Reading Love

Vidunderbarn

2010-01-02T20:57:00.001+01:00

I'm reading in Norwegian again. Christmas gift from my husband: "Vidunderbarn" (The Child Prodigy) by author Roy Jacobsen. I've read one of his earlier novels: "Seierherrene" (The Champions) and so far this read is really promising. It's a story set in the 1960's Oslo, with the world as a backdrop to the childhood of a young boy, living on the outskirts of the town.

Reading in French

2009-11-18T09:56:00.000+01:00

Yes, for the first time in several years, I'm trying to read a French novel. I've chosen "La Prochaine Fois" (The Next Time) by Marc Levy. This author has lived seven years in San Francisco, and in all his books (at least the ones I've read) some of the plot takes place in the US. I've allready read "Et si c'était vrai?", "Où es-tu?" and "7 yours pour une éternité".

He often weaves stories with elements from the supernatural, and in this one, there is supposedly a friendship who outlasts centuries... I've just started, so we'll see.

Jenny

2009-11-17T17:37:00.001+01:00

Reading Zafón is intriguing. I don't get all if it, and sometimes I keep going back to try and find some loose threads. I didn't find all of them, but still, I liked the book. A real story, a universe of it's own.

Now, I just finished reading "Jenny", by Norwegian author Sigrid Undset. This was her breakthrough novel, and it was first published in 1911. Then, the novel was scandalous in many ways, but is now among the classics of Norwegian literature.
It is about Jenny, a woman in her late twenties. Living for her art, painting, she leaves her day job and goes to Italy.
Throughout the story, she will experience the agony of not being able to love the way she desperately wants to, and she ends up having a child, but rejecting it's father.
It is about the nature of love and friendship, and it is about being an artist.
I read the book many years ago, before marriage and children, and I have to say, I read it in a totally different way now.

Sigrid Undset

Reading Block

2009-10-09T09:39:00.000+02:00

Yes, I think I've experienced something like that.
I've been reading the same book now, for weeks and weeks, can't seem to really get going,
and it has nothing to do with the book not being interesting, absolutely not, because it is a great novel. I'm talking about
"The Angel's Game"
by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. He is a rather young writer, Spanish, from Barcelona, and his home city is extremely present in the book. I'm reading the Norwegian translation, and I realize while I'm writing this, that I haven't been reading a book written in my mother tongue for a long, long time.
If you haven't read his former novel, "The Shadow of the Wind", you should. The one I'm reading now is written as the second book in a triology. It is not exactly a sequel, but the author has a reason for writing it after the other one.
It is in many ways what we would call meta-literature. A book about books, just like the other novel. It is a story about the art of writing, about finding your way through the wilderness of possible words out there, about becoming a writer.
I'm halfway through it now, and I want to read, I really do.
I'll keep you posted.

Summer holiday read

2009-07-16T19:54:00.002+02:00

I'm reading Warning of Gales again. Read it three years ago, in Leeds, England, and I'm having a great time reading it again. It is so funny, so well observed, so recognizable, this story about three different women and their families, renting a vacation home together. Cornwall, July, beach, personalities, relationships, baggage...

Who would have thought?

2009-05-16T05:42:00.001+02:00

Yes, I'm hooked. I started reading Twilight, because I wanted to know what it was all about, and now I'm done with the 3rd book in the saga, and, of course, impatiently started the last one, Breaking Dawn.
I can hardly stay away from the universe of rainy, suspenseful Forks...

Refreshing, funny, and with a serious edge.

2009-05-06T05:39:00.000+02:00

Yes, I finished the second Shopaholic book, and I had a blast. It was so refreshing reading about this silly girl, who makes me laugh so hard that my husband can't sleep... I feel I sort of know Rebecca Bloomwood, and even if we are rather different, she sounds like she could have been a good friend!

Her relationship with Luke is important in this book, as is New York, the glamourous lifestyle, and then, towards the end, a sort of wakeup call for our heroine, and a few points to think over...

I just finished the book when there was a parcel from Barnes & Noble at my door, and now I'm reading the third book in the Twilight Saga: Eclipse. I just have to keep going here. I'm sold, helplessly, witout any say in it, addicted to see this story though, all the way to the end. I'm there, with Bella, with the others. I feel and smell the wetness of the forest of Forks. I love it.

From Moon to Manhattan...

2009-04-22T06:35:00.000+02:00

Yes, I finished New Moon. It was harder to read than Twilight, not because the content was tougher, but because the atmosphere was so depressing. I liked to read it, though, and it became better towards the last part of the book. I love the way the author is creating a universe, a set of givens that you just have to accept to be able to follow the story. I'm definitively going to read the two last books, but right now I'm relaxing with

Shopaholic takes Manhattan!

I truly believe that I need these kinds of books right now, and I'm looking forward to getting started!

New book - New Moon

2009-04-14T18:39:00.000+02:00

Wow, couldn't put down that book, and towards the end I almost forgot to breathe...

The pace really changes in that last part of the story. From everyting being on the inside, in the unsaid, in the scents, thoughts and feelings, it becomes somewhat of an action movie. There is a lot of suspense, and like I said, I could hardly breathe, but there was a part of me who longed for that still life setting I was used to from earlier in the story.

Well, I'm starting on the sequel now, New Moon. I actually have this down-feeling that I often get between books, like the next one can't possible be that good. There is a kind of grief in it. I was eager for the book to finish, to see the end, but then I'm sad, like I lost somebody, a companion, when the book is over.

