Book review: Vielleicht Esther

Title: Vielleicht Esther (Perhaps Esther)
Author: Katja Petrowskaja
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Year published: 2014
Pages: ~250
A place to buy it: If you are in Sweden you can buy if from Bokus (in Swedish) and if that is not the case you can buy if of Amazon (in German).
Other: Original language is German, I read a Swedish translation but the book has no English translation at the moment.
Previous book review: Gilead

Discovering history

In this book Katja writes small segments - divided into six chapters - where she shares the life of her family members. Their lives plays out during WWII, in Poland, Ukraine and Soviet. Some manages to survive, others do not. She also travels to places where past events took place, like Babij Jar. There are some photos of the people and places mentioned throughout the book, and that really gives a connection to reality. She discovers past events and ties them back to today - what had today been like if this had been different back then?

I didn't feel hooked during the first chapter, it felt like a messy way to paint a family tree that stretches far back. The second chapter and forward on the other hand was great. I was really eager to finding out more, and if there was another book with more stories of Katja's family members I would read it as well.

Turning numbers into people

Something this book did was giving another perspective on WWII. To know that 20 million people died is one thing, but to hear some stories from those who survived - and some who didn't - really turn numbers into people. Of course this is not the first time this has been done, but it was done well in this book.

It is a shame that this haven't been translated into English, because even if this is not a feelgood it is a good book and I did very much enjoy reading it. I read it in less than a week and it was really making me hooked. If you can find a language to read this on I really recommend it!

Book review: Gilead

Title: Gilead
Author: Marilynne Robinson
Genre: Fiction, Life
Year published: 2004
Pages: ~282
A place to buy it: If you are in Sweden you can buy if from Bokus, and if that is not the case you can buy it of Amazon.
Other: Winner of Pulitzer Prize (2004) and winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction.
Previous book review: Reality: A Very Short Introduction

A lovely letter

The book is a long letter that Reverend John Ames write in 1956 to his young son. John Ames really go through a remarkable character development throughout the book. The tone and events described in the letter also changes towards the end. He starts out like an old man, a father, looking back on his life and writing down the stories he probably never will be able to tell his son. The reason for that, and the motive behind the letter, is that John Ames has a hart condition and he married a younger woman late in his life, so his son is only seven years old.

In his letter John Ames tell stories from his own life but also the life of his father and grandfather. It is also the story of the town of Gilead - located in Iowa - and the changes and times it has gone through. John Ames also writes down quite a lot of thoughts on passages from the Bible and he ponders the mysteries of life and death and time itself.

A truly amazing book

When I read the plot for the book, I thought it would be a slow and boring book. I was both right and wrong, because the book is very calm but there is a fair share of mysteries that John Ames sometimes starts to talk about but then interrupt himself and so the mysteries are revealed slowly. It is also a well written book in the sense of the language, the words seems like they are always picked carefully and I appreciate that.

I never found the book boring, because even during the less interesting parts of the story itself - when Mr Ames ponders the meaning of parts of Scripture for example - the language itself makes up for it and therefore carry the reader along.

Reading Gilead made me think that a lot of work and thought was put into the book, because it is very neatly done. As I said, the words seemed like they were all picked with care and I really feel like a lot of thought was behind the book as a whole. Not to mention, it truly is a different kind of book and that is why I did not really know how to give it a certain genre.

I would recommend this book to everyone who wants to read something outstanding and don't mind a book with a calm pace. The book deserves every award it has won, and more. It is some years old, but I feel like this book can never truly grow old.

Book review: Reality: A Very Short Introduction

Title: Reality: A Very Short Introduction
Author: Jan Westerhoff
Genre: Philosophy
Year published: 2011
Pages: ~160
A place to buy it: If you are in Sweden you can buy it from Bokus or it that is not the case you can buy it of Amazon.
Previous book review: In Every Moment Are We Still Alive

Interesting idea

This book has four chapters: 1. What is real? Dreams and simulations, 2. Is matter real?, 3. Are persons real?, 4. Is time real?. There is also an introduction and a conclusion etc. In the second chapter the writer gives the reader five different definitions to look at reality, such as the 'apocalyptic definition' where only things that would still exists if there were no humans are real. I'm not going to go through all the definitions, but hopefully you will get an idea of how the book is built up.

I find this idea interesting, but the thing is that with only five types of ways to approach the questions in each chapter, the book gets unnecessarily narrowed down. Of course I understand that it is in fact a very short introduction, but I think it would have been more interesting if it wasn't in this almost "locked" position because of the limitation of the five definitions. A little longer book had been something I would have preferred.

Angled towards realism

Even with the limitation I wrote about above it is still a good book, because it is after all just barely 150 pages and it is covering a lot of big topics, so I can see that some ways of limitation is necessary. But something I can not get over when reading the book is how the author constantly goes back to providing overwhelming amounts of evidence for realism. I don't  like that at all, I expected this book to be more open minded. Second of all, I hate to read books that are clumsily angled towards something, whether I agree with it or not. I prefer when the writer serves the reader facts and let them decide for themselves what they think is right or not.

