Das Kartengeheimnis

Jostein Gaarder
Dtv, 1998
ISBN: 3423125004

Der 12-jährige Hans-Thomas (gibt es in Norwegen wirklich solche Namen?) fährt mit seinem Vater nach Athen, um seine Mutter zu suchen. Auf dem Weg dorthin bekommt HT ein winziges Büchlein geschenkt, das eine wundersame Geschichte erzählt. Diese Geschichte ist wirklich phantastisch, aber meiner Meinung nach nicht so philosophisch wie vom Buchumschlag angepriesen. Eine nette Geschichte. Wer aber einen wirklich guten Einstieg in die Philosophie sucht, der kommt an Sophies Welt nicht vorbei und sollte es auch gar nicht erst versuchen. Mehr Lust auf so ein doch recht schwieriges Buch kann man durch keine andere Lektüre bekommen.

Nun, auch das Kartengeheimnis hat natürlich seine guten Gedanken...
So ist es mit allem, dachte ich, so ist es mit der ganzen Welt. Solange wir Kinder sind, haben wir noch die Fähigkeit, die Welt um uns herum zu erleben. Doch dann wird uns die ganze Welt zur Gewohnheit. Kind zu sein und aufzuwachsen, dachte ich, ist wie sich an Empfindungen, an Sinneserlebnissen zu betrinken.
Nur schade, dass man das erst viel später bemerkt (wenn überhaupt). Meine Eltern sagen ja auch immer "Jugend ist wie Trunkenheit ohne Wein." (Naja, seit ich nicht mehr zur Gruppe der Jugendlichen zähle, sagen sie das irgendwie nicht mehr. Komisch das.)

Jostein Gaarder, geboren 1952, lehrte elf Jahre lang Philosophie an einem Gymnasium in Bergen, Norwegen. (Ich wünschte, ich hätte am Gymnasium Philosophie gehabt!) Mittlerweile lebt er als freier Schriftsteller in Oslo.

Erhältlich bei Amazon.

Tag: Roman

The Facts behind the Helsinki Roccamatios

Yann Martel
The Facts behind the Helsinki Roccamatios
Canongate Books, 2004
ISBN: 1841955361

Four stories form Martel's early years of writing:
. The Facts behind the Helsinki Roccamatios
. The Time I Heard the Private Donald J. Rankin String Concerto with One Discordant Violin, by the American Composer John Morton
. Manners of Dying
. The Vita Æterna Mirror Company: Mirrors to Last till Kingdom Come

If you've read a very inventive story by one author and then you decide to read another one of his books, does that mean you are prepared for what is to come? Not necessarily. I found these four stories to be just as imaginative as I had thought, well, maybe a little more. I mean, if you look at the titles of the stories alone, they are wonderous. And so are the stories. I did not enjoy Manners of Dying as much as I enjoyed the other ones. Martel gives his stories a twist that you just don't expect but that makes total sense.

Yann Martel was born in Spain in 1963, of Canadian parents, and currently lives in Montreal. He is the author of Life of Pi and Self.

This book is available at Amazon in English and German.

Tags: English, stories, fantasy

Life of Pi

Yann Martel
Canongate Books, 2003
ISBN: 184195425X

So I have been wanting to write an entry about this book since I started this blog. Today I ready some bits and pieces of it again and I suddenly knew again why I had wanted to write something about it. But indeed, it is difficult to find a point where to start, so let me begin with the story:

After the tragic sinking of a cargo ship, one solitary lifeboat remains bobbing on the wild, blue Pacific. The only survivors from the wreck are a sixteen-year-old boy named Pi, a hyena, a zebra (with a broken leg), a female orang-utan ... and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger.

As incredible as this description might sound, it does not prepare you in any way for what is to come. It starts off nicely with Pi's childhood in India, leading all the way up to that trip with his family on the cargo ship. And then there comes the tale of the time he spends on the boat. Ultimately it is a story about believing. Believing in yourself, in God, in the world and in your own tale.

I liked this review from the Financial Times:
"Absurd, macabre, unreliable and sad, deeply sensual in its evoking of smells and sights, the whole trip and the narrator's insanely curious voice suggests Joseph Conrad and Salman Rushdie hallucinating together over the meaning of The Old Man and the Sea and Gulliver's Travels."

Yann Martel was born in Spain in 1963, of Canadian parents, and currently lives in Montreal. He is the author of The Facts behind the Helsinki Roccamatios and Self.

