Review: The High Mountains of Portugal

The High Mountains of Portugal by Yann Martel
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is my first book by Yann Martel. I saw the movie of his book "The Life of Pi", but I didn't read it... Shame on me!

The High Mountains of Portugal is beautiful and poetic and sad.
Divided into 3 parts: Homeless, Homeward and Home, each tell the story of a different man and are linked one with the other.

The link, however, seemed to me to be loneliness.

In Homeless, Tomas suffers from the death of his lover and his son. In Homeward, Dr. Eusebio Lozora misses his wife and Maria Dores her husband and son. And in Home, Peter Trovy grieves the life he had with his wife.

In all three stories, there were parts where I couldn't see the point of some situations: A man walking backwards so as to object: he shows his back to the world and to God
Agatha Christie being compared to the Gospels...
And last but not least, the adoption of a chimpanzee!

In the end, all these makes sense and what's more, it is woven together to make a whole, amazing narration.

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review

View all my reviews

Review: The Woman in Blue

The Woman in Blue by Elly Griffiths
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If I'm a big mystery fan, so why hadn't I read anything by Elly Griffiths?

I've been missing out on one of the best mystery writers!
Book 8 in the Ruth Galloway series, it left me wanting to read all the series, from book 1.

This is a classic murder-mystery book: A woman is found murdered in the medieval town of Walsingham. Police and a few more people, including Ruth Galloway, investigate what lead to her killing.

The book has a great combination of strange, lovable characters, a very particular setting and a very good plot. Besides the initial murder (the "woman in blue" from the title), there's a bunch of anonymous letters to women priests, some talk about religion and a few unsavory types, followed by another murder and an ending that I couldn't foresee.

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

View all my reviews

Review: The Flood Girls

The Flood Girls by Richard Fifield
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What an awesome-beautiful-funny-sad-bitter-sweet book!

Rachel Flood returns to her home town, after 9 years away, to make amends to all the people she hurt when she was a teenager. It's part of her 12 step AA program and most of the 956 inhabitants of Quinn, Montana still hate her for the chaos she created all those years ago.

The cast of characters is a mix of messed up people living in a messed up town. To name a few: Rachel's mother Laverna, the two Mabel's, the Jim's (a very popular name in Quinn), Bucky and Jake, a 12 year old going on 82 gay boy. All I can say is I fell in love with all of them.

I'm not a sports fan. What's more, I don't understand anything about any sport, but Mr. Fifield's description of the softball games the Flood Girls (the local Quinn team) play, are so well written they had me cheering with the rest of the fans.

I started the book at 7 pm and read through the night. That's how good this book was for me.

Thank you Mr. Fifield for an amazing story

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

View all my reviews

Review: The Forgotten Girls

The Forgotten Girls by Sara Blaedel
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I love Nordic Noir and this book is a very good example.
Book #7 in the Louise Rick series (but don't worry, it works as a stand alone book, too), and I'm ashamed to say I'm just discovering author Sara Blaedel.

After a woman is found dead in the forest, police detective Louise Rick, who has just been assigned to a new task force, and her new partner have to find not only who she is, but where she came from.
When they discover she is supposed to have died more than 30 years before, the story takes on a very interesting turn. Add to it that the place where she died is close to Rick's childhood home, and that she has many issues personal issues to solve, and you have a great thriller in your hands.

Nordic Noir is on the top of my favorite book genres, and Sara Blaedel does not disappoint. Fast paced, well written and translated, I think I have also found a new favorite author.

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

View all my reviews

Review: The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend

The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Once in a blue moon, you read a book that has nothing to do with you and you absolutely love it, right? That's what happened to me with this book: I was completely blown away.

I don't read/like romance books. I don't like chick-lit or what many people call "women's fiction"... and I loved this book. I love books about books, and "The Readers of Broken Wheel" does have a lot of talk about them: classics, romance, erotica, thrillers. There's a book suited to each one of the characters in this book.

When Sara Lindqvist arrives in Broken Wheel, Iowa to visit her pen pal Amy Harris, she finds out her pen pal died a few days before. The small town, which seems about to disappear (even the school moved to a bigger city) adopts her. And shy, awkward Sara makes them her new family. She starts giving her new friends books according to their personalities, and they're spot on. Her cataloguing of the books her friend Amy left has me considering suggesting her methods to a few libraries.

The rest of the characters are absolutely funny and adorable, and the almost final scene (no spoilers here, sorry. Go read the book!) had me laughing for hours.

This book is proof that you can change-yourself and people around you- all for the best.

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

View all my reviews

Review: Not all Bastards are from Vienna

Not all Bastards are from Vienna by Andrea Molesini
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book took off very slowly. So slowly, in fact, that I was afraid that it would end up in my DNF pile. However, when I had read about 40% it started picking up.

I wanted to read the book because it's author won the Campiello Prize in Italy, and there are great authors among the winners. The title, I have to confess, put me off a bit. It certainly isn't attractive!

It's the story of the Spada family, who live in Northern Italy during World War I. Their home is invaded by the enemy army and they scramble not just to survive, but to resist the invading armies.
The characters are very well described: Paolo Spada, the orphaned grandson. Nancy and Guglielmo, his quirky grandparents, Donna Maria his aunt. Lovely Giulia who has been exiled from Venice due to her "bad behavior", Renato, Teresa and Loretta. And last but not least, Don Lorenzo, the priest.
The plot ins't just about a war and what it entails for all of the Spadas. It's a coming of age story, as well as a family story.

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest opinion.

View all my reviews

Coming soon, a book I think you'll love. After all, what's not to love about a book about books and readers?

And there's also a giveaway. Check the bottom of the page

Be sure to enter soon as it expires at the end of the month