Classic/Historical · Non-fiction/Biography · War/Military

War’s unwomanly face – Svetlana Alexievich

4025275.jpg| GOODREADS | AMAZON | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥|

Goodreads synopsis: This book is a confession, a document and a record of people’s memory. More than 200 women speak in it, describing how young girls, who dreamed of becoming brides, became soldiers in 1941. More than 500,000 Soviet women participated on a par with men in the Second World War, the most terrible war of the 20th century. Women not only rescued and bandaged the wounded but also fires a sniper’s rifle, blew up bridges, went reconnoitering and killed… They killed the enemy who, with unprecedented cruelty, had attacked their land, their homes and their children.

Soviet writer of Bychorussia, Svetlana Alexiyevich spent four years working on the book, visiting over 100 cities and towns, settlements and villages and recording the stories and reminiscences of women war veterans. The soviet press called the book”a vivid reporting of events long past, which affected the destiny of the nation as a whole.” The most important thing about the book is not so much the front-line episodes as women’s heart-rending experiences in the war. Through their testimony the past makes an impassioned appeal to the present, denouncing yesterday’s and today’s fascism…

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My thoughts: I feel bad for giving this book only an three in rating. But it is not like I rated the history or something like that. It is the books broken structure that bugs the hell out of me. Let me start from the beginning.

In 2015 Svetlana Alexievich won the Nobel price in literature. I bought this book back in 2014 (yeah it as been in my bookshelf for 3+ years) and that she later on won a Nobel price has just gone pass me. Maybe I would have read it earlier if I knew it but oh well. Got to it eventually.

It is hard to write a review on a non-fiction book. This is history. This is true stories from a female perspective. Stories about how they stood at the front line with all the male soldiers and fought for their land. It is hard to believe. Some of them wasn’t even older than 16 year. I’m lucky enough to be born in a time where the war still was “fresh” and people who survived it still live and remember. In a time where most followers on Instagram, biggest lips or most money not was the most important in the world. I do, however, regret that I did not ask them more about that time. How was it for my family? Now, I have the stories in books and movies and it is not until now that I realized that all those stories is mostly told by men. And non of them is told by my family. So I will probably never know.

I’m not gonna talk so much about the books contents. It is hard stuff to read, hard stuff to hear and terrible. Just so terrible that there is no words to describe it. It gives you nightmares and it is hard to image a time like that. Hard to image that type of patriotism where you fight until death for your country. I left my country on my own free will, I don’t even know if I would be willing to fight for it if it ever came to that. That is how different our countries and time has taken us. We women (and men) today, should respect and celebrate those women who stood up like that, with fear and children on there backs. Fighting for what was theirs. Fighting for there country and a future for their children.

The big problem I have with this book, and the reason for its low score, is the structure. It was hard to remember who is who, it kept jumping back and forth in time and place and was just mostly confusing. Eventually, so that I would not quit the book, I started to ignore names. I started just to read the stories and listen for the history. Now I can’t say who did and said what. That is to bad, but the stories and history that these women told, is forever lodged in my head. And even if the structure is bad, I feel that everyone should read the book. Not for the history of it but for the perspective. And to have something who weighs against all the stories out there, who have been told by men.

Fantasy/Paranormal · Fiction/Science Fiction · Young, New adult/College

Ready Player One – Ernest Cline

20603758| GOODREADS | AMAZON | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥|

Goodreads synopsis: A world at stake. A quest for the ultimate prize. Are you ready?

It’s the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place.
Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets.

And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this giant networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune—and remarkable power—to whoever can unlock them.

For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that Halliday’s riddles are based in the pop culture he loved—that of the late twentieth century. And for years, millions have found in this quest another means of escape, retreating into happy, obsessive study of Halliday’s icons. Like many of his contemporaries, Wade is as comfortable debating the finer points of John Hughes’s oeuvre, playing Pac-Man, or reciting Devo lyrics as he is scrounging power to run his OASIS rig.

And then Wade stumbles upon the first puzzle.

Suddenly the whole world is watching, and thousands of competitors join the hunt—among them certain powerful players who are willing to commit very real murder to beat Wade to this prize. Now the only way for Wade to survive and preserve everything he knows is to win. But to do so, he may have to leave behind his oh-so-perfect virtual existence and face up to life—and love—in the real world he’s always been so desperate to escape.