After all that, I have to say that parts of the book get interesting. I especially liked the third chapter (3. Are persons real?). Whether I recommend it or not is hard to say, because it sure is an interesting book but it is a bit flawed. To be honest, I think it is up to you if you would like to read it or not, because I'm pretty sure some will hate it and others probably love it (as with everything).

Book review: In every moment are we still alive

Title: I varje ögonblick är vi fortfarande vid liv (In every moment are we still alive)
Author: Tom Malmquist
Genre: Drama, life
Year published: 2015
Pages: ~317
A place to buy it: If you are in Sweden you can buy the book (in Swedish) from Bokus.
Other: This book has not been translated into English, but I've translated the title and the book might get translated in the future.
Previous book review: The Sense of an Ending

Daughter born, wife died, father died

The name of the main character is Tom and in the beginning you really get thrown into the story. Tom's wife, Karin, is pregnant with their first child when she suddenly gets rushed to the hospital. The doctors decide to put her in a respirator to try and keep her and the baby alive. In order to keep both mother and child alive, the doctors make an emergency c-section and so Livia, Tom and Karin's daughter, is born. During all this time at the hospital Tom has stayed with Karin but after his daughter's birth he divide his time between the two of them. Karin is dying and treated at the intensive care, while Livia is growing and full of life.

Not long after Livia is born, Karin dies and Tom returns home with his newborn - and too early born - daughter. Both his parents and Karin's parents come to stay in his apartment to help him out. When Tom start to get a little used to being a parent his father dies after a long time of fighting cancer.

You also get little flashbacks to when Karin and Tom first met and their life together before she died.

A good start but then... not for me

Pretty much the only thing I like about this book is how the reader is thrown into the story in the beginning - it starts when Tom and Karin have just come to the emergency room - but then everything gets too slow. Of course I realize that Tom is grieving both the sudden death of his wife and later the expected death of his father, but I don't feel anything myself. The characters are too shallow and I don't care about them at all.

Throughout the entire book there isn't a single quotation or anything to mark when people are speaking, and sometimes that made me unable to understand who said what even if I reread it. It's basically just large blocks of text and sometimes I read an entire flashback without understanding anything at all because I didn't get that it was a flashback because it was just another block of text. It's also hard to read through these blocks, because they can stretch over several pages.

I also feel like Tom just have conflicts with everything and everyone. Sometimes it's a reasonable cause but sometimes I don't get why he's so rude. Sure, he's sad, but in the picture I get from his flashbacks is that he always has been bad tempered. Some parts even give the idea that Tom's temperament has became better over time. Because you only get to meet the grieving Tom, it's hard to distinguish how sad he actually is.

Shallow

I don't like this book, I don't think it's well written in any way at all. Still, a lot of people seem to like it and find it "touching", but to me it's just too shallow. I just feel like the writer killed two characters and said: "They were close to the main character. Look how sad he is now!" It's a nice idea to a story, but a nice idea alone doesn't do it for me. I can not empathize with a character I don't care the slightest about, how sad the whole scenario might be.

Book review: The Sense of an Ending

Title: The Sense of an Ending
Author: Julian Barnes
Genre: Fiction
Year published: 2011
Pages: ~192
A place to buy it: If you are in Sweden you can buy the book from Bokus, and if that's not the case you can buy it of Amazon.
Other: Winner of the Man Book Prize for Fiction in 2011
Previous book review: The List of My Desires

Beautiful and elegant

I absolutely loved this book. The story is told by Tony, and he is telling the reader a story that begun in his youth but ended much later. I don't want to reveal too much of the story, but his friend's suicide and ex girlfriend are involved, along with his dead friend's diary. It's an interesting story, but there was parts in the book when I almost felt like the story came in the way of the things I actually wanted to read about - philosophical thoughts and reflections revolving around issues like history, memory, life and death. I could have read a book twice as long with just old Tony reflecting and contemplating his life or just life in general. And that is something that very easily can become boring, but it was really beautifully written.

The story itself is quite subtle in the beginning, I didn't really grasp the plot - because the plot is not introduced right away - but it wasn't a problem, the way Julian Barnes write is good enough. It was towards the end that I understood everything much clearer, and when I was done reading the book I realized how elegantly the story was put out.

Calm, interesting and recommended

Part of the charm with this book is the beautiful language and the carefully played out plot in a good combination, but I also enjoy the fact that everything appears very calm. I never felt the writer hurrying something just to get to the end, it was like floating on a still river the whole time. In my opinion it's not many books that manages to be so calm and still be that interesting and not at all boring.

I highly recommend this book, it's a good read and you feel like the story is told directly to you. Young Tony and older Tony also show great character development, and the story is good. So whether you appreciate the words and language - like me - or if you think the plot makes the book, read it!

