It's Monday - What are you reading?

This meme is hosted by Sheila @ book journey.

Last week I have read:

DEMONGLASS by Rachel Hawkins (HEX HALL ; 2)

For my Book-Club I am reading:

JANE EYRE by Charlotte Brontë (oh, I love it!!)

And I am also reading (just for me):

SAVING CEECEE HONEYCUTT by Beth Hoffman

and

THE GIRLS - SAPPHO GOES TO HOLLYWOOD by Diana McLellan


Boy, do I enjoy my reads!! :")

Have a great week!!

Rachel Hawkins: Demonglass

DEMONGLASS (2011) is the 2nd book in Rachel Hawkins’ HEX HALL series.

~ I try to avoid spoilers, but here this is not really possible. So, please: If you like to read the first book and don’t want to have it spoiled ignore the following part. Thank you. ~

In a nutshell:

Sophia “Sophie” Mercer has found out that she is a demon and now she spends the summer with her friends Jenna (a lesbian Vampire) and Cal (the gardener of Hex Hall) in England with her father. She wants to get rid of her magic but this is a dangerous thing to do, so her family and friends are not happy about this. And: there is another thing that brought her to the UK: Archer, whom she loves and who appeared to be a demon hunter was seen in London several times.

As you may remember I liked the first book very much – this time I am not that excited: The second book is less funny. Or it is the German translation which in parts made me ... sigh. Yes, it made me sigh. Maybe I expected to much? Anyhow, this book is a nice read in between. I still like it and want to read the following book(s?).

I love Jenna and want to know what happened to her – this book ends with the meanest cliffhanger ever!! :”)

The German title is “DUNKLE MAGIE” (which means: Dark Magic) and even the cover is this time not as pretty as the first one was. (Really, I think it is ME not the book..)

DEMONGLASS fits into


The Read Outside Your Comfort Zone Challenge 2011,


because I am generally no YA and fantasy reader.




and also into



The LGBT Book Challenge 2011

because of my favourite character Jenna, the lesbian vampire.

It's Monday - What are you reading?

This meme is hosted by Sheila @ Book journey.

I have read:

MANSFIELD PARK by Jane Austen (<- read my review.)

and

THE LONG SONG by Andrea Levy (<- read my review)

For my book-club (and The Brontë sisters reading challenge 2011) I am reading:

JANE EYRE by Charlotte Brontë

(not very far yet -> Helen died.. - But I love this book!)

Just for fun (and my Reading out of your comfort zone challenge 2011..) I am reading:

DEMONGLASS by Rachel Hawkins

Have a great week - and tons of fun with your books! :")

Andrea Levy: The Long Song

THE LONG SONG (2010) is Andrea Levy's fourth novel - and the second (after SMALL ISLAND) that is translated into German. (I think there are some problems to translate Jamaican slang into German..)

In a (veeery small) nutshell:

Kingston, Jamaica, 1889.
Formerly Miss July was a slave but now she is an old and a free woman. With help of her son, who made a career as a printer, she writes down her memoirs –and that’s what we read in this book.

Well, this might sound not very tempting – but it is quite exciting! It is a captivating read which makes you anxious to know what will happen next to Miss July and all the other characters.

There is no SONG OF THE SOUTH “plantation romance” (no “Zip-a-dee-doo-dah!” here – though I really like that song, because it is so merry..) with happy black people working for a noble white massa. Not so many noble people in this book at all.. I liked that.

To be honest I did not know much about the history of Jamaica – and how the abolition of slavery took place there. I found it quite interesting to find out more about what happened after the slaves were “free”. It surely wasn’t like: “Here, Miss July, take this horse and these juwels – and do you want to have all my dresses? It’s all yours. I am sorry what happened but now we’re friends and you’ll live in a little house on the hills with pink flowers all over the place. So, now let's go in and have some tea and cookies..”

Tough times - and tough people.

Here is the German cover:

The German title is DAS LANGE LIED EINES LEBENS (= a life's long song) and I like the colours of this book very, very much!
I like the English cover above very, very much, too. Somehow it makes me think of my childhood. (No, I did not grew up on a plantation - but there were some very savaged places where I spent a lot of my time..)

This book fits in one of my challenges:

Because this novel is setted into 19. century Jamaica it fits into the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2011.

Jane Austen: Mansfield Park

MANSFIELD PARK is a novel by Jane Austen from 1814 - it was translated into German in the second half of 20. (!) century. Yes! Unbelievable, isn't it??!? (I think it was in the 1970ies/1980ies - but I am not so sure about that.)

In a nutshell:

Fanny lives - as a poor relative - in her rich uncle‘s and aunt’s mansion: Mansfield Park. Fanny is a rather shy girl, who is secretly in love with her cousin Edmund. – But: Edmund is in love with Mary Crawford, a superficial young lady, whose brother Henry is courting Edmund’s sisters Maria and Julia – and eventually decides that Fanny is the woman of his dreams..

This is the plot of Jane Austen’s novel - in a really short version. There are complications/persons that I did not even mention.

Fanny is a quite invisible heroine – she is not at all like Elizabeth Bennet (PRIDE AND PREJUDICE) or Marianne Dashwood (SENSE AND SENSIBILITY). I like her very much. And I feel a bit sorry for her, because she is always neglecting her wishes. Can you imagine the difference to young Jane Eyre? (As you probably know, I am reading JANE EYRE now.)

Of course Fanny is going to grow up, she won’t be a Rosa Parks or someone like that but she becomes a bit more mature – and of course she is the one to marry Edmund.

This is a not sooo romantic Jane Austen novel because the part of the story which could be the romantic climax is rather short and a bit too talkative.

~ Yes, Anne Bennet: you are completely right! ;”) ~

I like MANSFIELD PARK just because of its humor – I love Mr. Rushworth and I am a fan of Mrs. Norris and her sisters. I love that J.K. Rowling named the cat of the Hogwart’s caretaker “Mrs. Norris” after the Austen character – but now I cannot use the name for a cat myself – because I will not name a cat after a character from HARRY POTTER. Well.. Bellatrix Lestrange is a good name.. and Sirius, Lucius and Serverus.. well..

• Not only reading MANSFIELD PARK:
  There are – at least – three adaptations to the screen of this book - and two of them that I know: The BBC adaptation with Billie Piper as Fanny Price leaves out Fanny’s visit to her family in Pourtsmouth, while the adaptation with Frances O’Connor as Fanny and Johnny Lee Miller as Edmund adds Jane Austen’s letters to her sister Cassandra to the story, a bit about slavery in the colonies and – this is far more sensational: - sex!

Crisis - BIG CRISIS!

The German filmstart of JANE EYRE is postponed to September, 08!!!

What shall I dooohooohooo!?!! This is unfair!! I want to see it NOOW! :"( How can these cinema people do that to me? (No, I am NOT egocentric - they want to punish ME. That's obvious.)

Well, I have the book and I am reading it (and enjoying it very much, too!)

*sigh*

Anyhow: I hope that everyone who has the chance to see the film now enjoys it very much. Have a great time!