Caraval - Stephanie Garber

'Do you always focus on what you're giving up, rather than what you'll be gaining? Some things are worth pursuit regardless of the cost.'

This book came out earlier this year and became a huge thing pretty much immediately and was translated to 25 languages quicker than a heartbeat. So naturally when I saw it at the library, it felt like I should and I would read it no matter what.

This book has two sisters, Scarlett and Donatella (or just Tella), leave their home island and their cruel father for a magical game called Caraval. Tella, the adventurous and excited one, believes this could be their way out, but Scarlett believes her arranged marriage to a stranger will get her and her sister away from their father.

Caraval is a game Scarlett has heard many stories of, and in which you can't trust anything you hear. It's hosted by a man called Legend, who supposedly plays each game wearing a different face. You can't trust anything you hear in Caraval, and Scarlett has to wonder if the sailor who brought her there has ulterior motives too. And then things go from bad to worse when Tella gets kidnapped and whoever finds her will win the game... and a wish.

Scarlett was fairly likeable to me, and even though I wanted to slap some sense into her a couple of times, she still felt relatable. Same goes for Tella, even though the two of them were fairly night and day as far as sisters go. The side characters were okay but most of them would have been better if they had gotten more time and development.

'She wrapped her arms around Scarlett like only a sister can. Fiercely like a kitten that has just gotten its claws and wants to rip the whole world to shreds so that everything would turn out alright.'

The plot was surprisingly interesting and full of twists, and it gave me many wow moments throughout the story. I was impressed with that, because I thought beforehand that the plot would be where this book was going to trip itself up; becoming a dull copy of every 

other story like this. Turns out that wasn't actually the problem.

My knee-jerk reaction was to give this a full five stars, but today I've given it another thought and am starting to get annoyed with the general lack of worldbuilding (how gorgeous this would have been in a properly built world) and the few cop-outs it goes through instead of properly defining its own rules. It's actually something to say about how interesting the plot was that I ended up giving it four stars. Quite excited for the sequel, too. I'd be so happy if it expanded on the world of this, but I bet it'll be all too easy to just stick to the same formula as this book, since it's been so popular. Apparently we no longer care for worldbuilding in our 'high fantasy' books. Some of the plot twists towards the end also felt unpolished and weak, as if the author could no longer be bothered to write them out in full.

Also, there's a really odd thing where Scarlett sees emotions and colours, and it felt... weird. It didn't really fit in the tone of the book, and it wasn't explained until it had already been happening for some time. It didn't really add anything to this book, in my opinion.

Regardless, I enjoyed Caraval a lot and I'll be reading this series probably until the bitter end. The second book, coming out in 2018, is still untitled. (I hope it comes out sooooonnnn!)

For the Helmet 2017 reading challenge I put this in category 49: A new book of 2017!

Rikki - Reija Glad

'Joskus äiti on niin kuin pieni ja Eeva sen äiti. Ja pieni äiti on ärsyttävä eikä halua pukea.'

'Sometimes mum is like small and Eeva its mum. And small mum is annoying and doesn't want to get dressed.'

Rikki ('Broken') is Reija Glad's first novel. It won third prize in a Robustos (the publisher who's published most of Siiri Enoranta's works and other stuff) miniature novel competition in 2015. I got this from the library's new stuff shelf and checked it out on Goodreads, where it has, as I write this, one rating of three stars, a golden middle road. I thought that was quite compelling - what does three mean to this one person? Also, the book is just shy of a hundred pages and I thought I could definitely give it another rating, maybe make the decision easier for someone else. Or something. Also, it sounded cool.

Anyway, this book is very unsettling at its heart. It's divided into short little chapters that each tell their own story of sorts. They're given creepy telltale names like 'Dad's Car', 'Bunny' and 'River'. The book itself is about a family, or more specifically the children of one, who grow up poor, with a mentally ill mother and an alcoholic, absent father. The book is from the point of view of one of the children, though the book never actually tells you which one. I do have my guess.

It's mostly written in short, meaningful sentences. The children witness things no child (or person) should and can't process them properly. Many things in this book are, indeed, broken. Their mother isn't able to take care of the kids because of her own problems, and the children in turn do their best but can't really lead normal and happy childhoods. The family is broken and their home town in Northern Finland seems fairly depressed at best.

