frankie

In honor of Finland's 99th Independence Day

Yes, those are the very things I was thinking you might be talking about. I really And yes, I now feel like re-reading the book series!! Morbid is fascinating! And how can one fight fascinating? I, too, liked how all the characters were linked in the end. I like that sort of thing, and Dan Rhodes did it very well Gold is definitely worth a read! It might not be quite as strange as this one, but still, it's really really good!

People are really shocked

Today's news are mostly about the 23yo. man who shot three women to death in front of a bar Saturday night Completely out of nowhere. And apparently he chose his targets in random. The other bit of news that is dominating the press is Saara Aalto visiting Finland, on her final week of the Talent UK competition.

Yes, nobody's expecting you, Athena, or anyone else for that matter to take part in the read-a-thon every month. I hope you don't think that just because you came up with the idea, you are compelled to participate each month. You should do the read-a-thon only if you feel like it, and not force it! Force-reading is no fun You should have fun with your reading, aye? Like Nollaig said, I'm sure there'll be people who want to do the read-a-thon, even all by themselves in their lonesome, if no one else will participate! I know I would

Oh wow, I didn't realize I was so behing on reading your reviews! I'm going to add the Columbine book and After Dark by Haruki Murakami to my wishlist, thanks! Well, I've an idea to read all of Murakami's books, but I don't think I've read a review on this particular novel by him before. What were the two spoilers? I mean the one where something happened to a character and something that might be happening to another one in the future? I mean I have an idea but I'm not sure if those things happened in this book or a later one, so I can't ask you any specific questions... But yeah, it gets rather graphic! And the third novel is not my favorite in the series, I hope you shall like it better than I have. But yes, best to take a break from all the brutality Smoke Gets in Your Eyes sounded great, it's going on my wishlist! And A Life In Death: Memoirs of a Cotswold Funeral Director, as well. I see a pattern in someone's reading But happily there's been books on not just death, but life, too... Wasn't this rather a bizarre book? Such random stuff happened. Like Aurelie throwing the stone and what happened then. And Le Machine This book made me laugh so hard... It's my favorite read this year. I'm sorry it didn't quite grab you the way it did me, but that's... life

That is so cool!! And first of all, your Dad was invited to have lunch with the King and the Queen? So cool!! And then to hear he'd talked with an author and had told her about you? Wow That's very rare! I'll now google to see if her books have been translated into Finnish... Edit: the library doesn't have any Finnish copies of her books, but they have English copies for the chicken encyclopedia, Rendezvous, Close-Up, and an encyclopedia of cats and dogs, too.

Sorry for butting in, but Still Alice is such a great novel! I would totally recommend it

Wow, 114-228 is a lot! We used to also have that every winter when I was a kid... And they still have that on most winters back where I'm from. Helsinki, not so much. I'm glad I'm going home for Christmas, because then Christmas will be white I'm sure had you lived in the 1800s you would've sucked it up and survived No doubt about it. I don't know if you would've had as much time to read (one might've burned a few books to keep the house warm... ) and you actually might not have owned many books to begin with... Isn't this a wonderful time to be living? Books and comfort! I've seen Fargo, and I'm in the minority: I didn't much like it. Maybe it would be better on a second watch... Now that I know what it's like. I guess I'm just not that into the Coen brothers. Although I did watch Barton Fink, by chance, and really liked that one! But yeah, I might give Fargo another go at some point. And the TV series, too. Beautiful Girls is the one we've talked about before, right? The one with Natalie Portman? I'm going to imdb the other movies right now, thanks for the suggestions! I like the 'sky-tinted water' a lot better than our war-eager translation :D The native Americans are a lot more peaceful than us Finns :D I watched two movies yesterday: The Oranges (great cast but the movie wasn't as great as I'd been hoping) and some other one that I can't now remember Edit: The other movie was Your Sister's Sister! That one I really liked. Great cast (Emily Blunt and Mark Duplass, swoon!) and good stuff.

You are most welcome! I hope you will like his books

For me, Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake. I truly intended to read it this year, but what with a new job and other stuff, I've not been able to tackle it. I can only read lighter stuff these days. I'm hoping next year things will get better

I finished watching season 4 of The Wire yesterday. Oh man, what an episode. Such a brilliant show!

