Pride and Prescience by Carrie Bebris

The whole name of the book is: Pride and Prescience (Or, A Truth Universally Acknowledged) A Mr. and Mrs. Darcy Mystery

Darcy and Elizabeth & Jane and Bingley are married and at their wedding breakfast Ms. Bingley tells that she is to marry Mr. Frederick Parrish, American gentlemen, after a week. Darcy and Elizabeth has planned to leave to Pemberley right after the wedding, but the wedding of Ms. Bingley postpones their leave and they go to London. At their wedding night at London they are coming back from a dinner when they see Ms. Bingley walking alone in dark, unsafety street. This evening starts a course of weird happenings in the life of Caroline Bingley, and also in the lifes of her family and Darcy's.
Caroline tries to kill herself and the whole party leaves to Netherfield (party including Jane, Bingley, Elizabeth, Darcy, Mr. Hurst, Mrs. Hurst, Caroline and Mr. Parrish and american archeologist Mr. Randolph.) At Netherfield even weirder things starts to happen; Jane and Bingley almost die two times and there is also a murder in the house. Elizabeth and Darcy has their own thoughts about the situation, but there is some thoughts in Elizabeth's head that Darcy does not believe.
The end of this book is really suprising, and the whole book is exciting. I read the whole book in two days, because it was easy to read and I couldn't put it down.

This book was really different from the other P&P sequels I have read, but this was one of the best ones I have read so far.

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

I finally finished with this book yesterday morning. Here is a little review about the novel.
From Goodreads:

Biographer Margaret Lea returns one night to her apartment above her father's antiquarian bookshop. On her steps she finds a letter. It is a hand-written request from one of Britain’s most prolific and well-loved novelists. Vida Winter, gravely ill, wants to recount her life story before it is too late, and she wants Margaret to be the one to capture her history. The request takes Margaret by surprise–she doesn’t know the author, nor has she read any of Miss Winter’s dozens of novels. Late one night, while pondering whether to accept the task of recording Miss Winter’s personal story, Margaret begins to read her father’s rare copy of Miss Winter’s Thirteen Tales of Change and Desperation. She is spellbound by the stories and confused when she realizes the book only contains twelve stories. Where is the thirteenth tale? Intrigued, Margaret agrees to meet Miss Winter and act as her biographer. As Vida Winter unfolds her story, she shares with Margaret the dark family secrets that she has long kept hidden as she remembers her days at Angelfield, the now burnt-out estate that was her childhood home. Margaret carefully records Miss Winter’s account and finds herself more and more deeply immersed in the strange and troubling story. In the end, both women have to confront their pasts and the weight of family secrets. As well as the ghosts that haunt them still.

I really liked this book. It stayed as a mystery all the way to the end and it forced me to read it as fast as possible. The story took me in to it. I did not like Margaret Lea as a character, but in some parts of the book I felt bad for her. Miss Winter, as a character, was probably the most interesting in the book.

I had very high expectations towards this book before I started to read in and they all were filled. This is one of the books from my list I think I will re read in some part of my life.

MOVIE: Confessions of a Shopaholic

I finally saw this movie tonight at the local movie theatre. I must say I really liked this movie. I have read the first shopaholic book, but I think I must read it again and after that read the other books too. Isla Fisher does a great job as Rebecca. She is funny, beautiful and great actress. I love her outfits in the movie, they are colorful, beautiful and pieces of clothes that I could also use. Someway I can relate to Rebecca, because I also go shopping when I want to feel better. It helps, at least for a while.

My favorite parts in the movie where the parts when Finland was mentioned. Finland is not very known country, so I think it is great that they mention Finland in this kind of movie so more people get to know something about Finland. In this movie they were mostly "making fun" of Finland, but there were especially one part I was really happy about. The part when Rebecca and Luke are in the party at Miami and Luke introduces Rebecca to this Janne from Finland he mentiones that Janne works for Nokia. I think it great because many people think that Nokia is Japanese or Chinese company, which is not true, because Nokia is Finnish. First Nokia made tires for cars and rainboots and after that they started to make cellphones and other stuff. It is really true, that most of the Nokia work happens nowadays in other countries than Finland, because the work is cheaper outside Finland.

Hugh Dancy made me like this movie even more. He is amazingly handsome and I love this character in the movie. He can still talk nice things about Rebecca even tho she lied to him about her credit card mess. In the end of the movie Hugh looks so amazing. I wonder where I can find a guy like him.

