2011: Challenges and how I fared

I signed up for a few challenges in 2011, something I did for the first time. I am glad I got to read new authors and books as part of this challenge, which I would not have otherwise.

• Nordic Challenge
  Challenge: 3-5 books
  Read: 3 books

I took this challenge mainly because I was so ignorant of the books coming from this beautiful region. I discovered a beautiful book (Sophie’s World) and a wonderful author (Henning Mankell).

• Haruki Murakami Reading Challenge
  Challenge: 3
  Read: 3

I am so happy I took up this challenge. I discovered such a great author. I absolutely loved After Dark, but the other two books were a disappointment. I will definitely read more from this author.

• New Authors Reading Challenge
  Challenge: 15
  Read: 15

Read a few new authors, some were great, some were not.

• Seconds Challenge
  Challenge: 3
  Read: 3

I gave Gabriel García Márquez and Amitava Ghosh a second chance as part of this challenge. I could not read Márquez’s A Hundred Years of Solitude, but A News of a Kidnapping was a surprisingly good read. On the other hand, Ghosh disappointed me further with his A Circle of Reason.

• 1001 Books to Read Before You Die
  Challenge: 5
  Read: 1

Disappointing. Both the challenge and the book I read as part of this challenge.

• TBR Challenge
  Challenge: 12
  Read: 3

I finally read 3 books that I had wanted to read from a long time. An interesting thing to note is I did not like any of them. That should say something about my TBR list, huh?
I have decided what challenges I will be taking up in the coming year. Sign up post coming soon.

 

The Fifth Woman

Title: The Fifth Woman
Author (in Swedish): Henning Mankell
Translator (to English): Steven Murray
Originally Published In:  1996
Translated In: 2000
Genre: Mystery
My Rating: 4 on 5

The Fifth Woman starts with a prologue where five women are brutally murdered by some unknown murderers in a remote place in Africa. Four of them are nuns and the fifth woman is a tourist who takes shelter with the nuns. While the nuns’ death is acknowledged by the police and government, they hush up the murder of the fifth woman to avoid any political conflicts. The death of the fifth woman would have gone unnoticed if not for a policewoman who investigated this murder and who decides to write a confidential letter to the fifth woman’s daughter in Sweden informing her about the tragic incident. This proves to be a turning point in the daughter’s life.

The following chapters tell the reader about a series of brutal murders that take place in and around Ystad. Wallander is involved in the investigation and he tries to find the murderer before the person can cause more harm. All through the book, we see a battle of intelligence – the murderer and Wallander try to outdo themselves and prove who is smarter. We all know, every criminal makes a mistake and that is how Wallander solves the case.

The book has a very strong opening. The plot generates an amount of intrigue and dread in the hearts of the reader. The murders are brutal and dreadful, but you can’t stop from reading further to know what happens next. The way Mankell ties in different story lines and introduces the twists and turns keeps you on the edge of your seat. Even though the murdered characters are of little use later on, Mankell takes the trouble of giving these characters a personality of their own.

The following para contains spoilers. Skip it if you have not read the book yet. If you want to read it, select the paragraph with your mouse and you will be able to read it.

Mankell took a lot of care in developing the plot and the motive behind the murders, but I was let down by how the mystery was solved. Wallander was on the right track all along and one simple mistake from an otherwise meticulous murderer gave the identity away – which is hard to believe. When the murderer escapes from the station, Wallander takes a wild guess about where the murderer might go and it turns out to be true and that is another weak point in the book. Why did the murderer end up going to that place when it was very well known that the place is already known to the police? Mankell also lets a few loose ends flutter and does not tie them up. We never come to know the story behind the severed head found in the first victim’s safe. And what about the diary found in the safe? What was the relation between the owner of the diary and the victim? Despite these weak points, the book was a very interesting read.

Unlike the other mystery authors, Mankell gives a human touch to the hero of his books. Wallander is not painted as a dashing, intelligent, flawless man who every woman desires. Instead, he is shown to have problems of his own – a divorce, a daughter who does not really get along well with him and a father who is always complaining that Wallander does not devote enough time to him. Mankell not only focuses on the plot of the book, but cares to touch about other social issues. He brings in debatable issues of citizen militia and mercenaries, but never loses the momentum of the story. He even gives us a glimpse of the woes of a working mother – how difficult it is to balance a profession and family when there is no support around. This particularly touched my heart because I am a working mother myself.

