Disgrace

All posts tagged Disgrace

Book Tag – Shelfie by Shelfie #5

Published March 13, 2018 by bibliobeth

Image edited from: <a href=”http://www.freepik.com/free-photos-vectors/frame”>Frame image created by Jannoon028 – Freepik.com</a>

Hi everyone and welcome to a brand new tag – Shelfie by Shelfie that I was inspired to create late one night when I couldn’t sleep. If you want to join in, you share a picture (or “shelfie”) of one of your shelves i.e. favourites, TBR, however you like to organise them, and then answer ten questions that are based around that particular shelf. I have quite a large collection and am going to do every single bookshelf which comprises both my huge TBR and the books I’ve read and kept but please, don’t feel obliged to do every shelf yourself if you fancy doing this tag. I’d love to see anything and just a snapshot of your collection would be terrific and I’m sure, really interesting for other people to see!

For my very first Shelfie by Shelfie please see my post HERE.

For my second Shelfie by Shelfie please see my post HERE.

For my third Shelfie by Shelfie please see my post HERE.

For my fourth Shelfie by Shelfie please see my post HERE.

For other Shelfie by Shelfies round the blogosphere, please see:

Chrissi @ Chrissi Reads FAVOURITES shelfie HERE.

Sarah @ The Aroma Of Books Shelfie 1A HERE and Shelfie 1B HERE.

Anyway – on with the tag, here is the fourth shelf of my first bookshelf (I’ve chosen to split it up into two separate shelfies because of the sheer number of books, oops!). Here is the back shelf.

And here are the questions!:

1.) Is there any reason for this shelf being organised the way it is or is it purely random?

Again, with a lot of my shelves, this one is a little bit random and I’m starting to see the error of my arranging ways. On this shelf we mostly have a few review copies, some books I’ve been hoarding for quite some years but still really want to get around to and my favourite/still to read Tess Gerritsen novels.

2.) Tell us a story about one of the books on this shelf that is special to you i.e. how you got it/ a memory associated with it etc.

I’m going to stick with the theme and pick The Surgeon by Tess Gerritsen. It was one of the first books I read by this author and it was this novel that made me fall in love with her plots and characters, particularly Rizzoli and Isles. I haven’t read a book by her for a while but read a recent short story called Freaks which has made me quite wary of going back to her. I’m worrying that my tastes have changed but I’m determined to read something else by her this year just to check, probably Keeping The Dead.

3.) Which book from this shelf would you ditch if you were forced to and why?

I think it would have to be Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee. I was really excited to read it and it’s been on my shelves for many years now. However, when I read the synopsis, I’m just not as eager to get to it as I once was. If anyone has read it and recommends I get to it soon I’m willing to listen though!

4.) Which book from this shelf would you save in an emergency and why?

This is hard. Perhaps Motherland by Jo McMillan, purely for this gorgeous cover and now I’ve read the synopsis again, I’m very keen to read it!

5.) Which book has been on this shelf for the longest time?

I think that could be Girl With A Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier. I’ve enjoyed this author’s books in the past so don’t ask me why I haven’t read it yet! I think a lot of the problem with the back shelves is that I don’t see the books that often so sadly, some of them often get forgotten.

6.) Which book is the newest addition to this shelf?

These books are all sadly well past their prime but I think the newest one would have to be The One In A Million Boy by Monica Wood which I was kindly sent a review copy of but just haven’t had the chance to get round to it yet.

7.) Which book from this shelf are you most excited to read (or re-read if this is a favourites shelf?)

Stoner by John Williams. I’ve heard some great things!

8.) If there is an object on this shelf apart from books, tell us the story behind it.

There isn’t any object on this shelf, there’s no room for anything else apart from books (and even then, not enough room for some of them, eek!).

9.) What does this shelf tell us about you as a reader?

Like my other shelfies, I think it shows I have quite eclectic taste, there’s quite a mixture of classics, thrillers, historical, contemporary and literary fiction here so I have quite a lot of variety whenever I feel in the mood.

10.) Choose other bloggers to tag or choose a free question you make up yourself.

