Picking up a book by Dan Brown is pretty much like social suicide. It will consume your every free minute with its compelling plot twists and intelligent dialogue. I would recommend starting this book during a holiday or a week when you can happily abandon all contact to the outside world. It will keep your face buried in it until the very last sentences.
Inferno (2013) is a fairly new book that topped many best-seller lists last year. A symbologist Robert Langdon (also in The Da Vinci Code) finds himself in Florence with an ancient mystery to solve, except the threat is very up-to-date. A genius billionaire is going to release a virus that will offer a “solution” to the overpopulation problem. Langdon, with the help of a British doctor Sienna Brooks, holds the key to preventing the virus from spreading. The time is running out and he has no idea what he really is facing.
Brown’s signature style is to mix old mysteries with modern ideas and scenes. The formula is as convincing as before. This time it is Dante Alighieri’s epic and ominous poem “The Divine Comedy” that provides the basis for the novel. The name Inferno is straight from the poem itself. It is the name of the first part of the poem, Dante’s journey through hell. The Divine Comedy is a crucial factor throughout the novel and sets a dark theme in the background.
The novel is easily one of the most thought-provoking pieces I have ever read. It is definitely not something you can read and then finish without ever pondering about the message. I found myself questioning many facts in society after reading the book. The conflicting thoughts haunted me for days. Nevertheless, I have to recommend this book for anyone who can stand a few menacing thoughts creeping into mind. Behind the addictive storyline and thrilling action there is a powerful message that everybody should consider.
Book Review: Inferno
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Book review of Finn Family Moomintroll
Finn Family Moomintroll
Hats off to the adventures of spring – Tove Jansson
English translation 1958
– January 21, 2014
The Characters
Main characters is Moomintroll, Sniff, Snufkin, Snork Maiden, The Hemulens, Muskrat, Hattifatteners, Moominmamma, Moominpappa, Thingumy and Bob, Groke and Hobgoblin. They all live in Moominhouse, except the Hattifatteners and Groke. Snufkin is the wanderer and goes to the South every winter. The characters in the Moomins-books are fictional but kinda the better variation of real people. Moomins are always same- they don’t grown or change. They are lovely, honestly and lenient. Moominmamma is the stereotypically mom: gentle, solicitous, good chef and she never get angry. Moominpappa is like typically old man; wise but scatterbrained. Snork Maiden is so traditional princess as is possible. She want always be little more beautiful and like a lady.
The plot
In the books happens a lot. Moomintroll, Sniff and Snufkin discover the Magician’s Hat and bring it away to the Moominhouse. Moominpappa try to keep it, but it is too big. They decide to use it like a wastebasket. When they trash an egg shell into the hat tem becomes five clouds the children ride and play with. At the next day the clouds are not there and family Moomintroll is so confused. Moomintroll hides inside the hat during a game of hide-and-seek and is temporarily transformed to a tarsier . He didn’t change back, until Moominmamma reconize that the tarsier is Moomintroll. When Moominmamma and Moominpappa understand the magic powers of the Hat, they throw it into the river. But Moomintroll and Snufkin find it and hide it in the cave by the sea.
Muskrat come to the cave and set his denture into the Hat. The denture transformers something, but nobody know what.
The Moomin Family find a boat and name it ”Adventure.” On that boat they travel to the Island of the Hattifatteners. The Hattifatteners bully The Hemulens and by way of vengeance The Hemulens steals The Hattifatteners barometer. The childrens live a moment into Sniff’s cave. When the Moomin Family come back to the Moominhouse it is transformed into a jungle.
The setting is Moominvalley, a fictional place, where the Moomins live. The story involved three times of year: spring, summer and autumn.
Narration
The narrator of the story is know-it-all narrator.
Theme and message
The main theme of this novel was tolerance, like almost all Moomins-books. Tove Jansson wants to creative a world, where everything is good and beautiful. She makes the Moomins dear and pedagocic, them teach to the children sympathetic and kindness.
My opinion
I liked most part of the book when Moomins rides with clouds, because it was my favorite episode of Moomin tv-programme.
