gegenglueck

41. Ulla Hahn, Aufbruch (Roman - Hätte ich anfangs beinahe nicht weitergelesen, weil mich die deutschlehrerhafte Sprache und Romanzigheit genervt hat, aber die Geschichte stellt sich dann alles andere als Romanze heraus. Es ist dann eher die Geschichte eines Mädchens, "Kind von einem Proleten", das im katholischen Rheinland seinen Weg an die Universität Köln macht und dabei ein gutes Zeitporträt abliefert.)
40. Mo Yan, Big Breast and Wide Hips (I didn't know this guy won the Nobelprize for literature, but after reading the book I still don't know why, especially because the auther calls this his most important book. It is an hopeless story of a dimwit, the only son in a family with eight sisters, who never did anything in his life by himself. It's probably an ironic portrait of politics, family relationsships and gender in rural China from the war with Japan until the end of the last century, but the boneless main character is pretty annoying. And it feels like the author shares these "no own point of view" attitude.)
39. Michel Houllebecq, Ausweitung der Kampfzone (Weil der Autor hier gerade wieder in der Diskussion auftauchte, habe ich das Buch, wie schon länger geplant, noch mal gelesen. Ich hätte gedacht, das ist schon älter, aber an meinem Eindruck eines depressiven Realitiätsabgleiches mit gestörtem Verhältnis zum anderen Geschlecht hat sich nichts geändert.)
38. Don Winslow, Tage der Toten (Ein brutaler Roman, der vermutlich in weiten Teilen gar nicht ausgedacht ist, über mittelamerikanische Drogenbarone, Mafia, Killer, DEA, CIA, War on Drugs, Guerilla, Todesschwadrone, ...)
37. Gerard Dononvan, Winter in Maine (Ein einsamer Mann in seiner Hütte voller Bücher in Norden Maines findet seinen Hund erschossen vor der Tür und reflektiert dann sein Leben mit dem Gewehr seines Großvaters.)

Eine Radtour lang bin ich im Wesentlichen mit Pratchett/Baxter durch die Long Earth gesteppt:

33.-36. Stephen Baxter / Terry Pratchett, Long Earth/War/Mars/Utopia (The collaboration of the two authors was really promising. They came up with something that's a bit lacking a story, but it's really interesting. The main idea is that noting is so unlikely that it's not gonna happen if there're just enough attempts. And when there are Millions of earthes nearly every coincidence in evolution will happen somewhere ...)
31./32. Jennifer Benkau, Dark Canopy/Dark Destiny (Die Frau schreibt sonst vor allem Schrott, aber dieser dystopische Roman ist durchaus lesbar. Leider zieht sich der zweite Band dann doch ziemlich. Zum einen weiß man durch das Intro, wie es ausgeht, zum anderen fühlt es sich an, als passiere letztlich nicht viel.)
30. Lukas Bärfuss, Koala (Boah, ist das langweilig. Ich weiß schon, warum ich keine deutsche Befindlichkeitsliteratur lese. Nach einem Drittel abgebrochen.)

29. Sam Roskoe, Beneath a Bloodshot Moon (Average crime novel with private eye and his dog.)
28. Maggie Stiefvater, The Raven King (The final volume of the Raven Cycle brings all things to an end. Kind of.)
27. Herman Melville, Bartleby, the Scrivener (I've wanted to read this for a long time and when a friend told me he read it and found it great, I finally grabbed this one and read it. ... Bartleby would probably say: I prefer not to write about it.)
26. Olivia E. Butler, Kindred (Although it's a time travel story, it's more about how slavery works on people. A black woman from 1976 suddenly found herself in Maryland on a slave farm, where one of her ancestors will be born.The struggles between here modern ego and the historic times, the mindfuck that violent setups do to people, pure survival instincts versus rational, "modern" thinking - all this mixed up in the main character. Too make things even more complicated she's married to a white man in present time. And her husband also stranded in the past once, finding himself in a role that he never asked for ... I definitely want to read more from Butler.)
25. Stephen Baxter, Flood (The water level on earth is rising. And rising. And rising. After three decades all land is gone. From the first denials of the problem up to the end when some old people watch the last hill top finally drown, while there raft born grand-children don't see what the fuzz is about, Baxter follows some main characters that are bound together by sharing a past as long-time hostages of a radical group. This doesn't make too much sense and the characters are not very interesting, but the whole story is worth reading it.)

Keine besonderen Vorkommnisse.

24. Anne George, Mörderische Dividende (Eher langweiliger Krimi, wobei die ironische Betrachtung älterer US-Amerikanerinnen manchmal ganz lustig sind.
23. Julie Garwood, Sizzle (I think this sentence from the book description explains very well, why you don't need to read it: "No one mixes life-and-death suspense with feverish desire better than Julie Garwood")
22. Jeff Garrity, Mars Girl (A cynic view on media and politics in the not to far future that entertained me, but won't stick.)
21. Lisa Gardner, Live to tell (Boring crime story with a tough female detective, but some psycho kid stuff was quite scary.)

Ganz im Zeichen des Drachen (aber nicht mehr ganz im März):

13.-20. Naomi Novik, Temeraire 1-8 (A story taking place in the time of the napoleon wars. But there's a big difference to the historic base: There are dragons. Although the dragons are (mostly) part of their national warforces, the smarter or even very intelligient ones also develop own interests for equal rights and pay ... they also dislike slavery and stupid human behaviour. It was fun to read. Unfortunately the last book isn' t released yet.)