books 2012...
I planned to read 100 books this year but only managed 60. Ah well, some of them were rather long and most of them were a good read, so it's all well. ;)
This is the list. I wanted to bold the books I can recommend but I would have pretty much bolded the entire list (with a few exceptions), so I'm just going to strike through the ones I didn't like and shall write a few comments about my recommendations below.
1. Miguel de Cervantes - Don Quijote (German)
2. Elizabeth George - Deception On His Mind (English)
3. Sven Regener - Herr Lehmann (German)
4. Matias Faldbakken - The Cocka-Hola-Company (German)
5. Mark Kurlansky - Cod (English)
6. Matias Faldbakken - Macht & Rebel (German)
7. Simon Scarrow - The Generals (English)
8. Ephraim Kishon - Kishons beste Reisegeschichten (German)
9. Mark Kurlansky - The Basque History of the World (English)
10. Simon Scarrow - Fire and Sword (English)
11. Bernard Cornwell - Sharpe's Havoc (English)
12. Bernard Cornwell - Sharpe's Gold (English)
13. Henning Mankell - Die Rückkehr des Tanzlehrers (German)
14. Brian Reade - An Epic Swindle - 44 Months With A Pair Of Cowboys (English)
15. Bernard Cornwell - Sharpe's Escape (English)
16. Bernard Cornwell - Sharpe's Fury (English)
17. Bernard Cornwell - Sharpe's Battle (English)
18. Paul Ingendaay - Gebrauchsanweisung für Spanien (German)
19. Bernard Cornwell - Sharpe's Company (English)
20. Simon Scarrow - The Fields of Death (English)
21. Anthony Bourdain - Kitchen Confidential (English)
22. Heinz Ohff - Gebrauchsanweisung für Schottland (German)
23. Bernard Cornwell - Sharpe's Enemy (English)
24. Jürgen Breest - Tollwut (German)
25. Bernard Cornwell - Sharpe's Sword (English)
26. Bernard Cornwell - Sharpe's Honour (English)
27. Moritz Volz - Unser Mann in London (German)
28. Michael Pohl - Fettnäpfchenführer Großbritannien (German)
29. Mary Renault - Fire From Heaven (English)
30. Margaret Atwood - The Handmaid's Tale (English)
31. Robert Harris - Ghost (English)
32. Tom Rob Smith - Agent 6 (English)
33. Heinz-Werner Kubitza - Der Jesuswahn (German)
34. Robert Harris - Enigma (English)
35. Michael Ende - Der satanarchäolügenialkohöllische Wunschpunsch (German)
36. Stieg Larsson - The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (English)
37. Stieg Larsson - The Girl Who Played With Fire (English)
38. Stieg Larsson - The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets' Nest (English)
39. Robert Harris - Vaterland (German)
40. George Lucas - Star Wars: A New Hope (English)
41. Donald F. Glut - Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (English)
42. James Kahn - Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (English)
43. Christiane F. - Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo (German)
44. Rita Falk - Winterkartoffelknödel (German)
45. Rita Falk - Dampfnudel-Blues (German)
46. Rita Falk - Schweinskopf al dente (German)
47. John Le Carré - Der ewige Gärtner (German)
48. John Le Carré - Der Schneider von Panama (German)
49. Ingo Niebel - Das Baskenland - Geschichte & Gegenwart eines politischen Konflikts (German)
50. Ildefonso Falcones - The Hand of Fatima (English)
51. Henning Mankell - Mörder ohne Gesicht (German)
52. Anthony Bourdain - A Cook's Tour (English)
53. Mario Puzo - Der Pate (German)
54. Elizabeth George - A Suitable Vengeance (English)
55. Jean-Christophe Grangé - Die purpurnen Flüsse (German)
56. Henning Mankell - Die Hunde von Riga (German)
57. Ernest Hemingway - Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises (English)
58. Elizabeth George - Payment in Blood (English)
59. Elizabeth George - In Pursuit of the Proper Sinner (English)
60. Betty Mahmoody - Nicht ohne meine Tochter (German)
61. Henning Mankell - Der Mann, der lächelte (German)
Elizabeth George and Henning Mankell are among my very favourite crime writers.
