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SaraPepparkaka

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Everything posted by SaraPepparkaka

  1. Oh, dear. One look here and I see how many books there are that I would really REALLY like to read. But then- whatever would I do if I ran out of books to read?
  2. Working in a library- lovely! If you do have immigrants or refugees then a reading group doesn't seem to be a bad idea, or at least you can try to see if there would be an interest for a group reading English books. Most of the refugees we have here in my area aren't really great at English, they seem to have learned French as a foreign language.
  3. Straight onto my wishlist. It really sounds like something I could enjoy.
  4. Books read since last time: "Liquidation" by Imre Kertész (Hungary crossed from my UN challenge list!) "Agatha Raisin and the walkers of Dembley" by M C Beaton. I gave up on trying to find no. 1 in the series and read this one. Good for killing a bit of time, didn´t leave a lasting impression. "Complaints" by Ian Rankin. But oh, how I missed Rebus. "Vinteräpplen" by Josefine Sundström. Book about three generations of women in a small town - Kaskö- very close to where I live. Didn't really enjoy, seemed just to be about how badly they were treated and how sorry I should feel for them. I can't see it ever being translated.
  5. Joy- another book read that I can count in my challenge! Hungary: Liquidation by Imre Kertész. This isn't a fun book, but it's a well written book and I enjoyed it. I have read some of his books before, and don't know how I didn't think of him until now for my challenge.
  6. Steven Saylor writes about Gordianus the Finder, a Roman investigator. I've read a couple, they were nice.
  7. He did seem awfully sure of himself. Other than that, I was OK with it. Yes it seems worthwile to look for more books by her.
  8. Sorry about not updating this. Just to let you know, since the middle of October, I have read "The old-girl network"- Catherine Alliott ('90s chick-lit) "We have always lived in the castle" - Shirley Jackson Steve Sem-Sandberg- the book about the ghetto in Lodz, Poland- I have a feeling it may have been translated to English, but I read it in Swedish. "The Cider house rules"- John Irving "Heartstone" - CJ Sansom "A girl's guide to kissing frogs" - Victoria Clayton "Sirila gentlemän sökes"- Karin Brunk-Holmqvist (chick-lit for retired ladies I suppose, love in the old people's home, and I don't think this one has been translated!) And of these, the best was actually "We have always lived in the castle", very well written book, and I will read more by this author.
  9. Am packing for my holiday. Decided to bring: "Heartstone"- CJ Sansom, "The Death Maze"- Ariana Franklin, "The Cider House Rules"- John Irving, and "The Emperor of Lies"- Steve Sem-Sandberg (the last one is a non fiction about the ghetto in Lodz during World War 2)
  10. I felt the need for comfort reading. "Lie by moonlight" by Amanda Quick. Teacher arranges escape from old castle for her four students, they run into mysterious gentleman who investigates this and that, which has led him to that old castle. And then they live happily ever after. Something like that. I may have skipped a few steps. Anyway, this is one of the better Amanda Quick books. I liked this, for example: ”Are you threatening to ravish me, sir?” she asked. ”Because if so, I think it would be best if I removed my glasses first. You know how they tend to fog up when you become passionate.” And then, since it's nice to read about murder and mayhem when the evenings get dark, "Dark places" by Gillian Flynn. Almost all of Libby's family was murdered when she was a little girl. Libby and her brother survived, and Libby's testimony put her brother Ben in prison for the murders. Libby is now grown up and broke, so she agrees to make an appearance at a meeting for a group of people interested in the murder of her family. The group seems to think Ben is innocent, and slowly Libby starts wondering what really happened that night. Complicated relationships give points, nice and winding story, but in the end it's not the book of the year for me. It is the book of the month so far though.
  11. Chesilbeach, how was the novel? Was it like his short stories? I just thought the short stories I read wouldn't have made a good novel, they were perfect just the way they were.
  12. We should form a King's Lynn Society! Anyway, I read another book that I chose based on where the murder happens. "One good turn" by Kate Atkinson. It's the Edinburgh Festival, and a minor car accident leads to multiple murders and the discovery of strange connections between people you'd think have nothing at all in common. I didn't really like the book, or it was ..OK, sort of. Everything just seemed so farfetched and unlikely. But it was nice when I recognised the odd place here and there! I also read a short little book by Margaret Atwood, "The Penelopiad". I thought it sounded interesting with the Iliad from Penelope's perspective, but it could have been a lot more than it really was. Still, I liked the "chorus" chapters, and it was a really fast read. AND she's Canadian, which means this counts in my UN challenge.
