Thursday's trailer

Book Page

I'm really psyched right now seeing as my first bookpage was published today! From now on, my bookish musings will be gracing Flanders Today on a monthly basis, so check out the first installment: the graphic novels edition on page 8 of Flanders Today. If you can't get your hands on a copy, try this.

Festive Fiction

I didn't read as many Christmassy books as I'd hoped to this month, I actually didn't do a lot of reading at all to tell the truth because I was usually in bed by 10pm. I know, I'm a wild one.

I did however finally get my hands on A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote, one of my favorite authors. I already read the story a long time a ago as it is a part of one of his short story collections but several years ago they made an illustrated 50th anniversary edition with CD that I was eyeing up for a while now and I have to say I totally love it. The story is pretty sad and is about a young boy (Truman) who reminisces about the his last Christmas with his childlike elderly aunt. What can I say, I'm just a sucker for old people. Anyway, it's a beautiful book and a wonderful story yet slightly sentimental but in a good way.

The other Christmas book I read also happened to be a memoir but with a good helping of reindeer, elves and several Santas. It was David Sedaris' Holidays on Ice or The Santaland Diaries, depending if you get the British or American edition. In a nutshell, he has combined several hilarious short stories about Christmas, all tapping into his own experiences as usual, ranging from his stint as a Christmas Elf at Macy's to Sinterklaas. Classic material and perfect fodder for anyone looking for a break from traditional tales.

Christmas preparations

I’ve been so busy the past few weeks that I’ve barely had time to breath, let alone decorate my Christmas tree or blog. I’ve been working extra shifts at the store which wasn’t that bad actually: baking an obscene amount of gingerbread men, decorating them, jazzing up the window display and climbing in three Christmas trees. Add to that a very important deadline (my first book page) and the usual domestic disturbances plus my dearly beloved yet equally disturbed mother and grandmother and you end up with no spare time whatsoever. Seriously, I don’t have the time or the energy to work fulltime.

Luckily things are slowly winding down now so I can finally get down to business: my own Christmas preparations. I usually start right after Sinterklaas so I’m particularly late this year. The only thing that went according to plan was buying presents, god bless the internet.

This week however, the pumpkin surprised me with my very first real Christmas tree! We usually have a small but really pretty plastic one seeing as I’m a Christmas nut and he’s basically Scrooge so I was really surprised, my insistent nagging must finally be wearing him down. Anyway, the only downside besides it being a white one, was having no ornaments to sproose up this gigantic tree.

So this weekend besides doing all the shopping for the Christmas parties I’ll be hosting this week, we had to get some cheap and easy decorations because I doubt we’ll get another bad boy next year. With a little help from Ikea and Ella Fitzgerald playing her swinging tunes, I had a great time turning our Tree (seriously, it’s an actual Tree not a cute Christmassy tree) into something a little more festive. Sadly, I had to clean the entire apartment afterwards.

Today I started with my food preparations. We usually go to England in December so I can get all my Christmas trimmings but this year we simply didn’t have the time which is why I made mincemeat from scratch for the very first time. It’s not the traditional kind but it’s very easy and the smell is simply divine: lots of spices, fruit and booze. Yum, yum, yum. Bring on the pies!

This afternoon I’m assisting the pumpkin with some last minute shopping seeing as he believes buying gifts is the most stressful and frustrating waste of time, ever. So yeay! And afterwards we might check out the Christmas market in good ol’ Antwerp before I start another week of working, baking, indulging needy relatives, grocery shopping, cleaning and hosting a couple of parties. Thank god, I don’t have anymore deadlines.

Thursday's trailer

A Simples Life

How often does an ad for car insurance get so popular that it gets its own range of merchandise, including one hilarious and oh so cute biography? Not often, that’s for sure.

It all started with an ad campaign for comparethemarket.com, a British website that enables you to find the cheapest car insurance to suit your own personal pickle. The brilliant people behind this website also created the character of Aleksandr Orlov, a prestigious Russian meerkat and founder of comparethemeerkat.com, a website where you can compare meerkats. As you do. Sadly, he is frustrated that that people often mix the two up.

The ads in which he vents his frustration, quickly became an immense success due to this colorful and cute main character with his charming Borat-esque accent and his nerdy assistant Sergei. Seriously, they crack me up and apparently I’m not the only one who’s meerkat mad.

These fluffy friends actually started an entire meerkat craze in the UK, with A Simples Life, My Life and Times by Aleksandr Orlov as the icing on the cake. It’s a beautiful book filled with gorgeous pseudo-historical drawings, tongue in cheek photographs and of course the history of the Orlov clan (ranging from the Meerkat–Mongoose war of 1728 until the Furry Terror of 1921) told by Aleksandr in his own characteristic crazy way.

I actually laughed out loud more times than I care to admit and I know, it’s commercialism is its purest and most evil form but come on, who can resist an autobiography by a meerkat?

Sunday mornings

My Sunday morning usual looks like this: me, my laptop, lots of coffee and tying up some work-related loose ends. It’s the ideal moment to finish off my reviews, re-read my articles before I send them off on Monday and blog. Utter bliss. I know, working on a Sunday morning must seem crazy to most but I personally love it. There’s something about a tranquil Sunday morning that makes my brain go into overdrive, I’m a real morning person if you hadn’t already noticed.