Elizabeth George's Inspector Lynley novels have an awesome pair of detectives in Lynley and Sergeant Havers, and it never gets boring when their completely different personalities and backgrounds clash and create trouble. Also, even though the author is American, her books have a wonderful "British" vibe. It shows how much she loves England (and Scotland!), and her descriptions of the places and people never stop making me think "I want to go baaaaaaack!" - that has to be a good thing! ;)
Henning Mankell's novels have deeply flawed and quite wrecked main characters (Kurt Wallander and Stefan Lindman) with dysfunctional private (and family) lives having to deal with brutal murders and dangerous people - a great recipe for exciting and absorbing detective novels! The melancholy descriptions of winter in Malmo, of the isolated farms and houses in Scania, and the rough life in Riga are perfect reading for a rainy or snowy afternoon.
Bernard Cornwell and Simon Scarrow write brilliant historical fiction about the Napoleonic Wars.
Of course, (almost) everyone knows the TV series "Sharpe" starring Sean Bean, but even though there's no Bean in the books, they're more than worth a read. Bernard Cornwell's writing is excellent and exciting, the dialogues are perfect (like the famous "tents" dialogue between Sharpe and Harper in Sharpe's Honour, the stories are more detailed than in the series (obviously), there are more characters, and - to be honest - many of the changes they made for the TV adaptation don't really make sense. Reading the original stories is a pleasure, and most recommended.
Simon Scarrow writes just as exciting and absorbing novels as Cornwell (actually, Cornwell himself said that he doesn't need that kind of competition, hehe!), only he's focusing on the generals, not the soldiers. His series about Wellington and Napoleon outline the lives of the two great generals, their childhoods, their introduction into the army, their careers and their private lives. They're not 100% historically accurate, of course, but they give you a great idea of what Wellington and Napoleon were like and how they came to be such important historical figures.
If you're looking for interesting books about history, especially related to the Basque Country, then Mark Kurlansky is your best bet. His book "The Basque History of the World" is one of my favourite books ever and includes a lot more than just history. The author's admiration and affection for the Basque Country is obvious and also shows in his other book, "Cod", which describes the influence of codfish in the development and modernization of the world. To be honest, I never would have thought that a book about codfish could be so interesting! I could hardly put it down while I was reading it, it's so well written.
I can also recommend Ingo Niebel's book about the history of the political conflict in the Basque Country, but it's in German.
Matias Faldbakken (pseudonym Abo Rasul) is a Norwegian writer and author of a trilogy about Scandinavian misantrophy. I've read two books of this trilogy so far and enjoyed them a lot because they're just so wonderfully wrong. And the great thing? Even though the people in the book do things that are disgusting, despicable, unethical, politically incorrect and sometimes rather horrible, you can't stop reading and eventually discover that you have no qualms at all about that. ;)
I've already written about Brian Reade's excellent Liverpool book "44 Years With The Same Bird", and "An Epic Swindle" is just as excellent. The author (and/or his editors) still hasn't mastered the comma rules, which gets annoying at some point, but the content of the book is researched and presented extremely well. My main goal was to find out why Rafa Benítez left, and I got plenty of information about that as well as many other things. Needless to say, I loved Rafa even more after having read the book, and I was gutted when he signed for Chelsea because they don't deserve him and he deserves better.
Anthony Bourdain is an American cook who runs his own TV show (which I adore) and also writes really fantastic books about food, restaurants, cooking and people. His writing is funny and witty, with a healthy dose of sarcasm and a lot of love for food. I admire how open he is for new things, how he admires and embraces the countries he visits and the people who live there, and the respect he has for their good work. It's no surprise he has friends everywhere, and it's wonderfully interesting to follow his career and his travels.
Robert Harris writes excellent political thrillers. Most of them have been turned into movies, though whereas the recently published "Ghostwriter" is really good and "Enigma" is okay, the adaption of "Fatherland" is boring and half of the plot is missing. Reading the books is a lot more rewarding than watching the films, not just because they include more details. The only thing that bothers me a little is that both "Enigma" and "Fatherland" include misspelled German words. Is it so difficult to get a German editor to check the German stuff?
Special recommendations, apart from the ones mentioned above:
And no, I still haven't read a book in Spanish. I clearly fail. :/ Any recommendations? I prefer thrillers and detective novels, but would read anything as long as it's easy to read.
Discussion welcome! If you want to know anything about the books I haven't mentioned, please say so and I'd be happy to write a short bit about them.
This is the list. I wanted to bold the books I can recommend but I would have pretty much bolded the entire list (with a few exceptions), so I'm just going to strike through the ones I didn't like and shall write a few comments about my recommendations below.
