Did You See The Hunger Games Trailer?

I cried. But I'm pathetic and you can't take anything I say into account. Still. I don't cry for everything (insert giant AHEM from husband here). So I'd say it's looking pretty good. And, on another note, that book has some of the best names. Katniss Everdeen. Brilliant. Ok, it's Monday night, I have oatmeal coming out of my ears and I'm rambling. Will go make a fire instead. Good night and may the odds be evah in your favour.

For The Love Of Lisch

So. Work is a little crazy right now NOT THAT I AM COMPLAINING, LORD, hence the meagre posting. But this I had to show you. Now, if by chance you are Canadian HELLO MY DEAR or American HELLO ELIZABETH you've probably already seen this, but if you're say British HELLO JO HELLO PINK SHOE or maybe even Suisse SALUT CHERE COUSINE or Danish FOR FANDEN JENNIE or idunno, Swedish? You might not have seen it. And then I feel it my duty to show you. See how pretty this is? Look at that fox in skinny boots! En garde! Now, I haven't read it yet, so can't promise anything in that department. Other than that it seems very promising. So, link here. And if anyone of you have read it, will you tell if you liked it? This post was brought to you by the society for WOMEN OF A CERTAIN AGE ENJOYING BOOKS FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNGSTERS BUT NOT TWILIGHT, where my dear friend Lisch is president. This seems to be a book right up her alley. Just look at these illustrations! Oh my.

Now back to work.

Oh, it gets even better. They're husband and wife.

And Jonathan Safran Foer likes it. So that's that.

Now back to work.

Lost For Words

Ok, almost lost for words. But seriously.
CAN YOU IMAGINE.

Read This

Thanks to Denise I'm reading Gabrielle Hamilton's memoirs. I'd never heard about Gabrielle or Prune before, but I have a thing for both New York and chef's memoirs so it wasn't a really big decision. And it's an excellent book, I just want to finish it in one bite. I haven't read anything that gives me this much pleasure in a long time. Thanks, Denise! I want to savour it and swallow it whole at the same time. And it makes me very hungry. If you liked Comfort me with apples, there's a good chance you might love this too. So read it, you'll like it.

More books tomorrow, now I need to do the things that didn't get done when I was sick. Bleh.

Yes Please

I've had a crush on Coralie Bickford Smith for years. The talent! The name! The utter Britishness! And now she's done it again, with covers for Penguin's Great Food series. Just look at it. Swoooon. Photos from Saveur.com, check out her other work here (the Clothbound Series 1 is a dream).

Blurry Bunny Fever

Maybe one day for the benefit of your eyes (and tempers), I will stop using the iPhone as my main camera and learn how to do a proper job with a real one. Maybe that very same day you will no longer have to endure the masses of blurry pictures I have been torturing you with lately. Maybe one day. Not today, though.

Last weekend the kids and I explored the Beatrix Potter exhibition at Millesgården. I was a bit apprehensive at first ("what if it's 'only' an art show? what if they can't touch anything? what if there's no coffee?"), but it was so brilliant that I'd like to take them back tomorrow (only my mother would never speak to me again, she wants to take them herself).

There were clothes to try on, vegetables to harvest, fish to catch, eggs to find and plenty of books to read. We sat down on velvety pillows under a pretty tree and just read and read. Everything was lovely. Pretty. Sweet. And that, my friends, was just what the doctor ordered.

"I just LOVE Beatrix Potter!" Wilhelm exclaimed yesterday. "I mean, I don't have a crush on her or anything, that would be really weird. But I love her paintings. Everything's so... pretty." Coming from my dinosaur-bakugan-pokemon-shark-lego-monster-lover, that was quite something.

That said, can I just say that I find her stories, ehum, a little boring? Is that sacrilege? Please forgive me if so. I love the illustrations, sugary sweet as they may be, I love the ballet, I love the, ehum again, merchandise (please forgive me again, readers of greater intellect and more acquired tastes). But the stories? They are a little bit on the dullish side, are they not?

Anyway. Since this magnificent excursion the kids have had bunny fever and keep asking me if Easter is anytime soon. They keep talking Peter Rabbit and playing Jemima Puddleduck like there was no tomorrow. And if that doesn't say "Well done, Millesgården!", I don't know what does. Funnily enough, they haven't asked me to read them anything Potterish even once...

Random Three (Plus A Question)

The sky was baby blue with pink clouds when we walked home. And I thought to myself that it's a good thing the iPhone can't do this sunset justice – since if a real photographer with a proper camera had taken a picture of it, you never would have believed she wasn't faking it.

Blanka had a breath mint today and exhaled with pleasure "Mommy, mommy, smell my voice!"

A genius friend told me I look like Jarvis Cocker in the picture below. And I so do! I laughed myself off of a chair.

I need something good to read. Can you help? I think you could give great recommendations, if you wanted to.

Hullo There

Dear British reader, if I have one.

I'm currently reading John Le Carré's "Our game" and the hero (a mr Timothy d'Abell Cramner, no less) keeps saying "Hullo" left and right. I've seen this before and always wondered about that U. Hullo? Is it a public school thing? An upper class accent of sorts? Why not hello? And could you give me an example of what it sounds like? Someone I might know of that says hullo?

Thank you ever so much for your kind cooperation. Please excuse my ignorance.

