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Most widely held works by Eugen-Ovidiu Chirovici. The book of mirrors: When literary agent Peter Katz receives a partial book submission entitled The Book of Mirrors, he is intrigued by its promise and original voice. The author, Richard Flynn, has written a memoir about his time as an English student at Princeton in the late s, documenting his relationship with the protegee of the famous Professor Joseph Wieder. One night just before Christmas , Wieder was brutally murdered in his home. The case was never solved. Now, twenty-five years later, Katz suspects that Richard Flynn is either using his book to confess to the murder, or to finally reveal who committed the violent crime.
But the manuscript ends abruptly--and its author is dying in the hospital with the missing pages nowhere to be found. Hell-bent on getting to the bottom of the story, Katz hires investigative journalist John Keller to research the murder and reconstruct the events for a true crime version of the memoir. Keller tracks down several of the mysterious key players, including retired police detective Roy Freeman, one of the original investigators assigned to the murder case, but he has just been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's.
Inspired by John Keller's investigation, he decides to try and solve the case once and for all, before he starts losing control of his mind. A trip to the Potosi Correctional Centre in Missouri, several interviews, and some ingenious police work finally lead him to a truth that has been buried for over two decades I believe this book was primarily targeted at Children, but this could certainly be classed as a family book. The story of the birth of Christ is retold in this book, in the form of following young girl named Elisabet as she travels through different countries and time, retracing the steps of several biblical characters sheep included , as they make their way to Bethlehem.
This story as staged as a story inside another story. The protagonist, Joachim, stumbles across a magical Advent calendar in an old bookshop, and each day he opens a new window, another part of the story is revealed. Reading this book during Advent was fantastic and like Joachim and his parents, I was eager and excited for another window to be opened to see what happened next during Elisabet's journey.
The Advent format of this book was really exciting and it wouldn't be a bad idea to use this book as a type of calendar itself if you could resist reading on!
I'd urge people to pick this up for a slightly different, easy to read but interesting Christmas read. Nov 16, Annet rated it liked it Shelves: An enjoyable book for the Christmas period. Although in the beginning I was a bit bored by especially the story of the girl going to Bethlehem. But, I took the book to Rome on a long city break and started enjoying the read in a suitable Christmas environment Dec 28, Alina Maria Ciobanu rated it liked it.
Organized in 24 chapters corresponding to the 24 windows of a magical Advent calendar, this book reveals, as a frame story, the journey in space and time of a group of pilgrims from current-day Norway to Bethlehem, when Christ was born, emphasizing the meaning of Christmas along the way. An interesting and whimsical little story in many ways innocent to the point of naivety but with a certain charm that kept me willing to read. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants something that is only light and hope-filled with no hint of darkness, especially if they are Christian.
I suspect someone not from a Christian background may struggle to engage. The book gave hints of deeper thinking and questioning for example in a repeated exhortation to be kind to refugees. This is espec An interesting and whimsical little story in many ways innocent to the point of naivety but with a certain charm that kept me willing to read. This is especially well-put by Impuriel nice name incidentally the angel on p "Jesus wanted people to share the little they had.
If only they could learn to share with each other, nobody would be hungry or poor, or very rich either. But it is better that nobody is poor and hungry than that a few people are rich. More problematic to me was the acceptance of preset roles spelled out by Emperor Augustus on p and the role of Elizabet within a story that apart from her is extremely male dominated and the characters are very traditional in their roles.
Significantly and frighteningly Elizabet is silent at the end where "her" story is finally being told- she cannot speak her own language so must have John speak for her. On a symbolic level I see her as a Christ-character and it is all completely appropriate but as the main and almost only female character in the book her silence is still troubling, as is the fact that when she does not agree with John's telling of her story her opinion is dismissed and merely one of the opinions.
Throughout Joachim's father is more rational for good and ill than his mother I felt that Eliabet's mother's experience also is trivialised and I felt impatient with angels and a "God" that sees this as just collateral damage for whatever mystical happening unfolds in the book but possibly this is meant to shock. Many, many times I felt there was an underlying complexity to the book but at other times I felt that differences were falsely harmonised because Joachim doesn't like quarrelling and power was all too easily allowed to continue oppressing.
I do not in fact see Caesar Augustus as a cute and necessary part of the Jesus story in the way he is portrayed in the book. I wonder if this as intended as a child's or adult's book. In any case it had charm.
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I have wonderfully fond memories of reading this with my kids each Advent season starting when Anna was about 6 or 7 and Luke was 2 or 3. It has a perfect cadence for rereading; we looked forward to it every year. My children loved it when we had the angel comically shout: We had hoped to get in a chapter or two this Christmastime when everyone was home, but it didn't happen. Dec 18, Victoria Lie added it Shelves: It isn't Christmas until Joakim has bought his magical Christmas Calendar.
Dec 20, -Sakura- rated it it was ok. To be completely honest: The repetition in this book is probably what lowered my rating by a whole star. In fact the whole book is a little dull and I didn't enjoy reading it. As you can guess it was pretty mundane and I didn't extract much from it because I was so bored. I understand that it has philosophical value and that it's oh so deep and lovely and sweet and christmassy but it's just not for me and I don't see the point in reading it. To it's credit though I liked the format of the book and the time traveling aspect.
That's pretty much all the Christmas mystery has going for it though. So to conclude I am not very impressed. That's why the party has lasted for so many years. She ran after a lamb and found herself travelling right across Europe to Palestine, and back through 2, years to meet the Holy Family in Bethlehem. There Elisabet met angels Ephiriel, Impuriel, Seraphiel, Cherubiel and Evangeliel , shepherds Joshua, Jacob, Isaac and Daniel , wise men "Christmas is the world's biggest birthday party, for everybody in the world is invited to join in.
