How I Live Now
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Description
How I Live Now is the powerful and engaging story of Daisy, the precocious New Yorker and her English cousin Edmond, torn apart as war breaks out in London, from the multi award-winning Meg Rosoff. How I Live Now has been adapted for the big screen by Kevin Macdonald, starring Saoirse Ronan as Daisy and releases in 2013.
Fifteen-year-old Daisy thinks she knows all about love. Her mother died giving birth to her, and now her dad has sent her away for the summer, to live in the English countryside with cousins she's never even met.
There she'll discover what real love is: something violent, mysterious and wonderful. There her world will be turned upside down and a perfect summer will explode into a million bewildering pieces.
How will Daisy live then?
'Fresh, honest, rude, funny. I put it down with tears on my face' - Julie Myerson, Guardian
'Assured, powerful, engaging . . . you will want to read everything that Rosoff is capable of writing' - Observer
'An unforgettable adventure' - Sunday Times
Bestselling author Meg Rosoff has received great critical acclaim since the publication of her first novel How I Live Now (winner of the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize). Her other novels, Just in Case (winner of the 2007 Carnegie Medal), The Bride's Farewell and What I Was which was described by The Times as 'Samuel Beckett on ecstasy', are also available from Puffin. Follow Meg on Twitter @megrosoff.
Also by Meg Rosoff:
How I Live Now; Just In Case; What I Was; The Bride's Farewell; There is No Dog
Book Information
Posts
Dieses Buch war Teil meines Kalenderprojekts, und auch wenn ich vor x Jahren mal was von Meg Rosoff gelesen habe, so wäre ich nie auf die Idee gekommen, jetzt noch etwas von ihr zu lesen. Und so kam ich zu einer unerwartet guten Lektüre. Gut, das Buch hat teilweise ein paar Hängerchen drin und ist mit Themen zu überladen, sodass die Autorin leider auf keines so richtig eingehen kann (ausser auf das Hauptthema), aber diese Punkte änderten nichts daran, dass ich das Buch gerne gelesen habe und es mich auch gedanklich beschäftigt hat. Dass dieser Titel ausgerechnet jetzt im Kalender auftaucht - muss wohl ein merkwürdiger Zufall sein, aber es passt unheimlich (im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes!) gut zum aktuellen Zeitgeschehen. Feinfühlig bringt Rosoff den jugendlichen Lesern das Thema des Krieges nahe. Anhand des Dritten Weltkrieges wird uns vor Augen geführt, dass wir den Frieden nicht für gegeben nehmen sollten. Momentan tut das hoffentlich sowieso keiner mehr. Ein berührendes Werk, das sich auf eine andere Art und Weise mit einem nun sehr aktuellen Thema beschäftigt. Angenehm geschrieben, aufwühlend, ohne pathetisch zu wirken, ist Rosoffs Buch eines, das man im Moment sehr gut zur Hand nehmen kann. Denn es passt.
Real rating would be 2 stars and a half. My feelings about this book are pretty mixed. I liked the idea of the story, i liked that we got no reason for the war, i liked that Daisys writing differed from part 1 to 2 and that her writing in part 1 was unpolished(if you know what i mean)yet there were poetical moments in just the right amount. That Edmond is her cousin...so what? I did not mind it much, though i admit a neighbour boy could have done the trick just as well. However what really annoyed me was how little the writer convinced me of their great love. I know that Daisy told the story and she probably felt that love so strongly that she did not feel the need to convince the reader. Which is okay I guess but Daisy is no real person and when an author makes the love to a boy the main motivation of survival for a character, your readers should be able to relate. That did not work so well, I cared more for Jet the dog and Piper thn for any other character. As for the end (spoiler ahead) ... what the hell ? A traumatization i get but 5 years later he is still mad at her? Yes it is possible and yes i know, books are not written to grant us wishes but come on, it was just a little too huge of an impact given that the lovestory seemed rushed and forced in the first place. Also i did not really like Daisy and could not relate to her. So yes, the book has its moments but it did not catch me.
I bought this, never having heard about it and just reading the back and thinking „Oh, this is something I would’ve read 3 years ago. Let’s read it for nostalgia“ Oh well. She fell in love with her cousin and she was only 15 and they were both minors and there were no adults around to tell them that it was morally wrong because then there was a war happening and it was this dystopian world and because the mc didn’t really have an idea what was going on, neither had the reader. Definitely check TWs, very graphic and mention of lots of heavy topics. It just was so incredibly slow-paced (took me like a week for 200 pages) and I thought the MC wasn’t really likable which was ok because she didn’t have to be. There was way too much happening at once but without really gaining my interest, too plot heavy and I thought it was only getting interest in Part 2 which were the last 20(?) pages. I would’ve never bought this if I knew all this beforehand but it was an interesting experience I guess?
I started this book with somewhat of a high expectation after seeing the movie and the first impression was rather disappointing. There were major changes of characters in the movie so it took me some time to get used to the original ones. The more I read, the more invested I got and learned to appreciate every single one of them. The world is built up perfectly, and it doesn't take much to imagine this things happen in real life. I ended up sobbing at the end, sympathising with Daisy. All in all a great book with a rollercoaster ride of emotions. The only thing that really bothered me: The lack of quotation marks!
