The Sumptuous City

Flemish fiction

2011-09-25T09:34:00.006+02:00

I've been pretty busy the past weeks with articles and reviews that I forgot to blog. Shame on me! I did however, get a lot of reading done so there's plenty to say.

I read Erik Vlaminck's Brandlucht (among many others) this month because he was the star of September's bookpage and I was amazed by the fact that I actually liked his novel, something that never happens because Flemish fiction and I rarely get along for the simple reason that I don't have any affinity with all things Flemish or Belgian seeing as my upbringing was unconventional and British at best. The language, the situations and the day to day life in these novels usually feels alien and slightly contrived to me, so I was stunned that Brandlucht didn't make me feel queezy which is quite an achievement.

It's the story of Elly, daughter of a Dutch mother and a Flemish father who grows up in Saint Thomas, Canada, and goes in search of her roots. The story is told from multiple perspectives and deals with emigration, truth and the difficulty of shaking one's past. The story was sweet and simple and had some interesting characters and vivacious dialogue which drew you in and gave the novel a simmering pace meaning, I liked it and I wouldn't mind reading more of Vlaminck's novels.

Since I started with my bookpage last December I've read more Flemish fiction than I have in the past 29 years combined, which really took my by surprise. If it hadn't been for my monthly page in Flanders Today I wouldn't have encountered the poetry of Joke van Leeuwen, the illustration's of Eva Cardon, the horror of Yves Petry, the beauty of Bart Moeyeart, the roots of Annelies Beck or had the chance to take down one of my former professors, not the mention the countless reviews I had to write that widened my literary horizon. Thanks FT for paving the road to local fiction! Who knows, we might even become friends.

Lonestar Bordello

2011-09-24T12:01:00.012+02:00

Last Friday, the Pumpkin had a gig with his band, Lonestar Bordello, at the Nazomerfestival in Ham. It was the first time I'd seen him perform because the last time he took to the stage was over six years ago, just before we met so I was almost as excited as he was, and it was great! Beautiful melodic and melancholy music that pulls at your heartstrings filled an otherwise chilly and noisy tent with warmth and atmosphere. And I'm not just saying this because he's my Pumpkin but because I really loved the songs, which I previously had only heard recordings of that didn't do them justice. Anyway, I was as proud as I could be of the little fella and I'm already looking forward to their next gig, no pressure boys.

Thursday's trailer

2011-09-08T14:27:00.002+02:00

Goodreads

2011-09-07T08:33:00.005+02:00

I’ve always been a big fan of keeping lists. Even when I was a little girl I’d keep a log of all my toys. Worse, I’d keep files on my Barbies: name, address, occupation, marriage certificate... yes, I was that weird. I’ve always had this unexplainable need to organise and kept records of everything in several hundred notebooks, hence my addiction to pretty little blank books that I can massacre with my loopy (the Pumpkin’s word, not mine) handwriting.

The only thing I keep track of these days are the books I read, in a girly pink leatherbound notebook embroyded with swans which sounds worse than it is. I love flipping through these books to reminisce and see what I’ve loved and loathed over the years, something I’d otherwise quickly forget.

Nowadays most people do this online, comforting me that I’m not the only nut out there. Sure, it’s not as romantic as a notebook but it’s easy to manage, you can add friends and keep track of what they’re reading but most importantly, these sites are filled with reviews.

I started out with LibraryThing back in 2006 and spent hours (I was a student back then) putting my books on there. Sadly, you had to pay a membership fee so I went over to Shelfari when the time came to renew, seeing as this is a free book cataloguing site where I’ve spent many happy years.

Most of my friends however, have now also caught the bug and have started accounts with Goodreads, making me take the plunge with them because it’s fun to share book related comments like “Why the hell are you reading that!?!” or discovering new titles that my peeps loved. I’m just not sure I’ll add all my books like I did when I transitioned from LibraryThing to Shelfari because we’re talking several hundreds here. Best to start fresh from 2011 onwards.

So what about you? How do you keep track of all the books you read?

Books at Bedtime

2011-09-05T07:54:00.003+02:00

I recently discovered the radio programme Books at Bedtime on BBC Radio 4. Every weeknight at 22:45pm they read for 15 minutes from modern classics, new works by leading authors and literature from around the globe. After an average of two weeks you'll have tackled an entire novel. I don't follow these readings live but listen to the podcast the next day which is available for limited time. It's perfect for people who have little time to read or love the spoken word.

I listenend to The Reluctant Fundamentalist last week, a novel I probably would never have read otherwise, and I really loved the fact that these podcasts introduce me to new material in a quick and highly enjoyable fashion. Plus, now I get the chance to get even more “reading” done. I'm already looking forward to tonight's new novel: On Canaan's Side by Sebastian Barry.

So True

2011-09-04T10:32:00.004+02:00

Twirling around my laptop, throwing herself on the keyboard, dabbing the screen and knocking things off the desk, this is Molly to a T.

We need to talk about Kevin

2011-09-03T07:18:00.003+02:00

After several years of should I? Shouldn’t I? I finally caved and read We need to talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver. I had read several stunning reviews and heard lots of people say it really gets under your skin but to be honest, the story didn’t appeal to me so I kept putting it off. Now that the movie will be released next month, I thought it’s as good as a time as ever if I’m ever going to read this controversial novel.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the novel, it’s about a woman (Eva) whose son has killed several people in his high school. In a series of letters to her estranged husband, she tries to come to terms with the events as well as the fact that she never really liked her son to begin with, opening the whole nature versus nurture debate. Was she to blame? Was her son just a troubled kid? Who’s to say?

To be honest, I never liked epistolary novels so the idea of writing to your ex bugged me from the get go. It’s perfect if you want portray someone’s psyche, which Shriver clearly intended, but the result of this in-depth portrait is that the novel lacks pace and direction,. Eva simply reminisces about her marriage, Kevin’s childhood and her present life in which she has become a social pariah. It was interesting, but seeing as that’s all the entire novel has going for itself; it became a bit tedious and could easily have been 100 pages shorter although the pace did pick up in the end.

Eva admits that she had her son to please her husband and struggled to bond with her child which isn’t out of the ordinary. I personally know several women who love their child but don’t particularly like them at times. Now one of the reasons the novel intrigued me was that it was labeled as horrifying and shocking but sadly it failed to deliver. Maybe I’m just blasé but there was nothing I hadn’t read or seen before in this media obsessed world we live in. I wasn’t particularly shocked by Kevin’s actions but by the way society responded to them really: 7 years in prison for killing 10 people? I doubt that will put youngsters off in the future.

Is Kevin evil? Who knows because sadly not much is said about the boy’s thoughts or feelings seeing as Eva is doing all the talking, creating a one-dimensional portrait. Did Eva ruin her son by being a cold mother? I sincerely doubt it. I personally don’t believe in the supposed goodness of mankind. Call me a cynic, but I think everyone is capable of horrendous things, depending on your perspective and situation. If the “right” buttons are pushed and if you mix that with some psychological / social issues, all bets are off. Illustrated by this passage:

"I hate you, you stupid creep!" she screamed. "I hope you fry! I hope they shoot you full of poison and I get to watch you die!" It was a rapid conversation. Only one month before, she'd written an impassioned essay denouncing capital punishment.

We need to talk about Kevin gives us a clear and interesting look into the psyche of a woman who is filled with doubt, regret and above all guilt. Who is to blame in such circumstances? Biology or society? In an age where kids are being saturated from an early age by violence, drugs and radical thinking on TV, the internet and in schools, it’s not that farfetched to say they go hand in hand, making the end not all surprising. Society just nudged biology in the wrong direction.

Thursday's trailer

2011-09-01T14:06:00.001+02:00

Decadent Daisy

2011-08-31T09:22:00.005+02:00

Everywhere you look these days, people are starting 365-day projects such as photographing the same location, making a robot or drawing of your cat every single day for an entire year. I was naturally intrigued to start my own little project but I'm still undecided about what I'd like to do for 365 consecutive days. Maybe read all 1001 Books you must read before you die? Or something like that only less intimidating.

The past few months I've also noticed that I don't use as many photographs as other blogs do. Ok, I illustrate the City with covers from books and movies but I rarely use actual"homemade" photographs, although I am working on this (check out recent posts). I often feel the need to share images with you guys but then I think, Jeeez now I have to write something as well and that occasionally puts me off. Call me conventional, but the City was created for literary musings and not snapshots but it's time to get with the program, so I've decided to start a new blog: Decadent Daisy

Decdent Daisy isn't a 365-day project but a photo diary where I'll share some random day to day photographs for your viewing pleasure. Call it Ginny Jones: A life in pictures. It's my goal to make a personal collection of ordinary yet memorable events that sadly hardly ever get immortalised and are otherwise quickly forgotten seeing as I have a tendency to only capture our holidays on film. The Sumptuous City will still continue as she always has, filled with reviews and ramblings but if you're in the mood for less talk and more action check out Decadent Daisy, where words come to life ;-)

Sunday silliness

2011-08-28T10:54:00.004+02:00

Thursday's trailer

2011-08-25T08:52:00.002+02:00

Wishlist

2011-08-24T08:50:00.012+02:00

Autumn is upon us which means loads of new book releases and stationary. It's probably me but the sight of notebooks, folders and perfectly sharpened pencils has made me giddy ever since I was a young and hopeful English lit student and it still does. Besides lusting after a new fountain pen, there are also a few titles I'm particularly excited about this season:

The third Leon cookbook for example: Baking and Pudding. If the previous two are anything to go by, this book will be scrumptious. The cover already looks stunning and seeing as the topic is puddings, the interior will be just as delectable. A genuine feast for the eyes and tastebuds!

8 years after Craig Thompson wrote his monumental masterpiece Blankets, he finally returns with and the 672-page hardback graphic novel Habibi which is based on a Middle Eastern fable and tells the story of Dodola, a woman who escapes being sold into slavery.

The Night Circus, the debut novel by Erin Morgenstern is taking the blogosphere by storm. I’ve read nothing but exceptional things about this magical tale set in 1886 about a mysterious travelling circus. Not only the story, but the book as well is supposed to be a thing of beauty.

Jeffrey Eugenides has also made us wait 8 years for his next novel, The Marriage Plot. Seeing as Middlesex is one of my all time favorite books, my expectations are pretty high for this meditation on the contemporary value of the great 19th century love stories.

When she woke by Hilary Jordan is another of this season’s hyped books. I’ve never read any of her books before but this “enthralling and chilling novel” is supposed to be a mix between The Handmaid’s Tale and The Scarlet Letter, satisfaction guaranteed.

Last but not least, the 1Q84 trilogy by Haruki Murakami finally...

Momiji Book Club collection

2011-08-23T14:55:00.009+02:00

It's no secret that I love little Japanese dolls, whether they're Kokeshi, Kimmi or Momiji, they're simply too cute and too pretty to resist. I have however, been a very good girl and have been able to restrain myself whenever I encounter a new range of those delectable dolls but when I saw the Momiji Book Club collection in an interior design store in Kendal, all bets were off.

The Momiji Book Club collection was designed by the Argentinian Luli Bunny. These six little nerdy girls all like different genres of books and come with a cool "I Heart Books" button. Like the classic handpainted resin Momiji message dolls, they also have a tiny card in the bottom for a secret note. My girl's called Alex and likes books about magic and the supernatural. Ok, she's nothing like me but she has red hair and two funky knots.

