Reading Journal 31 January 2009

I have the feeling my dry spell is coming to an end! Yesterday afternoon I read a whole book (The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne) and liked it very much. It hit a nerve. I feel there's going to be a review soon.

Another novel I'm reading at the moment is Paper Towns by John Green. I've read so many enthusiastic reviews for this one that it's hard not to expect a lot from the book. But it hasn't disappointed me so far. It makes me laugh. It makes me think. It makes me wonder. It makes me scared, too. I don't want Margo to commit suicide. If she does, I... I'll have to give my copy away. I hope she doesn't.

If my reviewing break is over, I'll be able to post a review for This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen. That's another great book that made me think. Actually, it made me think so much that I'm still mulling over it two weeks after finishing it.

I do realize I'm not making much progress with my New Year's resolutions and/or my BIP goals. But never mind. I don't need another stress factor in my life at the moment.

Black History Month Writer's Contest at ColorOnline

Thanks to Susan's comment, I've just discovered Color Online, a community dedicated to "the promotion, empowerment, and political awakening of young women". Their mission is "to cultivate self-development through literary study, educational programs, cultural events and community service".

For Black History Month, Color Online is hosting a contest to celebrate the contributions of black women writers:

Submit a book review or biography sketch of a black woman writer you admire. We’re looking for YA writers, adult fiction and nonfiction writers alike. Writers may be contemporary or historical figures.

For the complete contest guidelines and prize list, see the contest post at Color Online.

Thanks to Susan for letting me know about this contest, and for reminding me about Black History Month. I've been wanting to read I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings for a while now. Or maybe try some Toni Morrison. I don't know, but if I can find the time and energy (what with work and the mess that I am at the moment) I will celebrate Black History Month in some way.

Library Loot January 28-February 3

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by myself and Eva that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post any time during the week-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!

Click here to add your post to Mr Linky.

No new books for me this week. I was so frustrated with The Time Traveller's Wife that I returned it without finishing it. I still have at home four other books, none of which I have started. It's not a good period for me to get reading... my mind is too preoccupied with other things to get down to my books. It's just a period; I know it's going to pass. In the meantime, I just have to hang in there.

Guest Blogger Spot at Erotic Horizon

I'm pleased and flattered to say that Jhay of Erotic Horizon asked me to feature on her blog on the Guest Blogger spot. Here you can read her interview with me over at Erotic Horizon.

Weekly Geeks 2009-03: Classics

In this week's WG post we're having fun with classics (a classic being defined as anything written over 100 years ago and still in print). The prompts are:

1) How do you feel about classic literature? Are you intimidated by it? Love it? Not sure because you never actually tried it? Don't get why anyone reads anything else? Which classics, if any, have you truly loved? Which would you recommend for someone who has very little experience reading older books? Go all out, sell us on it!

During my teenage years I read practically nothing but classics all the time. Most of those books were either required reading or suggested reading (and I took suggested readings very, very seriously.) As I have been a fan of English literature from a young age, my favourite classics were English books. I've read Jane Austen's six novels more than once (my absolute favourite is Pride and Prejudice, but I also love Persuasion and Sense and Sensibility) and most of Dickens's novels too (my favourite Dickens remain Hard Times and A Tale of Two Cities).

I also remember enjoying some French classics very much: Dangerous Liasons by Laclos and The Red and the Black by Stendhal. I haven't dabbled into Russian classics - those I do find intimidating, mostly because of their lenght. Also, characters in Russian novels always seem to have at least three different names and this gets me terribly confused if I'm not paying close attention. I would never dream of getting to read The Brothers Karamazov, for example. As for War and Peace... maybe when I'm retired, if I am so lucky.

What's the appeal of classics? For me, it's about history: the feel of the past, the different language, the breath of past centuries. Getting to know a different culture and civilization is a big plus of classics, I think. On the other hand, classics can be a bit difficult to approach, either because of the difficult language or the different value system in them that makes them harder to understand for the contemporary reader.

2) A challenge, should you choose to accept it: Read at least one chapter of a classic novel, preferably by an author you're not familiar with. Did you know you can find lots of classics in the public domain on the web? Check out The Popular Classic Book Corner, for example. Write a mini-review based on this chapter: what are your first impressions? Would you read further? (For a larger selection of authors, try The Complete Classic Literature Library).

