Book Review: Foe by J.M. Coetzee

I can't believe I haven't done a "Book of the Month" since July! I have been reading books but I just haven't been writing about them.

I had to read Foe for school, I don't think I would have picked it up otherwise. It's not that I dislike this book it is just that I can't stand books written in 1st person and this one is written that way. There is just too much of rambling and Foe is just rambling!

Foe is J.M Coetzee's answer to Robinson Crusoe (by Daniel Defoe) it is written around a woman named Susan Barton and her endeavors. In the beginning of the books she arrives to the same island Robinson and Friday are living on. They all embark on a journey to London, Robinson doesn't survive the trip.

In London Susan meets Mr. Foe (supposedly Daniel Defoe) and starts writing him letters, he never answers those letters. Susan goes to Mr. Foe's house and notices he has gone in hiding and starts living in his house and pretending she is his housekeeper.

The story isn't over then but I don't wanna ruin the surprises that are on the way.

Whilst reading the story I pitied Susan, she was just such a whiny little bastard! To add on everything she pretty much stalked Mr. Foe since he was supposed to make her famous.

A part of the book made me quite sick, that is the parts when Susan is (what I can only assume) being raped, first by Robinson and then later by Mr. Foe.

In this quote Susan woke up and realized Robinson was fondling her:

"I pushed his hand away and made to rise, but he held me. No doubt I might have freed myself, for I was stronger than he. But I thought, He has not known a woman for fifteen years, why should he not have his desire? So I resisted no more but let him do as he wished" (page 30)

Similar thing happened when she was with Mr. Foe

"Then he was up on me, and I might have thought myself in Cruso's arms again; for they were men of the same time of life, and heavy in the lower body, though neither was stout; and their way with a woman too was much the same. I closed my eyes, trying to find my way back to the island, to the wind and wave-roar; but no, the island was lost, cut off from me by a thousand leagues of watery waste." (page 139)

I find these quotes describe Susan's character quite well, she just doesn't really care things just seem to happen to her.

I would recommend to read this book, it's sadly not available for kindle but it can be bought at Amazon.com   for $10.44

Book Review: Soulless by Gail Carriger

I finally finished Soulless by Gail Carriger, I say finally because I've been talking about it for a while now! I bought it when I was in Helsinki  and just never finished reading it! The golden opportunity came when I was stuck in London over a night for a layover. There in the underground I finally finished it! FINALLY! 


The strange thing is, that this book is quite good. It's interesting and funny and the story line is not that bad! For me that rarely happens these days! The main protagonist of the story is Alexia Tarabotti. Alexia is preternatural, being preternatural means that she doesn't have any soul (in the books), whenever she touches someone that is supernatural they  some of the other characters in the book are Lord Conall Maccon a werewolf and the alpha of the BUR (Bureau of Unnatural Registry). Lord Akeldama a gay vampire that knows all the things that are happening. 


There are a lot of characters in this book and I got sometimes confused by the massive amount of names. Another thing I didn't like was the ending, well the way the ending was written, all mashed down into couple of pages.


The story itself was quite intriguing, there was some steampunkness but not too much, there was decent amount of romance but it wasn't too mushy. Most of the characters were likeable and the story had a good flow! 


And now for my favourite part of writing about the books: quotes!

   Page 65: Miss Tarabotti stood, marched over, and grabbed Lord Maccon's wrist. His teeth retracted instantly. The earl's yellow eyes went back to amber-brown. It was the color they must have been years ago before he yielded to the bite that made him supernatural.

     Page 112: The kiss itself was quite gentle: slow and soft. Alexia found it surprising given the violence of his embrace. She also found it faintly unsatisfying. She gave a little  murmur of frustration and leaned in toward him. Then the kiss changed. It became harder, rougher, parting her lips with purpose. There was even, shockingly, tongue involved in the proceed. 

    Page 191:  One of the other men broke away from the fighting group and sprinted after her attacker. Alexia doubted he would arrive in time. The waxed faced man moved with utter efficiency and economy of motion, less a man running than a water snake slithering. 

   Page 232: Lord Akeldama and Alexia both stood. Alexia grabbed her brass parasol, gripping it firmly in both hands. Lord Akeldama reached for the gold pipe art piece from the mantel. He pressed hard at a hidden button in the midpoint, and a curved, hooklike blade sprang out each end of the pipe and clicked into place. One was sharpened ironwood, the other solid silver. Not art, as it turned out.

Gail Carriger has written three other books with the same character, the forth one is supposed to be published in March 2012. I'm planning on ordering at least Changeless for my kindle this summer.  

   
                                                                                                                                 

Right now I'm reading The Name of the Wind - Kingkiller Chronicles, Day one  by Patrick Rothfuss. I've read 11% of it and like it so far. Check out my other Book of the Month posts.

