WE ACCEPT THE LOVE WE THINK WE DESERVE - THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER BY STEPHEN CHBOSKY (1999)

Since I watched the film adaptation of this book, I've wished to read it. The film -  starring Logan Lerman as Charlie,  Emma Watson as Sam and Ezra Miller as Patrick - came out in 2012, while the book was published in 1999.  

It is usually categorized as YA fiction, but,  think of The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger or The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath!  The fact that they are coming of age novels with teenage protagonists doesn't make them books for teenage demographic. They can be read, loved and appreciated by an adult reading public as well. I'm not saying Chbosky’s debut novel ranks to those high literary standards, of course, but that it is possible for older readers to care, relate and enjoy while reading it.  I mentioned those two great novels - which I'm fond of - because The Perks of Being a Wallflower is easy to connect to them due to many reasons. While reading it, it's impossible not to hear echoes of  Holden Caufield's or Esther Greenwood's restless lives.

Charlie, the protagonist and the narrator of the story,  is a very shy,  introverted , melancholic freshman terrorized by his new school, new mates, new teachers.

Making friends has always been very difficult to him:  he is a wallflower watching life from aside.  

He writes letters to an imaginary friend and he confesses him much of his life experiences, thoughts, fears, dreams. He is haunted by very sad memories from his past, which become  even hallucinations from time to time.

He  makes some friends  at school among the older students:    a few of those damaged souls nobody wants as mates,  usually bullied or emarginated.  Sam and  Patrick become Charlie's best friends.
As the story flows, letter after letter,  gifting the reader  with tender moments, memorable quotes,  funny anecdotes and  final surprising twist,  we witness Charlie grow  until the final  moment of self-realization, when he finally feels himself infinite. 

HOW TO USE BOOKS TO WRITE ACADEMIC ESSAYS

Hello! I'm Eileen Archer and I'm here at FLY HIGH  as Maria Grazia's guest blogger. My post is a short guide for those who use books as part of their academic pieces of work. 

Why should I use books?

To write academically and correctly we must make use of the literature available to us. You must read as much as you possibly can before even starting to write your academic piece. Take notes of each book you have thought interesting and the relation between that and your own forthcoming work. Remember to mark the pages too, so you can come back to ideas later.

Which books?

When it comes to using the information from a book that you have absorbed, been interested in or found highly relevant to your field, you must decide when and where to use it. If there are two books that have the same idea, choose the one that clarifies the point better, and cite that one in your own piece of work. The clearer the idea, the easier it is for you to expand on the point and the easier it is for the reader to follow.

WRITING AND DREAMING SCOTLAND - INTERVIEW WITH GLEN CRANEY, AUTHOR OF "THE SPIDER AND THE STONE"

If you follow FLY HIGH!  on blogspot or on facebook, you must certainly have noticed I'm (kind of ) hooked with Scotland and  Scottish heroes at the moment. This is why I was glad to hear from Glen Craney, author of "The Spider and The Stone", when he proposed me to review his historical novel set in 14th century Scotland. 

I've started reading his novel and I've invited Glen to tell us more about it,  his love for Scotland and for historical fiction.

He has generously granted the readers of this blog 10 ebook copies of the book! You are all invited to take your chances to win one of them. Check the book giveaway contest below the interview. Good luck!

Welcome Glen! I’m really glad you accepted my invitation to talk about Scotland and "The Spider and The Stone"  with me.

Thanks to you for the invitation, Maria Grazia.

Scotland is the setting of your historical novel. I’m quite hooked by that amazing land and its stunning wilderness and its castles, what about you? Have you been there ? Why did you choose it as your setting?

I’ve traveled to Scotland three times, and have some ancestral roots there. I often get inspiration for my books in dreams. About ten years ago, I awoke from a particularly vivid one in which I was a mounted knight fighting a duel near a stream with a black-robed hag who wielded a sickle. In the midst of this death struggle, the dream shifted to a photograph of me standing with six other knights around a seated king in a pose of celebration. Below the photograph, a caption read: "Americans aid the King at Bannockburn."