This book is the tenth in the Wallander series. I read the first one and jumped straight to 10th, but it no way affected the pleasure I had in reading the book. Strong plot, interesting characters and a deep insight into the investigative procedure make this book a highly readable one.

This book qualifies for Nordic Challange 2011 and 2nds Challenge 2011.

Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell

Title: Faceless Killers
Author: Henning Mankell
Year Published: 1997
Genre: Crime Fiction
My Rating: 3 on 5

After I enjoyed reading The Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson, my friend JoV recommended that I try my hand at other Scandinavian crime fiction novels. We got talking about it and she introduced me to Nordic Challenge 2011 and I took it up in order to read more Nordic crime fiction. I had no clues what books to read and again, JoV came to the rescue. She recommended some famous novels and authors and I picked up the first novel in the Wallander series.

Faceless Killers shows Kurt Wallander, a policeman in Sweden, solving the case of double murder of a farmer couple, who are brutally murdered in their farmhouse. The novel starts with a very interesting plot – the run up to the crime, the fear of the farmer who discovers the crime, the mention of a horse which seems odd – the scene is set and you are eager to know who is the murderer.

Enters Wallander who is assigned to this case and you are already impressed with him. His wife has left him recently, his daughter refuses to talk to him and his aged dad does not appreciate him. While his personal life is in a turmoil, he needs to give all his energy to the case at hand. Wallander displays a passion for crime investigation and it somewhere rubs on you. You want to solve the case too!

The plot is interesting. The first few pages grabs the reader and has your complete attention. The sub-plots keep your interest piqued. Wallander’s character is well etched and he is something you can identify with. The intentional interrupts to the crime story to give us a glimpse of Wallander’s personal life comes as a welcome change to the pulse racing pace of the main plot.While the book has a promising start and maintains its pace and mood for almost half the book, it begins to get boring when the investigation hits a roadblock. The story loses its momentum and when Wallander finally reaches a turning point and gets a clue about the murderer, you no longer care. After this point, it’s a simple run and chase story. The case is solved and you don’t even realize it.

While reading a crime novel, the reader should suddenly realize who the culprit is – it should be like a a-ha moment, as it happens in some of Agatha Christie novels. But, that a-ha moment never appears in this book, which was a big let down for me. The book held a lot of promise, but was a disappointment. This does not discourage me from reading more of Mankell. I want to read a few more in Wallander series and see how they fair.

Faceless Killers was made into a 90-minute television edition and was aired on BBC. Now, that would be interesting to watch.

This book qualifies for Nordic Challange 2011 and The New Author Challenge 2011.

Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder

Title: Sophie’s World
Author: Jostein Gaarder
Year Published: 1995
Genre: Fiction and Non-fiction
My Rating: 4.5 on 5

Sophie’s World is a course on philosophy wrapped in a fictitious story. It starts with Sophie Amundsen, a fourteen year old girl, getting back home from school just like any other day to find a mysterious letter with some philosophical questions like Who are you? and Where did you come from? Every day she receives a package which contains details about philosophers who dealt with those philosophical questions. Thus begins Sophie’s correspondence course on philosophy. Sophie finds out later that her teacher is Alberto Knox who is inclined to teach her everything about philosophy. Why he wants to do that and why he chooses Sophie is a mystery which is revealed at the end of the book. Sophie also receives some letters addressed to Hilde. Why does Sophie receive letters meant for Hilde is another mystery.

Keeping the fictional part apart, this is a very interesting book for its non-fiction content. The part where Knox talks about early philosophers and their ideas and how their religion, location and culture influenced their ideas is very interesting. The author covers everything about philosophy – ancient myths, Democritus, Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, Christianity, Renaissance, Baroque, Descartes and then more modern philosophers like Darwin, Marx, Freud and Sartre. This book is like a Philosophy 101 Course. Don’t let that discourage you because this book is nothing like the boring text books.

What makes this book so interesting is that the author chooses to pepper the philosophical discussions with enough examples and anecdotes, so this book does not end up being as drab as a text book on philosophy but engages and encourages the reader to brood and think and question. I have always been interested in philosophy, but never made an attempt to learn. Thanks to this book, now I know atleast the key figures and jargons and I can take it forward from here. I always knew ‘I think, I therefore I am’ was a quote from Descartes, but never knew the context in which he said it. After I read the part about Descartes, I know why he said it and it makes perfect sense.

