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-z challenge I

I is for inspiration

Books are great for inspiration and patterns and the like when you want to crochet/knit something, but now that we have the internet the possibilities are endless. You can loose yourself for hours and your to-do-list grows and grows by each click, each link, each pattern you see.

If you are new to crocheting (or internet) it could feel quite overwhelming.

So I have compiled some of my favourite sites of inspiration, because sometimes finding the perfect pattern that is just so can be a bit difficult.

My favourite crochet books are: 

Ravelry.com My favorite site, good with knitting/crochet and you can use any search word and find anything, free and some patterns cost money.

garnstudio.com I love this site too, free and easily searched, knitting and crochet. Has lots of tutorials.

redheart.com I have used this site some and quite like it.

Pierrot Yarn: Japanese. They have lots of gorgeous patterns, both knit and crochet but only charted.

Sandnes mostly knitting but easily searched.

moogly

Vintagecrochet

lion brand this site is a bit difficult to search on I think

Craftsy

Crochetville

TanngledHappy they don't update as much, but here are free crochet patterns

Blogs are highly inspirational, whenever I find a blog I like I make sure to follow and as my list of bloggers grow I feel inspired and my to-do-list and yardstock grows too.

Favorite bloggers:

Attic24, a nice friendly lady who crochets the most wonderful happy things, she has lots of patterns and tutorials too.

Pink Milk I love her patters, free and fun

BunnyMummy I love her as well, these days she walks a lot

Cherryheart, she crochets delicious things, I have her shawl on my to-do-list, some patters cost money and some are free.

AnneMarieshaakblog Dutch, but she blogs in english too, she is great at finding books and patterns to share, she has some patterns too.

Happyinred another Dutch lady I think, she also blogs in english and finds patterns to share and has some patterns and tutorials.

Karenklarbæksverden danish, she crochets a lot, I love her colours.

Kungenomajkis swedish blog, she doesn't update as much, but she makes the most wonderful things.

Lookwhavimade this is where the pattern for our wedding blanket came from, she host cal's, has lots of free patterns, tutorilas and stitch information

 You could always get lost in the world of pinterest because that place is a maze but very inspirational, I have found that sometimes I search and search and never find a pin where the actual pattern is which can be frustrating, but there are so many beautiful things there. A very inspirational place indeed.

Youtube also has lots of tutorials and patterns but you need to know what you want tone inspired by.

Instagram is also inspirational, after they learn what kind of instagrammers you follow they find others you might like

So did you feel inspired? I hope so, I always like to see how people crochet things and sometimes I make the same thing, and sometimes I modify it the same way someone else has.

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.

Thoughts count

M is still home and we are enjoying our time together, today we went to the store to swap some presents, I got a book that I would have quite liked, if I had read the first, but since the store didn't have the first book, I traded it for two knitting books.

 I had to buy the tea we got at my uncles, so today we had caramel and vanilla tea.

I also got two other knitting books for Christmas so this year I better get better at knitting. Which is sort of my New Year resolutions, I think...

 M and I are watching Home alone one and two and they are great at giving me Christmas feelings. But I do think we need to bake more, I have eaten all the good cakes already.

I should finish the last two halves of the two wrist warmers, but instead I started something new. I think this might be for Christmas next year, ( yes I have started thinking about next year when I am not done with this year yet, so what else is new?) but I do love watching Christmas movies and doing Christmas crafting while it is still Christmas, the rest can wait. At least until January starts? I should finish the table runner I almost finished last year too, maybe that is next?

I bought some more yarn to make those hats my family requested I make, for next year, I like it when it actually sounds like my gifts were happily received because I try to give gifts that fit the person, but you can't always succeed, and sometimes you succeed but forgot to think about things (or in this case sequels) so gifts have to be traded. But it is the thought that counts.

Easter Vacation

And what am I doing?  I am reading, so far I've read two e-books and two paper books. I've read one book from the library called "Hvorfor hopper jeg" by Naoki Higashida and one I borrowed from my friend called "kongens merke" by Erling Pedersen. I liked both books, but I have no idea what book to start now. None of them seem to call out to me, so I guess I  will just have to pick one at random. 

I have been doing some crafting as well, and eating of candy. Mimle is mostly sleeping under the sofa as I am in the doghouse because I cleaned her glands yesterday and washed her eye as she had something in it… She seems better today, but has started to molt AGAIN. So I guess I have to spend some time combing her as well. Boyfriend is at a wedding in England, I hope he buys me something! I have so many things on my list that I would love to get from the UK. 

Since bunny is mad at me there will be no picture of her today, I doubt she would agree to pose, we would only get a snapshot of a blob under the sofa in bad lightning that could just as well be a dust bunny as a real one. But I will be back, she can't stay mad at me forever, I have already tried to bribe her with so many treats today….