Sadly, I haven’t been as productive as I’ve hoped this morning. Sitting on the couch, wrapped in a blanket with my laptop on well, my lap probably has something to do with it. Don’t get me wrong, it’s very cozy, actually so cozy that I can’t focus on the four reviews I had to finish this morning. Instead, I’ve spent the entire morning shopping and making a list of New Year’s resolutions.

It all started to go terribly wrong when I decided to order a few last minute Christmas presents. Although it’s still three weeks until that blessed day, when you order online two – three weeks is cutting it short when your presents still have to travel the globe.

After I ordered the presents, I decided to take a look at the Christmas CD’s, seeing as they were only one click away. I love Christmas music, especially my Christmas crooners CD but the pumpkin hates it. Well, he tolerates the crooners but loathes everything else, except Sufjan Steven’s Songs for Christmas, the only acceptable CD during the holiday season. I beg to differ. In order to win him over to the dark side, I decided to invest in some swinging Christmas tunes by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong. You can’t beat the classics or my festive spirit for that matter.

Now that I’ve got the music, I need the movies. We’ve already got many Christmassy films which we (meaning me) love to watch every year: It’s a Wonderful Life, The Grinch, Elf, Scrooged,… but staying true to tradition, I still needed a new one for our quiet Christmas Eve together, before all hell breaks loose on Christmas day. And now it’s in the bag.

Then I kinda got sidetracked while I was reading my blogs and started checking out several books which have now earned themselves a spot on my Bookdepository wish list or as I call it, one of the best inventions ever seeing as it keeps me informed about release dates and more importantly, massive price drops.

Due to a pit stop at YouTube (cute kitten clips how I love thee), I started thinking about my New Year’s resolutions and started making a list. More about those December 31st.

And finally before I started this post, I realized that you can do your grocery shopping online as well, which would be great seeing as I’ve got no time to do the holiday grocery shopping this year as I’m working every day until Christmas. I just click on all the items we need and the pumpkin goes to Carrefour to pick them up: simple, no queues, screaming children or bruises from people who can’t control their trolley. I’m definitely going to give this a go.

And now, it’s time for our weekly Sunday brunch: sandwiches, Danish and Disney! And then I'll get some work done, hopefully...

Thurday's trailer

Holiday Reading

It's December, finally! It's snowing outside, Christmas decorations are popping up left and right and soon there will be carols in the air, presents under the tree and the glorious smell of allspice intoxicating our apartment and all who happens to drop by.

If you hadn't already noticed, I love the Holidays: the food, the shopping, the decorating, Christmas carols, festive films and being surrounded by your loved ones. To quote Brook Benton "I wish everyday could be like Christmas". It's also the only time of the year I get mildly mushy and indulge in otherwise loathsome sentimental slush.

Last year I also started a new holiday tradition, during December I will only read fun, lighthearted and festive fiction. The cornier, the better basically. As you can see by my currently reading status, I already started now that all the mandatory reading is finally over. I gathered a big pile of books yesterday and I can't wait to curl up with my kitty.

Weg

As you all know, I interviewed Ephameron and Pieter van Oudheusden a while back about Weg, a graphic novel that Eva drew and Pieter wrote. Eva or Ephameron as she’s called is an oddity in the Flemish graphic novel scene seeing as she’s well, a girl and usually tells her stories solely with illustrations, making Weg her first actual graphic novel and worthy of another interview. I had already interviewed her last year about Art Trek, an annual art show above Mekanik, Belgium’s coolest comic book store.

Anyway, Weg tells the story of a young woman who is writing a children’s book and runs out of ideas. She decides to take a walk to clear her head. This all seems pretty straightforward but what makes this book so unusual is in fact the story that accompanies Eva’s characteristic fragile dreamlike drawings namely, a story about a bear and a little fox who embark on an unusual friendship. This unconventional combo of children’s tale and grown-up drawings create an uncanny atmosphere that requires a little input from the reader because things aren’t always what they seem.

Weg is a fast read but don’t be fooled by its odd simplicity as there as so much more lurking beneath the surface. Both artists truly excel in their own personal expertise and together they have created an unexpected gem filled with longing and bewilderment.

If you want to know more about their collaboration and the autobiographical aspects of the book, you’ll just have to read the actual interview which will probably kick ass! Or I hope at least since I spent most of the afternoon transcribing it. One thing’s for sure, it’s the first and only time (so far at least) that Pieter has been interviewed with Eva, talk about a scoop!

Running out of time

You may have noticed that my last blog posts aren’t as chronological as they used to be. I start writing one and usually get interrupted by

a) My mother who has been particularly clingy lately
b) My grandmother who doesn’t seem to understand she isn’t 20 anymore, bless her
And c) food that needs preparing and the concept of cleaning

For some reason I don’t seem to get anything done lately. This week I worked, did two interviews, visited my godchild, mother and grandmother who’d have a fit if they didn’t see me at least twice a week, went shopping for shoes and a coat seeing as I wasn’t really prepared for winter, did a lot of “speed reading” and yesterday, I spent the entire day grocery shopping and cleaning as it had been two weeks since I gave this place the once over. Disgusting, I know.

Today I wanted to blog about Ephameron’s book Weg and my graphic novel experiences, something I should have done last week but I kept on postponing it because I was too busy so technically it’s old news, like the high speed reading post. More about that some time next week (hopefully).

