Monthly Archives: tammikuu 2014

by | 20.1.2014 · 21:41

The last spin

Evan Hunter is the author of The Last Spin. His the most famous achievement is The Birds movie script. Protagonists in this dramatic short story are two men, Danny and Tigo. The story is full of  deep breaths, sweat and excitement.

In the story Danny and Tigo belong to different clubs. Their clubs had had disagreements and the clubs had settled that they solve problems with one way or with Russian roulette. Neither of them would want to be in that situation. Venue of the story is the basement room, where Danny and Tigo squeeze the trigger by turns until one of them is dead. If story has this kind of plot, it has to be thrilling and that’s what it was. The plot keeps the reader all the time awake. The reader must guess at all the time what will happen next and never you really know what it is.

Even though the story is based on a talk beetween two people, it is still so interesting that it makes you to read it on and in my case only very few author has done it. In the story Tigo and Danny see each other so different kind of persons, but when the story progresses they realize how similar they really are. That is one of the most fascinating things in the plot.

The text of the story has written with so fabulous way that it was actually pleasure to read it. After all text was very difficult to read, because there was so much terminology and protagonists discussed with very powerfull slang. When I read text, I had to focus entirely to reading.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Short Stories

Tagged as ,

by | · 20:35

And Then There Were None

This novel is written by Agatha Christie and it’s been published in 1939. Her career was long and productive: over 60 novels, short stories, scripts… Agatha’s works are very widely known, and respected. Her books have been sold over 2 billion copies. She really deserves her title: Best detective story writer in the 20th century.

And Then There Were None is detective story, and a very good one. It became classic right away it was published. Review of the book was positive and it became immediately best-seller. The reputation of the book travelled fast among people and they were excited about it, and they still do. The book amazes its readers over and over again, because the plot of the book is so unique and addictive. This kind of plot is called “Shutter Mystery”. It means that the criminal is one of the limited persons. These kinds of books are intense and absorbing. And Then There Were None is excellent case study of this theme.

I don’t want to ruin anyone’s reading experience, so I won’t tell detailed plot. I want, it surprises and overwhelms you just like it did for me. The main idea is well-known though not as simple as you might think. Eight persons are invited in the private Island. They don’t know who invited them. Everyone is blamed in murder. They got stranded in island. They start to die one by one or more closely murdered. One of them is the murderer and no one knows who. The plot of murders is based on old children poem and all the murders follow its verses.

The atmosphere is very tense, everyone is guilty. No one can be trusted. As an experience, the book is very distressing, but without its unique anxious tone, it wouldn’t be this addictive. Frog in one’s throat, heart beating like there wouldn’t be tomorrow, you just keep reading. One of most important factors is that you don’t know who the murderer is. Personally I love books and movies, where pieces click in right places and little by little you start to perceive a bigger picture. Well this is not one of those books. When there are only 2 persons left in island, and you still can’t figure out who is the murderer, you know that the book was successful.

But what the book wants to say? Maybe it wants to warn about concealed danger of a human mind. The main idea is too simple. What goes around comes around. Honestly I don’t know… But what I know is, it provokes huge flood of sentiments. You start to think how well organized the whole story was! First you feel astonished, then you understand genius of the story and last you feel huge appreciation towards the writer. What an imagination!!

I warmly suggest this book for adventurous persons. Warning! Don’t start reading this book during a school week because you will read it in one fell swoops. But that risk is worth taking!  If you dare, don’t read the last 30 pages. I wished I wouldn’t have. Without those pages this book would have been perfect.  So open your mind for this classic book and realize why people all over the world fell in love with it. ’Cause no great story has best before-date.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Novels

Tagged as

by | · 20:15

Too Much Happiness

I read a short story collection named ”Too Much Happiness” by Alice Munro,  the collection was published in 2009. Munro is a 82-year-old Canadian short story writer and she won the Literature Nobel prize in 2013 (”master of the contemporary short story”.)

Book consist of ten short stories ( Demensions , Fiction, Wenlock Edge, Deep-Holes, Free Radicals, Face, Some Women, Child’s Play, Wood and Too Much Happiness) Length of one story is roughly thirty pages. They tell stories about ordinary men and women and some turning points in their lives, turning points which still have effect in their current life or somehow entrail in it. Stories are as short stories usually are: they tell you something but still leave you in wonder: what did that mean? Why did she say that? How can you move with your life after that? What did happen next? You crave for more.

