Kiwiria's April Adventures

[kiwiria]

Var det mig, du mente? - Kurt Dalsgaard, 4/5, 288 pages
(Did you mean me? Kurt Dalsgaard's autobiography)
Full disclosure: I've known Kurt Dalsgaard most of my life. He's the father of my childhood best friend and close friends with my own parents to this day. I'm not sure I would have picked up the book otherwise.

And that would have been a shame, because even taking my personal bias out of the equation, I found it a very interesting book. Kurt had a huge part in the shaping of IM (Inner Mission / Home Mission) in Denmark in the 80s and 90s, and as someone who was part of IM during those years (although as a child) it was interesting to see what went on "behind the scenes" so to speak.

But I also really appreciated the chapters on his personal life (even though some of them were heartbreaking) and connecting the Kurt of the book with the father of my best friend.

(Putting my personal bias back in, I was also really chuffed to see my parents mentioned more than once :-D Always fun with a personal connection like that.)


A Symphony of Echoes - Jodi Taylor, 3.5/5, 478 pages
Not quite as good as the first one, but still an enjoyable read and I loved all the time travel - even if some of the visits seemed somewhat random (I loved their trip back to Nineveh, but never figured out what purpose it served to the main part of the story!) making it seem more like a collection of connected short stories than an actual novel.

I think I'll take a bit of a break from the series though. The incessant foreshadowing ("little did I know that 24 hours later I'd be ready to kill him", "it was a good plan, really! None of us knew what would happen" etc. etc. etc.) drove me batty, and though not enough to give up on the book itself, it's enough to put me off reading the next one just now.


Death and the Penguin - Andrey Kurkov, 3/5, 228 pages
Very strange and quirky little book. Slow-moving, but in no way boring. Written by a Ukranian so quite different in style from what I'm used to. I neither liked it nor disliked it, but found it interesting to consider how differently the plot would have been handled if written by an author of another nationality.

It held my interest, but though left with an open ending, I'm in no rush to continue on with the next one.


The Loose Ends List - Carrie Firestone, 5/5, 400 pages
One of the best YA novels I've read in years. From the back blurb I expected "fluff with a substance" and that was definitely also what I got. It was funny, it was heartbreaking, it was life-affirming, it was poignant, it was beautiful, it made me sob my way through most of the last 100 pages (but in a good way).

I loved the relationship between Maggie and her Gram, and though the idea of a "death with dignity" cruise seemed more than a little morbid, once I accepted that premise I liked reading about the other passengers on the ship, and how they all ended up interacting in one way or another, and because an automatic support group. I've always been fascinated with cruises, and loved reading about both life on the ship and at the different ports they got off at.

I can easily see this book as not being for everybody, but it totally worked for me.


Udvalgt - Nick Clausen, 3/5, 194 pages
(Chosen)
A fun YA fantasy novel. It's nothing earth-shattering, but kept me nicely entertained for all almost 200 pages. It is not a stand-alone novel though, but a setup for book 2 in the trilogy. So while it doesn't end on a cliffhanger (fortunately) it ends up with pretty much nothing being resolved.

I liked both the writing style and the characters though, so fully expect to continue with the next in the series before too long.


There's Someone Inside Your House - Stephanie Perkins, 4/5, 298 pages
A quick read and very difficult to put down! I tried saving it for my commute, but yesterday just had to finish it before going to bed.

I thought the suspense part was written very well - I definitely got the horror of slowly realizing that someone's inside the house - and while I agree with others that it was very heavy on romance, that didn't bother me at all as it seemed to fit the plot nicely - i.e. how differently people respond to fear and grief.

I do think the killings went on for too long though, and the end was too convenient and easily wrapped up. The motivation seemed contrived and the resolution too easy. ... Also, I'd have liked a bit of closure regarding Makani's parents (mostly because sh***y parents make me SO angry).

But all in all a very captivating read that had me totally hooked.


Left Behind - Tim LaHaye & Jerry B. Jenkins*, 4/5, 468 pages
A very literal account of the last days. Many people have criticized it for being too literal, but I actually like it that way. It's consistent and can help give one possible explanation to passages in Scripture.

I first read this back in 2002 or so and was very taken by the entire series, but though I've been meaning to reread it for ages, I've never gotten around to doing so. The series has gotten a bad rep for being too sensationalist, but it's true to its own message, so I don't really mind that. It's not high literature, but ridiculously readable.


