Book's Crumbs

ottobre 30, 2016

The Girls Who Went to War by Duncan Barrett and Nuala Calvi - Review

The Girls who Went to War

If you leave the residence of the first english Prime Minister and get on Whitehall Road you will find yourself in front of a big monument dedicated to the woman of World War II. A big metal rectangular block, almost 7 meters high, in which we can see 17 different set of clothing running around its sides, symbolizing the different jobs women did undertake during the war.

Passing past it I always asked myself: who were those women? What did they do during the war time?

Knowing almost nothing about this matter, and having quite a lot of misconceptions on the role of women during those years, I gladly picked up this book when I saw it on depositary book. It also was a bargain for less than 5 euro, couldn't let this opportunity slip by.

The Girls Who When to War by Duncan Barrett and Nuala Calvi, tell the true stories of three english women who volunteered for the Army Auxiliaries Services in WW II.

As it's said at the back of the book, the writers tried to stay as faith full as possible to the original stories, but having as more than 70 years passed since the event, the memories of the veterans were understandably incomplete. As in those case they filled the blanks with research and their wits.

Jessie Ward, who joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS), Margaery Pott, who signed up for the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF), and Kathleen, who desperately wanted to join the Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS), are the amazing and brave women we are presented in this book. They all joined the army feeling the need to do their bit for the country. The writers takes as into their life full of bravery and romance. Man and women working together in the Army did spring for sure the best and sometimes most heartbreaking love stories. And this three girl had their fare share.

The narration and writing style are quite plain, but the content did made up for this lack.

Even though I don't like historical book I enjoyed reading about this woman and it made my even more interested on this subject.

4/5 STARS

Here an interesting clip from youtube:

ottobre 30, 2016

OCTOBER'S BREAK

by Unknown, in Wrap-up

- OCTOBER'S BREAK -

Has you might have seen in this lately I got caught up with university and left my reading behind. But that doesn't mean I'm not actually reading at all, I've just been really, really, really freaking slow.

So let's get in what I've been reading and what I'm looking forward to read next!

It's been a month since I started The Girls Who Went to War by Duncan Barrett and Nuala Calvi and I finally got around. I loved the subject so much that I'm writing my paper on it for my British History class.

I'm also reading Hamlet for class, and is been a pleasant surprise. I hated Shakespeare when I was in middle-school, he was over romantic for my taste and did write in an incomprehensible english, but picking it up again now I'm amazed at how much I actually love it. I will be sure to pick up more of his works in the future.

This october some amazing books came out that I was waiting for!

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - Illustrated edition.

The Harry Potter business machine is unstoppable, whatever they do is going to be a success. With Harry Potter and The Cursed Child still at the top of the chart as a bestselling and the spin-off movie coming out in the middle of november, the second book in its illustrated edition by Jim Kay it's going to be a hit!

It really looks like they want to publish the whole series and I'm more excited than ever for it, even though looking at the size of this two first book I'm not sure how they will manage with the fifth one.

The Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

The first book of the series was mind blowing! I can't wait to discover what happen to our crew after pulling of an impossible heist and finding them self empty handed.

If you haven't read it yet and love adult fantasy novel, Six of Crows it's for you.

Wonder's series

In Italy did finally came out Shingaling the third spin-off from the Wonder book by R.J Palacio. I loved the original story not so much The Julian Chapter, but I'm looking forward to the Charlotte and Christopher stories. Also they are small and quick to read!

That's probably it for november put I always wish that I'll be able to read more books. What is your TBR for the month of november?

ottobre 26, 2016

TEA TIME - HALLOWEEN SPOOKY BOOKS

by Unknown, in tea time

HALLOWEEN SPOOKY BOOKS

Autumn did finally kick in and halloween is at the doors. So be ready to be spooked!

Halloween in Italy was adopted as festivity, so it's not such an important day. It's is definitely more celebrated in England or America, where every kids wait for this magical day where getting a sugar rush and scaring people is allowed. I spent one halloween in England and that was the best of my life. There was all the mental preparation to it: carving the pumpkin, getting the sweets, creating a costume and finally when the day came I was ready to spook some kids.

I had so much fun as an adult that it became my favorite creepy-time of the year. So I thought it would be funny to celebrate it with you in a spooky book tag!

This tag is a mix of bits of different book tags, I just took the tips I liked the best from each and made some up.

CRAVE IT

What book would you crave and set on fire?

This is actually a hard question, first book are sacred for me and second I haven't read many bad book lately. I had to scroll down my goodreads book to see which book mada my more mad and the book that raised a killing vibe was Cruel Beauty by Hodge Rosamund. As a writer she has spectacular skills, but I still don't know how she does it in the end I always come to hate all her characters. So I wouldn't mind doing a little bonfire of it!