I read the first chapter of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Frank Baum (here's the full ebook available for free). I remember reading an illustrated, abridged version of this as a small child, but I've never read the full text. The first chapter is sort of intriguing. I'd read further, but maybe not on the screen, as I'm always tempted to skim over a text when I'm reading online. I think I'll try listening to the audiobook. You can get free audiobooks for texts in the public domain at LibriVox. Check that site out; it's full of great books read by ordinary people who offer their reading-aloud skills for the benefit of others.

Reading Journal 22 January 2009

I haven't got much to report on the Reading Journal front. I'm still stuck in the middle of The Time Traveller's Wife (I must be the only person on this planet who doesn't like this book) and it took me ages to finish This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen, a book I would've normally LOVED to pieces and raced through. I can't seem to concentrate on anything I'd normally love to do. Things are sort of rough for me at the moment.

So don't be surprised if you don't see me posting/commenting for a while. It's not that I don't love you, only that I need to take a break.

Library Loot January 21-27

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by myself and Eva that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!


No new books for me this week. I'm still working my way through A Time Traveller's Wife and haven't even touched the other books. Actually, I think I'm having reading/blogging burnout.

Anyway, this shouldn't stop you from checking out books from the library!

Click here to add your post to Mr Linky.

BIP Week 2: Brainstorming Ideas

This week's Blog Improvement Project post is about brainstorming tecniques and ways to come up with new content:

People start blogs with lots of content ideas, but as the weeks go by sometimes we start to lose steam (at least, I know I do). That’s why this week’s BIP project is about brainstorming,

I found a few good articles online about ways to brainstorm content ideas for your blog.

• 24 Things to do When Stuck for a Topic to Blog About
• Brainstorming Techniques for Bloggers
• 9 Steps to Better Blog Post Ideas

This week's activity entails brainstorming and blogging about it, then come up with a new feature for our blog. The first part is easy - brainstorming. I used to do mind-maps at university, but don't like them very much as brainstorming tool: they feel like a chore. I prefer listing ideas as they come along, and then maybe act on them in the future. I find that keeping a notebook on my bedside helps, because usually ideas come to me while I'm trying to fall asleep or just waking up.

More generally, while looking for ways to improve content and come up with new ideas, I've found a blog post in Michele Martin's The Bamboo Project Blog about ways to nurture your creativity. (check her blog about, it's awesome and full of ideas about blogging for learning). In particular, she suggests "morning pages": writing 3 pages of whatever comes to mind, every morning when you wake up. I've wanted to try this for some time now, but haven't yet - it appears I'm too lazy. I supposer I could do more of an effort, though. I'll keep you updated with the results.

As for the second part, blogging your ideas, I don't know if I'm going to do it. Rather than starting a new feature, I'd like to improve my existing features: the reading journal and Library Loot.

The reading journal is an idea I took from Dewey (her site is down so no link, but you know her by now, right?) and I like the idea of chatting about the books I've been reading and my feelings towards them, since I usually read more than one book at a time. I could do it on a fixed day rather than when the mood strikes - maybe on Sunday, so it would come out on the same day as the Sunday Salon.

Library Loot (initially called Library Stop) is a meme Eva and I do every Wednesday (but you can participate every day of the week): participants share with their readers the book they are picking up at the library. I wasn't very good at doing this on my own, and Eva got about a million people participating, so I'm glad I'm sharing this with her. Plus, she found a better name for it!

What techniques do you use for brainstorming?

Click here for other participants blogging about their brainstorming techniques.

Weekly Geeks 2009-02: What it means to be a Weekly Geek

For our second Weekly Geeks of the new year and our second post without our founder Dewey, Joanne of The Book Zombie has these questions:

For those who have been with the group, either from the start or joined within recent months, what does being a member mean to you? What do you enjoy about the group? What are some of your more memorable Weekly Geeks that we might could do again? What could be improved as we continue the legacy that Dewey gave us?

I joined the Weekly Geeks in week 3, both because I thought it could be fun and because I wanted to get to know my fellow book bloggers better. Back then, I had just started getting serious with my blogging and exploration of the international book blogosphere. Being a member means sharing a post a week with my fellow book bloggers and have fun visiting their blogs. Last but not least, I've almost always had a traffic boost on the day I post my Weekly-Geek related activity.

I also like that WG is a flexible meme, which can be done on any day of the week. I tend to get annoyed at myself if I can't post on a given day and miss that week's post!

