And now that book month is over I have to translate all the posts and post them here! In abbreviated for. Because why else am I playing?

===

Day 24 – Best quote from a novel

I should add that it’s so long since I actually READ Alice in Wonderland that I don’t remember anything about it except for these quotes. And I took them from online because I don’t actually own the book, so they may not be exactly correct. Eh, what the hell.

First:

“Who are YOU?”

This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation.

“I — I hardly know, sir, just at present — at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then.”

Second_

“But I don’t want to go among mad people.”

“Oh, you can’t help that. We’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.”

“How do you know I’m mad?”

“You must be. Or you wouldn’t have come here.”

And no, it’s not my tattoo, but I want to get one just like it some day. Everyone needs a reminder that they’re not the only crazy person around!

Found the pic here, in an awesome blog with just pics of tattoos with literary ties.

===

Day 25 – ny five books from your “to be read” stack

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by David Leviathan and John Green. Bought this one because Tansy said so. I have read it since I wrote this post in Swedish and it’s AWESOME.

Magic Under Glass av Jaclyn Dolamore. Bought this one to support the author after a white-washing drama.

How We Are Hungry by Dave Eggers. Bought this one because a) I recognised the name, and b) it was one of like… twenty books in English at my local bookshop.

Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson. Bought this one in Edinburgh because Jenn said so.

Fettpaniken by Marie Carlsson. Bought this one because I borrowed it from the library and couldn’t read a page without wanting to circle something. It’s a fat acceptance book in Swedish, hooray.

(Hela listan med frågor finns här.)

===

Day 26 – OMG WTF? OR most irritating/awful/annoying book ending

Another half-arsed answer because I couldn’t think of something better. Namely, Harry Potter. I don’t know a single Harry Potter fan (poke me if you’re an exception) that DOESN’T hate the stupid epilogue. It’s such a shame on an otherwise very good series of books. Except for, of course, the WTF-deaths at the end of the seventh book, but I’m saving those for day 29!

===

(Full list with links to all posts.)

And now that book month is over I have to translate all the posts and post them here! In abbreviated for. Because why else am I playing?

===

Day 21 – Favorite romantic/sexual relationship

Tomorrow will be easier. I have much easier coming up with sibling/friend/cousinship than love stuff. Tansy’s response, Jessica Darling/Marcus Flutie, was awesome, but I’ve only read one book so I don’t feel qualified to talk about them!

Most of the time I lose interest by the time a couple becomes a couple, but okay. I say Em and Christopher in the Airhead-series by Meg Cabot. I’ve only read the first two books and while they get some kissing down, they’re not together-together after the second. The thing that makes them special is that Em is in an accident which leads to her ending up in the body of a super model and then when Christopher shows interest (which he never did before, they were best friends), she’s afraid that he only likes her because she’s suddenly hot, even though he stays away until he’s positively sure that it is Em and not the model.

Sounds crazy, I know, but it makes perfect sense. A quote, to show why the book is so awesome, although it doesn’t say anything about their relationship, and is actually about her dealing with her new hot self:

Another pose I had to do involved hanging off Brandon Stark’s shulders like I was one of those baby rhesus monkeys clinging to its mother. I said I thought that pose was kind of misogynistic, because it implied that women are helpless and need a big strong man to support them.

(…)

Raoul didn’t take my advice, anyway, though. And Rebecca took me aside and asked if I had a fever.

(…)

I pointed out to her that the media is notorious for infantilising women in their images of us and asked if it didn’t bother her, as a feminist, that she was partly contributing to that.

She looked at me and went, “Are you taking any kind of medication for your head injury? Because if so, they need to up the dosage.”

===

Day 22 – Favorite non-sexual relationship

As I said, I love sibling relationships. A few I can’t get enough of:

Spencer and Scarlett in the Suite Scarlett-series by Maureen Johnson.
Win and D.J. in the Dairy Queen-series by Catherine Gilbert Murdock.
Nick och Alan in The Demon’s Lexicon-series by Sarah Rees Brennan.

I also love friendship that DOESN’T turn into love eventually. LIke for example:

Gracie and Flemming in the Gracie Faltrain-series by Cath Crowley.
Finn and Hilary in What I Was by Meg Rosoff (best book EVER).
Neal and Kel in the Protector of the Small-series by Tamora Pierce.
Deryn and Alek in the Leviathan-series by Scott Westerfeld.

===

Day 23 – Most annoying character ever

Today’s answer is such a cop out. Sorry about that. I couldn’t come up with a single person, so instead I went with: people that don’t TELL SOMETHING for some stupid reason that you can tell is just a plot device.

