March and April Reads
19. Wenn ein Reisender in einer Winternacht (If on a Winter's Night a Traveler) von Italo Calvino
A book within a book within a book within a book. self referential. hilarious. confusing to read. I give it 9 out of 10 just for the introduction alone.
20. The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler
A very interesting book in my opinion. I'd heard about "the monologues" before and I saw Calista Flockhart talk about it (and perform the WASP moan) on Conan O'Brian. Ever since I wanted to see the play when it's on. And the bad rep doesn't put me off! :-)
21. Slam by Nick Hornby
teenage pregnancy from a 16-year old boy's point of view. while reading it i couldn't help but think of my little brother a lot. i sincerely hope he wasn't that immature..
22. Es geht noch ein Zug von der Gare du Nord von Fred Vargas
Ein Krimi mit ungewöhnlichen Ermittlern, Verdächtigen und Nebenfiguren. Langsam, nachdenklich und ein wenig bizarr. Das überraschende Ende ist konstruiert, aber es passt zum Buch, zum Stil und macht die Geschichte zu einer richtigen netten "cosy mystery"
23. Father Frank by Paul Burke
Entertaining enough. It's about a man who ends up studying theology more by chance than anything else and later even becomes a parish priest, despite his lack of faith in god. Not a great book, but a nice read for long train trips.
24. Live Bait by P.J. Tracy
I'm a bit annoyed by the author duo that is P.J. Tracy at the moment, even though I'm not sure it is even their fault. I took a different book by them on a trip and only when I opened it and started to read I realised I had read the book before, only two months ago, under a completely different title. I hate it when that happens. Even worse was that I had already read all other books I brought on the trip and I was stuck in a small town at the end of the world in which all shops were closed at 8 pm, even the railway station bookstore. I had to endure a 10 hour overnight train trip without anything to read because this book was renamed and published again. What a waste!
Despite my misdirected anger I ended up liking this book by the authors. I was in the mood for a thriller and that's what I got. Even better: they don't let all the good guys survive and kill off all the bad guys. I appreciate these little remains of darkness in an otherwise rather clean, tidy and American thriller.
25. Happy Accidents by Tiffany Murray
The book is quirky, in the beginning too quirky for me. Told from the point of view of an eleven year old girl who seems very childish in the beginning and incredibly precocious towards the end. I like crazy family stories - they make my own family seem so harmless ;-), so even though I thought it too obviously/engineered quirky at the beginning I warmed to the story and the crazy characters.
Also: Blackwater by Conn Iggulden
I read this little book in one go while sitting in a waiting room. It was not bad, but the setup reminded me of a lot of short stories I read. It was better written than a lot of them, but the twist wasn't brilliant.
http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/5549909/
26.Visible Spirits by Steve Yarbrough
I didn't really warm to this book. From the blurb I expected something quite different and I didn't get over this initial disappointment. I also thought that while the villain was depicted very good, the other characters lacked depth.
27. Native Tongue by Carl Hiaasen
The usual Carl Hiaasen stuff. The characters (even the ones that are not recurring) and the storylines are getting repetitive but it's still funny/tragic enough to make me want to read it to the end.
Gave up on The English by Jeremy Paxman. It was just so boring. He quoted Monty Python. But not in a funny way. He used them in footnotes. In order to make a point about Englishness as opposed to Britishness. Booooring.
28. Tod in Venedig (Death in Venice) von Thomas Mann
Only 70 pages long but incredibly tedious to read. It took me a week to get through them. I only read the book because the book club i joined read it in April.
29. Zorro by Isabelle Allende
Das Buch stand lange in meinem Regal. Jetzt habe ich es endlich geschafft es zu lesen. Ich fand die Geschichte zwar ganz unterhaltsam, aber bei weitem nicht das beste Buch das ich von Isabel Allende gelesen hab. Ich bin mir nicht ganz sicher, woran es liegt, aber es war mir irgendwie zu wenig außergewöhnlich und zu sehr Abenteuerroman. Wer der Ich-Erzähler ist hatte ich innerhalb von einem Kapitel erraten..
30. Fluke by Christopher Moore
Funny! This time it's not about Vampires, Death, or Demons, but it still has the fantasy element. Fantasy Whales, yay!
31. The Three Day Rule by Josie Lloyd Emlyn Reese
I read two or three other books by the authors, all of which I liked better than this one. First of all I found several typos, which always annoys me to no end. Secondly, I thought it could do with a little editing. There s one scene where Ben gets out of the cold shower because there is no electricity and then wipes away the steam from the bathroom mirror. Somebody should have caught that.
