Celebrating Stories in Every Medium
Today’s Topic: New-to-Me Authors I Read In 2018
Hosted by: That Artsy Reader Girl
I covered this topic just recently in my book year review for 2018. So instead, I thought I would share new to me authors that are on my TBR shelf OR who have new releases coming out this year that I want to read. Continue reading “Top Ten Tuesday – New to Me Authors I’m Looking Forward to Reading in 2019”
Alfred Kralik is the longest serving employee at Matuschek and Company in Budapest, Hungary. Personally taken under the wing of Mr. Matuschek, Kralik has worked his way up the ladder to become the store’s top sales clerk. He is joined by his four other fellow employees Vadas, Flora, Ilona, his good friend Pirovitch and the errand boy Pepi who have all formed a special camaraderie with each other. They aren’t just co-workers but a family of sorts.
But things begin to change and upset Kralik’s life of routine. First, Matuschek hires the beautiful but snippy young Klara Novak. Kralik and Klara do not get along. She constantly challenges his authority and he resents her rudeness to him. Then, Kralik’s formerly close relationship with his employer shows some fractures. He cannot fathom why Mr. Matuschek is suddenly treating him so coldly. The one bright spot in Kralik’s life is his growing closeness with his anonymous female pen pal. Though he has never met her, he begins to fall for her, recognizing her as a kindred spirit. Just when Kralik believes he is getting a raise, he is unexpectedly fired instead. On the same night, he goes to meet his pen pal and discovers Klara waiting in the same restaurant. Things look pretty bleak for him. But Christmas is a time when anything can happen.
For the full review, please follow me over to The Silver Petticoat Review.
After fifteen years of marriage and two children, Sergey and Olga have grown apart emotionally. Their life has become a matter of routine and duty. When Olga finds her husband’s profile on a dating website, she decides to connect with her husband using a false identity. Sergey quickly becomes enamored with the mysterious woman named Emma.
Meanwhile, in their real life Olga is torn over her husband’s “infidelity” but believes their marriage is worth saving. The more she reaches out to her husband, the more distant he becomes. However, her virtual identity as Emma gives her new insight and understanding into her husband while also exposing the failures in their marriage. The more Olga pretends to be Emma, the more “Emma” impacts Olga’s life. But when Olga finally regains her sense of identity, will she still feel her marriage worth saving? Continue reading “Foreign Film Friday – I Love My Husband (2018) Russian Series”
December was a bit slower month for me. I watched a couple of Dick Powell films as well as a few with Robert Mitchum. I also viewed a few classic Christmas films I had yet to see. Aside from Mitchum’s His Kind of Woman, none of this month’s movies wowed me. I also had fun watching In Person in which Ginger Rogers plays ugly. In all, I saw sixteen new films this month. Continue reading “December 2018 Quickie Film Reviews”
Today’s Topic: Most Anticipated Releases for the First Half of 2019
Hosted by: That Artsy Reader Girl
Well, it’s that time again. Time to ignore reality, the constraints of time and budget and add to my TBR list all the new books I want to read while blithely ignoring all the lonely titles sitting on my shelf crying out for attention. But, hey, I believe in dreaming big people!
There are many books I can’t wait to read this year, but I’ve brutally cut my long list down for the sake of this top ten. Continue reading “Top Ten Tuesday -Most Anticipated Releases for the First Half of 2019”
So, this year was an extremely productive year for me when it came to watching films. I watched over 180 new to me classic films. Wait, what? That’s right almost 200 films. I honestly don’t even know how that is possible, especially considering I also read over 120 books while working as well. That number of course doesn’t include the new releases, documentaries, television series, Hallmark movies etc. which I didn’t bother to keep track of.
This year’s classic film binge included me filling in my filmography gaps for stars like Rita Hayworth, William Holden, Robert Mitchum, Elizabeth Taylor, George Brent, Ava Gardner, Marlon Brando and others. I watched my first Esther Williams films and finally found one I liked. And I finally discovered why Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni are considered a great pairing. Continue reading “2018 Film Year in Review”
Today’s Topic: Best Books I Read In 2018
Hosted by: That Artsy Reader Girl
Well, originally I thought to stick to today’s prompt. However, I am covering my favorite books of 2018 in another post. So, instead I decided to make a list of my favorite fictional heroes of the year. You know I can’t resist a well written romantic leading man. It was extremely hard to narrow them down, but I did my best. Continue reading “Top Ten Tuesday – Best Fictional Heroes in 2018”
Whew! Another (reading) year has passed. I set a goal to read at least seventy-five new books and I far exceeded that. Somehow, I read over 110. This does not include titles I re-read. I was very happy with the books I chose this year. The majority I rated four stars, but around 40 percent of them earned five stars from me.
At the beginning of this year, I set some reading goals for myself. Honestly, I didn’t do as well with these as I would have liked. The two goals I did manage to accomplish were to quit more books and to read more non-fiction. My non-fiction consisted mainly of biographies and film history. I read about the friendship between James Stewart and Henry Fonda, interviews with classic film stars, books on costume design, biographies on Jean Arthur, Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Ava Gardner and one about the last years of Bette Davis’ life. Continue reading “2018 Book Year in Review”
SYNOPSIS
The Man Who Invented Christmas gives a new and welcome spin to A Christmas Carol by telling its’ creation through the eyes of the author Charles Dickens. Despite his previous publishing success, Charles Dickens is in financial straits. With a growing family, an expensive new London townhome and a spendthrift father, funds are very limited. His most recently published books haven’t been as successful. For this reason his publishers are hesitant to back a new book. Not to mention Dickens is struggling with writer’s block. Dickens close friend and agent, John Forster, encourages and support him through his difficulties, until inspiration strikes. Despite the lack of demand for a holiday story, Charles Dickens insists it is a tale that needs to be told. As such, he decides to self-publish putting his family in even further financial peril.
As Dickens writes his story, he faces several challenges. There is the growing disconnect between himself and his neglected wife. Another battle he faces is with his main character, Scrooge, who challenges him more than he expects. A third is the fractured relationship with his father who unexpectedly arrives for a visit. This also forces Dickens to wrestle with the ghosts of his own past history. It creates an intriguing intertwinement of the author’s life with that of his character.
To read the full review, please follow me over to The Silver Petticoat.
I think I’ve seen just about every film adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s book that is known to man. No matter the version, I’ve always loved the March family and their relationships with each other and those they adopt into their circle. But, I’ve never been happy with the romantic relationships as portrayed on screen.
After watching the 1994 version starring Winona Ryder again recently, I decided it was high time I finally read the book for myself. Especially since my strategy for reading more classics is to tackle the novels of film adaptations I really enjoy. And that is how I finally found myself reading Little Women.
The story of the four March sisters, Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy is so well-known that I hardly think I need to summarize it here. Suffice it to say, that at over 500 pages long, the book gives much more time to developing and detailing these beloved characters, their relationships, their personal growth, their trials and triumphs.
You are the gull, Jo, strong and wild, fond of the storm and the wind, flying far out to sea, and happy all alone. Meg is the turtledove, and Amy is like the lark she writes about, trying to get up among the clouds, but always dropping down into its nest again. Dear little girl! She’s so ambitious, but her heart is good and tender, and no matter how high she flies, she never will forget home.