Who´s afraid of Beatie Bow? by Ruth Park

As strange as it might sound I would describe this book as adorable! I read it in 7th grade and I still have it as one of the favourites.
Its about Abigail, 14years old living her mother, who often babysits for her neighbours´ children. One day when the children were playing Who´s afraid of Beatie Bow, in the park Abigail noticed a girl who never played along, she just sat there watching the other kids. When the girl walked away, Abigail followed her to out of curiousity because she felt the girl was a bit strange. After a while Abigail ended up in a neigbhourhood she had never seen before, everything was completely different and strange. She had actually time traveled, a hundred years back in time.
This story is really easy to read and captivating that I believe anyone who reads it finishes it at once, never taking a break until the story is all done.

Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

Love this book! Another we read in IB and another I recommend to everyone! Its filled with many different kinds of emotions. Its about the difference in two generations, mother-daughter-relationshops, culture differences and misunderastandings, happiness, sorrow and lots of humour! A definite favourite!

Oprah, A biography by Kitty Kelley

Wow what an interesting view of the woman behind the name Oprah this book gave me. I absolutely love her show, and the picture I had of the woman Oprah. But after reading this book it gave me a more realistic view of her. Even though of course, like with all biographies written by others than the person whose life story it really is, the sources must be carefully looked through before believing any of it. Most of what was written here just made sense, it was simply logical and believeable. Oprah was just toooo good to be all true, or at least for the picture I and most others have of her to be true. Nobody is perfect, duh. Still love the woman, she is an inspiration to me no matter what because this book really throws a lot of trash on her but still, nobody is perfect and it kind of just made me like her even more because this book made her more...well, normal? It makes you think, once again, if she can, anyone can.

Barack Obama, Dreams from my father by Barack Obama

The U.S President Barack Obama is an amazing person according to me. I have been following his work ever since the news that he would be running for presidency came out. I love to hear his speeches, such an intelligent man, even though of course, he is not the one writing all his speeches, nothing could help Bush for example. I still cant believe that man is for real...
Anyway, this is an interesting book by Barack Obama which was published in 1995 for the first time, as he was preparing to launch his political career five years after being elected the first African-American president of the Harvard-Review.

Twilight Saga by Stephanie Meyer

Saw the movies first...never a good thing but nevertheless, I really, really, really enjoyed reading these books. I like the movies, adore the soundtrack and love the books. It always amazes me how the same story can feel like two different, the movie and the book.

Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling

The magical story about Harry Potter and his friends is really something spectacular. It has everything children want to read about and imagine to be themselves. This is the kind of writer I would love to be, to truly be able to give life to the amazing characters. Tolkien and J.K. Rowling are my very favourite authors, probably of all time, even though Austen, Bronte and others are very close to the heart.

The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova

Dissapointed. As captivated as I was by The Historian and couldnt wait to read more of Kostovas´ work, I ended up very dissapointed when I was finished with The Swan Thieves.
At first the story seemed to follow a bit in the ghostly Historian atmosphere, but than it somehow changed somewhere in the befinning and it became harder and harder to read through the (what felt to be) incredibly long and many pages. I disliked all the characters, they just felt irritating and just...blah!
I really tried to like the story and gave it an honest chance by reading (with a struggle) to the very last word but I suppose I had to great expectations on this book and was let down.

The historian by Elizabeth Kostova

This book captured me, to say the least. I was so captivated that I read the books´ filled and heavy 641 pages in 3 nights, and that is a very short time for this kind of book. I surely wouldn´t have finished it in 3 nights if it wasnt as captivating as it was to read. It felt like I was in the story, traveling through Europe, searching for the truth with the fear that I might find it soon. Kostovas´ way of writing is so fascinating to me that she has become one of my best liked authors. This book is a must read, after of course first finishing Bram Stokers´ classic, Dracula.

Singoalla by Victor Rydberg

Another great work of art I read while in IB. Published 1857. Rydberg describes a medieval world, at least it is exacly the way I always imagine the medieavl world to look like, full of castles, munks and kings. Well, thats the fairytale medieval world I like to imagine anyway.
Singoalla is a gypsie girl who falls in love with the fair prince, which of course leads the novel to be a very sad love story. Its full of darkness and sorrow, unjustice and prejudices. Its not an easy novel to read because its quite dark in itself, the story and the events that occur. It gives a clear understanding that the church, the munks and christianity represent the bright side, the goodness and the unfaithful, the gypsies etc are the darkness.
I always recommed this book to people who like to read this genre because its truly one of my favourites and Ive read it a couple of times now.

Miss Julie by August Strindberg (Fröken Julie)

I was introduced to (according to me crazy) Mr Strindberg´s work Miss Julie during my years at IB <3
I absolutely loved it! It really is a classic and a work of art.
Essentially a morality play, classic repartee between the main characters in a subtle rendering of gender versus class in a rigidly moral society.

Prep by Curtis Sittenfield

A good, intruiging book about the life of a teenage girl and her years at a privilegied school. About everyday things at that school, which is basically like a bubble, its all about the people in the school and everything that happens there is huge.
Curtis Sittenfeld’s novel, Prep is an insightful, achingly funny coming-of-age story as well as a brilliant dissection of class, race, and gender in a hothouse of adolescent angst and ambition.

