Komt een vrouw bij de dokter, or…….

translated in English: A woman goes to the doctor, sounds like the beginning of a joke, but it’s not. It actually is the title of a book I just finished reading. In my opinion the best book I’ve read this year. A book that has been on my to- read- list ever since it was first published, but also a book you need to be in the mood for. That sounds a bit strange but for certain books you need to be in a certain mood. When I am down and depressed, I like to read funny, romantic or inspiring books. When I am sad, but not able to let the emotions out, I like to read moving books. On all other days I like to read just about anything. SF, fantasy, thrillers, horror, literature, history….you name it and there is always a day for a certain type of book.

Like I said, I just finished it and I wasn’t going to blog about it because, hey, it’s a Dutch book and not a lot of Dutch books are translated in other languages, but this one has and it’s available on Amazon. They have changed the title to Love life, which is a shame really, but still a very suitable title.

What more can I say about the book? I could tell you the whole story, but I don’t want to spoil everything, so just go here and read more about the book itself.
As you can see, this isn't a fluffy love story, it’s more like getting on an emotional rollercoaster. It’s real, honest, raw, open, sincere, fast, confronting, about ethics and morals, life, cancer, death, planning, relationships, family and it’s sad and very moving. You can burst into tears one moment and laugh out loud the next. But it’s also about courage, love and the amazing power people have.

Read it if you want (with a box of tissues at hand), skip it if you don’t, but at least keep the most important message (IMO) of the book in mind Live every day like it is your last so you won’t have to look back in anger or with regrets.

What do the books I've read say about me?

What would your list look like? I borrowed this from someone in the blog-o-sphere. It reminded me of books I forgot or want to add to my reading list. There are several books that aren’t on this list, that I have read, but just aren’t on this list.

Look at the list of books below.
*Bold the ones you’ve read
*Italicize the ones you want to read
*leave blank the ones that you aren't interested in. If you are reading this, tag your it!

Now I am reading: Love and the Monroes – Suzanne Power
I really can’t recommend this of book. It’s entertaining….sometimes, but that’s about it.

1.The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2.Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3.To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10.A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11.Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12.Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13.Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16.Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees(Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban(Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie(Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True(Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolsoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down(Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth(Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100.Ulysses (James Joyce)

So back to the original question. What would this list say about me? This list would probably tell you I’ve read a lot of SF & Fantasy books, thrillers, some of the classics and novels. But I’ve read a lot more; I am a real book worm! Give me a good book and I am a very happy girl :) Hmmz…. I guess it tells you.... zilch ;)

The Brief History of the Dead

Earlier this week I finished reading “The Brief History of the Dead: A novel” by Kevin Brockmeier and this is, in my opinion, one of the most interesting books I’ve read this year. Why? Because it made me wonder and I like that….a lot. This isn’t going to be a book review but I have to tell you a little about the book or else you won’t understand why it made me think about the things I thought about. (is that still a sentence? I am not quite sure ;))

Anyway, this is how the story goes. Laura Byrd, a Coca Cola researcher, is stranded and in trouble. Three weeks ago she and her friends found themselves alone in one of the coldest, most remote places on earth, the Antarctic. Her friends set out in search of help, and now Laura realises that they are not coming back. So she gathers her remaining supplies and sets out on an extraordinary journey. Meanwhile in another city, more and more people arrive every day. Each new arrival has a different story to tell, but their accounts have one thing in common - it was their final journey. For this is the city of the dead. The earth has been decimated by a virus called “The Blinks”. Brockmeier's notion of an afterlife is a way station where people must stay until people whom they have known have also died, or until they are forgotten. Strangely enough over half of them have known Laura Byrd. This is a spellbinding story about our lives, loves- about our place in the world, our connections with each other, and what happens to us all after our deaths

