Filth

Title: Filth
Author: Irvine Welsh
Published: 1998
Genre: 
Pages: 393


Aww man, I really have to get a grip and start updating, preferably after I've finished a book and not after I've finished four books... adopted two young cats, so that has eaten away a lot of computer time. I don't really mind.

It's been near fifteen years since I last read Filth -in Finnish, working in a quiet-as-a-tomb art gallery- and got the urge to read it again a year or so back, after I saw the movie. It's the story of detective sergeant Bruce Robertson, working for the Edinburgh police. And let me tell you, Bruce is a bit of a cunt. Drugs, alcohol, sex, abuse, unhealthy eating habits, misanthropy, racism and mind games all around. There is no one he will not fuck with, mentally or physically, even with the... rash... going on downstairs.

Christmas is coming, and so is Bruce's annual holiday in Amsterdam, when a tourist gets himself brutally killed, and the case is dropped on DS Robertson. Like the good copper he is, Bruce does his best to worm out of it, and to do as little actual work as possible. Whoring, drinking and cocaine are so much more fun!

As  much as I do like a good anti-hero, Bruce did really disgust me several times. Had I not known how the whole story goes and what's going on in that deranged head and body of his, I might have even considered not finishing the book. But just maybe. What a train wreck you are, Bruce.


   The games are the only way you can survive the job. Everybody has their wee vanities, their own little conceits. My one is that nobody plays the games like me, Bruce Robertson. D.S. Robertson, soon to be D.I. Robertson. 
   The games are always, repeat, always, being played. Most times, in any organisation, it's expedient not to acknowledge their existence. But they're always there. Like now. Now I'm sitting with a bad nut and Toal's thriving on this. I've been fucking busy and he's told me to be here, not asked, mind you, told. I got it all from Ray Lennox who was first on the scene with some uniformed spastics. Aye, I got it all from young Ray but Toal of course needs his audience. Behind the times Toalie boy, be-hind the blessed times. 

Cat's Cradle

Title: Cat's Cradle
Author: Kurt Vonnegut
Published: 1963
Genre: Satire
Pages: 304


One of the first books I bought for the Kindle, and finally got around to it! Much like with Slaughterhouse 5, I started reading with the intention of just a few pages, and ended up reading about a fifth of the book at once.

Our narrator has set out to write a book about one of the fathers of the atomic bomb, Felix Hoenikker, and what people were doing the day the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. He travels to the Hoenikker hometown to interview people, and learns of the theoretical, he is assured, substance of ice-nine, Hoenikker's invention that could change how war is fought and even destroy the whole world. Good thing it's not real, right? Just theoretical.

There's also the religious movement Bokononism, of which our narrator quotes often. How he stumbles upon it, you have to read for yourself. The pages and chapters just fly, and Cat's Cradle is just fun even when things start to get weird.


   All of the true things that I am about to tell you are shameless lies.

Pahan ruusun puutarha

Nimi: Pahan ruusun puutarha
Alkuperäinen nimi: Epiphany
Kirjoittaja: David Hewson
Julkaistu: 1996, suomeksi 1997
Genre: Jännitys ja draama
Sivuluku: 510


Ystäväni lainasi tämän saattella, joka meni suunnilleen näin: Outo kirja, sä varmaan tykkäät! Ja tykkäsinhän mää. 

Jouluaatto 1975, Palo Alto. 5-vuotias Miles Seymour katoaa keskelle jouluhulinaa, eikä hänestä löydy kuin päällä olleiden enkelinsiipien riekaleita. Michael Quinn, happoa sun muuta jännää vetänyt opiskelija, pitää pian ystävilleen luennon Schrödingerin kissasta syvällä metsän keskellä olevassa huumeluolamökissä. Luento ei ole unohtunut vielä 20 vuotta myöhemminkään, jouluaattona 1995, jolloin Quinn vapautuu vankilasta ja nuori englantilaisnainen ilmestyy kyselemään, mitä Miles Seymourille oikeasti tapahtuikaan.

