Recensie: In mijn mand

Auteur: Lieke Marsman
Titel: In mijn mand
Genre: Poëzie
Taal: Nederlands
Jaar: 2021
ISBN: 9789083095356
Aantal pagina’s: 64
Gelezen: Februari 2022
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Omslagtekst:
In mijn mand, de derde bundel van Lieke Marsman, behandelt de grootste thema’s die het menselijke bestaan kenmerken: de waarde van het leven en de plek van de dood in een mensenleven. Hoe leef je met een levensbedreigende ziekte? Hoe verandert dat je blik op de wereld, op wat van waarde is, op wat je je herinnert en het verloop van de tijd? En hoe verhoud je je tot de wereld in dergelijke omstandigheden? Trek je je eruit terug, of laat je je juist gelden en houd je die wereld een spiegel voor? Lieke Marsman kiest resoluut voor het laatste. 

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Recensie: Een bundel haarspelden

Auteur: Sofi Oksanen
Titel: Een bundel haarspelden
Genre: Literatuur, Estische literatuur
Taal: Nederlands
Jaar: 2003
ISBN: 9789041423115
Aantal pagina’s: 445
Gelezen: Januari 2022
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Omslagtekst:
In Een bundel haarspelden trouwt de Estse Katariina in de jaren zeventig met een Fin. Het is een moeizaam huwelijk, want Finnen kijken neer op Esten. Over de grens zijn de vrouwen al snel hoeren, van wie ze rijkelijk gebruik kunnen maken. Dit beeld maakt Katariina s leven er niet makkelijker op en ze leert haar dochter Anna de kunst van het zwijgen, vooral over haar identiteit. Anna groeit op in moeilijke tijden en worstelt daarnaast met boulimia. Samen met haar moeder reist ze regelmatig naar Estland, met koffers en tassen vol kleren en hulpgoederen. Tientallen jaren later ervaart Anna dat er in twee generaties nog maar weinig veranderd is.

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Recensie: Scythe

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Auteur: Neal Shusterman
Titel: Scythe
Genre: Young Adult, dystope
Taal: Engels
Jaar: 2016
ISBN: 9781442472433
Aantal pagina’s: 435
Gelezen: Januari 2022
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Omslagtekst:
A world with no hunger, no disease, no war, no misery: humanity has conquered all those things, and has even conquered death. Now Scythes are the only ones who can end life—and they are commanded to do so, in order to keep the size of the population under control.

Citra and Rowan are chosen to apprentice to a scythe—a role that neither wants. These teens must master the “art” of taking life, knowing that the consequence of failure could mean losing their own.

Scythe is the first novel of a thrilling new series by National Book Award–winning author Neal Shusterman in which Citra and Rowan learn that a perfect world comes only with a heavy price.

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Recensie: The story of Alice

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Auteur: Robert Douglas Fairhurst
Titel: The story of Alice – Lewis Carroll and the secret history of Wonderland
Genre: Non-Fictie, biografie
Taal: Engels
Jaar: 2015
ISBN: 9781846558610
Aantal pagina’s: 496
Gelezen: Januari 2022
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Omslagtekst:
Wonderland is part of our cultural heritage – a shortcut for all that is beautiful and confusing; a metaphor used by artists, writers and politicians for 150 years.

But beneath the fairy tale lies the complex history of the author and his subject: of Charles Dodgson, the quiet academic, and his second self, Lewis Carroll – storyteller, innovator and avid collector of ‘child-friends’. And of his ‘dream-child’, Alice Liddell, and the fictional alter ego that would never let her grow up.

This is their secret story: a history of love and loss, of innocence and ambiguity, and of one man’s need to make Wonderland his refuge in a rapidly changing world.

Drawing on previously unpublished material, Robert Douglas-Fairhurst traces the creation and influence of the Alice books against a shifting cultural landscape – the birth of photography, changing definitions of childhood and sexuality and the tensions inherent in the transition between the Victorian and modern worlds. 

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Recensie: Anna Karenina

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Auteur: Leo Tolstoy
Titel: Anna Karenina
Genre: Literatuur, klassieker
Taal: Engels
Jaar: 1877
ISBN: 9781853262715
Aantal pagina’s: 848
Gelezen: Januari 2022
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Omslagtekst:
Anna Karenina is one of the most loved and memorable heroines of literature. Her overwhelming charm dominates a novel of unparalleled richness and density.

Tolstoy considered this book to be his first real attempt at a novel form, and it addresses the very nature of society at all levels – of destiny, death, human relationships and the irreconcilable contradictions of existence. It ends tragically, and there is much that evokes despair, yet set beside this is an abounding joy in life’s many ephemeral pleasures, and a profusion of comic relief.

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Recensie: The lady’s guide to petticoats and piracy

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Auteur: Mackenzi Lee
Titel: The lady’s guide to petticoats and piracy
Serie: Montague Siblings #2
Genre: Young Adult Historische Fictie, LGBTQ+
Taal: Engels
Jaar: 2018
ISBN: 9780062795328
Aantal pagina’s: 450
Gelezen: Januari 2022
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Omslagtekst:
A year after an accidentally whirlwind grand tour with her brother Monty, Felicity Montague has returned to England with two goals in mind—avoid the marriage proposal of a lovestruck suitor from Edinburgh and enroll in medical school. However, her intellect and passion will never be enough in the eyes of the administrators, who see men as the sole guardians of science.

