A few weeks ago, I had started reading a book by Elizabeth Gaskell, called North and South. I had seen the movie first, then later I learned it was adapted from a book. I loved the movie so much, that I had to find the book; I purchased it off of Amazon.

This Monday began my Spring Break, to which I desperately looked forward to. Those of you who are currently in college, or have been to college, know that your mind requires rest from your studies. This gave me the opportunity to spend more time with my daughter and more time reading for leisure, instead of reading for this class and that class.

Just last night I had finally finished reading Gaskell’s book, North and South. Usually movies adapted from books aren’t all that great. They don’t follow along with the book, or they miss so much important information, that either you don’t feel like reading the book ever again or the movie, sometimes both. However, the movie followed right along with the book. Plus, I could not help but see Richard Armitage each time I was reading about John Thornton; Armitage played Thornton in the movie and very well I might add! (Yes, I’m a huge fan of Armitage’s work!)

I fell even more in love with the characters, the time period, and the book, that I have added it to the pile of books that I’ll definitely read again; along that pile is the Hobbit, Jane Eyre, some Austen, and several Karen Marie Moning’s books.

North and South was published in 1855, so I would put this right along with other classical writers, such as Bronte, Austen, and M. Shelly (I’m a fan of that era of female authors); also, Gaskell was a close friend of Charlotte Bronte. If you haven’t read it, you should pick it up today. It’s one of those ‘hard to put down’ novels. And if you haven’t seen the movie, you can find that on amazon as well – it’s the BBC version.