#Simon Mawer

[booksandwinter]

★★★★ to Ancestry by Simon Mawer

[lesparaversdemillina]

C'est Lundi, que Lisez-vous ? N°285

Cher.e.s voyageur.e.s, Comme tous les lundi, c’est l’heure du “C’est lundi que lisez-vous” je vous présente mes lectures passées, présentes et peut-être futurs. Ce rendez-vous a été mis en place par Galleane et repris par moi. Je suis heureuse d’être responsable de ce rendez-vous. Je curieuse de voir vos reprises, lectures passées, présentes et à venir :D. C’est lundi par le menuJE RÉPONDS…

[yesdreamilyenchantingbouquet]

2 Winter 2023 Book Must Reads

Winter is a time when most of snuggle up with a good book. Here are my two picks for the best must reads for Winter 2023. Historical Pick I love a good historical read and my pick this time hands down is ‘Ancestry‘ by Simon Mawer. Synopsis: Beginning with his great-great-grandfather Abraham Block, acclaimed novelist Simon Mawer sifts through evidence like an archaeologist, piecing together the…

[i-got-the-feels]

Do you know what all I have given up to come this far?

- My Name,2021

Quotes by Simon Mawer | Krish | Arundhati Roy | Ishmael Beah | Krish | Ottessa Moshfegh | John Darnielle | Sheniz Janmohamed | Krish

( krish - My writings are the parts used to connect these quotes)

As far as I am concerned, the show ended on the beach scene. P. S my analysis on their relationship and the impact he had on her

[ceridwyn2]

Trailer for “The Affair”, based on Simon Mawer’s novel, “The Glass Room”. Starring Carice van Houton and Hanna Alström.

Description: Wealthy newlyweds Liesel and Viktor have enlisted a famous architect to build them a new home which becomes the talk of 1930s Czechoslovakia. Liesel's friend Hana is nursing seemingly unrequited romantic feelings for her pal, while Viktor is caught in the act with nanny Kata. On the eve of Nazi invasion, Liesel and Viktor flee to neutral Switzerland with their two children. Almost immediately, Liesel misses her friend and realizes her feelings were more than platonic.

[sapphorrific]

summer book diary 2023

this is just my general big post about books i read this summer plus a bit of my thoughts! a bit like my personal goodreads comment section exept other peoples bad takes only make me angry. if i ever have a take that makes you angry im really sorry:(

june

Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov | my first venture into the genre of magical realism! fun and whimsical but not only that! the writing and story structure was just captivating and as someone who normally does not resonate with religious themes in the context of this book being written by a Soviet author, it felt natural and magical indeed, an act of rebellion against a totalitarian regime.

A little life by Hanya Yanagihara | i feel like this was falsely advertised to me as 'a booktok book about traumatized college friends that makes you cry' and i cannot stress how much this book was not that. i mean there was a group of college friends but the story focused mainly on only one of them. they did have trauma but i never expected the ammount of it. and i did cry a little bit once but i mostly felt angry. and i absoluthely understand why is it so controversial among people since i dont think anything can prepare you for experiencing a little life in its 600 page entirety. my feelings about this book are extremely mixed, on one hand i dont regret picking it up however i never want to read it again. the book felt like how i imagine watching a child torture small animals feels. absolute psychological warfare of a text. if you are sensitive to any sort of triggers i recommend looking them up before you read this. i do not want to label it as 'problematic' or say it was overall bad tho. it really did make me feel strong emotions and i think it really captured the helplessness and complicated emotions of watching someone close to you really struggle and refuse to get help. it does explore the themes of abuse, illness and addiction but also friendship, found family and love. also everyone who read this and went ah yes this is a hurt/comfort gay love story literally what is wrong with you how do you read this book and proceed to go make moodboards

july

Prague Spring by Simon Mawer | i feel like this book would be a better experience if i knew next to nothing about prague spring since it is written by a british author about events taking place in czechoslovakia in the 60's from a point of view of two young british hitchhikers and a british diplomat. so i really felt like im not the target audience here. the decision to tell the story from the point of view of foreigners was an interesting one, however i also had to witness with my own two eyes how the author described czech women. the brithish female characters are described as dainty and traditionally beautiful but the czech women always had a 'square slavic jawline' or an uneven face or something. the characters overall felt flat and the plot itself was not well executed since it essentially ended with the invasion of czechoslovakia and the evacuation of the main characters back to the uk. the book laid a heavy focus on the romantic relationships of the characters which, since the characters were one dimensional, felt one dimensional as well. a very mediocre experience for me, if you want to learn about the prague spring and are a foreigner maybe this would be of value for you but, i would probably not suggest you read this