First of all: I don’t believe in heaven or hell or any form of afterlife. In my opinion, you have to enjoy this life and make the most of it. Who knows, there might be nothing else and I believe it would be a waste if you spend your life hoping for something that might not exist. Why hope for a maybe when you have something genuine right now.
But it is still kind of fun to wonder about the possibilities every now and then. What if there was something like the city of the dead after this (the land of the living). In the book the city of the dead is much like any ordinary city. There are houses, apartment buildings, offices, shops, libraries, newspapers, movies, books, music (no radio and TV though), restaurants, bikes (no cars though), some people work (others don’t), the weather changes, there are food and beverages, and people go out and enjoy themselves. So it is not so different from the life we live right now, and it certainly is nothing like heaven or hell. What makes the city even more interesting however is the fact that it not only expands to cope with the many arrivals, it also diminish when a lot of the people vanish all of a sudden. Funnily enough, the people who stay in the city of dead start to wonder about all those vanishing people. They even start to speculate about an after-afterlife and maybe afterlives. But if that was true, how many lives would we have then…..7? Or 9 just like a cat? Or would the next step be heaven or hell?

Anyhow, this book gave me a lot to think about. I still believe there is no afterlife but it was fun to fantasize about it though. It was a bit like playing Sims, you can create and live in your own little fantasy world. It also made me think about hope, the hope that we will not soon be forgotten after we die. It would be nice to achieve some form of immortality through the generations. But will people remember us? How many people will remember us? What will we be remembered for? And for how long? Questions, questions, questions!! :)
This book also made me think of all the people I’ve lost over the years: my Dad, grandparents, aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews, friends and acquaintances and colleagues. It would be nice if they were happily together in a place like the city of dead, but I guess they aren’t. However I don’t believe they are absolutely dead yet. People are alive as long as they are remembered. They are only dead when people stop talking about them. And I think that that’s the book's real message somehow. It makes no difference what your believes are, there are two worlds out there, a) the here and now (the living) and b) the not here and now (the dead). Luckily there is a bridge between them…….our memories!!

Harry Potter and the Goblet of fire.

I went to see Harry P. yesterday and was actually quite surprised by it. I really love the books and most of the movies are a bit of a disappointment. Nevertheless, I liked the previous movies but I love this one. So much more magical and it’s a little darker, a little grittier, and a little more involving.
I was really pleased with the way they made Alastor ‘MadEye’ Moody come alive. What a great character! I already liked him in the book, but I liked him even more in the movie. And how about Lord Voldemort, wow! He really is the Dark Lord.
Great movie and in my opinion quite easily the best Potter movie yet. I can’t wait to see the next one :)

Spooky and fascinating thriller…..Spider’s House by Sarah Diamond

Book Description
When Anna's husband Carl tells her that he's been offered a job in a different part of the country, she's as happy to move as he is. While she enjoys city life, her second career as a novelist is going nowhere, and she hopes that in the small Dorset village of Abbots Newton, inspiration might return. After the move, however, she finds it's quite a different story. With few ideas for her new novel and little else to do, life in the country isn't quite what she'd imagined. But all that is set to change when Anna discovers something unexpected: Rebecca Fisher, the notorious child murderess of the 1960s, was the previous owner of their cottage. At first, Anna is simply curious and reads up on the case that shocked the nation decades ago. Yet the more she learns about Fisher, the more determined she becomes to reveal the truth, a truth which has remained unexplored for over thirty years. But someone else has other ideas. As an unseen enemy threatens her marriage, her safety and ultimately her life, Anna finds herself unable to turn back. By understanding Rebecca Fisher, she might just be able to save herself...

Great read but you will need some time for it….it’s not exactly a fast-paced read.

Metro Girl by Janet Evanovich

This is the first book I have read by this author and I really like it (and I’m a bit surprised by that fact). The plot is great, the action is fast and hilarious and the characters wacky. From the start the heroine Alex a.k.a. Barney is believable and appealing.

From the backcover:

‘Alex Barnaby isn’t in Miami for the humidity or the huge bugs. She’s trying to saver her brother, “Wild” Bill Barnaby. Hard on Bill’s trail through the bars of South Beach, Key West and Cuba she meets Sam Hooker, the man Bill “borrowed” a yacht from. Hooker, stock-car hero and hot stuff, figures Alex is his link to scumbag Bill- besides, she’s a sweetie. The race to finish takes Alex and Hooker into international waters, exposing a plot to grab Cuban gold and a sinister relic of the missile crisis.

It’s a high-octane misadventure with hot nights, cold- blooded murder and a woman built for speed. Cussing and sexual innuendo included.’

