Sunday Snippets #11

Hellooo lovely people of the Internetz. I am here to talk about the week that has passed (almost, anyway). The weather has really caught up and it's proper cold and crispy now - I've worn mittens, yes I have.

 

It has been a nice and peaceful week, the usuals (work, Finnish class) plus getting outside quite a bit. I think the main focus this week was on food. I had been falling off my Paleo-train for a while now and became really frustrated not eating properly anymore, not to mention feeling constantly fatigued and out of energy because I had turned back to fast and crappy carbs (which, for me personally, just don't work). Sooo I decided to grab the reins and get back proper on the Paleo-train and that I have done, and maaan, the difference it makes what you put in your mouth! So much energy.

 

I made a really nice recipe discovery as well, I had been looking for a really good cauliflower soup recipe and tried some, but hadn't really felt that neither of recipes I tried would make it to my "to make at least once a month" list, until I tried this recipe - Paleo cauliflower soup with crispy bacon. I love Irena's site in general and have tried quite a few of her recipes. But this soup. Just so good. There's something about soups in autumn time and I could eat them like every other evening, probably.

 

I've read a lot of books this month in general (it must be my highest quantity month yet), but I don't want to start counting until the monthly recap. Last weekend I finished "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" by Milan Kundera, which was re-read and is now strongly competing against Atkinson's "Life After Life" in the category of "The Best Book of the Year So Far", after which I picked up "Ship of Magic" by Robin Hobb, and since it is a HUGE book (900 pages), I've only made it to half so far. That plus the fact that I've been a bit out of concentration to read in general this week. But it's so good! I would recommend Robin Hobb to anyone who maybe haven't read that much fantasy but wants to try, her books are so immersive, have simple enough language and number of main-ish characters usually does not form a small army (like it often happens with high fantasy).

 

Haven't watched much anything, except we did watch the first Harry Potter movie last weekend. Surprise surprise, the boyfriend is really enjoying the books :)

Top Ten Books I Have Read This Year

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the people over at The Broke and the Bookish and today's topic is "Top 10 books I've read this year". According to my Goodreads statistics, I've only read 28 books this year, but I can still easily make a Top 10 because most of them have been really nice reads. I don't participate in TTT a lot because most of the topics are not that captivating for me, but this one I felt is a really good one. 

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson has been the number one read in 2013 for me for quite a while now. What can I say - I loved this elegantly written time-folded story, full of interesting and life-like characters.

Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson - this clever story with fantastical elements was such a pleasant surprise! Never did I expect it would captivate me so. And let's not forget the jinni.

Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple - quirky, fast, captivating epistolary novel with hilarious and accessible characters. So funny.

A Dance With Dragons by George R. R. Martin - I heard many complaints about this one before I read it in the beginning of the year; however, I liked this one more than a few previous books in the series.

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde - big thanks to all who said good things about this book, it will be the series I will definitely continue with.



Germinal by Émile Zola - a haunting book, beautifully and descriptively written. There are scenes in Germinal I am not sure I can ever get out of my head.

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood - this was the first book I finished this year, and what a start to the reading year of 2013. Atwood's text is almost mesmerising.

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez - one of the best re-read experiences I've ever had. After plowing through this novel in high-school, all I remembered now was a bunch of guys all named Aureliano or Jose Arcadio, and a strange girl who ate soil. This time I devoured this book - such beautiful language (I read it in Estonian and it is one of the rare cases when I can say that the translation was absolutely brilliant), and my faith to magical realism has been restored.

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins - four words: fantastic characters, Marian Halcombe.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë - even though it is not one of my favourite books, I listed Jane Eyre because it was a very successful re-read experience. I saw completely different things than back when I read it at the age of teens. There is so much more than just questionable romance in this novel.

Useless statistical list: that makes - 

- one fantasy series book;

- one simply an awesome book;

- three Women's Prize contestants;

- five classics books. 

Closing the lid of April

Where are they?

Yay, May! It was already 10 degrees outside yesterday, and we took a nice walk. Felt good to wear a spring jacket for a change.

 

Reading wise, it was an odd month. I struggled with some slumps, which usually doesn't happen. As a result, I have several books now that I have started but have put aside for time being - "A Tale of Two Cities" by Dickens and "Wolf Hall" by Hilary Mantel. I have been struggling with classics, I only read one Classics Club book in April and that is not good. My main steam has all gone on books from Women's Prize longlist - three of those last month.