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My thoughts: Great! Great! Oh did I tell you, Great book! Really. It was so “new” and unlike the most of the books I usually reads that it made it all better. It is, literally, a whole new world.

You get to meet great characters who have a miserable life for one or another reason. The real world is dying and the only way to handle the crippling depressions is to flee into another world. OASIS. The biggest virtual world game there is, with millions of planets and there you can be what ever you want, play games, meet people and what not. There is also an very special game in that world. A game where the price is to huge to comprehend. And Wade, our main character, wants it. At that is pretty much what the book is about. That and his fight for survival.

And it was great. The writing was just perfect and for a non Technic gal like me, I really needed those extra explanations. I can see how that is an source of irritation for people who already knows that stuff and probably makes the book wordy for them. But I needed it. However, I do feel that the technical talk got to be a little to much sometimes, and that made me fall out from the story. Just because of that, I cant give the book a full score.

In 2018 the movie on the book will come and I cant wait. It will be awesome to see the world and not just read about it. And since it is Spielberg who is directing it, it cant be other than great.

Have you or are you gonna read Ready Player One?

Fiction/Science Fiction · Mystery/Crime · Thriller/Horror

The Redbreast – Jo Nesbø

465226| GOODREADS | AMAZON | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ |

Goodreads synopsis: 1944: Daniel, a soldier, legendary among the Norwegians fighting the advance of Bolshevism on the Russian front, is killed. Two years later, a wounded soldier wakes up in a Vienna hospital. He becomes involved with a young nurse, the consequences of which will ripple forward to the turn of the next century.

1999: Harry Hole, alone again after having caused an embarrassment in the line of duty, has been promoted to inspector and is lumbered with surveillance duties. He is assigned the task of monitoring neo-Nazi activities; fairly mundane until a report of a rare and unusual gun being fired sparks his interest. Ellen Gjelten, his partner, makes a startling discovery. Then a former soldier is found with his throat cut. In a quest that takes him to South Africa and Vienna, Harry finds himself perpetually one step behind the killer. He will be both winner and loser by the novel’s nail-biting conclusion.

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My thoughts: I read the first two books in the series about Harry Hole in 2013 and 2014. They where not my favorites and I gave them both a two star rating. They did just not do it for me for several reasons. If it was not for that I bought the three first book at the same time and already had the book in my shelf, AND I have this 30 Books Before 30 list, I would probably not have read the third book. But now I’m so happy that I did. Because this was great. A five star rating, terrific, nail biting and heart wrenching great.

The story is awesome with the time jumps back to second world war and some of the people there. And Jo have done great work to make the history and past woven together with the present. You get a lot of clues trough out the book and, maybe I’m just stupid. but I could not for my life figure it all out hand how it all hanged together. I had my theories. In the end I did get a clear picture and felt really satisfied by that.

However, there is one “teeny tiny” event that did not get its rightful closure and that kind of stuff usually pisses me off. But, there is several more books in the series and I hope that in the future we will get full closure on it so I’m okay. And I as a reader do know the truth.

Everyday things

My First Order From Book Depository

CaptureYou all probably already know about bookdepository.com. The online store that have like every book you could think off and also have free shipping world wide. Yeah i know. Sounds to good to be true really, but my friend in Portugal praise them to the sky’s. Me, I have never made an order there. Until now. Before I didn’t because I could find the books cheaper in my own country or as an e-book from like Amazon. But there was one book I wanted in a physical form that I could not find anywhere. And since I already was at the store, I checked some other books and in the end I ordered three new books. And I´m really on a no buy plan right now. O well.

Do not know how long the shipping will take and according to my friend in Portugal, I will probably receive them in three different shipments. But that doesn’t really matter for me as long as I get the books.

The first book you probably already have seen circulating around on the internet since it´s movie have premiere in 2018. I have not been able to decide if I want to read it or not but finally decided that i should. It sounds like a sweet story.

The second book is the third book about Helen Grace. I have read the first two books and wish to continue the series. This is the one I could not find anywhere else.

The last book by Dean Koontz, I read as an kid an actually wrote about it in my post about my top 5 horror books. I really want to read it again so just had to order it to.

Have you read any of this three books?