PERIOD & MORE PERIOD: BELLE - NOW ON DVD & BLUE RAY

Out on DVD/Blue Ray today, Belle is a movie inspired  by the true story of Dido Elizabeth Belle, a mixed - race woman raised by an aristocratic white family. Three times unlucky in the 18th century English society: Belle was a woman, a mulatto and an illegitimate child. 

The daughter of a Royal Navy Admiral and an enslaved African woman, Dido is brought up by the family of her great uncle, Lord Mansfield, in Hampstead, just north of London.
The family social standing affords Dido great privileges and she grows close with her cousin, Lady Elizabeth Murray. But Dido can never escape the colour of her skin  and, therefore, never be on the same social standing as her adoptive family. When Lord Mansfield, the Lord Chief Justice, must rule on an important slavery court case, Dido and the idealistic young man she falls in love with, John Davinier, will help to shape his decision, thereby paving the way for the eventual abolition of slavery.

DISCOVER HEALING IN THE SEARCH FOR TRUTH - AN INTERVIEW WITH ELISABETH GIFFORD, AUTHOR OF 'THE SEA HOUSE'

About the book 

What happens when you bring the truth of who you are and where you’ve been into the light? In her impressive debut novel, The Sea House (St. Martin’s Press/April 15, 2014/ISBN: 978-1250043344/$25.99), author Elisabeth Gifford introduces readers to characters who are forced to dig up the pain and secrets of their past in order to let the fresh air of faith and grace purify and heal the broken places in their heart.

Gifford was inspired to write The Sea House after coming across a letter in The Times archives from 1809, in which a Scottish schoolmaster claimed to have spotted a mermaid. Weaving the ancient Gaelic myth of the selkies into her story, she has created a sweeping tale of hope and redemption that is an ode to the healing readers can find when they acknowledge the truth about themselves.

Your new release, The Sea House, is a fascinating historical mystery that was born out of a letter you found from an old edition of The Times. Can you tell us about the letter?

The Sea House is based on a real letter written to The Times newspaper in 1809 by a Scottish schoolmaster, reporting a mermaid sighting. There were lots of mermaid sightings up to 200 years ago around Scotland and even a recorded mermaid funeral in the islands. There were also persistent legends of selkies, seals who could take off their sealskins on land to become human. I thought these were simply old fairy tales from a more credulous time, but it may be that these sightings and legends were connected to something very real. For thousands of years the native Sea Sami used to kayak down to Scotland from Norway using Eskimo technology. Their sealskin kayaks would become waterlogged after a few hours and lie just below the sea surface looking like a wavering tail. On land, they removed their sealskin jackets and became human — just as described in the legend of the selkies. Some must have married locals and stayed on the islands, giving rise to certain families such as the MacOdrums, who were said to have come from the seal people.

FLY HIGH HAS A FACEBOOK PAGE, RICHARD ARMITAGE HAS A TWITTER

FLY HIGH HAS A FACEBOOK PAGE

I don't like facebook much,  actually. In fact, I only have a personal account, run 2 pages (My Jane Austen Book Club and Fly High Maria Grazia's Blog) and am involved in I-can't-remember-how-many groups. Quite incoherent, is it? Still, I don't like it very much. I must admit I prefer Twitter, though someone told me I don't use it as it is supposed to be used,  meaning: to socialize. I just connect, post my links  and, from time to time,  read what the ones on my "people I like" list have tweeted in the latest hours. Then I may retweet,  if I like. Who's in that list? Well, it is private, not meant to be shared, sorry. I bet you can imagine a few names if you check whose tweets I more often favourite. 

I've got this awkward feeling of "not liking but not being able to stay away" from social networks, which I  can't really understand or analyze.

