BOOK REVIEW - QUANTA STELLA C'E' NEL CIELO BY EDITH BRUCK (2009) - SOON AN INTERNATIONAL MOVIE, ANITA B., BY ROBERTO FAENZA

I came to read this book after hearing that Italian director Roberto Faenza was making a movie out of it  (Anita B.) and I’m so  glad I discovered both novel and author. It’s been a great read which I happened to find  just when I was working on 20th century literature with my oldest students.  I couldn’t actually use it in my lessons,  since it hasn’t been translated into English and I teach English not Italian  literature,  but I think it gave indirectly a great contribution to my introduction of the general  background context and to  suggest my students connections and links coming directly from witnesses who lived and survived the tragic reality of WWII.

There's no grammar mistake in the title, it was just meant to sound "How much star is there in the sky",  like in   Sàndor Petöfi's ballad.  

Edith Bruck,  like Anita the young protagonist of  “Quanta stella c’è nel cielo”,     survived being imprisoned in a concentration camp and this is what makes the narration even more touching though it is never too sentimental nor melodramatic.  

 Edith Bruck won the Premio Viareggio Narrativa 2009 for this novel. She’s been living in Italy  since soon after WWII and has become a writer in the Italian language since the Hungarian tongue brought painful memories back to  her mind, the memories of being a rejected, persecuted Jewish child imprisoned in several Nazi concentration camps (Auschwitz, Dachau, Bergen-Belsen). 

She tells she  couldn’t even say “ciao” in our language when she arrived in Rome as a  desperate orphan, but wanted to learn Italian and use it in order to be born again,  into a new life, in order to forget those memories which were  poisoning her. 

She felt welcome here in our country. Italy and her were extremely poor at that time and she felt immediately at home in Rome. The experience  of Anita B., the protagonist of the book, is quite different, though. 

CANNES FILM FESTIVAL 2013 - VAMPIRE LOVE & GAY LOVE

The 2013 Cannes Film Festival, officially opened by The Great Gatsby,  has just turned off its glamorous lights on this year's  red carpet.  I was thinking how curious it is that just on the day when thousands of French people protested,  marching along the streets    in Paris,  against gay marriages, the experts at the Festival have chosen as best movie the French film "La vie d'Adèle" (based on the French graphic novel Le Bleu est une couleur chaude (Blue is the Warmest Colour) . Directed by Abdellatif Kechiche, the film won the Palme d'Or  (see a clip here).

What are the true colours of France today? 

Yes, because this film features "the most explosively graphic lesbian sex scenes in recent memory" according to Justin Chang writing for Variety and may require some editing (censorhip?) before it is screened in cinemas. 

At the beginning of the story, 15-year-old Adèle (Adèle Exarchopoulos) has no doubt : a girl must date boys. Her life is turned upside down when she meets Emma (Léa Seydoux), a blue haired young woman, which allows her to discover desire and to assert herself as a woman and an adult. In the look of others, Adèle grows, looks for herself, loses herself and finds herself again. 

SHOOTING HAS STARTED FOR THE PARADISE SERIES 2

Apparently they started shooting THE PARADISE series 2 at last! (Check HERE but beware of spoilers!)

Do you remember? A couple of months ago I was wondering what would happen at the beginning of the new series in one of my posts , which has become quite popular in fact being the one with the highest number of hits in the latest weeks. The worries I wrote about  have just been dissolved by the article I linked above. If you are as curious as me, just follow the link,  but I must warn you, there may be a huge spoiler and if you prefer to be surprised, don't click and go on reading here.

THE GREAT GATSBY: THE BOOK, THE MOVIES AND THE VALUES

(by guest blogger Prima Santika)

When I heard that Baz Luhrmann was taking on this classic novel into his production, I was thrilled with great expectations. And to put a long story short, after seeing the movie at its first day screening in Indonesia, May 17th 2013, I walked out from the cinema with GREAT satisfaction. Baz Luhrmann did a remarkable job! I do LOVE the movie!

BOOK BLAST - ABOVE RUBIES BY JACLYN M. HAWKES

 

Tour Schedule

Above Rubies

His chivalry was strangling her. He thought he was helping her—and in truth, he was. She was in desperate straits. But as honorable as he was, he was also breaking her heart. Her attraction was drowning him. When World Champion rodeo cowboy Rossen Rockland and his friends rescue a young runaway who has been abused by her foster father and take her home to his parents’ ranch, he expects her to turn out to be a pain in the neck. And sometimes she is. It doesn’t take him long to figure out that she has way more than her allotment of troubles—and far more than her share of gifts. Lovely, talented, and ravingly brilliant, Kit Star is too young, unbelievably humble, and oh, so loveable. Knowing that she needs his protection and time to grow into her potential, Rossen also figures out that what she really is, is a pain in the heart. Watch for more of the Rockland Ranch Series!  

