National Blog Posting Month # 30: I did it

So, today is the day where I post my post # 30 in the NaBloPoMo-challenge. I have now posted every day for a whole month. Some days more than one post, but usually just one post. Not everything has been equally interesting. I would have liked each and every post to have been interesting and thought about and thought provoking. But I simply did not have time to do that. One of the reasons is of course that I have nothing interesting to say. Another factor is that I decided only to blog about books and book related things. That did not happen 100% unfortunately. I was lucky that I had a backcatalogue of reviews I had not yet blogged so that I could use some of them on days where I felt I had nothing to say. All in all I think it has been a fun challenge and I have been "forced" to move around the blogosphere every day for a month, which has been fun. I am happy now though that I do not "have" to post every day. Perhaps I will post every day anyway, but at least I am not comitted to a challenge. But its been good fun.

This is my last post (# 30) in the NaBloPoMo-challenge. See my page here.

National Blog Posting Month # 29: flickr

Today is the day before the last day in the NaBloPoMo-challenge. So I'll just blog a single image from my flickr photostream. The image, which is of a pharaoh receiving ankh, life, is shot in the large Karnak-temple complex in Luxor in Southern Egypt. The image is my most viewed image in my photostream, and I am blogging it today even though it has nothing to do with reading, books or other book related stuff :o)

This is post # 29 in the NaBloPoMo-challenge. See my page here.

National Blog Posting Month # 28: Keeping track

How do you keep track of your read books? I used to note down every single book I read in my beloved A Booklover's Diary. I always found spreadsheets to be boring, so I have been happy with my diary. Then I began blogging and already at the beginning, I decided to review every book I read and thus keeping track on my blogs. But that soon became too difficult. I blog about books in both Danish and English, and many of the Danish books I read are not available in English. Then I quit my English blog for a while and forgot all about keeping track. I also quit my Danish blog (for a shorter period though) and after a while I had to do some detective work to reconstruct everything I had read during those periods. Anyway, pretty soon after I began blogging I also got to know Library Thing, Shelfari and GoodReads and I have managed to keep both my Shelfari and my GoodReads pretty much up to date with books and reading. So that is how I keep track. Next year I am thinking of making a list on my blogs about books read in 2009. What about you?

This is my post # 28 in the NaBloPoMo-challenge. See my page here.

National Blog Posting Month # 27: Pompeii by Rober Harris

I liked Robert Harris' Pompeii. I read it in a few days, enjoyed it, and found the story to be well written. But - there is a but - it could be boring at times. It was definitely not the 5* read I had expected it to be. Anyway, I loved the ancient setting in the Roman city of Pompeii with all it's hustlers, decadent senators, prostitutes, slaves and gladiators. The main character is the young engineer Marcus, who has travelled from Rome to take over the job as water-engineer in the area around Pompeii. He soon discovers that something is wrong, and the story takes place on those the last days of Pompeii. Will Marcus get out of the city before the volcano erupts? Will he be able to save the girl he can't stop thinking about? Will he find out what happened to the missing water-engineer of Pompeii? The novel is full of interesting questions plus a good deal of 'lessons' about volcanoes, earthquakes and so on. A fairly good read, entertaining.
This wonderful image of a street in the ruins of ancient Pompeii is by the flickr user Senex Prime.

This is my post # 27 in the NaBloPoMo-challenge. See my page here.

National Blog Posting Month # 26: Chick lit

Did you ever jump on the chick lit bandwagon? I know I did. I don't remember the first one I read, but it was around 1998-1999. I did not read the Bridget Jones-diaries until a couple of years later. Since January 2003 I have kept track of my reading and been pretty good at it too. So I have a good idea about exactly what books I have read in different genres. So for today's post in the NaBloPoMo-challenge I am going to post a list of all the chick lit I have read between 2003 and 2006 (where I more or less dropped the genre). I know that I have read books during that period which others will classify as chick lit, like the YaYa-books etc., so this is just a list of what I think are chick lit books. And of course I know that there are a lot of authors out there that I haven't read. But bottomline is that with the last Kinsella-book I read, I was so done with chick lit. Maybe I'll take it up again as it has been awhile since I read a real chick lit book.