BOOK BLAST & GIVEAWAY - THE SECRET BLISS OF CALLIOPE IPSWICH BY MARCIA LYNN McCLURE

The Secret Bliss of Calliope Ipswich by Marcia Lynn McClure 

 “Oh! Do link arms with me, Calliope,” Blanche whispered, her brown eyes widening with apprehension. She took Calliope’s arm, tightly linking it with her own. “The old Mulholland house still gives me the willies every time I walk past it. I hate to think on what might have gone on inside. It’s truly terrifyin’!” “Oh, don’t be silly, Blanche,” Calliope said, feigning calm. “Poor Prudence’s lunacy…it’s sad. And besides, her fiendish acts were not committed inside the house. There’s nothing wrong with it. It’s just…it’s just a sad, empty building.” 

Calliope Ipswich felt the hypocrite, however, as an uncomfortable shiver of residual dread and unease shuttered down her spine, More than six months had passed since the All Hollow’s Eve when the dangerous state of Prudence Mulholland’s fracturing mind had been revealed to the townsfolk of Meadowlark Lake. And now, each time Calliope thought of poor Prudence and her family, not only did her heart ache for their family’s unhappy lot but a chill of lingering horror rippled through her being. In truth, at times Calliope wondered if it had all been simply a bad dream—a nightmare. But it hadn’t. It really had happened—all of it.

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SPOTLIGHT ON ... THE TEEN WYTCHE SAGA BY ARIELLA MOON + GIVEAWAY

The Teen Wytche Saga by Ariella Moon Think magic will solve your problems? Bring you love? Cure you? Protect you? Help you find someone who is lost? Think again. Magic tests friendships. It hisses, chirps, stinks up the room, backfires, and explodes. Magic forces you to make tough decisions. Shatter limitations. Discover your true self. When you use magic, expect results in the ultimate triple-un—unpredictable, uncontrollable, and so undeniable. And you thought navigating high school was tough.

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FREEBIE! SHADOW ON THE HIGHWAY BY DEBORAH SWIFT - NEW RELEASE

May 1651. England has been in the midst of a civil war for nearly ten years.

The country has been torn in two, and the King is getting ready to make his last stand against Cromwell's New Model Army. Abigail Chaplin, a young deaf girl, has lost her father to the parliamentarian cause, but with her family now in reduced circumstances, she is forced to work as a servant at a royalist household - the estate of Lady Katherine Fanshawe. Abi is soon caught up in a web of sinister secrets which surround the Fanshawe estate, the most curious of which is the disappearance of Lady Katherine late at night.

Why are her husband's clothes worn and muddy even though he hasn't been home for weeks?

How is she stealing out of the house late at night when her room is being guarded? And what is her involvement with the robberies being committed by the mysterious Silent Highwayman?

Shadow On The Highway, the first book in 'The Highway Trilogy', is based on the life and legend of Lady Katherine Fanshawe, the highwaywoman, sometimes known as 'The Wicked Lady'. Suitable for teens and young adults 14+ includes historical notes from the author 

IS A PARENT'S JOB EVER REALLY DONE? AN INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR DEBORAH RANEY ABOUT HER "HOME TO CHICORY LANE"

Home to Chicory Lane 

Deborah Raney writes a story that examines how the love of our family can help us weather life's storms. The first book in the new Chicory Inn series introduces us to Audrey Whitman, a mother who has launched all of her children into life and now looks forward to fulfilling some of her own dreams during her empty-nest years. However, not all of her children are ready to stay out of the nest quite yet.

Raney has beautifully captured the tenderness - and turmoil - of family life in her new release. It was easy for her to do. "We have four grown children and five grandchildren . . . so far!" Raney says."So, as you can imagine, family is extremely important to us. We're both close to our families, and all of the good, the bad, the ugly, the wonderful of being part of a family, went into this series."

Readers of Home to Chicory Lane will meet all of the Whitmans, including Audrey and her husband, Grant, who are turning their beloved family home into a bed and breakfast. As Audrey works toward opening weekend, she is more than a little anxious, even as she joyfully anticipates her family and friends gathering from across the country to help celebrate the occasion.

What she doesn't expect is her youngest daughter, the newly-married Landyn, to arrive with a U-Haul, clearly intending to stay more than just a few days. Questions flood Audrey's mind: What happened in New York that sent Landyn running home? Where was Landyn's husband, Chase? It appears the Chicory Inn will be getting off to a bit of a rocky start.

