Mittens and Sunglasses, Author at Mittens and Sunglasses

The 2015 Hugo Awards – The Short List

4 April 2015 Mittens and Sunglasses

So, the shortlist of the 2015 Hugo Awards was just announced, and I am, for the first time ever, eligible to vote. I forgot about nominating, but I have every intention to give my vote.

I am very much looking forward to read Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie, as I loved Ancillary Justice. However, there are books I will not read and not vote for, and that are the sad/rabid puppy selection. The reason for this? Well, the explanation I was given on Twitter says it all:

Correction from @ClaireRousseau
Claire Rousseau has in the comments asked me to add the following correction:
Vox Day put up a post on his site in which he called NK Jemisin, who is a woman of colour, a “half-savage”. Because his blog was syndicated to SFWA social media, the post was tweeted from the official SFWA twitter. NK Jemisin put in an official complaint in accordance to the SFWA harassment policy that ultimately resulted in Vox Day’s SFWA membership being revoked.

Here is wikipedia for reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Beale#Conflict_with_the_SFWA

So, I will read the following novels:
Ancillary Sword, Ann Leckie (Orbit US/Orbit UK)
The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison (Sarah Monette) (Tor Books)

As for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form, I have already seen Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and really should watch Edge of Tomorrow as well.

I think it’s really sad when some people think things like the sad/rabid puppies thing is all right. After all, it will backfire on the works listed, no matter how great they are.

All shortlisted nominations can be found HERE.

The 2014 Hugo Awards winner, Ancilliary Justice by Ann Leckie.
Photo: Hidden in a Book © 2015

EDIT 05 April 2015:
I edited this post after The Puppy-Free Hugo Award Voter’s Guide was brought to my attention. I will not read any of the short stories, and have therefore deleted the section of short stories to read.

It’s Monday, what are you reading?

16 March 2015 Mittens and Sunglasses

They say it’s the golden age for Norwegian fantasy. I’m not sure it’s true, but more Norwegian fantasy has been published the last few years. I’m currently reading Bian Shen by Torbjørn Øverland Amundsen that was published a couple of years ago, and I’m enjoying it so far. It’s concept is different from anything I have read before, and I am curious on how it continues…

So, what are you currently reading?

It’s Monday, what are you reading?

17 November 2014 Mittens and Sunglasses

I can’t even remember where or when I first heard of “It’s Monday, what are you reading?”, but after doing a search on Google, I found out it’s hosted by a blog called Book Journey.

As I work late on Mondays, I have had a quiet morning. I started the day with a cup of coffee, and reading a graphic novel called The Veil, written by El Torres and Gabriel Hernandez. It’s a horror story, and one of the comic books I grabbed at the comic book library in Oslo when I visited yesterday. (I’m back home now).

The Veil is a story about a young woman called Chris Luna, and she’s a kind of private detective. Only, she’s not your typical private detective – she works for the dead! Now, I haven’t gotten very far, but I’m really enjoying it so far.

So – what are YOU reading?

And the winner of All Hallows Read 2014 is…

26 October 201412 March 2022 Mittens and Sunglasses

I was supposed to do this yesterday, but I was reading this Norwegian fantasy book that I couldn’t put down, so I didn’t get around to it. I have given the comments the numbers 1 (first comment) to 9 (last comment). Then I ran the Random Number Generator, and the winner is…

Kate Mack!

Please e-mail me your address, and the book will be on its way soon.

All Hallows Read 2014

6 October 2014 Mittens and Sunglasses

OK, so it’s that time of year again. It’s All Hallows Read time of year. That means giving away a scary read. We first started this back in 2011, and I’m going to do it again this year. As I turn 40 this year, right before Halloween, I’ve decided to give away Carrie by Stephen King. This horror novel was published in 1974, the year I was born.

What do you do?
Just comment down below in the comment field, and make sure to use the correct e-mail in the e-mail field. Let me know you’d like to join. That’s all!

