a year in books: November

I really got a lot of reading done in October, despite the fact, that we spent a week away from home where I almost didn't read at all, except for a few pages on the 1,5 hour flight from Salzburg to London.

These are the books that I finished in October: 

Noah Gordon - The Medicus

picture from here

Now I don't really know what to think about this book. When I wrote here that I'm reading it right now I got a lot of comments from people who've read it already and who really liked it. I just found it really...long! Sometimes really tedious to read. Don't get me wrong, I really love big books, books with thousand and more pages. But I don't really like it when I have the feeling that I read and read and read and I'm still stuck somewhere in the middle of the book. And that is the feeling that I got with this one. But I understand how it became a worldwide bestseller. I really liked the story. I really want to see the movie now!

Stephen King: Salems Lot

picture from here

Well, what can I say. I like Stephen King. I think. He really knows how to keep a reader interested, to build up tension and to scare and frighten his readers. But with this book you get to see, that it is one of his earlier works. First, it's really thing, for a Stephen King book. And until half of the book he wrote really detailed and displayed his characters really well. And then I got the feeling that he wanted to bring the story to an end and everything else happened very quickly. Ir was a good read nonetheless, perfect for my daily train rides. 

Sebastian Fitzek: Der Augensammler

picture from here

This was my first ever Fitzek. I have absolutely no idea if he got translated in other languages, but he is a very wide received Thriller writer here. 

"Der Augensammler" or "eye-collector" as it would translate (badly) in English, is a book about a very gruesom murderer who kills mother, kidnaps their children and then gives the father a 40-hour ultimatum before he drowns the child and removes them an eye. 

Sounds like an interesting and horrifying thriller story. My cousin loves to read Fitzek and so I was very curious. It started great, as far as killing children can be described as great. But you know what I mean. I lost interest in the story though as Fitzek introduced a blind girl, who catches glimpes of the past and helped a journalist to catch the killer. I never like it when writers use people wirh supernatural abilities to solve their cases. I always think its just an easy way out, using a person who just KNOWS that this and that has happened and who just FEEL who committed the crimes. So this book was rather a disappointment for me. 

Vea Kaiser: Blasmusikpop

picture from here

I've bought this book on a holiday in 2012 and read it immediately. I re-read it when I was travelling around the world and spend three wonderful weeks at the most wonderful beach in the Philippines. And I re-re-read it last week. 

Vea Kaiser is an Austrian writer who IS MY AGE! I always feel jealous when people who are as old as I am manage to write a book. I wanted to write a book when I was a child but I didn't have a concept for my story. So I just wrote and wrotw without having a clue what I actually wanted to happen in my book and of course it was horrible and I threw everyhing away in the end. 

ANYWAY, Blasmusikpop is Kaisers first book and was a huge success here in Austria. The story is about a little village, high up in the Alps. The people in St.Peter, which is the name of the village, like their undisturbed live away from the big cities and civilization. They love their traditions and rituals, they grow up, learn the trade of their parents and grandparents, get married, build a house, have children and just do all those things "because that's just how they have always been done". One day, one of them decides to leave the village to become a doctor and therefore break the hundreds years old structures and from this point on the story unravels. 

It is one of the funniest books I know. Maybe that's because I grew up in a very small Austrian village myself. I didn't live in the mountains, but a lot of traditions and characters are so familiar to me, that reading about them was even more fun! 

I just found out, that the book will be translated into English too! I will keep you updated if and when that happens. You have to buy that book yourself. It's hilarious, I promise! 

As always, I have no idea which books I will read next! Whatever comes to my mind. So my "the year in books" posts are rather a reflection and a listing of my previous reads. I hope you enjoy them anyway!

Keep on reading! :-)