BOOK BLAST & GIVEAWAY - GUARDIANS THE GIRL: BOOK 1 BY LOLA STVIL

Guardians: The Girl by Lola StVil

 ******OVER 450 FIVE STAR REVIEWS!*******

Sitting there in the car, a part of me bitterly resented what she was doing to me. I knew it wasn’t her fault. But does she have to be so... alluring? I need to focus on something else besides the spot between her earlobe and neck. It looked so soft. Her lips were slightly parted as she looked out the window. I wanted to part them further with mine. I put both my hands on the steering wheel. I could not allow myself to let go until she was out of the car. Suddenly she leaned in and kissed me. It was far better than I could even begin to explain to you. I've fought and died a slow and painful death on earth. And nothing, NOTHING can compare to how hard it was for me to pull away from her lips. I don't think any angel could to do it twice in a lifetime...

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Excerpts  

 “Your courage is in your tears. Every time you cry, you lose a little bit more of it. That’s why you’re so breakable. Not because you’re human, because you’re always shedding courage from your eyes.”  

~~~

Marcus, choose me. Choose the path that is perilous and leads to certain annihilation because it’s also the path that leads to me. They can’t understand that we are powerless to stop what we have for each other. But we know. We know that if we don’t bend to the will of this love, it will break us.

TEN GOOD REASONS (NOT) TO WATCH OUTLANDER

Sam Heughan as Jamie Fraser

  

  

 1.  Jamie Fraser. 

      

Once you meet him, the least that can happen to you is that you get a crush on him. But,  watch yourself! You risk to fall desperately in love with him, become obsessed with him,  and there’s no way back! Mind you: you're warned.

He is strong, brave, witty, generous, loyal, charming, smart, passionate, principled, sensitive, reliable, honest, charismatic, sexually insatiable and handsome.  

And even if you come to accept he is just a fictional character and renounce finding his alter ego in real life, still you’ll go on comparing every man around you to him and … sigh!

THE MEMORY OF MIDNIGHT BY PAMELA HARTSHORNE - BOOK REVIEW

Book Blurb

One hot day in Elizabethan York, young Nell Appleby is trapped in a wooden chest, and a horror of the stifling dark - and of the man who trapped her - dogs her for the rest of her life. Wed to the sadistic Ralph Maskewe, Nell must find joy where she can, until the return of her childhood sweetheart offers a chance of flight to the New World. Will Nell risk all to escape the dark at last?

Four and a half centuries later, Tess and her small son Oscar move to York. Eager to start a new life, away from her overbearing and manipulative husband, Martin, Tess tries to put her marriage behind her. But time in York has a way of shifting strangely, and memories of a past that is not her own begin to surface with disturbing effect. Living two lives, torn between two worlds, Tess must unlock the secrets of the past before she can free herself - and Nell -once and for all.

PERIOD & MORE PERIOD - THE INVISIBLE WOMAN

Directed and starring Ralph Fiennes  as Charles Dickens, THE INVISIBLE WOMAN is the latest period  movie I saw. It is an adaptation of Claire Tomaline's book of the same name. It was released in 2013, it hasn’t made it to Italian theatres so far, but it is fortunately already available on DVD.  

The invisible woman of the title is Ellen Ternan , played by Felicity Jones, seen as Catherine Morland in Northanger Abbey 2007 or more recently in Hysteria. Ellen, Nelly, was  a beautiful young actress with whom Charles Dickens had a  secret 13-year affair and who was 27 years his junior.

Abi Morgan (Shame)   adapted Claire Tomalin‘s novel.  Tom Hollander , as the author Wilkie Collins,  Kristin Scott Thomas, as Nelly's mother, Tom Burke (The Musketeers)  as Ellen’s husband, George Robinson,   are also in  the cast.

THE HOBBIT THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG & MY NOT VERY SUCCESSFUL QUEST IN TOLKIEN'S FANTASY WORLD

Warning: I know I will shock or, at least, disappoint any Tolkien fan who may  stumble  onto this post. They are kindly advised not to read!

I've been striving on my personal quest in search for a spark between Tolkien's world  and me in the last two years.   It's been a long,  troubled journey, a real fight against my complete ignorance and  a rather visceral dislike. You know, Tolkien's work is not my cup of tea at all. I've tried to approach it anyway, overcoming my prejudices and preconceptions. This is just an account of my latest attempt and of some prior events. 