Good in Bed by Jennifer Weiner

Bookends by Jane Green

The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin

Sushi for Beginners by Marian Keyes

In Her Shoes by Jennifer Weiner

Jemima J by Jane Green

Can You Keep a Secret? by Sophie Kinsella

Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella

Shopaholic Takes Manhattan by Sophie Kinsella

Shopaholic Ties the Knot by Sophie Kinsella

Shopaholic & Sister by Sophie Kinsella

Spellbound by Jane Green

Lucy Sullivan Is Getting Married by Marian Keyes

Little Earthquakes by Jennifer Weiner

Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination by Helen Fielding

Goodnight Nobody by Jennifer Weiner

The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella

This is post # 26 in the NaBloPoMo-challenge. See my page here.

National Blog Posting Month # 25

I do not have much to say today, so this post is very short ;o) Just want to say that now there are only five more days left in the NaBloPoMo-challenge where I have comitted to write (at least) one post per day for 30 days. Today I am empty.

But this is still my post # 25 in the NaBloPoMo-challenge. See my page here.

National Blog Posting Month # 24: Goodnight Nobody by Jennifer Weiner

Goodnight Nobody was definitely not one of Jennifer Weiner's best books. I have never been a total fan, but have enjoyed her previous well written and witty novels. This murder mystery meets chick lit meets love story was kind of boring, and Weiner did not succeed. The whole story feels half hearted, and it took me ages to get through it. Kate is a bored housewife who suddenly finds herself in suburban New York with 3 small kids and an almost non-existent husband. A husband, we learn, that she cannot be that crazy about. She still dreams about a friend from New York whom she had a secret crush on. Her boring life get spiced up a bit when one of the 'super-moms' of Suburbia gets killed, and Kate takes it upon herself to solve the murder. The grounds are then laid to develop a fun and exciting mystery, but we never really get to the bottom of things, and at last, when things are wrapped up, you are left with a feeling of "was that it?". The book is still well written, and Weiner has a knack for fun dialogues, and should this be about stars this book would earn two stars and not just one because it is well written.

This is my post # 24 in the NaBloPoMo-challenge. See my page here.

Sunday Salon November 23, 2008

During the past week I have finished Phantom Prey by John Sandford, which was an okay read. Not as good as some of the previous Prey-novels I've read. But not so bad that I was very disappointed. Not at all. I have also begun reading Aldrig Mere Fri by Sara Blaedel. Sara Blaedel is a Danish crime-writer and her books are huge bestsellers in Denmark. The book I am currently reading is # 4 in her series about police-woman Louise Rick, who works homicide in Copenhagen. They are not translated into English, so I cannot provide any English links to her works. This particular book called Aldrig Mere Fri is taking place in my own immediate neighborhood here in Copenhagen, and that makes it even more enjoyable. I live in what used to be the city's largest red light / porn district. Nowadays the street-girls and the porn stores are becoming less and less and the hood has been taken over by students, young families, artists, fashion designers and trendy cafes. But we still have the odd porn shop and there are still prostitutes working the streets. While a lot of those girls live some horrible lives and while I hate the way some of them are in the hands of merciless human merchants, I have to say that the porn stores, the old booze-bars where you can still smoke cigs and get a cheap beer mixed with trendy cafes and fashionistas and families with strollers give my neighborhood a ver distinct flavor that I would not miss for the world. I think author Sara Blaedel manages to paint a fair image of my neighborhood in that book, Aldrig Mere Fri. The title is somewhat not really translateable, but it means something along the lines of: Freedom - Never Again. I think I'll finish that read during the week and then hopefully manage to continue with my serious reading for my thesis and also be able to read another mystery/crime that I have waiting on my shelf.

