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Dogmatix's List 2007


dogmatix

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5. The Grey King - Susan Cooper

 

I've got one day to tuck something in. Last year I bought a nice hardcover set of a series of children's book which I loved as a kid and I can now afford to own icon_wink.gif The Dark is Rising (series) - Susan Cooper and I've been reading them in snatches. Today I'll be reading The Grey King the fourth book in the series. I'll not be posting a review on this one book but this is a lovely childrens series and I do recommend it if you've got kids in your life. The entire series is 1. Over Sea, Under Stone 2. The Dark is Rising 3. Greenwich 4. The Grey King 5. Silver on the Tree. If you're not familiar the stories they revolve around Grail Legend and the adventures of the Drew Children and their mysterious Uncle Merriman Lyon. The books reference some very ancient Welsh legends and older English legends in them that I had to research a bit as they were so foreign to me. Well written and recommended as a series for children.

 

'Nuf said. icon_biggrin.gif

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10. The Half Brother - Lars Saabye Christensen is now finished. It was a BOTM at another forum I vist and I've spent a lot of time discussing so I'll not post a review here, except to say this is a sweeping and beautiful epic in the style of Irving and a definite STRONG recommendation. It won the Nordic Prize for Literature.

 

He's the review from Amazon:

Epic yet startlingly contemporary, this massive novel charts 50 years in the life of an unconventional Oslo family, lighted by gleams of the frozen north and the glow of movie screens. Narrator Barnum, an award-winning screenwriter, retraces his family's history, which begins with the rape of his mother, Vera, as a young girl at the end of World War II. From this crime, Barnum's half-brother, Fred, is conceived. Fred is angry, prone to mood swings and outbursts of verbal cruelty. But he is also street-smart, self-reliant and fiercely—if erratically—protective of Barnum, a small, sensitive boy who never grows to full height. The boys live with Vera and an extended family of spirited, loving women, including the Old One, Barnum's great grandmother (a former silent movie actress), and his beer-drinking grandmother, Boletta. Barnum's father is Arnold Nilsen, an itinerant con man, who woos and marries Vera. When Barnum is almost grown up, unpredictable Fred goes to sea and disappears, leaving Barnum angry and confused. Barnum finds companionship and love through his relationships with friends Peder and Vivian, eventually marrying Vivian, but their connection unravels, particularly with Vivian's pregnancy—a pregnancy that torments Barnum, who is secretly infertile. Barnum's conflicted, complicated love for his brother anchors the novel, but Christensen tenderly explores all sorts of human connection, examining the emotions aroused by absence and persistence, and the complex nature of family and forgiveness. Like Péter Nádas's Book of Memories and Péter Esterházy's Celestial Harmonies, this is a challenging, marvelously rich novel steeped in European history and charged by present-day anxieties.

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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