Some of the Weekly Geeks I enjoyed the most are (the links are to my own posts):

• WG #12: asking each other questions about books and answer them in mini-reviews
  
• WG#16: pairing up with a fellow participant and interview each other on the latest book we had read
• WG#17: a quote a day

The picture-related WG activities are not among my favourites, because I don't have a digital camera and it's difficult for me to post my own photos... but I'll admit it's fun to look at other people's pictures.

The 21st Bookworms Carnival is up!

Thanks to Renay's efforts, the 21st Bookworms Carnival is up at YA Fabulous with the theme GLBTQ (gay, lesbian, bisex, transgender, and queer) literature.

I originally wanted to participate to this Carnival with a post on Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List by David Levithan, but found it difficult to focus on it (too many cultural references that I simply do not get at all, and the main characters are so self-centered and whiny!). I also wanted to read Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden, but couldn't find the time. I finally settled for submitting my review for Affinity by Sarah Waters. Check out all the good submissions over at YA Fabulous.

Moreover, Renay asks,

did any of the carnival reviews this time around entice you into giving them a try? Do you plan to try other GLBTQ titles not discussed here, maybe from one of the Lambda short lists?

I plan to read Annie on My Mind sometime in the future, and maybe go on with Naomi and Ely. Maybe. I also want to try Fingersmith by Sarah Waters, because Affinity was brilliant and I can't wait to read more by her.

---

ETA: The 9th edition of the Book Reviews Blog Carnival is up at Breeni Books! Check it out.

De-lurking week

I apparently missed De-lurking Week, which was last week (the second week of January). I wasn't going to post this, because lurking is perfectly fine, but then: a) both Nymeth and Eva posted it, and b) Feedburner informed me that I have 86 subscribers. 86?!

So if you read this blog and don't usually comment, now's your chance to speak up and say something. Tell me about your favourite book(s), pastime, or whatever you want, and if you have a blog, I'd love to pay you a visit!

ETA: This is my 400th post!

Weekly Geeks 2009-01

The Weekly Geeks are back! After a break to honour Dewey's passing and decide how to proceed, a group of people has come together in an effort to keep Dewey's project running. So here we are! This week's assignment is:

In the spirit of the amazing community building that Dewey was so good at, tell us about your favorite blogs, the ones you have bookmarked or subscribe to in your Google Reader, that you visit on a regular basis. Tell us what it is about these blogs that you love, that inspire or educate you or make you laugh. Be sure to link to them so we can find them too.

I have a number of blogs in my Bloglines account (I don't use Google reader... maybe I should...), but the following are my absolute favourites, the ones I can't wait to click on to see the updates:

• Things mean a lot by Nymeth: Nymeth was practically the first to welcome me in the book blogosphere after I took part in the Bookworms Carnival that she hosted. Her posts are always great--I envy her ability to write and write and write about books when I can just come up with a few sentences over a book. Plus, she always makes our wishlists grow longer and longer
• Rebecca Reads by Rebecca: I love how neat, organized and well-structured her posts are. She has a great self-hosted site - check it out, you won't be disappointed.
• Ready when you are, C.B. by C.B.James: you've got to love his book reviews and how passionate he is about books.
• Becky's Book Reviews by Becky: she reads about a hundred books every week, hosts a million of book challenges, and runs at least three different book blogs. How does she manage to find the time, is a mystery for me. I'd like to know her secret!
• Reviewer X: her YA book blog is made out of awesome. Her posts always crack me up. If you like YA, you have to read her blog. If you don't like YA, check her blog out to see what you're missing!
  

There are many other book blogs I could quote, but I'm going to stop at five. Happy Weekly Geeks, people!

To check out everyone's favourite blogs, click here.

Library Loot: January 14-20

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by myself and Eva that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it in the comments any time during the week (either here or on Eva's post). And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!

I should have posted this yesterday, but I forgot - ahem - I might not be that good with deadlines and events hosting. But never mind, there's always Eva!

I didn't go to the library this week, so I'll list the various titles I have at home from the library as of today:

• The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (Italian translation, reading it now)
• The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume 1: The Pox Party by M.T.Anderson (Italian translation)
  
• The Sailor from Gibraltar by Marguerite Duras (Italian translation, for the Lost in Translation reading challenge)
• Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami (Italian translation, for the Lost in Translation reading challenge)
• Vita by Melania Mazzucco (for my resolution to read more Italian authors/books).
  

