And, it's over

I have now finished all three books in the Millennium trilogy by Stieg Larsson. I must say I like the first book (Girl with the dragon tattoo) best, even though the language left more to be desired.
What I liked with The Girl who played with fire was that you could read it without having read the first book. It shows great talent from an author to write a second book in a series without tying it to the first book.
However, in The girl who kicked the hornet's nest, the same talent was not used, you had to read the second book to understand the plot already from the first page. The book also felt slow, it is difficult to keep up the pace with one of the main characters in a hospital bed. It wasn't until the last pages that I realised what it was the last book lacked and it was the interaction between the characters. There was so much technical writing that the relationship between the different characters disappeared and with that my desire to care about the characters disappeared as well. It's a pity I think.

The three books in the series were good overall and they bring up a serious problem in society about men who does not only hate women but also see people in general as something you can buy and sell as any product and that is frightening.
Josefine

Title: Millennium trilogy: The girl with the dragon tattoo, The girl who played with fire, The girl who kicked the hornest's nest Author: Stieg Larsson

The year is off to a good start

Happy New Year!

It is always nice to start off the new year with a really good book. The Confession by John Grisham has kept me on my toes these first couple of days of the new year. The book has an intriguing, thought-provoking plot and is well written.
Donté Drumm was convicted for a murder on a fellow school mate in East Texas in 1999. Nine years later with all avenues for appeal exhausted, an execution date is set. This is when, several hundred miles away in Kansas, a man walks in to a church office and admits his guilt of the murder to the minister. Reverend Schroeder sees the faintest glimmer of hope, it seems as if Drumm can be saved. If only it was that simple.

It was my first Grisham and with his reputation, I was expecting the best and of course he delivered. It is the kind of book that makes you think not only about the death penalty in the U.S. but crime and punishment around the world as well. It also thought me much about the legal system in the U.S. And the culture of guns in a state where most people own one and see it as their right to use it if they feel threatened. It is a scary thought.
Josefine

Title: The Confession Author: John Grisham ISBN: 978-1-8460-5715-1

The second novel

In a quite quick succession, I read both the first and second book by Miranda Dickinson, Fairytale of New York (her first) and Welcome to my world (her second).
Even though it had its bright points, Welcome to my world, didn't quite live up to Fairytale. Some of it has to do with, after having read the back of the book, I had envisioned another story. To me, the characters didn't seem quite real and I never felt for them as I did for Rosie Duncan and the others in Fairytale. A nice twist though was that Rosie Duncan (from the first book) and Harriet Langton (from the second) are actually cousins.
I am still looking forward to read my signed copy of It started with a kiss and follow along Miranda Dickinson v-log for her fourth book, but It started with a kiss, will have to wait for a little while, at least a bit in to the new year.
Josefine

Title. Welcome to my world Author: Miranda Dickinson ISBN: 978-1-84756-166-4

Merry Christmas and a Hapy New Year

I am off to Sweden for a couple of weeks, suitcase full of books I hope to have time to read.
Josefine

Istanbulite Women

After a slow start, introducing the characters of the story with great precision, The Bastard of Istanbul turns out to be quite unexpected from what I first thought.
It is a family saga of women, where we travel in time as well as in space. We get to read about the modern city of Istanbul of today, Turkey in the last years of the Ottoman Empire, the desert of Arizona and the moist San Francisco Bay.
It is a great story in learning about the conflict between Turkey and Armenia, but also about race and nationality in general. They share a common past, but at the same time their memories of that past is as different as different stories.
The author, Elif Shafak is a brave woman, writing about things that is still quite taboo in Turkey. She was put on trial for “denigrating Turkishness” as she put it herself in the acknowledgements at the back of her book. However, the charges were eventually dropped.
I am really looking forward to read her other books.
Josefine

Title: The Bastard of Istanbul Author: Elif Shafak ISBN: 978-0-670-91720-4

Don't cry for me Argentina

Tomás Eloy Martínez book about Santa Evita is a far cry from Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical on the same subject. Martínez book is focusing on the time after Evita's death and the controversy surrounding the embalment of her body, the many copies made of the body and the burial sites.
He is also trying to find the fleeting image of a person that doesn't seem to exist or at least doesn't want to show herself to be written about.
I usually like Martinez books because there is a bit of magic in them, they are works of fiction but also real in a sense. However, even if Santa Evita is an interesting story, it fails to capture me as much as for example The Tango Singer did.
Josefine

Title: Santa Evita Author: Tomás Eloy Martínez ISBN: 978-1-86230-002-x

Sari and Society

The Sari Shop by Rupa Bajwa starts slow and descriptive. You can really feel you're in the market in Armitsar walking into the Sari Shop, seeing the beautiful fabrics in neat piles and bundles, watching the men as they work laying out the colourful and intricate cloths to the female customers.
Then as winter moves into a hot and sticky summer, so does the temperature rise in the story as well and we get more and more involved with the main character Ramachand.
As the monsoon draws closer, so does the end of the story, but it is done in a way that keeps the reader just out of reach of the ending.
When it finally happens, with a crash and boom, just like the monsoon, I can't decide if I am satisfied with the ending or not.
Josefine

Title: The Sari Shop Author: Rupa Bajwa ISBN: 978-0-670-91472-x