friday reads & tunes //010416

HEY!

I thought I’d write a little reading update I guess. I finished the Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood in the last week, as well as the Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch. I don’t feel like doing book reviews for them right now at least, maybe I’ll do some later. I’ve just been reading so quickly and finishing so many books in such a short time that it’s getting tiring to write a book review basically every day (this is very much a luxury problem, I realize that). Just know that I gave the Handmaid’s Tale 4 stars – although I feel like if I’ll ever re-read it when I’m a little older, maybe I’ll enjoy it 5-star worth. The Lies of Locke Lamora (the first book in the Gentlemen Bastards series) I gave 5 stars. Holy shit, that was a fantastic book. It’s 720 pages but I read it in less than two days, so make of that what you will.

As for now, I have pretty ambitious reading goals for April. I have seven books that I want to get to, most of them being classics. I’m going to blame that on BookTube, where I’ve been watching video after video of people talking about their favorite classics and thus here I am!

This weekend I plan on (finally!!!) reading Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. No, I’ve never read it before. Why, I don’t know, but I’m rectifying that now. As it is, I got it from the library and it has the ugliest cover that I’ve ever seen on a book. It’s a mass market paperback with the movie from I don’t even know when (not the one with Michael Fassbender, sadly) on the cover. It does put me a little off, not gonna lie. Hopefully I’ll be able to pass this obstacle, and enjoy the book. I’m currently on page ~120 and it’s nice so far. Mr. Rochester hasn’t appeared yet, though, so I wait anxiously for his appearance.

If, by some miracle (or not – I did manage to read 720 pages in less than two days) I manage to actually finish Jane Eyre this weekend, what I plan on reading next isn’t quite settled, but it’ll most likely be one of these four books:

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García MárquezFrankenstein by Mary Shelley
A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde

No, I have not read any of these either, but I plan on finishing them all in the month of April, hurray! A joyous occasion! Gather round, and let everyone know that this month is the month that Andrea Sif finally reads some Hemingway and Wilde! I myself am clearly excited.

Since remaking my room (it looks so nice now!!) I have been feeling really really motivated (although not in school, since I’ve been neglecting school-work for the past month) and thus been reading a lot, and reading some books that are on the heavier side – so hopefully my motivation lasts, because of these reading plans of mine. If all else fails, I’ve given myself permission to go to my favorite bookstore and get Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch – the second volume in the Gentlemen Bastards series.

Books done. MUSIC!

In speed with reading classics, I’ve been listening to some older tunes, as well. Namely, Billy Joel and Billie Holiday. (Also a little bit of Louis Armstrong) And so, I give you Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song) by Mr. Joel and Summertime by the wonderful Ms. Holiday.

Let these tunes set the atmosphere for your weekend, and enjoy it to pieces!

Enjoy your day,
Andrea Sif

book review: forgive me, leonard peacock by matthew quick

HEY!

One of the books that have been sitting on my shelves for way too long and I made it one of my 2016 bookish goals to read is Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick. After finishing the chunker that is A Brief History of Seven Killings, I thought I’d pick it up, it being only 270 pages with a pretty large font. As I knew I would, I finished it in barely a day, and so here is my review of it.

I gave this book 3 stars. I’m still debating weather or not I should lower it to 2,5 stars.

Forgive me, Leonard Peacock is about this boy Leonard Peacock that is turning 18. But instead of it being a joyous occasion, he has decided that this is the day that he is finally going to kill himself (as well as a hated classmate). Before doing so, though, he wants to say goodbye to four people that have affected him in a positive way, and he spends the day looking them up and giving them gifts.

Obviously, Leonard is very mentally unstable. He is very depressed and has a lot of repressed anger directed at his former best friend (the guy that he plans on killing), his mother, and just the world in general. He feels that life is doomed to be pointless and miserable, not getting any better after high school. Indeed, he has done some research on just how miserable adulthood really is, and has come to the conclusion that it sucks.

I did not like Leonard. I sympathized with him on what he felt made him weird, sure, and that didn’t bother me. What bothered me about him was mainly two things:

1. Him thinking he’s so much better than EVERYBODY ELSE. Everybody in his school are, as he so eloquently puts it, übermorons. And I realize that he resents them for finding him weird and alienating him, but I just don’t like his reasoning for them being übermorons, and I feel like he has a pretty severe superiority complex in this regard, because of his cynicism and deep thoughts. I kind of get it, but still I don’t like how he thinks they are worthless because of it.

