The Smell of Ink/Lukten av Trykksverte

Last year I was fortunate enough to recieve an ARC of the non-fiction book The Book Collectors: A Band of Syrian Rebels and the Stories That Carried Them Through a War by Delphine Minoui through Netgalley. I read it shortly afterwards and today I'll post my review. Description from Goodreads Award-winning journalist Delphine Minoui recounts the true story of a band of young rebels in a besieged Syrian town, who find hope and connection making an underground library from the rubble of war Day in, day out, bombs fall on Daraya, a town outside Damascus, the very spot where the Syrian Civil War began. In the midst of chaos and bloodshed, a group searching for survivors stumbles on a cache of books. They collect the books, then look for more. In a week they have six thousand volumes. In a month, fifteen thousand. A sanctuary is born: a library where the people of Daraya can explore beyond the blockade. Long a site of peaceful resistance to the Assad regimes, Daraya was under siege for ...

Last year I was fortunate enough to recieve an ARC of the romance novel The Little Bookshop of Love Stories by Jaimie Admans through Netgalley. I read it shortly afterwards and today I'll post my review. Description from Goodreads Today is the Mondayest Monday ever. Hallie Winstone has been fired – and it wasn’t even her fault! Having lost her job and humiliated herself in front of a whole restaurant full of diners, this is absolutely, one hundred percent, the worst day of her life. That is until she receives an email announcing that she is the lucky winner of the Once Upon a Page Bookshop! Owning a bookshop has always been Hallie’s dream, and when she starts to find secret love letters on the first pages of every book, she knows she's stumbled across something special. Things get even better when she meets gorgeous, bookish Dimitri and between them, they post a few of the hidden messages online, reuniting people who thought they were lost forever. My Thoughts ...

As I'm a fan of the historian Lynette Nusbacher, I couldn't resist buying her book Bannockburn 1314. I ended up reading it shortly after I recieved it and today I'll post my review. Description from Goodreads Recent scholarship has illuminated one of the most exciting battles of Scottish history, showing it to be as historically significant as it was romantic and bloody. This book carries the reader through the politics and plans of a military campaign of the Middle Ages. Using recent studies on weapons, warfare, and Scottish history, as well as sound archival sources, this book opens the files on a year's preparation for a massive English invasion of Scotland. In addition to the heroic legends, Bannockburn 1314 examines the common soldiers summoned to war and the knights who fought near them. My Thoughts on the Book Bannockburn 1314 gives a nice overview of the battle of Bannockburn, as well as a lot of information and details, whether it's concepts such as schilt...

Siden det er nokså opplagt at jeg elsker bøker, motstod jeg ikke fristelsen å låne Boken - en hyllest av Burkhard Spinnen på biblioteket for et par måneder siden. I dag kommer omtalen av boka. Beskrivelse fra forlaget En kjærlighetserklæring til papirboken - mens e-boken vinner terreng Nærmere seks hundre år etter at Gutenberg oppfant boktrykkerkunsten spår mange at papirboken snart vil dø. Hvordan blir lesekulturen vår da? Burkhard Spinnen elsker papirboken, men ser også at e-boken kan ha mange fordeler. I stedet for å argumentere mot e-boken forklarer han hvorfor han er så glad i papirboken, hvordan den preger livet og lesehverdagen hans. Eksemplene er mange, og vi kjenner oss godt igjen i Spinnens humoristiske fortellinger om bøkenes fortreffeligheter og leserens tidvis obskure forhold til papirbøkene. Bøker kommer til oss på mange vis. Noen kjøper vi; andre er gaver, lån, suvenirer eller tyvgods. Bøker kan være nye eller gamle; noen er vakre, andre er stygge, fulle av ko...