Available at Amaazon in English and Deutsch

Tags: English, novel, fantasy

If You Could See Me Now

Cecelia Ahern
If you could see me now
HarperCollins, 2005
ISBN: 0007212259

To Sandra, Enjoy the Read! Cecelia Ahern. When she wrote that (yesterday) I told her I would. And indeed I did. If you could see me now is so different from her other two books and yet it has the same warmth and compassion as the other two. It just draws you in.

It's the story of a woman who never had the chance to really do what SHE wanted to. When her mother leaves the family, she is left with raising her little sister. When she leaves her family to study, her father does not forgive her. And then she has to come home because her sister refuses to take care of her little son. So Elizabeth ends up raising her little nephew Luke. All her dreams of leaving this suffocating village, living in NY with her boyfriend and working in a job she enjoys, are shattered. So she becomes this really tidy, uptight person who never allows herself to laugh, or who simply forgot what that is.

But then, Ivan Elbisivni from Ekam Eveileb enters their life. He is everything Elizabeth is not: carefree, spontaneous, adventurous and funny. With his help, Elizabeth dicovers something that had been missing from her life for so long: fun, love and enjoying yourself. But their relationship also gives Ivan something that he had never experienced before. That someone sees him like he is. Looks him straight in the eyes. Loves him. That is something new for Ivan, who is, after all, an ivisible friend.

..."Bonjour, Madame," Ivan spoke.
Elizabeth looked up to see both Ivan and Luke entering the conservatory from the garden. Both had a magnifying glass held up to their right eye, the effect causing their eyes to appear gigantic. Across their upper lip a mustache had been drawn in black marker. She couldn't help but laugh. [...]
"Forgive us for just barging into your 'ome. Allow us to introduce ourselves. I am Mister Monsiour and zis iz my foolish sidekick, Monsieur Rotalsnart."
Luke giggled. "It's backwards for translator."
"Oh." Elizabeth nodded. "Well, it's very nice to meet you both but I'm afraid I'm very busy here, so if you don't mind..." She widened her eyes at Ivan. [...]
"Do you think she did it?" Luke asked.
"We shall see. Madame, a worm was found squished to death earlier today on the path leading from your conservatory to the clothesline. His devastated family tell us he left home when the rain had stopped in order to cross the path to the other side of the garden. His reasons for wanting to go there are not known, but it's what worms do..."

Cecelia Ahern, born in 1981, is the daughter of Ireland's prime minister Bertie Ahern. (Now, who wins the Google Fight?) Before starting her carreer as an author, she completed her degree in journalism and media communications. She is the author of PS, I love you and Rosie Dunne.

Available at Amazon in English and Deutsch.

English, novel, humor

Tuesdays with Morrie

An old man, a young man, and life's greatest lesson
Mitch Albom
Doubleday, 1999
ISBN: 0385496494

Maybe it was a grandparent, or a teacher, or a colleague. Someone older, patient and wise, who understood you when you were young and searching, helped you see the world as a more profound place, gave you sound advice to help you make your way through it. [...] [Mitch Albom] rediscovered [his mentor] Morrie in the last months of the older man's life. Knowing he was dying, Morrie visited with Mitch in his study every Tuestday, just as they used to back in college. Their rekindled relationship turned into one final "class": lessons in how to live."

In every one of Albom's words that he uses to describe these last months you can feel just how much this teacher has given him, how much this teacher meant to him.
The phrase 'A true story!' just sound so wrong, so catchy, but there was a constant feeling that this story was true. It was not only true, is told in such a true, sincere and honest way that you feel like you are there with them. Going through the process of realizing death, of saying good-bye and thank you. Both, teacher and student, knew how much they meant to each other. Do the people that influenced you, that mentored you, know?

There is also a movie with Jack Lemmon and Hank Azaria, which was the last film Jack Lemmon made before his death in June 2001. Has anyone seen it? Does anyone have it? Is it good?

Mitch Albom has been voted America's No. 1 sports columnist ten times by the Associated Press Sports Editors. He hosts a daily radio show on WJR in Detroit and appears on ESPN regularly. Albom, a former professional musician, lives in Michigan.

The book is available at Amazon in English and Deutsch.

Tags: English, novel, Sachbuch

the five people you meet in Heaven

Mitch Albom
Time Warner Paperbacks, 2004
ISBN: 0751536148

... Everyone has an idea of heaven, as do most religions, and they should be respected. The version represented here is only a gues, a wish, in some ways, that my uncle, and others like him - people who felt unimportant here on earth - realize, finally, how much they mattered and how they were loved.

