Library Loot 6.1.2011 & Giveaway Winner

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted my Marg of The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader and Claire of The Captive Reader. Mister Linky is this week at Claire's blog.

I have tried to be pretty prudent in my borrowing and book buying these first few days after New Year, as I still have quite a few books from my previous loot waiting for their turn. Still, I wanted to get a good start with the challenges I'm participating this year and most of the books above will qualify for one challenge or another. There are 6 library books and 2 new purchases I'm going to introduce here. Let's start with the library books:

Jean Bottéro: Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia
When I was a university student majoring in history, my main interest was 19th century -early 20th century, only later have I become more and more interested in older history, and by older I mean really old, I mean millenniums BC, I mean Egypt and Mesopotamia. This book is an easy to follow account of one of the oldest known religions, the religion of  Ancient Mesopotamia. I'm reading this at the moment, alternating between this book and Pinkerton's Sister, and I'm totally enjoying both books, and I have already learned some fascinating stuff about the ancient Mesopotamian culture. I'm reading this book for the One, Two! Theme Challenge, and I have a hunch that Mesopotamia as a theme might get an upgrade in my list, especially as Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia wasn't even on my original list.

John Dickinson: We
My mood for some scifi continues. This is a psychological thriller as well as a science fiction novel about a man sent from Earth to a far away icy moon on the fringes of the solar system on a no-return mission. On the lonely station manned by only four persons he has to confront some truths he has never even suspected. Sounds intriguing, and the layout of the text is very reader friendly.

Carolyn Graves-Brown: Dancing for Hathor. Women in Ancient Egypt
This, too, is nonfiction for the One, Two! Theme Challenge, and judging by the contents the book covers well different spheres of women's life in Ancient Egypt.

Mary Hooper: At the Sign of the Sugared Plum
This is a slim YA historical novel telling the story of young Hannah, who is excited for her first trip to London. She is to go and help her sister, who runs a sweetmeats shop. Only this is AD 1665 and the Plague is threatening London. This might end up being one of the books I'll read for the Historical Fiction Challenge. Yet another book that is not on my original list.

Michael Moorcock: Behold the Man
Some more science fiction and a veritable classic this time. This is the story of Karl Glogauer, time traveller and an unlikely Messiah in Palestine in AD 29! Cannot wait to read this!

Adam Thirlwell: Miss Herbert. An Essay in Five Parts
I noticed this book at work and was intrigued. It says in the spine that this is "[a] book of novels, romances and their translators, containing ten languages, set on four continents and accompanied by maps, portraits, squiggles and illustrations." Who could resist that?? The book also contains Thirlwell's translation of Mademoiselle O by Valdimir Nabokov.

That was the last book of my library loot, but I also have these two new books of my own:

Daisy Goodwin: My Last Duchess
I had a coupon giving me 20% off of one purchase from Stockmann's departmant store, and I actually decided to buy something else than a book, but, well, you know how it goes. :) I ended up buying this historical novel. This is a story of a rich New York heiress, whose mother is determinate to marry her daughter into the English aristocracy. It's set in 1890s, a time period that is always a plus for me. My Last Duchess is Goodwin's first novel.

The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister. Ed. by Helena Whitbread
Anne Lister was an independent, landowning woman, who lived 1791-1840. She loved women and kept an honest diary, written partly in code, where she wrote also about her love life. Lister's diaries are an important part of women's history. It's great that Virago has made them easily available with this new paperback edition. I will read this book for the GLBT Challenge. There is also a nice British drama film made last year based on the diaries.

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Last but not least, earlier today I draw the winner of my signed copy of Purge giveaway. Thank you everyone who showed interest in this amazing novel! The winner is Judith of Leeswammes' Blog from The Netherlands. Congratulations Judith! I hope you will enjoy the book as much as I did. I have already contacted Judith and the book will be on its way hopefully already tomorrow.

Top 10 Reads of 2010 & December Wrap-Up

Happy New Year everyone!


Here is my December reading wrap-up. It's also going to be my last wrap-up post as such as I've decided to discontinue posting monthly wrap-ups. Let's see if I'll come up with something else instead in 2011. :)


Books read: 5
Books read in English: 3
Books read in Finnish: 2
Finnish books read: 1
Fiction: 5
Nonfiction: 0
Books reviewed: 1


I cannot believe I read only 5 books in December! It felt more than that! Well, actually I did also read the first of the three novels in The Dancers at the End of Time omnibus by Michael Moorcock, but I will only count the book read after I've read the whole omnibus as it technically is one book even if it consists of three novels. I also read the title story in The Fixer and Other Stories, a graphic novel or rather a graphic novella and short stories by Joe Sacco. And I'm almost at the end of The Tapestry of Love by Rosy Thornton. It was my aim to finish it in 2010, but I still have some 40 pages left, so , instead of being my last book read in 2010, it will be the first I read in 2011. :)


