PERIOD & MORE PERIOD - DOCTOR THORNE, TROLLOPE & FELLOWES ARE A WINNING PAIR

“Conduct! Is conduct everything? One may conduct oneself excellently, and yet break one's heart.”

I've been watching quite a bit of present-day drama series lately,  but not completely neglecting my search for good period drama. I haven't seen anything in a 19th century costume since War & Peace, actually, but being quite taken by my unmissable Wednesday nights' dates with Rev. Sidney Chambers.  I love Grantchester series 2 even more than the series 1 and, mind you, I was deeply fond of that. I have had to convert, ehm, surrender to the charms of the ginger after Outlander and Grantchester. 

We've had plenty of good series to watch, especially on Sunday nights, so you may have missed this lovely adaptation of Anthony Trollope's Doctor Thorne (book 3 in the Barsetshire Chronicles, 1858). Book 1 and 2 were adapted by BBC as The Barchester Chronicles in 1982 with a stellar cast including the late Alan Rickman.

If you were distracted by the Hiddleston/Colman vs Laurie/Hollander battle of talents in BBC One adaptation of John Le Carrè's The Night Manager and you lost Tom Hollander as the lead in Julian Fellowes's adaptation of Doctor Thorne, don't worry, you can catch up thanks to ITV online player or add the DVD to your costume drama collection. 

BACK FROM HELL - ROOM & THIRTEEN

I happened to watch the film Room and start watching the BBC 3 drama series Thirteen on the same day and the similarity of the topic they dealt with inevitably struck me. Both stories tell of young women coming back from hell. The hell of being abducted and taken captives  by manipulating, devious bastards. 

In both stories the focus is on the psychological aspect of being back to an ordinary life, the stress and the distress of being unable to fit or cope any longer. In both cases viewers delve into the protagonists' traumatic homecoming learning how difficult it is to victims to go back to normality. Very little or nothing is actually revealed of the horrors of their respective periods of captivity as victims of sexual abuse so, don't expect a claustrophobic, haunting experience while watching, if you decide to. It could be much more an occasion to see our ordinary lives in a boundless world and in total control with different eyes. 

BOOK REVIEW - A RIP IN THE VEIL BY ANNA BELFRAGE (THE GRAHAM SAGA, BOOK 1)

Hooked from page one. There’s so much I love in this book that once I got started, I couldn’t stop and read it in a few days:  Scotland in the 17^th century, at the time of the Civil War, romance and time travel, fantasy and magic, adventure and irony.  A Rip in the Veil is book one in Anna Belfrage’s “The Graham Saga” and is a thrilling ride between two different time lines, through the adventurous lives of Alexandra Lind, a 21st century computer engineer still coping with a trauma from her past, and Matthew Graham,  a runaway 17th century convict on his way home to Scotland.

The heroine & the hero: Alex & Matthew

Here are heroine and hero as presented by the author herself in the section bonus material at her website:

Alexandra Lind

Date of Birth: August 24, 1976

Astrological sign: Virgo (“Virgo? How boring is that,” she says with a laugh)

Education: Degrees in Computer Engineering and Programming. Most useful in her new environment she says sarcastically. A karate practitioner since childhood, she holds a black belt 4th dan and has also dabbled in jujitsu. Never got beyond “Smoke on the water” on guitar, but knows the lyrics to all her favourite rock songs – although she’s not quite sure this qualifies as education. Is a proficient user of the staple gun – has used it for everything from upholstery to fixing Halloween disguises. Sadly, staple guns do not exist in the seventeenth century. Good at drawing, crap at sewing and knitting. Used to consider herself a good chess player – until she met Matthew.

BOOK REVIEW - SPIRIT OF THE HIGHWAY BY DEBORAH SWIFT

Book Blurb

1651 - England has been engaged in a bitter Civil War for nearly ten years. Ralph Chaplin, a farmer’s son, has fallen for beautiful copper-haired Kate. There is only one problem – he is a Roundhead soldier and she is a Royalist lady. 

Tired of bloodshed, Ralph volunteers to fight, sensing that the Battle at Worcester will be a chance to finish the fighting for good. He longs for peace, so he can forge a secure future and find a different, more equal way of life for himself and Kate. 

