Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld

I wish I was better at writing about the books I read, but apparently I tend to forget it. Anyway, this is a book I think deserves a recommendation; Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld.

It has been on my reading list for years, but have been waiting for the "right time" to read it. Sometimes I come across books I know I'll like and then I keep procrastinating, because I like to know that I still have this great reading experience to look forward to. Do you know the feeling?

Anyway, I was right about Prep, it was a good read. It takes place on a boarding school and the story is told by Lee Fiora. She is a very thoughtful and insecure teenager, who feels different and is one of the outsiders.
Curtis Sittenfeld describes life as a teenager pretty well, I could recognize a lot of Lee's thoughts from myself when I was her age. Several times I thought of how happy I am, that I don't have to be a teenager again, haha! It was fun to read about Lee's life at the school and at the end I just wanted to know what happened to all of the students.

A few books I've read...

It's been a while since I wrote anything about the books I've read, maybe because I haven't read any really great books lately, but I thought I'd just say a few words about some of them anyway. Let's hope the next books I read will be better!


Chronic City
For some unknown reason I really, really wanted to like this book, but I must admit, that I don't. It is one of the most boring books I've read this year and it was hard for me to get through it. If your curiosity is big enough, and you still want to know what the book is all about, after my negative words, you can read a review here.

Faithful Place
If you like mystery/crime fiction you'll probably like this one. It's not amazing, but I enjoyed it (even though it was a wee bit too long). Reviews can be found here.

Eat, Pray, Love
This is also a book I've had one my to-read-list for a long time. I thought the travelling part of it would be something I'd like to read. Some of it was good, I liked the Italy part, maybe because it was the first part of the book and I wasn't yet tired of "me, me, me" aka Elizabeth Gilbert talking about herself. I know it's what you should expect while reading a biography, but still. It annoyed me that it was all about her). I think (and hope) the story works better as a film, at least the book haven't deterred me from wanting to see the film. Reviews here.

Have you read some good books lately?

[Pictures from Goodreads]

New books and a Sunday song

Ok, I lied when I wrote that I'd post the squirrel photos later this week, because I'm not going to post them today as I just feel like showing something else. But they'll be up tomorrow night, promise!

Friday I picked up a package from Amazon with new books. New books are always a good thing, even though one of them is for the new semester and not fictional. But the cover is pretty, which helps a lot (now I just hope it's not too boring to read!).
To get free shipping I had to buy something else, so I chose a Moleskine notebook for small sketches, lists and whatever I feel like. I also bought Keel's Simple Diary, I've wanted it for a long, long time. I simply couldn't resist it anymore.







When I bought the diary, I had a hard time choosing between the two yellow ones. The vintage yellow was nice too, but I chose the bright yellow and I'm glad I did, because it's such a happy colour (now I'm just curious what the reasons for choosing the vintage yellow would be). I need more yellow stuff in my life. And the edges of the pages are silver, I love it.

Today, this song has been on repeat. I found it on youtube this morning, I've never heard it before, but I really like it. But hey, it's Jason Mraz, so no wonder - he's one of my all time favourites.

Jason Mraz - I Melt With You

Last post in 2011

Just a quick hello, before I'm off to California! 
Today was my last day at university this year, it's going to be great with a week off where I don't have to think about homework and exams. Almost week ago, we finished our semester project and delivered it at the printer's after 26 hours of hard, concentrated work. It was a bit hard, but we managed to get through the night with good music ("All night long" seemed perfect for the occasion). And when I finally got home after being awake for 29 hours straight, I slept all day, which was much needed. 

As you can see above, I finished my book challenge the other day! I've read 100 books this year, I'm so happy I made it. In the beginning of December I was afraid I didn't reach my goal, and then I finished more than a week before deadline, yay!
I haven't decided whether or not I'll join a reading challenge again next year, but if I am, I'll make it easier than this year. It was quite stressful at times and reading for fun shouldn't become a chore. Maybe one book per week is fine?
Anyway, my plane takes off tomorrow morning (maybe I should start packing my suitcase?). I wish you all a Merry Christmas and hope you'll get safely into 2011! I'll be back in 2012!

Enjoyable reads

Two of the books I've enjoyed the most during August.

