"Tata, one i ja" by Manula Kalicka

It’s a book of a Polish author (the title in English would be something like: "Dad, them and me"). I took it as a light reading before going to sleep. And it was :) It would be nothing really special, but it has one thing which was adding a lot of joy during reading it – great amount of good humor in it. It’s really funny, there are many opportunities for laughing during reading it.

It’s a story of a family. The mother is deciding to leave the family and go to Africa with her great new love, she can’t resist it. So, she is leaving 2 daughters (teenager and 6 years old), her husband and rest of family and moving to Africa. The father is a rock musician, party type, loving to party until the morning, with a lot of alcohol, some weed and plenty of nice chicks around him. There is a new lady-help in the house, great cook, who help them surviving without any woman in the house ;) There is also a cool, incredible grandma and a nice, funny grandpa. And quite some girls which are trying to “hunt” the father and get involved in the relationship with a famous singer. There is a lot of funny adventure happening in this family, but of course everything is finishing good: father found his new love and decide to merry her, kids like the future stepmother, the real mother is also changing her great love for another great love, with whom she is getting married. The happy end :)

It’s an easy story, but sometimes it’s good just to read a light story, laugh and have a good sleep afterwards.

"Trzepot skrzydeł" by Katarzyna Grochola

This book is written by a very popular Polish author. She is good in writing books, which are close to chick lits (but still there is “something more” in most them). But this book is different. The title means more less “Flap of wings” and it’s related with the ending of the book.

It’s a story of a woman. Woman who dream about love in her life, about something who will also take care about her. This need is also related with luck of acting out, her parents rather didn’t show her that they love her and that she is important for them.

At some point of her life she met a prince charming. He was full of love, taking care about her, fulfilling her wishes before she even thought about them. Shortly – an ideal. They got married and the live is just beautiful. As long as she doesn’t recognize that actually he is treating her as his property and doesn’t want to “share her” with anybody, he wants to take all the decisions etc. She lost all of her friends, she is all the time at home, just waiting for him and doing what he is asking for. And even this is not enough. This “not comfortable” situation Is slowly growing up to the hell… The first hit, the first slap, first black eye… Then “regular” beating, kicking… All the time new excuses at work – I felt down in the bathroom, I hurtled the shelf and so on. When he finally breaks her arm it seems that something get to his brain or heart and he is changing to the “short-after-we’ve-got-married” version. Happiness is blooming, she finally starts to think about having a baby, stops to take pills. But the happiness did not last for long – just because of one sentence everything started again. But this time she is trying to fight. As the result she is finishing in the hospital, with a lot of physical damage and lost child… But the women are though, so she is trying to overcome all the happenings in her life and start the new life by herself. And you want to believe she will manage it…

The story is written in the frame of kind of one long letter she is writing to someone to sum up her life. We don’t know the addressee until the very last pages of the book. Who is that?

I really like the book, it was well written story. And what’s more important – it’s dealing with one of the most common problems of women – domestic violence. Statistically the most physical and mental damage women get in the acts of domestic violence. So, it’s good to speak it loud and also to do it in the way which gives some – realistic – hope for changes and for the future. Good work!

Books to be read by Aga

Ok, now I'm trying to create a list, which is not so easy as you know ;) After some time of thinking I hope to reach 8 books in all of those 8 categories above. I already wrote some books in a few categories as I'm sure I would like to read them in this year. Some categories are empty and I'll be very flexible during next months to fill them :) So...

I. Already owned:

1. "Elephants can remember" by Agatha Christie
2. "The clocks" by Agatha Christie
3. "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" by Victor Hugo
4. "Breakfast at Tiffany's" by Truman Capote
5. "Uśmiech Dalidy" by Dominika Cosic
6. "Panther in the Basement" by Amos Oz

II. Around the World:

1. "Snow Flower and the secret fan" by Lisa See (02.08.08) - review here
2. "Berlin Alexanderplatz by Alfred Doblin (13.08.08) - review here
3. "Forbidden City" by William Bell
4. "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini (19.08.08) - review here
5. "Porte De LA Paix Celeste" by Shan Sa (14.08.08) - review here
6. "Dreams Of Trespass: Tales Of A Harem Girlhood" by Fatima Mernissi
7. "The Bookseller of Kabul" by Asne Seierstad

III. Books in Polish:

1. "Tata, one i ja" by Manula Laicka ("Dad, them and me")
2. "Zniewolony umysł" by Czesław Miłosz ("Subdued mind")
3. "Trzepot skrzydeł" by Katarzyna Grochola (22.08.08) - review here
4. "Jadąc do Babadag" by Andrzej Stasiuk

IV. Books in English:

1. "Three Men in a Boat (to say nothing of the dog)" by Jerome K. Jerome (11.08.08) - review here
2. "Bollywood Nights" by Shobhaa De (09.08.08) - review here
3. "Bergdorf Blondes" by Plum Sykes
4. "Notting Hell" by Rachel Johnson
5. "South of the Border, West of the Sun" by Haruki Murakami (22.08.08) - review here
6. "The fifth woman" by Henning Mankel

V. Exchanged books (via http://www.podaj.net/ or http://www.bookmooch.com/):

1. "Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal" by Christopher Moore
2. "Dangerous Liaisons" by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos
3. "Winter's Tales" by Karen Blixen
4. "The last promise" by Richard Paul Evans
5. "L'Anneau du pêcheur" by Jean Raspail
6. "Promise Me" by Harlan Coben

VI. 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (my proposals for today only!):

1. "Jacques the Fatalist" by Denis Diderot
2. "The Monk" by M.G. Lewis
3. "The Age of Innocence" by Edith Wharton
4. "Mrs. Dalloway" by Virginia Woolf

VII. Classics:

1. "Crime and punishment" by Fiodor Dostoyevski (31.07.08) - review here
2. "Plague" by Albert Camus

VIII. Popular Reads:

1. "The Nanny Diaries" by Nicola Kraus & Emma McLaughlin (22.08.08) - review here
2. "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" by J.K. Rowling
3. "Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets" by J.K. Rowling

So, now just need to read 64 books and write reviews, easy :D