I Want To Breathe

I want to breathe you in

I’m not talking about perfume or even the sweet odour of your skin

But of the air itself

I want to share your air inhaling what you exhale

I’d like to be that close

Two of us breathing each other as one as that.

~ James Laughlin

Read Full Post »

The Falling of the Leaves

Autumn is over the long leaves that love us,
And over the mice in the barley sheaves;
Yellow the leaves of the rowan above us,
And yellow the wet wild-strawberry leaves.
The hour of the waning of love has beset us,
And weary and worn are our sad souls now;
Let us part, ere the season of passion forget us,
With a kiss and a tear on thy drooping brow.

~W.B Yeats

Read Full Post »

Eclipse (Book Three: The Twilight Saga)

The story: The third installment of Meyer’s vampire-romance series finds “heroine” Bella Swan anxious to become a vampire and live forever with handsome vampire Edward. Obstacles arise when Edward demands marriage and werewolf Jacob declares his love for Bella. Don’t forget the fact that Bella’s life is in danger…again.

Opinion: I’m not sure that this third book was necessary, but when you discover that there is money to make if you prolong the story then the quality has to step back and leave room for quantity.

There is really no character development, other than that we get to read notes that are sent back and forth between Bella and Jacob, which really belittles the characters. They are teenagers not kindergarten children. OK we get that you are hurt Jacob, she didn’t pick you, but did you ever think  that she would?

The fact that Bella is portrayed as this helpless and somewhat stupid girl who can’t take care of herself really sends out the wrong signal to all the young tweens who are diehard fans of this series. She always has to depend on others to save her and she only gets tough when she feels the need to protect her family is such a cliché.

I don’t think you would miss anything important if you skipped reading this book and went right on to read Breaking Dawn instead. This book does not add anything new to the story, in my opinion it’s simply a pocket filler for the author and the publishing company.

Also read:

• Twilight (Book One: The Twilight Saga)
• New Moon (Book Two: The Twilight Saga)

Read Full Post »

Accidentally Dead

The story: Nina always loved the nightlife, she just never expected to be the nightlife. It’s a lousy first day on the job for Nina Blackman when a patient, loopy from the anesthesia, bites her. At least he was cute. But for real drama she can’t beat the next evening. Nina wakes up with a set of razor-sharp fangs, bionic vision, supersonic hearing, and a taste for blood. There must be a good explanation. There is. It’s her patient, Greg Statleon.

Opinion: Niiiiiiina I love you! This is my favourite character in the series! She isn’t afraid of anyone or anything and she has the dirtiest mouth I’ve ever come across. The way she has inner monologues with herself is hilarious and what’s even more hilarious is that she doesn’t find out that Greg aka the big bad sexy as hell vampire can hear her thoughts. Like this part from the first pages in the book:

He was the shit.

B-e-a.uuu-tiful

Delish.

A ten on the wet panty scale.

Maybe if she just admitted it like a mental mantra over and over in her head it would go away. Sort of like a Gregori exorcism. Admitting it was the first step to recovery. “You find me attractive, don’t you?” His words, low,husky, confident, were just the cold douse of water she needed to regain her perspective. What an arrogant son of a bitch.

As I said before, Accidentally Dead, is my favourite book in the Accidental Friend series. She doesn’t take crap from anyone but she isn’t to proud to admit when she is wrong either, you just have to twist her arm around hard enough to make her confess, but it’s still a confession right?

If you want to have a good laugh on a rainy and windy* autumn evening then this is the book for you. You don’t have to have read the previous book to follow the story since the books are pretty much independent and not follow-up stories.

*at least it’s windy as hell in Gothenburg!

• Buy this book on Amazon.com
• Buy this book on Sf Bokhandeln (only Sweden)
• Buy this book on Adlibris (only Sweden)

Read Full Post »

By The River Piedra I Sat Down And Wept

Story: She is a modern young woman who has learned to control her feelings and look upon life in a rational way. He is a man who can do wonders and that has sought himself into the world of religion and become one charismatic spiritual conductor.

Opinion: This is one of my favorite Paulo Coelho books, it has a story that doesn’t make you doubt the essence of the characters. They had known each other in their teens but somehow they lost contact for one reason or the other. When they one day meet it’s both awkard and a bit suspicioius, I don’t why I wrote suspicious but it feels like they both think the other will try to change who they have become because of the connection they had when they were young. As if they have some sort of power over the other.

