The Content Reader

Robert Harris' excellent historical fiction on the Dreyfus affair was on the program for the second gathering at the library for "Read the book, watch the movie". We had a good discussion on both the book and the film. The film J'accuse  is French and directed by Roman Polanski. The French title is, as you all know, referring to the newspaper article that Emile Zola wrote in defence of Alfred Dreyfus and how he had been treated. It is a dreadful story and " has come to symbolise modern injustice in the Francophone world, and it remains one of the most notable examples of a complex miscarriage of justice and antisemitism." (Wikipedia). It was at times difficult to read about the judicial and military systems, and how they  produced false evidence, although they knew that Dreyfus was innocent. The antisemitism was shocking,  both to read about and watch in the movie.  "Paris in 1895. Alfred Dreyfus, a young Jewish officer, has just been convicted of treas

Already March and time flies. Here in Sweden, we have reached the end of the annual book sale, and for an offer of 'buy 4 books and pay for 3', I popped over to the book shop and managed, without much problems I have to admit, buy another four books. I was mainly looking for nonfiction, found only three, so added a fiction book I am eager to read.  New purchases Ödesmark (The Last Snow) by Stina Jackson - this is her second book about life and mystery in the north of Sweden. I loved her first book, Silvervägen (The Silver Road). She comes from the north of Sweden but lives in Denver, Colorado today. Excellent writing about life in a harsh environment, spiced with a mystery. Highly recommended if you have not yet read anything by her. The three nonfiction books are about Swedish history. From diligent historian, Dick Harrison, I choose Mordet på Gustav III,  about king Gustav III who was shot at an opera ball on 16 March, 1792, and died from his wounds a few days later. A famo

February has reached its end. Time for a wrap up of what I read this month.  FINDS The last week of by AnnaBookBel's Nordic FINDS challenge. Outstanding country was Iceland. I wanted to read an old classic, Salka Valka by Halldór Laxness, but could not get hold of it. Instead I found two books from my local library by Arnaldur Indridason that I had not yet read,  The Shadow District  and  Petsamo .  The challenge is finalised for this year, but Annabel is hinting that there might be another one next year. Looking forward to it, and hope to be more organised then. My own challenge a nonfiction from my TBR shelves chosen by a random generator -  Stalingrad  by Anthony Beevor -   I had no time to even start this book, so it will go with me into March.  a fiction from my TBR shelves chosen by a random generator -  The History of the Siege of Lisbon  (História do cerco de Lisboa) by José Saramago - I have started reading. I started it several times before but could not continue. Howeve