Rating: 
Summary: A Pack of Playing Cards
Review: Hans Thomas is a very thoughtful twelve year old and is in for many surprises as he joins his father on a journey to Greece to find his mother who left his father and himself in search of a new life.
quote: "We were going all the way to Athens, but we weren't on a normal holiday. In athens - or at least somewhere in Greece - we were going to try to find Mama. It wasn't certain she'd want to come home with us to Norway. But Dad said we had to try, because neither he nor I could bear the thought of living the rest of our lives without her." The surprises the little boy comes across consist of dwarves, magnifying glasses, rainbow fizz, a minature book contained inside a bun and most of all the amazing adventure he finds himself reading from the book.
quote: "Suddenly my teeth hit something hard. I tore away the bits of bun and discovered an object the size of a matchbox. Dad lay snoring on his bed. I turned on a light by the chair. What I held in my hands was a little book. On the cover was writte: The Rainbow Fizz and the Magic Island" The book explores a whole different world from ours and yet so similar. A little island far beyond our wildest imaginations that consists of a society ...a pack of playing cards. One by one the cards appear and soon the cards are all filled up. The cards each have roles and they have no thoughts of their own. They do not know why they are there but they need no reason.
quote: "'How many are you, by the way?' asked the other one. 'There's only one of me,' I said. The one with two buttons on his jacket turned to the one with three and whistled loudly. 'Ace!' he said. 'Then we've lost,' replied the other, dumbfounded. 'He'll beat the King, too.'" Everything is done around their highest wisdom, the human who is practically their god. And yet one day comes another card to the pack-a lively joker. And unlike the rest of his friends he is deep minded and loves questioning, maybe even finding the answer. He questions the man who they all think is highest: "Why?"
quote: "The old man breathed deeply and sighed. 'One morning when I was sitting on the front steps he jumped out from round the corner of the house. He turned a frisky somersault, bounced up to me with his bells jingling, cocked his little head, and said 'Master, there's something I don't understand...' If you've read [Sophie's World] which is also by Jostein Gaarder and was a million copy bestseller, then you can view [The Solitaire Mystery] which was written a little earlier as the planning of [Sophie's World]. This book is much clearer from the very beginning. It is still has a lot of mystery but it's more towards a fairy tale than a book explaining Gaarder's views on philosophy. You'll find a lot of thoughts repeated in the same way in both [Sophie's World] and [The Solitaire Mystery] so if you've read [Sophie's World] before [The Solitaire Mystery] will be an easy and swift, enjoyable read for you. But if you've never read [Sophie's World] before I recommend [The Solitaire Mystery] to be read first as a warm up to [Sohpie's World]. Unlike [Sohpie's World], this book is much more straight forward than you think and is more suitable to lower ages than [Sohpie's World] is but is still quite intellectually arresting.
Rating: 
Summary: can't put it down...
Review: i can't seem to put the book down once it's in my hand!From one page to another drown me more and more into the story. Each page gives me excitements and makes me feel as if i'm there, i'm with all the characters in the woods. Everything is unpredictable here, anything can happen, that's why if you put the book down, it will only make you even more curious about what's going to happen! Definetely Gaarders best work!
Rating:
Summary: The destiny is a game played by cards...
Review: This book, travels you through three different and so similar paths. A real one, a fiction one and through a philosophy path. Because, what is the common point between Hans Thomas, Fronte and Albert? Only the Joker from the solitaire knows. And he knows well. So well that he will make your heart beating till the last line. Jostein Gaarder has joined these three paths to make an exceptional book, so easy to read, to understand, to make you think. To think about fate, family, life, about everything that till now you would name "so small, so unimportant". Do not lose the opportunity to read a masterpiece. After that, the solitaire will have a new meaning for your life...
Rating:
Summary: The best book I have EVER read
Review: This is the best book ever written. The Solitaire Mystery gives a whole new meaning to life. Deftly linking life and fantasy - merging the two so much that it's hard to make out which is which. Suddenly "life" becomes even more mysterious than we think it is. An absolute must-read for anyone who has ever wondered "who am I" and "where do we come from". Watch out - this could shake you up... They may have said that about every other book - but this is one book that is completely UN-PUT-DOWN-ABLE. I finished it in a day and haven't stopped reading it again and again since I first read it 3 years ago.
