"Piętno"

Today I will present you the second and last pat of this amazing story. As you can guess, this is a  sequel book of  "Dziedzictwo von Beckow". The book is called "Piętno".

As in the previous post, I will get the knowledge from a popular website that presents reviews of well-known books.

Julia Kunis, great-granddaughter of Werner von Beck, decides to trace the history of the von Beck's family. During her wanderings, she meets the historian Marta Landowska, the heir of Jewish jewelers - Dawid Halpern and the cynical seeker of the precious relics of the Third Reich - Tom Anders. By discovering the story of her family and people associated with her, Julia enters a dangerous path that can end tragically for her. Hurted by the last partner, she doesn’t want to enter into new relationships, but the voice of her heart doesn’t let her forget about the strength of her feelings. During the sentimental journey to the land of ancestors, on her way there are love and passion, which once again win with common sense. However, the growing obstacles and fear of another relationship seem insurmountable ...

Positive review

Today I will present one of the reviews I found on the internet. As I promised in the previous post, this time it will be a positive picture of the book. What's more, this opinion presents a more detailed description of the action, but at the same time does not reveal its ending.  Of course, the review was translated by me from the Polish language.

“ I must say with all conviction - congratulations for our young compatriot for creating such an interesting family saga. This is a moral novel with a background story, beginning in 1934 and ending in modern times. We recognize Maria and Werner, who share everything, nationality, class affiliation, wealth, origin, but combines something that can’t be bought or inherited – love. She was unselfish, boundless, full of passion, unconditional devotion and tenderness. This feeling required sacrifices, breaking rules, lies, difficult choices and hesitations between love and hatred. It wasn’t easy considering historical events and family connections. The family of von Beck is aristocracy, the type of family whose interior was filled with hypocrisy and lies, and impeccably perfect outside. All deviations from morality were concealed and quickly cut off.
War has always made life complicated. What was simple and obvious in a peaceful world, during the war became impossible. It would seem that the end of the war will close the chapter in history, but the memories of that period touched later life, destroying their dream life. After the German occupation, the Soviets started not much different from the first: fanaticism, lust for power, hypocrisy, cruelty, fear, accusation and destruction of innocent people. 

Very expressive, complex and diverse psychological portraits of heroes, location of action in many cities in Europe, dramaturgy of events, dilemmas and choices of heroes make the book even more interesting. The life of all heroes has changed dramatically. How important in life is the family, which we can underestimate on a daily basis, until the moment, event and tragedy come to us and realize its value. The family that should always be a support can save or ruin life. The great injustice is the responsibility of future generations for sins and the fault of the ancestors. Some chapters ended with a sentence about the future of the characters, to get to know her, you had to delve into the next chapter, which I did with pleasure." 

I’d like to add that I agree with the presented opinion and for sure this book will stay in my head for a long time, but also in my heart.

I sincerely apologize for any mistakes in the translation, but I hope that my level of English is enough to understand the meaning of the content that I’m presenting.

Difficult to read

As the short description in the previous post tells, history is shrouded in a great mystery. This is certainly a book that will interest mainly all fans of the war period, because the story of love of the characters takes place at that time.

Below I will present all the disadvantages of the book that were important to me. This is not the author's criticism, but my personal feeling, which may be shared by more readers.

1.       The plot is very complex, it should be very focused to follow all the heroes introduced by the author. A moment of deconcentration caused that I had to go back a few pages and read them again because I didn’t understand what was going on.

2.        Also the first chapter of the book was totally meaningless for me, torn out of context, only after reading the whole saga I returned to it anew, because it didn’t give me peace of mind that for some purpose this chapter was placed.

These are the only remarks that haven’t escaped my attention. In the next posts I will try to focus on the positive aspects of the saga that I present.

"Dziedzictwo von Becków"

The book I mentioned last time  is a novel written by Joanna Jax,  titled “Dziedzictwo von Becków.” The name of Saga is “Saga von Becków”. Second part of this saga is titled “Piętno”. Unfortunately, these books havn’t been translated into English, that's why I leave their original names.

Let me translate the short description of the book from the well-known Polish page, describing books.

http://lubimyczytac.pl/ksiazka/224022/dziedzictwo-von-beckow

(I’ve changed some words and phrases).

A story of two people who thanks to fate met each other just before the war. The book is about the intricate lives of a Polish teacher and a German SS officer and their descendants. The story takes place over almost eighty years, transferring the reader from the pre-war Free City of Gdańsk and the Prussian aristocratic estate in Schleswig-Holstein to  Krakow and Olkusz, post-war East Berlin and Warsaw, then to the Provencal village and Paris of the sixties, and finally to Poland after 1989. Coloring the characters and skillfully dosing the secrets, the author created a touching story about forgiveness, love, difficult choices and moral dilemmas, hatred, greed for revenge, greed and complicated family relationships.

About holidays

Holidays are to do things for which we don't have time during the academic year.

In this holiday I decided to work abroad in Switzerland. As you probably guessed, I worked a lot, but there was time for pleasure. Outside of work, I could only focus on myself.

Because my suitcase was not too big, I decided to take only two books. It was these books that made me sleep for two weeks in the morning, and at work I was always tired.

I never thought that the Polish author could make such an impression on me. I'm not saying that Poland doesn't have good literature but I think nothing has interested me like this saga before. I « swallowed » this books in few nights ! After that, at work, I was all the time deconcentrated because of this book. The action was so interesting  that for a few days after reading,  I still felt like I her hero, as if it was my life, and what's more, I couldn’t stop thinking about the end of this story!

What book am  I  talking about? I will present you this wonderful story in the next post.

Surfing on the Internet...