I started watching The Lord of the Rings movies with my son, who is fond of them, before the Hobbit trilogy came out, but it was rather frustrating because, as much as I wanted to like those films, I simply couldn't or, better,  I could but only mildly.

I read The Hobbit in search for Thorin (here, here, here and here) and wrote a series of posts waiting for Peter Jackson's new trilogy to come out.  Did I like reading it? Pass. Next question, please.

ART, MUSIC AND LITERATURE BASED COMMUNITIES

(by guest blogger Vanessa Gallo) 
People are driven by inspiration, ambitions and needs in life. It is the zeal and passion towards life that makes them aspire for many things in life. Different people have different interests and passions. Some may find satisfaction in art, some others may love music and certain others will be fond of reading literature. Many people will not be happy to read a book, watch a movie or listen to music. They may want people with similar interests to talk to. Every individual is unique with different view points and opinions.

People who are interested in art, music and literature have many advantages on the web. They can create communities online and share their thoughts regarding these topics. Many people love to join with people with similar or related interests. Artists have a relatively more flexible schedule and hence many art communities have appeared all over the world, especially in the United States. Gatlinburg Artists’ Community, John C. Campbell Folk School and Sedona are a few art communities of the United States. Gatlinburg community is located in Tennessee where most of the artists of the US live and work. All their studios are open to the public and the artists specialize in themes related to the Great Smoky Mountains. This community attracts many tourists.

READING, RE-READING, REVIEWING: THE MEMORY OF MIDNIGHT, OUTLANDER, JANE AUSTEN'S FIRST LOVE

Reading: The Memory of Midnight by Pamela Hartshorne

Historical novels are my best favourite kind of books, as well as classic literature. The Memory of Midnight is the one I'm reading at the moment. It is a thrilling mystery story by Pamela Hartshorne, taking place both in Elizabethan York and present-time York, dealing with two distant eras and parading two different heroines, both prisoners of the past, bound by love and fear. 

This book was a gift from a good friend of mine living in York and it has a special dedication from the author to me on the first page. I don't expect you to remember, but Pamela Hartshorne was my guest here at FLY HIGH! to present her first historical novel,  Time's Echo,  back in September 2012.  I had read, liked and reviewed her novel and she kindly accepted to be interviewed. 

My friend met her in York - where they both live - at the presentation of this second novel and got a signed copy for me. And here I am,  half-way through The Memory of Midnight.   I have been loving it so far!

BOOK BLAST, GIVEAWAY & FREEBIE! THE RECKONING BY TEYLA BRANTON

 

The Reckoning 

Only One Can Survive The Reckoning Erin Radkey has always known the day would come when she would have to personally confront the Triad leader of the power-hungry Emporium. But she never thought it would be with a snake in her head that feeds on her energy. Or that she’d be in the company of an uncertain ally who might turn on her at any moment. The stakes are high as new intel uncovers a startling Emporium plot that will catapult the entire world into war. Erin is determined to save not only the mortals but also her friends—even if it means sacrificing herself and her newfound love for Ritter Langton. Ritter is just as determined to save Erin and prevent what would usher in the most bloody century the world has ever known, but even he might not recognize the person she becomes. Every day the enemy grows stronger. There will be no second chance.

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AUGUST KINDLE FIRE GIVEAWAY

It's time for August's $229 Kindle Giveaway Hosted by I Am A Reader. Enter to win 1 of 2 great prizes both valued at $229. Winner’s choice of a Kindle Fire HDX or $229 Amazon Gift Card or $229 Paypal Cash! 

The first prize is available via the rafflecopter below. The 2nd is available only to those share this giveaway. You can find info on how to enter the 2nd giveaway in the rafflecopter.