Killing Lincoln – Bill O’Reilly

I’ve read Killing Lincoln because I’m interested in the history of the USA and I saw many very positive comments about this book. A lot of reviews mentioned Bill O’Reilly himself because they obviously didn’t like the man. Well, I don’t know him at all, so to me that was no problem. However, when I started reading the “note to readers” I was surprised. It looked like mr O’Reilly was writing his book solely for US-residents. Since I’m living in Europe, wasn’t I supposed to read it? “our nation”, “our country”. “our lives”, this all doesn’t apply to me. Nevertheless, I really would like to know the real story about the murder of Abe Lincoln, so I decided to keep on reading anyway.

Killing Lincoln is an entertaining and easy to read novel. Of course you know how the story ends and more or less how it happened but O’Reilly gives a lot of interesting details about the Civil War, the assassination of Lincoln and its aftermath.

What I didn’t like was the frequent use of sentences like “by this time next week…”, “what he doesn’t now is that he will…”. I know they don’t know what will happen in the future. You don’t have to tell me that often, it’s annoying.

What I dislike most about this book is the fact that O’Reilly promises to tell the real story, “what really happened”. Yet there is a lot of fiction in this book. The emotions and thoughts of the persons involved are unknown to anyone but themselves. It even looks like he endorses a conspiracy theory that Stanton is involved in the killing. A theory largely discounted. That makes it hard to believe that everything happened exactly the way O’Reilly describes. A bit of a disappointment though.

Because of the entertaining read and the things I learned from this novel, my verdict is 3 stars.

Vanished – Liza Marklund

I received Vanished as a preread copy from TransWorld Book Group. It’s my first novel by Liza Marklund. Because I enjoy reading Scandinavian thriller writers a lot I had high expectations.

Liza Marklund has written several thrillers with Annika Bengtzon as leading character. Annika is a copy editor at a Stockholm newspaper. She is approached by Rebecka Björstig who claims her Paradise Foundation can help women make a new life. The foundation takes care of erasing peoples history completely.
When Aida, a woman who’s life seems to be in danger, needs her help, Annika decides to give her Rebecka’s phonenumber. When two man are murdered in the harbor and Aida says she knows what happened, Annika starts her own investigation.

What I like in the Annika Bengtzon novels is that it’s not only about crimes. There is a lot going on in this book. Annika’s own life and wellbeing, the murders in the harbor, the Paradise Foundation, internal politics in the newspaper where she works and some social issues. Marklund succeeds in tying all those separate storylines  neatly together.

I rather enjoyed reading Vanished. It’s a fast paced crime novel, very well written and thrilling. If only Annika could be a less troubled person. I really like her a lot and I think she has had her fair share of troubles and deserves some happiness. Well, maybe the next novel because now that I have discovered Liza Marklund and her books I look forward to reading more of this series.

Quinoa Salad with Cranberries and Apricot – Quinoa Quartet Bloghop

To make this delicious salad you need the following ingredients:

the juice of 1 lemon
3 tbsps olive oil
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp paprika
salt
ground pepper (fresh)

1 cup quinoa (rinsed)
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups cold water

1 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup dried apricot (finely diced)
1 apple
1 avocados
1/2 cup toasted walnuts (chopped)

First of all make the dressing. In a bowl, whisk together lemon juice, oil, coriander, cumin and paprika. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Then, make the salad. First prepare the quinoa. In a saucepan, combine quinoa, salt and cold water. Bring to a boil.  Stir, cover and let it simmer for about 15 minutes or until water is absorbed and quinoa is tender. Fluff with a fork and let it cool completely.

Cover the cranberries and apricots with warm water and let stand for about 15 minutes or until plump. Drain and set aside.

Just before serving, peel avocado and apple and cut into bite size chunks. Place in a bowl and toss with dressing to prevent discoloration. Add cooled quinoa, cranberry, apricots and walnuts.

Enjoy your meal!

