Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

Charles John Dickens wrote Oliver Twist in 1838 Dickens was born in 1812 in Portsmouth, Hampshire, and he died quickly in 1870 at Gad’s Hill Place in Higham. He was a British author who wrote a large number of famous and classic productions.

   Dickens was considered to be one of the largest authors writing in English and already during his life his author work met large popularity all over the world.

Oliver Twist is an orphan and was born in a poorhouse where he becomes badly treated. One evening Oliver asked for more food and he was locked up in a closet. The personnel at the poorhouse decided to sell Oliver to Mr. Sowerberry who is a funeral director. Oliver gets treated badly by Mrs. Sowerberry and the private school pupil Noah. One day Oliver and Noah end up in a fight and Oliver gets locked away and began to make a plan to run away. After a time Oliver runs away and walks to London where he ends up in bad company with Mr. Fagin, who teaches poor homeless boys to be pickpockets. A housebreaking goes wrong and Oliver ends up in a ditch, alone and hurt. Good Mr. Brownlow helps Oliver and in the end all pieces fall into place and he gets to know his parentage.

The story took place in the 1800:s in England. The surroundings are described as poor, filthy, gloomy and unsafe in a realistic way Charles Dickens illustrated the big social problems with satire in the social relations in the book, and in that way society was forced to acknowledge the problem which the law created for exposed groups, for example orphan children and poor people.

   The leading character is Oliver himself, he was a little orphan boy who despite his miserable childhood had a very high morale and followed his inner voice. He is a good boy who grew stronger with time and developed courageousness the older he got.

   The minor characters were Mr. Fagin, Mr. Sowerberry, Monks (Oliver’s half-brother), Jack Dawkins, Miss Rose (she was adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Maylie, she was also Oliver’s aunt and guardian angel) and Mr. Brownlow.

   The persons are very well described in the book and you get to know what they look like and how they are as persons, as you also can tell in the dialog in the book.

Charles Dickens described the story in the book in a realistic, chronological parallel story. He writes in an everyday language which is easy to understand. He is also very good at giving the readers a clear picture of the persons and the episodes with his descriptive language.

   Charles Dickens’s message is to describe and illustrate the hard, tough and sometimes frightening life for orphan children in England and on the streets of London. He also wanted to criticize the times poor reliefs and show the lack of it to make changes in the law.

I believe this book absolutely is a classic that everyone should read, and not just because it’s a classic but it’s also a touching, thrilling and well done book where you as a reader feels like you are with Oliver in the filthy streets in England.

Written by Jessica

Evil by Jan Guillou

Title: Evil

Author: Jan Guillou

Year of publishing: 1981

This story is about a boy named Eric Ponti who is 15 year old and lives with his mom and his stepfather in Stockholm (Sweden). The story starts in a public school in the capital city, from where Eric gets expelled because he blackmails and fights with other students. When this happens, all his friends abandon him and his stepfather who has a habit of beating him, I guess would not be so pleased with Eric´s behavior. His mother then sends him to a private school to keep him away from his stepfather and give him a chance of a proper education. This school is located in the country side and when you study there, you live there. When he arrives at this new school he gets a friend but he soon comes to realize that it´s not going to be easy to fit in here. Erik and his friend develop a very strong friendship and they stay together most of the time. Both of them get harassed by the older students. But Erik is a strong boy both in mind and in body and tries to stand up to them. The story takes place in the 1950´s and the author Jan Guillou`s intention with this book is to criticize the school system and the behavior, purpose and intention from some of the teachers at this time. Also have in mind that most of this is a true story and that makes it even more interesting. I have read this book in two languages and it´s equally good. I think they manage not change too much of the feeling of the Swedish environment.  If I should categorize this book I would say it´s a drama filled with action, romance and thrills and I strongly recommend reading it!  

Written by Martin     

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K Rowling

This is the first book of Harry Potter, if you like it there are six more to read. Harry Potter is a fantasy book that takes place in our time England and at a magic place called Hogwarts. The author JK Rowling is very good at describing the looks of the characters in the book, and it is easy to get a feeling about their appearances. Also the author makes an excellent job making you feel that you are in the book. She describes the setting and landscape so well that it is easy to get a feeling about it. The text is easy to read and the words are not hard to understand.

In this book you become acquainted with a boy called Harry and all the people he met in his first year at Hogwarts. It may seem that he is just an ordinary boy living with his aunt, cousin and his aunt’s husband, but that’s not the case. Harry is anything but ordinary. He is actually a wizard, and as it turns out, a famous one too. Apparently his parents were killed by a really evil wizard when he was only a baby, this wizard called Voldemort tried to kill Harry too, but the love from his mother made the killing spell from the wand backfire, and instead of killing Harry it almost killed Voldemort himself, leaving just a scar on Harry’s forehead. And for that reason Harry is famous in the whole magic world. He is the one that stopped Voldemort from his tyranny. When he arrives at Hogwarts, that is a school for magic, he makes new friends that later becomes his best friends, they are called Ron and Hermione. He also succeed in making enemies, one really annoying person that Harry does not like is called Malfoy. At Hogwarts you are accommodated to a special dorm, Hogwarts has 4 different ones, they are called Slytherin, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenslaw. It is a special hat that you put on your head that decides who goes where. Harry and Hermione and Ron ends up in the same dorm, the one called Gryffindor. Harry also makes friends with some of the teachers at the school, in particular there is the gardener Hagrid, he is a half giant, and the principal Dumbledore.                      Harry and his friends find out about a stone, this stone in particularly gives the one who has it eternal life, and now they must find it before Voldemort does.

