Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Book and Library fair in Gothenburg

This weekend (September 27-30), it is time for the yearly Book and Library fair in Gothenburg. This year’s program will focus on Estonia. There will be several speakers from Estonia as well as Swedish writers and writers from the other Nordic countries. If you are in town, don’t miss this event.
Josefine

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Philippa Gregory webcast II

This past Sunday I watched a live web cast of Philippa Gregory. It was an interesting way to present an author and more writers should try the same. It gives a whole new dimension to the worldwide tour. At the moment I have no statistics of how many actually watched the web cast, but for those who attended, it was certainly a great event.
Gregory gave a short introduction and then she opened up to the floor to questions from the audience in the studio as well as the audience on the web. The questions ranged anywhere from the craft of writing, to the specific of one book to which of her characters she would have been if she lived in Tudor England.

There were many questions about the upcoming films made from two of her books. In February The Other Boleyn Girl will have premiere and next autumn The queens fool will be released.

If you have ever read her books you notice that most of her characters are strong women, during times when women had no rights. You notice the commitment Gregory has for these kinds of characters. When she got the questions of who she would want to be in a past life, she determinedly said that she would not want to be born in any time period before the 1920s when women got the right to vote. If she had to choose one of her characters she would have picked Henry VIII during his best days in The constant Princess when he, young and handsome was at the height of his career.

Gregory is like her books, very sympathetic and I can’t wait for her newest books and the film to be released in Sweden.
Josefine

My recommendations: A respectable trade by Philippa Gregory.

Friday, September 14, 2007

Philippa Gregory web cast

As you might have noticed I have a big interest in history. I read anything I can get my hands on, historical novels and historical non-fiction alike. When I look through my booklist more than half of the books have something to do with history. One of the newest authors, writing historical fiction, I have discovered is Philippa Gregory. She has written a lot about the history of England, and especially the Tudor time (16th and early 17th century). She is a talented writer with an interest for what happens around a monarch in their immediate court. It is difficult to find something I do not like about her books, I read them fast and can hardly wait for her newest books The Boleyn Inheritance and The Other Queen to be released in Swedish.
This Sunday, September 16, at 19:00 GMT, you can watch a live web cast of Philippa Gregory. It is a web cast of Philippa Gregory, talking to an audience in London. If you are interested in Philippa Gregory, historical novels, or writing in general, this is an opportunity you can’t miss.
As a warm up for the big event I am currently reading A respectable Trade, one of her early books, published in 1995.
Josefine

My recommendations: The queens fool by Philippa Gregory

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Swedish Authors: Henning Mankell

You may have heard about the Swedish writer Henning Mankell, his books about the criminal detective Kurt Wallander has been translated into many languages. The Wallander series has what every other crime novels have. A main person, in this case Kurt Wallander, who is a criminal inspector at the police in a small town called Ystad in Sweden. He is divorced and has a daughter. He is not very good with romantic relationships and he seems to be married to work. Have you heard it before? To me it sounds like every other crime novel I have ever read. It is not that the books about Wallander is badly written, they are thrilling and you are not really sure how it will end, but at the same time, it feels like I have read the story before.

I have read many of his books that aren’t part of the Wallander series (some of which I have recommended in this blog). They bring up subjects that are important and touch your soul on a whole other level than a crime novel would do. The most recent Wallander book I read was TeaBag, it brings up the problem of refugees who live underground in Sweden. In Comedia Infantil, Mankell writes about children living in the streets in Brazil. Another book (Vindens son in Swedish, I have yet to find the title in English) tells us the story about a black boy taken to Sweden from Africa during the 19th century and is shown around on different institutions in Sweden like an animal.
All of these books leave an impression in my brain. It was years since I read both Comedia Infantil and Vindens son, but I can still vividly bring up the feeling I had when I read them. There are very few books that move me like that, but when you find them they are going to last forever.
Josefine

My recommendations: Comedia Infantil by Henning Mankell

Monday, September 3, 2007

Historical Prose?

I found a book in the public library that was published in 1962 about the French Indian War. Since history in general is an interest of mine and I haven’t studied much about the French Indian War, I thought I would do some catch up.
To my surprise this was not an ordinary history book. Leading in to the first chapter, I was met with this vivid description: “The tiny palisade settlement of Schenectady, New York, lay still and sleeping under a heavy blanket of snow.”* This was a description of the impending assault on the unknown citizen. Later the description continues with the returning victors of the assault: “They marched towards Montreal, two hundred miles to the north, and the white cold of the northern winter swallowed them up as silently as they had come.”* Later in the book, the attack on Deerfield was equally described, “With the darkness the wind blew stronger, swirling the snow in drifts to the top of the palisades, muffling all other sounds.”*
I have noticed that the author’s descriptions often refer to the landscape. How things looked, smelled, sounded and felt. It makes me giggle as I read it, because it is such a vivid description that you think the author actually was there. He must be a very old man!

The account is wonderfully written and I know, I am a bit anal about using sources and not put your own flavor to an historical event. But really, I have a difficult time believing in the book and the events he describes. I have yet to finish the book but I am sure I will bump into more of these vivid descriptions and I will smile every time I read them, because I am a bit amused by this book and the thought of how some of my history professor would react to it.
Josefine

* Source: Russell, Francis. The French Indian Wars. New York: American Heritage Publishing Company. 1962.