GingerbreadMan's 1010 - 2nd thread

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GingerbreadMan's 1010 - 2nd thread

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1GingerbreadMan
Redigerat: jun 6, 2010, 5:00 pm

Having a small child at home and a pretty intense workload, 100 books just isn't realistic for me. Instead I'll be going with SquekyChu's briliant countdown version. I tend to end up around 60-65 books per year, so 55 might be on the low side, but I prefer feeling all mighty as I start going for extras in october rather than realising I'm 35 short...

My categories and numbers will be:

1 Nosebreaker (you know those BIG format books on the bottom shelves? The ones about art or photography or geography? I'm going to read one of them, not just look at the pretty pictures)

2 Re-reads (a bit on the low side, to be sure)

3 Nobel Prize winners (that I have or haven't read before)

4 Books by African, Asian or South American authors (because I'm fighting tooth and nail not to settle for a Euro-American canon. An ongoing project)

5 The Moldy Ones (Books that have been sitting on my shelves for at least ten years without being read. Cheap used bookstores will sometimes do that to you...)

6 What I did for my summer holidays (Books in which travel plays an important part, probably mostly fiction)

7 Huh? What hype?? (For some reason I rarely go for those books everyone is talking about WHEN everyone talks about them. I tend to be in the middle of something completely else, and discover them a couple of years later instead. Some books in this category I'll probably be the last person in the northern hemisphere to read)

8 Thrown my way (This will include books I read for work, mostly theatre stuff, and recommendations from friends and LT:ers)

9 Sci-Fi & Fantasy (Actually pretty high for me, but I'm finding a lot of new interesting things in these genres these days. I'm utterly smitten with this thing called New Weird for instance)

10 The rest (everything that doesn't fit anywhere else)

Bonus Blend: Further reading (books I've been inspired to read by books within the challenge), Relegated books (that have been pushed off my lists because newer and shinier things have come along during the challenge) and Graphic novels (because they mess up my page count). I'm aiming for twelve bonus reads in all, representing one a month.

A few more things: I'm swedish, and thus more than a few books will likely be in my mother tongue and not available in english. I'm sorry about that, all you anglophones! This thread will be entirely in english though.

As part of a reading policy of mine, I'm always aiming at reading an equal number of books by male and female authors.

My first thread can be found here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/70763#2009220

2GingerbreadMan
Redigerat: jun 6, 2010, 4:53 pm




1 Nosebreaker - Completed!
1. En historia om läsning (A history of reading) by Alberto Manguel, finished feb 27th, ***, #120

3GingerbreadMan
Redigerat: okt 3, 2010, 6:06 pm

2 Re-reads - Completed!
1. Jazz by Toni Morrison, finished july 16th, ***,#2:57
2. Pappan och havet (Moominpappa at sea) by Tove Jansson, finished september 18th, *****, #2:119

4GingerbreadMan
Redigerat: aug 18, 2010, 5:21 pm

3 Nobel prize winners - Completed!
1. Mannen utan öde (Fateless) by Imre Kertész, finished march 2nd, *****,#121
2. Lust by Elfriede Jelinek, finished may 30th, *½, #189
3. Löwensköldska ringen (The Löwensköld ring) by Selma Lagerlöf, finished august 18th, ***½, #2:94

5GingerbreadMan
Redigerat: nov 4, 2010, 5:56 am

4 Books by African/Asian/South American authors - Completed!
1. Vår förlorade heder (Les honneurs perdus) by Calixte Beyala, finished march 12th, ***, #137
2. De vilda detektiverna (The savage detectives) by Roberto Bolaño, finished july 14th, ****, #2:54
3. Aké - Barndomsåren (Aké - The Years of Childhood) by Wole Soyinka, finished spetember 30th, ***, #2:133
4. Kafka på stranden (Kafka on the shore) by Haruki Murakami, finished november 4th, ***, #2:173

6GingerbreadMan
Redigerat: nov 8, 2010, 5:35 pm

5 The Moldy Ones - Completed!
1. Vanvettslandet (These demented lands) by Alan Warner, finished jan 13th, **1/2, #72
2. Rövarbruden (The robber bride) by Margaret Atwood, finished april 20th, ***, #158
3. Begrav mig stående (Bury me standing) by Isobel Fonseca (non-fiction), finished june 6th, ***½, #190
4. Samlade noveller och prosaskisser (The complete shorter fiction of Virginia Woolf) by Virginia Woolf, finished august 7th, ***, #2:82
5. Vatikanens källare (The Vatican cellars) by André Gide, finished november 7th, **½, 2#179

7GingerbreadMan
Redigerat: okt 6, 2010, 4:54 am

6 What I did for my summer holidays - Completed!
1. Rödöra (Oreille rouge) by Éric Chevillard, finished jan 22nd, ****, #92
2. Ben, in the world by Doris Lessing, finished april 2nd, ***½, #151
3. Expedition L (L) by Erlend Loe, finished april 24th, ****, #165
4. Dem oss skyldiga äro by Cilla Naumann, finished june 9th, ***, #2:18
5. Canal dreams by Iain Banks, finished september 5th, ***, #2:105
6. I Patagonien (In Patagonia) by Bruce Chatwin (non-fiction), finished october 6th, ****, #2:136

8GingerbreadMan
Redigerat: okt 20, 2010, 11:44 am

7 Huh? What hype? - Completed!
1. Luftslottet som sprängdes (The girl who kicked the hornets' nest) by Stieg Larsson, finished jan 20th, ***1/2, #81
2. Fröken Smillas känsla för snö (Smilla's sense of snow) by Peter Hoeg, finished march 15th, ***1/2, #138
3. Öster om Eden (East of Eden) by John Steinbeck, finished june 21st, ****, #2:31
4. Över näktergalens golv (Across the nightingale floor) by Lian Hearn, finished july 25th, ****, #2:61
5. Gomorra by Roberto Saviano (non-fiction), finished august 26th, **, #2:100
6. Allt är upplyst (Everything is illuminated) by Jonathan Safran Foer, finished october 17th, ***½, #2:148
7. Darkly dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay, finished october 20th, ***½, #2:153

9GingerbreadMan
Redigerat: jun 6, 2010, 4:53 pm

8 Thrown my way - Completed!
1. Boneshaker by Cheri Priest (LT buzz), finished jan 9th, ***½, #66
2. Världens lyckligaste folk by Lena Sundström (Work-related) non-fiction, finished jan 31st, ****, #101
3. Metro 2033 by Dmitrij Gluchovskij (present from Dad), finished march 27th, ****½, #147
4. Aniara by Harry Martinsson (Theatre performance), finished march 30th, ***, #150
5. The earth hums in B-flat by Mari Strachan (tip from cbl_tn), finished april 7th, ****½, #155
6. We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson (tip from clfisha, LauraBrook, CarlosMcRey), finished april 27th, *****, #167
7. Lång dags färd mot natt (Long day's journey into night) by Euegne O'Neill (work-related) Re-read, finished may 22nd, ***½, #185
8. Vad du inte vet om mig by Jonas Fröberg/Catharina Mattsson (work-related), finished june 6th, **½, #191

10GingerbreadMan
Redigerat: okt 24, 2010, 7:16 pm

9 Sci-Fi & Fantasy - Completed!
1. The Etched City by KJ Bishop, finished feb 10th, ****, #108
2. Cirkus Pilo (The Pilo Family Circus), finished feb 14th, ****, #113
3. Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler, finished march 21st, ****, #142
4. Finch by Jeff VanderMeer, finished may 21st, *****, #182
5. 128321::The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric and Discredited diseases, finished june 30th, ***½, #2:42
6. Brown girl in the ring by Nalo Hopkinson, finished july 21st, ***½, #2:61
7. Flow my tears, the policeman said by Philip K. Dick, finished august 12th,****, #2:83
8. Above the snowline by Steph Swainston, finished october 13th ****, #2:146
9. Black juice by Margo Lanagan, finished october 24th, ****, #2:161

11GingerbreadMan
Redigerat: nov 15, 2010, 4:48 am

10 The rest - Completed!
1. Kiffe kiffe imorgon (Kiffe kiffe tomorrow) by Faïza Guène, finished jan 1st. ***, #65
2. Sulphuric acid by Amélie Nothomb, finished march 4th, ***1/2, #129
3. Oskuldens minut by Sara Lidman, finished may 3rd, ****, #174
4. Båten (The boat) by Nam Le, finished may 26th, ****, #186
5. Mannen på Trinisla by Jerker Virdborg, finished july 27th, ****, #2:67
6. In cold blood by Truman Capote, finished july 31st, *****, #2:76
7. Utrensning (Purge) by Sofi Oksanen, finished august 17th, ****½, #2:90
8. Memento mori by Muriel Spark, finished september 17th, ****, #2:109
9. Intet by Janne Teller, finished november 9th, ****½, #2:180
10. The brief and frightening reign of Phil/In Persuasion Nation by George Saunders, finished november 13th, *****, #2:182

12GingerbreadMan
Redigerat: dec 29, 2010, 5:18 pm

Bonus Blend:
1. The long Halloween by Jeph Loeb/Tim Sale, finished march 3rd, ****, #128
2. Haunted Knight by Jeph Loeb/Tim Sale, finished march 7th, **, #133
3. Top Ten: The forty-niners by Alan Moore/Gene Ha, finished may 22nd, ****, #183
4. Astro City: Family Album by Kurt Busiek/Brent Anderson/Alex Ross, finished october 29th, ****, #2:165
5. Astro City: The tarnished angel by Kurt Busiek/Brent Anderson/Alex Ross, finished october 30th, ****, #2:165
6. Astro City: Local heroes by Kurt Busiek/Brent Anderson/Alex Ross, finished october 31st, *****, #2:165
7. På kudde av gräs (Grass for his pillow) by Lian Hearn, finished november 18th, ***½, #2:198
8. Under lysande måne (The brilliance of the moon) by Lian Hearn, finished november 26th, ***½, #2:203
9. World War Z by Max Brooks, finished december 3rd, ****½, #2:209
10. Albion by Alan Moore/Leah Moore/John Reppion, finished december 5th, **½, #2:212
11. Charlotte Löwensköld by Selma Lagerlöf, finished december 10th, ****½, #2:216
12. Den oändliga rättvisans matematik (156119::The algebra of Infinite Justice) (non-fiction) by Arundhati Roy, finished december 12th, ***½, #2:216

13. Veniss Underground by Jeff VanderMeer, finished december 21st, ****, #2:235
14. Soulless by Gail Carriger, finished december 29th, ***½, #2:252

For some reason, touchstones HATE this particular post...

13lindapanzo
jun 6, 2010, 6:16 pm

It looks like you're well on your way to completing!!

14cmbohn
jun 6, 2010, 8:48 pm

I think it's interesting that we have some categories that overlap a bit, but almost none of the same books! It's good to see what a range of stuff there is out there. It keeps me from getting stuck in a rut, always reading the same kind of stuff.

15sjmccreary
jun 6, 2010, 10:20 pm

Several of your books are on my wishlist, but I haven't read any of your completed books. I think those wishlist suggestions probably all came from you. I HAVE read In Cold Blood and highly recommend it for your category #10. You're making better progress than I am.

16GingerbreadMan
Redigerat: jun 7, 2010, 4:43 pm

13 Hey, you're right - I just past the halfway mark and didn't even notice :)!

14 Considering the speed you read at, it's only a matter of months before we overlap by default :) You're truly impressing!

15 Not by much, though! And I've dipped into very few of my heavier titles so far. In cold blood is coming up during august or so, I guess. Looking forward to it!

Thank you all for stopping by!

17VictoriaPL
jun 9, 2010, 2:53 pm

How perfect is that namesake pointer on your page count ticker. Awesome!

For your Hype category... may I give you another gentle nudge towards Dexter? I enjoyed it!

18GingerbreadMan
Redigerat: jun 9, 2010, 5:56 pm

17 I know! I pays off to start new challenges at christmas time :)

Dexter is happening after summer. Since I have no room for sequels any-bloody-where in my stoopid planning, I want to save all first in a series-books until the later part of the challenge, in order not to create too big a gap. I have bad memory...

29. Dem oss skyldiga äro by Cilla Naumann
Category 6. What I did for my summer holidays, 312 pages.

Reading this for my travel books category turned out to be stretching it a bit - the "travel" here lasted fifteen years... This polyphonic book revolves around Katrin, who follows her husband's work to a south american country, and takes up volonteer work at a slum church to fight off boredom. Which brings her to meet fifteen year old Clara, pregnant after being abused, and unknowinglingly letting her down badly - something that tears Katrin's life apart. But it's also about Maria, who finds two baby boys that Katrin and her husband ends up adopting and regrets not keeping them for herself, about Esteban who watches Maria sleeping and Katrin's daughter Anna and her first, secret love.

It's an intricate weave this book, and requires some trust from the reader as a lot doesn't fall into place until late in the book. Unfortunately, quite a bit is also left hanging which makes some storylines feel annoyingly pointless. It's a sum not living up to some of it's parts. What will remain with me is the interesting account of the family's return to Sweden after fifteen years, and the questions it raises about "home". 3 stars.

19VictoriaPL
jun 9, 2010, 6:25 pm

>18 GingerbreadMan: That happens to me too. I'll be talking up a book with someone and we're totally engaged in the discussion and then they'll mention something I don't remember and that whole glowy vibe comes to a screeching halt. This is a good reminder that I should read Dexter #2 soon... it's around here somewhere...

20clfisha
jun 13, 2010, 12:35 pm

oops completely missed this new thread.. ahem.

I love the TV series of Dexter and I have the 1st book languishing somewhere but I am a bit nervous to read it, I hear they don't favourable compare?

21RidgewayGirl
jun 13, 2010, 1:08 pm

clfisha, they are different. I read the first book (and have only read that first book) before seeing the series and enjoyed seeing the similarities and differences. Both were well done, but the series does not slavishly follow the book.

22clfisha
jun 13, 2010, 1:12 pm

Thanks, good to hear it doesn't follow exactly otherwise I tend to get a bit bored.. right I wonder where, in the chaos that is my library, it is..

23AHS-Wolfy
jun 13, 2010, 3:28 pm

The Dexter books head off at even more of a tangent in book 3 though comes back a little in #4

24-Eva-
jun 14, 2010, 11:29 am

->23 AHS-Wolfy:

Thank you for that! I've been holding off on reading #4 since the third one was such a letdown from the first two.

25AHS-Wolfy
jun 14, 2010, 12:32 pm

24, if you like books 1 & 2 then you will more than likely be okay with book 4.

26GingerbreadMan
Redigerat: jun 14, 2010, 6:13 pm

I've not yet seen the TV series, so that's not really a problem for me. (I never manage to follow a series on TV, but rather buy the boxes, one show at the time. For the next few months at least, it'll be Baltimore a la Wire for us). Flea, my wife, sort of lost interest after book three (or perhaps she just OD:d). I'll pass on the improvement of book 4 to her! Thanks!

27AHS-Wolfy
jun 14, 2010, 6:07 pm

I still think I prefer the TV series though. It's exceptionally well cast and I'm certainly interested in seeing which way they take it in season 5. How much my preference is based on my first encounter I'm not sure. I'd watched the first couple of seasons before reading any of the books.

28-Eva-
jun 20, 2010, 8:24 pm

Continued from your other thread...

I have a feeling that the Romani bits of Taikon's books are probably fine, I'm more worried how 1930s and 1940s Sweden holds up - we were a bit too enamored with them Germans at the time... It'll be interesting, though, I haven't read those since I was about 10 years old. They must be holding up reasonably well since they're still being published. Fingers Xed!! :)

29sjmccreary
jun 22, 2010, 3:34 pm

#18 Should I assume that, since you didn't provide an English translation for this title that it has not been translated? That would be just my luck - it sounds like an interesting book.

30GingerbreadMan
jun 23, 2010, 6:01 pm

@28 True about the swedish-german thing in the thirties/fourties. But in a romani writer...? Actually, I had no idea the books were that old. In my recollection, they always had very seventies covers , and I guess I assumed they were from the sixties and seventies. Will be interesting to hear what you think, if and when you read them!

29 I don't think so, no. Only a small fraction of Swedish literature finds it's way into English translation. German is more likely, if that helps...

31GingerbreadMan
jun 23, 2010, 6:14 pm

HEAR YE HEAR YE! My vacation has truly and utterly begun! Oh joy!

Which usually means a bit more time for reading, but probably a bit less posting. Expect activity to go down some in the five weeks to come (that's right, I said five weeks. Sometimes I love living in Sweden :-))

Here's one submitted a few days late (it also took me a good five days more than I expected. My son was sick the whole last week before vacation, meaning me and Flea had to take turns in staying home, just as everything at work had to wrap before summer...That's the stuff that lost reading time is made of):

30. Öster om Eden (East of Eden) by John Steinbeck
Category 7. Huh? What hype?, 494 pages.

Soon to begin my 36th year on this planet, I’m mending one of the more flagrant holes in my “reasonably well read” persona. This was (beat) my first Steinbeck.

It’s not that I’ve avoided him. I’ve certainly had supporters in my near surroundings, who’s taste I generally trust, and a strong hunch I’ll probably like his work. It’s just that Steinbeck has never seemed a PRIORITY, you know? Four or five books, picked up at various flea markets, have lingered on my shelves for well over ten years, never even quite making it to the well, maybe this summer batch.

This is, I’m sure you’ll all agree, where LT challenges are at their best. I put East of Eden in my “Books everybody but me have read” category, and finally got round to reading it.

And I liked it, more or less in the way I expected to. A well-crafted, well told story, told straight in a captivating fashion. Good literature, in the no nonsense sense of the word. Cleverly using, but not overusing, the myth of Cain and Abel, Steinbeck weaves a tapestry about good and evil in people (and people’s notions of good and evil), heritage and the freedom to choose our destiny. The story focuses on Adam Trask, his long time Chinese servant Li, his two sons Caleb and Aron and their runaway mother, running a house of ill repute in the next town, but mixes in a hefty cast of memorable secondary characters (even introducing a comic relief nurse in the last few pages) and manages to twist and turn it’s main themes in many interesting ways, telling more than one good story on it’s way. Often understated (I love for instance how the reader gets to put two and two together when it comes to what torments Abra’s father, without Steinbeck ever putting it in words) and un-loomingly philosophical, this is a very readable modern classic.

It loses a little bit of momentum in it’s last quarter, and the ending feels rather stressed. And for better and for worse, it’s “just” a good straight story. All in all though, well worth waiting for, and absolutely not my last Steinbeck. 4 stars.

Sooo people, your turn to fess up: What are some of your awkward literary gaps?