Essentially it’s a story about the love between a man and a woman and the love each of them has for God. Almost like a holy trinity. Because God is always present in Coelho’s novels and in this one he explores the feminine aspect of God, describing God as having both male and female attributes. As well as the idea that we all have the ability to perform miracles both in our own lives and in the lives of others.

Having said that, this is one book that shouldn’t be missed, I would recommend Veronika decides to die, but that book is full contradictions, it’s so obvious that she didn’t want to kill herself. And if you haven’t read his novels before then maybe you should start with either this one or The Alchemist.

• Buy this book on Adlibris.se ( Swedish edition)
• Buy this book on Amazon.com

Read Full Post »

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell: A Novel

Story: It’s 1808 and that Corsican upstart Napoleon is battering the English army and navy. Enter Mr. Norrell, a fusty but ambitious scholar from the Yorkshire countryside and the first practical magician in hundreds of years. What better way to demonstrate his revival of British magic than to change the course of the Napoleonic wars?

Opinion: I was so excited when I first heard about this book, I was jumping up and down, finally a book about magic had arrived that wasn’t set in a medieval enviroment. The first few chapters I simply wanted to strangle Mr. Norell and it’s actually the first time that I’ve ever had the desire to commit fictional murder. I have never ever encountered a more arrogant and irritating character than Mr. Norell. He wants to have control over who practices magic but at the same time he himself doesn’t practice magic at all. He just reads about it and builds up his knowledge in magic, which doesn’t make sense to me, why should one learn something and then not use that knowledge at all?

I understand that there are risks with everything and that the most harmless thing can turn into the most dangerous thing. But since Mr. Norell is so educated in the field he already knows about the risks and therefor should be able to practice magic within the safety limits.

When it comes to Mr. Strange I was patient at first, thinking that he was going to walk into the story at any given page turn, but nothing happened. Mr. Strange isn’t even introduced for the first two hundred pages. Those were the longest two hundred pages in my life. After that it was a walk in the park, I love him, he learns by practising but he is reckless and doesn’t think about the consequences of his actions. I think that he does what he does just to spite Mr. Norell at first but then he does it for the fame and glory.

He earns the respect of his countrymen by helping them in the war but this leads to the fact that something dangerous sets its eye on him and the further Mr. Strange goes in his magical ways the more he puts himself and his loved ones in harms way.

Will his pride keep him from asking for Mr. Norell’s help and will Mr. Norell come to his aid?

Read Full Post »

If You Forget Me

I want you to know
one thing.

You know how this is:
if I look
at the crystal moon, at the red branch
of the slow autumn at my window,
if I touch
near the fire
the impalpable ash
or the wrinkled body of the log,
everything carries me to you,
as if everything that exists,
aromas, light, metals,
were little boats
that sail
toward those isles of yours that wait for me.

Well, now,
if little by little you stop loving me
I shall stop loving you little by little.

If suddenly
you forget me
do not look for me,
for I shall already have forgotten you.

If you think it long and mad,
the wind of banners
that passes through my life,
and you decide
to leave me at the shore
of the heart where I have roots,
remember
that on that day,
at that hour,
I shall lift my arms
and my roots will set off
to seek another land.

But
if each day,
each hour,
you feel that you are destined for me
with implacable sweetness,
if each day a flower
climbs up to your lips to seek me,
ah my love, ah my own,
in me all that fire is repeated,
in me nothing is extinguished or forgotten,
my love feeds on your love, beloved,
and as long as you live it will be in your arms
without leaving mine.

~Pablo Neruda

Photo copyright : olde-fashioned

Read Full Post »

Mansfield Park

I’ve seen the previous adaption of this novel and in comparison this version is the better one.  The main character, Fanny Price, is a young girl from a relatively poor family, raised by her rich uncle and aunt at Mansfield Park. She grows up with her four cousins, Tom Bertram, Edmund Bertram, Maria Bertram and Julia, but is always treated as inferior to them, only Edmund shows her real kindness.

When Fanny has grown up, the stern patriarch Sir Thomas leaves for a year so he can deal with problems on his plantation in Antigua. The fashionable and worldly Henry Crawford and his sister Mary Crawford arrive in the village, and stay with their sister, the Parson’s wife. The arrival of the Crawfords sets in motion a series of events that aren’t all in favor of the people inhabiting Mansfield Park.

Read Full Post »