Monday, March 08, 2010

Evermore by Alyson Noël

Evermore by Alyson Noël is the first book in the series about The Immortals. The main character is Ever. She is 17 years old, and her family has died in a tragic accident. An accident that Ever feels is her fault. After this accident, Ever moves from Oregon to live with her aunt Sabine in California. Sabine is her only living relative, and she makes sure that Ever has all she needs and more. This does not help Ever, though, since she is battling with guilt. Ever used to be the popular girl at school, but she is withdrawing from the world, hiding beneath large hoodies, always with her Ipod securely plugged into her ears.

By having an Ipod in her ears at all times, she cannot hear the ugly thoughts everyone seems to be thinking about her. The music helps drown out other people's thoughts (Ever has been able to hear other people's thoughts since she woke up from the accident). Ever has become an outcast. But she is not completely friendless. Goth girl Haven and homosexual Mike, who are both outcasts themselves has befriended her. None of them knows that Ever can read their minds though.

The three friend's lives are turned upside down when mysterious and seriously hunky Damen begins at school. The popular girls in school thinks that Damen should be theirs, and when Haven also declares that Damen is hers, Ever withdraws more into herself, even though she also feels an immense pull towards him. Damen shows an interest in Ever, though, and soon she is caught between her own guilt, her feelings, a lot of secrets and secrecy and her friend's feelings.

Who is Damen, and what exactly is he doing at their school? Who is the redheaded beauty following him everywhere and why is Damen so interested in boring and freakish Ever? And what is it about Ever's dead little sister who keeps visiting Ever even though she is dead?

Evermore is about love, its about finding love even though you are not like the others, its about being an outcast, its about mourning and living with tragic events. Its about coming of age and about those choices you make along the way, like sex, friendships and love.
No doubt in my mind that Alyson Noël is extremely inspired by the Stephenie Meyers Twilight-series (which I haven't read), although there are no vampires in Evermore. The main target group is girls between 10 and 15, and I am sure most girls in the target group will find Ever and the other characters mildly interesting.

But...its like this book really doesn't live up to all that it is promising. There are so many interesting topics to deal with, but they are never really followed through. It would've been nice with some indepth thoughts about for instance Ever's approach to sex, the bullying she has to take from her classmates, the whole issue about not being like the "normal kids" and so on.

The plot is too loose for my liking and Evermore is not the best book in the genre, but should I stumble upon the others in the series, I will probably read it, but there is a long way from Evermore to some of the other YA-book I've read lately.

American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld

Written with an eye for even the smallest detail in a fluent and easily read language, I will begin by recommending Curtis Sittenfeld's American Wife. Its definitely a good read. It is however also a huge read of more than 600 pages. And while the novel really is easy to read, it is also so densely packed with the main character Alice's thoughts and reflections that it does take a while to chew through it. I am not by any means a super fast reader, but neither am I a particularly slow reader.

Its a serious novel, but there is also humor scattered around those 600+ pages. We follow Alice Lindgren, a naive Wisconsin girl, from her early childhood and until she is about 60 years old. We know from the beginning that she becomes America's First Lady, but we are not told when in her life this happens. We need to read the book to find out about Alice's life and her uneven path to being married to the American president.

The whole book is told through first person, and the result is that you really feel you get to know Alice. She is a likeable woman, and I enjoyed reading about her.
The first two thirds of the book is great! It I have to repeat that it is a joy to read about and follow Alice through her childhood, teens and adulthood. Its not that her path through life is a walk in the park, there are plenty bumps along the road, and some tragedies as well.

The last third of the book is a bit disappointing though. Alice has become First Lady (according to the book itself and several articles and reviews the character Alice is build loosely on Laura Bush), and the plot becomes a bit unlikely. I am not going to reveal why here, but plenty reviews on Amazon will gladly tell you why. I do agree with those reviews, but I will have to reveal too much of the book by telling you here, and I would have been annoyed myself if I had read those reviews beforehand.

If you are interested in a good piece of fiction, taking you all the way from the 1950'es to 2007 you should read American Wife.

Monday, February 22, 2010

Silent Killer by Beverly Barton

Cathy is a witness to the murder of her husband, a town minister, and when another minister is killed in the same fashion only a few months later, Cahty breaks down and admits herself into a mental facility where she spends a lot of time coming to terms. Arriving back in Dunmore, Alabama as a new and improved woman, she meet up with Jack, her highschool sweetheart who has become a deputy in the town. Jack also carries some baggage, and both he and Cahty take small steps towards each other while they rekindle their old love. Pretty soon another clergy man is killed in the same gruesome fashion, and we now know that a serial killer is on the loose, a serial killer preying on clergy men.