The Group

2011-08-21T10:29:00.004+02:00

During our trip to the Lake District, I didn’t get as much reading done as I had planned. Sure, I read Unruly Times by A.S. Byatt to brush up on my Wordsworth an Coleridge knowledge, which is highly recommended if you are looking for not a biography per sé, but a look at the time they lived in and what was like to be a writer then.

I also started in The Group by Mary McCarthy and finally finished it last week and it was great! Originally published in 1963, it is set in 1933 and follows the lives of 8 Vassar graduates beginning with the wedding of Kay Strong and ending with her death in 1940. During these seven years we see these women grow up and sadly also grow apart.

Each leading very different lives, we get a sense of what it was like to be a woman during that particular period in the US. McCarthy incorporates themes such as contraception, love, sex, socialism, and even psychoanalysis in her dazzling and strangely identifiable portrait of womanhood.

The plot is mainly influenced by the political and economic atmosphere of the time and offers the reader some sharp social criticism as well the inner workings of the female psyche. Dealing with topics such as child-raising, sexism in the work place, exploring your own sexuality, financial troubles and unrealistic expectations, these women ultimately strive for autonomy and independence in a time when a woman’s role is still largely restricted to marriage and childbirth. The Group finally, gives us a wonderful look at a time when Feminism was just slowly seeping through.

I personally loved the characters who are dealing with many issues that are still relevant today. When I graduated university, I also belonged to a group (The 8 Bachelorettes), and we were all full of hope and promise. Although most of us still keep touch, our lives have also gone in entirely opposite directions: some climb the corporate ladder, while others love to stay at home with their children making me realizes that women in essence haven’t changed that much, just society’s expectations. To me, Feminism isn’t about equality but more about choice and more specifically having the choice to be a stay-at-home mom or the head of a major corporation, the women in The Group didn’t have the option (yet).

The period in which this novel is set, 1930s New York, also speaks to the imagination with it’s glamour, hardships and progress and overwhelmed me with an intoxicating sense of nostalgia. In the end, I savoured every minute of this stunning novel which has whet my appetite for more period fiction.

Herdy

2011-08-20T15:18:00.004+02:00

Besides some lushious Lakeland food, I also wanted to get some souvenirs that would last longer than a week in our cupboard, something to remember our kick-ass trip by and what better than a mug? Despite the Pumpkin’s initial reservations (we already have more mugs than we know what to do with), he had to admit that a his and hers Herdy was kinda cute.

Herdy is a local Lakeland brand featuring the cute and lovable Herdwick sheep, a breed that thrives against all odds on the high fells of England’s Lake District and helps sculpt a stunning landscape appreciated the world over. They produce a contemporary range of products that help support, through their sale, brilliant environmental and sustainability causes in this wonderful region such as campaigning for wool, maintaining farmland and aiding farmers.

They also use skilled potters in heart of Staffordshire’s struggling fine bone china industry to make these gorgeous woolly mugs. Everything is made locally to limit their carbon footprint to a minimum and to support the rural economy. Herdy is also committed to giving back a percentage of profits to look after the Lakeland landscape so I couldn’t leave without bringing these nature preserving treasures with me.

Lakeland Book Binge

2011-08-18T12:10:00.009+02:00

No trip to the UK is complete without some books, am I right people? I could spend hours browsing the bookstores there with their designer coffee, eclectic range, abundance of English literature, cookbooks and ever so seductive offers. For less than 25£, these babies made the trip back to Belgium:

The Tiger’s Wife by Tea Obreht, simply because she won the Orange Prize this year and I’m always curious the find out why.

When God was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman, who didn’t win the Orange Prize but definitely is the public’s favorite if sales and reviews are anything to go by.

At Home by Bill Bryson, because no matter what the man writes, you just know it’s going to be good. Plus I’ll have officially read some non-fiction this year.

The Leopard by Jo Nesbo, which is supposed to be phenomenal or so people tell me. I still have to read The Snowman first seeing as this is a follow up but I’m pretty psyched to get my teeth into these bad boys.

The Ice Cream Girls by Dorothy Koomson, also recommended by a friend but I never wanted to buy it because I suspect it will be sentimental drivel but at 1,95£ I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt.

A Widow’s Story by Joyce Carol Oates, who is one of my favorite authors and I couldn’t leave without taking a beautiful hardback version of latest memoir with me.

Money well spent if you ask me, especially seeing as the difference between the pound and the euro is marginal right now. But don’t fear, I didn’t spend all my time in chain stores. Seeing as there aren’t any real cities in the Lake District, only small villages, we only encountered two Waterstones on the periphery. And like any self respecting English village, the Lake lovelies all came equipped with their very own independent bookstore. There were teeny tiny ones, cute ones, some that never closed and all of them had an intriguing selection of new and secondhand books, but what impressed me the most was that each owner knew absolutely everything about the books in his / her shop. Granted their average age was 75, but it was still quite impressive, especially if you have a shop like Michael Moon in Whitehaven:

That's the pumpkin by the way.

No less than 13 narrow rooms filled from top to bottom with books, creating a lushious literary death trap.

Best movie poster of 2011

2011-08-17T08:17:00.003+02:00

Written and directed by one of the most gorgeous men alive who naturally also plays a key role (is there no end to Clooney's talent?) and starring the always phenomenal Ryan Gosling, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Paul Giamatti, we've got great actors, politics, intrigue and probably a cinematic masterpiece on our hands here. Can't wait to see it, oh and did I mention the movie poster? How cool is that?

The Lake District

2011-08-16T17:10:00.013+02:00

I have (sadly) returned from the glorious Lake District where the weather was as fickle as the landscape. We encountered high mountains, lush valleys, big lakes, little lakes, adorable villages, fairytale settings, gorgeous cottages, some utterly divine food, loads of literary references and ate a vegetarian English breakfast every morning. In short, we were dead tired, had a blast and probably both have high cholestrol now. The Lake District is highly recommended! Here’s why:

On our way back to Dover, we spent some time in the Cotswolds area aka the most enchanting place on earth, as well as in Stratford-upon-Avon to visit my main man, William Shakespeare. The result of this mesmerizing trip, besides the Pumpkin's growing interest in the Lake Poets and Beatrix potter (be still my beating heart), were 800 photographs, lots of relishes and chutneys, tea, several DVD's (HMV how I love thee) and tons of books due to offers I simply could not refuse but more on those later. For now, I'm energized, inspired and ready to cause some havoc. Balance has been restored in the Force.

Packing for all seasons

2011-07-31T08:46:00.006+02:00

Tomorrow at 6am we’ll be heading to the Lake District, nothing but mountains, lakes, cute villages and rain. I’ve been franticly checking the weather forecast the past weeks and have come across several mentions of heavy rain and thundery showers, not good. The upside, I’ll finally have a sunburn-free summer! The downside, I’ve had to buy so many new clothes, shoes and backpacks for all types of weather that this holiday will go down in history as the most pricey vacation ever. Who knew that nature could be so expensive? Clearly “god” did not intend for me to leave the city.

Luckily, I’ve planned several indoor activities so we’ll be fine and if worse comes to worse we’ll just curl up in front of a fire, looking over the lakes with some tea, scones and a good book. The books that made the cut are (sorry Siri):

• Unruly Times, Wordsworth and Coleridge in their time by A.S. Byatt
• The Group by Mary McCarthy
• Sunset Park by Paul Auster

Now if all goes well, I’ll be spending the next two weeks here

Thursday's trailer

2011-07-28T11:36:00.002+02:00

Holiday

2011-07-27T20:23:00.002+02:00

I’ve been home for two weeks now and I’ve spent most of my time like this:

Writing, some yoga, a little cooking, more writing, blogging, watching movies, interviewing and out for an occasional spot of lunch and I’ve been loving every minute of it! It must sound boring to most but I couldn’t be happier. I’ve finally got the chance to pick up where I left off with “the project”. And if you were wondering if I always sit in the dark when I’m work, yes I do, I feel the need to block out the world when I’m writing. Besides, who needs reality when you’ve got fiction?

What I haven’t done these past weeks is read. For some bizarre reason I hardly ever read when I’m on vacation. I started in Siri Hustvedt’s The Summer without Men over a week ago and I haven’t gotten past page 50 yet. I’m just never in the mood which isn’t a good sign, for the book at least. It’s like exams really, when you’re busy studying, a million things pop into your head that you’d rather do right now but when you’ve actually got the time to do them, they suddenly don’t seem that appealing. I’m the same with books, plus seeing as I’m spending most of my time at home in front of my computer screen instead of out and about where I usually get my reading done, my options a have become slightly limited.

But don’t worry, I’m already looking forward to selecting the books I’ll take with me on part 2 of the vacation, the REAL vacation.

Summer in Antwerp

2011-07-26T16:42:00.005+02:00

17°C and cloudy aka your average Belgian summer

The Night Bookmoblie

2011-07-24T11:11:00.003+02:00

A new book by Audrey Niffenegger is always something to look forward to seeing as she wrote one of my all time favorite books The Time Traveler’s Wife. Since then, I’ve been following her work rather closely. Her second novel Her Fearful Symmetry, although good, sadly wasn’t able to reach the Time Traveler’s stellar heights. Besides novels, she has also written several graphic novels or novels in pictures as she calls them.

The Night Bookmobile is her latest “novel in pictures” and the first in her new trilogy about the role books play in our lives. It started out as a short story for Zoetrope in 2004 and was adapted into a serial graphic novel for The Guardian in 2008.

Like most of her work, there is a macabre yet soothing atmosphere that exudes from every page. The Night Bookmobile can be best described as a fairytale for adults in which she describes our fascination with reading books and creating our own libraries. It is a story about obsession and the consequences of getting what you wish for.

The Night Bookmobile is a strange yet highly identifiable tale of a young woman who accidently discovers a bookmobile that contains everything she's ever read making her realize how important books are to her. Years pass and her life radically changes but books remain a constant, something she can always count on until one day the bookmobile appears again.

This is a short and intriguing tale for booklovers that explores the darker side of our obsessions with people, places and things. Thought-provoking and fascinating, The Night Bookmobile, is a cautionary tale of the seduction of the written word.

Thursday's trailer

2011-07-21T11:56:00.002+02:00

Pretty in Pink

2011-07-20T17:55:00.007+02:00

Since I became a vegetarian, I started eating more cheese, eggs,… in order to get my daily dose of protein. Gradually I also began incorporating a lot of beans, lentils, tofu, seitan and what not. But then I was diagnosed with high cholesterol, forcing me to change my eating habits once again: out with the full fat cheese, eggs and butter and in with oily fish, nuts and an obscene amount of soy products.

Because I didn’t want to give up on my new vegetarian lifestyle, I tried to find a way to combine a low cholesterol diet with as little animal products as possible. I still don’t eat artery clogging meat or poultry but we do have fish at least twice a week now. Seeing as I am forced to read the labels on everything I eat, I discovered that vegetarian food is often high in fat because most pastes and burgers are filled with oil. So I was faced with a dilemma, namely where do I find low fat vegetarian cooking? The answer: Appetite for Reduction, 125 Fast and Filling Low Fat Vegan Recipes.

I doubt I’d be able to keep up a vegan lifestyle, especially seeing as my doctor ordered me to eat fish, but this book is filled with tasty and easy recipes full of gorgeous greens, tofu, quorn and all that jazz but more importantly, they’re low fat! I just loved the funky rock and roll cover (not to mention that it’s pink!) and immediately decided to give this book a go.

Although the recipes rock, the layout sadly doesn’t. The recipes aren’t illustrated, apart from a few photos in the middle, which is a shame and also the reason why I don’t use it as much as I ought to despite the fact that everything I’ve ever made has turned out great. Call me crazy, but I need visual stimulation. I often just sit on the couch, leafing through cook books just for the hell of it and dream of the scrumptious dishes I’ll serve, one day, making Appetite for Reduction less appealing. Cook books, just like travel guides (sorry Lonely Planet), need photographs, it’s as simple as that.

Founder of the Post Punk Kitchen and author of the renowned Veganomicon, Isa Chandra Moskowitz, has written a delicious and original cook book equipped with nutritional information and several innovative recipes. It’s easy, colorful and above all accessible cooking that perfectly fits into a niche audience, just don’t expect too many too many yummy pictures.

Before I go to Sleep

2011-07-17T09:02:00.003+02:00

Before I go to sleep by SJ Watson is the talk of the town right now and seeing as I’m a sucker for any hype, I naturally had to see what all the fuss was about. This former healthcare worker’s debut novel was hailed as the must-read book of the summer and I honestly couldn’t agree more. Before I go to Sleep has already been translated into 30 languages and the movie rights have also been bought by Ridley Scott’s production company Scott Free, so Watson has struck gold with this clever and compelling thriller.

The book revolves around Christine, who loses her memory when she goes to sleep. Every morning she wakes up next to a man she doesn’t know but he tells her he is her husband and that she had a car accident almost 20 years ago and as a result she has no short term memory. She begins to keep a journal, writing down what happens to her each day as recommended by her doctor who calls her each morning to remind her of her journal and where it's hidden. Her husband however doesn’t know she’s seeing as doctor because on the first page of the journal she has written that he isn’t to be trusted…

The entire story takes place during the course of one day and she spends about 75% of the novel reading her journal entries, trying to piece together her so called life. This book is a real page turner because you simply have to know what’s going on, it’s that good. Well written, interesting characters and some genuine insight into one woman’s fragile psyche make this novel a joy to read. The story however, is exciting but I couldn’t help thinking that it was the literary love child of Memento and 50 First Dates. Before I go to Sleep is nonetheless my favorite book of the summer so far and I’d highly recommend it if you are looking for an engrossing and thrilling time.

Thursday's trailer

2011-07-14T08:37:00.000+02:00

Cartoon

2011-07-13T10:42:00.002+02:00

This basically sums up my entire academic experience.

Deadlines

2011-07-11T14:49:00.004+02:00

Only two more days of work and I've got an entire month off in which I plan on doing loads of reading, writing, climbing a mountain or two and sadly some more working.

The Pumpkin and I will be enjoying the calm and serene atmosphere of the Lake District the first two weeks of August but before I can enjoy myself, I'll be spending the last two weeks of July meeting several deadlines: 8 book reviews, an exposé on eBooks in Belgium and an article on Belgian Chick Lit for which I'll be talking with Saskia de Coster who has recently written a novella entitled Oh Jackie O filled with art, fashion and Jackie Onassis. So you see, my adventures in chick lit have only just begun.

Naturally, I'll also try to squeeze a little more writing of my own in seeing as I've passed the 27000 word mark, so I'm almost halfway there. Applause please.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

2011-07-08T13:21:00.002+02:00

This month’s book club book was The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley aka part 1 of the Flavia de Luce mystery series. Last month’s The Finkler Question scarred us all for life so we were in need of some light summery reading material and this book certainly did the trick.

"England, 1950. At Buckshaw, the crumbling country seat of the de Luce family, 11-year-old Flavia is plotting revenge on her older sisters. Then a dead bird is left on the doorstep, which has an extraordinary effect on Flavia’s eccentric father and a body is found in the garden. As the police descend on Buckshaw, Flavia decides to do some investigating of her own…"

Although the story was a tad predictable, having a young starry eyed narrator was a real treat. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie is genuine unpretentious entertainment. It’s a fun and old fashioned English murder mystery with an original protagonist who’s armed with tons of imagination and a chemistry kit. Quirky, witty and perfect for lazy days.

Blue Valentine

2011-07-06T11:15:00.005+02:00

Blue Valentine was one of the most anticipated movies of 2011, for me at least. Why you’ll probably ask, seeing as hardly anyone knows of this jem's existence.

Firstly, anything starring Ryan Gosling is something to look forward to. He’s cute but not in a hunk sorta way plus he is, in my opinion, a bold and daring actor and one of the few under 35s who can display such a wide range of depth and emotion. You just know that anything he does will be freaking awesome.

Secondly, I’ll a sucker for low budget indie romances that usually lack the sugarcoating and sentiment of mainstream movies and dare to go that extra controversial mile. What can I say; I love a good love story. I’m a girl, so sue me.

Blue Valentine tells the story of Dean and Cindy who fell head over heels in love when they were both young and “innocent”. Their world got turned upside down when their daughter Frankie arrived. Cindy sees her dreams of becoming a doctor slowly fade whereas Dean rejoices the fact that he’ll soon have a family. Fast forward to the present when this once endearing couple can no longer spend 10 minutes together without arguing. What went wrong?

This movie portrays one crucial day in their present relationship and alternates these tense and harrowing scenes with poetic flashbacks filled with passion and hope. The story is pretty basic but the performances are phenomenal. Ryan Gosling and the talented and oh so brave Michelle Williams have amazing chemistry and are truly the heart and soul of this gritty yet genuinely heartfelt romance that show us that every emotion fades, even love.

Blue Valentine is movie making in its truest and most purest form. The wonderful performances combined with a terrific script (plus some sensational improvisation) have given us one of the most touching and raw cinematic delights of the past years. It’s gutsy, honest, depressing and so damn beautiful!

Reading

2011-06-28T08:08:00.004+02:00

...reading verse can be like eating chocolate, so much more pleasureable when you allow it to slowly melt inside you, so much less rewarding when you snap off big chunks and bolt them whole, all but untasted.

-The Ode Less Travelled by Stephen Fry

Walking on Sunshine

2011-06-27T08:04:00.004+02:00

Last weekend, the Pumpkin and I ventured on unknown territory: we went shopping for outdoor sportswear. As you all know by now, I'm not adventurous nor am I an outdoors-y person. Don't get me wrong, I love brisk walks through nature just as long as they are followed by coffee, cakes and cute villages; hence our holiday to the pitoresque yet rugged lake district.

Stemming from a long line of fervent citytrippers, I've been brought up to believe that culture and shopping are the bare necessities of any holiday. Vacation is a time to spoil and enjoy yourself and not time to get back to basics which is also why I've never set foot in a tent. My family simply doesn't do nature so our trip to the Lake District is causing quite a commotion.

Seeing as neither of us have any outdoor gear we went in search of the perfect pair of walking shoes. I arrived at A.S. Adventure in my weekend stilettos and immediately saw that I was out of my league as I was surrounded by an army of big, brown and above all brutish shoes. Despite my reservations, I found a pair of shoes that fit perfectly and have pretty pink laces. I know, I know but I couldn't resist. I even got a matching pink fleece. They'll probably see this city girl coming a mile away, which might come in handy if I fall off a cliff.

On Sunday we decided to try out our shoes and went for a 15km walk. The roads in the lake district can be pretty steep, wet and rugged so we couldn't actually test all their capabilities, only check if they were comfy which they were. It was like wearing warm and fluffy slippers, too bad they made me look a tad butch or I'd be converted. The Pumpkin will confirm this, outdoor sportswear and I don't mesh well. And neither do long and unprepared walks because I was moving like a 90-year-old woman by the time we got back.

We've got our shoes and rucksacks now, so all that's left are the rain and windresistant outfits seeing as the weather over there will be 17°c and cloudy at best. I can hardly wait!

Raspberry Friands

2011-06-26T09:56:00.004+02:00

I haven’t baked for weeks, mainly because I’m not allowed to eat any baked goods seeing as they’re high in cholesterol. It’s really hard to resist conjuring up pastries and cakes if you’re not supposed to use eggs or butter. I started using soy margarine now which should remove the dreaded artery clogging substance from my veins so I have to eat some “butter” but eggs or the yolks at least, are definitely banned.

Now that the picnic season is upon us, I’ve been lured into the kitchen once again to create some tasty bit sized summery snacks that will do my adorable polka dotted picnic blanket justice. I personally love a picnic, it’s the only kind of al fresco dining people without a garden can enjoy.

Anyway, I stumbled upon this Australian delight this week: blueberry friands, small cake like tarts with a little butter (which I naturally substituted with the soy equivalent) and no egg yolks! They were all out of blueberries at the market so I made a raspberry version. Feast your eyes on these babies:

• 50g soy butter, melted and cooled
• 100g icing sugar
• 25g flour
• 85g ground almonds
• 3 egg whites
• 80g blueberries or raspberries

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Pop some cake cases into a cake tin.
2. Sift the flour and icing sugar into a bowl, and add the ground almonds.
3. Whisk the egg whites until foamy.
4. Make a well in the dry ingredients and tip in the egg whites. Add the butter and gently stir to make a soft, smooth batter.
5. Fill each cake case about three-quarters full. Top each with a few berries and bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown and springy.
6. Leave to cool on a cooling rack and dust with icing sugar.

Martians discover a book

2011-06-23T12:20:00.001+02:00

No matter how many times I see this video, it cracks me up every time .

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip

2011-06-21T13:12:00.003+02:00

When I had my wisdom teeth pulled three years ago, I was forced to stay at home for several days because I resembled a chipmunk who had OD’ed on blueberries. Luckily my friends lavished me with loads of box sets of, in their opinion, must see television shows. Yes, I am a child of the digital age and therefore watch too much TV.

Out of all of those shows, one stuck with me: Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Seeing as the pumpkin also read Bossypants (how cute is that?), we started talking about live sketch shows and I remembered that Studio 60 is a lot like 30 Rock, minus the overall silliness.

Written by the talented Aaron Sorkin, who was also responsible for The West Wing, Studio 60 proves that TV can also be an art form and yes, you can quote me on that. Not many shows have such clever plotlines, snappy dialogues or realistic yet quirky characters brought to us by a phenomenal cast. Yes, my friends Studio 60 is amazing. It's a biting satire of television and an insightful behind the scenes look at what it's like to create a weekly SNL-like show but more importantly it's funny, heartfelt and dares to go the distance by tackling controversial topics with style and flair.

Aaron Sorkin is the heart and soul behind the series and in my opinion on of the best screenwriters in Hollywood. The way he is able to mix politics, cutting edge topics and genuine emotion baffles me. No matter what subject matter people throw at him, he delivers and rightfully deserved that academy award for best screenplay this year. It's still beyond me why they cancelled this show after only one glorious series.

Now the point I was getting at, was that I bought the complete Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip collection for the ridiculous price of 7,50€! Who knew topnotch entertainment came so cheap?

An Object of Beauty

2011-06-20T16:48:00.002+02:00

The latest novel by actor / comedian Steve Martin is something very peculiar. I hadn't read any of his books before but I wanted to find out if, like so many actors turned author, he could actually deliver (as opposed to Ethan Hawke for example). An Object of Beauty is a without a doubt a very beautiful book, literally, if you get the hardback version at least, which is filled with lovely reproductions of the paintings that are mentioned in the story. The paperback version is pretty basic.

An Object of Beauty follow Lacy Yeager's career over the past 20 years as she takes the New York art scene by storm. There isn't a lot of plot or character development to tell you the truth, none actually but what makes this book interesting is Martin's depiction of the contemporary art world. It's fascinating to see how this world has evolved over the past two decades, how the economic crisis affected the art scene, how auction houses work, the value of beauty, the importance of modern American art,... if I'm boring you already than this book is not for you. If you're not interested in art, don't go there because that's all this novel has to offer.

