Ruby Soup with Pearl Juice

Well, the years is coming to an end, and Missmagic girl sent this tag to make promises I probably can´t keep. But as a dreamer and a reader who adores a challenge, I will promptly answer these questions in all my humble, enthusiastic honesty. Let´s begin!

1. The promise to read a Classic: This year I saw the newest film adaptation of “Far from the madding Crowd”, which is based on the 19th century novel written by Thomas Hardy. The films was so poignant and wonderful that I instantly bought myself a copy of said novel. The film dealt with issues such as female independence, stability vs. passion and realistic depictions of Victorian age farmers. The book is usually always better than the filmic version, which makes me hopeful that those themes will be even more present in the novel.

“Seven Brothers” by Aleksis Kivi is a book that as a Finnish speaker I´m ashamed of admitting I´ve never read. It is one of the founding literary works in Finnish literature as well as Aleksis Kivi being a pioneer in writing in the Finnish language, paving the way for future of the Finnish language. Therefore it is a must read for all Finnish speakers.

“Germinal” by Emile Zola is about Miners in 19th century France. It was a big influence on changing the way France viewed worker´s rights. Sounds interesting.

“I am a cat” by Natsume Soseki. It´s a novel with a cat as a narrator that snarks about society and human frailty. How can one not want to read that book?

2. A promise to Finish a book series: I have two books still to go in the “Sms from Soppero”-Quartet by Ann-Helén Laestadius, that focus on the Sami girl Agnes. The series’ first book, “Sms from Soppero”, is a masterpiece. The sequal “Hej vacker (Hey beautiful) was a bit of a let down, but still enjoyable and in fact informs the reader about Sami culture a bit more than does its predecessor. I have also bought “Ingen annan är som du” (“No one else is like you”) and “Hitta hem” (“Finding your way home”), which I pray won´t be delayed by too much university work to get to quickly!

“Wizard of eathsea” is a series I have read the first book in, but never read any of the other books in the series. Same goes for the “The giver”-quartet by Lois Lowry. I hope to be able to continue both series, since the first installments were highly thought provoking and entertaining.

3.A series I promise to start: “Uglies”-Quartet by Scott Westersend. It seems to have everything I love in books; strong female protagonist, social commentary and topical issues (in this series case, body issues and beauty standards).

“Pimeys”-trilogy by Asko Sahlberg is another series I want to desperately read. It follows a lonely, bitter Finnish man living in Gothemburg during the 60´s and 70´s. The subject matter seems like one that might hit a bit close to home for me, but then again the best reading experiences do just that.

I haven´t read many books by Romani writers, so hopefully that will change next year with me beginning this endeavor with reading Katarina Taikon´s “Katitzi”-novels, a classic children’s books series that deals with the everyday joys and discriminations in the life of the Swedish Roma. Same for Kiba Lumberg´s “Musta perhonen”-trilogy (Black butterfly), which on the other hand discusses gendered violence in the Finnish Roma community.

3.A writer I promise to read something from: So so many. So I’m going to cheat and just make a name list: Mariama Ba, Ngugi Wo Thiongo, Maya Angelou, Moses Isegawa, Percival Everest, Grace Ogot, Alice Walker, James Baldwin, Ernest Gaines, Jessie Redmon Fauset, Samar Yazbek, Hanan al-shaykh, Susanna Abulhawa, Mohammed Choukri and Heidi Köngäs.

4.Books I will re-read: “Nervous conditions” by Tsitsi Dangarembga, which I loved in high school but remembered only partially now. After a re-read I would like to review it on this blog.

“Beloved” by Toni Morrison, because it´s so epic it needs a second read. “Candide” by Voltaire would be fun to re-visit, as well as “Joy Luck club” by Amy Tan.

5.Genre I promise to try out: Arabic, Korean and Kurdish literature! I haven´t read much of from those literary fields but would love to explore them. If anyone has any good recommendations, feel free to leave them in the comments! I will also try out reading a fantasy novel (a genre I miss continually in my reading), specifically “Neverwhere” by Neil Gaiman which according to Mr. Gaiman himself is a supernatural exploration of homelessness.

6.Graphic novel I promise to read: “Make me a woman” by Vanessa Davis has been on the radar for a while, as well as “All-star superman” by Grant Morrison. “Vagina Dentata” by Emmi Nieminen is a comic I recently heard about and sounds interesting. It explores male sexual trauma.

7.A Short Story I promise to read: Any of the short stories by Grace Pailey I can get my hands on!. “The Crab Cannery Boat” by Takiji Kobayashi is a short story I read half way through for a University class in Japanese literature, and I would like to Finish. Also More stories by Yu Dafu would be awesome. I wish to also be able to read the collection “Below the line” by Sara Chin.

8.A book I promise to read despite it dealing with a tough but important subject: This promise is the easiest one for me, since as you can probably tell by my book reviews I tend to read novels and stories with heavy issues quite often. However there are still subjects that repel me and that can be quite upsetting to come across regardless of the amount of exposure. For me, two of the roughest things to get through are torture and sexual abuse against children. So I promise that despite it being infamous for the gory depictions of torture, I will read “The feast of the goat” by Mario Vargas Llosa. I will also try to read Lydia Cacho´s memoir “Memorias de una infamia” (Memoirs of An Infamy) which deals with her struggles after her whistle blowing on a corrupt, pedophilic network inside of the high powers in Mexico.

9. A book that for the longest time I haven´t read but will: “Tuez-les tous” by Salim Bachi (“Kill them all”) is a book that´s been on my radar for two years but I haven´t read yet. Hopefully that´ll change this year.

Swedish tranlation of said novel

10. Debut I will want to read: “Ole hyvä” (“You´re welcome”) by Riikka Takala, which is a satire about unemployment and idealism. Its focus and center is on unemployed women, which is refreshing, since most books on this theme have a male protagonist. It was the novel debut of Ms. Takala in 2014.

11. A book or book series I have previously judged as uninteresting, but will give a new chance next year: “Is” (“Ice”) by Ulla-Lena Lundberg. I judged previously, and maybe prematurely, as sounding boring and without plot. But all my close friends love it so I´ll give it a try.

Happy New Year! Take Care/ Maaretta