May Books

Another one of these posts done late, but better late than never, I think.

Den Siste Pilgrim and Helvete Åpent by Gard Sveen I borrowed one of his books last month and halfway through found out that it was a sort of stand alone trilogy and being me with a slight OCD tendency I had to find the others and read them too. And after a lecture at the local library by Arne And Carlos the Knitter Duo my friendly local librarian helped me to find the two books I had not read. And so I read them, and in my journal I have given both a dice roll of three. So apparently not that good, but my head is feeling good that I read them all and is busy trying to forget that I read them in the wrong order...

Det vokser et tre i Mostamägg  and Himmelbjørnens Skog and Som Steinen Skinner by Britt Karin Larsen
My friend the librarian suggested I read this trilogy, also a stand alone kind, but this time I read them in the right order. This series was about the Finns who lived around the Norwegian Swedish border and how their lives were. I grew up in the forrest of the Finns, my grandparents had a cabin there, but the Finns were fully integrated into the community by then, but still it was an interesting read. The thing I had the most trouble with were the names, there were so many people in these books and everyone had the kind of names that are easy to forget and sound alike. (but that was common in those days and naming your kid after yourself was also common so the names should sound the same, it was just a bit hard to remember who was who sometimes). The quality of the language in the book was fluctuating the story was fascinating and I learned how living was like for the Finns around the border.

Himmelbjørnens Skog

Som Steinen Skinner

Boy by Roald Dahl After listening to the lecture I wanted to read the autobiography of Roald Dahl, he was one of my favourite authors growing up, I loved Mathilda, BFG and the Witches even if I read them with a dread in my stomach. But reading about his life helps to understand his books, because grown up's were not that kind to children when he was a kid and then it makes sense that Mathilda meets such a horrific principal. I am thinking it might be time to read more of his stuff for adults too. I vaguely remember the one were the police ate the murder weapon from school, which is the kind of crime I like to read about.

36/52

April Books

I have started this wrap up a bit late, as in a couple of months overdue and so not all books have left an impression on me. Reading back in my journal I have a hard time differentiating between some of these so I think I will just name them and move on. I remember thinking some of these books were a bit of a time-waster.

Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman

This book is not strictly a story it is a rewritten Saga of the Norse gods, and I did like it, I did not love it, I think I would have loved it more if there was just one story and more from the authors mind. But I do understand that that was not what he wanted. So if you read this with that in mind the book is enjoyable but if you read it thinking it would be like the other books of Mr.Gaiman I think you will be disappointed. I haven't read much about the Norse Mythology since I was ten-ish, I remember I loved everything about the vikings and read all I could, and ten year old me would have loved this book. (if I read it in Norwegian, I was 12 when I started reading English books).

Odinsbarn by Siri Pettersen

This book I absolutely loved, it is another book for youths, but I don't really care that much about labels. It was intriguing, a new sort of story and I liked the characters, although at times it shone through that I was older than the intended demographic.

Råta 

Book two was a bit of a let down, as in, what happened was exactly how it should have to drive the book forward and exactly how  I thought it would, but still, the first book was a lot more interesting and seemed more well written and more of a great idea. 

Evna

The book where the ring closes and as a third book in a trilogy it too develops as it should and ends how it should, but it is much less of a page turner than book one.

All in all a good series and one that I think is a good youth read, good story, good characters and good language, perfect for less experienced readers. I liked it.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Husband and I were listening to this together and while listening was fun it was hard finding time to do that together so I borrowed this from the library, I had to read it in Norwegian, but nevertheless, I loved it. I am not that much of a gamer so a few of the references went by me I am sure but the feel of the book was excellent. Ready Player One is a book where you know the outcome in the first chapter and still you want to read on. That is a hard thing to write. Husband to wants to read this. This is the book of the month for me.

Vårt tragiske univers by Scarlett Thomas 

I got this book at the library sale when my friend and I went to a lecture on Roald Dahl, and I mostly bought it because it was cheap and I thought I needed a book for travelling, I don't really like to travel with borrowed books. And I read it on the flight to Paris and it was O-K. To be honest I remember it was a bit boring to read and not really a book for me, but there was nothing really wrong with it.

