DNF ( )

I'm pretty split on this one. I had added it to my TBR long time ago and I don't really remember why. My first surprise was that it was translated from German and set in Hamburg. Northern Germans are pretty close to my mentality (Latvian), so I got some strange behavior what others maybe wouldn't get. I pretty much enjoyed it - it kept me reading (or listening). I think it's marketed as chick lit but it deals with some heavy subjects and should come with strong trigger warnings (🛑 suicide). The pacing was really off for me - it was really stretched in the beginning and then made some big leaps in the end and finished abruptly. Nevertheless, I liked the character and story development, and would read by the author again. ( )

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader as part of a Quick Takes Catch-up post, emphasizing pithiness, not thoroughness.
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Ugh. A few years ago I was in the middle of a “I need to read more ‘General Fiction” kick and saw an advertisement (or something) for this—it wasn’t on a blog, I know that much. Something about the description appealed to me, and I got a good Whispersync deal, so the audio and ebook versions sat around since. I wanted to go through the ebook rather than the audio initially—but never seemed to find the time. But I finally broke down and just wanted to get it finished, it’s been calling to me for so long.

I should have held off a little (or a lot) longer. This book didn’t work for me in just about every imaginable way. Within a chapter or two you could see how the whole thing was going to go—including the “big surprise twist”. This is fine if the ride’s enjoyable. But it really wasn’t. The comedy wasn’t all that funny. The drama felt contrived (it’s fiction—all of it is contrived, I realize—but there’s “contrived” and there’s “feeling contrived”). The introspection and self-discovery really didn’t click for me, either.

The best thing I can say about it is that the arc of the publisher of only captial-L Literature and noteworthy Non-Fiction discovering the value and appeal of popular fiction was pleasant (and I just spoiled that…oops). A little self-serving for the writer of popular fiction, but I’m not going to criticize that.

Just pass on this one. ( )

Lately, I am reading translated fiction from German to English. "Your Perfect Life" is a book that put into perspective. Each one of us has to leave our life like it is the last of our lives.
The author (and translator) do a reliable job weaving the story in a way that is thought-provoking and re-program our mindset.
All the characters, both main and secondary, are well developed. They have faults and depth, while you read about the characters and their perspectives you feel like they are everyday people that we meet through our lives. ( )

Another dnf at 80%.

I tried, guys. Theme of the book was really intresting, but delivery... Maybe it was lost in translation but for some reason everything that was in german and then translated to russian is painful to read. Hope that book actually good in native language and it's all translator's fault ( )