Mailbox Monday is a weekly event hosted by Marcia of The Printed Page.
Last week six books were added to my ever expanding collection. :)
1. The Last Ember by Daniel Levin. This book was kindly sent to me by Marcia of The Printed Page. Thank you so much, Marcia! The Last Ember is Levin's debut novel, a thriller set in the worlds of archeology, religion and terrorism. The story moves from Rome to Jerusalem in search of a hidden two millennia old artefact. I cannot wait to read it!
2. & 3. Angels Beneath the Surface: A Selection of Contemporary Slovene Fiction ed. by Mitja Cankar and Tom Priestly & Marsipaania translated & ed. by Kari Klemelä and Jouni Inkala. My interest in Slovenia is nurtured by two collections I bought at my favorite bookstore. The first one is the first collection of Slovene short stories published in English outside of Slovenia since 1994, and the second one is the first collection of contemporary Slovenian poetry translated into Finnish.
4. Oscar's Books: A Journey around the Library of Oscar Wilde by Thomas Wright. It is a story of Wilde's life through his reading. How could have I resisted buying something like that!! :)
5. s'Hertogenbosch within the Walls: A Historical Exploration by Frans van Gaal and Peter Verhagen. We had a group of people from s'Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands visiting us at work. I gave them a tour of our building and told them about our services. They kindly gave me this interesting book about the old town of s'Hertogenbosch. It seems to be a very beautiful place. Browsing the book makes me want to visit s'Hertogenbosch some day.
5. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. I've read this in Finnish many, many years ago. Since reading Matt of A Guy's Moleskin Notebook praising the book I got the urge to re-read it in English. My favorite bookstore had a Wordsworth Editions paperback at only 3,90 €. That is so cheap it is practically nothing! Simply could not resist. :)
Oh, the dilemma! So many books, so many books! I'm still reading both Summer Will Show by Sylvia Townsend Warner and Farewell, Shanghai by Angel Wagenstein and enjoying them a lot. Only I would like to get started with so many other novels, too! Could we not have at least 36 hours in a day, please!! :)
All countries have their own literary classics. I thought that some of you might be interested in getting a list of some Finnish literary classics. I mean, especially those classics that have been translated into English. ;) So, here goes:
1. Kalevala
For us Finns this is the classic of all classics. Kalevala is the Finnish national epic. The Greek have their Iliad and Odyssey, the French have their Song of Roland, us Finns have our Kalevala. It is an epic poem compiled by Elias Lönnrot. He, a doctor and a scolar, made, starting in the 1820s, several trips to Eastern parts of Finland and to Karelia to collect folk poetry which he then compiled into a book. The first version of Kalevala was published in the 1830s. In 1849 a wider collection of 50 poems was published. The 1849 version is the one that is the standard Kalevala today. Wikipedia article about Kalevala has a nice synopsis of the plot & also information about the main characters. Also, the Project Gutenberg site has both the oldest (1888) and the second oldest (1907) (part 1/2 only) full text English translations available on-line for free.
2. Seven Brothers by Aleksis Kivi
This is the first important Finnish language novel. It was first published in 1870. Seven Brothers has been translated into English several times. The first English translation was published in 1929, the latest, by Richard A. Impola, was publsihed in New York in 1991. Aleksis Kivi is considered our national writer. He wrote the novel at a time when literary Finnish was still being developed. Seven Brothers tells the story of, well, seven, rather stubborn, brothers, who come into conflict with their local village community.
3. The Unknown Soldier by Väinö Linna
Linna's first major novel (first published in Finnish in 1954) is a story set in the 1940s. It is a story about the Continuation War between Finland and the Soviet Union told from the viewpoint of a group of ordinary soldiers. As far as I've heard the English translation is unfortunately not very faithful to the original Finnish text.
4. Under the North Star by Väinö Linna
This is a trilogy that follows the life of a family and while doing so tells us about the big picture, the important historical events of the time. The story begins during the Russian rule in Finland, moves through the Finnish Civil War to the years of World War II and beyond. The opening words of the first part of the trilogy (In English"In the beginning there were the marsh, the hoe - and Jussi") is a line that even those Finns that have never read the book recognise. Again, if you want to learn more about the plot and characters, here is an article you might find interesting. Under the North Star was translated by Richard Impola in the beginning of the 2000s.
5. The Egyptian by Mika Waltari
Mika Waltari was perhaps the greatest writer of historical fiction we have ever had in Finland, though he also wrote many contemporary novels. Many of his books have been translated into English. His most celebrated book is The Egyptian (first published in Finnish in 1945). Set in Ancient Egypt, mostly in the reign of pharaoh Akhenaten, The Egyptian tells the story of the royal physician Sinuhe. This is one of my all time favorite novels. In the picture above the book on the left is my own copy of the 1951 Finnish 7th edition (=Sinuhe egyptiläinen) that I got from my grandmother when I was maybe 14 or 15.
It is well past my bedtime now & I still want to read at least a few pages of Summer Will Show before sleep, so I better continue later. Stay tuned for part 2.
