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Ikke en av Houellebecqs beste romaner. Det postive er at Tilintetgjøre er en lettlest og samfunnskritisk roman hvor interessante elementer som teknologi, terror, politikk, ensomhet og familiekonflikter tas opp. Det negative med Tilintetgjøre er at på tross av romanens betydelig lengde, blir universet som tegnes opp behandlet ufullstendig. Det er som om Houellebecq mot slutten av skrivingen ble så oppslukt av å beskrive hovedpersonens kreftsykdom at de foregående 520 (!) sidene, med alt det som presenteres og legges opp til der, glemmes bort og dermed blir hengende i løse luften. Det er uheldig, gitt at brorparten av romanen er bygd opp med en dramaturgi noe ala en krimroman, dog på et metanivå med storpolitikk og en ukjent og hyperavansert terrorgruppe.

William Shakespeare found dozens of different ways to kill off his characters, and audiences today still enjoy the same reactions – shock, sadness, fear – that they did more than 400 years ago when these plays were first performed. But how realistic are these deaths, and did Shakespeare have the knowledge to back them up?

In the Bard's day death was a part of everyday life. Plague, pestilence and public executions were a common occurrence, and the chances of seeing a dead or dying body on the way home from the theatre were high. It was also a time of important scientific progress. Shakespeare kept pace with anatomical and medical advances, and he included the latest scientific discoveries in his work, from blood circulation to treatments for syphilis. He certainly didn't shy away from portraying the reality of death on stage, from the brutal to the mundane, and the spectacular to the silly.

Elizabethan London provides the backdrop for Death by Shakespeare, as Kathryn Harkup turns her discerning scientific eye to the Bard and the varied and creative ways his characters die. Was death by snakebite as serene as Shakespeare makes out? Could lack of sleep have killed Lady Macbeth? Can you really murder someone by pouring poison in their ear? Kathryn investigates what actual events may have inspired Shakespeare, what the accepted scientific knowledge of the time was, and how Elizabethan audiences would have responded to these death scenes. Death by Shakespeare will tell you all this and more in a rollercoaster of Elizabethan carnage, poison, swordplay and bloodshed, with an occasional death by bear-mauling for good measure.

Russia is a country with no natural borders, no single ethnic group, no true central identity. At the crossroads of Europe and Asia, it has been subject to invasion by outsiders, from Vikings to Mongols, from Napoleon’s French to Hitler’s Germans. In order to forge an identity, it has mythologized its past to unite its people and to signal strength to outsiders.

Russia is a country with no natural borders, no single ethnic group, no true central identity. At the crossroads of Europe and Asia, it has been subject to invasion by outsiders, from Vikings to Mongols, from Napoleon’s French to Hitler’s Germans. In order to forge an identity, it has mythologized its past to unite its people and to signal strength to outsiders.

Britene er ute av EU, ferdig med pandemien og klare til livet etterpå. Men hvordan gikk det med London? Hovedstaden står midt i en pågående verdikamp om hva Storbritannia skal være, i sitt eget bilde og ute i verden. Byen er politisk rød og åpen mot Europa i et England der vindene trekker i motsatt lei. Samtidig er den sete for de stolteste tradisjonene og institusjonene som det nye Storbritannia skal støtte seg på. Øivind Bratberg tar for seg salongsosialisme og kulturkrig, livet med pandemien og striden om monarkiet og BBC i denne sakprosaboken om London

A chilling medieval ghost story, retold by bestselling historian Dan Jones. Published in a beautiful small-format hardback, perfect as a Halloween read or a Christmas gift.

One winter, in the dark days of King Richard II, a tailor was riding home on the road from Gilling to Ampleforth. It was dank, wet and gloomy; he couldn't wait to get home and sit in front of a blazing fire.

Then, out of nowhere, the tailor is knocked off his horse by a raven, who then transforms into a hideous dog, his mouth writhing with its own innards. The dog issues the tailor with a warning: he must go to a priest and ask for absolution and return to the road, or else there will be consequences...

First recorded in the early fifteenth century by an unknown monk, The Tale of the Tailor and the Three Dead Kings was transcribed from the Latin by the great medievalist M.R. James in 1922. Building on that tradition, now bestselling historian Dan Jones retells this medieval ghost story in crisp and creepy prose.

Sylvie, Jude, Wendy and Adele have a lifelong friendship of the best kind: loving, practical, frank and steadfast. But when Sylvie dies, the ground shifts dangerously for the remaining three.

These women couldn’t be more different: Jude, a once-famous restaurateur with a spotless life and a long-standing affair with a married man; Wendy, an acclaimed feminist intellectual; Adele, a former star of the stage, now practically homeless.

Struggling to recall exactly why they’ve remained close all these years, the grieving women gather for one last weekend at Sylvie’s old beach house. But fraying tempers, an elderly dog, unwelcome guests and too much wine collide in a storm that threatens to sweep away their friendship for good.

This 1818 novel is set in a former abbey whose owner, Christopher Glowry, is host to visitors who enjoy his hospitality and engage in endless debate. Among these guests are figures recognizable to Peacock's contemporaries, including characters based on Lord Byron and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Mr. Glowry's son Scythrop (also modeled on a famous Romantic, Peacock's friend Percy Bysshe Shelley) locks himself up in a tower where he reads German tragedies and transcendental philosophy and develops a "passion for reforming the world." Disappointed in love, a sorrowful Scythrop decides the only thing to do is to commit suicide, but circumstances persuade him to instead follow his father in a love of misanthropy and Madeira. In addition to satire and comic romance, Nightmare Abbey presents a biting critique of the texts we view as central to British romanticism.

