The World of Books

The Naval Adventures of Alan Lewrie, a series by Dewey Lambdin

Peter — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 02:24:36 +0000

To me, there is hardly anything more romantic, intriguing, exotic and interesting the a great historical naval novel, of course about the British navy during the era of sail. To read about the careers of naval commanders, the battles, the political intrigue, the ships and crews. It is in a class of its own as reading. Not necessarily always great literature, but often - in the hands of a good author - great reading and lots of joy! And while he may not be a C.S. Forester or a Patrick O’Brian, Dewey Lambdin is a good writer!

And the series entitled The Naval Adventures of Alan Lewrie by Dewey Lambdin is just that. Great, joyful reading. The series, which is published in chronological order (14 books so far), starts with The Kings Coat. This is a book about the young Alan Lewrie, who is brash, somewhat rebellious, and quite a libertine. Seventeen years old he is forced to go to sea as a midshipman in the tall-masted ship-of-the-line Ariadne. Basically his father wants him removed from the scene so that he can spend Alan’s inheritance himself.

What follows is the whole carreer of Alan Lewrie, from midshipman to admiral. Lots of really entertaining reading awaits you, if you, as me, likes seafights, pirates, war at sea and naval prizes!

Read more about the series about Alan Lewrie at leserglede.com!

Per Petterson on the NYT Bestseller list

Peter — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 02:34:27 +0000

Per Petterson is placed on the 16th place on the New York Times bestseller list for paperbacks this week! Very nice for Per Petterson!

Paperback Trade Fiction, Published: August 10, 2008

1. THE SHACK, by William P. Young. A man whose daughter was abducted is invited to an isolated shack, apparently by God.

2. WATER FOR ELEPHANTS, by Sara Gruen. A young man — and an elephant — save a Depression-era circus.

3. THE KITE RUNNER, by Khaled Hosseini. An Afghan-American returns to Kabul to learn how a childhood friend has fared under the Taliban.

4. BAREFOOT, by Elin Hilderbrand. Three women burdened by various problems (work, love, health) spend a transformative summer together on Nantucket.

5. THE ALCHEMIST, by Paulo Coelho. A Spanish shepherd boy travels to Egypt in search of treasure.

6. IN THE WOODS, by Tana French. An Irish detective investigating the murder of a 12-year-old girl returns to the woods where he experienced a terrible ordeal during his own childhood.

7. NINETEEN MINUTES, by Jodi Picoult. The aftermath of a high school shooting reveals the fault lines in a small New Hampshire town.

8. THE ROAD, by Cormac McCarthy. A father and son travel in post-apocalypse America.

9. LOVING FRANK, by Nancy Horan. A story of the romance between Frank Lloyd Wright and Mamah Borthwick Cheney, and the scandal that followed when they left behind spouses and children.

10. THE FRIDAY NIGHT KNITTING CLUB, by Kate Jacobs. A group of women meet weekly at a New York City yarn shop.

11. MY SISTER’S KEEPER, by Jodi Picoult. A girl sues her parents after learning they want her to donate a kidney to her sibling.

12. THE LAST SUMMER (OF YOU AND ME), by Ann Brashares. The bond between two sisters is tested by a romance with an old friend.

13. THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES, by Sue Monk Kidd. In South Carolina in 1964, a teenage girl tries to discover the secret to her mother’s past.

14. SECOND CHANCE, by Jane Green.A group of 30-something friends reconsider their lives after one of their number is killed in a terrorist attack.

15. THE MEMORY KEEPER’S DAUGHTER, by Kim Edwards. A doctor’s decision to secretly send his newborn daughter, who has Down syndrome, to an institution haunts everyone involved.

16. OUT STEALING HORSES, by Per Petterson. In a remote cabin, a Norwegian man circles around his memories of the past.

17. THOSE WHO SAVE US, by Jenna Blum. A professor of German history investigates what really went on in her mother’s life in Germany during World War II.

18. ON CHESIL BEACH, by Ian McEwan. A wedding night goes terribly wrong.

19. THE YIDDISH POLICEMEN’S UNION, by Michael Chabon. A detective investigates a murder in a Jewish settlement in Alaska.

20. TRUE TO THE GAME III, by Teri Woods. Gangsters, crooked cops and a vicious killer pursue Gena in this conclusion to the True to the Game trilogy.