On my to do list for today (which will probably keep me occupied until the end of next week):

- Write a review of that Italian cook book (it was actually due Friday)
- Transcribe those two interviews
- Finish (and start) three articles
- "Read" Big Brother in Europe and The United States of McSweeneys by Tuesday
- Write short synopses of the books I nominated for the Groene Waterman Prize
- Bake the first batch of gingerbread men (only 500 more or so to go)
- Plan the holidays: lots of parties so lots of grocery and gift shopping plus the usual cooking and cleaning that has to be fit in somewhere
- Reanimate my social life which has been dangling on the verge of extinction
- Blog

If I get all of this done today, there is a god.

Thursday's trailer

I've loved that bear since I was 2 so I'm actually pretty psyched

High speed reading

Tomorrow (correction: yesterday) we’re getting together to create the longlist for the glamorous Groene Waterman prize which will be awarded to one very lucky bastard on 4th February 2011. The concept behind this prize is that we look for great books that have been published in Belgium in 2010 and that haven’t received much publicity despite their obvious brilliance. Now seeing as it’s my first time and I hardly ever read any books on philosophy, history, foreign cultures or countries for that matter, politics or non-fiction in general, it was a daunting task to nominate books other than Anglo-Saxon (popular) fiction seeing as that’s basically all I read making me a literary xenophobe if there ever was one.

I tried to be as diverse as possible in the genres of books I nominated but sadly, they're all English so I must try to work on that (another New Year’s resolution?). The only bit I sorta forgot about is that I had to read all of them by tomorrow because “It looks like fun” probably won't be enough to get them on the longlist. The result: high speed reading of several books at the same time. I’ve never been able to read more than one book at once so this has been quite a migraine inducing challenge. Luckily I had already read a few but here's my list:

The Believer interview book which as you all know, conjured up a lot of strong emotions. Despite its ignorant and idiotic Dutch translation, I'm an advocate of the book because I personally think it's interesting to hear authors talk about their craft but I also believe it's an important tool to introduce lesser known authors to the literary minded masses despite the scandalous censorship of the Dutch version which I won't go into, again.

Jimmy Corrigan by Chris Ware because I absolute love the story and it took us Belgians a decade to finally realize how wonderful it really is and translate it. Ware's illustrations are simply mind-blowing, accompanied by complex characters and a semi-autobiographical tale about a middle aged man who finally meets his father alternated with the wacky dreams of a young boy who wants to be a superhero.

Shaking Woman by Siri Hustvedt is an exploration of her tremors which she started getting a few years after her father's death. Although there proved to be nothing physically wrong with her, she wanted answers and started a voyage that took her deep into the heart of psychology, neurobiology and history. I've skimmed through it and I thought it was pretty interesting and refreshing, although her interior monologue style of writing sometimes bugged me.

The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ by Philip Pullman was an unexpected delight really. Pullman is a known atheist and tries to uncover the narrative aspect of the story by giving Jesus a twin called Christ who is a firm believer in God, the church and its doctrine. Jesus on the other hand, is just a good guy so Pullman questions which is more "Christian" being good to your fellow man or following a doctrine that isn't necessary divine.

The Lonely Polygamist by Brady Udall is a about a guy with 28 charming children and 4 headstrong wives. He's embarking on a very complicated midlife crisis and proves contrary to common belief that being a polygamist isn't all what it's cracked up to be. This novel is a big and multi-layered family epic filled with genuine emotion, an interesting subject and a tasty dollop of sarcasm, giving Franzen's Freedom a well deserved run for his money if you ask me.

Paris after the Liberation finally, by Anthony Beevor is an historical account of a very troubled period in history both politically, socially and intellectually. Now, what got me interested in this book was its focus on art namely, how the war had influenced the life and work of people such as Hemmingway, Picasso, Beckett, Sartre and de Beauvoir. I only read a few fragments so I guess I'm going to have to wing it with this one. Here's hoping nobody notices.

Crossing Border 2010

On Sunday I did the most blasphemous thing you can do: work. It was the Crossing Border festival in Antwerp, a casual gathering that unites music and literature and where there’s literature, there are books and where there are books, there’s the Groene Waterman.

It’s the second time that Crossing Border lights up our Arenberg Schouwburg with an eclectic mix of prose, poetry and well, punk. But what struck me the most was how laid back this festival was. People were just popping in one gig and out the next, artists were mingling with the mortals and Sam Cutler especially, kept on dropping by to say hi and buy more of his own books. As you do.

Sadly I didn’t see a lot of performances but I heard quite a few: BP Fallon and band (weird guy), Ganglians (way too much hair), Kisses (cheerful poppy beats) and Low, who I did manage to see but who are kinda overrated if you ask me.

Whenever I wasn’t selling books, I was fulfilling the second part of my duties: making sure the authors got to their book singing on time which isn’t easy and always has to be preceded by a little nicotine. Some authors like Sam Cutler, Scroobius Pip (whose performance I regretfully missed), Stephen Vizinczey and even John Cooper Clarke whose books were all out of print making him slightly redundant, were all there out of their own devices. The others, needed a little more help.

First up was DBC Pierre who talked about his alcohol induced past and his amazement when his first novel Vernon God Little won the Booker prize in 2003 and eventually ended talking about his crazy new book Lights out in Wonderland. I haven’t read any of his work but I’m sure going to give it a try seeing as he was very interesting and entertaining.

After the interview, I had to nonchalantly slip backstage aka claw my way through the crowd to eventually end up jumping up and down like an idiot in order to get his attention because he had no idea he had to sign some books. Luckily for me, he was very friendly and complacent after a cigarette which he smoked outside while blabbering about the moonlight as I stood there, freezing.

