Books Are Jazzy

So, here we go in no particular order:

• The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee
• Obsidio by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
• The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
• A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab
• Kingdom of Ash by S.J. Maas
• Muumipappa ja meri by Tove Jansson

Anna’s top pics/most worthy of a mention from 2018:
In total I managed to read 21 books, which I am very glad about since I had a hard time finding joy in books at times this year. I was in a sort of rut and couldn’t find a book that would keep me so hooked that, I would constantly be craving just a small moment of free time when I would brew some tea and get lost in the words of a great read. That’s why the A Court of Thorns and Roses series by Sarah J. Maas  as a whole has been my most notable, favorite, life changing read this past year. It brought back not only my love for reading but my love for fantasy. I was, and still am, obsessed through and through.
And just as Laura said, I’m picking my favorite out of the four parts by reflecting on the generic feeling I get. The first was great but the second blew my mind so therefore A Court of Mist and Fury is my first.

Second I would like to mention a Finnish novel that actually won the Finlandia prize in 2016. Akvarelleja Engelin kaupungista by Jukka Viikilä taught my about the time of C.L. Engel and the building of our capitol Helsinki. I loved the journal entry style and depictions of Turku, where I now live, hit home with me.

The third book I’m going to raise to the podium here is the Swimmer Among the Stars by Kanish Tharoor, a book of short stories that I picked it in Paris from Shakespeare & Co. (I admit, the setting for reading this book did enhance my experience. But none the less I was inspired by these colorful stories.

Fourth and fifth were similar and I can’t really set them apart in my mind but both inspired me greatly and I remember them with a spark of happiness. You Are a Badass by Jen Sincero and #GIRLBOSS by Sophia Amoruso have helped shape my attitude and the way I perceive things (as did Homo Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari too by the way) and they were a big part of my nonfiction phase of 2018.

We hope you find amazing reads in 2019!
Laura and Anna

Maggie Stiefvater's "Raven Cycle" series is one of my all-time favorite book series, and when she released a new standalone novel last fall, I was quick to pick up a copy of my own from the local bookstore. I was not as quick to pick it up to read however. I finally got around to reading Stiefvater's All the Crooked Saints when my summer break started.

All the Crooked Saints follows the Soria family in 1960's Colorado. The Soria's are known for being able to give out miracles. "Pilgrims" travel to the Soria family in hopes of receiving a miracle and if the current Saint deems the pilgrim worthy, a miracle is delivered. Thus, similarly to the Raven Cycle series, this novel features an element of magical realism, meaning that the presence of fantasy is normalized in the society of the novel.

I really enjoyed reading this novel and would recommend it to fans of magical realism or fantasy. Moreover, there are some light elements of romance, so this novel also works as a "lighter" read.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

-Laura

The start of a new month means another book review of a Finnish "classic". During March my goal was to read Jäniksen vuosi by Arto Paasilinna, and I finished it with plenty of time left in the month. I was especially excited to read this book because Jäniksen vuosi is my mother's all-time-favorite-book. I even timed my reading of the novel so that she was visiting me at the same time as I was reading it, so that we could discuss it as I read along.

The concept of the novel is absolutely amazing. The novel follows a middle-aged journalist who encounters a hare on the road and decides to drop everything in his life to spend time with this hare. He quits his job, leaves his wife, even sells his boat! The novel follows the extraordinary pair for a year, but the ending is left open to suggest that their adventures continue beyond this.

I highly, highly recommend this novel to everyone! Not only is it hilarious, it also offers some valuable life lessons. Moreover, it has been translated into English and can be found under the title The Year of the Hare. Let me know in the comments down below if you've read this novel.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Happy Readings!
-Laura

The City of Woven Streets, also known as The Weaver, by Emmi Itäranta is a dystopian fantasy novel. I was originally drawn to the novel by its beautiful cover, but I was officially hooked when I heard the premise.

The City of Woven Streets is set in a fantasy world where dreams are outlawed. Human life means very little: everyone must find a Craft, otherwise they are worthless. The story centers around Eliana, a young weaver from the House of Webs, who harbors a dangerous secret: Eliana dreams. When another young woman appears on the doorsteps of the House of Webs, Eliana's life hits a tailspin. The new arrival, Valeria, has her tongue cut out and Eliana's name tattooed on her skin. As the two grow closer and closer together they begin to work against their society's leadership.