2. His entitlement towards one of the people he wants to say goodbye to, a girl called Lauren. Basically, he has a major friend-zone complex and feels like she led him on when she was only being friendly, because he finds out that she has a boyfriend.

Yeah, those were my main issues with this book.

However, another (more positive) thing: I feel like this book deals pretty well with how depression works, and I was pretty sure that the author himself has suffered from mental illness (I am 100% sure after a google search), and I like that. As a mentally ill person myself, I hate the inaccurate portrayal of people with any mental illness. Especially depression, since I feel like it has lately become quite “hip” to write about it. But Matthew Quick obviously knows what he’s writing about, and it really shows.

On a pretty personal note: I actually bought this book when I myself was really depressed and suicidal but I couldn’t get myself to read it, and haven’t up until now, mainly for fear of relating too much to Leonard. And while I do relate to many of his thoughts, I’m very glad to see how far in my recovery I’ve come since buying the book. Yay for being happier!

Enjoy your day,
Andrea Sif

 

my 2016 bookish goals

HEY!

So, at the beginning of the year, I made some bookish goals that I wanted to achieve in 2016. As I only recently got this blog, obviously I couldn‘t share them here, but alas – the day has finally come! I‘m excited.

So basically, for the year of 2016 I actually set a GoodReads goal, for the first time ever! I set it at a very reasonable goal (for me), however, at 80 books – I probably could make it a 100 and succeed, I‘m just not entirely sure how ambitious I will be in my reading. Also, I just wanted to begin actively using GoodReads, to actually log all the books I was reading when I was reading them – something that I have managed so far!

Another goal was to finish or get caught up on all the series that I was in the middle of (that I plan to continue in the near future). So, I have to read or get caught up in four series: Mistborn (I‘ve only read the first one, The Final Empire) by Brandon Sanderson, the Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater (this one I had only read the first one, but now I‘m all caught up and can‘t wait for the release of the fourth and final book, the Raven King, that‘s supposed to come out in May I think), the Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer (I had only the last one left, Winter, that I was putting off because of its size – but I have since read that one) and finally, the Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. Yes, I plead guilty, I didn‘t finish the series. I am about ~70% into the second book, and since the movies are basically the exact same thing in that part (with Sam, Frodo and Gollumn traveling) finishing that one wasn‘t really a priority for me. However, I REALLY want to read the third one, since I know that A LOT of shit happens additionally in that book from the movies, especially after the hobbits return to the shire etc. As you can see, though, I am pretty much on top of this goal – having accomplished half of them at the end of February (when I finished Winter).

For my last goal was to finish some books that have been sitting on my shelves for some time. I chose 12 books, one to read each month, and the completed list is:
A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James (finished!)
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (I actually don‘t own this one, but I just really wanted to read it)
The Lies of Locke Lamore by Scott Lynch
The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslie Wylton
All the Light we Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
The Book Thief by Markus Zusack (already done!!)
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Auður by Vilborg Davíðsdóttir (an Icelandic one)
Illska by Eiríkur Örn Norðdal (another Icelandic one)
Forgive me Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick (doneee)
The Trial by Franz Kafka

Most of these I have begun, and was actually enjoying them but for some reason I put them down and just never really got around to continue – and so for 2016 I wanted to rectify that and finish them.

Basically, those were my goals. Let‘s see if I will be able to stick to them!

Enjoy your day,
Andrea Sif

book review: a brief history of seven killings by marlon james

HEY!

So I finally finished A Brief History of Seven Killings. It took me the entire month to read (I did pick up some books in between though), it being 700 pages and quite heavy. I have some thoughts on it, but bear in mind that I feel like I can’t really articulate them enough for this to be a perfect review. Bear with me, I did what I could.

First of all – I gave this book 4,5 stars. It is amazing, and it is crazy. I have never read a crazier book than this.

At the beginning of the novel we are in Jamaica in the late 60’s, but we quickly skip to 1976. Bob Marley is about to sing at a peace concert and it’s this massive political thing, a statement of sorts, that makes a lot of people angry – including the residential gangs in Copenhagen City, a “slum” part of Kingston. Basically, this leads to Marley being shot (although, as we know he died of cancer some years later – we know he does not die). A lot of speculation surfaces about this shooting and basically this novel dives into all these speculations and gives us the story from multiple points of view, as it (as well as the gangs) develops the next 30 years – the same years that the Cold War is going on, and we see how it affects the story.

