Books I've read in 2009 - November

Visjonens bok by Muniam Alfaker
Gomorra by Roberto Saviano – AUDIO
Det tredje tegnet by Yrsa Sigurdardóttir
Midtvinterblod by Mons Kallentoft
Skumringstimen by Johan Theorin – AUDIO
Svenska skurkar by Stig Linnell
Me and Mr Darcy by Alexandra Potter
Sirkelens ende by Tom Egeland – AUDIO
Leoparden by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
Night by Elie Wiesel – AUDIO
The Great Derangement by Matt Taibbi
Daughters of the House by Michele Roberts
Fjellet by Arnaldur Indridason – AUDIO
Afrikanen by Jean Marie Gustave le Clezio – AUDIO
Pride and Prescience by Carrie Bebris
Stolthet og fordom by Jane Austen – AUDIO
The Hundred and Ninety-Nine Steps by Michel Faber
Live Flesh by Ruth Rendell
Helt konge by Øystein Sørensen

12 printed books, 3,128 pages.
7 audiobooks, 66h 38m.

Favorite fiction:
Det tredje tegnet. I'll be doing a video review of this book shortly. It's a great read - an entertaining Icelandic thriller with great characters, a fascinating plot, and also surprisingly well translated in the Norwegian edition that I read. I'm really looking forward to reading more books by this author, who was entirely new to me when I picked up the book at a BookCrossing meetup. Thanks to Tine1971 for recommending it so warmly. :-)

Favorite nonfiction:
I have to say ... The Great Derangement. Perhaps slightly outdated in some sections, but more than makes up for that by being very well written, entertaining, insightful and intelligent.

Favorite audio:
Oh, how to choose?? This has been a great month for audiobooks. :-) If I have to pick one, I think I have to say Skumringstimen. I really enjoyed that book tremendously. I'm already reading the author's second novel. :-)

Books with no links will be reviewed on my book blog before too long. :-)

So much for reading. I can't let Keanu Monday pass without mention. ;-) Check out this blog entry, here. It's somewhat interesting ... partly because of the Keanu content, although I realize this may not appeal to all my readers ;-) and partly because of the statements the writer makes about her supposed intuition or whatever woo-type abilities it is that we're supposed to perceive in this account.

I can read everyone and pick up on so much information going on within them.
My intuition on him garnered prior to being in his presence says he knows much more about alternate realities.

The curse of magical thinking ...

Quote of the Week

I don't think that [magic] is much different from believing in a Christian god. I mean, if magic is unreasonable, then so is faith in a Christian god, because you can't see either.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Remember that I mentioned that this writer who I'm quoting here was going to be in Oslo and be interviewed? Well, she was and she did and I was there. :-) And I taped almost the whole thing. :-D So take a look at this - you won't be sorry, she was so entertaining and wonderful to listen to. This is the first of four parts; the other three are on my book blog, here.

Gol stave church

How many times this year have I seen this church now? Five times in the past six months? Oy vey, tourists ... !! :-D

Lisbeth Salander FTW!!

Tonight's the night ... ! The third and last Millennium movie, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, opens in theaters here tonight. Ooh ... !! But I'm not going! Bwaah! There's a perfectly reasonable explanation for that - James' two Japanese friends K&K, who have been mentioned in the comments here, are in Oslo even as I write these words, and I am not only nice enough to let them stay at my place and make them my delicious fish soup and show them around Oslo tomorrow (gasp) I am also nice enough to not force them to pay money to see a movie in a language they don't understand a word of. The milk of human kindness, it runneth over ...

They're leaving on the 7:20 bus tomorrow night, and Anne Ida and I have tickets to see the movie at Colosseum at 8:45. ;-) I'm expecting the movie to be ... not all that, the least good of the three, but a total must-see anyway. And who cares in any case - any & all movie is entertaining on the big screen at Colosseum. :-)

My calendar wall, November 2009

Fun for the natives

Today's post will only be amusing to Norwegian speakers, I'm afraid.

This is a sign I saw on the subway on, let's see ... November 7th. I thought it was so funny, I had to take a picture of it. Fellow Osloites, have you seen this before?? I never saw it till that Saturday night. It's so cool, I love it when they do things like this.

It's a sign put up by the city transport company on board a subway train on which they're doing something with the expression 'mind the gap' ... but it doesn't really translate. All the funny disappears in translation. :-)

MALTA 2005: Chiara - Angel

Time for another ESC favorite. This is the best Maltese entry ever, IMO, a beautiful song by a wonderful singer. I've listened to this song a lot over the past four years. :-) I love Chiara's voice, it's so expressive. And this song just has it all, really. Malta's strongest entry ever. They were one of the top favorites that year. Unfortunately they only got to 2nd place ... the genuinely talented Chiara was beaten on the finish on the finish line by that Greek slut, pardon my French. Alas.

Chiara composed this song herself, and she wrote the lyrics too, so she really competed in every possible way. :-) She competed for Malta on Thursday, May 19th, and Saturday, May 21st, 2005 in the Palace of Sports in Kyiv.



Lyrics here.