The image is of the street Istedgade, which is the main drag in my immediate neighborhood. The image is from my own photostream at flickr.

Weekly Geeks # 26

This week's Weekly Geek is this (by now I am seriously hooked on this weekly feature!):

It’s been awhile since we’ve done some serious WG bloghopping. So this week, let’s visit five other Weekly Geeks.
How to:
Visit each of your 5 new blogpals and snoop around their blogs to find at least one thing you have in common.
In your blog, write a post, linking to your 5 new blogpals, about what you have in common with them.
Come back and sign Mr Linky.
As you run across other Weekly Geek posts (or deliberately seek them out) if you see anyone mentioned who has something in common with you, pay them a visit.

This is a really great idea. Check out Dewey's page The Hidden Side of a Leaf for more info on the Weekly Geek-feature. I have been visiting the same couple of handfuls of blogs the past month or so and it is definitely on time that I go check some of the other great blogs out. I clicked around and looked at bloggers labels and tags and images to find something we had in common. Here are my 5 visits to blogs I had never visited or rarely visit (which will change now) and what we had in common:

1. First I went to Bernadette at Reactions to Reading. Bernadette is in Australia - a mighty long way from Denmark where I am, but I found out that we both like Swedish author Henning Mankell and his series about policeman Kurt Wallander. I mean, that is amazing. I can understand that I like that series. After all, Sweden is about 15 minutes away from my place here in Copenhagen and the town where the series takes place, Ystad, is about a few hours from Copenhagen. There is actually a bus from Copenhagen to Ystad. But a reader in Oz. Wow!

2. Wendy from Musings of a Bookish Kitty lists some books on her TBR-challenge list that I have already read. I tried to figure out if Wendy already read them, but not sure. However, the books we have in common, whether we have read them or not are: The Red Tent by Anita Diamant, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer and History of Love by Nicole Krauss. I've read them all. Would be fun to hear if Wendy also read them or if they are coming up.

3. Icedream from Reading in Appalachia and I are both participating in the Read Your Own Books-challenge next year. I am personally looking very much forward to join that challenge as I have so many books at home where I never even cracked the spine to have a peak. That is embarassing and I am sure there are some very good books waiting for me. I made a post about it earlier. See here.

4. Alessandra from Out of the Blue and I are both European bloggers blogging about books in a different language than our mother tongue. Alessandra is from Italy and I am from Denmark. I do have a Danish book blog though which I keep up to date with more or less the same posts that I do in the English version. Exceptions are Sunday Salon and Weekly Geek which I usually only blog on my English book blog.

5. I went to see what Terri from Reading, Writing and Retirement had on her blog, and there I noticed that she had also written about me and my blog. Cool and thanks for that. So Terri already mentions some stuff we have in common. I'll add to that, that if I had had any vote in the recent American elections, I would have voted for Obama (along with 85% of the Danes asked - yes, one of the large papers DID make a poll before the US elections) as I guess Terri did, judging from the image on her sidebar.

NOTE POSTED NOVEMBER 26, 2008.

So far I have been mentioned in the following blogs: by Terri from Reading, Writing and Retirement, by softdrink from Fizzy Thoughts and by Debi from nothing of importance. Huge thanks to all!

NOTE POSTED NOVEMBER 30, 2008.

I just had a Weekly Geek visit from Serena from Savvy Verse & Wit. Thanks so much for stopping by.

National Blog Posting Month # 23: e by Matt Beaumont

Have you ever worked in an office? If so, you will recognize a lot of the stuff going on in the Miller-Shanks Advertising Firm. The story, e by Matt Beaumont, takes place during a few weeks in January 2000, where everybody is supposed to be busy with a new campaing for Coke. But of course, a lot of other things goes on, and we get to know a whole lot of funny, annoying, loveable and crazy persons in the firm. The whole story is told through the e-mails the different people send to each other, and it is a very funny read. Some may argue that this 'e-mail-form' has been done before, but this book was written some years ago, and I think the idea was new back then. A very quick read that makes you want to read more about those idiotic but likeable (some of them) persons.

