Monday 4 May 2015

April additions - New on the Stack

Linking up with Sheila at the Deliberate Reader to share what we have added to our TBR stacks recently.  Go there for lots of great reading ideas.

My stack for April doesn't have a lot of titles...  

Vera Brittain: Testament of Youth
How: Library loan.
Why: Technically, this book is not completely new to me - I have read the book roughly twenty years ago, in my early twenties. It's a classic WW1 memoir from a young English woman's point of view, and having read other war stories, I wanted to revisit this one now.

Rainbow Rowell: Eleanor and Park
How: Library loan.
Why: For the Modern Mrs Darcy challenge: "the book that 'everyone' has read but you." At least it seems that way.

Danny Gregory: Art Before Breakfast: a zillion ways to be more creative no matter how busy you are.
How: E-book library loan
Why: This is a book for people like me: I used to love drawing and it still gives me joy, but life seems to busy for me to take the time to draw. This book gives a lot of ideas for how make creating art a part of your everyday life, at least a little bit every day, just for the fun of it.
(It's a good book, but I haven't gone out and bought a sketch book yet.)

And some (children's) fiction in Finnish:


Silvia Rannamaa: Kadrin päiväkirja (Kadri's Diary)
How: Library loan.
Why: According to the cover, this is the first and one of the most popular Estonian teen novels for girls. A young girl's growth story in 1950's Estonia (under Soviet rule), originally published in 1959, this is both an inspirational story of overcoming the odds and also an interesting portrayal of the times - it's not only what is said but what an adult reader can read between the lines.
(I also appreciated the postface by the translator - good background info etc.)

Eva-Lis Wuorio: Salainen taistelu (in English, it's called To Fight in Silence)
How: Bought from a second-hand shop
Why: As a youg teen, I loved Eva-Lis Wuorio's book about children in Poland during WW2 and their participation in the resistance movement. (Code Polonaise in English.) This one is about children in Nazi-occupied Denmark and Norway during WW2. I don't remember if I read this book as a teen, but I'm planning to read it now. In a year or two, I'll probably give Wuorio's books to my son to read, too.

2 comments:

  1. Eleanor and Park has been on my to read list. Hoping I can get to it soon!

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  2. I'm really interested in the Eva-Lis Wuorio books. My library doesn't have any by her, so I'm going to keep an eye out for used copies. I'd be interested in Kadri's Diary as well, but it doesn't look like it's been translated into English.

    Testament of Youth has been on my list for ages, but I keep putting it off, not sure if I want to devote the reading time it'll require - it's so long! I haven't actually known anyone who's read it, so I'd love your opinion on it if it really is worth the time it'll require. (It's not that I mind long books; I just don't want to finish it and think I could have read two - three other books in that time, and should have instead.)

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