Reading an Englis was difficult because my vocabulary was sometimes too concise so that I understood all.
The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner
I read The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner book. The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner written by Stephenie Meyer and she published it on year 2010. Stephenie Meyer is best known for her vampire romance series Twilight. In addition to this book, twilight series consists of four books and five films and The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner related to the book Eclipse which is the third book in a series.
Riley and Victoria decides to create as many new-born vampires as is possible because they want to make an attack on Cullen. Cullens are a vampire family who drink only the blood of animals and one of them killed the boyfriend of Victoria. Victoria is lying to all other vampires the reason why they attack on Cullen. She just wants to get revenge. The main character is Bree Tanner. She is almost sixteen years old when vampire whose name is Riley change her. She join the herd of vampire and live with others in fear and distress because they don’t know anything about being vampire. At the end of the book the vampire army is attacking towards Cullens but not so good consequences.
I have been read the book earlier many times and I thought that the book was really good. But nowadays I think it is little silly. But definitely, I think that Stephenie Meyer is a really good writer and not at all overrated. The book is a good addition to the twilight series but you need to read at least the first three books before this otherwise you will not be able to understand.
And did you know that when the book was published in the United States every sold book was donated to a little bit of the American Red Cross. The money helped the people in Haiti and Chile.
Predator
Predator is a crime fiction novel written by Patricia Cornwell. Patricia Cornwell writes Dr. Kay Scarpetta-series and the Predator is 14th of them.
I haven´t read any of these Scarpetta-books before and it really annoyed me the whole time because I didn´t knew anything about the characters and their past. Patricia Cornwell clearly thought that everyone who reads this book has also read all her books. A lot of things (mostly the relationships between the characters) remained as mysteries to the end. I didn´t like Cornwell´s style of writing, I think she just isn´t a good writer. Her describing was pale, it didn´t touch anything inside of me. It was very confusing that the story teller changed between the main characters all the time.
The idea of the plot is pretty good, but it´s execution was horrible. It just didn´t work out. The whole book was very disorderly and the reader couldn´t catch the main points. Plot just jumped around with no clear goal. I think the best thing about crime novels is absolutely that you can also be one of the detectives and guess who will be the criminal and crime novels can be extremely hooking.
I am bookworm and I never drop out the book I´m reading, because then the books starts to haunt me because I don´t know the end of it. If this wasn´t a school project I would have returned this book to the library after the five first chapters . Just because this book is incredibly boring. I still somehow hoped that maybe, maybe it could get better at the end of the book. I´ve never been so wrong. The end of the book is the most terrible thing about the book. It feels like that the writer just quickly gathered everything and calmly told who was the horrible raping slaughterer. It all just happened so quickly (like in thirty pages) that it made me feel like ”Hey, wait, after all this boring nonsense you just end this stupid book like this?!”
Filed under Films / theatre, Yleinen
Finn Family Moomintroll
The book I chose is written by Tove Jansson. She wrote Finn Family Moomintroll 1948 and the english translate was made in 1950. Tove Jansson was really professional children’s author. All her Moomin series are described in Moomin Valley. All stories have own lesson to kids.
Main character in this book is Moomintroll, who is very kind. All the other characters are mom, dad, Sniff, Snork Maiden, Snufkin, Hemulen and Hattifatteners. There are also other character but the aren’t worth mentioning.
Issues of Finn Family Moomintroll are Moomintroll, Snufkin and Sniff founding the Hobgoblin’s Hat and trying to find out were it came from and why. Hobgoblin’s Hat is mysterious thing because it chances you another figure when you go under it. In the story Moominhouse change into a jungle and other crazy things happens. In the end you can find out how the Hobgoblin arrive in the Valley of Moomins (who owns the Hat).
