Review: "The Gargoyle"

Do you know that feeling of picking up a book and starting reading it without having any expectations or any ideas about what the book is about? That's how I felt when I started reading "The Gargoyle" by Andrew Davidson. My sister had recommended it but not told me about the story so I was completely open when I read it and I liked that feeling of having no expectations and just going along with the story told by a cynical, bitter narrator eager to draw the reader into his own black world (and I mean that in the best possible sense).

It is a scary story - really scary. A man in his thirties is driving while under the influence of alcohol and drugs and when the hallucinations start getting to him, he loses his grip on the car and ends up in a horrible and painful accident. When he wakes up, he is in the hospital, in intensive care for burn victims and life has he knows it is no longer. He whole life is now the burn ward and the nurses and doctors that treat him and the day when he is able to leave the burn ward and go back to life is far off. Especially because the narrator makes it very clear that he doesn't think there is any life to go back to. Having made a living working in the porn industry, his looks are now ruined and his friends have disappeared. His loneliness is tangible through the pages and I felt it in every word as I read.
Then one day a mentally unstable patient from the psychiatric ward appears in his room. Marianne Engel is a sculptress whose speciality is gargoyles and who tells him about his long life and her years in a convent in medieval Germany. Her stories are wild and impossible but it is clear that she believes them and as time passes, Marianne's stories become as much a part of the narrators life as they are of hers.

On amazon.com they call it "An extraordinary debut novel of love that survives the fires of hell and transcends the boundaries of time." The book refers quite a bit to Dante's Divine Comedy, especially Inferno and if you have any interest in medieval history, you will enjoy this book. The love story is strong, especially because it is so strange and crooked - the love is not a teenage crush or a love-at-first-sight feeling. It is a painful memory of sharing yourself with somebody else. A bond between two people who don't seem to know what to make of each other. It is beautiful yet painful - a pain that even morphine can't dampen.

So what did I think of this story? Well, I liked it but giving you a picture of all that I thought and felt when reading this book is probably impossible because I went from laughing at Marianne's strange behaviour, feeling the narrators bitterness, being sad for his pain and intrigued by the budding love. This is an emotional rollercoaster but in a good way.

Read it if: You believe that love is more than just a happy, pink bubble of delight. If you like having your imagination put to work and if you like wondering what is really going on.

Friday - follow fun and series that I love

Follow Friday is hosted by Parajunkee’s View and Alison at Alison Can Read. If you want to participate, it's easy. To learn more and enter, check out: Parajunkee and Alison Can Read. Join the fun and make some new friends!



Q. Do you have a favorite series that you read over and over again? Tell us a bit about it and why you keep on revisiting it?

Often I find myself revisiting favorite series when I need a bit of comfort-reading. It feels like hanging out with old friends and it makes me feel safe and happy. Incredible what books can do really. The series that I keep coming back to are very different and I love them for different reasons.

The Elenium Series by David Eddings
Following the adventures of Sparhawk and his brave friends as they try to save Queen Elena is such an adventure. I love Sparhawk for being such a battered, grumpy thing who can swing into action at a moments notice and beat the bad guys. Another favorite character from this series is Sparhawk's horse, a gruff creature which can definitely hold its own in a battle. Not a horse to mess with.

Anne of Green Gables series by L. M. Montgomery
I have loved Anne since I was a ten years old spelling my way through Anne of Green Gables and since then I have loved red hair with a passion. Anne has helped shape the way I think about things - especially about family and friends and the importance of giving all people a chance. She is not just a character from a series, she is a role model.

The Hellesta Saga by Margit Söderholm
This is truly a family saga that spans years (nearly a century) as we follow the family who lives at and around the stately home Hellesta in Sweden. It all starts with a young girl who gets married off to an older man that she doesn't like, brokenhearted she toils to make money enough to buy her old childhood home Hellesta so that it can stay in the family. My favourite books are the ones that centres on Will Anckarberg, her youngest son, who gets his heart broken by the cold and ambitious Julie and then marries her sister, the mild Annette and has a brood of children that all grow up and have their own romances and adventures. If you like historical romance that is well-written and full of emotions then this is for you.

Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
Guess I don't have to explain why :-) It is just one of the best series ever writtten and I love it to bits. However, I never read book five "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" if I am feeling down or in a bad mood because it is such an emotional book for me and yes I do sometimes cry when I read it...

And staying with the magical theme, if I look into the future, I will probably end up re-reading the Discovery of Witches trilogy by Deborah Harkness many times.

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: "Smokeheads"

Is there such a thing as dude lit? If there is - and I think there is - then "Smokeheads" by Dough Johnstone must surely be part of that genre. It is such a dude-ish book, written by a guy for guys focusing on things that guys should like. So I am probably the wrong audience for this one and I have to say I didn't love it. It was alright but nothing special, nothing that made me want more.

