Valkoparta Karjupukki

Nimi: Valkoparta Karjupukki
Alkuperäinen nimi: Hogfather
Kirjoittaja: Terry Pratchett
Julkaistu: 1996, suomennos 1998
Genre: Huumorifantasiaa!
Sivuluku: 348


Joulun kunniaksi kaivoin esiin jouluna 1998 lahjapaketista paljastuneen Kiekkomaailman joulutarinan! Lahjoja kilteille lapsosille jakelee joulupukkimainen Karjupukki, joka viilettää ympäri littanaa maailmaa neljän sian vetämässä reessä. Ongelmat alkavat kun juuri ennen Karjunvalvojaisia hämärät harmaat huputetut heput palkkaavat salamurhaajan hoitelemaan Karjupukin päiviltä. 

Karjupukki kadoksissa, lahjat jakamatta, siinähän pienet palleroiset pettyisivät ja lakkaisivat uskomasta ellei joku ottaisi sikojen ohjaksista kiinni. Itse Kuolema tarttuu hommaan, ja hiukan käänteistä pollalogiaa käyttämällä onnistuu värväämään tyttärentyttärensä Susan Sto-Helitin avukseen. Susan haluaisi vain olla normaali ihminen, mutta jos isä on ollut Kuoleman oppipoika (Mort odottaa pöydänkulmalla uudelleenlukua!) ja äiti Kuoleman ottotytär, ei se normaalius ihan niin helppoa ole.

Tykkään lukea Pratchettini englanniksi, mutta tämä Marja Sinkkosen käännös oli nautinnollista luettavaa! Ei varmaan ole mikään helppo homma, Pratchettin kirjat kun ovat täynnä kaiken maailman kielivitsejä, jotka eivät tuosta noin vain käänny.

Hyvä joulumielihän tästä tuli. :)

Rest of the Giver Quartet

Author: Lois Lowry
Genre: Dystopia for young adults
 

Title: Gathering Blue
Published: Kindle edition is from 2014, book from 2000.
Pages: 215


I wasn't going to read the whole Giver Quartet straight away but it kind of just happened. There was the first chapter of this one at the end of The Giver, and damn it but it's easy (and mostly cheap) to buy books on the Kindle!

There may be some spoilers ahead, but I'm going to try and keep them down.

Gathering Blue is set in the same world as The Giver, but in a different village, where a person's worth is measured with what they can do for the community. Kira, born with a lame leg, is considered pretty much useless, and once her mother, her only protector dies, most of the other villagers want to get rid of someone who, to them, is just a waste of food and space. But Kira can do something the others can't: she can create beautiful images with a needle and thread, and the village council decide that there may be a use for her after all.

Like The Giver, Gathering Blue was a fast read but not at all childish. Full of social issues but not preachy. And as soon as I was done with it, I moved straight into the next one. Because I'd gone and peeked ahead at the end of The Giver...


Title: The Messenger
Published: Kindle edition 2014, book 2004.
Pages: 169


Shortest of the four, and damn it but the end broke my heart. The Messenger starts to tie up the series as we meet again characters from both The Giver and Gathering Blue. Our main character is called Matty, a young man who dares to travel through the forbidding forest that surrounds his small village, a place that used to be peaceful and nice to live in. Lately, though, things have been getting strange and hostile, and a village where all travelers and refugees were welcome is planning to close up from the world around it. Matty is sent out for one more trip, to let people know not to come knocking anymore.


Title: Son
Published: Kindle edition 2014, book 2012.
Pages: ~400


And the last one! Son is longer than the other three, and set in three parts: Before, Between and Beyond. It's the story of Claire, from the same community as Jonas from The Giver. Where Jonas was given a very esteemed position when he became a 12, Claire had become a birthmother. Not very flashy or demanding, considered a dull job for the not-so-useful ones, but important all the same, as newchildren are always needed to keep the community going.

Unlike other birthmothers -or really, all the people in the emotionless, colourless community!- Claire can't stop thinking of her child, a little boy to be given to a chosen set of parents once he's past that pesky baby-phase. When what happens at the end of The Giver happens, Claire despairs and leaves the community, but never forgets her son and goes to great lengths with only the smallest hope of ever finding him again.

What I liked about the books -in addition to all I've already mentioned- is that they're not the typical Save the World! -fantasy books. The themes are universal but the 'heroes' are normal people, not out for glory but just to make their own worlds better, to reach things that are important to them, to make the future a little bit brighter. And I wish these books would be translated into Finnish, too. Maybe with The Giver having become a movie there will be a call for it.

Nation

Title: Nation
Author: Terry Pratchett
Published: 2009 bu Corgi (orig. 2008)
Genre: The end of the wooorld!
Pages: 410


This is one of the books I rescued from the book-dumping neighbour some time ago! After reading time and time again on the internets that this is considered widely as one of Pratchett's best books, if not the best, I was glad to be able to just pick it off the shelf and get reading.

Mau is on his way home from the Boys' Island on a little canoe, ready and eager to become a man once he reaches the Nation. Daphne is in a big ship, on her way from England to the other side of the world to join her father. Then a huge wave rolls over the sea, ship, island and canoe, and nothing is how it used to be. Nothing will ever be the same again. The Nation is gone, the ship wrecked.

Nation is full of Pratchett's effortless humour, situations both amusing and heart-breaking, and quite a lot of food for thought! There are themes of identity, past and future, gods and beliefs, family and home. And souls. And bird vomit. But the book is not preachy: the pace doesn't drag, and you can read it as a great adventure. (Author's note at the end points out that whether you try thinking or not is up to you.)

I have to agree that this is pretty much Pratchett's greatest, even if Small Gods still reigns supreme. That one's really due for a re-read!


   'I know what happens to people who get bullied,' she shouted, even louder this time. 'They end up thinking they really are no good! It doesn't matter that they work so hard they fall asleep at their desks, it's still never enough! They get timid and jumpy and make wrong decisions, and that means more bullying because, you see, the bully is never going to stop, whatever they do, and my-- the person being bullied will do anything to make it stop, but it never will! I'm not going to put up with that, do you understand? If you don't mend your ways in very short order, there will be trouble, understand?'
   I'm shouting at a rock, she thought as her voice echoed off the mountain. What am I expecting it to do? Reply?
   'Is there anyone listening?' she yelled, and thought: What do I do if someone says 'yes'? For that matter, what do I do if they say 'no'?
   Nothing happened, in quite an offensive way, considering she'd taken a lot of trouble to get up here. 
   I've just been snubbed by a cave full of dead old men.

Mate

Nimi: MATE - Etelä-Amerikan voimajuoma
Kirjoittaja: Johanna Pohjola
Julkaistu: Into, 2013
Genre: Tietokirja. Faktaa ja opastusta maten maailmaan
Sivuluku: 188


Viitisen vuotta sitten äitini osti teehullulle kakaralleen matea kaupan teehyllystä. Nelisen vuotta sitä teemäisesti join, kunnes kuulin matepillistä, bombillasta, ja kuinka sitä käytetään. Askel asiallisempaan matenjuonnin suuntaan. Tämän kirjan myötä opin paaaljon muutakin, ja olen nyt melkein virallisesti matera (matenjuoja, naispuolinen sellainen).

Kirja tarttui mukaan kun etsin ystävälle joululahjaa tuossa muutama viikko sitten. Pohjola kirjoitti antropologian gradunsa matesta, ja gradua seurasi tämä kuvia, tietoa ja tarinoita pullollaan oleva kaunis teos. Kirjassa käydään läpi maten historia, sen leviäminen Etelä-Amerikassa ja muualla maailmassa, kulttuurillinen vaikutus ja perinteet. Itsessäänkin kiinnostavan tekstin välissä on sivun mittaisia tarinoita maten juojilta: mikä siinä juomassa viehättää, mistä tapa lähti, kenen kanssa matea tulee juotua. Mate on kotiseudullaan ennen kaikkea sosiaalinen juoma, perheen, ystävien ja tuntemattomienkin kesken. Se yhdistää ihmisiä ja tuo rauhan hetkiä arjen kiireeseen.

Mitä se mate sitten on? Kofeiinipitoista juomaa joka piristää kuin kahvi, mutta pehmeämmin. Tujumpaa kuin musta tee, terveellisempää kuin vihreä tee. Juomasta on ympäri Etelä-Amerikkaa monia eri variaatioita. Suomesta sitä saa jauheena/puruna, sekä kylmänä juotavaa Club Matea pullossa.


Matea kehutaan terveelliseksi elämäneliksiiriksi. Väite ei ole pelkkää mainospuhetta. Ravintopitoinen yerba mate -kasvi sisältää vitamiineja, kivennäisaineita ja hivenaineita. Sitä on käytetty luonnonlääkkeenä vuosisatoja, ja se on ravinnon korvike monille eteläamerikkalaisille. Mutta se on myös nautintoaine, josta voi tulla riippuvaiseksi.

Lupaan tarjota kupillisen! :)

The Giver

Title: The Giver
Author: Lois Lowry
Published: Kindle edition is from 2012, book from 1993.
Genre: Dystopia for young adults
Pages: 204


I remember reading Lois Lowry's books when I was a kid, at least the Anastasia-books, but not this one. That's because it hasn't been translated into Finnish. What? Really? Huh. Shame. I decided to give The Giver a go after reading what Liina from Sivukirjasto had written about it, and the whole series.