The murder-plot is just one of the many plots in this below average thriller by Beverly Barton. An endless array of characters are introduced, making it hard to keep track, even for seasoned readers. Some loose ends, which actually seem very important, are never mentioned again and almost all the main characters are annoying. The writing is mediocre at best, and at first I thought that this was a first novel. At that point I was ready to forgive the bad plot(s) and the mediocre writing. But then I found out that the author has actually penned dozens and dozens of novels, and I must admit that I am not impressed.

There was absolutely nothing new in this story, and I am sure I will never pick up another book by Beverly Barton. It is not the author's fault that I mistakenly thought that this was a mystery when it was more of a romance with a thriller plot added though. Had it only been well written, I wouldn't object that much. As it is now, this one cannot be recommended at all.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Blog Improvement Project # 1


Yep. I'm late doing this. There will be a new BIP-post up tomorrow, but since the first one is about creating a Blog Improvement to-do-list, I feel like I should do that first of all, and then hopefully stick to it throughout the year.

Anyone can join The Blog Improvement Project. I participated whenever I had the time last year, and this year I will try to do as many of the "tasks" as possible. I do think it is a good idea, and I know for sure that my blog can use improvement.

Its not that the blog doesn't work fine as it is, because it does. But that doesn't mean that I cannot make improvements, since there are some things which I've wanted to change for some time now
  • Fix labels/categories so that I do not have so many, many of which only used once.
  • Find out how to get tabs into a Blogger-blog
  • Find a more professional looking template*
  • Make bookish links to stores, libraries, publishers etc
  • Participate in the book blogger community more. This means more commenting and more time spend on replying to peoples comments
  • Try to write some posts that are not just book reviews, but still about books/literature/bookish things
  • Mix short and long reviews (actually, I think I am already doing this)
  • Link to others reviewing and reading the same books as myself
  • Look into social media
  • Categorize reviews
*By professional I don't mean in that I am going to make the blog a business. It is and has always been a hobby for me to blog. I am not a book professional, and I am not here to sell stuff.

I am right now going to clean up the categories and maybe find some new ones which will fit better. So, the Blog Improvement Project has begun :-) Thanks to Kim and Jackie for the work in doing this.

Property by Valerie Martin

Set in Louisiana in 1828, Property by Valerie Martin is about Manon Gaudet, married to a sugar plantation owner she cannot stand and her slave Sarah, whom she cannot stand either. Manon takes a lot of her anger and resentment out on Sarah, who in turn is not a likeable character either, slave or not. Manon is unable to conceive, which she is happy about, and we know that it is not her husband's fault, since he has fathered two children with Sarah, the oldest child Walter allowed to roam the plantation when Manon's husband feels like it. Manon's resentment, depression and anger grows. She is missing New Orleans, love and frienship, a life, any life not her own. She is totally unable to take the outstretched hand offered to her by her frustrated husband, and things reach a dramatic climax when a group of rebellious slaves break into the plantation one night.

It struck me that I could not find any sympathy any of the main characters in this story. They were all rather despicable characters, although for various reasons. The writing is clear and cut to the bone. No unneccessary wording or descriptions. The reader is left with a feeling of slight despair on behalf of all characters, although I really didn't like them much. I did like the book though and it is highly recommendable. Now I just need a more non-fiction approach to life in Louisiana in the early 19th Century. Very interesting.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

America has burned to the ground, the land is freezing cold, black ash mixed with snow falls upon the few survivors in this dark and postapocalyptic tale which won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2007. The Road by Cormac McCarthy was a spectacular reading experience, and I am left wondering why I did not read it before now.

Nothing is alive anymore, no trees, no birds, no fish, no flowers except those few unlucky human survivors who have formed small communes across the land, not welcoming any strangers. The Man and his son The Boy are wandering the land, heading for the ocean while trying to avoid the packs of road rats (cannibals) roaming the desolate and soot ridden land in search of anything to eat. The Boy is everything to The Man and vice versa. They are searching for people like themselves - good people - but as their journey continue, it is getting harder and harder to believe that there is actually much humanity left on this desolate and dark earth.

