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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The First Wife by Emily Barr

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A book I picked up at this year's book festival. The theme made me think of Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier, but it is nothing like it. Lily Button grew up with her grand parents after her own parents deserted her at a young age and emigrated to New Zealand. When they die she is on her own, without much experience of either life and other people.

She ends up in a city nearby and is happy to run into Al who is working for a municipality center, advising and helping people in need. He inspires her to get a job, guides her in educational matters and finding a place to live. She ends up in a family with divorced parents and children from their different marriages. It is a total new daily life for Lily compared to the quiet life she had with her grand parents. Slowly, slowly she starts embrace a normal life. She finds several jobs cleaning people's house. One house belongs to Harry and Sarah Summer. He is a lawyer and famous TV personality. She gets enthralled by their house and their life. When Sarah dies during a holiday in Barcelona, she is there to comfort the devastated widower.

It is a rather slow book as far as action is concerned, at least in the beginning. But it really helps building up the characters and gives us time to get to know Lily and her world. The story develops nevertheless all right and in the last part of the book it speeds up. Lily is charming and you really feel with her and you are happy when she is doing well. It is not just an ordinary love story, but mixed with a little bit of a mystery. Not all people are what they seem to be. It is a very well written and easily read story which also makes you think about life and its relations.

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