Aimed at young adults, The Giver was a fast read, but by no means childish or something an adult wouldn't enjoy. It's the story of Jonas, who has lived all his first 11 years happily in a society that seems damn utopian to begin with. As Jonas and his classmates become 12 -one 'birthday' ceremony for all, and I mean ALL kids at once- and get told what they will become when they grow up, Jonas, and the reader with him, begin to realise just what kind of a world he lives in. Little by little, the utopia turns into dystopia.

There are three books that loosely follow The Giver, set in the same world, and I'm gonna have to read those as well. This one ended a bit openly and I couldn't help myself, I had to take a peek at the synopses of the other books to see ... some spoilers. Oh, and apparently the movie version came out this past September. Having read the synopsis of that as well, I think I'll pass, no matter how much I love Jeff Bridges and Meryl Streep.


   "Oh." Jonas was silent for a minute. "Oh, I see what you mean. It wouldn't matter for a newchild's toy. But later it does matter, doesn't it? We don't dare to let people make choices of their own."
   "Not safe?" The Giver suggested.
   "Definitely not safe," Jonas said with certainty. "What if they were allowed to choose their own mate? And chose wrong?
   "Or what if," he went on, almost laughing at the absurdity, "they chose their own jobs?"
   "Frightening, isn't it?" The Giver said.

Nineteen Eighty-Four

Title: Nineteen Eighty-Four
Author: George Orwell
Published: Kindle edition is from 2013, book from 1949.
Genre: Dystopia
Pages: 668 (book version is ~270)


Wow. Um. I spent most of yesterday (Sunday) just sitting on the sofa, reading this. I still haven't completely gotten over my aversion for classics, but the fact that I was completely hooked to 1984 from the start might help with that.

The world of 1984 is divided into three large states, Oceania, Eastasia and Eurasia, constantly at war with each other. Winston Smith, our main man, is a worker for the Ministry of Truth in Oceania's Airstrip One (former Great Britain). His job is to rewrite history: to change articles in the Times to match the day's Party views, to wipe out mentions of people the Party doesn't like anymore, and to update text depending on who Oceania happens to be in war with at the moment. Like all other Outer Party (middle-class) members, Winston is under constant surveillance through telescreens, living under the threat of the Thought police. Still, he hates the Party and Big Brother, and is sure that there was a past world that doesn't change, no matter what the Party wants him to write. And if there was a different world in the past, it's possible to change it again for the better, right?

This is one of those books where there's so much material... there's so many themes, there are the terms Orwell created for the book that are in use these days, the effect the book has had, there's the differences and scary similarities to the world we live in right now etc etc. But it's all been said better, I'm sure, than what I'm capable of. Definitely a book worth reading.


On coins, on stamps, on the covers of books, on banners, on posters, and on the wrappings of a cigarette packet - everywhere. Always the eyes watching you and the voice enveloping you. Asleep or awake, working or eating, indoors or out of doors, in the bath or in bed - no escape. Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimetres inside your skull.

----

"Orwell was almost exactly wrong in a strange way. He thought the world would end with Big Brother watching us, but it ended with us watching Big Brother."
               - Alan Moore, 2007

Fledgling

Title: Fledgling
Author: Octavia E. Butler
Published: Kindle edition is from 2014, book from 2005.
Genre: Vampires!
Pages: 321


That was fast! Um, I've read about Fledgling several times on this book forum thing online where I like to lurk and find new books to read. Mrs. Butler, and especially this one, came highly praised, and I gotta say, after a bit of an unsure beginning of whether I like this book or not, I found that I really, really do, and really, really do not want to put it down. Damn, that's a lot of commas right there.

The book starts when a young girl wakes up in a cave with severe injuries and no memory of who she is and where she's from. There are burnt-down ruins nearby but otherwise the area is pretty much deserted. She goes off in search of answers, meets a young man, and discovers that she is actually a vampire.

Greeeat, another vampire book. No! Well, yes, but with more unique vampires. With politics. With ancient history, with culture, with their own set ways and bonds with humans. A fresh look at vampires, and that's just the surface. When our heroine learns more and more of what she is, and we alongside her, there are many things that she -and we- are faced with: racism, prejudice, equality, identity and how it grows. So there are some damn deep currents here, but the fast-paced story keeps you from drowning in them.

The book ended in a good place, but I would not have minded reading more. Or a sequel.


   "Can you get information for me?" I asked.
   "Information?"
   "About memory and not being able to remember things."
   "Amnesia," he said, and just like that, the word was familiar to me.
   "Amnesia, yes. And abuot vampires," I said. "Most of what you told me... I don't think it has anything to do with me. But I do need blood. Maybe there are bits of truth mixed into the movies and folktales."
   "I'd like to know who you are," he said.
   "When I know, I'll tell you. But, Wright, don't tell anyone about me. Don't tell your friends or your family or anyone."
  

Milk, sulphate and Alby Starvation

Title: Milk, sulphate and Alby Starvation
Author: Martin Millar
Published: The Kindle edition is from 2008. I think?
Genre: Humorous fiction
Pages: 169


Oh look, it's my old favourite! Thing is, I bought a used Kindle Paperwhite last week, and wanted to kick it off with something special. So now I have the Finnish book version, the English book version, and a Kindle version. Ooh, I hope Lux the Poet appears as a Kindle edition soon...

Here's the last time I read Alby, just about a year ago. Alby is a very small-time drug dealer living in Brixton, London, concerned with just about everything, sure that the world is out to get him. It kind of is: there really is an assassin after him. A very capable assassin. What will happen to his comic collection if he dies?! It's such a lovely short book that makes you giggle and happy, I mean, what's not to love?


   I didn't mean to aggravate the Milk Marketing Board, I mean, I never wanted all that publicity in the first place. I was just trying to be helpful. How was I to know they would end up with their poorest ever May sales since they began keeping records?
   I was really ill some time ago. I don't want to imply that I'm well now, just that then I was a lot worse.
   My doctor really loathes me. Every time I go to see him he talks to me with open contempt, he's putting out a front that he thinks I'm a hypochondriac but really he knows I'm sick and he enjoys seeing me suffer. Upper-class bastard, what's he doing being a doctor in this area if he hates us? Bastard.


I want to go on about the Kindle a little. I've had the free app on my phone for a few years now, and I've been thinking about getting a proper one for far longer. Hell, I didn't give this much thought to getting my half-sleeve tattoo! I was sceptic over whether I'd learn to read a tiny tablet instead of a proper book. I love my phone, I do, but it's not a thing built specifically for reading, and therefore is not the most comfortable reading device out there. But, there is the issue of my bookshelves being extremely full, and though used paperbacks are cheap, there's postage and planes flying and the poor postman etc etc. So going a little electronic is not all bad.

But yeah, I read up on all the different kinds and decided upon the Paperwhite, once I'd get rich have a few extra euros stashed away. I didn't even think about checking out the Finnish version of E-bay or anything like that, not until last Thursday. And when I did, this guy who lives in a house I bus past twice a day on my way to work and back home had only hours before put his practically new Kindle for sale (turns out he buys almost all the new types and passes the old ones on. It's a year old, but hardly used!). It was, like, meant to be! Six in the morning, he puts it up for sale, and six in the evening, it's in my grabby little hands, for less than half the price of a new one. So worth it.


EDIT straight away: In January I decided to aim for 35 books in 2014. This was #35! Yay! Take that, 2013!

Kiss of the Spider Woman

Title: Kiss of the Spider Woman
Author: Manuel Puig
Published: This Vintage edition is from 1986. Originally published in 1979.
Genre: Drama
Pages: 281



My mom -and her mom, too, this kinda runs in the family- was a voracious reader. No, she's not dead, but with eye issues and other things, she's moved more to the telly-department. Also, easier to knit with telly than with a book. She also likes movies: romantic ones, drama, the usual soaps. Annnd Kiss of the Spider Woman which, once I was old enough to watch it myself, is like nothing I've imagined her liking. The odd one out, but she just loves it. I was (once again) hunting the movie for her for xmas, and having liked it myself, too, decided to check out the book.


Almost entirely dialogue, Kiss of the Spider Woman is the story of Molina and Valentin, two men stuck in the same prison cell in Buenos Aires. Molina, a hopeless romantic incarcerated for his sexual dealings, spends days and nights telling Valentin, a young politican prisoner, about all of his favourite movies, re-creating them in words to pass the days and nights. There's also a bunch of footnotes, the length of which would put Mr. Pratchett to shame. The two men are almost complete opposites of each other, but as they're stuck together without a chance of escape, they start to affect each other, to learn things that might not come out in any other circumstances.

Not a very conventional book, but enthralling, the dialogue, footnotes and especially Molina's movies transporting the reader to a different time and place. It was sometimes difficult to follow who's saying what, due to the book mostly being like the little snippet below, but Molina and Valentin do have such different voices that you learn to recognise them. Definitely a touching book. I can see why my mom loves the movie so.


- What about the film? Give me a break...
- Know what I better do? Put the potatoes on to boil, because they take a year. 
- What are you making? 
- We have some ham, and I'll open up a tin of olive oil, so we can have a couple of boiled potatoes, with just a drop of oil and salt, together with the ham: nothing could be healthier. 
- The film was up to where the black housekeeper's about to tell the protagonist the whole story about the zombie wife, about the living dead woman.
- You're really into it, aren't you? Admit it.
- It's entertaining.
- Oh sure. Baloney. It's more than entertaining, it's superb. Tell the truth.
- Come on, what happens?
- Okay, okay, but wait...