Kirjassa kuljetaan läpi sekä vuoden 1975 että vuoden 1995 tapahtumien, ja menneisyyden salaisuudet paljastuvat vähä vähältä. Alku tuntui vähän hitaalta ja hahmoja esiteltiin monia, mutta juoni vei mennessään, se ja Hewsonin kiusaava kirjoittaminen: et tiedä mitä oikeasti tapahtui jos et lue kaikkea!


Neljä ja puoli tuntia ennen kuin Rosamund Seymourin kiljunta käynnisti poliisioperaation, joka sekoitti ensin Palo Alton poliisilaitoksen ja sitten melkoisen osan koko maata joulunpyhien ajaksi, Michael Quinn tunsi kuinka alkaloidi alkoi kohista hänen suonissaan.

Feet of Clay

Title: Feet of Clay
Author: Terry Pratchett
Published: 1996
Genre: Humour Fantasy
Pages: 415


So, the year 2016 got off to an unhappy start: our sweet little kitty died after a short but nasty illness. To cheer up a little -or at least not to burst into tears every five minutes- I picked up a Pratchett. With David Bowie and Alan Rickman dying, I should have picked up many Pratchetts.

Feet of Clay! Picked this one up from my SO's shelf, who then realised that it's not actually hers, but her brother's book, which she borrowed some fifteen years ago. Oops. That didn't take anything away from my enjoyment of the book, just a fun fact.

It's not unusual in Ankh-Morpork, if one is wealthy enough, to buy a golem to work for you. They don't need money, food or rest, and they don't really have mouths, so they don't give you any lip. Then, two old men turn up dead, and all clues start to point towards golems. Commander Vimes and the City Watch soon have their hands full, especially when the Patrician suddenly falls ill. There's policing, slavery and gender issues a-plenty, but as usual, it's all so well-woven into a funny fantasy story that you don't even notice yourself thinking.


Samuel Vimes dreamed about Clues.
   He had a jaundiced view of Clues. He instinctively distrusted them. They got in the way.

Straight Up

Title: Straight Up
Author: James Lear
Published: 2015 by Cleis Press
Genre: Cocks, and there's some danger and politics and stuff, too
Pages: 289



This time, I was determined to finish reading and update before the year ticked to an end! Sequel to the sticky ending of 2014, The Hardest Thing, and a lovely xmas/bday present. This time, the SO slipped in a few screaming pink Post-It -notes with happy penises drawn on them. Only found one of them in a bus. Jolly cocks! As if the book wasn't already full of those!

Dan Stagg, ex-marine, current gym-worker, is back. Life seems to be getting somewhat better for him as he builds bridges with his parents, and sees as much of his long-distance boyfriend as they can manage. Luckily there's Skype in the modern world, 'Fucking Facebook', and specialized sites for, say, veterans to find each other and catch up. Dan has signed up to one such site, and one day, receives a message from an old comrade who is keen to meet. There is an actual plot-reason for the meeting, but there's also plenty of cock. Dan is soon elbow-deep in danger again, with old sins coming to haunt -and hurt- members of an old, secret mission.

I really want to read The Hardest Thing again, now. Plus the Mitch Mitchell Mysteries. All of them.Can't I just quit my job and read for a living?


   "On your knees, soldier. I'm coming in from behind."


And that makes 80 books in 2015, holy shit! EXCEPT that I did indeed finish the first one in 2014, so, no. Not 80, 79. Still, that's plenty of books!

Happy New Year! Wee!

Norma

Nimi: Norma
Kirjoittaja: Sofi Oksanen
Julkaistu: 2015, Like
Genre: Draamaa ja vähän fantasiaakin
Sivuluku: 304




Synttarilahja osui taas nappiin, kyllä se äiti tietää mitä ostaa kun suoraan kysyttäessä vastaa! Myönnän, halusin Norman omaksi aika pitkälti kauniin ulkonäön vuoksi. Juonesta en paljon tiennyt, mutta toki sen että Oksasesta pidän. Yritän pitää spoilerit minimissään.


Norma on aivan tavallinen Helsingissä asuva nainen: töitä on välillä vaikea pitää ja saada, äiti asuu naapurissa, miesten kanssa menee vähän niin ja näin. Hiukset tuntuvat elävän omaa elämäänsä. Ja äiti käveli juuri ilmeisesti ihan syyttä metron alle Sörnäisessä. Norma selviää hautajaisista niin ja näin, mutta kulmilla alkaa äkkiä pyöriä äidin 'kavereita', joita hän ei muista ikinä tavanneensa, mutta joilla tuntuu olevan kiire ja hätä päästä juttusille.