But then a window of opportunity opens—a doctor she idolizes is marrying an old friend of hers in Germany. Felicity believes if she could meet this man he could change her future, but she has no money of her own to make the trip. Luckily, a mysterious young woman is willing to pay Felicity’s way, so long as she’s allowed to travel with Felicity disguised as her maid.

In spite of her suspicions, Felicity agrees, but once the girl’s true motives are revealed, Felicity becomes part of a perilous quest that leads them from the German countryside to the promenades of Zurich to secrets lurking beneath the Atlantic.

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Recensie: Grimm’s fairy tales

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Auteur: Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm
Titel: Grimm’s fairy tales
Genre: Sprookjes
Taal: Engels
Jaar: 1909
ISBN: 9781853261015
Aantal pagina’s: 272
Gelezen: December 2021
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Omslagtekst:
The Brothers Grimm rediscovered a host of fairy tales, telling of princes and princesses in their castles, witches in their towers and forests, of giants and dwarfs, of fabulous animals and dark deeds.
This selection of their folk tales was made and translated by Lucy Crane, and includes firm favourites such as ‘Cinderella’, ‘Rapunzel’, ‘The Goose Girl’, ‘Sleeping Beauty’, ‘Hansel and Gretel’ and ‘Snow White’.
It is illustrated throughout by Walter Crane’s charming line drawings.

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Recensie: The lost apothecary

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Auteur: Sarah Penner
Titel: The Lost Apothecary
Genre: Historische fictie
Taal: Engels
Jaar: 2021
ISBN: 9780778311010
Aantal pagina’s: 301
Gelezen: December 2021
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Omslagtekst:
A female apothecary secretly dispenses poisons to liberate women from the men who have wronged them – setting three lives across centuries on a dangerous collision course.

Rule #1: The poison must never be used to harm another woman.
Rule #2: The names of the murderer and her victim must be recorded in the apothecary’s register.

One cold February evening in 1791, at the back of a dark London alley in a hidden apothecary shop, Nella awaits her newest customer. Once a respected healer, Nella now uses her knowledge for a darker purpose – selling well-disguised poisons to desperate women who would kill to be free of the men in their lives. But when her new patron turns out to be a precocious twelve-year-old named Eliza Fanning, an unexpected friendship sets in motion a string of events that jeopardizes Nella’s world and threatens to expose the many women whose names are written in her register.

In present-day London, aspiring historian Caroline Parcewell spends her tenth wedding anniversary alone, reeling from the discovery of her husband’s infidelity. When she finds an old apothecary vial near the river Thames, she can’t resist investigating, only to realize she’s found a link to the unsolved “apothecary murders” that haunted London over two centuries ago. As she deepens her search, Caroline’s life collides with Nella’s and Eliza’s in a stunning twist of fate – and not everyone will survive. 

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Recensie: The midnight library

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Auteur: Matt Haig
Titel: The midnight library
Genre: Magisch Realisme
Taal: Engels
Jaar: 2020
ISBN: 9781786892720
Aantal pagina’s: 288
Gelezen: December 2021
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Omslagtekst:

Between life and death there is a library, and within that library, the shelves go on forever. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived. To see how things would be if you had made other choices… Would you have done anything different, if you had the chance to undo your regrets?’

A dazzling novel about all the choices that go into a life well lived, from the internationally bestselling author of Reasons to Stay Alive and How To Stop Time.

Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. One tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you could have lived if you had made a different choice at any point in your life. While we all wonder how our lives might have been, what if you had the chance to go to the library and see for yourself? Would any of these other lives truly be better?

In The Midnight Library, Matt Haig’s enchanting novel, Nora Seed finds herself faced with this decision. Faced with the possibility of changing her life for a new one, following a different career, undoing old breakups, realizing her dreams of becoming a glaciologist; she must search within herself as she travels through the Midnight Library to decide what is truly fulfilling in life, and what makes it worth living in the first place.

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Recensie: The northern lights lodge

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Auteur: Julie Caplin
Titel: The northern lights lodge
Serie: Romantic escapades #4
Genre: Romance
Taal: Engels
Jaar: 2019
ISBN: 9780008323677
Aantal pagina’s: 400
Gelezen: December 2021
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Omslagtekst:
Escape to the cosiest little lodge in Iceland for love, log fires and the Northern Lights…
With a shattered heart and her career completely in tatters, Lucy needs to get away from her life in the UK. But, when she takes a job as hotel manager of the Northern Lights Lodge, she doesn’t quite expect to find herself in a land of bubbling hot springs and snowflake-dusted glaciers – and in the company of gorgeous Scottish barman, Alex.

Determined to turn her life around, Lucy sets about making the lodge the number one romantic destination in Iceland – even though romance is the last thing she wants. However, as Alex and Lucy grow closer under the dancing lights of the aurora, Lucy might just learn how to fall in love again…

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