Real Beauty

Invictus

    Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

By  William Ernest Henley

The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert : Review

Such a beautiful  cover (never judge a book by the cover) and such a promising beginning with the skilful way Elizabeth Gilbert writes and her vast knowledge of the time made it a delight at first.

However, as Alma's story starts to unfold I found myself wondering why...

the author made the poor child, girl and woman suffer most of her life from a terrible lack of love and excess of science. She only found comfort in mosses and longed for love,first from her parents, then Prudence, then friends , then Ambrose and finally from Ambrose's lover.The worst, in my opinion, is that she didn't sacrifice her life for the sake of science, it was just that she was really unlucky and sometimes quite absent minded.I just wish the author had given her something to hold on to, not just a dog , some distant relatives at the end of her life and the knowledge that she had contributed to science in a way.All of which may have been enough or more than enough if the novel had been based on someone's life ,but it is a work of fiction and therefore up to the author to give them a fulfilling life

 The book is incredibly well written and if the plot had been slightly different it would have been a beautiful book.It is then a good book, but unfortunately it is not for me.

My cover

The Vampire Diaries : Who said it?