1. Miguel de Cervantes - Don Quijote (German)
2. Elizabeth George - Deception On His Mind (English)
3. Sven Regener - Herr Lehmann (German)
4. Matias Faldbakken - The Cocka-Hola-Company (German)
5. Mark Kurlansky - Cod (English)
6. Matias Faldbakken - Macht & Rebel (German)
7. Simon Scarrow - The Generals (English)
8. Ephraim Kishon - Kishons beste Reisegeschichten (German)
9. Mark Kurlansky - The Basque History of the World (English)
10. Simon Scarrow - Fire and Sword (English)
11. Bernard Cornwell - Sharpe's Havoc (English)
12. Bernard Cornwell - Sharpe's Gold (English)
13. Henning Mankell - Die Rückkehr des Tanzlehrers (German)
14. Brian Reade - An Epic Swindle - 44 Months With A Pair Of Cowboys (English)
15. Bernard Cornwell - Sharpe's Escape (English)
16. Bernard Cornwell - Sharpe's Fury (English)
17. Bernard Cornwell - Sharpe's Battle (English)
18. Paul Ingendaay - Gebrauchsanweisung für Spanien (German)
19. Bernard Cornwell - Sharpe's Company (English)
20. Simon Scarrow - The Fields of Death (English)
21. Anthony Bourdain - Kitchen Confidential (English)
22. Heinz Ohff - Gebrauchsanweisung für Schottland (German)
23. Bernard Cornwell - Sharpe's Enemy (English)
24. Jürgen Breest - Tollwut (German)
25. Bernard Cornwell - Sharpe's Sword (English)
26. Bernard Cornwell - Sharpe's Honour (English)
27. Moritz Volz - Unser Mann in London (German)
28. Michael Pohl - Fettnäpfchenführer Großbritannien (German)
29. Mary Renault - Fire From Heaven (English)
30. Margaret Atwood - The Handmaid's Tale (English)
31. Robert Harris - Ghost (English)
32. Tom Rob Smith - Agent 6 (English)
33. Heinz-Werner Kubitza - Der Jesuswahn (German)
34. Robert Harris - Enigma (English)
35. Michael Ende - Der satanarchäolügenialkohöllische Wunschpunsch (German)
36. Stieg Larsson - The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (English)
37. Stieg Larsson - The Girl Who Played With Fire (English)
38. Stieg Larsson - The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets' Nest (English)
39. Robert Harris - Vaterland (German)
40. George Lucas - Star Wars: A New Hope (English)
41. Donald F. Glut - Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (English)
42. James Kahn - Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (English)
43. Christiane F. - Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo (German)
44. Rita Falk - Winterkartoffelknödel (German)
45. Rita Falk - Dampfnudel-Blues (German)
46. Rita Falk - Schweinskopf al dente (German)
47. John Le Carré - Der ewige Gärtner (German)
48. John Le Carré - Der Schneider von Panama (German)
49. Ingo Niebel - Das Baskenland - Geschichte & Gegenwart eines politischen Konflikts (German)
50. Ildefonso Falcones - The Hand of Fatima (English)
51. Henning Mankell - Mörder ohne Gesicht (German)
52. Anthony Bourdain - A Cook's Tour (English)
53. Mario Puzo - Der Pate (German)
54. Elizabeth George - A Suitable Vengeance (English)
55. Jean-Christophe Grangé - Die purpurnen Flüsse (German)
56. Henning Mankell - Die Hunde von Riga (German)
57. Ernest Hemingway - Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises (English)
58. Elizabeth George - Payment in Blood (English)
59. Elizabeth George - In Pursuit of the Proper Sinner (English)
60. Betty Mahmoody - Nicht ohne meine Tochter (German)
61. Henning Mankell - Der Mann, der lächelte (German)
Elizabeth George and Henning Mankell are among my very favourite crime writers.
Elizabeth George's Inspector Lynley novels have an awesome pair of detectives in Lynley and Sergeant Havers, and it never gets boring when their completely different personalities and backgrounds clash and create trouble. Also, even though the author is American, her books have a wonderful "British" vibe. It shows how much she loves England (and Scotland!), and her descriptions of the places and people never stop making me think "I want to go baaaaaaack!" - that has to be a good thing! ;)
Henning Mankell's novels have deeply flawed and quite wrecked main characters (Kurt Wallander and Stefan Lindman) with dysfunctional private (and family) lives having to deal with brutal murders and dangerous people - a great recipe for exciting and absorbing detective novels! The melancholy descriptions of winter in Malmo, of the isolated farms and houses in Scania, and the rough life in Riga are perfect reading for a rainy or snowy afternoon.