Apokalypse alt nå? by Alexander N. Wilken

Blod i dans by Gatd Sveen

Den Syvende demonen by Øystein Borge

I borrowed these from the library because it is Easter and in this holiday season crime books are a must. And honestly I find more and more that crime books are not my thing. Which is weird because I still love to watch that genre, and my first adult book I read was all of Agatha Christie, but thinking about it who-did-it books can be many things and these were too generic for me. Maybe I need a different kind of crime or a different kind of writing for me to love it. With Agatha Christie the characters are so well written for the most part and I adore the 20's. Also the tired old drunken cop is not really my cup of tea, I like quirky, like Mr. Poirot and Miss Marple or Sherlock Holmes or the like. I have been watching Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries and I LOVE it, am thinking I might want to read the books...

30/52

March Books

This month I read the entire " A Series of Unfortunate Events", The Bell Jar and De Gales hus by Karin Fossum.


A series of unfortunate events,
I saw the movie when it came out, and I loved it, and I remember I read the first book, but I guess I didn't read the rest, and then I saw that Netflix started to show a series about the books, and I watched  it and I loved that too. So I went to my local library and borrowed the first nine books and they ordered the rest of the books from a different library. And I read the books in a hurry, at first the books were small enough that I finished almost a couple a day and then in the end they took a day to read which is why I have counted them as not 13 books but 6.

These books are a captivating read, I genuinely want good things to happen to the main characters and they are facinating as are the things that happen to them. I love how it is written with lots of quirky words and twists and turns in the plot and over the top characters, but in the end, maybe the characters are not so over the top but more human?

I recommend this book to all ages, I don't think intended demographic matters much, if you like something read it and don't care about which isle it is in. After all Harry Potter was a children's book but adults all over the world read those books and loved them. There are gems everywhere so go explore. I try to, both in new genres and in new isles and sometimes I pick out books that look interesting or just randomly when I am at the library. After all they are free to borrow so what do I have to loose?

At first I was sort of miffed because it seemed like the author was not sure how old the baby was, but after a while it was clear that the baby was a genius like her siblings but also was growing, and her words started to mean things.

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, is a book I have read several times, and while I like the mood of the book and understand the protagonist is sick, I just don't like her all that much and sometimes feel like she should just get a grip, which is most unhelpful when someone is battling depression. I just don't feel for her at all. The Bell Jar is a good read if you can read about people who are psychically ill and it does do a good job portraying mental illness.



De gales hus, in my opinion is a far better book, the main people in this book are easier to relate to and I don't want to reach into the book and pound them as I did with the other one. This book is set at a later date without shock therapy but still with lots and lots of pills.
I do think it makes a good sneak peak into the life of someone who is institutionalized and different kinds of mental illnesses, all the characters seem convincingly sick in different ways and I find myself hoping they will get a little bit better, but I somehow still think a few of them might be happier inside the institution.

It is not overly graphic but it does talk about sore topics such as death, suicide and self-harm. I would recommend this book, although  I am not sure it is translated to all that many languages.

21/52

February Books

This post is a tiny bit late. I was wondering what funny thing to write about each book and I found out I am not clever at all these days, so I figured I would just write them into the journal anyway, the point is not always what I write about the books  or that I reach my goal, but that I started to read again.... and enjoying it. Although I still watch a lot of TV, I have to, I haven't figured out how to knit or crochet whilst reading. (other than audio-books and I have not really made friends with those yet)

Harry Potter and the order of the Phoenix, 766 pages

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, 607 pages

Harry Potter ant the Deathly Hallows,  607 pages

 What can I say about the Harry Potter series? I love it, and now that husband has bought me all the films I plan to watch them, and he has to watch them with me. Haha.

Merkelig Vær i Tokyo by Hiromi Kawakami, 196 pages

We borrowed this book from the in-laws, and I liked it. It is a bit different, a bit slow as in nothing much happens. Very Japanese, but nice. Made me want to go back.

