Rainy Day Reads

In the past few years I have felt very jaded when it comes to Christmas. I just have not been enjoying it like I used to do. I think it probably has something to do with growing up. Instead of being a kid with no responsibilities having Christmas served up on a platter by your parents, now I have to make Christmas for myself. Obviously I still celebrate with my family, but it’s just not quite the same.   The shops are also starting to get out their Christmas things earlier and earlier, and when you start getting Christmas-cheer thrown at you from the middle of October what little Christmas spirit I have just burns out, before it even gets to December 1st.  I always think that I don’t really care about it, but then I still get a little sad, that I don’t really get in the Christmas spirit. So this year I have decided to try Blogmas as a way of almost forcing myself to get into Christmas again! This will make me have to decorate, get some sort of tree and an advent calendar, mak

Like many of Remarque’s books this one is about war. More specifically this is about the experiences of a group of prisoners in a concentration camp in Germany during the last few months of World War II.   It is mostly told from the point of view of a prisoner called 509. But we also hear from other prisoners and some of the Nazi men running the camp. They tell us a story of human resistance, cruelty and finding the good in one self even under the worst of circumstances.  The story is about a small group of prisoners called the Veterans. These men have been in the camp for years and years and most of them seem just about to give up, when news start spreading about the Allied invasion. In the camp there is a resistance movement, and the Veterans start working together with these men, and soon hope spreads that a different ending to this story is possible.  509 is the main character, and having read many a Remarque novel, I knew that chances were slim that he would survive.

This book was my TBR Jar pick a while ago. I succeeded in ordering it at the library and it arrived pretty quickly. Then it lay around for a while. And then I finally pulled myself together and started reading it.   And then I stopped! I just couldn’t get it to it. All I could figure out from the synopsis was that it was epic fantasy and that it inspired Tolkien to write “TheLord of the Rings”. So far so good. I figured it must be good with all  the blurbs featured from writers such as C.S. Lewis and Ursula K. LeGuin. But I barely made it past the first 100 pages.  The language was just really intricate and flowery and that made for very slow reading. Of course this was first published in 1922 so the language was bound to be a little old-fashioned, but I feel like the author tried to imitate the prose of medieval literature. And I did not see the call for that!  As for the characters I never really connected with them. Partly because I didn’t really understand exactly what

Remarque is the author of one of my absolute favorite novels; “All Quiet on the Western Front”. I have read some of his other books too, and liked quite a few of them very well. This wasn’t in the cards when I first read Remarque though. It was in high school and an excerpt of the very book that would since be my favorite was part of an essay assignment. We could choose between 6 different topics and the excerpt was one of them. I actually think I picked that one, as the least sucky of the 6, wrote my paper and never thought of it again. I can’t actually remember how I got around to reading the full novel, but once I did I was in love. Since then I have read a few more of his books and always bring “All Quiet on the Western Front” with me when I travel, as it can stand a re-read (or several).   Below is a list of all his works (from Wikipedia ). The first date is the publishing date and the second date is the publishing date for the English translation. I have read quite a few of

As anyone would, I have a few favorite authors. Some are pretty well known and loved, like J.K. Rowling, some are known, but perhaps not loved as much as I think they should be such as Jane Austen and Erich Maria Remarque. So I have decided to share my favorites with all the world! It could even be interesting for me, since I am what they call a casual fan. If I enjoy a book, or a piece of music, or a film or anything at all really, I am pretty much content just enjoying that work. I’ll probably seek out other work of the same person, but I am not one to memorize details of a person’s life, or look for all the Easter eggs in a Disney movie, or any such thing. I am way too lazy for that. So I don’t necessarily know a lot about my favorite authors aside from the books they have written and I have enjoyed. So this should be educational for me too! Sometimes knowing the back story of the author might help you understand the book in a different way too, which should be a bonus. I look

Hallelujah!! Finally a book that I liked! AND a series that I will be continuing! I feel like I have read endless amounts of first books of series and not liked them enough to continue the series. But this one I liked so much that I have even bought the entire series! (I got “Legend” from the library).   Legend is about two young people, a boy and a girl, who live in a dystopian world. This world is pretty much California set in the future. We don’t really find out exactly what happened to the world to make it so bleak. But it is run by a dictator and his army who terrorize the people. June, the girl, is a soldier in the army, a wonder child, while Day, the boy, is the most wanted criminal. It is pretty easy to figure out the basic story line, but still it had me riveted.  As for the characters I have seen some complain that June and Day are pretty much the same person. And I guess they are, but I think that is quite interesting, because they grew up in different circumstances

This is my second attempt at Donna Tartt. My first attempt (The Little Friend) failed miserably early on, but I liked the writing somewhat and everyone said that Tartt was a great writer, so I decided to give it another go. I did finish this one, but only because I had spent so much time on it, that I felt would be wasted if I gave up. But I was actually quite uninterested in the story by the end, and just wanted it to finish already! Tartt can write really well and atmospherically (is that the word?) if she wants to with vivid descriptions, but boy, can she also just drone on and on! At several points I could not understand how this book could be so long, because for pages on end nothing much would happen plot-wise. She would just harp on about this or that without advancing the plot. When something finally did happen it was usually quite quick and the aftermath and the thinking about it would take up many more pages than the actual event. For example (SPOILER!) the murder in the

In 2005 I was Interrailing through Western Europe, and my friend and I dedicated almost an entire month to Italy. We had both studied Italian for 3 years in high school, so this was a good opportunity to practice the language and soak up some of the culture and history first hand.   During the trip we went to Sicily, and no trip to this island is complete without a visit to Mount Etna, the volcano that watches over the area. We went on a guided tour that included the bus trip and two guides to show us around. We drove up as far as we could, but then we hiked the rest of the way. This was pretty physically demanding, as far as I remember, as it was very hot, the terrain was steep and the ground consisted of soft, black volcanic sand that you sank into, making it arduous to walk. We hiked as far as a lookout point over a lava valley, where the view consisted of black sand and lava formations. Coming back down we visited a cave, where lava runs through each time the volcano erupts. W

I have talked a few times on this blog about being gluten-intolerant, but I have never really explained what that entails and how I found out about it. About a year and a half ago I started feeling sick whenever I ate. In hindsight this makes sense, because I pretty much ate some form of gluten for every meal. Finally, I told my mom about my troubles. She is a sort of nurse and I almost always consult her before I go to the doctor. She told me it sounded like IBS, and I went home and googled that. And became very downhearted, because IBS means Irritable Bowel Syndrome (or something) and it pretty much means you are allergic to 90% of foods*. Gluten and lactose being on top of the list. But I was feeling worse with every meal, so I decided to give the diet plan a go and cut out gluten and lactose and all sorts of vegetables. I bought coconut milk and lactose-free milk and gluten free pasta etc. After a few days I decided I couldn’t live without milk (I love milk!!) and decided to t