The Tuscon Time-Traveler - Claus Holm, 4.5/5, 186 pages
It's funny - I'm usually not a big fan of short stories. Unless I'm already familiar with the universe, it seems like too much investment for too small an output. Which means that as a rule, I tend to stay away from short story collections.

Claus Holm is one of the few exceptions, and with this short story collection he has published his best works yet. "The Tuscon Time-Traveler" is a collection of 10 short stories, all involving time-travel in some way or the other. I'll state my bias up front - as a rule I love stories involving time-travel (as long as it's done well), so I knew ahead of time that this would probably be right up my wheelhouse, and I was right.

Of course with short story collections there will always be some that you love and some you care less for, and that was also the case here. My two absolute favourites were "The Hitler Dilemma" (could you save Hitler's life if the alternative was worse?) and "I Love Her From the Mirror" (a man "accidentally" spies on his neighbour through a one-way mirror), with "Tamagotchi" and "The Tuscon Time-Traveler" as close seconds, but they all tickled my fancy in some way or the other. Some of them seemed to end a bit abruptly (which is so often the case with short stories), but I appreciated that others were given enough page-time to really explore the premise of the story.

I almost wish I'd saved reading this for the readathon... Being short, approachable and engaging it would have made for the perfect readathon material.


Shadow Unit 1 - Emma Bull, Elizabeth Bear, Sarah Monette, Will Shetterly, 4/5, 216 pages
I love the TV series "Criminal Minds", so of course I had to read this fanfic paranormal take on it. Fortunately it lived up to my expectations. It's well written, and while I did originally try to match all Shadow Unit members to their Criminal Minds counterparts (Chaz is obviously Spencer Reid!), they quickly developed enough of a personality of their own for the links to become less obvious, so I could appreciate the characters in their own rights.

While there are overreaching arcs, each episode can more or less stand on its own. This book takes you half-way through "season 1".


Shadow Unit 2 - Emma Bull, Elizabeth Bear, Amanda Downum, Sarah Monette, 4/5, 228 pages
Just as good as the first book in the series. I think "Ballistic" has been my favourite "episode" so far.


Shadow Unit 3: Refining Fire - Emma Bull, Elizabeth Bear, 4/5, 251 pages
Definitely the most vicious and graphic of the lot. I read the online version (found at http://shadowunit.org) which meant I had to go hunting for the bonus material. It's worth it though, as the "episode" itself ends rather abruptly and without giving the reader a chance to decompress.

Of course, if you're reading the Kindle version, then you won't have this problem ;-)

Once again the similarities to "Criminal Minds" are striking, but as I love that show, that's actually a count in Shadow Unit's favour, and though this particular episode was long and brutal, I found most of it fascinating and had a very hard time putting down the book. The ending got a bit confusing, and I was glad to discover extra bonus material online, as I was somewhat disappointed by where it ended (we got so invested in Chaz that I wanted to read about his recovery as well!), but all in all it was a very satisfying "season finale", and I could definitely see myself continuing on to the next season sooner rather than later.


Changing Gears - Nancy Sathre-Vogel*, 5/5, 305 pages
Changing Gears is the amazing story of a family's 2.5 year adventure. Nancy, John and their twin boys (age 10 at the start of the trip) packed up their lives and moved to the roads to bike all the way from Alaska to Argentina. They took each day as it came, experienced hardships and successes, met Road Angels and friendly people everywhere and generally had the experience of a life time.

I was totally mesmerized from the very start. Even though I was already familiar with their experiences through the blog, it was great to get to read it all in this condensed form (after all, it's not often you have the time to reread blog entries from 700+ days!), and I was equally fascinated to read about the planning and preparation that went ahead, as the actual adventures along the way. Somehow especially the trip through Alaska and Canada appealed to me... probably because those are two places I've always wanted to go myself!

Changing Gears will make you want to go travelling - big time! It is the story of living your dream. I could never do what the Vogel-family did, and I'm grateful to Nancy for letting me live vicariously through their experiences.

The Invasion - K.A. Applegate*, 3/5, 184 pages


Book of the Month: The Loose Ends List
Biggest disappointment: No book deserves that placing this month :)