Monday, 30 August 2010

Wanted - Suggest "easy" read English classics for high school reading


Edit: Just recived a text saying it didn't have to classics just ordinary novels, now that I find harder really. The term classics narrows down the selection a bit at least.

My sister-in-law has just started high school for adults here in Norway, they are going to go through three years of education in just one year and naturally English is one of the subjects they are having. SIL visited me yesterday and asked me if I wanted to make a list of suggestions of English classics they could read and analyze in English class. She knows I love reading and she knows I read most of my books in English but the problem is that I haven't read all that many classics so I really need your help.
The books has to be a bit easy read, Jane Austen for example will be a bit to heavy(it was for me and I read English almost every day) I think, most of these people probably haven't read anything in English since they went to lower secondary school.
SIL borrowed my copy of Mathilda by Roald Dahl to start with something since I remembered that we read that book in high school(fun both for almost all ages). My next suggestion would be To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Dracula by Bram Stocker and Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. But I'm guessing they're going to need more suggestions than that.
I would really appreciate it if someone could help me out with some titles to the list.

Saturday, 28 August 2010

Book review: The Help by Kathryn Stockett

The cover above is for the Norwegian translation of this book.
If you're in need of a good book to sit down with in the dark autumn evenings(with a steaming cup of hot chocolate or tea) look no further. The Help by Kathryn Stockett is just what you need. I read the book this summer and it was a great read. The Help is one part chick-lit mixed with one part feel-good and a secret ingredient, because it cannot be defined as a book in the chic-lit or feel-good genre(it's difficult to describe really).

A summary of sorts:
The Help is a story about black maids and their white, female employers in Jackson, Mississippi in 1962. The story is divided in alternate chapters told by each of the three main characters. First we have the middle aging maid Abileen, she is as kind as the day is long and she always does as she's told. Secondly we have Minny, a younger maid who has got five children and a husband to take care of. Minny isn't a person who tolerates everything her employers does and her reactions always leads to consequences(usually she ends up getting fired). Lastly we have 23 year old Skeeter, she dreams about being a journalist and is the daughter of a cotton plantation owner.

My thoughts on The Help:
I laughed, I cried and I fell in love with the characters in this book.

Through every page in the book I never stopped being amazed that the relationship between black and white people in some states in the USA has been so bad for so long. It feels like reading something that could perhaps have happened 100 years ago but this isn't even 50 years in the past. A lot of the story is fictional but not the fact that there were huge differences between black and white people and their rights. Stockett has managed to weave in some actual happenings from that time, one of those I knew nothing about; the killing of the African American civil rights activist Medgar Evers from Mississippi. I enjoy reading books that can teach me new things, I'm the kind of person that will Google historical happenings from books to find out more about them.

The author herself have experienced the times she is writing about in her book and not all of her relatives appreciated her honesty. Some was actually so provoked that they cut their ties with Stockett:

The cover:
I'm not all that fond of the Norwegian cover but it probably appeals to a great many other people than me. My favorite cover is below, I feel that it's more true to the story:




My rating of this book:
5 stars out of 5

Want to know more?Visit Kathryn Stockett's homepage
 
Full disclosure:Received for honest review from the Norwegian publisher Cappelen Damm.

Thursday, 26 August 2010

Book review: Wildthorn by Jane Eagland


A summary of sorts:
Wildthorn was a great story of the difficulties of being a woman coming to age in the Victorian era, a woman not wanting to be restricted of the times expectations of a lady. The main character is 17 year old Louisa Cosgrove. Louisa still lives with her parents and older brother. Louisa's mother does whatever she can to make Louise behave, but Louisa has dreams, big dreams. Louisa wants to be a doctor, like her beloved father. Not many members of the household supports Louisa's dream, it is just not suitable for a young lady to have an occupation. She ought to find a good man and get married, have children and be a good wife.
Louisa falls unexpected in love, but things are very complicated and it brings her more sorrow than joy. From then on everything seems to fall apart for her. She decides to take a place in a nice family, her brother has arranged it for her, but the carriage that was supposed to bring Louisa to this new place leaves her in an asylum. Now all of a sudden Louisa is told that she is confused that she isn't really called Louisa Cosgrove, her name is Lucy Childs. Who is she really? Louisa/Lucy is determined to get to the bottom of this and while she tries to figure it out she finds love in a place she never would have thought possible.

My thoughts:
Louisa a strong female character which I immediately fell for. I have a thing for female characters who doesn't want to be confined by the female ideal of their time, women who goes their own way. Louisa grows up at a time where it is difficult to be different, to want to do unladylike things like getting a job is almost unheard of but it seems like times are slowly changing for the better.