Out by Natsuo Kirino,  552 pages

I read the other two books by this author back last summer when I was in Japan, but I never really blogged about it. I think this is my favourite of the three books, it is grim and dark, but not scary other than when you think there are people out there who behave like they do in this book...

13/52

think I can do it?



Pictures taken from wikipedia, I think

January books

 My book challenge last year didn't really go that well in the sense that I didn't read 52 books in 52 weeks, so I stopped reading and had fun doing other things, but I did read more which was the main goal anyway. I read a lot more books than the year before and I felt that I enjoyed reading again which made me happy. I have always been a bit of a bookworm and have always loved getting lost in between the words. My mother and I would usually sit and eat dinner with a book each and I loved doing that, my dad hated me reading at dinner, but I did it anyway.... So here are the books I have read in January and let us hope that perhaps this year I can reach 52 books.

The first two Moomin books in Swedish. I know they are children's books so I count them as one book. But it was challenging at times to read Swedish, but mostly because it is some sort of Finnish-Swedish and kept feeling that it should read dom and not de all the time... I have never read Moomin before but I have seen the show and I could remember parts of the stories while reading. The clouds from the magicians hat was a particular favourite of mine.

Speaking of childhood, I saw lots of old advent calendar shows before Christmas and this lady was in one of the ones I saw and I found a childrens book she wrote and her autobiography so I borrowed them from the library. I enjoyed both of them although they were hard to read in the sense that the topics were not light and sunny.

The first book I read in the new year was a Christmas book I received from my aunt. She said it was the best book she read all year. I read it in three days and I liked it. The ending seemed a bit rushed, but the characters were vivid and I liked how the war and misery was felt but not a prominent part of the narrative. I hate books about the war that dwell on all the horror it just makes me feel sick. 

Another book I got for Christmas was the new Harry Potter book, which is a play...

What I can say about it is that I feel conflicted, on one hand the story is good, but it still felt like a fan fiction more than a J.K Rowling book and it also felt rushed. I would have like them to elaborate a little and give it out as book and not a play... But it was still good and unexpected I think. I read it fast  in one go and I reminisced about how I did that with the original Harry Potter books as soon as they were translated. I wanted to re-read them. So I did.

I read the first four Harry Potter books, but I did spend more than one day on the fourth.

They are still exciting and good books, but I do think it was special when we grew up reading them as we aged with the characters and so were not too young when the next books were released... The first book is clearly a childrens book and then it gets more and more dark and suited for an older audience...

Because some books were smaller than others I am counting 8 books read in January. February is shorter so I am sure I will not read that many books then.

8/52

Book Challenge Month Four

I may be way behind in my book challenge, you know Japan happened and I had to return the books to the library and things like that so thing took time, but here I am with another set of books.

June was Autism month for me, it is usually in march I think but that doesn't matter. 

So here are my best books written by people with autism or about people with autism.

Kjære Gabriel by Halfdan W. Freihow

a book written from a fathers perspective about a boy with autism and ADHD in letter form, about their daily life and how he tries to understand his son. I love the book, even if it is sad and I sometimes get a bit angry about the father who does not seem to understand his son even if he tries ( and he thinks he does understand him, but I can see he doesn't always). I recommend it.

Another book I really like is the curious incident of the dog in the nighttime by Mark Haddon. Another book about a boy with Aspergers Syndrome, something happens to the neighbourhood dog and the main person wants to know what happened, all the adults try to dissuade him from investigating... And then his whole life turns upside down.

I like this book, the portrayal of someone with Aspergers I think is spot on although I have never been a boy so I wouldn't know how boys with Aspergers react. But since all people are different even those with a syndrome I am sure there may have existed someone like that.

My one grievance about this book is that this too as so many Autism books is about how one thinks a person with Aspergers is like and it turns a little into a stereotype, I wish there could be written a book about more normal people with Aspergers, you know someone without "special powers"? Someone who is not good with numbers and not a train fanatic.

A book written by a group of girls in a school in Britain who have autism. I have seen the documentary a couple of times and really liked it, here we have a more natural portrayal of autistic girls, and I am happy this book is about girls for a change. I highly recommend it even if it is short.