The storyline is quite good though: A group of friends who all share a love of Scottish whiskey from far-away, misty islands go on a weekend road trip to celebrate whiskey. Kind of like "The Hangover" in the sense that everything that could go wrong, goes wrong. From the moment they step foot on the island, they make enemies and when you throw into the mix a whiskey-loving hottie, vengeful local police and liberal quantities of whiskey, it all becomes dangerous. Especially because these guys are such different characters that they are bound to get into fights.

It is doomed to go wrong and it does. One bad thing after another leads to death, destruction and a chase across a remote Scottish island. Not really my kind of fun to be honest.

Maybe I am just more of a French cinema girl than an action-packed road trip girl but this book didn't do it for me. Or maybe it is because the characters are wooden with no depth whatsoever. Or because the plot is seriously difficult to believe. Or because the storyline goes from "has potential" to "please just get this over with". Not sure but it wasn't for me.

Best thing about this book: It got me interested in whiskey!

Read it if: You drink a lot of "on the rocks"... or if your idea of a great night in is to rent any movie with one or more of the following elements: 1) Arnold Schwarznegger 2) Sylvester Stallone 3) liberal doses of car chases and violence

Thank goodness for sequels!

To whoever invented sequels: I thank you!! Have finished Deborah Harkness's AMAZING, WONDERFUL book "A Discovery of Witches" and luckily there is a sequel!! Not yet but it is in the making. Dear Deborah Harkness, of course I appreciate that it takes time to write such great books but please hurry up. If I be of any help walking your dogs, doing your dishes or something along those lines so that you have more time writing, please let me know. Until the second book in this trilogy comes out, I will be daydreaming about Matthew Clairmont.

Ps. For more info about the delicious Matthew, please watch this space as review will be posted soon.

Review: "Moon over Soho"

Not so very long ago I reviewed "Rivers of London" and I absolutely loved that book. So of course I couldn't wait to get my hands on the sequel "Moon over Soho" by the amazing writer Ben Aaronovitch whom I would very much like to meet in person. If his books are anything to go by (and I guess they are), he has a wicked sense of humour!

"Moon over Soho" picks up where "Rivers of London" left off - our dear hero (sometimes anti-hero) Peter Grant has put the Covent Garden riots behind him and is focusing on the future. His best friend Lesley is recovering at her parents' place, still both physically and mentally crippled by what happened. So Peter is more or less on his own which just adds to the pressure of being the only constable-and-wizard-apprentice in London, well England really. However, there is lots to do because even though he has brokered peace between the river deities. London is still full of magic, and when a body turns up playing an old jazz track, Peter throws himself into the investigation. This leads him of course into some danger and (also of course) into the arms of a beautiful woman, the mysterious, patisserie-loving Simone. Good think that Peter has grown up with a jazz-loving father because music plays an important role in the crimes that he must put a stop to before more victims turn up in the London streets, dead and jazzing.

I really really enjoyed this book. As with "Rivers of London" the dry humour is really amazing and Peter has some great one-liners here and there. And Peter himself is pretty amazing as well. I have totally fallen for his geekiness, his intelligence and his inability to focus when in company of beautiful women. He has so many flaws yet is such a lovely guy - probably one of the most likeable main characters that I have come across in a long time. Thanks to Aaronovitch for creating this magical version of London and for making Peter the focus of this great series.

Read it if: You love laughing and listening to jazz while reading. If you are a single girl looking for a guy with a sense of humour, good career prospects and the ability to light up a room using magic.

Review: "The Pregnant Widow"

There were so many reasons to pick up "The Pregnant Widow" by Martin Amis. First of all, I really like "London Fields" by Martin Amis and I quite enjoyed "The Rachel Papers" so it seemed like a reasonable assumption that I would enjoy "The Pregnant Widow" as well. Also I think the title is really cool - the paperback cover on the other hand I am not too keen on but hey, you can't get it all and I chose the hardback cover to accompany this review as I think that is quite pretty.

"The Pregnant Widow" is Amis's 12th novel and in my opinion it is a really great one. The story is quite interesting and multi-facetted with lots of details that kept me fascinated and with beautiful descriptions that made Italy - where the story is set - really come to life.

The narrator is a 20-year-old male with all the trouble and issues that come with being way too focussed on sex and at the mercy of women... Poor guy! Keith Nearing is quite the anti-hero, he is a days away from his 21st birthday and far away from home on a holiday in Italy. It is the 1970's and girls are intent on behaving like boys and being liberated which means that Keith's relationship with girlfriend Lily is not going to well, she is too liberated and to little in love with Keith, who sees her as some sort of sister. Instead he has his eyes on her friend, the gorgeous upper-class girl Sheherazade with the amazing body who is starting to understand exactly how much power she has over the male gender. As if that wasn't enough to cook up a dramatic story, Amis then throws a bunch of interesting minor characters into the mix - such as every-girls-dream the Italian count (with only with drawback that keeps him from ever getting Sheherazade) and the depressed twentysomething who is hiding out in shame. It is a dangerous mix and Keith is too messed up by a mix of his own hormones, feelings and dreams to take caution. He spends his days in a frenzy of reading - only disrupted to have conversations with the girls or looking at their breasts.... It is a summer that he will always remember and that will change his life forever.