Recently, surfing on the Internet, I found an interesting website. This is a BBC website dealing with healthy eating. We can find there interesting recipes for vegan, vegetarian and meat eaters. In addition to lunch suggestions, there are also recipes for cocktails and desserts. I've tried one of them. Now we have a season for strawberries, so I think that you may like this offer. A perfect idea for a Sunday dessert with your family. Healthy and light!

Strawberry & white chocolate choux buns

• 50g butter
  
  

  
  

  
  

  
• 75g plain flour
• 2 large eggs
  
  

  
  

  
  

  
• 1 tbsp flaked almonds (optional)

For the filling

• 2 tbsp custard powder
• 300ml milk
  
  

  
  

  
  

  
• ½ tsp sugar free vanilla extract
• 150ml Greek yogurt
• 15g coarsely grated white chocolate
  
  

  
  

  
  

  
• 125g small strawberries, halved
• dusting of icing sugar (optional)

Method you can find on the webside. https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/strawberry-white-chocolate-choux-buns. 

By the way, I encourage you to discover and try recipes! 

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/category/vegetarian

How do your work out correctly?

There are many ways how to do exercises, but I think that it depends on your health and your body's possibilities. I have it easier because my boyfriend is a personal trainer. I can say- a treasure at home. In the summer I prefer outdoor training, but in winter Kuba devotes me a lot of time to exercising at the gym. THANKS TO HIM I have mastered the correct technique of doing exercises, which is very important in my case. In the past I had more than a dozen operations on the knee, shoulder joint and spine. That’s why I have to be very careful about my health. Of course, at the very beginning I practiced alone, which unfortunately ended with pain for many days. Since I have been practicing with Kuba, I have learned a technique, I don't complain about health problems. Therefore, according to me, it is very important for everyone to be under such protection, at least at the very beginning. Many of you will say that it is expensive and that you can find exercises on the internet, but it is true that we don't control our body in 100% and often we don't realize that the exercise is done wrong. It is worth investing in your health because bad exercises can expose you to lose your health.

One day diet.

I'm excited about reading newspapers about health. Last discovery: Women's Health. Except for curiosities, I found interesting recipes for healthy food, ways to lose weight and how to do exercises correctly. Many of us play sports, but you don't know that you can do it wrong. But about it, maybe next time. Now, I will present you my diet plan for today. Have fun!

I don’t practice it if there are any contraindications for the doctor. Everything I present is done in consultation with my doctor.
Expected Results: You can expect to lose 1-2 pounds in a single day using this diet.

The 1 Day Diet

Breakfast: 1 Egg, boiled (hard or soft)
1/2 Grapefruit (no sweetener)
1 cup black coffee (no sugar, no cream, artificial sweetener is OK)


Mid-Morning Snack: 2 Triscuit Crackers each with 1/4 slice of american cheese on them. 
1 cup black coffee (no sugar, no cream, artificial sweetener is OK)


Lunch: 1 Can of Tuna Fish
3 half-stalks of celery (no salt)
1 cup black coffee (no sugar, no cream, artificial sweetener is OK)


Dinner: 3 ounces of skinless chicken or fish
6 broccoli or cauliflower florettes
1 cup black coffee (no sugar, no cream, artificial sweetener is OK)

EXAMS AND SEE

With the start of June, exams are approaching. Both me and Kuba devote all our free time to learning. 

However, the last few days we decided to relax. Four days on the beach gave a definite dose of energy before a hard month. Apart from lying on the beach, we made together a cycling trip from Wladyslawowo to Hel (35km). The next day we were in Leba to watch moving dunes. Lighthouse in Rewa wasn't missed by us,too. Kuba knows that I love see everything in each place where we are.

And what about Kuba's bike training ?? So Kuba traveled to Leba by bicycle (over 70 km). Of course, I'm not capable of such an effort so I took our car. I'm really surprised that I didn't die the day before when I was biking 35 km to Hel. In addition, Kuba could not abandon his hobby and did similar training every day.

My diet? She died at the end of my free time. probably this month will reign burger and pizza, and for breakfast bread. I can do nothing, I will lose it during holidays, it is a waste of time to cook, an English exam is much closer than I think.

First time in a good shape

Returning to my cyclist. The last races were not satisfying. Despite the great preparation, we aren’t  always able to predict everything.Today the fate changed. Kuba took 8th place out of 660 participants in the race. In addition, he stood on the podium in his age category. After the race, he told me that he is feeling that his shape gets back again. Undoubtedly, it is satisfying when the months of everyday sacrifices and trainings begin to bring the expected results.

 Congratulations and we are waiting for more! A 3 days race in the Polish mountains. (Imagine riding a bike in the mountains for 6 hours without a break. How do you feel? I will tell you in the next post about his impression.)

VEGE BROWNIE

Every day I spend a lot of time looking for new recipes. Although I don't eat sweets, I try to replace them sometimes with alternative things. Today I'm giving you a recipe for vege brownie, which is very popular in my family. I do it very often, usually once a week (my boyfriend loves healthy sweets).

Ingrediens:
millet 1 cup
soy milk (or other vegetable) 1 cup
dark chocolate (70% cocoa) 1 bar (100 g)
cocoa 4 tbsp
banana 1 piece
sugar or xylitol 1/3 cup
coconut oil 3 tbsp
potato flour 2 tbsp

Preparation: Millet rinse well with water and cook in 2.5 glasses of water for about 15-20 minutes (until it is soft). At the end of cooking, I add crushed chocolate.I add a sliced ​​banana, sugar / xylitol, cocoa, milk, coconut oil, potato flour and all together blend to a smooth mass.I put the mass into the greased baking mold (for me, 22 x 22 cm). I bake about 30 minutes at 180. degrees. After that I put it to the fridge for a min. 2 hours. 

Bon Appetit!