At the beginning of this year I was planning to review every book that I read in 2011, but I now realize that this is impossible. The reason is that there are some books that I read for pure entertainment, “famous” authors that I’ve heard of, but never read anything written by them. As these books are not part of my research about Asia, I don’t feel like putting the time into writing their reviews. (A few days ago I finished my 14th book for this year, out of which I’ve reviewed nine. For the rest for the books, I’ll just write a one-paragraph personal opinion.)
Blitzfreeze (19080?) is a war novel by Danish writer Sven Hassel, part of a WWII series that has/had sold well in Europe. The story is that there’s no story. I mean, a bunch of German soldiers “affiliated” to a Panzer division advance in Russian enemy territory and kill everything in their way. The only memorable scenes are the ones when some soldiers pretend to be Nazi inspectors and enjoy a free meal at a slaughterhouse and the bombing of a Russian arms factory. It’s a bloody and gory book, full of dismembered bodies, rapes, and the “usual” war atrocities. I gave it two stars out of five.
The Sirens of Titan (1959) by American science-fiction writer Kurt Vonnegut is supposed to be a classic of SF 
literature (apart from being a Hugo-Award nominated novel). I’m not an expert on the SF genre, but I didn’t like it at all. I understand what the author tried to say, but the book feels more like a fairy tale of the absurd (if there’s such a thing!), where one pill can keep you alive for hours on planet Mars without any protective gear. The most interesting part of the book is the concept of “chrono-synclastic infundabilia” – a place “where all different kinds of truths fit together.” The ultimate truth being that us, humans on Earth, are just pawns in an intergalactic effort to send a spare part to a stranded “alien.” Three stars only.
All Through the Night (1998) is a short mystery novel by American writer Mary Higgins 
Clark that can be easily read in just one sitting. I know she’s a big shot in the genre, but the book is predictable, poorly written and, even for a mystery novel, full of coincidences. What got on my nerves where the way-too-many adverbs and repetitions; I almost had the feeling that Mrs. Clark just needed to add more words to her manuscript to justify another novel. I won’t be touching any of her novels anytime soon, but I’d like to get my hands on a non-fiction book, Mother Salute, which she wrote together with Amy Tan and Maya Angelou (I’ve read both their fiction). A mere two stars.
