This is the third installation in the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series. Blake is an Animator whose job it is to raise zombies from the grave, interspersed with other duties: the occasional execution of murderous rogue vampires and work as an adviser to the police in cases where her expertise is needed. In this case, the action starts when Blake is called out to a murder scene where a man has been attacked by a pack of vampires. Blake herself soon runs into them and has a narrow escape. She soon meets an ancient vampire who wants to return vampiredom to the old order: no integration, no citizenship, just a few clever and powerful vampires against humanity, with the weak and the stupid destroyed. She plays an important part once the battle for the city – between the “civilised” vamps and the “wild” vamps – begins. Her hate/desire relationship with master vampire Jean-Claude continues to intensify, and she meets a living man in whom she is more than a little interested, except there is one not so tiny problem that may get in the way of their relationship…
The books in this series just keep on getting better and bloodier. Because it’s a series, you know Blake is always going to come out on top, and the fun comes from finding out how she does it, not if she will do it. I do have one gripe with the stories so far: Hamilton seems to be obsessed with the Nike brand of shoes. I didn’t count how often she mentions and describes the Nikes Blake and other characters wear, but it was too often. After the second mention it starts to read like not-so-subtle product placement.
Rating: A fun and gory action story with a tough as nails heroine who doesn’t take shit from anyone, be it a sexy-as-hell master vampire, an immortal and unkillable monster, a snake the size of a truck or the oldest living being on earth. 3 stars.
This is a wonderful, sweet memoir about mature love, between Marlena, a divorced American food writer and chef, and Fernando, a Venetian bank worker who fell in love with her from afar but only found the courage to approach her when she returned to Venice a year later. Within a few months she had tied up her life in the USA and moved to Venice to be with him. The book tells of their first three years together, getting to know each other, marriage preparations, their life together, adjustments to a new culture, and Marlena’s other love affairs, namely with Venice and with food.
At the end there is a chapter of recipes for some of the food she mentions in the books, with some truly mouth-watering recipes.
Rating: A lovely, tasty combination of true romance, travel and food. 4 stars.
I picked up Chris Stewart's book because I liked the title. After a couple of chapters it was obvious that this would be a fun read, and I enjoyed it enough to make a night of it.
The book tells the story of how Stewart and his wife, Ana, bought an old farm in Andalucia in Spain, packed their belongings into a trailer, hitched it to an old Range Rover and left their old life in England behind. What followed were several hard years of repairing and partially rebuilding the house, laying a road, building a bridge, getting the land in shape and getting drinkable water into the house. Stewart describes his friendships with local farmers and the expatriate community, which includes some genuine eccentrics, and tenderly describes the birth of his daughter Chloe and her first years. It is a charming book, and there is none of the arrogance that occasionally surfaces in Peter Mayle’s Provence books. If anything, it reminds me most of the first book I read in this particular sub-genre of travel literature, Eric Newby’s A Small Place in Italy.
Rating: A lovely book to read and dream over. 4 stars.
You are a bibliophile, ergo, you love books. Logically, you should love books about books and reading even more than other books. Right?
Here is a selection of such books that I have enjoyed:
84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff. Memoir. 20 years of correspondence between the New York based author and a bookshop in London. Sweet book, full of mentions of all sorts of books and the joy of reading. Also a charming movie, starring Anne Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins.
Parnassus on Wheels & the sequel, The Haunted Bookshop – Christopher Morley. Fiction. The first is a lovely little love story about two middle-aged people who are brought together by an unusual bookshop. The second is a mystery that revolves around a second-hand bookshop run by the couple from the first book. Both are also very much about the joys of reading and owning books.
The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco. Historical fiction. The story revolves around a manuscript, manuscripts and books are discussed in great detail, and the climax takes place in a library. The movie - starring Sean Connery and Christian Slater - is good, but most of the philological and literary references were lost in the translation from book to screen.
The Neverending Story - Michael Ende. Fantasy. This book is about the magic ability some books have of drawing the readers so completely into the story that they feel as if they are there. Was made into an okay movie that ended halfway through the story.
The Professor and the Madman - Simon Winchester. History. This book is about the making of the Oxford English Dictionary, and the relationship between the main editor of the OED and one of the men who supplied material for the book.
Killer Books: A reader’s guide to exploring the popular world of mystery and suspense - Jean Swanson & Dean James. Reference. The sub-title says it all. Still reading this one and have found loads of authors and books I want to read.