Teaser Tuesday is a weekly event hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.
The rules are:
- Grab your current read.
- Open to a random page.
- Share two teaser sentences from somewhere on that page.
- Be careful not to include spoilers!
- Share the title & author, too, so that other Teaser Tuesday participiants can add the book to their to be read lists if they like your teasers!
I'm reading two novels at the moment, and alterating between the two every 40-50 pages or so. One of the novels is Summer Will Show by Sylvia Townsend Warner and the other is Farewell, Shanghai by Angel Wagenstein. I'm most probably going to review both novels later, but let's start with a little teaser from Farewell, Shanghai:"While the Haydn symphony was pouring out its light and tender "farewell," the last of the naive also saying farewell to their comfortable illusions about good old Germany -this winter's tale that, in just a few weeks or so, would kick out like dirty kittens the Nazi bums who had just by chance grabbed hold of power.
For it was on exactly this night -the evening of November 10, 1938, Wednesday going on Thursday- that history would bestow the name Krystallnacht -"The Night of Broken Glass"- and this referred not to the chrystal chandeliers of the Dresden Konzerthaus, but to the crystal tinkling of broken Jewish shop windows."
Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Eva and Marg that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!
This week Mr. Linky is up at Eva's site.
I haven't done a library loot post for a while, not because I had not borrowed any books (Hello!? I work in a library. It is a work related disease ;) to borrow lots of books.), but because most weeks I have been rather busy with other things towards the end of the week. Actually, I have not had enough time to read as much as I've wanted to, but I'm planning on doing some catching up on that respect tomorrow. I have been reading The Incredible Human Journey which is really interesting. And I finally decided on which novel to read next: The Grass Is Singing by Doris Lessing. I've been wanting to read Lessing for ages now, but somehow have never got around to it. One of my reading groups chose The Grass Is Singing as their next read, so now it's kind of "compulsory reading" for me. I've read the four first chapters now and really enjoy her writing.
But, let's go to the loot now! In addition to Lessing, my pile contains:- The Diving Pool by Yoko Ogawa. I read The Housekeeper and The Professor earlier this year and really enjoyed it. So, I'm hoping this collection of three novellas will also be a good read.
- Ann Veronica by H. G. Wells. This is a story about a young woman, who wants to be "a Person" in turn-of-the-century London. On her quest to be her own woman she encounters Fabians, suffragettes, free love. I'm more familiar with Wells' science fiction books, but it will be intersting to read one of his other novels.
- The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton. Inspired by the RIP IV-challenge, I borrowed this collection eventhough I'm not participating in the challenge. To be honest, ghost stories and horror are not really my thing, but I like Edith Wharton, and I have read at least one or two of her ghost stories before, so I thought to read at least a few more. Maybe I could be a kind of supporting member of the challenge. ;)
- Women on Their Own. Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Being Single. Edited by Rudolph M. Bell & Virginia Yans. This is a collection of essays, mostly about single women in the 19th-century.
- Marsipaania. Slovenialaista nykyrunoutta. Translated & edited by Kari Klemelä & Jouni Inkala.This is a brand new collection of contemporary Slovenian poetry translated into Finnish. I already read this and loved some of the poems very much.
- Säkeitä Pietarista by Johanna Hulkko. This is a new Finnish writer. The title of the book could be translated as Verses from St. Petersburg and the story seems very interesting, and I really, really should read more Finnish authors!
- The Novel in the Victorian Age by Robin Gilmour. I want to read what he says about Elizabeth Gaskell, the Brontë sisters, and Wilkie Collins.
- Lodgers by Nenad Velickovic. Found another novel about the Balkan wars. This one was actually originally published during the siege of Sarajevo.
- Summer Will Show by Sylvia Townsend Warner. I read about this novel in, hmm, The New York Review of Books it was, if I remember correctly, and it sounded interesting. It is a story set in Paris in 1848, where Sophia, joining her enstranged husband after the death of her children, falls in love with her husband's mistress. Summer Will Show was first published in 1936.
That concludes my library loot this week. Happy reading, everyone!
Teaser Tuesday is a weekly event hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.
The rules are:- Grab your current read.
- Open to a random page.
- Share two teaser sentences from somewhere on that page.
- Be careful not to include spoilers!
- Share the title & author, too, so that other Teaser Tuesday participiants can add the book to their to be read lists if they like your teasers!
My to read list at Goodreads is in three digits at the moment, and at home I have piles of books I would like to read, and it is really hard to choose which one to read next! Well, I admit, that is a happy problem! :)
However, I thought maybe it would be fun to read some non-fiction while I am pondering which novel to read next. I could not choose just one non-fiction book, either, so I'm now reading both Queen Christabel by David Mitchell (my used book for the 9 books for 2009 challenge) and The Incredible Human Journey by Alice Roberts. So, here comes two teasers from two interesting books covering two very different subjects.