I also wonder how the author possibly can write three more books here, - since I felt sort of a closure when the first one was read.

We'll see how it goes.

I'm sold...

2009-04-13T05:36:00.001+02:00

Yes, I have to admit, I love reading this book! I'm going to finish Twilight tonight, and I can't wait to get to book nr. 2...
I really think it's brilliant, the language, the plot, the suspense. I find myself holding my breath, feeling that I'm there. I relate to Bella, to this "school-nerd" book-loving girl, who is so unsure of herself.
I have to get back to my book. See you.

Three books ahead now!

2009-04-10T19:12:00.000+02:00

Yes, I finished Revolutionary Road. I liked the book. That is, I think it is a troubling story, not easy to read, but it is very well written. Frank and April's relationship sits in the middle of the plot. You keep wonder what their problem really is, and then it is sort of obious too...
A good description of the American suburb in the 1950's.
The ending is rough.

Then I read "People of the Book" by Geraldine Brooks. A totally different story, or I should rather say stories, since it is several smaller stories wowen togehter to make a very special tapestry of a book. There is suspense, and you get to care about these different people. The main carachter is Hanna Heath, and Australian, who is working on the restauration of an old Jewish book. We are in Sarajevo, Bosnia, and the year is 1996.
We learn about Hanna's work, her life, past and present, and we learn about all those persons who take part in the book's history.

Right now I am reading Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer. I started two days ago, and I am halfway through it. I feel drawn into the story about Bella Swan. The strange thing is that only a few weeks ago (se older post here) I was in Forks, Washington! I went hiking in the woods there, and I saw the beaches with huge driftwood trees on them, just like I'm now reading about in the book. Strange. I had no idea this book took place in Forks when I decided to go there.

Revolutionary Road

2009-03-28T02:58:00.000+01:00

My next book is Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates. First published in 1961. Many of you have allready read it, or watched the movie (which I haven't, since I want to have read the book first...) I guess there still are people out there, like me, who haven't read this award-winning novel, and who would like to know about it.
I'll keep you posted.

The end was...

2009-03-28T02:51:00.000+01:00

Well, I'll obviously not be telling you that. But, I finished Burning Bright, and I'm truly amazed by Tracy Chevalier's ability to create a theatrical experience. I can see everything, hear the characters talking with different accent, feel their emotions,smell the city, the countryside. You end up really caring for the characters, even those for whom you didn't think you would.

Circus, llamas and the rainforest

2009-03-23T02:38:00.000+01:00

This weekend I went to a remote Bed & Breakfast out on a peninsula by the Pacific coast. It was on a ranch, 20 miles from the nearest town, and I woke up in the morning to the sounds of chicken and geese yapping about in the courtyard. A very, very muddy courtyard, by the way. Rubber boots became a must.
Hearthy contry breakfasts, cats and dogs everywhere, llamas to feed, pigs, cows and a newborn calf to admire, and a bull you'd better leave be... It wasn't exactly city life, and it was wonderful. I got to breathe, and to do some thinking.
I went for a walk in the rainforest, on the one day it didn't rain, and it was a magical experience, seeing the sun filtering through the moss clad crowns of enormous Sitka Spruce trees.
On my way back to the B&B, I was also treated to the view of four elk crossing the road. They stopped, stared at me, and just ducked their head and munched away on their green roadside lunch.
In the evening, after dinner, I also got to read. I've read a third of Burning Bright now.
I'm learning about circus life, early friendship and the discovery of books by children who hardly have had any schooling.
There is also the painful reading about dysfunctional families, and hurt souls...

Painting in my mind

2009-03-20T04:15:00.000+01:00

OK,
I've started Burning Bright now, - for real this time! And, I get to know the people, and London, in 1792. There is the French Revolution happening, and even if our heroes don't know too much about it, they get to learn a little bit more now, through their artist neighbor, who wears the "red cap", the one used by the revolutionary on the other side of the Channel.
Tracy Chevalier really knows how to paint a picture with words! I can see the street, the garden where the kids are not allowed to play, and where there is no space for their mother to plant her vegetables...

This is bad...

2009-03-19T16:57:00.000+01:00

Here I am, starting a brand new reading blog, and I don't have time to read. Or, maybe the problem is that I don't TAKE time to read. I don't know.
Anyway, I started the 4th chapter of Burning Bright yesterday, but I only got to read a few pages. I also read what was inside the book jacket, and learned that the novel really is about poet/painter William Blake, and how he is inspired by two children, one of them being part of the family who just moved to London from Dorchestershire.

I'm heading out to Barnes & Nobles today, to pick up Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates and People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks. Yes, I know, I shouldn't be buying new books, when I'm not able to get going with the one I'm reading, but it's for a book club next month, and I really want to read them...

I'll let you know.

Burning Bright

2009-03-18T23:19:00.000+01:00

I just started this book, written by Tracy Chevalier, an author I love. I've allready read Virgin Blue, The Lady and the Unicorn, and Girl with a Pearl Earring. I have not yet read Fallen Angels, that is, I tried to, but for some reason was not able to dive into the story. I will try again, that much is certain, but right now it's about Burning Bright.
We are in the late 1700s, in London, and we get to know this grief-stricken family who just moved to the city, to start a new life.
I started the book two nights ago, but yesterday I was unable to read, so I still have just read three chapters. We'll see how it goes tonight.