It is a fantastic book if you ask me - I read it and loved it and some day I will read this in Italy on a warm summers day and it will feel like I am almost there with Keith as he faces the difficulties of youth and the conundrums of women.

Read it if: You love early Martin Amis - or if you are no longer a teenager but remember how difficult being hormonal was...

Review: "Rivers of London"

On the back of Ben Aaronovitch's novel "Rivers of London" and on amazon.co.uk it says:
My name is Peter Grant and until January I was just probationary constable in that mighty army for justice known to all right-thinking people as the Metropolitan Police Service (as the Filth to everybody else).

A few lines that actually tells you quite a lot of important facts about this book:
1) The narrator is Peter Grant, a London copper trying to make a career with the Metropolitan Police
2) The story takes place in London
3) In January something happens that changes Peter's career quite drastically
4) This book is really funny - it is written with a great sense of dry humour and keen observations about the follies of man.

Peter is a man like everyone else. He comes from a lower-middle class home, has decent a-levels and modest ambitions and a crush on his sharp-tongued colleague Lesley. As it turns out, he also has a talent for magic.
One day when he is on patrol in Covent Garden, a man is killed and a strange witness comes forward. A dead witness... And suddenly Peter is promoted from bar-brawl-stopper and report-filer to appretince to the last police wizard and a whole new world opens up as he has to learn how to interview ghosts, deal with turf wars among minor deities and create light with magic. A lot to handle for a guy who didn't believe in anything supernatural. Not to mention that he also has to investigate murders and woo Lesley.

There are so many things that I loved about this book so I am going ahead and putting it in a list - easier to keep track that way:

1) The dry humour. I found myself laughing, chuckling and having an altogether great time while reading this book. Perfect for a day when you need to smile. Elegant jokes and fun observations.

2) Peter. Great character who develops and changes as the plot unfolds. Very easy to like and his relationship with his parents is a great side-story.

3) The scenery. I love London and this book evokes the city very well.

4) The minor characters, especially the rivers deities such as Lady Tyburn, Berverley Brooke and Mama Thames. Talk about dysfunctional families and strong female characters!

5) The plot. The crime/whodunnit part of the story actually works quite well and there were twists and turns that I hadn't seen coming.

Read it if: You'd like a bit of adult Harry Potter. If you love London. If you ever considered joining the police. If you believe in magic.

September tomorrow - a list of autumn reads

Tomorrow is September 1st which means that today is the last day of summer 2011... This summer has just sped past, I wonder what happened? It feels like it only just began and now suddenly it is all grey and rainy again! I spent most of the summer on crutches, hobbling along as graciously as possible (which is not very graceful, I must admit) but now I am finally off crutches and hopefully I will soon be back in stilettos. Though it will be painful, it will also be such a victory.Anyway back to the subject of autumn because autumn has a lot of things going for it - beautiful colours, days where the sky is so blue that it is almost unbelievable and days that are made for reading inside with a cup of tea.
In honour of autumn here is a list of some great autumn reads:



"I Am Charlotte Simmons" by Tom Wolfe.
The book about ambitious country girl Charlotte Simmons who gets a scholarship to a prestigious university but struggles to fit in with the privileged kids who are used to money buying them everything. Charlotte arrives at university in autumn and the seasons seem to be a strong metaphor for Charlotte's inner life in this book. A great read for a long, rainy Sunday.



The Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling
As these follow the school year, they all start in autumn and especially the first four books have a real sense of seasons changing that I enjoyed.
(btw. I've gone with the Danish cover as we've all seen the English/American ones so many times)

And here are a couple that I haven't read but that sound like great autumn-y reads (descriptions from amazon):



"The Autumn Castle" by Kim Wilkins
Berlin in autumn: Christine Starlight is living in an artists' colony in the crumbling urban shadows of the old east. Her lover Jude is a painter; his beauty and patience help her bear the chronic pain that is a legacy of the car crash that crippled her and killed her beloved parents. Out of the blue comes a crimson-haired beauty, who presides over a land where a witch dwells in a well, a wolf is the queen's counsellor and fate turns on the fall of an autumn leaf. For a brief span, the lands of faery and mortal man march hand in hand and Queen Mayfridh has taken the chance to seek out Christine, her childhood friend. But dealings with faeryland are never simple: as Christine yearns for Mayfridfh's world, where mortals feel no pain, so Mayfridh in turn is becoming addicted to Christine's, where there are tastes and textures and the danger of forbidden love.



"Autumn Term" by Antonia Forest
Twins Nicola and Lawrie arrive at their new school determined to do even better than their elder sisters, who had all distinguished themselves. But things don't turn out quite as planned. This story about twins going to a new school is the first title in Antonia Forest's well-loved series about the Marlow family.