This book was sort of disturbing in its desperation, but I like to think it also had tiny little whisps of hope, which are also alluded to in the back cover. I think I'll check out Glad's other works if she publishes more one day. (You can always dream, yes?) My only hope is that for a full length novel, the work would have more happiness as well. For a work of this length however, it worked quite well, even if it does feel like a bit too much sometimes. No one's supposed to live a life like this, though I think that was kind of the point too. I'd recommend this book and I quite enjoyed it, but I feel like it requires a specific sort of mindset so I'll just leave that up to you if you want to check it out. For me, it was absolutely worth the read. I hope more people check it out.

For the Helmet 2017 reading challenge I put this in category 26: A family story! Think the category is looking for a longer story but this was definitely about family so...

Eurooppalaiset unet - Emma Pulkkonen

Heyo!

Back with marathon number two book number two: another Finnish one, this time last year's Finlandia nominee (you might remember how Akvarelleja Engelin kaupungista was the winner, and I would be tempted to say rightfully so)

Eurooppalaiset unet ('European Dreams') felt, to me, like a café with a fancy exterior that tries to appeal to a more academically inclined crowd in the most expensive part of the city. When you step inside however, you come to realise that there's nothing that's really groundbreaking or worth your time in this faux-fancy establishment.

Now, the book isn't actually quite that bad. There's actual quality to it, just quality that somehow comes across as trying too hard and failing because of it.

The idea is that there's all these people (maybe eight or so, I lost count) around Europe who lead different lives with their own problems, but eventually most of their stories actually weave together to create a semblance of connection. Like, on the level that some character's brother's daughter is working with some other character 20 years later. And while I see that was supposed to be amazing to me, well... it felt more like that person could have been working with anyone else without it having any implications for their lives.

Also, it was, again, (check out Kissani Jugoslavia for more of this) a bit too artsy. Someone got this superpower of sorts (not much of a spoiler since it's on the back cover) which didn't make any sense to me and I never found out if it was real or not. It was odd in a story that otherwise felt real.

I really wanted to like this book. I thought that the idea was cool, but obviously I wanted some deeper connections than what this had. The stories themselves were quite good and even harrowing but my topmost feeling is disappointment and I can't really shake that. What with the EU and all (having 'European' in your title is bound to draw these comparisons), I wanted a book about how deeply we're all connected these days. This wasn't that book.

I don't have much else to say. I feel like this book didn't have much to say to me either.

For the Helmet 2017 reading challenge I put this in category 17: A book cover colours are blue and white!

Pollomuhku ja posityyhtynen - Jaana Kapari-Jatta

'Suomentaja ei käännäkään sanoja vaan ajatuksia.'

'A Finnish translator doesn't, after all, translate words but thoughts.'

Heyo!

Pollomuhku ja posityyhtynen ('Bubotuber and Pigwidgeon') was my reading marathon number two book number one - a book by the Finnish translator of Harry Potter on her perhaps biggest and probably most influential work to date; translating this beloved series from beginning to end (including The Cursed Child and other stuff like that too).

This book answers most of the questions the translator often gets asked: how do you translate all those names, how does the fame of the series feel, does she miss them now that it's fin(n)ished... And it's really quite interesting. Even though I've always comprehended that someone does indeed translate all of these books, I've never fully realised just how much work goes into it. I'll be sure to appreciate it more in the future and maybe even read more translated works.

It's clear from the way Kapari-Jatta talks about her work that she has a strong passion for it. The only book I've actually read with her translation (since I've happily read Harry Potters in English) is Holes by Louis Sachar. I would say that's a good translation as well. Pollomuhku talks very in depth (sometimes too much so) about the creative process of the translator as she attempts to understand the mind of the author and the complexities of the world they have created. She also really thought deep and hard about how to translate all those imaginary words while preserving their spirit. This is especially important since these books started out as children's books and you can't reasonably expect every Finnish child to know enough English to make the connections.

Another thing I thought was cool: translating hints. If you've read these books before, you'll probably know that J.K. Rowling adds a ton of hints in her books about what will happen in the future instalments. The translator talks about how the hints need to be of the same quality as originally - not more or less clear. It's another thing I've mostly taken for granted, translating these things skillfully, but they do take a lot of thought, especially in Rowling's case.