THE ZOMBIE

Which character would you likely bring back to life?

The character I would likely bring back to life is Dobby, from Harry Potter by J.K Rowling. I think his resurrection wouldn't corrupt the plot, because come on J.K was it really necessary to kill him and ruining my childhood??

THE WIDOW

Which book or series left you grieving?

Not to pick Harry Potter again I will say Me Before You by Jojo Moyes. This book emptied me of all my emotion and left wandering around for days mourning, before I was able to move on. I'm still not completely healed from this loss.

TRICK OR TREAT?

Pick a character who is a trick and one who is a treat?

Let's start with the latter one. Any character from Victoria Schwab will probably do the work, but the one that made me lick my finger was Victor from Vicious. I still have drool on my face everytime I think of him The fact that Victor is a malicious character, who has a quirky and unique idea of justice should make me think a bit more about my taste...

The character that was a trick for me is for sure Tamlin what a twist of character Sarah J.Maas did bring in the second book of the series. We go from a loving Tamlin to an obsessed stalker freak one, and she does it so smoothly, she is a master.

THE GHOST?

Which book you read had the most creepy ghost?

I don't read many horror stories, but thinking hardly about it a lot of books I've read have ghosts or imagined/hallucinated one in it. The winner for the most creepy ghost goes to Catherine from Wuthering Heights. Her figure already did give me the creeps alive, as a ghost she would have scared the crap out of me if I saw her in real life. While reading about her haunting spirit, I felt like Joseph, a superstitious old chump.

Just a bit under her comes King Hamlet's ghost, Hamlet's father (gosh did they not have fantasy with names!!), he was something else, quite disturbing.

JACK THE RIPPER

Which is the book or series that made you a compulsive buyer of anything related to it?

Alice's Adventure in Wonderland is my little, not so secret, obsession. I have 8 different copy of the book, one of which is in french and I don't speak french, doesn't matter since it's a beautiful copy, illustrated by one of my favorite artists Benjamin Lacombe. Apart from that I have different items related to Alice's world, and they are never too much!

THE DOPPELGANGER

Which character would you like to be for halloween night?

Kell from A Darker Shade of Magic has a magic cloak with infinite pockets full of smuggled tickets, a black eye and black magic running in his veins. I would pay to be his doppelganger for a night, and come on who wouldn't like a cloak that makes you fit in any world?

This were my bookish halloween curiosity. Do you have more bookish spooky questions? Do you suggest some peculiar reading for halloween? Leave a comment and let me know!

ottobre 23, 2016

Into The Wild 2007- BOOK VS MOVIE

by Unknown, in Book vs Movie

INTO THE WILD

directed by Sean Penn

John Krakauer's Into the Wild , which I read with a fascinated dread, was one of the best reading of this summer. Chris McCandless's wanderlust, desire to live by the nature's laws and his rebellion against the system, have been for me inspiring and mind opening.

In April 1992 Christopher McCandless hitchhiked alone to Alaska into the wilderness of Mt.Mckinley, four months later his decomposed body was found by a party of moose hunters in an abandoned bus in the forest, the same one we see on the movie poster. How a young man from a well-to-do family came to die in the desolate wilderness of alaska is the story Krakauer tries to portray, in the most truthful way, in Into the Wild.

The book is beautifully written and keeps the form of a big newspaper's article. In the movie Sean Paul stays close to Krakauer's reconstruction of events. We find again Emile Hirsch in the role of Chris, he was able to embody wholly the character's ideals, his rebellion against his parents (William Hurt and Marcia Gay Harden) and the consumeristic society they represented. As the narrating voice of the movie we find Chris's sister (Jenna Malone), which felt, as we read in the book, like the only person he had a real and natural bond with.

McCandless adventure was documented also thank to the people he meet during his idyllic journey, but as in the book it was only a collections of interviews and postcards, in the movie the experience and encounter with them is embodied by the actors strong performance.The strongest connection he was able to make was with Ron (Hal Holbrook), an old man who began to think of Chris as of a grandson. He will be one of the last person to meet Chris before his rejection of civilisation for the wildness of Alaska. He left a strong impression in all the people he meet, he was a brilliant men, hamletic in some ways to sensible and too much of a thinker to be able to live in our corrupted society.

Chris renouncing his old identity, he rename himself Alexander Supertramp, in conformity of his new way of life. Tramping around, seeing the world, meeting new people, with time made him feel strong and more comfortable with himself and his ability, so much that it took it to extreme.

His story was beautiful and full of meaning, on itself alone would have been able to make a wonderful movie, but the stunning photography, the amazing performance and the unique directing style made this movie one of the best I ever seen. I loved it as much as the book!

So my final vote for BOOK VS MOVIE is: EVEN!!

If you haven't seen it already you totally should check it out! In the meanwhile here is the trailer :