20 Books of Summer

This challenge is hosted by 746 books and I will join this year. I really need to lower by TBR books and this might be the way. The overall rules below, but more on 746 book's website:

Do you fancy getting 20 books off your TBR in three months? Think of the joys that this challenge brings: 

All that deliberating over what books to choose and how many – 10, 15 or the Full Monty? 

Crazed reading during the warmest months of the year 

Decisions over how you measure your progress – by books read per month? Or pages read by day? 

Panicked reviewing as you try to cram everything in to the time frame

I will really try to follow the list. However, I know myself and as soon as I make a list to read I tend to read something out of the list! Yep, that me. Disciplin is the word I guess. These are books I really want to read, they have been on my shelves a long time, and... maybe this is the summer it will all happen. I go for 20, but you can choose 10 or 15 as well. 

1. Ashdown-Hill, John - Eleanor, the Secret Queen
2. Barry, Sebastian - On Canaan's Side
3. Boyd, William - Ordinary Thunderstorms
4. Byatt, A.S. - The Children's Book
5. Ferguson, Niall - The Ascent of Money
6. Freud, Esther - Mr Mac and Me
7. Hadley, Tessa - The Past
8. Hughes-Hallett, Lucy - Cleopatra
9. Jacobovici, Simcha and Wilson, Barrie - The Lost Gospel - Decoding the Ancient Text that Reveals Jesus' Marriage to Mary the Magdalene
10. Larkin, Philip - The Whitsun Wedding (poetry)
11. Lee, Hermione - Edith Wharton
12. MacEwan, Helen - Winifred Gérin: Biographer of the Brontës
13. MacKrell, Judith - Flappers
14. McBain, Laurie - Tears of Gold
15. Maugham, W. Somerset - A Writer's Notebook
16. Meyer, Stephanie - The Host
17. Nesbo, Joe - Pansarhjärta
18. Nicholl, Charles - The Lodger, Shakespeare on Silver Street
19. Swingler, Susan - The House of Fiction
20. Terzani, Tiziano - A Fortune-Teller Told Me

In alphabetical order according to authors. Some I have actually started, but not got very far. I hope I will finish them this summer. You know of any of the books? Read them maybe? Please let me know.

Weekend bliss

I visited a friend of mine at her summer house in Mellbystrand, on the west coast of Sweden, this weekend. We have a wonderful time visiting a museum, walking on the beach, eating Thai food, watching the Eurovision Song Contest and a little bit of shopping. On our way back to Malmö on Sunday, we stopped by in Höganäs, which is a beautiful place on a small peninsula. There are several outlets to enjoy. We were late so could only go to Iitala's outlet. It is a Finnish glass company. I found a present for my niece who is taking her baccalaureate in June.

To my delight, or maybe not..., I found a Book Outlet! Yes! If there is anything I don't need it is more books. I did disciplin myself to three. One cook book about Detox. Always good to eat healthy and get inspired. A book about the 100 coolest places in Skåne (Scania, the province where I am living), and last but not least a historical fiction about composer George Friedrich Händel. I just can't resist such books. It is by a Swedish author, Carl Michael Edenberg and called (in my translation) My Cruel Destiny (Mitt grymma öde).

Bookmark Monday

This meme is hosted by Guiltless Reading. This week's bookmarks come from the museum of Märta Måås-Fjetterstöm. She is an artist/designer and founded a studio for weaving carpets. They are very famous and very expensive. In the archives they have around one thousand original designs and cartoons, which dates back to 1919. There are still Artisan Weavers today who continue the production. When you come in to the museum, they display second hand carpets for sale for half the original price. I saw a very nice blue carpet. I could have it for 35.000€! Well, we have to continue looking for carpets.

I bought three bookmarks, although I am not sure they have anything to do with the lady herself. It could be from her drawings, but it is not clear from the bookmarks. It was nevertheless, a wonderful museum with beautiful carpets. Since I am totally hopeless with anything to do with sewing, weaving or similar arts, I am full of admiration for people who can create such beautiful art.

I could not help buying a dish cloth with a wise quote on it. "The future depends on the creativity of the present". How true and what a good quote to look at from time to time. Like when you are cleaning your kitchen!

Bookmark Monday

This meme is hosted by Guiltless Reading. It was a while ago since I posted one of these, actually back in November last year. I obviously have not collected any bookmarks since. This is not really a bookmark, but I like to use different sizes and forms for my bookmarks, so it is fine.