Five books is the maximum you can have out at the same time at my local library (or at least, I think so), so that's it.

What other participants are getting from their libraries:

• Claire (Kiss a Cloud)
• Sarah (Behold, the thing that reads a lot)
• Sandra (Fresh Ink Books)
• Debi (Nothing of Importance)
• Melissa (Book Nut)
• Sam (Sam’s Book Blog)
• Marg (ReadingAdventures)
• FleurFisher (Fleur Fisher Reads)
• Naida (the bookworm)
• Jeska (The Curious Reader)
• Iliana (bookgirl’s nightstand)
• Softdrink (Fizzy Beverage)
• Rebecca (Rebecca Reads)
• Katrina (Katrina's Reads)
• Vasilly(1330V)
• SmallWorld (SmallWorld Reads)
• Marbel (Two Kid Schoolhouse)
• Sandy (Falling Like Rain)
• Somer (Some Reads)

Add a Contact Me Page to your Blogger Blog

I've always wanted to add a "Contact Me" form to this blog. There's my email address in my profile, all right, but a contact form looks more professional.

Ever wondered how to do this in Blogger? Well, it's not that hard. Read this useful post at DailyGyan.com on How to add a Contact Me page to Blogger (it's a video tutorial). Follow the passages shown there and voilà... it works! (I've tested it on my own).

Alaska Young Memorial Day Contest

Korianne at Korianne Speaks is having a great contest to celebrate the Alaska Young Memorial Day (which was yesterday, January 10). She's giving away a prize pack containing

a new copy of Looking For Alaska by John Green, a beachy knapsack from Old Navy, a pack of Foot Notes, a flower pen (made by me), a clip-on reading book light, and 3 handmade by me bookmarks.

There are multiple ways to gain entries, so you need to check out her giveaway post carefully. The giveaway is open internationally and ends on January 24.

Awards, Awards, Awards!

This blog has received quite a few awards over the past few days:

The Butterfly Award by Meg89 at Literary Menagerie - this award is "for the coolest blog I know". Thank you, Meg! I love the button (which was certainly created by a non-native speaker of English).

The Premio Dardos (Darts Award) by BethF at BethFish Reads and Serena at Savvy Verse and Wit -The Prémio Dardos is given for recognition of cultural, ethical, literary, and personal values transmitted in the form of creative and original writing. These stamps were created with the intention of promoting fraternization between bloggers, a way of showing affection and gratitude for work that adds value to the Web.

And an award from Clark Bjork at Book Review Blog Carnival - the Lemonade Award for blogs showing great attitude and gratitude. When life hands you lemons, make lemonade, says the old motto. I'll try to make some lemonade of my own.

So many compliments, people - I'm pleased, flattered, and a bit overwhelmed. Thank you.

I'm not good at choosing people to award or not to award - I'd like to tell all my blogging friends that they're pretty cool. If you're reading this, you know I'm talking about you. And you. And you.

Book Review: L'albero di Goethe

Willi aveva le guance viola. Faceva molto freddo: sembrava ancora inverno. Si calò il berretto sulle orecchie e avanzò contro il vento che gli tagliava le guance. Aveva quasi finito. Era rimasto un volantino solo.

I had originally picked up Helga Schneider's 2002 L'albero di Goethe (Goethe's Tree) for the WWII reading challenge, but I couldn't manage to wait for the new year before starting it. I just read it in one sitting on the afternoon of December 31... so it doesn't count for the challenge.

Helga Schneider is a German author who lives in Italy and writes in Italian. This particular book hasn't been translated in English yet. I'm reviewing it here because I don't have a blog in Italian and I've committed to review all books I read. Anyway, I don't know if it makes much sense to review in English a book written in Italian. Maybe a should start an Italian book blog... (you can see that Louise has already been giving me ideas.)

The title for L'albero di Goethe refers to the Nazi concentration camp of Buchenwald, built in 1937 near Weimar, Germany. About 50,000 people died there. Weimar is well-known for its cultural life: Bach, Goethe, Schiller, Liszt all lived there. In particular, Goethe loved to take walks in the surroundings and would sit in the shadow of a tree: around that tree the Nazis built the concentration camp.

