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Just Checking In

It looks like the site is working fine. If there are any problems, please explain in a reply. Deborah

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Tony's Book World Is Staying Online

We are all set to stay public right here for another year. Feel free to scroll the archives. Deborah

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Obituary

My husband had quite a community of friends here. I’m sure some of you may be interested in reading Tony’s obituary. The long version is posted here: https://neptunesociety.com/obituaries/golden-valley-mn/anthony-spors-12464052 Take care.

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Thank you to everyone for your kind and encouraging thoughts for the family.

I was going to respond to each message, but I quickly realized there were too many! Rest assured I have read them all and will be checking back to the site frequently to make sure future messages are seen and all is in order. It is heartwarming to see all the love posted here. Deborah

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Awful News

I am Deborah, Tony’s wife, and I was the one who wrote the previous post here. I want to let you all know that Tony passed away at 1:00 PM on July 21st. He had a series of cardiac events, and then other problems arose. It was too much. He was unconscious for the last fifteen days. I want you all to know that Tony truly valued his readers here. He enjoyed writing this blog as much as he ever…

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Notice

Unfortunately, Tony’s Book World is on hiatus for several months. Please check back.

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'The Cafe With No Name' by Robert Seethaler - An Unpretentious Neighborhood Restaurant/Bar in Vienna

  ‘The Cafe With No Name’ by Robert Seethaler  (2023) – 191 pages              Translated from the German by Katy Derbyshire   Sometimes the simplest plot for a novel is the best. In ‘The Cafe With No Name’, Robert Simon opens a cafe in Vienna. It serves alcohol; it’s what we would call a bar and grill. Simon operates the cafe for about ten years. The novel consists of vignettes about the owner,…

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'Theory and Practice' by Michelle de Kretser - Who is Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

  ‘Theory and Practice’ by Michelle de Kretser    (2025) – 175 pages   Although on the cover it says that ‘Theory and Practice’ is a novel, I kept getting the feeling that much of what was written came from the author’s own life. This novel often has the feel of verisimilitude like a memoir. Perhaps that is due to the woman narrator of the novel telling her story as a memory from her time in…

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'Solo Faces' by James Salter – Climbing the Mont Blanc Complex in the French Alps

  ‘Solo Faces’ by James Salter     (1979) – 220 pages   The minimalism trend in fiction has come and gone but I still admire it. Why write twenty words when you can write the same thing in ten words? Or, for that matter, why write 350 pages when you could have written it all in 220 pages? For a subject as austere, rigorous, and cold as French Alps mountain climbing this minimalist approach which…

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'Heart, Be At Peace' by Donal Ryan - Twenty-One Separate Voices from an Irish Neighborhood, Again

  ‘Heart, Be At Peace’ by Donal Ryan    (2024) – 194 pages   ‘Heart, Be At Peace’, like its 2012 predecessor ‘The Spinning Heart’, has twenty-one separate voices, each with their own chapter, telling the story. In ‘The Spinning Heart’, Ireland, including this neighborhood centering around Bobby and Triona Mahon, faced a severe economic downturn. In ‘Heart Be At Peace’, Ireland has recovered. It…

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'Mutual Interest' by Olivia Wolfgang-Smith - An Unusual Marriage and a Successful Business

  ‘Mutual Interest’ by Olivia Wolfgang-Smith    (2025) – 317 pages   I read ‘Mutual Interest’ with a smile on my face the entire time. Each sentence is witty and wonderful, delicious. I admire each one of Olivia Wolfgang-Smith’s sentences; I know there is going to be something in each one to engage my mind. In this novel, it is 1900 in New York City, and after a couple of short affairs with other…

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Re-Reading Jane – 'Persuasion' by Jane Austen

  ‘Persuasion’ by Jane Austen    (1818) – 236 pages   Jane Austen’s ‘Persuasion’, like ‘Pride and Prejudice’ and ‘Sense and Sensibility’, is all about finding a suitable husband for the daughter and a suitable wife for the son. What could be more important than that? The focus of ‘Persuasion’ is on Anne Elliot, the middle daughter of Sir Walter Elliot who is described as “a conceited silly…

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'The Director' by Daniel Kehlmann - Making Movies in Nazi Germany

  ‘The Director’ by Daniel Kehlmann     (2023) – 331 pages               Translated from the German by Ross Benjamin   ‘The Director’ is a novel about making movies under the worst possible circumstances, in Nazi Germany during World War II. It centers on G. W. Pabst who had already achieved world fame for the movies he directed in the 1920s and early 1930s. He was the director who discovered…

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'The Singularity' by Dino Buzzati - An Artificial Intelligence Novella from 1960

  ‘The Singularity’ by Dino Buzzati     (1960) – 127 pages           Translated from the Italian by Anne Milano Appel   No, ‘The Singularity’ was not written via artificial intelligence (AI). Instead it is about a machine produced by a group of scientists and mathematicians which has the intelligence and comprehension of a human. “The machine will read our thoughts, create masterpieces, reveal…

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'A Maid's Secret' by Nita Prose - Molly the Maid is Back

  ‘A Maid’s Secret’ by Nita Prose       (2025) – 320 pages   ‘A Maid’s Secret’ is a fun, if not deep, read. The lively plot, especially that involving the Fabergé egg, is quite contrived and far-fetched, but that didn’t matter. I suppose that the plot being incredibly unlikely is part of the fun. It’s full of life and emotion and true to its heartfelt feelings. When it comes to fiction. rare is…

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Carys Davies

  Carys Davies has just won the Ondaatje Prize for her novel ‘Clear’ for writing that “best evokes the spirit of a place”. I am a huge fan of Carys Davies’ fiction. Here are three links to my reviews of her work. ‘Clear’ – A novel of Scotland   ‘The Mission House’ – Traveling to India   ‘West’ – Hunting for dinosaur bones out west in the United States   Happy Reading!          

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'Gliff' by Ali Smith - Briar and Rose, Two Innocents in the Harsh Modern World

  ‘Gliff’ by Ali Smith     (2025) – 274 pages   In ‘Gliff” the two young girls Briar and Rose are left on their own. Briar, the older sister, is around 13 while Rose is around 11. Briar tells the story. Here is an example of how the sisters Briar and Rose talk to each other: Then she said, Bri. What actually is trust? Eh, I said. It’s you know. I don’t, she said. You trust me, yeah? First tell me…

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