Review: "The Folk Keeper"

Sometimes a book that is not written for us, as in not written for our age group, gender etc. etc., can be just the right book for us. I came across one such book just the other day: the children's book "The Folk Keeper" by Franny Billingsley. This is a fantasy/fairy tale/adventure children's book, a short but sweet and touching tale of Corinna who keeps her gender a secret as she works as a folk keeper in the orphanage where she lives. A folk keeper as in indispensable part of a large household as he is the one who keeps the folk, a mythic people living in the ground who will spoil the harvest and kill the animals if they are not kept happy and content. It is a dangerous job but one that Corinna values - it is her identity. So when she is offered a different life as a folk keeper in a larger household, an estate, she goes there to seek her fortune. What she doesn't know is that she will find more than her fortune, she will find her destiny.

This one is an easy one to review because it is a really sweet children's book. It had me captivated even though I should probably have read it when I was ten or twelve, not 26, and it captured my imagination and took me on a trip to Corinna's world. A really good book for teenagers with great imaginations and a love of fantasy.

Read it if: You had a dungeons and dragons phase in your teen years or if you just enjoy good fantasy fairytales.

7 reasons to read "The Rivers of London"

7 reasons to read "The Rivers of London" by Ben Aaronovitch (there are many more than seven by the way!)

Reason 1 - page 103
"I'm just going to have a chat with this troll", said Nightingale
"Sir", I said, "I think we're supposed to call them rough sleepers."
"Not this one we don't", said Nightingale. "He's a troll"

Reason 2 - page 142
I agreed that being part of something real was indeed wonderful, but it would be groovy if she could tell me what she'd seen. I actually used the word "groovy" and she didn't even flinch, which was worrying on so many levels.


Reason 3 - page 178
A London copper doesn't like to intrude on a traveller camp with anything less than a van full of bodies in riot gear - it's considered disrespectful otherwise.

Reason 4 - page 202
"We think he is hiding in Walthamstow," she said. Many would say that was punishment enough.

Reason 5 - page 229
"You really are the most extraordinarily gullible young man", she said, "What on earth are we going to do with you?"

Reason 6 - page 265
The trouble with the old boy network is that you can never really be sure whether it's switched on or not, and whether it's operating in your interest or some other old boy's.

Reason 7 - page 320
Nobody likes a riot except looters or journalists.

Wuthering Heights - from the arty to the insulting...

Now this post will be focusing on "Wuthering Heights" by Emily Brontë, however, not the content or style of the book but the covers that it has been given. I've said it before and I'll say it again: covers are so important. They are what attracts us to books that we have never heard of and just spot in the bookshop. Here are some example of the covers that "Wuthering Heights" have been given...

The arty, edgy one which I have to admit I quite like:


The cheesy and down-right insulting one (please notice the badge saying "Bella and Edward's favourite book!!! PLEASE spare me):


The boring one with the sheep (?!? need I say more):


The classic, emotional cover - which is really rather pretty:


The hardcover hottie:


What are your thoughts on the covers?

But why?

Some books are just perfect for being made into epic films that add another dimension to the book. And some are just not... And it is a bit of a rule of thumb if you ask me that if a book doesn't work as a book then it probably won't work as a film. I know there are exceptions (not that I can think of any right now but I am sure they are there) but usually I would think that a good book has a better chance of a becoming a good movie than a bad one. Which is why I do not understand why on earth "Gods Behaving Badly" by Marie Phillips is now being made into a movie!

It has been a while since I read this one but when I read it, I absolutely disliked it. Really disliked it. The premise that it is a bunch of Greek gods and goddesses are living in a crumbling house in modern-day London is interested and though it is a bit tacky, I thought that it could probably be a fun read if executed elegantly. Turned out it was about as elegant as an elephant in a shop full of antique china. Not a pretty picture and not a good book. So why has somebody rounded up a cast including Alicia Silverstone, Christopher Walken and John Turturro and why is it being filmed?

If someone in the movie industry is reading this blog: there are many, many books out there that are so much more worthy of being filmed than this one (in my opinion at least). So why not pick up the rights for "Purge" by Sofi Oksanen (see last post), "The Pregnant Widow" by Martin Amis (review coming soon) or "The Darkangel" by Meredith Ann Pierce?

Review: "Purge"

Finding Finnish author Sofi Oksanen's novel "Purge" in a second-hand bookshop for a few pounds was a real find! It's been on my TBR ever since I read a review of it in the Sunday paper and when I bought it, I couldn't keep myself from reading it immediately because I was so curious about the story.

This is a dark novel on several levels with two stories intertwining, both very dark tales of women whose lives have not been easy. Aliide Truu is an elderly lady living in an old farmhouse in the Estonian countryside. She lives in a rather old-fashioned way and is largely self-sufficient and withdrawn from the world. So one day when Aliide finds a young woman outside her house, a woman in strange Westernized clothes who behaves really strangely, she is obviously suspicious. There is something about the woman though, that means that Aliide can't just leave her to her destiny so she takes her in, feeds her and chats with her while trying to figure out what has happened to this young woman, Zara, to leave her in such a difficult situation.
Aliide's and Zara's stories are very dissimilar. One is the story of living in a country where communism pervades everything. Where husbands spy on wives and village men rape girls to torture their parents. It is such a strong, emotional story of lives being torn apart, love having to give up when faced with such strong adversity, it is raw and painful to read, yet impossible to put down. And this is something that Aliide's story shares with Zara's story. Zara's story is about being a trafficking victim, about a naive, young girl who has always been deprived of the Western luxury who jumps on the chance for a new start in the West and ends up losing everything except her life. It is as painful and raw as Aliide's story even though the two stories are very different. It almost physically hurts to read it.