  13. I haven't given up on my challenge! For Canada: "The Penelopiad" by Margaret Atwood. The impression it left was a somwhat lightweight book, not what I would have expected.
  14. New and interesting reading! I picked up a book in the library, "The crossing places" by Elly Griffiths, just because of all the places on earth it takes place in King's Lynn. Now, there aren't that many places in Egland I am familiar with, but I have actually been to King's Lynn. And on top of that it was fine reading. AND it's the first book- I have managed to start at book one for once. Ruth is an archaeologist, and when the police finds bones, they consult her. The bones turn out to be from the Iron Age, not the bones of a girl recently disappeared. Ruth gets involved of course, and into the story we go, looking for this girl, and a girl who disappeared ten years ago. "Love begins in winter" by Simon Van Booy. A collection of five short stories, and some of the most beautiful language I've read in a while. Five different ways to look at love, but all a bit melancholy. I will read it again, no doubt about that, and enjoy the way the words are put together. Here's a quote: "If there is such a thing as marriage, it takes place long before the ceremony: in a car on the way to the airport; or as a gray bedroom fills with dawn, one lover watching the other; or as two strangers stand together in the rain with no bus in sight, arms weighed down with shopping bags. You don’t know then. But later you realize—that was the moment.” And then, not a new writer for me, "Welcome to Temptation" by Jennifer Crusie. Not her finest, but occasionally there's witty dialogue and funny scenes.
  15. I thought of one myself too, One by Finnish writer Arto Paasilinna, "Hurmaava joukkoitsemurha" (A charming mass suicide), which despite the title is a funny book about a group of people who want to commit suicide, but rather than doing it alone, they arrange a bus trip to do it together. Well, it all ends with them having had so much fun on the trip that they decide living is too much fun for a suicide. I'm really fascinated: there are even books (and good ones as far as I can tell) about buses!
  16. Two books read: "blueeyedboy" by Joanne Harris. A good read, definately more like "Gentlemen and players" than "Chocolat". Nothing is as it seems, the people aren't who you think they are, and you can't be certain of anything. Lots of twists and turns that I didn't see coming. A good read. "Message in a bottle" by Nicholas Sparks, perfect for what I needed, that is escape from a boring bus trip, other than that, a traditional romantic tale. I haven't seen the film, which was good, since I'm not that fond of Kevin Costner, so it would probably have put me off reading the book in the first place. This one I bought in a second-hand shop that the Red Cross have, so I bought it for a good cause!
  17. Oh, I didn't know Ralph's party had a sequel, and it seems it's a good one!
  18. Great! At least one book! I just started thinking that a bus would be a very challenging environment to write about, instead of, you know, beaches and castles and such places.
  19. I had to take a long bustrip, and I was reading of course. I thought it was lovely to escape the bus and mentally be on a romantic beach- but then I started thinking. Are there any books that take place on a bus, or have a crucial scene on a bus? I couldn't think of any, can you?
  20. Another book read: "The death of Achilles" by Boris Akunin. It's Erast Fandorin returning to Moscow. To be honest, I was almost losing interest somewhere in the middle of the book, but then the murderer starts to tell the story from his point of view, and that adds a lot of new dimensions to the story, and I was happily reading along again. I really like the Japanese butler Masa. An average read, on the whole. I haven't managed to find any sister Pelagia books in the two libraries I go to (Boris Akunin writes about her too), I do think I would enjoy reading those books too, but not enough that it would make me actually BUY them. Ah- of course- Bookmooch might have them.
  21. Would you read Tristan & Isolde if you didn't HAVE to?
  22. I haven't read those, but I did read the first 4 Aurora Teagarden mysteries (the omnibus edition Weave mentioned), but I thought they were a bit - colourless is perhaps the right word. Not bad, just not as good as I expected, given that the author was Charlaine Harris.
  23. Yes, I heard she had died. And apparently wasn't quite finished with this series of books either. Sad.
  24. Read an enjoyable historical detective story. "Mistress of the art of death" by Ariana Franklin. This was a book I bought in the Oxfam bookshop in Stirling, Scotland! Well written, I had a hunch who might be the killer almost from start, but it turns out I was only partly right. A female doctor specialised in the study of corpses, comes to Cambridge to try and solve the mystery of a murdered and several disappeared children. Many sympathetic and interesting characters, generally a nice book. And would you know, it's the FIRST book in a series! I have managed for once to read the first book first! When does that ever happen to me! Also read "Kleopatras kam" by Maria Ernestam, a fantastic tale of a firm started by three friends. The firm promises to solve all their client's problems, but they stop short of murder- or do they? Lovely complicated relationships, well written, well worth a read if you read books in Swedish.
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