Next was the highlight of my evening at least, Michael Madsen who was so unbelievably nice and even a little shy, bless him. He was supposed to be interviewed by Anna Luyten about his poetry but Anna soon proved that she wasn’t a match for the big guy. She was unprepared (even called him Richard, twice) and tried to be coy but he wasn’t having any of it.


The interview itself was terrible but god, was it good. Everyone who “knows” Madsen, knows what to expect from him: he doesn’t take any crap, he’s to the point and tells it like it is so Luyten’s pseudo intellectual psycho-babble didn’t exactly agree with him and almost had her in tears at one point but hey, his fans loved it. He also read some of his poetry which actually sounded more like snapshots of certain events and emotions so they weren’t exactly great but when he reads them, it sounds like poetry to me.

Afterwards, I got him and his lovely wife Deanna from stage and took him out for, what else a cigarette, while his wife got some drinks. “Take care of him” she said to me. Well, he’s twice my size but I’ll protect him. Outside he was greeted by some fans and talked out the interview, his future plans as a director and about the great people he’d met at Crossing Border. I hope that includes me.

Back inside he signed lots of books (including mine) and posed for dozen of pictures (several including lil’ old me). It was the perfect end to a great night. Oh if and you're wondering who's in that picture: Sam Cutler, Louis Behre (the organizer) and Madsen duh.

Stressy Saturdays

I’ve had a pretty hectic day to say the least:

• took my grandmother to the Carrefour which took ages because it’s her idea of Disneyland. And for some reason, whenever we lose track of her, she always ends up oogling the meat!?!
• did the washing up, the litter tray and watered our plants aka the miniature rainforest
• had a quick bite to eat while watching Nigella’s kitchen
• headed off to the Groene Waterman to bring the scones I baked yesterday afternoon for their high tea which was a lot of fun

• went to the comic book store (Mekanik) were the lovely Sara planned on giving me a crash course in Flemish graphic novels. Some customers also recognized me as the “Groene Waterman’s baker” which was really funny
• scheduled an interview with Ephemaron at Mekanik who was busy signing her first graphic novel, Weg
• went home and am now in the process of doing some more research on Pieter van Oudheusden, the co-creator of Weg, who has decided to join us for the interview. Talk about last minute stress!

Next on my to-do list: shower, prepare dinner, do the interview, put on my pyjamas and watch some much deserved telly.

Thursday's trailer

Required Reading

Two weeks ago, I finally got the go-ahead for my very own bookpage at Flanders Today. Yippee! Once a month I will be bringing you the best Flemish fiction accompanied by an interview or event and a bookstore that’s definitely worth a visit, or that’s the plan anyway. The first bookpage (due 22/12) will be dedicated to the bold and blossoming genre of the graphic novel. The pumpkin was very excited indeed.

Although I’ve read many graphic novels over the past few years, mainly under the influence of the pumpkin, I actually don’t know that much about the genre. What were its roots? When did it become mainstream? Who are the major players? I know several authors whose works fill our bountiful bookcases and I also know the difference between a graphic novel and a comic book but, that’s not enough really to tackles such a meaty subject so I’m doing some research (as you can see in my Currently Reading).

I have to admit that I’ve been pleasantly surprised by what I’ve encountered so far and will probably encounter the next few days, seeing as the mailman now brings me beautiful bundles of joy almost daily. Poor guy, his back must be killing him.

While I’m discovering loads of fascinating new authors (more about them later) and making the necessary tax deductable expenses, I’m also laying the foundations of my next article which will focus on contemporary Flemish graphic exploits in general and Ephemaron in particular.

Book Reviews

I still haven’t finished this month’s book club book, shame on me, but I have to admit that I really like Jhumpa Lahiri’s collection of short stories about Indian immigrants trying to find their way in the USA, despite that I’m not really a fan of the genre. Unaccustomed Earth is a powerful piece of fiction. Needless to say, I’m not only tremendously behind on my reading but also on my book blogging as well. Here are a few books that have kept me company the past few weeks (excluding my daily dose of cook books):

Freedom by Jonathan Franzen took me ages to finish. All the hype surrounding this novel (“best book of the year” and “The great American novel”) made me really curious despite the fact that I wasn’t that impressed by his previous so-called-masterpiece The Corrections. Freedom, for me, was mediocre at best. Granted, Franzen is an exceptional writer and the scope of his novel is baffling but the core story is simply boring and filled with lame whining characters. Impressive, sure. Entertaining, I think not. It’s clear why people love his work; it’s filled with beautiful sentences that intertwine several profound and contemporary issues. Plus the critics adore him and nobody in their right mind would doubt them, right? To me Franzen is like Impressionism, stunning at first glance but when you take a closer look, it’s one big mess.


In Lucia’s Eyes or Een Schitterend Gebrek in Dutch, was recommended to me by a customer who insisted that it was the most beautiful novel she had ever read. I gave Arthur Japin’s book a go so I could say that I’ve read at least two Dutch novels this year, the other being Sprakeloos by Tom Lanoye which conjured up the same feelings as Freedom did (pretentious, overrated and bland). Anyway, Lucia tells the story of Cassanova’s first love and the hardships she has to overcome in a world filled with poverty, prostitution and smallpox. Although it was slightly predictable, I did enjoy the story and the atmosphere. It’s sentimental, dramatic and great fun for a rainy day. Japin hasn’t won me over just yet butvhe has convinced me to give Dutch literature another go. Maybe I’ll make it one of my new year’s resolutions, who knows? The only downside for me about reading in Dutch, is that it takes me twice as long. Strange but true.