Queen Christabel is a biography of the English suffragette leader Christabel Pankhurst. The history of women and especially the history of women's suffrage is something very dear to my heart. I wrote my master's thesis on the international connections of Maikki Friberg, one of the leading Finnish women's rights activist in the late 19th-early 20th century, and, hopefully, I will write a PhD on women's history some day. I bought a used copy of Queen Christabel at Foyles in London over a decade ago. Even before that I had read parts of the book for my studies, but now I want to read it from cover to cover. I know Mitchell's book has been said to be quite hostile to Christabel Pankhurst, so I'm looking forward to an interesting read. Here comes the teaser right from the beginning of the introduction:"Seldom has a political tactician achieved such instant notoriety as when in October 1905 Christabel Pankhurst was sent to prison for the 'crime' of asking Sir Edward Gray, at a political rally in the Free Trade Hall, Manchester: "Will the Liberal Party give Votes for Women?" Overnight the diminutive Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) began to command journalistic attention, and within a few months women's suffrage became an issue which could no longer be ignored or escaped."[p. 1]
The incredible Human Journey: The Story of How We Colonised the Planet I borrowed from work. It caught my eye in the new arrivals shelf and looked so interesting I just had to borrow it. I've read about 50 pages so far and it looks very promising. It is described in the dust jacket as "part detective story, part travelogue" that retraces the migration of early humans out of Africa."We are certainly apes; our anatomy is incredibly similar to that of our nearest relations, chimpanzees. I could put a chimpanzee arm bone, or humerus, in an exam for medical students and they wouldn't even notice that it wasn't human." [p. 1]
Interesting isn't it? Happy reading everyone!
I have always loved languages and I have loved to travel. My "first love" in this respect was England. I visited London for the first time when I was seven and since then wanted to return -again and again. With my interest in the country grew interest in the English language. I still remember the first book I ever read in English. It was The Turning Point by Arthur Laurents, and I was perhaps 13 or 14 years old. My English skills weren't very good at the time, but it was a novel about the world of ballet (I took ballet lessons at the time and dreamed about being a ballerina) and I absolutely wanted to know how the story ended. Somehow I struggled through the whole book, but I did understand enough to know what happened in the story. Let's just say that that experience was very encouraging and little by little I began to read more and more novels in English.
Next came Norway. Finland is a bilingual country with two national languages. Whereas most of us are Finnish speakers there is also a Swedish speaking minority and everybody learns at least some Swedish (or in the case of Swedish speakers some Finnish) at school. Swedish and Norwegian are rather close to each other and I had always been used to hearing Swedish spoken, but when I first heard Norwegian I really liked the sound of it. I was also very much into the Viking period in Norvegian history. I ended up spending a semester as an excange student in Norway studying the language and history at the University of Oslo.
But my enthusiasm with countries and languages did not end there. Italy followed. For five consecutive years I just had to get to Rome! And for three of those years I took evening classes in Italian. Then I got interested in the French language and for the past few years I have grown to love Paris and have tried to learn some French by myself. And now, my latest favorite country outside my own is Slovenia. Since my first trip to Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, last November, I have tried to learn more about this tiny nation. I find the Slovene language fascinating. It is a South Slavic language and totally different from any language I know. At the moment I know only a few words, but I would love to learn more Slovene in the future. We'll see how that goes... But lately I have also grown more and more interested in the history of the Balkan region as a whole, especially the disintegration of Yugoslavia and I have found some really interesting novels about the Balkans in the 1990s.
I started by reading The Ministry of Pain by Dubravka Ugresic. I read this in Finnish for one of my two reading groups. It is a story of a group of young Yugoslav exiles trying to cope in a foreign country. Just recently I found the book in sale in a book store. They had it both in Finnish and in English translations, but the English one was cheaper, so I ended up buying that.
This summer I coutinued this one person reading challenge of my own with Stillness, an absolutely "must read" collection of short stories by Courtney Angela Brkic about how war affects people's lives and minds. It is a wonderful book that I know I will be returning to time and again in the future.
I now have two more novels about the Balkans on my to read list: Pretty Birds by Scott Simon and Sarabande by Marcus Fedder. I'll talk more about those later, but this time I want to write a few words about The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway. I started reading the book last weekend and since then I spent more or less every spare minute I had in my at the moment rather full schedule reading it. It is a story about three persons during the siege of Sarajevo. Arrow is a young woman enlisted as a sniper to defend the city, Kenan a familyman facing the difficult and dangerous task of having to go and get water for his family, and Dragan is an older man whose wife and son got out of Sarajevo at the last moment and now live in Italy. Through these individuals Galloway tells a powerful, amazing, heartbreaking, and very important story about the absurdity of war. The Cellist of Sarajevo is a brilliant book, absolutely brilliant. It's been many hours since I finished it, but the emotions I felt while reading are haunting me still. The Cellist of Sarajevo is no doubt the best book I have read this year and will probably be among my all time favorites! A highly recommended read!
Mailbox Monday is a weekly event hosted by Marcia of The Printed Page.
