Why do you read books in English, if you’re not a native speaker of English? I mean okay, I love the English language. But there is something else:
So why do you read English books?
Today’s review is about Graham Joyce’s Some Kind of Fairy Tale, which I won over at Buried in Books at the Fairytale Fortnight a few weeks ago 🙂 Thanks again Heather!!
For twenty years after Tara Martin disappeared from her small English town, her parents and her brother, Peter, have lived in denial of the grim fact that she was gone for good. And then suddenly, on Christmas Day, the doorbell rings at her parents’ home and there, disheveled and slightly peculiar looking, Tara stands. It’s a miracle, but alarm bells are ringing for Peter. Tara’s story just does not add up. And, incredibly, she barely looks a day older than when she vanished.
Some Kind of Fairy Tale is set in a town in England and its surroundings and in a (parallel?) place where the so-called (or not called) fairies live. The England setting is really nothing special. The only image that somehow stood out for me was the Outwoods in spring while they were covered in bluebells. I liked Joyce’s description here but somehow, I still could not really smell the bluebells. As to the “fairy land” (I’ll just call it that way), I had problems connecting to it. Somehow the description of the setting did not feel complete for me. It did not really enchant me.
This is also something that I felt missing for some characters: completeness. There were quite a lot of characters involved in this story and it seems like Mr. Joyce could not make up his mind which characters were his main characters. Who were they? It is clear that Tara was one of them. But Peter? Richie? Jack? Mr. Underwood? Mrs. Larwood? Hiero? I could not connect to many of them because there seemed to be something missing.
As to the story, it is original, that is for sure. I really liked the idea and I really liked the outcome. What I did not like, was that it took me until chapter 10 to get into the story. That is almost 70 pages. When I chose this book, I was not interested in reading about a court case. I wanted to read about a fairy tale, or at least a fairy tale like story. I also did not want to read about a psychiatrist taking notes on a patient. These are two of the things that annoyed me most about this book: the court case and Mr. Underwood’s notes. The third thing has to do with writing style: Mr. Joyce hops around between perspectives all the time. Once you get into the story a chapter ends and you are in the head of another character again. This totally turned me off and was confusing. Of course, this technique works very well with 2 or 3 perspectives but with as many as Mr. Joyce used, it gets confusing.
All in all, Some Kind of Fairy Tale was a nice novel with an original story, that, unfortunately, was confusing and could have been an easier read, if only the writing style would have been different.
¹ http://www.randomhouse.com/doubleday/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780385535786
About a month ago, I won something so big, I still cannot believe it. The Book Depository often has so-called competitions where you can books and other stuff. And as I buy most of my books there, I always enter these competitions. I never thought I’d win something at The Book Depository because there’s probably hundreds of thousands of people entering their competitions BUT one day I had an e-mail from them and I almost thought it was a promo e-mail. Still, I gave it a second look and it said that I won a competition and that I will receive 15 different books. How awesome is that? Two weeks later, they were in the mail and as you can see, it was a very nice mix. Even my dad is happy about this win. He picked 5 books to read too 🙂
Many thanks again to The Book Depository!
So today I got something fun for you and unfortunately, it’s something probably only German speaking people will understand.
I entered a contest on Lovelybooks to win two audio books by Frieda Runge. They are called Die ehrlose Wildbacherin (The Dishonorable Wildbacherin) and Föhn über Brauneck (Foehn Wind over Brauneck). To enter I had to write a short story with a similar sound to it than the descriptions of the audio books. The short story should also be written in our local dialect.
Here’s my short story:
DA NAIGIARIGE METZGASBUA
Es woa an an Nochmittog um hoib drei, do is da Hias, da Bua vom Metzga, wieda spechtln gonga. Wia imma is a ummi zua Magdalena, da Pfoarraskechin. De Kich vom Pfoarra is untn im Kella und hod a recht praktisch’s Fensta bei dem da Hias von da Strossn oba eini schaun ko. Wiara do an dem Dog so schaut (und niagnds die Magdalena siagt), haut eam auf oamoi wea oadntlich ane aufn Hintan. Da Hias draht si um und so schnö ko a goaned schaun, hod a an Opfikuchn im Gsicht pickn. Wia a si den Kuchn ausm Gsicht wischt, siagt a die Magdalena vua eam steh. De schaut fuxdeifiswüd aus. Grod wia da Hias weglaufn wü fliagt a auf die Pappn. Die Magdalena hod eam s’Haxl glegt. Wia a zum rean ofonga wü, fongt die Magdalena o zum lochn und sogt: “Schea di zum Deifi Hias. Wennst mi wiaklich gean host, donn bringst ma des nexte Moi a poa Wiascht und kimmst bei da Eingongstia eina!” Draht si um. Und geht.
And today I got the message that I really won both audio books. I heard that they should be real fun to listen to. 🙂
Today, I’d like to share with you my favourite short film: The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore You don’t have to understand English to watch it because it works with a language we all understand: pictures & sound
This 2011 short film was directed by William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg and received an Academy Award in the category Best Animated Short Film.
Today I’d like to review a book I’ve read a few months ago: The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey. This book still keeps me thinking.