Another Country | James Baldwin even though i did learn about american classic literature in high school, unfortunately my high school (and the czech curriculum in itself i think) does not put much emphasis on classic literature written by afroamerican writers so i have never really heard of james baldwin until i saw someone recommend this in a youtube video and honestly loved it! it really had all the things i was hoping it would have, the complexity, nuance, incredible characters who feel like living breathing people and last but not least the atmosphere of new york in the 50's and early 60's. definitely the kind of book i would read multiple times and this is not the last time i read something by james baldwin either. really recommend!

The Handmaid's Tale | Margaret Atwood quite uncomfortable to read but that was obviously the point. nevertheless, read it in one day since it was very hard to put down. i liked that it did not shy away from showing women actively participating in keeping other women in a patriarchal society in check. what i found a little limiting about handmaids tale is the lack of incorporating racial dynamics into what was essentially a dystopia based on the control of womens bodies, eugenics and religion which of course affect women of color differently than white women, therefore in that direction the book felt a little one dimensional. still i feel that its an important book to read

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid | oh boy heres when the unpopular opinions come i really thought this book was very mid. a fine beach read you pick up at the airport to read on a holiday but i feel that its a little overrated. the story focused of a journalist interviewing a fictional holywood actress at the end of her eventful life, and it promised me an unpolished view of complicated womans life. i felt like i was already reading the published biography the main objective of which was for me to still like evelyn hugo and fondly remember her legacy as a beloved movie star even though she does not even exist. i feel like the choice to tell a story of a fictional celebrity provides a way to really delve into the rotten world of hollywood and show its ugly uncomfortable side. shows like bojack horseman or hacks take advantage of this. but i dont think this book attempts to do this in any shape or form. sure, she admits to doing one extremely fucked up thing which affects the journalist interviewing her very personally. but this is just the way to tie the plot neatly together and is not really explored in depth or properly dealt with. there is also the question whether we as a reader can trust evelyn hugos account of her own life, as she is the only one alive to tell it. i feel like seven husbands of evelyn hugo had a lot of potential, which it ultimately did not deliver on for me. if mild enrichment is the kind of book you want to go for rn i think it serves a purpose in that way

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russel | as much as evelyn hugo did not deliver my dark vanessa deliveredd!! a really captivating story of a imperfect victim of child abuse within a teacher student relationship. really shows how this kind of experience can haunt a person their entire life even if they refuse to believe they are not a victim in the first place. even though it covers a difficult subject, it really does go through the whole process of denial and acceptance so it does not leave a reader absoluthely hopeless and it does feel like the author did her research and did not write this as a sort of traumaporn but with care for the victims of this kind of abuse.

august

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov | i was inspired to read lolita (and my dark vanessa for that matter) after listening to the lolita podcast by jamie loftus which really felt like a good introduction before reading lolita itself as it covers not only the book but lolita as a cultural phenomenon by which i mean everything from the movies to the tumblr nymfette/coquette subculture. it gives a great context for the story and i really recommend listening to this podcast first as it helped me to better navigate the book as someone who did not know that much about it prior. it really is a complex multilayered text with a great ammount of references, anagrams and double meanings, there is an unreliable narrator manipulating you with his stunning flowery language and seemingly self aware sarcastic humor and on top of that it is a book about child abuse. so it really is a lot. still an unforgettable experience, had to rush through it as it made me sick to my stomach, truly an icredible read. kudos to the czech publishers for the new cover design of the book its really beautiful and honors the authors wishes.

[polisyndeton]

Nie mógł przypomnieć sobie matki jako młodej kobiety. W jego pamięci jedynie jej oczy zachowały iluzję młodości: błyszczące, niebieskie oczy porcelanowej lalki, ze zdziwieniem przedzierające się przez gnijącą maskę jej twarzy, jak gdyby dziwiły się, że czas przemija, a materia gnuśnieje. Reszta jej ciała była raptem zalążką dawnego piękna, jak u aktorki próbującej uciec przed czasem.