32-Eva-
jun 23, 2010, 6:58 pm

->30 GingerbreadMan:

You're right, the books are very 70s - I think she was born in the early 30s, though, so I have a vague recollection of some dealings they have with the police and it'll be interesting to see if that reflects the time. I've checked the library where my mum lives and they have a bunch so I'll definitely have to give them a try when i go home.

33paruline
jun 24, 2010, 8:01 am

Re 31 *cough*Nabokov*cough*

34sjmccreary
jun 24, 2010, 12:27 pm

#31 5 weeks vacation - that would definitely be something to love! My husband gets 5 weeks a year, but never takes more than 10 days at a time. (I'm self-employed, so can take off whenever I want to - I just don't get paid.)

I've never read Steinbeck before, nor many other "essential" authors. My literary gaps are too many to list. The lapses I'm most conscious of are Dickens and Shakespeare. I've read a couple, but only what was required in school. And I didn't understand or appreciate them.

35DeltaQueen50
jun 24, 2010, 2:07 pm

I feel that I haven't read as many "classics" as I should have. I read a few in my twenties, when my reading was quite fearless. But I don't have the patience that I used to have and if I find myself struggling with a book, I am quick to toss it aside for something easier.

36RidgewayGirl
jun 24, 2010, 5:43 pm

Thanks to the excellent group reads here, I'm tackling some big books, slowly but thoughtfully.

We were in Europe until three years ago and I do miss the flexibility that a decent amount of vacation time brings. Also, it really gives one time to fully recharge and be eager to get back into the fray.

Read away and enjoy time with your family. We'll still all be around when you wander back, rested and full of stories.

37cbl_tn
jun 24, 2010, 9:05 pm

>31 GingerbreadMan: Tolstoy and Faulkner are two authors I keep meaning to read "some day," but that day hasn't arrived yet. I didn't have to read works by either one in high school lit classes (except maybe a Faulkner short story).

38clfisha
jun 27, 2010, 8:04 am

I hope you are having a great holiday.

@30 I think there far too many to list ;-) I do keep eyeing up the Jorge Luis Borges in my tbr but after the shocking disappointed of Hemingway I cannot face it. (It was Old Man and the Sea).

I do enjoy Steinbeck: Travels with Charley is an interesting slice of Americana if you ever feel the need to try him again. I haven't read East of Eden yet but I am planning too.. one day..

39GingerbreadMan
jun 28, 2010, 5:26 pm

@33-38 Thank you all for sharing :) Oh, and no Tolstoy here either. No Faulkner. Very little Dickens. No Hemingway (but Claire actually makes me feel pretty good about that).

Also: I've not read any of the Brontës besides Emily. Very little Strindberg besides the plays (and I'm swedish, remember). No Thomas Mann. No Balzac. No Dumas.

I will read more Steinbeck though.

Having a nice holiday so far, thank you :)

40kristenn
jun 28, 2010, 5:30 pm

Faulkner is the biggest gap for me too. My high school English teacher didn't like him so we didn't read him.

41lkernagh
jun 28, 2010, 11:01 pm

I have way too many gaps to mention here.... my standard response is "...but there are so many great books out there, and there is just one of me trying to read all that I can. If you can clone me, let's talk." And then I make my escape! ;-)

42GingerbreadMan
Redigerat: jun 30, 2010, 6:58 pm

31. The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric & Discredited Diseases
Category 9. Sci-Fi and fantasy, 298 pages.

From the first time I heard about this book and it’s contributors (Ford, VanderMeer, Gaiman, Bishop, Moore, to name but a few) I knew I had to get my hands on it. Reading China Miéville’s brilliant entry on Buscard’s Murrain (a disease that infects anyone who pronounces it’s true name correctly) in his collection Looking for Jake strengthened my resolve. And once I finally got it, it was in the form of a nice, heavy trade paperback with a beautifully tacky design. I decided to save it for summer.

Yes, my expectations were kind of through the roof with this one, I’m afraid.

Basically, what the Guide is about is giving the assignment to a horde of writers of speculative fiction to invent imaginary diseases, and a version of the world (with a number of key works, rogue scientists, alliances and enemies) to place them in. The result is possibly one of the weirdest books I’ve read in long time. And there IS brilliance in here. Quite a bit of it, actually. Among the highlights for me are Alan Moore’s Fuseli’s disease (dealing with an infection that takes place entirely in dreams), Lance Olsen’s CHRUDS (in which a patient’s memories are moving further and further back in time) and Shelly Jackson’s Burroughsesque description of the tiny humanoid parasites the Putti – who can be dried and smoked…

But for the last third or so, a definite case of over-satuation occurs for me, and as I’m finishing the book up, with a fictive history of the Guide itself and twelve pages of absurd biographical data, I’m sad to say I’m duty reading a little bit.

So, a tricky one for me to rate, this. Of course, the many short descriptions of the diseases were always going to be an uneven ride, and especially a few sexual ailments of the arf arf variety drag the book down a bit. But mostly it’s the feeling of back heaviness and repetition that leave me feeling slightly, slightly disappointed. Then again, I don’t think this book was intended to be read cover to cover as I have. As a book to visit in snippets (say, in the bathroom), leafing back and forth as you want, I would very much recommend it – if you have the stomach for some serious weirdness, that is.
3 ½ stars.

Trying to fix a touchstone, but alas.

43GingerbreadMan
jun 30, 2010, 7:29 pm

My 35th birthday just ended - a nice one, if perhaps not one of my more spectacular. I actually feels like a nice thing to do to finish this day with my second quarterly recap. Having time to Library Thing is vacation too!

Progress:
Nosebreaker - Category completed already last quarter.
Re-reads (0/2)
Nobel Prize winners (1/3 - 2/3 total)
Books by African, Asian or South American authors (0/4 - 1/4 total)
The Moldy Ones (2/5 - 3/5 total)
What I did for my summer holidays (3/6 - 4/6 total)
Huh? What hype? (1/7 - 3/7 total)
Thrown my way (4/8 - Category completed!)
Sci-fi and fantasy (2/9 - 5/9 total)
The rest (2/10 4/10 total)
Bonus blend (3 out of a still almost possible 12)

I'm pleased with how I jump between categories (except for the fact that category 8 is already full, bound to cause me problems later in the year), but I've still just begun nibbling on my heavier reads, I think. I was expecting to do a little better second quarter, but it turns out I almost mirror the first, with 15 read books, and one bonus read. All in all, I feel confident I'll complete my step challenge - but I'm not too sure about my bonus reads...

The page count progress, on the other hand, is way faster than I anticipated. So I'm guessing I'm reading more than usual, even if I'm not reading more titles. It'll be interesting to see when I hit the roof there - I have a few really thick ones in store for the summer.

Best reads of the year so far:
Fateless remains this year's most powerful read, unique, subjective insight on the holocaust in a exquisitely simple form.
We have always lived in the castle was almost-but-not-quite-realism in a beautiful package that made me want to read everything by Shirly Jackson.
Finch was Jeff VanderMeer pulling off another genre, and creating grand fungal weirdness.
The earth hums in B flat was a bitter sweet story of coming of age and mental illness, that moved me deeply and lingered for long.
Metro 2033 was a well-crafted post apocalypse in a cool setting.

Worst reads of the year so far:
Lust by Elfriede Jelinek, an overstated one trick pony that bored me to tears.
Haunted knight by Loeb/Sale, just everything you would expect from a Batman Halloween special - and not in a good way.
These demented lands by Alan Warner, which made Morvern Callar less interesting.

Onwards and upwards!

44lkernagh
jun 30, 2010, 9:41 pm

I keep hearing good things about The Earth Hums in B Flat. I need to go track down a copy to read!

Oh, and happy 'Belated' birthday wishes GingerbreadMan!

45pamelad
jun 30, 2010, 10:10 pm

Happy birthday GingerbreadMan.

Adding We Have Always Lived in the Castle to the wishlist because of your enthusiastic recommendation.

46clfisha
jul 1, 2010, 8:51 am

Happy Birthday!

42 I must admit I have only dipped into it, cherry picking authors. It's shame to hear it doesn't hold up read quite quickly.
I think the most memorable one was the word worm.. a word that once read burrowed in your brain and caused insanity. Can't remember who it was by..

and I really must get hold of Metro 2033

47VictoriaPL
jul 1, 2010, 9:05 am

Happy Birthday!

48RidgewayGirl
jul 1, 2010, 9:27 am

Happy Birthday!

49GingerbreadMan
jul 1, 2010, 4:56 pm

@44-45 Two really strong reads for me, hope you like them too!

@46 The word worm is Buscard's Murrain by China Miéville, one of my favourites as well. As I said - there ARE definite gems in there. Judging by those, 3½ feels cheap. As for Metro 2033, I hope you like it once you find a copy. Be warned of it's big flaw however - there is not a single female character around. At all. I tend to be a little more lenient towards writers who omits women than writers who depict them as victims/over emotional/prostitutes, I guess. But it still annoys the heck out of me. Being russian is no excuse.

Thank you so much for all the birthday wishes!

50sjmccreary
jul 1, 2010, 5:49 pm

Happy birthday! 35 is a pretty good one, in hindsight. Hope you got to do something special to celebrate.

51cbl_tn
jul 1, 2010, 10:15 pm

Happy birthday! Wishing you a year full of happiness and good books!

52clfisha
jul 2, 2010, 8:39 am

@49 I should of guessed it was a China Mieville story, doh!

Your warnings on Metro 2030 are noted. I think I am like you in that no women are oddly bet than stereotyped women, but I will see how I fare.. as long as it isn't another Old Man and the Sea I should be fine :)

53GingerbreadMan
jul 14, 2010, 6:24 pm

@50-51 Thank you so much!

@52 No fish in it, I promise! Loads of other cool creatures, though...

54GingerbreadMan
jul 14, 2010, 6:31 pm

32. De vilda detektiverna (The savage detectives) by Roberto Bolaño
Category 4. Books by African, Asian or South American authors, 747 pages.

It’s hard to even know where to begin an attempt at a review of this polyphonic Behemoth of a book. So let me just start off with saying it’s a much faster and easier read than this summary might imply. It has a really nice flow, a fantastic variety of voices, a good sense of humour and I really liked it. Bear that in mind, as I –probably- do a poor job of presenting it here below.

Basically, this is a book about Arturo Belano and Ulises Lima, their highly unsuccessful but very avant-garde literary movement the viscerrealismo (translated into roughly "gut realism" in swedish, not sure what it's called in the english translation), their friends and their restless travels around South America and Europe. Or rather a book around Belano and Lima, for we never meet them as subjects. The voices doing the telling always belong to other people, and in many of the stories, memories and anecdotes, Lima and Belano play very minor parts. In a few cases they are not even there.

The book’s first part is the diary of seventeen year old García Madero, written in the autumn of 1975 when he drops out of university to become a poet in the group formed by Lima and Belano. These diary pages are just oozing with sturm und drang, sexual awakenings and teen angst. It's both funny and moving, and makes the pretentiously artistic young man I once was blush more than a little. And it ends with a real cliff hanger too!

The massive middle section then gives us glimpses of what happened to Lima, Belano and the people around them between 1976 and 1996, as a horde of voices tell stories. An old writer misses the poet Cesarea, who got lost in the desert many years ago, but gets an interesting visit by two young men who promises to find her. A Mexican exchange student is having a bad conscience for ripping Lima off during his Paris days by exaggerating food prices. A secretary hides in a bathroom as the military occupies the university. A jealous boyfriend in Tel Aviv is developing a strange sympathy for the surprise visitor clearly unhappily in love with his girlfriend. The father of two sisters, both viscerrealismo poets is moving further and further into psychosis in a Mexico City asylum, a photographer in war ridden Liberia meets Belano under horrible circumstances. To mention a few in a zillion.

The final part is again García Madero’s diary, telling of the wild hunt and escape in the Sonora desert in the first months of 1976, and about some events that might just be the starting point of the restless travelling Lima and Belano spend the following thirty years pursuing.

Overall, most of the stories are much more everyday than one would expect. There are few tall tales here, and many anecdotes or memories have no obvious punch-line. But the book is constantly interesting nevertheless, moving and funny, and leaves me with a pleasant mix of questions and answers. Don’t let the bulk deter you, these are 750 pages well spent. 4 very solid stars!

55sjmccreary
Redigerat: jul 14, 2010, 8:35 pm

#54 This book sounds intimidating, but strangely compelling.... I think I'll take a closer look.

ETA - I see that the library has several books by this author. Are you familiar with any of his other works?

56GingerbreadMan
Redigerat: jul 15, 2010, 5:05 am

55 There is really nothing scary about it, besides it's mere size. Very readable, often cozy even!
I've not read any other books by Bolaño (this is the first translated into Swedish, and it came out only last year), but I certainly will! 2666 will probably be my next Bolaño, sometime next year.

57GingerbreadMan
jul 16, 2010, 5:56 pm

33. Jazz by Toni Morrison
Category 2. Re-reads, 223 pages.

When I was twenty, I had a short but massive Toni Morrison period. Introduced by my girlfriend at the time I read every novel she had ever written in about six months. I thought she was incredibly cool and I loved how her books made me feel intelligent – there were always gaps left to the reader, but they were never cryptic. (She also came in my way at a time when I, in my budding feminism, was beginning to realise that I was reading almost all male authors.)

Since then I’ve reread a few of my favourites – Beloved and Song of Solomon – and liked them a lot the second time around too. On the other hand I’ve stopped picking up Morrison’s new books after struggling for half an eternity with Paradise and not finding it worth it in the end. Jazz wasn’t one of the titles that left the strongest impression on me when I was twenty, and I didn’t remember much about it.

Violet is Joe Trace’s woman, but she is battling the other Violet who lives inside her, the one who wants to steal babies and say weird things. Joe Trace, almost to his surprise, starts up a relationship with eighteen year old Dorcas, and shoots her when she leaves her. Violet loses her mind at the funeral, attacking the coffin and trying to slice the corpse’s face. Yes, it sounds violent, and it is, a bit, but more than anything Jazz is a book about what shapes a person, about redemption, passion and love. Set in the first decades of the last century it slides back and forth between now, then and long ago, in a writing style that uses jazz music’s restless variations around themes. New York, just referred to as City, is very present, almost a character in itself. Not least is the contrast between it and Joe’s and Violet’s rural upbringing central. An almost gentle anger flavours the pages throughout.

It’s cleverly and organically done, but I lack some sort of core here. The book is too restless for me. Too many threads are left hanging, too many balls are tossed into the air, and I have a strong feeling that I won’t remember too much about this novel the second time around either. It’s not often I say this, but I think this one might have actually benefited from being a hundred pages longer. 3 stars.

58pamelad
jul 16, 2010, 7:04 pm

Your review has encouraged me to give The savage detectives a try. After following the LT discussions about 2666 I'd put Roberto Bolaño in the too hard basket, but will now take him out.

59AHS-Wolfy
jul 17, 2010, 12:54 am

Just finished The Savage Detectives myself and it took me a while to put my comments down for it also. There were some parts of the book which I really enjoyed, mostly the first section of the book, but thought the second section was just too long and disjointed for my tastes.

60psutto
jul 19, 2010, 6:32 am

I've been given 2666 as a present - must say its a little intimidating in size!

will probably read it towards the end of the year

61GingerbreadMan
jul 25, 2010, 6:54 pm

Yesterday I got home from a lovely week in a cabin in the middle of the forest, with a lively brook humming behind it, with lots of bathing lakes close by and the sides of the roads red with wild strawberries... Ydre county, people, how I love it! Am I in the mood to start work on wednesday? Hmm, not so much.

With me and Flea getting caught up in The Wire (as probably the last people in the world), there was slightly less time to read than planned. But I finished two books at least:

34. Brown girl in the ring by Nalo Hopkinson
Category 9. Fantasy and sci-fi, 250 pages.

Due to an economic collapse, the wealthy and powerful have abandoned central Toronto, and sealed themselves off in the suburbs. The city has had to reinvent an older form of society; farming, barter, herbal medicine. The rich come slumming occasionally, or send their Vulture Squads to steal organs, but for the most part the poor are left to fend for themselves. Top dog in this harsh world is the dreaded kingpin Rudy, said to meddle with obeah – black magic.

Ti-Jeanne has just given birth to a baby boy, but isn’t too sure about motherhood. Not only is the baby constantly nagging for attention, his father is also a no good dope fiend running with the mob. As if that wasn’t enough, grandmother Gros-Jeanne is pestering Ti-Jeanne to learn her craft as medicine woman without any regards to what she wants for herself. And lately, she’s been having these weird visions of a tall, skinny man in a top hat…

Ti-Jeanne is about to discover the truth about her ancestry and the spirit world her grandmother deals with. And a lot of it isn’t going to be pretty.

There’s a lot to like here. Hopkinson writes urban fantasy with the same kind of taste as Neil Gaiman, where old gods and spirits inhabit a space just next to ours, effortlessly blending with the mundane. She writes from a casually post-colonial perspective, and obviously knows the culture she describes well. And Caribbean mythology is fascinating as always (even though I’d love if another Loa than Papa Legba got to be in focus for once. Don’t get me wrong, I love top hats and skulls, but there seems to be so much more there too…)

But this is also an obvious first novel. The characters are mostly fine, with believable flaws like being hopelessly attracted to bastards or irritated at babies. The pace is high and the story exciting. But the plot is moving a little too straight, things are a little too seamlessly connected, and in the end the cast feels a bit overused and over-intertwined. With that said though, Hopkinson’s voice is mostly fresh and exciting and I’m surely trying some more of hers. 3 ½ stars.

35. Över näktergalens golv (Across the nightingale floor) by Lian Hearn
Category 7. Huh? What hype?, 314 pages.

On the day Tomasu’s family are slaughtered for worshipping a forbidden god, he is saved by the warrior Shigeru, a leading nobleman in the clan Otori. Otori used to be the leaders of the Middle country, but were defeated and humiliated by the clan Tohan. Hidden under Shigeru’s protection, Tomusu gets a new name and a new family. But soon he realises he is also a part of a slowly developing plan for the Otori to rise and get their revenge on Tohan. A strange new teacher is bringing out magical abilities in him he didn’t know he had. But is also, it seems, prepared to claim him for himself and the Tribe, a secret bloodline of spies and assassins.

A pretty solid novel, establishing a world closely resembling feudal Japan, but with some fantasy elements. The blend reminds me a little of Guy Gavriel Kay’s way of handling pseudo-historical fantasy. An exciting plot, full of twists and turns, some great characters (including more than a few kick-ass female ones, the deadly Shizuka posing as a giggling servant girl being my favourite), a touch of impossible, young love and some übernasty villains… Yep, we have a page-turner, people.

