Norwegianne.net

Category: Books

  • Book review: Haakon og Mette-Marit i 10 år

    The last book reviewed for now in the category of books released for Haakon and Mette-Marit’s 10th anniversary is this book: Haakon og Mette-Marit i 10 år, by Liv Berit Tessem.

    Unlike the other two books, this one is chronological. It has one chapter for each of the ten years they have been married.

    I rather like this approach. It makes it easy to follow the changes and progress made over ten years. The thematic division in the other two books was good, but in a commemorative book like this, I do think this approach is a tad more interesting.

    The drawback to it, however, is that each chapter just scratches the surface on much of what has happened over the years – and does not go into as much detail on some of the topics as the other books have done.

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  • Book review: Mette-Marit – Prinsesse av folket

    As I said in my review the other day – there have been three books released to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Haakon and Mette-Marit’s marriage.

    This is the second one I’m reviewing. It is called Mette-Marit: Prinsesse av folket. En illustrert feiring av Norges kronprinspar, (Translation: Mette-Marit, Princess of the people. An illustrated celebration of the Norwegian Crown Prince Couple) with pictures by Aasta Børte and text by Monica Aafløy Hansen.

    This is a an album of pictures from the ten years Mette-Marit has been in the spotlight as the Norwegian Crown Princess. But, it is not just a pictorial – in some of the chapters, the text also feels as though it is an integral part of the book and not an afterthought.

    At 127 pages, the content  and quality of pictures makes it feel like a lot more pages than it actually is.

    I really enjoyed reading the anecdotes from the photographer that sometimes accompanied the text, or the pictures. It gives another dimension to the book – I might have seen the pictures before, but the photographer’s description adds an extra value to the pictures.

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  • Book review: 10 år med Kronprinsparet

    This August, ten years have passed since Crown Prince Haakon married Mette-Marit Tjessem Høiby in Oslo Cathedral. A slew of books (okay, three, so far) are coming out, two television specials are coming later this month, and the couple are also being interviewed left and right about the past ten years, and their causes.

    The first book I picked up is 10 år med Kronprinsparet by Elsebeth Danielsen. It is published on Aller forlag, and part of the proceedings from the book will go to the Crown Princely Couple’s Humanitarian Foundation.

    It is not a huge book by any means; at 118 pages, most of the chapters are about 1-2 pages, and the majority of the book consist of pictures. Great pictures, but almost all of them have been seen before in some context or other. Similarly, the text feels more like a synopsis of other sources (listed in the back) than original interviews with the couple.

    It starts out with that defining day in the Cathedral, a chapter on the wedding gown, and then moves on to Mette-Marit’s adaption to royal life, the causes she’s taken up, the family life, fashion, her work with the religious CD and at the end there is a list of the patronages and orders of Haakon and Mette-Marit. The focus is chiefly the beginning, the trip to Malawi in 2005 and the last years.

    The book gives a neat overview of ten years in 118 pages, but for most of those pages, the person covered is Mette-Marit only. Haakon’s Wedding speech, his Dignity Day cause, and his interview about what kind of music he listens to… are the really stand out issues about him in the book, which isn’t a lot for ten years.

    The one thing about the book that I actually really liked was that in a lot of the chapters, people associated with Mette-Marit’s causes (or once or twice from their common causes) had written messages to the couple on their anniversary, in conjunction with the cause/relevant picture in the book. This was published next to the picture/description of the cause.

    It is a nice enough little  book, but given the amount of pages, it doesn’t go into much depth. Thus, if you’ve followed them over the past ten years on forums or in the news… I think you can probably save your money for something else.

  • Harry Potter

    I haven’t seen Harry Potter yet. As a huge HP fan… It’s not very impressive, but I also find that the longer I go without seeing it, the less inclined am I to do so.

    I enjoyed the book, but it was also very dark and depressive. Do I really want to go into Christmas feeling dark and depressed yet again? On the other hand, I got some good shipping bits from the other movies…

    Probably going to go see it on Sunday, though.

    In the mean time there is the rest of the yogalates video to go through tonight. I keep feeling that I am not getting a workout, but my muscles are aching nevertheless…

  • Review: Kongen som må ut og hente melk

    From time to time, interesting picture books for children pop up on the Norwegian market. Some of the time the subject is the royal family. One such excellent book was Olavs første skitur by Tor Bomann-Larsen.

    A new one in this category is Kongen som må ut å hente melk by Tora Marie Norberg. (Translation of title: The King who has to go get milk)

    The essence of the story is that the King (who bears a fair likeness to King Harald) discover at the breakfast table that he does not have any milk left for his breakfast. So he goes to the royal farm at Bygdøy, only to have problems when he tries to milk the royal cows. It results in him having to go to the store to get the milk there instead.

    It is a cute story, and the variety of the illustration, and words, make it a fun read. The play on words – starting the sentence on the page the Queen appears with the words Sånn Ja (the pronunciation of Sonja), and the details of the drawings makes it a fun read also for adults.

    The story does require a certain amount of suspending reality, as  I don’t think it is very likely that the King cleans all the rooms in the Palace by himself before heading off for bed.

    But it is a fun read, and definitely something I would consider reading for young children.

  • A review: Vivian Seving, etc.

    Vivian Seving, etc.Recently, I was asked to hold a talk on books for some of my colleagues, and the afternoon before the book-talk, I picked up Ari Behn’s latest. The likelihood that someone else had read it was slim, since it’s just come out, and it was thin (unlike the latest tome on the Queen Mother, which I still haven’t got around to opening), so it was definitely a quick read.

    Vivian Seving, etc. is about Vivian Seving, a former movie “star” who was married to a German (or possibly Austrian) hereditary prince. The book starts after he is dead, and Princess Vivian then has to face the press (including rabid bloggers) on her own.

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  • Märtha Louise with a new series of books.

    Princess Märtha Louise will be writing a series of books called “The Angel School,” publisher Cappelen Damm reports.

    The books will be presenting the topics that are taught in Astarte, her school, for self-development. She will be writing them with Elisabeth Samnøy, who is also the other partner in Astarte.

    It is unknown how many books the series will contain, but the publisher notes that a series is usually more than three books. The first one has the working title “Meet your guardian angel” and will be published in October.

  • Book review: The Uncommon Reader

    The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett. (First published in 2006).

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  • 1015 København K: One reader’s review

    I picked this book up in October 2007, as something to read on a long train ride. It was a substitute for the gossip magazines I would buy on other occasions when I am on a journey. As a substitute for that, it works just fine. The style is similar to the style of Ekstrabladet, Billedbladet, Hello, etc. There is nothing new there – it’s not the work of a Nobel laureate, but the work of a journalist who has had the focus on the royals for some time.

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