But War is not what he imagined, and soon he has made a deadly enemy; one who will pursue Ralph and those he loves, and wreak vengeance. What’s more, Ralph finds he has as many enemies at home, as on the battlefield. 

Told by Ralph’s ghost, Spirit of the Highway is the stand-alone second part of the Highway Trilogy based on the real life and legend of Lady Katherine Fanshawe, Highwaywoman. 

****************************************************************

I really liked reading Spirit of the Highway and I am grateful to the author, Deborah Swift, for granting me a review copy and letting  me make the acquaintance of her  intriguing characters. They classify this novel as YA historical fiction, but  nothing sounds teenish in it. I'd rather say it can be read both by YA and adults who love an engaging story set in the past. I'd recommend to any histfic fan because it is well written and historically accurate. I especially appreciated the thourough notes  the author added at the end of the book. Those are very precious materials for any reader who is not familiar with British history. 

"The living fear to die , but the dead fear to be forgotten"

BLOG TOUR - SPOTLIGHT ON ... IF WE WERE A MOVIE BY KELLY ORAM + GIVEAWAY

If We Were a Movie by Kelly Oram (Power of the Matchmaker #3)

 Music meets Movies in this sweet college romance from the bestselling author of Cinder & Ella. NYU freshman Nate Anderson is a triplet who is desperate to escape his wild and crazy brothers. After they screw things up for him one too many times, Nate flees his housing situation and takes the first available room for rent as far from his brothers as he can get. Enter his new roommate Jordan--a quirky LA girl who believes that everything in life has already been done in the movies. In this heartfelt tale of love, friendship and family, Nate learns how to deal with his new adult life using Hollywood films as a guide.

What readers just like you are saying about If We Were a Movie:

"WOW! This book is great! The concept is so inventive, and the writing is brilliant."

"I thought Cinder & Ella jerked with my emotions too much but this one might have it beat."

"I finished reading If We Were a Movie yesterday. I loved it! I fell hard for Nate. Jordan was amazing! And Pearl's timing was perfect! "

"Amazing concept with movies as chapters, and fantastic storyline." "I loved this story and was humming along to the songs from the book whilst reading. I can see this book becoming the movie it was written to be." "If We Were a Movie made me want to binge watch movies, listen to old playlists and re-read it all at once."

I'M A GUEST AT VULPES LIBRIS - FIERAMENTE IL LIBRO, A LITERARY EVENT IN MY HOMETOWN

I'm guestposting at a wonderful book blog today, Vulpes Libris, for a project near and dear to my heart, Fieramente il Libro.  Join me there and  help me make this dream come true... 

Books and writers have always fascinated me since I was a child, as soon as I could read

and write. My love for books found its expression both in my profession and in my free time activities, as I am an English teacher in Italy and a blogger, enthusiastically ready to spread my love for reading and books.

Fieramente il libro is a literary festival in its fourth year in my home town, Subiaco, 72 km from Rome. This is the place where St Benedict began to found monasteries after a period of hermitage and where the first book was printed in Italy. The setting for the festival is the Borgias’ fortress, where some historians believe that Cardinal Rodrigo’s children, Cesare and Lucrezia, were born.

(go on reading at Vulpes Libris)

AND THE WINNER IS ... JOHN MONTANA WATCHED AND COMMENTED THE OSCAR CEREMONY FOR US

So the 88^th Annual Academy Awards were on last night. And as usual, they were filled with controversy because many black actors/actresses felt they were victims of racism because no black actors were nominated this year. And certainly many people have jumped onto this bandwagon, because that has become the most popular thing…find a cause of injustice and jump on it and rife it till it ends and then you jump to the next one. 

Is there racism in Hollywood? Probably. Racism exists everywhere, why wouldn’t it show its ugly head here? Was there racism here? I don’t know. Or I can’t say. Because racism is an individual belief that manifests in ugly behavior, whether alone or in a lynch mob. I think what most likely happened is this: With the advent of digital cameras and less money needed to make a feature film, there were literally hundreds of films to watch and consider.