Lost In Austen

Lost in Austen is a four-part 2008 British television series for the ITV network, written by Guy Andrews as an adaptation of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Amanda Price, a keen Jane Austen fan from present-day Hammersmith, discovers the Pride and Prejudice character Elizabeth Bennet in her bathroom. Amanda curiously steps through a secret doorway hidden in the wall that Elizabeth had shown her, and finds herself in the house of the Bennets, Longbourn, at the beginning of the novel.

Amanda is trapped in this world, and Elizabeth is meanwhile in 21st Century London. Mr Bennet is hospitable, and Amanda tries to ensure that the novel progresses as it should. Mr Bingley visits Longbourn and appears to admire Amanda more than Jane. At the Meryton Assembly Hall she meets Mr Darcy and Caroline Bingley. Amanda gets drunk and kisses Bingley, immediately regretting it. Later, Amanda then forces Jane to travel to the Bingleys’ home in bad weather to get the novel back on track, but when she learns that this may give Jane a fatal attack of croup, Amanda follows her to save her.

Things don’t really go as they should in this adaption, the twists and turns that follow are worthy of a true Jane Austen novel.

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The Gargoyle

Love is as strong as death, as hard as hell

This book is a page turner. I’m hooked so badly that I think I have to be admitted into rehab after the last page has been turned. I can’t really describe what it’s like to read The Gargoyle, but so far it’s been disgusting, sickening and extremley alluring and I’ve only read a few chapters.

At first you will also be disgusted and have the urge to throw the book in the trash and lit it on fire. Just holding it will scare the heck out of you. But the story is one that will suck you in and you’ll start feeling that your fingers won’t let the book down unless someone else lets loose your grip.

The story: The narrator of The Gargoyle is a very contemporary cynic, physically beautiful and sexually adept, who dwells in the moral vacuum that is modern life. As the book opens, he is driving along a dark road when he is distracted by what seems to be a flight of arrows. He crashes into a ravine and suffers horrible burns over much of his body. As he recovers in a burn ward, undergoing the tortures of the damned, he awaits the day when he can leave the hospital and commit carefully planned suicide—for he is now a monster in appearance as well as in soul.

A beautiful and compelling, but clearly unhinged, sculptress of gargoyles by the name of Marianne Engel appears at the foot of his bed and insists that they were once lovers in medieval Germany. In her telling, he was a badly injured mercenary and she was a nun and scribe in the famed monastery of Engelthal who nursed him back to health. As she spins their tale in Scheherazade fashion and relates equally mesmerizing stories of deathless love in Japan, Iceland, Italy, and England, he finds himself drawn back to life—and, finally, in love.

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The Vampire Diaries: The Awakening and The Struggle

I would like to say that The Vampire Diaries as a book is entertaining, romantic, thrilling and predictable. I can’t really say the same about the tv-series yet. By predictable I don’t mean that it’s boring, not at all, but simply that the outcome is obvious.

We have Elena who is the golden girl, who can have any boy she wants until Stefan comes along. Stefan that’s brooding and mysterious, seems to be the only one who can resist Elena, even as he struggles to protect her from the horrors that haunt his past. And last but not least we have Damon, the sexy one, who is the real predator and driven by an urge for revenge against Stefan, the brother who betrayed him. Determined to have Elena, he would even kill her to have her in his possession.

In my opinion Stefan is the better choice even though he thinks that he has taken the high road in all the drama between him and his brother. He has rather put the whole matter in a jar and sealed it tight hoping that it won’t get out and make things uncomfortable for him. Damon on the other hand has the whole revenge thing on lockdown. He knows which buttons to push and how to play the game like a man. That vamp invented the term revenge!

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New Moon (Book Two: The Twilight Saga)

Soon you will hear the screams of millions girls and women all over the world. The screams will be so loud that you’ll  still hear them in a sound proof room. New Moon will be out on November 20th, like you didn’t already know that!

