Friday Eye Candy - Denmark

Book Quiz

We haven't had quizzes in a long time:

You're The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe!

by C.S. Lewis

You were just looking for some decent clothes when everything changed
quite dramatically. For the better or for the worse, it is still hard to tell. Now it
seems like winter will never end and you feel cursed. Soon there will be an epic
struggle between two forces in your life and you are very concerned about a betrayal
that could turn the balance. If this makes it sound like you're re-enacting Christian
theological events, that may or may not be coincidence. When in doubt, put your trust
in zoo animals.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Book of the Month: Half of a Yellow Sun/Die Hälfte der Sonne

by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

For a very long time, I have wanted to blog about this novel and recommend it to everyone. Here is the text from the official website:

"A masterly, haunting new novel from a writer heralded by The Washington Post Book World as "the 21st-century daughter of Chinua Achebe," Half of a Yellow Sun recreates a seminal moment in modern African history: Biafra's impassioned struggle to establish an independent republic in Nigeria, and the chilling violence that followed.

With astonishing empathy and the effortless grace of a natural storyteller, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie weaves together the lives of three characters swept up in the turbulence of the decade. Thirteen-year-old Ugwu is employed as a houseboy for a university professor full of revolutionary zeal. Olanna is the professor's beautiful mistress, who has abandoned her life of privilege in Lagos for a dusty university town and the charisma of her new lover. And Richard is a shy young Englishman in thrall to Olanna's twin sister, an enigmatic figure who refuses to belong to anyone. As Nigerian troops advance and they must run for their lives, their ideals are severely tested, as are their loyalties to one another.

Epic, ambitious, and triumphantly realized, Half of a Yellow Sun is a remarkable novel about moral responsibility, about the end of colonialism, about ethnic allegiances, about class and race—and the ways in which love can complicate them all."

This text and more about the author, reviews and background of the novel can be found here.

This isn't an easy novel when it comes to content, but it is a deeply satisfying novel, very well written, plausible characters and it fulfils the goal of all good literature, it instructs you about the ways of the world.

The only thing I regret is, that I didn't buy her Purple Hibiscus when I was in London where is was part of the "buy 3 pay 2."

Diesen Roman wollte ich schon sehr lange empfehlen. Mich hinterließ er mit diesem Gefühl tiefster Zufriedenheit, das nur sehr gute Literatur hervorruft.

Im Mittelpunkt der Handlung, die vor dem Hintergrund des Nigerianisch-Biafrischen Krieges stattfindet, stehen Olanna und ihre Zwillingsschwester, beide aus gut-betuchtem Hause. Olanna hat ihre Privilegien aufgegeben, um mit einem Universitätsprofessor zusammenzuziehen, bei dem die zweite Hauptfigur Ugwu als Diener angestellt ist. Die dritte Figur, um die die Erzählung kreist, ist der englische Geliebte ihrer Zwillingsschwester. Diese Figurenkonstellation erlaubt es Adichie, sowohl das intellektuelle wie auch das bäuerliche Biafra/Nigeria darzustellen ebenso wie Kolonialismus und sein Ende. Neben den politischen und ethnischen Konflikten im Makrokosmos, kommt es aber auch zu persönlichen Konflikten im Mikrokosmos, die die Ideale, Loyalität und Liebe der Charaktere auf die Probe stellen.

Ich bedauere nur, dass ich in London nicht den anderen Roman von Adichie, den es dort gerade reduziert gab, gekauft habe.

Hier gibt es noch eine deutsche Rezension zu dem Roman.

The Golden Compasss

Lately, I heard, that the movie The Golden Compass has not been a succes at the box office and therefore, there will be no sequels to it. What a pity, now we won't get more of those wonderful knits. This cardigan has been inspired by the one Lyra wears and you can see how proud my daughter is and how much she loves it.

Kürzlich hörte ich, dass es keine Fortsetzung zum Film Der Goldene Kompass geben wird, da der Film an den Kassen nicht erfolgreich war. Wie schade, nun gibt es nicht noch mehr der schönen Stricksachen zu sehen. Diese Jacke ist inspiriert von der Jacke, die Lyra im Film trägt und man kann sehen wie sehr meine Tochter die Jacke mag.

Friday Eye Candy - Denmark

April has passed in a rush. What did I knit?

Here is the list of WiPs I started the month with:

1. Kells
2. Crochet cardigan
3. Starmore afghan
4. Diamond upon Diamond
5. Mondnacht stole

And here is what I finished this month:

1. Starmore Afghan
2. 3 pairs of socks for myself
3. socks for my mother

Altogether approx. 400 g of yarn from my stash (the Afghan doesn't count as I counted the patches...)!

No yarn purchases were made.

