Postcard

VITA FAVOURITES:
The first edition of Vita Andersen’s debut collection of poems “Tryghedsnarkomaner” from 1977 sold out in 10 minutes and ended up selling more than 100.000 copies which is a lot for a small country like Denmark. It depicted the life and mind of a woman in a way that had never been seen before. And as with all great litterature it is still relevant reading today. She was a productive writer but here are some of the favourites:

READ:
I loved “The Parisienne” by Isabella Hammad and am taken with my first reading of “Enter Ghostwriter,” her latest book. Isabella Hammad is aBristish Palestinian and the story is set in Haifa so it is a strangely relevant read.

READ:
I’m bringing Edmund De Waal’s Letters to Comodo. I loved his The hare with amber eyes and I think that we all have an obligation to educate ourselves. Especially at a time when understanding current affairs takes knowing our past. So I am reading yet another book on the systematic anti-semitism that has saturated European society for centuries.

READ:
Still have Stockholm on my mind so Doctor Glas set in the Swedish capital is the perfect autumn read. It was first published in 1905 but is surprisingly modern. Interesting how we often think of ourselves as “modern” yet it often turns out the the people of our past were much more radical.

EAT:
I am in the mood for cooking this weekend and I will be getting my inspiration from the new cook book by the women behind Easy Peacy.

I love books I can sink my teeth into so Fatma Aydemir’s Ånder or “Djinns” in German seems perfect for now. When you want to remember what slow days feel like, but the pace is picking up, this is what you want to go to.

I have started reading Goliarda Sapienza’s “The art of Joy”, and my plan is to read it in the shade of a blooming tree in the garden.

Mrs Dalloway is perhaps Virginia Woolf’s most important book showing the inner world of the female mind. This version by Vintage Classics is coming with me to my country home this summer.

Joan Didion is perhaps best known for her masterpiece A year of magical thinking which is one of the very best things I have ever read. Blue Night is also breathtakingly brilliant. I also really like Telling stories from Let me tell you what I mean about her method of writing. I love her language and how she makes me think.

Recently I reread Joan Didion’s A year of magical thinking. Last time I read it was over a decade ago, and I urge everyone to read it. Her honest voice touched me more that I can say.

I was given this beautiful book by a wonderful and tres chic lady in Stockholm who subscribes to my Postcard and shares my love of books. She thought I would like Small Things Like These, and I will be reading it during the Easter Holidays.

Anne Berest’s The Postcard is a gruesome and important read about life in the 20th and 21st Century as a European Jew. So well written it opens minds and becomes part of the reader.