As I've read the other books by Shaun Bythell, I couldn't resist Seven Kinds of People You Find in Bookshops when it released last year. I read it shortly afterwards and today I'll post my review. Description from Goodreads A wickedly witty field guide to bookstore customers from the Person Who Doesn't Know What They Want (But Thinks It Might Have a Blue Cover) to the harried Parents Secretly After Free Childcare. It does take all kinds. If you visit bookshops more often than the grocery store, you'll recognize the types. There's the Expert (with subspecies from the Bore to the Helpful Person), the Young Family (ranging from the Exhausted to the Aspirational), Occultists (from Conspiracy Theorist to Craft Woman). Then there's the Loiterer (including the Erotica Browser and the Self-Published Author), the Bearded Pensioner (including the Lyrca Clad), the The Not-So-Silent Traveller (the Whistler, Sniffer, Hummer, Farter, and Tutter), and the Family Historian...

For flere år siden endte jeg opp med å få tilsendt et leseeksemplar av romanen Min datters far av Nenad Velickovic. Jeg har til slutt somlet meg til å lese den og i dag kommer omtalen. Beskrivelse fra forlaget Min datters far er en usedvanlig vakker fortelling om en fars sterke kjærlighet til sin lille datter - ofte ispedd rikelige doser svart humor. Samtidig gir romanen et gripende innblikk i dagens Bosnia, preget av korrupsjon, politisk stagnasjon og spøkelser fra fortiden. En del av boken består av samtaler der faren svarer på datterens mange spørsmål, undringer typisk for et barn i ferd med til å oppdage verden. Faren svarer med ironi og sarkasme rettet mot voksenverdenen og samfunnet, men uten at han ignorer barnets perspektiv. Svarene røper kjærlighet og respekt, de reflekterer den voksnes bekymringer, men uten at barnet belastes med hva disse innebærer. Det virkelige dramaet, som hele tiden lurer i bakgrunnen, er at moren vil at familien skal emigrere til Australia. Til slutt r...

It's Wednesday and perhaps time for a new Top Five Wednesday post, courtesy of the Goodreads group  with the same name. The theme of the week was bookworm characters. It's fun to read in general, but it's even more fun to read about fellow bookworms, right? Anyway, here's my five picks. Matilda from Matilda by Roald Dahl John Keating from Dead Poets Society by N. H. Kleinbaum Rose from The Particular Charm of Miss Jane Austen by Ada Bright and Cass Grafton Hallie from The Little Bookshop of Love Stories by Jaimie Admans Monsieur Perdu from The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George

It's Tuesday and perhaps time for a new Top Ten Tuesday, courtesy of The Artsy Reader Girl . The theme of the week was books I wish I could read again for the first time and I decided narrowing it down to fantasy novels. Here's my picks. The Twistrose Key by Tone Almhjell The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern The Shapeshifters by Stefan Spjut Murder in Absentia by Assaph Mehr The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend Thief of Cahraman by Lucy Tempest Aru Shah and the End of Time by ROshani Chokshi The Vine Witch by Luanne G. Smith

Earlier this year I recieved a digital press copy of the book Bookishness: Loving Books in a Digital Age by Jessica Pressman through Netgalley. I read it shortly afterwards and today I'll post my review. Description from Goodreads Twenty-first-century culture is obsessed with books. In a time when many voices have joined to predict the death of print, books continue to resurface in new and unexpected ways. From the proliferation of "shelfies" to Jane Austen-themed leggings and from decorative pillows printed with beloved book covers to bookwork sculptures exhibited in prestigious collections, books are everywhere and are not just for reading. Writers have caught up with this trend: many contemporary novels depict books as central characters or fetishize paper and print thematically and formally. In Bookishness, Jessica Pressman examines the new status of the book as object and symbol. She explores the rise of "bookishness" as an identity and an aesthetic strate...

Nok en søndag og på tide med en Smakebit på søndag, takket være Betraktninger og Flukten fra virkeligheten , som har ansvaret. Boka jeg vil ta for meg i dag er skrekk-romanen Greyfriars Reformatory av Frazer Lee, som ble utgitt i fjor. Boka omhandler 19 år gamle Emily som har vært inn og ut av institusjoner mesteparten av livet og ender opp på Greyfriars Reformatory for Girls, styrt av den noe brutale Principal Quick. Ting er ikke nødvendigvis som en skulle tro på Greyfriars Reformatory, spesielt ikke når den grå jenta dukker opp. Smakebiten jeg vil ta for meg, er i begynnelsen av første kapittel. I'm on the prisoner transport bus again and the sky outside the window looks almost as gray as I feel. I say "again" because, well, I've been institutionalized a few times. All my adult life actually. I've had a few problems, shall we say. But before you ask, my meds are so strong I can't remember what any of my problems were, or are. I guess that kind of makes me ...

