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Books
Svetlana Alexievich: War's Unwomanly Face
I can only recommend this. It's a collective remembrance of the lives of the female Soviet veterans from WWII, written down during the early 80s by a journalist travelling around the Soviet Union, gathering stories - from women soldiers, nurses, doctors, pilots, everybody. It's bloody and messy and banal and horrible and fascinating.
Allatta! 2040
Okay, so strictly speaking I only read half of this book, since it's a short story collection where each story appears in Danish and Greenlandic, so. Anyway, it's a collection of the winners of a writing contest for young people and that does show, though I did like several of the stories - although maybe that's just cause the contest theme of "the year 2040" has inspired a host of dystopic science fiction. I wonder if it's just the general dystopic trend these days or if people in Greenland are particularly worried about the future?
Susanne Clod Pedersen: Jomsvikingen
There's less plot than in the first books, I think, though still plenty of action - and it's well-written and I like Clod's style for these books (and there's a complete absence of Odin's spear, thank the gods), and you reading along cheering for the protagonist and suddenly hitting a point where you rememeber that this is actually a villain protagonist, raiding innocent farmers and killing people and following a man nailing babies to walls. So yeah. Loads of action. I wonder if some of the future books will be set in either Iceland or maybe even Constantinople? Arnulf certainly seems like the type who might end up needing to get very far away from certain powerful men - further away, I mean.
Genevieve Cogman: The Invisible Library
Fear And Loathing In The North: Jews And Muslims In Medieval Scandinavia And The Baltic Region
About a slightly later time period than I had hoped. And mostly the answer to Scandinavia was "they weren't there, but Christian propaganda was". The Baltics were a bit more interesting - and this book mostly made me realize how little I know about Eastern European Medieval history.
Neil Gaiman: Hans og Grete
The only reason why I read this in Danish, was because it was illustrated by John Kenn Mortensen, the guy with the post-it monsters. Alas, I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that he's - monotonous. Also, his drawings didn't always match the actual descriptions in the book. So...
Kvindestudier 8. - Moral og etik
Pia Fris Laneth: 1915 - da kvinder og tyende blev borgere
Rainbow Rowell: Carry On
Having read this, it actually makes sense to me why the Simon Snow 'verse got away with getting approved in three different ways at Yuletide - because there are three Simon Snow 'verses. There's the canon, which we get a few bits of and facts about in "Fangirl", there's the Simon/Baz fanfic the main character in Fangirl was writing and which also got to read bits of, and then there's this - which isn't the real canon, so to speak (the protagonist of Fangirl would have started squealing a lot sooner if it had been), but more Rainbow Rowell's own fanfic for her own fictional creation. It gets pretty meta sometimes, doesn't it.
Anyway, it's a very fun book about Simon Snow, the Chosen One who is attending Watford, a school for magicians, and is prophesized to be the saviour of the magical world. It's very obviously Harry Potter inspired, though with twists (the Hermione character being anglo-indian) and loads of deconstructions. And it's Simon/BazHarry/Draco and quite a lovely story in its own right. Also, possibly a commentary on the War on Terror, though I'm not entirely sure about that. Anyway, it's fun and a good read.
Mette Sejrbo: Heksens kald
I'll admit to being hesitant to start this, because I've read too much crap in the paranormal romance/urban fantasy genre already - but this was an okay book. It's a relatively traditional young adult heroine learns she has magic story (the book claims to be fantasy for adults, but from what I read, that's because the books has a few short but explicit sex scenes - though for Danish language sex scenes they were surprisingly not making me cringe). Anyway, our heroine finds out she's a vølve and bonds with a Jotun (the first to ever do so - okay, because the urban fantasy heroine can't just be special, she must always be special) while her cute boyfriend is finding out he's a werewolf, and vølves hunt the hamramms (werewolves) to protect people from getting eaten by them, except maybe some of the werewolves don't need to be hunted - okay, I call it now, there's going to be star-crossed lovers bringing old enemies together as allies later in this series. There are hints that they'll need to team up to fight a new threat, vampires, because the two Norse myth based supernatural groups doesn't even know that vampires are real. Oh dear.
The writing's okay, the story is occasionally predictable and occasionally has a twist I didn't see, and I like the Norse take on urban fantasy. Also there is a Jotun that gets named for a Peter Madsen character (no, not Quark, I would have put the book down and walked away then and there, thank the gods). Will probably be reading the next.
Comics
Brian Azzarello: Wonder Woman: Iron
Sussi Bech & Frank Madsen: Lotte går i parterapi
Sussi Bech & Frank Madsen: Zenia Nyker genopliver kulturradikalismen
Brian Michael Bendis: Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Avengers
Gerry Duggan: Deadpool: Soul Hunter
Warren Ellis: Trees: In Shadow
Ralf König: Hempels Sofa
Alecos Papadatos: Democracy
Yana Toboso: Black Butler 15.
Yana Toboso: Black Butler 16.
Mark Waid: Daredevil 7.