 

What I read in April 2013:

 

* E. Zola "Germinal" (for Zoladdiction event and the Classics Club)

* K. Atkinson "Life After Life" (Women's Prize shortlist)

* K. Garcia and M. Stohl "Beautiful Creatures"

* G. Willow Wilson "Alif the Unseen" (Women's Prize longlist)

* F. Segal "The Innocents" (Women's Prize longlist)

 

524 + 473 + 563 + 426 + 436 = 2522 pages (why can't I sometimes pick, like, really short books?)

 

Plans for May:

 

• I want to read more classics. Currently I am half-way through Margaret Atwood's "The Blind Assassin", which I added to my CC list, and I would also like to proceed with "A Tale of Two Cities".
• I decided to take part in my first readalong - we will be reading "The Hound of Baskervilles" by Arthur Conan Doyle (hosted by Unputdownables). It won't enable me to tick off a CC book, as I have added the complete collection of Sherlock Holmes stories there, but it will be progress.
• I am also fairly sure I will try to take part in the week long readathon Bout of Books 7.0. It's going to be interesting choosing books for that week.

Review: "Life After Life" by Kate Aktinson

Practice makes perfect.
/p. 468/

It's difficult to read "Life After Life" and not think about the movie "Groundhog Day". I finished this book less than an hour ago, and I feel the need to write about it, right away (writing slump 0 - awesome books 1).

 

What if you had the chance to live your life again and again, until you finally got it right?

 

That one-sentence blurb alone triggers a flood of thoughts. It's like having a small version of good ol' Doc Emmett Brown on your shoulder, warning not to meddle with the time paradoxes, or the outcome may be disastrous. Only, in this book, there is no "physical" time travel (as much as such a thing is possible) - something I would label as an active notion, but the subtle ideas of reincarnation (a passive notion) and the constant feeling of déjà vu. Ursula Todd, the girl living life after life, never encounters herself in the time, but she encounters her own actions, and notices how it can take the smallest of change in the route of events to change the future completely.

 

I think that such "time-folding" technique is something that can easily fail in the hands of many writers, but Kate Atkinson is so crafty. The story just flows, it is one of those devourable books. Her writing is simple and easy to understand, but behind those simple sentences there is so much to feel. And think about. The characters are so vivid and many of them grew to my heart, even if they did things I did not approve. I could still see where they were coming from. Sylvie, the Mother, is a good example. If transferred into today, I think I'd call her a "soccer mum", but she was a very complicated character, often moody and hard to understand. Yet I liked her. (Or maybe I should say I liked reading about her? Not sure to be honest.)

 

It is a book of what if-s. What if a certain incident had not happened on your 16th birthday, or it had happened somewhat differently? How would it change everything that was to come afterwards? What if Hitler never came to reign? What if he happened to die before the time? Even though the first thing to come to mind is that it would have ended in something good, you'd have to consider the possibility that it would have ended in something even worse (although I realise that "something worse" than II WW is difficult to grasp). And it takes one to the more philosophical, vaguer paths - is there happiness without misfortune, and isn't it so that bad things can turn out good, only you do not know it yet? And how much power should a single individual possess when it comes to changing the course of events? I am by no means nothing close to a history expert, but if I think of Hitler, Stalin and the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, also known as the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Soviet Union, and then think that what if someone had, say, shot Hitler in 1930, and then think of Stalin and the plans he had for the world... regardless of horrors of the Holocaust and everything else, to put it very simply - if Hitler had not ended up as a "meat shield" for Stalin, draining a lot of resources from both Germany and Soviets, it is actually possible that the history might have ended up even uglier...

 

But that is digressing. "Life After Life" is awesome because of all the thoughts it makes you think, of all the doors and windows it opens in your mind. Despite the temptation to "finally get it right", I don't think it's possible because "right" is one of the most relative subjects there is, changing in time and space. I think what I personally take with me from this book is amor fati -

 

"It means acceptance. Whatever happens to you, embrace it, the good and the bad equally. Death is just one more thing to be embraced, I suppose."

/p. 426/

 

---

477 pages

Brain Food, VI



I haven't written about books I've bought/received for a long while, so there is... horror! two piles to show at once now. Some of those I have even finished already, hehe.