Lots of Love

Book Review: Hanna's Daughters by Marianne Fredriksson

I haven’t been writing since I’ve been travelling. I’m actually writing this in the airplane and watching What Happens in Vegas with Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher.

I finished reading one more book, this is the 6th book that I read this year, maybe I’ll manage to read 52 books this year.

The book I read this time is called Hanna’s Daughters by Marianne Fredriksson. Sadly this book was absolutely awful. It’s seriously the worst book of all the books I’ve read this year! Horrendous! I had to strain myself to finish reading this book! It went from 3rd person to 1st person in the same sentence! All the names were the same and there wasn’t much of a thread in the story.

The basic story was quite good, the thing this book needed was a very very very good editor and being rewritten almost completely! I’ll try to explain what this book was all about but it’s hard since I really didn’t understand it all.

There are three main story characters. There is Anna, Johanna (Anna’s mother) and Hanna (Johanna’s mother). The story is the story of their life. It starts with Anna and her life where she wonders about the life story of her mother and grandmother. She starts writing down the stories of her female ancestors.
Here are some quotes from the book:

Page 48: Hanna walked home through the forest with a dizzy sense of being too much. She’d be mistress in her own house, a house as big and fine as at Lyckan.

- Hanna the grandmother, just got the news that she would marry a miller.

Page 93: Eighteen months after Little John was born, the next boy arrived and, as expected, was like the Eriksson family, large brown eyes, straight nose and dark brown hair. Maja-Lisa was proud as if the herself had given birth to him and decided that he was to be called Erik after her father.

- Maja-Lisa is Hanna’s mother, this quote is about Hanna’s third born son.

Page 180: Right from the beginning Anna had had an inkling that Rickard had little self-confidence. An autocratic mother? A weak father? But when she was young she hadn’t wanted to understand. Constantly understanding was a danger to yourself. Her mother’s life had taught her that. Johanna was one of those who always understood, so had had to endure a great deal.

- Anna talking about her husband Rickard and her mother Johanna.

Page 207: My life has been divided into two halves. The first half lasted for eight years of childhood, so was the same length as the remaining seventy. When I look back on the second half, I find four stages that changed me.

- Johanna talking about her life stages.

Page 245: That night I found it hard to sleep. I lay there, twisting and turning, trying to get the pictures of Arne to fit together. The young man who’d bravely stood up at the meeting and been mocked for agreeing with justice for women. The sailor who was so bold at sea. Politically clear-sighted, intelligent and knowledgeable. Foreman. And then this feeble creature sneaking away from his mother.

-Johanna talking about her husband Arne.

I really do not recommend reading this book. I do recommend Marianne Fredriksson to maybe rewrite this book and republish it! Because the basic story is good!

The book that I just started reading is called Soulless by Gail Carriger, it hasn’t started well so I hope it get’s better, I’m always very hopeful that the books do get better! I might need to start reevaluating the books that I pick to read!

What should I read after Soulless?

Book Review: My Last Duchess by Daisy Goodwin

The last book of the month is My Last Duchess by Daisy Goodwin. Daisy Goodwin is born in December so we are month buddies (I count all people that are Sagittariuses to be my month buddies!). This is her second book. Her first book, Silver River, was published in 2007 and is a memoir of her own life.

My Last Duchess was published in August 2010, it's a romantic story about a girl named Cora Cash and her journey into adulthood and life in general. Cora is a wealthy heiress in 1890 in America. Her mother biggest dream is for Cora to marry someone with a title so they move to England. In England Cora falls in love with a Duke and the story doesn't end there!

I did quite enjoy the book. Cora is a lovely character and you can feel for her. You can sense her loneliness and the bitterness between her and her mother without getting to annoyed at them.

What I didn't like was the supposedly twist that wasn't much of a twist for me, it jumped out on the first page when she met the Duke for the first time! Otherwise the book was good.

Some memorable quotes:

     Page 35: She smiled when she saw Lincoln waiting for her in the stable yard, twitching his head impatiently. A sixteen-hand grey stallion, Lincoln was the finest product of her father's stables. Core was not ready to admit that she might find a British horse to suit her, so she had brought her favourite hunters with her, walking them every day on the deck the SS Aspen, her father's steam yacht.

Cora about her horse Lincoln, I can just so easily imagine this scene happening.

     Page 57: Mrs Cash had wanted to leave Sutton Veney as soon as she had received her daughters note, but Lord Bridport had persuaded her that it would be better to go in the morning. As she sat down to dinner, Mrs Cash was grateful for the opportunity to find out something more about the man she now thought of as Cora's duke.

Mrs Cash can see a glimpse into her long lasting dream of Cora getting married to someone with a title.