L'albero di Goethe is the story of Willi, a fourteen-year-old German boy whose older brother is into anti-Nazi propaganda. One morning, Willi distributes leaflets for his sick brother and is caught by the Gestapo, who arrest him and send him to Buchenwad. Here the shock makes Willi lose his memory; he is rescued by a group of other teenagers who stick together and help each other. One of the boys has a particular relationship with a member of the SS and exchanges his own body for food and small favours, which he then shares with his friends. After a while, though, it's Willi who becomes the object of unwanted attentions by the SS, and is forced to make a difficult choice.

This is obviously not a happy book, in that it deals with a very controversial, difficult subject. However, the author wrote it for a readership of teenagers who have no experience of the war and its horrors for the civilian population, damaged not only physically, but also psychologically by the conflict. I appreciated it because I had never read about this particular subject. Also, I agree with the author that it's very important not to forget what happened in the Nazi concentration camps so that those horrors never occur again.

You can visit Helga Schneider's website (both in English and Italian) and her blog (in Italian).

Exploring the Italian book blogging community

Photo by Somewhat Frank on Flickr

Yesterday Louise asked me a question about the Italian book blogging community. I was perplexed, because I had never blogged in Italian before and thought I had nothing to say in my own language. It might sound stupid, but my thoughts always sound more interesting when they are in English.

Today, however, I went looking for Italian book blogs written in Italian. There are quite a few, I've discovered, and some are pretty good! So I've decided to start a new blog, Una pioggia di libri (loose translation: It's raining books), which will contain my book reviews in Italian. (At least I found a nice template for it). I hope to connect with people from my own country in this way.

And since I'm taking a page out of Louise's book, the next step is start to comment on all the book blogs in Italian that I can get to... so hopefully these people will come to my blog and I won't feel like I'm talking to myself! Not that I mind doing it, of course.

If you read Italian and want to visit me there... you'll make my day!

Book Review: Affinity

Pa used to say that any piece of history might be made into a tale: it was only a question of deciding where the tale began, and where it ended. That, he said, was all his skill. And perhaps, after all, the histories he dealt with were rather easy to sift like that, to divide up and classify - the great lives, the great works, each one of them neat and gleaming and complete, like metal letters in a box of type.

I read Sarah Water's Affinity in the Italian translation by Fabrizio Ascari. It's a compelling, mysterious love story between two women set in 1870s London. It's another of those books that leaves me in awe - one that I'm almost afraid to review, because there's no way I'm ging to make the book justice without giving too much away. I'll try anyway.

After her father's death, Margaret Prior has been suffering from a nervous breakdown that leaves her fragile and exhausted. In order to do something useful with herself, she decides to visit the women imprisoned at Millibank, who live and work in complete silence, to comfort them with her presence and moral example. There, she finds a person who makes her visits a passion: Selina Dowes, disgraced spiritualist, at Millibank for fraud and assault. Margaret is drawn to this young woman with apparent spiritual powers, and magic events start to take place: flowers appear and disappear, a locket vanishes, and Selina knows everything about her. As the story draws to a climax, you'll desperatsly want to believe in Selina's magic.

The title refers to the similarity between Selina and Margaret - both imprisoned, one in the physical constraints of the Millibank walls, the other in the spiritual ties of what her family expect of her. Selina's courage in defying the rules at Millibank is opposed to Margaret's inability to stand up for herself and let herself live.

Affinity deals with a desire to be connected and alive, to be part of a bigger whole. Highly recommended.

Favourite quote:

Now you know why you are drawn to me — why your flesh comes creeping to mine, and what it comes for. Let it creep.

Buy Affinity from the BookDepository.


Buy Affinity from Amazon.com


Other blog reviews:

• Only a Novel

(Have you read and reviewed this book? If so, leave me a link to your post in the comments and I'll add it here).

Library Stop Wednesday 7 January 2009

This weekly event is for us to share the books we pick up at the library.

Library Stop was on holiday for the last two weeks as my local library was closed for Christmas. And I don't get to go today either, because I'm not feeling too well.

What books have you picked up recently? Leave me a note in the comments, or do a post on your blog and leave a link in the Mr Linky below! (It opens in a pop-up window).

Blog Improvement Project Week 1: Setting Goals

This week marks the start of the 2009 Blog Improvement Project over at Sophisticated Dorkiness. In Kim's own words,

The 2009 Blog Improvement Project is a year-long challenge that will consist of twice-monthly activities to improve your blog. Every first and third Monday of the month I’ll post an activity here at Sophisticated Dorkiness that will related in some way to making your blog better. Each participant should spend the next two weeks focusing on that aspect of their blog. Possible topics include goals setting, writing better content, building community with readers, getting more readers, and blog layout and design.

