Chinese novels

Chinese consumer products have flooded the market for several years, if not decades, which have also spurred the general interest for China. More and more Chinese authors are now translated and published in the western world. I have recently read two different authors from China. Empress Orchid by Anchee Min is probably one of my more recent favourites. She takes us into the Forbidden City in the last decades of the last Chinese emperor, where we meet one of his last empresses Orchid.
Moving forward to the 21st century, we find Z lost in London and the words of the English language. A concise Chinese-English dictionary for lovers by Xiaolu Guo is cleverly written as we can follow Z’s road to learning the English language as the sentences becomes more and more complex and she finally masters the different pronoms, verbs and tenses.
Josefine

My recommendations: The death of woman Wang by Jonathan D Spence

Awful Library Books

The blog Awful Library Books is one of the funniest blogs I have seen in a long time. It is terrible to see what they find at their midwestern library. It reminds me a bit about my old school library. Researching for a paper there was no use in going there because most likely you wouldn’t find anything that was relevant anyway.
The two librarians who run the site have of course met resistance to what they do. The reoccurring comments seems to be about the question of keeping old books if the information is relevant and there is no money to buy a newer version. To me it depends from book to book, but in general I would say that there is nothing worse than looking for some good research and all you come up with is a book that was printed in the 60s or 70s. Then I prefer to find nothing at all.
If nothing else this is a funny blog.
Josefine

My recommendations. The mark of an angel by Nancy Huston

Reading time

I’m craving some reading time! NaNoWriMo is taking up a lot of my time.
When things get hectic at work I always appreciate the company of a book more. It forces me to sit down, relax and just enjoy the book. Thoughts keep swirling in the back of my mind and sometimes I have to have a notepad next to me so that I can write down things I need to do. However, at the same time I can feel myself relax with that book, sink in to its magical world far away from all the musts. I feel happier and after I can take on the world again!
Josefine

My recommendations: Any books that will help you relax in a stressful world

Midnight Post

If you are questioning what I am doing up, close to midnight on Saturday night, posting on my blog, I will tell you. It is because I, with about 75 000 others around the world are ready to start our quest to write a 50 000 word novel in one month. Starting exactly at midnight on November first, it is time for another crazy month of mad typing around the world. Who knows how many will make it to the end? However, everybody knows that even less make it to publishing, but it doesn’t matter, it is not the most important goal for many of us. According to the website, there are some who has been published and added on to the world’s every increasing list of books.
Posts may be fewer this month, as I’m busy typing my own novel instead of reading others.
Josefine

My recommendations: Monitor my progress on my page

Update, apperantly we passed the 100 000 mark of NaNoWriMo members a couple of days ago.

Around the world: Venice

Here comes a new section with books that reveals part of the world that you won’t find in ordinary guidebooks.


Heading out first is The City of Fallen Angels, which is about Venice. An ordinary touristy city with its famous picture perfect tourist attractions, but as I found out in the book there is so much more to the city.
The city with its many canals filled with deep intrigues and mysteries. There is something with Venice and when you get to follow John Berendt and his experiences around the city after the great fire on Gran Teatro La Fenice you see some of its splendor. The book shows a different Venice, an ordinary city, except for that shine that always seems to shine over Venice and gives it its mystique.
When I finished the book, I immediately decided to revisit the city again and this time I would make sure to look past the old facades and the somewhat intruding touristy parts. Hopefully I will see some of the true magic of Venice and if I look carefully I might even be able to see the fallen angels. Josefine

My recommendations: Villa Serena, falling in love Italian style by Domenica de Rosa

Tolerant or Picky?

I read on a forum a couple of days ago about a guy claiming that about every third book or author he picked up, he didn’t enjoy. I must disagree with him. There are usually very few authors and books I don’t enjoy. Then I started thinking. Am I just a more tolerant reader who will ready anything for the joy of reading or am I not picky enough with my reading and expect very little from the books I read? I like to see myself as tolerant a more positive spin on the issue. What kind of reader do you consider yourself? Tolerant or Picky?
Josefine

My recommendations: April in Paris by Michael Wallner.

1001 revisited

As some of you might know, my new years resolution this year, was to try to include at least one book from each chapter (century) from my 1001 books you must read before you die (the Swedish version). Well past the six-month mark I have to say that it hasn’t gone as good as I anticipated. So far I have managed to read two books from the 20th century, both by Russian authors (Bulgakov: Master and Margarita and Pasternak: Doctor Zhivago) and that’s it. In the near future I hope to read some of the Russian writers of the 19th century, hopefully before the end of this year. But we’ll see how it goes.
Josefine

My recommendations: A passage to India by EM Forester