Oh and I liked the title of this book too although it took me a while to figure out where the author got that from. It is all explained in the end when one of the characters says ‘Just look at you in your brand new little pink skirt and adorable blond hair. Who would think you smoked cigars and overhauled carburetors? It’s like you take metro-sexual to a whole new level. It’s like you’re Metro Girl.’

Conclusion: great, fast-paced and funny read!

Just finished: Split Ends by Zoë Barnes and….

I didn’t like it. The story is soooo predictable. Read only the backcover that saves you a lot of time :) The very short version of this book:

Girl meets boy - Girl gets pregnant – Boy leaves her – Girl finds another boy – Marries him – After 8 years they separate because they didn’t marry out of love – Boy gets mistress – Girl gets toy boy – Both relationships don’t work – Girl and boy meet up again and live happily ever after.

Of course there are few other storylines in the book but they are not really worth your trouble. All in all, it is not a very creative story. Sorry!!

So is it a ‘bloody good read’ like the cover suggest? In my opinion NOT!

Run the Risk

I just finished a great thriller: Run the Risk by Scott Frost. It was just fine for the first two pages, captured my attention on page 3 and after page 4 I could not put it down. Its pace is fast, and it kept on accelerating.

Short Summary:
‘Los Angeles homicide detective Alex Delillo works a case that chills her from the start: one with too much ambiguity and far too many surprises. None of the evidence-and yet all of it-seems relevant. A small-time shopkeeper is shot to death. Then a rare, untraceable explosive ignites in a bungalow, hurling the front door across the yard. Finally, a teenaged girl goes missing, her car window smashed, her keys still in the ignition. Even before they tell her, Detective Delillo knows that this girl is her daughter.
Delillo tracks her quarry on a trail of escalating terror toward a fiery showdown that will test her wisdom, her will, and her every skill.’

As a mystery, the plot has twists and turns to challenge the best minds to sort out at every particular moment what has already happened and what is about to happen. Mysteries/thrillers traditionally focus on a buildup to "whodunnit", and there's definitely some of that in Run the Risk. Most of the book is an ongoing mental duel: the detectives against a masterful criminal mind. Great read!

The Golden Compass

At first I didn’t know what to think of this book, but after the first few pages I was hooked. The story and the characters are GREAT. The Golden Compass is a quite refreshing book that combines science-fiction and fantasy. Funnily enough, this book is marked as a thriller at my library.

The story follows a young girl, Lyra, and her daemon (a soul-like companion) Pantalaimon, on an adventure that spans many worlds and characters. Here is the synopsis of this book: Lyra lives at Jordan College in Oxford, where all she wants to do is play with the boys and run away from the scholars. One day when she sneaks into the Retiring Room, she witnesses something about the mysterious particle Dust, and thus will be taken on an adventure to the North. Along the way she'll meet witches and armored bears and have to deal with the Gobblers, who have been stealing children and have been doing "experiments" on them.

Sure, it might be "for kids" but I can't see why it's for kids. A compromise then: This book is suitable for kids from 8 to 80.

Conclusion: Before I started this book, I had no intension of reading the whole trilogy. Now, I think I’ll probably read The Subtle knife and The Amber Spyglass as well.

Chicklit II

Zojuist gelezen en een echte aanrader:

Husband (is one ever enough) - Adele Parks
Bella secretly married her childhood sweetheart, Stevie, over a decade ago; they were at university, two big kids playing at being grownups. When it all unravelled and reality hit, Bella simply got up and left. And the secret remained a secret.;Years later, Bella meets Philip and, despite her vow never to marry again, she can't resist him. He is a catch. Funny, charming, interesting and kind. Only hitch is, she's still (technically, anyway) married to Stevie. Bella, typically, just ignores the problem. And the moment to tell Philip never quite seems to arrive.;So Bella plans never to reveal her secret after all, it's just a silly piece of paper, lodged at a registrar's office in Aberdeen, isn't it? She hasn't seen Stevie for years probably never will again. Except that Bella's best friend Laura has fallen in love, and when she introduces her new man to the gang it is none other than Stevie. Could things get any more complicated? Only if Bella and Stevie fall in love with each other again

Volgens mij is hij nog niet in het Nederlands verschenen, dat is jammer maar misschien is hij juist in de originele taal veel leuker.