Wildthorn also tells the story of a number of ladies who, sadly, experienced being locked up in an asylum and being badly treated. The psychiatry methods in those days weren't particulary good, if you weren't insane when you got there then you probably would be due to the way you where treated.
All in all this was a very good book, not all was sad and grim. It is a hopeful story filled with love, it is also about fighting for yourself and your dreams. It makes me so grateful to think about all those women who has lived before us and made it possible for us, women of today, to have the opportunity to chose our own path, our own life.

Wildthorn is a young adult historical  fiction.

My rating of this book:
4.5 stars out of 5

Want to know more?Visit Jane Eagland's homepage
 
Full disclosure:
Review copy provided by netGalley.

The book is being re-released on September 4th. 

Tuesday, 24 August 2010

Book review: The Name of The Wind(Kingkiller Chronicle #1) by Patrick Rothfuss

'I have stolen princesses back from sleeping barrow kings. I burned down the town of Trebon. I have spent the night with Felurian and left with both my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the University at a younger age than most people are allowed in. I tread paths by moonlight that others fear to speak of during day. I have talked to Gods, loved women, and written songs that make the minstrels weep.

My name is Kvothe.
You may have heard of me'


So begins the tale of Kvothe - currently known as Kote, the unassuming innkeeper - from his childhood in a troupe of traveling players, through his years spent as a near-feral orphan in a crime-riddled city, to his daringly brazen yet successful bid to enter a difficult and dangerous school of magic. In these pages you will come to know Kvothe the notorious magician, the accomplished thief, the masterful musician, the dragon-slayer, the legend-hunter, the lover, the thief and the infamous assassin.
 Synopsis borrowed from Orion books.


My thoughts:
Patrick Rothfuss has written a brilliant fantasy novel, and it has to be the best debut I've read. Rothfuss sure knows how to tell a great story! There's not much I want to tell you about the story, this is a book it is best not to know all that much before you pick it up.

I'm glad I didn't pick up this book any earlier than I did, because it would have been a very long wait for the next book. The second book, The Wise Man's Fear, is scheduled to be released in March 2011. It was originally going to come out in 2008 so I'm thinking that we just have to wait and see, the important thing is that the author is satisfied with the manuscript. It must be hard work sewing together a story that is somewhere between 600 and 1000 pages long.

My rating of this book:
4.5 stars out of 5

Want to know more?
Read the authors blog
Visit the authors homepage

Full disclosure: My own book.
This book can be purchased from a number of local retailers and online book stores such as Amazon or The Book Depository(and their likes).

Below is my favorite cover for this book, I believe it is the Dutch one.

Monday, 23 August 2010

Uglies - Teaser Tuesday



 This weeks teasers is brought to you from Uglies by Scott Westerfeld, page 171.
When she awoke, the world was on fire.
 That's one scary scenario to wake up to.


MizB of Should Be Reading host this meme called Teaser Tuesday . Anyone can play along! Just do the following:  
  • Grab your current read
  • Open to a random page
  • Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
    BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
  • Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Suzanne Collins reads from the first chapter of MOCKINGJAY

Have you heard Suzanne Collins read from the first chapter of Mockingjay? If not check out the clip below

Saturday, 21 August 2010

In my mailbox week #33



In my mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kirsti over at The Story Siren. Head on over there to find out what other book lovers received this past week.

I have included links to Goodreads so that you if you see a book that catches your interest you can read more about it there.A little while a go or so I went a little crazy over at The Book Depository and I got my first bunch of books two weeks ago, now the rest is finally here. I have purchased almost all of the books myself except for Glee, that one I've been fortunate enough to receive from the publisher Headline(thanks a million! :D), and two of the other books I've mooched.:
The Demon Ring(Seven Realms #1) by Cinda Williams Chima
Merger(The Soterians #2) by Jacquelyn Wheeler 
Hatchet by Gary Paulson 
Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver 
Graceling(The Seven Kingdoms trilogy #1) by Kristin Cashore 
So that was it for me this week, now show me what you got in your mailbox.

Sunday, 8 August 2010

In my mailbox week #31 and winner of Glee goodie bag





In my mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kirsti over at The Story Siren

A week a go or so I went a little crazy over at The Book Depository and here's what I got so far(I expect there will be some packages for me next week as well):



My excuse? Well most of these books are sequels to books I've read before. Always good to have an excuse ready ;)


The winner of the Glee goodie bag was drawn with the help of Random.org and it gave me #28 which was Maria The Bookworm. Congratultions, Maria! I'll be in touch to get your address.