The main thing about this book is it’s multiple point of views. All in all, there are probably around 20 or more points of views, but they are done REALLY well. We have characters that work for the CIA and are stationed in Jamaica for the sake of basically preventing communism, journalists and other media, a lot of gangsters – both dons  and just simple gang members, as well as a woman who just can’t seem to catch a break. All of the characters are very well thought out, and well written. Sure, my interest in them varied – my favorite (at the very least the most interesting) characters were Josey Wales: a high-ranking gang member of the gang in Copenhagen City and later its don, Alex Pierce: a journalist from the Rolling Stones that knows too much, and Nina Burgess: a former lover of the Singer (Marley).

I tried describing this book to a friend of mine after finishing it, and what I came up with was this (although not accurate enough, but it’s the only thing I could think of): Basically, if Godfather was written Tarantino-style, situated in Jamaica during the Cold War. Plus, Bob Marley. The end result: this epic and crazy book. I feel like crazy is the only adjective that really describes it, at least that’s the word that was in my mind when I finished it.

It’s very explicit in everything – describing violence from the point of view of someone being shot etc, as well as mentioning rape in every chapter. It’s not a light-hearted book, that’s for sure.

The writing of this book took four years. Fours years! Massive research was made, and it really shows – everything seems really realistic and believable. Basically, just bravo to the author for doing all this work and all the people  mentioned in the acknowledgements (yes, I always read those).

I read this book and listened to the audio-book at the same time, putting the speed to 2-3x. I really recommend doing both, since it lets you really concentrate on the book, and I understood a lot better because I had the multiple voices for the characters. Sometimes I don’t think I would have known who was speaking if not for how the narrator changed his voice and accent. The audio-book easily gets 5 stars, it’s amazing.

I realize that this review wasn’t really a review, just some of my incoherent thoughts – sorry about that, but this is a hard book to summarize.

Again – this book is crazy in the best possibly way. 4,5 stars!

Enjoy your day,
Andrea Sif

unpopular opinions book tag

HEY!

The unpopular opinions book tag, created by TheBookArcher, is a tag that I’ve been wanting to do for a long time. I’ve watched so many of these videos, just craving to write out my own unpopular opinions. And so, here they finally are!

Disclaimer: I love myself. Just wanted to get that out there. Continue!

One thing before I start this tag: most of the answers feature YA novels, just a heads up.

1. A Popular Book or series that you didn’t like.
This is actually a pretty easy question to answer. I really did not like The Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes. I was annoyed and angry every time I was reading in it, and I ended up DNF-ing at 80% (I was reading this on Kindle). Honestly, most things about this book just really annoyed me – the characters especially. I hated them all. Except maybe Magnus, but still with his thing for that person (if you have read this you know what I‘m talking about) – I just really didn‘t like it. A lot of people say it‘s like a YA A Game of Thrones, which makes me sad for A Game of Thrones (I‘ve read ~half of it), and also??? Sure, it is a pretty cheap and poorly done replica of GOT – and piss poorly done, too. I gave it I think 1,5 stars – and honestly don‘t know why I gave it such a high rating tbh.
Another popular book that I just could not for the life of me get into was Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi – the plot/world was OK I guess, I just couldn‘t get past the writing style, it REALLY wasn‘t for me, and so I DNF-ed this book at like 25-30%. Purely because of the writing style, which makes me sadder than with the Falling Kingdoms.

2. A Popular Book or series that every one else seems to hate but you love.
I‘ve seen a lot of hate (especially in this tag) for the Maze Runners series by James Dashner. And while I do think that the first one was the best by far, I really like this series. Another one that I have seen a lot of people dislike is Atonement by Ian McEwan. I read the majority of this book (no, I didn‘t finish it – and I was 15 or something when I read it) and I liked it. I really loved the movie, as well. Maybe just because it featured two of my then favorite actors, Keira Knightly and James McAvoy.

3. A Love Triangle where the main character ended up with the person you did NOT want them to end up with ( OR an OTP that you don’t like.
I‘m trying to think of love triangles that I‘ve read aaaaaand I‘ll have to go with the Throne of Glass. Spoilers: I mean, technically she didn‘t end up with either of the love-triangle love interests but went a completely another direction, and that bothers me a little. The author keeps introducing us to new and new love interests, instead of building whatever-ships with one or two people. What I wanted the most was for her to either end up alone or with Chaol (I really love Chaol) but I would have been fine for her sake with Dorian. However, they both deserve better and so I was especially happy for Dorian when he found somebody else. (We know how that turned out, however). SPOILERS DONE.

