Bippity Boppity Book

Mailbox Monday

2012-02-12T23:22:00.002-05:00

Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia at A Girl and Her Books. Mailbox Monday is currently on tour and this month it is making its home at Metroreader.

This week I got a few goodies:

From Paperbackswap:

The Anatomist's Apprentice by Tessa Harris
Jarrettsville by Cornelia Nixon
Madame Bovary's Daughter by Linda Urbach
Three Maids for a Crown by Ella March Chase

Next week is my b-day and hubby just said to go ahead and order some books I wanted. So, he's taking the easy route this year but at least I'm getting books!

Ordered from Book Depository in celebration of the upcoming big 3-0:

Holy Warrior by Angus Donald
Killer of Men by Christian Cameron
King's Man by Angus Donald
Marathon by Christian Cameron
Warlord by Angus Donald

Three of those are pre-orders so I will be waiting a bit before they actually get here but I already paid for them so I'm counting them :)

From my Local UBS which was having a buy 3 get 1 free sale this weekend:

The Kommandant's Girl by Pam Jenoff
Middlemarch by George Eliot
The Mistress of Nothing by Kate Pullinger

I ended up getting Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets for my son as the freebie :)

I actually got offered a job at this bookstore while I was there. Another customer came in and said "I have a couple books I want but only know the title not the author."

Owner: "Well if you have the titles I'll be able to look up the author and see if we have it."
Other Customer: "The first one is called The Kitchen House."
Me: "Kathleen Grissom"
Owner: "Thanks! That would have taken me a minute."
Other Customer: The other one is One Thousand White Women."
Me: "Jim Fergus"
Owner: "Wow! You're good! Do you want a job here?"

If only my answer could have been a resounding YES but I doubt they would pay me as much as my current job.....

Finally, from NetGalley for review:

Glow by Jessica Tuccelli

That's it for me this week. Hopefully everyone has a wonderful Valentine's Day!

REVIEW + GIVEAWAY: By the King's Design by Christine Trent

2012-02-10T07:30:00.002-05:00

Synopsis: Strong-willed Annabelle Stirling is more than capable of running the family draper shop after the untimely death of her parents. Under her father's tutelage, she became a talented cloth merchant, while her brother Wesley, the true heir, was busy philandering about Yorkshire. Knowing she must change with the times to survive, Belle installs new machinery that finishes twice the fabric in half the time it takes by hand. But not everyone is so enthusiastic.

Soon, riled up by Belle's competitors, the outmoded workers seek violent revenge. Her shop destroyed, Belle travels to London to seek redress from Parliament. While there, the Prince Regent, future King George IV, commissions her to provide fabrics for his Royal Pavilion. As Belle's renown spreads, she meets handsome cabinetmaker Putnam Boyce, but worries that marriage will mean sacrificing her now flourishing shop. And after Wesley plots to kidnap the newly-crowned King--whose indiscretions are surfacing--she finds herself entangled in a duplicitous world of shifting allegiances.

My thoughts: I read across all time periods in historical fiction but I think the Regency period in England's history is probably one of the ones I've read the least about. I am glad that I got to remedy that with this delightful novel which begins as Luddites (those opposed to the technological advances of the Industrial Revolution) are menacing the English countryside and attacking merchants who are buying the new equipment that is replacing their jobs. Annabelle Sterling and her brother Wesley are victims of one such attack and when the spirited Annabelle realizes that those she trusted may have been behind it she goes to London to protest the law turning a blind eye to these miscreants and also to start her business anew. Unfortunately, Annabelle catches the eye of the Prince Regent- a man who is more interested in sporting the latest fashions than governing the country and while her association with the Prince Regent brings her a remarkable change in fortunes, she manages to glide right into the path of danger at every turn often with more than a little help from her brother Wesley.

What I love about Christine Trent's books are that she manages to combine a little known trade (this time cloth making) with a spunky heroine against a backdrop of rich historical detail for the period she writes about. I also like that her books have a lightness about them-managing to capture the nuances of the period and letting the drama the protagonist finds herself in unfold while still being a lot of fun to read.

While reading I did want to reach through the pages and shake some sense into Annabelle as her stubbornness and refusal to listen to anyone led her into yet another sticky situation. Our heroine experiences quite a lot of tragedy and misfortune throughout the book as well but even though she was a trouble magnet I admired her spirit. Bonus points for the several pages long author's note at the back giving a run down of the period and what was based in fact or fictionalized. I love when authors include this!

I sped right through this and then went to Barnes & Noble and grabbed A Royal Likeness which is the author's other book I hadn't read yet. Check this out if you like the Regency period or if like me, you want to read more about it but aren't quite sure where to start.

GIVEAWAY:

Up for grabs is a copy of By the King's Design for one lucky reader!

This giveaway is open to: International

To enter: Leave your name and email address in the comments. One extra entry each will be given for helping spread the word via Twitter, Facebook, or posting on your blog.

Giveaway is open until: midnight on February 19th. Winner will be announced on the 20th.

For more reviews and giveaways of By the King's Design and guest posts/interviews with author Christine Trent be sure to visit Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours to see the rest of the tour schedule.

Visit author Christine Trent at www.christinetrent.com

M.J. Rose is asking if you've ever smelled a story?

2012-02-08T19:26:00.000-05:00

Next month I am participating in the book tour for The Book of Lost Fragrances, the new release from M.J Rose.

A sweeping and suspenseful tale of secrets, intrigue, and lovers separated by time, all connected through the mystical qualities of a perfume created in the days of Cleopatra—and lost for 2,000 years.

Jac L’Etoile has always been haunted by the past, her memories infused with the exotic scents that she grew up surrounded by as the heir to a storied French perfume company. In order to flee the pain of those remembrances—and of her mother’s suicide—she moves to America, leaving the company in the hands of her brother Robbie. But when Robbie hints at an earth-shattering discovery in the family archives and then suddenly goes missing—leaving a dead body in his wake—Jac is plunged into a world she thought she’d left behind.

Back in Paris to investigate her brother’s disappearance, Jac discovers a secret the House of L’Etoile has been hiding since 1799: a scent that unlocks the mysteries of reincarnation. The Book of Lost Fragrances fuses history, passion, and suspense, moving from Cleopatra’s Egypt and the terrors of revolutionary France to Tibet’s battle with China and the glamour of modern-day Paris. Jac’s quest for the ancient perfume someone is willing to kill for becomes the key to understanding her own troubled past.the ancient perfume someone is willing to kill for becomes the key to understanding her own troubled past.

If this sounds like your kind of book and you think you might want to pre-order it, there is a pretty cool promotion going on right now. You can get a sample of Ames Soeurs which is the perfume created based on the book! Details:

“He struggled to separate out the notes he recognized from the ones he didn’t, searching for the ingredients that gave the blend its promise of hope, of long nights and voluptuous dreams, of invitation and embrace. Of an everlasting covenant ripe with possibility. Of lost souls reunited.” —The Book of Lost Fragrances

Discover the perfume inspired by The Book of Lost Fragrances

Pre-order The Book of Lost Fragrances by M.J. Rose and we'll send you a free sample of Âmes Soeurs, the Scent of Soulmates. This exclusive fragrance, inspired by the novel, was created by Joya Studios and is not yet for sale. Joya’s Âmes Sœurs hints of Frankincense, Myrrh, Orange Blossom and Jasmine. It’s smoky uncommon finish suggests the past and the future, and lost souls reunited.

Just use one of the links at http://mjrose.com/fragrances/scent.asp and follow the directions there.

Offer ends March 1, but pre-order now since we have a limited number of supplies! US and Canada only.

***

I haven't cracked it open yet but plan to this weekend and it has already got some pretty awesome kudos:

Selected by Indie Booksellers for the March 2012 Indie Next List.

Selected by Publishers Weekly as one of the Top Ten Mystery/Thrillers Spring 2012

"From 18th-century Egypt and France to present-day Paris, New York, and China, Rose's deliciously sensual novel of paranormal suspense smoothly melds a perfume-scented quest to protect an ancient artifact with an ages-spanning romance. A complex plot that races to a satisfying finish." — Publishers Weekly, Starred and Boxed Review

" A sensuous thriller combined with a heartbreaking love story.” — Karen Briggs at Great Northern Books & Hobbies in Oscoda, MI

"A spellbinding love story and historical novel of mystery, reincarnation, ancient Egypt. Being immersed in Rose's fictional world is one of those times when you don't want to come back to the real world." —Susan Wasson of Bookworks, Albuquerque, NM

"Smoothly blends historical events, compelling characters, and international intrigue into an absorbing and thrilling ride through the centuries." —Library Journal

Be sure to stop back by on March 8th for my review of The Book of Lost Fragrances and on March 13th for a guest post with author M.J. Rose!

REVIEW: The Orchid House by Lucinda Riley

2012-02-04T09:07:00.000-05:00

Synopsis (from Amazon): As a child, concert pianist Julia Forrester spent many idyllic hours in the hothouse of Wharton Park, the grand estate where her grandfather tended exotic orchids. Years later, while struggling with overwhelming grief over the death of her husband and young child, she returns to this tranquil place. There she reunites with Kit Crawford, heir to the estate and her possible salvation.

When they discover an old diary, Julia seeks out her grandmother to learn the truth behind a love affair that almost destroyed the estate. Their search takes them back to the 1940s when Harry, a former heir to Wharton Park, married his young society bride, Olivia, on the eve of World War II. When the two lovers are cruelly separated, the impact will be felt for generations to come.

My thoughts: In the beginning of the novel we meet Julia who is living a despondent existence due to some as yet unnamed tragedy that she suffered. Her sister tries to pull Julia back into the land of living and finally succeeds when she gets Julia to accompany her back to an estate sale at Wharton Park where the family grew up. While there Julia runs into Kit Crawford, heir to the Wharton Park estate and current resident of the cottage that used to belong to her grandparents. During renovations Kit finds a diary he returns to Julia and it piques her curiosity enough to seek out her grandmother to learn of the history behind it. What follows is a trip back in time to the 1930's where Julia's grandmother Elsie is a young woman serving as ladies maid to Olivia, a beautiful young lady who visits Wharton Park while debuting in London and catches the attention of Harry Crawford, heir to Wharton Park.

I was intrigued by the set up of the plot line in this story with the discovery of the old diary. I tend to enjoy family sagas and also books that have both past and present day story lines. While the story was entertaining enough, I found myself constantly questioning the direction it was going. I didn't really connect with the whole present day story with Julia the overcoming of her tragedy but the parts set in the past pulled me in starting with Olivia and her coming out in society while Britain is on the brink of war. I liked learning the background of the Crawford family and exploring the connection of the Crawford's to Julia's family through Elsie and her beau Bill who worked in the greenhouses on the estate tending the beautiful orchids grown there. When Harry and Bill go to war and end up being jailed together in Thailand it has lasting consequences for both families (this is where the big family secret originates from but I won't give it away). The actions of the character who the past story centered on were disagreeable enough where I found it hard to have any sympathy. I did feel plenty of sympathy for those impacted by this person's actions though. The present day story with Julia though seemed to drag the whole rest of it down for me. Instead of diving right into the mystery upon the discovery of the diary which was the most interesting part of the book, the reader has to wade through Julia dealing with her issues and insecurities about a budding romance. Because of this I felt like I was constantly being pulled out of the story and it made it seem like it took forever to get back to the mysterious portions set in the past.

Also as I mentioned earlier about not being sure of the direction the book was taking, that is because the further along the story continued the more it felt like I was reading through a soap opera instead of a historical fiction novel. The story line (and especially the ending concerning Julia) became too far out of the realm of what would happen to a normal person to be believable. The book was a decent enough read. I was entertained by it but I think I would have enjoyed it much more if it would have stayed on more solid ground in terms of plausibility.

I received this book from the publisher via Netgalley. These are my honest thoughts on the book.

A Winter's Respite Read-a-Thon wrap up

2012-01-30T22:22:00.000-05:00

This past week I have been chugging through books for the Winter's Respite read-a-thon hosted by Michelle at The True Book Addict. I had such good intentions going into this read-a-thon with four books I wanted to get read. Well, it did not turn out the way I had hoped. My plan was to have my two library books (Aztec Blood by Gary Jennings and The Mercy Seller by Brenda Rickman Vantrease) done before the challenge started so I could read the four books on my list. Unfortunately, reading Aztec Blood took longer than I expected so at the start of the challenge I was only 64 pages into The Mercy Seller. I did manage to finish The Technologists by Matthew Pearl which was on my list and then I ended picking up one not on the list and nearly finishing it So, finally tally:

The Mercy Seller by Brenda Rickman Vantrease (p.64-419)

The Technologists by Matthew Pearl (472 pgs)

The Forest Laird by Jack Whyte (pgs. 1-434)

Total Books: 2.5
Total Pages: 1,261

So, not as good as I would have liked but not absolutely terrible. I had also been planning on participating in some of the mini-challenges during the read-a-thon but due to having an awful cold (that I'm still fighting-GO AWAY PLAGUE!!!) I ended up just focusing on the reading instead. Thanks to Michelle for hosting the read-a-thon. More likely than not I will be signing up for another one in the future and hopefully I will do much better!

Friday Reading Journal #2

2012-01-27T07:00:00.000-05:00

Sunday Jan 22nd: Finished Aztec Blood and after voicing my concerns that it was following the previous 2 books in the series a little too closely this one did pick up a little in the end. I still did not end up liking Cristo the Bastardo as much as I did the protagonists in the other 2 books although he did have more adventures and changes in life circumstances than you would imagine any one person could have. I think out of the three I've read in this series so far this one is the weakest and it seems the reviews on Amazon seem to concur with that. I will be continuing on this the series (the next up is Aztec Rage) but I think I'm going to take a good long break before I attempt it just in case that one also starts out similar to the others in the series. Now on to reading the Mercy Seller by Brenda Rickman Vantrease which I found out was a sequel to The Illuminator which I have not read yet. I didn't figure this out until I had already snagged it from the library so I will be reading it anyway and hoping it works well as a stand alone novel and I won't be confused by references to the previous book.

Mon Jan 23rd-Wed Jan 25th: Read The Mercy Seller by Brenda Rickman Vantrease. Even though this was a sequel and I hadn't read the first book, it did well enough as a stand alone. I had never heard of the Lollard movement before picking up this book (basically people subscribing to this belief thought that everyone should be able to read the Bible in their own language which at the time was considered heresy by the church). I knew at one time reading the Bible in anything but Latin was a no-no but I didn't know the name of the cause to change it. Love when I feel like I learned something while reading. Don't want to give away any plot points as this one I will be reviewing at Royal Reviews on February 9th. I definitely will be reading more from this author though.

Wed Jan 25th-now: Started The Technologists by Matthew Pearl which is the first book I've ever read by this author. It is about the first class at MIT and mysterious happenings in Boston that threaten the city and must be stopped. Pretty good so far...

This week I am also participating in the read-a-thon Michelle is hosting at The True Book Addict. I'm not doing as well as I thought I'd be so far because I had planned to have The Mercy Seller done before the challenge started but that didn't happen. I was only 64 pages into it when the challenge started so as of this writing I have read

The Mercy Seller 419 pgs- 64 read before challenge started = 355 pgs

The Technologists by Matthew Pearl-75 pgs in

Total so far: 1.25 books and 430 pgs.

I'm hoping to really get a lot of reading done especially since I caught a rather horrid cold this week and am planning to spend most of the weekend in bed. She also has some awesome giveaways going and mini-challenges as well that I'm hoping to get to today and tomorrow. Now off to read more Technologists!

REVIEW: At the Mercy of the Queen by Anne Clinard Barnhill

2012-01-25T08:07:00.003-05:00

Synopsis: At the innocent age of fifteen, Lady Margaret Shelton arrives at the court of Henry VIII and quickly becomes the confidante of her cousin, Queen Anne Boleyn. But she soon finds herself drawn into the perilous web of Anne’s ambition.

Desperate to hold onto the king’s waning affection, Anne schemes to have him take her guileless young cousin as mistress, ensuring her husband’s new paramour will owe her loyalty to the queen. But Margaret has fallen deeply in love with a handsome young courtier. She is faced with a terrible dilemma: give herself to the king and betray the love of her life or refuse to become his mistress and jeopardize the life of the her cousin, Queen Anne.

My thoughts: I was intrigued by Barnhill's idea to cover the oft told tale of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn's relationship through the viewpoint of someone who is usually in the background: Anne's cousin Lady Margaret Shelton. Madge as she is called, arrives at the Tudor court a complete innocent and must learn quickly to navigate her new environment. Madge proves a devoted servant to her cousin Anne and becomes her much needed confidante as the Queen fears Henry's eye has started to wander and her time on the throne may be coming to an end. Madge must decide exactly how far she will go to help her beloved Queen. In many Tudor novels all we see of Madge Shelton is the moment she is dangled like a carrot in front of Henry by Anne in the hopes that he will forget all about Lady Jane Seymour. Here we get to find out a little more about Madge and I did like her quite a bit despite her being naive about the workings of court at first. She soon learns to hold her own against the fast talking men of the court.

