Rainy Day Reads

Ayutthaya is situated 80 km from Bangkok and it was that nation’s capital for a good 4 centuries, from 1350 AD to 1767 AD when it was destroyed by a Burmese army.   Wat Yai Chai Mongkol Today it is a must-see on any trip to Thailand as it is absolutely loaded with temples and statues of the Buddha. The famous “Buddha head in tree roots” is also located here. Be warned, though. It is not very big. For some reason I always thought it was massive, but it is close to lifesize, so don’t expect more than that.  The huge amount of temples and statues were built by 33 different kings when the city was in its prime. The area was declared a historical park in 1976 and renovation work begun in previous years turned even more serious. Part of the park was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1991.  You can visit the city from Bangkok, sailing up the Chao Phraya River, The River of Kings, or you can go by road, which is what we

I picked this book as my “historical fiction book” for the Bingo Board Reading Challenge, because I’ve heard so many good things about it.   It is set in 17th century Delft in the Netherlands and is told from the perspective of a young girl named Griet, who goes to work as a maid in the house of Vermeer, the famous painter.  We learn early on that her father has had an accident at his work and can’t work any longer, so now the two children must support the family. The son is an apprentice tile maker and that is all well and good, but Griet must work as a maid and the parents are so ashamed of what this family has come to, and say things like “We lost you when you became a maid” etc. If it’s SO shameful to be a maid why are you letting her? And if it is so necessary for her to work as a maid to support YOU why are you being so bitchy about it?  Anyway, she goes to the house and gets stuck into work. And here she meets a bunch of people and the book is really about her

I did a bingo board reading challenge this year for the first time and rather enjoyed it. I'll have a "review" of how well I did going up soon, so keep an eye on that. For now, I will be presenting my bingo board for next year, as I have decided to keep it up. It is a fun way of challenging yourself and reading a bit out of your comfort zone, or just taking a chance to check off some of the books that have been bumping around on your TBR for way too long. Below is the bingo board I have made for 2017. This year I have been a bit more specific, picking a number of specific authors or even books, as I found last year's rather vague list to be a bit of a hindrance sometimes. If I first had to find out what "modern translated fiction" entailed, I was more likely to just pick up whatever was lying around and read that instead. So I have tried being a bit ahead of the game this year and picking some specific things from the get go. Modern translated fictio

The Book   The book was supposedly written in just 3 weeks, influenced by Burgess’ experiences when he returned to England after being abroad in the 1950s. The book was published in 1962, but is set in the “future”. This future has strong connotations to the 1960s though, as this was the first time there was a definite youth culture with its own music, drugs and slang.  The book consists of 3 parts; before prison, prison and after prison. The last chapter where Alex has doubts about his violent lifestyle was omitted in the first American editions because the American editor thought it out-of-character and unrealistic. And I must confess I agree.  The author Anthony Burgess was born in 1917 and died in 1993. He was a writer and a composer, and while this book is the best known of his work, he was actually mostly a comic writer. He also wrote as a critic for several magazines and studied classical writers such as James Joyce, and he translated a number of works int

This is the long-awaited last book of “The Raven Cycle” and I finally got around to reading it. Absolutely everyone hauled it when it first came out, but it took a little while for me to get my hands on it and then it took another good while for me to actually read it. Do you know that feeling of not wanting to read a book because you are afraid it won’t live up to the rest of the series? Well, have no fear, because this one does. We follow Blue and the Raven Boys as their adventures comes to and end. I can’t really say too much about the plot without spoiling the rest of the series, if you haven’t read that yet, but just know that this book is everything the other books are and more. We get closure on pretty much everything, there’s drama, action and love and all of it is well-written and realistic. Plus there is one love story that I for sure thought was fan-made or what you call it but it turned out to be canon!! Woop!  Sometimes I was a bit confused, because it has b

This so-called “Golden City” surrounds the royal castle of Prague on top of a hill overlooking the Vltava River. The district is situated on the western side of the river and the main sights consist of the castle, the St. Vitus cathedral and the winding streets.   The royal palace is a monumental complex of buildings that range in age from the 10th century to the 20th century. It is said to be the biggest castle in the world with a length of about 570 m and and average of about 130 m width. On the castle grounds lies the residence of the rulers of the country. In 1990 Václav Havel was sworn in as president of the then country of Czechoslovakia. The complex also houses the two main art collections in the city; the St. Georg convent, which houses Czech art of an older date, and the Sternberg mansion which houses 600 years of European art.  Changing of the guard at the castle The St. Vitus Cathedral is located within the castle ground and it is a 99 m high Gothi