Richard III and Henry Tudor’s legendary battle: one that changed the course of English history.

On the morning of 22 August 1485, in fields several miles from Bosworth, two armies faced each other, ready for battle. The might of Richard III’s army was pitted against the inferior forces of the upstart pretender to the crown, Henry Tudor, a 28-year-old Welshman who had just arrived back on British soil after 14 years in exile. Yet this was to be a fight to the death – only one man could survive; only one could claim the throne.

It would become one of the most legendary battles in English history: the only successful invasion since Hastings, it was the last time a king died on the battlefield. But BOSWORTH is much more than the account of the dramatic events of that fateful day in August. It is a tale of brutal feuds and deadly civil wars, and the remarkable rise of the Tudor family from obscure Welsh gentry to the throne of England – a story that began 60 years earlier with Owen Tudor’s affair with Henry V’s widow, Katherine of Valois.

Drawing on eyewitness reports, newly discovered manuscripts and the latest archaeological evidence, Chris Skidmore vividly recreates this battle-scarred world in an epic saga of treachery and ruthlessness, death and deception and the birth of the Tudor dynasty.

Reklame: Leseeksemplar frå @uberpress.
Eg opna denne og forelska meg umiddelbart fordi den lukta usedvanleg sterkt NY BOK. Ok, så har det kanskje gått ei stund sidan sist eg var i ein bokhandel. Eg skal vurdere å komme meg meir ut.

Konseptet får full skår hos meg. Eg kunne kjenne hjernen utvide seg når eg prøvde å sjå for meg korleis denne verda fungerer, og eg har sjeldan kjent ein så sterk utforskartrang i eit litterært univers. Eg pleier ofte å synes at verdsbygginga i fantasy er litt kjedeleg, men her måtte eg berre bla vidare for å sjå korleis det ville vere viss stein, jord og plantar hadde motsett tyngdekraft av alt anna. Eg elskar landskapa, fargane, kontrastane og korleis veslebroren ikkje rekk heilt opp til ruta si.

Dialogen er kort og presis og har dei viktigaste(?) orda utheva i snakkeboblene. Eg tenker at det er ei god tilrettelegging for umodne lesarar, men med eit vaksent blikk følast dialogen både overflatisk og masete. Språket flyt som om det skulle ha vore altfor kjapt omsett frå engelsk og det er vanskeleg for meg å tilgje at "dessverre" konsekvent blir skrive med éin s i ei bok som har potensial til å bli viktig lesetrening for dei som ikkje er så glade i vanlege bøker. Men dette vil neppe plage barna like mykje som det plagar meg.

Barna er opptekne av ei spennande historie, og det får dei opptil fleire av. Men som mange teikneseriebøker følast den ikkje heilt som éi samanhengande historie, og kjensla av å "måtte" lese vidare for å finne ut korleis det gjekk var alltid kortvarig. Den store umoglege reisa med dei to tenåringane på framsida som eg trudde at boka skulle handle om byrjar eigentleg ikkje før Issadora seier "OK, la oss dra!" nedst på side 138 og det er litt seint i ei bok på 156 sider. Men så er det noko ved denne sagaen som likevel gjer at eg er meir spent enn skuffa. Eg heiar på bok to, men eg blei ikkje overtydd om at ein sta arkitekt kan gjere jobben til ein forfattar.

The character of the last Tsar, Nicholas II (1868-1918) is crucial to understanding the overthrow of tsarist Russia, the most significant event in Russian history. Nicholas became Tsar at the age of 26. Though a conscientious man who was passionate in his devotion to his country, he was weak, sentimental, dogmatic and indecisive. Ironically he could have made an effective constitutional monarch, but these flaws rendered him fatally unsuited to be the sole ruler of a nation that was in the throes of painful modernisation. That he failed is not surprising, for many abler monarchs could not have succeeded. Rather to be wondered at is that he managed, for 23 years, to hold on to power despite the overwhelming force of circumstances. Though Nicholas was exasperating, he had many endearing qualities. A modern audience, aware - as contemporaries were not - of the private pressures under which he lived, can empathise with him and forgive some of his errors of judgement. To some readers he seems a fool, to others a monster, but many are touched by the story of a well-meaning man doing his best under impossible conditions. He is, in other words, a biographical subject that engages readers whatever their viewpoint.

His family was of great importance to Nicholas. He and his wife, Alexandra, married for love and retained this affection to the end of their lives. His four daughters, all different and intriguing personalities, were beautiful and charming. His son, the family's - and the nation's - hope for the future, was disabled by an illness that had to be concealed from Russia and from the world. It was this circumstance that made possible the nefarious influence of Rasputin, which in turn hastened the end of the dynasty.

This story has everything: romance and tragedy, grandeur and misery, human frailty and an international catastrophe that would not only bring down the Tsar but put an end to the glittering era of European monarchies.

The sinking of the White Ship on the 25th November 1120 is one of the greatest disasters that England has ever suffered. Its repercussions would change English and European history for ever.

King Henry I was sailing for England in triumph after four years of fighting the French. Congregating with the king at the port of Barfleur on that freezing November night was the cream of Anglo-Norman society: three of his children, including the only legitimate male heir to the throne, as well as the flower of the aristocracy, famous knights, and mighty courtiers.