The story itself may not differ from what is known but one thing that is definitely different here are the way many of the characters are portrayed. Madge is described as extremely beautiful and sought after by all the men at court. Henry Norris (courtier and one of the accused in Anne's trial) is a particularly odious character here. Also we get to see a much more favorable side of Anne Boleyn-more as someone who strives to be a good Queen despite great resistance from her subjects as opposed to the power hungry Anne we see elsewhere. Jane Seymour is seen as a cold and shrewish person while we usually see her portrayed more favorably. I don't know that I would necessarily agree with the characterizations given what I do know of the period but it is nice to see an author take a chance and make some of the players different than what is expected. This book also introduces us to Arthur Brandon, bastard son of Charles Brandon, and I must say he ended up being one of my favorite characters of the novel.

I did have a few trouble areas while reading the book, one of which was getting used to the dialogue because much of it is written like how they would talk (mayhap, anon etc...). I was okay once I got used to the characters speaking this way though. Also there is some romance here which I enjoyed but the love scenes got a little more descriptive than I expected. I thought the pacing of the book was good but I noticed things moved a bit more quickly towards the end. I wish more time was spent on the trials of Anne and those accused with her but I can understand why it didn't though because this book is from Madge's point of view so it makes sense we would only see what she was present for and everything else would be described second hand. Also I was surprised at how the novel ended-not a bad thing but I thought it was just an odd stopping point.

Despite the few hiccups I had with it, I did like this book and it's main character. If you are a Tudor junkie like me I say give it a go-I think you will like it!

I received my copy from NetGalley to read for Anne's tour with Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours. These are my honest thoughts on the book.

For interviews and guest posts with author Anne Clinard Barnhill, more reviews, and giveaways you can view the rest of the stops on the tour HERE.

Guest post with Anne Clinard Barnhill author of At the Mercy of the Queen

2012-01-23T08:16:00.001-05:00

Being a reader who cannot get enough of Tudor era England, I am excited to welcome Anne Clinard Barnhill to Bippity Boppity Book today! I just recently finished Anne's novel At the Mercy of the Queen which is about Anne Boleyn's cousin Lady Madge Shelton (stop back by on the 25th for my review) and now she is here to tell us a little about the subject of her next book.

So without further ado, here is Anne!

Now that AT THE MERCY OF THE QUEEN is out into the world, what's next? I'm currently at work on another novel about a Shelton ancestor, Lady Mary Shelton, a generation past Lady Margaret (Madge) Shelton. This time, the story takes place in the court of Elizabeth I rather than Henry VIII's. And, like AT THE MERCY OF THE QUEEN, the few facts I've been able to dig up about Lady Mary form the kernel of the story and my imagination furnishes the rest.

I have discovered that Mary was orphaned at an early age, which meant she would have become one of the Queen's wards. Wardship was a lucrative practice for monarchs and had a long history of use before Elizabeth's time. Henry VIII used wards as bargaining chips, rewards for faithful service and sometimes, he even sold wardships to fill his coffers. If an underage child lost his father, he became a royal ward. The king or queen could either raise the child with the royal offspring, give the ward to someone or sell the guardianship. Usually, wards were given or sold to lords with lands near those of the ward. It was a frequent practice for a ward to marry either her guardian's child or, sometimes, the guardian himself. Charles Brandon married his ward, Catherine Willoughby, though at first she had been betrothed to his son.

Wardship was a way to gain control over a youngster's wealth until he/she came of age. If the child lost the father as an infant, the ward would have upwards of twenty years to reap the benefits of being a guardian. It was also a way of increasing one's land holdings and other revenue. Even if the mother was still living, the welfare of the child was a concern of the monarch, not the mom.

So, Mary Shelton was orphaned at a young age, losing both parents in the same month. Later, in her teens, we find her serving at the court of her cousin, Elizabeth. She is the lady-in-waiting who, most famously, married secretly, without permission. Elizabeth, enraged, broke Mary's finger in a fit of anger. In later life, Mary was one of three very powerful women who had the trust of the queen.

Those are the facts. You'll have to wait for the book (still without at title) for the story.

Thank you Anne for stopping by! I'll be looking forward to reading all about Mary.

You can visit Anne at her website http://www.anneclinardbarnhill.com

Anne is here today as part of her tour with Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours. Please follow the link to see the rest of the schedule for the tour including more guest posts, interviews, giveaways, and reviews of At the Mercy of the Queen.

You can also follow the tour on twitter: #MercyOfTheQueenVIrtualTour

Winner of The Crown by Nancy Bilyeau

2012-01-22T14:22:00.000-05:00

Thank you everyone who entered the giveaway for The Crown by Nancy Bilyeau which was hosted here as part of the Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours tour for this awesome book.

Using www.random.org a winner has been selected!

And the winner is..................

JANET!

Congrats!

Winner has been notified by email :)

A Winter's Respite Read-a-Thon

2012-01-21T09:56:00.001-05:00

This coming week I'll be participating in my 2nd Read-A-Thon: A Winter's Respite Read-a-Thon hosted by Michelle @ The True Book Addict. I had a lot of fun with the last one I participated in and it really motivated me to read a lot more for that week. Also the mini-challenges were lots of fun too. I'm hoping this Read-a-Thon will have the same result and I'll be blazing through books all week long.

I am hopefully finishing up my 2 library books Aztec Blood by Gary Jennings and The Mercy Seller by Brenda Rickman Vantrease this weekend. Here are the four that I'd like to get done for during the Read-a Thon which starts on Monday:

The Technologists by Matthew Pearl
Enchantments by Kathryn Harrison
A mystery novel by Georgette Heyer (haven't decided which yet-suggestions?)
The Book of Lost Fragrances by M.J. Rose

We'll see how close I get to accomplishing that. Wish me luck!

PS: I believe sign ups are still open if you'd like to play too :)

Friday Reading Journal #1

2012-01-20T06:45:00.001-05:00

I have been reading quite a bit lately even though I haven't had a lot of reviews posted here. That is because for the month of January I am reading all the books I have accepted for review through mid-April so even if it seems a little sparse around here now the books are being read, the reviews are getting written, and they will be posted eventually.

What's been happening this week?

Did post for guest post with author Anne Clinard Barnhill which will be posted January 23rd
Wrote my review for At the Mercy of the Queen by Anne Clinard Barnhill which will be posted January 25th
The 13th/14th I finished up The Orchid House by Lucinda Riley and wrote the review which will be published February 4th
The 14th/15th I finished up By the King's Design by Christine Trent and will be writing the review some time this weekend
The 16th I updated my 2 upcoming historical fiction novels pages and started Aztec Blood by Gary Jennings.

This one I got from the Grand Haven library. Of the few resolutions I made this year, one was to read 1 or 2 library books a month. I read Aztec which is the first in this series a couple years ago and I really loved it. I read the second one last year and while it was good it didn't compare to the original. Now with Aztec Blood which is the third in the series I have been plodding along for 4 days now and have read a whopping 145 pages of this 500+ page book. I don't know what the disconnect is with me for this installment. Maybe I'd have better results if I just read something else right now. The setting-Mexico after it had been conquered by Spain-is interesting enough. The synopsis for the book sounded good:

"In this colorful and exciting era of swords and cloaks, upheaval and revolution, a young beggar boy, in whose blood runs that of both Spanish and Aztec royalty must claim his birthright. From the torrid streets of the City of the Dead along the Veracruz Coast to the ageless glory of Seville in Old Spain, Cristo the Bastardo connives fights, and loves as he seeks the truth—without knowing that he will be the founder of a proud new people. As we follow the loves and adventures of Cristo and experience the colorful splendor and barbarism of the era, a vanished culture is brought back to life in all its magnificence."

This is the first in the series that was released after the death of Gary Jennings and was finished by another author using Jennings' notes. I think the thing that sticks out to me at the point I'm at in the book right now is the writer is trying hard to capture the magic that was the original Aztec but is making it seem too similar in some respects and is heading in the complete wrong direction as far as the protagonist (Cristo the Bastardo who is half Aztec, half Spanish) is concerned because so far he doesn't seem to be as strong a character as Mixtli in the original or Tenamaxtli in Aztec Autumn. As for the things that are too similar-the violence, the sex scenes for shock value and the being beaten over the head with the us vs. them in regards to the Aztecs and the Spanish. I dunno, it feels like I'm reading the same book over again in some respects. Those are my thoughts on Aztec Blood so far. I'm hoping to finish this one up this weekend and I'm hoping this one picks up and something interesting happens plot-wise soon. I'll post my final thoughts in next weeks reading journal.

Mailbox Monday

2012-01-15T22:23:00.000-05:00

Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia at A Girl and Her Books. This meme is currently on tour and this month it is making it's home with Alyce @ At Home With Books.

As I'm looking out my bedroom window at the foot of snow on the ground out there, I am glad I got out over the past week or so with the Boy to do our thrift store run. Fortunately, I found a few good books to curl up with before the big storm hit. This is what I got this week:

From Paperbackswap:

Critique of Criminal Reason by Michael Gregorio
Wicked Company by Ciji Ware

Won from the PBS Blog:

The Highest Stakes by Emery Lee

For Review:

The Technologists by Matthew Pearl

From B&N (w/gift card hubby's grandpa found at his house that he wasn't going to use):

The Fifth Servant by Kenneth Wishnia
The Crown Rose by Fiona Avery
New York by Edward Rutherfurd
Pearl of China by Anchee Min
The Road to Jerusalem by Jan Guillou

From Library Book Store (for a total of $2.50!):

Calico Palace by Gwen Bristow
Horns by Joe Hill
Shirley by Charlotte Bronte
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Also in keeping with my resolution to read at least 1 library book a month I checked out Aztec Blood by Gary Jennings and The Mercy Seller by Brenda Rickman Vantrease. That's it for me this week. Hope everyone had a wonderful mailbox!

REVIEW + GIVEAWAY: The Crown by Nancy Bilyeau

2012-01-12T07:23:00.007-05:00

Synopsis: When novice nun Joanna Stafford learns her rebel cousin is condemned by King Henry VIII to be burned at the stake, she makes the decision to run away from her Dominican Order to stand at her cousin’s side. Arrested for interfering with king’s justice, Joanna, and her father are sent to the Tower of London. Joanna’s father is brutally tortured by Bishop Gardiner of Winchester who leads the Catholic faction bent on saving England’s monasteries.

To save her father, Joanna must become a pawn in the struggle between religious extremes. Gardiner forces Joanna on a mission: find the long hidden crown worn by Saxon King Athelstan in AD 937 during the historic battle that first united Britain. Gardiner believes the crown possesses a mystical power that will halt the Reformation. Uncovering dark betrayals and murder, Joanna flees with a troubled young friar and with time running out, their hunt for the crown leads them all over England and finally to the tomb of King Athelstan under Malmesbury Abbey. There Joanna learns the true secret of the crown. Now, as Cromwell’s army of destruction advances, Joanna must determine who to trust.

My thoughts: The Crown starts the reader off right in the middle of the action as our protagonist, novice nun Joanna Stafford, arrives at Smithfield for the burning of her beloved cousin Margaret Bulmer. Trying to aid her cousin gets Joanna and her father arrested and thrown in the Tower. It seems she will languish there forever until she is visited by the wily Bishop Gardiner who tells her that he will get her released and sent back to her beloved Dartford Priory and release her father as well if Joanna will help him find the fabled crown of Athelstan. Fearing for her father's life, Joanna sets off on her quest back to the priory accompanied by Brother Edmund and Brother Richard-two monks sent to Dartford by Bishop Gardiner to take up positions there.

Joanna is a bit of a misfit novice. Her heart is in the right place but her decisions (including the one to see her condemned cousin) seems to run opposite to what the Sisters at the priory desire. I really liked the characters in this novel including Brothers Richard and Edmund, fellow Sister Winifred, the slightly odd Sister Christina, and Geoffrey Scovill-who comes to her aide in the beginning of the book and constantly seems to pop up afterward. Joanna herself is a strong willed individual and with many of the people surrounding her in the story you can't tell if they are allies or if they have more nefarious purposes. I always appreciate when the characters aren't so obvious and I definitely wanted to keep reading to find out the real motives for some of them. As for the quest of the Crown of Athelstan, I really enjoyed the thriller aspect of the book. Although at first Joanna's investigation didn't really go anywhere once it picked up and Bilyeau started weaving in bits about Richard the Lionheart, the Black Prince, Prince Arthur (Henry VIII's brother) and the origins of the Crown I was really intrigued. I was curious as to how the author was going to include all these elements and make it work but she did a fantastic job of tying everything together and making it flow.

This novel takes place during Henry VIII's reign but those thoroughly tired of the Tudors should still give this one a shot. Tudor characters make bit appearances and the dissolution of the monasteries ordered by Henry VIII is part of the story but the focus isn't really on them at all. The whole Crown of Athelstan story (and the reason so many wanted to get their hands on it) was a little hard to buy into at first. As I continued reading and the story got more fleshed out I was able to put aside my misgivings and really get into the story. Also I was able to figure out the "villain" in the story before the big reveal but the motives of said villain surprised me enough where it didn't really matter that I had figured out who the true culprit was. This one has just about everything I like in a historical fiction novel-well drawn characters, a good mystery, a few surprising turns, and a few unsettling ones. This book was definitely a great way to start the year off.

I received my copy from NetGalley to read for Nancy's tour with Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours. These are my honest thoughts on the book.

GIVEAWAY:

I am excited to be offering a copy of The Crown to one lucky reader!

This giveaway is open to: US

To enter: Leave your name and email address in the comments. One extra entry each will be given for helping spread the word via Twitter, Facebook, or posting on your blog.

Giveaway is open until: midnight on January 21st. Winner will be announced on the 22nd.

For more reviews and giveaways of The Crown and guest posts/interviews with author Nancy Bilyeau be sure to visit Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours to see the rest of the tour schedule.

Winner of the Winter Palace by Eva Stachniak!

2012-01-11T18:34:00.002-05:00

Thank you to all who entered the giveaway for the ARE of The Winter Palace. Using the highly scientific process of punching names into the list randomizer on www.random.org a winner has been chosen! And the winner is.....

Patty! (and her lovely goat Pricilla)

Congratulations!

Upcoming Novels Updated!

2012-01-05T19:57:00.000-05:00

Just finished adding covers, descriptions, and 20+ new novels to my upcoming novels pages!

Check them out here:

UPCOMING NOVELS JAN-APR

UPCOMING NOVELS MAY-OCT

REVIEW + GIVEAWAY: The Winter Palace by Eva Stachniak

2012-01-02T10:47:00.001-05:00

Synopsis (from Amazon): Her name is Barbara—in Russian, Varvara. Nimble-witted and attentive, she’s allowed into the employ of the Empress Elizabeth, amid the glitter and cruelty of the world’s most eminent court. Under the tutelage of Count Bestuzhev, Chancellor and spymaster, Varvara will be educated in skills from lock picking to lovemaking, learning above all else to listen—and to wait for opportunity. That opportunity arrives in a slender young princess from Zerbst named Sophie, a playful teenager destined to become the indomitable Catherine the Great. Sophie’s destiny at court is to marry the Empress’s nephew, but she has other, loftier, more dangerous ambitions, and she proves to be more guileful than she first appears.

What Sophie needs is an insider at court, a loyal pair of eyes and ears who knows the traps, the conspiracies, and the treacheries that surround her. Varvara will become Sophie’s confidante—and together the two young women will rise to the pinnacle of absolute power.

My Thoughts: Eva Stachniak has a smoothly flowing writing style that pulls you right into the story and she leaves no stone unturned for immersing the reader in the period. The people, politics, court happenings, descriptions of palaces, and the Russian landscape are all rendered in great detail. The story is narrated by Varvara, a young girl who comes to live at the court of the Empress Elizabeth after losing her father. At first she has a hard time adjusting to palace life but soon she is taken under the wing of Russian Chancellor Bestuzhev who trains her to function as his spy (or "tongue") and also spy for Elizabeth, the volatile Empress of all the Russias who presides over her court of loose morals chooses Catherine (then Sophie) to be the bride of her nephew and heir Peter.