This is the first book in a series, but I have no intention of continuing on with this series. The plot evolves around two young people, Amy and Elder. They live on a spaceship that has left Earth to find a new planet to populate. Amy was part of the cryogeniccaly frozen people on board, meant to be woken up upon arrival and using their skill set to populate the new planet. Elder, meanwhile, is part of the population that has been keeping the ship running whilst it travels towards its destination.  One day Amy is woken up from her frozen sleep and now she must learn to live on this spaceship, without her parents, slowly learning the culture and the secrets of this ship. It turns out there is an abundance of mysteries on board this ship, like who is waking up (and killing) the frozen people, who is the mysterious deceased Elder, what is the current Eldest up to and what’s with the “crazy” people and their medication.  Eventually all these mysteries are solved, but is

I had been looking forward to re-reading this classic as I remember enjoying it quite a lot the last time I read it. But once I got started I was actually a little bit disappointed. But first things first. If you don’t know “The Lord of the Rings” it is an epic trilogy about a dangerous quest to destroy a powerful ring coveted by an evil entity out to take over the world. We meet hobbits, elves, dwarves, knights, wizards and living trees just to name some of the creatures that inhabit this world.   As I said I was a little disappointed, but that should by no means stop you from picking up the series. It is a great fantasy series with well-rounded characters, a cohesive world and an ever moving plot. I just seem to have forgotten that Tolkien does tend to wax poetic about the history of this world and its peoples. And I found myself to be a little bored when it came to those passages, I must confess. Like the whole Tom Bombadil bit seemed a bit unnecessary to me, and all th

I had been looking forward to reading this as everyone on Booktube has raved about it for ever. It is supposedly an epic fantasy with kick-ass female characters and steamy romance. Once again I was let down. But let's start from the beginning. The book is a story about an island consisting of three kingdoms; poverty stricken Paelsia, fertile Auranos and bleak Limeros. We meet Cleo, the princess of Auranos, Magnus, the prince of Limeros and Jonas, a Paelsian peasant, along with a number of others. Their stories intertwine when Cleo witnesses the murder of Jonas' brother, which becomes the catalyst for war between the three nations. I found this book to be mainly uninspiring. The world seemed tiny, but its scope was suppose to be massive. Like there are three separate kingdoms, but they are all so close to each other that a few days travel bring you from one to the other. And then there was the Sanctuary and tales of magic on top, which I felt wasn't really fleshed out

Seeing as I am on a book buying ban, I am making great use of my local library, and I thought “Why not do a haul?” So here are the books I currently have from the library.   First up we have “A Clockwork Orange” by Anthony Burgess. This is part of my “Reading the Classics” project and I have just finished it. I actually really enjoyed it and I think it is one of the few classics (so far) that I feel still have relevance today. Plotwise it’s not perhaps the best book I’ve read, simply because I don’t enjoy violence and made-up slang, but it really makes you think about free will, inherent “badness” and government control.   Then I have “Across the Universe” by Beth Revis. This is a YA book set in space. Amy is frozen cryogenically along with her parents and a number of people who are sent off to colonize a new planet. The journey will take 300 years, and the spaceship is inhabited by other people who keep it running. Somehow Amy is woken up before the spaceship lands and

This book has intrigued me ever since I first heard about it absolutely ages ago. I am always interested in the “hidden side” of things and looking “behind the scenes” of everyday life. Recently I finally got my act together and read it.   The authors themselves preface this book by saying that it doesn't really have a coherent theme. And it doesn’t. It talks about real estate agents, sumo wrestlers, school teachers and parenting. I found it interesting to learn about all of these things and see things from a different perspective. Especially seeing how things aren’t always connected in the way we think or how seemingly unconnected things can be dependent on each other. But other than my enjoyment of the small “aha”-moments collected in this book, I didn’t really find it as mind-blowing as I had hoped.  I gave this book 3 stars out of 5 on Goodreads, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who has an interest in hidden connections. I would say it’s probably a

Autumn is here in full swing (and has been for a while) and it’s time to get cozy under the blankets with a (bunch of) good books! This is a fun tag created by Sam over at Sam’s Nonsense on Youtube. Her video is here ! But without further ado, let’s get into it.   Crunching Leaves: The world is full of color - choose a book that had reds/oranges/yellows on the cover Saw this on my shelves and thought it was perfect. “Mockingjay” by Suzanne Collins, the last book of the “Hunger Games” trilogy. I think we all know what this book is about by now, so I won’t say anything more about it.  Cozy Sweater - It's finally cold enough to don warm cozy clothing: what book gives you the warm fuzzies? Aside from “Harry Potter” I would say “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen. It’s a classic love story, and one of favorite reads. I’ve read it many times, but I always enjoy a reread.  Fall Storm: The wind is howling & the rain is pounding - choose your favorite book OR