Eddie, a lonely war veteran, dies on this eighty-third birthday in a tragic accident at the amusement park where he has been working all his life. He dies while trying to save the life of a little girl and as he dies he feels two little hands in his. When he wakes he feels different, is in a different place but still does not know whether he could save the little girl. He then meets five people who explain his life to him, explain why things went a certain way and slowly he realizes many things that have been hidden from his understanding all these years. And slowly things start making sense, things come together, everything falls into place, while he is still waiting to get to that peaceful place he has heaven imagined to be. Where we would meet the people who left before him, who he'd missed for so long...

Many times we are not aware of how our actions influence other people's lifes. Only if they do tell us we will realize. But that hardly ever happens because we also don't tell people how they have influcened us. Sometimes because we might not realize, somtimes because we think it would not matter to them anyway. That is why we need to wait so long until someone explains things to us and things become clear. It is a truely moving book but one that is delightful and inspiring, one that does not let you get depressed about the past, because in the instant everything becomes clear, the worries of the past disappear. The enlightenment is more important then the suffering.

Mitch Albom has been voted America's No. 1 sports columnist ten times by the Associated Press Sports Editors. He hosts a daily radio show on WJR in Detroit and appears on ESPN regularly. Albom, a former professional musician, lives in Michigan.

Available at Amazon in English and Deutsch.

Tags: English, novel

Gebrauchsanweisung für Tschechien und Prag

Jiří Gruša
Piper, 2003
ISBN: 3492275265

Jiří Gruša nimmt den Čechnforšr bei der Hand und mit auf eine Reise durch die Geschichte seines Landes. Zeigt diese oder jene Geschichte, erklärt Zusammenhänge, Personen, Eigenheiten.

Er spricht über die Sprache, die eng verbunden ist mit der Jetztbezogenkeit der Čechn und sagt dazu:
Grammatikalisch manifestiert sich diese Jetztbezogenheit in den tschechischen Zeitformen. Unsereiner kommt mit einer einfachen Vergangenheit aus, und seine Zukunft hat ebfalls nur eine einzige Dimension. Zwischen einem War und einem Wird liegt aber eine schier unendlich gegliederte Ist-Landschaft. Die so genannten verbalen Aspekte. Der Čet will alles wissen. Ob ein Ereignis partiell oder im Ganzen geschieht, ob wiederholbar oder einmalig, ob aussichtsreic oder aussichtslos, ob in einem totalen Jetzt abzuwickeln oder ausdehnbar. Und er will es sofort wissen, während des Sprechens, in einem einzigen Verb. Kann er sich austoben, so tut er das in einem Lindwurmwort ungeahnter Präzision. "Da haben wir uns ausgetobt", klingt čechiš: To jsme se nadovyváděli. Und meint: "Wir haben stückweise und wiederholt getobt, bis wir letztendlich fröhlich aufgehört haben zu toben." Spühren Sie die Üppigkeit, die Kompaktheit dieses Tobens?

Nun, es ist genau dieses Toben, das uns Tschechischlernern so viele Probleme bereitet. Aber wir kämpfen. Wir kämpfen für die Lindwurmwörter, auf dass wir sie eines Tages beherrschen mögen. Bis dahin kann dieses Buch uns unterhalten und uns zeigen, was uns wir alles Neues erwartet, wenn wir durch die Sprache in diese Kultur eintauchen.

Erhältlich bei Amazon.

Tags: Sachbuch, Humor

PS, I love you

Cecelia Ahern
PS, I love you
HarperCollins, 2004
ISBN: 0007165005

Can someone write a story about how to survive the death of your soul mate in such a way that it makes the reader laugh and actually see that 'with a little help from your friends' there is a way out of this most dreadful personal disaster? Someone can. Because in PS, I love you Cecelia Ahern does just that.

When her husband Gerry dies just shortly before her 30th birthday, it seems like Holly will never get back on the track of what we call 'a normal life'. But then she finds a letter addressed to her - one that Gerry sent her. In it, there are several notes, one for each month of the rest of the year. Each one with a task she has to fulfil. What seems really strange, after all, it is like getting letters from the grave, actually is something that sort of takes her by the hand and leads her through the next horrible months. It helps her in a way that not even her friends and family can help her.

It is a great read, sad and funny at the same time, with a love for life, an ode to soul mates, friends and family. And, on top of that all, a debut novel. Wonderful.

Cecelia Ahern, born in 1981, is the daughter of Ireland's prime minister Bertie Ahern. (Now, who wins the Google Fight? Before starting her carreer as an author, she completed her degree in journalism and media communications. She is the author of If you could see me now and Rosie Dunne.

Available at Amazon in English and German

Tags: English, novel