Lacy Yeager seriously got on my nerves to be honest, because she's not particularly likable nor is she despicable, she's somewhere in that dangerous grey area where you just don't care. Instead of creating an actual human being, Martin has created a reflection of the zeitgeist which works well in this satire just try not to take anything seriously.

I expected more from Martin, a lot more. He is a good writer and was able to give a clear picture of something he truly cares about. As a non-fiction book, it would probably have been a lot better because the characters are flat and the story consists of Daniel Franks, a guy Lacy met at college who secretly loves her, telling us what happened to the object of his affection over the past years, so as a novel it doesn't really work. I am however intrigued by Martin. He's shown a lot of potential as an author and as an art connoisseur, it's just hard mixing both.

Thursday's trailer

2011-06-18T21:06:00.001+02:00

Bossypants

2011-06-15T07:58:00.005+02:00

I doubt there are people alive today who haven't heard of Tina Fey, former Saturday Night Live writer and creator of 30 Rock, or her equally renowned biography Bossypants. The cover alone, of this New York Times bestseller, puts a smile on my face.

Seeing as I'm not American and don't have the pleasure of watching SNL on a weekly basis, I was first confronted with the delightful Mrs. Fey when someone told me I had to watch 30 Rock because it was basically tha bomb (typo intended). Seeing as I'm always on the lookout for a new show, I followed her advice and haven’t looked back since.

30 Rock is based on her experiences while working on SNL. This show is silly yet realistic, outrageous yet relatable, the writing is excellent, the acting phenomenal (gotta love Jack Donaghy) and the characters are truly one of a kind. This show has it all really, if slapstick and crazed / neurotic people are your thing.

What I love the most about this show is the Tina Fey's character Liz Lemon, who tries to keep the writers, actors and her boss from causing total mayhem while at the same time trying to have some kind of (love) life, queue Jon Hamm, sigh... Anyway, this probably says more about me than I'd care to admit but I so totally get her. Despite her own freakish issues she is constantly mobilized to solve other people's crisises when all she want to do is watch TV and eat donuts. What's wrong with that? And yet, she still has a masochistic need to be needed, to be the puppet master because sometimes your inner control freak simply gets the better of you. Been there, done that.

So when the brilliant Fey's biography came out, I just had to read it. I tried waiting until the paperback edition but I just couldn't wait that long. Bossypants isn't a classic autobiography, it filled with chronological anecdotes from her youth, SNL, honeymoon, 30 Rock and naturally some life changing affirmations. Tina is just how I imagined her to be: self-deprecating, wise and above all honest.

Bossypants is a very funny memoir full of interesting behind the scenes gossip, musings on what it's like to be a female comedy writer and a little intimate details that make this book a joy to read. It's easy to relate to Tina Fey who is also a wonderful writer and someone every woman would want as their best friend basically. All hail Tina Fey!

Mindfulness

2011-06-13T10:22:00.005+02:00

Thanks to the numerous tests, doctor’s appointments and meds that could have become fatal in hindsight, my panic attacks have been going through the roof lately. They started with mild hyperventilation about three years ago and whenever you least expect it, usually while doing the dishes or watching TV, they’ll pop up and hold you hostage for a couple of days.

These past few months I’ve been hyperventilating more than I care to say and on Friday I had a major panic attack seeing as I wasn’t supposed to take the meds my new doctor prescribed but naturally I had already taken them. I eventually got over it and forced myself to leave the house, something which has become stressful in itself at times.

Over the years I’ve become very sensitive to stress, emotional and physical ailments, unexpected events and even things I don’t particularly want to do are able to cause severe inner turmoil. I have a habit of ignoring all these things until there’s no escape and my body just shuts down, queue dizziness, nausea, chest pains and the feeling that I'm being suffocated, in other words a classic panic attack.

Now the new meds I got on Thursday were supposed to slow down my heartbeat, lower my blood pressure and basically calm me down, easing the blood flow to my head and making the noise in my ear less prominent. It actually worked until I read the accompanying leaflet which said it could be fatal for people who have or had asthma (that would be me). Needless to say, I didn’t respond well to that information.

Sadly, my tendency to hyperventilate isn’t something you can cure; only manage by being aware of the warning signs, avoiding stress and simply saying enough is enough. I’ve been advised to do more yoga and maybe try mindfulness to clear my head of negative thoughts which is why I’ve been meditating and breathing my ass of this weekend. It’s weird to think how something so easy (for some at least) and vital can be so hard for others, making me cherish every slow breath and moment of silence, even if it only lasts 8 seconds.

Soup Swap

2011-06-12T08:45:00.003+02:00

This week I went to my very first Soup Swap, an American trend where you get together with a few friends and exchange soup. Over the years I have mastered the art of making soup for just two people but apparently when others makes soup, they make several liters otherwise what’s the point? Seeing as we have no freezer to store our remnants in, I make sure never to go overboard until this week when I finally got a chance to use “the big pot” to make a shocking 3 liters of soup!

Now the concept behind Soup Swap is instead of freezing the remains of your own soup, you take them with you to a Soup Swap gathering and well, swap them for other flavors. We all make enough soup for the other participants, roughly a liter each. I thus brought three containers of luscious cheesy broccoli soup with me and came back with recipes and cucumber, roasted tomato and banana soup. We’ll be having soup all weekend now, thanks to my fellow domestic goddesses.

Nancy Mitford

2011-06-11T09:02:00.005+02:00

My quest for "quality" chick lit has lead me to several 1950s and 1960s romps. Of all the titles that have now found there way to my wishlist, none are as pretty as these Nancy mitford reissues by Penguin.

Thursday's trailer

2011-06-09T08:45:00.002+02:00

Great Expectations

2011-06-06T08:29:00.005+02:00

I've taken some time off this week to get a little writing done, consult some more doctors and attend my very first Soupswap (yes, it's exactly what it sounds like).

I'm actually really looking forward to locking myself up in our dark little study, just me, gallons of coffee, Molly and a blank computerscreen. What could be better? I just hit the 25,000 word mark so I'm on a roll.

"Slumming"

2011-06-05T14:47:00.008+02:00

This week I indulged in some mindnumbing entertainment: chick lit and a thriller. Ok, I have to admit that both novels were predictable, lacking depth and eloquence but they were fun, sassy and made you want to finish them in one go which I almost did. I truely understand why people read this stuff and you shouldn't mock something before you've tried it.

What strikes me the most about non-literary novels is their lack of description, atmosphere and setting. It's all about dialogue and action, which I have to admit are things I also crave in a novel. Throw in a little character development and I'm one happy bunny.

First up was Sophie Kinsella's Remember Me. I had read one of her books last year when I was in a rather abysmal mood and truth be told, she lightened my day. I wouldn't dream of starting on her Shopaholic series but I'll give her standalone novels a go whenever the mood strikes me (which is once a year apparently). The novels starts off with Lexi, a twentysomething girl with an average job, great friends and a deadend relationship. Queue a slippery surface and some stillettos. She wakes up in hospital and three years have gone by. Apparently she had a car crash and can't remember anything that has happend from the crash until her stiletto slip up. Three years of her life: gone. Besides getting her driver's license, she has also lost touch with her friends, become a fahionista, her own boss and most shockingly has gotten married fulfilling every girl's dreams (in chick lit that is). Will she remember her past? Her husband? And naturally her lover? Ok, this book was cliched, predictable and flawed but also sassy, relatable (my inner Carrie Bradshaw hasn't died on me yet) and great if you're looking for nothing more than a book that'll put a smile on your face.

Next up was the thriller: The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly which was recently turned into a movie. Despite having read Stieg Larsson Millennium trilogy, I have to admit that I've never read a lot of thrillers / crime novels. I don't know why really. Anyway, Michael Haller is The Lincoln Lawyer simply because he works out of the back of his Lincoln, deep right? He has to defend Beverly Hills pretty boy Louis Roulet who supposedly beat up and threatened to kill a prostitute, something he naturally denies or we wouldn't have this novel. Haller investigates, discovers ties to a former case, Roulet confesses (it happens 1/3 through the novel so it isn't that big of a spoiler) and threatens Michael who is left with lots of ethical, judicial and parental dilemma's. It was all pretty straight forward stuff, lots of courtscenes, an ex-wife or two and some snappy dialogue. Oh and there's a slight twist at the end. I don't know if I'll read another novel by Connelly, it wasn't bad but I wasn't impressed either. That being said, I am secretly eyeing up a few crime novels, just to broaden my horizon.

So my slumming experiment wasn't a total loss. I'll never become a convert to Chick Lit or Thrillers but neither am I opposed to reading one once in a while. Sometimes it's good to lower your expectations because you just might be in for a lovely surprise.

Highbrow vs Lowbrow literature

2011-05-29T10:12:00.011+02:00

The past few weeks I have read several award-winning books and I’ve been disappointed by most of them, leading me to the assumption that awards don’t necessarily go hand in hand with quality fiction like you might presume. With many prizes, I think books win not because they are especially good, but because they address “difficult topics”. It’s the same with the Oscars really; historical movies, biopics and films involving disabled people always get the statue. But do you really have to uncover the flaws in humanity to be good? Can’t books just be good without teaching us some valuable lesson?

The first book that got me thinking was Just Kids by Patti Smith, winner of the National Book Award, and the only one I truly loved. There’s no glamour involved in her memoir, no lessons to be learned and no bullshit. It’s raw, it’s gritty and gives us a clear picture of the 1970s New York art scene and her relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. Despite the sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll, it’s actually a quite touching and almost romantic story about two lost souls who try to make sense of themselves and the world. Anything goes really, as long as it gets you to where you want to go. There are no social or moral dilemmas, no preachy tone, just the facts, pure and simple and that’s why she really deserved the award because of her unsentimental portrayal of troubling times.

Many authors today have the habit of overanalyzing everything and making things a philosophical quest for enlightenment and understanding like Howard Jacobson in The Finkler Question, winner of the Booker Prize. This is a novel I just could not get into no matter how hard I tried. The Finkler Question focuses primarily on Julian Treslove, a man in his early to mid-50s who is still in search of his self. He is mugged after leaving the home of a close friend, who happens to be Jewish and the mugger, Julian comes to believe, says "You Jew". This event makes him want to “find himself” even more and he starts to contemplate the possibility of becoming Jewish. The Finkler Question is the Jewish question. Jacobson explores what it means to be Jewish in London in 2010. Through Julian's search for his self, we are given insights into how Jews see themselves, how they see their religion, how they feel others perceive them, anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. Although Jacobson’s writing is beautiful, the story was tedious at best: three grumpy old men with too much time on their hands pondering anything and everything. I still cannot believe this won the Booker Prize! Jews pondering on anti-Semitism isn’t particularly revolutionary but like I said, a “difficult” and “historical” topic always gets away with it. Lest we forget…

And then there’s Alabama Song by Gilles Leroy, winner of the Prix Goncourt, based on the lives of Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald, two fascinating people with rambunctious lives. Sadly, I can’t say the same about the novel. I read this piece of French fiction in Dutch and I’m still not quite sure if the translation was awful or Leroy is just a bad writer but the language was idiotic and simplistic. The entire novel is told from Zelda’s perspective who was troubled person to say the least but Leroy portrays her as an annoying whiny bitch. I love a fictional biography as much as the next person, heck it was my thesis subject but come on. Due to the fragmentary storytelling, the novel also lacks atmosphere making the roaring twenties and thirties dull and lifeless.

