Return of Music Monday

Music Monday is a meme where I talk about some of the great new songs, or old songs, released by Scandinavian artists. I may also talk about other songs that are stuck in my mind at the moment.

This monday I will share a new, Norwegian song with you. It is a song from the artist Tone Damli Aaberge. Tone is one of Norways hottest stars, a position she has risen to over the years. She is also the girlfriend of a famous Norwegian actor, Axel Hennie, and the two are called Norway's supercouple by the media.

Tone's new song, Look Back, easily gets stuck in your head. The musicvideo for it have caused a lot of controversy in Norway, and some have called it too sexy. Tone herself has said that her targetlisteners also listen to music from artists such as Lagy Gaga, so she has to make sure people notice her. Beside, she wanted to stretch her own boundaries a little. The world must think Norway is a truly conservative country since a musicvideo like this can cause so much controversy. Anyways, here is the video, judge for yourself:



And if you like this song, I suggest you check out some of Tone's other tunes. They are worth listening too:

Butterflies:


Stuck in my head:



And last one of my favories by her, I Love You:


Have a great reading week everyone.

In My Mailbox #47

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by the Story Siren, where we talk about the books we got the past week.


I have started this year with some bookbuying restrictions. I am only allowed to buy 4 books each month. In January I bought 5, one more than originally intended, but still not as many as I have used to buy. The preordered books does not count. I have only bought one book this week:


Bought:

Kristen Callihan: Firelight

What did you get in your mailbox this week?

Review: Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

Publisher: Harper Collins
Pages: 338
Release: November 2011
Source: Review copy from BEA
Challenge: None this year, read it in 2011
Good to Know: This is Mafi's debutnovel and the first book in a new series.

The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette's touch is fatal. As long as she doesn't hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don't fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war-- and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she's exactly what they need right now.

A Great Debut

Shatter Me received a lot of buzz before it was released, and Harper Collins put a lot of effort and marketing behind the novel. This off course creates expectations.

Juliette have been locket up in an asylum for 264 days. She has no direct contact with any human being; her food (the days when she is lucky enough to get something to eat) is served through a hole in the door. Everything she does, she does alone. She have not been able to change clothes or freshen up. The reason she is locked up is because she have special powers, powers that may have caused the death of a little boy. One day Juliette gets a cellmate, Adam, and her whole world changes.

The world outside Juliette's cell is also changed. Wars have been raging and a lot of people are dead due to starvation and misery. A lot of the trees and plants are gone. The people with the power, The Reestablishment, have to fight to keep their power because there are rebels and they want power too.

The world is flat. I know because I was tossed right off the edge and I've been trying to hold on for seventeen years. I've been trying to climb back up for seventeen years but it's nearly impossible to beat gravity when no one is willing to give you a hand.

Shatter Me is not a book that screams out loud to you. Nothing happens in fast pace, and the book is not a pageturner as in a lot of things is happening. But it is a pageturner nevertheless: it is the writing and the way the author makes us sympathise with Juliette that makes this such a great read.

I spent my life folded between the pages of books. In the absence of human relationships I formed bonds with paper characters. (...)My world is one interwoven web of words, stringing limb to limb, bone to sinew, thoughts and images all together. I am a being comprised of lettrs, a character created by sentences, a figment of imagination formed through fiction.

I have never read anything like this, the writingstyle is unique. Most of the book is narrated by Juliette and her thoughts are very well described. I felt like I was in her head the whole time. There are a lot of good metaphores and descriptions in the novel, I found myself constantly marking pages that had beautiful quotations.  Mafi writes like a poet. Some will perhaps say that it is too much, but it worked for me. Once I got used to Mafi's style of writing I devoured the book.

"You're getting a cellmate roommate", they said to me.
"We hope you rot to death in this place For good behavior", they said to me.
"Another psycho just like you No more isolation", they said to me.

Every inch of my skin is taut with tension, fraught with feeling and the pressure is building in my chest, pounding louder and faster and harder, overcompensating for my stillness. I do not tremble when I'm frozen in time. I train my breaths to come slower, I count things that do not exist, I make up numbers I do not have, I pretend time is a broken hourglass bleeding seconds through sand. I dare to believe.

The book is a dystopian novel, and as such it does not work so well. I miss more information about the new world order: What really happened before, what triggered the events etc. I hope I will get some answers in the sequel, bit if you are reading this book hoping for a fastpaced dystiopian read you will be dissappointed.

His face is 10,000 possibilities staring straight through me.

My eyes are two windows cracked open by the chaos in this world. 

Shatter Me  was a refresing read in a genre where it is not easy to stand out. This book stands out and I am looking forward to the next one. 

Other reviews:
Tynga's Reviews
The Readiacs 
The Book Smugglers 

A new series from Maggie Stiefvater

Maggie Stiefvater, the author of the trilogy the Wolves of Mercy Falls and the book the Scorpio Races, and her publisher Scholastic announced today that they soon will be publishing a completely new series for the young adult audience written by Stiefvater.

The Raven Cycle will consist of four books, and the first one, The Raven Boys, will be published September 18th this year. Stiefvater have called this series "magical" and you will find elements of the paranormal, suspense and romance in the books. Here is what the publisher writes about the first book in this series:

The Raven Boys introduces readers to Richard “Dick” Campbell Gansey, III and Blue Sargent. Gansey has it all—family money, good looks, devoted friends—but he’s looking for much more than that. He is on the hunt to find Glendower, a vanished Welsh king. Legend has it that the first person to find him will be granted a wish—either by seeing him open his eyes, or by cutting out his heart. Blue Sargent, the daughter of the town psychic in Henrietta, Virginia, has been told for as long as she can remember that if she ever kisses her true love, he will die. But she is too practical to believe in things like true love. Her policy is to stay away from the rich boys at the prestigious Aglionby Academy. The boys there—known as Raven Boys—can only mean trouble. When Gansey and his Raven Boy friends come into her life, Blue realizes how true this is. She never thought her fortune would be a problem. But now she’s not so sure.

