The stream of consciousness writing didn't add anything to the story, it could have done without it. Also, the characters felt to me like mere sketches without being an intense part of the little stories. Not very touching and sometimes only hints at what life was like in a world like this.

Abandoned for now because quite honestly, it bored me. It was hard to stay focused when the author's thoughts were scattered all over the place. A detailed description about the birth of New Orleans could have been awesome in theory, but in practice Sublette didn't make it work. I've been dreaming about going there and expect it to be very vibrant and filled with interesting people and stories, but in this the confusing minute details about irrelevant things annoyed me. Especially when it felt like pointless rambling compared to other non-fiction I've been reading lately.

Thank god for Ebay, you've made my day countless of times. This time I used you for the first time to buy a book instead of clothes and miscellaneous trinkets, and I have to say that three pounds for this gorgous fairy tale was a bargain (postage included!).

The story is charming and down-to-earth, and maybe even a tiny bit rugged, thanks to the witch hunt scene. The silhouette illustrations fit the story perfectly. Although they seem a bit too simple at first glance, they are actually extremely meticulously drawn and full of magic. Babka, the main character, is modest but brave, and doesn't want to change herself one bit. Therefore there is a lesson to be learned, but it's not shoved in the reader's face, instead it can be found if you want to search it.

(Review coming up...)

Greene's Brighton isn't a light atmosphered tourist summer destination, where children are building sand castles and eating rock candy, but it's a place where gangs are hiding in dark street corners and killing each other. The mood of the bok is quite unusual. Brighton is shown as rainy, chilly and bleak, but Greene's way of writing is light and picturesque. Therefore it wasn't oppressive despite also the great themes of good and evil, and was quite a quick read during plane and train rides (on my trip to Amsterdam and Antwerp).

Pinkie Brown is a cold sociopath, who doesn't understand love and is repulsed by sex. When he meets waitress Rose and has to make sure she doesn't talk, the latter especially is obsessively in his mind. Despite the stuff that happens after the meeting of these two, in my opinion this isn't a love story. Not even a crooked one. Pinkie isn't necessarily thoroughly evil, and is for example able to be afraid, but from the start it's quite clear that he can do anything to save his own ass. At least I didn't get a picture of him doing anything for his gang members for example, but instead his greatest motive was his instinct of self preservation.

I guess Canth read her Madame Bovary...

I'm a little worried. If Stevenson was inspired to write this after reading Crime and Punishment, I'm not looking forward to reading it anytime soon. I don't know if it was because of my lack of concentration, the fact that I read it in English or what, but most of this just went over my head. I like excessive descriptions (within reason), but here the story just seemed longer than it actually was.