Whoa, that was weird. ( )

I really enjoyed the book and the Northern European humor in this book.
What did the poor Russians think about the crazy Norwegians? Ingrid is a mess, but her husband is home. ( )

A quick read from Amazon Prime First Read. Good thing I didn't spend more than 13 hours on this book. I feel let down, confused and stressed out honestly. Ingrid was insipid and completely annoying. I found the pop culture references the only decent part of the book. I'm not sure if the translation was what messed it up for me or not. There's neurotic and then theirs just lack of common sense. This was truly Ingrid's problem. I felt as if there was not a truly well built character development of all the people who are part of her world. Maybe that's because she didn't care about anyone else but herself. There is social awkwardness and then there's just selfish and mental. This is what I got from this book. I didn't find the hectic feel of the book relatable nor normal for a mother of three. I mean after all I am a mother of three with a husband with a time consuming job. This felt fake. The only realistic thing to me was loving a house so much you would do anything to get into it even if you know it isn't financial solvent.

Sorry, just my take. I guess I can't love everything I read... ( )

[The Marvelous Misadventures of Ingrid Winter] by [J.S. Drangshot] I thought I would try something light, something amusing; this was not it. I found the plots to be mundane, everyday, and anything but amusing. There might have been a slightly amusing chapter when Ingrid was in St. Petersburg and high on cough syrup, but that was the extent. I'm not sure if something was lost in the translation..... ( )

I think I've mentioned before that I absolutely love reading Women in Translation. It started when I found Women in Translation Month over on Biblio and it has brought me books like this. Well, it worked with Kindle First to bring me books like this. Kindle First does have a tendency to have some WIT selections and I appreciate that they're doing their part on this. This was yet another example of how reading translation exposes us to experiences we would not have had. While the author is new for me, I have also read another book translated by Chace, The Unbroken Line of the Moon which was also a great book but for vastly different reasons.

The premise is fairly simple and something that could be encountered anywhere, sure, but it was Ingrid herself that made this so much fun. I've read and seen on television several versions of paranoid white American woman and it's just not fun anymore. It's too predictable or trying to hard not to be. But then this. Ingrid Winter is Norwegian and handling her problems in ways that are not necessarily foreign to that paranoid white American woman but different enough that I was thoroughtly entertained.

There were a early-ish moments when I knew I was going to enjoy myself, the first was her explanation of how much she hated meetings and the way she avoided them. I was pretty sure she was going to be a likeable character after that, which didn't exactly turn out to be true. I liked her in that "I'm going to watch your form of crazy from afar" kind of way. We couldn't be friends, maybe not even coworkers, but she would be a great distant cousin to call and catch up with just to make sure that I'm not the craziest or most imposive person my family.

I really wanted to see her succeed throughout the story and stick to Peter and Ingvil too. Everything about her work life made me cringe and be ever more grateful that I have escaped the world of endless meetings where nothing gets done and where things like "internationalization" is important. It was in the work stuff that I felt sorry for her for most of the book. Then Russia and I really started to have fun with those two creeps and what was going on and her plunge into some really great paranoia. I mean really great. I'd feel bad for a real person in this situation with these people and this level of paranoia, but as a fictional character I'm not sure it could have been more fun. And I especially loved the way each piece of her story was resolved.

As opposed to most of my reading, it's not particularly deep or enlightening, it doesn't change the way I see the world or give me a window into an unfamiliar culture. It's just fun and a little ridiculous, just as the title and synopsis promise. As a comedy and one that centers around a woman who already has her love life together (as opposed to many books of it's nature that surround women who are looking for love), it's a book that I'd recommend to any of my friends. I do especially love that it's a book about a woman my age in about my life situation; working and married with kids but haven't perfected any of it yet.

This was my Febuary Kindle First read. ( )