55 books

Last year was the year when I decided to join GoodReads. Thought it was a good year to do so since I managed to read 52 books, Which may not be a big deal for you super book nerds out there, but for me, who have struggled with my reading mojo since my burnout (just previous to when I started this blog, which makes it over 15 years...), it's a really big deal.

This year I sat the goal to 55 books being read. I'm 4 books behind schedule, but still, I think 44% ie 24 books read already is pretty good.

Far from everyone has been a good read. But you can see which ones I've enjoyed the most from the stars given on GoodReads. So far I'm especially happy to have rekindled with Haruki Murakami's books. Despite it's 500ish pages, the Killing Commendatore, part I was a surprisingly quick read. I remembered how much I adore his writing style. Begun part II immediately, but I thought I should make it a slower read. And try to finish some shorter books in between.



This book is fantastic too, Norwegian writer Maja Lunde's acclaimed "Blå" (or in English 'The End of the Ocean'). For being such a tough and heartbreaking topic, the progress of climate change between the mid 20th to the mid 21st century. It's impossible to put down. I would actually go as far as to say it's one of the best books I've ever read.



If you want to read up on China, past and present, this is a few recommendations of mine. Jan-Phillipp Sendker's two latest books I've read this year, and am reading, the other ones are old, memorable ones from years ago. Including Swedish Henning Mankell's 'The Man from Beijing' ('Kinesen', you get to understand a lot of what made China to what it is through that book, and yet it's a fictional thriller).



I've also "rediscovered" Maria Lang's suspense novels with the dashing inspector Christer Wijk. I remember devouring them all (I think there's about 45 books by her) when I was a kid/teen. I realised I have 13 books of her's in my bookshelves, so I decided to read them this year. I wish I had them all, but this will do for now. Will have to look them up in thrift stores (whenever that is possible again...) and start a collection. She's Swedish equivalent to Agatha Christie, she lived in the pretty smalltown Nora, so most of her books are set there (then called Skoga) or in Stockholm. They're quite enjoyable, and easy reads, the characters are heavy smokers and the gender roles are rather skewed (written between 1949 - 1990), but  if you're able to look past that because of those times I think you'll enjoy them.



One of the books I'm currently reading is Shinrin-yoku (Forrest Bathing) by Dr Qing Li. Beautiful and fascinating book. I hope to be wiser and more open to using more of my senses when I go for walks in the woods after I've finished it.



You may remember the special relationship I have with the number 55, since 2017. The beautiful Stockholm city library is situated at number 55 by the way. It seem's befitting that 55 books read is a decent goal for a year when so much is turned upside down, I think. So much is about waiting these days, and with no place to go, reading is travelling in your mind at least. Making the slow life more meaningful and enlightening.

What's your book goal for 2020? 
Have you read something amazing yet? 
Or something you find overrated perhaps, or really bad even?

proud to be a swede

This needs to be said. I find it fascinating that so many people have so much time to spend having issues with how Sweden act in the corona crisis when absolutely noone has the right answers. This is new territory for us all. Keep calm and do your best kind thing. Listen to science and act responsibly. Time will tell.

Why not spend much more time condemning the horrific nasty wet markets reopening in China instead? Seriously. Not to mention scrutinizing your own choices when it comes to your plate. Why continue using, abusing, eating other sentient beings and continue being an obvious part of the problem instead of going #vegan and be part of the solution? Consuming animals is why we got here in the first place. Period. It's never the animals fault though, it's always human behaviour causing things like this. Karma is a bitch. Rightly so.

And as far as I can see so far, the virus-development in Sweden is definitely not worse (rather the opposite from recent numbers) than any other country with stricter measures. Things will of course get worse than this, before the peak is reached. We are all aware of that, but this how we carefully navigate unknown waters now, responsibly and fact based. 

I would be generally happier if all borders and flights were closed for the time being, and obviously that Swedes from the more affected areas (namely Stockholm city) didn’t travel to the countryside and their summer cottages so we can flatten the curve. (The sense of entitlement by some selfish pricks are always mindboggling... Though  that’s a universal thing, not a Swedish one. This piece of Party Zero in Westport, Conneticut had me fuming for example...) 

