book of september: deadly décisions

It says so right on the cover: “Better than Patricia Cornwell”. In all caps even. Now, I have no idea who Patricia Cornwell is, but I trust the Sunday Express to tell me the truth. So, yeah, better than Patricia Cornwell. Kathy Reichs’ third novel, Deadly Décisions was another page turner.

If you haven’t seen the show Bones, and haven’t read any of Reichs’ books, you gotta get on that train! I personally really enjoy Reichs’ writing style and the way she seamlessly integrates the technical with fast paced action and suspense.

The nice thing is that you don’t necessarily have to have read the preceding two novels to enjoy this one. (Doing a bit of guess work here since I have thus far read them in order of completion). I do have the suspicion that many of Reichs’ novels can also be read as stand alone books. Though the recurring character development is surely more satisfying when read according to release date.

Read on!

book of july: genome

Matt Ridley has written a book entitled Genome: The Autobiograpy of a Species in 23 Chapters. The premise of the book is quite interesting – take 23 chapters to disucss 23 chromosomes, picking one (or a few) thing(s) that are of particular interest (to many readers) from each of the chromosomes.

To begin I would like to mention that Ridley has written a refreshing and self-aware preface. You I never know with these kinds of books if the author really knows their stuff well enough to be penning such *mainstream* works. Ridley is quite clear from the beginning about just what he is and isn’t doing. So, right off the bat he gets my vote.

Though at times very mainstream, and a little out there from a purely scientific perspective, I did very much enjoy Ridley’s work. It was an entertaining read to be sure, add this one to your to-read list!

Genome has actually been on my to-read list for quite some time now. I think I may have bought this book when originally published…seeing as it’s a hardcover and it says “FIRST U.S. EDITION” in there. All the signs seem to be pointing to the purchase occurring around 20 years ago. That being said, I am quite happy to finally have read it. Per my 30 before 30 list I get to check a book off my to-read list!

Happy reading!

book of may: tripwire

Jack Reacher is at it again, Lee Child I suppose is actually the one at it – but Reacher is the star of the show. It was March of 2015 that I read my first Child book – and thus started a grand love story.

Okay, I suppose I just enjoy reading the Reacher books a normal amount – and I’m here today to say, you should too! After reading Persuader I was hooked, and inclined to start at the beginning of the Reacher novels. As they say, the beginning is a very good place to start. Tripwire is now the fourth Reacher book I’ve read, and third in cronological order.

When I say cronological order I mean order in which the books were written. You, dear reader, really don’t need to read the books in any particular order – which is nice. Though I do think I will continue my Reacher journey in order of publication. Have you, dear reader, not yet started your own Reacher journey, I behove you to begin.

Happy reading!

book of march: death du jour

I read Kathy Reich’s first book, Deja Dead, after seeing the television show Bones‘ series finale. You see I hadn’t had enough, so what’s a girl to do? Read the entirety of Reichs written work, of course! Though to be entirely honest I don’t think I’ll be reading her scientific papers. I will keep you, dear readers, in the loop if it turns out I do.

Death du Jour was equally as enthralling as Reichs’ first novel, so it comes with equally as vehement recommendations. It’s a quick read, likely due to how captivating the story line is, so it’s perfect reading for a long weekend like this one. I definitely recommend Reichs, I hope you enjoy her as much as I do!

book of september: a wanted man

After reading Persuader in March of 2015 I was looking forward to reading more of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher novels. Now I’ve finally read another!

My expectation was to read the first of the Jack Reacher novels. The reality was that I read the 17th novel (according to Wikipedia, and the list in the back of the book). Missed it by a hair, you could say. To be honest I’m not exactly sure what went wrong. I’m sure it has to do with my lack of paying 100% attention to things occasionally. Or something of that nature. 

Persuader is the 7th novel in the series,  and A Wanted Man is the 17th (as mentioned). So now I either have to wait for the 27th or actually start from the beginning. The best part of the Jack Reacher books is that you really do not need to read them in order. It’s impressively done by Child. I’ve heard the claim before, that books in a series don’t need to be read in order, but this is the first time I actually ageee with that claim. 

