Alexander's Reading 2013

[Alexander the Great]

Currently reading

In One Person, by John Irving
The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak

Books I've read so far in 2013

• Gerechtigheid, by Stieg Larsson (Millennium, #3)
  English title: The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
• The Lost Symbol, by Dan Brown
• White Teeth, by Zadie Smith
• Millennium, Stieg & Ik, by Eva Gabrielsson
  English title: "There are things I want you to know" about Stieg and I
• Mijn vriend, Stieg Larsson, by Kurdo Baksi
  English title: My friend, Stieg Larsson
• Notes from a Big Country, by Bill Bryson
• The Master of Petersburg, by J. M. Coetzee
• De geheime liefde van Mrs Robinson, by Kate Summerscale
  English title: Mrs Robinson's disgrace, the private diary of a Victorian lady
• The Casual Vacancy, by J. K. Rowling
• Het huis waar jij van hield, by Tatiana de Rosnay
  English title: The House I Loved
• Tom-All-Alone's, by Lynn Shepherd
  USA title: The Solitary House
• De wachters, by Andrew Pyper
  English title: The Guardians
• Het lijkenhuis, by Jefferson Bass
  English title: Carved in Bone
• A Stolen Life, by Jaycee Dugard
• Box 21, by Roslund-Hellström
• Mrs Woolf & the Servants, by Alison Light
• The Daylight Gate, by Jeanette Winterson
• Birdman, by Mo Hayder
• The Treatment, by Mo Hayder
• De literaire kring, by Marjolijn Februari
  English title: The literary circle
• Hood, by Emma Donoghue
• Slaap!, by Annelies Verbeke
  English title: Sleep!
   

Books I want to read in 2013

• The Secret History, by Donna Tartt
• A Song of Ice & Fire series, by George R. R. Martin
• Zadie Smith's work
• J. R. R. Tolkien - The Hobbit
• J. R. R. Tolkien - The Lord of the Rings trilogy

Edited December 22, 2013 by Alexander the Great

[Alexander the Great]

Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy review

 

In general, I really loved reading this series. I got immersed in this verse that is so unlike any other I've read. Especially considering the fact that I hadn't read many remarkable books in two or three years, this was almost a revelation. I grew to love Stockholm, and Sweden in general. The atmosphere of this book is certainly a good reason for reading it.

 

I also like how the main characters return throughout the three books: Mikael Blomkvist, Lisbeth Salander, Erika Berger, etc. Lisbeth Salander was by far my favourite. Every character interacts with others, but also gets plenty of 'alone' time, and there's enough variation in that. Besides the main characters, every book has a set of new characters that I as a reader grew fond of - some I liked more than others, but that's normal. Sometimes, there were too many characters. More than once I heaved a sigh when a new name popped up, followed by a life description of this person. Luckily, this never went on for pages.

 

The plot was amazing in the first two books. It wasn't hard to follow, but it wasn't a simple plot either. It's wonderful how Larsson manages to weave all these different storylines together to form a coherent, well thought-out whole. I gasped in surprise more than once at a revelation. I also liked the plot of the third book, but near the ending - especially the court case - it grew a bit too 'grotesque' to be believable. The court case sounded a bit too much like how everyone wants it to happen, how everyone thinks it should happen, but not like how it would really go.

 

In the second and third book, there are quite some 'dead pages' as well. When trying to make a point, Larsson tends to overdo it at times. The man could write pages and pages of someone doing the same kind of things over and over again, and it grew a bit much at times. Especially the third book didn't captivate me as much as the others - I was actually able to put it aside. I think he could've said the same in less pages for the second and third book. I love long books, don't get me wrong, but I like chapters and pieces to be necessary.

 

Larsson knew his characters really well, they really came to life. The only thing I thought was disappointing were Lisbeth's feelings for Mikael. It'd have been much stronger if that hadn't happened, and it really does take away a lot of the female power that drives the books so much. I applaud Larsson as a feminist, but that was a negative to me.

