For the past month or so, I have been borrowing my mom's kindle. I actually was not a fan of the kindle before. I claimed I would never use one or like one. But I have really enjoyed using my mom's kindle and reading the books on it. Maybe not enough to get one, but enough to change my view on them.
The main reason I borrowed the kindle was to read, "World Without End," by Ken Follet. This is the sequel to "Pillars of the Earth." This book is set in medieval England in the priory of Kingsbridge. There are some parts that are a little too descriptive (and by descriptive, I mean slightly vulgar), but otherwise the book was really good. It is really long (I think like 800 or so pages), and it's one of those books where there are 7 or 8 plots going on at the same time. A lot of the focus in this book is architecture and medieval business. Oh, and the plague!
Seriously, if you like medieval England, I would strongly suggest "Pillars of the Earth" and "World Without End."
I also read the whole "The Girl..." series by Stied Larsson. They are addicting! You can ask Bech...I read this series in less than a week...I just couldn't put it down. Again, these are also pretty long books. They are translations of Swedish books. Sometimes that is tricky, because the names of people are places are all Swedish. But other than that, the books are amazing.
The story is about Lisbeth Salandar and Mikael Blomvkist. Mikael is a journalist who Salandar, a private researcher, is helping with a story. The first book is about a family mystery, and the second two deal more closely with Salandar's past. These books are exactly going to go down in history as great literature, but they are really addicting and good.
"Little Bee" is a WONDERFUL book! Everyone should read this book! It is about a Nigerian girl who comes to England. It is a backwards story about her relationship with an English family.
The best part of the story is reading Little Bee's part of the story (an English lady is the other narrarator):
"...and I ask you right here please to agree with me that a scar is never ugly. That is what the scar makers want us to think. But you and I, we must make an agreement to defy them. We must see all scars as beauty. Okay? This will be our secret. Because take it from me, a scar does not form on the dying. A scar means I survived."
Finally, I read "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society." This book is one of those sweet, happy stories that you feel totally satisfied with when you finish.
The Channel Islands are the Islands between England and France, which belong to England. Guernsey is one of these islands. During WWII, these islands were occupied by the Germans for almost the whole world. One night a group of Guernsey people, after secretly eating a pig (which was illegal during the occupation), create a literary society as a cover. So then the group has to really go through with the society. And in turn, they learn to love reading and books and each other.
The whole book is told in letters, which I didn't like at first (it felt a little "Babysitter's Club" to me). But by the end I loved the style. I would strongly suggest this book. You will LOVE it!
1 comment:
It's a terrific book. She was a great writer; it's too bad it was her only novel before her demise.
I am in the awkward position of having written its "prequel," War on the Margins. It was published by Duckworth in the UK; the paperback is coming out in September. It is available for Kindle in the US. The Surrealist-artists-turned-Resistance-propagandists Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore figure prominently.
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