In every short story there is a different main character, men and women, young and old. Unitive author is that they all seem ordinary people living their ordinary lives: families, friends and nice jobs.

Book’s characters have different kind of situations. Storie’s themes are heavy: murders, violence, dishonour, adultery and pure evilness. Even though the themes are harsh and it seems that incidents are so far away from your own life, author has made it sound like it could happen for all of us. Things are told so delicately but still straight. To counterbalance there are a little bit lighter themes also:  hard relationships, normal circuit of life and misunderstandings. All these things mixed with love and continuation of life. My favorite short story was ”Free Radicals” which tells story about an old woman who has just lost her husband and man who comes to this woman’s house and tells that he has murdered his family, they have this strange ”kind-of-conversation” where turns out that this old lady isn’t so pure either.

Book’s narrator is an omniscient narrator in the most of the stories but some of the stories are told by characters. All the stories are told in the way you get to know the character as much as possible. Even though stories consentrate mainly on some incidents, there is happening so much more: sometimes the character looks back or time goes on and sometimes they just think their lives generally.

I kind of like the book. I usually read detective stories so this departed from them. It was refreshing to read in english, it brought challenge and it was nice to know that i was reading the book just like the author has wrote it.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Novels, Short Stories

Tagged as

by | · 20:02

The Last Spin

I read Evan Hunter’s short story The Last Spin that was published in 1960. Hunter’s indigenous name is Salvatore Lombino, but he is also known by many other stage names, for example Ed McBain, Richard Marsten, Hunt Collins, Curt Cannon and Ezra Hannon. He has written a manuscript to Alfred Hitchcock’s movie The Birds and hundreds of other books.

The Last Spin is a short story and it tells about two boys who belong to the opposite clubs and they are forced to settle an argument over territory. The way to settle that is not very beautiful. The boys are playing Russian Roulette, so they can avoid big street boppins. At first they are real enemies. But the closer they come to the end the closer the get to each other. Boys notice that they have quite a lot of things in common. Alternately they put the gun to their temple and squeezed the trigger. After every squeezing the mode became more relaxed and deeper. But as always, in the end things didn’t go like boys planned.

The main characters, and the only characters, in the story are these two boys from different gangs. Tigo, the boy from the club of green jackets, is always the boy who starts conversation and also the game. He seems to be more experienced in this kind of things. Danny instead belongs to the club of blue jackets. He is more reserved and also afraid of what will happen. But of course he can’t show Tigo his suspicion. The story is placed in the beginning 1960’s in America where different gangs were very mutual phenomenon.

Language in this short story isn’t very difficult but there are some strange and new words. But the same words could be found all over the text so after you have checked them once from the dictionary, the end of the text is quite easy to read. The story is anyway good and interesting, but you need to read it twice to understand it, because at first you have no idea what is the text about.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Novels, Yleinen

Tagged as

by | · 19:50

The title of the book: Horrid Henry Rocks

The name of the author: Francesca Simon

 

The book`s main character is Henry. He is an adolescent. He hates everybody and that is why he fights and screams almoust all the time. Henry doesn`t respect neither adults nor teachers. He doesn`t have manners. He doesn`t seem real and I think that he is merely stereotype. He doesn`t grow or develop during  the novel.

The novel contains a four separate and different stories. The first one tells about a crossfire between big brother and his little brother. Henry smudges Peters drawings and hides Peters stuffed animals. The second story tells about a crossfire between Henry and the girl next door. Henry steals Margaret`s biscuits and disturbs Margaret`s and her friends sleepover. In the third story Henry`s teacher asks the pupils to write an autobiographys. Henry hates writing and that is why he steals and spoils Margaret`s autobiography. The fourth story tells about the evening when Henry and his family go to ”The Daffy and her Dansing Daisies” show. Henry hates Daffy. In the show Henry wins in the raffle and he has to go on the stage with Daffy. It was Henry`s worst nightmare. Everyone was looking at him and of course he didn`t  know any stupid Daisy songs. Henry sang as loud as he could The Killer Boy Rat`s song. Two security guards ran on the stage and grabbed Henry. I think that the story take place in the town and the events took perhaps one week. The stories are disconnected with each other.