I don’t want to comment on the fictional part of this book because, honestly, I don’t care. The content on philosophy is so rich and interesting, that I don’t care what is happening in Sophie’s world. The only reason why I gave this book 4.5 is because the fictional part is so boring. For me, reading this book was an enriching experience. I wish I could re-read this book to ensure that I drank in everything that the book had to offer.

I happened to spot this book at the library and I decided to read it because I liked the blurb. I read a few pages and really liked what I read. On googling, I realized this book is a best-seller. That was a surprise! After I finished the book, I decided to know more about the author and that’s when I realized Gaarder is from Norway. This book is a candidate for Nordic Challenge 2011 and I read this book without even realizing it. Is that a co-incidence? Considering that this book is philosophical, that question takes on new meanings!

This book qualifies for Nordic Challange 2011 and The New Author Challenge 2011.

PS: I know this review is vague and not informative. I am so enamored by this book that I feel like a kid who has found a new toy. And I couldn’t wait till I got back to my senses, so whatever came out from my keyboard onto my screen is pasted here as a review.

Life is full of challenges

The coming year is going to be eventful and interesting for me – atleast in terms of books and reading. I am going to sign up for challenges (and quite a few at that) which I have never done before.

1. I have already signed up for the Nordic Challenge 2011. I am aiming for Freya which requires me to read 3-5 books from Nordic authors.

2. I have always wanted to read Haruki Marukami and God knows why I haven’t done so till now. Haruki Murakami Reading Challenge 2011 will urge me to finally get down to doing that. I aim for Sheep Man which requires me to read 3 Murakami books.

3. Since I am always trying out new authors, The New Author Challenge 2011 suits me just right. The challenge here is to read a minimum of 15 new authors which sounds a bit difficult, but that’s why it’s called a challenge, right?

4. After I read a new author or a first book in the series, more often than not, I go back to read a second book from the same author or the second book in the series. So, it’s only natural that I sign up for the 2nds Challenge 2011. I am aiming for Just a Spoonful – 3 books. I already have a candidate for this – Amitava Ghosh. I read his The Calcutta Chromosome and wasn’t particularly impressed with it. I want to give him a try again and read The Hungry Tide or Sea of Poppies. This list will draw inspiration from the previous challenge.

5. There are so many books on the 1001 books to read before you die list that I want to read. I am signing up for the 1001 books to read before you die challenge and hoping to reduce the size of my TBR list. I aim for High School Diploma which requires me to read 5 books on the list.

6. I want to reduce the size of my TBR list, so I am signing up for The 2011 TBR Pile Challenge.

The most difficult part of this challenge is to make a list of books that you plan to read for this challenge. I had a tough time choosing only 12 from my humongous list.

1    The Time Traveller’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
2    In Cold Blood – Truman Capote
3    Middlesex – Jeffrey Eugenides
4    Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance – Robert M. Pirsig
5    Slaughterhouse-five – Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
6    Family Matters – Rohinton Mistry
7    Daddy Long-Legs    – Jean Webster
8    A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess
9    The Color of Magic – Terry Prachett
10  For Whom the Bell Tolls – Ernest Hemingway
11   Frankenstein – Mary Shelly
12   The Metamorphosis – Franz Kafka

Alternatives

1  The God of Small Things – Arundhati Roy
2  Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
3 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
4 The Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
5 The Art of War – Sun Tzu
6 The Power of Now – Eckhart Tolle

I am ready! I can’t wait for this year to end and the next one to begin.

Nordic Challenge 2011

 

When JoV, my literary friend, mentioned about the Nordic Challenge 2011, I was all excited to take it up. I have never taken a challenge like this one before and I was nervous initially. I have never made any promises to myself about reading. I do try to read 52 books a year, but have never achieved that. Also, I wasn’t sure my local library stacked Nordic books. JoV gave me a list of well-known authors and books which I should be able to find in my local library, so I am going to give this challenge a go. I am not being too ambitious and aiming for Freya, which requires me to read 3-5 books.

Here is a tentative list of books which I will be reading for this challenge.

1. Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell
Wiki says this is the first book in the Wallander series. Looks like a good place to start.

2. The Redeemer by Jo Nesbo
The first in the Harry Hole series.

3. The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist
JoV highly recommended this, but my library doesnt’ stock it. I am putting it on the list hoping to find it in a bookstore.

4. In the Wake – Per Petterson
Just because it is available in my library.

5. Any Mankell or Nesbo available

 

Zee’s resource list came in really handy. I will have to watch this list closely to see if some new authors get a mention.