If you like magic, adventure, elves, giants, and other imaginary beings, this is the book for you. There is much more in this story to tell, but I feel that I must leave some room for you to explore this magic world for yourself.  I highly recommend it.

I don’t know if there are a message in the book, just the normal; evil versus good.

Written by Josefin

Schindler's List

The book I have read it was a contemporary of Thomas Kennelly’s famous novel. It was published for the first time in 1982 under title “Schindler´s Ark”.

The book tells the true story of Oscar Schindler - a rich, German businessman who risked his life almost every day during the Second World War to save as many Jews as possible.

Oskar Schindler, the hero of the story, was born in 1908 in a middle - class German family, he had a happy, careless childhood. After he finished his education he started to work at his father´s factory and he got married to Emily - a young, religious girl, who reminded of his own mother.   

After his father went bankrupt, Oskar, who was very intelligent and charming and had many business contacts easily found a new job as a sales manager.

As a young man Oskar was not interested in history or politics although he became a member of the Nazi Party to get better contracts from Germans. Nothing indicated that words from Talmud “He who saves a single life, saves the entire world” will become a motto of his life.

The Nazis invaded Poland in September 1939, and then Oscar who was only 29 years old at that time, got the proposal to start a new business in Krakow - Poland, gradually he opened a factory there.

 Oscar was always a man who loved the luxury life: good food, drinks and beautiful women..The turning point in his life was when he saw what the Nazis were doing with Jews in the ghetto, he saw how they were killing children, women and men. He understood then the devil`s plan of exterminating Jews and realized what Holocaust means. He started to employ Jews in his factory and he always treated them well and with respect. The job at his factory was for Jews the only chance to survive; otherwise they were sent to concentrations camps and died in gas chambers.

He was accused many times for being a “Jews lover”, he was also arrested a couple of times, but with the help of his high – ranking German friends he always managed to get free. During the war he spent millions on bribing Nazis to save as many human beings as he could. He succeeded to save around 1.200 Jews. After the war he lived in Germany and for a while in Argentina where he started a new business, but for many reasons he did not succeed. After the war, according to his wife’s words, “he had done nothing impressive with his life”.

“The Schindler Jews” never forgot him and in 1961 Schindler was formally honoured in Tel Aviv in the Park of Heroes and he was declared an Honourable Person for saving the lives of more than 1.200 Jews.

He died in Berlin in the autumn in 1974 and, according to his wishes, he was buried in Jerusalem.

In 1993, one of the most famous American directors - Steven Spielberg created a film “Schindler´s list” based on the book, which was a great success and won seven Oscars. Millions of people around the world got to know the history of Oskar Schindler´s heroism.

It was a great book to read, mainly because it tells the true story; the language was easy to understand. I recommend reading it; I think everyone should know this incredible story.

Written by Ewa.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

The book is about a little boy and his father. The world has been destroyed by some kind of natural disaster.  The world is grey and there are no living things besides a small amount of humans. I would imagine the boy to be 12 or 13 of age and the father maybe 40. They lived in a small house for a couple of years during the catastrophe but left there when the mother committed suicide. She was tired of not having any food or water and the constant fear that someone would eat them. So the boy and his father went out on the road with just a shopping cart with some blankets and some cans of water.

They are walking from Northern America to the south in the winter looking for warmer weather.

On their travels they sleep outside and they have thin clothes and no food or water. Most of the other people they meet are cannibals and would like to eat them. They walk through deserted cities and are scared for their lives all the time. They also carry a gun with 2 bullets in, one for them each. But they have to kill a bad guy in the middle of the book so they just have one for the boy so he wouldn´t get eaten alive. So as soon as they are in danger of their lives the man puts the gun to the boy's head, ready to fire. The father dies in the end and the boy meets a family which had followed them the whole time and he accompanies them instead.

One event in the book that I thought was kind of good and well described was when they walked into a house which they thought was deserted. They found a hatch in the floor and under there was a dungeon completely dark and filled with people that hardly were able to walk, just laid down eating of each other´s legs and arms. So they had to run up from the dungeon and when they got up they hear the cannibals coming and run upstairs in the bathroom. They hide there with the gun pointing to the boy's head all the time. The prisoners start to bang at the hatch so the cannibals ran in to see what was going on and then the boy and his father could sneak out and hide in the forest. They slept only a couple of meters from the house and had to sleep there for two days before the cannibals stopped looking for them. The boy slept with the gun pointed to his head the whole time. Then they just moved on and the book continued with a lot more walking.