The narrator in the story is an outsider but in the some parts of the story Henry tells his story himself.

The main theme of this novel is a difficulties of the puberty. Henry`s life is very lonely because he behaves so badly. He hasn´t got friends for example. I think that he is depressed and distressed. The message of this novel is that the adults will have to understand their kids better and help them if they have problems in their manners. The adults have to give time for their children.

The first story in the book is the best one because it tells about quarreling between siblings. It is an eventful part of the book. I recommend this book to you and everybody. The language is quite easy to read but it isn`t too easy.  I learned new words and I notised that I undestood the book very well.

 

Leave a Comment

Filed under Novels

Tagged as

by | · 19:42

Chobits (vol. 1)

Chobits is a bit romantic sci-fi manga, japanese comic and it’s published in 2004. Story and art is made by Clamp.

In future’s Tokyo, there everybody has an own persocom, humanoid computer. They are popular because they can do what ever you like, and that’s why people doesn’t be with each other any more.

One day Hideki, boy who lives alone in tiny shabby house, found a persocom from garbage. He took it home and named her Chi, because it’s the first word she said. Then they start they very own adventure. Hideki’s friend Shimbo tried to help him find something about Chi, but they can’t find anything. Chi’s firewalls are too strong for Shimbo’s persocom Plum. Shimbo leaded Hideki to 12-year-old boy, Minoru, who knows almost everything about persocoms. Even Minoru’s persocom Yuzuki tried to pass Chi’s firewalls, they found out that Chi’s programs are safe behind many encryptions. They started to believe that Chi may be Chobit, a very rare and unique persocom. Many believes that Chobits are just a myth, but what other Chi could be?

Main characters are Hideki and Chi. Hideki is an ordinary boy, who is not great or bad in school. He is kind and very worried about Chi, who can not even talk correctly. Hideki wants to help Chi remember her past. Chi is very much like an oversized little child. She learns fast and wants to be with Hideki all the time.         Other important characters are Minoru, Shimbo and their persocoms Yuzuki and Plum. 

This story takes place in Tokyo. Mostly the characters are at Hideki’s house or somewhere near to it. Also Hideki goes school and they visit Minoru’s mansion a lot.

I think this book is very awesome because it’s drawn amazingly and it has an interesting plot, it’s getting more and more exciting altough everybody knows it has the happy ending. Characers are so like real people and that’s what makes that sci-fi story a bit more real. I don’t usually read sci-fi, but this is a more like romantic and comedy, so I simply like it.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Novels

Tagged as

by | · 19:15

The Fellowship of the Ring

The Fellowship of the Ring is the first part of a trilogy called The Lord of the Rings. It was written by J.R.R. Tolkien, who is very famous fantasy writer. For example he has also written The Silmarillion and The Hobbit. This firt part of the trilogy was published on the 29th of July in 1954. The whole trilogy (including The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King) was published between the years 1954 and 1955

The Fellowship of the Ring is a fantasy novel which is located in Middle-Earth. It’s full of action, battles and adventure. The Lord of the Rings – trilogy, which includes The Fellowship of the Ring, has very detailed backround stories and maps. Because of the details and colourful describing you can feel like you are a part of the adventure. The writing of the books is very old fashioned and makes you feel like you’re in a middle of something very old and beautiful. All the scenes are easy to imagine in your head.

The whole trilogy is all about this one Power Ring, that Frodo Baggings happens to have inherited from his uncle, and it must be destroyed. This book is about the beginning of the journey of these nine fellas who make the Fellowship of the Ring, like the title of the book says. The fellowship includes hobbits Frodo, Sam, Merri and Pippin, humans Aragorn and Boromir, an elf Legolas, a dwarf Gimli and a wizard Gandalf. In this first part of the trilogy we follow the starting steps of this long journey from the Shire of hobbits where all four hobbits, Frodo, Sam Merri and Pippin, live to the real beginning of the journey across the Middle-Earth. In the first part it’s very much just about Frodo and his hobbit friends trying to take the Power Ring to Rivendell, a place of elves where they shall agree on the Fellowship of the Ring. The Fellowship is an agreement about destroying the ring.

After the Fellowship has been agreed begins a journey towards the Rings destroying place, Mordor. It’s a real trial to everyone and their real natures start to reveal. But since the story has just began there will be many suprises along the way and no one can be judged yet.