21. THE GATHERING, by Anne Enright

22. THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH, by Ken Follett

23. MIDDLESEX, by Jeffrey Eugenides

24. THE GATECRASHER, by Madeleine Wickham

25. GHOSTWALK, by Rebecca Stott

26. THE GRAVEDIGGER’S DAUGHTER, by Joyce Carol Oates

27. ISLAND OF LOST GIRLS, by Jennifer McMahon

28. SOMETHING BORROWED, by Emily Giffin

29. AWAY, by Amy Bloom

30. REPLAY, by Ken Grimwood

31. BUDDHA, by Deepak Chopra

32. THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL, by Philippa Gregory

33. THE BOLEYN INHERITANCE, by Philippa Gregory

34. RANT, by Chuck Palahniuk

35. THE MAYTREES, by Annie Dillard

This Night’s Foul Work, by Fred Vargas

Peter — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 02:22:23 +0000

This Night’s Foul Work is the fourth novel in the Adamsberg series translated into English. It is a playful, interesting and somewhat implausible crime books, but the writing is so great the implausible part doesn’t really matter much.

Two drug dealers have had their throats cut in the Paris flea market. Normally this would be a case for the Drug Squad, but our beloved commisaire Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg notices some dirt under the victims’ fingernails and becomes involved.

Adamsberg comes to believe it the murders be the work of a killer with split personalities, who is choosing his or her victims carefully. As other murders begin to surface, Adamsberg must move quickly in order to stop the “Angel of Death” from killing again.

It also soon emerges the killer may be a wraith-like, elderly female serial killer who Adamsberg caught but who has now made an daring escape from prison. Despised by the rest of the force but revered by his own motley crew, Adamsberg pursues the shadowy killer across Paris and the Normandy countryside. And guiding the pursuit is Adamsberg’s intuition, making him draw conclusions he is unable to explain in a ration fashion to others. At one point a senior detective complains: “The book, the cat, the third virgin, the bits of bone, the whole bloody lot. It’s a complete load of bollocks.”

And Adamsberg himself? Commissaire Jean Baptiste Adamsberg has recently returned from enforced leave and now finds himself working with a pathologist whose apple cart he upset two decades ago. He has moved into a new house haunted by the Wicked Silent Sister, Saint Clarisse, a serial killer of gullible women, before the Revolution. There is insanity and irrationality enough in this book to last for a long time!

The book is in a sense a police procedural. But Vargas’ writing style transcends definitions and disregards reality. And it’s fun, relaxed, full of humor, and lots more. What can I say?
This Night’s Foul Work is entertaining in the extreme.

The Horse Whisperer, by Nicholas Evans

Peter — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 23:30:24 +0000

The Horse Whisperer (made famous by the movie with the same name, starring Robert Redford) is a quiet, beautiful book.

The author, Nicholas Evans was born and grew up in Worcestershire and was a screenwriter and film producer before writing his first novel, the phenomenal number one bestseller The Horse Whisperer. This book has now been translated into 36 languages and has sold more than fifteen million copies worldwide since its publication in 1995.

The story is about a thirteen year old girl out riding her beloved horse, Pilgrim, and being hit by a 40 ton truck. Both horse and girl are seriously injured, but survive. But the destiny of the girl and her family comes to depend on the horribly mutilated and traumatized Pilgrim.

The mother of the girl, Annie, hears about a "horse whisperer" in Montana who is said to have the gift of healing horses. She sets out across the continent with Grace and Pilgrim to try to find him.

A magical story! Beautifully written, romantic and full of delightful insights!

Other books by Nichloas Evans include The Divide and The Smoke Jumper.

Death at La Fenice, by Donna Leon

Peter — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 23:25:12 +0000

La Fenice is the name of the famed opera house in Venice. The novel starts with the death of the well-known German conductor Helmut Wellauer. He is found dead in his dressing room after an intermission, shortly before he was to conduct La Traviata. Of course, the police are called.

The detective in charge is
Guido Brunetti, vice-commissario of police in Venice, and the hero of many of Donna Leon’s stories.

He is a brilliant, quintessential police detective. “He was a surprisingly neat man: tie carefully knotted, hair shorter than was the fashion; even his ears lay close to his head, as if reluctant to call attention to themselves. His clothing marked him as Italian. The cadence of his speech announced that he was Venetian. His eyes were all policeman.”

Brunetti is an interesting character, especially in Death at La Fenice. He has a loving wife and a familily life that does not interfere too much with his work. He is broad minded and has considerable wisdom. And he has the ability to understand people - not only what they express, but also what they hold back. And, contrary to many American detectives in crime novels, he is understanding and respectful.

The dead conductor, Wellauer, has been drinking coffee that has the unmistakable bitter-almond odor of cyanide. His death is a scandal to the city. And as Brunetti starts to investigate, he quickly realizes that the suspects are multiple. The great conductor Wellauer was loved for his music, but he was a man with many enemies and that had destroyed many lives.