The strengths of "Purge" are many. It is not sugarcoated, everything is exposed, all human flaws are there in plain view and even the main characters that as a reader, I sympathized with, are full of flaws. Another strength is the historical aspect. As a historical story, it works really well because it envokes an Estonia of the past (luckily) that is so different from modern-day Estonia, yet gives you a better chance of understanding Estonia and the other countries that suffered during the dark days of communism and Stalin. It is truly a scary read on so many levels, from the explicit violence and the vulnerability of the women in this story to the political environment and the men that will do anything for money, power, status or a casino.

A quote to give you a taste of "Purge":
"too many people had dirty flour in their bags, and people with filthy fingers are hardly enthusiastic about digging up the past . . . those who poke around in the past will get a stick in the eye."

This is one of the best novels I have read in 2011 and I will definitely re-read it and buy it as a present for many of my friends.

Read it if: You enjoyed the movie "The Lives of the Others" or if you love your books to leave you with a lot to think about.

Role models from the pages: Ronja The Robber's Daugther

When I did the Top Ten Tuesday list about underrated books, I included Ronja the Robber's Daughter by Astrid Lindgren. I am not sure why this one popped into my head when I was doing the list - I haven't read it for ages, years, yet it is a book that I love. "Ronja The Robber's Daugther" is a children's book by Swedish author Astrid Lindgren and it was first published in 1981, a few years before I was born and I had it read to me several times as a child. What I love about this book is the strong, independent Ronja, daughter of man's man, head honcho robber Mattis. Whereas many of Astrid Lindgren's books have been set in a very safe, idyllic Sweden, Ronja is set in a much more dark version of Sweden - a bit like "Mio, my Mio" or "The Brothers Lionheart".

When Ronja is born into a clan of robbers living in a castle in the forest, her father Mattis the chieftain is ecstatic. His arch-enemy, Borka, chieftain of a rival clan, does not have such a fine daugther. What Mattis doesn't know is that Borka's son, Birk Borkason will play a big role in little Ronja's life. She grows up, only child in a clan of robbers, and one day she meets Birk and through a daring game they become friends. It is unthinkable that Mattis's daughter should be friend with a Borka, so they keep it a secret until the day when their friendship is tested by the rivalry of their family and Ronja and Birk have to choose between family feuds and friendship.

What is so amazing about this book is the many emotions that it manages to capture and convey. Ronja and Birk are strong characters and Ronja is a real role model for girls if you ask me. The main conflict is between childhood and adolescence - Ronja has to admit to herself that the father she idolizes is not perfect and that eventually she will have to break free if she wants to live her own life. It has such a strong message about family values, friendship, love and tolerance and all of this is wrapped up in a beautiful tale full of robbers and faeries and magic and nature.

Ronja the Robber's Daugther is the perfect role model for tween girls - her big heart, courage and independence is a far cry from Barbiefied values. Ronja lives wild, appearances don't count in her world - it is all about values and making choices. So if you are looking for the perfect present for an 8 year old girl, do buy her "Ronja the Robber's Daughter".

Ps.
The picture shows the Danish cover as I remember it from my childhood. I love the colours and the darkness of the forest in the background.

Top Ten Tuesday: Underrated books - must reads!

The topic of this week's Top Ten Tuesday is Underrated Books as in books you can't believe aren't more popular, books that are more obscure and so on. I love this topic. There are so many books that I can't believe aren't getting more hype or that I love but that have not received the acclaim that I think they deserve. So here we go - don't forget to pop by The Broke and The Bookish to join in!

10) The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
Many of you know the musical and have probably seen either that one or the film - but have you read the book? Otherwise, I can highly recommend it. It is a short but great story about Christine Daaé with the amazing voice, her childhood sweetheart and the opera phantom who is in love with her. It is not your typical love story but it is a really sweet and sometimes scary story.



9) Ronja, the Robber's Daughter by Astrid Lindgren
One of the best children's book ever about the strong, independent girl Ronja who lives in the forest. If you haven't read it yet, you have to get it now. It is a classic.



8) Havana Real by Yoani Sanchez
This is a non-fiction book, a collection of blog posts from the Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez, giving us a glimpse into the life of a family in Cuba who are struggling to make ends meet even though they are among the well-off. Yoani is a really cool woman with a strong voice and lots of opinions. Amazing book, was completely unable to put it down once I had started it.