I might even have given this a five but sometimes it just trailed off a bit too much and repeated the same things many times. For a (by default Finnish skills are required) Harry Potter fan interested in languages I would recommend this without hesitation regardless!

Also something to appreciate: this cover was made by Mika Launis, who also made all the Finnish Harry Potter covers! I really like his work and I think these two people definitely made the Finnish editions of Harry Potter what they are.

For the Helmet 2017 reading challenge I put this in a category I've been dreading filling because it's so niche.... 25: A book where nobody dies! Yay!!!

Reading Marathon #2 (updating)

Heyo!

Reading marathon #2 of the summer is here today (8th of July) and as promised, I convinced Daniel to take part with me!

We started at 8PM today and will finish at 8PM tomorrow and I'll be updating our feels here a couple of times during the marathon!

22:58

Right now I'm reading Pollomuhku ja posityyhtynen (a book on how the Harry Potters were translated into Finnish) by Jaana Kapari-Jatta and Daniel's reading The Story of Kullervo by J.R.R. Tolkien. I'll probably finish that and then wrap up for today. [Daniel] After getting not so far into Kullervo I decided to return to the beginning as the dialect went over my head; second time round and the book is captivating me due to its poetic passages.

23:34

That's my book and the first 114 pages finished! Maybe good to wrap up for today? Daniel is still battling with the complicated names and stuff in Kullervo.

14:28

Started Eurooppalaiset unet ('European Dreams') by Emma Pulkkonen and read the first 50 pages. Kind of heavy to get into and jumps around a lot but I do enjoy it. [Daniel] Enjoying Kullervo hugely! As a Tolkien fan I expected I'd like it but its enjoyably poetic in the telling of the tale. Still rather heavy with sonnet-like passages.

16:19

Done 110 pages of this thing. I kind of really want to finish it today. There was a bit about a Somali refugee girl that was almost too difficult to read. Hope we never get back to that again. [Daniel] Finished the actual story part of the Kullervo and it was pretty amazing, definitely going to read Kalevala when I master Finnish! Currently reading the essays regarding the Kalevala by Tolkien and the forewords to the book.

19:03

Finished my book (179 pages) and feel wholly confused. What is life. It was a bit too weird for me, which is a real shame. Maybe would have benefited from being read one story at a time but I don't really think a great book should suffer from being read 'wrong'. Think I'll start a bit of Caraval by Stephanie Garber with the remaining time. [Daniel] Still reading the essays and notes associated with Kullervo. I'm developing a new sense to Tolkien and also a greater understanding of Kalevala and how it influenced his further works.

Overview

Me:
Pollomuhku ja posityyhtynen (114 pages, partly)
Eurooppalaiset unet (179 pages, complete)
Caraval (64 pages, partly)
Total of 357 pages

Daniel:
The Story of Kullervo (158 pages, partly)
Total of 158 pages


Not too shabby with 515 pages between us! Definitely happy I now have 2/3 of the library books I loaned for this actually read and Caraval too seemed rather exciting.

I nearly read the book! I only have the foreword to finish off. For my first marathon I am very happy as this was indeed a very heavy book
to read with lots of dialect, notes, sources and references. Despite the heaviness this was a poetic and beautiful book. I hope to finish two books for our next marathon!

We Should All Be Feminists - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

'Some people ask: 'Why the word feminist? Why not just say you are a believer in human rights, or something like that?' Because that would be a way of pretending that it was not women who have, for centuries, been excluded. It would be a way of denying that the problem of gender targets women.'

I picked this up, sat at the dinner table and read it. Granted, it's a TED Talk turned into an essay and in Finnish just shy of 50 pages, but I would've gladly read 50 more or even 150. The reason We Should All Be Feminists has been on my radar is that earlier this year, a copy of it was given to every 9th grader in Finland. I read the Finnish edition they were given ('Meidän kaikkien pitäisi olla feministejä'), and I think they're in good hands. This book works incredibly well as a conversation starter as well due to its short length and current message.

This essay is very personal. Adichie talks about her own experiences and doesn't make them into some sort of a universal truth that everyone should agree on, but also raises many sharp points about why, indeed, We Should All Be Feminists. She's from Nigeria and lives partly in the US herself, but even though our cultures are vastly different, her experiences still resonate with what I feel. I'm sure anyone who's a woman or doesn't hate women would agree.