Book review: The List of My Desires

Title: The List of My Desires
Author: Grégoire Delacourt
Genre: Drama
Year published: 2012
Pages: ~185
A place to buy it: If you are in Sweden you can buy the book from Bokus. Or if that's not the case you can buy it of Amazon.
Previous book review: The Poison Tree

Jocelyne and Jocelyn

The main character, Jocelyne Guerbette have almost exactly the same name as her husband Jocelyn, both are nicknamed Jo, but to keep them apart I'm going to refer to the main character - Jocelyne - as Jo and her husband as his name. The story is not very complicated. It starts with Jo telling the reader about her life with her husband. Jo is a dressmaker and hoping to become a fashion designer in Paris. She and Jocelyn lives a modest life in the little city of Arras in northern France. Jo's friends then encourage her to buy a lottery ticket and then it happens, Jo win 18 574 301 euro and 28 cent.

When Jo wins the lottery the story begins, she start to write lists of things she want - hence the title. But she don't want to change her life, she loves her current house and the life she has with Jocelyn, something the money threatens to change. On top of that - and it's already a good story - come a twist a the end that I really didn't expect at all.

Easy to read and well written

I did like this book quite a lot. The story is not very fast and constantly changing, you get the overall idea and in the end it doesn't come down to small detail. It's basically not a thriller/action kind of drama. I found the book well written and quite easy to read. At first I thought that Jo would just come to the conclusion that money isn't everything and live happily ever after with Jocelyn, but that is not what happened. Nevertheless the ending was very nice.

Trying to not spoil anything but still trying to give you an idea of the ending I will say that Jo realize that you don't have to feel obligated to love someone back just because they love you, and you don't need a significant other to be able to be happy. The ending - and only the ending! - actually reminds me a little bit about Ladies Coupe.

If you want to read an interesting, short little book without a thousand things happening around every corner and something that is also easy to read I would defiantly recommend this book.

Book review: The Poison Tree

Title: The Poison Tree
Author: Erin Kelly
Genre: Thriller, drama
Year published: 2012
Pages: ~382
A place to buy it: If you are in Sweden you can buy the book from Bokus(in Swedish) or if that's not the case you can buy it of Amazon.
Previous book review: The Sorrows of an American

Young Karen and older Karen

This story is set in two time periods. One when Karen is older and the other during a memorable summer in her youth. Most of the story is focused around the summer, that is when she meets the siblings Biba and Rex who live together in a big, messy house and have completely different personalities. Karen meet and instantly love the colorful, aspiring actress Biba with a love for smoking pot, drinking wine and throwing parties.

Karen and the siblings Biba and Rex

Biba invites Karen to one of her parties and that is when Karen meet Rex for the first time. He is a quiet, silently loving man with a passion in house renovation. Karen is not falling head over heels for Rex during their first meeting, but the reader learn very early in the book that Karen in the other time period - when they are both older - is together with Rex and that they have a daughter together. But the reader also learn that Rex - when they are older - just have come out of jail and that Karen feels guilty for something around that.

Karen love Biba incredibly much during that summer, and even though the sometimes reckless acts Biba do, Karen is always faithful to her new best friend. Karen moves into the house during the unforgettable summer and a series of unexpected events take place. (And if I tell you what happen I will spoil the book, but it is also what happens that makes the plot amazing!)

Tying everything together nicely in the end

The author never cease to surprise me during this book. In to the very last moment I don't quite stop getting surprised, even though I kind of saw the last turn coming. I'm very happy with the book, it really felt like a roller-coaster of believable characters and plot twists. And I have to say that the turns this story takes is what makes the book great, I can't tell you what happens so you just have to read it for yourself. It's a great read, I recommend to everyone!

Book review: The Sorrows of an American

Title: The Sorrows of an American
Author: Siri Hustvedt
Genre: Drama, Slice of Life
Year published: 2008
Pages: ~320
A place to buy it: If you are in Sweden you can buy the book from Adlibris or if that's not the case you can buy it of Amazon.
Previous book review: Islekar

The Davidsen family

Erik Davidsen is the main character and the story is about him but also the lives that cross his path. We get to follow Erik and his sister Inga trying to solve a mystery around his recently deceased father who left a strange letter. But the reader also get to follow the beautiful but cold Miranda - whom Erik fancies more and more - and her odd family relations. You also get to read detailed descriptions of his patients stories (he is a psychiatrist) and his dreams.

I found it quite hard to keep all the different Davidsens and their relationships and stories apart in the beginning, but after some time I got a hang of it. The book changes character perspective, place and time without any notice at all and I got a bit confused in the beginning. But when I got further into the book things got better and I could puzzle the stories together.

Believable characters, lacking story

I'm going to be very honest and say these characters, and mostly Erik since he is the main character, could have been real people. They are really complex to the point I had to ask myself if I was reading a biography of Erik Davidsen or if it was fiction. When that's the case the writer have very much succeeded in the making of the character(s). That lifted the story from being a little bit boring, but I have to say that the story is too slow.

