How exotic - it's from a German author!!

AFTER MIDNIGHT (Orig.: Nach Mitternacht, 1937) by Irmgard Keun is - again - very small: ca. 199 pages.

If you have read my Top Ten List with my Ten favourite authors (like every list of mine this one is "fluent" - always changing.. Today I was on the verge to redo my Top Ten fictional crushes list.. *sigh*) you know that I like Irmgard Keun VERY much. She is one of my really alltime favourites. Call her a steady name for my list of authors..

Some information for them of you, who may never have heard of her:

She was born in 1905 in Berlin and died in 1982 in Cologne. In the early 1930ies she became very succesful as an author of novels. She wrote in a very direct language - just the way people (esp. uneducated girls from lower middle class, who mainly were her heroines) - would talk.

Her most famous works were GILGI - ONE OF US (Gilgi - eine von uns, 1931) and THE ARTIFICIAL SILK GIRL (Das kunstseidene Mädchen, 1932). Her books were blacklisted when the Nazis came into power. She emigrated with Joseph Roth - who was her lover at that time - to the Netherlands. (Roth and she split up in 1938.) In 1940 when the Nazis invated the Netherlands, she went back to Germany. She lived with wrong papers - it helped that there were several announcements of her death. She was almost forgotten when in the late 1970ies/ early 1980ies the feminist movement rediscovered her works.

After midnight is therefor a special book because it really shows how live was in 1936:

It is about Susanne, everybody calls her Sanne, a 19 year old girl. She left her hometown and went to her aunt in Cologne. She worked in the stationary shop of her aunt and fell in love with Franz, her aunt's quiet son. Franz and Sanne wanted to establish a tobaccos shop - but the aunt pressed charges against Sanne at the Gestapo. So Sanne goes to her stepbrother Algin, who lives with his wife Liska in Frankfurt on the Main. Algin is a former successful author but now he struggles with the new government and his beliefs. Time goes on and all over sudden Franz comes to Sanne - and it seems that he is on the run...

In this novel Sanne is telling her story herself. She doesn't always understand what is happening and what the new rules really mean. Partly this novel is kind of gruesome - in the second chapter is a case of death who simply sticks in my mind - though it is no violent death.

I think I will do some more post about Irmgard Keun's books - but not immediately. ;")

Top Ten Tuesday - Ten fictional crushes

This is a weekly meme from The Broke and the Bookish.

This time it is about ten fictional crushes - well, it was hard to find 10 crushes so I searched really deep in my past.. ;")

Please note that these are pure "Schwärmerei" - nothing carnal in it. ;")

So here they are - in no particular order:

1. Dr. Seward from DRACULA (Bram Stoker)


2. Mr. Bingley from PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (Jane Austen)


3. Colonel Brandon from SENSE AND SENSIBILITY (Jane Austen)


4. Smike from NICHOLAS NICKLEBY (Charles Dickens) - I was about to name my cat after him - but it turned out that Lucy was a better name for her.. :")


5. William Dobbin from VANITY FAIR (William Makepeace Thackeray) - another nearly catname - now the cat is known as Mina.. :") here you can see both of them.


6. Jem from TO KILL A MOCKING BIRD (Harper Lee) - maybe you ought to know that I was a little girl when I first read this book.. ;")


7. CINDERELLA (Perrault/ Brothers Grimm etc. )


8. John Thornton from NORTH AND SOUTH (Elizabeth Gaskell)


9. Bert from MARY POPPINS (P.L. Travers)


10. PETER PAN (J.M. Barrie)

And: yes, I have a heart for minor characters. ;")

How about you??

P.S. Here's the one I've forfotten, but who REALLY belongs to this list: SHERLOCK HOLMES!!! (shame on me for forgetting him!)

Link to another great giveaway

Lovely Bev is doing a big 100 plus giveaway .

100 readers ! - Congrats to that!!

Maybe you want to participate.. ;") Good luck to all of you!

I've been tagged!!!

Bev from MY READER'S BLOCK has tagged me - and for this being a social network and I am a good sport [;")] - I'll go and follow the rules, which are:

• Accept the tag and link to the tagger at the beginning of your post.
  


• Answer the questions honestly in your post by listing four things.
  


• Pass on the love by picking four other people to tag and listing them at the bottom of your post. Notify them that you tagged them.
  
  

- If you start to ask yourself if I ever will do a more literature-focused entry ever again: yes, I will!! err.. I am at least very sure of that.. ;") - And now: come on and know me better!

Four things that are in my handbag:

1. a wallet


2. tissues


3. a little writing pad


4. a book (surprise!!)
   

