Top Ten Books of 2012 - part 1

Here we go - the first half of my top ten of books read in 2012: 

10. "Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady" by Florence King
One awesome women tells about her life as a Southern lady at a time when being a lady was something that required quite a bit of class and came with a whole lot of expectations. Emotional and hilarious at the same time. 

9. "How to Be a Woman" by Caitling Moran
Hilarious musings about what it means to be a women in our society today. Is it mandatory to have waxes? Who should we look up to as role models? Are we defined by the boys we kiss? Tackling some of the most difficult topics with a whole lot of humour and a completely lack of respect for comme il faut. 

8.  "Rules of Civility" by Amor Towles
New York in the 1930s. Glamourous girls, wealthy gentlemen, dubious playboys and lots of martinis. The perfect escapism read and a really good story to boot. 

7. "The Stranger's Child" by Alan Hollinghurst
Published in 2011 and already a modern classic, it tells the story of Britain in the last century through a series of linked stories. It all starts out with a love triangle and a poem. 

6. "The Privileges" by Jonathan Dee
The recession read. A story about a middle-class family who makes it big (really big, at least financially) through hard work and cunning investments that more than borders on financial crime. 

The Boring Lives of Others

Some of you might remember "Privileges" by Jonathan Dee which I reviewed a while ago and today, time has come to review his novel "Palladio". I had looked so much forward to reading this book because "Privileges" was so amazing and I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed Dee's writing. His writing is incredibly skilled and he can do things with words that few authors manage. He is an artist and his ability to tell a story is great. 

The story that Dee tells in "Palladio" is a story of star-crossed fates, maybe even star-crossed lovers. Molly grows up in suburbia in a dysfunctional home where love is sadly lacking and in depression, frustration and an attempt to find love, she does something that leads her to be ostracized not just from the town but from her family as well. She feels to Berkeley, where she meets John, a young, impressionable man who falls head over heels in love with her. When Molly one day disappears without any clue to why or where she is, she leaves behind a wound in John's soul that never quite heals. 
Years later, John is successful in the fickle world of advertising when the enfant terrible, the prodigy of the advertising world, Mal Osbourne, tempts him to leave New York in pursuit of art and adventure. John takes the leap to Virginia and becomes an important piece of the puzzle that is Osbourne's empire. But then one day, out of the blue, his and Molly's paths cross again. 

Despite all of his talent, his beautiful artistry, "Palladio" did not work for me. For a very specific reason.  The two main characters, Molly and John, are annoying, frustrating and I found them impossible to empathize with. John is a gutless whiner who takes no responsibility for his life and just lets it happen to him without taken active part. He is an anti-hero but not a lovable one. Molly is to be pitied. If John is not a pilot in his own airplane of life, she is not even an air hostess, hardly even a passenger. Throughout most of the book she is depressed and she lets the depression guide her life, lets it take control and steer her away from anything that might call on her passion, her will to live not just survive. It is impossible to feel any love, any  empathy, any interest in these two. 

The story is fantastic, it's a really good story, but the characters leave me cold. I can't help wishing that Dee had told the story from the angle of Mal Osbourne instead. This maverick of a man, a dreamer with little to no interest in his fellow men, is so much more interesting even if he is not more likeable. The story would still have been difficult to empathise with but at least it would have had the advantage of a dramatic protagonist. 

Read it if: You think your life sucks or you think you're a boring person -  Molly and John will put this into perspective!

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Would Pick a Theme Song To!

Okay let me be honest. This post was written weeks ago because I stumbled over this fabulous theme on The Broke and The Bookish and couldn't wait to start thinking about it and putting together a great list. So what are the top ten books that you would pick a theme song to? And what song?
Here are mine:


10) "Fight Club" by Chuck Palahniuk / "The Pretender" by Foo Fighters 
A book with a punch, my chosen theme song would be "The Pretender" by Foo Fighters. If any of you do Les Mills BodyCombat at your local gym, then you will know exactly what I mean. This is one hard-hitting track :-) 

9) "The Privileges" by Jonathan Dee / "Inside and Out" by Feist
For some reason I can just imagine the two main characters dancing to "Inside and Out" at their wedding (in the first chapter of the book so no spoiler), even though it doesn't really fit in with the timeline. But it captures that intense love and happiness that they both feel. 


8) "The Heart-Shaped Box" by Joe Hill / "Cut Here" by The Cure
So maybe Jude Coyne would feel better about something a little bit more hardcore, a little tougher. But when it comes to punkish rock with a strong aftertaste of melancholy and loss mixed with a bit of black eyeliner, there is no one quite like The Cure. They are the masters of this time up music. So for Jude's and Georgia's haunted roadtrip, this is the perfect soundtrack. 