Kirja kaappasi mukaansa heti parin sivun jälkeen: sain sen tapaninaamuna, ja seuraavan päivän iltaan mennessä oli jo luettu. Aikaisemmin olisi jo ollut jos ei olisi tarvinnut sosiaalinen olla, niin! Sulattelen vielä loppua, mutta muuten nautin joka sivusta, auki kiertyvästä nutturasta jonka sisältä löytyi salaisuuksia ja tragedioita.




Kymmentä vaille kahdeksan äiti oli kiirehtinyt metroasemalle, vaikka hänen olisi pitänyt olla matkalla lähellä sijaitsevaan kampaamoon. Silminnäkijöiden mukaan hän oli miltei juossut, mutta aamuisin monilla oli kiire eikä se ollut herättänyt kummeksuntaa. Norma veti henkeen kahvinpaahtimon tuoksua, joka oli sama kuin äidin viimeisenä aamuna, ja ylitti matkalla Vaasanaukion, kuten äitikin. Hän ohitti vauhdilla marketin kynnyksellä kaljanmyynnin alkua odottavan porukan ja yritti nähdä jotain, mikä olisi voinut vaikuttaaa äidin päätökseen, jotain mikä olisi tehnyt siitä ymmärrettävän. Hän oli valinnut käytännölliset ballerinat, caprit ja kauluksellisen puuvillapaidan, tavanomaiset työvaatteensa, jollaisiin äitikin oli pukeutunut sinä aamuna, ja riensi liukuportaita alas laiturille, kuten äiti oli tehnyt, toisteli anteeksi pyyhältäessään maalaisten ohi, jotka eivät ymmärtäneet pysytellä oikealla, vaan tukkivat portaat koko leveydeltä, aivan kuten hekin olivat tehneet muutettuaan Helsinkiin. Laiturilla hän istui penkille, jolle äiti ei ollut istunut. Metro oli syöksynyt laiturille saman tien. Äiti oli viskannut penkin alle kengät ja käsilaukun, sitten hän oli ollut poissa. 

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Title: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Author: Ken Kesey
Published: 1962
Genre: Drama!
Pages: 320




I did not think I'd like this book as much as I did. I mean, I'd seen the movie at some point, and it has always haunted me a little, so once I found the book I thought it'd be worth a read, but I didn't really know I'd like it this much. Lunch breaks flew by!


One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is narrated by Chief Bromden, an apparently deaf and mute inmate of a psychiatric hospital. The ward is run by nurse Ratched, who has the patients and the doctor firmly under her heel, kept there by her three underling orderlies. All is as orderly and serene as it can be, until a new inmate comes. McMurphy has faked insanity to escape prison and spend his sentence at the hospital, thinking it a better place. Not the best of ideas, as it turns out, but McMurphy sets out to make the best of his stay, and to give the patients some of their spines back.


I seriously loved reading this book. I had only vague memories of the movie, a general idea that it won't end well, basically, and some characters. One of my favourites this year for sure, this and the Hexslinger-books. There's just something about wild redheads, I guess.





   "Patient McMurphy" --the boy with the pipe feels he should try to defend his position and save face just a little bit-- "does not strike me as a coward."
   I expect her to get mad, but she doesn't; she just gives him that let's-wait-and-see look and says, "I didn't say he was exactly a coward, Mr. Gideon; oh, no. He's simply very fond of someone. As a psychopath, he's much too fond of a Mr. Randle Patrick McMurphy to subject him to any needless danger." She gives the boy a smile that puts his pipe out for sure this time. "If we just wait for a while, our hero will--what is it you college boys say?--give up his bit? Yes?"
   "But that may take weeks--" the boy starts.
   "We have weeks," she says. She stands up, looking more pleased with herself than I've seen her look since McMurphy came to trouble her a week ago. "We have weeks, or months, or even years if need be. Keep in mind that Mr. McMurphy is committed. The length of time he spends in this hospital is entirely up to us. Now, if there is nothing else..."