Hydroelectric Power Generation, Norway

We only saw one hydroelectric power plant in Norway, but they must be everywhere. With hydropower and other renewables accounting for over 98 per cent of all electricity produced in Norway, the country delivers stable, affordable and low-emission energy to industries that depend on a reliable power supply. This has helped Norwegian heavy industry to operate with one of the world’s smallest carbon footprints--that and the fact that water abounds in Norway, and it is often moving. Hydropower is unique among renewable energy sources. It can be produced on demand, providing balancing power for intermittent wind and solar when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine. It can off gas methane, but in Norway hydropower plants are located at high altitudes, where there is little vegetation and a cold climate. The data confirms that there is very little extra methane production. Hydropower also offers non-power-related benefits in the form of multipurpose reservoirs, flood control, increased availability of fresh water, and much more. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), hydropower will remain the world’s most important source of renewable energy in the foreseeable future.

The Palm House by Gwendolyn Riley

I read this book because it was ling listed for the 2026 Booker Prize, and was previously unaware of this author, who has a number of previous books that are well regarded. This is not so much plot driven as it is the development of characters and a fires in Spain. Putnam has just quit his job as an editor at a magazine called Sequence. He and Laura have been friends for years, allied by what each of them wanted most to become, and are now joined together less by shared hopes than by the disappointments and frustrations that having become entails. As with so many magazines, Sequence’s board has no sense of what the magazine is, and when its editor-in-chief dies he’s replaced by a cad—he insists on being called Shove—whom everyone, but especially Putnam, hates. Putnam is forty-nine, and has been at Sequence more than half his life. His father has just died. He is unfailingly committed to the fact of his pain. Laura, long-suffering friend, tries again and again to take him out, cheer him up; she hreflection on what was happening (and how we might have avoided where we are today perhaps--that is not an overt assertion but rather me reading between the lines with the benefit of hindsight). It’s 2017. Laura and a friend, Putnam, sit and drink at a bar on the Thames. A hurricane offshore whips up ash and sand from wildelps clean out his father’s house and suggests other jobs. But Putnam is dogged, digging his heels in--he was a thinker and jobs for thinkers were waning. So that is the wave that was being rode in this story, but might there be a place for creative thinking in the remarkably inflexible world of AI? If in fact we survive it?

Frances Vin Bar, Oslo, Norway

This is a happening place. I was glad we had a reservation, because otherwise we would not have gotten a table, and this is a place where people linger. There is a very long bar and it was possible to get a seat there, so never fear if you are in the neighborhood and want to drop in. There is also a lot of outdoor seating, but the time of year was not optimal to exercise that option.

This is one of three eateries housed in the previous visa section of the former US Embassy in Oslo, right by Henrik Ibsens gate and the Palace Garden. It’s now been transformed into a café in the morning, wine bar and restaurant in the afternoon, serving a selection of Middle Eastern and Mediterranean-inspired sharing plates. The generous dishes catch the eye with their vibrant appearance, then satisfy the palate with their fabulous flavours; confit cauliflower with the colourful trio of tomato coulis, cashew cream and coriander oil is a prime example. Our favorite was a hamachi with avocado over it--so flavorful and unique at the same time. It is a Michelin Bib Gourmand, which is characterized by good food at a good value--we still had sticker shock here, as food and wine are pricy in Norway.

The End of Everything by M. John Harrison

This is yet another dystopian total societal breakdown novel, this one also has the distinction of being short listed for the 2026 Booker Prize. I am not a huge fan of the Everything Is Falling Apart novel, not now, when it seems all too real at the moment, or ever, because why borrow trouble, but I unexpectedly enjoyed this. The location is unnamed but on the Kent coast, and it is familiar yet estranged. There has been a catastrophe, but it’s already old news and, in any case, the news media seem to have collapsed. iGhetti – AI or Alien, it is unclear – invaded Britain some while back, provoking an ongoing war whose progress or purpose no one really understands. The main characters are beachcomber Phillip Tennent and his elderly aunt Marnie. Phillip sells his lucrative finds on what we presume to be the hidden market, though how much of the legal economy still works is unclear. Marnie paints, and defends her terraced townhouse against predators and vandals. Police are never mentioned. Order, such as it is, is maintained through vestigial community cohesion and survival of the toughest. Their story is at the center of the book, but all the other implications are the shadow over their relationship.