While the book is titled The Winter Palace: A Novel of Catherine the Great, the story really belongs to Varvara as she narrates her information gathering for Bestuzhev and the Empress. Varvara knows that her position within the palace depends on how much knowledge she can obtain and that failure to please could move her back to a life of poverty. She becomes a close confidant of Sophie/Catherine when she arrives and soon takes to spying for her as well. It is clear that the marriage between Catherine and Peter is not a happy one and as the story continues on we see Catherine subjected to cruelty and ostracism by those around her which fuels her ambitions to take the crown herself. The book is full of court scandals and political intrigues. It is an environment where the characters must learn to adapt of be crushed in the viciousness of it all.

I did like this story but at the same time I felt I wasn't getting the full picture with Catherine because we are only seeing the side of her Varvara sees (and I was proven correct on this in the end). The book is a very well researched glimpse of Catherine's unlikely rise to the throne of Russia. The biggest problem for me was that even though the writing was good and I appreciated the amount of detail, the story was really drawn out. There wasn't a whole lot of action occurring throughout and what little there was didn't happen until about the last 75 pages of the book. Also I was under the assumption that with this being "a novel of Catherine the Great" that it would be covering her reign but it stops at the point shortly after she assumes the throne. I do believe the author is writing another book on Catherine though so hopefully we will get the second half of her story there.

This book is being released on 1/10/2012.

I received this book as a win from the LibraryThing Early Reviewers Program. These are my honest thoughts on the book.

Now for the GIVEAWAY! This giveaway is for an Advanced Readers Edition of The Winter Palace.

Open to: US and Canada

To enter: Leave your name and email in the comments. 1 additional entry each for posting about this giveaway on Twitter, Facebook, or on your blog.

Giveaway ends on: Midnight January 10th. Winner will be announced on the 11th.

Good Luck! :)

Winners of The Chivalrous Deeds Historical Fiction Challenge!

2012-01-01T10:00:00.002-05:00

The end is here! After a year of doing Chivalrous Deeds at various courts/time periods, the Chivalrous Deeds Historical Fiction Challenge is over! Thank you to all who participated.

There were a total of 43 reviews posted to the linky for this challenge and 25 courts were visited. Here is a chart showing where everyone went. Disclaimer: I actually had to do some digging to figure this out as some of the books entered were not directly about the rulers but about people/characters that served their courts at the time so when in doubt I used the rulers in place at whatever time period the book was set in.

Here are the courts and # of times they were visited by the participants:

And now for the results! There were 2 prizes for this challenge (only 1 prize can be won per challenger):

The person who reads the most books for this challenge will receive their choice of a book from the Book Depository not to exceed $20.

The person who visits the greatest number of different courts during the challenge will receive a book of their choice from The Book Depository not to exceed $20.

Here is the final tally for total # of courts visited:

So, the winner for total # of courts visited with 17 entries total is:

Heather also had most # of different courts visited with 16/17 but with the one prize per challenger rule the # of different courts prize goes to the person with the 2nd highest total for # of different courts visited. And the winner of that prize with 13 different courts out of 14 visited is:

Congratulations Ladies! Please email me at bippityboppitybook@ymail.com with your book choice/mailing address.

2011 Year End Wrap Up: Challenges, Statistics, and Plans for 2012

2011-12-31T06:12:00.008-05:00

First Up: CHALLENGES

2011 was an interesting year for challenges. Out of the 5 I signed up for (3 here on the blogosphere, 1 on Goodreads, 1 on PBS) I finished two of them.

Six books in different historical fiction sub-genres were required to complete this challenge. My final tally: 6/6. FINISHED!

Adam's 2011 TBR Challenge demonstrated just how good I am at making lists....and how bad I am at sticking to them. Of the 12 books (plus 2 alternates) I listed at the beginning of the challenge I finished 8 out of the 12 required to complete the challenge.

The challenge from the Paperbackswap Historical Fiction Forum actually had 4 challenges you could choose from. I chose to complete all four for a total of 38 books. I actually finished this one much to my surprise.
38/38.

This one I thought would be super easy as I entered at the lowest level-reading 3 Georgette Heyer Historicals. My final tally: 1/3. Guess I got a little too busy with the other challenges but at least I got to read my first Heyer this year and it definitely won't be my last.

For the 2011 Goodreads reading challenge my goal was to read 90 books this year. As I write this I am working on #85 and am most likely to finish 86 before the end of the year. I'm kinda bummed about this one because if I hadn't gotten sick in November and basically wasn't able to read the entire month, I would have made this one. So, final tally 86/90 (96%).

2nd up: STATISTICS

Even though I hate dealing with numbers, I like to analyze my reading to see where my main interests were this year and see what I sorely neglected so I can read more of it next year. I think this handy dandy pie chart says it all:

3rd up: GOALS/TENTATIVE PLANS FOR 2012

I will not review EVERY book I read this year. Why? It sucks the enjoyment out of reading when I have to spend so much time writing. I churned out over 80 reviews this year and I'm not going to lie-it got a bit overwhelming. This coming year I am aiming for 1 review a week and I am hoping to keep a reading journal for everything else and maybe share my entries on Fridays.

Stop being a lurker and become a commenter. There are many blogs out there that I really enjoy and a lot people that take the time to comment here (which I really appreciate). I have a really hard time moving out of lurker mode even though I peruse blogger for updates pretty much daily. So, goal for 2012 is comment lots more and respond to comments here more.

Do everything I can to keep 2012 my no pressure year of reading. I will review all the books I commit myself to but other than that I'm reading whatever strikes my fancy. If it fits a challenge Great! If not, oh well. I know I am going to relish the feeling of walking into my book room and just plucking whatever sounds good off the ol' shelf.

Check out 1 book a month from the library. As much as I want to forgo reading books from outside sources (except ones for review) to put a dent in my 1,000+ book TBR I love my local libraries and want to support them so my goal is 1 a month. I'll also be checking out 3 every visit for my boy. :)

Do more giveaways! I love doing giveaways so I'm really going to make an effort to host more here this coming year (as my budget allows).

So there you have it-some challenges conquered, an obvious love of historical fiction and a plan for the coming year. Wishing you all a Happy New Year full of great reading!

Best Reads for 2011

2011-12-30T05:42:00.001-05:00

One of the things I really love about the end of the year is seeing everyone else's best of lists. I always have trouble picking out my faves though and with 81 books read this year picking out my top ten for was no exception. I finally managed to do it though. So here they are-my top 10 plus five "honorable mentions" You didn't really think I'd be able to pick just ten did you? :)

1.

The ultimate tale of forbidden love and set in the Australian outback to boot! I loved the story of Father Ralph and Meggie. In fact, I loved all the characters. This was a book that I loved so much that it took me a long time to find something to read after it because nothing else came close!

2.

This was my first book by Sharon Kay Penman and after reading it I was left wondering why I waited so long to read one of her books. This was the fantastic love story of King John's illegitimate daughter Joanna and Llewelyn ab Iorweth-a Welsh leader. The historical detail in this was excellent and she managed to show a different side of King John. Loved this story!

3.

This is the story of Rachel Kalama-a seven year old girl who contracts leprosy-a disease afflicting Hawaiians in the late 1800's-and is sent to live at the leper colony on the island of Moloka'i. Even though there were a lot of sad parts in this book, I enjoyed following the journey of spirited Rachel and her friends. After this I immediately picked up Brennert's next book Honolulu and I loved that one too (just not as much as Moloka'i). I think Alan Brennert was one of my best "finds" of this year and I very much look forward to whatever he comes out with next.

4.

When I started compiling my best of list earlier in the month, I hadn't read this one yet but I devoured this chunky book about a little boy named Peekay growing up in Africa as the tensions from the Boer Wars remain, the war in Europe rages on and apartheid takes hold in South Africa. I really didn't want this story to end and have learned today that there is a sequel which I will be getting my hands on as soon as possible.

5.

I loved the story of Pearl and May in Shanghai Girls and was anxious to continue their story along with that of daughter Joy in Dreams of Joy. As Joy grows into young womanhood she becomes an idealist who wants to do everything she can to help her mother country-China. When Joy runs away to do just that Pearl follows to get her daughter back. Joy discovers things are extremely different from what she expected as she is introduced to Communism and life under Chairman Mao. I was completely wrapped up in this book, especially the parts taking place in Communist China. I spent half the book wanting to shake some sense into Joy and I still really enjoyed this one despite that.

6.

I'm usually a read the book then see the movie person but I saw the movie The Road starring Viggo Mortensen and had to pick up the book to see if it was just as good. This book left me so down after I finished it and McCarthy has a rather interesting style in regards to punctuation and dialogue that takes some getting used to. Even though this was probably my most depressing read of the year it was really good as well. I cried at the end of the movie and the book.

7.

Paranormal vampire themed type books? Not a fan. The Passage? Definite fan. The first half of the book introducing the child Amy and leading up to what happened to cause the extinction of 90% of the human race had me hooked. The book switched gears for awhile and got bogged down a bit but then it picked up and hit me with an ending that left me going WHAT IN THE HECK JUST HAPPENED?! I can't wait to read the next part in the trilogy coming out next year. I'm sure I'll blaze through it as well and then spend another week sleeping with the lights on like I did with this one.

8.

Ok, so the Tudors have been done. And done. And done again. This time though Margaret George takes on Elizabeth I in the later years of her reign and showed a whole new side of her. I loved seeing behind the mask Elizabeth so painstakingly created throughout her years on the throne. In addition to Elizabeth's story we get that of her cousin Lettice Knollys who is as different from Elizabeth as can be. The alternating viewpoints of these two ladies worked really well here and even though like all of George's books, this one was a door stopper but I loved every minute of it.

9.

I discovered Deanna Raybourn's Lady Julia series last year and every time she comes out with a new one I can just about guarantee it's going to be good. This one focuses more on my favorite couple-Julia and Brisbane as they try to help brother Bellmont out of a sticky situation. This series just keeps getting better and better. I cannot wait until the next one!

10.

This book tells the story of several Jewish women named Rachel and the passing of the family heirloom Cuheno diamond from on Rachel to the next. As one Rachel dies the next one inherits. This book starts off in Spain in the 1400's and continues all the way to the 1970's. Each Rachel is unique and has a completely different story from the last. Some are more likeable

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

1.

This is the story of Mercy Lavinia Warren Bump, a woman who at under 3 ft tall, would not let her size define her. She knows she is destined for greater things and sets out to accomplish them-marrying General Tom Thumb, becoming a close confidante of PT Barnum and becoming one of the most famous women in the country along the way. I loved reading about Vinnie's fascinating life. I wasn't even really all that interested in reading this but I once I started I completely fell in love with it.

2.

I love books set in Ireland and this telling of the warrior Queen Maeve by Jules Watson was no exception. Passionate about the welfare of her people and a fierce warrior we follow Maeve as she proves to those around her that she is a ruler material despite being a lowly woman. I love strong female characters and Maeve fit the bill. Also enjoyed the mystic elements thrown in as well.

3.

What can be said about Marie Antoinette that hasn't been said already? A lot apparently. This book tells of MA's upbringing in the Austrian court and the effort that went in to making the young girl worthy of the French Court. This book covering MA's childhood up until the point she becomes Queen is the first in a trilogy. I was surprised at how much detail the author was able to stuff in this book and still make it interesting. I genuinely felt sorry for the poor girl throughout the entire novel.

4.

I really liked this one. It starts off innocent enough. When Alice Ibbetson notices a rare Lady's Slipper orchid on her neighbor's property she decides to steal it setting off a whole chain of unforeseen events. Citizens turn against each other, a murder occurs-once it gets rolling it doesn't stop and there is even a little romance thrown in for good measure.

5.
Queen by Right tells the story of Cecily Neville (known as Proud Cis), wife to Richard Duke of York. I really liked spunky Cis who we meet as an eight year old girl. She grows up alongside Richard and they form a close friendship which blossoms into a true love match. I really liked this lady's fascinating story as she stood by her husband despite his being constantly humiliated and shunned by King Henry VI and his haughty Queen Margaret of Anjou. Loved the detail and learned quite a bit about Cis whom I'd never heard of before picking this up-this book had me leaning Yorkist :)

Did any of these make your list?

REVIEW: The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay

2011-12-29T05:31:00.000-05:00

Synopsis (from Amazon): In 1939, as Hitler casts his enormous, cruel shadow across the world, the seeds of apartheid take root in South Africa. There, a boy called Peekay is born. His childhood is marked by humiliation and abandonment, yet he vows to survive and conceives heroic dreams–which are nothing compared to what life actually has in store for him. He embarks on an epic journey through a land of tribal superstition and modern prejudice where he will learn the power of words, the power to transform lives, and the power of one.

My thoughts: Let me start the telling of how extraordinary this book is with this: My copy of The Power of One was a mass market paperback with 540 pages of microscopic print. I read this book in a day and a half. The Power of One follows Peekay from a six year old boy to young adulthood. As a child he endures horrific treatment at the hands of his fellow classmates. His crime? Being of English descent. Peekay starts his journey as an innocent but soon realizes that there are greater things in play-the hatred between the Afrikaners and the English, the war in Europe with Hitler and the influence it has on his world, and the racial tensions and the beginning of apartheid. Even though the odds are stacked against Peekay (being small, from the "wrong" race and poor) he meets a series of people in his life who serve as mentors and teach him that one person can make a difference. Among these mentors are Hoppie Groenwald a train guard who teaches Peekay to think first with his head and then with his heart, Geel Piet-a black prisoner who gives Peekay his boxing skills and Doc-a German professor who becomes his closest friend.

I loved following Peekay from his trials at boarding school to his home with his grandfather and uber religious mother, through his adventures with Doc and his time spent at the prison, his boxing successes and adventures at an exclusive boarding school for rich kids. No matter what Peekay faces he never loses sight of his goal to become welterweight champion of the world and to make a difference. Now, part of this book does have to deal with boxing and that was tough for me because next to shuffleboard I think boxing is the most boring sport there is. This book is so well written though that even the boxing parts were interesting. This book also has a good deal of sadness and even though Peekay was my favorite character some of the other characters really touched me. I've only given a very brief description of some of the territory this book covers. Reading this book felt magical. The ending was not what I expected but I think it was fitting. This is definitely one of the best books I've read this year and one of the ones I will be encouraging anyone and everyone to read. Seriously my little review here cannot do it justice. Just go read it-you'll love it!

This book is from my own personal library.

REVIEW: Jewel of Medina by Sherry Jones

2011-12-28T05:29:00.000-05:00

Set in 7th Century Arabia, Jewel of Medina tells the story of Aisha bint Abi Bakr, beloved wife of the Prophet Muhammad. Shut away from the world at the age of 6 and married at the age of 9, willful Aisha dreams of freedom and being a warrior-a dream that is not likely to be realized. As a child Aisha develops a strong bond with Muhammad, her future husband but as she grows from childhood into womanhood Aisha faces many struggles-among them jealousy for Muhammad's other wives and an inability to reign in her impulsiveness which often hurts those around her instead of helping.

As Aisha grows she faces greater challenges: battling with the other wives for control of the harim, getting Muhammad to see her as a woman instead of a child, and making very bad decisions because of her desire for freedom and need to be a warrior.

My thoughts: After reading some of the reviews on Goodreads and Amazon I honestly expected a total train wreck but much to my surprise I found this book to not be bad at all and even though there were some elements that I found weird/slightly uncomfortable, I actually liked it. The book is told entirely from the point of view of Aisha and we see the beginnings of Islam through her eyes as Muhammad struggles to get people to accept him as the Prophet. In Jewel, this was often accomplished by battles where Muhammad's outnumbered followers would somehow gain the victory, make alliances, and gain a bigger following. The big issue that most have is the relationship between Aisha and Muhammad (she was just a little girl when they were married) but in the book Muhammad seems to respect the fact that Aisha is still a child and allows her time to grow up before the relationship evolves into an adult one. It is still unsettling-extremely young girl with middle aged man- but I think Jones handled the early introduction of the relationship well. It is later in the book when Muhammad begins to take on multiple wives that he comes off as a lecherous old man even though he claims he is marrying to strengthen alliances and build up a following. This I think could have been handled a bit differently.

The strength of this book is watching Aisha grow and the challenges she faces with the other wives. The harim "politics" was the most interesting part for me. One thing I wish was that there was a bit more character development with the other wives because I'm sure they were fascinating women in their own right. Here though we get a brief description and a few mentions after for most of them. The part I had the most trouble with was the Aisha as wannabe warrior girl angle. This just seems so against what I would imagine for a woman of this time period but I do understand that this was probably another device used to demonstrate Aisha's impulsiveness and need for freedom. Also the language can get a bit flowery at times but even so I liked this story.

