My Review of The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I admit I picked this book up in the shop because I thought it was gorgeous. I'm so glad I'm shallow because I really, really enjoyed it. I started reading it just before I got on my flight back to Cairo from London and was about a 1/4 of the way through by the time I landed.

The descriptions of the Night Circus (Circus de Reve) are wonderfully vivid and really set the tone for a feeling of otherworldliness (with a hint of steampunk). The characters are well drawn and detailed and although at times it feels like the circus is more animated, the importance of this becomes clear as the story progresses.

The book explores the concept of free will within a life that has been pre-determined. The two protagonists are bound to each other and their respective mentors wishes as children and spend the book attempting to make sense of their positions.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes fantasy, historical fiction or romance; there's enough of each to please the fans of any of those genres.

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My Review of The Fry Chronicles

The Fry Chronicles by Stephen Fry
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

As with a vast majority of Britain, I love Stephen Fry. His various Blackadder characters (especially the brown-nosing Melchett of Blackadder II), the school master in Gormenghast, the idiotic detective in Gosford Park. Not counting his sketches in A Bit of Fry and Laurie and Jeeves in Jeeves and Wooster (also with Hugh Laurie)and many many more. More recently QI and Twitter have been my source of all things Fryesque, not to mention the various documentaries he has produced and presented (the most recent being the fabulous Planet Word, a must see for any anglophone).

I have not-yet-read his first autobiography chronicling his early life; Moab Is My Washpot, but I grabbed at this one with both hands as soon as I saw it. My only regret is that I waited so long to actually read it.

I loved the whole thing from start to finish, his writing style is effortless (he would probably argue this) and makes for very easing reading. He pulls no punches when it comes to describing his weaknesses, and through this he becomes more human. The man behind the voice and brain is revealed and he is full of faults, racked with self-doubts and infinitely more likeable than his on-screen persona.

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The Rat Pack in Cairo

    Last night some friends and I went to see a Las Vegas Rat Pack tribute band at the Cairo Opera House. It was opening night, which was fun as we got to dress up and be glam for the evening! We had great fun in the intermission spotting and commenting on fashion faux-pas in the audience.

  The band was The Rat Pack Tribute Show a band of impersonators from fabulous Las Vegas and they were pretty good in my opinion. 'Dean' and 'Sammy' bore the greatest physical resemblance to their real-life counterparts but 'Frank' just reminded of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, which isn't really a good thing!

   They sang all the classics, inviting the audience to join in several times. Highlights for me included: Everybody Loves Somebody, Mr. Bojangles, You Make Me Feel So Young, Leroy Brown, Mack the Knife, Me & My Shadow, That's Amore and of course, My Way and New York, New York. My friends and I were swaying and clapping our way through the whole show, although a quick look at the audience seemed to show that we were the only ones! Something that really annoyed me though was the fact that they changed the lyrics to Lady is a Tramp to the lady is a champ! No she isn't!! She's a tramp! The song doesn't make sense otherwise!

   Overall though it was a lovely night and we all had a great time.
  
 

Falafel in the land of Chips!

Greetings from the Great Smoke aka: London!!

  Just a quick note to let you all know that I'm currently in the capital and so far everything's been great!! Met up with the Irish Alexandrian a couple of times to take in some of the sights.

   Looking forward to heading to another capital city on Monday, Cardiff this time. Look out Wales FalafelandChips is on the way!!!

   More detalis of my trip so far willl be posted once I'm back in Cairo and will include:

• Report and pictures of the Tewkesbury Medieval Festival.
• Report and pictures of Tewkesbury Abbey.
• Report and pictures of The Tower of London.
• Report and pictures of Cardiff.
• Anything else I can think of!!

Blog to you all soon!

xx

Movie Marathon!

Yesterday a friend and I made a spur-of-the moment decision to have a movie marathon. We narrowed down our choices to three films but decided the order would be down to our mood once we reach the cinema. After navigating Cairo traffic-which is a topic for another time- we arrived and were off to get the tickets! First up was From Paris With Love http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1179034/ a bang-bang-shoot 'em up with a fairly predictable plot, I figured out the 'twist' about 10 minutes in. Don't let that put you off seeing this film though, it's good fun, mainly down to John Travolta and Jonathan Rhys Meyers. Travolta's character is OTT and wonderfully flamboyant and contrasts well with Rhys Meyers' more straight-laced rookie. It's thier chemistry that provides the humour in the film and I'd be quite happy to see a sequal if the powers that be decide on one.

After a lunch that was not quite as guilt free, calorie wise, as we had hoped, it was time for the second movie of the day. We thought we had bought tickets to When in Rome, turns out we were actually in the theatre showing Remember Me http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1403981/ Now this is a bloody good film! Honestly, I'm not sure what I was expecting, Twilight without the sparkly skin? Maybe. A film for teenage girls to swoon over their latest heartthrob? Definitely. I was wrong on both counts. Sure Pattinson is almost as emo in this as in Twilight but-unlike Edward Cullen- Tyler has valid reasons. Without giving too much of the plot away, it's suffice to say that Tyler doesn't have the happiest of family lives. Neither does the heroine, Ally who lost her mother 10 years earlier when she was murdered in front of her and yet she appears to be a much happier person than Tyler. The two, naturally, fall in love but the film is so much more than just another love story, it's about how events and people in your life can truly have an effect on who you are and how you relate to others. The ending is wonderful in its simplicity and I highly recommend this film to anyone, especially for those last 10 minutes.