- It feels like such a different sort of project for me, Stiefvater writes on her blog.

I am thrilled that Stiefvater will be publishing a new series. I have still to read the last book in the Wolves of Mercy Falls - trilogy and the Scorpio Races, but I love her writing style. This is so exciting news.

Review: The Name of the Star, Mauren Johnson

Publisher:Putnam Juvenile
Pages:370 (Hardback)
Genre: YA, paranormal
Release:September 2011
Source: Review copy from BEA
Challenge: None this year, read in 2011
Nice to know:The first book in Johnson's new series Shades of London.

The day Louisiana teenager Rory Deveaux arrives in London marks a memorable occasion. For Rory, it's the start of a new life at a London boarding school. But for many, this will be remembered as the day a series of brutal murders broke out across the city, gruesome crimes mimicking the horrific Jack the Ripper events of more than a century ago.

Soon "Rippermania" takes hold of modern-day London, and the police are left with few leads and no witnesses. Except one. Rory spotted the man police believe to be the prime suspect. But she is the only one who saw him. Even her roommate, who was walking with her at the time, didn't notice the mysterious man. So why can only Rory see him? And more urgently, why has Rory become his next target? In this edge-of-your-seat thriller, full of suspense, humor, and romance, Rory will learn the truth about the secret ghost police of London and discover her own shocking abilities.

A Great Storyteller

Maureen Johnson has her own way of telling a story. She writes with humour and entusiasm, and her personality shines through the pages of the book.

In the Name of the Star we get to meet Rory Deveraux. She arrives in London to go to a boarding school, men her stay in this city will be a lot more thrilling than she could ever have imagined. Soon a series of murders takes place, every murder a copy of one of Jack the Ripper's murders. Rory finds herself a witness to one of them, but what has she actually seen?

I had huge expectations for this book. I am deeply fascinated by the myths surrounding Jack the Ripper, and I have read a lot of books about this infamous murderer. I also happen to love London and I love stories that takes place here.

The English will play hockey in any weather. Thunder, lightning, plague of locusts... nothing can stop the hockey. Do not fight the hockey, for the hockey will win.

Johnson's book is off to a good start, and I like her way of writing a story. As I mentioned earlier, I think she is a great storyteller. She does not take herself too seriously, and neither does the characters in her book. She writes with so much humour and spunk, and avoids the big clichés. She also have a lot of funny observations when it comes to the English people and their culture.

Rory is an interesting and great character who seems to embody a lot of Johnson's spirit. She also has a natural and believable development throughout the book.

There is not a lot of romance and love in this book, this aspect takes second place to the big mystery surrounding the murders. I do not mind that. Sometimes the love story takes up to much space in YA - fiction, in the Name of the Star this have been given a natural place. Not too much and not too little.

Kissing is something that makes up for a lot of the other crap you have to put up with in school and as a teenager in general.

No guy had ever asked me if I wanted to talk, not like that. Not like a talk, talk kind of talk - if this was, in fact, a talk, talk "can we talk?" Or whatever.

The book has a thrilling beginning, but the suspense is not sustained throughout the book. There is, though, some interesting twists to the mystery, the problem is it takes too long for anything to really happen. I sat and wanted more as I read and flipped the pages. But for those of you who love paranormal YA, there is a lot of things in the book you would enjoy. The ending came as a complete surprise to me, nothing is what it seems.

I will pick up the next installment in this story because I loved Johnson's writing. The book does not have a cliffhanger, so you can pick it up if you do not normally buy a book in a series.

Other reviews:
The Book Smugglers (OBS: spoilers)
Sam Downing
YA Bibliophile

Waiting on Wednesday: The Wicked and the Just

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine, where we talk about books we are eager to read.

My pick this week is The Wicked and the Just by J. Anderson Coats

Cecily longs to return to her beloved Edgeley Hall, where her father was lord of the manor. But now he has completely ruined her life. He is moving them to Caernarvon, in occupied Wales, where he can get a place for almost nothing, since the king needs good strong Englishmen to keep down the vicious Welshmen. At least Cecily will get to be the lady of the house at last—if all goes well.Gwenhwyfar knows all about that house. Once she dreamed of being the lady there herself, until the English came and destroyed the lives of everyone she knows. Now Gwenhwyfar must wait hand and foot on this bratty English girl who has taken what should have been hers.While Cecily struggles to find her place amongst the snobby English landowners, Gwenhwyfar struggles just to survive. And meanwhile the Welsh are not as conquered as they seem. Outside the city walls of Caernarvon, tensions are rising ever higher—until finally they must reach the breaking point.

This book just sounds great.I love historical fiction and this one seems to have quite some adventure in it. The book comes out april 17th. 


Which book are you waiting for?

Happy New Year

I have had a long break from bookblogging on The Norwegian Book Girl. The past months was really busy and hectic, but now I am back and eager to start the new year.

I am going to sign up for some reading challenges this year as well, and these are the ones I wanna go with:


100 books in a year

Horror and Urban Fantasy Reading Challenge
I plan to read 30 books



Off the Shelf
I plan to read 30 books

The Dystopia Challenge
I plan to read 15 books

The Historical Fiction Challenge

I plan to read 10 books


Have a great reading weekend everyone!