ROME AGAIN - GOOD TIMES, OLD TREASURES AND NEW ACQUISITIONS

You know I live near Rome and that I love being a tourist from time to time in the city where I used to study at university. I love Rome also because I can meet very special friends there with whom I share several interests and little pleasures . They often help me to discover hidden treasures and interesting sites which make our capital surprisingly gem-set.  My latest trips to Rome were to see The Hobbit with my son and , not long before,  I had been there for the talk Juliet Gael gave at the Keats and Shelley Memorial House in Piazza di Spagna about her books on The Brontës  and The Shelleys (see my post)

Port Isaac - Cornwall

This time the occasion for going at the weekend was meeting my friends for a "premiere". No red carpet for my friend Louise 's film project based on our adventures in South - West England last summer , but lots of laughs and final applause. I can't translate the funny title she gave her work, I really can't. I can only admit the project was definitely entertaining and crammed of good memories and unforgettable moments. We laughed a lot watching and commenting  the images,  after we had appreciated our host  K/V 's delicious dinner and exchanged  little post-Christmas gifts.

GIVEAWAY WINNERS ANNOUNCEMENT

Two giveaway contests are over today and I'm here to quickly announce the names of the three lucky winners. 

Two copies of the first book to give away, a paperback for US readers and an e-book for international readers (or US who prefers the e-version) of  Sally Smith O'Rourke,   Christmas at Sea Pines Cottage: 

- Susan Heim wins the paperback copy  

- Stephanie will get the e-book version of the book

The winner of the second giveway contest could choose between two different e-books by Marilyn Brant. 

Erika Messer wins and has chosen  Marilyn Brant ' s Double Dipping   

Many grateful thanks to Sally Smith O'Rourke and Marilyn Brant for being my kind guests and granting free copies of their works for the giveaway contests.

Thanks to all the readers who commented and took part in them!

AT THE CINEMA - THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED PLEASURE

As usual what you find here is just a very personal approach to the movie and nothing like a professional review. So, get ready to my very subjective vision of a film I just wanted to see for Thorin Oakenshield, or better  Richard Armitage. or go to the end of the post for a link to a proper review. I wouldn't mind you reading my post at all, if you have a few minutes, though. 

After waiting for a couple of years and after booking a ticket to see it with my friends in Rome as soon as it came out,  I was really disappointed when I felt sick overnight and had to give up going.

I was, however , very happy to go and see it later on with the Tolkien expert in my family, my elder son , who wanted to see it again with me in the English version after watching it in Italian with his friends.

AUTHOR GUEST POST: MARILYN BRANT, MEMORIES AND HOLIDAY CELEBRATIONS + GIVEAWAY

Marilyn Brant's newest novel is out and she's visiting to share her memories of past holidays. Read her enjoyable piece and take your chance to win a copy of her previously published romances.  The giveaway details are at the end of the post. Good luck and happy holidays, everyone.

I love holidays and special celebrations! Before my son was born, I used to be an elementary school teacher who loved nothing more than traveling and learning about new cultures. (Anyone who read my last women's fiction book, A Summer in Europe, already knows how much that's true, especially when it comes to traveling in beautiful Italy!! *waving to Maria Grazia*) Well, as the teacher of my classes, I would lead my students through social studies units on topics like “communities” or “cultures," which always led to discussions -- especially during the holidays -- about “celebrations around the world.” And, since I was also really fond of films like Bing Crosby's and Fred Astaire's "Holiday Inn" (one of the inspirations for my newest novel, Holiday Man, which is a contemporary romance that takes place over a year of holidays), I couldn't imagine what could be more fun than the idea of creating and celebrating holidays! These days, I might find myself chuckling about the goofy paper mache projects and plates filled with international appetizers my students and I made, but the truth is that always really loved teaching these units. They were so enjoyable. And, above all, my classes not only loved them, but they always learned a lot in the process.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS TIME!

THE LADIES' PARADISE BY EMILE ZOLA - BOOK REVIEW

The Ladies' Paradise is a compelling story of ambition and love set against the backdrop of the spectacular rise of the department store in 1860s Paris. Octave Mouret is a business genius who transforms a modest draper's shop into a hugely successful retail enterprise, masterfully exploiting the desires of his female customers and ruining small competitors along the way. Through the eyes of trainee salesgirl Denise we see the inner workings of the store and the relations and intrigues among the staff, human dramas played out alongside the relentless pursuit of commercial supremacy. 

My review 
(beware of spoilers! ) I came to read this book after watching the BBC adaptation, The Paradise, which gave the story a British setting. The series  scriptwriters worked many changes on the original text, which usually disturb people fond of literary classics, but not me and not in this case. I think they quite  improved both plot and   characterization,  instead.

