Norwegianne.net

Category: Books

  • Review: Mrs. Queen Takes the Train

    Mrs. Queen Takes the Train
    Mrs Queen Takes the Train
    by William Kuhn

    This book in the same genre as  The Uncommon Reader is, and enjoyable for many of the same reasons. It is fictional, but with enough facts mixed in to make it fun to read. (Not a book if you’re taking everything deadly serious.)

    The Queen becomes a character with traits that you think you recognize from the newspapers, and some invented, and the rest of the cast of characters are fictional. The storyline is fictional – the Queen is suffering from depression, and wants to go to visit Britannia where she remembers being happy, and takes to the train to Edinburgh. The courtiers scramble to follow her and find her before the news that she has disappeared becomes public.

    It’s not the perfect book, but it is a fun summer read.

  • Review: 10% Happier

    10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works--A True StoryI can’t remember where I first saw the review for this, and when I picked it up, though I know it is recent, and I might have seen it on one of the many book blogs I skim through Feedly. (Amazon tells me I bought it 9 days ago.)

    I’d like to say I picked it up because of the catchy first part of the title, but I think it might be the “reducing stress” part of the title that caught my eye first. Though I certainly wouldn’t mind being 10% happier either.

    The book is 10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works–A True Story by Dan Harris

    (more…)

  • Librarians

    Librarians

    “You don’t look like the librarians I remember,” he told her.

    “We’ve changed. There was a whole press release issued about it, but we didn’t get much media coverage.”
    – Almost Summer by Susan Mallery

    I really think it is fun to play with the whole librarian stereotype at times. Basically because, of all the librarians I know, very few actually conform to it. I can’t say I know any Irma Pince. I know more librarians who are like Batgirl, or like the punker in the illustration below.

    Image from "Should a Library Have a Dress Code?" (Anderson, 1992).
    Image from “Should a Library Have a Dress Code?” (Anderson, 1992).

    My boss did tell me, at one point, that when I’m doing presentations to the public, to either go for the bun, the glasses, the tea or the cardigan – not all four of them. I shouldn’t live up to the stereotype.

    But I like tea, damn it.

    Also, the power a “shush” has is kind of cool.

     

  • Authors, coming books… pre-ordering

    Dear authors,

    Usually, when I finish the most recent book in a series, I want to read more. A lot of the time, you tell me the name of the coming book in the end of the book.

    If you have the name of the book and when it will be published – please make either an entry of it on Amazon (or a similar site) or on GoodReads. Amazon (or similar site) so I can pre-order it, or GoodReads so I can add it to list of books I want to buy.

    By the time the next book comes up on either site for ordering or adding, I might have moved on and forgot all about that interesting book I wanted to read. After all, there are so many books out there, and so little time.

    If you have it listed for pre-order, I will order it once I’m finished with the last book. I might not remember it by the time it actually is published, but it is then a very nice surprise to get it in the mail or on automatic download to the reading device.

    It’s all about marketing savvy, isn’t it?

    Anne

    PS. I have been informed that it is possible to subscribe to updates from Authors at their author profile at Amazon. A good first step.

  • Review: Ingrid: prinsesse af Sverige, dronning af Danmark

    Review: Ingrid: prinsesse af Sverige, dronning af Danmark

    Book cover: Queen Ingrid by Lundgren
    Ingrid: prinsesse af Sverige, dronning af Danmark by Roger Lundgren

    This is actually a rather decent book on Queen Ingrid of Denmark. I read  Sibylla: En biografi by the same author a while back, and didn’t care for the writing style at all, which I why I am surprised that this one worked for me.

    The reason for why this works is mainly that Lundgren has used, liberally, quotes from interviews and other books on the subject. His own writing voice has also seemed to mature in the three years between the two books, and it doesn’t feel so fawning and childlike.

    With the overflow of the quotes, it feels like a television documentary with Lundgren as the narrator, and the royals as the subjects.

    Some of the things that come up are new information, and some isn’t. We learn that both Queen Margrethe and her son Crown Prince Frederik learned Swedish from Ingrid, at their own request, to speak with their Scandinavian relatives and friends. I knew from before that Queen Margrethe spoke Swedish well, but I had never heard the tidbit about Frederik. And now it came from his own “mouth.”

    At the same time, the quotes can be a bit duplicating in their information – why is it necessary to have quotes from Queen Margrethe and Princess Benedikte iterating almost word for word the same information, for example? (And this happens a lot throughout the book.)

    There is a literature list in the back, but I wish that he would have made it clear throughout the book when he was quoting from another piece of royal biography or when it was in direct interviews with the royals.

