"Promise me" by Harlan Coben

I was hesitating before if I should read any of books of Harlan Coben – you know, sometimes books of these very popular and “breedy” authors are not really worth of reading. But then I’ve got a chance to get it on the Polish version of BookMooch in the frame of special action – the books are suppose to come back to this web portal the latest in 30 days after receiving them, so it’s kind of queue for books :) I took this challenge. And for sure I’m not sorry about it.

The Polish translation and proofreading is not the masterpiece in this case. But still the book is worth of reading. It’s a story of Myron, guy trying to forget about his past and live his live as a co-owner of the PR company. During a small party at his home he promises to two teenagers (members of his friends’ families) that he will always pick them up in any case if they would be suppose to be driven home by a drunk driver or in similar case. Some days later one of the girls is calling him in the middle of the night and ask for the lift. He drives her to the house which she is telling is belonging to the family of her friend. The day later is still not back at home. She disappeared. And then the story began…

There are much more threads in this book than this single one and it’s keeping the attention (at least of me) until the end. And the end was surprising for me – it did finish in another way I thought it will be and also with other suspects than I thought. What is pretty good in my opinion. Or maybe I was not enough smart to find the answers out by myself ;)

It’s an interesting book, which is good to read if you want to don’t think about something else or just have some time and want to relax (if you may relax during reading such stories ;))
I already ordered 3 other books of Coben on the site of this action :)

"Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal" by Christopher Moore

It was one of the first books which I’ve exchanged on the Polish website similar to BookMooch. It was waiting quite long for being read ;)

It’s a nice, funny, mostly light story in a form of new Gospel, written by a friend of Jesus, who was vitalized by an angel to create it. It focus mostly on the years, where are not really well known and well described in the Bible, wonder why ;) So, we’re getting to know Jesus childhood, growing up to his teenager years and then being an adult. On the way from Jesus childhood to his last days he has incredible amount of adventures –learning how to heal people, how to kick demons from them etc. When both of them are teenagers they decide to go and find 3 wise men, who were welcoming Jesus after he was born. So, they spend years and years on finding them and learning new knowledge and skills from them (with a lot of funny and not funny adventures.

Jesus in this book Is close to being an “ordinary person” – he has his doubts, fears, sins, temptations and so on. He is funny, sarcastic, with a sense of humor. You could have a pal like he :)

Of course, it’s just a funny fiction story, but it’s well written, keeping the attention of the reader all the time, giving a lot of fun while reading. I recommend reading it :)

"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.

"The Nanny Diaries" by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus

I was expecting more less an easy chick lit. And to be honest – I was surprised with what I’ve got during reading it. But it was a positive surprise!

It’s a story of a student, living in New York and trying to earn some money during the last year of her studies – working as a nanny. In the park she have met a family making a family pictures. She deals with the little boy – Grayer and through that she is “noticed”, by his mother – Mrs. X. She asked her to work for them – just a few times per week, flexible schedule etc. Everything looks perfect, but… With time she is rather getting into being a slave of the family, manage with dozens of issues which are not in the tasks of being Nanny of Grayer. But she starts to love the little guy, so she kept her work there. The family X is a reach family, with working father and “socially involved” mother. They totally don’t care about their son (besides of trying to put him in the best private school). The father just work and have love affair. Mother is trying to be “perfect” and also to keep her husband to stay with them. And in all these happenings they’re forgetting about their own 4 years old son. Who starts to see Nanny as the most important person in his life. What will happened at the end? Will take “wake up” in their life? Will be there any change for better?

I took this book as a “light” reading before falling asleep, but need to admit it got my attention and I was even getting angry on the family X :) Now, I’ll try to look for another book of these 2 authors to check if I’ll also like it or not.

"South of the Border, West of the Sun" by Haruki Murakami

It was for me a first book of Murakami which I read in my life. And it was a good beginning of the adventure with his writings.

It’s a story of a life of Japanese boy, later man. It’s the story of his relations with other people, but mostly women. Starting with an incredible friendship with Shimamoto when they were kids, through first relationship, college times, first work, the years full of loneliness up to meeting his wife and creating a family. Great wife and 2 daughters, owner of 2 popular jazz clubs, healthy man. But something is missing… How it’ll finish? It’s a very well written story about love, about the biggest love, about loneliness, about longing, about pain. About human being. But also about reality – especially the end is giving us a lot of surprises. The characters are well build, the story is interesting and go on very well during reading. It’s worth to give a try and read it :) I'll look for other books of this author as well.

And I love the cover ;)

"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!

"The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini

I was thinking about reading this book for a long time. But the problem was to get it. There is no in the library in my village, in the bookstores it’s quite expensive, on the Polish version of BookMooch there is no copies at all. At least I found a lovely person who agreed to mooch it to me from the United Kingdom via BookMooch.

Already the first sentence and the whole first paragraph conquered my mind and heart - „I became what I am today at the age of twelve, on a frigid overcast day in the winter of 1975.”. I felt like sitting on my grandpa knees, during the freezing winter evening, nice warm fire in the fireplace and He is telling me the story of his life. And because of that the author got my interest already with the first paragraph :)

This book is about feelings, about what is good and beautiful in us, but also about what is scary and monstrous. We discover a history of a family, but also the history of a country. Country which suffered a lot during last few dozen of years. And will suffer still in the future, as it’s impossible to see a soon end of the conflict in Afghanistan. This book shows us the beauty of this country, tells us about people living in it, about their daily life, habits, celebrations, how they enjoy themselves, how they pray, celebrate, love, how their families function, how the social relations looks like.

But mainly tell us a story of a boy. Boy and his friend. Boy and his father. Boy and his wife. Boy and… I think that during reading this book I never read more than 2 chapters at time. There is too much of feelings in it, it gave too big emotional and psychological load, too many questions raised in my head. But that’s better, it’s not an ordinary chick lit, which you may “swallow” in one or two hours. That’s this kind of book about which you thinks a lot, even when you’re not reading it at the moment. Still everything is “melting” in my head, that’s why it’s still difficult to write the review of it.

Maybe – as some people are telling – Khaled Hosseini is just a great “craftsman”. Maybe this book is just an example of a good technique. Maybe, it’s not me to judge it, I’m not an expert. But this book is a wonderful gift for me, for which I’m very grateful for him. And that’s why my copy of “The Kite Runner” will stay on my shelf. No chances for mooching it. And I already mooched „A Thousand Splendid Suns” – to give myself another such a great gift :)