4. A popular book Genre that you hardly reach for.
Historic fiction. I am trying to read more in this genre, but the popular once in it always sound so tedious to me: a tragic and doomed love story in the middle of World War 2. Honestly, I don‘t really give a crap of some made-up couple during that time. I have, however, for my list of books that I want to get to in 2016 (hey I need to make a blog post about that – about 3 months too late, but who gives a crap) I think half of them were historical fiction – so hopefully I‘ll be able to read some more of it this year.

5. A popular or beloved character that you do not like.
I don‘t really like Celena Sardothien. I mean, I like her a little for what she is and in which books she appears – she is just simply quite lacking, I think.  But since I spoke about the Throne of Glass earlier, I‘m going to talk about someone else. Hmmmm. Alaska something from Looking for Alaska and Margo Roth Spigelman from Paper Towns, both my John Green. Yes, this is entierly due to their manic-pixie-girl-ness

Also, in addition to this question, I want to turn it around: A very hated/disliked character that you love/like.
Basically, the entire Lancaster family except for Geoffrey (I am not completely immoral) from Game of Thrones. But I loved Cercei, Tywin and Jamie, and obviously Tyrion. Bear in mind, that I have only watched the TV show. However, I did not like AT ALL what the screenwriters did to Jamie‘s character when he returned home (that thing with Cersei – that was appearantly not mentioned in the books). But yes, I loved Tywin especially, a very unpopular opinion. Spoilers: However, I did feel like he kind of deserve his fate, sure, because Tyrion was totally owed that and he was an asshole – but a brilliant asshole.

6. A popular author that you can’t seem to get into.
I can‘t really think of an author that I‘ve tried multiple books and just not gotten into any of them. But for authors that I didn‘t like what I tried is Lauren Oliver, I tried her Delirium series and I honestly thought it sucked (this was while I was in my dystopian phase, too). Can‘t really think of any that I haven‘t already mentioned (i.e. Tahereh Mafi and Morgan Rhodes)

7. A popular book trope that you’re tired of seeing. (examples “lost princess”, corrupt ruler, love triangles, etc.)
I am VERY tired of seeing (this happens A LOT in NA, which sure, is very trope-y) the big bossy rich handsome man that has all this experience in everything and never seriously dates until he meets this girls that is very awkward and a virgin and doesn‘t know how to interract with strangers, let a lone hot strangers and doesn‘t know she‘s pretty. I feel like this trope has been very prevailant ever since Fifty Shades of Grey, and even before then. I‘ve just had enough.

8. A popular series that you have no interest in reading.
The To All the Boys I‘ve Loved Before duoligy by Jenny Han. I just feel like I‘d be too annoyed with the main character‘s immaturity (I get why she is „immature“ since she is way younger than me – but that‘s the thing, she‘s way younger than me). A lof of YA dystopian or fiction novels, too, like The Winner‘s Curse by Marie Rutkoski, the Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by someone and some more along those lines.

9. The saying goes “The book is always better than the movie”, but what movie or T.V. show adaptation do you prefer more than the book?
Percy Jackson, I just loved that!!!!!!1!!!1!!

No.

I can‘t really think of any, tbh. Mainly just because I don‘t always watch the movie for the book that I‘m reading, and I‘m not really that critical on movies – but still enough that I feel that they‘re lacking. HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL. I just remembered that they actually wrote those movies into books, althought they did it after the movies had come out, so it doesn‘t really count.

Enjoy your day,
Andrea Sif

book review: salka valka by halldór laxness

HEY!

So earlier, I finished the novel Salka Valka by the Icelandic Nobel Prize winning author Halldór Laxness (the only Icelander to ever win a Nobel Prize) and I had some thoughts on it. Bear in mind that most of his work has been translated to various languages, so this book should be pretty accessible to anyone.

First of all – I gave this book 4,5 stars.

Salka Valka is about this girl, Salka Valka, who as a kid moves to a small fishing village in Iceland with her mother. They were very poor and couldn’t afford to go any further, but their ultimate destination was actually “the south” meaning Reykjavík, the capitol. It is about Salka’s life in this village, and we watch her grow up there, dealing with various losses and hardships, as well as some victories.