Rating:
Summary: Rainbow Soda, anyone?
Review: In the Solitaire Mystery, Gaardner very skillfully interweaves philosophy and solitaire into several overlapping (sub)plots. This whimsical novel is both precious and profound. It explores fatalism and its effects on the family of Hans Thomas in the style of a fairy tale. The reader gets to travel to fantastic places where midgets are guides through destiny and cards tell the future. I would suggest this book to a reader of any age. It has the ability to captivate a person in any audience because it is simple to understand, yet it is still a unique and intricate story.
Rating:
Summary: The Solitaire Mystery
Review: I definately recommend this book, please do take the patience to read through the below. >>>>>To those who are new to Jostein Gaarder: This book enchants both adults and children. In a style of a fairy tale Gaarder is able to use the innocent tale to prove so many different parts of life itself. If you're bored you'll certainly dive into this book. This isn't a book you can skim through so you'll have to keep that in mind. If you skim through even ONE word you'll end up losing the whole book and finding it either boring or difficult to understand. But if you let the words become part of your imagination you'll be able to see the events. You don't particularlly 'feel' anything from the book. It is just a simple fairy tale and yet so clever. As you read the book you will be able to interact with the characters in your own mind and puzzle with your own thoughts just as little Hans did. This is also a great book to give as a gift also because although not completely an 'easy' read it is the most comfortable and easy to settle into book that I've come across. >>>>>For those who have read Sophie's World: The Solitaire Mystery is in a similar fairy tale format but this book is easier to understand and uses less complex plots although it is very cleverly stabalized. It uses many of the thoughts and describtions from Sophie's World again so the amazing philosophic views you probably gained from Sophie's World are most likely to turn into a plain interest in the story and fairy tale/plot itself. That makes the book much more comfortable to bear and read. The ending is much better as well and a little more clean cut. (also-please look at the above text if you haven't read it because although it is for those who are new to the author-there are more describtions)
Rating:
Summary: Intriguing!
Review: Firstly, i would like to confess that i am not a philosopher. Better still i know nothing about philosophy. I plucked this book off the shelf at my community library because i've heard of J. Gaarder and his better known Sophie's World (which incidentally i have not read too). Once i started reading this book however, i could not put it down. I was captivated by the twin storyline of Hans Thomas who left Norway with his philosophical father in search of his mother who had "went out into the world to find herself"; and that of Baker Hans, Albert Klages whose mother died when he was a child, Ludwig the German soldier and Frode who found himself stranded on an island with nothing but a pack of cards for company. This is a story-within-a-story in which fantasy and reality, the past and present, are brilliant mixed. I could not put the book down and had to read on chapter after chapter. Interwoven seamlessly throughout the narration are thought-provoking questions about our existence and the mystery of life. To sum up my feelings at the end of it, i was captivated, intrigued and fascinated. This book deserves a second reading and i'm only too sure that i'd enjoy it more.
Rating:
Summary: buy it for you and save it for your kids
Review: Anyone who loves the magic of the Harry Potter books will be equally wowed by this brilliant and magical book. It made me wish I were a child again. It's much easier to read than Sophie's world and ultimately I find it a more satisfying book. It's one of my all time favorites -- it will carry you off to a magical world of cards and tricks that will make you wish it would never end. I want to meet the author!
Rating:
Summary: Thought provoking..
Review: I received this book after coming home from work one evening, a friend had dropped it off at my house, saying to my mother "Give this to Sara with my complements." Tucked inside was the Joker card. I'm a book worm so it didn't take me long to devour the novel. The first time through I was stunned with dazzling imagery and symbolism. The second time through it was as if tasting the Rainbow Soda for the first time. I recommend it to anyone who has an open mind, and even to those that don't!
Rating:
Summary: paradoxical......extremely complex, yet immensely simple
Review: This is the best novel I have ever read. Its has arosed my fascination in philosophy and had led me to look on life in a new perspective. An extremely rich book about fate, life and the incomprehensible nature of being alive, it takes us on a wondrous journey. The story-line is unbelievably unique and it transends age. For anyone dwelling over the very basis of their existence this is the book. It is much better than the over-hyped "Sophies World". The last line of the book sent tingles down my spine as i realised i really have no idea who i am.
| 