A Wanted Man was an exciting read with a few surprising laughs along the way. Child’s writing style is a treasure and I so very much look forward to more Reacher novels. In whatever order I do very well please. And you should read a Jack Reacher novel, whichever one you very well please.

book of july: déjà dead

I loved this book. I expected to, but not this much. I’m not sure if it’s purely due to my recent lack of reading adult fiction, but reading this book reminded me what it means to read for fun. Something about reading only for the enjoyment of it is hugely different than reading for my classes. That combined with the fact that Kathy Reichs’ is a brilliantly entertaining mind lead to this being so hugely enjoyable for me. 

These books inspired the TV series Bones, which I loved. Thus my expecting to love this book. And, as is so often the case, the book is just so much better than the on screen depiction. It was particularly fun to try to pick out which of the book characters represented which of the television depictions (aside from the obvious). Though in my mind Temperance doesn’t really look like Emily Deschanel (actress in the series). Another interesting aspect was to see which changes were made. One of the big ones, not so spoilery, was the relocation from Quebec (book) to Washington D.C. (television).

This month I’m recommending a twofer. If you haven’t read this book and only seen the show. Read it now. If you have read it and not seen the show, get on it, the show is a lot of fun. If you’ve done neither then you’re in for hours and hours of fun! I’m excited to continuing to read the Temperence Brennan novels, and I’ll be sure to post here when I do.

book of april: the magic of reality

I’ve read The God Delusion by Dawkins already, so I thought I knew what I was getting into. I did not.

This book is assigned reading for my current Early Childhood Education class. As you can see there are multiple versions. The one in Swedish (on the left) is full of fun and exciting illustrations. The one on the right is in English (I mention this just in case) and lacks pictures, but is read a lot faster when English is your first language. A whole helluva lot faster if you don’t even speak Swedish. I’ll let you decide what language you read in, but you should seriously consider this book. 

It’s a fun introduction to many scientific fenomena. From evolution to space and back. Without going too deep into any one topic Dawkins presents an easy to read and engaging book. I definitely plan on getting our little one a copy in each language – with illustrations of course. I recommend this book to you or any 8-12 year olds you may know.

book of march: harry potter and the cursed child parts one and two

I consumed this book. Consumed it in a matter of hours, one could even count the minutes. I bought it right when it became available in book stores. Snatched up the last available copy – since I was a little late to the store that day. Then I proceeded to save it. Knowing myself well enough to realize that once I started I would not put it down until fully read. Trying to savor the story by way of waiting to read it.

I’m not sure if my strategy  worked, but I loved reading every page of this all the same. As a big Harry Potter fan this was just what I needed. If you too love Harry Potter and J.K.’s wizarding world and have yet to read this, do so immediately, multiple times if necessary.

book of february: what to expect the first year

Our tiny little baby is officially a one year old. During this past year I’ve had a great time paging through this book during different periods of baby K’s development. They repeatedly reiterate that all babies are individuals and not everyone will follow exactly these guidelines. Yes repeatedly reiterate, because that’s seriously how much they do it.

The story of my receiving this book is a fun one. My mother’s cousin lives on the west coast (of the US) and found out I had not yet gotten a hold of a copy of What to Expect the First Year. So what she did was to send the book to Sweden with a friend of hers who was going anyway. Me and my mother’s cousin’s friend met up in Stockholm where books, pleasantries and some laughs were exchanged.

If you have a brand new little one in your life, or will shortly, I highly recommend this book. Unless you’re one of those people who just cannot heed the repetitive reminders that every baby is different, and instead riles yourself up into a frenzy when everything doesn’t align perfectly. Then you should probably avoid it for your own sanity.

Happy reading!

book of january: one, two, many

I haven’t had a lot of time for free reading this month. That is to say I’ve done quite a bit of reading, but almost exclusively for my ECE degree. I say almost exclusively because not reading road signs makes driving a whole lot harder.

This book, En, två, många (which translates to One, Two, Many) has all the information you might want regarding mathematics in the early years of life. Of course, in Swedish. 

Side bar: only the first letter of books are capitalized in Swedish. I may have mentioned this before on the blog, but it really baffles me. Every time! So I need to bring it up again now.

I definitely recommend this book for any early educators, people curious about basic mathematical terms in Swedish, or just anyone looking for a good time.

Dig in!