Four favourite things in my bedroom:

1. My bed


2. My dressing table, which goes with the bed


3. My little hula-girl


4. My monstera deliciosa (a big green plant..)
   
   

Four things on my desk:

1. a lap-top


2. a telephone


3. some books


4. tissues (no, they're NOT used yet! Sicko!)
   

Four things I allways wanted to do (but haven't yet):

1. Visiting London (last year I had even bought the air tickets but then my little ladies - then 12 weeks old - came into my live.. so my friend went with another one and I stayed at home.. - and I had the time of my life! I am still having the time of my life with them.)


2. Visiting New York


3. Reading every book by Jane Austen/Elizabeth Edmondson/Sarah Waters/Irmgard Keun...
   
   
4. I never did (or will) kill a butterfly.

Four things I enjoy very much in the moment:

1. caressing my cats


2. drinking coffee


3. reading a book that pleases me - did you notice? I didn't say a "good" book.. ;")


4. looking at the moon
   

Four songs I can't get out of my head:

1. Eartha Kitt: Just an old-fashioned girl


2. The Beatles: You have to hide your love away


3. The theme of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake Ballet (my favourite melody - ever!)


4. Moustafa - gee, I LOVE that song. It is sooo funny!! I even can sing it by heart.. (though I am not that fast as the singer in this video..)

Four things you don't know about me:

1. If you didn't read this entry, you don't know that I have a crush on Vincent Price.


2. I am almost addicted to coffee.


3. I am obsessed with Marilyn Monroe/ Jack the Ripper/ sharks (esp. the shark attacks of 1916)/ crows...


4. I did not wear a wrist watch since the one my mother gave me was stolen.
   

Four Bloggers I am tagging:

1. Michelle from Everything has a simpler meaning


2. Jann from BOUQUET OF TULLE ROSES


3. Sari from The Pin Up Diaries


4. Marieke from Athyrium filix-femina (The Lady Fern)
   

Tag, you're it! Have fun with it! :")

Top Ten Tuesday - Ten books I'll never read

This is a weekly meme from The Broke and the Bookish.

That is (again) quite hard to say - I've got to confess that I can't exclude that I'll read one or two of these books sometime in future but right now I will not read them and have no intention to.

In no particular order my top ten are there is:

1. Michel Houellebecq: Les Particules élémentaires ( Engl. title : Atomised)
2. Dan Brown: The Da Vinci Code
3. Brett Easton Ellis: American Psycho
4. Stephenie Meyer's The Twilight series [Sorry, but no, thanks. Again: sorry, folks! - or: girls?? ;"p]
5. Natascha Kampusch: 3096 Tage (=3,096 Days) [too tough for me.]
6. Stephen King: It [Yuck! clowns..]
7. Allan and Barbara Pease: Why Men don't Listen and Women can't read Maps [btw. my sister and I can read maps -and my brother is a good listener - thank you very much, sexists.]
8. Günter Grass: Im Krebsgang (Engl. title: Crabwalk) [- no NO-list without him.. I positively won't read any book by him soon. I hated The Tin Drum! - quite sexist, too.]
9. Jodi Picoult: My sister's keeper [err.. no.]
10. Adolf Hitler: Mein Kampf (Engl.: My struggle) [- Do have I to explain that? Though I admit that it would interest me - but that would be a post of its own: why I am interested in it while at the same time it would disgust me..]

How about you?

Link to marvellous giveaway!!

Allie of A Literary Odyssey is doing a giveaway, which you can join here .

Good luck! (I found it rather hard to pick just 7 favourite books - which is one requirement.)

And tons of fun for everyone who is participating on todays 24h Read-A-Thon!!

The ole hootie owl hootie-hoo's...

THE MOONFLOWER VINE by Jetta Carleton (1962) is a rereleased best-seller.

The story beginns in the 1950ies in rural Missouri when Leonie, Mary Jo and Jessica are again spending the summer at the farm of their parents. It devolps to a retrospect from different views of the parent's youth to the adolescence of the girls in the 1930ies.

A delightfully easeful book with a plot that drags unagitated - I really enjoyed that! Just a relaxed reading - maybe you have to work a bit in the beginning till you finaly can relax - but that will happen really fast.

My grandmother and my grandaunt (and me) loved that book. My mother was bored to death. You may decide for yourself - but do I have to mention that? ;")

Schmooze:

THE MOONFLOWER VINE was a bestseller in Germany in 1964 (No.1 actually!) - then it was named WENN DIE MONDWINDEN BLÜHEN. The German rerelease is called WENN DIE MONDBLUMEN BLÜHEN - both means "When the moonflowers bloom" ("Mondwinden" is the biological correct translation of moonflowers "Mondblumen" is the verbatim correct version.)