This book is published in two volumes in 1931 and 1932 and the story basically happens then.

The times are very much changing in Iceland during that time, as it is very much the time when Iceland basically collectively got out of poverty and became more of a part of the international society. This book discusses this, and shows how both capitalism from America mostly and Communism from Russia affects this small Icelandic village.

What’s different about Salka, is that she isn’t a very feminine girl/woman. In fact, she doesn’t really want to be a woman, and wears pants because of that – a quite shocking thing in that place in that time. She is also very independent, very stubborn and very strong, both physically (as she starts very early to work in fish – a difficult manual labor) and mentally. She isn’t perfect at all – this novel does not feature a perfect character at all, in that sense that most of them are somewhat morally grey – in various shades though.

The reason why Salka is so different might be because she is always treated differently, since she is a child out of wedlock, and doesn’t even know who her father is. Thus, her mother Sigurlaug is treated as a whore (and is called so by both adults and children) and Salka herself gets made fun of quite viciously – but she doesn’t really let that get to her.

We are introduced to two men in this novel that affect Salka in different ways. (In this regard it is quite apparent that the book is written by a man, god forbid that a woman grow without a man’s help). One is quite older than she is, Steinþór Steinsson, but he for some reason is quite obsessed with her and shows his devotion in various ways, some better than others. The other, Arnaldur Björnsson, is her age, and he is basically her childhood crush that, when they meet later in life, turns into something else. He is the one that teaches her to read and basically gives her her education. Later, he also introduces her to communism and his political vision. The book is actually described, among other things, as Salka’s and Arnaldur’s “political love story” (on the back of the book).

We see how Salka’s relationships with these two men develop and how they affect her as a person – as well as how she affects them.

One of the most interesting things about this novel is seeing how the village functions. Halldór Laxness actually wrote ~4 main books (I realize that I’m kind of understating his other books, but these are probably his most famous ones), and all of them touch on 4 various Icelandic ways of living. Sjálfstætt fólk (Independent People) features a farmer, Atómsstöðin (the Atom Station) features (I think – I haven’t read that one yet) city life, and finally Íslandsklukkan (Iceland’s Bell), a historical fiction featuring the old Icelandic Viking era life (again, I haven’t read it yet so I’m not 100% certain). And of course, one of the most important livelihood in Iceland if not the most important one – the fish, being featured in Salka Valka.

Halldór’s writing is extraordinary. It’s really flowy and quite poetic at times. He barely uses quotation marks, and so every dialog flows better than if he would. He also disregards regular grammar, but uses his own (something that he is famous for, and he does this in all of his books except for his very first one which he wrote at 19) – but his spelling actually makes more sense, phonologically speaking. It’s not in every word, and it’s not distracting or anything, just how he writes.

All in all, this is a beautifully written coming of age story – not a fluffy cliched one, though – no worries. Salka is honestly one of my favorite characters of all time, since I do relate to her quite a bit, being both very independent and stubborn 🙂

4,5 stars!

Enjoy your day,
Andrea Sif

update

HEY!

As of today, I am on Easter holiday, and it feels SO GOOD. I have been working full time for the past two weeks, as well as redecorating my room and haven’t really got any time for much else.

So, bookwise: I paused the reading of The Brief History of Seven Killings, because I wanted to get the reading for my bookclub Bragi done, Salka Valka by Halldór Laxness, and I thought that that book would take me a while to get through. It turns out that it doesn’t really, I flew through it and now have only a 100 pages left – having read ~400 pages in 3 days. I’ll probably use my Easter brake to finish that one (hopefully tonight even) and then finally getting through the Killings novel. I am reading it somewhat fast, since I have the audiobook as well, and I have it on 3x speed – and read along. However, it still seems to go by pretty slowly. It is crazy and interesting though, and very good – I’ll do a proper review when I’m done. I haven’t decided yet if I want to do a review on Salka Valka, but I think I probably will, just for the sake of doing one – and getting better and better at it.

Also, while I have been reading these two tomes, I read a YA contemporary novel, for when I just wanted to read something fluffier or (since I bought it on kindle) I couldn’t be bother to drag a physical book with me. That book was A Secondchance Summer by Morgan Matson. I’ve read her Since You’ve Been Gone, and as i enjoyed that, I thought I’d give this one a shot. I enjoyed it as well, and gave it 3,5-4 stars. Currently I am reading her Amy and Roger’s Epic Detour – and again, enjoying it. However, one thing with her books: her main female character, who is the protagonist always ALWAYS annoys the fuck out of me at the beginning. They are so juvenile and naive and they are always so dependent on somebody else – something that I just cannot for the life of me relate to. At the end however, they have gone through some character development and they’re OK. Usually her other characters are better, and as for the case of the Second Chance Summer (No, I don’t know if it’s written in one or two words. Yes I am too lazy to simply open a new tab and google it.) her family and friend dynamic is well done.