There’s a fair bit of lyrical imagery here, and a fair bit of sentiment too, but it’s handled well and never becomes mushy. Quite the opposite, I was surprised at the cruelty of the book and it’s world many times. It keeps you on your toes as a reader, as Hearn doesn’t hesitate to kill off major characters in nasty ways when the plot calls for it. Concluded but pointing forward, this is an exciting first book in a YA series I’m looking forward to continuing. 4 stars!

62GingerbreadMan
jul 25, 2010, 7:30 pm

Oh, I've never been one to pass on a survey:

Do you snack while you read? If so, favorite reading snack?
Not preferably. But with too little time to read, it often tends to be the other way around: I read when I snack (eat). From that perspective, I like anything that you can eat with one hand.

What is your favorite drink while reading?
Black, strong coffee. Or a whisky, for evenings.

Do you tend to mark your books as you read, or does the idea of writing in books horrify you?
Never ever.

How do you keep your place while reading a book? Bookmark? Dog-ear? Laying the book flat open?
Bookmark. I have a few nice ones, but can also get strangely attatched to make-dos like boarding pass slips or buss tickets, using them in book after book. I might leave a hardback flat open text down, but never a paperback.

Fiction, Non-Fiction, or Both?
In theory, both. In practice, I probably read about 95% fiction. I'd like to read more non-fiction.

Are you a person who tends to read to the end of a chapter, or can you stop anywhere?
In bed at night, I always have to stop because I'm falling asleep. Which has led me to master the art of stopping anywhere, including mid-sentence.

Are you a person to throw a book across the room or on the floor if the author irritates you?
No. I have been known to swear loudly in public listening at irritating audio books though...

If you come across an unfamiliar word, do you stop and look it up right away?
I do a lot of my reading in English, so that happens to me almost daily. I usually let it slide, getting it from the context. If the word seems central to understandning, I look it up.

What are you currently reading?
I am in that beautiful place of just being about to pick up a new book, and not quite having decided yet.

What is the last book you bought?
Pretty monsters by Kelly Link.

Are you a person that reads one book at a time, or can you read more than one?
I prefer to read one at the time. But if I'm reading a book in a format not practical on my daily commute (see below) I usually have a book for travelling too. I may also read something for work at the same time.

Do you have a favorite time/place to read?
I like evenings, snuggled up in the sofa or comfy chair. But I do most of my reading on buses and undergruond trains on my commute to and from work. Which is nice too.

Do you prefer series books or stand-alones?
Stand-alones, I think. I like series (especially if the series builds and adds to it's environment), but tend to read the parts too far apart. I often feel I'm losing threads.

Is there a specific book or author you find yourself recommending over and over?
China Miéville. Muriel Spark. The Wasp factory by Iain Banks.

How do you organize your books? By genre, title, author's last name, etc?
Fiction alphabetically, but bookcase for bookcase (so that new additions doesn't mean moving everything. Separate bookshelves for paperbacks. Drama and poetry have thier own shelves. Non-fiction is roughly divided into subjects, then alphabetically within those. I think our home library would be possible to navigate even for an outsider.

63DeltaQueen50
jul 25, 2010, 7:47 pm

Good review on Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn, a book and series that I just loved.

64AHS-Wolfy
jul 26, 2010, 6:43 am

I think Lian Hearn's Otori series stands up pretty well so liking the first book you'll more than likely enjoy the rest of the series also.

65clfisha
jul 26, 2010, 7:15 am

62 nice to see another whisky drinker :)

back to books..
@61 The Otori series is much fun, I have read the 1st two books and really enjoyed it. ! I have collected small chapbooks (each book split into two A5 ones), they have lovely Japanese art as covers. Although after reading reviews mentioning some nasty violence I wondered if I have sanitised version.. or maybe I am just desensitized! I have the small chapbooks (each book split into two A5 ones).

oh and Brown girl in the ring sounds worth looking out for.

66GingerbreadMan
jul 26, 2010, 1:02 pm

@65 The whisky is fairly seldom actually happening, sadly. But a whisky with a drop of water is a nice companion to any book (with the exception of books for toddlers maybe). Any favourite brand? I take a not-too-serious interest in single malts, and Talisker is my favourite, I think.

I'm already outlining my 1111 a little bit, and am making sure to have some room for sequels this time. I'm expecting to have read all five books by the end of next year. Oh, and your edition sounds lovely! I have paperbacks that I am the third person reading :)

67GingerbreadMan
jul 27, 2010, 3:29 pm

36. Mannen på Trinisla by Jerker Virdborg
Category 10. The rest, 257 pages.

A stifling hot summer day in the natural harbour of the tiny, uninhabited island Trinisla, far out in the Bohuslän archipelago. Johan is on a sailing vacation with his wife Petra. The unspoken conflicts are bubbling under the surface and inside Johan a big, numb anger is growing. On another boat, the child Lina watches her father disappear into something that’s probably a deep depression, at the same time as her teenage sister Anne is becoming fed up with playing with her. And then a ship with red sails arrive at the island, sailing straight across the shallows without hitting them. There’s something about this ship and it’s owner that just isn’t right.

Jerker Virdborg is a master of the hidden, the unspoken and at creating an eerie, dense ambience without that much really happening. There’s a strange, quiet quality to his books that is really creepy. Imagine Harold Pinter and David Lynch having a bastard child on Lost island - and you might get an idea. He always leaves his readers with tons of questions around what's really going on. In this book, not his strongest, Virdborg keeps his hand extremely close, giving away virtually nothing of who (or what) the people on the strange boat are, save a hint or two in passing. I can completely understand how this might annoy the heck out of people (and looking at some ratings, it does), but to me Virdborg’s books make a strange sort of sense, and I rest easily in the puzzling unease they leave behind. 4 stars. (Oh, and sorry, no english translation for this one.)

68-Eva-
Redigerat: jul 27, 2010, 4:42 pm

->67 GingerbreadMan:

I just read your review and it creeped me out, so I'm not sure it's for me, but still there's a hint of "skräckblandad förtjusning" that makes me want to read it. :)

->62 GingerbreadMan:

I just found The Crow Road at my library bookstore and since I've been hearing about Banks from various sources, I thought I should give it a go - do you know if that one is good to start with?

69GingerbreadMan
Redigerat: jul 27, 2010, 4:57 pm

@68 Gee, thanks! Perhaps you could start with Virdborg's collection of short stories Landhöjning två centimeter per natt. That was you could easily drop out if it isn't for you :)

I haven't read The crow road (I'm only about halfway through Bank's BIG catalogue, and lately I've been reading more of his sci-fi stuff) and Banks is a little bit of hit and miss, but it seems to be one of his most popular titles among fans. I say go (and let me know what you though of it :))

70-Eva-
jul 27, 2010, 6:47 pm

->69 GingerbreadMan:

Reading the description, that one actually sounds more my thing, not necessarily scary, rather creepy and a little "off."

I think I once saw an episode of a TV series based on Crow Road, which I liked, but I may be imagining that. :) I'll definitely give it a go, though!

71lkernagh
jul 27, 2010, 10:26 pm

-> 67: You had me sold on that one with your review, until I reached the very end where you mentioned ... ***gasp!*** 'no english translation for this one."

I could just cry ;-(

72kristenn
Redigerat: jul 27, 2010, 11:07 pm

The Crow Road is (a still-unread) part of my 1010 Challenge. One I received through a book club rather than choosing myself. Friends rave about it, however.

73clfisha
jul 28, 2010, 7:19 am

I read Crow Road many years ago but I remember enjoying it very much, bit more err.. ordinary(?) than his sci-fi or The Wasp Factory but still good and also funny.

74-Eva-
jul 28, 2010, 8:24 am

"bit more err.. ordinary(?)"

clfisha just sold me on Iain Banks! LOL!

75GingerbreadMan
jul 28, 2010, 1:58 pm

I have a thread where people get sold on Iain Banks! What more could one ask for?

76GingerbreadMan
jul 31, 2010, 6:15 pm

37. In cold blood by Truman Capote
Category 10. The rest, 336 pages.

I got this after seeing -and being very taken by- the film Capote a few years back, and promptly began putting it off. I’ve been eyeing it often since, picking it off the shelf and semi-pondering it, but have always chosen something else. I was under the impression that it would be meticulous and somewhat slow-going, and have never quite felt in the mood for documentary fiction.

When I finally decided to read it (ignoring the slight resistance I felt), it only took me a few pages to be completely engrossed. Capote’s account of the brutal killings of a wealthy farmer and his family, the investigation, the killers’ roaming the Midwest after the deed, the trial and aftermath IS meticulous and somewhat slow-going. But more than that it’s haunting, beautifully written and full of sharp observations of human behaviour. Capote carefully paints moods and scenarios, from the impact on the small village after a horrible crime nobody has yet been arrested for, over images of the vast landscape of West Kansas itself to sharp character sketches that, while made with a few strokes, still feel very authentic. And the portraits of the young killers themselves, both frightening enigmas and very very human, will surely stay with me for a long time.

Disturbing, intelligent, crisp and empathic, this was both a true page-turner and food for thought. And, since Capote takes great care not to appear himself in the book anywhere (indeed, he even refers to the person conducting the interviews with the murderers on Death Row as ‘a journalist’), having seen the film Capote becomes something of an added value, an interesting meta level to ponder at will.

Easily one of the best reads of the years for me. 5 stars!

77sjmccreary
aug 5, 2010, 2:09 pm

Glad to hear that the vacation was a good one - going back to work after is always the worst part for me. Your survey answer about how you organize your books really put me in my place, didn't it? I'm impressed! I enjoyed your review of In Cold Blood - I'm always nervous when others read books that I loved, as though I've got something at stake. Interestingly, you gave totally different reasons for liking it than I had!

78GingerbreadMan
aug 6, 2010, 3:34 am

77 Hah! I think my description may make our shelves seem more organised than they actually are. There are also, of course, the books stacked horizontally on top of the rows in no order whatsoever...

I know exactly what you mean about others reading books you love. Makes me feel a little bit lika an older brother or something. How interesting about In cold blood! Did you review it here on LT? Would be interesting to see your completely different reasons for liking it!

79sjmccreary
aug 6, 2010, 10:53 am

Feeling better, now, about your organization. Do you also have books stacked horizontally in front of the rows? My father is a furniture-builder in his retirement and my mother had him make a row of book shelves for her that is only 8 inches deep. They are perfect - no space for that "in front" stacking that is such a problem at my house.

I read ICB before I began regularly reviewing books. However, my enjoyment of it centered on 2 main points: First, it was my first true crime book and I was apprehensive about that - I'm not a big fan of memoirs and biographies and I expected ICB to read the same way. I was pleased to discover that I could read it just as I read crime fiction, and I enjoyed it on the merits of the details of the crime and development of the case and subsequent trial. (Note, though, that this was probably due to Capote's skill as a writer - my next attempt at a true crime fell FAR short of this one!) Second, Kansas is my "home" - I was born and raised there and still think of myself as a Kansan. I'd heard of this case the entire time I was growing up, but never know much about it. I enjoyed the chance to learn more about this important event. And I thoroughly enjoyed Capote's descriptions of the people and places connected to the story. He got them absolutely right. While I've never been to Holcomb, I have been to - or lived in - many of the other places he visited. I read the book last year for the 999 challenge - I had a "Kansas" category, partly chosen just to encourage myself to finally read this book.

80psutto
aug 6, 2010, 12:13 pm

is it wrong that I've never read any Muriel Spark?

Which of her books would you recommend for a first timer?

only book by Iain Banks I'd really recommend is Raw Spirit ;-)

I've read most of them though although none for a good long while....

81GingerbreadMan
Redigerat: aug 7, 2010, 5:09 pm

Writing this during a massive thunderstorm over Stockholm. If this post ends in mid-sentence, now you know why! :)

79 We have IKEA's Billy bookshelves, which I think aren't strong enough to harbour double rows like that. For paperbacks, we have a few backrows of books we aren't likely to reread anytime soon though.

Great reading about your encounter with In cold blood! I agree that it reads like crime fiction, which is absolutely also one of it's strenghts.

@80 Haven't read Bank's Raw spirit, and probably won't get to it anytime soon. But I've read quite of few of his books, and am still waiting for anything to come close to that stunning debut. I'm sure it's possible to live a meaningful life without ever reading Muriel Spark, but if you like bittersweet, understated, wicked little tales that leave you with a head full of questions, I really recommend you checking her out. My tip is always to start with The driver's seat, short, exact and eerie. If that tickles you, there's a good chance most any of her books will!

82GingerbreadMan
aug 7, 2010, 5:14 pm

38. Virginia Woolfs samlade noveller och prosaskisser (The complete shorter fiction of Virginia Woolf)
Category 5. The moldy ones, 321 pages.

Does what it says on the package: this is all the shorter prose Virginia Woolf wrote, in a straight chronological order. Such a broad and unedited spread is of course an uneven read – these stories were never meant to be read back to back in this order. And there are indeed both ups and downs here. I like the ones that have that Woolf feel, like the stories that take place at Clarissa Dalloway’s party, but find it interesting that I’m more drawn to the earliest stories, or the late ones Woolf dismissed as “bread writing for the American audience”. Those are straighter, more of stories and less of tableaus or streams of consciousness.

There are some real gems in here, for sure, but for me too many of these stories are slippery, vague and hard to focus on. Quite a few I wouldn’t be able to give a summary of ten minutes after I finished them, even if someone held a gun to my head. This is a Woolf book for real fans and completists. If you’re only going to read three books by Virginia Woolf (which you should), this probably isn’t one of them. 3 stars.

83GingerbreadMan
aug 12, 2010, 1:06 pm

39. Flow my tears, the policeman said by Philip K. Dick
Category 9. Sci-Fi & Fantasy, 231 pages.

On Wednesday, Jason Taverner says good night to the 30 million viewers of his weekly TV show. On Thursday morning he wakes up in a ratty motel, to find out he doesn’t exist. Not only are all his identification cards gone, but his name isn’t in any files, his hit records were never recorded and nobody recognizes him, not even his close friends. In a future society after a second American civil war, where spies and tracking devices are everywhere, Taverner has to try and find out what the hell has happened to his life, while running from the police who are convinced he’s somehow managed to erase himself from all government files as part of the conspiracy of a genetic elite.

One of the cool things about Dick is that he never saves on ideas. Even with a plot that involves questioning the very fabrics of reality in a oppressing state (Matrix, anyone?), he still tosses some killer sponges, psychic hotel clerks, subterranean universities and secret phone sex networks into the mix. And, which I also love about his work, a tender quality. A story about a rabbit which thought it was a cat gets several pages in a slim book, and clumsy, awkward meetings between strangers get much more room than action filled escapes. The tone of this book is melancholy more than anything else. It's definitely one of the better Dick books I've read, and could well be a good starting point. 4 stars!

84AHS-Wolfy
aug 12, 2010, 1:37 pm

Glad you enjoyed it now that you've read it. Your review makes it sound pretty enticing so I guess it's another one for the wishlist.

85clfisha
aug 13, 2010, 5:26 am

ok its a sign I will try another Phillip K. Dick. Maybe in my middle age I will appreciate it more.

86VictoriaPL
aug 13, 2010, 1:03 pm

87psutto
aug 13, 2010, 3:19 pm

@81 putting the drivers seat on my wishlist now!

88GingerbreadMan
aug 13, 2010, 3:39 pm

@85-86 I actually suggested that one to Claire on Wolfy's thread just a week ago. Perhaps Dick's more whimsical (perhaps?) side would appeal more to her, I thought, after considering Do androids dream of electric sheep? a bit of a drag. Good to see you again, by the way! It's been a while!

@87 Good for you! I really really really hope you like it.

89VictoriaPL
aug 13, 2010, 7:41 pm

>88 GingerbreadMan:
Yes, I'd say whimsical is appropriate.

90GingerbreadMan
Redigerat: aug 18, 2010, 4:23 am

Here comes a long review folks, sorry. But the book kind of calls for it....

40. Utrensning (Purge) by Sofi Oksanen
Category 10. The rest, 362 pages.

Rural western Estonia 1992, right after the fall of the Soviet Union. The old woman Aliide is waiting for the legal rights to her family’s lands and forests to be returned to her (hopefully before the finnish companies that are moving in fast cut it anyway without paying) and worry about the local youths who shout outside her house at night. For Aliide is labelled a communist collaborator and Russian lover – and in this new state there is noone to protect her. One morning she finds the young woman Zara huddling on her front porch. She’s been drawn into trafficking and is now on the run from her slavers. And it’s soon evident that her coming to this particular farm house is no coincidence. The girl is connected to Aliide’s dark and hidden past – her hopeless and blinding love for her brother-in-law, a member of the hunted nationalist resistance, and the chain of betrayals, sacrifices and moral corruption that this love set in motion.

Oksanen’s book jumps between the stories of the two women, back and forth in time, creating a puzzle that comes together only slowly and gradually. It’s a read demanding some concentration, but exciting and rewarding, with a great balance between character, situation and plot. The Estonian landscape is so vividly described I can almost taste and smell it, as can I the drab, grey paranoia of the Stalinist times.

In quite a few of the reviews here on LT the point is made that the two major story lines are unbalanced. And I agree to some degree. Zara’s story, while heart-wrenching, very graphic and often disturbing, doesn’t match Aliide’s in complexity or originality. But to me, since the stories are mirroring each other thematically, they draw emotional impact from each other. Both the women’s stories deal with oppression in different systems, captivity, the helplessness in not having legal documents, trying to play by the rules in a game you can’t win, the corruption of ideals, the shame in being abused – to mention but a few overlaps. Oksanen used the same technique in Stalins kossor, in letting the starvation of the people during the early communist era contrast with young western women’s anorexia of today, but here the weave is so much more intricate.

The ending of the book is somewhat stressed and blunt, but that almost becomes a quality in itself, especially in contrast to the concluding string of documents and letters. Purge is not a book completely without flaws, but it’s original, moving and it has something to say. One of the most memorable reads of 2010 for me. 4,5 stars! - now go find it!

ETF typos

91RidgewayGirl
aug 17, 2010, 8:11 pm

I have Purge high on my wishlist. Good to see another intriguing review about it.

92lkernagh
aug 17, 2010, 9:53 pm

Love the review for Purge and I am now doing the dance of joy because my local library has a copy and I am only #10 in the hold queue for it.

93clfisha
aug 18, 2010, 8:01 am

@90 I did just say your thread is dangerous and lo and behold another book to add to my wishlist. Good review too feels like my expectations have been setup correctly so I can gauge when I might be in the right mood to read it.

