Old Apple Tree"

Hanka and Frank say to this picture:

"Da kommen doch jetzt wieder Erinnerungen hoch: Omas schöner Garten mit dem alten Apfelbaum, auf dem wir als Kinder noch klettern konnten und dessen dicke Äste auch noch Kraft hatten, die Schaukeln mit uns zu tragen."
"Memories come flooding back: Grandma's beautiful garden with the old apple tree that we could climb as children and whose thick branches were still strong enough to carry the swings." 

Any fruit tree looks beautiful when it bears its yield. Who wouldn't just love to grab one of those apples now? I also remember climbing into the trees with all the fruit.

Mind you, I have a problem with apple cakes. I never liked these with the dried fruit on the top. Since I am lactose intolerant, I have noticed that most cafés or restaurants that serve cakes have only one lactose-free version, if at all. And that is my least favourite apple cake. Since that is often the only option when I go out with friends and want to eat something to my coffee, I really can't stand it anymore. I wouldn't mind if they offered some non-sweet alternative, like a sandwich but in the afternoon, that is hardly ever offered. So, I go hungry most of the time.

Read more on their website here. *

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The theatre season started again. Three open air performances in the last week, one of them "Much Ado About Nothing" by William Shakespeare.

If you haven't seen an adaptation, I can highly recommend the one with Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson. One of our favourite movies. Have a look here on IMDb.

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I love September. My favourite month. Not just because it's also the month of my birthday but mainly becaue it's the beginning of autumn, my favourite season. The end of summer, the end of the hot weather. So, I was trying to find a German saying about September. But I found a quote instead. I have no idea who said this but I absolutely love it.

"Ah, September! You are the gateway to the season that awakens my soul."
(Ach, September! Du bist das Tor zur Jahreszeit, die meine Seele erweckt.)

Isn't that just beautiful? And so true. It's the month where I can finally breathe again and therefore be myself.

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My Jane Austen read (see #Reading Austen project) this month was "The Jane Austen Handbook". If you are an Austen fan, I can highly recommend this little edition that tells us a lot about the Regency time.

The other August book I can highly recommend is "Knife" by Salman Rushdie. He tells us about the attack in 2022 and how he came back to life after that.

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One of our outings last month took us to a nearby lake, large enough to have the feeling you are at the sea. The Dümmer See (Wikipedia)

It's less than an hour away and always a nice destination.

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* You can also have a look under my labels Artist: Frank Koebsch and Artist: Hanka Koebsch where you can find all my posts about the two artists. 

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And here is my German expression for this month:
"Das Leben ist kein Ponyhof" (Life is not a pony farm, i.e Life is not a bed of roses)

It means life isn't always easy, you don't always get what you want. It's not an idyllic holiday destination.

In this sense:

🍂 I wish you all a very Happy September! 🍂