Personality: The star

Flamboyant and energetic, for L’Imperatrice life is a movie and she is its heroine. All heads turn when she enters a room. Vibrant, magnetic she exudes charisma and force of character.

Succulent exotic fruits and bright pink florals give way to a musky appetite – arousing base.

A mouth – watering concoction of fresh watermelon and juicy kiwi is offset by the drama of cyclamen for an exhilarating fragrance sensation. Boisterous, brilliant, and incredible addictive.

L’Imperatrice along with Le Bateleur, L’Amoureux, La Force, La Roue De La Fortune and La Lune make up the New Fragrance collection by D&G. However, L’Imperatrice is by far the most interesting to me. Fruity and soft the best perfume for Spring and Summer everyday-to-work fragrance while still being a rather wearable fragrance for the winter time. It is different from many fruity perfumes out there and matches my skin well, so I  got myself a bottle.

Every day Lou Suffern battles with the clock. He always has two places to be at the same time. He always has two things to do at once. When asleep he dreams, he runs through the events of the day while making plans for the next. When at home with his wife and family, his mind is always someplace else.

On his way into work one early winter morning, Lou meets Gabe, a homeless man sitting outside the office building. Intrigued by him and on discovering that he could also be very useful to have around, Lou gets Gabe a job in the post room.

But soon Lou begins to regret helping Gabe. His very presence unsettles Lou – and how does Gabe appear to be in two places at the same time?

As Christmas draws closer, Lou starts to understand the value of time. He sees what is truly important in life yet at the same time he learns the harshest lesson of all.

This is a story about people who, not unlike parcels, hide secrets. They cover themselves in layers until the right  person unwraps them and discovers what’s inside. Sometimes you have to be unraveled in order to find out who you really are.

This is the second book I have read by Cecelia Ahern. A friend of mine got it as a present at Christmas and has  given it to me now to read. It’s a magical tale again,  one with a message that’s sure to hit anyone straight in the heart. It’s about time! Time that passes so quickly and the choices we make either to spend it with our beloved ones or not. This book will make you think of life.

P.S. Thanks very much Svieta for the book!!!

Winner of the Booker Prize

The God of small things is Arundhati Roy’s first novel. The book is absolutely moving however it jumps around in time a lot for which I felt it was too disjointed and confusing.

Spanning three generations, Moon Palace is the story of Marco Stanley Fogg and his quest for identity in the modern world. Moving from the concrete canyons of Manhattan to the cruelly beautiful landscape of the American West, it is a meditation on and re-examination of America, art and the self, by one of America’s  foremost authors.

I think I have read this book only because I don’t like lay down books without reading them till the end. This book frustrated me and bored me so much. The fact that there are so many coincidences occurring in the book, for example Fogg meeting his long-lost father and grand-father only by accident, that all realism and parts of the book’s fascination get lost. Also, the author’s way of starting every episode with its result, failed to hold my interest.

On the morning after Sigmund Freud arrives in New York on his first – and only – visit to the United States, a stunning debutante is found bound and strangled in her penthouse apartment, high above Broadway. The following night, another beautiful heiress, Nora Acton, is discovered tied to a chandelier in her parents’ home, viciously wounded and unable to speak or to recall her ordeal. Soon Freud and his American disciple, Stratham Younger, are enlisted to help Miss Acton recover her memory, and to piece together the killer’s identity. It is a riddle that will test their skills to the limit, and lead them on a thrilling journey – into the darkest places of the city, and of the human mind.

WINNER Galaxy British Book Awards Best Read

Although this book promises to be an enthralling read, it doesn’t leave up to its expectations for the following reasons. Firstly, it gets into many psychological definitions and discussions which were not so easy to understand. Then, there is no protagonist to identify with, which made it hard to connect with any of the characters.  When the author brought in a different character with it, I had to go a little backwards to refresh my memory. Also, I could not link detective’s Littlemore findings to the plot which it actually did not help me to understand how the story is going to end. Lastly, a good part of the book and especially the ending turns into a funny soap opera in my opinion. The author tries to create an unexpected ending but, unfortunately, the result is lack of common sense. It is a novel that will strongly appeal to students and fans of psychology.

The book’s story is carefully written. It is  set in Tokyo late sixties and it is focused on the theme of relationships. The story teller, Toru Watanabe, describes everything in detail and this makes the story seem very vivid, as if the memories he’s recalling and telling the reader at that moment is as if they happened yesterday as the saying sometimes goes. It is a love story but very much different to what I have read so far.

A thousand splendid suns is a disturbing story from Afghanistan. It is a story of two women who went through quite a lot of ordeal. Not very pleasant book to read. Sad and melancholic.  The beginning of the story is a little bit slow with many pages dedicated to their women  growing up and reaching the main story.

Now Margaret Lea investigating Angelfield’s past – and the mystery of the March family starts to unravel. What has the house been hiding? What is its connection with the enigmatic author Vida Winter? And what is it in Margaret’s own troubled past that causes her to fall so powerfully under Angelfield’s spell?

I LOVED this book! The mood and the characters are wonderful. A novel with many twists and turns to keep up interest. It keeps you guessing and you’ll never figure it out before the answer comes. If you like Jane Eyre and Wuthering heights, you will like this book too.

Longlisted for the 2006 Man Booker prize

I didn’t exactly choose to read this book. I enjoyed it but probably I would not have read if it had not been suggested to me by a colleague. It was quite interesting and I read it quickly. Well told story with standard plot: 2 brothers and a girl. Two brothers couldn’t be more different and I liked how the author worked out their lives.

P.S.Thanks very much Beata for the book.

Ingredients

1/2 kg fresh mushrooms

1/2 cup fresh dill

1/2 cup fresh parsley

5 spring onions

1 tablespoon rice

1/4 extra virgin olive oil

salt, pepper

lemon juice and 1 egg

Directions

Cut the mushrooms in strips.

Saute the mushrooms on the extra virgin olive oil.

Chop the herbs and add them to the mushrooms.

Add the rice and 500 ml boiling water.

Boil until the rice is done. In the mean time beat the whites.

Add half lemon’s juice and the yolk. Mix them well.

While beating the mixture, pour slowly liquid from the soup. This will need about two ladles.

Pour the liquid into the soup and stir.

The soup is now ready to serve.

Enjoy and Good Luck!