Heartburn by Nora Ephron (director of movies such as You’ve got mail, Julie and Julia and When Harry met Sally) was short, bittersweet and just ok. Nigella Lawson raved about it but I’ll definitely think twice before I take any reading tips from a TV chef again. She should stick to cooking and I shouldn’t be so gullible. Heartburn is semi-autobiographical and tells the tale of Rachel, a cookery writer, who discovers that her husband is in love with another woman while she is seven months pregnant. It is a confessional tale filled with loss, revenge and several recipes. You get the picture.

Baking: the next generation

I’m trying to buy less cook books because our kitchen now contains more books than it does food. So instead of window shopping at the Book Depository, I now spend a lot of time at http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/ as I realized that all the recipes of my favorites TV chefs are on there. I usually buy the book whenever I love one of their shows but now, I just copy paste the recipes to my recipe file. No more clutter and not a penny wasted. How cool is that?

The website naturally isn’t as comprehensive as a book but I never make every recipe in there, so who cares. Consider this the highlights. And Nigella, Sophie, The Hairy Bikers, Delia, Jamie, Raymond, Michel, you name them, the gangs all there.

Now in my ongoing quest for (free) culinary inspiration and cultivation, I also stumbled across some new baking trends that are trying to banish the ever so scrumptious cupcake from its sweet and succulent throne.

Our first contender is the whoopee pie. I can’t help but smile whenever I pronounce it. Just like the cupcake, this trend started in the USA and is slowly but surely conquering the UK. It kinda looks like a macaron and was originally just two chocolate cakes with marshmallow filling. Yum yum.

But if you prefer some folklore, Amish women would apparently bake these back in the day and put them in the farmers' lunchboxes. When farmers would find these treats in their lunch, they would shout "Whoopie!"

What it boils down to, is that the whoopee pie a deliciously soft and sweet cream-filled treat that comes in wide variety of flavors and colors: red velvet, green tea, pumpkin with a tangy cream cheese filling, oatmeal and even maple-bacon buttercream.

Our next contender was created by Angie Dudley, who the baking bloggers among us probably know as Bakerella. She started out with our beloved cupcake and turned it into something original, fun and oh so pretty, the cake pop aka a cute little cake on a stick.

Although the concept is quite simple, her results are truly outstanding ranging from decorated balls to robots, baby chicks and even piglets. They may seem like a lot of work but trust me, it’s a piece of cake and a perfect bite sized portion of ingenuity to brighten up any get-together.

Thursday's trailer

Charles Burns

Today was the last day of the Boekenbeurs and it was insane! It’s an official holiday in Belgium and the weather’s terrible so the Boekenbeurs was The place to be, well 22000 people thought so at least. You could barely breathe in there, let alone move.


The reason we endured such crimes against humanity, was so my pumpkin could revel in the presence of greatness aka Charles Burns who was being interviewed about his latest graphic novel X’ed out and why it shows so much resemblance to our very own Tintin, among other things. It was actually quite interesting, even for a non-devotee like myself. I’m definitely going to give his new book a go when the good people of the Book Depository drop it in the mail.

Although I thought his previous book Black Hole was a little weird, I have to admit that I was very impressed by his style and imagination. But I prefer his portraits that always grace the cover of The Believer magazine.


Despite the relatively intimate turn-out at the interview, the crowd at the signing session was insane and seeing as the pumpkin doesn’t like waiting in line, we skipped the autograph and personalized drawing which was a shame really. Still, seventy plus people times ten minutes a person, you do the math.

Happy happy joy joy

On November 21st I'll have the pleasure to escort Michael Madsen and Sam Cutler during the Crossing Border festival in Antwerp. I am sooo excited, seriously. Ok, I had to Google Sam first but Michael Madsen, Oh My God! He was so yummy as Mr. Blonde in Reservoir Dogs. Sadly the years and pounds haven't been kind to him but who cares. I'm going to be mingling with Mr. Blonde!

Why we read what we read

Why we read what we read is the ideal book for everyone who loves fiction and occasionally wants to dabble in the shallow realms of non-fiction. Like the title suggests, it explores what lures us to some titles while others are just destined to be forgotten. Their aim is to "provide a glimpse into the current state of the national psyche by looking closely at the books Americans buy, specifically those books they have bought in the greatest numbers since 1990 because these books resonate with broad segments of the reading public."

It is, as the subtitle suggests, a very opinionated book but the passion and perseverance of these authors didn't bother me. Although some of their conclusions were plain weird, even offensive, I loved reading this book and saw the humor in their snide remarks regarding the American literary public or lack there off. The only downside to this book is the abundance of figures and statistics that creates the illusion that you are reading a well researched bundle of joy. Nobody needs that many sales figures, trust me.

In a nutshell, this book has several chapters, each with its own genre: self-help books, romance, thrillers, religion, fiction, politics and The Da Vinci Code for the sole reason that is was a poor re-enactment of Dan Brown's Angels and Demons. Nobody apparently noticed and the legend was born. Go figure.

It's an interesting and enlightening read. By using several summaries and analyses, it will start you thinking about the books you've read and what they say about you. I now know more about John Gray's Woman are from Venus and Men are from Mars than I'd ever want to but hey, it was fun none the less. It will also introduces us Europeans to some lesser known "bestsellers" while once again proving our cultural differences.