Element Encyclopedia of Secret Societies by John Michael Greer

Another great encyclopedia, focused on the secret socities and things like Atlantis. Very interesting. In fact, so interesting that me and Rozerin used it while we were obsessed over a weekend in trying to figure out how the world truly works, why we are here and what the meaning of this life is. What secret agenda the world leaders and politicians truly have and what will become of us. We were up all night reading about Atlantis among other things and went to bed for three hours, at nine o´clock in the morning because there is just too much knowledge to gain, too many secrets in the world for us to go and ...sleep! Seriously, what a waste of valuable time. Anyhow, great encyclopedia about everything from freemasons to atlantis and much more.

The Element Encyclopedia of Ghosts & Hauntings by Theresa Cheung

Definitely my kind of book! Bought it in the sci-fi store in Old Town, Stockholm. Havent really read through it, but as it is an encyclopedia and a very good one, I find myself going through it often and find a lot of interesting "facts". Love it!

101 historical myths, by Åke Persson & Thomas Oldrup

What a fun book! I laughed several times because when you think about it, it reallys if funny, some of the things we learn in school about some historical events and then go on believing them no matter how stupid they might sound. We rarely look up the true facts, instead, we just go on believing what we heard once in school or what everybody else say because hey, then its gotta be true, right? NO!
 And in most cases its not! This book is written by two Swedish historians, journalists and a writers. They wrote this book with a lot of humour and a lot of knowledge. When you read this you realize how unlogical and unrealistic your view of history and the people in it really was. Ha Ha!

The hobbit, by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

A great modern classic and the prelude to The lord of the Rings. The author is one of my big inspirations or idols. His works are such an inspiration to me, just incredible. I read the hobbit while I was in 9th grade but I can still remember all of Bilbo Baggins adventures.

The lost symbol, by Dan Brown

Dan Brown is a God! If there is such a thing of course, but what an amazing mind! All of his books which Ive read so far are just, well I cant find the words. They are so enlightning among other great things. They really make you see the world and our lives in a new way, you understand and mostly, you SEE things differently. Great, great, great book! Amazing author! A definite MUST read!!!

Welcome to the Jungle, by Stephen Davis

This is a book about the legend Guns´n Roses! Read it just before I started reading Slash´s biography. Its always different when you read a biography and when you read what someone else has written about a certain thing, event, person etc. When I read Slash´s biography it was easier to relax and just take in everything because it comes from the man himself, all the facts etc. While reading this book, it was a little bit different, although you can always look up the facts and I did, also a lot of the things mentioned in the book I knew from before, since Ive been such a G´n´R freak through the years.
However, I can truly that I liked this book a lot because the facts were all right and the way it is written gives you an objective view, its not taking anyone´s side or whatever.
I never truly understood in what bad shape Axl really was before reading this book.
I think that every fan of G´n´R was happy to see this book out. I know I was. And the pictures included are a plus!

Kissed by an angel, by Elizabeth Chandler

To be honest, I bought this book because I thought that the cover was beautiful. It seemed intruging but I wouldnt have bought it if I had only read what its about. Because it is just another love story and those are not really my favourite. I mean, I liked Twilight and all that but its not something I prioritze to read or enjoy as much as some other genres.
Bought this book at Heathrow Airport and read through the first chapters on the airport, continuing on the plane, so it always makes me think of London. I couldnt stop reading and by the time I got home I had a very few chapters left and I think I read them all the same day. I do read my books fast but not that fast!
Its a story about a young couple, they have a car accident and one of the dies. Everything afterwards is about the dead lover trying to rescue the one who survived from a danger, a danger who was the reason for the accident aswell.
Its not a very special story or something I haven seen on TV before but it was maybe the way it was written, it made special somehow and the story and the people in it were just genuine and simple. Still, the story has a ghost, probably that is a big factor for making me like the book at all. Everything paranormal has always been importnant to me. This book and story gets a 3 out of 5 from me. Whether it is stars or points or whatever. Good book!

Slash, by Slash with Anthony Bozza

I spent a whole day in bed with Slash! Absolutely loved this book! Very easy to read and understand and lots of humour, but at the same time it gave me feelings of anxiety a couple of times while reading. Saul´s life really confirms the picture we all have of rockstars, its full of sex, drugs and rock n´ roll! Or at least it was full of all that. Now of course he still is the greatest rock star, greatest according to me, but his life is very different today with wife and kids, and health issues which often come after a life filled with drugs and alcohol.
However, reading the book was a joy and I really respect Mr Slash even more than I did before. Everyone who  likes rock ´n roll have to read it!

Interview with the vampire, by Anne Rice

 

 

Interview with the vampire by Anne Rice

 Interview with the Vampire is a vampire novel by Anne Rice written in 1973 and published in 1976
Seen the movie ,(1994) yes, the storyline was there aswell as the characters, but as always or as in most cases, the book and the movie should not be compared because its just dumb. It cant be compared unless you of course see the movie first.
If you read the book, in this case, you get a completely different story in your head, you get a picture of the characters which the movie will probably only destroy no matter how good the movie in itself is. Therefore, I would suggest that everyone just stop comparing and just try to see the book and the movie as two different stories.
 Now I really liked this book, I havent read any of Rice´s other works which I can´t believe myself.
"Interview with the vampire" is a story which sounds "realistic" in a world where vampires exist because the way Louis talks about his life makes you truly understand his sufferingsin a true way and you might aswell be able to make metaphors out of the extraordinary characters and events that occur in his life, and translate them into our own ordinary lives and events that we go through in life. 
Out of 5 I would give this book a 3 and a half...probably because I saw the movie first and had a hard time to get away from the annoying famous faces of Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise and Kirsten Dunst playing Rice´s characters which ruined the experience of the great story for me, unfortunately.
Anyhow, Rice surely knows her vampires, so this is a must read!