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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

Reliability

Sheila O'Flanagan's Bad behaviour is what I think of as an ordinary chick lit book. You pick it up at the airport, train or petrol station before leaving for your holiday. You know what to expect and O'Flanagan delivers just that. There are no surprises, good or bad, it is just a consistent, entertaining, well written book throughout. And sometimes that is exactly what you need!
Josefine
Title: Bad behvaiour Author: Sheila O'Flanagan ISBN: 978-0-7553-3218-2

Coleman's best so far

I go through periods when I read much from the same genre and a couple of weeks over the summer, it was chick-lit. This time there was a mix of authors I've read before and some new. First Cally Taylor's début novel Heaven can wait, then there were books by Rowan Coleman, Sheila O'Flangan and Sarah Addison Allen all authors I've read before.
Lessons in laughing out loud by Rowan Coleman is the third book I've read from her and I must say I think it is the best of her books so far. It had a bit of a dip towards the end, but then it picked back up again in the last chapters to end quite well.
I am still waiting for my library to purchase her newest book Happy home for broken hearts.
Josefine
Title: Lessons in laughing out loud Author: Rowan Coleman ISBN: 978-0-09-955126-3

Can heaven wait?

I've read much about Cally Taylor's first novel Heaven can wait, following her path to publishing through her blog and was prepared for an uplifting chick-lit book. What I was not prepared for, was it to be so sad. Some parts of the book are funny and witty, then there are so many parts that are heartbreakingly sad. However, the best features of the book, is that Taylor nails each and everyone of the emotions. I can sense what each and everyone of the characters are feeling and that makes me care about them and their stories, turning the pages wanting and needing to know how it ends.
In short, it is a wonderful book. It took me a long time to get to this novel (my list of books I want to read, never seems to shorten) but when I read it, I was a bit gutted I had waited so long to get to it. Her second novel Home for Christmas is on my to read list as well, and hopefully I'll get to it sooner, I might just bump it up a bit.
If you want to see what Taylor is up to (including being a new mum) you can find her website here.
Josefine
Title: Heaven can wait Author: Cally Taylor ISBN: 978-1-409-10323-3

A case of TELLING not SHOWING

The first few pages of Grace and Disgrace by Susi Osborne started off really well. The pace was high, something was constantly happening and I felt as if I was in the kitchen with the family, taking part in their chaotic life. Then it started to slacken off and slowed down further and further, until it finally came to a grinding halt. And that's where I stopped caring about the characters.
I soon discovered the problem with the book, why it slowed down so much. It was because Osborne had gone from SHOWING the characters to TELLING me what they were doing. It can really put a break to any great plot line.
Another part of the book that was really disturbing were the sex scenes. It is almost as they were put in afterwards to spice up the book. Two sentences of TELLING of heavy thrusting could have been made into a paragraph of SHOWING loving and caring.
Am I being to harsh about the story? After all I didn't even bothered to finish the book. Perhaps. I do think however, the book helped me realise a lot with my own feeble attempts at writing fiction. Not even a good plot line can rescue bad writing.
Josefine


Title: Grace & Disgrace Author: Susi Osborne ISBN: 978-1-84624-463-6

Good Crime

I am not the biggest fan of the crime genre. I think many of the books become static and uninteresting, where the same team of protagonists solve the same type of crime in book after book, with some personal stories thrown in to give the characters some “heart and soul.” I know I don't like them, and therefore choose to stay away.
However, after listening to an author talk by Dan Waddell at my local library, I decided to try his book The Blood Detective. Waddell manages to write a crime story with a different twist, combining his knowledge about genealogy (he was one of the researchers for the BBC programme Who do you think you are?), with a great crime story. And of course, living close to the scenes of the crimes, and following him along the streets of Notting Hill and Notting Dale, appeals to me even more.
The Blood Detective is a really good book that I would recommend to everyone who's looking for something different from the crime genre.
Josefine

Title: The Blood Detective Author: Dan Waddell ISBN: 978-0-14-104098-1

Stereotypes - The American South

Back again. Master Thesis is handed in and the Olympics is over for another quadrennium. I have not been idle during the time I have been off and in the coming weeks, a selection of the books I have read will be discussed. Join in the discussion in the comment box below.
I have recently read two book about the American South and some of the stereotypes that exists about that part of the USA. The books, A redbird Christams by Fannie Flagg and Gods in Alabama by Joshilyn Jackson are both very well written and the stereotypes are not as noticeable unless you look for them. Both books have shown me that just because it highlights some of the stereotypes doesn't necessarily mean that the book in itself becomes a cliché, it is possible to write a good book anyway.
Josefine

Title: A redbird at Christmas Author: Fannie Flagg ISBN: 978-0-099-49048-7

Title: Gods in Alabama Author: Joshilyn Jackson ISBN: 978-0-340-89668-6

Summer Holiday

The blog's on summer holiday until I have finished my Master's Degree and work at the London Olympics.
See you sometime in September again.

Eat, Pray Love - Success??