Regarding the Reading Bingo, I've been thinking about how to define A Forgotten Classic. I'm pretty sure I could tick this as one. As mentioned, this is one of my mother's favourite movies. It is impossible to find a European region DVD. I have looked. For years. I've bugged several movie shop and used movie shop clerks. I've happily bought copies over the internet, only to be told by the seller that You are aware this is Region 1/no subtitles/somehow odd, right? I've bought a Region free copy, which turned up in a Korean package, with no English subtitles. I wasn't expecting Finnish subs, but not even English ones? Mom's English is good, but she's going to need some help. So, this being the case, and considering that the book is probably less well-known, at least in these parts of the world, I'm gonna go ahead and tick this as A Forgotten Classic.

Good Omens

Title: Good Omens
Author: Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
Published: 1990, this edition is by Corgi.
Genre: It's the end of the wooorld!
Pages: 383


After finishing Why... I started on another book. It was kind of slow reading, but I kept going. Halfway through 400+ page book I realised that I don't really care what happens, in the story or to any of the characters. So I put that aside and, feeling a little burned out, picked up Good Omens. I was a wee teenager when I first read this, in Finnish, though, and the last time I remember reading it was when I was barely 20. So it was well due a re-read!

Misters Gaiman and Pratchett join forces to bring on the end of the wooorld! The combination of Pratchett's humour, Gaiman's darker style, and their shared awesomeness produced something that makes you laugh (and maybe even cry a little) despite the fact that Armageddon is here! The angel Aziraphale and demon Crowley have been kind of friends, despite the obvious differences, for some six thousand years. Living on the Earth in some kind of harmony, steering things gently their own ways, when needed, and feeding the ducks. When the Antichrist is finally born -and shuffled around by nuns with severe communication problems- and grows ready to instigate the end of the wooorld!, the friends realise that they don't actually really want that.

Added in the mix are the Nice and Accurate Prophecies of witch Agnes Nutter, her professional descendant, the Withchfinder army, the Four Horsemen -with modern horses- and the Antichrist and his gang. Plus some lost Tibetans. Oh, and angels and demons, of course. And my favourite fact of cassette tapes left in the car for more than a fortnight...

Good Omens was as fun as ever, and a nice pick-me-up in these dark days. Meaning, of course, November. 


Crowley, somewhere west of Amersham, hurtled through the night, snatched a tape at random and tried to wrestle it out of its brittle plastic box while staying on the road. The glare of a headlight proclaimed it to be Vivaldi's Four Seasons. Soothing music, that's what he needed. 
   He rammed it into the Blaupunkt.
   'Ohshitohshitohshit. Why now? Why me?' he muttered, as the familiar strains of Queen washed over him. 
   And suddenly, Freddie Mercury was speaking to him: BECAUSE YOU'VE EARNED IT, CROWLEY.

Why Don't You Stop Talking

Title: Why Don't You Stop Talking
Author: Jackie Kay
Published: 2002 by Picador
Genre: Short stories
Pages: 244


Ah man, these early winter months, they just suuuck the life right out of you, don't they? I've had zeeero interest in anything creative lately, including updating this little journal. I almost even gave up on reading there! That was a scary two days, I can tell you that...

I don't usually read short stories much, and after this collection, all I'm thinking is And why the hell not?! I really should, at least more by this particular writer! Why... was the second book I bought from London, while getting Misfortune, and while I've kind of regretted swapping this for Jackie Kay's Trumpet, which I was going to get first, it's now only a regret of getting to read that one later.

It's been what, a month or so, since I finished Why... so my memory is fuzzy, but many of the stories still keep coming up: images, phrases, how beautifully they were written. Physics and Chemistry actually made me cry. Happy tears, though! Aww. There are 14 stories altogether, mostly of women: mothers, daughters, girlfriends, wives, grandmothers, women who fancy other people's wives... all kinds. Normal lives, normal days, and you're in there with them. I will definitely try to get my grabby hands on more of her books!


   She let herself into her office on Kingsland High Street, Dalston Travel, and put her fresh fish in the fridge. (Now, she'd need to make sure not to forget her trout when she was leaving.) She made herself one of her three cups of coffee per day, stirred in two spoonfuls of sugar, the white killer, but what the hell, and sat down in front of her computer with her bagel. Friday was busy in Dalston Travel. Weekends made everybody think of going somewhere. Paris. Amsterdam. Madrid. Lyon. Bologna. Bruges. Brussels. On a Friday, Melanie prepared herself to expect anything. 

Golden Boy

Title: Golden Boy
Author: Abigail Tarttelin
Published: 2013 by Phoenix
Genre: Drama!
Pages: 406 plus extra bits


The Walkers live in a small town near Oxford, and the parents are well-known members of the community with reputations to keep up. Older son Max Walker is sixteen: he's the football hero of the school, works hard and gets good grades, likes kissing pretty girls and is a patient big brother to Daniel and a good son to his career ambitious parents. Max also has a secret: he was born intersex, not wholly a boy or a girl. Only a few people outside the family know. As far as the rest of his world is concerned, Max is a handsome young man. Then something horrible happens, and Max's whole world threatens to come crashing down as he starts to question his identity.


I'm quite interested in gender and sexuality and all of their variations, and Golden Boy was a wonderful read, if painful at places. There are some heavy themes here but Tarttelin writes beautifully, and the book is great for younger audiences, and a good introduction to people who see gender more as an either-or thing. The story is told from the point of view of several characters including Max, his girlfriend, little brother and mother. I loved the characters and had trouble putting the book down when it was time to get off the bus or back to work. But who wouldn't rather read a good book than get back to work, right?



This is the most embarrassing, horrible day of my life, and if I can just get through it, stay blank, breathe in and out, keep smiling, keep nodding, it'll be over, and tomorrow will be better, and the next day will be better than that and soon it'll be like it never happened.

The Lie

Title: The Lie
Author: Helen Dunmore
Published: 2014 by Windmill Books
Genre: Historical drama
Pages: 294




There was a Buy two paperbacks, get one of them half price offer at Gatwick Airport when we were returning from the UK a few months back. The Curious Incident... was one book I got then, and this was the other. I'd seen The Lie in book shops around London and there's plenty of praise on the back and on the inside, so I thought why not. Risk worth taking.


It's 1920, and Daniel has returned to Cornwall from The War. Like many other young men, it has left him broken. Not on the outside, but on the inside. To avoid people, he is living on the lands of an old hermit of a woman who he knew as a child, tending her abandoned garden, milking the goat, gathering the eggs. A simple life. No family left, his best friend lost on the battlefields, Daniel is pretty lost. But no matter how he longs for privacy, the world comes knocking.


The Lie moves along slowly, with Daniel telling us how his days go now, how it was in the war, and how his dead best friend still comes to him, in the night. It's beautifully written and even calm for such a heart-breaking book as it is.

Helen Dunmore has apparently written plenty of books, poems, children's books and short stories, and her books have been widely translated. I'm going to have to read a few more!




I knew he would be at the foot of my bed tonight, and here he is. His head is bowed. His back is turned to me, and he's deep in thought, away by himself in that place where you can never reach even those you know best. That's how I realised what a soul was, when I was young. I'd sung about it in hymns, along with everyone else. I had a soul, I knew that, just as I knew I had a stomach. But it meant nothing until one day I saw my mother sitting in her chair by the unlit fire, her eyes open as if she was looking at the wall opposite. But she wasn't. If I'd made a sound she would have turned and become my mother again. I didn't make a sound. She was away, and I couldn't come to her. I saw something then: loneliness, like a frost that burns your hand when you touch it. I knew she was away, and I couldn't come near without breaking whatever it was that held her. When I first read 'My soul, there is a country/Far beyond the stars...' I knew what it meant. It was about how lonely we all were, trying to come close but something always stopping us, that something inside us that was as far away as the stars. From that time on, when I looked up at the night sky I couldn't feel that the stars were companions. I saw a forest of lights, going away into nowhere. 
   'Frederick,' I say, but he doesn't turn. The frost holds him. Tonight I'm less afraid of him than I've ever been, but farther from him too. He stands and dreams, lost in himself, and my voice doesn't touch him. 

Let the Right One In

Title: Let the Right One In
Original title: Låt Den Rätte Komma In  
Author: John Ajvide Lindqvist
Published: 2007 by Quercus, originally in Swedish in 2004
Genre: Horror
Pages: 519




I've been wanting to read this one for some time now... still, it took me a while to warm up to it, but once I sunk my teeth properly in, once I got to know the characters a little better, I couldn't let go.


It's the beginning of winter in 1981, in a small suburb of Stockholm, Sweden. 12-year old Oskar is bullied at school, has practically no friends, and is all around miserable. Oskar's life starts to turn around when he meets one of the new neighbours: a skinny little girl who seems to be unaware of things like personal hygiene and the fact that it's pretty damn cold outside. Her name is Eli, and she only comes out at night. Ooh!


There's also a rather large cast of other characters who kinda grow on you. It's a horror book so not everyone is going to get a happy ending here, and I was genuinely sorry to see some go. Others, good riddance! There were some extremely creepy and even scary bits, and I loved the whole frigging ride. I'm going to try and see if I can find the movie somewhere...




   She lay completely still like a stone, calm spreading through her body. She had time to formulate one last thought before she sank into rest. Why isn't it hot?
   With the blankets over her face, wrapped in heavy cloth it should be hot and sweaty around her head. The question floated sleepily around a large black room, finally landing on a very simple answer.
   Because I have not been breathing for several minutes.
   And not even now when she was conscious of the fact did she feel any need to. No feeling of suffocation, no lack of oxygen. She didn't need to breathe any more. That was all.