The Eyre Affair & the sequel, Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde. Fantasy. Although not of high literary merit, these occasionally funny books make excellent reading for bibliophiles because of all the different literature (real and imaginary) mentioned and alluded to in them, and the literary figures (for example Jane Eyre) that the protagonist, Thursday Next, meets. Thursday is a book cop who learns how to jump into books and interact with the characters (off page). There are two more books in the series that I haven’t read, The Well of Lost Plots and Something Rotten. I may comment on them in future postings.
A Passion for Books. Anthology. Just started reading this one. It’s a collection of essays, stories, poems, lists, quotes and cartoons about all kinds of subjects to do with books and reading.
I GIVE humble and hearty thanks for the safe return of this book which having endured the perils of my friend's bookcase, and the bookcases of my friend's friends, now returns to me in reasonably good condition.
I GIVE humble and hearty thanks that my friend did not see fit to give this book to his infant as a plaything, nor use it as an ash-tray for his burning cigar, nor as a teething-ring for his mastiff.
WHEN I lent this book I deemed it as lost: I was resigned to the bitterness of the long parting: I never thought to look upon its pages again.
BUT NOW that my book is come back to me, I rejoice and am exceeding glad! Bring hither the fatted morocco and let us rebind the volume and set it on the shelf of honour: for this my book was lent, and is returned again.
PRESENTLY, therefore, I may return some of the books that I myself have borrowed.
Broken: I’m giving up on part of my new year’s resolution. I had resolved that at least 25% of the books I read in 2005 would be in Icelandic, originals or translations. However, I keep coming across interesting books in English, and I decided that instead of forcing myself to read in Icelandic, I would let my moods decide what books I read. I have lined up Icelandic translations of some world literature I want to read, but many of them are very long, like Arabian Nights and The Tin Drum, to name two very different examples, and therefore they will have to wait until school is out and I can concentrate on long books. I am reading some books in Icelandic, mostly translated Scandinavian crime mysteries. (I’m going through a mystery phase).
Kept: I still intend to read as many of my TBR books as possible because I need shelf space for more new books, and I plan to devote a month to reading only books I own, probably May.
The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho (audio book read by Jeremy Irons) and other books
I just finished listening to Jeremy Irons read Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist. I recently started reading the book but couldn’t get into it and gave up. However, it is a good book to listen to someone else read, and I enjoyed it very much. Of course, Irons has a great voice. He draws out the magical qualities of Coelho’s story and the lyrical quality of the translation (I have no way of knowing if the original is lyrical or not), and gives each voice a distinct personality. The story – not to give away too much - is a religious and philosophical parable about the importance of following one’s dreams, which is just what Santiago, the protagonist, does, from Spain and all the way to Egypt. This is a story that could be made into a wonderfully visual movie. I don’t know if it was the quality of the reading or the writing – probably a bit of both - but I felt as if I was there, participating in Santiago’s adventures, feeling his frustrations and seeing what he saw.
Rating: A timeless parable about following your dreams. 3 stars for the story, 5 stars for the reading.
Also finished reading: Twelve women detective stories. This is an interesting look at the origins and development of female detectives in literature. The stories are of varying quality, but the book is well worth reading. I already have a copy of a book one of the stories came from, and want to get my hands on 4 others. Because of the varying quality of the writing I can’t give the book as a whole more than 3 stars, but there are some excellent 4 and 5 star stories in it.
Still reading: My Antonia Ellery Queen’s Japanese golden dozen How to read a book
Taking a break from: Killer books (until I have the time to note down the authors I’m interested in from the book)
Stopped reading: The Cure for Death by Lightning. Thematically, it is beginning to remind me too much of The Secret Life of Bees, and I am putting it aside until TSLOB fades from my memory.
84 Charing Cross Road and The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street, by Helene Hanff
84 Charing Cross Road has been described as a “love affair between a woman and a book-shop”. For 20 years, Helene Hanff conducted a business correspondence with a second-hand bookshop in London, that developed into a deep friendship between her and the bookshop staff, especially between her and Frank Doel (and later his wife and neighbour as well). The two main correspondents, Hanff and Doel, quickly seem to have reached an understanding of each other, and one sees in their correspondence a pair of people with a similarly witty sense of humour, although Doel is more restrained (for obvious reasons).