I have always been skeptical of award-winning books but these last few have really tipped me over the edge. No matter how beautiful the writing or how important the subject matter is, when a story sucks, the book sucks! During my time at university I’ve read the Classics and dozens of highbrow novels which turned me into a literary snob, frowning on chick lit and thrillers. But the more I read, the more I realize that what makes a novel work for me namely: story, character and writing, high or lowbrow doesn't really matter.

If the story doesn’t captivate me, who cares how well it’s written (Franzen’s Freedom)? If the characters annoy me, who cares that it’s a Booker Prize winner (The Finkler Question)? If a book gives you a headache to keep up, why bother (Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall, amazing accomplishment but not exactly relaxing)?

I’m actually more impressed by authors who are able to create a whole new and exciting world than base themselves on true or historical events. Copying isn’t creating or that’s my opinion at least, which also explains the success of lowbrow fiction that merely aims to entertain with is wacky characters and unrealistic plots. Seeing as I’ve had my fill of intellectual fiction and the fact that I’ve stocked up on crappy novels at the boekenfestijn, I’ve decided to go slumming for a while. I’m in need of some mind-numbing entertainment because reading should be fun, not hard work, unless hard work is your idea of fun (yes Pynchon fans, I’m talking to you).

Thursday's trailer

2011-05-27T16:06:00.000+02:00

Boekenfestijn

2011-05-27T08:15:00.006+02:00

Yesterday we went on our annual family outing to the Boekenfestijn. Me, my mom, my grandmother, uncle and hundreds of other people rummaging through piles of discount books. It was brutal, hot and totally exhilarating. The lengths I’ll go to for cheap books is ridiculous really but, who can resists an 80% discount?

I usually buy tons on English novels and cookery books but this time I decided to change my approach. I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve got a slight addiction when it comes to buying books and when they’re that cheap, all bets are off. Most years I'll leave with several dozen books because A) I want to read them, B) they’re pretty and C) they’re too cheap to resist. This year I decided to ignore options B and C seeing as I know from experience, I’ll probably never read them anyway and I have still got 48 novels on my “to be read” pile.

Now, the books I get at the Boekenfestijn are usually not the kind of books I’d normally buy meaning cheap (literally) trashy / commercial novels that won’t be great but very entertaining never the less. Ok, I also found some “literary” novels but most of ‘em were guilty pleasures for less than €3 each.

Oh, and I got a cute clip-on nightlight for when I'm reading in bed. Like I need more accessories...

Sunday Sweetness

2011-05-22T08:08:00.004+02:00

Last week I received The Great Penguin Bookchase curtousy of Penguin. It's basically a book version of trivial pursuit with adorable little books that you have to put on your shelf whenever you get a question right. Needless to say, I enjoyed myself decorating these tiny novels.

But I wasn't the only one who was tickled pink with this present. As you can see, Molly was delighted with the box it came in which she now prefers over her very own chair, go figure!

The Ambiguously Gay Duo

2011-05-19T16:13:00.005+02:00

Jon Hamm, Jimmy Fallon and Steve Carell star in the latest episode of this partly animated and hilarious SNL sketch about two superheroes (Ace and Gary) whose sexual orientation is brought into question. Bighead and his henchmen have hatched an evil plot to finally find out if they're gay.

Articles by Rebecca Benoot

2011-05-19T15:51:00.004+02:00

I had an epiphany on Tuesday while I was working on my articles namely, I really need a website / log with all of them on there. Not just for my own benefit, I do tend to forget what I've written about quite quickly, but also because I can finally show people what I've been writing about these past 2,5 years.

I already have a lovely website which the Pumpkin made for me but it hasn't been updated in over a year as I always have to bother my in-house designer whenever I get the need to change something, which is often.

So... I made a blog, (whoopie!) seeing as it's the easiest, although not really the most professional, way I can catalogue my articles. Low maintenance and easily adjustable. The only downside is that I now have to copy-paste several dozen articles which while probably take me a while.

Anyway, if you're curious what I've been scribbling the past years check out: http://rebeccabenoot.blogspot.com/ (updated daily)

A Day of Writing

2011-05-17T16:17:00.002+02:00

I took the day off today to finally get some writing done and it was bliss. No interruption, no stress, just me and a blank page, heaven. If only I had some more time to get some “other” writing done… My word count has increased the past week but only slightly, did you notice?

Now, I had to interview Luc Herman last week about Nora en de Feiten which was kind of awkward seeing as I had to put on a major poker face because I didn’t particularly like his novel. It was also weird having to “judge” one of my former professors but I survived. Writing the article however, was quite a challenge seeing as I wanted to be objective, didn’t want to sugarcoat it but I also didn’t want to offend because I know a lot of my former teachers and ex-class mates will be reading it so I’ll be a little on edge next week when it’s published.

I have to admit that although I still don’t like the novel, he did shed a lot of light on it, luckily. His aim was to stay true to the genre code of crime fiction and create an old-fashioned whodunit that invites the reader to solves the puzzles which in a way he has succeeded in doing but the fact still remains that the novel is too analytical / academic to please the general crime fiction loving audience who are just looking for some light entertainment, which I supplied by writing 4 reviews today to accompany the article.

Needless to say, I drank a lot of coffee, did a lot of procrastinating but I eventually got the job done.

Leon: Ingredients & Recipes

2011-05-06T09:08:00.012+02:00

aka the most beautiful cook book ever!

Leon is a trendy London restaurant chain that specializes is easy, tasty and affordable food for people in a hurry, nothing fancy but scrumptious, healthy and colorful, just like their luscious first book which is simply to die for and even comes with complimentary stickers making me as giddy as a schoolgirl.

I had been eyeing up this book for two years now but decided I wasn't going to buy it until I visited the restaurant which we finally did a few weeks ago.

The 300+ page visually stunning book is divided in two gorgeous sections (I cannot stress enough how pretty this book is) each with its own ribbon: ingredients and recipes.

Ingredients is basically self explanatory and is divided in several sections: vegetables, herbs, dairy, meat,... telling us where they come from, what to look at when buying, which are in season, how to prepare them, that sort of thing. It's filled with fun photo's drawing, charts, useful tips and everything you ever wanted to know from cheese to chillies.

The second part, recipes, ranges from breakfasts to desserts and everything in between. There's one chapter on meat but the rest of the book is vegetarian. Needless to say there will be a lot of cooking going on this weekend.

Feast your eyes on this:

Thursday's trailer

2011-05-05T16:12:00.000+02:00

Whimsical Weekend

2011-05-01T08:57:00.007+02:00

I attended several author interviews this weekend starting with Willy Vlautin who was at the store on Thursday night to promote his book Lean on Pete. I had no idea who he was or that he had written several novels or that he was the lead singer of country band Richmond Fontaine. For this I thank Google.

He was a really friendly guy, that's what struck me the most and the fact that songs don't necessarily need a chorus. Go figure!Seriously, he sang a song for us which was basically a story with a little music. At first it was really weird because he just kept on going no breaks no nothing but it really worked. He talked about the book and why he loves writing but that's about it. It was short but sweet.

We also saw Herman Koch on Saturday whom the pumpkin loves from his Jiskefet years, no comment. I haven't read his latest novel Zomerhuis met Zwembad yet but I really loved his last book Het Diner. If you want to read some edgy and contemporary Dutch fiction, Koch is definitely the way to go. During the interview he mainly talked about the medical world in the Netherlands seeing as his main character is a GP. It was interesting and illuminating but I couldn't get over the fact that not more people are interested in hearing / meeting great authors.

I've been to a lot of these things lately and that's what still makes the biggest impression: if you're a Dutch author, don't expect a fanbase.

Next up was Annelies Beck, who I interviewed myself a few weeks ago so nothing new there but the pumpkin wanted to see her in person so I indulged him.

Fun Home

2011-04-27T08:58:00.002+02:00

Memoirs are becoming a huge hit in the graphic novel genre. After Maus, Persepolis and Blankets, Alison Bechdel's Fun Home is the next big thing. The subtitle: A Family Tragicomic says it all really.

Fun Home (Bechdel's nickname for the funeral home her father owned) tells the story of Alison growing up in a supposedly conventional home with a strict father who loves interior design, flowers and young men, a mother who only has eyes for Oscar Wilde and her two “normal” brothers.

From an early age onwards, Alison feels that she's not the girly girl her overcompensating father wants her to be. It takes her several years to come to terms with these feelings and when she's at college, she finally embraces her sexuality.

Fun Home chronicles her confusing childhood, her father's double life and their relationship which is filled with uncomfortable silences but eventually leads to understanding aided by a mutual love for James Joyce.

Alison Bechdel's epic odyssey to make peace with and come to terms with the reasons behind her father's death is dark, funny and very touching. Her drawings are beautiful and add depth and detail to her voyage of self discovery. Fun Home is an exceptional memoir and a visual treat.

Easter snoozing

2011-04-26T20:12:00.002+02:00

Besides eating too much chocolate, which I know I'm not supposed to anymore, I also watched a lot of movies this Easter weekend despite the lovely sunny weather. We went to the park as well, worked a little, visited the gruesome twosome aka my mother and grandmother but mainly we just chilled.

I also started reading Ian McEwan's Solar on Sunday but I fell asleep even before I reached page 30 which isn't a good sign, I guess I just wasn't in the mood for environmental issues, besides I've always had a love-hate relationship with McEwan. I truly loved The Cement Garden and On Chesil Beach but hated Amsterdam and Atonement, both utter abominations if you ask me.

Anyway, we kicked off the weekend with Monsters on Friday. It's a low budget Sci-Fi / thriller / drama in which a cynical journalist agrees to escort a shaken American tourist through an infected zone in Mexico to the safety of the US border after earth has fallen victim to an alien invasion. The director, Gareth Edwards, created all the special effects with his computer and simply followed his two main characters as they backpacked through Mexico, using the footage they just happened to stumble on. With “subtle” reference to the illegal aliens who want to enter America, Monsters for me, was more of an atmospheric and offbeat romantic indie with some death and devastation to spice things up.

Next up Management, again an offbeat romantic indie. Why aren't you surprised, right? This time it's one that went straight to DVD in the States and straight to the 1€ bin in Belgium. A very dowdy Jennifer Aniston plays a traveling art saleswoman who tries to shake off a flaky motel manager played by Steve Zahn, who falls for her and won't leave her alone. This tale of a stalker turned lover was charming, understated but lacking any pezaz making it easily forgettable.

Julie & Julia starring Amy Adams and Meryl Streep is based on two true stories: that of cooking legend Julia Child and of amateur cook turned blogger turned author Julie Powell. Julie Powell decided to cook every recipe in Julia Child's famous Mastering the Art of French Cooking during the course of a year and blog about it but little did she know that her pet project would be her ticket to stardom. I just loved both stories in the movie: two women cooking their selves to fame, as well as Julie Powell's book / collection of blog posts which the film was based on. It was a cute, entertaining and above all inspiring movie, perfect for a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Greenberg, finally, is Ben Stiller's first attempt at some serious acting. I'm not a big Stiller fan but the Pumpkin adores him so when he stares in the latest Noah Baumbach, we're both happy. Stiller plays a recently released mental patient who moves to Los Angeles in order to figure out his life while he housesits for his brother and falls for his assistant played by Greta Gerwig. There's not much going on really, just two tortured souls living their lives and annoying themselves and each other along the way.