The follow-up to Twilight isn’t as good as the original since it lacks one essential thing and that is Edward. Yes ladies, I’m on Team Edward! In the book Jacob is meant to be a sort of comfort for Bella since Edward leaves her and vanishes, but instead Jacob makes it’s all worse. He’s like cotton candy, delicious in small doses but you get a tummy ache if you don’t stop yourself.

He is merely a distraction, because Edward is still with Bella in her thoughts and no matter how hard she tries to make herself forget him it’s impossible. In the end everything she does with Jacob is just a method to get Edward’s attention, I don’t how fair that is of her towards Jacob but I don’t really care about him because he is just a minor bump in the road to eternal love.

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Are You Fleeing?

Are you fleeing from Love because of a single humiliation?
What do you know of Love except the name?
Love has a hundred forms of pride and disdain,
and is gained by a hundred means of persuasion.
Since Love is loyal, it purchases one who is loyal:
it has no interest in a disloyal companion.
The human being resembles a tree; its root is a covenant with God:
that root must be cherished with all one’s might.
A weak covenant is a rotten root, without grace or fruit.
Though the boughs and leaves of the date palm are green,
greenness brings no benefit if the root is corrupt.
If a branch is without green leaves, yet has a good root,
a hundred leaves will put forth their hands in the end.

~Rumi

Photo copyright belongs to Gwarf

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Lorna Doone

Lorna Doone is based on a novel by the same title written by Richard Blackmore. I haven’t read the novel only seen the adaptation and if the novel is as “racy”  as the drama then I’m astonished that he was able to get it published back in 1869.

What surprised me was that there wasn’t any holding back between the main characters, they really expressed their feelings without playing coy. Unlike other dramas that are based upon that era, where a woman has to be shy and obedient and the man strong and sensible, this one really let the character show their every emotion without any restraint.

Read more about the novel and author here.

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Who Are You?

Who are you that I
like this
quite confidently
speak my name
with you
put my housekey
in your hands
share the loaf of my happiness
with you
sit next to you
and in your lap
like this
tranquil
fall asleep?

Who are you that I
like this wholeheartedly
in the countries of my dreams
linger with you?

~Ahmad Shamlu

Photo copyright belongs to aNdikapatRya

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The Vampire Diaries

For those of us who don’t live in the US, there is a site available so that we can be able to watch the episodes the day after they are broadcasted.

Watch The Vampire Diaries Online

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The Accidental Werewolf

It’s called paranormal romance. The Accidental Werewolf is the first book out of three in The Accidental Friend series by Dakota Cassidy. It’s meant to be the first one that a person reads but it was actually the last one I read, my personal favourite was The Accidental Vampire, NOT because of the vampire theme, we are not discriminating any supernatural creatures in this blog, but because the main character is one mean bitch (pardon the language).

Back to the one about the werewolf. Marty is a door to door make-up saleswoman, working the way to the top of her pyramid, when her poodle attacks a prowling werewolf who was distracted by Marty’s scent. In her attempt to pry her vicious little dog off the large “dog’s” lip, he accidentally bites her, a scratch on her hand really, and then she starts changing.

Other than the fact that she has to shave her legs twice a day her only dilemma is that as a werewolf she needs to eat raw meat on a regular basis, but she’s a vegan…drumroll! This first book is one step above Harlequin novels…but the sequels are good.

The authors website: dakotacassidy.com

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Stranger In A Strange Land

On the cover  it says that it’s the most famous science fiction novel ever written. That may be right to some extent but it sure isn’t the best one. I can honestly say that I’ve had this book in my possession for over 5 years and I still haven’t been able to actually force myself to complete it.

The science fiction part is good for a book that was written in the 60s but the story itself is just not something that can be called the best that I’ve laid my eyes on. It starts out pretty well but then it’s a downward spiral after he ends up this characters house by the name of Jubal. From there and on it turns into a freak show and honestly it’s a show I don’t mind missing. That’s why it will remain in my Put Aside pile for ever and ever til the day a Martian comes by my house and reads it out loud just so he/she/ it can torture me into becoming their slave on Earth.

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