That being said, for those looking to learn more about the beginnings of Islam, I don't know if this is the book to do that. I think it has value as a story but the reader should go into it with the expectation that although research went into the writing, this is fiction and most likely a good amount has been added to it to make the story flow. Finding a book giving a history of the religion or going directly to the source (the Quran) would be a better choice. I imagine with writing about any religion or religious figure it is especially difficult to find that balance of truth and story without crossing the line into potentially offensive material. I guess I am trying to say read this for enjoyment purposes not educational ones. Two things that stuck out to me and bugged me a little while reading: when Aisha refers to herself and someone else it is written like "I and Muhammad" instead of "Muhammad and I". I have no idea why it was written like that but it drove me nuts! Also in Jewel Allah is referred to as al'Lah and that kind of threw me off too because I've never seen Allah written like that. Overall, I think it was an average read and maybe not entirely deserving of the trouncing it took on some of the review sites.

This book is from my own personal library.

REVIEW: Sword Song by Bernard Cornwell

2011-12-27T05:26:00.001-05:00

Synopsis (from Goodreads): The year is 885, and England is at peace, divided between the Danish Kingdom to the north and the Saxon kingdom of Wessex in the south. Warrior by instinct and Viking by nature, Uhtred, the dispossessed son of Northumbrian lord, has land, a wife and children-and a duty to King Alfred to hold the frontier on the Thames. But a dead man has risen, and new Vikings have invaded the decayed Roman city of London with dreams of conquering Wessex...with Uhtred's help. Suddenly forced to weigh his oath to the king against the dangerous turning side of shifting allegiances and deadly power struggles, Uhtred-Alfred's sharpest sword-must now make the choice that will determine England's future.

My thoughts: Sword Song-the 4th installment in the Saxon Chronicles-reunites us with Uhtred of Bebbanburg who has got to be one of my favorite characters in all of historical fiction. Things I love about Uhtred: his word is his bond. Whether it is what he really wants to do or not, if he gives his oath to someone he keeps it (which is why he is still the defender of Christian King Alfred). He has battle skills like no other. Hearing about being in the shield wall and about the various engagements he finds himself in is what really makes these books shine. He doesn't back down from anyone and says exactly what is on his mind. Often times these quips are priceless and a real highlight of the books for me. Finally, he is not two dimensional. He is a warrior, a great strategist, lover, and a person who is conflicted about where his true destiny lies-living as a Dane and reclaiming his rightful place in Bebbanburg or continuing to fight for Alfred.

In this installment Alfred decides to wed his daughter Aethelflaed to Athelred (Uhtred's cousin) and make him King of Mercia. Alfred's vision is to unite the country now divided between Saxon and Dane as one (England) and the wedding is a way to expand his allegiances. As a wedding present he asks Uhtred to take London which has recently been occupied by the Danes. The Danes are led by brothers Erik and Sigefrid who tempt Uhtred with an offer of their own-help them gain access to Wessex (the territory held by Alfred) and they will make him King of Mercia. Uhtred must decide whether to keep his oath to Alfred or break it and make his own destiny.

Upon originally reading the synopsis for Sword Song I was a little worried that it would be pretty much like the other three books in the series with little new ground covered. I need not have worried though because this time we meet a more mature Uhtred which already made things a bit different. He is a family man now with a wife and two kids and he realizes his decisions don't just impact him but them as well. Cornwell does bring back characters from the other novels-Father Pyrlig (Welsh Priest and friend of Uhtred), his oath men Steapa, Clapa, Finan and Cerdic, Father Beocca (Priest and mentor to Uhtred) and his wife Gisela. He also shifts the focus to new characters Erik and Sigefrid (one who is honorable and the other who is completely ruthless) and expands on characters who were quite minor previously (Aethelred and Aethelflaed). One thing that tends not to change are the battle scenes because they are just as detailed and violent as those depicted in the three previous novels. There was no lack of fights and battle scenes in Sword Song.

My only gripe with these books is I wish he would give the characters names that were easier to pronounce instead of ones that sound like someone is sneezing but then that would take away from the authenticity I guess.

I think each successive book keeps getting better and better. This one did a great job moving the story along and setting the reader up for The Burning Land (book 5 of the Saxon Chronicles) where Uhtred faces his biggest battle against the Vikings yet. I can't wait to read this one and I hope Cornwell writes several more in the Saxon series before he sends Uhtred off into retirement.

This book is from my own personal library

Mailbox Monday

2011-12-26T06:21:00.002-05:00

Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia at A Girl and Her Books. Mailbox Monday is currently on tour and this month it is making its home with Jenny @ Let Them Read Books.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. I did not get a single book but I did get $ which will probably turn into at least a few books. Here is what came in this week:

From Paperbackswap:

John Crow's Devil by Marlon James
The Winding Road by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles
The Rhetoric of Death by Judith Rock

For Review:

The Book of Lost Fragrances by M.J. Rose

Ordered from Alibris:

Taj by Colin de Silva

I had a little money in my Paypal account from a refund I'd gotten awhile ago and I decided to order the book that has been on my wish list the longest at PBS. Taj had been on there since early 2008.

That's it for me this week. Hope everyone has a fantastic New Years!

REVIEW: The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver

2011-12-20T16:33:00.000-05:00

Synopsis: (from Goodreads): Born in the United States, reared in a series of provisional households in Mexico—from a coastal island jungle to 1930s Mexico City—Harrison Shepherd finds precarious shelter but no sense of home on his thrilling odyssey. Life is whatever he learns from housekeepers who put him to work in the kitchen, errands he runs in the streets, and one fateful day, by mixing plaster for famed Mexican muralist Diego Rivera. He discovers a passion for Aztec history and meets the exotic, imperious artist Frida Kahlo, who will become his lifelong friend. When he goes to work for Lev Trotsky, an exiled political leader fighting for his life, Shepherd inadvertently casts his lot with art and revolution, newspaper headlines and howling gossip, and a risk of terrible violence.

Meanwhile, to the north, the United States will soon be caught up in the internationalist goodwill of World War II. There in the land of his birth, Shepherd believes he might remake himself in America's hopeful image and claim a voice of his own. He finds support from an unlikely kindred soul, his stenographer, Mrs. Brown, who will be far more valuable to her employer than he could ever know. Through darkening years, political winds continue to toss him between north and south in a plot that turns many times on the unspeakable breach—the lacuna—between truth and public presumption.

My thoughts: Ever encounter a book where the author is a big name bestseller and you end up feeling the glowing reviews given for the book were more because of author status than because the content was great? That is how I felt after reading raves on The Lacuna from all the major publications. After reading the book it really did feel like their thought process before writing the reviews went something like:

“Barbara Kingsolver wrote the Poisonwood Bible which is all kinds of awesome. This book? Not so awesome BUT since I don’t feel like being tarred, feathered, and strung up by my toes for saying that because the general mindset is Barbara Kingsolver=awesome, well in MY review this book will be the bees knees and let some other schmuck deal with the torch and pitchfork crowd for saying otherwise.”

Now let me follow that up with this: Barbara Kingsolver is a VERY good writer and this book is NOT a bad book. It does however, have some issues that make it a challenging read. I really enjoy her style and I fondly remember blazing through The Poisonwood Bible in 2003 as I lay in my cot in the deserts of Kuwait while our unit waited for orders to roll into Iraq. In fact, reading that book is about the only fond remembrance from that whole horrible year but that is another story…

We follow Harrison Shepard as he matures from a boy uprooted from the US and moved to Mexico at the whims of his mother (who supports them by latching onto any rich man she can find) to manhood where he works as a secretary for the exiled Communist revolutionary Leon Trotsky. We also enter the world of artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, supporters of Trotsky and employers of Harrison. The author writes a detailed account of Mexico in the 1930s-the art, the politics, the revolutionary spirit taking over the country- and throws in a bit of a history lesson as well. We learn all this through Harrison’s journal entries-journals he keeps meticulously through most of his life. It is also through these journals and letters that we are drawn into his strange but enduring friendship with Frida. When his time with Trotsky comes to an abrupt conclusion, Harrison moves back the US to start life anew-landing in Asheville, NC and finally realizing his dream of becoming a writer. It is here he meets Ms. Brown who is the narrator guiding us through a majority of the story. It seems his troubles are not over though as anti-communist fervor sweeps the nation and Harrison’s past with Trotsky comes back to haunt him.

Now, about those issues I mentioned earlier. This book is divided into two sections: Harrison’s life in Mexico and his life once he returned to the US. Although it was packed with detail the pacing was really slow in the first part. I was 150 pages into this 500+ page book and still wondering what exactly the plot was and when the story would pick up. At the half way point I was still slogging through and wondering the same things. I learned quite a bit while reading this part but I was bored with it at times and found it a real struggle to continue reading. I probably would have thrown in the towel at some point in the first section if I had not been reading this to complete a challenge. Surprisingly, many others who have read this preferred the first section to the second. The second section which covers Harrison’s life in the States and introduces us to Ms. Brown was much more enjoyable to me. I think this part is where we really get to see who he is and most of this section is written in epistolary format which I really like. Here is where I finally felt a connection to the main character and I really loved Ms. Brown. I flew through the second part. She does a really good job of tying everything together in this part (finally my “Where is the plot and what the heck is going on?” questions were answered). Once everything tied together towards the end I was left feeling better about the book as a whole. Overall I liked the book but I’m not sure struggling through 300 pages to get to the 200 I enjoyed was really worth the effort. Still, even though this one was hard for me I think Kingsolver is a remarkable writer and it’s likely I’ll read her again in the future. If you’re looking to try her for the first time I would recommend starting with one of her others first though.

This book is from my own personal library.

I'm taking on the Chunkster Challenge!

2011-12-15T10:36:00.002-05:00

Ok, I said I was limiting challenges this year so The Chunkster Challenge and Adam's TBR Pile Challenge will be it for me. I think this one is perfect because it will still give me the freedom to read what I want but also encourage me to read those ENORMOUS books on my shelves.

Definition of a chunkster:
A chunkster is 450 pages or more of ADULT literature, whether non-fiction or fiction. A chunkster should be a challenge.

Well, I have plenty of books that would qualify so I am going to take on the most challenging category:

Mor-book-ly Obese - This is for the truly out of control chunkster. For this level of challenge you must commit to EIGHT or more Chunksters of which three tomes MUST be 750 pages or more.

CHUNKSTERS OVER 450 PGS:

1. Aztec Blood by Gary Jennings (524 pgs)
2. The Technologists by Matthew Pearl (480 pgs)
3. The Sister Queens by Sophie Perinot (528 pgs)
4. Katherine by Anya Seton (541 pgs)
5. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte (520 pgs)

CHUNKSTERS OVER 750 PGS:

1. Voyager by Diana Gabaldon (880 pgs)
2. The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (984 gs)
3. ?

Winner of The Hypnotist by M.J. Rose!

2011-12-12T16:52:00.000-05:00

Thank you to all who entered the giveaway for The Hypnotist by M.J. Rose. After typing in all entrants the supreme omnipotent being that is www.random.org has chosen a winner.

And that winner is.......

Jessica!

Congrats!

Mailbox Monday

2011-12-11T13:50:00.001-05:00

Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia at A Girl and Her Books. Mailbox Monday is currently on tour and this month it is making it's home with Jenny Q at Let Them Read Books.

This month I wouldn't be surprised if my mailman started forwarding me his chiropractor bills. It has been phenomenal! Packages at the doorstep! Mailbox bursting at the seams! I love it! I did make myself a tiny promise that if I got $ for Christmas or my birthday I would use it toward practical things I need-NO BOOKS. Using a giftcard I got for Amazon, I decided to have a last splurgy hurrah. See results of said hurrah below :)

From Amazon:

Sins of the House of Borgia by Sarah Bower
Vlad: the Last Confession by C.C. Humphreys
Dracula, My Love by Syrie James
The Queen's Rival by Diane Haeger
Wolves Among Us by Ginger Garrett
Watermark by Vanitha Sankaran
The Queen's Daughter by Susan Coventry
Secrets of the Tudor Court by D.L. Bogdan
Eliza's Daughter by Joan Aiken
A Race to Splendor by Ciji Ware
Lily of the Nile by Stephanie Dray
A Bloody Field by Shrewsbury by Edith Pargeter
The Countess and the King by Susan Holloway Scott
Secrets of the Tudor Court: By Royal Decree by Kate Emerson
The Lady and the Poet by Maeve Haran
The Pale Rose of England by Sandra Worth

Won from LibraryThing Early Reviewers:

The Winter Palace by Eva Stachniak

From NetGalley for Review:

Right after I requested At the Mercy of the Queen and The Crown from NetGalley, I was asked to be part of the tour for them through Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours. It's a sign I was meant to read them :)

From my PBS Historical Fiction Forum Secret Santa (Thank you again Donna!):

The Conquest by Elizabeth Chadwick
Daughters of the Grail by Elizabeth Chadwick
Daughters of Spain by Jean Plaidy

From PaperBackSwap:

Rival to the Queen by Carolly Erickson
The Pindar Diamond by Katie Hickman
A Noble Assassin by Christie Dickason
The Tangled Thread by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles

DEAR SANTA,

Um, due to being incredibly blessed in the book department recently, I will not be needing books for Christmas (but you can still send some if you want-I've been good. I swear!!!)

Holly :)

Suddenly Sunday

2011-12-11T08:22:00.000-05:00

Suddenly Sunday is hosted by Svea at The Muse in the Fog Book Review.

Tis' the Season to be busy! I have had a whole lot going on this week! I posted 3 reviews:

The Hypnotist by M.J. Rose
Brigid of Kildare by Heather Terrell (at Royal Reviews)
Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky

I was interviewed by Jenny @ her blog It's All in the Details. Thank you Jenny! It was fun :)

I signed up for my first challenge of 2012: The 2012 TBR Pile Challenge hosted by Adam @ Roof Beam Reader. Not sure how many more I'll sign up for but I'm trying to make 2012 my "minimal obligations" year so probably not too many more.... Also been working on the best of 2011 list and wrap up for the Historical Deeds Challenge.

In case you missed it, the giveaway for The Hypnotist by M.J. Rose (open to US/CAN) ends at midnight tonight so be sure to enter if you haven't.

Also Royal Reviews (where I moonlight as my alter ego Baroness of the Bygone) is hosting the Twelve Days of a Tudor Giveaway for Christmas which starts today and ends on the 22nd. Stop over there and check it out!

Coming up this week:

My review of The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver. It will be just this one review this week because I have to do the Christmas shopping. (Haven't even STARTED yet. I'm a slacker, I know....) Also coming is one MASSIVE mailbox to share on Monday. Now off to make a toasty beverage and do some laundry...and read of course!

REVIEW: Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky

2011-12-10T15:06:00.002-05:00

Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky was originally intended to be a novel made up of five different stories. Unfortunately, due to her horrible death at the hands of the Germans in Auschwitz, she was only able to complete the first two sections.

Part 1: A Storm in June
Paris 1940: The war is going badly for France and thousands flee as the German Army closes in on the City. We meet the middle class Pericand family who try to gather up their large family and move them out. We meet the Michauds decades long employees to a Parisian bank who fear losing their jobs in the chaos, wealthy Charles Langelet, a member of the upper class with a clear disdain for the lower who joins the thousands fleeing Paris by car, and Gabriel Corte,a successful famous writer who thinks that fame will help him through the crisis. This section was a little slow going for me but the one thing that stuck out is how people focus on such insignificant things in a time of crisis. Madame Pericand is worried someone will steal her good linens. Charles Langelet is more worried about his precious porcelain collection. None of these characters seems to realize the gravity of the situation they face as the German Army advances. More than a few of these characters are not likable people but the strength of Storm in June is Nemirovsky's realistic portrayal of how the imminent arrival of the Nazis affected people across all class lines. What is startling too, is how people seem to lose their humanity and concern for their fellow man in such trying situations. I think this section would have been a bit easier read if there weren't so many characters to keep track of but I also realize that in order to show how war touched all the classes, it was kind of unavoidable.

Part 2: Dolce
Set in a French village outside of Paris, Dolce focuses on how the inhabitants made up of village dwellers and peasant farmers cope with the German occupying force that has taken up residence in their village. Even here the class differences come to the forefront as village inhabitants accuse farmers of raising prices on their goods and farmers accuse those better off of hoarding supplies that could be useful to everyone. In this section, Nemirovsky chooses to give a more human face to the German forces (unlike the first section where they are just some ominous invading force). It was interesting to see the idea of the Germans as the enemy blurred a little bit. Here the villagers were forced to billet the Germans in their homes and it becomes clear that it is much harder to hate someone when you get to know them as a person. This is particularly evident with Lucy, a young housewife whose husband is off fighting in the war, and the young German Officer staying in her house who she starts to fall for (and he her). I thought of the two this section was the stronger because it felt much more personal than the first.