The Road is read as part of the 2010 Global Reading Challenge.

Friday, February 12, 2010

Fun Home by Alison Bechdel

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic is a memoir done in the form of a graphic novel. Its written and drawn by Alison Bechdel who is also the brain behind series such as Dykes To Watch Out For. I am not all that familiar with GLBT-literature, but have read some books which can be "labelled" as such. Bechdel is lesbian, and Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic is about realising this and coming out, but it is definitely also about much more, and while homosexuality can be said to form the core and back bone of the story, the main theme is the relationship between parents and their children, in this case the relationship between Alison and first and foremost her father, but also her mother.

Alison grows up with seriously distant parents living in a less than happy marriage, both her mother and father somewhat desilluisioned. Her father is working as an English teacher, her mother is writing an academic thesis and also trying to form a local career as an actress.Alison's father is mainly interested in literature and architecture and spends most of his free time reading and decorating their house in various styles. In between this he and the family also own a funeral home, in short The Fun Home. We follow Alison from her earliest years and until she is around 20 years old and away at college. All the way through her childhood she keeps a diary. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic use a lot of Alison's early diary-material, but seen from the wiser and grown up Alison's viewpoint. The novel is full of literary knowledge, and while the story as a whole is rather dark, there is a definite and clear current of humor and irony running underneath the sadness throughout the story.


Bechdel's drawings are pieces of art, and she is also a great writer. I really liked this story and recommend it highly. I have read it as part of the Women Unboun Reading Challege, which you can read more about here.

Monday, February 01, 2010

Tender Graces by Kathryn Magendie

Tender Graces is Kathryn Magendie's first book, and it is a good read. If you liked the YaYa-books you will probably also like Tender Graces.

The beautiful, wild and somewhat uneducated Katie Ivene from the mountains in West Virginia meets the fancy Shakespeare quoting door-to-door salesman Frederic, and within a short period of time they have gotten married with three kids: Micah, Virginia Kate and Andy. Virginia Kate, whom we meet on the first page as a grown up heading back to her childhood home in order to come to terms with her past, is telling the story of her mother, her father, her siblings and her family and their life from the early 1960'es to the early 1970'es.

The story takes place in the American South and have a lot of the ingredients of the traditional Southern Gothic novel. For one thing its full of ghosts, ghosts which only Virginia Kate can see. Ghosts that she use as the story unfolds and the childhood memories come pressing in, helped along by her grandmother's journal.

The first half of the story is very dark, and although it lacked some important information I would've liked to know more about (for instance about her grandmother's life) it is a gripping story. Halfway through things take a turn for our protagonists, and from then on the story moves to be a bit too predictable and definitely not as strong as the first part. Character development and descriptions are fine and well done throughout the book (but there are some minor characters who still play a large part, and more about them would have suited the story as a whole). I am sure I will read more by Kathryn Magendie if she keeps up her fine style and fine grip on believable characters.

Read more on Kathryn Magendie's website here - where it also states that a new book about Virginia Kate will come out in 2010.


This book is read as part of the Twenty Ten Reading Challenge hosted by Bart's Bookshelf. It has been read in the category Bad Bloggers. Bad Bloggers was invented by Chris from Stuff As Dreams Are Made On and is basically a blame game for fun, where you blame the blogger who made you want to read a certain book and make you TBR grow. You can read more about Bad Bloggers over at Chris'. Click the link above.


I am blaming Natalie from The Book Inn for making me want to read this book. She reviewed it last summer, and I went straight out and bought it. Read Natalie's review here.

Saturday, January 23, 2010

One Day by David Nicholls


One Day by David Nicholls is a saga spanning 20 years. We follow Emma Morley and Dexter Mayhew from the day they graduate from university and the next 20 years. Each year we meet them on July 15, where the author takes us through both the current day's happenings and the things which has happened over the past year for Emma and Dexter respectively.

On the night of their graduation, Emma and Dexter fool around a bit, make out even, and the night has the promise of something great and romantic, but priviledged Dexter is all set to spend some years travelling the world, while the lesser priviledged Emma is going to find a job - any job - and make a bit of a living. So the morning after graduation, they go their separate ways, and we - the readers - go inside Emma and Dexter's minds, lives, failures and successes.

