New books | Summer 2018

Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

In the past few weeks I have been pondering over these lines by American poet Mary Oliver (from 'The Summer Day', appeared in New and Selected Poems, Vol. One) and still have no answer. Her simple question is thought-provoking, to say the least. I feel as if I haven't quite landed in Germany. Don't get me wrong, I wanted to move back to the Continent - the culture and way of living in this part of Europe suits me better - I just thought by now I would be more settled. I have been looking for a part-time job where I get a chance to improve my spoken German before taking on something more challenging but haven't found anything. A bookshop didn't even reply to my email. How ironic is that? The good news is that our oldest has finished her studies in Scotland. We went on a road trip to pick her up, took a ferry across the Channel from Calais and got to admire the White Cliffs of Dover again.

At this point I have a few drafts lined up but I wanted to end my blog silence with a list of new books. I'm excited about Michael Ondaatje’s novel Warlight, his first in seven years. If you like his work allow me to point out Eleanor Wachtel's recent interview with him for CBC Radio. Her podcast Writers and Company is one of the finest for book lovers.

New books:
· Warlight  by Michael Ondaatje (Vintage). The last book I read by him was Anil's Ghost, and before that, The English Patient. Liked both. You may already have spotted the cover in the blog's sidebar; expect to find it on a reading list in the near future.
· The Beautiful Summer  by Cesare Pavese (Penguin). A coming-of-age story that takes place in Italy in the 1930s. Originally published in 1949.
· The Years  by Annie Ernaux (Fitzcarraldo, translated by Alison L. Strayer). This is the UK edition of her memoir, which has already been published in the US. '[A] masterpiece memoir of French life' reads the title of The Guardian review. I was intrigued and intend to read the book, even though I have never read anything by the author.
· There There  by Tommy Orange (Vintage). One of two debut novels on this list of new books, set in a Native American community in Oakland, California, where the author himself was born and raised. This one is getting a lot of good reviews. Like the cover.

· 100 Books That Changed the World  by Scott Christianson and Colin Salter (Rizzoli). 'A tour of global history by way of history’s most important scrolls, manuscripts, and printed books, from Plato and Homer to the twenty-first century—100 must reads.' A book about books that could be fun to have on the coffee table. This one was published in the spring but I wanted to include it on the list.
· The Collected Stories of Machado de Assis  (Liveright Publishing, translated by Margaret Jull Costa + Robin Patterson). I honestly don't remember having heard of Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (1839-1908), the greatest Brazilian writer, until reading Parul Sehgal's review in The New York Times. Hanging my head in shame. If you like short stories you will be happy to learn that the collection is 930 pages.
· A Place for Us  by Fatima Farheen Mirza (Vintage). A debut novel about an Indian Muslim family preparing for the wedding of their daughter. Editorial director Sarah Jessica Parker chose the book for her own imprint, SJP for Hogarth. I'm often wary when celebrities endorse something but I know Parker is a keen reader and she has recommended good books in the past. This Guardian Q&A with the author, a Californian of Indian descent, might interest you.
· The Outsider  by Stephen King (Hodder & Stoughton). And finally, a crime novel for the King fans out there.

Café Tölke in the Schnoor quarter of Bremen

In the spring I meant to share images from Bremen on the blog but things got in the way. Summer came early and on a warm Sunday I bicycled into the city centre and went for a stroll in the old Schnoor quarter. It was too sunny for photographing but I snapped this photo that captures the mood at Café Tölke, one of the first cafés I tried when we moved here. A small, charming place that specialises in cakes and pies. Once you have found a table and sit there with your coffee and Apfelstrudel you may get the feeling that as long as it stays open the world is going to be okay. That's the atmosphere of some cafés.

images by me, appeared on Instagram 05/03/2018 and 28/05/2018

Summertime 2017: new books

The longest day of the year is upon us and on the west coast of Scotland we have clouds and some rain. The ideal weather for mentioning new books, don't you agree, and for inhaling the scent of the peonies on my desk. I ordered two of these titles from the local library and hope I can add them to my next reading list:

· The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy (Hamish Hamilton). After twenty years, finally, a new fiction from Roy! Her novel The God of Small Things, winner of the Man Booker Prize in 1997, is one of the most memorable books I have ever read.
· Theft by Finding: Diaries: Volume One by David Sedaris (Little, Brown). Quite recently he was a guest on The NYT Book Review podcast, talking about and reading from it, and there I was in the kitchen laughing out loud. He is simply hilarious.
· House of Names by Colm Tóibín (Viking). An author I still haven't read. On my to-read list is his novel Brooklyn, which I wanted to read before seeing the film (2015), starring Saoirse Ronan. Couldn't wait and am so glad I didn't. It's a beautiful film that I can watch over and over again.
· The Unwomanly Face of War by Svetlana Alexievich (Penguin). She received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2015. This is the long-awaited English translation of her classic oral history of Soviet women's experiences during WWII. Published in July.
· Friend of My Youth by Amit Chaudhuri (Faber). About a man, interestingly named Amit Chaudhuri, who returns to Bombay, the city of his childhood. Published in August.

