Pet Sematary by Stephen King / Гробище за домашни любимци, Стивън Кинг

Много можем да си говорим за темите, които Кинг засяга в тази книга, както и за красивата лекота, с която, страница след страница, повествованието все по-осезаемо стяга гърдите ти в невидимата примка на растящо неспокойствие и страх за това, което ще изскочи от редовете. Многопластово развитие на героите и обстановка, която, дори и в щастливите й и розови моменти, те кара леко да потръпваш, са само част от доказателствата на брилянтното умение на Кинг да си разказва историите.

Какво мога да кажа за Гробище за домашни любимци? Все толкова великолепно-ужасна дори 15+ години по-късно. Абсолютно класически Кинг, който те кара да искаш да не докосваш собствената си котка и те принуждава от време на време да подушваш дали все още си мирише на същото.

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There’s a lot we can say about the issues that King touches upon in this book; same applies for the beautiful ease with which, page after page, you can feel the narration making you more anxious about what’s going to happen next. The character depth and development, and the book’s overall setting which, even at its happiest, makes you stand on your toes, are only part of the manifestations of King’s brilliant storytelling skill.

What can I say about Pet Sematary? Today, more than 15 years later, it’s still as horrifyingly beautiful as the first time I read it. A classic King who makes you cringe at the sight of your own cat and urges you to sniff at it from time to time, just in case…

The verdict:

The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling/Вакантен пост, Дж.К. Роулинг

I remember when The Casual Vacancy came out. Scratch that. I remember when ‘the new J.K. Rowling book’ was first announced. Man, was the world excited…

Now, almost four years later, I can safely say that yes, there was a reason why the world was excited, as well as re-confirm my opinion that Jo is a very good storyteller. Yes, it took me awhile to get to, but, to a certain extent, I believe that now, four years later, my mind was at the right place for this book, and that ultimately lead me to loving it.

We all know what the story is about and probably most of us go into the book assuming how things will turn out. And while you can actually guess some aspects of how the book is going to progress, the most gripping part of it is the masterful way in which Rowling strips, layer by layer, the appearance of a what seems a perfect little society, only to unravel the dirt that lies beneath

Rowling simply did it again for me. I would definitely recommend giving this a read!

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Спомням си колко беше полудял книжния свят, когато се чу за тази книга, и с каква скорост хората я купуваха и четяха, когато излезе. Хайпът беше огромен и сега, четири години по-късно, вече знам защо.

Джо определено си е страшен разказвач. Няма как да отречем, че тази мацка си е намерила призванието, а книгата е поредното доказателство, че тя знае как си разкаже историята (въпреки че в този случай историята далеч не притежава фантастичните елементи на Хари Потър, всичките му различни герои, касти и т.н). Категорично смятам, обаче, че трябва да си в подходящо настроение/на подходяща възраст, за да оцениш книгата. Не за друго, ами това не е нито фантастична, нито магическа история, това си е една най-обикновена история за един нищо и никакъв, привидно перфектен малък свят на едно английско село. Повечето читатели биха могли да се досетят на къде ще задуха вятъра в тази книга, но нейната магия всъщност се крие в страхотния начин, по който Роулинг разлиства полираните пластове на едно лустросано, перфектно общество, за да разкрие мръсотията, която се крие отдолу.

Роулинг определно оправда очакванията ми, книгата си заслужава!

The verdict:

My bookshelves

I finally managed to get a second Bookshelf and get my books kind of organized. I have about 30-40 books that are scattered around other bookshelves, so it’s still a work in progress.

Chocolat by Joanne Harris/ Шоколад, Джоан Харис

In all honesty, the only reason I ever bought this book was because Johnny Depp is in the movie, and I have this thing where I collect books that have him on the cover. Although I don’t really remember the movie that well, the faded memory is an overall nice, magical and chocolaty one. I’ve been meaning to read the book for years, though for some reason I expected that the book would not be to my liking and that it would somehow spoil the whole Chocolat experience for me.

I can now say that I was very pleasantly surprised—this was a very easy read, filled with an overall magical atmosphere and lots of chocolaty dirty talk. You should probably want to have some chocolate or candies around you while reading it.

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Като цяло единствената причина, поради която си купих книгата, бе факта, че Джони Деп участва във филма и че имам влечение да колекционирам книги, който имат негов образ на корицата. Гледах филма доста отдавна, споменът ми за него е вече доста избледнял, но като цяло чувството, което е оставил у мен, е приятно и магично. Книгата я купих може би преди поне 3 години, и отдавна искам да я прочета, въпреки че малко се притеснявах, че няма да ми хареса толкова, колкото филма.

За моя радост бях приятно изненадана—чете се доста лесно и ти създава една магична шоколадова атмосфера. Бих препоръчала да се заредите с шоколад и сладкиши, когато е я четете. Да има, че рязко може да ви се дояде.

