Others: Positive The sequel to Mr. Norris Changes Trains, this is another semi-autobiographical account of Isherwood’s experiences in pre-war Berlin. The author leads the reader on a thoroughly entertaining tour through the seedier side of a particularly decadent time in that city’s history.
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Sabahattin Ali
2016 · 176 pages · 3 reviews
Others: Overwhelmingly positiveA shy young man leaves his home in rural Turkey to learn a trade and discover life in 1920s Berlin. There, amidst the city’s bustling streets, elegant museums, passionate politics, and infamous cabarets, a chance meeting with a beautiful half-Jewish artist transforms him forever. Caught between his desire for freedom from tradition and his yearning to belong, he struggles to hold on to the new life he has found with the woman he loves. Emotionally powerful, intensely atmospheric, and touchingly profound, Madonna in a Fur Coat is an unforgettable novel about new beginnings, the relentless pull of family ties, and the unfathomable nature of the human soul. First published in 1943, this novel, with its quiet yet insistent defiance of social norms, has been topping best-seller lists in Turkey since 2013.
What made the match, strongest first
Robert Louis Stevenson
1875 · 135 pages · 4 reviews
Others: Leaning positiveMr. Gabriel Utterson is a serious, austere lawyer living a humdrum life in Victorian London. Yet there is a strange clause in his friend, Dr. Henry Jekyll's will: should he disappear for more than 3 months, everything will be inherited by Hyde. But after Edward Hyde's darker nature is revealed one dark winters night, Mr. Utterson begins to investigate the connection between the two men, and finds the dark secret binding them closer then he could have ever thought imaginable. Adapted countless times in film, some times in video game form, and referenced countless times in popular culture, here is the story that started it all: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde!
What made the match, strongest first
Ottessa Moshfegh
2018 · 304 pages · 10 reviews
Others: Overwhelmingly positiveIt's early 2000 on New York City's Upper East Side, and the alienation of Moshfegh's unnamed young protagonist from others is nearly complete when she initiates her yearlong siesta, during which time she experiences limited personal interactions. Her parents have died; her relationships with her bulimic best friend Reva, an ex-boyfriend, and her drug-pushing psychiatrist are unwholesome. As her pill-popping intensifies, so does her isolation and determination to leave behind the world's travails. She is also beset by dangerous blackouts induced by a powerful medication.
What made the match, strongest first
Ben Philippe
2019 · 378 pages · 1 review
Others: PositiveWhen Norris, a Black French Canadian, starts his junior year at an Austin, Texas, high school, he views his fellow students as cliche s from "a bad 90s teen movie." Norris Kaplan is clever, cynical, and quite possibly too smart for his own good. A Black French Canadian whose family just moved to Austin, Texas, Norris finds himself cataloging everyone he meets: the Cheerleaders, the Jocks, the Loners, and even the Manic Pixie Dream Girl. He's amusing himself until it's time to go back to Canada. But soon those labels soon become actual people: loner Liam, who makes it his mission to befriend Norris; Madison the beta cheerleader, who is so nice that it has to be a trap. And Aarti the Manic Pixie Dream Girl might be a real love interest in the making. When Norris screws everything up royally on prom night, will he be able to stop hiding behind his snarky opinions, and start living his life? -- adapted from jacket
George Orwell
1945 · 118 pages · 4 reviews
Others: Mostly positiveAnimal Farm is a brilliant political satire and a powerful and affecting story of revolutions and idealism, power and corruption. 'All animals are equal. But some animals are more equal than others.' Mr Jones of Manor Farm is so lazy and drunken that one day he forgets to feed his livestock. The ensuing rebellion under the leadership of the pigs Napoleon and Snowball leads to the animals taking over the farm. Vowing to eliminate the terrible inequities of the farmyard, the renamed Animal Farm is organised to benefit all who walk on four legs. But as time passes, the ideals of the rebellion are corrupted, then forgotten. And something new and unexpected emerges..
What made the match, strongest first
Tezer Özlü
2023 · 128 pages · 1 review
Others: PositiveThe narrator of Cold Nights of Childhood grows up in a rapidly changing Turkey, where the atmosphere is nationalist, patriarchal, technocratic. As a misfit in search of freedom, love and happiness, she escapes to Berlin, is overcome by depression on her return, and trapped in a psychiatry clinic for five years. After electroshock therapy and inhumane treatment, she is released into the care of friends and family, making tentative steps in a halting journey towards recovery. In her unique, unstructured style, Tezer Özlü explores the extremity of her inner life and the painful pleasures of memory. Translated into English for the first time by Maureen Freely, this novel is a classic akin to The Bell Jar and Good Morning, Midnight.
What made the match, strongest first
Loved itgoodbye to Berlin by Christopher and the Berlin stories brought us the character Sally Bowles they brought us the inspiration for the musical Cabaret and they're good fun it's about scandalous behavior and sexual Liberation in Berlin and there's a great cast of like weird and wacky characters.
