I have been working my way through shelf sitters (unread books I have gathered in various ways) during the last year. Unfortunately, there is not a lot of good stuff there but there were few gemstones in between. Okey, to be honest, some of those gemstones I went out and bought *blush*. Anyway, I thought I should point out few of my favorites in case somebody is looking for a good summer read.



If you can only pick one book to read this summer I recommend Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri. Chances are that reading it will make you rush to the bookstore and buy her novel The Namesake which is another wonderful book. Interpreter of Maladies is a short story collection, for which she won the Pulitzer prize, and as her novel it is mostly about first and second generation Indian immigrants in the States struggling to come to grasps with cultural clashes. The stories manage to strip reality down to its basic form and this nakedness makes them extremely powerful. I remember reading Interpreter of Maladies increasingly slowly because I wanted it to last forever. Two of her short stories can be found online: Hell-Heaven and Once In A Lifetime.

A Norwegian trilogy called Tora by Herbjørg Wassmo has been haunting me ever since I read it.. Unfortunately, only the first book in that series is translated to English: The house with the blind glass window. Tora is a young girl, living in a small island community up in North of Norway. Her life is
really harsh. Partially because her mother had her during the war with a German soldier (looked down upon back in the days), and because her stepfather sexually abuses her. The three books portray her as she struggles through her harsh childhood and as she develops into a young woman. The books are very well written in a beautiful, poetic language and manage to evoke strong emotions. I plan to write a bit more about those books but for the time being I will leave it at highly recommending them.



White Oleander by Janet Fitch was simply beautiful. The story is about a girl with a disturbed mother who kills her lover and is put in jail. The girl ends up going between various foster homes and has to fight for her existence and against her mother's selfish power over her. The story was good but the best part was the writing. The book was packed with analogies which are my favorite eye candy.








I loved Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude when I read it long time ago and I almost loved Love in the Time of Cholera as much. His writing is wonderfully colorful and you feel like you are sitting in a field with thousand of colorful butterflies flying before your eyes. Every mundane detail becomes interesting in his hands.



Out of Africa by Karen Blixen was a what I call an interesting read. Well written recounts of Karen Blixen's own life in Africa on her coffee plantation. The book showed me a face of Africa which I haven't seen before and which I liked.



If you want to sample Icelandic literature, I recommend Angels of the Universe by Einar Már Guðmundsson. Story about mentally ill man (unofficially the author is writing about his brother). The story is an elegant mix of sadness and humor. Be warned though, the story is heartbreaking and no matter how many times I read it, it always makes me cry.



You are just looking for a light, girly summer read? Oh well, I must admit that I really couldn't help liking both Angles by Marian Keyes and Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding. Sassy books!



I usually make very informal comments on all the books I read on my book page. Expect poor grammar and spelling and even half finished sentences but there might be some useful stay clear warnings in there of books that were just absolute shit:-).