Small Favor

Title: Small Favor
Author: Jim Butcher
Published: 2008 in book form but this was an audio book
Genre: Noir urban fantasy
Pages: 432, some 13 hours in audio form




Tenth book in The Dresden Files! It's been about a year since the events of the last book, and about the same since I listened to the last book. Harry and his apprentice Molly are having a pleasant training session/snowball war when the servants of the fairy Summer Court attack. Harry has barely distracted/destroyed them when the Winter Queen, Mab herself, comes to cash in a favour. Fairies...

Things are never easy for the only professional wizard in Chicago, and Harry has little choice but to agree. He soon finds himself face to creepy bits with several of the Fallen Angels, and the servants of Summer are plowing through ever-rising amounts of snow, bigger and stronger and after some Harry arse. Just to... just to beat him up and kill him and stuff. Nothing sexual.

I was thinking that I'm finally starting to catch up with Mr. Butcher's writing speed, but no... still dragging plenty behind. This book left some characters in worrying places, so I might pick up the next one soon. Also, I'm not 100% sure that the audio version I had wasn't missing a bit at the very end. It stopped quite suddenly.




These books are highly quotable, but since I am listening to them, I have to turn to the internets for one to add here. This one's courtesy of GoodReads. I wish I had the whole conversation on paper...



   "Likest thou jelly within thy doughnut?"
   "Nay, but prithee, with sprinkles 'pon it instead," I said solemnly, "and frosting of white."

Moon over Soho

Title: Moon over Soho
Author: Ben Aaronovitch
Published: 2011 by Gollancz
Genre: Urban fantasy
Pages: 373


Hey, guess what? It's the sequel to Rivers of London! That means that it took about two months of Saving It Until A Little Later before I cracked and read it. Funnily enough, that's also how long two large bags of Maltesers lasted. I bought them from Cardiff while reading Rivers of London, hoping to make them last for the rest of the year. Ha ha haa. No. Now I'm all out of Maltesers again...

We return to Peter Grant's story a little after the events of the first book, spoilerrific events from which some of his friends are still recuperating. There's no time to take a long breather, though, not when a part-time jazz saxophonist turns up dead with magic in his head and music still playing. Peter gets called to look into it, and he soon finds that there's something worrying happening to a lot of jazz musicians in the area.

There's also a vagina dentata monster on the prowl. I don't think I have to spell out what she is doing to the men she seduces...

Moon over Soho was just as fast-paced, amusing and addictive as Rivers, if not more so. Peter is a funny guy, and I really do like how you could follow the action on a map. I've got the third book waiting already on my little Kindle mobile app. As of now, there are five books, the latest came out this year!


   Murder investigations start with the victim, because usually in the first instance that's all you've got. The study of the victim is called victimology because everything sounds better with 'ology' tacked on the end. To make sure you make a proper fist of this, the police have developed the world's most useless mnemonic - 5 x WH & H - otherwise known as Who? What? Where? When? Why? and How? Next time you watch a real murder investigation on the TV, and you see a group of serious-looking detectives standing around talking, remember that what they're actually doing is trying to work out what sodding order the mnemonic is supposed to go in. Once they've sorted that out, the exhausted officers will retire to the nearest watering hole for a drink and a bit of a breather.


Why don't they sell Maltesers around here? They should. It's 2014, we even got Milka a few years ago, why not Maltesers?

Misfortune

Title: Misfortune
Author: Wesley Stace
Published: 2006 by Vintage (orig. 2005)
Genre: Historical drama
Pages: 519 + appendix




The SO and I went on a trip to London and Cardiff two months ago, and before we left, her cousin recommended to us this book shop called Gay's the Word, with books pertaining to the non-hetero persuasion from wall to wall. I highly recommend the place. I was on a budget so I had given myself permission to buy two books, no more. Just two. I easily found twenty interesting ones. But no, only two. This was one, and I admit, I picked it up just before the till (and discarded a book I had already chosen after much consideration), just because of the cover. I don't think I even read the back until a while later, sitting outside a pub, having a pint. Ah, London... that particular pint was a questionable one, though.


Anyway. Misfortune is the story of Rose Loveall and her unconventional family, set in England during the 19th century. Abandoned as a newborn into a heap of trash, Rose is rescued by the richest man in England, so far unmarried and, frankly, quite uninterested. He decides to make her his heir, the new Lady Loveall. Despite the fact that the baby has a very obvious thorn, he names her Rose Old after his dead but beloved sister Dolores.


(It seriously took me 250 pages. 250 pages. To realise that Rose Old is an anagram of Dolores. I'd figured that Rose does indeed come from Dolores, minus a few letters, but "Rose Old? Why Rose Old? She's just a baby...?" I am not a smart woman.)


Rose grows wanting nothing, a happy little kid with no idea that most girls don't have what she has between her legs. But years tend to make those differences clear, and greedy relatives will not hesitate to use such things to make trouble.


I put Historical drama as genre, but there's a lot of humour and warmth in the book, and I found myself grinning and giggling like mad more than shedding tears, even though there were a few of those as well.Mr. Stace's writing has a hypnotic tone, it carries the reader with it, and Rose is a most generous narrator. And the cover? It's of course a picture of her, in her pretty dress and lovely moustache and tiny beard.




   I read in my mother's diary that a joke circulated even then that I had been born a male but that my parents had so hoped to have a girl. And those villagers were a superstitious lot, no strangers to dressing a son in a girl's nightgown to protect him from harm and hide him from bad fairies: old wives told that such a boy would grow up to fascinate all the girls. And it was common knowledge that girls don't grow feminine till their mother's milk is out of them, so perhaps they wondered whether I was still at the teat. But people will talk, and it was all dismissed as unkind. It is astounding what effect the confidence of weath can have upon the general consensus. No one stood up and declared that I had no clothes - perhaps they had barely noticed - so I was the best-dressed yound lady in the kingdom.

Fool's Assassin

Title: Fool's Assassin
Author: Robin Hobb
Published: 2014!
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 630


This is it! This is why I've spent the last 6 months or so re-reading! Don't get me wrong, it was great to read Mrs. Hobb's books again, I very much enjoyed spending time with some of my favourite fantasy characters. It feels odd now to have the 'freedom' to read whatever I want. Kinda scary.

I finished Fool's Ass, as I like to call this book, last Saturday night, and have been wondering ever since what to write about without swearing profusely. FFS, Fitz, you cannot be that blind! *deep breath. Deep breath. Deep breath* I'm sorry. I'm cool. I'm good. You're older and smarter, damn it, how can you not--- sorry. Sorry. Sorry.

I loved this book, I wolfed it down in large helpings. It was so nice to see Fitz with the life he had been hoping for, the one he had earned time and time again. With the woman he'd loved all his life, just... being. Happy. Not all that much smarter than he was as a teenager, obviously, but happy. It was what we rarely see in the genre: the hero after the adventures are over. Living the quiet life. It was also bitterweet to meet some of the other characters, or to hear what had happened to them. Time has passed since the last trilogy, and passed fast during this book, and not everyone could make it through.

But it's not all happy days and long winter evenings. Trouble once again comes knocking, and forces Fitz out of retirement. The final kick that gets his ass on the move is... wow. That was probably the first time in my life I had to put a book down and walk around the apartment for a while, chanting No no nono nooo no no this is not happening no n o noooooooooo no no nooo in my head. I had to pour myself a biiig glass of red wine and drink most of it before I could sit back down and read. You're a cruel lady, Mrs. Hobb. I love you for it.


   I had known that Buck had changed. Now I saw that the changes had happened all through the Six Duchies. The roads were wider than I recalled, and the lands more settled. Fields of grain grew where there had once been open pasturage. Towns sprawled along the road, so that sometimes it seemed one scarcely ended before the next began. There were more inns and towns along the way, though the size of our party sometimes overwhelmed the accomodations. The wild lands were being tamed, brought under the plow, and fenced for pasture. I wondered where the wolves hunted now. 

Fool's Fate

Title: Fool's Fate
Author: Robin Hobb
Published: 2004 by Bantam Books. Ooh, hard cover!
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 631


The last book of the Tawny Man trilogy! The Witted action is put mostly on the back seat and Buckkeep left far behind as the young prince is sent off to prove to his wife-to-be that he is worthy of her. Luckily he can bring help along, for the task set upon him is a pretty damn monumental one. So it's roadboat-trip time for Fitz, towards the frozen north and the quite worrying prophesies the Fool has made of that cold place.

Ah, I still remember buying this book, almost exactly a decade ago, coming home from Interrail. I'd been casually looking for the book wherever we stopped, if we happened to go to a bookshop, but I didn't find it until on the very last evening, in the very last stop, in Stockholm, Sweden. I didn't have a cabin or a bed for the overnight ferry ride over to Finland, so I basically spent half the night sitting in corridors and window sills, reading. By now I'd forgotten all but some big plot points, so it was like reading the whole book (and the one before, really) for the first time! And I finished just in time, for the next book is out the day after tomorrow. Yay!

(Actually, since I haven't been paying enough attention, there are like, four books after this one and before the new, outcoming one (I think they fall between these, anyway), where the story is taken back to Bingtown and the Rain Wilds. But since I don't have these books and I've already pre-ordered the new book to my Kindle-app, I'm reading that first. But it's great to know that there's more to read!)


