Meep’s Musings

Archive for the ‘Books’ Category

A very recommended read:
“I observed earlier that the quintessentially English ‘Typical!’ combines huffy indignation with a sense of passive, resigned acceptance, an acknowledgement that things are bound to go wrong, that life is full of little irritations and difficulties and that one must simply put up with it. There is a sort of grudging forebearance, a very English kind of grumpy stoicism, in ‘Typical!’.

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Patricia Cornwell’s “Portrait of a killer: Jack the Ripper - Case closed”. Solution to an old mystery?

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I’ve just spent the last four hours reading - and finishing - Dan Brown’s thriller “Digital fortress”. And again I ask myself, why :P? I’ve already read “Angels and demons” and “The DaVinci Code” by the same author, and while they all certainly are pageturners, they leave me unsatisfied and swearing I will never touch a book by Brown again - until the next one comes along, promising mystery & adventure.

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Since I was a bit disappointed in Emma Donoghue’s “Life Mask”, I turned my attention to another book, called “Loreley” and written by Kai Meyer. He’s a German author of mystery / fantasy / thriller novels, a little bit more rooted in reality than Philip Pullman and far better than anything Dan Brown writes :P.

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I’m on page 146 of Emma Donoghue’s “Life Mask” and so far it’s not really that thrilling. Maybe I had the wrong expectations, because it was recommended to me after I had looked for books by Sarah Waters… At the moment there is far too much talk about Foxies and other 18th century politics stuff I’m not interested in and too little development in that promised “love triangle” :P.

The Corrs have announced there will be no new album or anything at all from the group in quite a while since they are almost all busy having a family. Andrea at least doesn’t disappear completely from the face of the earth since she concentrates on her acting. Still, I’m a bit sad to hear that even if it was to be expected :(.

Yesterday there were regional elections here and I’m shocked at how little people voted - only roughly 54% :o! Not that it would have helped the SPD (socialist party) anything - we’re in the South here and that comes with conservative party hegemony - but still. The one chance you have to be part of politics as a simple citizen, why let it go to waste?

I bought “Life of Brian” on DVD and had a very nice time watching it again, hehe :D. The stoning scene alone was worth it *g*.

I have read Jewel’s book “A Night Without Armor: Poems”, and (perhaps?) surprisingly, I really like some of them. I haven’t finished the book yet, but this one I have to share because it instantly got to me:

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Food for next 5 days - check
Ear plugs - check
enough to read - check
Loud music to compensate - check

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I didn’t do very much today except read “The Golden Compass” by Philip Pullman, which is a gift from 12chen (thank you very much again!) and also very enjoyable to read (never mind it’s a children’s book originally). If you like to find more about this gifted author and his books, try Random House.

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‘Im enjoying myself immensely with reading “Dicke Lilli - gutes Kind” by Lilli Palmer, which is a fluently written, amusing autobiography of one of my favorite actresses:

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I’ve finally read Harry Potter vol.1 to 4! This might not be such big news considering the first book was released like 5 years ago or so, but for me it is definitely. I’m almost sorry I’ve seen the movies before I read the books because I always had Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson in my mind as the faces of Harry, Ron and Hermione. That didn’t stop me, however, from enjoying the books very much, and I have to admit I was so smitten with “The Goblet of Fire” I read it in one day (again) despite its 760+ pages. I should watch the movies again to see what subplots they left out, but I know I don’t have the time for that, hmpf. Currently I’m trying to get my hands on the fifth volume, and I’m also trying hard to remember who dies in it… I know I knew it but apparently I’ve forgotten again. Alzheimer, much?!