From top to bottom:

 

* Hilary Mantel, "Wolf Hall" - was an impulse buy, but since I'm going through the longlist of this year's Women's Prize, and Mantel is in it with the sequel to the "Wolf Hall", the purchase has worked itself out quite fine.

* Sinclair Lewis, "Arrowsmith" - a Classics Club book that I got to read for the Spin event in March. Finished it, liked it. Might try out some more Lewis in future.

* Scott Addams, "God's Debris" - something that can be called "a mind exercise" by the author of Dilbert. The premise of this slim book seems very intriguing, I love literary mind games. Won it a while back from a giveaway.

* Ken Follett "The Pillars of the Earth" - another brick, which I can't wait to start! It's something about building a cathedral in 12th century and I have faith it's going to be a-we-some.

* B. N. Peacock "A Tainted Dawn" - another piece of historical fiction (I really do intend to make my grand foray into the genre). Travelling by the sea and military conflicts. I won this book.

* Susan Wise Bauer "The Well-Educated Mind" - it's a book that is supposed to help us read and interpret classics. If it will manage to make me ask more questions about books, and seek more answers - good.

Women's Prize 2013 books:

 

* Gillian Flynn "Gone Girl" - read it in a few days, had some issues, but I think it's a good book for people who are after fast-paced writing and story twists. I personally am more focused on the depth and style of writing, which is why plot-based novels ain't quite my thing, but I'm glad I read it (bought it before I knew it was longlisted for WP). But, I don't expect I will try other of Flynn's works any time soon, if at all.

* Elif Shafak "Honour" - set in London, Istanbul and a Kurdish village, I'm looking forward to this one, but I will probably read the other books from this pile first.

* Francesca Segal "The Innocents" - I see family drama. Expecting this one to be a hit or a miss.

* Barbara Kingsolver "Flight Behavior" - I haven't read any Kingsolver and I want to love her, so I am very, very apprehensive towards this book.

* Kate Atkinson "Life After Life" - reading this one now, and loving it so much. Almost don't even want it to end. Fascinatingly structured novel.

* Maria Semple "Where'd You Go, Bernadette" - read it, loved it, need to write about it. The humour! But then again it is no wonder considering that Semple has written for Arrested Development, one of the funniest TV-shows there is :)

Closing the lid of March

We can has some of that? Please???

*punches the writing slump in the face* there...

 

March is almost over, and spring is nowhere to be seen. What gives? I'm so tired all the time that it's not even funny anymore.

 

Just out of curiosity (and possibly in masochistic desire to shock myself) I went through all the Brain Food posts since the beginning of January (added the books I have gotten in the past weeks and have not put into a post yet) to make a little calculation of how many books I have acquired and how many of them I have read.

 

 

Books hoarded - 35 (of which 3 I received for free, 1 is a lent book, and the rest I [or my boyfriend] have paid for).

Books read - 13.

 

I think it could be worse. My Classics Club project includes many of the books that come from my already-earlier-existing library, so I am not reading only the new books. Most books I have bought are classics, plus I am also going through some of the novels longlisted for this year's Women's Prize. It is also noteworthy that the classics I buy are not necessarily meant for reading right away, but they are more like long-time investment.

 

Anyway, back to March.

 

It was surprisingly good reading month, mainly because I managed to balance nicely between the classics and other stuff. I read six books - three classics and three "others":

 

* J. Austen "Persuasion" (for Classics Club)

* G. Flynn "Gone Girl" (from Women's Prize longlist; however, I read it before I knew that it was longlisted)

* E. Hemingway "For Whom the Bell Tolls" (for Classics Club; for Modern March event)

* S. Lewis "Arrowsmith" (for Classics Club; for Classics Spin event)

* J. Picoult "My Sister's Keeper"

* M. Semple "Where'd You Go, Bernadette" (from Women's Prize longlist)

 

Page count - 236+466+490+450+500+321=2463.

 

In April, I will participate in Zoladdiction event. Although I initially planned to go for two Zolas, I have changed my mind by now and will be reading only "Germinal". I would like to dedicate more time to Women's Prize books - I have Kingsolver's "Flight Behavior" and Segal's "The Innocents" at home, plus this week the boyfriend ordered me Atkinson's "Life After Life" (can't wait to stick my claws into that one!) and Shafak's "Honour". I also can't wait to start Hilary Mantel's "Wolf Hall".