ByMarlida

Goodreads Choice Awards 2015 is set, and the best books of every genre is announced!
We've been reading some of both the winners and the nominees, so we thought we'd share our thoughts about them with you!

The Winner of "Best Fiction" was Harper Lee's "Go set a Watchman". Neither Ida og Marlene has read this yet, but both of us has "To Kill a Mockingbird" in our bookshelves and we can't wait to read it.

We have, however read one of the nominated books, "My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry" by Fredrik Backman.
A beautiful book that shows the modern family's challenges and the world of an eight-year old trying to understand the world when her only friend, her grandmother, dies. We swear to God, Backman is the only one who could manage to make such a theme funny. If you need a beautiful, funny book for christmas, this one is a good choice. You can read our review of the book HERE


Jojo Moye's "After You" is also a nominated book for "best fiction" and Ida can't wait to read this beauty - after being teared apart by all the feelings from "Me Before You". Marlene also has Me Before You on her to-read list.


The winner of "Best Mystery & Thriller" is Paula Hawkins's "The Girl on The Train". A book Ida finished in about three days, while sitting by the window and watch the train passing by. And a book Marlene has on her bookshelf just glaring at her every time she chooses a new book to read.

This isn't a category Marlene often looks at or even reads for that matter, but there were two books that made she want to look at the winners again. She has a huge passion for killer-whales, and one of her all-time favorite documentaries are Blackfish, so when she saw what the winner book was all about, she wanted to check it out. Beneath the Surface by John Hargrove is a book she believes is worth reading! She also believes that its fellow nominee, Voices in the Ocean by Susan Casey, is worth checking out!



So, while Marlene was voting in this contest she was SO pleased to see Victoria Aveyard on the list, not only once, but twice! Her debut book, Red Queen is one of the most amazing dystopian books Marlene has ever read. She believes that it gives "new life" to the already existing and all-too-alike dystopian genre.


This years best YA book, which is, in Marlene's opinion more heartbreaking than the Fault in Our Stars, All The Bright Places by Jennifer Niven.


This book made Marlene tear up on the beaches of Crete! It's this beautiful book about love, but also about friendship, about faith, about death and about finding those small, beautiful things in life. It's so damn beautiful, and Marlene can't wait for it to become a movie in 2017!!!!

The worst part is, that Marlene has most of the books amongst the nominees in her to-read list.
P.S. I Still Love You by Jenny Han, Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen, Finding Audrey by Sophie Kinsella, Nowhere But Here by Katie McGarry, Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon, Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli, My Heart and Other Black Holes by Jasmine Warga, The Last Time We Say Goodbye by Cynthia Hand, The Fill-In Boyfriend by Kasie West,
Dumplin' by Julie Murphy and More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera. 

Hi! I did'nt post an update last week because the past two weeks have been aboslutely crazy and I never made the time for it. Sorry about that...

I've been looking forward to reviewing this book for a long time. It's one one the few books where only the intro itself made me think that this is a special and interesting book - before I even got started with the stories. And for each story I read, the more interesting the book became.

We are all wearing masks. That is what makes us interesting. These are stories about those masks, and the people we are underneath them." 

- Neil Gaiman, writing from a cabin in the dark woods.  

This book contains 24 different stories, poems and "disturbances". It holds the genres fantasy, horror, science fiction, poetry, anthology and fiction. It contains horro stories, fairy tales and poems and a lot, lot more.


One of the stories I personally loved the most is "Nothing O'clock". It is a story Gaiman wrote for the fiftiteth anniversary of the Doctor Who series. It's a story about the doctor and Amy, and it was just perfect. As a Doctor Who fan, it felt like someone had taken an episode I had'nt seen before and written it like a story instead of a tv-episode. This could most definetly have been a part of the show, because it was so accurate and exciting and I recognized the characters from the show. Gaiman har actually written some episodes of the real show, so I get why he's good at it. This was just a fantastic read, and it was so nice to enjoy the world of doctor who again, even though it's not from the tv-show.


Another story I really liked is "The Sleeper and the Spindle". A few writers, including Gaiman, was asked to write a story based on a stories that had influenced them. "The Sleeper and the Spindle" was the outcome, inspired by both "Snow White and the Seven Dwarf's" and "Sleeping Beauty". This is just a really special and amazing version that I loved and would love to see as a movie. I could just picture this creepy, yet wonderful world all as I read. The story is actually also avialable as an illustrated storybook for children, as you can see on the picture above.

"Click Clack the Rattlebag" nearly scared me to death... It may be because of the timing and setting though; I was really tired and had already gone to bed, and decided to finish the story I was reading (wich was "Jerusalem", wich is really good but not scary). I did that and decided to read another, even though I was getting really sleepy. And there it was. I had to read yet another one to be able to sleep afterwards, because I was seriously scared. It's really short, and explains what all the creaks and clatter in the house that you only hear when you're alone really is.

A third story that I was really fascinated by is "The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains...". It was really interesting and a world I just sunk into. The images that came up in my head while reading was amazing. I could just sit and think how beautiful and mighty the world looked like was. Also, Gaiman had about the coolest performance of the story at the Sydney Opera House (wich I did'nt know until I was done, but I can just imagine how wonderful it would have been to see that). He had a string quartet play a "moody and glorious soundtrack" while he was reading, and artist Eddie Campbell created illustrations that was shown during the performance. That, would have been so amazing to be at!


There are a lot of other really good stories and poems in this book, and I have enjoyed the whole journey from beginning to end. It's a collection worth having and worth reading. I have to be honest and say that I did'nt read "Black Dog", wich probably is the biggest reason for a lot of people to buy this book. It is a new tale, exclusively for this collection, that revisits the world of "American Gods". The only reason I did'nt read it, is because I want to read that one first.

All over, I'm really pleased and my love for short stories have been nothing but bigger after reading Trigger Warning.

Last week went by so fast I almost could'nt believe it. It's been a really busy week both at work and at home.

This has been a really weird week. My up until now biggest article (four pages long!) was published in the newspaper I'm working in, and it turned out pretty good! It's so much fun when you work really hard with things and they turn out good.

As Marlene told in the last post, we're starting with weekly updates! I'm looking forward to them, and think this will be a fun way of keeping you guys updated on what's going on.

So, three weeks ago I moved to Tromsø to work in Nordlys (the newspaper) as a part of our education programme. It's been really exciting, but also very stressfull since I'm still very new to it and want to do as good as possible. But, between work and studies and settling in a new town, I've found some times to read a little now and then
I'm currently reading Neil Gaiman's "Trigger Warning", wich is a collection of "short stories and disturbances". I bought it when I was in Gjøvik, and so far I'm very pleased! I have a thing for short stories because it is so fitting during stressfull weeks. Often when I start on books, I can't put it aside and usually finish it in three days or so, but with short story collections I can read one and put the book aside for some days without freaking out about "what's going to happen in the next chapter?!" So it suits me just fine now during these first weeks in Tromsø.
So far, I've read "Making a Chair", "A Lunar Labyrinth" and "The thing about Cassandra". Next, I'm starting on "Down to a Sunless Sea". I'm actually really looking forward to write the review for this one, because it's so much that fascinates me (and I'm not even halfway!).

Also, I borrowed a new book from the e-library yesterday

 "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl" by Jesse Andrews. I've seen the trailer for the movie that recently came out, and thought it looked really cute. So when I discovered that the book was available at the e-library, I thought it could be nice to read it first. Also, it's nice to have a book on the Iphone. It's so much easier to read on the bus or whenever I'm not home. So, I'm looking forward to start on this one as well!