I don't expect that giving this book to kids miraculously turns them into a full generation of acceptance and love, but I think if even one of them finds this book an eye-opener, it has done its work. It's a good size with reasonable sized text, and at least I found it a page-turner. If only they opened it.

I took a look yesterday into how that was taken in Finland, and some of it was pretty appalling. Middle-aged men calling out on Twitter how, direct quote: "Political propaganda is being forced upon our youth."  Really. If you think that equality of genders is dangerous propaganda, you should go back to the 1500s where you clearly belong. Also, it was very clear that no one who criticised this book had ever even touched it. It's horrible how just saying 'I'm a feminist' gets this sort of a reaction from people, and that's something Adichie talks about as well: how the word itself has become incredibly loaded and makes people imagine that you hate men, among many other things. 

If these people actually read the book, they would know feminism is not the opposite of misogynism, but the actual plea for equality of genders. And they might disagree with some of the things in this book, but at least they would know what they were talking about. Of course, if people were willing to educate themselves and admit to being wrong, this would be all too easy.

You can find the TED Talk here in its entirety and if you've not read this or watched it, well, I definitely recommend it. I wish everyone would, and then maybe we would have a slightly better world. 

'My own definition is a feminist is a man or a woman who says, yes, there's a problem with gender as it is today and we must fix it, we must do better. All of us, women and men, must do better.'

For the Helmet 2017 reading challenge I put this in category 4: A book inspiring wellness and wellbeing.

Akvarelleja Engelin kaupungista - Jukka Viikilä

'Onko arkkitehtia, joka kieltäytyisi kokonaisen kaupungin rakentamisesta, vaikka se nousisikin näin pimeään, kylmään ja syrjäiseen paikkaan?'

'Is there an architect who would refuse to build a whole city, even if it rose in such a dark, cold and isolated place as this?'

And also: how do you write about a book so intelligent and intellectual that you feel like you haven't lived long enough to match it?

I don't think there's many capital cities that have so prominently been designed by one architect, but this is only one of the many things that makes Akvarelleja Engelin kaupungista ("Aquarelles from Engel's City") so interesting. There's also the fact that the city Carl Ludvig Engel designed essentially didn't exist before his work commenced, for the little village had been burnt badly eight years before and was only made the capital four years prior to his arrival.

The reason this book was in my radar is very simple: it won the coveted Finlandia prize for fiction last year. That's like a Booker or Pulitzer prize for Finnish people. Honestly, I've never happened to read a winner before, but they're pretty highly valued books regardless. I was also interested in this because one of his buildings (the one in the picture) is about six kilometres my home (in an area where practically nothing exists, what are the chances of that?) I happened to come across this very luckily at my local library (not the big and fancy one), and I knew I just had to take the time to read it within the two week quick loan time.

Akvarelleja Engelin kaupungista is written like a night diary by the architect during his years in Helsinki, spanning from 1816, when he arrived, to 1840, when he passed away. Engel wasn't in love with Helsinki, by any means. He found it cold, uncultured and revulsive, even, and was always convinced that he would move back to Berlin once his job was done. Regardless, the work he did on the city shaped a lot of how it looks today.

The book is incredibly poetic. The thoughts expressed are very beautiful but they never feel fake or pretentious. I found it exquisite. This is obviously because while this is Viikilä's first novel, he's previously released two poetry compilations. What's also apparent is that lots and lots of work have gone into this. It's steeped in history and notes actual things that happened and how Engel might have reacted to them. The buildings he made also pop up in real time and allow Viikilä to imagine how the architect might have believed it.

There's a lot I could tell you about the architect based on this book, and I think that's really cool. I must applaud the work of the author, and I'm happy to do so. Viikilä's primary source of information on the architect (of whom not much personal information exists, allowing for a book like this) were letters he wrote to his three closest friends.

I loved this book. I imagine not everyone would, because it is pretty poetic and cultural, but for me it was definitely a hit, and I don't think I would change anything even if I could. I think I'll work on finding a hardback copy of my very own. This is the sort of book that deserves to exist as a hardback, you see. If the author decides to write another novel, I'll be excited to read it.

For the Helmet 2017 reading challenge I put this in category 8: A book about Finnish history!

'Tämän olen oppinut suomalaisista: heille kaunein kukka on peruna.'

'This I have learnt of the Finns: to them the most beautiful flower is a potato.'