A different thing:

Since I didn’t do a Friday reads this Friday, since I was just reading the same books as the previous Friday, I didn’t get the opportunity to share some tunes with you, and I wanted to fix that and so, here are two songs that I have been listening to A LOT lately:

Colors by Halsey, an artist that I’ve never really been all that much into, but I just love this song and the video and I don’t even get why???? Plz tell me why if you have any idea. And additionally, the stripped down version – just pure amazingness.

Another song: Sunset by The xx. Again, another artist that, sure I’ve listened to some of their songs, but haven’t really listened to them. But again, this song. It’s just perfection, tbh. Enjoy them both!

A little side-note: Since making my room a Nice Place™ I have been quite ambitious, which is just fantastic – I even drew today! Like really drew! Not at work (I work at a kindergarten) just goofing around, but an actual drawing! I am very proud, since this hasn’t happened in years. I drew an Emperor Penguin, one of my top 3 favorite birds (Yes, I take my birds very seriously and have a top 3 -birds are awesome). Sure, it’s a pretty easy bird to draw I guess (me trying to be humble but obviously not succeeding  – I honestly feel like I deserve an award. I did award myself with some white wine, no worries – back at it again with the suburban white mom meme – how many memes can I fit into this???) – but it’s something and I’m proud. AMBITION! IT’S HERE. Hopefully it stays here for a little while longer.

Enjoy your day,
Andrea Sif

nothing really

I haven’t been able to read a lot this weekend, unfortunately, because I am redecorating and painting my room and just redoing it. I haven’t done that for 6 years or something, and so it is a bit childish I guess, or at least teenager-ish. However, currently, it is just empty. There’s hardly anything in it except for my bed, desk, clothing rack and couch. The walls have been stripped and my shelves and everything cleared out.

The reason for this is not only upgrading to a more suitable room for a 20 year old university student, but because I’ve been thinking about how I own too much stuff that I just never use, and so I went through everything that I own (every single thing, boy was this both fun and tedious) and threw out/donated anything that I don’t use regularly. This included my wardrobe, my high school school supplies that I always thought I’d look at for reference, but now since I’m way beyond what I studied in high school, keeping it was pointless. My magazines as well (I don’t read Seventeen or Cosmo really, I just bought them for airplane travels and they piled up) and my make-up. Boy, did I throw away a lot of make-up.

It’s weird to think about how we always have to own everything and our possessions just keep piling up around us and cause way more stress than ever happiness. For example, I don’t really buy any clothes here in Iceland, mainly because it’s quite expensive and also because there isn’t really a good selection. But whenever I’m abroad I just have to buy a shit-load of clothes?? Why??? And I travel abroad quite a bit, like two or three times a year, and so they pile up – and I don’t even use the majority of them.

It’s weird and I’m trying to break this habit, beginning with just getting rid of everything. It’s a cleanse.

(I realize how god awful cliche that sounds. Whatever, I’m embracing my white surburban-ness, remember?)

Also I just wanted to blog since I can’t fall asleep and hey of course the computer is the best solution for that!

Another thing that I wanted to write down: I’ve been weirdly obsessed with Halsey’s video and song Colors, and I don’t know why. The aesthetic just speaks to me, I guess.

Enjoy your day,
Andrea Sif

friday reads & tunes //110316

HEY!

It’s the weekend! Friday! Yay!

In Iceland, we have a slang for Friday that is fössari – try pronouncing that and get back to me. Basically a fössari isn’t just Friday, it’s a Friday. It perfectly captures the feeling of finishing work on a Friday afternoon and heading home for the weekend. Every time you get to experience that feeling, now you can easily express it in Icelandic – fössari. You’re welcome.

I want to do a thing every Friday that I share which books I’m reading and what I plan on reading that weekend, as well as sharing some music that I’m listening to. I listen to a lot of music – I’m never really not listening to music.

And so, for the first time ever, I give you: Friday reads & tunes.