Let me just share a little part of the lyrics with you (from lyricsbox.com):
"So we meet again!" and I offer my hand
All dry and English slow
And you look at me and I understand
Yeah it's a look I used to know
"Three long years and your favourite man
Is that any way to say hello?"
And you hold me
Like you'll never let me go

7) "Love Falls" by Esther Freud / "White Nights" by Ohland
This YA fiction takes place during a sunny summer in Tuscany and the dreamy tunes of Ohland perfectly sums up the never-ending feeling of a warm summer night. You can almost see the fireflies in the night darkness and smell the sun on the warm grass and the jasmine flowers. 

6) "Forbidden" by Tabitha Suzuma / "Undisclosed Desires" by Muse
The melancholy tune goes perfectly with "Forbidden". I am sure that Maya would love this song, I know that I do.


5) "The City & The City" by China Miéville / "Rullett" by Kaizers Orchestra
Right this song is actually in Norwegian but if you don't speak Norwegian, I think it could probably go for Besz with a bit of imagination. The song has just the right note of Balkan rock and gloomy beauty to set off this urban fantasy.

4) "New Moon" by Stephenie Meyer / "The Balcony" by The Rumour Said Fire

For me this track reminded me so much of "New Moon" that I was actually surprised that it was not in the official soundtrack. It is the perfect soundtrack for the big forest on the Olympic Peninsula. If you liked the original "New Moon" soundtrack (even if you didn't like the book), then please please give this track a try. It is one of the most amazing indie-country-rock tunes. 

3) "I Capture the Castle" by Dodie Smith / "Just One of Those Things" performed by Frank Sinatra
The perfect song for vintage teenage story about being in love for the first time and about watching others being in love. "Just One of Those Things" is such a beautiful song - and for a more modern but still beautiful version try the one performed by Bryan Ferry. 


A little taster of the lyrics (straight from my memory):
It was just one of those things
Just one of those crazy flings
One of those bells that now and then rings
Just one of those things

2) "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins / "Just So" by Agnes Obel
This song has a silence before the storm creeping feeling that fits perfectly with "The Hunger Games". For me it belongs in the parts of the books where Katniss is reflecting on her choices, on having to give up her own life to save her sister.


A little taster of the lyrics (thanks to sweetslyrics.com)
Today is gonna be the day, you hear somebody say,
We need you wide awake
You hear the moments kick and play.
The order of the day
is hollering your way
....
Drink a toast to the sun
To the things that never come,
To the break of the day
That is all that I say


1) "Tender is the Night" by F. Scott Fitzgerald / "Let's Misbehave" performed by Irving Aaronson
A beautiful book and somehow I think it goes quite well with the Cole Porter song "Let's Misbehave". It is a song that never fails to make me think of 1930's Europe, champagne and rivieras. For a newer version try the one from the soundtrack of the movie "Easy Virtue. 


So which songs have made your list? Have you featured any of the same tracks or books? 

A Little Shopping...

Yesterday I gave myself a little present. Three little presents actually:

"Untold Story" by Monica Ali

From amazon.com: "When Princess Diana died in Paris’s Alma tunnel, she was thirty-seven years old. Had she lived, she would turn fifty on July 1, 2011. Who would the beloved icon be if she were alive today? What would she be doing? And where? One of the most versatile and bold writers of our time, Monica Ali has imagined a different fate for Diana in her spectacular new novel, Untold Story."

"Palladio" by Jonathan Dee

From amazon.com: "In her small upstate New York town, Molly Howe is admired for her beauty, poise, and character, until one day a secret is exposed and she is cruelly ostracized. She escapes to Berkeley, where she finds solace in a young art student named John Wheelwright. They embark on an intense, all-consuming affair, until the day Molly disappears–again. A decade later, John is lured by the eccentric advertising visionary Mal Osbourne into a risky venture that threatens to eviscerate every concept, slogan, and gimmick exported by Madison Avenue. And much to John’s amazement, one of the many swept into Osbourne’s creative vortex is the woman who left him devastated so many years before."

"Kraken" by China Miéville

From amazon.com: "Deep in the research wing of the Natural History Museum is a prize specimen, something that comes along much less often than once in a lifetime: a perfect, and perfectly preserved, giant squid. But what does it mean when the creature suddenly and impossibly disappears? For curator Billy Harrow it's the start of a headlong pitch into a London of warring cults, surreal magic, apostates and assassins. It might just be that the creature he's been preserving is more than a biological rarity: there are those who are sure it's a god. A god that someone is hoping will end the world."

Now all I have to do is wait for them to land in my parents' mailbox. Our own is exceptionally unreliable - or rather the mail people are, they don't bother to actually put stuff in the mailbox but just leave it lying around the building which at the moment is full of builders... So have lost a few things on that account.  

So to avoid that this stuff will be sent to mum and dad where it will be waiting for me to pick it up! Can't wait to read these :-) 

Review: "The Privileges" by Jonathan Dee

We've all been there I guess - fallen head over heels in lust with a book title, the cover art or a book image. I do it all the time, actually I think I am pretty bad when it comes to this. I will obsess about some little detail to the extent where I expect such impossible things from a book that it can't fail to fail.