7) The Exception by Christian Jungersen
A deeply disturbing book about adult bullying the work place. The point-of-view keeps changing between the characters which makes it really difficult to be black and white about who are the evil ones and who are the good ones. It is a bit of a thriller, a suspenseful read that deserves many readers!



6) Namedropper by Emma Forrest
This was one of my favourite YA books when I was a teenager. It is a coming-of-age story about a Viva whose world seems to be populated with characters - from the gorgeous best friend Treena to her gay uncle Manny with the Liz Taylor obsession this book takes us from North London to California and back as we follow Viva learning a thing or two about life. It is full of pop culture references and my 15 year-old self loved it.



5) Dewitt, Helen: The Last Samurai
Ludo is a gifted child, a child prodigy, a kid for whom learning is the best way of entertaining himself. So while his mother struggles to keep up with the five-year-olds wish to learn Japanese and make enough money to get them through the day, Ludo wonders who his father is. A really beautiful book with great characters that you cannot help but love.



4) Stolen Spring by Hans Scherfig
This on is a Danish classic, a must-read on the Danish high school curriculum and for a very good reason: it is a real treasure! A literary feast of amazingness! It is the story of a group of school boys in a very disciplined school where the teachers use their powers to degrade the students - especially the latin teacher Blomme is a real nasty piece of work and the book centers on the mystery of his death. If you are a fan of classic school novels from early 1900s, then this one is for you.



3) The Darkangel by Meredith Ann Pierce
Forget about Twilight and House of Night and all those paranormal romance vampire books that are flooding the market at the moment. This is as much of a vampire classic as Bram Stoker's Dracula, if you ask me, except they aren't vampires - they are vampyres, darkangels that feed on souls. When Ariel's mistress, the beautiful Eoduin is taken by a darkangel, she follows her to try to free her from the vampyre's clutches.



2) Nordkraft by Jacob Ejersbo
If you liked the film "Trainspotting", you will love this book. Ejersbo's novel is a masterpiece about living a hard life full of drugs, alcohol and abuse on the bottom of society. This is a book about the people we see on the street and that makes us thankful for our lives. It is so gripping and thought-provoking that it moved me to tears.



1) The Sopranos by Alan Warner
One of my favourite books (it has been for years) is this fantastic tour de force about a group of Catholic school girls on an outing from their small village to a larger town for a choir competition. The amount of mischief (doesn't cover it at all!) they get into is disturbing - getting drunk, getting their uniforms stolen... it is all just the beginning of the adventure.

Review: "Girl, Missing" by Sophie McKenzie

Review in short: great books for tweens and teens. I guess you'd like a bit more detail though? So here it comes, a full review of Sophie McKenzie's young adult book "Girl, Missing". The girl in question Lauren is not actually missing. She is living in London with her parents and she has always known that she is adopted. This has never really been an issue for her - what is an issue, however, is the fact that Lauren is very much becoming a teenager with all the mood swings and the feelings of being misunderstood and not fitting in. Luckily Lauren has a great friend, Jam, who is always there for her through thick and thin. So when Lauren finds a picture online that looks strangely like her as a toddler, she of course tells Jam. Trouble is, the picture is on a website about abducted children. Years ago a toddler in USA disappeared, a girl with almost the same name as Lauren and almost the same looks... Soon Lauren and Jam are on a transatlantic hunt to find out the truth about the toddler on the picture and about Lauren's childhood but someone definitely doesn't want Lauren to unearth the secrets of the past and it all gets dangerous...

Had I been 13 or 14 years old I would have absolutely loved this book. As it is, I am probably too old for it - nah, definitely too old for it - and I have to say that I found it hard to sympathy with Lauren. Her teenage moodiness and mood swings and her general being unfair to her parents and to Jam is pretty exhausting if you ask me. I understand but it is tiring! Luckily she realises her own selfishness at some point but it is a little late for me, I must say.

Read it if: You love contemporary quality YA or if you are 14 years old.

A little bit of a Princess Bride

"The Princess Bride"... such a divine little whimsical title. "The Princess Bride" by William Goldman. A divine book! Whimsical, no more like satirical but absolutely delicious. I will be reviewing it soon but here's a little something to share the "The Princess Bride" love:

"I need your advice," she interrupted. "What can I do to improve my personal appearance."
"Start by bathing," her father said.
"And do something with your hair while you're at it," her mother said.
p. 59

She did her best thinking then. Not that her best thinking ever expanded horizons. Still, she told herself, she was not a dummy either, so as long as she kept her thoughts to herself, well, where was the harm? (p. 90)

From his position at the point of the Armada, Prince Humperdinck stared up at the Cliffs of Insanity. This was just like any other hunt. He made himself think away quarry. It did not matter if you were after an antelope or a bride-to-be... p. 165

By 5:48, Buttercup felt quite sure she would be dead. p 305

Review: "Eleven"

I really can't remember how "Eleven" by Mark Watson ended up on my TBR list. Don't misunderstand me, I am glad it did, it is a good read but it is just not the kind of book that I would normally pick up. I must have read a review of it somewhere and decided that it deserved a try. Anyway I took it with me when I went to London on a two-week vacation (I know, luxury! I am staying with my boyfriend so no expensive hotel bills but lots of great homecooked meals, the perfect vacation - now back to the review).

