Bogormen

Title: Geisha of Gion
Author: Mineko Iwasaki
Genre: Non-fiction, cultural
Rating: 10/10
# pages: 334
Date read: January, 2007

Summary: "Geisha of Gion" covers Mineko's childhood, becoming a geisha, her training and eventually leaving the Geisha world and her retirement. It is a fascinating read and a look into the culture and mystique that surrounds geisha, but also a view into their changing role and the more modern geisha than the classical era they are usually portrayed in. However this is the story of a geisha, not geisha in general, and would need to be read with other books by readers trying to get a picture of the modern geisha's role. (From http://www.caio.co.uk)

Review: Ever since I read "Memoirs of a Geisha" I've wanted to read this one, as Arthur Golden mentions this book as being one of his inspirations. So when I managed to find it in a bookshop, I immediately bought it. It did not disappoint. Where MoaG takes place around World War 2, this one describes the life of a Geisha in the 60s and 70s. You get to read about how Mineko meets Prince Charles, Queen Elizabeth and several other celebrities that we 'know'. Fascinating book.

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Title: Q&A
Author: Vikas Swarup
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 8/10
# pages: 361
Date read: January, 2007

Summary: Ram Mohammed Thomas is a waiter who gets the chance to appear on "Who Will Win a Billion?" on Indian TV. Even though the orphan has never been to school, an amazing sequence of coincidences allows him to answer the 12 questions correctly and win the billion rupees. The TV show thinks he must be cheating, especially since the producers hadn't planned on someone winning the billion before advertising revenue brought in more than the billion needed for the prize. So he is arrested. He tells his life story to his attorney, and through the questions the listener learns about his life and his real reason for going on the show. (From Amazon.com)

Review: I found this book absolutely fascinating. Each chapter describes a situation from Ram's past that enabled him to answer one of the questions on the W3B quiz-show. The story jumps back and forth in time, but not in a way that is at all confusing, and while sometimes rather unrealistic, all ends are tied up neatly, and the book remains true to its own universe. The book is written by an Indian, so I assume the atmospheres he describes are correct, and it was interesting to read how he depicts the life of a poor orphan boy.

Quick read and very enjoyable book. I recommend it.

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Title: Pay It Forward
Author: Catherine Ryan Hyde
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 10/10
# pages: 311
Date read: January, 2007

Summary: It all started with the social studies teacher's extra-credit assignment: come up with a plan to change the world for the better, and do it. Twelve-year-old Trevor McKinney began by doing something good for three people. But instead of paying him back, he asked them to "pay it forward" by doing a favor for three more people, who in turn would help three others, and so on, each act a link in a chain of human kindness.

And no one - not his teacher, his mom, or anyone in his small California town - could ever have dreamed of how far Trevor's plan would go... (From the back cover of the book)

Review: Few people don't know this story. Either from having read the book, from having seen the movie, or both. Some might think it's a sappy story, and it kind-of is and kind-of isn't. It's an amazing story, handled with enough grace to make it seem realistic, even in this cynical world of ours. Because really, how difficult is it to pay it forward to just three people?

Few books have made me cry this much. The tears were literally running down my cheeks while reading the last few chapters. It's beautiful. I highly recommend it to anybody who hasn't yet lost hope for the good in humanity.

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Title: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Author: Robert Louis Stevenson
Genre: Classics
Rating: 6/10
# pages: Audiobook
Date read: January, 2007

Summary: The classic story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde tells of a respectable citizen Dr Jekyll who transforms into a heinous villian by night that trolls the streets of Edinburgh in the 1800s. This dual life of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is traced in a third person account by a friend of the good doctor, who follows the evidence provided by both Jekyll and Hyde. The story itself is easy to understand and enjoyable to follow. The book is appropriate for anyone in high school or higher, and makes for a good movie script.

The analysis that has gone into this story is quite extensive, and often goes like this: this story is a commentary on good versus evil, the conflict between these two opposing forces within each individual, and the secret thoughts that lay beneath the polite veneer of everyday life. Legend has it that the author wrote this from recollections of nightmares, and hence this book is a good foreshadowing of modern psychology and the interpretation of dreams espoused by Freud. (From Amazon.com)

Based on a nightmare Stevenson once had.

Review: Few people aren't familiar with the plot of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde thanks to their characters having been used in numerous other stories since the writing of this one. I found it interesting, but a lot less suspenseful than I had expected, and definitely not en par with the other books I've read by Stevenson (ok, book singular - "Treasure Island" also reviewed here).

Still, it's a good story, and an interesting theory. If we could, would we allow our evil/amoral side to be let loose? And would I, personally, be responsible for anything my counter-self would do? Here I completely disagree with the stance of Dr. Jekyll. He says: "It was Hyde, and Hyde alone who did [all the various crimes]". Yes, that is true as far as it goes, but Jekyll has the knowledge of what Hyde does, and is therefore under obligation to stop him. As he is the one who allows Hyde to take over, he is not completely without guilt or responsibility for what happens.