Yes you can, and yes he is!! :wub:

Oh, that's only indicative of the fact that I'm not a great debator. That's not to say that I've proven any point of yours. Simone de Beauvoir was a white female European who was in the right circle of people. Many of her friends were literary figures and academics, which I'm sure helped her in her career. That's not to say she wasn't an accomplished author in her own right. I've not read any of her works so I don't profess to know much about them. But that's my point exactly. Arabic and and Vietnamese and Korean languages all use differerent alphabets and not the Latin alphabet system. That alone, and the fact that they're not writing in English, Spanish, French or German, will make it harder for them to reach a wider reading audience. The canon audience. I don't mind discussing literature or other things and disagreeing with someone in general on here, but I don't like the way you get personal in tone when you're disagreeing with someone.

Oh c'mon. The 'I write in Arabic and because I am critical of the colonial, capitalist, racist, patriarchal mindset of the super powers' was a quote from Sadaawi and the being a woman and being African was what Book do furnish a room said himself. Two different things. I agree with you in that the Nobel prize is not what people ought to go by when it comes to authors and great literature. But I also agree with Bdfar when he said one ought to look at how many women and Africans have won the prize. Jean-Paul Sartre was a white European male, Boris Pasternak was a male who wrote in Cyrillic script. (Why would they cry about being ignored by the literary world when they were given the Nobel prize?) George Orwell.. A western male. A western male can be very confrontational about many things, whereas I believe people in minorities are not granted the same liberties. How many authors, universally known and celebrated, can you name, who write in Arabic?

I had to check... So you've had it on your TBR pile since 2002??! :D Oh but well... you were now in the right mood and mindset to read it and thus loved it! Better late than never...!

^ I personally really liked Britt-Marie Was Here, too! And would recommend it

When can you say more? I'd be interested in knowing how you liked the episodes. Or if you didn't like them! I can and will admit that when I first heard there'd be new episodes, I wasn't thrilled or excited at all. I thought it would ruin the greatness of the old episodes, if they botched the new ones. I remember, Kylie, how you were soooo excited, and I wasn't excited at all, in the beginning. But then, as I'd had time to digest the idea, I got really excited. I still can't believe that the episodes have now been aired and are available to watch! I hope there's going to be more! Oh, so you do have the Netflix free month trial over there? Yay, I'm happy for you! (You can also 'shop' for new TV series you'd like to watch some day while you still have Netflix ) I saw the official GG coffee mug online, on their FB website and I really wanted one! But I'm not accustomed to ordering online, apart from a few specific places that I'm used to frequenting.

I'm totally thrilled about this! Wuppiduuu! So pleased you liked it so much!! I'm currently reading The Real Liddy James by Anne-Marie Casey and I'm really liking it.

Jean-Baptiste is a good answer! Not one I would choose myself, but I like your answer. This weeks' question is a very difficult one for me. I don't much like villains... My favorite villains are the ones that can be perceived as villains at one point, but are then revealed to be unassuming, suffering-in-silence heroes.

Yep, most of them are 're-mentions' I was hoping for more new titles, modern ones! Oh yeah, Cloud Atlas was actually the one that I noticed myself! It was in reference to the Shropshire book, right? In other news, Kylie's informed me of another list of the new titles and I shall now update the one I made last week. Edit: I updated the list in my previous post above ^ but you can also read it here: The List provided by these two sources here and here. Irvine Welsh: Trainspotting Mark Twain: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn J. R. R. Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings Walt Whitman: Leaves of Grass (there are other titles in the picture on the link. “Some other favorites featured include Proust and Euclid. “) Jack Kerouac: On the Road Marie Kondo: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying up Sun Tzu: The Art of War David Foster Wallace: Consider the Lobster Cheryl Strayed: Wild Leo Tolstoy: Anna Karenina Sholem Aleichem: Tevya The Dairyman and the Railroad Stories Edward Albee: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf Nora Ephron: I Feel Bad About My Neck and Other Thoughts on Being a Woman Oscar Wilde: The Picture of Dorian Gray Karl Ove Knausgård: My Struggle Edmond Rostand: Cyrano de Bergerac Arthur Miller: Death of a Salesman Charlotte Brontë: Jane Eyre David Mitchell: Cloud Atlas Diana Gabaldon: Outlander George R.R. Martin: Game of Thrones William Wordsworth: Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood Elizabeth Gilbert: Eat, Pray, Love William Shakespeare: Macbeth Jack London: Call of the Wild Laura Ingalls Wilder: Little House in the Big Woods

Here's a thread on A Man Called Ove I started some time ago. The author's first name is spelled without the c (as in Fredrik). I've also read Britt-Marie Was Here and really liked it A Man Called Ove: Weave's review Jänet's review Bobblybear's review Willoyd's review My review My review on Britt-Marie Was Here.

Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs is on sale on Bookdepository! Only 3,88€ In case anyone's interested

Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs is on sale on Bookdepository! Only 3,88€ In case anyone's interested