Conscious of this, I was worried that I had put "The Privileges" by Jonathan Dee on a pedestal, setting it up for a fall and so when I turned the last page, I was quite surprised that it had lived up to my (great) expectations! 

The title itself is what did it for me in the beginning. It sounds like a high-end, intellectual version of the Manhattan from "Gossip Girl" and the cover is stunning in both its detail and simplicity. The golden and white colors drew me in. 

The story starts on a hot day in Pittsburgh where Adam and Cynthia are taking the plunge and getting married as the first couple in their circle of friends. They are only 22 years old and a golden couple with all of their lives and all life's possibilities ahead of them. The wedding itself takes up the first chapter and it is worth reading the book just for this one chapter. They are in love in a soulmate-meant-to-be way and though they both have messy families, they are so sure of each other and of their love. Fast-forward a few years and they are now living in New York. Cynthia is a stay-at-home mum almost succumbing to the mind-numbingness of being in her mid-twenties and stuck at home with two kids, April and Jonas. Adam is working his way up in finance - he is not the brightest or cleverest of men but his love for Cynthia and for their family fuels his fire to become a success. 

Cynthia is so closes to drowning in the domesticity that has taken over her life while her girlfriends are having careers and stilettos and martinis that it seems to waken some sleeping dragon in Adam who cooks up a scheme to give her the life style of her dreams. 

As you read one, their story unfolds. With each page they become richer and richer, going from a humble apartment to a life of privates schools, private clubs, even private jets. But even with this lifestyle comes pitfalls and worries that all the money in the world is no solution for. In sickness and in health, Adam and Cynthia and their love are the center in this tale of morals, values and ethics. The family is the foundation upon which they build their lives. 

I got so caught up in this story, especially in April and Jonas. I would have loved for Dee to follow them further, explore how and when these children become adults and what shapes their lives. Following the story of Cynthia and Adam as they obtain what most people can only dream of, yet live for the love that we are all searching for, was a real treat. A clever, beautiful gem of a book. 

Read it if: You like your books clever and well-written. If you like beautiful sentences. If you are not the type to become envious of immense wealth and true love. 

Top Ten Tuesday: Books For the Book Club!

Today we are looking at the Top Ten Books That I Think Would Make Great Book Club Picks. If you are new to the Top Ten Tuesday concept head over to The Broke and The Bookish and explore.

10) "The Bröntes Went to Woolworths" by Rachel Ferguson
A short, sweet book that reminded me a lot of "Anne of Green Gables". The main question of this book is whether or not you can have too much imagination and whether dreaming can be dangerous.
Perfect for a January night discussion over a cup of tea.

9) "The Crimson Petal and the White" by Michel Faber
A different story to the Victorian novels you know. This one features a prostitute called Sugar who changes her life for several reasons, some of which are obvious and some that do no reveal themselves until the very last moment. A modern classic with lots to talk about.

8) "Lucky" by Alice Sebold
This one will probably be a difficult one to discuss so it should probably only be used in book clubs where you know each other well and where discussing difficult topics is not an issue. "Lucky" deals with rape that Sebold suffers as a teenager and with her fight to get her life back. For a non-fiction book club, this would be a great pick but it is not for the faint-hearted.

7) "Snobs" by Julian Fellowes 
This one is great for a book club because the main character Edith is someone who would probably divide people. Either you will think her a golddigging scheming woman with no morals or you will think her a product of her upbringing. It should be good for a heated discussion about values and morals.

6) "I Am Charlotte Simmons" by Tom Wolfe
This book deals with some of the really difficult parts of being a teenager: being an outsider, being new, not fitting in, being a geek, being a virgin, being poorer than the others. It is the story of village wonder Charlotte who wins a scholarship to an elite university where she is no longer a prodigy but a nobody.

5) "Valley of the Dolls" by Jacqueline Susann
This is another modern classic. Written in 1966 it is the predecessor of "Sex and the City", a book about young women struggling with love, careers and finding the right dresses in New York. A great book for a girls' book club.

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3) "The Privileges" by Jonathan Dee
Each chapter is like a little short story and there is lots to discuss. In these "Occupy" times, this book raises some interesting questions about wealth, capitalism and love.

2) "Purge" by Sofi Oksanen
If you don't know anything about the recent history of Estonia (which I don't), this book will give you something to think about. It raises significant questions about loyalty, love and the human nature and it is a must-read if you have any interest in eastern European countries or human trafficking.

1) "We Need to Talk About Kevin" by Lionel Shriver
This one is perfect for book club. The topic is nature versus nurture and Eva, the main character, will give alienate some and find the pity of others. It is a long book and could be difficult for some but it is also a must-read (if you ask me) and I would have loved to have shared the reading experience with others. Plus, you can follow up by watching the movie together.