And …..

don’t forget to visit the other Dutch bloggers featuring Quinoa today:
Chinoiseries, North African Quinoa Stew
Gnoe, Easy Quinoa & Vegetable Laksa
Uniflame, Black Bean and Quinoa Burger

Taste of Tahini – Falafel

Ingredients:
1 can chickpeas (425 g), drained
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
3 tbsp tahin
2 tbsp flour
50 gr fresh breadcrumbs
3/4 tsp cumin
1 tsp salt
1 tsp coriander
2 tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped
pepper
oil for frying

Preparation:
Put the chickpeas with all of the ingredients into a food processor or mixer jar and grind until smooth and dry. You should be able to shape them easily into small discs. If the mixture is too moist or sticky at this stage, which it shouldn’t be, add more flour but don’t be liberal.

Chill the mixture in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Shape into small discs and deep fry on medium heat until dark brown on both sides. Make sure you regulate the flame, otherwise the outside will get burned or cooked too soon and the inside will be raw.

Try serving them in pitta bread with a combination of chopped spring onion, tomato, cucumber and lettuce, dressed with Tahini Citrus sauce (6 tbsp Tahin, 3 tbsp fresh orange juice, 6 tbsp lemon juice).

If you like to try some other delicious recipes with Tahin visit my team-bloggers in the Taste of Tahine Blog-Hop:
Chinoiseries at Always Cooking Up Something
Gnoe at Graasland
Uniflame at She Likes Bento

TT-Hop – Gado Gado with Tahoe and Tempeh

Gado-Gado is an Indonesion one-dish meal. Gado-Gado means “mix-mix” and that’s exactly what it is. Just mix a lot of vegetables with potatoes, boiled eggs, tahoe, tempeh and lontong. The dish is very easy to prepare and I really love eating it. It’s fresh, light and delicious.

You can use all kinds of vegetables: sliced cucumber, lettuce, sliced red bell pepper, endive, blanched green beans, blanched bean sprouts, blanched oxheart cabbage.

Other complements: Fried/baked tahoe, fried/baked tempeh, wedged boiled eggs, sliced boiled potatoes and emping (melindjo crackers). If you like you can marinate the tahoe/tempeh in some assam or soja before frying it.

Boil the lontong rice (rice cake with log shape) for about one hour. I always use the little plastic bags with lontong rice. When it’s cold, cut into cubes.

The most important part of the Gado-Gado is the sauce. You need a jar of peanut butter (350 gr), 1 tsp terasi (dried shrimp paste), 1 clove garlic, 1 red chili, 1 tsp sambal, 1/2 tbsp vinegar, 2 daun jeruk purut (lime leaf) , 2 daun salam (salam leaf), 8-10 tbsp brown sugar, 1 tsp salt, 1/4 santen (block coconut cream). Mince garlic, chili pepper with terasi. Put the mixture in a pot and add peanut butter. Put it on the stove, while stirring, slowly add water until the sauce is just as thick as you want it. Add all other ingredients. Let it simmer for about 10 minutes.

If you’re looking for more great recipes with tahoe and/or tempeh visit my team-bloggers in the TT-Hop:
Chinoiseries at Always Cooking Up Something made a Tempeh-Burger,
Gnoe at Graasland who made Faux-Feta,
Uniflame at She Likes Bento made BBQ Tempeh Sandwich.

A Shortage of Bodies – dr. Gary D. McKay

I received A Shortage of Bodies as an early reviewers copy from LibraryThing. It’s the first novel by Gary McKay.

The story is about dr. Dick Meyer, a 55-year old author who becomes involved in what seems to be a murder case. “seems to be”, because the strange thing is that there is no body. The only thing found is a small box with some hair and some blood that’s left in the yard of Sheriff Jerry Morgan. The victim, Maria Martinez, happens to be a personal friend of dr. Meyer and therefore he is quite eager to assist the sheriff. With the help of Ian MacLennan, a retired Scotland Yard detective, Morgan and Meyer try to find the missing body and solve the case. A case that soon becomes much more complicated when they discover that Mary Martinez is not the only missing person. And again all that’s left is a box with a blood sample and some personal effects.

