Mittwoch, 30. März 2011
Sonntag, 27. März 2011
Sing you home
..I've decided to write this post in English, because I've read the book (I'm talking about Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult) in English as well. The book came out on 4th March and I'm extremly happy that I'm working at a library.. if not, I wouldn't have gotten & read the book that fast. I mean it'll surely take some time until it's translated into other languages like German.
I've heard of Jodi Picoult before finding out about Sing you Home. I wanted to read one of her books for quite a while, because I heard a lot about her special way of writing and that she always chooses very complex topics for her books. Some of you might know her book 'My Sister's Keeper' (German: Beim Leben meiner Schwester), which was made into a movie as well.
So what is the book about anyway?
...Well, I'll tell you. And if you've read this and decide to read the whole book.. than please don't read what's written on the back of the book. Because I think the abstract on the book wrapper is telling to much about the development of the story. So here's my summary:
The book is about a woman named Zoe Baxter who works as a music therapist and has spend spent the last years trying to get pregnant. She and her husband Max both have fertility problems, but they love each other and it seems like everything's going to be alright when she finally gets pregnent. But then terrible things start happening and Zoe suddenly is all alone (except for her mother)... This all happens on the first ~ 70 pages.
After that you'll get to know, a character called Vanessa and her relationship with Zoe, better. You'll also read about how Max's lives on and under what circumstances they will meet again.
There is also a 'soundtrack' that goes with the book. Bevor a new chapter and with that a twist in the story beginns, you'll be told which song goes with that part of the story. The music isn't really what I would listen to in my freetime, but some of those 10 songs are quite lovely. I especially like the first one, which is called "Sing you home" as well. But all in all I think the idea of giving a book a soundtrack is a really sweet idea.
You can listen to the songs & download them if you want on here... But to download each song, you have to enter a passwort which is always a word at the beginning of the new chapter. I know, there are a lot of homepages out there where you can download the songs without having to type in a password, but I kinda liked doing that. Just because I loved the idea of that.
The next paragraphs will be quotes which I liked...
So watch out! There are going to be a lot of spoilers in it. Don't read it, if you still want to read the book.
"I know the first person I kissed won't be nearly as important as the last person I kiss."
(Page 111 ; Chapter: Vanessa ; When she is starting to have feelings for Zoe and right after "But I do know that I'm at the stage of my life where I want forever, not right now.")
"It is easy, with twenty-twenty hindsight, to see how I got to a point where I didn't really have any friends. There's that necessary shift that comes with marriage, when your best confidant is now the person you're sleeping with at night. (...) Here's what girlfriends do for you: they provide the reality check. They are the ones who tell you when you have spinach between your teeth or when your ass looks fat in a pair of jeans or when you're being a bitch. They tell you, and there's no drama or agenda, like there would be if the message had come from your husband. They tell you the truth because you need to hear it, but it doesn't alter the bond between you."
(Page 124 ; Chapter: Zoe)
""Someone real," I hear myself saying. "Someone who never has to pretend, and who I never have to pretend around. Someone who's smart, but knows how to laugh a himself. Someone who would listen to a symphony and start to cry, because he understands that music can be too big for words. Someone who knows me better than I know myself. Someone I want to talk to first thing in the morning and last thing at night. Someone who knows me better than I know myself. Someone I feel like I've known my whole life, even if I haven't.""
(Page 134 ; Chapter Zoe ; The quote above it what Zoe answers when Vanessa asks her what kind of person she would be attracted to. But what makes her answer even cuter is what's written at the end of that page: "And that - with the exception of the pronoun I'd used - the verbal sketch I gave of my perfect match had actually described Vanessa.")
"Did you ever notice how other people's house have a smell? I had asked, the first time I went over to Vanessa's.
Please tell me mine isn't something awful like bratwurst.
No, I said. It's clean. Like sunlight on sheets. Then I asked her what my apartment smelled like.
Don't you know?
No, I'd explained. I can't tell because I live there. I'm too close to it.
It smells like you, Vanessa had said. Like a place nobody ever wants to leave."
(Page 149 ; Chapter: Zoe ; There is so much chemistry between those two...)
"Aimee Maan. Ani DiFranco. Damien Rice. Howie Day.
Tori Amos, Charlotte Martin, Garbage, Elvis Costelle.
Wilco. The Indigo Girls. Alison Krauss.
Van Morrison, Anna Nalick, Etta James.
I can't speak for a moment.