 

But hey, overall, these were great books. Refreshing because it was a mix of mystery, detective, journalism, politics and feminism. I'm glad I bought the books, because I'm sure I'll read them again at some point - and I don't say that often.

 

General score: 8/10

[Brian.]

Hi Alexander, good luck for your reading in 2013.

 

I agree with your comment on 'dead pages' in the last two books, I felt the same, they both were about 200 pages too long in my opinion. I think they would have been improved had a harsher editor been used but how possible that was given his death I'm not sure. It's still a great series though.

[Alexander the Great]

Hi Alexander, good luck for your reading in 2013.

 

I agree with your comment on 'dead pages' in the last two books, I felt the same, they both were about 200 pages too long in my opinion. I think they would have been improved had a harsher editor been used but how possible that was given his death I'm not sure. It's still a great series though.

 

I completely agree that they were about 200 pages too long, especially the third one. I often wondered how an editor didn't tell Larsson to cut some things short. After a while, I think everyone got that Lisbeth was abroad doing nothing for weeks, reading maths books and sleeping with someone random. Also - the amount of times I've read they get a sandwich and drink coffee at all times of day and night... but then that's a Nikki French peeve of mine too, where they have toast with marmalade all the time. I'm all for writers who give those little details, but I don't need to read them over and over again.

[bobblybear]

The Secret History, by Donna Tartt

 

This is a very good read. I intend to read it again at some point in the future.

[~Andrea~]

The Secret History, by Donna Tartt

 

I'd like to read this too. Her 'The Little Friend' was one of the best books I read last year.

[bobblybear]

I'd like to read this too. Her 'The Little Friend' was one of the best books I read last year.

 

I couldn't get into that one, but I still haven't ruled it out completely, given how much I loved The Secret History.

[~Andrea~]

I can totally understand that. It did have a very slow start but about half way through the story just explodes. It was fantastic. It's well worth persevering with.

[Alexander the Great]

I really look forward to reading The Secret History, both because the synopsis and setting appeal to me so much, and because I haven't heard anyone who didn't like it. I bought a Dutch copy with a book cheque that was about to run out, and quite some time later I found an English used copy in a reasonable state for only €2.

 

The Lost Symbol review

 

I have mixed feelings on this book. I've read Dan Brown's Angels & Demons, The Da Vinci Code and Digital Fortress before. I liked The Lost Symbol least of all these titles. Like Digital Fortress, some major plot points were so predictable that I almost felt offended as a reader that I was expected to believe these supposedly brilliant minds took so much time to reach a conclusion based on the given information. But Digital Fortress had a better flow to it. The Lost Symbol was quite predictable and cliché for anyone who's read Brown's other work. He seems to be following a formula the way Nicholas Sparks does - the same elements returning in every story, only by another name. I'd have appreciated something new or different.

 

This book didn't read as fluently as the others either. I felt like some points were repeated over and over again - something that also bugged me tremendously about Digital Fortress. Brown doesn't know how to make a point just once, he just has to say it over and over again, once again making me feel like I'm being treated like a moron. Many repetitions combined with the fact that so many times the story didn't really move forward didn't make it the pageturner I expected from Dan Brown.

 

But despite all that, this is not a bad read. The story itself is complex as ever, and contains so much interesting information and curious facts to ponder on. It speaks to the imagination. Also, even though Robert Langdon was at times so irritating, the other characters were quite well-written. They had different sides to them, aspects, could be quite surprising - very realistic. That's not very evident in a thriller that is mainly plot-driven.

 

In short - while I'm not 100% convinced of this book and don't plan on a re-read, it wasn't a bad book either and I am curious to see how they will turn this into a film.

[frankie]

I really look forward to reading The Secret History, both because the synopsis and setting appeal to me so much, and because I haven't heard anyone who didn't like it. I bought a Dutch copy with a book cheque that was about to run out, and quite some time later I found an English used copy in a reasonable state for only €2.

 

The Secret History is really great, I'm jealous you get to read it for the first time It is a very appealing setting, indeed, and I have to say, in my opinion the story is as good as one can hope!

 

 

And thanks for the review on The Lost Symbol. I don't think you are alone in thinking it's not one of Brown's best, for sure. I've yet to read the book myself, I won't be expecting all that much from it based on you and other people's review.

 

I hope you have a great reading year in 2013!

[Timstar]

[Alexander the Great]

White Teeth review

 

Of course, I'd heard about Zadie Smith before, but this is the first novel I've read of hers. A few weeks prior to reading it, I'd read an interview with her in my weekly magazine and it'd made me curious about her work. I decided to start with her debut.

 

Even though the synopsis gave me the impression that this book wouldn't quite be a genre I like, I decided to give it a try anyway, so I started reading the first page. And the second. And the third. I found myself utterly unable to stop reading the book. Smith has a very entertaining style that kept me curious and wanting more, even though the characters are anything but heroes. These are not the kind of people you'd proudly call your friend, but still I got weirdly attached to them. They're strange, absurd, boring, unpredictable - yet I somehow cared. 

 

Some parts really could have been cut short - thinking of Archie and Samad during the war, for example - but I think that's probably down to personal taste. I loved the overall style, the absurd people and events and the humour. The end left me wanting more and I can't say I liked the way she handled that so quickly. In general, though, I'm very glad I gave this book a chance.

 

"There are things I want you to know" about Stieg and I + My friend, Stieg Larsson review

 

Two books about Stieg Larsson, author of the famous Millennium triology. The first title was written by Eva Gabrielsson, the woman he shared his life with for 32 years. The second title was written by Kurdo Baksi, who calls himself one of Stieg's closest friends and knew hem for 12 years.

 

Before reading the books, I'd heard/read that Kurdo Baksi isn't all that reliable. Still, I felt that if I was going to read Gabrielsson's story, I had to read the other side as well. I think that Gabrielsson, who has known Larsson far longer and far more intimately, is more reliable. I'd read online that she comes across as very bitchy in this book and that it serves a purpose of revenge more than it does telling the world about Stieg, but I didn't get that vibe anywhere. In fact, I think those comments come from men who probably don't notice themselves how sexist they are.

 

It's very interesting to read the contradictions in both books. For example, Gabrielsson says that she was the first to see Stieg when he'd died, together with his father, for whom she'd waited. Baksi, on the other hand, claims to feel like after Larsson's death he became his representative - and says that he was the first to see Larsson when he'd died, and Gabrielsson the last. In general, I got the impression that Baksi was minimalising Gabrielsson's role in Larsson's life, only mentioning her when absolutely necessary, but keeping silent about her most of the time. He doesn't mention the massive fuss there's been about Stieg's inheritance and I got the strong impression that he doesn't always tell the objective truth but very much likes to twist stories.

 

In the end, I think I got a pretty clear image of who Stieg Larsson was from both books. Both books are clearly written with the purpose of overcoming grief and have largely (but not entirely) been written for therapeutic purposes, rather than really providing a biography of Stieg Larsson's life.

 

Notes from a Big Country review

 

This book is a collection of columns Bryson wrote when he moved from the UK to the US with his family, after having been away for twenty years. I haven't read any of his other work so I can't compare, but I like his style. He writes fluently and clearly has a good sense of humour. Obviously, there were some columns I didn't like very much, but that's inevitable. I'm certainly curious to read more of him!

 

 

The Master of Petersburg review

 

I'm not impressed. I know Coetzee is a celebrated author and I can see why, but I just don't particularly like his writing style. It feels too forced and convulated. I also don't think it helps that the perspective was so narrow. There was so much more to the story than could be seen from the point of view of the wailing Dostoyevsky who was drowning in self-pity. If Coetzee had opened up the story and involved other characters more, I think I'd have liked it better. All other characters were props to Dostoyevsky, and that's a shame. They had a right to their own story.

 

Mrs Robinson's disgrace review

 

In one word: unexpected. In two: pleasantly surprised. In the library, it's placed with the novels and based on the description, I also always thought it was a fictional work. I was suprised to notice this was non-fiction. Summerscale, however, writes non-fiction in a very story-esque style, for lack of a better word. We get to read excerpts from the diary in question, and Summerscale manages to explain the events, give background info on habits, history, knowledge of that time, characters, etc. It reads very fluently. As a reader, you don't learn what exactly it was Mrs Robinson wanted, you don't find out what really happened, but that's not the point, I believe. I admire Summerscale for her ability to explain and give background on such complex matters in such an understandable way. I certainly plan to read more books by her.

 

 

[Alexander the Great]

The Casual Vacancy review

 

I didn't doubt it before, but this book confirms it for me: J.K. Rowling is a Great author. 502 pages - which reasonably long - but I read it in almost one go. I read whenever I could and had a hard time stopping. Rowling knows her characters and she knows them well. I absolutely love how we get to read the story from so many different points of view. In her Harry Potter series, we only get to read from Harry's POV and sometimes that was a bit of a handicap. But in The Casual Vacancy, we get most characters' point of view.

 

Characters

 

I said before that Rowling knows her characters and she knows them well. I also feel that she doesn't judge any of them, or doesn't favour one over the other. No doubt she'll have her favourites, but I couldn't tell you which ones those are, and I think that's a very good quality in an author. All the characters are very different, but they're also connected. In the beginning I really loved connecting the dots between characters, almost drawing up a connection chart in my mind. 

 

I know some people think there are too many characters. I disagree. They're all different enough personality-wise to keep them apart and they all add to the story in their own way. They all complement eachother and contribute to the whole in their own way. They all make the story complete. I also love it when there are many characters for an author to juggle around - if you dislike one character, there are enough others to love or like or be interested in. There are some characters I wish Rowling had written more about - such as Patricia Mollison. But then Patricia very much stood for the Pagford escapee living a liberated life in the big city far away, so some mystery around her really was needed for that particular character. I'd have liked to see more interaction between her and a slightly drunk Samantha Mollison, but I don't mind that it isn't there. I like being able to imagine it for myself.

 

The characters aren't types or clichés. You can't pinpoint them, and they're more than one trait. They all have layers and I think that's impressive, because most of them make it easy to paint them as charicatures. But none of them are. I found it impossible to hate any of the characters, simply because they were all so complex.

 

The story

 

In contradiction with Rowling's Harry Potter series, there isn't a big plot with subplots and a clear ending. This is more of a snapshot of Pagford life, beginning at the moment Barry Fairbrother dies. It's a momentary look into their lives. Each character has their own feelings, their own worries, their own way of dealing with things. They all go through their separate lives, and all these lives overlap in ways they inevitably do in small communities. All these people's little stories form a greater whole. It feels very natural and I really loved it.

 

!!!POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT!!!

 

There isn't a clear-cut ending - there's no 'x years later'. I liked that. You can imagine for yourself what happens, all possibilities are open. I usually hate open endings with a passion - I want to know what happens to characters. But in this book, it was very fitting. That says a lot about Rowling's qualities as a writer for me as well.

 

Rowling doesn't shy away from reality or tragedy. She managed to make me laugh and cry and wonder how she manages to do that when so few authors can. Yes, she's a Great one, and I can't wait to read what she'll have for us next.

[Alexander the Great]

The House I loved review

 

I read this book because the library didn't have "Sarah's Key". I was curious about de Rosnay's writing style, and the blurb seemed interesting enough for me to try this out. The setting is 19th-century Paris, the topic is baron Haussmann disowning Parisian homes for his plans to renew the city and build grand boulevards and buildings. The main character, Rose, lives in one of these homes - it was her late husband's family home and his family had lived in it for over a hundred years.

 

There are two problems with this novel: the main character and the format. The main character, Rose, comes across to me as a very self-centred, haughty woman who thinks she is the most precious thing that ever lived. She is completely unlikeable and throughout the novel she does nothing but whine about how wretched her life is. For some strange reason, every other character immediately takes to her and just about everyone seems willing to risk their life to save her. It makes little sense. Nobody seemed to dislike her. Everything always went smoothly for her - she met a good-looking young man who was of course immediately in love and then went on to live with him and his mother, who of course adored her from the get-go. She's never had to work for a living either. The first real problem she encounters in her life is a very serious one - but she hardly fights. She gives up almost instantly, and then makes a choice no sensible person can comprehend.

