All things Romance- Novel Reviews, Thoughts etc.

This is one stanza of a 7 stanza poem written on a piece of papyrus dating back to New Kingdom Ancient Egypt. The Poem tells of a couple very much in love but separated. I particularly like this stanza where the woman talks about her difficulties in going about everyday life when separated from her lover. I think there is very little difference between what this woman says and what a modern day woman in the same situation would feel.

My heart bares itself instantly,
at the memory of your love.
It does not let me walk like a person,
it has strayed from its shelter.
It does not let me put on a dress,
I cannot even wrap my scarf,
No kohl can be put no my eye,
I am not anointed with oil.
'Don't stand there - go in to him'
it tells me at each memory of him.
Don't, my heart, be stupid at me:
why are you acting the fool?
Sit, be cool, the sister has come to you'
but my eye is just as troubled.
Don't make people say of me
'she is a woman fallen by love'
Be firm each time you remember him,
My heart, do not stray.

Over the next few weeks I'm going to tell some classic love stories that I like and I hope you will too. This is the story of Pygmalion and Galatea.
Pygmalion was the King of Cyprus. He was attractive and rich so there was no shortage of women vying to be his wife. But Pygmalion had no interest in any of these women, he was cynical and saw through their false charms. The more of these women he met the more he became sure that he would never marry.
Pygmalion was a sculptor and one day bought himself a block of the most beautiful pure,ivory marble. He began sculpting the marble into the shape of a woman. The end result was so beautiful, serene and life-like that Pygmalion fell instantly in love with her. He named his sculpture Galatea and bought her gifts and spoke to her. Every day he fell more in love with the sculpture he had created, next to Galatea the other women he had scorned appeared even more charmless.
It was the festival of Aphrodite and Pygmalion went to her temple to worship her. On his knees in front of the Goddess of Love Pygmalion begged her to provide him a wife who was exactly like his Galatea. Curious about his request Aphrodite went to see the sculpture who inspired such love in the heart-hardened King of Cyprus. On seeing the sculpture of Galatea Aphrodite was flattered at the likeness the sculpture bore to herself. Aphrodite decided to grant the King's wish but not in the way he had expected.
When Pygmalion returned home he went to his beloved sculpture and kissed her lips. But he was surprised to find her lips no longer the hard, cold marble but soft and warm. For Aphrodite had breathed life into Galatea and made her a human woman.
Pygmalion married Galatea and they lived happily in love forever.

Whilst I am not a religious person I do like to learn about different religions and I find most of them have very sweet romantic stories. The story I'm going to tell you is from Hinduism and is about their greatest lovers Radha and Krishna.
Krishna was a great Lord with many wives and Radha was a poor Gopi (cattle-herder) whilst they loved each other with the entirety of their souls they were never married. Krishna however never hid the fact that he loved Radha and favoured her above all others. This love that Krishna showed to Radha made his other wives jealous and they became eager to hurt Radha in any way that they could.
One day the wives of Krishna, in their jealousy, decided to burn Radha. They heated a bowl of milk until it was scalding hot and gave it to Radha telling her that Krishna had sent it for her as a gift. Radha drank the bowl of milk and to the confusion of the wives she showed no sign of pain or injury. Confused the wives returned to Krishna.
When they found Lord Krishna he was in great amounts of pain, his mouth full of ulcers from burns. he told the wives that his love for Radha was so strong, and their connection so deep that he would never let any pain come upon her. He would take for himself any pain given to her because that is the true nature of love.

And who would disagree? Those who have loved or do love will know that they would always put themselves in the path of hurt to prevent their loved one suffering and every one of us have seen it.

