UNFORGETTABLE LOVE - ELIZABETH JOHNS, MOON AND STARS

NEW post in the event Unforgettable Love. 

Unforgettable Love is A Clean Romance Event Hosted by I Am A Reader

During the month of June we have been featuring several fabulous authors who write clean romance. There  have been giveaways, free ebooks and great deals on books. Have you checked our previous posts?  Do it soon, you still have time to enter in all the giveaway contests! The book featured today is Moon and Stars by Elizabeth Johns. Discover more about this Regency romance and take your chances to win in the giveaway below.

UNFORGETTABLE LOVE, A CLEAN ROMANCE EVENT: RACHAEL ANDERSON, MY SISTER'S INTENDED + GIVEAWAY

NEW post in the event Unforgettable Love. 

Unforgettable Love is A Clean Romance Event Hosted by I Am A Reader

During the month of June we will be featuring several fabulous clean romance authors. There will be giveaways, free ebooks and great deals on books. Go check our previous posts and don't forget to stay tuned for the next ones! The book featured today is My Sister's Intended by Rachael Anderson.  Go on reading to discover more  good luck in the giveaway contest.

UNFORGETTABLE LOVE - G.G. VANDARGRIFF'S LOVE UNEXPECTED, A REGENCY ROMANCE + GIVEAWAY

NEW post in the event Unforgettable Love. 

Unforgettable Love is A Clean Romance Event Hosted by I Am A Reader

During the month of June we will be featuring several fabulous authors who write clean romance. There will be giveaways, free ebooks and great deals on books. Have you checked our previous posts?  And don't forget to stay tuned for the next ones! The book featured today is Love Unexpected by G.G. Vandagriff. Discover more about this Regency romance and take your chances to win in the giveaway. 

UNFORGETTABLE LOVE: A CLEAN ROMANCE EVENT - FREEBIE + GIFT CARD GIVEAWAY! BROOKE S. JAMES, JFK TO DUBLIN

 

 
 JFK to Dublin by Brooke St. James

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Sarah Spicer took this saying to heart, at least where love was concerned. She had given up any hope in ever finding a decent man. She was convinced they had only one thing on their minds and were untrustworthy and unfit for relationships. This was exactly why she had a strict no-dating policy. That was before she met Collin Ross. He was handsome, successful, and possessed a refined confidence that any woman would have adored. Well, any woman except for Sarah. Her indifference toward his charms made gaining her affection difficult. But patience is a virtue, and Collin was determined to prove that if there was a man worthy of winning her heart, he was the one.  

BECAUSE TEACHERS MATTER: HAPPY WORLD TEACHERS' DAY!

I still remember my primary school teacher, her sweet,  authoritative style and her fundamental teachings. I owe to her my starting reading books very early, though coming from a humble family and from a house with very few books inside. She gave me my first two novels,  when I was 7 or 8, Little Women and Cuore, thus  giving start to a never-ending passion for literature. 

A few years later, I started loving everything British when an extravagant, cheerful, colourful teacher of English entered my classroom.  I was 12  then, and I became curious,  eager to learn that language so foreign to me and to discover more and more about Britain, which I would only visit at 21 for the first time, but which I started dreaming of since our first lesson together. 

RADIO TIMES FESTIVAL 2015 - ARE YOU READY TO MEET YOUR FAVOURITE STARS? BOOK YOUR TICKETS NOW!

Meet your favourite stars on the green of awesome Hampton Court Palace, only 20 minutes away from London , this September. If you've seen BBC2 Wolf Hall, you know what I'm talking about. 

Book your tickets for your favourite events - there will be more than 70! - at the  Radio Times  Festival  official website right now. The first Radio Times festival will take place in the already mentiond wonderful setting from the 24th to 27th September. It will include TV, radio and book events and there are already some great names confirmed: Sir David Attenborough, Doctor Who with Peter Capaldi, Wolf Hall, The Archers, Call the Midwife, Silent Witness with Emilia Fox, Life after Strictly, Tony Parsons, Linda La Plante and many children's sessions with David Walliams, Julia Donaldson, Shaun the Sheep, Little Princess and Thomas The Tank engine. 