     Page 89: So she had come fully prepared for the brief moment of disappointment when she would see the Duke shaping himself around the bulk of her inheritance. She was almost looking forward to seeing him moulded by its weight. It had not occurred to her that he could be indifferent.

Cora about the Duke.

      Page 128: The staff of Lulworth  were lined up on the grey stone steps as the carriage drew up, the male servants on the left. the female servants on the right, from the butler and housekeeper right down to the scullery maid and knife boy.

 When the Duchess (the Dukes mother) came for  visit.

All in all I quite liked this book and would recommend it. It has quite the charm and it flows very well. It is well written and that can save any type of bad twists.

Book Review: The Belle / The Brothel by Lesley Pearse

This is the second book for February! The Belle (or apparently The Brothel) by Lesley Pearse. Lesley doesn't have her own Wikipedia page! But I found something interesting on her own page.

Number One bestseller Lesley Pearse has created in Belle a heroine for our times: a strong woman who stands up for right in a world turned bad.

 Well I'm sorry to say, that's just wrong. The book is 574 pages and usually I prefer long books because the description is most of the time better. This book consists of 574 pages of copy-paste and you get so tired of it. I somehow assume that Lesley Pearse was paid by the word count!

Anyway, the book is about Belle who is sold into prostitution. Her family and friends search for her endlessly but she decides she likes selling her body for 2 dollars a night and that she is good at it so she does it but hates herself for liking it. Meanwhile a boy that fell in love with her before she was sold still loves her but she doesn't even write home because she is a prostitute. 574 pages later you want to slap some sense into her or burn the damn book!


Quotes from the book (no freaking favorite!)

  Page 99: It was bad enough that they were taking her to France, but Sly was sickened when Kent wanted her put in the trunk. Waiting so long at Dover had been one of the most agonizing times he'd ever known. If she'd woken up and started hammering on the trunk and alerted people, Sly knew he'd be facing a very long stretch in prison.

The kidnapper of Belle having some doubts.

  Page 211: The young man was growling more and more exited as Betty stripped off her clothes, and as she climbed up on to the bed and knelt beside him, she lifted her chemise to show him her private parts. Belle could see that she had a very luxuriant mount of dark curly hair there, and as the young man reached out to touch it, Betty groaned and arched her back, inviting him to take liberties with her.

Bella watching Betty (another prostitute) do her job.

  Page 246: It was she who had to put up with the men groping her, gawping at her, saying crude things, pawing her, fucking her and finally maybe even giving her the pox or making her pregnant. All Martha did was sit on her fat backside and watch the money flow in.

 Bella not happy about her pimp (Martha) getting all the money.

  Page 306: Almost daily she wished she were back with the other girls in Martha's kitchen over long, leisurely breakfasts, sitting around in their nightdresses with tangled hair, everyone talking at once about the night before and shrieking with laughter as one of them described a particularly odd experience. Then there were those lazy afternoons wandering the French Quarter or lying around in the back yard chatting and sipping cold drinks. She'd even give anything to hear the front-door bell tinkling, although that meant a gentleman was coming in and suddenly they all had to turn on seductive smiles and brace themselves for what was to come.

Bella being all sad when she didn't have to be a prostitute anymore.

  Page 551: Her eyes were growing used to the gloom now and she saw him pick up a lenght of cord to tie her hands behind her and round her ankles in much the same way he had the first time he captured her.

 Bella being kidnapped by the same guy again (she got kidnapped about 4-5 times in this book!)

I think these are enough quotes mostly because I really don't want to copy more of them!

Book Review: Purge by Sofi Oksanen

This month (February, yea yea I'm late) I read 3 books! (Purge, Belle and My Last Duchess). I'm going to write about them and some more this week/weekend so there will be a bunch of posts!

First I'll tell you about Purge. This is Sofi Oksanen third book. It was first a play that morphed into this book. The play was staged at the Finnish National Theatre in 2007. The book came out in 2008 and there will be a film coming from it in 2012 (talking about a cash cow book!). Since I do not read any Finnish (well 3 words don't count as being able to read in a language) I can't read Sofi's other books. Some of them are being translated but not in English. I'm not even so sure if I'll read the other books (Baby Jane and Stalin's Cows) because Purge was not that well translated.

Maybe it is the original version that is badly written but somehow I doubt it since it has gotten tons of prizes. The fact is as well that the subject isn't much written about so that gives the book a lot of leverage. 

The book main story happens in 1992 but it fluctuates a lot. Almost every chapter is a different year. It goes from World War II to 1992. The main characters are two women, Zara and Aliide. Aliide lives in a little house in a little village in Estonia and Zara is a Russian girl forced into prostitution.

Well, here are my favourite quotes from the book:

Page 61: She carried herself like a dog that has to constantly look out for kids trying to step on its tail

Aliide describing Zara.

