Summer Reading List (Part One)

Every summer I make a reading list of 10 books. This summer I'm hoping to get through two such lists, I have a shelf full of unread books I bought during the year and haven't had time for yet. Here's the first list:

OBS! Spoilers ahead!

1. Bättre tillsammans/Better Together - Sheila O'Flanagan
What better way to start the summer than with "chick lit" (a demeaning term I don't really love but hey, maybe it's time to reclaim it). This book and the next I've been looking at in the shop for ages. I really liked Better Together, it was everything you could ask from the genre, well-written, likeable characters, the perfect amount of drama. 

2. Livet efter dig/Me before you - Jojo Moyes
This one, though ... I was not impressed. I really didn't think it was going to turn out to be yet another one of those "the quadriplegic has to die" stories so I was genuinely surprised and very disappointed with the ending, especially because I'd enjoyed it so much up till then. The characters are well developed and you genuinely enjoy "being with them" - right up until the end. It really felt as though the author just wanted to make a point about assisted suicide and invented the characters to suit a message that would perhaps be better suited for a newspaper opinion page, rather than the other way around. And it's not that I'm opposed to assisted suicide - I basically agree with Moyes' argument that it's each person's choice. But the book's insistent liberal individualism, its faith in a world where worth ultimately comes down to money and travel and making business deals - despite claims otherwise - made the book feel somehow American despite the endless references to cups of tea and English holiday towns. The basic argument was that the Good Life can be measured by how many extreme sports and trips to Bali it involves and despite the author's efforts to portray the working class compassionately it seems quite clear which side of the class divide one should prefer to be on. And this is all besides a dismal portrayal of life with a disability. As I read in another review, it doesn't seem like the author has real-life experience there, but just decided "now I'll write a story about what it must be like to become paralyzed"; considering that a lot of people who read this book probably don't have any first hand experience either, that's a problem. I don't know. It was an upsetting read on a lot of levels; of course I wouldn't care this much if it hadn't been well-written to begin with. 
One last thing - the character commits suicide just over two years after his injury. Now, my understanding of assisted suicide clinics is that they go to great lengths to make sure you really want to make that decision and it seemed a little unrealistic to me that they would go through with it then, since it is also my understanding that a depression lasting 2-3 years after a spinal cord injury isn't completely uncommon. Again, just another thing that felt "off" with the story line, as if her plot and characters didn't quite fit together with the soap box she shoved in to the novel. I think some people feel that they need to make their chick lit "go beyond" what we expect of the genre - that it has to have some "serious" aspect that's presumed missing from these "petty things women care about". A story where he embraces life, where a life of the mind can - at least somewhat - live up to his previous life of adventure, and where the love of a woman is enough to make someone want to stay alive - nevermind a novel in which the other characters learn to let the disabled character make decisions and reign over his own life as much as possible would have been great.

3. Jane Austen's Sewing Box - Jennifer Forest
My dad bought this for me while he was visiting a couple of weeks ago. I wouldn't have bought it myself (a bit expensive) and it's great! It's full of regency-era craft projects. The photographs are great and the instructions very clear.

4. The Tailor of Panama - John LeCarré
 My dad had this with him on the plane and left it here when he went back. I like John Le Carré and a spy drama is perfect summer reading. 

5. S. - J.J. Abrams
I have no idea what this is, but it looks very interesting. A friend posted it to me quite a few months ago so I've really got to hurry up and read it. 

6. Himmel över London - Håkan Nesser
I bought this at least a year ago after eyeing it for a while. It's about the 60s and I think it's a mystery. During the year I read so much non-fiction so it's fun gulping down novels! 

7. The Hare with Amber Eyes - Edmund de Waal
A biography I've been longing to read. I bought it way back in february at the annual book sale, where all the shops in town have a huge sale. 

8. How to Eat Out - Giles Coren
Rather cheeky title. It's about Coren's life as a restaurant critic. I think he's very funny so I'm looking forward to it - and have been since I got it for Valentine's day in february. Sigh. I'm terrible!

9. Matens pris - Malin Olofsson
I don't really want to read this anymore, to be honest. I bought it about a year and a half ago when I was really into food issues (still am, but less intensely), but I have no other non-fiction (besides biography) on this list and I do own the book, after all.

10. Nils Holgerssons underbara resa genom sverige - Selma Lagerlöf
A classic. And yet another book I got as a gift and haven't read yet.

Baby animals!!!

So the big excitement around here lately is that a baby bunny is coming to live with us!

I picked her out a few weeks ago but have to wait until she's eight weeks old, and weaned (around the 22nd) to bring her home. It's so so hard to wait! I've always wanted a pet rabbit of my own so I'm really excited to be getting one.

She's a mini lop so her ears will eventually flop over, although I've heard it sometimes happens that one ear flops over and the other doesn't, which would be so unbelievably adorable!

Names currently under consideration: Tailsie, Hoppy, Trixie and Cricket.

Do the Hucklebuckle

Every Wednesday I broadcast my own radio show on our local college radio station. It's great fun, definitely the highlight of my week!

