Elinor’s Bookshelf

My rating: In ”We Should All Be Feminists”, Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie explores the theme of gender, and more specifically gender inequalities. Naturally including culture as an subconscious enabler of inequalities, she argues that we should all be more gender-conscious, and erase the differences we, sometimes unwittingly, nurture between men and women from the workplace to the intimacy of Nigerian and American friends’ households and society’s distinct expectations towards men and women’s sexualities. A few thoughts caused me mild resistance, which I won’t detail here to avoid spoilers. I found this to be a short thought-provoking piece with a willingly provocative title. I felt I was given an open window on Nigerian culture, at least a whiff of it, and loved the privilege. This piece also reminded me in a sideways manner about “Nice Girls Don’t Get The Corner Office” by Lois P. Frankel, and of the true, deep impact of history and education on gender differences.

My rating: In this second volume of the Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen prepares to become a mentor of the next Hunger Games tributes for district 12, before the traditional Victory Tour of all districts of Panem. Katniss’s heroic rebellion against the Capitol during the 74th edition of the hunger games causes a surprise visit by President Snow. He is here to ask here to pull off her best acting part yet. Will she rise to the occasion or let him down thus endangering her nearest and dearest? In the meantime, her Mockingjay has become a symbol beyond the reach of her own understanding. I found this an easy read, quite a page turner, I guess I would have liked the third part of the book to be both a little more abrupt and a little longer, perhaps the final twist was a little too predictable and lacked build up. I definitely am looking forward to reading the third and last volume of the trilogy! View all my reviews

My rating: The “Stranger” tells Adam a terrible secret about his wife Corinne. The web of deceit Adam subsequently discovers could destroy everything, ruin their picture-perfect American-dream style life, destroy their two boys, and their family as a whole – or worse. This was my first Harlan Coben (I know, I know...). I found the build-up to the finale really solid, efficiently written with dashes of humour here and there. I was almost instantly hooked, this is good thriller and a fast read, as well as an invitation to reflect on deceit, lies, and the cost of truth. View all my reviews

My rating: This is, in my opinion, the least well written of the trilogy. With unusual clumsiness Ken Follett brings together concurring events spanning a 30-year period, with protagonists hardly ever crossing each other’s paths, in stark contrast to the first two volumes where the plots are cleverly close-knit, and each character introduced with intent. The characterisation is less intense: all the 3rd generation characters are, to a certain extent, similar, and for some reason I empathised less with them than the previous two generations. That said, I also felt I was reading History, with a capital ‘H’. A history that shaped my parents’ generation, from the end of segregation, to Flower Power and sexual freedom, through womens’ rights, the assassination of JFK, the fall of the soviet block, and of the symbolic Berlin Wall. The book was surprisingly turned towards the USA and Eastern Europe, leaving the West of Europe, and Asia out (there is a short passage on the Vietnam war).