Anyone who wants to do this, please feel free, I’d be delighted but please tag me in your post so I can see your shelfie in all its glory. This time round I’m going to choose a question for myself:

Is there any book on this shelf that you’d like to see a review of by a fellow blogger?

I’d love to see a review of There But For The by Ali Smith. I don’t think I’ve quite “got” her writing yet and because this is an older title of Ali’s I haven’t seen any recent reviews. Perhaps reading one would either push me to read it sooner or donate it to someone who might appreciate it more!

COMING SOON on bibliobeth : Shelfie by Shelfie #6

Disgrace – Jussi Adler-Olsen

Published February 10, 2015 by bibliobeth

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What’s it all about?:

Kimmie’s home is on the streets of Copenhagen. To live she must steal. She has learned to avoid the police and never to stay in one place for long. But now others are trying to find her. And they won’t rest until she has stopped moving – for good. Detective Carl Mørck of Department Q, the cold cases division, has received a file concerning the brutal murder of a brother and sister twenty years earlier. A group of boarding school students were the suspects at the time – until one of their number confessed and was convicted. So why is the file of a closed case on Carl’s desk? Who put it there? Who believes the case is not solved? A police detective wants to talk to Kimmie and someone else is asking questions about her. They know she carries secrets certain powerful people want to stay buried deep. But Kimmie has one of her own. It’s the biggest secret of them all. And she can’t wait to share it with them…

What did I think?:

I bought this book on a bit of a whim years ago after being intrigued by the synopsis of the story. I finally got round to reading it last year and initially have to admit to being slightly wary as the translation didn’t really seem to gel. However, when I got used to the writing style I was captivated by the twists and turns of the plot and fascinated by the characters. First of all we have Detective Carl Mørck, who works in the cold cases division of Department Q, an arrogant “lone wolf” who prefers to work around as little people as possible and as a result is stuck with Assad, a hapless and yet hilarious assistant whose stumbles and utterings gave me quite a few chuckles – but is he is naive as he seems?

Carl stumbles over an old case file twenty years old, accidentally on purpose left on his desk describing the brutal murder of a brother and sister. Why was it left on his desk however when the case has been apparently solved? When Carl looks into it further he finds out that a group of students from an elite boarding school were suspected until one of their number confessed and is now behind bars. Case closed, right? Well, not exactly. It turns out this very exclusive group of high rolling men with a lot of money have a guard up against them that is iron-tight and pretty much impossible to penetrate.

Could the necessary link in this case be Kimmie? Unlike the group of men, she has been living rough on the streets, having to steal each day to survive. What is she hiding from and what is her secret connected to the group? Things turn out to become very dangerous for Kimmie as Carl re-opens the file, discovers her link to the men and attempts to find and talk to her. It’s time for some seriously dodgy skeletons to emerge from the closet and secrets that many thought long ago buried to be unearthed.

There are some absolutely brilliant characters in this book, from the humorous Assad to the fiercely strong and independent Kimmie that I fell in love with as the story progressed. Bear in mind though that it’s definitely not for the faint-hearted, there are some incredibly violent and shocking scenes, some of which made my skin crawl which I found surprising as I class myself as quite a hardened crime reader. We learn about Kimmie’s harrowing past and the reasons behind her living on the streets, constantly running and hiding from those that would do her harm. In fact, when the reader discovers her murky past (which keeps getting all the murkier and darker) it beggars belief that she has survived in her current situation so far. For me, she’s probably the ultimate “anti-heroine,” and it’s quite refreshing to read about someone that has made mistakes and will probably make more, yet comes across as an admirable human being.

Also published as The Absent One, this is the second in the author’s Department Q series which I didn’t realise until I came to read it, but can easily be read as a stand-alone. Reading this novel gives you access to the kind of evil you didn’t realise humanity was capable of, perpetuated by the most warped of minds. I really enjoyed it and highly recommend it as a must-read Scandinavian crime novel for fans of the genre. I’m also now fully intending to purchase the first book in this series and watch out for any future books from this talented writer who made this story one to remember.

Would I recommend it?:

But of course!

Star rating (out of 5):

four-stars_0