I'm very excited about participating in this project! It sounds a bit like going back to school, to the old Blogging English days. If you're wondering what I'm talking about, read about the story of my blog, or just have a look at my About page.

The task for the first week is reflecting on what we've accomplished in 2008 with our blog, and setting some goals for 2009.

What I've accomplished so far

I started this blog on a school assignment, as a tool for language learning. I was a student of EFL (English as a Foreign Language) at university and attended a course called Blogging English. Then I decided to kep blogging on my own, for pleasure and to keep up with my informal learning. I had posts about different language learning resources and all. Then, in April 2008, I stumbled upon the world of book bloggers. It was a revelation. I just had to join.

Almost ten months later, here I am, near my 400th (!) post. I have a handful of followers and I'm approaching the 10,000 hits mark. My writing abilities have improved, though not as much as I'd like. I've made a few friends in the most distant parts of the world. I've joined a number of reading challenges (most worked out, some others didn't). I currently submit my reviews to three different blog carnivals: the Bookworms Carnival, the Just Write Carnival, and the Book Reviews Blog Carnival.

What my blog is for

My blog is mainly for book reviews. I love reading and writing about books, receiving book recommendations, discovering new genres, pushing myself out of my comfort zone.

English is not my first language and I often find myself struggling with a language that I love, but that isn't my own. For this reason, this blog is also for me to keep writing in English and sharing language learning tips.


Goals for 2009

• Focus on my writing. I noticed I'm getting better at book reviews with practice, but there's still a lot of room for improvement. I need to spell-check and re-read my posts before hitting the "Publish" button (my typing is horrible). At the same time, I need to stop obsessing so much about English not being my first language and just get writing.
  
• Be more active in the book blogging community. Be more consistent in my participation to blog carnivals. Leave more reviews to the blogs I read. Always reply to the comments I get! Encourage comments in my blog by asking questions to my readers. Host a book carnival with related book giveaway.
  
• Keep up with my reading challenges. Do challenge wrap-up posts.
• Improve my time management skills. Necessary to find the time to do all the above :)
  

Read about other bloggers setting their goals for 2009.

Book Review: Persepolis 2

I was awaiting eagerly the possibility to read Persepolis 2: Story of a Return by Marjane Satrapi, the second volume of her autobiography in the form of graphic novels.

In Persepolis, we left Marjane as she was about to leave Iran for Austria to attend a French secondary school. As Persepolis 2 opens, she has just arrived in Austria, where she lives first in a boarding house run by Catholic nuns and them in a flat shared with other eight gay men. Marjane feels uneasy in Austria, but manages to find a niche for herself with friends and acquaintances who share her feelings about their place in the world.

After a series of unfortunate events cause her to live in the streets for three months, at the age of nineteen Marjane decides to go back to her native Iran. There, she has to wear a headscarf and accept a society strictly divided by sex and ruled by fundamentalism. However, guided by the example of her strong grandmother, she starts to test the limits of that fundamentalism, both in the streets and in the classrooms of the art school she attends. She comes to understand that "one person leaving her house while asking herself, 'is my veil in place?' no longer asks herself 'where is my freedom of speech?'". After marrying the wrong man and giving up her dream to find a place for herself in Iranian society, she decides to leave Iran for good.

I found the second part of Marjane Satrapi's autiobiography in form of a graphic novel to be even more entertaining and pleasant to read than the first one, probably because of the emphasis given to more "adult" themes.

Buy Persepolis 2 from the BookDepository.
Buy Persepolis 2 from Amazon.com

Book Review: Before I Die

I wish I had a boyfriend. I wish he lived in the wardrobe on a coat hanger. Whenever I wanted, I could get him out and he'd look at me the way boys do in films, as if I'm beautiful. He wouldn't speak much, but he'd be breathing hard as he took off his leather jacket and unbuckled his jeans. He'd wear white pants and he'd be so gorgeous I'd almost faint. He'd take my clothes off too. He'd whisper, 'Tessa, I love you. I really bloody love you. You're beautiful' - exactly those words - as he undressed me.

Before I Die is the first novel by British author Jenny Downham. It's my first read of the new year, as well as my first book in both the Romance Reading challenge and the New Authors challenge. It's one of those books which I'm almost scared of reviewing, because I know it will be difficult to make it justice in my review.