Temple Grandin is an autistic woman who has a Ph.D and is very good at designing things for animals and thinking like an animal. I did miss a Rabbit section since I am all about rabbits, but I did learn a lot about cows, hens, cats and dogs and how you can fulfil their needs. I do think some of the things in this book can be used for rabbits too, I do know that I do think about the rabbits needs, like having two exits in their hideaways so that they feel more at ease when hiding and giving them things to chew on and explore and rugs on the floor so that they can run about and things like that...

Deja Dead, by Kathy Reichs, this series of books is what the series Bones is based on. I have only read the first, and I quite like it.... If you like detective books you will like this book, it does not have anything special about it and the language is fine, I had a bit of trouble with the French since I don't speak French, but Mister M does and he translated. I love Bones, I did not love this book, but it is the first in its series so things might get better.

Why do I jump, by Higashida Naoki, written by a young boy with autism who tells his story. I really like this book, it is in my opinion one of the best written books in its genre. And the fact that this boy is still a child makes the book een better... 

I don't jump much, but when I am very exited I do. Sometimes when I have something to say that is bursting out of me I may flap my hands and my interest in rabbits may be as big as the train boy in the other book...

So, by June I have read 23 books, and again sorry for being late, and I have read almost all the July for Japan books and August books, but not quite so I will add those posts when I have read them.

Book Challenge Month Three

This month I decided my theme would be Nordic Humour and I went to the local library and asked the friendly librarian what she recommended and I went home with three authors and six books.

For the Norwegian author I went with Knut Nærum, I think he is hilarious, he is the author I read some Easter Crime books of here.
This book is called PEER, and is a sort of child friendly, shorter and more updated version of Peer Gynt by Ibsen with songs since the author thought the original lacked that.
Unfortunately I only knew a couple of the songs in this book, but the opening made the whole book worth reading. The opening is from Beauty and the Beast, the song the villagers sing about Belle only here they are singing about Peer. I won't lie I started singing out loud in this sequence and it was well written and flowed nicely like a song should, not at all like badly written songs by relatives for a special party. The book in it self was short and written like the play but I did enjoy it. I read it on a Sunday while Mister M struggled to stay awake reading whatever he was reading and eventually I was reading accompanied by Mister M's snoring. A quite enjoyable day.

Speaking of Mister M, he likes this Finnish author and he has read most of his books although in Finnish so I can't borrow them from him so I thought I could borrow the ones from the local library, and (not the one about the hare because Mister M can't remember if the hare fares badly and I don't want to read about a dead hare), somehow I managed to borrow two books Mister M has never read.
Arto Paasilinna, who I for some reason call Pasinen.... Or Pasonen.

Adam og Eva was a good book, I liked this one more than the other. Adam is divorced with a load of kids and is struggling with his battery business, he owns a lot of back taxes and in the middle of this he is inventing a new kind of battery. He meets the drunken lawyer Eva who helps him financially while he finishes his battery, but not everyone wants him to succeed. The oil-business is not too happy and sends an assassin to kill him.

The pace of this book was fast and the twists was fun and the characters unusual, I loved the book until it's final chapter, then I hated it, but I do think it ended how it should have.

Herre min hatt, was not quite so enjoyable in my opinion, it felt a bit half finished, like it should have another 50 pages or so. 

This book is about God, he is tired and wants a vacation, so he asks Gabriel and St.Peter to find a replacement for a year or so and Birger Ryynänen is chosen. He is a crane driver and often prays in his little crane high above the city, if he is not reading something.

There are a lot of fun twists here too even if I am not quite happy with how heaven is pictured or how heaven is managed. But I do like the idea of heaven being situated in Finland in an old big wood church in Kerimäki. 

Then I read two books (I have not yet read the third) from Jonas Jonasson, a Swede.
And these books were rather fun! I am not sure I have a favourite out of the two, they are both good, but in Analfabeten som kunne regne one of the main characters is female, the other females in the other books were not main characters I think. This book starts in South Africa and ends in Sweden with a girl who can read and can write and count and a man who does not exist and his brother who does and his angry girlfriend and a nuclear bomb which also does not exist but also does....
Well I can't explain it, just read it...