I’ve got mixed feelings about this book. Gary McKay can write a mystery novel, let’s not argue about that. The Shortage of Bodies really is an enjoyable read, a gripping story and the plot lines are creative. Unfortunately at times the story looses pace because of all the sidetracks that have no connection with the story whatsoever. Most of the characters are two-dimensional, the love-story between dr Meyer and Carol  is a bit to “easy” and the end isn’t that surprising.

My final judgement: not badly written at all, a nice read, it won’t be an award winning novel, 3 stars.

Enter, Night – Michael Rowe

I received this book as part of NetGalley in exchange for a review. Quite different from the kind of books I usually read. But that’s all right, reading a book that makes you step out of your comfortzone. Enter, Night by Michael Rowe is that kind of a book to me. Not entirely true, because I’ve read Black Swan Rising by Lee Carroll as one of the books in the Transworld Book Challenge. Yet, this is a completely different, much more creepy novel. A horror-novel with vampire-type creatures. And, believe it or not, I really liked it. It’s Michael Rowe’s first novel and he can be proud of it.

The novel is about Christine Parr, her daughter Morgan and her brother-in-law Jeremy Parr. Christine and Jeremy left Parr’s Landing years ago for different reasons but mainly to escape from Adeline, the dominating mother of Jack and Jeremy. After Jack, Christine’s husband was killed in an accident, Christine and Jeremy have no other choice then to return to Parr’s Landing. They’re forced to beg Adeline for help, who is unfortunately still the same the unbearable, hate-filled woman she used to be. Billy Lightning is also returning to Parr’s Landing. A professor who seeks answers to the recent killing of his father and believes the killing is connected with the history of murder and madness associated with the land Adeline Parr owns.

The novel is creepy, violent and terrifying. It’s extremely well written with fabulous characters. My favorite character in the novel is Finn, the 12 year old boy with his dog Sadie. I really enjoyed reading Rowe’s description of the relationship between Finn and his dog. Yet, it’s also the part of the book that is sometimes so scary that you have to put down the book. What I like about the book is that there are a lot of characters to sympathize with, Finn and his dog, Christine, Morgan Jeremy, Billy, they’re all very lovable characters.

The prose is outstanding. Consider Rowe’s description of the images Finn has: “the gift of a glimpse of the world as experienced from Sadie’s perspective – a mosaic of smell no human nose would ever experience; the literature of light on grass and snow; the secret language of birds and squirrels and cats; the true meaning of unconditional love, something no human being would ever truly understandl the perfect ecstasy of Finn’s fingers combing through her soft black fur, the utter completion of falling asleep at the foot of his bed. Pure and uncomplicated gratitude for every affection ever shown to her. Vigilance for Finn’s safety. Selfsacrifice”. A quote to remember “when she was sure she could see the beauty, she allowed herself to feel hope”. It’s not what I expected to find in a vampire fiction novel.

I’m very curious about the next novel by Michael Rowe. This one deserves four stars. Here you can find the website of Michael Rowe.

The Sunday Salon – the first one in a new year

First of all, everyone a very happy new year! With lots of books and lots of blogs.

Yesterday was the day of looking back. Something I don’t like at all. The future, that’s where we’re going to. Nevertheless, I posted an overview of all the books I’ve read in 2011. It’s a list of 49 books of which I rewarded 5 with 5 stars and 29 with four. Not bad, isn’t it?

Today, the first day of 2012. I wonder what this year will bring. Will the year be as good as 2011? Best not to know in advance. Just wait and see what happens. To be sure I read a lot (as if necessary) I decided to sign up for some reading challenges.

First of all the Books-on-the-Night-Stand 12 in ’12 Reading Challenge. Very free format. You can choose as many interpretations of 12 in ’12 as you’d like.

I decided to choose:
- 12 more books than in 2011, that will be 61 books.
- the twelve books of my bookclub Hoofdletters
- 12 thrillers.

The next challenge is the 2012 Ebook Challenge, hosted by Workaday Reads. I’m reading quite some Ebooks as it is, so achieving the dvd-level (25 books) must be possible. And who knows, may be I’ll move up a level once started.

The challenge that probably will be the most difficult is the Eclectic Reader Challenge 2012, hosted by Book’d Out.

