Skulduggery Series (Books 1-5)

Picture:Wikipedia

The first two words that come to mind: witty and funny. This story is not just wizards with sticks shouting in some incomprehensible language. You've got more than just spells and the cliché vampires and zombies. Every character is unique, with its own interesting abilities and personality. I find this series much more interesting than any other magic story. Every creature is being developed in a different way, being at the same time given not only good but also bad, sometimes reaching evil, features. 

Honestly, I read the first book three times, because I wouldn't take it seriously. To me it was just a children's book. But then I realized I was a child once too and I could identify myself with a young girl who would love to be part of something so unreal, dangerous, new and fun. 

One of the main characters is a teenage girl, who goes through a huge transformation. At first she is just a little girl, not sure how to control or understand her powers, let alone the amazing new magical world she steps into. 

Picture:Goodreads

 At first everything is exciting and thrilling and cool. The idea to have a double, while being on the way to your next big adventure, would appeal to anybody, I'm sure. But very quickly things get serious and a little too dark: her chest had to be literally opened in order to lock her real wizardry name. Which is why I love this series. This is a good premise to turn each character into something a little bit more. Valkiria and Skulduggery are the main point around which the story develops and Valkiria as the new kid in town seems to grow a little too fast. Soon she gets more aware of the real world, missing her parents, friends meetings, boys attention. This leads to a mix up of her both worlds, which just takes the plot to a new level. Every time you think everything is over, there's nowhere more this could take you, the writer sends you to a new journey. 

There's so much happening in the first 5 books that I don't even want to try to tell you a bit. It is just impossible to describe each and every character, his powers and stories. You are on your own here. Let yourself get lost into the world of constant surprises, real fights, inflammable chasing and above all pure magical experience.

"The Address" by Fiona Davis

Picture: Amazon

This is the second book I read by this author. After The Dollhouse, I thought it could not get better but guess what, it got much better. There's everything in this novel, historical New York City, a secret to reveal, personal challenges to overcome and the best of all such emotional feelings, that make you feel exhausted, as if you got through them. In present days it is still difficult for people to show their feelings openly, imagine what was it like 200 years ago with the difference in the classes, the opinion on women's place, the etiquette which everybody had to consider and most of all having an affair with someone from the staff while being well-married. Despite all that two beautiful people, being almost constantly together, but divided by society's critical eye, can't help but fall in love and make it look so pure. After diving into the story and swimming through it like being in a wonderful dream, you can't help but feel betrayed at the end. You would think that what's happening is just unfair, too cruel and too real to be happening to them, to you. But eventually everything falls in the right place, Sara sacrifices herself in the name of the well being of her son, along with knowing that she doesn't have much time left, which justifies her decision of taking someone else's guilt. It's a lovely story of ambition, of creating the glamorous city of New York, of love and loss, of taking and giving.

"The Dollhouse" by Fiona Davis

Picture: Amazon

I wanted to read this book for so long that now I'm sorry I didn't do it earlier. The story is so well written, it takes you flawlessly through the two eras that it describes. Every character is so rich and well developed that it makes you feel a part of their own lives. The life of two women at the same place but at different times turns out to be a great plot for a touching story. Darby McLaughlin has a very exciting life, at least for the first couple of months of her life in New York. Her story is rich and full of emotions that you can't help it but to fall in love with her. Her first experience with the big city is am example if every woman who went through it too. Her first encounter with popular modeling girls is what every teenage girl feels when dealing with such people. Her first love, a boy so perfect that even makes you fall in love with him, is exactly what goes in every girl or woman's heart. ( Here, I have to admit, my eyes got watery at the end when their relationship came to reveal itself). Rose's story is almost similar but taking place almost 50 years later, although she already had her big and bad times in the Big Apple, she already had her big love, who, by the way, turned out to be a real politician. Once his interests became more important than love, love, as well as any compassion, ceased to exist. After all the failures that Rose went through, Darby's life was the thing that gave her hope and meaning to keep working, living and letting new feelings come into her life. And that's what I really loved in this book: its representation of women. Even though they were (and are) underestimated and supposed to know their place (always there for the man), these two women show the readers that you can achieve something good and positive, despite the difficulties. I don't have enough words to describe how this book makes you feel, you need to experience it and let yourself sink into every detail of it. P. S. I didn't forget Esme of course. This ambitious girl, always fighting for what she wants, will make you ignore all her imperfections and show you how a woman should strive to get what she needs and wishes.

