The idea of the book is better than the execution. As always I liked the Tarot card-like symbolism as well as the mentions of the French revolution. The main character Emil Larsson seems shallow at first, but he becomes more sympathetic and his earnestness shines through as the story progresses.

There's also this whole brouhaha about the seemingly supernatural art of the folding fan wielded by upper class ladies, but the secret behind this "magic" turns out to be pretty lame once revealed.

But did I mention the cards were fun? Each card in an Octavo spread represents a character that influences a person's destiny, and I enjoyed trying to decode them.

So 2014 was going to be the year I tried to read my backlog of unread books.  I'm not sure if I'm going to get through all of them, but it's been fun trying. 

I've definitely enjoyed being bound by whatever the candy bowl throws at me. Although I have to confess to deviating a couple of times when books I've had on order from my library became available.

I was hoping that having a list of unread books would prevent me from buying any new ones, and to a certain extent it seems to have worked in that I've been putting books on a wish-list rather than hitting that Amazon one-click button. But every so often a book will whisper "buy me, oh please buy me", and boom, there it is, sitting in my Kindle waiting for me. 

Ah well.  At least I'll have plenty of fodder for my 2015 list.

DNF at 40%. My noble attempt to push through this mess could not make it past rape and underage murder. It was more pro-French and did not dabble too much into Swedish culture. On top of it all, I was rooting for the main character to fail. Because he is a failure.

Boo. I wanted to love this book.

bookshelves: paper-read, historical-fiction, sweden, gambling, bedside, autumn-2013, stockholm, paris, spies, published-2012, amusing, france, summer-2013

Dedication: For Erik

French/Swedish timelines 1770-1792

Opening:

Arte et Marte(Art and War); Inscription over the entrance to Riddarhuset - The House of Nobles - in Stockholm

Chapter One: Stockholm 1789

Stockholm is called the Venice of the North, and with good reason. Travellers claim that it is just as complex, just as grand, and just as mysterious as its sister in the south.

A light-hearted and novel way to retell a significant piece of Swedish history. It is not essential to know this history before reading because it is all laid out rather well, however if the history is known there well be more 'aaah' moments in the reading.

Needless to say, this had all the right ingredients and I loved it; dare say that Engelmann may be contemplating a sequel, the historical backdrop for what happened next is just as scintillating a subject.

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Gifted from Jeanette, and a lovely pack of tarot cards to go with it.



Thanks You J, A super gift. And of the postcards, Karin Boye is my favourite. There is such a lovely statue of her near the top of Avenyn, to the left as you climb up towards Poseidon.



Also, the photo; is that of sand dunes in Skellefteå? I see you have a swimming pool up there.