An Anonymous Girl

An Anonymous Girl by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen is a crime book, but a bit different. Jessica Farris is a make-up artist struggling to make ends meet. One day she does the make up for two psychology students and listen to them talk about a study about ethics and moral with a generous compensation. She meets up lying about being a friend of one of the students. The study continues beyond the survey on a computer, and she ends up not knowing what is part of the study and what is real life.

The book starts off real good with an interesting plot. The question about morality and ethics is always an interesting one, and mostly it never is one correct answer. But after the very promising start, I think the book ends up in the same track as a lot of other books. And no, it's nothing wrong with good old affairs and lying, but I just had bigger expectations to where this was going.

Heads You Win

Heads You Win by Jeffrey Archer is another massive novel from him. As always in his books you follow two main characters, male, and they somehow migrate from one country to another, often one of the characters migrate to USA. This novel is not the exception, Alex Karpenko migrate from Russia to USA with his mother, or migrate, flee is more accurate. As always in his books, you follow the two character's life from they migrate and how they work hard to achieve their goals and build a new life for themselves. They struggle a bit in the start with no money, but they always end up doing better than most immigrants ever do, owning big hotel chains or leader for huge businesses or banks. This novel is no exception here either, Alex end up in a bank doing real well. The other main character, Sasja Karpenko, ends up in the UK and he is also making a better life for himself there. It's not that the novel lacks of plot or is not interesting to read, it's just I feel I have read it before. I have read a lot of Jeffrey Archer's books, and I don't think they are poorly written books at all. It's a reason I have read so many, but now I got a bit bored. Not because I didn't enjoy it, but it was all so known to me. I knew where he was going with the characters since he seems to follow the same pattern. And not even the little twist at the end was enough for me to think this novel was something extraordinary.  But it was good enough to entertain me the first afternoon in my summer vacation.

Educated

While reading this, I had to google if the story was actually was a memoir and based upon a true story. Some of the story seems almost too over the top to be true. But it is true. It is a novel based upon the life of the author Tara Westover. She grew up with a father who was probably undiagnosed bipolar and didn't trust authorities. Her mum learned to be a midwife from other women in the mormon society. And later she made a business out of making different oils to heal and cure people's illnesses and pain, since Tara's family didn't trust the science and doctors. And not trusting doctors, was almost fatal several times after some heavy accidents.  Sometimes the story just hurts too much to even think about how she got out and turned her life around, is amazing. Sometimes I just forgot it was a memoir. And to me that is a good thing, since I normally don't read a lot of memoirs and biographies. This book though, I would recommend. Well written and an amazing story.

Vi skulle vært løver

Vi skulle vært løver av Line Baugstø handler om Malin. Malin har ingen bestevenninne, men vil gjerne ha en. Så flytter Leona til byen og starter i klassen til Malin. En ypperlig mulighet for Malin å få en bestevenninne. Det viser seg at Leona har en hemmelighet, og da må Malin velge; skal hun være en kujon eller en løve? Boka er enkelt skrevet og har et enkelt språk, men noen ganger trenger man ikke lange utgreiinger om følelser og tanker. Det er ofte det helt enkle som rører. Og Line Baugstø har skrevet en viktig og god bok om det å være født i feil kropp. Det trengs ikke mange detaljer om hva som skjer, men heller noen som modellerer handling uten å vise pekefinger. De små tingene, de hverdagslige tingene som selv om de er små, er så store og viktige, som viser aksept, respekt og forståelse for at vi alle kan være den vi er, det er de episodene som Line Baugstø virkelig får fram i denne boka. Jeg ble rørt! 

64

64 by Hideo Yokoyama is a thick crime book from a different environment than I'm used to be reading. The Japanese culture is far from the crime books I normally read, and I don't think I've ever read a crime book from Japan. The main story line is the case number 64 about a girl who went missing 14 years prior to when the book starts its story. The case was never solved. The cops are still trying to solve the case, since loosing face if it doesn't get solved is not something taken lightly. The daughter of police commissioner Mikami and his wife has just disappeared and Mikami is being called out to identify a dead girl. Everything is connected, and this crime book has a slower pace than normal. It takes its time, and sets the mood and describe Japan and really lets the reader get to know the characters. Its different than other crime books. I liked the fact I get to know a different culture at the same time as I'm reading a crime book. I think the crime itself might have come second after the description of environment and description of characters in this book. But it's not necessarily a negative thing. Normally what makes me turn the pages in a crime book is the crime itself and the pace things happen. In this book the reading experience is enough. I enjoyed it, and I've read this is Hideo Yokoyama's third book, but the only one translated. I hope the other two gets translated as well.

Til ungdommen

Jeg har hørt masse positivt om denne boka. Endte opp med å plukke den med meg fra biblioteket da jeg så den på hurtiglån. Jeg leste den på et par timer. Noen ganger er sånne bøker som bare blir skrytt av, litt lett for å falle igjennom hos meg. Jeg får høye forventninger også blir jeg skuffa. Ikke for at det egentlig har skjedd så ofte når jeg tenker meg nøye om. Uansett, Til ungdommen er en utrolig god bok. Jeg lo høyt etter to sider, gråt etter tretti sider. Til ungdommen er korte tekster skrevet etter inspirasjon Linn Skåber fikk etter å ha pratet med ungdom. Tekstene er såre, åpne, varme, ærlige, morsomme og det er lett å kjenne igjen ungdom og seg selv i tekstene. Og med Lisa Aisato sine fantastiske tegninger i tillegg, så er dette den beste boka jeg har lest hittil i år. Anbefales virkelig, selv om den er en sånn bok alle har lest og liker.

The Immortalists

I watch Jimmy Fallon. He's funny, talented and he has a lot of interesting guests. This summer he announced a summer read. He had chosen five books and asked the viewers to vote for one of them as this summer's read. I thought I'd  just read them all. The first one I read The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin turned out to be a really good book too. Summer 1969 the four siblings, Klara, Simon, Daniel and Varya sneak out to see a fortune teller. She tells them the excact date they are going to die. How would you live your life if you knew when you were going to die? The book isn't as much about the fortune teller's date of death as it is about the history of each of the four siblings. They have very different lives and the book moves between the sibling's point of view in such a great way. I loved the book and the storyline. I recommend this. It's about death, but also about life, friendship, love and finding yourself. I was surprised at how much I liked this book.