Jag saknar dig, jag saknar dig (1992)

Title: Jag Saknar Dig, Jag Saknar Dig! (I Miss You, I Miss You!)

Author: Peter Pohl, Kinna Gieth

Pages: 272

Published: 1992

Publisher: Rabén & Sjögren


I received this copy from my friend just prior to the film coming out because she had an extra copy. It's a beautifully tragic story about the twin sisters Tina and Cilla. Early on in the book Cilla dies in a car accident and Tina is left without her. The story is about how Tina is coping with the loss of her sister. It is happy at moments only to bring out the saddens even more and it truly stings. The book painfully realistic and triggers feelings of sadness and anger.

After having read this I decided to read into the back story of the book. This book turns out to based on a true story where the co-author Kinna Gieth lost her twin sister Jenny is a car accident. The sisters had been reading a book by Peter Pohl about a situation where the character Anette's twin sister had died. Gieth wrote to Pohl after her sister's death and asked him to write a book with her about this situation and 'I Miss You, I Miss You!' was the result. I was surprised to learn that the book was published in 1992 as I got the feeling that it was taking place in today's society - it's time less, which I think it very successful.

I can truly see why this is a Swedish Young Adult classic. There is also a film which was made in 2011.

Plot Summary:

It's now the month of April and at home on in the Rose Garden, two girls are sitting. They're called Cilla and Tina. They're identical twins and they're going to turn fourteen this summer. But Cilla doesn't get to experience that - she's soon going to die in a car accident. It's the most sickening thing that's happened to me, and I'm telling you that straight away, because this isn't meant to be a thrilling story, with a clever ending that has to be kept secret until the last page, it's about Tina whom was left behind, forced to try to stand straight and keep her balance in life without Cilla. And I, who is telling you this, is Tina, but I don't know if I can cope by taking about 'me', so I say 'her' instead.
A timeless description about endless grief, but also about love and hope.
- back of Book

My Rating:

8/10

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925)

Title: The Great Gatsby

Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald

Pages:180

Published: Apr 10th 1925

Publisher: Scribner

I saw this book at Waterloo train station with my mum one day in London and she knew exactly which book it was. I had no idea. She new of the new film by Baz Luhrman as well (the book had the film cover) and I urged her on to buy it. Why wouldn't I. She did and I started reading it on the train home. I loved it.

I must admit that I haven't really given classics a chance or much time, but I didn't even know this was a classic. Leonardo diCaprio was on the cover and that was good enough for me. I managed to finish the book before the premier and I went to see it, as expected, with my mum - I cried.

The year after we started studying the book (my copy now has a hundred notes in it in every possible colour), but imagine how much a teacher can influence your opinion of a book. I didn't stop loving the book, but I hated what she had to say about it. I did not agree, and I think I was so negative of everything she had to say because 1) she questioned all my opinions, 2) I loved this book, I read it for pleasure and she made me analyse the minor details that I'm sure F. Scott Fitzgerald didn't bloody care about right then and 3) she was a horrible teacher overall (the only English teacher that I have ever disliked). I hated studying it. It ruined the pleasure of reading the book. A lot of people I know had to study it for their A-levels and hated it. Poor souls.

I'm happy I convinced my mum to buy it that one time at the train station (even though it had the film cover, I usually prefer the original cover), and that I managed to read it before it was too late!! Before my teacher started coming up with ideas and theories I didn't agree with. I'm happy I had enough time to go into WHSmith with my mum that one time sat Waterloo train station. I wonder what I would've thought of the book otherwise.

Plot Summary:
The Great Gatsby follows Fitzgerald-like, would-be writer Nick Carraway as he leaves the midwest and comes to New York in the spring of 1922, an era of loosening morals, glittering jazz, bootleg kings, and sky-rocketing stock. Chasing his own American Dream, Nick lands next door to a mysterious party-giving millionaire, Jay Gatsby, and across the bay from his cousin Daisy, and her philandering blue-blooded husband, Tom Buchanan. It is thus that Nick is drawn into the captivating world of the super rich, their illusions, love and deceits. As Nick bears witness, within and without the world he inhabits, he pens a tale of impossible love, incorruptible dreams and high-octane tragedy, and holds a mirror to our own modern times and struggles.

