I won this book from Penguin on Twitter, and because this year will be the first year I will go camping by myself (with my boyfriend, without parents) after years of car/hotel-vacations I was very interested in this book. This book tells two stories; anecdotes about the camping life of the author and his family, and the history of camping in England.
That made the book a bit mixed. The chapters are divided into chapters dealing with all the aspects of camping (packing, pitching, campfire, campsite, the tent, and striking camp), yet the story concerning the history is told chronologically. This made the set up a bit artificial. However, the history of camping (in England, mainly) was very interesting. From men conquering the wild, to boy-camps to build character, to politically charged camping groups and the unfortunate relation to the Hitler Jugend, to car-camping with Henry Ford and the domed tent.
I feel that I would have liked the book much more if the anecdotes and the history would have been two separate books. The anecdotes were nice, if repetitive, and get three stars, the history was very interesting and told well, and would have gotten four stars. As it is now, the book for me is a three star book.

This book has won so many prizes (both a Hugo and Nebula) and was recommended to me so many times I just had to get it and read. While I was apprehensive about if I would like it (I’m usually not for big space wars and invasions) I could not put it down.
It’s the story of Ender, a boy who has been picked out and is being trained to serve or command a human fleet to fight against the buggers, aliens who have attacked Earth twice before. While Ender seems to have talent, the training is incredibly hard.
The writing swept me away. Most of the story is told from the point of view of Ender, but some parts are told from the army command or Ender’s sister Valentine’s point of view. Throughout the story it is easy to forget that Ender is a very young boy (he is six when he is chosen), but when you realize is, an read the second to last chapter, it makes the whole story that much more impressive. Five out of five stars.

I was attracted to this book by its title, which in English originally is “The Word for World is Forest”. Very powerful. The book, containing one long story (the title story) and two short ones (Nine Lives and The End). The long story is about the colony-planet New Tahiti, a planet of islands covered with rainforests. Humans from Earth, a planet that has destroyed all its wild- and plant-life, are colonizing the planet by preparing the islands for farming. They are cutting down the trees, and shipping it to earth where wood is more valuable than anything. But on New Tahiti there are also humans, humans that have evolved slightly different, but they still see themselves as humans. They are small, hairy, and they know how to dream. The story describes the depressing consequences of (earthly) humankind trying to change a planet to suit them, without regard or respect for the local flora and fauna. The other two stories deal with a ten-person clone (all from the same human) and his/her life, and with the end of the world and how to escape it.
While the main story is pretty depressing, it is a good one. So are the other two. I really liked the writing and imagination here. Four out of five stars.

This is one of the classics of twentieth century literature, and anything I write in my review probably has been said many times before. I think I have read this book before, ten years ago for English class, and I might have even seen the movie, but because I could hardly remember it I decided to read it again when I got a copy for myself.
This is the famous story as told by Scout, a young girl growing up in the South of the USA in the nineteen thirties. Her father is a lawyer, her mother passed away. She and brother Jem, who is four years older than she is, spend their summers playing and exploring, and the rest of the year in school. The novel is about how they grow up, and discover the world is not as perfect as it appeared, and people are not as nice to each other as you would innocently expect. The main event in the book is the court case her father is involved in, where he is defending an African-American man who has been (falsely) accused of raping a white girl from an extremely poor family. Another main story line deals with Scout and Jem’s fascination for Boo Radley, their neighbor who never leaves the house and hardly anyone has seen in decades.
The writing is great. While the story is told from the perspective of a young child, you hardly miss anything that is going on, even though Scout might not yet understand it. This also makes the impact of the story greater, you really feel for Scout and Jem, they are so innocent and believe in the good, and you don’t want their illusion shattered. I remember liking the book before, and I really liked it again a second time around. Four out of five stars.

PS. It was also great to read my dad’s old copy that he bought from/never returned to his old high school back in the seventies. A great connection.

“A Discovery of Witches” (Allerzielen in Dutch) is about Diana, a witch, and Matthew, a vampire. Diana is in denial about her powers as a witch, ever since her parents (both witches) were killed in Afrika when she was seven. Now she is an expert in the history of science, especially alchemy, and working at Oxford for a year. Then she accidentally comes across a manuscript that changes her life, and that of other witches. But not only they are involved, also the other creators in the world, vampires and daemons. She meets Matthew the vampire, and has to face up to who she is and will be.
The book is part one of a trilogy, and while it stands alone, it is by no means finished when you reach the final page. The battle may be won but the war goes on, as they say. I really liked the story, although sometimes the idealistic description of Matthew and how he treats Diana feels like wishful thinking by the author. However, the rest of the story is thought up pretty well, overall the book was a great read. Four out of five stars.

I have been hearing about this book, the diary of a nearly fourteen year old boy in England in the early eighties, for a long time now. I finally found it at my library, so I picked it up. The book is made up of short daily diary entries in which the reader gets to know Adrian Mole. He lives with his parents, who have a rocky marriage, and his dog in England. They’re quite poor, and this is one source of tension in the house. At school he does okay, and he has a girlfriend Pandora, a best friend Nigel, and an old friend Bert, a pensioner who he looks in on every week. Adrian himself is a pretty neurotic boy, always expecting the worse to happen, always calling the doctor to the house for his health problems.
It is a pretty quick and funny read. I know there are many more of Adrian’s diaries published, and I can’t wait to see how he grows up. Four out of five stars.