Throw Back Thursday: Mina drömmars stad (Stockholm: City of My Dreams by Per Anders Fogelström

So school is the topic of the blog this week but this book isn't about school (although indirectly it is as education is a way out of poverty but...) as I say in the review this book was on my assigned reading list in high school and I loved it, which is why I thought I would high light it this week.

Mina drömmars stad (Stockholm: City of My Dreams (Stockholm Series Book 1) ) by Per Anders Fogelström

Publisher: Albert Bonniers Förlag

Synopsis: Fifteen year old Henning is walking into Stockholm. The city lies before him with all its possibilities. The city however doesn’t quite live up to its promises.
My Thoughts: If you read this blog regularly you probably know by this time that I don’t do to well with assigned reading. I tend to resent them. This was one of my exceptions. I was assigned this book the summer between my junior and senior year in high school and I am pretty sure I read it from cover to cover, and then went out and bought the rest of the books in the series. It is that good.
It has one of the most compelling opening chapters I have ever read. I read this in Swedish, but it is translated into English by Jennifer Brown Baverstam. Fogelström in the opening of the book makes the city into a character in its own right. He paints a picture of the city as both a protector and an enemy. These are the last few lines of the opening chapter (my translation):

The City waited. For the fifteen year old boy who had yet not seen any of its glory – and for everyone else who sought it out.
It existed in their dreams and invited all possibilities.
But a young boy neither could nor wanted to see that most were dark, that joy and the possibilities of life were much fewer than those of sorrow and death.
The boy dreamed. The City waited.

Isn’t it evocative and foreboding? The story of young Henning and his family also tells the story of the growth of Stockholm. This is the first book in a series of five books that follow the family from 186o until 1968. This first book covers the period from 1860 until 1880 and is very much the story of the horrors of the industrial revolution. How the poor were used. And how this impacts on the individual. Young Henning has no family and at first no friends. He also has no education and no contacts. This means that he ends up with the hardest jobs there are. However the book also shows the love and friendship that grows even in the at first bleak life of the rented bed and work in the harbour. Somehow it is incredibly beautiful. And the end makes me cry every time.
Although this is a work of historical fiction there is a certain amount of realism. Fogelström presents a well researched book where actual events are incorporated into the book. One of the things I appreciate about this series is that the characters are never given an important part in the historical events of the time. Rather we see them through their eyes, the eyes of the normal person. That makes the books more real to me. One criticism of sorts is that the main characters are incredibly good. It can get a bit grating at times but at the same time makes an important point of not giving into your circumstances.

Copyright ©2011 Zee from Notes from the North. This post was originally posted by Zee from Notes from the North. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Throw Back Thursday: Re-Review The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

We were discussing The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns in one of my book groups last week so I thought it was fitting to post this review for my Throw Back Thursday. The further out from reading the book I get the less likely I am to recommend it. I still think it has value but  I don't think it would be top of my list of books I think people should read.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Category: Fiction/ Audio

Synopsis: From Amazon.com

The Kite Runner follows the story of Amir, the privileged son of a wealthy businessman in Kabul, and Hassan, the son of Amir's father's servant. As children in the relatively stable Afghanistan of the early 1970s, the boys are inseparable. They spend idyllic days running kites and telling stories of mystical places and powerful warriors until an unspeakable event changes the nature of their relationship forever, and eventually cements their bond in ways neither boy could have ever predicted. Even after Amir and his father flee to America, Amir remains haunted by his cowardly actions and disloyalty. In part, it is these demons and the sometimes impossible quest for forgiveness that bring him back to his war-torn native land after it comes under Taliban rule. ("...I wondered if that was how forgiveness budded, not with the fanfare of epiphany, but with pain gathering its things, packing up, and slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night.")

My Thoughts: I have been meaning to read this book for ages and I finally bought it when my mentor told me that my first years were reading it for Swedish. I am glad I listened to it.

I have somewhat mixed feelings about this book. I loved what it had to say about Afghanistan and the west's culpability in what happened. I loved how it described why the Afghanistan as we know it happened. I loved the descriptions of how it was. I also loved the insight into the feelings of those who flee their home country and why they love it.