I was basically in indie heaven this weekend.

The pleasures and pains of a live interview

2011-04-24T09:46:00.009+02:00

Yesterday I did my first live interview in the store. It was nerve wrecking at first but ended up being lots of fun.

I interviewed Helen Grant about her novels (The Vanishing of Katharina Linden, The Glass Demon and Wish me Dead) and young adult fiction, a genre that is slowly breaking through in Belgium. The idea behind the interview was to introduce Helen and YA to the Belgian public.

I’ve known Helen for a while now and I’ve interviewed her before so I wasn’t particularly nervous about that but, while I was preparing my questions on Friday I started thinking about everything that could go wrong: what if we move too fast (we had an hour to fill), what if she answers multiple question at once and I am left with nothing to say, what if we start repeating ourselves and worst of all, what if it’s not interesting? Luckily, Helen is such a good storyteller that the latter could never be the case but, the other potential problems were all new to me because when you do a private one on one with somebody entertainment value, length and improvisation are never an issue.

In the end we easily filled that hour, I had to skip a few questions and improvise a little but fortunately nobody noticed. I am happy to say that Helen, myself and more importantly the audience had a great time, we had lots of interaction and more than half of them bought one of her novels so we must have done something right.

What I personally loved about doing a live interview was getting the response of the audience, something I hardly ever get with my written texts and interviews because there you are subordinate to your subject. People always remember what the text was about but never who has written it. Sure, occasionally someone will come up to me and say they read or liked my articles but seeing their reactions literaly unfold in front of you is quite something else.

Sadly, not a lot of people showed up. Maybe it’s because it’s the Easter holidays or because the weather is ridiculously good for this time of year or that just not many people are interested in YA in Belgium. Who knows? It was fun and that’s all that matters.

Tweeting, yet again

2011-04-20T20:47:00.005+02:00

This week I started tweeting for the Groene Waterman and now I am seriously contemplating reviving my own account which died a slow and unsuspecting death on August 9th 2010. After checking my account today I was surprised to find many interesting book related items on it so.... maybe I should take the plunge yet again?

I know I once said that Twitter was the equivalent of blogging for people with the attention span of a fruit bat but if you're short on time, which I am these days, yet bursting with ideas, suggestions and your daily ramblings, it makes perfect sense. So if you want to be my new sparring partner, check out @Ginny_Jones

A Visit from the Goon Squad

2011-04-19T12:03:00.004+02:00

On our trip to London I finished Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad. I had read several rave reviews and knew it won the National Book Critics Circle Award last year so I decided to give it a shot.

It’s hard to summarize this story about the music industry because it is told by several narrators whose stories are intertwined and shift from the past to the future, from NY to Naples and everywhere in between. It’s basically the perfect postmodern rollercoaster ride starring a cool cast of characters such as an aging record producer, a lovelorn kleptomaniac, a terminal singer who isn’t capable of dying and a genocidal general just to name e few.

Each chapter features a character with a wonderful story to tell that easily flows into the next one like a babbling brook. Egan doesn’t paint a pretty picture of the music industry from the Seventies onwards but it is a captivating and clever one enforced by her prose which is a pleasure to read, no matter how absurd or at times unpleasant the subject matter.

Jennifer Egan effortlessly takes us from place to place, time to time, and character to as she creates a pitch-perfect fictional mosaic. Her style is rich and adventurous (she for example includes a power point presentation as a chapter) and complements this tale about the passing of time perfectly.

As each character takes his or her own moment in the spotlight, he or she is desperate for a second chance and wants to hold off the approaching goon aka death, making music the perfect metaphor for this novel seeing as time is like the grooves on a record album, jumping from track to track in no particular order.

I savored every minute of A Visit from the Goon Squad but if you’re still not convinced of its splendor, take it up with the Pulitzer committee seeing as they just awarded her the prize.

London 2011

2011-04-17T14:29:00.009+02:00

We just got back from another exhausting trip to London. Don't get me wrong, it was great but we always return utterly knackered seeing as we do almost everything on foot so we can take in the sights.

We started with the London Book Fair which was a big gathering of agents, publishers, booksellers and suppliers aka the in crowd. It was fun browsing the booths but the bubbling atmosphere and added stress of customers was missing seeing as it was solely for people in the business making it a dry and slightly dreary affair that was brought back to life by various lectures and author interviews. We attended a lecture on ePub which was very interesting according to the Pumpkin, I just studied the floorplan.

Besides an abundance of books, our trip also consisted of a kick-ass boutique hotel in Hendon, the science museum which is huge, the Saatchi gallery which was surprisingly small and made me doubt the relevance of modern art once again,

Hummingbird cupcakes (yeah baby!), the Camden Markets, Notting Hill, loads of squirrel-infused walks and picnics in the park, several restaurants that I’d been dying to try like Leon and Canteen (sadly the World Food Cafe is no longer), a Muslim Fundamentalist demonstration which freaked me out (understatement) and lastly some mandatory shopping at Marks & Spencers, Boots and HMV. Oh, and I also got myself some funky new All Stars and a hot pink Ugly Doll (curtousy of the Pumpkin).

And for the first time ever, I managed not to buy anything at Waterstones because I came to the shocking conclusion that I already owned everything that was remotely interesting. There was basically nothing left to buy making me feel anxious, unfulfilled and aware of my moderate shopping addiction.

Book Fair Baby!

2011-04-12T08:06:00.003+02:00

Tomorrow the pumpkin and I are off to the London Book Fair to do some browsing, attend some lectures and basically revel in literary loveliness. We'll be in London for a few days so I naturally made a schedule seeing as I can't leave home without one. I'm physically incapable of going with the flow.

Our to-do list looks as followed: Hummingbird Bakery, World Food Café, Canteen, lots and lots of bookshops, Saatchi Gallery, Camden, stroll in the park, maybe catch a show, a couple of markets, drink loads of coffee and shop until the pumpkin can no longer carry the load. Heaven...

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

2011-04-11T16:35:00.007+02:00

It took me three weeks and many doctor's appointments but I finally finished Major Pettigrew's Last Stand and I absolutely loved it! It's actually the best book I've this year.

Major Pettigrew is a retired widower living in a quiet English village filled with the usual society ladies, gossiping neighbors and trivial scandals. He befriends Mrs. Ali who runs the local grocery store together with her nephew since her husband died. Major Pettigrew and Mrs. Ali both share a love for Rudiyard Kipling and often get together to discuss his work and slowly but surely the uptight Major falls for this Pakistani beauty but love is never easy, especially when his womanizing son returns together with a contractor who decides to build a mini mall in the village and last but not least there's Mrs. Ali's traditional family, who think England is no place for a widow.

Major Pettigrew's last Stand is British rural life in all its charming and devastatingly delicious loveliness. The characters are wonderful and simply leap from the page as they go about their day to day business. The story is simple, sweet and not as predictable as you may think due to various ingenious little subplots.

American author Helen Simonson was written a terrific debut novel that will convince you of the beauty of all things pure and simple. Witty, engaging and delightful, this novel will definitely put a smile on your face.

Passionate about Penguin

2011-04-10T09:48:00.013+02:00

I've been going a little Penguin crazy lately. It all started with wanting to jazz up our study and I decided that some literary decorations were the way to go, starting with a big Penguin collage which I made from the Penguin postcards set (still a work in progress as you can see).

Then I realized that you can also download PDF's on the Penguin website with the covers of their gorgeous Red Editions of which 50% of the profits go directly to the Global Fund to help eliminate AIDS in Africa. The Vanity Fair one is my absolute favorite so I had it made into a poster. I was considering getting a few printed and doing a “Red” wall but we just don't have the space seeing as our hallway was recently consumed by New Yorker covers.

All these covers have actually ignited my apparently dormant passion for book design, making Penguin 75 (a beautiful book celebrating 75 years of Penguin cover Design) a must have. I have to admit, there are some really stunning covers in there from the classic orange ones to some by pretty awesome guest designers such as Chris Ware, Ruben Toledo and Charles Burns. My inner girly girl was quivering from aesthetic delight.

To top things off, I also bought a Penguin mug so I can now sip my morning coffee from Jane Austen's masterpiece Pride and Prejudice.

Slowly but surely, Penguin is taking over my life.

April 1st

2011-04-02T09:19:00.002+02:00

Yesterday was April Fool's Day, my mom's 51st birthday (I'm so not kidding), the kick off of the Literaire Lente (Literary Spring) in Flemish bookshops and The International Day of the Edible Book, which was celebrated with a tasty piece of chocolate fiction.

Must-see Movies

2011-03-31T08:22:00.005+02:00

Today I read that two of my all-time favorite books are being adapted to the big screen. Yay!

David Nicholls' One Day was the best book I read last year, closely followed by Chris Cleave's The Other Hand. This book was an instant hit so it doesn't come as a shock that two years after its release, we are already blessed with the movie, a big budget rom com / drama starring Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess no less, which was also written by the man himself.

Another must-see movie is Stephen Daldry's adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, a book I read in two sittings. It's that good people! It has a star-studded cast lead by Sandra Bullock and Tom Hanks and it filming in New York as we speak.

Last but not least, Never Let Me Go which was released in Belgium this week in only 3 theaters (!!!) which just proves that Belgians have no taste whatsoever. I know I already posted the trailer but I couldn't help myself, I just love love love the book. This beautiful and seemingly innocent coming of age story blows all your expectations out of the water with its sinister scientific twists leaving us with an astonishing combo of English elegance and sci-fi surrealism.

The Devilish Diet strikes back

2011-03-27T12:30:00.003+02:00

Not all my test results are back yet but the good news is, I won’t be having a stroke any time soon, the bad news is that they detected a slight calcification. I still have to see a few doctors before I get all the details but I will probably have to take meds for the rest of my life which is fine and also follow a diet, not so fine.

I haven’t been on a diet since “the great diet of ‘97” when I lost a massive 60 pounds and vowed never to diet again. OK, I really needed to lose a lot of weight and I succeeded which I’m very proud of but let’s face it, dieting sucks. If it wasn’t for health reasons I would never endure such horror in a million years because I love food, it’s as simple as that.

I am however, planning on remaining a vegetarian but combined with my new and ridiculously healthy low fat diet it won’t be easy seeing as eggs and most cheeses are now forbidden together with three pages of other yummy things. Damn you arteries! I’m still not planning on eating meat but I have to eat fish at least twice a week so there goes my no dead animals policy.

It’s really weird because I finally got used to changing my food habits and now I have to change them again and low fat meat-free is slightly challenging. What I can eat are soy products, lots of them.

Anyway, I’ve been experimenting in the kitchen this morning to conjure up several tasty meat, cheese, and fat free concoctions to lather my sandwiches with that are still high in protein. Challenging you say? I beg to differ. This afternoon I will been enjoying carrot tzatziki, lentil pesto and Indian bean mush. Sounds lovely doesn’t it?

This afternoon I’ll also have a cup of tea with some freshly baked low fat banana bread courtesy of Miss Dahl’s Voluptuous Delights. I had my reservations at first about this book (model turned cook?) but the more I use it, the more I love it. Half of her recipes are vegetarian and the other half are fish and chicken so it’s low on meat but high in flavor.

She divided her book according to the seasons and for every season she includes breakfast, lunch and dinner options which I like in theory but seeing as I only use the dinner recipes, there’s a lot of them that are wasted on me. There are however, several gorgeous breakfast dishes but for some reason I’m too lazy to cook breakfast. I’m a cereal girl, always have been, always will be.