I did like this book quite a bit but although the writing was wonderful, you could tell that this is an unfinished work. The finished product would have been amazing. I think a lot of what draws people to this book is the horrible tragedy that befell the author. Nemirovsky's notes while penning the novel and her story is told at the end of the book-her husband's search for her after she was arrested and his sharing her fate at the concentration camps a few short months after she died there. This part was absolutely heartbreaking and it told the rest of the story that the two novellas didn't touch on-the fate of the Jews in German occupied France. I don't think there is a book out there that gives a more honest view of German occupied France. Worth the read but have a nice light fluffy read on standby to start when you finish this one.

This book is from my own personal library

2012 TBR Pile Challenge

2011-12-10T00:54:00.001-05:00

The 2012 TBR Pile Challenge is hosted by Adam at Roof Beam Reader. I signed up for this challenge for 2011 and thought "Twelve books that have been languishing on my TBR? Too easy!" Well, not so easy apparently because I have been horribly neglectful to my older books and have favored the shiny new ones all year. I'll be finishing 2011's challenge with 8/12 completed. 2012 is going to be a different story though. I promise to neglect you no longer older books!

The Goal: To read 12 books that have been on my TBR for at LEAST a year.

Here is my list of 12 + the 2 alternates for the 2012 challenge (all of which have been on my shelf since 2008):

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
Voyager by Diana Gabaldon
Ah, But Your Land is Beautiful by Alan Paton
What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day by Pearl Cleage
Four Queens: The Provencal Sisters who Ruled Europe by Nancy Goldstone
The Gilded Chamber by Rebecca Kohn
An Inconvenient Wife by Megan Chance
Katherine by Anya Seton
The Last Queen by C W Gortner
The Linnet Bird by Linda Holeman

Alternate 1: A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah
Alternate 2: Persuasion by Jane Austen

I've been Interviewed :)

2011-12-09T16:31:00.000-05:00

I'm being spotlighted today on Jenny Q's blog It's All in the Details. Stop by if you'd like peruse my thoughts on reviewing and historical fiction.

REVIEW: The Hypnotist by M.J. Rose

2011-12-08T09:23:00.001-05:00

Synopsis: An FBI agent, tormented by a death he wasn't able to prevent, a crime he's never been able to solve and a love he's never forgotten, discovers that his true conflict resides not in his past, but in a…Past Life.

Haunted by a twenty-year old murder of a beautiful young painter, Lucian Glass keeps his demons at bay through his fascinating work as a Special Agent with the FBI's Art Crime Team. Currently investigating a crazed art collector who has begun destroying prized masterworks, Glass is thrust into a bizarre hostage negotiation that takes him undercover at the Phoenix Foundation—dedicated to the science of past life study—where, in order to maintain his cover, he agrees to submit to the treatment of a hypnotist.

Under hypnosis, Glass travels from ancient Greece to 19th century Persia, while the case takes him from New York to Paris and the movie capital of world. These journeys will change his very understanding of reality, lead him to question his own sanity and land him at the center of perhaps the most audacious art heist in history: the theft of a 1,500 year old sculpture from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

My thoughts: The front cover says "The Hypnotist: A Novel of Suspense" and it definitely delivers in the suspense department. It took me about 40 pages to get into the book (and I think this is due more to the relatively short chapters which I wasn't used to) but it really clicked for me when we meet the crazy as he calmly evaluates which masterpiece he will utterly destroy to begin his game of cat and mouse with the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the FBI. As an art lover, I cringed reading this part.

Glass is the FBI's man when it comes to these types of crimes and when it becomes clear that the situation with the painting may be tied to the Phoenix Foundation and it's Co-Director Malachai Samuels, a firm believer in reincarnation who is obsessed with seeking out ancient "memory tools" that may unlock the key to past lives. Glass goes undercover at the Foundation as a patient of one doctors there who specializes in past life memory recovery through hypnotism. Although at first it is just part of the assignment, Lucien accesses memories from past lives in Greece and Persia which he realizes may be the key to stopping the reoccurring dreams of women he doesn't recognize that keeps him up at night.

If all that sounds rather intricate, that is because it is. There is a lot going on in this book and I found myself asking tons of questions throughout. Who murdered Lucian's girlfriend all those years ago and why? Who are these women he keeps dreaming about? Why is the ancient Hypnos statue that everyone is after so important? Is reincarnation real? The good thing is, M.J. Rose keeps you guessing throughout and even though the storyline gets quite involved it doesn't get confusing and the conclusion (and finding the answers to the zillions of questions you'll be asking yourself) is definitely worth the ride. Although this is the third in the series, it is the first one I have read but reading the series out of order didn't present any problems. I didn't feel I was lacking any information from the first two that held me up while reading this one. I own the first two books (The Memorist and The Reincarnationist) and will definitely be getting to both of them soon. Recommend this to those who love thrillers with a bit of history thrown in.

Just wanted to mention I am hosting a giveaway for this book. It is open to the US/CAN. You can enter HERE til midnight on the 11th.

I received this book for review as part of the author's tour with Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours. These are my honest thoughts on the book. Click the link to see the schedule for the rest of the tour which includes giveaways, more reviews, and guest posts/interviews with MJ Rose.

Guest Post with author M.J. Rose and Giveaway!

2011-12-02T06:28:00.002-05:00

Ever wonder how historical fiction authors decide at which point to gravitate away from the mountains of non-fiction sources they have accumulated to craft their next novel and towards the writing desk to get cracking on it? How do they decide they have enough to write convincingly of the past? M.J. Rose picked the brains of her fellow historical fiction writers to find out:

M.J. Rose:

I started writing books that went back in time to other eras after having written 8 totally contemporary novels.

I knew I needed to do research – but how much? When do you stop researching and start writing. How much information is enough?

And the more research I did the more overwhelmed I was by the job I’d given myself.

One of the things I did was ask other writers of historical fiction about how they wrote so realistically about the past without turning their novels into history lessons.

How do you delve into a historical past you cannot yourself remember?

Here some of the answers that helped me find my own way.

C.W. Gortner: For me, it's part instinct and part research. I write novels based on people who actually lived, so it's always a challenge because my imagination is constrained by fact. For example, I can't change the ending, even if it ends badly. I'm obsessive about research; I have to find out everything I can, and that means getting in contact with libraries and archives, finding out-of-print books, setting up meetings with experts in certain areas, etc. After the research is done, and the writing begins, something stronger takes over and perhaps that is, in fact, a collective unconscious of the past.

Arthur Phillips: Memory has a huge role in writing historical fiction, but just not the memory of that particular history. I use my own memories from time to time in my books, of course: something I said or did or wished I said or did, or felt, or wished I felt, or whatever. And then I give that memory to a character who is otherwise unlike me, and in the cases of historical fiction, someone who lived at a time and in a place that I did not, and hey presto: a reader might have the illusion of a particular moment of history recreated convincingly, but maybe that is a trick because living memory was transplanted into a historical shell...

David Hewson: While I try to be "accurate" as much as possible (mainly because it would be lazy to be inaccurate when the sources are out there), I don't see veracity as important in itself. What matters is the subjective truth of the historical world to the reader. An unreal world that feels right is much better than a technically accurate one that feels made up.

Steve Berry: Research, research, research. I suppose that means I rely on the recollections of others. How else would we ever know about the past except through the memories of those who experienced it? In my case, that comes from hundreds of primary and secondary sources, which I pore through one by one, searching for those precious few facts that will fit together to make a story. Without those recollections, properly memorialized and preserved, the past would truly be lost.

David Liss: My background is in literary studies, not in history, and so by training I am inclined to pay as much attention to researching historical subjectivity as material historical fact. What people ate and wore and how they got around and the material conditions of their day-to-day lives are all very interesting, but they are also meaningless if we try to impose a contemporary sense of self into a historical setting. When I work on historical characters, I always try to imagine how this person, living at this time, would respond to this problem or obstacle or success or whatever it is they are dealing with.

Sandra Gulland: One realization that was important for me in delving into history — an epiphany, really — came while I was feeding my horse. I realized that what I was doing was timeless. But for his height, my horse was not much different from a horse in the 17th century — or the third century, for that matter. As for myself, I might be taller than a woman in the past, and clothed differently, and my constellation of beliefs and customs somewhat different, but my body and soul were basically the same, and what I was doing — feeding a horse — had been done for centuries before. That was the key that opened the door for me, helped me to make myself at home in a world of the past.

Thank you M.J! You can learn more about M.J. Rose and her other works at http://www.mjrose.com/content/index.asp

And now the giveaway! Up for grabs is: 1 copy of The Hypnotist by M.J Rose

SYNOPSIS: Haunted by his inability to stop the murder of a beautiful young painter twenty years ago, Lucian Glass keeps his demons at bay through his fascinating work with the FBI's Art Crime Team. Investigating a crazed collector who's begun destroying prized masterworks, Glass is thrust into a bizarre hostage negotiation that takes him undercover at the Phoenix Foundation—dedicated to the science of past-life study. There, to maintain his cover, he submits to the treatment of a hypnotist.

Under hypnosis, Glass travels from ancient Greece to nineteenth-century Persia, while the case takes him from New York to Paris and the movie while the case takes him from New York to Paris and the movie capital of the world. These journeys will change his very understanding of reality, lead him to question his own sanity and land him at the center of perhaps the most audacious art heist in history: a fifteen-hundred-year-old sculpture the nation of Iran will do anything to recover.

Giveaway is open to: US and Canada

To enter: Leave your name and email in the comments. 1 additional entry each for posting about this giveaway on Twitter, Facebook, or on your blog.

Giveaway ends on: Midnight December 11th. Winner will be announced on the 12th.

Good Luck!

For more tour stops featuring reviews, giveaways, guest posts and interviews with M.J Rose visit:

http://hfvirtualbooktours.blogspot.com/2011/10/mj-rose-on-tour-for-hypnotist-november.html

or follow along with the tour on Twitter: #TheHypnotistVirtualBookTour

Stop back by on the 8th for my review of The Hypnotist :)

Back in the Saddle

2011-12-01T17:27:00.001-05:00

Unfortunately the month of November did not turn out as I had planned. As I mentioned in my Suddenly Sunday post on November 13th, I was having a bit of a medical issue that was making me feel kinda crappy. That issue...a blasted kidney stone the size of Jupiter! Well, that thing went from being kinda uncomfortable to WOW! OMG make it stop! Kill me now!!! type pain so I had to have surgery on the 21st for them to try to break it up. They partially succeeded but it was a whole week after the surgery til the thing decided to take it's leave. Thankfully it is gone now and I am sore but back to normal. This week I will be reading like a fiend to make up for the lack of reviews for the past month.

To get the party going again here at Bippity Boppity Book, I'll be starting things off tomorrow with a guest post by author M J Rose and a giveaway of her novel The Hypnotist so stay tuned for that. My review for The Hypnotist is coming on the 8th as well as a review of The Heartbreaker by Elisabeth McNeill over at Royal Reviews on the 8th as well.

This weekend I'll be posting a review of Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky.

I must say it is good to actually be able to read again. I really missed that and following all of my favorite bloggers while I was out of commission.

REVIEW: The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough

2011-11-20T00:13:00.000-05:00

The Thorn Birds is the story of the Clearys, a poor family of ranchers/shearers who uproot from their home in New Zealand to take over Drogheda, the most prominent sheep ranch in the Australian Outback which is owned by Mary, sister of family patriarch Paddy Cleary. Thorn Birds follows the Clearys for three generations but the heart of the story is Meggie Cleary who grows from a child to womanhood, and her forbidden love for Catholic Priest Ralph de Bricassart who is torn between his love for Meggie and his desire to ascend to the greatest heights of the Catholic Church.

This might be the best book that I have read this year. I fell in love with the Cleary family as they start their new life in Australia on Drogheda. Mary Carson, their benefactress is one of the most malevolent old women I have ever encountered in literature and it was great entertainment reading the exchanges between her and Ralph. I felt sorry for Meggie being a little girl of 10 and virtually ignored by the rest of the family She develops a bond with Father Ralph almost immediately upon meeting which will last a lifetime. With Meggie being 10 and Father Ralph being 28 when they met, at first it is a bond of tenderness but as Meggie grows into womanhood it develops into so much more. As much as Father Ralph wants to be with Meggie, he cannot ignore his vows he made to God. The romance between these two is where I think the sticking point would be for most people. Meggie is just a little girl when they meet and Father Ralph is a priest almost 20 years her senior but the love story here is beautifully done and not creepy at all. McCullough evolves the love between the two over time and the romantic relationship between the two doesn't heat up until Meggie is almost 18.

The picture Colleen McCullough paints of the harsh life in the Australian Outback with the droughts and fires, camaraderie between the ranchers and shearers and the back breaking work it takes to make a place like Drogheda a success pulled me right in. I was rooting for the Cleary family through every tribulation and heartbreak they faced (and there were many of them).The story does not stop with Meggie and Ralph although they are still involved all the way through. It also devotes sections to Paddy (Meggie's father), Luke-the handsome shearer who comes to stay on Drogheda, Fee (Meggie's mother) and Dane and Justine (Meggie's children). Although the parts on Meggie and Ralph are the best developed, the sections on the others are equally as fascinating.

Honestly, I could write all day and not do this book justice in a review. I just really LOVED it. I really came to care for each and every member of the Cleary family. I fell in love with Ralph de Bricassart (okay that weirded me out a bit-getting all school girl crush-like over a Catholic priest, even if he is fictional...) and I felt like I was in the Australian Outback right along with the Clearys or in the Vatican with Ralph or on the London stage with Justine. There is really nothing more than I can say than this book is fan-freaking-tastic and if you haven't read it do it! You won't be disappointed. As if reading the awesomeness that is this book wasn't enough, I hopped on YouTube and watched the first half of the 1983 mini-series. I recommend this also. While the mini-series does leave out some of the characters/events that happen in the book it is still well done and the casting is spot on.

This book is from my own personal library.

Historical Fiction Release pages updated!

2011-11-14T13:26:00.000-05:00

Wondering what is on the historical fiction horizon from now until August of next year?

Check out my updated pages:

UPCOMING HF NOVELS NOV 2011-MAR 2012

and

UPCOMING HF NOVELS APR 2012-AUG 2012

I added over 30 upcoming releases (and at least 1/2 of those went on my WL).

And that was my productivity for today. Nap time! :)

Mailbox Monday

2011-11-13T23:45:00.000-05:00

Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia at A Girl and Her Books. This meme has been on tour for quite awhile but this month it has come "home" to Marcia at The Mailbox Monday Blog.

The Book Gods have been good to me recently :) This is what arrived in ye olde mailbox recently:

For Review:

The King's Agent by Donna Russo Morin

From Paperbackswap:

The Courtier's Secret by Donna Russo Morin
Distant Waves: A Novel of the Titanic by Suzanne Weyn
In Winter's Shadow by Gillian Bradshaw
The Temple Dancer by John Speed

From Barnes & Noble:

Out of Oz by Gregory Maguire

From Booked for the Season (UBS):

The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney
Iron Daughter by Julie Kagawa

From Argos Books (UBS):

The Keepers of the House by Shirley Ann Grau

Won from Bags, Books & Bon Jovi

India Black and the Widow of Windsor by Carol K. Carr

And one that was supposed to be here awhile ago but hasn't shown up yet (I'm still hoping!):

India Black by Carol K. Carr

I have India 2, India 1 where are you???? That's it for me. Hope everyone has a full mailbox and a fabulous monday!

Suddenly Sunday

2011-11-13T08:05:00.002-05:00

Suddenly Sunday is hosted by Svea at The Muse in the Fog Book Review.

Well, it has been an interesting two weeks with not a lot going on here because of unexpected health concerns (nothing serious but definitely annoying and painful). Because of this I missed my 2nd blogoversary which was on the 5th of November. I am hoping to get back in the swing of things this week. Also on the 10th my Boy turned the big 0-7 so we spent this weekend partying like rock stars at Chuck E. Cheese and watching Puss in Boots.

This coming week will be my review on The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough and a review of The Maid by Kimberly Cutter over at Royal Reviews on the 17th.

I am chugging along through Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky but I have sitting next to me Out of Oz by Gregory MaGuire. It's the final book in the Wicked Years which I have been waiting for forever. It keeps whispering Read ME! Read ME! but I can't because I have reading challenge books to finish and I am running out of time. So tempting though. Perhaps I should save up my willpower for Turkey Day and just give in.....

Hope everyone enjoys their Sunday. Today is a lazy day of reading for me and catching up on my fave blogs since I've been away.

REVIEW: The Pilgrim by Hugh Nissenson

2011-11-12T17:00:00.000-05:00

From Amazon: "Charles Wentworth, a heart broken Puritan, comes to the New World from England in 1622 in search of salvation and a new beginning. After the tragic death of his betrothed, Charles abandons his faith and revels in lust until his guilt finally overwhelms him. Now he must travel to Plymouth in hopes of being freed of the temptations that torment him.