For my point of view this is one of the best books in the world, especially in english. I think that this book deserves it’s popularity and it really is the best fantasy book ever written with the two other parts of the story. With a dictionary in other hand it was a pleasure to read this book. And even with all kind of names and invented words that cannot be found in dictionaries it wasn’t too difficult experience to read a book written in english. But to truly understand this specific books charm you have to read the other parts as well.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Novels

Tagged as ,

by | 18.1.2014 · 17:56

Lord of the Flies

Lord of the Flies is a renowed classic by William Golding, published in 1954. It’s his first novel, and has received multiple awards, for example the Nobel Prize. The book may be described as allegorical novel, since it tells a story about group of British boys who have stranded on a desolated, trophical island. With no grown-ups on the island, they tried to establish rules and goals, which didn’t work out for the boys and they became literal savages.

Ralph was one of the main characters, being the protagonist. He was voted to be the Chief and make the important decisions. Ralph expected to be rescued shortly, and not to be on the island forever. They decided to make a fire and keep it up the whole time for the passing ships to see them. However there was a large difference between the boys and it became impossible for Ralph to keep the boys together and do the things agreed in an assembly.

Piggy was another important character. The rest of the boys didn’t place much value on him: he was obese, had an asthma, accent, specs and avoided physical labour. Yet he had very valuable opinions and was a dear companion of Ralph. Also his specs were the only way a fire can be lit.

Jack Merridew can be called the antagonist: he and the rest of the choir were the Hunters, fetching meat for the others. He felt as if the island was a game, and didn’t want to be rescued as badly as Ralph. There was a clear conflict between the protagonist and the antagonist: Ralph favoured common sense and keeping the fire going, whereas Jack preferred the brilliant world of hunting together and exploring.

From this on, several crisises occurred which ultimately led to the total collapse of the British boys’ moral, common sense and brotherhood. Most important one was the scattering to two camps: Jack’s party and Ralph’s party. It is evident that Jack’s party was all about hunting, savagery and having fun. On the other hand, Ralph stuck to his guns and refused to act like a savage, tried to convince everybody that the fire was the most important thing. Following after this, on the heat of the moment, the boys together commited one of the bloodiest acts, which I wish to not spoil. Towards the climax, killing continues, more gruesome acts are done and it seems that all the British knowledge and morals the boys had, vanished on the island. Fast-approaching climax is bloody, warsome, exciting and devastating.

Even though William Golding managed to create very interesting and compelling plot, still his language and the milieu are very beautifully written and described. He doesn’t outright take the reader into excitement and folly, there were also some very harmonious moments and at first the island seemed like a nice place, where I longed to be at. At times, the boys experienced the great feeling of truly belonging in a group, and they had certain goals, aiming to accomplish them. Lastly, the island and the story are convincing and very realistic, despite being fiction.

Story is told more like looking trough the characters’ eyes and expressing their thoughts, portraying the events by how they see. That’s why there are many hidden meanings and if not reading carefully, reader may misunderstand a point. Sometimes the narrator is omniscient, revealing major details which the boys have no idea of. William’s writing style is very pleasing, and he succeeded in creating a rich world and great characters.

In conclusion, I am grateful for reading such an awesome book. Lord of the Flies deserves its place as a classic. The theme of the book is the disintegration of the boys’ little society and darkness of man’s heart. I felt compassionate for the characters, and couldn’t understand why the story reached such a tragic climax. Afterwards, it seemed like the boys were having a game, but without adults and took it much too seriously.I will keep the book close to my heart, since the questions Lord of the Flies raises, are very relevant to this day.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Novels, Yleinen

Tagged as

by | · 14:04

L.A. Candy

L.A. Candy is a fiction trilogy and I read the first one of the series which was published in 2009. The trilogy is written by Lauren Conrad who is an American television personality, author and fashion designer. She has been in reality shows such as the Hills and Laguna Beach and in my opinion the books were inspired by them. In this book we get to follow the life of Jane Roberts who is the central character and her friends.