Another minor flaw in my opinion, is that she writes a 20 page introduction for every new chapter filled with feelings and memories. Why? Get to the point woman! That’s just a little too girly for me, just like her TV show. But in the end I have to say that everything I’ve made so far, turned out beautiful and that's what matters most. Highly recommended, just avoid the sentimental bits!

Thursday night, oh what a night!

2011-03-24T19:48:00.004+01:00

Thursday evening to me, is also known as quality TV time. The pumpkin’s out for his weekly jammin’ session, leaving me on my own to snuggle up with Molly on the couch and watch our favorite shows. Include some tea and chocolate and you’ve got, in my humble opinion, a slice of heaven. Sadly, all my shows are dwindling down. Boardwalk Empire ended, as well as Mad Men and The Tudors (period pieces how I love thee) but luckily, season six of House MD is waiting for me.

Plan B, if I ever run out of shows on a Thursday night (God forbid) is watch corny movies that I know will make the pumpkin’s stomach churn such as last weeks’ Brideshead Revisited and An Education.

Brideshead Revisited is based on Evelyn Waugh’s classic novel about captain Charles Ryder who during the Second World War is confronted with his past as a young man at Brideshead, a stately manor where the lifestyle was decadent and the people ruthless. It’s the roaring Twenties in all its glory. Brideshead Revisited is an elegant and passionate movie filled with forbidden desire, guilt and gorgeous costumes. And as usual I am now dying to read the book. A book club suggestion, maybe?

An Education (based on Lynn Barber’s memoires) actually catapulted itself into my all time favorite movies list after one viewing, it’s that good! The story is pretty basic, it’s the 1960ies and an innocent schoolgirl falls for an older swanky guy who teaches her that you can’t learn everything in school. I know it’s cliché but trust me, cliché in a good way. The screenplay was written by Nick Hornby so the dialogue is great, the atmosphere is luscious and the acting phenomenal. It basically made my inner schoolgirl giddy with decadent delights.

Well, that's unexpected

2011-03-23T14:36:00.004+01:00

Since January I have been enjoying the throbbing sound of my very own heart in my right ear and not just occasionally but 24/7. I’ve been to the doctor several times and I’ve taken antibiotics, ear drops, diuretics, you name it, nothing helped so over to plan B which was seeing a specialist.

After waiting six weeks for my appointment, I started off the day with several auditory tests that measured the pressure in my ears and the classic “put on some headphones and raise your hand if you hear a squeak” one. So far so good and it turns out I have perfect hearing although many people and the pumpkin in particular, would dispute that.

I then had to wait another 75 minutes before the doctor could see me. Luckily I had Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand with me by Helen Simonson and I have to say, I’m really enjoying this book. It’s a good old fashioned love story starring two widowers in a quaint English village. I can just picture the BBC adaptation in my head already while I read.

Anyway, once I finally got to the doctor, the diagnosis was unexpected to say the least. My ears are perfectly fine and the problem seems to be from a cardio-vascular nature. “Don’t be alarmed, he said, but I suspect it’s a calcification of the artery in your neck.” All of a sudden I felt a bit faint. I’m only 29! Don’t these things normally happen to old people? Needless to say I'm a little scared now.

To assess the damage to my arteries I now have to endure a series of tests on Friday: ultrasound of my neck, scan of my head and lots of blood work. Best case scenario, I have to take meds for the rest of my life, worst case scenario I drop dead from an aneurysm before my check up. Quite unexpected indeed. Then again I shouldn’t be surprised seeing as I wasn’t exactly bred by quality live stock. Cancer, depression, cardio-vascular disease, gastro-intestinal issues, osteoporosis, bad lungs (that’s just me), you name, we’ve got!

Tomorrow's another day

2011-03-20T18:20:00.007+01:00

The last few days I finally got to do some things I've been dying to do for weeks now: catch up with some friends, do lots of cooking, watch TV all day and not feel guilty, read and make a Penguin Classics collage for the study.

I've been trying out several recipes from Miss Dahl's Voluptuous Delights which a friend lend me as well as the BBC adaptation of Dickens' Bleak House which kept me company on a dreary Friday. Both the book and the series are excellent. Thank you Liesje!

I also finished The Echo Maker which was off to a promising start but then went on and on and left me feeling frustrated and unfulfilled after 600 pages of endless psychobabble. If Powers only had cut out 200 pages it would have been an interesting and moderately engaging novel but now, this story about a man who no longer recognizes his sister after being in a car crash just got on my nerves. If books that babble like brooks and ultimately end up nowhere are your thing, by all means delve in. Luckily, I wasn't the only one in today's book club who felt like this.

Now, I'd like to end my week of domestic bliss with some light and preferably short reading, any suggestions?

Thursday's trailer

2011-03-17T09:21:00.003+01:00

Due to a lack of decent indie trailers, I've decided to start including the booming genre of the book trailer in the Thursday's Trailer segment. I particularly love this one almost as much as the book itself. It's a Book by Lane Smith ingeniously transforms our contemporary technologically advanced literary reality into a cute story that tells youngsters why books are so great and that will transform an instant smile on the face of every book lover. It still gets me every time.

Endings and Beginnings

2011-03-16T15:06:00.004+01:00

Last night after four years of arduous duty, Pink Pod aka my IPod died on me. She was a pretty and feisty little thing who gave me hours of auditory delights, may she rest in peace. What troubles me the most however, isn’t the loss of my loyal little friend but the loss of many songs that I obtained over the years from several computers that are sadly also no longer with us and neither are the original audio files making the extinction of my precious even greater.

I am now contemplating getting a new one, temporarily using the Pumpkin’s old one or using my multi-functional phone like the Pumpkin suggests. I’ve had my Nokia E71 for over a year now and 80% of its functions are still a mystery to me. Ok, I call, text, take pictures and go online occasionally but that’s about it. The organizer, GPS, MP3 player, QuickOffice, eReader, dictionary, MP4 maker and dictaphone remain virginal or mostly celibate. For some reason the thought of using one device for all these things makes me very nervous because when one breaks down, you lose them all, temporarily at least. Plus I also love cute gadgets and the fact that they’d all be replaced by one tiny screen makes me quiver and not in a good way. I don’t know really, maybe I should take the Pumpkin’s advice and just play with it, my phone that is. It’s a shame that she might never live up to her true potential really.

On I more environmental friendly note, I finally started cultivating my (herb) garden. The kitchen is now filled with several buckets of dirt that will hopefully sprout mint, basil, parsley, chili peppers, tomatoes and strawberries. Seeing as our apartment is basically one giant greenhouse, the tomatoes and peppers usually grow like weeds and basil and parsley were a huge success several years ago. Mint however, is this year’s newcomer and the strawberries are an annual experiment that traditionally fails but as long as there’s dirt, there’s hope I say.

Working up an appetite

2011-03-15T20:39:00.003+01:00

Day two of my “time off to get some more work done” was more of the same really, luckily all trains were on time or just about so I had no stress whatsoever on my long and sunny voyage to Flanders Today HQ in Groot-Bijgaarden. It takes me a little over two hours to get there so I’m really grateful I don’t have to do that on a daily basis but it did give me the opportunity to get a lot of reading done. I finally started our next book club book (cutting it short as usual) and I already got through the first 200 pages of The Echo Maker. Richard Powers’ novel is off to a promising start so I should be able to finish the following 400 pages in the next 4 days.

Another vacation resolution was to spend some more time in my kitchen, my favorite room of the house which has been severely neglected the past few weeks. I can honestly say that I haven’t done a lot of cooking lately and even less baking but this week I have already made a zesty lemon cake, a loaf of whole wheat bread, very tasty (if I do say so myself) vegetarian meatballs in a creamy tomato and basil sauce with celery and fluffy mashed potatoes, a gorgeous meat free lasagna with a fennel-saffron sauce and my rum raisin cupcakes are begging to be eaten as we speak. Maybe there’s still hope after all?

Brussels and Beyond

2011-03-14T19:56:00.005+01:00

Today was the first day of my vacation and I had to get up at 6am, what’s wrong with this picture? That’s nearly a whopping two hours earlier then when I have to go to work!

I went to Brussels this morning to interview VRT anchorwoman Annelies Beck about her debut novel Over het Kanaal. I only ended up being a little late seeing as Belgian trains never tend to be on time when you have an appointment. When you go to Brussels to do some shopping, there’s an abundance but when you really need to get there on time, you have about a snowball’s chance in hell.

Anyway, we had a cozy little chat about journalism, literature and the novel of course which was just about the time my tape recorder broke down and I cursed for the 18th time that morning.

Over het Kanaal was based on her great grandfather’s voyage to Glasgow before the First World War started. It’s based on actual events and features a wide array of characters that were also based on real people he came into contact with at the time. The main character however, is a girl called Marie and not Beck’s elusive great grandfather. It’s basically a coming of age story set in troubled times and featuring an eclectic mix of characters. Although not my regular fodder, it wasn’t that bad and a remarkable first attempt at fiction. And more importantly, the second Dutch book I’ve read this year! Progress if I do say so myself.

After Beck, I had spot of lunch with Helen Grant, YA author and friend, who I’m trying to get to the store to educate us Belgians on the blossoming genre that is YA. Followed by the necessary stops at Sterling Books and Waterstones without which no trip to Brussels is complete.

Tomorrow I’ll be heading back to Brussels to spend some time at the mother ship, Ackroyd Publications. And if I’m lucky, I’ll be able to squeeze in some reading and relaxing on the train thus accomplishing my initial holiday goals.

Taking a breather

2011-03-05T11:49:00.003+01:00

In the midst of all chaos, I'm going to try and blog a little. This weekend I'll be spending most of my time at Mind The Book, an "intellectual meeting of minds" full of lectures, debates, book fairs and lots of authors at the Singel in Antwerp. Yesterday we built a cushy 100m² booth and piled on the books, it was a backbreaking ordeal to say the least. Now, besides MTB I've also got an interview with painter Marc Kennes planned who has a new show opening tonight, some much needed pilates, a little mandatory writing and let's not forget World Book Night tonight aka loads of book related shows on the BBC (after the art show of course) so the pumpkin will be pleased when I forcefeed him a little more literature. Tomorrow night the booth, which we spent a whole day assembling, has to be torn down again so joy. I'm actually counting down the days until my much deserved holiday. I've got some serious writing, relaxing and blogging to do!

In the meantime let me leave you with some awesome useful bookmarks by the BookDepository. I want them, all of them...

Thursday's trailer

2011-02-25T08:45:00.000+01:00

Indulgence

2011-02-19T11:50:00.004+01:00

I just wanted to say that I'm absolutely in love with Clipper tea (thank you Iris), especially the green tea with ginkgo enhanced blackcurrant flavor and the orange & coconut one. Tangy, fragrant yet subtle and soothing, they're basically heaven in a cup and that's saying a lot for someone who dreaded the sight of tea until six years ago when the pumpkin give me my very first "ok" cup of tea which would soon become part of our evening ritual. Who would have thought that I'd become such an avid drinker a few years down the road with no less than nineteen flavors in my tea box? I still can't stand black or plain tea but Clipper's has got it right on every level. Plus due to their amazing designs, these fairtrade teas look so cute in your kitchen! What more could a girl ask for?

Thursday's trailer

2011-02-17T08:21:00.001+01:00

Faulks on Fiction

2011-02-15T09:50:00.002+01:00

Two weeks ago the BBC started off their brand new literary season with Faulks on Fiction, a four-part documentary in which novelist Sebastian Faulks takes a journey through British literature based on the its characters instead of the usual authors or periods.