Bernard Cornwell and Simon Scarrow write brilliant historical fiction about the Napoleonic Wars.
Of course, (almost) everyone knows the TV series "Sharpe" starring Sean Bean, but even though there's no Bean in the books, they're more than worth a read. Bernard Cornwell's writing is excellent and exciting, the dialogues are perfect (like the famous "tents" dialogue between Sharpe and Harper in Sharpe's Honour, the stories are more detailed than in the series (obviously), there are more characters, and - to be honest - many of the changes they made for the TV adaptation don't really make sense. Reading the original stories is a pleasure, and most recommended.
Simon Scarrow writes just as exciting and absorbing novels as Cornwell (actually, Cornwell himself said that he doesn't need that kind of competition, hehe!), only he's focusing on the generals, not the soldiers. His series about Wellington and Napoleon outline the lives of the two great generals, their childhoods, their introduction into the army, their careers and their private lives. They're not 100% historically accurate, of course, but they give you a great idea of what Wellington and Napoleon were like and how they came to be such important historical figures.
If you're looking for interesting books about history, especially related to the Basque Country, then Mark Kurlansky is your best bet. His book "The Basque History of the World" is one of my favourite books ever and includes a lot more than just history. The author's admiration and affection for the Basque Country is obvious and also shows in his other book, "Cod", which describes the influence of codfish in the development and modernization of the world. To be honest, I never would have thought that a book about codfish could be so interesting! I could hardly put it down while I was reading it, it's so well written.
I can also recommend Ingo Niebel's book about the history of the political conflict in the Basque Country, but it's in German.
Matias Faldbakken (pseudonym Abo Rasul) is a Norwegian writer and author of a trilogy about Scandinavian misantrophy. I've read two books of this trilogy so far and enjoyed them a lot because they're just so wonderfully wrong. And the great thing? Even though the people in the book do things that are disgusting, despicable, unethical, politically incorrect and sometimes rather horrible, you can't stop reading and eventually discover that you have no qualms at all about that. ;)
I've already written about Brian Reade's excellent Liverpool book "44 Years With The Same Bird", and "An Epic Swindle" is just as excellent. The author (and/or his editors) still hasn't mastered the comma rules, which gets annoying at some point, but the content of the book is researched and presented extremely well. My main goal was to find out why Rafa Benítez left, and I got plenty of information about that as well as many other things. Needless to say, I loved Rafa even more after having read the book, and I was gutted when he signed for Chelsea because they don't deserve him and he deserves better.
Anthony Bourdain is an American cook who runs his own TV show (which I adore) and also writes really fantastic books about food, restaurants, cooking and people. His writing is funny and witty, with a healthy dose of sarcasm and a lot of love for food. I admire how open he is for new things, how he admires and embraces the countries he visits and the people who live there, and the respect he has for their good work. It's no surprise he has friends everywhere, and it's wonderfully interesting to follow his career and his travels.
Robert Harris writes excellent political thrillers. Most of them have been turned into movies, though whereas the recently published "Ghostwriter" is really good and "Enigma" is okay, the adaption of "Fatherland" is boring and half of the plot is missing. Reading the books is a lot more rewarding than watching the films, not just because they include more details. The only thing that bothers me a little is that both "Enigma" and "Fatherland" include misspelled German words. Is it so difficult to get a German editor to check the German stuff?
Special recommendations, apart from the ones mentioned above:
- Mary Renault - Fire From Heaven
- Margaret Atwood - The Handmaid's Tale
- Tom Rob Smith - Agent 66 (together with "Child 44" and "Kolyma")
- Heinz-Werner Kubitza - Der Jesuswahn
- Stieg Larsson - The Millennium Trilogy
- Christiane F. - Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo ("Autobiography of a Girl of the Streets and Heroin Addict")
- John Le Carré - Der ewige Gärtner ("The Constant Gardener")
- Mario Puzo - Der Pate ("The Godfather")
- Ernest Hemingway - Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises*
- Betty Mahmoody - Nicht ohne meine Tochter ("Not Without My Daughter")
And no, I still haven't read a book in Spanish. I clearly fail. :/ Any recommendations? I prefer thrillers and detective novels, but would read anything as long as it's easy to read.
Discussion welcome! If you want to know anything about the books I haven't mentioned, please say so and I'd be happy to write a short bit about them.