But other than that, as far as I can see, it seems like the majority of Swedes actually do have that much talked about common sense aka folkvett. As a great column (in Swedish only) talked about today, I’m proud to be Swede today just because of the way we’re handling the corona crisis: ”I’m proud to be Swedish right now. And not Danish for example. Or French. We’re allowed to think for ourselves.”

And let me tell you, being Swedish born and bred it’s a very rare thing for me to be proud of Sweden these days - and you long term readers know how critical and disappointed I am, and have been for many many years, about the misuse of resources, competence, taxpayers money, gutless politicians and now greenwashing of costly environmental initiatives in Sweden, to mention a few things. Still, grateful in so many ways for having been born and bred here yes, but proud not so much at all. But when it comes to this current crisis, strangely enough I generally am. 

On a very heartwarming note, the fact that it didn't take many days of lockdown until wild animals were slowly fearlessly taking over cities, that's just amazing in so many ways. If you haven't heard of the posse of goats roaming the streets in Welsh Llandudno yet, you have now!

PS If you've never seen purple potatoes, you have now. DS

my favourite book by henning mankell

I was so sad to hear about the too early passing of Henning Mankell. A man so much more than a great crime novelist, also a human rights activist. 

Of course most known for his books about Kurt Wallander, but for me first and foremost (and yes I've said so before) 'The Man from Beijing' is the book you should read. Well-written, ingenious and  brilliant in so many ways. A book that will most likely blow your mind and make you a more well-informed and curious person. 

Do you have a favourite Mankell-book?

a rice grain named pia

M has a habit of bringing the strangest things home from his business trips (which again and again makes me ponder the fact that, after all these years, he really doesn't know me at all, he just seems to think so).

Sometimes though, the strangest things are rather intriguing. Making you think about how many different occupations and talents that exist on this planet of ours. In China one apparently being writing names in all kinds of languages and lengths on a single rice grain.

Needless to say for a ridiculously low sum of money. At least a very short three letter word didn't take a lot of time to write. But still, a tiny symbol for what we in the Western world in general pay for goods made with a lot of hard work and skills in other parts of the world.

Say hallo to a rice grain named Pia.

a vegetarian chinese lunch

At the latest Walk & Talk I walked and talked with a woman who has a pretty awesome business, she is originally from China and offers cooking classes in Chinese cooking but also Qigong, spa for smaller groups and organic skincare. Since I'd love to learn more about cooking tofu we talked a lot about that and then I was lucky enough to get an invitation for lunch.

And it was truly lovely! Pretty much as far as you can get from the greasy, deep fried, bland, too salty, curry or sweetsour food you get a every Chinese restaurant in Sweden. These dishes where simply flavoursome, fresh, fragrant and so tasty. The dishes were a blend of vegan and vegetarian.

Hopefully I'll be able to reasonably recreate them myself, tofu is a tricky ingredient to make justice of I think.


cold tofu salad with lots of coriander -
apparently you either love or hate coriander,
i'm glad to say i loved it. this was probably my favourite dish.

fried egg and fresh tomato with spring onions -
marinated tofu, black mushrooms and celery
(which i'm not fond of, but in this dish it was lovely) with chili and garlic.

i also got to taste the zongzi sticky rice dumplings (in celebrations of the duanwu festival),
the texture and flavour reminded me of the rice pudding we had in school,
but then served with a delicious apricot sauce.
to be honest, i think these dumplings would have benefitted from a fruit sauce.



The dessert was something not exactly Chinese, but really lovely just the same, home-made strawberry cheesecake icecream.

Water and green tea was the beverages of choice and a little sweet cracker jampacked with sesame seeds rounded off this more than excellent meal.

If you're interested in more information about Xia's business,
have a look at her business relaXia's website (only in Swedish) 

the terracotta army

The week before Christmas - on one of those rare winter-days with sun which made the freezing, wintry streets of Stockholm look absolutely enchanting - we finally made our way to this round of the Terracotta Army exhibition. Last time it was on display in Stockholm was in 1984. I remembered we queued for hours on a bitterly cold winter day back then, me and a friend. The weather much like now, but no queueing this time (and I would not have been that patient now). For some reason I seem to recall it was worth the wait and the money then, that it was indeed an impressive exhibition.