"Eleven" is whimsical and its special trademark is that though it features one main character there are a bunch of minor characters and they are all essential to the plot. The minor characters are the story, really. However, first let me tell you about the main character with the strange name Xavier Ireland. This is not really Xavier's real name, he left that behind years ago when he moved from Australia to London to start a new life after a very traumatic event that I for spoiler-related reasons won't tell you about... So now he is Xavier, working in London as a nighttime radio host advising sleepless Londoners on everything from true love to the meaning of life (I know - quite a demanding job!). His colleague Murray is not only Xavier's producer but also his close friend who is constantly in need of help from Xavier and Xavier is there for him. Actually Xavier is quite a helpful guy, however, one day he walks past a bunch of boys bullying and beating up a boy but though he does try to stop it, he doesn't really do anything and definitely not enough. So the boy gets beaten up and from this event other events spiral that eventually lead back to Xavier.
And then there is the speed date that Murray persuades Xavier to join him for and where Xavier doesn't find a date but instead finds a cleaning lady, Pippa. Pippa turns out to be a real power girl who takes over his life while cleaning his messy (...read: disgusting) flat and asking him questions about what actually happened in Australia so that the reader finally understands what has led Xavier to where he is in his life.

"Eleven" is basically a book about domino effects - about how things that seem hardly noticeable in the end lead to big, life-changing events. It is slightly whimsical in the approach to fate and apparently (or so I've been told) it is reminiscent of "One Day" by David Nicholls. I quite liked this book though I have to say that I found it a bit on the light side. I would have liked to explore the characters of Xavier and Pippa more - especially Pippa because I really really liked her. She has this approach to life that if all she can be is a cleaning lady, then she is going to be the best cleaning lady that she can and I really like that about her and for me, it was Pippa who made the book.

Read it if: You like philosophizing about why things happen or if you listen to a lot of night-time radio.

Top Ten Tuesday: Good trends, bad trends

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish and I love it! This week is really interesting - it is Top Ten Trends You Would Like to See More or Less of!
So here's my list:

See more of:
1) Books being promoted in the blogosphere! I think it is so great the bloggers share their love of books and promote books that maybe wouldn't get the attention they deserve if it wasn't for the blogosphere. We love great authors and wonderful books and sharing that love is beautiful!

2) Young, female authors writing literary fiction and getting acknowledged for their hard work and talent - such as Téa Obreht, author of "The Tiger's Wife"

3) Authors being translated to English. There are so many great authors out there and they deserve to be translated - one example is Sofi Oksanen's fantastic novel "Purge" that has been translated into English and is really popular.

4) Dystopian and steampunk, great imaginative genres that deserve more attention and more bestsellers.

5) Wrapping up classics in beautiful, tasteful, cool covers such as these below. Personally I would really love for E. F. Benson's "Mapp and Lucia" to be given some more attention.





See less of:
1) Vampires and werewolves. Enough is enough people. I don't care if they are sparkling or have tattoos, I don't want anymore of them for a while. Please come up with something else to write about.

2) Less focus on incest/pedophilia as romance/love relationships. Though I really liked "Repeat It Today With Tears" by Anne Peile and liked "Tiger, Tiger" by Margaux Fragoso, I really do not like this topic...

3) Paranormal romance... girl and vampire, girl and werewolf, girl and angel... it is becoming ever so slightly tiring.

4) Celebrity novels, ghostwritten by some poor guy/girl who really needed the money. I am not talking about real biographies from politicians etc. but Katie Price as an author? Really? That's just plain wrong.

5) Awful covers that try to sell a book as something it isn't (...or try to trade off Twilight, such bad taste!!)

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".

I love pre-loved books

Some people would never consider buying a used book but I have to say that I am just the opposite. Call the what you like - used books, vintage books, second-hand books, I call them pre-loved! And I love trawling the thrift shops for books that need a new home and to donate books so that others can read them and enjoy them. Especially the ones that I didn't like - I feel like they deserve a second chance. The other day I was going from second-hand shop to second-hand shop looking for books to buy and this is what I came home with:









Happy reading!

GIVEAWAY: "Wetlands" by Charlotte Roche

Time for another give-away - this time it is my own hardback copy of "Wetlands" by Charlotte Roche. It cause quite a stir when it came out and you can read my review of the novel here.

Rules to participate in the give-away:
- The competition is open globally
- Winner will be selected on August 1st in a random draw
- Leave a comment recommending a book that you think I will like and remember to write you email address so I can contact you if your name is drawn
- Book will be sent to the winner in the middle of August

:-)

Review: "After The Party"

Five or six years ago I stumbled over a novel called "Ralph's Party" by an author named Lisa Jewell. I found it in a thrift store for next to nothing, I was a poor student and picked it up hoping for a fun, light read and that's exactly what I got. At the time I was going through a chick lit phase where that was more or less all I read - maybe because I spent so much time reading boring ol' study books? :-)
Anyway since then I have read "Ralph's Party" several times, it is one of those comfy books that always make me smile, especially the eating-raw-chilli-competition. Then a few weeks ago I was on a London tube station and I spotted a large poster for a books called "After the Party" by Lisa Jewell. Turns out now there is a sequel to the wonderful "Ralph's Party" and of course I had to get it.