   "So. I'll live happily ever after, as the minstrel's sing?"
   He twisted his mouth at me and shook his head. "You'll live among people who love you and have expectations of you. That will make your life horribly complicated and they will worry you sick half the time. And the other half, annoy you. And delight you." He turned away from me and took up his cup and looked into it, like a hedge-witch reading tea leaves. "Fate has given up on you, FitzChivalry Farseer. You've won. In the future that you now have found, it's almost likely that you'll live to a ripe old age, rather than that fate will try to sweep you from the playing board at every opportunity."
   I tried to lighten his words. "I was getting a bit tired of being hauled back from death's door and beyond every time I turned around."

Golden Fool

Title: Golden Fool
Author: Robin Hobb
Published: 2003 by Bantam Books. Ooh, hard cover!
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 520


*grabs Fitz by the collar and slaps him around* Oh Fitz, you idiot. I don't think there's a person he cares for deeply who he didn't royally piss off in this here book. It's the second book of the Tawny Man trilogy, and things are heating up! The Witted have been divided to the Piebalds -and I'm glad I read the Willful Princess and the Piebald Prince, for I now get all these references!- who seek to be acknowledged by the non-Witted with violence, or worse. Then there are the Old Blood ones, who just would like to live life in peace, thank you. The rest of the Six Duchies are also divided, to those who want all Witted killed, and those who just kind of wish they would go away.

If that wasn't enough, the little prince's betrothal is happening like, right now, and Bingtown is calling for help with their war against a common enemy. Fitz is pretty much forced into becoming a teacher of the Skill, not to mention spying on pretty much everyone. There's not a quiet moment, and the pages just flyyyy by. So, onward to the third book! I've got 13 days to read 600+ pages...


... He suddenly looked about frantically. I found the brandy bottle and set it within his reach. He didn't even bother to pour. He uncorked it and drank from the bottle. When he set it down, I reached over and took it.
   "That won't help anything," I told him severely.
   He gave me a loose-lipped smile. "You see. We're trapped. I've trapped you, my friend. My beloved."
   I tried to fit my mind around what he was telling me. "If we lose, I die," I said.
   He nodded. "If you die, we lose. It's all the same."
   "What happens if I live?"
   "Then we win. Not much chance of that, now. Not much chance and getting worse all the time, I'd say. Most likely we lose. You die and the world spirals down into darkness. And ugliness. Despair."
   "Stop being so cheerful." This time I drank out of the bottle. Then I passed it to him. "But what if I do live? What if we win? What then?"
   He parted the bottle's mouth from his. "What then? Ah." He smiled beatifically. "Then the world goes on, my friend. Children run down muddy streets. Dogs bark at passing carts. Friends sit and drink brandy together."
   "Doesn't sound much different from what we have," I observed sourly. "To go through all this and make no difference at all."

The Willful Princess and the Piebald Prince

Title: The Willful Princess and the Piebald Prince
Author: Robin Hobb
Published: 2013 by Subterranean Press
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 184


I found this pretty thing in a used books shop just around the time I was reading the Farseer Trilogy. I think. My memory is not so very good. This is apparently a Deluxe Hardcover Edition, illustrated even! Read it after finishing Fool's Errand and before starting the Golden Fool.

The Willful Princess and the Piebald Prince tells one of the legends of the Six Duchies: the story of the Witted prince Charger and how he came to be. Told by Felicity, the nearest and dearest handmaiden to the Queen-in-Waiting Caution, AKA the Willful Princess, the honest account illustrates how, in the span of just two very short generations, the Wit-magic goes from an uncommon but accepted trait to a detested thing. Felicity is painfully truthful in her telling of the tale, and it sheds light to the Six Duchies of generations before any of the book series. A lovely yet sad story.


   From that day forth, all noticed a change in the Queen-in-Waiting. There was a glow to her cheeks, and she took to riding out very early in the morning with only the Stablemaster in attendance upon her and me trailing along behind. The wrath of the king over this was nothing to her. As always, they began their ride with a spirited gallop, at a pace my horse could not hope to sustain. But in those days, I did not catch up with them as easily as I once had. Often I did not see them again until they came riding back to find me. Then Queen-in-Waiting Caution would be pink-cheeked and laughing at my worries and saying they must put me on a fleeter mount the next day.
   But they never did.

Fool's Errand

Title: Fool's Errand
Author: Robin Hobb
Published: 2001 by Voyager
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 661


And on with the next trilogy! These three are collectively called the Tawny Man books, and the story has hopped from Bingtown, liveships and pirates back to the Six Duchies. Fifteen years have passed since the end of the Assassin's Quest, and Fitz has spent about half of those wandering the world with his Wit-partner, the wolf Nighteyes, and the other half staying put and living life on the quiet, raising an adopted son. 

But when one person from your past knows where you live, another will find out, and soon people from Fitz's past come knocking so much that he might as well install a revolving door. The youngest member of the royal Farseer family goes missing mere days before his highly political and very important betrothal, and our hero finds himself dragged back in to court intrigue to help find him.

During Fitz's self-exile many things have changed in the big world, including the persecution of people who have the Wit, an ancient magic that allows them to converse and bond with animals. It wasn't really looked kindly upon during the days of the Farseer Trilogy, but now people are being hung, quartered, burned and so forth for having the Wit. And all of the Witted will not stand for that kind of nonsense. Things are heating up!


   I drew a breath and made my question as plain as possible. 'What is your name, your real name?'
   'Ah.' His manner was suddenly grave. He took a slow breath. 'My name. As in what my mother called me at my birth?'
   'Yes.' And then I held my breath. He spoke seldom of his childhood. I suddenly realized the immensity of what I had asked him. It was the old naming magic: if I know how you are truly named, I have power over you. If I tell you my name, I grant you that power. Like all direct questions I had ever asked the Fool, I both dreaded and longed for the answer. 
   'And if I tell you, you would call me by that name?' His inflection told me to weigh my answer. 
   That gave me pause. His name was his, and not for me to bandy about. But, 'In private, only. And only if you wished me to,' I offered solemnly. I considered the words as binding as a vow.
   'Ah.' He turned to face me. His face lit with delight. 'Oh, but I would,' he assured me.
   'Then?' I asked again. I was suddenly uneasy, certain that somehow he had bested me yet again.
   'The name my mother gave me, I give now to you, to call me by in private.' He took a breath and turned back to the fire. He closed his eyes again but his grin grew even wider. 'Beloved. She called me only "Beloved".'
   'Fool!' I protested.

Richey Edwardsin jäljillä

Nimi: Richey Edwardsin jäljillä
Alkuperäinen nimi: A Version of Reason: In Search of Richey Edwards
Kirjoittaja: Rob Jovanovic
Julkaistu: 2009, suomennos LIKEltä 2011
Genre: Elämänkertamainen juttu.
Sivuluku: 307 + liitteet ja viitteet


Tunnustan hypistelleeni tätä useammankin kerran kirjakaupassa viimeisen noin vuoden aikana, ja perjantaina Richey Edwardsin jäljillä oli viimein reilussa alennuksessa. Jee! Lauantaiaamuna oli jo luettu. Kesäloma, mikä ihana tekosyy.

Jovanovicin kirjassa ei sinällään ollut mitään uutta tietoa Edwardsin katoamisesta 1.2.1995 tai sitä edeltävistä tapahtumista, mutta hän oli kirjoittaessaan käynyt henkilökohtaisesti tutustumassa katoamislegendan tärkeimpiin kohteisiin, ja jopa Manic Street Preachersien kotikaupunkiin Walesissa. Hän keskittyy myös vahvasti siihen, miten suhteellisen helppoa ihmisen oli vielä 1995 kadota jäljettömiin niin halutessaan, ennen valvontakameroiden määrän räjähdysmäistä kasvua ja kaiken maailman mikrosirupasseja. Richey Edwards oli (on?) älykäs ja paljon lukenut kaveri, joka tunsi tarinat kartalta pudonneista muista kuuluisuuksista, ja usein puhui ihailevasti näiden katoamistempuista. Ei siis liene ihan turha toivoa, että hän löysi jostain rauhan.

Mitäs sitä seuraavaksi lukisi...


   Kaikki Richey Edwardsin liikkeet tammi-helmikuussa 1995 - ja varsinkin tämä viimeinen automatka - pyrittiin myöhemmin selvittämään pienintäkin yksityiskohtaa myöten. Ajomatkan Walesiin olisi pitänyt kestää korkeintaan kolme tuntia, joten päivän tapahtumissa oli usean tunnin aukko. Miksi hän olisi ylipäätään mennyt asunnolleen? Ajoiko Cavalierin Walesiin Edwards vai joku muu? Ja jos kuljettaja oli Edwards, menikö hän asunnolleen hakemaan jotain? Ja jos meni, mitä tuo jokin oli? Nämä eivät vaikuta itsemurhaa hautovan miehen teoilta. Mitä hän mahtoi suunnitella?

Dark Matter

Title: Dark Matter - A Ghost Story
Author: Michelle Paver
Published: 2011 by Orion Books
Genre: Ghost story
Pages: 252 + extra bits


Last one today, I swear! The SO bought this in London and told me to read it as it's proper scary. Pfft, I thought, how scary could it really be?

Really fucking scary, actually!