Never throughout the book I get the feeling that I just have to turn page to get to know what happens next. It's more like a nature documentary that feed you with facts and then ask some questions and then give you new information that answers those questions. Not really thrilling, but great and believable characters. I recommend reading it to see and feel how real the characters are, not for the story.

Book review: Islekar

Title: Islekar
Author: Liselott Willén
Genre: Drama
Year published: 2008
Pages: ~270
A place to buy it: If you are in Sweden you can buy the e-book of Bokus.
Other: Not translated into English. I managed to find a 'real' book and not an e-book in a closing bookstore but I couldn't find anything else than the e-book to link to.
Previous book review: Utan personligt ansvar

Almost bullied Alexandra "Alex"

This story is about a girl named Alexandra but everybody calls her Alex. She lives in a small village on Åland (an island between Sweden and Finland). Her biggest wish is to get noticed by her mother but none of her parents care that much about her. In school she's almost bullied but escapes the terror because of a girl called Lisa. Lisa is overweight and because of that everyone in the entire school bullies and hate her. It's only when Lisa isn't in school that the bullies go after Alex.

Alex doesn't have any friends and she really want a friend. When a new boy, Jakob, moves to the island from Sweden he also get bullied but doesn't seem to care. Alex and Jakob develop the slight beginning of friendship but then Alex's mum begin to seemingly care more about Jakob than Alex. This makes the girl furious and her feelings shift and she hate him after that.

During the same time Alex and a mysterious girl called Sarah slowly get to know each other and the two girls from a friendship. But everything isn't what it seems and Alex love the feeling of friendship so much she is basically willing to do anything to hold onto it.

Complex but predictable

I like the plot and the way the story is formed with information coming a little bit at a time. Everything is tied together nicely at the end and I feel like the characters are complex enough to be very much real. It's a great book but the reason I don't find it stunning is because the story is too predictable. The reader get too much information and just because Alex can't fit the pieces together doesn't mean that the reader can't either.

To me, the parts that are suppose to be shocking just isn't because everything leading up to that moment made what was going to happened too obvious. That is really sad because everything else is great. The book spoiled itself while I was reading it, but besides that it was a good book that I would recommend if you can find it!

Book review: Utan personligt ansvar

Title: Utan personligt ansvar
Author: Lena Andersson
Genre: Romance
Year published: 2014
Pages: ~366
A place to buy it: If you are in Sweden you can click here to buy the book of Adlibris.
Other: Not translated to English (yet?)
Previous book review: The Years

Ester and Olof

This is the second book after Wilful Disregard - A Novel About Love and it begins five years after Ester's breakup with Hugo Rask - her great love in the first novel - when she meets the actor Olof Sten. He is already married and says that he will never leave his wife. Despite that statement so often being mentioned over and over again he starts going out with Ester. She is convinced that Olof will leave his wife soon and that his marriage is falling apart. And of course Ester is utterly obsessed with a man that don't really feel the same way about her. She even buy a car to be able to drive Olof to his work in different cities and so on.

Olof - the great victim of everything

If Ester is naive, then Olof is a victim - in his own eyes at least. He pretends that everything that happens in his and Ester's relationship is her forcing him. Of course he can't say no to her because he is just the poor victim of everything. All of the things he says and does is never caused by anything he did, he is just the victim of Ester's love, his wife's plans and at times even a victim of life.

To be honest, Lena Andersson really manages to create the kind of characters that I hate so incredible much. In the previous book it was Ester, but she grew up a bit in this book. Or maybe I just found a character - Olof - to hate more, so Ester seems fine now? Ester is a little less naive, especially towards the end when she realizes that Olof haven't been treating her like you should treat a loved one at all. I don't despise her as much.

But even if I don't like the characters I feel like I get to know them a lot better. At first I was afraid that this book and this new relationship would be too similar to the one in the previous book but they are not alike at all, this book is unique in that meaning.

Final thoughts

All of the characters have become much deeper and complex, I really love that. Since the characters are more complex the story follows. I feel like the things that the first book didn't have, this one has. But I don't find the language as stunning in this book, but it is overall a better book with deeper characters and a more interesting story. To get the full effect I would recommend to read the first book, to see how things changed and compare Olof and Hugo.

Book review: The Years

Title: The Years
Author: Virginia Woolf
Genre: Fiction, drama
Year published: 1937
Pages: ~450
A place to buy it: If you are in Sweden you can buy the book from Adlibris and if that's not the case you can buy if of Amazon.
Previous book review: Ladies Coupe

The Pargiters between 1880-1930

This is not a book for one that is looking for action or anything along dose lines. I enjoyed the book quite a lot, it's a nice, calm story. In the first chapter (called 1880) you get introduced to all the Pargiters and then, in each chapter that follows, you will be able to read about a day in the life, of one of the characters introduced in the first chapter, in a certain year (1891, 1907, 1908, 1910, 1911, 1913, 1914, 1917, 1918). In the chapter 1880 and the last one everything is neatly presented and closed, resulting in these two chapters being longer than the one's in between.