So basically the book is about them walking, looking for food and shelter and hiding from” the bad guys”. It gets boring to read about after a while and they have no good conversations. I have memorized one which appeared more times than I could count.

Starting like this: Are they going to kill us? Yes, but I won´t let them.

I´m scared, Papa. So am I. Are we going to die? Yes, everyone is but not now.

Put in optional nonsense sentences and you’ll probably get the conversations they were having all through the book. And almost every conversation ends with both of them saying okay.

So I don’t think this book was any good, hardly readable I would say. It didn’t have any chapters and that made it hard to feel that you were making any progress reading it. They’ve also made a movie about this. One and a half hour of miserable watching, still better than numerous days of reading it.

So that’s about it. No, I almost forgot.

Don’t read it!

A little bit of sarcasm may appear in this book review, please have indulgence about that.

Written by: Mattias 

The Host by Stephenie Meyer

The book I’ve chosen is “The Host” written by Stephenie  Meyer.  It vas first published on May 6:th in 2008.

A little bit about Meyer

Stephenie Meyer begun her author’s career in 2005 when her, world wide, loved book “Twilight” first was published. A few years later she took a leap from young adult books about vampires to her first “grown up” book, this one about aliens. It was as big a success as The Twilight Saga, and  she calls it a “science  fiction fore those who don’t  like Sci-Fi”. The book is meant to be the first out of three, and so hopefully she’ll soon get around to publish the sequels (“the soul“ & “the seeker”).  

 The Host

The world as we know it has come to an end. Slowly the minds of our kind have been erased and replaced by the “souls” and their peace loving way are what’s normal now. 

But all aren’t ready to let go that easy.

One of the two characters whose eyes you’ll follow the story through is Melanie‘s, a human who refuses to give in to the soul placed in her body.

The other person is the soul, Wanderer, who comes to love the people Melanie is trying to protect.

Together they set out to find them.

In the vast Arizona dessert there is  a hidden refuge  for the last surviving humans.

In a complex cave system under the ground time has gone backwards and the people live like in the olden days.

Until Wanderer stumbles over their threshold.

Life will never be the same for any of them.

Main characters

Wanderer/ Wanda; the soul who lives inside Melanie’s body and who comes to love the people she loves.

Melanie/ Mel Stryder ; the resistant host who refuses to surrender to Wanderer

Jared Howe; Melanie’s loved one and one of the people who allies the tow girls

Jamie Stryder; Melanie’s younger brother

Uncle Jeb; Melanie’s uncle and the man who “rules” with he’s gun in the caves

Ian O’shea; At first he sort of wants to se Wanda dead, but he has a change of hearts

Kyle O’shea; Tries, and almost succeeds to kill Wanderer.

Doc; a human man who really, really wants to learn all about the soul’s medicine which can cure everything from cancer to a cold with no effort.   

The Seeker; the soul assigned to wanderers “case“, and who desperately chases after the tow runaways.

Petals Open to the Moon/ Pet; comes into focus in the very end of the book, but she plays a great part for the outcome.

   

Over the course of the book almost all the characters develop.

The people learn how to love someone who appears to be totally different, and Wanderer’s and Melanie’s relationship develops so much it doesn’t seem possible. 

My favourite quotes;

“Then what am I dying for?” - Wanda

“Well, I think that maybe… You’re dying to be human”- Mel

“Mighty convenient how it’s laid out. Couldn’t have planned it much better if I’d sculpted it myself out of play dough” - Uncle Jeb

“He knew what I was. He knew I was just a tiny creature fused into the back of Melanie’s brain. A worm, as Kyle had said. Yet even Kyle thought ****** hade a “crush” on me. On ME? That wasn’t possible” - Wanda

 I feel the quote is symbolizing much of what the book’s about, but the name I’ve *** over, would ruin a lot for potential readers ;)

“I’d lived in so many bodies, but never one I loved like this..” Wanda

Over all

Over all the book is well written, it has an easy flowing language . The readers can be all between 15 and 115 and they would still be able to relate to the characters in one way or the other and the book bides both laughter and violent tear and snot attacks. 

My opinion

This book is one of my all time favorites, I’ve read it surely 6 or 7 times by now, and it really sticks with you, you’ll not be able to read the last page, close the book and never give it a second thought! So it is with all my heart and soul I recommend this book to everybody I meet. 

I love the book because of many reasons, first is because Meyer’s fantastic way of telling a story, the characters really come alive between the pages, another  is because while you’re reading it you’ll come to appreciate things in you’re life that you take for granted.. Food, water, a hot shower.. Your body…

I’ll give it a 10 out of 10 and I prey she’ll soon come around to finish the sequels.. ´

Written by Julia

Fore more information, pleas visit:

v     http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/thehost.html

v     http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1585112/twilight-writer-stephenie-meyer-wants-matt-damon-host-movie.jhtml

v     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Host_(novel)#cite_note-6

v     http://www.thehostnovel.com/