Showing posts with label hannibal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hannibal. Show all posts

Thursday, 1 October 2015

Monthly Wrap-Up | September 2015


Well that's September done and dusted - here's what I got up to last month!






by John Burnside

by Emily Urquhart

by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples

by Robin Talley

by Becky Albertalli

by Jessie Burton

My reading month started fairly slowly after the unfortunate disappointment that was The Dumb House. I didn't really write a proper review for it, but you can read my thoughts on Goodreads here if you want to know why it wasn't for me. After that, though, I had another decent reading month! I went on a bit of a debut novel kick during September, and it's one that I'm hoping to continue throughout the rest of the year so I can read as many debut novels as I possibly can.




Right at the beginning of the month the third, and possibly final, season of Hannibal came to an end in an explosive finale. I'm glad Bryan Fuller gave us an ending that does have a kind of closure if the series isn't picked up elsewhere, though I desperately hope it will be!

With that void in my life I needed a new show to watch, and I found it in Boardwalk Empire. It was always one of those shows I kept meaning to watch and never got around to, so in September I finally started watching it and now I'm hooked. 



I've already breezed through the first season and I can't wait to start the next one - it's been so long since I've found a decent period drama! I do love Penny Dreadful, too, but it has some seriously cool fantastical elements, whereas I find that good realistic period dramas are so much more difficult to find.

Have any of you watched it? If you haven't I recommend it, because now I can't get enough.


September was one of those weird months where I felt as though I did both very little and quite a lot all at once. It's been a fairly confusing month for a bunch of personal reasons I won't go into right now, there's a lot I'm still trying to make sense of in my own head before I start writing it down anywhere else, but I've also been to quite a few places in the UK that made for some really nice days out.

It was my mum's birthday in the first half of the month, and as my poor sister was still slowly recovering from her c-section we decided to order a takeaway rather than go out to celebrate. My mum absolutely loves baking, so I got her a book full of chocolate-themed recipes so she can make me lots of snacks. I'm such a good daughter.

A week after that my nana and auntie came down to visit for the weekend which was lovely, I hadn't seen either of them for about a year and they wanted to come and see my new niece. During on of the days they were visiting we went to Wells for the day; Wells is the smallest city in England, a lovely little place in Somerset with a stunning cathedral.

We had lunch there and had a snoop around the market stalls which resulted in me buying a very cool Cheshire Cat t-shirt and a tiny little book of Shakespearean insults. #NoRegrets.

Then the week after that my parents and I visited Somerset again, but this time we travelled to Weston-super-Mare to see Banksys's Dismaland exhibition. It was so cool. Some of the art was fantastic - there were some little porcelain ladies who'd been covered in tattoos and a painting of bleeding trees that I particularly loved - and the whole exhibition was just brilliant. I'm really glad we went while we had the chance to go!



That night we stayed over in Somerset and the next day we went to Bath for the day. I'd never been to Bath before, but luckily for us the weather was great so we had a really nice wander around the city. We saw Bath Abbey, which was beautiful and had a stained glass window that was blown out during the Blitz and managed to be restored with 60% of the original glass thanks to some very skilled window experts, and we visited the Jane Austen Centre, too.


My mum and dad being... my mum and dad.
The Centre ended up being really interesting - I had no idea Austen had so many brothers! - and the people who worked there, all dressed in 18th century costume, were really friendly; there was a very dapper gent who taught us the best way to use a quill which was pretty cool.


The dapper gent who taught us how to write with a quill, and my mum unintentionally photobombing.
Naturally I came away from Bath with goodies, too, including a copy of Northanger Abbey, some lemon bonbon lip balm and a candy cane scented candle which is quite possibly the nicest thing I have ever smelled and I can't wait to light it when Christmas gets closer!


Mel @ The Daily Prophecy Defended the Disney Princesses

Michelle @ In Libris Veritas offered her Plea from a Bookseller to Parents

Natalie @ A Sea Change shared some very exciting Poetry Competition News!