This is one of those books in which nothing much happens on the surface, it is just a little slice of life, as is the companion story, The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street, Hanff’s journal from her visit to London. She had been planning the visit more or less for nearly 20 years, but which always kept getting put off, usually because of financial troubles.
84 Charing Cross Road was made into a charming movie, which is how I first learned about it. I had planned to include the book in my original reading challenge, but it is a popular book and it was never available when I went to the library. Now that I have finally read it, it seems almost amazing how such a good movie could be made from so little material, but when I started thinking about it, there is actually plenty there to work with, and of course the movie was fleshed out a bit (e.g. the scene where Hanff gets arrested).
Rating: A great book that should especially appeal to bibliophiles. 4+ stars.
The Story: A basic coming-of-age story. In 1930, Little Tree, a boy who is part Cherokee-part white, becomes an orphan at age five. He is taken in by his Cherokee grandparents who bring him up in close touch with nature and teach him the ways of their people. He is briefly taken away and put in an orphanage where he is mistreated, but is able to return to his family after a while.
Technique and plot: The book is written in the simple, straightforward first person narrative style of a memoir, and sounds so honest that it’s easy to see why so many people believe(d) it to be non-fiction in spite of some rather unlikely events. Spellings reflect the speech patterns and accents of the people, but not so much that it makes the book difficult to read. Little Tree is very much a child of nature, and from it he learns lessons, both harsh and gentle, at the side of his grandfather. At times the book is very, very funny, other times uplifting and still other times sad. Parts of it ring so true that you whish it wasn’t a novel and the people were real, which is one of the things that have made this book so popular.
Rating: A lovely and somewhat fantastic coming-of-age story. 4+ stars.
SPOILER are you ready ? ‘cause here it comes … .. .
Disclaimer: Sometimes knowing too much about an author can spoil the reading of a book. This is one of those books, so if you want to research Forrest Carter, do it after you read the book.
Romanticism (The Critical Idiom series), + still reading, started reading, upcoming review(s)
Finished Romanticism. I really wanted to learn more about that era than the basic knowledge I acquired about English Romanticism at university. I am translating an essay by a Romantic author and feel that I need to study the era and concept in order to better understand her viewpoint. To begin with, I was unable to stay awake to read the book. It isn’t exactly boring, because I am interested in the subject, but it is a bit dry and I found myself reading the same paragraph over and over, trying to remember its contents for more than a few seconds. But I only have myself to blame: books like this should not be read in bed after a heavy dinner. By reading it in the morning, sitting on the living-room sofa, I was able to finish it without nodding off.
Review: This book is the literary equivalent of a canapé – something small to whet the appetite before the main course. It gives a short introduction to Romanticism, tracing its historical roots in broad strokes and giving some of the main authors and works. The final pages are devoted to a list of further reading – the main course if you like – with comments. This is a useful book for persons who want to learn about the subject without knowing much literary theory. One annoying factor is the large blocks of German and French quotations. I can understand about 80% of the German and 40% of the French and enjoyed comparing them with the English translations, but I really think it was quite unnecessary to include them. In a book such as this – a short introductory work for students, presumably of literature (high school and/or undergraduate) – it is liable to scare away some readers who don’t know those foreign languages and are intimidated by them. Not rated.
Still reading: Twelve women detective stories (one story per day – interesting variety of stories and themes) Ellery Queen’s Japanese golden dozen (taking a break until I finish the above) Killer books (taking a break until I have the time to sit down and write down the authors I’m interested in from the book) How to read a book (don’t know if I will finish this one – it’s written in the I-am-getting-paid-by-the word-and-I-think-my-reade rs-are-dumb style that academics sometimes employ when they are writing for laypersons - or maybe it's just my reading level that's higher than that of the intended audience. I don't know.)
Started reading: My Antonia by Willa Cather (during my coffee breaks at work) The Cure for death by lightning by Gail Anderson-Dargatz (intriguing title – hope it doesn’t turn out to be a dud like the last coming-of-age novel I read (see my review for The secret life of bees)
Just finished: 84 Charing Cross Road and The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street (review coming soon)
I borrowed this book from the library because I liked the title, which put me in mind of a wacky 60's sci-fi story, or rather a parody of one (I was actually looking for another of McCrumb’s books). The title comes from the fact that all of the characters that matter are in one way or another connected with science fiction, either as authors, failed authors, or fans, and some of them might be described as metaphorical zombies. Fandom plays a big part in the story, and is described in humorous terms, and although I have never been involved in fandom of any kind, I have spent enough time participating in Internet book discussion groups to know that the descriptions are accurate. As a mystery, the book is not what one has come to expect from the genre: the death occurs more than halfway through the book, and is not revealed as a murder until 30 pages from the end, so the whodunnit part of the mystery is solved very quickly. The where-was-he-and -what-was-he-doing part takes a bit longer to solve. The identity of the murderer and the main twist will be obvious to most experienced mystery readers, the second twist is slightly more surprising (his motives), and the final one was transparent - at least to me - although I dare say it will surprise many less cynical readers.