You’re supposed to read 12 books from 12 different genres during the year. That means stepping out of your comfort zone, which is always more difficult.

And finally, what sounds like a real fun challenge to me, the Cruisin’ thru the Cozies Reading Challenge, hosted by Socrates.

You don’t know what a cozy mystery is? Well, neither did I. If you want to know, check out Cozy-Mystery.com. There are three levels to choose from. I signed up for Snoop level.

What do you think? May you like to join one of them?

The Concert Ticket – Olga Grushin

The Concert Ticket was my bookclubs pick for this month. I couldn’t remember if I voted for this title but my sent email box told me I did. Why? I really can’t remember. Maybe the short description I’ve been reading on bol.com or all the great reviews in several newspapers. However, it’s not my kind of book at all. The Concert Ticket reminds me of “Waiting for Godot” but with less humor.

The language is brilliant but nothing happens. Four people in a family, all waiting in line for a kiosk. Not knowing what it might sell. It turns out that the kiosk will actually sell tickets for a concert by Igor Selinsky. For very different reasons all family members desperately want to buy a concertticket. Waiting, day-after-day, week-after-week, month-after-month, a whole year. As only one ticket per person is available Anna, Sergei and Alexander start taking turns waiting in line. In the meanwhile living in the same house but not living together. A quote from Anna, one of the main characters “she knew it was only the line, scraping their days empty of meaning and warmth, taking them away from each other, making their lives so much smaller”.

I shall be honest, I quit reading because I  didn’t enjoy this novel at all.  To me it’s a depressing story. No happiness, no laughs, grey and rainy. The pace is leisurely. The beautiful descriptive style from the author simply isn’t enough. Therefore, only two stars.

If you like to read all the “wow”-reviews. Try The Guardian and The Independent. Finally Olga Grushins official website.

Mark Haddon – The Curious Incident with the Dog in the Night-time

Wow, this is a very special book. Special in several ways. First, the way I’ve got it. Do you know Bookmooch? If you don’t, you have to check it out at bookmooch.com. Bookmooch is a community where book-lovers exchange books. I won’t explain the way it works in this blog but when you’re found a book you really would like to read, you can ask if someone who’s got the book will send it to you. I did and Liene Ancite from Latvia sent it to me. Isn’t that nice?

Second, the book itself. I’ve never read a book like this. The narrator is Christopher John Francis Boone. He is 15 years old and has Asperger’s Syndrom. He can’t tell lies, he hates the colours yellow and brown and being touched. Cristopher wants to write a murder mystery novel. The novel is about the dog from a neighbour that is killed although his father told him it’s strictly forbidden to investigate the incident.

While Cristopher is telling us about his investigation, his feelings and everything he experiences whe learn a lot about him and the way he thinks. His’s mind is logical and literal in the extreme. Let me give you two examples.

For instance. Christopher likes prime numbers. He thinks “prime numbers are what is left when you have taken all the patterns away. I think prime numbers are like life. They are very logical but you could never work out the rules, even if you spent all your time thinking about them”.

And, after explaining what a methaphor is and that metaphor is one in itself, he uses a simile. In the footnote he explains “this is not a metaphor, it is a simile, which means that it really did look like there were two small mice hiding in his nostrils and if you make a picture in your head of a man with two very small mice hiding in his nostrils you will know what the police inspector looked like. And a simile is not a lie, unless it is a bad simile.”

It’s a moving book, heart warming and funny. Yet I can imagine that living with a 15 year old boy thinking the way Christopher does can be very tiring. It makes you smile and puts tears in your eyes at the same time. The angle on life seen through the eyes of a boy with Asperger’s Syndrom is fascinating. From the first page I was the drawn into it and just couldn’t put it down. Believe me, it is fun to read. The way Haddon is telling the story through this boys eyes is miraculous. He isn’t using any medical terms and yet Christopher tells us all we need to know about his condition. One of the best books I’ve been reading this year. Five stars.

The official Mark Haddon Website can be found through this link. And if you like it some more reviews, the Guardian and The New York Times.