Review - White Nights by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Guest post by @bookspluscaffeine

What do you read when you don’t have time to read? 

Short stories!

This pocket sized, one hundred odd page Penguin black classic included two Russian short stories by Fyodor Dostoyevsky: White Nights and Bobok. I’m new to short stories (and still pretty new to classics too if I’m honest), but I thoroughly enjoyed both.

White Nights:

White Nights, originally published in 1848, is a coming together of two lonely souls tinged with sadness. 

When the rest of the Petersburg is sleeping or already set off to their summer dachas, a chance encounter between the wandering, solitary narrator and a crying young woman, Nastenka, sparks an intense four nights in which the characters reveal themselves to each other in dramatic monologues. 

Our narrator is a lonely dreamer, desperate for connection; “…the soul longs and craves for something else! And in vain the dreamer rakes over his old dreams, as though seeking a spark among the embers, to fan them into flame, to warm his chilled heart by the rekindled fire…”

Nastenka lived a sheltered life dominated by her grandmother, until a new lodger arrived, showed her attention and kindness (he gave her books!!!), took her heart, then left. Now, one year later, she awaits his promised return.

The pair find some solace in each other, meeting each night at the same place. He helps her write letters to her love, whilst at the same time he thinks of little else but her. And although he promised not to fall in love with her, he cannot help but do exactly that…

Then Nastenka’s long lost lodger returns.

Many poignantly beautiful, poetic passages. My heart broke a little. So much emotion that it felt like an epic tale, an opera, not a short story. 

A bitter sweet love story that will stay with me.

“My God, a moment of bliss. Why, isn't that enough for a whole lifetime?” 

Bobok

Have you ever had the experience of fiction changing the way you see real life? Well, Bobok did it for me. (And in less than 50 pages!)

I don’t want to go into too much detail and give it away, but, wowee, I loved the concept.

I will never walk through a graveyard the same way. 

Read it (I want to discuss!!)

White Nights was featured in the July 2019 Classic parcel from the NovelTea Book Club. If you’d like to learn more, or sign up to receive one of our monthly book & tea subscription parcels, please feel free to check out the rest of our website.

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Sustainability

I've been thinking a lot about sustainability for the NovelTea Book Club this year.

For this little business, sustainability means two different things:

• business sustainability: financially, and in terms of my time and energy, I want this business to last!

• environmental: minimising my impact on the environment is super important to me, and it's a value I hold for the NovelTea Book Club too.

It's not always straight forward, and sustainability will always be an ongoing project here at NovelTea HQ.

Sometimes, these two areas conflict - improving my environmental sustainability might cost time or money, and I need to work through the balance of it all. But while the NovelTea Book Club is in no way perfect, I wanted to let you know about a few of the things we've implemented or are working to implement, particularly in the area of environmental sustainability.

Top of the list: have you had a look at the Minimalist parcel option? Purchasing a secondhand book is a great way of reducing environmental impact.

Packaging: I've received so much feedback over the past two years about how much subscribers enjoy receiving and opening hand-wrapped parcel items. Packaging is part of the fun of being a NovelTea Book Club subscriber - who doesn’t love receiving a gift in the mail every month?! However, it all adds up.

I'm working on a couple of ways to reduce the impact of the parcel packaging, without reducing the joy of unwrapping.

1. Where possible, I am now wrapping several items together. This does vary month to month, but every little bit counts

2. I've switched to using paper from The Wrapping Paper Company, which is 100% sustainably sourced and 100% recyclable.

3. I use high quality gold ribbon on each book, in the hopes that you may be able to reuse it (giving nicely wrapped gifts can be just as fun as receiving them!)

4. We’ve used ‘eco-friendly’ cardboard envelopes since we launched in 2017, which means no single-use plastic in our outer packaging.

Suppliers: Certainly still an ‘in progress’, but I have enjoyed working with suppliers to find ways to reduce our environmental impact, whether it’s reducing the packaging they send me, or finding a more sustainable option. I am also trying to source items for parcels locally, to avoid double shipping. This is one of the many reasons I am excited to be sourcing tea from The Art of Tea - their warehouse is just down the road from my house!

I have a few other sustainable ideas in the works, but I am definitely open to suggestions. Please do feel free to email me if you have any comments or ideas!

Subscriber Interview - Joanne

This month’s interview is with Joanne from Hobart, who subscribes to the Classic/Tea parcel.

Describe your life in a sentence:

I persistently choose what I ought to do over what I want to do, recognising that reduces my total happiness quotient

What inspires and energises you?

A robust discussion with trusted friends

What 3 books would you take to a desert island?

Three books I haven't read, recommended by my daughters as good to read.

How do you drink your tea?

Depends on the tea - tea with milk or salt for the blends that are better with just hot water

Do you have a favourite NovelTea Book Club parcel so far?

I’ve enjoyed them all. When my sister in law gets her parcel we talk on the phone and she writes me a book review - which is excellent when I haven't had time to read the book.

Review - Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

Guest review by @bookspluscaffeine

Why do I like book subscriptions?

Because it means I pick up things I otherwise would not.

In the June NovelTea Book Club Classic parcel, I recieved Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, and I'm so glad I've now read it.

This sci-fi / satire follows the narrator, John as he attempts to write a book titled "The day the world ended" about the day the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. He gets tangled up with the father of the atomic bomb, Dr Felix Hoenikker and his family, leading him to a remote island with a mad dictator, a bizzare religion founded on "harmless untruths" to placate the people (because the truth is too awful) , and the discovery of "ice-nine" - Dr Felix Hoenikker's next destructive chemical weapon capable of freezing the entire world. The religion, Bokononism has sacred texts in the form of calypsos which are jarring in their whimsy, and yet sometimes profound,

"Tiger got to hunt, bird got to fly;
Man got to sit and wonder 'why, why, why?'
Tiger got to sleep, bird got to land;
Man got to tell himself he understand."

The characters are so grossly overplayed they more resemble caricatures (though not so dissimilar to current prominent world figures). Told with dry wit and irony, it's a glimpse into the end of the world. I read this book and felt chills- some bits were a little too close to the bone!

Cat’s Cradle was featured in the June 2019 Classic parcel from the NovelTea Book Club. If you’d like to learn more, or sign up to receive one of our monthly book & tea subscription parcels, please feel free to check out the rest of our website.

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