Jostein Gaarder is a Norwegian intellectual and author of several novels, short stories and children's books. If you have ever read Jostein Gaarder's book, Sophie's World, you know this author can twist the plot in such a way as to boggle the mind. Biedermann und die Brandstifter [by Max Frisch]. Why was Elisabet's disappeared linked to political motives which are frankly unbelievable to an adult and would be incomprehensible to a child? This popular work has been translated into fifty-three languages; there are over thirty million copies in print, with three million copies sold in Germany alone.
He was called God's lamb, because He was just as kind and innocent as the little lamb's fleece is soft. We have to travel two thousand years backwards in time to the moment when Jesus was born. Hidden in each of the windows is a tiny piece of paper. Little by little these pieces unfold the girl's story and as we learn what happened to her, another story is revealed - that of the strange old man who made the calendar.
Indeed this is a novel way of re-introducing Christmas in one's reading list not only because of the season but because it is creative, entertaining and informative. Gaarder tells the most famous story in the world freshly, every chapter containing his characteristic twists and turns. Like "Sophie's World" it's a children's book that can be read by adults, and it could even be read together through the advent period, day by day. One is to travel out into the world and see as much as possible of God's creation. The other is to put down roots in one spot and to study everything that happens there in as much detail as you can.
The trouble is that it's impossible to do both at the same time. Oct 14, Poiema rated it liked it Shelves: If you have ever read Jostein Gaarder's book, Sophie's World, you know this author can twist the plot in such a way as to boggle the mind. The Christmas Mystery is a little more innocuous than Sophie's World, and a little more meaty than most Christmas "fluff" stories. I first read it several years ago on the advise of my friend Krakovianka, who recently updated her original review here. Our family is enjoying it a second time through this year.
It is set up similar to an advent calendar, where o If you have ever read Jostein Gaarder's book, Sophie's World, you know this author can twist the plot in such a way as to boggle the mind. It is set up similar to an advent calendar, where one entry per day can be read aloud. The story of Joachim, a ten-year old Norwegian, begins with his purchase of an old, faded advent calendar which he chooses in lieu of a glitzy one with plastic characters or chocolate behind each flap.
His choice is rewarded when he opens the flaps each day to discover an on-going drama centering around a little girl named Elisabet. The drama is written in installments on small slips of paper which are hidden behind each flap on the calendar. Elisabet, the childish subject of the drama, is on a journey. She is chasing a little lamb who is on pilgrimage to Bethlehem to be present at the nativity. Thus, the journey becomes both a geographic journey and a journey back in time.
History buffs will love the incidental vignettes woven into the story. As the journey progresses, more and more members of the nativity scene join as traveling companions. In the end, Joachim meets the real Elisabet and the twining of several stories come to a culmination. This book is a nice change of pace from the many syrupy selections that are featured at the big bookstores this time of year. Nei, veit ikke, evangeliene kanskje? Kunnskap om hvor identiteten kommer fra kanskje enda viktigere.
Que igualmente tiene como 4 capas. Este espejeo es un tema recurrente en sus escritos y me gusta lo que hace con eso. This book means Christmas to me. I have always preferred advent to Christmas anyway - and this is a steadfast part of my own traditions. It's a beautiful story, successfully intertwining the modern tale of Joachim with Elisabet and Epherial's journey across the world and down the spiral of time.
This is better than an advent calendar. As a child, I wished for a magic advent calendar too, but now This book means Christmas to me. Penguin Book of German Verse. Good anthology with translations. Alter John ["Easy Reader" word vocab]. A family takes in an old man. Das Brandopfer ["Easy Reader" word vocab]. Comic novel by classic author. Short stories by nobel prize winner.
Short stories about miserable people. Die falsche Agentin 2 copies. Graded Reader for beginners following two American exchange students on a trip through Germany. Fourth in a series of four.
Der Gasmann ["Easy Reader" word vocab]. Humorous tale of getting rich quick. Mystery written for second semester college students. Graded German Readernd Edition 2 copies. Short texts for beginners: Cultural graded reader about the poet and journalist Heinrich Heine. Im anderen Deutschland 2 copies. Kurzgeschichten by Marie L. Kaschnitz [ word vocab].
Humorous postwar short stories. Lenchens Geheimnis ["Easy Reader" word vocab]. For kids by Neverending Story author. Cultural graded reader about the novelist Thomas Mann.
Novellen [by Stefan Zweig] ["Easy Reader" word vocab]. Second in a series of four. Humorous tales set in East Prussia. Cultural graded reader about Johann August Sutter, a German-Swiss "whose pioneering spirit made him the richest man--on paper--in America" in the mid 19th century. Treff mit Trimmel ["Easy Reader" word vocab] 2 copies. Der verlorene Koffer 2 copies.
First in a series of four. True story of an anti-Nazi student group. Der Besuch der alten Dame [facing page glosses, voc. Biedermann und die Brandstifter [by Max Frisch]. In this play, a bourgeois businessman allows three arsonists to stay in his attic, with predictable consequences.
With occasional glosses and a vocabulary in the back. Der blaue Engel [edited: Screenplay for classic Dietrich movie]. Dauer im Wechsel [edited w. Deutsche erleben die Zeit [edited w. Anthology of literary texts A dual language book. Anthology of 20th century short stories. Deutschland in kleinen Geschichten. Harmonie [edited, with extensive facing page vocabulary].