A little while ago I read the classic Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck and today I'll post my review. Description from Goodreads Streetwise George and his big, childlike friend Lennie are drifters, searching for work in the fields and valleys of California. They have nothing except the clothes on their back, and a hope that one day they’ll find a place of their own and live the American dream. But dreams come at a price. Gentle giant Lennie doesn’t know his own strength, and when they find work at a ranch he gets into trouble with the boss’s daughter-in-law. Trouble so bad that even his protector George may not be able to save him… My Thoughts on the Book I understand why Of Mice and Men is so popular. The prose and writing style of Steinbeck is really amazing. It's about harshness, outsiders, the unloved and misunderstood, the American dream and the cruel reality. Of Mice and Men is also about how we judge people by appearence and how we often unjustly label them. Len...

Etter å ha hørt så mye snakk om romanen Der krepsene synger av Delia Owens, endte jeg opp med å kjøpe den for en stund tilbake. Nå har jeg lest den og i dag kommer omtalen. Beskrivelse fra forlaget Hvor lenge kan hun beskytte hjertet sitt? Ryktene om «Marsklandsjenta» har hjemsøkt Barkley Cove, en stille småby på kysten av North Carolina. Så da kjekke Chase Andrews blir funnet død høsten 1969, retter lokalbefolkningen øyeblikkelig mistanken mot Kya Clark, den forlatte jenta som bor alene i villmarken. Men Kya er ikke slik de tror. Hun er følsom og intelligent, og har overlevd i årevis alene ute i marsklandskapet hun har gjort til sitt hjem. Der har hun funnet vennskap hos måkene og lært om livet av sandens bevegelser. Men det kommer en tid da Kya lengter etter å elske og bli elsket. Da to gutter fra byen blir fengslet av hennes ville skjønnhet, åpner Kya seg for et nytt kapittel i livet, helt til det utenkelige skjer. Der krepsene synger er en ode til det naturlige liv, en h...

I came across the Harry Potter Spells Book Tag over at The Book Dutchesses and I decided to play along as it looked like a fun tag to do. 1. Expecto Patronum: A childhood book connected to good memories Matilda by Roald Dahl 2. Expelliarmus: A book that took you by surprise The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak 3. Prior Incantato: The last book you read 4. Alohamora: A book that introduced you to a genre you had not considered before Death Rattle by Sean Lynch 5. Riddikulus: A funny book you’ve read Southern Bred and Dead by Angie Fox 6. Sonorus: A book you think everybody should know about The Drum That Beats Within Us by Mike Bond 7. Obliviate: A book or spoiler you would like to forget having read Cleansed by Sarah Kane 8. Imperio: A book you had to read for school The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien 9. Crucio: A book that was painful to read The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot 10. Avada Kedavra: A book that could kill (interpret as you will) Honestly not sure.

It's Wednesday and time for a new Top Five Wednesday post, courtesy of  Goodreads Group with the same name. The theme of the week was debut novels and I decided narrowing it down to debuts within the crime, mystery and thriller genres. Here's my picks. Roanoke Ridge by J. J. Dupuis Description from Goodreads When bigfoot researcher Professor Berton Sorel goes missing in the temperate rainforest of Roanoke Ridge, Oregon, help is summoned in the form of his former star pupil: Laura Reagan, online science populist and avowed skeptic. But what begins as a simple search-and-rescue operation takes a drastic turn when a body is discovered - and the body isn't the professor. Caught in the fallout of the suspicious death, perplexed by a sudden wave of Bigfoot sightings, and still desperately searching for Professor Sorel, Reagan reluctantly admits two things: one, that her old mentor was right about there being secrets hidden in Roanoke Ridge; and two, that it's up to her to un...