 

The problem with the format is that Rose writes letters to her late husband Armand, who passed away ten years prior to the start of the book. She tells him about the disowning process. The problem with the format is that Rose constantly makes references to things that happened during Armand's lifetime, so she constantly uses phrases like "as you probably remember" and "as you obviously know". It all comes across as a bit contrived.

 

I finished the book very quickly, but only because it was so short.

 

Tom-All-Alone's (aka The Solitary House) review

 

Quite the disappointment. This book has many elements that I find very interesting - perhaps my expectations were too high after finding a book that combines so many things I like to read about: London, victorian era (Dickens era), the scum of the earth, abuse of power - all that in a detective story. 

 

I think the main problem for me was that the plot drowned in the writing style. The story itself was interesting, but it didn't move along at all and I found myself bored more often than not. I don't mind slow books at all, but slow books have to be rewarding in that they provide you unique insights or make you look at the story or characters another way. This book didn't do any of that. The author seemed really intent to show how well she knew Bleak House and the setting of the story, and how well she could juggle around big words. At the end, I still don't know who did what and why exactly, and how everyone is connected. A major letdown, after struggling through it to at least find out how it all fits together.

 

[Alexander the Great]

The Guardians review

 

 

This was definitely a good read.

 

I am partial to a good haunted house story, especially one with the past explained. I think Pyper explained just the right amount of history for the house to still be intriguing. I was captivated by the story and liked the writing style. Trevor, the main character, isn't perfect but he's likeable enough for the reader to want him to get out of it all okay. I liked the switch between present-day events and Trevor's spoken memory diary. 

 

I read "The Killing Circle" before, and liked it, but I like this one even better. It makes me very curious about Pyper's other work.

[Alexander the Great]

Carved in Bone review

 

The synopsis seemed very promising - a forensic antropologist gets called in on a case where a body was found in a cave, and it becomes clear very soon that some people don't want the truth to be known. This forensic antropologist also set up The Body Farm.

 

It was very annoying to me that the case only took up about 10% of the book. We read more about the main character and his methods than about the case, and he certainly didn't warrant that. He thinks himself humble but is very arrogant, and the cheesy sexism he oozes is downright disgusting. The romantic interludes made no sense whatsoever, and the main character also really seemed to pity himself and at the same time make excuses for himself all the time.

 

I had been ready to read the entire series, but I didn't even open the second book. What a disappointment.

 

A stolen life review

 

This is the story of Jaycee Dugard, kidnapped at 11 and only escaped (with two daughters) at 29. Because this is such a personal story, I have a hard time really forming a critical opinion on it. It's terrible what happened to her, of course. I think this book was mainly therapeutic for the author, and I really hope it helped her heal. There will undoubtedly be vultures looking for the sensational details, and they will be sorely disappointed. You do learn what happened, but there aren't any clear-cut answers. Probably because Jaycee doesn't have them either. I feel for her, and I'm glad she got to write the book, but I probably won't be reading it again.

 

Box 21 review

 

A scandinavian thriller. It was promoted as being like the Millennium trilogy, which it really isn't - the only similarity is that it's about a darker side to Sweden, which is mainly known as a social paradise. I still tremendously enjoyed reading the book. It was fast-paced and because characters sometimes found something about before the reader did, you as reader really want to know what is going on. There are several characters with their own storylines, but they all connect somehow.

 

I don't think the reader is supposed to like the characters, and they do make some incomprehensible choices. In that way, it is very life-like -- the people we know also make choices we can't understand. Until the very last page this book surprises you, and while the ending is heart-wrenching it certainly leaves quite the impression.

Edited June 3, 2013 by Alexander the Great

[Alexander the Great]

Mrs Woolf & the Servants review

 

This very interesting book sheds light on Virginia's Woolf relationship with her servants. This is not an aspect of her life that many biographers include - most focus either on her literary work (obviously), or on her relationship with relatives and friends. I knew of some of the servants, but never in much detail. It is a very interesting read.

