Rainy Day Reads

I saw this tag on Youtube and decided it looked like a lot of fun. And with the spooky season in full swing I thought it would be only fitting to recommend some supernatural reading. I was inspired by Sarawithoutanh , but the original video is here ! TAG QUESTIONS: 1. Vampire 2. Werewolf 3. Zombie 4. Ghost 5. Witch/Warlock/Spellcaster 6. Fairy/Fae 7. Demon 8. Angel 9. Alien 10. Superpowered human After trying to come up with books to recommend for this I realize that apparently I don’t read a lot of books with “supernatural creatures” or what have you. So I have had to resort to some books that don’t quite fit the bill or books that I haven’t actually read yet for a few of these…But I hope you won’t hold it against me, if I promise to read more about the supernatural in the future! Here we go: VAMPIRE Starting strong, I haven’t actually read any vampire books. That is to say I do vaguely remember a friend of mine forcing me to read some Anne Rice, but since it apparently made no impres

I read this based on a recommendation from a friend of mine who had read it and loved it. Jonas Jonasson also wrote the very popular “The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared”, and I had been thinking about picking that one up anyway. So I figured it didn’t matter which of his books I read first and picked up this one. Boy, was I disappointed! The story was quite slow to pick up and I hated the writing style. It is told in almost a fairytale-like language without too many descriptions of scenery or character and this makes it hard to connect to anything. You are just skidding along on the surface of the story.  The plot also had its problems for me. Most of the time it was very slow-going and then sometimes it would be quite action-packed for a few pages, but even the action would just get glossed over in the same disinterested language as the rest of the story.  I get that the style and the unlikely events taking place in this story are meant to

I went to Cambodia as part of my big Asia-trip in 2009. To be honest I only wanted to go to Cambodia, because I wanted to see the ancient temples of Angkor Wat. And boy, did I?! We spent 3 days just touring the temples, and I took about a million pictures from every angle and then some more, just to be sure. I was worried that it would be completely overrun by tourists, but the place is actually so big that even though there are many tourists, it doesn’t feel too packed.  The Angkor Wat Temple One morning we got up at 4 to see the sunrise over the temples. Apparently our brains were not functional that early, so we didn’t bring a flashlight. Being brought up in a country with plenty of street lamps, you don’t think about how truly DARK it can get at night. So our poor tuk-tuk driver had to lead the way up to the top of the temple using his cell phone as a flash light. The sunrise was lovely and it was documented in great detail.  The sunrise at Phnom Bakheng

So, a long time ago, I picked out a book from my fancy new TBR jar. It was "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" by Anita Loos and I happily ordered it from my local library. After waiting for months I have decided to give up, delete it from my TBR and pick a new book from the jar. This new book is "The Edge of Never" by J.A. Redmerski. I went to the website to order it from my library, but it turns out that all the libraries in the country only have the second book in the series..........How does that make ANY sense?? But anyway, I went to Goodreads and read the synopsis. It doesn't really sound like the kind of book I would like, so I decided to delete it and pick (yet another) new book from the jar. At this rate the jar will be empty in no time! The third pick is "The Worm Ouroboros" by E.R. Eddison. The library seems to have this one available, so I have ordered it and look forward to reading the fantasy novel that inspired Tolkien to write "Lord of

This is a non-fiction book about the industry of growing and selling human cells and the moral and ethical implications of such an industry. The first human cells that survived for an extended period of time outside the body were those of Henrietta Lacks, a poor black woman in 1950s America.   The subject matter sounded super interesting and it was to some degree. The author jumps back and forth in time between the 1950s, the present and the intervening period. This can be a bit confusing sometimes. It states at the beginning of each chapter what time period we are in, but your internal timeline so to speak gets difficult to manage. I was often confused as to who had already met who and what conversations had taken place before a given scene. The author not only talks about the science and the ethical issues, but also deals with Henrietta’s family and their history and their feelings about the fact that Henrietta’s cells are living all over the world in countless test tubes no

