An Autumn Tune from Regina

I love crisp autumn days where the sky is clear blue and the sun makes the colours stand out in all there glory. The grass seems greener on those days, the last flowers of the year are almost defiantly pretty in the sharp light. This autumn I will be listening to Regina Spektor's album "What We Saw From the Cheap Seats" and if you're not a Spektor fan yet, please give this amazing song a try. It sounds like an autumn day in the city, it is amazing!

Review: "Juliet, Naked" by Nick Hornby

Do you know those books that have been on your radar forever but that you never get around to actually reading? "Juliet, Naked" by Nick Hornby was one of those books that I have been aware of and kind of wanted to read for years. Then the other day at the second-hand book shop, they had a buy-1-get-1-free offer and I picked it up as the free option. I had anticipated that it would be on the shelf unread for ages but then suddenly I felt that NEED to read it now.

"Juliet, Naked" is a typical Hornby novel in that it deals with the topic of obsession. Anni is an English graduate working as a museum curator in Gooleness, an English seaside town. She lives with her partner of fifteen years, college teacher Duncan and she is the second-most important person in his life. The most important is Tucker Crowe. A Leonard Cohen/Bruce Springsteen kind of singer who had a massive hit with the record "Juliet" and who vanished mysteriously twenty years ago. Duncan is one of a small group of fans (very small, twenty or so people) who obsess about Crowe and his music. Meeting in online forums, they write essays, discuss and interpret lyrics and post pictures from visits to his home town and other "important Crowe locations". Living with a dedicated Crowologist is taking its toll on Anni who is worried that she has spent the last fifteen years in a boring town in a boring job with a boring man.
The something happens that shakes up the world of Duncan - a new Crowe album is released, "Juliet, Naked" and Duncan is the first to get his hands on it. Excited and smug, he reviews it. But so - in a fit of sheer annoyance with Duncan - does Anni. And someone claiming to be THE Tucker Crowe responds to her reivew.

As with all of the other Hornby novels I have read, obsession is fuel that makes the wheels turn in Ducan's life and for years, Anni just goes along with it. Then suddenly she realised that she is too old to ever have the child she so dearly wishes and her insistence that there must be more to life drives the plot. I understand her so well, I find it hard to imagine anything much worse than spending a winter in Gooleness with a man like Duncan. He is so self-absorbed in his adoration of all things Crowe that I found it impossible not to dislike him while at the same time enjoying reading about him being a jerk.
Anni is likeable on the other hands and I was rooting for her.

The angst and the mid-life "is that all there is?" crisis was mildly worrying, I never want that to be me! But at the same time it functioned very well as a reminder to live life every day and to make choices that make every day a better day.
In typical Hornby style, the story has amazingly funny bits. It features the worst most judgmental therapist I have ever come across in a novel and Duncan is wonderfully incapable of any self-reflection.  Anni is slightly neurotic and her worries about mid-life-crisis-sex are hilarious as are the two Gooleness legends Gav and Barnesy. Tucker Crowe is a good character though not as well-developed as Anni and Duncan - though he reminded me a bit of Judas Coyne from "The Heart-Shaped Box" by Joe Hill.
All in all a good, slightly neurotic and fun read that I will re-read.

Read it if: You have a cup of tea and need a good, warm read to go along with it. If you need to remind yourself why it is better to be single than to be with the wrong person.

Review: "Heart-Shaped Box"

I love real old-fashioned rockn'n'roll and the real rock'n'roll bands where the band members are no longer musicians but icons. The main character of Joe Hill's "Heart-Shaped Box" is one of those icons.
Judas Coyne (not the name he grew up with but the name he chose when he decided to dedicate his life to rock'n'roll) is an American hard rock icon who is now no longer a young, energetic biting-heads-of-bats type singer but a man in his 50's who is a little tired. He lives a rather quiet life on his farm with a personal assistant to take care of all of the practical stuff and a 26-year-old, gorgeous girlfriend to take care of his ego. His only real love is for his dogs - the personal assistant he regards as a strange necessity and the girlfriends are named for the states they are from, not who they are. In lieu of a real hobby and as part of his image, Jude collects odd things. Things that other people would regard with fear or suspicion or disgust. So when somebody is auctioning off an old suit and a ghost. Curious but disbelieving Jude buys it and then it goes horribly wrong. Because the suit does actually come with a real ghost, a real and very evil-spirited ghost that is out to get Jude, this is a ghost that holds a grudge. It all relates to Jude's ex-girlfriend, the frail and vulnerable Florida and the ghost has been sold to Jude by her older sister.

I would love to write me but I don't want to spoil anything so I will leave the story here and tell you why I really really enjoyed this book. It is a bit of gem really, different from any other book I have read - the only book that it reminds me of is "Horns", also by Joe Hill, but I liked "Heart-Shaped Box" better, mostly because of the characters. The storyline in "Horns" is much more interesting and different and cool but the characters of "Heart-Shaped Box" are outstanding.
I very quickly warmed to Jude, the rock'n'roll antiquity who is still wearing leather trousers even though he would probably prefer slippers. He is so clueless and that makes him likeable and cute actually. He also develops a lot through the book, discovering parts of himself that he seems to have lost while living life in the fast lane. And then there is his girlfriend, Georgia, who is one cool chick. A real tough girl on the outside but with a heart of gold, she takes no b-s from her less than charming boyfriend... Together they make quite a couple as they roadtrip through the south to get rid of a ghost.