Paul Auster - Oracle Night
So far this is the best book by Auster I've read.
What it's all about (from Goodreads):
Several months into his recovery from a near-fatal illness, thirty-four-year-old novelist Sidney Orr enters a stationery shop in the Cobble Hill section of Brooklyn and buys a blue notebook. It is September 18, 1982, and for the next nine days Orr will live under the spell of this blank book, trapped inside a world of eerie premonitions and puzzling events that threaten to destroy his marriage and undermine his faith in reality.
When you love books and stationery, this description gives the book a certain force of attraction, don't you think? So I had to read it. And luckily I did, I really enjoyed it. You should read it as well, you won't regret it.

Erlend Loe - Muleum
Loe is becoming a favourite author of mine. I love his way of writing. This book is a diary written by a 18-year-old girl, whose parents and brother died in a plane crash in Africa. She's kind of suicidal, but her suicide attempt is a total fiasco. However, she doesn't give up her death wish, she just realizes that when she can't figure out how to commit suicide herself, somebody else must to it for her. She feels closer to her dead family when she's up in the air, so she travels the world by plane, hoping that the plane will crash sooner or later. It doesn't really sound like an enjoyable book, but it is. It's fun and crazy, even though the topic is rather depressing.
(I'm not sure if it has been translated into English though. If not, you have a good reason to learn one of the Scandinavian languages ;) )

Book update

I haven't read as many books during my holiday as I probably should in order to keep up with my reading challenge. But, I'm still on track, so I guess it's still realistic to reach my goal.
None of the books I've read recently have been amazing, I really hope I'll find a book there's above average soon.


Paul Auster: Invisible
This book is weird. Really. But I sort of liked it. Plus the cover is pretty.

Sharon Owens: The Pub on Maple Street
The last book in the Belfast trilogy. It was entertaining, and it was better than no. 2 in the series, but it wasn't innovative at all. If you feel like reading something from this trilogy, I'd recommend the first one (or the last one - and maybe both if you don't have anything else to read).

David Mitchell: Black Swan Green
I liked the last couple of chapters, but it was hard to get there. My expectations were probably too high, but I had been looking forward to read this book and then it was not that interesting after all. Disappointing.

Reading challenge

Until this year I didn't read that many books, maybe only one or two books per month. I thought that was too few, considering my 14-pages long "books-to-read-list". So this year I joined the reading challenge at Goodreads and decided that I should read 100 books in 2011. Right now I'm halfway through, so I hope I'll be able to keep up the standard. I haven't read much in June because of my exams, but I managed to read a few books. Unfortunately, only one of them deserves a recommendation.

"Special topics in calamity physics" by Marisha Pessl. Blue van Meer is a 16-year old intellectual, who is living a nomadic life with her father, professor Gareth van Meer. He travels around the country to lecture at different universities and Blue comes with him as her mother died in a car accident. In her senior year of high school they're staying for a whole year, so Blue can finish school. Here she gets involved with a group of friends, which goes by the name of "the Bluebloods". Blue and the Bluebloods always eat Sunday dinner at Hannah Schneider's house. Hannah Schneider is film teacher at the school and there's something mysterious going on around her...
I enjoyed the book, even though it was a little bit heavy in the middle. The book is full of references to other books, mainly classics. To begin with it's no big deal to read all the references, but it becomes kind of annoying when you haven't read all those books.

Hello

Preparing for my exam takes a lot of my time these days, but now I deserve a little break, so here's a few reviews of the latest books I've read.



I think the easiest way to describe "Juliet" by Anne Fortier is by calling it "Dan Brown for girls". The differences are just that in Juliet the main character is a woman, plus there is more romance than in Dan Brown's novels about Robert Langdon (and of course there has to be some romance when it's about Romeo and Juliet). The ending was a wee bit too predictable, but on the other hand, it ended the way I wanted it to, so I guess I shouldn't complain.



Over the past few weeks I've also read a collection of short stories by Lydia Davis, "Break it down". I don't think I'll ever read anything by Lydia Davis again, I just don't get her style. A lot of Goodreads-users have written very positive reviews and I really don't get it. Some of the stories are very, very short and in most of the stories there's no action at all. It's kind of boring, I think. And I'm really glad that I don't have to analyse any of these stories - that would be terrible.
The only story I liked was "French Lesson 1", it was somehow innovative and fun actually. In short: if you ever get this book in your hand, read French Lesson 1 and forget about the rest of the stories.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog

Yesterday I finished one of the best books, I have read this year (and I have read quite a few by now), so I guess it's time for another recommendation.
Even though this book has got a lot of negative ratings on Goodreads, I had a good feeling about this book, even before I started reading it. Probably because of the pretty cover and the title (and the fact that it takes place in Paris and there's a Japanese in it too - it almost can't get any better if you have a weakness for France and Japan). 

And I must say, that it really did live up to my expectations. It made me both laugh out loud and cry and I enjoyed every page of this book. It's the kind of book where you get the feeling that you know the characters and don't want it to end, because you know you'll miss them (am I the only one who get this feeling?). Though the last few chapters are quite tragic it's a really good book, highly recommendable!

The book is also made into a film, Le Hérisson (or The Hedgehog). Another addition to the constantly growing list of must-see films! Seriously, I have to watch movies more often with all those movies I want to see.

I'm not able to describe the main characters better than they're described on Goodreads, so you'll get the description from there:

"We are in the center of Paris, in an elegant apartment building inhabited by bourgeois families. Renée, the concierge, is witness to the lavish but vacuous lives of her numerous employers. Outwardly she conforms to every stereotype of the concierge: fat, cantankerous, addicted to television. Yet, unbeknownst to her employers, Renée is a cultured autodidact who adores art, philosophy, music, and Japanese culture. With humor and intelligence she scrutinizes the lives of the building's tenants, who for their part are barely aware of her existence.
Then there's Paloma, a twelve-year-old genius. She is the daughter of a tedious parliamentarian, a talented and startlingly lucid child who has decided to end her life on the sixteenth of June, her thirteenth birthday. Until then she will continue behaving as everyone expects her to behave: a mediocre pre-teen high on adolescent subculture, a good but not an outstanding student, an obedient if obstinate daughter."
(from Goodreads)

The Life of Vida Winter

It's been a while since I read this book, but I think it was good enough to write something about it anyway. The amount of books I read these days makes it a bit hard to keep up with summaries and recommendations...

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield is a really good book. It's a story about stories in a way. Margaret Lea works at her father's antiquarian bookshop and one day the famous (but mysterious) writer Vida Winter contacts Ms. Lea because she wants her to write her biography. Vida Winter's life has been everything but normal and even when you think you've figured out what is going to happen, new facts and details that changes Vida Winter's story completely are revealed again and again. Sometimes a bit confusing, but in the end all the pieces of the puzzle fall into place.

I would have enjoyed this exciting story even more if it wasn't for the terrible smell of vomit that came from the book (one of the reasons why I'm not so fond of libraries). But hopefully it's the only copy of that book smelling like that. If you ever get a bad-smelling book in your hands, just keep it open all the time, it helps a little.

[image: Goodreads]

The curious incident of the dog in the night-time

Now, this is a good book!
The autistic 15 year-old Christopher is the main character in this moving little book. He hates the colours brown and yellow, is extremely good at mathematics, physics and logical thinking. One night he finds his neighbour's dog killed with a garden fork and he decides to solve the crime and then the adventure begins.
I love the way this book is written and the way Christopher is thinking. It's such a moving story and I think it's impossible not to like Christopher and sympathize with him (at least it was for me).
Of course there's much more in this book than I've written about, so I think you should read it, it's so good!

And by the way he's really good at minesweeper, a game I've been quite obsessed with when I was younger, so we could be good friends, I think. Trying to beat each other's records and eat tomatoes or something (his favourite colour is red, so he loves red food).

Have a nice weekend!

Life is like a box of chocolates

[Image: Goodreads]

Most of you probably know Forrest Gump and if you don't you should sit down and watch the movie, it's great. I've seen the movie several times, so I thought I might give the book a go too. The story line is not exactly the same as in the movie. Some of the things Forrest experiences in the book is not in the movie and vice versa. I prefer the ending as it is in the movie, it's much more touching than in the book.
Nevertheless I enjoyed the book. Some of the things Forrest says is just hilarious, I was laughing many times, while I read. He is definitely the perfect idiot, as it says on the cover.

The book is written in a very special way, that might be annoying to some, but it didn't bother me when I first got used to read it.
An example (not the best one, but I'm too lazy to look for a better one):

"About the only class I liked was lunch, but I guess you couldn't call that a class. At the nut school, my mama would fix me a sambwich an a cookie an a piece of fruit - cept no bananas - an I'd take it to school with me" - Forrest Gump (by Winston Groom)

In short, there's a lot of misspelling in this book and the words are written in the way Forrest would pronounce them, e.g. "pitcher" (picture), "hissef" (himself), "nex" (next) and "figger out" (figure out). I think it's kind of charming, but maybe it was because I had Tom Hanks' voice in my head throughout the book. By the way he's doing a great job as Forrest Gump.

Water for elephants

Time for another book recommendation, "Water for elephants" by Sara Gruen. While I read this book, I told myself several times, that "this is a good book" (yes, I do talk to myself sometimes) and it really is! It's about an old man, who is thinking back on the days when he worked in a circus. It might not sound that interesting, but I think it's entertaining and well written as well.
I think it's more than ten years since the last time I went to see a show in circus. But after this book I'm in the mood for circus, maybe I should go to see a show again. Or maybe I should just go to the cinema sometime this summer, when the movie (based on the book) is released.


The photo above is from the film set, taken by R.E.~, more can be found in this set.

[photos: Thomas Totz and R.E.~]

Hey, little girl, comb your hair, fix your make-up

Yesterday I finished the first part of the Belfast trilogy by Sharon Owens, "The tea house on Mulberry Street". It's a "collection" (in lack of better words) of stories about a handful of very different people, who have one (ok, two) thing(s) in common - the tea house Muldoon's (and troubles with love). One of them is a young artist who writes love letters to Nicolas Cage, whom she is completely infatuated with, and she is convinced that her ordinary name is the reason why nobody is buying her paintings. Another character is Aurora, who loves books by Brontë and to dress up like she was living in a Brontë novel.
It's a feel good book, very cosy (if a book can be cosy?), it reminded me a lot of Love Actually (the movie - haven't read the book). Definitely recommendable if you need an easily read feel good book. And as a bonus a recipe for cheesecake (they eat a lot of cheesecake in this book) is included on one of the last pages, if you fancy some cake after reading.

I still have a lot to catch up on after my days without internet, but hopefully I'll get time to catch up in the weekend.
Here's a little piece of music to start off the weekend. My favourite part is the beginning, so good. Have a nice weekend!

Dionne Warwick - Wives & Lovers


[source: Goodreads]

Back on track

I've had problems with my internet connection since my last post, but now I'm back on track (hopefully). When that happens you realize how much time you spend on the internet, it's a little scary. The good thing about being without internet is that I suddenly had a lot of time to read books and paint and do nothing.

• I finally finished Cloud of Sparrows by Takashi Matsuoka (before the internet went on a hiatus). Oh my, it was boring! It took about 250 pages before it started to get a bit interesting. To cut a long story short it's about a bunch of samurais, a few American missionaries and a lord or two who get visions about the future. Interesting, huh? I thought it sounded good when I first read about the book, but it was way too historical for my taste. 
• The next book was Doppler by the Norwegian writer Erlend Loe. It was easily read, which is always a plus. It's about Doppler, a man who crash on his bike and decides to move into the forest for a while. A lot of things happen in the forest, for example he meets a moose and they become best friends. 
• I also finished my second book by Paul Auster, Mr. Vertigo. I don't know whether I like it or not, it was ok, but I'm not too keen on it. I liked Man in the Dark more (and the cover was also prettier - with shiny letters and everything! Just found a prettier version of Mr. Vertigo (the one on the right) They should stick to the most colourful version). Can you recommend anything by Auster?

[photos: faber]

Purple leaves

Love the purple colour on the backside of the leaves. I'm still reading Cloud of Sparrows, it's not that interesting. A bit boring and extremely long chapters, but I like the illustration at the beginning of each chapter. Hopefully I'll finish the book this weekend.