Side-effect:

If you read this book in the bath tub (guess who did that..) you may risk that your feet start to shrivel. No, I WON'T post photographic proof. You just have to believe me. :")

Drinks anyone?

Drink something really mild and unperilous like lemonade. I don't know about you, but when I was child mineral water with fruit sirup was heaven for us (when we had ice cubes too it was really glamourous) and this book made me feel nostalgic so my perfect drink for this reading is squeaking gaudy and sickly sweet.

When I was a child Tammy was broadcasted in TV again. The German title of the series was "Tammy - Das Mädchen vom Hausboot" (= the girl of the houseboat). I loved that song - and I do love it today. Then I was determinend to live on a houseboat like Tammy did. I was totally in love with that girl. Even her name was the prettiest I ever heard.. And in november the TV series will be released as a DVD box in Germany!!! *yay* Gee - do I hope it is as lovely as I have it in my memory.. ;")

"I want to thank my mother.." ;")

Bev (if I am right she is my one and only follower so far) awarded this blog with the ONE LOVELY BLOG AWARD! I mean: All over sudden this blog received an award. That's stunning. It is the first award I've ever received in blogzone. Now I feel pretty important. :")

And here it is:

Cute, isn't it?

With this award came some rules:

1. Accept the award. Post it on your blog along with the name of the person who awarded it along with a link to their blog.

2. Pay it forward to 15 other bloggers that you have recently discovered.

3. Contact those bloggers and let them know they've been chosen.


So, now I have to name 15 blogs I like and I want to get an award.. That's very difficult, because the blogs have to be "recently discovered" - I think I'll start with this blogs - and maybe add some more later - btw they are in NO particular order:


1950s Unlimited - a lovely page with awesome posts..

Athyrium filix femina (The Lady Fern) - whose blog title is only one marvellous thing about this blog..

Bouquet of Tulle Roses - Jann finds awesome pics! And is a very sweet lady - as far as I can say..

Quote Mistress - a blog by Bev, which is really great

Hollywood Hobbies - Jen adores Ida Lupino. And so do I..

Ketty - just beautiful

She is too fond of books - Whitney has the marvellous Femme Fatale Friday! *yay* And she is a Janeite AND Bette Davis fan!! (!!!!!!)

Vintage Lesbian Project - a lovely lady with a lovely project

Vintage in a modern world - be sure to read the post about the Mad Hatter Tea Party!!! - Awesome!!

(wahaha! I L O V E that song!!) Thank you very much for the opportunity to post it!! ;")

Top Ten Tuesdays - Top Ten Authors

It is a weekly meme from The Broke and the Bookish

I just give the Top Ten Tuesdays a try - and here are my finals (in no particular order)

• Elizabeth Edmondson
  


• Jane Austen
  


• Sarah Waters
  


• P.G. Wodehouse
  


• James M. Cain
  


• Grace Metalious
  


• Dorothy Parker
  


• Irmgard Keun
  


• Erich Kästner
  


• Daphne Du Maurier
  

How about you? (who and where ever you are..)

Take good care of my baby

A narrow little thriller: MISCHIEF (1950) by Charlotte Armstrong.

In a nutshell:

Mr. and Mrs. Jones are invited to an important dinner and leave their 9-year old daughter Bunny in their hotelroom. With Bunny stays babysitter Nell, whose uncle Eddie - the lift operator - arranged this job for her.
At the same time Jed - a young man, who resides in the same hotel - has a brawl with his girlfriend Lyn and after their seperation he spots Nell in the hotelroom vis-à-vis and looks forward to have a chance to reduce his anger in a more cushy way. He grabs a bottle of ryeand the evening could become really nice - if Nell wasn't mentally disordered and dangerous..

Really exciting - and a quick read - no wonder: ca. 200 pages aren't that much. Charlotte Armstrong foreshadows before she starts describing what really happens - so that an enormous suspense can be established - or not, that depends on your own sensation.. ;")

• Celebration!: Whiskey (Rye) or Cola. A little candy and you are in game..
• For non-readers: 1951 the book was adapted to the screen with my heroine Marilyn Monroe - guess what made me read this book.. The movie was named DON'T BOTHER TO KNOCK - the minor characters were melted down and Nells backround story was changed a bit - but the story is still thrilling. And: Yes, Marilyn Monroe was able to be mean. :") You can read my film review here.
• Schmooze: The German title of the book is SCHLAFE MEIN KINDCHEN (lit.= "Sleep my little child")