This is post # 23 in the NaBloPoMo-challenge. See my page here.

National Blog Posting Month # 22: Phantom Prey by John Sandford

This latest John Sandford Prey mystery is a fine enough read. Speaking in stars, where 5 is the most, this is a small 3 star read. I have read previous Prey mysteries which were way better, but this is not to say that Phantom Prey is bad. Not at all. But seems to me like Sandford is getting just a little tired of writing about Lucas Davenport and the BCA and the Minneapolis police. I don't know.

A wealthy, young Goth-girl has disappeared, leaving only a splatter of blood behind her in her mother's house. There is no body and no sign of forced entry and her mother, the very wealthy health-club owner and widow Alyssa Austin seeks out the help of Lucas Davenport after the regular police has given up finding her daughter (the daughter's body, should she be dead). Lucas is not crazy about taking on this case, but his wife Weather, who is friends with Alyssa Austin, has manages to convince him to give the case a look. Lucas discovers that the young girl was hanging out with a Goth-crowd and when the members of this crowd begin mentioning a mysterious fairy-girl who keeps disappearing, he gets seriously interested in the case, and pretty soon he is in serious danger himself. When more dead Goths begin turning up, Lucas has to speed up his investigations and look into clues that keeps pointing him in different directions.

The reader is told who the killer is halfway through the book and that did bother me a bit. Usually I do not mind being told this, some books tell you who the killer is from page one and still it can be a great mystery. But in this case I don't think it really was an advantage to know that much. All in all I can recommend this one as a light and entertaining read, but if you haven't read any of the Prey-series yet, begin with the first ones. They are better. This one can easily stand alone though.

This is my post # 22 in the NaBloPoMo-challenge. See my page here.

National Blog Posting Month # 21: Women of Troy by Euripides

A few days ago Rebecca Reid from Rebecca Reads wrote an interesting post about Homer's Odyssey and Iliad. Her post has made for some interesting remarks which I recommend all to go read if you are interested in the Classic classics.The above image of Homer is from my own flickr photostream. It was taken at The New Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen.

The post about Homer and his epics made me think about The Women of Troy which is an ancient play, a tragedy, by the writer Euripides.
It has been a while since I read The Women of Troy myself, but I remember being completely taken with the story and I actually want to recommend it to anyone interested in the Classic classics. It is an engrossing story and it is short but extremely intense. Yes, the centuries has passed since it was written, but I still feel that it is worth reading in 2008 and that it is still able to make an impact on a modern reader.

Above is the Greek theatre in Alexandria, Egypt. I wonder if Women of Troy was ever played there. The image is from my own flickr photostream.

This is my post # 21 in the NaBloPoMo-challenge. See my page here.

National Blog Posting Month # 20: Read Your Own Books Challenge

I've just signed up for the Read Your Own Books-challenge which is hosted by MizB. I think this is a great challenge as I have about a gazillion books waiting on my shelves and I am embarrassed to say that some of them has been there for years. But sometimes I just go overboard at the library and then I have to read those books before getting started on my own and at other times I buy a lot of books and then I want to read the new ones and suddenly the TBR-shelves are bulging. I have comitted to reading at least 10 of my own books for this challenge and as of now, I am not really happy about comitting to a list, but I guess I can change along the way. The good thing is that this challenge can be combined with the other two challenges that I am participating in next year: A Classics Challenge and a Read and Review Challenge. So far I think my list of 10 of my own books for the RYOB-challenge will look like this:

1. Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer

2. The Way the Crow Flies by AnnMarie MacDonald

3. Jesus out to Sea by James Lee Burke

4. The Wiles of Men by Salwa Bakr

5. Oracle Night by Paul Auster

6. Travels in the Scriptorium by Paul Auster

7. A Confederay of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

8. Falling Man by Don DeLillo

9. The Brief and Wondrous life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

10. Engleby by Sebastian Faulks

This is my post # 20 in the NaBloPoMo-challenge. See my page here.