Mark Waid: Indestructible Hulk: Agent of SHIELD
Mark Waid: Indestructible Hulk: Gods and Monsters
G. Willow Wilson: Ms Marvel: Crushed
Total number of books and comics read this month: 24
Currently reading: Tiger Eye by Marjorie M. Liu and Hvad døde de kongelige af? by Maria Helleberg
Total number of books and comics read this year: 51
Svetlana Alexievich: War's Unwomanly Face
I can only recommend this. It's a collective remembrance of the lives of the female Soviet veterans from WWII, written down during the early 80s by a journalist travelling around the Soviet Union, gathering stories - from women soldiers, nurses, doctors, pilots, everybody. It's bloody and messy and banal and horrible and fascinating.
Allatta! 2040
Okay, so strictly speaking I only read half of this book, since it's a short story collection where each story appears in Danish and Greenlandic, so. Anyway, it's a collection of the winners of a writing contest for young people and that does show, though I did like several of the stories - although maybe that's just cause the contest theme of "the year 2040" has inspired a host of dystopic science fiction. I wonder if it's just the general dystopic trend these days or if people in Greenland are particularly worried about the future?
Susanne Clod Pedersen: Jomsvikingen
There's less plot than in the first books, I think, though still plenty of action - and it's well-written and I like Clod's style for these books (and there's a complete absence of Odin's spear, thank the gods), and you reading along cheering for the protagonist and suddenly hitting a point where you rememeber that this is actually a villain protagonist, raiding innocent farmers and killing people and following a man nailing babies to walls. So yeah. Loads of action. I wonder if some of the future books will be set in either Iceland or maybe even Constantinople? Arnulf certainly seems like the type who might end up needing to get very far away from certain powerful men - further away, I mean.
Genevieve Cogman: The Invisible Library
Fear And Loathing In The North: Jews And Muslims In Medieval Scandinavia And The Baltic Region
About a slightly later time period than I had hoped. And mostly the answer to Scandinavia was "they weren't there, but Christian propaganda was". The Baltics were a bit more interesting - and this book mostly made me realize how little I know about Eastern European Medieval history.
Neil Gaiman: Hans og Grete
The only reason why I read this in Danish, was because it was illustrated by John Kenn Mortensen, the guy with the post-it monsters. Alas, I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that he's - monotonous. Also, his drawings didn't always match the actual descriptions in the book. So...
Kvindestudier 8. - Moral og etik
Pia Fris Laneth: 1915 - da kvinder og tyende blev borgere
Rainbow Rowell: Carry On
Having read this, it actually makes sense to me why the Simon Snow 'verse got away with getting approved in three different ways at Yuletide - because there are three Simon Snow 'verses. There's the canon, which we get a few bits of and facts about in "Fangirl", there's the Simon/Baz fanfic the main character in Fangirl was writing and which also got to read bits of, and then there's this - which isn't the real canon, so to speak (the protagonist of Fangirl would have started squealing a lot sooner if it had been), but more Rainbow Rowell's own fanfic for her own fictional creation. It gets pretty meta sometimes, doesn't it.
Anyway, it's a very fun book about Simon Snow, the Chosen One who is attending Watford, a school for magicians, and is prophesized to be the saviour of the magical world. It's very obviously Harry Potter inspired, though with twists (the Hermione character being anglo-indian) and loads of deconstructions. And it's Simon/Baz
Mette Sejrbo: Heksens kald
I'll admit to being hesitant to start this, because I've read too much crap in the paranormal romance/urban fantasy genre already - but this was an okay book. It's a relatively traditional young adult heroine learns she has magic story (the book claims to be fantasy for adults, but from what I read, that's because the books has a few short but explicit sex scenes - though for Danish language sex scenes they were surprisingly not making me cringe). Anyway, our heroine finds out she's a vølve and bonds with a Jotun (the first to ever do so - okay, because the urban fantasy heroine can't just be special, she must always be special) while her cute boyfriend is finding out he's a werewolf, and vølves hunt the hamramms (werewolves) to protect people from getting eaten by them, except maybe some of the werewolves don't need to be hunted - okay, I call it now, there's going to be star-crossed lovers bringing old enemies together as allies later in this series. There are hints that they'll need to team up to fight a new threat, vampires, because the two Norse myth based supernatural groups doesn't even know that vampires are real. Oh dear.
The writing's okay, the story is occasionally predictable and occasionally has a twist I didn't see, and I like the Norse take on urban fantasy. Also there is a Jotun that gets named for a Peter Madsen character (no, not Quark, I would have put the book down and walked away then and there, thank the gods). Will probably be reading the next.
Comics
Brian Azzarello: Wonder Woman: Iron
Sussi Bech & Frank Madsen: Lotte går i parterapi
Sussi Bech & Frank Madsen: Zenia Nyker genopliver kulturradikalismen
Brian Michael Bendis: Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Avengers
Gerry Duggan: Deadpool: Soul Hunter
Warren Ellis: Trees: In Shadow
Ralf König: Hempels Sofa
Alecos Papadatos: Democracy
Yana Toboso: Black Butler 15.
Yana Toboso: Black Butler 16.
Mark Waid: Daredevil 7.
Mark Waid: Indestructible Hulk: Agent of SHIELD
Mark Waid: Indestructible Hulk: Gods and Monsters
G. Willow Wilson: Ms Marvel: Crushed
Total number of books and comics read this month: 24
Currently reading: Tiger Eye by Marjorie M. Liu and Hvad døde de kongelige af? by Maria Helleberg
Total number of books and comics read this year: 51