This time I was utterly disappointed. About 10 clay soldiers in glass boxes, a few small horses and some smaller sculptures. Not at all what I had expected – had I read more about the exhibition beforehand I would probably had realized it would be far from the world heritage grandeur I had thought of. So silly me for that – and for quite a hefty entrance fee (~22 usd).

And as impressive as the work and craftsmanship itself is, it also oozes monumental madness, tragedy, waste and sadness. Only humans use and abuse others to create something as ridiculous and crazy. All that went through my mind while we strolled the exhibition, me trying to get some reasonable photos in bad light while feeling it was rather a waste of time and money...

There’s a replica exhibition at the China center (not without its controversy) center called Dragon Gate some few hours drive north of Stockholm, where the display seems to be much more of impressive-clay-army-like. Which quite possible would make one even more sad than these few clay fellas did, thinking of all the madness and waste with human history repeating itself in different ways still...

What made me most happy that day (apart from the glorious winter weather) was the finding of my two kitsch generals. Hadn't I gone to the exhibition I'd never have found them. They are most amusing. Kind of silent. But sort of dashing. Perky and colourful. All hearts and mild manners. Non bellicose. Tad golden. Keeping a watchful eye over matters. Ideal.

mooncake, no mooncake

I was very much looking forward to trying the traditional Chinese moon cake - served at the Chinese Mid-Autumn festival - that M brought home from a business trip to China recently.

Alas I was sorely disappointed. They smelled quite non-vegetarian. The table of contents was illegible. And apparently lard is often used instead of vegetable oil. Thus, no moon cake for me. The winter birds will be very happy though, getting moon cake pieces.

And me, I got a pretty (although very kitsch and not really my cup of design/style tea per se) tin.

With a "Beauty Knife And Fork" plastic set. Just what I always wanted.

From the Desk of Pia K

Ah, there are very few things that can set the Monday mood, pimp up the week, spruce up one's life like like a gift in shape of one's own personalized, handcrafted in jade Chinese stamp with a dragon on top. Intricate details - Chinese dragons apparently don't just spit fire, they have very tiny, adorable teeth and look constantly high on something - and beautifully made it's truly one of a kind. From now on, letters from undersigned dragon's den will be extraordinary snazzy. Do I hear an unfathomable Choir of Envious Sighs out there - yes I thought so.

A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary For Lovers

This book by Xiaolu Guo has an inside that matches its tempting cover. With a very different approach to east meets west, woman meets man it takes the reader on a venturous literary journey. Through a simple dictionary the reader gets to follow the story of Z from China who's sent to England by her parents to study English. With her comes a dictionary and since she can barely speak a word of English before she lands in England this dictionary is her first and only friend in the western world.

She later meets an older man and step by step, through immense cultural clashes and completely different views on life, their one year love story is told. The book is written in a hobble way, in a way one newly arrived to the west without any prior knowledge in a language would write, in broken English.

Admittedly I did find it rather difficult to read - and even more difficult not to use my friend the pen and point out solecisms, spelling errors and my musings... - at first, but then I realised that if you were to translate Swedish to English straight off, this is pretty much how it would read. That somehow made it easier to just relax, read and think about the thoughts and ideas, cultural concepts and misconceptions that hid behind the words.

I find the book to be quite brilliant, both the unusual and unique way of telling a story. How in many ways very, very different we look at animals, family, food, freedom, grammar, life, living, love, relationships, tense, travel, words, work here in west compared to east. The way both world's take so many, too many, things for granted makes me sad. How in midst of all these differences there's often a core of the same basic needs and longings. Not to mention how much humour there is to be found in someone struggling to grasp and learn a new language.

Highly recommended read.

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

Recently I've been enjoying two very different books by two, I'd imagine, very different Chinese writers. Though both, in their own way, political in a more or less circuitously order. One slightly more poetic than the other and that's the one I'm going to write a few words on now.

"Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress" is a little gem of a story - that for some odd reason hasn't been translated into Swedish, which is such a pity for Swedes who can't or don't want to read it in English - is set in the early 1970ies and about two teenage sons of academics who are banished to a village in the middle of the Chinese nowhere during the Cultural Revolution.