I do have to say that the last chapter is very long and I find it too long. It's only one day, most of it during a party. Even if everything is getting tied together in that chapter I feel like it could've been without so much of the empty, confused dialogs and half finished sentences.

Pargiters are a fairly large family and I felt very confused during the first chapters. I didn't remember the characters and they were never really re-introduced again. One of the characters that appears quite a lot is the oldest daughter of lord Pargiter - Eleanor. But towards the end I promise you will know all the characters!

During these years you get to see - see with you imagination i guess - the changes in London. I almost got the feeling that the characters were all just examples of how time affected a middle-class family between late 1800's to early 1900. But in one way, I want to know more about all of the characters. Virginia Woolf manages to build characters complex and unique enough that I want to read a novel about each and every one of them. This book, I feel at times, barley scratches the surface of their lives.

Time and change

In this very special book I can't decide if the characters or the time and the changes that come with it are in focus. You can deffiently read it and think about it from both perspectives. I can think back on it and remember a book that tells the story about a city and it's place in time and the changes that slowly happened to that city - London - during the turn of the century.

I can also think back on the book and remember the story about how a family develop and adjust to the times and how each and every life takes it own, unique turn.

Either way I look at it, this book really capture time and change without saying whether it's good or bad. It just accepts it as what it is - inevitable. I would recommend this book to everyone who have a bit of time to calmly read it through. If you read through it, waiting for something to happen, you will fail to see that things actually happen all the time.

So, my final thoughts about the book is: I recommend it to a certain type of person, one that is patient and don't get bored if it isn't a thriller.

Book review: Ladies Coupe

Title: Ladies Coupe
Author: Anita Nair
Genre: Fictional life
Year published: 2003
Pages: 320
A place to buy it: If you are in Sweden you can buy the book from Adlibris and if that's not the case you can buy it of Amazon.
Previous book review: Wilful Disregard - A Novel About Love

Six women - six lives

The book starts of with the main charachter, Akhila, buying a train ticket. She ends up in a ladies coupe with five other women. During the trip they tell each other about their lives, from childhood to how they got on the train. You get to follow all these different womens' lives, each life is a new chapter. Between the other five womens' chapters you also get chapters with Akhila's life.

Since Akhila is the main character she has more chapters, probably so that you can get to know her better, but it took me to about half of the book until I could feel that Akhila was the main character at all. I got the feeling her life could've been just as short as the other womens'. To me, Akhila didn't feel very special or more "right" as a main character since all the women are so unique.

Unique but still the same

Anita Nair have in this book created six completely unique, different women. You don't get tired of the book or the chapters since every life is so different from the other. But they all have one thing in common: all of them somehow disagree with the tradition that all women need a man. Even if some of them are married, happily or unhappily, or not, they all stand by the fact that a woman don't need a man.

In their lives you can see how all of them, at one point or another, in their own, special way, come to realize this. That is also, at least to me, the red thread of this book.

Final thoughts

It's a lovely book. I find it very interesting and exciting that Anita Nair never made me feel tired of reading about another life. Every life is a short novel in itself almost. The only thing I do think is unnecessary is Akhila. As I said before, all lives are unique so I don't understand why Akhila is the main character. Her life just feels drawn out to make the book longer almost. In the last chapter, I just feel like what had been done over several chapters might just as well have been said in a couple.

It almost feels confusing and a bit wrong to even have a main character in this kind of book. The red thread - a woman don't need a man to be complete - is enough for me.

Still, I really recommend this book. You get a good reading experiense out of it even if Akhila at times can feel a bit long winded. 4/5 stars!

Book review: Wilful Disregard - A Novel About Love

Title: Wilful Disregard - A Novel About Love
Author: Lena Andersson
Genre: Romance
Year published: 2013
Pages: ca 208
A place to buy it: If you are in Sweden you can you can click here to buy the book of Adlibris and if that's not the case you can click here to buy it from Amazon.
Other: Winner of the August Prize 2013
Previous book review: Vanished

It's not in the story but in the words

The main character is called Ester and the whole story is basically her falling in love with a man, breaking up with her previous partner in order to be with this other man and then it turns out he is not a very nice person. In the book I didn't really fall much for the characters, I never felt like I cared about them or really cared about what happened in their relationship. The plot is simple and not something I could care about because the characters didn't feel very present to me.

So what is it to like if not the story nor the characters are that good? That answer is very simple, it is the words by which Ester's feelings are portrayed that lifts this book so much. If the language and the words Lena uses in this book wasn't there I wouldn't have gotten through the book. It is very clear early on in the book that Ester is madly in love but she isn't loved back as much as she loves him. The man she falls in love with never sees Ester as a main road, she is always the little sidetrack you take because of the lovely view, you are still going to leave the sidetrack for the main road but you go on it because you want some variation  - was that a very confusing example?

Through heartbreak after heartbreak

What I found interesting in the book was how naive Ester really was, she just kept hoping for this man to start loving her as she loved him. Every little text, phone call or dinner happened the same way. She got happy, filled with hope and excitement. The date or phone call or whatever happened and then she didn't hear from him in like three months - for her that was three months of depression - then he contacted her again and so on.

