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.