View From My Window

View From My Window by Barbara Duriau  396 pages

In March 2020 widespread lockdown spread across the world. From Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, citizens in every country were told to stay home, to stay away from people who do not live in your household, to wear masks, to use lots and lots of sanitizer, to not go outside if it could be helped. The novel Coronavirus-19 was spreading around the globe at a breakneck speed.  Hospitals were overrun; people were dying by the thousands on a daily basis.  It was scary stuff!

On March 22, 2020, Barbara Duriau opened a Facebook group called “View From My Window.” Faced with only the view from her studio window in Amsterdam, she wondered if others were having the same feelings of anxiety, isolation and loneliness. With this new group, she invited the world to snap a picture from a window in their home and post it.

On March 23, Barbara posted her view. Almost immediately, “344 people accepted her invitation. The following day there were 2,675. One week later, 50,000!...On April 26…(the) Facebook group had more than two million members.” When I checked today (April 25, 2021), Facebook indicated 2.2 million members. Soon, it was more than Barbara could handle alone, and she built a team to keep the site updated.

Views from windows (or doors) from almost every country in the world---city and countryside—began popping up on Facebook, bringing a few moments of respite from the deadly disease that had the world by its throat.

I’m not sure how the book came to be, but I don’t care. Flipping through the urban, country, seasonal, landscape pictures, and those with views with all sorts of animals---made me feel like I wasn’t locked in my home but able to travel the world, seeing things I will never, ever get to see. Those photos are amazing!

Thanks to my wonderful sister-in-law, Mary, for gifting this book to me as postponed birthday gift. I LOVE IT! 

View From My Window receives 6 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

 

Asylum

Asylum by Madeline Roux, 313 pages

The concept of a novel being supported by pictures is fascinating to me. This is a young adult novel, and it has pictures! But these are not ordinary pictures. Oh, no! These pictures (or rather, photographs) enhance the story by unfathomable magnitudes.


I realize that what I am saying can also be applied to children's books or graphic novels, but the concept utilized in Asylum is much bigger! In children's books and graphic novels, the pictures really do make the story. When pictures are utilized in novels, it enhances the story.


Asylum is about, well, a summer school whose dormitories are in an abandoned mental hospital which housed grotesque "cures" on the patients. It only makes sense that a summer student (or two) would become possessed within the course of their tenure at the school. The novel by itself is creepy enough to give you nightmares, but when the novel is paired with photographs (actual, albeit somewhat edited, old photographs from asylums back in the day), be prepared for a sleepless night.


This is undoubtedly a quick and satisfying read with a cliffhanger that will leave you hungry for the sequels.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs, 352 pages




When I saw the cover for this book in a bookstore, it reeked of the publishing company, Quirk Books, and I knew I had to get it. I've only read one other Quirk Books title (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies), but I am well aware of their line of...well, quirky books. This book seemed right up my alley.




For an impulse purchase, this book was awesome! Even though it is classified as Youth Fiction, I really think that adults will love this book as well. I'm not entirely certain what genre it should be labeled as, though. It has historical fiction, fantasy, mystery, and horror elements (then I guess it should appeal to a wide variety of audiences).




What makes this book so different (and so quirky!) from other books is the inclusion of vintage photographs that accompany the storyline. The photographs really add a certain flavor to the book, and I think it's a flavor everyone should sample! Dare I say there is a new genre emerging? Photo (Foto) Fiction, maybe? For the most part, the photographs splattered throughout the novel are actual, unadultered photographs. There is an index in the back of the book that credits the sources of the photographs, and the ones marked "by the author" are the unashamedly photoshopped ones.




This really is a tremendous read, even if it is read for the photographs only!