By the way, have you heard we will have more episodes for Poldark series 2? That's great news, isn't it? The Radio Times Festival, couldn't avoid adding a Poldark event to the list, of course, after the huge success of BBC costume drama starring Aidan Turner. The Making of Poldark is one of the most important in their schedule in fact. The lucky participants will get the inside story of the BBC series from executive producers Karen Thrussell, Damien Timmer and Debbie Horsfield, the writer responsible for turning Winston Graham’s novels into sparkling scripts. Leading members of the cast will also attend, but their names are still to be announced. Joining them will be Andrew Graham, who will be on hand to talk about his father’s writing, including the book Poldark’s Cornwall, which is about the other star of the show — the beautiful county of Cornwall itself.

Further details of the event and show listings can be found on the website radiotimesfestival.com. 

THE ONLY THING WORTH SAYING: WHAT ONE FEELS - FROM VIRGINIA WOOLF TO FABIO STASSI.

“Peter would think her sentimental. So she was. For she had come to feel that it was the only thing worth saying – what one felt. Cleverness was silly. One must say simply what one felt.” 

I love this quote from Mrs Dalloway and day after day Woolf's melancholic heroine becomes dearer to my heart.  Mrs Dalloway's suggestion of saying what one feels simply and plain  is something I can agree with. Not an easy task, though. To reveal one's own feelings makes a person fragile but,  if you think twice, it makes a person stronger as well. 

Cleverness may help you look stronger, but it may be silly on certain occasions in life. What ones? Those Woolf calls "moments of being".  It is not your brain nor your cleverness which help you through those moments. It is not a question of sentimentality, but one of honesty and truth. 

I may have become a tiny bit sentimental in my old age, I can't deny it,  and that is something,  I hope,  understandable. However, I think this is the time to say what we feel, because ...  if not now, when? How we feel is important, crucial, vital and we have not much more time to waste in lies and not much more space for regrets. 

I started writing this post after meeting,  for the second time in less than a year, a man who dares to share what he feels, not only what he thinks: gifted writer and extraordinary man, Fabio Stassi. He is highly communicative,  grounded and self-deprecative, smiling and direct, simple and astonishingly deep. 
Second meeting and second epiphany: this man and his words can make my heart melt and my brain  work out a flow of thoughts quite like ... fireworks. So many inputs that my mind's reaction is an explosion of ideas and feelings. You see?  I'm just telling you what I felt, the only thing worth saying.  

So what did Fabio Stassi say that was so thought - provoking and emotionally strong? He discussed his book, Come un respiro interrotto, with an audience of readers in a town not distant from mine and I was there with friends. He managed to surprise me with the analysis of themes, motifs and ideas which were different from the ones we had discussed when I happened to listen to him for the first time last summer. 

FIERAMENTE IL LIBRO - BOOKS & WRITERS, A LITERARY FESTIVAL IN MY HOMETOWN

Books and writers have always fascinated me since I was a child, as soon as I could  read and write. These days I'm experiencing a full immersion of meetings with writers and discussions  of  books which makes me proud and happy.  The atmosphere is rather familiar and intimate, the location stunning and the people I met interesting or even inspiring. Nothing of the speculation over literature, culture and publishing we see in other literary festivals. 

Fieramente il libro is an event at its second edition in my home town, among the organizers two dear friends of mine, whom I must thank for the energy and the enthusiasm they put in everything they do  and, of course, for inviting me to be part of the event as a member of the reading jury. I've read the 3  books finalists in the Narrative section and tomorrow I'll have to choose the one I liked best.