Praise for Above Rubies:

I absolutely could not put this book down. It had me laughing, crying, angry and pretty much every other emotion. I can not wait for the next one in the series to come out. Keep them coming!!! ~Addicted to Books This is the second book in the Rockland Ranch Romance Series. It can be read as a stand alone or copies of Peace

BOOK BLITZ - THE BOY NEXT DOOR BY ANNABELLE COSTA

About Annabelle Costa

Annabelle Costa is a teacher, who writes in her free time. She enjoys the wounded hero genre, involving male love interests with physical disabilities, who don’t follow the typical Hollywood perception of sexy.

About The Boy Next Door

Through middle school, high school, bad dates, and an ill-advised punk phase, Tasha has always been able to count on Jason. Since the day he moved in next door, he’s gone from the weird kid in a wheelchair to Tasha’s most trusted friend. But lives change and the friends are going in different directions. When Jason and Tasha rekindle their friendship, sparks fly. After years of being a wild soul, now the ex-lead of a band turned music teacher is just looking for a relationship to last.

When none other than Jason introduces her to a man who can give her what she wants, Tasha is on the verge of throwing passion and love away just so she can forget her troubled past and settle down. But Jason isn’t ready to give her up just yet.

Excerpt

I wasn’t too happy when my parents told me that I had to try to make friends with the crippled kid who just moved in next door.

BOOKSHELF TOUR & AUTHOR GUEST POST - THE WIFE OF A LESSER MAN BY SANDY APPLEYARD + $15 AMAZON GIFT CARD GIVEAWAY

Like most authors, all my books have been inspired by real life experiences.  The Wife of a Lesser Man is no exception.  Inspiration strikes me at the strangest times.  The story line for my first romance came right after reading another romance novel and eating an inordinate amount of cheese. 

The Wife of a Lesser Man came to me after having a discussion with a friend about married people who have affairs.  A question came to light regarding the safety of the person who has the affair.  “What if the person is a stalker or serial killer or something?”  We laughed about it at first, pointing out the irony, but then I thought this would make a great story. 

Hence, The Wife of a Lesser Man was born.  As I wrote the book, I absolutely loved the idea of writing about a police chief.  Writing crime scenes, mystery, clues and suspense was such a stimulating experience that I wanted to do it again and again.  And I am.  The sequel has already been written and the third novel in the series is started.

Writing a mystery is a lot like writing a story backwards.  You know what you want the outcome to be; you also know what clues will lead to the solution.  The trick is to make the clues mesh into the story so they’re not too subtle.  As I wrote the victims into the story, I used my inspiration from one or two of my not-so-favourite people.  Have you ever heard the saying ‘Never upset a writer; you might end up dead in their next book’?  It’s true ;-)

SANDY  APPLEYARD

How to Encourage Young People to Read Educational Books

(by guest blogger Pam Johnson) In today's world, it can be difficult to motivate young people to have a passion for reading. Yes, it is even harder when you want to get them to read educational books. How can you make this wish into a reality?

Ask Many Questions

One of the ways to inspire young people to read is to ask an array of questions. For example, let's say that you have a specific educational book that you want them to read. Ask them a lot of questions to which they can find answers in the book. You might send them on a hunt to find the answer to one specific question. After that, they may be inspired to read the book. Of course, you want to make the questions engaging and challenging to really get them involved in the process.

Some Tough Love

At first, you might need to resort to some old-fashioned methods to get them to read the book. Let's say that you are teaching a class of high school students, and you need them to read a particular educational book. Tell the students that a major test is going to be given on the book at the end of the term, and it will count for a large percentage of their grade. Knowing their grade is at stake can be enough motivation to read, and they might find that they actually love reading in the process.

AUTHOR GUEST POST - LONDON CASEY, THE BOYS OF DOWNCRASH

Writing a series isn’t quite like writing just a book.  And when you throw in connecting characters, story lines, and a band… it’s like creating everything.  At the end of it though, it’s quite amazing to see what’s been created. 

When I first started writing The Boys of DownCrash, I envisioned the series as something fast, even novella-like.  But the second I finished the first couple chapters and really got to meet the guys in the band (Tripp, Tatum, and Logan), I knew this wasn’t going to be short.  Or fast.  Or even easy to write.

These guys were cute, sexy, hot, and complicated.  They were together as one of the most popular bands going but individually they were so very different.  And maybe that’s what makes the series so fun… to write and read.  I didn’t want to have the same stories appearing in each book and I didn’t want the guys in the band to be the same either. 

JOURNEY OF PROMISE BY VICKIE HALL - BLOG TOUR AND GIVEAWAY

Tour Schedule

 

Journey of Promise When converts Richard and Leah Kenyon leave Wales and heed the call to Zion, they are unprepared for the toll exacted by the journey. To face the incredible odds mounted against them they call upon the Lord's tender mercies to see them through and strengthen their love for one another. Their story will remind you where to turn during your trials.