Here's the books I read in December:


-The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins (reread, but the first time I read it in English)
-Minne tytöt kadonneet by Leena Lehtolainen
-Kesä Baden-Badenissa (Summer in Baden-Baden) by Leonid Tsypkin
-Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly
-Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan


All in all I read 73 books in 2010, which is a usual number for me. I'm always aiming for 100, but have not managed that yet! Maybe in 2011... :)
 
My top 10 reads in 2010 were (in reverse order):
 
10. How Beautiful the Ordinary ed. by Michael Cart. This YA collection of 12 short stories about identity was the first book I read in 2010 and what a great beginning for my reading year it proved to be. Definitely a book I will return to in the future.
 
9. Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly. This YA novel is quite a recent read as I only finished reading it on the Christmas Eve. The writing was great and the main characters were very likable. Partly contemporary and partly historical fiction this novel really shows how to make history interesting for young adults.
 
8. The PowerBook by Jeanette Winterson. It's Winterson, need I say more. :) The writing was fabulous as always.
 
7. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. Well, is's Collins, need I say more. :) Loved this somewhat gothic mystery even more now that I read it the second time.
 
6. The 19th Wife by David Ebersdorf. Another partly contemporary, partly historical novel. What a great story this was! Maybe I should say here that this one shows how to make history interesting for everyone. :)
 
5. The Sealed Letter by Emme Donoghue. One of the three books by Donoghue I read in 2010. She really became one of my favorite writers in 2010. A historical novel with great period details and once again a great story.
 
4. Room by Emma Donoghue. Such a gripping story. No need to say more here.
 
3. Purge by Sofi Oksanen. I actually read this in the original Finnish. Judged by the writing alone this would have been my number one read, but the subject matter, in typical Oksanen style, was not in any means easy or enjoyable as such, thus my top 2 books beat Purge on the enjoyment factor. 
 
2. In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden. Interesting that my top 10 includes two rereads, this being the other one of those. I absolutely love this book! And now that I have my own copy I will no doubt revisit Brede every now and then.
 
1. Little Boy Lost by Marghanita Laski. Loved, loved, loved this Persephone book! :) I still almost get goosepumps when I think of the ending of this novel. It's so perfect.
 
So, uusi vuosi, uudet kujeet (new year, new tricks) as we say here in Finland. :) I have some plans for further improving the design of A Room of One's Own and I'm really looking forward to the new blogging and reading year. So many interesting books to read! So many stories waiting to pe discovered! Isn't it wonderful? A whole new year ahead of us full of all kinds of possibilities and promises and dreams just waiting for us to make them real! Happy reading in 2011!

Teaser Tuesday 21.12.2010

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by LizB 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 and author too so that other Teaser Tuesday participients can add the book on their TBR lists, if they like your teasers!

Last week I started enthusiastically reading Can You Forgive Her? by Anthony Trollope. It is the first of his Palliser novels and is set in the 1860s. After The Woman in White I craved for more Victorian fiction and thought Trollope would satisfy that craving. For ca. 150 pages he did, but then somehow I became tired of the story. I did not care much for one of the characters and found another one a bit irritating. In the end I gave up. Not for good, but for now. I wanted to read something else, something with more...something, almost anything really, after a chapter on fox hunting! I took a good look at my book piles and decided on Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly. I'm only 50 pages into the book, but I'm liking what I've read this far. My teaser is from page 26 (little more than 2 sentences this time):

"Most of the teachers at St Anselm's will tell me I'm a genius. That I can do anything, be anything. That my potential is limitless and I should reach for the stars. Nathan is the only one who calls me dummkopf and tells me to practise the Sarabande in Bach's Lute Suite in E Minor five hundred times a night if that's what it takes to get it through my thick skull. And it's such a relief I could cry."

ps. There is still time to enter my giveaway. Click the button below to go to the giveaway post.

Giveaway: A Signed Copy of Purge by Sofi Oksanen

Update January 6, this giveaway is now closed. And the winner is... Click here. :)

The holiday season is almost here and I know that many secret -and not so secret- Santas are already hard at work. :) During the latest Helsinki Book Fair in the end of October I was lucky enough to purhcase two signed copies of Purge by Sofi Oksanen. I'm giving one of them to one of you!

I want to keep this very simple. If you want to participate in the giveaway, just leave a comment here with your e-mail address (so that I have a means contacting you, if you win). I will choose the winner on January 6th by using the age old random technique of writing the names of all participants on slips of paper and pulling one of the slips out from a hat. :) This giveaway is open to anyone, anywhere.