Yesterday TrainDogs and Fabio Palombo gave start to a weekend of special encounters: beautiful words and awesome music in a show called, Abracadabra. Fabio Palombo read his stories of men and women in little less than 11 lines, which he used to post on facebook at firsr. They are an extraordinary example of how words can do magic. 

ROME - HOGARTH, REYNOLDS, TURNER: BRITISH PAINTING AND THE RISE OF MODERNITY

Easter Holidays have been an occasion to catch up with things I love, like going to Rome, visiting friends and play the tourist. Besides walking around the city centre in sunny, stunning Rome and have a good time with my friends, I could visit an interesting exhibition promoted by Fondazione Roma: Hogarth, Reynolds, Turner - British painting and the Rise of Modernity. The Foundation presents a fascinating itinerary to discover the characteristics and originality of 18th century English art which has not been shown completely in Rome since 1966. The exhibition offers to the public a comprehensive overview of the social and artistic development that took place during the XVIII centruy in step with the hegemony gained by Great Britain at the historical, political and economic level.

IN WAR THE WORDS OF A POET CAN SAVE LIVES, IN LIFE THE WORDS OF A POET CAN MAKE THE DIFFERENCE: MEETING ERRI DE LUCA

"... in war the words of a poet can save lives ...

in war the orphans and those without a book have no refuge"  

Erri De Luca's original first name was Henry, an homage to his grandmother, who had American nationality, but defined by him as an "accident". He eventually decided "to change" few letters by Italianizing his name as Erri. 
Meeting Erri De Luca at the library in my town a few days ago was something unexpectedly important.
Do you know when you have the impression that a person speaking to an audience is instead speaking to you, just to you, that those words are meant for you?
Strange enough, especially because I couldn't see his face (see picture, I'm sitting on the right). But that is what I felt sitting behind,  right behind him, behind that table on which the widely popular and highly appreciated Italian author was informally sitting while talking to us. I was at his back and could watch his shoulders slightly bent forward, his slim figure in a comfortable blue suit, moving to the rhythm of his placid voice and turning left, then right, to direct the blue-eyed piercing stare to each and every one facing him.

GETTING READY TO CELEBRATE THE THANKSGIVING SEASON

(

by guest blogger Kendra Thornton)

The holiday season will soon be with us once again. Nights are getting colder, the brightly colored leaves are beginning to fall in the States, and everyone is getting out their winter wardrobes. The chilly weather reminds us that its time to begin planning the annual holiday visits and family get-togethers. Like many of you, I suspect, my spirits are always lifted as Thanksgiving Day approaches.

The spirit of gratitude and giving back that is the hallmark of the season helps to keep life in perspective and reminds me what is really important. I am particularly excited this year, as all of our relatives have confirmed that they will be visiting us here in Chicago. It’s going to be a great holiday here at the Thornton house!

2013 - A YEAR OF ... CHALLENGES! ARE YOU READY?

There will probably be real life challenges for everyone in 2013. Life is made up of a series of trials we must overcome and in such a competitive world those trials may well be considered challenges. However, the challenges I'm inviting you to take part in are quite pleasant events with very little competion in them. You are invited to challenge yourself  to read as many books as you can. Ready to join the fun?

2013 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

This challenge is hosted at Historical Tapestry

Here are the details:

Each month, a new post dedicated to the HF Challenge will be created. To participate, you only have to follow the rules:

• everyone can participate, even those who don't have a blog (you can add your book title and thoughts in the comment section if you wish)
• add the link(s) of your review(s) including your name and book title to the Mister Linky they’ll be adding to their monthly post (please, do not add your blog link, but the correct address that will guide us directly to your review)
• any kind of historical fiction is accepted (HF fantasy, HF young adult,...)

During these following 12 months you can choose one of the different reading levels: 

- 20th century reader - 2 books
- Victorian reader - 5 books
- Renaissance Reader - 10 books
- Medieval - 15 books
- Ancient History - 25+ books

You can tailor the challenge to suit you in whichever way you like! To join the challenge click HERE. It runs from 1 January to 31 December 2013.