The main character and narrating voice in Before I Die is sixteen-year-old Tessa Scott, a British girl who's dying of leukaemia. After four years of treatment, she knows that she has just months to live, so she makes a list of ten things she wants to do before dying. Having sex is the first item on the list; then there's trying drugs, committing a crime, driving... Accompanied in her quest by her reckless friend Zoey, Tessa thinks that there are no consequences for her, and takes a highly risky approach to life, while her body struggles to keep up. However, things don't always go as she expects. Having sex with a random guy doesn't make her feel loved; and taking drugs leaves her more depressed than ever. It's the meeting with a special boy which will make her fall in love for the first time, thus changing her life.

One of the most peculiar traits in this stunning book is the careful depiction of Tessa's inner and outer world. She has a younger brother who says considerate things like, "When Tessa dies, can we go on holiday?"; a doting father, whose strategy for coping is denial; and an estranged mother, who seems so distant from her daughter's situation. Her pain and anger are very realistically conveyed.

This is a book which will stay with you long after you've finished it. Highly recommended, to older teens and adults alike. A word of advice, though; if you do read it, keep a box of tissues handy - you know tears will be flowing.

Read the first chapter here.

Buy Before I Die from the BookDepository.
Buy Before I Die from Amazon


Other blog reviews:

• Blue Archipelago
• Bart's Bookshelf

(Have you reviewed this book? If so, leave me a link in the comments and I'll add it to this post).

The Bookshelf Meme

Valentina tagged me for this meme, originally created by Eva at A Striped Armchair. I don't usually do memes, but this is fun, so let's give it a try...

The Rules
1. Tag 3-5 people, so the fun keeps going!
2. Leave a comment at the original post at A Striped Armchair, so that Eva can collect everyone’s answers.
3. If you leave a comment and link back to Eva as the meme’s creator, she will enter you in a book giveaway contest! She has a whole shelf devoted to giveaway books that you’ll be able to choose from, or a bookmooch point if you prefer.
4. Remember that this is all about enjoying books as physical objects, so feel free to describe the exact book you’re talking about, down to that warping from being dropped in the bath water…
5. Make the meme more fun with visuals! Covers of the specific edition you’re talking about, photos of your bookshelves, etc.

The book that’s been on your shelves the longest:

It's a book I've had since I was three: a picture book with the story of the Disney film The Aristocats. My mum used to read it to me during breakfast before sending me off to kindergarten. I loved being read to as a child. After a while, I knew the whole book by heart and tricked an uncle of mine into believing I had taught myself to read.

A book that reminds you of something specific in your life (a person, a place, a time, etc.):

The HP series by JKR. These were the first books I purchased in the original English when I started studying English at university and discovered the whole HP world. The end of the series in the summer of 2007 coincided with my final months at university. So the HP series reminds me of my university carreer.

A book you acquired in some interesting way (gift, serendipity in a used bookstore, prize, etc.):

The most special YA book I've ever read (and I've read a lot, so this is difficult) is Very Far Away from Anywhere Else by Ursula K Le Guin. It's a 1976 book, so it's not exactly recent, but still very up-to-date. I first borrowed the Italian translation from the library some 10-12 years ago, and fell in love with the book. I recently found a used copy on Amazon and bought it with Lynne's gift certificate (which I won with my participation at the I Heard It From The Grapevine challenge). I've read it in the original now, and it's even more brilliant than I originally thought. I won't delve into the plot now because I want to save it for a very special book review I'm planning to submit for a future Bookworms Carnival. Here's the original cover I read (a bit ugly, but I remember it fondly).

A book that’s been with you to the most places:

I don't usually bring books with me if I'm not reading them at the moment. So it's rare for me to bring the same book on two different trips. Also, most books I read some from the library... I've had half the library with me at some point, I guess.

The most recent addition to your shelves:

It's the Italian translation of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. It's so thick that I find it a but intimidating, actually. The Italian title sounds like Men who hate women, and here I wonder: does someone know Swedish and is able to tell me what the original title really means?

A bonus book that you want to talk about but doesn’t fit into the other questions:

Er, I'm going to skip this one.

Now, I'm tagging an "old" blogging friends and two new ones:

Nymeth (it seems impossible that no one tagged you before, but I don't think I've read your answers, so...)

Korianne

Meg89