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