Hydrangeas and September issues

These days in late August give me pleasure: morning coffees, walks, mainly to enjoy blooming hydrangeas, slightly darker afternoons, and book reading by candlelight in rain or thunderstorms. Then there are the September issues. In my case, only one is a fashion magazine. The World of Interiors is as solid as ever; it always seems to leave me feeling a bit richer.

A few years ago I very likely would have bought a few editions of Vogue (there are old September issues of the American, British, French, Italian, and German on my shelves) but at some point, I stopped. I hadn't really planned on buying Harper's Bazaar UK but when I leafed through it in the shop there was a feature that caught my attention, on Amanda Brooks and her beautiful country home in Oxfordshire. Brooks is the former fashion director of Barneys in New York.

I think my buying the issue had also something to do with the Vita Kin dress Brooks is wearing in one photo. I'm fascinated with the design, patterns and embroidery, of these traditional Ukrainian garments - vyshyvanka. I wondered if I would grow tired of them now that everyone seems to be wearing them but it doesn't look that way. These are classics.

Apart from beautifully styled and photographed editorials that tell a story (often hard to find), there really isn't much in fashion magazines anymore that particularly appeals to me. I'm referring to the fashion part. I think I have grown out of them and I'm weary of the way fashion is presented. What's with these endless label-orientated collages of the pieces of the season that always look the same? I'm much more interested in the design process itself and what inspired a designer's collection. That's why I was pleasantly surprised with an interview with Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccoli, the creative directors at Valentino. Just look at their mood board below for this year's autumn collection. This is what I want to see.

In the interview they honour the relationship with their seamstresses, who 'put their own passion and love into the collection. . . . There is a lot of care in every single dress, in every single detail, and you feel that it is something very precious' (p. 313). They have added a third couture atelier and are training young people to learn the skills. As Chiuri points out: 'There is a dignity in this job, but it is also fun to see a punky girl in her Doc Martens working beside a 60-year-old lady in slippers - two generations together, sharing the knowledge and expertise' (p. 314). You can view a few Valentino design details on my Tumblr page.

Another enjoyable article was about Diana Vreeland, the legendary fashion editor, written by British historian Kathryn Hughes (her biography of George Eliot is on my wish list). A new book about Vreeland will be published by Rizzoli in October, Diana Vreeland: the Modern Woman: The Bazaar Years, 1936-1962, edited by her grandson Alexander Vreeland.

There were plenty of features in The World of Interiors that appealed to me. One in particular, about a Mexican ranch bordering Arizona, owned by designers Jorge Almada and Anne-Marie Midy of the Casamidy furniture company. Think traditional rugs with diamond patterns and leather chairs. Midy describes the surrounding landscape as 'green after the summer rains, but bleached pale gold by the autumn' (p. 130). I want to sit on that veranda and take it all in.

An article about Caffè Stern in the Passage des Panoramas in Paris made my heart beat a little faster because of Picasso cushions that are part of the décor (see one in the above photo to the left). I cannot remember when I first fell flat for them. The covers are woven by hand and handcrafted in Flanders, created in collaboration with the Picasso foundation. A few covers are available in The Conran Shop in London.

Soon the kids go back to school and the bright colours of the hydrangeas will start to fade. Eventually, the tree leaves will start to turn. Part of me looks forward to crisp autumn mornings; another part hopes for an Indian summer.

[Update: Because of a comment below about the olive textile sample and an email I received about the red one: All samples in this post are from Fermoie. The olive green is Rabanna (L-077), the red is Marden (L-275), and the striped ones spotted in one photo are York Stripe (blue L-173, red L-016). These are all 100% cotton. All info on the yellow one spotted in a few photos is in my blog post yellow fabrics by Fermoie.]

Interior design: built-in nooks

This summer my admiration for built-in nooks has reached a whole new level. I think it started with an Ibizan house tour in Elle Decoration UK  that I shared in a blog post in June. From then on these types of nooks were demanding my attention everywhere; also the textiles, the covers and cushions chosen to make them comfortable. I have a French issue of Elle Decoration from last summer that is filled with built-in nooks. It has been on my table this summer and I just had to take a few photos for the blog. You see, I look at my blog as a diary. I don't write one, by that I mean the dear diary type, but I note down things in my journals all the time. The visual part is very important to me as well and I like being able to store these images on the blog for others to enjoy but also for myself to look them up later.

Let us start with a few nooks that appeared in a feature on Scorcialupi, a holiday rental in the Italian region of Puglia. I find the outdoor living area above absolutely stunning. The two indoor ones below are also neat.

1-3: Scorcialupi, Elle Decoration (French), July/August 2014, pp. 108-117/Christian Schaulin

As much as I like the nook below, with its harmonious colour palette, I'm not sure I would want one in my outdoor dining area, especially if I were entertaining. If one person has to stand up then others have to move or make space. However, this kind of rustic style is right up my alley and I like how the industrial Tolix chairs create contrast (this photo only shows one clearly). The nook belongs to a beautiful and stylish home on the Greek island of Mykonos.

