The Content Reader

This post is written also for the Read the Nobels  hosted by Aloi ( Guiltless Reading ) Harry Martinson is a Swedish Nobel Prize Laureate, receiving the prize in 1974 together with another Swedish writer Eyvind Johnson ”for writings that catch the dewdrop and reflect the cosmos”. He also wrote poetry, and is one of the best known ’proletarian’ writers in Sweden. I have finally got around to read one of his most famous and auto-biographical books,  Nässlorna blomma  (Flowering Nettle). It is about the boy Martin (Martinson’s alter ego), 7-11 years old during the story, and whose mantra is ”my father is dead and my mother is in California”. Martinson lost his parents at a young age; his father died and his mother left him to move to Portland, USA. He spent his earlier years in foster care. It has certainly influenced his writing in general and is specifically present in this novel. We follow Martin from when his father dies and his mother leaves the children behind...

Has finished the "K" Sue Grafton alphabetical series about female detective Kinsey Millhone. This one is from 1994, and I remember having read one in the series many years ago. I like it although I can't remember which one. I read this one in Swedish and maybe that is why I did not entirely like the writing, which could be due to the translation. It felt a little bit 'formal' at times and did not fit the overall tough, hard core writing and dialogue. Furthermore, there were some excessive 'milieu' descriptions which was a little bit repetitive and over the top. Having said that, I really like the murder mystery itself. It was rather slow, but you really get a feeling for the way a private detective have to work. Slowly, slowly finding small pieces of information leading forward, or not. When the story starts our detective is hired by the mother of Lorna Kepler to try to find her murderer. Lorna died a year ago, and the police put it down to suicide. He...

Summer is normally the time when routines are broken. You go on holiday, enjoy the sun, relax and have time to read more books. For me, this summer is something out of the extraordinary, and not exactly relaxed, even if it has been enjoyable in another way. View from our flat, over the limestone quarry  First of all my son is home from his studies. Always very nice, but it means that my office is gone! Yes, I have made his bedroom my office and now he has taken it back.  I have moved to the dining room table with my laptop, which means running around for things I normally have around my desk, taking all the more time to do simple things. But, I am not complaining, having him around is a bliss. My new desk (with possibility to change the height electronically), here as a temporary eating table Another thing that has broken my routines is that we have bought two flats in Sweden; one for us and one for our son. That generates a lot of administration and travels bac...