Blogging Anniversary - 10 years

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A while ago I checked when I did my first blog post, in order to celebrate with an anniversary post. Well, that day came and went without any reaction from me. Better late than never, so here a reminder of my very first blog post from 24 October 2012.  The book was New Finnish Grammar  by Diego Marani. Marani is an Italian novelist, translator and newspaper columnist. While working as a translator for the European Union he invented a language ‘Europanto’ which is a mixture of languages and based on the common practice of word-borrowing usage of many EU languages. It was a suitable book to start with, being a book about letters, languages and memories. With a beautiful prose, the novel went directly to my heart.  "One night at Trieste in September 1943 a seriously wounded soldier is found on the quay. The doctor, of a newly arrived German hospital ship, Pietri Friari gives the unconscious soldier medical assistance. His new patient has no documents or anything that can ide...
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Favourite books in 2013

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This is the first time that I divide the books I have read into categories. My last post showed statistics on how many books could be related to each category. One can of course divide the books into another 5 categories, although I think it would make the numbers too small. So, which were my favourite books within each category? It is difficult to choose just one book but I must say that for all categories except maybe for Series there was always one that raised above the rest. In the Series category three of them were better than the rest. Here is the list:


Classics - Wuthering Height by Emily Brontë (one of my favourite books and although I have read it many times I always discover new things and I am always weak for eternal love, however devastating!)


Historical Fiction - The Duchess of Milan by Michael Ennis (a totally fascinating story of one of the many strong and fascinating female characters in history. Just make you want to read something else of Michael Ennis).
Mystery/Thriller - Grave Secrets by Kathy Reichs (surprisingly few books in this genre?! None of them really something extraordinary, which means I have to improve this year because I really like this genre. My reason for choosing this book is that it is rather thrilling and the characters from Reichs' books have been transferred into one of my favourite TV-series BONES!)



Non Fiction - Here were many good books but my vote goes for the biography of Charles Dickens by Claire Tomalin. Wonderfully written and what a fascinating character, although I am not sure I like him entirely. However, full of admiration for this very energetic person.

Other Fiction - The Garden of Evening Mist by Tan Twang Eng (an absolutely lovely book with a lot of levels. I loved the story of judge Yun Ling Teoh who had been a Japanese prisoner during World War II and her relationship with a Japanese gardener who helps her overcome her trauma. A wonderful tale in beautiful prose).
Series - The Sookie Stackhouse Novels by Charlaine Harris (has to be this one which I was totally
fascinated by. Her characters who are anything but pure humans, living in their own world within the real world is a fantastic tale. She has managed to incorporate all these characters and makes them believable. The series are the base for another favourite TV-series True Blood).



Some of my favourite books for 2013. Let's see what good books we can find for 2014!


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