Movies, anyone?

I occurred to me that it’s been ages since I’ve done any movie related posts which I used to do quite often. I still watch tons of movies (at least five a week) but ever since we got Belgacom TV, they’re mostly stupid comedies because my sweet pea loves them, old favorites which I’ve seen dozens of times before or blockbusters which I refused to watch in the cinema on account that they were destined to be lame.

And it also pains me to admit it that I rarely go to the cinema these days. I maybe went ten times or so this year which might seem a lot to some, but I used to go two or three times a week. I just don’t get out as much as I used to I guess. Then there’s also the fact that my love for the motion picture has had some strong competition lately from shows like True Blood, Mad Men, Dexter and Flight of the Conchords.

Anyway, here are some favorites from the past few months:

Synecdoche NY, the directorial debut of Charlie Kaufman (who I simply adore) starring the always amazing Philip Seymour Hoffman as a tormented theater director who creates an alternate New York on stage as his magnum opus and then slowly sees his life disguised as his play unravel, quite literally. It’s a strange yet beautiful and mildly depressing movie packed with stunning performances, mindboggling depth and haunting imagery.

The Wrestler has it all really. Micky Rourke is simply stunning as the worn out wrestler Randy "The Ram" Robinson who is trying to keep his sad and lonesome life (not his mention his body) together. He is training for one last big match but destiny steps in and gives him some painfully unexpected blows. I loved the characters, Marissa Tomei as the stripper Cassidy is equally great and heartfelt, and the atmosphere. Darren Aronofsky once again, show us who’s the man.

Junebug is a comedy – drama about an art dealer who goes to a small town in North Carolina to meet her husband’s family and to secretly make a deal with a local painter. The story is very simple and serene but the characters are wonderful little nuggets of vitality and defeat. Amy Adams especially, is quite simply brilliant as the overenthusiastic and highly pregnant Ashley who is the heart of this painfully perfect family feast.

Brick is a contemporary neo-noir film that won the Special Jury Prize for Originality of Vision at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. Based on the hardboiled detective stories of Dashiell Hammett, this movie is set in suburbia and deals with the disappearance and death of Emily, Joseph Gordon Levitt’s girlfriend who got tied up in some freaky shit. The plot, characterization and dialogue are classic noir combined with simple yet brooding visual effects.

The Fantastic Mr. Fox is based on one of Roald Dahl’s children’s books. It was directed by Wes Anderson who I don’t particularly like really. Sure his movies are original, vibrant and have some very odd characters; they just don’t work for me. I guess he’s a bit too absurd for my taste. Anyway, voiced by George Clooney and Meryl Streep among many others, this is an awesome and very funny movie!

Coraline was directed by Henry Selick who also brought us The Nightmare before Christmas and The Corpse Bride. Based on one of my favorite stories by Neill Gaiman, he did a sublime job in bringing this scary children’s story, about a girl who finds a door in her new house that leads her to an alternate and supposedly better reality, to the screen and making it even scarier than it already is. I truly loved it!

Thursday's trailer

Michael Cunningham

Today I voluntarily went to the boekenbeurs to attend the interview with Pulitzer Prize winning author Michael Cunningham who I actually only know from his novel The Hours. But hey, how often does a Pulitzer Prize winning author visit antwerp? My thoughts exactly.

What started out as a nonchalant visit ended up in a casual yet unexpected chat with Cunningham (he is so nice!) and a signed copy of his latest novel, By Nightfall. Needless to say, I had a very good afternoon.

The interview was really interesting. He talked about his book naturally, the New York art scene, writing, Thomas Mann, our perception of beauty and I could just go on really. It was very inspiring and I love hearing authors talk about their craft.

I was so impressed in fact, that I immediately went down to Sterling and bought the book! I can't wait to read it.

Dead untill Dark

Seeing as it was Halloween this weekend, I decided to indulge in some scary stories. My True Blood boxed set has been seductively staring at me for a few weeks now so I thought, what the hell. I keep putting it off because I already know what happens in the first three books, thanks to one of the best TV shows ever. Yet seeing as I’m dying to know what happens next and they haven’t even started filming season four, I decided to read the books. It’s kinda stupid to start with book four as I’m told that the novels are slightly different, so started with Dead until Dark like a good girl.

Now I didn’t expect this, but I was completely blown away by how incredibly awful these books (or the first one at least) are and not in a good way. To say it was trashy would actually be a compliment, just imagine Jackie Collins with vampires. The show is eons better than the books, trust me. Charlaine Harris’ novels are filled with idiotic dialogue, lack any character development, things just randomly happen without ever being explained and her writing makes me want to give Stephanie Meyer a Nobel Prize for vampire fiction. It’s that bad!

The only thing that makes reading her books remotely worthwhile is, once again, the show. With that in mind, the books become tolerable and mildly pleasant because you know the characters (thank you Alan Ball) and actually care about all the freaky shit that happens. Without it, they’re just a waste of trees. I never thought I’d say this, but the TV show adds more character development, depth and atmosphere than Harris could possibly conjure up in several lifetimes.

I’m going to continue reading the series because I’m a masochist and just so darn curious, but honestly I cannot believe that such mediocre drivel could be turned into one of the most provocative and exciting shows on TV right now. Seriously, Alan Ball is a genius!