Mallory @ The Local Muse talked about Why it's Important to Read Banned Books

Wednesday, 2 September 2015

Monthly Wrap-Up | August 2015


Another month gone. Where is 2015 going? On the plus side, autumn is on its way!


by Scott Snyder, Rafael Albuquerque and Dustin Nyugen

by Various Artists

by Sarah Waters

by Laura Konrad

by Sarah Waters

by Christopher Morley

I managed to get through six books last month, but I feel as though I barely read anything. August was a strange month for me, I kept feeling like I was sliding into slump territory which resulted in me reading quite a lot but not finishing everything I was reading.


by Jane Austen

by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki

by Laura Konrad

by Diana Rowland

by Sarah Waters

by Sarah Waters


I continued to watch Hannibal, of course, and tonight it's the last episode of Season 3 and possibly the last episode ever if it doesn't get picked up by another network. I'm going to be so upset if it isn't renewed because it's such a good show and it doesn't seem fair that genuinely good shows are abandoned while crap like Big Brother and The X Factor keep coming back each year.

Someone pick up Hannibal please!

Will Graham asking the important questions
The Great British Bake Off returned in August, so all across Britain everyone is going baking mad! I have no idea if the show is known anywhere else in the world, but over here we love it. Essentially it's just a show about baking, judged by Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry, and each week there's a different theme - from desserts to bread to biscuits - until there's only one baker left to become Bake Off Champion. It's a really nice show, and I love seeing what everyone makes even though it makes me hungry.

Mary Berry: National Treasure
I also ended up watching two different adaptations of Rebecca this month, quite by accident. I bought myself a copy of the 1940 Alfred Hitchcock adaptation - I really enjoy his films, and even though I read somewhere that du Maurier wasn't all that impressed with his adaptations of Frenchman's Creek or Jamaica Inn, I thought if anyone could do a good adaptation of a story like Rebecca it'd be this guy. We might not find his films terrifying now, but they still have a lot of atmosphere, and personally I love Rear Window and Psycho.

I enjoyed his adaptation. It was pretty close to the book, and I think it was cast well, too. Laurence Olivier was a rather dashing Maxim de Winter and Judith Anderson was a fantastic Mrs. Danvers, which is just what I want from one of my favourite literary villains.

Joan Fontaine as Mrs. de Winter and Judith Anderson as Mrs. Danvers
My mum and I watched the film together, and then the next morning the two-part 1997 adaptation was on the TV. This was another very good adaptation, so I'm not quite sure which one I preferred because neither of them were bad adaptations at all. I think I may have preferred Emilia Fox's portrayal of Mrs. de Winter to Joan Fontaine's, purely because she looks a little plainer and more girlish; she looks very much how I pictured her while reading the book. Joan Fontaine, on the other hand, is stunning in the way all those actresses from the 1940s were, though she still acted the part very well.

Emilia Fox as Mrs. de Winter
The 1997 adaptation also starred Charles Dance as Maxim de Winter and Diana Rigg as Mrs. Danvers, and the two of them were brilliant in their roles, too. I wasn't sure about Charles Dance at first - in terms of appearance, Laurence Olivier's portrayal looks the way I pictured Maxim - but Charles Dance acted the part very well.

If you're a fan of Rebecca, I recommend them both!



Something I completely forgot to mention last month because I was too busy talking about Rome, but I'm taking driving lessons again! I was terrified of lessons for the longest time - I hated driving last time I did it - but ultimately I need to be able to drive, and I want to, too. I want the independence of being able to go wherever I feel like going without having to worry about train times or bus times or getting a lift, and this time I'm actually enjoying it!

My instructor is really, really nice - he's funny and he's super patient, which is perfect for someone who's as nervous behind the wheel of the car as I am - and I want to have my licence by the end of the year. I have no idea how I'm going to afford my own car or anything, but I'll tackle that hurdle when I come to it.

In even more exciting news, I have a new niece! My older sister gave birth to her second baby - another little girl - on the very last day of August. Her name's Millie and she's gorgeous. She's so teeny tiny! The poor little thing came out with two black eyes and a bruised lip because the midwives didn't realise she was in the wrong position, so her face got all squished inside the womb. In the end my sister was taken down for a c-section because she was in a lot of pain and Millie couldn't get into the right position, but she's here now and both mother and baby are doing just fine. Plus my other niece is very pleased with her little sister.