94GingerbreadMan
Redigerat: aug 18, 2010, 5:19 pm

41. Löwensköldska ringen (The Löwensköld ring) by Selma Lagerlöf
Category 3. Nobel Prize winners, 95 pages. Category completed!

In 1909 Selma Lagerlöf was the first woman ever to receive the Nobel Prize for literature (back in the days when the Academy wasn’t shy about awarding it’s own members), but in most of the world I suppose she’s considered obscure at best. Here in Sweden, however, she’s very much a part of the living canon. Everybody reads at least a few of her works in school, she’s featured on our 20 kronor bill and a writer like John Ajvide Lindqvist mentions her as a big influence.

It’s easy to see why. Lagerlöf’s writing is a link between popular storytelling traditions (like fairytales, ballads and ghost stories), gothic sentiments and early psychological realism. It’s old fashioned in a way, for it’s times too, but very readable and likeable.

This book, the first in a trilogy, is a very straight ghost story novella that seems made to be told in front of a big old open fire. From the opening, where a farming couple go to a country graveyard at night to make sure nobody steals the demi-godlike general Löwensköld’s precious ring from his family grave (re-opened to bury a dead child in it) – and then almost to their surprise stealing it themselves, this story hooks you. What follows is a tale straight as an arrow, about a curse, a ghost and injustices suffered, which perhaps isn’t that unique. But it’s effective, it’s gripping and there are enough tension and unexpected twists to keep me eagerly turning pages. And the final, bitter turn of events prompts me towards the following, longer, parts. 3 ½ stars.

95-Eva-
aug 18, 2010, 5:56 pm

->94 GingerbreadMan:

I could have sworn I had read that, but it doesn't seem familiar at all (maybe I read another part of the trilogy?). I'll just have to have a "You haven't read ___ ?!" category in each and every challenge from now on! :)

96sjmccreary
aug 20, 2010, 10:03 am

Both these last books look good - I'm off to see whether they're available at the library here.

Great reviews!

97GingerbreadMan
aug 21, 2010, 4:09 pm

95 The second part is called Charlotte Löwensköld, so perhaps it's the surname that rings a bell?

@96 Good luck, hope you like them if you find them!

98clfisha
aug 23, 2010, 5:55 am

@90 I had an accident at the weekend.. I was in a bookshop and a copy Purge accidentely fell into my shopping basket...

@94 looks good, I am sucker for gothic fairytales

99-Eva-
Redigerat: aug 23, 2010, 11:52 am

->97 GingerbreadMan:

Just realized...there's a movie. I've seen the movie, but apparently not paid too much attention... :)

100GingerbreadMan
aug 26, 2010, 5:24 pm

42. Gomorra by Roberto Saviano
Category 7. Huh? What hype?, 384 pages.

I was slightly surprised there weren’t more uploads of this one on LT. Here in Sweden, the hype was massive when this book came out. Perhaps it was due to the fact that Saviano got support and shelter from the Swedish PEN club after getting a price on his head, which brought up the whole Swedish Academy passivity in the Rushdie fatwa affair again. Or perhaps it was just that Saviano came across as real brave badass type of guy during his stay in Sweden. Nevertheless this book sold out printing after printing and more often than not it’s slot on the store shelves was empty. Two years ago, this was the book everybody gave their dad (who rarely reads) for Christmas.

I’m underwhelmed. There should be so much to like here. The story of the world’s possibly mightiest crime organisation, the Napolitano Camorra (which easily outguns the Sicilian Mafia, including it’s American cousin), peppered with corruption, violence, vendettas, family feuds, upstanding priests, nicknames and world-wide tentacles, all told by journalist, a local lad who rides around on his vespa fuming over the criminal grip on his home region. But Saviano’s eagerness to keep it on a ground level (or gut level, he would probably prefer) makes the book confusing and tiresome to try to follow.

There’s no exposition here, no real analysis and no presentation of structure, making the almost 400 pages feel mostly like a long chain of isolated events stacked on top of each other. Not to mention an endless string of names who are casually introduced as if we all knew them already. It’s one of those reads where you find your mind constantly wandering off. Slippery, is the word. Mostly, it feels like a book where the already initiated are to gasp over what Saviano dares to mention, in his sparse hard-boiled style. Which is commendable and brave of course. But it doesn’t make for a very engaging read, save a handful of memorable episodes. A strange waste of rich material. 2 stars.

101GingerbreadMan
aug 26, 2010, 5:28 pm

Oh, the freedom of having finished a duty read and getting to start something fresh!

102lkernagh
aug 26, 2010, 9:29 pm

I don't like books that are a slog to read and it sounds like Gomorra fits that category. ;-(

103clfisha
aug 27, 2010, 4:50 am

100 Hmm the only crime novels I seem to read fall into "I wish they had hired a ghostwriter" category. Still I haven't read In Cold Blood yet so there is hope

104sjmccreary
aug 27, 2010, 9:56 pm

#100 Very weird that you posted about this book now. I've never heard of it before today, when my son started to watch an "instant" movie on Netflicks by the same name. The description also sounds similar, so I'm assuming they are the same story. Much blood and gore in the very first scene and I made him turn it off. Blech! (He's 17, so I imagine he'll try it again sometime when I'm not around.) I think I'll skip the book, too.

105GingerbreadMan
sep 5, 2010, 5:16 pm

@102-104 I'm happy to announce Gomorra found a new home at today's book swap party at Julia's.

I'm having a very hectic time at work at the moment. Rehearsals are in full swing, we had our biggest sales event this weekend, we are opening up to uncommissioned work again after a three month break and I'm planning a series of workshops for later this autumn. And on top of all that, my son's birthday is coming up next weekend! All this leaves me with too little time to read, and even less to keep up with everybody else's threads. Hopefully things will slow down a little bit again later this month - looking forward to updating myself on all that's going on with your challenges.

43. Canal dreams by Iain Banks
Category 6. What I did for my summer holidays, 275 pages.

World famous cellist Hisako Onoda is terrified of flying. Building her career on recordings and performances in her native Japan, her manager has now finally talked her into doing an extensive European tour. Hisako’s condition is that she goes to Europe by boat. As a passenger on a tanker however, going through the Panama canal, she gets caught up in the country’s political instability. Due to the rebellion of the leftist Venceristas, ships are unable to go safely through the canal, and violent riots in the capital make it dangerous to go back there. Hers and two other ships are forced to wait out the unrest in lake Gatún. The few passengers and many crew of the three ships are in a sort of limbo, spending their days with dinner parties and scuba diving, while frantic international efforts are made to solve this tense clogging of one of the most important routes in the world.

Of course the ships are taken over by armed men one night. And of course things turn extremely ugly.

It’s pretty interesting what Banks is trying to do here, taking the action film cliché of the lone avenger and telling it as a real story happening to real people. Hisako’s inner journey is interesting to follow, as we descend with her into blind, numb determination. The result is a brutal book indeed – there’s nothing gratifying or liberating about the violence here. I think Banks should also be given credit for being among the very few male authors who often chooses to write female protagonists. I of course have no idea how believable Hisako is to a (Japanese) woman reading her story, but Banks feels very comfortable in giving her voice. It’s sad that this should be such a rare thing.

Iain Banks (with or without M.) is probably my favourite hit-and-miss writer. When he’s good, he’s brilliant. Unfortunately, this book, like several others by him, has a great premise but suffers from lack of dramaturgy. The episodes from Hisako’s past, while often fascinating and moving in themselves, never have any relevance in the book’s present. They remain isolated events, unconnected glimpses. And the ending is blunt and lacking conclusion, making the whole book feel just a little speculative. 3 stars.

106GingerbreadMan
sep 5, 2010, 6:33 pm

The above was apparently my 100th review on LT. Popp goes the champagne.

107sjmccreary
sep 5, 2010, 7:01 pm

#106 congratulations on 100 reviews - an amazing accomplishment!

108clfisha
sep 6, 2010, 5:15 am

Congrats on reaching a 100!

@105 That review probably explains that whilst I have read it I cannot remember anything about it! I am not eager to reread either. I agree Banks is terribly hit and miss... it's like he is two people :)

109GingerbreadMan
sep 17, 2010, 9:35 am

I'm having a ridiculously slow reading month this september. Work is heaping, especially since I'm going on a leave for three months (got a scholarship to write a new play, which is nice) and need to pick down about a hundred juggling balls before then. And this sunday is election in Sweden, and a fair bit of my reading time lately has been devoted to news, manifestos and facebook campaining. I'm now worried I'll need to rethink my 11 in 11 a bit, since I'm not sure I will have read what I hope to have read before the turn of the year. Still confident to meet this challenge INCLUDING bonus category, though! Or, well, um, fairly confident....

44. Memento Mori by Muriel Spark
Category 10. The rest, 220 pages.

I adore Muriel Spark. I love her understated, slightly detached language. I love her intricate plots. I love her pitch-perfect balance between wit and unpleasantness. I know no other writer who quite like her can tilt things completely almost in passing, with a casual flick of the pen in mid-sentence (making you go: Wait, what? Was a major character beaten to death just now!?). I know no other writer who can keep on presenting sub-plots until the last page without making it feel frustrating. And I know no other writer who is so good at twisting realism just ever so slightly, just enough to distort it, making it feel different and strange and exciting.

In Memento Mori, a group of seniors from the upper classes in London (and their likewise elderly servants) start to receive strange anonymous phone calls. They all hear a different voice – old, young, man, woman – but the message is always the same. Delivered in a civil and almost friendly tone, it says: “Remember you must die”. Suspicions arise. Is it a prank? Is it due to old hostilities and secrets? Is it some relative trying to scare a rich aunt to death? Is it one of the group? Or is perhaps the caller not even human? The cast is beautiful, from the ageing writer going senile just as her books are coming back into print, to her husband obsessed with stockings (nobody writes everyday kinky like Muriel Spark!), to the old house-maid still plotting for a way to climb socially and economically, to the bedridden and foul-mouthed ex-paper-vendor who’s devoted her final days to getting rid of the anxious new ward matron at the Old People’s home (nobody writes everyday cruelty like Muriel Spark!) to the retired doctor running empiric studies on ageing on himself and his friends.

There’s a lot going on in just over 200 pages here. It’s definitely a book that calls for the reader paying close attention, as Spark mentions things only once and often understatedly so.
And perhaps there are just a few too many threads in this slim novel. The structure is looser than in some of Spark’s more polished works. On the other hand, her wit is at her best here, and there’s much to be discovered in the intricate relationships between the many characters. And honestly, how often do you get to read a funny, eerie, brutal, perhaps even metaphysical novel about growing old? 4 stars!

110lkernagh
sep 17, 2010, 9:43 am

Excellent review of Memento Mori! Off to see if I can track down a copy.

111GingerbreadMan
sep 17, 2010, 9:57 am

Yay! Go go go!

112VictoriaPL
sep 17, 2010, 10:32 am

Yay on the 100 reviews! And you write such good ones too.

I love how you said that... 'duty read'... I can relate. I think we all need a 'popcorn read' every now and again.

113kristenn
sep 17, 2010, 1:09 pm

I picked up a copy of Memento Mori at a recent Friends of the Library sale just on the basis of having heard of Spark. There's no description on the edition at all so your review is extra helpful!

114sjmccreary
sep 17, 2010, 4:53 pm

Great review - another title for the wishlist!

115psutto
sep 20, 2010, 7:43 am

sounds interesting, certainly interested in reading more muriel spark - will add it to next years challenge!

116DeltaQueen50
sep 20, 2010, 4:10 pm

Congrats, Gingerbreadman, I see you have a "Hot Review" with Memento Mori. Way to go.

117cmbohn
sep 20, 2010, 10:16 pm

Very nice job!

118GingerbreadMan
Redigerat: okt 3, 2010, 5:39 am

@112-117 Thank you all! Wow, a Hot Review, how cool is that! By the time I read this, it's already below the event horizon again, so thank you for pointing it out DelatQueen!

We had our elections this sunday. And what many feared most has happened. For the first time a genuinely xenophobic extreme right party has taken seats in Riksdagen, our parliament. Worse, they are tip of the scale at the moment in a very difficult situation where neither left or right have a majority of their own. These are very strange and sad days in Sweden. Just wanted to let all of you (who might be interested) know.

On a brighter note, I've read a great book. One I knew beforehand was great this time - a reread.

45. Pappan och havet (Moominpappa at sea) by Tove Jansson
Category 2. Re-reads, 203 pages. Category completed!

I’m a little anxious to write this review. I just know I won’t do this book justice. There’ll be too much name dropping, too little plot description and love, love, love all over the place.

Don’t let the cute name fool you. Tove Jansson’s books about the Moomin family are the exact best books for children ever written. They are funny, adventurous, sad, spooky, melancholy, philosophical, profound and populated with the kind of characters you can use as examples to describe real people (I would love to be Little My, but am sadly probably most like The Fillyjonk). Like all good books for children they are just as readable for adults. Each book in this series has a distinctly flavour of it’s own, from the fun and playfulness of Finn Family Moomintroll to the apocalyptic ambience of Comet in Moominland, from the Shakespearian poetry of Moominsummer Madness to the burlesque tall tales of The Exploits of Moominpappa. Moominpappa at sea and it’s sister novel Moominvalley in November (which deals with what happens in the valley when the safe centre point that was the family is gone) are the last books in the series, and they were my least favourites when I was a child. I thought they were bleak and dark and a little scary and that not enough was going on in them. It’s easy to see why. Those two books are very much in the borderland between children’s literature and adult literature, and they are the ones I most obviously read in a different way now than I did as a child.

It starts with Moominpappa feeling unnecessary. Everything is too steady, too comfortable, too neat. Nobody needs his protection, and he’s miserable because of it. Pappa’s restlessness affects the family and Moominmamma decides they need to move for his sake. A small island with a lighthouse, far out into the ocean will be the family’s new home, a place where Pappa can find a purpose again. But the island isn’t what the family hoped for. It’s grumpy, difficult and barren, whipped by an angry grey ocean and defying description. And it brings something with it – change.

It’s really brave what Jansson does here, letting her beloved family move in genuinely new directions, grow apart even. Mamma misses home, and escapes into memories instead of being a safe haven. Pappa battles with the disappointment of a fulfilled wish. My is her angry cheerful self as ever, but also shows a brutal streak. And Moomintroll comes of age in a way, and even starts to create a strange stormnight relationship with the Groke, the loneliest and most dangerous creature of all, she who freezes everything in her path to death. Yes, this is a sad book in some ways. There’s humour here too, and lots of warmth and insight. And a happy ending that rings so true it gives me goosebumps.

You shouldn’t start with this book. You could, but it finds additional strength if you already know the family in all their frail humanity. You should read the whole series in order. Again and again and again. I’m reading it for the fourth time I think (third as an adult), and will definitely come here again. I revisit all the Moomin books regularly. I find new things in them every time.

This is not only the finest book for children I know, it’s probably on my top ten list of books ever. 5 stars!

119GingerbreadMan
sep 21, 2010, 5:49 pm

Just ten books to go now!

120LauraBrook
sep 21, 2010, 6:11 pm

Congrats on another category completed, and on only 10 to go! I've never heard of the Moomin family books before, but I am heading directly to my library online catalog to look them up!

121pammab
sep 21, 2010, 7:13 pm

What's the first book in the Moomin family series? Is it Finn Family Moomintroll? It looks like my library has a number of these, and now I'm curious.

122-Eva-
sep 21, 2010, 8:05 pm

->118 GingerbreadMan:

Appalled at the news about SD!! :(

But love the Moomins!! :)

123GingerbreadMan
Redigerat: sep 22, 2010, 3:41 am

120 Go go go! Perfect reading for someone who has to juggle three jobs. Great things in small packages!

121 There's one before it, but that's pretty embryotic. It's usually not included in the series. I would say Finn Family Moomintroll is the best starting point.

122 Good thing there are Moomins in these dark days.

124RidgewayGirl
sep 22, 2010, 7:35 am

I'll have to find the first book to read with my children. We're almost finished the Ramona books and will want another series.

Sad to see that we're not the only country being swept with fear and xenophobia. I hope your nutbags are less shouty and intent on silencing any differing views.

125sjmccreary
sep 22, 2010, 10:45 am

My library has Finn Family Moomintroll - but I'll have to wait my turn as all copies are already checked out. I've never heard of these books before - looking forward to them.

Sorry - but not surprised - to learn that another civilized country also has scary politicians besides us. The problem seems to be that the people we most need to be in office are the ones who are least likely to seek to win the office.

126ivyd
sep 22, 2010, 1:07 pm

Nor have I heard of this Moomin series, and I'm intrigued. What children's age group do you suggest?

127GingerbreadMan
sep 22, 2010, 3:15 pm

Hmm. I'd say that most of the early books are good for reading aloud to kids from, say, seven?The later ones, Moominpappa at sea, Moominvalley in november and possibly Moominland midwinter are probably better for older children. (And again, those I think I've enjoyed more as an adult.)

For small children there are also a couple of beautiful picture books about the Moomins, that I guess are available in english too. Best of luck!

128paruline
sep 22, 2010, 3:35 pm

Yay, my library has Finn Family Moomintroll! Thanks for a great review.

129psutto
sep 23, 2010, 8:16 am

my work takes me to Finland sometimes and I have often walked past the Moomin shop in Helsinki airport and have even been to the Moomin museum in Tampere but I've never read the books, knowing the Moomins only through the animated series shown on British TV in my childhood...

I have read Tove Jansson's a winter book which was OK but it didn't prompt me to go read anything else by her...

130clfisha
sep 24, 2010, 5:25 am

@118/129 Those UK Moomin cartoons freaked me out when I was a kid and I haven't picked up a moomin story since.

Late to this thread but 44 is great review & an intriguing book, added it to my wishlist.

131-Eva-
sep 24, 2010, 1:35 pm

The Moomin comicbooks are my favorites - probably because those were the first I read as a child. They're available in English now too and the translations are really very, very good!

132GingerbreadMan
Redigerat: okt 3, 2010, 1:00 pm

Finally finished rounding up my hundred loose ends this past weeks, and am now embarking on a three month leave to write a new play. I expect this to mean a little more time to read and hang out here, among other things. Looking forward to pick up all my fav threads and see what you guys have been doing in the last few weeks. I expect more than one of you are getting close to finishing by now (and I know quite a few of you already have!).

@129 I haven't read any of Jansson's adult books. Strange really! The one everyone seems to rave about there is The true deciever.