Skóra jej policzków odznaczała się woskową miękkością; oprószona była lekkim, pudrowym meszkiem, niczym pleśń. Jej konturowane szminką usta rzucały cień utraconej zmysłowości, tak jak obraz może zdradzać ślady dawnej sylwetki pod górną warstwą.

- Mój manekinie, mój Männlein, daj mamie buziaka - mawiała, a jej uścisk był tak ciężki, jak woń kadzideł i jej różanych perfum.

Podczas choroby spał w jej łóżku i czuł jej obecność - wyperfumowane ciało, dziwną miksturę wyniszczenia i pulchności - blisko siebie. Czasami uczucie przytulania do jej obwisłych piersi (jakie uczucie? jaka udręka kryła się za jej ckliwymi gestami?) doprowadzało ją do łez, a wtedy rozklejała się jak mokry papier, co ponuro kontrastowało z jej kolorowymi sukienkami w stylu retro i miedzianymi włosami. Kiedyś myślał o niej jak o lalce wystawionej na deszcz – potem dodał to do listy nieprzyjaznych myśli, za które musiał odpokutować.

- Co się stało, Matko? - pytał. - Powiedz mi.

Lecz ona dzielnie potrząsała głową i zaprzeczała, że było to coś, co zrobił Leo lub nawet coś, co sobie wyobraził. Niewyobrażalne prześladowało ją, a w konsekwencji również jego dziecięce modlitwy, odmawiane wieczorami przy łóżku.

- Twój ojciec, twój biedny ojciec - lamentowała, a on patrzył na nich ze srebrnych ram pianina, z szafki na gzymsie. Emanował powagą, a jego chuda, ciągnąca się twarz miała w sobie cechy charakterystyczne dla poczucia obowiązku. - Oczywiście, że on czuwa nad nami. Widzi nas, zna nasze myśli, rozumie nasze słabości...

- Jakim cudem przeżyłeś? - wykrzyknęła Madeleine, gdy Leo wszystko jej opisał, jednak to pytanie było bez znaczenia. Nie przeżyła osoba, którą mógł być - przeżyła tylko osoba, którą się stał. Przeżył mężczyzna leżący przed ołtarzem rzymskiej bazyliki wraz z trzydziestoma innymi postulantami, rozłożonymi przed biskupem jak trupy.

[words-pics-flicks]

Writing is an awful, solitary grind. So actually doing it is the worst aspect. The best aspect? Just having written.

Simon Mawer (in ‘Writers in Black & White’)

[jyflsstuff]

The Glass Room- Book by Simon Mawer

[ramascreen]

INTERVIEW: Claes Bang and Hanna Alström Talk Their Experience of Filming "THE AFFAIR" at Villa Tugendhat

INTERVIEW: Claes Bang and Hanna Alström Talk Their Experience of Filming “THE AFFAIR” at Villa Tugendhat

In celebration of the new period drama THE AFFAIR which will be available On Demand on March 5, 2021 from Vertical Entertainment, I recently had the opportunity to interview the stars of this film, Claes Bang (Neflix’s DRACULA) and Hanna Alström (THE KINGSMEN franchise).  Directed by Julius Sevcik and based on British author Simon Mawer’s novel ‘The Glass Room,’ THE AFFAIR is set in the 1930s…

[booksandwinter]

★★★★ to The Glass Room by Simon Mawer

[lesparaversdemillina]

C'est Lundi, que Lisez-vous ? n°284

Cher.e.s voyageur.e.s, Comme tous les lundi, c’est l’heure du “C’est lundi que lisez-vous” je vous présente mes lectures passées, présentes et peut-être futurs. Ce rendez-vous a été mis en place par Galleane et repris par moi. Je suis heureuse d’être responsable de ce rendez-vous. Je curieuse de voir vos reprises, lectures passées, présentes et à venir :D. C’est lundi par le menuJE RÉPONDS…

[kniznistripky]

Seděli každý na opačném konci postele a oba si prožívali své vlastní trauma, agonii příznačnou pro měnící se časy, kdy láska měla být údajně volná, ale důsledky toho proklamovaného osvobození byly často svazující.