Page 72: She took the red leather skirt and red high-heeled shoes out of the cabinet. Her shirt was a child's shirt. Pasha thought that only children's shirts were tight enough to arouse men's desires

Zara waking up and getting dressed.

Page 170: His long armpit hair was yellowed with sweat and funguslike, in spite of its thickness, like rusted steel wool. A belly button like a cavern and balls that hung almost to his knees.

Aliide describing her husband Martin

I find that the book is supposed to shock and is written that way. It is a good book and I do recommend it. I liked it when I was reading it but the ending was horribly written/translated so it really ruined the entire book. I found as well that the characters were a bit to whiny and needed to put their big girl pants on and deal with it instead of whining in the corner. The "big secret" that this book is based on was as well not very well put out since I realized in the beginning of the book so the super emotional revelation was more ridiculous then anything else.

Damn, I was going to write good things about this book! Well next book (that's a lie it was weak as well!)

Book Review: Black Hills by Nora Roberts

Since I'm on a holiday I started reading more and I love it. I always forget how amazing it is just to chill and read a good book. The book I just finished is called Black Hills by Nora Roberts. Nora Roberts has written more then 209 romantic novels. I always find it very strange when authors have written that amount (and more) of books. Black Hills was a decent book, it started slow and it had not a very well written ending (I'm still searching for the perfect ending!). The middle and right before the ending was good. I find that books never actually that good, for me finding a book that amazes me is almost impossible (that is why I decided to write something about all the books I read this year).

Black Hills is about Lil Change and Cooper Sullivan (horrible names!!) and their journey trough life. It spans quite a lot of years but has long gaps in between them. The years are 1989, 1997 and 2009. Biggest part of the book happens in 2009 when Lil and Cooper are grown ups. The book is in as well 3 parts (has nothing to do with the years so I've no idea why she chose to break it extra down as well in 3 parts). The parts are called Heart, Head and Spirit. I think it would have been cooler if all the parts would have started with H!

My favourite quotes from the book:

Page 49: It was weird, it was strange, it was unexpected. But she had the hots for her best friend.

-Lil's thoughts.

Page 289: She dragged at his thermal, yanking it up and away, impatient now to feel him.

-Lil again, my question, since when was thermal underwear sexy? The last thing I think about when I wear my thermal underwear is someone yanking them up and away.

Page 316: She kept her eyes closed, listened to him go down. Waited until she'd heard the front door open, then shut behind him. And gave into the turmoil he managed to set off inside her. As the rain pounded, she cried herself to sleep.

-I really love this quote, Lil is a very strong character but still manages to have some feelings.

Page 375: "And you like the sex."
"And I like the sex," she said, very coolly.

-Lil and Cooper, this quote just made me laugh a bit when I read it.

Page 383: "No. Or it doesn't matter as much as the fact that I love you. I've waited this long. I can wait until you stop being mad at me."

-Cooper, I find how he (and most of the other male characters) speak/think is quite womanly.

Page 397: "I'm not going dewy-eyed over dream children,Coop."

-I like how direct Lil is here, Nora Roberts really good at writing the girl part in this book the guy parts aren't really special.

All in all the book was fine, I'm not sure if I want to read any other book after Nora Roberts (there are MANY), I somehow am quite sure that they are all very very similar. I'm not saying never!

Book Review: Trespassing By Uzma Aslam Khan

I decided to take some time away from the school books when I went to Copenhagen this weekend so I decided to read a normal book. The book that I chose was Trespassing by Uzma Aslam Khan. I picked the book because of the cover. Yea yea I know, don't judge the book by it's cover but the cover on this one is absolutely gorgeous. The book is very good, I liked how Khan organized the book, there where some twist, one of them caught me off guard but the rest of them I actually realized in the beginning (sadly but normal). The writing is good as well, there are some sentences that are odd.

Page 382: He loosened his shalwar and crapped a stream of rewri three feet from Fatah

That image didn't leave my head for many more pages and it's not even the only poo related sentences in the book.

Page 151: It was just 8 A.M. The mourners would start arriving around nine. There were fewer, now that three weeks had passed since his father's death, but still more than he wanted to meet. He combed his hair and braced himself for another day of being the Amreekan orphan.

The boy in this quote is called Daanish (not pronounced Day-nish)

Page 30: The nails were painted pink to match her freckled flesh. She was broad , heavy-bosomed, about five foot six and proclaimed, "You're so graceful, Day-nish." His chlorine-blazed eyes blinked. He'd forgive her inability to say it. For the first time in his life, he'd been sought.

All in all this is a good book and I'll probably read it one day again. I think I'll even read some other books that Uzma Aslam Khan has written like Transgression and The Geometry of God.