@130 There IS a spooky quality to the Moomin world. The groke kind of freaked me out as a kid, as did the Hattifatteners - but in the good, tingling kind of way. As an adult, I'm seriously pondering a Groke tattoo...

131 The comic books are very good too, with an ambience all of their own. They are very different in tone to the books, in my opinion, lighter, quirkier and more in relation to our world.

133GingerbreadMan
Redigerat: okt 3, 2010, 5:38 am

Finished this book already on thursday, but haven't got around to reviewing it until now. Partly because of having a lot to do, but also because I haven't really felt I've had that much to say.

46. Aké - Barndomsåren (Aké - the years of childhood) by Wole Soyinka
Category 4. Books by African/Asian/South American Authors, 274 pages.

It feels like I’ve read this kind of childhood story a thousand times. We get loving but stern parents, the magic of the everyday, a vague sense of politics, society and change seen through the eyes of a child - and a string of episodes and events put together in a way that feels haphazard, almost random.

There are good things in here, of course. Soyinka can write, and he manages to present a world where the old beliefs of Egúngún are still pretty much real. The spirits exist, amulets and curses are a reality to believers and Christians alike, even if their influences are dwindling. Some of the episodes are funny, some gripping or even heart wrenching. The short chapter about the attack on the crazy homeless woman Sorowanke will stay with me for a long time, as will the episode when Wole almost beats his younger brother to death after being taunted into fighting him. But the fact that there is no orchestration here, no sense of structure besides mere chronology makes my reading experience detatched and vague. And the abrupt and disappointing ending almost leaves me with a feeling of a writer suddenly losing interest in his own material. There are pearls in this book, but they aren’t lined up on any necklace, so to speak. 3 stars.

134RidgewayGirl
okt 3, 2010, 10:44 am

Congratulations on getting time to write. I find that writing time is strewn with hazards like LT, which can leave you informed of everyone's reading habits and with lists of books you need to read right away, but it doesn't do much for the word count! I'm wishing you an iron will and lots of inspiration.

135GingerbreadMan
Redigerat: okt 11, 2010, 11:45 am

@134 Thank you! I think the iron will is the key thing here. I have two plays just waiting to be written (and re-written and re-written and...).

Swedish autumn is breaking in for real now. We are now in the two or three weeks when all the trees are showing their prettiest reds, oranges and yellows, before the storms begin and they go first brown, then bare. What better way, I ask you, to celebrate this the reader's fairest season (not being ironic here) than by the third quarterly update on my slightly limping walk through my first annual challenge? Surely, none!

Progress:
Nosebreaker - Category completed first quarter.
Re-reads (2/2 - Category completed!)
Nobel Prize winners (1/3 - Category completed!)
Books by African, Asian or South American authors (2/4 - 3/4 total)
The Moldy Ones (1/5 - 4/5 total)
What I did for my summer holidays (1/6 - 5/6 total)
Huh? What hype? (2/7 - 5/7 total)
Thrown my way - Category completed second quarter.
Sci-fi and fantasy (2/9 - 7/9 total)
The rest (4/10 - 8/10 total)
Bonus blend: No further books read.

I sense a pattern here. Despite month of holidays, and later a slightly hellish september crammed with work, I seem to huff along very evenly. The third quarter I read fifteen books - exactly like the second and only one less than the first. I have, however, read more of both clunksters and books of a perhaps slightly more challenging nature, so I'm not unhappy with my progress.

I'm already planning my 11 in 11 pretty much in detail, and love my lists for next year. If I am to stick to those, however, not reaching a full bonus category this year is not an option. I have a feeling october will be my make or break month for that. Not completing my stepped 1010 is not a risk, really (unless I get run over by a bus or something).

Best reads of the year so far (in no particular order):
Fateless, a really strong story about life in the nazi death camps, gaining impact from it's detatched, simple, almost uninterested style.
Pappan och havet (Moominpappa at sea) is not only the best book for children ever written, it's one of the best takes on family life I've ever read. Dark, warm and symbolic.
We have always lived in the castle made me want to read everything Shirley Jackson ever wrote - eerie, elegant and perfectly composed.
In cold blood, a broad tapestry of horror, dignity, emptyness and mercy, set against a spectacular Kansan landscape. Both a page-turner and food for thought.
Finch was fungal weirdness and VanderMeer effortlessly pulling off another genre - again!

Worst reads of the year so far (in no particular order):
Lust by Elfriede Jelinek, an overstated one trick pony that tried so hard to provoke it bored me to tears.
Haunted knight by Loeb/Sale, mixing Batman clichés with Halloween clichés, not achieving much.
Gomorra, a waste of great material in a flood of isolated events without structure or orchestration.
These demented lands by Alan Warner, the kind of sequel that brings the first book down with it.

136GingerbreadMan
okt 6, 2010, 4:51 am

47. I Patagonien (In Patagonia) by Bruce Chatwin
Category 6. What I did for my summer holidays, 238 pages. Category comleted!

Bruce Chatwin was my kind of traveller. He seeked out the fringes, the outback, the edges of the world, and brought back accounts focusing on the right things: places, meetings and stories. In In Patagonia, he journeys back and forth across the most southern part of South America, by boat, by truck and by foot. He initially sets out to find a new sample of Mylodon skin, remains of a giant pre-historic sloth, that was once brought home to England by an ancestor of his and later lost in a mundane way – accidentally thrown away in a move. But Chatwin, being Chatwin, is in no immediate hurry to get to the cave of the Mylodon. He casually follows storylines and historical figures, meeting with the few people living in these very sparsely populated areas, letting himself be pointed in new directions. A pattern of dreamers and escapists is forming: outlaws, revolutionaries, adventurers, explorers, hermits, gold-diggers. And in contrast to those, the Indian cultures, ruthlessly destroyed and exterminated almost in passing.

The sense of place here is overwhelming, even though Chatwin isn’t stressing to build connections between his nearly hundred chapters. And the landscape he paints is both mental and physical. This is a book that evokes wanderlust in me, and makes me long for the weight of a worn backpack on my shoulders again (even if my travels were never as spectacular as this). 4 stars!

137GingerbreadMan
okt 7, 2010, 4:43 am

Today is the day when Sweden is all about literature. I'm waiting for the clock to turn one and Peter Englund to open the door...

138sjmccreary
okt 7, 2010, 10:16 am

What is today in Sweden?

139-Eva-
okt 7, 2010, 12:06 pm

137
Extra fun for me as I am currently reading a book by Llosa!! That's never happened to me before (most of the time, I've never even heard of the writer...!).

138
It's the day for the announcement of this year's Nobel Prize winner for literature.

140pamelad
okt 7, 2010, 4:57 pm

Moving The Feast of the Goat to the top of the tbr pile.

141paruline
okt 7, 2010, 6:17 pm

me too!

142sjmccreary
okt 7, 2010, 10:04 pm

#139 Do'h! :-)

143DeltaQueen50
okt 10, 2010, 5:00 pm

Hi GingerbreadMan, I recently read The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks and was quite enthralled. A little bird (LauraBrook) told me that you were a fan. I wonder if you could recommend a couple of his Sci-Fi books as I don't have a clue where to start. Thanks.

144GingerbreadMan
okt 11, 2010, 11:10 am

I felt kind of meh about Llosa. Seems the kind of writer that is an impeccable choice, but isn't tickling me much. It also seems to me that he's a bit of a sexist? Are there any die-hard fans out there to convince me to read him?

143 Ooh, what a fun question! It should be stressed though that I'm only about half way through Banks' vast production. I think the Culture books are the most obvious answer for sci-fi. They are stand alones, connected only in that they take part in the same universe, but I'm guessing they benefit from being read in order. Which is a bit of a bummer, because the first book, Consider Phlebas, is much weaker than the next one, The player of games. I think I would actually recommend you to go for one of the solitary ones. I though The Algebraist was very exciting, pushing Space Opera as a genre pretty far.

(For "mainstream" Banks, nothing quite compares to The Wasp Factory. But I really liked Whit, The steep approach to Garbadale and even though I haven't read it, most seem to rave about The crow road).

145clfisha
okt 12, 2010, 5:37 am

Talking about Banks I just saw his new culture book and it's another whopper.. I just cannot bring myself to even try Matter let alone this one (Surface Detail).. I am very afraid he is starting to bloat? Anyone read either of them?

I think my favourite culture is Excession.. I cant remember the Algebraist at all.. hmm time for a reread.

146GingerbreadMan
okt 13, 2010, 5:13 am

145 The algebraist was a real clunkster, but didn't feel bloated to me. Haven't read Matter or Surface detail. I share your genreal concern though. Going up to a 600 page standard format is seldom a good thing...

48. Above the snowline by Steph Swainston
Category 9. Sci-fi & Fantasy, 311 pages.

I have a soft spot for Steph Swainston. Back when Miéville’s Perdido Street Station sparked my interest in the New Weird, Swainston’s first book about the Fourlands was the second example I stumbled over. So between them, Miéville and Swainston very much defined the genre for me.

The Fourlands are involved in an endless war with mindless insects, constantly threatening to destroy civilization. To lead the war, the demi-godlike Emperor San has selected a Circle of fifty men and women, who are the best in their respective field (Archery, Ballistics, Sailing, Swordsmanship, Healing and so on) and granted them immortality. Unfortunately for the Circle, the Messenger is Jant, the fastest man alive, the only human who could ever fly, but also a street-wise, egocentric junky. Jant is the main character of the Fourland books.

Swainston is in a way much more close to “regular” epic fantasy than many other of the New Weird writers I like, and this has been gradually becoming more true as the series progresses. In the first books, Jant's drug use let him cross the borders into other worlds, including the grotesque and very weird transit station Shift, a kind of Burroughsian Interzone with women made of bundles of worms and road signs made from living intestines. Those strongly flavoured detours are becoming less and less frequent, and in this her latest book, they aren’t there at all. Which is a bit of a shame.

What is becoming more and more interesting about Swainston, though, is that she (much like Miéville) is using fantasy as political literature. Imperialism and cultural imperialism are becoming strong themes in a very interesting way.

Above the snowline is a prequel to the previous three books. In the Darkling mountains, Awain expansion is causing the hunting grounds of the native Rhydanne to grow thin, and raids on tame livestock is the result. Now the area is on the brink of guerilla war, the Rhydanne woman Dellin is appealing to the Emperor for help, and Jant is sent to practice diplomacy. Himself being half Rhydanne, half Awain (which is the key to his flying ability), Jant is at the same time faced with his own complicated cultural heritage and loyalty.

What follows is a complex ride, told in first person by many voices in a way that really shows the position of all sides. There are no easy answers here, and no real heroes or villains. For a long time, Swainston seems to be very close to falling into a “noble savage” cliché, but then she tilts the perspective with a truly horrific turn of events. The feral Rhydanne aren’t all that easy to like, either. Very clever.

It isn’t all good. There are things in here that feels worn and re-heated too many times. And how Jant becomes a complete idiot by falling in love is just silly. But all in all, 4 stars. This is exciting and well-told fantasy with a fresh perspective for anyone who is tired of magical swords.

147psutto
okt 15, 2010, 10:58 am

Swainston has been on my wishlist for a while now - glad to see the review as it means she may make the books to buy list :-)

148GingerbreadMan
okt 17, 2010, 4:58 pm

49. Allt är upplyst (Everything is illuminated) by Jonathan Safran Foer
Category 7. Huh? What hype?, 320 pages.

Young Ukrainian Alex, working for Heritage Tours, gets the task to act as translator to young American Jonathan Safran Foer, who’s come to Ukraine to look for the woman who helped his grandfather escape the Nazis. On the trip out into the countryside is also Alex’ granddad, who is acting as driver (despite being allegedly blind) and the farting mutt Sammy Davies Junior, Junior. The trip proves difficult. Not only does Foer turn out to be Jewish. He’s also a vegetarian - who doesn’t even eat sausage. And worst of all, noone seems to know anything about the village he’s looking for.

It starts out as a rather burlesque tale but, dealing with the history of jews in Europe, it’s bound to get really sad along the way. And it does.

It's not really about the plot. This novel is very much structured around form, style and themes rather than storytelling (even though there are a lot of tall tales in here). Since everybody but me have probably read this already, I’m not going to linger on how it’s built as a correspondence between Foer and Alex, where the former is sending chapters on the book he’s writing on his ancestors in the village of Trachimbrod and the latter is writing letters about the journey they made together – in a beginner’s English straight out of a thesaurus. While making comments about the chapters Foer is writing, and gradually improving his English so that his voice is different in the end than in the beginning. To mention just a few of the major stylistic tricks, loops, coincidences and poetics that construct this book.

Frankly, to me the story is simple and strong enough to not really benefit from all the form. Alex’ voice is very interesting and well-crafted (if slightly exotistic), but a lot of the rest of the stylistic bling-bling I could have done without. It’s like Foer doesn’t really trust his own material, and the overloading makes the core seem sort of thin when it really isn’t.

There’s a lot I should like in this book, and I liked it, but not as much as I have a feeling I perhaps could have. Looking forward to reading Extremely loud and incredibly close sometime in the future, to see if that does for me what this just almost did. 3 ½ stars.

149DeltaQueen50
okt 18, 2010, 1:15 pm

GingerbreadMan, I noticed your comment about World War Z and since I posted my comments about the book on another challenge thread, I thought I'd just come and tell you it's really good. Written as though non-fiction, I found it extremely believeable. My only drawback was that it was so intriguing that I couldn't put it down, and eventually the stories kind of ran together. I gave it four stars, but now a week later, I think I would upgrade that to at least 4 1/2 stars, I can't stop thinking or talking about it. I did post a review on the book page if you are interested.

150GingerbreadMan
okt 18, 2010, 2:57 pm

Cool. Thanks for the heads-up!

151clfisha
okt 19, 2010, 7:17 am

World War Z was a lot of fun..very well thought out and had some great ideas that stay with you (the North Korea bit for instance). Although having said that I am very upset that being British I do not have a nearby castle to hide in. There ought to be law or something.

152GingerbreadMan
okt 20, 2010, 11:41 am

@151 Shocking! Is the most basic zombie shelter too much to ask!?

50. Darkly dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay
Category 7. Huh? What hype?, 275 pages. Category completed!

Not only am I the last person in the world reading this, I also haven’t seen a single minute of the TV series. Not that I don’t think I’d like it. It’s just been the DVD box after the next one after the next one for a long time. And as such, I’ve also quickly zapped when Dexter has shown up on my TV screen, looming on some crime scene with “Season three spoiler” written in splashed blood all over it.

That being said, I haven’t been unaware of the serial killer killing serial killers premise. I don’t live under a rock after all. And premise is a lot of what it’s about here. The fact that we see the world through our narrator’s…um, slightly distorted eyes is a lot of what makes this book tick. Lindsay is no Mark Haddon, and at times Dexter is one very annoyingly compulsively witty serial killer indeed, but his voice and his world are entertaining and feel real enough. Also, Lindsay has managed to create a nice balance in this character, where Dexter is strangely likeable at the same time as the reader is never allowed to forget the darkness he harbours inside.

The other characters are perhaps not necessarily that nicely balanced. There is a cartoony quality here that is sort of hit and miss. Seen as incomprehensible creatures through Dexter’s eyes, his sister Deb and his girlfriend Rita work. Sexy Latina cop LaGuerta or doughnut-munching colleague Vince…well, maybe not so much. The Miami backdrop is nicely painted though, and with a strong visual imagery, it’s easy to see how this became a TV series.

I didn’t particularily like the blunt and steep ending. Way too much deus ex machina for my taste, and not very well executed (pun intended). But the whodunnit in itself isn’t really in focus here of course. The voice telling the story is, and even though there are about twelve references to inner emptiness too many here, I look forward to reading some more about this loveable psychopath. 3 ½ stars.

153GingerbreadMan
okt 20, 2010, 11:42 am

Just five books to go!

154AHS-Wolfy
okt 20, 2010, 11:56 am

I think the TV show is much better in the use of supporting cast than the books and is possibly why I still prefer that version. Though it may also be first exposure syndrome (saw the TV shown before reading the books). The casting is superb and I'd heartily recommend giving it a watch when/if you get the chance.

155-Eva-
Redigerat: okt 20, 2010, 1:49 pm

->152 GingerbreadMan:

You're right - it's very much Dexter's voice that makes the book(s)! I just think he's so funny when he tries to mimic human behavior. Heads-up, though, if you want to read more: skip the 3rd and 5th books. Somehow, Lindsay manages to write out of character in every other book.

And, yes, the TV-series is a great version and very aesthetically pleasing. It's filmed in Long Beach, California, though, so don't expect much of South Beach landmarks. :)

156GingerbreadMan
okt 20, 2010, 2:16 pm

154 I can imagine that to be true. I think there are some good foundations for characterization there, even if it's sometimes not really realised.

@155 Being the completist, I can't really see myself skipping titles like that. I have, however been duly informed about the weakness of book 3. Will keep in mind that book 4 is stronger if I feel my momentum dropping.

With this book I also reached my page count goal of 14850 pages (based on an estimate of 270 pages per book). It actually happened a little later than I thought, what with quite a few real clunksters in this year's challenge. I will keep counting pages for the rest of the year (everything but graphic novels), it'll be a fun stat to match with the years to come!

And speaking of clunksters - my reviews are really beginning to bloat. I have fun writing them (and they are mostly for myself) but I assume they are slightly too long for most visitors here to bother. I'll try to be briefer for the rest of this year!

157-Eva-
okt 20, 2010, 4:25 pm

->156 GingerbreadMan:

The third one is truly atrocious, so I'll suggest reading one and two and then just watch the TV series! :)

The first book's plot is part of the first season of the TV series, but after that they have different plots.

158-Eva-
okt 20, 2010, 4:26 pm

And, please to continue writing long reviews - they're very helpful on the books' reviews pages! :)

159RidgewayGirl
okt 20, 2010, 8:38 pm

While short reviews are sometimes all one want to say about a particular book, I much prefer a longer, more thoughtful review. Please continue.

160clfisha
okt 21, 2010, 8:19 am

I think your reviews length is fine too, some books just need to space to say what you need to! I used to try and keep my reviews down to a paragraph but to be honest that gives me a headache :)

161GingerbreadMan
okt 24, 2010, 7:13 pm

Alright then! I'll take your word for it:

51. Black juice by Margo Lanagan
Category 9. Sci-fi & Fantasy, 201 pages. Category completed!

I have some serious mixed feelings about this. Been wobbling back and forth in what I think. But in the end, I guess I like it.