"The Brontës and the Shelleys - Crafting Stories from Lives" : A talk by Juliet Gael at Keats-Shelley House in Rome

Juliet Gael at Keats and Shelley House - Rome

It's been a very pleasant afternoon spent in one of the most spectacular landmarks in Rome, Piazza di Spagna, and more precisely at the Keats and Shelley House. Janice Graham, writing as Juliet Gael, is the author of the critically acclaimed historical novel Romancing Miss Brontë, and is currently working on a follow-up novel that deals with the fascinating lives of the Shelleys. She was the guest author at today's meeting and she gave a  talk  about crafting stories from the lives of iconic literary figures like Charlotte Brontë and Mary Shelley.

Part literary reading, part discussion, and part work-in-progress seminar, Juliet Gael addressed the creative problems involved in romanticising the lives of authors and gave us some tantalising sneak previews into the process of writing her book about the Shelleys.

Starting with E. M Forster's definition of events and story, Juliet conveyed the sense of great respect with which she approached her research and then her creation of a  story - line for Romancing Miss Brontë  .

A VIRTUAL CELEBRATION WITH FRIENDS - JOIN LUCINDA BRANT, PRUE BATTEN AND ME AND WIN ONE OF THEIR GREAT BOOKS!

A friend’s success is always a great occasion to celebrate but when there are two friends there is double partying with masses of enthusiasm to share and experience. So, are you ready to join me and my friends in our party?

Prue Batten and Lucinda Brant are not only two dear friends whom I  met by chance in the blogosphere, but honestly also two of the best new writers I discovered thanks to my blogs,  whose books I most appreciate. I was incredibly happy when I heard they had been both nominated and were among the finalists in the Readers Favorite 2012 Award Contest and I decided to organize a small celebration for them, inviting all the readers to join us.

Have you read Prue’s A Thousand Glass Flowers or Lucinda’s Autumn Duchess? They are awesome readings and have been nominated respectively in the Fantasy and Historical Romance categories of the contest.

Join us in our chat and celebration with your own questions or comments. You’ll be not only welcome but will also have the chance to win an e-book copy of either A Thousand Glass Flowers or Autumn Duchess. Don't forget to add your e-mail address to be warned in case you win! This giveaway is open internationally and ends on August 10th. 

Let the party begin!

BAFTA TV AWARDS TONIGHT - WILL MY FAVOURITES WIN THIS TIME?

Richard Armitage & Miranda Raison (Baftas 2009)

The Bafta  TV Awards Ceremony is tonight at the Southbank Centre in London. It will be broadcast on BBC1 from 8.00 p.m. Here are all  the nominees in the different categories.

I've always followed this event with curiosity and great expectations in the last few years hoping my favourite series and actors won. Though has never actually happened. it was worth it all the same since,  at least,  I got new pictures, videos and some times interviews of Richard Armitage taking part in the ceremony, though only to give the prize to someone else (on the left)

I'll have a look at the show on BBC1 tonight to support Dame Maggie Smith and Benedict Cumberbatch, hoping they get the recognition they deserve.

They've been nominated as Best Leading Actress and Best Leading Actor respectively for their roles as Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham in Downton Abbey (ITV 1) and Sherlock Holmes in BBC1 Sherlock. 

Sherlock series 2 has been already honoured with three BAFTA TV Craft Awards: Sherlock won awards for best sound: fiction, best editing  fiction and best writer (Steven Moffat  for the wonderful A Scandal in Belgravia). 

MEETING MR DARCY - GUEST POST BY KIM IZZO AT MY JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB

I just want to share a link to a guest post narrating an awkward meeting with Mr Darcy in person - in the person of Colin Firth - in my page dedicated to the British actor here at FLY HIGH   I know I have been neglecting it for a while but I've just added this lovely blogpost: Kim Izzo, Canadian journalist and writer, met Colin Firth in order to interview him, during The Toronto Film Festival some years ago. 