I am not sure I liked Amir. I understand why he did what he did. I understand why he felt the way he did towards Hassan. I can also understand the actions of the grown-ups but that doesn’t mean I don’t feel revulsion. I guess that is what I should feel. Seeing the dark side of humanity can also be good because otherwise how can we recognise it when we see it? But that doesn’t stop the nauseous feeling I got when I heard the scene in the alley walking to the bus one morning. It stayed with me. It has haunted me.

I suppose this is a book that will stay with me. Not necessarily one that I will go back and read again but one that will stay in my brain informing the way I think and feel. I think this book has changed me in ways I had not predicted when I started listening to it. I suppose this makes it a book of value.

Audio: I liked the fact that the author narrated the story. Hearing the Afghan names pronounced properly was a treat. However, I did at times have a problem following with all the names as they were not familiar to me (my own ignorance). I found that the author was able to bring the characters alive. I could almost smell the smells he described and see the sights. I do so wish that the country wasn’t ravaged by war.

Overall this is a book that I would recommend to others. I think it is an important read.

Copyright ©2015 Zee from A Tea Stained Page. This post was originally posted by Zee from A Tea Stained Page. It should not be reproduced without express written permission

Throw Back Thursday Review Re-Post: My Ántonia by Willa Cather

I read this book back in 2009 and really enjoyed it. If it wasn't packed away in a box (man do I hate moving) I might have picked it up again now that I've seen my old review. I am in the mood for a well written book. I will say that the attitude that I found sad then I find even sadder now considering all that is going on in the world in general and in Sweden in particular. 

My Ántonia by Willa Cather

Category: Fiction

Synopsis: A story of young women on the American frontier (Nebraska). The story focuses primarily on the title character Ántonia and the rather hard life she end up leading as an immigrant woman in the American west. We also get to see the life of several other pioneer women and the choices they have made.

My Thoughts: I loved this book. It was well written. It had me gripped.
I loved that it portrayed the many different aspects of pioneer life. The hypocrisies, the joys and a the sorrows. I also liked that it was told from the perspective of a man who knew these women. It gave an impression of the women that I had not expected. One can tell that the author is female but I find it interesting that she uses a male to tell her story. I wonder if a man at the time would have seen and commented on the things that the narrator commented on?

I liked that the story followed several different women and showed them as independent characters, capable of taking care of themselves. The girls are all strong and learn to use their strengths to help themselves but also each other, despite what society around them might think.

One aspect that I found very relevant both for the time when the story was written and set and for today was the hypocrisies surrounding men and women and their roles. At the same time as the girls were capable of hard work and industry was admired a girl who worked at a “mans job” was seen as somehow less of a woman. She was looked down upon and talked about. I still find these attitudes today. The women themselves were doing it to survive and to help their families survive something that was required but they were seen as less than the women who lived in town.

Another significant aspect of which I had not thought about was the attitude of the Americans towards the newly arrived immigrants. The immigrants worked hard and were motivated but were often seen as having looser morals and differing attitudes. Lets be honest and say that this attitude still prevails in many societies today (my own included). It is an attitude I find sad.

 Copyright ©2015 Zee from A Tea Stained Page. This post was originally posted by Zee from A Tea Stained Page. It should not be reproduced without express written permission

Review Re-Post: Running for Mortals by John Bingham and Jenny Hadfield

Okay so I am still not a runner. Although some (former) colleagues and I have started a running group. I still want to be a runner. I am going to give it a go again once I move. If anyone has a good idea how I should prevent shinsplints I will love you forever.


Running for Mortals by John Bingham and Jenny Hadfield

The miracle isn't that I finished.
The miracle is that I had the courage to start.

John Bingham's Credo (pg 102)

Category: Non-fiction

Synopsis:You don’t have to run fast or competitively to reap the rewards that running has to offer. What you do need is the courage to start. That is the "Penguin mantra" that has enabled John Bingham—through his best-selling book No Need for Speed, his popular monthly column for Runner’s World magazine, and his many appearances at major running events throughout the year—to inspire thousands of men and women to take up the sport for fitness and the sheer enjoyment that running brings them.

