Synopsis:
It all starts on the one-hundredth birthday of Allan Karlsson. Sitting quietly in his room in an old people’s home, he is waiting for the party he-never-wanted-anyway to begin. The Mayor is going to be there. The press is going to be there. But, as it turns out, Allan is not… Slowly but surely Allan climbs out of his bedroom window, into the flowerbed (in his slippers) and makes his getaway. And so begins his picaresque and unlikely journey involving criminals, several murders, a suitcase full of cash, and incompetent police. As his escapades unfold, we learn something of Allan’s earlier life in which – remarkably – he helped to make the atom bomb, became friends with American presidents, Russian tyrants, and Chinese leaders, and was a participant behind the scenes in many key events of the twentieth century. Already a huge bestseller across Europe, The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared is a fun and feel-good book for all ages.
Review:
Each character has a backstory and each backstory is intertwined with the main story. The main character, Allan Karlsson's story is told in alternating segments of the current story and his backstory. I found the writing style helped make this meandering novel an entertaining read.
Because Karlsson's life is woven into political and world history, part of the plot featured famous world leaders and famous world events. Since I am only vaguely aware of such historical events, I found it difficult to differentiate between fact and fiction. I guess this allowed me to suspend my disbelief more than others might because to me, aside from the main character's participation, it could all have been true.
The plot and the characters were intriguing enough that I wanted to continue reading. I liked the writing style and the happy ending(s). I liked that there was a full-figured, red-haired woman nicknamed The Beauty...I love when a character resembles me.
Read on,
Paula
Synopsis:
This is the story of a young copywriter in New York City. He's worked at the same agency for fifteen years, and with a recent promotion under his belt, life is good. Then, one morning this copywriter finds himself unceremoniously fired from his job, and after he catches his live-in girlfriend moving out of their apartment a couple hours later, he's also single. Believe it or not, these aren't the biggest problems in this copywriter's life. There's something bigger, something that has been haunting him his whole life, something that he'll never be able to shake. Meet Earnest Hemmingway.
What's in a name? Well, if you share your moniker with the likes of some of the most revered, infamous, and sometimes dreaded names in history, plenty. This is Earnest's lifelong plight, but something more recent is on his plate: His father is pressuring him to come home and play an active role in running the family clothing business. And as a complex familial battle plays out, Earnest's inherited name leads him in unexpected directions. Wry, clever, and utterly engaging, No Relation is Terry Fallis at the top of his form.
My review:
I loved Fallis' book "Up and Down". It was the first book I had read by him. I found it quite funny and understood why it won him the Stephen Leacock Award for Humour in 2013. A friend has read and loved his other two books "The Best Laid Plans" and "The High Road" because of how funny she found them; they are on my TBR. So knowing that he's good at humour, that's what I was expecting this time around. When I saw him in July 2013 and he told us the basic synopsis of "No Relation", I knew I wanted to read it because of how funny it sounded. I have to say that, in my opinion, it is not as funny as "Up and Down". But that's not a bad thing. It's still a great book. I did find humour in it and chuckled at parts. My friend, who is also reading it at the same time as me, also found it less funny. Despite that, I still found it an interesting and gripping read. The plot and characters drew me into the story and kept me wanting to know what would happen next. I love books with happy endings and this ties up all the loose threads and rounds everything up nicely.
Part of the plot involves a character named after Professor James Moriarty, Sherlock Holmes nemesis. This leads Earnest to read the Sherlock Holmes stories. I have had "The Complete Sherlock Holmes" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in a lovely Penguin giant paperback edition and in e-book format. Reading "No Relation" has re-ignited my desire to read the Sherlock Holmes book.
One of the things I love most about Terry Fallis is that he offers audio versions of his books as free podcasts on iTunes. After hearing him read an excerpt from "Up and Down" at the author talk at my library, I downloaded all the episodes of his other books. Even though I have already read "Up and Down" and "No Relation", I will be rereading them by listening to him read them to me. I plan to do the same with the other two.
Read on,
Paula
I don't know why I have never posted any bookish art on my blog. I browse through other book-themed blogs that post such things in order to download them, print them out, and add them to my book journal/scrapbook. I just don't know why I never before thought of putting them here for others to enjoy. I have decided I will do so occasionally. I don't want to overdo it. Just my favourites, I think.
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I like to look through these blogs in order to find inspiration for my home library: ways to enhance it, furniture I would like to add, books I would like to read, etc.
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This is the background on my laptop*:
And this is the background for my iPhone*:
Reading/browsing these book-related blogs always fires my desire to read. And since my reader's block seems to have mostly dissipated, I will soak up all the inspiration I need.
*I apologize that I have not been keeping track of the sources since that seems to be a thing other bloggers do.
Read on,
Paula
Restrictions (from Booking Through Thursday)
God* comes to you and tells you that, from this day forward, you may only read ONE type of book–one genre–period, but you get to choose what it is. Classics, Science-Fiction, Mystery, Romance, Cookbooks, History, Business … you can choose, but you only get ONE.
What genre do you pick, and why?
*Whether you believe in God or not, pretend for the purposes of this discussion that He is real.
I love non-fiction books of the popular science/history genre. I love Malcolm Gladwell and Mary Roach, for instance. I have Mark Kurlansky, Sam Kean, and Erik Larson, among many, on my TBR. I have books about the history of food, neuroscience, psychology, and science in general on my TBR. GoodReads has a list of "microhistories" of which I have read 5 already and have 14 on my TBR. These are the types of books I gravitate to in general so if I was limited to just one genre it would be this one. However, I would prefer to limit it to non-fiction in general.
Read on,
Paula