 

Woolf's relationship to her servants was not an easy one. She didn't really seem to have a clear idea on how she felt about them, or how to treat them, herself. She was so very ambiguous when it comes to this. The author clearly did a lot of research, but still manages to write a fluent book in a beautiful style. 

 

Only dislike: at times, the author would lose herself too much in details that weren't related to the subject. That distracted from the book at times.

[Alexander the Great]

The Daylight Gate review

I enjoyed Oranges are not the only fruit by this author and I'm generally interested in the topic/genre of this story. I'd prepared for a great read, but was a bit disappointed. The characters all seemed very shallow to me and there wasn't much bulk to the story. Add to that that we are apparently supposed to believe that witches were real and actually did others harm, the entire message of the novel just vanishes. In the end, it all felt a bit pointless and hurried. This could have been much more.

 

Birdman & The Treatment review

 

These are the first two books in Hayder's Jack Caffery series. Perhaps I'll read the other books some day, but I don't really feel the pressing need to. I don't feel any urgency to know what happens next. Caffery is too stubborn to get away with it so easily and it's downright not credible that he is so loved by everyone. He's basically an egotistical a**hole and there are not enough redemeeing qualities or traits to make up for that. As a reader, you find out the truth behind the big mistery in his life long before he does - and a quick search teaches me that even in the most recent novel, he still doesn't know - so you're not at the edge of your seat to know what happened there. The author uses a lot of abbreviations used in the British police force that a common reader often doesn't know, and they're not explained anywhere either. The books are also quite heavy material and sometimes provide a difficult read.

 

De literaire kring review

 

This is the first work I've read by this author, who is quite well-known in the Dutch-speaking literary world. I felt much more could have been done with this - it just seems to go along without any specific direction. There are a lot of interesting stories budding beneath the surface, but the problem is that the author never seems to below that surface and that's a real shame. I could've spent many more pages with Teresa and felt like there was more going on between her and Victor than what happened. This novel is never exciting or thrilling. The author seems to want to talk about every character at the same length, but that also means they all stay quite superficial. The writing is fluent, though.

 

Hood review

 

After reading Room by the same author, I expected a great novel. In the author's defense, Room was written about 15 years later than this novel, so she's had the chance to grow a lot - and she definitely has. Hood doesn't have much of a plot, but I can live with that. My problem is that Donoghue doesn't dig deep enough into Pen's psyche to keep this novel interesting. Pen isn't interesting enough to devote 360 pages to her perspective - especially since you don't get any insight as to who she really is, or how she became who she is. She's living her everyday life, thinking back to her lover who's passed away, to whom she's essentially been a doormat for 13 years. Of course it's refreshing and new to read a novel about grief that doesn't depict a perfect or almost perfect relationship, but this seems to go too far for me. It's incomprehensible why Pen chose to stay with Cara and endured it all once they got out of secondary school. We don't get to know Pen well enough to understand why she'd stay with someone who treats her so badly emotionally. I also expected much more out of Kate's visit, I kept waiting for something to happen or come out of it.
I also had difficulty with the cliché depiction of a lesbian relationship - as if lesbians are incapable of monogamy - but I can forgive Donoghue for this, giving that the novel was published mid 90s and perhaps it hadn't been done to death at that point [i'm from the early 90s myself].

Edited December 2, 2013 by Alexander the Great

[Alexander the Great]

Slaap! review

 

I've been meaning to read Annelies Verbeke's work for quite some time, and her debut seemed a good place to start. I enjoyed this novel - the characters are quite bizarre and it's not always crystal clear what is really happening and what is only happening in their imagination, but I grew quite attached to them, especially to Benoit. This novel also stops at a good point and isn't dragged on endlessly. There isn't much of a real plot, it's very character-driven, but it works for me. I'm curious about Verbeke's other work. The entire style of the novel does feel very "Flemish book post 2000".