I visited the Modern Museum here in Malmö last week. There was an exhibition on Andy Warhol. I did see another exhibition with him and Pablo Picasso in a museum in Brugge, Belgium about a year ago. There were no bookmarks, only by Picasso, of which you find a sample under the link, as well as a postcard and key ring. Key rings are another obsession. I like these small souvenirs which you can also use. Sorry, lost track there!

In the exhibition which also hosted some of his designs for vinyl records (I did not know he designed these kind of things) as well as some of his famous faces. The most interesting part though, was a film on his Brillo box. We followed a family's purchase of the box, and the signature on it by Warhol. Quite interesting. Especially, since the box was sold for 2,7 million dollars not so long ago. Although, the family who originally bought it and used it as a coffee table, had sold it many years prior.

To memorise this exhibition I bought a postcard on one of his Marilyn faces and, of course, a magnet for the fridge with the famous Campbell's Tomato Soup label. The words above appeared in the program for the 1968 Andy Warhol exhibition in Stockholm. I think sometimes we are already there.

Weekly mix

It has been rather quiet here lately. I have been rather occupied, with nice things only, and when I was finally at home, I did not feel like sitting down in front of the computer. Well, these things happens. I would like to share some of the things I have been doing.

On April 27, I was invited to Lena for dinner. Her friend Tina was visiting from Stockholm. I have not seen here in a long time, so we had a great evening talking about old memories.  The day after we went for an evening at the concert hall Malmö Live. There was a performance of Jesus Christ Superstar. I love the music and used to know all the lyrics by heart. It was really great to see it performed live.

30 April is Walpurgis Night and a day when we celebrate the coming of spring. We do this by lighting big fires and sing to the spring. I must admit though, that most of the time the weather is very far from spring. Hail, rain and snow have shown themselves on this very night. However, this year it was quite a pleasant evening, so Lena and I walked down to the beach. In this part of the city they put a fire in the water. In some areas it was so dry so lighting a fire was forbidden, but this place was obviously perfect.

On May 2, I went to have lunch with Lena, at the Modern Museum here in Malmö. It was a wonderful lunch, a shrimp sallad with quinoa. One of the tastiest sallads I have ever eaten. Afterwords I visited an exhibition on Andy Warhol. A post on Bookmark Monday will be up on Monday 13 May, with a little bit more info.

On May 3, I drove about 20 min to Höllviken, a small town by the sea a little bit south of Malmö, to visit friends. Friends I have not seen in a long time. We met in the mid 80s, but afterwards always lived far away from each other. But you know what it is like with some friends. You have not seen each other for years, but you pick up as if you just met the week before. It was a lovely day with lots of talk and a walk in the surroundings.

Yesterday I went with two friends to Sassnitz, Germany, just for the day. It was a rather long ferry trip. Next time I will stay in the wonderful surroundings on Rügen, and visit one of my favourite cities; Stralsund. So beautiful.

Tomorrow is a lecture, Thursday is a theatre and on Friday/Saturday I will go with my husband to visit the island of Ven, situated between Denmark and Sweden. This is where Tycho Brahe lived and worked. He was a Danish nobleman, astronomer and writer. Edwin Arthur Burtt, says in his The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Physical Science: A Historical and Critical Essay (1925), that he was "the first competent mind in modern astronomy to feel ardently the passion for exact empirical facts." He was granted the island by king Frederick II and he built his research stations Uraniborg and Stjerneborg there. I think you can still se at least the last one today. It is a very small island so we will rent bikes and stay overnight.

And what about the reading you might ask? I did manage to squeeze in a couple of books. Med Örnen mot polen, a scientific book about the Andrée expedition. Three men trying to reach the North pole by balloon in 1897. They disappeared and were found only 33 years later. More about them in a separate post.

Quicksand by Malin Persson Giolito, about a fictional school shooting. It was chosen as the best criminal story of the year in Sweden. It has been made into a series by Netflix. Since I have now finished the book, I will go on to watch the series. Anyone who has seen it?

For our book club we choose a French book this time, and rather new. I could not find an English title, so don't know if it has been translated. It is La fille qui lisait dans le metro The girl that read on the metro) by Christine Féret-Fleury. More about it in another post.

A few notes on what I have been up to. I do keep reading your blog posts and am, as always, amazed at what you are achieving and doing.