Simon Mawer - Pražské jaro

[groovyspinedisease]

20 Books I Wanna Read in 2020

1) Claiming the B in LGBT by Kate Harrad 

2) Paula by Isabel Allende

3) Stonewall by Martin Duberman 

4) The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende

5) Great Tales of Horror by H.P Lovecraft 

6) Sovereign by April Daniels

7) Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell 

8) The Roundhouse by Louise Erdrich 

9) Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte 

10) Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire 

11) Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte 

12) Mutation by Roland Smith 

13) Macbeth by William Shakespeare 

14) The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown 

15) The Glass Room by Simon Mawer 

16) Confessions: The Murder of an Angel by James Patterson 

17) The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood 

18) A Puerto Rican in New York and Other Sketches by Jesus Colon 

19) Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte 

20) Skin Folk by Nalo Hopkinson 

[slavinggrace-blog]

The List! Edited as read.

List Number, Title, Author 1 The Master and Magarita Mikhail Bulgakov 2 Tales of the City Armistead Maupin 3 The Wasp Factory Iain Banks 4 The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared Jonas Jonasson 5 The Handmaid's Tale Margaret Atwood 6 The Alchemist Paulo Coelho 7 With The Night Mail Rudyard Kipling 8 The Princess Bride William Goldman 9 Sharpe's Tiger Bernard Cornwall 10 American Psycho Bret Easton Ellis 11 Flowers for Algernon Daniel Keyes 12 The Divine Comedy Dante Alighieri 13 I capture the castle Dodie Smith 14 Dune Frank Herbert 15 One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel Garcia Marquez 16 The Diary of a Nobody George and Weedon Grossmith 17 Brighton Rock Graham Greene 18 Moby Dick Herman Melville 19 Beyond Black Hilary Mantel 20 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Hunter S. Thompson 21 Atonement Ian McEwan 22 The Sea The Sea Iris Murdoch 23 The Stars Like Dust Isaac Asimov 24 Emma Jane Austen 25 Nausea Jean-Paul Sartre 26 Stand on Zanzibar John Brunner 27 A Confederacy of Dunces John Kennedy Toole 28 Paradise Lost John Milton 29 The Crysalids John Wyndham 30 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Ken Kesey 31 The Wind in the Willows Kenneth Grahame 32 The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini 33 Breakfast of Champions Kurt Vonnegut 34 Slaughterhouse 5 Kurt Vonnegut 35 The Dice Man Luke Rhinehart 36 Under the volcano Malcolm Lowry 37 Gone with the Wind Margaret Mitchell 38 Frankenstein Mary Shelley 39 Titus Alone Mervyn Peake 40 Prime of Miss Jean Brodie Muriel Spark 41 The Code of the Woosters P.G. Wodehouse 42 The Pigeon Patrick Süskind 43 Fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradbury 44 The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists Robert Tressel 45 Tipping the Velvet Sarah Waters 46 Cold Comfort Farm Stella Gibbons 47 The Bachman Books Stephen King 48 Child '44 Tom Rob Smith 49 In cold blood Truman Capote 50 The Woman in White Wilkie Collins 51 Neuromancer William Gibson 52 Vanity Fair William Makepeace Thackeray 53 Of Human Bondage William Somerset Maugham 54 Life of Pi Yann Martel 55 Uncle Varnye A. P. Chekhov 56 The Colour Purple Alice Walker 57 Sons and Lovers D.H Lawrence 58 The Outsiders S E Hinton 59 Once Were Warriors Alan Duff 60 One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich Alexander Solzhenitsyn 61 The Lovely Bones Alice Sebold 62 Delta of Venus Anais Nin 63 The God Of Small Things Arundhati Roy 64 The Time Traveler's Wife Audrey Niffenegger 65 Dracula Bram Stoker 66 The Heart is a Lonely Hunter Carson McCullers 67 Absolute Beginners Colin MacInnes 68 Rebecca Daphne Du Maurier 69 Cloud Atlas David Mitchell 70 The Secret History Donna Tartt 71 House of Mirth Edith Wharton 72 North and South Elizabeth Gaskell 73 The Secret Garden Frances Hodgson Burnett 74 Mister God this is Anna Fynn 75 The Brothers Karamazov Fyodor Dostoyevsky 76 Silas Marner George Eliot 77 Madame Bovery Gustave Flaubert 78 On the Road Jack Kerouac 79 A Prayer for Owen Meaney John Irving 80 East of Eden John Steinbeck 81 Around the world in 80 days Jules Verne 82 Wild Swans Jung Chang 83 Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy 84 Anne of Green Gables Lucy Maud Montgomery 85 The Book Thief Markus Zusak 86 The Sparrow Mary Doria Russell 87 The Crimson Petal and the White Michael Faber 88 Don Quixote Miguel De Cervantes 89 The Five People You Meet In Heaven Mitch Albom 90 Mary Poppins P. L. Travers 91 Everyman Phillip Roth 92 Kidnapped Robert Louis Stephenson 93 A Tale for the Time Being Ruth Ozeki 94 Midnight's Children Salman Rushdie 95 A Kind of Loving Stan Barstow 96 Far from the Madding Crowd Thomas Hardy 97 Beloved Toni Morrison 98 Girl with The Pearl Earring Tracy Chevalier 99 To the Lighthouse Virginia Woolf 100 Snowcrash Neal Stephenson SUB 1 A Knot in Your Stomach Yvonne Postma SUB 2 David Copperfield Charles Dickens SUB 3 Age of Innocence Edith Wharton SUB 4 All Quiet on the Western Front Erich Maria Remarque SUB 5 The Leopard Giuseppe Tomasi Di Lampedusa SUB 6 War of the Worlds H. G. Wells SUB 7 Pilgrims Progress John Bunyan SUB 8 Labyrinth Kate Mosse SUB 9 The Remains of the Day Kazuo Ishiguro SUB 10 War and Peace Leo Tolstoy SUB 11 Captain Corelli's Mandolin Louis de Bernieres SUB 12 Cryptonomicon Neal Stephenson SUB 13 A Town Like Alice Nevil Shute SUB 14 Watership Down Richard Adams SUB 15 The Girl Who Fell from the Sky Simon Mawer SUB 16 Lolita Vladimir Nabokov SUB 17 The Cherry Orchard A. P. Chekhov SUB 18 Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoevsky SUB 19 Love in the time of Cholera Gabriel Garcia Marquez SUB 20 Middlemarch George Eliot SUB 21 Wolf Hall Hilary Mantel SUB 22 Persuasion Jane Austen SUB 23 The Cider House Rules John Irving SUB 24 Alias Grace Margaret Attwood SUB 25 Puck of Pook's Hill Rudyard Kipling