Favourite Quote:
He threw all those parties hoping she'd wander in one night...

My Rating:
10/10
One of the few classics I truly love.

Don't miss the 2013 film by Baz Luhrmann!!

The Book Thief by Mark Zusak (2005)

Title: The Book Thief

Author: Markus Zusak

Pages: 552

Published: Mar 14th 2006

Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers

We'd have this book lying around the house for some while. I know my mum had tried to read it but didn't really get caught up in it. I considered it for a while, but I've never really been into WWII books. We then got a list from the school about books to read over the summer and it was on that list. So I thought well, why not.

I was captured. I cried so much during this book. So much. But I laughed as well. If only Rudy could have gotten that one kiss. If only Max had not gotten so sick. If only that bomb hadn't dropped just then. If only...

Full with emotions, ideas and messages this book is worth a read. No matter if you like the genre or not. It is not actually that much about the war, but more about the relationships built up in the novel and they're not boring but full of joy and heart break. Definitely worth a read. Definitely.

Plot Summary:

Here's a small fact

You're going to die.

1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding it's breath. Death has never been busier.

Liesel, a nine-year-old girl, is living with a foster family of Himmel Street. Her parents have been away to a concentration camp. Liesel steals books. This is her story and the story of the inhabitants on her street when the bombs begin to fall.

Some important information

This novel is narrated by Death

it's a small story about:

a girl

an accordionist

some fanatical Germans

a Jewish fist fighter

and quite a lot of book thievery.

Another thing you should know

Death will visit the book thief three times.

Favourite Quote:

The only thing worse than a boy who hates you: a boy who loves you.

My Rating:

10/10

I know I say this a lot, but I feel very strongly about this book. 

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky (1999)

Title: The Perks of being a Wallflower

Author: Stephen Chbosky

Pages: 2013

Published: Feb 1st 1999

Publisher: MTV Books and Pocket Books

You know when you go into a book shop and you find people like you. That like the same books as you. Well, funny story. I was at Windsor's Waterstones and standing in front of the YA section I picked out 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower'. So I stood there, looking for a second book, when this girl started talking to me. Maybe a year older than me. We got carried away talking about books and when I asked for a book she recommended she pointed to the second copy of 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower' on the shelf. Standing there with my copy in hand she laughed. I don't remember which book I ended up buying apart from 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower'. I think it was a new copy of 'Divergent' because because I read my friend's version and I like to have my own copies of the good (and amazing) books I read.

When I recommended this book to my friend she said she didn't like to read books about characters that were mentally awkward. I was about to flip. NOOOO!!! It's not like that. He's just a little socially awkward.

I absolutely love this book because it just explains... everything! He explains the feelings all of us are feeling as teenagers (well, I've felt them sometimes and I think, or hope that you agree because otherwise it means it's just Charlie and me, and I don't think that's meant to be). But he explains things we go through, feel, understand. I want Charlie to be my friend!! I want to be his friend! He's so likeable, loveable. I don't really know how to praise this book without flipping out. If you haven't read it you just have to take my word for it.

IT WILL UNDERSTAND YOU!!

Plot Summary:
Charlie's not the biggest geek in high school, but he's by no means popular. Shy, introspective, intelligent, yet socially awkward, Charlie is a wallflower, standing of the threshold of his life whilst watching everyone else live theirs. As Charlie tries to navigate his way through uncharted territory - the world of first dates and mix tapes, family dramas and new friends - he realizes that he can't stay on the sidelines forever. There comes a time when you have to see what life looks like from the dance floor.
- as on the book cover

Favourite Quote:
'You can't just sit there and put everyone's life ahead of yours and think that counts as love'

And all the other amazing quotes:
'We accept the love we think we deserve'
'Love always, Charlie'
'And in that moment, I swear we were infinite.'
'This moment will be just another story someday.'

'Why do I, and everyone I love, pick people who treat us like we're nothing?'
'You see things. You keep quiet about them. And you understand'
'Enjoy it. Because it's happening.'