Boekenbeurs, opening night

What do you get after hours of unpacking books and organizing them in an orderly fashion? The answer: an aching back, crackling knees and this


A neat and appetizing booth if I do say so myself.

Last night was the opening night meaning lots of people in the biz, tagalongs, authors and some minor celebrities who were desperately trying to get their hands on a wide array of snacks and free cava while fondling the merchandize. Yummy.

Still it was fun to see the end result, especially after all the painting, assembling, unpacking and unavoidable cursing that went on the previous days. It's a special atmosphere indeed. Although the heat, crowd and abundance of Flemish books, isn't exactly my cup of tea, I must admit that I tend to get slightly giddy in the presence of so many books. I didn't buy anything, seeing as I rarely do at the Boekenbeurs, but I'm sure I'll pop by Pinceel, Exhibitions International and Sterling Books once or twice during the next couple of days.

Thursday's trailer

Busy Bee

I have been so tired and busy lately that even reading a book seems like too much of an effort. When I come home these days my evenings consist of diner, shower, BBC's Masterchef and bed. Not necessarily in that order.

This weekend is the kick off of our annual Boekenbeurs, where Flemish publishers and bookstores unite to (hopefully) bring you the best books in the business. In layman’s terms there will be lots of pushing and shoving by hot and sweaty people who foolishly believe that having their latest Aspe signed makes them a culturally rounded individual.

Personally I don’t see what all the fuss is about and I also truly believe that anyone who is remotely interested in reading wouldn’t endure this horror and would simply go to a bookstore where he / she could browse in peace minus the sweat, crowd and screaming children. Or as yours truly, do it from the comfort of their own couch, bliss.

But I have to admit, there are some interesting lectures and author signings this year like Michael Cunningham and Charles Burns, making me lean slightly towards the darkside of Flemish pseudo-intellectual commercial decadence.

What I am kind of excited about, is that this year I won’t be a mere spectator but I’ll also be working there, holding up the fort aka the Groene Waterman’s booth for a couple of days. Speaking of booths, we started “constructing” it today meaning: assembling the furniture and piling on the books. There’s still a lot of work to be done the next few days but I can’t wait for the end result. Watching this bookfair be built from scratch is an awesome experience.

The best bunny cake, ever

Bunny Cake

I’m spending the entire day baking, you heard me. A while back I agreed to take on the daunting task of making a cake for 80 people. No biggie, I was thinking at the time. Making the batter isn’t that much work seeing as I’ve done it hundreds of times before, the glitch is shoving cakes in and out of the oven for several hours leaving me with little else to do than some necessary cleaning and paper work seeing as I’m pretty kitchen bound at the moment.

Paul Verrept has book presentation tomorrow at the Groene Waterman because he is the star author of Larrios, a new branch of Epo publishing. He’ll be reading to the kiddies and talk a bit about his career which will all be leading up to the main event, namely my hopefully delicious cake featuring one of his characters: a bunny aka God.

The pressure’s high seeing as I’ve never baked for so many people but it’s a challenge and I’m enjoying myself. The only thing that could go wrong, is that my cakes start imploding, again. But I’m about 80% sure they won’t. Still… Either that or my sweet pea messes up the rabbit, meaning no cake for him, ever again.

Thursday's trailer

The Book Club Cookbook

I recently became the proud owner of The Book Club Cookbook which once again affirms my geeky love for books and baking. I was pretty excited when I stumbled accross it to be honest.

What I really love about the BCC is that it combines your typical book club review book (i.e. a short review of the book, author and period) with a lushious literary cookbook. Each book that is featured, is accompanied by a lovely recipe that is either part of the story or would be devoured by the characters during the period in which the book takes place, adding a little more authenticity and not to mention culinary delight to those delectible meetings.

I know for a fact how important food is to our beloved book club meetings so this book will probably add an entirely new dimension to the mix, opening up the floor for some tasty food related discussions. Like we need an excuse...

Mockingjay

I’m comfort reading at the moment so I indulged in some more YA this week and finished Mockingjay, the third installment of Suzanne Collins’ world famous Hunger Games trilogy.

Ok, although I said world famous, I’m well aware that lots of people (and I’m talking to my fellow Belgians here) have probably never heard of this wonderful trilogy aimed at teenagers, seeing as the market for Y(oung) A(dult) fiction is slim to non-existent here. In Anglo-Saxon countries however, it’s a bubbling and booming market with exciting authors, great characters and plots that can easily be read by fiction lovers of all ages.

When I was a kid, I remember that there weren’t that many novels that bridged the gap between 13 and 18 making me reads lots of stuff I wasn’t theoretically ready for but now, an entirely new genre has popped up. Although these books may be aimed at youngsters, about 50% of the readers are older than the target audience. One of the best examples of this trend will without a doubt be Harry Potter.

Anyway, I’m getting off track again. To prove to you what a big deal this trilogy is, I’ll just add that when Mockingjay was published in US in August, 450 000 copies were sold during the first week alone. Enough said.

Now I first discovered this trilogy last summer when blogs were raving about Catching Fire, part two of the trilogy. As you all know I’m a sucker for the latest fad in fiction and whenever a book is hailed as the next big thing, I just have to read it. I immediately bought part one and two and was pleasantly surprised. The story is original, you can’t help but root for the characters and it’s basically a roller coaster ride filled with adventure, love and tragedy aka the key ingredients for a perfect lazy Sunday afternoon.

