Sara's reading

[lexiepiper]

I have this on my TBR pile, so I'm glad to hear you say good things about it!

[SaraPepparkaka]

I haven't been here (would like to say some well chosen words about my husband's workplace and the internetdepartement- but you know what I mean anyway) but I have been reading.

 

On Frankie's recommendation I went looking for books by Sofi Oksanen, and found "Baby Jane" in the Trusted Local Library, I read it and enjoyed it, the style in this book at least was a bit similar to Johanna Sinisalo.

 

I read "Birds Without Wings" by Louis B

[frankie]

Sorry to hear you haven't been able to be on here so much lately but at least you've had (more?) time to spend on reading

 

I'm so glad to hear that you enjoyed Baby Jane! The next one is even better than that and Puhdistus is absolutely brilliant in my opinion. Oksanen deserves all the prizes she's been receiving lately.

 

If you think Oksanen's style is a bit similar than Johanna Sinisalo's I might have to check out Sinisalo's novels at some point.

[SaraPepparkaka]

So, since I last was on here I've read:

 

CJ Sansom: "Sovereign"

K Jones, C Jones and J Buhring "Not Without My Sister"

Minette Walters "The Devil's Feather"

Ann Cleeves "Red Bones"

Johan Theorin "Nattf

[SaraPepparkaka]

More books to add.

CJ Sansom - "Revelation"

Stephen King - "Lisey's story"

Dean Koontz - "Odd Thomas"

Paulo Coelho - "The Zahir"'

 

You kow, I'm really longing to read a nice fantasy right now, but the libraries here are notoriously understocked on those, and I decided I wouldn't buy any new books right now, AND I don't have any friends who read fantasy nearby.

Wait a minute.. The Trusted Local Library has some Terry Pratchett. I might not have read ALL of them yet.

 

And to comment on the books I've read: "Revelation" is in the Matthew Shardlake series. I liked book 1 and 3 more and book 2 and 4 (this one) less.

"Lisey's story" is really not a typical Stephen King-novel, but it was still readable.

Funnily enough, I liked "Forever Odd" much more than this "Odd Thomas".

I wouldn't have kept reading "The Zahir" if it hadn't been so suitable for my "Reading around the world" Librarything challenge. I guess I didn't really understand the freedom Paulo Coelho was talking about. I don't even have the need to feel "free" in my close relationships. I guess I'm not sophisticated enough.

[SaraPepparkaka]

Well, since I didn't really have any books that I wanted to read, I read some chick-lit. Lisa Jewell-"Thirtynothing", Jane Moore-"Ex Files", and Marian Keyes- "Last Chance Saloon". Not surprising, I liked the Marian Keyes best of those three. The stories were familiar, I kept thinking that "I must have read this one before", but I'm sure I haven't, possibly with the exception of "Last Chance Saloon".

 

Then I found a fantasy book I had started and abandoned. Simon R Green- "The Man With the Golden Torc". This book did not deserve to be abandoned, it's just one of those I started to read in hospital and then didn't want to see when I came home just because I had read it in hospital. And just because it didn't deserve to be abandoned that doesn't mean it's a brilliant book, it's rather like an action movie dressed up as fantasy. Extra credit for the hero's girlfriend. She's not stupid, she doesn't need to be rescued all the time, and she has her own mind.

 

Besides, did you know that boiled eggs taste heavenly? It did take me a good while to get that egg down, but after two days of apple juice and Digestive crackers it was wonderful to look at something and NOT feel disgusted. Right now I have a real problem with everything that even vaguely reminds me of milk (cheese, yoghurt etc.) and then add to that a Christening on Sunday where everything that was served had some kind of white yucky stuff in it or on it. Whipped cream, mayonnaise, cream cheese, you name it. It took me until this morning to get over it. Now that I ate that egg, I might be so bold as to make a salad for lunch. I might even eat it!

 

As for my reading, I'm back with the mysteries, I'm about halfway through "A Funeral In Blue" by Anne Perry.

[nicx27]

I read some chick-lit. Lisa Jewell-"Thirtynothing", Jane Moore-"Ex Files", and Marian Keyes- "Last Chance Saloon".

 

Three really good books there. Thirtynothing is my favourite Lisa Jewell book.

[SaraPepparkaka]

Nothing like chick-lit when you're in a bad mood nicx27- all problems solved when you find the right guy!

 

Finished "A Funeral In Blue", and continued with "Child 44" by Tom Rob Smith, and "Brother Odd" by Dean Koontz.

I started the Odd Thomas series in the middle, and I'm glad I did since I honestly don't think I would have read the other two if I'd started with the first one. This was my favourite so far.

"Child 44" is recommended to anyone who wants to read a bleak, violent and disturbing book- I enjoyed it. The opposite of chick-lit maybe. And how come all the books where it's not so simple to see who's good and who's bad take place in Russia?