It's the year 1937, and a small expedition is leaving from London to the Norwegian islands of Spitsbergen, known these days as Svalbard. The story is told through the journal of Jack Miller, a poor man with big dreams and skills to use the wireless. The goal is to spend a year in the Arctic studying nature and weather. But it's hard for dwellers of London to understand just how cold it gets, and how dark and long the northern winter can be. How lonely and empty it can get with no-one else for miles around, and how terrifying it is when suddenly you're not alone anymore.

I read Dark Matter pretty much in one sitting. It's been years since the last time I did that! I didn't want to put the book down as I was pulled in to the mystery. I haven't been this properly scared since I read James L. Grant's On the Banks of Lethe, my favourite horror book. This has got to be my second-favourite.


   For the first time since reaching Gruhuken, I thought about the men who were here before us; who built this hut from logs dragged up from the beach, and lived through the 'dark time', and then left, leaving nothing but a tin plate and a blizzard of bones.
   What must it have been like? No wireless, maybe not even a companion; at any rate only one, in a hut this size. To know that you're the only human being in all this wilderness.
 

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

Title: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
Author: Mark Haddon
Published: 2004 by Vintage
Genre: Murder mystery
Pages: 268 + appendix


It's been a bit of a reading-spree again. Bought this on Tuesday at the Gatwick Airport, and after finishing Rivers of London on the flight from hell home, I started this and finished it on Wednesday.

Seriously, though, the flight was half-full of loud, horny, loud, tired and very, very loud teenagers, plus a baby and a toddler right across the aisle. Thank whatever higher power there may be for noise-cancelling headphones and a good book to sink in, because, fuck.

Our narrator is Christopher. He's 15, lives with his widowed father, and has Asperger's syndrome. He likes to go for walks in his home neighbourhood in Swindon at night-time, when there aren't other people around. On one walk he comes across the neighbour's dog, Wellington, who has been murdered with a garden fork. Christopher decides to find out who killed Wellington, since the police are not all that bothered, and to write a book about it. This is that book.

The chapters are quite short and numbered with prime numbers. Like Christopher, I like prime numbers too. They're fun to figure out. The story itself is engaging and well worth all the praise it has received. I was watching the news just before we headed for the airport (so before buying this) and found out that there's a play of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time in London now! Sorry I missed it.


I decided that I was going to find out who killed Wellington even though Father had told me to stay out of other people's business. 
   This is because I do not always do what I am told.
   And this is because when people tell you what to do it is usually confusing and does not make sense. 
   For example, people often say 'Be quiet,' but they don't tell you how long to be quiet for. Or you see a sign which says KEEP OFF THE GRASS but it should say KEEP OFF THE GRASS AROUND THIS SIGN or KEEP OFF ALL THE GRASS IN THIS PARK because there is lots of grass you are allowed to walk on. 

Rivers of London

Title: Rivers of London
Author: Ben Aaronovitch
Published: 2011 by Gollancz
Genre: Urban fantasy
Pages: 390


The SO and I took a trip to London and Cardiff last week, and I'd kind of been saving this one for the trip. Seemed suitable. And Rivers of London was just the ticket for some fun, light and very London-y holiday reading. The series -there's more! Yay!- has been described as Harry Potter joining the London police force. It's also like the Dresden Files in London.So, you know, what's not to like?

Peter Grant is a probationary constable at the beginning of the book, heading for a dull desk job. Then he happens to chat with a ghost at a strange murder scene, and attract the attention of the last wizard in England, the Inspector Nightingale. Bye bye dull desk job, hello really creepy murders! If those weren't enough, the nominal rivers are feuding, and Peter is saddled with building a bridge between them. Pun attempted.

I'm happy I bought the first two books of the series at once, because I definitely want to read more of Peter's adventures. Rivers of London is fun and entertaining, and so detailed with London -and police procedures, too- that you can pretty much follow the action on a map.


   Sometimes I wonder whether, if I'd been the one that went for coffee and not Lesley May, my life would have been much less interesting and certainly much less dangerous. Could it have been anyone, or was it destiny? When I'm considering this I find it helpful to quote the wisdom of my father, who once told me, 'Who knows why the fuck anything happens?'

This was about where I realised I liked the book. On page 3.

Ship of Destiny

Title: Ship of Destiny
Author: Robin Hobb
Published: 2000 by Voyager
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 903


And the last of the Liveship Traders trilogy! I remember that it was the same last time, too, that I ended up liking the characters most in the end who I'd liked the least in the beginning. Except Amber. I always love Amber.

It's even harder to say something now without spoilers than with Mad Ship. Hobb carries the characters surely -and sometimes with breath-taking speed- towards the ends of their current stories. I was sad to see them go (finished the book about a week ago, in a sordid hotel room in London), but I'm also eager to jump into the next book on my quest to finish the three trilogies before the new book comes out. I've got about two months...


   He suddenly felt sorry for Brashen. He hated it when his feelings switched back and forth like this. But he couldn't control them. Impulsively, he offered, 'I promise I won't kill you, Brashen. Does that help?'
   He felt Brashen's convulsion of shock at his words. Paragon suddenly realzed that Brashen had never even considered the ship might kill him. That Paragon would now promise thus made him realize that the ship had been capable of it. Was still capable of it, if he decided to break his word. After a moment, Brashen said lifelessly, 'Of course that helps. Thank you, Paragon.' He started to turn away again.
   'Wait!' Paragon called to him. 'Are you going to let the others talk to me now?'
   He almost felt the man sigh. 'Of course. Not much sense in refusing you that.'
   Bitterness rose in Paragon. He had meant his promise to comfort the man, but he insisted on being grieved by it. Humans. They were never satisfied, no matter what you sacrificed for them. If Brashen was disappointed in him, it was his own fault. Why hadn't he realized that the first ones to be killed were the ones closest to you, the ones who knew you best? It was the only way to eliminate the threat to yourself. What was the sense of killing a stranger? Strangers had small interest in hurting you. That was always done best by yout own family and friends. 

Mad Ship

Title: Mad Ship
Author: Robin Hobb
Published: 1999 by Voyager
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 906


Second book in the Liveship Traders trilogy! As if the first book wasn't a ride already, the story kicks up a notch as... well, spoilers. I'm having some trouble what to say because spoilers. Actually, the blurb at the back of book 3 is like one big spoiler, and I had to go and read it before I'd finished this!

Speaking of covers, these paperback editions have lovely covers by my old favourite Mr John Howe. I remember buying the whole trilogy on a school trip to London back in 2003, and so many summer evenings reading them on the balcony of the student house I lived in. Good times. Eleven fucking years...

Anyway. I'm afraid this and what I wrote about the first book don't do them justice. There are so many characters running and sailing around, so many point-of-views, and nothing's black and white. So Malta is an annoying, spoiled kid but you know what? She is a spoiled kid! Kennit wants to rule the pirates as a king and he has some damn fine points, but he's also plenty messed in the head. The nominal mad ship Paragon is, well, mad and dangerous, but hey, his family did dump him alone on the beach for decades. Wintrow is stuck between his own passion for priesthood and peace and the commitment to his family and Liveship that's in his blood. There are no easy choises, and sometimes there just aren't any right ones, either. The characters grow and develop as the pages turn, and sometimes even learn from their mistakes.


   A sour smile twisted Althea's mouth. 'No. I do not want to be the wind in his sails. That's what I want someone else to do for me.' She sat up straight suddenly. 'That is... that didn't come out right. I'm not explaining this very well.'
   Amber looked up from her work to grin at her. 'On the contrary, I think you are uncomfortable only because you have stated it so plainly. You want a mate who will follow your dream. You don't want to give up your own ambitions to make someone else's life possible.'
   'I suppose that's true,' Althea admitted reluctantly. An instant later she demanded, 'Why is that so wrong?'
   'It isn't,' Amber assured her. A moment later she added wickedly, 'As long as you're male.'
   Althea leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms stubbornly. 'I can't help it. That's what I want.' When Amber said nothing, Althea asked, almost angrily, 'Don't try to tell me that that is what love is, giving it all up for someone else!'
   'But for some people, it is,' Amber pointed out inexorably. She bound another bead into the necklace, then held it up to look at it critically. 'Others are like two horses in harness, pulling together towards a goal.'
   'I suppose that wouldn't be so bad,' Althea conceded. Her knitted brows said she did not entirely believe it. 'Why can't people love one another and still remain free?' she demanded suddenly.

Ship of Magic

Title: Ship of Magic
Author: Robin Hobb
Published: 1998 by Voyager
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 880



First book in Hobb's Liveship Traders -trilogy! Yay! Let me tell you: these books are bricks. 800-900 pages, but they go down so fast! Like I wrote in the Assassin's Quest, page 200 just suddenly jumped at me. And the following ~600 pages went by as fast.

So what are these about? Set in the same world as the Farseer Trilogy, the Liveship Traders are some damn elite traders from Bingtown (a bit southwards from the Six Duchies of the Farseers). They're different from other traders in so that they have Liveships. As you may have guessed. Liveships are made of wizardwood, which comes alive, or quickens, after three generations of the owner's family (not whole generations; one peep per suffices) have died on its deck. And #3 of the Vestrit family is about to kick the bucket.

Meanwhile, pirate captain Kennit has large dreams of becoming the king of pirates. The other pirates aren't too impressed, but Kennit's figured that once he has one of the legendary liveships underneath his feet, it'll be smooth sailing for him.Y'all see where this is going?

But since this is Robin Hobb, things don't go down as they've been planned. There are plenty of other characters stirring the pot with their own spoons, debts to be paid, oracles, destinies and sea serpents! I love these books, and not just because I've lived by the sea most of my life and more than 50% of my blood is seawater. They're written beautifully, the characters are not made of cardboard, and the world around them is built to the tiniest detail.