Morder-Anders og hans venner (samt en og annen uvenn)

I think this book is the book I might have snorted out loud when reading, I like reading about shady characters and some cartoon violence and twisting and turning and unlikely events.

Morder-Anders is as his name implies a murderer but he is not a murderer by trade, he is a torpedo and hits people in their knee if he gets paid for it, but things are not going so well because he can't differentiate between right and left... And then he meets a receptionist and a priest who does not believe in God and together they join forces....

I wish I found an Icelandic book, but the librarian could not find one from the top of her curly head and I did have plenty of books so I thought I could not finish all of them in time, which I didn't, I still have one book left, Hundreåringen som klatret ut gjennom vinduet og forsvant.

I have now read 16 17 of 52 books.

I hurriedly read the last of the humour books and I just finished in time to take it back to the library.

I liked it, and funnily enough Paasilinna was mentioned in this book, that the events were almost taken from one of his books which I found rather amusing. Other than that I can say that I probably would have liked this better if I had read it before the other two. I have a tendency of getting "sick" of a writer's style after a while and even if it was funny and good written I think I would have liked it more if I had read it before the others. But I still think it is better than the "analfabet" one.

This book is about a hundred year old man  who gets up and leaves through the window of his own birthday party and disappears. Then he meets people and things happen. Here we also get two timelines and hear about the man's life and it is rather entertaining. I haven't seen the movie, but I might. I would recommend all of these books to read if you want a funny fast reading unbelievable novel.

Book Challenge Month two

My books for this month.

52 books in 52 weeks. 11 out of 52

By a coincidence all the authors this month have been female... I like that, maybe next month will be male month? Oh, and happy May 1st.

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
I used to love the film when I was younger and quite saw myself in Mary Lennox, I was never a smiling child and looked quite contrary both in appearance and behaviour I think. The book made a very vivid image of a growing garden and I quite enjoyed it. At times it was hard to read the dialect but it soon was no trouble at all.
A little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
This was the second book I read and I knew nothing about it before I started. I liked this book too, but it was bit sad, more so than the other book. I will not spoil anything but I will still recommend both these books.
Next on the list is Little Lord Fauntleroy which I have never read either.
Night Time is My time by Mary Higgins Clark
I bought this book really cheep at a thrift store and I will return it when I go back, I like libraries but sometimes not having a deadline on a book makes it more enjoyable so I try to buy cheap books and borrow from friends instead. Anyway, my mother has almost all of Mary Higgins Clark's books and I have read them all, she did not have this one. It is a good book within it's genre, I had no idea who the killer was. In fact when i read it I had to re-read the first chapter because I had a hard time remembering exactly who the killer was. The book starts with a high school reunion (which I never attended) and someone is killed, later we learn that all the girls who sat at that lunch table have died, all but two and we try to find the killer within the group at the reunion...
A good book, but not one I would re-read or pay full price for, our shelving space are limited so this book is going back.
Vi er ikke alene by Margit Sandemo
This book might be cheating a bit, it is quite short and consists of letters from a woman's magazine who have written to the author to talk about their experience with invisible helpers or guardian angels and then the author tries to explain the experiences and talk about her own life with her helpers and how to get into contact with your own. Which she assures us we all have. I am on the fence about this. But it would be nice to think someone is watching out for every single person (and animal, she thinks her dog has a dog helper) I have read all of Margit's books and I really like them. She talks about ghosts and the paranormal and blends it with life up here in the North from a couple of hundred years ago. The books are easy to read but exiting and she is good at hitting her target audience, but after 100 books it does start to get repetitive, but I think that way about all authors after I have read some of their books in a row.
Call the midwife by Jennifer Worth
I saw the BBC series when it was on and I loved it. The book is the first in a trilogy and even though I have heard the stories before I have no idea how things will end because the book and series have gone down different roads and things the author just heard about later in the books is something she saw and experienced in the series, but I guess that is how series go, what works in a book might not work in a movie or series. But the good thing about having watched the series first is that I have all of the characters faces fresh in my mind and I don't confuse them with each other. All the characters are just as in the series, lively, lovable even in their grumpiness and crazy and hard working. In the book she talks a lot about the smells that were not talked about in the series and where waste went and so on and I must say I am quite pleased I do not have to give birth in England after the war (or here for that matter) It is hard to think about all those people still living with giving birth and living in general without water and medicine and nurses, I am so happy I am born here at this day and age. Even if I do like to read about how things were hundreds of years ago.

