February Book Haul

The first book haul of the blog! I’m really happy for this as I’ve been wanting to do one since I got my Valentine’s present from my handsome little Dutchie on the 14th (duh Jane, what else date is Valentine’s…) then again I did open my present on the 13th. Tehehe. Anyway! I also, surprisingly, received a free copy of If I Fall, If I Die from a giveaway on Mumsnet (at first I thought it was from Goodreads but then I double checked, woops). Which actually has a funny story regarding it, I’ll tell you about it in a few paragraphs. I’ll put little notes with them in italics so you can differentiate between synopsis’ and my actual writing.

The books I’ve been given as a present / received this month are:

 

Het Achterhuis (The Diary of a Young Girl) – Anne Frank

Discovered in the attic in which she spent the last years of her life, Anne Frank’s remarkable diary has since become a world classic—a powerful reminder of the horrors of war and an eloquent testament to the human spirit.

In 1942, with Nazis occupying Holland, a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl and her family fled their home in Amsterdam and went into hiding. For the next two years, until their whereabouts were betrayed to the Gestapo, they and another family lived cloistered in the “Secret Annexe” of an old office building. Cut off from the outside world, they faced hunger, boredom, the constant cruelties of living in confined quarters, and the ever-present threat of discovery and death.

In her diary Anne Frank recorded vivid impressions of her experiences during this period. By turns thoughtful, moving, and amusing, her account offers a fascinating commentary on human courage and frailty and a compelling self-portrait of a sensitive and spirited young woman whose promise was tragically cut short.

Below is the Dutch synopsis, for my version of the book:

Anne Frank hield van 12 juni 1942 tot 1 augustus 1944 een dagboek bij. Ze schreef haar brieven alleen voor zichzelf, tot ze in de lente van 1944 op de radio de minister van Onderwijs in ballingschap, Bolkestein, hoorde spreken. Hij zei dat na de oorlog alle getuigenissen van het lijden van het Nederlandse volk onder de Duitse bezetting verzameld en openbaar moesten worden gemaakt. Als voorbeeld noemde hij onder meer dagboeken. Onder de indruk van deze redevoering besloot Anne Frank na de oorlog een boek te publiceren. Haar dagboek zou daarvoor als basis dienen.

In maart 1945 stierf Anne Frank op vijftienjarige leeftijd in het concentratiekamp Bergen-Belsen. De enige overlevende van de familie, Otto Frank, zorgde ervoor dat het dagboek van zijn dochter toch gepubliceerd werd. In 1947 verscheen Het Achterhuis. Het is sindsdien een van de meest gelezen boeken ter wereld. Het is in meer dan 30 landen verschenen en er zijn meer dan 25 miljoen exemplaren van verkocht.

I was bought a copy of this by my fiancé for Valentine’s and our 8 month engagement anniversary on the 14th! I had been wanting a copy of Anne Frank in Dutch for weeks, well more likely months on end. I had been waiting for my Dutch to progress further in terms of understanding different grammar constructions and for me to finish my Dutch tree on Duolingo and when I’ve gotten a bit better with reading and writing in Dutch. Which I’m going to make sure I do by writing my own diary in Dutch of things I’ve done. Anyway, I’m really excited to tackle this one day :D

De Vliegeraar, De Graphic Novel (The Kite Runner, The Graphic Novel) – Khaled Hosseini

“It may be unfair, but what happens in a few days, sometimes even a single day, can change the course of a whole lifetime.”

Khaled Hosseini’s #1 New York Times Bestselling Debut

Amir is the son of a wealthy Kabul merchant, a member of the ruling caste of Pashums. Hassan, his servant and constant companion, is a Hazara, a despised and impoverished caste. Their uncommon bond is torn by Amir’s choice to abandon his friend amidst the increasing ethnic, religious, and political tensions of the dying years of the Afghan monarchy, wrenching them far apart. But so strong is the bond between the two boys that Amir journeys back to a distant world, to try to right past wrongs against the only true friend he ever had.

The unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the unlikely friendship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father’s servant, The Kite Runner is a beautifully crafted novel set in a country that is in the process of being destroyed. It is about the power of reading, the price of betrayal, and the possibility of redemption; and an exploration of the power of fathers over sons—their love, their sacrifices, their lies.

A sweeping story of family, love, and friendship told against the devastating backdrop of the history of Afghanistan over the last thirty years, The Kite Runner is an unusual and powerful novel that has become a beloved, one-of-a-kind classic.

Again, the Dutch synopsis for my copy:

De wereldwijde bestseller, eindelijk als graphic novel!

Bijna tien jaar geleden verscheen de debuutroman van Khaled Hosseini.

In De vliegeraar vertelt hij de aangrijpende geschiedenis van twee jongens, Amir en Hassan, en het verhaal van zijn geboorteland Afghanistan. Amir en Hassan groeien samen op in Kabul. Op een dag komt er op wrede wijze een einde aan hun bijzondere vriendschap. Amir en zijn vader vluchten naar de Verenigde Staten, maar Amir slaagt er niet in Hassan te vergeten.

De ontdekking van een schokkend familiegeheim voert hem terug naar Afghanistan. Zijn voornemen om de oude schuld jegens Hassan in te lossen sleept hem mee in een huiveringwekkend avontuur

The Kite Runner has to be my most favourite novel of all time. I just adore everything about it, and I actually didn’t know my fiancé was getting me a copy of this in graphic novel form (I actually hate graphic novels, I find them boring) but because it was from him, I’m going to give it a go. Plus, he said – he bought this version of it (he has my original version of TKR in his room..500 miles away from me :P) so that I can read another book in Dutch but with pictures to help me follow along when I get stuck which is super thoughtful and cute, right?!

If I Fall, If I Die – Michael Christie

A heartfelt and wondrous debut, by a supremely gifted and exciting new voice in fiction.

Will has never been to the outside, at least not since he can remember. And he has certainly never gotten to know anyone other than his mother, a fiercely loving yet wildly eccentric agoraphobe who drowns in panic at the thought of opening the front door. Their little world comprises only the rooms in their home, each named for various exotic locales and filled with Will’s art projects. Soon the confines of his world close in on Will. Despite his mother’s protestations, Will ventures outside clad in a protective helmet and braces himself for danger. He eventually meets and befriends Jonah, a quiet boy who introduces Will to skateboarding. Will welcomes his new world with enthusiasm, his fears fading and his body hardening with each new bump, scrape, and fall. But life quickly gets complicated. When a local boy goes missing, Will and Jonah want to uncover what happened. They embark on an extraordinary adventure that pulls Will far from the confines of his closed-off world and into the throes of early adulthood and the dangers that everyday life offers. If I Fall, if I Die is a remarkable debut full of dazzling prose, unforgettable characters, and a poignant and heartfelt depiction of coming of age.

How I managed to get my little fingers on a proof copy of this is actually quite hilarious. This morning, my sister – who lives 300 miles away from me – whatsapped me (@Stefichop on twitter) saying she had won a copy of If I Fall, If I Die in the post and she was all excited because it arrived in the post just that second. But, it hadn’t notified her when she had won because we both assumed it had been through Goodreads. Then zoom an hour later, my other sister who I live with called me downstairs because a book was in the post from me. I assumed that it would be another book I had won on Goodreads so I took it upstairs, whilst on Skype to my fiancé and then I pulled the book out and I started laughing because I too had also gotten a proof copy of If I Fall, If I Die! So then I went onto Goodreads earlier this afternoon to mark it as received but I was left puzzled because it wasn’t in either me or my sister’s Goodreads won list! After that, I decided to check my Chrome history – where I typed in the title of the book – and then tada! I figured out both of us had actually won a copy from Mumsnet and not Goodreads! Doofus moment. 

So that is February’s book haul. Coming up on the blog between Sunday – Monday will be a review of Zali Luna: Movie Star by Emma Jamvold (You can find more on Goodreads) which I was kindly requested to review for the blog. And then sometime next week there should be a review of Wars of the Roses: Stormbird by Conn Iggulden which I have been reading for pleasure! Both books I’m very excited in reviewing.

Happy reading!