When do you do it?
You do it anytime from the time this entry is posted until midnight 24 October 2014, Norwegian time (GMT+1). I will draw and announce the winner on 25 October 2014, my 40th birthday!

Who can join?
Everyone from a country on THIS LIST can join.

Book Bench Hunting in London

5 September 201421 March 2022 Mittens and Sunglasses

The British National Literacy Trust and Wild in Art have the summer of 2014 been working together to bring Books About Town to London. 2 july to 15 September you can find 50 unique BookBench sculptures all over London, but at the end of summer, they will all be auctioned to raise funds for the National Literacy Trust’s work to raise literacy levels in the UK.

They have made four different trails, so that you can go book bench hunting. On the webpage you can find maps and descriptions, that you can download for free.

When I visited London in August, one of my goals were to go book hunting. Schedule wise, I found out the best trail for me were the Bloomsbury Trail, as it wasn’t very far from the British Library, where I had been spending the morning at a comic book exhibition.

I pretty much stumbled over the first bench, Jeeves and Wooster, inside the Brunswich Centre where I had gone to have some lunch and visit Skoob Books. Right smack in the middle of the centre, it was easy to find, and I thought it was a good start to my hunt.

The "Jeeves and Wooster" book bench. — Jeeves and Wooster kicked off my book bench hunt.
Photo: Mittens and Sunglasses © 2014

The Blooomsbury trail has 12 benches, but I only found 8 of them. That being said, I must admit I didn’t put a lot of work in finding the other four. I was a tad bit tired, and I mainly did it for fun, so I was quite pleased with what I found.

It was fun to look for these beatiful book benches, which book lover can’t find it so? It was also nice to run into other book bench hunters (I even had a chat by the Pride and Prejudice bench with a lady from kent). It’s a bit sad they’ll only be around for 10 more days, and that I will not be able to do another hunt next time I’m in London.

If you do visit London before 15 September, and you think books are awesome, I’ll highly recommend to hunt down some book benches yourself! And, of course, I would love to hear about other people’s book bench hunting stories! Do you have one?

Some of my favourite benches:

The "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" book bench, backside: A paining of a big lion face. — The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Photo: Mittens and Sunglasses © 2014

The front of the "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" book bench. — The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
Photo: Mittens and Sunglasses © 2014

The "Pride and Prejudice" book bench. — Pride and Prejudice
Photo: Mittens and Sunglasses © 2014

The "Mrs Dalloway" book bench. — Mrs Dalloway
Photo: Mittens and Sunglasses © 2014

Bucket List

27 August 2014 Mittens and Sunglasses

bucketlist Like a gazillion of others, I too have a bucket list. It is not static, and it keeps chaning. I was thinking that the easiest way for me to keep track on what I have done, and can cross off, would be to put it on here. Which I will. I will make a page with the list, which right now looks like this:

01. Visit Svalbard
02. Visit India
03. See the Taj Mahal in India
~~04. Get Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman signed by Neil Gaiman~~
05. Visit New Zealand
06. Run (or partly walk) a half marathon
07. Attend a yoga retreat
08. Make my own hand bag
09. Make my own coat
10. See the Nutckracker ballet
11. Walk on the Great Wall of China
12. Visit China
13. Rent a flat in London for a period of 3-4 weeks
~~14. Swim in the Blue Lagoon, Iceland, during winter~~
15. Celebrate New Years Eve in Edinburgh, UK
~~16. Get a third tattoo~~
17. Visit every continent: ~~Europe~~, ~~Northern America~~, ~~Asia~~, ~~Oceania~~, South America.
18. Visit Japan
19. Go interrailing in Ireland
20. Make my own nut milk
~~21. Visit Bali~~
22. Go for a walking holiday in Scotland
23. Visit the Faroe Islands
24. Visit Peru
25. See Machu Picchu
~~26. See the Cliffs of Moher, Ireland~~

Dublin 2014, part IV – in where I’m feeling lazy

22 August 201412 March 2022 Mittens and Sunglasses

The last few days have been far less eventfull that my first week of travel. I haven’t done a whole lot, but slowed it down. I think that after traveling for a bit, your energy level just isn’t at the same peak anymore, and you just feel like doing less.