Description
How I Live Now is the powerful and engaging story of Daisy, the precocious New Yorker and her English cousin Edmond, torn apart as war breaks out in London, from the multi award-winning Meg Rosoff. How I Live Now has been adapted for the big screen by Kevin Macdonald, starring Saoirse Ronan as Daisy and releases in 2013.
Fifteen-year-old Daisy thinks she knows all about love. Her mother died giving birth to her, and now her dad has sent her away for the summer, to live in the English countryside with cousins she's never even met.
There she'll discover what real love is: something violent, mysterious and wonderful. There her world will be turned upside down and a perfect summer will explode into a million bewildering pieces.
How will Daisy live then?
'Fresh, honest, rude, funny. I put it down with tears on my face' - Julie Myerson, Guardian
'Assured, powerful, engaging . . . you will want to read everything that Rosoff is capable of writing' - Observer
'An unforgettable adventure' - Sunday Times
Bestselling author Meg Rosoff has received great critical acclaim since the publication of her first novel How I Live Now (winner of the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize). Her other novels, Just in Case (winner of the 2007 Carnegie Medal), The Bride's Farewell and What I Was which was described by The Times as 'Samuel Beckett on ecstasy', are also available from Puffin. Follow Meg on Twitter @megrosoff.
Also by Meg Rosoff:
How I Live Now; Just In Case; What I Was; The Bride's Farewell; There is No Dog
Book Information
Posts
Dieses Buch war Teil meines Kalenderprojekts, und auch wenn ich vor x Jahren mal was von Meg Rosoff gelesen habe, so wäre ich nie auf die Idee gekommen, jetzt noch etwas von ihr zu lesen. Und so kam ich zu einer unerwartet guten Lektüre. Gut, das Buch hat teilweise ein paar Hängerchen drin und ist mit Themen zu überladen, sodass die Autorin leider auf keines so richtig eingehen kann (ausser auf das Hauptthema), aber diese Punkte änderten nichts daran, dass ich das Buch gerne gelesen habe und es mich auch gedanklich beschäftigt hat. Dass dieser Titel ausgerechnet jetzt im Kalender auftaucht - muss wohl ein merkwürdiger Zufall sein, aber es passt unheimlich (im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes!) gut zum aktuellen Zeitgeschehen. Feinfühlig bringt Rosoff den jugendlichen Lesern das Thema des Krieges nahe. Anhand des Dritten Weltkrieges wird uns vor Augen geführt, dass wir den Frieden nicht für gegeben nehmen sollten. Momentan tut das hoffentlich sowieso keiner mehr. Ein berührendes Werk, das sich auf eine andere Art und Weise mit einem nun sehr aktuellen Thema beschäftigt. Angenehm geschrieben, aufwühlend, ohne pathetisch zu wirken, ist Rosoffs Buch eines, das man im Moment sehr gut zur Hand nehmen kann. Denn es passt.
Real rating would be 2 stars and a half. My feelings about this book are pretty mixed. I liked the idea of the story, i liked that we got no reason for the war, i liked that Daisys writing differed from part 1 to 2 and that her writing in part 1 was unpolished(if you know what i mean)yet there were poetical moments in just the right amount. That Edmond is her cousin...so what? I did not mind it much, though i admit a neighbour boy could have done the trick just as well. However what really annoyed me was how little the writer convinced me of their great love. I know that Daisy told the story and she probably felt that love so strongly that she did not feel the need to convince the reader. Which is okay I guess but Daisy is no real person and when an author makes the love to a boy the main motivation of survival for a character, your readers should be able to relate. That did not work so well, I cared more for Jet the dog and Piper thn for any other character. As for the end (spoiler ahead) ... what the hell ? A traumatization i get but 5 years later he is still mad at her? Yes it is possible and yes i know, books are not written to grant us wishes but come on, it was just a little too huge of an impact given that the lovestory seemed rushed and forced in the first place. Also i did not really like Daisy and could not relate to her. So yes, the book has its moments but it did not catch me.
I bought this, never having heard about it and just reading the back and thinking „Oh, this is something I would’ve read 3 years ago. Let’s read it for nostalgia“ Oh well. She fell in love with her cousin and she was only 15 and they were both minors and there were no adults around to tell them that it was morally wrong because then there was a war happening and it was this dystopian world and because the mc didn’t really have an idea what was going on, neither had the reader. Definitely check TWs, very graphic and mention of lots of heavy topics. It just was so incredibly slow-paced (took me like a week for 200 pages) and I thought the MC wasn’t really likable which was ok because she didn’t have to be. There was way too much happening at once but without really gaining my interest, too plot heavy and I thought it was only getting interest in Part 2 which were the last 20(?) pages. I would’ve never bought this if I knew all this beforehand but it was an interesting experience I guess?
I started this book with somewhat of a high expectation after seeing the movie and the first impression was rather disappointing. There were major changes of characters in the movie so it took me some time to get used to the original ones. The more I read, the more invested I got and learned to appreciate every single one of them. The world is built up perfectly, and it doesn't take much to imagine this things happen in real life. I ended up sobbing at the end, sympathising with Daisy. All in all a great book with a rollercoaster ride of emotions. The only thing that really bothered me: The lack of quotation marks!