When I was little I watched many times Moomin series on TV and my mom red for me Moomin books. It was my favorite TV show and book! Moomins are a fiction tale about Moomin Valley and figures in it. Characters aren’t very plausible but right choice to show for children. Stories are always gently so I would recommend the book to nine years and older children. Language is easy to read and understand. Chapters are divided to seven peaces and there are pilot summary at the beginning of every chapter. I think the best part of book is when Moomintroll goes under the Hobgoblin’s Hat and changes into small creature. After that his mother doesn’t recognize her son. Soon she just realize that creature is one and only Moomintroll. That is touching part!
Something little I would have written other way is character names in finnish but that wouldn’t be possible because of all the english readers. Names are hard to recognize and connect to the right characters. However, this book is readable Moomin story. Read it and find your internal Moomin!
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Operation Ocean Emerald
Operation Ocean Emerald is a thriller which was published in 2010 and it has been writed by Ilkka Remes. The book is english version from Remes’ ”Piraatit”-book, which was published in 2003. Main characters names and the plot has been changed little so that the book applys better for non-finnish reader. The book tells about cruise ship Ocean Emerald, which has been hijacked and it’s passengers who try to save the ship and themself from the hijackers.
The books main character is 14-years-old boy Luke C. Baron. Luke is from England but his family has moved to Porvoo Finland, where he lives with his dad and mum. Other important characters are Toni, Lukes friend, Craig Thomson, Ocean Emeralds head of security and former FBI-agent, Philippe Delaroix, one of the hijackers, Juliette du Pont, hijacker and Rosita, ships cleaner. Luke is 14-years-old but by mentally he seems to be adult. He tries to act as hero middle of hijacket ship taking stupid risks and does the job for adults, which is very unlikely in real world.
The story begins in Porvoo where Luke and Toni find a lost passport and boarding pass to floating luxury palace: cruise ship Ocean Emerald. They decide to return it and couple days later they drive from Porvoo to Helsinki where Luke goes to return the passport. When he finaly finds Juliette du Pont, the passports owner, Luke is taken captive by Juliette and her partner Philippe Delaroix. Capturers put their plans in motion and Delaroix captures the bridge and the whole ship treathening with explosives which have been hiden across the ship. They demand money from ships 1000 wealthy passengers, Luke is going to stop hijackers plans.
The books narration is maded by third person which is common in Remes’ books. The narrator tells from all characters situations and the character changes very often, which is very annoing, when you are not sure which character the narrator tells about.
In my opinion the book was interesting and very exciting with all its turns and problemsolves. The best part was the plot and bad parts were narration and Lukes uncovincing heroism and ingenuity. His acts in the book make hard to believe that he is just 14-years-old. I would recommend the book to everyone who is interested from thrillers. The book has lots of difficult words, so understanding was sometimes hard. Finding the book was easy: just search thriller books from english books.
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The fellowship of the ring
The fellowship of the ring is the first part of three-volume epic novel The lord of rings. It´s written by J.R.R Tolkien. The book was published on July 1954.
The fellowship of the ring centralizes in the fictional universe of middle-earth and it takes place in the Middle Ages. The atmosphere is dark but hopeful: The hobbits mankind face multiple consequences but still they find joy and happiness in the darkness. The Harrator is in the third person and it is all-knowing. The story starts from a small village called Shire. There two of the main characters, Frodo and Sam get mission to destroy the Ring. Their journey to destroy the ring is the main plot of the book but it has multiple side plots.
The developes mainly around Frodo and Sam´s journey but stil most of the book tells about three heroes Aragon,Legolas and Gimli. They mainly fight against evil wizard Sacron´s troops but their actions are meant to help Frodo and Sam in their mission.
The book has multiple themes and probably the most important of them is the corrupting influence of power. The ring has almost chlimited powers and it seems that it is immensely difficult for many characters to resist the temptation to steal the ring for themselves and use it for their own purposes. No matter what the wearer´s purposes, good or evil, the Ring´s power always turns the wearer to evil. The story is full of examples of those who are correpted by the Ring. for example Gollom who once was a young boy named Smeagol who the Ring turned evil and obnoxious creature.
