The Content Reader

August has come to an end, and in principal, end of summer in Sweden. We have been heading south for about two weeks, travelling with our camper van through Denmark, Germany to the Netherlands. Our son graduated from his second Masters in Delft, which must be one of the most beautiful cities in the world. We enjoyed his company for some days, and had the opportunity to be part of the graduation party. Now in Innsbruck we are staying a few days, and will then continue south to Greece for September-October. I give you a couple of photos from Delft. Due to travelling, I had to abandon part of my challenges. Instead I grabbed quite a few books from my TBR shelves to take with me. Some of them will come with me home, but most of them I will give away along the road.  I read 12 books in August and five of them were excellent reads. Lunde, Maja - Przewalski's Horse Ivesköld, Monica - Redigera framgångsRIKT Auster, Paul - The Brooklyn Follies Hawkins, Paula - Into the Water Preston, John -...

Tana French is a favourite of mine, ever since I read her first book, In the Woods.  It was a detective story, but rather spooky. I have also read Broken Harbour  and, recently,  The Secret Place.    The Witch Elm  is an intricate story, full of psychological turns.  "Toby is a happy-go-lucky charmer who's dodged a scrape at work and is celebrating with friends when the night takes a turn that will change his life: he surprises two burglars who beat him and leave him for dead. Struggling to recover from his injuries, beginning to understand that he might never be the same man again, he takes refuge at his family's ancestral home to care for his dying uncle Hugo. Then a skull is found in the trunk of an elm tree in the garden - and as detectives close in, Toby is forced to face the possibility that his past may not be what he has always believed. The Witch Elm asks what we become, and what we're capable of, when we no longer know who we are." French var...

The Classics Club is celebrating 10 years, head over there for more information.  The running of the club was taken over some time ago by Brona, Deb, Kay and Margaret. They have been enthusiastic and put down a lot of efforts to keep up and renew the blog. I find the posts very interesting and am enjoying the spin and other events. I have not been very good at reading my spin book, but there is always time for improvements.  Books are a good way to bring us through hard times. During the difficult pandemic years it was a treat to disappear into another world in the books. Hopefully, more people found the pleasure in reading during the isolation periods. To celebrate the 10 years, the board has sent us 10 questions to answer, and I will do my best.  The Questions When did you join the Classics Club? I am not really sure. The only trace I could find was from 2017, so maybe it was the year that I joined.  What is the best classic book you've read for the club so far? W...

July is over. As usual it went very fast, probably because of the great event that takes places during this month, Paris in July. This year hosted by Tamara at Thyme-for-tea and Deb at Readerbuzz . Thank you so much for all the hard work that goes into this month. It seems that more and more people sign up and that is lovely. I went back to check out a book I reviewed for Paris in July, since Deb said she wanted to read it, namely Janet Flanner's Paris Was Yesterday. That is when I realised that I have participated in this event since 2014! Couldn't believe it. I started blogging in the end of 2013, so I was lucky to find Paris in July so fast. Times fly when you have fun.  Paris in July I only read two books about Paris this year. The Reunion/La jeune fille et la nuit by Guillaume Musso and The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley Musso's book really good and, unfortunately the not so good The Paris Apartment. I have also listened to history pods about France, mainly the Frenc...

Time for my French dinner during Paris in July. We had invited good friends, one couple, to this special evening. Well, as we all know we are still in the grip of a pandemic and they had recently had covid. Although they had recovered, they were still not feeling well and had to cancel. That left Martin and me all on our own. I had prepared a menu de dégustation with some nice wines to go with it (menu below). It turned out to be a very long French dinner, probably like they do it in France. We started slowly at around 3 pm and ended some time in the late evening. I cooked as the menu went ahead so very relaxing.  With such a menu I needed a little bit of help with the serving. Let me present Arnaud! To start with an amuse bouche: Chèvre Chaud With Pumpkin Seeds followed by a Crème Ninon soup. To this I served champagne. Both dishes were excellent. I have done the soup before but not the chèvre chaud.  Apart from the soup, the other dishes were all new to me.  The third...

We are entering into the fourth week of Paris in July .  Thank you to Deb at Readerbuzz and Tamara at Thyme-for-tea who are co-hosting this year's event. I have still to read some of your posts, and are enjoying the variety of topics.  I have read The Paris Apartment  by Lucy Foley for this event. I loved her novels The Guest List and The Hunting Party  and it was with great anticipation I started this Paris story.  "Jess needs a fresh start. She’s broke and alone, and she’s just left her job under less than ideal circumstances. Her half-brother Ben didn’t sound thrilled when she asked if she could crash with him for a bit, but he didn’t say no, and surely everything will look better from Paris. Only when she shows up – to find a very nice apartment, could Ben really have afforded this? – he’s not there. The longer Ben stays missing, the more Jess starts to dig into her brother’s situation, and the more questions she has. Ben’s neighbours are an eclectic bunc...

So, the big day for the French is here. I am sure there are many celebrations in Paris, and France, today. We (Swedes) also have something to celebrate today. It is the birthday of our Crown Princess Victoria. She usually celebrates her birthday on the island of Öland, on the east coast of Sweden, where the royal family has a 'summer house'. It seems it will be the same this year, after restrictions for a couple of years. There will be a concert at the old castle ruin, close to the summer palace. This ruin is a magic place, so a very nice place for the celebrations. I wanted to place a photo, but am unsure about the copyrights. If you are curious, you can have a look at Borgholm Castle ruin under link.  As you might know the royal family has French ancestry. The first Bernadotte (on the Swedish throne) was Jean Baptiste. He was born in 1763 in Pau in southern France, and died in 1844 in Stockholm, Sweden. He joined the French Royal Army as rather young. After the French revolu...