On his journey Charles falls in love again, this time with a young woman seeking the pious life. In Plymouth, they must overcome a world in which wolves and heathen Indians roam the dark forests, and famine and disease are ever-present threats."

MY THOUGHTS:

The novel kicks off with Charles Wentworth stating he is writing his confession to publicly acknowledge all of his sins so that he can become a member of Plymouth Colony's congregation. The journey Charles takes to get to this point is long and heartbreaking, and one that is written in a surprisingly authentic voice. The book took me awhile to get into because Nissenson has Charles recounting his tale in the speech of a 1600's Puritan (with hath, thee, thou and the curious manner of speech we would consider backward now ex: "on the night she gave me birth" instead of "on the night she gave birth to me"). Once I got used to the story being recounted in this way things moved along a lot faster.

Charles is a conflicted soul who wishes to please his father but is not yet secure in his faith. Will he be saved or is he damned? Are his sins too numerous to overcome? Charles already faces a lot of conflict for his religious beliefs but he also faces much loss. The greatest of these, the loss of his betrothed, is the turning point where Charles decides to leave his tragic life in England behind and head for the New World. The life he encounters there is different than he could have possibly imagined with hard work, conflicts with the natives, poverty, starvation, and despair to contend with. Still there is hope as Charles and the rest of the settlers struggle to keep their settlements going against the odds both at already established Plymouth and at Wessagusset where Charles and his fellow travelers try to start a new Colony.

It is in the latter part of the book set in the colonies where the book is most interesting and where Nissenson's raw and honest view of the extremely unenviable life of the colonists (as told by Charles) really comes to life. The dangers these people faced and the slow descent from civilized behavior to survival mode is quite haunting. Still, the first half of the book with the parts set in England and with the lack of action throughout the novel bogs the whole thing down quite a bit. Charles experiences a lot of loss while in England but he recounts it in a detached manner with not a whole lot of emotion behind it so it was kind of hard to connect to his character. The only time I truly felt connected to him was in the parts dealing with his love interests.

Overall, I appreciated the authentic voice and the glimpse of this point in history when the colonies were first trying to establish themselves in America. I just wish there had been a bit more excitement to it.

I received this book via the publisher from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

REVIEW: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

2011-10-28T22:00:00.000-04:00

Arriving out of nowhere in the dead of night, les cirque des reves (circus of dreams) is a wonder to behold. With endless tents featuring mind boggling delights, the circus does truly seem as if it is out of a dream. The circus serves as more than just an entertainment though. It is the chosen battle ground for dueling magicians Celia and Marco, raised from childhood for just this purpose. Schooled by their mentors, Celia and Marco are only told they are playing a game with their magical abilities. They are given no rules, no purpose to the game, no indication who their opponent is and no clue as to how the challenge actually ends. But it must end-and there can be only one winner. There is one thing that the two gentleman who taught Celia and Marco didn't count on when they entered them into the game-that they would fall madly in love.

I wasn't quite sure whether this was the book for me but after seeing a few favorable reviews on it, I decided to give it a go and see what the fuss was all about. Although slow to get going (the story didn't really pick up until the first 80 pages or so) Celia and Marco's alternating story lines slowly pulled me in. Both spend years honing their abilities in preparation for this mysterious competition and both move steadily to what will be their assigned roles in the competition-Marco staying in London as an assistant for the circus and Celia travelling with it as an illusionist. The competition begins as Celia and Marco seek to out do each other by adding additional elements to the circus. When they meet sparks fly but how can they be together if they are competitors, especially after the true intent of the circus is revealed?

Reading about Les Cirque Des Rives in this book left me with the same feeling I had when seeing Mr. Wonka's chocolate factory come to life-it really is magical. Morgenstern is definitely not lacking in the imagination department. I found myself thinking I wish I could see this stuff for real every time a new circus attraction was revealed. The next best thing was conjuring what it would look like in my head which was easy to do given the author's wonderfully detailed descriptions. I also liked all of the characters involved as a bit of mystery surrounded each of them. With Isobelle the fortune teller, twins Widget and Poppet, and Tsukiko the contortionist to name a few, I kind of wish there was a separate book to follow each of their stories. I did find the competition between Marco and Celia being described as a duel to be misleading. Normally when you think of dueling magicians it is the wand wielding spell casting magical battle that comes to mind. This is more of a game/competition/exhibition then it is a duel.

The writing style is wonderful and the chapters are short so the point of view switches often. The time period does as well which left me a little lost at times, particularly the parts with the character Bailey who becomes an integral part of the story later on. I knew he had to be important somehow but I would be totally engrossed in the Marco/Celia narratives and then it would switch to 1902 with Bailey and until all the narratives converged it pulled me out of the story a bit each time it happened.

I liked the development of the Marco and Celia's romance but I was kind of annoyed by it as well. Liked because it was not overdone or flowery at all. Annoyed because it was Edward and Bella-esque in it's "we meet and....Boom! Electricity! Sparks! We're in love!" way that always irks me a bit. Why are they in love? Because he's hot and she's pretty and they can both do magic? What else drew these two together? I always hate when two characters meet and it's insta-love for no discernible reason. I like to see when they learn each others personalities and are slowly drawn together. Maybe this is why I have so much trouble with the romance angle in books.

I thought the author did a great job of pulling everything together at the end and despite my misgivings about the romance I really enjoyed the end of this book. I honestly don't think I've read book so unique and inventive in a really long time. Often times when a book gets so much attention I'll give in to see what the fuss was about and end up thinking it was ok but wondering what the big deal was. I definitely didn't feel that way here. This book was worth the read even with the minor issues I had with it and I will be reading more by this author in the future.

I borrowed this from the library

REVIEW: The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb by Melanie Benjamin

2011-10-24T06:00:00.002-04:00

At 2 feet 8 inches tall, Mercy Lavinia Warren Bump knows she is destined for bigger things in life. Unlike her sister Minnie who is the only other person in her family to share in her dwarfism, “Vinnie” is not content to live out her life at home on the farm in Massachusetts. She wants the world to remember her. Begging her parents for the chance to get an education and not be kept back because of her size, Vinnie applies herself to her studies and does so well she is offered a teaching position at the school when she graduates. This does not diminish Vinnie’s hunger to see the wider world and when distant cousin Colonel Wood comes knocking with an offer to be a singer on a Mississippi showboat, Vinnie jumps at the chance. She soon learns that the Colonel is not as honest as he seemed and the showboat is a leaky tub housing a freak show full of oddities for the customers to ogle. The showboat occupants make the best of their situation and soon gain quite a following along the Mississippi. When the Civil War erupts, Vinnie and her fellow performers see this as their opportunity to escape their contracts with the Colonel. Vinnie goes home but the longing to be center stage returns and she writes the great P.T. Barnum in the hopes she can join his show. When Barnum accepts, Vinnie is catapulted onto the world stage and meets Charles Stratton a.k.a. General Tom Thumb, the man who will be her husband.

To be honest, I was more interested in reading Benjamin’s first novel Alice I Have Been than I was this one but it caught my eye at the library and now I am glad I picked it up. This fascinating story of a woman who did not let her differences get in the way and who used her mind to pursue her dreams but would not let anyone into her heart sucked me in right away. Vinnie did have the capacity to love as she adored her sister Minnie but when it came to those associated with her career (including her husband!) she didn't really move beyond affection. She also had a rather interesting relationship with P.T. Barnum as I think they saw each other as kindred spirits and he seemed to be the only other one that might have been able to crack Vinnie's facade. I admit, some of the choices she made in the book seemed rather cold but I liked seeing the character flaws in addition to her professional triumphs.

Benjamin paints a detailed picture of America during this time-the tension filled days leading up to the Civil War, the descriptions of New York society, the growth of the US railroad system, and the portrait of the Old West which was still dealing with quite a bit of lawlessness (train robberies, skirmishes etc..) and it is all seen through Vinnie's unique viewpoint as she was always looking up at the rest of the world.

There were moments in this book where I really wished for Vinnie to realize her dreams, moments where I felt sorry for her feelings of helplessness, moments I wanted to shake her for being so selfish, moments I laughed at her wittiness and even tender moments where I got unexpectedly choked up a little. That is a lot of emotion for one book but I really loved following Vinnie on her journey. I would like to note that some may be a little misled by the title but this is a novel and not an actual autobiography. I am glad Melanie Benjamin decided to pluck Lavinia's story from obscurity and tell it in this book. I may not have liked Vinnie throughout the entire account but at least I felt I understood her by the end. Recommend giving this a try. You might be pleasantly surprised like I was.

I borrowed this book from the Library

REVIEW: Lady of the Rivers (Cousins War #3) by Philippa Gregory

2011-10-22T15:00:00.006-04:00

Lady of the Rivers tells the story of Jacquetta of Luxembourg, beautiful descendant of the water Goddess Melusine and mother to Elizabeth Woodville. In the beginning of the novel we meet Jacquetta as a young woman who forms a friendship with the ill-fated Joan of Arc, an encounter that teaches Jacquetta that women out of the ordinary face much danger. Her ability to see glimpses of the future makes her one of those women. The powerful Duke of Bedford, regent in France and Uncle to King Henry VI, recognizes this ability in Jacquetta and marries her thinking to put this ability (coupled with her virginal state) to use for his own purposes. When the Duke dies unexpectedly, Jacquetta forms an attachment to his squire Richard Woodville which blossoms into a deep and lasting love. When King Henry VI decides to take Margaret of Anjou as his bride, Jacquetta is chosen as part of the envoy to greet her and winds up becoming the close friend and confidante of the new and ambitious queen but Jacquetta sees what fate holds for her own family in her visions and they may not coincide with those of the house of Lancaster to which she is loyal.

My Thoughts: Usually when I am reading a Philippa Gregory novel (and this is my 12th so I am obviously a fan) I prefer the historical to the more fantastical elements she incorporates into her books. Even though she tweaks history to serve the story in a lot of her novels I have still always enjoyed her spin on historical events. In this one I actually really enjoyed the parts that dealt with her friendship with Joan of Arc and her abilities with the sight inherited from her ties with Melusine. I think this whole aspect actually saved the book for me. Jacquetta is a person that you don't hear a lot about in history, mainly because not much in the way of historical records exists about her. She has the potential to be such an interesting character because the lack of information on her leaves an awful lot of leeway. The problem I encountered in Lady of the Rivers was that instead of taking this woman and realizing that potential, this Jacquetta is not really her own woman and is completely defined by her relation to others in the book. The only excitement to be had here is 1) her relationship with Richard Woodville and 2) her friendship with Margaret of Anjou whose fiery personality as opposed to Jacquetta's more tranquil one allows her to completely steal Jacquetta's thunder. I was actually more interested in the doings of impulsive, ambitious Margaret and her dangerous liaison with the Duke of Somerset than I was with what was going on with Jacquetta. One thing I will give Gregory props for here is her Margaret actually had a heart (however misguided it was) as opposed to other portrayals of her as some sort of cold calculating devil queen.

I also think the history was hampered by being confined to Jacquetta's viewpoint although I liked the few battles that she was present at and actually able to describe (as opposed to the others we are told about). There was a lot of "and then I got knocked up again" or "and then Richard was sent off ___ again" instead of actually being in the action. I don't know what it is exactly, but with the Cousins War books I just don't feel as engaged by the story as I did by her Tudor related novels or even her Wideacre trilogy. This one was just ok for me. I am bumping this one from a 2.5 to a 3 because I liked the Joan/Melusine elements.

I received this book from Simon & Schuster via Galley Grab. These are my honest thoughts on the book.

Mailbox Monday

2011-10-16T23:30:00.001-04:00

Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia at A Girl and Her Books. Mailbox Monday is now on tour and this month it is making it's home at Savvy Verse & Wit.

Between arrivals in my mailbox and new additions from the fall FOL sale I just went to my library has gotten just a wee bit bigger. Here is what I got:

From the Library Sale:

The Postmistress by Sarah Blake
The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer
Claudius the God by Robert Graves
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
Elizabeth & Catherine by Robert Coughlin

From Paperbackswap:

The Princess of Nowhere by Lorenzo Borghese
The Fruit of Her Hands by Michelle Cameron
Daughters of the River Huong by Uyen Nicole Duong
Elbow Room by James Alan McPherson
Oak Apple by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles
The King's Mistress by Emma Campion
Daughter of Siena by Marina Fiorato

And for Review:

The Hypnotist by M J Rose

REVIEW: Claude & Camille: A Novel of Monet by Stephanie Cowell

2011-10-16T18:34:00.006-04:00

Claude and Camille tells the story of artist Claude Monet in the early years of his career and the love he shared with with his first wife and muse Camille Doncieux. Occasionally we flash back to an older Claude who reflects on his life as an artist and with his love Camille. We meet Claude as a young man struggling with his need to paint versus his father's wishes to take over the family visit. He knows art is his love but struggles internally with whether he is good enough. As we learn, he is a perfectionist who frequently scraps paintings he worked on for months if they don't meet his standards. Claude convinces his father to give him a shot at going to Paris and making it as a painter. He meets up with fellow struggling artists Bazille, Pisarro, Renoir and Cezanne who together form the fledgling impressionist movement. He also meets Camille whom he falls in love with over the course of painting her for his Girl in a Green Dress painting, the first to of his to gain recognition. The novel covers the next five years as Claude and his bohemian contemporaries attempt to make it in the fickle Paris art world and as Camille gives up all for her love of Claude to struggle alongside them in poverty.

The book is best when it is addressing Claude's inner struggles when creating his masterpieces. I love the Impressionists so I really enjoyed the descriptions of the various paintings and the difficulties he faced while creating them. Money was a frequent issue throughout the novel as the painters all lived together at some point and as Claude and Camille moved out on their own at times they were barely surviving. We also got to see the temperamental side of Claude as he would question his abilities and sometimes run away from Camille and his friends for months at a time to focus on his art and because he simply could not deal with the situation caused by his failures. The touching friendship Claude also shared with Bazille was a high point in this book as well. This is the one person besides Camille who constantly supported Claude in his endeavors no matter how low of a point he reached.

The love story which was supposed to be the whole focal point of the book fell a little flat for me though. It becomes obvious that Camille is dealing with mental illness and Claude can be so selfish and disagreeable at points that it was hard to root for his success. Instead of a love story a la Elizabeth and Darcy or Noah and Allie in the Notebook, here we get a volatile and dysfunctional relationship more reminiscent of Sammi and Ron on The Jersey Shore. (Never thought I would make a Jersey Shore reference in a historical fiction review, but there it is). I found myself thinking at several points that is was obvious they loved each other but it wasn't a healthy kind of love and why were they together? Also I wished for a little bit more on all the characters. Of all of them I think Claude was the best developed but I would have liked to see more development of the others, especially the other impressionists.

Overall, I liked the book but Monet is a fabulous artist and when I finished I didn't feel like I had the complete picture. I am definitely curious to read more about the Impressionists though!

This book is from my own personal library

And just for fun-some painting by Monet mentioned in Claude & Camille:

Girl in a Green Dress


Camille and Jean on a Hill

The Picnic

Camille on her Death Bed

And a couple of the water lilies:

water lilies

water lily pond

Road from the West Winner and Chivalrous Deeds Challenge Update

2011-10-15T19:08:00.000-04:00

Thank you to all who entered the giveaway for Road from the West by Rosanne E. Lortz. I chose the winner using the highly scientific process of typing all entrants names into a list on www.random.org and seeing who came up #1.

And the winner is......................

Emma!

Congrats!

And now for the 3rd update for the Chivalrous Deeds Historical Fiction Challenge. There have been over 30 great reviews posted for this challenge and there have been many royal courts visited over the last nine months. With a little under 3 months left to go in the challenge Heather of The Maiden's Court is in the lead with 16 courts visited/reviews posted followed by Melissa at Confessions of an Avid Reader with 10 courts visited/reviews posted. Way to go everyone! Will Heather or Melissa win or has someone been saving up reviews to pull out the win in December? Still anyone's game and can't wait to see who wins!

Blogger Hop!

2011-10-13T23:32:00.000-04:00

Book Blogger Hop was created by Jennifer at Crazy-For-Books. This hop is the place to discover and start following the awesome blogs written by book nerd kindred spirits :)

Each week there is a question asked on the hop. This week's question:

“What is your favorite spooky book (i.e. mystery/suspense, thriller, ghost story, etc.)?”

I am admittedly such a wuss when it comes to reading scary novels. A book with anything remotely scary in it will probably have me sleeping with the lights on. My most recent lights on book would be The Passage by Justin Cronin. When I was a little kid the one that scared me was The Dollhouse Murders by Betty Ren Wright. Dolls moving by themselves? Creepy.