I made slow progress on these projects:

2. Kells
3. Crochet cardigan
4. Diamond upon Diamond

I started as new projects:

1. Clapotis from Wollmeise
2. Seraphim shawl for ISE 6

Thus, I'll start May with 5 WiPs. I plan to work on everything but the Mondnacht stole. I suppose it will have to wait another month to be picked up.

Der April verflog im Nu und was habe ich gestrickt?

Der Monat begann mit diesen WiPs:

1. Kells
2. Crochet cardigan
3. Starmore afghan
4. Diamond upon Diamond
5. Mondnacht stole


Zu FO's wurden:

1. Starmore Afghan
2. Socken für meine Mutter
3. 3 Paar Socken für mich

Insgesamt habe ich ca. 400 g Wolle verarbeitet, aus meinem Vorrat! Keine Neueinkäufe diesen Monat.

Fortschritte haben diese Wips gemacht:
1. Kells
2. Crochet cardigan
3. Diamond upon Diamond

Neue Projekte:

1. Clapotis aus Wollmeise
2. Seraphim für ISE 6

Ich beginne den Mai also mit 5 WiPs und plane an allen außer der Mondnacht Stola zu arbeiten, die muß noch einen Monat warten.

New book and new socks

I finished a pair of socks this week. They are knit from the Regia Fassett yarn Christa gave me for Christmas. I really love the color. This yarn doesn't need a stitch pattern. They are beautiful in their simplicity.

And while I was looking for an out-of-print book for my daughter on Jokers booklooker, I found this out-of-print book that I had had on my wish-list while it was still in-print. It didn't take me much thinking before I pressed "order". It is such a lovely book full of paintings related to the fibre arts.

Diese Woche sind meine Fassett-Socken fertig geworden. Mir gefallen die Socken ausnehmend gut, und die Wolle benötigt auch gar kein Extramuster.

Außerdem bin ich bei Jokers booklooker auf einen Anbieter für "Frauen die nie den Faden verlieren" gestoßen, als ich nach einem anderen Buch, das auch nicht mehr erhältlich ist, suchte. Dieses Buch stand auf meiner Wunschliste seit seinem Erscheinen, leider lag es aber weder auf dem Geburtstagstisch noch unterm Weihnachtsbaum. Als ich dann beschloß es mir eben selbst zu kaufen, hieß es, es sei nicht mehr verfügbar. Um so glücklicher bin ich, nun doch noch dieses herrliche Buch über Gemälde handarbeitender Frauen mein Eigen nennen zu dürfen.

Anita Shreve, Wedding in December

Is adultery inevitable? The answer to this question according to Mrs Shreve is "Yes".

In her latest novel, A Wedding in December, seven forty-somethings meet at a cottage to celebrate the wedding of Bill and Bridget. The seven have been friends at Kidds Academy, but then hardly ever met again during the past 27 years. Their meeting is overshadowed by the death of Steven who drowned a couple of days prior to their graduation from Kidds, half of the group feels responsible for his death.

The narrative style is very fluent and takes you in and I enjoyed the novel for at least 2/3rds of the book, but was very disappointed by the end.

Ultimately, all of the characters - only exception the gay pianist and his partner - have committed adultery or commit adultery during those 3 days.

Nora was the reason why her husband left his family, as she says herself, there is a lot of pressure on the woman that sacrifice is made for and no woman is worth that sacrifice. And still, both Bill and Bridget have been previously married. Bridget was left by her husband a couple of years ago for another woman, Bill left his wife for Bridget. Bridget had been left by Bill for his first wife.

Harrison has always been in love with Nora, who back at Kidds was his best-friend Stevens girlfriend, now Harrison is married with two boys. They are the reasons he won't leave his wife for Nora.

Agnes, another of the characters, writes a novel about the Hallifax explosion and her main character marries the wrong person, too, because his true love won't marry him. At the end of that novel he will meet her again and commit adultery with her.

As much as I love the idea of there being "your true partner" out there, I found the novel very diasappointing, because of its treatment of the betrayed partners. The rectification for the main characters seemed to be, that they had just married the wrong person - for a couple of reasons. Really, their first love was their true love. Though this reasoning may portray the reasoning when you fall for someone else, I would have wished for one character to remain true to his partner.

Although, it is briefly discussed how Bridget felt when her husband left her and what Agnes goes through who has been a mistress for 27 years, the portrayal of betrayed partners is too shallow. In addition, the novel leaves the impression that your first marriages have to end in divorce because you will have chosen the wrong partner in your twenties, early thirties. The years of marriage that lie in between seem to just be swept away. Only reason to stay with your partner after 40: kids.

Now, it may be a fact, that many marriages fail and end in divorce around 40, but is it really inevitable and is it inevitable that the spouse is left? Is the "new (old) love" really always the better one?


You can read more about it here.