Which, fortunately, he finally realizes himself.

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Title: A Child Called "It"
Author: Dave Pelzer
Genre: non-fiction
Rating: unrateable
# pages: 152
Date read: January, 2007

Summary: Dave Pelzer was the second of five boys. His father was a fireman and, according to David, his mother was originally a loving, kind and caring mother.

The book states that around the time that the author turned five, things within the family slowly began to change. While his father was away at work often, his mother became an alcoholic. The author's mother has claimed that Dave was so badly behaved that he required punishment. The summer before Dave started kindergarten his mother reportedly beat him, dislocating his shoulder. The book goes on to describe a period of mixed emotions over the following few years with the increasingly abusive and damaging behaviour from Ms Roerva gradually ostracizing Dave from the rest of the family.

The book describes the worsening abuse which Dave suffered at the hand of his mother and her alcoholism. Among the many incidents discussed is that Ms. Roerva attempted to burn Dave on a cooker when he was eight years old. By this point he was no longer considered as part of the family and lived in the basement denied basic contact, play or food. Ms. Roerva has stated that she did not want Dave to interact with "her family" demonstrating the lack of regard in which he was held.

Over time the depth of the abuse worsened. Dave claims he was forced to sit in the Prisoner of War position (head bent backwards facing sky and sitting on hands). His mother stopped using his name and began referring to him first as "The Boy" and finally "It". The punishments are reported to have evolved into 'sick games' in which Ms. Roerva made her son suffer.

Incidents cited in the book include; making him drink ammonia, cleaning the bathroom with ammonia mixed with chlorine bleach resulting in a near fatal outcome, inducing vomit followed by forced ingestion, smashing his face against the mirror while screaming "I'm a bad boy", lying in the bathtub naked with freezing water for hours, stabbing, rubbing his face in his brother's dirty diaper/nappy, making him eat dog's faeces and starvation. (From Wikipedia)

Review: I did not like this book. But that's okay. You're not supposed to like it. It's a horrible, horrible book. A trainwreck of a book. I wanted to look away, but just couldn't. I know it's the first part in a trilogy, but I doubt I'm going to read the other two books. It was too, too depressing.

Actually, the person I got most angry with was the father. The mother was obviously sick and needed help. There's no other explanation for the awful things she subjected her son to. But what's the father's excuse? He just stood by and did nothing? No, that's not true - he stood by and did nothing... and THEN he abandoned the family. I don't get it. Nowhere in the book was it stated that he seemed afraid of his wife, so why did he allow her to treat their son so horribly? You don't just stand by and let your SO practically kill your son, you just don't!

There were two things I would have liked to know: 1) What made David different from the rest of his brothers? Why was he the one who was treated so horribly? If his mother had had some kind of reason, just something that set him apart, it would at least be part of an explanation even if it's no excuse, but it seemed totally random. I guess it was... after all, sick people often don't need reasons for doing as they do. 2) What happened to his mother afterwards? Did she get some kind of help? Were her other boys taken away from her too? The book ended in a cliff-hanger fashion which annoyed me. Too many loose ends.

I don't recommend it. Most of you would never treat a child like that anyway, and if you would, no amount of reading about it would change your opinion that you're in the 'right'. The only time I would encourage reading it is if you know somebody you fear may be subjected to child abuse, or if you want to be convinced that you should become a foster parent.

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Title: Nynnes Dagbog 3
Author: Helene Lind
Genre: Chick-lit
Rating: 7/10
# pages: 286
Date read: January, 2007

Summary: Nynne er tilbage igen. Nu 41 år gammel, ikke-ryger (næsten), nybagt mor til Elliot, i fast forhold til barnlægen, bosat i Stockholm og med en omgangskreds, der mest består af butiksekspedienter og børnehavepersonale. Men sådan bliver det ikke ved med at være. Lige siden den nogenogfuckingtrediveårige Nynne mødte læserne første gang, før Frederik fik Mary, og før der var fotografiapparater i mobiltelefonerne, har hun forsøgt at få harmoni, overskud og pæne farver ind i sit liv. Det har ikke været let, og sådan bliver det ved med at være. I denne tredje "Nynnes dagbog" får hun først for lidt, og til sidst bliver det for meget. Alt for meget.

Nynne mistrives som børnelægens hjemmegående hustru i Stockholm, og ender med at flytte hjem til København, hvor hverdagen og weekendægteskabet dog ikke er mindre kaotisk. (Taken from ibooks.dk - as the book hasn't been translated, I haven't translated the summary either. Think a Danish Bridget Jones.)

Review: Quite good book. While they're the same style, I prefer "Nynnes Dagbog" to "Bridget Jones' Diary", because she's just... more human. BJ got into too many scrapes, and most of them were too unrealistic/far out/embarrassing for them to be believable. Nynne, on the other hand, I can fully see as a real person, living out there in Copenhagen somewhere.

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