This book is a long one. And it wasn't really for me. I couldn't really connect with either Emma nor Dexter, even though they have almost the same age as myself and even though we grew up during roughly the same periodes. There should have been plenty to identify with, but instead I got tired with them and their personalities. David Nicholls writes well and the book is well written, but the story didn't grab me at all. Neither was I touched by the story. I was actually a bit disappointed with the whole thing. I failed to see how the Emma and Dexter personalities developed through the years, to me it felt like they remained pretty much the same. Of course, this may be on purpose to show us that whether we are 22 or 42, we remain the same. That said, I did finish the book, and the last third of the book where Emma and Dex are grown ups was quite good.


This book is read as part of the 2010 Global Reading Challenge where I am reading for the Easy Challenge with one book pr. part of the world. This one is read for the Europe-part. Read more about the challenge here.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Blog Improvement Project is back



Great news which I just found out. Kim's (Sophisticated Dorkiness) Blog Improvement Project which ran through 2009 is back, and this year Kim will continue the project with Jackie (Farm Lane Books Blog). I have signed up and am looking forward to yet another year of Blog Improvement. I didn't do all assignments last year, but those I did manage to do were great, and I actually learned a bit along the way. Whether the blog has improved or not I am not to say, but I like to think that it has. Just a little bit. But there are many other things which can be improved, and since I've been blogging more or less the same way since July 2006 where I began, I hope that 2010 will bring me ideas to improve whatever I feel needs improvement.

Visit Kim and Jackie through the links above. You can also go straight to the Blog Improvement Project Blog and check that out. I look so much forward to begin this.

Guest Posting at BOOKLUST - Rosie's Riveters



I know I have been MIA for a few weeks. I am seriously swamped at work, but there is light at the end of the tunnel now, and a few days ago I had the great pleasure of writing a short Rosie's Riveters post over at Aarti's blog BOOKLUST. The post is online today, and I think you should follow the link to read the post - and check out the rest of Aarti's great blog as well.

Aarti says:

Rosie's Riveters is a weekly posting written by Booklust readers about riveting females in literature. Many readers have strong reactions to the women in the books they read- either very positive or very negative. These are the characters we find riveting, for good reasons or bad ones, and they form the population of Rosie's Riveters. Through this weekly post, we can discuss females we love to hate, or love to love. And maybe, just maybe- we can determine why we react so strongly to them.

However Rosie's Riveters will end next week with the last guest posting. Aarti already have another exciting posting project up her sleeve called With Reverent Hands, and by clicking the link you can learn more about that.

Thanks to Aarti for letting me post on your blog.

Wednesday, January 06, 2010

WWW Wednesdays


WWW Wednesdays is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading and the rules are simple:

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions!
  •  What are you currently reading?
  •  What did you recently finish reading?
  •  What do you think you’ll read next?

I am currently reading a Swedish thriller by author Arne Dahl, which is a pen name for Jan Arnald. His famous books about the fictious A-group (a special force with the police in Stockholm) has been translated into Danish, German, Norwegian, Dutch and Italian but alas, not into English. The one I am reading is Book 5 in the series of 11, and loosely translated into English, its title is: Huge Bodies of Water.

I recently finished reading John Marsdens Burning for Revenge, which is Book 5 in the Tomorrow Series of 7 books in total about a group of Australian teenagers who find their country invaded by the enemy after they've been on a camping trip, isolated in the Australian bush. You can see my review directly beneath this post.

I am not quite sure what I'll read next, but since I am going to try and finish all the challenges I am signing up to these days, it will most likely be one of the books from one of my challenges. You can see the books I've already selected in the sidebar to the right under Challenges & Progress. Right now I am thinking about reading One Day by David Nichols, which will be read for the 2010 Global Reading Challenge.

What about you?

Saturday, January 02, 2010

Burning for Revenge by John Marsden

Spoiler Alert: If you haven't read this series and plan to do so, then you may find minor spoilers in this reviews revealing things which happen in previous books.

This is the 5th book in John Marsden's Tomorrow-series. You can do a search through my labels for Tomorrow Series or John Marsden and find my reviews for the previous four books in the series. Ellie and her four remaining friends Fi, Kevin, Lee and Homer are once again hiding out in Hell, their special place in the Australian bush where they were first camping out the previous year when their country was invaded by the enemy. After several sabotage-events - and a rescue to New Zealand just to go back to Australia again for a new attack - all the teens have sort of grown into themselves. They cannot sleep properly, they have nightmares, they feel bad. War and the things they have done during the year the war has been raging, is taking a huge toll on them and they may be lingering on several nervous breakdowns. So when the idea of going to the larger city of Stratton is proposed, most of them agree that they will go. Maybe they will even come up with a new idea for a sabotage on their way.
Without even knowing it, they end in a place where there is absolutely no way out unless they stage their biggest, boldest and most dangerous guerilla attack yet. The group of war-weary and shell shocked friends are not even sure they will survive, but they put everything into dealing the enemy an enormous blow.

The masterly description of the development of the characters has been ongoing through all the books in the series, and Marsden delivers again in this book. Everything is well thought out, and there are some magnificent scenes in the book which lends to the credibility of the characters and their difficulties, different personalities and much more. Having grown to know their modus operandi I wasn't that much on the edge of my chair while reading this one, but the ending make for a great continuation of the 6th book, The Night is for Hunting, which I managed to track down second hand from a seller in US. Now I am just waiting for it to arrive.

Friday, January 01, 2010

Happy New Year & Welcome to 2010

Happy New Year to all and a big welcome to 2010.

I am looking forward to begin a new year and happy to put the old one behind me. The last half of 2009 wasn't that great. Among other things I lost a close friend, who died of cancer, and shortly before Christmas my father died totally unexpectedly. Added to that, it was a hell of time at work during those last weeks of December, and now I am sitting here looking at the dreary January sky with a massive cold making me feel stuffed and slightly depressed. So GOODBYE 2009 and a warm welcome to 2010. It can only get better.

Don't want to make this a too depressed post, so I hasten to add that the first part of 2009 was great. I finished my Master's Degree at university, got a good job (and a new job description later), I went travelling with family and I read a lot of good books! I also met so many new friends in the book blogging community and I am grateful for all your well wishes and messages. Thanks again. It means a lot.

My father's death meant that I haven't really had the time or energy to blog or be much online. I had a lot of things planned for the last week's of the year, but I guess I will have to plan and make those things happen in January instead. I am sorry I haven't been round visiting and commenting. That will improve over the next weeks as well.

Until then, I wish you all a very Happy New Year and I look forward to see you all :-D

The photo is from flickr and is taken by zeropro.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Guest Blogger!! Christmas & Crime

I am proud to present my first guest blogger ever: Dorte of DJ's Krimiblog. Dorte is a fellow Dane, blogging mostly about mysteries and thrillers, and for this guest blogger post, she has chosen to combine Christmas and Crime. Thanks a lot Dorte, I love your post and I hope you will guest blog here again some other time.

Christmas and Crime.


Thank you very much, Louise, for inviting me to write a guest post for you. It is my first guest post ever! And thank you for waiting patiently until I had time to write it.



A comfortable armchair, a nice fire and a scary crime novel – is there a better way to spend the Christmas holidays? Of course you can read any old crime story, but why not pick at least one or two which are actually related to Christmas? Here is a colourful bouquet from my own shelves, all picked and presented just for your!

Agatha Christie, Hercule Poirot´s Christmas (1938).

It is Christmas time and families are supposed to get together and enjoy the holidays. Old Simon Lee, the millionaire, gathers the family around him, even the prodigal son and the unknown granddaughter from Spain. His children are a bit skeptical as to his real motives until he lets it slip that he is making arrangements with his lawyer to change his will. The scene is set for traditional British crime, and of course the holidays do not pass without jealousy, suspicion – and a gory murder!

But the local Superintendent Sugden and the eminent Sherlock Holmes are at hand, so don´t worry! Peace and order will soon be restored.

Martha Grimes, Jerusalem Inn (1984)

As usual, this American writer has set her crime novel around an old British pub in the countryside. Inspector Richard Jury happens to meet the attractive but mysterious Helen Minton in a church yard. She tells him about her interesting place of work, Washington Old Hall. The following day Jury goes to see the place (or the lady?) only to discover that Helen Minton has just been murdered.

At the same time, some of Jury´s friends, including the nobleman Melrose Plant, are staying at Spinney Abbey, near the pub Jerusalem Inn where snooker tournament is going on. Another murder takes place in Spinneyton, and as the two crimes are related, Richard Jury is involved in both cases. Melrose Plant is very eager to lend him a hand – to escape the boredom of the affluent bachelor gentleman for a while. As connoisseurs of traditional, British crime may have guessed, Martha Grimes´ series has much in common with Dorothy L. Sayers´ Lord Peter Wimsey series and Elizabeth George´s Inspector Lynley series.

