Reading, watching, listening

Reading:
I almost finished the second book of the Little House series, Little House on the Prairie. I liked them as a kid, but I appreciate them so much more as an adult. What a beautiful, adventurous but rough life.

 

 

And I just started reading Anne of Green Gables to my daughter. She likes the fact that Anne was adopted.

I can't remember having read the series when I was young,

although they seem to have been translated in Dutch.

My daughter's Dutch isn't good enough to understand

a whole book, so I was lucky to have found a used copy in German.

 

 

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Watching:

"Sometimes I dream of a tree. The tree is my life. One branch is the man I shall marry, and the leaves my children. Another branch is my future as a writer, and each leaf is a poem. Another branch is a glittering academic career. But as I sit there trying to choose, the leaves begin to turn brown and blow away - until the tree is absolutely bare."

 

The movie tells the story of the complicated relationship between poets Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes, who couldn't live with or without each other. The movie received quite a lot of negative reviews, but I think it is worth seeing for Gwyneth Paltrow's performance alone.

 

 

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Listening:

And this is the audio book I am listening to right now. Charlotte Link is one of Germany's most successful female authors. Im Tal des Fuchses (In the valley of the fox) is a suspenseful, psychological crime novel. It is not Literature with a capital "L", but it is perfect for that half hour in bed before falling asleep.
 

 

 

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Reading, watching, listening

I am currently reading this "Findus and Pettson"
 Christmas story with my kids.
A little late, but they insisted. 
Sven Nordqvist's picture books are my favorites.
 

 

 

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I bought Sylvia Plath's diaries years ago

in the Netherlands,

but didn't start reading the book until recently.

She was a gifted poet and novelist, suffering

from severe depression.

She was only 30 when she committed suicide

on February 11, 1963, which was two days

before I was born.

It isn't an easy book, but really worth reading!

 

 

~

 

Downton Abbey!

Everybody seems to love this series and I do too.

I watched the first three episodes and I think I

am already addicted.

I bought the original version with Dutch subtitles,

because German series and movies are usually dubbed.

That's ok for some movies, but a British production

like Dowton Abbey just has to be watched in English.

 

 

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I am listening to Kate Pullinger's "The Mistress of Nothing".

It is my first audiobook download on an MP3 player.

The player was part of my Audible subscription and there are certainly better players, but it is ok for listening one audiobook at the time.



 

“Based on Lucie Duff Gordon's "Letters from Egypt", this is a lushly evocative period novel. Lady Duff Gordon is the toast of Victorian London. But when her debilitating tuberculosis means exile, she and her devoted lady's maid, Sally, set sail for Egypt. It is Sally who describes, with a mixture of wonder and trepidation, the odd menage marshalled by the resourceful Omar, which travels down the Nile to a new life in Luxor. As Lady Duff Gordon undoes her stays and takes to native dress, throwing herself into weekly salons; language lessons; excursions to the tombs; Sally too adapts to a new world, affording her heady and heartfelt freedoms never known before. But freedom is a luxury that a maid can ill-afford, and when Sally grasps more than her status entitles her to, she is brutally reminded that she is mistress of nothing.”

 

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I am really enjoying this audio book about
Lady Lucie's and her maid Sally's life in Egypt.
I take it with me everywhere I go.

I try to squeeze in a couple of minutes
every time I am waiting for my kids in the car.
 

 

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