You will like "Heart-Shaped Box" if: You enjoyed "Horns" by Joe Hill, if you are intrigued by Ozzy Osbourne and Mick Jagger or if you have ever bought something on Ebay that you didn't really know what was...

White Nights

Oh Land - White Nights. This song is so beautiful, had to share it with you all. I think this would make the perfect soundtrack for when reading "I Capture the Castle" by Dodie Smith, it has that same whimsical soul and it is such a hopeful tune as well somehow. Listen to the song and tell me what you think :-)

Review: "Horns"

I don't know how to explain what type of book "Horns" by Joe Hill is - I can't really think of any other books quite like this one. It is really different from most other books that I have read and I had no real expectations when I started to read it. I had read a decent review of it, thought the plot sounded interesting and wanted to give it a go and so I did. Joe Hill, the author, has a bit of a parental heritage to live up to as he is the son of no other than Stephen King and I have to say that probably that is where my only real expectation came from. I somehow expected the book to remind me of Stephen King and I am happy to report that it didn't though I know that some readers disagree with me on that one. Joe Hill has his own voice, his own language and style so even though the plot sounds like something that King could have thought up, it is treated in a way that is all Hill. Love it.

The main character of "Horns" is Ignatius William Perrish, Ig, is a normal guy at least in his own eyes and at least until the day he wakes up with... horns! Out of nowhere he has grown a pair of horns that doesn't only make people stare but also makes them divulge all of their secrets. From the embarrassing to the downright evil and cruel ones. Suddenly Ig finds that the people he thought he knew are very different from the way he perceived them and that the people he thought he loved maybe don't love him. It is a rough awakening. Especially because the horns reveal what Ig really doesn't want to know - they everybody think he killed his ex-girlfriend, the only girl he has ever love and the only real good thing in his life.

I won't say much more about the plot here because I don't want to create spoilers or reveal too much. What is so great about this book is that it manages to combine the serious and the humorous in a very elegant way. Ig, who is already shut more or less out of society due to the suspicions that everyone have about him, become completely shut out yet gets a much better understanding when he grows the horns. Suddenly he is able to see the most vile sides of humans and this means that he gets completely new perspective on everything that happens around him. The love story part is touching and the ending was amazing - I feared that the ending wouldn't live up to the plot but it did, it more than did. However, the book is so funny. There are a lot of scenes that made me smile and laugh - Ig's family is horrible, really horrible. Especially his grandmother! Ig himself is great as a main character because even though he is flawed and even unkind at times, especially when it comes to girls, he is very easy to feel sympathy for and to like.

Read it if: You liked Mikhail Bulgakov's "The Master and Margarita" or loves the Rolling Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil".

Review: "Wuthering Heights" - Wuthering emotions

Let me come clean straight away and admit that I read Emily Bronte's classic "Wuthering Heights" as part of Back to the Classics 2011 Challenge. I know that I should have read this before but I never got around to it so now seemed as a good time. What's more I have it in a really pretty hardback edition given to my by my wonderful Li'l Sis who is as addicted to books as I am.
This book was quite a read. The emotions run so high and I felt drained at times while reading it, constantly dreading the mental terror that was looming on the next page.

The story is a love story but not your regular man-meets-woman-and-they-end-up-happy story. This is the story of love gone wrong and of the intense relationship between love and hate. The plot is complicated though it's involves only few characters. However, I will give a very limited summary of some of the plot because I don't want to give too much away for those of you who haven't read this classic.
When Catherine and Hindley Earnshaw's father brings home an orphaned child to the family, he starts a life-long drama that will last a long way into the next generation. Earnshaw openly favours the orphan Heathcliff who is also a favourite of Catherine, they are best friends and sweethearts until the day Catherine's eyes are opened to the neighbouring family, the Lintons. Suddenly Catherine's allegiance sways and she favours Edgar Linton over Heathcliff. Heathcliff leaves the neighbourhood brokenhearted but years later he returns to revenge the pain that has been inflicted on him by jealous Hindley and flighty Catherine. Catherine is torn between her husband Edgar and her love of Heathcliff and Heathcliff is so obsessed by his hatred of Linton that he ends up concoting a scheme to take over everything that has belonged to the Earnshaw's and the Linton's, not caring who will have to pay the price for his broken heart.

Being honest, you would have to be made of stone not to be touched by this story. It is so full of raw emotions. The story takes place on the North English moors where nature rules, just as the emotions rules the space between Catherine and Heathcliff. Their love is almost an insanity and it craves large sacrifices and it was those sacrifices that touched me most and deepest.
Love seems to be a force to which all most bow and everything else must give way. And the children must pay for the folly of their parents, their punishment being almost Biblical as they become pawns in the game of Heathcliff.
It is disturbing reading but addictive and the ending took me by surprise. It is beautiful and raw and full of real emotions. Tired of washed-out paranormal teenage love? Then this is the perfect cure!

P.S. Don't miss out on this beautiful Kate Bush song Wuthering Heights

Music to make you misbehave!

Have you seen the movie "Easy Virtue"? An adaption of a Noël Coward play, it stars Jessica Biel, Ben Barnes and Colin Firth in a story about an English gentry family and the young American woman who marries the heir. It is a comedy with great music and I loved it. The music is amazing as well so here is a little number to make your Sunday swing:

Feel the beat

Having had very little time to read this weekend I will not post about books today but instead share a song with you. This one is called "The Balcony" and is performed by a band called The Rumour Said Fire. It reminds me of winter evenings with my boyfriend, winter walks in frozen woods and the pleasure of having a great cup of tea when your toes are cold.

Have a wonderful Sunday!