Writing a review of part three is kinda stupid if you haven’t read the previous novels and seeing as most of my readers haven’t I’ll just conclude by saying it’s a very good book although the ending was a bit weak. As a whole, the Hunger Games trilogy is great but this has to be my least favorite book seeing as it lacks the action of the previous two and just isn’t that convincing. Still, I highly recommend these books, they’re so addictive.

Thursday's trailer

Squirrel seeks chipmunk

In order to deal with the mindnumbing mediocrity that is Franzen’s Freedom, I decided to read something completely different over the weekend. I’ve never been a fan of juggling several books at the same time but my mental health was at stake here. I’ll get back to this debacle if and when I finally finish it.

This weekend’s book was something very special indeed, namely comic genius David Sedaris’ latest book. No hysterical and semi-autobiographical short stories about his family and multiple youth trauma’s as usual but a beautifully illustrated book filled with little fables starring our furry friends.

Squirrel seeks chipmunk, a wicked bestiary, is a true delight filled with entertaining morality tales, some funny, others sad and then there are those that are just plain weird but brilliant none the less. These bittersweet stories were accompanied by Ian Falconer’s glorious illustrations making this compact book a real treasure and the perfect way to pass your Sunday afternoon.

This modern interpretation of Aesop’s Fables may not be as good as his other books or his many TV and radio appearances but it’s just so damn cute! For lovers of self-deprecating humor, stylish sentences and the truly bizarre…

Frankfurter Buchmesse

Yesterday we went to the Frankfurter Buchmesse which is best described as gigantic. After almost four hours of driving (yes, we’re that devoted or plain insane) we arrived in this sunny German city that is home to the biggest book fair in world for five consecutive days. I never really thought about going before but, seeing as my employer was kind enough to score me some tickets, nothing was standing in the way between me and bookish bliss.

Like I said, this place is huge. There are no less than twelve large halls (each one is about the size of the Boekenbeurs for all you Belgians out there) filled with beautiful books. The interesting thing about this fair however, is that although every publisher in the world is present with a quaint little stall, you can’t actually buy books. They’re sadly just for show but one hell of a show. There are just no words to describe this abundance, except wow. Trust me if you love books, you really need to check this out.

There were about five halls that housed the international publishers ranging from the USA to Romania, from Abu Dhabi to Peru and back to Belgium. It was fun browsing the Japanese, Finnish and even South African books. It’s not something you get to do every day, right? I was simply gobsmacked by how much is out there and the tiny fraction I’d heard of.


There were also two really big halls with German books (fiction, non-fiction, children’s books, tourism, cooking,…) which are like our own Boekenbeurs only twice as big. The concept’s the same: buy books, score some autographs by the many German authors who were signing books (I hate to admit that I didn’t know any of them) and simple get trampled on. Needless to say, we were out of there in no time. The comics section however, was a lot of fun seeing as loads of youngsters and mainly Goths came dressed like their favorite comic and fantasy characters, which was pretty cool.


Then there were three halls that were devoted to art, audiobooks and “publishing solutions and book trade services” aka digital press and eBooks which tickled my sweet peas fancy. We saw some pretty cool devices and although I’m not pro eBook, I have to admit it does offer a lot of awesome options which my better half is dying to explore.

What else? There was also a film and media centre which we sadly skipped because we were out of time and the literary agents’ floor which was sealed off to the public but intrigued me none the less.


My favorite hall of course was the biggest one with all the top American and British publishers: Penguin, Random House, Harper Collins, Faber & Faber,… You name, they were there with all the latest in fall fiction. Be still my beating heart…

Besides ogling loads of books there were also many interesting lectures on the future of the book for instance, book signings, interviews, basically everyone who’s anyone in the book industry was present.

It’s a shame we had to rush through the place like a couple of bats out of hell but I’m so glad we went, it was truly amazing, inspiring and oh so tiring. There are even busses to take you from one hall to the next, it that big!

Thursday's trailer

Writing up a storm

I finished Chabon’s and Dorrestein’s books on writing this week. They were both very inspiring in completely different ways, namely one informed me on how to write which is interesting, necessary but not always that much fun to read. The other one (Chabon’s) dealt with why authors write, what inspires them and how to develop your style. It wasn’t that “educational” but it was a great read, if books on reading and writing are your thing that is.

Anyway, I finished them just in time to get back to my own writing. I haven’t done any actual writing on the novel but I have done some fine tuning and corrected a few inconsistencies. The main thing is, I’m slowly but surely getting back in the fictional mode.

I have, however, done a lot of “non-fiction” writing because the assignments are pouring in again. This week I’ll be getting all artsy with Flor Bex about his new exhibit at Muhka and today I’ll be finishing of a text for Flemish photographer Nele van Canneyt who wanted me to write some texts for her upcoming catalogue. It’s been getting very artsy lately.

I haven’t had a lot of time to read the past few days but I did start in Jonathan Franzen's so called masterpiece Freedom. First impression: not bad, better than The Corrections but far from great, at least not yet. I’ve read worse books, I’ve read loads of better books but I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt since I’m only on page 150.

The funny thing is that yesterday I found out that I’m actually the proud owner of one of Franzen’s misprints. Apparently Harper Collins, the British publisher of Freedom, accidently published an earlier version of the book instead of the final draft. Oops… 80000 copies will now have to be destroyed and those of us who have a flawed copy can either keep it (like I will) and hope it becomes a collector’s item or send it back to the publisher to have it replaced free of charge. What are the odds of this happening to the most hyped book of the year?