Friday, June 15, 2012

Book club! Fresh veggies day! Du & Sie. Icelandic names.

Hallo Ihr Lieben,

I hope you all had a wonderful National Skunk Day yesterday! Please don't forget that we can celebrate "Fresh Veggies Day" on Sunday! Another very important holiday! It's pretty awesome because I eat fresh veggies everyday so I am basically the hero of fresh veggies day. Yay for that.

I will bake vegan banana vanilla muffins later. Please keep your fingers crossed for me. I love baking and it is a very relaxing activity for me but usually everything I bake looks like a 5-year-old made it. It tastes good but doesn't look very flattering so you have to close your eyes when you eat it. 

I am linking up with Heather from Blonde...Undercover Blonde!

I guess you all know that I love crime novels and that's why I want to talk about Arnaldur Indridason today.

The book is called "Hypothermia", the German title is "Kälteschlaf" and the original Icelandic title is "Harðskafi". I would love to learn the Icelandic language by the way. So interesting. I have to say that it still confuses me that Americans and people from Iceland don't distinguish between "Du" and "Sie". Everybody is just "you" in English. It's the same in Iceland. In German I call my friends and family "Du" and people I don't know very well or people at work "Sie". So sometimes I feel weird when I say "you" to everybody. I know that doesn't make any sense because there is just no other word for it and you don't have to decide if you need to be polite or not but it's still weird for me.

Anyway. The book.



And this is how it looks in Germany. I have read the German edition by the way. I wish I could read it in Icelandic. 


I don't know why but I usually like the German covers a little better than the American ones. I think this one is okay but still...I can't really say why. 

Arnaldur Indridason is an Icelandic writer who mostly writes crime fiction.. Most of his novels feature the protagonist Erlendur (in Iceland people call each other with their first names all the time. I like that.). 

There is another fact about Iceland that I love! Your last name reflects your father's first name! Isn't that awesome! I mean, it is kind of weird that you don't have the same last name than your father but it is so cool! So you take your father's first name and add a "-son" when you are a boy and a "-dottir" when you are a girl. 
Here is an example: My Dad's first name is Heribert. So in Iceland my name would be "Katrin Heribertdottir". Isn't that fabulous? I love it. Unfortunately I am not from Iceland but you can't have everything. My husband's name would be "David Toddson". 

Okay, I want to talk about the book! (But I really hope that I will be able to travel to Iceland soon, The country is so fascinating!!).

In Indridason's crime novels the past always plays an important role.Inspector Erlendur's brother vanished without a trace during a snow storm...nobody knows what happened that night and Erlendur tries to run from his ghosts but has to face the truth at some point...Maybe he will be able to finally find out the truth...

The corpse of a young woman was found at a history charged lake in Iceland on a cold fall evening. It looks like a suicide. But Erlendur is suspicious when he received a tape recording of a seance. The young woman talked to a medium a couple of days before she died. Erlendur doesn't believe in Parapsychology but wants to find out the truth. He discovers a well-protected family secret during his research. The secret overshadowed the whole childhood of the woman....what happened to the woman? Can Erlendur solve the mystery. He discovers that 30 years ago two young people went missing in the same area? Is there a connection?


Indridason is a fantastic writer and all his books are so suspenseful. A must-read for every fan of crime novels. But I really think that everybody should read this book. Everybody.





What are you currently reading? Have a wonderful Friday!

18 comments:

  1. How interesting that last name bit is. An entire family would have similar but different names! Crazy!

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  2. That book looks really interesting, I'm gonna add it to my Goodreads.
    Spanish is the same way as German. Tu for informal and usted for formal. It was kinda weird to get used to.
    My last name would be Bradleydottir. Jarrod's would be Harroldson.

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    1. I hope you'll like it as much as I did!
      Haha, Bradleydottir! I love that! Sounds great, we should all move to Iceland! :)

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  3. Thanks for the book tip, sounds good as always!

    I like that, the hero of fresh veggies day ;)

    I love baking, too, but it also always looks like "you CAN eat that" :o As long as it tastes good, what does it matter what it looks like ;)

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    1. Thank you! Indridason is one of my favorite writers!

      Yeah, the taste is the most important thing! I don't care about the look that much. Only when I want to bake for somebody else.

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  4. I really want to go to Iceland, I have met a few people from there who seem really cool.

    Good luck with the baking!

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    1. The country is so fascinating! I don't know anybody from Iceland though. :(

      I got really sick eating all the dough. :(

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  5. I love all the culture information...so interesting!! His book sounds very suspenseful!

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    1. It really is. He is a great writer and Iceland is such a fascinating country!

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  6. I never knew that they had different covers for different countries! Gonna have to give this book a read!

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    1. Yeah, all the publishers have different covers. I don't know why. But the book is really good. I hope you'll like it.

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  7. Have you ever read any Sherlock Holmes? My dad looooves that stuff, but I always figured it was cheesy. I'm in the middle of "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", though, and am totally loving it! He's so clever and not cheesy at all.

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    1. I have read some Sherlock Holmes as a teenager but I guess I should read them again. I love the movies! :)

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  8. My latest book review is of The Alchemist - I loved it and am really happy I am making time to read again.

    Sarah
    http://acatlikecuriosity.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/summer-reading-pledge-alchemist.html

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    1. Have you read "Veronika decides to die"? So good!

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  9. You always share the most interesting books! I'm currently reading Religion for Atheists: A non-believer's guide to the uses of religion - I'm loving it. Just haven't had as much time as I would have liked to be able to read. Have a great weekend lovely xoxox

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    1. I am glad you like them, Vanisha! Your book sounds very interesting! I will go and check it out! My believe is that I don't know. Does that make any sense? :) I will definitely read it! Thanks, Vanisha! And have a wonderful weekend! Hugs!

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