And finally, I thought the setting to be promising, but the book didn't deliver on this promise. I didn't like *any* of the characters. The female main character is naive in fallign for a married guy. Then she just falls for the next guy without any reservation. I thought the romance between neither couple was very believable, and in fact, most characters were like caricatures of themselves. The kids were especially bad. It might be that 14 or 15 year olds feel the way described in the book, but I didn't like that every thought and every feeling had to be spelled out explicitly. Sometimes people, especially teenagers, are angry and just act without a good rationalisation or complicated explanation regarding the relationship with their parents handy.
I wanted to like this book, but I was actually quite disappointed.
32. Union Jack by Val McDermid
I picked this up from the book buffet at the convention and read it on my way home from London and then promptly lost it in the general chaos that always accompanies my holidays.
A week later all I can say about it is, I liked it well enough. It was pretty much what I expected to read and therefore a good book for a flight. The details around the trade union conference were a bit confusing, but I didn't need to understand british trade union politics to understand the book.
33. The Pilot's Wife by Anita Shreve
I had no idea what to expect from this book and was first a little wary that it would be "only" about the pilot's wife's grief. The writing turned out to be so good, though, that I wouldn't actually have minded that. On top of that, it also turned into a real mystery.
I liked the writing style of this book and how well the scenes from the present and the memories work together.
A note on the side: Once flight/airport security was mentioned I checked the book's publication date, because I couldn't believe the book could have been written after 2001.
34. American Gods by Neil Gaiman
I loved Neil Gaiman's writing style and his choice of words:
"a suit the colour of melted vanilla ice cream"
"chicago started slowly like a migraine"
Wow, what an image. bizarre. These metaphors are great :-)
I was confused by the story more than once and I didn't recognise many of the gods. I'm not particularly well informed as far as religion is concerned. A very interesting, well written book with an unusual storyline. I think I'll want to read it again at some point in the not too distant future and try to understand it better, maybe look up some words.
On a sidenote: I was surprised by the number of seemingly unnecessary sex scenes. As far as sex scenes go, they are good, though :-)
Currently Reading Feuchtgebiete bei Charlotte Roche. Eugh. A bad, bad book for a mild germophobe, like me.
A book within a book within a book within a book. self referential. hilarious. confusing to read. I give it 9 out of 10 just for the introduction alone.
20. The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler
A very interesting book in my opinion. I'd heard about "the monologues" before and I saw Calista Flockhart talk about it (and perform the WASP moan) on Conan O'Brian. Ever since I wanted to see the play when it's on. And the bad rep doesn't put me off! :-)
21. Slam by Nick Hornby
teenage pregnancy from a 16-year old boy's point of view. while reading it i couldn't help but think of my little brother a lot. i sincerely hope he wasn't that immature..
22. Es geht noch ein Zug von der Gare du Nord von Fred Vargas
Ein Krimi mit ungewöhnlichen Ermittlern, Verdächtigen und Nebenfiguren. Langsam, nachdenklich und ein wenig bizarr. Das überraschende Ende ist konstruiert, aber es passt zum Buch, zum Stil und macht die Geschichte zu einer richtigen netten "cosy mystery"
23. Father Frank by Paul Burke
Entertaining enough. It's about a man who ends up studying theology more by chance than anything else and later even becomes a parish priest, despite his lack of faith in god. Not a great book, but a nice read for long train trips.
24. Live Bait by P.J. Tracy
I'm a bit annoyed by the author duo that is P.J. Tracy at the moment, even though I'm not sure it is even their fault. I took a different book by them on a trip and only when I opened it and started to read I realised I had read the book before, only two months ago, under a completely different title. I hate it when that happens. Even worse was that I had already read all other books I brought on the trip and I was stuck in a small town at the end of the world in which all shops were closed at 8 pm, even the railway station bookstore. I had to endure a 10 hour overnight train trip without anything to read because this book was renamed and published again. What a waste!
Despite my misdirected anger I ended up liking this book by the authors. I was in the mood for a thriller and that's what I got. Even better: they don't let all the good guys survive and kill off all the bad guys. I appreciate these little remains of darkness in an otherwise rather clean, tidy and American thriller.
25. Happy Accidents by Tiffany Murray
The book is quirky, in the beginning too quirky for me. Told from the point of view of an eleven year old girl who seems very childish in the beginning and incredibly precocious towards the end. I like crazy family stories - they make my own family seem so harmless ;-), so even though I thought it too obviously/engineered quirky at the beginning I warmed to the story and the crazy characters.
