Bruges-La-Morte

Bruges-La-Morte is about a desperate widower who falls for a dancer who looks like his deceased wife. But she's nothing like his past wife. She's nasty and brings the downfall of him. Even his help leaves and is mortified. This short novel packed a punch. Apparently it was one of the first books to have photographs along with it. I'll have to read more from this author.

The Street of Crocodiles

This is a classic Polish novella. I found it hard to follow so I'm going to reread it and give more of a update some time coming up. The Brothers Quay did a short based on it so it's worth looking over again.

The Shoemaker's Wonderful Wife

I really like Lorca so I've been going through his plays gradually. So far these early plays of his show potential but don't wow like Blood Wedding. This one is about a 50 something year man who leaves his young nagging wife. During his absence, the two realize how much they actually do love one another. It doesn't help that the town is against them. This play was cute but greatness was around the corner.

Brigitta and other tales

I read the novella Rock Crystal and loved it. So I decided to read more by Adalbert Stifter. This contains four stories by him. Two stories were ok. The others were great. "Abdias", one of the ok ones, is about a guy whose daughter is blind and she recovers. "Limestone" is about a priest and this was the worst of them. However "The Forest Path" was fantastic. It was really cute. It's about a wealthy hermit who is a hypochondriac. He is cured when he meets a sweet country girl. The other one "Brigitta" was great too. It's about a good looking guy who has had lots of girls who finds himself returning to the plain wife he left years ago. I really like Stifter and I'm going to read more by him.

The Mummy Market

Every once in a while I like to try an out of print children's book. This was a cute one with a good message. Three children want to get rid of their mean housekeeper. They go to the "mummy market" to find a suitable mom to take her place. But they keep coming up with duds. Eventually they learn from a friend that what they want to do is actually find their real mom. SPOILER: Someone on goodreads said that they didn't like the fact that the enchantment was never explained. I was fine with this. Not everything has to be solved in a book.

Abarat: Absolute Midnight

This is the third book in the fantasy young adult series. There's supposed to be five but I don't know if that is going to happen. It's been more than ten years since this was published. SPOILER: Things happened in the third book that I didn't expect. For example I didn't see Princess Boa being a bad guy and all of a sudden Carrion becomes a friend. So there were surprises. A new character Gazza becomes a love interest and I feel like I didn't really know him. Maybe perhaps in the next book if there is one I will. Overall it was an ok installment of the series.

Pan

This was a great short novel about a loner who falls for a girl but neither is able to communicate the emotions that arise between them. The epilogue shows the character Glahn in another person's eyes and we see he is not the person that the book beforehand showed but a handsome man. The narrator doesn't like Glahn in the least and Glahn is kind of annoying. I can see why. I read a lot of Hamsun when I was a teenager. I haven't read him in years so it was a nice revisit. I need to reread his books.