   He waited there, in the stinging rain. When he heard her speak again, he did not start. He did turn his head slowly, to hear her better.
   'Ship? Ship, may I come closer?'
   'My name is Paragon.'
   'Paragon, may I come closer?'
   He considered it. 'Aren't you going to tell me your name?' he finally countered.
   A short hesitation. 'I am called Amber.'
   'But that is not your name.'
   'I've had a number of names,' she said after a time. 'This is the one that suits me best, here and now.'
   She could, he reflected, simply have lied to him and said it was her name. But she had not. He extended an open hand toward the sound of her voice. 'Amber,' he accepted her. It was a challenge, too. He knew how huge his hand was in comparison to a human's. Once his fingers closed around her hand, he'd be able to jerk her arm out of its socket. If he chose to.
   He listened to her breathe, to the sound of the rain pocking the packed sand of the beach. Abruptly she took two quick steps towards him and set her gloved left hand in his. He closed his immense fingers over her small ones. 'Paragon,' she said breathlessly.

Breakfast on Pluto

Title: Breakfast on Pluto
Author: Patrick McCabe
Published: 1998
Genre: Humorous drama with some history!
Pages: 2190 on the mobile Kindle app, 208 in book form



Wow, I read this ages ago, but have been very lazy with updating. Or, you know, being any kind of social. That includes writing things on the net that no-one reads. Anyhoo, best get to it! First, Breakfast on Pluto!

I love the movie, and bought this Kindle edition as soon as I heard that there was a book before there was a movie. Breakfast is the story of Patrick 'Pussy' Braden (Kitten in the movie), living in Ireland and London during the worst IRA era. She's obsessed with finding her mother, who abandoned her and ran away from their small hometown. Pussy knows that her father is the local priest Father Bernard, and entertains us with plenty of fantasies on just how the Father fathered her!

While the main story and ingredients are the same in both book and movie, there were a lot of changes as well. For one, our main character's name. For another, Pussy's hypersexuality and Kitten's almost chaste ways. I think I like both, on their own and together. And I adore Cillian Murphy, who plays Kitten in the movie. I ended up reading the book in short bits again, and it was often confusing, so it was good to have seen the movie already, I could keep up a little better.


No quote since, for some reason, the little Kindle app has decided to lose all my bookmarks. What.

Assassin's Quest

Title: Assassin's Quest
Author: Robin Hobb
Published: 1997 originally, by Voyager
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 842




And the last of the first trilogy! I'm, uh, halfway through the first book of the second trilogy already, actually. Even though I'd 'decided' to read something else in between. Ah, well.


So, yes, Assassin's Quest. Last book of the Farseer Trilogy. I remember when this came out in Finnish! I was still pretty much dependent on library books back then, and the pace at which books were translated and bought into libraries. Oh, the innocent days, when my bookshelf wasn't moaning and groaning under bricks like this one...


Fitz is still at it, it being being a royal assassin in a time when loyalties and royalties change. Wow, that actually sounded pretty good. It's hard to say much more without spoiling things, but, the Red ship war is about to reach it climax, and, wow, the world will never be quite the same again. Instead of the hands-on war efforts -although we do get a share of those as well- we again follow Fitz on smaller fool's errands. The kid is growing up, but he can still make such a royal mess of his life. *heart*


Mrs. Hobb writes good, excellent fantasy with characters you hate and love and love to hate, unique magics and new takes on old familiar fantasy themes. I'm really glad I re-read these. And seriously, that one I already started, from the next trilogy? "Yeah I'll just read a few pages from the beginning here... whoops I'm on page 200. How'd that happen?" True story, guys.




   "Tomorrow," he told me gravely. "We shall be ourselves again. The Fool and the Bastard. Or the White Prophet and the Catalyst, if you will. We will have to take up those lives, as little as we care for them, and fulfil all fate has decreed for us. But for here, for now, just between us two, and for no other reason save I am me and you are you, I tell you this. I am glad, glad that you are alive. To see you take breath puts the breath back in my lungs. If there must be another my fate is twined around, I am glad it is you."
   He leaned forward then and for an instant pressed his brow to mine. Then he breathed a heavy sigh and drew back from me. "Go to sleep, boy," he said in a fair imitation of Chade's voice. "Tomorrow comes early. And we've work to do." He laughed unevenly. "We've the world to save, you and I."

Royal Assassin

Title: Royal Assassin
Author: Robin Hobb
Published: 1996 originally, by Voyager
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 752




Onwards with the saga! Oh man, poor Fitz. Mrs Hobb can be very cruel to her characters. I really like that in an author.


Fitz is back home in Buckkeep after the rather disasterous adventure that finished the first book, and finds that things are pretty much going downhill at home as well. The red ships are getting bolder, their raids and Forgings closer, and no one is safe. Desperate measures are taken to fight the raiders, and more callous individuals are twisting everything their way to gain more power. Court intrigue, yay!


Oh. My. Giggly. Gollum. I hate Regal. I'd forgotten just how much I fucking hate Regal. I mean, I hate this son of a bitch -quite literally- so much that I don't know whether I hate him or Joffrey more. That much I hate the fucker. He'd play the game of thrones quite well, but I still hate him so.


Considerably longer than the first book, I'd forgotten many of the details, aside from the largest plot points. There was still a sense of dread while reading the book, and several times when I kept telling Fitz No. No. Nooo! Don't! But he never listens. Gulped down the last ~60 pages last night, and jumped straight into the third book. Fair to say I'm about as hooked as the first time around.





   "Chade," I asked, "have you ever killed a man for your own sake?"
   He looked startled. "For my own sake?"
   "Yes."
   "To protect my own life?"
   "Yes. I don't mean when on the King's business. I mean killed a man to ... make your life simpler."
   He snorted. "Of course not." He looked at me strangely. 
   "Why not?" I pressed.
   He looked incredulous. "One simply does not go about killing people for convenience. It's wrong. It's called murder, boy."
   "Unless you do it for your king."
   "Unless you do it for your king," he agreed easily.

Assassin's Apprentice

Title: Assassin's Apprentice
Author: Robin Hobb
Published: 1995 originally, by Voyager
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 440


These books! Robin Hobb's Farseer Trilogy, the Liveship Traders books, and the Tawny Man Trilogy, were some of my absolute favourites through my late-ish teens and early twenties, a time when I was pretty much done with the fantasy genre after some bad reading experiences. But these I loved, passionately so. I was just looking at them over xmas, thinking fondly that it might be nice to read them again, not right now though since I already have so much to read! But then, last week or so, I heard that there's a new book about Fitz and the Fool coming out THIS YEAR. My initial reaction was "Nice, I'll have to check that out." Three seconds, and my second reaction was "RE-READ EVERYTHING! NOW!!!" Sooo...

Assassin's Apprentice starts the first trilogy, and the story of Fitz, a royal bastard who is, you may have guessed by the name, trianed to become an assassin, a king's man, to do the dirty work that no-one else can do. The Six Duchies have been pretty peaceful until one summer a red ship attacks a village by the sea, kidnaps a bunch of people and demands ransom or they'll be released. Yeah, you read that right. Soon enough there are more attacks, and no-one seems to be safe.

There are some properly creepy situations in the book thanks to the red ships, good fantasy, original magics -the Skill and the Wit, one praised and one condemned- and some of my favourite characters. I like Fitz and his truthful way of telling his story, not saving us any fuck-ups. And the Fool! I love the Fool. And the women in the book who are more than damsels in distress or bar wenches. I've read these earliest books so many times that I can remember what's coming next, but damn, I'm still halfway through the next one already. I'll so have all the books re-read before the new one comes out.


   He took a breath through his nose, and then shook his head violently, until his hair stood out all around his skull like a flame around a wind-blown candle. "Fitz!" he said emphatically, his voice cracking a little. "Fitz fitzes fyces fitz. Fatzafices."
   "It's all right," I said soothingly. I crouched a bit, though in reality I was not that much taller than the Fool. I made a soft beckoning motion with my open hand. "Come along, then. Come along. I'll show you the way back home. All right? Don't be afraid now."
   Abruptly the Fool dropped his hands to his sides. Then he lifted his face and rolled his eyes at the heavens. He looked back at me fixedly, and poked his mouth out as if he wanted to spit. 
   "Come along, now." I beckoned him again.
   "No," he said, quite plainly in an exasperated noise. "Listen to me, you idiot. Fitz fixes fyces fitz. Fatsafices."
   "What?" I asked, startled.
   "I said," he enunciated elaborately. "Fitz fixes fyce fits. Fat suffices." He bowed, turned and began to walk away from me, up the trail.
   "Wait!" I demanded. My ears were turning red with embarrasment. How do you politely explain to someone that you had believed for years that he was a moron as well as a Fool? I couldn't. So, "What does all that fitzy-ficeys stuff mean? Are you making fun of me?"
  

Survivor

Title: Survivor
Author: Chuck Palahniuk
Published: 1999, this edition is 2003 by Vintage Books
Genre: Satire
Pages: 289


It was about time I read one of Palahniuk's earliest books. Went to Rome with the SO, so what better reading material for the flight than a book that starts with a plane hijack. This is where we are at the beginning of the book, at page 289, chapter 47. Both numbers count down as the book progresses, as the plane runs out of fuel and starts its final, uncontrolled descent with its sole passenger who is telling his story into the plane's black box.