Like, in Airhead, when Em doesn’t tell Christopher what she knows so he won’t try to play the hero. (Awesome reasoning, but still annoying.)

In the Protector of the Small-series, when Kel is all “no, Yamani don’t do that”, “no, Yamani doesn’t show feelings”, “no, Yamani are serene and calm and adfagdjhöfaghaöhufghgfja”.

In Harry Potter. You know, any of the seven million four hundred and thirty-seven times Dumbledore doesn’t say this or that and have to spend the last chapter justifying this.

I do believe this is more of a plot device. Uh. I’ll get back to you with an actual answer.

===

(Full list with links to all posts.)

And now that book month is over I have to translate all the posts and post them here! In abbreviated for. Because why else am I playing?

===

Day 18 – Favorite beginning scene in a book

From Liar by Justine Larbalestier:

I was born with a light covering of fur.

After three days it had fallen off, but the damage was done. My mother stopped trusting my father because it was a family condition he had not told her about. One of many omissions and lies.

My father is a liar and so am I.

But I’m going to stop. I have to stop.

I will tell you my story and I will tell it straight. No lies, no omissions.

That’s my promise.

This time I really mean it.

===

Day 19 – Favorite book cover (bonus points for posting an image!)

I have a lot of book covers I love, like for example The Demon’s Covenant, Tender Morsels, Siren Beat, Whip It and The Off-Season, to name a few, but one that I extra-super-duper-love is the British cover of Ash by Malinda Lo.

I’m sure you all know what it’s about, but I’ll mention it anyway: lesbian re-telling of Cinderella. Need I say more?

I actually prefer the British cover over the American and Australian one, because I feel that she looks even more passive on those two. Besides, on this one I absolutely adore the trees in the background. Possibly I just have a thing about trees.

===

Day 20 – Favourite kiss

This is where I polish my nerd badge proudly by googling my way to some FAN ART of the kiss I’m going to write about. I couldn’t find any credit, please if you know who drew this, let me know.

But okay. I know that Harry and Ginny gets a few smooches earlier on, but it’s the one in her bedroom, right before the camping trip from hell, that I really adore. She pulls him aside and into her room and they snog the hell out of each other and then Ron bumbles in and is all big brothery. But oh, those few seconds.

Yummy.

Another one that I really love is from Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock. A quote:

It would have been nice, it really would have been, if I’d had just a second to enjoy it. Just a second to think to myself that Brian had his lips on mine and he was kissing me in a really romantic way that was better than anything I’d ever let myself hope for. And someday, maybe if I’m reincarnated or something because nothing that nice will ever happen to me again as long as I live, I’ll be in that situation again and I’ll handle it right. Or maybe the guy will warn me.

Because Brian didn’t warn me, and I felt this thing and sat up with a jerk and smacked my head into his nose and he started bleeding.

And can I just say that it’s super hard to write about this without it falling flat when it’s taken out of context? Also? In The Demon’s Covenant there’s a kiss that made me die a little, but I can’t even tell you who it is kissing because the surprise is half the awesome of it.

===

(Full list with links to all posts.)

Day 15 – Your “comfort” book

My first answer to this was Astrid Lindgren. Then I started thinking a bit and realised that the comfort thing is actually the pictures in her picture books. Those are drawn by Ilon Wikland, and just make me so happy. Here are a few examples, most from books that aren’t actually Astrid’s. Aren’t they gorgeous?

Source for these images is this website, where you can buy the prints, should you want to.

===

Day 16 – Favorite poem or collection of poetry

I’m honestly not much for poetry, but there is one Swedish poet that I have always loved, albeit more because we a) share a name, b) she was awesomely leftish politically, and c) she was a lesbian than because I’ve read everything she’s written. Sadly, that was also the reason she committed suicide in 1941, just 41 years old, but you know… It still made me feel connected to her.

The poem I love has been translated several times, none which really make it justice. They are all available here. The best version in my opinion is this one:

Armed, erect and and closed in armour
forth I came -
but of terror was the mail-coat cast,
and of shame.

I want to drop my weapons,
sword and shield.
All that hard hostility
made me cold.

I have seen the dry seeds
grow at last.
I have seen the bright green
spread out fast.

Mightier than iron
is life’s tenderness,
driven forth from the earth’s heart
without defence.

The spring dawns in winter’s regions.
where I froze.
I want to meet life’s powers
weaponless.

I always thought about the armour she speaks of as my shyness. That makes the last two lines very powerful.