I enjoyed The City of Woven Streets immensely. Itäranta told a fresh story in a genre that often seems overdone by focusing on lyrical prose and detailed characterizations. Moreover, I was pleasantly surprised by the blossoming lesbian relationship between Eliana and Valeria. Finally, I enjoyed the role tattoos had in the society presented in The City of Woven Streets.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

-Laura

Hello everyone! Another month has gone by, which means it's time for another update to my 2018 Reading Challenge! In February I read the novel Rautatie by Juhani Aho. Rautatie follows a married couple as they first hear about a train coming to a village near them, to them riding on the train for the first time, to finally deciding never to speak of the experience again. Previous to the novel's events, the couple had never heard of a train before and thus when hearing various details about trains and their workings, they quickly attached fantastical elements to the transportation system.


Compared to January's read, Rautatie was a lot more similar to other classic Finnish literature that I have read and therefore reading it felt more comfortable. Having said that, I'm not sure if I would go out of my way to recommend this book, since plot-wise not a lot happens.

Rating:⭐⭐⭐

-Laura

The Rabbit Back Literature Society is a novel written by Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen. When I originally bought the novel, I did not realize it was written by a Finnish author, if I had, I would have bought the book in Finnish. Instead, I purchased the English translation. If you are interested in reading it in Finnish, it can be found with the title Lumikko ja yhdeksän muuta.

Isn't this book just gorgeous?

The Rabbit Back Literature Society is set in the small town of Rabbit Back. The main character Ella Milana has recently moved back to her childhood home to take care of her elderly father and to work at the local high school as a Finnish language and literature teacher. Life in Rabbit Back seemingly revolves around their mysterious writer-in-residence Laura White, who runs a literature society in which she trains aspiring authors. Ella submits a short story to the local newspaper, and it gets published. Laura spots Ella's talent and offers her a spot as the tenth and final member of the Rabbit Back Literature Society. On the night Ella is supposed to officially join the society and meet Laura White, Laura disappears seemingly into thin air. As Ella begins to dig deeper into Laura's disappearance, she finds out disturbing details about the society, including their unsettling Game and the fact that there had been a previous tenth member before Ella.

The novel focused quite a lot on the Game, which is probably why I found it to be so disturbing. Members of the society where allowed to ambush each other after 10pm in order to ask each other exceedingly personal questions. The rules of the game allow members to use a drug they call "yellow" to get each other to relax, thus being more likely to answer honestly. They are even allowed to use physical violence to get honest answers to the questions they have asked. This Game is disturbing for the adult characters, but becomes even more so when you realize that White has been encouraging them to play some version of this Game since childhood. The characters in the novel attempt to excuse the Game by stating that they use the material gained during a round in their stories.

The novel is not meant to stay within the realms of realism, however. Personally, I would file it under the catch-all genre of magical realism. Various phantoms haunt the citizens of Rabbit Back and a disease is spread through the books in town, changing the plots of the books. Both of these examples would be classified as fantasy, but when the rest of the novel is fairly well set in reality, the genre of magical realism seems most astute. I have recently become a big fan of magical realism, so it was a pleasant surprise when The Rabbit Back Literature Society seemed to fit into the genre as well.

I know that Jääskeläinen has written more books, but The Rabbit Back Literature Society is his only work which has been translated into English. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys fantasy (or magical realism!) Now, I need to get my hands on his other books in Finnish.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

-Laura

I just finished reading Kesäkirja by Tove Jansson, as the first book in my 2018 Reading Challenge. Due to some unexpected coursework I didn't technically finish reading the book in January, but since I read the bulk of it during January, I'm still counting this as a win.


Kesäkirja was a short and sweet novel detailing the friendship between a young girl and her grandmother as they experience it over multiple summers at their summer cottage. Reading this in the cold of January did lessen my enjoyment of the novel a bit (since it's a summer novel, it would be best enjoyed read on a beach in the summer). Reflecting on it further, I believe the novel took on a more dreamy quality due to me reading it in the opposite climate the events of the novel occur in. I would like to reread the book during the summer to see how this changes how I react with the story.

Overall, I would recommend Kesäkirja for people who enjoy character driven novels. Personally, I liked reading the more adult side of Jansson's writings.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

-Laura

Akvarelleja Engelin kaupungista is the first novel by Juha Viikilä, who has been previously known as a poet and playwright. The novel also received the Finlandia-award in 2016.