I haven't written a book review for a while so I picked up one of my old favourites and re-read it so that I could tell you exactly why you should read it.
Really you can't go wrong with any of M.M. Kaye's historical romances; The Far Pavilions, Trade Winds or Shadow of the Moon. The reason I chose Shadow of the Moon for my review is that The Far Pavilions is very well know and there are hundreds of reviews on it and whilst I love Trade Winds it is quite controversial with a rape scene that some people feel quite unsettled by. Shadow of the Moon therefore is the best choice for a relatively unknown crowd-pleaser!
It charts the struggles of Winter de Ballestaros. Her troubles start even before her birth with conflicts between her mother, who chose a Spanish husband and a home in India, and her family, English aristocracy, and go on to leave her an orphan at a young age. Shipped off to England where most of the household consider her a nuisance or worse Winter slowly flourishes into a beauty with poise and grace. She also has a strong moral compass and compassion for others. Helping her survive through these difficult years are only two things; the love of her great-grandfather and the memory of the handsome young Conway Barton to whom she has been engaged since her childhood. On the death of her great-grandfather then it seems the only thing to do is go to her dashing fiancé, a commissioner in India, the place of her birth and the place she never stops thinking of as home.
Of course every book needs an appropriate hero. Unfortunately it is never going to be Conway, over the years he has grown obese, drunken and overfond of the company of women. Step in Alex Randall, he's Conway's assistant and runs the state of Lunjore hiding all Conway's deficiencies, he's handsome, smart, polite, perceptive and just an all round perfect hero. But Winter is fooled by Conway's claim that he is suffering from a Swelling disease and marries him despite his grotesque appearance.
Too late Winter realises her mistake and at the same time has a growing realisation of her feelings for the utterly wonderful Captain Randall. But suddenly her unhappy marriage is the least of her problems as the Indian sepoys mutiny and Winter, along with the rest of the white population find themselves running for their lives. Can love flourish, and more importantly survive in these testing times when just day to day living seems to take all available effort?
This is a truly epic book, magnificent in every way. M.M. Kaye's use of real historical events and figures works so well as she tells them with accuracy and imagery that bring each of the scenes to life, even the most horrific. The storytelling is so superb it is hard to separate the fact from the fiction as you get swept up in the happiness and the horror.
For a truly fantastic and bitter-sweet secondary character keep your eye on Sophie Abuthnot.

I watched the first episode of HBO's new series True Blood. I think Vampires must be the vogue at the moment, with Twilight and this it seems like everyones jumping on the Bram Stoker Bandwagon. Unlike Twilight whose vampires are almost unrecognizable to the traditional ideal True blood sticks more to the How to be a Vamp Handbook.
True Blood is set in a world where Vampires have "come out of the coffin" and are trying to live amongst mortals. The Japanese have perfected a synthetic blood alternative called Tru Blood so vampires are, in theory, no longer a threat. They have retractable fangs, their weakness is silver and they don't go out in the daylight, pretty standard Vampire stuff.
The first episode shows Sookie, unusual in her own right as she reads minds, meeting her first vampire, Bill. The speed with which these two fall in love is ridiculous (even for a Twilight fan!), in fact Sookie has pretty much already fallen for him when she saves him for "vampire-drainers" (people who drain vampire blood and sell it as a drug). Next thing you know they are staring intensely into one another's eyes practically declaring their undying love.
Sookie is annoyingly prissy, another role model to the Jonas Brother generation I think, she squirms at sex conversations and swear words. I couldn't stand her, a typical self-righteous prig.
I suppose some people might watch it for the eye-candy, grungy vampiric Bill and more traditional pretty boy Jason (Sookie's Brother). But neither of them really do it for me. On a side note Jason has his own problems having strangled a woman to death during sex which I hope fits into the stroyline some how otherwise it's the most pointless secondary story I've ever seen.
I'll watch one more episode but if it's as bad as the first I think I'll wait for Twilight to get my Vampire-fix.

This will definitely be my last list for a while, mainly because I’m running out of things to write lists about, but also because I imagine you must be getting quite bored of them. This is my list of my top 5 favourite romantic poems and sonnets. Enjoy!

5. Sonnet 116 by William Shakespeare
Favourite line: Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom
I love this poem, so frequently read at weddings, it just encapsulates everything that the romantic believes. It says that no matter what the difficulties love with always persevere. It always reminds me of Kate Winslet’s portrayal of Marianne Dashwood who is, in my mind, the ultimate romantic dreamer.

4. Sonnets from the Portuguese, Sonnet 10 by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Favourite Line: Yet, love, mere love, is beautiful indeed
Ah what a beautiful sonnet about how love makes even the meanest, plainest of things beautiful. Anyone whose ever seen an ugly duckling turned bride will know that’s true.

3. Mariana by Alfred Tennyson
Favourite line: Her tears fell with the dews at even; Her tears fell ere the dews were dried;
This poem is just so self-indulgent to me. A girl trapped in a moated building waiting for her love to come and get her but he never comes. It's beautifully written and just so miserable that it feels good if you know what I mean?

2.The Sun Rising by John Donne
Favourite line:To warm the world, that's done in warming us. Shine here to us, and thou art everywhere.
John Donne begins by telling the Sun to go away and leave him and his lover in bed together a bit longer before they have to go on with their day. Then he goes on to say that actually the sun no longer needs to rise and set because there in that room is the whole world and by shining on him and his lover the sun is warming the entire world. I love it, it is so typical of the first flushes of romance to forget the whole world and for your entire universe to circle around you and your lover to such an extent that you find it hard to understand why everyone else's doesn't do the same.