===

Day 17 – Favorite story or collection of stories (short stories, novellas, novelettes, etc.)

I haven’t read nearly enough collections to be able to give a decent answer here, so I’m going to write about two books I want to read. And buy. All that. Tansy says to wait for e-book, cos they are big books, but we shall see about that.

A Book of Endings by Deborah Biancotti, published by Twelfth Planet Press.

I heard Hush read on the Terra Incognita podcast the other week. It made me very intrigued. Must read.

Sprawl, edited by Alisa Krasnostein and published by Twelfth Planet Press.

It was also podcasts that made me want this one. Reading selected stories out loud for free is a really good kind of advertising. Do more of that!

===

(Full list with links to all posts.)

Day 12 – A book or series of books you’ve read more than five times

Anyone surprised? No? Didn’t think so. The whole thing with Harry Potter is that I refused to read it for so long because it was such a hype around it, and then I had nothing to read on a plane and swiped a book from my brother’s shelf. (He’s never read them, it was a “the boy needs to read more, let’s by him four hardback books and pressure him into it” gift.) It turned out to be better than I’d imagined, and the whole way to Florida people kept asking me if I read them in Spanish. I thought that was beyond weird, but people would actually assume I was hispanic quite often after that.

But yes, I was majorly addicted for a very long time, but have moved on since. I have to credit Harry with bringing my besties to me, though, I wouldn’t know Tansy, Jenn or Millie without him doing the job for me, so I’ll never quite stop loving this book for that reason alone!

===

Day 13 – Favorite childhood book OR current favorite YA book (or both!)

I’m doing both, although the former might go straight over your head, as it has (to my knowledge) never been translated to English.

It’s another series by Astrid Lindgren, beautifully illustrated by Ilon Wikland, who is my favourite children’s book illustrator, hands down. These are about two little girls, Margareta (Madicken) and her sister Elisabet (Lisabet). It’s set a hundred years back or so, so there are horse carriages and long dresses and maids and all. Because yes, Madicken and Lisabet are from a wealthy family, but not far away lives a boy with his family, and he’s not. Madicken’s parents are a bit frowny about him, I think, but allows them to hang out.

There’s a lot of stuff here, I don’t even remember everything in these books, but they are lovely and an easy read and very fun. Again, nothing like Pippi.

Current favourite is this one. You have to read it to fully appreciate it, because it’s just that nuts, but I can say that the garden gnome on the cover plays a big part of the plot. Yes, seriously.

===

Day 14 – Favorite character in a book (of any sex or gender)

I waffled over this one for a long time, because I meant to make a “minor characters I love” list instead, just because those are the ones I love the best, but then I looked over it and realised that holy crap they are almost all boys. Which is so not cool. So I revamped it, and it turned out that the main characters I love are usually girls, and the minor ones are usually boys. How about that?

Main characters I love:
Val (Valiant by Holly Black).
Deryn Sharpe (Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld).
Carmel (Queen Kat, Carmel and St. Jude Get a Life by Maureen McCarthy).
D.J. Schwenk (the Dairy Queen series by Catherine Gilbert Murdock.
Nancy Napoleon (Siren Beat by Tansy Rayner Roberts).
Nick Ryves (The Demon’s Lexicon series by Sarah Rees Brennan).
Cameron (Going Bovine by Libba Bray).

Five girls, two boys.

Minor characters I love:
Alan Ryves (The Demon’s Lexicon series by Sarah Rees Brennan – decidedly less shiny in book two, but still interesting).
Luis (Valiant and Ironside by Holly Black).
Spencer (Suite Scarlett and Scarlett Fever by Maureen Johnson).
Parker (The Bermudez Triangle by Maureen Johnson – blink and you’ll miss him).
Lulu (the Airhead series by Meg Cabot)
Flemming (the Gracie Faltrain series by Cath Crowley).
Neal (the Protector of the Small series by Tamora Pierce).
Heliora (Power and Majesty by Tansy Rayner Roberts).
Ginny Weasley (the Harry Potter books by J.K.R).
Marcus Flutie (the Jessica Darling series by Megan McCafferty).

Seven boys, three girls.

===

(Full list with links to all posts.)