National Blog Posting Month # 19: Silent Prey by John Sandford

Doctor Death is back. The serial killer Michael Bekker aka Doctor Death is back in this number 4 in John Sandford's Prey-series. After being arrested and beaten up by Lucas Davenport in a previous novel, Bekker escapes prison and sets himself up in New York. Bodies start turning up, and Davenport's ex-lover New York cop Lily Rothenburg calls to Davenport for help. He is not working with the Minneapolis Police anymore, but spends his time developing computer games. He welcomes the chance to work with Lily, and goes to New York. He soon finds out that Lily and her chief of Police O'Dell has a hidden agenda. Davenport is not called to New York only to solve the Bekker case: there is a "Robin Hood" on the loose in New York, killing "bad guys" and everything points to someone inside the police department. Davenport is asked to figure this mystery out, while he officially works solving the Bekker case. The story is great and the plot smart. Although you know who the killer is from page one, you keep guessing almost to the end, how does he do it, how does he manage to keep hiding? And who is the Robin Hood? Is it Lily herself, killing off bad guys from the streets of New York? There are many layers in this story, but it never becomes boring, and the characters are likeable or realistic. A good read in the Lucas Davenport series.

This is my post # 19 in the NaBloPoMo-challenge. See my page here.

National Blog Posting Month # 18: The Empress File by John Sandford

I love John Sandford's Prey-series, and thought I would also check out the Kidd-series. The Empress File is the second in this series, but the first one I've read.
The computer-expert/artist/con-man Kidd receives a call late at night from his online friend Bobby, asking him to go to the town of Longstreet, where a black kid has been shot by the cops. The town is covering up this shooting, as it was the wrong boy who got shot.
The town's underground hard-core black politicians are mad: about the killing of the black boy which is just the latest thing in a row of injustices, redneck racism and corruption in this small Southern town. Kidd is asked to help developing a scheme, making the current city council fall. His on and off lover, the burglar LuEllen, is brought in as his sidekick, and the story takes off.There were some intrigues in this story concerning political stuff and computer technicalities that I couldn't quite figure out, but the story moves quickly along, and it is overall a fast and easy read. Some of the rednecks and their methods stand out as particular bad, and the freaky new-age mayor is also a good character. Though I am not rating this story a 5 star read, I am sure I will read the other Kidd-novels by John Sandford.

This is my post # 18 in the NaBloPoMo-challenge. See my page here.

National Blog Posting Month # 17: Daily Life 3000 years ago

One of my favorite reference-books in my work with Ancient Egypt is A.G. McDowell's Village Life in Ancient Egypt: Laundry Lists and Love Songs.

A.G Mc Dowell has written a book about the workers who build the tombs of the kings and queens of Egypt's New Kingdom (circa 1550 - 1075 BCE). Those workers, whose daily lives we follow through a wealth of original written sources, lived in a village; today the ruins are called Deir el-Medina, back then the village was simply called "The Village". The workers lived with their families in small houses in Deir el-Medina, and while their main concern was building the tomb of the Pharaoh, they also had all the problems and sorrows and joys as modern people have. We can read about their problems with superiors at work, their love life, marriage, kids, sickness and about their interest in suing each other for minor crimes! While this book use the original sources, Mc Dowell explains each little text in a modern and easily understood language, and this book is for everyone who wants to know how the Ancient Egyptians lived more than 3000 years ago.

The ruins of the village on the West Bank of Luxor, old Thebes.


This is post # 17 in the NaBloPoMo-challenge. See my page here.