The main characters of the book are the hobbits Frodo and Sam, the wizard Gandalf the grey and the ranger Aragorn. Frodo is the ring-bearer whose task is to destroy the ring. Frodo has a great ability to resist evil. He is brave, wise and unfailingly polite. Unlikke the most Hobbits Frodo is curious about the world out of Shire. Aragon has a great amoount of power and knowledge under a humble exterior. Aragorn does a display a sort of vulnerability. Durin the story Aragorn slowly transforms into the king he is destined to become.
To my mind the highlight of this book was in the last charapter when the ring overtakes Boromir´s, who is one of the Frodo´s protectors, mind and makes him try to kill Frodo during the battle against the ores. This leads to Boromir´s death by the arrow of the ore.
The text is hard to read and it´s hard to keep up with the plot but when the story went on, the book shatched me in to it. it ended up to point where i lived within in the emotions of the book, if characters felt sad or happy, i did too.
The Princess Diaries Take Two
“The Princess Diaries” book is written by Meg Cabot in 2000. The book is the second book in the series and there’s six more. The film “The princess diaries 2”, is telling about the same princess, but it’s not related to the film.
The book has written like a diary. The princess, Mia, is writing a diary about her daily life and the reader gets to know her very well. She writes thoroughly about her many akward moments that happens every day and her feelings about other people. The reader gets to know all the things that she has done in that day.
Mia was a shy and normal girl and many of her school didn’t know her. One day her grandmother (called granmere), told her that her father is a prince of Genovia and she is a princess. After that, Mia’s life changed and she always has a few bodyguards with her and Mia goes everywhere with a limusin. Mia has to learn to cope with puplic life because she has a lot of interwievs in TV. Sometimes they don’t go as they should and she starts talking about weird things. And for example, she prematurely announces in national TV the secret that her mother is pregnat. She tries to adapt to princess life but sometimes she wants to be that normal girl who she has been before.
The main characters of the film are Princess Mia and her best friend Lilly which Mia tells important things and secrets. Lilly is a flashy person and she always cheers Mia up. Other characters are Lilly’s brother Michael who is Mia’s secret crush and Mia’s mother and grandmother. Mia has different relationships with all of them and she tries to get agreement with all. Sometimes she doesn’t know how to combine princess life with normal life. It was easy to me identify with Mia because she is the same age girl as I am. And she has the same problems as we all teenagers have, except the princess thing.
The book was really easy and nice to read because the glossary of the text was easy. And if I didn’t understand some word, it didn’t matter because I still got the point. Maybe if I haven’t seen the films of “The Princess Diaries”, it could have been harder to read. I would recommend the book to teenage girls because they can identify with the main character best.
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The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight
The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight is a love story written by Jennifer E. Smith and published in 2012. She has also written This Is What Happy Looks Like, The Storm Makers, You Are Here and The Comeback Season.
The genre of the book is ”young adult” but what I think is that it can be read by anyone who likes love stories, not depending on one’s age. I don’t usually read love stories, but I wanted something that would be simple and quick to read. First I though that The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight would be a sugary sweet, basic love story with no deeper thoughts. I couldn’t have been more wrong.
”Who would have guessed that four minutes could change everything?” Hadley is a seventeen-year-old girl who misses her flight to London. Her father is getting married to a woman which Hadley has never even met. At the airport Hadley meets Oliver, cute and tall British boy. Turns out that he is on Hadley’s new flight, sitting on her row. Long flight goes by in a blink of an eye, but upon the arrival Hadley and Oliver lose track of each other.
Hadley, the main character in the book, is a little insecure and sarcastic. She is struggling to figure out how to function when her dad gets married again, and how to forgive him for moving to London and abandoning her and her mom. I liked Hadley as a character, because she is easily compared to myself. Not some unrealistic and perfect girl that many love novels seem to have as a protagonist.
Romance between Hadley and Oliver should be the main point in the book, but actually it seems to be Hadley forgiving her father and a reminder that nothing last forever, but we all have a second chance. Also, the I think that the book was ment to be hopegiving, when I actually felt a little sad after reading it.
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