After the quake

I keep forgetting to update my "currently reading" gadget in the sidebar... I am liable only to update it when I think the cover of the book is pretty. And that's why "After the quake" has been there for so long. Haruki Murakami is one of my favourite authors, but in general I prefer novels rather than short stories and that's also the case when it comes to Murakami. Maybe it's just because the stories are so weird and end very abruptly. Or maybe it's because they remind me of all the crazy stories we had to analyze and write essays about in different English classes over the years (while I read After the quake I kept thinking how happy I was that I didn't have to analyze these stories). 

This cover is so much prettier than the cover of the one I got (black with a pile of white stones - so boring!). If I liked the book more than I did (and I had too much money) I would consider buying this edition instead, just because the cover is prettier.  


[source: fantasticfiction]

Em and Dex. Dex and Em.

It happens quite often that I judge a book by its cover, which is also what happened with this book. The first time I saw it was in a bookshop in the airport in Singapore, while I was waiting for my flight home. I had been running around in the airport for hours, just to stay awake, so I decided to check out the bookshop even though I already had an unread book in my luggage. And then the cover of this book, "One Day" by David Nicholls, caught my eye, but I didn't buy it (mostly because of the unread book mentioned before).

It's almost a year ago now, but when I saw the book again at the library, the cover still appealed to me, so I brought it with me home. And I read it - and finally, here comes the point of this post; some sort of  recommendation (which I'm not good at writing at all).

The structure of this book is rather special, as every time a new chapter starts a whole year has gone by, ergo all the chapters start on the 15th of July (or was it the 14th? Doesn't matter). In the beginning I didn't like that, but when I got used to it, it didn't matter that much to me. Enough about structure (this is not a school project, mind you).

We're following the two friends Emma and Dexter from their graduation and 20 years ahead, sometimes their paths cross and sometimes they don't (I don't want to spoil anything, so I'm finding it a bit hard to tell you the story line -  as I said I'm a really bad reviewer!). But it's not a typical love story.

The further I got into the book, the more I liked it - until the end, when the story takes a completely unexpected turn. It was kind of shocking, actually. Maybe I wasn't paying enough attention to the words I read, because I was just reading (surprise!) and then I read the fatal sentence and I was just thinking "WHAT?!", so I had to read the whole page again to realize what just happened. I really didn't see that coming at all. And then I wondered how the author could let this happen? So annoying. Because of this event, I didn't like the rest of the book, so now I'm having a hard time deciding if I like it or not...

I wouldn't say it's a "totally brilliant book" as it is stated on the cover, but I think you should read it, if only to find out what the mysterious event in the end was about.

(If you want to read a proper review, you can find one here)
[Photo source: the guardian]

Quiet

First day of February, last day of my holiday. It will be nice to get track of time again after almost 6 weeks of freedom. Just started on the last book in the pile of library books. By the way I finished "Everything is illuminated" by Jonathan Safran Foer the other day. I didn't like i;, it was too confusing in a way. Not sure I figured out all the relations. Have you read it (or other books by Foer) and what did you think about it?




Goldfrapp - Happiness

Oh, by the way I just realized that it isn't possible to click the thumbnails in yesterday's post to see them in a bigger size. Sorry about that, I'll try to solve the problem sometime. Take a look at her gallery to see bigger pictures with all the details.

Nocturnes

Yesterday I finished a collection of short stories by Kazuo Ishiguro called "Nocturnes - Five stories of music and nightfall". The title sounded promising, I thought, but I must admit it was a bit dull.
However, I liked the first and the third story more than the others. The first one, "Crooner" is about a polish guitarist who plays songs for the tourists on a piazza in Venice (like in the third photo, I imagine). He meets an old crooner, who wants him to assist him in serenading his wife from a gondola, sounds very romantic, doesn't it? I can reveal that it turns out to be less romantic than it sounds, but I think you have to read it to get the rest of the story.
I don't know why I liked this one, but it made me feel like going to Venice!





And looking at photos from Venice at flickr just made me want to go there even more! It's so beautiful.
Ok, back to the short stories; the third one, "Malvern Hills", about a young man writing songs and playing his guitar in Malvern Hills, was good too, primarily because it gave me a nice summery feeling (hmm, do I miss summer a little?)

Btw, these photos are so beautiful, check out the galleries on flickr, follow the links below!

[sources: - yury - and ►CubaGallery]