Top 5 places I would love to visit

I deciced to post a blog about places I want to visit someday. There is a lot of places I would love to see, but these are my top 5 places. The places are not in particular order. :)

1. Bath, England
Bath is a city in the Somerset in the south west of England. Bath has a population of about 80,000. Bath begame one of the leading centres of fashionable life in England during the 18th century when the Bath's Theatre Royal was built. Nowadays, Bath has 5 theaters. The city holds the Bath International Music Festival and Mozartfest every year. The city also holds Bath Literature Festival, which I think would be interesting.

Jane Austen lived in Bath from 1801 with the father, mother and sister Cassandra until 1806. Jane Austen never liked the city, and she wrote to her sister; "It will be two years tomorrow since we left Bath for Clifton, with what happy feelings of escape." ( David, David (1998). Jane Austen: A Life. University of California Press. ISBN 0520216067.) Despite the fact that JA did not like Bath, the city has a Jane Austen centre at 40 Gay Street. Persuasion and Northanger Abbey are largely set in Bath.

Bath has two universities, The University of Bath and Bath Spa University.
There is also a Fashion Museum in Bath, which I think would be interesting and a worth of visiting.

I have wanted to visit Bath since I read Northanger Abbey first time. Maybe I am thinking that I could meet my Mr. Tilney there (wishful thinking).

Royal Crescent in Bath

2. Lyme Park
Lyme Park is a estate in south of Disley, Cheshire, England. Lyme Park consists a mansion surrounded by gardens, in a Deer Park in the Peak District National Park. The estate was in possession of a Legh Family until it was given to the National Trust 1946.

The house, park and garden are open to the public at advertised hours. In the grouds of the estate are shops, a coffee shop and a lisenced restaurant.

The main reason I want to visit Lyme Park is that it was used as Pemberley at the 1995 BBC's Pride and Prejudice adaptation. Since that it has been the "real" Pemberley for me (and probably for others too).

Here you can get a 360 degree view of the south front of the park.



3. Beverly Hills
Okay, I know, I have watched too much of 90210 recently. :)

Beverly Hills is in the Western part of Los Angeles County, California.
90210 is the zip code in Beverly Hills, but there is also three additional zip codes; 90211, 90212 and 90213. Beverly Hills is surrouded by the city of Los Angeles. Main throughfares include Wilshire Boulevard, Santa Monica Boulevard, and Sunset Boulevard. Shopping streets include for example Rodeo Drive.


4. Sydney, Australia

I have always wanted to visit Australia, and the day I am going to do it, I hope I will go to Sydney to see the Opera House.
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia, and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is one of the most multicultural cities in the world. According to the Mercer cost of living survey, Sydney is the most expensive city in Australia and 15th most expensive city in the world.
(okey, so, I will go to Sydney when I am really rich... that's never gonna happen).

5.New York City (I have been there once, but I want to go there again with more time)

I visited New York City at October 2007 with other Exchange Students from Virginia region. I fell in love with the city right away. I still remember how excited I was to see Broadway, Time Square, The Lady of Liberty and The Empire State Building. I got a change to see a lot in there during my staying, but not enough. The trip did not offer me really much time to go shopping and to just walk around the city.

Next time I go to New York City (the next time will come... hopefully soon) I will visit as many bookstores as possible, have a breakfast at the Central Park and visit museums I did not have time to visit last time.

I think New York City is the coolest place I've ever been.

"Spring Break"

I am having my "spring break" or as we call it in Finland "ski break" this week and I am already bored to death. I watched all the remaining 90210 episodes I have not seen yet, and now I have to wait for the 17th one to come on 31st of this month.

I am still reading the 13th Tale and I am really liking it. Today my mom will bring me some P&P sequel from the library, and I think that if it looks interesting I will have to read it now and after it continue the 13th tale.

I found this one Jane Austen gentleman test I have not done before, so I did it and here is my results:



Mr. Bingley. Pride and Prejudice's Charles Bingley is an angel. An angel that's a bit slow on the uptake, but nevertheless, the sweetest, kindest man that ever was. He is charming in his naivete, though his determination to believe the best in people might grate if you have a less optimistic worldview.

Wow, I didn't really expect this, but yeah, why not!? Bingley is adorable and charming, but I really do not think the type of man I really like. But Crispin Bonham-Carter as Bingley is gorgeous!