The novel is written in the form of Johann Carl Ludvig Engel's diary, which he writes at night. The story is set between 1816 and 1840 in Helsinki and follows Engel's work at designing and building the city. Engel has been hired by the Tsar to build Helsinki, which is why he has left his home in Berlin along with his family. Engel and his wife yearn to return to Berlin but as the work stretches, they must abandon their original plan of staying for six years.

Viikilä highlights Engel's opinions of the women in his life; his wife and his daughter. As the novel progresses, Engel begins to focus more and more on the inner worlds of his wife and daughter. It seems as if he is jealous of the private lives of the women, while he himself has to constantly present himself in public.

Akvarelleja Engelin kaupungista is filled with lyrical prose, as is to be expected when considering Viikilä's history as a writer. The short diary entries showcase in equal parts the events in the story, Engel's thoughts, as well as his philosophy in life. I really really enjoyed this novel and would highly recommend, and not only because of its inclusion in Finnish literary canon.

-Laura

Furthermore is the newest novel by bestselling author Tahereh Mafi. It's a cute middle school fantasy book. It follows the story of young Alice Alexis Queensmeadow as she explores the land of Furthermore in hopes of finding her missing father. Simultaneously it explores important themes of friendship and individuality.

It was released on August 30th, while I was traveling in New York. As soon as I heard I got myself a ticket to the launch event hosted by Books of Wonder at the New York Public Library. When the day of the event finally came, I stumbled in wild-eyed and nervous, not knowing anyone there. Within minutes I felt comfortable. Something about being surrounded by people who are like you makes it easy to strike up a conversation, and thus I spent the time before Tahereh showed up chatting with other fans.

The event was so well planned it was amazing! I got there quite early and thus got a good spot in the line to get your cop of Furthermore personalized. Unlike other similar events I've been to you were assigned a number and they only had 10 people line up at a time. Thus you didn't have to spend the entire event waiting in line and miss all the other organized activities. Beyond the autographing portion, there was an interview with Tahereh moderated by her husband and fellow author Ransom Riggs! The couple was so cute and I loved their chemistry. Beyond that, there was a lot of merch that was given out as well as an airbrush tattoo station. Finally, they were selling copies of all of Tahereh's and Ransom's books all signed, but Ransom wasn't personalizing any during the event. Overall it was a lot of fun and I'm extremely happy that I happened to be in town while it happened!

-Laura

In the wake of the terrible attack against the LGBT+ community at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, and after recently finishing season 3 of The 100, I wanted to read something fun, light, cute, and most importantly, a book where LGBT+ characters got the happy ending they deserve. Of course, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz is not the only such book, but it is the first book of that kind which I read, and thus it holds a special place in my heart.


I was originally drawn towards Ari and Dante when I heard about it from some booktubers a few years ago. I had little to none knowledge about the plot, I just knew it was hugely popular and that the cover was insanely pretty, so I decided I should take a chance on it. And boy, am I glad I did; Sáenz's writing style is exquisite and all of the characters are well-developed. Ari's and Dante's friendship progresses slowly into something more rather than being just another cliched insta-love story. Furthermore, the story deals with themes of mental illness and adolescence in a very relatable way.

In my opinion Ari and Dante stood up really well for re-reading, I was just as immersed in the story the second time around as I had been when I first read it. I highly recommend picking this book up if you can get your hands on it.

-Laura

I picked up the Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón as soon as I returned from my trip to Barcelona. As I already mentioned in this Instagram post; I really enjoyed recognizing the locations of the book as places I'd visited within that month. This allowed me to become immersed in the narrative in a way I don't think I would've been able to without previous knowledge of the city. Furthermore, the novel is set in the aftermath of the Spanish civil war, so having studied that period of history also gave me a deeper understanding of the impact the war had on the characters.

The Shadow of the Wind follows the story of a young boy named Daniel who as a child finds a rare book by Julián Carax. Daniel falls in love with the story and wants to read Carax's other works, only to find the beginnings of a mystery; someone going by the name of one of the characters from Carax's novel is finding all remaining copies of the books and burning them. Daniel works to uncover the mystery surrounding Julián Carax and finds some of Barcelona's darkest secrets.

Carlos Ruiz Zafón's writing style is beautiful. Slipping into prose-like text at times, the novel was a gripping read that occupied my thoughts even when I set it down.

Just as in Inkheart, the Shadow of the Wind featured a fictitious novel of the same name within the narrative of itself. I always find this concept very interesting so if any of you know other books with this, please let me know in the comments below.

-Laura