She shares  the memories of that moment,  which was a bit embarassing but unforgettable, at my Jane Austen-dedicated blog, My Jane Austen Book Club.

Read Meeting Mr Darcy by Kim Izzo and get a chance to read her debut novel, The Jane Austen Marriage Manual. There's a giveaway contest! (Deadline May 23)

CLICK HERE

IN SEARCH FOR HOPE WHILE THE EARTH QUAKES AND INNOCENT GIRLS ARE SLAUGHTERED OUTSIDE THEIR SCHOOL

Melissa Bassi, 16, died in a bomb blast last Saturday

The news from Italy have been terrible this weekend. I guess they got to you all somehow. It has been a tragic, terribly sad end of the week for all of us, though not directly involved in those tragedies.

7:40 a.m. Saturday 19 May  - One student has been killed and seven others injured in a suspected mafia bomb blast at a school in southern Italy. Her name was Melissa Bassi. She was only 16. 

I shared my thoughts on facebook as soon as I heard about it: "As a mother and a teacher I'm stunned, speechless, horrified. It's been a long time since I last felt proud to live in my beautiful difficult country. When   was it? Why was that? Today I must feel sorrowful and ashamed again. Please don't tell me there are crazy people everywhere. I know that."

THE TWO WOMEN IN MR THORNTON'S HEART - JOIN ME AT MELANIE'S MUSINGS FOR THE NORTH AND SOUTH CELEBRATION

Re-reading North and South or re-watching the TV series (BBC 2004),  I can never avoid figuring out the dreaded event, pushing myself  a step ahead the words “the end “.  By dreaded event, I mean the meeting between  Margaret Hale and Hannah Thornton as John’s wife-to-be and mother-in-law to be.  Not an enthusiastic one, I guess, with poor embarassed John between them hoping they could get on well together somehow for his sake. 

I've written a guest post about "The Two Women in Mr Thornton's Heart" for  A North and South Celebration , the event celebrating Mrs Gaskell's novel at Melanie's Musings this week.

I'll wait for you there, then. Join the discussion and contribute your opinion, if you feel like doing it. Melanie and I will be glad to read your comments. 
- How do you imagine their first meeting as in-laws to be?

- Do you think young and old Mrs Thornton will get on well together? 

- Will they leave apart their pride and their strong temper for John's sake? 

- Can the love they share for him lead them to love each other?

Click and read my guest post

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

May 2012 be full of good books, exciting meetings, great films, shows, series, art exhibitions, trips and journeys ... but could we enjoy all that without health, peace, love and friendship? That's what I wish for us all. MG

LITERARY BLOG HOP - WHAT WORK OF LITERATURE WOULD YOU RECOMMEND TO SOMEONE WHO DOESN'T LIKE LITERATURE?

This interesting, thought-provoking monthly blog hop is hosted at The Blue Bookcase . It's my second post in this regular event joining book bloggers and fond readers (the first one is HERE) . It's a good occasion to share thoughts on reading literature, to discover new blogs and bloggers and to learn something new. This month's question is...

What work/s of literature would you recommend to someone who doesn't like literature? 

1. To read or not to read,  Ay, there's the rub !

When someone says he/she doesn't like literature in my experience it generally means they don't like reading very much. Because if you like reading novels for instance, if you are fond of reading  fiction, what you look for is  ... words , beautifully written words,  which all together make up a story. Stories is actually what you look for. And inside those stories emotions, feelings, thoughts, adventures, lives and people you can rely yourself to and sympathize with. How can you not love literature then? 

What would I recommend to someone who says he/she  doesn't like literature but actually  doesn't like reading? I can't answer. First I should know them, at least a bit. Recommendations are meaningless if you don't know tastes and dispositions, likes and dislikes of the person you recommend something to.