I almost got angry at Ester. Why didn't she see that she was just being used? But most of all: why did she keep going back to him? It is very obvious that he is just using her, keeping her within reach and never letting go. I know she probably isn't supposed to realize this because she is in love and so on but it really makes me frustrated.

Final thoughts

The language and the words are wonderful, they do a great job illustrating all of Ester's ups and downs. I love the way a few smaller characters are portrayed, like Hugo's best friend and Ester's partner in the beginning of the book. Ester herself is a character I could never like, she really isn't likable because I find her way too naive and supposedly blinded by her love for Hugo. 10/10, I would love to recommend everyone who doesn't care too much about a very strong story.

Book review: Vanished

Title: Vanished
Author: Joseph Finder
Genre: Thriller
Year published: 2010
Pages: ca 480
A place to buy it: If you are in Sweden you can click here to buy the book of Adlibris and if that's not the case you can click here to buy if from Amazon.
Other: First book in a series featuring Nick Heller.
Previous book review: The Collectors 

A missing brother

The book takes a fast start when our main character Nick Heller is interrupted when he is in the middle of work. Nick's nephew Gabe calls to ask for help in order to find his missing father. As the good man Nick is he finish work and starts digging into the mysterious disappearance or maybe even kidnapping of his brother Roger Heller.

Nick starts to unravel something big and in the process of doing that he also get into fights and give the bad guys what they deserve. He is able to dig in this case because of his job at the prestigious company Stoddard Associates, some good friends and because other people owed him a favor. Nick also realize that his brother has quite a few skeletons in the closet.

Slow thriller with too much filler

This book wasn't really in my taste. It started out in a good tempo but when the tempo felt the same throughout the whole book I got kind of bored. Yes it was a thriller but I think it was way too slow. Fights where filled with too much of Nick's thoughts and that made the part that is supposed to be well, thrilling, less exciting because everything happened so slowly.

A lot of things and facts where bombarding me from the first chapter to the last. Many names and places, companies and places. It was too much for me to remember. I get that it's supposed to be a mess but not much got cleared up for me in the end. When the big reveal and the story was "cleared up" I didn't really get what had happened. All the fillers made me loose track of what was important to remember and what wasn't.

Final thoughts

If you are looking for a action-filled thriller this is not going to be the book for you. On the other hand, if you are looking for more of a faster drama I think you could appreciate the book. To me, this book wasn't making me turn the pages. I kept on reading because of the hope that it might get better towards the end, but it didn't. It's not a terrible book, but it's not the thriller that you stay up all night to read because you just can't stop turning the pages. It's probably a 3/5 I would say.

Cupcakes Stockholm

Hi everyone! Yesterday was the last post with photos from Stockholm, so the title might confuse you. To make things clear: the cupcakes are from a place called Cupcakes Stockholm. My mum brought these to me when we was staying in Stockholm. I don't think the taste is amazing and I was quite disappointed when I ate them. The only thing that was different about these two was the frosting. Also the cupcake with green frosting was dry and kind of hard.

I decided to just publish this because I was not very impressed and it wasn't worth the money. I got both of these in as a mini cupcake à 15kr/1,77USD. The photos turned out good too, so I wanted show you that as well. I hope somebody found this helpful or just enjoyed the photos! :) If anyone is interested, the green one is called Fläderkrus and the yellow Lemon Meringue.

Book review: The Collectors

Title: The Collectors
Author: David Baldacci
Genre: Thriller
Year published: 2007
Pages: ca 500
A place to buy it: If you are in Sweden you can click here to buy the book of Bokus and if that's not the case you can click here to buy it from Amazon.
Other: This is the second part of Camel Club Series.
Last book review: Book review: The Graveyard Book

The Camel Club and Annabelle Conroy

The Camel Club is lead by former agent that now goes by the name of Oliver Stone. Oliver's close friend and a member of the Camel Club, Caleb Shaw, works at the Library of Congress in Washington DC and enjoys his work. One day Caleb finds his friend, Jonathan DeHaven, the shy head of the Rare Books Division at the Library of Congress dead. Jonathan's death is a mystery and the Camel Club is trying to solve it but when digging into the dead mans life they find out that Jonathan himself also had secrets.

In the mean time Annabelle Conroy, the the most gifted con artist of her generation, is preparing for the con of her life. She is going to get revenge and big sums of money out of it if she successfully completes the plan. If not, she and her partners might end up dead or even worse. Either way they are going to regret it if something goes wrong. In all this she also cross path with the Camel Club and maybe she could give them a bit of help in the case of Jonathan DeHaven?

Two plots, many charachters

This book really is thrilling to read, I wanted to turn the pages before I even had read them to the bottom. Something I found a bit hard was to keep up whit all the characters, especially in the beginning. It wasn't very long ago I read it but I can't tell you the important sidekicks or the name of some people that actually was quite important to the plots. But I feel like the book helps you, it can take some sentences of a new chapter before you really understand where you are and remember what happened last time, but the book will give you kind little reminders.

The two plots and the fact that you don't really can keep up with all of the characters in detail makes it exciting to start every new chapter. Even if the book is about the Camel Club I feel like you get involved enough in Annabelle to care about her story too. It's not like you feel "oh, here's a filler chapter with Annabelle again". To be honest I liked her part of the book the best, it was most thrilling and kept me on the edge of my seat.

Final thoughts

If you like thrillers, don't mind keeping a few characters in fresh memory and want to have a good book that's not too expensive (since it was published in 2007 you won't need to pay too much) I think this is the book for you. The language isn't empty, many thrillers leave details and just want to push the story forward. I find dose books empty, some don't even mention the hair color of the main character and that bores me. This book isn't like that, it's the perfect mix! You don't have to have read the first book, but you might want to read the third because all things don't get tied together in this one.

Book review: The Housekeeper and the Professor

Title: The Housekeeper and the Professor
Author: Yoko Ogawa
Genre: Fiction
Year published: 2003 in Japanese (2009 in English, 2011 in Swedish)
Pages: ca 200
A place to buy it: If you are in Sweden click here to buy the book of Bokus and if that's not case you can click here to buy if of Amazon

8 minutes memory

The professor is a lonely man that lives on his own, the only person he regularly interacts with seems to be his housekeeper. He solves mathematical problems in magazines, wears an old suit filled with small notes that tells him the things he need to remember. The professor's memory only lasts 8 minutes, he also change housekeeper very often.

One day another new housekeeper arrives. She introduces herself to the professor... and re-introduces herself to him eight minutes later. He never gets to know her because he only remember her name that is on one small note on his suite, but she get to know him. The housekeeper has a son and one day she brings her son to work and the professor meets him. A deep friendship grows between the professor, the housekeeper and her son.

A sweet, heartwarming story

I really love this book. Originally I brought the book because of the good reviews and I was not disappointed. The way the professor cares for the housekeepers son and his general love for children is very sweet. At first the professor is pictured like a recluse but when you reach the book's end you will say goodbye to a much deeper character.

This story don't have space aliens invading earth because is doesn't have to. None of the characters are shallow and that makes you fall in love with them. Some authors tend to spend so much time on the characters that the story is put aside but that is not the case with this one. I don't want to give out too much, but I just have to say that I was thrilled during the baseball match.

Book review: The Graveyard Book

Title: The Graveyard Book
Author: Neil Gaiman
Genre: Fantasy (Horror)
Year published: 2010
Pages: ca 300
A place to buy it: If you are in Sweden you can click here to buy the book of Bokus and if that's not the case you can click here to buy it from Amazon.

A boy named Bod

This easy-to-read-story catches the reader in the very first page. A cold blooded murderer named Jack is on a mission to kill a whole family, but somehow the youngest child in the family escapes. Jack refuses to leave his mission incomplete and throughout the book you will continue to meet him. I feel like Jack is the red thread, he is also the evil character that continue to show up throughout the story.

The young child Bod (that Jack wishes to see dead) grows up on a graveyard. The dead care about him, feed him, educate him and warns him about the world outside the graveyard. A friendly couple - dead of course - have adopted him and Bod's life is good. But just like Oliver Twist he is brave and quite adventurous.

How the chapters/book is built 

Every chapter is a bit like a short story where things happen the same way: Bod gets in a bit of trouble but by solving it, not always by himself, he learn new things that can be helpful in the future. I find that the way the chapters are made make it easy to, after you've read the whole book, go back and read your favorite chapter again. (I personally loved chapter 3, it reminds me of Narnia.)

As I said a bit earlier I feel like Jack is the one that binds all the chapters together. It's neatly done and all the things you have read about in the previous chapters get a new purpose.

Final thoughts

I would recommend this book to everyone who want a good read. It's a children's book recommended from 10 years and up but I really didn't feel like I was reading a children's book. I just felt like the book was from Bod's perspective and since he is a child it was nothing strange about that. The author manages to touch important life questions about life, death, friends and bullies in an enjoyable way. But I still can't shake off the feeling that a boy cared for by ghosts are a bit... morbid? Anyhow it's still 10/10 - I recommend!

Best free photo editors

Hi there! The photo editors I'm going to show you are my favourites and I use them all the time. The ones to your computer works good with Linux (Ubuntu) since that's what my own computer is. I've tried all things out for myself and if it says it also work on Windows I've tried it there too, as for Mac/iOS I haven't tried it out for myself. If it says it will work on Mac/iOS I wrote it out after doing a bit of research but never tried myself because I don't have any Apple devices. I hope you find this helpful!

Pixlr

Form: App (Android/iOS), software (Windows/Mac), web apps (you can access all webb apps in Chrome, in Mozilla you can't use Pixlr Touch up)
Website: https://pixlr.com/
Positive:
+ Pixlr is simple to use but you can still do a lot of things with it.
+ I love the idea that you can use it online, on your phone or on your computer.
+ None of the different versions have given me any problems, everything works fine. Most of the time I use the web app Pixlr Express. If I have time I also like to go through the web app Pixlr Touch up.
+ You don't have to sign up to use the web app unless you would like to.
Negative:
-  In Express you have the ability to make a collage if you want but every time I use this feature I find that the quality of my pictures don't end up very good. If I save the highest possible quality I still don't find that my photos look that good after being saved.
-  I don't like that it's software isn't compatible with Ubuntu but maybe it'll come in the future.
-  In order to use the app/web app you need to be online.

PicMonkey

Form: Web app (all browsers)
Website: http://www.picmonkey.com/
Positive:
+ It's super good to make collages with.
+ You can easily choose seize, shape, colours and so much more.
+ It's not needed to sign up and you can do a lot of things.
+ You can use this to edit, touch up or make some kind of banner with your own photos.
+ If you just want to play around you could also just start with one of the photos they provide.
Negative:
-  Not everything is free.
-  If you would like to be able to use all features they have you have to be a Royale member. They give you a first free month but after that you will have to pay in order to continue your Royale membership.
- Because it's a web app you will need to be online in order to be able to edit and save.

Gimp

Form: Software (works with everything)
Website: http://www.gimp.org/
Positive:
+ You can do whatever you would like to do.
+ It's more advanced than the previous two and I feel like it's all of Pixlr's different web apps combined in one.
+ It doesn't matter if you have Windows/Mac/Ubuntu or anything other because of the information I could find online everyone can use it.
+ You can download packs with brushes and things like that that adds on to your software.
+ Because it's a software you can also edit when you are offline as well.
Negative:
-  I wouldn't recommend to complete beginners if they just want to edit a photo fast. It can take some time to get used to the program and the best way to get to know it is by just simply playing around with all different settings you find but that can take some time.

BeautyPlus - Magical Camera

Form: App (Android/iOS)
Website: None
Rating: 4,3 stars in Google Play
Positive:
+ It's very easy to handle.
+ You have a lot of different things you can do to your photo like different filters, lighten skin, remove pimples etc.
+ Good results and it doesn't take very long.
Negative:
- This app is for selfies/portraits and I don't think it would work very well on something else, except for filters maybe.
- You need to be online to use the app.

Book Sunday - Life Sentences by Laura Lippman

Title: Life Sentences
Author: Laura Lippman
Year published: 2009
Pages: 352
Rating: 2/5
Find book: http://www.amazon.com/Life-Sentences-Novel-Laura-Lippman/dp/B002SB8P92

About: Author Cassandra Fallows has achieved remarkable success by baring her life on the page. Her two widely popular memoirs continue to sell briskly, acclaimed for their brutal, unexpurgated candor about friends, family, lovers—and herself. But now, after a singularly unsuccessful stab at fiction, Cassandra believes she may have found the story that will enable her triumphant return to nonfiction.

When Cassandra was a girl, growing up in a racially diverse middle-class neighborhood in Baltimore, her best friends were all black: elegant, privileged Donna; sharp, shrewd Tisha; wild and worldly Fatima. A fifth girl orbited their world—a shy, quiet, unobtrusive child named Calliope Jenkins—who, years later, would be accused of killing her infant son. Yet the boy's body was never found and Calliope's unrelenting silence on the subject forced a judge to jail her for contempt. For seven years, Calliope refused to speak and the court was finally forced to let her go. Cassandra believes this still unsolved real-life mystery, largely unknown outside Baltimore, could be her next bestseller.

But her homecoming and latest journey into the past will not be welcomed by everyone, especially by her former friends, who are unimpressed with Cassandra's success—and are insistent on their own version of their shared history. And by delving too deeply into Calliope's dark secrets, Cassandra may inadvertently unearth a few of her own—forcing her to reexamine the memories she holds most precious, as the stark light of truth illuminates a mother's pain, a father's betrayal . . . and what really transpired on a terrible day that changed not only a family but an entire country.

My thoughts: I didn't like the book that much, it mostly goes on about Cassandra's childhood and friends, but mostly it's just boring. The parts about Calliope is the best, that is where you feel a bit of plot, but the rest basically just feels like a biography of a fictional character. I was waiting and waiting for a plot to form, but there's just a vague main-plot.

What I do like about the book is that the characters are very alive. Both Cassandra and her friends as children and adults feel like real people. Lippman manages to paint up a good picture of each character as different individuals. When you read about the characters as children and then as adults you can see how their personalities and background  made them do the choices they did.

In the beginning of the book, I feel a little thrown between characters and different stories but after some more chapters you get used to it. With a more powerful plot and a bit less of Cassandras thinking I would have been much happier. The language is nice and plain. She doesn't throw all the information in your face. I like it that way, if you don't get two pages of details you tend to remember much more. Lippman is building up these characters through out the whole book, letting you get to know them step by step and not all at once.