Category: Books

My list of read books

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Koalaens Kærlighed – Mads Nygaard

Faldt over denne bog på min mors boghylde, hun bliver ved med at købe bøger selvom hun egentlig ikke læser meget mere, men det er jo bare til min fordel. Så det røg ned i min taske da jeg tog hjem – altså efter aftale med min mor.

Grunden til jeg tog den med var det sprog Mads Nygaard anvender. Allerede da jeg læste på bagsiden kunne jeg se at det er et helt andet sprog end hvad jeg normalt støder på i et bog. Det er meget mere ligetil, talesprog, humoristisk, ligefremt.

Sproget flyder så dejligt i den her bog, det er let, flydende, humoristisk, rent ud sagt tanker sat i ord på papir. Hovedperson Magnus er forelsket i Karen, meget forelsket, faktisk så forelsket at han ikke kan finde rundt i sit liv.

Jeg vil ikke fortælle mere om denne bog, den taler absolut for sig selv når du først har læst omslaget på bogen.

Gå ned og køb den nu!! Eller smut forbi biblioteket på vej hjem fra arbejde 🙂

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Big little lies – Liane Moriarty

I’ve of course heard a lot about the HBO series based on this book, but I never got around to watching it and stumbled across the book one day while grocery shopping.

It’s great to read a book that gets under your skin and shows you that all kind of people have all kind of issues in their lives. Some worse than others though, but never the less, some can really tear a hole in your heart. It’s terrible to see that you hide yourself behind a beautiful facade in times where you should reach out to your friends. Your friends that are there for you, for better or for worse.

I read the book in a weekend and it’s really fantastic, normally I find some books are written in the same way and therefore not really surprising and the enthusiasm fades quickly. But for some reason this book kept me turning one page after the other, eager to get to know the characters and eager to find out who they are. Living in a perfect world or at least that’s what you see everyday on the social media it’s refreshing to see that even perfect people have issues. It sounds like I’m thrilled that the characters have problems and for some worse problems that no-one should ever live with. But the fact that they are portrayed as “real” people, everyone are sad every now and then, every one cries when something sad happens.

It’s wonderful to see that they come out on the other side, stronger relationships with each other and know themselves a little bit better.

After I read the book I watched the show on HBO. Eventhough they have altered the story a bit, it followed the book most of the way and it didn’t ruin the story.

So my words to you: enjoy both the book and the HBO version 🙂

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Den, der lever stille – Leonora Christina Skov

Til at starte med må jeg indrømme at jeg før Den, derlever stille ikka havde læst nogen af Leonora Christina Skovs bøger. Jeg startede med at følge hende på Instagram sidste efterår og blev derfor introduceret til hendes sidste nervøse “udbrud” i forbindelse med den – på det tidspunkt – kommende lancering af bogen. Et selvbiografisk billede af Christinas opvækst før hun blev til Leonora, og på en måde et helt menneske.

Bogen er blevet en kæmpe succes! Og jeg forstår godt hvorfor den er blevet så vel modtaget. Der er ikke mange mennesker som ikke kan se en del af sig selv i bogen. Det er grusomt at læse at et voksent menneske, en mor kan finde på at give sit barn skylden for ens eget liv har udviklet sig. En – måske – psykisk syg mor, dog uden en diagnose, som konstant giver sin datter, sit eneste barn skylden for hvad der lige var at gribe efter, alt kunne gøre Christinas mor ked af det og dermed gøre hendes far vred. For hvordan kunne Christina finde på at opføre sig på den måde, når nu hun ved at det gør hendes mor ked af det. Jeg er meget imponeret over den viljestyrke Christina vidste og tog sit gode tøj og flyttede hjemmefra så snart hun havde muligheden for det, da hun startede på universitetet og fandt en lejlighed på Amager. Men forældres arme kan række langt og bebrejdelsen var stadig en følgesvend. Hvad værre var – ihvertfald i hendes forældres øjne – var at Christina sprang ud som lesbisk og blev kæreste med en præst.

Det ender med at Christina, som nu er Leonora Christina, mister meget af kontakten med sine forældre og hører gennem sin mormor og kusine hvad der sker i familien. Leonora bliver stadig holdt udenfor og inviteres kun sporadisk og altid alene, altså uden hendes kæreste. Da Leonoras mor dør efter et årelangt kræftforløb er hun klar til at fortælle sin historie, og måske derved lukke for det kapitel hvor en datter konstant kæmper for at blive elsket af sin mor.

Ved at have fulgt med på Leonoras Instagram så jeg at hendes far kom med til lanceringen af bogen. Nogle gange havde jeg lidt ondt af ham, hendes far, hans faderinstinkt virker til at være næsten ikke-eksisterende, han har danset efter sin hustrus fløjte i 40 år, uden mange selvstændige tanker. Det hele handlede om at ikke at gøre Christinas mor ked af det.

Jeg synes Leonora Christina Skov får skrevet en rigtig fin bog om sin svære opvækst uden at svine sin familie til, selvom når man læser bogen engang imellem tænker på hvordan i alverden hun er kommet helskindet ud på den anden side og hvordan hun kan skrive bogen uden at lyde bitter.

