Introduction | Rules | 2025
(RU) Ульяна Бисерова - Таракан из Руанды (2024)
A fictionalized story based on the events of the Rwandan Genocide of 1994. It's an engaging enough narrative, and if you've never heard of the genocide before, it's an okay entry point. However, I'm not sure how much research actually went into the book, parts of it read like a Wikipedia article.
(RU) Moni Nilsson - Så mycket kärlek kan inte dö (2018) / Мони Нильссон - Любовь будет всегда, переводчик со шведского - Ксения Коваленко (2021)
A short book about a mother with terminal cancer, told from the perspective of her daughter. It's a children's book, illustrated by a real cancer patient and parent who died shortly before the book was published. Clearly, real life children with sick relatives are a target audience here, and I'm glad books like this get written. It's a bittersweet narrative and also it took me an embarrassing amount of time to realize that the protagonist and her brother are named Leia and Luke because the family are Star Wars fans.
(RU) (AUDIO) Jules Verne - Vingt mille lieues sous les mers (1869-70) / (1962) USSR Radio play, adapted in two parts: Владыка морских глубин/Победители морских стихий
If you've read the original story before (like I have), you'll be dissappointed, because the monumental novel, famously heavy with descriptions of various sea life, got decimated in order to fit just 100 minutes of radio time. Only the first and last chapters, which don't even take place underwater, got any attention from the directors. The middle of the book retained only a few key scenes, with some obvious and terrifying omissions like the entire South Pole episode. But the large and talented voice cast is impressive (Rostislav Plyatt as Nemo!!!), and the classical French music is a nice accompanement.
(RU) (AUDIO) Jules Verne - Le tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours (1872) / Вокруг света в восемьдесят дней (1873)
An unabridged audiobook based on a 19th century Russian translation, which in itself was interesting to listen to as it has words and name transliterations not present in modern Russian. I've read the book before years ago, and the re-listen just made me appreciate it all that more as possibly the funniest of all Jules Verne books. The decidedly modern and sometimes annoying stock music and the fact that the narrator put up different voices for characters, especially for Inspector Fix, only assured me more in its hilarity.
(EN) Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows - The Guernsey Literary and Potato Pie Society (2008)
A thrilling epistolary novel about the inhabitants of Guernsey and their experiences during the Nazi occupation of the island during WWII. I never thought a story told entirely through letters could be so engaging, especially given the large cast of characters you have to familiarize yourself with, but I was glued to the page. One of the characters is gay and ends up finding happiness and meeting an unexpected friend and ally - it was a pleasant addition to an already very joyful story, even though it talks about the hardships and losses of wartime. Again, it's a fictional narrative but based on real experiences of Guernsey people. I've heard there's a movie but I really doubt it's anywhere close to the book in terms of emotional impact - there are simply too many characters and stories to wrap up.
(RU) (AUDIO) Михаил Булгаков - Записки юного врача (1925-26). Полотенце с петухом
(RU) (AUDIO) Михаил Булгаков - Записки юного врача (1925-26). Крещение поворотом
(RU) (AUDIO) Михаил Булгаков - Записки юного врача (1925-26). Стальное горло
(RU) (AUDIO) Михаил Булгаков - Записки юного врача (1925-26). Вьюга
(RU) (AUDIO) Михаил Булгаков - Записки юного врача (1925-26). Тьма египетская
(RU) (AUDIO) Михаил Булгаков - Записки юного врача (1925-26). Пропавший глаз
(RU) (AUDIO) Михаил Булгаков - Записки юного врача (1925-26). Звёздная сыпь
(RU) (AUDIO) Михаил Булгаков - Морфий (1926)
Mikhail Bulgakov's short story cycle A Young Doctor's Notebook, which appeared in my earbuds very appropriately as I was binging Grey's Anatomy. Turns out fiction books about medicine are just as engaging (and occasionally scaringly graphic) as TV shows about medicine! Bulgakov is a true Master of the written word, you can't help but relate to the newly graduated protagonist who's been thrown from the warm, electrically-lit city to serve his duty in a God-forgotten countryside hospital. It's terrifying not only to watch the new doctor perform operations he'd only seen in textbooks before, but also fight the incredibly difficult battle of educating the village masses about disease, hygiene and medical care. I've just learned Morphine is based on the author's real life struggle with the drug, which makes me appreciate it all the more. The only downside I'll mention is that on my CD, different short stories were narrated by different people, which was a bit disorienting since all the stories share a protagonist and once you've gotten used to one narrator, you're met with another. Although the guy I initially disliked as narrator won me over at the end with Morphine.
(RU) (AUDIO) Антон Павлович Чехов - Палата №6 (1896) / Anton Chekhov - Ward №6
(RU) (AUDIO) Антон Павлович Чехов - Бабье царство (1894) / Anton Chekhov - The Women's Kingdom
Chekhov doesn't as much as write as he paints, the characters, locations and scenes engaging by themselves but also being part of a larger picture, a tragic picture in the Greek sense of the word. The events of the stories transpire because the characters can not change who they are, and even if they have kindness and charity in their hearts they will not change the world for the better.
(RU) (AUDIO) Антон Павлович Чехов - Рассказ неизвестного человека (1893) / Anton Chekhov - The Story of an Unknown Man
(RU) Terry Pratchett - Mort (1987) / Терри Пратчетт - Мор, ученик Смерти
I've tried multiple times to delve into Discworld but it never quite stuck. I think this time's the charm, though - the English humour definitely hits better once you're older and understand, for example, why taxes are so horrifying. Fantastic story - I'm always a sucker for time and reality-bending shenanigans. Mort is a great protagonist. Death is hilarious, as expected from Sir Terry. The only criticisms from me are 1) there's a dissappointingly racist segment about Discworld's "Japanchina" region, and 2) I don't know if I like how the romance subplots got resolved at the end? Honestly they were probably not very necessary, as romance subplots often are.