"Kafka on the Shore"~ Haruki Murakami

Beware the spoilers!
Recently I have decided to challenge myself by reading authors who I find overpraised. I was shocked by the wonderful writing style and insightful look of human nature by Khaled Hosseini. I laughed and cried a little with "A man called Uwe". Next stop was a book by Haruki Murakami because recently I have met many and many good reviews about his books. I was sure I would keep the good score with Haruki Murakami. Unfortunately, I never knew how wrong I was. I picked up this book from the library's shelf out of curiosity and the interesting title that grabbed my full attention (not that I have ever read anything by Kafka). I didn't know what to expect. But i never could expected this... Somewhere after the first 50 pages I was asking myself: "Are the three plot stories going to be tied up together and what could possibly happen?" Although the narrative was a little boring and at many times unnecessarily detailed, I was hooked. But that was for a very short time because just suddenly everything started to become weirder and weirder. The connected dream of Kafka with his alleged sister is one of the lamest "sex scenes" one has ever witnessed. It goes like this" No, don't. -"I cant stop, sorry". -"Ok, I understand, but you should know I don't like it"... And this continues for some time. Not that there could ever be a good rape scene, but instead of making you feel uncomfortable, angry, sad or whatever, it's just... slow and calm and makes you question your feelings. Not to mention the few same scenes with his alleged mother... Yes, one can look and find a deeper meaning and symbolism but you'll need to put a lot of effort. A book should not be like a schoolbook, where the teacher asks you: "What did the author mean?" and then you would need an hour to come up with something. Or if you do, it's wrong... If you can't understand the author and his ideas, why even bother to write so complicated? I will honestly admit that I didn't get the whole forest action at the end. I supposed what it probably should mean but... I didn't care anymore. I found it was really hard to understand, to analyze, to find some deep hidden meaning both spiritual or mythological. (After I finished the book, I had to google for an explanation of what I just read). Unfortunately, there wasn't a common theory that could have helped me. Every person's defiance was different and hypothetical what could this or that be. Which surprised me because even the big classics from Dickens, Dostojewski and others have some basic ideas and arguments on which readers agree or disagree. But not this book. Here every separate action/scene has like 5-6 different ideas. I find that a little disturbing because either the writer didn't present his ideas and meanings clearly or the readers didn't get the book. I'll give you a quick review (of course not in details) of what happens and how I saw everything.
 - A boy, whose mother and sister leave him at a very early age, decides to run away(nothing new or special)
- Still a teenager, he manages to travel alone and pay for hotels all by himself
- On the way, in a bus, he meets a girl and decides that she's his sister... Despite looking at her bare skin when she puts her head on his shoulder and tries to look further under her T-shirt."
- Decides to stay in a small town, far away from home. Loves to read and visits the library - there he meets a man at the front desk/the librarian, who later turns out to be a girl, but with other bodyparts... - The head librarian could be his mother, he wonders the same thing about almost every other woman he sees
- She comes to his room/dream as a 15-year-old girl, then as a grown up and makes love to him
- During the WWII a strange thing happens, in the woods with the kids, one of them doesn't wake up - Later he's able to talk to cats
- He gets to know about the "cat-hunter"
- A big dog leads him to this man's house, where he finds out hat his name is Johnny Walker, he's even dressed like him (why God , why??)
- Cat heads in the fridge, brutal description of cat murder... Again why, who needs that??
- Thankfully Kafka kills him but it turns out that he doesn't remember. Kafka did it, in his sleep but through the cat-talker
 - Now the police is searching for him, as an only relative to the dead. Yep, Johnny is Kafak's father...
- The cat-talker receives information about where to travel and what to do... From somewhere, somehow. He'll know when he's there and when he sees it(no idea what is the point here)
- Finally Kafka and his companion (a truck driver who left everything for him) find the library and Miss Saeki, who's been waiting for this meeting to... hold on... kill herself( oh, almost forgot:there is this mystery where she's been done for 15 years,  then reappeared in this town to die... But she decided to wait and meet this guy). At this point Kafka is in the cabin in the woods doing... I literally have no idea what
- The cat-talker dies, but I don't want to spoil it for you and I don't think I can describe what happened (it was really creepy) - oh, and there is an opening stone, to another world/dimension which the driver finds,! BUT! only thanks to Col. Sanders. But it's not easy. Before showing him where to find it, he must have sex with Colonel's best girl. A whole chapter about the lucky 3 times (why was that necessary?) - I won't give away what exactly happens to Kafka and the others at the end because everybody deserves his end of the story. If you have any suggestions, recommendations or ideas, please share. Probably I have to give Mr. Murakami another chance or is Kafka a good example of his work and writing style?