Day 09 – Best scene ever

No pressure or anything! But okay. I categorised my favourites into three groups:

a) funny scenes, like for example in Page by Tamora Pierce when Neal, the boy with the green eyes and drawl, sarcastic master of all, to get back on the bullies that claim that they’re just friends with Kel because she’s a whore drawls: “Joren is so pretty. Say, Garvey, are you two friends because you can have him?”, or in The Demon’s Covenant when Nick says “Oh, call anytime, I love to chat”, or “You know me, I fret” (only funny if you know Nick’s personality, though), or, oooh when he COOKS FOR THEM. Ahem. Ending fan girling moment here. (I am also, by the way, very fond of Tansy’s sentence “Ashiol was lying in a pile of idiots”.)

b) unexpected scenes that make you exclaim OH MY GOD out loud (I do that kind of a lot). Examples: In Deerskin, when you realise that Lissar is pregnant, or in Dairy Queen, when you find out Amber’s secret. The very end of Tender Morsela fits in here too.

c) emotional scenes that make you feel like you were run over by truck, except in a good way. Example: The whole story Singing my sister down by Margo Lanagan. It’s so powerful I haven’t been able to read the rest of the stories yet. I’ll do it one of these days, though. Really.

And that’s as specific as I’m going to get.

===

Day 10 – A book you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving

Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

I should know better than to doubt books that Tansy gave me, but I totally did. Because it’s about American football, which is the number one sport I do not understand. Except after this book I kind of do, and I think that rugby or cricket or something has taken the number one spot. Nooo, wait, CURLING. That is a weird sport.

But this is a lovely book I’ve reviewed at length before, so I’m not going to go all into it. But D.J., the main character has a lovely language, talks like a farm girl really do and I really love that about this book. Also, it’s a lot less about football than you might think.

===

Day 11 – A book that disappointed you

I guess I could say The Good Fairies of New York, which has a brilliant opening sentence, and only goes downhill from there. Basically two Scottish fairies try to get two people to fall in love; a fat, mean, forever masturbating in front of porn (and they actually spell out what the girls SAY on this channel, the language is so bad that *I* am uncomfortable and I swear more than most people), and a nice girl that hates herself because she has Crohns. (No, it doesn’t make sense.) I don’t even remember how the book ended, that’s how bad it is.

I had high hopes for this book because there was a foreword by Neil Gaiman that said it was absolutely brilliant and I figured “he’s a busy person, he must only read the books he REALLY like”. Wrong. Apparently he reads books much worse than he writes.

(Full list with links to all posts.)

Day 06 – Favorite book of your favorite series OR your favorite book of all time

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the fourth book in the Harry Potter-series by J.K. Rowling.
Page, the second book in The Protector of the Small-series by Tamora Pierce.
Airhead, the first book in the Airhead-series by Meg Cabot.
Gracie Faltrain Gets It Right (Finally), the third book in the Gracie Faltrain-series by Cath Crowley.
Dairy Queen, the first book in the Dairy Queen-series by Catherine Gilbert Murdock.
Valiant, the second book in the A Modern Faerietale-series by Holly Black.
Always MacKenzie, the fourth book in the Girlfriend Fiction-series by lots of different authors (this one is by Kate Constable).
The Demon’s Covenant, the second book in The Demon’s Lexicon-series by Sarah Rees Brennan.

A couple of series that would’ve made the list, had more than one book come out from each series:

The Curse Workers by Holly Black
Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld

===

Day 07 – Least favorite plot device employed by way too many books you actually enjoyed otherwise

When a person describes as the only one in their family without a magical power, just to find out they’re the most powerful wizard/witch/magician/insert-magicky-thing-here of all times. I do realise that this cuts out a lot of books, but I LOVE getting the non-magical persons view here! It’s half the fun.

I’m also very tired of the token gay friend. I think I read four books in a row that had that, and towards the end I wanted to toss an absolutely brilliant book out the window just because I was so sick of it.

===

Day 08 – A book everyone should read at least once

This one makes no sense for any of you, because these are all Swedish books, but have some shiny pics:

Any book by Peter Pohl, but the ones I recommend doesn’t exist in English.

Any book by Astrid Lindgren, but preferably The Lion Heart Brothers or Mio my son, both which are more serious and fantasy/fairytale hybrids, rather that the fun and games of Pippi and Lotta.

Any book by Maria Gripe, also hasn’t been translated whatsoever.

Any book by Lennart Hellsing, who has also not been translated. He writes awesome, witty little poems about regular day things for kids. So yes, children’s book! (And I know a certain someone who will be given this book with translations written in pencil… if I ever get my arse to the post office.

(Full list with links to all posts.)

Tamora Pierce writes about that thing with everybody saying that there’s not enough books with boys as protags. She doesn’t agree, of course, and this bit is actually quite interesting:

Why do publishers appear to publish so many books for girls? Because girls buy books. That’s it, clear and simple. Guys don’t. They take books out of the library, or they borrow books from girls, but they don’t buy. Not like girls do.