Weekly Geeks # 25

Yet another fun assignment from Dewey at The Hidden Side of a Leaf. And with the holidays coming up (which is a surprise for me every darn year) we can all use some gift-ideas for those in our lives who loves to read - or whom we want to get into reading perhaps?

Heres what this week's Weekly Geeks is about:

1. Think about the books that you and people in your life love. It’s best to use more obscure books, because we’ve all heard plenty about the more popular ones.
2. Come up with categories, based on relationship, personality, or whatever else you like. I think this is easier to do once you have your books in mind; you can then just assign categories to those books.
3. Post your own gift giving guide! Add short blurbs about the books, just enough so that your readers can determine if it’d be a good gift for people on their list.

Here is my take on a little gift giving guide:

For the serious crime/thriller/mystery-lover I strongly recommend the Swedish mega-bestseller "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" by Stieg Larsson. The unlikely pair in this mega-monstrous-super-fantastic thriller is the 40-something journalist Mikael Blomkvist and the 2o-something hacker-girl Lisbet Salander. Both of them with many interesting sides to their personalities. Add to that a gallery of other exciting characters and a plot that will spin you around and you have this the first book in the Millenium-series by now deceased Stieg Larsson, who managed to write three books about Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbet Salander. All huge bestsellers in Scandinavia. TRY THIS ONE!


For the chick-lit reader, I recommend "Girls of Riyadh" by Rajaa al-Sanea. It is not high browed literature and I am not even sure that I will call it that well-written. But it definitely offers a rare glimpse into the life of a group of young, upper-middleclass Saudi girls and what problems they face in life, love, sex, fashion, education and so on. The book has been hot stuff in the Middle Eastern world for some years now and it is said that specially the Saudi boys were curious to read it. Definitely recommended for a light read.

For the picky reader in the family with a more refined taste and the want for someting with a little more meat, I recommend Midaq Alley by Egyptian Nobel Prize winner Naguib Mahfouz. This novel was written in the 1940's and revolves around the people in an alley in Cairo. Life is harsh, possibilities are rare and gossip abounds. It is not a happy read, but it is masterly written and deals with things that are still going strong in Egypt today. Highly recommendable, but this book is not for all.

I hope this will inspire you to some interesting gifts. I guarantee it is interesting reads :o)

National Blog Posting Month # 16: So many books and so many people

I went to the Copenhagen Book Convention yesterday. Thousands of people were there, all checking out books, book talks and book offers. Chatting with authors, listening to authors, getting their books signed by authors and much more. I took a few pics there, which is what I will blog today for the NaBloPoMo-challenge.This is my post # 16 in the NaBloPoMo-challenge. See my page here.
Kerrie from Mysteries in Paradise also went to a book convention recently. In Singapore though and I guess it was a liiiiitle bigger than the one I went to in Copenhagen ;o)

National Blog Posting Month # 15: Book Convention

Today I am off to the Copenhagen Book Convention. I have no special events that I am going to see or hear. I am just going to shop around with my sister, looking for cheap deals on books and maybe find some comicbooks on sale as well. Maybe we will meet some friends to hang out with for a while. A lot of Scandinavian crime-writers are represented on this year's Copenhagen Book Convention - something which has sparked a lot of discussion in the large, national papers. But, like I said, I am not going to anything special and am just looking forward to hang out. Apart from the masses of people who usually go there, I think it is going to be good fun. I'll bring my camera and will hopefully be able to blog some photos tomorrow.
NB. The image with the books covered in whipped cream was used last year on the poster for the Book Convention. This year they use another image, I just liked this one better.

This is post # 15 in the NaBloPoMo-challenge. See my page here.

National Blog Posting Month # 14: Bookworm Award

Beth from Beth Fish Reads has tagged me in this Bookworm Award. That is so great and I really want to thank you. It is a fun little thing to do and also, I really needed something to blog about today for the NaBloPoMo-challenge. Great!