R.D. Wingfield, Frost at Christmas (1984)

Perhaps you know the British TV series about Detective Inspector Jack Frost but did not know the series was based on six crime novels published in the period 1984-2008? In my opinion the books are better (and more distinct) than the television episodes.

An eight-year-old girl does not return home from Sunday school, and our untidy DI Frost is put on the case together with the new man, DC Clive Barnard. Little Tracey is the daughter of a prostitute so of course Frost takes a closer look at her mother´s various acquaintances, as well as anything else he stumbles upon, and soon he is landed with a thirty-year-old corpse, plus a very fresh one. As usual, Frost leaves a trail of digression, disorder and broken rules behind him, but his instincts are sound and his heart is in the right place.

Kerry Greenwood, Murder in the Dark (2006)

This cozy mystery takes place in Australia in the roaring twenties. So if you want to get away from the cold and dark European winter, you can move back in time and enjoy a very different climate and culture in this Phryne Fisher mystery. Here Christmas is celebrated for several days on the decadent drink, drug and dance scene of affluent Australia. A spoilt little boy is kidnapped, and the mysterious ´Joker´ threatens to kill the generous and popular host of the Christmas party. Phryne Fisher must take action – in between the many indispensable meals, games and concerts. She solves the crimes expertly, but more like an intellectual puzzle or game than through hard work.

A good mystery for readers who want light entertainment instead of graphic violence, but the sex scenes would probably make Miss Marple blush.

Arnaldur Indridason, Voices (2006)

The third novel in Indridason´s excellent Icelandic series takes place in the capital. Voices begins when Santa Claus, in the shape of a doorman of a Reykjavik hotel, is stabbed to death, or silenced, in his basement room.

Voices is also about a little boy with a brilliant voice which was once recorded on old 45 records, now collectors´ items. And finally, the title refers to Erlendur himself, the taciturn policeman who has such a frail and difficult relationship with his own children. Even though the case does not demand it, he leaves his flat and moves into the hotel, squirming and fidgeting to get away from Christmas and all the social obligations in connection with this season.

An excellent, modern murder mystery, but also the darkest of my handful of Christmas mysteries.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Sunday Mini Review: The Killing Hour by Lisa Gardner

The Killing Hour has its moments. It is a fast read, the main plot is good and it is always interesting to be hot on the heels of an evil serial killer. But the characters are not really coming to life, and the usual 'stubborn heroine with a troubled past' is used too often.

Kimberly, the main character and heroine of the story, is a young FBI-trainee, and she is by coincidence and stubborness thrown into the investigation of a killer who has been killing for years. Kimberly is a troubled young woman with many demons, which is not making her life easier. She does not have any real friends, and her relationship with her father is neutral at best. When the serial killer starts dumping bodies close to the FBI training grounds, Kimberly cannot stay out of the investigation any more, even though her superiors has asked her to keep her nose out of it. Her father is an FBI agent who now has his own agency, and he suddenly shows up to help. Kimberly herself is also having personal motives to catch this killer, and while the time is running out, the clues comes together and it ends with a little twist which was just a little bit surprising. Hard core thriller readers will guess the identity of the killer long time before the final revelation.


This review has previously been posted on Amazon.com

Tuesday, December 08, 2009

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

Welcome to the world 300 years from now where everyone turn pretty when they reach 16 years. Before that they are Littlies and from around 12 years, they are Uglies. Uglies is also the title of the first book in Scott Westerfeld's trilogy about Tally Youngblood. When we first meet Tally, she is only a month from her 16th birthday, and she is feeling lonely in Uglyville, the part of the city where all the 12-15 year old teens live in dorms, go to school and pass time until they turn 16 so that they can have their operation and go from being Uglies into New Pretties.

Tally's best friend Peris, who is a month older than her, has already turned pretty, and Tally is bored and lonely. One night she sneaks into New Pretty Town, where all New Pretties are doing nothing but partying and enjoying themselves. After meeting Peris and feeling relieved that he still remembers her, she returns to Uglyville, but en route she meets another Ugly, Shay. Shay and Tally become friends, and it is Shay who tell Tally about The Smoke, a settlement where no one has had the operation, they have all stayed ugly. Shay is determined to stay Ugly, she wants to move to The Smoke and lead another life than just being a pretty party gal.