[obcas-se-i-ucim]

Skleněný pokoj (The Glass Room) - 2009

Autor: Simon Mawer

Lit. druh: Epika

Lit. žánr: Román

Er-forma

Sloh. postup: Vyprávění

Kompozice: Retrospektivní/Chronologická

- prolog se odehrává časově až po poslední kapitole

- dále je kniha dělena do 5 částí (před okupací, okupace a 2. Světová válka, konec 2.SV a příchod Sovětských vojsk, SSSR, po režimu)

Jazyk: Spisovný; německé, italské, anglické (v originále české) a francouzské výrazy

Motivy: období mezi SV, kontrast (bohatství X náhlá ztráta všeho, minimalismus X ornament) příchod 2.SV + holokaust, antisemitismus, erotika, nevěra, mezilidské vztahy, lidská psychika…

- celkový motiv knihy je samotný Glasraum a příběhy které se v něm odehrávají napříč časem

Místo a čas:

M - Česko (Brno - v or. “Město”), Rakousko (Vídeň), Francie, Španělsko, Švýcarsko, Spojené Státy...

Č - prolog 90. léta, poté přesun do období mezi válkami a chronologický postup až k 90. létům

Moje hodnocení: 9.5/10

Úžasná kniha! Miluju! Moje láska k příběhům z doby 2. Světové se objevuje i při čtení Skleněného pokoje. Byla jsem z toho sice hodně zmatená, kniha má hodně postav a všechny jejich příběhy se vzájemně proplétají, ale to je snad celou podstatou Glasraumu - místa, kde se mažou hranice a vzniká pouze jeden nekonečný prostor. Trochu mě ale zklamal konec, přišlo mi to až moc idealistické, tak proto strhnu půl bodu. Autora sice kritizují, že “ukradl příběh Vily Tugendhat a celý jej překroutil”, ale mně se to právě líbí - vzal si čistý koncept a vytvořil k němu spletitý a dramatický příběh.