Rating: The book is well written and funny, and I enjoyed it in spite of the long lead-up and the weak mystery. Looking forwards to reading the prequel, Bimbos of the Death Sun, which takes on sci-fi conventions. 3+ stars.
Still procrastinating, now reading a mystery by Sharyn McCrumb, Zombies of the Gene Pool. I am now on page 236 of 274, and it still has not been revealed if the one death that has occurred so far was from murder or natural causes. Therefore I can't (yet) call it a whodunnit...
Just finished reading The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. For the sake of all the people who recommended it to me I wish I could say I liked it, but I didn’t. It was one of those books that I found to be okay, but nothing more than that. It was too predictable, often superficial and sometimes felt contrived, like Kidd felt she had to show the whole range of human emotion and just didn’t know when enough was enough. There are redeeming points, however. The characters, narrator Lily, her surrogate mother and best friend Rosaleen, and the Boatwright sisters, especially August, are rounded and real. The story, of Lily’s coming of age in the American south during a hot summer in the tumultuous 1960’s, rambles somewhat, and could have done with a little sprinkling of magic realism. The tone it’s told in screams out for something like that, and you kind of expect it from a book with such a mysterious title. Added March 4th: On deliberation, I guess I could say that the story had potential, which was not fulfilled. Kidd has the potential to become a great writer, and although I didn't like this book (her first novel), it will not stop me from reading her next (if there is one). 2.5 stars.
Still reading: Killer books Twelve women detective stories How to read a book Ellery Queen’s Japanese golden dozen The critical idiom: Romanticism
I seem to be stuck in a rut. I keep starting a book and then stopping and starting another one, and another one, until I finally find something I can stick to, and then I can’t stop until I’ve finished. Meanwhile, books with bookmarks sticking out of them collect on my bedside table and demand my attention. I’ve mostly been ignoring them for the last week or so, but I have to go and finish some of them because they will soon be overdue at the library.
Persepolis: The story of a childhood by Marjane Satrapi, & also reading
Persepolis is a memoir, a look under the veil and behind the high walls and shuttered windows of post-revolution Iran. Parts of it are very shocking, parts are funny, and the stark black and white graphics make it play almost like a movie before your eyes. The drawings are dark – there’s a lot of black – and simple, but they are simple enough to appeal to they eye and the emotions and there are no unnecessary details to draw the eye away from the main points.
Rating: A stark, strong, insightful memoir of life in Iran in the years after the revolution. 4 stars.
I'm hoping the library will also get part 2. I want to know what happened next!
Now reading: Killer books: A reader’s guide to exploring the popular world of mystery and suspense Twelve women detective stories - a collection of short detective stories about women How to read a book - a guide to “intelligent reading” Ellery Queen’s Japanese golden dozen - Japanese short crime mysteries The critical idiom: Romanticism - literary theory
Just finished Guilty Pleasures, the second vampire novel in the Anita Blake series by Laurell K. Hamilton. Quite a good horror thriller. The supernatural has so many more opportunities for horrible and chilling thrills than the standard "real world" thriller, that for someone who isn't much into the supernatural (like me) it's an interesting experience to read books like this.
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About me
What this blog is about:
Reading and books.
If you’re wondering about the name 52 books, it stems from a book-a-week reading challenge I set myself. The challenge is over, but I'm still reading, and will continue to blog about the books I read and my reading experiences, and other stuff connected with books and reading.
I rate the books (if I feel like it), giving them stars ranging from zero to 5.
Books I have already read (sporadically updated):Cover gallery
Note: Some of the entries are linked to the months the reviews appeared in, because I made several entries for each book. I have marked those reviews with an asterix (*). If you want to read the whole review from beginning to end, you must scroll down and read from the bottom up (but you probably already knew that ;-) >
