Ernesto Che Guevara

With the release of the new movies about Ernesto Che Guevara and the new release of his own accounts of what happened Che Guevara is once again popular. I am myself currently reading Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War.
Another good book about the hero (villain?) is the biography Che by the Swedish journalist and writer Björn Kumm. It is a great biography about Che’s life from the beginning to the tragic end. The book has a nice balance of information to keep the book going without the often-common mistake of biographers to try to squeeze in too many things. I haven’t seen it in English yet, but who knows, with the new movies and increasing interest in Che Guevara maybe a translation is on its way.
Josefine

My recommendations: Son of the revolution by Liang Heng & Judith Shapiro

Reading Children’s books

I have taken up re-reading some of my children’s book. It is quite interesting to read them again and compare the experience. Peter Pan, The Wizard of Oz and Alice adventures in Wonderland, were all stories I loved as a child and have re-read as an adult. The words are the same, but their meaning is different. I see sub-stories I never thought about when I was young. Quite fascinating.
Now pick your favourite children’s book from when you were a child and re-read it.
Josefine

My recommendations: A little princess by Frances Burnett

Bookcrossing – released book

I have just released my first book with bookcrossing . I left Jane Sigaloff’s book Name and Address Withheld on the westbound District Line train towards Wimbledon yesterday (Saturday). It is the first book I have released into the wild and I am excited to see what is going to happen to it. I will follow its tracks around the world very closely on the website and I hope who ever picks it up will have as much pleasure of it as I had.
Now go catch it!
Josefine

My recommendations: Sweetland stories by E.L. Doctorow

Summer Reading

I just picked up a leaflet at the library with this summer’s Richard and Judy selection. I don’t watch their show (mainly because I don’t have a working TV right now) but I must say that their selection of books is quite interesting. Some of my favourites that I have had my eyes on before are The Piano Teacher by Janice Y.K. Lee and Guernica by Dave Boling. Stephen Carter’s Palace Council seems quite interesting as well especially since there is currently a black president in the White House. Some of the others The Great Lover, Mystery Man and The Senator’s Wife didn’t appeal to me as much. I guess the charm of this book club, is their wide selection and you can find anything there.
Josefine

My recommendations: The Outcast by Sadie Jones

What if Peter van Pelsen had surrived

I have written before about my love for “what if” stories and I just finished another one. The boy who loved Anne Frank by Ellen Feldman was very well written and seemed so true that I had to stop and think at times.
It is a story about Peter van Pelsen the boy of the other family, hiding in the annex with Anne Frank and her family in Amsterdam during World War II. In the story he survives the concentration camps and makes his way to the US border where he shreds his old life and takes on a new life in the New World as a gentile. However, life catches up with him and he has to stand up to decide if he is going to hide forever or face his past.
It was such a well-written story that I would like to recommend it to anyone if you read Anne Frank’s diary or not.
Josefine

My recommendations: The diary of a young girl by Anne Frank

Nine Parts of Desire

Since I read March by Geraldine Brooks I have been trying to find more books by her, and I found it in her non-fiction book Nine Parts of Desire about the women in the Middle East. It was an interesting book and Brooks have no doubt great knowledge about the countries and women she writes about. However, I can’t help but feel that this is book is somewhat outdated and a newer version should be published. Much has happened since the book was published in 1995, especially the spread of Islamic fundamentalism, which of course gives implications for women (and men as well).

On another point, it would be interesting to read about Muslim women as refugees in western countries. Perhaps any of you have read a similar book, let me know.
Josefine

My recommendations: The broken pictures by Azar Mahloujian

The cellist of Sarajevo

This is a book that takes you to a city under siege during the most recent battle on the Balkan. When the Yugoslav republic was torn apart and neighbors fought neighbors. The book tells us four different stories about four different lives in a city very few can leave and the rest of them has to survive anyway they can.
What capture me the most about the book is the personal relation I have with this war and also Galloway’s writing style that captures my attention from beginning to end.
It is one of those books you can’t put down once you started.
Josefine

My recommendation: Zlata’s diary by Zlata Filipovic