Also: Blackwater by Conn Iggulden
I read this little book in one go while sitting in a waiting room. It was not bad, but the setup reminded me of a lot of short stories I read. It was better written than a lot of them, but the twist wasn't brilliant.
http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/5549909/
26.Visible Spirits by Steve Yarbrough
I didn't really warm to this book. From the blurb I expected something quite different and I didn't get over this initial disappointment. I also thought that while the villain was depicted very good, the other characters lacked depth.
27. Native Tongue by Carl Hiaasen
The usual Carl Hiaasen stuff. The characters (even the ones that are not recurring) and the storylines are getting repetitive but it's still funny/tragic enough to make me want to read it to the end.
Gave up on The English by Jeremy Paxman. It was just so boring. He quoted Monty Python. But not in a funny way. He used them in footnotes. In order to make a point about Englishness as opposed to Britishness. Booooring.
28. Tod in Venedig (Death in Venice) von Thomas Mann
Only 70 pages long but incredibly tedious to read. It took me a week to get through them. I only read the book because the book club i joined read it in April.
29. Zorro by Isabelle Allende
Das Buch stand lange in meinem Regal. Jetzt habe ich es endlich geschafft es zu lesen. Ich fand die Geschichte zwar ganz unterhaltsam, aber bei weitem nicht das beste Buch das ich von Isabel Allende gelesen hab. Ich bin mir nicht ganz sicher, woran es liegt, aber es war mir irgendwie zu wenig außergewöhnlich und zu sehr Abenteuerroman. Wer der Ich-Erzähler ist hatte ich innerhalb von einem Kapitel erraten..
30. Fluke by Christopher Moore
Funny! This time it's not about Vampires, Death, or Demons, but it still has the fantasy element. Fantasy Whales, yay!
31. The Three Day Rule by Josie Lloyd Emlyn Reese
I read two or three other books by the authors, all of which I liked better than this one. First of all I found several typos, which always annoys me to no end. Secondly, I thought it could do with a little editing. There s one scene where Ben gets out of the cold shower because there is no electricity and then wipes away the steam from the bathroom mirror. Somebody should have caught that.
And finally, I thought the setting to be promising, but the book didn't deliver on this promise. I didn't like *any* of the characters. The female main character is naive in fallign for a married guy. Then she just falls for the next guy without any reservation. I thought the romance between neither couple was very believable, and in fact, most characters were like caricatures of themselves. The kids were especially bad. It might be that 14 or 15 year olds feel the way described in the book, but I didn't like that every thought and every feeling had to be spelled out explicitly. Sometimes people, especially teenagers, are angry and just act without a good rationalisation or complicated explanation regarding the relationship with their parents handy.
I wanted to like this book, but I was actually quite disappointed.
32. Union Jack by Val McDermid
I picked this up from the book buffet at the convention and read it on my way home from London and then promptly lost it in the general chaos that always accompanies my holidays.
A week later all I can say about it is, I liked it well enough. It was pretty much what I expected to read and therefore a good book for a flight. The details around the trade union conference were a bit confusing, but I didn't need to understand british trade union politics to understand the book.
33. The Pilot's Wife by Anita Shreve
I had no idea what to expect from this book and was first a little wary that it would be "only" about the pilot's wife's grief. The writing turned out to be so good, though, that I wouldn't actually have minded that. On top of that, it also turned into a real mystery.
I liked the writing style of this book and how well the scenes from the present and the memories work together.
A note on the side: Once flight/airport security was mentioned I checked the book's publication date, because I couldn't believe the book could have been written after 2001.
34. American Gods by Neil Gaiman
I loved Neil Gaiman's writing style and his choice of words:
"a suit the colour of melted vanilla ice cream"
"chicago started slowly like a migraine"
Wow, what an image. bizarre. These metaphors are great :-)
I was confused by the story more than once and I didn't recognise many of the gods. I'm not particularly well informed as far as religion is concerned. A very interesting, well written book with an unusual storyline. I think I'll want to read it again at some point in the not too distant future and try to understand it better, maybe look up some words.
On a sidenote: I was surprised by the number of seemingly unnecessary sex scenes. As far as sex scenes go, they are good, though :-)
Currently Reading Feuchtgebiete bei Charlotte Roche. Eugh. A bad, bad book for a mild germophobe, like me.