The verdict:

Нощен патрул (Патрулите, #1), Сергей Лукяненко/Night Watch (Watch, #1), Sergei Lukyanenko

Тъй като не съм особено голям ърбън фентъзи фен, тази книга надали щеше да попадне в обсега на радара ми, ако не бях гледала филма в един случаен ден, когато бях на гости на мои приятели. Като изключим няколкото дразнещи анти-гей коментари в книгата и факта, че автора е гадина (като Орсън Скот Кард), Нощен патрул не е лошо четиво. Тъй като се опитвам да разгранича автора от творенията му, най-вероятно ще прочета и втората книга от поредицата. Тя, обаче, определено не ми е високо в списъка с приоритети.

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I’m not much of an urban fantasy fan; so, if it weren’t for a random afternoon spent watching the movie at my friend’s house, I would’ve never picked this book up (nor would have I known about its existence). It was an overall interesting read for me. However, there were several anti-gay comments throughout the book and, at some point, I came to realize that the author happens to be a douchebag. Considering that I’m trying to separate the art from the artist, I am interested in continuing on with the series; however, this definitely isn’t a reading priority for me.

The verdict:

Some Prefer Nettles by Jun’ichirō Tanizaki

I’m trying to distance myself from the cultural and time differences I experienced and still, as much as try to, I cannot really say I liked the book. Some Prefer Nettles is not at all a badly written book, but unfortunately there was nothing in the story or characters I could relate to.

Tanizaki tells a story of a married couple that no longer wants to be married, but somehow Misako and Kaname don’t do anything towards their official separation. Both husband and wife want out of this marriage, and it’s not something that the times didn’t allow them to do, yet neither of them takes a step in the right direction–they maintain a life “together”, keeping the image of a married couple for the sake of I didn’t actually understand what, while living each a life of their own. And it’s perfectly fine by me if somebody wants to live their life in misery (which is actually the way I perceived their relationship), but I cannot remain neutral to the position of constant insecurity in which their son was put (apparently realizing the modern notion of divorce). The novel is centered around the conflict of old and new, of not wanting to change. Alas, I cannot sympathize with people who are not willing to take actions and change a situation they both don’t like and are absolutely aware should change. I fully understand what Takizaki tried to do in terms of the conflicts between East and West, old and modern, but…no. Just no. I wish the novel was longer, providing a deeper insight to the main characters and their experiences. That would’ve probably made me care more about whether they stayed together or not.

I’ve been really meaning to read another one of Takizaki’s books and I will at some point. It’s not that Some Prefer Nettles was a major disappointment, it just didn’t speak to me in a way that can make me really like a book.

The verdict:

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Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Young Victor Frankenstein was fascinated by nature and science; unfortunately, he was also a dickhead who wanted to play God and rule the universe. He went to university and one day he decided that he could use his knowledge and experience to create life by using a rather unconventional method. He started sewing up dead people’s body-parts, felt very happy and was nursing his new-found love for his creature, until ultimately he reanimated the patched-up corpse and felt repulsion and hatred. So after seeing his creature’s cute animated face for the first time, Victor just goes ‘Fuck it, I don’t want this in my life’ and flees. Unfortunately, what Victor doesn’t even realize is that the creature is above all alive, and, as every living thing, is driven by some weird brought-back-to-life survival instinct. Which ultimately leads to a game of cat and mouse, a lot of dead people and misery.

Now, let me start by saying that this novel is not not so horrific on a blood-and-gore level, but it is definitely a psychological horror of how humans lack humanity. Having in mind that this book was written back when science was just a toddler, I think that today’s reality, with its sciences evolving every second, is what makes Frankenstein a true horror story. I mean, I can really picture a modern-day Frankenstein doing all sorts of crazy stuff that he doesn’t want to take responsibility for in some weird lab hidden under a desert in some super top-secret facility (let’s say…)

Even though this novel (although frankly, Frankenstein is more like a longer short story) was written nearly 200 years ago, it tackles a lot of modern-day issues that are even more serious now than back then when they cured everything with penicillin and lobotomy. It raises some very serious questions like what is a human, what is humanity, are people good by nature, are they bad. Victor Frankenstein wanted to create. But did he really? Was he ready for his creation coming to life, did he know how to deal with it? There is this theory, called tabula rasa, that basically says that people are born without any mental content, and that they accumulate knowledge through everything around them and through their experience. Unfortunately Adam, the creature, has no parents to guide him, his daddy fled and left him all alone. So was this humane? Is Victor a human just because he was born and not…a reanimated dead corpse? Does Adam gain humanity through observing the world, educating himself and wanting to form relationship with other beings and be good to them? Or does his new-found hatred for mankind make him a monster?