It's difficult for me to understand the fame and success the book Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert has gained around the world. I do not agree with its fame at all. I'm in Italy and I am bored, how does that happen? I agree with Gilbert and her love for Italy and everything Italian that's why I am so confused with being bored. To me this should be a tale of a beautiful language, good food (after all Italy symbolises the Eat in the title), living La Dolce Vita. How can I possibly be bored? But I am.
The book is an autobiography and my moral conscious tells me to be sensitive about the author's feelings. After all she has been very brave, opening her heart and soul to the world. But it is just not to my taste, too much whining. She's in Italy, fulfilling her dream, a dream most people could just dream about and still she spend most of the time dwelling in her past.
I am curious about the film of the same name, based on the book, however, hopefully Julia Roberts can lift the story.
Josefine

Title: Eat, Pray, Love Author: Elizabeth Gilbert ISBN: 978-1-4088-0866-5

Yet again seduced by a title and a cover

I was walking in to the library, and there on a shelf it sat, begging me to look at it, with its dark pink seducing cover and wonderful title, How to climb Mont Blanc in a skirt. I just had to have it. No matter that I have a mountain of books at home that I don't want to try to climb in a skirt.
Anyway, the book slides into my bag and I am off to a new adventure.
Josefine

Title: How to climb Mont Blanc in a skirt. A handbook for lady adventurer Author: Mick Conefrey ISBN: 978-1-85168-841-8

The Duchess of Devonshire - The book and the Film

I was pleasantly surprised when I opened up The Duchess by Amanda Foreman. I had received it from a friend years ago and it had ended up on the bookshelf without me actually having looked through it. I just assumed that it was a novel based on the life of the Duchess of Devonshire, I also had a vague recollection that it had been made into a film. Therefore I was pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be a very well-written and researched biography of the Duchess Georgiana of Devonshire. As with many other biographies, The Duchess is riddled with names and if you're not familiar with the period, it is difficult to keep them all straight, but I also think that is part of the genre of biographies and you have to take what you can get out of it and not be to uptight about remembering everything, especially if it's a book read for pleasure and not for an assignment.
Now it's on to watch the film as well and I hope it is as good as the book.
Josefine

Title: The Duchess Author: Amanda Foreman ISBN: 978-0-00-728575-4

The Marriage Bureau

The reviews told me that The Wedding Wallah by Farahad Zama is a feel-good story and I can only agree. Even though I haven't yet read the two first books in the series, The Wedding Wallah is a welcoming, well-written distraction after a few so, so books (see previous reviews). I enjoyed it a lot.
The book is set in modern India and portrays well the clashes of old and new. The traditions of an arranged marriage and the modernity of a castless society. Urban and rural traditions co-mingling on the pages. Now I can't wait to read the first two books in the series as well.
Josefine

Title: The wedding Wallah Author: Farahad Zama ISBN: 978-0-349-12268-7

A library bargain

I went to the library today to return a book, I had promised myself not to borrow more than one book (after my well thought out strategy of returning one book and lending one new). I return home with three borrowed books plus four I bought from the for sale shelf, to my defence I will say that you can't say no when you get four books for only a Pound. I am not very often at this library and every time I go, there's something new at the for sale shelf that looks interesting.

These were the books I bought this time:

Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow - an author that becomes a bigger favourite the more I read of him.

Marshmallows for breakfast by Dorothy Koomson - I read The Ice Cream Girls and has been looking forwards to read more from her.

The Forgotten Affairs of Youth by Alexander McCall-Smith - The latest in the series about Isabelle Dalhousie.

A Short history of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka - the fourth book and the best of what was left on the shelf.

Josefine

Libraries

After reading The Library Book, I got inspired to find a blogg I wrote in 2007 but still rings true today. So here it comes one more time.

Libraries, what a great concept

A library is such a wonderful place. To whom ever came up with this idea I am grateful. Just take a moment and think of the concept. You can go there and borrow almost as many books, CDs, DVDs, magazines and newspapers that you want. And all this for free. Or, you can sit there all day reading and no one would bother you.

Wherever I live I go to the library for some peace and quiet, being a student, it almost feels like a second home.

In Washington DC I loved the Library of Congress. The tranquillity of the large marbled rooms combined with the vast amount of books to borrow there were amazing.
In Honolulu the design of the library, just fit the climate perfectly. It was built around a courtyard, sprinkled with palms and greenery. On the hot balmy days, which are typical for Hawai’i, I sat outside in the cool shadow studying.
When I lived in Waukesha, Wisconsin, USA they remodelled the library and when it was done, it looked sleek, modern and fresh. An extra bonus was the books and DVDs you could borrow from other libraries in the county sent to your local library at your convenience.
Of course you can borrow e-books online and never have to set your foot in the library, but it won’t beat the feeling of going to the library and browse the many bookshelves and pick out just the one that looks great. Go visit a library and enjoy the free access to a wide variety of reading material.
Josefine

Title: The Library Book Author: The Reading Agency ISBN: 978-1-78125-005-1