Citadel is the third part of a trilogy by writer Kate Mosse. Like its predecessors, this book tells two parallel (and related) stories happening in two different timeframes. One story is about a monk travelling great distances across Gaul (encompassing France in Roman era) to smuggle a heretical text away from religious authorities who want to destroy it for the supposedly immense power it contains. The other story, set in the 1940s, is about a group of young French women working undercover to undermine Nazi efforts to dominate their homeland.
Mosse did her research well and managed to integrate folklore as well as myths into her stories. That was what attracted me in her first book, Labyrinth. Sad to say, her second and third books just couldn't surpass the first. They somehow felt forced, as if the writer was trying to prepare an elaborate banquet with wrong ingredients, bad timing and lousy venue. To do Mosse justice, she did really spend good effort in researching, outlining, writing, editing and polishing her narratives. I learned a great deal about Tarot cards in her second book, Sepulchre. I also learned more about southern France history, culture and geography in all three books.
I didn't plan to write about the books I read this year, but since you've asked ... there you go, meeshell! After reading Citadel, which is over 900 pages, I don't have the nerve to read another novel. So I watched dramas instead.
Downton Abbey needs no further introduction from me. If you Google it, you'll find articles describing how it was conceived, how it was received and how it skyrocketed to fame not only in U.K. but also curiously in China. In my opinion, the writer was able to give equal weightage to masters' and servants' points of view. There are so many layers to the drama and the characters are fleshed out in full. Intricate plot and sub-plots too. The downside of it is that with little details scattered all over the place, you have to pay very close attention or else you don't know what leads to what. You need to keep your brains on while watching this.
I tried out a few episodes of The Good Wife some time back when I was finding my way around assignments. Watched them for the sake of de-stressing myself with non-psychology stuff. Slowly I've come to enjoy the cases those lawyers took on and how they connected pieces of evidence. Not to mention the legal terms and trivia. The writing was superb and I must say, the choice of background music was brilliant in an amusing way. Funny how those serious scenes were paired with classical music.