I think this book is a mandatory read. It’s a bit slow because of the language and the language barrier, but, apart from the weird language, it is so applicable in today’s reality, it’s not even funny. I hope more people, especially young people, read this because this is horror at its finest.

The verdict:

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On Bulgaria and libraries

So it all started a while ago when I posted my praise for a bookseller called Wordery. They somehow found my blogpost, tweeted me and…as of today I am officially a  affiliate. What does this have to do with Bulgaria and its libraries you might ask. Well, here’s the deal.

Bulgarians don’t read that many books; and the books they do read, they mostly read in Bulgarian. Unfortunately foreign literature severely lacks in Bulgarian libraries, especially in the ones located in the smaller towns in my country. Bulgarian libraries have almost no financial support and almost zero budget for new books (especially the smaller ones I mentioned), and, of course, buying foreign literature in the original language is not their top priority.

I recently spent several months in one of the smaller Bulgarian towns; a friend of mine there works at the local library and man, is the situation tragic…

So I’ve decided to use the funds I accumulate trough this affiliate thingy to buy and donate books in English to local libraries in Bulgaria. I’m not saying you need to go and buy all your books via the Wordery link above. What I’m saying is that if you do use this link to buy at least one book (ever), the money will be used for spreading the love of books. Since I’m unable to visit all Bulgarian libraries, I will be mailing the books to them and I’ll be posting updates on how my small humble cause is growing.

So yey for books and being good to others (and I’d greatly appreciate if you reblog)! 🙂

Hector and the Search for Happiness by François Lelord

So I studied to be a psychologist, a cognitive scientist, mind you, but as it turned out later I didn’t become one. The moment came when I had to grow up and choose a profession and, being as I am, I chose one that didn’t bring me a lot of happiness, but had a considerable influence on the amount of my alcohol-intake (which, if you ask Hector, can be really beneficial for your levels of happiness). Still, in this pain-in-the-ass job of mine I find happiness because my paycheck is big enough for me to spend on books that I don’t even have enough space to store in. And as we all know books=happiness.

But this is supposed to be a review of the book and I don’t want it to end up being deleted >> decrease of my levels of happiness >> increase of alcohol-intake to make it up, you know how it goes. So let me say that I bought this book because I liked the cover, it is very pretty and yes, I am superficial like that. It wasn’t exactly what I expected, but at the end of the day, it wrapped up pretty nicely and I can say that I enjoyed it. It also made me think about happiness and how different people define happiness. Of course, back in the day when I studied to be a psychologist, my colleagues and I used to have many a drunken discussions on the matter, but books that you don’t have to read for school are always better!

François Lelord tells a very simple story through Hector. It’s about how grown-ups, being all serious and businesslike, forget what happiness is, and that you can find happiness everywhere, if are not, by nature, a grumpy old fart (then you just need to take pills, man). You shouldn’t expect to find the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything (which is, as we know, 42), but you can pick up this book with an open mind and, who knows, it may help you change the way you perceive stuff.

I know what happiness for me–it’s having crazy wino friends, it’s buying books, it’s my possessed cat that likes to sleep on my books, it’s hearing the screaming ‘I’m so happy!’ ringtone of my email at 6 am (I still wanna kill you though). What the book says is: Just don’t take stuff too seriously, try to smile more and find something positive in everything around you, and, you know, law of attraction.

The verdict:

By Night in Chile by Roberto Bolaño

So I have this friend who writes books. He used to read books too, until one day he found himself in a relationship and stopped. He told me once that I would probably like his last book, the conversation went something like:

Me: Bitch, when did you publish this last book, and why don’t I have a copy?
M: A few months ago….
Me: What is it about?
M: You know, stream of consciousness…
Me: Man, you are so sick in the head, I don’t ever want to read a book about your issues.
M: You’ll love it.

But anyways, it’s now last Saturday and, as usual, I am out hunting for something I need to buy. I end up buying Roberto Bolaño’s By Night in Chile (Mike Puma says that you better start with it (sorry, Amulet, your day hasn’t come yet)), I meet the said friend and he’s like ‘What the fuck is this book, Tina; you are stupid’ and I’m like ‘If I ever have to read your brain d***, I better have something sophisticated ready to repair my brain damage!’

“I am dying now, but I still have many things to say.”

Of course nothing of what I said so far makes any sense or is in any way connected to By Night in Chile, but if you’re still reading this, then you must really be interested in what I have to say. What I can say about it is that I really enjoyed my first Bolaño, it was something new to me both literary- and story/history-wise, but one has to expand his horizons and here I am…expanding. I would recommend that you read this in one sitting, though, as the padre jumps from recollection to contemplation within the same sentence, and one can easily lose track (especially if are like me–drunk most of the time I was reading it). So, since this is nowhere near smart-reviews-land, I just want to show you something:

He was cute, right?

“And then the storm of shit begins.”

The verdict:

Buy with free shipping from  and help me with my cause