My main event on Tuesday was visiting Trinity College and the Books of Kells. It was amazing! But more about that in another entry.

I also went to a place called Tea Garden, where my goal was to drink tea. I had looked it up on Yelp, and it had good reviews, so I wanted to try it out.

I was first not sure if I’d gone to the right place, as I had to go down a pair of steep, winding stairs to get there. It also didn’t look like what I expected from a tea place. However, I had come to a proper tea place, and the tea was really good (but I missed having milk in my black tea, but didn’t dare ask for it).

The Tea Garden also seemed to be a very hip place. Not so much for the interiour, but because a lot of young, hip people were there. I, on the other hand, is not a hip person, but was still happy to sit by myself, drink wonderful tea and read my book.

A book is open on a table, there's a tea cup in the back, and a teapot to the right. — Drinking tea and reading at the Tea Garden
Photo: Mittens and Sunglasses © 2014

After drinking tea, I headed to the Longstone Pub, to the monthly Dublin bookcrossing meetup. We weren’t very many, but it was a nice bunch of people, and I had a brilliant time. Before I went there, I had a plan on leaving early, but I ended up staying until the end.

Wednesday was another quiet day. I had decided to sleep in, but didn’t, as there was too much noise in the hotel. Not extraordinary noise, just the regular noise that comes from super thin walls. So, I was waken by the fact that the people in my neighbouring room were talking (normally) to eachother. However, I decided to stay in my room and relax, before I went out for breakfast. The breakfast at the hotel I was staying at wasn’t exactly the greatest, to say the least. Instead I went out for brekfast, and then did a bit of walking around Hanry’s street.

I then went to an early showing at the cinema. Off peak tickets were cheaper, only €7.50, and I landed on a film called What If, with Daniel Radcliffe. It’s not the sort of film I’d normally go to, but it wasn’t too bad. Not too crazy about the ending, but, oh well.

After the film, it was already dinner time, and I headed for a cheap, vegetarian place. The food was good, and only €3 for a plate of food. And that was pretty much what ended my day.

On Thursday, i.e. yesterday, it was time to move to another hotel. I’m staying at the convention hotel for Shamrokon (EuroCon), and was fortunate enough to have a bus going directly from right outside my former hotel to where I’m staying now. So, I went to the new hotel after breakfast, and then walked to the centre of the city. Walking through St Stephen’s Green is actually qiote nice, and I was in no hurry, so I did stop and have a look around as well.

A memorial fountain in St Stephen's Green — A memorial fountain in St Stephen’s Green
Photo: Mittens and Sunglasses © 2014

I met up with Peadar, whom I first met at EasterCon last year, for lunch, and he then took a couple of other science fiction fans and I on a privately guided tour in Dublin Museum. Peadar was the perfect tour guide, with so much interesting knowledge! Dublin Museum has free admission, and is most definitively a place I’d like to visit again at some other point.

Floor details inside the Dublin Museum
Photo: Mittens and Sunglasses © 2014

After the museum visit, we headed back to the hotel, and I got to check in and then head for my room. I had amazingly tasty Indian take away for dinner (in my room), and the evening was spent chatting to strangers. I was warmly welcomed to sit by the table with a group who had come over from Australia, and it was very nice.

It was then bedtime, and I headed for my room, for a cup of tea and some reading before I got a good night’s sleep.

Dublin 2014, part III – in where I’m not really in Dublin, and cross something off my bucket list

20 August 2014 Mittens and Sunglasses

Ever since I visited Ireland for the first time over 14 years ago, there has been something I’ve wanted to do here. So, after a bit of discussing with myself, I figured that there was really no better time to do this than now. So, on Sunday I booked a day trip to the Cliffs of Moher! I was finally going to see these cliffs I’ve hard so much about. The day trip was signed up with Paddywagon, which was the cheapest I could find online, and early Monday morning I dragged myself out of bed, so that I was ready to board the bus before 8 the very same morning.