Tally is shocked and horrified that anyone would want to stay an Ugly, and she does not put much into Shay's speeches about The Smoke. In fact, Tally doubts that it even exists. When Shay does disappear before her 16th birthday and her operation, Tally decides not to follow her. Tally cannot wait to turn into a Pretty, and is picked up by the authorities on her birthday and taken to the hospital, where the operation is done. But something is not right, and very soon Tally is looking into a serious dilemma, leading her towards Shay and The Smoke and away from the operation she so much want.

Uglies was an interesting read with an interesting premise, but I was not swept completely away. I think the book took too long to get going, but when it got going, it was a great  read. I am looking forward to the other books in the trilogy (although I guess it is sort of a quartet, since there is a 4th book as well).


I read Uglies as a part of the YA Dystopian Reading Challenge hosted by Darren of Bart's Bookshelf.
Katrina from Katrina's Reads reviewed it here.

Sunday, December 06, 2009

What a surprise!! Book Blogger Holiday Swap package from Italy

Got home late Friday night. Cold and tired from an icy and rainy and dark evening out which wasn't much fun. And what do I see waiting for me on our dining room table but a package from Italy. I looked at it and wondered what on earth that could be and from whom. I do have a few friends in Italy, but we do not send packages to each other. We communicate by e-mail or through Facebook. Turning the package around, I notice a sticker on the back with the Book Blogger Holiday Swap image. And then I got it! I had completely forgotten about this fun event, since its been so long since I signed up and sent my stuff out in the world.

I eagerly opened the package and found wonderful things in there. Check what I got from Maria Grazia in Subiaco which is a town 63 kilometers from Rome, Italy: A leaflet about Subiaco, a litte 2010 calendar with motives from Rome, two bookmarks (one of them with Egyptian hieroglyphs on it) and two books which I haven't read previously: The Drowning People by Richard Manson and The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. Wow I say! What a wonderful, wonderful package. Thank you so much Maria! As an added bonus, I have now found a new-to-me blog, Maria's Fly High about books, movies and art. Maria blogs about classics, romantic Italian tv-series, goodlooking actors and much more. I just spend a bit of time over at Maria's blog, and I think you should as well.


Thank you SO MUCH, Maria. I was surprised and overwhelmed. I am looking forward to read the books, change the months in my new calendar and use those wonderful bookmarks. And who knows, maybe visit Subiaco some day :o) Merry Christmas to you from Copenhagen, Denmark.

Sunday Mini Review: The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

The Five People You Meet in Heaven is a fast and fine read. It is short, but deals with one of the modern world's biggest taboos, death.

Eddie dies at the age of 83, after having lived a life he is not sure was anything at all, a life he thinks did not have any impact on anyone. After his death he is confronted with 5 different people who all have a story to tell about their own lives. These stories all include some lesson for Eddie, getting him ready to find peace and go to heaven. There is a wonderful light tone in this book, even though Eddie and the people he meets in heaven all have their sorrows and sad lifestories. In fact, the meaning of their stories is to tell Eddie and also us, the readers, that no life is ever a wasted life, and no matter how unimportant one feels, we all have an impact on someone else's life.


This has previously been posted on Amazon.com

Monday, November 30, 2009

NaBloPoMo # 30: Done!


I am happy to say that I have posted one post each day for a month during the NaBloPoMo-challenge. I also participated last year, but found this year to be much easier. I haven't used as many back doors as last year (recycling old reviews, just posting photos etc) and have managed to keep most of the posts on a book related level. Looking at posts from last year same time, the ones from this year are much better. I've said that before, I know, but I was actually a bit surprised when I realised it.

I have learned that I struggle to find anything meaningful to say EVERY single day. It would indeed be very hard for me to feel obliged to write a post a day. I love the experience of doing it each November, and I will most likely do it again next year. But now I am happy not to feel too stressed because I must post, no matter what. Like we always say, blogging should be fun, and I have found out that blogging each day simply interferes too much with life. Not that I am such a VIP that my calendar is bursting at the seams, but I have been feeling obliged to post every day, and not quit. But in 9 out of each 10 days, it has been a lot of fun.

I am looking forward to another month of great posts, but I am positive I will not be posting every day through December.

I am deeply thankful for all your comments and am looking forward to visit your blogs much more through December.

This is the 30th post in the NaBloPoMo-challenge. See my page here.
Button created by Tracey Delaney.