Nærøyfjord Fjord. Flåm, Norway

When planning a trip to a country which is famous for fjords, is one cruise on a fjord enough? The answer for us was definitely yes, but we had booked a second one here and so we did a second, and this one is just as beautiful, half the time and half the price. Nærøyfjord is a UNESCO World Heritage site. National Geographic magazine voted the fjord "The best unspoiled travel destination in the world" already in 2004. When choosing 50 most awe-inspiring natural wonders in 2017, CNN said: “If you only have time to visit two fjords in your lifetime, make it the Geirangerfjord and Naeroyfjord in southwest Norway” The two fjords shared tenth place in competition with other famous natural wonders worldwide. Other amazing places on the list included Preikestolen at Lysefjord, Stromboli volcano, the Salar de Uyuni salt flat in Bolivia and the Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania. Having been to the later 2, I would say this is not actually in their league, but it is pretty spectacular, none-the-less. The beautiful, narrow Nærøyfjord is 17 kilometers long. The fjord is a branch of the Aurlandsfjord. Nærøyfjord ends at the little village of Gudvangen, located at the very tip of the fjord. On the tour, you will experience both cascading waterfalls, idyllic villages and many more sights that will linger long in your memory. Fjord cruises depart twice daily in winter and has five daily departures in summer from Flåm and Gudvangen and you can take a bus back to where you left your car--or there are tours that will pick you up, but we were on a DIY trip and left to our own devices.

Star Shipped by Cat Sebastian

This is my favorite light gay romance fiction writer--the ones I have read prior to this had a bit of time travel and fantasy associated with them, where as this one features the lead characters in a long running space travel television show. Simon Devereaux plays one of the leads in the reasonably successful TV show Out There, featuring a group of fractious outcasts and weirdos learning to function as a group in outer space. He’s xhronically anxious, always second guessing himself, and has a hard time connecting with people. He has one good friend whom he relies on constantly but is not romantically invovled with. They tried that, it didn't work out, but they have remained friends. He has been on the show for seven seasons, and has decided that it’s time for him to move on; when the season, he’s heading to New York to take up a theatre role and embark on the next stage of his career. Throughout all of those seasons, Simon has shared most of his screen time with Charlie Blake, former star of a reality TV show about restoring old cars and who has, in Simon’s opinion, brought down the tone of the show, which is maybe jealousy because Charlie is everything he is not – likeable, charming, cheerful, sociable – and while their on-screen chemistry is potent, off-screen they don’t get along and Simon actively avoids Charlie whenever he can. That is until Simon reveals his plan, and time is short, and well, you can see where this is going. I read it in the midst of reading seven of the Booker long listed books on vacation, and let's just say this provided some much needed levity.

The Art of Racing In The Rain (2019)

This is my Day of the Dead selection. The family member that we lost this year is our beloved dog Zeke, and so remembering him I watched this movie, which could be called The Power of the Dog (which is another movie entirely and only relevant in name and not substance). It is a story about what a difference a dog can make, and also on point, the destruction that cancer can wield. We are a nuclear family that has felt the power of both, and in the end it is a feel good movie, against all odds. The story is told from the perspective of Enzo, a philosophical golden retriever who believes he will be reincarnated as a human and uses racetrack techniques as a metaphor for navigating life's hardships. He finds Denny, who is an actual race car driver, and the two share a special bond, which expands to include Denny's wife and then his daughter. Enzo is about as smart as you would expect a dog to be--meaning good at reading the room and stepping up when necessary. When Denny's wife gets sick and her overbearing--and wealthy--parents take over to squeeze him out, Enzo sticks by him in the best way a dog can. Yes, this is sugar coated sadness, but sometimes that is what hits the spot and this one did just that for me. Save it for when you are in danger of losing man's best friend and you will see what I mean.

