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Stina

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Stina

All I Ever Wanted

Lucy Dillon
All I Ever Wanted
Paperback

A Boy Made of Blocks

Keith Stuart
A Boy Made of Blocks
Paperback

Under the Udala Trees

Chinelo Okparanta
Under the Udala Trees
Paperback

Life After Life

in
Not only is this the winner of the Costa award - it is also a very good read and a remarkable book! My first impressions were that the book is like a cross between Groundhog Day and Sliding Doors - and so it is! But Life after Life is so much more, it's the story of a girl who somehow can live her life over again and by changing small details manage to change major events, not necessarily to history, but to her own life, and those close to her - but some things are too difficult to change no matter how many times you try.  

Gone Girl

in
OK, I'm about a year or two after everyone else - I normally don't like over-hyped books. But wow, this one is well worth the hype! Gillian Flynn manages to twist and turn things around, leaving the reader suspecting but at the same time completely uprepared for the next turn of events. Masterly! When Amy disappears on the morning of their 5th anniversary, Nick starts to wonder how well he really knew the woman he is married to. The police suspect him of murder, her diary shows she was afraid of him. Nick claims he is innocent, but can we believe him? Brilliantly told through both Amy's and Nick's perspective and full of gripping suspense. Heartily recommended!

Etiquette and Espionage

in
This is a wonderful Victorian humorous romp - a steampunk Harry Potter with extra lace, bodices and other fashion accessories.  

I Capture the Castle

in
I am a great fan of Dodie Smith's lovely children's book One hundred and one Dalmatians, and have been curious to read something else by her for a long time. This is a completely different novel, but equally good. Cassandra's eccentric father is a writer whose first book took the literary world by storm but he has since failed to write a single word. This tells the story of seventeen-year-old, Cassandra and her extraordinary family of an older sister, an artistic and loving stepmother and the non-writing father, who live in not-so-genteel poverty in a ramshackle English castle in the (possibly) 1930s.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

in
A heartwarming and endearing book about recent OAP Harold Fry, who one day gets a letter from an old friend saying she's dying of cancer in Berick-upon-Tweed. Struck by this he goes down the road to post a letter, and then just continues to walk, thinking that as long as he's walking to see her, she will not die. He has no proper walking shoes, no maps, no compass, no waterproof clothes, just a will to see Queenie Hennesy again, talk to her, and to save her life. This is the story of Harold Fry, of his wife, and son, of Queenie, who is dying, and of all the people Harold meets along his way from the very south of England up to Berwick.

The Uninvited Guests

in
This is an unususal and quite pleasant combination of a psychological chamber-drama, a ghost story and an Edwardian love story. Sometimes one is blown away by the lovely descriptions of clothes and old buildings and family history, and then suddenly the suspense creeps up and is quite breath-taking. A lovely, cosy book - with that extra twist - for dark autumn nights.

Beautiful Ruins

in
Another wonderful book by Jess Walter! Like no other author Jess Walter can describe normal, middle-aged people who have somehow let their lives slipped by and still make it an extraordiary reading experice. Beautiful Ruins is just such a book. Through several parallell stories we get to know people, their past and present, what they wish their lives to be, and what they have actually become. This really shouldn't make for a good reading, but it does, and even thinking back on the book now, it gives me a warm, glowing feeling of happiness with my own, very ordinary, middle-aged life. Though everything is not perfect, there are certainly some things that are very good! Heartily recommended!