Death at La Fenice, by Italian writer Donna Leon, is a great and entertaining book. Leon’s turn of phrase is descriptive, delicious and delightful. You see and hear what you read. It all feels amazingly detailed and real, and the plot moves nicely along as well. Death at La Fenice is one of the best police procedurals of the last decade.

Ida Elisabeth, by Sigrid Undset

Peter — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 02:10:54 +0000

(Oslo : Aschehoug, 1932, New York : Knopf, 1933.) Ida Elisabeth marries Frithjof, her teenage sweetheart. They get four children together, but only two of them live to grow up. Soon Ida Elisabeth discovers that she has married a real shirker of a man.

When Frithjof embarks on an affair with another woman, Ida Elisabeth chooses to live alone with her children. She provides for herself by becoming a seamstress, and her new life as a working woman entails wholly new qualities.

In a number of ways, this novel deals with conflicts and tensions that parallel aspects of Sigrid Undset’s own life. Ida Elisabeth is one of Undset’s great contemporary novels about women’s conditions and the difficult relationship between the sexes.

Bestill Ida Elisabeth på norsk fra Bokkilden!

The Day of the Jackal, by Frederick Forsyth

Peter — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 11:17:46 +0000

The Day of the Jackal is a novel about whose main character is the Jackal, a highly feared and infamous terrorist at the time when this novel was written. The plot of the book is a (fictional) account of an attempt by this terrorist to assassinate president de Gaulle.

The Day of the Jackal is very well written and very exciting. The intense style and suspense that sets Forsyth apart as a writer and master of the thriller genre is visible already here in this early book. An extremely worthwhile read! And, yes, the movie with the same name is based on this book!

Top 10 bestselling fiction, UK (paperback)

Peter — Tue, 27 May 2008 13:27:03 +0000

May 3, 2008: Times (London)

1 Book of the Dead by Patricia Cornwell

2 The Lollipop Shoes by Joanne Harris

3 Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

4 The Quest by Wilbur Smith

5 An Absolute Scandal by Penny Vincenzi

6 Gold Diggers by Tasmina Perry

7 A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

8 Friend of the Devil by Peter Robinson

9 Engleby by Sebastian Faulks

10 31 Dream Street by Lisa Jewell

The Prodigal Daughter, by Jeffrey Archer

Peter — Sat, 24 May 2008 11:57:51 +0000

The Prodigal Daughter is the follow up on the great novel Kane and Abel. Both are outstanding novels by Jeffrey Archer.

The main character, Florentyna Rosnovski, is a formidable and unforgettable character. One of the most interesting characters in Archer’s books. She endears herself to readers as a young girl through her relationship with her governess Miss Tredgold and her adventures from elementary school through college.

This is a tale of business, competition, getting ahed, love, lust, and greed. It has it all. Great characters, wonderful plot. In this tale, even the expected meeting with Richard Kane takes on new dimensions as they marry despite the deep rejection by both fathers. The Prodigal Daughter is another great read from Archer!

The Prodigal Daughter by Jeffrey Archer can be ordered from Bokkilden.no.

World Without End, by Ken Follett

Peter — Sat, 10 May 2008 19:17:20 +0000

This book is a follow-up on the enormously popular Pillars of the Earth. About the relationship between the two books, Follett says: ” Ever since The Pillars of the Earth was published in 1989, readers have been asking me to write a sequel. The book is so popular that I’ve been nervous about trying to repeat its success. But at last I screwed up my courage, and wrote World Without End.

I couldn’t write another book about building a cathedral, because that would be the same book. And I couldn’t write another story about the same characters, because by the end of ‘Pillars’ they are all very old or dead. World Without End takes place in the same town, Kingsbridge, and features the descendants of the ‘Pillars’ characters two centuries later.”

At the heart of the story in World Without End is the plague known as the Black Death, and how this affects society and characters. Another historical event influencing English society at the time is the war between England and France.

Follett returns to 14th-century Kingsbridge with an equally weighty tome that deftly braids the fate of several of the offspring of Pillars‘ families with such momentous events of the era as the Black Death and the wars with France. Four children, who will become a peasant’s wife, a knight, a builder and a nun, share a traumatic experience that will affect each of them differently as their lives play out from 1327 to 1361.

World Without End is a wonderful historical novel by Ken Follett. It is exciting and engaging, full of plots and sub-plots, and to a large extent character driven in its action. And of action, there is, of course, plenty. This book really is hard to put down. I liked it a lot!

Other great books by Follett: The Pillars of the Earth (see Norwegian review), A Dangerous Fortune, and The Key to Rebecca.

Boken kan også bestilles fra Bokkilden (på engelsk).