By teaming up with coach Jenny Hadfield, his wife and coauthor on Marathoning for Mortals, Bingham lays out strategies that will help readers to safely and effortlessly integrate runs into their busy schedules. In this book, backed by Runner’s World, the authority of America’s leading running magazine, the authors provide tips for getting started, sticking to a routine, eating for energy, hydration, and training for speed and endurance (from Amazon.com).

My thoughts: I have much love for this book. I am fairly new to running (and I really need to get out there again it's been ages) and I found this book incredibly helpful and inspiring. It takes you through why you should run. How you should run. When you should run. In fun easy chapters. It gives several different training programs as well as advice on warm-ups and strength training. It also gives some of the best weight loss advice out there:

Eat less. Move more. pg 157

This book is a great introduction for those who are considering taking up running as part of their fitness routine but I think it also has a lot to offer seasoned runners who might need some reminders. It is also a funny book. John and Jenny look at themselves and running with a great deal of self-deprecating humour. They make it very clear that they did not start out as world class olympians but as normal people who "couldn't run to the end of the block without crying". This type of self-insight is so very helpful to me as I move on in my journey of becoming a runner. I am now looking forward to reading their other book: Marathoning for Mortals. Not that I will be running a marathon any time soon but they are that inspiring.

I really cannot recommend this book more highly to anyone who is a runner or wants to become one!

Review Re-Post: Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett

 When Terry Pratchett passed away earlier this year I was so sad. He was a big part of my teen years and I dip into his books every so often now too. He always made me laugh. When news of DEATH coming to get him reached me, I reached for Reaper Man. But rather than post a review of it I thought I would go back and give you my review from my old blog. So posted previously on Notes from the North on October 30th 2009:

Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett

Category: Fantasy, Satire

Synopsis: Death is given time and goes off to use it. Chaos ensues because without death life cannot move on and in classic Discworld manner life hangs around.


My Thoughts: I think I read my first Discworld novel about ten years ago and it was instant love, and the character I fell the most in love with was Death. Death has always been a bit different from how death should be, sure he has a hood, carries a scythe and is a bit of a skelington (95) but he also has a contemplative side and he does have family.

When the auditors decide that Death has become a personality contrary to regulations they give him time. And in typical Death manner he goes off to use it. He becomes farm hand Bill Door. Deaths absence as, well...Death, leads to problems for the other Discworld inhabitants, amongst them the Wizards at the Unseen University (or UU one of the few reasons I considered going to Uppsala University was the acronym UU). The Wizards are, erm...special people. Very set in their ways as befits proper Wizards and when one of their own fails to move on they set about solving the problem. However, when Wizards solve problems this tends to create other problems.

Pratchett has a way of seeing society in a way that you yourself could not but when he writes it down you go "oh yeah, of course". One of these incidences comes at the beginning of the book when the Wizards are throwing Windle Poons a death party. It reminded me strongly of the leaving parties that pop up occasionally at work, where everyone pretends to like the person and hope them well but secretly just want to get on with their own lives. The forced jollyness is always palpable.

As with any Pratchett book it is hard to explain what happens without giving away the whole story but I will say that I haven't laughed this much over a book in absolutely ages. And that the description of Mrs Cake (a medium, verging on small)

The Chief Priest moved a little closer.
'I think I could be strong enough to master and defeat just a little snare,' he said. 'I haven't felt like this since Mrs Cake was one of my flock.'
'Mrs Cake? What's a Mrs Cake?'
'You have...ghastly Things from the Dungeon Dimensions and thins, yes? Terrible hazards of your ungodly profession?' said the Chief Priest.
'Yes.'
'We have someone called Mrs Cake.'
Ridcully gave him an enquiring look.
'Don't ask,' said the priest, shuddering. 'Just be grateful you'll never have to find out.' (pg79)

strongly reminds me of this

I think that the Chief Priest would take Death please.

Copyright ©2015 Zee from A Tea Stained Page. This post was originally posted by Zee from A Tea Stained Page. It should not be reproduced without express written permission