"Never split the difference" ~ Chris Voss

"Every negotiation, every conversation, every moment of life, is a series of small conflicts that, managed well, can rise to creative beauty." I have never been one of those people who read any kind of motivational or self-improving books. But when I read the back cover of this one, I thought: "I need to buy this and read it!" At first one can think that a former FBI agent would be stuck with some really complicated and hard to follow tips and ideas on how to be a better negotiator. What we see in every american movie about all kind of agents and their negotiating techniques almost make us believe that this is a field reserved only for them and only in situations where crimes, hostages and criminals are involved. The surprise comes once you start reading. Mr Voss gives one such example with a highly tense situation and turns every aspect of it into a useful tool for your everyday experiences. At the end of every chapter, there is a list of every lesson you read in it. I found this kind of simple listing of his "lecture" so helpful and clear, that I even considered writing them down in my own notebook. You know...what you do after a day at class. This book gives you everything you need, to achieve everything you want in life through negotiating...the only catch is, that you need to be more courageous and prepare beforehand. Of course you will need some practice and yes, probably the first couple of times you will not entirely succeed (and this I say from my own experience) but if you really want it and really prepare and never doubt that you must receive what you deserve...the chances are on your side! In two sentences: If you want to apply the FBI negotiating techniques to your everyday problems, then this is the book for you. It covers everything...from family matter, through job issues, to big property deals.

"A Man Called Uwe" ~ Fredrick Backman

I am really sorry I didn't read this book earlier. It makes you smile, laugh and cry, and that is something which rarely happens to me with a book. It makes you feel as if you already know some of the characters in real life, so natural everything feels. The only reason I took one star is that at some point the book looks like one of those Sunday afternoon movies you watch just to kill the time. One of those unpretentious comedies about a grumpy old man who actually turns to be not so bad and thanks to the always happy and good-nature friends/ neighbours he has, we manage to see his soft side. Well, probably just life makes us sometimes a little more bitter,stubborn and angry (paraphrasing Mr. Backman).

"A Thousand Splendid Suns" ~ Khaled Hosseini

Picture: Goodreads

An advice: Just enjoy this book and try to get everything you can from it. "One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs, Or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls." This is a book that I avoided for a long time. It's just that I am really prejudiced toward over-praised books. But this one really got me. This is a book that makes you feel like a part of the story. It makes you become part of the characters' emotions and experiences. It's almost as if you have a second life which you see through their eyes, through their thoughts and feelings. I was really surprised that in the course of reading this book, I not only got to know some of the country's story but also to find real human morals. For example the two girls (Mariam and Laila) who despite their mothers' warnings and desires do what they think right to do, although they end up hurting them. But still their mothers also do some illogical things in order to please or be accepted by men. All over the world there are many women whose thoughts, decisions, acts are influenced by men in their lives. [I would really like to give you some examples here but I don't to spoil everything for you in this labyrinth of human interactions and their (un)willing consequences]. *Narrative Spoilers* After the middle the story takes a sharp emotional turn. The two main heroins have to face great atrocities. like when Mariam and Laila are being betrayed while escaping and a little later Laila is forced to leave Aziza in an orphanage because of the constant hunger), as well as inhuman hardships, mostly from men like Rashid who locks Laila and the baby in a room for two days without food and water, while beating Mariam after trying to run away. These particular scenes are truly heart-breaking and affecting. I caught myself breathing heavily, being angry that I could not do anything to help them, to make their situation just a little better. But that is Hosseini's real talent! And I believe you will find it in every other of his books and will be surprised by the emotions he will get out of you.