Book of the year 2008

The book of the year was difficult to choose from since I this year I have read much and broad (if you remember my last years resolution). Finally I set my mind on March by Geraldine Brooks. I have mentioned it here before, but a brief recap of the book tells us that it is about the whereabouts of Little Women’s (Louisa May Alcott) father during the American Civil War.
I have decided on March because of its story, which captures every reader who read Little Women and now we finally find out some more about their mysterious father! The second reason is Brook’s talent in putting words on a paper that makes sense and won’t disappoint you. It makes the book easy to read without loosing its appeal to a good story.

Every year I give a new years resolution, however this year I was undecided o what it was going to be, until my siblings made the decision, when they gave me the Swedish version of 1001 books you must read before you die.
Looking through it, there were some I had already read, but there were still plenty to go. I therefore decided that my new years resolution would be to read at least one book from each chapter (there are five: before 18th century, 18th century, 19th century, 20th century and 21st century).
What is your new years resolution this year or don’t you give any resolutions?
Josefine

My recommendations March by Geraldine Brooks

My Christmas present

I decided to give myself an early Christmas present this year. It is the ultimate gift to myself or any other booklover. It is a CD box of Penguin Classics, including my personal favourites of: Anne of Green gables, Little Women, Peter Pan and many more. It is the perfect gift, because I can listen to some well-known stories as I do other things as well. And then of course it only helps that I got it at a great discounted deal through The BookPeople.
Josefine

My recommendations: Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Why aren’t there any good Christmas books for adults?

I ask you the question because when I look back at the books I read about Christmas when I was young; I can vividly remember plenty of them. Many of them written by Astrid Lindgren, but there were also others. They gave a wonderful feeling of Christmas that are forever etched in my memory. I think about them and feel the smell of Christmas and get that warm and fuzzy feeling that only good memories from childhood can give you. But as an adult I have troubled finding any stories about Christmas that can provoke the same feeling. Is there any of you who have any good tips you’d like to share?
Or why not share with us your favourite Christmas book as a child?
Josefine

My recommendations: Most of the children’s books by Astrid Lindgren that had something to do with Christmas.

Europe’s largest bookstore

From the smallest library in town, there is a short subway ride to what they claim to be the largest bookstore in Europe (Waterstone’s on Piccadilly). Six floors with shelf after shelf of books of all kinds: fiction, non-fiction of every subject available, school literature, children’s books, poetry, and magazines, everything you can imagine. If you get tired at any point there is a café in the basement and a trendy restaurant on the top floor.

I spent a whole afternoon there the first time I was there and came out with a whole bunch of books, ready to buy their complete inventory, but stopped myself.
I like this bookstore, not so much for their exclusiveness in books; they have what most other stores have. But it is just the share amount of books that intrigues me. It feels like they have collected every publishable book in Europe and put it in one place.
Did I need to mention that it was not my first time and only time there?
Josefine

My recommendations: Maya by Jostein Gaarder

Negativity destroys book

There is something about the book I just finished (Joanne Harris, Coastliners). I just can’t get rid of the feeling that it is all too sad and negative. Even during the positive and more uplifting scenes, there is a negative cloud lurching in the background, shadowing every prospect it ever had of being an interesting read. And it bothers me so much, because it had such a great future.

Set in France the plot begins with a young woman (Mado), who returns to her native island to save it from slowly being washed away by the sea. Her father entering the plot being old and grumpy, the villagers the same, but even as the tide turns and the village eventually prosper, the feeling of negativity stays with me and I can’t cast it off. All the way to the end the negativity prevailed and the book left me empty with no hopes for the future.

Pity on such a good writer (Harris is the author of the book Chocolat, turned in to a movie by director Lasse Hallström)
Josefine

My recommendations: Marian Keyes, An unexpected holiday. A much more enlightened reading.

Fanfiction

One of the first books I read in English (my mother tongue being Swedish) was Little Women by Lousia May Alcott and I loved it. So you can imagine my feeling when I picked up Geraldine Brooks book March from the library. March tells the story of the Little Women’s father. In Alcott’s book you only know that their father is away at the American Civil War, but you never find out what happened to him there, this is the story Brooks tells us.

Fan fiction is a genre that interests me because you can do so much with the minor characters in a book that the writer never develops. Who isn’t curious to know what happened to Friday before he met Robinson Crusoe or how Frau Remarque dealt with her son being sent to war. There may be people disagreeing with me, but in my opinion, the writer of fan fiction ventures into those unknown paths that the writer merely didn’t have time to cover in their book.
Josefine

My recommendations: Good evening Mr. Holmes by Carole Nelson Douglas.

Europe's smallest library

I live next door to Europe's smallest library, or at least London’s. The library is located in one, octagon shaped room that holds three walls of fiction and fiction crime, a few shelves of non-fiction and a small section with children and young adult books.

But the size of the library is compensated by their nice staff and their customer loyalty card, which gives you one free rental movie after five takeouts and you will be entered for the grand price where you can win a month of free rental movies! Little things make me happy.
Josefine

My recommendations: Goodbye Mr. Chips by James Hilton