Our first stop was a small fishing village called Kinvara. What striked me with this small town, and what would strike me about other small villages and towns along the road, was how colourful they were. They shaps were all in different colours. In Kinvara it was especially a book shop that caught my eye. I badly wanted to go into this shop, it looked so nice, but it was closed while we were there. So we left without being able to browse their shelves.

Our next stop along the road was Corcomroe Abbey, an early 13th-century Cistercian monastery. I have always loved abbey ruins, and this was truely beautiful. A lot smaller than some of the abbeys I’ve visited before (like Whitby Abbey), but also a lot older. We only had 15 minutes to walk around, but I tried to get a few photos taken, and look at things. I would have loved to have some more time there, though.

From Corcomore Abbey we continued down the coast, and had a stop to take photos of what our coach driver and guide called “the baby cliffs”. They’re smaller than the Cliffs of Moher, but still quite beautiful. Besides, it was such a lovely and warm and sunny day, it was wonderful to walk around on the cliffs and just feel the breeze and smell the ocean.

15 minutes later, we all climbed back into the bus, and headed towards the Cliffs of Moher. We had only one more stop before we got there, in the town Doolin (which I think sounded like a name from Lord of the Rings), where we had lunch. But when we all were fed, the bus finally made it to our destination: The Cliffs of Moher. And let me tell you, I was not disappointed!

Wikipedia says about the Cliffs of Moher that “[t]hey rise 120 metres (390 ft) above the Atlantic Ocean at Hag’s Head, and reach their maximum height of 214 metres (702 ft) just north of O’Brien’s Tower, eight kilometres to the north.” It was quite a magnifisent view, and we maybe 1 1/2 hours to walk around. Unfortunately not enough time to walk both up on the cliffs and to the tower, which I would have loved on this amazingly sunny day. We really had perfect weather, with the warm, sunny and clear view.

As for the visitor centre, I didn’t think it was much to look at. You can just as well read up on the Cliffs of Mohere elsewhere. Maybe it’s fun for kids, as they did have some interactive activities there, but if you’re a single grown up, it’s not much to brag about.

We had only one stop on our way back to Dublin: Bunratty Castle. Yet again we were given just a short time (I think we had 20 minutes) to walk around. In my opinion, this was the bigest “fault” with this trip: Never having anough time to walk around. But, knowing the trip took over 12 hours, it’s understandable.

After over 12 hours we arrived safe and sound in Dublin, and we all agreed it had been a fantastic day.

Dublin 2014, part II – what to do in Dublin on a Sunday

19 August 2014 Mittens and Sunglasses

After having a rather busy week behind me, I found out it would be nice just to take a walk on Sunday, and maybe sit down and drink tea and read my book for a while. So, that was pretty much I used my Sunday for.

I headed over the river towards Dublin 2. It was actually quite quiet in the centre of the city at this pont, probably because it was a Sunday before noon. The weather was gray, with the occationally showers of rain, and walking around Temple Bar was quite nice. I also headed for St Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre, which is a more quiet shopping centre, and I like the interiour.

After having walked around for a while, it was nice to sit down with a cup of tea and read my book. I found a tea room I had been recommended: Oolong Flower Power. The name might sound a bit hippie like, however, it is nothing of the sort. It had a wonderfully relaxing atmosphere, and it was no doubt that these people knew their tea! In other words, it was a perfect place for a tea lover! It was wonderful to sit there, drink my pot of delicious Darjeeling first flush tea and read my book.

After having tea, I strolled back to the hotel. While doing so, I stopped by some familiar statues, like Molly Malone and James Joyce. I decided to stay in my room and relax until I went out for dinner (I had vegan sushi that was really good), and then went to bed early.