Et stort tillykke til Leonora for en flot og velskrevet bog!

 

 

 

 

 

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A Thousand Splendid Suns – Khaled Hosseini

I borrowed this book from a colleague of mine that for some reason had it on his desk. He has read it several times and told me that I was welcome to borrow it. Who can say no to that!

I didn’t have any expectations to the book, I didn’t really know what it was about, except from what I read on the back cover.

It’s about Mariam and Laila, the two main characters of the book, two women in the midst of Afganistan during war and taliban regime, religious and male dominans. Mariam – a harami –  born outside of marriage and Laila born into a family with brothers gone of to war, a mother with severe depressions and a educated father who is no longer allowed to teach.

Circumstances – the war comes to Kabul – will that they end being married to the same callous, violent, physical and mentally abusing man Rashid. Mariam is unable to give him children and therefore she – in Rashid eyes – is not worthy of love and kind words. Not that he was a kind person before her several miscarriages. She is reduced to something that is there to wait on him, clean his house, cook him dinner and be used as his personal punching bag. After Rashids marrige to Laila his focus is moved to her and the fact that she is able to give  him children she is a shinning star – until it turns out that the first child she gives birth to is a girl.

The two women finally finds common ground after the birth of the girl. Since Mariam for years has been abused and degraded as a woman and  as a person by Rashid, she had at the beginning refused to connect with Laila. Mayby refused is the wrong word, Mariam hasn’t had any love in her life for years and was unable to find that side of her again until this beautiful baby girl was born. The friendship and mutual understanding between these two women, caught in the middle of war, fight for power, women degrading politics disguised as religious facts. Every time people needs to justify something outrageous they look for a religious script they can twist and turn the wording to make it fit to their insane ideas. Mariam and Laila are just trying to survive and to make their everyday functional and they are looked down at just because of the fact that they are born women. They are disposable.

Thankfully this story has a happier ending, Tariq, the childhood turned into adult love survives and Laila can start her live with the two children and the love of her life Tariq.

The story is told in a very respectful way. It is devastating how the war ruins so many peoples lifes, they are just trying to work, have a family life, enjoy their children, educate themselves, see the beautiful sites of their country. How religion is used as justification for undermining a certain group of people, when religion actually – mostly – tries to teach you love. It is heartbreaking to see that there is no help to find because your husband is allowed to do whatever he wants, eventhough he breaks you into pieces. It is heartbreaking to see that hospitals can no longer be used by women. It is beautiful to see how strong women are, the strenght of these women and how they rise from the ashes and keeps going, stand up after each defeat, and the friendship and love that triumphs the oppresion.

Beautiful book about the strength of people under the most devastating cicumstances.

 

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Shantaram – Gregory David Roberts

This is a book that I’ve been wanting to read for a long time. Finally I got my hands on the book and have so far read the first of five parts the book is divided into. The first part is about 150 pages and it kind of feels like the intro to the remaining story, but at no point is it boring. Eventhough you follow an everyday life of an exscaped prisoner in the midst of Bombay meeting what seems like people that you do not want to bring home to your parents, it sounds more like an adventure than a way down.

The following text will contain spoilers, so consider yourself warned.

Halfway through the book before he actually start his criminal path in life. I don’t condone his way of life as a criminal, but he puts so much emotion into his story. His feelings about what he do, how he feels about the people around him and how important they are to him. He loves to wonder about life, philosophize with equal minded, loves the diversity that India offers him.

Trough the book he gets more and more invovled in crimes and ends up in war, nearly dying of hunger and wounds, coming back to Bombay and continueing his path in a more hard core violent criminal environment.  In some way throughout the entire book he manages to write about his life in such a positive and loving way that I kinda forget how he gets through life. The love he has for the people he first met in Bombay – Prabaker – and the family he finds in the slum where he lived and worked as a doctor. The peace that he seeks when he sits by the seaside.

He seems a hard and distant man but at the same time he describes his feelings and emotions that he at the moment couldn’t find.

The book is some 850 pages but his writing is easy and at no point do you feel that it is too long. I especially enjoyed that he continued and respected his friendship with the Prabaker, Johnny cigar etc. in the slum. He takes in the Bombay life and feels it on his skin, in his head and in his heart. He feels he has found a family amongst these loving and embracing indian people.

So go find this book and read it, it’s a book about a mans journey to find himself again, finding his path in life, finding love again and allowing himself to feel.

 

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The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho

About 8 years ago I read The Alchemist for the first time and its a book I keep coming back to. Every now and then I read it again and I continue to feel uplisted, optimistic, positive, glad, calm, relaxed, and hopeful.

I enjoy the way Paulo Coelho writes, it’s not pompus, not using words where you need a dictionnarie to understand it’s meaning, he writes in an easy and accessible language, easy to read and still he manages to put meaningful messages into the sentences. He is short and precise in his writing but still he embraces you with his words. It feels as if you walk right next to Santiago and follow him on his journey.