The all time spooky book award belongs to the master of the horror genre-Stephen King and his 1,000 page post apocalyptic nightmare The Stand. The horrible deaths caused by the superflu made me cringe. The extremely high body count was also cringe worthy. Randall Flagg? Shudder. Recommend not watching the mini-series right after reading the book unless you really don't want to sleep for a week. Still, I like a good scary novel now and then :)

Thanks for stopping by!

REVIEW: The Magician King by Lev Grossman

2011-10-12T00:10:00.001-04:00

The Magician King picks up a few years after the first novel the Magicians left off with Quentin, Julia, Janet, and Elliot occupying the four thrones of the magical land of Fillory. All is not as exciting as one in such a lofty position would wish and Quentin who is bored with his role, wishes for some kind of quest. It becomes quite apparent that something is not right in Fillory as of late and when things go horribly wrong on a hunting trip, Quentin gets his wish and sets out on an ancient ship to fulfill his given mission accompanied by Julia who agrees to come along for the ride. Again things do not go quite as planned and Quentin and Julia end up in the most unexpected of places-back at Quentin's parent's house in Massachusetts. Now they must figure out how to return to Fillory relying mostly on Julia's unconventional magic and also to complete the quest Quentin was given and save Fillory (and magic) before it is too late.

When I read The Magicians a couple of months ago I couldn't understand what was supposed to be so great about it-way too much sex and too many obvious allusions to really well known fantasy series'. Here it seems Grossman took the time to do all the things that he didn't bother to do in the first book. He developed the main characters and the setting. He made said characters more bearable. He took the classic fantasy quest and coated it in his own brand of weirdness that he only semi-developed in the first book. And the best thing he did in this book? He divided the storyline between Quentin and Julia instead of just keeping it all about Quentin and in doing so made Julia one kick ass character who totally stole the show! Julia's story fills in the blanks as to what happened after she failed to get into Brakebills (the magic school attended by Quentin, Elliott and Janet) and takes us up until the point she meets up with Janet and Elliott and joins in with the main storyline. Grossman develops this whole magical underworld that was really quite entertaining and the reader quickly realizes Julia is equal parts vulnerable, genius, slightly nutty, and someone you do NOT want to make angry. Quentin is much better in this book as well since we get to see him start to leave behind the asinine behavior he exhibited in the first book. Is he hero material here? No, but neither is he the same Quentin I spent all of the last book wanting to punch in the face. I found myself rooting for him just a little bit, especially in the end.

Is this book perfect? No. There were still a few issues-namely that Grossman brings some characters back from the Magicians for the sole purpose of them making an appearance. I think he could have done a little better integrating them into the current story once he introduced them again. Also, while I loved the Julia storyline, I'm not sure I cared where the character ended up. As with the first book this one was also plagued with strange happenings (more than one of which had me going ewww and some that had me asking if he really had to go there). Still this was a vast improvement over the first book (and with an ending that I totally did not see coming). I'm glad I stuck it out after Magicians and read the Magician King. I'm looking forward to seeing where Grossman goes with his next book.

Received from publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

New Pages!

2011-10-10T18:13:00.000-04:00

After many man hours of information gathering and several episodes of blogger induced aggravation, I have finally finished 3 of my 4 new pages.

Now up for viewing are my Tudors page which lists over 200 Tudor related novels for those that can't get enough of Henry and the gang. I was also going to include non-fiction Tudor novels but unfortunately blogger was not able to handle a list that long and promptly ate half of my page (see aforementioned blogger aggravation).

Also up are my 2 upcoming historical fiction novels pages-one listing future HF novels from now through February 2012 and the other listing future HF novels March 2012 through August 2012.

My War of the Roses page which will list all novels I find related to that subject is still under construction and I hope to have that done by the end of this month. Now that I've got all that out of the way it's back to the reviews which have taken a seat on the back burner while I've been working on the pages. Off to finish The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb by Melanie Benjamin which I am really enjoying so far.

If you haven't yet-don't forget to enter my giveaway for Road from the West by Rosanne Lortz. Giveaway ends Friday!

REVIEW + GIVEAWAY: Road from the West: Book 1 of the Chronicles of Tancred by Rosanne E. Lortz

2011-10-05T07:34:00.005-04:00

Road to the West: The Chronicles of Tancred Book 1 is the story of the First Crusade and follows the adventures of our young headstrong hero, Tancred as he tries to free himself from the shadow of his uncle and seek his own destiny. That destiny becomes clear to him when during one siege at his Uncle’s side he kills a man, and realizing he is a fellow Christian, vows to never willingly spill Christian blood again. He seeks the advice of Pope Urban who convinces him to join the Crusade and free the holy land of Jerusalem from the Infidels. So begins Tancred’s adventures on Crusade. Joining him on this crusade are his Uncle Bohemond, the ruthless German Baldwin, Hugh-brother of the King of France, Count Raymond of Toulouse, Bishop Aldhemar-the man chosen by the Pope to lead the crusaders, and a host of other characters who must put aside their differences to achieve their objectives. It becomes clear all too soon that these men do not share the same objective as some are genuinely there in the service of the church and others may have ulterior motives.

As someone who has never read a thing about the First Crusade, I enjoyed this book quite a bit. The descriptions of the terrain in which they were fighting and the hardships that the troops suffered to get to Antioch (which is where this book-the first in the trilogy-ends). I liked the main character Tancred because it is clear that even though he was raised by his Uncle, their ideologies are completely different and Tancred proves himself time and again throughout the Crusade and shows that his Uncle’s way is not the only way. Also as a former Soldier I liked that Tancred was all about what was best for his Soldiers and able to swallow his pride for their benefit. There was a subtle undercurrent of political intrigue going on throughout the novel as the most of the Crusaders have sworn to aid the Byzantine Emperor Alexios in gaining back his lands from the Turks and in exchange he would help them take Antioch. As the Crusade wears on it becomes clear that Alexios has his own schemes going that may not include honoring the promises made to the Crusaders.

One thought that occurred to me throughout the reading of this book is that I wish I had a bit more background on the characters. I would have really liked to know more about their individual histories before jumping right into the Crusade. Also, there were quite a few secondary characters in the novel and I am hoping they are developed in the next book. It is understandable that in introducing the cast the spotlight was given to Tancred but there were many interesting people here that I would like to know more about. I think this was an intriguing story and I am looking forward to the subsequent books in this trilogy.

I received this book via the author from Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours in exchange for an honest review.

Now for the GIVEAWAY:

I am happy to announce I have one copy of Road to the West to give away to one lucky reader!

To enter please leave your email in the comments. Giveaway is international. One extra entry each for spreading the word through Facebook/Twitter/Blog Sidebar.

Giveaway ends on 14 October. Winner will be announced on the 15th.

For interviews with Roseanne Lortz, more reviews and giveaways please click HERE.

Introducing Eleanor-New Queen of the Household!

2011-09-28T20:05:00.000-04:00

Except for me that is... I went to Petco this past weekend with the intention of getting cat grass for Gilbert and ending up coming home with cat grass.....and Eleanor (formerly Chelsea)! She is a rescue from the local shelter Faithful 2 Felines. They are at our local Petco every weekend and once I saw her I could not leave her there. So, this is Eleanor (yes, named for Eleanor of Aquitaine):

The next pic is her new best buddy Gilbert who likes to give her baths and cuddle with her. Third pic is Queen Eleanor and her champion Sir Gilbert :)

As for blogging, you may have noticed things look a little different around here. I had three reviews I planned on posting about ten days back but then made the decision to hang on to those until I could do a design overhaul. I find it is so much easier to keep churning out the reviews when I am happy with what the site looks like and how its formatted. For the past week or so I have been doing a lot of work on this blog which should continue til the end of this coming weekend. I'm working on my pages which will feature a page about upcoming historical fiction releases, a page which will be an index for all Tudor related books, and one for all books related to the War of the Roses. So, stay tuned! The reviews will be coming soon. I promise!

Suddenly Sunday + these are a few of my favorite things

2011-09-18T10:37:00.002-04:00

Suddenly Sunday is hosted by Svea at The Muse in the Fog Book Review.

Have you ever been physically exhausted from being so mind numbingly bored? That was me this week at work. After an entire week of being without my computer where I ~~control the universe~~ handle all the needs of our assigned personnel, I got the computer back. It worked for about 4 hours and then it pooped out again. I spent the entire week trying to get the thing to work and then finally had to take it to the pros on Friday to get it some TLC. Thankfully it is working now but that was an entire week of staring at the wall with nothing to do. I think it must not have been my week technology wise. My darling boy decided to slam the ceramic heart he made me last year down into the middle of the keyboard on my laptop, annihilating the R key which is making for very interesting times typing reviews until I can get it fixed. I certainly have a way with computers!

Reviews posted this past week:

The Women of the Cousins War by Philippa Gregory, David Baldwin and Michael Jones
The Red Queen by Philippa Gregory

Coming up this week:

The Lady of the Rivers by Philippa Gregory
Claude & Camille: A Novel of Monet by Stephanie Cowell
The Magician King by Lev Grossman

And now for some randomness before I run off to do fun things like laundry and giving the cat a bath, in no particular order the Top 5 things I'm loving this week:

1. This blog which is completely devoted to period movies! I have no idea why I haven't run across this before but classic movies and period movies are my faves and this blog is all kinds of awesome! Someone posted about it on a Papebackswap forum and I am so glad they did!

2. This Guy who has hilariously reviewed Jean Auel's Earth's Children series and is now tackling Diana Gabaldon's Outlander books. Best video reviews EVER.

3. This shop on Etsy. Every time I start browsing Etsy I end up losing about 2 hours looking at all the gorgeous period gowns they have on there (and being extremely jealous of the talent people on there have-I can't sew to save my life!)

4. This drink from Starbucks. I am a Starbucks addict. I lovingly refer to my morning cup of java as my anti-homicidal medicine. This is loaded with sugar and calories but it is magically delicious!

5. This stamp. First thought on seeing this stamp: "I so NEED this for work!" Second thought: "Would I ever have the balls to use it?" Third thought: "I don't care! I want it anyway!" Also as if that stamp wasn't enough to make me love Think Geek forever they have the best pizza cutter in the history of man. I'm going to proudly fly my nerd flag here for a minute. Yes I love Star Trek and have since middle school. Captain Kirk would definitely approve of the purchase of this $30 pizza cutter even if my husband doesn't.

And now I am off to make Gilbert's fur luxurious and hopefully get some reading done at some point today. Hope everyone has a happy Sunday!

REVIEW: The Red Queen (Cousins War Bk 2) by Philippa Gregory

2011-09-17T22:32:00.003-04:00

Margaret Beaufort knows her destiny from a young age. Although extremely pious and wanting nothing more than to serve God as a nun, Margaret knows she is heiress of the house of Lancaster and her role in life is to produce an heir to ensure her house maintains its hold on the throne. Margaret marries to fulfill the expectations of her household and at the tender age of 14 gives birth to a Lancastrian heir. As King HenryVI sinks in and out of madness, Margaret's fortunes change. Through these turbulent times Margaret never forgets that she is of the royal house of Lancaster and fervently believes that one day God will help her realize her goal of seeing her son on the throne of England.

Before reading this novel, all I knew of Margaret Beaufort was she was mother to King Henry VII and she was very religious and that was about the extent of my knowledge. Here I gained a little bit more insight into one of the key players in the War of the Roses. Margaret did not have an easy childhood. Apparently, her mother only valued her as a political pawn and did not show any kind of affection toward her daughter at all. Margaret is married off at a very young age to Edmund Tudor (this is after the King conveniently cancels a previous betrothal) and so begins a lifetime of this lady being used for the greater good of her house. At the beginning of the book I actually felt a little sorry for her being made a mother at such a young age, having her child taken from her, having to learn the ropes quickly and become a political chameleon, and dealing with the constant change in fortunes due to the instability of the kingdom. Margaret dealt with a lot of upheaval from a really young age.

Gregory likes to incorporate fantastical elements into her stories in order to grab the reader. In the White Queen she used the water goddess Melusine. In Red Queen Margaret has a spiritual connection with Joan of Arc which is referred to on several occasions. She thinks God speaks to her in the same manner and like Joan did for France, her mission is to see the true king on the throne of England. I'm not sure if I liked this angle or not. I know the goal here was to show the reader Margaret was uber religious but the constant Joan of Arc comparisons made it kind of ridiculous. We see Margaret grow and marry twice more for political reasons. I started to like Margaret a lot less as the book progressed. She became fanatical about the cause of putting her son on the throne and completely ruthless. She did not care who she had to betray or who ended up as a casualty to her ambitions (the lost Princes for one) and she was extremely jealous of Elizabeth Woodville. It was really kind of fascinating to see Margaret adapt to the constant changes occurring and see how to turn them to her advantage and also to see Henry's improbable path to the throne. What was not so great was even though the events occurring were interesting, Margaret herself wasn't exactly the most exciting person on the planet. The only signs of life beyond her all consuming ambition were her feelings for Jasper Tudor, her dead husband's brother. Unfortunately, this never goes anywhere.

I think this was much longer than it needed to be and I still have no clue why Margaret Beaufort is the subject of a book entitled the Red Queen when she (as far as I know) was never more than a countess. Just because you're mother to the King doesn't make you a Queen even if you sign your name Margaret Regina. To me the Red Queen would be Margaret of Anjou so as I read the book the title kind of threw me off. This was a decent enough addition to the Cousin's War books but not my favorite one by Philippa Gregory. I am left with the feeling that there is a lot more to this lady than what was written in this book.

This book is from my own personal library.

Winner of ARC Big Finale Giveaway!

2011-09-17T20:09:00.001-04:00

I had so much fun hosting this giveaway. It definitely gave me the motivation I needed to read some of the ARCs that were patiently waiting on my shelf for me to get to them. Thank you to all who entered the Big Finale Giveaway which consisted of:

ARC's of:

and a Galley of:

And now the winner chosen randomly with the help of my son is .................................

Colleen!

Congrats!

REVIEW: The Women of the Cousins War by Philippa Gregory, David Baldwin, and Michael Jones

2011-09-13T08:09:00.011-04:00

In The Women of the Cousins War: The Duchess, The Queen, and the King's Mother, Philippa Gregory and historians David Baldwin and Michael Jones endeavor to give readers some insight into the leading ladies in the War of the Roses (aka The Cousins War).

The book opens with a 47 page introduction addressing why women are often in the background or not represented at all in historical records. The answer to this is quite simple: medieval England was a man's world baby! The ladies of those noble households were supposed to be behind the scenes with bun after successive bun in the oven supervising the kitchen staff as they baketh the noble lord his brownies. Okay, so this may be a slight exaggeration. As this book shows, women were present at important events in this time period (and throughout history). Its just the focus was on men and the histories were written by men so it kind of makes sense that women were not given their due. She also goes on to explain what history is, what fiction is, and the difference and similarities between the approaches in writing straight history and historical fiction.

Finally we move on to the subjects of the book and kicking off these short histories is Gregory herself tackling the Duchess-Jacquetta of Luxembourg, mother of Elizabeth Woodville. Gregory is careful to note that not a lot is written in the history books about Jacquetta and therefore a lot of what she covers in this section is what may have happened and when Jacquetta was very likely present for certain historical events. In this somewhat slowly paced section, we are taken through both of Jacquetta's marriages and the birth of her 16 children, 12 of which survived to adulthood. This section read more as a history of the happenings at the time with mentions of when Jacquetta may have been present or what her role might have been instead of the focus being solely on Jacquetta herself.

Next up was David Baldwin with his essay on Elizabeth Woodville, Queen to Edward IV. I have always been fascinated with this widowed mother of two boys who had a tremendous change in fortunes and became queen of England. In many accounts this lady gets a bad rap as a vain and greedy social climber whose main objective is to place her numerous family members in influential positions. While she did elevate many of her relations, Baldwin shows Elizabeth Woodville as both beautiful and educated-a woman who valued her books! I really enjoyed this section as it made me look at her in a different and more positive light.

Last up was Michael Jones with his history of Margaret Beaufort, mother of King Henry VII. Of these ladies Margaret is the one I knew the least about so this would have to be the most informative section for me. This lady did not have an easy time of things. Jones discusses Margaret's family history including the actions of her father which cast a shadow over the family, her marriages, the political upheaval she endured, and finally her years of patience in regards to her ambitions for her son paying off when he ascends the throne.

