At first I was very excited to read another P&P continuation. However, the more I read, the more dissapointed I became. The plot I interesting at the beginning, but being less than halfway through, I had no problems figuring out how it would end.

Most of the characters are fairly “in-character”, but I can’t believe the huge changes Georgiana has gone through. The same with Lady Catherine and Caroline Bingley (what were they doing at Pemberley given her history with the Darcys?!) – it would serve the book better if the author could introduce other characters in their place instead.

The language is not anywhere near the classic Austen style. There are even some phrases that are used today (esp. in American English), but they were nonexistent at that time.
Many characters act as if they travelled there from future with a time machine (drunk Wickham, col. Fitzwilliam’s anger rage – to name a few). If members of such a family would act this way in the beginning of 19th century, they would be all deemed as highly improper and scandalous, as the author often seems to forget the idea of chaperones and proper social conduct in those times. Even the shy, gentle Georgiana seems to forget what is proper and describes almost everything and everyone without the smallest dose of respect, calling her suitors “idiots” or making not-so-funny remarks about how someone is fat and sweaty.

All in all, it is one of (not many) generally well-written P&P sequels, but unfortunately, not really believable as a whole. If you read P&P recently and then follow up with this book, you can clearly see huge differences between them. “Georgiana Darcy’s Diary” could work great as a standalone Historical Romance type of novel, if one would just change all the character names and place it in, let’s say, America.

View all my reviews

Magical realism a la Japan. Once again Murakami explores the worlds of relationships (both love and friendship alike) and loneliness. A real page-turner. I recommend it to all the Murakami readers and also to all those who would like to get a taste of this author.

This Kindle ebook wasn’t worth the money. Nor time.
Do. Not. Read.
Ever.
Unless you’re a 10-year-old and still like the world of fairytales and dont min’t the shallowness of dialogue and characters.

It’s like a sugary-sweet dessert with a sugar plum on top and sprinkled with sugar.
Enough. Now I have to eat something sour and spicy.

Robin Hobb. What else to say? Definitely more fast-paced action, than in the previous volume “The Dragon Keeper”, even more character depth and… a lot more of Kelsingra!

The world described in the latest Hobb’s books is definitely one of the best-developed fantasy worlds I’ve ever had the pleasure to immerse in.

I must admit that reading this book made me feel a bit dissapointed. The characters were interesting, there was some depth to them, a plot was present, for sure, but… what happened to all the action? Reading this book left me feeling lke I was one of those poor dragon hatchlings trying desperately to take another step forwrd – just to find myself back in the mud, moving slower and slower. I hope that it is just a prelude to the real bok and the real adventure in the lost dragon city Kelsingra. Will my hopes be grounded? That remains to be seen.

Whenever I have a moment (or two) of peace – I sit back with a mug of warm tea around, and… do some serious crocheting. Plenty of things to finish before christmas, lots of gifts to be made. Shawls, scarves, mug coasters, maybe even a nice doily. Hold your thumbs!

In the meantime – something nice I made for my sis – an autumn shawl.

The design is fairly simple, contains of symmetrically laid groups of double crochet stitches. Hope you’ll like it!

As it’s happening quite close to Malmö (the talks starting today!), I decided to write about it.

It seems that most of the world leaders and significant countries’ government delegations are going to be there.  The discussions and negotiations will cover many climate related subjects, of course, the most important ones – and the most dreaded ones – being carbon emission cuts. The interesting angle on the problem is that even China and India (not mentionning USA) have sent their delegates, being the countries emitting the most carbon dioxide into the Earth’s atmosphere. Following USA, they even declared to plan emission cuts for their industry. It’s quite an unusual and unexpected move – everyone expected the “Asian Tigers” to stand firmly on their “carbon dioxide emission” ground. Makes me think how it’s going to look in the future. Is it a dawn of “Global Eco Conscience” formation? Or are those countries just making small gestures to get more support from their voters (like USA), or get more funds for developing new energy sources (like China and India – incorporating new technologies instead of coal). Since the emission cuts proposed by USA seem insufficient, as Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt says, the EU will try to persuade Obama to make more significant cuts by 2020 (for now, it is 17 % below the 2005 levels). Sweden, as a current holder of EU presidency, wants to cut emissions by 20 %  below 1990 levels (!) by 2020. Additionally, the whole EU offers to raise the cuts up to 30%, if other countries follow their lead. The US gesture doesn’t look that impressive any more.

The Polish energy specialists say, the emission cuts and other “Copenhagen deals” – even though based on noble intentions for very much needed intentions – may have a huge impact of national and international production costs and other aspects of technology develpoment. The consequences for the economy may be vast.

And now – something from a more scientific point of view.

NASA has also taken its part in global warming research and information. I encourage you to visit their project website – “Eyes on Earth 3D” to experience how it is to fly alongside their satellite. I’ve also read some interesting articles on their main website, concerning NASA’s role in Climate Change global research ( Recent Climate Changes , Unexpected Ice Loss in East Antarctica , Assessing New Roles for QuikScat Satellite ).

Time for some very “warm” Copenhagen summit numbers.

There are over 16 500 people flying to Copenhagen (the number may even be doubled by the journalists and NGO members from all around the world). Think about the amount of flights and jet fuel (not mentionning the trash production on the site).

There are 1200 limousines in use for the summit,  only 5 of them being electric (due to very high taxes on hybrid cars in Denmark). The rest of them uses regular diesel fuel, really!

140 private jets have flown to Copenhagen – just for the conference. Jet fuel, again.

And there are only 200 bikes available to rent for personal transportation at the summit site.

Keep warm, Copenhagen…

Just look around you, and you will see it. Decorations in all those shop windows, flickering lights everywhere – on the streets, along the buildings and even in your friend’s apartment. Even the sky has chosen to cover itself with this lovely greyish-white fluffy pillow with anticipation of snow. Let’s face it – winter is comming, and along with it – Christmas, as always.

The gift giving season is approaching, I bet you’ve seen all those “JULKLAPPAR!” banners all over the streets. The fantastic thing is, we can start sharing and getting int the Jul-spirit even now, by preparing something really tasty that everyone will like (the kids, especially!). And that’s the main reason I decided to share a very easy sweet coconut-and-chocolate recipe with you today.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you -  CHOKLADBOLLAR!

Chokladbollar (Chocolate Balls)

Preparation time: 20 minutes + some cooling time in the fridge

Ingredients for ca. 25 pieces (I use the most popular swedish measurements, of course):
100g butter or margarine (not the salty one! the best is “osaltat smör)
85g (=1dl) sugar
1 tbsp vanilla sugar
2 tbsp cocoa
3dl instant oatmeal (Swedish people love their healthy havre gryn!)
1 1/2 – 2dl coconut flakes

Preparation:
1. Mix together these ingredients: butter (or margarine), sugar, vanilla sugar. Do it thoroughly.
2. Add cocoa and instant oatmeal, stir it all together gently, untill it’s evenly mixed.
3. Let the dough cool down in the fridge for a moment.
4. Take it out of the fridge and start forming round, proportional balls. Roll them in coconut flakes afterwards.
5. Put them into the fridge for a while – keep them there before serving.

Tips: If you’d like to add some raisin taste to it, just mix in some chopped raisin into the dough.

I can guarantee you that not many people will be able to resist this chocolate-coconut temptation…

Smaklig maltid!