The Content Reader

So, made it through all four books. They were great but like with all these sagas it tends to be a little bit repetitive and long towards the end. However, here is a real fairy tale and it seems they live happily ever after. The story is fantastic and it brings out all the morals that we all should live by.  A story of love and peace. In a way a family saga as well. The most amazing thing is that after having read it you really feel quite familiar with both vampires and werewolves!

What can I say? I am hooked! Who could believe this? Not me at least. I was never the one liking vampire books or even the idea. But this is something totally different. I did read 'Dracula' by Bram Stoker recently and found it rather interesting in spite of everything. To read the 'real' story instead of watching all the movies. I am also in the process since some time to read 'The Historian' by Elisabeth Kostova which has a vampire theme. Haven't finished it yet, but sure will do soon. It was pure coincidence that I got into the books. They showed the three movies on three consecutive days on the TV. Only managed to see the two first but that was it! I had a craving for reading the books. Now I have just finished the second one and am starting directly with the third one. I don't really know why it is so fascinating and why I get so into the story and the characters. Maybe the theme of eternal love! A love story that conquers everything. The sto...

  Trish, Kailana and Lisa are asking where we are reading? I read almost everywhere! When I am in Mallorca, which I was last week, my favourite place is a corner on the terrace. My reading corner ...and the view! Here is where I read! This is my beautiful reading corner when I am in Mallorca. It is nice in the summer heat because the sun does only come this far in the evening. In the winter it is not so but on a normal, nice winter day in Mallorca (and they are normally quite nice) it is still a pleasure to sit here. Book shop to recommend I also have to share with you a wonderful reading place I found this time. If you ever come to Mallorca you have to visit the 'Fine Books' shop (and maps) in the old city of Palma. Adress: Calle Morey 7 (off Plaza Santa Eulalia). It is an absolutely wonderful place. It made me think of the 'Cemetery of Forgotten Books' in Carlos Ruiz Zafón's book 'The Shadow of the Wind'. The shop has ...

The other book is 'Paganinikontraktet' (The Paganini contract) by Lars Kepler (being not one man but a man and wife!). Read with pleasure their first book 'Hypnotisören' (The Hypnotiser) which was almost unbearably exciting. The second is slightly different and moves in international circles. The head of the office for the Swedish War Material Export is found hanging in his living room. There is no chair under the rope but Chief Inspector Joona Linna still thinks it is suicide and not murder. Simultaneously, the sister of peace activist Penelope Fernandez is found dead on their boat with no trace of Penelope or her boyfriend. Without knowing why they are chased around the archipelago of Stockholm by a professional assassin.

Senaste numret av Skriva Vill dela med mig och ge tips om en fantastisk tidning för oss som gillar att skriva. Jag fick tillfälle att läsa ett förhandsexemplar av kommande numret av ‘Skriva’. Är du som jag intresserad av att skriva, oavsett nivå, så är detta tidningen för dig. Här finns något för alla bok- och skrivälskare, vare sig det gäller skrivande av blogg, noveller eller romaner. Varje nummer innehåller många olika artiklar om skrivande. Från smånotiser och tips om bra web-sajter under ‘Noterat’ till intervjuer och porträtt av författare. Specialister delar med sig av sina tips för hur man bygger upp karaktärer och intriger och hur man använder språket. Bokförläggare ger tips om hur man går tillväga för att få något publicerat och författarcoacher svarar på frågor. Det är med andra ord en tidning fullspäckad med nyttig information som berikar ditt skrivande. Det kommande juli/augusti numret har ’Deckarskola’ som tema. Vad kan vara mer lämpligt med tanke på alla bra...

This is a really good book. The story sounds very spooky when you read the back cover but it turns out that it is not. Ok, there are some pages but on the whole it is a thrilling story. Twenty years ago three 13-year old kids, two boys and one girl went into the woods to play as they usually did. Only one of them came out and he was found stuck to a tree in a terrified state, with blood in his shoes and no memory of what had happened.  Now, twenty years on a young girl is found murdered in the same woods and connections are made to the old case. The narrator is Rob Ryan, former Adam, the boy that survived the incident. He is now a detective in Dublin.  His partner since just a couple of days is Cassie Maddox, a tough young woman. There is a freshness in these two characters. They are very close friends and they have a relaxed jargon, raw but hearty and they take care of each other; best mates in other words. A third colleague is linked to the group and he has difficulties to u...

This is a book discussing the future of the book. Jean-Philippe de Tonnac (writer and editor) is interviewing Jean-Claude Carrière (writer, play- and screenwriter) and Umberto Eco (no need for introduction) on the future of the book in this digitalised world we are living in.  A philosophical discussion covering also other art forms. I myself can feel that there is no future for the paper book, but these two are still optimistic. Let’s hope that they are right. The book is written as a play write with dialogue and each session cover a subject. It is difficult to make a summary, but I would like to share with you some quotes from the book.

A while ago I went to a writer's meeting at the Sterling Bookshop in Brussels. It was a fabulous evening. Chris Pavone presented his new book 'Expats' which has got stunning reviews. He lived as an expat in Luxembourg.  Accompanying his wife who was to work a couple of years in Luxembourg he had to get use to being at home, taking care of the kids and all the things that makes the normal life go on. With a background in editing it seemed like a good idea to take this opportunity to write a book. It was a fantastic opportunity to meet the author and to put a lot of questions to him about his writing. The book being so popular so this might be the last time that you had the opportunity to meet him in such a private environment. 'Expats' is about expats but maybe not in the sense that we think about it. The book is set in Luxembourg (if you know it you will recognise you) as well as in other European countries and cities. In the centre of the story are tw...

This is a sort of Swedish ‘Da Vinci code’. The first book of journalist Jan Wallentin and sold to at least 14 other countries, so if you are lucky it might be available in your language. It is an easy read and difficult to put down. I finished it in no time at all. The story begins when a diver discovers a body in a mine shaft in Dalarna in the middle of Sweden. Due to the air deep down in the ground the body is well

One of our book club members recommended this book for discussion in our April meeting. To be ready in time I started early just in case. No problem there, it was finished in now time at all. It is a wonderful, steamy, violent, horrifying and interesting book. Allende, an excellent storyteller, tells a family saga from colonial Saint-Domingue, present day Haiti, in the end of the 18 th century. We meet a gallery of different people; white colonialists, military people, slaves, mulattos, young and old. Slave trade is the backbone of the colonialism. Without it they would not survive and prosper. It is the time when the slaves started to fight for an independent state, the foreigners fight for their plantations and life style, the military is doing their job and

This is quite a different book. I bought it because the title fascinated me, and the short summary of the story on the back cover. The story takes place during 1943-44. It starts in Trieste where a man is found beaten half to death in the street. He is taken to a German war ship where a doctor takes care of him. To everybody’s surprise the man survives. But he has no memory and he has no language. The doctor, who is Finnish, tries to find out who the man is. The only clue is the name ‘Sampo Karjalainen’ sown into the inside collar of his jacket and a handkerchief with the initials S.K. Presuming that the patient is Finnish he starts teaching him Finnish. However, the memory is not coming back so the good doctor thinks that the best idea would be to go to Finland. Once there, well-known places, peoples or incidents might trigger the memory to come back.  He manages to put the patient on a train and ship to Helsinki with a recommendation letter to a fellow doctor in the pocket....