Last Post

I have decided to close this blog in favour of the blog focusing on my writing.
If you want to come along on my journey to (hopefully!) become a published author, please come and join me in my writing chair and watch me getting to the end.
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The Portugese Empire

I did not know much about the Portuguese empire, which is really a shame, considering how interested I am in other great empires in the world. The condition on the small islands of Sao Tomé and Principe was delicate to say the least during the late 19^th and early 20^th century. Slavery was abolished all over the world. Portugal together with the other great powers had signed treaties to that effect. Still it seemed as if slavery existed on these tiny islands in the Atlantic, why was otherwise so few people returning to their birth place in Angola.
In the Equator by Miguel Sousa Tavares, Luis Bernardes is sent out as the new governor to the islands, to convince the English that slavery did not exist, except he can't really lie about what he sees, can he?
The story is well researched and well balanced between fiction and fact and I felt I'd learnt something new when I finished the book.
Josefine

Title: Equator Author: Miguel Sousa Tavares ISBN: 978-0-7475-9662-2

Hunting and gathering - The book or the film?

I find it interesting with books that are made into films (that's why I bring it up so many times here) but I try to read the book first, as most of the time I find the book is better.
In my last post, I wrote about the book Hunting and Gathering by Anna Gavalda and the evening I finished the book I also saw the film (with the same name). The film stars one of my favourite actresses Adurey Tautou and had I seen just the film, I think I would have liked it more, but as always with making films from a book, cuts are made.
Unfortunately the film lost so many of the small nuances Gavalda is so good at portraying that make the three main characters more complex. What I missed the most were Camille's painting, there was so much more emotions in her paintings and I would have loved to see Mamadou's full outfit when she finally comes to sit for Camille.
Josefine

Title: Hunting and gathering Author: Anna Gavalda ISBN: 978-91-0-010605-4

Hunting and Gathering

Oh, these French authors, they have a way of playing with language, words and sentences. I wish my French was better because I suspect there are nuances that doesn't quite make it through the translation.
Hunting and gathering by Anna Gavalda (The title in English does not sound as poetic as the French Ensmble, c'est tout loosely translated Together, that's all, or in Swedish, Tillsammans är man mindre ensam, loosley translated Together you're less alone) is my first book of this writer, but I am already looking forwards to read more from her.
I am also looking forward to see the film with Audrey Tautou, but more about that in the next post.
Josefine

Title: Hunting and gathering Author: Anna Gavalda ISBN: 978-91-0-010605-4

Lives of a quiet desperation

Revolutionary Road – Book or Film?

Richard Yates book Revolutionary Road was one of the best books I read last year and I can't believe I'd missed that there is a film based on the book with Leonardo di Caprio and Kate Winslet. So of course I had to rent it.

Where the book fails to capture April Wheeler's all emotions, I think the film highlights 1950s women loneliness better, watching the film, it felt as I was as reading  Betty Friedan's Feminine Mystique again. The quiet desperation of many women's lives in the 1950s.
It's a difficult choice to pick the book or the film,they are both exceptionally well executed and I don't think you'd be disappointed picking up either of them.
Josefine

Title: Revolutionary Road Author: Richard Yates ISBN: 978-0-413-75710-4

Juliet, Naked

I read Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby in the beginning of summer, but haven't gotten around to write about until now. I think it is the kind of book that needs to sit for a while in my brain and sink in to really appreciate it. What drew my first to this book was the cover art, which reminds me a bit about the opening scenes to one of my favourite films, Juno.
It's a story about obsession and what it can do to you. How it changes your life, a slightly sad and depressing book, but somewhere in it there is also happiness.
Josefine
Title: Juliet, Naked Author: Nick Hornby ISBN: 978-0-141-02064-8

The Peach Keeper

Ok I promise this will be the last chick-lit post for a while now. But I can't help but to mention the latest book I've read from one of my favourite authors, Sarah Addison Allen.
Sarah Addison Allen is an author I come back to again and again. Her two previous books The Sugar Queen and Garden Spells left me with such a nice fuzzy feeling so I had high expectations of The Peach Keeper and as always Addison Allen delivered.
To me, that is what makes a favourite author, you can go back to them over and over again, and they always deliver.
Josefine
Title: The Peach Keeper Author: Sarah Addison Allen ISBN: 978-1-444-70667-3