Open the closest book to you, not your favorite or most intellectual book, but the book closest to you at the moment, to page 56. Write out the fifth sentence, as well as two to five sentences following there.

Okay. The book nearest me is Egypt after the Pharaohs by Alan K. Bowman. It is a book I use for my MA thesis, but it is not too intellectual!

The fifth sentence reads (and I only write out the fifth sentence because it is so long):

The administration was staffed by a host of officials and bureaucrats, recording and regulating the activities and obligations of the king's subjects, down to the last detail of the requisitioned labour and surveillance of irrigation works, cultivation and transport which was drafted in order to ensure maximum efficiency of production and profit.

The persons I tag next are:

Rebecca at Rebecca Reads.

Softdrink at Fizzy Thoughts.

Callista at SMS Book Reviews.

Nille at Nilles Litteratur (a Danish book blog).

Birthe at Newyorkerbyheart (a Danish food blog, where the blogger also talks about her books).

This is my post # 14 in the NaBloPoMo-challenge. See my page here.

National Blog Posting Month # 13: Sunstorm by Asa Larsson

Actually, I first read # 3 in the Swedish series by Asa Larsson about counselor Rebecka Martinsson. And after having read that, # 3 which is called The Black Path, I wasn't so sure that I would read the two previous ones. I did like The Black Path, but I also found it a bit too dark, and at that point I had had it with Swedish female authors and needed a break. But now I have also finished Sunstorm, which is book # 1, and it wasn't too bad. Not at all. Asa Larsson is a very good writer, the plot is tight and the characters descriptions are excellent. You feel sympathy with the good guys and the complete opposite for the bad guys.

In Sunstorm, Rebecka, who works as a top counselor in Stockholm, is called to Kiruna, her childhood town. Rebecka has some very dark memories from her youth, so she is not too thrilled by the thought of going back to Kiruna. The charismatic priest in one of the popular churches in Kiruna has been killed and his sister, who used to be one of Rebecka's friends, calls Rebecka and asks for help. The sister is under suspicion for having killed her brother and she has to go hiding. She hides out in Rebecka's house - a house Rebecka inherited from her grandmother. The house where Rebecka herself grew up.

The Kiruna police, led by sympathetic and pregnant Anna-Maria Mella, are looking into the case and in the beginning, everything seems to lead directly to the sister, Rebecka's old friend.

Reluctant, Rebecka starts investigating and finds herself also taking care of her friend's two daughters and dog, while she is also haunted by memories from her youth. Memories about how the popular church meant everything to her. But it is definitely not just sweet memories and while the winter darkness descends over Kiruna and the case of the killed priest become more and more complicated, Rebecka's own soul turns darker and darker.

Yep. I was slightly annoyed with the dark atmosphere. But it was nevertheless a pretty good read, and I am looking forward to see the movie based on this book.

This is post # 13 in the NaBloPoMo-challenge. See my page here.

National Blog Posting Month # 12: Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt

I am lucky that I have a "back catalogue" of books I haven't reviewed here as I do not have any ideas for today's NaBloPoMo-post. I hope I am feeling more inspired tomorrow. So today I am going to write a little about Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt. I read it years ago.

Angela's Ashes is young Frank McCourt's childhood memories. Frank grows up in Ireland: a poor, cold, damp, ugly, depressed Ireland. The Irish blames a lot on the English, Frank's family is dysfunctional to say it the least and life is not just tough - it is very tough. The lives of Frank and his family seems doomed from the beginning And still, Frank McCourt manages to write an inspiring, heartwarming, funny and touching story. But also a story that will make you very sad, a story which, at some points, seem utterly hopeless. Between the lines you are able to read the humor, the humor that must have kept Frank McCourt (and his family) alive, even during the worst of times. All in all, you get the feeling that Frank and his family really want life, as ugly and meaningless as it sometimes seem. I liked this book a lot, and look forward to read other books by Frank McCourt.

This is my 12th post in the NaBloPoMo-challenge. See my page here.