Zola's text aims to depict  the department store, The Ladies' Paradise, as an ambiguous symbol of progress:

"It helped women to establish themselves historically in the public sphere, and it may appear to have increased the customer's power and autonomy; but, as Zola shows, the new codes of social behaviour and social discourses which it entailed for the shopper simultaneously organized a powerful network of constraints, providing a mere illusion of freedom and fulfilment. The department store, in its embodiment of consumer culture, was - and is - a giant, precision-made dream-machine" (Brian Nelson)

The department store is a model of the new capitalism, designed to seduce more than to supply. The mechanisms of seduction described in the text are numerous: the policy of free entry, the establishment of fixed prices, the system of returns, the seduction of the eye with an almost "orgiastic" display. To create the need, to awake new desires is the main philosophy at The Ladies' Paradise.  

KELLY ORAM, "V IS FOR VIRGIN" BLOG TOUR + GIVEAWAY

This Year’s Sexiest Man Alive!

Sure his voice is like honey and his smile could cause cardiac arrest, but it’s his confidence and determination that have earned Kyle Hamilton the title of this year’s Sexiest Man Alive.

“It’s as simple as knowing what you want and not stopping until you get it,” Kyle told us when asked we asked what the secret of his success was. Well, there’s no arguing with that when he led his band to platinum status at just seventeen.

And if his passion for his music isn’t enough to make you swoon, the closet romantic also loves to funnel all of that ambition into matters of the heart. On the subject of his notorious pursuit of “Virgin” Val Jensen he had only one thing to say, “Faint heart never won fair maiden!”

 Kelly Oram

The author  

Kelly Oram wrote her first novel at age fifteen–a fan fiction about her favorite music group, The Backstreet Boys, for which family and friends still tease her. She's obsessed with reading, talks way too much, and loves to eat frosting by the spoonful. She lives outside of Phoenix, Arizona with her husband and four children.

Links 

Blog: http://www.kellyoram.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/kellyoram

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kelly-Oram/167476866620455

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3203095.Kelly_Oram

EIGHT CHRISTMAS QUESTIONS FOR SALLY SMITH O’ROURKE - BOOK GIVEAWAY

    Author Sally Smith O'Rourke  is my guest today, ready to share her Christmas favourite things, memories and even recipes! There's a double giveaway of her Christmas novella, too. Enjoy the interview, read the giveaway details  and  ... good luck, everyone!

1.       What do you like best and what the least of Christmas time?

Gatherings of friends and family most but I love the decorations. I decorate every room. Someone once said being in my house at Christmas is like stepping into Macy’s windows. I love the smell of a live tree and spicy, sweet smells of cookies baking.

 There are two things about Christmas that I find difficult. Retail; in the ‘olden’ days stores would spend Thanksgiving decorating for Christmas so everything was festive the next day. Now that day is ‘Black Friday’ and people get hurt in the rush to buy stuff. Now, too the decorations go up before Halloween taking much of the fun and festiveness out of it. I prefer to celebrate one holiday at a time.

 The most difficult for me is not having Mike, my late husband, to share it with. He loved all holidays. I love to cook and he loved to entertain so our house was always filled with food, friends and family during the holidays (and not the holidays). I hate that he is no longer here with me.

2.     What are your favourite …

 a.       Christmas movie  

The Bishop’s Wife with Cary Grant, Loretta Young and David Niven

AIDAN TURNER AND ROBERT SHEEHAN, YOUNG TALENTS FROM THE EMERALD ISLE

Will they become as popular and universally acknowledged as Liam Neeson, Colin Farrell,   Pierce Brosnan, Gabriel Byrne, Ciaran Hinds and  Jonathan Rhys Meyers? All these fascinating men share their talent at acting and their being Irish. All of them made it in the movie industry,  getting to a huge popularity. Will Aidan Turner and Robert Sheehan, young, Irish and talented, make it too? I'd say, they've got great chances and , in fact, they are already on their way to stardom. I bet you'll soon hear of them if you haven't yet.

EIGHT CHRISTMAS QUESTIONS FOR ... CAROLE MATTHEWS , AUTHOR OF WITH LOVE AT CHRISTMAS

Hello Carole and welcome back to FLY HIGH! This time we talk Christmas. Are you ready? What do you like best and what the least of Christmas time?

I love all the decorations and dressing the house for Christmas. I least like how crowded all the shops are and that I can never find quite the right gift!

What are your favourite …

 Christmas movie - The Muppet Christmas Carol. Christmas can really start once Kermit has been on the     television

 Christmas book -  Has to be A Christmas Carol again. By Dickens this time though!

 Christmas song - Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas  by Judy Garland

 Christmas decoration - I love to get a real Christmas tree. The bigger, the better

 Christmas traditional dish/food? I love all Christmas food. It’s my diet downfall. Now that I write Christmassy books, I start eating mince pies in July.

When and how  did you decide to write your novel  “With Love at Christmas”?

I wrote a book a few years ago called That Loving Feeling which featured a really great family, the Joyces. When I decided to write a family-based Christmas book, they seemed like the ideal characters. So it was really nice to pick up with them again. It’s not a sequel, we just catch up with the family two years later as they’re approaching Christmas.