Overall, I enjoyed the brief histories of these women provided here. This is Gregory's first whack at non-fiction and I have to say it was a smart move to call in other historians to give their perspectives. I thought all sections were balanced and well written, although I thought the nearly 50 page introduction was overkill and a bit tedious at times. I think this is a great starting point for anyone wanting to read historical fiction about the war of the roses and is curious to know the real history involved. This is also a great book to have when reading Gregory's Cousins War books starting with The White Queen (about Elizabeth Woodville), The Red Queen (about Margaret Beaufort), and The Lady of the Rivers (about Jacquetta of Luxembourg). I read The White Queen when it came out, just finished reading The Red Queen, and am starting The Lady of the Rivers. I wish this book had come out first so I could have used it for reference when reading all three, especially because it includes family trees for all. I have read several books about the war of the roses and I still get the family histories confused! I definitely recommend this as a good starting point for anyone wanting to read about the women of this period. I plan to dig up more to read on all three of these fascinating ladies.

I received this book from Simon & Schuster via Galley Grab. These are my honest thoughts on the book.

Mailbox Monday!

2011-09-11T19:03:00.000-04:00

Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia at A Girl and Her Books. Mailbox Monday is now on tour and this month is making its home at Amused by Books.

I had a few weeks where nothing at all showed up but now a few good ones have and I'm really excited to read them.

Won from Audra @ Unabridged Chick:

Reign of Madness by Lynn Cullen

Purchased on EBAY:

Madame du Barry by Jean Plaidy

From PBS:

Daughters of Rome by Kate Quinn

A Falcon Flies by Wilbur Smith

Fire on Dark Water by Wendy K. Perriman

Sacred Treason by James Forrester

And that is it for me this week :)

REVIEW: The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott by Kelly O'Connor McNees

2011-09-09T08:40:00.000-04:00

Louisa May Alcott, author of the beloved classic Little Women, wrote convincingly of love. How so when she herself was a spinster? Here Kelly O'Connor McNees attempts to answer that question by writing of Louisa's lost summer of 1855 where her family stayed in Walpole, NH. It was here that Louisa would meet Joseph Singer, a local store owner who falls for her. Denying that she returns his sentiments at first, Louisa must decide if she should stick to her dream of becoming a great independent writer or risk it all for this chance at love.

This was a cute story. The author's writing style reminds me very much of Louisa May Alcott herself maybe because of the familiarity of the characters. In McNees' story all of Alcott's Little Women characters are based on her sisters. Louisa is closest to her sister Anna who she based the character of Amy on. When the Alcott's come to Walpole they seek to fit in as much as possible despite having no money due to their father Bronson refusing to work because it violates his convictions (much like Mr. March). It is on a trip to the local store to buy as much flour as the meager amount of money they have will get them that Louisa meets Joseph Singer. Louisa is stand offish at first but slowly grows to care for Joseph and it is clear he admires her. As their feelings intensify, Louisa becomes conflicted about her destiny which she always thought was to be an independent woman destined for spinsterhood and a writer. You can see Jo shine through in the form of Louisa.

This book didn't really have much going in the plot department other than the "Will Louisa choose Joseph Singer or her writing career?" angle. It mainly describes rather mundane stuff that occurs over the summer (although there is a romantic misunderstanding and a tragedy). The lack of exciting happenings made the book move a little slowly at times. While Jo in Little Women may have had a snafu or two, she always had her heart in the right place. Here Louisa is strong willed and at times selfish which makes her a little harder to love than the character she is supposed to resemble. There is a point of transition towards the end that I thought was quite abrupt and it kind of threw me off a little. We go from the story of Louisa as a young woman to meeting her as an old woman seeking out Joseph Singer after all these years and even though the whole story started with the older Louisa boarding a train for this purpose,I thought the switch from her recalling the lost summer to the present could have been a little smoother. I think people who have read Little Women will definitely like this one as it channels the beloved characters from the book and it is nice to see what the author who created such engaging characters might have been like. This was a good lazy weekend read and has piqued my curiosity enough to want to pick up a biography at some point to see what Ms. Alcott was really like (and if it matches up with McNees version).

This book is from my own personal library.

REVIEW: A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick

2011-09-05T07:50:00.002-04:00

Wealthy businessman Ralph Truitt places an ad in a Chicago paper asking for "a reliable wife". Of his many responders he chooses Cathrine Land who describes herself as a simple woman. It is 1907 and she is soon on a train to join Ralph for her new life in rural Wisconsin. Her plan: to marry Ralph, slowly poison him and become a wealthy widow who is able to live a life of leisure with her true love. Ralph has more planned for Catherine than just wifely duties though. Each pursues their own agenda with unexpected consequences: they fall in love. A Reliable Wife is a novel of passion and betrayal set in the wilds of Wisconsin and the bustling city of Saint Louis.

This book was not what I expected at all. It was much darker than I anticipated. Ralph Truitt has some demons in his past-one of which is driving away his only son. After long years of searching he has finally located him and wants Catherine to convince him to come home. Catherine is determined to play the part of the good wife. She too has a checkered past and sees killing off her new hubby as the fastest way to a comfortable life. As she and Ralph get to know each other her conscience plagues her because she realizes Ralph is a good man and maybe her original plan is not the best one after all.

The premise of this book was interesting but I have to say I didn't care much for the execution. Goolrick has a gift for taking the story in a direction I never expected it to go which is what compelled me to keep reading but that doesn't mean the story got any better because of these twists in the plot.

First problem: Goolrick continually makes references throughout of the madness that abounds in the wilds of Wisconsin. A mother drowns all her children. A farmer cuts the heads off all of his livestock. A man saws off his hand. These things happen. No, really-that is the explanation given. These things happen. I'm not quite sure what the author was going for here but if it was making me scratch my head as to why these disturbing things were included in the book other than to make an already odd story even more odd then-mission accomplished!

Second problem: I know the book is set in 1907 and it probably does get pretty lonely in the Wisconsin wilderness but every single character in this book is ruled by their sex drive. Ralph cannot let a moment go by without picturing his neighbors getting naked with each other. Catherine can think about nothing but her next encounter with her lover (or with Ralph since he is her husband). Antonio, the wayward son, seems to have bedded the entire population of St. Louis. Catherine's sister Alice is a whore who is perfectly ok with the fact that eventually she is going to die penniless in the streets. These characters think of nothing else and their every decision somehow leads back to sex. It is not vulgar or graphic but the encounters are so numerous it became way too much. Who in real life thinks like that? No one that I know which makes the characters really unrealistic.

Both Ralph and Catherine's pasts are explained in the course of the book and neither is very pretty. Of the two though I think Catherine ends up being worse and Ralph does not deserve what he goes through in this book. I am giving this three fleurs but only because of it's ability to surprise me when I didn't expect it. I would give this a pass otherwise. If you are bound and determined to read this book be warned that you will probably get sucked into reading it until the end and then kicking yourself that you didn't toss it and read something else.

This book is from my own personal library.

REVIEW: March by Geraldine Brooks

2011-09-04T17:33:00.012-04:00

The beloved classic Little Women tells the story of the four March sisters: Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy. Throughout that wonderful novel, their father Mr. March is absent, off serving as a Chaplain in the Civil War. We never really get to know him or really anything about him at all in Little Women except through the occasional letters he sends home. With March, Geraldine Brooks seeks to remedy that by telling the story of Mr. March.

In the beginning of the novel we meet Mr. March as he has just come from battle. Having just watched a soldier under his care drown as he tried to help him escape, March writes a letter home to his family assuring them all is well-something he tries to do frequently. His reality and the image he conveys to his family in his letters are vastly different as he tries to shelter them from the hardships he is experiencing as much as possible. Making his way to a nearby house serving as a hospital, he realizes he had been there several years before in his youth. The book flashes back to the young idealistic Mr. March and we travel with him as he makes his fortune as a Yankee peddler. The book continues on to tell the story of his meeting and falling in love with Marmee, the birth of their four girls, the loss of their fortune while aiding the cause of John Brown and their lives as abolitionists working with the underground railroad. When the local regiment is called up for the war, Mr. March-now well past enlistment age-decides to go with them and we see the trials he faces during war as well.

I am honestly not quite sure how I feel about this book because there are elements that I liked quite a bit and others I didn't care for at all. Having loved Little Women, I have been trying to figure out since I closed this book if I am ok with the route Brooks took with these beloved characters or if the differences of character impeded my enjoyment of this novel. I am leaning towards yes, in certain respects it did. First the character of Mr. March-as I said before not a lot was written about him in Little Women. Now that I've read this novel, I'm thinking his being away from his family for the whole of LW was probably a good thing. This man is a dreamer and a philosopher. There is nothing wrong with that. What is wrong to me is despite whatever is occurring around him or who it impacts negatively, he clings to those ideals stubbornly and makes several very poor decisions as a result. I found nothing to admire in his character so I found it very hard to be sympathetic to anything going on with him. I especially cannot admire a character who goes off to war and leaves a family of five to live off the charity of others just so he can have a clear conscience or one who claims to be so principled but considers being unfaithful to his wife. The character of Marmee also bugged me quite a bit because she was so vastly different from the kind and loving version in Little Women. Here she is a very spirited woman with an almost zealous devotion to the abolitionist cause.

The actual story itself was well written and brought to life the battlefield, the plight of the slaves, and the areas of Concord and Washington DC. She does a fabulous job with the setting and details of the period even if I had issues with Mr. March and Marmee. In one section the Union Army takes over several abandoned plantations and allows northerners to purchase them and pay freed slaves wages to try and make a profit. Mr. March works at one such place as a teacher to the freed slaves. This portion of the book as well as the story of how Mr. March makes it back to the Union Army after becoming a man wanted by the Confederates were among my favorites.

This book won the Pulitzer Prize in 2006 and it is because she writes so beautifully. A Quote:

"Who is the brave man--he who feels no fear? If so, then bravery is but a polite term for a mind devoid of rationality and imagination."

I loved Year of Wonders by this author and although maybe not quite as much, People of the Book as well. I am still a big fan. I just wish in this one the unveiling of the the mysterious Mr. March could have given us someone a little more likable or with a little more spine and also didn't take such an already well developed character from the original in an entirely different direction. People who have never read Little Women might enjoy this one quite a bit. Those who have read it will probably encounter some of the issues I ran into.

This book is from my own personal library.

End of Summer ARC/Galley Big Finale Giveaway!

2011-09-03T09:50:00.000-04:00

The kids are back in school, its starting to get a little cooler in the mornings, and after giving away a galley or ARC for the months of June, July, and August I am finally ready to give away the 7 remaining titles in the pool!

THE GIVEAWAY:

ARC of In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson

ARC of Dreams of Joy by Lisa See

ARC of The Devlin Diary by Christi Phillips

ARC of Claude & Camille by Stephanie Cowell

ARC of Becoming Marie Antoinette by Juliet Grey

ARC of Adam & Eve by Sena Jeter Naslund

Galley of The Twelfth Enchantment by David Liss

All 7 books to one lucky winner!

OPEN TO: US residents

TO ENTER: Leave your email address in the comments. One extra entry each will be given if you help spread the word by posting about this giveaway on your blog, Facebook, or Twitter.

Giveaway is open until midnight September 16th. Winner will be announced on September 17th.

Thanks for playing and good luck!

REVIEW: The Books of Rachel by Joel Gross

2011-09-03T06:21:00.008-04:00

The Books of Rachel opens in 1970’s America on the wedding day of Rachel Kane. As has been the tradition in her family for over 500 years, she is presented with the family legacy as her wedding present: a 60 carat flawless white diamond known as the Cuheno diamond. Since the late 1400’s, when one woman in the family bearing the name Rachel dies, the next female born after given the name Rachel inherits the diamond. Much of the history surrounding the diamond is considered the stuff of legend to the modern day Cuheno descendants but as Rachel Kane takes possession of it in the present day, she is overcome by a strange feeling, drops into a faint and the history of the diamond is revealed to her. Gross takes us back in time to Spain in the 1400’s just as the Inquisition is about to rear it’s ugly head, and follows the path of the diamond and the Rachel’s that possess it from that point to the present. Spanning over 500 years and taking us to Spain, Paris, Germany, Venice, Russia, Jerusalem, and New York, the Books of Rachel gives a rich detailed history of the Jewish Cuheno family and the diamond that ties them all together.

The story starts off with a bang in 1490’s Spain. The Jewish Cuheno family is famous throughout the country for their wealth gained in the diamond trade. Rachel Cuheno lives with her father who has loyally served as Physician to King Ferdinand. Given their previous dedicated service to Ferdinand and Isabella and thinking their wealth will save them, they are not too troubled that the Inquisition is finally coming to their part of the country. It is soon made apparent that this is not the case. Soon members of the Cuheno family are taken into custody and subjected to the unspeakable horrors of the Inquisition in the name of religion. Rachel’s brother Judah has recently returned from abroad and has brought a gift home for his sister-a huge white diamond found in the mines of India that he resolves to cut for his sister Rachel. He cuts the rough stone into a flawless 60 carat white diamond and creates the Cuheno diamond which will be passed down to Rachel’s of the Cuheno family over the next 5 centuries.

After the tragedy in Spain the diamond makes its way to Venice and onto a new Rachel with a different story. At the beginning of each section which begins a new chapter in the family history there is a chart explaining how the diamond came to be in the possession of it’s current owner. The family name also changes throughout the centuries as the name is adapted to the region in which they reside. For example the Amsterdam branch of the Cuheno family became the Cohen family. The English branch became the more English sounding Kane family.

The book tells the story of several Rachels-all very different women with vastly different stories and life circumstances. I liked some parts of the storyline better than others and because of this my interest waned at points. I loved the beginning but I found the next installment with Venice Rachel to not be nearly as interesting. The diamond passes to one really unlikable Rachel at some point and then the story picked back up again towards the end with the parts set in England and Jerusalem. Overall I enjoyed the story very much. I love family sagas and I really appreciated the charts at the beginning of the chapters because even though the chapters were set in different parts of the world, there were a lot of Rachels and it did get confusing here and there. The only thing that irked me was the tendency of the Cuheno/Cohen/Kane women to fall in love rather quickly-a lot of love at first sight that didn’t seem too realistic. Still I liked this story a lot.

Joel Gross wrote another one following the Rachel’s of this family that is set further back in time called The Lives of Rachel. I may have to check that one out. This is another book that I wouldn’t have picked up had it not been for a reading challenge but I am glad that I did.

I borrowed this book from the library.

REVIEW: The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani

2011-09-02T16:21:00.000-04:00

The Blood of Flowers follows a 14 year old girl who comes from a poor village in 17th century Iran. The narrator (whose name is never mentioned), shows great skill in the art of carpet weaving and hopes to weave a rug to sell so she can someday realize her dream of marrying and starting a family. Without some kind of dowry she has little hope of ever marrying. When tragedy strikes and her beloved father dies, the girl and her mother are taken in by her uncle in the city of beautiful city of Isfahan. Things are not as they hoped when they arrive in Isfahan. Instead of honored family members they are treated as servants and are subject to the whims her impossible to please Aunt. Her uncle, who is the master carpet maker to the village Shah and his harem, recognizes great potential in the young girl and agrees to teach her all he knows about carpet making. Despite their reduced circumstances, she still retains hope of one day marrying. Things do not go as planned and it seems she will never please her uncle and his wife and achieve her dream.

I enjoyed this book quite a bit despite the fact that this is another historical set in a place and time where women are not valued at all. Our young girl is constantly discouraged from pursuing her love of weaving beautiful carpets because she is female. Her uncle only indulges her because he recognizes she has immense talent and he has no son to pass his craft on to. He often laments throughout the book “If you had only been born a boy!” I loved learning about the art of making carpets-the size of the knots, the color schemes and the importance of choosing a pleasing design. It is clear how much she loves creating these carpets and not just because creating a beautiful one to sell is her only chance of having a dowry big enough to possibly marry.

The look at life in an Iranian city during this time was also quite fascinating. Women were not allowed to go out alone and the only women who were really given any leeway at all were the ones in the Shah’s harem-especially the favorite. There is a lot of heartbreak here as well. The girl’s Aunt sees her and her mother as just two more mouths to feed and it seems no matter what they do it isn’t right. Her Aunt is determined to thwart her efforts at every turn. She even goads her into making a rather shocking arrangement for the financial benefit of the family. I was really rooting for things to come out alright for the narrator.

There is a “love” triangle and quite a lot of sex in this book as well, although none of it is really graphic or offensive really. Admittedly, I was a wee bit bothered by the idea that despite her huge talent with carpet making, apparently her only worth to her Uncle’s greedy family is how much she can do for a rich man in the bedroom. I have a confession to make though. I guess it is a pretty good book when I read the whole thing and never realized until I started perusing other reviews of this book that the narrator was given no name. I was engrossed enough to not even notice! Choosing to not name her does strike me as a little odd as I can’t see a reason for it but the author choosing to do so didn’t really diminish the book in any way. The author also includes folk tales that correspond with events going on in the story. This is the only thing I really didn't like because it pulled me out of the main story and made me lose focus. Despite this happening, I sped right through it and recommend it to anyone interested in historicals set in the Middle East.

I borrowed this book from the library