Book review: One Day by David Nicholls

A great book to read on vacation on a sunny beach (sipping away cocktails is optional ;-)

One Day by David Nicholls

Dexter and Emma spend the night together following their graduation in 1988. They talk about how they will be once they are 40. While they do not become romantically involved completely, this is the beginning of their friendship. The novel visits their lives and their relationship on July 15 in successive years in each chapter for 20 years. source: wikipedia

The format of this book makes it very interesting to read. You get older with them and it feels like you really, really know them. I've laughed out loud (which startled my sleeping husband), cried and got really angry at Dexter while I was reading this book.

It is funny, sad at times but above all it is a great must-read love story.

Fact:

• 435 pages 
• read in English
• One Day (the movie) was released in 2011. Starring Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess
• On Spotify you can find Emma Morley's Mix Tape. In the book she makes a mix tape cassette for Dexter in 1989 and 2000.

edit: I watched the movie, o my! You will need a lot of tissues

Tissue rating : Between 4 and 5 packs.

(tissue rating explanation)

Almost done!!

Sorry no posts this week!

I'm finally finishing Easy Money (Snel Geld) by Jens Lapidus.
The 1st part of his Stockholm Trilogy

Dutch cover of the book

It took me a while to get used to the language used in the book, but now I love it and can't wait to get to the last page.

Book review - Sara Linton series by Karin Slaughter

On my other blog (Soapmade) I wrote a review about the Sara Linton series by Karin Slaughter.
I translated it from Dutch to English so everyone understands this post ;-)

I recently started reading her books and I read them in Dutch.

Everyone was talking about her books, but I didn’t feel like starting with the series (I have about 40 untouched books on the shelves so buying new ones is overdoing it a bit ;-)

Besides that I‘m a bit jealous of a Karin who did what I have been dreaming about for years. My own books published!

I didn’t read the books in the correct order, but I still was able to follow all of the storylines. It made me curious and I wanted to know what happened in the other books. (So I went ahead and bought all of them)

What was kind of annoying is the fact that some scenes were repeated in every book. It is understandable, but when I read the exact same description of Jeffrey’s  office for the third time I was kind of done with that.

It is good though, especially for readers like me who read the books in random order.

Below you will find the correct reading order for the Sara Linton series.

I started with  Indelible ( Onzichtbaar) than Blindsighted (Nachtschade) and read my way through all of her books.

2007	Beyond Reach (US) / Skin Privilege (Worldwide)	Onaantastbaar
2005	Faithless	Trouweloos
2004	Indelible	Onzichtbaar
2003	A Faint Cold Fear	Een lichte koude huivering
2002	Kisscut	Zoenoffer
2001	Blindsighted	Nachtschade

source: Wikipedia

I really love these books. If you like thrillers than this series will make your heart pump faster.

They are bloody, thrilling and every murder is described in full detail. These are the first books that made me nauseous while reading!

Since I started reading this series, my bedtime starts really early. In bed with my book. I love it!

Sara Linton is the pediatrician and coroner for the town of Heartsdale, in rural Grant County, Georgia. She was born in Heartsdale at the Grant Medical Center and grew up in the town. An excellent student, in middle school she developed an interest in science and was able to get college-level tutoring from some of the professors at the local technological university. Sara went to Robert E. Lee High School where, due to her intelligence and hard work, she finished a year early. She spent her teenage summers working for her father's plumbing business, Linton & Daughters, and as a result is still an accomplished plumber. She could have gone into the family business but a fear of spider-ridden crawl spaces and the desire for challenge took her off to school amid the bright lights and big city excitement of Atlanta.

Facts:

• first novel Blindsighted (2001) became an international success, was published in almost 30 languages, and made the Crime Writers' Association's Dagger Award shortlist for "Best Thriller Debut" of 2001.
• Sara is "a tall drink of water," 5'11" to be exact. She has dark auburn hair and emerald green eyes, and is slim yet curvaceous. She has perfect skin, a smile that can make you think you're the only one in the world, and a biting wit. She's extremely intelligent, fiercely independent, aloof, and seldom opens up to people.

I would advice starting this series in winter, find a fireplace or a warm blanket and enjoy!
Can't wait to get started? Click on the links below and order.

Book review: Absolute Power - David Baldacci

I'm a Baldacci addict. Before I start reading a new book I think : "let's read Tolstoy this time.", but I usually end up reading a Baldacci thriller. They are not too easy, not too difficult and with the right amount set of twists and turns in the story.

Today I finished "Absolute Power"

In a heavily guarded mansion in a posh Virginia suburb, a man and a woman start to make love, trapping Luther Whitney, a career break-in artist, behind a secret wall. Then the passion turns deadly, and Luther is running into the night. Because what he has just seen is a brutal murder involving Alan Richmond, the president of the United States.


How far will the government go to protect the president?


Set in Washington, D.C., this fascinating thriller of unparalleled suspense dares to explore an unthinkable abuse of power and criminal conspiracy: a vicious murder involving the President and a cover-up orchestrated by his most trusted aides. One unlikely witness saw everything, but will America ever learn the truth?

There are a lot of characters that want some airtime in this novel. Luckily many of them will dissapear or die during the novel, so you are left with only a handful of storylines to keep track of.
Very wel written and twists in the story at the right time.
This book had me literally gasp for air more then once.

I just found out that the book has been made into a movie ( already in 1997 with Clint Eastwood)
Hope that it is just as good as the book, but I noticed that they didn't include the most important character (IMHO) from the book in the movie??? Strange...

Fact:
pages:        549
language:   english

Book review: The solitude of Prime numbers - Paolo Giordana

After reading a bunch of detectives and thrillers I decided it was time for me to read an award winning novel again. Usually award winning is equal for well written literature.


I opted for The Solitude of Prime Numbers since it was standing patiently on my bookshelves and I heard great things about the book.


Before I start my review let me tell you what the story is about:


A prime number is inherently a solitary thing: it can only be divided by itself, or by one; it never truly fits with another. Alice and Mattia also move on their own axes, alone with their personal tragedies. As a child Alice's overbearing father drove her first to a terrible skiing accident, and then to anorexia. When she meets Mattia she recognises a kindred spirit, and Mattia reveals to Alice his terrible secret: that as a boy he abandoned his mentally-disabled twin sister in a park to go to a party, and when he returned, she was nowhere to be found.


At first I really enjoyed the book although it has quite a depressing tone. It reads easy and the chapters are not too long but tell everything you need to know. The description of Alice's and Mattia's high school years was very vivid and brings you back to your own high school memories (good or bad)


What first distracted me from reading the novel was the way the author uses the perspective of the main characters. He switched between them sometimes in the middle of a scene. I am not an acclaimed author by any means (sad but true ;-), but I do know that engaging your readers can be done by using the correct perspective in story-telling.
example


I would have loved it if the story of Michaela was explained a bit more. Now that story-line was unfinished and left me with a lot of unanswered questions.


I did like the flow of the book. The author chose to leave big time gaps in the story. One chapter is written in 1984 when Mattia and Alice are teenager, the next chapter is written in 1990 when they are young adults. This enabled the author to write about a 24 year time span, without having to write a novel more then  a 1000 pages.


As for the end of the book.. I didn't get it!! I just didn't. Never happened before.
So please enlighten me if you have a clear idea what the deeper meaning of the end was.


I guess I am going back to reading my less literature-like detectives and thrillers.


Facts:

• 318 pages
• read in Dutch (De eenzaamheid der priemgetallen)
• Won the Premio Strega literary award