Challenge 24: A book you loved... read it again!

Ida's book: "Fangirl" by Rainbow Rowell (St. Martin's Press, 2013)

At first I had decided on a different book for this challenge, but life happened and it just had to be this one. It's a YA (young adult) novel and it is brilliant. As someone who would happily describe herself as a fangirl and who has written fanfiction, I see myself way too much in the main character of this book. 

Comments:

Not much to say here except: it felt like coming home.

Challenge 23: A book from the library

Ida's book: "Dødevaskeren" by Sara Omar (Politikkens Forlag, 2017).

This book was all the rage when it was published last year. It wasn't something I would normally read so I put in a reservation for it at my local library - I was the 17th in line for the book, and I got it the day after my last exam for uni. The title means someone who washes the dead that no one else wants to wash - mostly women who have been cast out by society.

Comments:

This was a tough book to read, although it only took me two days. It tells the story of a little girl, Frmesk, who are born into a family who does not want another girl. To be fair, the violence in this books makes it almost unbearable to read. With so much violence against women in the world today, I read mostly to escape from all that, but there was no escape in this book. Nevertheless, it was a good and important read. 

Challenge 22: A book with pictures

Ida's book: "The Body Book" by Roz MacLean (Promontory Press, 2016).

So this challenge was a bit out of the ordinary, but then I remembered that I'd bought this little book last year, as part of an effort to have and read more body positive/fat activist inspired books, so I gave it a go!

Comments:

Every child should read this book, every adult too, for that matter. There is so much hatred for our bodies in society and if we can stop that at an early age and make children understand that all bodies are great, then we can truly do something good.

Challenge 21: A book with a great first line

Ida's book: "Rivers of London" by Ben Aaronovitch (Gollanz, 2011)

"It started at one thirty on a cold Tuesday morning in January when Martin Turner, street performer and, in his own words, apprentice gigolo, tripped over a body in front of the West Portico of St Paul's at Covent Garden.".

Comments:

Normally I don't judge a book on its first line. My way of finding out whether a book is interesting is to find a random page and read it - if I am I intrigued enough to find out what happens next (and sometimes what happened before) I either buy the book or take it out of the library. So this challenge was a bit tricky, as I found a lot of books can have very boring first lines. This book has been on my reading list for a long time, but I'd forgotten all about it until I spotted it at my local library. I took it off the shelf, did my random page test and took it home with me. A few days later I remembered about this challenge and I looked at the first line. I liked the writing style of it so I thought it would be a perfect fit for this challenge. The book itself was pretty good, I might give the follow ups a chance too although I do find the main character a bit annoying at times. 

Challenge 20: A book 'everyone' but you has read

Ida's book: "The Lord of The Flies" by William Golding (Faber & Faber, 2011)

Somewhere among the many suggestions for the last challenge, this title kept coming up. I therefore decided to use it for this challenge as I haven't read it, and obviously, quite a few people had!

Comments:

Well. Along with Brave New World, this is one of those books that leave a lasting impression, but which isn't really that good to read. It wasn't until the last 30 pages or so I actually felt invested in it and wanted to find out what would happen. I think I see so much of male violence in everyday society that reading a book about it felt too much. It's the stuff I normally try and shield myself from (why wallow in reading about it when real life seems to be so much more worse), so it was a hard read. I can see why so many people recommend this book, I can see why it has gained status as a classic, but it is not because it's a pleasure to read.