In the first two parts he focused on the Hero and the Lover features books such as Robinson Crusoe, Tom Jones, Vanity Fair, 1984, Pride and Prejudice, Wuthering Heights, Lady Chatterley’s Lover and many many more. By alternating bits from several glorious BBC adaptations and interviews with several renowned novelist and thinkers, Faulks tries to give us a provocative character-based evolution of the Classics while at the same time reminding us of what makes them an intricate part of the canon.

I was personally very excited when the BBC announced an entire season of literary documentaries, adaptations and review shows. I was almost peeing my pants with book anticipation, especially seeing as BBC book adaptations are one of my guilty pleasures: the drama, costumes, old-fashioned language and manners, simply divine.

The result: I’ve already bought several classic novels that I’m dying to (re)read (some day) and a couple of BBC adaptations to torment my sweet pea with like Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones, the four-part drama that started off my lavish love for literature and Tess of the d'Urbervilles, a mesmerizing adaptation and my sole reason for reading the novel, besides it being the main text of one of my favorite courses at the time: HEL aka History of English Literature. Enough said.

Next up: the Snob and the Villain, I can hardly wait.

Thursday's trailer

2011-02-10T08:23:00.001+01:00

Little Miss Moody

2011-02-06T11:03:00.008+01:00

It’s been almost a month since I last posted anything. It’s not that I didn’t have anything to say but whenever I thought “I should really blog about this” I didn’t have the time and when I did have some time, I just didn’t feel like it hence my subsequent silence.

To me blogging is like reading, I have to be in the mood. On average I do read a lot but not every day. Some weeks I’ll devour several books and other weeks, I’ll barely read a chapter. This is why my blogging hiatus is usually accompanied by a reading hiatus. I started several books in January and usually lost interest after the first chapter because I didn’t feel like it. I wanted to read but I just couldn’t find the right books to suit my mood, yes I’m that fickle.

The books that I did manage to finish were Emma Donoghue’s Booker Prize nominated Room, which I personally thought was a sure fire winner seeing as it got rave reviews and tons of publicity so I started the novel with some pretty high expectations. The story is about Jack, a five-year-old boy who grows up in a room and isn’t aware of the outside world. His mom was kidnapped, impregnated and forced to spend the remainder of her life in that room by Old Nick. The tale is told by Jack which takes a while to get used to seeing as it’s a five-year-olds vocabulary but ultimately I really liked the book although I was surprised (spoiler alert) that they get out of the room halfway through the book. I was expecting that that would be the end but it’s just the beginning. Although it was a good book, it didn’t quite live up to my expectations.

The second book was Dave Eggers’ The Wild Things. I was very skeptical about this one because writing a book based on a movie that’s based on a children’s book seems a bit strange to me but I was in the mood for light entertainment. I personally love Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are and I’m still dying to see Spike Jonze’s adaptation but Egger’s version, although very good, just seemed obsolete. I just don’t get why he would write a book based on an existing story/book. Ok, he co-wrote the screenplay and thus had to elaborate on the original which is basically one long sentence, but write a book based on his own elaboration? If you don’t know the original, by all means give it a go.

What else? Well, one of the main reasons I haven’t felt like blogging is because Flanders Today has been keeping me on my toes and seeing as I spend a lot of time in front of my screen professionally, I tend to avoid it in my downtime. Besides my monthly column, there have been some other articles that were due last minute. Don’t get me wrong, I love it but if you get an assignment that is due in a couple of hours, the heat is on.

And then there’s my dear friend, Television, who’s been showering me with an abundance of quality fiction. I have become a slight addict the past few weeks but in my defense, there are some really good shows on. I’ve now finally started watching The Tudors: a period piece with loads of drama, sex, intrigue and violence, what more can a girl ask for? BBC 2 started airing the fourth season of Mad Men on a daily basis, enough said. I personally though this show was off to a slow start but trust me; it keeps on getting better and better. And finally, Boardwalk Empire, an utterly phenomenal show set in the prohibition era in the US starring the always great Steve Buscemi. Luscious sets, colorful characters, fantastic costumes, drama, you name it. It gives Mad Men a well deserved run for its money seeing as it’s simply sublime.

Besides writing a lot of articles and watching way too much TV, I’ve also spent a lot of time with my grandmother who hasn’t been doing too well lately. Seeing as I literally can’t imagine a world without her, I’m taking advantage of every moment. I know it sounds corny but we’re really close. We call each other every day, even when I’m on vacation, so the thought of losing her is simply unbearable to me yet becoming more real each day.

On a lighter note, my new vegetarian lifestyle is going really well. I also started doing pilates and yoga again so health wise everything is A-OK, except for my ear. I have a swollen eardrum, don’t ask me how I managed that, but the result is hearing your own heartbeat 24/7. Annoying, is just an understatement.

Last but not least, the Groene Waterman Prijs. On Friday this prize was awarded to Elias Khoury for his magnum opus, Gate of the Sun. The prize is award to a literary gem that has been overlooked by the mainstream media and his novel about the Palestinian struggles in 1948 is just that. We had a great ceremony at city hall and Khoury himself was there to accept the award. On Saturday he gave an interview in the Groene Waterman’s cozy basement and talked about his novel, Palestine and Egypt. It was really interesting and afterwards he signed some books, including mine. I’m intrigued by this novel but seeing as it’s a rather meaty topic, I’ll probably have to wait for the right mood to present itself.

Fretting about food

2011-01-09T11:40:00.005+01:00

I’ve been a vegetarian for one week now and so far, so good. It’s not that big of a change really seeing as I didn’t eat a lot of meat to begin with. The only hard part is deciding what to put in my sandwiches every day. I only like Gouda, so eating a variety of cheeses isn’t really an option plus it’s kinda depressing to have cheese sandwiches everyday for the rest of my life. I’m trying out loads of alternatives from tofu pastes to vegetarian salami which is really weird. I never thought I’d eat something out of a tube or something that looks and tastes like rubber. I obviously still have a long way to go. The only downside to my new “lifestyle” is that I can no longer use 75% of my cook books seeing as you can substitute everything with quorn but I’m working on it.

This morning I made hummus and baked whole-wheat bread or tried anyway. For some inexplicable reason my bread never doubles in size and become one hard lump of dough you could easily bash someone’s head in with. I don’t know how people get their loaves light and fluffy. Just one more reason to get a cranberry Kitchen Aid, right? Although I am starting to have some doubts seeing as a Kitchen Aid is only useful for dough and batter. I don’t have a food processor and when I was making my hummus this morning, a good helping ended up on the walls so a food processor would come in handy as well. Enter the Kenwood Chef which is basically a titanium Kitchen Aid with liquidizer and food processor and at the modest price of €500, it’s also cheaper than the Kitchen Aid aka every domestic goddess’s dream. Quite a pickle isn’t it?

I’m actually stunned because I would never have thought that being a home maker would bring me such joy, especially seeing as I couldn’t even cook for dear life five years ago. Cooking was never something they encouraged back home. My grandmother used to cook when I was little and then my grandfather took over when her soaps started playing back to back. When he died, we ended up in a grey zone that consisted of microwaving and eating out. Luckily things changed when I met the pumpkin and I slowly but surely started getting into my own. My mother and grandmother sadly, remain in the grey zone.

Anyway I’m in full blown Martha Stewart mode these days: cooking, baking, spring cleaning and tending to my ever expanding “rainforest”. I’m even considering getting a greenhouse this spring for our terrace and cultivating my own little herb garden. I’d love to have a herb and vegetable patch plus a few chickens running around but the options are slightly limited when you live in an apartment but mark my words, there’ll be chickens one day! Not necessarily in our apartment.

I’ve probably been watching too much Nigel Slater the past few weeks on BBC. I just love his cute urban garden where he can just pop out and return with lovely fresh goodness. Damn you Slater! I also got one of his books this Christmas: The Kitchen Diaries which is as the title suggests a year full of lovely recipes and loads of Slateresque banter making it a joy to read. I’m also considering getting his autobiography Toast after watching the BBC adaptation over the holidays staring Helena Bonham Carter. He sure is a colorful character.

2010 Roudup

2011-01-02T17:12:00.004+01:00

2010 turned out to be quite an interesting year, to be honest it has been my favorite year so far: I have two jobs I really love, celebrated five blissful years with the pumpkin and I finally found a little direction. For the first time in my life, I can actually say that I’m truly contented. I know that over the past few years I’ve done my fair share of nagging but it’s true what they say: the older you get, the more you are able to place things and that’s one of the many tidbits I learned this year. The road to inner peace has become slightly less bumpy and a tad more cinnamon scented. I also stopped taking this for granted, like our apartment which is my favorite place on earth right now and my mother and brilliant grandmother who bug me on a daily basis but whom I couldn’t live without. And I never thought I’d go to work with a smile on my face or have my own column, life can sometimes really surprise you.

Although not as much as my 2010 reading list:

Books read: 82

Fiction (no mysteries or short stories): 29
Nonfiction: 12
Mysteries/Crime/Suspense: 4
Cookbooks: 14
YA novels: 7
Children’s books: 6
Books in Dutch: 7
Short story collections: 5
Graphic novels: 12
Poetry: 1
Book club books: 10

Favorite books of 2010: One Day (David Nicholls), Invisible (Paul Auster), The Year of the Flood (Margaret Atwood), and The Other Hand (Chris Cleeve)

Yummiest book of 2010: The Hummingbird Bakery cookbook

Biggest waste of time of 2010: Big Brother in Europe, don’t even get me started. I had to read it for the Groene Waterman Prize and it was so bad in so many ways.

Prettiest book of 2010: The Art of McSweeneys, wow!

Most overrated book of 2010: Freedom, no contest.

Special credit to The Clock without a Face by Gus Twintig because it’s not just a great story, I absolutely loved the puzzles as well. Ingenious!

Finally, seeing as there’s always room for improvement this year’s resolutions are:

Become a vegetarian, already two days and counting
Read more, buy less and read more non-English authors
Blog more
Save up for the mother of all kitchen appliances: a cranberry Kitchen Aid
Do more pilates
Finish that novel, damn it
Be more patient
Be a better Godmother, I already endured hell aka the Samson & Gert Kerstshow today so that’s already one gigantic leap in the right direction

I guess that’s it for now. I just want to wish all my readers a happy and healthy 2011 filled with great photo opportunities, inspiration, laughter, new experiences, enlightenment and fulfillment.

Thursday's trailer

2010-12-23T08:15:00.000+01:00

Book Page

2010-12-22T08:20:00.003+01:00

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

2010-12-20T20:24:00.005+01:00

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

2010-12-19T11:04:00.004+01:00

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

2010-12-09T20:06:00.002+01:00

A Simples Life

2010-12-08T08:15:00.007+01:00

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

2010-12-05T09:03:00.005+01:00

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

2010-12-02T17:26:00.001+01:00

Holiday Reading

2010-12-01T17:20:00.005+01:00

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

2010-11-30T10:54:00.004+01:00

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

2010-11-28T09:28:00.004+01:00

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

2010-11-25T08:04:00.003+01:00

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

High speed reading

2010-11-24T18:40:00.015+01:00

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

2010-11-22T21:07:00.006+01:00

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

2010-11-20T17:14:00.006+01:00

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

2010-11-18T20:27:00.001+01:00

Required Reading

2010-11-17T19:36:00.003+01:00

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.