A bunny picture in honour of bunday

I think Call the Midwife is the book I can most recommend this month that you read if you can stomach it, it can be quite graphic and I don't think you should read it while pregnant. Luckily my family are all nurses and I have been hardened by nurse-talk all my life so the graphicness never bothered me.
If you can't stomach midwifery I will recommend the Frances Hodgson Burnett books, even if they were originally childrens-books I think adults will like them just as much.

A new challenge, reading more

Because I like a challenge I have in addition to the A to Z challenge decided to try and read 52 books this year. We are already in week 13, but I have read six books already this year, and I only started in the last week of February so I am not sure if I am able to read 52 books before the end of the year or not or if my goal is before the end of the last week of next february. Since crocheting has been what I have been doing mostly these past few years I have hardly read anything, reading whilst crocheting is not easy to do (unless you have an audiobook, I'll try to do that later).

I love books and I love reading so I have decided to try and read more this year, and to help me do that I gave myself this goal and I will try to write a little about the books I have read about once a month.

First books.

Sigbjørn Mostue, imorgen er alt mørkt, Brages historie

Sigbjørn Mostue. imorgen er alt mørkt, Marlenes historie

I will talk about these two books as one. This is a youth novel, but I found it rather interesting, the book was easy to read since it was meant for younger readers, but the story was rather good. The characters acted like humans, they were flawed and made bad decisions had conflicting emotions and tried to maintain relationships in an unusual circumstance. The world is ending, humans  are getting sick and killing other humans and the characters struggle to survive while thinking about the morals of killing other humans. Both books end with a cliffhanger and I hope there will be more in this series. I would have loved this book when I was a teenager.

Knut Nærum, Monster

I liked this book. Because of global warming the ice caps have melted and everyone thinks the polar bears are dead. Turns out they are not, they are migrating towards humans and eating everything in their way. The polar bears don't behave like polar bears anymore and are unpredictable bloodthirsty monsters killing everything in their way. Despite human tries to save them and contain them things get from bad to worst and most Norwegians want the polar bears exterminated. What will happen in the end?

As I said, I liked this book, although I am not sure someone without knowledge of Norwegian celebrities and politicians will get as much out of this since there are real politicians in this and celebrities which you can guess who the characters are based on. (which the author does a lot)

This is series of books, all are free standing and the topic of these books are crime.

Knut Nærum, Døde menn går på ski

My mother gave me this book years ago around easter time and I remember I loved it. It was scary as I was in our cabin deep in the forest and the book is set in a cabin in the montains and then people are killed off, the main character tries to figure out who the killer is with a little help from a psychiatrist. There are plot twists and deaths on every page and as much as I tried I could not figure out who the killer was.

Knut Nærum has in all three books the same protagonist and the same chapter set-up which I thought was funny. The chapters have names such as:  Chapter 1- Where we get an interesting offer. 

Knut Nærum, De dødes båt

This book is set in summertime on a small island with a native fisherman a rich family with their extended family and then a murder. Then more people die and Kjell Nilsen the author who writes murder books try to solve the crime with a private detective, the police seem to fumble about and do more damage than good. Could the killer be supernatural?

Knut Nærum, Voodoo på Vestkanten

The last book in the series, Kjell Nilsen stumble into another mystery, there might be voodoo involved and he enlists the help of a rather reluctant private eye and tries to solve the case.

Is the first death accidental or murder? Could someone be killing using voodoo?

I think I liked the first book in the series the best as the story is familiar and classic with a twist. 

All photos are taken from Google.