Showing posts with label Scandinavian (Swedish) Author. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Scandinavian (Swedish) Author. Show all posts

Monday, September 12, 2016

The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden

Title: The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden

Author: Jonas Jonasson [Website] ; Translated by Rachel Willson-Broyles [Website]

Publisher: HarperCollins

ISBN: 9780062329134

Obtained: Library ebook copy

Why this book?:

Really enjoyed the first book I read by this author, The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared.

Comments:

Loved it.  Jonas Jonasson is becoming a must read author for me.  His books have fabulous humor, touch on worldwide politics and events without getting bogged down, feature characters in the most unlikely scenarios, and have that great story-teller 'what might be based on a semblance of truth and what is ALL fiction?' thing.

Jonas has a third book, Hitman Anders and the Meaning of It All, that I am interested in reading as well.

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend

Despite some false starts, this flowed for me.  By flowed, I mean read it until the moment I had to work (including at a red light), read it on my dinner break (including while standing in line at the grocery store purchasing snacks for the adult coloring event), and finally finished it when I got home from work.

Author: Katarina Bivald [Website][Facebook][Twitter]; Translated by Alice Menzies
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
ISBN: 9781492623441
Length: 384 pages
Obtained: Library copy

I found it to be a quirky, light book about books, small towns, and people. Many of the reviews on Goodreads seem to point to average and predictable, but while I avoid official ratings, I personally would place this higher than that.  Maybe it is a matter of perspective. ::shrug::  I don't need to be shocked and awed with every book I read.  And I generally love books about books (with an exception for The End of Your Life Book Club which dragged on horribly for me).

I suspect part of what appealed was that Sara managed to find just the right book for some of the towns non-readers.  And of course I'm a fan of romance (which I didn't even expect) and happy endings.  I do admit that I was skimming over Amy's letters through the second half of the book in an attempt to get to the living characters stories.

Something I found interesting: Sara mentions the Swedish title of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and what it means, reaffirming that I don't really want to read that series.

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Catch-up, Pt 3

Title: O Pioneers!

Author: Willa Cather [Willa Cather Foundation][Willa Cather Archive][PBS American Masters]

Read for a book discussion.  At first it very much felt like required school reading, but eventually I became more interested.  The last quarter was strange, IMO.

Title: Paradise (Second Opportunities, Bk 1) (re-read)

Author: Judith McNaught [Website][Facebook]

Re-read just because.  I admittedly skimmed some at the beginning.

Title: Remember When (Foster Saga, 2) (re-read)

Author: Judith McNaught [Website][Facebook]

After reading Paradise, I had a need to re-read this one.

Title: Tell Me No Lies (re-read)

Author: Elizabeth Lowell [Website][Facebook][Twitter] aka Ann Maxwell

This was in the same box as the Judith McNaught books and appealed.  I couldn't remember much of the story, just that I had liked it when I initially read it and the one time I re-read it before.

Title: Heroes Are My Weakness

Author: Susan Elizabeth Phillips [Website][Facebook][Twitter]

The title caught my interest.  But it turns out I enjoyed it.  I liked the ventriloquist thing.  And quite frankly I liked Annie.  Though the big bad secret from the past was weird (kinda horrible, really).  And I guessed parts of the history in question before it was revealed.  I wasn't especially happy about the other stuff going on, either.

Title: Breathing Room (re-read)

Author: Susan Elizabeth Phillips [Website][Facebook][Twitter]

Re-read just because.  I admittedly skimmed some at the beginning.

Title: The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared

Author: Jonas Jonasson [Website]

Read for book club.  This was my pick and I was so pleased to find it was hilarious.  I loved the historical elements.  Allan kinda struck me as a sociopath, but in such a way that I couldn't resist enjoying him and his exploits anyway.  Also, the author is Swedish.