1. She walks in Beauty by Lord Byron
Favourite line: And all that 's best of dark and bright, Meet in her aspect and her eyes.
It had to be Byron didn't it? In my opinion no poem can make a woman melt like this one. Unfortunately gentlemen it's quite well known so I wouldn't try and pass it off as your own, but next February when you're finding yourself stuck for things to say it could come in quite handy with the Valentines' Day card. It is flattery at it's best and it is the way that a woman can look only through the eyes of a man who truly loves her.

I think it's time for another list. This is a list of the top 5 films I'll watch if I'm losing faith in romance. They are sort of my reaffirmation I suppose.
5. Kuch Kuch Hota Hai
What you mean you've never watched a Bollywood film? I promise you it is a great source of untapped romantic escapism! I've never really had a problem with reading subtitles, I know some people say it feels a bit too much like reading a book but then I enjoy reading books so maybe that's why I don't mind it. The story is about a man whose wife dies giving birth to his daughter. The woman leaves a letter for her daughter which she reads on her 8th birthday telling the story about how her parents met but how in doing so they broke the heart of her father's best friend. The daughter goes on a mission to find the best friend and hopefully bring love back into her father's life but when she finds her she's already engaged to marry someone else.
This film makes me laugh, and cry every time without fail. The songs in it are great as well. Please don't dismiss it because it's not in English, once you get passed the culture barrier you'll love it!

4. The Notebook
I remember hearing about this film for ages before I finally watched it, and I kicked myself that I didn't watch it sooner because it's wonderful.
It's set in an old people's home where an old man reads out of a journal to a woman with alzhiemer's disease. He tells her the story of a couple of teenagers, a girl from a rich family and a boy from a poor one who fall in love but are separated by her parents. It is not until she is engaged to someone else that they re-meet and find themselves as much in love as ever.
My favourite scene in this book is out on the lake with all the swans and geese everywhere it is so ethereally beautiful I love it. The most romantic thing? That even when he thinks he will never see her again Noah still remodels the plantation house exactly how Ally said she wanted it.

3. The BBC Adaptation of Pride & Prejudice
Hopeless romantics everywhere sigh at just the thought of this TV mini-series (am I cheating including this, after all it isn't a film?) The casting is wonderful, the details are perfect and it stays wonderfully close to the original book by Jane Austen.
Now I know that most people's favourite scene is Colin Firth appearing in wet shirt freshly out of the lake, but whilst I wont deny the merits of that scene it's not my favourite. My firm favourite has to be at Pemberley when Elizabeth is turning the pages for Georgiana, the looks between Lizzie and Darcy are positively electric, C'est l'amour :-)
I felt almost sorry for the recent film attempt, it wasn't bad in fact it was rather good (though Keira Knightley wasn't the best casting), but the BBC version is simply unbeatable.

2. Little Women
So I know this is mainly a story about family, about sisterhood and the importance of strong family ties to help you through tough moments in your life, but God does it pack a punch on the romance side too!
Consider the three sisters who live to adulthood and the way they find their husbands. Meg who marries the poor tutor John Brooke; he helps her father through his war injury and they become engaged at 17. Jo is heartbroken when she has to refuse an offer of marriage from her best friend and she runs to New York where she meets Professor Bhaer. He teaches her about opera, about writing from her heart and finally helps her get published. And Amy, the girl determined to marry for money who turns down a much richer man who she turns down for her childhood friend as she saves him from his own self-destruction.
I feel all warm and fuzzy inside just thinking about it.

1. How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.
For me this one is a no brainer. I've watched this film after break-ups, heart breaks, unrequited loves and it always makes me feel better and gives me hope :-)
I love that it's funny and heartwarming at the same time. The storyline itself is nothing special but the way that its pulled off is amazing. The soundtrack is great, the script is beautiful and the cast are fantastic.
I would really like to write more about this film, I feel that being my top movie I should have more to say. But I don't I can only say watch it and enjoy it because it's lovely!

