The Long Song by Andrea Levy

Interesting.

The life of July (such pretty name) is rather harsh. She is born a slave in Jamaica, and taken away from her mom to entertain the fat white mistress from England with 9 years. However the story takes place in the 1830's the chaos and end of slavery years in Jamaica.
Through July (and her son Thomas) Levy describes how chaotic and weird life was for everyone at that time. How everything changes within minutes, how white people panic (how could they possibly survive?) once a revolution starts.

I don't really know anything (take the really away, I don't know a thing) about slavery, but Levy gives a pretty authentic description of things...and checking the rest of the interwebs it's pretty accurately researched.

So it's well written (sometimes rather hard to read, though that's intended I think), interesting book. And we could all do with a little extra knowledge, right?!

One Day by David Nicholls

Long...ish.

The story follows Dexter and Emma. They get together after their graduation 15th July 1988, with heads full ideas and plans for their future. The reader now gets to read what they do 15th July for the next 20 years. There is a lot of love, a lot of friendship, job success and massive failures on both sides. But somehow they manage to keep in touch, closer and further apart every now and then.

It's pretty cool because you don't just learn about the two of them but general feeling of the 90's, how lifestyle and life itself changed. They grow up (more or less) with all the common problems and joys. However there is a point within the middle ish end, where I wished it was a short story ... or at least would follow them for only 10 years, because there is not a lot left to say after a while. Though even the mini boredom, it picks up with a neat unexpected end (where again you wish it'd be over...there is no need for the last chapter, really there isn't).

Nice for summer I guess.

Oh there is going to movie with Miss Hathaway and lovely Mr Sturgess (the trailer gives a lot of story away though).

The Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Undecided.

Such highly popular and critically acclaimed novel ... and although I've read it months ago I can't decide if I liked it or not.

The story is relatively simple: Pi loses his family in an accident while travelling on a container ship to Canada. He survives together with a tiger, a hyena and a zebra. On a boat.

Once you got into the story (which took me 3 attempts and a lot of will power) the story makes sense for somewhat reason. And even though they are on a boat in the middle of the ocean it doesn't get boring.

Apparently it's the end that gets everyone (people have cried and laughed and fallen in love with the novel because of the end) but I just don't get it. I mean I do understand the story and the meaning and what he tries to tell ... but I don't get the hype around it. When I finished it I didn't really like it.
BUT
I couldn't stop thinking about it. For days afterwards I thought about the boy on the sea with his tiger. About his weird encounters with different fish and sharks and all that.

It's definitely worth the time for a read and worth all thoughts you may have about ... but I'm not sure if I thought it was that amazing.

Fatherland by Robert Harris

Incredible.

Fatherland is a crime novel taking place in the mid 1960's Berlin. Hitler is still alive and won the war.

The plot follows police detective Xavier March, and his investigation of the death of a high-ranking Nazi.  Soon March realizes that he is in the middle of a political scandal in which senior party leaders kill a certain group of people. He's supposed to be taken off the case.

However, March meets an American journalist, Charlie Maguire, who knows the case from a different angle. 

After both travel to Zurich together to check out the bank account of one of the victims, they uncover the missing details behind the murders.

Now though the plot may sound kind of interesting (which it really is!), it's the whole set up of the novel that gets the reader. Harris creates a Germany, a Berlin and a completely new history without going nuts on the amount of creative possibilities, but with a lot of research and sense. It's even more awesome if know Berlin and which areas of the town he's actually talking about.


The novel really does create an impression of Nazi Germany if Hitler had won the war. It also shows how European countries and in fact the rest of the world deal with it (or not). It shows how people live and fear, and you're never 100% sure if they follow their leader because they want him or because they have to. It also creates a new level to the question of knowing. 


And because the whole novel is so amazing, the end is almost too good to be true.

Love in the Time of Cholera by G. G. Marquez

My World Book Night give away.

Listen to this while you're reading ... but only if you like Shakira.

The story follows Florentino Arizo around for most of his life. Fermina is the woman he loves since he is very young. She decided against him and married a Doctor. So Florentino fills his live with other women (loads of them). He never forgets Fermina, never stops loving her. When her husband dies in a rather comical accident Florentino sees a chance for his dream love to become true. 

The awesome thing about the story, other than being unbelievably sad and romantic, is that it manages to follow him for more than 50 years. It shows his live and how it and the world around changes. The impact he makes on women, the impact he makes on their husbands, his work and his pain. Even though 50 years sound really long for a novel ... it never gets boring. There is just so much happening in his life (and of course you also want to know if they manage to get together in the end) so it's a relatively easy, but also really interesting read.

Let me know if you want a copy ... I have about 45 of them lying around. The copies are of course for the world book night. But living in Aberdeen there will be no major event ... so it won't be the easiest thing to get the books to people.

(Btw. if you have seen the movie and thought it was super dramatic and screamy and girly, don't be scared. I love the movie because of all the above factors, but the book is a lot better.)

The Mind's Eye by Hakan Nesser

Scary.

When Janek wakes up he can't remember a thing. His name, his age, what happened last night all taken away by the booze. Then he finds his wife drowned in the bathroom.
Of course everyone thinks it was him. There are no other traces. Off he goes to the mental ward of a hospital. Where he gets killed a little later. Looks like he wasn't wasn't the killer after all. Who was it?

It's scary, because many of us have woken up without a trace of memory from the previous night. It's scary because of the injustice done by the police. Haha, the same could happen to you!

I kind of wish there would be a little more explanation in the end. I love how the story turns against any suspicion the reader has. However it doesn't make 100 % sense because Nesser only spend about 5 pages on explaining who did what and when. Still a great and easy read for the weekend.

Room by Emma Donoghue

Wow.

Room is the story of Jack and his mom. Together they live in a room. This room has a locked door, a skylight, a TV with Jack's friends in it, and other stuff you need for living. Jack knows that TV is not real, and so is everything else, except him and his ma. He is five years old and has never left Room.

Jack is telling us the story starting at his 5th birthday. Everything changes when he turns 5. His Ma 'unlies' that the world outside is not unreal and that they have to try to get outside. They create a plan together so Jack can get outside Room. Into the outside world.

I'd love to write the rest of the story but that would take a lot of awesome reading experience for you away, so I'll just leave the story where it is now.

The way Jack narrates the story we get an insight into the mind of child, that has never met other people, never played on a playground, never went to the shops, has never walked bare food through the grass. The way he writes about his life in Room shows the worth of love he has for his ma. And even though one might think, that this isn't a story for the tearful reader ... it is. It is a story for everyone. It's not over dramatic (although it is very exciting and tense at times) nor is it overly sentimental. It's funny and sad at the same time.

Room is one of those books one can read within a day. It's hard to put down, and it's an easy read as well (once you're used to Jack). If you have to spend a week reading on it (like I did, thanks exam time), it's a book that doesn't shut up. You keep thinking about Jack and his mom. About the changing relationship within those 5 years. About her change when she got Jack after being in Room alone for 2 years. What happens when they get out? He's never seen daylight and she just has to re-adjust. Will she still love him once she is outside?

And the most important question. How much does this novel relate to reality? Emma doesn't say anything about her inspiration for the book, but I am pretty sure it's inspired by the Fritzl case. Did you ever ask yourself what it would be like for those children? They have never seen the world. Room put those imaginations into a book. And did great work.

It's a very inspiring story. It's well written, has lovely characters and is also super interesting. So go, and get reading.