My niece, Willow, holds her baby sister for the first time!


Tracy @ Cornerfolds talked about the Female Character Types She Hates

Cait @ Paper Fury talked about wanting Diverse Books that are NOT about Being Diverse

Beth @ The Quiet People talked about why she loves Re-Reading Books

Allie @ Little Birdie Books asked Is Your Own Company Good Enough?

How was your August?

Friday, 7 August 2015

Monthly Wrap-Up | July 2015 | When in Rome...


I got up to quite a bit last month, so let's get on with it!



by Katherine Addison

by Nicola Yoon

by Jane Austen

by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki

by Diana Rowland

July was a bit of a slower reading month for me as there was almost an entire week where I didn't read at all, but I still think it was a pretty decent month. I know there are so many other bloggers who usually read five books in a week, not a month, but I stopped making myself feel bad for 'not reading enough' a long time ago. All I care about is that I enjoy what I read, and that reading doesn't become a chore.

I enjoyed pretty much everything I read this month - especially The Goblin Emperor, which has quickly become one of my favourite books of all time - and I'm looking forward to reading more fantasy in August!


by A.F.E. Smith

by Harper Lee

by Katherine Addison

by Nicola Yoon



Season 2 of Penny Dreadful came to an end in July, and what an ending it was! I'm so glad it's been renewed for a third season, because if that had been the end I would have been pretty devastated. Sadly I did find some aspects of this season a little problematic, primarily with the characters they chose to kill off, but I did enjoy the show as a whole and it's certainly not as terrible as some shows out there (*cough*Game of Thrones*cough*). I'm looking forward to seeing all these characters again, especially my beloved Ethan.

Look at this nerd
Hannibal is now back in full swing and it's so good! I'll be honest Season 3 did start out quite slow, but it was all building up to probably my favourite episode to date, S03E07. It's just fantastic and I really hope someone picks it up because I can't bear the thought of it being cancelled. How can Hannibal, an amazing show, be cancelled while every other mediocre show out there gets to keep returning with the same crappy storylines? It's not right, I tells ya!

And after I read Northanger Abbey I decided to watch the 2007 adaptation, too. I think it was a pretty decent adaptation, although I think they could have made General Tilney far more intimidating than they did. Felicity Jones was a lovely Catherine, though.

Strong hat game this month






I went to Rome!

My friend Elena and I decided to go to Rome for a long weekend, and it was fantastic! I've been wanting to go to Italy for years, and now that I'm back in the UK I've really missed being there. The people were so helpful and friendly, and the architecture was stunning and the food. The food might be what I miss most. Especially the ice cream.

Vanilla, lemon and apple ice cream
We flew to Rome on a Thursday afternoon which meant we got Thursday evening in Rome to have some dinner - I had a really, really yummy carbonara - and get acquainted with the city. We stayed at the beautiful Hotel Medici (called that because the building used to be owned by the Medici family!) which had the friendliest, most helpful staff and both of us fell in love with the place pretty quickly. Everywhere we went there was the most beautiful architecture, it really is an absolutely stunning city.

Me! This gorgeous fountain was just around the corner from our hotel.
We had three full days in Rome - Friday, Saturday and Sunday - and we were out and about on all three days. On Friday we went to the Vatican, which was amazing. We joined this tour group led by a lady who flitted from English to Italian to French to German like it was nothing, and the woman was an encyclopaedia of Vatican knowledge.

The Vatican and a pretty fountain. The sky was so blue.
We saw the Sistine Chapel and St Peter's Basilica while we were there too, and I still can't quite believe that I've seen them. The Sistine Chapel is just... unreal. You're not allowed to take pictures in there (a lot of people still did, which was annoying) and I liked that; you can't do it justice in a picture, you must see it for yourself. It's gorgeous.

We jumped onto a tour bus, too, to try and get an idea of where everything was. It's strange how small Rome seems when you're in a taxi or on a bus, nothing seems too far away from anything else, but when you try walking it... We got distracted by a lot of pretty side streets.