List complete! ;-)

I wonder how long people have been asking this? Maybe they always have, maybe every generation seems that little bit less romantic than the previous one. There is no denying though that our generation seem to no longer really understand romance and definitely no longer expect it.
Why is that? I have my theories, there are the little things like women being more career focused, sex being more recreational but for me the biggest the is that the world has just become to materialistic.
I guess I have to explain that? In my opinion we've completely lost the concept of what romance is, it's not diamond necklaces or ridiculously expensive minibreaks (although I wouldn't turn either of those down!). Romance requires originality, thought, effort and it has to say' you, your mind and your happiness are at the centre of my world. I'm talking to women too, where is the rule that says that romance consists of men making grand expressions of love and women just sitting back and taking them? I don't buy it, I need to show romance as much as I need to receive it, and I should hope everyone else feels the same.
So if I'm ruling out expensive gestures what kind of things am I talking about when I say romance? Well a friend and I were discussing what we would consider the most romantic thing someone could do for us, she went with write her a song and I went with read a few of my favourite books so we could talk about them. Maybe you don't consider these things to be romantic but my point is that neither of us wanted a private island with a gold jacuzzi filled with Cristal champagne, what we wanted was some sign that the man in question knows what we are interested in and wants to share it with us. And the same goes the other way, giving someone a pile of your favourite CDs that they might not have heard before, mix tapes, cooking all their favourite foods, paint a portrait of them, watch their favourite film and show them yours, if you go away for a while leave them little notes to find, give them your favourite t-shirt that you know they love to sleep in! Just be creative and remember by showing someone that you know something about them but you want to know more you are doing the most romantic thing of all, you're showing you're committed!

Twilight fans everywhere were distraught last week when Stephenie Meyer announced that as a result of an accidental internet leaking of the first 12 chapters “Midnight Sun” was to be put on hold indefinitely. I'm afraid that after reading the first 12 chapters I can only be thankful that the rest of Midnight Sun is unlikely to ever surface.
Midnight Sun is the story of Twilight told from Edward's perspective. When I heard there was a possiblity of this being the next in the twilight series I was excited. I rank Twilight as one of the best romances I've ever read but I did find Bella quite limited, of course she was she was a 17 year old girl who knew nothing of the world. So I always wanted the story from Edward; older, wiser, deeper, more intelligent, everything pointed to it being a good story.
Only it wasn't a good story. The Edward of Midnight Sun is 100% mentally unhinged. Please don't think I expected him to be perfect, perfect is boring. I always expected him to have issues; raging wars between his guilt at having killed in the past, his inability to fit in to human social situations, the restlessness of repeating the same few years of school and college over and over, and the constant question of why he is denying the very nature of what he is. But NO Stephenie Meyer decides to turn Edward into a psycho; he becomes scarily obsessed with Bella almost as soon as he meets her, bye bye there goes my jaded world-hardened hero, to make things worse he sits in her bedroom whilst she is sleeping!! OK so we knew he used to listen to her talking in her sleep before they were together I figured well he's curious about her, he has super hearing and he doesn't have to sleep he could stroll past her house and stand outside for a while to see what he hears. But No, Edward climbs in through the window (which he later OILS so it doesn't make as much noise) and at one point even covers her in a blanket cos she looks a bit cold. If this isn't bad enough he spend a whole bloody week lurking in the shadows following her around. You may as well stick a neon sign over his head saying stalker, HELLO THESE BOOKS ARE FOR YOUNG GIRLS WHO ALL ADORE EDWARD YOU WANT THEM TO FALL FOR GUYS LIKE THAT?!
Also Edward's thoughts consist only of; Wow Bella is so perfect and OMG I'm just so not good enough for perfect Bella. This makes me sick. Edward is cultured, mature, struggling with faith issues, hiding his identity and privileged/cursed with the ability to see everyone's uncensored thoughts, even the bad things that we think but would never dream of saying. Please tell me this guy has more to him than love-sick puppy issues.
I'll make you a deal Stephenie, you step away from the manuscript, lock it in a drawer, throw away the key, and I'll pretend like this whole thing never happened and I can still admire your storytelling abilities.

I found myself thinking today about what was my favourite romantic story. Of course I considered all the regulars; Romeo and Juliet, Layla and Majnun, Antony and Cleopatra, the building of the Taj Mahal or Braveheart, but then I remembered the story that made me a romantic in the first place and I love it so much I thought I'd share it with you. It comes from Greek mythology and was written in Plato's Symposium, I believe it was the original concept of soulmates. I wont just find a quote and bung it in here I'll tell it how I remember it.
Once, long ago in the ancient world man was made up of two heads, four arms and four feet. These men had incredible strength; physical strength, strength of mind and strength of heart, they were also very happy. The Gods watched these humans of their creation from Mount Olympia and were both scared that these humans would attempt to take their place and also jealous of the absolute happiness.
The Gods decided that the humans could not be allowed to continue living as they did but they could not decide what to do with them, some of the Gods wanted to destroy the humans but others were reluctant to completely destroy their finest creations. Finally Zeus came up with the solution. He hit the humans with his thunderbolt splitting them in two; each had one head, two arms, two legs but only half a soul. Then Zeus took these halves and scattered them across the globe separating them all.
With time the bodies forgot that they had ever been anything but one head, two arms and two legs but the soul never forgot that it was only a half or forgot the strength it had as a whole. It is this half a soul that drives the body to continue searching for the other half of itself. Like shells scattered on the beach there are many that look similar and may even live comfortably side by side but there is only one that is the perfect fit. A shell only has one other half, as does a soul and on occasion when these souls are reunited into one they regain all their former strength of heart and spirit; for whilst the body forgets how to become one the soul never forgets.