Chicklit

Eerst was ik helemaal niet geïnteresseerd in dit genre. Boeken die ik probeerde vond ik erg oppervlakkig, een beetje vluchtig geneuzel in de ruimte. De hoofdrollerettes waren mij te blond en te shallow. Dat soort dames, zonder enige diepgang, bestonden toch niet echt? Umm… no comment! Al vrij snel liet ik de hele chicklithype links liggen. Er was zoveel beters te lezen.

Tijdens een depriperiode was ik op zoek naar wat lichter leeswerk en al vrij snel kwam ik weer uit bij chicklit. Toch nog maar een keer een poging wagen dan! Ik koos voor Jill Mansell’s: Good at Games. Met de volgende tekst op de achterkant van het boek kan het toch eigenlijk niet meer mis gaan: “Suzy fell for Harry the moment she showed him her husband's sperm sample. It didn't really belong to her husband though because she wasn't married, and the sperm sample was really just the dregs from her milk carton, but when you're trying to get off a speeding charge, you have to improvise, right?” Dit boek kon toch niet anders dan humorvol zijn en dat was het ook. Inmiddels heb al diverse boeken van Jill’s hand gelezen en ik moet er iedere keer nog hardop om lachen. Soms sta ik echt versteld van de snelheid van dialogen en de adremheid van de hoofdpersonen. Daar zou je als lezerrette nog wat van kunnen leren. Ik neem me ook iedere keer voor uitspraken te onthouden en te gaan gebruiken. Alleen stapelen de leuke quotes zich op en voor ik het weet ben ik de meeste alweer vergeten.

Bij voorkeur lees ik deze boeken in het engels. Onvertaald komen de engelse (woord)grappen toch het beste tot zijn recht. Een aantal aanraders:

- The one you really want (2004)
It all starts with a shiny, red, sit-on lawnmower. When Nancy spies her Christmas present from her husband sitting on the lawn, she realises the jewellery she thought was for her must be sitting on someone else. Her best friend Carmen isn't surprised (she never liked Jonathan) and persuades Nancy to leave Edinburgh and come and stay in her luxury London flat - far too vast for Carmen since her husband, millionaire rock star Spike Todd, died. Soon Nancy's met gorgeous Connor O'Shea, who lives next door, and his daughter Mia is matchmaking - not least because she'd like to see the back of Connor's current pushy girlfriend. Meanwhile Carmen, who's always been certain she doesn't want another man in her life, feels a spark when a handsome charity worker called Joe calls round. But Joe's not quite all he seems...
- Nadia knows best
Twenty-something Nadia is happily involved with long-term boyfriend Laurie when she is rescued from her broken-down car by Jay and ends up spending the night with him, entirely platonically - not that she isn't tempted, and who would know about it?
- Good at games

Harry Potter 6

Gimme, gimme, gimme.......Harry Potter 7 please! I can’t believe I have to wait so long (2 years is it?) for the concluding part of the story. I’m totally in the story now and I want to know how it ends right about……NOW! :) I can't wait...but I don't think they are willing to publish the book sooner just because some readers want to know how it ends. BUMMER! Well, I guess we have something to look forward too.

Great read! No other comments at the moment, I don’t want to spoil the fun for people who still want to read it.

Great read!

The Chrysalids - John Wyndham

I usually read new or recent books but after a recommendation of chris2belluk on 43things I was tempted to read this Penguin-classic. I was really amazed… written in 1955, this book was way ahead of its time, and is as current today as it was 50 years ago. This is a story on the effects of prejudice, oppression and persecution of those who are different.

How do you survive in a repressive world if you are different, especially if your difference is telepathy, and the society around you totally lacks imagination? That is the problem that David and similarly gifted children of his generation must face in the post-apocalyptic, rural, restrictively religious society they inhabit, in which deviance is apt to be punished with death. Wyndham effectively conveys what it's like to carry a secret, the solace of finding others like you, and, in this case, the suspenseful described dangers of exposure. The telepathic interchanges are evocative and believable, and the claustrophobia of circumstances from which it's impossible to see a way out becomes tighter and tighter until the final rescue.

This novel is like a breath of fresh air, clean and smooth. There are no frilly edges and there is no attempt by the author to make the book flashy. This makes the book pure and adds to the impact of the story.