A Friday Fun Post… on a Saturday… this week was somewhat overwhelming for a lot of us, what with a fire right above our house…
So we took a day off… a mini-break and headed for the great outdoors.
I hike that turned out to be quite a bit harder than we all expected and exactly what we needed…
GiveAways… We would love you to Enter!!!
It is GiveAway season over here… heaps of GiveAways over the next couple of weeks!!! Click on the images to enter and win these fabulous books…
Book of the Week
Lawrence in Arabia, by Scott Anderson and published by Penguin Books South Africa. I have fond memories of sitting with my mum, during varsity vac, eating bowls of olives and watching the epic classic: Lawrence of Arabia. And we have been reading about and researching life during World War 1 for school this year. So, when I saw Lawrence in Arabia on our book review list I was really eager to read it. Just as the movie was long, this book is a long read, just over 500 pages of dense writing, more of an academic read than I was expecting. There are literally dozens of footnotes and references, and an extensive biography… the author has clearly done a lot of extensive research, and yet it is very readable and you will find yourself reading just one more page and whiling away great chunks of time in an effort to find out the story behind the story we have been led to believe..
If you have even the slightest interest in military history, the great war or the turn of events in the last century that led to where we are today… then this is a book that you will enjoy reading. It provides the story behind the obvious story… who trusted who, and who didn’t, which secrets led to other secrets and all the while people with real lives… living through desperate times. You will find yourself watching a political thriller unravel as you read, and like any great political intrigue you will read on and on hoping for a happy ending… but this is not a novel. I found myself saying “oh wow” and a number of variations of that, many times as I read. Clearly you can make plans and plans were made, but you cannot predict the frailty of men and the decisions that individuals will make and the domino effect they will have. not just on their lives, but on society as a whole and nations down the paths of time.
Unlike the movie there is not a whole lot of marching through the desert. The author opens up the world of T.E. Lawrence by looking at the people around him. The truth is if you want to know somebody then get to know their friends and family. Honestly, when you read books like these and the factors that contribute to who and what a man becomes and when all those men are put together. This book provides a bigger view of the how and why of where the Middle East is today, rather than just another biography of a life filled with intrigue. History lovers will embrace this book, it is a great read for a very long weekend… and you will come away with entire collection of new and amazing anecdotes to share.
We were given this book for review purposes by Penguin Books South Africa, we were not paid to write this review and the opinions expresses are as usual entirely our own.
Here are some lovely links from this week:
- As I said, we have been learning about World War 1 for school recently and making full use of the BBC Schools resource page… it is packed with useful goodies to listen to, to read and things to do… well worth stopping by if you are looking for resources.
- I loved this post on the Art of Simple: Giving Each other the Space to be Authentic. Let’s just stop assuming how others are feeling and ask them… just a slight change in approach can make the world of difference.
- Must, must, must read on Nesting Place: Hospitality, but not the kind you are thinking of.
- We will be creating our Advent Calendar this week… it is a big deal over here and one of our things… here are a heap of Beautiful Advent ideas on the Crafty Crow!!!
- Alisa Burke’s Paper Ornament Wreath… fun, fun, fun…
- Oh you want to see this darling idea, packed with every detail on Babyccino Kids: The Little Things – How to create a doll hospital. I see a ward of teddy bears coming in to play!!!
- If you don’t already follow theRebelution, written by youngsters for youngsters, I guess I am young at heart because I really enjoy it. The post really resonated with me, What if I am Just… Normal?
- A Blast From the Past: And here are a couple of links to posts, this week, from previous years:
And the se7en + 1th link:
GiveAway Winners
A Road Tripping Feast
All the entries…
And picking and choosing…
And the winner is:
Cindy Nov 12, 2014 at 12:58 pm I would LOVE to drive our Italy for about a month. Experiencing anything and everything. I’d love to do that here too though – I’m easy to please!
We would like to thank MapStudio who supplied us with the GiveAway book. We were not paid for the review and the opinions expressed in it are as usual, entirely our own.
That’s us… Hope your weekend is a fabulous one and we are so looking forward to another week of blogging with you all…
Hope the fire didn’t cause too much damage? And didn’t affect your house in any way?
Hi Mrs FF… Nope we were actually fine, there are two rows of houses between our house and the mountain and in fact no property was damaged and the fire remained a way up the mountain. My little people were really stressed, I think the last big fire we had was before they were born. The constant helicopters and fire engines for days – just the noise of it all did disturb our usually peaceful world, we definitely needed a break and we got one. We are so well provided for in every way. Thank you so much for stopping by and asking – you are too kind. I hope you have a great week.
Hi, saw you are learning about WW1. We watched a movie recently called 37 days which basically talks about the 37 days that led up to the war and the main countries and figures who took part. Was very interesting. I had never put it together like that.
Oh a fire like that would terrify mine too!
Hi Cat, Yup, it was more than a little too close for comfort. I am really hoping for a lovely boring old week with no sirens, no helicopters and a bit of our normal peace and quiet (well except for the shark sirens!!!). Wishing you the best week too!!!
Thanks for the tip, Sanna, We will definitely look out for it. Have a good week!!!