[SaraPepparkaka]

On my holiday to Barcelona I read "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini, and "The Horrific Sufferings Of The Mind-Reading Monster Hercules Barefoot" by Carl-Johan Vallgren. I liked them both very much, I enjoyed "The Kite Runner" much more than I enjoyed "A Thousand Splendid Suns", it just seemed more genuine.

And after that, I read Terry Pratchett, "The Wee Free Men" and "A Hat Full Of Sky", I'm sure I don't even have to say how much I liked reading those.

And then some chick-lit, "dot.homme" by Jane Moore,not bad as chick-lit goes.

[BookJumper]

Delighted to hear you enjoyed Hercules Barefoot, it was an impulse buy of mine back in the day and I ended up loving it as much as I had fallen in love with the title; I've been recommending it to all and sundry ever since .

[SaraPepparkaka]

On my borrowed Kindle I've read:

Kelley Armstrong- "Frostbitten", "Men Of The Otherworld" and "Tales Of The Otherworld"

Mary Balogh- "Simply Unforgettable" and "Simply Love".

 

I must say that I'm not really getting used to the idea of pressing a button instead of turning a page. Delighted to read the Otherworld books though. The Mary Balogh books were a bit bland.

[SaraPepparkaka]

Not much reading, had a house full of guests. Only one book, "The Catcher In The Rye" by J.D. Salinger. Very well written, and enjoyable.

[SaraPepparkaka]

I have read lots of lovely books. "Wintersmith" - Terry Pratcett, "The Reckoning" - Kelley Armstrong, "The Taking" - Erin McCarthy and "Nine Rules To Break When Romancing a Rake" - Sarah MacLean. And two decent mysteries, "Piece Of My Heart" and "Aftermath", both by Peter Robinson.

 

I can't really say much else about "Wintersmith" than I've said about any other Terry Pratchett book I've enjoyed. Like them all.

 

"The Reckoning" is the final book in the Darkest Powers trilogy, it takes place in the same world as the Otherworld books, but this is a YA series. Nice books, I'd even go as far as saying that this one is better than "Frostbitten".

 

"The Taking" is a book in a series where Erin Mc Carthy writes stories about the seven deadly sins in New Orleans. This books pet sin is greed. Demons, passion, a light touch of history- all in all I DO forgive this book the neat little happy ever after. You'd best be a fan of romance though (and not mind sex scenes) to enjoy this book, it'll not convert you if you aren't.

 

If you will read only one romance book this year, "Nine Rules to Break.." is the one I'd choose. Oh yes, we have the handsome marquess (funnily enough, NOT a duke..) and the spinster who quite surprisingly is pretty, witty and smart. But all in all, I was convinced at the heroine being bored and deciding to have a few adventures, and I was seeing a gradual and convincing development of a relationship that I really could believe in, some good dialogue, and I did not go and skim the pages as usual at the plot twist in the second last chapter when the couple almost didn't have their happily-ever-after.

Really, it's like watching McGyver - you KNOW he's going to use duct tape and chewing gum to get away and get the bad guys, but you never know just how he's going to use it this time.. (and if nothing else reveals my age here, then the McGyver reference does. I realise there may be people, adults even, who were not born when McGyver was the thing to watch on TV.)

[SaraPepparkaka]

An update on my reading:

"Love in the time of cholera"- Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Very well suited for my challenge (to read a book by an author from all UN member countries).

 

"The Yacoubian building" - Alaa Al-Aswany. Egyptian writer, for my challenge but also a good read.

 

"If nobody speaks of remarkable things" by Jon McGregor. Poetic language, but a bit slow for my taste.

 

"Stalinin lehm

Edited June 23, 2010 by SaraPepparkaka

[SaraPepparkaka]

Why is it that books translated from French to Swedish never do well in the process? I suspect that the dislike I had for Assia Djebar's " So vast the prison" has something to do with the translation. Maybe not everything, but I seem to recall other examples of this. Marguerite Duras, for example, her books also really suffer when translated to Swedish. Her book, L'amour, is one of my favourites when written in French, but not at all so great in Swedish. (Yes I can read French if I struggle a bit and use a dictionnary, I'm not so good at speaking it, though..)

 

This was, of course for my UN challenge, for Algeria.

[frankie]

I've never read a French book in Swedish, so I can't really say, but what I can say on the matter is that sometimes some languages are better translated in one particular language than another. I tried reading John Ajvide Lindqvist's Let the Right One In (L

[SaraPepparkaka]

I've never tried a Swedish novel in Finnish.. but the other way round usually works , though lately I tend to read Finnish books in Finnish. I've also never tried to read a Swedish novel in English, so I'll take your word for it..

 

On to books read, then!

 

"Caipirinha med D

[frankie]

I've never tried a Swedish novel in Finnish.. but the other way round usually works , though lately I tend to read Finnish books in Finnish. I've also never tried to read a Swedish novel in English, so I'll take your word for it..

 

It wouldn't make much sense for you to read a Swedish novel in Finnish, would it I envy you, you can read in Swedish, Finnish, English and French, at least!