It's Tuesday and perhaps time for a new Top Ten Tuesday post, courtesy of That Artsy Reader Girl . The theme of the week was my favourite places to read. My picks are these; Coffeeberry Espressobaren Time Library Egersund Chokoladefabrik & Co Helmer te og kaffe Parks in general (weather permitting) At libraries By the fun wooden chairs situated by the inlet just across the street from my house Port of Stavanger (weather permitting) Coffee shops in general

A while ago I ended up reading the fantasy novel Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko and today I'll post my review. Description from Goodreads Others. They walk among us. Observing. Set in contemporary Moscow, where shape shifters, vampires, and street-sorcerers linger in the shadows, Night Watch is the first book of the hyper-imaginative fantasy pentalogy from best-selling Russian author Sergei Lukyanenko. This epic saga chronicles the eternal war of the “Others,” an ancient race of humans with supernatural powers who must swear allegiance to either the Dark or the Light. The agents of the Dark – the Night Watch – oversee nocturnal activity, while the agents of the Light keep watch over the day. For a thousand years both sides have maintained a precarious balance of power, but an ancient prophecy has decreed that a supreme Other will one day emerge, threatening to tip the scales. Now, that day has arrived. When a mid-level Night Watch agent named Anton stumbles upon a cursed young w...

It's Sunday and perhaps time for a new Six For Sunday post, courtesy of A Little But A Lot . The theme of the week was 2021 books I'm excited for. Here's my picks. Where The Briars Sleep by Emma Beaven Murder at Madame Tussauds by Jim Eldridge The Whitby Murders by J. R: Ellis Cajun Kiss of Death by Ellen Byron Peaches and Schemes by Anna Gerard Deadly Ever After by Eva Gates

As I've hosted an autumn reading challenge for the last two years, I wanted to do it this year too. The challenge will be informal and laidback, running from September 1st to November 30th. There will be no pressure from me in doing ALL the categories, but you're totally allowed to do them all if you want. You can even combine them, if a book fits into more than one category if you want or read several books for one or more categories. Also, feel free to do some interpretation(s) on the prompt(s), as they are fairly open. "Reporting back" what you've read is not mandatory, only encouraged. Feel free to comment below what you've read, or if you're on Instagram or Twitter, feel free to use the hashtag #trykksverteautumnchallenge2021 . Reading should be fun and not feel forced, so I wanted to keep things as simple and easy as possible, even if it's a challenge. Anyway, here's the categories for this year. A spooky novel A book with an autumn-inspired...

It's Friday and perhaps time for a new Let's Talk Bookish post, courtesy of  Eternity Books and Literary Lion . The theme of the week was " Can books be effective horror? ". I'm a firm believer that both books and movies can be effective horror if done right and the right person reads/watches it. That said, I'm not one of those who are easily scared and need to sleep with the lights on. I may jump occasionally while watching a scary scene in a movie, but it doesn't prevent me from sleeping at night. I suspect that after reading quite a lot of horror books and watching many horror movies over the years, I'm a bit immune to the spooky stuff (in some cases, it's almost like I've got a guessing game who will die next and so on as there's often the same/similar plot elements and tropes used). What can get my imagination spinning a little bit though, it a well written, atmospheric horror novel with good descriptions. What puts me off on the oth...

I came across the Gilmore Girls Book Tag over at The Book Dutchesses and I couldn't resist playing along as I loved that show. Lorelai: a character with a witty or sarcastic kind of humor Sam from The Dead Don't Drink at Lafitte's by Seanna Kelly Rory: your favorite classic Dracula by Bram Stoker Luke: a book you secretly love but are afraid to admit My Bison by Gaya Wisniewski Lane: a musical character RoseBlood by A. G. Howard Dean: your first booklove (book or character) Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl Sookie: a book you devoured Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake Jess: a book you love that gets the most hate Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas Miss Patty: a book that was ruined by the hype A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas Emily Gilmore: an expensive book In Bibi's Kitchen by Hawa Hassan and Julia Turshen Paris: an uptight character Captain Nemo from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne