Ti | Book Chatter

Bloggers are always asking me how to get books. Well, there are a lot of ways but wouldn’t it be wonderful if bloggers could sign-up to receive books? Well, this year’s Indie Lit Awards is going to help you with that. If you are a book blogger, interested in reviewing what could potentially be the best book of 2011, then head on over to the Indie Lit Awards site, select a genre, and sign-up to receive books.

Additionally, Wallace and I have decided to open the awards up to ALL readers. Meaning, that you don’t need to be a blogger to nominate a book. When nominations open in September, you…as a reader can nominate your fave books published in 2011. I’ll post more about the process as we get closer.

On a personal note, The Boy’s school year ends in two weeks! I can’t believe it. The short year is due to mandatory furlough days for the teachers, but I will be so glad when he is done. It’s been rough keeping him on track during his first year of middle school. He’s brilliant in so many ways, charismatic, and his teachers enjoy having him around but he’s so unorganized! His backpack is a walking disaster and I am tired of getting on him about it. I can’t wait to take all of his notebooks and just toss ’em. They have to glue their assignments into a spiral binder and they always fall out, everywhere. Can’t wait to ditch ’em.

Summer basketball is about the start-up for The Boy, yet no swimming lessons this year. I miss them. I use to spend so much time at the pool, reading and listening to the splashes in the background. It just screamed summer to me but they are both swimmers now so they aren’t needed. Somehow, sitting in a hot gym doesn’t have the same appeal.

Okay, that last part wasn’t too exciting but it’s exciting to me. I love when my kids are involved with stuff. I go crazy nuts keeping track of it all, but I love for them to make new friends and have fun. The Girl will be playing volleyball in the fall so her summer will be easy (just summer day camp).

What are you doing for the weekend? I am going to the dentist. I know… sooooo fun.

The Snowman
Book #7 (Harry Hole Series)
By Jo Nesbø; Don Bartlett (Translator)
(Knopf, Hardcover, 9780307595867, 400pp, May 2011)

*No Spoilers*

The Short of It:

The Snowman is full of twists and turns. It’s the type of book that you cook with, sleep with and eat with. I could not turn the pages fast enough. It was that good.

The Rest of It:

A funny thing happened while reading this book. Jill and I were gushing over The Devil’s Star, which is also part of the Harry Hole series so when an opportunity came up for us to read The Snowman, we jumped at the chance. We jumped so fast that we didn’t realize that we missed the book in between (#6, The Redeemer). Jill informed me of this when I was about three chapters in, but you know what? It didn’t matter! Yes, there were some personal tidbits regarding Harry himself that would have been nice to know, but it didn’t affect the story at all. I mean, I started the series with book #5 anyway so it really didn’t matter.

This book was fantastic! I am loving Scandinavian crime fiction and Nesbø is a master storyteller. There’s just something about the texture and mood of his writing that appeals to me. The story begins in Oslo with a young boy waking up to the first snow of the season. His mother is missing, and in her place is a snowman, wearing her scarf. As Harry is called in to investigate, another woman is reported missing and the pattern is repeated. Each time, the snowman becoming more gruesome than the last.

Harry is an interesting character and constantly evolving. His personal life is always stressed in some way and he’s always teetering on the edge of destruction. Sometimes he’s on the wagon (recovering alcoholic) and other times he caves to his weaknesses, but this is what I love about Harry. Professionally, there is never anyone else more suited to the job, yet you wonder if he will ever pull it together and as a reader, you cheer him on and hope for the best. I can’t think of any other time when I’ve cheered a detective on.

I got my coworker to read it and he’s come in here three times to tell me who the killer is, and each time he’s been wrong! Nesbø is so good at what he does.

If you’ve never read Scandinavian crime fiction, give this series a try. The only challenge is that some of the books are not currently available in the US. That’s why Jill and I had to read them out-of-order, but The Book Depository has a few of them (they ship for free) and you might be able to get some of them from other sources. I am hoping that once the entire series has been released someone will publish them as a complete set. It sounds like a hassle to seek these books out but you won’t be sorry if you do.

Jill is also reviewing it today, so stop by and see what she has to say about it!

Source: Sent to me by the publisher.

Note:

Mr. Nesbø doesn’t know it but I am completely obsessed with ~~him~~ his writing. So much so, that I have a small poster of him hanging in my office. If you’d like to know more about Mr. Nesbø, visit his website.

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