(...) Vanessa leans closer, pointing at the list again. "I couldn't pick individual songs, either. Isn't that like asking a mom which kid she loves the most?"
Every single artist she has put on her list is one I would have put on my list. (...)
In music, the perfect pitch is the ability to reproduce a tone without any reference to an external standart. In other words- there's no need to lable or name notes, you can just start singing a C-sharp, or you can listen to an A and know what it is. You can hear a car horn and know that it is a F.
In life the perfect pitch is the ability to know someone from the inside out, even better maybe than she knows herself. (...)
Whatever Vanessa plays, I just want to keep listening to."
(Page 150 ; Chapter Zoe ; Just for understanding the situation: Zoe likes to ask people what songs they would put on a CD if they made one out of their favourite songs. And the artists at the beginning are, what Vanessa wrote down.)
""This is so unbelievably gay," she says. (...)
"If by 'gay' you mean happy, which you must because I can't imagine you'd find anything about playing marimba that points to sexual orientation - well, then, I would have to disagree. (...)"
(Page 162 ; Chapter: Vanessa ; The girl who's saying the first sentences is called Lucy... and Zoe, who's her music therapist, is the person who answers. I think Lucy is a very interesting character... and I would have liked to get to know her better.)
Samstag, 19. März 2011
1 - Alice im Hungerland
& was ich total vergessen hatte zu erwähnen: Ich komme aus Deutschland. Daher werden ein Großteil meiner Post auf Deutsch sein ; D
Ich lese gerade das, im Titel erwähnte, Buch "Alice im Hungerland" (geschrieben von Marya Hornbacher). Ich habe mir angewöhnt wenn mir eine Stelle gefällt, auch welchem Grund auch immer, die Seitenzahl auf ein Blatt zu kritzeln und noch ungefähr den Anfang der Textstelle dazu zu kritzeln oder im wievielten Abschnitt es steht. Und auch wenn es vermutlich niemand interessieren wird... Ich habe irgendwie gerade Lust darauf die Textstellen rauszuschreiben.
"Ich wollte verletzt werden. Ich wollte wiessen, dass ich existierte. Ich wollte berühren und berührt werden, und sei es nur, um der alles begrabenden Explosion der Nervenenden willen, die mir zurief Ich bin hier er ist da wir sind hier. Und ich wollte mich benutzt fühlen. Oder mich zumindest nützlich fühlen." (Seite 88/89)
"Es war ein klebriger, schweißtreibender Sommer in Minnesota. Ich war high und betrunken durch die neunte Klasse gestolpert und hatte sie auf die gleiche Weise hinter mir gelassen. Endlich würde ich, so sagte ich es zu meinen Freundinnen während ich Kaffee trank, das Haar zurückwarf un den Jungen Rauch ins Gesicht blies, zum Teufel nochmal aus diesem Kleinstadtnest herauskommen. (...) Ich verbrachte faule Sommernächte damit, in fremden Autos herumzufahren, die Fenster heruntergekurbelt, über die Musik hinwegschreiend. Ich betrachtete mein Spiegelbild im Heckfenster, probierte neue Gesichter aus, Gesichter, die einem Mädchen von Welt besser zu Gesicht standen, einem Mädchen, das seinen Weg machen würde, einem selbstständigen Mädchen: Schlafzimmerblick, gleichgültiger Blick, flüchtiger Blick, langsames Lächeln." (Seite 105)
"(...) so ganz anders (...) vor als der Mensch, in den ich mich verwandeln wollte: eine Frau, dunkel und geheimnissvoll, majestätisch." (Seite 107)
"Man betrachtet den eigenen Körper nicht länger als Teil seiner Identität, als etwas, das einen von einer Stelle zur anderen transportiert, das für einen denkt und fühlt und das für diese Leistungen auch ein gewisses Maß an Energie benötigt. Man beginnt, ihn als überflüssiges Anhängsel anzusehen, wie eine Warze, die man sich entfernen lassen will. Wenn man überhaupt über ihn spricht, so neigt man zu Formulierungen wie "Ich habe einen Körper." Man sagt nicht: "Ich bin ein Körper." Er ist eine getrennte Größe, die das >Ich< besitzen kann; das >Ich< und der Körper bilden keineswegs das, was die Grammatik suggeriert: eine Einheit ... Körper werden wie launische Frauen behandelt, denen man zeigen muss, wer der Boss ist, selbst wenn das bedeutet, dass man sie manchmal schlagen muss." (Seite 128)
Der Rest kommt noch irgendwann demnächst . . .
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