    For example, the story from Ex-King Constantine of Greece that his father-in-law locked Constantine into a bathroom when he came to ask for Anne-Marie’s hand in marriage, first came to my light with the DR television series about King Christian’s descendants (or other biographies, for all I know). If Lundgren did not get his information from there, but from an interview with Constantine, it would have been good to have that cited in the material.

    When there is not quotes to liven the material, from Ingrid’s younger years, or when her parents met each other, the story falls a bit flat because everything is so sugar glossy and nice.

    Overall, I don’t regret reading (or buying) the book, but there are some definite room for improvement. And while I, after reading the Sibylla book, had not planned on reading Lundgren’s newest book on Queen Silvia, I am now planning to do it.

     

  • Review: The Chocolate Kiss

    The Chocolate Kiss
    The Chocolate Kiss by Laura Florand

    My rating: 4 of 5 stars

    I just reread this book, and completely had a chocolate craving. Especially since the hot chocolate played such an essential role in the book – almost like a character of its own.

    And then it snowed today. So I felt like I had the perfect excuse.

    I made the chocolate chaud recipe in the back of the book. It was a perfect cup on a cold day.

    hot chocolate

    The next time I make it, I might skip the cinnamon and nutmeg infusion though. I think the chocolate could stand on its own well enough.

  • Review: Nasjonal klassereise : Mette-Marit og politikkens abdikasjon

    Nasjonal klassereise : Mette-Marit og politikkens abdikasjon by Hedvig Skonhoft Johannesen

    The book, or leaflet (considering the amount of pages, was written for the centenary of the Norwegian female vote. It’s part of a series of 12 publications from various women on what happens in Norway today.

    This particular one covers the Norwegian Crown Princess, and how she is portrayed in the media, how she has “travelled through the classes” and why the Norwegian media aren’t asking more critical questions of the royal house when they have the chance to do interviews.

    The latter was very clear both last year, with the interview that sparked the whole dress-discussion, but also with the 10 year anniversary documentaries that were made a couple of years ago.

    We’re shown a glossy image of the royal family, as much as possible.

    It’s a good and valid debate to ponder about – I do question why it is just Mette-Marit who is coming up for the debate here, and why she hasn’t included Queen Sonja in the discussion. The two of them combined have done a much greater journey through the class-system of Norway than just Mette-Marit alone.

    If it hadn’t been for Sonja coming first, I’m not sure Mette-Marit, or someone similar to her, could have come along as “easily.” The Norwegian monarchy would have looked vastly different in 2000/2001 if it hadn’t been for the Queen paving the road first.

  • Review: The Mac + Cheese Cookbook: 50 Simple Recipes from Homeroom, America’s Favorite Mac and Cheese Restaurant

    The Mac + Cheese Cookbook: 50 Simple Recipes from Homeroom, America's Favorite Mac and Cheese Restaurant
    The Mac + Cheese Cookbook: 50 Simple Recipes from Homeroom, America’s Favorite Mac and Cheese Restaurant by Allison Arevalo

    All the recipes in the book looked like they’d taste amazing. (Especially at this time of year, when all you want is something nice and warm and gooey and cheesy… I’m sorry, what was the topic again?)

    I tried out the classic Mac & Cheese recipe from this book, and was generally very happy with the result. I felt that it would have been much easier for me as a home cook, who generally isn’t making béchamel sauce by the vat all the time, or making Mac & Cheese for dinner every day – if they would have included the recipe for the béchamel (or as they call it Mac Sauce) – in each of the recipes instead of having it stand alone. As it were, it ended up being a whole lot of turning the pages back and forth for me, and it would have been easier to make the recipe if all the parts were on the same page.

    Furthermore, it is rather hellish on dishes as the amount of pots used is rather high. I actually ended up reusing my pasta pot (left the pasta in the sieve I used to drain it) for part of it, since I was doing the dishes by hand.

    But the result was amazing, and I might end up trying out some of the other recipes from the book as well.

    (more…)

  • Review: My Year with Eleanor: A Memoir

    My Year with Eleanor: A Memoir
    My Year with Eleanor: A Memoir by Noelle Hancock

    The premise of this book is a little bit crazy, but I appreciated it in the end. The author lost her job during the 2008 crash and is flailing over what to do. She decides to live a year with Eleanor Roosevelt for inspiration, facing her fears all the time.

    She swims with sharks, does comedy stand-up, flies a plane, sky dives and a lot of other things.

    I rather liked the concept of facing one fear each day. Interspersed with quotes and Eleanor Roosevelt’s history, it makes for an interesting and dynamic book.

    The writing is easy and fun to read along to. (Must confess I skipped ahead on some pages – turns out that reading about certain aspects set my own fears fluttering.)