Sending this book I've wanted to read for a while on to the winner of round four of the Music Sweeps. Congratulations and happy reading!

Thank you very much for this book, the cute panda card and the booklabels.
This seems interesting!

Blurb:
" Having survived World War I, Fidelis Waldvogel returns to his quiet German village and marries the pregnant widow of his best friend, killed in action. With a suitcase full of sausages and a master butcher's precious knife set, Fidelis sets out for America. In Argus, North Dakota, he builds a business, a home for his family—which includes Eva and four sons—and a singing club consisting of the best voices in town. When the Old World meets the New—in the person of Delphine Watzka—the great adventure of Fidelis's life begins. Delphine meets Eva and is enchanted. She meets Fidelis, and the ground trembles. These momentous encounters will determine the course of Delphine's life, and the trajectory of this brilliant novel. "

I have very mixed feelings about this book.

I liked very much some of the story lines, but the author often left me frustrated too. I started to warm up on a thread or a character and suddently she jumbed several years on the narration or "abandoned" a character or plot line to never hear from him/her again or to appear again as a kind of side note to the story or there was a continuation of a previous thread happening many chapters later in an abrupt way.
The characters weren't very convincing, rather a bunch of eccentrics. but I found my self invested on many of them. I wanted to hear more about them and to have a more cohesive, tight narration.

Furthermore, while I appreciate that this is an historical novel set in a place and era when midsets of people were completely different, I didn't find some decisions or actions of the characters very plausible. And don't get me started on some plot twists that seemed very forced. Some people seemed to bond or fall in love out of the blue, but this is a pet peeve of mine in most books to be honest.

While the author sparked some intrigue and mystery and she explained everything by the end, I felt that this element of the novel didn't deliver. The developements were coming in a weak,mild undertone and didn't had much impact to the reader.

All in all, The Master Butchers Singing Club was a very decent read, I liked it, but I didn't love it. It had much potential but it felt a bit disjointed too.

Thank you once again djf1968 for sharing!

The book got itchy feet again and came with me on Naxos Island, Cyclades.

Sometime on the 6th century BC the Naxians gain the right to take profecies of the Oracle of Delphi before other seekers of such omens. Thus they donated a huge Sphinx statue to the Oracle that was originally standing on a tall column in front of the temple of Apollo. The Sphinx still survives and can be seen in the Delphi archeological museum.

Now, the contemporary Naxos authorities have placed a smaller version of the Sphinx statue in front of the Naxos Town Hall. So I though this might be an appropriate place to release this book.

I hope we will soon hear from it again!

Good Luck book and Don't forget to write your news from time to time!