Though gruesome circumstances the boys find friendship, love (both for books and the little seamstress) and magic. Despite the subject revolving around life's hardship this easy, yet by no means simple, read of a novel manages to both beautifully paint, with carefully chosen words, a most vivid description of nature itself as well as the human - very far from always appealing - equivalence.

Amidst all this dirt and darkness caused by the human mind and body there is humour and just because someone has already written exactly what I'd like to say about this book I will now shamelessly steal/quote a few words from The Boston Globe review on the back cover of the book - "... a glimpse in to that dark place where the human spirit continued, against all odds, to shine its light". Well, some spirit and some light for and by at least some.

At first I did find the ending slightly disappointing and ignominous, but when pondering a bit more about it that ending just gives food for thought instead of completely string it together. And sometimes that can be the best of endings.

The exquisite cover design (of my version of the book) match the words within beautifully. Needless to say, this book, originally written in French, by Dai Sijie, is a highly recommended read, both for the story told and the writing.

China Girl

At the beautiful Konstnärshuset (Art House) in the city centre there's a small but urgent, sad and beautiful exhibition - by artist Maria Ängquist Klyvare - on at the moment called China Girl. The exhibition revolves around the shocking fact that 50 million women are "missing" in China, thousands of girls are being literally eradicated each and every day. Murdered and neglected. Not considered as valuable as a boy, and this tragedy is ongoing still in this day and age.

Such brutality, the extent of ignorance and yes, pure ungraspable evilness, its painful to be faced with. Makes one shudder both in horror, despair and immense sadness. Read more here (both in Swedish and English) about this very flagrant form of gender discrimination and its far-reaching consequences.

For all its faults and flaws, such malicious phenomenas and cultural tides makes one very grateful for being born, loved, living and existing in this little country in northern Europe. Oh yes, there's much room for improvement here too, on many levels indeed, but all and all, as a society, we're blessed with the evident lack of such troglodyte behaviour without an ounce of compassion.

This pressing exhibition is on at Konstnärshuset until February 14th, then it'll go on tour throughout Sweden until 2009. Address is Smålandsgatan 7, open Tuesday-Sunday, free admission.

From China with love

This is what a very nice M (that has a certain 007-feeling to it, huh?) brought me, from his business (or was it just that...) trip to China.

I must say, even though I'm very clear on what I do like and don't like, what I think is completely unnecessary, ugly, a waste of resources etc etc he still, after all this time, more than sometimes shows more than a slight dash of cluelessness *which is a very nice way to put it*... Well, I guess everyone can't have an eye for what to shop and not. Perhaps.

And you know that feeling that you really shouldn't be ungrateful, because it was just someone being kind... Even if that someone really ought to know better...

The only thing I put in an order on was the Guerlain KissKiss lipstick #523 - check! Quite lovely both in colour and package plus as usual it smells divine. Maybe this is The One Red lipstick that really will suit me...

Of course I had put in a big order for pearls and stones - I did get some rather nice stones, but in the more personal and small quantity-kind of way. Looks like most of them will be made into jewellery for me, myself and I and noone else. Alas no pearls.

Strange nuts, quite tasty coconut-coffee candy (even if I'm not certain I've got all my teeth intact after eating them...), Chinese tea (that can't go wrong, can it?) of unidentified sort, lipbalm with apple, a pashmina shawl in a lovely green colour (but allow me to be rather sceptical about its pashmina-quality... 70% pashmina and 30% silk, hm, I don't know about that...). Still, so far so good.

But now we have arrived at the point when the things bought just seems to slowly slipsliding downwards - why do I need a box of Hello Kitty with quite awful jellycandy? And a butt-ugly pig-torch in pink plastic? And even if I like SHEmagazine (incl lipgloss) I do not want to have another issue of horrible Glamour-magazine EVER (but I suspect that's something that my dear agent M does know)!! Especially NOT when it comes with a horrific pink summer bag exclusively designed for Glamour by H&M... And no, no, no I do not need a pink plastic wristwatch with catpaws...

Either the years of comrade-Pia-what-to-shop-and-not-indoctrination hasn't worked at all - that male gene is more insubordinate than one might suspect! - or perhaps agent M find great delight in buying these plastic-not-fantastic just for tease sake. I'm not sure which is worse...