Sincerely yours,
Anna d'Abell Cramner

My Prrreciousss

Did I ever tell you that I have a thing for old children's books? I do. And this Saturday I found this Peter Rabbit colouring book in my favourite book store in town . See how pretty this is! No dirty hands will ever touch this, much less colour it. Sorry, my lovelies. This is Mommy's book.

Life Goes On In Tehran

One of my favourite bloggers has been quiet for a while. And his quiet is a very silent quiet, so different from mine. I'm glad to see him back at work. If you haven't visited yet, do. There is also a fan page on Facebook where you can find more information.
Thanks again to Aymo for the initial introduction.

I Hate To Say It

...but this book keeps disappointing me. It seemed perfect. So pretty, so full of food and good writing. What could possibly go wrong? Snore, snore, double snore. It's boring, that's what. I mean to read a bit every night before I fall asleep, and as long as she keeps talking about the farmer's markets and eating in the season and missing coffee, I'm all ears. But then there's always a chapter on GM foods and heirloom grapefruits and bla bla bla and I just want to scream. What is wrong with me? This book has "Anna" written all over it. Maybe I'm turning into something new and horrible? Maybe this non-recommendation of a book, my first ever, is a sign of something very disturbing? Like me losing interest in the world of heirloom fruit? Sweet potato, I hope not.

Fellow Proustians/VF-ians

Have you seen this? If you're anything like me or new web acquaintance (damn, that's some difficult spelling) Jennie you're going to be very happy spending your day with this. Turns out I have a lot in common with the Governor of California. Who would have thunk it?

Du Hast Mir Gefallen

Remember the Spametry siege I was under a couple of weeks ago? It's now Spametry The German Edition. Babelfish tells me that today's headline is "You pleased me". Suddenly I want to be fluent in German.

Pretty Finnish

Look at this book! Someone translate this into a language I can understand, please! I lift my hat off to Finnish designers Mari Savio and Kati Rapia. Thanks for making a dull day a little brighter. Web shop soon to be launched.

Spametry Quote Of The Day

"I have been devorced for a long time and I was married never."

I Shall Be Pleased Very Much

I'm getting lots of e-mail lately from women of Eastern European descent. Why this is happening, I don't know. But they are all on the lookout for a nice husband and they are all on very good terms with Babelfish. Being fond of words and how they can be manipulated, this brings me lots of happy moments. Wouldn't you want an e-mail with the caption featured above? Or this one:

"My girlfriend Has found to itself the person in the Internet, now she is happy.
They - always alongside with this with each other. It is wonderful thus in my opinion."

It's poetry in spam. Spametry. I love it.

Old Friends

Yesterday Lina and I finally saw Harry Potter and the Halfblood Prince. And it was good. Very good. But the trailer for Spike Jonze's "Where The Wild Things Are" was... I don't know. Magnificent could be the word. We both started to cry. And then we started to laugh so hard that it felt like we'd never be able to stop. We were laughing like maniacs, with tears streaming down our faces. So happy to see this. So happy to see how brilliant it will be. So happy to share the moment. Your average lunatics.

But just watch this and see if you can keep the goosebumps at bay.

Hurra!

Today is Aymo's birthday. Please click here to read 33 random facts about this French gentleman in Milan. I laughed out loud, the best reading I've had in very long. Things I'd like to learn more about:

• The Woody Allen episode
• The two boyfriends
• The Harry Potter obsession
• Monica Lewinsky
• Hospital smell (my worst)

Happy Birthday, Aymo! I'm very proud to have you as a reader.

Wednesday Book Report

This is what I'm reading right now.


Or this. Or rather a mix of them both, since the edition I have is neither of the ones featured above. Mine is actually a lot uglier. But it's a good book. Richard Russo has always been one of Jesper's guys. When our books met about ten years ago, there were new aquaintances to be made on both sides. I was happy to get closer to Paul Auster (Tom Wolfe not so much) and Jesper enjoyed being introduced to mr John Le Carré (Laura Ingalls Wilder not so much). Then there were all those perfectly interesting ones that you just didn't pick up. Jesper had lots of Men with him: Hemingway, Don DeLillo, Raymond Carver, Martin Amis... There was no end to the parade of Great Writers Who Happen To Be Men. And I got a little bored.

So mr Russo never stood a chance, until a couple of days ago when I really needed a good book and picked Empire Falls out among the hundreds of willing Men Who Write About Men. And it's a great read! I've laughed out loud on the subway a couple of times already. Or at least giggled. (There's a lot of flatulence in chapter one and I'm about as mature as my fiveyearold son when it comes to that.)

Empire Falls tells the story of Miles Roby, a fortysomething man too nice for his own good (he refers to himself as having a "natural propensity for shit-eating"). His wife Janine has recently left him for The Silver Fox, owner of the local gym, and discovered orgasms. His father walks around with food in his beard and the parish priest has lost it completely and screams "peckerhead" as soon as Miles enters the rectory. The light of his life, teenage daughter Tick, seems troubled beyond the usual puberty angst and his brother David keeps pushing Miles to get his life started. Highly entertaining, great dialogue, I warmly recommend it.

Leo would love this book. He gives in to anything New England. But how about you, what are you reading right now?

A Bientôt Exceptional View

Lausanne did treat me very well. All that fresh air and snowy mountaintops made me feel positively Heidi-ish. And nothing cures the tired copywriter as a room with a view.

Leo thinks that's enough of blabbering about la belle Suisse. He suggests I focus on Qumar.