It has been eleven years since Jem and Ralph went home from Ralph's party together. Back then they were sharing a flat with Jem's devious, deceiving boyfriend Smith who was using Jem to make Cheri jealous and now they have a house in South London as well as two kids and lots of issues. Ralph is feeling detached from his small family and Jem is entirely consumed by her wonderful kids, the bright Scarlett with the fierce personality and the little baby Blake who is growing every day. Ralph is struggling to find his painter mojo and though he is making a living as a painter, a good living, he feels that he has lost the love for his art. So in a desperate attempt to find his passion for art, for Jem, for the family, he goes to visit Smith in Los Angeles leaving Jem alone in grey, rainy London with two screaming kids... Alone to go to the playground and meet a nice dad whose daughter is the same age as Scarlett. So while Ralph goes to a Christian concert with the gorgeous Rosey, Jem goes to have tea with soft single dad Joel. And from there it all goes wrong, more than wrong.

I liked it. Not as much as I like "Ralph's Party" but it was a decent sequel. Great to catch up with Jem and Ralph again and to reminisce about that chilli fight. Also I found the discussions about spirituality and Christianity very interesting. Religion is a topic that is rarely dealt with in chick lit but I think that Lisa Jewell did a really good job of showing how Christianity can make a difference in the rushed, modern lives we life.

Read it if: You've read "Ralph's Party" and wondered what happened next or if you want to read a strong chick lit novel about the difficulty of being a modern family striving to have it all and lead the perfect life.

Review: "Special Topics in Calamity Physics"

Let me be honest with you from the very beginning and tell you that "Special Topics in Calamity Physics, Marisha Pessl's debut novel, is one of my favourite books. It came recommended from my father whose opinions - on books as well as in general - I have a lot of respect for. So when he handed me his copy of this long book with the beautiful girly cover and the strange title, I knew that I had to read it - the dichotomy of title and cover alone was enough to intrigue me. This was a few years ago and now I re-read it recently and it was just as great as I remembered.

What is this novel about, you ask yourself? The title doesn't really give anything it away - and then maybe it does. But not in the way you expect. Blue van Meer is a motherless American teenager living a life less normal with her professor father who is specialized in development politics and social sciences and who takes up guest positions at three or four different universities a year. Together they travel the country, living as nomads while Gareth, Blue's father, tells her story of her beautiful late mother and fills her head with as much academical knowledge as he can force in there.
Blue is quite a child prodigy or a teenage prodigy, clever for her age, intellectual, with outstanding academic records and few friends. She is the narrator of the story where we follow her and her father as they settle in a new town where Blue is befriended by the mysterious high school teacher Hannah Schneider who has collected a group of talented students around her in a group referred to as The Bluebloods. From the very beginning she is eager for Blue to join their little merry group and though reluctant to do so at first, Blue suddenly has a group of friends though she doesn't exactly fit in with them. She is somewhat scared by the bohemian Leulah, the handsome Charles and the other Bluebloods who all have twisted, strange pasts. Then one day Hannah dies (this is not a spoiler - it is mentioned at the very beginning of the book) and then it all comes tumbling down. It is a story that wants us to reflect on what we actually know about the people that we know, it is about identities and narratives that twist and turn and make it impossible to find the truth.

When it came out "Special Topics in Calamity Physics" it received a lot of really great reviews and some critical ones. Overall though, it was quite popular and I have to say that I love it though it is probably not for everyone. There is not clearcut definition of what this book is in terms of genre - a coming-of-age novel, a crime novel, a mystery. A literary gem if you ask me! There is so much about this book that I love. The fact that the chapters are named after literary milestones such as Othello, the fact that Blue has an enormous knowledge about and love for books and quotes the all the time. The story is amazing and has one of the best and most well-thought-out endings ever.
Most of all, however, I love the characters. The pretentious Gareth who is not really a nice guy and who is definitely selfish and has a huge, inflated ego - his bad sides only remedied by the fact that he has unconditional love for Blue. Blue is, however, easy to love. She is a pretty honest narrator and her voice and story is full of the teenage worries that I think we all know. The "am I good enough?"s, the worry about the future, about boys. She is so clever, intellectually and academically, yet so socially awkward, and I found myself wondering what became of her after the book ended. For me that is one of the best indicators of a successful literary character.

All in all I can only recommend this book - but be aware that it is long and that the last part is unputdownable so reading it in bed when you really should be sleeping is dangerous to your beauty sleep.

Read it if: You love books and like your heroines clever and full of reflections on life. If love conspiracy theories, mysteriousness and a good story.