Actually if I’m abroad, I usually want to bring home a souvenir and if I can’t find anything in particular that I want I normally buy a copy of The Alchemist. So far I have it in Danish, German, Italien, and French, the English copy I gave to a friend because the book teaches you so much about your self.

And when you want something all the universe conspires in helping you achieve it. It doesn’t mean that you can sit and wait for things to happen, you have to believe in your dreams, you have to open your heart and do your best to dare to look for your dream and enjoy the journey, enjoy your life and see the love. Go for it! Life is like an icecream, eat it before it melts!

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Gods behaving badly – Marie Phillips

If you want to read a comedy book, you should start with this one. Gods behaving badly is absolutely hilarious!

Since no one really believes in the ancient greek gods anymore they were expelled from Mount Olympus and moved to London. This is the story about Afrodite selling phone sex, Artemis now a professional dog walker, Dionysos club owner, Apollon a psychic in a television show and their meeting with the first one to believe in the greek gods for a very long time – Alice.

The story of greek mythology is brilliantly used and incorporated in the book and the language is light, easy to read and makes you laugh out loud. That is a rare thing to accomplish with a book, but the way Marie Phillips uses the language to describe the situations and dialogue between the characters are so funny that you simply cannot hold back.

This is a book that will never leave my bookshelf. It’s Prozac in bookform, it’s watching people slipping on a bananapeel, it’s watching bloopers from your favourite tv-show, it’s just hilarious.

 

 

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Still Alice – Lisa Genova

Still Alice is by far one of the best books that I’ve read. It stays in your heart and will never leave again. The book is about Alice, mother of 3 , wife, professor at Harvard University, proud of what she has accomplished and then …. Alzheimers.

All of a sudden her life turns upside down and so is her familys life. The fact that you read the book from Alices point of view makes is so much more … real, emotionel, sad, and beautiful. There is so much love in the book, that eventhough is it about her Alzheimers diagnose, and sometimes they reveal their sadness, anger, frustration over the fact that there is nothing to do to prevent the illness to slowly take away the mother, the wife, the ambitious professor that they all know so well and love.

The fact that Alice is only 50 years when she gets the diagnose just makes it more heartbreaking. So young and still have plenty to offer her students at the university, life with her husband, becoming a grandmother, enjoying the fruits of her labour.

It’s about a year ago that I read the book and 2 years since I saw the film, I still when I see the cover of the book, catch myself in looking out of the window and think about how short and fragile our lifes are. How important love and family are to a person. Why we should seize the day and do what makes us happy. Smile to the person who serves you your coffee, enjoy the break that you get when stuck in the morning traffic.

It is so vividly and realistic written that I tend to believe that it is a real story. Each one of us can become an Alice or one in our family can become an Alice, and this book can help us understand the illness and what happens to the family affected.

Thank you Lisa Genova for writing an unforgetable book.

 

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Yogisha X no Kenshin – Higashino Keigo

The Devotion of Suspect X is a crime story of a single mother Yasuko and her daughter Misato who in self defense kills her violent ex-husband and their neighbour Ishigami- a briliant math teacher – who helps them make an alibi for the murder. The detective investigating the crime ask for help by a physicist Yukawa who went to the same university as Ishigami.

A great part of the many books that I have read are crime stories. After so many crime stories I find it more and more difficult to be surprized both by the story but also by the characters. What I find most intriging and fascinating about the book is the Japanese culture. The behaviour of the characters is more interesting than the story. The way honor and respect is so important in their lives, how they express love … or choose to hide it. The daily routine, how they live, what do they do on a normal everyday evening. I haven’t read much literature from Japan, so it’s always an eye-opener.

The revealing at the end of the book is different than seen before, however it didn’t rock my boat. Luckily I’m not the only reader to this book and it has won numerous awards in Japan and has been adapted into films as well.

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Sapiens: A brief history of human kind – Yuval Noah Harari

I enjoyed this book very much!

Professor Yuval takes the reader on a journey that starts thousands of years ago and up to present day. He has based his written on a great deal of scientific literature and he has a light approach to book. Not to mistake that he doesn’t take the subject seriously because he absolutely does. It is meant as he makes the book readable for a larger audience and he shows he sense of humor.

He brings up big questions like, why are we the only human species left? Why did we grow to conquer the world? And how, when there are several of other species that can kill us in an instant? When did religion kick in and why? How did you evolve from hunter and gatherers to become farmers? Politics, economy, industry, societies and the size of them, he manages to cover a lot in the book without it becoming difficult to follow.

The book puts human behavior on the spot and it’s difficult to ignore that what he writes is what you see when you walk outside your front door.

I know the book is a few years old but I didn’t hear about until this year and I can’t wait to read his Homo Deus: A brief history of tomorrow. 

It is worth to mention that the scientific papers that is the I foundation of the book, can be seen in several ways and his book is not the final answer to the evolution of human kind, but the authors take on it.

The book is still very interesting and I will read the sequel. Enjoy the book and read it with an open mind and remember it’s not the key to our history but a possible answer.