Book Bingo Reviews 2023

And suddenly it’s 2024…. A new book bingo will soon commence, but first the reviews of the previous year.

Book Review: Heartstopper Vol. 1-4. – Heart-stoppingly beautiful

“Heartstopper” vol. 1-4 by Alice Oseman started as a webcomic and has by now become a phenomenon with four graphic novels and a Netflix series (season 2 is on the way). 

The story follows teenagers Nick and Charlie, who meet while attending a British grammar school and fall in love. In many ways, the story of Nick and Charlie is your typical teenager-falling-in-love story, but it is so much more than that.

Book Bingo Reviews 2022: I Lost, But I’ll Be Back in 2023

This year, Sunny decided to sprint out of the gates and left me in the dust. So, she won a well-deserved victory. (Only very slight spoilers below)

The Carl Hamilton Saga – Hunter’s Latest Audiobook project.

First of all, sorry for being MIA for a while, but life, work, and the continuation of the Covid-19 lockdown happened. So, a couple of months ago, I started to re-read the Carl Hamilton novels by Swedish author Jan Guillou. I started reading them when I was around 11/12 (I think – it’s been a while) and frankly, I might have been a bit too young to read them, but I turned out all right. 

The first book in the Carl Hamilton Saga

Before starting this re-read, I had read most of the novels once, a few of them twice, but never in order of publication. And thus a new reading/audio book project was born. The posts for this read through will be divided into three parts. This post, part one, will be my general thoughts and some background information about the novels. Parts two and three will be my thoughts on the individual books. Fair warning, as I’m only 2/3 of the way through all the books, part three might not be for a while, but I hope you’ll hang in there. Also, whether I’ll stick with only three parts is still subject to change. 

Book Bingo 2×20

Happy New Year everyone!

We are once again doing Book Bingo. It’s 12 categories like last year, since that suited both of us. Will I achieve the Hat-trick, I’m aiming for? Or will Hunter finally get revanche?

*We are defining Scandinavia as the Nordic Countries, that is: Iceland, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Greenland and the Faroese Islands

Book Bingo Reviews from the Loser

Before we start, I would like to congratulate Sunny on her victory, even if I had hoped I’d win this year. But there is always next year. See, Sunny was smart and wrote her reviews as she read the books, I, on the other hand, learnt nothing from last year, and now I have to dig deep in my memory to even remember which books I read.

[Spoilers below the cut]

Book Bingo Score and The Road Ahead

Here’s a small update on stuff.

Book Bingo 2019

 

A new year, a new round of Book Bingo. We are doing 12 categories this year, and we have done our best to come up with some interesting categories to expand our reading horizon.

The rules:

• Read a book matching each category on the card
• Each book may only be used once
• To win the entire card must be filled
• And most importantly – the Grand Prize will be a chocolate bar

Happy 2019 from Sunny and Hunter.

Once again you’re welcome to copy the card (or use it as inspiration for your own version).

 

Dickens vs. Andersen: Christmas and Life Lessons

Many stories have been written about or surrounding Christmas over the years; and two that stick out to me, whenever I think about Christmas Classics, are Charles Dickens’, ”A Christmas Carol” and Hans Christian Andersen’s, ”Grantræet” (eng. “The Fir-Tree”). Both are stories that I have heard or seen adapted one way or another, since I was a child. And now that the Christmas season is upon us, I thought it could be fun to take a look at both of those stories, their messages, and whether or not they have anything in common at all.

[Spoilers for both stories below the cut]

Film Review: Risen (2016)

The number of films portraying the biblical narrative has been on the rise in the last decade or so. Risen (2016) was directed by Kevin Reynolds, who also co-wrote the script along with Paul Aiello. It stars Joseph Fiennes (as Clavius), Tom Felton (as Lucius), Peter Firth (as Pilate), Stewart Scudamore (as Peter) and Cliff Curtis (as Yeshua). The plot follows Clavius, a Roman tribune, in the days following the crucifixion of Yeshua; when Clavius, along with his new aide, Lucius, is tasked by Pilate to find the missing body of Yeshua in order to dispel the rumour of a resurrected messiah and prevent an uprising in Jerusalem as the Emperor is due to visit soon.

Alright, before I start this I need to give two disclaimers. I watched this film in late August 2018, so roughly 2 months before I got around to writing this review. I only saw the film once (while constantly texting Sunny about it), and I didn’t take notes during the film. So, I might get some minor plot points wrong and for that the memory part of my brain apologises. Secondly, I realise this film has a plot that concerns itself with one of the most central Christian myths, and as such my take on it from a fairly non-religious point of view might not be your cup of tea, but just know that I never mean to insult anyone’s religion, nor do I want to tell you what to believe or how, if I accidentally say something that may offend you.

[Spoilers below the cut]