At the very beginning of the book two friends, Jane Roberts and Scarlett Harp move to Los Angeles. They need to get out of their comfort zone and do something different with their lives. Jane has an internship in Fiona Chen’s office who is the hottest event designer in Hollywood. Scarlett starts to study in the USC college. The girls are very different. Jane is delicate and fragile and she always thinks before she does something. She is also crazy about decorating and fashion. Scarlett on the other hand is the brave one who always protects Jane from all the bad. Jane seems to believe that there is something good in everyone. Scarlett is the exact opposite from her best friend because she could not care less about fashion and looks. Still somehow she manages to look gorgeous.

The girls are new in the big town and they try to find out what life is like  there. They meet a couple of new guys and somehow they end up in a club where they are asked to contact Trevor, appreciated reality show producer, if they would like to star his upcoming reality show. The girls hesitate first but after a few days they call him and let him know that they are in. What could be a better way to make something happen in their life? Jane and Scarlett don’t even know what they are getting into. Soon the whole Los Angeles will know who they are and they want to know every little detail about them.

Everything advances quickly and soon the girls notice that their whole life is being shot. If they for example want to date a guy, it is not going to be a private relationship. The cameras follow them and two other girls to work, to clubs, to restaurants, to school.. It’s like they have no private life. In the end of the book Jane gets to see that it is not always a good thing when you get distracted with Hollywood lifestyle and glamour.

The language used in the book was very easy to read and the storyline was easy to keep up with. I liked the book because even though it was fiction it really could be true. None of the occurrences were over the top. This was only the first part of the series and the end of this book left me the feeling that i really should read the other ones as well. I usually don’t read this kind of books but this was a very positive reading experience.

Like I said in the beginning I think that the books were inspired by the author’s own experiences in reality shows. You could see the similarity in them. Lauren Conrad tells in one interview the following: ’’It also tells of what it was like during The Hills, some stories are basically behind the scenes on The Hills …’’. If you have ever watched the Hills and liked it, you are going to like the book also.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Novels

Tagged as

by | 17.1.2014 · 16:43

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s stone

The book Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s stone is written by J. K. Rowling and was published in 1997. Said book is the first part of the Harry Potter saga. The main characters are Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. They are all eleven years old and are in first grade of Hogwarts school of magic. Harry and Ron are wizards and Hermione is a witch. They don’t know each other until they meet in hogwarts and become friends. As the book continues they all learn new things in the magical world, for instance new spells. Harry is still the most important character in the book. He is ”the boy who lives”. The evil lord Voldemort killed Harry’s parents when Harry was a baby. He tried to kill Harry too but failed and lost his powers. It left a lighting bolt shaped scar in Harry’s forehead. Characters felt so real and believable that I myself started to believe in magic a little.
           In the beginning of the book Harry lives with his aunt and uncle in England unknowing about the magical world. Harry’s aunt, uncle and cousin are non-magical people or ”muggles”. When Harry is eleven he finds out that he’s a wizard when he gets an invitation to Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry. Professor Guirrell who teaches defence against the dark arts, tries to steal the philosopher’s stone for lord Voldemort so that he could resurrect. Harry, Ron and Hermione end up in a big adventure when they try to stop professor Guirrells actions. In addition the sorting hat choses Harry in the house of Gryffindor. There he meets the headmistress Minerva McGonagall. Harry also meets and immediately converges to Hogwarts principal Albus Dumbledore. Harry hates throughout the whole book professor of the potions Severus Snape.
The book begins in the summer and lasts the whole school year.
           The narrator is all-knowing and stays that way the whole book. The book is fictional and magic is it’s main theme. I think it’s written because the story touches everyone at all age. This book started the world-wide Potter phenomenon. The books message is that everyone can make it in life even though it may not feel like it right now. When Harry lives with his aunt and uncle he is bullied and discriminated little boy and nobody knows him. In the magical world Harry finds out that everyone knows him and his lightning bolt shaped scar.
          I liked everything that happened to Harry in Hogwarts. Every chapter about hogwarts were interesting and exciting. The least I liked the beginning of the book where there mostly just sorted out things. I would recommend to all who has watched Harry Potter movies to read them also as books. Books take movies deeper to the world of Hogwarts. The book was familiar to me because I had read it a couple times in finnish earlier. It was still a bit confusing that in this english version many characters had a different names then in the finnish version. Probably book would have been hard to read if I hadn’t known about the story a little beforehand. Entirely the book was magnificent!

Leave a Comment

Filed under Novels

Tagged as