Here’s the thing. Most of these short stories aren’t really stories. They are more descriptions of glimpses of people and their worlds. Most of them let us meet a young main character in a very concentrated event that -sort of - moves them in a new direction. We get a world – often a post-apocalyptic one, but sometimes fairy-tale, fantasy or a plain strange – drawn up with a few penstrokes, we get a vague idea of the character and what he or she is about. And that’s about it. This is a book of samples, of hands kept extremely close.

Which is half the time exciting, leaving me with questions, thoughts and a sense of wonder. When it works, it really works. Lanagan creates brave and drastic snapshots, oozing strangeness and ambience. I’m reminded of both Kelly Link’s books and Michael Ende’s Der Spiegel im Spiegel, but Lanagan writes clearer, crisper, less dreamlike, and her worlds are very original. But then there’s the other half, when her situations just feel vague to me, slippery and under-established. When the hidden story just isn’t exciting enough for me to try and find my way in.

The first story, Singing my sister down, is the one everyone seems to rave about. And it’s undoubtedly very strong. My favourites, however, are the one about the boy going out to find the horrifying angel and the one about the subterranean monsters coming up to feed. I could easily have done without the elephants, the barefoot-dancing queen and the Dick-ripoff in the desert. I kind of needed to know more about, for instance, the clown shooters and the bride.

So, there are basically just images here. But enough of them are memorable enough to be well worth the price of admission. A few I will remember forever. 4 stars.

162pamelad
okt 25, 2010, 4:12 am

#144 Just finished The Feast of the Goat. Recommending it highly, GingerbreadMan. It's not at all sexist, and such a page turner that it seems too readable to be written by a Nobel Laureate. Living in a brutal police-state himself would have given Llosa a deep understanding what it must have been like to live under that Dominican monster, Trujillo.

163GingerbreadMan
okt 25, 2010, 4:34 am

@162 Thank you kindly! I'm making note of that!

164sjmccreary
okt 28, 2010, 2:13 pm

#152 Well, you're not the last to read this book. I only heard of the TV series this summer when my college kids were home and they watched it. "Cartoony" is what I noticed about the appearance of the show, although I never sat down and watched an entire episode. I didn't realize until a couple of weeks ago that the TV series was based on a book series and added the first book to my wish list. Duly noting the uneveness of the books in the series, and looking forward to getting started on it this winter, I hope.

I also wanted to chime in in support of you continuing your "long" reviews. I put the word in quotes since that's how you described them, but I don't think they're long at all. They are thorough and informative and if you shortened them they would be less so.

165GingerbreadMan
Redigerat: nov 2, 2010, 10:16 am

I've still about 150 pages to go on Kafka on the shore. But last week I had some time to kill in the city centre and wound up at Stockholm's excellent comics library. I didn't leave empty handed, but decided to do some re-reads of Kurt Busiek's wonderful Astro City books, as well as picking up a collection I haven't read before. They are all for my bonus category.

Astro City: Family album by Kurt Busiek/Brent Anderson/Alex Ross

The Astro City books have been described as “Superhero slice of life” and that’s accurate, if perhaps a bit thin as an explanation. What these stories do is blend everything a nerd like myself love about flashing costumes, cool names and battles on rooftops with sound effects like FRAKK with a human aspect. So, what, like Watchmen then? Well yes, sometimes. In the stories of the heroes themselves, like Jack-in-the-Box battling with his feelings towards becoming a father or the First Family’s super child Astra dreaming of being a regular kid, it is similar. But on a somewhat smaller, less plot epic scale perhaps.

The really special thing about Busiek and his team though, is the shifting of perspective, and the investigation of Astro City as a world, a place where super heroes are a reality. Many of these stories don’t really focus on the heroes at all. One is about a small time super villain, unable to quit even after pulling off a massive heist, because he’s addicted to the attention. One is about a family just moving to Astro City, trying to get to terms with everyday life in a place where it’s kind of normal to be under the siege of an ancient storm god. Really, these are graphic short stories not just for lovers of superhero comics, but for anyone. I’m reading this album for, I think, the fourth time and it holds up well. 4 stars.

Astro City: The tarnished angel by Kurt Busiek/Brent Anderson/Alex Ross

Steeljack is a former crook just out on parole after twenty years in jail. He’s not too bright, he’s getting old and he’s tired of being on the run from heroes and the demons of his own past. He wants nothing else than to settle for a normal life. But being an ex-con is hard, and being an ex-con super villain made out of steel is even harder. Noone will hire him, and soon Steeljack finds himself back in the old neighbourhood, where many of the small time super villains live. Not an easy place to try and walk the straight and narrow. But in Kiefer Square something is not right. Someone is killing off black masks, and nobody knows why. The community is scared. Talking to the police is not an option and the heroes won’t bother with a place like this. Steeljack gets the job to try and find out what is going on, detective like. Not because he’s smart, because he isn’t. But because he’s tough, and probably has a better chance of surviving if he finds something out. With very low expectations of achieving anything, Steeljack accepts.

This is a fine noirish crime story set on the gutter level of Astro City, where the heroes are mostly just shapes flying by high up in the air. Steeljack is a great character in his world-weary sadness, and I love how Busiek focuses on the small-time crooks, the black masks who dream of that last score that’ll bring the big bucks in, and their families who have long since stopped believing them. It even has time for some memorable side stories, like the rise and fall of the hero El Hombre, or the tragic naivety of the Mock Turtle. Most of all, it’s a story of second chances. It’s really very good. 4 stars.

Astro City: Local heroes by Kurt Busiek/Brent Anderson/Alex Ross

Another bunch of intelligent graphic short stories from Astro City, where Busiek excels in finding new perspectives on a world where superheroes exist. This time, for instance, he looks at the implications on the legal system, or the role of super hero comics in Astro City – where they are documentary fiction (not every super villain is okay with being labelled a racist!). Or having super powers but choosing NOT to put on a cape and fight crime.

These stories are not just smart, but moving too. I get tears in my eyes over the story about the doorman at an Astro City Hotel and his one secret act of heroism. And I utterly adore the story Pastoral about a Astro City girl being forced to spend summer with her cousins in the country and learning something about herself in the process. Not least because it challenges the prevailing metro-norm of the genre and looks at superheroes from a rural point of view! What’s it like to have a secret identity in a community where everybody knows everybody? This book is so clever I can’t even begin to describe it. Busiek and his team are just getting better and better. 5 stars!

Wow, that was fun! The only bad thing about reading graphic novels is that they tend not to help the male:female author ratio one little bit. More female writers in the super hero business!

166GingerbreadMan
nov 3, 2010, 5:33 pm

Today it's exactly fourteen years ago I started keeping a reader's journal. It's pretty cool knowing exactly what I read fourteen years ago - way before I even owned a computer. This is probably only interesting for myself, but I can't resist doing a quick little time travel :)

- Today I'm reading Kafka on the shore.
- One year ago I was reading I det heliga Rysslands tjänst by Vladimir Sorokin - my Russian novel for the Europe Endless
- Two years ago I was pushing a pram on my paternity leave, listening to Sense and sensibility as an audio book.
- Three years ago I was reading The complete short stories by Muriel Spark. Short stories was doable with a three month old baby in the house.
- Four years ago I was battling a deadline and reading a page turner like Let the right one in was not a smart move.
- Five years ago I was getting chills from reading the true story of Doktor Romand by Emmanuel Carrère
- Six years ago me and Flea was living in a one room flat in the city, and I was engrossed in Fallet Sandemann by Gabriella Håkansson.
- Seven years ago, I read The sopranos by Alan Warner, most of it in one go on a train trip from Gothenburg.
- Eight years ago, I spent the entire autumn battling with Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon.
- Nine years ago, in en even tinier flat in a über-posh suburb I tried fantasy again for the first time since my teens. The Illearth war by Stephen Donaldson didn't really do it for me. Just a few months later I read Tigana.
- Ten years ago, I was on my second semester at the Dramatic Institute and renting a room in Stockholm centre. Flea was stil in Gothenburg, and I brought about thirty books to last me through autumn. Stiller by Max Frisch was one of them.
- Eleven years ago, I was studying literature at the university in Gothenburg. Island of the doomed by Stig Dagerman was required reading for the modernism class.
- Twelve years ago, I had a brief love affair with John Irving and reading The world according to Garp.
- Thirteen years ago I was rereading the Moomin books for the first time as an adult, mostly reading out loud to Flea in my little place in a bad part of Gothenburg. I was in the middle of Moominsummer madness.
- And fourteen years ago, in a tiny room in a student corridor with no TV, I read more than I have ever done since. Fourteen years ago today, I finished Orlando by Virginia Woolf. And decided to make a note of it in a little red note book.

167-Eva-
nov 3, 2010, 6:07 pm

That's a brilliant entry! I wish I had kept a record before LT, but alas.... :(

PS! Which was the "bad part of Gothenburg?" :)

168DeltaQueen50
nov 3, 2010, 6:10 pm

I know how you feel, I have been keeping track of my books since 1976, and it's fun to look back over the years and see how my tastes in some cases have changed and in some have remained the same. There are certain books that bring back exactly what was going on in my life at that time, and then, there are the books that I have absolutely no memory of!

169GingerbreadMan
nov 3, 2010, 6:19 pm

167 Gamlestan. Home of druggies and criminal gangs. I lived above this really dodgy chinese restaurant where the people who were too drunk to get into "Gamlestans krog" (which had at least two shootings at the time) went - right next to Gothenburg's biggest graveyard.

170GingerbreadMan
nov 3, 2010, 6:20 pm

168 I actually have quite a few entries about that in the journal itself: "Won't remember ANYTHING from this six months from now".

171LauraBrook
nov 3, 2010, 6:43 pm

Speaking of enjoying more personal chattiness, I thoroughly enjoyed and LOVED message 166! I wish I kept better records, as you seem to do, but lately I just seem to hit "print" at the end of the year when an LT challenge is over and done with! Keep trying to write everything down in a book journal, but alas, they get lost in a pile of paperwork, not to be seen for a month or two and then ... too late! Kudos to you for keeping such good track of your reading life!

And, in a funny coincidence, I've been reading the blog of Sandra Juto for years now, and she lives in Gothenburg! (Well, she's soon to be moving out of Gothenburg, but still...) She's got some nice artwork, of which I've purchased a few things, and her photographs are quite lovely. For the curious, she can be found at http://www.sandrajuto.blogspot.com. It's a small world after all!

172-Eva-
nov 3, 2010, 6:58 pm

->169 GingerbreadMan:

"where the people who were too drunk to get into "Gamlestans krog" (which had at least two shootings at the time) went"

Big, fat LOL on my part!!!! :P

173GingerbreadMan
Redigerat: nov 4, 2010, 5:55 am

@171 Haven't heard of Sandra Juto, but will check out the blog. Thanks!

@172 Then again, the heroin pushers didn't move in next door until my brother took over my flat a couple of years later...

52. Kafka på stranden (Kafka on the shore) by Haruki Murakami
Category 4. Books by African, Asian or South American authorsa, 518 pages.Category completed!

This is going to be one of those LT reviews starting with the words I really wanted to like this book, I’m afraid. I’ve very much enjoyed the two Murakami books I’ve read before. And Kafka on the Shore basically has all the same qualities. A sense of normality tilting, a lot of things possible to read both metaphorically and concretely, and a surrealism told in a very clear prose.

But something in the story of fifteen year old Kafka Tamura, on the run from his father and an Oedipal prophecy, and the old Nakata, slow-witted since a strange accident in his childhood but with the ability to talk to cats, doesn’t quite catch me. It just doesn’t feel as well composed to me, but instead rather constructed. It’s like there are too few pieces in this mosaic to be mosaic, and the imagery is flatter than in the other two books I’ve read. And much too much of this book seems to rely on suddenly getting new information verbally. Also, since we never really learn anything about Kafka’s father, the whole situation of being alone and on the run is abstract and somewhat un-engaging.

There are lots of memorable situations here, and Murakami’s quietly drastic way of moving things in new directions without really pushing it is often as good as ever. But closing the book, I’m not moved like I was by Sputnik Sweetheart, nor filled with gentle puzzlement like I was after The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. Maybe it’s just me. 3 stars.

174AHS-Wolfy
nov 4, 2010, 7:58 pm

I think Kafka on the Shore is my favourite Murakami to date. Shame you didn't like it so much but you've inspired me to pick up Sputnik Sweetheart as my next read so it wasn't a total loss.

175mathgirl40
nov 4, 2010, 9:46 pm

I loved your post about the last 14 years of reading. I think it's great that you've kept a journal for so long. It's always interesting to see how one's tastes change over the years. I find that, now that I'm in my 40's, I'm rediscovering authors/books that I loved in my youth but then subsequently thought I'd "grown out of".

176VictoriaPL
Redigerat: nov 5, 2010, 9:03 am

Aren't reading journals fun?

>169 GingerbreadMan:. I enjoyed my afternoon in Gamlestan! Of course, I was in the tourist district and there were many, many people about. We saw the Palace and Storkyrkan, which was very beautiful. My favorite part was that tiny street, more like an alley with steps, that you can only fit through one-at-a-time... what's the name of it? ETA: the only street name I can remember is Ugglemossvagen because that's where our B&B was!

177GingerbreadMan
Redigerat: nov 5, 2010, 9:44 am

176 That's Gamla Stan in Stockholm, Victoria! No gangs there or guns there, I promise. I lived in Gamlestan in Gothenburg, which is something VERY different. They are called kind of the same, because the Gothenburg burb was built on the remains of an old bourrough, from way before there even was a Gothenburg. (Gamla Stan/Gamlestaden means "Old town".)

That alley in Gamla Stan is called Mårten Trotzig's gränd. And Ugglemossevägen is actually not that far from where I live!

178VictoriaPL
nov 5, 2010, 12:09 pm

That makes more sense (I felt very safe in Stockholm). Well, it's a small world!

179GingerbreadMan
nov 8, 2010, 5:32 pm

53. Vatikanens källare (The Vatican Cellars) by André Gide
Category 5. The Moldy Ones, 208 pages. Category completed!

Anthime, a die-hard atheist, finds himself cured of his arthritis, apparently by the prayers of his angelic niece. He makes a public confession to being saved, and is shunned by his Freemason friends. His brother-in-law Julius, a writer of pathetic novels filled with religious sentiment, is finding out on his father’s deathbed that he has a brother born out of wedlock. This is Lefcadio, a nineteen year old, amoral creature full of daring and lust for life, and an interest for crimes without motives. His old schoolfriend Protos is involved in a scam to swindle rich Frenchmen out of their money to finance a rescue operation for the True Pope, said to be jailed by Freemasons in the cellars of the Vatican. However, Julius other brother-in-law Amedée won’t settle for just donating funds, but heads to Rome to free the pope himself…

This book is constructed like a farce, and is there is indeed a lot going on in just over 200 pages here. But the twists can’t quite mask the fact that there is no core here, save a mocking of a religious bourgeoisie that hasn’t really aged well. There are a few smirks here, but in the end, when the story desperately tries to become something more real and profound, it shows to be mostly gestures. Mildly amusing. 2 ½ stars.

180GingerbreadMan
nov 9, 2010, 5:18 pm

54. Intet (Nothing) by Janne Teller
Category 10. The rest, 144 pages.

On the first day of school after the summer holidays, 13 year old Pierre Anthon suddenly announces that everything is pointless. There’s no meaning, and therefore there’s no use doing anything at all. He leaves the classroom, and instead places himself in a plum tree from which he bombards and taunts his classmates on their way to and from school. He refuses to come down.

The classmates find their world rocking. Talking Pierre Anthon down turns out to be impossible, and they all feel a nagging doubt. What if he’s right? In order to prove to Pierre Anthon that he’s wrong, someone comes up with the idea of gathering things with a meaning, a big old stack of meaning in the abandoned sawmill. A statement that Pierre Anthon just won’t be able to ignore. A game of sorts is started, where the last person to sacrifice something of importance gets to decide what the next thing to go on the stack will be.

Things soon get very out of hand.

This is a very macabre and disturbing YA book indeed. It’s not sophisticated, and things unfold more or less exactly like you expect them to. But this is still a very impressive little shard of a book. It has an effective and exact style, it trusts in the young reader and not least: it has an uncompromising way of taking it’s premise all the way. Not for everyone, but I was pretty damned taken (even if the abusive muslim dad cliché annoys me). 4 ½ stars!

181lkernagh
nov 9, 2010, 9:24 pm

Well.... you have intrigued me with your review of Teller's Intet.

And thanks for the heads up that is a macabre and disturbing book. Some surprises I am not so good with. As the saying goes "Forewarned is forearmed".

182GingerbreadMan
nov 15, 2010, 4:44 am

@181 Great, hope you find it and like it. I should point out that it isn't a very graphic book. Most of the horror is taking place between chapters, just hinted at. It still grips you, though.

Wrapping it up then, folks! My last book for this challenge! YAY! And what a way to finish:

55. The brief and frightening reign of Phil / In persuasion nation by George Saunders
Category 10. The rest, 358 pages. Category and challenge completed!

George Saunders’ version of America makes me happy. Not because it’s a happy place, because it isn’t. Rather the opposite, it’s a twisted nation where consumerism rules supreme, where comfort consists of the emptiest clichés known to language, and where every step away from the norm is a threat to be slammed down on, hard. It’s often stressed that Saunders is a funny writer, and he truly is. I laugh out loud so many times, and giggle on virtually every page. But the undertone here is dark, desperate and devastated.

The title novella, The brief and frightening reign of Phil, is a micro-study of racism and imperialism. It’s set around a border conflict in Inner Horner, a country so small it can only inhabit one of it’s residents at the time. The rest are waiting their turn in a “Short-Term Residency Zone” in surrounding, vast (relatively speaking) Outer Horner. That is, until Phil comes along, proclaiming himself Special Border Activities Coordinator and demanding higher and higher taxations from Inner Horner. After all, aren’t Inner Hornites known for being lazy mooches, living off their hard-working neighbours? The novella is simple, almost crude, but it is funny and drastic, and the added touch that we are never quite sure what sort of strange robot/plant/insect creatures those Hornites actually are adds a nice surreal touch.

This book also includes the short story collection In Persuasion Nation, which is an even stronger material. Divided in four parts, framed by quotes from a (I hope) fictive book of inspiration called Taskbook for the New Nation, it explores some dominant western traits: consumerism, the creating of an Us by appointing a Them, the upholding of norm via language and story and the aggression towards the enemy. Saunders takes it further than ever here, especially in the surreal stories built entirely around sit-com dramaturgy and warped TV commercials (“Pontiac Sophisto: so sophisticated, it might just make you trick your best friend into dangling a brick from his penis!”), where his writing is like nothing I have ever come across before. Very bold and original stuff. But there are also moments of real humanness here, close little stories like the one about a roofer being tricked out of his Christmas bonus by stressing his freedom of choice.

As always, this is the true beauty of George Saunders writing. And this is also why his stories make me strangely happy. For while he is painting darkly comical, cynical worlds, the people inhabiting them are ordinary, gentle people, often the bystanders, the silent witnesses or people trying to make some small change in their own futile way. The granddad trying to do something nice for his flamboyant grandson. The focus group super star choosing to go for the real world instead of the metaphor. The polar bear in the commercial for Cheetos striking up a wordless understanding with the Eskimo dad who endlessly puts an axe in his head. The customer relations person desperately trying to believe his own words as he defends the product: a mask to put over a baby’s head to create the illusion it can speak. More often than not they are failing, but they are trying. And in the final story, about sacrifice and honour beyond death, there is even a small sliver of true mercy in here. Beautiful, beautiful stuff. 5 stars, and one of the best this year for me.

183GingerbreadMan
nov 15, 2010, 4:45 am

That sums up my first LT challenge for me, folks! Will stick around for bonus reads though, and won't summarize until the end of the year. Tally-ho!

184AHS-Wolfy
nov 15, 2010, 6:14 am

Congratulations on completing your challenge. Always good to end on a high note. Glad you're sticking around even though that will probably be bad for my wishlist.

185paruline
nov 15, 2010, 6:18 am

Congratulations! I've really enjoyed following your thread; you've added a lot to my tbr pile. Maybe I'll see you around for the 11 in 11 challenge.

186cbl_tn
nov 15, 2010, 6:19 am

Congratulations! It's nice to finish with a book you really liked, isn't it?!

187VictoriaPL
Redigerat: nov 15, 2010, 7:07 am

Congratulations!!

Will you be doing the 11-11?

188clfisha
nov 15, 2010, 7:10 am

Congrats! echoing others sentiments this has been a great thread to follow, can't wait to see what you read in in the next challenge.

189clfisha
nov 15, 2010, 9:40 am

oops not sure what happened to the rest of the post, user idiocy I expect.

@161 Glad you liked it, as you say there are some amazing gems in there, although I am going to have to reread my mind what absolute blank when you mentioned the angel story! I think I particulary like her shorts as after years of being spoon fed answers I have a soft touch for vague stories. I would recommend her novel Tender Morsels if you haven't tried it.

@165 You've piqued my curiousty about Astro City, I feel in the mood for a good comic to I seen to of run out of possibilities!

@166 I now wish I had kept a book diary, I find these kind of things fascinating

190lkernagh
nov 15, 2010, 9:53 am

Congratulations on completing the challenge and with a good book too!

191LauraBrook
nov 15, 2010, 11:08 am

Congratulations, GBM! Glad you're sticking around for the rest of the year too. I've never heard of George Saunders before, let alone any of his work, so looks like I have some investigating to do next year!

Enjoy your "free reading" time for the next few weeks!

192pammab
nov 15, 2010, 12:29 pm

Congrats! I've enjoyed your posts and I look forward to seeing what else you come up with to read!

193ivyd
nov 15, 2010, 2:20 pm

Congratulations, GingerbreadMan!

194GingerbreadMan
nov 16, 2010, 5:06 am

Thanks everybody. Hell YES, I'm doing the 11 in 11. My thread is already set up, as are my lists of candidates. Now it's just a question of cramming all reading I need to do for the rest of this year to be able to stick to those lists :)

clfisha: I am a fan of vagueness too (Kelly Link, anyone?). As long as there is something of enough substance there to keep me interested. Which Black Juice mostly had, but perhaps not all the way. Making note of Tender morsels! Yes, do check out Astro City!

LauraBrook: I hope you do, and that you like his work! He's truly original - even though I suspect you need to be a little bit of a leftie to fully appreciate his satire. I've read three of his books (Pastoralia and CivilWarLand in bad decline apart from the above mentioned), and loved them all.

195psutto
nov 16, 2010, 6:02 am

congrats from me too - look forward to following your 11-11

196mathgirl40
nov 16, 2010, 6:37 am

Congratulations! I'll be following your 11-11 progress next year!

197bell7
nov 16, 2010, 9:36 am

Congrats on finishing! I'm afraid I've read too many off-challenge books to have a hope of finishing at this point, so kudos to you for sticking to it and getting your challenge done!

198GingerbreadMan
nov 19, 2010, 4:23 am

@195-196 Thank you kindly! Hope to see all of you in the 11 in 11.

Bonus blend: På kudde av gräs (Grass for his pillow) by Lian Hearn, 329 pages.

One of the silliest mistakes for me in the 1010 was not allowing room anywhere for sequels. Which means the rest of this year will be a lot about continuing series started earlier this year. And alas, too long gaps is bad for this goldfish of a memory...

It was only three months since I read the first part of this series, but I still had a bit of a tricky time getting back in the saddle with this one. The plot of Across the nightingale floor was straight enough, but it clearly involved a lot of characters. Even with the helpful lists of family lines and connections in the beginning of this book, it took me a while to get the hang of it again.

This, the second volume of the Otori saga, is more clearly a book in a series than the first. Where Across the nightingale floor was a concluded story – although pointing forward – this feels much more like a book of transport, building up for the third part. And since it’s not as well constructed, it also feels just a little flatter.

*Spoiler alert here*
I was somewhat disappointed in the part about Takeo’s life among the Tribe, where it felt like Hearn wasn’t comfortable in handling the setup she built at the end of book one. Takeo’s storyline doesn’t really gain it’s momentum back until he decides to go with his Otori heritage. And even then it’s clearly overshadowed by Kaede’s much more interesting dilemmas, trying to stay on top of her clan as a woman and balancing the fine line of pleasing the dangerous Fujiwara. The best scene in the whole book for me is the reception held by Kaede and her sisters, where they scare one of Arai’s knights shitless with their cold indifference. All in all, I would have preferred more Kaede chapters, I think. The love story between Takeo and Kaede also loses it’s balance a little bit, and sometimes falls from high-strung sentimental into the puddle of mushy mush.
*End spoilers*

Still, there’s a lot to like here. Fast, page-turning action and a solid world-building, juggling many interesting characters, a non-squeamish way of handling cruelty, a proto-feminist viewpoint and a nice balance of fantasy and history. I have high hopes the orchestration will pick up again in the next part (which I'm starting immediately thankyouverymuch, while I have my Kenjis and Matsudas fresh...) 3 ½ stars.

199pamelad
nov 20, 2010, 6:21 am

Congratulations on completing the challenge GingerbreadMan. I liked Saunder's Pastoralia even more. Once again it's a distorted vision of America, but funnier, more comapssionate and less violent than In Persuasion Nation.

Just checked and found it in your library, along with Magnus Mills whom I was also about to recommend.

200clfisha
nov 22, 2010, 6:39 am

@198 excellant review. Of course I maybe be biased as that pretty much sums up my feelings towards it. Must get round to finishing the series!

201GingerbreadMan
nov 22, 2010, 1:47 pm

@199 I think Pastoralia remains my favourite too, but I deeply admire how far Saunders dares to take it in this book. Magnus Mills is another author I love, with All quiet on the Orient express as my personal favourite. Have you read or seen anything by playwright Richard Dresser? His absurd blue collar hells are very much related to Saunders' work, I feel.

200 Not the first time we feel the same about a book, Claire, and I dare guess not the last :)

202DeltaQueen50
nov 23, 2010, 1:46 am

Congratulations on completing your Challenge. Enjoy your "Bonus Reads" but I am sure that by January, you will be ready for your 11 in 11 - I know I will!!

203GingerbreadMan
nov 26, 2010, 7:24 am

I'm sure I will, DeltaQueen. But I have some reading to do if my planning is going to hold!

Bonus Blend: Under lysande måne (Brilliance of the moon) by Lian Hearn, 367 pages.

With the previous part of the Otori saga, I was having a bit of trouble picking up the thread and remembering who was who in the huge cast. I therefore went straight for part three, my head filled with bloodlines, alliances and allegiances. Reading two books in the same series straight after each other is not something I normally do, though. I guess I’m just too restless. And I did have a hard time getting into the book. I felt like it was just more of the same, the tone of writing was getting to me a little bit, and the addition of the clever arrow-dodging horse and droves of brave children and teens eager to prove themselves wasn’t really helping.

But Hearn is good at weaving a good yarn, and about a hundred pages in I was hooked again. As was the case with the last book, Kaede’s fighting for freedom and power within her restricted world is perhaps the strongest storyline. But Takeo gets interesting new paths to try and balance – including the imminent collapse of the warrior clan organisation of society – and I especially like his difficult and shameful friendship with the outcast Jo-an. Doing the right thing in Otori’s world is never easy, and it’s a brave move from Hearn having a heroic character forced to such cruelty at times. Also, here the Tribe get to be a working element in the storyline again. They function best lurking in the shadows of the story, it seems.

It’s interesting how the world of these books seems to shrink the more the action moves up to an epic scale. In a book where the characters travel here and there, it becomes obvious that the events in the books are almost local. The Three Countries are just parts of a bigger kingdom - which isn't really that big (yes yes, Japan, I know). I think these books actually benefit form that. I enjoyed this, and look forward to reading more. Will take a break for some months now, though, I think. 3 ½ stars.

204clfisha
nov 29, 2010, 7:13 am

A tentative "yeay" from me then as soon as can force myself to finish my current book I might pick this one up... if only they fitted my 1010 challenge!

205-Eva-
Redigerat: nov 29, 2010, 6:45 pm

Congrats on finishing!! I wasn't sure that I would be able to, but with my vacation to Sweden apparently falling in the snowy season, I stayed indoors a lot and got a bunch of books read. :) I did pick up a copy of Bury Me Standing when I was home, so it'll be part of my 11 in 11 - thanks for that recommendation!!

206VisibleGhost
nov 29, 2010, 7:06 pm

I'm always behind in reading threads. Usually a month or two behind so I don't comment often- after all, it's sort of weird getting comments on a book weeks after the poster posted about it. I just caught up on your challenge for the year. Congratulations on finishing and if I may say so, you had/are having a great reading year.

207GingerbreadMan
nov 30, 2010, 5:00 am

@204 Less "Books inspired by the ancient muses" and more "Books in a series" for your 11 in 11 methinks?

205 Hey, I hope you enjoy it! I thought I had definite flaws, but it's still a book that taught me a lot. Remind me: varifrån i Sverige är det du kommer?

@206 Thank you, and thank you for finding your way here! Yes, 1010 has been good. I expect 11 in 11 to be even better though. I feel I've learned a lot about putting a balanced challenge together this year.

208-Eva-
nov 30, 2010, 11:47 am

->207 GingerbreadMan:

It looks really interesting, and I managed to read the Katitzi-books while I was home, so I'm in the mood to continue reading.

Jag är från Göteborg, men min bror bor i Stockholm, så det blir alltid ett litet besök där också när jag åker hem. :)

209GingerbreadMan
dec 6, 2010, 6:32 am

Bonus Blend: World War Z by Max Brooks, 342 pages.

This is so clever my head spins. I love how Brooks constructs this. Eye witness accounts tell the story of the great world war against the undead, from the first recorded case all the way up until the victory (or proclaimed victory at least). There’s no arc per se, no extensive overviews, no background information. But the stories form jigsaw puzzle pieces that gives a surprisingly good sense of the lapse and impact of this human blight. You really feel you’re getting an idea of the chain of events, and that they are utterly believable. This is not least impressive because the book is truly global in scope, telling of the war from Japan to Chile, from India to Ukraine. On top of that, the short descriptions of where the interviews are made that start each chapter, give enough of an idea of what the world looks like now, after World War Z, to tickle the imagination even further.

There are so many great stories, perspectives and flashes here that it feels hard to pick favorites. But a few passages that will stick with me for a long time are the chapter about propaganda filming for the American home front, the old-new role of castles and fortresses in World War Z, the micro states forming in Polynesia, the disastrous escape to cold climate undertaken by many American civilians, and the account of the battle of Hope, where the stripped down American army put their tailor-made tactics to the test for the first time. This is a remarkable book, creating a world that is very believable and deeply scary. It’s indeed apocalyptic, but there are streaks of utopia in here too. Because in all it’s gloom and horror, this is also a book about community, about courage, cooperation and people’s ability to prevail.

But sadly, Brooks does fall into a few traps. There is a bit of national stereotyping going on – the Chinese are evil, the Russians stagger under their slave mentality, and gosh, those Brits really do love the queen. And there’s also just a pinch too much of Independence Day style America-centrism for my taste, given the global perspective in this book. I could quite frankly have done without the Cuban conceding “The Norteamericanos taught us the meaning of the word freedom” (even if I love how Brooks dares to make Cuba the strongest economy in the world in during the war), or the President’s tough decision making in the UN. But in this rich tapestry, these remain minor flaws in a book that is surprisingly wide in scope and extremely well-conceived. 4 ½ stars, and expect to find yourself designing your own defense strategy while reading it. Me? I'd head for Gripsholm Castle.

210clfisha
dec 6, 2010, 8:49 am

There are Brits who *don't* love the Queen!? I for one I'm shocked :-) I have always wondered where I would go if a zombie apocalypse.. having no castle nearby it would probably be the pub. No stereotype me.

Anyway back to books. Great review, I loved how he played with the zmobie mythos, with idea's such as the ocean not being safe and the impact on sea life. Plus I *still* wonder at some of the things he left open, I mean what happened to North Korea? Someone write a sequel quickly.

211RidgewayGirl
dec 6, 2010, 9:57 am

World War Z surprised me with how good it was. I had picked it up because it had been passed on to me and I thought I'd read a bit before getting rid of it, but I've put it on my SO's vacation reading stack and will keep my copy.

Now, watch Shaun of the Dead for another excellent take on the zombie invasion.

212GingerbreadMan
dec 7, 2010, 4:38 am

@210-211: Have either of you read A zombie survival guide? The word here on LT seems to be that one should stay away from that spin-off. Or at least that it's very missable.

And now for a little disappointment:

Bonus Blend: Albion by Alan Moore, Leah Moore, John Reppion, 172 pages.

I always go into anything signed Alan Moore with expectations. The man’s knowledge of both high and popular culture, and ability to blend them freely, more often than not creates great art. Even better, they usually open new worlds to me, subjects I want to learn more about afterwards. This novel uses the bizarre world of British super hero comics from the 50ies and 60ies as a starting point – yet another corner of popular culture I know nothing about. So I was eager to plunge into it.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t do it for me. I’m sure that someone familiar with those myriads of camp and weird characters is in for a real nostalgia-fest. But for me it’s mostly an endless row of indistinct faces that don’t get proper introductions, vague references and a thin and strained plot. The whole thing feels like reading Arkham Asylum without knowing a single about Batman (except there are hardly any costumes). There’s a certain ambience here, and I get a little curious about learning more about this world. But mostly, this is simply for someone else. 2 ½ stars.

213clfisha
dec 7, 2010, 5:24 am

I can't remember if I have read A Zombie survival guide (which is a bad sign) but I think it is what it is: a short humourous 'guide' book on zombies. You can read the 1st bit over at Amazon & it looks a bit dry i.e. what is a zombie, how to kill etc..

Haven't read Albion and now I am very grateful!

214sjmccreary
dec 7, 2010, 11:15 pm

I've fallen behind reading threads again and am struggling to get caught up, so please accept my belated congratulations on completing the challenge! It will be a close thing as to whether or not I finish mine, but I'm already looking forward to 11-11, and I'm glad you're planning to be there, too. You've introduced me to dozens of books I'm sure I'd never heard of before. You've even managed to make me consider actually reading World War Z, when it really should be something I'd never hesitate to say "no way" to. I've got that "something completely different" category - a zombie book would surely be something completely different for me! Keep talking about it - maybe you'll get me.

215GingerbreadMan
dec 12, 2010, 4:53 pm

@214 It's really well worth checking out. And there is a fair bit of zombie-ism going on here: moaning, brain eating, loose limbs and the mandatory headshots. But it actually mostly isn't that graphic. I wouldn't call this a horror book. This is actually one of the cool things about the it, how the Zombie blight is depicted almost like a natural disaster. The focus of the book is really humanity coping, on both a global and individual level. Try it!

216GingerbreadMan
Redigerat: dec 12, 2010, 4:58 pm

Wrapping up my bonus category:

Bonus blend: Charlotte Löwensköld by Selma Lagerlöf, 257 pages.

I read and enjoyed the short novel The Löwensköld Ring earlier this year, and was looking forward to following the second installment of this ghost story. But what I got was something pretty different. Taking place a generation after the first book, this is a story of love, duty and dark misunderstandings, where the supernatural is barely hinted at.

Charlotte is of the noble family Löwensköld, but of a branch that has fallen from grace. She is living with relatives, an elderly minister and his wife, in the country. She’s engaged to the young, promising cleric Karl-Artur, but he’s too obsessed with living in poverty and piety to even plan for marriage. When the rich foundry proprietor Schagerström proposes to Charlotte on a whim, Karl-Artur goes completely mad with jealousy. It doesn’t matter that she said no, he breaks off the engagement and vows to propose to the first girl he meets as he storms out. Which happens to be the wandering sales woman Anna Svärd. Not a very fitting party.

What follows from there is a winding, constantly interesting plot – at times heartbreaking or infuriating. As a reader you never know where things might go next (and with the ending of the first book in fresh memory, you know for sure that Ms. Lagerlöf won’t hesitate to let things end badly either… ) Selma Lagerlöf is often seen as a bridge between gothic, early realism and modernism in Swedish literature, and it’s very true here. For this book feels very old-fashioned in a way. But the way it’s told, with deep insights on the flaws, pettiness and humanity of the characters, lots of inner monologues and some great stylistic tricks, it becomes something that is original and exciting. Like Schagerström, who hardly recognizes he has everything because of his obsession with his own ugliness. Or Karl-Artur, so full of love towards humankind, but so quick to believe everyone of the worst. Or Thea, who is so eager to be in the presence of greatness she sells all honesty. Or the colonel’s wife, oblivious of how she constantly outshines her children. Or Charlotte herself, vain, ill-tempered and full of gloom. A great, complex cast populating a story where it’s unclear to the very end how things will turn out. This could well be Lagerlöf’s masterpiece – I don’t even miss the general’s ghost one bit! 4 ½ stars.

Bonus Blend: Den oändliga rättvisans matematik (The algebra of infinite justice) by Arundhati Roy, 260 pages.

Apparently, shortly after Arundhati Roy won the Booker for The God of small things, India elected a new, nationalistic government who tested a nuclear bomb. Roy used the platform given to her by her status as a national treasure to openly criticize this new flag waving policy, and thus started a new career as a writer of political essays and activist.
This volume collects some of her articles from the years around the millennium. They deal mostly with the aftermath of 9-11: The war in Afghanistan, the invasion of Iraq, the new policy of unilateral warfare by the USA, concepts like “collateral damage”, the anti-Muslim tension in India (including bloody pogroms), and the reasons for the growth of terrorism. Roy has a sharp pen and a clear analysis, and this is a book both angry and inspiring.

You can tell it’s almost ten years old though. Most of what is in here is not news to anybody who has been following America’s decade of revenge and it’s impact on the world. From a European view point at least, this is a book to nod in fierce agreement with, and perhaps to quote. But there’s not much new insight for a leftist like me here, apart from the scary glimpses into Indian domestic politics. Also, it’s obvious this is a book brought together, rather than written to be published as a single volume. There are many repetitions here, quotes used over and over for example. But as an overview of global capitalism and imperialism? It still goes a long way. 3 ½ stars.

217GingerbreadMan
Redigerat: dec 12, 2010, 5:07 pm

Well then, boys and girls. That wraps up my full plate version of the 1010 Challenge! Feels pretty cool to have managed what I set out to do.

However: as this is my main challenge, I'll keep posting here for the rest of the year. Got no other place to go... :)

218cbl_tn
dec 12, 2010, 5:37 pm

Well done! And with almost 3 weeks to spare, too!

219pammab
dec 12, 2010, 9:33 pm

Congrats congrats! And I'm selfishly glad you're still going to post. :)

220DeltaQueen50
dec 12, 2010, 10:15 pm

Congratuations - and now you have three weeks to read what you want before starting next years' Challenge!

221ivyd
dec 13, 2010, 2:53 am

Congratulations, GingerbreadMan! Glad you'll still be around!

Because of your review, I gave World War Z to my son-in-law for his birthday last week (along with the latest Iain Banks). He told me today that he's almost done and is really enjoying it.

222GingerbreadMan
Redigerat: dec 13, 2010, 5:28 am

@218-219 Thank you kindly!

220 I know! But as I want to keep my neatly planned 11 in 11 intact, I have my reading for the rest of this year pretty much mapped out. You know the situation I'm sure: There are no books you want to lift out from next year's challenge, but there are aslo a handful that won't want to wait until 2012. Those are my desperate december reads :)

221 Deeply flattering to know this thread can work as a place to get ideas for gifts, and even nicer to hear it worked out! Thank you for telling me!

223GingerbreadMan
Redigerat: dec 13, 2010, 3:31 pm

Usually, I save the big statistics wrap for the end of the year, including ALL my reading. But then again, I haven't ever been in an LT challenge before, so it does seem appropriate to to a summary of my 1010, now that it's finished:

Books read: 67 (55 plus 12 book bonus category)
Pages read: 18007, or 300,11 pages per book (not counting graphic novels here)
Male/Female/Both ratio: 34/30/3. I always aim for an equal number of male/female authors. This isn't quite there, but close enough. I plan to even it out a bit more for the rest of the year as well.
Author nationalities: 21! Which is actually the highest since I started my reader's journal fourteen years ago. Thank you for that LT!
Average rating: 3,69.

Ten best reads of the year in no particular order (and with reservations that the year isn't over yet):

Moominpappa at sea by Tove Jansson, best book for children ever written, and as complex and beautiful a look at coming of age as I have ever read. Re-read in 2010.
We have always lived in the castle by Shirley Jackson, a perfect, eerie little gem of a book.
Finch by Jeff VandeerMeer, featuring the kind of world building that makes a noirish plot seem like a mere bonus.
In cold blood by Truman Capote, a memorable and chilling look into a multiple murder in Kansas, it's hauntingly human perpetrators and it's impact on a small communtiy. A worthy modern classic.
Fateless by Imre Kertész, quite frankly the most devastating account of the holocaust I've read, in a strangely detatched style.
The brief and frightening reign of Phil / In persuasion nation by George Saunders, razor sharp and hilarious satire over western consumerism and capitalism, with slivers of true mercy interwoven.
Astro City: Local heroes by Kurt Busiek and artists, a fresh, deeply original and moving take on super heroes.
Purge by Sofi Oksanen, a dense, touching and horrifying glimpse into a world we know too little about, building bridges between then and now.
The earth hums in B-flat by Mari Strachan, the very definition of bittersweet.
Intet by Janne Teller, a disturbing and powerful YA novel, with something important to say, an exact langauge and a big trust in it's young reader.

Five worst reads of the year (because I read more good ones than bad ones, thank heavens):

Lust by Elfriede Jelinek, 200+ pages of anal rape - tried to provoke, but bored me to tears.
Gomorra by Roberto Saviano, macho writing with no overview or structure, making this feel like a chore, despite a fascinating subject.
These demented lands by Alan Warner. Don't you just hate a sequel that kind of destroys your fond memory of the first book?
Albion by Alan Moore, Leah Moore and artists, a graphic novel full of nostalgic namedropping, painstakingly wrapped around a thin plot.
Haunted knight by Jeph Loeb and artists, bringing together every Batman cliché and halloween ditto, achieving a story that is exactly as you thought it'd be.

Will be handing out some more "awards" in a post to come!

224clfisha
dec 13, 2010, 5:32 am

Congrats (again!). I am in awe of people who can map out a years worth of reading and can't even plan my next book becuase something else will catch my eye!

225dudes22
dec 13, 2010, 12:16 pm

Congratulations - I'm amazed at the type of statistics that many people keep on their reading. This was the first year that I tried a challenge and I can see I'll need to keep better track of my reading next year. Can't wait to see what you'll be reading next year.

226GingerbreadMan
Redigerat: dec 14, 2010, 4:33 am

@224 Thank you kindly! I've been practicing with my oh-so-analogue reader's journal for many years, adding bits and snippets of statistics as I go, until I've bloomed into this full-flegded geek you see before you :)

Here's some more summing up of my 1010:

Biggest discovery: Shirley Jackson. At the start of this year, I didn't know she existed. Now I need to read everything she's ever written.

Biggest disappointments: I can't for the life of me understand the hype around Gomorra. The editor should be shot (no, not literally. I'm not in the Camorra, honestly.). There was also a sad gap between my expectations and the result when it came to The Thackery T. Lambshead's pocket guide to eccentric and discredited diseases.

Best mileage: Old favourites like Muriel Spark, Jerker Virdborg, Jeff VanderMeer and Sara Lidman delivered for yet another year. Räspekt.

Even if you threatened to kill my family, I couldn't tell you more than the crudest basics of (Or: "Books not too memorable"): Kiffe Kiffe tomorrow. Jazz (and this was a re-read!). The complete shorter fiction of Virginia Woolf.

Biggest laugh: The experiments with different forms of government on a micro scale in L.

Best gasp moment: The final twist in The Löwensköld Ring, maliciously elegant in it's presentation.

Most beautiful cover: Possibly Cirkus Pilo, swedish edition. Or Boneshaker.

Cover only a mother could love: Jazz, I think: blurry photo, rainbow letters. Brown girl in the ring wasn't pretty either...

Best category: Almost all solid choices in my Fantasy & Sci-Fi category. Most of my top ten reads came from my catch-all The Rest.

Worst category: None of the books in my Moldy Ones category was really worth waiting ten frakking years for.

Beginner's mistake: No place for sequels! And putting recommendations and reading for work in the same category was just silly. The category was full by june. (This year, I'm solving the problem by sticking my head in the sand and not leaving room for recommendations ANYWHERE. I see a bad moon risisng...)

Most dangerous thread to visit: Many candidates here, but Claire wins hands down. The woman has put enough books on my TBR to theme an entire challenge.

227pammab
dec 13, 2010, 8:32 pm

I love these categories. Also,

>>putting recommendations and reading for work in the same category was just silly. The category was full by june

This worries me extremely, because it's exactly what I did unknowingly in my 11 in 11. And it's already my most-filled category, and it's not even January. Uh oh.

228lkernagh
dec 13, 2010, 9:09 pm

Now, how did I manage to miss you finishing your bonus category! ;-) Love the summary.... and the usual stalking of your thread will continue now that I know you will keep posting here for the remainder of December!

229AHS-Wolfy
dec 14, 2010, 5:46 am

Some interesting stats and a good summary to finish it off. I really enjoyed following your thread and am already looking forward to doing the same for next year's challenge.

230clfisha
dec 15, 2010, 4:29 am

Ha! I will endeavour to read many many dull books next year, I have my eye on Fly: An Experimental Life ;)

Interesting stats and I am now wondering what my favourite cover of the year is :)

231psutto
dec 20, 2010, 10:13 am

Hey fly:an experimental life in on my Xmas wishlist, you can only read it after me ;-)

Do you have a link to pilo family circus swedish edition? I'm intrigued as to the cover now...

232GingerbreadMan
dec 20, 2010, 2:11 pm

pammab: Who knows, perhaps you'll pull it off like nothing! Anyhow, my new approach of pretending the problem doesn't even exist isn't likely to win any medals for next year either.

Claire and psutto: Between your respective reviews, I fully expect to have a good hunch if Fly:an experimental life is for me or not. As for the cover: http://www.adlibris.com/se/product.aspx?isbn=9170373779

233clfisha
dec 20, 2010, 2:21 pm

232 Yikes. That is one creepy cover!

234cmbohn
dec 20, 2010, 10:26 pm

Nice job on finishing! I look forward to reading your thread in the 11-11.

235GingerbreadMan
dec 21, 2010, 4:39 am

234 Thanks so much, cindy, and likewise!

Bonus Blend: Veniss Underground by Jeff VanderMeer, 304 pages.

*Contains (minor) spoilers*

Nicholas is no better as a holo artist than he was trying to create sustainable life in his home lab as a child. He has no success, is bullied by the local police and using way to much drugs. When he decides to ask his sister’s ex-boyfriend to arrange a meeting with Quin, the mysterious bio-engineer that rules the vast underground levels under the city Veniss, he has protection in mind. He means to ask Quin for a meerkat, a genetically altered creature to serve and protect him. Quin’s creations are already all over the city, employed by its many warring fractions as soldiers and labour. Unfortunately, Nicholas does the mistake of not just asking, but trying to make a deal. And like, that, he’s vanished from the face of the city.

Nicola, his twin sister, tightly bonded to him through their artificial upbringing, looks for him everywhere, until finally she finds out that someone has been using his credit card - ten levels below ground. So she too heads down into the unknown, and is gone.

And finally her ex-boyfriend Schadrach, a low-grade employer of Quin, gets word of the disappearance of the love of his life – in the most horrible way possible. Now it’s his turn to head into the city’s dark underbelly – to go back into the underground he once came from – on a mission of either rescue or vengeance.

A very VanderMeer-esque setup this: someone goes after someone who has gone after someone into unknown, weird territory where normal rules don’t apply. The descent into hell gains a level of mystique from this, an added complexity. Hell? Hell, yes. Veniss might not be as carefully constructed as Ambergris (even though one can absolutely see this debut as a pre-study in a way), but the imagery is as bizarre and creepy as they come. The further down we come, the more grotesque and outrageous is the imagery. Hieronymus Bosch comes to mind, more than once.

In the end, the “quest” (so to speak) doesn’t quite live up to the savage world-building. In a way, the human aspect of the book is perhaps too simple, people’s motives too straight, making it feel a bit small. It isn’t quite up there with the Ambergris books. Then again, vey few things are, and this remains deeply original and haunting.

This volume also included the novella Balzac’s war, set in the same world but years later. This is a haunting and sad story about fighting an enemy that is only too familiar, and the price of immortality. Very weird, scary and beautiful, to me this is probably the best part of the book. 4 stars!

236GingerbreadMan
dec 21, 2010, 4:44 am

It's possible this is the last time I post on this thread before christmas, so I just wanted to give a shout-out to all my LT friends and wish you happy holidays! I really enjoy being here. Thank you all for brightening my days (and adding to my TBR...)

237clfisha
dec 21, 2010, 4:51 am

Merry Xmas to you too. Good review, I think "a bit small" sums it up quite nicely. It is a great book and it's hugely interesting to see how he improved between novels.

238psutto
dec 21, 2010, 7:03 am

yep merry xmas etc.

Think the Swedish cover to Pilo's is better than the one we have (which I think is American, I seem to remember I bought it in the States)

239lkernagh
dec 21, 2010, 9:40 am

Happy Holidays GbMan!

240VictoriaPL
dec 21, 2010, 11:33 am

God Jul and Happy New Year! (I don't know the Swedish for that yet).

241sjmccreary
dec 21, 2010, 1:41 pm

Merry Christmas - looking forward to more good books in the new year.

242-Eva-
dec 21, 2010, 1:45 pm

God Jul och Gott Nytt År!! (Helping out VictoriaPL with that one!)

243DeltaQueen50
dec 21, 2010, 2:34 pm

Have a great Christmas and, since I am going away right after Christmas and won't be back till early January, have a Happy New Year too.

244paruline
dec 21, 2010, 3:21 pm

Have a happy and safe holiday season!

245cbl_tn
dec 21, 2010, 10:21 pm

Merry Christmas, and New Year's wishes for a year filled with good books!

246LauraBrook
Redigerat: dec 22, 2010, 8:32 pm

Merry Christmas, GBM! I hope you have a very Happy New Year, and a wonderful 2011 filled with lots and lots of books!

ed. to fix spelling - yay for wine!

247VictoriaPL
dec 27, 2010, 8:52 am

>242 -Eva-: Thanks Bookoholic. I worked on my pronunciation with the Swedes who are currently visiting with us but we gave up after much laughter. It's a good thing they are so patient and have a good grasp of English! They sang Happy Birthday to me in Swedish which was absolutely delightful!

248-Eva-
dec 27, 2010, 11:12 pm

247
It is very entertaining to listen to people trying to pronounce Swedish! :) But the payback for the laughs is normally a deranged rendition of the Swedish Chef!! Bork-bork-bork!

249VictoriaPL
dec 28, 2010, 8:30 am

>248 -Eva-:
GingerbreadMan taught me 'God fortsättning' yesterday. I listened to Google's pronunciation of it and was able to impress our Swedes when we said goodbye over lunch. Maybe there's hope for me yet!

250auntmarge64
dec 28, 2010, 9:30 am

Loved the wrap-up! And congrats on finishing.

This year, I'm solving the problem by sticking my head in the sand and not leaving room for recommendations ANYWHERE. I see a bad moon risisng...

You'll be sorrrrry!!!!!!!! :)

251-Eva-
Redigerat: dec 28, 2010, 6:27 pm

@249
That was nice of him - that's a good one to know! I usually torture my friends with "sjuhundrasjuttiosju" (=777). I've yet to meet a non-Swede that can make those whistle-sounds and it's an endless source of entertainment to listen to people try...! :)

252GingerbreadMan
Redigerat: dec 29, 2010, 5:19 pm

@251 I'm finding I'm moving my sje-s lately! I've always had the throaty variety, but I'm more and more using the whistely ones from my home dialect (whcih I didn't when I lived there!). Strange....

Bonus Blend: Soulless by Gail Carriger, 373 pages.

Admittedly, I’m probably not the primary target group. But I rather enjoyed this witty, light and breezy blend of paranormal romance and steampunk. Alexia Tarrabotti is a spinster at the advanced age of 26. She is armed with a keen wit and a sharp tongue on top of being a preternatural, born without a soul, and is a fun heroine. And rude, utterly unbearable (of course) and Scottish werewolf Maccon is a fun love interest. Together they get mixed up in a shady story when suddenly vampires with no knowledge of vampire protocol at all start appearing in London – attacking members of society at social events, even! – at the same time as stray vampires and werewolf loners start to be reported as missing.

The sub-sub-genre is, I believe, known as mannerpunk, and indeed the best part for me is Carriger’s take on a British Empire where supernatural creatures are integrated in an extremely hierarchical structure. I really enjoyed learning of packs and hives, drones and clavigers and the polite way of sucking blood.

The plot is well-paced and just big enough, and the flirty bits are cheeky fun. There are a few too many instances of Alexia and Maccon fighting their urges, perhaps. It does become rather tired, but I guess it’s also part of the requirements of the genre. All in all, I’ll be looking forward to the rest of the series as a nice pastime. 3 ½ stars.

This is the 900th book I add to LT. Yay!

253-Eva-
dec 29, 2010, 5:42 pm

252
I think I have the throaty ones normally, but when I teach it to non-Swedes, I use a very whistle-y version, if only to watch them squirm. *Mwhahaha*

"the polite way of sucking blood"
Not my type of book either, but it may actually be worth a look!! :)

254lkernagh
dec 29, 2010, 6:54 pm

Congrats on hitting your 900th book added to LT! And I am happy to read that Soulless is good fun. I have that one lined up for my Steampunk category.

255GingerbreadMan
dec 30, 2010, 5:54 pm

@253-254 Check it out! It's the kind of book it's hard to really dislike, I'd say.

Bonus blend: Sloth by Gilbert Hernandez, 128 pages.

I liked Jamie too, but Gilbert’s stories from Palomar was always my favourite part of Love and Rockets. Now I haven’t read anything by him in quite a few years, so I was happy and curious when my brother gave me this for Christmas on a recommendation.

Miguel has, perhaps from pure suburban boredom, slipped into a coma. When he wakes up, exactly a year later, it is to find he’s become an urban legend in his own neighbourhood. And strangely, he can’t move fast anymore. He’s stuck in a sloth-like speed. He reacquaints with his girlfriend Lita and band comrade Romeo. Lita is really into urban legends and local fairytales, and when the three visit a nightly lemon orchard in search of the Goatman, a ghost creature said to try to swap identities with you, reality starts tilting.

Hernandez creates a strange ambience here, not scary but weird in a way that is hard to pinpoint at first. And just when you think you have it sort of figured out, he pulls a Lynchian twist with identities, completely re-arranging the whole setup. In the end, this is one of those books where you are left with a ton of questions, but that still seems to sum up somehow, although it’s difficult to say exactly how. It’s a dreamlike riddle that I will be sure to re-visit many times. 4 stars.

256GingerbreadMan
dec 30, 2010, 5:59 pm

This is my last book for 2010! Tonight I read a friend's play. Tomorrow will see me fixing a dinnerparty and then living said party. It'll be well after midnight until I open my first book for 2011.

I want to thank everybody who's visited this thread, regularly or just once. My first annual challenge has been a ton of fun thanks to all of you. My 11 in 11 thread is here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/96747

POFF!