My Rating:
10/10

Don't miss out on the film staring Emma Watson and Logan Lerman. I think the film is great. The one thing I noticed the most was that in the book Sam has long hair and Emma Watson has short hair in the film. Now I happened to see the film before I read the book and Charlie doesn't comment on her hair until the end so I kinda (like many others) imagined Sam with Emma's short hair all the way through the book. Otherwise, I quite enjoyed the film. The point (trying not to spoil anything) of Charlie's discomfort throughout the book is explained much better and clearer in the book. In the film I was left hanging guessing. Assuming. Anyways. I think it would be better if I reread and then watched again and I'll make a review then.

Persuasion by Jane Austen (1818)

Title: Persuasion

Author: Jane Austen 

Pages: 249

Published: 1817
Publisher: Penguin Classics

I never read a Jane Austen book until I had to read Persuasion in school for my AS English Language and Literature. My teacher did not quite like it (or so she says) cause she refers to it now as the P - word or the book that must not be named. 

I, however, didn't mind it at all. I like the time period so the context was interesting. My thoughts often went wondering about the first time I read it but I have probably read it four times by now and the more I do the more I like it. Just after Christmas I had no motivation for revision for my PPEs at all, but as one always has to I eventually sat down and found that writing a Persuasion essay wasn't very bad at all. I liked the plot, the characters, the setting and the context. It's not very bad at all.

Captain Wentworth is not Austen's most famous romantic hero (Mr Darcy), but he is probably one of the most vulnerable and emotional ones. 'You pierce my soul'. Could you get anymore hyperbolic?

Plot Summary:

Her last completed novel, marrying witty social realism to a 'Cinderella' love story, Jane Austen's "Persuasion" is edited with an introduction by Gillian Beer in "Penguin Classics". Anne Elliot, twenty-seven and still single, seems destined for spinsterhood. In her youth, she broke off an engagement to penniless Captain Wentworth at the insistence of her friend Lady Russell, acquiescing to the demands of her class at the expense of her happiness. But when Wentworth returns from the Napoleonic wars rich and famous, Anne finds her affection rekindled - even though Wentworth seems more interested in Anne's friend Louisa Musgrove.

- Waterstones.com

My Rating:

6/10
It is a good classic book and I did enjoy studying it in school but it's a little cheesy and silly at points, possibly for the time it's written.

Other Books by Jane Austen:

Pride and Prejudice
Sense and Sensibility
Emma
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
Mansfield Park

Available on:

Amazon
Book Depository
Waterstones

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro (1989)

Title: The Remains of the Day

Author: Kazuo Ishiguro

Pages: 258

Published: 1989

Publisher: Faber and Faber

Last year I read this as part of my AS exam in English Language and Literature. I have to admit that this is not my favourite novel. But it did have something about it. They way it's written is very capturing and you are forced to continue reading. 

The book is based on memories and the majority of the book is about Steven's memories rather than his journey, which I found disturbing at first. I started to wonder when we would get a glimpse of the trip rather than all these snippets of his life. It wasn't until I'd gotten half way through that I realised that the book was simply about his past life and only driven by his journey as the narrator. This was satisfying, although I would've needed to know it before because I felt that I was waiting for something that was never going to happen for quite a while. 

It is not about the story as much as the writing style. Ishiguro writes in a way that makes you connect with the character and you wish to know more merely because of it.

There is a film of the book with Emma Thompson, and Anthony Hopkins with the same name.

Plot summary:

"'After all what can we ever gain in forever looking back and blaming ourselves if our lives have not turned out quite as we might have wished?' In the summer of 1956, Stevens, the ageing butler of Darlington Hall, embarks on a leisurely holiday that will take him deep into the English countryside and into his past...A contemporary classic, The Remains of the Day is Kazuo Ishiguro's beautiful and haunting evocation of life between the wars in a Great English House, of lost causes and lost love. The Remains of the Day is now available as a Faber Modern Classics edition. "

- Waterstones.com

My Rating:

5/10
Perhaps because I was forced to read it for English.

Other Books by Kazuo Ishiguro:

Never Let Me Go
The Remains of the Day
The Buried Giant
When We Were Orphans
An Artist of the Floating World
The Unconsoled
Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall
A Pale View of Hills

Available on:

Amazon
Book Depository
Waterstones