Tender Branson is a survivor of a religious cult who all committed suicides some ten years ago. Only a few of them, working in the outside world, have not yet gotten around to killing themselves. Until someone starts helping them along. It doesn't take long until Tender is the only one left, and that's just what some people have been waiting for: a survivor to make a media messiah from. Tender's ascent into fame is just as uncontrolled as his current descent towards the ground, and it's just as crazy as you'd expect from Palahniuk. The flight home passed quickly while reading about half of it. Giggling.  Even with the scary bits, when it all seems so very possible in today's world.


   Part of my strategy for courting Fertility Hollis is to look ugly on purpose, and my getting dirty is a start. Looking a little rough around the edges. Still, it's hard to get dirty gardening when you never really touch the ground, but my clothes smell from the poison, and my nose is a little sunburned. With the wire stem of a plastic calla lily, I chop up a handful of the hard dead soil, and I rub it in my hair. I wedge the dirt in under my fingernails. 
   God forbid I should try and look good for Fertility. The worst strategy I could pursue is self-improvement. It would be a big mistake to dress up, make my best effort, comb my hair, maybe even borrow some swell clothes from the man I work for, something all-cotton and pastel shirtwise, brush my teeth, put on what they call deodorant and walk into the Columbia Memorial Mausoleum for my big second date still looking ugly, but showing signs I really tried to look good.
   So here I am. This is as good as it gets. Take it or leave it.
   As if I don't care what she thinks.

Ole luonani aina

Nimi: Ole luonani aina
Alkuperäinen nimi: Never let me go
Kirjoittaja: Kazuo Ishiguro
Julkaistu: 2005, alkukielellä ja suomeksi. Tämä painos 2011
Genre: Dystopia. Hieno sana.
Sivuluku: 394




Vähän huolestuttaa tämä lukutahti... toisaalta, ulkona on kylmä. Hyvä syy istua kotona teekupin kanssa ja lukea.


Kathy, Ruth ja Tommy ovat oppilaita Hailshamin hiukan erikoisessa sisäoppilaitoksessa. Kellään oppilaista ei ole vanhempia joiden luo mennä loma-ajaksi, joten koulu on kaikille koti. Opettajat, joita kasvattajiksi kutsutaan, kertovat opettamisen lisäksi lapsukaisille näiden elämien tulevasta tarkoituksesta, joka ei ole aivan sellainen kuin odottaisi.



Tiesin jo etukäteen mikä jutun juju oli, kirjasta tehdystä elokuvasta joskus spoilereita lukiessani, eikä se siis päässyt kauheasti yllättämään. Vähän harmi, mutta ei lukukokemus siitä kauheasti kai kärsinyt. Tahti oli rauhallinen vaikka tarina poukkoilikin ajassa parinkymmenen vuoden sisällä eestaas Kathy kertojanaan. Hän on tarkka ja melko säälimätön, ja totuus Hailshamin oppilaiden elämästä paljastuu hiljalleen, pala palalta.


   Näin jälkeenpäin ajatellen tajuan, että olimme juuri siinä iässä, jolloin tiesimme itsestämme joitakin asioita - suunnilleen sen, keitä me olimme ja millä tavalla me poikkesimme kasvattajista ja ulkopuolisista ihmisistä - mutta emme olleet vielä ymmärtäneet sen merkitystä. Olen varma, että olet itsekin joskus lapsuudessa kokenut saman kuin me tuona päivänä - ainakin sisäisesti, tunnetasolla, vaikka yksityiskohdat olisivatkin erilaiset. Todellisuudessa on samantekevää, kuinka hyvin kasvattajat yrittävät valistaa lapsia; puheet, videot, keskustelut ja varoitukset eivät saa asiaa menemään perille. Ei silloin kun lapset ovat kahdeksanvuotiaita ja asuvat yhdessä Hailshamin kaltaisessa paikassa, kun heillä on sellaisia kasvattajia kuin meillä, kun puutarhurit ja tavarantuojat vitsailevat ja nauravat heidän kanssaan ja kutsuvat heitä "kullanmuruiksi".  

The Quarry

Title: The Quarry
Author: Iain Banks
Published: 2013 by Little, Brown
Genre: Humorous drama
Pages: 326


Another brilliant present from Santa! Man, that guy... I'd wanted to read The Quarry as soon as it came out, but put off getting it since... well, it felt so final, I suppose. This being Mr. Banks' last book. I haven't read even half of his books, plenty to go, but still. As soon as I got it -Santa was a little late- and finished the 3-5 books I was currently reading, I picked The Quarry up and seriously did not want to put it down. Not for sleep, not for work. That's the dilemma of a damn good book: you either read it in a few big gulps and then it's over, or take your time and kinda... torture yourself with not reading. I went with the former, and now I'm sad that it's over. But also happy, because it was a damn good book. 

The Quarry has the same kind of premise as Banks' first book, The Wasp Factory: a father and peculiar son, living alone in a large house pretty much in the middle of nowhere. Kit, however, is not homicidal, just "on a spectrum that stretches from 'highly gifted' at one end to 'nutter' at the other." His father, Guy, is very much dying of cancer. His old group of friends, who used to live with him in the large house before Kit's time, are all coming together for one last weekend. And to find this one damn movie they made as twenty-somethings. Everyone is very adamant that it's not a porno, but...

Mr. Banks died of cancer himself last year, but apparently this book was almost finished by the time he found out that he was sick. The way Guy talks about his illness and his very imminent death, it sounded very real and painful. Maybe The Quarry was a way for Mr. Banks to come to terms with his own life ending so damn early. The book's publication was pushed forward, but he passed away about two weeks before it came out.

But it's not a sad book! Not by a long shot. I giggled to myself and even laughed out loud. Kit views the world differently from most neurotypical people, and there are references to current affairs and movies and even Gangnam style! It's about death and not wanting to die, but also about life and living it your own way, and it's definitely not a porno tape.


   I've watched a few people when they're asleep, and they're all the same: old-looking, or dead. I probably ought to have felt depressed at this, though at the time I felt oddly comforted, and in a strangely satisfying position of power. Also, I was usually more worried that they were about to wake up and start screaming. (I'm not a murderer or a rapist or anything; I just wanted to look, but I can reveal that people most definitely don't like waking up in the middle of the night to find somebody staring at them from a half-metre of so away. Or even a whole metre.)

Huonosti käyttäytyvät jumalat

Nimi: Huonosti käyttäytyvät jumalat
Alkuperäinen nimi: Gods Behaving Badly
Kirjoittaja: Marie Phillips
Julkaistu: 2009, Bazar. Alunperin 2007
Genre: Urbaania fantasiaa huumorilla höystettynä
Sivuluku: 301




Huonosti käyttäytyvät jumalat löytyi vuosi, pari sitten jostain divarista, ja nykyajan Lontooseen sijoittuva tarina vaikutti kiinnostavalta. Kirja jumahti kuitenkin piiitkäksi ajaksi hyllyyn, ja kun silloin tällöin mietin että voisi laittaa turhia/kaksoiskappaleita myyntiin/kiertoon, niin tämä oli ensommäisenä lähdössä. Kiertoon laittoa mietin taas tuossa pari päivää sitten, mutta päätinkin vihdoinkin lukea opuksen. En ole vielä päättänyt onko kirja yhä kiertoon mahdollisesti lähtevien pinossa vai ei...


Kun usko vanhoihin jumaliin alkoi hiipua kristinuskon sun muun myötä, Zeus, Hera, Athena, Artemis, Apollon ja koko muu sekava ja iso perhe muutti Olympokselta Lontooseen. Uskon myötä hiipuivat jumalten voimat, ja rukouksiin vastaamisen sijasta piti käydä hankkimaan rahaa laskuihin. Metsästämisen jumalatar Artemis ulkoiluttaa koiria. Afrodite työskentelee seksipuhelinlinjoilla. Apollon yrittää päästä TV-meedioksi, ja menee rakastumaan kuolevaiseen.


Oli ihan hauska ja nopea lukukokemus, vähän kuin piristävä välipala. Kirjan takakannessa seisoo että kirjasta on tekeillä TV-sarja, ja kappaskeppas: siitä onkin tehty viime vuonna ilmestynyt elokuva. Täällä näin. Tarina on siirretty New Yorkiin ja ilmeisesti osa jumalista on iloisesti unohdettu. Pikkasen epäilyttävää, vaikka/varsinkin koska Zeusta esittää Christopher Walken. Taidan pysyä vain kirjassa, ja siitä jääneissä hyvissä muistoissa.




   "Etkö sinä muuta tee?" Apollon sanoi. "Makaat vain sängyssä?"
   "Ja katson televisiota."
   "Minäkin olen televisiossa", Apollon sanoi. 
   "Ai olet?" Zeus sanoi. "Minä pidän Doctor Whosta. Hänkin on jumala."
   "Ei minusta", Apollon sanoi. 
   Sekunnin murto-osaa myöhemmin Apollon kimposi huoneen vastapäisestä seinästä kuin tennispallo.
   "Onpas", Zeus sanoi. "Hän on jumala."
   "Anteeksi", Apollon sanoi lattialta. "Tietysti on. Sotkin hänet johonkuhun toiseen."
   Apollon nousi ja pyyhki vaatteistaan pari kourallista tomua. Tänään ei ollut hänen vaatteidensa onnenpäivä. 
   "Isä", hän sanoi.
   "Olenko minä sinun isäsi?" Zeus sanoi hiukan pöllämystyneenä.