This was a nice, short little book. I was wary going into this due to my recent bout of disappointing books, so my expectations were low. Maybe that was the reason I really enjoyed it. I do think that if I had allowed myself to get too excited for it, I would have been disappointed. But as it was, I consider this book a solid 3 stars.   The story is about a man who owns a bookstore. He loses his wife and his way, and is steadily running himself and his business into the ground, when something comes along, that pulls him back to life. I can’t really describe the story more than that without giving too much away.  The writing is lovely and the plot flows along evenly. Perhaps sometimes too evenly. I was very interested in the story in the beginning but it kind of lost me in the middle. It  managed to pull me back in though, and as mentioned I really enjoyed the story as a whole.  Sitting here thinking about it I do feel like the characters were not sufficiently fleshed out,

As part of my “Simplify My Life” project I am getting rid of books I didn’t like almost as soon as I have read them. They don’t even get a space on the shelf, they go straight in a box to be donated, sold or given to friends as soon as possible. This means that almost my entire last book haul is included in this unhaul! I still have 2 unread books from the haul, but otherwise I think I am only keeping 2 books out of the 9 books I bought. And then I have some other books that are also getting the boot.   So let’s get started.  The first book I am getting rid of is The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith. This was an okay read, but I don’t think I will ever read it again or continue with the series.  Next up is  The Elegance of the Hedgehog   by Muriel Barbery. See my review for reasons of unhaul. Then we have the Reese Malcolm List by Amy Spalding. This book was also an okay read, but it didn’t really have me gripped.  Holy Cow!  by Sarah MacDon

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, which to be honest was a little unexpected. I have been so unfortunate to read a lot of books I didn’t really like lately, and I was afraid this would be another one, but I was happily surprised. I mean, it’s not stellar, but I enjoyed it more than so many other books.   I assumed this would be a book about the girls of a beauty pageant and their trials within this pageant. And it was! Kind of. But it was so much more than that too! It starts with the plane carrying the girls crashing on a desert island. Now they have to learn how to survive on the island using only their very mixed skills and whatever they can salvage from their luggage of beauty supplies and evening gowns. The reader, however, soon finds out that they are not alone on the island. There is a super secret compound manned by soldiers and scientists working for The Corporation. The very same corporation that sponsors the beauty pageant. Secret and shady things are going on on the

Yes, I know, the readathon doesn't actually end until tomorrow, but I finished my book and for various reasons I won't be starting a new one (the main reason being I am reading "The Goldfinch" by Donna Tartt and it's a whopper. And I got it from the library, so there's is a deadline for finishing it!). For this readathon I read "Blue Lily, Lily Blue" by Maggie Stiefvater, which is the 3rd book in the Raven Cycle series. For a long time I thought this was a trilogy, so I was honestly a bit disappointed when I found out I wouldn't get to know the end of the story with the end of this book. But I rallied and I am excited for the 4th book! As mentioned, this is the third book of a series. In my view not much new happened, but the plot was still developed. When I say nothing new happened, I mean there wasn't a new plot point introduced or anything. Everything that happened was part of a plot line from the previous books. And that is okay, beca

I have  always  been a pretty  organized  person, if I do say so myself. Lately I have been slacking, though, and I want to get  back  on track. I love lists, so when I came across this one (  http://officiallydifferent.blogspot.dk/2011/10/40-days-of-organization.html  ) on Pinterest I decided to sit down and make my own similar list. I took inspiration from the list shown, but I made it fit my own needs. For example I don't have a guest room, so I switched out all those chores for some that would fit me, like my book crates. Making a list like this makes the task of cleaning/organizing your entire house seem very doable, as each of these tasks  should't take much more than an hour or so.  And you get to cross things of a list, which always makes me feel very productive!  1 - bathroom cabinet 2 - wardrobe (clothes) 3 - wardrobe (linen and towels) 4 - wardrobe (clothes for work) 5 - white chest of drawers in bedroom 6 - spice cabinet 7 - fridge 8 - shoes and ba