Alaska, 1920: a brutal place to homestead, and especially tough for a couple who have never been able to conceive. Jack and Mabel are drifting apart—he breaking under the weight of the work of the farm; she crumbling from loneliness and despair. In a moment of levity during the season’s first snowfall, they build a child out of snow. The next morning the snow child is gone, but they catch sight of an elusive, blonde-haired girl running through the trees.
This little girl, who calls herself Faina, seems to be a child of the woods. She hunts with a red fox at her side, skims lightly across the snow, and leaves blizzards in her wake. As Jack and Mabel struggle to understand this child who seems to have stepped from the pages of a fairy tale, they come to love her as their own daughter. But in the Alaska wilderness, life and death are inextricable, and what they eventually learn about Faina changes their lives forever.
I mainly chose to read this book because of its setting. I love the themes of wilderness and winter. And I love Alaska. What I also liked very much but what didn’t play a major role in the book, was that the book was set in the 1920s. Ms Ivey did a great job constructing the setting for The Snow Child. I really felt the cold and the woods. I could smell the trees, the water and the snow. And after all these months, I still can.
I also fell in love with the characters. I was able to empathize with all of them even though they were so different. This also brings me to the story. Especially Mabel changes with the arrival of Faina. She becomes a happier but sometimes more restless person. As a reader, I was able to feel all these emotions and never doubted them. Ms. Ivey writes a story full of joy and sadness. She manages to balance these two components and even though a feeling of loss has stayed with me since I’ve finished this wonderful novel, its storyline and setting are so beautiful that they will outbalance this feeling.
To all of you who don’t know the Sookie Stackhouse Series by Charlaine Harris, well, it’s basically a book series about a waitress from Bon Temps (a fictional town in Louisiana). Sookie is a special woman, because she can hear people’s thoughts. (And she has no idea why) The series starts when the vampires make their existence official to the human world. Soon, Sookie gets involved with her neighbour Bill, who is a vampire…
If you like paranormal romance, this is the series for you. It is full of vampires, werewolves, shifters and many more. There’s lots of mysterious things happening in Louisiana. And I love the Southern feeling you get while reading.
Reading order:
It’s vampire politics as usual around the town of Bon Temps, but never before have they hit so close to Sookie’s heart…
Growing up with telepathic abilities, Sookie Stackhouse realized early on there were things she’d rather not know. And now that she’s an adult, she also realizes that some things she knows about, she’d rather not see—like Eric Northman feeding off another woman. A younger one.
There’s a thing or two she’d like to say about that, but she has to keep quiet—Felipe de Castro, the Vampire King of Louisiana (and Arkansas and Nevada), is in town. It’s the worst possible time for a human body to show up in Eric’s front yard—especially the body of the woman whose blood he just drank.
Now, it’s up to Sookie and Bill, the official Area Five investigator, to solve the murder. Sookie thinks that, at least this time, the dead girl’s fate has nothing to do with her. But she is wrong. She has an enemy, one far more devious than she would ever suspect, who’s set out to make Sookie’s world come crashing down.
Deadlocked was not what I was hoping for. It started all right but it did never catch my full attention. Previously, I never wanted to stop reading a Sookie Stackhouse book, this time, it was always hard to pick it up again. I wasn’t really interested in finding out who killed the girl. I also wasn’t interested in reading more about what Sookie was doing on a day to day basis (shopping, cooking, checking her e-mails, not checking her e-mails,…). I wanted to read more about Eric. But there wasn’t much Eric in the book. There were hardly any relationships in the book. And it didn’t seem like any of the characters cared. It wasn’t like reading a book written in first person narration. I didn’t really feel much of a connection this time.
It seems to me like Charlaine Harris has used this book solely to get rid of a few characters and side plots, to prepare everything for the last book in the series. Unfortunately, she forgot that her readers appreciate a good story and some emotion… I was really looking forward to Deadlocked but unfortunately, it disappointed me.
¹http://www.us.penguingroup.com/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9781937007447,00.html
I’m so very sorry, but there’s so much going on right now, I barely got time to breathe. Still, I got some posts for you in the pipeline ’cause things have been happening in the world of giveaways, sweepstakes, movies AND I’m even trying to finish a book right now, so you might get a book review soon.
Now back to today’s topic. A few days ago, I entered a Milford sweepstake, forgot about it and found a little package at my doorstep today. In it, there was a package of tea that I chose in case I won, a pen, post its and four cute magnets.
A few days ago, Teekanne sent me two envelopes of Beerentraum tea (berry mix).
Taste:
Head: Fruity
Body: Citrus
Tail: weak Raspberry
Smell: Fruity, Berries
Overall rating:
Nice fruit tea, I might buy it again, though nothing special.
Hi,
I recently won a cook book in a sweepstake and this is it:
Neue Cuisine was written by Kurt Gutenbrunner, who was born in Austria and moved to the United States. There, he became a famous chef. He wrote a cook book in English called Neue Cuisine: The Elegant Tastes of Vienna and it became a hit. Now, it was translated into German and there it is, lying on my table – isn’t it funny?!
In the cook book, there are many classical Austrian recipes like “Wiener Schnitzel” but also others I haven’t heard of before, using typical Austrian ingredients. Neue Cuisine sure looks interesting!
Many thanks to Salzburger Landwirtschaft!
All That Magic 