A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley

Larry Cook is an aging farmer who decides to incorporate his farm, handing complete and joint ownership to his three daughters, Ginny, Rose, and Caroline. When the youngest daughter objects, she is removed from the agreement. This sets off a chain of events that brings dark truths to light and explodes long-suppressed emotions, as the story eventually reveals the long-term sexual abuse of the two eldest daughters that was committed by their father.
The plot also focuses on Ginny's troubled marriage, her difficulties in bearing a child and her relationship with her family. (wikipedia)

I came across this Pulitzer price winning novel while I was searching for a topic to write my paper in a "King Lear" seminar for uni. For anyone familiar with King Lear, this novel follows the plot very precisely. The Lear plot, the Gloucester plot, updated and re-valued versions of them are the core of this 1997 novel.
Is it worth reading even when you couldn´t care less about Lear and just want an exciting read? I would say yes, but it´s not an easy read. The language itself is easy and comteporary but the the plot and the dense descriptions of Ginny´s awful life are sometimes so plastic that you suffer with her and get soaked into the whole misery they are all on. So maybe not something if you want to cheer yourself up or feel the need to laugh out loud. But if you like family dramas and as an added bonus know your Shakespeare well then give it go!

The Mousetrap

Sometimes my shopping behaviour can be quite rational, controlled and grown-up (the rare moments I successfully convince myself that I really don't need another t-shirt, when I buy waterproof real leather boots in Clarks or when I buy a sports-bra instead of something pink, frilly and sparkly).
Sometimes though the little girl in me takes over...and NEEDS mouse ballerinas like this. In the cheap average import 100% plastic quality.

That side of me doesn't mind hunting the cute little things down on ebay for hours, fighting its way through all the "Angelina Ballerina" fan stuff aiming at a target group young enough to be her daughter...
I love this side of me and I love my mouse shoes :-)

Wayne´s World

Do you believe it, I´m a child of the eighties and still watched "Wayne´s World" for the first time 2 weeks ago! To be honest...I don´t remember lots about it and it is way to strange and not me to become an all-time favourite, but:
At least I can say that I have finally seen this favourite scene embedded in the film:

Not much more to say really...;-)

Liberty

If you are a experienced London shopper I probably don´t tell you anything new here, but anyway.

I want to tell you about the shopping wonderland that is called "Liberty".
The business dates back as far as 1875 and is now easily spotted just of Regent Street as it is in a impressive fake tudor building and looks a bit like the Globe Theatre.

www.creativeroots.org

Strangely I heard lots about it and was aware that they are especially famous for a huge collection of typical floral and ornamental fabrics - but I always walked by.

Finally I went in and was smitten, enchanted and overwhelmed at the same time. The beautiful old building with it´s wooden interior. The exquisite smells coming from the cosmetic and scented candle departments. The busy quietness. The handpicked, classy items. The immaculate presentation. And the complete absence of pushy and snooty sales assistants...heaven.

An experience for all senses that is so worth it even though their prices are definitely high. But I happily only look around and end up buying only a handkerchief when the whole experience is so marvellous and inspiring.
The perfect place to find special things and to escape the uniformity of all chain stores, something like a shopping spa in the middle of the typical London West End hustle. No ostantatious high end shopping but true class and charme.

www.stylemakertv.com

So, if you haven´t been yet, make sure you go and find out yourself when you are in London again...

One Day by David Nicholls

Somewhere I read that this apparently is Britains "best loved book"...I had seen it in the bookshops for quite a while and when I read that it finally had been turned into a film, I thought it was time to read it (thanks to Oxfam I could get it for 2£).

www.amazon.co.uk

Here is the plot (taken from wikipedia):

Dexter and Emma spend the night together following their graduation from Edinburgh University in 1988. Though they do not become romantically involved, they become friends and in subsequent years, their lives take them in different directions, but they keep in contact. The novel visits their lives on July 15 in successive years in each chapter for 20 years.
Emma becomes a waitress in Kentish Town at a horrible Tex-Mex restaurant, while Dexter becomes a successful television presenter. Gradually, Emma fulfills her ambitions, first as a teacher and then as a bestselling novelist. Conversely, Dexter's career collapses, going from presenting a mainstream television show, to cable TV, to being fired from a late-night video games review show.
Each of the main characters have relationships with others, such as Emma with an unfunny stand-up comedian boyfriend Ian, and Dexter with a fellow TV presenter. By 2001, Emma has broken up with Ian, and Dexter has divorced wife Sylvie with whom he has had a daughter, Jasmine. The cause of the divorce is Sylvie's infidelity with Callum, one of Dexter's university friends. After the divorce Dexter goes to Paris to visit Emma, where she is writing her second book.
When they meet in Paris, they confront their relationship and whether becoming lovers is the right choice, after all the years they have been friends and with all the complications such a transition would make.

The structure is what makes this book so exciting to read. In each chapter the situation for Emma and Dexter was sort of new again as a whole year had passed. Sometimes I was hoping for them to finally come together, sometimes I thought it would be best if they would end their realtionship. Sometimes I thought Dexter was a complete asshole, sometimes I found Emma highly annoying. But always believable and always convincing.The language is beautiful (in my opinion) and there were more than one passage were I thought "I have to copy that, that is exactly how I feel!". Those are the magical moments when reading a book, aren´t they?
A truly marvellous novel with an upsetting end. But so worth reading and I promise you - even after finishing the book the characters will still haunt your mind every now and then.

Celebration

Just have seen that my blog has 20 followers now - thank you very much, hope you will stay with me and see where the road leads us to...and as I don´t like all the songs youtube recommended when I searched "celebrate", I picked a random favourite of mine which never fails to spread some good mood :-)

Monsieur Propre est un personnage de fiction...

I love shopping for food and everyday stuff in different countries. The joy is only diminished as nowadays you find the same brands pretty much everywhere in the world. How boring! I guess I´m something like an anti-globalisation shopping addict.
Anyway, if you search hard enough and have an eye for the detail you can still find unusual items.On my roadtrip from England to Germany I had plenty of opportunity:

Mr. Propre, the well known cleaning brand in the smell "Savon de Marseille". I don´t know why I wanted to sniff this one (although I seem to be the one constantly sniffing on fabric softeners, cleaning products, shower gels, etc...) but: the most perfect of scents! Smells lemony and like a pine tree at the same time. Smells like I want to bath in it not just clean my flat. So from now on call me decadent: If I need to stock up on a universal cleaner I will always travel to France now first ;-)