Elena and I on the bus. Such tourists.
On the Friday evening we found the Spanish Steps and had dinner in a lovely restaurant where I had the most amazing pizza. Seriously, it was so yummy. I miss Italian food so much.


World's tastiest pizza.

Me on the Spanish Steps

On Saturday we visited the Colosseum and the Roman Forum, which was equally as amazing as the day before. It's astounding that all these parts of ancient culture are still here; there's even a 2,000 year old door in one of the temples at the Forum, and the lock still works.

It sounds silly but the Colosseum was so much bigger than I imagined. Or rather, I hadn't really considered its presence until I saw it myself. I'm so used to seeing it in films and documentaries that when I first saw it - we stepped out of the metro station and it was right there - it was kind of jarring. There it is, this huge staple of Roman history, surrounded by 21st century roads filled with 21st century cars.

Me outside the Colosseum!
We had an audio tour of the Colosseum that was really interesting. One of the things I found most interesting was that there's a huge cross erected in the Colosseum to commemorate the Christians who were slaughtered there. However, there's no evidence whatsoever to suggest that Christians were ever thrown into the Colosseum. They were in danger - Nero started a fire in the city just so he could blame the Christians for it and massacre them - but not necessarily from gladiatorial combat. That doesn't mean they weren't thrown in there, because they may well have been, but any writings claiming such were written approximately 200 years after they were supposedly killed in the Colosseum. I thought it was an interesting fact, anyway!

The cross to commemorate the Christians

I think my favourite thing at the Colosseum, however, was this 2,000 year old mirror we found in one of the display cabinets. The glass itself is long gone, but the rest of it is in pretty amazing condition. We stood and stared at it for about 5 minutes wondering whose face it was that looked back the last time it was used.


After the Colosseum we had some lunch in a little cafe just across the road from where we'd just been.

Elena outside the Colosseum!
Then we were off to the Roman Forum! There was so much to see, and when we eventually left to go back to the hotel and shower and get ready for dinner I'm pretty sure we still hadn't seen it all.


I saw two things at the Forum that were my absolute favourites. Firstly, we found the Temple of Castor and Pollux.

Just look how blue that sky is
I got really excited about this because I love the story of Castor and Pollux, and I didn't even know they had a temple in Rome. Actually I didn't even know they'd have a temple in Italy at all because I associate them so strongly with Greece.



And I also loved this:


At first glance it might not look like much, but just look at what this was 2,000 years ago:


How beautiful does that sound?

We spent our third and final full day in Rome trying to see as much as possible that we hadn't already seen, including the Trevi Fountain, Villa Borghese and a bunch of museums. We did find the Trevi, but unfortunately there's no water in it and they were doing repairs on it, which was a real shame. I hope water leaving the Trevi isn't some kind of omen...

The Trevi minus water :(
But the lack of water didn't stop us from throwing a euro in - apparently if you throw a euro into the Trevi you're guaranteed to return to Rome! Also, fun fact: approximately 3,000 euros gets thrown into the Trevi each day.

Elena throwing her euro into the Trevi

We decided to check out Villa Borghese, which is basically a huge expanse of beautiful gardens, complete with museums, a casino and an open air cinema. It was very cute. We kept stumbling into authors, there!

First we found Victor Hugo...


... and then Elena was very pleased that we found Lord Byron.

Elena, AKA Mrs Byron

I also saw this statue outside one of the museums and I had to snap a picture of it because I thought it was lovely.


And in one of the museums we visited that day we found this statue, which I also loved:


One of my nieces loves faeries, so I had to take a picture of her, and I thought she was beautiful.

I'm going to wrap this up because I feel like this blog post is long enough already, but before I do I have to mention an absolutely stunning ice cream parlour that was just around the corner from our hotel. It was open from around 10pm to around 1am - yep, late night ice cream! - and sometimes people would be queuing around the corner to get in. For just 3 euros you could have 4 scoops of the most delicious ice cream I have ever tasted. Ever.

Just look at some of the cakes they sold:


Just


so


delicious.

Basically Elena and I had a fantastic holiday, and I can't wait to go back to Italy because I'll most certainly be going back!