Wednesday 4 November 2015

Photo ABC

I am a member of a photo group where we get a prompt for every day and have to take an appropriate picture. Because we had the alphabet one month, I decided to do a book theme.

I always added either the link to my blog or to the books. I have decided to post a picture every week so my booky friends can enjoy them, as well.

 
THREE. 



 

This is my blog entry for this book.
Mortenson, Greg & Relin, David Oliver "Three Cups of Tea,.One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time"

Tuesday 3 November 2015

Gaskell, Elizabeth "North and South"

Gaskell, Elizabeth "North and South" - 1854/55

If you've read all of Jane Austen's novels and most of those by the Brontë sisters, you must be looking for other authors. May I suggest Elizabeth Gaskell?

The author is slightly younger than Ms. Austen but was personally known to Charlotte Brontë, so a contemporary of the writing sisters. She was married to a minister herself, so another thing they had in common.

In this novel, Elizabeth Gaskell tells the story of Margaret Hale whose father leaves the ministry because he has doubts about his belief. They move from the South of England to a place in the North, from a village to a town, a lot of things change for Margaret Hale.

Whereas Jane Austen has mainly written about people of her own society, Elizabeth Gaskell tells about all the different classes, from poor to rich, from the working to the leading people.

Her style is also a lot more modern than most of the novels by Jane Austen or the Brontës, we have moved into the Victorian era. So, even if you dislike Jane Austen, you might find Elizabeth Gaskell a little easier as an introduction - and then maybe move on to JA.

In any case, her characters are real and believable. They come alive on the pages. You rejoice and fear with them. But also the story itself, the development at the time, both social as well as political, it is all highly interesting.

Certainly one of the classics I will read again.

From the back cover:

"Mrs Gaskell's finest social novel is also the powerfully moving story of the developing relationship between southern-born Margaret Hale and John Thornton, the young northern mill-owner.

Margaret is compelled to move from Helstone, her beloved childhood home in the New Forest, to Darkshire in the industrial north when her father resigns his parsonage owing to religious doubt Mrs Gaskell's finest social novel is also the powerfully moving story of the developing relationship between southern-born Margaret Hale and John Thornton, the young northern mill-owner.

Margaret is compelled to move from Helstone, her beloved childhood home in the New Forest, to Darkshire in the industrial north when her father resigns his parsonage owing to religious doubts.
When she first encounters John Thornton, her father's pupil and a man in favour of the power of master over worker, she finds their views in conflict. But industrial rebellion and family tragedy cause Margaret to learn the realities of urban life and Thornton to learn humanity. Only then can a mutual understanding lead to the possibility of enduring love."

Monday 2 November 2015

Fowler, Christopher "Hell Train"


Fowler, Christopher "Hell Train" - 2011

"Hell Train", a ghost story. Not my usual genre. But a friend asked me to read the German translation and see how it flows.

Well, it flows very well. The story is interesting, even though I wouldn't normally pick one of these. The characters, four people who happen to meet in a train, are well described, each and every one of them comes alive well. The story moves back and forth from real life into the film that is supposedly under construction. Maybe that made the whole story more believable to me even though I think most people who love horror stories could have lived without it. I did like the folk tales people were telling each other about the train, stories they had heard as children and lived with all their lives.

I haven't read the original but I would think that anyone who likes to read these kind of stories will love it.

From the back cover:

"Four passengers meet on a train journey through Eastern Europe during the First World War, and face a mystery that must be solved if they are to survive... Bizarre creatures, satanic rites, terrified passengers and the romance of travelling by train, all feature in this classically styled horror novel. As the ‘Arkangel’ races through the war-torn countryside, the passengers must find out: What is in the casket that everyone is so afraid of? What is the tragic secret of the veiled Red Countess who travels with them? Why is their fellow passenger the army brigadier so feared by his own men? And what exactly is the devilish secret of the 'Arkangel' itself?

 Imagine there was a supernatural chiller that Hammer Films never made. A grand epic produced at the studio’s peak, which played like a cross between the Dracula and Frankenstein films and Dr Terror’s House Of Horrors..."

Sunday 1 November 2015

Happy November!


I wish everyone a good November with this beautiful beautiful watercolour painting by Frank Koebsch "Orchid Dream".


This month can only get better than the last. I was sick most of the time but the worst was that my mother passed away. She followed my father only a year and three months after his death and is in peace now.


If you would like to see more pictures by Hanka and Frank Koebsch, you can check their blog here.