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The Sealwoman's Gift
The Sealwoman's Gift
Sally Magnusson | 2018 | Fiction & Poetry, History & Politics
8
8.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
This is set in 17th century Iceland, and based on the true story of the kidnapping and enslavement of 250 Icelanders in Algiers.
We follow a Pastors family, Olafur and his wife Asta, as they and their family are kidnapped by corsairs and pirates, and sold off separately to their owners. Olafur is sent back to Denmark to seek a ransom, but he fails. So we follow the life of Asta, how she lives and adapts in the house of Cilleby, and how she copes with the loss of her children and husband.
The Icelandic Sagas are Asta’s Means of escape and comfort, and in telling them she gets Cilleby onside and makes her own life more comfortable. She refuses to give up her Lutheran belief, and believes that she will be reunited with her family - at least in death - because of this.
This was such a touching novel, and the narrator (I listened on Audible) really did the story justice.
  
A United Kingdom (2017)
A United Kingdom (2017)
2017 | Drama, Romance
10
9.3 (3 Ratings)
Movie Rating
One of the greatest love stories in the past century
Rarely can you make a claim that a true relationship is the greatest love story in the past century until you hear about Seretse Khama and his wife Ruth.

As an African chieftain of Bechuanaland, now Botswana, Khama was studying law in the UK before meeting Ruth, a secretary and daughter to a British Army captain. Even after the Second World War interracial couples faced much prejudice, but none so much as a king of a British protectorate and an ordinary white woman.

Facing many trials and tribulations, even exile from his own country thanks to the British relationship with the then apartheid nation of South Africa, the couple attempt to endure endless hardships to be the rightful rulers of Botswana.

It's always magnificent when you hear these stories are based on real life events. The Notebook has nothing on this.
  
40x40

Awix (3310 KP) rated Fisherman's Friends (2019) in Movies

Mar 20, 2019 (Updated Mar 20, 2019)  
Fisherman's Friends (2019)
Fisherman's Friends (2019)
2019 | Comedy, Drama, Musical
Punishingly trite, manipulative and formulaic (not very) based-on-a-true-story rom-com melodrama. Jaded urban over-achiever finds himself stranded in remote rural community, learns to appreciate the value of The Important Things in Life; meanwhile a crew of hairy fishermen sing songs with lyrics like 'Nacker-nacker-toory-ay'. Cornwall and its inhabitants are arguably patronised a lot.

Utterly predictable and not very funny (well, we did laugh a lot during the bit with the funeral, but we're not very proud of that), the script overdoses on feelgood platitudes while not bothering all that much about things like characterisation or internal logic. The music is not that bad (if you like that sort of thing), but sheesh, you can go and buy a CD for that. In the end this is a sort of lobotomised version of Local Hero with added folk music.