Nkululeko Marais Marais من عند Rekwardih, Uttar Pradesh, الهند من عند Rekwardih, Uttar Pradesh, الهند

OMG, do not bother with this book. First, the author begins by using bizarre nicknames for characters that aren't explained. Perhaps they're explained later, but I didn't get that far. (He calls his older brother Chapter Eleven...see what I mean?) Second, after what I guess is a marginally interesting start, the author suddenly regresses back to tell the story of the protagonist's grandmother. Evidently that and the story of the parents will take up much of the book. I wasn't reading it for that. Third, the book is written in first-person POV, which is fine. But when using first-person, there are limits on what that person will know about other characters. I highly doubt that they would know about their grandmother's first sexual stirrings that involved the dinner table! (No, not ON the dinner table, but the dinner table itself. *shakes head*). It made the whole thing seem so unrealistic to me. After this phenomenal start, I read some of the reviews here at goodreads and found it had more faults that would probably drive me nuts anyway, so...back to the library it goes.

The first four Earthsea novels in German. Some of my favorite books already, they proved to be entertaining to read through in another language, without too much of the Herr der Ringe "Beutlin"-izing that I'd feared I would find here.

I love reading food books but in the beginning I wasn't sure I was going to like this one. The problem was that he kept talking about British products and food terms that I didn't know, so it wasn't always clear what he was talking about. I've learned living here amont a lot of British expats that pudding means dessert, but jelly? To me it is something you spread on bread, like jam or marmalade. But I think to a Brit it is jello. After a while I hit my stride and so did Slater. He began to talk about things very biographical and very personal, but always in an oblique way, always talking around food. It was original and effective and I enjoyed it heaps.