That story made me a hopeless romantic, and it keeps me a hopeless romantic.

Traditionally the List, as mentioned on Friends, is the list of 5 celebrities that your patrner agrees that you can sleep with if the opportunity arrives. My List is slightly different for two reasons; I'm single and I'm a romantic. So here is the list of the 5 celebrities men I would very much like to be wined and dined by/ share a moonlit picnic with/ ride horses on the beach with!

1. Robert Pattinson
2. Ben Barnes
3. Henry Cavill
4. Johnathan Rhys-Meyers
5. Gerard Butler

Ha! I should be so lucky! Who are yours?

In case you hadn't noticed yet I love lists. This is my list of my top 5 romantic songs. I'm mainly about lyrics but the melody has to be good too, in this list all the songs have combined the two to create song which normally makes me want to cry! I've tried to pick artists and songs that people may not have heard before because I tend to think there is very little value in telling people how much you like a song they've probably already heard!

1. Title: Feels like Home
Artist: Chantal Kreviazuk
Favourite line: I'm alright, cos I have you here with me and I can almost see through the dark there is light.
Why is it on the list? I first heard this song in How to Lose a Guy in 10 days and I was hooked on it even from the small snippet they played. After watching the film I Googled the song and loved it even more after hearing the full version. To me it is the height of romance because it's all about the one person who takes away all your fear, doubt and loneliness and makes you feel safe and loved. At the end of the day isn't that what we are all looking for?

2. Title: These Photographs
Artist: Joshua Radin
Favourite Line: The way you read me, no one can see me.
Why is it on the list? I love Joshua Radin, he has a voice that makes me feel like all stress is disappearing and I'm melting into a pool of relaxation! In this song I feel like he captures exactly how every girl would like to be seen, comparing her in different moments to famous women but at the same time maintaining how individual and special she is. This girl is his muse and when he looks into her eyes he sees the inspiration for his music, who doesn't think that's romantic?

3. Title: Closer to You
Artist: Liz Phair
Favourite line: I see the things you do, do you think I wander through half blind?
Why is it on the list? I'm sure many people wouldn't find this romantic but I do. It completely shows a side to women in relationships. She doesn't want to know everything about him straight away, they are at the beginning of their relationship and she's saying that whilst she is perceptive enough to see the things in his heart that he tries to hid she isn't ready to know his mind inside out, that will come in time. This to me is romance with realism, he is still the centre of her universe and when she's with him the rest of the world still revolves around them but she acknowledges the need to take time and not rush through everything. Perhaps true love is taking your time over getting to know your partner?

4. Title: Samson
Artist: Regina Spektor
Favourite line: The history books forgot about us and the bible didn't mention us, not even once.
Why is it on the list? Everyone interprets this song differently but to me it is the story of Samson and Delilah told from Delilah's perspective. She tells of how she's been villanised and how she really did love Samson, and how cutting his hair was a complicit act, something he was willing to do for her, and for love. But none of this was mentioned in history, or in the bible she was merely a cruel woman who brought down a great man. To me this has many different romantic themes, how we weaken ourselves for love, how the things we do for love never makes as much sense to others as it does to us, and whilst love is at the centre of our world's to others it's generally not particularly newsworthy.

5. Title: Your Sweet Voice
Artist: The Reindeer Section
Favourite line: When you left me here you left me here to die
Why is it on the list? The romance in this is probably the hardest to explain. I'll start by saying the music is definitely the most hauntingly beautiful on this list even without the words it is the epitome of romance. It tells the story of a man whose girlfriend leaves him for another man. At the beginning he's bitter and he talks of how much she hurt him, but by the end he wants them to at least have a friendship and talk about small, insignificant things like they used to. Explaining why I think this is romantic is tough, I think the best I can say is that for me loving someone so much, and on such a deeply personal level that even without the sex and love you still need them as part of your life to such an extent that it makes you forget about all your hurt feelings, is beautiful.

So there you have it, I hope you listen to them and enjoy them. Others that came close but didn't quite make the top five are; Maps- The Yeahyeahyeahs, Such Great Heights- Postal Service, Don't Give Up- Josh Groban and Bright Lights- Matchbox 20. Please feel free to share some of your own.