The show is called Vintage Party and I play music from the 40s-60s, my favourite music. There's no limit to the genre but it has to be fun music that I think you can get up and dance to - hence the name. Every week has a theme - last week was jazz guitar, and the week before that I talked about Sun Records.

Yesterday's episode was about fad dances, which is something I've wanted to do for a while. I started by playing some swing jazz from the '40s and talking about the Lindy hop, since it was one of the biggest dance crazes of the decade. For the '50s I played the Stroll and the Madison. But the thing I really wanted to get to was the novelty dances of the '60s! It's so funny to dance the mashed potato, the monkey, the swim and all that.

One dance I'd never heard of was the Hucklebuck but I found this amusing and instructional clip from the Honeymooners:

I think the Hucklebuck is really nothing more than a glorified version of the Twist but of course for comedy's sake they really elaborate on it here!

What about you? Do you like to go out and dance, and do you ever do any fad- or novelty steps?

PS You can listen to Vintage Party every Wednesday at 7pm (GMT +1) at www.studentradion.com. If you're in North America that's some time between 11am and 1pm depending how far West or East you are!

Betty Crocker's Cookbook for Boys and Girls

Golly! I grew up cooking out of this book and I just discovered it was reissued a couple of years ago. Looking through the preview on Amazon I'm finding I remember so many of the recipes and the quotes from the kid recipe testers off by heart, like "If I were a mama I'd cook all day!" Actually I recall that I found that so amusing that I made a cross-stitch sampler magnet out of it as an eight-year-old. Odd kid I was.  It has terrific recipes like "Bunny salad," "Zoo cake" and as I recall the chapter on campfire cooking is positively mouth-watering.

 As a kid I had my dad's old copy (from when he was a kid) but it's in a box in Canada right now. I think I spy an amazon purchase in my near future...

fantasy outfits for autumn

As you might know, I'm a Canadian transplant to Sweden. I've been here for a year now and I love almost everything about it. Almost! The one thing I don't like is that my sewing has suffered since I've been here. I have a great sewing machine, a Husqvarna from the '60s, but I have not figured out the fine art of fabric shopping a la Sweden. Fabric is sooooo much more expensive here! I have a fantasy of going to Canada for two weeks with an empty suitcase and spending the whole time sewing and eating Canadian pizza and doughnuts (another thing I miss).

This whole year I've only sewn one blouse, a dress, and a pair of shorts. To satisfy my sewing itch I spend a loooooooot of time on Etsy looking at patterns and imagining what I want to make. Here's a look at some "perfect outfits" I've put together recently.

 I've been admiring this pattern for ages. Oddly enough I ran into a friend a few weeks ago and she was wearing exactly this outfit! (the blouse and red slacks). This confirmed that it looks equally good in real life.  Find it here if you want to snatch it from my fingers.

Summer is very emphatically over and the only thing that could possibly help me to cope with/enjoy fall is the introduction of a Pendleton into my wardrobe. Failing that I could use this pattern to make my own knock-off. From wearevintagesewing's etsy store.

This versatile shirt pattern would work with my fantasy-Pendleton and I love the sweater trims! Imagine how great they'd be for all those sweaters I always imagine myself knitting! It's here.

Speaking of knitting sweaters...

I adore this fair isle! Knitting sweaters actually seems like a more economical prospect here than in Canada, actually - I'm always finding wool on sale - but my slow knitting skills and total lack of stick-to-itiveness when it comes to big projects means this one will almost certainly remain in the realm of fantasy.

Sigh. A girl can dream...

Have you been sewing much recently? What's your fantasy outfit of the moment?

dresses and dinners

I'm all curled up on the couch this evening, worn out after spending the day in Stockholm at the Vintagemässan. It was great fun! I didn't buy anything, somehow I was satisfied with just looking today. Sometimes when I'm in a place where I want to buy/wear everything I compromise by buying nothing. Sigh. I saw so many lovely lovely dresses and was seriously tempted by, among other delights, a short-sleeved, robin's egg blue cashmere sweater, but it was just too big on me. Great fun anyway! It's on tomorrow, too, so if you're in the area you ought to go!

Now that I'm home and all tuckered out I'm taking advantage of the time by planning this week's meals. What are your favourite vintage cookbooks and/or meal planning tips? Have you seen that Amy Vanderbilt's cookbook is available on archive.org? It's got lots of nice recipes and I especially like the menu ideas, though I have to vegetarian-ize most of it. I shouldn't really call myself a vegetarian but I avoid meat almost all the time. In the summertime I indulge a bit more. After all, a grilled hamburger with chips and a coke is my favourite meal of all time, I think.

Gee I'm going to stop writing now. Apologies for this oddly stilted-sounding post. I haven't blogged since July and it would appear I've gotten rusty.

a promise to my oft-neglected blog

Oh my dear little blog. I really to want to be a good blogger, really I do. It's just that, well as you can no doubt see - sometimes weeks go by in which I want to do anything but blog! I'm going to try again though. Good blogs are so fun to read, and bloggers seem to meet so many wonderful people and get great opportunities via their blogs - and I want that too! So I'll try a bit harder and see how it goes.