I’m currently reading A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James and I’m 250 pages in in this 700 pages book. I am hoping to finish it over the weekend though, because I really need to start a book that a friend of mine and I are reading together for a book-club that we started called Bragi. (More on that later??? Probably.) The book for the month of March is Salka Valka by the Icelandic Nobel-prize winner author Halldór Laxness. The GoodReads page for it is here.

Those are the books, time for the tunes.

I want to share two songs with you, both by the Icelandic band Vök. It is one of my favorite Icelandic bands, and these are two of their most recent singles (both of them awesome).

Waterfall & Waiting.

Enjoy the music – and enjoy the music video for Waiting, it’s Icelandic nature at its best.

And I realize that this post was basically hey did you know that I am an Icelander? Please love us and please love me. I realize and I’m not sorry one bit. (I’m a litte bit sorry. Sorry.)

Enjoy your day,
Andrea Sif

 

book review: just kids – patti smith

HEY!

(Two posts in one night – wow, ambitious much??? Yes. Very. Validate my ambition please)

So at the beginning of March I finished this book:

and after finishing it I really wanted at least try to articulate my thoughts on it. And so a review is in order – should I grab a bottle of champagne for this fantastic occasion? As it is, I literally have a glass of white wine in my hand so that will have to do 😉

(And thus I realize that I am literally the white suburban wine mom meme. Well, fuck. I peaked at 20. It’s only downhill from now on.)

Anyway-

Just Kids is a memoir by Patti Smith. In it she tells the story that she and her close friend Robert Mapplethorpe (the photographer) share. It is their story, and it is both fascinating and weirdly beautiful, without that being its purpose really.

I gave this book FIVE stars. I would have given it more honestly, just all around a fantastic book.

At the beginning, Patti has just graduated high school and dropped out of college when she decides to move to New York City (in 1967) to chase after her dreams of becoming an artist. Eventually, she meets a young man named Robert, a fellow artist, and they start a relationship. The memoir documents the next ~10 years in their life (until her first album in 1975), as well as the art scene in New York.

I myself have never been to New York (to the USA at all, in fact), but I have watched Friends and Sex and the City, so I know what it looks like and what it’s about. (Yes, I get a very cosmopolitan feeling when watching TV shows – who needs to travel around the world when you can just see it through a TV screen in a sitcom-y style?? That’s right, no one.) However, I’ve never felt a stronger connection to the city than in this book. While Patti gets to know the city, she takes the reader with her – and as she starts to love it, so do we.  And in such a fantastic and poetic way that you don’t really realize it – appropriate for a poet.

Her relationship with Robert develops/changes as well, as he figures out his sexuality, but they always stay best friends. Their relationship is honestly very inspiring, how they accept and love each other just as they are without really expecting anything in return. Being happy for the other’s victories,  making them feel better in defeats. Basically, always being supportive of each other.

Another thing that really interest me is how when reading this you get to experience the things that they experienced along with them in the best way possible. The music and art scene in New York City during the 60’s and 70’s  was amazing, and getting to know the artists behind it – Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan, Andy Warhol etc – through Patti’s (and Robert’s) eyes is amazing. It reminded me a little bit of Forrest Gump – how he was present for most of the historical events of the 60’s, in the same way (more focused on the art scene though) Patti and Robert were. (The atmosphere in Gump is obviously way different though – and yes, I do realize that Forrest Gump is a fictional character. Don’t remind me 😦 )

This book made me nostalgic for a time before I was born, a feeling that I’ve never had before, being pretty contempt with my life in the 21st century. I actually had to make myself not think about as much as I was, for the sake of not despairing the lack of the Chelsea Hotel in my life. Obviously,  with Patti Smith being a fantastic poet and song-writer, her writing is very beautiful and captivating. This wasn’t really a “quick read” though, and I think that that’s a good thing, because I wanted to drag it out and cherish it for as long as possible. I really didn’t want it to end – this could easily have been a 700 page book and I would have loved it all the same.

Whether or not you listen to her music or know anything at all about her, if you like rock n’ roll or not, if you know anything at all about the Chelsea Hotel and its various residents or nothing at all (like me), if you don’t really like memoirs – this books is for everybody. Consider this your incentive to pick it up and read it and immerse yourself in a wonderful story. I recommend this book to everybody, a fact that my family and friends have noticed.

Again, five stars. Just all the stars to Patti, she deserves it.

Enjoy your day,
Andrea Sif