The Shadow of the Object by Chloe Aridjis

This is a fabulist novel with a touch of magical realism that was long listed for the Booker Prize in 2026. It opens with a bang. Flora, a fortysomething woman, is visiting her mother and stepfather in Mexico City for the first time in many years when one evening, as she is bidding them goodnight, Diego – the household’s beloved guard dog – springs up and sinks his teeth into her hand. This unexpected incident is an assault not only on Flora’s body, but also upon those delicate fictions that have, until now, shaped her life and swathed that body in an illusory sense of safety. She is then condemned to spend the rest of her vacation confined to the winding corridors of a private hospital in Mexico City, Flora is ambivalent. On the one hand, the environment is hardly stimulating – but on the other, the hospital is life’s waiting room, and it is during a languid midnight stroll of its corridors that she meets Wilhelmina Blau, an elderly yet redoubtable German admitted with a bad case of pneumonia. Flora and Wilhelmina strike up a friendship, and during their nightly meetings in the hospital’s dully lit hallways, Wilhelmina shares the ample wisdoms gleaned from her highly unconventional life, which is not what either Flora or the reader expects. It is a darkly magical tale.

Mostraumen Fjord Cruise, Bergen, Norway

Bergen is Norway's second largest city, and it is the acknowledged gateway to exploring the western fjords of Norway, of which there are literally hundreds, more than a thousand. The town is quite charming. We stayed in a historic hotel in a charming residential neighborhood that was a 15 minute walk to the harbor, where you can catch any one of a number of cruise boats to experience the fjords from the water. We chose a popular 1/2 cruise. It featured narrow fjords, steep mountainsides and waterfalls. We sailed up the 27-kilometer long Osterfjord towards Modalen, the country’s second smallest municipality with only around 380 inhabitants. Along the way, we navigated through strong currents in the shallow and narrow Mostraumen straits. It is quite lovely to see, but in truth, after spending three days driving a southerly route to get from Oslo to Bergen, we had seen dozens of spectacular views along the way and since we were on a leisurely drive, we were able to pull over and experience it at our own pace. That is what I would recommend--do not necessarily skip the cruise out of the Bergen harbor, but don't stop there. The train hits the same gorgeous spots but it doesn't pause. This is a beautiful country--don't race through it.

May We Feed The King by Rebecca Perry

This is a debut novel that was short listed for the 2026 Booker Prize, which is a feat in itself, but it is also my second choice for the award (which means it absolutely will not win, nor is it favored for that, and of course the favorite is my absolute least favorite of the 13 long listed books, so take all of this with the back story that I am absolutely never right about this prize). In a medieval palace of an unnamed king an unnamed curator of unspecified gender is employed by the palace to dress some of its rooms for public viewing in the wake of an undescribed personal tragedy. This is the back story of someone who does hisotrically accurate renditions with a lot of fake food and manufactured replicas so we the viewer can get a sense of what it was like back in the day. Soon after being hired for this task, the Curator meets the Archivist, keeper of the medieval palace’s historical records, and in those records finds mention of the brief reign of a king whose life the Curator will draw on to create their historical scenes. Although the King began as third in line, and temperamentally unsuited to rule, it seems that this king assumed the throne reluctantly after the death of both his brothers, then refused to govern. At this point, the narrative slips into the world of the King, his Queen, his hated Chief Adviser, a loyal young Attendant and the wider world of the court, swallowing up the Curator and holding them there, dazzled by the richness of its details and, like the King, quite unable to find our way out. It is inventive, creative, imaginative and tells a sweeping story in a relatively short narrative.