[SaraPepparkaka]

I read a book that I've had on my shelf for some time. Remember last year (or was it the year before) I read "The knife of never letting go" by Patrick Ness, and thought it was the most wonderful book I'd read in a loong loong time. And it ended with the mother of all cliffhangers? Well, I got around to buying the next book pretty soon after that, but when I started reading it, I didn't like it much, so I left it. Well, I started again with "The ask and the answer", and now I could read it. I even thought it was kind of good. Way way too much action, but somewhere in between I could see something of that I loved so much with "The knife of never letting go". It says on the back cover it's a trilogy, but I can't decide if I'll look for the third book.

 

And a Swedish mystery, by Anna Jansson, "Fr

[SaraPepparkaka]

New forum looks new.. It'll be great once I get used to it.

 

Three more books read, after a succesful raid to the library. Terry Pratchett- "Sourcery", Lily Prior -"Ardour" and Lisa Cach- "Dating without novocaine". Now, everyone knows which book I enjoyed the most. The others were.. OK. Lily Prior kept turning up on all kinds of recommendation sites for me, but I didn't fall for this book at least. I got another one at the same library visit, so I'll give that one a go as well.

[SaraPepparkaka]

Nothing like reading when you're stuck in hospital for hours..

 

"The selected works of T.S. Spivet" by Reif Larsen. Description courtesy of Wikipedia:

The novel is told from the perspective of twelve-year-old T.S. Spivet, a mapmaking enthusiast living in Butte, Montana near the continental divide. T.S.'s mother, referred to as "Dr. Claire," is a scientist in search of a rare breed of tiger beetle. His father, an emotionally detached rancher with a fondness for western culture, shows little interest in T.S.'s enthusiasm for the scientific world. While T.S. has followed in Dr. Claire's scientific footsteps, the Spivets' youngest son Layton displayed greater affinity for cowboy paraphernalia; his fixation on guns, however, would result in a deadly accident with a shotgun in the family's barn, an event that devastated a guilt-ridden Spivet. The Spivet's eldest child, daughter Gracie, is on the verge of her teenage years at the book's beginning, prone to "awful girl pop" and violent mood swings.

 

T.S.'s love for scientific research leads to a friendship with his mother's partner, who unbeknownst to the Spivets has sent several of T.S.'s works into various magazines and societies. One day, T.S. receives a call from a man at the Smithsonian Institution who, believing T.S. to be an adult scientist, informs him that he has won the prestigious Baird Award and is invited to give a talk at the Institution's ceremonies. Without telling his family, T.S. decides to run away from home to attend the event, which he will travel to by freighthopping. Hiding himself in a Winnebago that is being shipped, T.S. settles down for a lengthy journey, imagining the Winnebago to be a conversational companion along the way.

 

The middle section of the novel consists largely of text from one of his mother's notebooks, which he stole on impulse and packed with him for the trip. In a surprise departure from Dr. Claire's scientific fixations, the notebook is a semifictional account of a Spivet ancestor who was herself a great researcher and cartographer. This reveals a side to his mother T.S. had not been aware of, and a mystery begins to form as he rides the rails.

 

My thoughts: very much worth reading, even if I'd have liked to know a bit more about the relationship between T.S's mother and father.. but it wouldn't make sense for T.S to know things like that. If you love footnotes this is definately the book for you.

Edited July 27, 2010 by SaraPepparkaka

[Kylie]

Nice review Sara. I really must bump this up my TBR pile.

 

I hope you're doing well.

[SaraPepparkaka]

So, finished "Masquerade" by Terry Pratchett, (oh, yes, excellent reading as usual) "Harry Potter and the chamber of secrets" (J K Rowling)(will suit my boys I think), and "The perfect man" by Sheila O'Flanagan. Sheila O'Flanagan seems to be Irish, so that book gets a place on my UN challenge list. I liked this book since I love reading about complicated relationships.

Edited August 10, 2010 by SaraPepparkaka

[SaraPepparkaka]

A little reading done despite the busy schedule. Anne Holt - "Bortom sanningen" (Behind the truth, my translation), a mystery by a Norwegian writer. Oh the Scandinavian mystery writers, they are very productive. It's OK reading too, just not excellent. And I'm a bit bored by them. I still have some left from the bag of books I got from my colleagues when I got sick.

A book that will make it onto my UN challenge list- "Die Teufelsbibel" by Richard Dübell, a German writer. Well researched historical novel, and a credible love story that got too little attention in my opinion, most of the attention being on murder, mayhem and deceit. There seems to be a sequel. I've not decided if I will read that.

Then, to the joy of all the Innocent Ladies Who Enjoy A Bit Of Fluff, I read a Sherrilyn Kenyon, "Night Embrace". And I've bought "Kiss of a demon king" by Kresley Cole, but have not yet started reading that one. I'll have to read "Fire" by Kristin Cashore first.

 

 

 

[Weave]

Great reviews Sara, well done