4: Mykonos house tour, Elle Decoration (French), July/August 2014, pp. 130-141/Giorgio Baroni

BBC's Life in Squares: The Bloomsbury group

Did you watch the miniseries Life in Squares on BBC? It was introduced as a three-part drama about the relationship between English painter Vanessa Bell and her sister, writer Virginia Woolf. To me it felt more like the story of Vanessa and artist Duncan Grant's relationship. Not that I'm complaining, I thoroughly enjoyed the series and its beautiful set design and costumes. Actress Phoebe Fox plays the younger Vanessa and Eve Best the older. I hadn't seen Fox in anything before and was very impressed with her performance; she fit well into my idea of Vanessa. James Norton is memorable in the role of younger Duncan (I first saw him as Tommy in Happy Valley) and so is Rupert Penry-Jones in that of the older. In fact, the entire cast is wonderful, an assembly of fine British actors who give great performances and bring to life on screen the famous avant-garde Bloomsbury group and its bohemian lifestyle, with the help of screenwriter Amanda Coe and Swedish director Simon Kaijser.

The series is still available on the BBC iPlayer but will soon be released on DVD. If you haven't already watched it I have to warn you about the first episode. A lot of material is crammed into it - love affairs and deaths - that will make much more sense to those already familiar with the individuals of the Bloomsbury circle. It's my personal opinion that there should have been four episodes instead of three to better introduce the characters. In episode 2 the storytelling becomes much more flowing and easier to follow.

Maybe it's a cliché to call the lifestyle of the Bloomsbury group bohemian, as I did above, but the mise en scène certainly is. Think paintings, art supplies, desks, books, letters, etc. During the World War I, Vanessa Bell set up a home in the Charleston House in Sussex, where the main part of the Life in Squares takes place. You will find beautiful images of its artistic interiors on the website of House & Garden.

For me the timing of the series is interesting because in the beginning of this summer I picked up Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse, which I tend to read in summertime. During the reading I started thinking about the sisters, watched The Hours (2002) for the hundredth time, and pre-ordered the paperback edition of Vanessa Bell by Frances Spalding. I realised my focus had always been on Virginia and her story, and I didn't know enough about Vanessa. The series has now given me a better idea and I'm even more eager to receive the biography in the mail.

The World of Interiors, September 2014, p. 146

I have what I can only call a longstanding infatuation with Virginia Woolf. I cannot remember when it started, and I cannot remember which of her work I read first. So much has been written about her life and if you are interested in her story I can recommend the book Moments Of Being: Autobiographical Writings. Then there is her nephew Quentin Bell's (son of Vanessa and Clive Bell) biography about her life from the year 1912 to 1941, Virginia Woolf: A Biography. Her husband Leonard Woolf edited her diaries and published them after her death (see A Writer's Diary: Being Extracts from the Diary of Virginia Woolf).

After watching Life in Squares I'm eager to go a little Bloomsbury-group crazy. I'm looking forward to reading the aforementioned biography of Vanessa Bell and then I would love to watch again Carrington (1995), starring two of my favourites, Emma Thompson as Dora Carrington and Jonathan Pryce as Lytton Strachey (see trailer). There is a film in the making by Dutch director Sacha Polak called Vita & Virginia, about Virginia's relationship with Vita Sackville-West. More to look forward to!

Peonies and V&A Indian floral patterns

At some point I scribbled down in my notebook that the Chinese name for a peony is sho yu, which means the most beautiful. What a fitting name! In Iceland, where I grew up, peonies are called farmer's roses - bóndarósir. Perhaps a blog post about peonies is a cliché but last year I accompanied them with a book on textiles and I thought textiles and peonies were a good annual theme. The latest textile book in my collection is V&A Pattern: Indian Florals.

On the cover: Length of furnishing fabric, cotton embroidered with silk thread, Gujurat
(for the European market), early 18th century

The V&A Pattern: Indian Florals is a small book with only four pages of text by Rosemary Crill. It has 66 pages of prints, plus the one featured on the cover and a few additional ones (a total of 71). There are short descriptions below the prints (like my captions) and the book includes a high-resolution images disc with all the patterns.

Bed-cover, dyed and quilted cotton (chintz), Coromandel Coast
(for the European market), c. 1725-50

Length of dress fabric, block-printed cotton (chintz), South India
(for the European market), 18th century

The V&A Pattern books are a wonderful introduction to the design archives - textiles, decorations, wallpapers and prints - of the Victoria and Albert Museum. For textile enthusiasts or students they are ideal for collecting. Next time I think I will go for Kimono or William Morris, or perhaps the Box-Set III, which includes the books: Spitalfields Silks, Chinese Textiles, Pop Patterns, and Walter Crane.

I find it a bit difficult to make up my mind, but the books aren't expensive so I believe that in a short time I will have a good collection on my coffee table and on my bookshelves.

As I write this, my last bouquet of peonies this season is sitting in a white ceramic vase on my kitchen table. I am going to risk sounding dramatic (I'm anything but) when I say that I wish I had the powers to stop the peonies from withering. I don't want to wait for almost a whole year to breathe in their heavenly scent again.

Peonies are indeed the most beautiful.