The person who commented on Moskowitz’s blog who mentioned the need for sex in books for teen boys is right. We also need it in books for teen girls. Too many of our teens are going into the world uninformed–we writers of girl heroes can and do manage to do some good there.

But make no mistake about it: there are still more books for guys out there than there are for girls. It’s fine that people write guy heroes. But please don’t knock those of us who know that being a girl, and a woman, is a lifelong fight, on the shelves and off. This debate comes up every ten years or so in publishing circles, and that it’s important not to work on the guys at the expense of the girls. Both need heroes, and both need books.

From the post Why I write girl heroes for the most part.

I skipped a few days and I’m therefore doing a quick recap of the last three. I have been blogging these every day in my Swedish blog, double posting was too bothersome. So, quick, quick, quick.

Day 03 – The best book you’ve read in the last 12 months

Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan and Power and Majesty by Tansy Rayner Roberts. Tender Morsels was fourteen months ago, and I’m terribly biased regarding Power and Majesty having read it several times before it was published (and Ashiol is MINE, hands off!), but I still love them more than what is probably healthy for me. For totally different reasons too.

===

Day 04 – Your favorite book or series ever

Peter Pohl. Converted this to my favourite author because when I went to look up the two books of his that I love more than anything it turned out the series had FIVE books of which I only had read two, and then I fell into nostalgia about all these OTHER books of his that I love and… yeah. Sorry, though, he’s Swedish and only a few books of his are translated, and not the ones I love. Most of them exist in German though, if that helps. (It probably doesn’t.)

===

Day 05 – A book or series you hate

I should really save this for later in the month because I’m not going to say a specific book here. I hate beating down on individual books, but here’s some things I hate:

Books where the woman has to be rescued/have limited choices/never makes a choice apart from what man to sleep with.
Books where sexual orientation is used as a plot device/to show oh-look-we’re-inclusive/is horribly stereotyped.
Books that claim to be feminist and or woman friendly but is really stinking of patriarchy.
Books where the heroine is doing many things (violent, tough, takes care of herself) ONLY because of sexual violence towards her in her past.
Books that could have been brilliant, had they been properly executed.
Books with endings that don’t measure up to the rest of the story. That’s just sad.

Ahem. I think you can probably guess a few books this is referring to.

(Full list with links to all posts.)

Today it’s time for: A book or series you wish more people were reading and talking about. And you know, my first impulse was to say The Demon’s Lexicon Trilogy. Except that when I ordered the second book, The Demon’s Covenant, from Book Depository they told me that it had a sales rank of roughly 600 (now it’s 900, I suppose sales have gone down a bit), so it’s not exactly doing badly.

So I thought a bit and came up with these two books. (And yes, I know I’m cheating. Shut up.)

Going Bovine by Libba Bray.

It’s a gorgeous first-person-present-tense (which is hard!) adventure by a boy named Cameron. He’s your average lazy, sulky, pot smoking teenage boy who you rather dislike in the beginning. The story starts just as he falls ill with Mad Cow disease and you really can’t tell if the rest of the book is a) reality, b) hallucination because of the disease, or c) a bad trip.

Of course, I don’t think you CAN trip on just weed, but that’s a question for another day.

The voice in this book is unique, driven and feels so damn true. This is really how teenagers talk, except not as obnoxious. It’s funny and sad and crazy and everything in between, all at once. There’s a very amusing sidekick too, with the craziest little quirks, and really, I could read these two talking all day long, adventure or no adventure.

So yes, I’d recommend this book to anyone, except that it’s not out in paperback just yet. Still, Book Depository is ridiculous cheap and ships anywhere at no charge.

Liar by Justine Larbalestier.

This is a book I read last year and loved. It’s a bit hard to talk about because like the one above you can’t tell what’s truth and what’s not, but it’s really the reason I love it so much. This one is about Micah who is a compulsive liar. You think you’ve figured her out every twenty pages, and then she turns it all upside down and you have to start from scratch. It’s equal parts fascinating and frustrating. More fascinating, actually.

I love the voice in this book too, the lying is interesting and actually I should make a list of books with unreliable narrators in because I love them so much. Maybe after this whole blogging adventure is over. I do have a third book I’d like to put on this list, but I think I’ll save it for later in the month.

Keeping you on your toes and all. (Though, if you know me you can probably figure out which one it is.)

(Full list with links to all posts.)